Chapter 4 revised. (2.6.04) ^-^
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha but I do own Tama so hands of!! (I own her character, not her appearance and you'll see what I mean if you just read it)
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To Be With You Tomorrow
Part Two :: Tama
Chapter Four :: Mirror Image
Kagome paused. That one moment was all the demon needed. The demon raised a hand with claws that looked suspiciously like Inuyasha's. "You're lying. I can tell when humans lie!! Kikyou... I'll kill you!" She charged and Kagome closed her eyes.
"INUYASHA!!!!"
~*~
Inuyasha slumped over his knees, pouting as he casually plucked at the lush leaves of one of the trees in Inuyasha Forest. Shippou's words repeated themselves over and over in his head until angrily he slashed with one hand and the nearby branch slid off, crashing to the forest floor noisily.
*Damn kitsune brat. He always knows just what to say to grind my nerves.*
Inuyasha would not have been half as disturbed had he not thought Shippou was right. Inuyasha just had bad experience with women. *Mom, Tama, Kikyou, Kagome... And the only one I have to show for it is Kagome, and even that is because of Sesshoumaru... I didn't have anything to do with her resurrection... Dammit.*
"INUYASHA!!!!"
Inuyasha snapped to it, his ears picking out the delicate voice that was so obviously Kagome. She was near, and she was in danger. *KAGOME~!*
The hanyou dropped from the tree at an angle, racing forward even as he fell. *Fuck; I'm over here brooding and I'm gonna let her die-- again!!! Kagome...! ...Wait for me!!*
As he ran towards the Goshinboku he gasped. *This scent again!! It's stronger than before...!!* It was disgustingly familiar. He knew this girl, intimately. They had been together for years before Kikyou. But.. but she was… *N.. No way!!! It's impossible!!*
~*~
"EYAAAH!!" Kagome twisted to the side and the demon in black smashed her claws into the tree behind Kagome. The demon growled low. "Dammit, nimble little bitch!!
With a yelp Kagome forced herself to her feet and scrambled for safety; she wasn't far from the well. If she could leap in, she could wait and come back in a little while--
CRUNCH! An entire tree was sliced down behind her and Kagome squealed again. "Uwaaa!!!! Lemme alone, I didn't do anything!!!"
"Kikyou you low, selfish bitch, have you forgotten what you did to him fifty years ago?!!" Another swipe with deadly claws just barely missed Kagome's head as the young miko dropped to the ground.
"It... wasn't me!! I'm Kagome!!! Not Kikyou!!" She glared at the demon. "Just who the hell are you anyway?!! How do you know Inuyasha?!! Did..." Kagome glared at her. "Did you love him?!!"
The demon paused and in her gestures Kagome noticed a hint of confusion. "I can't believe you don't remember!! Typical. You snubbed your nose at us, me and Inuyasha! You always thought we were wrong for what we wanted to become! For what we were!! That's why you wanted him to be human too!!"
"It wasn't me, don't you get it yet!?!" Kagome trilled again. "I don't even know you!!" *Was she in love with him? His lover before Kikyou??!* Kagome wondered. "Show me your face!!!"
The demon's right hand raised almost to her head level, "If that's the last thing you want to see before I kill you--" Kagome winced, readying herself for an attack, but realized it wasn't coming when instead the demon reached up and ripped away the black cloak around her head.
Kagome stared at the girl-demon and gasped in shock. "You.. look..."
She looked exactly like Inuyasha.
Actually, her face sort of looked like Inuyasha's mother, whom Kagome had seen a long time ago when Sesshoumaru used a fake to lure in Inuyasha, except that the girl looked about 17 or 18 years old. The same age as Inuyasha. Her hair was silvery-white, eyes a bold yellow-amber and slitted like his.
Messy bangs covered her eyes and at the sides of her face were two rather messy tails like Inuyasha's, tied off with a pair of violet cord. They even shared ears. A pair of white, furry dog ears sat perched atop her head. Her hair was long in the back, even longer than Inuyasha's, but it had been pulled back into a ponytail halfway down. She wore a blood red yukata, probably of the same hi-nezumi material Inuyasha's was, and black leggings underneath.
Kagome stared. "Who.. are you?!"
The girl snorted, looking VERY LIKE Inuyasha when he was pissed. "You still don't remember, huh? I guess you're stupider than everyone thought. Well it doesn't matter. Inu-chan will thank me when I'm finished with you!! Prepare to die!!"
*Inu-chan~~??? Since when would he have ever LIKED being called that~?!* Kagome gasped once as the female hanyou took to the air, claws glowing a bright reddish-orange color and ready to slice her to bits, when she heard--
"TAMA DON'T!!"
Kagome opened her eyes to see Inuyasha slide in between the female hanyou and herself, and the girl-demon gasped, but not in time to stop her attack. Her claws slashed Inuyasha across the chest and he grunted in pain, taking the attack head on.
Kagome grabbed at him. "Inuyasha~!!" He glanced at her, sweat beading his forehead. "I'm okay... just a scratch," he assured her. "You're bleeding. Are you alright?"
"It's nothing, I--" Before she could finish, she heard Miroku's distinct voice call her name. "Kagome-sama!!!!!" She turned, seeing Miroku, Sango, Shippou and Kaede coming towards them. Shippou, having smelled her blood, leaped up into her arms and hugged her neck worriedly. "Kagome, are you alright?!!"
Kaede went to Kagome and looked over the girl's injured arm, while Miroku and Sango took places between the girl-demon --Tama, as Inuyasha had called her-- and Inuyasha.
The girl-demon had gone into a state of silent shock when she saw Inuyasha, but now she returned to a fighting stance, cracking her knuckles. "Hn. More humans. Not like I can't kill these easily enough..."
Sango readied Hiraikotsu. "So this is the demon we've been messing around with for two days now, huh? You don't look so tough, hanyou."
"Sango...wait..."
Inuyasha was gasping, the wound obviously worse than they thought, as he stumbled towards the girl-demon. Her look softened immeasurably and she went forward to hold him up. "Inu-chan!!"
He laughed a little. "I toldja, don't fucking call me that. I hate that name." She narrowed her eyes, ignoring the comment. "I'm sorry, it's the poison… Are you alright? Shouldn't be that big of a hit."
"I'm fine. It takes a bit more than hanyou poison to take me out, I'm the same as you, remember?" She narrowed her eyes suddenly and bopped him on the head, almost letting him fall into the dirt. \
"That's right, you jerk!! You and I ARE the same!! We share the same blood and yet you're protecting ~her~?! That bitch Kikyou who pinned you against that tree for fifty years?!!"
"That's not Kikyou, Tama... That's Kagome... Kikyou's dead."
"Really??!! But they look so much alike!!"
Tama peered around Inuyasha's shoulder and looked at Kagome closely. After a moment her nose wrinkled as she sniffed a little bit. Then she said, "Oh wow, you're right. It's isn't her!!" She lifted her hand in a wave and smiled almost stupidly. "Heh heh, sorry about that!!!"
Kagome blinked a few times. "Why do I feel like she's not that apologetic...?"
"Unh..." Inuyasha groaned as Tama's poison continued to work it's way through his system and both Kagome and Tama gasped. "Inuyasha..!!"
~*~
"Really, I'm okay..." Inuyasha growled and Kagome pulled tight on the bandages. He yelped. "OW! What'd ya do that for?!!"
Kagome narrowed her eyes. "You're being stupid!! I don't care if you heal fast or not, you were poisoned and you're not out of danger yet!! So sit down, shut up and let me take care of you!"
"Che~ you act like I'm some little kid who needs help with every damn thing he does." Her face softened. "I'm just worried about you..."
"Damn humans," Tama snarled, "You can't put us on the same level with you. Kikyou used to do that too. Stupid woman." Inuyasha looked over at the other hanyou with a mischievous glare, as if he was about to reveal something the other would have rather kept in the dark. "You act as if you never used to do this too..."
Tama's eyes widened. "Wh-what?! What kind of bullshit are you spewing now?!" she demanded and Inuyasha laughed, turning to Kagome. "Every time I got into a fight and got one tiny little scrape, you would've thought my stomach was hanging out of me, she would make such a fuss."
Tama blushed bright red. "T-t-that was okay for me!! You're the only family I have!!" Kagome blinked. "You mean you're related?"
"What, you can't tell?" Both Tama and Inuyasha asked in unison. Sango edged away from them, clinging to Miroku. "Scary..."
Kagome blinked at Tama. "Then you're.. what? His sister?"
"My twin." Inuyasha corrected.
"Inuyasha has a twin sister~?!!" Shippou wailed, "This is really scary now!! There are two Inuyasha's!!"
"They are nearly identical," Kaede mused, and Inuyasha nodded. "With the exception of gender, yeah. Almost everything about us is alike. Except as a man, I'm stronger and faster. That's why she has these horrible poison claws..." He glared down at his wound.
"How come we've never seen you before?" Miroku asked and Tama shrugged, looking away from him and averting her eyes from Inuyasha completely. Inuyasha looked at Miroku. "It's like I told you before, when you first asked me about the scent. I thought she was dead."
Tama seemed surprised at his answer, as if he was telling a completely new story to her. They were all quiet as Inuyasha started to tug his shirt back on. He looked at them and began, "It happened just before I found out about the Shikon no Tama. Back then, when we were about 16, Tama and I were always together. We had to be. We got each other out of the worst shit you could imagine."
Tama narrowed her eyes but nodded, not taking her eyes off Inuyasha. "And then one day..."
~*~
"Damned nasty Oni!!" Inuyasha snarled, flipping up and over the ogre. The Oni, not realizing there was a second hanyou nearby, swiped into the air at the one he could see and Tama, from behind, slashed at the Oni's legs with her claws. "Gotcha ya sonnuva bitch!" She crowed triumphantly.
The monster roared, falling back onto his stumps of thighs. Inuyasha snatched up the dinner he and Tama had worked so hard to steal from the creature. "Ha ha, ya missed, ya fucking nasty Oni!!"
"Inuyasha, did you get it~?!"
"Yep!! Let's go before he gets up; he's too fucking big and I'm too hungry to fight anymore!"
As the pair darted through the woods, Inuyasha slowed suddenly, recognizing a particular scent in the air. "Rain?"
Almost as soon as he said it, the heavens opened and the rains came, harder than ever. Tama, her hair and hi-nezumi kimono that matched her twin's soaked to her skin, stood next to him. "We should get home before it really starts up. I hate having to dry my clothes all the time."
"Yeah."
"Home" wasn't really anywhere; today it was a cave they had found nearby the forest that would eventually become Inuyasha no Mori (a/n; not that either of them knew it at the time, lol). The rain was getting so bad that the pair could hardly see. But they were dog-demon hanyous, and they had their noses.
As they neared the river that cut off the forest from the cave, Inuyasha turned to speak in Tama's general direction as he could not see her anymore. "The river's flooded, are you gonna be able to jump that?"
"Do I look like a fucking wimp to you or what? I'm your older sister by thirteen minutes, I can take anything you can!" she boasted, pushing him aside, and Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. "Tama, don't..."
She backed up and took a running start, and as she neared the edge, the ground underneath her feet broke away and she slipped into the river. Inuyasha lurched forward, not able to see her still, but also no longer able to smell her. His hand waved aimlessly in the rain, searching for anything of her to latch onto. "Tama?!! Hey, Tama where the hell did you go?!!!"
No answer except the rushing of the river rapids and the thundering of the rain against the ground. "TAMA~~!"
~*~
"I waited at the cave for days after that... hoping she would come back... But she never did. After that, when I heard about Kikyou and the Shikon no Tama, I decided to pursue that. And you guys know how it happened after that." Inuyasha finished, closing his eyes and leaning against the wall, his arms folded over his chest.
"What happened to you after you fell in the river?" Kagome asked and Tama shrugged. "I washed ashore a little later I guess. I was fine. A little water-logged, but I was up and around in a week."
"And it took you a year to try and find me?" Inuyasha demanded angrily, and Tama glared at him. "You have no right to complain!! You didn't come looking for me either! You just waited for me to come crawling back home half-dead and when I didn't you gave up. Half my life I spent protecting you and for what; you didn't even care about me! Traitor!"
The rest of group recoiled, not wanting to be in the middle of a fight fueled by sibling rivalry, and Inuyasha stood up, glowering over his sister. "Bull! It was the same for me, don't you remember?! Don't act like you were the only one doing all the work cause you were a fucking handful!! And who betrayed who, huh? Why the hell didn't you come home?!!"
Tama jumped to her feet, sticking her nose in Inuyasha's face. "Baka no Inuyasha!! Baka baka baka baka!! That's ALWAYS what you were!! Falling in love with some stupid human woman and leaving me behind!!!"
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What?"
Tears gathered in Tama's eyes. "I came home! I came home and you were with that… that Kikyou bitch! When I saw how.. how happy you were, I realized you didn't need me anymore!!! We were always together, like a single entity. We're twins!! And yet I was the one abandoned, for some stupid miko! You baka!"
And with that she ran for the hut. Inuyasha glared after her, one hand clenching into a fist, and then he spun on his heel, flopping down in one corner of the room. "Dammit, I don't fucking need this now... damned woman."
Kagome leapt to her feet, incredulous. "Go after her!" Inuyasha looked at Kagome like she had asked him to stand on his head. "What the hell for? She started it."
The teenager was shocked. "She's your SISTER!" The hanyou snorted and rolled over onto his side, his back facing Kagome. "Like I care. Tama's a pain in my ass and she always has been. Besides, it's been years since I've seen her. Things have changed alot since then."
Kagome gaped open-mouthed at him and then turned on her heel, following the girl-demon out of the hut.
~*~
"Snf. Snf snf..."
It wasn't hard to find the other hanyou, even in the dark of the night forest. The sounds of her crying led Kagome straight to her. She stopped underneath one of the trees and called up into it, "Tama-chan?" The sniffling stopped and a pair of angry yellow eyes glared down at Kagome. "What the hell do you want?"
"Would you come down, I want to talk..."
"Leave me alone, no way some stupid human could understand me." Kagome sighed. *This is like serious deja vu. She's more like Inuyasha than she seems. She's also alot LESS like him if she was that open with her emotions in front of people she's just met... Or he just really means alot to her.*
"Please? I sort of know how you feel... being betrayed by Inuyasha..." Kagome said softly. Although she hated saying it that way... she knew.
Tama looked down at her in surprise, but then turned away, snorting scornfully. For a long time they were silent and then Tama heard a rustling underneath her. Kagome was sitting down at the roots of the tree, patting her skirt as she got comfortable. Tama paid her no attention and gazed vacantly into the forest.
After a long moment she said, "You're in love with him, aren't you?" At the surprised 'eep!' from Kagome Tama glanced down with a knowing smile. "I could tell. You had the same tone in your voice as I did with my husband."
"You were married?" asked the teenager with surprise and Tama nodded, her manner again becomign vacant. "Uh-huh. He died though."
"Oh, I'm sorry. How did he pass?" Tama looked down at with a bitter smile. "Old age. Humans don't last very long in comparison to us." Kagome looked away at the subtle indication that both Tama and Inuyasha were much older than they seemed. Both were at least 60 years old, but neither looked older than 17.
"What did you mean, you had been betrayed by Inuyasha?" Kagome was brought out of her thoughts by Tama's soft question and Kagome blushed. "Uhm, well.. just that... even though I love him and I'm here for him... Inuyasha still loves Kikyou..."
"Hmph. He's so stupid. After what she did to him?"
"Well... that's sort of a long story..."
"How long? I've got a couple centuries."
So Kagome spilled the story about Inuyasha and Kikyou's betrayal, and Naraku, and the Shikon no Tama.
When she was finished Tama sighed. "I see. He's so stupid." Kagome looked at her feet. "Tama-chan... He's your brother... I mean... Shouldn't you--"
Tama grinned. "--Talk nicer about him? I probably should, but... We just get tired of each other sometimes and the worst things come out of my mouth, even if I don't mean it. You know?"
"Yeah I do." Kagome laughed. "I have a brother too." Tama dropped from the tree and smiled at Kagome. "I think I like you. And I know Inuyasha does too."
"Eh?"
Tama gestured to her own eyes. "I can see it in him. He has the same expression in those beady little eyes of his as he did with Kikyou, except with you it's more... tender."
".........You too." Tama looked surprised and Kagome smiled. "I know you didn't see it because you were so angry, but... Inuyasha was hurt too, when you didn't come home. He felt betrayed too. And I know that he loves you. I could see it in his eyes too."
Tama grinned. "Thanks. Friends?" She stuck out her hand and Kagome clasped it. "Yep."
As they head back towards the hut, Tama leaned over and said, "But really, I am sorry about trying to kill you earlier... honestly!"
"Okay, I got it!!!"
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: ^-^
Okie ja!!
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
Tessen
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha but I do own Tama so hands of!! (I own her character, not her appearance and you'll see what I mean if you just read it)
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To Be With You Tomorrow
Part Two :: Tama
Chapter Four :: Mirror Image
Kagome paused. That one moment was all the demon needed. The demon raised a hand with claws that looked suspiciously like Inuyasha's. "You're lying. I can tell when humans lie!! Kikyou... I'll kill you!" She charged and Kagome closed her eyes.
"INUYASHA!!!!"
~*~
Inuyasha slumped over his knees, pouting as he casually plucked at the lush leaves of one of the trees in Inuyasha Forest. Shippou's words repeated themselves over and over in his head until angrily he slashed with one hand and the nearby branch slid off, crashing to the forest floor noisily.
*Damn kitsune brat. He always knows just what to say to grind my nerves.*
Inuyasha would not have been half as disturbed had he not thought Shippou was right. Inuyasha just had bad experience with women. *Mom, Tama, Kikyou, Kagome... And the only one I have to show for it is Kagome, and even that is because of Sesshoumaru... I didn't have anything to do with her resurrection... Dammit.*
"INUYASHA!!!!"
Inuyasha snapped to it, his ears picking out the delicate voice that was so obviously Kagome. She was near, and she was in danger. *KAGOME~!*
The hanyou dropped from the tree at an angle, racing forward even as he fell. *Fuck; I'm over here brooding and I'm gonna let her die-- again!!! Kagome...! ...Wait for me!!*
As he ran towards the Goshinboku he gasped. *This scent again!! It's stronger than before...!!* It was disgustingly familiar. He knew this girl, intimately. They had been together for years before Kikyou. But.. but she was… *N.. No way!!! It's impossible!!*
~*~
"EYAAAH!!" Kagome twisted to the side and the demon in black smashed her claws into the tree behind Kagome. The demon growled low. "Dammit, nimble little bitch!!
With a yelp Kagome forced herself to her feet and scrambled for safety; she wasn't far from the well. If she could leap in, she could wait and come back in a little while--
CRUNCH! An entire tree was sliced down behind her and Kagome squealed again. "Uwaaa!!!! Lemme alone, I didn't do anything!!!"
"Kikyou you low, selfish bitch, have you forgotten what you did to him fifty years ago?!!" Another swipe with deadly claws just barely missed Kagome's head as the young miko dropped to the ground.
"It... wasn't me!! I'm Kagome!!! Not Kikyou!!" She glared at the demon. "Just who the hell are you anyway?!! How do you know Inuyasha?!! Did..." Kagome glared at her. "Did you love him?!!"
The demon paused and in her gestures Kagome noticed a hint of confusion. "I can't believe you don't remember!! Typical. You snubbed your nose at us, me and Inuyasha! You always thought we were wrong for what we wanted to become! For what we were!! That's why you wanted him to be human too!!"
"It wasn't me, don't you get it yet!?!" Kagome trilled again. "I don't even know you!!" *Was she in love with him? His lover before Kikyou??!* Kagome wondered. "Show me your face!!!"
The demon's right hand raised almost to her head level, "If that's the last thing you want to see before I kill you--" Kagome winced, readying herself for an attack, but realized it wasn't coming when instead the demon reached up and ripped away the black cloak around her head.
Kagome stared at the girl-demon and gasped in shock. "You.. look..."
She looked exactly like Inuyasha.
Actually, her face sort of looked like Inuyasha's mother, whom Kagome had seen a long time ago when Sesshoumaru used a fake to lure in Inuyasha, except that the girl looked about 17 or 18 years old. The same age as Inuyasha. Her hair was silvery-white, eyes a bold yellow-amber and slitted like his.
Messy bangs covered her eyes and at the sides of her face were two rather messy tails like Inuyasha's, tied off with a pair of violet cord. They even shared ears. A pair of white, furry dog ears sat perched atop her head. Her hair was long in the back, even longer than Inuyasha's, but it had been pulled back into a ponytail halfway down. She wore a blood red yukata, probably of the same hi-nezumi material Inuyasha's was, and black leggings underneath.
Kagome stared. "Who.. are you?!"
The girl snorted, looking VERY LIKE Inuyasha when he was pissed. "You still don't remember, huh? I guess you're stupider than everyone thought. Well it doesn't matter. Inu-chan will thank me when I'm finished with you!! Prepare to die!!"
*Inu-chan~~??? Since when would he have ever LIKED being called that~?!* Kagome gasped once as the female hanyou took to the air, claws glowing a bright reddish-orange color and ready to slice her to bits, when she heard--
"TAMA DON'T!!"
Kagome opened her eyes to see Inuyasha slide in between the female hanyou and herself, and the girl-demon gasped, but not in time to stop her attack. Her claws slashed Inuyasha across the chest and he grunted in pain, taking the attack head on.
Kagome grabbed at him. "Inuyasha~!!" He glanced at her, sweat beading his forehead. "I'm okay... just a scratch," he assured her. "You're bleeding. Are you alright?"
"It's nothing, I--" Before she could finish, she heard Miroku's distinct voice call her name. "Kagome-sama!!!!!" She turned, seeing Miroku, Sango, Shippou and Kaede coming towards them. Shippou, having smelled her blood, leaped up into her arms and hugged her neck worriedly. "Kagome, are you alright?!!"
Kaede went to Kagome and looked over the girl's injured arm, while Miroku and Sango took places between the girl-demon --Tama, as Inuyasha had called her-- and Inuyasha.
The girl-demon had gone into a state of silent shock when she saw Inuyasha, but now she returned to a fighting stance, cracking her knuckles. "Hn. More humans. Not like I can't kill these easily enough..."
Sango readied Hiraikotsu. "So this is the demon we've been messing around with for two days now, huh? You don't look so tough, hanyou."
"Sango...wait..."
Inuyasha was gasping, the wound obviously worse than they thought, as he stumbled towards the girl-demon. Her look softened immeasurably and she went forward to hold him up. "Inu-chan!!"
He laughed a little. "I toldja, don't fucking call me that. I hate that name." She narrowed her eyes, ignoring the comment. "I'm sorry, it's the poison… Are you alright? Shouldn't be that big of a hit."
"I'm fine. It takes a bit more than hanyou poison to take me out, I'm the same as you, remember?" She narrowed her eyes suddenly and bopped him on the head, almost letting him fall into the dirt. \
"That's right, you jerk!! You and I ARE the same!! We share the same blood and yet you're protecting ~her~?! That bitch Kikyou who pinned you against that tree for fifty years?!!"
"That's not Kikyou, Tama... That's Kagome... Kikyou's dead."
"Really??!! But they look so much alike!!"
Tama peered around Inuyasha's shoulder and looked at Kagome closely. After a moment her nose wrinkled as she sniffed a little bit. Then she said, "Oh wow, you're right. It's isn't her!!" She lifted her hand in a wave and smiled almost stupidly. "Heh heh, sorry about that!!!"
Kagome blinked a few times. "Why do I feel like she's not that apologetic...?"
"Unh..." Inuyasha groaned as Tama's poison continued to work it's way through his system and both Kagome and Tama gasped. "Inuyasha..!!"
~*~
"Really, I'm okay..." Inuyasha growled and Kagome pulled tight on the bandages. He yelped. "OW! What'd ya do that for?!!"
Kagome narrowed her eyes. "You're being stupid!! I don't care if you heal fast or not, you were poisoned and you're not out of danger yet!! So sit down, shut up and let me take care of you!"
"Che~ you act like I'm some little kid who needs help with every damn thing he does." Her face softened. "I'm just worried about you..."
"Damn humans," Tama snarled, "You can't put us on the same level with you. Kikyou used to do that too. Stupid woman." Inuyasha looked over at the other hanyou with a mischievous glare, as if he was about to reveal something the other would have rather kept in the dark. "You act as if you never used to do this too..."
Tama's eyes widened. "Wh-what?! What kind of bullshit are you spewing now?!" she demanded and Inuyasha laughed, turning to Kagome. "Every time I got into a fight and got one tiny little scrape, you would've thought my stomach was hanging out of me, she would make such a fuss."
Tama blushed bright red. "T-t-that was okay for me!! You're the only family I have!!" Kagome blinked. "You mean you're related?"
"What, you can't tell?" Both Tama and Inuyasha asked in unison. Sango edged away from them, clinging to Miroku. "Scary..."
Kagome blinked at Tama. "Then you're.. what? His sister?"
"My twin." Inuyasha corrected.
"Inuyasha has a twin sister~?!!" Shippou wailed, "This is really scary now!! There are two Inuyasha's!!"
"They are nearly identical," Kaede mused, and Inuyasha nodded. "With the exception of gender, yeah. Almost everything about us is alike. Except as a man, I'm stronger and faster. That's why she has these horrible poison claws..." He glared down at his wound.
"How come we've never seen you before?" Miroku asked and Tama shrugged, looking away from him and averting her eyes from Inuyasha completely. Inuyasha looked at Miroku. "It's like I told you before, when you first asked me about the scent. I thought she was dead."
Tama seemed surprised at his answer, as if he was telling a completely new story to her. They were all quiet as Inuyasha started to tug his shirt back on. He looked at them and began, "It happened just before I found out about the Shikon no Tama. Back then, when we were about 16, Tama and I were always together. We had to be. We got each other out of the worst shit you could imagine."
Tama narrowed her eyes but nodded, not taking her eyes off Inuyasha. "And then one day..."
~*~
"Damned nasty Oni!!" Inuyasha snarled, flipping up and over the ogre. The Oni, not realizing there was a second hanyou nearby, swiped into the air at the one he could see and Tama, from behind, slashed at the Oni's legs with her claws. "Gotcha ya sonnuva bitch!" She crowed triumphantly.
The monster roared, falling back onto his stumps of thighs. Inuyasha snatched up the dinner he and Tama had worked so hard to steal from the creature. "Ha ha, ya missed, ya fucking nasty Oni!!"
"Inuyasha, did you get it~?!"
"Yep!! Let's go before he gets up; he's too fucking big and I'm too hungry to fight anymore!"
As the pair darted through the woods, Inuyasha slowed suddenly, recognizing a particular scent in the air. "Rain?"
Almost as soon as he said it, the heavens opened and the rains came, harder than ever. Tama, her hair and hi-nezumi kimono that matched her twin's soaked to her skin, stood next to him. "We should get home before it really starts up. I hate having to dry my clothes all the time."
"Yeah."
"Home" wasn't really anywhere; today it was a cave they had found nearby the forest that would eventually become Inuyasha no Mori (a/n; not that either of them knew it at the time, lol). The rain was getting so bad that the pair could hardly see. But they were dog-demon hanyous, and they had their noses.
As they neared the river that cut off the forest from the cave, Inuyasha turned to speak in Tama's general direction as he could not see her anymore. "The river's flooded, are you gonna be able to jump that?"
"Do I look like a fucking wimp to you or what? I'm your older sister by thirteen minutes, I can take anything you can!" she boasted, pushing him aside, and Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. "Tama, don't..."
She backed up and took a running start, and as she neared the edge, the ground underneath her feet broke away and she slipped into the river. Inuyasha lurched forward, not able to see her still, but also no longer able to smell her. His hand waved aimlessly in the rain, searching for anything of her to latch onto. "Tama?!! Hey, Tama where the hell did you go?!!!"
No answer except the rushing of the river rapids and the thundering of the rain against the ground. "TAMA~~!"
~*~
"I waited at the cave for days after that... hoping she would come back... But she never did. After that, when I heard about Kikyou and the Shikon no Tama, I decided to pursue that. And you guys know how it happened after that." Inuyasha finished, closing his eyes and leaning against the wall, his arms folded over his chest.
"What happened to you after you fell in the river?" Kagome asked and Tama shrugged. "I washed ashore a little later I guess. I was fine. A little water-logged, but I was up and around in a week."
"And it took you a year to try and find me?" Inuyasha demanded angrily, and Tama glared at him. "You have no right to complain!! You didn't come looking for me either! You just waited for me to come crawling back home half-dead and when I didn't you gave up. Half my life I spent protecting you and for what; you didn't even care about me! Traitor!"
The rest of group recoiled, not wanting to be in the middle of a fight fueled by sibling rivalry, and Inuyasha stood up, glowering over his sister. "Bull! It was the same for me, don't you remember?! Don't act like you were the only one doing all the work cause you were a fucking handful!! And who betrayed who, huh? Why the hell didn't you come home?!!"
Tama jumped to her feet, sticking her nose in Inuyasha's face. "Baka no Inuyasha!! Baka baka baka baka!! That's ALWAYS what you were!! Falling in love with some stupid human woman and leaving me behind!!!"
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What?"
Tears gathered in Tama's eyes. "I came home! I came home and you were with that… that Kikyou bitch! When I saw how.. how happy you were, I realized you didn't need me anymore!!! We were always together, like a single entity. We're twins!! And yet I was the one abandoned, for some stupid miko! You baka!"
And with that she ran for the hut. Inuyasha glared after her, one hand clenching into a fist, and then he spun on his heel, flopping down in one corner of the room. "Dammit, I don't fucking need this now... damned woman."
Kagome leapt to her feet, incredulous. "Go after her!" Inuyasha looked at Kagome like she had asked him to stand on his head. "What the hell for? She started it."
The teenager was shocked. "She's your SISTER!" The hanyou snorted and rolled over onto his side, his back facing Kagome. "Like I care. Tama's a pain in my ass and she always has been. Besides, it's been years since I've seen her. Things have changed alot since then."
Kagome gaped open-mouthed at him and then turned on her heel, following the girl-demon out of the hut.
~*~
"Snf. Snf snf..."
It wasn't hard to find the other hanyou, even in the dark of the night forest. The sounds of her crying led Kagome straight to her. She stopped underneath one of the trees and called up into it, "Tama-chan?" The sniffling stopped and a pair of angry yellow eyes glared down at Kagome. "What the hell do you want?"
"Would you come down, I want to talk..."
"Leave me alone, no way some stupid human could understand me." Kagome sighed. *This is like serious deja vu. She's more like Inuyasha than she seems. She's also alot LESS like him if she was that open with her emotions in front of people she's just met... Or he just really means alot to her.*
"Please? I sort of know how you feel... being betrayed by Inuyasha..." Kagome said softly. Although she hated saying it that way... she knew.
Tama looked down at her in surprise, but then turned away, snorting scornfully. For a long time they were silent and then Tama heard a rustling underneath her. Kagome was sitting down at the roots of the tree, patting her skirt as she got comfortable. Tama paid her no attention and gazed vacantly into the forest.
After a long moment she said, "You're in love with him, aren't you?" At the surprised 'eep!' from Kagome Tama glanced down with a knowing smile. "I could tell. You had the same tone in your voice as I did with my husband."
"You were married?" asked the teenager with surprise and Tama nodded, her manner again becomign vacant. "Uh-huh. He died though."
"Oh, I'm sorry. How did he pass?" Tama looked down at with a bitter smile. "Old age. Humans don't last very long in comparison to us." Kagome looked away at the subtle indication that both Tama and Inuyasha were much older than they seemed. Both were at least 60 years old, but neither looked older than 17.
"What did you mean, you had been betrayed by Inuyasha?" Kagome was brought out of her thoughts by Tama's soft question and Kagome blushed. "Uhm, well.. just that... even though I love him and I'm here for him... Inuyasha still loves Kikyou..."
"Hmph. He's so stupid. After what she did to him?"
"Well... that's sort of a long story..."
"How long? I've got a couple centuries."
So Kagome spilled the story about Inuyasha and Kikyou's betrayal, and Naraku, and the Shikon no Tama.
When she was finished Tama sighed. "I see. He's so stupid." Kagome looked at her feet. "Tama-chan... He's your brother... I mean... Shouldn't you--"
Tama grinned. "--Talk nicer about him? I probably should, but... We just get tired of each other sometimes and the worst things come out of my mouth, even if I don't mean it. You know?"
"Yeah I do." Kagome laughed. "I have a brother too." Tama dropped from the tree and smiled at Kagome. "I think I like you. And I know Inuyasha does too."
"Eh?"
Tama gestured to her own eyes. "I can see it in him. He has the same expression in those beady little eyes of his as he did with Kikyou, except with you it's more... tender."
".........You too." Tama looked surprised and Kagome smiled. "I know you didn't see it because you were so angry, but... Inuyasha was hurt too, when you didn't come home. He felt betrayed too. And I know that he loves you. I could see it in his eyes too."
Tama grinned. "Thanks. Friends?" She stuck out her hand and Kagome clasped it. "Yep."
As they head back towards the hut, Tama leaned over and said, "But really, I am sorry about trying to kill you earlier... honestly!"
"Okay, I got it!!!"
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: ^-^
Okie ja!!
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
Tessen