Author's Note: Wow, it's been awhile, eh? Sooo sorry for the wait; I had no idea it would take this long when I last posted or I would have warned you, but as promised I gave this story priority when I got time, and here's the result. Anyway, a lot of stuff (exams, play performances, etc.) just sort of piled up on me and to top it off my grandmother passed away a few days ago so things have been thrown off a bit for me. But don't worry, I'm okay. She had cancer and we knew it was coming, but it set on a bit faster than anticipated. Anyway it's probably better that she didn't have to linger too long. Well, now that I've thoroughly depressed everyone, let's move on to review replies (if I can remember what I was going to say…)!

    First of all, it sounds like most people thought the song in the last chapter worked well, which is good. I'm still playing around with the technique, but I think I'm getting closer at least!

Fallen-Snow: Yeah, I think you're right about the beats. I originally put them in as a guide and I replaced most of them but I couldn't figure out how to get rid of a few of them. Anyway, looking over it again I think I see how I could fix it. When I get a chance I'll tweak it some more. By the way, I read Life Exchange and I loved it! Oooh, but the part near the end with the rock…when he grabs her arm and…you know what I'm talking about…eeew. I'd say more, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone. Anyway, if you want to chat further, email me or IM me or something. I'd love to discuss it with you!

I am the master: You admire me as a writer? That's awesome, thank you so much! And I would be happy to give you tips once you write something. If you'd like you can send me stuff by email and I can look it over for you before you even post it, or I can just review it once it's up, either way. Anyway, let me know when you've got something -- I'd love to see it!

Alter Ego

Chapter 5: Communication

Miroku leaned his chair back on two legs at a somewhat precarious angle, resting his feet atop the small table in the staff room and spreading his newspaper out before him. He skimmed the headlines for items of interest, but as usual he found none. They were all about corrupt politicians, new 'miracle' diet plans, kidnappings, and the like. The real world was, in his opinion, far too depressing. Therefore he quickly found the section much more to his liking: Variety.

"Seen it, seen it, seen it -- ooh, Lord of the Rings is playing!"

Just then the door swung open forcefully and, lo and behold, Inuyasha marched in.

"Hey, what's up?" Miroku questioned casually, looking up.

The hanyou made no reply, but only walked forward purposefully and tossed a wad of bills into Miroku's lap, turning to leave. "It's over; you win," he muttered simply as he did so.

Miroku frowned in confusion, picking up the cash his friend had dumped on him. "Hey, wait a minute."

"What?" Inuyasha turned, a look of impatience on his face.

"Oh come on, seriously, you can't just throw some money in my face and not expect me to ask questions. What's this all about?" Miroku asked as he got to his feet, tossing the paper aside.

Fists clenching at his sides, the half-demon gave an irritated growl. "I told you, the bet's over and you won. I did not sleep with Kagome. That is your prize money. Am I going slow enough for you?"

He frowned in response. "Inuyasha, your time's not up for another day and a half. You could still do it and you know it, so why the hell are you giving up like this? What's the catch?" he added suspiciously.

Inuyasha's glare could melt steel. "There is no catch, okay, so but out, houshi," he snapped.

But something in all this didn't add up. Inuyasha, giving up on a bet against Miroku of all people? Unprecedented. No, there was definitely something going on, but...wait a minute. No way...

Miroku's expression turned gradually from puzzlement to understanding, an amused gleam appearing in his eye with a mischievous smirk to match. "Ooooh, so that's it..."

Now it was Inuyasha's turn to be suspicious. "What's 'it'?" he asked, eying his friend with some trepidation.

"You son of a bitch," the man mused, "You fell for her, didn't you?"

"What?! Fell for that...that...that woman! Ha!" but the flush in his cheeks belayed his words, not to mention the stutter in his voice and the fact that the best he could come up with to call her was 'woman.'

Miroku only grew smugger. "Oh for fuck's sake, Inuyasha, you suck at lying. You fell for her, and what's more, you know it, don't you." It wasn't a question.

"Like hell I..." he tried to argue, but the words just wouldn't come. "What do you know you jackass...I mean just cause I don't want to fuck her doesn't...oh god dammit!" How could he tell Miroku what had happened to him, what he was feeling. Hell, he didn't even know what it was. All he knew for sure was that he didn't want to hurt her -- but gods how he wanted her.

The dark-haired man only laughed. Oh yeah, he had it bad. "You poor twitterpated fool," he sighed condescendingly, giving the hanyou a patronizing little pat on the shoulder as he began to count his money on the way to the door. "Well, I knew you wouldn't be able to do it, but I must admit I didn't really think this would be the cause. Can't wait to see how Kagome takes the news, eh ol' buddy? Been nice doing business with you!" he finished with a jaunty smile and wave, calculated to annoy, and quite effectively so, as he swept out the door.

Inuyasha growled after him, fists clenching with the sudden urge to break something -- more specifically, a certain brown-haired bartender's neck.

-- -- --

In a shady corner of the crowded bar, just to the left of the back exit, an elusive female figure sat in quiet observation. Kikyo took an elegant drag of the cigarette perched comfortably between her fore and middle fingers, resting the heel of her expensively manicured hand against the surface of the table as she exhaled a cloud of curling white smoke in a slow stream.

Since she had taken over management of the club she rarely got to see it in action, working in her spacious office in the back, so she made it a point to come out every once in a while and have a cigarette and just simply watch the crowds. It kept her in tune with the business, and indeed it could be quite interesting at times. One saw things one otherwise would not see if one only took the time to sit back and observe. In fact even her employees rarely noticed her there, hidden in the shadows.

Out on the dance floor there was a couple dancing just a bit too close to be civilized, in Kikyo's opinion, and the man appeared to be nibbling at the woman's ear as his hands traveled up and down her body. However the detail which particularly interested Kikyo was the other, much larger and heavily tattooed man who was glaring daggers at the couple from the other side of the room. It just so happened that a couple of weeks ago Kikyo had been lucky enough to catch part one of the melodrama -- when the larger man had been equally close to the very same woman.

This ought to be interesting... she thought to herself with a slight smirk as the man made his way through the crowd to the couple. Upon reaching them he shoved them apart, knocking the woman to the floor and yanking the man forward by the front of his shirt until he was mere inches from his face.

"Who the hell are you, you motherfucking son of a bitch?!" the large man growled, loudly enough to make most of the surrounding couples turn to watch. Even the music seemed to get quieter.

The smaller man swallowed, quailing under the other man's fierce gaze as he clutched at the hands fisted tightly in his shirt. "I'm...uh I-I'm Hiroshi. Who-who the hell are you?" he questioned, sounding rather startled and confused.

"Don't be a smart ass!" the man growled back, giving him a shake.

"Dammit, Shin, let him go!" the woman demanded angrily, finally managing to get to her feet -- none too easy in a skin-tight mini-skirt, to say nothing of the three inch spike heels.

Shin rounded on her, still not releasing Hiroshi. "Shut the fuck up bitch!"

"Shin, no!" the woman screamed more desperately as Shin made to punch her new paramour. But fortunately he never got the chance.

"Hey jackass," came the voice of the silver-haired hanyou who had just managed to push through the crowd to the threesome, catching the man's fist and stopping it dead with ease, though Shin was clearly exerting his plentiful strength in an attempt to overpower him. "No fighting, got it? Now let him go or I'm gonna have to throw you out on your ass."

Shin's glare was now directed at Inuyasha, and was, if possible, even deadlier than before. But the hanyou merely quirked an eyebrow mockingly as if to say, what, you wanna fight me? The man's eyes narrowed, but he dropped his fist to his side and released Hiroshi, his eyes never leaving Inuyasha's.

"Fine," he ground out before stalking away, pushing roughly through the crowd. Inuyasha smirked at his retreating back and in turn made his way back to the bar as the music returned and couples went back to dancing. All the while Kikyo watched in fascinated amusement. She took a sort of guilty pleasure in these low-class human conflicts. After all none of her society friends would dare be so bold as to start a fist fight in public -- well perhaps some of her youkai friends, but even then it would always be referred to as a 'duel' or something of that sort.

She inhaled from her cigarette again and allowed her eyes to follow Inuyasha's progress back to the bar with interest. Of course she wasn't interested in him that way -- she was a happily married woman after all, and he was hardly her type to begin with; he was dirt poor, by her standards -- but there was something fascinating about him, from an objective standpoint.

As she watched, however, she couldn't help but notice another pair of eyes matching his progress as well, and of which the hanyou in question appeared quite unaware. Kagome, standing, tray in hand, near a table across the room, regarded him with what seemed a somewhat puzzled expression. It looked as though she weren't quite sure what to make of his actions. With a skill borne of frequent observation, Kikyo could all but hear the thoughts running through the woman's head. I've never seen him like that before... he was so -- chivalrous...who does he remind me of...?

Of course it might have helped a bit that, being the observant person she was -- not to mention the fact that she owned the place and knew pretty much everything that went on within it at any given time -- Kikyo was well aware of Miroku and Inuyasha's little wager. He office shared a wall with the staff room, and that alone provided her with some interesting dialogue from time to time.

Meanwhile, returning her attention to the hanyou, she saw that his smug expression had slipped into a more pensive one. Frankly, it was so unfamiliar on the man's face that Kikyo couldn't read what he was thinking at all, which she found quite frustrating indeed. But his eyes kept traveling to Kagome, who by now had returned to her waitressing duties.

Casting about for a distraction, her gaze fell upon Sango, who was walking toward the bar, presumably to order drinks. But she seemed intent to divert her gaze from Miroku and, although he was closer to her, she made a beeline for Inuyasha's end of the bar. As she passed by, Sango was so busy avoiding him that she completely missed the way he followed her with his eyes, looking somewhat crestfallen. Well this was new... Of course she knew there was something between the two -- for no one with eyes could possibly miss it -- but it seemed there was some piece to the puzzle she was unaware of. Had something happened between them without her knowledge?

She watched Miroku watch Sango, looking as if he were trying to say something but was afraid to even speak to her loud enough to catch her attention. Miroku tripping over his tongue? Unheard-of.

Once Sango had left to deliver the drinks, however, he seemed to gather himself and went after her. Unfortunately the table at which he caught up with her was all the way across the room, and well out of earshot. But Kikyo could see that Sango seemed to be trying to get away and Miroku wasn't going to let her. It looked as though he was...pleading with her about something? If only she could hear what they were saying!

Finally with a furrow of the brow and a sigh she glanced at the clock. She had best return to her work if she wanted to get home at a decent hour tonight -- well decent for her, anyway. She put her cigarette out and got to her feet, heading back to her office with her usual graceful saunter.

-- -- --

"Alright, you had the dry martini -- here you are -- and yours was the merlot, right?" Sango asked the couple with a pleasant smile as she served the drinks.

"Yep -- thank you," the woman replied with a smile and Sango turned to go attend to the next table...only to run directly into Miroku's chest.

"Holy -- Miroku!" she gasped, "Jesus, don't scare me like that." But when she tried to brush past him he blocked her. "Miroku what are you -- let me by!" she demanded, still refusing to meet his gaze, yet his eyes were trained relentlessly on her face.

"No, not until you quit ignoring me. Sango," he implored taking hold of her arm to stop her escaping, finally forcing her to look at him, "please, we have to talk about this."

"I can't right now, I have customers -- speaking of which, who's running the bar?"

"Inuyasha's got it. He dumped the whole thing on me for two hours the other night, I think he can handle it himself for ten minutes."

Sango sighed in exasperation when she tried to maneuver away and was blocked once again. "Alright fine, we'll talk. But not right now, okay, I'm really busy."

"When?" he pressed.

She rolled her eyes. "I don't know, whenever you want I guess. Just let me go okay?"

"Okay fine, we'll grab a bite after work then, okay?"

"Sure." Might as well get it over and done with as soon as possible. All she had to do was deny her feelings and things would go back to normal. Right?

Satisfied, he returned to the bar, and she watched him leave, having completely forgotten about all that 'work' she had to do now that the situation had passed. Could she really lie to his face about how she felt? But dammit, what else was she supposed to do, play the poor woman that everyone pitied for her unrequited love? She wouldn't be able to stand that -- especially from Miroku.

-- -- --

Sango pulled her coat tightly around her, crossing her arms over her chest as she walked along the sidewalk beside Miroku, at a loss for words. He seemed to be having similar difficulty thinking of what to say, hands jammed in the pockets of his jeans, so they merely proceeded to the little all-night diner in silence.

Once there Miroku held the door for Sango, to which she murmured a small, "Thanks," and entered, heading for one of the tables by the window. They had their pick, seeing as the place was practically empty at this late hour. Only off duty club workers and the occasional die-hard clubber ever ate there at this time of night.

She shrugged out of her coat and folded it in a corner of the booth, taking a menu and scanning it with her eyes as Miroku took a seat across from her. He noticed that she had yet to look directly at him, and he couldn't keep his eyes off her. However she was so concentrated on avoiding his eyes that she hadn't even noticed.

"What'll it be?" asked a young, somewhat voluptuous, blonde waitress as she flipped to a fresh page in her little notepad.

"Just a chocolate malt for me," he said with a smile.

"Sure thing Mir. How 'bout you Hon?"

Sango's suspicious gaze had snapped to the man's face when the woman addressed him with such familiarity.

Miroku looked back at her, waiting for her to order, slightly puzzled by the cold look she was giving him. What had he done to offend her now?

"I'll have the same," Sango answered flatly, finally looking away out the window into the night.

But Miroku continued to regard her in mild confusion at her attitude as the waitress left with their menus. "Okay," he said finally, "I give up. What did I do now?"

Her eyes met his only briefly before returning to the window with a somewhat sadly bemused expression. "Nothing, I guess. Nothing out of the ordinary, that is. Anyway you brought me here; what did you want to talk about?"

He swallowed and shifted in his seat. How should he go about this? "Well, I'm not really sure, I guess, it's just that you've been avoiding me lately -- you know, ever since that conversation we had -- and I thought we should get things out in the open. Sango," he laid a hand over hers, finally bringing her gaze to his face, "You're one of my best friends -- more than that in fact -- and there's no way in the world I'm going to lose you over some stupid fight. Please, tell me what I can do to make things up to you."

She regarded his genuine expression silently with tension building in her brow. Her eyes drifted down to the hand he had placed over her own, then back to his face. He looked so...lost, perhaps? Contrite? Pleading? Some combination of the three was probably most accurate. "Miroku, I don't think there's anything you can do to just make it go away. I...I just have to work things out on my own."

He frowned slightly as though trying to read her thoughts. "Look, I know you don't like me groping you and I promise I'll stop, but there's something else going on here and I'm just not sure I understand what it is. I mean, do you have feelings for me or am I just way off base on that one?"

She looked away, slipping her hand from beneath his and crossing her arms over her chest. He watched disappointedly as she retreated into herself and waited uncertainly for an answer, which never came. With a sigh, Miroku sat back against the booth and turned his eyes out the window as well.

The silence was broken by the return of the waitress. "Here you go," she said sweetly, placing a malt in front of each of them, and Sango watched Miroku give her a smile and a thanks, before returning her gaze to the window.

Miroku looked at Sango again, who seemed barely even aware of his presence. Just when he was about to give up on conversation completely, Sango spoke quietly.

"What is she to you?"

He frowned at her in puzzlement. "Who?"

"The waitress," she elaborated still staring out into the night, "Just humor me, what is she to you?"

It still seemed like a pretty random question to him but he answered, glad that she was at least speaking to him. "A friend. We went out a couple of times a while ago, I guess."

"Did you sleep with her?"

His brow furrowed as if trying to recall, "Yeah, I think so. Why? I don't get it."

She gave him a sort of flat, resigned look. "Of course you don't. Miroku, have you ever known a woman that you didn't sleep with?"

After pondering for a moment he offered, "My mother?"

Sango rolled her eyes. "Besides that, and ew, by the way."

"Not that I can remember. Seriously, Sango, why are you asking this?"

Her smile was self-deprecating and wry. "Just trying to figure out how much of a fool I am. See you later." With that she grabbed her coat and began to scoot out of the booth, but he stopped her.

"Whoa, hang on -- what?"

She heaved a sigh, resigning herself. "Alright, fine, you want to know where this is coming from? I'll tell you. I do have feelings for you, okay? No, not even that -- I'm head-over-heels in love with your stupid, oblivious ass and I've been foolish enough to hope that you might be capable of being in a serious, adult relationship. But that's not going to happen is it? See you around, Miroku."

He was so stunned at what she'd said that she was able to slide out of the booth and make her way out of the diner before he could even think to stop her again. She loved him? She loved him? Jesus, he thought putting a hand to his forehead. What was it she'd said about having an adult relationship? That he wasn't capable of it? What did she mean by that? She thought he didn't know what it meant to have a serious relationship? Of course he did. Just because he'd never been in one before didn't mean he hadn't thought about it. And just because he flirted with a lot of women and slept with most of them didn't mean he was completely oblivious -- that was Inuyasha.

Well, apparently he was a little oblivious, because he hadn't seen this coming. But that was just a male/female thing, he supposed. Sometimes women did the most irrational things...

That was when it dawned on him that Sango had left, and he got up to chase after her, tossing a few bills on the table as he hastily made his exit. He caught up with her about a block away, just standing there looking like she was trying desperately not to cry.

"Sango..."

She stiffened and turned to glance at him over her shoulder, before turning back to look straight ahead.

"Sango," he murmured again, approaching her and taking her by the shoulders to face him. He lifted her chin with a finger, gazing into brown eyes rimmed with tears before slowly lowering to press a tender kiss to her lips.

"No," she murmured painfully, pushing him away, but he held her fast. "Miroku, I will not be another one of your flavors of the week, okay? Let me go."

"No. Sango please, hear me out. I...I know you think I'm just some shallow, perverted jackass who sleeps with women indiscriminately, but that's not all there is to me. Please, believe me when I tell you that I know what a serious relationship is -- I've just never met anyone that I felt that kind of...connection with. Until I met you, that is. If I've been an insensitive idiot, well, I guess that's more because I have trouble understanding you sometimes. But I want to; I want to know everything about you Sango. I want to be with you."

Throughout this speech her eyes shifted back and forth, looking deep into his, trying to see if he really meant what he was saying.

"Just give me a chance," he whispered pleadingly.

That got her. She sank her lips into his once more, giving in to two years worth of wanting and waiting unsatisfied. Her arms curled around his neck as his hands tangled in her long, brown tresses. Their mouths moved sensuously together, each of them becoming more and more consumed by the pure rightness of the kiss.

Finally they pulled back only slightly, still close enough to touch noses from time to time, and Sango was genuinely smiling for the first time in days. "You didn't even grope me," she commented amusedly with a quirk of the eyebrow.

He raised both eyebrows in response. "Why, did you want me to?"

"Mmm...maybe later," she replied playfully and her grin grew mischievous, matching his own.

-- -- --

A/N: Well what do you think? I know you're all anxious to see Kag's reaction to Inu's little secret, and don't worry, it won't be long – I just thought I should give these two a little attention first! The best is yet to come… Review, pretty please!

    By the way, just to let you know I may be out of town next weekend (because of my grandmother) but I'm not quite sure what the deal is yet. Anyway the point is just that it may affect my posting of the next chapter, but I'll try my best to get it out in a timely fashion. Ta ta!