They returned to the resort without their Chinese mega-star allies, who were ordered elsewhere by Sesshomaru. They wouldn’t say where, naturally, nor if they’d be available if their help was needed again. In disgust, the others went straight to the condo and called Sesshomaru from there. Inu Yasha was reluctant to go to the hotel in his changing condition, and Rei Rei wasn’t ready to face Mikoto or Hisui yet. So they asked Sesshomaru to come to them. He wouldn’t. Instead, he suggested they talk at the Ball, did Rei Rei have anything fancy to wear? Of course she didn’t, so Sesshomaru told Yuki he’d reimburse her for the cost of a dress if she thought she could find one for the girl on such short notice. Neither Yuki nor Rei Rei was game for that idea and, frankly, thought the Great Demon of the West was off his rocker.
        "We don’t have time," Yuki complained.
        "I could summon a gown if Inu Yasha would give me back my wand…"
        Glare.
        Rei Rei shrugged and flopped down onto the couch. "Be that way."
        Sesshomaru sighed and told Inu Yasha reluctantly "Give her the wand, brother. I think she realizes we’re not the enemy."
        "Have you lost your mind?" Inu Yasha snapped. "She’ll stick us in Pretty Space or whatever! Have you ever been in Pretty Space, Sesshomaru? It sucks!"
        Rei Rei gave him the finger, then went back to pouting.
        "Bitch," Inu Yasha growled, "if I give you back your stupid wand, you have to swear not to put us in fucking Pretty Space—"
        "Such language! I can’t believe you’re dating him, Higurashi." Rei Rei humphed. "You can do better. Whatever happened to Hojo?"
        Ouch. Inu Yasha ground his teeth and clenched his fist around the phone. "She’s useless," he muttered, "forget her."
        Sesshomaru chuckled. "It’s not worth the effort of fighting with her. If she won’t cooperate, then keep her wand and let her go."
        Inu Yasha liked those orders much better. He switched off the phone with a happy smirk for Rei Rei and crowed. "He says ‘forget it’, so get lost, Pretty Rei Bitch. I get to keep your wand."
        She blinked at him in shock. "What? Just like that? He didn’t even give me a chance! I thought you said he wanted to talk to me!"
        "He did," Inu Yasha sneered, "but you wanted to be difficult. The door’s over there." He pointed at it, but she didn’t budge.
        "I can help," she pouted. "I’m sorry I was ‘difficult’. If you put me out there without my wand, Mikoto’ll kill me! I’ll be helpless!"
        "Too bad, so sad," Inu Yasha chirped.
        Yuki shook her head. "You’re enjoying this way too much."
        Kagome chimed in: "Give her a break, Inu Yasha. Maybe she can help us—"
        "Do what?" Inu Yasha argued. "We’re just going to a stupid dance. No big deal."
        Kagome wanted to say "except that you’ll be human and everybody will see you" but didn’t. Obviously the magical girl didn’t know about that, and Inu Yasha still looked like his usual self, so there was no reason for a human to suspect anything was wrong. "You don’t plan to go, do you? I mean, you…um…you hate these silly human things, right?"
        Inu Yasha silently thanked her for not blabbing his secret in front of Rei Rei. "Yeah, but it means a lot to you, so I want to be there."
        Kagome’s heart caught in her throat. Was he being sensitive? Her Inu Yasha, sensitive? Was the world coming to an end?
        Sango voiced Kagome’s thoughts with an incredulous snort. "I can’t believe you of all people just said something that sweet, Inu Yasha." She gave his skull a playful rap with her knuckles. "You must’ve hit your head in that fight."
        Inu Yasha glared at her, but his cheeks were bright red.
        "You mean you want to be there in case there’s trouble, right?" Shippo jumped in to give Inu Yasha a macho way out of his embarrassment.
        "To protect Kagome," Miroku added with a nod to Shippo.
        Inu Yasha shrugged. "You guys can do that," he said as he took off his soiled coat, then the shirt underneath and threw them over the back of the couch. Kagome gasped at the sight of his blood smeared chest, but he waved off her concern. "The wounds are healed. I’m going to bathe." He pointed the magic wand at Rei Rei and growled: "And I don’t want to see you here when I come back, bitch."
        Through teary eyes, she snapped: "Stop calling me that!"
        Kagome put a hand on Inu Yasha’s arm, forcing him to look into her eyes. "You shouldn’t call women that. I hate it."
        Blink. Blink. "Oh…uh…" Inu Yasha bit his lip and ducked his head. "Sorry." He pulled away and disappeared into the bathroom.
        Kagome sat down by Rei Rei and put her arm around the girl’s shoulders. "Don’t mind Inu Yasha," she told her soothingly, "he’s just gruff like that. He doesn’t mean it. Usually."
        Rei Rei put her head on Kagome’s shoulder and cried. "I’ve been so scared. I know Mikoto’ll kill me this time! He let me have my wand back, so he could say I attacked him!"
        "Well, that did seem to be your plan," Shunusuke muttered, but no one heard him. He went out onto the porch and closed the door behind him so he could think. After a few moments, his sister joined him.
        "What do we do now?" She asked wearily. "Do we fight Daddy, or what?"
        He ran his fingers through his hair and wished he was a million miles away. He firmly believed Hisui was their real problem, so fighting his father was a moot point unless Mikoto was on Hisui’s side in spite of his claims to the contrary. "I don’t know, Yuki," he whispered, "I really don’t know what we’re going to do. Maybe nothing will happen tonight, after all."
        After a while, Yuki said: "Yeah, right," and sunk down onto the deck to consider their options.

        Inu Yasha emerged from the bath with one towel around his waist while he rubbed his wet hair with another, the magic wand clenched in his teeth. He growled at Rei Rei for still being there, then went into his bedroom to get dressed. Sesshomaru had sent a tuxedo home with him earlier to keep up the pretense that Inu Yasha was going to the dance. Turned out he’d need it after all. He sat on the edge of the bed to finish drying his hair and tried to convince himself that he was doing the right thing by staying. There was still time to get to Sesshomaru’s hiding place before the physical evidence of his change started to show. He tossed the towel onto a chair in the corner of the room and lay back to plan what he’d do when everyone saw him walk into the ballroom as a human.
        All at once, a smirk crossed his lips and he chuckled: "Bet Hisui’ll say I still have a great ass."
        He played with Rei Rei’s wand as he fantasized about dancing with Kagome and having absolutely nothing dangerous happen all night. In his imagination, they all had a great time, then all but Shunusuke and Yuki returned to the past the next day. Even Pretty Rei Rei got a happy ending, and Hisui just went away. Sigh. "Who am I kidding?"
        Well, maybe the magical bitch deserved a happy ending as much as he and Kagome did. Inu Yasha went back into the living room, threw Rei Rei’s wand into her lap, then turned around and went back into the bedroom without a word. Rei Rei stared at after him in disbelief long after he’d closed the door behind himself, then she turned to Kagome with a wicked smirk and quipped: "He may be a jerk, but he has a totally killer ass!"
        "Not you, too!" Kagome moaned.

        Hisui wrapped her arms around Sesshomaru from behind and nuzzled his neck. "Will we all get to see your little brother as a human, Darling?"
        He froze, then finished tying his tie. Hisui came around in front of him to fuss over the bow tie and enjoy his mild discomfort. "Didn’t you think I’d figure it out? He is a half-blood, after all, and they all have one day a month when they’re mostly human. As many half-human children as I’ve had, of course I knew exactly why Inu Yasha was in such a hurry to disappear—without any of his little friends. That was the most suspicious part: The people from his time didn’t go back with him, so whatever it was couldn’t be all that important. So I reasoned it must be his time of the month."
        Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes and went to dig up some appropriate cufflinks from a small leather box with a tiny combination lock on it on the dresser. "I knew you’d figure it out, Hisui," he told her blandly as he put on cufflinks and closed and locked the box. "I just didn’t want you in a position to take advantage of his weakness."
        She wrapped him in her arms as he turned away from the dresser and purred: "Will you leave me if I kill Inu Yasha, Darling?"
        He sighed and refused to return her embrace. "In a manner of speaking, yes: If you kill my brother, who is in my employ, I’ll have to kill you. You know I don’t want to do that, so don’t put me in that position, hm?" He dropped a kiss onto the top of her head and went into the bathroom to fix his hair.
        Hisui smirked and watched him go. Tonight would be the best fun she’d had in simply ages. Killing was easy and only entertaining for a short time. Terrorism prolonged her enjoyment. The only question was where to begin. Sesshomaru had only suggested reparations if she killed Inu Yasha. He didn’t say anything about bringing the boy close to death, nor did he seem especially concerned about what she did to Inu Yasha’s friends. Except that girl…what was her name? Kagome. Alright, she wouldn’t kill Kagome, either, but that didn’t preclude injuring or terrifying her. Of course, she could always make it look like it was all Mikoto’s doing… That had always worked rather well in the past. She sat on the end of the bed and giggled. There were times when she was actually glad she’d had that boy.

        "What fool ties a noose around his own neck?!" Inu Yasha protested as Kagome adjusted his bow tie. He tugged at the collar of the starched shirt, and got his hand slapped away. "Do I have to wear these uncomfortable clothes?"
        "Wait till you put on the shoes," Kagome told him with a wink. "You’re so used to going barefoot, you’ll hate ‘em. But you have to wear shoes, Inu Yasha, ok? You have to."
        He frowned and reached up to tug the shirt collar again. She slapped his hand. "Kagome…"
        "Deal with it. At least you don’t have to wear high heels, like I do."
        Inu Yasha wasn’t sure what those were but he guessed they were a female form of foot torture. Why did humans put themselves through this kind of thing to impress each other? He and Kagome had already gotten past that part of the courtship ritual, so why couldn’t they just relax and be comfortable with each other? Sigh. Well, he wouldn’t wear rags to a formal occasion in his time, so he guessed they were out of the question here. Anyway, it made Kagome happy and she’d actually said he looked gorgeous in a tux! (Ok, the actual phrasing had been "all men look gorgeous in a tux", but he knew she meant him.) Speaking of gorgeous, her dress was…oh boy. It was blue silk, form-hugging, low in the front, lower in the back and had a slit up one leg almost to her hip. The first time he’d seen her in it, she’d blushed and asked if he thought it was too mature for her. What was he supposed to say to that? "Yes, it is, Kagome, you’re a little girl, so go put on something less exciting"? No way! He’d told it was beautiful and perfect, and so was she. That had earned him a very enthusiastic kiss, so he’d made a mental note to periodically come up with similar compliments as the evening wore on.
        He got a tingle all the way from scalp to heels when she touched his hair and said with a worried little frown: "It’s starting to turn dark already."
        Inu Yasha looked over her shoulder at his reflection in the mirror over the dresser to find several black streaks in his white hair. His ears hadn’t started their downward migration yet but soon would, then his claws would become harmless human fingernails, and his fangs would shorten. He could handle all of that if only his strength wouldn’t go with them, leaving him feeling like a helpless infant. He knew he was strong for a human during this time, but compared to his usual demon strength… He was glad to have some back up with him tonight if Hisui and/or Mikoto should try anything. If? Who was he kidding. More like, when.
        He shrugged and gave Kagome his most confident smirk. "Don’t worry, Kagome. I’m still pretty good in a fight when I’m human."
        "I know," she smiled, not as confidently as he did. "I’m glad you came back. I didn’t want to go to this dance without you." She blushed and leaned against his chest, eyes closed contentedly. "If you hadn’t come here this week, I wouldn’t have gone to the dance, or if I did, I would’ve just been a wall flower. There’s really nobody else I’d want to dance with."
        Inu Yasha put his arms around her and squeezed. No other response was needed. He only wished Hisui and Mikoto had never showed up, nor even Tachimora, so he and Kagome could just have a nice, peaceful, fun night with their friends. No danger, no adventure, no worries. He could’ve proven to Kagome that she really could take him places and not worry that he’d cause trouble or embarrass her. Oh well, he supposed it was just his destiny to find trouble no matter where he went, whether he wanted it or not. He wondered what the bad guys were planning for a few minutes, then drove all such thoughts out of his mind and let himself experience Kagome with the last of his acute demon senses before they were gone for the night.