The reception was held at a nearby high end restaurant, where the meals were highly enjoyable, and desserts started with champagne and two side-by-side chocolate fountains of rather extraordinary proportions, and a small banquet of food items that could be dunked inside the small river of chocolate that cascaded down the sides of the fountains, which flanked the traditional layered cake.
Kagome had to chuckle at InuYasha's face when all of this was brought out, he must have finally met his match, with more food than he could possibly eat in one sitting.
Speeches were made, about the bride and groom, and they too made a speech, before food was stuck into, and the bar was opened.
Souta was waving his camera around wildly, as if trying to document every moment that occurred that night, or at least, the better looking half of the night, before he would be sent home.
Steve seemed thoroughly intent upon drinking himself into a stupor, and InuYasha seemed to have his heart set upon emptying the room of all food, this continued until the sun had well and truly set, and the guests who were families had to return to their homes, due to the late hour.
'Come on, InuYasha,' Darren was saying, as he pulled the hanyou over to the bar. 'Come and drink with me.'
'But, why?'
'Why not? It's tradition that everyone gets drunk at a wedding.' He said as he sat down on a stool, and ordered a drink that was unrecognizable to InuYasha.
He looked around, to see Kagome was standing with the other bridesmaids, and was holding a glass of something that bubbled.
He started slightly when a glass was set before him, something that smelt strongly of the berries he had been eating earlier, so strongly, in fact, he nearly missed the distinct tang of what made sake turn people strange.
'What is it?'
'Berry explosion. Go on, try it.'
He took a tiny sip, and discovered he liked the cool sweetness of it, and he sat down on the stool before him.
'So tell me something about yourself, InuYasha. You said your Father was from around the place, what about your Mom? Where was she from?'
A cloud clearly covered InuYasha's face. 'She was from the continent. I can't remember where exactly anymore.'
'When did you come to Japan?' Darren clearly had some tact, and dropped the subject, taking a drink from his orange and bitter-smelling drink.
'I dunno how long ago it was, but I was a runt back then.'
'Did you come straight to Tokyo? Or did you move somewhere else first?'
'I lived mainly in the countryside. I didn't like crowded places, or people, for that matter.'
'Oh? Why's that?' Both InuYasha and Darren cringed slightly as some people down at the end of the row decided to start singing.
A darker shadow crossed his face. 'People treat me different.'
Darren clapped him on the back, causing him to accidently inhale most of his drink, and he came out of it spluttering.
'Like me ma always used to tell me; they just don't know what to say.'
InuYasha somehow managed to give the guy a dry look through his coughing.
Darren shrugged. 'I know, it's cheesy. But there's not really anything anyone can do about it, right? We've just got to suck it up and deal with it until we find people who can accept us.'
'Keh.' InuYasha said, looking away darkly.
'I get where you're coming from, sort of, kids used to always pick on me, you know, because of my size and all? I lived with it for years before I filled out, and I tell you, they didn't want nothing to do with me after that,' Darren grinned menacingly as he cracked his knuckles.
InuYasha's thoughts idled back tho his own childhood, and how both humans and demons alike seemed dead-set on killing him, and his hands balled into fists.
'And hey, at least you've got that Kagome girl now, right? She seems to think of you pretty fondly.'
InuYasha found himself turn pink, his gaze roving back over to her, before looking back at him. 'What about you, are you, do you have someone?'
'Well,' Suddenly the tall man looked embarrassed, drumming his fingers on the counter top. 'Sort of.'
He continued his steady gaze until the guy elaborated.
'See, she's really nice, her name's Lilly. She's average height, and right now she's studying her PhD in modern history. Her hair's the colour of copper.' He added a little dreamily.
'So you like her.' Statement, not question.
Darren laughed nervously. 'Actually, I'm in love with her.' He corrected, finishing his drink.
'Have you done anything about it?' InuYasha said irritably.
'Well, we started going out a little over a week before I left to come here.' He said shyly. 'She couldn't come over because of work.' He called the bartender over and ordered himself another of his own drinks, and something that smelt of lemons for InuYasha, before looking around at him. 'How did you and Kagome start going out?'
InuYasha turned red at the question, not the response. 'I saved her life.'
'How'd you do that?'
'She was drowning, under a waterfall. I pulled her out, that's all.'
'Sounds pretty heroic. Did you know her before then?'
InuYasha privately thought that that was a stupid question. 'I'd known her long before then.'
Darren whacked him on the shoulder. 'So did she finally notice you, then?'
InuYasha ignored the numbing sensation that spread through his arm. 'Like I said, she'd seen me before.'
'No, I mean, did she finally notice how cool and heroic you were then?'
'She knew before then, but I don't know about when she started, loving me.' He frowned slightly, sifting back through his earlier memories of the girl, the whole idea felt a little strange.
Darren laughed. 'Women are a mystery, especially when it comes to that sort of thing.'
InuYasha took a drink. 'Don't I know it.'

Kagome's evening started splendidly, but looking back, she would wish she knew a little more about it.
She knew she spent a lot of it with a champagne glass in her hand that kept getting refilled, talking to Cara and Erika, and keeping a quiet eye on InuYasha, who seemed to be having a serious discussion about something over at the bar, after having been dragged away from the bare-looking food table.
And as the night progressed, she got more warm, she thought at the time that someone was overcompensating for the night with the heater, and her conversation got sillier, but nobody seemed to notice.
After a while, she helped herself to what was left of the chocolate fountains, along with the other girls, before moving over to where InuYasha was, as steadily as she could.
'You don't look so good, Kagome, you should stop drinking.' He had slurred a little.
'Look who's talking.' She'd giggled back, sitting next to him, and the tall man, Darren, had laughed, clearly more than a little plastered.
She'd stolen some of his drink, then.
After that, though, Kagome's memories of the night dwindled into non-existence.

Dun dun duuunnnn, nearly the end of this arc. I told you interesting things would happen! :3

K-enjeru, thanks! Nycorrall, hope this keeps it exciting :3 and Katieykat, you're right, all reviews of praise make me warm and fuzzy, but especially ones like yours. I send you cookies :) Also not quite, the story's not finished yet! I've still got another story arc to go, with explosions and ground shaking and everything! I hope you enjoy!

Please review!