Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

FMLYHM	By : SplendentGoddess Category: InuYasha AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 6865 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi or VIZ Productions, and I do not gain financially from my fanfic in any way.

Chapter List
- 1-Chapter 1
- 2-Chapter 2
- 1
- 2
A/N:
Hello there! Well, this was supposed to just be a one-shot, but due to popular demand over on mediaminer it has now been extended into a two-shot. I'm not about to post the second chapter over there and not give it to you guys, so by default you get to see the continuation of this story as well. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Letting the warm water sooth her achy muscles as it cascaded down her back, Kagome pulled her long raven locks over her right shoulder, tilting her head in that direction so that the shower stream could hit her left shoulder unobstructed. The skin there was red and abused, though when she thought back to how it had gotten that way she couldn’t help but grin at the all too recent memory.
And just think, Sango and Miroku are only on day two of their five-day cruise… she thought with a smirk, turning around to face the showerhead before reaching for the shampoo that sat in the basket that hung from it. Secretly, she and Inuyasha had cashed in their own YTO at their jobs so that they could both enjoy their friends’ vacation as well. Mmmm…five days of Inuyasha fucking my brains out. Hopefully I’ll still remember who I am by the end of the week… she chuckled to herself as she washed her hair.
It hadn’t taken the miko and hanyou long to realize there was a hitch in their original plan, the plan of allowing their friends to slowly but surely start witnessing how they would gradually come around to liking each other. That hitch was the fact that both Sango and Miroku had finally, finally, more or less washed their hands of the idea of getting the two of them together. It reminded Kagome of the age-old expression ‘be careful what you wish for or you just might get it.’ Now that their friends had finally given them what they wanted, namely to be left alone, that wasn’t what they wanted any more. Without either Sango or Miroku to facilitate the next meeting, how on Earth were Kagome and Inuyasha supposed to pretend to bump into each other and then find something in common to start a conversation about? But as Kagome turned around again to wash the suds out of her hair she smiled, thinking of the ingenious ‘Plan B’ Inuyasha had come up with. They hadn’t originally planned on going this route, but it would definitely work.
Step One of Phase One of the new plan involved getting Sango and Miroku out of town for a few days, so that they could meet with the necessary third-party whose aid they would now hopefully be enlisting without either the martial arts instructor or houshi wondering what was going on. But that was a feat easily accomplished when Kagome had already been planning on sending their friends on this cruise, anyway, and she certainly planned on taking full advantage of their roommates’ departure. Of course, she wasn’t the only one…
Turning back around again to reach for and work in the conditioner, Kagome did not gasp in surprise when a second set of hands suddenly cupped her breasts from behind. Although her stealthful lover had successfully crept into the shower behind her without making a sound, she could easily feel the approach of his youki as it hummed against her reiki.
“Inuyasha, we agreed to take separate showers this morning so that we can actually make it out of the bathroom before all the hot water’s gone.” she reminded with a playful reprimand, turning around again to loop her arms up and around his neck.
He leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the lips.
“Don’t need hot water when I’ve got you to keep me warm.”
She rolled her eyes at the goofy grin he shot her, earning a chuckle from the hanyou in response.
“Too mushy? Okay, how about you turn around and bend over, bitch, before I turn you around and bend you over.” he stated then, waggling his eyebrows at her while gesturing to his rapidly hardening erection.
It was Kagome’s turn to chuckle. Moving a hand to her abused shoulder, she asked with a teasing edge, “Jeez, didn’t you get enough of me last night?”
His eyes grew more serious for a brief moment.
“Never. I’ll never get enough of you.” Smirking again, Inuyasha quickly added, “Now come on, let’s get dirty one more time, then I promise I’ll let you get clean.”
“You better, I don’t want to be late for lunch because of your ravenous sexual appetite. How on Earth would we explain that to your brother?”
Inuyasha just shrugged, laughing a little. “There’d be no need, Sesshoumaru’s sense of smell is even better than my own.”
Kagome merely rolled her eyes again, before suddenly deciding she wasn’t quite full from breakfast after all as she dropped to her knees before her hanyou. “Then let him smell this.” she stated defiantly, gripping the base of his cock with her right hand as her mouth enveloped his length.
“F-fuck…” he hissed out, carefully fisting her slippery hair as she reminded him, yet again, of one of the many reasons why he’d come to love her as much as he did.
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“Sesshoumaru really used to hate you?” Kagome asked with disbelief as she sat in the passenger side of his car, as the two of them made their way over to the daiyoukai’s house for their lunch date. Sure, she had used to hate him, but his own brother?
“Yeah, a long time ago.” Inuyasha explained. “Our dad actually left his mother for mine, so for a while he’d blamed my mother, and then me, for his parents breaking up. Plus I think some of it had to do with purity, ‘cause we come from a long line of silver inu and so for our dad to suddenly marry a human, it could be considered an insult to the inu race by some purists. But it ain’t like we’re an endangered species, so our little family of mixed breeds ain’t hurting nothin’ in the big picture.” Sighing wistfully, Inuyasha glanced Kagome’s way for a second before averting his eyes back to the road and said, “He actually didn’t come around until after he met Rin, the embodiment of ‘the girl next door.’ She’d moved into the apartment next to his and they’d hit it off. I’ll never forget the day he showed up at the house out of nowhere and pulled me into a hug, saying he’d been wrong and that he understood now.”
Kagome smiled at that, reaching over with her left hand to give Inuyasha’s right hand a little squeeze where it rested on his thigh.
“A little more to the left.” he teased, earning a playful slap from the miko that had him chuckling.
Pulling up to a rather nice house, though it wasn’t in the gated community where their father still worked and lived, Inuyasha shot Kagome a look that silently asked her if she was ready for this, to which she nodded and squared her shoulders in determination. He had told his brother over the phone only that he had a surprise for them, and that he wanted to know when would be a good time for him and a guest to come over for lunch. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Rin’s face when he introduced her to Kagome. Step One of Phase One: get Rin to agree to help them. But besides hoping that the human woman would be willing to help them out with their little ‘problem’ he also did genuinely feel sorry for her, stuck with no human companionship day in and day out. Alone and pregnant was a horrible combination. He was looking forward to Rin having somebody other than himself to talk to, and really for Rin’s benefit more than his own. Kagome had already agreed that she would be happy to be there for Rin in any and every way possible, both before and after the baby's arrival. She wanted to be a genuine part of Inuyasha’s family. They loved each other and ultimately planned on getting married, which would make Rin her sister-in-law, too, so Kagome just looked at it like getting a head start on bonding with her future sister. As for Inuyasha, he knew that for both his sanity’s sake and Rin’s that that girl needed somebody to talk to about girlie and emotional things other than himself. Kagome would be a good friend for her, of that he was certain.
The moment of truth didn’t keep them in suspense for long as the front door opened as they approached, before Inuyasha could even knock, for the pair to be greeted by a strikingly handsome – though not as handsome as Inuyasha, in Kagome’s humble opinion – pureblooded inu-youkai. He stood at least a foot taller than Inuyasha, which was quite impressive considering the hanyou was already fairly tall, or at least Kagome thought so, considering she was a bit on the short side. Where the top of her head reached Inuyasha’s nose, it barely hit Sesshoumaru’s collarbone. As he tilted his head to gaze down at her in curiosity she found herself mesmerized by the depths of his golden-yellow eyes, identical in physical appearance to Inuyasha’s yet speaking a different language all their own. He seemed to be assessing her, and she could not miss the way he sniffed in her direction, though she took no offense knowing that that was just a canine youkai thing. She’d long since gotten over her hang-ups regarding canines as a whole. Dogs were nothing like wolves.
The strength of Sesshoumaru’s demonic aura was phenomenal, and so the miko could quickly understand what Inuyasha had told her about how ‘normal’ humans felt uneasy around him. Because she had her own reiki she could feel his youki for what it was, and whereas a normal human might even on an instinctive and subconscious level feel intimidated, or even threatened, by the presence of somebody so powerful, she knew she could defend herself and so therefore instead of cowering in fear from the strength of his aura she stood tall – or at least as tall as her height would allow – as she met his eyes with a smile on her lips while sticking her hand out for him to shake in greeting.
“Hi, nice to meet you. My name’s Kagome.” she stated, breaking the three-way silence.
Sesshoumaru raised a single eyebrow in intrigue before slowly extending his right hand and clasping the miko’s for a brief shake, the strength of her holy aura also impossible to miss. Releasing her hand, he raised his eyes above her head to meet his brother’s gaze and stated with an amused edge to his voice, “You have been holding out on me, little brother.”
“Oh you have no idea.” Inuyasha stated then, as with a hand gently pressed to the middle of Kagome’s back he guided the two of them inside as Sesshoumaru stepped aside to allow them entry.
“Inuyasha!” came a squealed greeting from around the corner, and both hanyou and miko turned in time to see a very pregnant brunette wobbling towards them as quickly as possible.
Laughing outright at the funny sight she made, especially since she was wearing an oversized t-shirt featuring Happy Feet penguins over her maternity jeans, Inuyasha hugged her back to the best of his ability as she wrapped her arms around him.
“Hey there, wench. Miss me?” he asked with a teasing edge as he ruffled Rin’s hair.
“You need to visit more often.” she chastised with a faux pout, before her eyes shifted to greet Kagome with a look of pleased surprise. She hadn’t had any idea who Inuyasha’s mystery guest would be, although she had been hoping it’d be a date!
“Hi, my name’s Kagome. Rin, right?” the miko stated then, holding out her hand to be shook once more.
“Nice to meet you.” Rin answered, shaking her hand. Then her eyes widened before darting back to meet Inuyasha’s, her gaze questioning.
The hanyou nodded, letting his sister-in-law know her suspicions were correct. Kagome was indeed the woman whom he had been with the night of her impromptu phone call not all that long ago.
“Very nice to meet you.” Rin stressed then, shaking Kagome’s hand for a moment longer.
Kagome couldn’t miss the exchange between in-laws and she laughed a little, earning a giggle from the pregnant woman in turn as Rin finally released her hand, smiling brightly.
“Well, shall we?” Inuyasha spoke up then. “We have a lot to tell you guys, plus I’ll admit it up front, I’m hoping you can do us a favor.” His eyes met Rin’s as he spoke, the look in his gaze the tiniest bit troubled and completely sincere.
“Oh goodness.” she stated, ushering everyone into the dinning room. “Okay yes, yes. First we eat and visit, then whatever I can help you with I’m sure I’ll be glad to.”
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“Of all the inconsiderate, childish…” Rin grumbled to herself as she stacked the dirty dishes beside the sink and started washing them.
“I do recall I have warned you about my brother’s lack of maturity on multiple occasions, and yet you always seemed fit to defend his idiocy in the past.” Sesshoumaru stated with a mild touch of amusement in his voice as he came up behind his wife in the kitchen.
His brother and the miko were still out in the dinning room, the former still rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head from where Rin had whacked him one upon the completion of their tale. Though Sesshoumaru personally thought his brother was an imbecile, he could at least appreciate the hanyou’s honesty – well, most of it. Sesshoumaru could tell that they had withheld a small amount of information, though they were generally being forthcoming and and completely truthful.
The pair had in fact come clean about just about everything, explaining both why neither Sesshoumaru nor Rin had ever heard anything about Kagome prior to this day, as well as why they needed Rin to do them a ‘favor’. The only part of the story they’d warped, a little, baby bit, was the part where they had each thought the other person still hated them after all this time and that they’d each thought they were nothing more than a meaningless booty call to the other person. Rin didn’t need to know that part to still fully grasp the rest of the situation.
They had told both Sesshoumaru and Rin of how they’d met the first day of senior year and how they had hated each other at first sight: true. They’d then explained how their mutual friends who were dating had tried to get them to get along and how those times had been torturous, bordering on murder: true. Next came the story of how they’d been forced to work together during the night of the new moon, and how they’d subsequently had a one-night-stand that had led to a lingering sexual attraction: true. They’d admitted to playing ‘secret lovers’ and still acting the same out in public, still allowing Miroku and Sango to believe they hated each other, and that even as they’d fallen deeply in love with each other over the last couple of years their friends still had no idea: true. The whole situation had just completely blown out of proportion, and now they had no idea what to do to fix it. Although that last part wasn’t really, entirely true. They did have an idea of how to fix it, and it would involve Rin.
“If you do not wish to aid them with extricating themselves from the pickle in which they have so thoroughly encased themselves, you are most certainly under no obligation to do so.” the daiyoukai stated as he rescued a fragile china dish from his wife’s white-knuckled grasp.
I kinda am, though… Rin reluctantly acknowledged silently to herself, exhaling a calming breath as she thought back on all the countless times Inuyasha had been there for her over the years, both before and after her marriage and subsequent pregnancy. She had nobody she could talk to about Sesshoumaru when he pissed her off – which was more often than she would ever admit to the daiyoukai himself – except for her hanyou brother-in-law. Though, now, come to think of it, she also had Kagome. A genuine, bonafide girlfriend. She smiled a little at that thought. And if everything went according to plan, she’d also end up with another human girlfriend. Her smile grew even larger.
Turning and offering her husband a knowing look, she just shook her head one last time in lingering exasperation before heading back out into the dining room where Inuyasha and Kagome waited with baited breath.
“I think you’re a pathetic and demented pervert.” Rin said to Inuyasha with a stern expression that quickly blossomed into an amused grin. “But that’s why I love.”
Sagging in relief, Inuyasha stood away from the table and pulled Rin into another hug.
“I owe you big time, thank you so much.” he whispered into her ear.
Laughing, the woman wrapped her arms back around the hanyou, patting him on the back.
“Don’t worry, I’ll call to collect when you least expect it.”
That made him chuckle.
With the most dramatic part of their visit taken care of, it was quickly deemed time to relax, as the hanyou shooed Rin and Kagome out of the dinning room, telling the two women to go do something womany. He waited until they were in the bedroom at the far end of the hall cooing over baby stuff to turn back to his brother and give him a knowing look before heading into the kitchen, the daiyoukai silently following.
“So what did you leave out?” Sesshoumaru asked with a neutral tone once they were out of earshot of the women, the full-blooded inu-youkai knowing that even with as dense as Inuyasha could be at times there was no way the hanyou was foolish enough to have thought the daiyoukai would not easily smell the faint traces of dishonesty in both his and Kagome’s scents as they’d told their tale.
Fortunately for Inuyasha, his brother had tact, and also being able to smell how they were being mostly honest, he’d decided to let it go without calling them out on whatever the minor lie or omission had been. Knowing that Inuyasha had to know that they could not lie to him, it was clearly something they had merely not wished for Rin to know.
Inuyasha told his brother the whole truth, then, of how neither he nor Kagome had had the balls to confess their love for one another until only very recently, and only then because of a misunderstanding that Rin had actually unknowingly played a part in. The daiyoukai knew about her phone calls to Inuyasha though he allowed her the privacy to make them so that she could actually speak freely, feeling a bit guilty himself that she had no human companions because of him. He was under the impression that most of her calls were just so that she and Inuyasha could talk, but the hanyou would not betray her confidence in telling Sesshoumaru what they had actually discussed, nor would the daiyoukai ask it of him, respecting his wife in that matter. He knew his brother would tell him if Rin ever confessed to something that Inuyasha felt he really should know. The hanyou continued then, explaining to Sesshoumaru how the misunderstanding because of her phone call had more or less outed Kagome’s feelings for him when she lost control over her emotions, feeling jealous and betrayed, and so then he’d confessed his own feelings for her in return. He told Sesshoumaru how all this time they’d each still thought they were just friends with benefits, or more accurately enemies with benefits, and that that was why they’d let the whole thing with Sango and Miroku get so out of hand. If they’d each known they were in love with each other and were genuinely more just ‘secret lovers’ they surely would have come clean to their friends long before now. Fortunately, Rin had not questioned that part, not asking why they’d waited so long before finally deciding the ruse had to stop. Sesshoumaru quickly agreed that Rin did not need to know those particular, less flattering details, or at least not just yet. He didn’t like the idea of misinforming Rin indefinitely, but since she had already agreed to help them it was best to leave well enough alone for the time being and fess up later, after their other issue had been dealt with. The fact of the matter was that they had both been in love with each other, they had simply been in the dark about the other’s feelings, and had only been willing to accept the belittling relationship they’d both thought they’d been a part of because of the love they’d felt for their partner. Sesshoumaru did agree with his wife, though. Inuyasha was a pathetic and demented pervert. That miko of his couldn’t be much better, either, which actually meant the two of them were probably perfect for each other.
Shaking his head in exasperation, Sesshoumaru stated, “While I will no longer blame your lack of intelligence on your mixed heritage, it is a fact nonetheless that your intelligence is extremely lacking.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” Inuyasha brushed of. “At least you can’t rip on me any more for being unsuccessful in the love department.” the hanyou countered with a crooked grin, since his brother had thought he’d been single all this time.
“Indeed. Your miko’s perfume does little to conceal that fact.” Sesshoumaru replied with a smirk, to which Inuyasha chuckled, before the daiyoukai suggested they better go find their women before Rin’s perpetually fluctuating hormones could start to convince her that they were talking about her in a negative fashion.
They found the girls in the back bedroom, which had been converted into a nursery. Kagome was laughing, in a good way, at their collection of industrial strength pacifiers all with nipples that were made out of Nylabone. As Inuyasha appeared in the doorway she smirked at him and held up one said pacifier.
“I wonder how many of these things you went through while teething.” she stated with a chuckle.
“I actually prefer much softer nipples.” he answered, playfully licking his lips, which caused Kagome to laugh while Rin threw her hands up over her ears and squealed in mock-horror about gross brother-in-laws and innocent sister-in-laws with innocent human ears.
Inuyasha barked out a laugh at that.
“You can’t be too innocent, considering you’re pregnant.” he pointed out.
She pouted, and planting her hands on her hips, insisted, “I’m a virgin mother.”
“Uh-huh...” he sarcastically agreed with a crooked smile. “Well you better de-virgin yourself if you’re gonna keep up your end of the bargain.”
She opened her mouth to retort but before she could Sesshoumaru’s voice floated into the room from out in the hallway, stating, “I assure you she can act quite...un-virgin-like...when the situation calls for it. An accomplishment for which I take all the credit.”
“Sesshoumaru!” Rin gasped in mock-horror a second time, before joining Kagome and Inuyasha with their hearty laughter. It was impossible to stay meek about anything sexual if you were married to an inu-youkai; Rin had learned that a long time ago.
Finally deciding they’d better hit the road, primarily because they wanted to fully enjoy to the best of their ability the remainder of Sango and Miroku’s anniversary cruise, Kagome and Inuyasha headed out with the promise of staying in touch and visiting on a regular basis. Kagome gushed during the entire drive back to her apartment about how sweet Rin was and how cute all the little baby things that were setup and ready to go in the nursery had been, even including the chew-toy pacifiers. Hey, the kid would be half inu-youkai, after all. A human pacifier would get shredded to pieces in a matter of minutes. Inuyasha couldn’t help chuckling to himself that he’d made a good call in deciding to introduce Kagome to Rin, and not just because they needed Rin’s help with Sango and Miroku. Seeing the way Kagome had cooed over this and that in the baby’s room had him wondering what any future children of theirs might look like. Inu-youkai genes were fairly dominant, which was why his youki was as strong as it was. Odds were good that a quarter-inu would still have silver hair, and probably even golden eyes. He wasn’t as sure about the dog ears, although something told him Kagome hoped any future kids of theirs would have them.
What’s the matter with me, thinkin’ about kids 'n' shit? he questioned to himself with a shake of his head as he pulled the car up to Kagome’s apartment. Sure, he’d love to be a father, someday, but they had a lot of work to do before they could even rightfully start planning a wedding.
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Time sure flies when you’re having fun... Kagome sighed to herself as she forced herself to sit up in the bed with a groan, her body aching in all the right places.
“I didn’t hurt you too badly, did I?” Inuyasha asked with genuine concern from his place standing at the foot of the bed as he continued dressing. Sango and Miroku were coming back today, which meant their extended slumber party had to come to an end.
“Not at all, a little pain is a good thing.” Kagome replied, sending her lover a smile as she climbed out of bed and began getting dressed herself. She was the one who had to go pick up Sango and Miroku at the marina.
The martial artist and houshi had both been thrilled by the surprise of a five-day cruise for their anniversary. Sango had been telling Kagome over the last few months that she was beginning to wonder if Miroku was going to pop the question, and so when Sango had first started to protest in private that the cruise was too expensive and way too much of a present for them Kagome had insisted she consider it an early wedding gift, shooting her best friend a knowing look that the girls had come to share over the last few years whenever Miroku was involved. What better way to set the mood than on a cruise where you didn’t have to do anything but relax for five whole days? Kagome also knew, since Inuyasha had since told her, that when he’d 'found out' about her gift to them via Miroku telling him he himself had also jested with the monk that this might be the perfect opportunity to give Sango a certain special piece of jewelry. The hanyou had no idea if Miroku had actually already bought a ring or not, though the houshi had mentioned a few times on occasion that he truly loved Sango and hoped they’d be together forever. Hopefully the holy man had taken his demonic roommate’s not-so-subtle suggestion to heart. Kagome and Inuyasha both felt in their hearts that Sango and Miroku were perfect for one another. Sure, a lot of people might try to argue that you never really end up staying forever with your high school sweetheart, but some people did manage to make it work, and so far Sango and Miroku were among that smaller statistic. Neither Inuyasha nor Kagome really considered themselves to be high school sweethearts, at least in the traditional sense of the term, but so far they didn’t have any plans of ending their own relationship, either. Just the opposite, in fact, though one thing at a time.
“This is the right perfume, right?” Kagome asked just to double-check even though she already knew it was as she had her hanyou lover sniff the contents of the glass bottle she held in her hand.
Most of the time strong artificial scents like perfumes really bothered his nose, and they’d learned the hard way that he couldn’t stand all but one of Kagome’s perfumes, at least in large quantities. For some reason, this one in particular did not hurt his sinuses, just something in how it was mixed and what it was mixed from, and so he found the floral scent soothing and pretty, just like a human male would. Kagome usually didn’t wear that particular perfume because she was actually more partial to another one she kept on hand and only wore when she didn’t expect to see him, such as whenever she and Sango spent the day hanging out, so usually if Sango ever picked up enough of Kagome’s perfume to then transfer it to Miroku so that Inuyasha later caught a whiff of it it was one of the perfumes he hated, although by that time the scent was at least weak enough that it didn’t really bother him all that much. Her stinky perfumes had given him ammunition at times in the past to talk smack, though. This time, however, they would make sure the scent transfer was much stronger, a direct transfer, and with the perfume he didn't hate. Talking smack about her to Miroku any more was the last thing he planned on doing.
“Yup, that’s the one.” he confirmed. “Make sure you wear a lot of it, enough that Miroku can easily smell it on you himself, and make sure you hug him good and long when you greet them.”
Kagome giggled; it was just funny to her that Inuyasha was actually telling her to hug all over another man, considering how possessive he had started to become in recent weeks. Kagome had been right when she’d previously thought that the only reason he hadn’t been possessive over her before was because they hadn’t technically been 'together'. He’d known he’d had no real right to tell her what she could or couldn’t do.
Of course, what Kagome hadn’t known until he’d confessed it was that he’d only really been able to keep his cool because she’d never once, ever, smelled of another man in a sexual way. Just as her thinking he’d had another woman on the side had made her own jealousy rise to the surface, if she’d ever smelled of another male’s lust Inuyasha knew he probably would’ve lost it and demanded that she be his and only his right then and there. Thankfully, because she’d secretly grown to love Inuyasha as much as he’d grown to love her, she’d never once even thought about seeing other people, despite their relationship not really being what one could call a 'relationship' at that time. They were officially together now, though, even though their friends didn’t know it yet, and so now Kagome was his, and his alone. But Kagome needed to hug on Miroku as a subtle yet intricate part of their plan, and the monk didn’t really count, anyway. He trusted her around him, or more accurately, he trusted Miroku around her. It wasn’t Kagome that he didn’t trust, but other guys, but Inuyasha wasn’t jealous of Miroku because he knew how much the holy man loved Sango and only Sango. Unlike Kouga, Inuyasha could fully comprehend the fact that Kagome could have male friends and that it didn’t mean she was planning on cheating on him.
Both fully dressed, Inuyasha gave Kagome a lingering kiss goodbye before grabbing his overnight bags and finally dragging his ass out of the apartment she shared with Sango and back to his own. He hadn’t been home for five days, save for a fifteen minute run each afternoon to collect the mail and grab food out of his own kitchen to bring back to her place for dinner and the following breakfast. At least his and Miroku’s fridge looked appropriately empty since the houshi probably assumed he wouldn’t go to the store during his absence, but he needed to make the rest of the place look a little less abandoned. Dust on the DVD player would be a dead giveaway.
Fixing herself up in the mirror, Kagome made sure she didn’t have any suspicious bruises – or hickeys – before spraying herself with a healthy dose of the perfume that Inuyasha liked, especially on her arms. As soon as she could, she’d throw away all the other brands. Giving up what had used to be her favorite perfume was a microscopically small price to pay if the plus side meant that she and Inuyasha were openly together.
Exiting her bedroom, she gave the apartment a once over, just to make sure nothing seemed out of place. She’d already run and emptied the dishwasher the night before, so there was no way to see how many dishes she’d actually gone through in the last five days. All of her dirty clothes were washed, her torn and ruined clothes hidden at the bottom of the trash. Sango had no business smelling her bed, but just in case her entire room smelled more of sex than she could tell from being used to it she sprayed it down with some Febreze. The sheets on her bed were relatively clean since she’d just washed them the day before, although...she chuckled to herself...she probably did not want to know what her bedroom looked like under a black light.
Deciding that she, and the apartment, both looked as presentable as they were going to get, Kagome grabbed her purse and headed out the door. It made perfect sense that she had to go and pick their friends up, since she had been the one to drop them both off when they’d left for their cruise in the first place. She and Sango had headed over to Miroku and Inuyasha’s apartment where Miroku had proceeded to greet them outside, already waiting with his suitcase in hand. There had simply been no point in worrying about anyone’s car sitting around in guest parking for five whole days and so since the whole thing had been Kagome’s idea to start with she’d gladly given them both a ride in her car.
Arriving seaside where the cruise ship was just being docked, she greeted Sango and Miroku both with warm hugs as they approached her after disembarking. Kagome noticing the big sparkly diamond ring on Sango’s left hand had the two girls squealing in delight and hugging some more, to which Miroku playfully rolled his eyes as he loaded his and Sango’s luggage into the trunk of Kagome’s car, and then Miroku was caught off guard as Kagome pulled him into another hug as well, the miko finding this the perfect excuse to do so as she congratulated both of her friends a second time and told Miroku specifically as she patted his back that he’d made the right decision and that she couldn’t be happier for them both.
Surprised, though certainly not in an unpleasant way, he returned Kagome’s embrace while joking that he just hoped she and Inuyasha would be able to behave themselves at the wedding, since Sango most certainly wanted her to be her Maid of Honor though he also wanted Inuyasha as his Best Man, which meant the two of them would have to walk down the isle together and stand beside their friends presentably and politely throughout the ceremony.
Not surprised by Miroku’s declaration because it was a forgone conclusion she and Inuyasha had already discussed should their friends truly end up getting engaged, either on this cruise or at any other point in the near future, Kagome knew this was the perfect opportunity to start showing a bit more maturity on her part with regard to her supposed dislike of the hanyou. Laughing lightly at Miroku’s half-teasing, half-serious concern, the miko immediately assured him that for something as important as their wedding she would most definitely not let Inuyasha bother her, pointing out with all sincerity that if she and Inuyasha could work together in chemistry class for the sake of their grades that they could definitely act civilly towards one another during their best friends’ wedding.
With her speech leaving a bit of a sour taste in her mouth for continuing the deception with their friends, Kagome still knew that her words really were honest, in a way, because hypothetically even if she and Inuyasha really did still hate each other she had zero doubt in her mind that the hanyou would feel the same way about it, that they’d both agree they needed to drop their crap for at least that one day to not ruin the special occasion for their friends. They’d always agreed, even back in high school, that they both really liked the idea of Sango and Miroku together as a couple and had no desire to ruin it for them.
The drive back into town was peaceful, as Sango and Miroku each took turns sharing with Kagome the various things they’d done or experienced while on the cruise. Sango even joked with her friend from the front passenger seat, shooting Miroku who sat in the back a teasingly nasty glare for a moment, of how he’d had the audacity to let her catch him eyeing other women later the same evening after proposing! The nerve! But, Sango laughed in that moment, she knew she couldn’t really blame Miroku considering what those women had been wearing, or rather, what they hadn’t been wearing, and his panicked expression as she’d glared at him for real at the time when it’d happened had been too damn funny and she’d immediately laughed and forgiven him. Her husband-to-be was not blind, after all, and it also wasn’t as if he’d gone out of his way to look at other women, like going to a strip club. They’d just been right there, walking past them right in their line of vision while they’d lounged on the deck out by the pool. As a result of that incident, Miroku now officially had Sango’s permission to gape at whatever beautiful bodies the world just happened to place right in front of his eyes, so long as he only looked, and so long as he did not deliberately go seek it out in establishments of ill-repute.
“What my lovely bride-to-be has failed to mention is how I also caught her staring at the half-naked men by the pool.” Miroku chimed in after Sango was finished, causing the martial arts instructor to squeak “Miroku!” as her cheeks flamed bright red while Kagome’s hearty laughter drown out Miroku’s own quieter chuckles.
Secretly, the miko was relieved to hear that Sango had let the incident slide and that she hadn’t gotten truly hurt by it. Miroku was loyal to a fault, though he was a hopeless flirt, even though he never meant for the flirting to go anywhere and considered it all in good fun, but the last thing she and Inuyasha needed would be for Sango and Miroku to get into a serious fight and stop speaking to one another. Although, as she thought about it, she seriously doubted they really had to worry all that much about that happening. Yes, the two did have the occasional squabble, what couple didn’t? But it was clear to anyone who knew them that Sango and Miroku were truly in love with one another. Which was a good thing, too, because it would royally screw up the miko and hanyou’s plans of eventually outing themselves as lovers if Sango and Miroku broke up. Not that Kagome hoped they only stayed together for her and Inuyasha’s sakes, how shallow would that be? But Sango and Miroku were truly happy together, and both she and Inuyasha were truly happy for them.
Just like Kagome and Inuyasha, the martial artist and houshi had both already had previous relationships that’d come and gone when they’d met each other at the mall during the summer break between junior and senior year, though unlike Kagome Sango had still been a virgin at the time, although there was absolutely nothing wrong with a woman only having sex with one man for her entire life. Sango had always believed, through family values, that sex was something special and meant only to be shared with the person you love. Kagome was by no means a slut, since she’d only previously had sex with her boyfriend Kouga, though Sango had personally felt that Kagome had moved a little too quickly with the ookami-youkai, the proof being when the miko had ultimately realized the wolf was no good for her and broken up with him. This was the main reason why Kagome had never dared to tell Sango about Inuyasha way back when, back when they’d only just been fuck-buddies in high school who really didn’t like each other otherwise; the older girl would have flipped out!
Okay...Kagome relented, maybe she did have a bit of a slut bone in her after all, but she was Inuyasha’s own private slut for him and him alone. She smirked at the thought.
But even Sango hadn’t been raised strict enough to insist that sex was something only for after marriage. Still, she had told her previous boyfriend that she wanted to wait until she was ready, and he had apparently decided that she wasn’t worth the wait, and as a result Sango had decided that she was glad she hadn’t let him talk her into doing something she hadn’t yet been ready for. He clearly hadn’t loved her like she’d thought he had, like she’d felt she deserved to be loved.
Miroku, on the other hand, had only been raised to be careful and responsible, his father pretty much having realized that an adolescent boy having sex was a foregone conclusion. He had had more casual girlfriends off and on since junior high, losing his virginity somewhere around age fourteen or fifteen, though he had always been safe about it and used a condom. Sango had learned of his experience early on and had been nervous that he would expect it from her, but when she’d hesitantly confessed as he’d started kissing her a little more passionately than ever before that she didn’t feel comfortable having sex just yet and that she was a virgin, he’d surprised and delighted her by telling her sincerely that he wouldn’t pressure her into it and that he wanted her to be sure she was ready before they took such an important step. While Miroku had always been and still was a horrible flirt with wandering eyes he had never once betrayed Sango’s trust in that matter; Inuyasha could vouch for that because back in high school he’d heard about it all the time, though not in a way that most people would probably assume. Instead of complaining to his hanyou buddy that a guy has needs and that he wondered how much longer Sango was going to make him wait, he’d told Inuyasha more and more often of how he really thought Sango was 'the one' and how he couldn’t see his life without her in it. When Inuyasha, who’d known the houshi for several years and knew all about his previous girlfriends, had jokingly asked Miroku if he was suffering from perpetual blue balls the holy man had actually shrugged it off and said he wasn’t that shallow, that sex wasn’t that important and that if he honestly got horny enough there was nothing wrong with his right hand. If it started to get too boring and monotonous he’d switch it up by using his left hand. Inuyasha had laughed at that and had told Miroku he wished the two of them the best; it was because he knew how important Sango was to the monk that he’d been willing to put up with Sango being friends with Kagome before their 'new moon' incident had later given him a new reason to put up with the miko.
As said miko’s car pulled up in front of the apartment Miroku and Inuyasha shared the holy man was pulled from his wandering thoughts, unable to cease from grinning like an idiot as he collected his suitcase from the car’s trunk and went back to the passenger side of the car to give Sango a lingering goodbye-for-now kiss through the rolled down window before heading up to the door to his apartment.
For once genuinely smiling like an idiot herself at how cute her friends looked instead of play-gagging at how sappy they were, Kagome headed home with Sango, doing her best to nonchalantly brush off the older girl’s inquiries about what she’d done to keep herself busy all week with a few mumbled 'oh nothing's and 'just hung around's, telling the martial artist that she’d enjoyed the privacy for a change of pace. Well, that part was true, at least, since she and Inuyasha had most definitely enjoyed their privacy.
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“Honey, I’m home!” Miroku joked as he walked through the door.
He heard a grunted acknowledgment of some sort originate from down the hall, towards their separate bedrooms, and shaking his head to himself in amusement Miroku turned and headed down that same hall to put his luggage away. Inuyasha emerged from his own bedroom as Miroku reached his room next door, the hanyou in the middle of munching on a microwavable burrito, a paper plate soaked with grease visible inside the hanyou’s room sitting beside the keyboard on his computer desk, and Miroku shook his head again in amusement at the sight. It figured that the hanyou would use up all of their paper plates over the last five days instead of using real dishes. Miroku knew how Inuyasha felt about washing dishes, although on the other hand Inuyasha also knew how Miroku felt about stacks of dirty dishes, and so he at least appreciated that his roommate wasn’t that much of a slob, having taken notice for a second when he’d first entered before turning towards their bedrooms that the kitchen seemed to be in relatively decent shape. He would bet they were almost out of food, though.
“So how was your trip? You get sick and ralph over the side of the boat?” Inuyasha asked with a teasing edge before pausing in his next bite of the burrito to noticeably sniff the air.
“I will have you know that I made no such fool of myself.” Miroku playfully defended, adding “Dramamine is a wonderful product that thankfully works as advertised.”
Inuyasha chuckled at that before taking another bite of his burrito, and then sniffing in Miroku’s direction a second time, the hanyou commented nonchalantly, “I like Sango’s new perfume, very floral, though I’m not sure it’s quite manly enough to pass as your cologne.” He said it with a teasing edge, poking fun at his roommate’s girlie, flowery scent. At Miroku’s next words he looked appropriately surprised.
“Actually...” the monk spoke up matter-of-factly, not hesitant to namedrop the miko. “I know exactly what you’re smelling but that’s Kagome’s perfume. I could smell it on her myself when she hugged me.”
Mildly stunned eyes shifted briefly to defensive before then shifting again to resigned and amused, as the hanyou finally shrugged it off and swallowed the last bit of his burrito. “Well...don’t tell her I said I like it...” he spoke up with a crooked edge to his lips as he half-smirked, leaving a temporarily stunned Miroku to stand in his doorway as he turned back around and headed into his room to pick up the paper plate off of his computer desk and toss it in his waste basket since he’d since finished eating his lunch.
Miroku had been expecting his roommate to immediately change direction and suddenly insist that the perfume stunk, then, if it belonged to her, so the fact that he’d still admitted to liking the scent, although seemingly an insignificant occurrence, spoke volumes to the houshi. Inuyasha wasn’t in full-blown 'I hate everything about Kagome' mode, which meant it was the perfect time to bring up his engagement to Sango and the subsequent wedding that would occur as a result.
“So, my friend...I have some wonderful news to share with you.”
That earned Inuyasha’s full attention, as he walked out of his room and followed Miroku into the houshi’s own room so that the holy man could unpack while simultaneously giving the hanyou a rundown of how his proposal had gone.
As expected, Inuyasha happily congratulated the houshi upon learning that he had indeed popped the question while on the cruise with Sango. Miroku slyly mentioned that the two of them, he and his fiancée, both owed it all to Kagome since the cruise had been her idea and her present to them, but again Inuyasha chose not to badmouth the miko, stating instead that he supposed she could at least do a few things right from time to time. Miroku then broached the subject of Kagome being chosen as Sango’s Maid of Honor, before asking Inuyasha, with all sincerity, if he would please do him the honor of being his Best Man.
Inuyasha sighed, appearing to mull it over.
“Yeah, for you 'n' Sango, I’ll put up with hangin’ around the bi...I mean Kagome.” he corrected with playful sarcasm, rolling his eyes with a hint of a chuckle leaving his throat. “In all seriousness, though, I’m truly honored, man, and I’d be happy to be your Best Man, miko or no miko.” he added then, grinning at the large smile Miroku flashed his way as the holy man clasped his shoulder and thanked him sincerely.
“We haven’t set a date, yet. There’s still a lot of work to do.”
“Yeah...” Inuyasha agreed, thinking both of the houshi’s upcoming wedding as well as his and Kagome’s own master plan. “...there is.”
Inuyasha couldn’t help grinning to himself as he headed out of Miroku’s room and back into his own. He and Kagome had both suspected that he might propose to Sango while on the cruise, they’d both known their friends were getting close to that stage of their relationship, and so he couldn’t help thinking about how much their engagement would now help both he and Kagome out. His original 'Plan B' would most likely still have worked just fine even if there weren’t an upcoming wedding to plan for, but the fact that there now was gave them a tremendous advantage. He was just glad that he and Kagome had already gotten their own feelings sorted out. If they had still been going on as they had previously been, it was very likely that they would’ve both just put on a nice face for the wedding and then gone right back into their old behavior afterwards. And with Sango and Miroku moving in together that would’ve left both of them roommateless and in need of a new living situation. It still would, although that worry was still too far away to truly be considered a worry just yet. But while he and Kagome probably could have found an easier time of sneaking around behind their friends’ backs if Sango and Miroku focused more on themselves and less on their respective buddies of the same gender, it would’ve also meant less believable opportunities for Inuyasha and Kagome to meet and 'stop hating' one another. Now, even if they weren’t already 'dating' by the time the wedding came around, they were bound to at least be closer to genuine 'friends' and well out of the 'we savagely hate each other' stage. It was perfect.
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“Uh-huh, no...I don’t know if that’s normal, can you Google it or something? Uh-huh, no...no I don’t think so...” Inuyasha murmured to the person on the phone, rolling his eyes at Miroku who chuckled at the hanyou’s plight as he padded into the kitchen to grab himself a Coke out of the fridge while holding his cell phone pressed between his sideways-tilted head and his shoulder.
Taking a sip of his soda, he nearly choked as he spluttered when Rin said something he was not expecting that got a genuine reaction out of him...the sneaky little wench! But then of course she knew that actually talking about her overly sensitive and occasionally leaking nipples wouldn’t really phase the hanyou like the hanyou needed to be phased, and contrary to Inuyasha’s own personal belief, Rin knew he was not that good of an actor.
Blushing horribly while both mentally cursing and praising his sister-in-law, he quickly hung up on her with a pitiful, “I uh...you should ask your doctor. I gotta go, sorry!”
Miroku’s laughter was music to the hanyou’s violated ears. He had not wanted to know where his brother’s secret pleasure zones were! Nor could he imagine the daiyoukai wanted him to know, which meant Rin was home alone at the moment...sneaky little wench.
“Dude, you gotta help me out here, I’m going crazy!”
Fortunately, Miroku already knew all about Inuyasha’s pregnant sister-in-law and her uncanny tendency to call him up at random times of the day for a slew of various reasons, most of which revolving around a desire for 'girl talk' of one variety or another. She’d been calling him up as her only real friend she could talk to since before she’d even gotten pregnant, after all, and as much as Inuyasha loved Rin like a flesh and blood sister she could get annoying at times; he’d bitched about her mildly to the houshi in the past, which now made Step Two so much easier.
“What the hell can I do?” Miroku asked with a laugh, his hands up defensively as if to ward off Inuyasha handing him the phone even though their conversation had already ended.
“Well, what about that future bride of yours?” Inuyasha asked right away, no pussyfooting around. “I’m desperate, man. Rin needs a woman to talk to. A human woman. Can you talk to Sango and see if she’d be willing to be setup on a 'girlfriend' blind date? I hate to sound like I’m trying to pawn my sister off on her...but I am.”
Honestly, Inuyasha didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of this sooner, and for strictly legitimate reasons, except perhaps he’d actually been deliberately avoiding the idea for fear that Rin becoming friends with Sango could mean she’d also end up becoming friends with Kagome. Not that he’d honestly still hated Kagome and therefore hated the idea of her and Rin becoming friends, but back when they’d both thought they were just each other’s booty call that certainly could have been awkward, especially if Rin somehow ended up finding out they were secret lovers and the whole 'I hate you' thing was just an act. That girl was rather perceptive when it came to that sort of thing. If the lot of them had somehow all ended up hanging out together she would have probably realized the truth as soon as he and Kagome glanced each other’s way. At least they didn’t have to worry about that part any longer. He knew that Rin becoming friends with Sango could lead to her becoming friends with Kagome, and ultimately the lot of them all hanging out together, but now that was the whole idea, and she was in on the secret.
Miroku only laughed again at Inuyasha’s words, completely unaware of the hanyou’s wandering thoughts as he playfully cringed at his roommate’s plight. He didn’t even want to imagine what it had to be like for the hanyou now that Rin’s normal chit-chatty phone calls had morphed into conversations about her ever-changing womanly body and the various side-effects of being pregnant. Sure, Inuyasha was actually the best one to talk to when it came to questions about how to raise a hanyou child, what to expect during his or her first human transformation, etc., but when it came to things like swollen breasts, that was definitely a woman’s area of expertise. Miroku did agree with that.
“I’ll talk to Sango.”
“Thank you.”
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“Rin? Hi, nice to meet you, I’m Sango.” the martial arts instructor introduced as she met the pregnant woman for their lunch date at a cute little sandwich shop she and Miroku liked to go to.
When her boyfriend – check that...fiancé...she mentally corrected with a smiling glance down at her ring – had first told her about Inuyasha’s situation, Sango couldn’t help but to laugh. Not at poor Rin and her situation, but just at the visual of Inuyasha getting his ears talked off by a pregnant woman! It was just too funny. Agreeing easily enough to meet up with Rin for a bit of girl time on her next day off when Kagome would be at work, she felt a little bad not telling Kagome about it in advance, though it wasn’t as if she and the miko were joined at the hip or in any sort of strange committed relationship of their own. She wasn’t cheating on Kagome by spending a day out with a different woman whom she hoped could indeed become her friend as well, even though she was hesitant to inform the miko that she’d made friends with Inuyasha’s sister-in-law. Things were going smoothly as of late and she wanted to keep it that way, if at all possible.
“Sango, hi! So nice to meet you!” Rin beamed with a genuine smile, liking the woman already as she sat down across from her and started asking questions to better get to know her while also sharing some information about herself.
By the time lunch was over Rin was eager to spend more time in Sango’s company, and Sango also had to admit that she was getting along with Rin as well, and so the two of them left the sandwich shop and wandered around for a while, heading in no general direction as they strolled down the street and took in the scenery. Sango did have to admit, though, that some of the girl’s more adventurous questions or statements were a bit on the embarrassing side. Sango was a relatively shy and private person, and Rin, apparently, was not. She’d first learned that when the girl had gushed over her engagement ring before turning around and asking her if she and Miroku were already sleeping together, before then expressing her relief to learn that they were when Sango had sheepishly fessed up because, as Rin had put it, “You should never buy a car without first taking it on a test drive.”
Apparently sensing after a while that she was embarrassing Sango, and seemingly worried about losing her as her only potential human girlfriend, Rin had tried to tone it down and change the subject, but the fact of the matter was that her levels of forwardness weren’t too disturbing for the martial artist to think they couldn’t get along together because of it. In fact, Rin seemed a lot like Kagome in some ways, she realized as the two of them passed an ice cream shop and Rin spontaneously decided that she just had to have an ice cream cone. Sango smiled to herself at the sight. Rin was a few years older than her and was going to be a mother in about two months, and in fact Sango could tell that she would make an excellent mother who would take fabulous care of her baby and love him or her very much, but even so the girl was still like a child herself at times. Innocent or nasty it didn’t really matter. Even when talking sex Rin had a playfulness about her that, there again, reminded Sango of Kagome and the miko’s own non-G-rated sense of humor.
More than once throughout the day she’d found herself thinking that those two would really hit it off. And Rin seemed so lonely...something like a true girls’ night out with multiple girlfriends would probably really cheer her up. Especially since Rin herself had even hinted to something like that maybe happening after she’d learned that Sango had a roommate. She’d just said in passing that maybe they could all get together sometime, trying to make it sound nonchalant, but Sango hadn’t missed the way Rin’s eyes had lit up, as if realizing she just might possibly have won he lottery though it was too early to be certain and so she didn’t want to risk jinxing anything. Truth be told, Sango was kind of feeling the same way. After all, she didn’t really have any other girlfriends herself besides Kagome, being the only woman working at her family’s dojo where she taught martial arts. She had a brother, but no sisters, and they very rarely got any female customers, either, though when they did it wasn’t as if Sango could try becoming best friends with a client, anyway; it needed to be strictly business. Therefore Kagome was her only real friend, the two having known each other since childhood. Kagome was the sister she never had.
Maybe she was worrying over nothing where Kagome was concerned, Sango thought after a moment then. The miko wouldn’t really be opposed to the idea of liking Rin as a person just because she happened to be married to Inuyasha’s half-brother, right? That was admittedly a little too closed-minded for Sango to believe the miko capable of being so unjustly judgmental. On the other hand, if word ever got back to Inuyasha that his sister-in-law had become friends with Kagome that would probably piss him off...which knowing Kagome would give her intensive to meet Rin right there, Sango thought to herself with a chuckle. She seriously doubted it would elevate the war between them and put the tranquility of her upcoming wedding at risk. She got the distinct impression that Inuyasha would want only what was best for his sister-in-law, and so if she truly did come to really like Kagome as a friend, Sango was sure that in the end he’d probably bite his tongue and let it go. According to Miroku, the hanyou had given a similar response as Kagome when it came to the idea of their upcoming wedding, that their happiness was totally worth getting along with each other for the day without causing a scene. So if they could play nice in the same room for several hours for their sake, then surely Inuyasha could let Rin be friends with Kagome without complaint as well, since he would never really have to associate with Kagome because of it, and likewise Kagome shouldn’t mind since Inuyasha would never be tagging along on any of their girls’ outings.
Heading home a few hours later after her day with Rin finally came to an end, Sango ended up thinking that maybe she’d breech the subject with the miko, after all. She certainly didn’t want to replace Kagome with Rin, Kagome was her best friend and always would be. The best solution for everyone would be for the two of them to be Rin’s friends, together, making it a circle of three. There was no way Sango was going to start sneaking around behind Kagome’s back, as if she’d actually done something wrong become friends with Rin on the side. No...she’d definitely tell her. Besides, she did like Rin, and so she was kind of looking forward to the idea of all three of them hanging out, herself. It would be fun.
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“Hey...” Kagome greeted casually from her spot on the couch as Sango entered the front door, the miko having gotten home about a half hour before Sango did.
Grinning to herself as Sango gave a casual greeting back, Kagome would play it cool, letting her friend broach the subject. If Rin had followed her instructions then there was no way Sango wouldn’t bring it up. The best part was that she and Inuyasha hadn’t even had to ask Rin to put on an act and say or do things she normally never would have. She really did have the same kind of kinky sense of humor as Kagome, the miko knew, thinking about her future sister-in-law with a silent chuckle. She already loved Rin and couldn’t wait for the three of them to all hang out together.
“So you’ll never guess who I had lunch with today...” Sango started up right away, and Kagome turned her way and gave her a smiling 'I’m all ears' expression.
Sango immediately launched into her tale, starting with how Miroku had called her up and begged her in an almost humorous fashion for her to please meet with Rin, because if she didn’t he would never hear the end of it as the girl continued to torment poor Inuyasha. Kagome couldn’t help laughing at that part, a genuine laugh, finding the whole situation completely hilarious as far as the poor boy being turned into a pregnant woman’s BFF against his will. Though she honestly did feel sorry for Rin’s plight and shared that part of her opinion in that moment to her best friend, as if she’d never heard of Rin or her situation until Sango told her in that very moment.
Thankfully, as Sango had hoped, Kagome had no qualms with the woman being related to Inuyasha through marriage. It wasn’t her fault if her husband’s half-brother was an asshole, was how the miko put it. She readily agreed to meet with Rin herself, when Sango suggested that the two of them would really hit it off because, as Sango cryptically put it, they had 'so much' in common. Her deep red blush had Kagome laughing again as she pried out of Sango just what it was that Rin had said that had gotten her so flustered. Oh yes, there was no doubt about it in the miko’s mind. She and Rin were destined to become great friends.
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Things went smoothly for the next couple of weeks or so, in which time Sango 'introduced' Kagome to Rin and they immediately hit it off, again, for the first time. Sometimes the three of them went out on the town, especially on the weekends, having lunch and going shopping or seeing a movie, but a lot of the time during the week Rin came over to their apartment in the evenings after they got home from work and they would all just sit around and talk or watch TV, or bust out the occasional board game. Plus Kagome and Sango also had a Wii and the three of them would sometimes spend hours kicking each other’s butts in Mario Kart. A couple of times Sango had plans with Miroku and Rin and Kagome ended up spending the evening together, just the two of them, and Sango was glad for that because she’d always felt a tiny bit guilty before, ditching her friend to hang out with her man instead when she knew Kagome would be home alone as a result.
Of course, in reality Inuyasha had shown up at those times since he’d gotten out of his and Miroku’s apartment to give the monk and Sango some privacy, but what their friends didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, 'them' as in Kagome and Inuyasha. They were working on building up to telling their friends the truth, but it had to be handled one step at a time. The hanyou and miko used those opportunities to discuss future strategies with Rin.
Since the whole deal with Rin meeting Sango in the first place had been Inuyasha’s idea, logic dictated that it was only a matter of time before Rin would still call up her brother-in-law simply to chat with him as a friend, and to thank him for introducing her to such a wonderful woman. At that time, Rin would gush happily over the phone about how she had also become friends with Sango’s roommate, Kagome, a woman she had no reason to believe Inuyasha disliked since neither the miko nor Sango had brought any of that up while the three of them hung out together. In fact, they had gone out of their way to deliberately not mention it. It wouldn’t be polite, after all, for Kagome to let Rin know how much she detested her hanyou brother-in-law, or so the story went. Rin did mention Inuyasha a few times in passing while out with the girls, of course, all a part of the plan, and much to Sango’s relief Kagome had made nice and informed Rin that yes she did know her brother, casually; they had had chemistry class together in high school and they now saw each other every once in a while since their best friends were engaged and all that, though they didn’t really hang out together themselves. It was a lie on all counts, since Rin knew the truth and Sango thought she also knew the truth, but it was tactful, and what Kagome would have really said under such circumstances had she honestly met Rin through Sango.
When the time came for the mother-to-be ’s happy gushy phone call to her brother-in-law Inuyasha played up his end perfectly for his audience of one, grumbling under his breath after hanging up about himself being an idiot and how he should have realized and sneaky wenches and conniving bitches and yada yada yada. Miroku had thankfully been forewarned because Sango had already told him how she’d introduced Rin to Kagome as well, and how all three of them were now good friends, so the houshi had known that this moment was inevitable.
Fortunately, Inuyasha had never specifically told Miroku to tell Sango not to introduce Rin to Kagome, a presumed oversight on the hanyou’s part that Miroku was fully prepared to use as a means of self-dense. He would not let Inuyasha blame this one on him! When the monk finally dared asking Inuyasha what was wrong, as if he didn’t already know, the hanyou spoke up as predicted that he’d just gotten off the phone with Rin and how happy she was to have her two new girlfriends. Miroku hesitantly tried to get Inuyasha to see that Kagome really was a great person and that he was sure she would be an excellent friend for Rin, not to mention how it wouldn’t have been fair to assume Sango could become friends with Rin on the side while keeping Kagome in the dark about the whole thing.
Inuyasha just shook his head, as if only just now realizing that he should have realized that fact sooner, before exhaling in exasperation with his lower lip extended in a way that caused his breath to puff out his bangs. “So long as Rin is happy, I guess that’s all that matters.” he finally stated after a moment, before daring to take it a step further as he murmured quietly “Maybe I was wrong about the bitch in some ways.”
Inuyasha wouldn’t go so far as to say he’d been completely wrong about Kagome and that the whole reason they’d come to hate each other in high school was his fault. Had to keep in character, after all, and hell, it wasn’t realy true, anyway. She honestly had been as equally to blame back then. But the fact of the matter was that they had each come to realize long ago that just getting off on the wrong foot with a botched first impression shouldn’t really dictate how someone felt about a person for the rest of their lives. It was high time he let his best friend know that he really had matured since their high school days. For Miroku’s part, he almost couldn’t believe his ears as his roommate’s words sank in, before a huge grin spread out across his face. Maybe, just maybe, Inuyasha was finally starting to come around. Perhaps there was hope for he and Kagome yet? He knew Sango was more adamant to let the whole thing go, convinced those two were destined to hate each other forever, but after hearing what his roommate had just muttered Miroku wasn’t so sure. He would have to discuss it with Sango, but she and Kagome becoming good friends with Inuyasha’s sister-in-law was an opportunity too golden to pass up, as far as he was concerned. If they could just get all of them together in the same room somehow...after all, Inuyasha and Kagome wouldn’t dare sling their normal insults back and forth in front of Rin, right? Fortunately, the hanyou had already wandered off down the hall towards his room for the night, so he missed the gleeful, calculating look in Miroku’s eyes.
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“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive...” Kagome quoted with a chuckle as Rin eagerly filled her in on the latest goings on, calling Kagome at work from home while the miko was on her lunch break. Kagome didn’t work for Sango’s family dojo but instead had an office job pushing papers, and since Sango was at work right now too and therefore couldn’t randomly show up there was really no chance of them getting busted, as Rin got Kagome up to speed.
Miroku’s 'secret plan' hadn’t stayed a secret for very long, as soon as he got Sango on board who then told Rin as a part of the plan who then told Kagome as the double-agent she was, the pregnant woman laughing all the while. Miroku had filled Sango in on his idea as soon as he’d talked to her next after thinking of it, and his fiancée had...after some mild persuasion...reluctantly agreed to go along with it. “Just this once.” Sango had warned, stating with finality that if either Kagome or Inuyasha completely exploded as a result then that would be it and they would never try anything like this ever again. Although she had her doubts, the martial arts instructor still had to admit that she’d thought Miroku’s idea was a good one, under the circumstances.
Talking with Rin the previous evening, Sango hadn’t said anything about how Kagome and Inuyasha in truth didn’t like each other or how she and Miroku wanted to try to hook them up, but what she had said was that she’d thought it’d be fun if all of them did something together as a group. A local carnival had just recently set up shop in a once vacant field, which made the perfect setting for a group outing. One of the main reasons why Miroku had been so adamant in the first place, since it was all just too perfect, according to the houshi. Of course, Rin couldn’t go on any of the rides in her condition, but she could sure as hell waste a ton of her husband’s money on all the rigged and overly expensive carnival games in the hopes of winning a cheaply made knock-off novelty plush, not to mention all the other souvenirs available for purchase at the various shops and booths, plus all the crazy food that was only available at a carnival.
Eagerly agreeing that it sounded like it’d be “Super fun!” as Rin had honestly put it, truly looking forward to the day of fun, she’d immediately made a mental note to call Kagome about it the next day, which was now, as she laughed along with the miko on the phone about how crazy and confusing everyone’s various interlacing mind games were becoming. It hadn’t been hard for the pregnant woman to figure out that Sango and Miroku just had to be up to something, knowing that they were under the impression Kagome and Inuyasha hated each other and how they had a history of trying to force the hanyou and miko together. Rin had quickly realized that she’d become the wild card, the plausible excuse and reason for getting them all together at the same event. She found it utterly hilarious that Sango and Miroku had ended up coming up with their own separate plan to use her to get Kagome and Inuyasha to start hanging out together when that had been her brother and the miko’s plan for her from the very beginning. Sure, they hadn’t thought that Sango and Miroku would realize the potential themselves and run with it, but she knew they’d be thrilled to learn they had! Originally, it was going to be Rin who would help facilitate Kagome and Inuyasha’s odd meetings here and there, either by trying to suggest herself that the five of them all do something together, or – if she could get Sesshoumaru to go along with it – she might have also suggested that the six of them go out to dinner, which would have put Kagome and Inuyasha in the position of a couple for the evening, sort of. But why question fate? The carnival being Sango and Miroku’s idea made it that much more fool proof.
“This is like some bad soap opera.” Rin stated to Kagome with a laugh, though she wouldn’t miss it for the world. Not counting the joys and worries of upcoming motherhood, her life hadn’t been this exciting in ages!
“If we don’t get a move on with this whole thing I’m going to end up forgetting who I’m lying to and about what.” Kagome snickered, earning another laugh from her future sister-in-law before Rin asked playfully, “You and 'Yasha didn’t lie to me about anything, did you?”
“Nothing major. We’ll tell you later.” Kagome answered honestly with a lingering touch of humor in her voice, which had Rin chuckling again, even though she figured the miko was actually telling the truth.
“You better, or else I’ll force you two to baby-sit all the time and you’ll never ever get a moment’s peace.” she playfully threatened, which earned another laugh from the miko.
“I promise, but one deception at a time.” Kagome answered through her giggles, which was good enough for Rin as she let her future sister-in-law get back to work, since her break was just about over.
“I ’ll call Inuyasha.” Rin let Kagome know
. “Okay thanks, bye.” the miko answered, hanging up.
Shaking her head in amusement, Kagome quickly decided that she was probably about as excited to go to the carnival as Rin was. It’d been ages since the last time she’d been to one. It was just too bad she had to act like she had no idea they were going until Sango told her about it, and even then she wouldn’t be able to act as excited about it as she really was, showing a proper level of reluctance once she 'realized' that Miroku and Inuyasha would be going as well. It would all be worth it, though.
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It took Inuyasha a full minute to stop laughing after Rin told him about Sango’s suggestion that they could all to go the fair together that weekend. He wasn’t on lunch break at the moment, but at the hanyou’s job taking the occasional personal call was permitted so long as it didn’t interfere with their work. One of his coworkers was giving him an amused glance, wondering what was so funny, but again Miroku worked for a different company elsewhere and so Inuyasha was in no danger of getting busted. His coworkers knew very little, if anything, about his personal life.
“Oh kami, that’s too fucking rich...” he stated after a moment, his chuckles finally dying down.
“I know, right?” Rin agreed, laughing as well. Informing her brother-in-law that she’d just gotten off the phone with Kagome, so the miko was already fully up to speed, she then took a moment to pretend that she was actually in charge and the master manipulator of them all, adding, “You and Kagome are to pretend you know nothing about this, then when each of your respective roommates broaches the subject, you should act believably hesitant before ultimately giving in, each of you thinking about my happiness and also the fact that I don’t know you two hate each other and so how would you explain to me why we can’t all go together? You could also decide to look at it as practice, in a way, for having to get along with each other at Sango and Miroku’s wedding.”
Laughing again, and thinking to himself that he and Kagome had created a monster, Inuyasha just answered, “Yes ma ’am.”
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They each played their parts perfectly.
When Sango first broached the idea of going to the fair Kagome had acted appropriately excited until, of course, Sango hesitantly added that Miroku and Inuyasha would be going too. Sango didn ’t even bother trying to lie to Kagome, complicating matters even more thoroughly by pretending it was originally Rin’s idea. Besides the fact that it would be difficult to get Rin to go along with such a thing, as far as Sango knew, because she would first have to explain to Rin why she wanted her to pretend it was her idea, Kagome already knew just from the guilty look in Sango’s eyes that this was obviously another one of her and Miroku’s set-ups. It was no secret to the miko and hanyou, after all, that their friends were, or at least used to be, hellbent on getting them together.
“Sango...” Kagome had whined, to which the older girl had said, “I know, I know, but hear me out.”
She had then proceeded to make her case, stating that she wasn’t trying to set her and Inuyasha up on a date but that it was just going to be five friends all hanging out together. What was so wrong with her and Inuyasha at least being civil towards one another as acquaintances? She wasn’t asking her and the hanyou to ever go and hang out as friends together just the two of them, but since Rin was involved in this, surely all of them could hang out as a group without those two mentally trying to kill each other the whole time. Right?
Sighing again, Kagome had eventually acquiesced, stating that for Rin’s sake she wouldn’t cause a fuss or be rude towards Inuyasha. After all, they were going to have to get along for their upcoming wedding, because Kagome had no intention of ruining Sango and Miroku’s big day with childish rivalry, and so she might as well look at this as practice.
Sango was secretly surprised and amazed that Kagome had called her attitude towards Inuyasha childish, but she had wisely kept that part to herself, simply thanking her friend and assuring her that it would be worth it and that she was sure they’d all have a good time.
Since Kagome and Inuyasha had not personally exchanged notes prior to being approached about the carnival by their respective roommates Inuyasha’s responses to Miroku were similar in style to Kagome’s, but not identical enough to the point where if Sango and Miroku shared notes they would notice anything suspicious. Instead, the houshi and martial arts instructor both felt relieved that finally, finally, their friends seemed to be growing up. Of course, they both knew that there was probably no way in hell Kagome or Inuyasha would have agreed to go to the carnival just the four of them, and they both felt a little bad about using Rin in such a way since the girl had no idea what was going on behind the scenes and the uncomfortable position her being friends with Kagome was putting both her friend and brother-in-law in, but they didn’t feel badly enough about it to not use Rin in such a way if it would ultimately get the miko and hanyou to stop hating one another. They weren’t really hoping for anything else beyond that at this point. Just those two becoming neutral about each other with the hate gone would be a huge accomplishment in and of itself. They had both pretty much given up on the idea of Kagome and Inuyasha getting 'together' ages ago. Now, they just wanted their friends to get along. Was that too much to ask?
The carnival, of course, turned out to be an excellent idea. Even though Kagome and Inuyasha never really had an opportunity to speak privately beforehand they didn’t need one, shooting each other the occasional silent glance when their friends weren’t looking that spoke volumes in and of itself. They were each amazed that Miroku had actually come up with this idea while mentally kicking themselves for not having thought of it themselves when they’d noticed the rides being built. They could have easily asked Rin to be the one to mention it to Sango and Kagome first, in an innocent way, just blurting it out of the blue while all three girls hung out that they should go to the fair with the guys, but 'shoulda woulda coulda's aside, everything had worked out for the best. Step Three of Phase One of Inuyasha’s plan was simply to get all five of them together, in whatever capacity, and while the original idea had been for more like lunch at the mall or a movie or something, Miroku had beaten them to the punch with his idea, and a traveling carnival was honestly a much better venue when you thought about it, anyway. They would have to thank whatever kami had been in charge of bringing the carnies to their town.
Everybody had a wonderful time at the fair, of course. Kagome and Sango, still being the best friends that they were with Rin having no intention of coming between them, each bought unlimited ride bracelets and proceeded to make themselves dizzy on anything that spun or flipped upside down – or in some cases spun and flipped upside down – while Rin waited for them and laughed along side Miroku and Inuyasha. It turned out there were a couple of rides that Rin could go on even being nearly eight months pregnant, and so she managed to talk Inuyasha into accompanying her on the Ferris wheel and carousel, in one of the stationary benches that wasn’t designed to go up and down, and the two actually used the opportunity to discuss various plans of attack for later in the evening.
As the five of them walked past the bumper cars Inuyasha spoke up with “Now here’s something I could do. Not all spinny and flippy. What d’ya say, Miroku?”
The houshi, while momentarily surprised, immediately lit up at the idea. He hadn’t driven a bumper car in years! The two quickly bought the necessary amount of tickets, and then Inuyasha surprised the daylights out of the girls when he looked Kagome right in the eye before glancing to Sango and asked, “What do you say, ladies?”
Kagome was startled for all of two seconds before her eyes lit up with true understanding. They supposedly hated each other, but had to pretend to get along and be nice, which should mean their nerves were just about shot by that point. What better way to work out their frustrations when they weren’t allowed to cuss at each other?
“You’re on.” Kagome spoke up then, her eyes sparkling with promises of pain.
Sango and Miroku glanced back and forth at each other for a moment before quickly shrugging it off, figuring they would let their friends be for the time being. It wasn’t as if they could really do anything about it. As predicted, Kagome and Inuyasha repeatedly nailed each other, but while Sango and Miroku had been hesitantly worried that it would brew stronger anger between them for the rest of the day, they were both surprised and relieved to see them each laughing after a while, as they bashed into each other repeatedly, sometimes with enough force to cause one or both cars to lift up ever so slightly and bounce with a loud bang.
After the ride was over Inuyasha climbed out of his car with a look of smug satisfaction, as if it had truly felt good to work out some of his frustrations, but Kagome was still chuckling, only laughing even harder when she caught the amused way Sango was looking at her. It was easy to avoid the potentially awkward 'afterwards' moment between hanyou and miko because as soon as the four of them exited the ride, Rin, also laughing, chimed in innocently with “Okay, what’s next?!” and thus whatever tension could have supposedly developed between them dissipated before even getting the chance to grow, and the group, all still smiles, headed further down in the way they’d been going to see what else would draw their attention.
Once they made it to the midway where all the games were located Inuyasha showed off his hand-eye coordination skills by winning a giant teddy bear at the ring toss game, proceeding to give it to Rin though he agreed to carry it for her for the time being. He wasn’t about to win a prize for Kagome, that would be far too out of character, although he did 'playfully' taunt and goad the miko into trying her own hand at the archery game, since traditionally from back in the day miko were all supposed to be trained with the bow and arrow. She got him back, saying that the only reason he was so good at the ring toss was because it was reminiscent in style to playing Frisbee, which earned a moment of silence between Miroku and Sango until Inuyasha, thankfully, just laughed it off and continued to taunt Kagome that she was chicken if she wouldn’t try the archery game. Puffing up her chest in pride she proceeded to march over to the booth then, mumbling something under her breath just loud enough for their friends to hear about how he’d better hope she didn’t decide to fire a purifying arrow his way, though she was still chuckling so nobody was too worried. Taking position, she concentrated on the target in front of her, making sure not to channel her powers into the arrow. Of course, it’d been years since Kagome had actually gone anywhere near a bow and arrow, since she’d had a mild bit of training with one at age fifteen just as a part of learning how to harness and channel her energy, and that was it. She’d been a decent shot, but certainly not an expert marksman. It took her a few tries to get back into the hang of it but then she did end up scoring for herself a decently sized plush cat. Kagome secretly wished it’d been a dog so that she could have used the opportunity to make some other kind of joke or comment about Inuyasha, but so far the evening was going fairly well anyway, in her opinion at least. They couldn’t act too nicely towards one another, so the occasional insult, masked with a veil of playfulness for Rin’s sake, was necessary for their friends to not think they’d fallen into the Twilight Zone, but they were each making sure to throw a few instances of more real-looking fun into the mix, as well. The truth was it was all fun and Kagome was having a blast!
Since Inuyasha continued to 'playfully' rip on her for being a miko for a few minutes after leaving the archery game she eagerly returned the favor when, as they all got something to eat, he decided to get the turkey leg. Kagome had a sneaking suspicion he’d actually done that on purpose, so that she could poke fun at him for looking like a dog with a bone, and she did not let the opportunity to go to waste. Of course, since they continued to keep their words lighthearted and with playful smiles on their faces Rin pretended she was none the wiser, having no idea those two supposedly didn’t get along.
When Sango spoke up asking if anyone wanted to go look at the cute baby farm animals Kagome expressed genuine disinterest, thinking that ’d be boring, not to mention a little weird. Who wanted to coo at cute baby animals you knew were scheduled for execution once they got older? Kagome liked to keep her business and pleasure separate and she didn’t want to meet the calf that would one day grow up to become her hamburger. Inuyasha immediately chimed in, as Kagome had suspected he might from having coincidentally shared a similar conversation about farming in the past just the two of them, that he actually agreed with her, remarkably enough.
What he actually said was, “You can count me out as well. I actually agree with Kagome, for once.”
Again he said it with a teasing edge, which Miroku and Sango both correctly figured was for Rin’s benefit, but the simple fact that he’d agreed with Kagome instead of deciding to take the opposite position just to mess with her was truly amazing in their eyes. That meant, from how they took it, that he was getting less interested in fighting with Kagome just for the sake of fighting with Kagome, and that if he honestly did agree with her on any given subject he wouldn’t pretend otherwise just to piss her off. It just wasn’t worth it. To the houshi and martial artist that was a huge improvement over say like a year or two ago when he was practically going out of his way to disagree with Kagome at every available turn just to get a rise out of her no matter what subject they were discussing.
With nobody else really being all that into the petting zoo either they moved on, going over to the area where some vendors had set up booths of wares. It was mostly carnival junk, like balloons, glow bracelets, bubble guns and funny costume hats, but everyone had a good time checking out the various treasures of the fair. Rin ended up buying for herself a foam-covered lizard on a metal wire that she proceeded to make 'walk' on the ground beside her like a puppet as they continued to venture onward, and Inuyasha teased her that she’d better keep an eye on her pet lizard or else Kagome’s cat might eat it, to which Rin replied without missing a beat that she was sure her big strong half-dog brother-in-law could protect her from Kagome’s cat, and the miko had to bite her lip to keep from laughing inappropriately at the double-meaning she could tell from his smirk Inuyasha had thought of as well, although it thankfully went over their friends’ heads as Sango and Miroku only thought it neat how Inuyasha had brought innocent mention of Kagome into his teasing of Rin as if the lot of them really were all good friends.
Kagome wanted to make a comeback like her 'cat' wasn’t interested in limp, foam lizards, but thought better of it and wisely chose to keep that joke to herself as the evening finally came to a close and the girls and guys prepared to go their separate ways, Inuyasha having ridden there with Miroku in his car while Sango and Kagome had taken Sango’s car, picking Rin up along the way. As the guys prepared to depart in the parking lot Kagome immediately offered to take Rin’s giant teddy bear, a rightfully logical decision she had not missed taking advantage of since it would be hard for Rin to get the enormous plush to stay in her arms with her belly getting in the way and Sango needed to fish her keys out of her purse since she was the one driving. So Inuyasha unarguably handed the giant bear to Kagome, their eyes as they locked for that brief second of time congratulating each other on a job well done while their friends looked on only in mild amazement, yet again, that the two of them could interact in such a way without wanting to stab each other with a knife.
As quickly as the moment had come it was over and Kagome was maneuvering the teddy bear on one side of Rin and her own plush cat on the other, as the pregnant woman sat in the middle in the back bench seat of Sango’s car. Kagome could sense that her long time best friend wanted to ask her a thousand questions, but she also knew the martial arts instructor would wait until after they dropped Rin off at Sesshoumaru’s house. Already preparing herself for the onslaught when it did occur, Kagome planned on playing innocent at first when Sango expressed her shock that she had gotten along so well with Inuyasha, feigning confusion as she’d ask for clarification...wasn’t that the whole idea? She was supposed to get along with Inuyasha, for Rin’s sake, and for everyone’s sake, so that they could all just have a good time for once. Then Sango would probably point out in some fashion or another how it had looked as if she hadn’t been acting, like she actually had had a good time, to which Kagome would pause for a moment before allowing a mild look of shock to overtake her, herself, as if it’d just dawned on her in that moment that Sango was right, she had had a good time with Inuyasha.
That was her plan, at least. She would play it by ear and let Sango lead the conversation, but in one fashion or another she would allow her friend to aid her with the 'revelation' that maybe Inuyasha wasn’t such a bad guy, after all. After all, he sure had been nice to Rin, and Rin seemed to love him to pieces. And Kagome also loved Rin to pieces, so how could she say that her and Sango’s new friend had such bad judgment? Maybe the hanyou really had matured since high school and he wasn’t the same asshole he used to be, but the reason he’d never seemed like it before was because she had never given him the chance. Did that mean that she was the immature one who’d never grown up? Was he right for his continued dislike of her, since she really was such a bitch to him all the time for no good reason? She had some serious thinking to do...or so she would let Sango believe she had come to realize.
Of course, Kagome knew Inuyasha would be having a fairly similar conversation with Miroku, where similar 'revelations' would be discovered as he saw for himself how much she and Rin got along and how much Rin seemed to like her. Maybe she really wasn’t a total bitch and he should go ahead and give her a second chance. After all, if Rin liked her then she couldn’t be all bad, right?
Looking back on it, Kagome had no idea how they would’ve pulled this off without Rin’s help. They really owed that girl big time.
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As Rin got closer to her due date she felt less secure about leaving the house – well not really but it was a believable excuse – and so Sango and Kagome started going over to her house, instead, upon the mother-to-be’s insistence that they not let a little thing like her pending motherhood put a dampener on what had since become their regular evening play dates. They were perfectly capable of watching TV at her house, plus she also had a few different Wii games to keep things interesting. Yes her husband was home in the evenings, so it wouldn’t technically be just the girls, though she had assured them both that he wouldn’t interfere with their girlie time and that despite his intimidating demonic aura he was really very nice once you got to know him. It hadn’t taken much for Rin to get Sesshoumaru to reluctantly go along with their little ruse, since it’d been a while since they’d done anything thanks to her advanced levels of pregnancy. She’d spent a few nights in a row reminding her husband why he loved her, acknowledging the fact that just because she couldn’t have an orgasm that far along for fear of it inducing labor, it certainly didn’t mean that he couldn’t. So when Sango and Kagome arrived at their house to stay and hang out there for the first time Sesshoumaru played along, saying it was nice to 'meet' the both of them, since Kagome had supposedly never met the daiyoukai before. In the past whenever one or both of them would pick Rin up instead of Rin driving to their place in her own car Sesshoumaru was always either at work or had otherwise made himself scarce, simply not wanting to get involved. Now that he was involved, though, he silently promised Kagome with his eyes that he wouldn’t deliberately say or do anything to screw up her and Inuyasha’s plans. Doing so would upset his wife and he did not want to upset his wife this far along in her pregnancy.
Kagome, grateful to have the daiyoukai’s compliance, decided to 'decide' that she liked Sesshoumaru, despite the fact that he was Inuyasha’s half-brother, as she playfully worded it when she and Sango were alone during the drive home after their first night’s visit. She would use this to her advantage. Sesshoumaru had been his true, perfectly gentlemanly self, meaning Kagome now had less of a leg to stand on as far as thinking that Inuyasha’s supposed assholatry had anything to do with the fact that he was inu. She wasn’t racist, but 'prejudice' wasn’t necessarily the same thing, since it just meant pre-judging, and it was easily possible to not harbor actual hatred for a specific race while still not wanting to be involved in a relationship with somebody of that race for personal preference reasons. She was sure Sango probably still believed that her bad experience with Kouga was clouding her judgment. Just like any scorned woman could become turned off toward men in general, thinking them all assholes, it was possible in the world they lived in to become turned off toward canine men only, or any other subdivision that existed in the youkai kingdom, thinking them all the same and not wanting to let history repeat itself. Supposing that really were how Kagome still looked at it, then Sesshoumaru being the polar opposite was an opportunity the miko would not let go to waste.
They started going over to Rin’s house on a near nightly basis, except for the nights Sango spent with Miroku, of course, in which case Inuyasha would secretly meet Kagome at his brother’s house for dinner or whatever the plans were for the evening. Sometimes Rin let Kagome off the hook, letting her stay home though she would later pretend in front of Sango that she had come over, so that Inuyasha and Kagome could have a little alone time, just the two of them, which had become harder to get since putting their plan into motion.
On one such night when the hanyou and miko were visiting with Rin and Sesshoumaru, though, the pair finally decided to come clean about the tiny little omission they’d made when they’d originally explained their situation to Rin. That girl had started it, jokingly poking fun that once everything was said and done they had better not drop a horrible bomb shell on her that would make her regret having aided them in the first place. She’d only been kidding around, but since Inuyasha already knew from Kagome having told him that she’d confessed to Rin before when the woman had asked that there was in fact something they hadn’t told her, they’d figured then that there was no better time than the present to clear the air.
“Wow...” Rin commented in mild shock to learn that Kagome and Inuyasha had both honestly thought that the other still hated them until only recently, and that it was actually thanks to her late-night phone call that the truth of their feelings for each other had been revealed. “You guys owe me like crazy big time!” Rin added then with a laugh, the tension immediately melting between them as Kagome and Inuyasha laughed as well, not disputing Rin’s claim.
The older woman quickly assured them both that while knowing that little tidbit from the beginning would have perhaps altered her view of them a little bit, that didn’t necessarily mean it would have altered her view in a bad way; it actually explained a few things, such as why they had kept Sango and Miroku in the dark for so long, and she most certainly wouldn’t have refused to help them because of it. Just as Sesshoumaru himself had concluded, the situation wasn’t quite as morally damaging to their character as they’d feared it was since they had actually fallen in love with each other, even if they hadn’t known it. It wasn’t as if Inuyasha and Kagome really did dislike each other and were only getting it on with sexual conquest being the single driving factor. So okay, that had been true for a brief period back in high school, but that was then and this was now and they’d both grown up since then.
Actually, as Rin pointed out, the fact that each of them had personally no longer held negative feelings for the other, but had believed the other person still held negative feelings towards them, yet they had still been willing to be with that person regardless, showed just how deeply they had truly grown to love one another, willing to sacrifice themselves so much just to be with the person they loved, willing to take what they could get even if they believed it made them look like a whore in the process. It hadn’t been an abusive sexual addiction that had kept them coming back for more when a part of them knew they should stop it and that it was no good for them. They were each committed to keeping whatever it was they had going because they wanted to be with the other person; it hadn’t just been about the sex to them, they’d only just thought that it was only about the sex to their partner. And it hadn’t been spiraling out of control, either, where they’d felt more and more degraded each time as their encounters got worse and worse; it wasn’t the same phenomenon that kept a battered wife with her husband, because she 'loved' him, when he was an abusive asshole and she should just ditch his ass. Instead, they had settled into a comfortable routine, and even though they’d each believed that their actions were less than favorable from a moral point of view, they had long since made peace with that, simply loving their partner too much to give them up regardless of anything else. Rin believed that, on a subconscious level, they probably had both known they’d loved each other, but they’d just been too afraid to say anything about it just in case they were wrong.
Upon hearing Rin’s take on the situation, Kagome, smiling, confessed that a few times she had in fact thought she’d seen what might have looked like love in Inuyasha’s eyes when he’d look at her, but that she had indeed been worried she was only imagining things, too, seeing what she wanted to see, and so she hadn’t dared say or do anything to tip him off in case it had all been in her head. Inuyasha then confessed to Rin and his brother, he and the miko having already shared this between the two of them by that point, that he had felt the same way as well at times, before learning of her feelings for him, as he’d catch the way she’d sometimes look at him and wonder if she could possibly love him as much as he loved her.
Smiling, Rin stated that she was positive that, eventually, one of them would have come around and confessed their love even without her interference, either that or they would have done something else to accidentally out themselves, although that didn’t mean she wouldn’t collect on the multitude of favors they owed her since it had been her interference that’d tipped the scales. Laughing again, Kagome and Inuyasha easily acknowledged that they were buried up to their necks in debt towards her, and then deciding to get back to business, the conversation quickly switched over to where they should go from there in their plans regarding Sango and Miroku.
The four of them quickly agreed to up the ante again, since Rin would be out of commission as their assistant once the baby arrived, and so they hashed out a scheme, mostly Rin’s idea, that should really get the ball rolling. Phase One was nearly complete, so it was time to initiate preparations for Phase Two.
Putting their plan into motion as quickly as possible, Rin invited Sango and Kagome and Miroku and Inuyasha all over to her and Sesshoumaru’s house for a dinner party. It would be even better than the six of them dining out at a restaurant, because while Kagome and Inuyasha would supposedly still have to bite their tongues and be on their best behavior either way, now that they weren’t going to be in a public place it meant that Rin could be louder, and have more fun with the girls, telling jokes and stories, and maybe even asking her girlfriends to get drunk on her behalf so that she could enjoy it through them vicariously. She could also tell embarrassing stories about Inuyasha, which Kagome could then use as fuel in her endeavor to finally cease hating him and instead start finding things to like about him.
Of course, Rin had refused to tell them in advance just which stories she planned on telling, which had Inuyasha cringing as he’d playfully requested “Be gentle.” but chuckling, Rin had promised to only pick things that wouldn’t fuel the hatred Kagome supposedly felt, making him look like even more of a dick. Instead, she would make sure they were all squee-worthy aww moments, which had Inuyasha cringing even more as Kagome laughed. The miko had asked, but Rin had refused to give her any hints, wanting Kagome to be surprised so that her reaction would be genuine.
On the night in question, a slightly more than tipsy though not drunk – according to her – Kagome had a very genuine spit-take reaction when Rin, while talking about the intimate wedding ceremony she and Sesshoumaru had shared, mentioned with a playful wink aimed at her hanyou brother-in-law that said hanyou had actually sung at their wedding.
“What?!” Kagome gasped out, laughing her ass off.
Inuyasha didn’t personally think it was that funny, though his scowl had more to do with keeping up appearances than any actual annoyance he felt at his girlfriend’s reaction to this revelation.
“It was so sweet!” Rin continued to gush, completely lost in the moment.
They had originally gotten around to this topic because of Sango and Miroku’s engagement, Rin knowing that the conversation would eventually work its way around to her wedding at some point or another, so that she could give the soon-to-be husband and wife any and all advice that might possibly be applicable. It eventually got around to Rin describing how she and Sesshoumaru had ended up having a very small ceremony with not too many people in attendance. Only his and Inuyasha’s father, Sesshoumaru’s mother, Inuyasha, and a few other rouge family members on Sesshoumaru’s side that came out of the woodwork every now and then likes aunts and uncles, and their spouses and/or children. On Rin’s side she’d miraculously managed to get a couple of her closest coworker friends, who weren’t really that close of friends but were the closest she’d had, to agree to come to the wedding, but they had quickly lost touch afterwards because they were wary of Rin’s new husband and with her immediately quitting her job because Sesshoumaru had vowed to take care of her so that she could eventually become a stay-at-home mom – her dream, not a chauvinistic view on his end – she had no real excuse to see them any more, anyway, and so the acquaintanceship had quickly fizzled out.
They could have sprung for a larger ceremony with all the bells and whistles despite the relatively small guest list, but while Sesshoumaru did very well for himself he wasn’t rich and so what available money in savings accounts there was to be spent Rin had quickly decided she would much rather spend on the down payment of a house. Throughout their engagement she had merely moved into his apartment, still paying for her own next door because she’d had nowhere else to keep all her stuff. So with the decision made to cut corners on the wedding they’d actually done a lot of things the penny-pinching way, including not having any bride’s maids or best men. Why pay for unnecessary dresses and suits? So it had only been she and Sesshoumaru up at the alter with the priest, Inuyasha taking on the very important role of wedding DJ since they’d decided not to waste the money on a live band, or even a professional DJ – not that Inuyasha hadn’t known what he was doing. In fact he’d done a spectacular job, much to his half-brother’s surprise and relief; Sesshoumaru had told him after it was all said and done that he was impressed he had not 'screwed anything up' and coming from the daiyoukai that was a tremendous compliment. He had kept it short and sweet and traditional during the procession, playing the wedding march everyone was familiar with from his collection of CDs, the rented hotel convention room having been fitting for surround sound out of Inuyasha’s own pocket with wireless computer speakers linked to his laptop. After the wedding itself was over, the reception, which took place in the same room immediately following the ceremony, was where his DJ talent had truly shined.
“He knew I had originally wanted a live singer before deciding it was too expensive, so for our first dance he played a karaoke track of 'How deep is your love?' by the Bee Gees and serenaded us from his station with a microphone also connected to everything that I hadn’t even known he’d bought!” Rin explained, giggling almost uncontrollably herself now as Sango and Miroku joined Kagome in her continued chortles.
What made it extra hilarious for the miko was the fact that they had already been banging during the time when Rin and Sesshoumaru’s wedding took place, and so she was having a really hard time imaging the vicious tear-your-clothes-off-in-bed biting and clawing hanyou with a mouth that would make a sailor blush singing such a sappy, gushy, girlie love song. Of course, she wasn’t supposed to know what an animal he was in the sack, but she was nowhere near intoxicated enough to forget that fact or screw up their well thought out plans. She was just nice and loosey-goosey, catching a slight buzz, and her response was applicable either way, even if she supposedly only vaguely knew Inuyasha as the prick from chemistry class who’d been a thorn in her side ever since.
“I can not picture you in a tux, singing that song.” she stated directly to the hanyou, amusement sparkling in her blue-gray eyes.
He was about to open his mouth to reply back with something about her obviously not knowing him very well when Rin spoke up first with, “Their father actually videotaped the wedding, if you’d like to-”
“Don’t you dare!” Inuyasha cut her off, causing Rin, Kagome, Sango and Miroku to all start laughing again. Sesshoumaru was secretly sharing his brother’s sentiment on the matter and was relieved when his wife let it go.
“Did your coworker friends take it personal, the message in the song about fools not leaving you alone and such?” Kagome asked Rin with a bit of a serious face once her laughter finally died down.
“I don’t know and I don’t care.” the pregnant woman responded with an absent wave of her hand. “Nobody ever really tried to get me 'n' Sesshy to breakup, they just stopped associating with me because of him.”
It was Inuyasha’s turn to do a spit-take.
“Sesshy?!”
The daiyoukai’s narrowed eyes quickly had him quieting his chortles into more manageable levels.
“Sango my sweet, would you like for us to have Inuyasha sing at our wedding as well?” Miroku asked with a straight face, though his fiancée wasn’t buying it.
The martial arts instructor was presently tipsy enough to mimic Kagome and Rin’s more risqué sense of humor as she snorted in amusement before replying with, “Yeah right, knowing you, the song 'How deep is your love?' would take on a whole other meaning.”
Miroku tried and failed to look genuinely shocked and offended while Inuyasha proceeded to laugh his ass off again, deciding to defend himself with, “Hey! I can be professional when the moment calls for it.”
That was Kagome’s cue to snort, which earned a mock-confused look from Rin.
“Hey, deny it all you want, but did we ever even once get a bad grade in chemistry class?” Inuyasha asked Kagome then, his eyes surprisingly serious, which caused the miko to bite her lower lip in apparent thought and perhaps even mild shame.
Sango cleared her throat then, not wanting Rin to find out about the past hatred shared between those two. They were just barely beginning to tolerate each other after the day at the fair and she feared whatever progress had been made was fragile enough to fall apart if she didn’t interject and change the subject, which she quickly dragged back around into singing again, unable to think of anything else on the fly.
“Well, if you want to, you can sing at our wedding.” she stated to Inuyasha then, only half kidding. After all, he could be both Miroku’s Best Man during the ceremony as well as their serenader during the first dance; the two didn’t interfere with each other.
Kagome quickly hopped on board and agreed with, “Now that is something I would like to see.”
Smirking as sudden inspiration struck, Inuyasha asked the group at large, “Well who needs a wedding?” before turning to address his sister-in-law as he asked her, “You still got that Wii Karaoke Revolution?”
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“Oh. My. God. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in years.” Kagome managed to barely rasp out as Inuyasha finished singing 'Crawling in the dark' by Hoobastank. Of course, the potential hidden meaning of him choosing that particular song hadn’t gone over her head, though she knew she could possibly be reading too much into it since the song selection was somewhat limited, but either way it was genuinely hilarious watching him prance around even though she did have to admit that he was a good singer.
Two could play at that game.
“Okay, my turn!” she giddily announced, earning more laughter from Sango and Rin as well as Miroku, who was also slightly buzzed by that point.
Inuyasha had had a few drinks as well, but that was one of the downsides to being part youkai. The casual drinking they were doing as friends just hanging out was nowhere near the level of alcohol consumption he would require to actually feel the effects of it. That was all right, though, because he didn’t really want to get drunk anyway. He knew the miko still had her head about her, though, and that she knew what she was doing and wouldn’t screw anything up or regret her actions later. He was amused by her antics and curious to see which song she’d pick from the ones available.
His jaw dropped as she chose 'Everything You Want' by Vertical Horizon and proceeded to change all the 'he's to 'she's, rocking out with the best of them. Sneaky little wench! She actually had a very good voice, and the not-so-hidden meaning behind the song she’d chosen probably wouldn’t go over anyone’s heads. Well...they had agreed it was time to up the ante, so he had to give kudos were kudos were due. That said, he proceeded to gape at her as she took a seat back on the couch across from him, mentally smirking as a cute little blush that in reality was probably at least partially fueled by the alcohol graced her nose and cheeks.
“What? I like that song.” she defended, even though he hadn’t said anything at all.
“Uh-huh...” he sarcastically agreed, making a show of rolling his eyes before coming up with the perfect quip as he commented, “Figures you couldn’t do a chick song.”
“Why you-!”
“Children, children...” Rin chimed in with a playful laugh, pretending she had no idea how serious of a squabble she could have theoretically just averted.
“You want a chick song?” Kagome asked then, her eyes sparkling with amused challenge that matched the look she had given him at the bumper cars. “I'll show you a chick song.”
He gulped.
Jumping back up before Sango could take her turn, not that the martial arts instructor minded because she was thoroughly amused by the goings on, Kagome set it up for the next song, and it was Inuyasha ’s turn to roll over in laughter as 'Like a Virgin' by Madonna started playing through the speakers. Kagome pranced around as she sang, over exaggerating her posture and mannerisms like a drag queen might do when performing that song. Unlike the 'rocker chick' voice she’d sang with while doing her previous song, she now adopted a slightly nasally, 'baby' voice, giving the entire performance a very 'boo boo bi doo' feel.
Even though she was sober, Rin laughed heartily along with the rest of them, minus Sesshoumaru of course, although he did raise an eyebrow in amusement, as Kagome finished her performance and took a bow before returning to the couch once again.
The look in Inuyasha’s eyes as he locked his amber gaze with Kagome’s stormy gray-blue pools spoke of the sexual comments he wanted to make, and then smirking, he said “Not bad, miko. Not bad.”
She responded by sticking her tongue out at him, and he chuckled, and then laughing, Sango finally took her turn, and then Miroku, and then all four of them ganged up on Rin who finally caved and sang a song as well, though she didn’t dance around too much for obvious reasons. When everything was said and done and the evening finally came to a close, after everyone had had a chance to sober up a little bit for the drive home, Inuyasha made a show of being polite towards Kagome in front of everyone, wanting to get Phase One officially over and done with.
“Hey...about...before...” he began seemingly hesitantly, rubbing at the back of his head awkwardly. “It ain’t so bad hanging out, yeah?” he finished in a questioning tone, as if hoping she felt the same way. It was time to bury the hatchet, as the saying went.
Rin quietly glanced back and forth between Sango and Miroku with an expression that said 'Am I missing something?' though she didn’t interrupt the hanyou and miko as Kagome smiled shyly towards the ground before looking back up to meet Inuyasha’s eyes.
“Yeah...we should do it more often.” she relented then, knowing Sango and Miroku were probably both silently chanting 'Yes!' in their heads, and Rin too, though for a different reason. She was looking forward to the lot of them coming over more often; tonight had been fun. Going their separate ways then, since Inuyasha had ridden with Miroku while Kagome and Sango had come together in Sango’s car, the hanyou and miko each knew that their respective friends would be drilling them during the car ride home, but they were each looking forward to it. It was officially time to start Phase Two...friendship.
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Phase Two was decidedly easier to handle, since it didn’t really require any meticulously thought out manipulative schemes. All they had to do was not get too friendly with each other while in front of their friends 'cause Sango and Miroku were still unaware of the true level of intimacy shared between them. However the four of them did quickly begin hanging out together on a more regular basis, usually over at Rin and Sesshoumaru’s house so that it was really the six of them, although now that the hanyou and miko were being civil towards one another Sango and Miroku had also braved inviting them out to lunch just the four of them a couple of times and they had agreed, the meals taking place enjoyably and without issue.
Fortunately, neither Sango nor Miroku saw fit to bring up their past hatred of each other while they were all out together, believing the subject would be in poor taste, simply grateful now for the fact that their friends had both put it behind them. Kagome and Inuyasha didn’t really want to directly lie to the monk and martial artist any more than necessary, and carrying on a conversation in front of the engaged couple about how they were each sorry they’d never given the other a chance to redeem themselves since high school until now would’ve bordered on too much acting, and they were worried they wouldn’t be able to pull it off without arousing suspicion. Independently, Kagome was able to tell Sango truthfully of how she’d come to realize that Inuyasha wasn’t the jerk she’d thought he was, skewing the time line a bit perhaps though the sentiment was genuine. Likewise Inuyasha was able to shrug off Miroku’s questions, conceding that he’d been wrong about Kagome and that he was man enough to admit it, glossing over just exactly when it had been that he’d originally reached that conclusion.
By the time Rin was ready to have her baby the six of them were all good friends and Sango and Kagome were both there for Rin within the delivery room while Miroku and Inuyasha both tried to keep Sesshoumaru calm enough out in the waiting room so that his youki wouldn’t rise to the point of shattering light bulbs. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy that Sesshoumaru playfully – for the daiyoukai – insisted looked nothing like how his half-brother had looked as an infant, although in reality the baby was a spitting image of his hanyou uncle aside from his nose and jawline more accurately resembling that of his pure youkai father. Kagome momentarily lost herself while gazing down at the baby Rin held in her arms and cooed in front of everyone over how absolutely adorable he looked with his fuzzy little puppy ears, but Inuyasha quickly took advantage of the slip-up to openly tease that he’d had no idea she found his type of ears so attractive. Sango and Miroku both just assumed her crimson cheeks were the result of inadvertently expressing how much she liked a feature of the baby’s that Inuyasha shared, rather than being embarrassed that she’d almost blown it, but since it worked the way Inuyasha had angled she quickly rolled with it. She couldn’t rightfully scorn him his looks and coo over the baby at the same time, after all, and so making the most of it Kagome met Inuyasha’s eyes and told him boldly in front of their friends that she’d never found his looks unattractive, just his attitude. Instead of getting upset at the dig and turning it around on her that she had been the one with the attitude problem, not him, as the old him would’ve done, he instead delighted their onlookers by admitting that he felt the same way, that only her attitude had been a turn-off for him but that her looks certainly weren’t.
Rin was too exhausted to bother trying to pretend that she had no idea what they were talking about, since the new mother supposedly had never to that day been filled in on the fact that Inuyasha and Kagome used to hate each other, but she had the perfect excuse to be paying the miko and adult hanyou no mind since her eyes couldn’t leave those of her newborn son, the infant hanyou’s golden orbs gazing back up into his mother’s eyes with a glimmer of intelligence and recognition. Inu pups knew their mother.
During the miko and hanyou’s separate rides home with their respective roommates they were each both prepared for the onslaught of questions they knew were coming from the conversation that had taken place in the delivery room, and neither Kagome nor Inuyasha took back what they’d said about finding the other’s physical appearance to be attractive. They had in fact never claimed otherwise, even all throughout the years; neither of them had ever even once called the other person ugly. They’d always stuck to personality-based insults like calling each other 'bitch' and 'asshole', and even when Inuyasha had claimed that Kagome stank it was usually presumed by Miroku and Sango that, assuming there was a hint of truth to the jibe at all, it was really only her perfume or some kind of hair product that smelled bad to him rather than her natural scent, which had actually been true even though he would deny it for the sake of the argument at the time and claim it was her natural scent itself that he couldn’t stand. Though it had been left unsaid between them in front of the monk and his future wife just now at the hospital, Inuyasha did elaborate when Miroku broached the subject during the drive home that yeah, finding Kagome attractive included her scent. He admitted then to the holy man, knowing he’d tell Sango later, that it’d only ever been certain perfumes of Kagome’s that he couldn’t stand in the past and that now that she’d started wearing that new one he didn’t mind her scent one bit. He also confessed that her natural scent, when she was wearing no perfume at all, was also 'not unpleasant' to his nose. Miroku knew how important scent was to inu-youkai, so for Inuyasha to admit such a thing, that was really saying something.
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Now that the hard part was over, Kagome and Inuyasha relaxed a bit as the days turned into weeks, enjoying playing 'just friends' as Sango and Miroku started to get further along in their wedding plans. At least the four of them could now all hang out together and they no longer had to pretend to hate each other’s guts. It was a tremendous weight off their shoulders. It was a tremendous weight off Sango and Miroku’s shoulders as well, since they had truly disliked the fact that their friends had disliked each other so badly. Kagome and Inuyasha happily started acting more like genuine friends with one another, and their friends couldn’t be happier at the sight. Privately, between hanyou and miko, they had decided to put the 'starting to like-like each other' bit of Phase Three on hold until after Sango and Miroku’s wedding. Participating in and witnessing the wedding, Kagome said, would be the perfect trigger for her to start getting more emotional and really start thinking about wanting a romantic relationship in her own life. They also didn’t want to take any wind out of their friends’ sails or steal their thunder, as the various expressions went. This was Sango and Miroku’s time; Inuyasha and Kagome had no one to blame but themselves for the entangling predicament their relationship had become and so they could just damn well wait their turn to shine in the spotlight.
The hanyou and miko also discussed possible outcomes for future living arrangements, both privately and openly with their friends. Sango and Miroku had enough stuff to worry about as far as just their wedding plans were concerned, especially when each set of parents had crawled out of the woodwork to offer up their own two cents when it came to this and that, just generally stressing the young couple out, and so the last thing they needed to worry about was looking for a new place to live on top of everything else. Easily relinquishing his claim on the apartment he shared with Miroku, then, Inuyasha told them both that if it was too much for them to try and find a place of their own right away that he would gladly move out, so that Sango could just move in with Miroku in the apartment he had now, problem solved. Obviously it wouldn’t be their permanent place of residence, but it would work for a little while at least, maybe even the first year or two, and even though Miroku felt mildly guilty about more or less kicking Inuyasha out he was genuinely grateful for his friend’s offer and sacrifice, although the hanyou waved off any concern of it actually being considered a sacrifice. It simply was what it was. As Inuyasha logically put it, if Miroku were the one to move out then he would be faced with the issue of needing to get a new roommate, anyway, since he couldn’t afford the rent on that place all by himself, and so he might as well just seek out somebody else who was in need of a roommate instead, then, assuming he couldn’t find a smaller studio apartment in his own individual price range.
That was Kagome’s cue to chime in with the fact that, oh yeah, she needed to start thinking about the fact that she’d need to find a new roommate, too, since she wouldn’t be able to afford her place all on her own either. Not that she wanted Sango to feel guilty about that fact for one second because she was tremendously happy for her friend, but it was just something that she’d have to start thinking about. Best not to leave it till the very last second. Appearing to give the matter some serious thought for a moment, Kagome then totally floored the engaged couple when the miko semi-hesitantly, and with an air of logic dictating her decision rather than emotion, tenderly broached the possibility that, in a pinch, she supposed Inuyasha could temporarily move in with her.
“Ya know, if we’re both gonna be like SOL otherwise.” she said, meeting the hanyou’s eyes as if afraid voicing such a 'stupid' suggestion was going to trigger him hating her all over again.
He looked appropriately surprised and hesitant, but instead of refusing her outright or getting angered by the suggestion he then also appeared to mull it over, and then not wanting to just agree to the plan too easily he agreed that, in a pinch, if he were unable to find himself a cheaper place to live on his own and he was on the verge of having to move back in with his father, that he just might, maybe, take her up on it, as a temporary solution until he could ultimately find his own place. He didn’t include mention of if she were the one struggling, as if he’d move in with her solely to help her out if she were on the verge of losing her apartment, but he’d given his answer in his classic gruffness that he knew Miroku knew was his way of concealing his softer emotions. The houshi probably assumed that regardless of the surrounding circumstances they would end up living together now, which was an accurate assumption. It made sense that they would both be somewhat hesitant over the idea at that point in their 'new' friendship, though, their past hatred still a somewhat fresh memory with scars that might not yet have fully healed, but by the time the wedding came and went Kagome and Inuyasha knew they would be much closer friends and that at that time they would easily agree to just having Inuyasha move in with Kagome right away to save any hassle, and at that time it would not seem out of character to Sango or Miroku. In fact the newlyweds would probably be laughing behind their backs, placing bets for how long it would take before their friendship turned into something more as a result of living together, cheering themselves that they’d been right all along, knowing in their hearts that the miko and hanyou were perfect for one another.
That was the plan, at least, but one step at a time, Kagome and Inuyasha knew, as they concentrated on still acting like 'just friends' as they went around with Sango and Miroku trying to decide on what type of venue to use for the wedding. Fortunately the young couple didn’t have to pay for everything themselves out of pocket as Sango’s family immediately stepped up to pay for much of the wedding themselves, being traditionalists and all. Sango’s parents were ecstatic that she was permanently settling down with her long-time boyfriend, the boy Sango’s mother knew she’d already gone 'all the way' with though that was because she was so madly in love with him. Miroku’s parents also greatly approved of Sango; everyone was giddy with excitement about the wedding with not a single naysayer in the bunch. As Kagome and Inuyasha continued to hang around the engaged couple as they helped them with this and that or just generally hung out as friends they had to admit that it was hard not feeling happy for them; their auras were practically screaming how in love with each other they were.
Of course, the four of them didn’t suddenly ditch out on Rin and Sesshoumaru and so Sango and Kagome still went over there to hang out and visit on a semi-regular basis even though the new mother was extra busy with her newborn most of the time. But since Sango and Kagome both eventually wanted to have children of their own they didn’t feel any desire to stay away and instead they swooped in whenever they could, cooing over Inuyasha’s new nephew and asking to hold him or to help feed him. Well...that one came later, as Rin breastfed at first, but inu-youkai pups started getting their teeth earlier than most human infants and a human mother didn’t dare attempt breastfeeding a teething hanyou babe, so while little Ichirou was still on mother’s milk he was switched over to a bottle faster than she had originally been planning.
Once heavy-duty wedding plans started getting underway Inuyasha and Kagome also had a much easier time of sneaking around for some 'alone' time while their friends were preoccupied. Sango and Miroku really didn’t need a third wheel when it came to deciding what type of invitations they should choose or what type of cake to get, and so whenever Sango came over to the guys’ apartment to discuss such things Inuyasha would bail with a playful jibe about not wanting to have to deal with the torture of wedding plans until it was his own wedding. If that joke planted a seed in his friends’ heads that he was interested in the prospect of settling down with a romantic partner of his own one day all the better, but either way it was a legitimate enough reason to tell them he was headed to the mall and instead go see his lovely miko and fuck her brains out. There were also a few other times where Sango and Miroku were out and about, checking out dresses and tuxes and other things at various stores around town that made the hanyou and miko feel uneasy about staying at either of their own apartments for fear of not knowing exactly when their friends would return, and so they would go over to Rin and Sesshoumaru’s house at those times, still relishing in the temporary freedom of completely being themselves. Cooing over little Ichirou when it was just the four of them Kagome would tell Inuyasha that she hoped their future children had his ears; he promised her in return that if they did not she could freely molest his ears whenever and wherever she wanted to make sure she didn’t feel ear-deprived.
Sesshoumaru wanted to comment on the miko’s sanity but wisely chose to keep his mouth shut. After all, his own wife was quite fond of tracing the various magenta stripes that adorned his body with her fingertips, or sometimes her tongue, and he did not wish for her to cease those ministrations any time in the near or distant future. If his half-brother’s wench had a thing for his ears, then the daiyoukai supposed that that was actually beneficial for the hanyou and that he was fortunate to have found himself such a woman; he would not insult the appearance of differently shaped body parts that his own son also possessed.
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As it got closer to the date Miroku and Sango had set for their wedding Kagome and Inuyasha eventually had no choice but to get involved in the planning again, as Kagome got fitted for her own gown and Inuyasha had to get a tux. He had only rented one before, for Rin and Sesshoumaru’s wedding, although this time he secretly decided to buy one, figuring that owning one would probably come in handy in the future. Hanyou and miko also took it upon themselves, as was tradition, to plan their friends’ bachelor and bachelorette parties.
Kagome knew Sango was a shy girl at heart and that there was no way in hell she could get the martial arts instructor to agree to step foot anywhere near a Chippendales-type venue, but that didn’t mean Sango was off the hook. With Sesshoumaru agreeing to babysit little Ichirou for the night, the fridge at his house chock-full of pumped breast milk though the pup was also happily eating solid foods by then, Rin left her boys at home and eagerly joined Kagome as the two of them more or less kidnapped Sango for a night on the town, taking her via rented limo to the swankiest night club in the city where all three girls planned on getting completely plastered.
Sesshoumaru was not worried about his wife misbehaving. Rin had been his and his alone from the moment they’d met, from even before he had realized that she was destined to become his wife, the human girl absolutely smitten with the daiyoukai and finding herself drawn to the feel of his aura instead of intimidated by it. She had also agreed upon his insistence to wear her tight black slacks, as opposed to a skirt, topped by her tight-fitting black clubbing shirt that accented her figure without revealing very much cleavage that said in metallic gold 'You can look but you can’t touch.' She hadn’t really gained very much extra weight from carrying Ichirou and she was already well on her way to losing the few extra pounds she had put on, so while the outfit was tighter on her than it used to be it was not unflattering. Sesshoumaru didn’t mind her showing off her concealed curves so long as the patrons of the club obeyed the command on her shirt, and she also had pictures of both himself and Ichirou on her cell phone in case some loser human with a weak sense of smell couldn’t take a hint. Yes, she was wearing a wedding ring, but that didn’t reveal just who her husband actually was, unlike her proudly showing off the pictures of her family. Not even the lowest human scum that prayed on defenseless women would be stupid enough to mess with the wife of an inu-daiyoukai. Not that Rin was defenseless. Drunk or not she was a spitfire who wouldn’t hesitate to scream just to cause a scene and raise attention to herself, and Sango was an expert fighter while Kagome had powerful reiki...they were good friends for Rin, he trusted them with her safety; he never would have agreed to let her spend so much time with them otherwise. He doubted he would have approved of her having a bachelorette party to the extreme that he knew Sango’s party would probably reach, but since Sango was the intended target he did not mind Rin attending the event with her friends.
Inuyasha, meanwhile, had coordinated with Kagome’s plans to host Miroku’s bachelor party on the same night. The reason? Sango would hardly be in a position to be angry with Miroku for having a good time if she was presently drunk off her ass having her own good time. And in the spirit of having fun, the monk’s bride-to-be had, miraculously, actually given Inuyasha permission to let her future husband be around strippers for the single night...under one condition. Inuyasha himself was not allowed to get too drunk to keep an eye on Miroku and make sure he didn’t take things too far. Easily agreeing to her terms, Inuyasha knew it was not an unreasonable request and had vowed to Sango on his honor that Miroku would do nothing that jeopardized the status of his fidelity. Even more eager to set his plans into motion knowing that Sango wouldn’t skin him alive just for finding out where they’d been, and also knowing that Kagome knew and didn’t have a problkem with it, as soon as Rin texted him that she was en route to Sango and Kagome’s apartment in their limo he’d sent his own text then grabbed Miroku by the back of his shirt, dragging the laughing houshi out to his car, the hanyou driving his buddy to the most vivacious strip club their city had to offer.
Back with the girls, their night got off to a fabulous start, as their limo pulled up and they exited right out in front of the most happening dance club there was, an attendant connected to the club opening the door for them to exit the limo before the driver even had the chance to get out. He pulled around back to park and wait for them, then, having been paid to hang out for the night; the club had a designated area for limos to wait, it being a fairly regular occurrence. The line was already going around the building at only ten o’clock on this busy Friday night, but fortunately Kagome had planned ahead, and it wasn’t as hard to get on the guest list as some people might think, provided you were hot enough. The most happening night club just so happened to open at two in the afternoon, though the dance room and back bar were closed before nine, but going in uber early the week before, when there was no line or cover charge and anyone could just walk in, Kagome had buttered up the staff and begged in a pretty-please manner with the bartender, leaning over the bar and showing a fair amount of boob in her low-cut tank top. She’d promised him that her two friends were just as hot as she was, and that her one friend in particular wanted to have one last night of fun while she was still single. They were going to be arriving in a limo and everything! The bartender had eagerly agreed to put her and her two other equally hot girlfriends on the guest list.
Sango gaped at Kagome in amazement as she gave the bouncer her name and he smiled after finding it written down, opening the velvet rope with a sincere “Congratulations.” sent Sango’s way as they entered free of charge. Inside the club the music was pumping loudly, the main bar totally crowded with people standing all around, the stools removed so there was no place to sit, a small line forming at the well for people not at a prime spot of bar real estate to get their drinks. The TVs that hung around the bar that usually played sports during the day were now playing the music videos that coordinated with the thumping rhythm originating from the next room over. Kagome quickly got in line, winking at the bartender when it was her turn to order when she saw that it was the same guy as before, and he smiled her way, shouting over the music that he was glad she’d made it as he poured three Captain and Cokes. Paying cash, Kagome took their drinks, quickly handing two of them off to her friends, and then they got out of the main room and headed into the even more crowded backroom. Getting their first round of drinks in the main room had been a good call as the line at the back bar was even longer, though nobody really seemed to mind all that much as people waiting in line still kind of danced along to the music, flashing strobes and twirling laser lights with the occasional blast from a fog machine fueling everyone’s excitement all the more. As Sango glanced around while taking a tentative sip of her drink from the tiny stir straw, she had to admit to herself that she was glad she’d let Kagome talk her into this. Tonight would be fun.
The club had two hired go-go dancers that were up on square platforms at opposite back corners of the dance floor, the wall behind them mirrored so that the flashing and dancing lights bounced around the room even more so. Most people were dancing facing the back mirrored wall of the club, either looking at their own reflections or one of the two go-go dancers, the one on the left being a girl and the one on the right a man. It was an equal opportunity chance for oglers of either gender. Both were wearing futuristic metallic silver-colored bikini bottoms, the woman in a barely-there bikini top to match, but Kagome had no interest in the admittedly hot chick and quickly directed her friends to the side of the club where most of the single ladies and gay men were hanging out. It was officially time to commence Operation: Eye Candy. Rin laughed as Sango’s face darkened to match the tight red halter top she’d borrowed from Kagome as the miko, who was dressed in a white pleated mini-skirt topped by a fitted sheer white princess cut shirt with her white bra clearly visible underneath, handed the bride-to-be a small handful of one-dollar-bills for tipping the dancer. The dancer having noticed this was even looking her way and winking, beckoning the martial artist with a wiggle-wiggle of his hips. Sango groaned, shoving the dollars into her black jeans’ pocket for the time being. What had she gotten herself into?
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“This is awesome!” Miroku cheered loudly as he and the guys drunkenly high-fived each other as the topless stripper pranced around their private bottle service table.
Inuyasha observed with a crooked grin from his place casually lounging on the back couch within their private corner, mentally patting himself on the back. Knowing he couldn’t get too drunk, and knowing it’d be way too expensive with this club’s prices to attempt such an endeavor in the first place, he had invited all of Miroku’s co-worker buddies, otherwise known as 'the guys'. Five human men that the monk would on rare occasion go hang out with. Just because Miroku and Inuyasha lived together didn’t mean the holy man didn’t have any other friends, though granted they were more just acquaintances that he didn’t usually do anything with on the weekends. Sometimes during the week they’d all go to a bar together after work, though those types of outings had been fizzling out as his relationship with Sango got more and more serious. Back in the day Inuyasha would occasionally be invited to such outings as well, though he’d always politely – for him – turned them down, but so he did know who Miroku’s work buddies were, and when Inuyasha had phoned one of them up and said the magic words 'bachelor party' every single one of them had quickly gotten back to him and eagerly promised they were in.
Miroku had been under the impression that it was just going to be he and Inuyasha, so he’d been happily surprised to see almost half a dozen guys waiting for him as he and the hanyou entered the club, Inuyasha having sent one of them a quick 'on our way' text seconds before grabbing Miroku and heading out the door. Now, Miroku was playfully tightening his hands into fists at his sides as he sat front and center in a small chair to keep from touching the beautiful young woman who was straddling his swollen lap, grinding her barely covered crotch over his jeans in a way that had Miroku biting his lip as he tried to resist staining his underwear. Why did men like doing this to themselves? It was absolute torture! Especially since this particular club actually permitted men to touch their lap dance givers anywhere not covered by their clothing, and she kept shaking her giant breasts in his face with a knowing twinkle in her eyes, as if trying to get him to snap and give in. Perhaps some women did not truly like being strippers, and they felt degraded, dirty or tainted for objectifying themselves in such a manner, believing they had no other choice, but that was clearly not the situation in this particular club, which was owned by a woman and hired women who understood that being a stripper really put them in control. It was empowering, having men melt into puddles at their feet, and the woman currently riding Miroku’s denim-covered arousal for all she was worth was clearly fully aware of the fact that she was the one calling the shots.
“Merciful Buddha...” Miroku groaned, closing his eyes for a second and, perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, envisioning Sango’s face in place of the stripper’s. That was a bad idea though as it quickly brought him that much closer to the edge. His fiancée was very attractive, both to him and in real life, so he most certainly did not need to ogle other women to make up for what was otherwise lacking in his life. That did not mean, though, that Sango had completely cured him of his natural lecherousness. Opening his eyes, then, he smiled playfully as his indigo orbs locked onto the amused twinkle in the stripper’s baby blues, her own lips curling up into a smirk as his hands raised up and grabbed her hips to stop her movement.
“I believe my friend over there would like a turn.” he stated mischievously, gesturing with a tilt of his head towards Inuyasha.
Giggling faintly, the stripper obeyed his not-so-subtle request, dismounting his throbbing and twitching lap and heading over to where Inuyasha was lounging, much to the hanyou’s surprise and horror.
“Hey, wait a-!” he started to protest before he suddenly found the sinfully sexy and nearly naked woman directly before him, one high-heel clad foot on the floor beside his own feet and the other up on the couch cushion beside his hip, her heavy breasts directly aligned with his eyes as she placed both hands on the back rest of the couch at either side of his head, effectively trapping him in place.
Miroku’s drunk human buddies all started hooting and hollering, though nobody was laughing more than the monk himself, as he raised his glass up and cheered with his buddies.
“Traitors!” Inuyasha shouted from his place frozen on the couch, unable to move without rudely shoving the girl away, which he wasn’t about to do and ruin the atmosphere of their festivities. Like any honorable Best Man, he quickly concluded that he needed to take one for the team, silently hoping that Kagome would understand.
“Come on, loosen up!” Miroku enthusiastically stated as he stumbled over to where the hanyou was sitting on the couch, plopping himself down beside the half youkai man so that he could more thoroughly enjoy the show. “You haven’t gotten laid since junior year of high school, man, you’re way overdue for some action.”
Inuyasha opened his mouth to protest before quickly shutting it with a click of his fangs, knowing his silence just made Miroku think he’d conceded defeat. He had, but a different type of defeat. It wasn’t exactly like he could correct the houshi. Or could he? The plan was to eventually come out and tell the truth, right? Maybe a few subtly placed hints here and there wouldn’t be a bad thing to start leaving, then. Especially since Miroku was very drunk at the moment and much less likely to put two and two together.
“Who says?” he spoke up then, his voice playful and challenging rather than indignant at the accusation.
“Nice try...” Miroku argued with a drunken waggle of his finger. “But we both know you haven’t had a girlfriend since Kikyou.”
“That’s what you think.” Inuyasha countered, getting into the lap dance despite himself as the chick in his lap gyrated around in just the right way that 'Little Inu' was waking up from his nap. He was fairly sated, having managed to sneak in a quickly with Kagome just the day before, but come on! A mostly naked woman in your lap was a mostly naked woman in your lap!
“Ho-ho!” Miroku laughed joyously then. “Have you been holding out on me?”
Deliberately changing the subject, Inuyasha strained his neck to glance over to where Miroku’s other buddies were all sitting around. “Anyone else want a go?”
“Nah, we’re good.” one of them spoke up, the guys wanting to rip on Inuyasha not for being a hanyou, but for being the 'new guy' in their clique. It was an initiation of sorts. That’s what he got for always turning them down before whenever Miroku would call and invite him to come and hang out with everyone else at the local bar.
“Hey, rub his ears! He really likes that!” another one of Miroku’s human friends chimed in, the guy knowing a thing or two about canine youkai.
Son-of-a...ohhhhh... Inuyasha thought brokenly as the stripper started doing just that, sitting up high on his lap as she knelt over him, both knees and shins up on the couch cushions beside his hips and thighs now as she straddled him, rocking herself over his hardening arousal as she reached up with both hands to fondle his ears while continuing to shake her breasts in his face. She was quickly eliminating the hanyou’s ability to think about anything as she tweaked and rubbed his ears just the right way. He obviously wasn’t her first canine client.
“Oh I gotta get a picture of this!” Miroku laughed loudly, fumbling for his cell phone.
Inuyasha’s eyes opened wide in panic, but fortunately the pro grinding against him understood that look all too well and smirking with an amused grin, she decided to take pity on him and quickly dismounted, before Miroku had a chance to take his picture.
“Aww come on...” Miroku pouted as the stripper gently plucked the phone from his hand and sat it on the low table in front of the couch before climbing up into his lap again.
Thank kami... Inuyasha thought with a sigh of relief, before speaking up with, “Come on now, Miroku, this is your night, not mine.”
“Yeah!” the other guys all agreed easily enough.
Inuyasha sighed again.
Crisis averted.
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“Woo-hoo!” Kagome hooted loudly as Sango finally got brave enough – or was that drunk enough? – to tuck a dollar bill into the go-go dancer’s bikini bottoms, Rin laughing hysterically beside her.
Making her way back over to her girlfriends at the bar, Sango, also laughing, reclaimed her drink from Rin’s outstretched hand. How many drinks had she had so far? Ah fuck it, why keep count? That was the beauty of a club that was cash only, you couldn’t run the risk of running up a giant tab. Instead, the drinks automatically had to stop when you ran out of money, and she, Kagome and Rin had all brought plenty of money. Plus with Kagome working her magic like the miko knew how to do she’d gotten Sango at least two free shots over the last couple of hours. Taking a sip of her Midori Sour from the novelty penis straw that had somehow replaced her regular stir straw, Sango only chuckled again as she glanced in Kagome’s direction before proceeding to take another sip, the bride-to-be presently having far too much fun to care about something as trivial as the type of straw in her drink.
Laughing even harder at the sight, Rin quickly whipped out her cell phone and snapped a picture of Sango with her lips wrapped daintily around the miniature bright pink penis that nicely accented her bright green drink. Rin wasn’t mixing, herself, not wanting to have any huger of a hangover in the morning than necessary, as she took another sip of her latest Captain and Coke, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t gotten in on the fun as she laughed at the bright yellow penis straw in her own drink. Handing Kagome her phone she had the miko take a picture of her next, as she posed provocatively with her lips around the very tip of the straw to better reveal what it was, eyeing the camera with promise. Kagome could barely rein in her chuckles long enough to snap the photo, and then it was her turn as she handed the phone back to Rin and blew into her bright blue penis straw, causing her half-consumed Mai Tai to bubble in the glass like a child’s chocolate milk. Snorting in laughter at the sight, Sango handed Rin her drink to guard again after she took the picture of Kagome and put her phone away, sashaying her way back over to the male dancer in the corner while waving another dollar bill in the air.
“Well you ladies all seem to be thoroughly enjoying yourselves.” came an entertained voice from the side, speaking loudly enough to be heard over the music, and Kagome and Rin both politely and drunkenly smiled at the rather handsome orange-haired neko-youkai that leaned against the newly vacated spot at the bar next to the spot the miko had claimed earlier when it’d become free.
In a room that crowded and happening, somebody coming up right beside you at the bar wasn’t creepy, there was simply no where else for the guy to go because every other square inch of bar top was already taken.
“Oh you have no idea!” Kagome spoke up loudly over the music after taking a sip of her drink that time instead of blowing bubbles in it. “It’s our friend’s bachelorette party!” she giddily announced, pointing back to where Sango was presently up on the square platform dancing with the male dancer.
“Oh shit! Rin quick, take a picture!” Kagome rushed out, taking Sango’s drink from Rin to free up one of her hands, and Rin almost did a spit-take laugh as she turned to see what was happening, quickly obeying Kagome’s command.
The neko-youkai only laughed. He loved human women; they were way more fun than female cats, who more times than not had superiority complexes and acted like they expected their men to wait on them hand and foot. Maybe something was wrong with him, since his three older brothers all had no problem being pussy-whipped...pun intended. But since he was the youngest and his three brothers were all married into pure neko families, raising pureblooded kittens, he didn’t think that his parents would mind it too much if he strayed and settled down with a human instead. He’d seen a few other mixed families with little neko-hanyou children from time to time in the mostly feline neighborhood where he’d grown up, and truth be told he thought the mix looked rather cute.
“My name’s Akio...” he introduced, just to be polite. “Might I ask your lovely names, if I could be so bold?” he asked with a charming smile that revealed a petite fang.
A brief look of apprehension flashed in Rin’s eyes, but he quickly waved off her concerns.
“Relax, Mommy, I’m just being cordial. I’ve got no intention of getting into a dog fight.” he assured Rin with an honest smile and a playful tap of his nose.
She immediately relaxed and giggled then, and leaning in to be heard over the music even though he could probably hear her just fine either way she said, “My name’s Rin!”
Kagome introduced herself next, and then immediately turned on the charm as she told him about their friend, her goal another free drink for the future bride. There was no point in deceitfully flirting with the guy, so instead she was completely honest.
“Wanna buy our friend a shot?” she asked while batting her eyelashes prettily, setting both her and Sango’s drinks down on the bar to free up her hands. “I’m trying to make our money stretch, but at the same time we want to get her as drunk as possible! Come on, contribute to the cause.” she finished playfully, reaching forward to friendlily touch his arm.
He could feel the miko’s reiki, though he had to admit he wasn’t intimidated by her. Damn, that inu-hanyou she was with was a lucky man.
“Why not just buy her an Adios MoFo or two? That’d get the job done right quick.” he pointed out logically with a chuckle.
Kagome laughed, her hand climbing up to the guy’s shoulder as she tried to keep her balance before she stabilized herself and put her hand on the bar instead, Rin’s hand appearing at her back for a second to make sure she really was stable on her feet.
“Okay okay, not as drunk as possible. I want Sango to get 'I can’t believe I did that!' drunk, not 'I don’t remember what I did' drunk.”
“I think she might be there already.” Rin pointed out with a chuckle that had Kagome laughing again as well as both girls turned to see that Sango was still freak dancing with the go-go dancer.
“And what level of drunk are you presently at?” Akio asked Kagome with a laugh of his own.
“I’m not drunk!” the miko protested loudly, reaching for and taking another sip of her drink. “Yet.” she added, laughing again as she and Rin semi-collapsed against each other’s shoulders in a fit of giggles.
“Okay, maybe I am a little drunk...” Kagome admitted after a moment, “But this isn’t about me, and don’t worry, none of us are driving.”
“Oh, what the hell?” Akio answered then with another chuckle, amused at their antics. “Sure, I’ll donate to the 'get Sango as drunk as possible before memory loss' fund.” he answered with a laugh, taking out some cash and holding it up to get the bartender’s attention.
He did have to admit that doing it one shot at a time was more fun than getting immediately wasted. For someone like him and his tolerance for alcohol an extra tall Long Island Iced Tea was the equivalent to a wine cooler, but he still understood the appeal of gradually getting drunker and drunker and having more and more fun because of it, as opposed to drinking as much as possible in a single sitting with the goal being to pass out as quickly as possible. He wouldn’t buy the bride-to-be anything too over the top, then, making sure her fun evening could last. In fact, considering it was her bachelorette party, he had the perfect drink in mind.
With Akio getting the bartender’s attention and placing his order, it was around that time that the lot of them also earned Sango’s attention, as the martial arts instructor carefully got down from the dancer’s platform and hobbled her way back over towards her friends. Good thing, too, 'cause Rin had been about two seconds away from rushing over there to pry her away from the go-go dancer, not that the guy had looked like he’d minded her company one bit, though it definitely hadn’t been anything special to the guy either as another girl quickly took Sango’s place up on the platform with him when she climbed down to see who this other guy was that Kagome was suddenly being all friendly with.
“Hey girls...so who’s our friend?” she asked with a huge grin as she arrived at the bar, eyeing the feline daiyoukai up and down.
“This is Akio...” Kagome introduced, taking the whip-cream-topped shot glass from his striped and clawed hand as he handed it her way, placing it on the bar in front of Sango, “And this is your Blow Job!” she finished with a laugh. Rin got out her camera phone again.
Immediately distracted by the sight of the drink, Sango reached out to pick up the shot glass without question, but Kagome grabbed her wrist midair. “Uh-uh-uh...that isn’t how you do a Blow Job and you know it.”
Sango’s cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink at that, though truth be told they had probably already been at least a little flushed from the amount of alcohol she had consumed.
“Would you like me to hold your hair back?” Akio asked with a teasing glint in his yellow-green eyes that had Sango’s blush darkening even further before she shook her head as if to clear her thoughts as much as her pickled brain would allow.
“Nice try...” she replied drunkenly with a giggle and crooked smile. “But I’m getting married soon.” she finished proudly, holding up her left hand to show off her engagement ring.
“Oh like that was stopping you a minute ago.” Rin commented, which earned Sango sticking her tongue out at her.
Laughing, Kagome volunteered, “How about if I hold your hair back?”
Smirking, Sango glanced between Akio and Kagome and countered with, “How about if you do the shot, and he holds your hair back?”
Kagome didn’t catch on at first, and all in the spirit of having good fun, 'cause she knew Akio knew all three of them were off limits, she merely retorted with, “Because this is your party, not mine.”
“Well one of you needs to do it or else I will.” Rin chimed in, eyeing the shot with a hungry lick of her lips. But she didn’t want to mix her liquors, damn it all, and while Kahlúa was rum-based Baileys was not. Still...one little shot wouldn’t hurt, right? All that whipped cream looked so temping!
Seeing the way Rin was ogling her drink like a crazy person finally got Sango in gear, and she reached back with her left hand and proceeded to hold her own hair back, bracing herself against the bar with her right hand to avoid falling over. Lowering herself face first to the bar, she opened wide and wrapped her lips tightly around the shot glass, some distant corner of her mind that was still sober enough to form semi-logical thoughts vaguely grateful for the fact that the shot glass was of normal size and not one of the extra wide ones that you could accidentally clank your teeth on. Obviously the bartender had known what he was doing. Half the people around them knew what she was doing, too, as they all suddenly stopped whatever it was they had been doing to watch, and Kagome and Rin’s cheers quickly had Akio and a few other nearby people joining in as Sango tilted her head back, shot glass in mouth, and sucked down the shot in one gulp all without using her hands, taking her left hand from her hair to pluck the empty glass from her mouth afterwards and slam it on the bar.
“And the crowd goes wild...” Rin said over everyone’s laughter, turning off the video she’d been recording on her phone. Kagome noticed what she’d been doing, of course, and the two quickly high-fived behind their friend’s back without Sango noticing, as the martial artist reached for what was left of her Midori Sour.
“Would you like another one of those?” Akio asked, just being nice, chuckling to himself at the sight of her drinking from that bright pink penis straw.
“What I would like...” Sango said after a moment, glancing Kagome’s way conspiratorially, “Is for you to take my friend here out on the dance floor.”
Rin’s eyes widened as a possible red flag went up in her brain, but Kagome, who was not quite as drunk as Sango but definitely more drunk than Rin, didn’t yet realize that Sango was thinking about setting up her 'single' friend with the handsome neko.
“Oh come on, Sango, you know I don’t dance with strange men.” was Kagome’s negatively formulated response, meaning no offense towards Akio, who didn’t take any.
“Definitely not a good idea.” he agreed himself, adding, “Male canines can be very overprotective if they think someone’s trying to make a move on their woman.”
Kagome’s eyes finally opened a bit wider in realization herself as those words left his lips, meeting Rin’s gaze for a split second with a quick 'oh shit' silently passed between them, but Sango was merely confused at first, and said, “Oh, I was talking about Kagome, not Rin. Rin’s married.”
“Even not officially married canine youkai are usually very territorial with their girlfriends, though; I doubt being hanyou has curbed that much of his natural instinct.”
Kagome winced...damn neko daiyoukai and their sharp senses of smell! Damn her for not bathing after her romp with Inuyasha the day before!
Oh shit oh shit oh shit, what do I do? the miko silently began panicking until...
Sango laughed.
“Oh, she and Inuyasha aren’t together.” the martial artist name-dropped, as if Akio knew the hanyou and was fully versed on the dynamics of their friendship, like it was completely silly of him to have thought for even a moment that the pair were anything more than just friends.
“Well...” he spoke up hesitantly at Sango’s apparent reassurance, honestly considering taking Kagome out on the dance floor if it were truly permitted. He wouldn’t take it further than that. “...if it’s really just a casual fling then I suppose-”
“Could you excuse us, please?” Kagome interrupted, meeting Akio’s eyes with a pleading shimmer in her own stormy gray ones that instantly had him realizing he’d said too much and apparently revealed a secret. With a guilty and apologetic look in his own yellow-green orbs he immediately nodded and took he and his drink away from the bar.
Sango, meanwhile, was just barely trying to wrap her mind around how a youkai of his level could mistake Kagome’s casual interactions with Inuyasha to mean they were actually together. She was trying to think back on how frequently the miko and hanyou ever even came into physical contact with one another, which was not very often at all. Surely someone with a decently amplified demonic sense of smell like that neko-youkai wouldn’t make such an obvious mistake, right? Or was she the one who didn’t know all the details?
“Kagome...?” Sango asked then, her eyes and tone of voice both amused, as if she were on the verge of laughing her ass off. “Is there something you and Inuyasha need to tell us?”
Of course, in the martial artist’s alcohol-laden mind she was under the impression – assuming Akio had been correct in his belief – that it had to be a fairly brand new development. When oh when had this happened and how had she and Miroku not noticed? She was far too giddy at the prospect for any other possible explanation to even come to mind.
Kagome cringed at Sango’s question, though a part of her was at least relieved by her friend’s amused tone of voice, even knowing it was only because the woman was so drunk. Still, now what should she do? She was completely ahead of schedule! But...but now that the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, she really didn’t want to lie about it. Even though she was fairly sure Sango had no idea just how twisted the details were and how far back the secret went, trying to do damage control at that point would only make matters worse in the long run. Better to just come fully clean now and be done with it. Maybe she was only thinking that way because she was drunk, too, but knowing she was drunk wasn’t helping her sober up any and she just could not think of a convincing way to get out of this mess. Maybe it would go over okay because Sango was so amused? She was much less likely to be hurt and angry in her current frame of mind, at least, if how giddy she already was from what tiny detail she did know was any indication.
Kagome just hoped that Sango would actually remember this conversation in the morning, though past experiences indicated that she most likely would. She and Sango had both gotten that drunk a few times in the past – check that, they’d gotten even drunker in the past, 'cause neither of them had yet had to make a run to a trash can to throw up in that evening, which would signify their cut-off point – and they hadn’t ever blacked out after those past instances, feeling like shit in the morning though still remembering what’d happened the night before.
“Actually, yeah, Sango, there is something we need to tell you...” Kagome finally spoke up then, glancing back to Rin again and giving her a resolute nod to let the new mother know that she was done with the game, it was time to tell the truth. Rin nodded back, indicating that she agreed with Kagome’s decision.
“Come on, let’s go back into the other room where it’s not so loud.” the miko said over the music, and Sango, not put off by Kagome’s suddenly solemn tone, eagerly followed her back into the main front room of the club, looking forward to hearing the juicy details. Rin followed along as well, silently praying that their evening of fun wasn’t about to get completely ruined. Hopefully Sango would take the news well.
Finding a fairly isolated corner near the men’s restroom – there was a huge line by the ladies’ room – Kagome cleared her throat nervously, not at all comforted by the eager expression Sango was giving her. If only she could snap her fingers and sober up, that would make this so much easier; the miko was having a very hard time controlling her emotions all of a sudden, and telling herself it was just the alcohol wasn’t helping her one bit. Honestly, she didn’t think that was true; a part of Kagome was certain she would have ended up getting just as worked up at any other time, the miko genuinely fearful that she was about to lose her best friend.
“Promise you won’t hate me.” she begged in a whiny tone, clutching her friend’s hand almost desperately, which did give Sango a little pause before the bride-to-be quickly laughed it off.
“Oh come on, Kags, what could you possibly say that would have me hating you?” she asked in a disbelieving tone, bobbing her head a little bit to the thumping music that was still plenty loud in the front room though not so loud you had to shout over it to be heard.
“Umm...” Kagome began hesitantly. “How 'bout the fact that me 'n' Inuyasha have been deceiving you guys for like...forever?” she asked cryptically, unable to keep her tears in check as moisture started pooling in her eyes.
“Kagome? Wha...?” Sango asked, completely confused, until she noticed her friend’s distraught state and sobered up just a smidgen, just enough to set her drink down on the nearby table and pull the miko into one of those 'I love you man' type of hugs as she tenderly assured the miko, “Oh 'Gome, sweetie, I love you no matter what. Okay? Please tell me what’s wrong.”
Patting the crying miko’s back, she waited for her best friend and almost-sister to spill the beans, feeling completely confused and more than a little troubled. Whatever it was had to be serious for it to be bothering Kagome this badly. A glance in Rin’s direction was no help as the new mother’s expression clearly indicated that while she knew what was bothering Kagome, it wasn’t her place to say anything.
“Inuyasha and I...” the miko finally started after a moment, pausing just to sniffle as a few rouge tears continued to fall, “...we’ve been sleeping together since high school.” she finally confessed, and Sango’s expression of total shock was so amusing that it almost made Rin want to laugh if the situation weren’t so serious.
“We really had hated each other!” Kagome quickly added in an almost desperate tone, wanting to assure her best friend that it hadn’t all been an act. Well, in a way it had been, but they had even been fooling each other, at least until Rin’s involvement. “I mean, well...I’d started to fall for him, but I’d thought that he still hated me, and he had started to fall for me, but he’d thought I still hated him, 'n' so we weren’t really tryin' to deceive you guys, per se, but it was just-”
“Back up...” Sango interrupted, her voice stern for a split second though she quickly lost the act and laughed again, much to Kagome’s relief as the miko exhaled loudly, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand as a faint chuckle escaped her as well.
“Just when did you two start sleeping together? I want details!” Sango giddily declared then, and laughing louder herself, feeling a tremendous weight lifted from her shoulders, Kagome rewound and gave Sango a more detailed play by play, just as she and Inuyasha had previously explained their entire situation to Rin and Sesshoumaru. She told Sango with surprisingly few slurs about how their feelings of hatred had been very genuine in the beginning, and how she and Inuyasha had ended up morphing into secret fuck buddies as a result of their one-night-stand that had 'just happened' during his human night when their hormones had gotten the better of them. The miko also confessed that she would have told Sango back in the beginning, but that she’d been afraid of how it would have made her look in the more sensible girl’s eyes, the martial artist still having been a virgin at that time.
“Oh gods, no, Kagome...” Sango started sincerely, pausing to take another sip of her drink which had Kagome and Rin both chuckling. “I’ll always love you no matter what; you’re like a sister to me.” she assured the miko then, her speech a bit slowed from the booze though still perfectly legible. “I wouldn’t’ve thought badly of you. I might’ve thought that it wasn’t the best relationship, but Miroku 'n' I wanted you with Inuyasha. I wouldn’t’ve told you to stop sleeping with him, I would’ve just told you to stop hating him, to make it more than just fuck buddies.”
Glancing Rin’s way in that moment, Sango asked, “So you knew all along?”
“Not all along.” Rin clarified. “I actually only met Kagome a couple of weeks before meeting you. Didn’t know she existed before then. Inuyasha had been keeping it a secret from us, too, also fearful of what we’d think of him just having a 'booty call' as he called it.”
“I’m still confused.” Sango said, shaking her head and taking another drink before meeting Kagome’s eyes again. “If all this time you two thought you were just bangin' each other and there was no love there, what changed?”
Setting what was left of her drink down beside Sango’s on the small round table, Kagome launched into the rest of her tale, then, explaining where Rin came into play in how she’d gotten all jealous because of the woman’s late night phone call to Inuyasha and how that had caused her to finally lose the carefully constructed mask she’d always worn in front of the hanyou for fear of him finding out her true feelings. The truth was that even though neither of them had known it, they’d both fallen in love with each other long before that point, and then feeling a tremendous weight lifted off their shoulders from that realization they’d immediately concocted a plan of how to eventually go about telling their friends the truth. They’d known almost right away that they had to come clean, it had only been a question of how to go about it. Kagome confessed to Sango the master plan, then, of how they’d brought Rin into it on purpose as a means of getting them all to start being friends so that Inuyasha and Kagome could stop acting like they hated each other and eventually work up towards liking each other. They had been trying to soften the blow, planning on eventually coming clean completely but not until after the wedding, not until after they had openly started dating and were a couple where everyone knew they were a couple. They’d still yet to really, truly figure out how they were going to go about that one final step, though, of coming fully clean about their past, of breaking the ice regarding such a huge confession, and so now looking at how things had ended up playing out Kagome relented that maybe it was for the best that it’d happened this way instead. Having been raised a miko she did usually tend to believe that all things happened for a reason, even if you couldn’t understand at the time just what that reason was.
“Who knows...maybe you 'n' Inuyasha would’ve broken up for one reason or another if you’d just become normal boyfriend 'n' girlfriend back in high school...” Sango shrugged off before finishing the last of her drink in one final gulp.
That had honestly never crossed Kagome’s mind, but looking back on it, she supposed that might be true. After all, he was awfully possessive of her now that they were officially together, just as she’d known he would be, but they were also both adults now and so he knew when to curb his instincts, like tonight for example, letting her come out to a club dressed the way she was because possessive or not, he trusted her. But she had broken up with Kouga for not trusting her, always accusing her of cheating, or wanting to cheat, when she hadn’t been, and also accusing all other guys of trying to steal her away from him to the point where she couldn’t even say two words to a guy even just to ask the time without Kouga suddenly getting up in the man’s face with a threatening fist for looking at her the wrong way. If Inuyasha, being younger and less mature, had come anywhere close to even hinting at sharing Kouga’s behavior back then, she might not have given him the chance he deserved, figuring he was Kouga all over again after all and wanting to nip it in the bud after having already given the wolf failed second chance after failed second chance. And poor Inuyasha, after having just been used by Kikyou for a good length of time when he’d been in love with the girl; if he had suspected that her resistance to his possessive attitude was because she was only looking at their relationship as a casual fling, then that probably would have been cause for him to break it off with her before she had the chance to do it first and break his heart a second time. No...looking back on it, everything had definitely happened the way it was meant to between them, with their relationship being openly casual in the beginnings so that there were no expectations, and no excuses for being possessive, which allowed their love for one another to grow and mature as they did, turning into adults who fully trusted and loved each other because they’d already passed the test, never ever once cheating on each other even back when they could have because it wouldn’t even have been cheating.
“You know, I think you’re right.” Kagome spoke up then, taking the final sip of her own drink.
“Whatever happened, I’m glad I finally know the truth, you crafty little bitch you. I forgive you.” Sango said with a huge grin, pulling the miko into a hug that had Kagome crying all over again though for a different reason that time. Sango didn’t hold back her own tears, either, and Rin’s eyes felt suspiciously moist from where she was observing.
“Enough crying already!” the daiyoukai’s wife suddenly blurted, causing Kagome and Sango to both laugh again. “We’ve got a bachelorette party to get back to,” Rin added, “and I for one could use another drink after all that emotional blubbering.”
“I’ll drink so that!” Sango joked, causing Kagome to laugh again as she sighed in relief to finally, finally no longer have that boulder hanging over her head. With the miko getting back in line at the main bar to buy everyone a new round of drinks, Sango and Rin stayed behind at the quiet table they’d managed to score in the corner.
“So all this time since we met you knew what was going on and it was all just a giant mind game?” Sango asked Rin while Kagome was getting their drinks.
“Yeah...but they meant well.” Rin answered, setting her empty glass beside Kagome and Sango’s old drinks on the table. “Maybe they should’ve just told you 'n' Miroku straight out after realizin’ they loved each other, but then if they’d done it that way I probably never would’ve gotten to meet you guys, and even though they brought me into it to help them I’m a selfish bitch and I actually agreed 'cause I wanted friends.” Rin finished with a wink.
Sango chuckled, before her eyes opened wide as something suddenly dawned on her.
“Miroku! He doesn’t know yet!”
Kagome was heading back with their drinks and heard Sango’s declaration. “I’ll let Inuyasha know tomorrow that I told you so he can figure out how to go about telling him.” she said as she placed three full glasses on the table and replaced all the stir straws with the penis straws from their old drinks.
“Or I could do it for you, right now...” Sango said with a cackle of glee as she picked up her Kamikaze with a nod of thanks towards Kagome and took a sip.
“How the hell are you even still functioning?” Rin asked half playfully, half seriously. Even her lips and cheeks were a little numb by that point and she’d only been drinking Captain all night!
“Practice.” Sango answered with a sly wink sent Kagome’s way that had the miko laughing heartily at the flash of memories that came to mind of all the times she and Sango had 'practiced' building up their high tolerances to alcohol.
The martial arts instructor then proceeded to fumble in her tight jeans pocket until finally pulling out her cell phone, adjusting the distance of where she held the phone up to her face until her eyes finally unblurred enough for her to read the screen and select Miroku’s number in her address book.
“Come on...” Kagome whined, tugging on Sango’s arm. “Leave 'em alone...Miroku’ll think you’re keepin’ tabs on him.” she tried to point out.
“Good.” Sango answered with a laugh, as she proceeded to drunk-call her future husband at the strip club.
`````````````````````
Holding down the fort otherwise known as their private corner table, Inuyasha observed the humans with an amused grin as he sipped his fifth glass of Belvedere. Miroku and his work buddies were all presently at the stage going ga-ga over the latest performer, throwing her dollar bills like they were confetti. Even Inuyasha had to admit that she really knew what she was doing; he could also tell that her breasts were real, 'cause fake titties just did not move around like that. Her performance was making him want to install a pole in Kagome’s bedroom. Maybe, one day, when he and the miko could have a place of their own...
“You look lonely.” a sultry voice said from his right, and he turned to give the topless brunette a once over, his eyes shamelessly scanning her up and down.
“And you look tempting, but I’m gonna have to pass. This dog’s already got a master.” he said, and smiling with an understanding nod she went on her way.
He had been fortunate to avoid any more 'incidents' like what had happened earlier with that first lap dancer. He didn’t honestly think Kagome would have been very angered by the photograph, though he was relieved Miroku had not managed to get his hands on such photographic evidence against him regardless. He was certain his miko was ogling the male dancer he knew they had at the club she had taken Sango to, plus any other guys there who happened to be good looking, and a part of him was admittedly jealous at the thought, but tonight was a free pass of sorts, so long as they didn’t take things too far. Kagome knew they were at a strip club, and she also knew how badly Miroku liked to tease him and he was sure she would’ve believed him if he’d had to tell her just how that picture had come about. Truth be told Kagome probably would have laughed at his predicament, especially considering the panicked expression he knew he’d been sporting; she’d never let him live it down. All the more reason why he was glad no such photo existed. Besides that, Miroku had had no business trying to take that picture in the first place. What happens at the bachelor party stays at the bachelor party.
The monk’s cell phone going off from where it still sat on the low table in front of the couch had the hanyou jumping in his seat for a moment, until glancing back over towards the stage he saw that none of the humans were paying the device any attention, assuming they could even hear it over the loud porno music. Reaching for the phone and checking the screen, his brows furrowed to see that it was Sango calling.
What the hell?
Was everything all right?
Should he answer it?
Why the hell was Sango calling at a quarter to two in the morning? Was she just checking up on Miroku, or had something happened on her end?
“Hello?” he hesitantly spoke into the device, unwilling to ignore her call in case it was important.
“'Yasha? Where’s 'Roku?” came Sango’s drunken voice on the other end of the line, and the hanyou sighed in relief right away to note that she didn’t sound angry at all, or on the verge of tears. He wasn’t sure which one would have been worse.
“He’s indisposed at the moment.” Inuyasha answered teasingly and with a chuckle, to which Sango snapped, although he could easily tell she was joking around, “He better not be fucking anyone in the back room!”
“No, that’s me, actually, so can you call back later? It’s hard to chat on the phone while getting laid.” he laughed, bringing his glass up to his lips and taking a sip, which he then proceeded to spit out all over the table at Sango’s retort of, “You better not be cheating on Kagome!”
“Uh...”
Sango immediately broke down into a fit of hysterical giggles, and he could also hear Kagome’s voice in the background frantically asking her what was going on.
“Let me talk to the bitch.” Inuyasha said then.
“Okay, here...” Sango said, unfazed by the nickname, and then he heard Kagome take possession of the phone. “Hello?”
“First, I am not cheating on you, it was just a bad joke. Second, what the hell did Sango mean by that?”
“Um...it’s a long story, but the short version is she knows everything now.”
“Everything?”
“Yup.”
“...”
“Hello?”
“...and she’s okay with it?”
“Well...she’s really drunk right now...”
Sango stuck her tongue out at Kagome for that one; Inuyasha could hear Rin’s laughter in the background.
“So are you.” he pointed out, easily able to tell.
Kagome posed with her free hand on her hip, as if he could see it, and said, “So?”
“So...why was Sango calling Miroku?” Inuyasha asked, changing the subject.
“She wants to tell him for us, but I’m not sure...”
“Hey if she wants to tell him for us that’s awesome, but why now?” he stressed, glancing back over towards the stage to make sure the man in question was still behaving himself. One of his buddies was tucking a dollar into the pole dancer’s g-string but Miroku was thankfully keeping his hands to himself.
“'Cause it’s funny right now?” Kagome answered in a questioning tone, followed by Sango’s voice in the background shouting “You bet your ass it is!”
Inuyasha just shook his head, completely baffled though also amused.
“How did she find out?” he asked, just wanting to have his curiosity satisfied. “Did you just decide to tell her or what?”
“A neko-youkai totally smelled you on me and outed us.” she replied, which caused his ears to lower to his head.
Crap...he’d never really thought about that possibility. Obviously, in normal day-to-day life something like that would never be an issue. Even though he was certain any youkai they ever happened to be around, like any that might have been within sniffing distance at the carnival that weekend, would be able to tell that they were together, it just wasn’t the sort of thing that a stranger would have any right or reason to comment on. In a night club, though, wanting to know if a girl was single or had a man so that you could consider her a prospect for yourself made it a much more valid invasion of privacy, to sniff her and see if she’d recently bedded another. In fact that was why he hadn’t minded her taking Sango and Rin out to the club in the first place, even knowing she was wearing a skimpy little flirty outfit, because he knew that anyone with a nose would know she was taken, and human men hadn’t been a major concern because he knew Kagome wasn’t even into them anyway and with Rin there with her he also knew that his sister-in-law would never let any creep get too close to his miko. Safety in numbers and all that. The possibility that some youkai man could just somehow or another comment aloud on the fact that Kagome was taken, though, had honestly never crossed his mind. No wonder she’d then been forced to come clean about everything to Sango. He was glad, though, that the martial artist knew now. They obviously couldn’t keep the deception going forever. One down, one to go. Still, did she have to tell Miroku right now?
“Well, I doubt Miroku’ll appreciate me interrupting him right at this moment. He’s being a good boy, but he’s enjoying quite the show. We should leave him be.”
Right when Inuyasha said that, though, the song came to an end and everyone started whistling and clapping loudly, and glancing back over towards the stage he saw that the dancer was collecting her money and heading off.
“I stand corrected, the show just ended. Hold up.” he said then, waiting to see if the guys were going to be coming back over to their table yet or not.
“'Kay...” Kagome answered, and then Inuyasha heard the sound of Sango asking Kagome what was going on and demanding the phone back.
“I wanna talk to my man!” the martial arts instructor demanded into the phone, which had Inuyasha chuckling again.
“Patience woman, you two aren’t even supposed to talk to one another tonight. Why don’t you go enjoy the rest of your party and let me handle the monk?”
“Awww...come on!” Sango whined pitifully, which had Inuyasha laughing even harder.
He envied his friends’ abilities to get so damn drunk so easily. Maybe one of these moonless nights he’d have to get brave enough to leave the house and experience partying out on the town for himself. He actually had gotten drunk on his human night, once. He and Miroku had had a stay-in evening one time where it had actually been the holy man’s goal to get his temporarily mortal friend as wasted as possible, but as interesting an experience as that had been, being drunk at home definitely hadn’t been as fun as he imagined being drunk in a public place like a dance club or strip club could be.
Shaking his head to rid it of such random thoughts, Inuyasha was just about to tell Sango a more firm 'no' when his ears shifted to catch the sound of rapidly approaching bachelors, and glancing up, he saw that the guys were in fact all on their way back to their table, hooting and hollering quite loudly.
“Who’s on the phone?” Miroku asked, recognizing it as his cell that Inuyasha was holding.
“Your future wife.” he answered honestly, smirking as he saw the color drain out of Miroku’s face.
“Relax, man. She don’t give a shit about what you’ve been doing, or who.”
“Hey!”
“Just kidding, Sango.” Inuyasha assured the woman on the phone at her outburst, smirking again when she just laughed.
“Oh I know...” the martial arts instructor insisted, taking another sip of her drink. “My man might have a wandering eye, but his penis is all mine.”
That had Kagome and Rin laughing their asses off, which Inuyasha could easily hear in the background as all three women were apparently all standing right next to one another. He had to admit, he liked Sango when she was drunk. She was feisty
“Okay, well, here’s your man.” he said then, signing his death warrant as he handed the phone to Miroku, though he was in relatively good spirits about it.
Miroku awkwardly accepted the phone Inuyasha more or less tossed to him, almost as if he were afraid of touching it but also afraid of letting it fall, like it was a sensitive bomb that could go off at any moment. Knowing who was on the other end of the line, that type of analogy wasn’t necessarily far off, though the holy man was immediately relieved when as he hesitantly said “H-hey baby...” the first words out of Sango’s mouth were an excited “I got dirt on 'Gome and 'Yasha!”
His eyes lit up at that, and he glanced suspiciously back towards the hanyou for a moment before turning and focusing more of his attention on his fiancée, the index finger of his left hand in his left ear to block out some of the club music.
“Okay, you’ve got my attention.” Miroku stated then, the tone of his voice both curious and eager.
“Turns out they’ve been fucking each other since high school!” Sango boldly declared, and if Miroku’s hearing had been as good as Inuyasha’s he would have heard poor Kagome groaning in the background as the miko face palmed at Sango’s bluntness.
Inuyasha couldn’t hear Kagome from his position a little ways away from Miroku, but his ears were strong enough to pick up Sango’s words, and he was mentally face palming too although he managed to avoid actually, physically displacing the maneuver. He didn’t want Miroku to realize he was listening in. Fortunately, his human buddies had all distracted themselves pretty quickly upon returning to their private table with one of the wandering lap dancers, having called her over for some entertainment, and so while Miroku was busy on the phone the guys were helping themselves to the ladies, paying virtually no attention to either their houshi buddy or the hanyou. For that, Inuyasha was grateful. He needed to give the phone call his full attention in case he had to do damage control.
Now he was actually glad that he wasn’t drunk.
“What?!” Miroku asked disbelievingly, glancing back over his shoulder at Inuyasha again, who tried to look innocent as he shrugged with a 'what do you want me to say' expression. Even if he couldn’t hear Sango, the fact that he had previously been talking to her himself had Miroku fairly certain that Inuyasha knew what Sango was telling him.
“It’s true!” Sango continued in that moment, laughing almost to the point where she couldn’t talk. “They didn’t used to have feelings for each other, though...it’d just been about the sex, which is why they kept up like they hated each other, 'cause they really did. But that changed, and now they loooooovvvveeee each other.” Sango stressed, and Inuyasha could easily visualize the glare Kagome was probably giving her as Sango teased the miko about it, especially if the way Sango was now laughing was any indication. He had to admit, though, that for as drunk as Sango clearly was, she’d given a fairly accurate, albeit choppy account of what had happened. At least she hadn’t twisted anything and given Miroku false details.
“No way!” Miroku declared disbelievingly. “Did Kagome tell you this?”
“Yup!” Sango confirmed, which had Miroku turning to stare at Inuyasha again, this time with a look of disbelief mixed with amazement mixed with shock...and perhaps just the tiniest touch of hurt.
Ah crap... the hanyou thought.
“It’s true, Miroku.” he fessed up, before quickly adding, “But it’s a lot more complicated than that. Look...” he said with a sigh, rubbing at the back of his head a bit awkwardly, “...if you wanna just enjoy the rest of your night, since the club’s open two more hours, I’ll explain everything in detail tomorrow. All right?”
The way the monk’s eyes suddenly lit up instantly gave the hanyou pause.
“You’ll explain in detailed detail?” he asked, his eyes sparkling pervertedly, and Inuyasha just knew that the houshi wanted sexual details.
He sighed again.
Fuck it...whatever’ll have him forgiving me for the deception...
If it meant he had to let the monk visualize Kagome in a sexual way as he explained to him how, on that one fateful human night, he had just suddenly found himself drawn to her both emotionally and physically, wondering if her feisty spirit whenever they argued would translate into a feisty spirit in bed...which it had...then so be it.
“If it means you promise you won’t hate me, I’ll share with you however many 'details' you want.” Inuyasha promised, sticking out his hand for the monk to shake in agreement.
Switching the phone to his left hand he immediately reached out and shook Inuyasha’s right, stating, “You’ve got yourself a deal, my friend.”
“'Roku? Hello?” Sango asked into the phone, wondering what was going on.
“Baby, we’ve got our friends right where we want 'em, I think.” Miroku told his fiancée with a wicked edge to his voice that had Sango laughing again in agreement. “But I’m gonna let you go for now, babe, I’m being a bad host, and you need to enjoy your night with Kags and Rin. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“M’Kay, love you!” Sango stated, which was followed quickly by an “I love you too.” from Miroku, which was then surprisingly echoed by all the human men Inuyasha hadn’t thought had been paying attention as a chorus of drunken “Love you too!”s came from the guys that were laughing with the lap dancer, telling her how pussy whipped Miroku was.
Inuyasha merely shook his head, chuckling to himself again at the sight of the drunk humans having fun. Miroku quickly hung up the phone after that, and immediately went back over towards his human buddies, who all promptly forced the holy man to sit his butt back down in the chair and take center stage in yet another lap dance. So long as Miroku kept his hands to himself. Taking another sip of his Belvedere, Inuyasha resumed his role of babysitter.
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The next day, despite having a massive hangover, Miroku’s memories of the night before were all pretty much intact, especially where it counted most.
After stumbling home at half past four, Miroku had barely been able to make it to his bed, with Inuyasha’s assistance, but before the hanyou had made it out the doorway and towards his own room Miroku’s slurred voice assuring him “We’re gonna talk...” had drifted to his triangular ears. Inuyasha’s simple reply had been “Yup.” and he’d then proceeded to crash on his own bed.
Even though hanyou didn’t need as much sleep as humans, as a general rule of thumb, taking care of six drunken adult human males would be tiring work for anybody. At least the guys had all thought ahead, knowing they would be drunk, and so they had each arrived to the club by taxi. Kami forbid if Inuyasha had had to deal with juggling up to five extra cars; getting the correct driving directions for the taxi driver had been hectic enough as it was. Not trusting any of the guys to be sent off on their own as they had all pretty much been at 'falling down drunk' stage by the time last call came around, Inuyasha had phoned for a mini-van taxi that could seat seven passengers, and having managed to coerce each man into giving him their IDs, to make sure he had the correct addresses, he’d then mapped out the best course for the driver to take to drop off each man at his place of residence. Though 'drop off' wasn’t really accurate; this wasn’t high school and he wasn’t going to just prop them up against the front door, ring the bell and run. So one by one, leaving the taxi driver in charge of the rest – he’d made sure to tip him extra for the trouble – Inuyasha had escorted Miroku’s friends to their front doors, at least making sure they could unlock the door and get inside. Some of them lived alone, some of them did not, so if another person had appeared he’d immediately handed over responsibility and bolted, otherwise he’d figured their living room couches looked comfortable enough for one night. He couldn’t dillydally with the taxi outside waiting for him, and so locking the bottom lock on the doorknob behind him on his way out he’d figured they’d be just fine for the night. Nobody had actually drank enough to be at risk of alcohol poisoning, though he did position the extra drunk ones that lived alone on their sides instead of their backs, just in case they threw up.
With all five of Miroku’s buddies back home safe and sound Inuyasha had then had the taxi driver take them back to the strip club, and then maneuvering Miroku into his car Inuyasha had driven his friend home and repeated the routine for a sixth and final time, that time helping the guy all the way to his bed, though he’d drawn the line at undressing him beyond taking off his shoes.
Now, watching Miroku slowly shuffle out into the living room at half past noon, still dressed in the same clothes from the night before with his hair way past 'bed head' and looking more like 'helmet hair' Inuyasha bit back a snicker that the houshi still seemed to sense, or his sensitivity to sound had really made his hearing that much better for the time being, as he glared at the hanyou for his obvious amusement of the situation before making his way into the kitchen and towards the coffee pot.
“Ugh...” the monk groaned like a classic TV zombie searching for brains, reaching for the fresh pot of coffee like it was salvation itself.
Coming into the kitchen to observe his miserable friend, Inuyasha had to be grateful for the fact that not being able to get crazy drunk also meant he couldn’t get crazy hungover. Even if he got completely wasted on his human night, turning hanyou again at the crack of dawn would cure him of whatever hangover there might have been. He’d experienced that the one time he’d gotten plastered at home with Miroku; he still remembered how the houshi had whined about it not being fair that Inuyasha’s youkai blood benefited him in such a way.
Shrugging it off, Inuyasha wasn’t going to dwell on things he couldn’t change, especially concerning his own physiology, as he focused his mind back into the here and now.
“If you wanna hold off on our little chat until you’re feeling better...” Inuyasha started to say, more genuinely concerned for his friend’s comfort than he was trying to wriggle out of the awkwardness that would be having such a discussion with the man, though his concerns quickly proved ungrounded as before he could even finish Miroku chimed in with...
“Absolutely not...you’ve been holding out on me and I wanna hear all the details.”
The suddenly rather delightful look in his bloodshot eyes caught Inuyasha off guard, but then he figured hey, if listening to his tale would help get the monk’s mind off of feeling like shit, then what were friends for, right? So with that last thought in mind, Inuyasha immediately launched into his story, albeit while keeping his voice down so as not to aggravate his roommate’s headache, as the two of them made their way back into the living room and onto the couch.
Unlike explaining it all to Rin and Sesshoumaru, there were a few things he could just breeze past as he started the tale over again this time, since Miroku already knew how he and Kagome had met, and about how he and Kagome had initially hated each other, though Inuyasha did tell his friend of how he’d first started to realize that he might have been wrong about Kagome back when he had gone over to her house for the first time to work on a project together. He then reminded Miroku of the time Kagome had gone over to his house instead, the monk having already known when his hanyou friend’s human night was and having already known that Kagome had guessed it, and had gone over to his house instead of the other way around on that night for that reason. What Miroku hadn’t already known, of course, was how the two of them had ended up having sex on that night. Back in high school, when the monk had asked Inuyasha how it’d been having Kagome over during his human night he’d shrugged it off, saying it was no big deal that she knew since she was a miko and already knew all about hanyou turning human anyway, and that the bitch hadn’t really been any more or less of a bitch because of it. It was what it was, and Inuyasha had gotten Miroku to change the subject easily enough by stating simply that he didn’t want to think about the bitch, that it was bad enough having to work with her for an hour a day and that during his 'Kagome free' time he wanted it to stay 'Kagome free' time; Miroku had quickly let the subject drop.
Inuyasha confessed now, in his retelling, of how he and Kagome had actually slept together that night, and unlike when he and the miko had told that part of the story to Sesshoumaru and Rin using the vaguest of passing comments, Miroku didn’t let Inuyasha move forward from there in his story telling until after he described for the holy main, in great detail, just how his intimate first time with Kagome had gone down. His cheeks were about as red as Miroku’s nose had been the night before by the time he was done describing his first sexual encounter with the miko, mostly because he’d been a pansy ass human at the time and so the sex had been a lot less...intense...than how he usually liked it, but Miroku quickly put his friend to ease with the confession that, as a human man himself, he fully understood the concept of it sometimes being more about the emotion of the moment than the sheer raw, physical pleasure of the carnal act.
Inuyasha of course immediately delighted the houshi as he got back to his story with the tale of how he and Kagome had fucked behind the bleachers the very next day after school, and how they had continued to fuck several times a week in secret ever since then. He explained how, momentarily, their emotions really had softened up towards one another, but that it hadn’t really taken too long for them to remember why they’d hated each other in the first place, as stupid little shit they each said or did quickly got on each other’s nerves, and then they’d been right back to hating each other for real, except they’d been more or less addicted to the sex by that point and had continued to bang each other without regret, with the mutual understanding that there was no love there and that it was only about getting off.
Shaking his head in amusement, Miroku playfully lamented that he was apparently not as much of a hentai as he had always prided himself on being, if he had honestly been so blind to such a thing happening right in front of him, for years.
Inuyasha finished explaining then about how he had come to fall for Kagome over the years, but that he’d damn well kept it to himself for fear of scaring her away. He explained that he’d loved her enough to have her in any capacity, and that the man in him had been enjoying the sex far too much to want to give it up over something as trivial as morals. So what if she thought he was just using her for the sex? He really hadn’t been, and so his conscious was clear in that regard. And so what if she was just using him for sex herself? He loved her and therefore she was free to have her way with him; he’d been more than happy to be her sexual plaything. Turned out, of course, that she’d felt pretty much exactly the same way, as Inuyasha explained to Miroku about the night Rin had called and caused Kagome to blow her cover as her human emotions got the better of her and she suddenly lost her ability to conceal them from his heightened senses. Concealing feelings of love, or more accurately, masking them as feelings of lust and purely physical desire, that wasn’t anywhere near as difficult to do as to conceal feelings of hurt, betrayal and jealousy, to pretend she wasn’t upset when she had been. The jig had been up almost immediately, and then he’d done the only decent thing there had been to do, come clean himself about his own feelings.
Much like he was coming clean again, in that moment, to his best friend.
“Under the circumstances, I can’t rightfully say I blame you, for wanting to keep what you’d had going.” Miroku muttered, his voice horse though his bloodshot eyes were sparkling with perverted amusement. Inuyasha had kept up his end of the bargain, recounting many a sexual encounter with the lovely miko, and so Miroku, being a man of his word, had no intention of breaking his promise. “I forgive you, of course.” he told Inuyasha then, who visibly relaxed. “I’m happy for you both.” Miroku added, and he honestly meant it. Hey, he wasn’t going to complain when the hanyou and miko’s need for a 'master plan' had been what’d sent him and Sango off on that fabulous cruise!
With that daunting task taken care of, Inuyasha let Miroku stagger into the shower and attempt to wash the residue of his party off of himself as the hanyou made a reach for his phone and called up his girl.
“Hello?” Kagome croaked on the third ring, which had Inuyasha laughing.
She too hadn’t gotten home until a little past four, the three of them having stayed out until last call. They’d had their limo driver drop all three of them off at Kagome and Sango’s apartment, Rin not wanting to disturb little Ichirou’s rest by coming home at such a crazy hour, and so she’d crashed on the pair’s couch for the night. Sesshoumaru had known in advance that Rin would be staying the night with Sango and Rin of course, and she had sent him an e-mail from her cell to let him know they’d made it to the apartment all right, the daiyoukai staying up and awaiting the message that would arrive silently on his end so as not to wake the baby. He and Ichirou had arrived at Kagome and Sango’s apartment at one to pick up Rin, so Kagome was already awake when Inuyasha called, though just barely.
“Good morning sunshine.” Inuyasha teased.
“Ughn...” Kagome groaned unrecognizably, though he got the impression that whatever she’d said translated as 'fuck you.'
“Love you too.” he replied, laughing.
Even though the miko felt like she’d gotten into a fist fight with a demolition wrecking ball, she still had enough of her wits about her to realize what it had to mean for Inuyasha to make such a statement, or for him to be calling her at all for that matter when she was certain Miroku was there with him.
“So I take it you filled in Sango’s gaps?” she asked.
Inuyasha laughed again. “That’s Miroku’s job.”
“Baka...” she grumbled, too tired and woozy to really get into it. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah...and yes, he knows, and it’s all good.”
“Good.”
“What about Sango?” he asked then. “She remembers, right?”
“We didn’t get that drunk.” Kagome protested. He laughed again. “Yeah, we talked more when we got up, everything’s cool.” she elaborated then.
“Cool. I’ll let you go then, since you sound half dead. Call me later.”
“Okay, love you, bye.” and with that she hung up.
Inuyasha had to smile at the casual way she’d tossed in the L word. Things really were different now, and for that he was grateful, relieved, overjoyed, and whatever other adjective you wanted to throw in there.
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With the cloud of their deception no longer hanging over their heads all four friends quickly became much closer, and with Rin and Sesshoumaru tagging along the six of them had a few dinners out with Kagome and Inuyasha openly acting like the happy couple they were, without it having to be an act, or worse, having to act like they didn’t want to be there.
Once the truth was out in the open among their friends the time had also come to tell their parents, which was a much easier affair since Kagome’s family had never really known much of anything to begin with. There was no reason why Kagome’s mother, brother and grandfather needed to know the whole story now, because there were no lies that she had to come clean about, no deceptions that she had to apologize for. So okay, she’d deliberately kept them in the dark about what was going on, but she’d never come out and lied about anything, because fortunately, they’d never asked. And not only had she not kept up the act of hating Inuyasha to her family over the years, but she had never actually confessed to having hated him in the first place, even back when she actually did, because it just wasn’t in her to talk smack about other people behind their backs, at least to her family. Gossip playfully among friends, sure, plot elaborate mind games, no problem, but straight up bitch to her mother about a guy she hated solely for the sake of bitching about him? She had vented with Sango back in high school whenever necessary, to make sure it was all out of her system by the time she got home, and for that she was grateful because now, her mother didn’t know she’d ever hated the boy to begin with, thinking them only casual friends and nothing more, and that made everything so much easier now.
Of course, back when her and Inuyasha’s secret little affair had first begun there was no way she was going to share that bit of info with mommy dearest, but fortunately the elder Higurashi woman had always respected her daughter’s privacy, and had never really pried into her personal life all that much. An honest “I don’t really want to talk about it.” would earn a response of “Well I’m here to listen if you change your mind.” without any further pushing. After all, Kagome had been eighteen by the time she and Inuyasha had gotten together, and therefore she had been an adult and able and allowed to do whatever she wanted without her mother having the right to demand to know about it to give her permission or not. Knowing this, Mrs. Higurashi had respected her daughter as the adult that she was, keeping an eye on her in her own little motherly way of course to make sure the miko didn’t seem to be getting into any sort of trouble, like drugs or bad boys, but since everything in that regard had seemed just fine she had otherwise trusted Kagome to know what she was doing.
Kagome was grateful for her mother’s quiet understanding, because she had never felt comfortable lying to her mother, even about stupid shit as a child. She could never pretend she hadn’t done something wrong if she had, confessing to the deed at her mother’s disappointed look. The worst lie she’d ever told her mother was actually that time on the phone during the night of the new moon, when she’d pretended that her chemistry experiment with Inuyasha was running late as the excuse for why she was staying the night. So she was thankful her mother had never inquired about her private life all that much while she’d still been living at home, and had accepted a vague “I’m fine. Everything’s good.” as an answer to her occasional inquiries of just wanting to know if Kagome was happy in her life and if there were any troubles she had been keeping to herself. Kagome believed her mother had probably just assumed she wasn’t seeing anyone because of her bad breakup with Kouga, putting romance on hold to concentrate on her schooling. She had also answered her brother honestly, when Souta had actually asked her once if she had a boyfriend, stating with conviction that she did not, which had been completely true because Inuyasha had most certainly not been her boyfriend at the time. Fortunately the child had asked specifically that, if she had a boyfriend, rather than if she was sleeping with anybody, because in his mind the two were probably synonymous, and she had the perfect excuse for not discussing things like 'friends with benefits' with her younger brother, because he had been too young for that sort of discussion back then, and so therefore it’d been an acceptable type of deception, the type that all adults engaged in when it came to explaining anything sexual to underage children. At that time she’d had no way of knowing that she and Inuyasha would still be together years later, she’d thought it was only a casual fling for sex that could cease at any moment, and so therefore no, she did not have a boyfriend. If Souta had relayed it to the rest of the family that Kagome had declared she had no boyfriend, and they took from that to mean that she wasn’t actively sleeping with anybody at all, well then that wasn’t really the miko’s responsibility, now was it? Letting them think whatever they wanted based on the conclusions they had drawn on their own was not the same thing as her specifically telling them lies.
Kagome still didn’t feel comfortable directly lying to her mother.
After graduation, when the miko had moved out to start living with Sango, whenever Mrs. Higurashi would inquire in passing in her little motherly way if Kagome was seeing anyone in particular, the miko would blush and hint that perhaps there was someone in her life, sort of, but that it was nothing serious yet and certainly not at that 'meet the parents' stage. Her mother wasn’t a gossip and she’d known that no such admission would ever make its way back to Sango. Now, since Mrs. Higurashi had never known that Kagome had ever hated Inuyasha with such a passion, there was therefore no reason for her to have to explain how she’d since come to like him instead, or explain when and how that transition had happened. An unspoken truth was not a lie, and Kagome had never felt more grateful for generally being a somewhat private person, not because she’d felt embarrassed to discuss her sexuality with her mother...well okay yes, for that reason, but it had all worked out in the end.
Mrs. Higurashi remembered Inuyasha well, him having been her daughter’s chemistry partner senior year, and she smirked in her subtle, motherly way when Kagome finally brought him home with her for that dinner, as Kagome declared they were finally now at the 'meet the parents' stage of their relationship. Kagome explained only that they had kind of casually been dating and hadn’t really been an official couple for very long, which was totally true. Let her grandfather think that 'casually dating' equated to 'courting' from back in the day and that she and Inuyasha had never had sex in all that time; no skin off her nose. The senior Higurashi eyed Inuyasha up and down, though if he thought anything negative about the fact that the man was half youkai he kept it to himself, finally nodding silently before sitting down to eat his dinner, which equated to him giving the couple his blessing.
Mrs. Higurashi, of course, was thrilled to learn who Kagome’s special someone actually was. She had sensed a connection between those two even back in high school, and she hadn’t been quite as fooled as Kagome had thought when she’d phoned with that lame excuse for why she was staying the night at Inuyasha’s house that one night way back when. She had thought, though, that Inuyasha had just been a casual high school fling, a rebound of sorts, because of her daughter’s bad breakup with Kouga. Knowing her daughter had been old enough to make her own decisions in that regard she hadn’t pried, already having had the 'be careful' discussion with the teen years prior. Mrs. Higurashi had not known that Inuyasha was still the 'someone special' in her daughter’s life these few years later, though she was glad to learn that he was, having liked the boy from the moment she’d met him. The way Kagome told it, they’d all stayed casual friends, since Sango and Miroku were still an item, and now after unofficially seeing each other for a while in a more casual setting, she and Inuyasha had decided to make it official and become true boyfriend and girlfriend. Though highly edited, nothing they told them was technically a lie. They just breezed over whatever details would require them to tell an untruth, like Souta asking them how long they’d been seeing each other, as Kagome blushed and answered with “A while.” but gave no more details than that.
Mrs. Higurashi smirked at her daughter and the hanyou’s shared uncomfortableness. Whatever they didn’t want to share about the details of their relationship, that was all right with her. She was just glad to know that regardless of how long they’d been 'casually' seeing each other, they were now officially together, with no plains to cease being together any time soon. She could see it in their eyes whenever the two glanced each other’s way; they were totally in love. She hoped her grandchildren would have those adorable doggie ears.
With one awkward dinner over and done with it was time to speak with Inuyasha’s father next, which was more awkward and less awkward all at the same time, because Toga Taisho already knew that Inuyasha had been sleeping with Kagome back in high school, even though the hanyou had never directly shared anything of his private life with his father, and especially not after moving out to live with Miroku. There was just no hiding something like sex from the daiyoukai’s nose, though, and Kagome had already known that, remembering well that awkward morning when she’d been leaving their house just as he’d been coming home from work. Inuyasha had had to explain that one to his father, a little bit, though only because the daiyoukai had also known that Inuyasha had disliked Kagome, at least according to the hanyou. He’d known his son didn’t like the miko because he’d been pissing and moaning about having to go over to her house for that first chemistry experiment they’d done together, until Toga had told him to suck it up and be a man. So when it came to the experiment they would be doing at his house, instead of hers, Inuyasha had told his father in advance as soon as he’d gotten home from school that Kagome would be coming over that night, the night of the new moon, and while the daiyoukai had been mildly surprised to learn that his son had been willing to be in the company of others during such a moment of vulnerability, he had also respected his son for it, knowing that it had simply meant that his grades were more important to him than his petty insecurities. Of course, the next morning, the smell of sex had been impossible to miss, and Inuyasha had sheepishly had to confess that his human emotions had gotten the better of him, though he hadn’t really explained it much beyond that, except for stating in passing that Kagome wasn’t as bad a person as he’d first thought she was.
Inuyasha was eighteen and could do whatever he wanted, had been Toga’s view on the matter, concerned only about his son getting that girl into a family way if they weren’t serious, and so once Inuyasha had assured his father that Kagome was on the pill, and that he hadn’t taken advantage of her but that they were both just willingly messing around for the time being, he’d never brought it up again whenever his son would occasionally come home smelling of the miko. Secretly, he had been mildly hopeful as the rest of the school year went by, and even after graduation, and his son had continued to smell of the same girl. It wasn’t that he didn’t approve of the notion of having a casual fling, per se, but he’d known how crushed Inuyasha had been after that bitch Kikyou had stomped on his heart, and so if this rebound chick could perhaps turn into something more for his son, then he was all for it. He had never asked Inuyasha about it, though, after he’d moved out, and casual conversations with Sesshoumaru had tipped Toga off to the fact that his eldest son knew nothing of the miko whatsoever, which had been mildly discouraging, to say the least. Not willing to pry, he’d had no idea if Inuyasha and the miko had stopped seeing each other, or really what was going on. So now, learning that the two of them had in fact stayed together all this time, and were now officially together, he was absolutely thrilled at the news.
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With telling their parents over and done with, Kagome and Inuyasha concentrated fully on Sango and Miroku’s upcoming wedding, which would be upon them before they knew it. The ceremony would be bigger than Rin and Sesshoumaru’s wedding, though really not by that much. Both of their families were coming, of course, plus Sango had invited a few of her long-term clients from her family’s dojo while Miroku invited his work buddies. Kagome and Inuyasha were bringing their whole families with them, obviously, since they were actually in the wedding, which of course included Sesshoumaru and Rin though Sango and Miroku knew to watch what they said in front of Kagome’s mother and Inuyasha’s father. They’d been briefed on the 'vague' version of events as all extended family members knew them.
When the big moment finally came, the ceremony went off without a hitch, including Inuyasha singing Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” for Sango and Miroku’s first dance afterwards, which Kagome found highly amusing though she made sure not to laugh out loud and ruin the moment. Those two just looked so sweet out on the dance floor! Once the 'first song' was over Inuyasha put in his mix CD of other songs he’d put together with Sango and Miroku’s feedback, and then he and Kagome got to twirl on the dance floor as well, and she had to admit, he cleaned up rather nicely.
He thought the same thing about her, of course, never having seen Kagome in any type of a gown until their friends’ wedding. Although he’d since found out from the miko that Sango had managed to talk her into going to their senior prom, even though she’d been dateless, at the time Inuyasha had decided not to go, mainly because he’d known that he couldn’t ask her to dance, and he hadn’t wanted to risk getting jealous if he saw Kagome dancing with some other guy instead. It’d been a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation, and so he’d thought the best decision for everyone would be for him to just sit it out, and that way he could pretend that Kagome hadn’t momentarily belonged to another. Fortunately, she’d since told him that she actually hadn’t danced with anyone at senior prom, no one at all; she hadn’t wanted to. Her ex-boyfriend Kouga had already hooked up with an ookami-youkai named Ayame by that point and so he had never once been an issue; he wouldn’t have dared approach her anyway after the way Kagome had reamed him one to get him to comprehend their initial breakup. The only guy who had actually asked her to dance, some human dweeb named Hojo, had so not been her type and so she’d politely turned him down. Initially, Kagome had thought that she’d had it up to here with canine youkai, but now she knew that that was actually the type of person that she was meant to be with, which explained her initial attraction to Kouga until she’d realized that wolves weren’t for her, because they were different from dogs. Inuyasha was possessive, sure, but he also trusted Kagome, and he didn’t try to tell her what to do on a daily basis. A canine way of looking at it could be to say that inu were somewhat domesticated whereas wolves were not; wolves were wild and couldn’t always be trusted to not bite the hand that fed them. Inuyasha most definitely had a wild side, but only when he knew he had her permission for that side of him to come out and play.
Speaking of, with their living arrangements immediately switching around as Sango moved in with Miroku and Inuyasha moved in with Kagome – they could have done it the other way around but they’d let the married couple have the larger of their two apartments – it didn’t take long for hanyou and miko to come up with a whole slew of new activities to make sure that their love life never even had time to contemplate getting anywhere near the boring side of the spectrum. He was just as fierce with her in bed as ever, and she still had to make sure to buy plenty of replacements for her various shirts and blouses. Inuyasha even bought her a thick collar to wear during sex, made out of dragon hide, that his fangs couldn’t penetrate, not 'just in case' because he would never lose control like that, but because he wanted to be able to bite her neck. Kagome didn’t mind. In fact, wearing the collar at unexpected moments quickly became her favorite form of foreplay, if it was just a normal day, because they didn’t have sex all the time, and so she’d come wandering out into the living room under the pretense of dusting but he’d quickly notice that she was wearing the collar along with whatever normal, boring outfit she had on, and then that normal, boring outfit would soon be nothing but a pile of rags on the floor. That wasn’t to say she always liked it rough, but he tried his best to go easy on her whenever she was in a gentler mood, and they always made sure to make love on his human nights. They could accurately use that term to describe the activity at least once a month. Sometimes it was the other way around, though, and Kagome wanted it even rougher than his youkai side would permit, at least when it came to her being the dominant one, but that was what her S&M bonds that she’d charged up with her miko powers were for. They didn’t hurt him, they just immobilized him, which was absolute torture...though he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy every minute of it. She’d actually gotten him to go full youkai on her a couple of times, though he still hadn’t been able to break free of his restraints, which gave her a naughty idea when it came to the future prospect of raising a family.
There was never really a moment when Inuyasha proposed, in so many words, since he and Kagome had openly discussed their plans for the future, including marriage and children, after they’d initially admitted their feelings of love to one another, but it became official when Sango, just teasingly, had asked the pair when their own wedding was going to be and the answer, instead of blushing and stuttering, had been the honest admittance that they hadn’t really discussed a specific date yet. That was rectified quickly enough, with Sango and Miroku’s help, and the next thing Kagome knew she had a diamond ring on her finger and Rin was giving her pointers about inu-hanyou babies.
Their bachelor and bachelorette parties were planned by Miroku and Sango respectively to take place during a new moon weekend night, with more than one method to the couple’s madness. Yes, Miroku wanted to switch places and get Inuyasha plastered at the strip club, and he would be a good boy and stay sober, too, to pay his friend back for having previously taken care of him, but besides that they also knew that they wouldn’t have to worry about Inuyasha’s possessive instincts kicking in if his hanyou self tried to let Kagome go have fun without being jealous. Sango switched things up, too, not doing a repeat of club night as she managed to put her own modesty on hold and instead take Kagome to a male strip club. At first Sesshoumaru didn’t want to let Rin attend though he eventually relented when she promised to stay sober and keep her hands to herself. It was Kagome’s night, and since Inuyasha was okay with it – it would be too hypocritical of him to say no – then Sesshoumaru ultimately decided it was none of his business what his brother’s wench did or didn’t do.
Of course, hanyou and miko survived their relationship trials unscathed. At the time, knowing at that precise moment in time that Kagome was sticking dollars in some guy’s g-string didn’t bother Inuyasha because his canine instincts were turned off and hey, he was sticking dollars in a topless girl’s g-string, so who was he to judge? He’d been right, of course; getting drunk at a strip club was way more fun than getting drunk at home. He had been a good boy where it counted, though, even managing to keep his hands off the titties despite it being permitted by the club’s policy though he did grab one lap dancer’s hips once...but to stop her as she’d been rocking against his crotch a little too well. All in all he’d made it through the evening without betraying Kagome, and without staining his pants, so he looked at that as a win/win. The only thing Kagome was mad at Inuyasha for the next morning was the fact that he felt fine thanks to the rejuvenating powers of his youkai blood while she had to suffer through a massive hangover, but he made it up to her by waiting on her hand and food and serving her breakfast in bed, as soon as she felt like she could keep the meal down.
When it was time for their wedding it seemed like a dream come true to the pair, who almost had to pinch themselves to make sure they weren’t really dreaming, but it was real, and once it was over and they were officially husband and wife, not even the apocalypse could have wiped the smiles off both of their faces. Going back home to the apartment they both shared, it suddenly felt like home for the first time; they were home, although they had plans in the works to get an actual house because that place was much too small to raise a family. Although there was no immediate hurry to start making babies, because they were both certainly enjoying the practice.
“Fucking bitch...” Inuyasha grumbled huskily as he rammed his cock in and out of her tight pussy on their wedding night. “I love you so fucking much.”
With her breasts bouncing in time with his thrusts, Kagome met her husband’s molten gaze with her own playful one, and commanded, “Fuck me like you hate me.”

~ Okay now that’s The End ~

*wink*
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