Disclaimer: The rights to Inu-Yasha belong to Takahashi-sensei, Viz, and a whole bunch of other people that does not include me. Sorry to disappoint…

^_^

Our Inuyashas

We woke him up from an enchanted sleep, and his life was forever changed.

It was those adorably furry puppy ears that first caught our curious eyes, that enticed us from our everyday lives and threw us into the Sengoku-jidai of ancient Japan. We didn't know how to deal with a hanyou of five hundred years past, so we armed ourselves with historical facts and a foreign language before joining his battles. How we fought for him, with our sharpened pencils and our brand-new laptops and our vivid imaginations. Fighting for him, fighting with him, until we drifted into our dreams of a silver-haired boy: half-human, half-demon.

All ours.

He was a contradiction unto himself. He came to us with bared claws and sharp fangs, but his golden eyes held a hidden gentleness. He was steel and danger, the most powerful hanyou – possibly even youkai– of his time. But still we "sat" him again and again, delighting in the way he kissed the dirt time after time. We sent him through the well day after day, in search of a raven-haired girl who wore a green school uniform.

He was never polite, always rude and loud-mouthed, but we didn't mind. We loved him all the more for his bad manners, for his gruffness, for his name-calling. We took him and lowered the barriers around his soul; we brought out his sensitivity and sweetness. He shied away, at first, from any and all forms of affection, constantly pushing us away with rough and sometimes hurtful words, but eventually, his protests only served to bring him ever closer to our hearts.

We gave him wound after wound, bruises and cuts and broken limbs and all sorts of daunting injuries, reveling in the different ways we could break him, and watch him, help him, heal. We found new methods of torture – physical, emotional, mental – just because we could. We stole his shards. We kidnapped his friends. We even transformed him into a chibi once in a while, just because he was so irresistibly cute.

We constantly poked fun at him. We rejoiced in making Shippou chew on his head. We never tired of hearing him crash into the ground and mutter heatedly, "What the hell was that for, wench?!" We teased him about his pink – okay, red – fire-rat outfit. Yet we loved him in spite of it. Or maybe, because of it.

We made him wander into his past, his present, and his future. We brought him to alternate universes and different dimensions. But we never let go of that long silver hair.

We filled his life with vengeful demons and guardian angels, loyal friends and evil foes. We drove him crazy because we couldn't decide which woman – or man – we liked better. While we argued and debated, he went running off again with a young miko clinging to his back, chasing rumors of the Shikon no kakera.

We waited for his eyes to change from warm amber to bloody crimson, because we wanted to see the darkest –as well as lightest– side of him. Then we waited for the right time to reel him back in, delighting in our ability to push him to the edge only to save him from himself in the end.

We took his pains and made them our own. We took our fears and made them his. Together, we wore our rosaries, and learned to make peace with our troubled selves, our conflicting emotions, our painful pasts.

He took us on his quests, and we found a side of him that no one had known ever existed. He showed us his vulnerability, his weaknesses, and we showed him that it was okay to be weak. He revealed his tendency to be soft, and we revealed that we liked him all the more for being a shy, sweet boy. Nevertheless, he defended us from soul-stealing demons, from heart-stealing wolf princes, from ghosts and spirits and all sorts of imaginable evils. He was fiercely protective, fiercely loyal.

He gave us his patented one-hour outbursts that ended with a furious scowl which secretly begged us not to leave him. He fought for us. Got hurt for us. Eventually, cried for us. He would die for us, though we would all rather have him live. For us.

In return, we gave him a new family to belong to. And salvation. And a second chance at life. And love.

We gave him ourselves.

He sprang into our lives, and we were forever changed.

~ Owari ~

A/N: Well, I have to admit, I didn't expect that I'd be writing another fic when all of you are about to have my heads on a platter for not updating any of my other ones. However, this is a special case. It's a one-shot, I promise. And it's specifically a tribute to all Inuyasha fanfiction writers out there, and to our adorable golden-eyed puppy himself. ^_^ Many, many thanks to dementedchris, who gave me permission to use the idea from a Rurouni Kenshin fic, "Our Kenshins." Arigatou! Cheers, my fellow fanfic writers!

.

.

.

.

Well, what did you think? Review! :-)

(And if you ask nicely, I might just write a tribute for Kagome…and others…maybe… ^_~ hint, hint.)