A/N: Requested by XFangHeartX. Suggestion; "Inuyasha with a bellyache"
Put on the usual facepalm protection and onward we go!

Manly Care For Men

It started one day in Higurashi house, when both Kagome and her mom were out - the former was at school, the latter doing extensive shopping. One hanyou Inuyasha was waiting for his (secretly favorite) miko to show up, so he could whisk her away. He was spending his time sprawled out on the living room floor, one ear cocked to listen to the TV box the old shrine keeper was watching, the other listening to Souta trying to explain to him the plot of the comic book he had been reading.

That was when the calamity struck.

It was subtle at first, Inuyasha winced slightly and changed his position. Then his ear twitched when he did it again and again. He grumbled and rubbed his stomach.

"What's wrong, Inuyasha?" Souta asked when his hero sat up, glaring at his midsection in angry confusion and pain.

"My stomach aches," he said, trying not to sound alarmed. What could make a hanyou fell ill? Was it something he had had for breakfast? Nah, ramen couldn't make him feel so shitty... Some dark miko spell then...?

Inuyasha's musings were interrupted when the two Higurashi males jumped to their feet, alarmed.

"A bellyache?!" Souta sounded anxious and sympathetic. "They're the worst! Only teeth pains are worse!"

"Quick, boy! Is it located in one are or is wandering? Or is it fading away and coming back or steadily getting worse?" the old shrine keeper inquired. Before Inuyasha could answer he was already running out of the room. "Stay here, I have just the cure!"

Inuyasha was going to look in confusion at the boy, but Souta was already gone. All the hanyou could do is to massage his belly and groan softly, hoping it would pass soon. What was his youkai healing doing when he needed it?

Then the two Higurashi men came back and Inuyasha realized shortly after that the stomach ache wasn't going to end him.

"Drink this!"

.

It had been a long day at school and the miko was simply tired and happy that she was home. Of course, she was doomed to be dragged back to the past any time, but she decided to just focus on the moment. And at this moment she was going to sit down and relax for a while.

Kagome entered the house and was about to call our to her family, but didn't have time to do that before Souta almost tackled her to the ground.

"Kagome!" he exclaimed, panic and relief mixing in his voice. The girl instantly shook off the desire to sit and rest, it was plain as day that something terribly wrong was going on. Was it a youkai attack?

"Thank gods you're home, dear," her grandfather came down the stairs as Kagome walked in, dragging Souta that clung to her side.

"What happened?" the miko asked worriedly.

"It's Inuyasha!" Souta grasped at her clothes. "You have to save him!"

"Where is he?" Kagome immediately forgot about her exhaustion, her hanyou needed her. Her brother pointed up, to where her room was. Kagome nodded and started to walk to the stairs. It made sense that the injured Inuyasha hid in her room, he often did it. Once he had destroyed her bed coverings, because he had bleed on them for gods knew how long before she had came back home and had wrapped his half-healed ass up in bandages. "So, what is it this time? Gut wound? Broken limb?"

"Stomach ache," her grandpa replied and glanced away when she stated a him. "We don't know what happened, he was sitting there and just suddenly felt cramps... I gave him our famous stomach ache family cure, but..."

"He barfed it right in mom's favorite vase," Souta filled Kagome in. "Better don't go to the backyard. On this matter - don't go to the living room too."

Kagome almost was too afraid to ask. "Why?"

"Well, when he... gave back grandpa's medicine I tried to give him a spoonful of sugar with pepper mint... You know, like mom always does for me..."

Kagome gulped, suspecting...

"...He tried to leap away for some reason and I kinda dropped the bottle of pepper mint..."

Kagome didn't listen anymore, she practically leaped to the top of the stairs and raced towards her room. She swung her door open to see Inuyasha sprawled on her bed, his head hanging off of the side of the bed, his hand grasping at the paper bin that stood next to the waterfall of his silver hair and limp ears.

"Came to finish the job?" the hoarse voice of the hanyou was flat and exhausted. "Go ahead."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped. At the sound of her voice his head snapped up and his eyes lit up with a spark of hope. The next second he was trying to put his face in the trash bin.

'Well, this is the first time he threw up at the sight of me,' she thought sourly as she walked closer to pull his hair back and rub his shoulder. When she spotted the two caretakers standing in the door she ordered them to bring water and a towel for the hanyou. She helped him sit up and rinse his mouth before Souta took the bin out, then she made the ill boy drink a whole glass of water and take a painkiller.

In the meantime she learned that Inuyasha had snatched one of the chocolate cookies that stood on a plate in the living room while waiting for her.

She was in the middle of lecturing him about chocolate and dogs, when she noticed that the hanyou was curled around her sitting on the edge of her bed, his hands gripping her hand to his cheek as he slept.

"Will he be fine?" Souta worried from the chair next to the desk. Kagome brushed Inuyasha's bangs out of his eyes.

"Yeah, let him sleep it off," she whispered softly. "And when he wakes up he can deal with mom's vase."