Disclaimer: I do Not own Inuyasha

Overtime

Chapter 6

Kouga took the opportunity of the new beauty storming angrily, and seemingly hurt from the staff room as his cue.

'Somebody doesn't want me here…' Kagome thought angrily to herself.

"Are you alright? Kagome was it?" She looked up, surprised to see Kouga stopped in front of her. A small smile spread across her lips.

'And it's not this guy…' she finished slyly.

"Yes, and yes," she replied.

Kouga smiled warmly at her. "Well if you ever need anyone to talk to…I will be here f-"

"Save it Kouga," A slightly amused voice came from across the counter. Kagome, who was quite entertained by his heartfelt speech, turned in unison with Kouga to the newcomer.

Kouga straightened out and walked over to shake hands with the man. He wasn't very tall, but not short. He had a short, low ponytail, and was dressed in a gray suit with thin white vertical lines going down it. His tie was a light blue satin. He looked very nice and seemed to have a permanent grin stuck onto his charming face.

"Hey Miroku!" Kouga said. After shaking hands with Kouga, Miroku turned his attention to Kagome.

"Hello Miss, my name is Miroku." He reached his hand out to her.

"Kagome," she replied, taking it.

'How did he know Kouga? Seems like a well respected business man to me.' Kagome thought, judging by Miroku's expensive suit.

"Just stopping by to say hello, I should be off though, really. Tell Sango I said hi."

"Sure thing Miroku!" Kouga yelled and Miroku waved back over his shoulder.

"Sango?" Kagome asked curiously, more to herself but that didn't stop Kouga from answering.

"That's his girlfriend," Kouga said. "They've been dating for almost a year now. Funny story actually…"

'A year? Whoa, the longest relationship I've ever had was three months, and I thought that was long..'

"I'm listening," Kagome prompted, wanting to here more.

"Miroku had a whole army of women after him; everyone wanted a piece of him but Sango. He chased her around for years, all through high school practically, until she finally gave in and accepted his offer for a date." Kouga looked like he was trying to contain a laugh. "You should have seen his face when she said yes! It was hilarious!"

She smiled at him, trying to picture someone like Miroku having to actually look for a girlfriend. He seemed like the player, big-shot type of guy anyway.

"Wow," Kagome said raising her eyebrows in astonishment.

He glanced at the clock and turned back to her. "Well, I gotta jet Kagome. I promised Kagura I would meet her for lunch."

"That's fine, I'll talk to you later." Kagome smiled at him.

'Right when I think I've met everyone, they mention someone else…'

She sighed and glanced at the clock behind her for the millionth time today. She doesn't know why she keeps checking, she has one on her wrist.

'What am I doing stacking papers? There's still half an hour of lunch left."

She glanced back at the staff room door. Flushed, she turned away again. No way was she going back in there.

"Whatever," she said outloud and passed through the small swinging door.

The small clan of sportsmart uniforms together at a bench somehow drew her towards their table. Hojo was there, so was Sango and Kouga accompanied by two girls she'd never seen before. Since one was talking to Kouga she assumed it was Kagura even though she could be completely off.

Sango motioned for Kagome to come sit beside her. She sat down between Sango and Hojo and was immediately lost in everyones chatter.

Kagome was right, one of the girls was Kagura. She looked very mysterious with her jet black hair and pale skin, maybe even a tad on the irritable side. Her hair was in a high bun and she wore a yellow summer dress.

"I'm from Sportsmart as well," Kagura said, gently putting her vitamin water down on the table.

"This is my sister, Kanna." She waved a lazy hand in the direction of the younger looking girl beside her, with what seemed to be silver hair. She had also pinned a beautiful white flower in it.

"I'm from the boutique," was all she said, in an eerie monotone fashion.

Kagome tried to ignore the creepiness of it all. "Kagura, you said you were from Sportsmart? I never saw you there today…"

Kagome's question was so innocent she actually made an effort to answer.

"It's my day off." Well, sort of made and effort to answer.

"What department do you work in?" Kagome pressed on. Everyone else looked on anticipating Kagura's answer. Was she getting annoyed?

"I don't work in a department," she said "Thanks to Kanna over there I'm Naraku's assistant."

Kouga couldn't help but laugh and earned himself a glare of doom from Kagura, who herself, after seeing him laugh, had to hide a smile. Him and Kagura always seemed to fight though.

"Assistant?" Kagome sat up from the bench and slammed her hands on the table in exaggerated surprise. "How do you manage?" Kagura didn't even bat an eye at her outburst. Embarrassed Kagome sat down, calming herself.

"Well you see..." Kouga piped up looking incredibly smug.

"Silence Kouga." Kagura looked up at him with ferocity in her eyes, as if she was daring him to continue. So Sango just had to go on for him, since she was such a good friend.

"Kanna bet Kagura a thousand dollars that she couldn't handle being Onigumeau's assistant for a year. He was the most annoying, stupid, arrogant man! But," Sango paused for effect, "as luck may have it, Onigumeau retired and now she's stuck with Naraku for the rest of the year."

She sat back, happy with her explanation while Kagura tapped her fingers impatiently on the table. "Done revealing my life story to a complete stranger?"

"Might as well get to know her, she will be working at the same place as you from now on." Kouga laughed "Poor baby, huh?"

Kagome sat back feeling the slightest bit awkward amidst such close friends.

Kagura rolled her eyes when Hojo finally spoke up. "Hey Kagome," he played with the tip of his straw nervously. "If you're not busy tonight…umm."

Kouga straightened noticeably in his chair. "Wanna go see a movie?" He said the last few words as quick as he could. Too quick because Kagome didn't quite catch it.

"Excuse me?" She asked, Hojo reddened at the thought of being forced to repeat himself again. Everyone at the bench was already looking at him funny.

"Will you go to the movies with me tonight Kagome," he looked straight at her, ready for whatever was coming.

"Hojo, I-I just met you." She smiled at him trying to sound nice, and he took it as encouragement to continue, but before he could Kouga stepped in.

"Yea." Kouga said giving Hojo a deadly glare. "Plus, she's busy tonight."

Kagome's confused look mirrored that of her company.

"Doing what?" Sango asked.

"Going to dinner with me." Kouga stated.

"Oh really…" Kagome looked from Hojo to Kouga, then back again. They waited, ready for an answer until she stood up from the table and began to walk away.

"Wait up!" Sango called, taking a place beside her, she was greeted with one of Kagome's warm smiles.

"Nice meeting you Kagura and Kanna!" Kagome called over her shoulder to the rest of them at the bench. "Bye!"

"This is your fault Hojo!" Kouga's cursing could be heard in the distance.

Sango and Kagome walked into the store, passed the front desk and walked into the staff room just in time to see the back door close with a rushed 'click'

The two paused for a minute, eyeing the doorway. They looked at each other, then shrugged it off.

Kagome bought a water while Sango went straight to the couch and flicked on the TV making herself comfortable. She laughed.

"Who was watching Gundam SEED?" she heard her mumble quietly.

"So…" Kagome said sitting cross-legged with her feet up on the couch. She had one hand draped loosely over one knee and the other hand holding her water. "What exactly is Inuyasha's problem?"

Sango laughed before responding. "It's not really a problem that he has…he wasn't always like that, I swear."

She took Kagome's confused look as the right away to continue.

"Well there was Kikyo…come to think of it you do kind of look like her." Sango tilted her head to get a better look at the new girl. Kagome sat, not knowing if looking like this girl was a good thing or not.

"And then there was that whole thing with Naraku…" Sango shook her head thinking back, totally unaware of how uninformed she was leaving Kagome.

"Ever since then he's barely ever spoken to me at work, or anyone for that matter. I've known Inuyasha since he was very young and I don't think I've ever seen him so upset. It's like he just doesn't care anymore. After loosing Kikyo to someone like Naraku nothing really matters to him." You could tell she cared for Inuyasha. "As mad as he may seem, he's just been hurt so badly. I don't think he's gotten over it."

Calmly, Kagome put down her bottled water, finding this subject in need of all of her concentration.

"What does what happened between Inuyasha and some girl have to do with me? I don't even know the guy and he treats me like I've personally shit in his cereal." She threw her hands up in the air with frustration.

"Ha! You think what he's done to you is bad? You should have seen the other two girls that came in, they didn't even last a week."

"Pardon? He's done this before?"

"You see… he has this thing with trying to get all the new girls fired. I think its something to do with the pay, he needs it for…ummm…" Sango furrowed her brow trying to remember.

"I don't know, something he wanted. I don't see what it could be though, Inuyasha has everything— a nice car, nice apartment, tons of ladies. I think he only works here as a side job or something, trying to prove to his parents he can make money on his own."

"Oh…" Kagome looked at her hands then back at Sango.

"If it's that important to him..." she paused. "Well, I feel kind of bad. Maybe I should, you know..." A bit disappointed, she lowered her gaze.

"No!" Sango said and put her hand on Kagome's shoulder. "You deserve this job just as much as he does. You need to fight this Kagome, treat him like he treats you and I bet you he will get off of your back."

"Really?"

Sango took her hand back and smiled sneakily, "Definitely."

Kagome straightened. "Thanks Sango." She got a fierce look of determination in her eyes. "I should teach him a lesson."

They both sat up laughing, exiting the staff room quite happy with themselves.

'Maybe this wont be so hard after all…'

By the end of the day Kagome was exhausted. It was around 7:30pm when she got back to her apartment. She parked her red Sunfire in the garage and lazily headed upstairs.

The walls were cream and the furniture was a calming mix of deep browns and beiges. The picture frames that littered the walls were black, matching her shiny kitchen appliances. She had a pretty nice apartment for someone who just moved out a year ago.

She took off her coat, hung it up and plopped down on the couch.

Something crumpled in her pocket. Curiously she stuck her hand in and pulled out a piece of paper.

Reading it, she finally remembered that it was the employee calendar Sango gave her.

Still looking at it, she got up from the couch and pinned the calendar to the message board by the fridge.

Kagome stuck a piece of pizza in the microwave and pulled a coke form the fridge, then left to turn on the TV and crank the heat up. She could feel the chill of winter nipping at her heels, so she got a blanket and snuggled into the couch.

According to her employee calendar she had a Christmas Party held at the Holiday Inn lounge in just two weeks.

That should be interesting.

End chapter six