"What is it Miroku?"

Miroku looked taken aback, "Your tone says that you have already decided against helping me."

"Wow, I can't believe you picked up on that." Inuyasha was never asked for favours, at least, he hasn't been asked for one by him in a long time. Miroku continued to stare at him to the point where he began to feel uncomfortable. "What could be so urgent that you would ask me for help?"

The monk took a deep breath, "I need you to look after the kids for a couple days."

He gave Miroku the most confused and disgusted look he could muster, "You want me to do what?"

"It's only for a few days." Miroku pleaded, "Sango has wanted to go visit her village for months and I figured since you were already here…"

"Nothin' doin'. I ain't no babysitter. Can't someone in the village do it?"

Miroku sighed, "You know it's harvest season. If they don't work now, there won't be enough food to last the winter months."

Inuyasha stood firm, "And Sango is okay with this idea of yours? I can tell by the look she gave me that she couldn't wait to hand over her spawn."

The monk looked away suspiciously, "Well…"

"You see? I can't."

Miroku looked up at him that with a face Kagome would have described as 'puppy dog eyes'.

"Kagome wouldn't want to see you like this. She wanted you to be happy."

Inuyasha mulled over the words, what could they possibly have meant? Of course she wanted him to be happy, didn't she? But how could he be if she wasn't here?

"I want you to be happy. I want you to laugh a lot. I don't know what exactly I'll be able to do for you, but I'll always be by your side."

He leaned back in to the tree and took a few deep breaths. "Always by my side, you said." He opened his eyes and stared at the waning moon. It would be gone very soon. "Liar. You ain't here now, that's for sure."

"Inuyasha, are you still awake?" He looked down at Sayuri from the tree. Her green eyes glowed in the dim light. Sayuri leaped nimbly on to the branch beside him. "Do you plan on staying up here all night?" She shivered as the wind blew her hair around her face. She tried to smooth it back in to place, but to no avail. "It's kind of cold out here."

Inuyasha watched as she shook against the cold wind. He reached to take off his red outer layer of his robe and then stopped.

"It's made from the fur of the fire rat. It'll offer you some protection at least."

The image of Kagome in his robe forced him let his hands fall in to his lap once more. How could he consider letting another woman in? He'd already allowed two to die. He couldn't stand a third. Inuyasha jumped to the branch above her.

"Hey," Sayuri followed him up, "Why are you…" Inuyasha moved again, higher this time, "Inuyasha!" She grabbed him by the foot and they both came tumbling down the tree with a crash.

Sayuri rubbed her side that seemed to still be a little sore, "What was that for?"

Inuyasha looked away. Persistent wench, why couldn't she leave him alone?

"Alright," She reached and grabbed his ear, hard, causing him to cry out in pain, "Ever since we came back from this girl's grave you've been avoiding me. Give me a reason or I'll rip your ears out."

Inuyasha remained on his guard. "I don't have to answer to you." He thought for a moment, "If anything you should answer to me. I saved your life, remember?"

"And I told you that I didn't ask to be saved!"

"You're being ridiculous!" Inuyasha stared at her. Did she really value her pride over her life? That's ridiculous, no one could be that stupid.

Sayuri scoffed, "I'm the ridiculous one?" She released his ear and placed her hands on her hips. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again.

Inuyasha laughed, "See? Wench can't even defend herself."

"And you are just that much better than me?"

"Yeah, I kind of am. You got a problem with that?"

The girl gave up the pointless argument with a sigh. Why was she giving up? Before he could get another word out, she jumped back in to the tree they just fell out of. "Are you running away?"

Sayuri rolled her eyes, "I have better things to do than sit here and argue with you." She looked towards the fading moon. "You should get some rest. We look after the demon slayer's spawn tomorrow, right?"

"You didn't have to help you know." Inuyasha sat with his legs crossed at the foot of the tree.

"I know," She leaned her head against the trunk, "But I owe them a debt. I don't like to leave things unfinished."

Inuyasha poked Sayuri in the side, "She's crying."

"I can hear that." She grumbled, rolling so that her face was inside the pillow.

"If you can hear her, deal with it."

Sayuri lifted herself off of the floor and pushed the hair out of her face. Even without the moonlight, those eyes still seemed to shine. "There are two of us, you know." She shifted in to a cross-legged position. "I thought you were taking the morning shift."

Inuyasha looked away, "That was until the bi –" Sayuri gave him a stern look. "I mean the runts started screaming their heads off."

"So?"

"So, that makes them you're problem."

She seemed a little taken aback but shrugged it off. She was shaping up to be a lot more tolerant than Kagome ever was. If she was here, Inuyasha would be eating the floor by now. Sayuri began getting the children dressed with little complaint. This girl just did not make sense.

"…Sit down! You stupid little boy!"

Inuyasha winced involuntarily and looked up from his reminiscing to see Sayuri desperately trying to get the oldest of the kids, Miroku's first born son, to stay still long enough to do his hair. It fell to around his shoulders and Sango was insistent that the kids were 'groomed' at all times. Whatever the hell that meant. No matter what Sayuri tried to do, that child was not having it.

"Momma!" he screamed, struggling from the half-demon's grip fruitlessly.

Inuyasha sighed, took the screaming child from the girl and held him up by the back of his shirt. "Look, your mother isn't here," he held up a finger to prevent louder screaming, "but she'll be back in a couple days, so shut up and listen to Sayuri and me."

The boy sniffed back a few more tears, "But momma said that demons are bad."

"What about Kirara?" The boy was silent, "Or Shippo? Are they bad too?"

He thought about this for a minute, "No," he said slowly, "They're my friends."

"Exactly," Inuyasha knew that he had him now, "And I used to be friends with your mother, so what does that make me?"

"A friend!" he clapped his hands together gleefully. Sayuri was shocked. How could someone like him calm that ignorant little brat?

Inuyasha put the kid down and ruffled his hair, "Now I want you to let that girl over there do your hair, because your mother would want that, right?"

"But she's a demon…"

Inuyasha looked in to Sayuri's eyes, "Yeah, you're right, but she's..." She stared back with a look that could only be compared to prey that has realised its fate is sealed. The hunter had found his prey and wasn't planning on letting go. It terrified and excited them at the same time.

Sayuri tore herself away and proceeded to pull the child's unruly hair in to a bun, the other four children went along rather easily, or had too little hair for grooming to be an issue. All the while Inuyasha wondered if he had said too much this time.

The day continued like this. Inuyasha made sure that the children listened to Sayuri while she did all the work. She thought this to be a little unfair, but didn't struggle too much. At least he was being pleasant with her. The only real work he did was carrying the children to a nearby field. If it were not for their obvious racial differenced, they could've been like any other family.

"Inuyasha!" A shadow flashed along through the grass until a young boy stood before them. He jumped on to Inuyasha's shoulders a gripped his neck tightly "Where have you been?"

Inuyasha grabbed on to the mass that was attached to his neck and held it at eye level. "You're still here, Shippo?" Sayuri looked from the fox to the man and couldn't really find the connection. She was sure it was deep, yet didn't fully understand it.

"Inuyasha! Where have you been? Did you chase all the bandits away?" Shippo was now on the ground staring up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

Sayuri held back a laugh as Inuyasha shot her a glare, "Yeah, I guess I did." Inuyasha crouched beside the boy, "So how come you ain't any bigger, runt?"

The resulting fight woke up the sleeping children from their naps. "My moment of peace!" Sayuri kneeled down beside the oldest and pushed him back in to a sleeping position. This only made him cry along with the younger children. "Come on!"

Shippo moved towards the children and talked to them in a hushed voice. Sayuri could barely pick out the words, but all of a sudden the children were laughing. The boy made a few more funny faces before telling them to go back to their naps.

"How did you do that, kid?" Sayuri lifted the boy off the ground despite his protests.

Shippo struggled in vain against her grip, "Inuyasha, who is this rude woman?" Inuyasha looked away uncomfortably, but time had made the fox more perceptive. His eyes widened, "Is she your wife?"

Sayuri let out a laugh and dropped Shippo to the ground roughly, "Him?" She looked at Inuyasha and her laughter quickly faded. "Better question," She looked back at the boy, "who the hell are you?"

Inuyasha sighed. Why did these kinds of things always happen to him? Inuyasha directed his words to Shippo, "She," he said pointing at Sayuri, "is just some girl I picked up on my way back from getting rid of the bandits. Nothing more."

"You chased them away? Didn't look that way to me." Sayuri caught Inuyasha's glare and looked away.

Shippo didn't miss a beat, "What is she talking about?"

Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably, "Nothing, runt. She just spouts nonsense sometimes."

Sayuri opened her mouth to yell a few insults of her own, but looked at the children instead. If she started this now, they would wake up and it would become her problem. "So I still don't know who you are." Sayuri walked towards a nearby tree and sat in its shade.

The boy looked at Sayuri nervously and joined her, remaining close to Inuyasha. Though it seemed as though Inuyasha trusted her, he was still unsure if he did. "I'm Shippo," He looked up at Inuyasha as a son might look to his father for guidance on the next step, "I've known Inuyasha for a long time."

She seemed a little taken aback by the vagueness of his answer, but guessed it had something to do with this Kagome person. "Inuyasha, should we take the spawn back to the house?"

"Yeah, before they wake up." Inuyasha picked two up gently and Sayuri picked up the third. The two half demons carried the children back to the house, Shippo chattering in Inuyasha's ear the entire trip. The villagers stopped their work and stared as they walked by. Sayuri looked down self-consciously while Inuyasha strode with a kind of indifference built from years of this kind of treatment. Did it bother him still or was he just getting better at hiding it than she was?

The children continued to sleep after they set them down in their rooms. Shippo decided to go greet the other villagers and pay respects at Kaede and Kagome's graves. Inuyasha and Sayuri sat together on the porch where she had run from him the day before. She leaned back against the doors with a sigh. The sun was setting on a long day.

"Hey, Inuyasha?"

He sighed, "What do you want?" Inuyasha held the Tetsusaiga close to his chest. Despite its current uselessness, he treasured it.

"Why did you lie to the kid?"

"We've seen a bunch of kids today, you're gonna have to be more specific."

Sayuri closed her eyes. Inuyasha stared at the shadows the eyelashes cast against her cheeks. A stray hair fell near her face and he had to hold himself back from pushing it in to place. "Shippo… I think it was. Why did you lie about the bandits?"

Inuyasha looked away. This girl was frustrating, always asking so many questions. Not beautiful, frustrating. "You know how you thought Kagome was like a mother?"

Sayuri opened her eyes to focus on the conversation and nodded.

"Well, she was for him. He's been an orphan twice. I can't make things harder now." Inuyasha looked in to the fleeting sun. Night would fall soon.

Sayuri thought about this, "So what does that make you, his father?"

He smiled, "Something like that." This kind of pride was new to her. Sayuri had seen Inuyasha cocky about himself, but he never really seemed pleased about anything from his past for more than a few moments, "So just drop the whole bandit thing, alright?" After she nodded Inuyasha got to his feet. "I gotta go."

"Where?" Sayuri stood too, ready to follow.

"You ain't coming." He started to walk across the grass away from the house.

Sayuri caught up and grabbed on to his sleeve. "Where are you going?" she asked, a little more forcefully this time.

He shoved her aside, but more gently than she expected. "I'll be back by morning." And then he was gone.

Author's Note:

Hello, hello. I haven't been able to write as much as I would have liked lately. Shit went down, life got busy. You know the deal. But I really do plan on finishing this. Its fun Also, a break from school life (which is almost over). So hang in there (I'm assuming that people are reading).

So reviewer (kate)…only one since I last posted but still appreciated. I have posted chapter 5 I'm glad you are enjoying it. Remember I welcome any idea and criticism, just be constructive rather than just tearing me down for the sake of tearing me down.

ALSO, before you all leave me? I've been searching for some AMAZING InuMir yaoi, but I'm having some issues finding well written ones. If anyone can find me some that would be greatly appreciated?

Sincerely,

Caroline Winters