Disclaimer: The characters of Inuyasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, but this story belongs to me.

Liars and Rule Breakers

Assignment 29:

Choose one of the following to write about.

1. List 5 things you've lied about. Write about the biggest lie you've ever told. Write about how you think it affect other people.

2. List 50 things you'll never do. Write a mini story (100-250 words) that starts with the sentence: "And they had nothing to say to each other" using one of those things you listed as a basis for the story.

3. List 20 rules you've broken. Write about why you broke the rules.

"I don't like this assignment," Inuyasha said as he glared suspiciously at the paper Kagome was reading from. "It's trying to trick you into saying something to get you in trouble."

Kagome just BARELY refrained from calling her beloved friend and companion Captain Obvious. "It does seem that way," she agreed instead.

"I don't like any of them," Shippo grumbled.

"It seems an odd assignment for creative writing."

"Yeah, I think so too, Sango," Kagome said as she started cleaning up after their dinner.

The day had been a typical one for the group. Demons attacked, demon guts rained from the sky, Inuyasha got sat, and the girls demanded they stop for baths. Miroku peeked, Inuyasha got caught when he hit Miroku, Inuyasha got sat, and the girls demanded hot food and rest when it got too dark to go on.

It wasn't until after dinner that Kagome even gave her assignment another thought. It did seem awfully suspicious. And she didn't really see how it was creative writing, well, the second option counted. The other two seemed to be only things to get them in trouble. It seemed just a little underhanded.

"Five lies seem to be the quickest way to finish the assignment," Miroku suggested as he warmed his hands at the fire.

"Feh," snorted Inuyasha, "Sure, if she wanted that detention thing. They want to catch her in a lie so they can punish her!" His fists thumped against the branch he was sitting on, raining leaves upon them. "I ain't gonna let that happen!"

Kagome looked down at her paper so he couldn't see her grin. Sometimes he was just too cute. But she did agree with him. It did seem like a trap.

"I don't know," she said playfully. "I could think of a few lies I've told that probably wouldn't get me in trouble. I once told my brother that the cinnamon toast he made last year tasted delicious, when it actually tasted terrible. I think he forgot the sugar."

Inuyasha peered down at her curiously. When cocked his head to the side she giggled a little inside. "Why didn't you just tell him the truth? Then next time he made it he'd know how to make it right."

"Well, said Kagome, "I was really sick that winter, and he had worked so hard on making me something to feel better. I just couldn't hurt his feelings like that. Haven't you ever lied to keep their feelings from being hurt?"

"Feh, I don't lie."

"What about when you called Kagome ugly?" asked Shippo as he stuck out his tongue.

"Shut up, brat."

"Shippo has a point," argued Miroku. "Did you lie, or did you really believe that lady Kagome was ugly?"

Kagome saw all their eyes glare up at him. She looked up too. It was highly unlikely that Inuyasha actually thought she was ugly. After all, didn't everyone think she looked a lot like Kikyo? And he certainly didn't think SHE was ugly. Or was the ugliness he saw the parts of her that did NOT look like the deceased miko?

"Feh," he crossed his arms. "You lie all the time, Miroku. Like you can talk about lies."

"Lie? Me?"

"Coming on to all those women asking them to have your kids, when everyone knows why you really ask them."

"And why," the monk asked calmly, "Do you think I ask them that? I do want to have children. I want children before the wind tunnel..."

"Yeah yeah, before it consumes you. I know."

"Inuyasha!"

"What?" He looked down at Kagome innocently. "Maybe in the beginning he might have meant it. But not since Sango joined us. Since then every time he asks another woman it's a lie. He just wants the slayer to smack him."

Kagome coughed. Inuyasha dropped down next to her and began patting her back gently.

He explained gently as he continued to pat, "But Sango lies too, so it's all..."

"I DO NOT!"

"Feh. You lie all the time."

"WHAT?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "You say you're okay when you aren't. You slap Miroku when you really want..." he stopped talking when Kagome tugged on his sleeve and shook her head. "Uh... him to uh... stop."

He hid behind Kagome and nervously started patting her back again as Sango looked like she might be ready to give slaying a half demon a try. Kagome quickly decided to change the subject before there was bloodshed.

"I could always write about the twenty rules I've broken."

Inuyasha stopped hiding behind Kagome from Sango's wrath and plopped beside her to study her face. "I don't believe you have broken ten rules, much less twenty."

"She's friends with you," teased Shippo. "That's breaking ten rules right there!"

Inuyasha fell silent.

Kagome found his hand and held it, out of sight of the others. He was surprised, but he didn't pull away. Shifting slightly he was able to hide their hands behind the sleeve of his robe.

"I doubt that's a rule," she said as she scolded the kit, "But even if it was, I wouldn't have any problems breaking that rule. Sometimes you have to break rules. Rewrite them maybe. Make your own rules." She scowled at the fire and grumbled, "Sometimes rules are just too stupid to follow..."

Sango looked amused now. "I broke the rules," she said, "When I was told that young ladies should not be demon slayers."

"I broke the rules when I fell in love with a woman, knowing that I should not."

Kagome sighed dreamily when Miroku said that, causing Inuyasha to growl.

"I broke the rules by traveling with a hanyou," said Shippo. "Most pure demons wouldn't be traveling with half demons and humans."

"Mew!"

"Ow! She bit me!"

"Kirara!" Sango only partly scolded. Sort of.

"Yeah, well I broke the rules by taking in a brat like you!" He looked away, taking his hand away from Kagome's grasp when he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Actually," said Kagome softly, "You probably broke rules by taking me along too. Any of us really." She rocked to the side and bumped her shoulder to his before she grinned at him. "But aren't you glad you did?"

"Keh. That was only one rule. You'd have to come up with nineteen other rules you've broken."

"I went to bed without brushing my teeth once. What? It was a rule."

"That's not a real rule," Inuyasha scoffed.

"Ha! Tell that to my mother!"

"Feh," Inuyasha scoffed, "If you write that one down t will be the most pathetic assignment you've ever done. You can't do the lying one, that's just a trap."

Kagome sighed. She couldn't even get mad about the 'pathetic' comment, because it was probably true. Besides breaking the rules of physics by traveling to the past in a world filled with demons, allowing her grandfather to lie for her about being ill, and letting her friends believe she was sick... there weren't many rules she had broken. She also agreed that the one on lying really was a trap.

She sighed heavily, more dramatically than was necessary, when she realized that the only option left to her was the absolute longest one. Likely that was intentional. Probably some sort of punishment for not falling for the teacher's evil trickery.

"So... I guess I need a list of 50 things I'll never do." Her mind was blank. It seemed a rather depressing topic. She looked around at her friends, seeing in their faces what they thought they would never do. It wasn't difficult to guess.

Miroku felt he would never live to see his children be born.

Though his attempts at finding someone to help with that child seemed to have halted. No one but Sango for him. Kagome looked at Sango. She would definitely be having his kids. They would be adorable rascals... at least until they would be old enough for her to train. Then they would be deadly demon assassinating adorable rascals. Miroku may not think that he will live to see his children born, but he was wrong. The WOULD defeat Naraku. He WOULD be cured. Unless, of course, Sango killed him first...

Sango felt she would never long enough to have children.

Without a doubt, the demon exterminator knew she was going to give her life to defeat Naraku. But no way was that going to happen! They would defeat Naraku and none of them would die. NONE! Somehow... somehow they would make it happen. Kagome had faith.

Shippo felt that he would never be a part of his family once they disappeared after the battle.

It was a secret fear he didn't talk about much, but she could hear him talk in his sleep sometimes. He worried that Kagome would go back to her own time, that Miroku and Sango would go off together with Kirara to create their own family, and that Inuyasha would leave on his own. Kagome worried about what might happen to her after the battle. There were no guarantees that whatever magic allowed her to travel here would allow her to continue to let her through. But what she did know was that Shippo would never be alone. They were a family. All of them. Shippo would always have a place in this family... even if Kagome was back in the future.

Inuyasha felt that he would never truly be loved as a hanyou.

Well, THAT was obviously stupid. He didn't know just how much he was loved. By all of them, even Shippo who continues to tease him. He is loved as a brother and a father, a leader and a friend. And Kagome loved him with every fiber of her being. One of these days he would figure it out.

"Number one," Kagome announced cheerfully to get rid of the grim faces around the camp fire, "I will never go to bed without kissing my children goodnight." She leaned over and gave Shippo a loud kiss on the top of his head. He grinned up at her.

She held up two fingers. "Number two, I will never give up hot baths. Bubbles are negotiable. Number three, I will never intentionally hurt a friend. Number four, I will never choose strawberry ice cream over vanilla ice cream. Number five, I will never... um..."

"Never stop loving ramen."

Kagome smiled at Inuyasha, happy to see him give her a small smile back. It was nice to see him relax. Even better to see him smile. It was something he didn't do often enough. Plus he was really heart stoppingly adorable when he smiled.

"I will never stop learning new tricks!" Shippo jumped up and tossed a leaf in the air, when the smoke cleared he looked like a rock. The illusion didn't last very long.

"I will never stop pursuing the lovely Sango's heart."

"I will never stop slapping you when you touch me inappropriately in public!"

Kagome glanced away before she smiled at Sango's words. She was certain that Miroku would pick up on the fact that Sango said "in public". Just how intentional was that?

"I will never stop trying."

This time Kagome laughed, but so did everyone else. Throughout the night they talked about the things they would never do. Some she wrote down, some she just couldn't (the teacher would send her back to the school counselor if she wrote that she would never torture a demon before killing it). The numbers were piling up as she split her time between the increasingly silly/disturbing list and the story.

"Fifty... I will never stop being grateful for my friends and family."

Shippo clapped cheerfully. "Will you read us the story you wrote to go with it?"

Kagome blushed. Hopefully it wasn't too noticeable in the dimming firelight. "I don't know Shippo... it's getting kind of late... and the story was kind of rushed..."

"Pleeeeeease?"

She sighed, and as always, let the kit have his way. This was one time Inuyasha wasn't going to complain though. Occasionally the brat comes in handy.

And they had nothing to say to each other. Everything had just been said.

He was a jerk. She was ugly. He was an idiot. She was stupid. They hurt each other with words, trying to make their own pain disappear. Angrily they turned to go their separate ways.

In three steps they will have made their choices and there would be no going back. She would never know how it would feel to be held by him. He would never know how gentle her kiss could be as she woke him every morning. She would never know how deeply he could love. He would never know the same.

In three steps the hurt would be too great, forgiveness too hard. In three steps they will have made a decision that could not be taken back. Their paths may continue to cross in life, but it would never be the same. The moment would be lost. Their chance gone.

In three small steps.

Or they could turn, right now, and take three small steps to each other's arms andsay, "I will never stop trying."

It's just three small steps.

190 words

Predictably, Sango sighed, Miroku smiled encouragingly, Kirara mew'd, and Shippo told her she was brilliant. Then, as one, the group turned to look at Inuyasha accusingly.

"Feh."

With a blush, Kagome put away her homework and climbed into her bedroll. She turned her back to the dog demon and faked sleep. Faking sleep he didn't mind, he had been known to do that on more than one occasion. But it bothered him tremendously that she had turned from him. Was she angry? Sad? Embarrassed? Hurt?

Did she really think that their bond was so fragile that her walking away from him after a fight could possibly push them apart? Did she have so little faith in him? Surely she knew that she was everything to him. Surely she knew that nothing she could say or do could make what he feels for her go away.

She knew that, right?

She had to know it.

Every day he tells her in the only way he knows how. Words are easy. Simple. Promises easily broken and words of praise completely meaningless. Take the monk for example. He tells talks pretty to lots of girls, used to proclaim his love for any passable female of age. But they are just words. And besides, he wasn't really good with pretty words.

But he told her every day that he would take care of her. Food, shelter, safety. She was his to take care of. His to feed. His to give shelter to. His to keep safe. He would give his life for hers, for his life would mean nothing if she were gone.

She knew that, right?

She had to.

But she was human wasn't she? Her senses not as keen. Would she need pretty words? But he was so bad with words!

He watched her from his tree branch until he knew she was no longer faking it. His heart warmed when she turned towards him again in her sleep. When he was sure that no one would wake, he silently dropped down to the ground and knelt beside his mate.

"I did lie," Inuyasha whispered. "I never thought you were ugly."

He brushed her hair from her eyes, making the most of the rare opportunities to just look at her.

"And I will never stop trying."

oOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOo oOOooOOoo

Author's Notes:

I will never leave a story unfinished (unless I die, then it is totally not my fault).

I will never turn Inuyasha into a villain.

I will never turn Kagome into a villainess.

I will never write a story with a depressing end.

I will never blackmail readers into leaving feedback by holding chapters hostage.

I will never stop being grateful and cheered by reviews.

Hey, just in time for New Year Resolutions! Though my resolutions this year will be to try something I've never tried before at least once a month.

Only one more assignment to go!