InuYasha characters belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

Three days went and gone. Every day Kagome checked outside her window for any sign of a silverhaired male – or males – that could be lurking around. But as she always knew, they wouldn't be there. She couldn't help but hope though; how could they just leave her here, just like that? After all they had been through? She had faced death for their sake, for bloody hell!

Her mother had now finally calmed down. The first morning had been the worst; her mother had been crying and clinging to her daughter as if afraid that the moment she let go the younger woman would disappear. Her strong, independent mother had been crying by the mere sight of her that day. The next she had calmed down, but wouldn't let Kagome out of her sight; if she was to leave the room she always had to tell her mom where she was going.

Kagome herself had gone through all the steps in her emotional lane by now; denial, hurt, anger. Now, the third day without the supernatural, she was beginning to accept and think that maybe everything had been a dream after all. But then she would shake herself and scream; how could you imagine the now ruffled and rough looking paper with those words on it? How could she imagine her mother's paranoia for days, or her own cuts and bruises that were beginning to fade?

Her dreams were the worst; every night she would be running, scared to death, from something dark. The scenery in the dream was never the same, but the development however was. She would find an object surrounded by something strange but yet gentle. Then the moment she touched it and realized what the place and the object represented, the dream would change. In place of the gentle shadows of disgust, anger and jealousy would brew. Afraid she would start running, things rushing to catch up with her. Then she would be caught by one, see InuYasha walk away from her, and then hear the same demand – "Give it to me" – before the creature swallowed her heart.

Always she would awake with a strangled scream, gasping for breath and clutching the front of her shirt near her furiously beating heart. The first thought would be to reach for InuYasha or call for him – but that was before she remembered that he wasn't there anymore, and that he wouldn't ever be there for her anymore. Funny how attached you can become in a matter of days.

'I blame those furry ears of his', Kagome thought now as she sighed heavily into her math book. Lazily she let her gaze travel round the classroom. She had been through so much that she had thought something would have changed, changed as much as she had. Yet everything was the precise thing that it had been before her "kidnapping". Especially her classmates.

"Kagome!" the three girls squealed as they crowded around her. Kagome smiled tiredly at them.

"Hey, guys," she murmured, hoping she didn't sound too bored.

"So, I heard you was missing for nearly a week," Eri said. Noticing Kagome stirring at the sentence, she smiled like a cat that had just gotten the large bowl of cream. "So… I-"

"-we-" Yuki smiled.

"-was wondering…" Eri made a dramatic pause, looked at Kagome expectantly. Kagome could just see that cat's face, demanding more cream – hopefully with catnip in it.

"Wondering what?" she finally asked, seeing as Eri wouldn't end her sentence.

Yuki and Eri smiled mischievously at each other. Ayumi had an eyebrow raised at them, but didn't say anything.

"Who is he?" they asked simultaneously.

Kagome groaned loudly. "Not this again...Ayumi, help me here," she moaned, locking pleading eyes with her most "normal" friend.

Ayumi replied her compassion for Kagome through her eyes, but otherwise only shook her head. No help there then. Kagome groaned again and mentally put her chatter-proof armor on.

"Come on – it must be a he if you're away from school for so long!" Eri chimed, batting her eyelashes at her exhausted friend.

Yuki nodded. "Excatcly. And you couldn't have been sick right? You never are."

"Hey! I can get a cold you know," Kagome protested weakly.

This time Ayumi spoke up. "Kagome, not even your mom knew where you were." At Kagome's, and the other two's struck faces, she sighed. "I do know where you live, you know? I got worried…"

Sudden unexpected tears started to flow and then Ayumi found a bawling raven haired girl clutching her for dear life.

-ooo-

"What an ass."

"Such a jerk."

"Yeah. In plural; jerks and asses."

Her friends had dragged her out of the classroom, escaped the teacher's watchful eyes and hid at the nearest WacDonalds, where they occupied a booth farthest from the door and the windows. Since then they had begun ordering in milkshakes and ice cream every ten minutes. It was consumed mostly by Kagome who now finally let her feelings out. Though odd, sitting here with her friends from school of all places, it was a nice change from the dull life at home. Especially with her hen-mom.

She told them everything, just not quite everything; she couldn't really tell them that they all were living in a world where the supernatural from TV and books were real, right? Then they would just laugh at her, or possibly think she was crazy. Come on; a boy with dog ears? Harpies?

"So he, like, was real sweet in the beginning, you know?" she sobbed, stuffing her mouth with cold ice cream, not caring in the least that she had a brain freeze. "Made me laugh, comforted me about dad and Souta, grandpa… and then just BANG; there I am, left behind and I don't even know why. What is he doing, trying to protect me or push me away?"

Chocolate ice cream. Yum. She took a big spoon of the brown deliciousness and scarfed it down. Yum, definitely what the doctor ordered.

"Maybe he was," Yuki said thoughtfully as she took a sip of her vanilla milkshake. "He had a brother right? Tall, kinda mean to you? Maybe this InuYasha wanted to protect you from 'this Sesshomaru'."

Eri and Yuki both laughed at the impersonating of him, and Kagome almost smiled at their antics. Almost. Remembering the two werewolves though sent her into a new fit of grumbling, sobbing and crying all over again.

"Can you guys stop being so inconsiderate? Kagome's really sad right now." Ayumi growled at the two other girls, her normally kind eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. That effectively shut the snickering girls up, and all three turned to coo and comfort Kagome once more. They sat there with her until all her tears were dry and night had descended upon the city once more.

-ooo-

InuYasha paced back and forth on the roof of an apartment building. Sometimes he would mutter something under his breath, casting a glance on the opposite side, and then he would start pacing again. Once he actually growled, when he accidentally kicked his foot a little too hard into a nearby vent.

Three days had gone by and he had woken up the second. The first thing he saw wasn't the dark air that he had fallen into. Instead he had been staring at the roof of his own room; brown splotches of water damage spreading out across it and dead flies clustering inside the roof lamp.

Instinctively he had tasted the air inside his room, sorting out the disgusting smells, searching for the only clean and cheerful thing that could be in this house. When he didn't find it immediately he shot up from his mattress, wincing slightly at the strain in his stomach, but paid it no heed as he smelt frantically around himself. InuYasha used his ears too, searching for the gentle breathing he had been accustomed to in less than a week. His ears twitched, turned this way and that in line with his nose's trembling. Panic had flooded him when he couldn't hear her, nor smell her; Kagome's gentle and clean smell had become more shallow and hard to sort out.

He had called for his brother, mentally surprised at his own rough and hoarse voice. Sesshomaru had come in, listened to his little brother's antics for a while before telling him that Kagome was gone. Not gone as in dead, he had explained as the boy started cussing and swearing. Only gone as at home, where she should be, from where she should never have been taken.

Oh, InuYasha had argued. He had shouted and pleaded, begged that they had to protect her. Who knew when that harpy would come back? Who knew who the harpy called Hiten would find first; the brother's or Kagome? He had screamed that Kagome couldn't protect herself; they had to be there for her.

Sesshomaru had gotten a strange look on his face, but merely nodded. However, he had forbidden InuYasha from revealing himself to either the girl or her mother. It would be disastrous if either of them recognized him in his dog-form.

Now InuYasha had been on that roof since early morning, gazing with his dog-eyes at the scenery below him; there was the mother, walking away from the house slowly, almost as if she wasn't sure she really wanted to go. Probably of to some low paying work, working her ass off to fed herself and her daughter. He remembered Kagome crying that night when Sesshomaru had stormed into the house, about how her mother worked all day and long into the nights so that they could pay the rent. Later she had explained her mom's situation with being pregnant with Kagome in college and so had been forced to drop out. InuYasha snuffed, and continued to pace as the mother disappeared out of sight.

He waited until Kagome came out, clad in a white and green sailor suit. Even from that distance he could see the red rimmed eyes and the tousled hair that she hadn't bothered to brush that morning. Somewhere in the pit of his stomach, he felt a strange tug at the sight; it urged him to run, jump, throw his body out into midair, only he could be down there with her and comfort her.

Another feeling, this time coming from his head, told him to hold it and think this through. His common sense, as people used to call it.

If you go down there right now, you could lead the harpy – or something else – to her, it urged. InuYasha got the feeling that if his common sense had had a body, it would definitely been that of an old man; knowledgeable, yet not prepared to jump into action. His common sense was a coward, by every means. Moreover, InuYasha wasn't a coward; this time however, he chose to listen to the old man.

Still, it was nerve-racking to see her walk away from the house where he had first – or rather, secondly – met her. Whatever it was that had been standing over Kagome when InuYasha finally found her; however large its evil intentions were, it had brought them to form a friendship, something that he valued higher than he had ever done before.

He didn't dare follow her. Not only for the fear of being noticed and questioned – and God knew she would have many questions for him – but also for his own cowardice. Apparently, his common sense was rubbing off on him.

Hours went as he waited for her to come back home. Darkness fell and he changed into his humanoid form, which made it harder for him to move unnoticed. Shuddering as he crouched down, a slight flick embarrassed at his nude form, he continued his watch. Thankfully the moon wasn't that large that night, having moved into a new cycle a few nights ago. It didn't light him – or more specifically his hair – up, so he could spy on everyone below him without anyone being able to see him.

By now though, he was quite restless and worried. Why had she not come home yet? Did school usually take this long? InuYasha shook his head and sighed. Not that he would know, never had the chance to attend school or kindergarten due to his strange hair, eyes and – what did' ya know? – his ears.

He crossed his arm over his chest, trying to keep some warmth as his natural impatience made him start to tap his fingers against his biceps. Tap, tap, tap.

An old woman with an equally old cart came toddling down the street and stopped underneath him. Curious he leaned over, only to see her straighten up and leer a toothless smile at the soda bottle in her hand. She tossed it into the cart where it rattled around with its siblings. The creaks of the wheels signaled the cart and its owner's departure.

InuYasha huffed. Apparently he wasn't the only creature in this cruel world that only could come out after dark.

If he would be completely honest with himself he didn't really know whether or not he really deserved to be in this world. Sesshomaru wasn't saying anything –which was normal – but InuYasha could see the looks his older brother had sent him the day before. They had been cold and indifferent, but in them there was also a… wariness that hadn't been there before. Not before the fight with Hiten and Manten anyway.

Watching the disappearing form of the woman he frowned, thinking back to the last time he had actually seen Kagome. A soaring pain before he had been hurled with Kagome in a tight and protective embrace, into a building. InuYasha had seen her raven dark curls before thousands of spots flickered in and out of focus. Then – darkness.

The next thing he knew he was at home, hurt all over and searching for her. But what had happened between the memory of her and Sesshomaru's new behavior?

Feeling a headache coming he allowed his eyes to close.

-ooo-

InuYasha awoke much later to the sound of light footsteps – which was odd. He usually didn't wake up simply to feet that sounded so far from him. Deciding to let it slide and continue to dream – his mother was holding him close, whispering promises – he burrowed into a tight ball on the ground.

A ghostly stroke across his skin made him shiver; damn, it was cold here! With a sigh he let go of the dream, tentatively rolled to his knees and sneezed. Then he blinked warily and yawned widely, his tongue curling. With a soft sigh he closed his mouth, smacking lightly to get some moisture into his mouth. Then he looked down at the alley below, seeing nothing but darkness. Even the light poles had abandoned their lights in favor of the early morning.

He yawned widely again, stretched his hands above his head and felt bones pop in his shoulders and back. With a satisfied sigh he let his arms fall, rolled his shoulders and then listened.

The footsteps were gone. Or they had never been there. Either way, it wasn't anything to worry about, not for the moment at least. Looking down at the street he saw nothing out of the ordinary – well, maybe that one-eyed cat currently glaring up at him was cause of some suspicion. He bared glinting fangs at the cat way below him, who furred up its body to an impossible size, hissed up at him and then ran down the street, around a corner and out of sight. InuYasha snickered to himself, and turned to sit down with his back against the low wall that surrounded 'his' roof.

The hand that wrapped around his throat caught him completely off-guard. Being lifted up into the air by the very same hand he gasped and clawed at it, trying to find some sort of vital point to make it let go.

His fingers connected with a slimy substance – resembling that of a snail, the only difference being that the thing was not as soft as one. Instead his claws screeched over something as hard as stone, dulling his sharp nails edges to blunt ones.

InuYasha tried to growl as he slipped and blunted his claws on the arm – or whatever it was, but the only thing he managed to get out was a dry cough. A deep chuckle sounded before him, but when the half-were tried to see who it was his chin was suddenly forced upwards, effectively exposing his throat, and also denying him from seeing his foe. He kicked fruitlessly.

"Now, take it easy, InuYasha." The voice sounded rich and deep, a dark mirth hidden behind his every word. "We wouldn't want you to… fall, now would we? That would make quite a case; 'Dead boy found naked. The police suspects suicide due to heartbreak. 'A classic, isn't it?" The creature laughed again.

"B-bastard!" the boy gasped, now clinging to the arm for dear life – not an easy task on the slippery substance.

"Or," the creature continued thoughtfully as if he had never heard the insult, "do you change back into a dog in death? That would not be as… fun. Yes, fun. A sad event at most, but no one cares as much about a dog death than with a human. However, in your case a humanoid, which is far more interesting to the beings called humans. Whatever did your parents do to make you look so grotesque, InuYasha?"

The growl that sounded now did not come from Inuyasha, but whatever it was frightened the slimy creature. The boy felt the tentacle slitter away from his throat before he fell helplessly for a second. He thudded against the short wall, scrambled to find a handhold and then he hurried to throw himself over and into safety.

Panting heavily as he literally drank air, InuYasha wobbled to his feet and tried to locate the being that had attempted to take his life. Flashing spots assaulted his eyes and he blinked rapidly, trying to ease the interfering lights away.

He felt a clawed hand press down on his shoulder, urging him to sit down and lean against the low wall – and he was more than happy to oblige.

"Easy now. Put yer head between your legs and just try to breathe slow and steady, a'right?" Another baritone, but much lighter than the other, said to him. InuYasha nodded slowly and did as told.

When the spots disappeared and he could see again, he looked up only to get a cloth thrown in his face. "The he-?" he cussed as he clawed at the fabric, wondering if he was being choked again.

"Sorry." The voice didn't sound very sorry to him though. If anything, it sounded cocky and full of laughter. "Just that I don' real' fancy staring at some nude guy, ya know? I'm perfectly straight, and that's how I like it."

Snorting at that – hell, they were both male, were they not? – he secured the jacket around his waist before looking up into a pair of electric blue eyes. Dark eyebrows rose in glee at the sight of him and the male before him had equal dark and long hair, fastened up in a high ponytail. What caught InuYasha's eye were the male's ears, elfin ones that resembled his brother's.

The male didn't seem to be much older than himself, but as the boy smirked at him and sported a fang before extending his clawed hand, InuYasha knew he was old. Very, impossibly old, even to him who, according to his brother, was at least one hundred years old.

"Name's Kouga," the boy said. "Nice to meet ya, mutt."

InuYasha snorted before grabbing the extended hand. "InuYasha."

Oh, jeez. I feel ashamed. I've recently read through my earlier chapters and noticed GIANT faults regarding the story – apparently, not everything goes together, and little is explained. I think I will change that, but only when this story is done! Then I can throw myself into this hell of a 93 pages and add/delete and repair everything. Huff.
Well, what do we have summerbreak for?

-Please Review, so I can fix these damn things! A big help-