Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or company!
(Kagome POV)
No one told me I would die at a young age, I just felt it. Every day I rode the bus I felt the knowledge I would die young but never knew why.
It was probably the fact my dad, Naraku, tried to kill me when I was a baby because my mom had given him a girl instead of a boy. Or as I later found out, it could be because I was not his.
Naraku ended up in jail when I was 2 for holding up a convenience store, or that's just what I was told. A few months after my brother Souta was born, did he time that correct or not, I still haven't figured that out yet.
Another sign was when I was 3 and my jii-chan had shoved a donut down my throat to shut me up. I started chocking and my mom saved me.
Year of 1998 my mom met a man named Jakotsu, on the outside he looked like a man, but on the inside he was a cross-dressing freak.
Fourth grade was the worst year of my life, I was being bullied by a few kids from the neighborhood, at school I was being emotionally abused by Kikyo and I was repeatedly raped by Jakotsu's son, Hakudoshi.
I kept everything to myself and my 5th grade year we moved to Kyoto for a year and a half to get away from Jakotsu and my ba-chan Tsubaki. We moved back after a year and a half, Jakotsu followed us and my mom acted as though she didn't leave him.
When I got older I still felt the knowledge that I would die young, so when things got too bad, I tried to kill myself in front of my friend Sango in middle school, but she saw through what looked like a joke and saved me.
A few years later I was in high school and that's when I met HIM, Inuyasha. When my friend Yuki first introduced me to him as her boyfriend I was stunned by his God-like appearance. He seemed friendly enough to me, didn't have much to say.
Few months later Yuki dumped him and the 1st thing I had said to him since that 1st day of meeting him was she had treated him wrong, she had cheated on him. He didn't seem to care much about it and we went our separate ways.
Next semester we had met again, we just happened to be in the same class, History. My friend Sango was in this class too and she seemed to have gotten the pervert, Miroku's, attention. Coincidently, Miroku was Inuyasha's best friend.
When Miroku came over, Inuyasha followed. He gave the excuse it was just because he was making sure Miroku didn't get too out of hand but I felt it was for a different reason.
We all became fast friends that semester and we spent as much time as we could together. I didn't recognize my feelings for Inuyasha until summer vacation. We couldn't spend any time together because we were both busy but as soon as school started, I wanted to be closer.
Miroku found out I liked Inuyasha and decided to tease him with the information. I saw him afterwards and couldn't help but blushing. Miroku hadn't told him, but I still knew who Miroku was talking about. We parted ways at the bus, but later that night I called Sango and asked her for advice. She said to go ahead and tell him, so I did.
-x-
(Inuyasha POV)
When Miroku told me someone liked me, I kind of figured who it was, but I was waiting for her to tell me herself.
All through sophomore year she tried to date me, but I wouldn't give in. I didn't want to date anyone, even though when we were together, you could tell we were right for each other.
She got tired of waiting for me so she tried going out with this guy named, Kouga, but I got jealous and she finally gave up. She wanted to keep the peace but she was still technically single.
There was this one guy, Hojo, she barely talked to him but he learned her locker combination and had a crush on her for Kami knows how long. She told him off our junior year, he hadn't talked to her since.
During our junior year she got depressed again and tried to kill herself, I tried to help the best I could, but after awhile, I got tired of hearing it and stopped saying I love you to her. I was tired of getting hurt and she couldn't see it.
Some douche that was dating her friend Eri finally knocked some sense into her and told her she was hurting everyone, it took her best friend Suikotsu to start tearing up in one of their conversations to get her to stop.
That was the last time she tried anything and I'm glad. We finally got together our senior year for Prom, she was finally happy, or so I thought.
-x-
(Kagome POV)
Around the time I was preparing for Prom, my ba-chan died. I barely cried I was the only one who went on with their daily lives. At school, the assistant principal's secretary lectured me about going home to be with the family, but no, I had to stay at school. I needed to stay at school; I couldn't handle it if I had stayed home.
When Tsubaki died, my mom went crazy. She went out leaving me with Jakotsu and his mind games and anger. Souta had received many beating from his anger; I couldn't do anything but just be there, it seemed it was only bad when I was not there.
I learned quickly I could not go the University of Kyoto while my brother was still in school. I settled for the community college a few miles from my house so I could stay close by.
All this time I had a 6th sense, I knew I would die young, and I thought I would die young protecting Souta from Jakotsu's anger.
I had thought at one point I was going to be sent to the hospital or die because it got so bad that night I almost jumped in the fight.
When Souta graduated my mom left, leaving me and Souta at the hands of a delirious Jakotsu. Inuyasha's family took me in, I felt bad for leaving Souta but I couldn't handle it anymore. My mental stability was shot.
I tried to help him as much as I could while I was going to college, but I wasn't much help. Just made sure he had food in his stomach at all times because Jakotsu was starving him at home.
He and Jakotsu had a fight and he finally went to his friend Shippo's house to stay, finally he was safe.
A year goes by and Souta moved from one friend to another because the family wasn't treating him right. He finally moved in with our mom to get away from it all like she had.
Inuyasha's family had helped me out so much, providing me with food, shelter and a chance to finish my degree I was working on.
I still had the feeling of dying young, as I got closer to my 21st birthday I sought a different kind of help, a Shaman named Kaede. At my 1st soul retrieval I was told I had a curse put on me in another life, funny thing, growing up people in my church would always say I was powerful and I was cursed.
I didn't know what was going on, but after the soul retrieval I knew Kaede was legit, no one knew about the curse except the people that told me I was cursed, my mom and me. I hadn't said anything about the curse either when I met Kaede.
The number 25 had always stuck in my head, I never knew why, but after that day with Kaede I knew what the number 25 meant to me.
The number 25 was the year I was to die; the curse would have made me die at a young age, not knowing what my purpose was in life. Kaede went into non-ordinary reality and took the curse off of me.
After that day I decided to learn everything Kaede had to teach me. I have a long way to go to learn everything she has learned in her 89 years but I am willing to take on the challenge with Inuyasha and his family backing me up.
As long as I can heal myself from the inside out from all the pain I have went through in my life they will continue to encourage me. And the knowledge to die young is not in me anymore, the number 25 now means a celebration. A celebration of being alive for the next year and more years to come.
I know I have a lot more obstacles in my future, but at least I have one less worry about dying young and not knowing the reason for it. The curse brought me in the right direction of my life and now I intend to live it like I should.
The pain is in the past and I'm ready to get to my future, the future of Inuyasha being my husband, Sango and Miroku getting married and one of our kids getting married to the other one so we can truly be a family, blood and all.
AN: Hope you like the one-shot. I just needed to get this out of my system. Review please to tell me what you think! I'll get to working on Mechanic's Girl on Monday.