Thank you for any reviews and please enjoy!

In the original story, the evil queen (for the SECOND time dressed as the old woman; seriously, Snow White?) used a poisoned jeweled comb to try to kill Snow White.

Edited: 5/24/2012

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the story of Snow White.

Black as Night, White as Snow

Chapter Six: Meeting Him

"Kagome, don't open the—!"

"Door? I know, I know, Miroku! Do we have to go through this every morning?" Kagome asked sweetly, although a tension underscored her voice that promised a different feeling.

Miroku huffed in exasperation. "Don't come crying to me when your half-demon shows up and—and—forces you to do something ridiculous because you refused to be sensible!" He knew this threat was weak, but he had panicked and come up with nothing better under pressure.

"My half-demon?" Kagome echoed faintly, her cheeks flaring in with a blush. "For goodness sake, Miroku! What is he, my dog?" She demanded before quickly adding, "Not that anything happened!"

Sadly, Sango pulled the grinning Miroku away before anything else could be said.

"Goodbye!" Kagome called as she waved cheerfully, her frustration already forgotten. Whether that was due to her upbeat attitude or the way her thoughts whirled once again around her meeting with the half-demon, even she didn't know.

As the group left for the mines, Naraku grumbled under his breath with a scowl. "Do we have to keep her?"

Immediately, Sango glared at him, her brown eyes spitting fire in his direction. "Just because you aren't fond of her doesn't mean the rest of us aren't!" she protested hotly.

Naraku raised a (femininely) groomed eyebrow. "I'm not 'fond' of her? Well, that's an understatement. How could I ever accept the presence of a priestess?"

"Have ye forgotten what I be?" Kaede countered with a sour look.

"An ancient hag?" Naraku took a wild stab in the dark.

It took everyone to pry the 'ancient hag' off the whimpering bastard.

"Mew?"

"You're probably right, Kirara. I should go and get those buckets," Kagome said, seemingly agreeing with whatever the demonic cat had just said. Almost as an afterthought, she asked, "Do you think he's still there?" Since the dwarves had disappeared around the bend, she backed into the cottage and closed the front door.

"Mew."

"Well, fine!" the girl replied, sulking. "If you didn't know, you could have just said so! No need to get so snippy with me." Kagome rolled her eyes at the feline.

"Mew."

"Fine, fine, I'm going, but if I get molested again," Not like I already have… "I'm blaming you!" Over-dramatically pointing a finger at Kirara, Kagome stalked from the back door. "Now I just have to get lost to find that spring and then get lost again to find that clearing. Which way did I go the first time?" Kagome asked out loud as she followed her woman's intuition and wandered off.

Several hours later...

"Do you think he's gone?" Kagome whispered to the goldfinch perched on her shoulder. It simply cocked its head back in answer, which revealed nothing of course.

Her blue eyes darting around the clearing, Kagome tiptoed out of the tree cover. She suddenly regretted never advancing the priestess powers that both she and Kikyou had shown when they were much younger. Neither woman had really felt a need to use them at the time, but now Kagome wished she had accepted the training. At least then she could have sensed if the mysterious half-demon was still there.

No men grabbing me for a kiss yet. I think I'm safe! Kagome thought as she made a beeline for her seemingly untouched water pails. It was at that moment that she made the mistake of glancing to her left, and she saw what made her heart speed up… probably from frustration. The half-demon was still there.

Across the clearing, Inuyasha's nose twitched as a familiar scent rushed in. What's that? he questioned himself groggily. It smelled fresh and sweet, just like after a good—

"RAIN!" he shouted as he bolted upright, wondering woefully if he had missed the girl when she came for her buckets by being asleep. His eyes darted around the clearing until he caught a flash of blue. There was too much of the color to be her eyes, so it had to be her outfit.

Meanwhile, Kagome's thoughts were running along the same vein. She wished she had worn a brown kimono that would have blended in with the dirt rather than the eye-catching blue one that she had on. For a brief moment, she hoped she was dreaming, that maybe she was still curled up asleep on the floor of the cottage. Or, even better, that she was asleep in her own bed back at the castle.

Deciding that she didn't really need the pails, she began to back slowly out of the clearing.

Watching her retreat, Inuyasha realized how the situation had to look to her. Some strange man had forcefully kissed her the day before, and now, he was staring at her from across the clearing like she was a piece of meat. Of course the girl was uncomfortable! As he sorted through his thoughts, Kagome managed to inch her way to the treeline.

"Wait!" he yelled after her, finally finding his voice. "Hold on a second!" Inuyasha mentally cursed when his gruff voice caused the girl to stiffen before fully bolting away. Thanks to his non-human half, he managed to catch up to her in a matter of moments.

Kagome, too busy glancing over her shoulder to see if the man had followed her, ran face first into his chest.

Instinctively, Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her to help her find her balance. Once she was secure, however, he held her in place so that he could talk to her. "I asked you to wait," he pointed out dryly, trying very hard not to be distracted by how wonderful her hair smelled.

"I'm sorry?" Kagome tried lamely before looking up, meeting his eyes. Her mind scrambled as she desperately tried to come up with an excuse to get away from him. Finally, she managed to grab onto a lie, hardly knowing what she was saying but spitting out the words before she forgot how to speak. "I—I really need to get home to my—my husband. He gets worried when I'm gone for too long."

For a just a moment, Inuyasha felt a painful stab in his chest as if his heart had been gripped by an invisible hand. When he forced himself to take a deep breath, he noticed all the signs that pointed to a person lying. Her heart rate had sped up, her eyes were darting around, her palms her moist… Almost smugly, he told her, "You're lying."

Kagome screwed her eyes shut tight, reminding herself belatedly of dog demons' heightened senses. Lying was not an option. "Okay," she said slowly, again trying to find something to say, something that would get her out of the mess she had managed to find herself in. "What if I told you that my mother always told me to never talk to strangers?"

With a guffaw, Inuyasha released the girl, his upper lip snagging on one of his fangs as he grinned. "We all grow up with that saying," he pointed out. "No one ever follows that advice. No one would ever get anywhere in life."

"Well," Kagome countered with a huff as she straightened her kimono. "I'm a good girl, and I do as Mama told me!"

"A good girl?" Inuyasha repeated with a quirked eyebrow. Kagome did not appreciate how amused he sounded.

"Yes, I am," she replied snippily, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away from him with her nose pointed to the sky.

"Somehow I highly doubt that." Inuyasha was rapidly forgetting his earlier desire of wanting to do nothing but hold this 'good girl' in his arms and whisper sweet nothings while kissing her to death. "You should really listen when people tell you things."

"Excuse me?"

Inuyasha growled. "I told you to wait!"

"Oh, that. What am I, a puppy?" Kagome countered hotly, but when Inuyasha cocked his head to the side in bemusement, she burst into giggles.

"What?"

"Speaking of puppies… your ears!" she gasped between laughter. The tension that had hung in the air around them since Kagome had fled finally disappeared.

"Do you like puppies?" he found himself asking, unable to help himself. He was even smiling.

"Not really. I like cats." Kagome's grin widened.

With a haughty roll of his eyes, Inuyasha told her, "Too bad. So, wench—!"

SMACK

"What the hell was that for?" he demanded, rubbing his shoulder where she had punched him. Really, a little girl like her couldn't do much damage to a half-demon, but it was the idea that stung him the most.

"I am not a wench!" she snapped, obviously offended by his word choice.

"I'll call you whatever the hell I want to! What would you prefer? Girl? Twit?" Of course, he didn't really mean it. In the short time since he had met her, the girl had seemed like a lot of things, but stupid was not necessarily one of them.

Kagome flushed—not in embarrassment but in anger. "I have a name, it's—!" Kagome began before she promptly snapped her mouth shut. She could not tell him who she was. It wasn't so much that she didn't trust him as that she knew that Kikyou had eyes and ears everywhere. There was no way she could slip up and tell a complete stranger who she was without further endangering herself.

"What?"

"Nevermind," she said dismissively and waved away the subject. Her anger dissipated and was replaced with her normal cheerfulness, although it did seem somewhat forced.

"Tell me!" the boy demanded with a scowl.

With a scoff, Kagome eyed him up and down. "What are you, a king? I don't have to do whatever you tell me to do." She felt confident in her refusal. Between his worn, red clothing and the fact that he wasn't wearing any shoes, the boy looked more like a wild beast than royalty.

"Actually, I'm a—!" Inuyasha began cockily before shutting his mouth, eerily similar to how Kagome had done so just moments earlier.

"A what?" Kagome edged closer to him, giving him a sly look.

"Absolutely not. If you don't tell me your name, then I won't give you mine—or what I am!" he snapped.

Thoughtfully, Kagome pointed out, "Well, I know you're a half dog demon."

"How'd you know that?"

"Shippou told me!" Kagome explained as she watched a deer peek out from the underbrush of the forest. After a few seconds, the animal stepped toward her and ducked its head, allowing the girl to pet the soft fear between its ears without any fear.

As Inuyasha watched this display, all he could wonder was, Who is this girl? Then her words finally hit home. "Who's Shippou?"

Kagome eyed his disturbingly jealous-like glare. "Why should I tell you that?" she retorted. Twenty-four hours ago, she had had wildly different daydreams about what would happen when she ran into this guy again. Now, however, she had only learned that he made her emotions go all topsy-turvy. It felt like the very ground beneath her feet had shifted, and she had no idea what she was doing or saying any more. He managed to make her both angry and embarrassed in equal measure, and she didn't exactly like it.

"Because I asked?" he suggested innocently.

"What's the magic word?" Kagome asked sweetly.

"Now!" he answered with a glare. When she frowned at him, he backpeddaled, realizing he needed a different approach. Sucking it up, he asked, "Please?"

"Shippou is my…" She trailed off, grasping for the right words.

Inuyasha unconsciously leaned forward. "Yes?"

"Friend?" Kagome guessed finally, only making Inuyasha frown at the uncertainty in her voice. "I just met him three days ago!" she explained, gesturing uselessly at the deer as if the animal could help her string words together. "At least I know for certain that he's my roommate and a fox demon," she finished weakly.

"So he could tell that I was a dog demon because of his nose," Inuyasha muttered, connecting the dots. He was, however, still troubled by Kagome's word choice. "How old is Shippou exactly?"

"Why does that matter?" she demanded, her stormy eyes wide with surprise.

She was, Inuyasha realized, no longer thinking of him as the guy who had kissed her the day before. Feeling almost hurt, he stubbornly decided that he would ignore their moment if that was what she was going to do. "I was just curious!" he snapped, raking a claw through his long hair, releasing some of his pent-up frustration.

Realizing he wasn't going to let it go, she thought about it. The way she tilted her head exposed a long, pale sliver of her neck, and Inuyasha found his eyes trailing over her skin hungrily. Quickly, he forced himself to look away before she noticed his sudden interest. "Six or seven," she guessed finally. "I'm not really sure."

"Seven? As in, seven years old?"

Kagome stared right back at him incredulously. "Of course! He's still just a kid. What did you think he was?" She laughed before joking, "My lover?"

This word choice wasn't exactly helping whatever was going on between them, so Inuyasha charged ahead without commenting. "Why are you living with a seven year old?"

Kagome slapped his arm playfully. "Because of his cute older brother, silly!" she joked lightly but then regretted it when Inuyasha's eyes narrowed with what she was pretty sure was anger.

"So you're using some poor kid to get to his brother?"

"Whoa! Slow down, I was kidding. Sheesh…" She rolled her eyes, which gave her a glimpse of the sky and the position of the sun. "Oh, crap!" she exclaimed before clapping a hand over her mouth.

Immediately, Inuyasha leapt in front of her, his first assumption that she'd seen a threat. He cracked his knuckles and spread his fingers wide, claws held ready to attack. Just as he was raising his hackles (he couldn't help it; it was a natural reaction for a dog demon when threatened), Kagome pushed past his shoulder.

"I have to go!" she announced hastily, hiking up the hem of her long skirt to free her legs to run faster. This exposed several inches of her long legs, something that most women didn't dare do in that day and age. Without meaning to, Inuyasha actually blushed when he saw her creamy skin. The realization that he was blushing only made him blush more.

"What? Why?" he demanded as she raced away, thrown for a loop by her sudden departure.

"So the others don't worry about me!" she shouted over her shoulder.

"But… I don't even know your name!" he complained.

Kagome paused and turned around to face him. She grinned. "Good! Maybe I don't want you to know!" But then winced at his crestfallen, kicked-puppy expression. Deciding to give him the same goodbye as the day before, she rushed back and pecked him lightly on the cheek, fighting back giggles when he immediately perked up.

"Well?" he tried again.

Instead of answering right away, she made him wait it out, hemming and hawing as though she needed to really think over his request. "I'll meet you back here tomorrow at noon," she promised finally. After some hesitation, she added, "If I'm able to, that is. I never know if…" Here, she trailed off and waved her hand faintly in the air, using the gesture to try to explain her life without having to find the words. With Kikyou, she never knew what the next day would bring.

Even though he didn't fully understand, Inuyasha grinned back at her. "Okay. Deal."

Realizing that she really did want to see the guy again even after all her protests and doubts, Kagome grinned right back at him. "Goodbye!"

Inuyasha watched her leave and smiled to himself, deciding that he'd wait for her no matter what. There was nothing that could make him miss seeing her again.

Meanwhile, Kagome crashed through the underbrush, hoping that she was heading in the right direction.

That guy is trouble! I'm going to be so late; Sango's going to kill me! Oh, and all the questions Miroku's going to have! Kagome thought as she rushed through the woods. Her hair snagged on a low-hanging branch, and it tore out her hair tie. Briefly, she considered looking for it, but she knew she'd never find it in the fallen leaves.

Almost on cue, Kagome dodged around a tree and had to force herself to skid to a stop when a young girl stepped out in front of her.

"Excuse me?" she asked, her voice tremulous.

"I'm sorry," Kagome apologized for almost running into her, trying to catch her breath. Both the run and the surprise of running into a stranger in the middle of the woods had knocked the wind out of her.

The girl barely reached Kagome's waist, and her hair was all stuffed under a bandana. This revealed a pale face covered in freckles and narrow, dark green eyes. She smiled at Kagome, her expression unmistakably sad. "It's okay," she answered.

Something tugged at Kagome's heartstrings, and she crouched down until she was level with the little girl. "Sometimes it helps to talk," she suggested carefully, reaching out to brush her fingers over the girl's shoulder in a comforting sort of way.

Immediately, the girl drew back and a look almost like disgust crossed her face, but Kagome dismissed the odd reaction. "You're right," the girl agreed.

"Why don't we head back to the cottage where I live. We can sit down, and I can get you some tea or something. You look really tired."

"Yes, please! That sounds wonderful. My name is Sumi," she introduced herself, her voice brighter than before.

"I'm Kagome. Let's go." Kagome held her hand out toward the little girl and after some hesitation, Sumi grabbed it. "Do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

"Okay… My mother sent me to the nearby village to sell vegetables from my garden to buy some milk and bread for our family. I didn't make enough money, though," Sumi explained, tears in her voice.

"I understand! Here, we can fix that," Kagome promised as they reached the cottage. She directed Sumi to a chair in the kitchen. "Stay here for a moment; I'll be right back."

With that, Kagome disappeared from the room only to return with a small sack. She proceeded to walk around the room, pulling items off shelves and out of the cupboard before stuffing them in the sack. Within minutes, she had a sack full of food, including milk and bread.

"Thank you so much!" Sumi cried, grabbing the bag out of Kagome's hand with a huge smile on her face.

"I'm really happy I could help," Kagome told her with a gentle smile. "I hate seeing people upset."

"You're wonderful," Sumi gushed as she reached into her basket. She pulled out a pair of chopsticks, the wood carved with an intricate design of a dragon and set with precious stones; they were, Kagome realized, hair ornaments. The young girl held them out to Kagome. "Please take these as a thank you; my grandfather made them!"

"Oh, I couldn't," Kagome said even as she reached out to wrap her fingers around them. She just couldn't help herself, mesmerized by the red stones that were set as the dragons' eyes. "If you sold these, you could buy all the milk and bread you wanted. I could never…"

"Please," Sumi insisted, placing them firmly in Kagome's hands before letting go.

With a please smile, Kagome looped her long hair into a bun on the back of her head, suddenly glad she had lost her hair tie in the woods and had an excuse to use the gift. She wove the chopsticks through her hair, skimming the tips against her scalp, and secured the bun in place. "Thank you!"

Sumi nodded, watching Kagome intensely with her dark, dark eyes.

Grateful, Kagome went to place her left hand on Sumi's shoulder but realized that her arm wouldn't move. Frowning, she tried again, struggling to even wiggle her fingers. Within seconds, her right hand stopped responding as well. Her heart thudding hard in her chest, Kagome looked to Sumi and tried to tell her that something was terribly, horribly wrong, but she couldn't part her lips or move her tongue.

With a jolt, Kagome tipped forward, her legs no longer supporting her. The ground rushed up to meet her, and she cracked her forehead against the wooden planks, unable to break her fall. She lay there on her stomach, her thoughts swimming. Her heart, after the shock faded, started to beat in a steady but incredibly slow pound. As spots danced in front of her eyes, Kagome heard Sumi finally rise from her chair.

"Finally," the girl grumbled. Her voice was much deeper than it had been earlier, and Kagome desperately wished she could move her head to look up at Sumi's face. "Urasue promised you would react to the poison a lot faster. Goodbye, sister dear."

Footsteps retreated from the kitchen, and Kagome finally slumped in defeat, no longer having the strength to struggle against her sudden paralaysis.

As she welcome darkness, her only thought was, I won't be able to see him again.

"Not again!"

"Damn it! I told her not to open the door. I told her! Didn't I?"

"Yes, Miroku!" five voices chorused.

"Therefore, I can't be blamed," the monk insisted.

"We weren't blaming you anyway, numbskull! We're blaming Kikyou. She's the one who did this, obviously," Sango snapped, rubbing her temples. "If she had the power to appear as an old woman, she has the power to take any form. I wonder who she was this time around."

"She must be using a magic spell to shapeshift," Miroku mused out loud.

"Well, we need to figure out how to break the spell then," Sango mumbled, her eyes sweeping over Kagome's prone form, hoping she could identify some kind of weakness. This felt like a personal failure. As a demon slayer, her sole duty was to protect people from monster, and yet she had let Kagome become a victim twice now.

"This will be simple. All we have to do is find the item and take it off, just like last time," Miroku pointed out. He reached out to grab Sango's shoulder supportively, but she just knocked his hand away with a glare that told him that now was not the time.

"Do you seriously think Kikyou would attack in practically the same way twice in a row?" Shippou asked. "I mean, if we could save Kagome last time, why do it all over again? Kikyou's stupid."

"Here goes nothing!" Miroku announced, going straight for the sash around Kagome's waist.

"Miroku! I think it's something…else…" Too late, Sango winced as Kagome's dress fell open without the sash to hold it shut.

THWACK

"I think my head cracked that time, did you hear it?" Miroku asked in a dreamy voice as he tumbled backwards in an unconscious heap.

Sango stood over his crumpled body with fire dancing in her eyes. "Anyone else going to try to undress the princess?" she challenged.

The rest of the dwarves took a step back, waving their hands around in front of their bodies like makeshift shields. "No! We're good!" they all promised at the same time.

"Good." Sango looked Kagome over, taking inventory of what she was wearing. Everything from the kimono to her sandals were borrowed. "Nothing stands out. It's all mine."

"Idiot," Naraku scoffed under his breath, meaning Kagome. "How could she be fooled twice?"

Kagura promptly smacked the demon upside the head. "Yeah, Kagome's the idiot around here."

Miroku, who had regained consciousness, pointed out, "I'm pretty sure our only option is to undress her completely to make sure there's nothing on her that could be doing this."

"Good idea, but I think Sango and I will be the ones to do it," Kagura mumbled, shoving the men out of the room. "Guard the door, Kaede."

Kagome struggled to open her heavily-lidded eyes. "What happened?" she asked, her voice as fuzzy as her memory.

"Kikyou put poisonous chopsticks in your hair," Sango informed her calmly.

"Wasn't Kikyou," Kagome mumbled, shaking her head to clear out all the dark corners as she came back to life. Magic was funny that way. "Sumi did it."

"Well, if that's what Kikyou is calling herself these days, then Sumi put poisonous chopsticks in your hair," Kagura corrected.

"Kagura! Hi!" Kagome greeted the demoness happily as she struggled to sit up, completely overlooking the fact that she'd just almost died… again. She realized that she was lying across two beds that had been pushed together.

Immediately, Sango pushed her back down. "Take it easy, Kagome. If we hadn't gotten those chopsticks out of your hair, then you would have been—" Here, Sango made slitting movement across her throat.

"Oh. Good way to put it," Kagome muttered airily. "Where is everyone?"

"At the jewel mines. It's almost noon. You've been sleeping off the effects of the poison," Kagura answered while filing down her extremely pointed fingernails.

"Noon?" Kagome echoed. A thought niggling at the back of her brain forced its way to the forefront. "Wait! Noon?" she asked a little more forcefully.

"Yeah, noon, why?"

"I'm going to be late!" Kagome leaped up only to find herself completely undressed.

Blushing, she wrapped a blanket around her body and rushed off to find some clothes to meet 'her' half-demon.