Chapter 1-12/24/11

A/N: 'Sup? This is another one-shot of mine, set in modern day Japan. It's sort of sad, but not too much. And the ending's happy!

Besides two of my poems and one of my stories, this is another idea that came to while I was trying to go to sleep. Maybe I have insomnia...

Not really sure how I thought of this. And the ending is way different than the one I originally had. I manipulated it a little to make it holiday-like.

I'm American, but since I'm pretty sure that we're the only country that doesn't use the metric system, I'm going to make it easy for y'all and put stuff in centimeters and meters. So to reciprocate my effort, you could be kind enough to read this and/or leave a (hopefully) nice review.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters mentioned below in this story. The plot is a work of my (somewhat) imaginative mind.

End A/N.

InuYasha turned to dart a furtive glance at the dark-haired young woman before turning back to concentrate on his shooting. He took a deep breath to steady his shaking hands, closed his amber eyes, and released the bow. He listened as the arrow whistled through the air and peeked when he heard it strike something.

InuYasha stared disbelievingly. Mentally, he groaned. He couldn't believe how awful a shot he was. The arrow had completely missed the target and had burrowed itself in the ground about six meters in front of the bullseye. Glancing around, he was mortified to see the woman turning away from his look to hide her face. But he wasn't fooled. InuYasha recognized the shaking of her shoulders. It was muffled laughter.

Not everyone has natural talent like her! InuYasha thought to himself. Except Kikyo... With tears filling his eyes, InuYasha felt determination to try again fill him. He took a few steps onto the field and when no one made him come back, he kept walking.

He had only made it half a meter when he heard her call out, "Sir, don't go out there! It's dangerous!" She walked briskly over to him and, looking into his eyes, told him sternly, "You could be shot." But then a twinkling gleam of laughter entered her eyes, and she said with as straight a face as she could manage, "Especially if you have the bad luck for there to be someone else here as bad a shot as you are. No offense, of course."

Trying to work up a smile, InuYasha protested in mock indignation. "What happens if I am offended?"

"I can try to make it up to you."

Pretending to think it over, InuYasha took a few moments before responding. "How about you tell me your name?"

Grinning, she introduced herself. "I am Higurashi Kagome. And you are...?"

"My name is Taisho InuYasha. But you can simply call me InuYasha. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Would you like for me to help you?" At seeing his confused expression, Kagome clarified. "With your aim. You look like you, uh, could use some instruction."

InuYasha thought about it for a second before saying, "Thanks. Sounds good."

That night...

InuYasha walked into his house and tossed his jacket onto the nearby coatrack. Wearily sighing, he said aloud, "Kikyo, you should see her. She reminds me so much of you, and yet she seems different. I don't know how to explain it." Walking into the kitchen, InuYasha rummaged around in the cabinets, looking for a certain kind of food, while talking. "Yeah yeah, I know, I should clean the kitchen." Finally he found the box of food. He poured it into a bowl and set it in the microwave. "I can just hear you telling me it's my turn for chores," he said while shoving papers and books around on the table in an attempt to clear a spot for him to eat at.

Turning back to the beeping microwave, InuYasha opened the door and slid the bowl of ramen out. He nearly dropped it but gritted his teeth and carried the bowl over to the table. InuYasha quickly placed the bowl at the only somewhat empty spot and ruefully answered the voice in his head, "Yes, it certainly would have been a good idea to use a potholder."

Blowing on his burning hands, he said, "Would you-oh, I just barely caught myself! I almost asked you if you wanted a fork! Can you imagine, Kikyo?" InuYasha made his way over to a drawer and slid it open. Seeing it was empty, his face formed a scowl. He walked to the sink and pawed through the mountain of dirty dishes to look for silverware.

InuYasha let out a strongly worded curse before giving up looking for a fork. "Great. No forks. Or even any spoons." Sitting down in the kitchen chair, he muttered to himself, "I really need to clean the kitchen."

Holding the bowl in his right hand, he used it to gesture to the empty seat to his right. "To us. Happy anniversary, Kikyo. I miss you every single day," InuYasha said before slurping some noodles out of the bowl.

A/N: Yeah, Kikyo's dead. They were married, and she died. But how? That's for you to (maybe) find out. HAHA!

I was going to make this a one-shot, but then it'd be super-duper long, so I thought, Hey, why not just make it like a three- or four-shot? (A.K.A. a chapter story; but I'm not going to call it that)

So...Hurry up and read the next chap-WAIT! I just remembered. First, you need to review, THEN you can read the next chapter.

And I got something to say to you if you're gonna try and skip leaving a (NICE) review: 'You shall not pass.' (Isn't that a quote from Lord of the Rings or something? I got it off of Family Guy, and I'm pretty darn sure that they were doing a twenty second spoof of the movie.)

Like how I included the part about InuYasha eating ramen? 'Cause, you know, he' s sort of obsessed with it.

Anyway...Ja ne! (See ya!)

End A/N.