Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi is the owner of Inuyasha and all of its characters.

A/N: Wheeee, very exciting very exciting!! ^^ Thanks for all the reviews and support, everyone! Here it is, what are the girls' death wishes for the three men...?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rising With the Sweetness

Chapter 5: Solutions

"I can't believe it. I just DON'T UNDERSTAND..."
"Neither can I, how stupid could men get?"
Sango and Kagome sat face to face with all three criminals, their eyes looking up at their faces with bowed heads guiltily. Miroku, however, was a tad braver then the rest.
"Urrr...my ladyships, might I be excused from this-"
He received a glower from Sango, but he proceeded with a gulp.
"To tell you the truth, I'm not even PART of this mess. You see, Inuyasha and Shippo got in a fight and-"
Inuyasha let his arm automatically swing for Miroku's head, and indeed, the ex-monk went flying towards the wall and smash into it...or perhaps THROUGH it...
"Whoop, there goes another wall...thanks for making life easier, Miroku." Inuyasha muttered.
"I'M INNOCENT, REALLY!!'
Miroku let his holler ring through the hole he made.
"Shut up if you don't want your precious plumeria shaving cream to spill."
Like a charm, Miroku's voice went silent at Sango's comment. Kagome gave her a sideways look.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Nevermind."
Kagome folded her arms and sighed.
"Alright you two, don't even bother telling me how this happened. For now, we need to think of a penalty."
Sango nodded in agreement, and Shippo whimpered. Right then, Kagome raised a finger and gave a small wink.
"I have an idea."
Sango looked at her sideways.
"What?"
Kagome grinned and went away, only to come back with a cart full of clay. She pointed to the clay in a demanding manner.
"Alright men, time to use some artistic sense and remake those vases!"

*-.,.-*-.,.-*-.,.-*-.,.-*-.,.-*

"What's that Inuyasha, a camel?"
Inuyasha glared at Shippo from the corner of his eye.
"You should talk. What's yours, a demented rabbit?"
Shippo frowned.
"It's a vase."
"Well then, that makes MINE a vase too now, doesn't it?"
Shippo poked Inuyasha's mound of clay in his claws.
"You have it wrong! What's the lump on the side for?"
He huffed.
"It's gonna be a handle."
Miroku, alongside, quietly worked on his piece of art under the lamp light. He watched the fight from the corner of his eye.
Inuyasha snickered at Shippo's progress.
"Heh, what's with the antennae?"
Shippo jabbed out a paw in attempt to scratch him, then bared his little fangs.
"IT'S CALLED ART!!"
Inuyasha pointed a finger at the little kitsune and taunted him.
"Hah! It looks like YOU!"
Shippo bit his lip, then furiously began clawing at his piece of clay. Its conclusion turned out to what appeared to be...
"A puma eating a platypus?"
Both Miroku and Inuyasha said in unison. Miroku wished he'd kept his mouth shut.
"NO!!!"
Shippo growled in anger as he fumed.
"THIS," he pointed at his sculpture, then at Inuyasha. "IS YOU!"
Inuyasha stared at it blankly, and then poked it with his index finger.
"And...what's that thing in my eyeball?"
"That's your mouth."
"My mouth is in my eyeball?"
"No, that 'EYEBALL' happens to be your MOUTH."
Inuyasha scratched his head in confusion.
"So wait, I'm eating my own eyeball?"
"NO!!!! Idiot, you're clawing at your own leg."
Inuyasha picked up the sculpture and examined it carefully.
"Why, does that taste good?"
"OF COURSE NOT!! IT'S A SIGN OF STUPIDITY!!"
Right then, the hanyou snickered.
"You've TRIED it, haven't you?"
Shippo's head looked liked like a ripe tomato just then. He snatched away his clay figure from Inuyasha's claws as he wildly jumped up from his stool.
"NO!! NO I HAVEN'T!!!!!!"
Shippo reached for more clay, then molded it into another figure, shoving it towards Miroku when he finished.
"And THAT, is YOU!!"
Miroku looked at it, and made the mistake of saying his thoughts out loud.
"Why...am I rubbing a cow's abdomen?"
He HEARD a vein pop in Shippo's head.
"That's not a COW, that's a WOMAN!!!!!"
"So...I'm rubbing a WOMAN's abdomen...for what?"
The little guy couldn't take it anymore. He took the advantage of Inuyasha's laughing figure to throw the disfigured mound of clay, straight for his open mouth.
"HAHAHAHAHA-OOMMMFF~!!!!"
WHAM!
Inuyasha went falling to the floor, stool and all, as the foul tasting glob entered his mouth. He spat it out in disgust.
"Why you little son of a RAT!!"
The hanyou grabbed the clay he spat out, and piece by piece began chucking in the demon's direction. Shippo scampered about screeching curses as he dodged.
"WHAT A LOUSY SHOT, CAN'T YOU DO ANY BETTER?! EVEN A SLOTH WOULD LAUGH AT THE LIKES OF YOU, HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
Miroku sat in the corner of the room, his arms folded and blankly watching the scene before him. His eyes averted to the door as it creaked open, and revealed Kagome.
"What's all the-"
Right then a spit-covered piece of clay came charging at her head, and landed smack dab on her forehead.

The world went silent.

She slowly peeled it off.

Inuyasha stood motionless across the room from her, in his hand the remaining of the clay glob. He watched in horror as her eyes narrowed down to slits, then blazed hell red behind her pupils.
"K-Kagome..."
She gripped the clay in her hand, and in a blink her arm was swung backwards, her leg kicking up as she thrust her hand forward, and released the clay.

No one saw it.

But they DID see Inuyasha's head snap backwards, then his whole body get thrust to the floor with a big WHAM. They gaped as the hanyou raised his head.

They saw the piece of clay, deeply lodged into Inuyasha's right nostril as he snorted repeatedly.
"Unreal..." Miroku whispered.
Kagome let her eyes scan the area. Clay pieces EVERYWHERE.
"What...may I ask, happened here?"
Shippo was too frightened to answer. He released a whimper and set himself cowering behind his stool. Miroku willingly responded.
"There was a slight dispute, Kagome-sama. I myself ask forgiveness for these two scoundrels."
She thought for a minute, amid the golden silence...and not to mention Inuyasha's pleasant snorting coming from the corner of the room. She turned on her heel to face the hanyou.
"CHICKLING."
The pleasant noises stopped abruptly as he froze with his claw up his nose, while Shippo giggled on the other side of the room. Kagome hid her amused expression.
"Go fetch the broom and that little piece of paper-thin metal. Be sure to scrape off all that clay off the walls...not to mention the ceiling, too."
The hanyou grumbled, then trudged out the door. Kagome then pointed to Shippo and wagged a finger at him.
"Alright young man, for you, I'm going to have you return home early today and have my mom send you straight to bed."
The little kitsune looked devastated.
"Eeeeeeeeeh?!"
She took out her cell phone and tapped it.
"I'm going to call her right now. She take this 500 yen and get yourself a ticket on the subway to get home, you understand?"
He nodded, then caught the coin Kagome tossed and he scampered out the door, waving.
"Bai!"
She smiled and saw him out the door.
"Take care, Shippo-chan!"
She finally wiped her brow with her wrist and turned to Miroku.
"Let's see...looks like I'm going to have to finish off these vases, in that case. Miroku-sama, I mean, Miroku could you accompany Sango-chan to the supermarket before we go home today? I'm going to be going back to the house with Inuyasha so I can look up a few things, and I don't think she can handle all those shopping bags to buy food for all four of us."
He smiled and nodded before standing.
"It'll be my pleasure, Kagome-sama."

*-.,.-*-.,.-*-.,.-*-.,.-*-.,.-*

"Are you sure it was these, Miroku-sama?"
Sango held up a bag of chips as they walked down the isle. Miroku brought a hand to his chin and thought.
"I'm quite certain, actually, since I remember Inuyasha nearly took off his own tongue with the sharp edge of a tape dispenser after merely 'tasting' those new Tabasco sauce ones..."
Sango shrugged as she read the label.
"Hmm...must have missed that one. Besides the time when Inuyasha went outside to stick his tongue in the snow after Kagome-chan mistook the salt for the sugar and added it to the extra-hot curry, I don't remember such an event."
Miroku sweated as he smiled warily.
"These things happen a lot in our household, don't they?"
She sighed as she tossed the bag into the cart and rolled it down to the cash registers.

Later, each of them held two shopping bags as they made their way up the steep slopes heading for home. Sango suddenly felt a crack in the concrete beneath her foot, and she went tumbling sideways as her bags went falling to the ground.
"Sango!"
Miroku hurried to her side, dropping his own bags. She rubbed her ankle as she gritted her teeth.
"Urgh, looks like I twisted it."
He looked down at her foot for a second, then back up the slope. He suddenly stood and faced his back to her, bending his knees slightly as she looked up at him curiously.
"Miroku?"
"Come on, Sango. I'll carry you up."
Sango blushed immensely as she tried to stand.
"No, no that's ok. I think I'll manag-"
She fell face forward onto his back, and he placed his hands right beneath her knees and hoisted her up. She slightly tightened her hold around his shoulders as she felt herself being lifted.
"You alright? All good?"
She nodded, and he bent over to gather up their bags and began making his way up the hill. She could feel the muscles along his back working as he moved, and his unyielding arms never loosened their grasp on her legs. She soon rested her cheek against him, her skin feeling the soothing, comfortable cotton material of his shirt.
"Arigatou, Miroku." (arigatou=thanks)
She sensed a smile from him.
"Anytime, Sango."
She didn't realize that she began to doze as his warmth contrasted with the chilly night air as they walked, the moon beginning to rise high above them.

*-.,.-*-.,.-*-.,.-*-.,.-*-.,.-*

That night, while it was Miroku's turn to cook dinner, the remaining three in the household were busy at work painting the vases.
"I'm surprised these dried so fast. What color do you want this one to be?"
Sango held one of them up as Kagome thought.
"I'm thinking all of them should be bright red, with maroon designs on them."
"How about lilies?"
Surprised, Kagome looked at Inuyasha who was already painting the vase in red.
"Lilies?"
"A tiny lily pattern along the edges in maroon."
She thought about it, then secretly told herself that she loved the idea.
"That's great. We'll go with that, then."
Miroku poked his head in the doorway right then, still wearing his pink frilly cooking apron and an oven mitt.
"Dinner's ready!"
The three of them laughed at Miroku's outfit, and went to join him at the kitchen table to start dinner.

Some hours later, Miroku and Sango went off to bed, and Kagome helped herself to the shower. Feeling refreshed, she slipped on her pajamas and placed a towel around her shoulders. As she walked through the hallway, she noticed the door to Inuyasha's room was open, but with no light on.
"That's funny...he never sleeps with his door open..."
She peeked inside the room, only to see that it was empty.
"Inuyasha?"
She padded down the stairs and looked around, and saw light coming from a small opening to the living room door. She slowly opened it, and she saw Inuyasha hunched over the table, motionless with his head resting against his arms. In one hand he held a brush, still dripping wet with wine-colored paint. In front of him stood 6 completed vases, the red paint showing brightly with fully blossomed lilies along the bottom, all maroon. Each one of them was breathtaking. The last one was still held in his left hand, half way done with the pattern. She bent over to look at him, and saw his eyelids closed and his ears slightly drooping. His slow, rhythmic breathing showed that he was asleep. Kagome looked to the clock. 11:30.

She smiled down at him, and parted his bangs across his forehead.
"Poor thing...he must have felt really bad about everything that happened today."
Kagome immediately ran up to his room and pulled off the quilt from Inuyasha's bed, then ran back down again and draped it over his shoulders. After looking at him for some time, she couldn't resist bending down to brush her lips against his eyelids, each one tenderly as his lashes tickled her. Sighing, she withdrew and went the door, switching off the light as she looked back at the sleeping figure.

"Oyasumi, Inuyasha." (oyasumi=good night)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

TO BE CONTINUED...

Did you like it? Hope you drop me a review! ^__^