AN: Warning: major stupidity in this chapter. Just so you can't say I didn't spring this on you.

I'm thinking of upping the rating to R, but I'm not sure if I need it so much. R seems a bit extreme, but I'm afraid this might be too much for PG-13. I dunno if it'll get raunchier than this, though (and this isn't even raunchy!) thinks about it maybe not, but then...Er, don't really know what to say, but…well I had fun writing this. It's nice just to let go and not make much sense grin Enjoy this chapter.

Stripped

Naraku smiled at him as Inu-Yasha scratched his head. "What's the matter? Don't look too happy."

Inu-Yasha frowned. "I dunno, I was expecting hell to be a bit more…evil?"

Naraku spread his arms out, as if he wanted to include the huge office in his arms. "Please. What could be more evil than the CEO of a multinational corporation?" He made a little shooing motion with his arms. "Now sit."

Something slammed into Inu-Yasha's knees from behind and he fell backwards…into a huge leather chair. "Hey, cool," he said, grinning, ignoring the fact that the chair had just moved on its own. He'd seen more surprising things than that now.

"Oh yes, forgive my rudeness." With a dramatic flourish, Naraku bowed to the man beside him. "Inu-Yasha, this is Sesshoumaru, the other half of the devilish duo." He smiled, obviously pleased with his choice of words. "Haha…devilish duo…get it?"

"Yeah, I get it." Once I get my wishes, I'm wishing him a scriptwriter, Inu-Yasha thought.

Sesshoumaru gazed at Inu-Yasha coolly. Unlike Naraku, who had black hair and was dressed in black, Sesshoumaru was white like clouds and snow and whipped cream. "He's new," Naraku explained. "He's only been around for a thousand years or so. It takes awhile for the darkness to settle in and make you a true devil with dashing good looks like mine." A single tic marred Sesshoumaru's forehead. "But even on the day he renounced Heaven he was evil enough."

"Why don't you have wings?" Inu-Yasha asked Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru continued to gaze at him with ultimate superiority, and did not reply.

"His wings are white, but he keeps them hidden. He's afraid he'll look like an angel, and he's afraid of anything that looks pure and innocent. Which, of course, explains why he still dresses in white." Naraku shook his head and tsked. "Probably afraid of too much sharp contrast with his skin. Poor thing, so consumed by vanity. Oh well, vanity's a sin so I don't mind." He spread his own midnight wings smugly.

Naraku clapped his hands together. "So! Le contract!" He bent over the table and pushed the single sheet of paper towards Inu-Yasha. "Just read it and sign," he said, beaming.

Inu-Yasha looked down dubiously. "Isn't it kinda short? I would have thought getting access to a soul would require a contract that was…uh, thicker. More complicated."

Naraku's smile widened. "Why don't you just read it and tell me what you think about it?"

Shrugging, Inu-Yasha looked down. He saw thousands of spider web-thin lines but no words. He scowled. "What the--?" Naraku helpfully thrust a magnifying glass under his nose. Inu-Yasha took it and held it in front of the first line. Even with the magnifying glass, he could only make out tiny, tinyletters that he'd need another magnifying glass to make sense of. He'd have to be a single-cell life form if he wanted to read the contract. He looked up angrily. "How the hell am I—"

His voice trailed off. Naraku and Sesshoumaru were now standing on either side of a flat screen TV that had shown up out of nowhere, which was now playing something very interesting.

Inu-Yasha watched in a stupor as Kagome Higurashi ran across the screen in slow-mo, smiling happily. Suddenly he saw himself on screen, waving. Kagome ran into his arms and they hugged in passionate bliss. Then she lifted her head and they kissed in passionate bliss. The Inu-Yasha on the screen turned his head and smiled at him, as if saying, this is what you could get, buddy.

It looked so good. But…

"But I can't read the contract," Inu-Yasha said slowly and numbly, like was saying the words against his will. Damn my conscience! Argh!

"Let me sum it up for you. Basically, you get seven wishes, and at the end of it, I get your soul. You can't change your mind once you've wished for something, but you can get out of it if it displeases you." Naraku snapped his fingers as he remembered something. "Oh yeah, and although I said the only thing you can't wish for is more wishes, you also can't wish that I wouldn't take your soul, or that the contract didn't exist, because that's not allowed in the contract. Oh." Naraku's lip curled. "And you can't wish for world peace, either. Hell forbid."

He tapped the sheet of paper in front of him. "So will you sign?"

Sesshoumaru offered a red pen.

"I dunno, it seems really fishy to me…" he stared as the Inu-Yasha on TV shook his head at him. Beside him, Kagome stood on her tiptoes and teasingly nibbled his earlobe. The look on TV-Inu-Yasha's face was so very enviable.

Inu-Yasha grabbed the pen and signed.

"Excellent!" Naraku clapped his hands and the contract vanished. He held out his hand, palm up, and a small red device fell into it.

Inu-Yasha eyed it warily. Is that what a soul stealer looks like?

"This is a backtracker," Naraku said, holding the device out for him to take. "In case one of your wishes doesn't work out."

The human in front of him narrowed his eyes. "And why wouldn't they work out?"

"Haha, isn't he a funny one?" Naraku said loudly to Sesshoumaru, who made no sign of registering Naraku's words. "See, Inu-Yasha…we'll grant your wish. But we'll grant them the way we like. And the way we like might not be the way you like it. That's why you've got a backtracker if you find yourself unhappy with a wish. See? The devil plays fair." But the look on Naraku's face hinted that the devil did nothing of the sort.

Inu-Yasha took the device—it looked like a calculator, but with characters instead of numbers.

"We thought of making the backtracking password '666,' but that number is so passé. We've been using it for two thousand years." Naraku sat back against a swiveling chair that had appeared out of nowhere. "So we decided to make the passwords personalized—customers seem to like it better that way. You know, make them feel like they're special and all."

Inu-Yasha tossed the device into the air and caught it. "So what's my password?"

"You, my friend…Inu-Yasha…" Naraku's eyes glinted. "If you ever feel like you're not happy with a wish, just punch in o-su-wa-ri."

It took awhile for Inu-Yasha to get the joke. When he did, he considered hurling the device at Naraku's head, but decided against it. You just didn't throw things at the Devil.

Naraku laughed as he saw Inu-Yasha's eye twitch. "Isn't it great? No one expected the Devil to have a sense of humor! Tell the Big Guy up there that his stupid propaganda about us being ugly and mean and brainless are wrong! Oh wait…you won't be seeing the Big Guy anytime in this eternity." He paused to let that sink in. "So what'll your first wish be?"

Inu-Yasha blinked. "I have to think of one now?"

"Now's a good a time as any. Come on, how hard can it be? You've got seven of them."

What could he possibly wish for right now?

He looked back at the flat screen TV. Inu-Yasha was now reclined on a couch in a huge living room filled with expensive furniture, with Kagome sprawled over his lap and doing fascinating things with her tongue. He was wearing what looked liked mink, but with the way Kagome worked the buttons he probably wasn't going to be wearing it much longer.

Inu-Yasha clenched his fist determinedly. What other perfect life could there be aside from being stinking rich and having Kagome at his side? "I wish I were rich, and handsome, and upon seeing me Kagome will fall deeply and madly in love with me!" he yelled, rising to his feet.

"Please, give me details," Naraku said in a bored tone; this was the most common wish people made, after world peace of course (how disgusting). "How handsome? And you have to give me…you know…measurements."

"Where in the contract does it say I have to get technical?" Inu-Yasha demanded. Sesshoumaru leaned forward and tapped a space on the contract. It could have said 'Entitles the damned to free hot dogs at Beezlebub's Bitchin' Grill' for all he knew. Inu-Yasha slapped his face with his palm. "Whatever. Use your imagination. As long as it looks good."

Naraku nodded slowly, a mischievous grin on his face. "So we'll give you a butt like Brad's…"

"…And a wonker like David's." Sesshoumaru finished without a speck of emotion. He was used to this.

"Ah, no," Inu-Yasha said hurriedly. "I mean, those look good, but not like—"

Naraku smirked and raised a hand. "Your wish is our command." Before Inu-Yasha could protest further, Naraku snapped his fingers, the sound ringing with scary clarity. "Your lady love is waiting, Inu-Yasha," he said softly as the young, innocent, sadly stupid mortal vanished from Hell's office. "Enjoy it while you can."

Inu-Yasha woke to the sound of too-loud-for-human-ears-to-cope dance music blaring in his ears. He sprang out of bed, mind ringing. "What? What the hell---?" he mumbled.

"Oy, Inu-Yasha, get up! The day's almost starting!" Someone leaned over him and nudged him. "Hurry up and get your stuff, we've got a gig in thirty minutes!"

Inu-Yasha stumbled groggily out of bed. He barely heard the person whistle and say, "Whoa, keep that Willy Wonka in his factory, man" over the pulsing music that seemed to shake the room with every beat. "Where am I?" he muttered to himself, looking around.

He was in a large room filled with animal skin rugs and neon lights. One wall was just one giant window, which revealed that it was nighttime. But didn't the guy say the day…? Another wall was made entirely out of mirrors, and several men were stretching in front of it. Others were rubbing oil on their chests. Inu-Yasha rubbed his forehead and moved forward. "Where am I?" he said again.

His head collided with something cold and hard and rang with pain. Inu-Yasha blinked the splotches of light from his eyes as he stared at the tall metal thing in front of him. "What is this?" He'd seen one of these things before…he just had to put his mind on it…

Oh yeah…this thing looks an awful lot like…a stripper pole…eh?

"Hey, Inu-Yasha!" A hand clapped his shoulder. He turned around, growling, and was face to face with a tall black man with a body that seemed to be chiseled from ebony. The man smiled, and his teeth were blinding white in his dark face. "Have you practiced the routine for tonight?"

"Tonight?" Inu-Yasha repeated slowly.

"Yup. It's a big one tonight. Fifty of us were hired."

"Us?"

"Yeah. The best of us." The man looked confused. "You seem really out of it. Maybe that hard partying last night with the old widow really wore you out, huh?"

Chills rolled through Inu-Yasha's body. What the hell was going on? "What's going on?" he said out loud. "Who are you?"

The black man laughed. "Man, you are so wasted. You don't remember your best bud? Merocu? Ol' Mero, who always watches your back when you get swamped by the ladies? And get ready, we're leaving soon. You'd better start stretching before then."

Inu-Yasha shook his head and swiped the man's hand off his shoulder. "This wasn't supposed to happen…" he muttered to himself. "I was supposed to be rich, and handsome, and with Kagome…" He noticed he was wearing a black fluffy bath robe. He rummaged in the pockets and pulled out the backtracker. O…su…Naraku, you screwed up my wish, damn you…wa…

Mero heard him. "What are you talking about? You are rich, dummy."

Inu-Yasha stopped typing. "I am?"

You're filthy rich, with the woman who drool after you every night just waiting to give you hundreds of bucks. And of course you're handsome, you fixed your nose years ago. You've got a Grecian nose and amber eyes and an ass as hard as diamond." To prove his point, Mero slapped said rear end. Inu-Yasha's mouth dropped open, and he clenched his fingers into a fist, ready to punch Mero's megawatt smile into a checkerboard of teeth and empty spaces.

No one…no one slaps my ass.

"As for Kagome…" Mero said before Inu-Yasha let loose. "Why does that name sound familiar? Oh yeah! That's the name of the girl whose party we're going to." He winked mischievously. "It's her first time…her sister put her up to it. That's why tonight's gotta be special."

"We're gonna see Kagome tonight?"

"Yeah. Birthday bash. She gets a free lap dance, too." Mero stretched his arms casually over his head. "Hope she picks me. Even though it's free, I could use the tip."

A tic started in Inu-Yasha's forehead. "Lap dance?"

Mero burst out laughing at Inu-Yasha's expression. "Of course! Geez, you look so shocked, like all those conservatives. As if you don't give like ten every night," he chortled.

Inu-Yasha paled as white as his hair. The pieces of the puzzle were coming together. He scanned the room again. Men in tuxedos that seemed to be held together with Velcro were filing out of the door. Long hair…easily rip-able tuxes…oiled chests…lap dances, for pete's sake…With an eerie sense of foreboding, Inu-Yasha looked down at his underwear. His worst fears were confirmed.

Yup. Small, black, and tighter than Joan Crawford's face.

Yes, he was rich and famous, and he was going to see Kagome.

But in a state of near nakedness.

As a male stripper.

Oh my god.

Oh, my, god.

"Here we are," Mero said as the limo pulled up in front of a house that took up the entire block. "The Higurashi residence. Looks kinda big."

"Kinda?" Inu-Yasha repeated. He was still in shock. He was wearing a Velcro tuxedo and he was expected to rip it off. In public. This was screwed up beyond belief.

Many times he'd been tempted to backtrack as fast as his toned, waxed legs (oh, such a heathen crime) would take him, but then he remembered that he was going to Kagome's party. He was going to see Kagome and, if Naraku had granted his wish right, she'd fall in love with him. Then, he thought, in a blur of happy daydream, I can retire from this degrading business and live happily ever after as a normal person and never have to do a pole dance again.

Not that he'd ever done one (insert shudder here). Well, according to Mero he'd done quite a few, but none Inu-Yasha could remember. "Okay," Mero said with a grin, stepping out of the car. "Let's get this party started."

Inu-Yasha followed, feeling like a thousand worms had taken up residence in his stomach. From the house the faint thumps of amplified music shook the air. Mero and Inu-Yasha stood in front of the others at the door. Mero leaned over and rang a doorbell. The sound disappeared in the rampage of wild music. Mero shrugged. "Guess we just let ourselves in." He turned and faced the rest of the men. "Remember, whoever does the free lap dance, better make it good. If her sister thinks it's good enough, she might pay in extra. You all remember the Secret Sudden Death Ultimate Championship Money-Money Move?"

"Yes, sir!" Everyone—sans Inu-Yasha—chorused.

"And what are the steps to the SSDUCMMM?"

"Swivel and prick, and swivel and stick!"

Eek, Inu-Yasha thought, feeling his limbs go numb with horror.

As Mero was about to open the door, it swung open. A familiar girl with long black hair leaned against the doorframe, smiling. "Well, hello, boys, glad you could make it."

Mero bowed extravagantly. "And are you the lucky birthday girl?"

Yeah, right, Inu-Yasha thought.

"Yeah, right," the girl snorted. "I'm her sister. And I'm the one who'll be watching to make sure she stays happy throughout the night. You get what I mean, boys? She stays happy." She drawled out the last word, and all the men smiled knowingly.

Inu-Yasha gaped at Kikyo Higurashi as the men all promised to keep Kagome happy. Where was the Kikyo who threatened to dismember any guy who so much as blinked at her sister?

Kikyo raised a finger warningly. "And if I find out you've made her upset in any way, no amount of money in the world is gonna fix your face from looking like a piece of used chewing gum. You understand that too, right boys?"

Oh, there she was.

Her eyes slid over to Inu-Yasha. "You get me, pretty boy?" Her voice dripped heaps of warning.

"Yes," Inu-Yasha mumbled. Only Kikyo could compliment him and threaten him at the same time.

"Good." The scary look on Kikyo's face vanished and she smiled slyly. "Which of you lovely boys wants to escort me back to the party?"

"Woo woo, shake it, honey!"

"Whoa! I haven't seen that size on a human before!"

"Take it off! Take it off!"

"No, take me! Please!"

"You gotta move closer, hon…oops I peeked! giggle But you don't mind, do you? It's a crime to keep that beauty hidden."

"Nice butt. Oh! Ooh! If I'd poked any harder I would've broken my finger!"

Holy shit, Inu-Yasha thought after the 'opening dance' was over. But I guess it wasn't that bad. For some reason, he'd known all the steps, and though he'd just wanted to sink into the floor and die (or at least kill all the witnesses) he'd managed to waddle away with a small fortune tucked in his underwear. Now he knew just how exactly he got rich.

Yep. Filthy rich…and quite literally too, really.

But the money wasn't what was on his mind. Throughout the dance, he'd noticed a certain pair of eyes on him. Kagome Higurashi hadn't tucked anything into his underwear (if she'd had, he didn't know what he would've done. Maybe die.) but he had been aware of her watching him.

Now he was in one of the many bedrooms, un-stuffing his pants of large bills. He was trying to dig in a particularly difficult spot (how the hell did someone get their hands there?!) when the door slowly opened.

"Hey."

"Yargh!" Inu-Yasha jumped a meter in the air. "Don't scare me like tha—" he stopped when he saw Kagome holding onto the door, looking timid. "Er," he finished. "Can I help you?" Never mind that this was her own house. Never mind that he was only wearing a measly strap of cloth that barely passed for privacy

"Sorry," Kagome said. "I just wanted to tell you, um, how good you were tonight." She was blushing furiously—Inu-Yasha knew he was doing the same.

"Oh, er, you noticed?" Inu-Yasha wished that just for once he could say something intelligent.

Kagome stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. "Oh, yes! You were the best of them all." Her eyes were shining brightly.

Inu-Yasha was not used to this at all. Politeness, yes. The look of sheer adoration…not quite. Not that he had any problems with it.

"Oh, thanks." he said. An awkward moment of silence passed between them. "Er…Happy Birthday?"

Her face lit up like he'd just told her world peace had finally arrived. "Thanks!" She sat on the bed. "To tell the truth, I'm not used to this sort of thing," she said, looking down at the ground. "It was Kikyo's ideas to hire you guys—I agreed without really knowing what she was talking about. When she said she was hiring the Diablos Men, I thought you were a repair group for my Lamborghini."

"Really." Really?

She nodded fervently. "Yup. When I asked her if you guys could give my car the wet look, she nodded and said, 'Oh yes, they have a 'wet' program. The Slip and Slide, I think it's called.' But I didn't expect this at all."

"Ah." Was she serious?

"Inu-Yasha…that's your name, isn't it?"

That was the first time she'd said his name. Kagome looked very troubled. "I need to ask you something." She leaned forward, her long hair spilling over her shoulders and against the blue of her dress.

"Huh…" Screw intelligence; he couldn't say anything at all.

"I mean, if that's okay. For some reason, I feel this sort of…connection with you. I can't explain it." Kagome stood up from the bed and moved closer to him. "I just need to know…one…thing…"

She was so close Inu-Yasha that if he reached out he could touch her. "Inu-Yasha…"

"Hmm?" His heart was pounding too hard to be healthy.

"I need to ask you…"

"Yes?"

"What's a lap dance?"

Inu-Yasha didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Soft laughter from the entrance of the room made them both look up. Merocu was standing there, resplendent in all his black G-string glory. "That's an interesting question. Inu-Yasha, why don't you tell her? Or better yet, show her. Aren't they your specialty?"

"They are?" Inu-Yasha blinked at him.

Mero nodded. "Of course they are." He extended a hand towards Kagome in a gesture of dignified gentlemanliness.

Or least as dignified as you can be in your underwear, Inu-Yasha thought. "Uh, Mero, I don't really feel like it tonight. Why don't we—"

He was silenced by Mero's burning glare. Do it for the money, you bastard! his eyes said. "Well, let's ask Kagome," he said, his voice dangerously calm. "Well, Kagome? What do you say?"

"Sure!" Kagome chirped.

Inu-Yasha blanched.

"Well, meet you downstairs," Mero said cheerfully. And he left Inu-Yasha wondering where the hell the backtracker was.

"Inu-Yasha…" Kagome turned to him and took a hold of his hands. "I don't know what else to say, but…I think I'm falling in love with you. I don't know how, but as soon as I lay eyes on you I…" Her cheeks were flushed. "So will you show me what it is? I'm just aching with curiosity."

"Uh-huh," Inu-Yasha said dumbly, his hands growing numb. At this point, he would do anything. Lap dancing was a walk in the park compared to the extent he'd go for her.

But he had no idea how good he was, or what the hell he might do to her. Hmm…

When he was done, that probably wasn't all she'd be aching with.

It wasn't until they were surrounded by a group of eager guests that Inu-Yasha fell off Cloud 9, retrieved his brains, and realized exactly what he was supposed to do.

"Uh-uh," he said. "No way."

"Come on, Inu," Mero wheedled. "I don't remember you being so frigid about lap dances."

"No. You can't make me do this."

"Oh, please, Inu. You better not be starting on that whole my-body-is-a-sacred-temple thing, not when you've got such a good career going."

Inu-Yasha scoffed. "But my body is a temple." With muscles like these, it's a very fine temple indeed.

"Fine," Mero said. "So Kagome is going to be your priestess." He winked at the birthday girl. "Unless her sister would like to break the ice a bit?" he addressed Kikyo.

She waved a hand. "Please. I was the priestess while you guys were upstairs having your ménage a trois. I pass the priestess thing onto Kagome, now." She grinned at her confused sister. "Nothing but the purest, right?"

Inu-Yasha didn't like this. He felt cheap and degraded, and very, very pissed.

"I'm not doing this," he said loudly. The music stopped.

Kagome tilted her head and looked at him. "Doing what?"

"Doing…never mind. It's stupid and I can't believe I am standing here in my underwear while all of you expect me to ruin the mind of an innocent girl by shaking my ass. Ick. Don't you all feel ashamed of yourselves?"

Mero threw him a disgusted look. "What we're ashamed of, Inu-Yasha, is that they paid and you didn't deliver." He stepped ahead of Inu-Yasha. "Never mind, I'll do it. And to apologize for this piss-wart here, I'll throw in an extra free lap and a five-man routine."

"No you're not." Inu-Yasha grabbed his shoulder and shoved him backwards. "Not to Kagome."

"What the fuck, Inu?! Step back or I'll fry that ass for dinner."

A chorus of Oohs came up from everyone.

Inu-Yasha wasn't fazed. He was used to making comebacks to people who taunted him. "Yeah? Well, if I tried to fry yours, your fat ass would burn until the end of the world and a week."

Another chorus of Oohs.

Mero slapped him.

Inu-Yasha slapped him back.

They bitch-slapped each other.

Someone—in the spirit of the moment—slapped Inu-Yasha's ass.

That someone slapped the wall via Inu-Yasha's fist.

Inu-Yasha didn't like this wish anymore. Kagome was in love with him, true—but as a male dancer to be ogled and abused by everyone. It was a sorry life.

He ducked Mero's punch and felt frantically for the backtracker. After a few seconds of panicked searching, he remembered.

Oh yeah…how in all the universe could I fit that into my underwear?

Mero punched him in the face. Inu-Yasha kicked him down and sprinted upstairs to the bedroom, Mero at his heels like a sleek panther.

He burst into the room and grabbed the backtracker. "Come on, come on, come on," he panted, punching in the symbols.

"You fucking coward! Get back there and dance, dammit!" Mero yelled, throwing another punch.

"Inu-Yasha! I still don't know what you were supposed to do!" Kagome wailed at the door.

"Bastard! I said happy! She's not happy!" Kikyo screeched.

But Inu-Yasha was already spinning far, far away from that world, to a land of normalcy and real clothing.

Inu-Yasha opened his eyes.

Sesshoumaru gazed steadily back.

Inu-Yasha jolted up. "Where am I?" He down at his clothes; he was wearing his Nakusaru High uniform. He looked around; the school gate zoomed in front of his eyes. Students passed him without a glance, and not surprisingly they walked right past Sesshoumaru. He thought of one last thing—tentatively he felt his backside. He relaxed. Everything a-ok.

He glared accusingly at Sesshoumaru. "You screwed up my wish," he said.

"We only granted it the way it was expressed," Sesshoumaru said. "Will you tell me your wish was not granted?"

"I didn't want to be…that for crying out loud!" Inu-Yasha argued.

"You should have expressed that when you were wishing," Sesshoumaru replied smoothly.

Inu-Yasha wanted to grab Sesshoumaru's placid face in his hands and squish it around like silly putty. "Never mind, I still have six more wishes…more than enough to get Kagome…" he mumbled.

"Will you make your wish now?"

Inu-Yasha scowled at him. "Gimme a minute, I'm still recovering." He rubbed his forehead. "Where's Naraku?"

"He had other things to tend to. We will alternate granting your wishes, which is why you must make a wish now. I am getting impatient."

"Where in hell does it say that you can order me to make a wish?" Inu-Yasha demanded.

"Shall I summon the contract?"

"Bah. Never mind. I don't know what to wish for." Inu-Yasha glanced at the students streaming through the school gates and his heart stopped. Kagome, surrounded by a group of her friends, was drawing closer.

"Kagome! You should have said yes to Hojo!" One of them squealed.

"Yes, he's so nice, and handsome—well, he will be again once he's out of the hospital."

"You can tell he's brave—he ignored Kikyo-sama's wrath and asked you anyway! And he only had a broken arm after Kikyo was through with him!"

Kagome was blushing. "I don't know…"

"And he's a family man! He loves kids. You know can depend on him."

Kagome caught Inu-Yasha's eyes, and smiled faintly in acknowledgement. Then she looked away, and suddenly Inu-Yasha was facing their backs. He watched them go past as Kagome's friends jostled her. "Wouldn't you like a family man, Kagome?"

Kagome laughed. "Why not? I'd love to have a family in the future. A family man would suit me fine…I just don't know about Kikyo though…"

Their voices trailed off. Inu-Yasha stood motionless, in complete silence.

"Now?" Sesshoumaru drawled.

"Shut up! Give me time to appreciate the fact that Kagome in all her blessed normalness has just walked by me."

"I don't know why you turn so stupid around her. She's nothing special."

"That's because you are a jackass," Inu-Yasha replied. "And I've made my second wish."

"Do tell. I haven't got all the time in the world."

"Yes you do, you're the Devil," Inu-Yasha snapped. "Anyway…I wish I were a family man, and Kagome was my wife. We'd have lots of kids— three," he added hurriedly as he noticed a gleam in Sesshoumaru's eyes, "And live in an amazing house. I wish I were someone she could depend on. That's, er, part of the same wish, not a different one, by the way."

Sesshoumaru sighed with boredom. "As you wish."

And Inu-Yasha was off, ready to—literally—start life anew…a perfect life with Kagome.