Kagome plastered on a sweet smile when Kouga’s two assistants Hakkaku and Ginta looked over at her, then rolled her eyes when they looked away. She might have found the situation more amusing if she was not already in a bad mood. Not to mention she was bored out of her mind waiting for Miroku and Inuyasha to finish their conversation with their old teammate Kouga in the other room.

Kouga was the man she had replaced on their team when Miroku had hired her on. The homoyoukai had been Inuyasha’s friend; at least that explained why the white haired hanyou came down so hard on her, but didn’t make her feel any better.

Hakkaku and Ginta were busily working on the hull of a small cruiser, and clearly making a great effort to show off their muscles and ship repairing talent, which were rather mediocre in Kagome’s humble opinion. She debated on and idea to keep herself amused while Miroku and Inuyasha finished their talk with Kouga, and finally she got up and walked over to the cruiser.

“Hey boys!” Kagome called out to the two assistants cheerfully. “Mind if  I help out?

The two wolf homoyoukai looked at her in shock, then looked at each other, wide grins spreading across their faces.

“Yeah!” Hakkaku answered gleefully.

“That would be great!” Ginta chimed in.

“Well then, hand me a welder and let’s get to it.”

***

“No shit…” Kouga stared at his former crewmates is utter shock. “They actually made a full blood youkai? And you have him?!”

“That’s right.” Inuyasha answered gravely. “He escaped from the labs and snuck on to our ship.”

“Damn…” Kouga murmured absently his mind still a little numb from the information that it had just been given.

“We need to get off this planet as fast as we can…” Miroku continued calmly though there was some definite urgency in his voice. “They sent the Shichinintai after us. And they’re hot on our heels. Will you help us old friend?”

“Hell ya!” Kouga stood up and looked ready to go, clearly surprising both Inuyasha and Miroku with his enthusiasm.

“All right!” Inuyasha smirked. “ I knew we could count on ya!”
“Though I admit we had our fears that you would be afraid of the Shichinintai.” Miroku rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed at the misjudgement he had made on his friend’s courage.

“Shichinintai? I’m not afraid of those seven assholes.” Kouga drew himself up a little. “Heck, I’m not afraid of anything.”

“KOUGA!!”

As if on cue a high pitched voice shrieked Kouga’s name from the other room, causing the wolf youkai to balk as if had just been slapped in the face. The door to the room slid open to reveal Kouga’s wife Ayame, who ready to kill something, namely Kouga.

“Ayame…” Kouga’s voice broke and he quickly picked up a chair and held  it between himself and his storming wife. The scene greatly resembled the look of a lion tamer at a circus. Only this wolf

Kouga cringed and picked up his chair, holding it in front of him in an effort to put some sort of barrier between him and his enraged wife.

“Who is she?!” Ayame demanded.

“Who is who?” Kouga squeaked helplessly.

“Miss Raven hair out there working on the cruiser with Hakkai and Ginta!” the female wolf homoyoukai snapped.

“Huh?” Kouga looked completely dumbfounded, and he was facing certain doom from his wife. Fortunately Inuyasha came to his rescue

“Hold up! ‘Miss Raven Hair’ belongs to us!” the white haired Hanyou blurted out.

Ayame closed her mouth and blinked. Apparently in her anger she had completely missed Inuyasha and Miroku’s presence. “Miroku? Inuyasha? When did you guys get here?”

“A little while ago.” Miroku answered, and to help calm the waters added. “The Raven haired girl is Kagome, and she’s with us.”

“Oh…” The anger on Ayame’s face was quickly replaced with embarrassment and she turned back toward Kouga. “Sorry honey…”

“See I told you, I wouldn’t break my promise.” Kouga put down the chair and crossed his arms over his chest indignantly.

“Promise?” Inuyasha asked trying to hold back laughter Kouga being so scared of his wife before.

“I promised her I would hire any pretty women without her approval.” Kouga admitted. “And I haven’t.”

“So far.” Ayame added, not wanting to be in the wrong of the conversation any longer.

“Yeah, yeah.” Kouga groaned.

“Wait a minute.” Ayame furrowed her brow. “If this Kagome is with you guys, how come she’s out their fixing the cruiser?”

“Um…Bored maybe?” Miroku offered. “We’ve in here a long time. We hired her to replace Kouga after he married you. She likes to keep busy.”

Ayame nodded, her suspicious mind finally satisfied. “So what brings you guys here?”

The three men exchanged glances, not sure how she would react to the story they had told Kouga. Though most likely she would be mad if she were kept in the dark about what they were doing, so perhaps it was best to get it out in the open and get it over with.

“Ayame, I think you’d better sit down…”

***

“Oi! Ren! How’s the tracking coming? Any closer?” Bankotsu addressed his second in command.

“Well based on their “jump” I was able to place them somewhere inside regulated space.” Renkotsu answered flatly, tapping a few keys on the navigation board.

“Great that only gives us a few thousand, gajillion planets to choose from.” Bankotsu groaned, rubbing his temples.

“Normally You would be right. But thanks to some extra calculations and ingenuity on my part I have narrowed their location down to Xarem’s region.” The second in command tapped a few more keys, then sat back folding his arms over his chest as the computer mapped out their course.

“No shit! That only gives us ten planets to choose from then! Hey I think Chehalis is in that region, I wonder if Jerry still has that bar… ” Bankotsu beamed and clapped Renkotsu on the shoulder, “Go ahead and start the jump sequence. I’ll go tell the boys to get ready.”

Renkotsu nodded and began the jump sequence…

***

Both Inuyasha and miroku gulped as they finished their story and warily eyed Ayame’s blank stare back at them. They had no idea how Kouga’s wife would reacted to this news and them coming for help. They hoped she would not take it too violently…

“Outrageous!” Ayame suddenly stood up slamming her hands down on the table, making all three of the men jump.

“Ayame…?” Kouga eyed his hot tempered wife warily.

“We can’t let those jerks get awy with that!” The female wolf homoyoukai said adamantly. “Of course we’ll help! Right Kouga?”

“Uh…Right!” Kouga confirmed after a slight hesitation from the surprise at his wife’s enthusiasm to step so quickly into danger.

“You’re not worried about the Shichinintai?” Miroku asked.

“What’s right and what’s easy are not always the same thing.” Ayame face grew serious, but not harsh. “ But I’m not going to standby and let that Naraku character torture that poor youkai again, not to mention I’m not going to stand around and let those seven assholes hunt you down.” A confidant smile spread across the wolf girl’s face, which was quickly replicated by the three men in the room.

“Allright!” Kouga laughed. “Let me go get “the monster” fired up and we can head out to your ship.”

Miroku and Inuyasha nodded and the four of them exited the small room. They came out to find puddles of drool below Kouga’s two assistants as they watched Kagome work. Ayame rolled her eyes and clapped her hands to get their attention, which caused the wolf assistants to nearly jump out of their skins. Kagome finished up the section she was working on then quickly removed the protective gear before jogging over to her crewmates.

“Hey, Yasha where’d you find her? She’s got skills.” Kouga examined he section on the cruiser Kagome had been working on. “Glad to see you picked a non-idiot to replace me.” The wolf winked at Kagome, who blinked blankly back at him not sure whether she had received a compliment or not. Deciding to take it as a compliment she smiled back.

Out of the corner of her eye Kagome noticed a slightly proud expression on Inuyasha’s face. She turned her head to get a better look, but he seemed to notice her peeking and changed the expression on his face to a laugh.

“Heh. Yeah for once Miroku didn’t pick a complete bimbo.” Inuyasha snorted.

Kouga looked between Inuyasha and Kagome, then quirked an eyebrow at Miroku who rolled his eyes and shook his head…