Summary: Black and White Life finally gives Kagome perfection after the first love, the traumatic age of high school, and fatal demon combat. Unfortunately she's screwed because perfection hates her.

DISCLAIMER: No money, no ownies.

Kuroi to Shiro

Chapter One – Imperfection

By Blue a.k.a. asian tofu

The Bone-Eater's well bothered her. It wasn't just the mere scratchiness of the half-rotted wooden surface, but its very existence. She tucked a straying strand of her ebony locks behind her ear, making sure that the scowl that seemed to be fixated permanently on her face disappeared somewhat as she ascended the wooden staircase.

"Kagome?" Mrs. Higurashi beckoned, setting the creaking wellhouse door to the side. "Hojo's here to pick you up." She said softly to her daughter, beaming. It had been such a surprise to her when Kagome had announced that she and Hojo were officially a couple at their high school graduation, but now she was just happy that Kagome had chosen a man who could love and take care of her so well.

True, Hojo was a bit tedious and timid at times, but his good points usually eclipsed these minor personality flaws. It had taken Kagome time to heal after Inuyasha, but she was happy again. She had a life to live and a future with her, according to Mrs. Higurashi, soulmate Hojo, after all.

And so Mrs. Higurashi was glad.

Kagome followed her mother and gave a wave to her Jii-san, who was sweeping the temple entrance in his wizened grandeur. The old priest smiled back at her, humming a small tune as he maneuvered the broom along. He liked that Hojo. That boy knew his relics and medicine. Was in training for priesthood under Jii-san himself, as a matter of fact, and Kagome brought him over enough for Jii-san to know he would be an able successor to the temple.

Hence Jii-san knew he would die happy.

"Kagome!" Souta came running out the house, handing her the necklace that Hojo had given her the first time they had gone out (and finished the date without any spontaneous medical issues). "You forgot something," he said breathlessly as he dropped the silver locket on her outstretched palm. He looked down the long way down the temple stairs and glimpsed Hojo leaning lazily against the hood of his dark blue SUV.

Souta wanted that car.

Kagome blinked at few times at the chain tangled with her hand, "That's all right. I'm already wearing something."

"Here," Mrs. Higurashi came from behind nonchalantly and unhooked the necklace that Kagome had absentmindedly worn instead. "I don't think Hojo would appreciate you wearing that, now would he? Hand me the locket." She tutted as the young woman did so, trading off the locket with the discarded necklace on Kagome's hand. Gently pushing her daughter's hair to the side, she began placing the locket around her neck.

Everyone was content.

Kagome sighed as she pulled her hand back down to her side, acquiring a sudden glow in her cheeks. She steadily gained rising warmth in her abdomen, something she hadn't felt in years.

Except, what she didn't want to feel…

She shifted the necklace in her hand, almost afraid to confirm what it was as she hesitantly opened her palm.

"Mom…?" Kagome asked in a choked anger, "When did you put this back in my jewelry box?"

Mrs. Higurashi inclined her head to get a better look at the object, "That thing? Last week." She returned to mull over the frustrations of clasping the locket on correctly.

Kagome stepped around to face her mother with her incessant, incorrigible façade, "Mom?" Kagome laughed woodenly as a tear escaped down her cheek, "I was drunk."

"You're ready, I know you are Kagome. You can't keep the Shikon No Tama hidden forever."

"But I know I can keep all the memories with it locked away," Kagome clutched the jewel against her heart, "so I can never regret anything."

Was the imperfection she wanted most.

Mrs. Higurashi, wondered vaguely what it might have been like for Kagome to do what she did. "Do you really want that?"

"Too late to find out anymore," Kagome snapped callously through her unshed tears. "Time has a way of making you forget."

Mrs. Higurashi gazed steadily as her only daughter rebuilt her wall. A wall from all emotion.

"Look," Kagome stared awkwardly at the ground, "I have to go – Hojo's waiting."

"We all love you, Kagome. Please remember that," said Mrs. Higurashi said under her breath as she watched silently from a distance Kagome kiss Hojo on the cheek in greeting, and him lead her into his car. "Just try."

Kagome stared out through the windshield silently with Hojo's smooth, cool hand silently encircled on top of hers. They were in the same scenario that they always had; neither knew how to start a worthwhile conversation without having it turn into mindless banter.

"Where're we going?" Kagome asked quietly, her voice hoarse from the minutes of silence.

Hojo glanced at her, expressionless. "Oh, I thought that maybe we should," he cleared his throat, "take a walk around campus in the sakura orchid, or something."

"Oh," Kagome cracked a smile, "All right." She had never known Hojo to do anything so…romantic before. He usually just took her out to restaurants or to the occasional carnival. He over-thought things most of the time and would've never considered something as simple as going around Tokyo University as a date. He was too safe for that.

There was another lapse of silence as Hojo went back to concentrating on the road. Kagome turned her head and gazed at the familiar route that she took on her bicycle speed past in blurs.

"Are you alright? You looked like you'd been crying when you came down today," Hojo brought up, failing to mention the fact that she had been late as well.

"No, I'm fine; you know you don't have to ask."

Hojo frowned, "But I want you to be able to talk to me about stuff. Kagome," Hojo squeezed her hand, "I want to be a real part of your life – not just some Inuyasha replacement."

His words hit her like cold water. It was the first time she had heard his name in four years…and that was all she could think about.

Inuyasha…

Kagome digested the words, finally. She retracted her hand from his, wincing like it had been stung a million times.

"Replacement," She repeated, licking her lips abstractedly. Hojo clenched his teeth and parked the car to a screeching halt in the parking lot. They both exited swiftly.

"That's it, isn't it?" Hojo sighed, "That you're just using me to forget Inuyasha?!"

Kagome didn't want to open her eyes, afraid of seeing the livid glimmer in Hojo's eyes for the first time ever. What was this? Why had he suddenly changed? He used to be sweet…nice…

Enough the opposite of Inuyasha for you to forget… A nagging, spiteful voice spat in a dark recess locked in her mind.

"No!" Kagome shook her head, tears sliding down her cheeks, "Listen to me!" Kagome grasped the side of the car for support, "Y-You're nothing like that to me!" Kagome sobbed, "You're here with me…"

Hojo watched her with a vehement disgust.

"The whole reason…the only reason I change is so maybe," Hojo hissed, "Just maybe, you'll see me as something more than the same schoolboy I was four years ago." With the ring of his words still fresh and lingering in the air, Hojo turned and left her, standing there.

Alone.

Shunsuke yawned languidly, a strap of his backpack slung across his shoulder. He had just gotten through summer registration, which had been swamped with freshman. With his every step, he crushed another few fallen sakura petals. Not that he really cared – it was just that the sakura was the only thing that he liked about the whole college thing.

All his friends had enrolled in another university on the other side on the whole and had left him stuck back in Tokyo. His latest girlfriend had been cheating on him for several months before he had broken it off, and he had been turned down by basically all schools whose main language was English.

He loved his life so much.

So anyway, he was walking like the loser he was, and then it happened – he saw the light.

The light, to a nineteen-year-old guy, was an attractive Homo sapien of the opposite sex sitting on a wood bench.

Let's analyze this scenario for a second; attractive Homo sapien of the opposite sex on bench, crying eyeballs out. Shunsuke felt the knowledge of possibilities that he could use to take advantage of the situation. He slowed his step and tried to count them, but it was no use. There was only one word in his vocabulary that could elaborate on the large number.

Lots.

That being established, he smirked and strutted towards her.

"Cha-ching."

Kagome knew she didn't want to cry, but the tears kept streaking her face anyway.

God…I'm being such an idiot.

The lump in her pocket that signified the presence of the Shikon No Tama didn't help any with her emotions, and she wasn't sure if getting back on antidepressants would help her anymore. She swore she was immune to them since she'd downed so many pills in the four years following her permanent homecoming.

So instead, Kagome decided to take the walk that had been initially meant for Hojo and herself. True, the view gave her a slight bitter nostalgia, but that was about it.

As she walked listlessly, Kagome mused over the jewel.

It hasn't changed at all…I think it's still purified.

She sat down on one of the convenient wood benches found in most well funded parks, and sighed.

I'm being another Inuyasha…stringing along Hojo like he did me. For some reason, the truth of her actions hardly caused her penitence.

Kagome leaned back on the bench, tilting her head towards the edge. Every time she ever reminisced, she would come back to one face – one voice that used to make her annoyed, irritated…happy…

How could Hojo even replace you?

Her vision slowly blurred, the cheeks that had dried so peacefully moments before were again drenched with the salty substance.

Damn crying! I sniffle over almost everything now, even when I can't find a stupid matching sock!

Kagome laughed at herself through her tears, her sapphire eyes glistening. It wasn't everyday one would come across someone that would cry about socks.

A sharp wind blew past her face, and Kagome saw through a side-glance that there was a new occupant on the bench.

"Yo."

Brushing away her tears resiliently with her hands, Kagome turned her head to acknowledge the presence of the person. "Hi," and they proceeded to sit in a silence similar to the ones that she and Hojo usually had.

From the corner of his eye, Shunsuke nearly felt guilty for thinking about taking advantage of her.

Oh well.

Kagome took the time to take in the guy's features; he was most likely about half a head taller than her, and the absorbing black of his hair blew freely with the breeze.

Yet another reason for me to burst into relentless tears: an Inuyasha incarnate, she thought lightly.

Coincidentally – eerily – he had a brand of purple eyes that blazed with recklessness. The guy started to laugh, the type that a sane person began when it seemed to be right for the moment. Kagome raised her eyebrow at him.

"What's so funny?"

He grinned at her off-handedly and replied, "It's just that there are so many different ways that I could hit on you right now and you're the one ogling."

Kagome blushed despite herself. Was I really staring? "Sorry…it was just you seem to remind me of someone. It's pretty creepy how alike the two of you are."

"Really?" The guy inquired, sustaining his chin against his hand as he propped it on the metal bar protruding out of the bench.

"He was quite a guy."

Shunsuke delivered a reassuring, sympathetic expression to her, "I'm sorry." Kagome replied with a trivial flicker of gratitude within her misty blue eyes.

"Did you love him?" Shunsuke asked impersonally, readjusting his gaze to her again.

Kagome didn't answer, setting her hand in her pocket to cradle the jewel unconsciously in her palm.

"Er, bad question. I hope you find happiness somewhere along the road of life." He wrinkled his nose, "God, I'm sounding more and more like a fortune cookie every day." She smiled, suddenly feeling at ease with this particular stranger.

He was glad he didn't screw that up too badly; she was laughing. When he turned around, a dark spot blocked his view to the fields.

"Kagome?!" Glancing up, both occupants of the bench saw Hojo panting, bent over on his knees. "I'd thought you'd gone home alone or something. Do you know how dangerous it is out at this time?" Kagome checked her watch; 3:52 PM, and gave him a dry stare. "You could've been picked up by hookers or something!" He argued, earning a strangled laugh from the guy.

Hojo flicked his eyes towards the had-been-invisible 'threat to his precious.'

"Who-are-you-and-get-away-from-my-Kagome!" He spat entirely in one breath, giving the guy a glare that made him finally laugh outright.

Kagome crossed her arms over her chest and glowered.

When did he have to become so possessive!? Had she not been in a state of anger, she would've lost her ability to control the floodgates from releasing. Thoughts are evil. Don't think.

The guy lifted himself up from the bench and evenly stared at Hojo in the eye…well he had to sort of turn his head a little lower to look him directly, but you know what I mean.

"Look, it's her life. You shouldn't try to control her," he hissed at the brown-haired boy, who was quaking in his shoes. Having that said, Shunsuke turned to Kagome. "Hey, I'll see you around."

"Yeah…" Kagome whispered to the guy's retreating figure, "I'll see you."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm on one of my revision rampages again – don't mind me. Just tweaking the style and sieving out some erroneous plot points. If you haven't already, do drop a review.