Author's Note: I incorporated the lyrics of Pam Tillis' song, "Spilled Perfume" into the text rather than seperating it. I also molded it to my schemes, so it is just a touch off. thought I'd try something new. Idea's mine, but nothing else. Joy for redundancy!
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The music of a thousand stringed instruments trilled over the crowd, weaving in and out of the moonlight. There had never been a party of this size for centuries in this section of the continent. Confetti and thousands of colored lights bouncing of a hundred disco balls hung from balconies and the centers of pavilion tents kept the dancing strong hour after hour. With any luck, this party would not end until well after the sun came up. People simply kept arriving.
Inuyasha and Miroku waited in the living room of Kagome's apartment while she finished beautifying Sango. The place was all but bare, because Kagome was never here. But she had managed to talk the others into coming with her to the modern New Year's Celebration in Tokyo. Shippou was safely ensconced on Kagome's bed, fast asleep curled next to Kilala. He'd be that was for several hours yet.
"Are you two finished yet?" Inuyasha bellowed, impatient as ever.
He was a little miffed that Kagome had made him dress modern for this celebration. She'd given him a fishnet shirt, a pair of black baggy jeans that jingled every time he moved do to the many chains (and kinky mini handcuffs) attached to them, a spiked black leather collar, and combat boots. Miroku had not been overlooked in her ministrations. She had dressed him in a bright green muscle shirt, tight emo jeans, and heeled manboots. She had told them both they looked "hot," a term which she assured Miroku meant that he would be getting a lot of women this evening.
"There's no need to shout, Inuyasha, we're right here." Kagome replied from the top of the stairs. Inuyasha had to work to keep his jaw from dropping and his violent protests in check. Kagome was dressed in red leather and gauze. The bodice of her outfit hugged the curve of her breasts hard, accentuating their fullness. It was decorated with silver spikes. The skirt was distressingly short, also leather. There were red gauze strips pinned throughout her hair, making the oily blue sheen flash in the fluorescent lights. More of the strips were attached to the underarms of the bodice, attached to silver rings wrapped around both her middle fingers. The stiletto- heeled boots she wore were of the same leather and rose to her just above her knees, where red fishnet leggings criss-crossed the rest of the way up to disappear into the dangerously short skirt.
"Kagome, you can't possibly-"
"May I present Miss Sango," Kagome said proudly, descending the stairs and silencing Inuyasha with a steely look.
It took a moment for Sango to appear at the top of the stairs, as she was debating whether or not to even leave Kagome's bedroom. Sango was wearing a pale yellow party dress. There were small, gauzy ruffles around the hem that reached to a modest distance below her forbidden triangle. The shoes she wore were strappy and not too flashy, a color to complement the dress. Kagome had put her hair up in a double dome, each half twisted into a knob on either side of her head with a small tail hanging at the end of both. A touch of rouge to her lips and cheeks completed the look. She descended the stairs slowly, wobbling only a little in the heels. She stopped before Miroku's form and reached out pale-yellow-painted fingers to gently shut his mouth.
"Shall we go?"
The music beat and pulsed around the four as they swayed and rubbed and ground and bobbed to the new beat. The orchestra had joined the party as the DJ showed up. Kagome had been floated through many circles of other dancers, only to have Inuyasha grab her and pull her to him each time. Finally, as everything reached a peak, Inuyasha couldn't take the stares and caresses of the other males, and pinned Kagome against a wall, unseen, where his clawed fingers found their way up her practically-non-existent skirt. Miroku and Sango didn't see much of them the rest of the night. Miroku did dance with Sango for quite a while. Disaster struck when Sango went in search of a drink- when she returned, it was just in time to see Miroku being pulled away by a skanky blonde.
"Will you bear my children?" He asked her, just loud enough for Sango to overhear.
"I'll do anything you like if you stick me," the blonde replied, latching onto his hand like a leech and pulling him away from the party to a darkened alley. Sango did not follow. She turned to the nearest available male and asked him to dance. She disappeared with him a little while later.
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Morning dawned all too early for the four. A couple hours ago, Sango had snuck back into Kagome's apartment, collapsing on the couch and pretending to be asleep. Miroku had not returned when Kagome awoke tangled around a naked Inuyasha. They had not lasted to her bedroom (not that it would have mattered since Shippou was on it)- they had coupled on the hallway floor outside her room. Disentangling herself carefully from the snoring hanyou, she slipped on an oversized T-shirt and covered Inuyasha with a spare blanket, placing his clothes nearby for when he awoke.
When she got down the stairs, she knew something was wrong with Sango. The slayer was curled into a ball on Kagome's couch, head pressed to the knees drawn up to her chest. Everything about her was rumpled and forlorn. Kagome knew instantly what had happened to her friend. Sango looked up as soon as Kagome alighted on the floor.
"I ain't even gonna ask you. I can read you like a book," Kagome said softly, coming to sit next to her friend.
"You've made the same mistake?" Sango asked disbelievingly.
"Girl, if I ever saw one that's an 'I can't believe I did that' look."
"And I can't," Sango moaned, burying her face back into her knees and releasing a dry sob.
"You look like something the cat drug in," Kagome commented lightly, pulling her friend up by the elbow and steering her to the kitchen, where Sango hopped onto the counter.
"Tell me, Sango. I won't kick you while you're down."
"Miroku waltzed off with some little bitch who said she'd bear his children, and I guess I wanted to retaliate for once. He knows how I feel about him… but the man I chose last night was amazing with his tongue…" Sango trailed off, half-appalled with her delight, half-disgusted with the choice she'd made.
"Let me tell you friend to friend about a block I've been around," Kagome said softly, making coffee at the same time.
"I often ran to Kouga because Inuyasha ran to Kikyou. I wanted everything to last. Did you really think last night would last forever?"
"I wanted to pretend," Sango whispered, "I just…"
"Did you really think that guy hung the moon?" Kagome countered.
Sango couldn't answer, scrunching herself as small as she could on the counter, holding her middle as though she were going to be sick. Kagome rubbed her back and continued to speak, sympathizing and consoling while she waited for the coffee to be finished.
"Right now you hate yourself 'cause you knew better. Right?"
Sango groaned and nodded, tears slipping from her cheeks and splashing on the hardwood floor of Kagome's kitchen.
"There's a lot I think you wish you could take back. But there's no use crying over spilled perfume."
The coffee maker beeped, and Kagome poured Sango a cup and pulled her up to press it into her friend's hands.
"He's just always running off," Sango said helplessly after a few moments when both girls sipped their coffee in silence. "I wish he would notice just how much it would mean to me to spend one night in bed. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm jealous of the girls he takes to his bed."
"There's a big difference between lonely and lonely for way too long," Kagome said wisely. "Did it happen to you like it does with me and Kouga? When he made his move, you weren't feeling all that strong?"
Sango nodded in response, remembering for a moment, "It felt like heaven when he asked me back to his place. I could pretend he was Miroku for a little while. That lecherous monk…" She trailed off a moment, then continued, "he breaks my heart."
"You danced so close to Miroku for so long, and then he goes off. It's two steps forward and three steps back when a heart is on the mend."
"I just wanted him to be Miroku. I wanted last night to mean so much."
"Did you really think last night would last forever?"
"No," Sango whispered.
"Did you really think he hung the moon?"
"No."
"Right now you hate yourself 'cause you knew better, but Sango, there's no use crying over spilled perfume." Sango nodded at Kagome's advice.
"I hate this," Sango swore vehemently. Kagome chided her gently.
"You fell in a moment of weakness. Well, you just gotta pull yourself back up. Dry your morning-after tears, 'cause what's done is done. Last night couldn't last forever. That guy didn't hang the moon. Stop hating yourself, sister, because there's no use crying over spilled perfume."
Sango nodded, finished her sup of coffee, and hugged Kagome.
"Thank you, Kagome. I think I'll tell Miroku how I feel about this."
"A wise choice, Sango. You should probably go take a shower. I can hear Inuyasha waking up."
Sango winked at the woman she had come to think of as a sister and walked to the bathroom. Miroku was going to get a talking-to about this.