The Road to Perfect Endings

By

HouseKatai

Chapter one

"It's hard to accept the changes we go through in life, but it's even harder when we have to give up the uncertainties of hopes and dreams."

-Kaitlyn Norsworthy (Katai)

…xXx…

Three years drew by fast since the Shikon Jewel had been shattered. Those three years were wonderful for Kagome; in fact, they seemed to give her a certain hope for the future. The problem that weighed down mostly on her heart was the fact that Inuyasha was getting ill-mannered and hot-headed every day.

Kagome was out of high school, and surprisingly graduated. Thanks to her grandfather, he was able to convince the principal to let Kagome take the exam for graduation. She spent all her extra time studying hard and ended up passing the test by one point, that's right, one. So now that she's done with school, her mother thought that it would be best if she completed what there was to do in the past and then think about furthering her education.

It was high noon and the day was going by faster than it usually did. Kagome found herself thinking more and more about nothing that sparked her interest in particular. Each day she seemed to be in worst conditions with her feelings for Inuyasha.

"Kagome, did you hear a damn thing I said to you?" Inuyasha stopped abruptly in front of Kagome. Sango looked at Miroku and he returned the glance. They both knew that Kagome has been frustrated with Inuyasha ever since they lost a very close-to-killing-Naraku battle. Inuyasha has become ever so tense around everyone, anxious to get his hands on the completed jewel.

Kagome lifted her head and fixed her eyes on Inuyasha, she scowled put her thumb and forefinger on the bridge of her nose, "Inuyasha, I don't have to listen to every word that comes out of your mouth…"

"You do when I'm talking to you!" He gritted his teeth and took a step back.

Kagome didn't say anything; she just dropped her arm and placed them on her hips giving him a jester to let him continue.

"You know, you need to start paying attention to things. We're getting close to getting the jewel whole again and we can't have you slack off and mess things up like you did with our last battle with Naraku," he paused and turned around and began walking to the front of everyone down the road they were on. "Anyways, I was saying that we should probably head West…" he trailed off as he got further down the road.

Kagome learned to ignore his stubbornness and go on with whatever there was to do. She called it being mature and pushed it aside. Sango, Miroku, and even Shippo all knew that she was hurt inside whenever Inuyasha would be rude to her, but Kagome denied ever being offended.

"What's there to find in the West that makes you want to go there all of a sudden?" Kagome asked still annoyed.

Inuyasha stopped in his tracks, and without turning around he grunted, " Kagome put your brain back together, there's no other sign of him anywhere else. No wonder you've been acting so stupid lately, you can't even think straight if I wasn't here to make sure you don't make an idiot of yourself," Inuyasha said back to her crossing his arms.

Sango, Miroku, and Shippo looked over at Kagome sensing something dark and saw the anger and hate illuminating literally out of her body. Inuyasha looked back over to her and immediately was starting to regret what he said.

"Inuyasha..." Kagome's voice would have been dripping with acid as she glared at him coldly if she were able to. Her fists were clenched so hard they were even starting to turn white.

"SIT!" she yelled.

He went down.

They all watched as Inuyasha went face first into the dirt then turned and watched as Kagome stormed off.

"When will he learn?" Miroku asked shaking his head back and forth.

"What an idiot." Shippo added and they agreed with sighs.

If there was one thing in the world Kagome hated, it was being treated like a child. Inuyasha always made her feel so small and useless. What a jerk! Telling her how stupid she was without him around. Hah! She snorted annoyingly.

She walked further away from where everyone was at. She figured they had stopped alongside the road where they were at to have lunch. It wouldn't be long until Inuyasha came running after her so she thought it would be best to use her time wisely. So, she saw a walk through opening between two oh so lovely trees. Kagome shrugged her shoulders and started towards the opening.

The air around her seemed to change as she made her way further. As the sun was blocked by the leafy arms of the tall Beech trees surrounding the forest, the cool wind blew ever so lightly sending Goosebumps on Kagome's arms and legs. Being summer and all, it was refreshing to feel a cold breeze on her neck and through her hair.

As she stepped over a large root expanding out from under a tree, her thoughts were tangled with the frustration of Inuyasha and how amazing the wind felt, and ended up falling face first into a pillow of dirt. "Wow, talk about Karma…" Kagome grunted as she picked herself up and brushed off. She fixed her hair and noticed a slight pain on her temple, "damn root!" she gave a frustrated grunt.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a shimmering light and turned over to look at what it was. Through the opening of the tree's branches the sun shone through and pattered on a little stream feet away from where she was standing. She felt a wave of relief shoot through her body and she gaily walked over to the water.

"Ahhh…" She knelt down on the bank of the stream and cupped her hands as she brought the cold refreshing water to her face. Inuyasha decided he wanted to leave early that morning and head out, and with the summer days being so tiring she was thankful for a break with cool water.

As she lifted her head to dry, way in the distance was a tall figure of a man. A familiar youkai that she encountered plenty of times before. He wasn't hard to describe, in fact Kagome admitted to herself that she had always thought of him as elegant. Which was surprising because she was beginning to think that all inu-youkai were immature jerks -- not to mention that Inuyasha and this youkai in front of her were related.

Kagome shook her head and closed her eyes then opened them again. He was still there staring at her like he thought she wasn't looking straight at him, but she knew that he didn't care. This kind of scared her, the fact that he tried to kill her a number of times before, suddenly crossed her mind. She gulped and looked back down and began scrubbing her hands pretending he wasn't there.

"Kagome!" A voice from behind her shouted. It was a voice that was like nails on a chalk board, but at the same time it was like an angel's voice. "You're so—" He stopped what he was saying and looked across the stream and over to where the other demon was standing. But before Inuyasha could do anything or say anything to him, the white mysterious youkai turned around and disappeared.

Kagome stood up and looked at Inuyasha with a blank expression. He took his eyes off from where he was looking and met her gaze. "What did he do to you?" He asked urgently.

Kagome was kind of appalled by this question. Why was he asking such a strange question? "What do you mean? He didn't do anything but give me a... well, I don't know what to make of what look he gave me, he always has the same ex—" She was cut off in mid sentence.

"Why are you bleeding then?" Inuyasha extended his arm out to place it on her forehead and wiped a drop of blood onto his finger then lowered it to show her.

Kagome reached up and touched it to give her reassurance that she had hurt herself. "I tripped," she gave an awkward laugh.

"You need to stop being so clumsy…" Inuyasha pursed his lips and looked away from her.

It was times like this that took Kagome's heart away-- the little moments where Inuyasha is himself, where he shows that he does care for her. She then forgot all about why she was mad at him in the first place and gave him a relieved smile and tilted her head, admiring the way Inuyasha was embarrassed to be sweet.

He shifted his eyes from nothing important and looked at her when she didn't say anything. "Why are you smiling with that dorky expression on your face for?"

Kagome stretched her arms into the air and walked past him, "Come on, Inuyasha. Let's start heading back; I'm starting to get hungry."

...xXx…

Sesshomaru, the inu-youkai lord since his father's death, walked through the forest of Beech trees with Jaken, a trustful imp that assisted his every need and Rin, a human girl that was the light of his life.

He looked down on everyone he came across and never pitied a single soul, youkai or human. Though he despised every human he came across, Rin was everything he had. And although he never admitted it, he loved this young girl. Every flower crown she made, every song she sang, and every breath she took gave him a sense of happiness.

"Master Jaken, why is the sky blue?" she asked as she rode on Au-Un. She would always ask silly questions like that. Always questioning the world and being curious over every little thing.

"Don't ask such ridiculous questions, Rin," The small green imp squawked at her, waving his staff of two heads in the air.

Rin didn't say anything else. They all walked in silence looking at nothing but green all around them. Sesshomaru was lost in thought. Thoughts that he never really had control over. He thought mostly about what he was going to do with his life after Naraku was dead. He knew Rin would grow up into a woman and she would soon marry, but he always tossed that thought aside, not wanting to think of such things so soon, but they always seem to creep back into mind when he least expected it.

Sesshomaru stopped in his tracks and looked over to his left. Rin leaned over on Au-Un to look at his sudden halt. "Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin asked sincerely.

He shifted his eyes to look at her then turned in the direction he was looking at and began to walk. "Jaken, stay here until I return."

He walked slowly off the path he was on and followed what he sensed. He smelled blood. Not just any blood, it was the blood of the impudent human girl that his hanyou brother surely loved.

Sesshomaru stopped and saw the girl by a shallow stream. She looked different, not in a bad way, he thought she looked more womanly than the last time he saw her. He noticed the different clothes she wore. She no longer wore that skimpy uniform of hers, but instead she wore blue shorts and a pink tank top that hugged her body more than the uniform did. Her face looked more aged as well, not by much, but he could notice the change.

She looked up from the water and looked straight at him.

Sesshomaru stared.

Right away he looked at the small cut on her forehead. It wasn't a big cut or anything, and at that moment he wasn't sure why it caught his attention enough for him to walk over there just to see what happened.

He was about to turn away and walk back to where Jaken and Rin were until the wind blew off her shoulders and nestled right under his nose. At first he didn't know what to make of it. He couldn't decide if her scent was satisfying or dissatisfying.

And for the first time, the great Lord Sesshomaru felt… confused.

At that moment he wasn't sure what facial expression he made because he could hear her pulse rise and he could smell that she was scared. He also smelt something else, or someone else. Sesshomaru watched as Inuyasha appeared from behind the girl, startling her with his voice but then watched her relax by the sound of his voice.

He then took one quick look at the woman from across the forest and frowned. He didn't like this foreign feeling of being confused, especially since he didn't know what he was confused about. He turned around and started to walk back to where he left Jaken and Rin.

When Sesshomaru approached the two, Rin's face lit up with joy. Once he saw the smile planted on her face, Sesshomaru dropped the feeling of confusion.

"Come, Jaken, Rin," he began to stroll down the path they were on as his white fur on his left shoulder trailed behind him as it swayed left and right.

"Coming Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin sang as she threw her arms out to the side of her and pretended to play "Follow the Leader" with Sesshomaru secretly. Jaken just rolled his eyes at the young girl and he trailed behind them, pulling Au-Un to follow them.

…xXx…

Author's Note: So just to be clear with everyone, this story is written by two people. If you look our homepage, it has information about the both of us. We each have separate accounts on Fan Fiction, but since we're writing this story together, we made a joined account. Anyways… We hope you enjoy this chapter. It is our first Sesshomaru and Kagome story. I, Katai, wrote a different story that's on my other account, it sucks though. Haha, it was an Inuyasha and Kagome story and it didn't really have a plot, but Kelsey and myself hope to make this one A LOT better.

Hey! It's me Kelsey so yes as you've read hopefully me and Katai are both writing this story together so give us some feedback on what to improve, how ur liking it so far, what u don't like got it! Well we hope u like it for Kagome and Sesshomaru lovers out there and we will try our best to make sure it hits ur standards XD!

If you want to really a really good Sesshomaru and Kagome story, read Tales From the House of the Moon by ResMiranda. That story is the one that got me into Sesshomaru and Kagome, plus it was the most DEPRESSING story I have ever read. No movie/book/story can compare to that.