Here's the first of InuKag Week 2021!

She hadn't been able to take the constant fussing. That was the only reason she'd come downstairs, abandoning her homework – which she was actually getting ahead on, thank you very much. And she'd made a point of announcing to the living room that very fact, only for it to fall on deaf ears.

Really. As loud as the explosions were on the screen she was surprised they weren't deaf.

"Have you even started your homework, Souta?" Kagome asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Teacher was sick and didn't give the substitute anything to assign for homework. Told us to create our own homework and present what we did first thing tomorrow."

Inhale through the nose. "Just how is Mario Kart considered homework?" she asked through clenched teeth. Of course the little fungus would get lucky and not have homework.

The youkai sitting next to her brother answered for him. "Problem solving."

"And how is driving in circles considered 'problem solving'?"

Kagome challenged Youkai Inuyasha to find a way to explain that. Both the human and the youkai were sitting on either side of her brother, each with controllers in their hand and entirely focused on the television. Souta had saved up his allowance for months to buy a GameCube, and the first game he wanted was a racing one so his friends could come over and play.

Or, more correctly, he wanted Inuyasha to play.

If they hadn't been so loud, she might've found the image cute. They were enthralled with the game, and from the looks of things, had been quick learners. The explosions and the multiple karts swerving off the screen however, said that they were either really good at making the other drivers wreck, or they were so bad that they were taking casualties.

"You see this green lizard?" Youkai Inuyasha said, letting go of the controller to point at the screen. "Watch."

Kagome stepped closer and peered at the screen. She didn't know a lot about the game but knew that when the multiplayer mode was in use, the screen was divided into fourths, making it hard to tell who was who. She knew some of the characters, but that didn't help her track them in the middle of the game. Once she located the green lizard, she stayed focused on the bottom left square. It was standing on the back of the cart that was being driven by a bright pink…thing with a bow.

She didn't have to wait long. Three things happened at once.

A red turtle shell sped into the screen, hitting the kart.

Said kart flipped into the air upon impact, and a giant gorilla with a princess in orange flew past and across the finish line. The "ha ha!" that followed right after felt like overkill.

Human Inuyasha swore so loudly that she was sure that the maintainers of the next closest shrine heard him. "YOU. ASSHOLE."

"Kagome asked for an example of problem solving," Youkai Inuyasha said, not without grinning. "You were in front of me, which I felt was a problem. I had a red shell. Ergo, the solution to my problem was to destroy you."

Souta managed to stall the argument before it even took off when he said "It's not like it matters. We didn't get enough stars to unlock the mirror mode that Souske told me about."

"Mirror Mode?" Kagome asked, forgetting about her homework. She didn't know there was more to the game than just driving and crashing. There were actually things you could tick off, like a quest. No wonder he'd been so successful in getting Inuyasha to play…

"Yeah, it's just like the tracks we've been playing, but reversed. So if you have to turn right in one of the normal speeds, you're turning left instead in Mirror Mode. Souske said it's more challenging since it's 150cc too, so you really have to watch your footing on turns, and you can't go by muscle memory. But in order to unlock it you have to win the All-Cup Tour at 150cc…"

"And…you three can't? Is that why I'm hearing so much yelling?"

"The computer is harder to beat the faster it gets, Sis!"

"Why don't you join us?" Youkai Inuyasha asked, patting his crossed legs. "We could use your expertise to defeat the enemy."

Souta snorted. "Nice try, Inuyasha, but Kagome doesn't play video games –"

Kagome felt her eye twitch in irritation at that. No, she didn't play video games often, but that didn't mean that she never played them! She might have turned and walked back up to her room to finish her homework, but that sounded too much like challenge. If her brother knew half of the things she'd dealt with back in the warring states period he wouldn't have brushed her off like that.

"Set me up, Inuyasha."

Kagome didn't know that the All-Cup Tour encompassed all sixteen tracks in the game when she agreed to play, and not being familiar with the speed of the karts felt like a disadvantage. Her brother knew this and either didn't want to say anything or didn't think to say anything. All she knew was that she was being directed by the youkai on her left to choose a character from the selection screen.

"I want to be the one that laughed," she said, shooting a look at her brother. He was going to get it.

Youkai Inuyasha had selected the other princess on the grounds that he'd heard the phrase "girl power" and felt like it was appropriate. Souta chose the short squat man in purple overalls, and Human Inuyasha picked the tall and skinny counterpart that wore the black pair.

The first track was simple enough. Limited turns and it gave her a feel for the game controls. Youkai Inuyasha let her drive on that track so she could practice acceleration, braking, and drifting. In turn he would handle throwing the items as he rode on the back of the cart.

Everyone learned right off that Kagome did not use the brake in a racing game. She got especially good at drifting, which was the only time that her speed slowed without crashing.

After that, it was a nightmare. She had no sense of direction for the tracks, having never seen them fully. Youkai Inuyasha took control of the wheel then, because according to those three the tracks were determined randomly until they reached the last course.

Which, apparently was hard enough to stay on at 50cc, let alone 150cc, according to both Inuyashas and her brother. It was also that brightly colored, seizure-inducing track that defied physics in outer space that she'd witnessed upon the end when she came downstairs. Kagome didn't see how bad that one could be, but then Youkai Inuyasha would be driving, so she wasn't worried.

A thought she never thought she'd think, but there it was.

"Aw man," Souta complained as he struggled to get the kart out of the wall on the Daisy Cruiser and back into the open area. "Kagome, how'd you get so good at sniping people?! You don't play video games!"

Before she could respond, Human Inuyasha did. "Kagome's a brilliant shot. You'd be amazed at what your sister has accomplished in my time. I was stupid when I barely knew her; didn't give her the credit she deserved for taking the initiative that she did."

"That's sweet, Inuyasha, but I wasn't exactly smart about the choices I made."

"You chose us," the youkai whispered in her ear, making her shiver. "I'd say that was one of your wiser decisions."

"Don't be gross," Souta muttered, throwing his whole body into the turn with the controller and knocking into the youkai. "Just because you kiss my sister doesn't mean I want to hear that mushy stuff."

"If you were older I'd have the perfect comeback for that –"

"Inuyasha don't you dare –"

"I wasn't gonna!" he insisted, red eyes flicking down to meet her panicked expression. "Give me some credit, woman! I was about to suggest that you get ready –"

Kagome didn't like that tone either. Get ready? What'd he mean – oh shit she was driving now! She'd almost let out a swear as the kart bounced off the stairs and picked up speed when Youkai Inuyasha threw down a mushroom. Right as they'd entered the dining room portion of the cruiser too, so she got to dodge the swaying tables as she slid into a drift.

Instead what left her mouth was a strangled squeal as the drift swerved to the left, dropping them through an opening in the floor. Youkai Inuyasha kept telling her to floor it in a straight line, and she let out another squeal when the pipe spit them out onto the deck once more.

They had made it to the final lap, had gotten into second place and all that stood between them and the checkered flag was a couple of toads in a baby carriage kart. Their latest item box was…lackluster to say the least. Two bananas – and the youkai next to her had tossed his back at Souta and Human Inuyasha. Kagome knew this because she heard both the skinny one and the human shout simultaneously.

"Switch with me," Kagome said.

"You're driving splendidly though –" He'd let her drive the course through the remainder of the second lap and well into the third, and now she wanted to swap places?

"Do you want to win?"

"Of course I want to win, what kind of question is that?"

"Then do whatever it is you do to make us switch cause I don't know the buttons!" Kagome insisted. "I've got this banana peel. I can take them out."

Youkai Inuyasha's thumb hovered over the controller. He really wanted to win, but he wasn't sure if a banana peel could guarantee that. He also didn't want to go against what the human had said about Kagome, because then he'd be a jackass. And he'd admit to being a jackass about a lot of things, but he knew better at this point to not go against his mate.

"If you swear you can hit that mark –"

"I can, I will, and I will do that thing you talked to me about that I said no to –"

Human Inuyasha swore as the bomb he was holding dropped behind them. He'd been trying to aim like Kagome had been at the first-place position, but his mind diverted to what exactly Kagome was referring to and…well…

Kagome would make the hit. He knew it. The youkai knew it. Hopefully Souta knew it and remained ever blissfully ignorant of what his sister did in her bedroom at night.

"Alright for that explosion alone I'll switch."

"Just get lined up and hold…" Kagome was gonna regret that wording later – hell she was probably gonna regret giving into the request over a game of all things – but she had homework and it needed to get done.

It wasn't as serious as locating shards of the sacred jewel inside an overgrown and beefed-up youkai, but one would have thought it was had they looked at Kagome's expression. She sent the banana peel flying…it was too short a throw to land in front of the kart…but it hit! It was a direct hit! Right as the two toads were to go up the final set of stairs, they were stalled.

It was just the opportunity to reach out and swipe at the toads as Youkai Inuyasha drove past them. Just because.

The race concluded and Youkai Inuyasha turned to Kagome with a devious grin. "You said –"

"I never said when, Inuyasha! I have homework, remember?" Kagome turned back towards the screen to watch the results load, ignoring the pout the youkai was giving her. If she looked, she'd cave. If she even so much as looked at Human Inuyasha, she'd have caved, cause she knew he'd have the same look.

Why did her mate have to be so…needy and cute at the same time? She wasn't exactly against it, but…she was ahead on her homework for once!

"And we're so close to finishing this game and unlocking Mirror Mode, Inuyasha!" Souta reminded him. "Let's finish this so Kagome can go do her homework. Then you can be gross and kiss all you want."

Kagome sighed and rubbed her face. Her brother was a preteen. Of course he was gonna act like that, even though he knew that one day in the future he'd be calling Inuyasha his older brother for real. She just…really hoped that Inuyasha never told her little brother anything detailed, even when he got past kissing being "gross".