A/N: Oh snap. I haven't updated in over 2 years on this thing. That's pretty pathetic. In the course of two years, I've graduated from high school and am now a first-year English major/Pre-med (yes, we do exist).

Just so you know, however, I have been working on this for the last two years. I have bits and pieces of later parts finished but I just couldn't seem to get this chapter down. I went through and made minor revisions on general grammar and spelling errors, but I do eventually want to make a major purge and fix everything. Until then, this is what y'all stuck with. But, now that I have managed to get this out of my system, I should think that it won't take me another 2 years to update again.

I really wanted to update on Valentine's day cause that would make it exactly 2 years since my last update, but I couldn't get the chapter finished by then. Thus, today is also a good day to update because it's my birthday!! So yeah, happy birthday to me. I don't want much, just a couple of reviews. P Okay, enough talking. Here's chapter 9.

Disclaimer: Two years later and I still don't own a thing.



Chapter Nine: Dreams and Tears

"Stupid wench…She couldn't even make it through the first act. I thought she said she couldn't sleep…" muttered Inuyasha quietly, but not entirely unkindly as he carried Kagome back to her room.

The girl's unruly hair somehow managed to make its way to Inuyasha's face and he contorted his countenance as he tried to stifle a sneeze. He sighed when the tickling sensation finally went away. So much trouble for someone so small. Yet, despite himself, he couldn't help the gentle smile that stole across his strong features when her eyes fluttered in her sleep and she mumbled something incoherent, like everything else she said even when she was awake.

As he placed her gingerly onto her bed and tucked her in—where had the motherly instincts suddenly come from? he wondered—he was a bit shameful that he was actually a little relieved that she was blind. After all, since she was blind, she couldn't see the claws or the fangs. She couldn't see the dog ears that were perched atop his head. She couldn't see his non-human features. He wished he could say that he didn't care if she could see, but it was a lie. Somehow, in the few short days she had been here, she had managed to dig her way under his skin. Of course, it wasn't as if he was in love or anything. She was a guest in his house and she would be treated as such, no more no less.

Unconsciously, his arm extended as he gently traced the contour of her face. She whimpered as if troubled and he quickly withdrew his hand. "Don't go! I don't understand…" she murmured with great distress before falling silent.

Inuyasha was torn between waking her and shaking some sense into her or waking her with the unreasonable desire to hold her in order to chase away whatever nightmares she may have been having. But, in the end he did neither as he quietly exited her room with quite a bit to think about.


"Are you certain that this is what you desire, young Kagome?"

Her response was firm as she knelt before her mentor and teacher. "Yes."

"Will ye then swear that ye will never take off this mask or else face the consequences of certain death?"

"Yes."

Kaede nodded in satisfaction as she placed the leather mask upon the fifteen-year-old Kagome's face for the first time. "Then I give unto you this blessing and command as was bestowed upon me by my elder sister the day that she died: Never are you to remove this mask for fear of your very life. Only if a man is willing to give his life to you may you remove it. Never shall a drop of tear fall from your eyes for the account of a man or else face the rest of your life without your powers. May your hearts be hardened to those who wish to gain your love. May you never fall into the same deceit that Kikyo has for all men are loathsome brutes who are undeserving of our affections. I bid you to pass this on to all those who succeed you as priestess."

Kaede placed her hands on Kagome's shoulders and helped her up. "Now, it is finished. You are now the priestess of this village and not me. Do not let me down, child. I know that you are capable of much."

Suddenly the room spun in a flurry of movement and Kagome found herself running. She didn't know what she was running from; only that she had to continue to run if she wanted to survive.

"How dare you disobey my commandments?" boomed an authoritative voice.

"Who's there?" Kagome called out as she continued to run.

Then, everything stopped and there was nothing. She was left in complete darkness, almost as if she was blinded. She walked in a small circle trying to see if she could make out anything, but no, there was nothing. Nothing but pure darkness. "Hello? Is anybody there?"

Almost as if on cue, right as she completed her question, a flash of light flooded into the space and blinded her with brightness rather than darkness. In the midst of the light stood a figure, a figure that held an eerie resemblance to herself.

"Who are you?" questioned Kagome.

"That is not the question you should be asking at the present," she replied mysteriously.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think it means?"

"I dunno."

Kagome could almost swear that she saw her mirror image's eyebrow twitch slightly in annoyance, but later decided that she must have been imagining it because that small action would have nullified the image's stoic demeanor. She seemed to have decided to take a different route as she asked, "Why can you not see?"

Feeling a bit ignorant, Kagome answered once again, "I dunno."

"What are you missing?"

"What am I missing? Well, as of right now, I think I'm missing my mind."

"Insolent girl! How dare you respond in such a manner!" The voice was laced with anger, but the face showed no change. "If you are really such a fool, then you deserve to suffer a while longer."

With that, the figure began to float backwards as Kagome chased, fruitlessly, after it. "Hey wait! What's that supposed to mean?"

However, she was given no response as she was left in darkness once again.

Damn. This was why she hated dreams. They were soooo vague!


It had been a long time since he's had this dream. In fact, he hadn't dreamed about that incident for nearly twenty years now. Yet here it was haunting him again. What was the meaning of it? Was it not enough that he and his castle were doomed to die in the course of a year if he could not stop it? Inuyasha growled in frustration. Why him? What had he done that elicited such a heavy punishment? Why could he not live a normal life? Why did he have to be the bane of his friends' existence?

He rolled out of bed and walked out onto his balcony. He peered into the horizon and breathed in deeply, allowing the light breeze to brush over him and enshroud him in its playfulness. The storm that brought Kagome to his castle had long passed, and the warm nights attested to that fact. It was still another hour or so until sunrise. Another hour until his demon blood left him.

Perhaps that was why he was so restless this night. The transformation, while painless, was always an unwelcome ordeal. It reminded him of his mixed origins, of his tainted blood, of his unworthiness to call the throne his.

What was it about his human counterpart that liked to contemplate so much?! It wasn't as if he needed to dwell anymore on the unhappy facts of his life. Yet here he was, shaken by the painful memories and cursed with these very human sentiments. Half-breed fool that he was, why bother stopping the inevitable. She would never love me, nor could he ever let go of his first love. So why bother? Why bother going through all this trouble only to result in the same end? Why would they not allow him to suffer alone and die alone?

Oh yeah. Cause if the curse isn't broken, everyone else is dead too, he remembered with a scowl.

The skies lightened on the eastern horizon, but it would still be a while until the sun would fully rise. This had always his favorite time of the day. It was gratifyingly peaceful and quiet almost as if all the world was asleep, which was quite nearly true. No annoying chirp of the crickets nor was there any croaking of frogs. It was completely silent. In about an hour, life would begin to emerge from its hibernating state and the hustle and bustle of everyday life would begin again, but as of right now, the world with all its unmasked splendor was his to enjoy only.

Well, his and the sobbing mess that he could hear from down the hall. With an irritated snarl, he realized that the weeping noise emanated from her room. Of course. Who else would dare to interrupt his perfect morning?

Unfortunately for him, Inuyasha had never been one who could stand the tears of a woman. "She better have a good reason for crying her eyes out at this time of day," he growled menacingly as he made his way to his wayward guest's room.


She didn't know when she had started crying or even why. Well, actually, that wasn't true. She did know why.

She had gotten up in the middle of the night, troubled by her dream and unable to sleep anymore. She'd always prescribed a cup of warm milk to parents whose children couldn't sleep, so she decided to follow her own prescription. Unfortunately, she had once again forgotten that, despite having lived in the castle for two weeks now during which she had spent most of her days stuck in her room, she had no idea which direction was the kitchen.

Too tired to risk getting lost, she had decided that if she couldn't sleep then she ought to wake up for the day and find something productive to do. She made her way to the wash basin in the corner of the room and found that it was empty of water. With a frustrated sigh, she realized she couldn't even wash her face to wake herself up because she didn't know where she could get water or where to boil it. It probably was not the best idea for her to be boiling water when blind, anyway.

Forsaking the wash basin, she was going to change out of her sleeping clothes into something more appropriate for the day until she remembered that she couldn't even see what her clothes looked like, much less dress herself. With her luck, if she tried donning a kimono on her own, she'd likely wear it inside out and tie the bows all wrong.

Thus, unable to take it any longer, she fell to her knees in the middle of her room and cried softly, not wanting to disturb the rest of the occupants of the castle with her own inadequacy.

However, she'd forgotten that a certain member of the castle—namely the Lord of it—possessed impeccable hearing and regardless of how soft her whimpering cries were, he could still hear them. As a result, moments later, one of the people Kagome did not ever want to ever see her cry burst through her door—not bothering to knock—and stood glaring down at her, before seeing the tears that stained her cheeks and her reddened eyes.

"Leave me alone," she hiccupped between sobs.

If there was any one thing about Inuyasha that differentiated him from the rest of the half-demon population, it was that he hated seeing women cry. His eyes immediately softened, and he dropped down to crouch beside her. "Hey, why are you crying?" he asked, his voice gentler than even he expected.

Kagome refused to look up. She wasn't sure if it was a matter of pride, but she simply did not want him to see her crying. "Go away."

"I'm not going anywhere until you stop your sniveling so that the rest of the world can go back to sleep," retorted Inuyasha.

Her tears paused for a moment and Inuyasha thought that maybe his tactic had worked—despite how often it normally failed. Of course, that particular idea was thrown out the window when Kagome began to bawl even louder. What was pride to her now? She couldn't do anything on her own anymore anyway. What was pride? Why should she care who she cried in front of? It wasn't as if she could really see who it was to begin with.

"Good God, woman! What the hell has gotten into you?" His eyes flattened against his head, her weeping a little too loud for his sensitive appendages to take.

"What the hell has gotten into me? You're asking me what the hell has gotten into me?!" she shrieked, her sanity far gone. "I'll tell you what the hell has gotten into me. I'm blind. I can't do a thing on my own, and I feel like I'm a burden just by breathing. I've lost all vestiges of self-respect. I'm stuck in a half-demon's castle that has more staircases and freaking passages than there are in an underground cave. I can't sleep because I get stupid dreams that don't make any sense at all and that actually make me think when it's the last thing on my mind that I want to do. I'm not supposed to cry." Her hysterics died down, and she simply looked worn out and depressed.

Inuyasha simply stared at her, not sure what he should be doing. He had never been extraordinarily good at comforting people—scratch that, he was awful. Perhaps it was a good thing that he was speechless, though, as it gave the poor girl an opportunity to vent.

"Inuyasha?" she whispered, her voice cracking from her previous outburst.

"Hn?"

Without any further warning, the girl launched herself into his arms, burying her face into his chest. Surprised at her sudden action, Inuyasha fell back onto his rear, careful to keep the Kagome from falling over, however. His mouth fell open, and his eyes looked about ready to pop out. The girl latched her arms firmly around his neck and was currently soaking the front of his haori with tears.

"I feel so useless."

He was stunned that she'd be willing to show him her moment of weakness and couldn't help the warmth that saturated his heart. She wasn't holding back any of her emotions with him. Slowly, his arms found their way around her shoulders, one of his hands—no longer clawed he noted subconsciously which meant that day had already broken—soothingly running through her obsidian hair. "You're not useless," he murmured softly, his lips pressed softly against the top of her head.

Kagome found herself fighting a blush as she finally realized that she had basically thrown herself at the half-demon. His voice sounded more tender than it normally did, and she wondered if that was because he was actually trying to comfort her or if it was simply her own overly active imagination. She pulled back a little, her eyes downcast, wanting so badly to see her comforter, yet knowing all the while that she never would be able to.

Inuyasha, with his human hands, tilted her chin up and gently brushed away the wetness running down her cheeks with his thumb. The faint shadow of a smile graced his lips when he saw the blush coloring her face. She really was quite beautiful. She possessed more life, more exuberance, more color than Kikyo ever did. His mind blurred as he leaned closer to place feather light kisses upon her cheeks, wanting his touch to fend off whatever tears she had.

Kagome's brain froze and the tears immediately stemmed. A part of her wanted to slap him and slap him hard from daring to press his lips against her face, but another part of her basked in his attention. Back in the village, she'd always been careful not to allow herself to fall for any man, but here, in the least expected place at the worst possible time, she found herself desiring his touch.

Not good, not good! she squirmed in her mind, yet she could not move. His tender caresses left her immobile and she could not stop the shiver that ran along the length of her spine. Wait…why is it that I can feel his lips against my cheek? Where's my mask?!

She suddenly pushed him away and brought a hand to her face, her eyes reflecting her shock. "I know what I'm missing now!"


A/N: Alrighty, well, hope that was enjoyable. I know there's not as much humor as my other chapters, but that whole fluffiness should make up for that, right? Of course. Remember, it's my b-day today, so be nice and review!!! Thanks.