Prologue:
"You've had a lot of time to plan this, haven't you?"

If Kagome managed to not strangle Inuyasha with his own perfect hair, she deserved a medal.

"I'm not doing anything Saturday night," she said through gritted teeth, hoping he finally got the point.

"Yes, you are," he answered anyway, "I told you about it—"

"And I told you," she tried again, shoving her fingers under her thighs before she reached over and started grabbing hair, "I'm not doing anything Saturday night."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Kagome—"

"No. No. I don't go to this ball." She was pointing at his chest before she realized one of her hands were free. "I never go to this ball."

"Kagome—"

"There is no way I'm going as your date!"

"And I don't want you to!" Inuyasha snapped. He took a breath, raked a hand through his hair, then collapsed on the couch next to her. "This came out all wrong. Can I try again?" Before she could say anything, he tacked on, "—and no, I'm not asking you to be my date which you would know if you just listened to me."

She raised an eyebrow and motioned for him to continue. This should be fun.

"My parents are throwing a ball—"

"Like they do every year."

His eyes narrowed. "I can't get this out if you're going to keep interrupting me."

A smile threatened to break across the stern line of Kagome's mouth. He saw it and his mouth twitched.

"As I was saying—"

"Yes, Inuyasha," she cut in, fighting the smile tugging at her cheeks again., "your parents are throwing a huge ball and they do this every year and every year you find some reason to not go because there's no way I would ever agree to going to something this important and lie about being your date."

He took in another breath, but this time his eyes were laughing when he admonished her. "You know, if you'd just listen for a sec, you wouldn't be wrong all the time."

The smile finally broke through and with it, a laugh she'd been holding in for way too long.

"Yes, you're right about what we have done, but that's not what we're doing this year."

Kagome sat up, turning suspicious eyes on him. He was planning something. "It's not?"

"I just told you to listen."

"I would if you spit it out already."

"Some days I don't know whether I love you or I hate you."

"You wouldn't have me any other way."

Inuyasha nudged her shoulder. "You going to shut up now?"

With a dramatic sigh, she relaxed into the cushion. "If you insist."

"I'm taking Ayame as my date this year and every year after and you no longer have to smile and make nice with all the people that tell us what a cute couple we are ever again."

It took a moment for her to catch up to the rush of words he spat out, but when she did, she went boneless. What a relief. While she was always available to help her friends out, putting herself on the perpetual shelf for as long as Inuyasha and Ayame were hush hush about their relationship was exhausting. She couldn't remember the last time she danced with someone who was actually interested in her — and she'd been forced to way too many parties for that to be okay.

It was about time for Inuyasha and Ayame to finally be out—

Kagome jerked back up. "What are your parents going to say?"

"I told them yesterday."

"You what?!"

"Don't worry," he waved off her shock. "Apparently, they've known for years that we were just friends. Mom asked when they were finally going to meet my actual girlfriend and Dad asked if you got sick of batting your eyes at me and threatened to publicly dump me if I made you go as my date again."

"Your dad has always known me so well."

"It was," he sighed, ignoring her for his own memory, "it was a good conversation. Better than I thought it would be."

She rubbed his shoulder, a smile already growing. "I'm sure they were just happy you were talking to them."

"Which makes it worse." Inuyasha shook his head. "I hated lying to them, but I didn't want to ruin this, you know?"

Tucking her foot under her butt, she turned toward her old friend. "Inuyasha, it's okay. I'm sure they understand." He nodded, but remained silent, so she tugged at a strand of hair. "So tell me — if you don't need me to go as your date, why did you schedule a dress fitting for me?"

The question brought him out of his head and he grinned when he turned to answer her. That wasn't a good sign. "Because Mom and Dad made it explicitly clear — now that we're no longer lying to people, they want you to enjoy yourself."

Oh no. "They couldn't just let me enjoy the night at home?"

"Nope. In her own words," he cleared his throat and then put on his best worst imitation of his mother, " 'It's about time for Kagome to dance and drink and not have to worry about how you look for a change.' She set up your dress fitting, picked out your mask—"

"My mask?"

"Every time with you!" he laughed, smacking her thigh. "Will you let me finish?!"

She shrugged, long used to this banter between them.

"Yes, your mask. It's a masquerade ball this year," he put a hand over her mouth when she want to speak, "and Sesshoumaru has already agreed to use another model for his jewelry."

Whoa. Surprised, Kagome could only blink at Inuyasha. The few times Kagome had gone to an event alone — when Inuyasha had prior engagements — she stood in as Sesshoumaru's date. Not that Sesshoumaru ever brought a date date; he used his plus one invitation as free advertisement for whatever new collection he was about to release.

But this ball? This huge event? The biggest one they threw every year to celebrate his father's company's success?

Inuyasha's grin was beaming by now, proof that something else was going on in that head of his. "I've been debating on whether I should tell you or not, but Ayame and I agreed you'd kill me if I let you show up without warning." He cleared his throat and it took everything in her to wait patiently. "Mom has someone she wants you to meet."

She tore his hand away from her mouth. "What?!"

"Apparently, she's been using the time we've been fake-dating to pick out who she thinks is the best match for you."

"Your mother is trying to matchmake at the biggest event of the year?!"

"I don't know if she'll go that far. Just that she thinks there's someone you might be interested in."

Kagome promptly bit her tongue. There was someone she was interested in, but no way was she going to let Inuyasha's mother know.

"Don't worry, I didn't say anything about Kouga."

"Kouga?!" Kagome sputtered. "What are you talking about?"

"You think I haven't noticed? After the years I've known you?" he scoffed, his face letting her know he didn't buy that at all. "You absolutely have the hots for Kouga."

Her face flamed in a blush and she knew she couldn't stammer her way out of this one.

"Don't try to lie," Inuyasha shot her a hard look. "Every event we have, you've secretly checked the guest list to see if he was there."

"That's not true!" she lied.

"Oh, you had me fooled at first. You only relaxed when he wasn't going to make it, so for the longest time I thought something happened between you two."

"Inuyasha, I've never spoken a word to that man in my life."

"But the times he was there," he continued, completely ignoring anything she said, "you did everything you could to get out of dancing with me. Or flirting with me in general. It was almost like you wanted to appear single."

Busted. She was totally and thoroughly busted.

"And then I was worried that I had done something stupid and was taking complete advantage of you—"

"I would have said something."

"—until Ayame figured it out."

Kagome blinked at him, stopping her thought in its tracks. "Ayame?"

"Yeah. Remember that get together Kouga hosted after her first show?"

"You mean the one you told me was a casual barbecue and I was the only woman there who didn't wear a dress?"

He had the grace to wince. "That one. Ayame figured it out then when you kept looking at him."

"But—"

"Not that we blame you. Even Ayame said Kouga was looking fine dressed down like that."

She really didn't want to talk about this with Inuyasha, but Kouga had looked devastating at that lunch. Kagome thought his open collar and bared forearms couldn't get better until he turned around and she caught how his slacks hugged his hips. "And your mother doesn't know?" she asked quickly, trying to shove that memory to the back burner where Inuyasha wouldn't see her drooling over it.

"I don't think so. She hasn't said."

She sank into the cushions and covered her face with a pillow. If the couch would just swallow her up, that would be great.

"What's that for?" Inuyasha turned to her, pulling her arms down. "This could be your chance to talk to him."

"And say what?" she shot out, torn between laughing and panicking. " 'Hi, I'm Kagome. We've never spoken but I've been stalking you for years and think you're really cute. Want to get coffee with me sometime? Only it has to be cheap because my student loans are about to hit.' " She scowled at Inuyasha and threw the pillow at him. "Please."

Inuyasha somehow managed to dodge, the jerk. "You could just say the first part and ignore the rest."

She gaped at him. He had lost his damn mind. "Inuyasha, he's an award-winning fashion designer!"

"And you're an award-winning painter!"

"Awards don't count if they come from your university."

The glare he shot her was deadly. "Oh, don't start that shit again."

"What shit?" She sat back up. "Yeah, I'm good, but I'm not Kouga level good!"

"Bullshit!"

"He—"

"If you even start to use his success to tear yourself down when his parents—"

"Don't you dare credit his parents for his hard work!"

When Inuyasha didn't say anything, Kagome realized she just shouted at him. Shouted. Wonderful. She was doing a real good job trying to play off her crush. She readjusted on the couch, sitting shoulder to shoulder next to him.

"Are you done yelling at me?" he asked in amusement.

"Are you done being an idiot?" she responded, leaning into him.

"You know, I'm beginning to think that in this scenario, I'm not the idiot."

She grunted, poking at his side. "What does that mean?"

"How long have you had a crush on him?"

His sober tone took the fight right out of her. "A while."

"A long while?"

She sighed, shook her head, debated fudging her answer, and then gave him the truth he seemed to already know. "A long while."

"So you've been secretly watching Kouga while going to all these events as my date?"

She caught what he was implying. "If I really had a problem with it, I would have told you."

Inuyasha blew out a sigh. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Love me forever as your bestest friend in the whole wide world?"

That got him to laugh and she found herself smiling in response.

"Well, now we really have to talk to Ayame about your dress fitting."

"Ayame?" Kagome sat up and looked at her longtime friend. "Why would Ayame be doing the dress fitting?"

"Because she's the one designing it?"

"You didn't tell me I was wearing one of hers!"

"You think I'm going to let this crush you have on Kouga go? No, only the best for you and Ayame seems to have the perfect one in mind."