"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Kagome read for the fiftieth time for the school play.

Everyone laughed, and the teacher-director scowled. Kagome's annoyance was oozing through her lines, and it was affecting everyone else. How bad would it be if the lead started to get annoyed after so long?

It was the foolish Romeo's fault. Thought he had immense talent, it had yet to shine. He had been screwing up the entire time, forgetting lines and flirting with girls. A true Romeo, if the teacher-director could say so himself. He was even hung up on his own Roseline.

InuYasha was smiling at Kikyou and silently flirting with her, too caught up to here his cue. Kikyou and he had been going out for a year and a half, and then she dumped him suddenly. Even to the day, they flirted.

Kagome couldn't get the two. They broke up because Kikyou thought they were moving too fast and she was being pressured. Yet she had lost her virginity to a random stranger in the eighth grade, and she was okay with that?

Then there was InuYasha. InuYasha Takahashi!

He was her foster brother, a troubled hanyou that no one understood. Kagome Higurashi still had yet to know his reasons for trying out for the play if he was going to ass-off during it.

Why he did anything really, only to flirt with girls the whole time.

"Kagome, try to sound realistic," the teacher-director asked. "Start back from the start of Juliet's monologue. And InuYasha, try to focus long enough to read your lines. The play is in another week."

InuYasha said and started to play attention when Kagome gave him the death-glare.

Did she really think he would screw this up for her? He knew how important it was for her. He stayed up just as late as her every night when she ran lines and recited other plays until two in the morning.

It was her dream--to become an actress when she grew up. She was talented, too, but she had no advantages in life. She was beautiful and had talent, she could even sing and dance, but she lived in a small town and no one really looked at the school-plays.

"Kagome?" Kikyou asked, stopping yet another try at Scene 2 of Act 3. She smirked inwardly at Kagome's annoyed and exasperated expression, and looked innocent as she looked down to her clipboard. "There's a boy here to speak with you. He says, 'you're late. Hurry up.' Do you want me to get rid of him?"

Kagome cursed and looked at her watch. "You can't. Megumi-sensei, may I please leave? I have to go to a meeting now."

He nodded and Kagome rushed to her bags, picked them up, and ran out. InuYasha sighed at the show of control her half-brother had on her. It was kind of scary how much power Hiro had on her.


"About time, wench," Hiroshi Matsuda scoffed as Kagome ran into the parking lot and rushed into his Mazda RX-8. "What happened to you?"

"Sorry. Romeo was making everyone late. He refuses to act when we're supposed to be running lines," she replied, putting her books down in front of the seat. "So, how are the guys? Kouga okay?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, fine. Annoying as all hell, but we'll be cool. Kouga just landed himself a movie-role in Sadistic Desire. You know how bad he wanted to be in it."

"No way. Really?" she said, excited. Hiroshi started to pull out, and Kagome flipped open her phone and started to dial. "Damn. he's so lucky. I wanted to audition for Yui, but Kaasan wouldn't let me. Did Kouga get the lead?"

"I don't know. I just heard about the movie. He said he's Yoshi, though. Whoever he is."

Kagome laughed as they went downtown to his studio in Tokyo. "That is the lead-character. Yui was his love-interest. I wanted to try out for her instead of the best friend he falls for, Mizuki. I wanted to be known as the bitchy manipulator."

Hiroshi laughed. "Well, you could play it. Kouga says only the nice girls can play mean girls. Does that mean that bitches play the good girls?"

"No, but that'd be really cool. Mizuki was that innocent kind of sweet that made your teeth rot. It was bad, I didn't like it," she said as someone picked up on the other side. "Yasha, it's Kagome."

InuYasha sighed and looked around. Practice was finally let out a few minutes ago when Kikyou took over for Kagome, and InuYasha finished his lines professionally in one run. Normally he went with Kagome and Hiro, but he had to stay late, and now he had no ride home.

"What, wench?" he asked, a habit he picked up from Hiro.

"Can you tell Kaasan we'll be home late?" she asked, getting a look from Hiroshi. He mouthed something to her, and she nodded. "I have to do some extra work today and it might take an hour. Sesshomaru said he'll come pick you up. When does practice get out?"

"Already did," he replied, eyeing Kikyou with Naraku, the school player. "Your understudy took over and we finished it in one take."

Kagome's jaw dropped. Kikyou got it all done? But that wasn't fair! She was the one that took classes and volunteered for a local theater and taught classes of her own. She should be the one that looked like the good actress! Not Kikyou, that thought she ruled the world for no reason.

"Kags?" he asked, worried.

Then she exploded at him, making InuYasha pull the phone away from his ear. "What the hell, Yasha? Do you want me to get switched with Kikyou? Every time you screw up, I have to leave early, and Kikyou looks like a star getting it all done fast. Do you know how much I have riding on this one performance? I got scouts to agree to show up! And Shakespeare? He's my favorite playwright. Are you trying to take me out of this play?"

"Hey, knock it off!" he yelled backed, pissed she would assume that. "I'm sorry if you're insecure and all that bullshit, but I'm not! I just can't focus when my sister is leading with me."

"So why don't you quit?" she challenged. "Because I don't plan to."

"Yeah, right," he snorted.

He'd never give up the chance to kiss her twice. No...he kissed her twice in the first scene, so that made at least four times that he knew of between the two performances. Plus when she kissed him to taste the poison.

Sesshomaru showed up and honked several times in a row. "Anyways, I have to go. My brother's here."


When everyone arrived back to the Higurashi Shrine at the end of the day, the tension was thick. Neither Hiroshi or Sesshomaru understood what was going on, and the two seniors gave each other the cold shoulder.

Halfway through the meal, InuYasha asked Kagome to pass the ramen, and she got pissed enough to get up and leave the table. That started to get InuYasha mad, and he stood up and told her as much in not so many words.

"What the hell is your problem?" he asked.

"My problem?" she yelled. "What's your problem? You always had to make me look like an amateur on stage, and fucked up everything until Kikyou got on stage and then everything finally ran smoothly. You made her look like a freakin' saint! So I got a call from Megumi-sensei saying that between the two of us, he needs you more than me."

InuYasha froze. "What?" he asked.

"Yeah. So now I'm Kikyou's understudy, and she gets to be the student-director and Juliet! Thanks for fucking ruining my life. I warned you, but you never fucking listen. Iand now my dreams are fucked and Kikyou gets to look like she's amazing at life. I fucking hate you, Yash," she spat, leaving the room and leaving silence in her wake.


"Megumi-sensei, you can't get rid of Kagome!" InuYasha pleaded. "She's the best girl here!"

"But you two don't get along well enough to put our top two together," he said, rushing around the drama room. "And the next best male was Hojo Murashi. Please don't make me use Hojo Murashi."

InuYasha had to agree. Hojo still stuttered and wet the bed. "But Kagome and I do work well together--we live together, and except for last night we've never had a fight."

The teacher gave him a look and InuYasha shook his head and hands profusely as if to clear the air of the thoughts he was emitting. "No, no, no. I'm her foster brother. The Higurashi family took me and my brother Sesshomaru in when our parents died."

He nodded then froze. "Sesshomaru of the band Myself is Madness Sesshomaru? With Hiroshi Matsuda and Kouga Tanaka?"

He was excited, and InuYasha didn't have the heart to tell him it was Hiro Higurashi. He didn't know who this Hiroshi Matsuda was. He never heard of Hiroshi Matsuda before.

"Kouga has the lead role on a new movie. I offered Kagome's mother to let her go and audition, but she wouldn't let Kagome do it during school hours. Could you get Sesshomaru to bring his band down? Just so Kagome can meet them?"

"No offense dude, but Kagome won't come if she's not in it. she's always been like this. She works in the theater--understudies are told not to come unless they had a minor part somewhere else in the play. You kicked Kags out of the play."

Megumi thought about it for the moment. "Why do you want her in the play so bad if you're going to screw up with her?" he asked.

"Dude, this is Kagome's favorite play," InuYasha said. "She would die if she wasn't in it. And she has talent scouts coming to see her--even her brother is pitching in and bringing her a surprise. Besides, have you read how many kisses there are?"

"A few. Why?"

"Kagome would never go out with me--I'm her foster brother. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't ask her. Why do you think I flirt with my ex? I hate Kikyou."

A light dawned on Megumi and he nodded. "I think I can find a way to make this work," he said, winking.


"Kagome," Kikyou whined, making Kagome roll her eyes. "Are you watching me act? This is what you should have done, and should have been doing."

InuYasha looked to Megumi, and he nodded stiffly. "All right. Let's work on Act 1, Scene 5. Right from where Romeo and Juliet meet. Everybody set? Let's go."

Kagome sighed and sat down in the front seat, throwing her legs over the next seat. This was her favorite scene. But she never even got to practice it because InuYasha was always flirting.

Now she never had the chance.

Just as InuYasha and Kikyou were about to kiss, Kagome felt overwhelmed. That should be her, not Kikyou! She got up silently and left the auditorium.

She couldn't watch that. Not when she had been so close to having that.

When InuYasha looked up, Kagome was nowhere to be found. He looked at Megumi and Megumi shrugged, confused. A few seconds later, Sesshomaru barged in and the two looked at each other wide-eyed.

"Yo, Sessho!" InuYasha yelled. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see Kagome. She needs a ride to the studio today. I know I'm early, but it's not like she's doing anything anymore, thanks to you" he said. Then he snorted. "Hell, not like you're doing anything, either. I always knew you were a screw-up. Never knew you'd screw things up for Kagome too."

"We're practicing lines," Kikyou said, smiling. "Would you like to see us run a scene, Mr. Sesshomaru, sir? I'm Juliet."

He snapped his fingers. "You're the slut that took Kagome's spot. No, I don't want to see one of your scenes. Though I would like to see Otouto run one. I'll even play Friar Lawrence if you'll do Act 3, Scene 3."

As they ran through it, Kikyou seethed.

How dare that guy say she was a slut! Just because she didn't want his hanyou brother. And saying she replaced that slut Kagome--she was bettering the play! Kagome sucked, while she was a truly amazing actress.

When the scene finished, Sesshomaru shook his head. "Megumi-sensei, you are an idiot. I'd pick Kagome over InuYasha any day."

And after that, he left. Only InuYasha and Megumi understood what he said.


"Oh my gosh! Did you hear that new CD?"

"I can't believe she did it!"

"It sounds really good!"

"Dude! Have you heard Kagome's CD?"

InuYasha paused as everyone around him talked about the newly released Geisha, Kagome's debut CD with Myself is Madness. He heard of nothing but the release all day.

The same day as Opening Day for the school play.

Kagome had missed school, either to avoid people talking about the CD, or to avoid people talking about the play. Kikyou had been able to get the entire school to agree to go, if not just to see Myself is Madness in the crowd.

He had to admit, it was a good CD, but two songs she didn't duet on. It was a dual-disc release, a DVD with music videos on the other CD. The videos she worked in with the band before, and the videos they shot for her CD.

His computer teacher decided to let them put it in and watch it on their computers.

And InuYasha nearly gasped. There was "I Caught Fire," where it was a lot of acting and dancing. Kagome played the female, and she played next to Kouga, who everyone knew more for acting at this point in time, being in two movies at the same time as performing with the band.

Right in the middle, there was a pause, maybe for thirty seconds. Kagome and Kouga were talking.

"Do you love me?" she asked, hands in his.

"Of course. Why would you ask that?"

"How much?"

"Enough to know I'll be with you forever."

"Enough to let me go forever?"

And suddenly the music blasted back. In the end, it landed with Kouga sitting on the tour bus, looking through an album of him and Kagome, and the very last page of the album was a headline, "Killed By Jealous Ex."

There was a smiling Kagome, and a deranged and mad picture of Kouga. Under the picture there was a quote from Kouga. "She shouldn't have been such a goddamn amazing actress."

He had to laugh, though no one else understood. And then InuYasha realized, no one else ever would. Because of him, and his stupid idea of a way to make Kagome like him.

No one would know how true it was. That it was a pun.

"Check Yes Juliet" made him even sadder. Kagome, InuYasha realized even in real life, was very guarded and not allowed to be with certain people. Her mother had let her shoot the video with him a long time ago.

He'd never forget.

She was up in her room, dressed up like a debutante, and he was outside the window, throwing rocks up. She looked outside and they spoke quietly, no words appearing in the video. Suddenly a front light came on and he dashed off.

Then it showed InuYasha at a Myself is Madness concert, and InuYasha took a picture of himself in the front and sent it to Kagome.

It panned back off to Kagome in her room, sighing. She looked it her closet and it panned to her mesh-top, black graphic tee, miniskirt and leggings. Then it panned to her mirror where she had pictures of she and InuYasha smiling and happy and a ticket to the concert, then an invitation to a debutante ball.

She got the picture and laughed, looking around before calling someone.

Next was Kagome in the school's uniform with her friend Rin, Sesshomaru's girlfriend. She had borrowed one of Kagome's for the scene. They were passing by the band practicing in a garage, and InuYasha was filming. Rin grabbed Kagome's hand and they ran to meet everyone.

InuYasha and Kagome quickly started to be attracted, acting shy and smiling. The next scene was Sesshomaru signing "This is the countdown" and coming to a scene with Kagome and Rin in the Higurashi living room with the Takahashis, and her mom showed up with her brother's dad. They looked mad, and Kagome and InuYasha quickly broke apart.

Then was a pan back to Kagome in her room, in the outfit from her closet and lacing up some boots. She saw Rin out the window, grabbed the ticket to the concert, and climbed down lattice-work nearby to run to the car and hop in. As they drove along, her "dad" realized she was gone, and her parents got in their car.

There was a flashback in Kagome's head of all the times her parents tried to separate her and InuYasha. Including the time they "almost kissed" and her "dad" caught them. Then he started to push him around.

For a second or two, the music stopped, just to hear him yell "Stay away from Juliet! She's not going to be with someone like you! She's too good for you!"

Kagome had asked if she could be a Juliet for the song, saying it was just like Romeo and Juliet, how they weren't allowed to be together.

Then it came back to the concert, where Kagome met up with InuYasha. Soon after her dad showed up, and Kagome took InuYasha's hand, and they started to run out of the concert, Kagome laughing and smiling.

They ran past her mother, and when Mrs. Higurashi heard Kagome laughing and saw her so happy, she let them go, smiling and telling her "husband" to "let her be happy."

They ended with the two laughing in the middle of the street, and Kagome ran to him and hugged him, making it look like it was going to end with her kissing him and really selling it.

InuYasha remembered that was when he fell in love with her.


The auditorium was full. InuYasha felt a pang of guilt when he saw the talent scouts in the front row, and knew he owed Kagome. That it'd be all his fault if she wasn't an actress, and these guys signed Kikyou.

And he wouldn't be able to blame her for it.

Suddenly he heard a throat being cleared, and he turned to see Kagome standing there, smiling at him with a jade necklace. "Hey, Romeo," she greeted.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, shocked and happy. He hugged her and looked at her. "You look like shit."

"No, really?" she asked sarcastically. "I was sick today. I just came to say break a leg. I hope you do really well."

"I'm sorry you're not in it," he said, sad. "I didn't mean for you to get taken out."

"How could you not?" Kikyou replied, walking up to them. "I mean, I know you two are brother and sister or something, but how weird would that be? And, please, I'm the best actress here."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Break a leg Kikyou," she sang. InuYasha heard her as she muttered, "Literally."

InuYasha waited for Kikyou to leave and turned to Kagome. "So, everyone loved your CD. That's great!"

She shrugged. "Yeah. That's the only thing I'll be good for, I think. At least for a long time," she said, looking at the curtain. "My time will come to act, but not now. Not yet." she shook her head. "Anyways, really break a leg. I brought the talent scouts anyways so they could take a look at you."

Now he was shocked. "You're kidding!" he said.

Kagome smiled. "Nope. You're a good actor, InuYasha. I planned on them coming for you anyways today. I already got a small part in Summer Night Falls. I'm going to be Konami Fujimoto."

Suddenly InuYasha was confused. "That's the lead! So, why did you want to be in a school play so bad?"

Kagome got shy, then smiled. "Have you ever read how many kisses there are in that play?" she asked. "Multiply it by two."

He was happily shocked. "Hell, if that's all you wanted, I'd give you that every day."

She laughed and InuYasha kissed her. Then he kissed her again, then another again. "Have I ever told you I love you?" she asked, smiling brightly.

"Have I ever told you that I love you too?" InuYasha replied, smiling and kissing her again.