AN: Thank you for the reviews. It helps me get this out to you all in a hurry. :)

I followed Sesshomaru and left Rin and Kagome to do whatever it was they were doing. He was looking out our front window when I stood next to him.

"You wanted to talk?" I said.

He nodded. "Let me see your arms."

"What?" I got defensive. "Why?"

Sesshomaru stepped closer. "Lift up your sleeves, Inuyasha."

"No." I backed away. "You don't need to look at anything."

"Inuyasha. I am asking you to let me look."

"For what?! So you can try to stick me into some rehab? Try to make me quit? Go fuck yourself!"

"I just need to see them."

"Hell no."

He grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me closer. "Whatever I find I won't tell father."

I sighed. He wouldn't leave it alone until he got what he wanted. I knew that much.

"Please, Inuyasha. I am asking you to do this for me. Roll your sleeves up. I will look, and then we can have this party. Okay?"

I didn't answer. Sesshomaru was being nice. I'm sure if I keep saying no we might end up in a fight. I don't want to do that in front of the kids, especially when the birthday party would start soon. Then instead of just him I'd be dealing with everyone.

I glared at him as I pushed my sleeves up inches below the bend of my elbow. Then I held my arms out. "There. Are we done?"

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. "Higher."

I shook my head. "No."

"Inuyasha." He narrowed his eyes at me.

I let out a breath. "Fuck it." I pushed my sleeves up above the elbow and let him take a look. I followed his eyes up my arms till he got to what he was looking for. There were multiple track marks on both arms. I always rotated so that I wouldn't collapse any veins.

I heard him sigh. "Yash." He mumbled my name.

"Okay." You got what you wanted. I pushed my sleeves back down. "Are we done here?"

He answered my question with a question. "Are you high right now?"

I rolled my eyes. "What difference does it make? I'm normal right now." I crossed my arms across my chest. Nothing he says or does will have any effect on me using. He needs to mind his own fucking business. Besides, using seems to not make me high anymore, it just makes me normal. If I didn't use I'd feel like shit, if I do I'm myself.

"Liar." Sesshomaru just shook his head. "At your own daughter's birthday party. You should be ashamed of yourself."

"Yeah, well I'm not." I turned around. "I'm gonna help Kagome get everything else ready." Anything to get end this conversation.

"Inuyasha-"

"No." I raised my voice. "You said I show you and we'd be done. So I did it. Now quit pressing me or I'm gonna get pissed."

"You are such a child. This will end soon."

I crossed my arms. "Whatever."

I made it back into the kitchen and was put on dishes duty. Sesshomaru stayed in the living room and watched the kids.

Not long after the cleaning, decorating, and dishes were done did we start to get guests. When I heard the doorbell ring I realized that I had no idea who the hell Kagome even invited to this party. That would have been good to know.

The next person to come in was my dad, I was instantly paranoid about Sesshomaru ratting me out. But he isn't a snitch and he told me he wouldn't. I might not like him too much, but I trust his word.

Since Kagome was throwing the party and busy with the kitchen, and the kids, and entertaining people she had me manning the door. Easy job, I open the door and greet the people, take their gift and then wait for the next person.

I guess I'll find out who all she invited soon enough.

The first people to arrive were my own family of course. My aunt Kimora and her kid, Shippo. Then surprisingly, and in a good surprise, my cousin and friend Koga arrived.

"Koga?" I smiled. "I wasn't expecting you. Man I haven't seen you in months."

He nodded. "Well we are family. I'm sorry I missed your mom's funeral. I hate funerals though."

"No," I understood, "It's fine. I'm glad you're here."

"Yeah," he smiled, "when Kagome invited me I knew I had to be here."

"That's great. Well I gotta stay here for a while, but I'll be around. Obviously." I laughed.

"I'll see you later man." He nodded his head and walked off.

Then Miroku and Sango came in.

"Hey guys." I smiled.

"Yash." He gave me a hug. "What's goin on stranger? We haven't talked in so long."

I scratched the back of my head. "Yeah, sorry. I've been really busy lately." Kind of.

He patted my shoulder. "No hard feelings. Now where is my little cousin?"

I shrugged. "She's around here somewhere." I looked at the female next to him. "Hi, Sango."

She smiled politely. "Hi Inuyasha." We never really got along that well.

After that I didn't really recognize most of the other people who came in. Most of them said they went to school with Kagome.

Eventually I got bored so I went to mingle. I tried to be inconspicuous though. I didn't really like having all these people around me, to judge me. Everyone was eating but I had no appetite, so I made sure to volunteer to feed Kaiya a little bit. After I was done I decided to go outside for a little and smoke a cigarette. Having so many people around me was getting me paranoid, I needed to calm down.

After everyone ate their food we went on to open presents. That took a while but it was nice to have Kagome and I actually acting like a family. She held the baby while I handed them presents and we tried to get Kaiya to open them. The only problem was that she was only concerned with eating the paper rather then check out her new clothes and toys. It was cute though.

Then I held the baby as Kagome got the smash cake for Kaiya. I put her in the high chair and Kagome placed the small pink frosted cake on the tray. There was a candle in the shape of the number one and I lit it.

We dimmed the lights and everyone sung happy birthday. Kaiya loves singing and she clapped and tried to sing the whole time. After the song was over Kagome blew the candle out for her and took it out from the cake.

Apparently Kaiya didn't know what to do, so I thought I'd help her out. I brushed some icing off with my finger and wiped it on her lips. As soon as she licked it her tiny hands went straight to the cake. Kagome and I passed out cake to everyone while Kaiya enjoyed her personal one.

Within minutes my daughter had pink and purple icing with bits of cake smeared all over her face. The once pretty cake looked like mashed potatoes. She had cake all over her hands and up her arm. She was a mess! But she had a big smile on her face the whole time.

There were a lot of pictures taken and new memories made that day. When it was all over I was in a great mood, until I realized that I would be responsible to help clean. Thankfully Rin and Sesshomaru stayed a little bit later than everyone so the girls could do most of the work. I've never been one for cleaning.

I found Sesshomaru in the living room on his phone. I sat on the opposite couch and picked up Kaiya from the floor, her face was a little red and I could tell she was sleepy.

"Inuyasha."

I looked at my brother.

"Do not expect to see your co worker and friend Akira for a very long time."

"What?"

"She overdosed on heroin yesterday."

I stopped breathing for a second. Fuck. "Is she okay?"

He nodded. "So far. She is still in the hospital as far as I know. I planned on firing her, as I do not want drug addicts in my company." He paused and looked at me for effect. "She called me when she woke up and started feeling better. Then explained the situation at hand."

I'm confused. "What situation?"

"Apparently she was a social user which was bad enough. Then she told me about shooting up with you before work and that she started to use daily, multiple times a day."

"Oh."

"The family business is a drug free company, Inuyasha. Since she offered some information I found useful, I told her that if she went to treatment and stayed clean, her job will be waiting for her when she gets back."

So she told on me? What a bitch. "So what's your point Sesshomaru?"

"My point is that I finally know exactly what your dirty secret is. You need help."

I started to get irritated. "I don't need any help actually."

"Inuyasha, you can go to a rehab and get treatment. Father and I can help Kagome with Kaiya."

"I don't want to go to rehab. I don't need or want any treatment." I stood up, as did he. "I don't have a problem; I'm handling it perfectly fine. It's under control."

"It's under control? Inuyasha are you mad? You have nothing under control; everything with you is the exact opposite."

"Just because I'm not mister fucking perfect doesn't mean I don't have shit under control. You don't have any idea what you are talking about."

"Inuyasha you are my little brother. My only brother. Why won't you just listen to me? For once shut your mouth and open up your ears."

I sighed. "Sesshomaru." Why does he have to make me out to be the bad guy? I didn't do anything to him. He's just sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. "Will you just leave me alone and let me live my life?"

"Not when it affects my own family, no." he answered.

"Sessho," Rin's presence ended our conversation, "I'm ready to go. Can you get Tomaru's things together?"

He nodded towards her and when she went back into the kitchen he started putting things back into the diaper bag. Then he put Tomaru's jacket on him and picked the child up.

He went into the kitchen and said his goodbye's to Kagome. Then he left first, turning to me before he walked out the door.

"I understand that I cannot help you unless you want help. Inuyasha, please think about what I've said."

I just nodded to get him out of my hair. Then Rin eventually came out of the kitchen with Kagome following behind her. They were laughing about something when Rin came over to give me a hug.

"Bye Inuyasha." She said and kissed the little girl in my arms. "Bye Kaiya. Happy birthday little one."

"See ya, Rin." I said as she left.

The girls said goodbye and Kagome led Rin out, closing the door behind her.

Once it was just the three of us Kagome sighed and then smiled.

"Well I had a good time."

I smirked. "Yeah, me too. Good job."

"Awh," she gave me a genuine smile, "Thanks Inuyasha."

I just nodded. "I'll put Kaiya to bed for you."

Still smiling. "That would be nice. I'm exhausted."

I started to take the baby upstairs when Kagome called out to me.

"Oh, she's covered in cake so could you give her a bath? It shouldn't take too long since she's tired. I just don't want her going to bed dirty."

"That's fine." I said.

I finished going up the stairs and went to the bathroom to get the tub filled. Then I gave Kaiya a quick bath and wrapped her up in her yellow ducky towel. I walked into her room and put her in a diaper, put some pajamas on her, and then put her in the crib, turning on the mobile.

Then I just stood there and watched her as she laid there. She was watching the little pink sheep spin around and around and around and around. That does make you tired.

I felt a warm hand on my back.

I turned around to see Kagome.

"You did a good job."

I smiled. "I'm super dad."

"It was so nice to spend a day as a family."

"I agree."

"I wish we could always be like this." She sighed.

"What, happy?" I asked. "We would be if you weren't so high strung all the time."

"Yeah," she gave me a blank stare, "or if you weren't high all the time."

I gave a dry laugh. "Ha, good one."

"I heard what you and Sesshomaru were talking about earlier." She frowned. "When did you start doing heroin?"

"I don't know Kagome," I sighed, "since I found out about my mom getting sick I guess."

Her eyes were wide open. "That long?"

"Yup." I continued to look at Kaiya, hoping Kagome would drop the topic. Why does everyone have to be up my ass all the time about it?

"And that girl you work with?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What about her?"

"You went to her house?"

"Yeah."

She took a breath. "Is she prettier than me?"

Is she prettier than you? "What? Kagome," I looked her dead in the eye, "I never touched her, if that's what you're trying to say."

I could tell it was when her eyes shifted away.

"I swear I haven't cheated on you since the beginning of our relationship. Okay?"

It was obvious that she didn't believe me.

I took her hands in mine and lowered my head to be at eye level with her. "I swear I never did anything sexual with her. I mean, yeah she was hot. But-"

Kagome ripped her hands away and stormed out of the room. Fuck! Maybe admitting that Akira was sexy wasn't the best thing to say.

"Kagome!" I followed her to her room and opened the door. "I didn't mean it like that, I swear."

"Oh," she turned around and glared, "so how the hell did you mean it then."

"She was attractive yes, but I like you better."

Kagome rolled her eye. "Yeah, right."

I let out a breath. "Kagome I'm serious. You're the mother of my child. I can't stand you most of the time but I do love you."

She started to cry. I tell her I love her and she cries? Why is everything in this world so fucking backwards?

I walked up to her and put my arms around her. "Why are you crying?"

"Because," she sniffled, "You are horrible."

I didn't respond.

"You make me hate you and love you at the same time." I know what she means. "We were doing so good Inuyasha! Then your mom gets sick and you just become the worst guy ever. You had to ruin it all!"

"Kagome-"

"You have a beautiful, healthy daughter, a nice home, a job where you can work your way up and yet you are a drug addict." She pulled herself out of my arms. "You went to jail on your own birthday for some weed. What if you got caught with the stuff you do now? That's a felony! Why can't Kaiya and I be enough to make you happy? It's like you are out to ruin our lives!"

It was like a damn just broke inside of my head. Was what my brother said right? Is my life really spinning out of control? Yes. Fuck. It is.

Something finally clicked and I had a change of heart about my life. Maybe I really was fucking up. Heroin was making everything worse. But when I would use it would make me feel better. But at the end of the day the problems are still there. And using only makes them worse.

"Kagome…" I didn't know what to say at first. I bit my bottom lip, looking for words to match my feelings and thoughts. "I'm sorry."

She looked surprised.

"I am." I walked over to the edge of her bed and sat down. "I don't want to hurt you or our daughter. Ever since I started using I've let everything get out of control… I now realize that. I've done a lot of bad things and I don't want to ruin anyone's life."

"So what are you trying to say?" she looked skeptical. So I stood up and grabbed her hands.

"I'm gonna try to quit."

She sighed. "I don't believe you."

"No," I said, "I am. Trust me." I pulled her hands. "Follow me."

I led Kagome into my bedroom and to the nightstand. "Look." I said as I reached in. What? I looked in the drawer. Where the fuck is all my shit? Did that mother fucker sneak into my room?

Then it dawned on me. No it's in the bathroom.

Kagome looked annoyed. "What are you doing?"

"Come in the bathroom with me." I stood up and went to the cabinet under the sink where I had all my tools. I took them all out and showed them to her.

"Look." I said.

She narrowed her eyes. "What the fuck are you showing all this to me for?"

"I'm throwing it away." I started to walk out into my room, then I went downstairs and out the front door to the trash can on the side of the house. I lifted the lid and tossed everything in.

"So you're serious?" she asked me.

I nodded. Fuck using. I've been sacrificing everything I have to get high. I want to experience what I did today at the birthday party, and using won't give me that.

Kagome hugged me from behind. "Promise?"

I turned around and kissed her on the top of her head. "I promise."

AN: A drug addicts promise... They always have the best intentions. I wonder if Inuyasha will be strong enough to keep his promise? Oh wait, I already know. Thats in the next chapter. Soooo review :)