A/N: thanks everyone for reviewing! I really appreciate it; helps me know what I'm doing right and wrong. Here's the next chapter. It's quite the exciting one, albeit it's depressive nature. Enjoy...

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

CHAPTER 15

I stood at the front door of the large building with Sango. The sun was just now getting closer to its peak and it was getting hotter by the second. I frowned after seeing the skating rink's hours.

"Sango, the place doesn't open for another hour and a half," I mumbled and she chuckled with a worried look in her eye.

"Do you have that little faith in me?" Sango asked as she peaked into the glass of the door she had just knocked on. Backing away, she smirked smugly as the door opened up to reveal a chubby man who looked as if he were in his mid-thirties.

"Sango!" he exclaimed, pulling her tightly into a hug. I watched as Sango smiled fondly before gently wrapping her arms around the man. "You've gotten so big!"

"You too Hachi," Sango mumbled before starting to laugh at her own insult. "Is your hair thinning?"

The smaller man pulled away with a blush.

"You're always making fun of me," he replied in a fond way as he smoothed down his hair dull brown hair. We followed him into the lobby of the building. It was large and seemed strangely clean. It obviously wasn't new, but the place had definitely been going through renovations. You could tell by the new tile and furniture.

"It's what I do best," she replied and his smile just widened.

"I'm so happy to see you. When you called, I couldn't believe who I was hearing. I hadn't heard from you since-"

"The funeral. I know; and I'm sorry about that… I just couldn't bring myself to continue doing the things I loved," Sango smiled sadly. "But I'm over that. I'm done being sorry for myself."

"Well that's good. Come on up, I just finished breakfast and I'd love to be caught up on things."

We followed the man down a hallway and up a flight of stairs. I followed them into a room of which the door was open. We walked right into a roomy living room and I realized that he must live here; an apartment inside the skating rink. Sango flopped down on the couch and I followed suite as I sat in a recliner. As soon as I sat, however, Sango was back on her feet.

"We should head into the kitchen," she said, offering her hand. I took it and she pulled me up easily. She was nervous; she needed me around her. I smiled encouragingly at her and she dropped my hand as we headed through the door Hachi had left through.

As we entered the kitchen the man quickly beckoned us in.

"Please have a seat," he said, setting a plate with a high pile of pancakes on the kitchen table.

My eyes ghosted over the table covered in breakfast foods and I suddenly realized how hungry I was. I looked away from the food, and found Sango's eyes playfully staring at me. I blushed and she chuckled before turning to her friend.

"Hachi," she said, as the man set down a plate of bacon. "This is Kagome. My friend… my best friend."

Hachi looked confused as he stared at me. I didn't really understand the look he was giving me and I felt very uncomfortable. His lips parted, as if to offer words, but they didn't and Sango smacked him across the back of his head. My mouth fell open at this.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head. "Sango that... That hurt!"

"Don't fucking stare at her like that," Sango barked and him. Hachi and I both flinched and he quickly moved away from her and towards me.

"It's nice to meet you Kagome!" he flustered. I shook the hand he offered and he continued, "If you don't know already; I'm Hachi. I own this place."

I nodded and smiled, "It's nice to meet you too."

"I'm sorry for staring like that earlier," he apologized with an amazing blush. "I was just surprised to hear that Sango had a 'best friend'. She's always been some kind of loner."

"Fuck you," Sango muttered and we chuckled.

"Ah, well I've had enough pleasantries. I'm ready to eat breakfast," Hachi said, seemingly teleporting into a seat at the table. "Please join me ladies."

I sat down at the same time Sango did and helped myself to the food. I was insanely hungry and put enough on my plate. Sango looked over at me in surprise, but I ignored her looks and began to eat. The food was incredible and I wondered why Sango wasn't eating more. She was playing around with her food and taking little bites every few moments. Was she not hungry?

"Sango?" I questioned in concern after taking a sip of orange juice.

She looked up at me, cocking an eyebrow upwards. Her green eyes relayed an inner battle to me.

"Are you ok?" I asked her. Hachi looked up from his plate, curious as well. Sango's cheeks tinted for a moment before she sighed for what seemed like the trillionth time that day. She tugged at her left arm warmer.

"Yeah," she said, setting her fork down. "Sorry," she said before getting out of her seat and leaving the kitchen. I looked after her, a little worried and Hachi frowned.

"I guess she still is a loner," he mumbled.

"She's been acting strange for a long time," I replied softly. "I used to be able to understand her a little… but now, I have no clue what's going on. She's changed so much within the past few weeks."

"Kagura did tell me to keep a close eye on her," Hachi sighed. "Perhaps I should go after her."

I looked over at him to see his dark brown eyes glowing with worry and confusion. It was as if he wasn't sure what to do. I was in the same boat, and I wondered if I would be better fit to go after her.

"I'll go," I said before getting up from my seat.

"She couldn't have gotten too far," he said, standing up as well. When I frowned at him he defended, "You don't know the place well enough." I shrugged and followed him out of his apartment and down the stairs. He made his way to the front door and unlocked it; stepping outside his eyes did a quick sweep of the parking lot.

"I don't suppose she's in her car," he said with his eyes squinting against the blazing sun. I shook my head in agreement and he entered back into the building. I followed him to the front counter for him to only mumble something.

"How impatient," he mumbled to himself. "She's out on the ice."

I didn't really register what he was talking about until I remembered where we were. I saw that there were shoes missing on the rack and he sighed in relief.

"She could have at least waited for me to run the Zamboni," he began to complain.

"I'll just go," I said snapping him out of his rant.

"Oh, yes," he smiled before continuing. "I'll bring your shoes out to you."

I nodded and exited through the door that let us behind the counter. Walking past the tiled area I headed towards where the carpet began. There was a huge window that allowed you to look into the rink. It was dim inside; the lights weren't on fully. The place was big, but there were hardly any chairs to sit on around the perimeter. Sango stood in the near center and I wondered exactly what she was doing. Suddenly, she made a quick turn and began to move at a fast pace around the rink.

As she began to tear around the rink I decided to head in. The moment the automated doors opened to let me in, I felt a tad bit chilly. I was actually glad I had brought the suggested jacket. Moving down the ramp along the length of the rink I watched through the thick translucent plastic. Sango was very graceful in her movements.

She kicked up one of her legs and glided around on one foot with the other leg perfectly poised in the air for a moment. With her arms out to the side and her body perfectly arched, she looked like a professional. It was insane to see such skill from her. I stood at one of the entrances to the rink and Sango spotted me. She came to a halt before me giving a tiny smile as a spray of white ice flew from the rink.

"Did you finish your breakfast?" She seemed a bit worried.

"Well, no," I said hesitantly before she frowned. "I was worried about you."

"I'm sorry," she sighed. "I was anxious to get out here. Just testing my limits, I guess. I can barely do the things I used to. It's all so strange to me now."

"At least you can skate!" I exclaimed earning a wide smirk from her. She had such a lovely smile. "I'll break my face or something if I even tried what I saw you do." The smirk suddenly fell from her lips and she averted her eyes.

"You should go finish your breakfast."

There it was again; her strange attitude. I didn't know how to reply to her.

"I… I'm not hungry. Plus, you have to give me lessons before people start showing up."

She forced a smile and shrugged her shoulders. Her eyes looked up past me and I turned to see Hachi approach with skates. I took a seat on one of the few blue benches around the place and took a few minutes to put on and lace up my skates. My fingers were extra cold, so I was having a slight bit of trouble doing so. The older man soon disappeared with my sneakers talking about setting up for opening. Sango was waiting patiently with her dark eyes gazing gravely at the ice.

I wondered what had been on her mind lately to cause her to think so deeply all the time with such a morose expression on her face. Could it be her memories that would cause that? It didn't make much sense to me. The whole time we've been here I could see the reminiscent look in her eyes and the slight smirk she had on. Those same memories couldn't possibly be bringing her happiness and pain, could they?

"I'm done," I said to get her attention and she looked up at me and gave a short chuckle.

"Ok, let's see what you've got," she smirked.

I rolled my eyes and stood, clomping my way to the ice after her. The moment one skate came in contact with the slippery floor; I fell into an awkward half-split. Sango looked surprised and quickly turned to help me up off the freezing floor. Her hands were very warm as she pulled me up.

"Come on, you can at least stand right?" she asked, laughing terribly hard.

"Oh, don't you have anything better to do than to laugh at me?" I pouted, terribly embarrassed. Her eyes seemed to darken a bit before she cleared her throat.

"Come on," she said, as I finally got my balance. She turned backwards and skated very slowly, facing me. "Keep up with me and I promise to catch you each time you fall."

My eyes connected with hers and I nodded, trusting her with everything. I had no reason not to trust Sango. I slipped forwards, faster than I had expected, and fell right into her. She caught me, as she promised, and righted me immediately.

"Take your time," she mumbled, her eyes glued to my skate-clad feet.

I focused on moving slowly and somehow, we made the complete circle with me falling only two more times. I looked up at Sango, feeling very proud. She smiled at me and shook her head.

"Try it by yourself," she pressed, looking very tired suddenly. She tucked an errant strand of dark brown hair behind her ear as she said this.

"Ok," I said hesitantly, clinging to the white wall as she moved away from me towards the center of the rink. "Only once though."

She laughed lightly, "You're so lame, Kagome. Don't be so helpless."

I stuck my tongue out at her, but continued. I ended up going around two more times, only falling down a few times during that. I eventually skated towards Sango, who rushed out of the way after realizing I didn't know how to stop.

"Are you trying to fucking kill me?!" she scowled in faux anger as I turned after her again.

I laughed and I chased after her; suddenly, we were playing a game of cat and mouse. Sango was doing a great job at being evasive. Somehow, during the game, I realized that I hadn't fallen in a long time and I seemed to be moving a lot faster.

"You're doing great," Sango said, assessing my progress, before slipping just out of my reach again. She was toying with me. She could've easily kept at least seven yards between us, but that was ok, because we were both having fun.

I watched after her, making a wide turn and I could honestly say Sango looked kind of out of place in the bright environment. Out of place in a pleasant way, however. The white of the ice and its surroundings brought the beauty of Sango's tanned skin to my attention more than ever. Her hair seemed darker, and the way her deep green eyes reflected the light color of the ice was absolutely amazing; it was as if they were glowing. This is not counting the pure delight and nostalgia I could see dancing in her jade depths; that had been there since we had turned into the parking lot. I was happy for her happiness and I was still absolutely flattered that she had chosen me to come with her. She could've chosen InuYasha, but she chose me and that made my heart soar.

"Kagome!" I heard her suddenly bark. I realized I had been staring at her and not paying attention to where I was going. If it weren't for Sango, my face would've been all over the thick plastic sides of the rink. However, when she pulled me to safety, she pulled a little too hard and we had slipped onto the cold, wet ice.

"Fuck," she muttered and the surprise on her face evanesced into pain. "I forgot how much falling hurts," she chuckled wryly.

"I'm sorry," I gasped after realizing I had landed on top of her. She shook her head in a gesture to brush off the apology and slowly eased me off of her. She got back onto her feet and I used her as level to pull myself up. As I stood I noticed how hot her hands were in comparison to the icy ground. Looking up from eye level, which was her neck, my gaze hitched on her lovely pink lips. With a blush I tore my eyes away from her mouth only to see that her cheeks held a more prominent blush than that of one caused by cold. My eyes quickly shot to her eyes, knowing she had seen me examining her so closely. I blushed as she gave me an indescribable look. Her eyes were glued to mine and I could only stare as the intensity of her gaze trapped me.

And then, the unthinkable happened.

Sango subconsciously pulled me closer to her and I slid forward easily on the ice. It all happened so quickly. She leaned forward and captured my lips in a kiss. I felt a jolt shoot through my body and a strange sensation settled in the pit of my stomach. My throat suddenly closed up on me and I felt several times hotter than usual.

The words InuYasha had spoken invaded my thoughts.

"Your lips are as soft as they look."

Her lips were as soft as they looked and after I had overcome that revelation my mind fought to decide what to do. In five seconds, my mind went over a trillion thoughts. Surprise, surprise- Koga was the first thing I thought about. Feeling stupid as she stood there pressing her lips against mine, I decided the best thing to do was push her away. After doing that, I instantly regretted it. Her eyes were already damp with tears and the look of anguish on her face caused a terrible numbness to shoot through me. Regret bloomed in her eyes and if it couldn't get any worse, her lips trembled and a tear splashed down her cheek.

Sango was crying…

I opened my mouth to say something; anything. Anything to stop what was happening; to stop her pain. How had I not seen it? How had I not known? We were supposed to be best friends. Would we still be best friends after this?

It was then when I felt how strained my expression was and I tried to relax it. Had I'd been giving her that look of astonishment the whole time?

"Sango…" I managed to get out. She clenched her eyes shut and wiped at her face. Taking a deep breath she forced herself to look at me.

"I'm sorry," she said before turning and skating away quickly. I watched, as she left the rink, not knowing what to do. Realizing I was just standing there by myself, I slowly made my way to one of the exits of the rink. Should I go after Sango? Should I leave her alone for a while? What was the right thing to do?

As I flopped down onto a bench, I tried to put myself in her situation. I imagined being rejected by someone I liked. Ignoring the pain that mere thought brought me, I assessed the situation. My first thought would be that I needed to be alone to catch my bearings. Once my emotions were under some sort of control, I'd talk to my best friend about it… but wasn't I her best friend? Certainly she wouldn't want to talk to me about it… not so soon at least. Plus, I being both the girl she liked and her best friend did complicate things. But things like this needed to be talked about with someone. Maybe she would call InuYasha, or that Asuka girl… Maybe I needed to check on her to make sure she was alright…

In the lobby, I found that she was nowhere to be seen. There were a few more people, but they were all dressed in what appeared to be the rink's workers' uniforms. Hachi called me over to the counter he was stationed at. He had a worried look on his face. I began to hurriedly take off my shoes.

"Sango said that if I were to see you, I should tell you that she's in the car."

I nodded, surprised that she had even talked to anyone on her way out… Then again, it was Sango we were talking about.

"Ok," I said, noticing I was slightly out of it. "Thanks."

"No problem," he said with a smirk and a cute blush. I hurriedly slipped my sneakers on and headed towards the exit.

"See you later, Hachi," I said as I exited the door.

The sun was terribly warm for this time of year; the summer season hadn't even begun yet. Trekking across the black covered parking lot, I stopped beside the car. It was on and Sango sat in the front seat with a grim expression on her face. I opened the door and slipped into the car.

"I'm sorry Kagome," she said with a wavering voice. I could hear the tears in her words and I refused to look at her. Watching Sango cry was something very hard for me and I doubt I'd ever understand why.

"I didn't want to ruin what we have as friends, but I just couldn't keep it to myself anymore. I like you. I like you a lot, and I know that you'll never like me back, but I had to try. So I'm sorry if I offended you in any way. I didn't mean to make you do something you did want to do. I'm really sorry. I don't want to lose your friendship," Sango rambled and I realized that if I didn't stop her, she never would stop ranting.

"Sango," I said suddenly and she took a quick intake of air. "It's ok," I finally turned to look at her and saw her green eyes reddened from her tears. She looked absolutely anguished and I reached over and pulled her into a hug that was awkward due to the fact that we were in the front seats of her car. She stiffly wrapped her arms around me and I sighed.

"To be honest though… I'm really confused on this matter. I can't really explain what I'm thinking right now," I said to her and she pulled away with a guilty look.

"I'm so sorry, Kagome."

"Shush," I silenced her. "Just… stop apologizing."

"Well damn, I don't know what else to do. I'm so fucking embarrassed, you wouldn't even believe it," she huffed, fighting back tears. "And what's worse is that I keep crying. Who the fuck cries about stuff like this?"

"Sango," I started, but felt it was uncomfortable to continue. Perhaps she wasn't used to rejection because she never really pursued her interests. "It's only natural," I finally decided to tell her.

"Well damn," she muttered. "Look, I didn't mean to drive you all the way out here to waste your time. If you'd like to go back and skate then we can. I'd still like to do the things I had planned…"

"That's fine with me," I said, hoping it would erase the awkward air.

"Ok, great."

We headed inside only to say goodbye to Hachi. There were people milling about the lobby. People going about a fun outing without terrible confusion in their lives. People whose relationships were still intact and not awkward in anyway. I was suddenly envious of those people. My relationship with Sango would never be the same…

Aww, so sad, right?
Thanks for reading! Please review,
Enigmatic Ethereality