An Entirely Different Kind of Cheating

A/N: First off, I am so very, very sorry about the long wait in between chapter seven and this one. Soooo sorry. I don’t really want to go into it, but just when I was starting to lose ideas for this story, my dog died (it feels very odd saying that to an anonymous number of people, but it’s the truth). I was very, very close to him, and it got me down. However, it also got me to writing other things.
My huge practically-year-long writer’s slump in which finding new ideas and putting them on paper was as easy as pushing an elephant up a dozen flights of stairs has finally come to a sweeping end! *Knocks on wood*. This is wonderful news for me, but it doesn’t bode well for any one story in particular, as I’m always so eager to start a new one that newly-old ones get left in the dust.

**On a completely different note, I just found out that my pen-name is the name of a band! They’re apparently an a cappella group. Man, and I was thinking of the scientific theory. What a dork I am! Sigh. Anyway, I bet the theory has to be a lot cooler than the band. Then again, I’ve never heard the band, so I can’t really say. I hope people don’t think that my pen-name is based on the band though.**

Let’s do some responses!

SexyKagome03: Of course! Lots of pocky! Oh wow, hearing that you love the speed of my updates makes me feel really guilty for the delay for this one. Thanks so much for the review, and I made sure to read and review your story, like you asked!

Chokoreto: Well, yeah, technically he’s dead, but in my story, he’s alive and well. And fairly annoying, as you’ll see in a moment! Haha, yeah, at first I was going to have them go at it in a game of cut-throat poker, but I got the idea for Go Fish and it was too good to pass up. I’m glad you liked it and thanks for the review!

Al: Wow, thanks! That’s an awesome compliment.

FallenAngle7583: Yeah, I figured that I couldn’t have a fic without Sesshoumaru putting his hand through Inuyasha’s abdomen at least once. It’s so handy, because it’s just dramatic enough, but we don’t have to debate over whether or not he’d really survive that, since he did in the actual series. You brought up an extremely good point about the fact that Kagome still stole (and continues stealing) from the casino, and Daddy dearest is bound to dislike that. I love how you look at all the angles! Well…Naraku is dead, so unfortunately there will be no daddy-duel, but hopefully what I have in store will be just as exciting. As always, thanks so much for the great review!

Keke: Well, despite the delay, I finally have the answers for you! Hopefully, you’ll like the character I’ve made for the dad! Thanks for the review!

Hillary: Hmm, I could probably manage a different story with a threesome in it. I’m new to this whole writing-lemons thing, so it might take some time, but I bet I can scrounge up some good ideas. Thanks a lot for the input; I love hearing what the readers want to see. I’ll definitely try to come up with some ideas. Thanks for the review!

Myztik Shadows: I’m really glad you liked the chapter; I wasn’t so sure about it. Fortunately, neither of them are really that bad off. I’m sure they’ll recover; read: there won’t be much of a story if they don’t! Thanks for the review!

Maverick: Aww! I feel so bad for you, that I’ll be glad to give you some virtual pocky! Haha. Thanks for the review!

Kari: Thank you! I’m so, so sorry for the wait. Things ended up just getting in the way, and I couldn’t bring myself to work on this particular story. Hopefully it will be better in the future! Thanks for the review!

This chapter: In which we meet Daishyo Goro, Inuyasha’s and Sesshoumaru’s father. He’s loud, he’s authoritative, he’s spoiled, and he’s the complete opposite of what Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru’s dad was like in the third movie. Basically your stereotypically mobster. Should be fun!
I wrote this while listening to “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and other trippy Beatles songs. Maybe you can tell?


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*****
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Chapter Eight

It wasn’t long at all before the Daishyo brothers woke up, within hours of each other.

Putting them in the same hospital room hadn’t been the brightest of ideas, but both were too weak to bother with the other.

Kagome broke into hysterics when Inuyasha awoke, throwing herself on him (also not the best idea, as he was, in fact, in a rather large amount of pain) and wailing with all her might. Though Inuyasha took this as her release of the pent-up anxiety on his behalf, he was only half correct. The other half of Kagome’s sobbing was for herself, as she had the worst hangover of her life, and holding in all the complaints had led her to tears.

$~$~$

“Dammit, Sango, the one time you picked to remember absolutely anything the morning after getting as drunk as you did had to be the one morning I’d promised to actually do something constructive.”

“I don’t care what you say, Miroku. I’m sorry if you don’t feel like treating me to chocolates early in the morning, but a promise is a promise.”

“If it was chocolate you wanted, I could have gone out and gotten a couple bars of Hershey’s. But it wasn’t. What you wanted was my money in chocolate form.”

Sango grinned. She’d insisted on Miroku going out and buying best chocolate they could find while she waited in the hotel room. Then again, she felt that she deserved it. Chocolate always made things better, and she needed a pick-me-up.

“Look, my head feels like it’s pinned with a hammer-sized tack to the underside of a fucking rocket. Don’t push your luck.”

Miroku sighed and handed over the chocolate. She happily began unwrapping it, but her boyfriend obviously had other ideas. Leaning over her, he nipped lightly at her ear, then kissed her.

It was tempting, but trying to keep Sango away from her chocolate was damn near impossible. “Later, Miroku,” she mumbled, and popped a piece of the heavenly stuff into her mouth.

Sighing loudly, Miroku flopped over to his back beside her and turned on the TV. The channel surfing commenced.

“So, you and Inuyasha were getting pretty friendly last night, ne?”

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’? You were playing Go Fish with the man. That’s friendly.”

“It is not. He’s a complete bastard and I hate him. Leave it alone.”

“Miroku…come on,” she teased through a mouthful of chocolate, “I sensed some real bonding going on there. I mean…Black Beauty, that’s some pretty heavy shit.”

“Alright, Sango, that’s quite enough. Inuyasha is still an asshole, Kagome is still a moron for being with him, and you’re still annoying.”

“On the other hand, Inuyasha is an asshole who cares for Kagome, Kagome being with him is keeping her just absent enough for us to…ahem…have some fun, and I’m just pointing out the obvious. Which you hate. Because you know it’s true. And that bugs you.”

He chose to ignore her. Good move. He finally stopped the rapid changing of channels and landed on the news.

Sango looked down at the delicious treat in her hands. It had to be just about the yummiest thing she’d ever had, but guilt was keeping her from fully enjoying it. That sucked. A lot.

Breaking off a mournfully large chunk, Sango sidled up quietly behind Miroku and put one leg on either side of him, and pressed herself against his back. The hand free of chocolate slid under his shirt and up over his torso, loving the feel of his skin. She placed kisses on the side of his neck and humbly sacrificed her chocolate by placing it in front of her lips.

“Is this a peace offering?” he asked, one arm slipping behind him to hold her to him. “Wow, Toshio Sango giving away chocolate. Now that’s big.”

Sango rolled her eyes. “If you don’t want it, I’ll be happy to take it.”

Miroku let her feed him the chocolate, and made a point to nip at her fingers for it. She wrapped her arm around him, enjoying the fact that he seemed to be a little less…ghastly today. She nuzzled her head into his shoulder, blocking out what light had seeped into the room, and alleviating at least some of the throbbing pain.

Suddenly, Miroku tensed horribly, and his hand clenched her arm. “Oh fuck,” he whispered.

“What?”

“Sango…get dressed.”

“What?” she repeated.

“Look!” He gestured wildly at the TV.

On the news, they were showing a clip of none other than Inuyasha and who Sango vaguely recognized as his half brother being wheeled on stretchers out of the very hotel in which they were sitting. “Fuck indeed.” She pulled herself away from him and stumbled over to the dresser, the spike of pain that went driving though her skull from getting up too fast nearly sending her flat onto her face.

This was not going to be a fun day.

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“Damn, Sango, why are you blaming me? I’m not the one who sent Inuyasha and his half brother to the hospital, so it’s not my fault that our plans got ruined.”

Her glare intensified. “It’s convenient.”

Miroku pulled in a deep breath and entered the hospital room, Sango following behind him.

What he encountered was mass hysteria.

Both of the Daishyo brothers were sitting up in bed. Inuyasha was holding a curled Kagome, yelling obscenities and threats to his half-brother who was approximately twenty feet away; Sesshoumaru was growling and vehemently insulting everything about Inuyasha; and Kagome was in a ball on Inuyasha’s lap, screaming “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” over and over. She had both hands over her ears.

“Miroku, this fucking sucks!” Sango yelled, and slapped him across the back of the head.

“Sango! What the hell was that?!”

“Convenience,” she growled, looking positively feral and holding her head in the palm of her hand as if she was afraid it would physically fall to pieces.

Miroku sighed, already giving up. He knew what would happen: Sango would attempt to calm things down and end up arguing just as loudly as the rest of them only moments later, and he would follow in the same pattern, getting caught up himself in the tangled mass of chaos that was room 321. However, this couldn’t bother Miroku, as he’d gotten laid last night. A lot.

Sango jumped right in, and within seconds, she was gone, yelling at no one and everyone at the same time.

“People, people,” Miroku said with serenity and patience worthy of his nickname of “Houshi”. “Calm down,” he urged soothingly. They actually seemed to listen. “Can’t you see that by arguing and carrying on like you are, you all are revealing yourselves for the gigantic morons you are?” He smiled gently.

“Fuck you, Kanshu!” growled Inuyasha.

“Not helping, Miroku!” shrieked Sango.

“Who the hell are you?” intoned Sesshoumaru.

“What are you doing here?! My god, you really are stalking me!” exclaimed Kagome.

Miroku sighed. No one could say he hadn’t tried. There was a very inviting chair in the corner. He responded pleasantly to its invitation, and sat down in it. “Don’t mind me.”

They hadn’t. They were arguing again.

Maybe Miroku could find a way to take a nap. Wouldn’t that be nice?

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“You rat bastard, you don’t deserve the air you so disgustingly-” Sesshoumaru cut himself off abruptly.

Dammit! Inuyasha had a truly wonderful comeback ready; why had Sesshoumaru suddenly stopped like that? “What?” he demanded. He could see clearly the muscle twitching in Sesshoumaru’s jaw.

“Our father is approaching,” Sesshoumaru announced.

Inuyasha knew he was paling; he could feel the blood sliding through his bones to puddle uselessly in his toes. “Oh fuck.”

“Is that bad?” Kagome asked softly.

“Kagome, look at me,” Inuyasha said urgently, taking her soft face in his hands. “You have to promise me that you will ignore absolutely every single solitary word that comes from my father’s lips. He’s a brilliant business man, and scary as hell when the situation calls for it, but as a person, he’s pretty much nothing more than a gigantic failure. Ignore his existence as much as you can.”

“Don’t you know that it’s rude to make pompous little speeches like that when the object of the speech can hear you?” someone asked from the doorway. It was a deep, authoritative voice.

Inuyasha glanced over. Of course, he’d heard the man coming and wasn’t surprised by his entrance, but Kagome jumped in his arms and turned to look at the stranger.

Inuyasha’s father was dressed sharply as ever in a charcoal suit and the same sunglasses he always wore, hair up in the ever-present ultra-prissy ponytail. Inuyasha thought that the only feature he and his father shared was the color of their hair; Sesshoumaru, on the other hand, looked exactly like their father.

“Alright, here’s what’s gonna happen,” Diashyo Goro announced as soon as he had everyone’s attention. He pulled off his sunglasses, took out a very expensive handkerchief and began cleaning them. How typical; not even a “hello” before he started barking orders.

“All you people are going to clear out of here so I can speak to my boys, have a little heart to heart; family business, you know how it is. Except you, the one sitting on my son’s lap. Can’t really tell which one he is, but I’m assuming that you know, since you seem to be associated with him rather intimately. Or maybe he’s just using you; that seems like the kind of thing that a son of mine might do.

“Anyway, here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna jump up off my son’s lap real quick, run your pretty legs real fast down to the cafeteria, and get me a desperately-needed cup of coffee. Now, I don’t care if you have to burn the whole damn place down, but I want it to be a decent cup of coffee, and if they give you a cup of coffee that smells a little iffy, you tell them I’ll have them killed like they’re prize fucking heifers if it isn’t the best fucking up of coffee I’ve ever had. Then you bring it right back up here and I’ll be very grateful. That’s something you can learn to use: the gratefulness of a powerful man. That makes you a very important little lady; temporarily speaking, of course; I doubt that your life will matter too terribly much after your little errand is completed. You got all that, doll?” He put both the handkerchief and the sunglasses in his coat pocket.

Inuyasha could smell the shock coming off Kagome in waves. Inuyasha growled sharply at his father, but couldn’t resist placing a hand over his face in utter shame.

“Were-” Kagome stuttered, “were you talking to me?”

Inuyasha felt like sobbing.

“Hon,” Goro replied condescendingly, “look around for a moment. Go ahead. Go on, look around the room! Good girl. Now, do you see any other young woman perched on one of my son’s laps? No? Well then don’t you suppose that that means I was speaking to you?”

Kagome blinked a few times, and Inuyasha finally scrounged up the dignity to raise his face and defend Kagome’s honor, but by that time she was sliding wordlessly off his lap, shocked beyond any response, and walking out of the room.

“Hey, didn’t I tell you people to get out? Who the hell are you anyway? Scratch that, I don’t care; just get out.” Goro ushered the bewildered Miroku and Sango out of the room and turned to his sons. “Now then, let’s get down to business.” He pulled over the chair where Miroku had just been sitting and sat down, crossing one leg so his ankle balanced on the supporting knee. He wobbled his free foot in the way that he always did. “Who wants to go first?”

“Dad,” Inuyasha snarled furiously, “that was my mate you just insulted and embarrassed and sent out for fucking coffee.”

“Your what?” Goro stood, stunned. He turned to Sesshoumaru and gestured to Inuyasha. “You hearing this, Inuyasha? My own-”

“I’m Sesshoumaru,” Sesshoumaru snarled.

“Of course, right, right, you two just look so much alike, that’s all.” Goro mussed Sesshoumaru’s hair annoyingly and continued. “Like I was saying, my own son Sesshoumaru doesn’t even tell me when he gets mated! How ungrateful-”

“I’m Sesshoumaru,” Sesshoumaru snarled yet again. “He, Inuyasha, is the one who mated without your knowledge. Get it straight, you pathetic excuse for a family member.”

“Hey, didn’t anyone ever tell you not to speak to your fucking father that way? Anyway, Inuyasha!” He turned to the only hanyou in the room. “How could you do that? What’s become of our family when I don’t even know when my own fucking son gets mated? You’ve broken my heart, son, truly. How could you do that?” Goro had placed a clawed hand over his heart during the speech, and presently realized that one claw had snagged on his suit.

“Oh, don’t you just hate it when that happens?” Goro asked Inuyasha emphatically, all his concentration instantaneously on his struggle with the tiny string of fabric. “First it’s just a tiny snag, but then you pull on it, and you can’t get your claw out, and the hole gets bigger, and at the end you have to bite something off, which ends up in a hefty bill at the tailor or the fucking manicurist, whichever applies. But what am I saying, you know how that is, I don’t need to tell it to you. Moving on!” Goro gave a jerk and freed his hand from the suit. The abandoned string drooped pathetically from his otherwise pristine suit.

“Like I was saying, son, you can’t just go and get mated without telling me. It just ain’t right.

“Now that we got that out of the way, let’s move on to this business of you two attacking each other in my hotel. Tell me, what’s that all about? You two always got along so very well when you were children.”

“No we didn’t,” Inuyasha corrected irritably. “We hated each other. Sesshoumaru tried to drown me in our pool when I was four.”

“Was that you he tried to drown? I could have sworn it was the family cat, Kirara. Don’t ask me why there was a cat in a household of dog demons; it was all Izayoi’s influence, I promise you that. Talk about your weak-spots; there was mine. The woman says ‘buy me a cat,’ and I, the dog-demon, buy her a cat. But that’s the way love is. Anyway, that still doesn’t tell me what happened that you two should be fighting like cats and dogs; no pun intended. And in my hotel, no less. Do you know how fucking bad that looks? Do you know how much bad publicity that gets us?”

Inuyasha sighed. “Dad, we have a PR office for that kind of thing. let them worry about it; it’ll blow over by noon.”

“That’s not the point. You two were making a fool of me in my own fucking casino. Would anyone care to explain that to me?”

“Dad, Sesshoumaru…he’s that one,” Inuyasha pointed across the room patronizingly, “hired someone to have me killed, and when it didn’t work, he came to kill me himself.”

The father took a few steps toward his oldest son. “Sesshoumaru, I can’t believe you!” Genuine anger flashed in Goro’s eyes. “What the fuck is wrong with you, boy?” Goro smacked Sesshoumaru smartly on the side of his head. “Have I taught you nothing, Sesshoumaru?!” Goro leaned down to be at eye-level with Sesshoumaru, who was now rolling his eyes, and wag his finger in the younger demon’s face. “When you’re looking to ice someone you know is powerful, you gotta do it yourself, none of that hired-help shit.”

Inuyasha’s jaw dropped in astonishment. His father never ceased to amaze him, and it was never in any good ways.

“Sesshoumaru, now, you remember how you two used to fight as kids, right? Yeah, well then you know from experience how fucking tough the little guy can be!” Goro slugged Inuyasha lightly in the arm. By this time, Inuyasha’s emotional numbness had expanded into the physical realm.

“So what you gotta do, son,” he said, sitting down on the hospital bed and putting his arm over Sesshoumaru’s shoulders, “is go in there yourself, and get the job done clean and quick, none of that punch-line bullshit; that always leads to trouble, and if no one’s around to hear it anyway, it just gets repetitive the next time you use it when there are actually people around to be impressed by it. So you kill him quick and before he knows what hit him, boom! He’s dead. D-e-a-d, dead.”

“Dad!” Inuyasha shouted furiously, emotion returning. “Stop giving Sesshoumaru fucking tips on how to kill me! It is absolutely incredible that I end up saying that exact sentence every time the three of us are in a room together.”

“Now now, Inuyasha; be a good sport. No one likes a sore loser.”

“I didn’t fucking lose! If you hadn’t noticed, Sesshoumaru is in the hospital too!”

“That’s true, son, that’s a very good point, which brings me to asking this question: what caused this little dispute? Sesshoumaru, what would bring you to hire someone to kill your half-brother, fail horribly, and then go and try to do it yourself, only to fail horribly then too?”

Sesshoumaru clenched his fists tightly. “As of right now, oh omniscient father, control of Daishyo Casino lies in Inuyasha’s hands when you are away, and it belongs to him as soon as you die. That is a problem I was simply trying to rectify.”

“Oh, Sesshoumaru,” Goro gasped. “You want to take over the family business? Come here, son!” Goro pulled Sesshoumaru into a tight hug.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes again.

“Dad!” Inuyasha yelled again. “I want to take over the business too, in case you forgot, and I’m a hell of a lot better at it than Sesshoumaru is! You have no right whatsoever to give my inheritance to him! It’s fucking mine, dammit!”

“I do see your point son.” He’d long since pulled away from Sesshoumaru. “That I do, but Sesshoumaru is the oldest son.”

“Dad…when I’m in control of the casino, I make more money than Sesshoumaru would.”

Instantly, Goro stood from Sesshoumaru’s bed and gravitated towards Inuyasha. “He does make a very convincing point, Sesshoumaru.”

Sesshoumaru growled. “That’s nonsense. Everyone knows that I’m the better businessman.”

Goro pulled away from Inuyasha again. “Well, Inuyasha, if he is the better businessman, then don’t you think that he should be running the business?”

“No,” Inuyasha said flatly.

“Not even if it was for the good of the company?”

“No.”

“Well then it’s clear to me-”

“I don’t think that because it’s not true,” Inuyasha interrupted. “I run the casino better than that bastard ever could.”

With a sigh, Goro dropped back into his chair. “Well, this is quite the dilemma, isn’t it?” The man dropped back against the chair and stroked a beard he didn’t have. “But, seeing as I am your father, I have a solution.”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. “I’ll bite. What’s your solution, dad?”

Goro stood and rubbed his hands together. “Well, boys, as I see it, the only real fair way to get this little problem squared away and behind us and decided once and for all is actually very simple. In three days, the two of you will sit down at a card table and play hold ‘em, with me as a judge, and then we’ll see who’s the top dog. No pun intended. You’ll each start out with forty-thousand dollars, and if you think for one second that my casino is going to fork up eighty grand for you two to work out your childish issues, you’re dead wrong. So get your hands on forty-thousand dollars, and be ready to play for the rights to the casino when I’m gone. You have three days boys. The game will be in a private room at eight o’clock sharp. You don’t show up, you forfeit everything.”

Inuyasha blinked. He hadn’t seen that coming.

“Now, Inuyasha.”

He looked to his father.

“Let’s meet this lovely new mate of yours. Say, let’s go out for a nice western-style breakfast; I’ll treat. After all, I want to make a good impression on my daughter-in-law.”

“Dad, I think that any hope you could possibly have had of making a good impression is completely, totally, and utterly gone.”

“Why’s that? You don’t think an old man can make a good impression?”

Sesshoumaru was now pulling the IV out of his arm and dropping it to dangle carelessly from its tubing. He went to the closet and took his clothes to the bathroom to dress.

“Not after the way you treated her,” Inuyasha told his father, completely ignoring Sesshoumaru.

“Me? I treated her badly? Now that doesn’t seem like something your old dad would do.”

Inuyasha was starting to remember why he liked it so much when his father wasn’t around. He sighed impatiently, struggling to not undergo spontaneous human combustion. “You already met her, dad; she’s the girl who was sitting with me when you came in. You told her to go get coffee?”

“Oh, that cute little thing was your mate? The one with such the nice figure?”

Inuyasha grated his teeth. “Yes dad, and you treated her like crap. I hope you feel horrible.”

Sesshoumaru emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed. “I will meet with the two of you again in three days, and no sooner.”

“Hey, Sesshoumaru,” his father barked, “no trying to kill your brother before the fucking tournament, got that?”

The demon nodded slowly with eyes half-lidded in exasperation, and left the room.

Goro went quickly back to their previous topic. “Well son, if you’d have just told me you were mated to the girl, none of that would ever have happened. I never pinned you for much of a human-lover, though, son. Very pretty though, that one’s a keeper. Say, with a figure like that, you should suit her up in a Daishyo suit and have her serving drinks in the casino. Why let a body like that go to waste? She has such great-”

“Dad, if you spend one more second thinking about my mate’s body, I’m going to forcibly remove the image from your brain.”

“Jeez, being single so long almost makes a guy forget how fucking possessive we dog demons can get. Down boy. So, let’s go meet the lovely lady. Say, that reminds me; what the hell did that girl do with my coffee?”

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“Inuyasha, your mate is just darling; I can’t see why you didn’t introduce us sooner,” Goro proclaimed exotically.

Kagome smiled humbly, but Inuyasha pulled her closer to his side. He’d been growling silently through the whole breakfast; the only way Kagome knew was by the vibrations shuddering through everywhere they touched. She put her hand on his knee to calm him down.

Miroku and Sango had weaseled themselves into coming to breakfast as well, after hearing that Inuyasha’s dad was paying.

“So, Inuyasha,” Goro asked congenially, “how are your wounds feeling?”

“Other than the big gaping hole in my abdomen, they feel very much like huge burning slashes in my flesh, thank you very much.”

Kagome cringed.

“Good, that’s good. My god, these eggs are delicious.”

Fortunately, Daishyo Goro seemed to be oblivious to absolutely everything except money.

“Well, dad, I’d love to stay and chat, but one of us has to run the casino.” Inuyasha pushed his plate away from him.

“Oh, let it wait, son! Your mate hasn’t even finished her pancakes! You wouldn’t want the poor girl to starve, would you? No, of course not! Anyway, I’m in town until the game between you and your brother, at least, so I’ll take control of the casino until then. It’s not very fair otherwise, as that’s exactly what you and your brother are gambling over.

“Now isn’t this a better solution, Inuyasha? You see how needless violence between family members is compared to this? It’s safe and legal and you’re not risking more than you’re willing to give.”

“What the hell are you talking about? I’m risking a lot more than I’m willing to give, and I’m only doing it because you said that I had to in order to get the damn casino!”

“That’s quite right, you have to. Now stop complaining.”

Kagome tried not to giggle. Inuyasha and his father had the most interesting Non Relationship she’d ever seen.

After she’d gotten past the traumatic coffee incident, his dad had turned out to be a charming, if a little absent, man. And she sensed that Inuyasha felt in complete opposition to that, which probably meant that she was missing something. However, the man had been showering praise and compliments on her since they set foot out of the hospital, and he was paying for her pancakes, which were making her feel immensely better.

“So what was the ceremony like? Seeing as you didn’t invite your old man to your one and only mating ceremony, I believe I have the right to ask what the ceremony was like.” Goro picked up his coffee cup. He’d been guzzling the stuff since they sat down, and was on his fourth or fifth serving.

Kagome was rather confused. Ceremony? Did she miss something? Maybe it was just a demon thing; like the growling and the possessiveness.

Next to her, Inuyasha fidgeted. “There was no ceremony, dad. We haven’t had one yet.”

The coffee cup was set down with a loud clatter. “No ceremony?” Goro demanded. His hands landed flat on the faux-Formica table. “No ceremony?!”

Inuyasha sat back in his chair sourly. “It’s not like we won’t have one, dad. We just haven’t as of right now.”

Enough was enough. “Alright, what exactly is this ceremony I’m apparently going to have, but know nothing about?”

Now Goro was pissed. “She doesn’t even know what the ceremony is?” He was glaring at Inuyasha, and it was rather scary. Kagome regretted saying anything, and she shrank down in her seat. She had the feeling she’d just gotten Inuyasha in trouble.

“Tell me, son,” Goro snarled, “what else doesn’t she know? I suppose she doesn’t know about the Division Banquets either?” He was obviously being sarcastic, and his eyes widened when Inuyasha turned away guiltily. “You haven’t told her about Division Banquets either?! Kid, you’re supposed to tell her these things before you mate her! She’s human! If you’re going to take a human mate, you have to tell her these things! How the fuck else is she supposed to know what you’ve gotten her into?!” Goro continued mumbling all the way into his next sip of coffee.

Kagome, Miroku, and Sango were all sitting silently, feeling that they were in over their heads.

Kagome could feel Inuyasha’s hackles rising. He bared his fangs venomously. “It’s not your business, old man. Kagome and I only met last week; it’s not exactly like we’ve had a chance to really sit down and organize things.”

“Well if that’s the case,” Goro replied, just as ferine, and glowering over his cup, “then it’s a good thing that I’m here. Isn’t it.”

It wasn’t a question, so no one answered.

“Well, then, I’m glad we’re in agreement. Since my son can’t seem to keep straight his own arrangements,” the demon paused for a sip of coffee, “I’m obliged to do it for him. The ceremony will be tomorrow evening, at four-thirty.”

“What?!” Inuyasha yelled, arm slipping off Kagome as he shot to his feet. “You have no fucking right to decide that! That’s Kagome’s and my decision! You can’t just insert yourself into our lives like that!” Now Inuyasha really was flat-out growling, for all the world to hear. His ears lay back against his head and his hands dug into the table.

“Hey!” One of the employees was coming over to scold them. “Would you folks mind keeping it down?! Other people are trying to enjoy their…oh! Oh, D-Daishyo-sama!” The waitor gave a hefty bow. “I’m so sorry, sir, I didn’t realize it was you! I-I-”

“Just get out of here,” Goro instructed, and slowly stood to meet his son’s challenge. “Sit down, boy. If you’re going to be irresponsible enough to mate a human without explaining the demon ways to her, it’s your own damn fault when things get fucked up. You should just be glad that I was here to bail you out this time.”

Inuyasha clenched his jaw fiercely. “You’re the only goddamn reason that things are fucked up. You always are. Come on, Kagome. You don’t need to be around people like him.”

Inuyasha gently, but firmly took her hand and guided her from the table.

Kagome glanced back helplessly. Goro looked ferocious, and Miroku and Sango looked like big stoned goldfish.

“Inuyasha,” his father roared with such authority that Inuyasha stopped in his tracks, “you and your mate will be at the house at four in the afternoon tomorrow, you will have explained to her about the ceremony and you will both be ready, and said ceremony will commence at four-thirty exactly. No son of mine will take a mate without the proper demon declaration. There’s no dignity in that kind of mating, son, and there’s no honor. My heir must show that he has honor. If you don’t perform the ceremony with your mate tomorrow afternoon, don’t bother coming to the game between you and your brother in three days.”

Inuyasha’s shoulders slumped in defeat, but he gripped Kagome’s hand securely and lead them out of the restaurant.


$~$~$
*****
$~$~$


A/N: I have to admit, i got the idea for the big end-all poker game while watching "Rounders".
Yeah, so, like I said before; Goro ended up being the exact opposite of how their dad was portrayed in the third movie. But I had a huge amount of fun writing his character; the repetition and using a certain swearword in practically every one of his sentences ended up being extremely fun. He was just this completely nonsensical character who just poured onto the page, bad grammar and all. I hope you enjoyed the character and the situations into which he’s put the rest of the gang!
I don’t think the characters have moved around as little in the rest of the story as they did in this chapter. But it fit, so I went with it. I hope you enjoyed it, and please review!
~Schrodinger’s Cat. *The theory, not the band!*