Disclaimer: The characters within this story all belong to Takahashi-san.
Warnings: Cursing.
Summary: Venting in public leads to some interesting relationships. Possibly hazardous ones... Nah.

Fate
by: Kagome-reincarnation

"Ugh." Kagome stared out the window in boredom as her best friend complained about men in general – and one of the more perverted boys in her class in particular. The two hadn't gotten along since day one and she'd never ceased to bitch at him over it. Or bitch to Kagome, really. Of course, in that case, they called it venting and Kagome got revenge on the inflicted boredom by venting about life in general. Between her job, classes, and the few times they got to hang out, she had little to no time for herself.

As Sango spoke, she gave the customary nods and indignant words and frowns – but she also thought back to a boy that reminded her of Miroku. Not because of his perversion, but because of his behavior. He was… Well, quite bad, really.

"Kagome-chan?" Sango had noticed her friend's vague expression. "Kagome-chan? What's wrong?"

Kagome shook her head, blushing slightly in embarrassment. How could she have let her mind wander so easily as her friend was venting to her? She should be more attentive to her friend's needs, after all.

"It's nothing," she said with a smile. Sango raised an eyebrow at that reaction.

"It's nothing, huh?" Her friend clearly didn't believe her. "Nothing wouldn't have had you wondering around in space. C'mon, tell!"

Kagome sighed in a show of false exasperation. They both knew that now Sango had realized something had distracted her, she'd want to get to the cause of it. It was far easier to give into her friend. Sango could be very persistent at times, and rarely did Kagome get out of such encounters unscathed. Mental scarring often led to blackmail material. And reactions even more worthy of being blackmail material.

"There's a boy I ran into at work," she confessed, frowning at Sango's amazed expression. "What?"

"A guy has your attention?" the girl asked innocently.

Kagome rolled her eyes, recognizing what her best friend was thinking. "Sango! You know that's not it. He's just…" She struggled for a word that adequately described him. Failing, she came up with the next best thing. "Weird."

Sango burst into laughter. "Kagome, a guy finally catches your attention and the only way you can think of to describe him is as weird?"

"What?" Kagome whined at her friend playfully. "It's not as though he was anything to look at!"

"Well, sorry for not being anything to look at," a voice said from behind her. Sango's deer-sighting-predator impression well informed her of the fact that the person was probably behind her. Hell, his voice did the job well enough, but why not give a girl some visual input?

She swiveled her head to look at him and realized exactly why Sango's expression had been so shocked. The boy in question wasn't alone. Oh, no. He'd had the gall to bring a friend to their table.

Kagome stood up, scowling at him. "What do you want?"

He sneered back at her. "Whoever said I wanted anything with you?"

Kagome raised an eyebrow at the pointless endeavor of his defensive question. "The fact that you're at my table goes quite a ways, really, and the fact that you started talking to us only further implicates you're the one at fault here."

"Keh!" he looked away for a moment before glaring back into her eyes. "At least I'm not the one talking smack about other people behind their backs."

Kagome's eyes widened and she could practically feel the muscle in her jaw ticking angrily. He had a point there, but that didn't mean he had to abuse it so obviously. Besides, it wasn't as though she'd said it in contempt – she'd just been fending off her friend's inquisitive nature.

"At least I don't eavesdrop!" she hissed at him through gritted teeth, glaring pointedly at the dog ears affixed to the top of his head. Of course, it wasn't as though it was his fault he was a hanyou. He couldn't help but hear what was around to hear. On the other hand, she wasn't currently functioning under calm terms and he'd just pissed her off.

"Ahem!" The man that he'd brought with him cut in by placing an arm between them, easily dissipating the argument by moving their attention elsewhere. "I apologize for my brash companion, miss…?"

"Kagome," she supplied, pleased to find that despite the half demon's rudeness, the lack of manners hadn't rubbed off onto his friend.

"Ah, yes, well, then." Without further ado, the black-haired man took both of her hands into his and looked into her eyes. Puzzled, Kagome looked back into his dark eyes.

"Maiden, will you please –"

"Don't you even go there!" Sango cut in, glaring at him harshly. "Get away from her, you creep!" Without letting him respond, she gripped her friend by the shoulders and dragged her out of his reach.

"Ah, Sango, how nice to see you?" he said to her, without missing a beat. At his side, the hanyou's ears twitched.

"This is the Sango you've been obsessing over, Miroku?" he scoffed. "She doesn't seem to like you much."

At the name, Kagome stare unbelievingly at her friend. "This is the Miroku you're always telling me about?"

Ten minutes and several drinks later, the four were all seated at the table the girls had occupied previously. After a surprise that had included a hand being securely attached to her rear, Kagome had deduced that it would be far safer for her and Sango to be on the same side of the table, opposite of the man for whom her respect had quickly fallen.

It had only taken another two for another argument to crop up, this time between Sango and Miroku.

"You unbelievable pervert!" she hisses out as she glares at him over the table, now laden with the burden of both food and drinks, and being smacked by the palms of one very irate woman's hands. "Move your foot away before I do it for you and put your shoe back on!"

Unsure of if she even wants to know what's going on, Kagome just sips her drink and takes a fry, simply commenting to the male before her.

"Your friend's a pervert," she says, even as she observes said pervert trying to defend himself and failing, eventually getting himself a fistful of ketchup-smothered fries to the face.

"Yeah, he does that." Inuyasha – because that's his name – agrees amiably, taking an enormous bite out of the enormous burger that he's eating.

She stirs the straw in her drink with her left hand, even as she rests her head on her right hand, staring out the window between the arguing couple beside her. Although she realizes that it's the first time that she's laid eyes on either of the two males, she can't help but feel the weight of their meeting sitting heavily in her stomach. She'd be running into them frequently in the future, though she was unsure of whether they'd regard each other as friends or enemies, or even worse.

Their current position, though, with a squabbling Sango and Miroku, the face-stuffing Inuyasha, and the daydreaming Kagome, led her to believe that they'd be meeting as friends more often than they would be meeting as enemies.

After all, enemies wouldn't sit at the same table together, and she and Sango certainly would have objected if they'd disliked them.

Besides, from what Sango had told her about Miroku and the way the two were interacting now, she couldn't help but think she was in love with him. If only for that, Kagome was willing to be friends. After all, despite his obvious obliviousness to all that wasn't food, she noticed that Inuyasha had been sending glances towards the quarreling pair as well.

AN: Here are the alternate terms for several of the words that I used.

hanyou: half demon

Scenes keep popping into my head, demanding to be written. D: It's nice and all that I got plot bunnies at New Years and Christmas, but I've got homework, too, dammit!