Disclaimer: No, I don't own him, alright. Not Inuyasha and not any of his friends or even the world they live in. imitating Billy Cristal in "The Princess Bride" and thank you so much for bringing up such a painful memory…In the meantime, why don't you give me a paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?
A/N: Okay, I am soooo sorry for not posting earlier. I know there's not a slew of people wondering about where this fic is going, but still, after I get the most reviews ever (4 for one chapter! It's a record!) I have to go on hiatus for a few days! The problem was that I wrote the chapter a few days ago, but I always read it before I post it and when I started reading it the other night (around 2 am) I couldn't believe how stupid it sounded. I was not happy with it at all, and I knew that I would need to majorly revamp it so that I was happy with it, but when I tried to do it that night, I couldn't even realize why it was that I didn't like it. So, I figured I needed some distance from it before I could do anything and then the last few days I was swamped with stuff and I couldn't get around to it. Today, finally, I got enough sleep (sleep deprivation had been one of those things that had been hindering me) and last night I devoted some time to my best friend (who was feeling hurt because I hadn't) and so today I was finally able to fix the story so that I don't feel ashamed in posting it. I'm still not completely happy with it…it has the feel of it of one of those chapters that just needs to get written but you're not certain how good it is and there doesn't seem to be anything you can think of to make it tighter, more flowing, better.
Well anyway, that's just the way I feel about it. Please write and review and let me know what you guys think. It'll really help me for this one! Really!
Thanks: lunemangelusà I'm so glad that I haven't lost your interest yet! Thanks for reviewing again. Oh, and as you'll probably see in this and the next chapter, he can be pretty dense, but I think I'm exploring why that might be for him, too. At least, I hope it ends up working out that way! ^_^;; We'll see!
Sailor Universe à oodles and oodles of thanks go out to you for reviewing again, too! Can you imagine what an Inuyasha all well bread and mannerly would be like? Hmmm…nope, no fun at all! ;-D
Moon Fairy à Welcome! And thanks for reviewing! I really, really, really appreciate your review. It meant so much to me that you like the way I'm trying to go in depth with the characters! I'm still blushing! And your belief that the reviews will come is heartening and makes me hopeful! Thanks again!
Lachesis à I know! But hey, in my world, Kagome was a bit of a partier before she started going to Feudal Japan. After all, they said she was an average girl, didn't they? I don't know in Japan, but here an average girl meets people and goes to parties…she *could* have met a bouncer? Maybe? Oh, well…I'm glad it works despite being OCC. I'm glad you think it's not so OOC that it doesn't work. Thanks for the support! ;)
Chapter 5: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun or She Bags
"Oh girls just want to have / That's all they really want / Some fun / When the working day is done / Girls--they want to have fun / Oh girls just want to have fun."
~+~
"Well if it looks like love should be a crime / You'd better lock me up for life / I'll do the time with a smile on my face / Thinking of her in her leather and lace"
-She Bangs, Ricky Martin
Kagome turned without quite knowing why and found herself staring right into Inuyasha's angry eyes. Before she could help it, she grinned. She surprised herself with the amount of relief that flooded through her at seeing him there.
Inuyasha frowned, taken aback by her reaction.
"Glad you decided to make it, Inuyasha," Kagome spoke over the music.
"No thanks to you," Inuyasha replied, not to be deterred from his present bleak mood. He was keeping an eye on the perverts who were staring at Kagome. When one went so far as to stare at her hindquarters as he approached, Inuyasha looked over Kagome's shoulder and glared at him. Even in the dim, smoky room the man must have gotten the idea because he swerved directions and averted his eyes.
The music changed to a more up-tempo beat and Kagome's grin went wider. She turned to her side to find Sango staring at them and trying to ignore Mirouku's stares next to her. She took Sango's hand in hers and tugged. "Come on, we're dancing," she said to her.
Inuyasha reached out and took her arm "Is that all you got to say?" he asked, not wanting to drop the possible argument.
"What else can I say?" Kagome asked innocently. "I *said* I'm glad you're here."
Inuyasha huffed. "Well, sorry might be a good start."
Kagome grinned. "I didn't know you were familiar with the word, Inuyasha!" she quipped, leading Sango away before he could answer.
Inuyasha resisted the urge to call after her. 'There she goes,' he thought. 'Turning her back…again.'
+~+~+~
"We?" Sango yelled over the music.
Kagome nodded. "Yes, *we* are." She pulled her out to the dance floor and smiled encouragingly at her. She neared her so she wouldn't have to scream. "Just let your body go where the music takes it," she said.
Sango shook her head. "I don't know what you mean," she pointed out in Kagome's ear.
Kagome found her friends just beyond them on the dance floor and motioned them over.
"Sango's new at this," Kagome told Eri. "We need to help her loosen up."
Ayumi grinned and handed Sango a cup. "Take a swig of this, that aught to do the trick."
Sango took a gulp and gasped, coughing a little. "What is that?"
Kagome took the cup from Sango and brought it up to her nose, then smelled. It was fruity, but the alcohol was still noticeable. Tequila. Great. She handed it back to Sango. "It's something called Tequila," Kagome shouted. "It affects your inhibitions and if you have too much of it, it'll get you drunk," she explained, taking a drink from the cup then handing it back to Ayumi. "You probably shouldn't have any more of it," she told Sango.
Sango knew about inebriation. She'd seen people use plants to dim their conscious or to forget. She'd also seen them so dependent on the stuff that they became like maniacs if they couldn't have it. She didn't want to be like that. "Is it addictive?"
Kagome looked at her seriously. "Oh, no," she said. "If you have too much, you might act stupid and enough will make you throw up and have a horrible time tomorrow morning, but a little only makes you…happy." She shook her head. "Since you've never had any, who knows how much might affect you, though, Sango, you probably shouldn't have any."
Sango thought about it and reached out for the cup in Ayumi's hand. Ayumi grinned and handed it over. Sango brought the cup to her lips and took another long gulp. "This kind of grows on you, doesn't it?"
Kagome, Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka laughed, Sango joining them.
"Yeah, I guess it does," Kagome replied.
"You'll get to like it soon," Ayumi winked.
Yuka handed a cup to Kagome, a fresh one to Ayumi and one to Eri. She raised hers into the center of their circle, heedless of the throngs of people dancing around them as they were still on the dancefloor. Kagome, Ayumi, and Eri followed suit. Kagome motioned for Sango to do the same.
"It's called a toast," Kagome told her.
Sango wasn't sure she knew what a 'toast' was, but she figured it couldn't hurt to do as they do, Yuka seemed to be waiting for her, so she raised her glass and held it side to side with those of the others.
Yuka grinned at her, then looked at the rest of the girls. "To Eri's birthday!" she exclaimed.
"To Eri!" everyone echoed, clinking classes and then bringing them up to their lips for a long drink.
Sango followed the others and laughed as she felt the liquor travel down her throat. It was a not unpleasant sensation. "I think I like Tequila," Sango said aloud to the group.
Kagome smiled and nodded. "Yeah, me too!"
Sango could really feel the music in her blood now. It wasn't the alcohol yet either. She didn't feel any of the inebriation Kagome warned her would happen, but the choice to take the drink even though she knew what might happen had been the kind of decision that unbound her inhibitions in its own way. She realized how swaying the music was, how the beat echoing around them seemed to make her blood run faster. The music shifted smoothly into another rhythm, a woman's voice coming over the speakers and singing.
Kagome's friends applauded when Sango's body started to move in time to the music, her arms caressing her body and her hair as she had seen others do. The cup was gone from her hand but if she had put it down or it had been taken from her, she couldn't remember. She felt someone's arm brush her back and a leg brush her leg, but she didn't care. The music was all around her, the lights were pulsating as if in time to the music. The energy was vibrating and the touches only seemed right. It was like they were one big mass of movement, each body giving energy to the whole. Sango smiled, leaning her back onto Kagome's back as they both moved to the music.
+~+~+~+
"I didn't know that Kagome knew how to move like that," Mirouku told Inuyasha as they stood by the bar.
Inuyasha tried to ignore the monk but couldn't. The spell they had placed on Inuyasha's ears to protect him from the loud sounds of the club didn't allow him to ignore any sounds, just hear everything at a much lower decibel. He could still feel the beat vibrating around them all and wasn't sure that it was only from the level that the music was played.
"What do you want me to say about it?" Inuyasha asked crankily.
"If you're going to be cranky, Inuyasha, why'd you come?" Mirouku asked. "Take in the scenery, bask in the energy of the place…enjoy yourself!"
Inuyasha spared him a glance and it was not pretty.
Miruoku sighed. "You can't keep all the men from looking at her, Inuyasha," he said seriously. "She made sure of that with that dress, and she said as much before we came here."
"I could always take her out of here by force," Inuyasha said under his breath.
Unfortunately, the monk was attentive and heard it. "And what would that solve?"
"It would keep her out of danger, make her easier to protect."
"And what if that's exactly what she doesn't want?"
Inuyasha glared at Mirouku. "What do I care what she wants, monk?!" Inuyasha exclaimed. "I want to keep her safe from Death, don't you?"
Mirouku sighed and crossed his arms. "Of course I do," he answered seriously. "But you heard what the old witch said…she cannot be protected from her confrontation of death, she cannot hide from it, and…"
"At least elsewhere I'd have the Tetsaiga," Inuyasha interrupted.
"And," Miruoku continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "There's nothing we can do to Death…it needs to be her."
"That's stupid," Inuyasha spat. "There's plenty we could do."
Mirouku sighed.
"I'm thinking of a few things right now, as it happens," Inuyasha growled as a man approached Kagome and started dancing in her vicinity. Kagome seemed to enjoy the movement and smiled at him. That was all the man needed to close the distance between them and move in time to her rhythm.
Inuyasha hadn't realized he was moving until he felt a restraining hand on his arm. He looked at it and followed it up to see Mirouku raise his eyebrows at him. "Unless you're going to dance with her, you shouldn't interrupt."
"Who are you? The keeper of the dance?"
Mirouku shrugged. "Why do you want to stop it?" he challenged. "She's not in any danger."
"What's your problem, Monk," Inuyasha asked, clearly frustrated. "Shouldn't you be looking for the future mother of your children?"
Mirouku recognized the jibe for what is was: a shift of attention and a change of subject. Still, he shifted his vision from Kagome dancing with the man to Sango at her back, dancing with a strange man of her own. His jaw dropped with the way she was moving. His mouth started to go dry. "Gods protect me," he whispered. "She is amazing."
Inuyasha glared at him. "How can you watch your woman dancing with another man and say nothing except how amazing she is?"
Mirouku smiled at him. "She's just dancing, Inuyasha," he said gently. "There's nothing I should be jealous of." He wiggled his eyebrows at him. "Also, she's not my woman…" Mirouku grinned sheepishly. "At least I haven't made her realize that yet."
"I didn't say you should be jealous," Inuyasha said defensively. "But can you really tell me that you can just stand here and watch her dance with another man and not care?"
"I do care," Mirouku said. "I wonder why it's not me, and I marvel at how graceful she moves, and I'm tempted…" he trailed off and exhaled. "But not jealous in the sense that I feel threatened I might lose my chances with her." Mirouku shrugged. "It's just dancing."
"You sure about that?" Inuyasha asked smugly.
Mirouku followed his line of sight and saw the man getting mighty close to Sango, close enough to whisper in her ear. Sango laughed, but didn't return the favor. The man repeated the action and Sango shook her head. She spoke without nearing the man. Mirouku turned to Inuyasha. "What did she say?"
Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and grinned evilly. "I thought you didn't care?"
"I never said I didn't care, I just said I wasn't jealous."
"So then what do you care what she said?" Inuyasha prompted teasingly.
"Because that's not just dancing!" Mirouku pointed at the conversation taking place on the dance floor.
"Ha!" Inuyasha exclaimed. "So you admit it that you're not as cool and collected as you were pretending to be!"
"I admit nothing," Mirouku replied, schooling his face into blandness once again.
"Fine," Inuyasha replied, clearly the victor.
"Are you going to tell me what she said or not?" Mirouku asked.
Inuyasha shook his head. "Nope."
"And why not?" Mirouku queried.
"Because I don't know…" Inuyasha pointed to his ears. "Can't hear as far…spell, remember?" he asked smugly.
Mirouku's eyes narrowed into slits, but he refrained from making any further comment. Inuyasha had won that round. He looked at the conversation still taking place under the guise of dance and thought of something. Mirouku started toward the dancing couple only to be stopped by an oppressive hand on his arm. He turned to see Inuyasha grinning at him.
"Where are you going?" Inuyasha asked. "Wasn't it you that asked me why I would want to stop the dancing if it was just dancing?"
Mirouku smiled knowingly. "Yes, but I'm not going to stop it," he replied calmly.
"No, then what?" Inuyasha challenged.
"I'm going to join it," Mirouku answered easily stepping out of the grip of his shocked friend.
Inuyasha watched in stunned silence as Mirouku made his way across the dance floor to where Sango and Kagome were still dancing, each with a partner. Kagome's partner was also trying to make conversation with her, but Inuyasha could tell by her body language that she wasn't interested. Maybe Mirouku was right. Maybe he shouldn't be overreacting. He turned back to look at the monk just as he reached Sango's side. He bowed slightly and extended a hand to Sango. Sango grinned and took it, ignoring the man who had been trying to make conversation with her.
Kagome noticed that Mirouku had joined them on the dance floor and reached out to squeeze his shoulder. She called something out to him, but Inuyasha had been serious about not being able to hear them over the spell. Mirouku answered and Inuyasha could've sworn he saw the monk's lips form his name.
+~+~+
A/N: Okay, so I don't know what went on with this chapter, I just felt like I needed to write it. What do you guys think?
Please review and make me feel better!