A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Here is the update. Sorry, it's shorter again.
LOTRwolf: Thanks for the review. Here is the next chappie.
flarechick not isgned in: Thanks for the review.
amakara: Big THANKS for the nice review.
tankbbg: Thanks. It took me a while to google their names and a good summary of the 3rd InuYasha movie. I can't wait until it is finally out on DVD. Then it will join the other two movie-DVDs on my shelf.
Rezol: Thanks for the review. Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter again. The 'sit'-command will come in one of the next chapters.
earthy876: Thanks for the review. Thanks for the offer and here is the first question: What does 'brother' in Japanese mean? Are there different words for 'big' and 'little' bro? I think brother means something like 'ni-san' or 'ni-chan', but I'm not sure. I think when you put an 'o' in front then it shows more respect. Please tell me if I'm wrong.
Chapter 4
After they had eaten, Kagome had put both the boys into the straw bed. She had sat there and watched them until both children were fast asleep. A small smile spread on her face as she ran her hand over the hanyou's white hair. It was such a cute sight; Shippou's arm was slung around the beaten body of the slightly taller boy protectively. When Kagome had suggested that both children would sleep in the same bed, Inu-chan seemed somehow uncomfortable and almost scared. But now the little half-demon looked relaxed and snuggled up to the kitsune. After taking in this pleasant sight for a few more minutes she stood up and walked out of the hut to InuYasha. Inside the wooden shelter laid Kirara curled up next to Sango's head and Miroku leaned some meters away on a wall. All of them where sleeping.
The miko stepped on the porch and her gaze fell immediately at her secret love, who sat in the pale moonlight in the braches of a high tree. She approached him and when he sensed her, he jumped down next to her. They looked at each other, lost in each other's eyes. After a moment InuYasha broke away and sat down in his favourite position and leaned at the trunk. Kagome followed his example and they sat so close to each other that their shoulders touched lightly.
They watched the stars together when InuYasha broke their comfortable silence suddenly. "We have to send him back to his own time."
Puzzled the miko turned to face her hanyou. "What!?... Why?"
"'Why' you ask? It's obvious even to me. When he isn't in his time, he won't become me one day."
Kagome hesitated a moment but muttered: "Maybe he doesn't have to." She felt so sorry for the little boy. He seemed so breakable and lost to this world.
An unbelieving glare hit her telling her how dumb her comment was.
"Would he be really you then you would remember being in the future meeting us, wouldn't you?"
InuYasha considered this. "But how does this work then? Me and him?"
Kagome looked up at the sky and its thousands and thousands of sparkling stars. "He then comes from a different dimension; not only a different time."
"Different what?!"
"Dimensions. It's like every time you have to decide something, there is always the possibility that you could have decided otherwise. And that could have lead to a totally different reality." She turned her head towards him only to see his confused look. "Image a fork on a way."
"A fork?! I don't get you, wench." InuYasha narrowed his eyes when he watched her.
"InuYasha, image this. What would have happened when I hadn't fallen down the well on my birthday and hadn't freed you?"
"I would be still pinned on the tree." He answered slowly getting her point. The hanyou said nothing and thought about the new possibilities that formed out of that knowledge. What would they do now with the boy, him? Still trying to send him back or will they keep him here. And then what? Give him to a nice human family and continue their way as if there was no connection between them. Even if they would find a family that would accept him, was it right? The little guy didn't have any family left in this time except him – not counting his, their half-brother. On the other hand he could show him to use his claws and strength. Maybe even train him to rule the Tetsusaiga.
The hanyou was pulled out of his reverie by Kagome' grave voice. "InuYasha… what had happened to him?" He looked at the girl and saw compassion in her eyes. "What made him to fear humans like that?" Never before he had talked about his past to anyone. Why should he now? Nobody could understand how he had felt, when he suffered all these years all alone, hated and chased by humans and demons alike.
He didn't understand why, but he began to tell her. "The village, I called home in my early years in childhood, was more than just a plain poor farmer village. My grandfather was the lord of these lands and lived in an opulent palace some miles away. He wasn't happy to have a half-breed grandson and he wasn't willed to let this walking shame live under the same roof he slept. So he sent my mother and me to that village in his generosity. The village owed him something and for letting us stay, they paid their debs back.
They had always hated me. But when many of the villagers, including my mother, fell sick, they forbade me to leave our hut. They hoped that when I would stay there together with my deadly sick mother, I would also catch the disease and they would finally get rid of me. But somehow I didn't fell ill and when my mother had died I went outside. The few villagers left blamed me for the deaths of all the people. They said that I caused the disease. So they hit me and chased me away. Not knowing where else to go, I ran to my grandfather's palace. But as soon as he'd heard from my mother's death, he ordered his soldiers to drive the 'unworthy half-breed' away. If I were stupid enough to return to his fortress they were allowed to kill me."
Suddenly InuYasha felt Kagome's arms slung around his neck and she laid her chin on his shoulder, burying her forehead in his long hair for comfort. He grasped with one clawed hand her smaller one. "I went unsuccessfully from village to village begging for food and a place to stay. But I soon understood that I was different to all the humans and that it was this difference that they feared. … In best cases they just shouted at me and chased me away. But some injured me and even tried to kill me."
A soft "InuYasha" rang from her lips.
"It always was like that for him and it always will be."
When she heard this Kagome looked at him and loosened her grip around his neck. She touched with both her hands his cheeks, turning his face to meet hers. "It won't be. It doesn't have to be like that again. I don't let something like that happen to him. … You didn't deserve that and so he doesn't."
They starred at each other for long, drowning in the other's eyes, before Kagome finally backed away and stood up. She stretched out her hand and he took it willingly.
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REVIEW PLEASE
A/N: Tomorrow on InuYasha: "What are we doing now with Inu-chan?" – More cute Inu-chan … and Shippou-chan
So look forward to it!
