Disclaimer: still don't own it…I wish

Authoress' Note: I'm officially done with college for the summer! And I'm officially a sophomore! Wow…time flies. So now hopefully I'll have some time to write more often than before. So enjoy this chapter! I'll try to make it semi-longer…or at least longer than the last couple have been. Please review!

And one other thing…99 reviews! I'm shocked. Whoever gives me the 100th review…well I will love you. So there!

Easier Than Love
Chapter Eleven

---Earlier That Night---

Kouga and Ayame were floating on air the whole walk to the restaurant. When they arrived there, it was obvious that all eyes were on them. Not that Ayame minded, but she wondered why they were getting so much attention; usually those in Milan were somewhat fashion-savvy, but it was rare that a whole restaurant noticed Ayame and Kouga.

Not thinking about it too long, Ayame followed Kouga and the hostess to their usual table in the back corner of the restaurant. The waiter promptly arrived shortly after they were seated.

"Do you know what you want to drink?" he asked.

"Yes, I would like a bottle of your best champagne" Kouga said, smiling at Ayame; who held his hand under the table.

"Of course Mr. Misaki" the waiter said, walking towards the kitchen.

Kouga turned to Ayame and gave her a kiss, "Order whatever you want Ayame, we're celebrating."

"All right, in that case, I'm getting the fillet minion" she said with a big smile as the waiter returned with an ice bucket and the champagne. He popped the cork and poured two glasses, giving them to Ayame and Kouga. Kouga raised his glass and Ayame followed suit.

"To us. And to soon to be married life" he said and they clinked glasses and drank.

They ordered their meals as they chatted and drank champagne. The food came and soon enough they were ready to leave. Kouga paid the bill, leaving a generous tip and escorted Ayame out of the restaurant.

They walked down the familiar path from the restaurant to Ayame's apartment, passing familiar landmarks and familiar people. As they walked by a news kiosk, something caught Ayame's eye. She stopped walking and turned to walk back to what she saw. Kouga caught her hand and tried to pull her in the opposite direction.

"Come on; let's get back to your place. It's getting late." He said.

"No, this will only take a second." She assured him and approached the news kiosk. She took the tabloid that had caught her eye off of the rack and stared at it in disbelief.

On the cover of the magazine was a picture of her and Kouga seemingly ripped in half. The title read "IT'S OVER! Fashion's number one couple calls it quits after over two years! All the juicy details on page 45."

Ayame looked from the magazine and then back to Kouga, "What is this?!" she asked him forcefully. "Did you know about this?!"

Kouga tried to calm her down and stop her from making a scene in public, but he realized it was going to be harder than he thought.

Ayame began to cry softly and then turned to the man working the kiosk. "How much?" she asked, holding the magazine; needing to know what was written about her relationship.

"Three Euros"

Ayame reached into her clutch and handed the money to the man and began to walk away, without Kouga.

"Ayame! Wait for me!" Kouga shouted, hurrying after her. Once he caught up he walked alongside her in silence for a while, watching her furiously flip through the pages to get to the cover story.

"Ayame, it's just a tabloid. It's not true, you know that! Why are you acting like this, it's not like this is the first tabloid you've ever been in" he said, trying to reason with her.

She looked up from the magazine and stopped moving, "Kouga…have you seen this before?" she asked, and he knew that there was no use lying to her.

"Yes" he said simply, not feeling a need to say anything more than that.

She shook her head and continued walking, all the while reading snippets of the story aloud for Kouga to hear.

"'After two plus years of supposed bliss,'" Ayame read, "'the face of Prada and photographer whose pictures made her famous have called it quits. Sources say that Ayame and Kouga ended the relationship because Ayame was upset that Kouga had yet to ask her to marry him.' Is that why you proposed to me Kouga?! Because of this story? You wanted to show everyone in the world that this wasn't true? Do you even want to marry me?"

"Of course I do Ayame. I want you to be my wife more than anything. This story doesn't mean anything; I want to be with you more than ever. I want to get married and maybe even start a family some day." He told her, desperately trying to save himself.

"But did you realize that because of this story?" she asked, holding the magazine so he could see. "Is this why you realized that?"

"Ayame"

"Please" she begged. "Just tell me the truth."

Kouga took a deep breath, "Yes"

Ayame began to run down the street, throwing the magazine at Kouga's feet before she did so.

"Ayame wait!" he yelled, running after her, knowing that she wouldn't be able to run fast enough in her shoes to outrun him. He caught her shortly after, holding her shoulders in place so she couldn't run from him again.

"Will you just LISTEN TO ME?!" he yelled at her.

Kouga had never before yelled at her, and Ayame was petrified. She nodded slightly, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"Yes, the story is what made me propose to you, I didn't want anyone thinking we were over. But I was thinking of proposing before this whole ordeal, this is just what pushed me to do it. It was me, believe me."

He let go of her and she just stood stationary, staring at him. She slid the ring off of her finger and handed it to him, "Then maybe you should wait until you know for sure this is what you want. Make it prompted by you, not by a tabloid." She said softly. "I love you so much Kouga, you don't even know. And I anxiously await the day we get married, but I want to know it's only you. I'll see you tomorrow" she said softly, kissing him and walking away towards her home.

Kouga tightened a fist around the ring and put in into his pocket. He hailed a cab and went back to his apartment to sleep this whole ordeal off.

Ayame had a short walk to her apartment. She unlocked the door, walked up the stairs and walked into the apartment. She slipped her shoes off, locked the door behind her and softly walked to her room, not wanting to wake anyone up. She slipped out of her dressed and put on a pair of terry cloth shorts and a tank top. She pulled away the covers and climbed into bed and fell into a sad and dreamless seep.

---The Next Morning---

Kagome's alarm tore through her dream. A single hand emerged from a cave of blankets and fumbled around the bedside table before hitting the snooze button and withdrawing back into the cave. Nine minutes of peaceful sleep swept over Kagome before the screaming sound of the alarm clock interrupted her sleep once again. She pulled the covers off of her head in a huff and stared at her clock. The huge, red numbers of the clock spelled out the time: 10:09.

"Oh come on, I want to go back to sleep" she groaned, hitting the snooze button again and pulling the covers back over her head.

Once again, nine minutes later Kagome was smacking her alarm clock and trying to sleep again. "I don't have to go to lunch until two…why do I need to be up this early?" Kagome whined to herself from under a shroud of her covers.

Just as Kagome had fallen back asleep, she heard a knocking on her door. "Kags! Are you up?!" Sango called to her.

Kagome groaned and threw the covers from her bed, turning her alarm clock off as she did so. "I am now!" she called and climbed out of bed, padding her way to the bedroom door. She unlocked the door and opened it.

"Yes?" she asked with as much insincere sweetness as she could muster.

"Sorry Kags, I heard your alarm going off so I assumed that you were awake. If I would have know you were sleeping I wouldn't have knocked." Sango spurted out, feeling terrible for waking Kagome up.

Kagome shook her head and smiled, "No, no don't worry about it hun. What do you want?"

"Are you going out to lunch with Miroku?" she asked.

"Yes, and so are you"

"Wait, what?"

Kagome smiled, "Well I decided something…and that involves a double date lunch. Miroku and Inuyasha are coming here to pick us up at two. So I'm going to take a shower." She said, walking past Sango and into the bathroom. She turned the water on and slipped out of her pajamas. She had just climbed into the shower and shampooed her hair when there was a knock on the bathroom door.

"WHAT!" Kagome yelled, sticking her head out of the shower curtain.

Sango poked her head in the door, "Kags, I think you need to come here." She said in a worried tone.

"I just got in Sango, can it wait?"

Sango looked at Kagome, "I don't think so" she said and Kagome knew that it had to be serious.

"Let me rinse my hair and I'll be right out" she said, pulling her head back into the curtain and rinsing her hair out. She turned the water off and wrapped her hair in a towel. She grabbed her bathrobe off of the toilet and put it on, tying the belt around her waist. She walked out of the bathroom, but couldn't see the emergency Sango was talking about.

"Sango?" she called.

"In here!" she heard Sango's voice coming from Ayame's room.

Kagome opened Ayame's door to reveal Sango holding a crying Ayame. Kagome walked over and sat on the bed on the other side of Ayame.

"Oh sweetie, what happened? You were so happy last night" she said, rubbing her back.

"Kouga…Kouga…he only…he only" Ayame choked out between tears.

"He only what?"

Ayame looked at Sango and nodded. Sango looked at Kagome and sighed, "There was a story in the tabloids this week about Kouga and Ayame breaking up because Kouga hadn't proposed. So basically she saw the story on their way back from dinner and he told her that he proposed just to prove that the story wasn't true. So she gave him back the ring and told him to wait until he really wanted it. And he hasn't called her yet this morning."

"Aw, sweetie. I'm so sorry. I'm sure everything will be fine…he was just nervous that's all. He didn't want people thinking it was true, he just values your relationship that's all." Kagome said, trying to comfort her as best she could.

Ayame nodded and sat up, wiping her eyes, "You're probably right…but I don't know Kags. It just seems…off. This is what I wanted, but I didn't want it stemming from a tabloid…why would they say things like that in the first place? I don't understand Kagome!"

"Shhh." Kagome said, smoothing Ayame's hair out of her face, "Everything will work itself out for the best sweetie. Just have faith. Kouga's a great guy; there is no doubt in my mind that he will do the right thing. He's not dumb enough to let you get too far away from him."

Ayame nodded and then looked from Sango to Kagome, "Thank you, both of you. You don't know how much you guys mean to me."

"Anytime hun, that's what we're here for. But now I have to go and put some clothes on" Kagome said, standing up.

"All right, have fun at your lunch today. I won't be home later tonight; I have a go-see"

"At night? That's weird" Sango said.

"Yeah, I know. But I don't question it. This client could be awesome, but I don't want to jinx it. Well you two get ready for lunch. We'll talk later tonight. Have fun tonight" she said, shooing them out of her room to go get ready for the day.

Kagome walked into her room and took the towel off her hair. She toweled off her hair a little before walking to her closet to decide what to wear. For the first time, she had no idea what to wear; she had no idea what someone is supposed to wear to meet with the only person they've ever loved after five years of separation. Part of her wanted to dress to make him want her even more but the other part of her wanted to dress plainer than usual. She pulled a yellow and white silk sundress out of her closet and laid it on her bed. She threw a pair of white pumps on the bed next to the dress and walked to her dresser to get underwear. She took her robe off and put her bra and underwear on. She slipped the sundress over her head and tied the sash around her back.

"My hair is a disaster" she said, looking in the mirror. She brushed her hair out and fastened it in a low messy bun. She straightened her bangs and curled some stray hairs. She looked in the mirror and smiled, she knew that she looked good and hoped that Inuyasha and Miroku would think so as well. She slipped her shoes on and grabbed a white purse and walked into the living room.

As she walked into the living room she saw Sango sitting at the bar drinking a glass of lemonade. She was wearing a light pink sundress, something that was very out of character for Sango. She normally strayed away from pink and dresses as well, Kagome knew that Sango was dressing to impress Miroku and that she would be very successful in her attempt.

"You look nice" Kagome said, pouring herself some lemonade and sitting on the other bar stool next to Sango.

"Thanks. Do you think Miroku will like it?" she asked with her cheeks turning a light red color.

Kagome smiled at her best friend's crush, "Of course he will. There's no way he won't think you look amazing."

"Thanks Kags"

A buzz rang out through the apartment, signaling that Miroku and Inuyasha had arrived to take them to lunch.

They both gathered their purses and put their glasses in the sink before walking to the door of the apartment. Sango opened the door and began to walk down the stairs. Kagome stood in the doorway and took a deep breath. I hope I'm doing the right thing. She thought to herself.

Sango was halfway down the stairs when she realized that Kagome wasn't following her, "Ready Kags?" she asked.

Kagome thought a moment and smiled, "Yes" she said, pulling the door closed behind her and rushing down the stairs, "I've never been more ready"

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Authoress' Note: I hope you all like it! A little drama mixing in there! Please review, I would be so happy. I love you all!