January 5th, Kagome's Apartment, Around 10 PM

Kagome lay sprawled on her cushy green microfiber sofa, eyes glazed over as she watched re-runs of "Batman Beyond," ignoring the insistent buzzing of her cellphone. She really wasn't in the mood. Whoever it was was persistent though, so she finally looked down at the device on the glass coffee table to see who the hell was being so obnoxious.

Kouga.

She hadn't talked to him in days. He wouldn't be back from Russia for another ten days, and international calling was expensive. Scowling, she snatched her phone off the table, angry that her guilt had gotten the better of her.

"Hi, Kouga."

"Hey, babe. What took you so long to pick up?"

She wanted desperately to snap at him, but she schooled her voice into calm. "My phone is on vibrate, and I didn't hear it over the TV. Sorry." It was sort of true.

"Heh, loud movie?"

"Yeah. Lots of explosions," Kagome confirmed.

"So, uh, how are things?"

Kagome sighed. "Fine, I suppose. Work, hanging out with Sango, the usual."

"Do ya miss me?"

Kagome hesitated for a split second. Did she miss him? "I—it'll be nice when you come back."

"That's my girl."

She heard voices in the background over the phone. "Is your family there right now?" She asked.

"Nah, just a few friends. You'll meet them when you come here with me."

"Kouga, I—" A burst of feminine laughter sounded in the background.

"Hang on, Kagome, I'm gonna tell them to knock it off." He shouted something in Russian at them, which earned another bout of laughter and some shouted comments before a door slammed and silence followed. "Sorry about that."

"Um, it's fine."

"You are going to come to Russia, right? You'll do that for me?" He asked.

"Kouga, I don't know. You never said whether you'd do the same for me, and I just…" She trailed off.

"But you love me, right?"

If Kagome was honest with herself, she wasn't even sure of that anymore. But being honest with herself was scary. It meant questioning a relationship that she'd had for years, maybe giving up that comforting familiarity and security that comes with a stable, long-term relationship.

"Of course I do," she said. "I just…I just don't know if I'll love Russia."

Kouga sighed. "Well, I'll be home in less than two weeks, and I won't start my job until the end of February, so we have some time."

"Yeah, I suppose we do. For now, I think I should go to bed."

"Alright, well I guess this is good night, then."

"Yeah. Talk to you later."

"Sleep well, babe."

She ended the call, glancing at the clock on the wall above the TV. It was a little past 10:30 PM. She frowned, running the time conversion in her head. Moscow was eleven hours ahead. Why did Kouga have a bunch of friends, probably female friends, at his place that early in the morning?

Kagome flopped back on the sofa, cushions bouncing gently under her weight. Holding her phone in front of her, she considered the photo of Kouga that accompanied his contact information. She wasn't sure how she felt about the notion that Kouga might be cheating on her. Her own behavior hadn't been exactly stellar in that department either, though she didn't think she'd actually done anything that counted as cheating yet.

Out of the confused morass of emotions, one finally emerged, flaming hot and burning the other feelings to ash. Anger. How dare he ask her to make such a huge sacrifice for him, giving up everything she had, and throw it in her face with infidelity? How dare he demand her love and devotion in the face of his own transgressions? That selfish asshole. She had never asked much from him. And he had asked for her whole world. She wouldn't allow it.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself enough to think. She didn't yet know for a fact that he was cheating, and she had her own behavior to consider as well. She grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. Batman was not going to swoop in off the screen and solve her problems for her.