Okay! I know I know, the title and summary suck but it'll get better so just stick with me a while. I also know it's short but I'm just testing the waters. I'll have a new chappie up by tomorrow and it'll be longer I promise. Please Please Please lemme know what you think. I'm still a little new. Thanks! Also, though it pains me to say it, Inuyasha does not belong to me... . WAHHHHHH!

Chapter One: Tattered, Not Torn

Kagome took her sweet time getting dressed for school. Brushing her hair and counting the strokes, taking a long shower, and even using a little bit of makeup. She wasn't going to lie and say it wasn't for Inuyasha but it was not entirely for the half demon. She had friends at school and sometimes she'd rather have a little blush on her cheeks than dirt. She smiled at herself in the mirror, grateful that she could live this morning without fear of what was to come...all thanks to one annoying dog-demon she loved dearly. He was standing outside the house impatiently talking to Sota about why he refused to wear the hat Kagome bought for him. She was more than fairly certain that before she made it downstairs it'd be perched atop his head. At the very least she didn't need to worry about that. She finally, after a long week of frowning, permitted a chuckle to escape her.

She'd never tell Inuyasha and for once in her life she wouldn't tell Sango either that she had truly begun to fear coming home to modern day Tokyo. The demon that had been haunting her, the one the others couldn't see, was still fresh in her mind and she was terrified of being caught alone and having to fight for herself. Another thing she was half way certain of, if that happened she'd be dead...as a doorknob. She smiled; she was getting pretty cocky having her half demon boyfriend waiting downstairs to escort her to school. Maybe she could even show him off to her friends...or maybe she wouldn't. Depended on what kind of mood he had towards humans today.

"Kagome? You've got about half an hour before you need to be at school," smiled her mother from the doorway. Kagome flushed quickly. That smile...that damn smile that said she knew something she wasn't supposed to. Kagome was hesitant on what to do. Her mother decided for her. "Feeling better dear?" she asked.

"Yeah, how could you tell?" she asked happily and turned back to the mirror for a last check. Her mother leaned against the doorframe.

"Oh I don't know... could be the makeup," she suggested. Kagome nodded knowing now what it was her mother had discovered. Kagome might think it, and think it pretty frequently, but Inuyasha was not her boyfriend and she had still yet to inform him that she even referred to him that way. Everyone in this time zone, other than those who actually knew him, thought he was...Again, maybe she wouldn't show him off to her friends. She smiled and lifted her book bag.

"Well, either way I'm off!" she piped and rushed past her mom. "I'll be home ASAP!" she called over her shoulder. Mrs. Higurashi shook her head.

"Please wear it Inuyasha...it would mean the world to Kagome not to have to hide you," begged the small voice of her younger brother. She could hear him from the staircase. The door must have been left open. She came down without any pause and the instant she was in view of Inuyasha he blushed beet red and jerked the baseball cap over his head and ears. He then officially turned his head as though Kagome was power walking her way straight to the first bell. In fact her rage had so consumed her over his callused words that she had completely overlooked her friends calling to her. They were now worriedly chasing after her calling her name, another fact she did not notice. She didn't hear anything until she'd finally yelled over the playground.

"SIT SIT SIT!" It was a late ditch hope that the echo would get him, when she knew it wouldn't. Her friends, however, unaccustomed to the heated battle cry heard "shit shit shit" and were shocked into silence, the entire playground screeching to a halt. Kagome blinked at the sight of them and then nervously chuckled.

"Hi guys," she offered weakly. The playground went back to its normal beatings as the girls converged into a huddle around their most beloved member. Kagome was terrified, angry, and now even worse, embarrassed. So much for a good day.

"Kagome! I didn't know you knew those words!" scolded Eri.

"Well I guess that's because I didn't until I met Inuyasha," she snarled, her residual anger spilling over. Yuka gasped and Kagome retracted her theoretical claws.

"What in the world happened?" she asked.

"Nothing...just forget it, okay guys?" Kagome begged, a smile plastered to her face. Somehow she was thinking she could blame this on her sicknesses but she couldn't make a good connection. Terits? No...good for the future but no. "Guys?" she asked, but they weren't grinning. Kagome frowned. "I'm sorry..."

"Well you should be. Hojo's been waiting on you all morning and now you just whiz past him screaming curse words? What's the matter with you?" demanded Yuka.

"OH MY GAH! You're wearing makeup!" squealed Eri. Kagome and the others winced at the high pitched voice.

"gasp what? You're right she is!"

"You look great Kagome!"

"Why are you wearing makeup on today off all days?" asked a random voice she couldn't place. It had come from somewhere, but lost in the mix of voices she didn't bother to place it with a face.

"I just felt like it. I woke up kinda happy," she smiled, remembering the mood she HAD been in. Before Inuyasha had screwed it all up. She was just getting into a groove of hating him again when a boy she didn't recognize came running up to them.

"Kagome-san! Kagome-san!" he barked. "Which of you is Kagome-san?" he asked. All the girls pointed to Kagome as she pointed to herself.

"What is it?" she asked.

"That guy you were with this morning--" he started and Kagome felt her heart slip off several strings.

"What guy?" she asked calmly.

"The guy in the red. He was sitting in the middle of the road and--"

"Oh my god, Inuyasha!" she wailed, finishing his thought for him. Inuyasha had been hit by a car, she was sure of it, and before they could stop her Kagome went racing out of the school as the first bell rang. Surely her friends would act like nothing happened and go to class, that would give her time to make up an excuse, which was her hope. She squelched the inward sigh she felt. So much for school today. She was beckoning to god and any other force that would heed her to keep Inuyasha alive, to keep him coherent until she could be with him. She wanted to hold him close, tell him everything was going to be okay and pat his hair loving. Inuyasha couldn't die, he just couldn't! He couldn't leave her!

As the thought was leaving her mind she spotted a red dot way ahead of her on the sidewalk, surrounded in a white mane. But that was all she could see. She couldn't tell if he was lying flat on the sidewalk or if he was sitting up awaiting her. Either way she had to reach him. She sped up, racing even faster than she had when Muso had tried to take her, faster than Koga when she was falling off a cliff. She hardly noticed her shoes jerk off causing her to stumble and stump her toes cruelly on the asphalt. Her only conscious thought was screaming with all its might "INUYASHA".

ne? What you think? Again its short I know and a bit of a cliffhanger. I'm so evil I'm brilliant. MUAHAHA! Anyway, stay nearby so you can find out if I killed Inuyasha or worse, if I didn't! HAHAHAHA. whisper I don't really hate Inuyasha...honest.