Hi all! Kodama-sama here! This is not my first fanfic, but it is my first actual post, so go easy on me! Constructive criticism is definatley welcome, but I will completely disregard all flames.

This is actually a short story I wrote for my language arts class. I had always wanted to do a fic based on my favortie pairing from Inuyasha: Kouga/Kagura. This assignment that I got gave me a great idea, so I tried my best to write two characters that worked with both personalities. They might be a tad OOC since this is an AU and it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to talk about them wanting to kill each other in a story for school.

If I can get the creative juices flowing again, I might expand this story a little bit, or even turn it into a multi-chapter fic based on the idea. Sadly (or maybe not so sadly, depending on what you think of the story) this is all you get for now. Hope you like!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ It slowly floated down from the sky, carried by the wind, spiraling and twirling in it's descent. It was the color of her hair, black as night, for this one had come from a raven that had flown overhead mere seconds ago. She abandoned the sacks of groceries that she had been holding and watched it come down as the wind blew about her. She was reminded of her mother, the life that she had twisting and spiraling completely out of control. She knew it wasn't her mother's fault that she and her little sister were alone now. The loving mother had done all she could to protect her two children, but to no avail. They were left alone after their mother died. The girl was confused though. Why did mother die? She thought that her father had loved her mother, but now she knew for certain that he did not. He was incapable of loving mother, of loving his children. He was a monster. That one time he had hit her mother just a little harder than he meant to was the one time that he could never repent for. He hadn't even cried at her funeral, or consoled his children as they were hit with the realization that they had nobody left to love them. Yet, he was still allowed to walk free.

She knew all about her father, but she still was confused. Their mother had sacrificed herself for them, but yet they were still left in the care of the man that she had died trying to protect them from. And as she gazed at the object in her hand, the black feather that had come to her on the wind, she felt a need that she had felt many times before. A need to fly away from her father, from her terrible life, fly away on the wind. That was why she collected the feathers. She thought that maybe one day she could weave herself a giant feather, or perhaps a pair of wings. Then she could fly away from all of her troubles, leave all of the pain in her life behind. She even wore a beautiful white feather in her hair for good luck.

She was startled out of her dream by a crash coming from the house. That's when she remembered that she was supposed to be getting groceries. She realized exactly how long she had been out in the front yard and raced back towards the house. Her father was sure to be angry that she hadn't yet returned and was most likely taking it out on her sister. If she alone could escape, she wouldn't because her sister would still be left with this horrible life. When she finally flew away, she would be sure to take her sister with her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ She rushed in the door. She saw her father, the remains of a vase in one hand, towering over her sister. Her sister was lying on the floor, a bruise already forming over one eye, her pale hair coming out of the beautiful hair clips their mother had bought for her when she was a child. He was too busy yelling at her sister to notice her standing in the doorway. Unfortunately, that didn't last long. Her sister's eyes widened and she mouthed one word, 'run.' Her father noticed the small movements and turned to face the doorway. She didn't have time to blame her sister for getting her noticed and then later forgive her because she was only trying to help. The only thing she saw were her father's eyes narrowed angrily, his black hair flying in his face as his fist came around to make contact. After that, everything went black.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ He walked down the street, black hair swaying in the wind. It was an unusually windy day, and he didn't like that. He didn't mind the wind before, but then she moved in and everything changed. She liked the wind, so naturally, now he hated it. He didn't know what it was about her that he disliked so much, but the feeling seemed to be mutual, so he didn't even try being nice to her. You probably could have called them worst enemies, because from the start they were yelling and screaming instead of just talking. He was finally at her house. Normally she would have been standing outside staring at the sky. He probably would have yelled a snide comment at her, just for the heck of it, and they would stand outside arguing with each other until one of them got bored and stomped away. Today though, he saw a very different sight.

She was laying across the front steps, just starting to wake up from a daze. The side of her face was bloody and bruising and tears of pain were pouring from her angry red eyes. He had never seen anything like this and his heart ached. He wanted to help her, so he forgot all about his hatred and ran over to her.

"Hey, are you OK?" he asked tentatively.

She started as she finally noticed him standing over her and quickly wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Does it look like I'm OK?" she replied.

He smirked and helped her stand.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Guess my dad must have thrown me out of the house. It's no big deal. I'll just give him a while to cool off."

"Welldo you want to come to my place for a while? I'll help you get cleaned up." he said, and pointed to her broken face.

She shrugged, trying to look like she didn't care one way or the other, but she couldn't help a small smile from escaping her otherwise uncaring demeanor.

When they arrived at his house, he threw a small tube of cream at her and said "Here, put this on your face. I'll go get us something to drink."

So he left her and didn't come back for a suspiciously long time. She didn't mind though, for if he had some back sooner, he would have seen the tears of pain, but also joy at being helped, spilling down her cheeks.

After he returned with the drinks, they talked for a while and found out a little more about each other. All the hate in their relationship faded, and they soon became fast friends. Unfortunately, they both knew that she would have to go back to the horror that she called a home. She was worried, especially since the boy seemed not to care, and the fact that he offered to walk her home offered little comfort.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ When they reached her house, she was horrified to find police cars outside, parked in the street next to her front yard.

"Oh my God, he called the police!" she whispered to him.

"Just go see what they want," he responded.

So, she walked slowly up to the nearest officer, fearing the worst.

"Can I help you officer?" she asked meekly.

"Are you part of the family that lives here?" he asked her.

She nodded, and the officer almost started laughing.

"No young lady, I don't think there's anything that you can help with. We're supposed to be helping you, not the other way around!" and with that, he walked into the house.

Her eyes widened as she watched the officer's back fade into her house. She was very confused and had no idea what was going on. She turned around to see if there were any more police officers. Maybe they could tell her what was going on. But, when she turned, she was surprised to find the boy still there, hunched over something in the grass.

She knelt down next to him and said, "Well, I have no idea what happened."

When he didn't respond, or even acknowledge her presence, she continued. "But you know what's going on don't you?"

He flinched like her question had physically hurt him and replied "When I went to get us drinks, I wasn't just getting drinks. I called the police and told them to go to your house since your dad was abusing you."

He heard sniffling and raised his head, only to see her curled up in a little ball, sobbing.

"Hey, hey! Don't cry! You like feathers, right?" he asked.

He tapped her shoulder and when she looked up, he took her hand and placed something in it. It was a feather. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, pure white, probably from a dove.

"Thank you," she whispered.

He turned away slightly, getting ready to go back home, but she suddenly surprised him by enveloping him in a huge hug. And with the warmth of the boy, her new feather and the cool wind comforting her, she knew that she would finally be happy.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

There ya'll go! Since the assignment for class was to write a SHORT story, I do realize this was kinda short. Even so, hope you enjoyed, and please review!