Duckgirl566: Yes, I know I'm awesome.

Ducky alter ego: This is really long...you sure you wrote this?

Duckgirl566: Like I said, I know-I'm awesome.

The man on the other side of the glass gave Inuyasha a nod of his head, signaling that he was ready. Inuyasha looked at Kagome for a moment, though she wasn't really sure what for other than the obvious, and began the song with his guitar, Sango and Miroku joining in after. Kagome tapped her foot slightly counting the beats until her entrance.

"Sick, of circling the same road,
Sick of bearing the guilt,
So open, the windows, to cool off
And heat pours in instead!"

She found herself moving a little bit. The song was upbeat and fun, even if the lyrics she was singing were not at all what she thought she would be in her career.

"Perfect in weakness
I'm only perfect in just your strength alone

"All my efforts to clean me
Leave me putrid and filthy,
And how, can you look at me
When I can't stand myself?

"I'm tired to be honest
I'm nobody…

"Perfect in weakness
I'm only perfect in just your strength alone

"Perfect in weakness
I'm only running in just your strength alone!"

Kagome felt them slow down and took a deep breath, the action making her trained diaphragm tremble.

"I tried to kill you
You tried to save me,"

And just like that, the beat changed. Metric modulation can kiss my butt, she thought to herself.

"You save me!
You save me!
You save me!
You save me!

"Perfect in weakness
I'm only perfect in just your strength alone

"Perfect in weakness
I'm only running in just your strength alone…"

The man on the other side of the glass cued them that they were safe until they went to record another song.

Kagome wiped the sweat off of her brow. She had been so nervous. The rush had been amazing, the adrenaline spiking in her body. It had been so much fun. The queasy feeling that had settled itself in her tummy had now vanished.

She felt glorious, splendid, idyllic, blissful, and a whole bunch of other snooty adjectives that were synonyms of the simple term: happy. Kagome was happy. She knew that she had done well and that had made her happy. But she denied anything else that could be the reason of that happiness.

"That was freaking awesome, Kagome," Miroku said, moving to hug her. Sango cleared her throat obnoxiously loud as a warning to her lover. Kagome had already proved she could very well handle herself, and the bass player would be wise not to test her.

"Thank you, Miroku," she said back, a radiant smile plastered to her face that she could not seem to make dim. For a few moments, Kagome decided she would succumb to this feeling inside herself.

Sango handed her a bottle of water that she took thankfully. They enjoyed the few moment before work would start again. While Kagome loved Miroku and Sango dearly, she noticed Inuyasha wasn't around. But he wouldn't spoil her moment. He wouldn't spoil her fun.

Inuyasha glanced behind his shoulder to see Kagome tilt her head back, drinking the gift from Sango. Her hair was pulled back high in a messy bun, displaying the snow-white skin on her neck to him. The urge to kiss that neck filled him, and his was afraid of it.

His left the recording booth, afraid of the beauty inside of it.

"We must celebrate," Miroku announced. "Kagome's first recording session that actually participated in was an absolute success."

"So we need to get tipsy?" Sango asked, smiling. Miroku gave her a knowing look. She blushed and suddenly found her old sticks very interesting.

"I vote we go to Sally's," Miroku said. Inuyasha stopped moving for a second and looked up at him.

"Why Sally's? Miroku, what the hell did you do?" Inuyasha asked. He stepped up the other man. Miroku smiled.

"We," Miroku said, smiling even though he was worried with Inuyasha so close, "have a gig."

"Shit, Miroku," Inuyasha cursed as Sango bean clapping excitedly.

"Oh, I can't wait!" she squealed. Kagome looked at the group, confused.

"What's so special about this 'Sally's' place?" she asked. Sango turned and took Kagome's hands in hers.

"Sally's is where we got our start!" she said. "So are we playing tonight, Miroku?"

"Yes, I promised ol' Sally herself. We aren't getting paid, though, unless you count all the mozzarella sticks we can eat payment. It'll be just like old times, but with a new friend to share it with." Miroku came behind both girls and hugged them together. "We should take Kagome to the best bar in New York City. It can be sort of like an initiation sort of thing."

"You mean hazing?" Inuyasha asked, closing his guitar case. "Thanks, but no thanks," he said, moving to leave.

"Oh come on Inuyasha!" Sango went over to him and pouted. "Don't you want to take Kagome out for a night on the town?"

He looked at Kagome for a moment and sighed, admitting defeat.

"To Sally's we go!"

There was a fog of cigarette smoke in the small establishment. The bar area reeked of the alcohol it served, and the smell of fried foods mixed with it. They walked in, carrying their equipment, except for Sango who would use the house set. All she needed was her sticks.

"Well, this is certainly…charming," Kagome said. Of course, she was lying through her teeth, but this was important to her new friends. She would have a great time even if it gave her lung cancer.

"You hate it, don't you?" Sango asked, grabbing Kagome's hand. The question was asked with bad timing though, as a fat balding man with a beer gut the size of two small children exhaled. His cigar smoke blew directly in front of Kagome, making her cringe.

"No, no, it has…character," Kagome said. She then began to cough, almost losing her balance. She felt two strong hands steady her by grabbing her shoulders. They were Inuyasha's.

"Do you need to leave, Kagome?" Sango asked. "We can go somewhere else, if you want."

"Oh, no, please, I want to stay," Kagome said. She gave Sango a look to let her know she was okay. "How about you two go find a table or something? It's pretty crazy in here."

"Oh, all right," Sango said, not quite sure about leaving Kagome and Inuyasha alone. Still, she let herself be led my Miroku to find a table for the group. Kagome sighed slightly, but stilled when she noticed Inuyasha's hands were still on her shoulders.

"Inuyasha," she began, turning to face him, "are you okay?" She couldn't see his eyes between his long silver bangs and the lack of light. "Inuyasha?

"Come on, say something." She beginning to feel scared. "Hey, earth to Inuyasha!"

"Hell!" he shouted, jumping back two feet from her.

"Look, if you have issues about what happened in the warm-up room, don't worry. I haven't told anyone," she crossed her arms and sighed. The kiss must have meant nothing to him. But, it didn't mean anything to her, either. "I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"Kagome-,"

"What?" she spat. And there it was again, that fire in her eyes. He could see the blaze. It was ready to burn anyone willing to get close enough to it.

"I don't have issues about what happened in the warm-up room, really." And that was all that smart in his response. "But…it was just a kiss, barely one at that. It didn't mean anything, so don't worry about it."

She slapped him.

"I don't know much about you, but here's a little something about me: a kiss, no matter how small it is, should never be meaningless." Kagome walked over to where she could see Miroku waving his hand obnoxiously as to embarrass his lover who blushed next to him.

Inuyasha just stood there for a moment before walking up to an empty stool at the bar. He set his guitar next to the stool and sat.

"Inuyasha, you worthless son of a-,"

"Just get me something, anything, Sally. I am really not in the mood to joke with you tonight. If you want to laugh, go talk to Miroku."

The old woman with a voice hoarse from years a smoking and drinking and whole bunch of crap, none of which she regretted, just looked at the musician.

"Not in the mood to joke, eh?" she asked, setting a glass down in front of him.

"In the mood to get drunk," he said, slapping some cash down.

"Where's Inuyasha?" Miroku asked as Kagome sat down. She closed her eyes, trying not to explode.

"He's having…some issues right now. I'm sure he'll be fine." That son of a bitch'll be just fine. Kagome thought to herself. She looked at the band that was on the stage on grimaced.

"They suck, don't they?" Miroku said crudely. Sango punched him in the arm. "Well, they do suck. I'm not sure they're even in tune. And you can't tell me that the drumming isn't driving you insane, Sango," he said.

"Yeah, but that guy on the keyboard is pretty cute, isn't he Kagome?" Sango asked. Miroku frowned and held Sango a little closer to him and she rolled her eyes. "But not as cute as you, Snuggle Bear," she confirmed, kissing his nose. He blushed a little, he cheeks turning rose petal pink.

Kagome looked over at the keyboardist. He was more than cute. Straight, light brown hair covered his eyes as his thin fingers danced on the plastic keys. A black t-shirt made his pale skin more visible. Skinny jeans were baggy on his body, but tight on his butt. But the way his fingers moved memorized her.

"I'm getting us some drinks, since the service in this place has certainly gone downhill since you worked here, Sango," Miroku said. He got up and went over to the bar area, leaving the girls alone.

"I dated a guy like him once," Sango said. Kagome returned her attention to her friend, forgetting completely about the only half-decent musician in the band playing.

"Really?" Kagome asked, taking a quick glance at Miroku. Well, the butt was there. Miroku was defiantly not lacking in the cute ass department. But the man was not skinny. Kagome remembered the glimpse she had of him in the shower. He was toned, but had a little pizza-related flab. He was not at all like the skinny guy on stage.

"Yeah, well, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be with Miroku right now. I was working here, new to the big apple, and Sally took me in when she saw me counting the little money I had on the table. I moved into a little place upstairs across the hall from another apartment that smelled like coffee all the time.

"Finally, I went over and knocked on the door. A guy that looked so much like the guy on that stage opened up the door. Books covered every inch of the walls, and he was holding a mug in his hand.

"We said hi and he invited me in, saying he was a buddy of Sally's. Sally took him in when he was a budding writer, and that had been three years before. He wrote for seven different magazines under seven different names, and his book was coming out in three months. We talked for hours. When I got up to leave, he walked me over to the door.

"He opened the door and moved to kiss my cheek, but I..." Sango trailed off, staring at the table. "I turned my head so his lips landed on mine. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled his body against mine, grinding myself against him." She blushed, looking away for a moment.

"You asked him to make love to you," Kagome whispered. Learning about this new side to Sango was exciting.

"No," Sango said, laying her palms flat on the table, "I asked him to fuck me. I was perverted and forward. I barely knew him, but I dragged him into bed. His whole body smelled of the coffee he was always consuming, and his hands had small cuts from the paper.

"I went on birth control, and that was what we did—have sex, I mean. Later, when I went to a professional about it, she said I was lonely for a companion in a city full of people. But I had an addiction to his sweat. I had an addiction to his intellect. I felt so smart around him, and screwing was just something to do.

"Neither of us went to a job during the day, and I only worked for Sally in the early evenings. If he was sitting on the couch writing, I would spread my legs across his lap and get his attention. I missed calls from my mother back home in Rhode Island because we were in his bedroom.

"The days and nights blurred, since most of my time was spent on top of him," Sango whispered, closing her eyes. "After a year, he gave me a ring. He arranged to get married before a judge with one of his friends that I had never met as our witness.

"He planned on staying in that same apartment, with the same books, with the same coffee pot, with the same woman sucking his dick for the rest of his life.

"That was I saw what I was doing. He went on a weekend trip to meet with some publishers, and I wasted away from the lack of him inside of me. I called him on the phone after six hours, saying how much I wanted to screw his brains out.

"He sighed, and said, 'Well, I wouldn't want to keep my little whore waiting.'

"I left the next day, running away from him and that ring and that life. I vowed to never sleep with a man again."

"Sango, I can't believe what I'm hearing. I mean…you? And with Miroku being your fiancé…"

"Miroku didn't get any for two years. I told him about how disgusting I was, and he said that I was wrong. He made me feel beautiful. He didn't keep me caged," Sango looked up at Kagome with a smile. Just then, they heard a crash.

Sally's old voice cursed, drunken men cheered, women gasped. Inuyasha stood over Miroku, his fists clenched. Miroku was on the ground, looking up at Inuyasha. He brought his hand to his chin, and then looked. There was blood on his palm.

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about Miroku, so shut the Hell up," Inuyasha growled. He stomped into a back room, leaving people shocked in his wake.

"Kagome," Sango said, getting her attention once more, "you need someone who won't cage you."

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