Chapter 1

Kagome prodded at her ankle and the response from the aggravated joint was an enthusiastic throb. She winced, then promptly burst into tears.

It was too much.

Hugging her drawn up knees close, Kagome buried her face and sobbed wholehearted into her arms.

It was her birthday yesterday. Mama was making oden for supper and she was going to stuff herself silly, then roll into bed, warm and snug. Instead, she chased her cat, fell down the well and landed here. Wherever 'here' was.

Then she was mistaken for a youkai, half dragged into the village to be temporarily rescued by a girl her brother's age. Slept on the floor to sneak back here first thing in the morning only to find herself at the bottom of a dry well and not in at the shrine. Not home.

Kagome sniffled, trying to ignored the bleached skeletons around her, and the fact she will have to somehow climb back out with a decent gash on her leg.

Maybe she was going to die alone here.

"Oi! Quit yer wailing!"

Her head snapped up at the sound, cranking her neck to squint at the silhouette peering over the lip of the well. It was hopeless to make out details since they were backlit. But were those triangles on their head moving?

She dashed her hands across her eyes, hoping to clear her vision. "W-Who's there?"

"So you're who the villagers won't stop yammerin' about." The same low voice scoffed.

Kagome made to get up but gasped as her movement stretched at the wound on her bummed ankle. Breathing hard, she leaned back against the side of the well, praying that she wouldn't start bleed again.

"I can't get out…" She whispered to herself despairingly, trying to gingerly press against her leg again.

"Well, you shoulda've thought of that before ya jumped in, huh?"

There was a rush of air, the lightest touch beneath her knees, around her back and she shot up, out of the well. Before she could react, her backside landed unceremoniously onto some grass.

Kagome blinked, trying to get her bearings and calm her clambering heart.

There, in front of her, crouched a little to the side was a boy. Mostly. He was young, probably her age with stark silver hair, glowing almost white in the sunlight. He kept it long, streaming down his shoulders to touch the ground. The eyes that glared at her suspiciously were a rich, honey colour. And the best part, was a pair of super soft looking puppy dog ears on his head.

In short, Kagome forgot to exhale.

Wow.

"Um… who are you?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Well, um, thanks for getting me out of there."

A grunt. He was still eyeing her, body tense as if he wasn't sure if he wanted to stay or bolt.

"I'm Kagome by the way." She tried again, hoping to get him to talk. Kagome didn't understand why he was acting so weird. "What's yours?"

A long pause, then a mumble.

"Inu…yasha? Did I say that right?"

"Keh."

She smiled, his grumpiness being more amusing than offensive to her for some reason. It made the earlier rush of sadness fade to a manageable level.

It was only the second day in this strange place. She has time to figure out how to get home.

Thinking it was probably wise to start going back to the village, in the hopes of finding a bandaid for her leg, Kagome carefully got to her feet.

The strange boy with the puppy ears gave her one more appraising look, then hopped up lightly. His mouth was a straight-line when he stalked up to her, arms crossed, like he was prepping for a fight.

Kagome tipped her head as she tried to puzzle out his intentions. He sure was acting weird but up close, his features were quite beautiful. Not handsome, or cute like the boys at school but wild and beautiful. It would help if he quit frowning like that though.

Abruptly, he scooted around, presenting a red clad back to her.

"Get on." He muttered, gesturing to her hurt leg. "You'd get eaten before you make it back."

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A/N: This popped up in my head and I think I'm going to experiment with it. It'll be a story told in snippets. Kikyou will also exist in this AU—I want to play around with how their dynamic would go if Kikyou wasn't an undead semi-psychopath. And also explore how Kikyou and Inuyasha might have been like without Naraku in the equation.

Let me know what you think and if you would like to see more :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. However, this plot, the exact sequence of words and any original characters described therein, I reserve all rights to.