Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Miroku, Kagome, Mrs. Higurashi, Jiichan or Souta. Nor do I own a single one of the other characters in here. Well, there MIGHT be an OC... keyword MIGHT... but they won't have a large role, I know that much.

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"Er…" Miroku fumbled for words. How would he be able to explain this away? "It's… you see, he…"

"Miroku," said Kagome in a very low, clear voice, "are those ears?"

Miroku winced and began to think of something, anything that he could say in order to explain this. "Uh…"

"Of course they're ears, bitch," snarled Inuyasha, apparently recovering enough to speak. He glared at her from above his hands. "What do they look like; barettes?!"

Miroku could have slapped himself. He would have settled for slapping Inuyasha, if he weren't so afraid to hurt him more.

Kagome didn't move from the doorway. "Inuyasha, why do you…" She changed tracks abruptly. "Miroku, why does he have ears on the top of his head?"

Miroku sighed and shrugged. "Ah… genetic disorder?"

Some part of her normal personality flashed into her eyes, lending them a slightly dangerous glint. "Miroku…"

Miroku turned to face her fully, his mind racing. "Well, it's a very strange…"

"I'm a youkai," said Inuyasha abruptly, cutting him off. Miroku turned to glare anew at his childhood friend. Inuyasha glared back… at least, until Kagome called both of their attentions back to the doorway.

"Youkai?" She was frowning. "What the heck are you talking about?" That was, quite frankly, the most ridiculous thing she had heard in her entire life. Everyone knew youkai didn't exist… it was as if Inuyasha had said he was an elf, or Sinterclaas, or kami himself.

But… what about those ears?

Inuyasha sighed and rolled his amber eyes, as if he were talking to the biggest fool in the universe. "Youkai, bitch. Demon, spirit, wraith, whatever. Not—fucking—human. Any more questions?"

"Yes," said Kagome, taking a step forwards now. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that? What do you take me for?" She glanced uneasily at Miroku. Shouldn't he be helping her? If Inuyasha were delirious…

"I never told you that you had to believe it," grumbled Inuyasha, leaning back against the headboard. He coughed. "Just because you don't think it's possible, though, doesn't mean it ain't true."

Kagome frowned at him, looking at Miroku again. The dark-haired boy was looking carefully down at his hands. "Well, I know it isn't possible," she said crisply. "Things like that simply do not exist."

"And how do you know that, bitch?" he said, almost mockingly now.

"Stop calling me that," she said, clenching her fists. "And I know it because if they did exist, then we'd have a lot more chaos going on in the world than we do right now."

"Who's to say we don't have chaos now?" said Inuyasha. He seemed to be enjoying himself, even though his hand over his bandages seemed to be gripping a bit too tightly.

"I never said we didn't have some measure of chaos now, idiot, I just said we'd have more," she began, and then stopped, nearly putting her hands over her mouth. Soon she'd be talking like he did!

"Well," said Miroku, breaking in at last, "you two need to figure out a way to resolve this soon…there are more important things to talk about."

"Such as?" said Inuyasha.

"That's true," said Kagome. "But first, one of you has to tell me about the damned ears!"

Miroku sighed. "Very well. Kagome, Inuyasha here is not a youkai."

"Hah!" said Kagome, resisting the urge to stick out her tongue.

"…He is a hanyou," Miroku continued. "Half youkai."

Kagome was left with her mouth hanging slightly open, staring at Inuyasha—who wore an infuriatingly smug expression on his unrealistically delicate features.

The conscious part of her mind tried to rebel again—Miroku's just a prankster too, is all! Youkai don't exist!—but it was drowned out by sudden, overwhelming belief. It did fit… Inuyasha's strange appearance, right down to the fury she'd witnessed earlier… even, and she hadn't thought of this before, the fact that he'd been shot and yet the wound didn't seem nearly as bad as a gunshot should have. None of it was quite… real.

"Hanyou?" she repeated, testing the word. She hadn't heard it used often—even in legends, a hanyou was a rare occurrence. "Then… one of his parents is…"

"Human, yes," said Miroku. He looked back down at his hands. "I am truly sorry, Miss Kagome. The truth has been kept secret for so long…"

She blinked. "Oh, don't be. After all, it's not every day I get to meet a…" She looked at Inuyasha, who stared back at her with inscrutable golden eyes. One of his ears twitched slightly and she forced down the urge to giggle. "A hanyou."

Miroku sighed in relief. She was taking this much better than he'd thought she would… he half-expected her to scream, or run out of the room, or maybe even try to attack them. But instead she just stood in the doorway, a little uncertainly, watching them both with quiet grey eyes.

Kagome shifted her weight from one foot to the other, nervous. What did she do now? "Er… if one of your parents was human," she began.

"Both of yours are, idiot, so you might as well stop talking," snorted Inuyasha. "Humans are common in this world. Or hadn't you realized that?"

She ignored him and kept going. "Well, was it your father or your mother?" she asked.

He sank down against the headboard, glaring. "What's it to you?" he asked.

"I want to know," she retorted. "I'm curious, ninny."

He glared at her for a few moments. Suddenly just as she was about to give in and turn the conversation to another subject, he turned his head sharply to glare out the window instead. "My mother," he said softly.

Miroku watched him without speaking. The look in his eyes was unfamiliar, faraway. What had happened to him since Miroku had left?

Kagome watched him too. He didn't seem to notice both of them staring, but she still felt distinctly awkward. There was some emotion in his voice, something in the way he'd said it, that clearly told her to stay out of his business.

Suddenly…

"Kagome!" called her mother from down the corridor. "Breakfast is waiting! Aren't you going to eat?"

"Coming, mother!" she called back. She turned back to face Miroku, smiling at him. "Want some?"

Miroku stood up gratefully. He could have eaten several sandwiches last night, had he not been so afraid of intruding on Kagome. But now his stomach was just beginning to notify him of its wants once more, and it was slightly uncomfortable… "Yes, please, Miss Kagome," he said.

"I told you to stop calling me Miss," she said, turning to leave.

"Oi!" said an angry voice from behind her as Miroku began to follow. "What about me? I have to eat too you know!"

"Inuyasha, you've just been shot," said Kagome sternly. "I don't know if you even still have a stomach, and I'm not taking any chances." She began to leave again. "I might bring you something light later, if you're good."

And she was outside the room, closing the door behind herself. Inuyasha slouched in the bed, grumbling softly while he rested an arm over the bandages once more. It felt sticky and wet beneath his bare arm—perhaps they hadn't been changed since they were first put on. There was no way the wound could still be open; one of the good things about being a hanyou was that he healed quickly.

It could still hurt, though. And to top it off, he was hungry now… he'd probably eaten at some point before being shot at (for some reason he couldn't remember very well), but he might as well not have for all the good it did him now. Maybe if he could go into the kitchen, he could convince Kagome or her mother to give him some food…

Unfortunately, the effort involved in sitting up revealed that… well, simply put, that he couldn't do it. After several failed attempts he lay back with a soft whimper and listened to the sounds of eating that drifted in through the closed door.

Soon, he thought, closing his eyes. I'll try again soon…

00::::00

Miroku happily stuck a fork full of omelet into his mouth, barely remembering to remove the utensil before beginning to chew. Forcing himself to eat slowly was a real chore—he was HUNGRY!—but Kagome's family was there, watching him. Kagome's younger brother—whose name was Souta, as it turned out—kept watching him eat, with an enraptured expression on his face. And it wasn't only him—it seemed that the attention of everyone in the room was focused squarely on him. It was slightly unnerving.

The small kitchen seemed just about filled to capacity, with Miroku, Kagome, her mother, her grandfather and Souta all sitting at the table. The bright and cheery atmosphere (almost a direct contrast to the furor of last night) was accentuated by the morning sunlight that streamed in through the tiny window above the table. It lit up the room better than the ceiling fixture, in spite of the small size of the window.

"So, Miroku, where do you come from?" asked Kagome's mother, sitting across the table from him and sipping daintily at a glass of orange juice.

He swallowed quickly. "The city," he said. "I… used to live there."

"Not any more?" asked Kagome. She had an omelet on the plate in front of her as well, though she hadn't touched it yet.

"I moved away," said Miroku uncomfortably. "A few days ago."

"Is that why you were driving so late at night?" asked Mrs. Higurashi just as he took another bite.

He nodded, mouth full of omelet.

"Where were you going?" asked Kagome.

Miroku swallowed his mouthful so that he could speak again, his fork picking up another piece before he realized it. "Oh, around," he said vaguely, and quickly ate the bite before she could ask him to expand. Away would be more like the truth, but that answer would definitely not please them.

"What happened to that boy?" Souta asked him.

Miroku shrugged. Ohh, this is uncomfortable… "I…" he swallowed quickly. "I'm not sure," he said. "He was unconscious when I met him, and he couldn't tell me." Or wouldn't, he added silently, making a face as he remembered the scene in the guest room earlier that night. It's obvious that something happened to him… but what? He put his fork into his mouth again and chewed. I'll get him to tell me once we're away from here… with his fast healing, it ought to be soon.

"Who hurt him?" asked Souta. "Was it a gang?"

Miroku shrugged again. "Maybe. I don't know."

"A gang fight!" began Mrs. Higurashi, her face paling. Kagome's grandfather, who had been silent until that moment, made an odd choking noise. It sounded like outrage.

"I'm sure it isn't!" Miroku reassured her quickly. At least, I hope it isn't… knowing him, a gang wouldn't keep him around for more than a day.

Suddenly a cold feeling swept through his stomach. That isn't… what happened, is it? If Inuyasha had somehow got onto the bad side of a gang…

"Do you know what's happened to him, at least?" asked Kagome. Another expression flashed across her face, briefly, and Miroku nearly smiled.

She's worried, he thought. "Well, now that we know he's been shot …"

"Shot?" Mrs. Higurashi's face went even paler than it had at the gang comment. "He was shot? How? Why?"

"I don't know," Miroku said again, truthfully. "I thought it was a stab wound, at first… if it was a gun that did it, it's not quite as severe as I might have thought…" probably because of those healing powers, he thought ruefully. "As for the rest… only Inuyasha knows the how and the why."

"Inuyasha?" asked Souta eagerly. "Is that his name?"

Miroku nodded again. "Yes."

Kagome's grandfather wrinkled his nose. "Inuyasha," he said, frowning. "That's an odd name for a…"

He was interrupted by a loud crash from the hallway, followed by a string of curses. Kagome and her mother jumped up, with the daughter beating her mother to the door by several steps.

"Inuyasha!" she gasped.

He looked up at her sullenly from where he was sitting on the floor, the overturned hall table lying on its side beside him. "What?"

"Why aren't you resting?"

"I wanted to eat, you crazy…" Trailing off, he blinked and looked past her. "Who's that?"

Kagome turned to see that her mother had come to stand beside her. "Mother, he won't stay still!" she said, annoyed. "I don't know what to…"

She trailed off upon seeing her mother's expression. "M-mom?"

Mrs. Higurashi was staring fixedly at Inuyasha's head. "Are those… ears?"

Kagome smiled weakly. "Er… yes?"

Suddenly Souta's voice burst out, "oh, cool!" And before either Kagome or her mother could stop him, he had run over to the hanyou and was tugging on his ears.

"Agh! Get off, kid!" said Inuyasha, trying to knock him away. He backed into the wall and tried to slide away sideways.

"Souta, be polite!" cried Mrs. Higurashi, rushing forwards to grasp her son around the waist. She looked down at Inuyasha with concern. "I'm sorry, sir. It's just that… are those real?"

He winced, trying to stand. "Keh! Of course."

Miroku put his hand over his face.

"Gah! Youkai!" cried Kagome's grandfather, having come to the door. He pointed a shaking finger at Inuyasha, who scowled.

"Father…" said Mrs. Higurashi, half turning away from Inuyasha to look at him. "Remember what I've told you."

The old man folded his arms across his chest, glaring. "I know what normal people are supposed to look like, and that boy is not natural!"

Inuyasha frowned thunderously. "Keh!"

"Father…" said Mrs. Higurashi, turning completely. Kagome froze, not sure what she ought to do. Would Inuyasha dare attack her mother like he had attacked her? And... if he did... would she be able to stop him?

Inuyasha folded his arms across his chest from where he sat on the ground and interrupted both her thoughts and her mother's beginning lecture. "Well, wench, can I eat or not?" he asked Kagome—his eyes trained on her over Mrs. Higurashi's shoulder

Mrs. Higurashi frowned slightly upon hearing his name for Kagome, but bent down to help him up nonetheless. Inuyasha's scowl deepened upon needing help from a human, but he allowed her to do it nonetheless and then followed her, stumbling slightly, when she turned to walk into the kitchen.

Miroku sat back down at the table, relieved. Souta remained in the doorway, staring awestruck at Inuyasha and Miroku both. Kagome sat down, poking at her cooling omelet as she watched the two newcomers carefully.

Inuyasha kept his frown on his face as he sat. The sunlight coming through the window had intensified, and it was hurting his eyes. It even reflected off the polished wood of the tabletop, so that light was coming at him from every direction.

Mrs. Higurashi hurried around the cabinets. "Well, sir… uh, Inuyasha, I'm sure you're hungry—"

"Keh! Of course I am, why else would I come in?" he interrupted her, glaring down at the table—which ignored him and went on reflecting light right into his eyes.

She ignored him. "But seeing as how you've just been…" she winced "shot, I don't think another omelet would be right. Maybe some broth…"

He went on glaring at the table. "Don't want broth," he muttered.

Miroku smiled, a vague memory flitting through his head of a much younger Inuyasha refusing to eat his mother's broth. It seemed that he hadn't much liked the stuff, and by all appearances, this had not changed as he grew older.

"Well, it's all you'll be getting for the moment," said Mrs. Higurashi, setting a pot on the stovetop and bending over to rummage through a cupboard beneath the countertop. "We'll see how that goes, and maybe later today you'll get something more solid."

She straightened, broth in hand, and a faint frown crossed her face. "Though I must say, for a gunshot victim, you are recovering awfully fast," she remarked.

Inuyasha snorted. "Why wouldn't I? After all, I am a…"

Miroku clapped a hand over his mouth quickly. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at him. Softly, under his breath, knowing that Inuyasha's youkai hearing would pick it up but no one else would be able to hear, he whispered, "don't tell them!"

Inuyasha stared at him, confused.

Miroku sighed, glancing nervously at Kagome. She was staring at them. "Listen," he hissed to Inuyasha, "I don't know if you'd left the grounds before this… incident, but I would have thought that you at least knew why your mother kept you at home!"

Suddenly Inuyasha looked very, very angry. Slowly, achingly slowly, he reached up and began to pry Miroku's and off his mouth with one clawed hand.

"Just remember not to tell anyone," Miroku whispered quickly. "They don't know, so don't change that on a whim!"

Inuyasha removed Miroku's hand and sat for a few long moments, looking furious. Miroku watched him, worried. Then, surprisingly, Inuyasha sighed and leaned back in his seat, staring down at the table again.

Well, glad that's avoided, thought Miroku, glancing again at Kagome. She had watched the whole exchange, and now seemed to be trying to ask him silently what was going on. He shook his head faintly at her and looked around at the rest of the family.

Souta and the old man didn't seem to have noticed anything amiss, and Mrs. Higurashi was busy stirring the contents of the pot on the stove. Miroku leaned back in his chair as well, satisfied.

"May I ask you something, though, Inuyasha?" said Mrs. Higurashi after a minute or so, removing the pot from the stovetop. The boy tensed, looking up at her. "Your ears—they were moving, earlier. How, exactly…"

He frowned, bereft of his only answer, and could only stare up at her, wide-eyed. Miroku stepped in smoothly. "It's a genetic abnormality," he said. "Like the eyes.

Mrs. Higurashi nodded, placing a bowl in front of Inuyasha. "Ah. I'd noticed… they're a bit of an odd colour, aren't they?

Inuyasha didn't even bother trying to say anything, seizing the spoon that she gave him and starting in on the broth. It seemed that he was as hungry as Miroku had been. Kagome looked down at her omelet, now that it seemed conversation had pretty much vanished, and found that it was less than half-eaten.

Mrs. Higurashi turned to the doorway, lifting an empty plate off the table from where some member of the family had finished eating. "Father, why don't you take Souta to get dressed?" she asked the old man. "I'm cleaning up the kitchen, and there's no need for you two to watch." She smiled at them, then turned to Miroku. "Why don't you go too? You could probably use some sleep..." He stood up gratefully.

The old man nodded, putting a hand on Souta's shoulder and leading him out of the room. "Come on, boy."

Inuyasha stopped eating abruptly, a very odd look on his face. He pushed the bowl away. "All right," he said. "Can I have some real food now?"

"You didn't finish the broth," pointed out Mrs. Higurashi.

"Keh! I don't need to finish it to know when I don't want any more," said Inuyasha.

Mrs. Higurashi sighed. "Well, it's either you finish the broth or you don't eat until lunch," she said.

Kagome smiled at him. "Then you can have more of the same."

Inuyasha started back in horror. "No! I'm through eating this funny water." He crossed his arms. "I won't finish it."

Mrs. Higurashi picked up the bowl. "Well then you'll have broth for lunch, too, and for dinner, until you can at least finish it."

"If you're finished," said Kagome, standing up and putting her now-empty plate on the counter, "then it's time to go back to bed."

He scowled at her. "Hell no!"

Kagome took hold of his arm and got him to stand. "You shouldn't even be up yet in the first place," she told him, leading him to the door without letting go of him. "I'm surprised that you can even stand."

As if to prove her point, he stumbled as they went out the doorway and would have fallen if she hadn't been holding him. He glared at her.

"Bitch."

"It's hardly my fault you got yourself shot," she said. "So don't try blaming me. Even if I do look like this Kikyou person."

At the mention of that name, his eyes wavered and he looked away. "Shut the bloody hell up about her," he muttered as she led him back into the guest bedroom. "I don't ever want to hear her name again." Least of all from your mouth, he added inwardly. Why do you have to be so similar to her anyway?

Kagome watched him nervously as he lay down in the bed again. She'd expected him to protest far more, but it seemed that the simple act of speaking Kikyou's name had worked to calm him down better than anything else she could have thought up.

Well, what do you think? she scolded herself. She shot him, for crying out loud! She tried to kill him! He must be at least a little bit afraid of her, too... what if she comes after him again? Would we... would we be able to stop her?

She closed the door behind herself, leaving Inuyasha alone with his thoughts.

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Well, there it is... chapter 5. They definitely are getting shorter... well, the plot will also start to pick up soon. Oh, and no, Inuyasha DOES remember Miroku from his past... but his memory of the time on the road in Chapter 1 is a bit foggy. So, for all he knows, waking up in the guest room is the first time he's seen Miroku in years.

I'm quite ashamed. I thought I'd gotten my update schedule fixed... but I seem to have missed the date by a couple of days. Maybe I should extend the schedule a bit more... the chapters have been getting longer, after all...