Okay, yet another chapter of the fabulous story, Wanted. XD Even I gotta admit, this fic's not turning out too shabby. I'm really enjoying writing this fic…for some odd reason; I've always had a fascination with Wild West Love. What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic. A sucker why for romance…you get the jist. Or do you? o.O;

Wanted
Chapter four – Waste Work and Jealousy


It reeked.

Shoving the shovel into the giant pile of cow and horse shit, Inuyasha grumbled under his breath and wrinkled his sensitive nose, making a face as he pulled the shovel out and tossed the manure into the wheel barrel. He wiped his brow and propped the shovel against the wall, exhaling deeply then pinning the man across the room a glare. "Why did I get stuck with this? This is your kind of job, not mine." Inuyasha grouched, picking up a bottled water and taking a swig.

The man grinned at the hanyou. "Sorry Inuyasha. But a job like that would only callous my hands and I need them to be soft and tender for the ladies, like so." He reached out and patted the behind of a passing woman carrying a sack of grain. The woman shrieked and swung the heavy sack around, the bag connecting with the man's head and him falling off the railing to land on his back with a loud thud and a grunt. "Pervert," she grumbled, giving him a cold stare before continuing her journey to her desired destination.

Inuyasha sighed and shook his head. "When are you ever gonna learn, Miroku? I'm surprised that you're not brain damaged by now from all the blows to the head from 'the ladies'," He paused. "…Or more particularly, Sango." he inquired, nodding to the aforementioned woman.

Sango snorted, dumping the contents of the sack into a tall plastic container. "The day he learns to keep his hands to himself is the day you, Inuyasha, give up your favorite pair of Garfield boxers." She threw the now empty bag into a box then turned around, cocking a brow at the hanyou in question with a smirk curling her lips.

Inuyasha sputtered, golden eyes wide as his mouth worked up and down but no words processed. From his spot on the ground, Miroku burst out laughing, clutching his sides and rolling around in the dirt.

Sango chuckled at Inuyasha's expression – a mix between shock and horror – and patted his cheek as she passed him to get a drink from the cooler. "Your secrets out Inuyasha…So I suggest that you…ah…well, let's just say that you should break the habit of talking to yourself when you think nobody is listening." She grinned, winked then hauled Miroku up by the collar of his shirt, dragging him further into the barn. "Come on bouzo, we should start mucking out the stalls now so there won't be so much to do later."

Miroku instantly stopped laughing…and started protesting. "But-but Sango, didn't you just hear me say that I can't callous my hands because I need to—I mean, the ladies, Sango! Think of the ladies!" He tried to pry her hands off his collar but Sango held firm. "Sango! No! Wait!" His protests eventually faded to nothing as they ventured into the depths of the large barn.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. "That bitch, doesn't she know that it's not polite to eavesdrop? Even if it was just me talking to myself, she had no right to—!"

"I thought I heard grouching in here."

Ears swiveling towards the new voice, Inuyasha growled then slowly turned to face the intruder…and froze. His mouth dropped slightly and he blinked, studying the female before him…or rather, what she was wearing. Her skirt, the waistband jean material with the zipper and button. A little under the zipper, the skirt actually began, flowing freely about her upper thighs. It was plaid skirting with the colors red, white and blue. She wore a brown tee with a split starting at the top and ending just about where you could see a little cleavage, enough to drive Inuyasha mad. The design, he saw was black fancy lettering, spelling out the phrase, "Want it? Come and get it." A picture was on it as well, a sexy looking cowgirl winking, holding a cowboy hat to her head. The shirt ended just above her bellybutton and Inuyasha had to keep himself from staring at her bare belly longer than necessary. He also noticed that she wore similar boots as yesterday, only these ones were more worn out.

He must've failed at not looking at the pale flesh of her stomach for too long– not to mention her shapely legs - because the next thing he saw were Kagome's fingers beckoning upward and Inuyasha flushed, snapping his head up to lock gazes with the woman before him.

Kagome blinked at him, wondering what the hell his problem was to make him so silent all of a sudden. "You okay?" she asked slowly, tilting her head to the side.

Inuyasha sucked in a sharp breath at how adorable she looked just then. Gah! Fucking pheromones! "Nothing. I'm fine." He looked away, unable to meet her gaze.

She narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything, instead taking this time to take in what he was wearing. A red tee shirt with the words "Bite Me" printed on it and loose black jeans that covered up almost all of his brown work boots he wore today. It was simple, but Kagome had to resist the urge to drool.

She shook her head. "So, what am I doing today? Feeding the horses, working out in the fields, stacking hay—" She listed but was interrupted.

He thrust a shovel in her hand and smirked, pointing to the hug pile of crap then to the wheel barrel. "Have fun." And with that, he strode out of the barn to the house, a slight bounce to his step. At least he didn't have to that horrible job anymore.

Kagome stood there, dumbfounded with the shovel in her hands as she stared after him. She blinked then her brows furrowed lowly and a dark scowl adorned her features. "That bastard! He's making me do this? Why can't he do it! He's not cripple!" Kagome yelled, an inhuman growl working its way up her throat and out of her mouth. "Or at least not yet," she added lowly then sighed. Might as well get this done and over with. She turned to the matter at hand and groaned. This was going to take a while.

A rather smug smile upon his face, Inuyasha strode into the kitchen and to the fridge, swinging it open and poking his head inside for something to quench his hunger. But his hunger wasn't for food. It was for something else. Or rather, someone else. He mentally cursed himself and pulled his head out, slamming the fridge. He stalked over to the pantry and rummaged in that instead, making a sound in the back of his throat when he found the Twinkies. He pulled them out, stole one then shoved the package back in and unwrapped the sweet treat.

With half of the snack in his mouth, Sesshomaru entered the kitchen with a blank expression, as usual. He rolled his eyes upon seeing half of a Twinkie in his half brother's mouth. "Inuyasha, you do know that—"

Inuyasha pulled the treat out and swallowed. "Yeah, yeah, I know he's on his way." He growled and took a fierce bite out of the other half of the cream filled treat. "Why the hell did Dad hire that son of a bitch anyway? It's not like he actually does any work around here anyhow," he complained around the Twinkie, tossing the wrapper into the garbage can.

Sesshomaru grabbed a soda from the fridge, turning to his brother after shutting the refrigerator door gently. "You know that is not true, brother. He works just as hard as the rest of us, and the volunteers." He popped open the soda and raised it to his lips. He paused just an inch away from his mouth. "Speaking of," he glanced at Inuyasha over the soda top, cocking a delicate brow. "What vile job did you give our new volunteer?"

Inuyasha grinned innocently. "Vile? What makes you think that I, your little brother, would give the new volunteer a vile job?" he said naively, cocking his head to the side.

Sesshomaru snorted uncharacteristically. "Please, little brother. I – unfortunately – know you too well. So what is it?" he proceeded to take a sip of his beverage.

The younger brother chuckled. "I gave her the lovely job of scooping up shit and delivering it to the other side of the Shit Shed." Inuyasha explained with a smirk, using the nickname he made up for the mini barn they used for the manure.

Sesshomaru sighed and set the can down, regarding the hanyou with a bland look. "You are twenty six, Inuyasha. Learn to act your age and not your shoe size, hm?"

Inuyasha's smirk dropped into a scowl. "Bite me, bastard." He threw him a glare then walked out of the kitchen. He started for the stairs but stopped half way. He sighed. Might as well tell Kagome that he'll be arriving soon. Don't want her to be surprised. He smirked inwardly and spun around, heading for the door instead. Maybe he didn't want her to be surprised, or…it could be just an excuse to see her again.

He wanted it to be the latter, but…something told him that the second one was more likely.

"Stupid, egocentric, horrid, idiotic, selfish, stubborn, lousy, rotten, son of a—!"

She ended it with a growl, a deep glower upon her face as she lifted the shovel from the stinking heap of crap in front of her. Kagome held her breath as she swung around carefully and dumped it into the wheel barrel. He would pay. Oh, how he would pay dearly.

"Bastard didn't even give me a pair of gloves," she mumbled, turning back around and thrusting the spade back into the brown mass of foul smelling waste. "And here I thought he was actually drool material…ha! Not after I get done with him…this crap can do more than just fertilize soil…" She continued to mutter to herself, unaware of the silver Ford truck that just parked outside the barn.

Another load of shit went into the wheel barrel and Kagome swung around only to shriek and stumble back, the shovel flying over head and she would've fell right into the almost full wheel barrel had it not been for the hand that caught her wrist and pull her into a hard chest.

"Are you okay, miss?"

The deep masculine voice pulled Kagome back to reality and she pulled back to stare up into the cobalt eyes of her savior. She blinked, noticing his dark tan and his black hair pulled back into a high ponytail. Wow… was her first thought.

The man smiled charmingly down at her and released his hold on her, only to grasp her hands in his own large ones. "You didn't answer me. Are you alright?"

Kagome shook her head a nice shade of pink came up to tint her cheeks. "I-I'm fine, thank you." She smiled up at him and tried to pull back her hands but to no avail. Damn, this guy was strong.

He smiled again. "Good. We can't have a beautiful woman such as yourself all covered in waste now, can we?" He winked and released her hands, much to Kagome's relief.

Kagome laughed nervously and her blush darkened. "Well, I couldn't exactly say beautiful—" she started.

He waved a hand, dismissing the notion. "Nonsense. Now, a beautiful lady always has a beautiful name so why don't you grace me with your yours, hm?" he asked, stepping beside her and draping an arm around her shoulders.

Kagome inhaled sharply. "Kagome Higurashi," she squeaked, sucking in her lips.

"Kagome, what a lovely name." He winked. "I'm Kouga Tsuyami."

She offered a small smile. "Nice to meet you Kouga, but if you don't mind, I need to…"

"Get back to work."

Kagome nearly jumped into the willing Kouga's arms at the sudden voice. She turned towards the entrance to find Inuyasha standing there looking none to pleased with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring daggers at the wolf demon. She peeked up at Kouga to see that he was glaring right back at the dog hanyou.

Inuyasha growled and strode over to them, yanking Kagome out of Kouga's grasp and pulling her behind him protectively. The girl squeaked and stumbled backwards for the second time in the last five minutes and grabbed a fistful of Inuyasha's red tee shirt to catch her fall. Either he didn't notice or chose to ignore it when Kagome heaved herself forward into his back, her hand still clutching his shirt.

Kouga growled. "Well, well, if it isn't the mutt-face here to ruin my day, as always. You succeeded that easily enough just by your presence alone. Now get outta my way so I can get back to my woman."

Kagome sputtered. "M-my woman?"

The wolf narrowed his cerulean orbs and attempted to pull Kagome away from him by reaching around but Inuyasha grabbed his wrist and squeezed. Hard.

The wolf demon yelped and yanked his hand back, his other hand rising to cradle his injured wrist. "What the fuck was that for?" Kouga snarled, baring his fangs.

Inuyasha was a bit surprised at the sudden surge of jealousy of the concept of Kagome being someone's woman. Especially Kouga's. He shrugged it off and snorted. "That's an obvious question coming from you, ya mangy wolf. Kagome's not your woman, nor will she ever be so I suggest you get outta my sight with your tail between your legs like the cowardly wolf you are before I do more than just hurt your wrist." he spat, folding his arms across his chest. His ears swiveled in Kagome's direction as she tried to step around him, obviously to argue that she wasn't the wimpy wolf's woman. Keh. Damn right she's not. If she's anyone's woman, she's— Whoa…way too close for comfort there. Now, where in the seven hells did that come from?

Kagome must have succeeded in pushing past him to confront Kouga because he suddenly found her standing in front of him, facing the wolf youkai with a death glare and if looks could kill, Kouga would be six feet under by now.

"How dare you say I'm your woman! I most certainly am not! I barely even know you for ten minutes and here you are, declaring me as your woman!" Kagome huffed, her face flushed from anger and her fists balled into tight fists. Inuyasha – who had stepped to the side to watch her in the act – had to admit that she looked quite cute like that. Where the fuck are these thoughts coming from?

Kouga blinked in utter confusion. "Not my woman? Baloney, of course you are. I claimed you before Inutrasha did so therefore, you're my woman." He ignored the growl from the hanyou at the name and smiled attractively down at Kagome, who faltered at the smile, at lost for words. "Well Kagome, I better be off now and get my work done. Be seein' ya." He winked and gave a two fingered salute then grasped her hand to lift it to his lips where he gave a gentle kiss to her knuckles before he dropped it and spun around, walking off and waving over his shoulder. "Later, dog-turd."

Inuyasha growled, lip pulled back in a feral snarl as he watched him exit the barn to go do his "work" as he called it which was actually sitting on his lazy ass all day and watching the others do his work for him as he drinks a beer. But that was Inuyasha's opinion.

Kagome still stood there, thunderstruck with her mouth hanging open and Inuyasha couldn't stop himself from saying his next words.

"Close your mouth Kagome, you'll attract flies. And go take a shower or something. You smell like shit."

That snapped her back to reality faster than the blink of an eye and the next thing Inuyasha felt was a stinging sensation on his left cheek before he saw Kagome's form storming out of the barn, hands flexing.

He blinked. "…Ouch."

Lmao. I'll have to admit, I like the way this ended. n.n; Heh, a bit of jealousy there, Inu-Chan?

Inuyasha: -Blushes and growls.- Bite me!

Keiko: -Sighs.- I think those are your favorite two words in the human dictionary. But, if you insist… -Leans over and bites his arm.-

Inuyasha: -Yelps and runs away, yelling over his shoulder,- You cannibal!

Keiko: -Grins and picks up a spork, eyeing the readers while licking her lips.- Review and I won't eat you.