Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, but I own this story/concept...and your firstborn child. Enjoy the story~

Rated for profanity.

Summary:

There are some things that can be taught and others you can only learn through experience. Some subjects you can master and others you can completely fail at. No one ever said love was easy, but damn, no one ever told Inuyasha it was THIS difficult. Love in his 30's is harder than he thought. Can he get an A+ in the subject of love?

Learn It by Heart

Family 101

A lesson in cheering up your family.

Inuyasha was practically seeing red as he walked into the school. He had spent all night up in anger and had spent all morning cursing his life. It took a mere 5 minutes for his week to be ruined.

Today was going to be a bad day.

He was more than thankful that no one had tried to speak to him outside of the basic morning exchanges as he sat in his chair. He only had 3 classes today and they were all towards the end of the day, meaning he could get himself more under control before the class started. He hadn't even bothered to talk to anyone in the teacher's office room as he grabbed the keys to his classroom and walked out.

Inuyasha wasn't mad, or at least he was doing his best not to get mad. On the other hand, he was extremely irritated. He wiped a hand down his face hoping it would wipe away some of his frustrations. It just seemed like whenever he had things going right in life, things took a turn for the worse.

"It's not a big deal." He muttered to himself.

Even he could reason with himself when he got this worked up. However, the simple statement didn't make him feel better. If there was one thing Inuyasha didn't like, it was not having control in his life. That bothered him more than anything. As a grown man, how else was he supposed to feel when his back was pushed against a wall and people around him were dictating what he did with his life?

He forced the curtains back as he let light pour into the room.

"This wasn't supposed to happen."

Three quick knocks on the door drew Inuyasha from his thoughts. He rolled his eyes as he knew that pattern of knocking. There was only one person in the school that had a specific way of knocking in a purposeful beat.

"Come in, Miroku."

Miroku walked in and slid the door closed behind him as he took a seat on top of Inuyasha's desk. "You didn't seem too happy when you came to get the keys, you good?"

As much as Inuyasha appreciated his friend checking on him when he seemed to be off, talking about it would only put him in even more of a sour mood. Miroku smiled as he looked at his dearest friend. Inuyasha had always worn his emotions on his face and it was always entertaining for Miroku to watch. He could always tell when he was annoying Inuyasha, when Inuyasha was in a relatively good mood, or when he simply didn't want to be bothered. He was only ever in this type of mood recently when it came to one subject outside of Kagome.

"I'm fine," Inuyasha grunted as he pulled a few papers out of his podium. "In fact, now that I'm at work and have a distraction, I'll be perfect."

Miroku knew when he could push and when he shouldn't push. Now was one of those times where he shouldn't push.

"On another note, I came to talk more about myself." Miroku racked his brain for something new about himself that he hadn't already told Inuyasha "I'm taking care of a few engagement things later today, so that's nice."

Inuyasha stared at Miroku. He had heard what Miroku said, he honestly had, but with everything that had gone on between last night and this morning, he could barely even process whatever the hell Miroku was about to go on about.

Inuyasha slowly nodded his head after some time. "That's great, Miroku. Just let me know when my help is needed."

Despite Miroku saying he was relying on Inuyasha for a lot of help with the engagement, he had only asked Inuyasha to do maybe one or two things that took less than a couple of hours to do at a time.

"Oh, I will. I'm covered for today though. How about we get a coffee from downstairs. My treat."

This right here was one of the times Inuyasha was glad that Miroku was his best friend. Miroku could read a room at times, or at least fully understand when Inuyasha really didn't want to be pushed on serious matters.

For the first time all day, Inuyasha cracked a smile. "That'd be great. Let me just set up these papers before we go."

Inuyasha worked some of the tension out of his shoulders before placing the organized papers on his desk. As pissed as he was this morning, he had to remind himself:

It's all temporary.

Yea, he was pissed beyond all reason, but it almost felt like a losing battle if he allowed himself to get so worked up over the things that he could not control.

Am I becoming an adult?

Here he was, a 30-year-old grown man actively feeling like an adult for how he worked on his anger. There was a first time for everything.

"You can even get the most expensive one." Miroku offered with a wink as he slid the classroom door back. "Oh?"

Inuyasha jerked his head in Miroku's direction to see why he sounded so surprised. He could just barely see long dark hair over Miroku's shoulder since he was completely blocking the door. There was only one woman that would come to his room at this time in the early morning.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked as he approached the door.

She seemed a bit flustered as she looked between the two men. Inuyasha couldn't quite understand her demeanor as she refused to meet Inuyasha's eyes, only ever looking around him or at his shoulders for some odd reason. "If you two were leaving, I'll just talk with you another time."

"It's fine." Miroku smiled as he patted her shoulder. "Meet me downstairs when you two finish talking, bud," Miroku said before walking to the coffee machine.

"Uh...Come in." Inuyasha slid the door closed behind them as he allowed her to walk before him.

She had yet to say anything as she fidgeted with a bit of eraser dust left behind by a student from the previous day.

Inuyasha watched her very carefully, maybe a bit too carefully, but with her not saying anything, his mind was racing a mile a minute.

Are we breaking up before we even get started?

That would certainly ruin his already ruined day. Why else would she come to him in such a way? Inuyasha thought long and hard about their last conversation. With everything going on, he had been so preoccupied with a million other thoughts that didn't leave him time to even think about his crush.

Oh. Shit….

The last conversation hit him like a ton of bricks.

He had not only ended the conversation they had abruptly. He had also canceled the plans they had to talk later yesterday night ON TOP OF not answering her text when she had texted him directly after he sent a swift text about canceling on her.

Inuyasha was sweating buckets as last night's events played on repeat in his head. He knew he looked like the biggest asshole and that she probably had choice words for him, but it honestly slipped his mind to even message her once he got roped into the shit-pile that was the lack of control he had in his life.

Kagome heaved a heavy sigh as she stepped up to him and looked him directly in the eyes. Inuyasha had to take a step back with her approaching him so suddenly.

"Are you mad at me, Inuyasha?" Her eyes held all the worry he hadn't noticed when she was looking down.

Eh?

So much for choice words. She wasn't mad at him in the slightest. In fact, she thought he was mad at her.

"K-"

Her voice wavered as she took another step towards him. "I'm sorry to come to you so early in the morning, it's just that I really don't want any other misunderstandings between us and if I said something that offended you, I want to apologize." She rushed out. "I even called after you this morning and you didn't answer, can we talk about it?"

Wow, she's really worked up. It nearly reminded Inuyasha of when she got all heated back at the bar the night she was yelling at Mr. Canna. The same flushed face and rushed tone. Dare he say it was nostalgic to see even though it was directed at him for all of the wrong reasons.

The last thing we talked about was a picture of a spider in a flower she sent me...Why the hell would that set me off?

Inuyasha honestly didn't blame her for thinking he was mad at her since that was what he may have thought if the roles were reversed. However, she had completely missed the mark with this one. In a sinister kind of way, he was touched and nearly glad that she had come to him like this. She really seemed to care about their friendship if she was this worried about him not messaging with her over the course of a night. More importantly, he liked that she had communicated with him, it was so different from last time. She hadn't let her mind roam much over the last 14 hours and had openly approached him to understand what had changed between them. Which was nothing.

Damn, I really like this girl.

Inuyasha could imagine how a relationship between them would be with many avoided arguments if she was this honest with herself and with him when it came to communication.

"Kagome, I'm not mad at you." Inuyasha rubbed a sheepish hand behind his head as he turned towards the window. "I just got some bad news and have been in a pretty bad mood since last night. It's not that I didn't want to talk with you, it's just that I didn't want to talk with you and be as pissed as I was last night," Inuyasha explained. Why did it feel so embarrassing to say this out loud?

He could see the tension visibly leave her shoulders at his words. She relaxed at knowing that his anger had nothing to do with her though the frown she wore refused to leave her face.

"You're in a bad mood?" Clearly not with her, but she still seemed bothered by the fact that he was even upset. "Wh-"

"Uncle Inu!"

Is everyone going to come to my room today?

When he was in a bad mood, he just wanted to be left alone honestly. But with all these damn people shoving their way in his room, he was finding less and less time to be angry.

Just outside of his door, stood his lovable niece, Rin Takahashi. Her face was just as flushed as Kagome's had been as she seemed extremely worked up about something.

No doubt she's here to complain.

"Eh? Uncle Inu?" Kagome's eyes danced between the two as she assessed their relationship. Inuyasha could practically see the wheels in Kagome's head turning as she put two and two together. Inuyasha didn't blame her for not fully understanding at first. Takahashi was a fairly common last name, they had hundreds of students with the same last name in their school. Hell, she probably had four of them in her homeroom alone. Plus it wasn't like he and Rin looked alike considering that he was part demon and Rin was fully human.

Inuyasha rubbed a tired hand down his face. "Come in, Rin."

If possible, her face was even redder as she closed the door behind her. The only people that knew Rin was Inuyasha's niece were his dearest friends and a few coworkers that had been in office when he started. Other than that, both Inuyasha and Rin had gone to extreme lengths to keep it that way.

"I didn't know you would be here, Ms. Higurashi." Whatever she had been ready to come in breaking all hell loose about had completely died on her lips as she looked at the young woman Inuyasha was smitten with. Inuyasha would go as far as to say she even seemed in a better mood now that she saw Kagome.

"I just wanted to talk for a second." Her response was small as she was still working through what she was witnessing. It was either shock from learning they were related, shock from learning the girl that she defended was related to him, or shock that Inuyasha hadn't told her this simple fact. "If you guys need to talk, I'll see myself out." She offered both of them a quick smile before excusing herself.

Inuyasha looked at his niece. She didn't seem panicked, injured, or in any imminent danger. She really did just come to complain. "Yes, Rin?"

Rin sat on her uncle's desk as she looked at him, no trace of what she had come in apparent on her face. "You and Ms. Higurashi are friends?" Her question was barely even a question as it came across as more of a confirmed statement.

"What of it? You came in here to complain about your dad, right?"

While Inuyasha wasn't necessarily in the mood to talk about family right now, starting off the morning with talking shit about his older brother with his niece did spark much joy.

Rin's eyes lingered on where Kagome had been standing as she turned back to her beloved uncle with an all-knowing smile. "Nope."

Without another word, she walked out of his room.

Okay, today was certainly not the start to the day he had thought it would be.

His anger was nearly forgotten as the oddity of this morning consumed his thoughts.

"Today is pretty okay."

It would be more accurate to say this moment, or at least his time spent at school, was 'pretty okay'. By some luck, he had maintained a fairly good mood all the way up to this point of the day. His phone had been blowing up with messages and calls, all of which he had completely ignored by turning off his phone. He had all the time in the world to be pissed once he got home and actually had to start taking these calls. Until then, he would keep the little bit of peace he had.

With Miroku being busy helping some of his students during lunch, Inuyasha was left alone on the rooftop to eat and think. He had long since finished his cup of ramen and had planned to just enjoy the windiness of the day.

Inuyasha spread himself out on the bench and took a big breath before releasing it slowly.

I hate not having a say in what happens to me.

He was the last person on this God-forsaken earth to say he was a control freak, but he sure as hell wished he had even a semblance of control in what happened in his life. It was such a weird feeling to be a grown man but feel like a puppet on a string. Why couldn't he just be a billionaire on a lone island in the middle of nowhere? God hated him.

Before he could start to curse God's name, the door to the rooftop began to shake.

Shit, someone is coming. Inuyasha grunted as he sat up.

If it were a student he'd have to go through the whole spiel of 'you're not allowed to be up here during school hours', to which they'd reply 'but you're up here', to which he'd naturally say 'I'm up here to make sure students like you stay out of trouble. Leave if you don't want to get written up'. He never had the opportunity to say these words since most students just went to the designated places, but he had practiced it numerous times since it was what all teachers had to say if put in the situation.

Inuyasha waited as he watched the door carefully, but whoever it was struggled with getting it pushed open. The door was quite heavy and you had to turn the handle a certain way to get it to open with ease. Inuyasha had a good mind to go help them had he not wanted to continue staying alone.

By the time the door finally swung open, the person coming outside was breathing heavily and hunched over.

"I heard I could find you here." Inuyasha watched as Kagome struggled for breath.

He was barely holding it together after seeing her difficulty with the door. He lost it as soon as she walked outside and was hit with a big gust of wind that sent her hair flying all over the place.

I needed this laugh. He thought as he doubled over.

Her eyes narrowed at him as she approached him, swiping and pawing at her hair to get it out of her face.

Inuyasha stood and handed her a hair tie he had around his wrist, before pointing at his very own low ponytail. "Always come prepared when you come to the rooftop."

"I'll keep that in mind for the future," she said with a roll of her eyes as she took it from him and began sweeping her hair into a high ponytail.

"So I've been on your mind lately? You can't seem to stay away, eh?" He joked as he looked down at her.

She stopped in the middle of sliding her hair through the loop of the ponytail before smiling at him sweetly. "Yea, for one reason or another." After she worked her hair through the hair tie, she dug in her pocket before roughly grabbing his hand and slamming something in it.

Inuyasha looked at what she had placed in his hand before turning to her for some answers, but she refused to meet his eyes. "Chocolate?"

"Whenever I'm in a bad mood, I like to eat sweets or chocolate. You can't be upset if you're eating something sweet."

She's too cute. The shy demeanor just didn't suit her anymore now that he knew how loud she could get. This was just cute as hell though. The way she avoided his eye contact in embarrassment, Inuyasha could feel himself falling further for her. He couldn't get over how kind this young woman was. She had really come up here to give him chocolate to help him feel better? It was such an innocent and child-like action, he could feel his heartwarming with it.

Inuyasha took her hand in his with a smile. "I appreciate the gesture, Kagome." He placed the chocolate back in her hand. "But I'm allergic to chocolate."

He could see her face burning with slight embarrassment as she looked at their hands. "You're allergic to chocolate?"

Inuyasha watched her eyes drift up ever so slightly to where his ears sat atop his head. He rolled his eyes. "No relation. I just so happened to be a dog demon and allergic to chocolate. Other dog demons can eat it just fine."

"Oh." Her voice died out, most likely from feeling awkward.

He gave her hands a small squeeze. "But it's good to know you like sweets when you're not happy." It really was a sweet gesture on her part and he didn't want her to feel as if she had done anything wrong by giving him something he was allergic to. It's not like he had told her before anyways.

Inuyasha looked at their hands. Neither had pulled back yet and his mind began to wonder as to when they would. Somethings just felt right and one of those things was having her hand in his.

"So…" Her voice drifted off as she looked out past the fence in front of them. "Can I ask why you have been upset since yesterday?"

Again, did he want to talk about it? No. But he had damn near given her a heart attack earlier and felt it would be a quick enough explanation if he just skimmed over a few details. That would be fine...right?

"Yea." He led them to the bench he was sitting on and sighed. Inuyasha refused to let himself get worked up again. "I got a call yesterday about some stuff with my family. That's all."

Kagome tilted her head to the side as she waited for more information. She didn't think she was good at reading people at all, but she could read that he sure as hell didn't want to talk about it much. Kagome thought about their last conversation about family. It was a pretty touchy topic for him, wasn't it….

She leaned back on the bench and stretched before turning to him with a big smile. "Family can be a bit tricky, can't it?" Her brown eyes practically twinkled at him as she continued. "Certainly not a walk in the park," she said as she nodded as if confirming her own thoughts. "I really love my family even when we have our moments. It's the same with friends too. My friends are like my family."

...What is she on about?

What she said fit the conversation, but Inuyasha couldn't figure out why she was suddenly talking like this for the life of him. It was odd, but it wasn't like she didn't have a point. Miroku and Sango had been the closest thing to family for Inuyasha aside from Rin. When he was down, they were always there to pick him up and support him no matter what. Could he say the same about his own family?

"My friends are my family," she clarified thoughtfully. "And you're one of my friends, ya' know? So you're part of my family and I take care of my family." She looked at their hands. Somehow they hadn't let go of each other, and yet she still made no move to pull away. She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "So I don't like to see you upset or feeling like you can't or don't want to talk to me when you are angry. I'm just saying that you can depend on me when you're not having the best of days."

Kagome continued, "I know you have other friends, but I'm here for you too. We agreed to get along, remember? So you can call on me anytime and I'll be here to try to help you smile. I'm not the best at telling jokes, but I can always make you a warm meal or meet up with you to help you feel better." She lightly giggled to herself. "Maybe I'm a bit more unstable than you so I'll be needing you more times than you'll need me, but I'm always here."

I really fell for the right person and I'm not letting her go. When was the last time he had felt this cared for by a friend? Inuyasha would do anything it took to make sure that it was her that he ended up with at the end of the day. He just couldn't let her go after feeling this way for her. Not a chance in hell.

Inuyasha's eyes drifted from their hands to her beautiful eyes, to the sky, and to her eyes once more. The weather was good. The feeling was more than just perfect. A part of her had to feel something for him, right? You can't say all of that and not feel something.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked as he removed his hand from hers.

"Yes?"

"Will you be my date?

I know, I know. A short ass chapter. I actually split the chapters into two. So chapters 5 and 6 were supposed to be one, but I didn't want it to be TOO long.

Plus I like torturing people and leaving cliffhangers for those that are actively reading :)

Love you guys. Please stay tuned~

Arc 1 5/8.

5/22

Words: about 4,110

Pages: 10

Finished: Idk..sometime in October.

Posted: November 25th. 2021