Inutori: I'm SO sorry I didn't get this up sooner, and to show how sorry I am, I'll just say I don't own Inuyasha and let you guys go read the story.

Chapter 13

If You Love Me

Tuesday, July 6, 2004 (Kikyou's Birthday still)

Miroku found all of Sango's milkshake sprayed across his face after his seemingly innocent question.

"N-nani?!?" Sango's eyes were wide open as she stared at the supposed 'monk'. She couldn't believe that he had asked her that.

Apparently Miroku didn't think much of what he had just asked to the eighteen-year-old drummer. "Just trying to make some light conversation, Sango-sama."

Sango nearly choked again. "You call that light conversation?" She openly stared at the bass player and he shamelessly stared back.

"Well, are you?"

Clenching her fists, Sango attempted to refrain herself from killing the young star. She only succeeded partially and dove at him, mercilessly punching him to the point that he lost consciousness.

"There's your answer, pervert." The raven-haired girl stood up, brushing herself off like nothing had happened. She ignored the stares from the other restaurant guests and walked out of the café with her head held high.

Scene Change:

Ayame held her side, the wind knocked out of her still. "Ka-Kagura?" She looked up at her friend with confusion plainly written on her face.

"Don't 'Kagura' me. I'm not in the mood." Kagura stood tall, her red eyes flaring with anger.

"What are you doing?" Ayame was thoroughly confused, her green eyes hesitantly meeting the other demon's gaze.

Kagura chuckled. "You know exactly what I'm doing."

Ayame didn't answer, merely continuing to hold her side and stare at the wind youkai.

In answer, Kagura hit her again, sending her flying into the brick wall beside them. "I'm showing you exactly how weak and pathetic you are." Kagura walked over to the now crouching wolf slowly. "I know why the group is disbanded. I'm not stupid Ayame. So don't take me for some idiot." Her hand reached out and grabbed hold of Ayame's brown hair.

"ITE! Ite, ite, ite!" Tears formed in Ayame eyes as her body lifted off of the ground.

"Don't act so weak. You let emotions control you. You allow yourself to be selfish and greedy because of that weakness." Kagura growled at Ayame, lifting her higher, her grip on the wolf demon's hair firm.

Ayame forced her eyes open to look at the bass guitar player. "I'm not weak."

Kagura pushed Ayame up against the wall. "You're not weak? Ha. That's funny. If you're not weak, how can I be doing this to you? If you're so strong, why don't you try winning the heart of Kouga instead of killing the competition?"

"…"

"If you weren't weak, then you wouldn't take the easy way out of everything. You are always looking for the easiest way to get what you want. Only a weak person like you wouldn't want to work to earn what they desire." Kagura's eyebrows furrowed, giving her a look more menacing than before.

They stood there like that for a few moments before Kagura released Ayame's hair, allowing the wolf youkai to crumple to the ground.

"Think about it Ayame. Do you really want to win everything knowing you took the easy paths by cheating?" With that, Kagura left Ayame and returned inside the hotel to find a bathroom and clean the blood from her hands.

"Kagura."

She hadn't yet found that bathroom when someone called out to her. Turning around lazily, she found herself looking at the manager of Enchanted. "What do you want, Sesshoumaru?"

"That's Sesshoumaru-sama to you, lowlife." Kagura cocked an eyebrow at a little green toad at Sesshoumaru's heel. It looked as if it had been thrown in the fire a few too many times to count.

"What is that?" Kagura looked back up at Sesshoumaru in question.

"It is my repugnant subordinate Jaken." Sesshoumaru didn't look down at the hideous youkai, but instead allowed his eyes to linger on Kagura's blood-covered hands.

"You can say that again," Kagura mumbled under her breath. Then she spoke up, looking directly at the tall inu youkai. "What did you want?"

Sesshoumaru pulled out a couple files from his briefcase, handing them to Kagura. "You're name is Kagura Naraku, right?"

"Yes. What's your point?"

"Any relation to Onigumo Naraku, perchance?"

Kagura dropped the folder on the floor, her hands shaking. The contents of the envelopes scattered across the lobby floor, revealing a picture of a man with long, dark, wavy hair in a high ponytail wearing dark clothes.

"Wh-why do you ask?" She felt her heart pounding in her chest and her eyes were beginning to water.

"Just curious." With that, Sesshoumaru turned on his heel and left, leaving Kagura alone in the hotel lobby.

The toad turned to glare at her only a moment before following faithfully after the dog demon. Kagura fell back into one of the lounge chairs and closed her eyes, trying to breath.

Scene Change:

His cell phone wouldn't stop ringing, so finally Inuyasha leaned over and answered it. "What do you want?"

"You! I want you, babe!"

A disgusted look crossed his face as he recognized the voice on the phone. "No really, why are you calling?"

"To say your present for me didn't arrive. You did send it overnight express, right?" Kikyou's snobby voice penetrated Inuyasha's ear, causing him to growl in the back of his throat.

The guitar player rolled his eyes, silently cursing himself for forgetting it was Kikyou's birthday and that he should have known not to answer the phone. "Sorry, I must have lost track of time, Kikyou. I totally forgot it was your birthday today, otherwise-"

"That's okay! You can just get me an engagement ring to make up for it!"

"Listen carefully, woman. You and I are over. I didn't get you a birthday present because I DON'T CARE WHEN OR WHERE A BIMBO LIKE YOU WAS BORN and I definitely don't want to celebrate it!" Inuyasha crushed the phone in his hand, letting the pieces fall to the floor beside his bed.

"So, exactly how many phones do you go through month?"

Inuyasha flipped over and looked at Kagome, who was standing in the doorway connecting his room to the next one. "None of your business."

"From what I caught of that conversation, I'd say that was Kikyou on the phone." Kagome smiled at the frown covering Inuyasha's face.

"Kagome." Inuyasha rolled onto his back, facing the ceiling instead of his ex-girlfriend's little sister.

"Hm?" Kagome walked closer to the bed, standing just beside the mattress.

"When's your birthday?"

Kagome let out a rich laugh. "Came and went, bub. Sorry!"

"Do you want something? I mean, for your birthday." Inuyasha sounded subdued, and he was trying his hardest not to stick his foot in his mouth, like he seemed to have a knack for doing.

"You already gave me that necklace, silly. That was more than enough for me." Kagome sat down on the edge of the bed gently, sighing loudly.

"Something on your mind?"

"I think…I'm ready to tell you what's going on with me." Kagome's voice was soft and hesitant.

Inuyasha immediately sat up, showing Kagome that he was all-ears.

"Well, I come from a shrine, you know?" Inuyasha nodded. "I was born with some spiritual powers and such, but when I was born, some crazy scientist injected an experimental something-or-other into my blood stream. I don't know if it was supposed to, but it ended up enhancing my powers to the point where I can't control them."

Kagome paused, swallowing slightly and looking at Inuyasha to see what his reaction would be.

"So now, whenever I'm under a lot of physical or emotional stress, my powers get out of hand and I start blowing things up and purifying demons and the like."

Scene Change:

Kouga flipped through the magazine, bored out of his mind. A knock on his door brought him back to reality, and he sprang to answer it.

Swinging open the door, he was greeted with a disgruntled looking she-demon. She fell forward limply and he reached out and caught her out of reflex.

"A-Ayame?" He looked at the girl in his arms, smelling the definite copper-like scent in the air.

"Kou…ga." Ayame appeared to be barely conscious and was completely vulnerable.

The wolf youkai picked the brunette up and carried her to his hotel bed, where he laid her down gently to assess the damage. There was a large gash on her head, but that was all he could see.

He wet a towel from the bathroom and returned to Ayame's side, fully prepared to clean her up. "What happened to you?"

Ayame reached up and grabbed Kouga's wrist. "It-it's all…my fault. I'm so…sorry." Her green eyes were glazed over in some sort of shock and Kouga quickly shook her to bring her back to this dimension, not really caring about her injuries.

"What's all your fault? Who did this to you?"

Scene Change:

Inuyasha leaned back in his chair, thinking about everything that Kagome had told him. It all went right through one ear and out the other, in truth. But he had tried his hardest to listen.

He stood up, grabbing his guitar from its case on the small coffee table.

In the mood to sing a different kind of song, Inuyasha strung a chord on his instrument and closed his eyes.

If you love me baby

Show me now

If you care 'bout me honey

Don't let me down

What was his problem? Nothing seemed to be going well recently, including the whole 'world tour' idea.

Cause I'm a running around in circles

Without a cause if you

Don't love me honey

Just tell me now

Was chasing after Kagome Higurashi a lost cause? He wasn't quite sure. She was everything, and yet at the same time nothing, like the girl of his dreams.

Don't need to be used

Don't need to be someone's toy

I don't want to be a joke

So just tell me the truth babe

Everything was chaos. It was already the beginning of July and still nothing major had happened for him. Mr. Toroshima had promised that this summer would be the highlight of his career. What a career it was turning out to be.

Cause I'm a running around in circles

Without a cause if you

Don't love me honey

Just tell me now

Can't stand it when I'm in a bind

And you just laugh and say

"You've lost your mind"

Not really caring about me

Inuyasha couldn't straighten the thoughts out in his head, frustrating him even more than before. Life was so bizarre: why couldn't it just be like an ice cream sundae?

If you love me baby

Just show me now

If you care 'bout me honey

Don't let me down

Cause I'm a running around in circles

Without a cause if you

Don't love me honey

Just tell me now

If you love me

Inuyasha put down his guitar with a sigh. He flopped back on his bed and closed his eyes, trying to block out the knowledge of all of the problems around him.

Scene Change:

Ami sat on her balcony overlooking the city. The others might not be able to tell, but they were in St. Petersburg, Russia. The area was bustling, but Ami could only pick out bits and pieces of their speech.

With a yawn she stepped up onto the railing and jumped the three stories to the ground where she then proceeded to the local chocolate shop. Man did she ever need to quench her yearning for something sweet.

She followed her nose to the entrance of a small little shop about a mile away from the hotel. When she walked in, the bell above the door jingled, alerting the young man behind the counter of her entrance.

"Hi." Ami smiled sheepishly at the boy; sure her Russian was far too awful to be understandable, so trying her hand with English. "Do you have any…er…brownies?" She was at a loss for words as the teenage boy gave her a large grin.

"Of course! This is a chocolate shop, after all!" His English seemed pretty good, greatly relieving poor Ami.

Ami found herself blushing. The boy couldn't be that much older than her, and his auburn hair was pulled back in a high ponytail.

"So, what brings you to Russia?" As she looked closer, Ami saw his pointed ears and teeth, indicating that he was a demon.

"I'm on tour with my band."

"You're in a band?" The boy looked up at her from where he was grabbing a brownie from off of the plate on display.

"Yea. Sorta. One of the girls is being finicky right now and won't play, but that'll be resolved soon, hopefully." Ami put her hands behind her back, rocking onto her heels then onto the balls of her feet with nervousness.

The boy gave her another toothy grin. "The name's Shippou Fox! What's yours?"

"Amilia Kawaii. But all of my friends call me Ami." Ami smiled back at him, her cheeks becoming redder by the minute.

"That's Japanese, isn't it?" Shippou continued smiling, leaning on the counter separating the two of them.

"Hai. And you're a kitsune youkai, ne?"

"I'm not so good on my Japanese," Shippou leaned back and scratched the back of his head, "but yeah, if that's a fox, yeah, sure I am."

Ami smiled brightly and pointed to herself. "So am I!"

They laughed lightly together, even though there really was no joke.

I

Do

Not

Sleep

Inutori: There. I've finally introduced Shippou. He's Russian…we can pretend, right?

Shippou: But I don't know a word of Russian.

Kagome: Nor does Inutori. But don't tell her I told you.

Inutori: You know, I'm standing right here, Kagome.

Kagome: Oh! Hehehe. Gomen ne!

Gem: I expect everyone to review, or else.

Inuyasha: Or else what?

Gem: Me and Dray will come to get you while you sleep. We'll be sure to bring our scythe.

Inuyasha: Ooh, how threatening.

Sagi: Don't you forget, Gemini IS the Grim Reaper. I wouldn't take her threats so lightly. So you better all review!

Inutori: Until next chapter, ja ne!