A/N: Go on, take it! Take another little piece of my heart, baby! Great song, moving on.

Review Responses

Pointy-Eared Archer: I actually have only read episode summaries! I've never even seen clips of the Shininchitai Arc. Smiles. Anyway, yeah, Inuyasha's, like, on fire­- hahaha. If they make Jakotsu a woman, I will kill myself. That's horrible! Besides, I don't think they can, even though they'd like to; if they did that, they'd have to redraw the scenes where Jakotsu's got his shirt off, and I don't think any of the workers would be very happy about it…so it's either he's a guy or they're just stopping the Shininchitai Arc. I dunno. I don't wanna watch it in Japanese, either, because I like the English voices. Hmm…marriage! We should, because my friend David's backyard has become a wedding chapel! Love ya, doll. Hee hee.

Dragon Pearl1: Yeah…Inuyasha's got a soft spot for him, he's just a stubborn, mean, difficult bastard! And Ban-chan is always adorable…couple of things I'd like to do to him. Haha. I'm such a loser. Oh, if you've seen the series in English on Cartoon Network, did they just cut the whole damn Shininchitai thing out? Love ya!

Chapter Seven

I woke up the next day, sort of. You can't call what I do in the morning "waking up," really. It's just getting up. I mean, I'm not really that excited about seeing the people I have to deal with every day. Sometimes I don't even know why I bother.

Anyway, I woke up and did nothing of particular interest until I got downstairs for breakfast. I didn't have to get ready for school; today was some sort of professional day or some stupid religious holiday. Don't know, don't care. The smell of eggs and some sort of meat came bursting into contact, intermingled with cigarette smoke. My father was home- I could tell just from that dry, chalky smoke smell.

He greeted me with a large smile when I walked in, rubbing my eyes and scowling. "Morning, son!" he said, happily, smoke blowing out from his mouth. I nodded and sat down. My dad doesn't look like me, save the white hair and the eyes. Mostly I look like my mom- wide face, pouty mouth. But my father and I have the same scowl, and the same upturned nose. And the eyebrows. Eesh. The eyebrows…

"Good morning, honey," my mother said, in that sticky-sweet mother tone of hers.

"Yeah," I muttered. "What's to eat?"

She set out a large green plate and a couple of smaller plates out where my father was reading the newspaper. "Canadian bacon, eggs…and some fruit, if you're hungry for dessert. Get some napkins for us?"

I grabbed some napkins from the previously unopened generic brand package and stuck them in the purple napkin holder my mother'd always insisted on putting on the table. I took a plate and served myself a whoreload of food. Once I felt satisfied with my mountain of breakfast food (I'm not kidding- I just pile shit on, and I don't eat more than my stomach can hold, either), I sat down.

"Get some rice with that," Dad said, in that booming proud voice he used whenever he talked to me. I guess it's 'cause I'm the baby of the family.

Ever since Dad made it into the importing business, he'd been obsessed with rice. I shrugged and scooped some of the hard dry stuff onto a plate and started to put it in the microwave.

"Here, son, I'll show you how to reheat that," he said, gently pulling the rice plat out of the microwave. "Now, it's not going to taste any good if it's dry, so you have to add water so it'll steam. And mix it a little, with a spoon." He sprinkled some tap water on it, and began to stir. He put it in the microwave and set it on thirty-five seconds. "And, there you go! Reheat the rice like that, understood? We don't eat for the sake of eating- dogs do that."

Let me take a moment here to tell you how extremely ironic I found that comment.

Moving on. I nodded, understanding this display of fatherly love. He patted me on the head and went back to the newspaper. I began to eat my breakfast when, oh me oh my, the Prince walked out of the Holy of Holies (his room), expressionless expression gracing his face.

"Good morning, Sesshoumaru," my mom said, softly.

My father nodded. "Sesshoumaru."

"Good morning Father. Izayoi." He proceeded to look into the refrigerator for something to eat that was more suited to His Highness' Royal Tongue. And, of course, there's no, "Good morning, Inuyasha." Bastard. I rolled my eyes and shoveled some bacon into my mouth.

"Is there nothing to eat in this horrendous house?" he asked from the fridge, pulling out a diet coke. My brother doesn't eat anything to effect of "normal" or "easy-to-prepare." Only this finest for him. Except prawns.

You see, my brother has been terrified of prawns for, well, forever. I don't know why. No one does- he's never told a soul, not even Rin (probably because she never asked). But the heart of the matter is that he's afraid of prawns, cooked or alive. Last time someone tried to serve us prawns was when I was six or seven and he was nine or ten. We were over a neighbor's house- they were totally innocent. They couldn't have had a clue. Anyway, we were all having a good time until the Misses comes out with a huge platter- of huge, ugly prawns. And, let me tell you, he went berserk. He started crying and screaming so loud that one of the neighbors called the police because she thought some little neighborhood boy was being raped. That's how bad it is. Since then, he hasn't seen any of those things, but when I make cracks about it, the look on his face is priceless.

"Well, there's the perfectly good stuff my mom made for you," I grunted.

"I wasn't referring to dog food," he spat, his face still emotionless.

I turned around to him and exclaimed, "Go to hell!"

"Enough, boys!" my dad cried out. He hates any tension in the family- he knows it's there, but he chooses not to see it, or bring it out. Sometimes I wonder how my dad keeps that smile on his face all day.

"Now, now," Izayoi said warmly, "Sesshoumaru just has more sensitive, refined tastes- we can't persecute him for liking different things, now, can we?"

Silence was my answer.

I chose to broke it. "Hey, who shut off my cell phone last night, by the way?"

"I don't suppose it was me," Mom replied. "Why do you ask?"

"'Cause Kagome was supposed to call me yesterday night, but someone put the phone off," I replied, typically directing it as loudly as I could towards my brother. I knew it was him, that little shit… "And now she's probably fuming at me for shutting my phone off."

"I did," my brother replied, finally deciding on just a Special K bar.

"And why would you do that?" I asked.

He glared at me, eyes narrowing. "Because that annoying little friend of yours keeps aggravating me in the middle of the night. It would be wise that you advise him to learn some respect for other people's routines."

"What friend?" Dad asked. "And in the middle of the night?"

I felt a red-hot flush creeping up to my face. I stuck my nose in my food more. "Nothing, Dad, it's just some person I know who keeps getting the wrong number-"

"Then why, tell me, are the calls persistent and always for someone who, ironically, is named Inuyasha? Or, to be more accurate, Yashie?" he asked, his voice ice-cold.

"Alright, it's just someone I know! Would ya quit muckin' around in my business, ya two-faced little creep!" I shouted. I shoveled some eggs into my mouth, frustrated, and said, "He's some weird stalker guy who wants to be my friend or something. I don't know. Just leave it alone, okay?"

Some silence ensued while everyone ate and drank. I sat there, for some reason embarrassed- why did knowing Jakotsu embarrass me? My mom smiled warmly. "Well, I think it's nice you're making some friends out of school," she said. She handed my father an apple. "Do you want some fruit, dear?"

>>>>>>

The phone rang. I knew what to expect. "Hello?" I breathed into the phone, grumpily. I don't know why I even bothered saying hi. I knew it was him.

"Hi-ho," he chimed, happily. "You don't sound too happy."

"Talking to you doesn't exactly make my day," I quipped, collapsing onto my bed. I don't know why he liked me so much…

"Aww, don't say that," he replied. "I told you, you'll learn to like me."

"I highly doubt that."

"Doubt is an ugly word," he said, in a singsong way. I don't know what made him so happy- he was a gay freak who went to Catholic school. I had to admire his courage. Sort of. "So is onomatopoeia. And phlegm."

"Why are you calling me?" I interrupted.

"'Cause I wanna talk. 'Cause I like you," he said. "I can't figure out any more reasons. You don't sound busy." Again with his assumptions- he acted like such a selfish little kid. "You wanna come over?"

I rolled my eyes. "No. What makes you think I'm not busy?"

"I don't know. You don't sound like anything interesting is happening. You never do. You sound devoid of happiness. Renkotsu said that once. I gotta go- I have to shower. I'll talk later."

"Yeah." I hung up the phone. "Devoid of happiness, eh?" I repeated to myself. I sighed. "What the hell does that mean." I wasn't "devoid of happiness," as he put it- I was happy. I had an amazing girlfriend and great grades and an exciting life. I was happy, godamnit- right? Right.

Figuring I had nothing better to do, I finished The Brothers Karazamov up. Sesshoumaru walked into my room. I looked up.

"What?" I greeted him warmly.

"I'm going out," he replied. "Father wants to know if you'd like anything."

I rolled my eyes. "That sure is nice of you to care. Like I'd want anything from you. Buzz off."

His nose twitched in disgust and he left, leaving me alone- but not bored. I had it in my mind to prove Jakotsu wrong. I wasn't bored. I just had nothing to do half the time.

>>>>>>>

A/N: That chapter was kind of boring…more character relationship foreshadowing and such. Cupcakes taste great and music is nice.

Reviews and opinions are appreciated beaucoup.