Ah, yet another chapter ^_^ I really shouldn't be writing two stories at once, but oh well!

And, of course, I don't own Inu Yasha!

To Live Again

Chapter 1: Just Another Day

*Ring Ring* Kagome's arm flew out from under her and slammed down on her alarm clock 'Damn…thing! And it was to a good part too!' Her dream had been so vivid. The tall, hunky man of her dreams (literally) was leaning down to whisper sweet nothings into her ear, when those sweet nothings had turned into some sort of ringing noise.

After slamming on her alarm clock a few more times, it dawned on Kagome that it was not her alarm clock ringing, but in fact her phone. She crawled over to the edge of her bed and reached for it, slowly beginning to join the world of the living, or at least the awake.

"Moshi Moshi" she greeted, half asleep.

"Kagome-chan?" A voice she recognized as Yurika, from work, greeted her back.

"Yes?" More and more awake, Kagome wanted to hit something. Instead, she settled for grabbing her pillow into a death grip 'She wouldn't! Not again!...No, not on my only day off!'

"Ah Kagome-chan? Would you mind filling in fro me today?"

'She did!' Kagome's mind screamed, her knuckles turning white from her grip on the pillow. Oh, they all knew she was a sucker, too nice to say no! 'Dammit!!'

With a sighed "Alright", Kagome hung up with Yurika and looked at the clock. '5:30' glared back in bright red numbers.

"5:30! Who calls at 5:30 in the morning anyways?" Kagome yelled and threw her pillow at the wall. Taking a few deep breaths and counting to ten, she walked over and picked up her poor pillow and headed back for bed. Luckily, she had a few hours before she had to get up for work…again. 'This is the third week in a row without a day off! I'm gonna completely freak if I don't get sometime to myself soon!'

*~*~*

Kagome looked herself over in the mirror one more time before she left for work. Brushing some imaginary lint off of her navy blue turtle-neck sweater, she then straightened her already straightened blue and green plaid skirt that came to just above her knees in a flowing fashion. She was always self-conscious about how she presented herself, a trait that had been imbedded by her mother. 'A person who looks good, does good.' She could almost hear her mother's voice, even though she lived about 30 miles from her. Grabbing her purse and slipping on her shoes, she headed out for another day of work.

The walk to work wasn't too long, just enough to get a little exercise. Kagome used this time to think about her life, and the lack thereof. Here she was, 20, living on her own in a nice two room apartment. She had a good job at a bookstore, went to a good college, and had a good boyfriend. Life was good, right?

'Yeah, keep telling yourself that!' She told herself and sighed. Ok, life wasn't that good. Yeah, she had her own apartment, but money was tight and all of it went towards paying her bills and for food. She was lucky she got into such a good school, and a scholarship no less. Her job was ok, if not boring. And she was there way too much. 'Thank god its summer break!'

Good boyfriend? Yeah right. He wasn't even her boyfriend, not that it wasn't from a lack of him trying. Hojo had always been nice to her, but she just never really felt that way about him. He just didn't get it! She tried to be as nice as she could and pretty much told him she wasn't interested, but he couldn't catch a hint if it had been the plague.

Sure, she had her friends…a little. Since High School, Eri, Yuka, and Ayame weren't around as much. They had their own lives, own schools, own works to worry about. Once in a while they would get together, but they were no longer as close as they used to be. She missed them a little, but life went on.

She had a few new friends though. There were her co-workers…although most of them just used her kindness in their own favor. One though was a real friend, Sango. She worked with her at the bookstore. In fact, she was one of the managers, and had gotten her the job in the first place. They had met at the college. Though their majors were different (Kagome's being Religious Studies and Sango's being Asian History) they ended up having almost all the same classes.

There was another, err, somewhat friend. His name was Miroku. He was also majoring in Religious Studies and seemed to have a crush on Sango, not that he would tell her. He was too busy groping the women around him to talk too long about feelings. But, deep down, Kagome could tell that he was a good man. Now if they could only work on his lecherous behavior, he might stand more than a snowball's chance in hell with Sango.

And of course, she did still have her family. Even though she didn't live there anymore, she was still close with her Mother, and often went home to visit. There was her Mom, Souta, her younger brother, and Grandpa. Also, there was her little cousin Shippo who had come to stay with the family after his parents had died in a car crash when he was only 2. That had been three years ago, and he was now 5. She tried to get over to see them as much as possible, but with college, and now work almost everyday (who was she kidding, it WAS everyday), she hadn't had the change to lately.

'Maybe I'll go home and visit after work today' she thought to herself and then stopped her ponderings, seeing that she was before her work.

Going through the door, she was greeted by the smiling face of her friend, "Kagome-chan! What are you doing here? Isn't today your day off?"

Kagome groaned and put her purse behind the counter when the register sat, "Don't remind me! Yurika called me at 5:30 this morning to ask if I could work for her!"

Sango sighed and shook her head, bending it down over the purchase log she was working on, "Kagome-chan, when are you going to stop letting people walk all over you?"

Kagome also sighed, "It's not like I like it you know. It's just…too hard to say no!"

Sango looked up and laughed, "You just need practice, Kagome-chan. Maybe I should send Miroku-san to you so that you can practice saying 'no' to his constant lecherous questions."

Kagome smirked at her friend as she tied a light blue apron around her waist, "Oh no Sango-chan, I believe that's something he has personally dedicated to you." She eeped and ducked as Sango tossed a pencil at her head.

"Well, whatever. If you can't say no, then go put those new arrivals on the shelf before the boss gets here." Sango said in a snotty voice.

"Maybe I'll start practicing on you! No!" Kagome laughed as another pencil flew by her head, "Ok Ok! I'm going!" She laughed and headed for the back storeroom.

*~*~*

Sesshou Maru (a.k.a Sesshomaru ^_^) looked in his mirror and straightened his tie for the umpteenth time. He had been around for over a thousand years now, yet still felt it necessary to look dignified whenever he went out. Like now. He was heading to his business, a fairly profitable bookstore that he owned. He never really worked, no, that was below someone of his stature (though not many people knew him as the "Lord of the Western Lands" anymore, just the owner of "Western Lands Books"). Instead, he just went to oversee what the managers he had hired did to the place, and to make sure he approved of course.

Glancing at his figure one more time, he gracefully excited the room. He still had his long, whitish-silver hair that hung to his waist, accompanied by his golden eyes. Unfortunately, to blend in with the human population (regardless of how much it annoyed him) he had had to make his youkai markings disappear, a simple act for someone of his standings. He always dressed respectably, in business suits (although he missed his old white outfit). This day he was wearing an expensive, designer suit that was a dark blue color.

As he gracefully descended the steps, his ear twitched as he heard the *ding ding* that accompanied his nephew's play station. The sound was coming from the downstairs living room. So, of course, he headed in that direction. Peering into the room with his usual cold expression, the sight that greeted him did nothing but make the expression deepen.

There was his nephew, sitting about 2 inches from the TV, playing that game again. Did he honestly have nothing better to do?

"You, Yasha, don't you have better things to do than play that game all day?"

Without turning around to even look at him, Yasha replied, "Nope!"

The usual expressionless, cold face of Sesshou cracked into a frown as he looked at what was his 'nephew'. He wasn't actually his nephew, though they could have looked it. Yasha also had long whitish-silver hair and golden eyes. But, living for as many centuries as Sesshou had, you learn a few things. And you meet a few reincarnates. Yasha was one of those.

Except, he was the reincarnation of his dead brother, Inu Yasha, who had died over 500 years ago by the hand of the human he had loved. He had never cared for his brother, but still had felt compelled to take Yasha in when he had discovered him as a baby. His parents had died of 'unknown causes' and the boy had been brought to the hospital with the police man who had found him. He had been there himself for some stupid fundraising event he had helped fund for some reason or another. He really couldn't remember all the places he gave money to. So, when he had realized the soul inside the boy was that of his deceased hanyou brother, he felt an urge to adopt him. With all of his donations to the hospital, no one thought twice about allowing the boy to him. And that is where they found themselves now, 21 years later, him raising Yasha as an Uncle.

Now, as 'Uncle Sesshou' watched Yasha play the game, and completely ignore him, he yet again felt that hatred of his hanyou brother rise up in him, "Yasha! Turn off that game now!"

Yasha sort of snorted and paused the game. Looking at his uncle out of the corner of his eyes, he glared at him, "What?!?"

Sesshou narrowed his eyes at him 'Completely worthless!' Then an idea dawned on him. "Yasha, get dressed. We are going somewhere."

Yasha raised his eyebrow in suspicion. Since when did Uncky Sesshou take him anywhere? "Why?"

"Cause I said so!" Sesshou snapped before he quickly re-gathered himself. "You do nothing around here except take up space and food. From now on, you are going to work!

Eyes going wide, he stood up from his spot in front of the TV, "WHAT!"

Sesshou kept his eyes narrowed as he glared back at him, "You heard me. You are going to work at my bookstore. At least then you'll be doing something productive."

"I AM doing something productive!"

"Other than taking up air?" Sesshou said with a slight hint of sarcasm. (Slight!)

"I'm NOT going to work with you! That's final!!"

*~*~*

Yasha grumbled all the way to the bookstore from the passenger seat of Sesshou's Mercedes. "Stupid…lousy…uncle!"

"Yasha, I can hear you." Sesshou pointed out to him in a reasonably calm voice, though the circumstances. He was now an hour late, since he had to practically drag Yasha by the hair to get him into the car. 'Damn brat's as bad as my brother…wait, that's right, he is my brother by nature, isn't he?' Slightly shaking his head from the thoughts, he pulled into the back parking lot of the store.

"Now listen carefully, Yasha. You will work, you will listen to your superiors, and you will behave yourself, understand? I will NOT put up with you slacking off around work as you do at home!"

"Feh, whatever." Yasha crossed his arms and looked out the window.

"Alright, let's go in."

*~*~*

The two entered the store to find it already bustling with activity for 10:30 in the morning. Looking for the manager he had on duty, he found her at the main register, chatting with a customer.

"Yasha. I'm going to speak with the manager now. You…stay here and DON'T touch anything!" With that he strode away quickly towards the front of the store.

"Feh, like I would." He mumbled to himself and looked around the store. It was actually a pretty good sized store. Of course, he had never been there before; it was a book store after all. But, it didn't look too bad.

He heard a 'thump' to his right and, walking down the row, spotted a girl picking up a box of books she had apparently dropped. He watched as she bent over to pick them up, her ebony locks falling over her shoulder. From where he was standing, she looked to have a nice body, with long legs and…'Oh crap! She's looking at me!' The girl glanced at him, and the direction his eyes had been, and jumped up quickly.

"Excuse me! Just what are you looking at!" She accused, a blush rising to her cheeks.

A small blush formed on his as well. It's not like he was a pervert or anything, but come on! A girl, in a skirt, keeling down in front of him, bending to pick stuff up off the floor? He'd have to be a monk to not notice (no pun intended, I swear…^_~).

"I…wasn't looking at anything, wench!" Ah yes, due to a lack of outside-contact, and too many video games, Yasha's vocabulary AND people skills were a little on the, ah, non-existent side.

"Wench? Wench? Just WHO do you think you're calling a wench, mister?" She pointed her finger at him and walked closer to poke him in the chest.

"Who else am I talking to? And, knock that off!" He lightly slapped her finger away. 'Wow, this girl is pretty hot…especially when she's mad!'

"Well, at least I'm not some pervert, looking up girls skirts!" She shot back, giving him a look that could kill, if looks did that sort of thing. (Which they don't)

"Feh, who'd want to look at a wench like you anyways?" His mind told him to shut up, but since when did he listen to his head anyways? It only got him in trouble.

"Ah! My name is not wench! It's Kagome! Ka-Go-Me!"

"Yasha!" Sesshou's voice called to him coldly as both Yasha and Kagome looked at him.

'Oh, so that's why this jerk looks so familiar!' Kagome thought to herself, 'They must be related!' Then that thought dug deeper into her head. 'Oh shit, wait, they're related! CRAP CRAP CRAP!' She watched as her boss approached, eyes widening a bit.

"Yasha, I see you have met Kagome. Report up to the front desk immediately, Sango will tell you what to do first."

Grumbling still, Yasha sent one last glare at Kagome before trudging up to the front.

Sesshou turned towards the girl and nodded his head, "I am sorry if my nephew has offended you in anyway. He is…not a very personable person."

Kagome, nervous at talking to the big boss man, laughed, "Oh, no problem!" 'Yeah, I get called a wench every day!' Her mind gave her sarcastic answer.

Nodding slightly again, Sesshou took his leave from her and headed out the back door from where he came in. He, of course, didn't need to lower himself to actually work.

Oi! That's it! (For now! ^_^)

Let me know if ya'll like it! I have a really good idea for this story, but only if people review and tell me to continue *hint hint*