A/N: Sorry for not updating. The truth is, I'm a pretty lazy person; mix that with lots of school work and volleyball practice and you get zero updates. haha, yeah.... Anyways, here's chapter 14; probably the last "happy" chapter for a long while. :( You'll see what I mean next time.

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha; duh. XD
Rated: Mature For crude language, sexual references, and mature situations.

CHAPTER 14

I watched as Sango stood at the counter discussing her piercings with the cashier. He too had a plethora of piercings and a few visible tattoos that seemed to be interesting Sango quite the bit. He had lifted his shirt to show her the tattoo on his belly and Sango had even leaned forward to get a better look. I however, averted my eyes, not really wanting to look at this stranger's tattooed belly, no matter how nicely toned it was.

Not only that, but the two seemed to hit it off so easily and I was slightly jealous. When I first talked to Sango, she pretty much cussed me out… Then again, she had changed a whole lot since then. She wasn't so irritable and antisocial. This was good I suppose, but when it came to hot, punk cashiers—in my opinion—it wasn't good. This guy was totally digging Sango. They'd been talking for nearly ten minutes.

"Ah, shit," I heard Sango swear before glancing over her shoulder at me. "I've got to go."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that," the guy chuckled awkwardly. His voice was a bit nasally. Perhaps he was an avid meth addict. I smiled at my own inward musings hoping nobody was paying too much mind to me.

"Yeah, it's ok. I just wanted to get this," she said putting her energy drink and the frappachino I had selected onto the counter.

"That's all?" he asked, scanning it.

"Yeah," Sango said reaching into her pocket. He held out his hand, palm facing her in a stopping motion.

"Don't worry about it. It's on me," he winked at her and she smiled at him.

"Thanks," she replied as he handed her the items and messed around with the cashier for a moment.

"She your little sister?" he asked, his gray eyes analyzing me unwaveringly. If I hadn't been so angered by his guess, I would've felt nervous under his gaze.

"Nah, she's my best friend," Sango said, trying her hardest to stifle her sputtering laughter.

"Shut it," I spat at her, knowing she was laughing because of what he had said.

"Oh… gees, sorry," he scratched at the nape of his neck in a nervous way. "She just looks so much younger than you…"

"It's ok," Sango said as she waved him goodbye. She grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the store as she burst into hysterical laughter.

I pouted and crossed my arms once we got into the car. Sango was still laughing and I was wondering why it was so funny to her.

"Hey little sis, do you want your coffee shit, or what?" she asked once realizing that I was a little upset.

"Sango, that wasn't funny in any way," I complained, wondering why she was laughing at me.

"But he's right, you know. You look hella younger than me."

"Because I didn't flunk three grades," I bit at her.

"Oh, feisty are we?" she asked as she started down the highway at an unusually calm speed.

"Sango," I said warningly.

"Ok, ok; sorry," she huffed. "Can't take a joke?"

"Don't treat me like a kid."

"Kagome, I said I was sorry."

I looked up at her to see her focus was completely on the road. She glanced over at me and offered a hesitant smile.

"Plus, you wouldn't be you if you weren't so much younger than me."

I rolled my eyes and opened up my drink to take a sip.

"And how many years would that be? Two?"

"I'm eighteen," Sango replied.

"Ok, and I'm sixteen."

"Yeah, see there. Two years is a whole fucking lot."

"How old do I look to you?"

I saw Sango struggle with this question and I cocked an eyebrow upwards. Her mouth opened as if she was going to say something, but she didn't.

"Old enough," she evaded as she completely abandoned the steering wheel to open her drink. Putting one hand back on it, she chugged the can dry and set it back down.

"Sango…"

"Yeah yeah, I know. Dangerous," she brushed me off and I smiled at her.

"So would you date that guy back there?" I asked causing her to cock an eyebrow upwards.

"The cashier? No way."

"Mhm," I hummed sarcastically.

"No really. I mean, he's hot and all, his tattoos are sexy as hell, but I couldn't possibly be into him."

My mind went back to when she told me about the falling out she had had with Kagura. How she "just couldn't". I didn't understand it at all, but I figured the same force that had driven her to deny Kagura was the same that made this guy undesirable.

"Are you and InuYasha dating yet?"

"Kagome," she barked suddenly and I flinched. "How many times do I have to tell you that InuYasha and I are just friends?!"

"Well it just seems…" I trailed off, not wanting her to be too angry with me. I watched her carefully to make sure she wouldn't catch me staring. She still looked kind of tired and her cheeks we carrying a slight tint.

"Look," she glanced over at me suddenly, catching me in the act. I blushed and looked away.

"InuYasha and I are good friends; I don't want to ruin our friendship with something like a romantic relationship," she continued.

"So you like him?" I looked back at her in awe.

"A little I guess…."

And there it was. The great admittance, however anticlimactic. She finally said it. I had been waiting for it for a while. But I had been expecting to feel more once I finally heard it; triumph, victory and even excitement. The only things I did feel, however, were disappointment and failure.

She liked InuYasha, and because she had said it aloud, it was set in stone. (1)

"Well that's good," I said softly, not at all in a convincing way.

"Kagura got me a cat," Sango interjected into the awkward air of the car.

"Oh, really?" I smiled. I liked cats.

"Yeah; it's a real freak show though. It's got two tails so it's a little less than ordinary. Then again, it's Kagura we're talking about. Nothing's ordinary about anything to do with her."

I laughed, agreeing. Kagura was quite the strange woman.

Taking another sip of my drink, Sango glanced at me once again.

"What the fuck is that anyways? Coffee?" she asked.

"You mean the frappachino?"

"Yeah, that thing."

"You've never had one?" I asked, astonished.

"Don't go there," she said, sensing my teasing before I even started. I smirked at this, never realizing Sango knew me so well.

"But really?" I asked.

"Yes really, Kagome. I've never had a frappachino," she shrugged her shoulders.

"Well they're really good."

"I've never been too fond of coffee."

"Try it; I bet you'll like it."

She sighed heavily and held out her hand. I placed the glass bottle in her hand and she tentatively brought the rim to her lips. As if testing acid, she took a sip. I watched closely, and rolled my eyes.

"It won't taste good if you only lick it," I huffed playfully. She smiled, not wanting to laugh into my drink.

"I didn't lick it," she laughed after pulling the bottle away from her mouth. "Plus I'd rather not waste my tongue skills on a bottle of frozen coffee."

"Just drink it," I barked in faux irritation. She quickly tilted the drink into her mouth and she pulled it away and made a face.

"That's gross," she said after swallowing hard.

"Well it's good that it's mine and not yours then, huh?" I asked as I attempted to pull it away from her.

"Wait, wait," she said before taking another gulp.

"Hey!" I snatched it back. "You do like it," I accused and she laughed.

"Not really, but your spit has this certain flavor that I happen to enjoy," she said convincingly.

I gave her an incredulous look before she broke off into a laugh.

"Just kidding," she laughed lighting, shaking her head. "It was good."

"See," I smiled smugly, even though she wasn't looking at me.

She didn't reply and she suddenly got that pensive look on her face. Her eyebrows furrowed bringing a certain darkness to her deep green eyes that was strangely attractive. She sighed and the tenseness that I hadn't realized she had melted away. She suddenly looked more relaxed.

"What was that?" I asked, a little concerned about Sango. She was acting strange…

"What was what?" she asked me, calmly, as if nothing had happened. Maybe she had just caught a chill; that's perfectly normal, right?

"Never mind," I muttered.

"Where are we going anyways?" I tried to change the subject. I was surprised to see a hot blush wash over her cheeks. What was that all about?

"It's a surprise," she said, her voice light with an unreadable emotion.

"What kind of surprise?" I asked, prying.

"You'll see when we get there."

"Gees, you're no fun," I pouted and she chuckled.

"You can't just ask me the one question that would give it all away," she huffed.

"Well I-" I stopped talking after hearing Sango's phone go off. She reached into her pocket and pulled it out. Flipping it open I saw that she had received a text. She read it quickly, smiling to herself, before skillfully typing in a reply. I watched in interest until she shut it and handed it to me.

"It's hard to text and drive," she explained. "Of course… You wouldn't know that, now would you?" she teased.

"Sango," I rolled my eyes.

"Do you want to listen to music?" she asked pointed to her iPod hooked up to the car through an auxiliary cable.

"Sure," I replied, but then I suddenly regretted it as she pushed play and put the volume up. Apparently she had been listening to some kind of synth-rock music. I cringed and she made a face.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"What is this?" I asked, and she sighed.

"The Birthday Massacre."

"The what?"

"If you don't want to listen to it, then we should just listen to the radio," she shrugged, obviously not really caring. I laughed and she cocked an eyebrow up.

"What was with that laugh?" she asked.

"You listen to emo music," I giggled, not able to contain myself.

"The Birthday Massacre is not emo. It's alternative," she muttered. "Plus I think Chibi is cute."

"What?" she had lost me on that last part.

"Their lead singer; I think she's cute."

I blushed and to avoid saying anything else, focused on tuning the radio to a station I liked. I found a station that seemed to have a good mixture of music and left it there.

"You listen to pop?" Sango said as if amazed.

"Yeah," I said slowly. "I actually listen to everything."

"Mhm," she hummed in a disbelieving tone. I was about to say something but then her phone chimed once more to alert her of another text.

"Read it to me?" she asked still concentrating on her driving.

"It's from InuYasha," I said before opening her phone. "Oh really? Hi Kagome," I read aloud, laughing at this part. "I hope Sango isn't telling you stories of our wonderful nights together. Grawr," I finished.

Sango laughed before asking, "Did you just growl?"

"He wrote it here, and you told me to read it," I said innocently, trying to keep in my giggles.

"InuYasha's a tard; go ahead and reply. I can't believe he's using my phone to text you."

For the next half hour or so, I texted InuYasha as Sango and I silently listened to music.

"You seem to be getting along well with 'Yash," she said randomly as I chuckled at something he had written.

"He's a nice guy," I mumbled, feeling embarrassed. After she said that, I couldn't believe what I'd been doing. I couldn't allow friendliness towards the enemy. Wait… why was he the enemy? Why did I think of him that way in my mind?

My musings were interrupted by the cell phone and I looked down to see another text in her inbox. This time, however, it wasn't from InuYasha.

"Who's Asuka?" I asked Sango who looked startled at the sound of the girl's name.

"A friend of mine," she said with her eyebrows furrowing. "What does she want?"

I decided to go with reading the text aloud.

"Hey Sango; are we still on for later tonight?"

Sango sighed and then muttered a string of swears.

"I totally forgot about her," she groaned. "Um… just tell her no."

"Ok," I said hesitantly typing that in. What was Asuka to Sango and what could they have possibly planned for later tonight?

"What's with that tone?"

"I'm just wondering who she is… You've never mentioned her before."

"She's an old friend I ran into earlier; we just started to hang out again. Why do you care anyways?"

I shut my mouth, knowing she had me there.

Perhaps realizing she had been a bit too snippy, she sighed, "I'm sorry… I just feel that it isn't much of your business who I hang out with."

"You're right; sorry."

"It's ok," she frowned before sighing again. She seemed to be full of sighs today.

InuYasha texted me back, and I decided to ask him about Asuka. I was disappointed with the reply he gave me. He pretty much told me that he didn't know who she was, but did remember Sango mentioning her once. Something about something funny happening at a movie theater with her. He said when he tried to ask about her, Sango was very dismissive.

What was Sango hiding? Maybe it was one of her "bad friends"… A druggie or a prostitute. Suddenly, I was very worried. Would Sango go back to that life again? What for? Wasn't she happy?

"Hey!"

I jumped, startled by the sudden voice. I looked over at Sango who looked a bit irritated.

"Damn, where were you just now?" she asked before laughing. "Just thought I'd ask if you wanted to use the bathroom or something."

"Um, not really… why do you ask?"

"Because we've got another two hours left of the drive."

"WHAT?!" I exclaimed.

"Just kidding," she winked at me. We were on an exit ramp. "We've got about three minutes left."

"Yay!" I exclaimed and Sango smiled fondly at me before shaking her head slowly. I was super excited though. We were about to arrive at the mystery destination. When we turned into the parking lot, I was surprised to find out where we were.

"An ice skating rink," I said and Sango looked over at me with a blush. My eyes caught hers and I saw this look of joy dancing around in them.

"Yeah," Sango said with a small smile. "The first one I ever skated at… My… My mom brought me out here when I was younger. We stopped coming here when they built a newer one closer to home, but we always came back every once in a while."

I didn't reply because I didn't know what to say. I didn't want anything sporadic that my mind would think to ruin the nostalgia in her voice. It was probably a hard thing for her to come back here too… So many memories of her mom; so many memories of good times. I watched her as she drew a long breath. Pain slipped into her eyes for a brief moment, and then it was gone; nothing.

"Ready to go in?" she asked with a strained voice. I gave her a long look and saw how hard she was fighting tears. My own eyes began to water at this. She was scared… she was obviously afraid to experience things that used to make her happy. Sango didn't want that happiness without the people who made her happy to go along with it, but those people were long gone. Her mother was long gone.

Was that why she brought me along? Did she want me in those new memories of happiness? Was she using me to fill the void left in the absence of her mother? I couldn't understand it, but I knew that this was really hard for Sango. Coming here took a lot out of her. I only hoped that she could hold out until we left… I didn't think I could handle seeing her cry.

"We can wait," I told her, and she looked relieved for a moment. Embarrassment slipped onto her face with a blush.

"Ok," she said gently. "I'll tell you when I'm ready."

I nodded and took her hand in mine, squeezing it lightly. The blush on her face magnified, but she did seem a bit more comfortable. She didn't pull her hand away from mine, so I continued to hold her hand. It was warm and softer than I could've expected. As I dug into my memory, I realized that her hands were always soft and warm. That was something I loved about Sango.

Looking down at the hand in her lap, I located the dwarfed finger and smiled silently to myself. I frowned, however, at the scars that were on her forearms that were uncovered by her arm warmers. Those would fade, eventually, but would they ever be joined by others? Would Sango ever feel the need to do that again; would she ever feel so depressed?

I hoped not and I vowed to do everything in my power to keep Sango happy until she found more reasons to value her life.

1- I had this happen to me before; well kind of, it's more of a theory. There was this girl I liked, but I hadn't really told her (because I'm kind of lame and really bad at that sort of stuff, plus it would've been awkward) and I figured I could go on with life and not worry about it until my ex bothered delving deeper into the question of why I broke up with her. To make a long story short, I told my ex about this girl I was crushing on and I knew that I couldn't hide away from my feelings because I had finally told someone- once it was out of my mind it existed and was real. I know that doesn't make much sense, but that's how I think because if it's in your mind and no one else knows about it, who's to say it (that thought or idea) exists? Haha, I know, that probably made no sense, but it was worth a try. Lots of theories I have make no sense. D;

Anyways, here this chapter. Sorry for not updating for so long; I have no excuses because I've had up to chapter 20 written for a long while now. heheh. But um, if I get lots of reviews, I'll update within the next few days. :) Once again, sorry for being so lazy. I'll work on that.

OH!!! And thank you to all of those wonderful people who reviewed! I LOVE YOOOOU! haha fo' serious.

Please Reveiw!
-Enigmatic Ethereality