Disclaimers: I do not own Inuyasha. Nor do I own any of the movies mentioned. I hardly even own this computer, since she's dying before my very eyes.

Sesshomaru boarded the plane, anticipating a nice flight, full of work. His secretary was not coming along on this trip. Instead, Kaitlin was to stay in New York and finish the necessary paperwork for the merger his corporation and other investors, including Gotz, had in the works. Within a few short weeks, the investment would be parceled off and resold, hopefully doubling allof the initial investments. He wrote a note to himself as he walked up the steps and settled in one of the overlarge, comfortably soft leather chair.

The plane was clearly a wealthy mansman's toy. The plush carpet underfoot was so thick that footsteps were inaudible. The front room, that whichSesshomaru now occupied, was a collection of oversized, overstuffed chairs and a matching couch. A large flat screen TV graced one wall. It could be hidden away in a special made rosewood cabinet when not in use. The end tables and other cabinetry were done in matching hardwood, brushes with steel accents. The family room gave way through double pocket doors made of rosewood into a bar area. The bar had its back against the wall opposite the bar areas entry. A granite slab of pure black stone, shot through with brilliant flecks of sparkle was reminiscent of the night sky. An impressive array of bottles was locked in a specially made cabinet behind the bar. There, they were kept at the correct temperature and pressure and were fully protected from the bumps of take off and landing. The room also contained a dining table of deep rosewood inlaid with the palest of pine accents in a pattern of a crescent moon surrounded by sakura blossoms. There were one-of-a-kind pieces of art on the walls, and a door that blended in with the back wall was partially opened to reveal a bedroom beyond.

Miroku and Inuyasha boarded the plane right behind Sesshomaru and settled into chairs in the family room with him, snapping on their seat belts in preparation for take off. They had already talked with the pilot and as he was a long time friend of theirs, he had readily agreed to their plan. Now he only hoped he didn't get fired. The pilot's voice came over the intercom, telling the gentlemen they were ready for take off. Sesshomaru reached down and buckled his seat belt without ever taking his eyes off of his papers. Miroku just shook his head in disgust. Inuyasha was already preoccupied with the remotes for the TV and DVD system.

"Ohhh, hey, Miroku, we have "Blades of Glory" on here!"

"We just watched that a week ago. How about some 'Lord of the Rings' or 'Star Wars'?"

"I'm so far beyond burnt out of sci-fi and fantasy. I want action."

"So pick something actiony."

Miroku stared at the white haired figure next to him. "'Actiony' is not a word."

"Sure it is."

"No, it is not. Try again."

"Silence!" At the loud roar from Sesshomaru, both men fell silent and looked guiltily at each other. Thankfully, at that time, the intercom came back on as the pilot announced they were close to cruising altitude and were free to move about the cabin. The two men hurriedly undid their seat belts and bolted for the bar area, remembering to shut the sliding doors behind them.

Inuyasha moved straight for the bar. Unlocking the liquor cabinet, he pulled out a bottle and quickly poured two glasses. Handing Miroku his glass, the two men slid onto the red leather topped stools in front of the bar.

"Do think he'll figure it out, Yasha?"

"Nah. I plan on serving him his favorite drink right about the time we change course. Hopefully, he'll be so busy working, and then sleeping, he won't notice. You did get the 'medication', right?"

"Yes. It wasn't easy to come up with a reason I needed to knock out a very powerful inuyoukai for 3 hours, but I managed to get it. Being a monk has some advantages, I guess." Miroku smirked. "Other than the hot chicks, that is."

"You never get hot chicks."

"Yes, I do."

"No, you get restraining orders from hot chicks. Big difference."

The two men stared at the cabinets behind the bar for a minute.

"Want to play some cards?"

"You find cards, I'll find paper to keep score."

Settling in at the dining table off to the side, they began an intense game of Rummy 500, or Rummy 1000 as they often played on long plane flights. After about 2 and a half hours they both stopped, looking at each other, an expectant, excited look in their eyes.

"It's time."

Inuyasha stood up, went to the bar and carefully prepared a cup of sake for Sesshomaru. Miroku came over and pulled a small vial from his pocket, held it up to the light and shook it lightly. The clear liquid swirled in the lights from the bar area, picking up on the blue color of the glass shades. With a grin, he uncorked the bottle and put exactly two drops into the cup sitting on the counter. The men held their breath for a moment. The added drops writhed on contact with the sake, turning blue as they mixed. As the two liquids mixed, the blue color vanished, leaving behind a seemingly normal cup of sake. The half-demon and the monk smirkedat each other, looks of pure evil and mischieflighting their eyes. Miroku picked up the cup and moved towards the door, slid it open, and walked into the main space of the plane. He gently nudged Sesshomarus shoulder and set the cup on top of a file that lay before the demon.

Sesshomaru looked up at the monk. "I did not request a drink."

"No, you did not, Sesshomaru-sama, but I figured we had been flying for a while and you had had nothing to drink."

With a swirl of his perfect silvery-white hair he bent and sat his laptop on the floor, then moved his folders to the side. Leaning back in his chair, he grabbed the cup of sake and put his feet on the table where the cup had been sitting a moment prior. He downed the sake in one go and handed the empty cup Miroku, then snatched the TV remote and tuned into a satellite news program.

Miroku turned and walked back into the back room where Inuyasha waited with baited breath. They stood and watched as Sesshomaru's aura flared for a brief moment, then the demon completely passed out. Inuyasha snuck forward and poked his older brother firmly on the arm, half expecting him to wake up and attempt to remove his head for daring to touch him. When nothing happened, he smacked his brother- hard. Still, nothing happened. He looked at Miroku, Miroku looked at the slumbering demon, and the two men cheered.

"It worked! I can't believe it worked!"

"Yasha, Yasha, you doubted me?"

"Well, yeah. Duh. That's what 20 years of friendship does."

The two men settled in to spend the rest of the flight watching their favorite movies, cheering at the best parts, booing at the sections they dislike, and generally making the sort of noise that would have meant a beheading had Sesshomaru been able to hear or see.

SKSKSKSKSKSKKSKSKSKSK

"Kags! Take a break, already."

A simple grunt was the only reply over the noise of the sewing machine going full tilt. Kagome hadn't moved away from the machine in three days except for sleep and she was only going home for 5 hours a night. Sango was convinced it simply wasn't healthy be to that obsessed with work. She knew Kagome had pulled similar hours through college, but really, did she still need to do that? She knew she had to pull her away, and soon, or the poor girl would end up working through the night.

"Kagome!"

"Huh? Wha..? What time is it?"

"It's 8pm. You need food."

"No, no, I'm fine. I just need to finish these next 3 seams, and hem this dress, then-"

"No."

"What?"

"No." Sango sighed and sat on the edge of Kagomes desk, next to the piles of fabric covering all of the surfaces. "You need to eat. Do you remember the last time you did this? You passed out from exhaustion and had to spend three days in the hospital."

"Only because my doctor doesn't trust me-"

"Rightfully so. Now, we're leaving, and getting food. And tomorrow night we're leaving here at 4 in the afternoon." Kagome started talking and Sango slapped her hand over her mouth. "You have seamstresses who work for you. Let them do the hemming and seams. Your designs are done, let your people do their jobs and finish this off. One late night won't kill them and everything will be done when you get in the next day. We will go to the casinos, instead, and you will get drunk and relax. No arguing. You. Will. Go."

Kagome sighed and gave in. She knew when to recognize that there was no getting around her friend. One night away wouldn't kill her, but she would spend the whole night fretting about her clothes and designs. School had been her life for five years; now her business took its place. She let Sango unplug her machine and turn off her computer. The light boards were switched off next, the sketches in front of them going dark. Sango grabbed the back of her chair and pulled her away from the fabric, ignoring the small moan of loss that came from her friend. She pulled her up, grabbed hold of her shoulders, and pushed her towards the door.

Within twenty minutes, the two friends were seated in a pizza place down the street, a plate of breadsticks in front of them as they waited for their custom pizza. Sango dove in to the garlic butter drenched bread with relish, with Kagome following suit, but at a slower rate. Silence reigned as the girls polished off their appetizer and their pizza arrived. It was a unique mishmash of toppings. Half of the pizza was covered in onions, turkey bacon, and spinach, the other half obscured with four kinds of meat, all of the pork and beef variety. Kagome made a face at the meat covered half of the pizza, and happily picked up a piece with extra spinach. Sango waited until she was happily chewing before she brought up the topic of the next night. Ten minutes in, the conversation still sounded the exact same.

"I'm telling you, a night at the casinos is just what you need! We've lived here for seven years and you've only been there four times- the most recent of which was two years ago. You need to get out for a night. Wear one of those stunning dresses you make and go have a good time."

"Not going." Kagome was no longer bothering to answer in complete sentences.

"You've left me with no choice…" Sango sighed, completely unable to believe she had to bring out the big guns to get her friend to take a night off. "If you don't go with me, I'm calling your mother and telling her you're ill."

"You wouldn't!" Kagome's outburst was loud enough to draw attention from the surrounding tables. "You know she'll be on the next plane over! I can't deal with deadlines and a crazed mother who keeps trying to set me up with 'nice Japanese boys'!"

"Then…?"

"Fine. I'll go, bitch."

"Proud of it. Bring a glamorous dress, heels, and makeup to work tomorrow. We'll get dressed there and head straight to the strip!"

SKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSK

Groaning, Sesshomaru opened an eye and quickly closed it again. The light hurt. His head felt like a thousand jackhammers were going at once inside his skull. It was not a feeling that made him at all happy. Not to mention demons almost never got headaches. Wait… where was he? This was not the plane. The lights on there were warm and he had left with them on full bright. The cool lights in the room he currently occupied were low. He took stock of himself. Laying flat on his back, whatever he rested on felt soft. He dragged a hand across its surface. Cotton. High thread count Egyptian cotton, to be precise. The room smelled of humans. Clearly, wherever he was, humans had come and gone a lot in the past, but none in the last 24 hours. He slowly opened his eyes again, this time bracing himself for the lights. The ceiling was blocked from his view by a swath of pale grey fabric. Turning his head the left, he noticed a wood pole running towards the ceiling. A canopy bed? He slowly sat up and looked around. The hotel room was clearly high end. The bed on which he lay was made of pure cherry, hand carved. The grey velvet of the canopy was high quality. Thick grey carpet lay underfoot. The large room also contained a dresser and chairs made of the same velvet and cherry.

He swung his feet off the side of the bed and slowly stood. As he tried to stand, the room swayed for a moment, forcing him to grab onto the bed post. He could not figure out what happened. He was a demon! He had drunk entire distilleries in the 1400s and not felt like this. He had battled entire legions of demons and never lost track of his environment for a moment. So how had he gone from being fine on his plane to barely able to stand in this hotel room? The last thing he remembered was Miroku bringing him his drink, and then…

Inuyasha. That's it! His brother had drugged him! But how? Poisons that worked on humans wouldn't phase a demon. And no demon would go around buying poisons for demons. The only one he could even think of was only available to monks and mikos for subduing enemies. Miroku. They were dead. He would make sure of it. His eyes glowed a bit red around the edges and his nails glowed green in the slightly darkened room. Yes, revenge would be sweet. But first, he needed to finish recovering. Food- red meat, and lots of it- would help. He picked up the phone and ordered room service.

Three hours later, he was feeling much better and he had come up with a plan of action. Going along with whatever the idiots had planned for a spell would lull them into a false sense of confidence. Then, well, it wouldn't be pretty. Mental games were always enjoyable when Inuyasha was involved. He often didn't suspect a thing and was easily riled up. Sesshomaru suspected it was because his brother was a hanyou. The human blood in him made him weaker physically and mentally. If his father had not left his mother and gone to the human woman instead, Sesshomaru likely would have stayed a single child. But if the kamis meant for him to have a half sibling, then by the gods, he would torture him as he was sure he was meant to. First things first, find the baka.

Inuyasha and Miroku were comfortably ensconced at the blackjack tables when Sesshomaru found them. They both wore black suites and dress shirts with no ties. Inuyasha's bright green shirt and white hair combined made him stand out, even in the bright lights of the casino floor. Women were standing nearby, entranced as much by him as the money he was so causally gambling with. These women knew Vegas and they knew rich men. If a guy lost three grand on the flip of one card and didn't blink an eye, he was loaded. Miroku, in his more subtle orange-hued shirt and with his darker coloring hadn't attracted as many women, but several still lingered close. His current favorite was the red head with the huge rack and bubble butt that was very barely covered in a skimpy white dress. The white fabric was nearly see-through, which made the dress even better in Mirokus opinion.

Sesshomaru had dressed in a similar fashion to his brother and friend for the evening, knowing that the casino had a dress code. His dark grey Armani suit was set off by a white shirt, with a pattern of red honeycombs on the bottom corner of his untucked shirt. As he drew closer to the blackjack table, he was amazed to realize the men were discussing him.

"Are you sure he'll be fine?"

"Yes. I called the, umm, doctor yesterday evening and he said he had given us the wrong strength of his medication. Since he took too much, it just took him a lot longer to sleep it off than we ever expected."

Sesshomaru was amazed- not that he'd ever let it show on his face. He had slept for a whole day? He never slept longer than three hours a night. He didn't need to. And those extra hours were the perfect time to do business on the other side of globe. Someone was always awake and willing to deal, after all. He didn't think he'd slept longer than six hours at a stretch since 1673. He walked up t the table, slowly and carefully, being sure to keep his aura less noticeable, to keep the men from sensing his presence. He slid onto a stool next to his business partners and waited for them to notice him. As usual, the monk noticed him first.

"Sesshomaru! You rejoined the world of the living again, I see."

"Yes. Whatever came over me appears to be quite gone now."

Miroku and Inuyasha looked at each nervously. He seemed too calm… much too calm. Where were the rage, the threats? Inuyasha had expected to be drug out to alley and thrashed already by this point, so his brother's calm demeanor took him completely by surprise. He was even more astonished when his brother casually set a stack of chips in front of himself and began playing. None of the men noticed that three tables away, trouble of a different sort was brewing.

"Kags! Come on. It's only 10 a hand. It's not the end of the world if you lose a few times. We're here to relax, have fun. Kagome, are you evening listening to me?"

Kagome was not, in fact, listening to Sango. Instead, her attention was locked on the man who had just sat down several tables away. His long, silver hair was pulled backing a low ponytail, secured with a plain black rubber band. From her seat, she could only see him in profile, but that was enough. She had been horridly bored and nervous for the last two hours. She hated gambling as much as Sango loved it. She knew she would never lose more than she could afford; she was much too careful to do otherwise. But really, who wanted to lose money in such a way? At least if you went to a play or concert, you paid x-amount for the ticket and that was that. You might pay for parking, et cetera, but all of that was to be expected. Here at the gambling tables, she never had a clue. She didn't know if she'd make money or lose it, and that made her nervous. Very, very nervous. And she kept losing, which made her even more nervous. So tonight, instead of letting herself be nervous, she'd studied people. The dealer's hands had already inspired a suit. She made a mental note to leave the woman a nice tip as a thank you. But now this new comer had her attention- all of it- despite her losing streak. Even in profile, he was stunning. His features seemed too prefect to be real, from the arch of his eyebrows, to the elegance of his cheek bones. His nose was straight, not pointy or snubbed up like an animals. Then, he turned at looked at her.

Amber. That was the only thought in Kagomes mind for the next few minutes. His eyes were amber colored. They possessed a variety of hues and the color shifted and changed in the flashing lights of the slot machines.

His stare startled him as much as it startled her. He didn't stare at women, let alone human ones. He simply didn't bother. If he wanted companionship, he knew many demons that would do. Nevertheless, they both found it nearly impossible to look away from one another. Sesshomarus taunting of his business partners had ceased, and Kagome was no longer studying the dealer's hands for ideas. Instead, they studied each other. And between all the staring, neither noticed that they both were winning. Constantly. After 6 straight hands of wins, though, someone had noticed the streak.

A pair of men in suits, wearing white shirts and black ties had made their way to Sesshomaru and a third was standing behind Kagome. It spoke to their level of distraction that neither noticed the newcomers. Until, that is, their games were interrupted. At a sign from the pit boss and security men, the two dealers had left Sesshomaru and Kagome out of the next deal. The lack of routine left them floundering for a moment. Then the security men spoke. "Mo boss wants to see you in his office. We don't like cheaters around here."

A/N: I found a beta!! My adorable friend Maq, who writes Labyrinth fanfics. She is not an Inuyasha fan, but she is a grammar and spelling nazi. Any errors that remain after her amazing work are not her fault, but mine.

Also, I am considering moving this fic to only one site. After only one review on ffn and no reviews on the other two sites, I am considering not posting this three times and dealing with three different formats, etc. Thusly, unless I pick SS or Dokuga as the place of posting, there will be no lemons. I will imagine them, smile over them, then not write them. Same as most of my daydreaming. XD The next chapter will appear in all three places, likely for the last time, and I will share my site decision then.

For now, DAAP still owns my soul.