Chapter Two

Or

"Chances"

"Kagome, get behind me!"

It all happened in slow motion.

She grabbed Shippo; Shippo grabbed Sango and they all ducked as Inuyasha lashed out to strike them with a powerful swipe. He only succeeded in brandishing Miroku's cheek with a wide cut. A line of blood disappeared behind his kimono. Kagome screamed as his claws came an inch close to her face, only to be stopped by Miroku's staff. He pushed Inuyasha away, but not for long.

Full-fledged demon, Kagome thought. She shivered.

It all happened in slow motion. "Take Shippo and run," Sango shouted. And she only turned around for three seconds. Just three seconds but it was enough to pierce her in the back and get her to her knees. The slayer reached out for Kagome's outstretched hand, who couldn't fight the scream tearing its way out her throat.

"Sango!"

Sango removed her hands from her heart and blood stained the skin. She coughed. More blood, and Kagome pressed Shippo against her chest to shield him from the sight. "Shippo, take Kagome and run," were her last words before she collapsed.

"No," Kagome whispered, ignoring Shippo's pleas to leave with him as she crawled over to the fallen friend. Inuyasha and Miroku battled in the background, but it was obvious that one would have to back down sooner or later and Miroku wasn't a demon, now was he? Kagome pressed her ear to Sango's chest, but nothing could be heard. Not a beat. A fresh wave of tears spilled down her cheeks but she wouldn't relent. "Come back to me, Sango. Please don't leave like this. Do me a favor and get up. Get up, Sango, get up!"

"We have to leave. Now, come on," Shippo urged, tugging on her shirt. He didn't know it then, but saving her life would mean saving the life of her baby, as well, because where she was now, wasn't safe for either of them. Kagome cradled Sango on her lap, sobs racking her body with a pain she'd never felt before.

This was entirely different than a friend losing themselves; this was a friend who was gone forever. Shaking, the raven-haired girl lifted her head just in time to catch Inuyasha's look. What she saw made her blood run cold.

A smile. Shippo got her to her feet, and they were running away from Miroku and the monster. To Kagome, he was no longer someone she promised to protect with all her life and fell in love with, but no better than the demons they'd faced long ago. The greedy, evil, conniving bastards who once inhabited these lands but were reduced to ash.

All she wanted now was to get Shippo as far away as possible from Inuyasha. Then, get his baby out of her and far away from her as possible. Because what once was love—wasn't, any longer. And no infant made out of love would be subjected to the hate she now harbored in her heart for its father.

(Nine Years Later)

"Shiori, get down from there!"

A little girl with raven-hair and golden eyes frowned at her mother's request. She was currently up in the highest blossom tree they had in the back yard and because it was a nice day and because their castle was boring and dark and filled with people who didn't know how to have fun if it poked them in the bum, nine-year-old Shiori climbed a tree.

But it wasn't her first time, she would swear, and when mama was gone—she climbed it all the time and back down and never got a single scratch on her to prove it. However, she did as told, and started to come down.

Only something went wrong just this once. The trick of the sunlight, or a misstep, but Shiori fell down, down, down and heard her mama screaming.

She looked doomed, but Kagome watched with a jolt of her heart as something miraculous happened. Someone saved her baby girl. She heard a muffled cry of relief before her feet reacted next. Shiori broke away from the stranger's arms and leapt into her mother's, shaking, though she didn't cry. She wouldn't do such a weak thing in front of a stranger—like her daddy taught her. Kagome held the little thing tight to her, stilling her shakes with kisses all over her face. "Oh, my baby," she kept chanting quietly. To the strange man, it seemed like she was trying to convince herself that whatever just happened—happened.

Kagome would have to face the man sometime. She looked up with all the gratitude in the world, but froze. He was familiar like an old portrait. Only he could make her heart beat irregularly whereas all the pictures were long burnt and held nothing but painful bearings. She opened her mouth to scream a 'get out' but the words didn't form nearly fast enough as, "go play, Shiori."

"But mama," Shiori complained, all the while watching the strange man. He smelled of blood, and she didn't like him. In fact, a low growl let them both know just how appreciative she was about her life being spared by a mere stranger. If it came down to it, she would protect her beautiful mama at any cost—like her father taught her to do. He would come home and the first thing he would do was hug her tightly and glow with pride whenever she'd promised him she was keeping her mama safe. Now away on business, Shiori's vows were really put to the test today. She would not let him down.

Another, "go play, sweetie," and she retreated inside the castle, running up to her bedroom as fast as possible to watch from there. But first, she snuck a cinnamon bun from the kitchens and then went on her way.

"You know you can't be here," Kagome said firmly, now that they were alone. A million reasons for why but the first one to come and go would be that he broke her heart. And she would not permit him to break that of a nine-year-old's. "This is your brother's land and he'll kill you." Maybe if she injected enough threat into her words, he would get the message.

Oh, those eyes would be the death of her, though. Inuyasha stepped towards her, inhaling sharply with each step. His eyes sparked golden, and not the crimson she was accustomed to after all these years. After closing her eyes every night. Her natural instinct was to stay poised and ready to attack if the need should come to that.

All too soon, he collapsed into her arms, and she caught him in the nick of time. Turning him around, his head rest just against her shoulder as his body relaxed. "Huh," she murmured, stroking his cheek. There was a cut above his eyebrow and, scooting the fabric down just a little further, three gashes across his chest. He was bleeding something fierce and Kagome couldn't turn him away in this condition. She would, of course, turn him away just as soon as he was awake but until then…

"What is he, mama?"

Shiori was helping her mother tend to the man in one of the spare bedrooms now. She saw how he'd been hurt and wanted to help her, even if it was to help him. She held a bowl of warm water and soap while Kagome dabbed at the cuts on Inuyasha's face. He was awake now, watching her every movement. She wished he wouldn't do that but stiffened against her foolishness.

I'm not the same doe-eyed girl he met. He can't make me feel like an idiot anymore. I was the idiot but no more!

"Just someone, Shiori, that's all."

By that tone of voice, Shiori knew not to ask anymore questions. She preoccupied herself with humming. Inuyasha's ears perked up at the sweet sound. "I know that song," he murmured for the first time since arriving in their lives. Kagome nearly dropped her rag and Shiori stopped humming altogether. Her amber eyes widened.

"You do?" She was excited.

He nodded and Shiori smiled. "Will you…sing it with me? Mama doesn't like to sing much," she leaned towards him and whispered, "she's the only one who knows the song. She used to sing it to me all the time but now she doesn't."

Irritated by the closeness of the two, Kagome pressed firmly on a particularly nasty cut on his shoulder and he winced, causing Shiori to reel back as if it were her fault. She glanced up at her mother. "Why don't you find Uncle and let him know someone else will be joining us for dinner, okay?" Kagome dabbed her button nose with soap and got a giggle out of the girl.

When she was gone, the young woman straightened up, pouring the water out the window and leaving the curtains opens. "A little sun never hurt more than it healed," she explained without him really asking. He calculated all her movements. Graceful, yet exhausted. She was clearly tired from something but, then again, he had turned up without a story to his name.

"I'm okay to leave," he spoke up, already trying to get out of the bed. The pain was brief and sharp, but he didn't show any of that on his face. Kagome knew, anyway. She always knew. She pushed him back down onto the bed and frowned.

"Are you crazy?" Kagome hissed. "You were almost dead. You've been asleep for hours."

He stared up at her in wonder. "Why are you doing this?"

"Why are you here?"

She got him there. There was silence while she changed his bandages.

"Is she yours? She keeps calling you her mother, anyway."

Kagome nodded. "Her name's Shiori. She's nine." She hoped that wasn't too much information. If her baby girl knew her father wasn't the man away meeting with another Lord and her father was this weakened demon in the room, it would not only break her heart, but make her hate her mother forever.

Maybe Kagome was being selfish but she felt entitled to be after everything that happened.

"She's beautiful," Inuyasha said on impulse. He meant it, too, because he gripped her hand and squeezed it. Kagome looked into his eyes, sighed sadly, and pulled away.

"Don't touch me like that," she whispered, moving towards the door. "Don't touch me at all."

"I-I'm sorry," he stammered while she closed the door to his apologies.