Taste Of Love

Kagome ran away from her demanding family and found herself right in the arms of Takahashi Inuyasha. Caught up in his world, it's getting hard for her to leave, for she has had her first taste of love.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Rights are reserved fully to Rumiko Takahashi. This plot too isn't as original, so to those who have attempted before I have, they have full rights to this plot too. Anything else that is mentioned that isn't a figment of my imagination, I also disclaim.

Age Brackets: Kagome – 20, Sango – 22, Miroku – 25, Inuyasha – 26

-x-

A Devilish Ploy

"You know," Kagome said, late into the evening while she, Kouga and Miroku sat in the game room, playing games. It was Kagome versus Miroku in Tekken 5. "You really suck ass with Jin." And Kagome performed a perfect hit combo, giving Miroku a KO. Kouga boomed with laughter as he relieved Miroku from the controller.

"Kagome," Kouga smirked, "Asuka will never stand a chance against Steve."

Kagome grinned. "Bring it on!" Kagome challenged as she got into stance with her character, Asuka Kazuma. Kouga taunted her with Steve as the computerized voice announced that round 1 had begun. Kagome used her character to utilize a very intricate combination, destroying half of Steve's HP bar.

Miroku hooted in laughter, and Kagome doubted he was 25 years of age for a second, but then she idly glanced over at Kouga and sweat-dropped, seeing his visage more of a 15 year old, not his actual age, 26.

"You two are such teenagers!" Kagome finally shot out as she KO'd Steve, giving Asuka more gold points. Kouga snarled as he threw his controller down and stood up.

"I give up! If I was a teen I would've whooped you like I did five years ago."

Kagome snorted and rolled her eyes. "Honey, back then I still owned you in video games!"

They had failed to notice Inuyasha leaning against the doorframe, watching them with high amusement, his eyebrow raised to meet his forehead.

"No you didn't!" Kouga declared, moving up to sit on the sofa while Miroku took control of the remote controller again. Kagome rolled her eyes and sarcastically coughed.

"Kouga, darling," She teased, "does the Mortal Kombat incident fleet your pea-brained sized noggin?"

Kouga paused and frowned. "Ehh? What Mortal Kombat incident?"

Miroku cracked up laughing. "The time where she whooped your ass with Sub-Zero with handicap on and you tried EVERY character possible on the list and you still lost."

Kouga thought for a moment before it was evident it dawned to him. He crossed his arms and glared at Kagome. "I let you win!"

"With more than twenty characters?" Kagome snorted. "Kouga, somehow I think you're trying to maintain your manliness, and may I be the one to burst your bubble and say…it ain't working…"

Miroku cracked up laughing and Inuyasha pushed himself off the doorframe and walked into the room, drawing the attention of Kagome, Miroku and Kouga. Miroku kept on letting out loose chuckles as he greeted Inuyasha.

"How long have you been there for, man?" Miroku raised a brow as Inuyasha shrugged, sitting down beside Kouga.

"Long enough to know Kouga can't play games for shit."

"Man I have better things to do," Kouga rolled his eyes, "I have a daughter and a wife. I think Hikari and Ayame deserve more of my time than… Tekken or MK or whatever Kagome conjures up."

"Soul Calibre!" Kagome smirked shooting Kouga a look. "Don't forget that I owned you with Voldo… my worst character."

Miroku tapped his chin. "I remember that. Kagome beat Kouga big time, and Kouga was playing his best character too."

Inuyasha drummed his fingers on the sofa arm rest and glancing at his system. A random idea popped into his head in getting Kagome to attend the party with him, and he hid the smirk that fought to come through.

"I have a deal for Miss. Kagome," he spoke up, drawing the attention of the three people in the room.

"Go on…" Kagome ushered for him to continue and he glanced at the door, seeing Sango, Ayame, Hikari, Ai and Kikyo walk in, Kikyo looking sour for the fact the summerhouse was dominated by children.

"Pick three of the games I have," Inuyasha nodded to Hikari and Ai who both looked at each other and giggled.

"Double dash!" Hikari squealed, loving that game, no matter how much she sucked at it.

"Dance Dance Revolution…" Sango spoke for her daughter who sat down beside Kagome, hugging her tightly.

"Melee…" Miroku said holding up a game. Inuyasha nodded as he picked those three games up and motioned to Kouga to pull out his two dance pads for DDR. Kagome frowned, wondering what was going on, waiting patiently while the DDR pads were set up.

"My bet for you is," Inuyasha started, "win two out of three games and you stay home. If I win, you have to come to the party, as my date…"

Kagome twitched. "WHAT? What ever happened to human rights?"

"My house…my rights." Inuyasha said in an annoyed tone as Kouga got the DDR disc into the system.

Sango frowned.

"Inuyasha, that isn't fair. If Kagome doesn't want to go, than who are you to force her?"

Inuyasha shot Sango a look, telling her that he was in charge. "You all ambush my house without notifying me and now you are telling me that I'm not being fair?"

Ayame twitched. "Inuyasha, now you're just being mean…"

Kagome snarled as she stood up, giving Inuyasha a dangerous look. "Fine… I accept. But after this, you can't force me to do anything against my will, understood?"

Inuyasha's eyes twinkled, "Crystal clear madam…"

Kikyo, however, disliked how her boyfriend was challenging this girl to such childish antics. He was years superior to her, at least 6 years, and here he was, playing DDR…

"Kagome!" Ayame said warningly, "You don't have to…"

Kagome glanced at Ayame before mounting her DDR pad, "I know… but I don't ever turn down bets…"

Inuyasha went into multiplayer mode and chose hardest as the difficulty mode. He turned to Kagome and glared at her with an extreme intensity. "DDR, pretty simple. First one out, loses this round."

Kagome glared at him. "Fine…"

Inuyasha pressed started and instantly their moves started flashing up. Due to modeling, Kagome had taken dancing lessons to work on her posture and keep her lean, her body supple and magnificent for her photo shoots. She found it extremely easy. However, it shocked her to see that Takahashi Inuyasha too didn't have much difficulty keeping up with the moves.

"My Inu-baby can break-dance…" Kikyo smiled snottily. Sango merely snorted as she sat down, watching the competition break out. They kept on going, touching the arrows they needed to, doing extreme tricks to keep up with the computerized DJ… occasionally on either half of the screen, EXCELLENT, GOOD, WOW, or AMAZING would pop up, telling the players that they were doing a great job.

"What's the time limit?" Miroku asked as Inuyasha did a wicked spin, keeping up with his points. The two fighters broke out into a sweat, keeping up with all of the moves that were being thrown at them.

"Ten minutes," Kouga said as he glanced at the timer. Miroku sweat dropped, wondering why he didn't think of that. The five minute mark past and the DJ on screen said something about keeping up the good work, the players were doing well. The points were exactly equal, both of them hitting 6000 points for utilizing combo's to double up their points. As the music got faster, Kagome and Inuyasha got faster, amazing the others in the room.

"Isn't your back gonna break, old man?" Kagome huffed out as she hit the left and up arrows at the same time.

"I'm not old," Inuyasha sneered.

"Older than me."

"By a few years, I assure you."

Kagome snorted as she had to go down and use her hands to perform the combo. Ai squealed seeing her godmother do some awesome hand trick, giving her a point boast, letting her advance ahead of Inuyasha by a firm 500 points. Inuyasha frowned as he did another move, hitting his point system up by 400, 100 points lower than Kagome.

"He's not old," Kikyo rolled her eyes.

"Yeah he is," Kagome smirked, leaving Ai and Hikari in awe, wondering how Kagome danced and talked at the same time.

"He's only 26!" Kikyo shot.

"I don't like you parading my age Kikyo." Inuyasha murmured dryly as his girlfriend smiled sweetly at him. Kagome laughed out loud.

"He's still like… six years older than me? Yeah, he's ancient."

"Two minutes left…" Miroku spoke seeing that Kagome and Inuyasha were neck to neck in points, Kagome 20 points ahead of Inuyasha. Everybody instantly quieted down, wanting to see how it ended up.

Five seconds left remaining in the round and Inuyasha was 5 points beneath Kagome.

Four…

Three…

Two…

At the last second Kagome hit an upgrade and pushed her points up by 500.

One…

"And the winner is," The DJ on screen spoke, "PLAYER TWO!"

Kagome squealed, wiping the sweat off her body. She hugged Ai who, despite the sweat, hugged her godmother back, grinning manically.

"Told you- old snobby rich snob couldn't stand a chance against a young and elegant female."

Inuyasha shot her a dangerous look as he kicked his DDR pad out of the way. "Double dash next…" He murmured as Kouga got the game ready. Never had anybody had this much fun watching two people play games.

But then again, never was it Higurashi versus Takahashi.

"I'll beat you," Kagome taunted as she chose Boo and baby Bowser. Inuyasha picked his two characters, Mario and Luigi, as the kart racers. They randomized the stage and found it was 3 laps.

"Ready?" The screen read.

"Three…"

"Two…

"One…"

"GO!"

-x-

"NO!" Kagome screamed as they finished playing the last game, Super Smash Brothers- Melee. She had lost rather terribly in Double Dash and Melee which meant…

"Inuyasha won…two out of three…" Sango gulped as Kagome dropped her controller in shock. Inuyasha stood up, dusted his shoulders and gave Kagome a rather terrible gaze. "I guess that means you lost the bet," he jeered, "which means…you're my date."

"That was devilish!" Ayame fought. "You planned it! You own these games; obviously you're good at them!"

"So?" Inuyasha raised a brow.

"I demand a rematch!" Ayame crossed her arms but Kagome stopped her.

"No…he won fair and square," Kagome twitched, "I don't see how! I swear he cheated or something- no man can win and triple lap me in Mario Kart!"

"No man but this man." Inuyasha self-gloated, taunting Kagome rather maliciously. Kagome snorted as she stood up, in a huff.

"It won't be aired nationally, right?" She asked, testily. Kagome, ever since she was young, hung out with a lot of boys. Kouga and Miroku were her bodyguards and their friends were Kagome's friends. She only had a few female friends, Sango and Ayame being two of the few, so Kagome had learnt to take bets and take them like a man.

Sometimes, she regretted growing up with guys. It was bred into her to take her punishment from a bet or dare, because she had lost fair and square.

Childhood habits seemed to die hard, or so Kagome had realized at that moment in time. No matter how much she wanted to decline his bet, her pride wouldn't let her.

Damn pride, Kagome scoffed inwardly as Inuyasha raised a brow up at her.

"Why do you care so much?" He asked. She wasn't famous or anything right? So being aired nationally didn't matter much…

"I just want to know," Kagome said tightly, "I don't want it to be aired publicly."

Inuyasha peered at her for quite sometime and Sango was getting jumpy. Sango and Ayame, as well as their husbands, were nervous for Kagome's sake. Her parents were really strict and if they found Kagome was hiding in Hong Kong, everybody would have hell to pay, especially the Lin family for being Kagome's keeper while she was gone.

"It won't be aired nationally." Inuyasha finally said. "It's a private gathering to recognize the high-tech software in Miroku's hospital, courtesy of Kouga's software group and my financial aid. A small gathering."

"Man, your small gatherings consist of like… seven hundred people?" Kouga smirked as Inuyasha shot him an ugly look.

"Nobody asked you, Lang." Inuyasha said rudely, but Kouga and Miroku were used to it. They were, surprisingly, two of Inuyasha's closest friends.

"Whatever…" Kouga rolled his eyes as he turned to his daughter and Ai, ushering them over to keep them occupied.

"So you're coming." Inuyasha said to Kagome who seethed.

"Apparently, I have no other choice? Even if I decline you'd sac me and swing me over your shoulder, bringing me with you, would you not?" Kagome teased testily and Inuyasha felt something bubble in the pit of his stomach.

Defiance, he thought, something I'm not used to. In a way, it's rather refreshing…and sexy. Mostly sexy…

"Probably," Inuyasha shrugged. He stood up and wrapped his arm around his girlfriends waist and looked at the two families and Kagome that was in his gaming room.

"In two days is the party. Start prepping. People are gonna be there… a lot of people that the Lin's and Lang's are familiar with."

And with those words said, he left with Kikyo, who was clinging to him like a flea to a dog… (A/N:…you know how bad I cracked up writing that? Flea to a dog… if only this wasn't AU… lol!)

"Ugh! Sometimes that man is SO impossible it is definitely not funny!" Ayame screamed. "It's always him! He wants Kagome to go to the ball so he's gonna make her one way or another. But nooo, you can never force that man to do ANYTHING! He is SO inconsiderate!"

"Relax," Miroku rolled his eyes at his friend, "or else you'll get high blood pressure and then say bye bye to making Hikari playmates tonight."

"Cut the perverted comments Miroku." Ayame shot to him. "Kagome's so messed up now."

"Relax," Kagome rolled her eyes, "if it isn't aired nationally than it's okay…right?"

"But he FORCED you!" Ayame whined.

"Well…I accepted his bet," Kagome sweat dropped, "now I regret it, but technically he didn't force me. I stepped right into it…"

"But…"

"Ayame," Kagome hugged her friend, "it's okay. No I don't want to go, I ran away from home to get away from this, but remember? He promised not to force me into doing anything after this incident, so relax okay?"

Ayame sighed and nodded. "Fine…whatever you say, but the thing is in two days…"

Kagome nodded as she looped hands with Sango and Ayame, ushering Hikari and Ai to come to them.

"Come girls, let's start talking about hair, makeup and dresses for the party." Kagome's eyes twinkled. "He's making me go eh? Well this will be a party that nobody will forget…"

Miroku's eyes narrowed. "Kagi," he said warningly, "what are you thinking?"

"Nothing!" Kagome said almost instantly, smirking rather secretively. And with that she left the room with the four other girls. Miroku rolled his eyes.

"Yeah she's planning something."

Kouga grinned. "I just hope it's good. Oh man I would love the look on Inuyasha's face if Kagome arrived in like…a clown outfit or something."

Miroku twitched. "Kagome has more sense than that!"

"Remember when she wanted to annoy your wife back six years ago?" Kouga smirked and Miroku chuckled.

"Yeah… Kagome got a boy cut just to annoy Sango…"

Kouga shook his head. "She is a daredevil in her own form… come on, let's go see what our women are up to." Kouga said standing up, Miroku following suit.

"You have to admit though," Miroku said as they left the games room, "Inuyasha had one helluva ploy to get Kagome to go with him."

Kouga nodded in agreement, "A rather devilish ploy, wouldn't you say?"

-x-

Note: Sorry about the game talk first few parts of the chapter. Was in a battle against my brother today and we went all out on DDR… so it was stuck in my head. Hope you didn't mine!

Games mentioned in chapter:

Tekken 5
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (or any other form you want to think of)
Soul Calibre (1 or 2…depending on which you like)
Dance Dance Revolution (aka DDR)
Super Smash Brothers Melee
Mario Kart Double Dash