Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha™ nor do I own any of its characters or its original plotline. They are the intellectual property of Takahashi Rumiko and will remain so forever. My small claim on this work of fiction is in its creation of the alternate universe plotline, which I assert to the best of my knowledge to be an original product of my imagination. Any similarity to persons(other than the aforementioned characters belonging to Takahashi Rumiko) or events either real or previously imagined is completely coincidental and please excused.

Despite forgetting about his earlier plan to favor Miss Higurashi with a 'fun' ride to go with her bladder problem, the ride was bumpy enough to get her upset, and put Inuyasha back into his previously mischievous mood.

As he rounded a building a little faster than necessary, Kagome bit her lip and glared daggers at the dark haired young man. A small grin teased the corners of his mouth, having the effect of making her want to slap him silly.

'She'll be really pissed when she finds out I took the long way…' thought Inuyasha grimly.

He slowed down just enough for the Jeep to stop swaying from side to side like a boat, and Kagome seemed to relax a little bit. He slowed to a stop outside her new living quarters and chuckled slightly as she ran into the locked door, desperately trying to reach a toilet. She turned and gestured to him, obviously wanting him to unlock the door.

He took his time grabbing her bag and making his way around the Jeep, stopping to help Kaede get out. When he finally opened the door for Kagome, she bolted straight to what she was sure was the water closet…a frustrated cry soon revealed she had been incorrect.

Three more frustrated cries later, a door slammed and all was silent.

Inuyasha carried the luggage in and set it on the floor in the middle of the main room, looking around as he did so. The VOQ was known to the enlisted men for being very posh and comfortable, yet what Inuyasha saw hardly brought that description to mind. These were the adjectives that immediately came to mind: dingy, dark, simplistic, musty, and most of all, OLD. He grinned inwardly, thinking that the officers must be more masochistic than he had originally thought. He dimly hoped that the stifling little house wouldn't wear on Kagome's spirit…whoops! Why should he hope that?

He continued to scratch his head in confusion to his own thoughts when Kagome re-entered the room a moment later.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you did that on purpose," she challenged him.

Inuyasha smirked slightly, "Girl, everything I do is purposeful."

Kagome eyed him coldly before taking a step back and looking his appearance over. Inuyasha did not appreciate being sized up.

"Look, if you've got some problem with me, you can just go—" he started indignantly.

"You're uniform could use some work," she stated flatly.

"No shit! I only regained it this morning, bitch!" he exploded.

She visibly flinched at his outburst, and he was instantly sorry, but only muttered "keh!"

"Well, what do you want to do about it?" he asked her, more calmly than before.

"For starters it needs to be pressed, then it could use some work on the brass…" he groaned inwardly—she seemed to be reading his list on what he knew was wrong with his uniform.

He interrupted her monologue by asking "Why do you care, anyway?"

"Well, if I'm going to have an escort, he's going to look good. Otherwise, nobody will take him seriously, and if nobody takes him seriously he'll lose confidence in himself, and if he loses confidence in himself he won't be able to do his job well, and since his job is to protect me, I thought it would be in my best interest to take care of him."

Inuyasha gaped. She had just rattled off all of the rationale that had ever been fed to him concerning why it was important for combat units to express professionalism and neatness. Being a former combat leader, he had been forced to learn about all of that. And he knew she was right.

"Hello? Kusanagi? What's wrong?" Kagome asked, slightly concerned.

Inuyasha shook himself out of his reverie. "All right, you win," he announced. "I'll take it to get pressed and polished before the show tonight."

"Not good enough," Kagome stated with a suppressed grin. This was going to be fun.

Inuyasha quirked an eyebrow. He didn't like the look the girl was giving him—like a cat eyeing a mouse. "What do you mean, not good enough?" he asked indignantly. "You don't trust me to get it done myself?"

"Nope."

His voice dripping with sarcasm, he retorted "Then what do you propose I do, Madame?" As he leaned into his exaggerated bow, he didn't see her reach for his wrist until it was too late. She dragged him before he could protest to the lavatory in the rear of the small house. When she literally swung him in and locked the door behind him, he was still too shocked to react. Had she just grabbed his wrist?

"Just who in the Hell does she think she is?" he thought aloud without realizing it.

"I am Kagome Higurashi, at your service," she answered, her voice dripping with the same sarcasm that previously graced his.

"And what am I supposed to do in here?" he yelled angrily through the door.

"Hand me your uniform so I can give it to someone I trust to get it pressed and polished in time for the show."

"Right. And what am I supposed to wear in the meantime…I can't exactly spend all afternoon in the latrine," he complained.

"Have a look."

He peeked through the keyhole. "You're fuckin' joking!" he bellowed, rattling the door on its hinges.

Kagome feigned an offended tone. "Now now, this is one of my favorite robes. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it."

"Let me count the ways," Inuyasha retorted. "It's…it's…Pink; it's got frills; it's lacy; did I mention the fact that it's pink? Where are the pants? How about a shirt? A cap couldn't hurt either, you know…" he trailed off. He had become preoccupied with the door. The hinges were on HIS side…hmmmmm. The possibility of removing the pins from the hinges was a definite possibility. Just as he was reaching for his boot knife, he heard the unmistakable sound of furniture being scraped across the floor. He peeked through the keyhole again, only to find it blocked. "What the Hell?" was his eloquent inquiry.

"You got too quiet, so I figured you were up to no good," a muffled Kagome explained. "I'll only move the armoire out of the way if you give me your uniform so I can have Kaede go get it pressed and polished."

"Great," he muttered with no enthusiasm. 'I'll be screwed if I don't get out of here soon…' He wasn't exactly a genius, but he was smart enough to realize that this girl had him stuck between a rock and a hard place. What he couldn't figure out was how she had done it.

"Fine. You win," he yelled out to her as he started to get out of his uniform. "Bitch!" he threw in, just for good measure. He heard the armoire being shoved out of the way, and if he hadn't been down to his skivvies already, he would have made a break for it. Then he heard the key turn in the door, and the door cracked open, a hand appearing, outstretched to receive his clothing.

His grin grew wicked as an idea occurred to him. He suddenly reached for the hand and yanked towards the door. He heard a surprised yelp as the girl came slamming through the door, only to shriek at the state of his undress. She slapped him before it even occurred to him that he hadn't expected her to see him in his underwear. The effect of the slap was just starting to sink in as he started to wonder what he had been thinking. He dumbly handed his uniform over to the now cherry red girl with her back to him. He could hear a low chuckling outside the door. Inuyasha opened his mouth, but Kagome beat him to it.

"That's it Kaede. Yuck it up. I'm sure it's really funny to you. You don't have to deal with the emotional trauma that I will for the rest of my life." She said that last with a hint of a grin in her voice.

"AHEM!" Inuyasha cleared his throat loudly behind her. She almost jumped. She almost turned to face him, but stopped midway as a blush spread across her face. She instead held her arm out for him to drape his uniform on. She left the room momentarily, but was back hastily handing him the same pink robe she had displayed earlier.

Inuyasha coughed at it, but for the sake of modesty decided to put it on and wait out the storm named Kagome.

He entered the main living room as Kagome walked Kaede outside. They were talking low, but he caught a little bit of their conversation anyway. He did have superior hearing, after all.

"His presence is going to complicate things," came a voice that he could only assume was Kaede.

"That it will," responded Kagome nonchalantly.

"If you called Smith, I'm sure he could change the Private's orders…"

"No, that's all right. I get the feeling Kusanagi might be helpful if the need arises; but I still want to see his personnel file. Think you could manage that, Kaede?"

"Of course, child. What I'm more worried about is how to explain this to him."

"Well, we've got a week in England before we head off to more…gainful locations. I figure we'll cross the bridge when we come to it."

Kaede sighed. "If that's what you want to do. This is YOUR operation after all."

"Thanks, Kaede. Well, I guess you'd better get that taken care of. We wouldn't want my escort to show up in a pink, frilly, lacy…what else did he call it? Oh well, that robe just doesn't work for him."

At that, Kaede chuckled some more and apparently left. Inuyasha had just enough time to move to the chair in the middle of the room from the doorjamb he had been listening at, before Kagome returned.

As she entered the room he pulled his legs underneath himself, sitting cross-legged, and stuffing his hands in the sleeves of the robe, half crossing his arms. He then closed his eyes and listened to Kagome moving about the room, presumably unpacking. He was starting to toy with the idea of driving his jeep back to his barracks in the robe. If he drove fast enough, maybe no one would notice it was him…

"What are you doing, Kusanagi?" Kagome suddenly broke into his escape planning.

"I am planning my immediate withdrawal from hostile territory," he answered in his best contemplative tone.

"Hostile, huh? I'm not being half as hostile as I could be, you know." He grunted in a disbelieving manner. "As long as you're stuck here, we might as well get to know each other," she suggested.

He opened his eyes and stole a glance to where she was sitting on the chair across from him. Her luggage and disappeared, into her bedroom he assumed. She was sitting in a similar chair to his, giving him that same radiant smile as before. Instantly, he forgot his previous rancor and shrugged.

"What do you wanna know?" he asked casually.

"Well, I don't need your life story, but a little background would be nice. You know, where you're from, how old you are, where have you been…that sort of stuff."

"My name is Inuyasha Kusanagi, formerly Staff Sergeant turned Sergeant turned Corporal turned Private First Class of the United States Army, Europe…you want a serial number?" She shook her head, obviously wanting to know about the changes in rank. "If you want to know my career story, just read about it in the personnel file Kaede's bringing back for you."

At her sudden shock and dismay, he smirked, continuing, "I used to be a forward reconnaissance scout for the 82nd Division, a Pathfinder. I was chosen because of my unusually sensitive hearing and good eyesight." He stopped for a moment and looked at her out of the corner of his eye to make sure she understood that he had heard her little conversation with Kaede.

"I was born in the United States, but I never knew my parents…they died when I was very little. I've lived with my brother for most of my life in the San Francisco area of California." Kagome nodded at that. There was a large population of Japanese-Americans there—or at least there used to be until the internments. "When he joined the Army and went to Officer Candidate School, I had to live on my own for four years. I joined the Army six months before we got involved directly in the war, the day after my eighteenth birthday. So that would make me twenty years old now. I'll turn 21 on June 6th of this year. Your turn."

Kagome looked at him dumbly for moment, before he realized what he meant. "Oh! Umm…My name is Kagome Higurashi, and I'm from Chicago. My grandparents are from Japan, and my parents were born in the United States. My older brother and I grew up outside of the city. Souta signed up with the Navy the day after we were attacked…they finally let him join 6 weeks later. I've been singing since I was very young. I went to an audition for USO singers in Chicago nine months ago. After a lot of red tape and other stuff," she shifted slightly here, tipping him off that she was hiding something, "they finally agreed to give me a tour in Europe. I'll turn 20 this May 28th."

Inuyasha quirked an eyebrow at her. "That's it?" She nodded, but again shifted uncomfortably. "Well then. You sound normal enough, I guess." He heard the sound of footsteps outside, which he quickly identified as Kaede. Looking at his watch, he discovered it had been nearly an hour since they first arrived at the house, and nearly 45 minutes since Kaede left…he must have drifted off while he was meditating…odd, he'd never done that before. Especially around people he didn't know. What exactly was going on here?

Kaede walked in holding his freshly pressed uniform, which he quickly grabbed and leapt into the lavatory with. As he changed, he listened to the conversation taking place outside.

"Here it is, Kagome."

"Thank you, Kaede. I hope it wasn't to difficult to get hold of…"

"Nonsense child. The right credentials will get you anywhere without many questions being asked."

Credentials? What credentials did this woman have for her to be traipsing around the personnel office taking whatever she pleased? He decided that no amount of listening in on their conversation would help this time, since Kagome now knew to guard what she said if he was within earshot—an extended earshot for him. He entered the room they were in with robe in hand.

Kaede seemed slightly alarmed and tried to hide the file, but Kagome held to it firmly and shook her head, confusing the elderly woman. "Thanks for the robe," he said tossing across the chair he had been sitting in. Kagome muttered something along the lines of "don't mention it," in response.

"Enjoy the reading material—it's a good story if I do say so myself," he tossed over his shoulder as he walked out of the house to his Jeep. Silence reigned behind him, so he added one more thing before he started the Jeep.

"Pleasure getting to know you, Miss Higurashi."

He couldn't see it, but this brought a soft smile to her lips for reasons even she didn't understand.