Just something that jumped out of my mind while writing my other story. This is not going to be a long story and is rated mature for language and possible future limes. It is a count down that may or may not be obvious within the chapter. This is chapter 1 but it starts at the 10TH of October. 10 is where we will be counting down from. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read.

I do not own Inuyasha, but I do own this story.

The Countdown

Chapter 1

10: A Grand Big Newness

I had never seen you before among the countless times I had sat on that bench, watching the world pass me by. Everyday at the same time, I sat there with my lunch. But that day I was meeting someone, a meeting set up for a photographer to descretely meet with a business man to commission a shoot for the face of the company. There were no deviating details of all of those days until you. The people were the same, the kids played the same games, the dogs barked at the same trees. Everyone was living in a circle filled with repetition. It was pure monotony and everyone around me seemed to love every second of it. Then there was you.

I met you on the tenth day of the tenth month, in the bosom of autumn. The wind was rushing by in chilled gusts, prickling against any trace of bare flesh. It carried pleasent aromas of coffee and baked goods through the park. The leaves swayed in the trees, breaking off and falling in a burst of warm color into the dew covered grass. Autumn was written in vivid intensity, heightening every sense, all around the patrons of the city. No one seemed to take in the beauty, though. No one showed appreciation. So I sat there, waiting for my scheduled meet, and appreciated the grandeur of all of the changes around me.

Our eyes met. Physically we were yards apart, but I could feel my very aura being pulled to your side. I knew in that moment we would have to meet. You spoke to me in a brash tone, pointing out that I was staring. I immediately believed you were no more than a cold hearted bastard, yet my heart leaped up into my throat. It must have been the weather, I assured myself. But the weather had been beautiful, at least I believed it was beautiful until I saw you. You with your silk silver hair blowing in the wind. You, with your liquid amber eyes earching the crowd. What were you looking for? I never did get a chance to ask you, I never even thought about it after you began to speak.

"Why are you staring, human?" Your voice was a fur rug in front of a fire in winter, holding me close and comforting me in a moment that I had not realized I needed. Your demeanor made me want to run for the nearest taxi.

"You were also staring, youkai." I, too, could be audacious with my words. Carelessly throwing around useless vocabulary in order to gain more than your glares.

"hmph." You turned and left, continuing to search the crowd. I could see you pull out your cell phone and dial a number. I lost track of you, moving to answer my own in coming call.

"Hello?" I had lost my unbridled attitude for a polite greeting to my hopeful future client.

"I have looked around the park. I grow angry that you make me wait." Even with anger, your voice was solace.

"I believe you just asked me why I was staring. I am on the bench as I said I would be during our phone call earlier." No amount of exorbitance from your voice would soothe my anger. I was angry at you, angry that you have not taken the time to even try a bit of patience. Angrier that you would over look what you knew to be true because of your arrogance. You assumed I would not be human so instead you looked passed the dark haired female sitting in the precise location and attire described.

You returned to the bench, hand outstretched. "Sesshomaru."

"Kagome." I returned the guesture with a polite upward twist of the corners of my mouth. You seemed confused and I could read your stone cold expression easily, Why would she smile at me? But I had never been normal and have definitely never been like any other human you had been around before.

We left the park together in search of a hot beverage to cease my complaints of the temperature. You never admitted it but I knew you were cold too, just by how you clenched your fists in your pockets. We talked far beyond our meeting. You had begun as nothing more than a one word answer. Over that one day you had founded a basis for multiple word sentences.

The day ended, even though I begged it would not. It found us walking under the street lights back to your workplace. You gave me a ride home and we said nothing else about that day.

You called a few days later and set up the shoot. The shoot would be in December, winter themed with other models. You hired everyone and made sure they arrived on time. I took the pictures and gave you both prints and digital copies. I had hoped during those passing two months that you would call. My heart felt the connection, it felt the pull of perfection as if we were meant to be together. You seemed to not hear your heart or not have one, I could not tell at that point.

I had forgotten about you, moved on with my projects and spent my holidays alone save for my cat, Buyo. You called exactly eight weeks after the shoot, asking to meet once more. And meet we did, at the park, on my bench which I had continued to have my lunches on every day and watch the world turn. I was also caught in the invariability of life. But I had followed dutifully down the same path as everyone else, obeying the straightforward daily schedule that was my life. Then there was you. All of this time I had forgotten you beyond our business deal. All this time I had surmised that we would never cross paths. You called and we made arrangements, but I assumed you would find something more important than lunch on a park bench. And it was winter. The air had gone from chilled to frigid. There was snow sticking to every surface, glistening in the sunlight. The bench had been cleaned off but the park's population had decreased with the drop in temperature. But I would always come here.

You asked me why the park, why sit in the snow, why do all of this if I sit there shivering. I tried to explain how peaceful it was at the park. How easily I could get lost from time watching the people around me. Even the animals brought slight entertainment with squirrels chasing each other up and down trees. You wouldn't have understood if I had explained everything to its fullest. You were a pure blooded youkai who had nothing more than curiosity for the humans around you and even that you grew out of over your years of living.

Even more time passed until I saw you again, but every few days you would call me. You would never talk a lot. You would mostly listen. I would get really lucky when you shared something personal. A month of talking and I knew you had a brother. Weeks later I discovered you had lost your mother during the feudal error to a curse from a wicked witch. When the snow finally began to melt and green started to tickle the branches of trees, you told me about your father. I knew immediately that you admired him greatly and missed him even though you would have never told me that.

You had made me eager for your call, standing on pins and needles. The tintinnabulation of the phone's sweetly sharp bells were send my heart racing to the moon. Was it you? I was very easily disappointed. I knew you only called every couple of days but I was still hopeful there was a change. Something happened with our schedule. You were suppose to call, I had it down to a science of how often, but you never did. A couple more days had passed and it turned into a week. My phone finally rang and it was you. I never asked and you never did tell. You continued on as if nothing had happened.

Japan had moved beyond the brisk spring air to more humid summer temperatures. The seasons were changing along with our conversations. We talked about festivals and I told you about my family shrine. I was excited about taking my younger brother to the kite festival at the beach. You told me you had never celebrated any of the festivals, that youkai (especially of pure royal blood) were above petty human celebrations. I knew then that I would have to change that; you were going to attend at least one festival with me. It was a silly irrational thought at the time because we were not dating. We were merely phone companions, sharing our woes to a sources miles away.

You met me more than once after that. I was typically found sitting on my bench, watching the day drift along. Some times I would catch you watching from afar, your nerves showing ever so slightly on your face. I would always hide my giggles from you, pretending to show admiration for the mothers playing with the children. Did you ever see through me?

It was the first day of summer when you found me feeding a squirrel on my bench in the park. The flowers were blooming, painting the small hills with a large diversified palate of colors. The chill had completely been removed from the air, replaced with the smell of sun kissed leaves dancing along invisible lines in the wind. The buzz of the cicadas in the tree emitting their somber sibilation. Food carts brought an array of smells to all of the inhabitants.

You did not hesitate as you had before and approached me with haste. You asked if I had eaten my lunch yet, searching for my normal bento. I had not had an appetite today and fed all of it to the animals. My stomach gave me away with a loud rumble. That prompted you to take the seat next to me, scaring off the little critters, and offered me a large bento that you had brought with you. I pulled the bento apart and handed you a pair of chop sticks, both of us munching slowly on the contents. The conversation was limited, as always, but I tried to bring out more of the character I was gifted with during phone calls.

"What brought you with an over sized bento to the park today?" Did you really pick up on my little bit of joke that I tried to play into our conversations?

"Kagome." You sounded so serious, enough so that I immediately lost my lax demeanor and stiffened up. "Have this." You handed me a small black box decorated with a tiny red gift bow. I raised my eye brows at you curiously as you shoved the box in my hands and insisted I open it right then. You were never very good with affections.

The core of the box took my breath away. It was a small silver chain with an opalescent charm the size of a marble hanging in the middle. It was wrapped in silver wire, curling delicately in the center. You took my lack of word for acceptance and hooked it around my neck.

"Why?" I began to fiddle with it, not understanding why you would spend so much money on me.

"I must start at the complete beginning. In feudal japan I obtained this jewel, the Shikon No Tama, as a source of power. It never did help my power growth, it was only a pretty piece of jewelry. I sought out many mikos and monks who only gave me the same answers; only one true of heart will wield the stone's true power." You took my hand in yours, I still did not understand. "There is a curse upon the stone that if someone not pure of heart wields this or makes the final wish upon it, it will absorb the world into darkness. I want you to have it as an invitation to begin our courtship. This is the first of many gifts."

I could have fallen off the bench with laughter. You definitely did not appreciate my reaction and even began to grow mad. I reached up and touched the magenta lines which had begun breaking through your glamour. I accepted your gift and your courtship, but only after explaining that courting had died many years ago and that most people just dated without all of the crazy courting rules. You told me you felt odd even doing this because you had not asked permission from the male head of my household.

You called many times after that and sent many gifts. Flowers, potted not cut, and candies. You even wrote a few letters by hand. I was falling in love with you every moment you showed your true inner self to me. I only hoped I was not risking my heart for nothing.