Hey guys. I gotta say, you guys are really something, after last chapter my reviews increased by 11 more reviews, if only I could get that amount every chapter! :) But thanks so much to my readers and reviewers, and I hope you stick with me. As for this chapter, I felt after all the doom and gloom, we needed at least one moment of lightheartedness, so I saved the depressing stuff for the end, anyhow, enjoy, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Every Area of My Life Sucks

"Your progress report, Mr. Takahashi."

I look up and Kaede puts a sheet of paper on my desk. I grab it and flip it over.

My final grade for this semester, D-. Damn it. For the past two weeks, I've already had Mom on my ass for just about everything possible, Kagome texting me constantly, and Kikyo wondering what I'm doing when I'm not with her, or talking to her.

Although I still haven't officially asked her out, she's who I spend most of my time with lately. Whether she's at my house, or I'm at hers, or we go to a restaurant or something.

Shippo leans over, and laughs. "You're pretty stupid, Inuyasha."

I reach one arm back and bop him in the back of the head, right on the ponytail. "I'm a hot, Japanese heir, I really don't need to learn English to get by in life."

I can hear Shippo sucking on his lollipop, loud and obnoxiously. Sometimes, I really hate this kid. No, scratch that, that's pretty much all the time.

Making another obnoxious sucking noise, He says, "You know who's good at English?"

Oh, I hope he chokes on that sucker. "Who is, Shippo? Who's so great at a foreign language?"

I already know the answer to this, but I would never actually go ask her for help.

"Gorgeous, engaged miko, Kagome. She helped me out last week."

I snort. "That was stupid of you to suggest."

"Not really. It can be like one of those really sexy shows, you start off, the poor student, who needs a little help with a subject, then BAM!" He says, slamming his hands down on his desk, making everyone jump.

"Your on a table, ravishing her," He finishes.

I try not to laugh. While that whole scenario does sound nice, it would make Kagome's day, me going to her house minus Kikyo, to study. And then there's Kikyo to consider. What if she's good at English too?

"Just saying, you gotta think of the possibilities." He throws his lollipop across the room, and it lands perfectly in the trash bin, then he starts unwrapping another.

I shake my head, and briefly glance at Kagome, who's across the room. Kaede is congratulating her on her perfect score in the class. Yeah, really needed to hear that.

I groan. "My mom is gonna kick my ass......"

Shippo faces me completely and frowns. "I doubt she'd really-"

"She'll do it, trust me, she'll kick my ass all up and down the house. When raising two demon kids, being a disciplinarian is a huge thing, and she will beat me to a pulp if I don't do something."

Shippo sings, "Kagome, Kagome, Kagome-"

"Would you shut up?! Now she's looking over here!"

And she was, and of course she stares directly at me, holding my eye contact for way longer than she probably should have.

"Or you could ask Hojo....."

For that, I take his lollipop and throw it out the open window. "You jackass."

He pulls another one out of his pocket. Then proceeds to make another huge sucking noise,

"No, a jackass is a donkey. I'm a kitsune!"

I walk into the lunchroom and a dry, rancid small almost makes me throw up. Why does school food always have to be shit?

I start to head towards the doors leading outside, when Sango pops up in front of me. I try to go around her, she moves. Try to go the other way, of course, she moves there too.

I sigh. Maybe she wants to know where Miroku is, but I'm almost certain he has detention. "Yeah, Sango?"

She smiles, and I immediately suspect her of doing something. After all, she is Kagome's best friend, but at the same time, she's my friend too.

"You don't sit with us anymore."

Well, Sango, occasionally Kagome sits there and that's just too damn awkward for me. Instead, I say, "I'm aware of that, Sango. I've been sitting outside."

She frowns. "You never hang out with me anymore."

Which is true, before Kagome and I broke up, I usually made time to do stupid stuff with Sango and occasionally Miroku was with us, but not always.

"Been busy, sorry."

" 'Been busy, sorry'? What the hell is the matter with you, Takahashi?!" She says, punching me in the arm. Ouch. Girl or not, ever since we were kids, Sango's always been strong.

Before I can really respond, she says, "Look, we're hanging out this weekend, no objections. I'm helping Kohaku volunteer at this preschool down the street from neighborhood."

I haven't seen Kohaku in forever, he'd be here with us next semester, when he was finally in ninth grade.

And I had already had plans with Kikyo this weekend, but the look on Sango's face tells me that I don't really have a choice in this. "Alright, Sango, I'll go."

She instantly perks up and gives me a hug. "Great! I'll call you tomorrow at 11!" Then she scampers off to her table. Did she just suggest I get up before noon on a Saturday?

Before Sango even sits down at the table, I hear a voice behind me.

"So, who was that?"

I turn around and Kikyo is standing behind me, holding her lunch tray.

"Huh? That was just Sango."

She raises a brow. "Just Sango? Why'd she hug you?"

My lips curve and I pull Kikyo's face towards mine, putting a small kiss on her lips, out of the corner of my eye, I see Kagome passing by, and she frowns.

I pull away and she's smiling. "Alright, I'm over it."

I laugh and she asks, "So, are we still on for tomorrow?"

"No, I just promised Sango we'd hang out tomorrow and we haven't-"

"Alright, I'm mad again." She says, and stomps off towards her table.

Great. I walk outside to my usual spot.

I'm pissed when I wake up. My phone is ringing non-stop, and I only slept for 5 hours, because I was up most of the night talking to Kikyo.

I snatch my phone off the table next to my bed. Groggily, I say, "Hello?!"

Sango's happy voice chirps in my ear, "Hey! Just though I'd wake you up since you need to be here at 11:00,"

I glance at the time, it's 10:30. Great.

"Hopefully you've showered already and-

"Yeah, yeah, Sango. I'm getting ready, leave me alone." I say, handing up after that. Damn morning person.

I put the phone back on the table and made my to the shower.

Fifteen minutes later, I'm downstairs about to head out the door.

Mom is sitting on the couch, staring at the TV, even though it's not on.

Damn human side of me, if I don't ask what's wrong, it'll bug me all day long.

"Mom?"

She doesn't seem to hear me at first.

"Mom?"

Her head snaps up, and I see just how bad she looks. Her hair is pulled into a messy bun on the top of her head, she's not wearing any make-up, her eyes seem puffy.

I sniff the air for a minute. The scent of tears is there, just faintly, but it is.

My mother never cries. It's one of the unspoken rules in my house, Dad makes the money, Sesshoumaru keeps his hands on his own peanut butter, and mom never cries.

"Inuyasha, are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah, to Sango's. But, what's wrong with you?"

She sniffles. "Nothing. Go on, when you get back later, we'll have a big dinner, because your father will be back."

I start to say something, but then she shouts, "GO!"

I snatch my keys off the wall, and practically run out the door.

"Sango, I hate you so much right now."

Sango smiles sheepishly at me, as she takes random bits of crayon and apple sauce out of my hair. "I didn't know they'd be this violent."

So, we helped Kohaku volunteer at the preschool. Unfortunately, I just remembered that I hate kids!

As soon as we walked through the door they started pelting stuff at us, well mainly me, anything they could get their grubby little hands on. Toys, applesauce, I hate applesauce, peanut butter crackers, which I caught to save for later, and Barney dolls. Guess he's not as popular as he used to be.

She finished picking out most of the crap in my hair, then patted me on the back.

"You have way too much hair," She said, pulling it into a ponytail.

"Now, go see about Akitoki Zano."

"Akitoki? As in Akitoki Hojo?"

Sango shrugs. "Sure, go see about it."

I stand up, taking steps towards a small boy with brown hair, the carpet is the ABC's and he's sitting on the K. Of course.

Even when he's not around, things concerning Hojo piss me off. I reach to tap him, and the little freak turns his head all the way around with the biggest eyes I've ever seen.

Then he points a finger at me, "Stranger danger!"

I shrink back a bit, "What?! Kid, I just gotta-"

"Stranger! My mommy told me people like you are bad!" He screeches, hopping up, truly looking like the spawn of Satan. Or, maybe for me, that's just all kids.

"Hey, I just gotta give you your applesauce, and-"

"Ahh!" He lets out a battle cry before launching himself at me. Now I'm screaming too, and he bites me. He frickin' bit me!

Oh my ear hurts, he just pulled it. And the other one hurts because he's still fucking screaming!

"Sango! Help! This kid is a lunatic!"

I can hear Sango laughing as she comes over to help me. The kids decides to deliver a swift kick to my nads.

Sango is dying of laughter as she starts to peal the freaking physco toddler off of me, and I'm trying to keep from crying, because my balls hurt.

Hand over her mouth, Sango says, "Inuyasha, maybe you should head home, me and Kohaku can handle the rest here."

I nod and bite my lip as I practically waddle out the door.

I walk in the house and put my keys back on the rack. On the couch I can see long silver hair in a high ponytail, and I can just barely see two magenta stripes on their face.

Well, Sesshoumaru hates ponytails so that must be father. "Dad?"

"Come sit with me, son."

I walk over to the couch and sit next to him. "How was your trip?"

He sighs. "Same old, same old. You know."

No, I don't know, but I won't say anything. "Have you seen mom, yet?"

"Yeah. She's resting now."

She's been sleeping a lot lately. Every day this week, when I came home from school, Sesshoumaru's been home to tell me that she's upstairs resting and to be quiet.

"Inuyasha, tell me something."

"What?"

"It's been a month or two since you and Kagome split up, right?"

"Yeah. What's your point?"

"How did it feel, when she told you she'd be leaving you for someone else?"

I glance at my father, and he's not even looking at me, he's staring at the floor.

"It felt like, someone had just killed me. Like they stabbed me in the heart and kept moving, and I stopped living, but I still had to keep seeing what killed me in the first place."

"And the pain, never completely goes away, it numbs, but it's always there. It was hell," I look at my dad, and I notice he looks so tired, like all the fight has been taken out of him, and seeing him like this, scares the hell out of me.

"Dad? You alright?"

He pats me on the knee, and sighs. Then he talks to me in a voice that I haven't heard in years, not since my goldfish died when I was twelve or when Sesshoumaru's mom moved out the country, and he was depressed for two months straight. He tells me, "I just wanted to know how your mom must feel, son."

This, I was not expecting. "What?"

He rubs his hands together, accidentally clawing himself, "I guess I'd be the one who stabbed her in the heart and didn't look back in this scenario, wouldn't I?"

It's silent between us. "What the hell are you trying to say," I manage to get out.

He turns and looks me dead in the eye, with eyes that look so much like mine,

"I'm having an affair."

Well, my long-time fans, I hope you noticed two of the references to my other story 'Can You Help Me' in this chapter. Please review, reviews make my day, when a day is going bad. :) Keep a lookout for the next chapter entitled: Solace.

With that said, Sayonara!