Disclaimer: This is the ONLY chapter I'm putting this on! It kills me inside to say this, but none of the characters in this story belong to me... cry
Chapter 1: The Beginning
"Hey InuYasha!" Kagome chirped happily. InuYasha growled slightly and commenced looking extremely annoyed. "What do you want, wench?" Kagome's face fell slightly at the less-than-warm greeting from her hanyou friend. But her bright smile soon returned when she realized that InuYasha was just being, well, InuYasha. "Just letting you know that I'm back..." With that, Kagome raced off in the general direction of Kaede's villiage to greet the others.
Sango was the first one to see her coming. She smiled brilliantly and hugged the younger girl. "You're finally back!" she cried excitedly. Just then, a small ball of fur came hurtling through the air. Kagome laughed as Shippo hugged her tightly. She gently set him down and turned back towards her friend. "Shall we head back to the villiage? It's getting dark..." "Yeah. Why don't you go get InuYasha?" Sango suggested. "Maybe I should..." Kagome said as she started to walk away.
InuYasha was too lost in his thoughts to notice the approaching familiar scent. Random thoughts drifted through his mind. Kikyo, Kagome, their quest, the impending end, the wish he was to make... He was abruptly brought back to the real world when he heard Kagome calling his name softly from somewhere beneath him. InuYasha composed his expression into one of pure annoyance before jumping down to see what she wanted with him. "InuYasha, you should come to the hut now. Dinner is almost done. It's your favorite!" The happiness in her voice was too much for InuYasha, who had been deep in his not-so-pleasant thoughts. He snapped.
"Leave me alone, wench! I would have been perfectly fine without you!" he shouted. 'Sensing' a fight, InuYasha braced himself for the long string of sits he knew was coming. "You would still be pinned to that tree by Kikyo's arrow if it wasn't for me!" Uh-oh. She was really angry. "Someone else would have come along eventually! Maybe someone I wasn't BOUND to by this STUPID NECKLACE!!!" Then again, so was InuYasha...
"And anyway," he started before she could speak, "Kikyo was much better than the likes of you!" He shut his mouth quickly. He hadn't meant that, but it was too late to take it back... or was it? "Kagome-" InuYasha started, only to be cut off by said girl. "No." Just one simple word, but it cut him to his core. In his mind, it was a sign that she was rejecting him and everything they had been through. It was a sign of refusal. "At least she didn't go running off and getting attacked by demons so often! Maybe you should just go home and kill yourself or something! Save some demon the trouble..."
InuYasha smelled the tears before he saw them, as Kagome's head was down. When she looked up her eyes looked so fierce and yet so calm that he took a step back, away from her. "Maybe I will." Her voice was like ice, chilling his very bones. "But first," she continued rather curtly, "sit." She turned and ran.