Chapter One

She sighed as she set another box down onto the faded, threadbare carpet and looked around the tiny, dingy apartment. The wallpaper's once vibrant patterns were now nothing more than indiscriminate splotches peeling from the dank walls and the thrift store furnishings were on their last legs. Unfortunately, this was now home.

"Hey Souta! Are there anymore?" The girl tucked a long raven strand behind her ear and turned to holler out the door for her younger brother.

"Nope, that was the last of it sis," he replied, walking into the tiny space and grimacing in distaste at the less-than-glamorous living arrangements.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Don't do that. It's not like I'm particularly fond of all this either but it's the best we can do right now so you're just going to have to deal with it."

"Yea yea. I know. So, where's my room?"

She coughed lightly and looked up at the cracking ceiling. "Uh yea, about that…"

Souta looked at her in horror. "Kagome! Don't tell me I don't even get my own room!"

"Well, it's not like you don't get your own room, its just that your room isn't exactly a room…"

Souta's left eye began to twitch. "And what the hell does that mean?"

Kagome smiled and reached down to wrap her brother into a tight hug. "Well little bro, that means that we're standing in your room right now!"

"WHAT?" He tore himself out of Kagome's arms. "I'm sleeping in the family room? On what, the couch?"

"Bingo."

"Kagome?"

"Yes Souta?"

"You suck."

Kagome opened the bathroom door and almost gagged. This room had to be the worst one yet. After getting all of their boxes into the apartment, Kagome and Souta set about to cleaning the place up enough to make it livable. The family room, kitchenette, and Kagome's room had been filthy but not to the extent of the bathroom.

She gingerly eased herself into the room, half afraid that some creature was going to jump out of the scum filled tub and attack her. Both the sink and shower/tub were filled with a stagnant green water that stank like a city sewer on a hot day and there was grime covering the mirror, fixtures, and floor. Kagome groaned and set her bucket full of cleaning supplies down before pulling on her thick rubber gloves. This was going to take awhile.

"Finally!" Kagome stood up and pulled off her gloves. She walked out of the now-clean bathroom and stretched out on the sagging floral couch in the middle of the family room. She closed her eyes and began to drift off.

She pulled herself out of the well and walked quietly towards the dark house. Everything looked quiet but that was just a sign that all hell had or was going to break loose very soon. Kagome sighed as she eased through the back door. When had things gotten so bad? The light in the kitchen suddenly flared to life, revealing a heavy-set middle-aged man leaning in the doorway between the kitchen and the family room. Kagome froze and felt her whole body go rigid. That's right. It all happened when he came.

She slowly nodded her head in acknowledgement of the man in front of her. "Mamoru-sama."

The man smirked and began to saunter closer to the rigid girl. "Come now Kagome, why so formal? After all, I am legally your father now. Just call me dad."

Despite her fear, anger managed to well up in Kagome's chest. Just because this man married her mother did not make him her father. "With all do respect sir, my father died when I was eight years old. I respect you as my mother's husband but I cannot call you father." The next thing she knew she was on the ground with a stinging cheek.

"That's no way to speak to the man who saved your family's ass you ungrateful little bitch! If it weren't for me, you'd have lost this pathetic little shrine and been living in some godforsaken hole in one of our lovely city's many slums!" He reached down and roughly pulled her to her feet before slamming her up against the nearest wall. "Guess I'll just have to teach you some respect."

Kagome's eyes widened and she began to hopelessly struggle against the man's iron grip. His face leered in her vision as he began to rip her clothing off piece by piece. Tears were streaming down her porcelain face. "Please don't! Please! I won't do it again I swear!" Her whispered pleas fell on deaf ears as he threw her naked body to the cold tiled floor, removed his pants, and lowered himself on top off her still struggling form…

"Goddamnit Kagome! Wake up!" With one final shove, Souta sent Kagome flying from the couch to the floor in an undignified heap. Kagome shot upright, gasping for breath and barely holding back a scream.

When she finally realized that she was awake and in the apartment she shot her brother an angry glare. "What the hell was that for Souta?"

Souta gave a short 'feh', crossed his arms over his chest, and looked away in a very Inuyasha-like fashion. You're on my bed and I want to go to sleep. I tried to wake you up the nice way but ya just wouldn't budge."

Kagome pulled herself, rubbing her sore backside. "Listen, I'm sorry you have to sleep on a couch for awhile but that doesn't give you the right to be a total ass to me." Souta merely stared at her. Kagome sighed, exasperated. "Fine, whatever. Be pissed off for all I care. I'm going to bed now. I have to go job hunting tomorrow." Still the boy refused to respond and Kagome stormed off to her own room in a huff.

The alarm clock jarred through the haze that was Kagome's brain, jolting her from grasp of her dreams and into reality. She sat up and dropped her head into her hands. Every night, without fail, the dreams came. She didn't need to remember them all to know what they were about anymore. She had already lived through them once, considering the fact that her dreams were really just ruthlessly suppressed memories playing themselves out the only time they could; when her conscious mind was down.

Kagome shook her head softly and pulled herself out of the tangle of thin blankets and tattered sheets. It would do her no good to dwell on all that on today of all days. She needed to focus so she could find a job. Fast. Luckily it was summer vacation so she didn't have to worry about getting Souta into school just yet.

She stumbled to the small closet and threw the one nice dress suit she owned onto the bed before running to the bathroom and jumping in the shower.

Sesshomaru Taisho stared out the large window of his top floor office, merely observing the masses rushing to and fro on the sidewalk far, far below him. It was one of those days again. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't focus on a thing. The past hard him in its grasp once again.

He still wasn't used to this feeling, even after five hundred years. He still wasn't used to feeling regret. Yes, the great Taiyoukai of the West could and did have regrets. He regretted that he allowed himself to become too comfortable after the defeat of Naraku, he regretted that he had not been able to protect Rin and even those humans that traveled with his moronic half-brother, whom he also could not protect. Ultimately, he regretted being the only one to survive Naraku's revival.

It was all because of that girl, the strange girl in indecent garbs and odd ways. When she disappeared after the first demise of Naraku, she hadn't purified the cursed Shikon no Tama, leaving an easy path back to the land of the living wide open for the evil hanyou. He wondered what had happened to her. One day she disappeared, like she often did, but never came back. Her friends mourned her loss, the small kit especially, but his half-brother had remained silent. Somehow, he had known more then he had let on.

The phone on his desk rang, jarring the Taiyoukai from his thoughts. With a low growl he reached over and ripped it off its cradle. "What?"

"My lord, you have that dinner with the potential investors tonight. You said to remind you an hour prior," his secretary Chiyo's voice was calm and even despite her lord's obvious annoyance.

Sesshomaru ran a clawed hand through his long tresses, effectively breaking the hair tie that had been holding it back in a low tail. "Yes, thank you Chiyo."

"Of course my lord."

Kagome sighed in frustration. None of the interviews had gone well. It seemed as if no one was willing to hire a nineteen year old girl with only a high school diploma and no real previous experience. After all, cavorting around the Feudal Era didn't exactly leave enough time for a part-time job. Hell, it barely left room for school. She flinched. There she went again, thinking about one of the things that could cause her the most pain. She shook her head forcefully and held back the tears that always threatened to fall when that particular subject came to mind. She had to keep searching for a job.

She continued walking down the street, looking at each and every store window for the ever so wonderful 'help wanted' sign. None of the local restaurants seemed to want her or any of the random assortments of shops. One would think education wouldn't matter in those jobs, but the world seemed to be a lot more competitive than she had imagined. Of course, to top off the oh so wonderful day she was having, her feet were really starting to ache in the three-inch pumps that she had decided to wear that day.

"I'm about ready to call it a day," she mumbled to herself. She lowered herself down onto a bench with a small groan and laid her head back against the wall. A large neon sign hung above her head, indicating the location of one of the local bars. "Dark Moon. That's a strange name for a bar," she mumbled to herself.

"So sorry you disapprove," a voice to the left of Kagome bit out sarcastically. "But seeing as you don't look like one of my customers, I don't give a shit."

Kagome jumped up, startled, and turned to look at the speaker. "I'm sorry, is this your place?"

"Yea and I don't appreciate you loitering around outside it." The woman placed her hands on her narrow hips and stared at Kagome with hard green eyes. Kagome could only stare back. The woman was gorgeous, with long dark brown hair and bright green eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to loiter. It's just that I've been on a job hunt all day and I've no luck…"

"I don't care about your problems girl. Just get off my property," the women cut in with a dismissive wave of her small hand.

Kagome stood slowly, having to resist the urge to give the woman a very crude gesture. "Sure." She started to walk away.

"Hold on girl," the woman called at Kagome's retreating back. "Get back her for a sec."

Kagome rolled her eyes and turned back around and stood in a position very similar to the woman's. "Yes?"

The woman slowly closed the distance between them and began to eye Kagome up and down while slowly circling around her. "You're a pretty one aren't you? Nice, thin body. Muscular yet feminine. Long hair with hints of blue and, are your eyes blue? Huh, so they are. You full Japanese?"

Kagome looked at her warily; she definitely wasn't comfortable being sized up by a complete stranger. "Yea why?"

"And your eyes are naturally that color?"

"Yes."

"Interesting. How'd that happen I wonder?"

Kagome shifted her feet uncomfortably. 'Well lady, my eyes are this color because I'm a miko with some immense raw spiritual power that I've only been able to tap into when battling this evil half-demon named Naraku in the Feudal Era and my eyes are a symbol of all that power. Yea, I can totally tell her that and then get shipped off to a loony bin.' "Don't know."

The woman stopped her circling and came to stand directly in front of Kagome. "So you were saying you needed a job right? How old are you?"

"Nineteen;" Kagome looked up to meet the strange woman's gaze, not sure she was going to like where this conversation was going to go.

"Hmm, a little too young but we can work around that. How'd you like to work for me in my bar?"

Kagome resisted the urge to let her jaw drop. This woman had to be completely insane. "I think I'm a bit too young too…"

The woman once again waved her hands dismissively. "A minor technicality. We can work around that. Do you want the job or not?"

Kagome took a small step back. "I'm not trying to sound like I'm paranoid or anything but why me?"

The woman sighed and dropped her hands back down to her waist. "Let's just say I'm very particular about what types of girls I let bartend for me. They have to have some, let's say, distinctive features and abilities."

"No way! No! I'm sorry lady but I'm no whore." Kagome turned and began to walk off. The woman grabbed her arm and jerked her back.

"You dolt that's not what I meant! By abilities I mean dancing and being able to handle a rowdy crowd. Listen, you're nineteen and obviously not in school. You're not going to find another job that will pay as high as this with your lack of experience. Trust me, a million other girls would kill for this offer."

Kagome pulled her arm free with a hiss. "Then why are you being so instant with me?"

The woman smiled. "I'm pretty good when it comes to people and I got a feeling you'd be good for this job. Come back her tonight at eleven for an audition. That's when we start to get really busy."

Kagome sighed. "Guess I really don't have any other options. Eleven tonight?"

"Eleven tonight."

Sesshomaru resisted the urge to yawn as he slipped in and out of the conversation going on around the table. He really hated these damn diners where he had to play nice to all the sons of old money who had nothing better to do than invest it in the companies that catch their fancy. With a new project on the table at Taisho Corp. however, he needed their funding and well known names backing it up.

"So do you want to come Sesshomaru?" One of the men, Sesshomaru couldn't be bothered to remember his name, inquired. Sesshomaru merely raised a delicate silver brow. "To Dark Moon? It's that really popular bar with the really hot babes who dace and shit while bartending."

Sesshomaru bit back the retort that was tempted to jump off his tongue at that moment. These men were truly disgusting; only concerned with sleeping with as many semi-attractive females as they possibly could. However, until the ink was dry on their contracts, he had to play nice. It was times like these that he really missed the old days when he could have simply destroyed the vulgar mortals with a swift strike of his blade. "Perhaps, if my schedule allows."

The men laughed and began speaking of the women who worked a Dark Moon and Sesshomaru once again began to tune them out, regretting the fact that in all likeliness he would have to accompany them.

Note: Okay, so you know what to do.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or anything affiliated with the movie and chain of Coyote Ugly bars that Dark Moon is modeled after.