Chapter 1
"There all done!" Kagome whipped the sweat off her brow as she finished helping Sango and Keade with dinner.
"Thank ye so much for all yer help girls. Now get dressed in yer best yukatas, you'll help serve the dinner as well." The old woman turned away to finish the final touches on dinner, ignoring the complaining going on between the two girls.
"Jeez we've been working all day on this dinner now we have serve. Who knows when the guest will leave." said Sango.
"Yeah well we have to grin and bear it. Not like we have much say so around here." Kagome said.
Lord Hiroshi was a kind ruler as long as you did as you were told. If he felt you were being a delinquent, disrespectful, or did something he didn't like there would be hell to pay.
Kagome and Sango continued to walk down the large hallway to the servants quarters to begin getting dressed. When they reached a large room that held at least ten people they walked to their respective dressers to pick a suitable outfit for this evening.
"What do you think about this?" Sango turned to Kagome holding a sky blue yukata with light green flowers all over. She also held up a purple obi to match.
"I like it. What do you think about this?" Kagome held up a pale yellow yukata with burgundy flowers all over. She reached down and picked up a burgundy obi to keep it closed.
"Cute! Come on we should probably hurry." Just as Kagome and Sango finished getting ready a young servant came into room telling them the guest had arrived and Lord Hiroshi wanted them down in the dinning hall at once.
"Of course here we come." All three girls rushed down hall as to not keep their lord or his guests waiting.
Kagome couldn't help but feel something was going to happen tonight. Her only question was would it be good or bad.
Inuyasha, Miroku, and Lady Izayoi rode in their carriage to the Aomori castle.
"Inuyasha stop sulking. I don't care how much you don't want to be here but you will be respectful to these people." Izayoi said to her son.
"Keh!" was his only reply.
"Come on Inuyasha I can tell you it won't be that bad, especially if Kikyou Aomori looks anything like I've heard she does, Ow!" Miroku yelled when his aunt smacked him upside the head.
"You will be respectful as well Miroku! you'll do best to keep your wondering hand to yourself this evening." Izayoi scolded him.
"Ha! Telling Miroku not be a perv is like telling a fish to breathe air, it's impossible!" Inuyasha laughed at his cousin's expense.
Miroku sat back in his seat with a pout as they felt their carriage slow to a stop. A young man came to the side and opened the door to help Lady Izayoi out. Inuyasha shrugged him off when the man tried to help him and Miroku politely declined the help.
When they stepped out of the carriage they were greeted by Lord Hiroshi, his wife Lady Ayako, and their daughter Kikyou.
"Welcome to our castle. We do hope that you'll enjoy the meal that will be served later on tonight." Lord Hiroshi and his family bowed in respect.
"The pleasure is ours. We thank you for inviting us." Lady Izayoi said as the bowed back to the family.
"Well then let's get started shall we." said Lady Ayako as they were lead into the castle.
'Hmm this place seems familiar, like I've been here before.' Inuyasha thought as he stared at the castle. As he came back to reality he realized that the others had moved on without him.
"Oi! wait for me!" he shouted as he ran to catch up with the others.
"Kagome I need ye to get the good china for the tea, and hurry!" yelled Keade.
"Okay!" She ran down the hallway to where the china and other dinning utensils were kept. She was running when she heard someone curse around the corner. Startled, she momentarily forgot about the china as she peeked around the corner to see who was using the foul language. Though what she didn't expect to see was the strange boy from her dreams.
"Damn! I'm lost." Inuyasha said as he searched the halls for his missing family.
Looking around he admired the artwork that adorned the grand hallway. Paintings of battle scenes along with family portraits hung on the wall.
Inuyasha kept mindlessly wondering down the hallway when he started to feel like someone was watching him. He stopped for a second and tried to look out the corner of his eye to see if he could catch anything. When he decided it was just his imagination he kept walking. Not soon after he stopped the first time, he stopped again.
"What the hell?" He whispered. He turned around quickly to see who was spying on him. He got the surprise of his life when he saw the girl from his dreams. When she spotted him she gasped and quickly turned around to run in the other direction.
"Hey wait!" Inuyasha yelled, but it was too late, she was gone.
"Inuyasha!" he turned at the sound of his name to see Miroku running towards him.
"What happened to you? We turned around and you weren't there." Miroku panted.
"I got seperated is all." Inuyasha said distractedly. He turned back to stare in the direction the young girl had went. Was she real? Or was his mind playing tricks on him? He had half a mind to follow her but before he knew Miroku was pulling him in the opposite direction.
"Come on man! Dinner is being served and the girls are hot if I do say so myself." Miroku said, he was in a hurry to get back to the cute serving girls.
"Yeah well no one asked you!" Inuyasha said already irritated with his perverted antics.
As they reached the dinning hall Inuyasha and Miroku took their seats.
"Where have you been my son? We were getting worried about you." Izayoi said in a motherly tone.
"Sorry mother. I just got a little lost is all" Inuyasha replied.
"Well we're glad you made it back safely. Lets enjoy the first course." Said Lady Ayako, when she clapped her hands a few servants came rushing in carrying food. Inuyasha was once again was surprised to see the same girl he'd seen in the hallway.
Kagome ran down the hallway with the china.
'Was that really him? I could have sworn I heard him say something but I-' her thoughts were cut off by someone yelling her name.
"Kagome! What took you so long? You know Lord Hiroshi is not a patient man." Sango said hurrying to fill the cups of tea and wine to be served with the dinner.
"I'm sorry. I got a bit distracted on my way to get the china." Kagome said.
"Distracted? What do you mean?" Sango said pausing in her work to stare at her friend.
"I'll tell you later. Right now we have to get these to the guests." Kagome said rushing to fill the few remaining cups with wine and tea.
They heard a clapping noise and new they were being summoned. It was understood that once you heard 'the clap' it was in your best interest not to keep the royal family waiting.
When Kagome and Sango walked into the dinning room to pass out the drinks Kagome went pale and felt as if she'd seen a ghost.
There he was. The boy from her dreams. He looked exactly the same. The same dark eyes with the midnight hair to match. The formal red silk kimono suited him well. She didn't really get the chance to look at him before.
Kagome jumped when Lord Hiroshi cleared his throat impatiently and demand she stop gawking at the guest and pass out the drinks.
She swallowed nervously and nodded her head as she began to pass out the drinks with a shaking hand.
"It's her." Inuyasha breathed in disbelief.
"Who's 'her'?" Miroku whispered to him.
"That girl with the dark hair and brown eyes, she's the girl from my dreams. I saw her in the hallway right before you came but I thought I was seeing things." Inuyasha whispered back.
"Well what are you gonna do?" Miroku asked
"That's a damned good question." Inuyasha replied.
Lord Hiroshi cleared his throat snapping Inuyasha out of his trance. He looked to the mysterious dream girl as the Lord of Aomori Castle spoke to her, irritation clear in his voice.
"Kagome why don't you hurry with those drinks huh? I think my guests have waited long enough." Lord Hiroshi said courtly.
"y-yes my lord." The girl stammered obviously nervous.
'Kagome. So that's her name.'
She began going around the table handing out the drinks.
"So Prince Inuyasha what do you like to do for fun?" Princess Kikyou asked him.
'Inuyasha. That was his name then.' Kagome thought to herself as she continued around the table.
"Um, I like to practice with my sword a lot. The Tetsusaiga." Inuyasha answered her.
"Wow sounds interesting." Kikyou said.
"Um yeah, it's a pretty nice sword." Inuyasha replied to her feeling a little awkward.
"I'd love to see it sometime." She said a small blush staining her cheeks.
"Uh yeah, okay, sure." Inuyasha said back sporting slight blush of his own.
He turned to his mother seeing her locked in a deep conversation with Lady Ayako. Then he looked over to Miroku who was flirting one of the servant girls pouring him more tea. Usually girls Miroku flirted with would instantly flirt back. This girl with long brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail looked nothing short of irritated, and when Miroku's wondering hand found its way to her back side her fist clenched and unclenched rapidly as she stormed out of the room trying to get her anger under control.
"She wants me." Miroku said with a smirk.
"Sure..." Inuyasha replied rolling his eyes. When Inuyasha turned around Kagome had her hand out holding a cup of tea to him
"Your tea Prince Inuyasha." she said quietly.
"Um thank you." He said. When Inuyasha reached out to grab the cup from her hand his fingers brushed hers. They both gasped at the sudden spark. They pulled their hands back and the tea cup broke on impact with the ground, spilling tea everywhere.
"Kagome!" yelled Lord Hiroshi.
"I'm sorry my lord! I'm sorry Prince Inuyasha! I didn't mean to!" She pleaded clearly frightened.
"It's okay, really, no big deal" Inuyasha said with a small smile.
"I'll clean it up at once!" Kagome bowed once again in apology and ran out of the dinning room to find something to clean the mess with.
Inuyasha stared in the direction she ran off in. Kagome stood on the opposite side of the door, one hand on her chest to calm her racing heart.
What the hell was that? They both thought in unison.
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