Notes: Ah… sigh.  Peri here.  I kept telling myself, "you're going to finish this fic before you post it, but… I got bored.  And I want feedback, after all.  Anyway, for all of you who aren't wondering, youkai are sort of like an urban legend.  Like the And On the Car Door – There Was a Hook!  You hear about them, but there's no way you'd ever believe.

Anyhow, once again – please, do review.  I need to know how I'm doing.

Japanese Terms:

youkai – demon

hanyou – half-demon

yen - Japanese currency (it's actually pronounced en, but I don't want to really confuse everyone)

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, actually… well, I own some copies of the anime episodes, but shush!  Look to Takahashi – sama if you're looking for someone who actually owns Inuyasha.

- Watching Over -

- Chapter One: Burglary -

Kagome Higurashi scowled, shaking her head and sending tiny droplets of water in all directions.  It wasn't raining so much as drizzling – a slow, steady trickle of miserable grey crawling sluggishly from the black clouds hovering above.  She tugged her bright red raincoat closer around her, but the slick rubber did nothing to ease the cold, only protecting against the slow sheets of rain.

     Dodging scattered puddles on the sidewalk, she made her way towards the family's shrine.  That morning, before dashing off to make it to school on time, she had promised to play Souta's Playstation with him – it was some game involving machine guns and other potentially deadly weapons.  He would be annoyed if she was late, for he didn't like waiting any longer than he had to for anything, no matter what.  Kagome sighed, smiling at the thought of her rambunctious, yet sweet, little brother.

     Soon, the shrine appeared as she rounded a corner, and the house just behind it.  Relieved, Kagome ran the last few meters into the house and flung open the door.  She kicked off her boots and hopped inside over the last, slick distance between the outdoors and the indoors.  "I'm home!" she called to the rest of the household, sliding out of her raincoat and hanging it up to drip on the closet floor.

     "Kagome!" a small blur of green-clad brother sped up and latched itself around her waist.  "Come on!  Let's play!"

     Kagome smiled and gently detached Souta from his position slung around her hips.  At least he was happy to see her.  "Okay, okay… but don't let it take too long.  I do have homework, you know."

     With an overdramatic sigh, he nodded and led her to the TV, where a small worn-out spot had been made on the floor from his continual presence there.  After nodding greetings to her mother, who responded with a sympathetic smile, Kagome sat down next to Souta and took up the controller.

     The video game was surprisingly engrossing – Kagome found herself flashing a smug grin at Souta when she won the fifth round.  "Ha!" she crowed.  He stuck out his tongue at her, scowling.

     "Well, I have to do my homework now… I'm sorry, Souta."  Kagome set down her controller and stood.  "I might play again later.  If you're lucky," she added, unable to resist the childish urge to stick her tongue right back out at him.

     Hugging her mother and grandfather as she passed through the kitchen, she climbed the staircase to her room, dragging her gigantic backpack behind her.  Buyo, her cat, was sprawled on the bed, waiting for her, his furred limbs entangled in the blanket folded at the foot of the bed.  Kagome heaved her backpack onto her desk and began the long process of completing her homework.

*****

The moon, nestled in a bed of dark rain clouds, sent beams of silvery light onto the scattered puddles.  Reflected in the pooled water, it broke into prisms and bounced off of the crumbling brick walls of the alley.  Inuyasha growled as the steady rainfall, only now ceasing, soaked through his T-shirt and jeans, sending chills through his skin.

     It was simple enough.  Awoken with a rude start from his restless sleep, he had been dragged by a wiry rabbit-youkai he didn't know into Sesshoumaru's quarters.  Bowing, the long-legged demon had given him a sympathetic smile and disappeared.  Sesshoumaru was staring at him eerily, yellow eyes totally devoid of any emotion whatsoever.

     "What do you want?" Inuyasha had asked, scowling at his half-brother.

     Sesshoumaru, ignoring Inuyasha's sour look, folded his hands and began to speak.  "I have… a request for you.  Call it a mission, if you will."

     "Yeah, yeah," Inuyasha growled.  "Just get on with it."  He didn't easily become tired, but before he had gone to sleep, he hadn't rested for twenty-six hours, and he was feeling supremely irritable.

     Sesshoumaru gave him a level look.  "We are… running low on yen."  Although his eyes were flat and without feeling, Inuyasha knew his half-sibling.  It pained Sesshoumaru, in a petty way, to admit such a thing.

     "Whaddaya want me to do about it?" Inuyasha had hissed.

     "I want you to rob a house," Sesshoumaru had answered calmly.

     Inuyasha frowned even now, thinking about it.  Sesshoumaru had told to raid the Higurashi household.  It was not the richest house around, of course.  Stealing from a well-known family would have caused a commotion, and none of them wanted that.  The house was nearby, as well, so there was less distance to travel where he would be vulnerable – susceptible to arrest if he were caught.

     He raised a clawed hand to touch the black knit cap that covered his ears.  It was most uncomfortable – it pushed them down at awkward angles, and he itched to remove the irritating hat.  As it were, he couldn't afford to draw any attention to himself.  Anyone could be watching, even in the seeming emptiness of the alley.

     Pools of golden light formed on the sidewalk, illuminating the dull grey cement.  By now the rain had fizzled away into nothing, leaving only a dewy scent lingering in the air.  Inuyasha avoided the brightness, slinking in the shadows, back pressed against the uneven brick of the buildings behind him.  The street was silent and lifeless, so quiet that he had the sudden urge to shout, to scream, if only to break the suspiciousness of the stillness.  Grimacing and refocusing, concentrating only on getting there without being seen, he prowled towards the house.

     The air smelled of freshness and renewal, as though someone had washed away all of the dirt and oil from the streets and revealed a clean slate to start over on.  He knew that in the morning, cars and people would return, and the shops would reopen.  The clean sheet that had been presented would be ruined until the next rainfall.

     'Higurashi,' read the small post in the yard, held up by a stake burrowed deep into the soil.  The hanyou, who had been sneaking noiselessly, stopped himself just before he stalked straight past it.  It doesn't look like a house.  He bit the inside of his cheek as he thought, before seeing the more house-shaped building behind it.  Letting out his held breath slowly, he cleared the fence in a short leap and landed on all fours.  Wet soil dirtied his hands, and flowers sprung up from between his fingers in tiny bursts of colour.

     Inuyasha was suddenly aware of every, normally dismissible, detail around him.  Little, barely audible howls streaked through the air, as the wind filtered through the spindly branches of the trees arranged around the miniscule yard.  The moon was disappearing, leaving only a haunting outline as a glowing reminder that it would resurface again the next night, and the night after.  He had never done anything so… vulnerable.  Sure, he'd done illegal things before, but never anything where it was so horribly easy to be caught.  One slip-up, and he would be hauled off to jail.

     Gods, what am I doing here, anyway?

     But he sneered to himself.  He couldn't fail, and he most certainly couldn't leave now.  Sesshoumaru and Naraku would laugh him straight to hell.  Straightening, he brushed dark clods of soil from his knees and set his face in a determined glare.

     Inuyasha crept across the remainder of the yard, towards the house.  There didn't appear to an alarm, but he couldn't risk anything.  He circled the perimeter of the building until he saw a half open window, leading to the master bedroom.  Arching his back, he climbed, painstakingly slow, into the large room, the silky curtains trailing against his sides.  A jealous frown curled his lips as his fingers and toes pressed into the plush black rug spread at the side of the bed.  A sleeping form's stomach rose and fell in the depths of the blankets.  Only one? he wondered for a brief second, before dismissing the thought and slinking out of the room.

     What did one steal, when one finally broke into a house?  Jewels?  It was worth a try.  Almost anything in this house would bring in more yen than he had ever seen in his life, anyway, so it wasn't as though it mattered.  To his eyes, these humans' handkerchiefs were valuable.  One small light lit up the hallway as he peered into the shadows.  A ray of the soft, orange illumination quested into a nearby room, which he recognized as the kitchen.  Something glowed in the depths of the darkness, near the sink.  Inuyasha slipped closer, treading lightly on the sleek, polished wood floor.

     An ornate glass vase rested in the windowsill, patterned with flowery vines and smooth to the touch.  He turned it in his hand, watching in awe as tiny flashes spread out in the half-light.  One ear flicked suddenly, and he swiveled around to face the hallway.  Faint footsteps were approaching, along with the scent of feline, exhaustion, and lily-of-the-valley.  A yellow light cascaded into the hallway, making Inuyasha squint in the sudden brightness.

     "Murph," mumbled a sleepy female voice.  A teenaged girl turned into the kitchen, dressed in a sleeveless white shirt and dark blue pajama pants.  Her black hair was tangled and disheveled, presumably from sleep.  She headed towards the refrigerator, rubbing her eyes, before it hit her.  With a sharp gasp, she whirled to face him.  Blue-grey eyes gaped.

     They stared, neither of them wanting to be the first to speak or move.

*****

Buyo miaowed noisily, nosing Kagome's chilled feet and hands.  She blinked and yawned, reaching out and petting him in absent strokes.  Her fingers and toes were chilled right down to the marrow, and a gaping hole whined in her stomach.  She flipped on the light after a bit of sleep-slowed fumbling, to discover her sheets and comforter piled in a messy heap on the floor.  Outside, all was pitch darkness.

     "C'mon, Buyo," she murmured, sliding off of her bed and into the cushiony tangle below.  Pushing herself to her feet, she pulled on her slippers and headed slowly down the stairs and into the hall.  She turned on the light and shuffled into the kitchen.  Her hand was reaching for the refrigerator before it struck her, like someone spearing her through the heart.  Taking in her breath with a sudden gasp, she revolved quickly on her heel.

     Golden eyes regarded her with a strange mixture of fear and curiosity, wide and shining in the light.  A scowl marred his features, and long silver hair swept down his back.  His hands (what… claws? Kagome thought in astonishment) clutched nervously at her mother's favorite vase.  The knit cap on his head seemed to bulge strangely.

     Kagome felt as though she was going to faint as they stared, eyes the size of saucers, at each other.  Buyo came in and glared as fiercely as he could manage at the stranger.

     "Oh, gods," they moaned in unison.

*****

Notes: Bleck.  I dunno.  I was going to say something… I know I was… um.  Oh, yeah.  Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but how could I not end it there?  I already have the next four chapters written, and I'm about twenty percent done with chapter six.  As long as I don't get zero reviews or something along those lines, I'll update again tomorrow.

   Jaa,

--Peri--