Okay, okay, I'm really sorry for the uber long update 'cuz I usually update in a few days to maybe a week or two, but this time I crossed the line. I had minor writer's block, and I had been kinda busy with school and helping out at my parents' restaurant. And now I'm making excuses. So, without further ado, enjoy this late update.

Oh yeah, I don't own Inuyasha. If I did, I would be doing my own laundry.

Chapter 8: Lend a Hand, Bro

"Okay, explain to me why we're doing this again?" the silver-headed Prince Charming asked, looking across the table at a clearly annoyed young girl. The two were seated outside of a Starbucks on a mellow September Friday afternoon. Few people walked the streets as the sky turned orange, preparing for a sunset.

Flarenii sighed heavily and leaned on her arm. This was the last time she was asking any favors from the bastard. "Look, it's just a little test. I mean, I don't see the friggin' problem. You sleep with a different woman each month! And I still don't know how you haven't caught HIV yet…" she added quietly.

Hiroshima hesitated. "Well…the girl is a little…" He struggled to look for the right word, "A little…bland."

"Ah, the great Prince Charming does have picks." Flarenii replied sarcastically before putting her hands together in front of Hiroshima, and bowed her head. "Come on, give her a shot! Don't you want to see the look on Lame-ass's face when he sees you going out with his ex-blind date!"

"Nnnn…That does sound tempting, but…if I'm right, she's still mourning the lost of her dead boyfriend." Hiroshima said.

"How'd you find out about that?" Flarenii asked, sitting back up. Itachio usually tries to ignore his older brother's existence, but he told Hiroshima about Sango and her ex-boyfriend buried six feet underneath Twin Tower crap? Maybe Sango's drawing the two brothers together…Nah, why the hell would she do that? She's still busy hating Lame-ass and crying over her boyfriend.

Hiroshima shrugged. "Baby brother finally decided to do some bonding with me."

"Right…" Flarenii muttered, leaning back to look up at the orange/red sky. Hmm… "So, will you help me or not, pretty boy?"

Hiroshima grinned at the nickname. (He likes being called names like that…) He couldn't say no to a girl, since he was such a charming nice guy. But, he wouldn't so yes either because he liked his good looks so when Itachio finds out…

Inside Hiroshima's head…

Sex-Maniac Hiroshima: I'm totally up for the girl!

Goody-Two-Shoes Hiroshima: No, the girl is younger than you and she is already courting your younger brother. As an older brother, you must set a good example.

Sex-Maniac Hiroshima: Ah, who gives a fuck! I say, let's go fuck the girl!

Goody-Two-Shoes Hiroshima: Oh how horrible!

Back to Reality…

Hiroshima tapped his chin and looked up at the sky. What should I do? What should I do… Hiroshima smiled.

Flarenii sat up and looked straight at him. "Sooooo…you'll do it?

/Ring Tone/

"Grrdamit…Stupid, stuck-up bastard…" A Young Chinese girl muttered fiercely underneath her breath as she searched her pocket for her cell phone. Good thing that the teacher currently had her back to the girl, busy teaching the class. Flarenii sneaked a look to her left and her right, nobody seemed to give a shit that her cell phone just went off. Sigh. Good. Propping her literature book up in front of her like a wall, Flarenii lowered her head behind the book and opened her phone. "Thisss better be good, Shima. I'm in the middle of my fucken class!" She hissed out through gritted teeth.

From his cell phone outside Feudal Village Apartments, Hiroshima smiled, his white teeth never losing its brightness. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were in the middle of something."

Flarenii smacked the palm of her hand to her forehead and muttered a few lines of extremely colorful words. The girl took a deep breath and letted it out slowly. "Woooooooosssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……….."

The teacher seemed to have heard her and turned around. "Is everything all right?" Practically the whole class turned their bored gazes towards the Chinese girl.

"Eh heh heh heh…No, no, no, I'm good." After most of the people looked away Flarenii shoved her cell phone in her ear.

"What was that about?"

The pencil in her hand snapped cleanly in two. "Shut the fucken hell up, and get the fuck on with it, Goddamit!"

"Oh, feisty aren't we?"

"You just love pushing my buttons don't you! Anyway, why the hell did you call? Wait, wait, don't tell me: you wet your pants." Flarenii said, sarcastically, throwing her broken pencil over the side of her desk. This was so fucken frustrating! That bastard can really get on anybody's nerves, Goddamit. I swear, even the Devil would beg God to take him away.

"Back on track, I'm outside her place. What am supposed to do, knock on her door? What if my baby brother sees me?"

"Do I have to hold your hand through dating a depressed girl?" Flarenii asked, her attention captivated by a little ant marching across her desk. March, march, march, march….Ants…what dumbasses…At least they don't give up…

"Hm?"

Flarenii sighed, her breath sounding raspy on the other phone. "Nevermind. Anyway, it'll be good if Itachio sees you, then we'll find out if he's jealous or not. And yes, you knock. What? You five or something?"

Hiroshima raised an eyebrow, confused. "Jealous? You know, Flarenii, you still haven't explained to me your plan yet."

"No, I haven't. I won't tell anybody anything, because if I do, you'll just screw up. So just follow along." Flarenii said. Oh, the ant's crawling up the side of her book. It can go vertical, cool.

Hiroshima stepped out of his just-washed car and slammed the door shut. The Prince Charming smiled casually to two girls walking pass. The usual reaction: blush, giggle, hurry away, and sneak looks back at him. This is just too easy. Wonder why I'm not married yet. Oh, yeah, I like to pound a different girl every other while. The Prince smiled to himself, and before he knew it he was right in front of door number 07. After digging in his pocket for a few moments, he pulled out a scrap of paper with the number "7" scrawled on it. "Looks like this is the place."

Knock. Knock.

Splash!

Sango stood shivering and gasping in front of her bathroom mirror. It was just a dream…-good. Slowly, she raised her dripping, wet right hand and placed it against the surface of the mirror, it felt cool to the skin. Brown eyes gazed into brown. It's strange, looking at her own reflection…made her sad. It was as if her reflection was reminding her of her old self. The one that was happy. The one that was strong. Not like her now. She's weak, and oh what the hell.

Grabbing a towel from the side, Sango wiped her face dry only to hear somebody knocking on her door. Knocking on her door…Great, Sango groaned inwardly, I bet it's Itachio again.

Why was she still mad at him anyways? Sango stood still, holding the towel to her face. For some reason, just thinking about him makes her so frustrated! Who does he and that little brat think they are? Just prancing in and forcing her into a stupid date… With a loud sigh, Sango dropped the towel on the floor and looked up at her ceiling. Maybe she should apologize for the way she's been acting. After all, he had been coming numerous times to apologize.

"Maybe she's not home…" Hiroshima spoke into his cell phone. Yep, they're still talking. He turned around and glanced at his brother's door. Wonder if he's up yet.

Flarenii sat back and slumped in her desk. "Nah, trust me, she's there. I found out on Wednesday that she doesn't go to work on Friday morningsand the weekends." The Chinese girl's brown eyes followed the little ant up the book and down the book. What's it doing?

"All right, class, turn to page 66 for an example of a haiku…"

Flarenii was barely listening, but non-the-less she turned the page. "Just keep on trying. She'll open up some time soon. Or you can spend the night outside her door."

The knocking continued as Sango fed Kirara her food. Obviously, the visitor was bent on not leaving. With a sigh, Sango got up and opened the front door.

Hiroshima's eyes widened. Fuck, no wonder his brother was hooked on this girl. He looked her up and down, a red tank-top with one of its thin straps drooping a little too low , and pink pjs. This girl just got up…Heh heh heh heh heh heh…

Sango was surprised at first to see Hiroshima standing in front of her, but that quickly changed to irritation when she saw his grey eyes peering a good number of inches below her face. Hiroshima was pulled from his churning, perverted thoughts when Sango quickly pulled the loose strap back up her shoulder and snapped at him harshly. "What're you doing here? Come to irritate me like your bastard of a brother?" Even as she said this, Sango glared past Hiroshima's shoulder towards Itachio's door.

"Oh, harsh, man." Flarenii commented. Hiroshima had shoved his phone in his jacket pocket the minute Sango had opened her door, but the young match-maker could still hear everything.

Hiroshima smiled down gently at Sango, and she nearly lost it. For some reason, the way he smiled reminded her of the way that Miroku used to smile at her. It was like…the two brothers both have something that reminded her of him...

"No, I didn't come to irritate you, I'm sorry if you feel that way though. I heard from my brother about your…uh…deceased friend. I must apologize for his rudeness on the subject. I'm afraid he doesn't know any better."

"Woah…charming as always, aren't cha?" The ant stopped in the middle of her book page and it seemed to be sniffing at something with its antennas.

Sango continued glaring at him before crossing her arms in front of her. "Well, what do you want?"

Hiroshima chuckled and leaned on her door post, bringing his face mere inches before hers and smiled. "I heard from a little feisty birdie that you don't go to work on Friday mornings. How 'bout you hang around with me for the day? Sort of a date."

"Feisty birdie!" Flarenii hissed into the phone.

Sango looked past Hiroshima's shoulder again before her gaze dropped to her feet. The last time she had agreed to a date with another man in the years that she had spent depressed over the loss of Miroku, she got hurt again. "I guess all that's left for me in life is to be hurt…" Sango murmured softly to herself.

"I'm sorry?" Hiroshima asked, having not heard her.

"Nothing." Sango replied quickly. "Fine, I'll go with you. I needed some fresh air anyways." Sango turned around and closed the door.

After she went in to change into something more suitable for the outside, Hiroshima wheeled around and shouted, "Yes! I got 'er!"

"Nice to know." Flarenii muttered. "Looks like you're on your own, Shima." The girl snapped her cell phone shut and watched the ant marching in an eight figure across the page of her book before the bell rang and her teacher dismissed the class. The Chinese match-maker slammed her book shut and got up. After a few steps, Flarenii stopped and opened up her text book to the page the little ant was crawling on and stared at the creature. It was pathetic, half of its tiny body had been crushed by the weight of half the book, yet…it still tried to move with the remainder of its limbs. It was pathetic, but almost saddening to watch.

Carefully, Flarenii used the tip of her pen to scrape the ant off her book page and placed it on a nearby desk where it still continued its futile struggle. It was pointless, in maybe five minutes, the ant would be dead.

Flarenii continued to look at it, but the child finally turned and walked away. "People always suffer, but even after a tremendous loss, they still struggle greedily to cling onto life. Pathetic."

The girl walked out into the hall just as the bell for the next class rang.

It's just pathetic…

End Chapter 8

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I forgot to mention earlier, but the updates are probably going to be up in a week and a half to two weeks. My schedules just tight between homework, helping out at my parents' restaurant and practicing three different instruments, and now I'm just making excuses AGAIN. I'm asking to please don't give up on the reviews because they get me going! So, thank you to all those who'll continue to read this story! Review! (Flames welcome.)