Back again with chapter two. This beginning of the chapter should look familiar... but I changed it quite a bit, so it should be fairly new... I think... Maybe I should just let you read it, huh?

Disclaimer: Inuyasha is my slave. Any questions?

Prowler of the Night

Chapter Two: Ramen and Sundresses

By: Kaji-chan

Miroku stumbled to catch up with Inuyasha as his friend stomped down the street. "Hey, wait...!"

"Shut up, Miroku. I'm not in the mood."

"Now wait one darned minute—"

"I said, go away," he cut in, quickening his pace.

"Hey!" Miroku said as he finally reached him. "What's… up with you...?" he wheezed, bending over and placing his arms on his knees for a few seconds to catch his breath. Inuyasha leveled him with an irritable glare. Miroku sighed--or best he could, considering that he was so short on breath--and stood upright, still breathing heavily. "I'm sorry... that I said that… about… your girlfriend…"

Inuyasha watched him for a moment, not saying anything as the monk caught his breath. He sighed, but it didn't seem to be out of irritation as much as self-loathing. "She's not my girlfriend," he stated gruffly, continuing his march towards the department store ahead of him, his shoulders stiff.

"What?" Miroku gasped, still trying to catch his breath as Inuyasha unconsciously speed up. "But... you guys were engaged weren't you?"

"It didn't work out." he answered, pushing through the glass doors of the grocery store and heading for the dairy section, his short strung temper evident in his long, forceful strides.

"Oh." He said quietly, shrinking a bit as he followed Inuyasha. He suddenly felt very out of place and heartless. "When... did it happen?"

He snorted irately and vigorously grabbed a box of pocky off of a nearby shelf, tucking it under his arm and strolling onwards. Miroku decided it would be in his best interests to not inform him that all they needed was creamer. "This morning…" he glanced at his watch, "About two and a half hours ago."

He swallowed, feeling a very strong pity for his friend. Not that he would ever let Inuyasha know that... God knows how angry he would get. "I-Inuyasha…" he began heistantly, afraid he mind spin around and suddenly rip his head off any given moment, "Maybe you should just let me handle the trial... I know it must be hard for you."

"Don't even, Miroku," he spat, obviously offended by the suggestion, "I don't want you feeling sorry for me."

Miroku's lips thinned. "I never said that I felt sorry for you. I just think it would be better for you, and the trial, if you would just take a break off the case and re-adjust yourself."

"Re-adjust myself? How do you suggest I do that? Sit in my apartment and watch football all day? That's not going to help me."

Miroku sighed, crossing his arms, seeming to pause in thought as they trudged through the vegetable isle. "Well," he began after a few moments, "The best way to get over a tough relationship is in another one."

Inuyasha slanted him a very strange look. "What? You mean on rebound?"

He shrugged. "It works for me. When Sango and I have fights, I just take my mind off of it and go to dinner with another nice looking female until she gets jealous enough to convince herself that she wanted to go on a date with me badly enough to overlook our fight."

"You mean, Sango would pound you into the ground for two-timing and you'd go crawling back to her, right?" he corrected with a skeptical look.

"Well, if you pessimistically put it that way."

Inuyasha groaned as they reached the milk, grabbing a creamer from the small selection and then shoving the two items into Miroku's hands. "Here, a seven month early birthday present."

Miroku glared at Inuyasha, not bothering to thank him for the 'present'. "I still think it would do you good to go on a date with someone else to get her off of your mind." He saw Inuyasha twitch, but ignored it and continued, crossing his arms and smirking. "It couldn't hurt to ask a girl on a date, could it?" he added, nudging his friend.

"I just got dumped by my fiance two and a half hours ago!" Inuyasha shouted defensively. He shrugged, earning a sigh from Inuyasha. "Somehow, I don't think you understand that..."

Miroku shook his head in dismay and threw a nefarious smirk at Inuyasha, who bristled indignantly. "So? I bet you couldn't ask the next girl you see for their number."

Inuyasha snorted and crossed his arms, not letting Miroku take this chance to bruise his pride. After all, what would Inuyasha be without his typical, egotistical attitude? "Yeah right. I could, too!" He paused, snorting and turning away from Miroku. "I'm just not going to."

Miroku's mischievous smirk only grew. "Why not?"

"I told you, I'm not going to ask some girl on a date the day my fiance throws a fucking ring in my face, you moron!" he shouted back, becoming agitated.

It didn't seem to affect him. "If you said you could do it, then do it. Two thousand yen says that you can't ask the next girl we see for her phone number."

"Yeah right! I wouldn't look at your girlfriend for two thousand yen!"

"Hey!" Miroku retorted, annoyed. "Sango is beautiful when I have to look at your face every day!"

"Just for that, monk, it has to be double that!"

Miroku pouted. "How about three thousand yen?" he offered.

"Five thousand."

"Five thousand!"

Inuyasha shrugged. "Okay, six thousand."

Miroku gaped at him. "What! I would run up and down my apartment complex naked for that much money!" Inuyasha looked a bit horrified, so he ammended that statement. "While drunk, of course..."

"Just for scarring me for life, seven thousand, you perverted scumb," he said, his eye twitched.

"What! No way!"

"Fine!" Inuyasha said, starting to walk off in the other direction. "You'll just have to live for the rest of your life knowing that I would be a helpless sod without a girlfriend because you're too protective of your life savings."

"Wait a minute, you--"

"Oh, and did I mention that you'll have to supply creamer for the office for the next two months?"

"FINE! Five thousand, then!"

He smirked at Miroku, crossing his arms again as the corners of his frowning lips twitched. He was quiet for a moment, as if brewing over the offer. Well... it wouldn't kill him, right? And even if she said yes, he didn't have to go on the date, and it would be a nice way to jip some money off of the bastard... "Fine." he said with a huff, a bit irritated that he had dropped the price two thousand yen, "It's a deal."

Miroku looked as if he was already regretting promising so much money, but seemed confident none-the-less. "Good. I get to pick!" Miroku announced with a smile.

Seeing his twisted smirk, Inuyasha added quickly, "But she has to be around our age, or I'm not doing it!"

He sighed, nodding. Miroku scanned the store, and the first thing his eyes saw was shining raven black hair sweep by his line of vision. He let his eyes wander for a second before his mouth twisted up into an evil grin. "Her." he said instantly, pointing to the passing girl with a yellow purse slung over her shoulder and clad in a cute, faded mini dress.

Inuyasha pased hesitantly, turning to Miroku. "But I don't—" Seeing the look Miroku gave him, he sighed despondently, wearing a how-did-I-get-into-this face, and growled at him, "Fine. But you'll be surprised to find that, in five minutes, your wallet will be much lighter."

"I doubt that," he replied. Inuyasha glared down his confidence, censoring himself.

Walking over with a sour look upon his face, he slowly approached the young woman, working his brain to its limits as he tried to think of a good way to start a conversation with a complete stranger. She looked only a few years younger than him and was nice and thin, her creamy legs showing off under her short, flowery summer dress. She was humming a sweet tune and swaying a bit to her own rhythm, her graceful fingers lightly browsing the name brands of ramen as she picked up her favorite flavor and tossed it, with about six others, into the cart. Her back was to him, however, and he was unable to get a good look at her face. Hopefully she wouldn't turn around and horrify him with some ugly, pimple-covered abomination of a face; that would be just his luck.

"Like ramen?" he started awkwardly. Great... how lame. What a wonderful start. He could already imagine the face Miroku was making behind his back. It was almost sad as he admitted to himself that the monk probably had better pick-up lines than he had. Not that "Like ramen?" was actually a pick-up line or anything...

She blinked and turned; giving Inuyasha a full view of her slightly shocked face as he almost stumbled back in shock himself. She… she was almost the spitting image of Kikyou… except she seemed to be a few years younger. Actually... He blinked, and a smile graced her lips. She really didn't look so much like Kikyou as he had thought at first glance. Her hair had more of a wavy tone to it, and her body seemed to be a bit more lithe. Though, he pointed out to himself, the two of them certainly wasn't lacking in the chest area...

A hand reached up to touch her chest, and his eyes shot up from her breasts, an embarrassed blush beginning to tint his cheeks as she slanted him a slightly offended look. Perfect way to start off a conversation with a woman. Sexual harrassment. Got them every time. "Um... can I help you?" she asked, her eyes drawing into a distrusting frown.

He mentally smacked himself. "I'm, uh…" he hesitated for a second. "Inuyasha…" he said quickly, sticking his hand out for her to shake, ignoring Miroku's horribly concealed laughs behind him.

Her appalled expression slowly disappeared and was replaced with a smile as she kindly, though cautiously, returned the gesture. "Um... Kagome..." she replied, her voice light but a bit drawn back. It seemed she was still a bit miffed by his wandering eyes.

He found that it was much easier to force a smile with this girl than he had thought upon accept Miroku's bet, and was, for the most part, glad that Miroku had pointed to a much more "lively" suspect. All he had to do was ask her out, right? How hard could that be? "Are you a college student here?"

She smiled softly and shook her head, turning to drop the bottle of rice wine she had been holding in her hand into her already packed basket of ramen noodles. "Yes... its my last year." she said hesitantly. It seemed that she was a bit uncomfortable striking up a conversation with a complete stranger. At least they were in the same boat. "Are... are you as well?"

"Ah... no. I graduated two years ago. I'm planning on enrolling for my masters, though," he said, trying to start a decent conversation.

Kagome shifted the basket on her arm distractedly, before blushing in embarrassment and redirecting her attention to the man in front of her with another smile. "Do you live near here?"

"Yeah… on the western side of town. Its near the university." He replied, making a vague directional gesture with his hand.

"The university…?" she echoed, pausing thoughtfully. "Is that also where you went to college?"

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Is that where you attend as well?"

Kagome suddenly smiled and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, brushing her bangs out of her face. "Yes, I do." She paused, raising a finger to pause upon her lips. She gasped, snapping her fingers as if she had remembered something. "I knew your name sounded familiar... Kinzake, right?" He nodded, a bit confused. "We took a class together in the 2nd semester… two years ago... what was it again…?" she trailed off, scrunching her eyebrows together in confusion.

Feeling an unfamiliar sense of slight embarrassment, he turned his head to the side as he replied quietly, "Ah… anatomy…"

"Oh, yes…" He watched as a slight pink tinted her facial features, turning her cheeks a bit darker than her rosy blush was initially intended. "I-interesting class…" she stuttered uncomfortably, shifting her basket of ramen from one arm to the other.

Inuyasha swallowed thickly, raising a hand to thoughtfully tap his chin as he altered the conversation's direction. "Oh, yeah."

He suddenly snapped his fingers, returning her smile and crossing his arms across his chest. "Oh, that's right. Higurashi, Kagome... I remember you used to always be staring out the window at the nearby elementary school while the professor was talking."

Kagome nodded and blushed, bowing her head slightly. "Yes. I've always loved children. I wanted to be an elementary teacher, but my parents didn't have enough money to send me to a teacher's college, because my pay would be too low to help support my younger brother's college tuition. I guess a degree in medicine looked more promising after that." She smiled slightly and returned his gaze. "What did you pursue?"

"Law. I'm a lawyer, now. My friend and I have our own law firm," he said, feeling a bit more comfortable.

"A lawyer, huh?" she said, nodding as her expression became surprised. "It must be hard to run your own law firm right out of college!" He shrugged and she laughed. At least she was easy to talk to; having met before only made the conversation all the more easy. "I see lawyers around where I work all the time, actually. I work at the Western Hospital as an intern as I study medicine at the college, since I don't have many classes this year… I always wanted to be a secretary, but they don't make much money and I don't have the experience. I'm kind of surfing for jobs, trying out new ones all over. I'm not sure what I like yet." she continued, sighing. "But it's nice. I work in the children's ward, so at least I get a bit of my dream." Blushing self-consciously, she sighed and said in a quieter tone, "Sorry… I tend to ramble a bit…"

He shook his head dismissively, shrugging casually. "I've never been to that particular hospital. I don't work in that area of law."

"Ah, I suppose not." she replied, laughing a bit. Suddenly, her purse began shaking and buzzing, her expression immediately drawing back. She covered the wince with a forced smile, throwing a hand over her vibrating purse as he raised an eyebrow at her action. Quickly glancing at her watch, she suddenly gasped and gave him an apologizing look. "I have to go! Sorry! It was nice talking with you, again." she said while starting off towards the checkout lane.

"Wa-wait a second!" he said, hurrying after her. He wasn't going to have gone that far and not get that two thousand yen. She stopped and turned to look back at him, gazing at him with a questioning expression. "Um…" He could see Miroku over her shoulder pointing to his wallet and smiling, wearing a triumphant grin. Determined not to let him win the bet, he swallowed the lump of nervousness in his throat and blurted out, "Well… uh… maybe we could go for some tea or something?"

She smiled but shook her head regretfully, beginning to start walking away again. "I'm not really a tea person… sorry, but I have to—"

"Coffee, then?" he said immediately, surprising even himself.

Kagome paused and held a thoughtful look, cocking her head to the side and giving him a wistful smile. "I don't know." she answered, her expression apologetic.

"We-well... we could talk about you being a... secretary..." he said, feeling himself stumble stupidly over his words. Had it really been that long since he's asked a woman out on a date? "It's not bad pay... a lawyer's secretary."

She tilted her head, a soft smile on her features. "Well, I suppose... coffee would be fine." She paused a finger at her lips. "And... I would very much like to find out about being a secretary."

Miroku watched as Inuyasha sighed in relief and mumbled a few things to her, a frown on the monk's face. Blast... it looked like Inuyasha was a bit more feminine-competent than he had originally suspected. And what a shame, too, he thought despairingly as he appreciated her finely scuplted figure, that Inuyasha would throw such a wonderful catch to waste. It was fairly obvious that he wasn't actually planning on going on that date.

He sighed as she giggled and jotted down something on a piece of paper, Miroku already feeling his wallet lighten as she handed Inuyasha her number. They smiled at each other and she nodded quickly, stuffing her brightly colored pen back into her purse and waving, running off down the isle and to the checkout.

Inuyasha walked back with a smirk on his face, holding out one hand expectantly as he shoved the piece of butterfly paper into his pocket with the other. "All right. Pay up, monk." he said with a wide grin.

Miroku narrowed his eyes but gave it to him anyway, slapping the bills into his outstretched hand. "I told you, I'm not a monk anymore!" he responded defensively, sighing and shoving his wallet back into his back pocket, which had become noticeably thinnner. Well, at least he wouldn't be so uncomfortable when he sat down this evening with Sango at dinner. "Satisfied, you money grubber?" he accused, crossing his arms and noting that he would have to put off his movie night a few days now that his pockets were a bit emptier.

"That I beat you at your own game?" Inuyasha put his hands behind his head and basked in his moment of glory. "Yes." For a few minutes of the day, he had forotten about Kikyou, already.

"Asshole," Miroku spat.

"You know it."

Inuyasha tucked his car keys in his pocket, slamming the door shut to his car and strolling up the sidewalk to his apartment complex. A lot had certainly been happening lately... and not all good things, either.

He was simply so bogged down with cases that he couldn't breathe; there was the one for the Kitsunes, and for the Hirotaros, which, to add glumly, was getting no where, and the third...

He found himself digging into his pocket, fumbling his fingers against the smooth texture of a ring, a frown on his features. But that wasn't the only unfortunate occurance of the day. Though he had met (and traded numbers with, as he was, sadly, proud to say) an old acquaintance in the instant ramen isle, it was still unable to lift his spirits as much as he had hoped. He was still more bummed than ever about the... "break up". If throwing a ring at your fiance's face was considered a break up. And "bummed" was certainly too shy of a word for the depression that was currently killing him at the moment.

Not only that, but he had discovered she had been cheating on him as well. A bit of a slap in the face... And to make matters worse, the third case he was working on with Miroku was hitting rock bottom, as it seemed that the suspect's defense wasn't going to allow him to be put to the stand, much less cross-examined. They had plenty of information to pin a confession out of him, but it would seem that their confession would be impossible without being able to question him.

He had decided to go home early, so Miroku had stayed behind at the office while Inuyasha spent his off time meandering around the city running errands. For some reason, it had gotten his mind well off of Kikyou, even if it was only for a few hours.

"Hello, this is Mrs. Kitsune. I was unable to reach you at the office, so Ofuda-san relayed to me your phone number..."

Inuyasha opened the door, peering into its contents in search of something to satisfy his hunger.

"I hope I am not bothering you, but I was hoping to schedule an appointment some time this week for my husband and I..."

He groaned, noting that he had eaten the last of the chocolate cake the other night. He snatched out a bottle of diet coke, closing the refridgerator.

"If it would not be too much trouble, I would also like to speak about my son--"

Inuyasha walked over and deleted the message quickly, glaring at the answering machine. "Yeah, yeah, some time this week..." he mumbled, moving towards the cabinet for a glass.

"Inuyasha, it's Miroku."

He glared mildly at the machine. "I know that." Not that he could hear him, though...

"I need you to type up those interrogations--"

"And I know that," he answered, cutting off the second message with the delete button.

"Sorry to bother you, Inuyasha, but it's Sango. I was hoping that you could meet Miroku and I at the Ichibon around seven? We're going on a date, but I really need that picture for my article tomorrow..."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at the answering machine. Picture? What picture? He didn't have a picture...

"I'll call you back if anything changes."

Wait a minute, he didn't agree to anything! He glared at the blinking machine again, grabbing a glass out of the cabinet and filling it with ice. The machine moved onto the next message as he poured some fizz onto the ice.

"Hey, Sango again. Plans changed. We're not going on the date..."

"Wait, Sango, I--"

Inuyasha blinked as another voice protested in the background.

"Shut up!" He smirked at the crash and cry of pain before Sango's voice came back. "Anyway, I'll just come by and pick it up after you get home, so... probably around six or so."

"Sango, I apologized for that, why don't you--"

"Shut up!" he heard her yell, chuckling again as there was another crash and the line went dead. He plopped into a chair by the table, leaning back and taking a sip of coke as he waited for the next message. It was probably Sango again, anyway...

"Inuyasha..."

He froze, the glass pausing on his lips.

"I know I was a bit cruel to you this morning..."

Kikyou.

"I just want you to know that I... well..."

He set his glass down on the table, sitting up a bit straighter as he now listened intently to the answering machine. Was she calling to apologize?

"I wanted to come by and get my things tomorrow... I know you'll be at work, so I'll come by then..."

His hand tightened against the glass as his eyes narrowed.

"I know that you probably hate me right now. I'm... I'm sorry for all of this. I just want you to know that I don't hate you, even though you might hate me; I feel horrible for leading you on like that and I--"

"I don't want your fucking PITY!" he yelled, throwing his glass at the machine with a powerful arm. The glass, coke and all, clashed sharply with the telephone, knocking it clear off of the counter with a loud bang, the glass sliding on the granite to smash into pieces against the wall, the splattered coke running down the green wallpaper.

His hand fisted, and his stood abruptly from his chair, storming out of the kitchen into his room, slamming the door behind him. The slamming and yelling didn't help at all, however, and it only seemed to feed his anger more. He gripped his shirt, pulling it up over his head and throwing it roughly onto his bed, stalking into his bathroom and turning on the water. A nice, long shower would calm him down. He needed to be in a good sense of mind for tomorrow, especially because he probably had to meet with one of his clients, and that always required a good frame of mind.

He sighed tightly, noting absently that he had forgotten to take his shoes off after entering his apartment. He pulled off the uncomfortable black shoes, tossing them into the corner alond with his socks. He grabbed his robe, draping it over the bathroom door as he waited for the water to heat up. Though it was a nice apartment, it took forever for the water to get warm, especially around this time, when everyone else in the complex was taking a shower.

Inuyasha wandered out of his room, finding himself walking into the room next to his. It was a bit out of habit; he would always walk into her room when he was waiting for the shower to warm up. She was his five minute entertainment, and it usually ended up with her getting angry for him distracting her from her work. Even though she would frown at such, he knew that she didn't mind the affection every now and then to get her nose out of the books.

He leaned against the door frame, his eyes falling on the desk in the corner, a pile of books lying neatly in the corner of it, a cup of run down pencils and uncapped pens next to it. She was always studying. She was in medical school, even though she had wanted to pursue an English degree to be a journalist. She was always writing something or another, whether it be a research paper or a diary entry.

He suddenly frowned. Why was he thinking about her again? He snarled, turning on his heel and stalking out of the room to take a shower. When she came for her things, he was certainly NOT going to be here.

That's it. A bit shorter than I wanted, but once I get rolling on the chapters they'll be much longer. SYS! (See you soon!)