A Little Bit of Keynes's Law

Keynes's Law: "Demand creates its own supply."

"Hi-yah!"

With a swift movement, he brought the samurai sword to attack his opponent from the right only to be stopped by the offensive slant of his sword. The two steel blades collided and the swords met edges to edges and hilt to hilt, refusing to yield to the other.

Who knew the handsome surgeon was also a strong samurai?

The sleeves of his hitatare fluttered with each of his swift movements. The natural light shone through the windows of the studio where the two men were engaged in their affair, illuminating the family crests on their breastplates. Takahashi. Kouki.

"Is that the best you've got, InuYasha?"

"Don't underestimate me or Tetsusaiga, Miroku!"

"Hyah!"

Drips of sweat dripped from his forehead, trailing down his neck and drenching his black kimono. He brought his sleeve up to wipe away the sweat that was blurring his vision. He took a leap backwards, dodging Miroku's katana. The blade sliced down by his face; strands of his silvery hair fell to the ground.

"Aren't you so lucky, Takahashi?" Miroku smirked at his slight victory.

"Now it's my, turn, Kouki!"

"Eeee-yah!" InuYasha clenched the tsuka with his two hands and put his entire body's force to slice down at Miroku only to be stopped by the tsuba before the hilt of Miroku's katana.

InuYasha and Miroku were shoulder to shoulder. Their swords were intertwined and neither man could free himself.

"You're slipping, InuYasha. You're distracted." Miroku leaned into InuYasha to take a closer observation of him and widdened his eyes in disbelief.

"Shut up, Miroku!" InuYasha was irked by Miroku's remark. He was never distracted, ever, until now.

"Something's on your mind, want to talk about it?" Miroku gave InuYasha a genuine look of concern. He has known InuYasha for over 32 years and his katana has never come so close to InuYasha's face like it did a moment ago. Obviously InuYasha's mind wasn't on the match anymore but on something else... or someone else.

But then how could it be on someone else? Even at the time his engagement with Kikyo was in turmoil, InuYasha had never lost focus in a katana match.

"What's this, you're 'shrinking' me now?" The half-demon raised his sleeves to wipe away the sweat that covered his forehead, still in a combative stance.

"Well, that's what I do for a living," The clean-cut man smirked as he sheathed his katana in its saya. "Well, lunch break is over, I need to go back to Tokyo Memorial now. You, my friend can keep at it in denial."

InuYasha rolled his eyes at Miroku's sarcasm.

"Oi, Miroku," InuYasha raised his right hand and caught Miroku's left shoulder from behind. "How would you like to consult for Takahashi Cardiac instead."

Miroku turned around to face InuYasha, "Interesting, I've never thought I'd be working for my buddy." He brought his hand to rub his chin as if he was deep in ponder but he had already made up his mind.

"You know you've always wanted to but you were just never man enough to ask," InuYasha cackled. Miroku was a "freelance psychiatrist and neuroscience specialist." He had never owned his own practice but instead, he frequented hospitals and clinics as their specialist. He was in need of a new psychiatrist at Takahashi Cardiac and he thought, who was better for the job than Miroku Kouki?

"I'll drop by your place later tonight," Miroku waved at InuYasha while walking to the change room.

"You do that, Kouki."

InuYasha glanced at the time, 1:33 pm.

Time for work... at Shikon no Tama.

It was a Friday afternoon and he didn't have any more scheduled meetings, consultations, or surgeries for the rest of the day so he was going to go for his shift at the Sanya clinic.

"InuYasha! You're here!" Shippo looked up from the computer screen at the reception, his face brightened at the sight of InuYasha. He was buried in a stack of patient files.

"Hey, Shippo," InuYasha winnowed himself through the room of patients. The clinic looked busy for a Friday afternoon. So much for an early start to the weekends, this didn't look like it was going to be a stroll in the park. InuYasha's ears dropped at the though of working late tonight. Ah well, Miroku can wait longer.

"InuYasha!"

InuYasha's ears perked up upon hearing the endearing familiar voice.

"Kagome..." InuYasha smiled at the sight of the young woman. He gulped hard and took a deep breath. It was his first time seeing her since last week. It was funny, he knew she was married but that didn't stop him from thinking of her. He was better than this; he wasn't the man to covet a taken woman when he knew he could sweep any too willing woman off of her feet with a single glance. Oh the things Kagome did to him.

Dammit, but there was something just so damn alluring about Kagome. He thought he was ready to face her, but as soon as she looked like she was going to say something to him, his hands grew clammy and he was lost for words. He felt this heart thumping against his ribcage. Was it so hot in the clinic? When did it get so hot? It was so sudden... ah... dammit.

'Dammit. Dammit, Kagome. InuYasha... discipline yourself.'

He needed a moment to compose himself; where should he run to? Eh... ahh... Kagome was walking towards him... Where to? Where to?

"InuYasha, here's the patient file, you can start by ruling out yellow fever and malaria," Kagome handed him the file folder and gave him a wink. A wink. What the hell was that? Did she just give him a wink?

Damn that woman; why did she have to give him a wink? It was probably an innocent little wink that she gave to everyone. But still, that was really, really misleading. Drat. Damn. Darn. Darn. Gah. Oh the things she did to him that she didn't even realize.

'You have no idea what you're doing to me, Kagome.'

InuYasha watched Kagome disappear in the back of the clinic. He flipped through the file and gave a long sigh before going into the exam room.

"How are you doing, Ayumi?" Kagome came into the room where Ayumi was up and packing. "Where are you going to go now with your baby girl?"

The young girl gave a long pause before answering, "I've arranged with Hitomiko to give my baby to a better home."

Kagome gave Ayumi a sympathetic smile. This little girl was making a good decision for her and her daughter. Kagome was so proud of her.

"It's probably for the best, Ayumi-chan."

"I'm staying with a distant cousin. Then I want to finish high school, go into university, and make something of myself. I want to go to med school just like you, Kagome-san."

Kagome had not expected such an ambitious answer from the little girl. She truly admired her courage to pick herself up again after being abandoned by her lover and family.

"I wish you the best of luck," Kagome Ayumi a long, maternal hug.

"Can I still come and visit you?"

"Of course, Ayumi-chan. Anytime you'd like."

When she let go of Ayumi, Kagome was in vertigo and suddenly felt the room spinning around her. Her knees buckled and her limbs felt numb. She tried her best to gain control of her legs but they didn't seem to belong to her anymore. She thought she was going to hit her head before Ayumi caught her.

"Kagome-san! Are you alright?"

She heard her calling her name... 'Kagome... That's me...'

Kagome groaned and supported herself by holding onto the railing of the bedpost. She seemed to just have had an out of body experience... For a moment she didn't feel like herself. Her vision went blurry for a while but now she could see more lucidly.

"I'm... alright, just tired..." Kagome reassured Ayumi. "I'm alright... really."

"You don't need to remove the stitches, they'll take care of themselves. Avoid any extreme exercises in the meanwhile, all right? Don't move around too much."

InuYasha gingerly patched a bandage on the little girl's shoulder.

"Alright, I'm just going to give you a few tablets of antibiotics for the cut, alright? I'll be right back."

InuYasha had been attending to patient after patients for the past four hours. The situations included a high fever, a broken wrist, some minor burns, and now, the little girl who fell off the ladder trying to help her father hang blessing charms in the family shrine. She was unfortunate that the glass ornament she had in her hands shattered and the broken shards stabbed into her shoulder. But at the same time, luckily it was just her shoulder and nothing vital.

InuYasha's mouth dropped when he opened the room of the medicine storage. Perhaps he had walked into the wrong room, or rather, the wrong clinic. He was bracing himself for fallen objects from the top shelves but instead the room was immaculate and orderly. Everything even had labels. Damn.

"I see you've discovered Kagome's masterpiece," Sango strolled in and grabbed a bottle of aspirin from under the labeled shelf.

Incredible... Again, this woman made miracles happen. 'When will Kagome cease to amaze me?'

"You should see what she did to the trauma room too!" Sango added while walking out of the medicine storage.

This was getting too much. He didn't even want to find out what Kagome did to the trauma room because he knew that it would blow his mind... as if she hadn't done that many times already.

"Oh, don't forget to check out our new filing system in the office," Midoriko informed InuYasha while she came in to grab a bag of bandages.

Damn. The wonders Kagome could do.

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed the fresh layer of paint in the clinic, Doctor Takahashi," Ai curiously asked InuYasha as she walked by the medicine storage room.

"Kagome even has a new filing system set up for me," Shippo shouted all the way from the reception desk. "Would you like to see it, Doctor Takahashi?"

No, he didn't, but he did now.

"This is incredible, InuYasha... Was this the old medicine room?" Kikyo was astonished at Kagome's work. "Amazing... This room looks ten times larger than it was... I had no idea that there was so much space. Amazing."

InuYasha was startled by Kikyo's sudden appearance, "Would you stop doing that, Kikyo?"

InuYasha walked to the door to shut it before anyone realized he was talking to "himself." Although he was conversing with Kikyo but he seemed to be the only person who could see or hear her. Anyone walking by would think that he was talking to himself and think he was going mad.

"Yeah... this was... have you seen the paint?" InuYasha gave Kikyo a grin.

He was going to say something else before he heard Kagome's voice on the other side of the door, "Tell InuYasha I've dressed Chiko-chan's shoulder with the bandages already!"

The door opened and Kagome was startled to see InuYasha standing in the medicine room. She had taken him by surprise too. He didn't know what to do so he just gave her his usual smirk. It was one of those smirks again.

She felt her stomach churn with butterflies. Darn the adrenaline. InuYasha's silky silver hair draped over his shoulders, framing his perfect jawline. The light lavender colored dress shirt he had worn under his white coat brought out the golden tints in his eyes. There was a yin, feminine elongation to his features but at the same time, his broad shoulders and hard abs that she had felt the other day against her back screamed sexy hunk. Hard abs... against her back, so close to her le...

"Here's my darling!" An unfamiliar man barged into the storage room and grabbed Kagome's waist from the behind possessively while scooping her into his embrace. InuYasha let out a deep growl at the way the man touched his Kagome.

Wait, since was she his Kagome?

No, she wasn't his.

She was his.

"This is my husband, Hojo Ikeda," Kagome began as she shifted uncomfortably out of Hojo's arms, she as embarrassed of Hojo's intimacy with her in public. She wasn't a fan of public displays of affections, especially not at her work. Kagome liked to keep her professional life less personal.

Kikyo noticed Kagome's subtle gesture and frowned. It seemed like she picked up something much more from Kagome's uncomfortable stir, something even Kagome herself might not have noticed.

"Hi, you must be Doctor Takahashi, call me Hojo." Hojo approached InuYasha boldly and shook his hand firmly.

Hojo was dressed smartly in a crisp tailored Italian suit; he looked like he meant business.

"I've heard that your proposal to fund your own clinical research for atrial fibrillation was rejected by your investors," Hojo gave InuYasha a taunting look.

InuYasha flinched. How did Hojo know about this? He cringed and felt a sudden wave of hostility overwhelming him. Now he's got more than one reason to dislike this Hojo. He was just such a stuck-up. That stupid grin on his face was just irritating. He wanted to go forth to slap it off. How could this type of guy get a woman like Kagome? What did she see in him?

Hojo noticed InuYasha's discomfort and leered, "But I'm willing to invest in it, if you cut me a proper share. 70-30? 80-20? How's 90-10?"

InuYasha wasn't surprised by his offer. Yes, he was desperate, but he wasn't that desperate. He knew that accepting Hojo's offer would be like selling his soul to the devil itself. Hojo was proposing an audacious 90% cut. What did he take InuYasha for? A teaching assistant to a research professor? He was a certified heart surgeon with two post-doctorate degrees. Screw Hojo.

"I can manage my own research funding, thank you but no thanks." InuYasha's tone was antagonistic and full of rage.

It seemed like Hojo had gotten the hint. He turned his attention to his alluring wife, "Honey, we're late for our reservations."

"Oh? What's the occasion?" Sango was curious at the sight of Hojo and cut in to join the conversation.

"You guys don't know? It's to celebrate Kagome's birthday," Hojo turned to Kagome. "I've booked the entire Ginza Kyuubeifor for you dear, we shouldn't miss the reservation."

Sango's mouth dropped, Ginza Kyuubei? As in t-h-e Ginza Kyuubei, the most reputable sushi restaurant in Japan? Hojo booked it for the night Hojo Ikeda... Wait, the Hojo Ikeda? Her clinic director, Kagome Higurashi was married to the Hojo Ikeda?

InuYasha shifted uncomfortably at Hojo's purposefully ostentatious remark. He was such a pretentious man.

"Yeah, sure... I'm just going to pack my things, why don't you wait for me outside?" Kagome gave Hojo a week smile and looked down to her feet.

Before leaving her, he grabbed Kagome's chin forcefully with the intention of kissing her lips. InuYasha looked away uncomfortably; he didn't want to watch Kagome kissing another man. Instead of letting her husband take her lips, Kagome shifted her stance and clenched his shoulders. Hojo had missed her lips and planted the quick peck on her left cheek.

He didn't think much of it. In fact, Hojo laughed at his wife's quirk and shook his head; before walking away to wait for her outside he looked at her longingly and uttered, "Don't be too long, Mrs. Ikeda... I love you."

Kagome let out a nervous and flustered, "Yeah, me too..."

She turned her attention away from Hojo and looked yearningly at InuYasha. Kagome was still red and embarrassed from the situation at hand. What a predicament.

"I guess I'll see you later?" She asked.

"Sure... um... Happy birthday, Kagome."

She let out a genuine smile, nodded at him, stepped out of the medicine storage room and headed for her office to collect her things.

"She's not happy, InuYasha." Kikyo spoke. "But the sadder thing is, she hasn't internalized it yet. She doesn't consciously know it. She's forcing herself to be happy."

"... What do you mean, Kikyo? Look at her, she's perfectly happy with..." He wanted to call him by something a bit less polite before he continued to finish his sentence. "... With... Hojo."

"You didn't see it, did you?" Kikyo watched InuYasha curiously.

He just stared at her.

She continued, "The way she turned her face when he had kissed her... The quick 'me too'... She can't even say the simple three words to him. Don't tell me you didn't see any of that."

InuYasha stared at Kikyo blankly.

Kikyo cringed at InuYasha's obliviousness and brought her hands to her temple.

"So this girl, what's her name?" Miroku asked before taking a sip of his whiskey.

"Keh... what do you mean 'what's her name'?" InuYasha reclined onto his sofa and a flash of Kagome's face appeared in his head. He couldn't help but to smile ear to ear.

"You're avoiding my question... and you're smiling like an idiot, so there is someone." Miroku sniggered. That was definitely it, InuYasha was trying hard to make him drop the subject so he must have been having problem with a girl.

"Kagome. Her name is Kagome Higurashi. She's an ER. She's married."

The alcohol must have gotten to him; he was spilling everything to Miroku.

"Hot dayumn InuYasha, messing around with a married woman? I never thought that you were the type." Miroku had a stupid grin on his face. InuYasha was no saint but Miroku didn't know he would go that far.

"No you moron. We're not messing around."

"Or are you?"

"No. She loves her husband."

"Honey, why aren't you wearing your ring?" Hojo was infuriated upon seeing Kagome's bare ring finger. "Is the diamond not big enough?"

The gorgeous 8-carat Tiffany's Louis XIV marquise ring was more than enough. In fact, she thought that it was too much.

"Hojo, the ring isn't exactly appropriate for me to wear at work," Kagome tried to explain herself with an apologetic frown. It was too flashy.

"Oh, that's right, you work in that run down place. Kagome, I just don't get it. Why do you work in such a hellhole? I can pull some connections and get you to a better clinic in a more pristine neighborhood." Hojo was a reputable businessman; he was embarrassed for his wife's current working conditions. In fact, when his colleagues asked where his wife worked, he would always answer: "in a charitable clinic 'near' Minato."

"I like it there."

After that, they ate in silence for the rest of the night. They were the only ones in the restaurant. Of course, he had reserved the entire restaurant just for them. Kagome hated it but she should be happy right?

Their relationship began like a fairytale; it was a Cinderella story. She was the orphan girl who had met her prince charming who had given her everything. But she was never after his money, ever. She was working part-time to make ends meet at a restaurant while she was in med school. As a result of her spectacular performance in school, she had a full scholarship. However, she had to take care of her younger brother, Souta Higurashi, and send money back to Japan every month to support him.

Hojo would always come to dine at the restaurant whenever she was working. She had later realized that he was doing a graduate degree in business administrations at the Stanford School of Business.

Kagome Higurashi tiptoed to put back the thick leather bound on the top shelf. She had been in there for hours but she couldn't seem to find the book she wanted. She casually looked through the shelves and he caught his eyes.

'Oh my gosh, it's the cute boy from the coffee shop... He goes here too?'

Kagome blushed furiously. She never really had time to talk to him during work; this was her perfect opportunity. She wanted to know him a little bit better. He seemed nice enough.

'What do I do?'

She just wanted to create an opportunity to talk to him but she was never bold enough in her advances. She didn't now what to do. She didn't want to seem too forthcoming in her pursuit; she just wanted him to notice her so she could get to know him a little bit better. Then, Kagome made the boldest move of her life, she even surprised herself. She scooped the stack of books into her arms and casually strolled along, pretending to be nonchalant. Hojo was on the move too; his face was buried in a stack of research paper.

Slowly... slowly...

Wham.

"Ouch..." Kagome fell backwards, dropping the tall stack of hardcovers on the floor. Sheets of loose papers flew from Hojo's hands.

"I'm so sorry, let me help you!" Hojo apologized over and over again and offered Kagome his assistance. "I'm so sorry. Nice to meet you, I'm Hojo Ikeda."

At first, she detested his preppy boy attitude; but after he had shown her his sincerity, she let him into her life and eventually fell for him.

They did all of the cliché things that couples had done: watch the sun come up, long walks by the beaches, kissing in the rain... He had told her that he had loved her. After his incessant wooing and begging, she felt like she was wanted for the first time in her life. Then, she had her fairytale wedding in a lavish Vivienne Westwood gown in a cathedral in France with over 600 guests like it was yesterday. Now, three years, three months, two weeks, and four days later they were like strangers living in two different worlds. They might as well as been. Hojo was always out on business trips. Their relationship deteriorated day by day. At first, she would call him every night, then once a week, and now... they never spoke to each other. He didn't understand her; she didn't even know where he was.

Their relationship had never truly been based on the physically intimate. In the beginning they had a healthy marriage but it slowly terminated with time.

Hojo was very handsome. He was one of those cookie cutter produced good looking pretty boys but there was always something missing from his touch. There had never been that sparkle. Those electrifying touches... like that feeling like InuYasha had given her.

Shout out to Helen! This chapter is dedicated to her for braving through her 7 - 10 French exam! I named the chapter after our favorite economist, HAHAHA.