InuYasha was in a mood.

Despite his insistence that she mind her own business, he was screaming down the phone.

"I'm not asking for you to dedicate your life to me, fucking hell! I asked you to show up to one of my shows every six fucking months!" Kagome was trying to mind her work, but his voice was shaking the glass separating their spaces. "You're the one who pushed me to do this, because you just the sound of my voice. You wanted me to perform, but the only person who has shown up to my shows have been my fucking coworkers!"

Silence.

"You think I'm fucking my coworkers."

Something shattered and Kagome kept her head down when he stormed out into her area.

"Go on, repeat that dumb shit." He threw his phone at the desk, letting it clatter in front of her like trash.

"I didn't say you were sleeping with them. Honestly, InuYasha, you're not even listening anymore. I asked why you didn't marry them if they were such a pinnacle of goodness."

"That is not what you said!" His voice broke with his exasperation, "it's not what you said."

Her voice broke while she was talking and Kagome didn't remember hitting the red button on the cracked screen anymore than she remembered grabbing his hand and tugging.

"Sango said your brother hides liquor in his office," she told him by way of explanation, "and we're going to bully him into giving it up."

"I have work to do-."

"She was cruel," Kagome insisted, "you aren't wrong to want her support and for her to turn the table on you like that?" She made a noise of indignation as she blew her bangs out of her face. "You deserve a drink."

"I'm the one who's gonna have to apologize, you know. It doesn't matter if she was wrong. If I wanted to fight the whole time we were in Okinawa then I'd have asked her for a modicum of support once we were already there."

Sesshomaru's deep voice sent Kagome three feet in the air, "who is 'we'?"

It would seem that he and Sango were just returning from some off site trip. The energy between them had shifted, she could tell from the faint pink that tinted Sango's cheeks whenever her eyes fell in the wrong direction.

Kagome was burning with curiosity, but her focus was InuYasha and so she swallowed it.

"Kikyo and I, she's being … weird again."

Sesshomaru cocked his head at him, "Kikyo rejected the RSVP months ago. She didn't tell you?"

InuYasha's desolate expression broke her heart clean in half.

"He's got great liquor in his desk," Sango whispered, "and I've got both time and energy to push back your appointments until after your vacation."

She looped her arm with his and began dragging him into the space she shared with Sesshomaru. It was only Kagome who saw the fond smile that painted both brother's lips as they relived some kind of shared nostalgia.

Sango stayed in her own area, accessing his appointments via her laptop, leaving Kagome to try and comfort him.

"Maybe some time apart would do both of you some good!" Kagome sat on the floor beside him, trying to keep his attention between her and the alcohol.

"We live together," he grumbled, "there is no apart."

Kagome knew she shouldn't offer without consulting her roommate first, but she couldn't help herself. His drooping ears and stubborn pout seemed to possess her, "we have a couch. You're free to sleep on it until your trip."

He swirled his glass, seemingly lost in thought, "Sango likes her space."

"And how would you know that?" Sesshomaru's forced air of boredom reminded her that she was privy to secrets that hadn't been InuYasha's to share.

"Hunch."

That seemed to please him well enough because he went back to reading, "my point is that you shouldn't offer up her space without asking."

But Kagome insisted, "it's fine. Anything for a friend."

xXx

Sango got along with him better than they thought she would. Their first couple of meetings had fallen through, leaving InuYasha desperate for validation.

It was only too clear that he intended to lure her into a friendship when he pulled a DVD set from his bag, "you guys made this right?"

"I guess it's not a secret," she'd muttered, "but it is weird that you went out of your way to find things we worked on specifically. And then bought it. I think I'm most confused about the fact that you invited the entire Calvary? This isn't rated for kids, so consider Rin scarred for life, and I don't like seeing Sesshomaru two days in a row."

InuYasha snickered at her outburst, "I went to the produce shop nearby and found strawberries. It's not the same when they aren't fresh from the vine, but… it's the best I could do in the middle of Tokyo." He seemed pleased when she took them hesitantly and settled the bowl into her lap.

"And for you," Kagome tried to insist that she didn't need anything, but he was hard headed to a fault. The bag he'd sat on the counter seemed bottomless as he pulled a bag of matcha Kit Kat's up and out. "You're always eating these."

He was already turning away as she thanked him, but then he wasn't.

The wood floor bit into her hip as the force of InuYasha's body violently slamming into hers sent the air whooshing out of her lungs.

"Oi! What was that about!"

His attempts to work his hands from under her head and climb off of her were thwarted time and time again, by a certain sadist ramming his foot into InuYasha's spine at every turn.

"Stay. Down. Stay. Down."

"What is your fucking problem!"

But Sesshomaru wasn't in the business of answering questions as he reworked his brother's spine,

"I'm telling you," InuYasha winced when his foot crashed into his back again, "he's not all there. Some screws got knocked loose when he and dad knocked that bomb off course and he never recovered."

Kagome was surrounded by silver hair and she found herself completely unable to look him in his eyes anymore. It was a labor to remember that he was engaged, unavailable, destined for someone else- especially when he was smirked down at her the way he was.

"If I scoot-," she hoisted herself up at the same moment Sesshomaru decided to use force. Their lips brushed and she felt electricity clamber along her skin. Her heart was making a great ruckus in her chest and her mind- there wasn't a thought she could form that didn't scream at her to take his face in her hands and rage against fate.

But the last time she'd done that things hadn't gone so well, so she scooted backwards, scooped her candy off of the floor and sent her fists into Sesshomaru's shoulders and arm.

"You absolute prick, why would you do that?"

He insisted again and again, "think what you want, but even I am not so divine as to stand against fate. That's always been his shtick."

It was awkward sitting next to him as they watched the show he'd been so excited to show Sango, even if Sesshomaru looked quite pleased with himself.

He kept touching his lips, frowning and then shaking his head.

It was only once the fight scenes came on screen that life shined in his eyes like starlight, "did you do this part?" It was a common question from the two brothers, but this time? He was smacking Kagome's leg, insistent upon an answer as the characters went toe to toe.

"If so… your knowledge of sword fighting must be extensive," Sesshomaru added absently. He cocked his head to the side, watching as one character stumbled and then threw his arm out in a last ditch effort to beat his opponent.

"We watched sword fighting videos for months," Kagome admitted proudly, "although we still aren't sure we got everything right."

"His form is weird," Sesshomaru admitted.

"But the way he's never standing still for long… his balance… how did you do that?"

Sango was leaning over Sesshomaru as she explained, "we used references for the skilled fighter, but whenever we took our work home I grabbed a stick and acted out the scene for Kagome. Most of this scene is all Kagome's doing!"

InuYasha turned to her, his fingers still lingering along his lips in a way that was subconscious.

"You did?" Then, before she could answer, he asked, "could you show me?"

She took the rough shove of his elder brother as divine intervention and led him into her room. It had been months since she created anything, but she booted up her computer to show him the long abandoned drafts she kept tucked away.

"Draw something," he demanded, but she didn't know how to create under sudden pressure and then he said, "draw me."

"I don't like drawing real life." She said finally.

But he wasn't giving in so easily, "draw me and my brother as humans."

"Why don't you ask Sango?" She didn't know why she was so suddenly shy, but he didn't seem to mind. He came back with Sango, holding her iPad above his head and threatening to show someone something.

"You are so annoying!" But she agreed and demanded that Sesshomaru come and sit still. "Portraits aren't free, you know!"

Sesshomaru looked hesitant before asking, "can I keep my clothes on this time?"

Her eyebrow twitched when she asked, "this time?"

"You can both keep your clothes on," but InuYasha was wiggling out of his top faster than she could argue that it wasn't necessary.

"You can't see the muscles if we wear our clothes," he argued, "and I wanna know how realistic you can make it look."