Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and I am not making any money off this silly fanfiction. ~Gypsyn

chapter 1

Souta was sitting outside his house on the porch when Inuyasha arrived. It was one of the few times Inuyasha had seen the kid look like that, Just... Looking at the ground dejectedly doing nothing at all. Kagome's kid brother was usually pretty active.

"Heya runt." Inuyasha greeted in his usual fashion as he walked over.

Souta looked up at the sound of his voice instantly but didn't answer. His eyes were wide and surprised.

"Kagome not home from school yet?" He asked as he sniffed the air checking for her scent. Strange. There was no trace of her. Almost like... she hadn't been home at all for some time now. Frowning he started to walk towards the house a little more purposefully And Souta bolted up and shouted in the doorway "Mom! Mom come quick it's Inuyasha!"

The kid looked back at his sister's very surprised half demon friend as if double checking his eyesight and charged into the house. Now things were really getting weird. Inuyasha braced himself for more strange behavior, But as he walked into the family's kitchen he paused.

Mrs. Higurashi's scent was being drowned in the smell of tears. It was overwhelming and telling.

For a moment the smell almost knocked him off his feet. He looked at Kagome's mother who looked back at him hopefully from her chair at the dinner table. Her hands clutching a tear soaked cloth. The old man stood nearby silently with one hand on her shoulder as if consoling the grieving woman. It didn't take a moment longer for him to sort out the gist of the trauma. Something had happened to Kagome.

"No." He uttered Breathlessly. Before the woman could even speak he was gone, bolting around the corner and skipping over the stairs entirely to Kagome's room. For a breath of time his heart pounded in his throat, his chest clenched. If she was hurt...

He slammed open the tiny bedroom door so hard the sound rang through the walls of the home. He stared and then stumbled back a step in shock. her room was... empty. Like... Like she didn't live there anymore. Void except for the stripped bed and the cleared desk. All the familiar girly pink decorations, her blankets, and pillows, her much-hated alarm clock. Even her teddy bear at the end of the bed. Everything was gone. And worse her scent had gone cold. She hadn't set foot in this room since the LAST time he had let her come home several weeks ago.

He stood there in shock.

'Did she run away from home? From me? why?! We hadn't been arguing... And Kikyo hadn't shown up for awhile now. So... Why?'

"Inuyasha." came Mrs. Higurashi's pleading voice.

"Where is she?" He demanded softly. No use growling at her when she was clearly already distraught.

He looked back at the woman. Mrs. Higurashi looked at him tearfully.

"My-my mother came and took her."

'Took her. So at least Kagome didn't run away from home.' his shoulders relaxed a little.

"Why?"

Mrs. Higarashi walked to his side looking around her child's bare room

"It's hard to explain." She said softly as more tears gathered in her eyes.

He turned to Look at her. "Try." He pled desperately keeping his expression as calm as he could.

"My mother... she found out about all the school Kagome's missed where we told her teachers she was sick, so she looked into the hospital records and found out Kagome hasn't been checked in at all and we were lying."

"By the laws in this time, I was responsible for her education and her care. ...But since Kagome hasn't been going to school her Grandmother used that as an opening to challenge my ability as a parent." Mrs. Higurashi's head dropped as she covered her tears. "Right now Legally Kagome is under her grandmother's guardianship. And I don't have a say anymore. My mother came to collect her just as Kagome was getting home... She... She didn't know what was going on. They just dragged her away so quickly. She must have been so... So scared. She doesn't even know her grandmother." Mrs. Higurashi looked up at him pleadingly with a tear stained face and wrung her hands as if struggling not to start crying again.

"It's Okay,"Inuyasha told her firmly. "It's okay... I'll find her, don't worry."

"I did everything I could in court, I tried to reason with her grandmother but I couldn't do anything! I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry I'll get Kagome back." He promised.

But she only started crying harder.

(-)

That night after Inuyasha and Souta convinced poor Mrs. Higurashi and Grandpa Higurashi to go to bed, he sat alone in Kagome's bare room sifting through the scents and brooding over the whole situation.

Kagome's home really wasn't that much safer than his own, he knew that. There were still murderers, thieves and perverts here. No amount of time would ever change that. Hell Just Crossing the streets here was a risky business. The only thing Kagome was kept even relatively safe from here were demons and possibly bandits.

He exhaled heavily. His insides felt twisted up like he was starting to get sick. How was he supposed to protect her if she kept making him stay in his time while she stayed here?

And what in the hell was up with Kagome's Grandmother? Why did she take Kagome when they were already estranged? Why take guardianship of Kagome and not Souta as well? It didn't make sense.

"Inuyasha, I need to talk to you." Came Souta's soft almost whispered voice from the other side of Kagome's door.

"Come in." He replied just as softly. No sense waking up Kagome's mother from the first night of sleep she'd had since the kidnapping.

Souta entered and quietly shut the door behind himself. Then he turned to Inuyasha with a serious and sad expression.

"Mom didn't explain everything." The boy admitted with a frown.

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed warily.

"There's something else?"

"Yeah. Gramp's told me everything. We would have told you earlier too. But Mom..."

"Spill," Inuyasha commanded crouching down to Souta's height.

"I can understand why Mom didn't tell you more. There's a lot of it that's gonna be hard to explain to you. And she was already really upset before you showed up."

"I need to know everything."

Souta nodded. "That's why I'm here."

"If you take Kagome back by force Mom will be sent to a prison."

Inuyasha's eyes widened in surprise. "What the hell for?"

"Because our grandmother and the police would suspect her of sending someone to get her back. But she might still ask you to go get her anyway just to get Kagome away from our grandmother."

"Why would she? Is your grandmother dangerous?"

"In a way yeah. Mom is... well I guess in your world she'd be a Hime." Inuyasha's eyes widened in surprise but the boy paid him no mind. So when Mom came of age she was expected to marry someone her parents had picked out for her. Instead, she fell in love with dad and gave up her status so she could marry him and live in peace. But apparently, the arranged marriage was mostly a way of getting her family more money."

"See in this time rich families are the only ones who bother with bride prices and it's the man's side that pays not the woman's."

"Weird," Inuyasha replied thoughtfully. And then nodded for Souta to continue.

"So Kagome is the last Unmarried girl in the family line And our grandmother is planning on making sis get married to the richest suitor she can find so she can get the bride price to preserve her wealth."

"WHAT?" Inuyasha growled angrily gripping his fists tightly.

"I know, It's crazy! But I guess some people would do anything for money, and pay anything to have nobility in their bloodline. Mom knew what grandma wanted to do with Kagome so she kept us away from her."

"Why didn't she just tell me all that from the start?"

"Because she didn't want you to blow a gasket when you found out Kagome was basically going to get sold?"

Inuyasha growled again. The image of some strange man pushing Kagome down into a bed as she cried and begged to go home came to mind and it made his skin crawl and his hair feel like it was standing on end. He forced the image away quickly before something worse could come to mind.

'No way in hell will it come to that.'

"Mostly the reason she didn't tell you was because of what I already told you. we think she was planning on just sending you to go save Kagome, even if it meant she would have to go to jail."

"As if that would be any better," Inuyasha grumbled.

"But don't worry there's another way."

"And what's that?" Inuyasha asked.

"I figure we'll all talk about it in the morning. Mom needs to hear this too. There's no way we could pull it off without her."

"Fine." the dog demon scoffed. "Then get to bed runt. Cuz I don't care what the plan is I am GOING to see Kagome Tomorrow."

The boy smiled brightly at the confidence in the half demon's voice and left the room. It was hard to feel beaten and discouraged with someone like Inuyasha on your side.

They weren't going to be beaten. No way in hell would he or Inuyasha let Kagome be married against her will or let his mother go to jail. They would win this for sure.

Inuyasha watched the kid go and shut the door behind him. Then turned back to look at Kagome's empty room. instantly the feeling of unease returned. If he couldn't take Kagome back by force what the fuck was he supposed to do?

'At least the kid's got confidence in me.' He thought miserably.

(-)

Kagome looked herself over in her dressing rooms full-length mirror. She looked like a different person in this dress and makeup, Like a model or an actress. It was a low cut medium length black silk dress with a slit up the right side that revealed more of her legs than she was accustomed to even in her school uniform. worse The lightweight fabric clung to her skin making her feel even more naked.

There were far worse dresses in her new wardrobe she knew first hand but no matter what the maids pulled out for her to wear there was nothing that looked even remotely 'normal' anymore. 'Normal' didn't sell to rich men.

Gods what would everyone in the feudal era say if they saw her in such an outfit?! The thought alone made her face burn red even through the light makeup. She could already imagine Sango and Shippo's looks of shock and Miroku's perverted grin.

"Inuyasha would throw a fit." She murmured as she extended an ankle and inspected one of her new designer label black high heels. They were really cute shoes... The kind with the strap around the ankle. Now maybe if she could just walk in them properly.

Behind her, she heard a muffled click from the dressing room door as a maid timidly poked her head in to check on her. She didn't look up at her she didn't want to see the pity written out on the maid's faces anymore.

"Oh good, you're dressed. The mistress would like to have you sit with her for Dinner my lady."

"Fine," Kagome replied a little sharply.

The maid flinched slightly at the tone and bowed before closing the door behind her.

"..."

Kagome let loose a sigh and looked back at her reflection with an ashamed expression.

Why did she have to snap at the maids? This wasn't their fault. If anything most of them had been very sympathetic and kind towards her, she knew they weren't in any position to help her get out of here. She remembered perfectly well that poor young woman she'd had on the first night here, Kagome had begged to go home so fervently that the girl had run out of the room crying.

She still felt bad for putting the poor girl on the spot like that, but on the other hand, she knew if their positions had been swapped she would have helped the girl escape or at least reported what was going on! Job or no job. This wasn't right.

Kagome couldn't help but feel abandoned by humanity when the maids here simply gave her pitied looks in the halls but stood by and did nothing.

Kagome steeled herself and carefully walked towards the door opening it.

At least she knew she didn't have much longer to stay here and endure the looks of pity.

Inuyasha was bound to find her any day now. She just had to wait for him She thought resolutely as she shut the door behind her with a click.