::First I would like to apologize for the weird format of this story. (It was a roleplay! I honestly haven t been changing anything we've done)
Second, I would like to thank everyone who has read and reviewed!
At a certain point of the roleplay, my friend and I started using iscribble to roleplay this story. So later on the chapters may be even LONGER too update since either her or I would have to write it all, and in all honesty she's the better writer. (She s Kagome. XD I m Inuwasha. . 3. ) I m trying a little bit to change some things around so they don t sound so out of place and awkward on my part. I m not a very great roleplayer. w Please review! The more reviews the more likely I'll feel like writing that later part out ::

The sun was just beginning to break through the dawn mist as the clouds of night slunk away. A flock of geese flew overhead, bound for Canada; their homeland. A sleeping girl lay comfortably beneath the sheets of a boy's futon. Said boy was nowhere to be found in the hut, and this girl was untouched. Her arms were bent above her head, lying on the futon pillow block. The ribbon that held her yukata was slightly loose, allowing more skin to show than usual. The blanket was a mess about her, covering and not covering her body. She didn't know. She didn't care. She was asleep still, the sun's rays slowly peeking through the window.

Inuyasha had gotten up early, as usual. It was the starting of fall, and he needed to cut more wood so he would be able to stay warm through the season and the next. He never really needed to cut a lot, since he could stand the cold. But for some reason today, he wanted to cut mountain-loads.

The sound of chop after chop sliced through the sound barrier as he did the job with great speed and grace. He had let his red hoari fall around his body as it was still tucked into his sash of his hakama while his white yukata still was worn as it was supposed to. He wiped his brow and took a breather after a while. He turned and looked toward the hut, wondering...

"Is she up yet?"

It was still pretty early, but for some reason he strongly wanted to check to see if she was even still there.

The girl, dreaming of her previous endurances, was caught in her nightmares. Her body was twitching, her hands forming fists and then relaxing. Her face remained that of a peaceful sleeper, but eventually a sweat grew about her chest and face. She awoke in tears.

His nose twitched as he was bending over right next to a stream filling his bamboo canteen of water. Salt...water...tears? He stood up straight and looked to the direction of the hut.
Her tears. Shit! Did something happen!? Did the slave master find her!? He jumped off and ran as fast as he could, whizzing past the trees in the shadows, while the light of day was shining above. He was coming up at the hut and noticed that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Except for her smell of tears. He jogged inside into find the woman, sitting up , sobbing while gripping the blanket she had at her sides with her delicate, pale hands. Her yukata was showing a pretty sight of her skin, and her face was red beat red, her eyes wet making her lashes thicker and heavy. Never had Inuyasha thought a woman could look so beautiful. And this woman was in his home, in his bed.

Kagome, upon noticing she had a visitor, made herself busy by turning away and brushing her tears with the sleeves of her yukata. The motion of hiding from his gaze pained her back wound a bit, but she was already so embarrassed. She hadn't wanted him to see her like this. But he had. And he was still. Her face grew a darker red, her face was so hot. She wanted to flee, but had nowhere to go with him in the doorway.

He had a strong urge, an instinct to run over to her and embrace her. To tell her that he would be taking care of her for now on, to make her relax, to touch her wonderfully attractive blushing skin... His face blushed up, but he didn't look away from her. She was acting really cute the way she was rubbing her eyes, how she was avoiding his gaze...like a lost little child. He stepped forward, and another step. Slowly closing in on the distance. Mysterious.

She could hear him coming closer. Silently she wished he'd leave. She didn't want to be seen in her moment of distress. 'It was just a nightmare...... Many nightmares..' she corrected her thoughts, more tears sliding down her cheeks as she remembered the terrors. She wiped them away, trying to seem casual in her actions.

She knew it was obvious. Why else would he have come to her? She closed her eyes and held her breath, trying to be as quiet, as inconspicuous as rightly possible. Her hands held her eyes as she touched her forehead to the wall. 'Don't...' she whispered. But he couldn't hear her.

He stopped in front of her, examining her form. She looked so fragile...he would do anything to keep anything from breaking her. Even though she might have been slightly broken already. Who knows what people do to their slaves...but she seemed to be taken terribly. She can't even speak...would she be able to speak ever again? Again, he had the strongest urge to protect her, to hold her right now. Because she would be his. But he barely knew her. Why would he make the decision to make a random woman his woman? He decided he should take this slower than he wanted to. "I'll make some breakfast now...you should take a bath when you're done. I expect you to eat, you know." He said turning away from her. Expecting some kind of response.

She quickly exhaled, having run out of air. She sat there gasping, gasps that slowly turned into small breaths. She hiccuped, despite her efforts to stop crying. 'Don't think about it. Just breathe.. Don't think about it..' Memories welled up. She shivered, hugging herself fervently. 'Don't think about it..' The cracking of a whip that echoed her fading dreams. 'Just breathe..' Her eyes were tightly shut, concentrating on keeping calm. 'It's all right now.. You're better.. You're...'

Last night he had picked up a few herbs, so breakfast might be enjoyable. He got more potatoes and put a stick threw a few and roasted them over the fire while he made a paste of herbs he would slab on them as them cooked. He even had some eggs he had bought and made scrambled eggs while adding in mushrooms and more herbs to it. Once the potatoes were done, he had cut them into bite sized pieced and put them all on a plate with a piece of bread. Even while doing all of this, he heard the woman; Kagome. Her breathing was one of someone who was scared, was she scared of him? He thought that all of his hospitality would had proved to her he was nothing to be feared.

I guess as a slave, she can't help it, he thought sadly, wanting this woman to understand he wasn t some kind of monster. He carried the food into the room and put the plate next to her. "One sec, I'm going to get you some water." And he rushed right out without a look at her.

She had managed to calm down. Her face was back to its normal shade of color. Her eyes were a little red, but that was to be expected. She looked at the plate, turning from her kneel against the wall. 'What's this..?' she thought, somewhat confused. She looked outside.

'Oh. It's morning. That's right..' She wondered if he would eat with her, so she waited for his return, trying to make her eyes look normal.

He brought the bucket and set it next to her. He looked at her and the untouched plate. "You have to eat you know, because we're not going to do anything else." He said to her, sitting next to her. Kind of weird to say, but he honestly had nothing better to do.

She didn't know how to talk to him. She wanted to ask if he'd already eaten, but she couldn't. She didn't know sign language because she'd never had need of it. She wasn't deaf, she heard things just fine. She sighed, letting go of her complex thoughts and picked up the plate. It smelled nice, what he had prepared. She looked at him again and got an idea. Soundlessly (of course) she pointed to the plate, then to herself and then to him.

He blinked, not sure what she was trying to say. "You eat, I eat? Huh?"

She nodded, picking up the chopsticks and digging around the plate. She took a potato piece and put it towards his lips, smiling.

She wants me to eat? He opened his mouth and leaned forward and closed his mouth over the piece, chewing on it. "Chee? Ish nawt poushun," he spoke with his mouth full. He gulped it down and stared at her now.

"You need to eat it, not me. You're the weak one, remember: when you eat most of that you can have your most needed bath. Damn, it must feel really uncomfortable sleeping and walking around with all that dirt and blood everywhere on you. You should consider yourself lucky that someone is willing to put enough thought into doing this for you..."
And he kept rambling on.

'Oh he's right! I must smell awfull,' and with that thought, she ate quickly. Tried to eat quickly. She'd have her plate cleaned in no time. 'How long has it been since I.. had a bath?' and she lost herself in remembering how nice it was. How clean it was. She finished eating.

"See? Don't you feel better now?" He said, amazed she had chomped it down. He stood up and stretched his arms. "Alriggghht! Now I'll go get you some clothes, wait outside for me." He bounced out of the room with an eagerness that he didn't notice.

She watched him leave, getting to her feet herself. 'He said to meet him outside,' she thought, reaching a stand and stepping out the enclosure. She was happy to get cleaned, and more than ready for it. She wondered how many days had passed since the last time.

'Slaves aren't meant for luxury,' in her mind echoed the words of a gruff man. She shivered, casting the thought away.

He brought another clean yukata for her to change into when she would be done bathing. He met her outside, and urged her behind his house. "Follow me." He walked on, expecting that she would follow him. Behind his home, a few yards away, there was a small, usable hot spring.

She looked at him a moment as he was walking away before following. She was excited to get clean. Yet she questioned herself. 'Why's he being nice? I practically dive-bombed into his life. I'm sure he never wanted to take care of.. Someone like me... Especially when I should take care of myself,' she added bitterly, chewing her lip.

He left the yukata on a smooth boulder barely covered with moss and started to make his way back out of the tree surrounding enclove.

"If you're in danger just scre-....oooh..." He stood there awkwardly.

"Uhm. Well, don't worry about it. I can smell something a mile away. Oh but the humidity here makes it hard to sniff things out...uhhh..."

He blushed in embarrassment at rambling on about these things. "You should be alright, no one comes by this part of the forest." They shouldn't anyways. And he turned around, feeling tense and worrysome about leaving the fragile and defenseless woman to herself.

She giggled to herself. 'As if I could scream,' she thought sadly. She removed her yukata and dipped her feet into the water. It was a nice, sizzling temperature. Already she was relaxing into it as she went in further.

She sighed happily, letting the water absorb into her skin. 'It's been too long...' she thought, smiling.

He ran around the area of the thick trees, dodging the spiked branches and soaring into the sky into the massive brush above, landing on a branch on the soles of his feet. Inuyasha moved some brush away so he can keep an eye on the figure through the heavy, humid mist in the air. It was so thick it stuck most of his clothes to his hot skin. This way I'll be able to keep an eye on her just in case someone or something tries to attack her. He thought dimly as he Tom Peeked at the woman below.

She ducked underneathe the water's surface and scrubbed her body free of dirt and uncleanliness. It felt so good to be in the hot spring. She never wanted to leave it. But she remembered the boy who was taking care of her and knew he was waiting for her to be done soon.

She resurfaced, breathing the fresh air deeply. 'Soo relaxing~' she thought.

He couldn't see the details of the woman's features from where he was crouching, just far and close enough to see if there would be anything or anyone there to harm her. He always looked closely when she ducked underneath the water, making sure she wouldn't drown. But after a while, be begun to question if he would be able to see efficiently if she would be in any danger from where he was at. He moved a tree downwards and closewards. Over time, he got close enough to be able to clearly see what part of her was and wasn't underwater. He blushed when he'd see something he shouldn't be seeing appear above the water.

She leaned her head back against the warm rocks surrounding her, enclosing her pool of hot spring water. Steam seemed to be evaporating into the air. She realized, while looking at her pruning fingers, that she'd stayed inside the water too long. 'I should get out now,' she thought, standing.

She regretted this, for a cool breeze made her shiver. 'Now where is that yukata..?'

He had leaned in too far into trying to get a good peek and her and made the mistake of falling forward into the ground. Shit! He landed with the sound of snapping twigs and crushing leaves.

What was that sound she'd heard? Did she imagine it? She had jumped from the unexpectancy, but surely.. There was something.. What had the dog boy said about screaming for help? 'Oh, but I can't..' she remembered, glaring at the hot springs.

And then she remembered that she was actually naked and that there was someone or something... A peeper, no doubt.

He got up immediately and ran off back towards the hut.

' Oh my god that was embarrassing...what would she have thought if she saw me peeking? Well I was only trying to look out for her...' Or at least, told himself he was only just looking out for her.
He sighed and got back to the hut. He went inside trying to think of something other than his embarrassment, like making food. She decided it was time to get out, because she'd been in there long enough, and long enough was more than enough for her.

She dried off her body before equiping the garment he had given her. It was warm in the evening breeze, and she began to make her way back to the hut.

Shelter.

She wondered when she'd find home.

Her real one.

::Haha! Gave you a long one this time! /doesn't feel bad that she forgot to update this story:: .