Inuyasha wondered how he'd gotten himself into this most recent mess.

The spitfire and houshi had invited him to the bar where they worked and since it was still early they were able to grab one of the VIP rooms. They all had sake with the exception of Shippo who Kagome had supplied with a sippy toddler's cup that she'd gotten from god-only-knows where and filled with chocolate milk.

He suspected from the sidelong looks he'd been receiving that Miroku knew what was really going on and couldn't help but wonder if he was going to tell Kagome.

"So we need to learn more about you." Kagome was saying. "I know you teach martial arts and that you're related to Professor crazy pants but I want to know other stuff."

"Like..?" Inuyasha hazarded.

"Like… how'd you find out about me?" She arched an eyebrow. "Or do you stalk random girls?"

"I wasn't stalking you!" Inuyasha protested for the thousandth time. "And I saw you with Miroku. I asked him about it and he said that you were his roommate."

"I remember that!" Miroku exclaimed. "But that was like a year ago!"

"Well I'm… shy." Inuyasha shrugged.

Kagome squinted at him. "You don't act very shy."

"Oh he is. Trust me, Uncle Inuyasha is like… shy times twenty. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's still a virgin."

Inuyasha glared at Shippo, silently promising to tear him apart at his next lesson at the dojo. The fact that the kitsune was dating Inuyasha's daughter (after begging for a century) and best friends with his son did not seem to affect him in the slightest.

"I know! Classic college get-to-know-you game!" Kagome clapped her hands.

"Oh no." Miroku groaned.

"Oh yes! Never Have I Ever!" Kagome turned to the hanyou. "Do you know how to play?"

He snorted. "I practically invented the game."

"Great! I'll start! Never have I ever been on the receiving end of anal sex." Kagome cheerfully piped up and both Shippo and Inuyasha snarfed their drinks.

Miroku sighed and took a drink.

"Never have I ever read a romance novel." Miroku declared and his three companions drank.

"Really?" Kagome asked Inuyasha, whose cheeks were pink.

"Keh. You don't live as long as we have without getting bored every now and then."

"I like the metaphors!" Shippo grinned, then adopted a falsetto voice. "'She grasped his manroot firmly while twining her legs about his waist like a carnivorous plant consuming its prey'."

Kagome burst into laughter and Miroku chuckled.

"Never have I ever been married." Shippo grinned as Inuyasha and Miroku drank.

"I know your reason is Vegas, but what's your excuse?" Kagome asked Inuyasha.

"Uh… like I said… long life." He shrugged and didn't meet her eyes. "Never have I ever… uh… been sick for more than a week."

Kagome and Miroku drank.

"Never have I ever had children." Kagome said, her sharp eyes on Inuyasha, who drank. "Ah hah! I knew it! How many do you have? Like eighty?"

"What?" His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Hell no! I have three!"

"Hmph." Kagome slumped back in her chair but her gaze didn't lose its calculating edge.

An hour later and they were all—with the exception of Shippo—feeling light-headed and silly and were having trouble of thinking of things they'd never done—with the exception of Kagome.

"Never have I ever been caught masturbating in public by a mounted police officer!" She sang and Miroku groaned and drank.

"You. My dear. Know ENTIRELY too much about me." He glared at her.

"Do another one Kagome-chan!" Shippo laughed. "This is hilarious!"

Inuyasha was staring at Miroku slack-jawed in a mixture of awe and disgust. So far the houshi had been called out on more things than he could even think of, and Kagome seemed to have a never-ending supply of little tidbits of information.

"Never have I ever had sex on top of the monkey bars with the vice principal of an elementary school!" Kagome grinned and Miroku scowled. "Never have I ever had a devil's threesome in an airplane bathroom!"

"What's a devil's threesome?" Inuyasha asked.

Kagome raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I'll give you a hint." She winked saucily at him before raising her forefingers like antennae. "How many horns does the devil have?"

"Wha-? Two…? What does-" He broke off, whipping around to face the inebriated houshi. "In an airplane bathroom?"

"Enough of this game!" Miroku exclaimed. "What can I do to make you stop Nee-chan?"

"Finish the bottle." Kagome grinned wickedly as Miroku gratefully upended the sake bottle on the table and chugged.

"Nee-chan?" Inuyasha asked Kagome.

"We grew up in the same shrine, my mother and grandpa took Miro-kun in when his parents died."

"Oh… how'd they die?" Inuyasha asked, more quietly. He wasn't sure if it was the right time to be probing into their past but he wanted to know more about Kagome's relationship with Miroku. With a human being as depraved as he was it stood to reason that some of that personality trait would have rubbed off on Kagome, and Inuyasha—loathe though he was to admit it—was protective of his older brother in his own way.

"He and my dad were important members of a political group in the eighties." She stared into her sake cup, her mood considerably more subdued than moments before. "Back when the extremist groups were popping up, do you remember them? I guess you would have been alive at the time."

"Yeah. I don't remember what they were callin themselves but both were about the 'pure race', one representing taiyoukai and one representing the humans. It… wasn't a really good time to be a hanyou."

"I guess not." Kagome drained her cup before setting it down carefully. "Anyway, daddy and Mr. Murasaki were part of a group that wanted to support the peace and encourage greater understanding among the two races."

"I remember them! That was the group that didn't get national recognition until four of its members were-… oh." Inuyasha stared at Kagome. "That was…?"

"My dad and his assistant, a boy named Sousuke Hiu, and Miro-kun's mother and father." She smiled suddenly, taking Inuyasha off-guard. "Mama would have been there too but someone had to stay home with me, Miro-kun and my brother Souta."

"Kagome… I'm sorry." Inuyasha hesitantly reached out to touch her shoulder.

"Nah, it's okay, really, it's ancient history." Kagome shrugged. "I used to be mad about it but then I decided to do something to keep it from happening again and started studying interspecies diplomacy."

"Wait. Your doctorate is in interspecies diplomacy? Then you must know all about taiyoukai!" Inuyasha exclaimed, excited at the prospect that his brother wouldn't have to 'train' his mate in their ways.

"Oh yeah, I know all about them. Like courting rituals." Her gaze narrowed at him and lost any glaze that the alcohol had given them. "And how to differentiate between mated and unmated youkai… and hanyous."

"Wow that… oh… SHIT." Inuyasha winced and his ears flattened against his skull.

"I also know mated youkai never ever cheat on their mates. I'm assuming it's the same for hanyous."

Inuyasha growled at the implication. "Well of course-"

"Which leads me to ask: why were you courting me if you're happily mated with three pups Inuyasha?"