The Roads That Lead To You

By: Patche

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or story of Inuyasha, nor have I ever claimed to.

A/N: So, I broke my one rule… It was bound to happen eventually. All I ask is that, if you are going to review to this story or 'I Stole Your Soul', please don't ask me to update the other story. I promise you guys… these two stories will be finished. I'm just about to start wrapping ISYS up and I haven't been able to get this story off my mind! It's been driving me crazy…

Chapter 1: The Prelude to a Love Story

oOo

My mother was always a bit of a quack. When I went to her as a young boy crying about the melancholies of my childhood, she'd give me a simple, kind, lecture on the reality of the world… then follow it up with a quote she'd read during her hours of studying literature. It was all she ever did, being the high school-level literature teacher she was. I guess that says enough about her sanity…

Anyway, I couldn't tell you the problem I was having when she gave me the only quote I've remembered and actually been able to apply to my life. She told me that Jean Nidetch once said "It is choice, not chance that determines your destiny."

I couldn't agree more. I've known that we, as a people, tend to sit and waste hours wondering how we wound up… wherever we wind up. Destiny and fate always seem to be the easy culprits. 'There was a reason this happened, because it had to get me to here…' The logic holds true… at least in my case. Every act of fate that has been bestowed upon me was by choice. It's amazing to think about them. All the choices I made. All the events that had to occur… just to lead me to where I am and where I've been… All the roads I took to lead me to her.

---

March 14th, 1986

It had to be at least two in the morning when she opened her eyes to find him on the bed across from her. His bright amber eyes had been sealed shut. His bare chest was basking in the moonlight, shining through the window and she watched with amazement at the soft movements it made as he breathed in and out in his sleep.

She could have watched him forever, but she had to leave. She couldn't stay. Sighing, she leaned over and brushed her lips to his forehead one last time, before slipping out from under the covers and setting her feet on the carpeted ground beneath her.

She drew in a shaky breath as she felt a pang in her chest. 'I can't do this anymore… I'm so sorry, Inu…' She thought, lifting herself from the mattress. She gasped as she felt a hand reaching out for her. She expected to see him glaring at her angrily as she spun around to face the man on the bed. But instead, he merely rolled over, his back facing her.

She sighed with relief and continued on her way out the door, leaving behind those amber eyes that were glued to the window as she made her way out of his life.

He sighed hopelessly and rolled over on the bed, staring up at the ceiling in despair.

"Izayoi…" He groaned.

---

The sun had just begun to rise once she'd arrived at the home she shared with her husband, Takemaru. She pulled her compact mirror from her purse and quickly checked her face to make sure all evidence of her crying fit the whole way home were vanished.

Satisfied with the reflection, she placed the object back into her purse and opened the door.

"Just where the hell have you been?" A voice slurred. She inwardly groaned. He'd been drinking, just as he always was. She'd become well-aware of his problems when it came to alcohol and would have gladly divorced him in a heartbeat if he hadn't threatened to ruin her life and that of her "not-so-secret lover". The fact that he was aware of Inu no Taisho's existence in her life made his questioning her whereabouts even more ridiculous. It was obvious, she was with the man she loved, rather than the person she was forced to tolerate for the rest of her life.

Her marriage to Takemaru was purely political. Her father was an old fashioned man and enjoyed the thought of giving his daughter the best life he could, whether she agreed to it or not. So, by the time Izayoi was seventeen, she was engaged to a man she didn't know and wished she had never met. At the time, she was already close friends with Inu no Taisho, a demon boy in her high school class. He had been the father of one of her best friend's children when he was only fifteen. When the girl decided she wanted nothing to do with the baby, it was Inu no Taisho and his family that raised it. Izayoi thought it was a miraculously responsible thing for him to do, and quickly befriended him. Though they never dated through high school, Inu no Taisho, or Inu as she called him, had loved Izayoi deeply and was furious to find that she was engaged against her will to a man she didn't even know.

The relationship she had with Inu began long before she married Takemaru. Once he found out about Inu, he didn't forbid her from seeing him. He did, however, threaten to have him murdered if anyone were to find out about her affair. It wasn't that he cared about Izayoi being his… Takemaru's pride was on the line. He'd be damned if anyone were to know his wife was unfaithful.

She ignored him and walked into the kitchen, turning on the light as she passed through the doorway.

"Izayoi…" He snarled, jumping up from his chair in the living room and rushing into the kitchen. She gasped as he grabbed her arms, forcefully digging into the skin exposed by her short-sleeved shirt. The pain of his hands caused her to whimper.

"I'll ask you again…" He said through clenched teeth. "Were you with him?"

Silence.

He growled, pulling her toward him only to shove her against the wall. She groaned in pain. "ANSWER ME!"

She could smell the alcohol on his breath and furrowed her brow in anger. She opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it when her husband pulled her off the wall and threw her on the ground. He turned on his heel and stormed out the front door, leaving his wife on the linoleum.

---

It had been nearly two months since she'd seen or made contact with Inu no Taisho. Izayoi had decided this was for the best. She was risking his safety by being with him. At least this way he could find someone to be with that would be able to give her whole self to him. Not just half.

She felt a tear gather in the corner of her eye at the thought of him smiling, happily married to someone that wasn't her.

'It almost makes me sick to my stomach…' She thought as she felt bile rising in her throat. She gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth, running to the nearest bathroom in her home.

---

"Well, Yamaguchi-san… it seems you don't have a stomach virus." The female doctor standing across the office from Izayoi spoke cheerfully. "In fact, you are pregnant. Congratulations you two!" She chimed happily.

Izayoi felt her blood run cold. Takemaru knew it wasn't his. They hadn't had sex in years. She clenched her eyes shut, not daring to turn and face him.

The doctor tilted her head to the side at their odd reaction to her news.

"Is there… something…" She started.

"Leave." Takemaru said coldly. The doctor nodded and hastily made her way out of the office.

Izayoi took a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever he was about to unleash on her.

"How could you let this happen?" He snarled. "I told you you could do whatever the fuck you felt like doing. And THIS?! Now everyone will know about you and that slimy demon you've been fucking behind my back! I have no choice…" He muttered the last bit, still keeping his distance from the woman. If he got any closer, he could feel that he'd lose himself and there would soon be a scene.

"Don't you dare!" Izayoi shot back.

"You're going to give birth to a MONSTER! Everyone will know it's not mine. I can't have my name defiled like that, Izayoi." He spoke calmly. "Divorce is out of the question, but you'll have to say that you were raped by that ferocious demon and forced to give birth to his spawn." He turned his head to her. "Or I'll do it for you, and go ahead and take care of the abomination in your stomach and the man that inseminated you with it while I'm at it."

Izayoi clenched her teeth. "You're disgusting." She growled through her teeth.

"Maybe so, but I'm not the one carrying a half breed in my uterus, am I?"

---

December 11th, 2004

He sat, perched in his favorite tree in the school's courtyard. It was his lunch break, and this was where he often found himself. He liked the solitude, however. It was better than any attention his peers or teachers would give him.

His amber eyes flickered to a large hornet that landed on the base of the tree. He narrowed them and watched as it moved along the bark, searching for whatever smell had led it here. Realizing the smell had come from some flowers in the leaves of the tree, the hornet launched itself from the base and flew right by the boy's overly sensitive, triangular- shaped, dog ears that were perched right atop his head.

Instinctively, he flattened his ears and swatted at the intruding sound with his clawed hand only to hit the hornet square on the head. His eyes widened in horror as the insect grabbed onto his hand and plunged its oversized stinger into the skin of his hand.

The remainder of the day, he was forced to walk around school with a swollen hand. 'Just another thing for everyone to laugh at.' He thought morosely as he made his way back to his classroom. He went to sit in his assigned seat, but found a boy sitting there, taking to the girl that Inuyasha was seated beside.

He stood, impatiently, waiting for the boy to finish his conversation and return to his seat.

The boy scoffed and turned around to face the half demon behind him.

"Inuyasha…" He started, smiling. "You know, you can just take my seat. I'm talking to Yuka if you don't mind."

"I'll get a referral if I sit somewhere else, you asshole." Inuyasha muttered.

The boy, obviously taking offense to Inuyasha's statement stood and walked toward him, challenging him to continue to speak the way he had.

"Have you forgotten your place, half breed?" He asked, pushing Inuyasha toward the desk. He somehow tripped over a leg of a nearby desk and wound up collapsing on the ground.

The boy laughed. "Just like a dog. Sit boy!" He laughed as the rest of the class joined in. The teacher walked into the room just as the laughter grew.

"Class, calm down… what's…" The teacher said, looking around to find the cause of their outburst only to find Inuyasha struggling to get up from a spot on the floor.

"Inuyasha! What are you doing on the floor?" The teacher asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"He's doing what any normal dog would do!" A girl shouted in the midst of her laughter.

The teacher sighed and placed a hand to her forehead. "Inuyasha, go see the principal, please…" She muttered as Inuyasha stood and made his way out of the classroom.

---

"Inuyasha…"

He smiled at his mother who greeted him, smiling when he returned home from school that day. He nodded, removing his jacket from his arms and placing it on the coat hanger on the wall by the door.

She gasped as a timer from the kitchen went off. "Oh! It's your cake." She said, rushing off.

"My… cake?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well of course, sweetie! Don't you dare think your own mother forgot your birthday."

Inuyasha scoffed, wiping a hand over his face. "Well, the rest of the world did, so I wouldn't be so surprised."

Izayoi gasped, placing the cake on the counter and rushing over to her son, grabbing his hand. "Inuyasha, what happened?" She asked, looking over the swollen hand.

"I got stung…"

Izayoi sighed. "I'll go get some cream." She said softly, heading into the bathroom. "Takemaru will be home in a few, so I hope you don't mind eating your cake before it cools." She shouted from the bathroom.

Inuyasha sighed, plopping down on the couch in the living room. "Awesome! I get to scorch my tastebuds off while dealing with my drunkard, asshole of a stepfather, Hooray. Could I have asked for a better birthday?" He said sarcastically as his mother reappeared.

"You're not to call Takemaru names like that. You should know better." She scolded, squeezing a white cream out of the bottle in her hand and rubbing it over the affected area of Inuyasha's hand.

"Well, now that I'm eighteen and all, mom, I think I can do whatever I want." He said, smirking.

Izayoi looked up to meet his eyes with a cold glare. "Inuyasha, if you start a fight with Takemaru tonight…" She shook her head angrily. "Why can't you just behave?" She asked, jumping back from him. "I mean, honestly, you act like I'm happy in this situation? That I love having the two of you come home just to fight?"

Inuyasha growled. "Well maybe if you stopped pussyfooting around the guy, you wouldn't be in this situation anymore, would you? You'd be divorced, living with someone that actually gives two shits about us and happy! Or are you just a complete masochist?!" Inuyasha shouted.

Izayoi stiffened, scoffing and turning her head from him. "I'm going to the store." She said coldly, throwing the tube of cream on the ground and storming to the door to grab her shoes. "Happy birthday…" She muttered, opening the door to leave.

He slunk back on the couch, crossing his arms as guilt washed over him. He hated upsetting his mother. She was, after all, the only person that even cared about him. And sadly enough, he knew that wasn't an exaggeration.

His ears twitched at the sound of the doorknob turning and he looked up, expecting to see his mother in the doorway, but instead was met with the dark brown eyes of his stepfather who didn't bother to greet him as he made his way to the kitchen.

Inuyasha knew how much his stepfather loathed him. Takemaru could at least pretend to love his mother, but he felt nothing but disgust for her son. Why would he want Inuyasha around, though? Even if he was a half demon… he was also the spawn of a man that had raped his mother. No wonder the man held so much resentment for the half demon. He was an abomination in so many levels.

Inuyasha groaned and stood up from the couch, heading toward the bathroom. He sighed, locking himself in and glared at himself in the mirror. His long, silvery white hair, his golden irises surrounding his pupils… his two white dog ears growing from his head.

He was a monster…

He took in a deep breath and bent down to dig through the cabinet beneath the sink. He pulled out a familiar brown box that he kept his cigarettes hidden in. Opening it up, he found it was empty, save for a note.

'Inuyasha, I threw these away. You're not even eighteen yet. Why don't you wait a little longer before you ruin your health?'

He groaned, rolling his eyes. "Well, I'm eighteen now mom… and I'd like to at least give myself one fucking thing I'd like for my birthday…" He muttered, setting the box down as he sat on the rug on the floor.

He slumped his shoulders, looking in the cabinet. He tilted his head curiously at the sight of an envelope in the very back.

'An envelope? How did I miss that?' He asked, reaching into the back of the cabinet to grab it. He looked it over in his hand. 'For Memory's Sake' was written on the front. Inuyasha turned the envelope around and opened it only to find stacks of folded papers inside.

He furrowed his brow and pulled the one nearest the opening out, unfolding it to read whatever it was.

'April 17th, 1986

My dearest Izayoi,

I don't really know how many more letters my heart is willing to send without a response from you. How could you just leave me the way you did that morning, nearly a month ago? What did I do?

Izayoi, my world is nothing but an empty void without your light to fill it. I need you. For the past eleven years, you're all that I've known. If it's Takemaru, I promise I'll keep you safe from him. I'll do anything, Izayoi. Just please come back to me…

Inu no Taisho'

Inuyasha gasped in horror, setting the letter down by his feet.

"You are more than just an abomination! You're the son of the man that raped your mother five years ago, Inuyasha! The demon Inu no Taisho, subdued her and forced himself on her."

He shut his eyes, forcing out the memory of Takemaru's explanation of his existence so long ago.

'Inu no Taisho, huh?' He asked himself. He glanced over the letter again and spotted the return address. He narrowed his eyes and stuffed the letter back into its envelope, then folded the envelope and placed it in his pocket. He stood and opened the bathroom door, turning out the light as he left. He was going to have quite the talk with his mother once she got back.

"Why's there a cake?" Takemaru asked, his mouth full of the cake Izayoi had baked.

"It's my birthday…" Inuyasha said quietly, slightly disturbed by the fact that Takemaru was eating his cake.

Takemaru chuckled. "Hah! Who would celebrate the day that you were born? You're a freak of nature, kid… You should have been 'taken care of' if you know what I mean…" Takemaru muttered. "But your stupid mother. 'She didn't care. She loved you anyway.' Pah! She was just ashamed of being raped. She didn't want the world to know that was how you'd been conceived. So, she lied and babied you just like any normal mother would with any normal human child. But she knows what you are…" Takemaru smirked at the rage that flooded Inuyasha's eyes. "And she despises you for it…"

Inuyasha's mind went blank as he charged into the kitchen and slammed Takemaru against the wall, the cake in his hands falling to the ground.

"SHUT UP!" He shouted.

Takemaru shook his head, laughing at Inuyasha. "See what I mean? Nothing but a monster…"

Inuyasha growled, his breathing ragged. He scoffed and let Takemaru down from the wall.

Takemaru laughed again. "And you try to pretend that you have a heart."

"JUST SHUT UP!" Inuyasha shouted, his back turned to the his stepfather.

"You're a freak…" Takemaru said to him when he was six. Inuyasha covered his ears, sitting in the corner of the kitchen, crying. "Stop it… stop it… I'm not a freak."

"Yes you are. No one loves you. Your mother doesn't even really love you because you're a monster. She's afraid of you…"

His soft crying turned into sobs that racked his body. "No she isn't. She loves me. I'm not a monster…"

"You're crying because you know it's true."

Takemaru shook his head. "You've always been so weak, you know?"

Inuyasha turned to face him, narrowing his eyes. "I don't give a SHIT what you think of me, you bastard…"

Takemaru's smile vanished. "What did you call me?!"

Inuyasha stood his ground, silently glaring at the man before him.

"You ungrateful son of a bitch!" He shouted, lunging forward and punching Inuyasha in the eye. Inuyasha groaned and grabbed at his face, looking up at Takemaru with his good eye.

'I'm done with this…' He thought, turning around to head for the door.

"You gonna go crying to mommy, huh?" Takemaru asked, smirking.

Inuyasha ignored him and grabbed his coat, heading out the door.

'I'll find you… and then you can save us, just like you said you would.'

---

"Kagome! Come on, get in the car…"

It was snowing that night, practically a blizzard as Higurashi Kagome left her school building after her volleyball practice. She smiled and waved to the girls on her team as she walked to the car where her mother stood outside the door, glaring at her impatiently.

"I'm coming, Mama!" She said, smiling, skipping a bit on her way to the silver car her mother drove to pick her up.

"I can't believe you were considering walking home in this weather. It's a disaster out here." Her mother said as the two put their seatbelts on and put the car in drive.

She chortled. "Mama, you act like the house is miles away. It'd be a ten minute walk, tops."

"Maybe, but you're not even dressed properly. You're wearing shorts and a tank top, for goodness sake."

"I brought a coat…" Kagome said, rolling her eyes.

"I can't afford for you to be sick, too, Kagome. Your brother has already missed two weeks of school because of his cold." She sighed. "I can't have two kids fail their semesters." She said shaking her head.

"Mama, Souta's not going to fail! He's…" She trailed off, looking out her window at the sight of a boy with long white hair and two… dog ears on top of his head? He was walking against the wind, probably being hit by snowflakes falling at the speed they were driving.

She would have assumed he was a homeless man, but the area she went to school in was far too nice for a homeless person to wander into.

"Mama… do you see that boy?" She asked as they stopped at a red light. Mrs. Higurashi looked out the passenger window and gasped.

"Do you know him?" She asked. Kagome shook her head. "He's not even wearing his jacket. He's got it felt up to his face to protect himself from the snowflakes." She sighed.

"Maybe we could give him a ride?" Kagome asked.

"Kagome! We don't even know him." Her mother said.

Kagome scoffed, unbuckling her seatbelt and opening the passenger door, running over to the boy.

"Kagome!" Her mother shouted as the light changed to green. She scoffed irritated and let off the gas to pull over on the nearest shoulder. "Kagome!" She shouted through the passenger door.

"Umm… excuse me!" Kagome shouted as she approached the boy. He turned to look at her, dropping the jacket from his face. Kagome gasped at the sight of his golden eyes.

"Do… do you need some help?" She asked, carefully.

He shook, staring at her in disbelief.

Kagome chortled. "Come on, you've got to be freezing. It's like ten degrees out here!" She said, grabbing at his hand. Inuyasha stiffened.

"We'll give you a ride, okay?" She said, smiling at him as she led him to her mother's car.

---