Disclaimer: I don't own the shows Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha.
Title: Trust
Prologue - Betrayed

Spoilers: This is set after the end of the anime version of Yu Yu Hakusho. If you have no idea what happens to Yusuke at the end of the Sensui arc and later, don't read, because it will be mentioned, and explained in a few details in later chapters. Also, knowing who Kuronue is would be good. How he's alive will be explained in the story later. For IY, I'd say general spoilers. You should know about Kagura and Kouga, and at least have heard of Ayame and Souten and such, and Tsubaki too, she'll be mentioned eventually. That's it, I think. The pairing and the triangle will be revealed later.

The first thing she noticed as the portal to Makai closed behind them was that it was sprinkling, and it was nighttime. A full moon night to be exact. Full moons were funny things, and probably one of the only reasons they had been able to get that portal open so quickly and it had closed behind them just as quickly. They were in Ningenkai. Back in Ningenkai for her. She didn't know if he had ever been here. The second thing she noticed was the droop of his shoulders and wings.

Leather and folded as tightly across his back as he could manage, the woman knew tension in him when he saw it. He was still disbelieving, cursing his own foolishness. He should be cursing hers. She had trusted them. She had trusted them, despite the years in between, trusted that they would still do what would be best. He had trusted that the demon that had saved him would never turn against them.

She lifted one hand and let it hang there in between them for a moment. It was a moment, one of those little ones, that there was a choice that really wasn't. To some people, they would have stepped back and allowed him his space. She had never been one to let others suffer alone. Especially one who had proven to be such a great friend.

Her hand landed on his shoulder. He tensed further and she took a large breath. Indigo blue eyes tried to glare at her. She shook her head at him. Then she noticed the third thing. She was cold. She was shivering. It didn't matter. She wanted to go back and scream at them, argue, because in the end, she'd realize by arguing she had turned them back, that they were her friends again. They would be hers and she would be theirs. It was never going to happen.

"You're cold." He'd noticed. She wondered how many other things he'd noticed that she hadn't yet. The trees around them, what kind were they? Were there any dangers in the area? Would they be fighting soon? There were little signs that he gave when he searched for these things. He searched automatically. She was beginning to as well, and most of the time the answers weren't even worthwhile enough to notice consciously.

"A little. It doesn't matter." She let her hand drop and was about to step away. He pulled her back, into his side. One wing stretched out and slightly around her. Not much, he couldn't bend it that way. Just enough that it told her he wanted her to stay, just for a moment. He was warm and she was cold. That was all it was. Others had thought things of them before that weren't, but no one could possibly misplace the helplessness on both their faces.

"We need to find a place to sleep," He said absently, beginning to lead her forward. "I know of this place... It's said to be where a few demons hide in a forest. A shrine, but the woman there isn't a miko, she just has a lot of property. Used to be a real shrine once, probably. You used to live on one, right? This woman is old, but it's said she doesn't make a distinction between humans and demons. We might be able to stay in the forest of few days. No one would go after us, most of the ones there are weaklings."

He continued talking as they walked, keeping her warm and moving, keeping them both from falling from their precarious perch on the edge of sanity. There were steps in front of them, steps that she wanted to shy away from. They reminded her of her childhood home. The childhood she'd thrown away for adventure and quests, thinking because she's done it once, she could continue to save the world again.

"Kuronue..." Her voice broke his heart. It sounded so frail and broken and the tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks stung his own eyes. He turned towards them and forced her unwilling body forward.

"We have to. This is the place. Don't worry. We'll be..." '...Safe' they both heard in their own minds. Neither wanted to say it out loud. It might jinx it. Nothing was safe anymore. Sometimes, secretly, in the dark, ashamed depths of their mind, they wondered whether they themselves were safe for the other to be around. They never wondered if the other was safe around them. Even now, there was something innocent in both of them. After losing one partner to his own almost death, he wasn't about to lose the only other person he trusted with his back.

"Are you sure?" There was hope there, frail, gentle hope that Kuronue wanted to blow on, add small sticks to, then bigger logs. He wanted it to be a roaring fire, not a small bit of flame on a match that could be blown on with a puff of breath.

"Kagome, I'm always sure." She responded with a weak smile for his weak joke. He couldn't blame her. He wouldn't have even mustered up the effort to smile even that much for a joke as bad as that.

"Come on taka, cheer up." He used the ultimate on her. His little nickname for her. She smiled a bit brighter. She had once argued with it. In her opinion, she had none of the characteristics of a falcon. But he wouldn't be swayed.

Kuronue grinned as she started stepping up the stairs a bit faster. He lightened his own step until they were striding up towards the shrine. At the top she hesitated, staring at the front of the building. Kuronue tugged her forward. She followed, still hesitant as she stared through the dark night at what was now their only hope.

Two knocks on the door before a young seeming female demon opened the door. She looked surprised to see them, red eyes looking over them worriedly. "Yes?"

"We were wondering if we would be allowed to ask permission to stay in the forest. Just for a day or two. We just need to find ourselves somewhere else to go and then we would be away from here." Kuronue couldn't remember ever getting this close to begging. But then again, he'd never found his partner, either of them, in such a mental situation as Kagome was. She was on the edge, like him, and he was as surprised as her that they had managed to get out from makai without killing the ones who had betrayed them. Or at least tried to kill them. They almost had. They'd been so close, her arrow had even been pointed towards them. Then they had left. And he and Kagome had run, run away, running as far away as they could.

"You want to stay in the forest? It's freezing out!" In an instant her opinion changed as the two looked confused. She ushered them in and started leading them to another room. "I'll talk to Master Genkai about getting you two rooms."

"Rooms?" Kagome questioned, her eyes already drooping from the unexpected warmth they had stepped into. It seeped into her skin, soothing her soul. Good people had a home here.

There were two females talking but the words were incomprehensible to her. Kuronue was paying attention and nodding. He glanced at her a couple of times but apparently recognized the fatigue and didn't shake her out of it until both females, one human, one demon, were looking at her expectantly. "Should we stay here, taka?"

"Kuronue... We should. This is it. You were right." He grinned and she could hear the comment forming on his tongue. She smiled slightly and closed her eyes, letting her mind shut down. She was secure in the knowledge that not only would he catch her, she would be safe when she woke up.

"We can't find them." The blunt words had the impassive dog demon stalking towards the demon speaking them. His eyes had the faintest red tinge. He was angry. He was enraged. He was also, by some recent reports, slightly insane. The wolf trembled as the claws he hadn't even seen move stopped dangerously close to his throat.

"Why not?" The growl reverberated through the room, through the castle, through the dreams of two lonely fugitives who shivered in their sleep, dirty, damp, and finally safe. Out of his reach, out of sight, not even the keen sense of smell of the wolf pack could track them.

"We don't know." More blunt words. No explanations, no excuses. It was how he liked it. It was why this one had been sent. Sesshoumaru knew why he had really been sent. The most worthless son, but they could send nothing less than one of their own cubs without being insulting. Sesshoumaru's golden eyes stared at the cub, not even three decades old yet, and his claws ripped through his neck. The head fell to the floor and he stared at with distaste.

"Clean it up," He ordered when a low level demon who was used as a servant came to see what the disturbance was. Obediently, and with no shock shown, the demon proceeded to clean it up.

"Well, it doesn't matter. We succeeded with part of the plan even without them," Sesshoumaru spoke to an apparently empty room. The silky laugh from one corner had him glancing at the reflection of his succulent mate of five hundred years.

"We did, didn't we? They're so shocked they probably won't even ever bother with demons again. To think, they actually thought we were doing this for peace. Neither of us, nor the others, is your golden-hearted brother. Oh, and I've had our little prize brought to us. They'll bring it up in a few moments." Smirking red eyes stared into liquid amber as he turned, his face blank.

"Who is bringing her?"

"The boy of course. What better way than to make sure she never attacks than keep him close?" Even as she finished speaking there was a knock on the door. It opened to show two cold-eyed males with a large sack between them. The kitsune stared at them with hatred filled green eyes while the boy looked at everything through hopeless and betrayed brown ones.

"Left and abandoned, weren't you Souta? She left you to us, all alone, she doesn't-"

"Touch him and die." Kagura's hand stopped inches from the boy's face and inwardly she quivered at the look of killing intent on the kitsune's face. He was serious, more serious than he had been since he'd been reunited with the miko. Perhaps it had been a bad thing to tell her things so soon, now the kitsune that even Sesshoumaru was hard pressed to beat sometimes was back. Without Tokijin at least.

"You may leave now." Sesshoumaru tried to make it sound like a dismissal but as it left his throat it became more of a choice as the haughty kitsune stared at him. Shippo turned and accompanied Souta as they left and went as far from the dog demon as they could.

Sesshoumaru looked eagerly down at the package, one delicate slice of his claws piercing it and another push had the sack falling away to show the dirty and beaten body of a young woman. He sighed slightly and ran one sharp claw along her neck, careful not to pierce. Kagura chuckled. "Looks a bit like her, doesn't she? The bone structure, I bet her eyes. But there's much of him as well, and the other lines in her."

"If she has that line." The claws pierced a small line down her arms and the dog demon brought his claw up to his mouth, licking it and narrowing his eyes. The wind sorceress looked anxious and glanced at the girl, wondering if this was another wrong one, if this one too was just another one to bed thrown to the uncivilized parts of Makai.

"Well. I am glad my little Rin left descendants behind. This makes things much easier." Terrified brown mahogany brown eyes opened, only to roll up again into a dead faint at the appearance of two smirking, very evil looking unworldly seeming creatures.

Out in the lands surrounding the castle, a boy and a kitsune walked, the boy snorting. "They're so gullible. Like I would really believe Kagome abandoned me. Too bad we did have to capture that girl, but at least Kagome will have a little bit of time to plan things."

"You really believe she'll come back to help us? She has the freedom to walk away in her grasp. They both do." Shippo's golden tails swished thoughtfully as he spoke and he stared off into space.

"Would you do that if you had the chance?" Souta looked curiously at his relative by adoption. Was he nephew, brother, or uncle? It all depended on the time of day sometimes.

"...I don't know."

"I wouldn't." Unlike Shippo, Souta was full of confidence. "I'd stay and fight, no matter what. And so will she." Privately, Shippo agreed. It ran in their family. They were stubbornly loyal and held on to their loved ones with more tenacity than a teenager held onto his or her angsty image.

But, he was part of that family. Wasn't he?

"It was nice work you did, setting up the illusions and having me run that way while they used some plants to keep their smell covered. I guess my scent was close enough to fool the animals." Not just the ones used for scenting. His scent, his mannerisms, if worse ever came to worse, both Shippo and Kagome had agreed that Souta could be the next Guardian. No one who hadn't seen them would realize the difference, especially as Souta became more experienced. Not in the basic stories anyway. Their personalities had too many differences for them to be able to trick the people who knew.

But since a good percentage of the people who knew them were also the ones who wanted Kagome dead or controlled, they were already their enemies, weren't they?

"Why are they doing this?" Souta asked finally.

It was a very good question.

End part

Yeah, yeah, too many stories all ready. You know what? I've started a total of fifty five stories, according to my folder count. Some are only ideas, some have half written chapters and scenes. Then there are the approximately fifteen I've posted. So that I actually finished a first chapter of one of them is amazing.

Review if you please. Review if you don't please.