A/N: Chapter 4 is up! And today is Naruto's birthday! Everybody wish him a happy birthday!!! (For those of you who don't know, Naruto is an anime/manga that is really really cool about ninjas.) Check it out at narutofan )! You can only see the manga though if you sign up to be a member...so do it!

Please review and enjoy this next chapter! And forgive any errors...I did my best to edit!

It took every ounce of Sango's strength to hold Ayame back. The drunk woman was hissing and spitting like a mad hellcat as she struggled against the other woman's viselike grip around her waist. Kouga lay on the ground, stunned and dazed. Blood was dripping from his nose yet he made no move to stop the flow of red, sticky liquid.

"Let me at him! I swear to God I'll kill him!" Ayame sputtered trying to break her way out of Sango's hold. But spending all those hours teaching self defense classes had not gone to waste as Sango successfully restrained her angry and intoxicated friend,

"Calm down, Ayame. Just relax." Sango commanded.

"No! I'm not going to relax when this asshole's here!" Ayame practically threw herself onto the ground in another violent attempt to break free.

"Kouga, I think we should go now." Ginta began tugging on the other man's arm, trying to lead him back to the car. Yet even though his life was in possible danger, Kouga refused to even stand up. He remained seated on the pavement, staring at the wild redhead.

"I swear I'll kill him." Practically growling, Ayame got her nails within an inch of Kouga's face. Still, he refused to flinch of move back.

"Look. She's not gonna settle down anytime soon, boys. I strongly suggest you take off while you still have a chance." Sango suggested, still struggling to hold Ayame back.

"You heard her Kouga come on." And before Kouga could protest, Ginta had hoisted the man onto his feet and began tugging him along to the car. Ginta shoved Kouga into the driver's seat, slamming the door as soon as Kouga was halfway seated. Ginta jogged to the other side of the car, and crawled into the backseat, stretching out to lie down on the empty three seats.

Without knowing that he had done it, Kouga started the ignition and slowly began driving around the two women. He couldn't help but look back in the rearview mirror to see Ayame collapse in Sango's arms.

"Boy...I thought you were dead for sure, Kouga. And if a girl had killed you, huh...that woulda been pretty stupid wouldn't it?" Ginta laughed and waited for a response. None came.

"Hey Kouga, what's a matter?"

"Just shut up Ginta." Gritting his teeth, Kouga floored the gas pedal, speeding the entire way home.

Kagome trudged up the last flight of stairs to her apartment. She dragged her purse behind her, not caring that it was collecting all sorts of dust and dirt. The only thing she focused on was making it to her room. Nearly at her door, she reached a tentative hand towards the knob when a vibrating in her purse shook her from the dreamlike state she was lost in.

Absentmindedly she hoisted her purse up high enough so that she could grab the vibrating object. Surprised to discover it was her cell phone, Kagome checked the caller ID...and immediately grimaced when she read the number. For a moment she thought about hanging up or just letting the phone ring itself into silence. But then again, there was always voicemail...so either way she'd have to answer the call eventually.

Taking a deep breath, Kagome pressed the green button, accepting the call. Making sure her voice was steady, she paused a moment before saying,

"Hi, Mom."

"Kagome! It's so comforting to hear your voice." Her mother eagerly responded.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I've tried your regular phone number plenty of times, but it kept saying that the line has been disconnected. So I figured I'd try your cell phone, just in case I had the wrong number or something. Is everything alright?"

Kagome cringed. How could she explain to her mother that her phone line had been cut off when she could not longer pay the monthly bill?

"Um, well I'm actually planning on moving soon. So the phone's not going to work until I'm moved into my new place." Kagome lied.

"Really? Closer to home I hope."

"No, actually it's even further away from where I am now." Silently she prayed that her mother wouldn't figure out she was lying.

"Oh. Well, why the sudden change?" Her mother inquired innocently.

"Uh..." Kagome hadn't quite thought about why she was going to 'move'. Thinking fast, she thought of the first thing that came to her mind.

"Well...you see Mom...I got a huge raise recently. And I wanted to celebrate by moving to a bigger apartment."

"Oh that's great honey! I'm so proud of you!" Kagome felt awful. Her mother's sincere enthusiasm was painful to listen to. If she ever found out about Kagome's real living conditions, she was pretty sure it would break her mother's heart.

"Yeah, in fact, I'm going to send even more money to you guys."

"Oh sweetie, don't do that! You deserve a little spending money. After all, you worked very hard to get that raise. The least you deserve is a couple of new outfits."

"Mom, you know I have plenty of money. It's no trouble at all." Kagome suddenly realized how many minutes she had just eaten up. No doubt she was going to go over her cell phone budget. She needed to end this conversation as quickly as possible.

"Okay Mom, well I'll talk to you later. I'm going to bed soon, busy day tomorrow, you know?"

"Alright. But do keep in touch Kagome. We love hearing from you. In fact, I bet Souta would very much enjoy talking to you right now. And Grandpa wants to speak with you as well." Kagome bit her bottom lip. There was no way she could afford to stay on the phone that long.

"Mom, look, I'll call soon I promise. But right now, I really have to go. As soon as my new phone gets hooked up I'll call you."

Before her mother could argue Kagome ended the call and let out a huge sigh. She groaned and slumped against the wall behind her, allowing herself to sink down to the floor. If there was one thing she hated doing, it was lying to her family. She hated pretending that she was successful, that she had no problems affording her apartment, and that money came in by the boatloads everyday. Each time she had a conversation with her mother, new lies were created to cover-up old ones. Kagome was tired of lying, tired of making up stories, tired of barely being able to support herself, yet still sending inordinately large amounts of money to her family as often as she could.

Sighing, Kagome slowly got to her feet. She felt lifeless and dead tired. All she wanted to do was curl up and sleep. Ignoring the fact that it was still early in the evening, she collapsed onto her couch, spreading herself across the worn piece of furniture. She kicked off her shoes, and grabbed her blanket off of the floor. Not caring that she was still in her clothes from work, Kagome curled up into as comfortable a position as she could manage before quickly falling asleep.

She had been so distracted and concerned about getting to sleep that she had not noticed the pink piece of paper taped to her door.

Sesshomaru simply stared at the child slumped against his legs. She was barely to his ankles, and her frail body felt more like a pillow propped against him more than anything else. From a cursory glance she appeared to have several bruises on her face and arms, yet there were probably many more to be found after closer inspection. Her pale skin was dappled with brilliant blues, a single stream of red was trickling down the side of her head.

The tall man was at a loss for what to do, a position that he usually did not find himself in. On the one hand, he could leave the girl at the front of his door, and pretend as though he had never seen her before. On the other hand, he could take her inside and care for her injuries. While the latter was something Sesshomaru would never have been expected to do, he surprised even himself by lifting the girl up and carrying her into his apartment.

Her weight was so slight that it took Sesshomaru almost no effort to carry her to the bed where he had been previously petting his stuffed toy, and watching the home improvement channel. Laying her on her back, he carefully inspected her injuries, trying his best not to poke her too much. Not sure why he was taking such care with a small child her barely knew, Sesshomaru left the room to get some frozen rice in his freezer to administer to some of her fresher bruises.

Sesshomaru was gone for perhaps half of a minute, maybe less. However, when he returned from fetching the frozen rice package, he discovered that the girl was no longer on the bed. At first he wondered if she had rolled off, so he checked the sides of the bed, and then underneath in case she had continued rolling. When he could not find her, he wondered if she had panicked and bolted for the door. Yet, how was that possible when he had heard no door open?

When he heard growling, Sesshomaru suddenly realized where the girl had gone. She was near his two pitbulls, Ah and Un, who just happened to be extremely hostile towards strangers. Without understanding what was happening, something snapped inside Sesshomaru. He had to get to that girl before his dogs did. His only concern was getting her to safety.

Frozen rice forgotten, Sesshomaru sprinted towards where he heard the growling coming from. In record time, he was standing in front the bathroom's entrance, out of breath and almost frantic. The dogs were in the bathroom, but he couldn't see the girl. Where was she?

"Ah!" Sesshomaru heard the girl shriek and hurtled forward, nearly crashing into the opposite wall. Managing to stop himself, he quickly turned around, and spotted a clump of dark hair. He reached for it, and dragged it towards him. Instead of a gruesome and bloody mess of flesh that he expected to find, Sesshomaru saw that the girl was unharmed by the dogs. In fact, she was smiling and looking up at the man.

"I like your doggies." She giggled.

Sesshomaru did not answer, instead he frowned disdainfully. Why had he chased after the girl? And why had he felt so protective over her, a child he didn't even know?

Silently he carried her back to the bed, and sat her down on the edge of it. The dogs followed behind him, their tails wagging, eager to find their new playmate. Sesshomaru ignored both the girl and the dogs, simply tossing the frozen rice at the child, leaving her to her own devices. If she wanted to ice her injuries, she could do so. It was none of his concern, anyway.

Yes I KNOW it's shorter than usual but hey, I didn't wanna drag it out because I honestly had nothing better to write...heh...heh...don't kill me runs off and hides