A/n: This is my re-attempt at doing a serious fanfiction, as only my comedies have been sucessful so far, and only my Naruto ones have really been sucessful. Well, I hope you like it. I know I do.

This is a story of sadness, what one would do when her life is shattered in half. What would happen if a girl lost nearly all of what she held dear.

Dawn of the Black Cherry Blossom

Chapter One

Kagome's day was going great. She had bought bathing suits for all of her feudal-day friends, and they had enjoyed playing with water-balloons and swimming in the river. Shippo was wondering at the cordless hair-drier Kagome had brought along, and enjoyed spending hours pointing it at Inuyasha and frizzing his hair. And, needless to say, Miroku enjoyed ogling at the woman in bikinis… and Sango enjoyed slapping him repeatedly across the face. The point is, Kagome was happy when she finally jumped down the well, though she didn't know that the joy would not last…

-Kagome's Pov-

I really enjoyed my day, I knew Inuyasha and the gang would like water-games. And I can't help but mention he looked quite good in those red swim trunks. (Inner sigh) Too bad he's so caught up with Kikyo…

Well, luckily Inuyasha was in a good enough mood to let me go home without a screaming match, though he insisted I be back by tomorrow evening… He can be so pushy sometimes… I can't really complain, he's had a hard life… if that excuses his rudeness, I don't know, but I'll let it go anyway. (Smile)

I jumped into the well with a sense of contentment, looking forward to going home and getting my shower, it'd been awhile since I last had one. The beautiful twinkling lights enveloped me.

I looked up at the sky from the bottom of my modern-day well (Inuyasha had freaked out and blasted a hole in the ceiling when he heard a jet passing overhead) I saw the sky painted a scarlet orange. Finding this strange (It had been noon in the feudal era when I left, and the times usually corresponded), I crawled up the pre-placed ladder, opening the door and gasping at what I saw going on outside.

Men in highlighter-yellow jackets were running about, hoses trailing behind them. Barriers were set up around my home as it burned to the ground. Flames burst out of the windows and out of the roof. And, worst of all, I saw three cloth-covered lumps. I ran desperately for my home.

One of the firemen grabbed my arm, barring me from running into the smoldering ruins of my house. "Are you Kagome?" asked the man, and I nodded numbly. He would seem surprised "Why were you in the shri-" he would shake his head "Never Mind, that doesn't matter right now. We need you to sign the insurance papers" I would look up at this young man, most likely a volunteer, and felt something inside of my crack. I wrenched out of his grasp and launched towards the well. I jumped into it, and found solace in the twinkling lights that surrounded my with familiarity… as if I was simply going back. As if I had any intention of returning to where I had come. As if my family had not just died. As if my world hadn't just crumbled around me.

-Inuyasha's POV-

I was simply sitting there by the well, as I always do, and always have done, whenever Kagome leaves. I'm not really sure why I do that. Miroku says that it's might be canine loyalty. Feh. She's my shard detector… that's all it is…

Well, anyway, I was just sitting there, waiting for my shard detector, when the very girl I had been waiting for tackled me. She launched out of the well, the saltine, familiar scent of female tears emanated off of her.

The sobbing girl launched into my lap, leaking her drops that smelled of the scent I hated, and sobbed into my kimono. I was very flustered, and so I blushed. "K-Kagome?"

Kagome's POV-

I launched into the hanyou's warm chest. I didn't even think of all the walls that had sepperated us for so long. I forgot about our bitter-sweet past, of Kikyo... of Naraku... of everything. All I remembered was that he was a familiar warmth that would protect me.

I felt his arms wrap around me as he said my name again. I enveloped myself in his warmth. I let out the sobs I had been holding in. Nothing mattered to me then. Nothing at all.

Sango's POV-

I watched with horrified sadness. While I was thrilled that Kagome and

Inuyasha were so close together, they were so in love with each other (though they didn't quite know it yet), I shuddered as I thought what could have caused the tears that fell down her face.

Why was I there? Me, Shippo and Miroku(who knows what the lecherous monk was thinking at this point.), were spying on Inuyasha like we always do when Kagome goes away. The monk had set up a barrier around us so that we blended in with the trees, and Inuyasha could not catch our sent.

And that Buddha for that! If he had caught us watching him in a situation like this, I'm pretty sure he would be carving our headstones right about now. As it was, I felt bad about watching. Though this was what we had been waiting so long to see, a juicy, intimate moment between everyone's favorite love-birds.

But this… it was a personal sharing of souls… and we had no right to be watching it. I felt somewhat dirty for just being there…

Miroku POV

We left the clearing as soon as Inuyasha and Kagome did, him carrying her bridal style as she was still sobbing. We would have left sooner, but my barrier could not hide sound, and the only thing worse than watching would have been being discovered. Besides the fact that me scarce trust would be shattered, there would be too much awkward tension between Kagome and Inuyasha, and it would be doubtful that they would end up in a similar situation for a long time, until they forgot about this.

Well, as it was, we headed back to Kaede's hut as soon as we were sure that we would be not be spotted. Kagome was curled under one of our fuedal, threadbare blankets, as neither Inuyasha nor Kaede wanted to intrude Kagome's possesions. Inuyasha perched jumpily next to Kagome, his eyes only for her. He glanced at us once when we first walked in, but then we could disintigrate for all he seemed to care. We could be attacked by Naraku right then and there, and I doubt he would notice until he was stabbed with a tentacle.

Sango walked over to her friend with concern. She whispered something to Inuyasha, and he would shake his head.

"No" his voice had a certain, worrying dullness to it. "She only managed to say something about 'fire'." Sango would nod sullenly and kneel next to Kagome. The lecherous part of my mind commented that this was the perfect time to look at, and perhaps touch, her back side, but I managed(with some difficulty, I admit) to push it away. It was definately not the time for such things. I sat on the ground in one corner, laying my staff on my legs. Kaede rested in a cusioned chair Kagome had bought for her for her birthday. We all stared at Kagome, prepared to wait until the end of time for her to awaken.

Kagome's POV

When I finally woke up, I entered the beautiful, anti-reality, memory-less dusk of time you get when first awoken, but slowly I began to feel around me. The hard ground making my back ache, the rough blanket scratching my skin. And then I began to remember.

At first I only remembered my usual life, my good friends in Sango and Miroku, my child in shippo, and Inuyasha, and all the feelings I have for him... My family...

And then, exactly in that millisecond of time, I remembered everything. The memory of the three sheet covered mounds seemed to be burned onto the bottom side of my eyelids, and so I finally opened my eyes to relieve myself of them. I saw immediately Inuyasha staring at me. Probably thinking about how long it would take to get his shard detector back, or how much I looked like Kikyo. Maybe he was still laughing inside about how I had launched into his arms. I blushed. Shippo was perched behind him, looking at me with concerned eyes. At least I knew he cared...

As he had not yet noticed I was awake, I cast my eyes to the rest of the room. Sango and Miroku talked in concerned voices that were too low to hear. Kaede was at the fire, cooking up something that smelled like lilac.

That was when Inuyasha noticed I was awake. He made a choked noise, as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't. He turned to Kaede, and someone finally said something I could hear.

"She's awake" He said, in a tone of gentleness I hadn't heard from him before. The only thing I felt in that moment was some hollow happiness at him not laughing at me. Kaede nodded, and after a moment, she came to me, told me to sit up. I complied, like a robot of some sort, and she put a cup of hot lilac tea in my hands, the warmth somewhat shattering my daze. I didn't take a sip, but stared numbly at my friends. Kaede clucked parentally in her throat.

"Dear girl, what happened to ye?" The mothering tone in her voice reminded me of my mother, and so unwanted tears rolled down my cheeks. I shook my head, opening my mouth to try to speak, but out exploded another sob and I collapsed into the tears again. Inuyasha twitched, wanting to go to me, but Miroku put a restricting hand on his arm. They needed to hear what had happened. What if I was in some sort of danger. Inuyasha Sighed and relaxed grudgingly, never taking his eyes off of me. I couldn't help but notice this... but barely, in the meaningless parts of my mind.

After a moment of composing myself, and taking big gulps of air in, I spoke. "My family... my house" My voice broke as I did, as sobs tried to break through, but I forced myself to keep talking. "Fire... sheets... lumps" I fell back into the shallow consolation that deep sobs brought, and the people who were listening to me had heard all they had needed to, and they understood. Miroku let go of Inuyasha's arm... and he rushed forward to me.

A/n: Like it? I think this is one of my better Ficcys, and it is long for a first chapter. Ok... send reviews!!