Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Inuyasha. Wish I did, but I don't.

Far From You

Prologue

It was cold the night the Guard came for him: five of them standing outside his door, waiting patiently with grave, impassable expressions. He remembered the frigid feeling of the air even within the expertly insulated cabin, causing him to sit just a bit closer to the roaring fire than normal. It had been out of his favorite armchair that he had risen that night to answer the loud, insistent banging of a fist upon the wood of his door, only to find himself face-to-face with the Captain of the Guard. He remembered how every hair on the back of his neck had stood up at that moment, his blood suddenly cold and his stomach heavy.

She gasped beneath him, a blush spreading like wildfire across her cheeks as she looked up at him with hazy blue eyes. A moment later, she was smiling up at him shyly in a way that made him want to take her breath away even more. His hand moved decisively, and he was rewarded with the broken sound of his name upon her lips and the feel of her hands clutching his shoulders; gentle, yet possessive, drawing him down to her.

"Inuyasha." He remembered the exact way the Captain's voice had sounded that night: firm with something akin to strained determination kindling beneath the surface. He had known that voice well, but the tone of the Captain had never before been directed at him before that night. It had been that tone of voice that had sealed that feeling that had initially overtaken him at the sight of the men at his door that night. In that moment, he somehow knew his life would be changing for the worse.

He kissed her neck, her shoulders, her breasts. He kissed every inch he could find of her, tasting and memorizing as he went, trailing dangerously downwards before abruptly changing his mind and returning to her neck again. The motion caused her to fidget in his arms and squeal with impatience and indignance, demanding he stop teasing her. He merely smiled and continued on with his work of mapping her body.

"Kouga? What the hell is this? It's past midnight and it's fucking cold. This better be good." He had played cool, pretending nothing was wrong and that he had every right to be pissed off. Her matched gazes with the serious man outside his door, feigning that natural arrogance that everyone expected of him, and was rewarded with the miniscule tightening of a jaw and the narrowing of unusually empty blue eyes.

There had been a moment of silence where they both had simply sized each other up, as if knowing it would be for the last time. They had found a kinship that night, in the eyes of their toughest rival and closest friend.

"Just say it, Wolf."

"…Inuyasha Taisho, you are under arrest for armed robbery and violent injury done to a neighbor by way of a pistol, accurately identified to be of your private collection by legitimate witnesses. By law, you are to be taken and held at the station house of the Town Guard until further inquiry and evidence can be acquired. Accordingly, you will henceforth be labeled a criminal until cleared of all accusations by the rightful authorities."

She was beautiful, lips slightly parted and breath ragged as she moved with him. Her face was flushed, but it was no longer due to shyness. He could not help but lean down and kiss that mouth with all the passion he felt at that moment, moving against her and with her all at once. To his pride and pleasure, she returned the motion with as much fervor as he, rising to meet him and reminding him why exactly it was that he could never have enough of her. A clawed hand brushed black hair back from her sweaty forehead as he gazed down at her, hungry for her and yet never more content and at peace than at that moment. Her eyes gazing back at him told him she felt the same.

"I love you."

He had let the man who was his friend bind his hands without struggle. If it had been anyone else, he was sure he would have fought back, cursing the man out about how ridiculous the accusations were, and how both pistols he owned were tucked safely away above the mantel in the other room, unused since the summer.

But it had not been any other man, and Inuyasha had been honorable enough to give both himself and the Captain his own dignity by cooperating with a solemn, if not bitter, nod of understanding.

At the time, he had hoped that perhaps the matter would be resolved by the morning. At the time, he had somehow known that such a hope would never come to pass.

He had been right.

"I can't do this anymore, Inuyasha," she said quietly, the tears evident in her voice and on the air. He did not move from where he lay, amber eyes staring dully at the ceiling while one arm held her against him tightly, refusing to release her back to the world.

"I know."

"I can't bear the idea that we're hurting him, whether he knows it or not. I- …I want to tell him, Inuyasha. I want to tell him everything, if only because he deserves to hear it, but I know it would destroy him. I just can't do that to him…" His arm tightened further, but she seemed unfazed by the fierceness of his grip, no doubt feeling the same pain and guilt that he did at that moment.

"…Yeah."

"Kouga? Inuyasha? What's going on?" That night, she had come running to them, worry and fear etched clearly into her features. She had always been terrible at hiding her feelings, and it had been no different then. Kouga had been walking side-by-side with him, the other four guards surrounding them both on all sides. As she dashed across the empty streets in the dead of night, the other men had seemed to part as fluidly as water in order to make way for her.

"Kagome…" He had stopped, unsure of what to say, what to do.

"Best go home, Kagome. There's nothing you can do for now." Kouga always was more to-the-point with her. Perhaps that was why the situation had been what it was back then.

"Kouga-"

"He's in official custody for now, Love. It's out of both our hands. I'm just taking him in." Whether Kouga had seen it or not, Inuyasha had noticed the distinctive wince upon her face at the endearment, followed by a look of stubborn despair. In the next moment, he recalled her standing between he and his self-proclaimed "puppy-sitter," wrapping each of her arms around one of theirs.

"I'm coming too."

They had walked together down the street, heading towards the station house by the docks with expressions suiting each: a sad but sweet smile; an easy but cocky smile that came only with one woman; a smart-assed, arrogant smirk that warmed with the touch of that delicate hand. That was how they entered, but not how they left.

A crash sounded from somewhere in the darkness outside, perhaps a street or so over, causing her to look up from where she was buttoning her blouse.

"I wonder what the commotion is," she whispered absently, her previous tears now gone from her eyes. She glanced at him and he shrugged, once again the reclusive, ornery hanyou that everyone knew him as.

"Keh, probably just someone brawling after getting drunk at the taverns. I can already hear the Guard there," he muttered, crossing the room to where she stood and drawing her in to him. Without pretense he dropped her head and kissed her, gentle but firm. She smiled up at him half-heartedly as they parted, but there was no love lost in her gaze.

"I should be going. Kouga will be home soon… Inuyasha, I-"

"Keh… Go." She looked up at him, eyes searching, before nodding and easing herself from his arms. Without another word, she opened the door at slipped out into the night, headed for home and her husband.

"All you have to do is tell us what you were doing last night, Inuyasha." That had been the hardest thing.

"I told you, I can't," he had growled, fists clenching behind his back. They had grilled him all that night, demanding to know the secret of his whereabouts the night the robbery had occurred, and he had refused. For her, he had refused the right of his life, and at morning he found himself standing on a dock beside a boat filled with other criminals all bound for the same place: prison. Kouga had stood beside him, visibly angry, while the town bailiff interrogated Inuyasha for the last time.

"You stand accused of robbery, Master Taisho. Whether or not you claim to be holding both of two professed pistols in your home, unless you can produce a believable, and supportable alibi, you will be boarding the ship for Sharandir Island this very moment."

More than ever, he had wanted to tear the man to shreds. The condescending tone had been almost too much, knowing that he had a more than sufficient alibi for that night. The evidence had been ridiculous and second-hand, and he had been offered no trial and no time to prove his own case beyond one night. In the back of his mind, Inuyasha had known he was being set up from the very moment Kouga had appeared at his door and he wanted to scream it from the rooftops that he was innocent. The only thing that had stopped him was a pair of helpless blue eyes watching him with a mix of love and sorrow.

It had been the defining moment of his life: would he speak and save himself from prison while disgracing the two people he loved best, or would he let the crime of another man be placed upon his own head in exchange for pride and honor?

"Let's hope those other poor bastards are tough enough then, huh? I don't feel like dealing with a bunch of sniveling pansies for the next decade of my life."

He had watched the expression of the bailiff darken with ill feeling, his perfect ears memorizing every glitch and rasp in the man's voice as he had spoken.

"Inuyasha Taisho, you are officially sentenced to confinement on Sharandir Island for the crime of robbery. You will now board the ship that will take you to your destination."

He had done as he was told, even as Kouga exploded at him from where he stood, yelling profanities and insults at his back as he walked. Inuyasha was sure that his friend had never forgiven him for refusing to explain himself that night, despite both knowing that Inuyasha had not been the robber. He had been innocent, but he had sold himself out for the very person that had wanted to tear him apart for it.

He had boarded the ship dutifully, his head high and prideful. When he had glanced back at the port, Kagome had been there beside Kouga, hugging one of his arms to calm and stay him. Those blue eyes had followed him out to sea, across the water, over the hills, and far, far away, and he had never forgotten them or any other moment of those last two nights of his life as a free man.

That had been ten years ago.

The heavy steel door swung open with a screech and a bang, dim and foul light flooding into the small cell.

"Oi, Inuyasha, let's go."

He looked up from where he was re-scratching a letter into the old stone wall of the prison cell that had been his home for a decade, glaring at the burly guard that had disturbed the peace and quiet.

"Keh, who said I'm going anywhere, Keio? As far as I know, I've always set the rules of where I'm going and when. It's not like you to be a bastard when you're in my territory," he growled out, standing anyways and stretching until he felt the bones in his back pop. The gruff-looking guard simply smirked and turned, shrugging as he went.

"It's up to you. I thought you'd like that they're finally kicking your ass out, what with all those letters you get from the outside, but maybe I was wrong about a prettyboy like you. You really like the service in here so much? I'm flattered…"

Inuyasha stopped. "…What?"

"I said, they're letting you out, half-breed. Get your shit, I don't have all day to wait on your ass to get it together."

Inuyasha stared at the back of the prison guard, utterly stunned.

Ten years… Ten years they had kept him locked up for a crime he had never committed, and then suddenly…

He moved mechanically, reaching under his bed and snatching up two small boxes of possessions he had acquired over the years: mostly knick-knacks and niceties in the one, while the other held only the letters that the guard had mentioned. Without another word, he stepped from the cell and began following Keio down the familiar path of the prison stairways.

As he walked, he could hear the hooting and cat calls emitted by the other prisoners: his farewell sendoff from a group of nail-tough, no-nonsense criminals that had come to call him "Boss" over the years. He had worked hard to earn their respect when he had first come to the prison, withstanding more than his fair share of fist, knife, and claw fights in those first two years until it was merely a fact that another prisoner simply did not fuck around with the inuhanyou of the Towers at Sharandir Prison. Now, he was leaving that all behind in the blink of an eye, the last person to know that he was suddenly a free man once again.

He walked the halls in a daze, his signature smirk appearing purely out of habit and hiding the disbelief that was threatening to swallow him. However, the true magnitude that he was being released did not hit him until he passed over the final threshold of the prison: the gates leading outside, where he had not been in a decade.

Before he knew it, the prison gates closed behind him with a decided bang and he was left with only the clothes he had come with, a very precious and not-so-precious possessions, and an endless road that eventually led to the sea and a lone ship that would take him back to the mainland.

For ten years, he had been robbed of life, and now suddenly it was his again. Without hesitation, he began to walk, a pair of blue eyes clear in his mind.

He knew where he was going.

AN: The basic idea for this story goes to Nightwish's "Over the Hills", which is an awesome song. This is just the prologue of the story for now. For the time being, this is going to be on hiatus, but I had inspiration for writing the Prologue for once, and we all know the whole "write while you can" concept. Hope you liked it!

-Sar