Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or its characters. They are the sole property of Takahashi Rumiko

-To Sip of Black Velvet-

Chapter 18: Role Playing

Our car ride back to my apartment had been quiet that night.

When Inuyasha and I had arrived. I'd invited him in for a moment to continue our previous conversation. When he'd entered, it had felt odd seeing him standing there amongst my belongings and watching his similar golden eyes glance over my meager possessions. Sesshoumaru had never even had the privilege of setting foot in my home, but as I took in how dulled down Inuyasha's silver locks looked in the low lighting of my residence I realized that perhaps it had been for the best. I shook the feeling off and got to the point.

"Why were you following me?" I asked simply. There was no suspicion in my tone and at this point I was merely just curious. He'd said he couldn't get me out of his mind and that was more than a little intriguing, seeing as I'd only come across him one other time.

His eyes darted from the still empty space left on my mantle to stare into my own eyes. His gaze faltered for a moment before he spoke.

"Honestly, you'd become somewhat of an enigma to me." Inuyasha said as he took a seat on my sofa. "Since the day that you came into the office, Sesshoumaru has become... more distant, if that's even possible. He's been leaving early or giving me work that he'd never trusted me with before. I'm sure it's not that he somehow trusts me now but that he just doesn't care. I've never known anything to have affected him—ever." He paused for a moment and then continued, "I began to wonder what had been so important that day and of course that led me to you. Why I just continued to only follow you I'm unsure but as we can see it turned out for the best anyway."

I eyed him. He was partially lying and I could tell. There was something he was leaving out but if he really wanted to keep it a secret, I'd let him for now. He had saved me after all and I would consider not asking, showing him gratitude. I was sure I'd figure it out eventually. Inuyasha did not seem too good at hiding things and I'd learned to read people well as a result of trying so hard to read Sesshoumaru.

I focused more on what he'd said rather than what he had omitted. Sesshoumaru was affected. It seemed I wasn't the only one struggling. I felt both uneasy about that and happy at the same time. He truly did care. If keeping his word and staying away from me affected his behavior enough that even others could see it, something that I never would have fathomed from my stoic lover, he must still be in love me. I inwardly smiled.

"I guess it did turn out for the best." I decided to say to dismiss the conversation. It grew quiet between us for a few moments and then he asked me a question that I was hoping he would have just left alone.

"What was so important that you had to tell him that day Kagome?" Inuyasha inquired.

" Someone we both knew died." I lied to Inuyasha. It had flowed from my lips so easily that I would have even sworn it was the complete and honest truth. And I suppose that in some ways it was, for I guess I'd killed a little bit of both Sesshoumaru and I with the requests I'd made that day.

Inuyasha didn't ask any more questions on the subject although it was obvious that he wanted to. We talked about other things like my car problems and how I'd ended up walking from work in the first place. After a while I needed to go to sleep. He offered to stay on the couch, saying it might be dangerous for me alone on the same night of my attack, and to take me to work the next morning so I wouldn't have to walk alone. Even though I tried to assure him that nothing would probably happen, he eventually wore me down and I let him sleep on the couch.

The next morning Inuyasha walked into the bar with me. I introduced him to Miroku and Sango and tried to introduce him to Kikyo but she wasn't there. Sango gave me a questioning look and I scoffed slightly and shrugged it off. How could she possibly think there would ever be anything between me and Inuyasha? I could never feel for someone else after I'd been with Sesshoumaru.

We told Sango and Miroku about what had happened the night before and how Inuyasha had saved me. They both immediately began condemning me for walking alone at night and reminding me of how they'd been against it. Sango insisted that I would stay with her for a while. She even began trying to convince me to move in with her although she had a roommate. She said she was sure that we could get her to move out. I laughed.

"Let me make you a drink on the house Inuyasha." Sango said as she stepped behind the bar counter. "It's the least I could do since you saved my bestfriend's life, you know?" She smiled.

Inuyasha smiled, moved to sit at the bar and for a moment, I stopped breathing.

He wasn't Sesshoumaru, I knew that completely but that didn't mean that the situation wasn't any less eerie. It wasn't late night but it was early morning and he sat down on the same stool Sesshoumaru had the night that my world wind romance had begun, the night I'd been pulled in by the dark smooth tenor of Sesshoumaru's voice. I became aware that I'd been hurting a little less since I'd been around Inuyasha. It seemed he was just enough like Sesshoumaru to make me feel at ease, to make me feel closer to my lost love. I bit my lip.

"So what drink would you like?" Sango called out to Inuyasha as she reached for a glass.

"He'll have a Black Velvet." I cut in as I anxiously wished to reenact the scene as perfectly as possible.

"Really?" Sango asked confused. "This is more of a celebration, that drink is—"

"The drink is fine." I cut in abruptly.

She gave me another look but then made it. After she poured the drink and the scene was complete, I felt just a little more at peace.

After that day Inuyasha kept occasionally showing up and trying to become a part of my life. I let him, even if only for the small moments of relief that he could give me. Perhaps that was wrong but we became friends.

..O..

"I'm leaving early." Sesshoumaru informed his assistant as he grabbed his coat to leave the office. "Forward all my calls to Inuyasha's desk."

"Mr. Taisho, you've been leaving work early every day." His assistant found it necessary to reply to him. "I've already begun forwarding them."

He glared daggers at her from the corner of his eye. "Excuse me?" He asked coldly.

"I—I was just saying… Sure thing Mr. Taisho, I'll forward your calls immediately." She quickly recovered.

"Hn." He said as he continued to walk away, he had other business to attend to.

Sesshoumaru had been doing the same thing every night after work since Kagome had walked out of his office and simultaneously out of his life. That first night he had felt more compelled to break his word than he ever had in his long life.

He felt as if he needed to see Kagome. To touch her and make her forget whatever foolishness that had led her to her decision. He didn't care that he was married, it meant nothing to him and Kagura had known that from the beginning even if she'd grown attached to him. He was not acting dishonorably and Kagome had no reason to feel guilty. It was merely bad timing that he'd found his mate while Rin was young. He and Kagome would live centuries, he only had one short human lifetime with Rin and he would not allow Kagura to take any amount of time away from it.

Surprisingly, Sesshoumaru had not broken his word to stay away from Kagome because it would have been dishonorable but because it would have made her unhappy. It had taken him a moment to understand it. He'd never cared before about anything as trivial as upsetting someone else, but he'd felt strongly that he should spare Kagome that unhappiness. If she wanted him to stay away he would. He would wait for her to come back to him.

That first night though, he had still felt unnervingly restless and he'd found himself leaving work and walking through the desolate streets of the city. At first he'd unconsciously been easing his way towards Kagome's work so he abruptly turned a random corner and walked into some other random bar. He sat down and ordered a particular drink, drank that one, and left to go home to Rin. One drink hardly effected him but he would never let Rin see him as anything other than pristine. It would have been shameful.

The next night he did the same thing and the following nights after that one as well. It would always be another random bar down another random street. He always sat far to the left, ordered that one particular drink and then left. He was aware of what he was doing, playing out the first time that they'd spoken. The only problem was that she never showed up to play her part. Her role was always vacant. And so the next night he'd just go somewhere else. He knew it was pointless, that Kagome was never going to be in one of the random bars but the routine somehow helped him to ease his mind.

When days had turned into weeks and weeks had turned into months, he'd begun to wonder if she'd ever want to see him again. He'd arrogantly tried to dismiss the thought at first but as more time passed it had started to become less and less easy to ignore. Maybe she wouldn't want to see him. Maybe she wouldn't even be there after the ten years he'd informed her she'd have to wait. 'Perhaps she'd never come back to him," he thought.

So Sesshoumaru left work again, in route to a random bar in which to wait for a Kagome that would never show up there. He walked into a lowly-lit smoke filled bar, and blended in with the gloomy setting as he took a seat on another random bar stool.

"What can I get for you tonight hun?" The smiling yet vacant-eyed bartender asked him as she wiped down the counter.

"A Black Velvet." Sesshoumaru's deep baritone announced without giving her a second glance. Every bartender had become insignificant, unrecognizable from the ones that had poured his drink the nights before.

"Sure thing." She said as she began taking out the contents.

"You know," She started without averting her eyes from her task. "…this drink was born out of misery." She explained. "Back in London, sometime in the mid 1800s, it appeared after Prince Albert's death. A bartender created it as a symbol of mourning for his wife, Queen Victoria." She paused for a moment. "It's said that she mourned his death every day for the rest of her life."

She finished combining the black and purple mixture and placed it in front of Sesshoumaru. He reached out and grasped it slowly.

"You waste your words." Sesshoumaru's cold detached voice replied as he took his first burning sip of the pungent liquid. "The drink's origins were not lost on me." He had already thought about the coincidence that it had been the one he'd ordered the night Kagome and he began speaking. Maybe it had been fate that it would end up this way.

She half-smiled at him then, her eyes still muddled with her own emptiness, as she informed him,"I never thought differently."

At that Sesshoumaru did give her a short second glance as she walked off to serve another customer. 'Hn… perhaps, she's mourning too.' He considered impassively as he raised his glass to indulge in another burning sip.

He decided he'd come back to this particular bar again tomorrow.

Word Count: 2077

Author's Note:

So as everyone can see, I've changed the name of the story. I wanted something that held both significance and insignificance. I ended up choosing the name of the drink Sesshoumaru ordered at the bar the night he and Kagome first spoke. It's one of my favorite scenes and I remembered spending an ample amount of time fretting over what the particular drink would be. I think that both the drink and its history fits the mood of the story well and I hope you do too. For those who liked the other title better, I hope this one will grow on you.

A special thank you to Ceferadel (dokuga) who played a major part in helping me choose and giving me some ideas for this chapter. =)