Chapter 17: Bar-B-Que & Dads

When the kids returned home from school, Sango had to try to convince her dad could join Mr. Takahashi's bar-b-que this weekend. She spots that his car in the garage which means that he's home. Well that soccer season was a success for him and his team. However they only made it to the finals but it was more than enough to make him so proud of his team. "I'm home, dad." Sango calls out to him. "In here, Sango." Her father shouts from the living room. Sango goes in to see him just watching a sports game. Sango shakes her head. 'Men and his sports.' She thinks to herself before she takes a seat by her father.

"How was your day, Sango?" Her father asks as he turns off the tv. "It was fine as usually. Nothing new." She casually answers him. "And what about you? I know that the soccer season is over until next year." She turns to him. "Yeah. That was insane. I really thought that we wouldn't be able to make through the first round." He honestly answers her. "So what's next? All of the other sports teams have coaches." Sango advices him. Her father only got to coach soccer because he knows every aspect of the sport. The school would practically would call him the 'Soccer Master' for that reason.

"Well. I might as well get back to focus on my primary job. The coaching job was my backup." He leans back. Sango just looks at him weird. "Nothing planned for this weekend?" She asks him curiously though. "Nothing. Why?" Her father answers her. He then notices that Sango is fiddling her thumbs. He can tell she's nervous about something. "What is it that you want, Sango?" he sits back up. "I was just wondering if you want to go to the Takahashi's house and have a bar-b-que?" Sango asks him after asking him in one breathe.

Sango's father looks at her carefully. "What's going on here, Sango? You know what happened the last time Mr. Takahashi did when we moved here. And besides you signed a deal behind my back without my permission. There's no way I'm going over. You can go, but not me." He said to her with a look that really intimidates her. Sango can tell that this is all she's going to get from him. "Ok, I'll be going now." She sadly said and runs up to her room.

Meanwhile, Kagome is doing her homework until her phone chimed. She turns it on to see that it's a text from Sango. 'Can you meet me on the patio?' Kagome quickly texts. 'Sure. Be right there.' She puts her phone down and goes out through the back door of her kitchen onto her patio. She knows where Sango's patio is and heads over there. She sees Sango in an upset state. "You okay?" Kagome asks her as she sits onto the outdoor bench on her patio. "No. I asked my day about this bar-b-que that Mr. Takahashi is hosting and he said no, but I can go though." Sango explains to Kagome.

Kagome has to think of something about this. "Does your dad have a grudge against Mr. Takahashi?" She asks Sango curiously. "More or less. He wasn't too pleased about Mr. Takahashi offering me a nice car." Kagome gets it now. "Just like how my dad is when I told him about the offer." She takes hold of Sango's shoulder. She feels the same. "My mom was fine with it, but my dad isn't though. Besides we're still trying to settle down here." She tells Sango in sympathy. "Sango." Sango's dad comes out to see Kagome out with her. "Oh, hello, Mr. Taijiya. How are you?" Kagome waves at him nervously. Once Sango's dad crosses his arms with a glare. "I'll see you later, Sango." Kagome laughs nervously and leaves the patio back to her own.

"Really, Dad?" Sango crosses her arms in the manner. "What did you think you were doing Sango? You know better not to have anyone over without my permission." Her father asks her. "Dad, I just needed a girl to talk about my issues. Talking about them with you don't help me out that much." She explains to him. "Sango, I'm just looking out for you. You and Kohaku are my only ones left. Ever since your mother died from cancer last year, I did all I could to take over her duties so that she wouldn't be missed." He reasons with his daughter. "But you're not her. You're supposed to be yourself, not someone else." Sango retorts at him and goes back into the house.

Even though Kagome left Sango's house, she was able to hear the confliction between Sango and her father. 'It's no wonder why he's so protective of her.' She sighs quietly and heads back home. As she goes back into the house she founds her father coming in through the front door. "Oh there you are, how was school?" He smiles at her. "It was fine, dad. Nothing more." She shrugs her shoulders and goes upstairs to her room. That made Hige worried for what just happened. He goes into the kitchen to see Ai drinking tea. "What's going on with Kagome?" He asks her as he grabs a glass from the cabinet and fills it with water from the brita pitcher. "I don't know. She was like this when she came home. She doesn't feel like talking to us." Ai answers him. Hige sits by her side. "Maybe it's her time of the month. If you know what I mean." He lightly jokes. Ai shakes her head. "No it was last week she had it. Maybe it had to with what she was doing while she was doing her homework." She gives an idea. Hige nods to agree with her. "Maybe. But for now we just need to leave her alone until she wants to talk to us. We can't force her to do it." He advices her. Ai nods in agreement.

When Sango goes back into her bedroom, she made sure that she locked the door so that her father wouldn't able to get in. She lies back onto her bed and just stares at her ceiling. Her phone is still in her father's possession until further notice. She looks back to the phone that she was allowed to have due to her attempt to hack into the school system. She opens it up to see that she has a text. 'You doing ok?' It was from Kagome. 'Yeah, just pissed off at my dad.' Sango texts back at her. 'Oh, I kind of agree with you there.' Kagome's text made Sango smile. 'What's going on with this day in age? Our parents are breathing down on our necks. We can't have any privacy anymore.' Sango texts her back.

As time went by both girls keep each other company via through the phone. Back outside of Sango's bedroom, her father is about to knock on the door to talk to her. But he then heard her laughing about something. As soon as he heard that, he decides to leave her alone and think about the bar-b-que event. 'Maybe I should go.' He said to himself in his head.

That weekend while Inutaishou is going out to the market to get a few pounds of various meats for the bar-b-que, Izayoi is making the appetizers. "Hey, Inuyasha can you get the grill going?" She asks she sees him coming into the kitchen. "Sure." Inuyasha happily obliges and goes outside to the patio to get the cover off and start the grill up.

"Hey." Miroku comes up to him. "Hey there, you're here early." Inuyasha greets back as he turns the nods to see if any of them will spark the grill. "Maybe the propane tank is empty." Miroku suggests to him. Inuyasha pulls out the tank and can tell that it's empty. "Ok thanks for the obvious observation. Listen, there's a spare in the garage. Can you go get it?" Inuyasha asks him as he detaches the hose from the empty tank. Miroku and goes into the garage to get the spare.

As soon as Miroku sees the spare tank he never expected it to be heavy. "Need a hand?" Inutaishou asks as he is carrying a few bags of meat. "Yeah." Miroku rubs the back of his neck embarrassed. Inutaishou chuckles, "Ok, don't worry. Let me just put these onto the table outside and I'll come back with the empty one. I actually emptied out the tank by the grill." He winked at him. "Oh, no wonder Inuyasha didn't see that coming."

Inutaishou comes onto the patio, "Having trouble with the tank, son?" He asks as he places the bags onto the table. "Yeah. Somehow the tank was full last week. How could it be empty at such a short amount of time?" Inuyasha answers as he takes a closer look of the tank to see if anything was wrong with it. "Well, I can take it into the garage and replace it with the spare." Inutaishou picks it up with ease due to his demonic strength. "Please do. We need that to grill the meat you spent too much money on." He snickers. Inutaishou bangs his son's arm. "Be right back." He walks away.

Miroku waits patiently for Inutaishou to return with the empty tank. "Hey there, Miroku." Sango peaks into the garage. "Ah Sango. What a pleasure." He grins happily. Sango knows that look immediately. "Don't you dare." Inutaishou speaks before Sango spoke. "Sango, welcome." He greets Sango as he refills the tank from the spare. "What happened to the tank?" Sango asks him. "Oh I just emptied out the tank from last week. I just wanted to push my son's buttons until he breaks." He grins. That made Sango and Miroku laugh. They are well aware of Inutaishou pull pranks on his son. "Now let's get the grill going." Inutaishou said as he picks up the tank and heads outside.