Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Inuyasha. Nor do I own Kagome, Sesshoumaru, Rin, Kagome's family, or any of the other copyrighted characters that may or may not appear in this fic. So please don't sue me, and enjoy the story!

Notes: Good news everyone! I've decided that Miroku will definately be making an appearance in this fic - probably four or five in fact! He won't have a big part, or at least I don't think he will, but he'll definitely be one of the comic relief characters. Consequently, I've decided that Sango has to come in somewhere, although I'm having a little more trouble figuring out how to incorporate her without being *too* cliche. I still have lots of time to deal with all that though - just thought you guys might be interested.

Okay, so to address some of the stuff brought up in reviews: Kagome/Rin/Miroku/the other non-slave characters aren't in the clothing from the anime - they're just normal college students. As for the slaves, I actually did picture them in their typical outfits, but I know that's not entirely realistic so I'm leaving the interpretation of their appearance up to you guys. The thing to remember is that they're slaves, and they're supposed to stand out so that people can distinguish them and treat them accordingly.

As for the protection aspect of Kagome and Inyasha's current relationship, she is his responsibility - he *has* to protect her. If anything happens to her it will reflect badly on him, and he'll be punished and forced to do something a lot more horrible than serving as a personal slave. In the "slave heirarchy", being a personal slave is definitely the top rung of the ladder. Below it are things like working in a factory or a mine, doing things like construction and constant difficult manual labor, and the worst fate of all - being reprogrammed (which you'll hear about from Inuyasha later on.) Inuyasha is lucky because he's talented, attractive, and consequently he's worth a lot of money - so he was naturally trained and sold as a personal slave.

I'm glad you like how Inuyasha is coming out! I'm getting more and more confident about writing him as I go along. Kagome came really naturally to me for some reason, and I think Miroku will be pretty easy too. The characters I have the most trouble with are Rin (!!) and Sango. If you have any suggestions on how I can translate Rin's child-personality to her young-adult-in-love-with-Sesshoumaru-personality, that would be great. Sesshoumaru and Kikyo are going to be difficult to write - I'm tempted to make Kikyo very emotional in a spiteful, seductive, violent way, but I think she's actually more cold than anything else so I'll try to write her as such. Sesshoumaru is hard because I love him so much that I don't want to screw up his personality - if Thunk is reading this maybe she could give me some hints because I LOVE the way Sesshoumaru comes across in her fics - he's absolutely PERFECT!


Learning to Let Go

Chapter 5: Chicken Soup for the Hanyou Soul.

"Are you still cold?" Kagome asked him, breaking the silence that had fallen over them since entering the house.

Inuyasha stopped looking around the interior of the house quickly before she could accuse him of being overawed by it's splendor. I was standing out in the cold for six hours, what the hell do you think? he thought, but all he said was "I'll live."

Kagome glared and turned away. "You don't have to act all tough," she muttered under her breath, heading for the stairs.

"I heard that," Inuyasha snapped from behind her, and she turned and stared at him, apparently startled by his perception.

"Oh right, the ears," Kagome remembered. Inuyasha waited for her to ridicule him, to call him a freak and a bastard and a mutant abomination, but she just studied his ears absently for a moment before starting up the wide, carpeted staircase. She paused again halfway up and turned toward him almost sheepishly. "Uh, you don't have to wait there if you don't want to. You can look around, or go sit down or watch TV or whatever. I'll be back in a minute."

Inuyasha stood there stonily until she was out of sight, then turned and moved hesitantly toward the nearest doorway. The whole house was clean and stylish and beautiful. The furniture was all expensive and top-quality. And her scent was everywhere, though more faintly than he would have expected, probably due to the fact that she'd just moved in.

"Inuyasha?"

Her voice was soft and tentative, and he moved toward the sound silently. She was standing in one of the brightly lit rooms, and she jumped violently as he stepped out of the shadows, spinning to face him and dropping everything she'd had in her arms in the process.

"You scared me to death!" she gasped, staring at him wide-eyed. "Why didn't you turn the lights on?"

He shrugged, not particularly sorry for frightening her. "Don't need them."

"Oh." She took a deep, calming breath and then looked down at the pile of stuff she'd dropped. "I brought you some stuff," she told him, brightening again inexplicably. "I wasn't expecting to share the house with anyone so I don't have any extra beds - you'll have to sleep on the couch. But I have lots of extra blankets and pillows, so you should be okay until we can work something else out for you. And I don't really have any clothes that are big enough for you either, so I can't give you anything warmer until tomorrow when I can go buy you some stuff."

Inuyasha stared down at the blankets and pillows heaped on the floor. Sleeping on a couch was supposed to be less than ideal? He was used to cold floors and only thin sheets for warmth. And she wanted to buy him clothes, was acting as though he deserved them or something. How can she be so rich and not understand how slaves are supposed to be treated? He wondered.

"Are you hungry?" Kagome asked him, sounding almost hopeful.

Was she kidding? He was always hungry. Slowly he looked up at her, thinking it was some kind of joke meant to torment him. But she looked serious.

"What kind of food?" he asked suspiciously, and was completely thrown when she smiled brilliantly at him.

"All kinds of food!" she told him enthusiastically. "My mom and my grandfather made sure I had lots of everything." She led him into the kitchen, listing off kinds of food he'd never even heard of on her fingers. He kept quiet, afraid of giving away the fact that he was completely overwhelmed. She was opening cupboards now, all filled with boxes of different kinds of food.

"Oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables - yuck! - popcorn, chicken broth, Ramen, pizza - "

"Did you say Ramen?" Inuyasha demanded, unable to help himself. He'd tried it once, while the proctor wasn't looking, and had been thoroughly punished for his disobedience and presumptuousness. But he'd never forgotten the amazing taste, so different from the lumpy gruel that slaves were fed.

"Sure!" Kagome told him, taking down a red and gold box. "Is that what you want?"

Inuyasha was suspicious again. "You're going to feed me Ramen?"

Confused by his manner, Kagome paused with the box half open. "If you want me to," she said slowly. "You could have something else too."

"Ramen is fine," he said gruffly, turning his face away and trying to ignore the enticing smell as Kagome made the soup.

A few moments later she put a steaming bowl in front of him and one in front of herself. "All done," she told him, handing him a spoon and sitting down across from him. Inuyasha stared at the bowl in disbelief, then looked up at her.

"All of this?" He asked incredulously. "I can eat all of this?"

Kagome blinked. "Well I figured you were hungry after standing outside for so long, so I made you two packages. You don't have to finish it if it's too much - "

She broke off as Inuyasha grabbed the bowl and started to eat as if he'd been half-starved his entire life which, in fact, he had been. It only took him minutes to polish off the whole bowl, and he looked up to see Kagome staring at him in amazement.

He winced internally and froze guiltily, thinking she'd changed her mind and was angry, or maybe offended by his manners, but after a minute she shook herself and pushed her own bowl toward him. "Here I think you're hungrier than I am."

His eyes widened fractionally. Was this girl for real? Any moment now he was going to wake up back in the institute, dressed in rags and curled into a ball on the floor, still in pain from his last disciplinary session. He wanted to pinch himself just to make sure it wasn't a dream, but settled instead for going to work on her bowl as well.

When he'd polished that off Inuyasha was more satisfied than he'd ever been in his life. It was an almost heady delight not to feel the gnawing pain of hunger in his gut anymore, and he would have purred in content if Kagome hadn't been sitting right across from him, still watching in bemusement.

"Do you want some more?" she asked, standing and taking the bowls from the table to the sink. He shook his head, leaning back in his chair and still enjoying the feeling. She tilted her head. "Do you want to sleep now? Or watch a movie, or listen to music or something? I think I'm going to go upstairs and study for a while, since it's only my first day of classes and I'm already behind on my work." She sighed. "Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, I guess. Come on, I'll help you make your bed."

"I thought you said I didn't have a bed," Inuyasha said, following her into the living room where she picked up the bundle of blankets and pillows and carried them into the next room, the one with the huge TV and the biggest couch.

"I meant the couch you're going to be sleeping on," Kagome explained, tossing the pillows at one end of the couch and spreading the blankets out over the cushions. She brushed off her hands and surveyed her work before nodding her head in satisfaction. "Well, that should be okay for tonight anyway. If you need anything I'll be right upstairs, and here's the remote for the TV." She tossed it on top of the pillows and turned to go, but he was standing directly behind her and blocking her path.

"Why?" he demanded, arms crossed over his chest, eyes narrowed.

Kagome blinked. "Why what?" she asked, seemingly lost.

He glared at her. "Why are you being so goddamn nice to me? I'm a slave, a lesser being. Not to mention being a half-demon freak of nature. I haven't done anything to give you a reason to be nice."

"Do I need a reason to be nice?" she asked, and he was startled to see that he'd managed to irritate her again. "I'm only doing what any decent person would do, you know. And why do you say all those horrible things about yourself? You're not a lesser being, and you're not a freak, so stop saying it!"

He studied her, not moving to let her by. She glared back, refusing to be intimidated by him this time. Finally he uncrossed his arms and looked away. "Keh. You really are crazy if you think that anyone else would be treating me this way. And I am a freak."

She sighed wearily and stepped around him. "I'm tired of arguing with you. I have stuff I need to get done."

"You really mean it." His words stopped her in her tracks, and she slowly pivoted to look back at him.

He was standing half turned away from her, his hair falling over his eyes and hiding his expression and his thoughts from her.

"Of course I mean it," she said quietly. "I've been trying to get that through your thick head all day."

He turned away and moved to sit on the couch. "Go do your work."

She hesitated for a moment, but when he didn't look at her she turned and left. He listened to her footsteps all the way up the stairs and down the hall. Finally relaxing, he looked around him in wonder before picking up the remote cautiously. It was going to be an interesting night.

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Sorry if you're dissapointed about the sleeping arrangements, but fear not - I'll keep this interesting, I promise. As you can see, I've changed the rating in anticipation of later stuff... I think it would probably be okay to leave it as PG-13, but I think I'd rather err on the side of caution. Thanks again for your feedback on Inuyasha - and like I said at the beginning of the chapter, any suggestions for Rin would be lovely.