Prologue

Kagome Higurashi was never a sweet tooth.

"Lemon drops in your pocket on a sizzling summer day? Not our brightest idea, to be quite honest."

Chucking quietly, she sat up on her elbows just in time to see Sango plopping down next to her on the dry grass with a handful of half-melted candy sticking to her slender fingers.

"Momma didn't ask anything?"

"Nah, I told her they were for Kohaku again. She said she's gonna have to chat with my mom soon because that is no way for a 8 year-old boy to feed himself!" Sango giggled at her own impression and popped one in her mouth, "Efen if it means her shtock of wemon drops going to washte."

Kagome smiled before her face scrunched up at the familiar slight sour taste and a small shiver tingled her spine. Growing up in a household sustained by the small candy shop at the end of the street, it was sort of ironic how she could not stand any sweet sugary cavity-inducing thing. Except lemon drops. Lemon drops she could tolerate.

"Now," Sango mumbled while readying the binoculars they always carried around with them when they came to the park to do some people watching, "Update me."

She couldn't help but laugh at her best friend's antics. Sango had once told her that at first, she thought Kagome could do it on the spot, like a vending machine where you'd put the quarter in and an ice-cold drink would come out (only in her case, she'd have to make her risk of diabetes momentarily rise).

Truth was, she was getting good at it. So good that two sweets later and a few seconds of squinting and she could see the red webs of fate dancing in front of her.

Kagome Higurashi was never a sweet tooth. She wasn't allowed to be. Every Weaver had their own trigger and unfortunately for her (though fortunately enough for her diet), hers was sugar.

"You good? Can you see them?"

"Uh huh..." Kagome mumbled behind her own pair of binoculars.

She needed a couple of minutes for her eyes to adjust and observe before she could start the weekly narration of the small town's residents' love life, their own special version of high school gossiping.

Every strand was different. Old couples had theirs worn-out, with tiny bits going astray from the years of use. Some were bright and strong as a boat's ropes, some a faint burgundy instead of the usual blood red as if that person's soulmate was close by but not close enough for her to see it clearly. Some were tangled in a maze too complicated for her teenage mind to comprehend. Some not complicated at all except for the people they were connecting.

Most were the same she had seen the weekend before that, some were proof of new love blossoming. Most of them were amusing, with the scattered couples of their peers not knowing that their one and only was in the arms of some other young blissfully unaware soul sitting under the tree next to theirs. Some portrayed unhappier tales, like life-long couples who had no red string connecting their fingers. Not that it mattered, in her opinion. Some stories just weren't meant to be told.

"So," Sango's voice interrupted her thoughts as a blur of pale fingers suddenly crossed the lenses. "Anything new around this area right here?"

Keeping the knowing smile as innocent as possible, Kagome tugged Sango's hand down and shooed it away. "He's not here right now and that's all I'm telling you."

"Well joke's on you because every time you say that I cross about five names off my list of possible ugly candidates! Let's see... Ooh, great! Manten is down there sunbathing by the lake. Never liked that premature mustache of his."

Grabbing another candy from the makeshift leaf napkin Sango had architected, Kagome continued observing. From behind the blurry dirty lenses, it felt like she could reach some of the delicate strands with the tips of her fingers, if she stretched enough. She never dared get too close to them. Clumsy as she was, she might accidentally rip some apart. That was part of the reason she had never been allowed around sugar - a child was not supposed to have that much power over people's lives.

"I still don't get why you can't see the bond between two people unless they are within eyesight range of each other. Your soulmate could be just in the neighborhood, but we wouldn't know. We should be able to follow it and find out. Or! You could just pull on it like a leash 'till his ass is dragged to you."

"And they say romance is dead," Kagome snickered. "Can you imagine the mess that would be? The whole town would turn into a huge cat wool ball."

"Kirara would have a field day." Sango yawned and leaned back on her elbows. "Do cats see it?"

"Don't know. Would explain why they flip out sometimes out of nowhere," Kagome answered while munching on another piece of candy. "I think Buyo can see them. I think he tries to play with them back home but gets too tired after standing up and just falls back on his ass."

Sango went silent for a second. "Whose?"

"Whose what?"

"Whose strands are you talking about?"

"Oh. Uh," Kagome stuttered, her voice wavering for just a moment. "Inuyasha comes by from time to time."

A confused frown played on Sango's delicate features, her lips pursing in thought. "Didn't you say you couldn't see anything between him and your sister?"

By then Kagome had lowered the binoculars on the grass and started straightening the imaginary wrinkles on her yellow summer skirt. "I guess it takes practice? I wasn't able to see it between you and your chosen one at first either," she laughed as Sango groaned with impatience. "I noticed it the other day. Maybe that's why Buyo was always running around him before."

"Oh, okay..." Sango muttered, stealing a dubious glance at her best friend. "That- that's good. Right?"

"Hm?" Kagome seemed slightly startled, as if finally understanding the implications of what the other girl was asking. "Oh, yeah, of course! They deserve to be happy." She turned towards Sango and smiled. "Can you imagine how lucky you'd have to be to find your soulmate so young?"

"I can't, because someone won't tell me." Sango joked to lighten the mood, her fingers threading the grass under her jeans. "But, really. Are you okay with that? I know you- well... you've always been close to him. You're the apple of his eye. I think he'd take an arrow in the heart for you if you asked him to."

Kagome shook her head with a bright smile. "He's just afraid I'll break or something."

Sango raised an elegant brow in disdain. "I highly doubt that."

"No, it is." Kagome scratched her head before shrugging. "'Cause I've always been the sickly, younger one that can't step foot outside without catching pneumonia or something."

"Kagome, he doesn't feel sorry for you, if that's what you're implying..."

"No, I-" Kagome breathed in calmly. "I know. It's just... I'm more like a little sister. I'm Kikyou's little sister and probably soon to be his. If it were up to him he'd keep me in a little jar but that's pretty much it," she said with an easy-going smile. "But that's okay. We all grow out of our childhood crushes, right? Plus, I've been doing a lot better these last couple of months! I can start roaming outside looking for the other end of my strand!"

"Speaking of roaming outside," Sango started and snatched the leaf filled with candies from Kagome's side. "Enough of these. The deal was once a week, one or two, tops! Don't want your immune system collapsing on me again. And we should get you back inside. If your mom goes home early we'll both be sent to an early grave."

"It's only been like forty minutes!"

"More than enough for you to get a tan." Sango grabbed both her hands and started lightly tugging her up. "Plus, you may think you can fool me, but I see right through you and I know you don't wanna stay and watch."

Kagome involuntarily tilted her head to the side in puzzlement, just enough to look behind her friend and catch a glimpse of her sister and Inuyasha strolling down the crumbly trail to sit by the lake.

Kagome threw her head back in defeat and closed her eyes before tightening her hold on Sango's hands and getting up. She blinked a couple of times, a habit she had gotten into after a couple of their sessions. It helped clear everything out.

It would take a while, but after a few minutes it would all fade. The old strands and the new, the strong and the brittle, along with the one pulsing bright red around her finger.

Wow I haven't written in a while, I'm rusty as hell but this was fun :)