Kagome stuck one toned leg out, and then another. Fingertips reached up, brushing against the rough, yet familiar skin of his palm. She had sunglasses on, shielding her eyes from the incredibly bright flashes of the camera. Her necklace sparkled in the light, earrings dangling as she stepped out of his car. She heard her name called, but she ignored it, smiling up at Inuyasha as he grabbed onto his hand, letting him guide her out of his car. She stepped aside for a moment, letting him shut the door. A hand came up to fix her hair, making sure the curled ends of it sat just right. Her other hand held a black purse, its golden accents gleaming.

Fingertips brushed against the smooth skin of her exposed back, and her head turned to look at Inuyasha, as she pushed her sunglasses up atop her head. "Ready?" he asked her, fingers turning slightly against her back. She could feel his fingernails scratch against the skin of her back, sending a shock down her spine.

At this point, they had their chemistry in public down to a T. He acted like the dotting boyfriend, eager to shower her with affection and luxury. Kagome acted like his angelic, well-mannered girlfriend.

"Yes." Kagome said, and Inuyasha nodded, giving her a small tap on her back, a signal to start walking.

'Gorgeous, Kagome!'

'Kagome, look over here please!'

'Inuyasha! Over here! Please!'

'Beautiful couple, you two!'

'Love the hair!'

'Stunning dress! Who is the designer?!'

'Are you ready for your next fight, Takahashi?'

'Have fun at your birthday party?!'

She glanced behind her, a hand reaching over her shoulder as she twiddled her fingers in acknowledgment of them. Almost instantly the cameras began flashing again, nearly blinding her.

"Is it just me," Inuyasha said through a smile as they walked into the expensive sushi restaurant, "or are there a lot more of those, these days?" He asked, pulling open the door and motioning for Kagome to walk in before him.

"There are," Kagome said, looking over her shoulder and through the glass doors for a few seconds, before following Inuyasha. "Sango says that they're always hanging out near Cafeium."

"Of course, they are," Inuyasha said quickly before talking to the hostess. His attention turned back to her. "It's your business, Kagome."

"Yeah but I'm barely there."

"Your name is attached to it," Inuyasha said. He motioned for Kagome to follow after him as he followed the hostess to their table in a quiet corner of the otherwise lively and bustling Sushi restaurant. "Of course, they're going to go there a lot. They want a glimpse of you."

Kagome rolled her eyes at his comment, sliding into her seat, crossing one toned leg over the other. Her eyes danced around the restaurant, taking in her surroundings. It had a dark yet elegant feel to it. Which was only accentuated by the illuminated white marble tabletops, and dark walls. "Have you come here before?" She asked, eyes settling back on Inuyasha, who was already staring at her. "What?" She asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyes flickered to the small sake cups on the table, and she gulped.

Fuck.

"Nothing," Inuyasha said, sitting back in his seat. "I've come here a few times."

"Did Miroku pick this?"

"No, actually." Inuyasha said, giving Kagome a small smile. "He couldn't pick a place to ship us off to, so I did."

"And you chose this place?" Kagome asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why? Is it your favorite?"

"What the fuck is this? An interview?" Inuyasha asked jokingly as he rolled his eyes at her. Kagome laughed, causing his ears to point forward. "So many damn questions," he continued.

"Alright...alright. No more questions."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at her, a knowing look on her face. "You...that...no." He chuckled, shaking his head, "that's impossible with you."

"No, it's not!"

"Wanna bet?" He asked, "Hundred dollars says you won't ask me a single question tonight."

"That—that's not fair! How are you supposed to have a conversation with no questions?!" Kagome countered, mouth hanging slightly ajar. Inuyasha's eyes flickered down to her lips, colored a nude pink color. The makeup on her cheekbones reflected the light from the marble just slightly, giving her a sort of glowing look. Inuyasha shrugged.

"Figure it out then."

Kagome stared back at him, eyes flickering over his face. She bit her lip, shaking her head a bit. "You...are...impossible." She said, laughing.

"No, I'm not. I just know you can't go all night without asking me a question."

Oh, you are on. Kagome shrugged. "Okay, bet." She responded. "I won't ask you a single question, and still have a conversation with you."

Neither one of them noticed the waitress that stood awkwardly at their table. Kagome was the first to notice her, and when she did she was quick to kick her heel into Inuyasha's shin, causing him to open his mouth and widen his eyes in pain.

"Ouch!" He hissed, glaring at her. The waitress cleared her throat.

"Inuyasha, right?" She asked, beaming a smile in his direction. Inuyasha nodded. She turned to Kagome. "And you're Kagome?" Kagome, too, nodded. "Great! Well, welcome to Kaifū. We're super excited to have you guys here with us tonight. You placed reservations for the Kaiseki Ryori, correct?"

"Yup." Inuyasha said, causing Kagome to blink. Kaiseki?!

"Great," The waitress replied, "Ours consists of 11 courses, each one made with ingredients that are currently in season. The first course will be out in just a few minutes." She continued. With a glance between them, she bowed slightly before leaving their table.

"Kaiseki?" Kagome asked, sitting back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest, Inuyasha gave her a look. "It's not a question to you...it's more so a reaction."

Inuyasha was going to ask her if she'd ever had it before, but he closed his mouth, thinking of a way to ask the question without actually...asking. "It's good. I enjoy it."

"I've never had it," Kagome replied. "It's sort of one of those things that you hear about, but like, don't expect to experience." She added. "At least, to this extent," Kagome said, motioning her hands around them.

"It's...an experience, for sure." Inuyasha responded, "It sort of takes some getting used to."

"I figured," Kagome said, not sure of what to do now that she's made this—admittedly, stupid— bet with Inuyasha. She felt like she wasn't going to win.

Suddenly a small plate was set down in front of her. Kagome picked up the sake cup with her hands, holding it for the waitress to pour. When she was done, Kagome set it back down.

Kagome watched as Inuyasha stared at the alcohol being poured into the cup he held. He seemed visibly uncomfortable, biting into his lower lip. Kagome's eyes flickered away from him, back to her cup of sake.

Should I drink it?

Before, she wouldn't have questioned taking a drink in front of him. She didn't know what she knew now. She tuned out the voice of the waitress as she explained what the appetizer consisted of. They muttered a thank you, and the waitress bowed away.

Kagome looked rapidly between the sake, the food, and the chopsticks that rested on a little stone rest before they looked up at Inuyasha. "I have to ask you one question." She said, holding up a finger.

"I don't mind," Inuyasha said quickly, as if he already knew the question that she was going to ask. Like he was expecting it from her. "It's part of the experience, right?"

Then he noticed what he had just done. "Fuck!" He cursed. Not loud enough for the rest of the restaurant to hear, but enough for the few tables around them to hear him. Kagome giggled, bright and airy and devious. Like she was amused to see him mess up.

"I lost." He muttered, ears drooping.

"I didn't even ask a question," Kagome said in a sing-song voice, picking up her sake. She felt Inuyasha's shoe tap lightly against the point of her heel.

"Asshole," Inuyasha said, shaking his head as he followed suit. "Kanpai."

"Kanpai," Kagome responded, taking a sip before setting the sake back down. Playfully, Kagome tapped the side of her foot against his ankle, watching a flash of surprise come across Inuyasha's face.

"You…" Inuyasha began, mouth hanging slightly ajar. Kagome watched him carefully, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

"I?" She asked, raising her eyebrows. Her hand came up to scratch at the tattoo behind her ear. Inuyasha stared at her, like some dumbfounded individual. Growing a bit worried, Kagome looked around herself, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary, or at least...that looked out of the ordinary. "Inuyasha?"

"Nothing." He said, picking up his chopsticks. "Forget it."

"Well, no." Kagome said with a small laugh, "I can't just forget it. What is it?"

"You...you're definitely trying to play footsies with me, aren't you?" He asked, giving her a cocky grin. Kagome sputtered, feeling heat rush to her face.

"Okay—no! I only kicked you in the shin because the waitress was staring at us!"

Inuyasha nodded his head, chewing on his food. "Uh-huh."

"Honest!"

"Sure."

"Inuyasha!"

"That's my name." He muttered, eyes flickering up from his food, settling on the chopsticks in Kagome's hand that she held with a death grip. "You're so offended."

"Am not!"

"Uh-huh."

"You're impossible!" She whisper-yelled, glancing around the restaurant. "I was not playing footsies with you, I would never play footsies with you, that's gross!"

Inuyasha's right hand went up to his chest, clutching the fabric of his shirt that covered his chest. Kagome looked just briefly in the direction of his arm, watching as his bicep flexed against his shirt, the fabric stretching over his muscle. "Wow really? Same fucking here." There was a glimmer of something dark in his eyes as he said his next words. "Stop fucking kicking me."

"Fine," Kagome said through grit teeth.

"Fine," Inuyasha repeated.

It took a while for Kagome to talk to him again, let alone look at him head-on. Although she would be lying if she said she hadn't been stealing glances in his direction whenever possible. "Is the bet still on?" She asked suddenly, when they were between courses.

Inuyasha scoffed, "I lost it, dumbass. Of course, it's not on anymore."

"Okay, so can I ask you about your day, then?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her, caught off guard by her question (request?). "My day?"

"Yeah. How was your day?" Kagome asked, trying to make conversation. She couldn't stand sitting in silence, especially not at a dinner table. Her hand ran across the smooth, cold surface of the marble tabletop. Her index finger drew small circles and lines across the surface.

"Not all that eventful." He admitted, shrugging. "Talked to Miroku about my fight with Naraku and some stupid fashion thing, went to practice, and…now we're at dinner."

Kagome looked up from the counter, his statement had caught her interest. "Hold on," She said, holding up a hand. "We have to go to a fashion show?"

"Not a fashion show. It's the Met Gala." He muttered, waving his hand dismissively. "We aren't going. I told Miroku to decline on our behalf."

Kagome felt like she wanted to climb over the table and hurt him, but she couldn't, or, erm, she wouldn't. Who rejects the fucking Met Gala? "Why not?" She questioned, in the most polite tone she could muster. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her, laughing a little.

"Are you serious? I'm not gonna be a free advertisement for a designer at some dumbass event with people I don't know and don't care about and don't want to be around." Inuyasha muttered, "This is my second time being invited and my second time declining."

Kagome frowned.

Inuyasha noticed, but he didn't say anything.

"Your fight with Naraku?" Kagome asked, trying to steer the conversation away from something that he felt very strongly about. Inuyasha sighed.

"He wants to move down a division."

"I don't know what that means," Kagome said with a blink.

"Go down in weight."

"There's weight divisions?"

"Oh, my fuck—" He stopped himself, noticing the knowing smirk that was on Kagome's face. "Funny. Very Funny."

"I know that there are weight classes, Inuyasha," Kagome said with a laugh. "But I didn't know you could move between them. Can you do it at will?"

"Basically, yeah." He said, shrugging. "If I decided tomorrow that I wanted to fight at both welterweight and middleweight, I could do so."

"And right now you're a welterweight, right?"

"Yes." Inuyasha said with a nod, "but Naraku wants to fight at lightweight. I'd need to drop something like fifteen pounds to fight him."

"And when do you fight him?"

"That's the fucking thing." He said, gesturing with his hand, "I don't know yet! Miroku says his team is being pissy. Which I don't understand because we've secured MSG for the fight, and as far as I know, both teams have to be on board with the venue. That would mean that they worked together and—"

He was rambling but Kagome had stopped listening. She blinked at him.

Once.

Then twice.

Then three times before she opened her mouth to speak, hands waving around in the air, trying to get him to stop. "You...you're fighting Naraku at Madison Square Garden?!"

"Yes," Inuyasha said plainly, before laughing at her. "Holy shit—you didn't know?"

"No!"

"Miroku told me at my birthday party." Inuyasha explained, "He pulled me aside to tell me. He seriously hasn't told you?" I was too high to remember much besides him telling me that I'm fighting there, anyways.

"N-No!" Kagome exclaimed although she tried her best to keep her voice low. "I had no idea that was a thing, Inuyasha. Holy shit! Congratulations! That's such a big accomplishment!" Without thinking much, Kagome rose to her feet, and came around the table, wrapping her arms around him to hug him.

"T-thank you?" It felt weird.

Being congratulated for an accomplishment felt extremely weird, the concept was essentially foreign to him. Sure, he'd had many people say the word to him, but it always felt like some sort of formality. When his brother said it to him, it was always with a malicious bite, and it almost always came after a major fuck up.

So to hear Kagome gleefully squeal out the word as she came around the table to wrap her arms around him, felt odd. He'd never really had people congratulate him and have it be as genuine as hers. "You must be so proud of yourself!"

"I guess," Inuyasha muttered into her skin, inhaling her scent.

"You guess?!" Kagome asked, pulling away from him, her hands resting on his shoulders for a few seconds. She turned, and walked back around the table, sitting back down in her seat. "So is this information not public yet?"

"No, not really." He responded, trying to fight down the genuine smile that broke out across his face because it was making his fucking cheeks hurt. "I mean, a few people know. But it's not public yet…I'm the first UFC fighter to fight at Madison Square Garden and—"

"And you guess it's not a big deal?" Kagome interrupted, her eyes practically glittering with excitement. "Give yourself some more credit, you work hard. You deserve it. I mean sure, you're a bit of an asshole but—"

"Oh, fuck you, Kagome," Inuyasha responded, rolling his eyes. "It's a nice thing to accomplish, yes. But, we still have to settle on a date, time, and undercards. I can't celebrate when there's barely anything to solidify that...you know?"

Kagome nodded, "that makes sense." She agreed. Kagome picked up her sake cup, "to Madison Square Garden."

"Kagome—"

"At least celebrate a little, come on." She egged him on, motioning to his sake cup.

Reluctantly, Inuyasha held it up, clinking it against her own. "To Madison Square Garden." He repeated.

Her phone rang, and across the screen flashed a contact name that Kagome didn't think she'd see again. It'd been a year since they last spoke, and their last conversation ended in what Kagome could only describe as a catastrophic screaming match. "Who is it?" Sango asked, watching from across the living room as Kagome's phone screen lit up. She looked up from her nails, nail polish held in the air. "Inuyasha?"

"No," Kagome muttered, eyes glaring down at the phone.

"Then who? It's not your mom, is it?" Sango joked, although she quickly lost her smile when she noticed the serious look on Kagome's face. Her face fell slack. "Oh god, is it your mom?"

"Yeah." She watched the phone ring, the little marimba chime playing over and over until Kagome finally grabbed her phone and answered. "Hello."

"Kagome." Her mother responded. She could hear the nervousness in her voice. "You answered." The statement came out as a breath as if she was relieved to hear Kagome's voice.

"I did." Kagome glanced toward Sango, who stopped painting her nails, watching nervously as Kagome talked on the phone. "How have you been?" The question came after a few minutes of tense silence, neither party knowing what to say next.

"I've been…" Her mother paused, "well."

"Good."

"How-how have you been, Kagome?" Her mother asked. "I see you're quite popular now." If Kagome didn't know her mother, she would have missed the slight twinge of mockery in her voice. Disguised by a humorous, nervous laugh at the end of her statement.

"Yeah." Kagome muttered. "I am."

"Is he good to you?"

The question caught her off guard. "What?"

"The boy. The athlete that you've...been seeing," Her mother paused, staring at the stack of magazines that sat on the coffee table in front of her. Eyes flickering over to the TV, watching Kagome's picture flash across its screen for what felt like the fifth time that week. "Does he treat you well?"

"Very well," Kagome responded, biting the inside of her cheek. "Why did you call, mama?" She asked, "we haven't talked in—"

"A year. I know." She sighed. "I know that it's August and the holidays aren't for another few months but…"

"You wanted to know if I would be...coming home for the holidays, is that it?" Kagome asked. There was a bitter note in her voice. Sango raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Souta misses you." Her mother confessed. "He's going into his second year of high school. He asks about you a lot, Kagome. If not for my sake, then come home for Souta. Thanksgiving or Christmas, it doesn't have to be both."

"...I'm busy, mama."

"I know, you have your little—" Her mother paused, catching herself, "you have your business and you have your...public appearance to uphold. But Souta misses you, that's all I wanted to say."

"He has a phone," Kagome muttered. "He can call me, you know. I'll still answer."

"He's shy, Kagome." Her mother rolled her eyes on the other end. "Souta thinks that because you're a...public figure, now, you don't have time to talk to him."

"Souta's my brother, I always have time to talk to him." Kagome countered, snorting.

"Your boyfriend can come too...if he wants. The invitation is there." Kagome's mother said, causing Kagome to raise her eyebrows, momentarily pulling away from the phone. "It would just be nice for Souta to have his sister at the dinner table again." There was an unmissable tone of desperation in her mother's voice as if she was pleading with Kagome, hoping she would say yes.

Kagome bit her lip and sighed, her free hand running down the side of her face, cupping her cheek. "Which holidays?" She asked although this didn't mean that the answer would be an absolute yes. "Thanksgiving? Christmas? New Years?"

"...Christmas?" It was more of a question.

Kagome sighed, rubbing her temple.

"Again, Kagome, you don't have to come but—"

"I'll think about it, alright?" Kagome admitted. Her mother made a sound that resembled something like a sigh.

"How is Sango?" Kagome glanced in Sango's direction at the mention of her name.

"Sango is...good, mom." She responded. Sango's head tilted in curiosity. Light brown hair cascading over her shoulder. The nail polish she held in her hand dripped, causing Sango to curse under her breath and scramble to her feet.

"That's good to hear." Kagome's mom said, and Kagome found herself losing some of that guarded edge in her voice. Her shoulders loosened as the tension was beginning to leave her body. "It was his birthday recently, wasn't it?"

"Whose?" Kagome stood up from her place on the couch, walking toward her room. She closed the door softly behind her. "Inuyasha's?"

"Yes," Her mother flipped through the gossip magazine that was unbelievably quick to publish the details of his birthday, including the—now-infamous—kiss. "Quite a party." She stared down at the picture. The way his forearms wrapped around Kagome's waist. The look in his eyes as he pulled away from Kagome.

Her eyes trailed down to another picture, taking note of how his hands were planted on her daughter's ass. It made her cringe a little bit.

"Mama…"

"I'm not judging you." Her mother sighed, closing the magazine. "...I just...would have expected you to be a bit more...chaste."

"Mama, I...we're...adults. Stop policing what I'm doing. I'm not living under your roof."

"You're young adults." Her mother's tone was bitter. Kagome heard something slap down. "This is going to follow you into your later years, Kagome."

"So what? It's not like I'm going to be a doctor, mother." She countered, sighing as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "It was a party, we were drunk, it happened. He's a celebrity, even if it was a chaste kiss it would have been everywhere." She added, throwing her hand up in the air.

Kagome's mother's mouth twisted into a sort of undecided look of disapproval. She was glad her daughter couldn't see her face. "Fine." She said curtly, clearing her throat. "You'll get back to me about Christmas, then?"

"Yes." Kagome responded, taking on the same tone as her mother.

"Alright...well...I suppose I'll talk to you soon then." Her mother said, "goodbye, honey."

Honey.

Hearing her mother call her that nickname... made a lump form in her throat, but she was quick to push it back down. "Bye, mama." With a sigh, Kagome dragged the phone away from her ear, letting herself fall onto her bed. She let out a groan, her voice muffled by the various pillows and blankets that she fell into.

Learning about her brother feeling as if he wasn't good enough for her now… broke her heart. Of course, Souta was still good enough for her, of course, she thought of him. That didn't automatically change just because she had some new title. He could call her if he needed her, she'd made that abundantly clear to him when she and her mother parted ways last year.

Or maybe she hadn't.

Maybe she needed to go home and tell him again, in person.