Potential

By: Lady Camigwen

-Chapter 2-

"Quit your pacing, watcher, you going to bloody well run a hole through the floor!"

Giles sighed and glared over at the blond vampire stretched out on the couch casually sipping a coffee mug of pig's blood mixed with Wheat-o-Mix. "Don't you care that something's not right here?"

Spike groaned and sat upright, holding the coffee mug between his hands. "The girl jumped through a portal, she's bound to pop out of it soon or later. And unless my demon senses have decided to go on the fritz, I'll know when she's back."

"I suppose so." I plopped down on the couch next to Spike. "But still...something's not right. Kagome believes in the existence of demons, but believes they've died out." He glanced sideways at Spike. "Which you've so graciously proved her wrong."

The vampire grinned innocently and shrugged.

"And that demon—"

"Half demon," Spike interrupted. "Don't ask, I could smell it. He smelled demon and human at the same time. Continue."

"And that half demon that showed up... This just doesn't make any sense!"

Spike sighed. "Had she been assigned a watcher yet?"

"Jordan Luthan was supposed to take charge of her two weeks before the tragic incident with the Council. Jordan delayed, however, after hearing from Kagome's grandfather that she had caught mono."

Spike wrinkled his nose. "Mono, eh?" He shook his head. "Jordan never got a chance to make it here to Japan, did she?"

Giles shook his head slowly. "No, she didn't. Unfortunately, she was in the Council's main building when it was destroyed." He took off his glasses and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"You should get some sleep," Spike said as he stood and set his mug on a nearby table. He walked over to the chest they had brought with them and grabbed two stakes and a crossbow.

The watcher eyed him. "And just where are you going?"

He put the stakes in one of his duster pockets. "Patrolling. Oh, come now Rupert, you can't expect me to sit here all night twiddling my thumbs! I'm a creature of the night."

"A creature of the night off to slay creatures of the night, eh?" Giles asked mockingly.

Spike waved off the laughing watcher and made his way out the door.

+§¤§+

"And just where do you think you're going?" Inuyasha huffed as he hoisted himself over the Bone Eater's Well's edge, the Tetsaiga still held tightly in his hand.

"Sit boy!" Kagome commanded before running off in the direction opposite Kaede's village.

Inuyasha plummeted to the bottom of the well face first, re-emerging in Kagome's time, growling in frustration. He climbed halfway up the ladder that had put in for to make things easier for Kagome, and jumped back down.

He arrived back in his time and leapt up out of the well, sheathing the Tetsaiga. That was the second time today she had sat him for no reason.

Something was going on, something that Kagome was neglecting to tell him. He had a distinct feeling that she didn't want him to know, she didn't want anyone to know. But that human and the demon who spoke that odd language knew. Was that why Kagome ran from them? Because they knew her secret?

But to his knowledge, Kagome's only secrets were: she traveled back in time to hunt for the shards of the sacred Shikon no Tama and that she was Kikyo's reincarnation. What else was there? What wasn't she telling him?

With a groan, he took off in Kagome's direction.

+§¤§+

She wanted to cry, just find some quiet corner and sit down and cry. This wasn't happening to her, but as much as she tried to convince herself it wasn't, she knew it was. And it frightened her.

She, Kagome Higurashi, was a Slayer. A "potential" one, but a Slayer none the less.

This gift, this power that some higher power had bestowed upon her, she wished she could return and exchange for something else. But, what else would she want in exchange?

Her old life back. Just plain Kagome. Not Kikyo's reincarnation, not the seeker of the sacred jewel, not a Slayer...just Kagome.

But, if she were to be "just Kagome," she would've never met Inuyasha. Like he'd care anyway, if they'd never met. He'd probably be better off...most likely still pinned to that tree by Kikyo's magic arrow.

No, he wouldn't care, but she would... She would care if such a thing were to happen. But, such a thing wasn't likely to happen. Things were stuck the way they were.

Apparently, she wasn't watching were se was going and stumbled over some roots protruding from the ground. She lost her balance and fell into the dirt, a cloud of dust momentarily engulfing her. She pushed herself up into a siting position, and leaned back against the thick truck of the tree whose roots had caused her fall.

Drawing her scraped knees to her chest, she rested her forehead upon them and wrapped her arms tightly around her legs, silently rocking back and fourth. Slowly, the unshed tears who's path had been halted earlier resumed their course as she murmured protests under her breath.

Her ragged breath caught in her throat and she froze as a hand gently gripped her shaking shoulder. It was him; he'd found her. She hesitated, the lifted her head and met his eyes.

Demonic, golden eyes. Just like that vampire's...like all the vampires she was destined to slay.

Kagome flinched and tried to scoot out of his grasp, but he held her firmly in place. "What's going on?"

She opened her mouth to blurt out some random lie about hormones and a certain time of the month with a dash of relatives who escaped from a mental institution, but he held up his free hand to silence her.

"Don't, okay, just don't. I don't want to hear some excuse or lie, I want to hear the truth." His grip loosened a bit upon seeing the pleading look in her eyes. This was hard for her, but he had to know. "Who were those two guys back there, and what'd they do to you, Kagome?"

Tears swelled up in her eyes and she launched herself into his arms. Inuyasha sat there with his hands up in the air, as if this frightened girl was some sort of disease. But she wasn't, this was Kagome. Slowly, his hands lowered and he held her shoulders as she began to speak.

She told him all of it, from the moment she answered the door to when she fell here and cried. She was confused, frightened, and angry. But, telling Inuyasha, made her feel a bit better...for a while at least.

Kagome pulled out of Inuyasha's loose and unsure embrace and sat back on her heals. He was staring at the ground, and she guessed he was trying to sort everything out in his head. He raised his head and looked at her and she readied herself for his temper.

"Let me get this straight," he said, "you can fight demons, and you never told me?!"

By the Gods... She groaned and nearly fell over. "I just found out less than 30 minutes ago, you know. And besides, even though I can, I won't!"

He leaned back a bit and tilted his head. "Why not?"

Her hands gripped the material of her skirt and glanced down at the ground. All right, she'd tell him. "Because, well... My grandpa used to tell me all sorts of tall tales and until I came here, I never believed a word of them. But, it seems that another ones of his tales is true, unfortunately. He told me once of a girl called the Slayer, one girl in all the world who is chosen to fight demons and the forces of darkness. The Slayer is assigned a watcher by the Council—whatever the 'Council' is—to train her. But, Slayers rarely live to see their 16th birthday and if they do, they die on their 18th during a test of strength...which most fail."

Kagome glanced up from the ground and straight into his eyes. "Inuyasha...I'm 15 years old...I don't want to die."

**TBC**

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is © Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, FX, Joss Whedon, and Mutant Enemy. Inuyasha is © Shogakukan Productions, Rumiko Takahaski, Sunrise, Bandai, YTV, and Cartoon Network. They do not belong to me.

AN: Sorry it took so long to update this fic. I also plan to update "Promenade," "Crystalline Feline," and "Casually Me" soon as well, along with a new fic: "Countdown to Forever." ^^

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