¤¤Women Have Ways¤¤

Oneshot #1

Inuyasha's violent looking eyes scowled at everything in his way, while hoping that these certain things would disintegrate and disappear into the nothingness of whence they came; to put it in a simple matter to those who didn't care about his crisis (such as Shippou and Kirara who only shook their heads at him), he was upset.

Not upset, but pissed.

Constantly he kept looking to the sky; he needed the sun to stay in the blue stuff. It was slowly going down quickly, and this wasn't what he wanted.

The more the sun went down, the more his eyes seemed to widen.

Shaking his head, he shoved his hands into his sleeves and continued on his way through the forest that was named after him.

After all the things Kagome had to say to him, the last thing he wanted was the company of his friends and Kaede; it would be all too much to hear them beg him to jump into the well and retrieve the girl who could cross worlds.

"Feh! She can come back when she damn wants," he said while making his brow furrow. He didn't like what had just come out of his mouth. Normally he would just go get her when he wanted her to return, or whenever he missed her company. But now... things were so different. She had been so awkward that morning and weird...

She had always been weird in his eyes from her clothes, shoes, way of talking about "phones", and just pretty much everything about her. She had displayed a new kind of weird towards the half demon hours ago.

Inuyasha stopped and scratched his head in confusion. She's never had a problem telling me what the fuck's on her mind, he thought in more confusion. What's the matter with her?

The more he was finding that he cared, the more he was digging into his mind to figure out what she had been babbling about while on his back. It got rather quiet with him carrying her occasionally, so every now and then she would start a conversation that he would barely listen to; listening to the wind was more entertaining, as well as Miroku and Sango shouting at each other about their closeness issue while riding Kirara.

He knew that her father had died in some "car accident" in her time, he knew that her brother and his girlfriend were starting to get serious, he knew that her mother sometimes got lonely without her mate around, he knew that this Eri girl was starting to put the pieces together about the well from sitting in the middle of it on some days (Kagome's mother was quite useful), and he especially knew that her grandfather despised the fact that she traveled with a demon—a half demon nonetheless.

He forced his legs to continue, hoping with all his might that his tree would come to view. He didn't have a clue where he was going; for all he knew he could be going in circles. His senses were quickly fading, hence one of the reasons why he was panicking so much; human emotions.

The only good thing about all this was that his rosary wasn't in effect.

Anyone else would have taken this as the perfect opportunity to run away and never return, but Inuyasha thought of it as nothing but a curse. Getting Kagome was now on the bottom of his list. All he could do was wait... and wait...

He never liked turning human without Kagome near him. She knew this herself, and still she went to her time to be around humans to talk about "shampoo" and "bags under your eyes" that he had heard so much of from she and Sango.

Women.

Inuyasha felt satisfied when he made it to the clearing where his tree had been resting for over five-hundred years.

In a simple jump he was seated on his favorite branch. He could see the sun perfectly from this spot, as well as the moon that was coming to view. If it were Kagome's time, it would be around 5.30 in the afternoon.

Damn! His amber eyes searched all around, and with little success, there was no sign of a woman wearing a green school girl's uniform; just great. He would be turning human in a matter of minutes, and she wasn't present to as she claimed: watch over him. Whether he liked it or not, she stayed awake with him the entire night, which always made her cranky in the morning.

He had been doing this since he was the silly age of five; she couldn't withstand the whole night without sleep. She walked during the day anyway, which put nothing but more needs to rest on her shoulders.

She had started this on the anniversary of the day his mother passed away, which led him to her grave. He had found himself telling the girl that she was the reason besides his mother as to why he stayed a half demon. She was always a kind woman that was the best mother in the world in his eyes. And also... she never slept when he transformed.

"I'm staying up too!" Kagome said with pure determination, as she set down the flower she had gotten to show her respects. "It's the least I can do!" She noticed right away the look of shock on her friend's face; she had never seen it before.

"You don't have to do anything," Inuyasha snapped after getting over the fact that Kagome looked serious. Standing from his mother's grave, he looked down at the girl. "I don't even know why the hell she stayed up with me when I turned human, so it doesn't matter."

"...Have you ever thought that she wanted you to live?"

That was how it all started, quite pitiful really. It was that day when he felt his manly exterior fall; she had stared at him with such innocent eyes that he couldn't stand to leave her unsatisfied with her plea. So every new moon, for about four months now, she had been awake with him the whole night.

Inuyasha looked out to the sunset. Damn girl. You've always been so damn stubborn, he scorned with a huff, as he calmed himself. Getting over anger towards Kagome was something he had gotten around to mastering since he had been traveling with her. She got mad, got over it, and when a hint of torment came back, she would return the anger as if it had never left the picture.

But he loved her.

He let a smile grace his face at mentioning Kagome Higurashi. She was a pretty one, as well as evil and repulsive, but she was his evil and repulsive woman. He wasn't sure when the relationship or as she called "closeness" had originally started, but it had started when she was about seventeen.

If it wasn't for her nightmare, if it wasn't for her waking up in a sweat, and if it wasn't for him running to her aid, they would never be what they were now: "closeness" friends. Just from their light intimacy his scent almost covered hers completely. This was excellent when Koga would show up.

Inuyasha let a look of moodiness come over him when he looked to the sky. A pink shade had covered it all, letting him know that the sun would be going down quickly now. Covering his face with his claw, he exhaled deeply.

"INUYASHA! ARE YOU AWAKE!"

Closing his eyes, he removed his claw and folded his arms across his chest, leaning into the tree branch. "Keh. Who wants to know?" he easily retorted, and sighed when he saw that the form was now sitting at the bottom of his tree; they weren't leaving? Damn it all. Thanks to being nice to Kagome on a daily basis, I'm starting to lose my touch...

"Having a mid-life crisis?" Miroku casually asked with a smile, as he looked up into the tree. His old chum was glaring down at him. "I'm sorry that Kagome isn't here, does that make you feel better?" he asked, still keeping the smile on his face.

"No."

Not that the monk minded, but they had all been in the area of Kaede's village for quite some time. He also noticed that Kagome had been carrying a lot of books with her lately, and was always talking about senior finals. If someone were to talk to her when she was studying in a hut or under Inuyasha's tree, they would get the dreaded speech of "personal space" and the "don't tell Inuyasha I'm here" prayer.

Laughing to himself, he let his staff jingle as he set it down to his left. "...Alright, why's she mad at you this time?" he asked rather tiredly. As everyone else thought, Kagome had been strangely angry at Inuyasha all the time. Whether he replied to anything she was saying with a nod, or simply carrying her on his back, there had always been a sit involved. This is getting old, he said to himself. Why don't you just go fix her?

In just seconds, the monk was staring at a head full of silver.

"Why the hell are you blaming me!" Inuyasha yelled much like a woman finding out that her husband had just told her to lose some weight. "I didn't do anything wrong! Why don't you go fix her!" He had memorized faces intensively. He knew everything from Sango's "maybe if I smile the pervert'll get the hell away from me" look, to Shippou's "that girl in the village we just passed has a nice ass" look in his eyes after they would pass a village; as sad as Inuyasha was to admit it, the kid was growing up.

"He's right! Inuyasha, every time Kagome goes home it's because of you!" a irritated voice ranked.

And looking down, the hanyou came to see that Shippou was perched on Miroku's shoulder, staring at him with those annoying green eyes that Kagome loved so much. Deep down, he had to love them too. It had been three years since everyone had started traveling the country, and sorry to say it, but they weren't as Kaede called youngins, they were adults... or so he thought.

What does she know, she's old, Inuyasha thought with a grin.

"Are you listening?"

Inuyasha's eyes widened. "Uh—course I was!" he defended with a scowl sent towards Miroku's way. "It's not like I need some stupid talk about women! They're all the damn same: annoying!" Sango was just the same when she would get upset with Miroku when he would flirt with other females.

Miroku smiled and shook his head from side to side, as if he were trying to savor the moment. "Inuyasha, Inuyasha," he said with a wave of the index finger, "you have so much to learn about the female world."

After his years of experience and the fact that he was a year older than Inuyasha, it was only common sense that he be the one to explain the rules of having a girl—a woman, to look after. The entire package came.

Inuyasha's ear twitched. "W-what?"

Miroku leaned against the tree for comfort, and crossed his arms, Shippou getting off his shoulder and sitting on his left thigh. "Inuyasha, just hearing the word woman sets flares off in a man's mind." He grinned. "Or am I wrong when it comes to you and Kagome when you're both all alone?"

Shippou nodded with a grin. "Woman makes something go off in my head," he said while sticking his tongue out at Inuyasha. He still doesn't have a clue... what an idiot. How old is he again?

Miroku continued, knowing very well that Inuyasha was clueless in this category. "I see... so you truly are retarded..." Kagome had strangely been calling Inuyasha this whenever she had the chance. In his perspective it was rather funny, but as always, Inuyasha took it offensively.

Inuyasha's fingers without knowingly fiddled with the chain of his locket he still had; he would never take it off. His thoughts instantly went to Kagome on the day she had given it to him. She looked so happy. Little did he know that a smile was crossing him.

He soon found himself listening to everything Miroku was saying, even if over half of it was plain bullshit. He now knew not to bother Kagome when she was upset, tired, studying or bleeding. The last one he was certain to leave her alone for.

"Ah, yes, the final thing women get angry at us men for." Miroku sighed deeply and set a hand atop of Shippou's head. "The demand for intimacy." His face showed no signs of comedy, and when Inuyasha blushed as well as Shippou, he knew he had gotten to the part that the twenty-one year old man and eleven year old boy were mostly wondering about.

Humph, why haven't I started giving classes? He thought with a grin. Kagome said that I should be a "sex ed teacher" in her era... whatever that is.

Inuyasha shook his head. "Just how in the hell did you manage to make it this far without being mysteriously killed by a rampage of women!" he questioned with dangerous eyes that he mostly used on Kagome when he was fighting with her. "You dumbass!"

"You should think about who you're talking to," Miroku easily replied with a snap of the fingers. "I could be watching Sango pick flowers from behind a tree, I could be watching her nap in the middle of a field with Kirara, hell, I could be groping her." He grinned. "I like to think of myself as a lecher. I'm obviously not dumb, and an ass is a total different thing." He smirked at Shippou's held-in laughter. "Now, where was I, Inuyasha?"

What the hell am I still doing here? Inuyasha pleaded to get an answer, but found himself nodding for the monk to continue. Women were just as irritating and annoying as demons; what a surprise. "Go on." He could feel his level of self esteem slowly cripple.

Miroku rubbed his chin and sighed, obviously unhappy about what he was going to say next. "Women have the right to have everything their way." It's always been that way, and he was pretty sure that it would always remain that way.

"WHAT?" both Inuyasha and Shippou replied with blinking eyes.

Miroku again nodded. "It's only fair. After all, they're the fairer sex and deserve everything their way. We were simply put on this world to assist them, or like Inuyasha here, become nothing more than a pebble when his woman is upset." He couldn't say much, for he was nothing more than bark on a tree when Sango wanted to make his head and her weapon come in contact with each other. "Enjoy your body's freedom while you have it, Shippou." He looked down at the kitsune. "I envy you."

The kitsune gulped.

"And then there's the "we don't spend enough time together" deal," he said with quoted fingers. "I've gotten that one from Sango hundreds of times, and when I feel like spending time with her, she hurts me! Me!" The man had millions of sayings he had heard Sango and Kagome say rather often. "There's the "we always do what you want," the "leave me alone," the whole speech about female privacy—which I don't even think exists! Who in the hell wants to be alone while bathing!"

Inuyasha's mind was filled with all the sit commands he had gone through for three years... three painful years. He also remembered the time when Kagome had wandered off into the woods in search of him one night. He had snuck up behind her, and God forbid, her aim had gotten better.

He let his right hand come up to the top half of his left arm; she had shot him. Kagome...

"I'm so sorry, Inuyasha!" Kagome wailed into his chest, while unaware that she was causing her hanyou a great deal of pain. "I'm sorry! I thought you were going to kill me!" When he tried to stand from his place of leaning against a tree, she pushed him back down. "I'm sorry..."

Inuyasha looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. Him seeing his blood was something he had gotten used to, as well as her, but she was still crying about it; she was confusing. There had been multiple of amounts of time when he had almost bled to death, and she seemed to care the most now. Because she's the one that did it, he said to himself with realization, as his arm wrapped around her skinny waist, hoping to comfort her.

Calling her name, he was taken aback when her bluish eyes stared at him through water. He was careful of his choice of words, and when the crying continued, he unwrapped his arm from her waist and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Stop crying."

"No, Inuyasha!"

He rolled his eyes; typical Kagome for you. "Look, I already tried to kill you once, and it didn't turn out as I planned. You know I wouldn't try a second time, and you didn't know it was me, right?"

He felt better when she nodded.

"Good. So now you know it's me, ok?" he said, making sure to take things extra slow for someone of her unusually slow standards. So this school place wasn't working…

When she nodded a second time, his right hand removed from her cheek and let his fingers wrap around the wood of the arrow. In a swift pull it slid right out, while managing to make Kagome scream like in those "movie" things she had let him watch with her in her time.

"Inuyasha! What's the matter with you!"

He smirked. "What of it? Were you gonna pull it out?"

"Of course not!"

"So stop damn screamin' at me!"

This was one of many fights they were lucky enough to have alone. Getting shot was something he didn't like talking about much, for it was only a small scar that nobody ever noticed. Fights on the road were mostly over in about a day or two (since Kagome didn't know which way home was); Kagome was one of those people that took forever to calm down.

"-And did I mention the rewards we men get for pleasuring our women!" Miroku said with clasped hands. "Ah, I can't wait for mine."

Shippou shook his head. "Miroku, isn't Sango PREGNANT?"

Poor man, these rewards would never come.

The teacher put a lock of his shoulder length hair behind his right ear. There was only one student left in his class, and he hadn't seen her pencil move at all in over ten minutes. She was chewing the eraser rather confusingly, and he knew right away that she didn't know the answer.

Clearing his throat, he checked the time. It was 5.43pm. He could be at home with his wife and children, but instead, he was waiting for one student to finish her final exam. He would take it seriously as well, but not three hours over the due date seriously.

"Ms. Higurashi, five minutes."

Kagome's head snapped up, and for the first time, she was noticing that the room was totally empty. Was she really the last one?

"Yes, Sensai," she replied respectfully, as she returned her eyes to her test. There were eraser marks everywhere, which made her paper look like it had just gotten torn to shreds by Buyo.

Come on, come on, she cheered herself on, but didn't find it very helpful. You yelled at Inuyasha to get here, you sat him to make it on time, and you got four hours of sleep last night. That's pretty good for someone who smells and needs a bath. Her face showed no signs of tiredness. She had to finish this test, or... she wouldn't graduate.

She had been traveling back and forth from the present and the past since her freshman year. She had completely failed her math class in junior year, which meant she had to take two final exams for the subject this year. She was almost done with the last problem to her Algebra 12 test; this test would show her all. But Algebra 11 was easier!

Cramming three weeks of studying into four days was rather foolish, but she had done it. She had sworn to haul Inuyasha's ass if she should fail.

Her eyes looked down at the equation.

2-(334 x 33)–112 776–565–11x566–11

Argh! Too much math. There were about two more lines of this for one problem.

She wanted to get up and leave right then, to forget about getting her white piece of paper wrapped in a green ribbon, but knew that everyone (including herself) would be disappointed in her. Her mother had quit high school during her junior year when she became pregnant with her. I can do this!

She rubbed her temples, and found it in her to start writing with her sharpened number two pencil that she had gotten up at least twenty times to sharpen in the last three hours. Inuyasha would kill me! He's been so patient with me and my studying! To make things worse, he just turned twenty-one!

After getting the speech that her "studying" was more important than the day he was born, he had sworn that he would throw her down the well if she didn't go.

Thank you, Inuyasha. If it weren't for him, she didn't know what she would have done. Focusing on her studies in her time was indeed quiet and peaceful of demons and voices, but it was normal to study and have to sit her hanyou in the process for watching her, though... she had gotten more of it done sitting under the sacred tree at the shrine.

"Ms. Higurashi, thirty seconds."

Kagome nodded downwards, and finished the problem as quickly as possible. Right when she circled her long answer, Mr. Samisama snatched her test off her desk, causing a line of black to strike the wood. To make things more dramatic, she could see smoke from her line.

She watched as her teacher scanned her final answer; the final answer was worth forty percent of her final grade. Even if she were to flunk the test, the written answer would give her enough points to pass and graduate with a smile on her face, instead of sitting in the audience and watching Yuka, Eri and Ayumi look down at her in such disappointment.

Of course they would blame Inuyasha first.

"Well," Mr. Samisama said with a smile. "And might I add an awww. Excellent work." Grabbing a pen from his back pocket, he wrote down his corrections on her final question and held it in her face. "You'll certainly be a story to tell for next year. Can you imagine a girl who stayed after school for three hours to finish an exam?"

Kagome smiled, and inwardly thanked the man for not mentioning that the final question was something an eighth grader could do. Either way, she was proud and stood, grabbing her brown backpack from the floor in the process.

"Thank you so much for letting me stay." Extending her hand, she shook his briefly, and smiled wide. "Sayonara!"

"Have a nice summer, Ms. Higurashi," the man replied with a smile. "Tell your mother that she should have stayed." With him being Mrs. Higurashi's teacher, he wanted Kagome to be the one to finish the extra year that her mother couldn't.

"I will!"

Kagome slammed the metal door behind her and felt satisfied when she heard the familiar echo of the empty halls as she walked down them.

She couldn't help but skip down them, while also hoping that she never had to see them again. Inuyasha will be so happy! I'm finished with school! There was no more returning once a month to catch up on work; there were no more "boyfriend" updates. Now that she and Inuyasha were considered the real thing, she didn't feel like she should shout it out to the world.

Kagome's eyes widened as she pushed open the double doors to her school. She was greeted with almost darkness, and she stretched her arms, dropping her two black one-inch binders on the top steps of her school.

"I'M FREEEEE!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, and blushed when she got a chuckle as a response. Looking down, she blushed more and picked up her binders. "Did you say you were coming to get me this morning? Did I forget?" she asked while putting a finger on her chin. "How long have you been waiting on me?" She asked while circling Inuyasha. I think I forgot when he threw me down the well…

She was almost four hours late returning to the feudal era.

Inuyasha smiled and held his arms out, while remembering to keep Miroku's words safe in his brain. "No; no; and a couple of minutes." It wasn't long before he was pushed back a foot from her weight crashing against his own, and he kissed her on the forehead. "Someone's tired?"

Kagome nodded and let him swing her gently. She grabbed a strand of his still silver hair with her fingers. "I'm sorry I forgot." When he flinched in her touch, she lifted her head from his chest, and stared at him in modern clothes.

It wasn't just her who returned to her time a lot, it was him as well, but by force though. All I wanted was for someone to carry my bags while I go shopping, she thought as she eyed his red muscle shirt and denim pants, but he looks... um... sexy.

Blushing at her thought, Kagome let Inuyasha steal her backpack and swing it over his shoulder, grabbing her hand in the process. She was going to question why he hadn't brought his hat, and gasped when his hair quickly turned black as the sun went down just as fast. "Inuyasha! You could have told me!"

Inuyasha looked down at her, and tugged her to get her body to start walking, never letting the smile leave his face. "Well I didn't." She needed sleep more than anything, and having an angry Kagome stay up with him throughout the night wouldn't be a pretty sight. He could imagine the "What are you looking at's?" and the "Stop staring at me's!" Though to her, this was normal in Kagome Land...

He soon came to find that Miroku's "advice" was somewhat useful.

"Happy birthday, Inuyasha," Kagome whispered and got her hand squeezed as a reply.

Before transforming, Inuyasha had the opportunity to get a whiff of his mate; she was bleeding, which told him that he had better leave her alone until her cycle stopped. She was moody, which also told him that she would be pissed off until she slept; this told him to leave her alone some more.

He grinned at his last moment with the monk before leaving to fetch Kagome.

Miroku slowly closed his eyes. "The worst part is that women are so demanding!" His face was getting redder from all the flashbacks that came into his mind. "When they want something, they quiver the lip; when the want us to do something for them, they pretend to cry; when they think they can overpower us, they YELL!"

Little did all three know that a perky woman was hiding behind a tree.

"I swear, Sango's become more demanding than ever!"

And out popped Sango from behind Inuyasha's tree, a smile on her face. She smiled even more when her husband's mouth fell. "Miroku, honey!" she sang with a giggle. The pregnant mood swings were kicking in. "Please be a dear and rub my feet! Then after that, you can wash Kirara!"

Miroku's eyes widened. "But-"

"Then after that, ooh, why didn't I think of this sooner!"

"San-"

"You can scrub my back!"

Much Love,

Brijustme