A/N: YYH is not mine. Inuyasha is not mine. The original idea for this plot is not mine (as per earlier chapters), but this chapter is mine. Do not touch. Also, I know this is very short. I'm sorry. I realized that I was spending way to much time on this and decided to just get what I had out there. I will be updating my other story this week also, and then I'll be updating every week from now on (but the chapters will probably be short).

Dinner that evening was an incredibly awkward affair. Kurama had been so determinedly polite that everyone was spent more time eyeing him suspiciously than eating. Hiei was nowhere to be seen, although the bushes shook noticably every time Inuyasha and Kuwabara got into a fight. The girls had formed their own little group, with Shippo and Kirara in their midst, and were chatting amongst themselves; conversation on the other side of the fire was nonexistent. Occasionally Yusuke would venture a remark, but Inuyasha was too busy watching Kurama like a hawk and trying not to burst out laughing at Miroku.

Miroku was a sight to laugh at. His stone-sober expression was at odds with the way he fought to remain relatively upright. His tattered robes looked like they'd been caught in a windmill with an angry cat, and his hair - well, the less said the better. When the monk had snuck off after the girls everyone had assumed that he would get slapped and that would be the end of it, but he was obviously worse for the wear.

Sango sighed happily as she looked over at Miroku. Finding him hung upright in the clearing had been like a dream come true. Yes, she had had a crush on him at one point. But his abominable behavior had eventually put paid to that. Now he was just an irritation. She knew that the blue-haired girl was curious about Miroku's appearance, and the smug feeling of knowing something the unnatural chattering squirrel-girl didn't know was adding to her satisfaction. The blue-haired fashion disaster (bright red hakama! What had she been thinking?) had been annoying everyone ever since this other group arrived with her arrogant demands and her seeming omniscience. It had eventually gotten so bad that Sango simply ignored the other girl and spent dinner remembering that afternoon

Miroku hung upside down from the tree branch, turning purple as blood rushed to his head. Kagome, when she had stopped laughing, said "Sango, we have to get him down. Even if he does deserve this."

"But why?"

"You know why! Besides, he's not that bad!"

"Really?"

"...Well, it's still not right to let someone die of – of – of whatever happens when they are upside down."

"They suffocate, Kagome."

"That's horrible! Seriously, Sango, we need to get him down."

"Fine." Sango resigned herself to merely slapping Miroku sillier once again. But then –

"Kagome?"

"Yes, Sango?"

"Do you mind if we do it...in a slightly unorthodox way?"

"Not really. What do you mean?"

That was when Sango pulled out her toy hirakotsu, the one she had practiced with as a child. This was going to be fun.

Dinner was wrapping up when Sango came back to the present. Miroku was carefully avoiding her, as well as Kagome. Maybe there was some hope for him after all. Inuyasha, in an effort to outdo his new rivals for Kagome, made a serious effort to be polite. He actually volunteered to help with the dishes, so naturally all of the boys did. The girls watched the dish-washing descend into a gigantic water-fight after the new fox splashed Inuyasha and one of the new humans. The dishes all survived, so Kagome and the new girls sat back to watch the show. Sango, on the other hand, was looking for something specifc. The fox, Kurama, had been carefully showing off for someone, and she wanted to know who that someone was.

Demon-slayers spent more time studying demons than slaying them, and even had fairly civil relations with the more civilized forms of demon-kind. Foxes, who preferred personal feuds and intrigues to randomly slaughtering humans were one of the demon types that slayers were likely to encounter in a relatively friendly setting. Slayers had, over the years, learned how to recognize the basic vulpine cultural signals, and everything about Kurama's behavior screamed that he was trying to impress a potential partner. Sango carefully changed her expression to "indifferent but looking," but did not notice Kurama replying to her signals. Was he angling for Kagome, then? Sango sighed. It was going to be a long few weeks.