Tonight

by Onyx-dreams

Disclaimer: I do not own Enrique Iglesias's song Tonight nor do I own InuYasha. Kthnx.

Kagome sat and sighed, fiddling with the cheap little blue plastic sword that came skewered through the olive in her mixed drink. She thought the day they had defeated Naraku would not be the last of her time in the Feudal Era. She thought that she would be able to keep going back, able to raise her adopted son Shippo, able to age with her dear friends Miroku and Sango, able to watch as the now human InuYasha lived with his love Kikyo. But her wish had cost her dearly...

But she wouldn't take back that wish for the world. The last glimpse she had before she had been forced forward again in time, the love she saw between InuYasha and the now revived and fully alive Kikyo, and the grateful astonishment as they looked toward her as she completed her wish...it was worth it. Things that had gone horribly wrong had been fixed. Every wrong Naraku had committed had been put aright. There were things however, to her surprise, that hadn't been fixed.

Things that had nothing to do with Naraku and would have happened on their own anyways. Such as Sesshoumaru. He had grown much as an individual, though he would just say he'd grown soft. After the attempt on Rin's life by Naraku, something had drastically changed in him. He ended up joining InuYasha's traveling group when he wasn't busy back at his palace. And the fact that he left Rin with the group was a huge sign of trust to his younger brother. But that didn't bring back the arm he had lost to his half-brother. He still would have lost it in his arrogance and pride. Wishing all of Naraku's wrongs away would not fix the mistake he made in being greedy.

He had assured a distraught Kagome that it would grow back in time. A long time, but it in time nonetheless. However, there were people she didn't get to see before she got ripped back to her own time...people who she wondered how they were doing, how they were affected by her wish. Like Kouga...Ayame...Ginta...Kaede... So many people she didn't get to say goodbye to.

So here she was, back in her time...it had been 4 years since Naraku's demise to her. She was turning 21 today. In the time since she'd been back, she'd gone back to school. She had studied hard as she was very behind. She had come out with top grades much to every one's surprise and her family's pride. She was currently going to a decent university, studying archeology and history. Her insights from the past often surprised her professors.

But again, back to the here and now. Her friends had dragged her to a club that had just opened. As in, this was opening night. It was supposedly owned by some rich mogul who had decided he didn't like the other numerous clubs in the area and opted to open his own. How stuck up, ne? She loved her friends dearly, but clubbing was never something she had been into. But as always, her friends were determined to see her having a good time and to see that she got a boyfriend in the process. Their constant match making should be annoying after all this time, but Kagome just thought it was endearing. After her miraculous 'recovery' Kagome had made it very clear to Hojo that she did not have the time nor the energy to date anyone. Which was true. She had all of her schooling to make up. But she was almost done with university, and she was also turning 21. So her friends wanted her to meet someone. For the whole day leading up to coming here, Kagome had just become one animated Barbie doll to her friends, trying clothes on, make-up, shoes, jewelry.

Again, very endearing. Kagome glanced up from her drink as Ayumi walked up and placed a new drink next to her. "Kagome-chan, a very nice man wanted me to give you this and also asked me to tell you if...and he said I had to say this very precisely...'If you would be his woman?' Seems rather forward and rude, but he is quite handsome."

Kagome scrunched her nose in thought, trying to remember why those words sounded so irritatingly familiar. "What did he look like?"

Ayumi leaned forward and twirled Kagome around on her swivel stool at the bar until she was facing a wall on the other side of the bar, then pointed. "He's over there. He has black hair that has been pulled up into a pony-tail and has blue eyes. The suit he's wearing looks really expensive too."

Kagome immediately saw who Ayumi was pointing at and froze for a second. No way... Before her friend could say anything else, Kagome was gone, running toward the man who was now smiling at her, with tears running down her face.

He held his arms out as Kagome wordlessly threw herself into his arms, sobs wracking her body. The man in question, slowly closed his arms around her form and hugged her gently, not saying a word as he fought down his own tears.

"We thought you were dead Kagome...we thought the Shikon-no-tama had destroyed you in order to give Kikyo her life back. But you're here...you're alive...how hard it was to watch you in this time as the time we knew you would disappear grew closer. None of us could stay near, we all left Japan thinking you would disappear here too. How wrong we were..."

'Here's the situation:

Been to every nation...'

Kagome gave a laugh that was choked up with sobs. "I've been here for 4 years...thinking that demons were dead here, that something happened to you all...I know InuYasha, Kikyou, Kaede, Sango and Miroku would have died because they are human...but you...Shippo...Sesshoumaru..."

"They're all still alive. Sesshoumaru was especially broken up about the idea of you dying to the Shikon after he discovered your lineage. He couldn't believe it and had become overly obsessive about not allowing demons of any kind near your shrine." Kouga pushed Kagome gently away from him and wiped the tears from her face with a thumb. "But you're alive...that is all that matters."

Kagome smiled, her sobs fading away. "Sesshoumaru caring about mortals besides Rin? That is hard to believe. You have got to be lying."

"I'm not. And it's because of Rin, that he was obsessed with maintaining your safety. You're Rin's descendant. He felt obliged to ensure her line's safety. Those large anonymous donations of money the shrine gets every year? Sesshoumaru and the rest of us pooling money up."

Kouga sat and stared quietly for a moment at Kagome, the loud noises of the club and the flashing lights seeming to not exist for him as he looked down at her. "I know this is going to sound wrong...but you leaving ended up giving me some of the happiest years of my life..."

Kagome smiled knowingly. "Ayame. She was smitten with you for so long. I hated that you paid her no attention. How is she?"

The look of loss that crossed Kouga's face startled Kagome. "No...oh no...I'm so sorry Kouga." She pulled him into a close hug again, tears forming again in her eyes. "If it's not too painful...may I ask how?"

Kouga blinked away his tears and coughed a bit so his throat would clear up. "It will continue to be painful for a very long time, but it's always good to share the memory of her. I loved her dearly. She died while pupping...while giving birth."

Kagome covered her mouth in shock, sorrow filling her soul for the man in front of her. "We lost all the pups and Ayame...she stubbornly refused to let the midwife cut the pups out, claiming that maybe they would live when she expired...but it only ended up claiming her life and the pups' lives. The thing I loved most about her ended up killing her. It was so long ago...but it still feels like it happened yesterday sometimes. Seeing you is refreshing and helps dull that pain a bit."

'Nobody's ever made me feel the way that you do...'

Kouga attempted to muster the cocky smile he used to wear whenever he claimed that Kagome was his woman. "So...how do you like my club?" He gestured to the dance floor and bar. "During the day and for most of the night it moonlights as a fine dining restaurant, but at eleven at night it converts to a club. And I'm hoping to keep it from becoming a trashy one. Any and all drugs will not be tolerated nor will any escapades in the bathrooms, unlike most of the clubs in this area. I like to party a bit still but I also enjoy the finer, more sedate things in life."

Kagome made a show of looking around and nodding her head in agreement before turning back to him. She drank in his form with her eyes, taking in every little detail to try and make up for the hundreds of years that she had missed. He had matured a lot, and not physically. He was already full grown when she first met him, but it was emotionally that he had grown up. Small worry lines and smile lines had cropped up around his mouth and eyes. Also his blue eyes no longer shined with youthful, boyish, endless energy. Instead, they held wisdom now, some muted pain, but also the look of someone who had loved deeply and had no regrets.

Kouga silently allowed her to continue her scrutiny while he did some of his own. The slip of a girl who had disappeared was now only a faint ghost in the woman before him. He knew that InuYasha had destroyed a lot of the confidence that Kagome had started out with in the Feudal Era. It was one of his late-friend's many regrets. That for all his trash talking of her and to her, she still loved him enough to give him the woman he loved back at the presumed expense of her own life. For that, and that alone, he died happy, but with regret. But that confidence was coming back, he could tell. The way she moved, the way she spoke. It was there.

She had grown maybe an inch taller, her hair remained wavy and long. Her eyes held no regrets, but there was a lingering sadness. One that had lessened ever since she had laid eyes on him. He understood too. She had gone through so much, but had no one to speak of it with besides her family. How hard it must have been...to be so alone...

Of anyone who suffered through Naraku, Kagome suffered most. And her wish hadn't wiped her suffering away. She, in the end, paid the ultimate price for eradicating the world of the Jewel. Her wrongs had not been righted. Without realizing it until Kagome gasped in surprise, he found the palm of his hand pressed against her cheek in a reverent way.

"How do you do it? How do you stay so strong when life had done nothing except kick you while you are down? You give up the man you love to a woman who has been trying to kill you from the day she met you...you continue to love the man who did nothing except treat you like dirt beneath his feet... Any other person would have broken..." He whispered.

Kagome smiled sadly back up at him. "You make it out to be more than what it is. I was devastated. I still am to a degree. I lost so much when the Shikon brought me back. For over two months I wouldn't speak to anyone. Not even my own family. It's like I went into a coma to hide from the pain. I don't even know how I snapped out of it. Just one day I woke up, determined to go to school and live my life again." She shrugged nonchalantly. "So here I am."

"So here you are." He smiled softly down at Kagome then offered his arm out for the miko to take. "Let's go take a walk. I'd like to see more of you Kagome. As much as you refuted me in the past, I did care deeply for you. That feeling has not changed. And Ayame would beat me senseless if she knew I was wasting my life away pining over her death. And as much as she hated you for the attention I gave you, she respected you deeply for all the sacrifices you made. She would approve of you."

Kagome blushed. Okay, maybe his forthrightness hadn't changed that much.

'You know my motivation

Given my reputation...'

"Kagome, would you be my woman? Even if only for a night? Even just for looks? I know your friends are scheming about you and you can use me as a convenient excuse if you need to get them off your back. I don't mind being used." He winked.

'Please excuse me,

I don't mean to be rude...'

Kagome placed her hand on his proffered arm and gave him a wide grin that was complimented by a huge blush. "Kouga, I'd be happy to give being your woman a try." The smile he gave in return melted something deep inside Kagome that had been hiding since she left the Feudal Era. This fit...it felt right...

Kagome turned to wave at Ayumi at the bar, who was making shooing motions at the miko with a huge grin on her face.

'But tonight I'm loving you.'

A/N: I know it's horrible but I am firmly against InuYasha/Kagome pairings. I'm not sure what it is. And Ayame is nice and I feel she does belong with Kouga but I also feel something for the Kouga/Kagome pairing, given that Kouga did honestly care for Kagome. So I didn't want to make Ayame out to be some bitch. I thought this was fitting. :)