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.

A/N: Okay, so I lied…that last A/N wasn't the only one ever, but they will be very few and far in between. This one is in reference to my claim of 'no fluff.' It seems I did not entirely understand the meaning of the term, so I apologize for my misuse of the word and any further violations of my claim. Perhaps it would have been better for me to say that I would not be writing any 'sappy romance scenes,' including lemons and limes and whatever other names they go by. There is a romantic edge to this story, but as I said before, it will be from a male point of view—i.e. no swooning or deep sighs. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the story so far—you have no idea how scared I was of even writing this story, much less posting it on the internet. Your encouragement and constructive criticisms have sealed the deal; this story will not go dead in the water. Domo arigato gozaimasu!

Inuyasha spent the rest of the afternoon trying to sort out what exactly had happened to his perfect life. Being quick to act and defend his friends (the few that he had) as a child, usually with his fists, he had always seen himself in the military. He remembered going to 4th of July parades and watching the soldiers in their uniforms march down the street. He had even imitated them once when he was too young know any better, and the soldiers had made room for him in the ranks. He had marched with them for nearly a block through downtown San Francisco before Sesshoumaru had found him and pulled him out of the parade, admonishing him for being disrespectful. Inuyasha had never figured out if he had meant to the soldiers, to Sesshoumaru, or to their foster parents. It was shortly after that that he had found the pictures of their father in his uniform.

As a young man, Inuyasha's father had been an officer in the Japanese Imperial Army. For some unknown reason, he had been forced to flee Japan and come to America, where he met Sesshoumaru's mother. Sesshoumaru didn't even know why because he had been too young, but a couple of years after he was born his mother had died very suddenly. By the time he was old enough to ask what had happened, their father had already remarried to Inuyasha's mother, and Sesshoumaru refused to speak to him for betraying his mother. Once more, tragedy struck the family, this time taking both the mother and father. Sesshoumaru knew what had happened, but refused to tell Inuyasha out of spite. The only thing he did tell Inuyasha was that their father's dying wish was for Sesshoumaru to protect himself and Inuyasha.

Inuyasha shook his head to stop the growl that was building in his throat. He was lying on his bunk in his barracks. Thoughts of his past always seemed to come back to haunt him, it seemed, no matter what he was thinking of. He closed his eyes once again and regained his earlier train of thought.

His future in the Army had been brilliant. When he joined, the Army physical had revealed his near superhuman senses of hearing, sight, and, oddly, smell. With his superior physical fitness and resilience, evidenced by a history of broken limbs but with no chronic problems or even marks on his bones where healing had occurred, he had been offered a chance to join the Paratroop Corps. He had eagerly accepted and completed training in record time. It took an average of eight weeks to complete parachutist school, but he had finished in three. He had grasped the concepts so quickly and fully that he had been promoted to Corporal (since he had entered as a PFC) and sent to reconnaissance school so that he could be a scout locate drop zones in or near enemy territory without being found. After completing reconnaissance school, he was promoted a Sergeant and made an instructor for the Paratroop Corps.

Two months later, he was called to an emergency muster on a balmy Sunday evening in December. When he arrived, he already knew what it was about. He had been listening to the reports from Hawaii on the radio, a loathing of his father's uniform and country suddenly settling in his intestines. The Paratroop Corps was being reorganized, he learned, and he would be going to Europe as a part of the 82nd Airborne Division, as soon as the orders were handed down. These same orders also promoted him to Staff Sergeant for his exemplary leadership and training abilities. He arrived in Europe and spent many months in England, training for upcoming operations. That was when he had met Miroku.

Miroku had gone through OCS the same way Sesshoumaru had, but instead of branching Advocate General to be a lawyer, Miroku had entered the Chaplain Corps. The two became fast friends.

Inuyasha smiled at the memories, and then checked his watch: 1630. 'I should head over to pick up Kagome,' he thought, and with a grunt jumped off of his bunk and headed for the jeep sitting outside.

Getting in and starting the engine, he drifted back to his thinking. His first "incident" had involved Miroku. The two had decided to go to a club during non-duty hours—otherwise they would be in uniform and officers and non-commissioned officers were not supposed to socialize. One of the gentlemen in the club had gotten belligerent at the sight of the two Japanese men sitting at the bar, laughing and enjoying themselves. He had stomped over to them and threatened them, which Miroku responded to with diplomacy and understanding at the man's rage. Inuyasha was having less success with a diplomatic reaction, but restrained himself nonetheless. 'How dare this man accuse us of being traitors!' he had thought, but kept it to himself. When Miroku thought he had calmed the man down enough, he signaled Inuyasha that they should leave. When they stood up however, the man raised his fist. Inuyasha had heard the shifting of the man's shirt and pushed Miroku out of the way of getting cold cocked, taking the blow himself. He was prepared for it though and soon returned in kind—but much harder. The man was out cold and snoring softly when the MPs had arrived to take Inuyasha to the brig.

It had taken a week to sort out, but when it was all over, the cards played out like this: the man Inuyasha had struck turned out to be a Major, and even though he wasn't in uniform, it laid the charges of 'Insubordination' and 'Disorderly Conduct' at Inuyasha's feet. The only thing that saved him from a court-martial was the fact that the Major had been at fault—a fact which everyone at the club had attested to—and was hit with 'Conduct unbecoming of an officer,' 'Assault,' and 'Bigotry,' which Sesshoumaru had made sure was thrown in for good measure. The Major received an early retirement, and Inuyasha was demoted to Sergeant.

'What I wouldn't give to be back in those shoes right now,' he thought bitterly. A sergeant's life was infinitely better than a private's life, at least in his mind. Then he chuckled a little bit, remembering when he had waved goodbye to the retired Major, who responded only by turning away and storming out of the room. The next day, they were told they would be going to Sicily.

It had taken a couple of months for the plans to actually come together, but eventually they were all packed like sardines into the C-47 cargo plane flying across the Mediterranean towards their intended drop zone: the city of Salerno.

His reminiscing was interrupted when he arrived at Kagome's quarters. He shut off the jeep and collected him self, dusting off his very nicely pressed jacket, before knocking on the door. He checked his watch: 1645. He smirked remembering what they had told him about punctuality: 'If you're early, you're on time; if you're on time, you're fuckin' late!' It hadn't seemed funny at the time because he was being yelled at for arriving to formation at the exact time he had been told, but when he thought on it later, it was actually fairly humorous.

Kaede answered the door and gave a slight bow, to which he found himself doing the same thing.

"Kagome is not quite ready yet, Private Kusanagi, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you came in to wait."

"Thank you, Kaede. Please, don't call me Kusanagi—it's not my real name. Call me Inuyasha."

Kaede smiled slightly and then let him in leading him to the chair he sat in earlier in the day. "If you'll please wait here while I finish helping Kagome get ready?"

"Certainly," he answered.

As Kaede left the room, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath—and stopped suddenly. He felt light-headed and somewhat dizzy as he looked in the direction the smell was coming from: the bedroom Kaede had gone into, presumably Kagome's. It wasn't unusual for pleasant smells to come from a girl's room, but he couldn't place this one. It didn't have any scent of alcohol, so it wasn't perfume, and it certainly didn't have a 'fruity' smell like berry extract that would be used similarly to perfume…what the hell was it? He was still trying to figure it out when both women emerged from the room. He straightened and looked toward the door, having to fight the urge to ogle for the second time that day.

When Kagome emerged, it was as if the picture had come to life. The only difference was, she didn't look made up like she had in the picture—she looked as if this were the way she always looked, but had to put make up on to cover her true appearance.

Inuyasha found himself standing up, against his will, still staring, also against his will. Kagome blushed slightly at his stare, but hid it quickly. "Is the car here then, Inuyasha?"

'The car? The car! Oh shit, I forgot…I can't drive her to the show in a jeep!' he panicked inwardly. "Let me go check," he said quickly heading outside to drive to the motor pool. 'I hope Sesshoumaru has everything ready to go…' he stopped when he opened the door, only to find a black Rolls Royce parked in front of his jeep, driver waiting patiently inside. He turned dumbly to go back inside. 'I guess I'm not supposed to drive her…' he thought dazedly.

"Umm…the car is here," he told a patient Kagome and Kaede once back inside. The nodded and followed him out. He opened the door for them to get in, and then started to get in the front.

"Inuyasha, there's room for you back here," Kagome said invitingly.

"No, thank you. I'm fine up here," Inuyasha responded coolly. Kagome stayed quiet the rest of the trip, while Inuyasha conversed a little with the driver, then closed his eyes and appeared to sleep.

When they arrived, Inuyasha got out and opened the door on Kagome's side to let the two women out. Kagome smiled brightly at him when she got out, but he hid his reaction in an effort to get into his 'professional soldier' mood. He followed them into the 'dance hall,' seating himself at a table near the stage where he intended to stay the rest of the night until it was time to take Kagome back to her house. He crossed his ankles, reclined and closed his eyes, intending to look asleep while he was alertly scanning the room with his ears. He heard Kagome disappear through a door and come back out a few moments later, and then walk onto the stage.

'This should be good,' Inuyasha thought. 'She can't be beautiful and have an incredible voice too, right? Especially if this is all just a cover for some mission or something…'

He heard her amplified mutter from the microphone, "Oh, I wish I would get some new songs every now and again…I don't even like this one" He snickered a little, but remained otherwise unaffected. Then he heard the phonograph start playing the background so she could practice. His eyebrows rose slightly as he heard 'You Made Me Love You' start playing. He agreed with her; that song wasn't particularly appealing to him either. It didn't make any sense. How could you make someone love you? He supposed you could change someone's opinion of you, but that usually involved changing something about you, not making them do something. Besides, changing yourself for someone else was stupid—if they don't like you the way you are, they can just go to hell! He shook his head—at least the opening in this version wasn't half bad—it had more of a swing to it.

He was interrupted from his thoughts as Kagome's voice suddenly emanated from the speakers and floated across the room.

You made me love you, I didn't want to do it

I didn't want to do it.

You made me want you, and all the time you knew it,

I guess you always knew it…

Inuyasha's opinion of the song changed dramatically as Kagome continued singing. He sat up a bit straighter and opened his eyes to watch the increasingly impressive girl on stage before him. For once he was enjoying being wrong.

Not only was her voice beautiful, but she was very expressive with her facial expressions and body language—smiling at just the right moment, winking at invisible audience members, swaying back and forth in time to the music. Inuyasha couldn't help but marvel at the talent this girl possessed. 'I'll bet,' he thought bitterly, 'that she would be a professional singer, maybe an actress, if she weren't of Japanese descent.' Selfishly, he then thought that if she were a professional, he would probably have never met her. He quickly buried that thought, however, and returned to his previous reclined position as Kagome ended the song and the band took the stage to help her rehearse.

=@= =@= =@= =@= =@= =@= =@= =@= =@= =@=

Two hours later, Kagome took her first break and sat down at the table Inuyasha and Kaede shared near the stage.

"You two certainly look like you're enjoying yourselves," she observed sarcastically. Kaede looked almost asleep, and Inuyasha looked nearly catatonic.

Inuyasha shook himself from his third ogle of the day—this one had lasted the duration of Kagome's last performance of 'The Man I Love'—and noted, a little perturbed, that they were becoming more and more frequent. From the multitude of flattering and neutral responses to the statement she had made, he settled for the simplest one.

"Keh!"

"Aw…poor soldier boy Inuyasha isn't enjoying himself." Inuyasha scowled at the untruth of the remark, and also the gleam that was developing in her right eye—it made him nervous. "Can he dance?" Inuyasha shook his head so vehemently that even his close cropped hair seemed to sway. "Well, perhaps he can be taught—he certainly doesn't look like an old dog, so he should be able to learn at least one new trick." She smiled brilliantly again, leaving Inuyasha searching for words he knew existed, but couldn't remember, also for the third time that day.

She stood up and held out her hand, which Inuyasha hesitantly took. Kagome then lead them out into the middle of the 'dance hall'—it was actually a vacated hangar with a hastily installed dance floor. Inuyasha flinched when his hard-soled shoes tapped on the hardwood dance floor—he had never been so scared in his life. The band leader announced something to the effect of "Let's get hoppin'!" and the band launched into a perfect imitation of Glenn Miller's 'In the Mood.' Kagome began instructing Inuyasha.

"Okay, now just watch my feet, and mirror my steps…good! You picked that up quick…okay, now just get in the rhythm, and hold my hands like this." She paused for a moment to show him, and then he took over. "Great! Now, just raise your arm when you want me to spin in either direction, and I'll take care of the rest."

They continued dancing through the song, Inuyasha picking up the step very quickly, and growing more and more pleased with the envious looks other soldiers were sending him. When Kagome tried to do an inside spin into the cuddle, he almost dropped her hands, but she squeezed and he didn't let go. The looks of envy became murderous, and Inuyasha started sweating—suddenly he was nervous, but not because of the eyes on him and Kagome. A strange scent hit him, and he started to feel a little better—apparently Kagome was nervous too. She came out of the cuddle and made her steps smaller as the music got quieter, all the while grinning at Inuyasha, who finally started to grin back, much to her delight.

"Okay, when the end of the song comes, you're going to dip me," she explained.

"I'm going to what?!" he asked incredulously. He had never even thought of dancing with a girl, much less did he expect to be actually doing it for the first time with a partner who seemed to foolishly trust him implicitly.

"It's not that hard, Inuyasha. You'll know when the end is coming—the notes start low and very quickly get high and loud and then they all play the same note. Just try to do it on that last note, okay?" Inuyasha nodded slightly, and then widened his steps as the music got loud again.

The moment came, and he almost panicked and decided not to, but rethought quickly. 'You've faced worse than this before! Go for it!' As she leaned back into his arm, she smiled a delighted and surprised smile. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but grinned slightly as the note finished, and then stood her up.

"You did great!" she said as she regained her balance. "Excellent for a first timer—unless you lied to me…" She gave him a suspicious look.

"I've never been on a dance floor before in my life," he swore solemnly, even holding his hand up as he did so. "I'm just very adaptable. I tend to learn things very quickly."

Kagome laughed, "Alright, alright, I believe you. But we need to have a talk later anyway, about your service record." He frowned at her, but she only replied, "For right now, let's just dance—it's so nice to be down here, for once. Everything looks so different from up on stage."

The band director launched into yet another perfect imitation of a Glenn Miller song, this time 'American Patrol.' Inuyasha turned to see the band after he had his feet moving again, and realized the reason for the very familiar songs: the band leader actually was Glenn Miller. He seemed to be having loads of fun, judging by the smile on his face that would have stretched the imagination if it got any bigger.

Inuyasha and Kagome danced in silence this time. Inuyasha's timing and rhythm improving with every step, and Kagome began to wonder if there was anything he couldn't do—he seemed to be full of surprises, and even with the sparse amount of information in his file, he seemed to have proven himself as a very capable soldier.

Inuyasha knew the song—it was one of his favorites, so he was able to anticipate the changes and stops pretty well and timed his dancing to them. He stole glances occasionally to try and pick up some moves from the other couples dancing around him. He tried spinning her from one hand to the other with his arms outstretched near the end of the song, and Kagome seemed surprised, but impressed.

"Well, you really are a quick learner! I hadn't even taught you that one yet, but you seem to have it down."

"Thanks," Inuyasha replied, fervently hoping for a break soon. He could carry 80 pounds on his back through rough terrain for hours, but dancing was quickly taking a toll on him. He breathed a sigh of relief when the music started up again and was slow and quiet this time.

Then he looked around—he had forgotten one small detail: slow song means dancing closely. He looked at Kagome, who was giving him an expectant look, and swallowed slowly. Suddenly, he'd much rather face a company of under-fed, angry Germans than be on this dance floor.