Before Inuyasha had time to react to Sango's roundhouse kick, Shippo was flying at her in a ball of claws and fur and anger. Kagome caught him deftly just before he reached Sango's face and held him close to her chest.

"Hey, hey, it's ok," she whispered soothingly. "Sango was just joking around. Your dad's fine." She then made eye contact with Inuyasha and raised her eyebrows in a "do something!" kind of way. Inuyasha rolled his eyes and grabbed Miroku by his collar, heaving him up and dangling the somewhat limp man in front of the panicking fox demon. "Tell him how fine you are, Miroku," he ordered in an annoyed, monotone voice.

"Son, I am perfectly fine," Miroku responded regally, as if he were not being propped up at all. "And I would be very upset if you harmed your future mother."

"You must have gotten hit pretty hard if you think that. Want another kick to see if we can get your head right again?" Sango shot back.

"His head has never been right," muttered Inuyasha. He was annoyed that this was happening. He had just been on the verge of getting some actual information on Kagome from this Sango person, and then Miroku had to come in and piss her off. And that only introduced more questions. Why was Kagome friends with someone that could deliver a solid blow like that? Her form had been perfect. And Kagome hadn't been too shappy either when she grabbed Shippo out of midair and restrained him without any injury to herself. As if she was used to deflecting attacks. What did that mean? Was she a cagefighter? Was the "Pack" that Kouga had mentioned some kind of gang? It didn't look like he'd get any answer from anyone as long as this chaos was going on.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Who... wants some ice cream?" The arguing that was going on while he was thinking immediately stopped.

"What was that?"

"Ice cream. Peanut butter blast, Chocolate, Cookie dough, I'm guessing Vanilla or something else boring, and, I don't know, Pistachio?" he said, pointing to Maeko, Kagome, Miroku, Shippo, and Sango respectively.

"Why would you guess Pistachio?"

"There's nothing wrong with Vanilla!"

"Are you in or not!?"

Twenty minutes later, the mismatched group were walking around downtown licking away at their respective cones. Maeko and Shippo were in front, and Kagome decided to rescue Sango from Miroku by engaging him in a conversation about the PTA. That left Inuyasha in the back with Sango, which was exactly what he wanted.

"You know," she said. "Pistachio is actually not bad..."

Inuyasha licked his own cone of Cherry and contemplated how best to start asking the questions he wanted to. As always, he decided that directness was best.

"So. You know how to fight. Why?"

Sango stopped eating and stared at him. "You really don't know anything about Kagome, do you?"

"Nothing. So tell me."

"Why should I if she hasn't?" Instead of answering, Inuyasha flicked one of his frozen cherries at Miroku. The jerk was looking a little too closely at Kagome licking her ice cream.

"Nevermind. I see why you want to know. And I know why she hasn't told you."

"Why?"

"Because she doesn't tell anyone anything. She hardly even talks to me." That made Inuyasha feel a bit better, but at the same time really sad. He was about to press further, when Sango continued. "But I will tell you if you want."

"Why?"

"Because I think she likes you, too." Inuyasha felt like his heart had stopped.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Do you see her glancing anxiously back here all the time?"

"I figured it was because she wanted me to rescue her from the monk."

"Nah, she can handle herself. It's because she wants to know what we're talking about. She cares what you think of her. And that's rare." Inuyasha filed that into the section of his brain that he labeled "Be Happy About Later." Right now he had a mission.

"Ok, so tell me then."

"We take karate together. We have since we were sixteen. Both black belts. Kagome can take down a man twice her size. Easily." Inuyasha didn't react outwardly, but so many more questions started swimming in his mind. Sango was studying his face. "Can you handle that?" she asked.

"Well, I'll have to. I love her," he said automatically. Then he hurriedly added, "Don't tell her."

Sango shrugged. "Even if I did, she wouldn't believe it."

"I know that. But I don't want to scare her. Do you believe it?"

"I don't know you, so I'll reserve judgment for now. But I do know that if you hurt her I will rip your balls off and feed them to you."

"...Ouch."

"The only reason I haven't done the same to Kouga yet is because I'm still not sure whether she'll try to work it out with him." Inuyasha couldn't stop the growl that rumbled from his chest. He wouldn't let that happen. He'd rip off the wolf's balls himself first. Sango wasn't startled by his anger at all. She eyed him levelly. "For the record, I'm rooting for you. But don't take that too much to heart. It's only because I hate Kouga, not because I necessarily like you."

"I'll take it."

Sango flung what was left of her ice cream into a nearby trash can. "If you don't mind, I think I'm going to talk to her for a bit. We obviously have a lot to discuss." With that, she trotted forward. Inuyasha didn't miss the look of joy on Kagome's face when she saw it. The two must be really close. Before long, Miroku was shoved back in the line to where he was.

"Hey!" he said. "Did she say anything about me?"

"Only that she loves you madly and wants to rip off all of your clothes with her teeth."

"Really!?"

"No."

Miroku pouted. "Well, it's only a matter of time. This one's different."

"You say that about every one. Including my wife."

"She really is something else..."

"Miroku, I will put this cone through your eye!"

"That would be a shame. Then I wouldn't be as able to watch the elegant sway of the tight buttocks in front of us."

"I should gouge out both your eyes. For the good of women everywhere."

"It might do you some good, too. Then I wouldn't be able to see right through you."

Inuyasha tensed. "What do you mean?"

"You're not married."

"What? Of course I am."

Miroku smirked. "Then where are the rings?"