Disclaimer: I only own Icari, the new guy, Saguaro and whatever new characters that comes along. Oh and the plot ^^

AN: Hmm… the voting's still on! I'll list stats at the end from now on so that you can see what's going on. Let's see… what do I have to talk about? Oh yeah! Looks like I've got yet more readers… although about two or three have actually reviewed more than once ^^. And I've heard something about 2500 reviews for non-payers. What's up with that? And to Dark Demon Princess (yes, I'm aware that I left out part of your name but it doesn't work with my spell check and the name's long ^^), your review confused me for a second there, heh, thanks for voting though! And to Anhimals, your name scared me for a second the cause I have a cousin whose name is like that. Lol, well, on with the chapter!

p.s. When they talk about ages for demons, their talking in demon years. That's just about how they look. For example, Inuyasha looks about fifteen and Sesshomaru looks about 20. That's their age in demon years, although we all know they're more then fifty years old.

p.p.s. Thanks to Destroyer DRT for telling me about this. I messed up. Sorry bud!

Icari
Chapter 19

 She had been avoiding him the best she could, and he knew it. It was hard not to when you knew someone their whole life. Technically, they met when she was nine but… that was at least eight years in itself. Yes, half of their lives were together, but then after he came…

 Yasuo eyed Icari, who was not looking anywhere near him, from the other side of the group. She was walking out front and he was in the back. Quite frankly, it never settled him to have someone behind him. Icari knew that, and was using it to her advantage. But he wanted to talk to her.

 He was thinking back to the days when they were traveling together, and how she slowly pushed through his thoughts into the thing he thought most about. She had captured all of his attention by the time they were fifteen. Then the other dog demon came, Hiro. That was the one that had captured her heart, and pulled her away from him. Yasuo wanted to pry them apart, but not desperately enough so that he would kill the other dog demon. And, because Icari was happy, he had let them be to drown in his own misery.

 But a war came one day, and Hiro had to leave. It was a war between his tribe and a snake demon group. The war lasted over three weeks, with Icari praying that Hiro would be alive. He didn't survive, and Yasuo had come back to her, ready to comfort her and wait for the day that she was strong enough, mentally, for him to tell her his own feelings.

 But she had sensed it. She had realized what he hadn't said, and she was afraid. Icari had given Hiro everything, and didn't want to go on. Besides, he was her best friend and guardian.

 "Nothing?" The dog hanyou asked quietly to the miko girl beside him. Yasuo knew that this was Icari's little brother; their looks were almost the same. And the two directly in front of him, the other dog youkai and a human girl not much younger than the others. The youkai was another of Icari's brothers, the older one. She had always talked about them fondly, despite the many fights. She had always talked about what it was like to have a family, the one thing that Yasuo had never had.

 "No, nothing." The kitsune pounced up to the girl beside the hanyou before jumping onto the hanyou himself, then jumping around. "Shippo, how did you get into my backpack? I said no more candy for a while!" The kitsune boy giggled.

 "Inuyasha should've told you! He saw me!" That, Yasuo understood, was the tiny family that Icari's little brother had. His mate was a human, and the kitsune was adoptive. The oddest pack he had ever encountered.

 "Inuyasha, is that true?"

 "Uh… no?" Then, the bickering between the two started. Yes, the oddest pack he had ever crossed. He realized there was a bit more warmth to his side than was a moment ago, and turned, surprised to see that Icari had joined his side.

 "It's annoying when they fight like this." He nodded. It was the first time he had heard them fight, and he knew that already, it was going to get on his nerves. He looked at her questioningly, but she wasn't going to see; she had her hood up.

 "I was wondering… what are we going to do now that we've found all the swords?" He shrugged and looked forward, for once not thinking about his own troubles, but wondering about the swords.

 "I guess you have to find the wielder that's supposed to use the sword." She still hadn't even given him a glance, but talking to him was a start.

 "A wielder? But Papa never even wanted the sword made. There's no one we know of that should wield the sword. Besides, it's too dangerous. That sword controls the afterlife." He nodded.

 "But that's the challenge: not knowing what comes next." She nodded, but then reached into her folds and pulled out three stones. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the stones were carved, somehow, and reached for them. "What are these?"

 "Lady Kaede gave them to us. She can see something in them, and suspects it has something to do with the swords." He squinted at the four stones, and saw that there was some kind of material cloaking it. Though, it had the same texture as rock.

 "A spell?" With the flick of his fingers, droplets of water came from all directions. He held them in his other hands, and turned it into a large bubble, turning it a swirling reddish purple mass. He trickled it all over the stones, and let them soak right into them. He felt Icari's curious stare and explained it to her. "It's a revival spell, the red stuff anyways. The purple is used to remove spells and anything else, though it may take a while to finish."

 "A spell? But those are only rock. Lady Kaede and Lady Kagome didn't seem to sense any spells or anything." She looked at the rocks intently. "Could it really?"

 "Yes, I'm sure. Water demons have a special ability to be very sensitive about magic. We have a bit of magical particles in our blood too, I've just never told you." He shrugged and waited for the water to completely disappear, the sign that meant the spell had done its work.

 "Hey! You two coming?" Inuyasha called from way up ahead. Icari and Yasuo looked up to see the group way up ahead.

 "I guess we stopped without knowing it." She smiled, like she used to, and turned to her brother. "We're coming! Come on Yasuo!" She turned and tugged on his robes, bringing him along with her as he ran. Yasuo covered his hands to keep the water from falling out. But there was none…

 "Lady Icari…" a black world pulled him into its grasp.

*~*~*~*~*

 "Yasuo!" Icari stopped and turned when his weight pulled her down a bit. He had fainted, and was now on the ground. "Yasuo, wake up? What's wrong?" she was tugging at him helplessly when his hand let go of the four talismans. There was a gasp from Kagome when the talismans stopped, and Icari could hear her quick talking. But her attention was on Yasuo, her childhood friend who had just fainted.

 "Damn you Yasuo, the spell drained you, didn't it? Why the hell didn't you tell me?" She turned him over and got ready to pick him up when Inuyasha came with Kagome.

 "What happened, Icari?" Inuyasha let his woman down and helped her lift Yasuo onto Icari's back. Only then did Kagome kneel down to pick up four stones that were at their feet.

 "Yasuo did something to the talismans, but the spell must've drained him. We have to set up camp and help him heal." Inuyasha nodded.

 "There's another clearing up ahead. Bring him there. Kagome?" He turned to the raven haired girl who was on the ground, looking at something in her hands in awe.

 "I'll say he did something. There's some kind of energy here." She stood and turned to Inuyasha. "Take me there; I think I'll have to talk to Yasuo when he wakes up." She climbed up on Inuyasha's back and let him bring her into the clearing.

*~*~*~*~*

 "Miroku," Kagome said when he entered the clearing. She held out the talisman and showed it to him, "you're a monk. Can you read this?" The words on the talismans were old, older that the feudal era's encryptions, and with him being a monk, Miroku was probably expected to know what thy meant. Already, Icari, Sesshomaru and Inuyasha didn't know what it said.

 "Of course, Lady Kagome. I will try." He kneeled down and twisted the little ornament until his face brightened with a look of comprehension. "Lady Kagome, this only says death." Kagome nodded, and handed out another, while taking the one from Miroku and setting it down.

 "What about this?" He studied it the same way as the last one.

 "It says life." Kagome took it and set it down, a bit to the right of the first. She held out the last two and Miroku took them, before inspecting them the same way. "Growth and spirit." He said simply.

 "Thank you, Miroku, that's all I needed to know." She set the other two down, one to the left and one to the right of the death talisman. "Now, I wonder, why were these made anyways?" she laid down on her stomach, pointed at each one, right to left. "Sesshomaru, Icari, Inuyasha, and the last one. How odd…" She closed her eyes and concentrated on the stones, like Lady Kaede had taught her, to analyze the magic in them.

 "A cloaking spell, like Icari had said. It must've been something…" She was broken out of her musings as the demoness let out a little yelp.

 "Yasuo! You're awake!" there was a moments silence before Icari lunged at the water demon, grabbing bits of his robe and shaking him roughly. "Yasuo! Why did you drain yourself? I could've waited until we were at a place fit to faint at! Why I ought to-"

 Kagome smiled and stood up. These two weren't that much different from Inuyasha and herself. Now, she had to get over there before Icari started to beat the poor demon into a bloody pulp.

 Inuyasha was walking beside her the second she stood, and she smiled. "Kagome, what is it that the demon even did to the talismans anyways?" she took his arm and pulled herself towards him.

 "It looks like he restored them, so that the encryptions are untouched, but your sister says he neutralized the cloaking spell on it too, which is… interesting. We're going to find out more about what's going on now."

 "So, the demon is magical? Isn't that impossible? Demon blood is tainted, and miko powers are supposed to purify…" he trailed off, looking away from her, and Kagome knew he was ashamed of something he shouldn't be.

 "Inuyasha, you aren't tainted." She then frowned. "What do you even think they mean when they say demons need to be purified?"

 "How do you think humans and demon's are different?" He still wasn't comfortable with something. She smiled and kissed his cheek.

 "Not much difference between them." He smiled and held her hand.

*~*~*~*~*

Uncharacteristically sappy ending, but I needed to fill up space. *sigh* I was never good a romance. Anyways, stats for voting.

 A) Icari and Yasuo become mates {1 vote}
 B) Icari and Yasuo stay friends {0 votes}
 C) They never meet again after the end. {0 votes}