Title: Work-A-Holic
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha characters, though I am often tempted to string one or two from the ceiling fan in Hiei's living room. What the hey, it's not like anyone would notice anyway... it's so loaded with ink stains that a few blood stains would be overlooked.

Chapter one: Sad Existance

There came a time when just a break from normality was a good thing. How many years had it been since she had completed the journey through the well? If she counted the coming month, then it would have been exactly ten years, and she—a young twenty-eight year old woman working two mismatched jobs with two degrees from the local university—wasn't very pleased.

Once she had been happy, hopping through a well and enjoying the time she had with her friends who were straight from the fairytales. She had acted like a princess, and like nothing could affect her. That was why they had all died. It was her fault, and nothing could make her forgive herself. That was why she worked herself near death.

It was all in the cause of forgetting what had happened. It was all in the cause of making their pained faces disappear from her mind as they all struggled to stay alive and help her finish the battle. But none of them made it and she ended up all alone on the battle field, facing Naraku all by herself; just a slip of a girl with little to no control over her powers and no arrows left to fire.

Death had been imminent anyway, and desperation had set in. Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Kirara had all paid the price for her mistake. They had all learned that she had thought everything was a game and that only their deaths would make her realize how very wrong she had been.

Memories of that battle haunted her to the point where she never wanted to sleep, so she worked herself until she was beyond exhaustion and refused to give herself enough time while she was awake to think about it. Now, nearly ten years after the well had returned her to her time and once more sealed itself, she found the loneliness of burden becoming a dangerous feeling.

The Jewel... she refused to think of what had become of it because of what wish she had bestowed on it. She refused to think of what she had forced herself to become all because of a wish made in an act of desperation.

At first, she had handled it well; taking classes in college of self-defense, but then reality really steamed in and she broke down by the well one day. Her mother had given her money to move away and she did, moving to another town, another place and starting out fresh, re-enrolling in college, and just living with little to no emotional support.

She was doing well enough now with managing her two jobs and the hours she had to put in to keep up with them. Being a history teacher at a local high school helped her cope with the loss of time traveling and wore her out to near the point of exhaustion. Being a doctor at the hospital helped her remind herself that there were others who were in physical agony that needed her to cope with her mental depression.

So every day she smiled and told people she was fine, when really she wasn't. She slept four only four hours of the night because by the time the fifth hour came around she would start having the nightmares, and then she woke up and made sure she was ready for the day. Saturday and Sunday were her worst days of the week because there was no school for her to occupy herself with during that time.

And when the day was over, she went home and fed her non-existent fish before setting herself to work at destroying every bit of dust in her house. If it gave her something to do, she would gladly take it. If only to forget...

When Kagome woke up on the morning of December the twenty third to the sound of eight grating alarm clocks going off in unison and causing a great raucous at four in the morning, she stumbled out of bed and prepared to go about her usual routine. She shut off each alarm clock in turn before stumbling toward the bathroom and taking an icy shower.

She reminded herself she had to pay the rent or the landlord wouldn't turn her heat back on. With it being winter, she was likely to become sick if she waited too long, and it didn't help that her landlord was a stingy old bastard who added interest to the initial payment when it was late.

She shivered as she turned off the icy water and pulled her towel around her, hastily drying off and getting dressed. The winter brought the inevitable break from school, and so she had picked up extra hours at the hospital. People called her a work-a-holic, and her boss suggested getting counseling for it, but she didn't think it was a problem.

Payday was soon. She would be able to pay her rent and her heat would be turned back on. She doubted it would make much difference. Any room she entered always seemed cold lately. There was something missing from her life that she needed, but for the life of her, she could not understand what it was.

The loneliness seemed to have nothing to do with wanting the attention from a prospective mate; dating someone seemed to make her even lonelier than before. Her students at school set her up on dates with people, telling her she should get out more. Her patients and co-workers at the hospital took it upon themselves to invade her privacy as well.

But all she found in these people was boredom. It was like dating Hojou all over again, listening to him drone on and on about the use of one thing or another. She didn't know what she was looking for, but she wasn't finding it.

Her milk was filled with ice chunks—once again the cooler on the refrigerator had broken and was freezing everything—but she still poured it over her frosted flakes and stood there to watch the food get soggy before she actually ate it. She had lost the motivation to eat the food as soon as the milk touched it, but she wouldn't waste it.

As soon as she had eaten her soggy cereal and washed the dishes she had dirtied, made the counter spotless, and made her bed, her feet found their way to her front door. It was five in the morning and her shift at the hospital didn't start until seven, but she couldn't stay in her apartment for much longer. If she continued to scrub the counters, she would rub the polish off them.

Her coat was not very much protection against the harsh wind of the winter and her still damp hair froze quickly in the pristine bun she had put it in. Should she really allow herself anything less than perfection? Being perfect gave her a distraction, so she couldn't allow anything less.

As Kagome walked down the same track she took every single day, passing the same park she passed every other day, she got the urge to break away from the normal even while something inside her told her it wasn't a very good idea. Looking toward the park, she saw the darkness of it was nearly engulfing and she wanted to tempt it.

She wanted to see if there would be dangerous things in those trees like there had been in the trees in the past. She wanted to know what dangerous things would be in there and she wanted to face them. This strange feeling in her was dangerous and she knew it. She had to be at work at seven and if she deviated from her path, she would not complete all she usually did before work.

But there were those dark trees, and an even darker center to them that was the path going through them... Her feet carried her toward those trees and toward that darkness that those trees housed. Her heart sped up slightly as she heard the whispering of the wind through the leafless trees and their shadows were cast upon her as she entered their embrace.

As she walked further and further, she came to the end of the path. There was just a little stone bench there that she sat upon and sighed. The adventure had come to an end so quickly. She had expected... well, she didn't know what she had expected, but a stone bench set for lovers certainly wasn't it.

And then she heard it... A harsh and raspy breathing sound, very close by. Her hands in her pockets clenched as frightening images entered her mind of what it could be. Of course they'd be there for her. Her wish on the Jewel had only assured that she would be sought out. She should have stuck to her normal routine and forgotten completely about everything else.

Why had she deviated from the path that she knew led her where she needed to be? That coarse breathing was getting closer and she wasn't running. She didn't know why, but she still sat there as though if she were still it wouldn't notice her. But even an idiot would know that the sound of the tromping feet through the snow was heading right for her.

Heading right for her... she needed to run... but her feet were not moving. They were disobeying her terribly. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears and her breath was nearly frozen in little puffs in front of her. Her ears were burning from the cold and her fingers and toes were just as cold. Her nose was red and her lips were turning blue, but all she knew was the sound of the... the thing's feet moving closer.

It was there. It was coming closer... And it probably knew she was there. The park was too secluded. No one would hear her scream. But did that matter anymore? Maybe they would be swift with her death and then finally she would have peace from her memories... Maybe... Just maybe...

That's just crazy. But sexy crazy. Haha!