This is meant for fun, so please don't take it too seriously.

I'm following the storyline of the Brothers Grimm version rather than the Disney movie. I'll be sure to mention anything you might not know in case you've never read the original story.

Edited: 11/23/11

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Snow White.

Black as Night, White as Snow

Chapter One: Facing the Music

A beautiful woman sat at her windowsill, idly watching the world outside. Nestled in her brown hair, cut short, was an elaborate crown. In a beautifully carved cradle at her side, the queen's newborn daughter lay fast asleep.

"She'll grow up to be a beautiful girl," she explained to the birds chirping in the tree growing next to the castle wall. "It's woman's intuition, you know."

After several more minutes, she turned her attention instead to the baby.

The queen reached out and ran her fingers through the short, dark hair. "Black as night."

She ran a hand down her daughter's smooth face. "White as snow."

She gently tapped the young princess's lips and cheeks. "Red as blood."

The little girl yawned widely and stretched like a cat inside the cradle. Sleepily, her eyes blinked open, focused on her mother's face, and stared deeply into the kind brown eyes looking down at her. The queen leaned inside and pressed her lips to her child's forehead.

Drawing back, she looked into the infant's eyes. "Blue as sky."

17 Years Later…

Singing floated easily on the light breeze. The haunting melody sounded more beautiful and soothing than all man-made instruments combined could have ever managed.

In the center of the castle courtyard stood a beautiful young woman. Her silky, black hair fell in waves around her milky face and shoulders. Bright blue eyes winked at the animals gathered at her feet. Lips and cheeks of cherry red accented her pretty, young face. Currently those lips were parted as she sang and danced in a slow waltz, her arms hung in the air as if around an invisible partner. Blue jays and cardinals leant their voices to hers, strengthening her song and adding a new dimension to the melody.

Abruptly, from the highest window of the tallest tower, a woman's shout cut through the song. "Kagome! Stop that infuriating, ugly noise. It's nauseating."

Instantly stopping in her tracks, the maiden turned her face to the sky. "Yes, Queen Kikyou," she called back, her speaking voice just as musical as her singing one; her tone, although resigned, was still cheerful.

"Good," the woman answered coldly, and the quiet response still carried down to Kagome on the wind.

The young woman perched on the side of a well in the middle of the courtyard, and her blue eyes surveyed the surrounding garden. She had lovingly planted, weeded, and watered the rows upon rows of flowers ever since she was little. She glanced into blue well water and studied the gently swaying surface. Cocking her head at the reflection that looked right back, she sighed. It was time to get back to what she had previously been doing— her chores. At the moment, that meant scrubbing the castle paths free of dirt. Not an easy task, considering the courtyard was made of dirt.

When she finally got to her feet, her stormy eyes glittered mischievously. Kagome took a few shifty glances left, then right, and, after finally deciding the coast was clear, she spit in the well—

The well that only the queen was allowed to drink from.

With a new grin tugging at her lips, Kagome went back to her abandoned scrub brush.

Inuyasha scowled as he pushed deeper into the scratchy underbrush of the dark forest. Technically, he was always scowling, so it was more like his scowl had darkened. He was angry, because the voice had stopped— the lovely voice he had been listening to for the last few minutes as he got closer to the castle. The voice that soothed his normally abused half-demon ears. His amber eyes narrowed in anger, since there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

It didn't help that his dark scowl was accompanied by dark thoughts.

Why do I have to visit the castle? I'm not even a prince... I'm a lord! I don't even have any political power. Just because he inherited the kingdom when dad died and he's the oldest doesn't mean he can order me around... Well, I guess it does, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. For all he knows, I'll screw up this meeting with the queen, and our kingdoms will have to go to war, and everyone will die horrible, bloody deaths, and it'll be his fault for sending me in the first place. It would almost be worth it, if I managed to piss him off in the long run.

Chuckling quietly, the half-demon lifted his eyes to the black castle looming in the near distance, but then they fell on the bright, lovingly cared-for garden that surrounded it. Looks like Frankenstein was their interior decorator. At least the garden doesn't look like crap.

It was quite possibly the most thinking he'd done all year.

Within minutes, he'd passed the line of trees and stepped onto a dirt path leading into the garden. It only took a few seconds for him to grow impatient. Turning disgustedly to a black-haired maid nearby, he demanded, "Where's Queeny? I gotta talk to her."

The kneeling woman stopped her scrubbing, her shoulders growing tense under the patched, rough cloth of her dress. The girl sighed quietly, and one of his ears twitched as it picked up the gentle sound. Without turning around or getting up, she called over her shoulder, "In the castle." He turned on his heel towards the gloomy front door but paused when she followed up her previous comment with, "Idiot. Where the hell else would a queen be?"

Inuyasha's face burned with embarrassment... and anger. Keeping his eyes trained on the ivy-covered door, he yelled back at her, "Thank a lot, bitch."

The poor boy didn't see the scrub brush coming until it slammed into the back of his pretty silver head.

Kagome had never been one to let things bring her down. She had food, water, clothing, and shelter. Everyone she had ever known (which was mostly limited to the other servants) pointed out constantly that she was an extremely optimistic and cheerful person, all things considered. Few things could dampen her mood. There was one thing, however, that could upset her: her stepsister, the queen, Kikyou.

The man who had just left her garden had sounded relatively young— she hadn't turned to look at him to be absolutely certain it was really a man, but if it had been a woman, Kagome felt extremely sorry for her to have a voice that deep. A small part of Kagome was almost envious, despite the man's rudeness. Men always came to visit Kikyou. She was the queen (the beautiful queen nonetheless) of the kingdom, and men journeyed from far and wide to gaze upon the most powerful woman of the land. Over the years, Kagome had become desensitized to the handsome, dashing princes and knights who were far too superior to look at her while they ordered her around, their hearts already set on Kikyou.

On her way back from retrieving the scrub brush, Kagome sat once again on the lip of the well. She looked down into the water and scrutinized her reflection, comparing it to her stepsister.

Kikyou's hair was stark black, too, but much longer than Kagome's. The queen's skin was pale and perfect, yet she didn't have rosy cheeks like her stepsister. Her eyes were a steely, cold gray; they held none of the light and warmth that Kagome's did, but they were still lovely, the maid supposed. Where Kagome's full lips were red, Kikyou's thin ones, always set in a grim line, were a subtle pink. Kagome was surrounded by warmth and colors. Kikyou had always been cold and calculating, lacking color, yet still beautiful in a china doll kind of way. Kagome was full of life, while Kikyou was extremely aloof. They were a little similar in looks, but nothing alike at all when it really came down to it.

No one remembered this, but Kagome was not the maid of the castle. She was its princess. The original one, anyway.

Kikyou's mother was Kagome's father's second wife; the marriage meant Kagome gained both a stepmother and a stepsister, a rather big change to a life that had only contained a father until then. When the king and queen died in a carriage crash five years earlier, Kikyou stripped Kagome of her title and sent her away to the servants' quarters. Even though Kikyou wasn't the king's daughter by blood, she had been more or less granted the title when her mother became queen when she was a young girl. By being a few years older than Kagome, it gave her an edge— she was much quicker on the draw, much more brutal ensuring she got the title of Queen.

But Kagome didn't really mind. (Really!)

Kagome was once supposed to be queen, but after her doting mother's sudden illness and death and the late remarriage of the king, her stepsister took the spotlight. Kikyou was elegant in every way, and Kikyou's mother had made sure Kagome's father noticed how Kikyou would be a much better queen than his real daughter. The king had agreed, mostly, but had died before making it official, thus Kikyou's ruthless actions.

So when they died, Kikyou became a queen, and Kagome became a maid. It'd been that way for long enough now that Kagome didn't let it bother her anymore. She was happy enough.

Plus, princesses and queens could be so cliché.

"Looking glass, looking glass on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

"I must say, my dear Queen Kikyou, though it is sad,

You are the fairest, so you can't be mad."

Kikyou nodded her head resolutely, her mouth frozen in a grim grin. She stood in her tower room, facing her floor length, enchanted mirror. Instead of her own reflection, however, the queen saw the form of a young girl inside the frame. It was a tiny demon child with flowing white hair, white skin, and a white dress. A silver flower tucked behind her ear was the only adornment; she didn't even wear any shoes on her little feet.

Inuyasha stood rigidly, his hand raised and poised to knock on the wooden door. A shiver ran down his spine. That voice had been so... so... so creepy. What kind of crackpot poetry was that, and who in their right mind would ask such a weird question to what obviously sounded like a little kid? Taking a step backward, he puckered his lips to give a silent, innocent whistle as he backed away from the door and down the hall.

Let's not visit Queeny and just say we did? Scrunching up his nose in concentration, he walked carefully to the top of the spiral staircase to make his getaway.

Or he would have.

"Come in, Lord Inuyasha!" A voice demanded from the room that he had been about to enter— the room where he had heard the 'poetic' conversation.

Golden eyes narrowed in instant dislike. Inuyasha snarled at the closed door in a manly display; he really did hate being ordered around. But…

Curiosity built at seeing 'Queeny.' After just a moment's more hesitation, he entered, which effectively threw his thoughts out the window. Stepping into the bedroom of the queen of the neighboring kingdom, Inuyasha froze. Every inch of wall space (except for where a ridiculously large mirror was hung) was covered with weapons. Shiny, silver, pointy objects were everywhere. Arrows, knives, swords, daggers, maces, and even a...

Wait...

Was that a fork?

Hell, who kept a fork next to a katana?

Kikyou cocked her head at him. She was wearing an expensive-looking, scarlet kimono, almost like she was trying to add color to her colorless form just for the meeting. But Inuyasha wasn't eyeing her outfit; no, he was intently eyeing her hands. They were currently fingering an extremely sharp looking arrow almost lovingly.

"Inuyasha, tell me why you were sent," she commanded him, pricking her finger purposely on the tip of the arrow. A bead of blood blossomed across the white skin.

He answered quickly, "My brother wanted us to discuss the raids on the northern border."

"Wrong, Inuyasha. There was another reason."

"Yeah? And what's that?" Inuyasha snapped angrily but didn't move, afraid Queeny would charge if he did.

"Lord Sesshoumaru has set something up," she informed him rather calmly.

"Is that right?"

"In three weeks, we shall be married… Please enjoy yourself until then."

Inuyasha exploded, words pouring out of his mouth in such a high pitch at such a fast pace that it was impossible to distinguish anything other than the fact that he was horrified.

"Dearest, I suggest you go prepare. Sesshoumaru wanted this union to join our lands and make us stronger," Kikyou interrupted smoothly, her lips quirking up at the edges with the faintest of smiles.

"I will choose who I marry! And I sure as hell would never choose to marry you."

"A little over-dramatic, aren't we?" Kikyou arched a perfect eyebrow at her fiancé, and she almost appeared to find the situation funny. Inuyasha gaped at her. His half-brother and this witch just expected him to give up his life and marry her? "Inuyasha?" Kikyou had come closer and was taping him on the nose with the arrow to gain his attention again. He had obviously lost focus. He opened and closed his mouth, for the first time ever at a loss for words. "I had the impression I was engaged to a half-dog demon, not a goldfish," Kikyou joked dryly.

Inuyasha growled low in his throat. "I'll be back, Queeny. I need to talk to my brother." He cracked his knuckles ominously as he bolted from the room as if the she-devil herself was at his heels.

Which she was.

"I'll be speaking with you soon!" Kikyou called after him. Frowning, she turned back to her mirror. "What did you think, Kanna?"

The young girl who lived in Kikyou's mirror reappeared. "About what, 'Queeny'?" her whispery voice questioned. Kikyou missed the sarcasm.

"Inuyasha, of course."

"He sounds great," Kanna humored the queen. Kikyou, for the last few months since Sesshoumaru had given her his proposition, had been watching Inuyasha through her mirror to 'get to know' the young lord.

Suddenly the queen's face broke down into a deranged smile. "I will get you, Inuyasha!" She cackled evilly before erupting in a hacking cough, the menacing laugh too much for her throat.

Kanna swiftly disappeared before Kikyou asked her anything else. Kikyou took a deep breath and instantly reverted back to her calm self, almost horrified with the past few minutes of her own behavior. "Maybe I should stop eating jellied cow hooves before I go to sleep," she wondered out loud as she walked over to the window to watch the rapidly disappearing half-demon.

A ray of sunlight slipped between Kikyou's drapes, landing across the queen's face the next morning. She slid out from under her silk sheets, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she came to stand before her mirror. It was a morning ritual to ask her favorite question. "Looking glass, looking glass on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

"Black as Night, White as Snow, Red as Blood, Blue as Sky,

You are no longer the fairest; of this I cannot lie."

Kikyou started to smile and nod before her face transformed into a mask of rage, screeching in surprise, "WHAT?"

Kanna seemed barely able to hide a grin at finally being able to shatter Kikyou's thoughts of being the most beautiful woman of all. So she said it again, just to bother her 'employer' even more. Kanna couldn't lie as the keeper of the enchanted mirror.

"Kagome's beauty is now fully grown, she has taken your title,

There is no way to take it back; your resistance is futile."

The demoness in the mirror disappeared, so she wouldn't have to deal with the full wrath of an enraged Kikyou. She'd seen the other smashed mirrors around the castle on bad hair days.

To even her own surprise, Kikyou actually remained relatively calm. Slipping over to her window, she looked down into the gardens. Directly in her line of sight was her younger stepsister. "Kagome, I will never forgive you. 'Futile' is not in my vocabulary."

Then again, neither was 'antidisestablishmentarianism.'

"Yes, Queen Kikyou, what can I do for you?" Kagome asked sweetly, kneeling before the throne. She happily eyed the cup in her stepsibling's hand as it was put to Kikyou's lips. It was full of water— well water, that is. (The one with Kagome's spit in it.)

"Kagome, I have become engaged. My loving fiancé, Lord Inuyasha, shall be visiting soon, and I would like a bouquet of special flowers to decorate my room."

Kagome nodded, slightly confused. "Congratulations. Would you like red or white roses from the garden?"

"You seem to have misunderstood me. I want special flowers, meaning I need you to travel to the valley a few miles away to gather those lovely wildflowers that grow there."

"Of course, Queen." Kagome backed out of the throne room, head still bowed low.

"Thank you, Kagome," the queen called after her. Once the other black-haired woman was gone, Kikyou whispered, "Soon, very soon."

"Kouga! As my huntsman, I order you to find the maid known as Kagome and slay her. She has committed treason against me, and I shall have none of it," Kikyou commanded the handsome wolf demon standing before her. "Oh, one more thing... Bring me her tongue; I want to eat it for dinner. And kill her with my grandmother's fork; it's a priceless heirloom."

"A fork? …Of course, Your Highness. A-and her tongue?" Kouga asked, gagging just a bit despite himself.

"Yes."

"Right. Why not her heart?" Kouga suggested. After all, isn't that what a truly wicked, twisted queen would do? Eat the heart of her bitter enemy?

Kikyou frowned slightly. "No. Her tongue. Hearts give me tummy aches."

Kouga nodded and began to slowly back out of the room, trying extremely hard not to think about how the queen would know that.

And he grabbed the fork on the wall on his way out.