Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha. This fanfic is my idea, though. O.o Is that good enough? Peep?



Past and Present Intertwine

Chapter One- Meeting

"When did you move in?" the woman asked as she entered the kitchen and set the stack of magazines she was carrying on the table. Her face was pink where she had had the telephone pressed between her shoulder and head, but now she held the phone in her hand, using her free hand to wag a finger at her squawking daughter. "Quiet now, Kaka. Mama is on the phone."

The little girl scrunched her nose and grinned up at her mother. "Ya! Ya! Ya!" she cried, jumping vigorously in her bouncer that blocked the doorway on the opposite side of the kitchen.

The woman smiled and made a silly face that made the child giggle. She then turned her attention back to the person on the other end of the phone. "Why don't you come over here, so we can chat? I'm making tea." She was quiet for a few moments as she listened to the other explain that she didn't want to be a bother. "It's no trouble at all! Besides, my little girl refuses to leave her bouncer -she's so stubborn-, so you simply must come visit us." The two women laughed and hung up.

"Kaka, we're going to have visitors," the woman told her daughter. "Oh, Kagome! Your hair." She crossed the room to the doorway and gently pulled the soft, dark strands away from her daughter's face.

"We're going to have company, so make a good impression. If you do, you'll have a play-mate!" she said, rubbing her thumb over Kagome's cheek in an attempt to remove crusty bits of her lunch that had missed their destination in the tummy due to a certain messy baby who licked her hand and smeared it across her face during the process of chewing her food.

The woman slipped off the child's dirty bib, and remembering her earlier statement, she set a pot of water on the stove to boil for tea.

*****

The doorbell rang a few minutes later, and the woman hurried to the door after a quick glance in the mirror for any rebellious hairs of smudged lipstick. She then opened the door, presenting the woman on the other side with a large, beaming smile. The smile was returned.

"Hello! I'm Hiburo Higurashi," she greeted with a bow.

The guest bowed, as well, and replied, "I'm Ayako Tsujimoto. It's so nice to meet you!"

The two women chatted at the front door, and a curious Kagome gripped the edge of the doorway and pulled herself around to face them. She leaned forward, trying to see what all the commotion was about. Her hair fell over her eyes, and she bounced and yelled to regain her mother's attention.

"This is my little girl Kagome," Mrs. Higurashi announced, kneeling down and pushing the hair from the baby's eyes again. "She's about eighteen months now."

"She is simply adorable," the other woman cooed. She looked over her shoulder and said, "Look, Inu-Yasha! A new friend to play with!"

A young boy peeked though his mother's legs at Kagome. "She's a girl," he said.

"Yes," his mother confirmed.

"Can I fight with her?" he asked.

Mrs. Higurashi's mouth fell open, and moved closer to Kagome, who was trying to get a better look at the boy.

"Inu-Yasha dear, it's not good to fight," Mrs. Tsujimoto explained in a stern voice. Turning to her hostess, she said, "I'm sorry. His father has been wrestling with him, and he thinks it's really fun, so he wants to fight with others for fun. He doesn't fight someone if I tell him not to. It's all just a phase he's going through right now." Her last statement was said with an air of uncertainty, which caused Mrs. Higurashi's understanding smile to falter.

The boiling water was steaming, so Mrs. Higurashi pushed pass Kagome to turn the stove off. Mrs. Tsujimoto followed, and the two began talking again.

Without his mother in the way, Kagome could now look at the boy. She ignored his chubby arms and legs, red shirt, navy shorts, and bare feet because she was too occupied with staring at his pudgy cheeks, amber eyes, and shaggy, white hair that fell to the tips of his big ears. She continued to peer at him with her finger dangling from her lip.

After a moment, Kagome unhooked her finger and pointed it at Inu- Yasha. "Pay-may!" she cried, bouncing up and down.

"Yeah, we can be pway-mates," Inu-Yasha agreed, "if you aren't sked (little IY word for scared) of the big feromous (IY for ferocious) dog!" He crouched and lifted his hands in front of him and curled them into claws. "Bark! Bark! Bark!"

Her eyes widened, and she squealed with laughter.

"It's not funny!" Inu-Yasha declared.

Kagome lifted her hands above her head and her body shook from laughing.

Inu-Yasha growled and stood on his tiptoes, precariously leanng against the unstable bouncer that was lurching back and forth from Kagome's giggles. "I'm scary! Bark! Bark!" he barked. Literally, too.

"Sit, boy!" Kagome cried and brought her raised hands down upon his head. Inu-Yasha lost his balance and fell flat on his face.

Mrs. Tsujimoto choked on the tea she was sipping, and Mrs. Higurashi said, "I don't think we'll have to worry about Inu-Yasha hurting Kagome.."

*****

The two mothers had set up a play-date for the following day. Mrs. Higurashi had offered to help the Tsujimoto's move in, and they graciously accepted with the suggestion that Inu-Yasha and Kagome could play together while the work was being done.

So they did.kind of. The two children were sitting in the backyard, peering through the screen door at the three adults (Mr. and Mrs. Tsujimoto and Mrs. Higurashi) lugging boxes into the house from the garage.

"That's my daddy," Inu-Yasha said, indicating. "And that's my mommy."

"Mama." K pointed at her own mother.

"I'm three years old, and my name is Inu-Yasha," Inu-Yasha told her, directing his finger to himself. "Can you even say that?"

Kagome smiled and gave him her impish smile. "Inash!"

"No!" Inu-Yasha said. "No! I am Inu-Yasha."

"Inash!"

"Inu-Yasha!"

"Inash!"

"Inu-Yasha!"

"Sit!" she squawked and pushed the boy into the grass.

"You dumb girl!" he shouted, standing up and patting the dirt off his rear. "If you don't stop hitting me, I won't be your friend!"

Kagome's smile tripped, fell over itself, and turned into a frown. "Kaka sorry," she uttered through trembling lips.

Avoiding her pitiful expression, Inu-Yasha locked his eyes onto the leaves of only tree in his backyard. "No more 'sitting.' I'm not weally a dog."

After processing this bit of information, Kagome smiled again and said, "I'm Kaka."

"No, you're not," Inu-Yasha said matter-of-factly. "You're Kagome."

She nodded. "Kaka," she repeated.

Inu-Yasha's gaze returned to her chubby face. "You don't say anybody's name wight, huh?"

"Ya! Ya!"

Inu-Yasha threw his hands up in exasperation like he'd seen his mother do so many times. "You make me cwazy!"

Kagome smiled at him. She thought this boy was so fun!

"When I was your age," Inu-Yasha began, imitating his father, "I could say every word perfectly." We can only hope that this statement is a lie, or we have reason to believe that Inu-Yasha's mental-accuity is regressing.

"Inash silly," Kagome said.

Imitating his mother's sigh, he corrected, "Inu-Yasha."

"Inash!" "."



Author's Note: First of all, I want all of you to know how hard I worked getting this fanfic onto fanfiction.net! I am stupid when it comes to computers, so I had no idea what any of the html stuff was, and I was like, "Woah! Overload!" and my brain kicked my head open and it jumped out and fell to the floor and stopped, dropped, and rolled right there, and I was like "Huh?" I quickly stuffed the sucker back in my head after wiping off some of the carpet lint and dog hair. Anyway, I got help from a friend, and he helped me muchas bunches ((not actual Spanish), but my other computer hates me and decided to crap on my foot and not put the little html thing on the end of the file. Then my printer choked on its butt cheek and didn't print my fanfic out, so I had to write it all down. Then I come to this computer and type up my fanfic all over again. Now I'm writing this author's note. I can only hope that I haven't just typed this thing for nothing because I'm tired and my calves hurt. Mooo. Anyway, I'll stop whining now and talk about what I'm going to do with this fanfic. It starts out with Inu-Yasha and Kagome meeting as children. They are neighbors for a few years. Kagome moves away. Inu-Yasha goes on. Kagome moves back, and it goes from there. It's alternate reality, and Inu-Yasha is a human, but he has his white hair because I like it, and it's actually important for something I was to type about in this story. Heehee. Foreshadowing! *slaps self on the hand* I better stop writing this, or it might become longer than my fanfic! Wouldn't that suck?! I'll put up chapter two, which will be SOO much more interesting, if I get three reviews. I don't want to be greedy, since this is my first fanfic, and no one knows me. O.o ~Amaniachwen

P.S. I know Kagome doesn't actually say, "sit, boy," but I thought it would be cute for her to say it then. Most of the other characters, if not all of them, will be in this fanfic, as well, but you never know when one will pop up. *snicker*