EDIT: This story has been complete for a rather long time now, but it still gets love from time to time which makes me really happy. So I thought, I'll go back and redo the opening. I was not even in high school when I began writing it, and I know that my writing skills weren't what you'd call up to par. But as I reviewed the story, I could see how my writing got slowly and steadily better, and throughout the two or three years I spent writing, you can see a major improvement and maturity in the quality of the writing. I'm leaving these first few chapters in their original form as a testiment to show how much my writing developed. For those who are stumbling upon it now, I concede that the first few chapters are definitely not what one would call 'masterpieces,' but please stick it out. The writing and the form gets better. Thanks so much to those who have read and enjoyed this story as much as I did writing it. Thanks guys!

Why hello! How ya'll been! I'm back with another fic! PLEASE REVIEW!(Note: Inu- Yasha, Miroku, Sango, and Kagome are in the end of they're senior year of high school

Summary: A/U-Inu-Yasha is an anti-social teen. He never tried to get along with anyone besides his two friends, Miroku and Sango. What will he do when he falls in love with Kagome, the girl next door? How will he admit his feelings when every time he tries he, in nervousness, insults her instead? Inu/Kag Mir/San

Disclaimer: If I owned Inu-Yasha, I would use the money I earned to take over the world. The last time I checked, we still lived in a democracy. So, no, I don't own Inu-Yasha! Are you happy now?!(hey, that's a Michelle Branch song...that I also don't own)

How to Offend Women in Five Syllables or Less

Chapter One

Meeting the Girl Next Door

Inu-Yasha sat on his couch, moping. Miroku and Sango had left a few minutes before, meaning he was alone for the evening. They were going on a date.

'I haven't been on one of those since...her. ' But he didn't want to think about 'her' right now.

Inu-Yasha looked over his attire. He was wearing a tight, red shirt, tight leather jeans, and a leather jacket. He was wearing black boots to top it all off.

He sighed. It was going to be a long day. He had absolutely no one to talk to and nothing to do. Boredom was a bad condition for an antsy hanyou.

So, Inu-Yasha decided to channel surf. Anime, anime, cooking show, kung- fu movie, anime, action movie (A/N Oooooh! EXPLOSIONS!), Shrek, Hamtaro...

'Oh, yeah! I can hear it now! "Look! It's the big bad inu hanyou Inu- Yasha watching HAMTARO!"'

The show cut to commercial and began to advertise the Hamtaro marathon they were currently airing.

'Just great!' he thought sarcastically and sighed. 'I think I'll hit the arcade.'

Inu-Yasha jumped down the porch steps quickly. He hopped on the bright red Harley Davidson. He revved it up and drove down the ramp. He weaved through traffic, yelling random curse words at people who almost ran him over. It didn't matter that it was entirely his fault; they were in my way, his mind reasoned.

Inu-Yasha was very amused once he reached the arcade. He'd been flipped off at least twice, yelled at repeatedly, and caused a small traffic jam. A good days accomplishments, he reasoned to himself. He strode into the building, going straight to the back corner. He began to play his favorite game, Galactic Bounty Hunter.

:P

Inu-Yasha was currently on the last level and was going to try to beat all his previous high scores.

"You will die here, Zultar!" Inu-Yasha said, very high pitched. His voice then deepened considerably. "No! You will die, Gurglezorg! I will have slice off your head in memory of all those you have killed!"

By this time, Inu-Yasha had drawn a considerably large crowd. They were either cheering him on or trying to gauge his sanity level. He kept glancing at the top of the screen to make sure he didn't kill his opponent before passed one million points, his current high score.

When Inu-Yasha finally succeeded, he raised his arms in triumph. He then let out a cry of "YES!" and jumped into the air. Unfortunately, he forgot about his hanyou strength and the height he could reach when jumping. So, his fists ended up going through the ceiling. It took him a few minutes to wiggle his hands free, but, by that time, the manager had shown up.

"YOU! THAT'S THE SIXTH TIME THIS MONTH!" the man yelled, more intimidating than a short, bald man should be.

"Nothin' I can do about it. You shouldn't make the ceiling so low," Inu- Yasha replied calmly, watching the small man turn purple in the face.

"OUT!" the man shrieked.

"I need to go, anyways. It'll be dark in about thirty minutes, and I need to get ready to vandalize this old place," Inu-Yasha walked away, smirking internally. 'That old man will stay up all night waiting for me to show,' he thought, chuckling.

Inu-Yasha rushed home, not sure why he was in such a hurry. However, the road was blocked by a large U-Haul truck when he got there.

'Some one's moving into the old shrine! Weird! That place's been empty for years! I wonder why anyone wants it now!'

Just then he caught sight of the family climbing the stairs as the U- Haul pulled away. There were four of them climbing the stairs and chattering away about random non-sense. It wasn't the young boy or the woman that caught his eyes. It wasn't even the old man who was ranting about youkai and brandishing ofudas.

It was the young girl that caught his eyes. At first he thought it was 'her' but he quickly realized differently. This girl's eyes held warmth, and she was laughing. 'She' never laughed; 'she' barely ever smiled. The girl he was staring at was happy, and, in the fading yellow rays of sunset, she looked like an angel in a short, white skirt and a pink, long sleeved shirt.

'Who..is...she?' he thought in a daze. He was transfixed to following her figure up the stairs and listened to her footsteps as they walked up another set of stairs inside the house. The spell was broken when the guy in the car behind him honked angrily. "Move your sorry butt outta the way!"

Inu-Yasha, to stunned to insult him back, nodded. He made his way up concrete ramp he'd put in when he arrived. His house was perched on the hill beside the shrine, and, as he discovered really quickly, that it was not fun to go down the steps on his motorcycle.

Inu-Yasha shot into his house and ran to his room. He tore open the closet door to survey himself in the tall mirror on the inside door of his closet. He smoothed over his fly-away hair and straightened his jacket.

Inu-Yasha then ran out of his door, raced out his front door, and leapt over the concrete wall separating his house from the shrine. He landed neatly on the other side and proceeded to walk calmly to the door. He knocked three times and waited, straining his ears to hear the faintest movement in the house.

Inu-Yasha heard the voice of the teenage girl he had observed earlier. "I'll get it, okaa-san!"

"No, I will!" he heard a boy's voice yell.

Then there was the sound of a race to get to the door. Some one slid up to the door and a "HA! I beat you!" followed.

Inu-Yasha watched as the door swung back to reveal the girl standing in front of him beaming, and the boy, more than likely her little brother, standing behind her pouting dejectedly.

The girl's amusement turned into confusion and she asked, "Oh! Who are you?"

"I'm your new neighbor. I thought I'd say hi," he grumbled barely audible.

"That's so sweet!" she squealed, immediately making his ears flatten against the top of his head. "Come in!"

When he didn't comply, she smiled a small smile and grabbed his arm.

"Don't be shy! We don't bite!" she chirped as she dragged him to the kitchen where she knew her mother was.

"I bet he does though!" her grandfather, who just walked in, cried and pointed at Inu-Yasha. "Youkai! They're invading!"

"Jii-chan!" she scolded. "What have I told you about bothering my guests?"

Inu-Yasha blushed slightly at the 'my' though he wasn't sure why.

"Yeah, jii-chan! Leave him alone! He just got here, and you're already making it hard for him!" the boy agreed.

The old man snorted and walked away muttering incoherently.

"Sorry about him! He's always been like that," the girl said.

Inu-Yasha couldn't force the dumbfounded look off his face, however hard he tried. So, he resigned to being led blindly through the house.

"Okaa-san! Look! We have a visitor!" the girl squealed.

The woman, seemingly used to her children randomly popping up, just turned around and smiled.

"Kagome, you startled me! Don't scare me like that!" she smiled gently and playfully shook the fork she was currently putting away.

Kagome just laughed, but to Inu-Yasha, it was somewhat menacing. He was in a house full of people he didn't know. He was being dragged around by a girl whom failed to introduce herself, forcing him to listen for a name. The boy following him was staring up at him with hero-worshipping stars in his eyes. An old man had accused him of biting people. Now, some woman was shaking a rather sharp looking fork at him. Needless to say, he was unnerved.

'I don't think that woman could be startled. I don't care what she says!' Inu-Yasha thought.

"Who's your friend?" her mother asked.

"Oh! This is...ano..? What is your name?" Kagome asked turning a slight shade of pink.

"How rude of you, Kagome! You need to introduce yourself!" the woman turned to Inu-Yasha. "I'm Midori! Higurashi Midori. This is my daughter Higurashi Kagome and my son Higurashi Souta.You are?"

"I'm Inu-Yasha. Mamouru Inu-Yasha," he muttered.

"Why don't you come sit down and have tea with us?" Midori asked.

"That would be nice, Higurashi-san," Inu-Yasha replied absently examining the boxes stacked every where.

"No! Call me Midori! Higurashi-san makes me feel old! Kagome getting ready to graduate makes me feel old enough!" she laughed.

Inu-Yasha nodded, staring at Kagome. She looked younger than that. She had a baby face and had the girl-ish charm of a middle school girl or, at the oldest, a freshman. Many of the girls he knew were more like Sango, who had come out of that stage a long time ago.

Then again he didn't know many girls besides Sango.

Even though he didn't realize it yet, getting to know Kagome was going to be one heck of a task.

A/N Well, there's chappie one! Hope you likesies!

Mamouru means to protect. I thought it fit considering how much protecting he does during the series.

The whole Inu-Yasha looking himself up and down in the mirror was a little OOC but I can totally see him doing this. insert nervous laugh

This chappie wasn't all that funny, but I intend to make it funnier.

Oh! I have nothing against Hamtaro! I actually really enjoy it !I watch it every morning! muttering Well I did until this morning until they changed the time slot!happily shouting againBut that's O.K.! They air Zoids now!

Sakura Minamura is out!

Ja Matte Minna-san!