"Drenched like children. Shivering. One might think you run a house of lunatics."

"I apologize for the inconvenience Officer Yakamoto. Please forward all documentation to the address on this card."

The officer took the card, bowed, and walked off leaving the room silent. They were sitting on the concrete steps leading up to the house with generic towels over their shoulders, ignoring each other.

"InuYasha, Sesshomaru, Shippo. I'm surprised to find Kagome missing."

A month had passed since Miroku and Sango had left to find information leading to the annulment of both contract and marriage to a major corporation in Japan. Since then, they'd all found themselves watching a developing war between Sesshomaru and Kagome in and out of the house. From the time Sesshomaru had decided to hide Kagome's shoes to the unmentionable time Kagome stole Sesshomaru's towel during his morning shower, nothing seemed to be off limits. Nobody ever truly saw Sesshomaru commit the crimes he was accused of and the staff remained flabbergasted at the possibility. As the head of the household and owner of such a large corporation, Taisho felt that this would normally be a PR issue that would have to be dealt with quickly. Normally. However, recently it seemed that the board of directors were more inclined to listen to the possibility of having his eldest take over someday. That in itself had been the only reason why he hadn't reigned in the potential disaster he had brewing within his four walls.

"Sesshomaru?"

All he got in response was a raised eyebrow.

"No luck there, then."

*

Having settled into a rhythm, Kagome actively sought to have an offsite location for her business for expansion purposes between the hours of 1 and 3 in the afternoon. She didn't mind the expansive office she'd been given. Some of the girls around her office had even made it possible to have a plaque on her door noting the different business name plus suite number.

Truthfully, attempting to have her own location was harder than she'd previously thought. She was beginning to realize that it wasn't worth the effort, that perhaps she was better off with the deal InuYasha's father offered. She had no intention to sell out, but perhaps her stay shouldn't be permanent. She was going from a nice walk in the US to an Olympic run across the world. She was almost saddened to learn that her brother was leading the company successfully back home. Pride should have swelled in her heart at knowing that she'd done such a fantastic job in training him, raising him. Instead she was tasting her first bit of empty nest syndrome.

"Staring at me won't help you get my attention as much as talking would."

"Well, you're in luck," Kikyou responded, "because I find myself in the habit of speaking."

Kagome smiled, "I'm not so sure. You have the figures I asked for, I'm assuming?"

Kikyou placed a handful of files on her desk and left without another word. Even she was feeling the sting of being away from home, of crashing head first into her husband's family. The stress of being a family owned company had caused some flight, some helplessness, and a great deal of animosity. Suddenly, her mind took a quick deviation and landed on the oldest brother. He'd disappeared with the youngest brothers and hadn't returned. Normally she would dismiss this occurrence as he was of no consequence to her company, her job. InuYasha, however, was. Although he had taken on a liaison role as of recently, he still answered primarily to her. She couldn't proceed without his work. She packed up her laptop with a frown.

This had to be the ultimate battle in their war against each other. At no point did he want to admit to himself that he enjoyed these mind games. He hadn't so much as had the opportunity to enjoy the presence of another human being since his mother's demise. More often than not, the presence of others led to a continuous insult to his intelligence. The interactions had become so difficult that he'd often sent others to do his bidding instead, hence his at-work assistant: Jaken. Jaken squawked enough for the both of them on a daily basis. Even so, the communication consisted of memoranda and lists. At the moment, however, he found himself without his assistant (who was on vacation) and in a very different situation. The woman was holding his towel.

She raised her eyebrow at him. He creased his eyebrows. She held up the towel as a dare. He closed the curtain, still scowling, and stared at the shower head. After such a hellish day and having been escorted home by the police, this was the last grain he could stand. He reached for it. He opened the curtain once again and, much to his amazement, she was gone. His eyes darted over to the rack and realized that his towel, too, was gone. As were his clothes. A flimsy note, instead, occupied the space of his belongings.

"Next time, don't take my employee with you on your adventures."