A/N: Be nice. Actually, be as mean as you want. This is my first fan-fic, and I'm rather hoping that it isn't too horrible. If it is, please tell me. (Because I would like for this story to be at least ok.) Well, I don't want to take up too much of your time, so go read my story.

Disclaimer: Ok, I know you all know that I don't own InuYasha. But I wish I did...

Chapter 1

Cuts and Bruises

Where is he? A beautiful woman in her late twenties looked worried, and a little mad as she stood on her front porch peering down the street. All she could think about was the whereabouts of her son. She knew he was a trouble maker, and that his friends probably got into trouble often too, but she also knew that he would need them soon.

She was dying. There was no other way to put it. But how was she to break it to her son? He was only fifteen, and she was his only relative that he knew of. The last thing she wanted to do was to send him off to his brother, but it was all she could think of. She heard the phone ringing behind her, so she reluctantly left her post, only because it might be her baby. He hated being called that, but that's what he was. He could be eighty, and still be her baby. But even in good health she wouldn't live that long.

She picked up the phone hoping hear the voice that she compared to the call of angels. "Hello?"

"Izumi, is that really you?"

"Yes it is, may I ask who I am speaking to?"

There was gentle laughter on the other line, "Don't you remember me, it's Krys."

It didn't even take a fraction of a second to remember who Krys was. Izumi and Krys had been friends since before Krys was born, well, that's what their parents had said. Izumi was two years older than Krys, and their parents had been friends, and from the day they met, they were inseparable. Their only communication since the day Izumi left Anchorage had been e-mail.

"Wow, Krys, you sound so…different. How long has it been, ten years?"

"More like fifteen, but yeah, it's been a while, how are you and the baby?"

Izumi laughed at this, "He's hardly a baby, and reminds me all the time, but we're ok. It's you I'm worried about, how are you?"

"I'm fine actually, I was just looking through old pictures, and saw that one of us and baby InuYasha on the day you left. I just needed to hear my best friend's voice."

"I've missed you so much, and I'm glad you called. I need to ask a huge favor of you, but you don't have to do it for me."

"Izumi, how many times do I have to remind you that you can ask me for anything, even the moon, and I'll find a way to get it for you? You don't need the moon, do you?" the last bit actually sounded like Krys was suspicious, though Izumi knew she was joking.

"Krys…I really need some help. I haven't told anyone this, not even InuYasha. I'm…Krys, I'm dying. I don't have long."

There was silence on the other line for a few seconds before Izumi could hear the sounds of her best friend crying. The next words were choked, and dry. "What can I do? I'll do anything"

"Krys, I need you to take InuYasha to his father."

"I can take care of him, no problem. I'll be there tomorrow, ok?" it was a barley audible whisper, but loud enough to make out clearly.

"Krys, thank you so much, you remember my dad's old apartment, right?"

"Yeah honey, I'll be there at three, ok?"

"That would be great. I'll keep an eye out for you."

"Ok, is there anything else you need?"

"No, that's it, I have to go now, but I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright, goodbye, and take care."

"Bye."

Just as Izumi hung up the phone, InuYasha walked through the door, looking down at the floor, his bangs covering up his face. As he closed the door behind him with his foot, he looked up to see his mother's worried face change to horror, and grief.

InuYasha was a handsome boy, tall, tan, and a frame that was all muscle. His long silver hair was dripping red, and his beautiful amber eyes looked so pained. His whole face was covered in cuts, and it looked as if he would have a black eye the next day. Izumi knew he would heal fast, but the cuts seemed to be deep. Her baby was about to pass out from the pain, so she knew it wasn't just his face.

"Oh my god, InuYasha, what happened?!"

"It's nothing mom, I'll be fine, I just need some rest…"

"Come here, get out of those bloody clothes, and sit on my bed, I'll be in in a sec."

"Really mom, it's nothing, stop worrying about me so much."

"InuYasha, sometimes I need to worry about you, now listen to me, and go."

He only did as he was told because of the pleading look in her eyes as she said the

last sentence. He was all she had, and he didn't want to disappoint her as much as he did, but somehow, he always seemed to disappoint her. He never said anything about it, but this time he would.

As he stripped into his boxers, he felt the fabric of his jeans trying to cling to his wounds, and it hurt to take them off. His shirt hurt worse when he took it off because there was a huge gash in the middle of his stomach, and he had been hoping that he wouldn't have to show his mom that one, but she would have taken it off of him had he left it on.

Izumi entered the room and almost cried. Her baby, the only person she had left in this world, would be dead if he were human. "You're lucky to be a hanyou, if you weren't, you'd be dead…" It was then that she broke down. She just couldn't take it. She crumpled to the floor, and was now sitting holding her knees with one hand, and the bed with the other. InuYasha looked confused and sad. He knew he disappointed her, but he was hoping that it hurt him more than it hurt her. He knelt down to comfort her, wincing as he did so. His stomach wounds were tearing, a few of the smaller ones becoming connected to the large one. Izumi looked up at the sound of her son wincing, and pushed on a patch at his shoulder that was either unharmed, or had healed already to get him to stand back up. She was supposed to take care of him, not the other way around. She stood and InuYasha thought about her. She looks so fragile, is something wrong?

"Sit down InuYasha, let me see those wounds of yours, and you tell me what happened, ok?" Sometimes Izumi worried about him getting himself killed, but she knew he could take care of himself.

"It was nothing mom, just a little fight, I've had worse." He was lying, and they both knew it, but he had already decided that telling her would just hurt her more.

Izumi took a washcloth in her right hand, and a bottle of peroxide in her left, and dampened the cloth, preparing to clean up her son. InuYasha winced at the scent of the peroxide, knowing that it would sting, and determined to act like it didn't hurt. He sat on the edge of the bed, and his mother started to wipe the peroxide on him, starting at one shoulder, and staying to the edge of the gash. She was surprised to hear her son speak as she began on the edges of the gash after adding more peroxide to the now pink washcloth.

"Mom, I know I disappoint you sometimes, but you have to believe me, I don't mean to, and I've been trying to be better. I'm sorry, can you ever forgive me?" These were the most sensitive words she had ever heard coming from her son. The last time she had heard someone asking if she could ever forgive them was Inutaisho when he left her. A single tear ran down her left cheek as she said, "InuYasha, there is only one way you could disappoint me. And that would be if you left the one you loved because you thought they didn't want you. If you ever do that…" She started crying again, a few of her tears falling on InuYasha's leg, stinging his cuts. He was now healing faster, and the gash on his stomach was now no larger than his arm. He would be fine in the morning.

"Mom, something's wrong. And it's not just me. Tell me. Please…" He was begging now, just hoping she would tell him what was going on.

"InuYasha...I...I'm..." Izumi couldn't finish that sentence. It was going to be harder to tell her son that she was dying than it had been to tell her parents that she was pregnant at fourteen. InuYasha pulled his mom into a hug, ignoring the physical pain he was going through. All that mattered was that his mom was okay. He wasn't about to let her get hurt. He was going to find out what was going on. Whatever it was, it must be bad, because his mother looked half dead trying to tell him whatever it was that she was going to tell him.

"InuYasha…I'm…not well." Izumi tried to find a nice way to put it, but now it just sounded like she was sick. I have to tell him, and preferably before three-o-clock tomorrow…this is gonna be hard.

"Are you sick? Is that it? Mom, tell me what's going on, please." The look in his eyes was all the motivation Izumi needed to get the words out, even though they were going to hurt.

"Baby, I'm…dying" Izumi looked at the floor as she said it, there was no way she was going to look into the eyes of her son as she told him the painful truth.

"Mom…" He didn't even care that she called him baby, he was just so…sad, and yet, he was so very calm.

"I…you…you're going to go live with a friend of mine. I don't have long." Still she stared at the floor, her fingernails, anything but the raw emotion in her son's eyes.

"How long?" It was all InuYasha could manage to say. He was fighting back tears, and losing quite horribly, his face was already stained with tears.

"Go put on some clean clothes." The look she gave him was pleading; she just needed a little time. He took the two long steps across the hall to go to his room to put on clothes. InuYasha came out to see his mother looking at him, she looked into his eyes, and smiled.

"Come, I'll tell you everything." She led him back down the short hallway to the front room, and sat on the couch, motioning for him to sit beside her.

A/N: Well?? How did I do? Don't worry, the plot gets better in the later chapters. (couldn't put all the good stuff in the first chapter could I?) Please review, you know you want to...well maybe not, but I would appreciate it