Inuyasha circled the block in his police cruiser, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Overall the day had been rather boring, mostly just minor traffic stops and a couple of shoplifting arrests. Although he loved the thrill of chasing down bad guys and taking on the more challenging assignments, days like today weren't all that terrible, just because it was nice to catch a break for a bit.

By now it was well after noon, and he finally had a bit of time to stop somewhere to grab a bite to eat. None of his favorite restaurants were in this general area, but there was a new shopping center close by, so he decided to swing by to check it out to see if there was anything worth trying.

Keeping an eye on both the shoppers and the various storefronts, Inuyasha wandered about, trying to make up his mind. Chinese? Nah. Burgers? Had that yesterday. Breakfast sandwiches? Not again. Taco Bell? Fuck no. Why were they even here anyway?

Just as he was about to give up and hold off his lunch break until he was able to make it over to Penny's Cafe or something more tried and true, he paused and sniffed the air, his nose twitching discreetly. Whatever it was, smelled fucking amazing. Following the scent, he realized it was coming from a corner cafe just a few doors down.

"Sunrise Bakery," he muttered under his breath, as he read the sign above the door. It was a nice, clean looking place with large glass windows, so he grabbed the door and headed on in. There were a couple other guests inside seated at the tables, both with laptops set up and not paying him the slightest bit of attention. Which was completely fine in his opinion, because he always got more than his share of unwanted attention, both in uniform, and out.

The door had a bell on it, which jingled as it opened and shut when he entered the bakery. It took a moment, but soon a tall young lady with jet black hair popped up from behind the display case. "Welcome to…Sunrise Bakery. We're closing soon," she said, her tone going from cheerful to fake, forced politeness as she laid eyes on him.

"In forty five minutes, according to the sign on the door. Is there a problem?" Inuyasha asked, staring back at her, his eyes narrowed slightly. Her quick change of attitude was throwing him off. "Kikyo." His eyes had flicked down to the name badge that she wore on front of her apron.

The girl named Kikyo shot a very quick glance to the side before straightening up. "None at all. I was just letting you know…officer. I'm happy to take your order if you've decided what you want." It was pretty obvious she was trying to sound professional, but her tone was conveying complete insincerity.

Her attitude was rubbing off on Inuyasha and he was starting to struggle to bite his tongue. That look she gave him, he knew all too well. Only thing was, he wasn't certain if it was because he was a hanyou or because he was a cop. Some people still held prejudices against hanyou, even in today's day and age, and many people hated cops. So being a hanyou and a cop, he often had a double whammy going against him.

Despite the warm and welcoming atmosphere and decor of this place, the customer service was severely lacking, he thought. Whatever. He had already decided to grab a bite here, so he gave the menu a quick glance and picked the first item that he noticed. "Just the BLT grilled cheese. To go."

"Seven ninety five," Kikyo said briskly, as took his card to swipe before shoving it back onto the counter in his direction. She swiveled the iPad screen around so that he could finish signing for the transaction.

Inuyasha couldn't help but roll his eyes as he took his knuckle and sharply knocked at the 'no tip' option. Bitch didn't deserve one, he thought to himself, as he continued to use the back of his knuckle to sign his name. Touch screens were a bit of a pain with his claws.

Taking the screen back, Kikyo gave him a tight-lipped look before turning to head to the back. "BLT grilled cheese," she informed somebody as she entered the cooking area.

"Damn it, forgot to get a drink," Inuyasha grumbled under his breath. Too late now. He wasn't about to bother any more interaction with that most unpleasant woman, but there had to be a gas station super close he could run into real quick once he got his food and left.

As he stood there waiting for his food to be prepared, his sharp ears pricked as he heard voices start to chatter in the kitchen. "Bankotsu! Bankotsu!" he heard Kikyo's voice hiss. He wasn't intentionally trying to eavesdrop, but he just couldn't help it. It wasn't his fault that he had an inhuman sense of hearing.

"Whaaaat?" a male voice answered, sounding annoyed.

"Guess who that order I just gave you is for! The cop who arrested my boyfriend last month!"

"Seriously? How the hell do you know? Weren't you hanging out with me when you got that call, when he wanted you to come bail him out of jail?"

"Yeah, I was, but, there's no mistaking it. Long white hair and freaky cat ears aren't exactly common, you know. It's definitely him. It's got to be."

'Dog,' Inuyasha thought to himself with a grumble, as he listened in on their conversation. No wonder the chick seemed to turn so standoffish as soon as she laid eyes on him.

"True, true. Although, even if he isn't the same cop, I can't stand them all the same. They're all pigs on power trips. Oink oink." That was the male voice.

Kikyo snorted out a laugh. "So then does that make him a cannibal, if he gets a sandwich with bacon on it? Pig eating a pig."

"Oh, shit! You're right!" Bankotsu let out a laugh himself. "Maybe I should add some special seasoning to his bacon. Hope he likes dirt. Oh, look. Somehow his bread just fell onto the ground." They both laughed at that.

"You're so bad, Bankotsu. That's why I have a thing for you," Kikyo giggled. "Anyway, hurry up and finish so I can send him out on his way. The asshole didn't even bother to leave a tip. Can you believe it? I hate working at this stupid place. I just want to get him out of the way so I can finish that stupid list our boss posted and leave as soon as my shift is over."

"Alright, alright, here. This is good enough," Bankotsu grumbled.

Moments later, Kikyo came trotting back up to the counter, with another of her thin, forced smiles on her face. "Here you go, made special just for you!" she announced, holding the bag in her outstretched arm.

Inuyasha had been seething the entire time, but was keeping his mouth shut until she came back up front, and was waiting for her with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He eyed the brown bag before giving her a hard look. "I don't want it. Give me my money back."

"Uhh…All sales are final. No refunds. Food can't be resold like t-shirts," Kikyo informed him.

Stepping closer to the counter, Inuyasha leaned in, staring her right in the eye and giving her an intent glare. "I'm not eating that garbage after what you did to it. So you can give me my money back, now, or get me a manager."

"She's busy, in a meeting. We were told not to interrupt. And I don't know what you mean by 'did to it.' It's cooked fresh, made just for you," Kikyo told him. He could tell she was trying very hard not to smirk, and it just pissed him off even more.

"You know exactly what I mean. I heard every word. Tampering with someone's food is illegal. I don't have a clue who your boyfriend was, since I've arrested a lot of people in the past month, but that doesn't give you any right to put dirt on someone's food," Inuyasha growled back.

Kikyo rolled her eyes at him. "Isn't it illegal to eavesdrop? Don't you need a warrant or something?"

Inuyasha gestured at his head. "It's not eavesdropping when I can hear you loud and clear from out here. Not my fault I hear better than you humans do. And there's nothing illegal about overhearing someone speak. I wasn't recording you without your knowledge. You know what, keep the damn sandwich and my damn money. I'm happy to go give someone else my business."

As Inuyasha turned on his heel to storm out, he gave the other patrons a sidelong glance, for the commotion had made them both completely stop their work and stare at him. So what if they overheard. Let word get out that this place liked to rub dirt on people's food. They would probably shut down in a month.

"What on earth is going on out here?" a new female voice rang out behind him. He didn't care. After that entire ordeal, he was even more cranky and grouchy, and the hunger pangs weren't helping. In effort to blow off some steam, he started power walking across the wide open park that was adjacent to the corner bakery he had just come out of.

It was an overcast late summer day, oddly cool and comfortable, which was his favorite weather for the season. However it only slightly improved his mood as he strode through the thick grass, making his own path across the wide expanse of green. As he walked, his ears twitched a bit as he caught the sound of someone running up behind him, footsteps softened a bit by all of the grass.

"Wait! Officer!" a woman's voice called out from behind him, making him instinctively halt. He closed his eyes and groaned, not wanting to deal with anybody right now. But alas, he was in fact that officer, and he was on duty. "Please! Wait!" she called out again.

"Yes? What is it?" Inuyasha asked curtly, as he turned around to face whoever it was that was bugging him. It was a young woman, with long wavy black hair, who was running his way and waving at him. "Do you need something?" he asked, when she slowed to a fast walk as she neared him. It had taken all of his willpower not to snap at her, just because he was in such an irritable mood.

The girl was panting a bit as she caught up to him, he noted. Clearly she wasn't any sort of athlete, as he hadn't gotten that far from the bakery he just came out of. "Yes. I just want to talk to you for a moment. What happened, exactly? Back in there, I mean. I'm the manager of Sunrise Bakery. I was wrapping up my meeting and heard some of what you said, and saw you storming out of there."

"You're the manager?" Inuyasha asked, glancing down at her, with an eyebrow raised in surprise. The girl before him definitely looked rather young, probably still in college. She was a cute little thing, he had to admit was his initial thought. Long, wavy black hair framed a pale face, with rich brown eyes that were gazing up at him, full of shock and concern.

"Yes. I'm Kagome. I own and run the business," she told him, reaching up to tuck some stray strands of black hair behind her ear.

Inuyasha just gave her a hard look. "Ok. And you can just stick to calling me officer."

"O-ok," Kagome said, trying not to stammer, as she gazed up at him. At first she had expected him to be old looking, with that long white hair, but when he turned and looked at her, she was surprised to see they appeared to be quite close in age. At least physically, because it was obvious he wasn't human and she knew that demons aged differently. He had handsome features, even if he was scowling heavily at her.

What got her the most though, was the look in his eyes, as he stared her down. As soon as the words Sunrise Bakery had left her mouth, his expression immediately hardened, and anger flashed through his eyes. The intense gold of them reminded her of molten lava, burning hot with fury, but she couldn't look away.

"Do you have something to say, or not?" Inuyasha asked, feeling annoyed. He wasn't in the mood for anybody to run up at him just to start gawking. He had had enough of that day in and day out his entire life. It never ceased to annoy him.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I came to find out what happened to make you yell and run out like that, and to apologize. All I heard was the very last bit since I was stuck on a teleconference call in my office. This is my very first business and I just opened recently, so I would love to know what the issue is so that I can deal with it properly," Kagome explained. She was nervous, and trying not to fidget, because irate customers were one of her biggest fears in her venture into entrepreneurship.

Inuyasha sighed and rubbed his temple. Although he wasn't in the mood for chit chat, the least he could do was humor her for a moment and give her a good honest answer. If he had been off duty, he probably would have just disappeared up into a tree by now. "Fine. Your employees have some of the worst customer service I've witnessed. That Kikyo girl took issue with me being a cop, so she and that dude in the back who cooks were talking about putting dirt in my food. Among all the other names and insults they said about me. You better get a grip on your workers or your brand new small business is going to wreck itself faster than you can blink an eye."

Kagome's mouth dropped open as he spilled the beans. No wonder he was so pissed right now. "I will deal with them immediately," she told him, swallowing hard. This was not what she had expected to hear, unfortunately. She had hoped it was just something like him getting the wrong order. This was way, way worse.

"I would also like to say that while at least one of my current employees appears to have a problem with law enforcement, her opinions do not reflect that of the business. I greatly respect the police force and do not want any officers to feel like they are not welcome in my shop. I grabbed this on my way out, after hearing you left without your food. I know it's not what you ordered, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. I can assure you it wasn't tampered with in any way so it's safe to eat. If you do ever decide to come back, I will be very happy to give you a discount and I will personally handle your food," Kagome added, doing her best to keep her voice steady and not crack.

"Seriously? You just sound like you're trying to bribe me to avoid a one star Yelp review. Which you would absolutely deserve and have earned, if I was so motivated as to jump on and go leave you one right now. Your business is absolutely terrible," Inuyasha snorted, blinking at her incredulously. He kept his arms crossed, making no move to take the small brown bag from her hand, that she was holding out for him in an offer. He didn't miss the look of hurt that flashed in her brown eyes, and couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit bad.

"If you choose to do so, I understand. It would be completely justified. I can't argue with that," Kagome had to admit. She was trying very hard to control her emotions right now, as her mind was a complete mess. It was taking all of her effort not to show any tears in front of him. Being the boss and running the show had been pretty fun, up until now. This was her very first major issue, and now it was time to attempt to repair the damage that had been done.

"I probably won't, just because I have better things to do than play keyboard warrior," Inuyasha muttered, glancing away from the girl. "So, you satisfied now that you got your answers? I pretty much wasted my entire lunch break at this point and need to get back to work."

"Yes, I appreciate you telling me what happened. I know you're busy and I'm not trying to hold you up. Would you at least take these, please? I baked them this morning. Even if you refuse to ever step foot in my bakery again, I just want to make sure you know that I am truly sorry for your experience this afternoon," Kagome offered, holding the bag out again for him to take. Which he didn't.

"I don't want your pity," Inuyasha told her, his tone getting increasingly grouchy.

"It's cookies, not pity. You can eat them or just give them away, if you want," Kagome informed him.

"Fine. I'll take them. But if I find hair or anything in them that shouldn't be in there, I might be convinced enough to give you the honor of receiving the first one star review I've ever left somebody. I have a damn good nose, so not much will get past me. Take care. You won't see me ever again," he told her, reaching to take the paper bag from her at last and giving her a salute before walking off.

He was starving and didn't completely want to turn down free food, but he also didn't want to just accept it outright. Granted, it wasn't technically free, as he had paid for a sandwich that he never received. So might as well take them and do what he wanted to with them after all. Why did it have to be such a dilemma?

Kagome watched his retreating figure for a moment before sighing painfully as she turned to head back to her shop. Although she had been very hesitant to hire her older cousin in the first place, she had done so because she had been guilt-tripped into it, by her somewhat manipulative aunt. Confronting her cousin and dealing with the incident accordingly wasn't going to go over very well at all, but it was her duty as boss to deal with the hardest aspects of the business.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha had made it back to his car. As tempted as he had been to just throw the bag into the trash on his way, he had a nagging feeling that he just couldn't do that. He was pretty good at reading people and their intentions, for he had to be, in his line of work, and he had detected nothing but sincerity from this manager girl. As awkward and nervous as she had seemed, he didn't believe that she was the type to pull the type of shit her workers did.

As he sat in his car, listening to the scanner, he finally opened the bag to get a better whiff of the cookies inside, and was almost immediately in heaven. After giving the food a quick sniff just to be certain it wasn't contaminated, he dared to take a bite of one at last, and decided that he most definitely was in heaven. The cookie was so delicious, a perfect balance of chewy and crumbly, and the most mouth-watering peanut butter flavor, that it almost made up for the fiasco from earlier. Almost.

Maybe he would have to be generous and leave her a two star review instead.

A/N: Reviews always appreciated :)