A/N: This is the side story to Hired Help. If you're coming across this without knowing the context, you should be fine. It briefly brings you to up to speed in this AU, and if you're following Hired Help it's not necessary to read this. When that fic picks up in chapter 6, we'll touch on the events here. But this was written before Hired Help even started, and I didn't want to drop 8 chapters of...well, you'll see. ;)

"I think Bankotsu might be cheating on me."

The words that Kagome had told him rolled around in his head for days. It wasn't even just what she'd said, but how she had said it. So…naturally. Like she was making a comment about the weather. Inuyasha wasn't sure if that was worse than her suspicions or not.

He could still recall the moment she'd said it. She was standing in his office, filing away stacks of papers as he sat at his desk and stared at his computer. Inuyasha couldn't remember what he was supposed to have been working on, but the offhanded way she declared that her fiancé was prowling was something he couldn't shake no matter how much alcohol he drank.

His personal assistant and childhood friend, set to be married in three weeks, had told him that her fiancé was cheating on her.

Inuyasha already couldn't stand the guy's face. Bankotsu was the proverbial kiss-ass in the company of most people. Overly so, and anyone with sense could see it like spilt oil in a lake. The pressed polos and slacks irritated him to no end, but his face – he wanted to hit that face on principle. It exuded some kind of smug aura that even his brother didn't give off, and there were numerous times when they were growing up that he gave into the urge to slap his brother. The thing about it was – Bankotsu was Kagome's boyfriend, and she was still his personal assistant. He couldn't outright smack the guy in the face for no reason. There had to be a good excuse to turn his nose inside out, and in his opinion, what she'd told him sounded like a good enough excuse as any.

That had been a week ago. He hadn't been able to find the right words to tell her that she should confront the bastard. Tell him where he could get off with a rusty pipe in the ass that breaks off at the puckered rim. The hanyou couldn't find the right words to say that wouldn't hurt her. So he had kept his mouth shut, aside from a disproving grunt in response. She'd gone silent, and then when she spoke again it was back on the work at hand. Inuyasha had proceeded to kick himself the rest of the week, hoping that she might bring it up again so that he could tell her what he thought.

All Kagome would have to do is say the word and he'd take care of it. He kept telling himself that she was a grown woman that could take care of herself, but it wouldn't take much for him to come to her defense. One tear. If she shed one tear because of this asshole there was a good chance bail money would be needed. He'd been saying this for the last four months since she told him that Bankotsu had proposed to her right after dinner at his parent's house – after a month of dating. Inuyasha had commented that it felt like a huge fucking leap to take considering, and even she had agreed with him on that.

But she had still said yes.

He could still recall how his stomach had dropped when she told him her answer. He wanted to yell, to scream that she didn't have to be pressured if she wasn't ready, but he had held his tongue and told her that he was happy for her if she was happy.

Even if it was a lie.

Because as much as he tried to deny it, having her come back in his life after years of not seeing her was like a blessing. He found his days in long meetings to be more tolerable when she sat next to him. She kept his work life more organized than any assistant he'd had before. She could make him smile. She didn't put up with his shit and called him on it.

No, he couldn't tell her that the idea of her marrying some scum bucket made him want to dry heave. He couldn't deny her happiness when she had given him so much. He couldn't tell her because he loved her too much to break her heart.

It was too little, too late, but that was his lot in fucking life apparently.

"How you –"

"Miroku I swear to god –"

"–holding it in?" Koga finished, smirking at the lethal glare that the hanyou across the table was giving him. He wasn't scared. Inuyasha had a mean right hook but it wasn't nothing he hadn't handled before.

Inuyasha let out a growl right as the waitress stopped at their table to refill their drinks. She'd been startled by the sound, and he murmured an apology to her. It wasn't her fault that his friends couldn't leave well enough alone, and he saw fit to not whisper it as he told her.

"I'm sure they mean well," she'd said, attempting to be helpful.

"He's in love with his best friend," Miroku blurted out. The human visibly jerked in his seat when Inuyasha's foot connected with his knee, but he kept going. "She's going to marry some ass in a few weeks and she's pretty sure he's catting around."

The waitress gasped. "Is she being blackmailed?! Cause I can't imagine she'd go through with this for any other reason, unless… Is she… you know..?" She subtly made a motion of her hand arching in front of her stomach.

"No," Inuyasha bit out. No, if Kagome were pregnant, he'd have probably known before she did. "She…loves him." He didn't want to talk about this. They were supposed to be grabbing dinner, not discussing his jilted luck in love. Fuck, even the thought that she could one day be the mother of Bankotsu's children made his appetite die away.

"Oh sweetie," the waitress shifted the pitcher to her opposite hand as she reached out to pat the hanyou's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I wish I had some words of wisdom, but I don't. Just don't give up hope, okay? For every action there's a reaction, and if this is true…things could change."

Inuyasha sighed through his nose as the waitress walked away. He hadn't wanted to come out to dinner. He'd have been fine eating cheap ramen in front of the tv again with a beer. Now his two so-called friends had told a complete stranger about his shitty luck in love. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kick you again."

"I'm gonna have one hell of a bruise tomorrow."

"Good. Tell Sango why you got it and she can make the other knee match."

Koga snorted, reaching for his drink. "Answer the question, Yash. How the fuck have you kept quiet for four months? You don't hesitate to give your opinion any other time."

"It's Kagome."

"Bullshit. You don't have a filter with Kagome."

Inuyasha couldn't counter that. He and Kagome had talked about everything together, so no, there really was no filter. Except for this. "Kagome's happiness means everything," he said at last. "I'm not going to ruin that."

"But she is engaged to a man that's cheating on her!" Koga hadn't crossed paths with Bankotsu but the idea that Inuyasha was gonna let this happen pissed him off almost as much as the possibility of what Kagome would be marrying. Maybe more. Kagome was just as much his friend and he cared about her happiness too, which he pointed out. "If you love Kagome as much as you claim to you need to do something, mutt!"

"Fuck you, Koga. I'm not going to hurt my best friend because I can't have her!" The memory of the folded up fortune teller still in his desk flashed across his mind in that moment. The one that he'd made himself months before, the same one that Kagome had chosen his name from and didn't even know it.

She'd told him that she had met someone. The beginning of hearing about Bankotsu.

She'd been so happy when she talked about him, about their plans. No, he couldn't do it. He couldn't bear to watch the light leave those eyes as her heart shattered. She didn't love him anyway. It would only leave both of them broken.

"She said it herself," Miroku pressed. "Doesn't this bother you?"

"You think it doesn't?" Inuyasha hissed. "You think I like the idea of her walking into his arms? You think I like the idea of her being left alone while he's off doing fuck all knows what? It pisses me the fuck off is what it's doing, but I can't do anything about it. It's not my place."

With that last sentence, there was more meaning behind the words than was actually said. Both Koga and Miroku knew that Inuyasha wanted solid proof of infidelity before speaking to Kagome about the matter. Whether it was from his own two eyes bearing witness or Kagome telling him that she need him to do something, it didn't matter.

"Maybe…" Miroku was searching for the right words, desperately not wanting to be kicked again. "…maybe…something will sort itself out."

To Inuyasha's ears it sounded like what the waitress had told him. The thing was, things didn't work out in his favor. He could hope that Kagome would change her mind, cancel the wedding, and…what? Choose him? Unlikely.

Not everyone got the happily ever after.