"I'm really sorry."

The luncheon was awkward, she had to admit. The food was good, but the atmosphere was tense.

"You already said that." Keiko said softly.

The booth they sat in was relatively clean, with the great view out of the window making it prime real estate in the small diner.

"Yeah, I guess I did then." Kagome replied just as quietly. "But I really am."

After the incident at the shrine, Kagome couldn't help the guilt she felt in her stomach. She knew the effects weren't real, Kurama, Hiei, and her entire family knew. Now that they were separated and back to the senses, she was sure that Yusuke knew it now too. But Keiko was just an observer, and all she saw and felt was heartache as her boyfriend almost cheated on her.

Once she felt that things had cooled down, Kagome got Keiko's number from Kurama and invited her to lunch. She heard the hesitation over the phone and she understood, but Keiko ultimately agreed and Kagome was grateful for the chance to clear things up. So they scheduled a time and place to meet up and Kagome preceded to apologize, explain the actual circumstances that caused the incident, and gave a brief history of her life and her brush up with cheaters.

"It's just that, I understand how you must feel. With what I told you about Inuyasha and Kikyo, I really do. I understand and I'm so sorry. I mean, I was kind of like your Kikyo in that situation."

She tried to lift her voice towards the end, lighten the air, but the mood was too heavy and the awkward silence smothered her attempt.

Keiko said nothing. She didn't even look up from the food she pushed across her plate.

"The difference being, I didn't, we didn't, mean anything by it. Not really. It's not real, so you have nothing to worry about."

"Because if you did mean anything by it," Keiko suddenly spoke up, keeping her eyes downcast. "You're being Kikyo-ish?"

"Yeah, that's right." Kagome answered hesitantly.

"You were being Kikyo-ish, because she came in between you and Inuyasha."

"Right."

"Just like you were coming in between me and Yusuke." Now Keiko looked up at her.

"It was the curse's fault," Kagome retorted, not liking the look or tone. "But yeah, just like that."

"That's weird, because it seems to me like you were just being yourself."

Kagome faulted. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah," Keiko replied, her voice sounding more confident as it rose in volume. "From what you told me, it just seems you were being yourself."

"How so?" Kagome asked defensively.

"You said Kikyo came in between you two, right? Well, it seems to me that you came in between them."

"I what?" Kagome sputtered.

"They were together long before you ever came into the picture."

"She died!"

"Never officially broke up, and you said they were tricked into killing each other. It was a misunderstanding. And when she came back, and 'got in between you two' she was only following her heart. They cheated behind your back, because you were in the way. You kept them from being happily together."

Kagome didn't know how to respond, and in her hesitation, Keiko grew bolder.

"This 'curse' just seems to be an excuse to be yourself. It goes to say, that you're pretty good at ruining relationships. Just look at what you're doing to Kurama and Hiei."

"Just what am I doing to them? Enlighten me about myself."

"Those two are best friends, and I've never seen anything come in between them, until you."

"They're doing everything on their own fruition. I'm not forcing them to do anything."

"You're leading them on! Kurama tells me all about it. You act like he bothers you and that you don't have any feelings for him, but your 'mom' is always inviting him over and you flirt with him."

"First off, my 'mom' invites him over to help with the shrine renovations, and any flirting is caused by the curse. And I barely talk with him because of that."

"You give him looks."

"Looks?"

"Yeah, the same look you were giving my boyfriend."

"What part of curse didn't you understand? Did I choke too many brain cells from your head?"

As she said this, Keiko made a face as if she had just confirmed all her suspicions.

"Well does your curse cause you not to have any friends?"

"What?"

"Kurama told me, you don't have any friends. Is that part of your curse, or just your need to surround yourself with guys?"

"I don't surround myself with guys."

"Then why don't you tell Hiei to leave? Make your mom hire someone else? Have any friends at all? Female friends?"

"I have friends." Kagome said lowly, more to convince herself than Keiko.

"That's not what Kurama says. He says no one ever visits and you come straight home after your cram school."

"He's not around all the time. He doesn't know what the hell I do. What else has he told you about me?"

"Nothing I don't already know."

"And what do you know about me? You, who I barely even know."

"I know enough. You're obviously bad news. Why else would you be suing the spirit world?"

"I'm not suing the spirit world. I'm suing Koenma."

"For what? More attention?"

"For what? I was kidnapped and forced onto a dangerous mission against my will."

"It was for a good cause."

"He didn't even know what the relic did when he forced us to find it."

"That's his job. What if it was dangerous and fell into the wrong hands?"

"It was split into pieces and made dangerous by us. If it was just left alone, it would have been fine."

"And so that's why you're suing, because he was being cautious?"

"Are you stupid? I'm suing because I was kidnapped, forced into slavery, raped, poisoned, and killed. Plus, I received a life altering curse. That's why I'm suing."

"Well what about, Kurama?"

"Oh my God! What about him? How did all that round back to him?"

"You're dragging his poor name through the mud."

"He's the reason I was raped, and it's Youko whose name is on paper for it."

"Well Youko is a part of Kurama."

"Not at the time, he wasn't. And Kurama admitted that he wasn't sorry it happened. Said he could've fought harder to stop it."

"And what about you? You couldn't stop it?"

"Are you blaming the victim?"

"I just don't think Kurama deserves the slander this lawsuit will bring him."

"Well I'm starting to think you mind me being involved with Kurama more than Yusuke."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean; you seem mighty attached to Kurama. This whole conversation has been more about what I'm doing to Kurama than what I did with your boyfriend. And you mentioned Kurama's and Hiei's friendship, but that was all there was to the Hiei topic. You seem to be carrying a torch for the fox."

"Well I just think Hiei can take of himself. Besides, you two might deserve each other."

"Is that so? Is Hiei such a bad person, that he deserves a man eater, home wrecking, attention whore like me?"

"I didn't say it, you did."

"Your, precious Kurama isn't as innocent as you think, and while you two have been gossiping about me, I've been told a few things about you."

"You have, have you?"

"Oh yes. Now let me tell you what's wrong about you?"

Keiko didn't say anything but gave Kagome a go ahead nod.

"You're taking such offense at me, because you're threatened by me."

"Of course. I met you once and you attacked me."

"You're threatened because you're no longer the only girl in the group."

"I'm not like you. I have female friends."

"Of course you do. Because you're just an average, plain, boring, useless school girl."

"I'm not useless, I helped Yusuke come back to life."

"Right, with the power of your love, or because he made a sacrifice to come back to you. Seems like you were just motivation. Like anyone in the right place at the right time would have done just as well."

"You don't know about me. You don't know what we've been through together."

"Together? When you're just a cheerleader, you don't get to take credit for anything. Or are you talking about before he was a spirit detective? When you use to make him go to school? When you were just a childhood friend? A role anyone could fill."

Kagome leaned in close. "Face it, you're just a groupie. You bring nothing to the table. I thought I was a liability when I went to the past, but compared to you, I was a rock star."

"Oh yeah?" Keiko retorted, nervous yet determined to make her point. "Well, you're a bad person."

"Is that all you got?"

"No. You're mean and ill tempered. I think you're a violent criminal. It took days for my throat to stop hurting after you attacked me, and I heard about the body in the rug. You're needlessly suing the spirit world just for attention. I think you like leading Kurama and Hiei on. And you're not only ruining their friendship, you're ruining the team. Kurama and Hiei are skipping out on missions now, because of you. They also told me how you behaved in the spirit world. Erratic, insane, and selfish behavior. You were more of a nuisance than a help. You constantly tried to shirk your responsibility, and attacked the boys whenever things didn't go your way."

"You ran into Inuyasha and Kikyo there, and you did more than ruin their relationship, you killed them. Just like that kid."

Into the aftermath, they stared across the table at eachother in a hostile silence. The rest of the café was quiet as customers had already vacated or were just sitting in wait for the awkward luncheon to end.

"Useless bitch!" Kagome finally spat out.

"You're…you're just an evil…wh…whore." Keiko countered back quickly.

With their final goodbyes spoken, the two girls raced the other into getting out of the booth. Souta, who was Kagome's chaperone, and Kuwabara, whom Keiko had asked to accompany her because she didn't want to face Kagome alone, both exited their own booths and met each other's gaze in camaraderie.

"We're leaving." Keiko told the older boy, not bothering to look Kagome's way.

"Okay." Kuwabara agreed uneasily before looking towards Kagome with a wince. "Well, I guess I'll see you around then."

"Don't talk to her." Keiko scolded him, returning to grab his arm possessively. "Wouldn't want you to go to Yukina, smelling like tramp."

Kagome, whose face had softened when being addressed by Kuwabara, scowled deeply at Keiko and their retreating back.

"Tell your boyfriend I said 'hi'!" she yelled after them before turning on her heel and heading for the secondary exit.

As the girls stormed out of the café, the workers sighed in relief and were so thankful for their departure that no one noticed that no one paid for the meal.

Kagome had been making great strides down the street with her ears steaming and her breathing loud. Most pedestrians before her, parted like the red sea out of her path.

She'd show her who was a bad person. She wasn't bad, but she sure could be it. She'd be her personal villain. It would be no struggle to ruin that girl's life. Apparently she was good at that type of thing. She could ruin her relationship. Take Yusuke away right from under her nose. The curse made it simple to do so. She could ruin her life easily. She could ruin her face with a couple of quick, hard blows, break some important bones and leave her affected for life. Be easier just to kill her. She was good at killing. Killing was her thing. She'd killed before and she could kill again. No trouble at all to pop her little head off. She could do that and so much more, but she wouldn't. Despite what Keiko said. She wasn't a killer. She didn't go around ruining lives and relationships. Not on purpose. All the hurtful things she said were just the results of a frightened, jealous, threatened girlfriend.

"Hey," Souta called out, grabbing hold of her arm and halting her in her steps "You okay?"

His intentions were to question his sister subtlety, let her vent now before they got home. He was going to be a considerate little brother and a lend an ear to his sister. His sister fought monsters and went on quests. His sister had ninjas living outside her window and had the Devil for a lawyer, but she was still a girl. One thing he had learned about girls in his thirteen years of life, were that they hated each other and were capable of tearing people to pieces with just their words.

His sister was someone to look up to, and she needed him right now. Just not in the way he was expecting.

Face stricken, lip quivering, and eyes bleary, Kagome's voice broke as she tried to speak. "Am I really a friendless monster?"

"Uhh?" he voiced unsurely.

He could do nothing but stand there as his sister fell into his shoulder and bawled nosily in public. This was being there for her, right?


By the time they made it home, Kagome's crying had subsided, her face was still a little swollen, but no longer red. Her breathing had even out, and she had stopped sniffling.

Feeling awkward and not knowing what to do, Souta walked ahead of her with his mind set on getting his mother to handle damage control. He practically flew up the shrine steps, but upon breaching the top he had a sudden thought.

"You know what Kagome?" he suddenly exclaimed, backtracking to meet up with her.

Kagome, who had been lost in thought, paused at his sudden voice.

"It's going to be okay!" he yelled, patting her on the shoulder.

"Why are you yelling?" she asked him weakly.

"I know you're very upset about what just happened with that Keiko girl!"

"Then why are you bringing it up?" she asked him in slight agitation before continuing to move upward.

"I'm just saying, that by you being very upset, you would hate to run into anyone right now! And that if anyone who wasn't blood related to us, was in ear shot, you would like for them to not be around!"

"Now you're just being weird and suspicious."

"I'm just saying." He replied, his voice now calmer. "That it's going to be okay."

Patting her on the shoulder, he gave her an encouraging smile before bounding ahead of her. She followed slower with confusion clouding her eyes, but as she crested the top of the stairs, everything became clear.

"Just don't take whatever she says to heart." She heard Souta telling a confused Kurama. "Remember, we are rooting for you. Well mom is, Grandpa doesn't always know what is going on, and me. Well let's just say I haven't caught you attacking her in her bedroom yet. But you're the family favorite."

"Glad to hear I have your blessing." Kurama told him, eyeing Kagome as she approached.

"Don't thank us just yet." Souta responded, giving Kagome a quick glance before running away to the safety of the house. "Stay strong!"

"Did something happen between you and Keiko?" Kurama asked after a moment.

She felt anger boil over her as she stared at him. For once, in a very long time, the curse had no effect on her.

"You!" she growled, pointing a threatening finger at him. "You gossiping jerk."

"I'm sorry?"

"You should be! Because of you and your girlfriend Keiko, I just had the worst lunching in my life!"

"You had lunch with Keiko?"

"Oh boy, did I! And because of you and your big mouth, the food turned to ash in my stomach!"

"And this was my fault somehow?"

"Right." She confirmed. "She was more than happy to tell me all the things that are wrong with me! All the things you told her."

"Are you sure she's not still just upset over what happened with Yusuke?"

"That's why I invited her out to lunch; to apologize. Only problem was, she didn't have much to say about him. It was all talk about you."

"Me?"

"Oh yeah. She's a big fan of yours! And I am just the worst!"

"Ah, I see." Kurama muttered; more to himself than for Kagome's benefit.

"Yeah, you see! I know you see, and you told her about what you see and then she told me!" Kagome raked her hand across her face.

"Now I feel like poo!" she growled, interrupting Kurama before he could think of anything to say. "And it's apparently evil, attention seeking, whoring poo. Kurama? Does the evil, attention seeking, whore poo sound familiar to you?"

Kurama still had nothing to say.

"Why'd you tell her all those things? You can't give girls that type of ammo against other girls. They aim for the soul! Girls are ruthless!"

"I truly am sorry, Kagome." Kurama told her; looking the part. "Keiko is my friend, we often talk over the phone about things in our lives, and you just so happen to be a prominent figure in my life now."

Kagome wasn't buying and glared at him defiantly.

"Seems like you prefer it another way. She had so much negativity. So many bad things to say about me." Kagome's voice began to shake. "Bad things about me, that you told her. If you think I'm such manipulative, indecisive, tease, then why are you here?"

Seeing Kagome start to break, Kurama knew that it was time to back off.

"It's unfortunate that my conversations with Keiko brought you ill fortune today. Its apparent that she only pulled out the negatives about you."

"So you really did say those things about me?"

"Not in this way. My words have been twisted. But I will not lie and say that courting you has been the easiest."

"It's not supposed to be easy." She told him darkly.

"That's a good thing." He told her with a small smile.

"Oh, so there are some pros to 'courting' me?"

"Plenty. But I'll save them for another day, in your current state, you wouldn't hear me out."

Kagome only gave him a bleary eyed glare; not liking that he was right.

"But you asked me why I was still here. I am here, because I want to be here." He stepped up and brandished his arm next to her. "By your side."

Pausing, he looked her in the eye and held contact until she looked away in discomfort.

"I also stopped by to check on the progress of the plants and decided to wait for you, but I guess I'll cut our time short by taking my leave now."

Ignoring the charm trying ooze its way into her sour mood, Kagome stepped back and gave him a clear shot to the stairs. Smiling at a joke only he got, Kurama nodded to her and took his first steps towards the exit.

"Next time you see me," he called out over his shoulder. "I'll have a proper apology waiting and a new policy about how I talk with friends."

"Yeah, you do that." Kagome mumbled to herself as she turned on her heel to go inside, catching the tail end of the curtain dropping as her family backed away from the window.

She really couldn't blame Kurama for what happened, she knew that deep down. All that he had done was share conversations with a friend and tell her his woes. She knew it wasn't easy being around her. If he called, she wasn't interested, when he came around she tried to fight off her attraction to him, and she was sure it came off as teasing. It was a normal thing to tell a friend about, and it wasn't his fault Keiko used it to gut her open. If she had friends, they'd probably have bad things to say about Kurama. If she had friends she could talk about things like this with. She had friends. She was sure she did.

As she came inside she breezed gloomily past her grandpa, who was picking lent from the sofa, her mother, who was counting cracks in the ceiling, and Souta, who was suddenly into calisthenics.

Up the stairs she trudged; feeling down again. As she opened the door to her room, she found Hiei sitting on the floor, leaning against her bed with his eyed closed, as if he was in mediation.

Ignoring him, she crawled into her bed behind him and put her face in the pillow. In the comfort of her room, she let the silence swallow them.

In the silence she replayed her encounter with Keiko. She felt her anger rise again in the silence. It was in the silence that her temper flared at Kurama. It then dimmed as a gloom as thick as the silence fell over her.

She didn't cry, but she felt like she could. She also felt a bit of annoyance poke her in the head as the silence started getting to her. She wouldn't have minded it as much if she was alone. But she wasn't alone and the silence had gone on for a quite a bit. She had just gone on an emotional rollercoaster and now that the ride was over, she felt that someone should've said something by now.

Turning her head to the side, she looked towards Hiei and waited.

Nothing.

"Hey." She called out weakly. "Aren't you supposed to be comforting me."

Hiei shifted and turned his head to the side so that he can look at her with one crimson pupil. "You were filleted by a dragon, killed what might have been a demi-god, and you have the Lord of the Western lands wrapped around your finger. What do you need comforting from?"

"She really hurt my feelings." Kagome whined.

She wasn't sure how, but she was sure she saw a piece of Hiei die after she spoke. Only one eye was turned towards her, but his eye lid drooped heavily over it, and his pupil darkened as if the life had been stolen from his body.

"I will kill you where you stand, if you ever say that again."

Kagome pouted against her pillow. "I can still have my feelings hurt."

"You're not supposed to confess it. Especially if it was by someone like the detective's woman."

"Girls are vicious monsters to each other."

"And you couldn't slay her?"

"Not when Kurama has supplied her with Excalibur."

Hiei sighed and shifted into place. "What did she say to you?"

"She said I was a bad person." Kagome told him, still unable to keep the whine out of her voice.

"Do you think you're a bad person?" Hiei countered.

"No." she answered after a moment's pause. "But she called me a violent killer too. And I have killed, and violence is a big part of my life."

"I've seen the way that girl interacts with the detective, she has violent tendencies too. And you being a killer; do you regret killing? Do you kill enemies or innocents? Do you enjoy it?"

"No. And I've only killed Weylin…and Kikyo. Does purifying demons count as murder?"

"Yes." Hiei answered her quickly, his answer clipping the end of her question.

"Oh." She moaned lowly.

"What else did the girl say?"

"She told me I ruin relationships?"

"What relationships?"

"Yours and Kurama for one. She told me I'm causing a rift in your friendship, and that I like the attention."

"The moment the fox and I let a mere woman come between us, our friendship was already over."

"Aww." She cooed softly. "You love your friend."

Hiei turned his back to her and rested his head against her bed peacefully. "You're in a very vulnerable position. Do you want to spar or continue to pretend like I'm comforting you?"

"That's not helping the violence in my life." She told him.

"Get on with it! What else hurt your feelings?"

"More relationship sabotaging. I was apparently the one in the way with Inuyasha and Kikyo. Even though by the time I showed up she had been dead for 50 years. And when she eventually came back to life, Inuyasha and I had developed feelings for each other, mine were evidentially stronger than his, but there were some definite feelings on his side too. He was a stubborn, grumpy, asshole, but it seeped through anyhow."

"Is there a point to this?" Hiei asked in a bored voice.

"Yeah, I'm just wondering how could I be in the way of their love if she is dead, had been dead, for over fifty years and he had obviously moved on and started…."

"Point is," Hiei interrupted her. "that you already proved you weren't in their way. They were planning to murder you, they lasted together for over 500 years after you left, and the only problem is your bad taste in men."

"You have a bad taste in men." She countered indignantly.

"That's it? She called you a psychotic killer of lives and relationships?"

"And she called me a whore." Kagome answered, her voice coming out angry.

"Hm. Whore. Whores make money, don't they? You've been selling your body, woman?"

"No I haven't been selling my body."

"Good. Because if you were that cheap of a base woman, my time here is over."

"What makes you think I would be cheap?"

"Oh," he remarked, shifting to look at her again. "Do you have self-confidence now?"

"I always have confidence in myself."

"Not when you walked through that door."

"That's because it had been drowned and beaten. But she also said I was attention whore, and that's why I'm surrounded by men and why I'm suing the spirit world."

"You might be an attention whore." He commented, deaf to her offended call. "And there are too many men around you."

"You're not supposed to agree."

"It's just an observation. Anyone could make it."

"Well I don't want to hear it. What about Kurama? She said I'm dragging his name through the dirt with the suit."

"The fox's name was already sullied long before you were ever a factor."

"We meant Kurama, not Youko."

"I know who I was talking about. The fox isn't as innocent as you think."

"Well he hides it well." She retorted, not believing him.

"He hides it from everyone. Including himself. Are we done? Is that all?"

"Yeah." She bemoaned. "At least, I can't remember anything else."

"So what did you say in retort?"

"Huh?"

"You didn't just let her get away with it, did you?"

"I called her a useless, jealous bitch." She answered, suddenly fired up.

"There you go." Hiei approved.

"She seems a little too interested in Kurama, and I told her she's just a groupie and could be easily replaced. If I had a mind too, I'm sure I could take Yusuke away from her. That'll show her."

"That's just the kind of attitude a bad person would display. Good work."

"You suck at this." She admonished him as she sat up to glare over him.

"You suck at defending yourself from verbal attacks." He countered, looking up at her. "From a little, human, girl, at that. Disappointing."

"I seem to disappoint you a lot." Kagome commented, as she lowered herself back onto the bed, her face hovering dangerously low over his.

"Then do better."

"Sounds like you only want the best for me." she began to touch his face lightly. "But I know that's not what you mean."

He said nothing, but his eyes bore deeply into her hers. The silence that followed was heavy. Heavy and hot. So hot, that when the cold water hit them, they almost hit the ceiling.

"That's enough of that." Mama Higurashi said cheerfully, as she continued to spray them with the bottle. "Glad to see you're in better spirits."

"Yeah, mom, me too." Wiping the water from her face, Kagome looked towards Hiei, only to find him missing and her window wide open. She felt remotely disheartened.

"I can see he cares about you…in his own way. I'm glad of that."

"He's a little rough around the…"

"I still don't like him. He gets into your room too easily. Too frequently. Kurama doesn't sneak in your room."

"You are really on this Kurama train. Why don't you just marry him?"

"Why don't you?" her mother retorted eagerly. "Such a nice young man."

"So if Hiei came through the door instead of the window, you would like him more?"

"Yes. And if he would stop looking like there was murder in his eyes."

"What if you caught me and Kurama being intimate? Would you stop us if it was him?"

Her mother considered it for a second and smiled brilliantly at her. "Of course. I only stop you and the ninja, if you get too rowdy or if you're alone. I'll do the same with Kurama. You said you wanted to accomplish your goals before having the baby, and I'm going to help you achieve them."

"Right." Kagome agreed. "School, career, and marriage."

"That's it. Once you've gotten to your goals, you can go crazy with whomever you choose."

Not liking the way her mother phrased it, Kagome frowned in distaste.

"Goals and ambitions. We all have them. Now come downstairs and help me try to get some of mine done. We're going to turn this place back into an actual shrine before the year's out."