At the age of twenty-one, Kagome Higurashi has never truly found love. During her years of lower secondary education, she had started to date but never stayed with a boy for long--mostly due to the boy.
When she finally made it to her upper secondary education, she believed she had fallen in love with her long-time friend, a young boy named InuYasha. He was a half-demon whose parents were friends with hers.
Still, it wasn't enough.
They never broke their friendship for a relationship, and InuYasha started to date a girl named Kikyou Tanaka in the end of their senior year. Kagome was happy he felt like he was in love, but she couldn't help but feel a little hurt as well.
Now, just as they were ready to graduate college, InuYasha entrusted her with one of his biggest secrets: he was proposing to Kikyou Graduation Day, right after they all threw their caps and started to party.
Ironically, it was the day Kagome would be leaving the country to tour with her brothers and their band, possibly forever. But she wouldn't tell InuYasha that. They were close, and he'd want to spend the day with her instead.
She couldn't do that to him. She understood love, she understood she loved him. She knew that she would be happy as long as he was. Kagome just hoped he wouldn't be mad at her once she left the country without telling him.
"Hey, are you excited?" her friend, Yuki asked.
Yukito Mishima had been her brother's best friend since they were weeks old, and had been hers since she was born. He was even among those to visit her in the hospital. Her family told everyone Yuki was her brother.
InuYasha had visited with his mother the second she was home, not even inside the house yet.
"Nervous," she replied.
"Don't worry. You'll do fine. You know the all of the dance-steps better than the choreographer does, and no one has a voice like you," he replied, hugging her as he walked her back to the college dorms after a rehearsal.
"Still. I'm going to perform my last concert in Japan for my graduating class," Kagome pointed out, bumping into his side. "Right before one of my best friends proposes to a girl that hates me."
"Have you ever told InuYasha that Kikyou hates you?" Yuki asked.
"Are you kidding? I hinted at it, he was oblivious. I pointed it out, he brushed it off like nothing. I showed him and I came off looking the bad guy. I'm surprised he's even talking to me right now," she replied, sighing.
Yuki grimaced. He knew Kagome was in love with InuYasha. She would swear it wasn't true, but he knew it. He knew her better than any other person could ever know her. It was a known fact that they shared a soul.
"Don't worry Kagome. If he doesn't realize it now, he'll realize soon Kikyou isn't for him. Maybe if you tell Yasha you like--" he started.
"No. I don't like him, and I won't tell him that and ruin our friendship. He's happy, and he'll stay happy with her even when we stop being friends," she told Yuki, failing to hide the despair.
It didn't work.
It's hard to hide things from a person that feels all your pain and knows you inside-out.
"You and Yasha stop being friends? That's like us not having the same soul. And the only way I can see you two not being friends is if you let Kikyou in the way," Yuki told her, dropping her off in front of her dorm. "I know you like him. Tell him."
"I can't," she told him, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't. I won't." Her words didn't make sense to her either. "Anyway, I'll see you Saturday?" she asked.
Two days. Why did it have to be two days away? Yuki started to think that second of a plan. He could tell InuYasha for her.
"You bet. I can't believe my baby girl is graduating college in two days! I feel like it was yesterday I was pushing you and InuYasha into a pile of plastic balls in a kid's playpen!"
"That was yesterday, you jerk!" she laughed, shoving his shoulder.
They had gone to an arcade the day before with Kagome's baby-cousins, not telling InuYasha it was to see them one last time before she left Japan, and Yuki pushed her and InuYasha in the ball-pen just to do show them they didn't have to grow up, just because they were grown-ups now.
"I'll see you," she told him when she was on the top step of the stairs to her dorm.
As she walked inside, she bumped into Kikyou and InuYasha, on their way out for a date.
Crap.
Kagome had never told InuYasha she danced and sang with her brothers' band. Souta, Hiro and Yuki. Yuki was her soul's brother, and she counted him as one. He knew she sang occasionally, but he didn't know she was officially named a member three months ago. She had been sure to steer him away from the press conference, and then Kikyou showed up and they went out while Kagome was left alone.
And she was still in her dance-clothes. Her ordinary clothes were in her duffel bag slung over her shoulder. If InuYasha made the connection, she was screwed. He knew very well that the band would be going off to tour soon. She had to hope he'd put two and two together and get five, like he usually did.
"Sorry," she apologized, biting her lip bashfully.
"You better be," Kikyou said under her breath, assuming only Kagome could hear her. She had not, apparently, remembered InuYasha's hanyou hearing.
"I said I was sorry," Kagome repeated in an annoyed voice as she breezed by, only to be held up by InuYasha. "You heard?" she asked quietly, practically whispering.
"You provoked her," he muttered. "Were you with Yuki again? In that ridiculous outfit?"
She couldn't believe him! Of all the¾"Yeah, I was. I usually hang out with my soul-brother, in case you forgot. And this isn't any more ridiculous than what she's wearing. Yuki wants to talk to you tomorrow. Don't be out too late, and have a nice time," she spat, shocking InuYasha.
As she went to leave, he grabbed her wrist and yanked her back as she tried to break free. "Kikyou? Can you give us a minute?" he asked. When she left, he looked at Kagome. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I'm fine, but you might want to get the stick out of your ass," she shot, breaking his grip. "Like I said, Yuki wants to talk tomorrow. He's leaving Japan on Saturday, in case you forgot. Which you probably did."
He had, but still! "Kagome, tell me what I did wrong! You're chewing my ass off just because I'm a concerned friend, and a good boyfriend."
"Concerned friend? Good boyfriend? Yeah, sure, Yasha. Keep telling yourself that. I see it totally different, but go ahead and¾"
"Hey! I'm not the one who refuses to get along with your boyfriend!" he protested.
"That's because I don't have one!" she snapped. "I haven't even had a date in forever! My last boyfriend was Hiten!"
The last one she had was half a year ago, and she caught him cheating. At the same time she learned she would be leaving Japan, and she decided it wouldn't be worth a new relationship when she would be leaving so soon.
"Really?" he asked, shocked and relieved. Then he had a look as if it dawned on him. "No wonder you're grouchy--you haven't been laid in--"
"My entire life!" she yelled, amazed her best friend didn't even know her. He was a hanyou--he could smell if she had sex before. "What's my favorite color?" she asked suddenly.
"Green. Why does that matter? I under--"
"My favorite band?" she interrupted."Souta and Hiro's. Dead Promises. Why does...Kagome?" InuYasha asked, concerned as her face grew dark and distant, and the sent of saline started to drip.
She couldn't believe it. Were they really that far apart now? How had they not noticed they were drifting? She should have known their relationship as the best male-female friends had come to an end sooner than tonight. She was the valedictorian for her major. It wasn't like she was too dumb to see it happening¾how was she so blind as to not see it had already happened?
"My favorite color's red. I've hated green since the summer before college when I took the tests and I used a green mechanical-pencil. My favorite bands are the TRAX and TVXQ. Dead Promises is great, but I don't like them the most."
Crap, InuYasha thought. How could I forget that? "Kagome, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. Why would--"
"That's just it, Yasha. You don't think anymore. Not about me, or us, or our friendship. Not unless it involves Kikyou. And I don't want to hear it anymore. I'm tired of being ignored for a girl you haven't even known half as long as you've known me. She hates me, but you refuse to believe it. You didn't even know I'm still a virgin."
"What am I supposed to think with all the time you're spending with Yuki now?" he shot, mad at her. How dare she! Kagome was mad if she thought he didn't care about her! Why else would he be with Kikyou, who looked just like her? It wasn't because he loved her. He couldn't love anyone but her.
"We used to be the Terrible Triple, and now I don't even get invited to hang out with the two of you! Like I don't matter to you! Yuki told me you don't want to see me the night before the band leaves, said you thought things would be a disaster between us. And now you come back to the dorms in silly outfits with him? What should I think?"
She looked him in the eye and shook her head, the disappointment evident. "The same thing you always used to think, since I was a little girl. I'm a dancer. What do you think I would be doing with him in clothes like this? When do I ever wear anything like this?"
That's right. She would never wear a belly-bearing shirt unless it was for dance, or a shirt that clung to her. And those pants were part of a costume she had once for a concert she had with her brothers¾he should know.
His half-brother was in the band. InuYasha knew very well that Kagome danced with the band, and in music videos all the time.
What happened to them? They used to be best friends. Now they barely even knew each other. Maybe it was because he loved her. InuYasha always knew that falling for his best friend would ruin them, but he never realized it already had.
But before he could apologize, Kagome backed away towards the stairs. "Maybe we were just never meant to be friends. It just took until Kikyou to prove that."
"Kago--" he started.
"Yuki wants to talk, maybe see you tomorrow. Kikyou's waiting. I guess...I guess this is the end of us, Yasha. Kikyou's waiting for you...I shouldn't keep you anymore. So...good-bye, Yasha. I'll miss you."
"Yasha!" Yuki greeted, smiling as he gave his friend a man-hug as they met up at a bar where girls normally showed up dancing--clean, fun, and practice for real dancing in the professional world.
The owner was a friend of Yuki's, and he allowed Kagome to start here as one of the dancers and a bartender. He also let both her and InuYasha in as young as sixteen when Yuki turned of age, then waiting four years before he let them drink.
"Hey," he greeted, half-heartedly.
Kagome really wasn't his friend anymore. She hadn't returned any of his calls, and pretended not to be in her room when he came by, even though he could smell her. It was the hardest blow he ever took.
They had been best friends since she was brought home from the hospital, and now because of Kikyou she hated him. Why? All he wanted was to pretend he wasn't in love with her, that she wasn't all he thought about since he was fifteen and she stood up for him to Sesshomaru.
And now he lost her.
"Why so sad?" Yuki asked, concerned.
How did he ever think Kagome would go out with Yuki? They were practically one and the same. And they were best friends, him and Yuki! Yukito Mishima was the only being alive that he confessed liking Kagome to. No one else was told straight out by him.
If Yuki were to pursue Kagome, Yuki would have¾
"Is it about Kagome?" Yuki asked. "I've been getting the same vibe from her all day. Like she's sad and...can I tell you a secret? She feels betrayed. I dropped her off yesterday after practice, and then like ten minutes later, I feel her heart break. What happened?"
Damn it, Yasha! How could you forget? Yuki can tell you! InuYasha told himself, slapping his head. Suddenly he thought of something. "Why was Kagome practicing with you guys?"
"We're covering the graduation before we leave. Didn't Kagome tell you?"
"No. Why would she? She hates me now because I've been ignoring her for Kikyou lately. She knew how important this is to me."
"I heard. You're going to ask Kikyou to marry you. That must be why Kagome didn't see anything," he replied. It was matter-of-fact. Not condemning, but not congratulating.
Now InuYasha was nervous. "Yeah. Why? What didn't she tell me?" he asked, barely aware that the owner was introducing the girls of Dead Promises practicing for their last act in Japan.
"She's coming with us. Singing in our last Japanese concert, then coming overseas to tour with Dead Promises. After she gets her diploma, we're finishing an encore performance and then shipping out to Australia. I can't believe Kagome really didn't tell you. She's known for half a year."
Half a year...around the time he told her he was going to propose to Kikyou. The same day she was leaving. Damn! He really was choosing Kikyou over Kagome! If only he realized sooner.
Suddenly he picked up Kagome's voice and looked across the bar to the grill part of the Tsubasa Bar and Grill. There was Sango and Ayame, two dancers for Dead Promises Kagome often hung out with. And there was Kagome herself, singing a sad song.
She didn't notice them, nor did InuYasha want her to. "Why wouldn't she tell me?"
"Believe me, she was planning to. The day she found out, she thought of ways to tell you. For hours. She slept over my house...and half the night I heard her thinking of ways to say it. But when I finally woke up...I went to wake Kagome up like always, and she stained her pillows. Like, crying that bad."
InuYasha's eyes widened. She was planning on it? Then what happened? Why...oh no. "Was that when...I called her one night. She told me she had big news, and I told her I wanted to know what kind of engagement ring she'd want."
"Why? Were you going to ask her?" Yuki asked, almost hoping for the impossible.
"She and Kikyou were so alike. I figured they'd have the same taste in rings, too. I told her, and...She never did tell me what she had to say."
Yuki grimaced and bit back tears for his friends. They were perfect, but they crushed each other. Why did people do this? Why did they push each other away like that? Yuki knew his two best friends belonged together, but they pushed each other apart.
As the girls sang on, InuYasha couldn't help but find Kagome, staring at her sadly as she danced, oblivious. It was all his fault. Would she have even told him good-bye? Would they have spent their last day together if he hadn't told her about Kikyou? He felt like such an ass.
I ruined it, he thought, listening to a song she wrote when she was at her lowest. I ruined our friendship, I ruined her day, her life. I ruined her. I ruined everything.
"I now introduce our guest speaker...speakers...alumni of this school, Sesshomaru Takahashi, Yukito Mishima, Miroku and Sango Sato, and Kouga and Ayame Itou of the band Dead Promises," the president of the college introduced, clapping as they made their way onstage.
Kagome was smiling and happy, sad and nervous, even anxious. Her brother, Hiro, said he would introduce her to his newest girlfriend, who would go on tour with them and front some acts, maybe even record a few songs. Hiro was trying to replace her, even if it was only a subconscious thought for him.
She had been replaced several times lately. She was getting tired of it.
As the band-mates all talked about their years and congratulations, Kagome got more and more anxious and nervous. Under her cap and gown, she had her costume for the performance. It would be the first time anyone at the school knew who she was--no one ever figured out that Hiro and Kagome Higurashi were brother and sister. No one knew she was the singer.
InuYasha sat near Kikyou, smiling at her over two men. But he wasn't happy. He was sad. He was miserable. Today, InuYasha would lose his best friend forever because of Kikyou. Did he really need her that bad? Need to replace Kagome?
"--and since you've all heard a bunch of speeches all day, the faculty thought it'd be killer if we performed here," Yuki started, jumping up and down at the podium like a kid with a sugar-high. "And since we were going to be here anyways, and it's our last day in Japan, we thought, what the hell? Why not?"
The crowd of graduates cheered, and InuYasha got even more sullen as Kagome smiled at Yuki.
This was it.
This was her cue to go up there and start her last performance with them in Japan.
"So, without me stalling any more for Kagome to sneak off, will Hiro and Souta Higurashi please make there way up and will Kagome Higurashi please take off her nasty cap and gown and join us as well?" Yuki yelled, shocking the crowd as well as exciting them. "People, the Higurashis! The last of the best, but not the worst. Especially not Kagome."
As she took off the cap and gown she whispered to Yuki, "What did you major in? Mediocre comedy that no one laughs at?"
He laughed and hugged her. "People, my bestest bestest friend and the best singer you will ever hear!" he yelled, whispering to her. "Of course. Especially since that's not even a major. It's psychology."
"I knew that. I was your patient. I remember getting a squirt gun and saying I was committing suicide if I had to listen anymore." As she took the mike, she smiled and waved to the crowd, jumping from one side of the stage to another. "Hey, how you all doing today? Ready to rock?"
She went on to say more corny stuff, and finally came to her introduction. "Well you all know this Nu style. This is not fake, c'mon!"
The crowd cheered as she started to danced to the remix of her song, "No," and sang it. This was not the type of song Kagome sang at the bar the other day. This was nothing like it. "No" had made number-one in the charts for seven weeks straight when it came out.
Next was a song about living life to the largest and fighting for what you believed in, "Faito." Following it was "Kaji," and then Kagome introduced a song InuYasha never heard of, "Powder Snow."
Then he realized he had. She sang it yesterday. Yuki had stopped and listened, saying it was new. Something Kagome started a few days after she learned she was leaving Japan and losing InuYasha.
"Yuki? What do I do? I don't want to lose Kagome," InuYasha asked.
"I don't know dude. But chase her. Don't let her just go. You know how Kago is. She doesn't feel like she belongs, she doesn't stay. Tell her you love her."
"But I--"
"You do, you can, and no you never fooled anyone but Kagome. And it seems like Kagome only fooled you if you never realized she loved you."
InuYasha turned the ring around in his pocket. It was the one Kagome told him to buy. What would he do? What could he do?
Yuki better be right.
"Now...I have one last song before I want my diploma and to leave the country mortified for my life," Kagome said, getting some laughs. "This song goes out to my brother Hiro and his girlfriend, who I don't know, but she's somewhere out there graduating with me. So, this is for you. Something English that a friend is letting me sing."
Kagome went on to sing the Hilary Duff song, "Who's That Girl," InuYasha watched Kikyou freeze up and looked worriedly towards the stage.
Strange how she seemed to tune him out...he wondered.
"All right, all right! So, thanks, Kag! Who wants to meet my girlfriend?" Hiro asked, nudging her out of the way. "Will Kikyou Tanaka please come up here?"
The entire crowd went silent. InuYasha froze, and was shocked when Kikyou got up and smiled as she walked up and hugged Hiro. Kikyou turned to Kagome and smiled, only to get slapped.
"You're a slut," Kagome told her, not yelling, not whispering, not even using the mike. Still everyone heard it. "You're the biggest fucking slut I've ever met."
"Kagome, just because you feel threatened by me and my singing¾"
"Yeah, right. What about your boyfriend? Did you forget all about InuYasha? Did you know Yasha was going to propose?" she turned to Hiro and slapped him as well. "You knew that! You knew she was going out with InuYasha! What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Kag, she isn't going out with Yasha anymore," Hiro said.
"That's bull, and you know it! I've told you--how do you think you met Kikyou?"
As they went on with a war of words, getting louder and louder, Kikyou looked to InuYasha and he shook his head before flipping her off. He couldn't believe what happened.
He had never been more humiliated in his life.
"You know what?" she said in a calm, almost subdued voice. "Fuck you, and fuck you," she said, turning from Hiro to Kikyou. "I hope you both have a good life without me, and have fun in hell. You're both gonna die and burn there."
And InuYasha watched as she shook her head and ran away, and before anyone could stop her, she was gone.
Several minutes later the headmaster finally settled them down and ended the day. When the caps were thrown, InuYasha turned to Kikyou. "Kik?"
Kikyou turned and smiled flirtatiously to InuYasha. "Yeah?"
"You're a slut. It's over between us. Go to hell."
Kikyou was shocked, to say the least. It was one thing to be dumped by her famous boyfriend in front of her graduating class before he went off to find his little sister. It was another thing to be dumped by her fallback-boyfriend.
InuYasha walked off and went to find Kagome, only to see she was on stage again performing a few more songs. Hiro had gone after her and told her something that made her come back. No one knew what it could be, but it had worked, and that was all that mattered.
He smiled and waved to her and Yuki. She smiled pityingly, and Yuki motioned for him to climb up and wait on the side.
After they finished their last few sets, Kagome smiled and walked over to where InuYasha was waiting. "I'm sorry," she told him.
He took out the ring and fingered it, turning it around and reading the inscription, smiling to himself. "It's okay. I don't think I was really...you know...seriously into marrying Kikyou that much."
Kagome smiled and sat down next to him, looking at the ring. It was the same ring she always wanted. She felt the stab, knowing she helped picked it out for her friend to give to Kikyou, a slut and a girl he was in love with.
And suddenly she realized: she was in love with him. She gasped, and looked to Yuki, smiling at her with an all-knowing smirk. "Jerk," she muttered.
"Sorry," InuYasha said, not noticing her gaze. "But I really think so. I mean, the inscription isn't even about her." He smiled and fisted it. "So, when are you going to..."
"Australia. How did you¾?"
"Yuki told me. How come you didn't?"
She smiled sadly. "I was going to...but then you told me you were going to propose to Kikyou today. I leave today¾in a few hours¾and I didn't want you to spend your special day with me. I felt like¾"
"Of course I'd spend the day with you. You're my best friend. No matter who I'm with."
She smiled and hugged him. "Mean it?"
"Of course. Friends till the end?" he asked.
Kagome smiled and pinky-promised him and then hugging him. "I want you to come with us, Yasha. Please. I want you to be there with me. Just like old times."
InuYasha looked at her and looked sad. "I can't let things be like old times. Things have changed over the years, Kago. I've changed."
"Yasha? Are you okay?" she asked, worried. "You sound really corny."
"I feel really corny! Kagome, I found out I didn't just have a crush on my best friend, I was in love with her. And when I found that out, I realized I had to do something so I wouldn't ruin our friendship. So then I found Kikyou. And just when I thought I stopped loving you¾"
"You love me?" Kagome asked. Then she laughed. "This is so corny, but I love you too."
"Good. Good," he said, smiling and sighing in relief. He opened his hand and showed her the ring. "Then, seeing as we're being so corny, will you marry me? I want to be there with you always, but I can't let things be the same anymore."
"I can't. That ring was meant for Kikyou," she replied, rolling her eyes at him.
InuYasha smiled. "Not really. If you accept this ring, I'll let you read what I ended up getting engraved on it. Somehow, I think I knew it would always be you."
Kagome smiled and kissed InuYasha. She smiled and thought about it again. "I want another one before I say yes, and I get that ring," she said, smiling as she kissed him again.
After another minute, she broke it off and went in for another one. InuYasha laughed and held her back, pecking her lips lightly. he handed her the ring and Kagome smiled, looking at the inside.
Kagome, I love you now, and I'll love you forever and the end of time.
She smiled and kissed him. "I love it. It's perfect. I can't believe you put my name instead of Kikyou's. I love you, so much."
He smiled. "Good. Because I'm not losing you, not to anyone."