Disclaimer. I do not nor shall I ever own Inuyasha and company.

Summary: Kagome has been under a curse ever since she stopped to help an old woman. She's finally met someone who can give her a good argument. What will she do with this curse in the way?

Based loosely… very loosely… on Ella Enchanted, but, as you can see, I used my artistic license. Maybe a little too much…

Walk Away

Chapter 1

What had she done to deserve this? She was a good person. In fact, this happened because she had stopped to help an old woman with her purchases. It turns out this was no ordinary old woman. She happened to be an older fairy with an… odd sense of humor.

She had thought it would be funny to try out a new power on Kagome. Kagome wasn't too pleased at the prospect of being treated like a guinea pig.

"It's all right, Sweet," the old fairy had told her. "My name is Kaede and I certainly mean ye no harm. This spell shall be a blessing to you."

Kagome looked at Kaede skeptically. "And how is that?" she had asked. As far as she was concerned, spells should be kept to small things like curing soup and fixing broken pots. No one had ever dare try one on a human being before.

"Why, my dear! I shall give ye the gift of obedience! Ye look to be about the age of marriage. What husband does not want an obedient wife? You will be prized among all other women!" Kaede had seemed very pleased with her idea.

"But I don't want to marry!" Kagome had exclaimed. This conversation was getting worse and worse for her.

"Sweetie, everyone must marry someday." Kaede had given Kagome such a pitying look that Kagome had to wrestle with herself not to slap her across the face right there. That is not something you should do when first meeting a fairy. "This will just make it easier for ye."

"But I-"

"No buts. Ye will let me bless ye with this. Ye are still very young. Ye don't yet know what is best for ye. Listen to your elders."

Kagome had silently complied. There was obviously no way she was going to win an argument against a fairy. Kaede took a step forward and placed her palm on Kagome's forehead. A blue light surrounded them. When Kaede stepped back, Kagome felt a little dizzy.

"Ye will may feel slightly disoriented for a while, dear. Sit down here by the road and do not get up until ye are feeling completely better. I do not wish for ye to have any side-effects. Also, ye may not tell anyone of what has occurred here. That is your first command." And with that Kaede had vanished in a wisp of pale blue smoke.

'And that's why I'm sitting here now,' thought Kagome. 'Curse my niceness! Oh, wait. Someone already did. That's so sad!' Slowly the afternoon started to sink in. Tears began to creep down Kagome's face. She was so deep in thought over how to rid herself of this awful tragedy that she did not notice the carriage that slowed to a stop in front of her.

"Excuse me," a small voice said startling Kagome out of her thoughts of dead fairies. She looked up to see a small demon boy about eight years of age standing in front of her and a carriage right behind him.

The little boy, noticing that she was now paying him full attention, continued. "This is my Uncle's carriage. I saw you and a wondered if maybe you needed a ride. You look kinda sad."

Kagome had to smile at the little boy. His auburn hair and little fox tail were just so adorable! "I'm fine. I can walk. But thank you," Kagome said as she slowly stood up. Unfortunately, when as she stood up, she immediately fell back down.

"You are not fine. You need help so you had better get in this carriage before I put you in myself," a gruff voice from inside called.

"That's my Uncle Inuyasha," the little boy said, pointing at the open door of the carriage. "My name is Shippo. I can help you if you want."

"Oh, all right," Kagome sighed. Why was her day going so weird? First fairies and now demons? Sure humans and demons lived together peacefully, but that was only because most of the humans were treated like servants. The only ones who lived nicely were the rich. Kagome herself was a servant for her stepmother, Kagura, and her two bratty stepsisters, Kikyo and Kanna. Why would these demons stoop so low as to help her?

With Shippo's help, Kagome managed to stand and get into the carriage. She looked over at the man sitting next to her. He had long silver hair and two cute little dog ears. On closer inspection she saw that he wasn't a demon at all, but a half-demon. 'That's weird,' she thought. 'The only known half-demons are… oh no.'

"You're the prince, aren't you?" she asked, her eyes wide with the sudden realization at how much danger she was actually in.

"Yeah, what of it?" Inuyasha asked, lazily turning his head towards her.

"Well, I-I mean.. that is to say.. You aren't going to kill me?"

Her statement seemed to shock Inuyasha. He turned his entire upper body to look at her more closely. "Why the heck would I do that?"

"It-Its just that I didn't recognize you and I never addressed you formally."

"Why would I expect you to recognize me? It's not like I go out much. And who would put someone to death for not recognizing them?"

"Your brother, Naraku, has put many men and women to death for not properly addressing his station, Your Highness." Kagome couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes again. How could she have made such a stupid mistake? Surely she should know what the prince looked like from some kingdom gathering or another. Not that she went to many of those. She was usually stuck at home cleaning, and when she did go it was always as her sisters' personal servant.

Inuyasha growled. "Never call me 'Your Highness'. My name is Inuyasha; use it."

"Yes, Inuyasha," Kagome squeaked. She definitely hadn't expected this reaction.

"Um, Kagome," Shippo interjected. Kagome turned around. She had completely forgotten that he was here. "Where exactly do you live?"

"Oh! Sorry. Turn left and then turn right and it is the estate with the wash in front of it."

The horses had made good time, and Kagome was only slightly late getting home. Perhaps Kagura wouldn't be too angry. Keep on dreaming.

"Kagome! Get in here this instant! The laundry is still out and, why, you haven't brought a thing back from the market! Why this is-" The tall, scarily thin woman was cut short by the sight of the second-oldest prince on her doorstep.

"Beg pardon, madam," Inuyasha said, and Kagome wondered where he had gotten the sudden charm. "The young lady here was helping me. I am sorry if I have caused you any inconvenience."

Kagura was very obviously flustered. "Your Highness! Why would that be any inconvenience to me? I am glad that my lowly step-daughter could be of service to you."

Inuyasha bowed and returned to his carriage. When it had turned the street, Kagura grabbed Kagome's wrist and pulled her inside the small mansion. "What were you doing conversing with the prince? You had best not be trying to steal him away from my Kikyo."

"No, Ma'm." In real life, Inuyasha had never met Kikyo. But Kagura was absolutely certain that her daughter would be the one to marry the prince and gain control of the kingdom. See, the King and Queen have three sons. The oldest, Sheshomaru, had given up his right to the crown when he had married outside of the kingdom and was now ruling along side Queen Rin in their neighboring kingdom. That left Inuyasha as ruler to the kingdom.

"Good. Tomorrow you may go back to the market and buy our food. Now you may make dinner, but you shall not be eating any tonight." Its not like Kagome really cared. She was the cook. She could just eat some food in the kitchen and they would never know. Kagura had decided that she couldn't be bothered by trivial things such as an inventory count and so sneaking food from the kitchen had become a natural thing.

For dinner Kagome prepared the stew using ingredients that she had hidden in the back of the pantry for times such as these. It was a good dinner for her step-family but it soon turned rotten for her. She discovered that she couldn't eat anything. Its not that she didn't try. Oh, did she try. Its that every time she brought a morsel of food to her mouth she would become immensely dizzy.

'Could this be the fairy's curse?' she wondered. It made sense. Great. Now she would starve to death at the hands of evil Kagura. Kaede should have taken this into consideration, not marriage!

Later That Night

Kagome was at it again. Sneaking out of the house late at night. Shame on her. It was a nightly thing that she snuck out of her little closet of a room after everyone had gone to sleep to visit her best friend, Sango. She had to let Sango know about the curse somehow. She didn't know how yet, but she would figure it out soon.

When she reached Sango's estate, she saw Sango standing under a tree that they had come to call their tree. They had been meeting under it to talk and hang out for eight years now. They had met when Sango's family had moved to the kingdom from the neighboring kingdom of Dunn. Kagome had been the only person to make friends with the foreign Sango. Everyone else had made fun of her weird accent and customs.

"Come here!" Sango yelled, and Kagome reluctantly agreed. She hated being told what to do, even if it was by her best friend.

They both sat down comfortably under the tree. Kagome shifted a little. "I have something I need to tell you, but… I can't"

"Let me guess," said Sango. "You were given a 'blessing' by a senile old fairy and now you have to obey any order given to you?"

chirp chirp

The crickets were all that could be heard as Kagome stared wide-eyed at Sango.

"How did you know?!" she screamed. Sango quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

"These meetings are supposed to be secret as in nobody can find us together. Screaming would kind of defeat the entire purpose." Kagome knew it was true. Kagome and Sango could never be caught together or else Kagome would be put to death. Servants weren't supposed to meet secretly with other wealthy folks. It usually meant they were plotting the death of their mistress or something like that. "And you can take your pick of reasons. I either knew something was up when you actually obeyed me and came here or I met said senile old fairy."

"You met her?!"

"Yeah. She came to me and said you were going to need help finding a good husband who wants an obedient wife when you can't tell anybody that you are obedient. So she wanted me to spread the word for you. Well, actually, what she said was, 'Thy friend needs a husband so I have given her a blessing of obedience. Now, my little flower, spread word of thy friend's nature so that she may find many suitors.'"

"I'm really sorry, Sango. I didn't want you to be scared to death."

"Its ok. I thought the puffy stuff from when she disappeared was awesome!"

Kagome squinted at her friend. Sometimes she just didn't get her.

"And besides," Sango continued, "you can make it up to me by going to the kingdom gathering tomorrow. There's going to be dancing in the streeet." She sang that last part.

"But I-"

"Eh eh eh. No buts. You are coming if I have to kidnap you myself. Besides, the step-evils are going to be there to. All we have to do is keep you away from them and get you back an hour before them."

Kagome contemplated this idea right after she contemplated why she couldn't get a word in edge-wise today. It wasn't that bad of an idea. And it would take her mind off of the current matters at hand.

"All right."

Duckies Rox My Sox's Totally Amazing Corner (DTAC for short)

Well, hello everybody! I hope you have enjoyed the story so far. I wanted to just list some important things first.

Kikyo haters, sorry, i'm not gonna make fun of her. You'll get to see mulyiple Kikyo personalities in this. Of course, she will do some hilarious things but... they all will.

I can't update every day. Especially because its summer and I work. I will, however, update at least once a week but probably a lot more than that. (hopefully)

Thank you and good morning!