Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Inuyasha except for about seven DVDs and the original content of this story. Oh, and the Linkin Park song isn't mine either.
Two worlds, one family?
"BECAUSE I CAN'T HOLD ON WHEN I'M STRETCHED SO THIN
I MAKE THE RIGHT MOVES BUT I'M LOST WITHIN
I PUT ON MY DAILY FACADE BUT THEN
I JUST END UP GETTING HURT AGAIN
BY MYSELF …"
A splash of red in a world of grey.
Kagome stood on a battlefield, staring around at the carnage that littered the ground. Everything was in shades of grey, and she could feel the heaviness of death press against her soul like a suffocating blanket. All around her were people fallen in battle, their eyes sightless and their bodies mangled. Curiously enough though, Kagome did not feel sick at the sight. She was vaguely aware of the strangeness of this with one part of her mind, but the rest of her was focussed on the one splash of colour among the grey.
Someone was moving towards her, someone dressed in a red that was achingly familiar to her. But the body was much to small for it to be who she thought it was. Knowing somehow that whoever it was must not catch sight of her, Kagome crouched down slowly behind a grey bush, ignoring the severed arm that rested beside her. Her eyes were trained on the solitary figure. Slowly it drew closer, and Kagome whistled softly with amazement.
It was Inuyasha indeed, but a much smaller version than the one she fought with daily. An Inuyasha of about nine or ten, she guessed, though with youkai it was hard to tell. She crouched down further behind the bush and watched.
The chibi Inuyasha wandered the battlefield, his silver hair shining curiously pristine among the grey of death that hung around him. He seemed lost, his tiny ears drooping and his golden eyes round with worry. He held something in his hands as he walked, something that glowed faintly. Kagome craned her neck to try and make out what it was, but he was holding it close, as if it was something precious to him, and she could not make it out.
Kagome became aware of a group of men and women standing close to her, muttering among themselves as they observed the battlefield. It seemed that chibi Inuyasha saw them too, for his ears perked up ever so slightly, and he started to pick his way through the carnage towards them.
The muttering stopped when he drew near, and the villagers turned to regard the hanyou child that now stood before them. They drew back, away from him, forming a stern half-circle around him. Fear and disgust was etched on their faces. Chibi Inuyasha seemed to recognise their animosity for his ears drooped again, but he still held out what ever was in his hands towards them with a hopeful expression. It glowed brightly, warmly through his fingers and one of the women there took a step forward, attracted to the light. Chibi Inuyasha's face brightened and he offered the glowing thing to her eagerly. The muttering started up again among the men, and one ran forward and snatched the woman back into the group. The villages turned their backs on the chibi in a clear sign of rejection.
Daunted by their hostility, the silver-haired boy shrank back, but recovered his courage and tried again, offering the bright thing in his hands with a hopeful, pleading expression. As if sensing his urgency, the glowing thing took its cue and shone almost blindingly. Kagome caught her breath looking at it. It was beautiful and she was sure the villagers could not refuse it now. But this time, they did not even look at it. Stones came flying out of nowhere, hitting chibi Inuyasha with such force that they left great red welts on his tiny body.
Sadly, the light dimmed and chibi Inuyasha turned away. Kagome ran after him, her heart wrenching to see the pain in his eyes. She turned on the villagers, aghast that they could be so cruel to a mere child.
"What's wrong with you people?" she yelled angrily. "Why did you do that? Didn't you see he was trying to give you something?"
No reply.
"Answer me!" She took on of the villagers by the arm and turned him around roughly. "Didn't you see how beautiful it was?"
The villager looked at her, and Kagome took a step back. He really hadn't seen it. The man was wearing a blindfold. She looked around at all the other villagers in puzzlement, and her eyes widened in surprise. They were all now wearing blindfolds as grey as themselves, though she could have sworn that they could see a moment ago. The man shook her hands off his arm, and turned away, following the rest of the villagers in the same eerie silence. Kagome stared after the villagers in shock, then ran to catch up with the chibi Inuyasha.
Hours passed. Kagome trailed along behind the sliver haired boy as he offered his gift to countless people – some were whole groups, some were just couples or single travelers, but each time, the result was the same. The people would turn away from him, unable to see the beauty and brilliance of the glowing gift through their blindfolds. And each time Inuyasha was rejected, his ears drooped a little more, and the stones they threw cut a little deeper. Kagome's heart ached to see him, and she grew angry at the stupidity of the villagers in turning away something so precious, and hurting her beloved Inuyasha.
Finally, the chibi Inuyasha had had enough. The final set of stones had knocked him to the ground, bleeding. When the villagers left, he did not get up, but instead lay there on the ground, cradling his glowing gift. Once again, Kagome strained to catch a glimpse of what he was holding, and she crept closer to him, trying to make it out. Inuyasha seemed to be coming to a decision. Suddenly sat up, so that Kagome was forced to flee behind a bush for fear he would catch sight of her. She peeked out form behind the grey foliage to see chibi Inuyasha wipe furtive tears from his face with his sleeve.
Taking hold of the glowing thing, he stared at it in anger before thrusting it deep into his clothes, hiding the light. His face settled into the defensive scowl she knew so well, and he stood trembling on legs still weak from the hurt he had received. But the look on his face shouted a determination louder than words.
"Fine," he shouted defiantly to the silent world. "If you don't want it, that's fine. I can take care of it myself! Do you hear me? All by myself!" He turned away angrily, and started striding off, his small form stiff with anger and resentment. To anyone watching, they might have supposed that he really didn't care about the rejection of the villagers.
But Kagome had seen the tears in his eyes.
~*~*~*~*~
She opened her eyes slowly. Colours swam in front of her as she teetered on the edge between dreams and wakefulness. Kagome blinked sleepily and the colours swirled, finally focusing into two golden pools slit with black, inches from her face.
Eyes.
Kagome yelped and jerked up, cracking Inuyasha on the chin with her head. He sat back instantly, that wounded puppy look on his face, as if it was her fault that he got hurt. "Ai, what in the hell did you do that for, wench?" he grumbled.
Kagome took a deep breath, trying to quell her racing heart. Inuyasha sat back on his heels, scowling at her. Once she had breath enough to speak, she glared at him.
"What are you doing here, Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha looked slightly nonplussed for a second before his emotional alert swung back to defensive. "What do you mean, what am I doing here?" he demanded. "I'm here to take you back of course."
Kagome squashed her tiny, traitorous thrill of pleasure at his words and glared at him. "I just got here!"
"So?"
"Inuyasha, I told you before, I have exams to do. If I don't do the exams then I will fail school. If I fail school I wont ever be able to get a proper job. If I don't even get a proper job I wont have enough money to buy the things need like food and a place to live. If I don't have a place to live-"
"You will have to come and stay with us forever," Inuyasha finished for her. "So you might as well just come with me now and then you wont have to go through all that other stuff, and you will be able to focus on more important things, like the shards." Like me.
Inuyasha flushed slightly at the stray thought that had crept into his mind. He shook his head, hoping Kagome hadn't noticed and tried to regain his train of thought.
He began to say something, but stopped when he suddenly registered the warning signals coming off Kagome like steam. He paused, bewildered. What did he say? He had been here for five minutes already, and she was pissed off at him.
~*~*~*~*~
He was right, Kagome was furious.
That's it,
she thought. How dare he just assume that her life outside of the Sengoku Jidai was unimportant, as if her whole world should revolve around him and him alone. She squashed the traitorous thought that pointed out that it very nearly did anyway.Inuyasha was still staring at her, awaiting a response of some sort, though Kagome had no idea what to say.
Luckily the moment was broken by a particularly loud grumble from her stomach. Kagome flushed, and got up. In all the turmoil of the earplug fiasco at the Well and Souta's all too knowing questions she had slept right through tea. "Look, Inuyasha," she said firmly. "I'm going downstairs to get something to eat. When I come back I am going to sit down at that desk over there and study for my exams tomorrow, and you are going to go home. So if you have anything to say to me, please use this time to make it as concise as possible, because you shall have about thirty seconds before I sit you into oblivion. Understood?" Not waiting for his reply, Kagome strode out of the room, closing the door behind her.
~*~*~*~*~
Kagome was marshalling her arguments against Inuyasha as she climbed the stairs again back to her room after tea. There was no way she was going to let him take her back again. She had only just got home and it was really important that she take the exams she had tomorrow. It just wasn't fair for him to expect her to drop everything and go running after him. She would just have to explain that to him, calmly and rationally
And if that didn't work, she would just have to sit him into next week.
"Right, Inuyasha-" she began as she opened the door again, then halted mid-sentence.
Curled up on the end of her bed was the hanyou, his arms tucked under his head and his eyes shut peacefully.
He was asleep.
The annoyed words she was about to say died on Kagome's lips. Poor Inuyasha. He must be exhausted. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she watched him sleep. She couldn't help it. There was just something so adorable about him when he was asleep, when for a brief moment in time all his defenses were down. His face had lost that sharp, defensive edge that hovered around his eyes when he was awake, constantly on guard against the world. Now he looked younger, the tension on his face smoothed out. Kagome felt her heart melt. It wouldn't be right to turn him out tonight. Surely it would be okay just to let him sleep there. After all, if he was asleep he couldn't be dragging her back to the Sengoku Jidai, and that's what she wanted wasn't it?
Kagome slipped into the chair at her desk and looked over at Inuyasha breathing softly on her bed. Even asleep his presence filled the room, like a warm brush against her senses. On the blackest of nights in a strange room, Kagome would have been able to wake up and point unerringly to the place where Inuyasha was, just by the feel of his presence against her newly-trained miko senses. She smiled softly at him, enjoying the feel of his aura filling her room and wrapping around her. Leaving her desk and moving over to sit beside him on the bed, her hand was halfway to his face before she realised what she was doing. She blushed, irritated with herself for becoming caught up with his presence again. Why couldn't she be this interested in Hojo? He was a nice boy. It would be much better if she could just transfer all the intimacy she felt for Inuyasha over to him. That way Inuyasha could have Kikyo, she could have Hojo, and everything would be fine.
Except that Kagome couldn't even imagine acting the same way towards Hojo as she did towards Inuyasha.
What was it her grandfather had said, a few days ago? She had been arguing with him about the Sengoku Jidai, and he had glared at her, annoyed. "Really, Kagome, sometimes you act like there is one rule for you when you are through the well, and another one for when you're here."
Kagome sighed at the memory. It was true, in a strange sort of way. Leading the double life that she had for so long, had resulted in two very different attitudes. There really was one rule for her time, and a completely different one for her life with the Sengoku Jidai. Kagome glanced at Inuyasha curled up on the end of her bed and smiled. His ears twitched towards her, alert to her movement even though he was asleep. Kagome suppressed an urge to reach over and scratch his ears, and instead slipped off her dressing gown and crawled up onto the other end of her bed.
Kagome tried to picture Hojo in Inuyasha's place, and wrinkled her nose, grinning to herself. It just didn't work the other way around. The thought of Hojo in her room just made her uncomfortable. She shook her head. No, he belonged to her school world, where he could walk her home, and give her small, strange presents, and -
Kagome frowned suddenly as she looked at Inuyasha still curled on the end of her bed like an oversized puppy. It was right that she should feel that Hojo in her room was inappropriate, she knew that. But as she searched through her feelings, there was nothing to indicate that she felt the same way about Inuyasha. It even felt strangely natural to have him this close to her. After three years of being in his almost constant company, it felt odd to sleep without him near.
Kagome was worried suddenly about her complaisance about his company. Was it wrong to feel like that? But, she reminded herself, it wasn't like Inuyasha was a normal human boy. After all, despite his appearance, he was older than her grandfather and the perky white ears that twitched absently as he slept were unforgettable reminders that he was anything but human. So really it wasn't fair to compare her feelings towards Hojo and Inuyasha. They were worlds apart. She blushed, though there was no one there to see.
Not that she had feelings for Inuyasha.
…
At least, not really. Maybe she had started to feel like that once, but it was really just a silly crush. They were just friends. She nodded to herself. That's right. Just friends.
……
Just friends.
………
And if she happened to think he was cute, well, that was perfectly natural and had nothing whatsoever to do with her willingness to let him sleep on her bed.
Kagome blushed harder. That didn't come out quite the way she had meant.
The click of the clock beside her bed alerted her to how late it was. Kagome yawned, and crawled the rest of the way under her covers, carefully avoiding disturbing the hanyou curled up on the end of her bed. Inuyasha shifted slightly at her movement, and one amber eye flicked open to check where she was. Satisfied that she was okay, he closed his eyes again and appeared to return to the deep sleep Kagome had noticed he only ever indulged himself in when he was here in her house.
Seeing him settle, Kagome smiled. Inuyasha had the right of it. She should just stop worrying about her feelings and get some sleep before her exams tomorrow.
Exams…
A shriek filled the Higurashi home.
"My studying! I haven't even started!"
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Wow! Its amazing how lazy you can be when you try, ne? ^_^ I cant believe how long its taken me to get this piddly little chapter out. Never fear though, the reason its taken me so long is that I've been writing bits of all the rest of the chapters instead of concentrating on this one like I should. So the bright side to all of this is that much of the following chapters are already written, so they shouldn't take me too long at all to post. ^_^
Muchos muchos gracias to the following reviewers – I can honestly say if it wasn't for you guys I would never finish this story
The-Real-Rosie-Gamgee : Okay, I absolutely had to give you something for using the word splendiferous ^_^ Its one of my absolutely favourite words, along with inexplicable and thwart ^_^ So... *searches around* ... would you like a Chupa-Chup? Raspberry ^_^
Cutie Blossom: Well, he kinda won...I guess - at least he got to stay and she didnt even sit him once! That counts as winning surely. Dont worry though - this is only the calm before the storm - you wait until he wakes up and blows it again ^_^
badgerwolf : I promise the Plan is in next chapter - at least the start of it. You know Miroku - his Plans are kinda intricate ^_^ I cant wait to see what you guys think of it.
m : I'm hoping you know who you are - thanks heaps for the compliment about understanding her. After all that must be the highest compliment of all for a fanfiction writer, to say that the character was portrayed accurately. *curtsey* So, thankyou, and I hope I did as well this chapter.
BlackCat131 : *blush* aw, shucks, thank you. Cute is what i do best ^_^
LadyWyrsa : *laughs, and offers more creaming soda and fairy-floss* No way, the more hyped up the better ^_^ I get nicer reviews that way. Miroku and Shippo in the next chapter! And *drumroll* The Plan... (Stage One) Miroku better hope Sango doesnt find out or else Shippo will tell on him, and thats not going to be pretty*shakes head regretfully* Nope, not pretty at all ....*evil grin*
ME : You're right - Miroku is gonna be in deeeeeep shit if Shippo decides to use his blackmail. So he better hope his plan works, dont you? Cause the last thing we want is for Sango to be mad at Miroku... ^_^ And yes, Inu/Kag fluff all the way. They're so cute ^_^
Inuyagura : Thanks ^_^ This is really heaps later than i usually update - i promise to update at least once a week form now on *adjust halo* really, i promise ^_^
and Angie : Shippo next chapter, I promise ^_^ Thanks heaps!
Special Note:
To anyone who is a Inu/Kag, San/Mir fan! I just read THE best au fic and i want to recommend it to everybody. Kaerra's: Much Ado About Everything and Nothing - well worth the read. Not only does it have great Inuyasha and Kagome fluff ^_^ but it is also a really diverting look at Sango and Miroku's relationship. I cant say how much i love this fic ^_^ Please, go and try it