AN: Well, here is another chappie, I hope you all are happy with how the votes are, because they have been counted and now by unanimous vote this is officially an Inu/Kag story! OK, so Review and read on!

Disclaimer: yeah, I can't think of any more creative disclaimers so your all stuck with the original, I don't own crap.

CHAPTER 14

RELIVEING THE PAST,

PROMISES FOR THE FUTURE

It was a cold morning, Li ran with his pack through the misty valley that lay just beyond the village. His mind was hardly on what he was doing, which was checking up on Nireku's sent and finding out how he was disappearing. Suddenly the whole pack stopped and Tire, his second in command, came up to him and began to lead him to the place in the valley he had caught the sent. Technically Tire wasn't his second in command, that was Sara, but Tire did handle most things that Li didn't, just running them by either him self or Sara for approval.

Tire led him deep into the valley, so deep that Li had to depend solely on his sense of smell to guide him, his sight lost in the mist. They only walked a little way before Li caught Nireku's sent. He growled softly, then bumped into Tire who had stopped.

"So how do you think he's managing to, ya know, do all this?" Li asked the wolf he couldn't even see, Tire's voice came through the mist,

"We think that he's not even disappearing at all. He's flying. By using a demonic speed that allows him to do so unseen." He said, Li nodded, then frowned,

"But if, if he can do that then why doesn't he do it when we fight?" he asked, Tire answered,

"Because it doesn't work long enough to be useful, and most likely, he can't control it very well." The wolf answered, Li nodded and then said,

"Yeah, I agree, don't track him, I already have someone on that, you just keep it up with the perimeter, I have to do something today, don't bother me unless it's really important; clear?" he said, his voice strong and calm with this command, and then, not waiting for a reply, he left into the mist.

Sara was sitting in the back yard of her parent's place, her mother sat across from her, Kagome with her, as well as many of the women in the village, actually, all of them. She had been given the task, by tradition here, to ask her mother and the High Priestess, to bond with Li. However, this being her mother and her mother's best friend, and so many others it was more or less just girl talk.

"I'm really happy for you Sara." Said Kagome, "Li needs a good girl like you to keep him in line." She continued beaming at the girl, Sara nodded,

"No worries Mrs. Kagome, I'll take care of him." She said, however her grin said this may be at Li's expense. The women laughed, and then Sango looked to Sara again and said,

"Sara, you shouldn't call her Mrs. Kagome, you're just as married as she is, and me, as well as any woman in this village, you call them by their first name now. You're grown up now." She said, and then hugged her daughter, she had a very easy time of this, she'd seen it coming.

"Does anyone else know?" asked Kagome, Sara shook her head,

"No, well, wait, yes, Tire, a wolf in Li's pack. Ya see, he came to get Li this morning and…" Sara told them of her encounter with the wolf, and Li, and how she was going to throw something at him when she saw him next. Again, all the women laughed.

"That's a man for you." Said Kanna wryly, the girl had just popped up from reasonably no where. Everyone jumped, excluding Sara, at her appearance. Sara just grinned at her friend,

"What can you say? I don't recall you coming back to Li's hut last night, where did you spend the night, wait, let me rephrase that," she said slyly, "how's Rey?"

At this the demon girl blushed an insane color of red and glowered at her friend, then sticking her nose in the air and folding her arms across her chest she said,

"Fine, thank you!"

Sara nearly died laughing, as did many others, until they remembered who Kanna was, then they all began to get a tad pale. Sara spoke,

"You're just lucky your father doesn't know yet. Where is Rey anyway?" she asked, Kanna got pale.

"Damn!" said cried, and then ran to find her ill fated lover. They all shook their heads; Sango's face was paler than ever.

"I think," the Taji-ya whispered, "I just lost a son." She said,

Sara giggled then said, "Naw, Kanna wont let Sesshomaru kill him."

Just as the words left her mouth, something knocked down a tree near by, and a roar resounded throughout the village. Everyone looked in that direction, then to Sara again. However, the girl was already running to help her sibling.

Li caught Sara's waist as she ran past him. She struggled and cried,

"Let go Li! My brother-"

"Needs to do this on his own." Li cut in, and smiled, "if he can't stand up to Sesshomaru now, it's not worth loving Kanna. Let him go, he'll be fine, I promise." He said, she sighed,

"Fine, but, if he dies, so do you." She snapped, he shrugged, then pulled her towards his hut. "What was up with Nireku?" she asked, he shrugged,

"He can just move as hyper speed when he wants to, but not long enough to hurt us in battle with it." He replied, she nodded,

"Good." She said simply, then smiled as Li didn't take her to the hut, he kept walking.

"So, did you get them to agree to do it?" he asked, as casually as he could manage. She nodded,

"Of course, did you think they'd not?" she asked wryly, he shrugged,

"No, but I was wondering." He stopped, and they walked in comfortable silence for a time, until Li suddenly picked Sara up bridle style and ran off. She giggled and laid her head against his chest, not knowing or caring where they were headed.

Li stopped in front of the God Tree, and jumped into its branches, and then finding one that was strong enough, he sat Sara on his lap and leaned against the tree. The two just relaxed there, lapsing into an unusual state of peace in each others presence.

After a time, Li opened his eyes and looked down at Sara,

"Hey Sara?" he asked,

"Yeah?" she mumbled,

"What will you do after this is all over?" he asked, she looked up to him,

"That depends," she said, "What will you do?" he raised his eye brows,

"I guess- I don't know." he said, frowning, Sara smiled,

"I will be where ever you'll be. No matter where that manages to take me Li." She whispered to him, he smiled softly at her,

"Yeah, but are you so sure? I don't think I'm going to stay here Sara, I will probably go out into the lands and see what waits out there, maybe find some place that says home to me, ya know?" he said, his eyes thoughtful, Sara nuzzled him,

"That sounds good to me, but where ever we decide to stay, it's gotta be warm there. Yeah, open fields, sun always shining, trees of course, but some place with space to run." She said. He nodded,

"Yeah, it's gotta be someplace to run, that way we can raise some pups there." he said as casually as ever, she grinned,

"Oh? You do want some then?" she asked, he nodded

"Of course I do." he said, she grinned, laying her head back on his chest,

"Yeah, how many?" she asked as she closed her eyes again, he shrugged,

"We'll just start having some, and when we get tired of having em we'll stop." He said, Sara laughed and he smiled…

Inuyasha sat at the old well, his mind wandering into his past. To a time that seemed so long ago. He thought back to the time when he had left Li and was watching from a far as the boy grew up. That time seemed to haunt him, but it was something to remember, how much he'd loved that boy from the moment he'd held him in his arms. The pain and regret at having to ever let him go. He remembered his first steps; he'd been there, as always watching from afar. Smiling and mentally cheering as his son stood on his own to go after a ball. Kagome and Kouga hadn't been there, they'd not seen it. It was something only he'd witnessed. And he'd loved every moment of it.

Slowly Inuyasha's smile slipped as his thoughts turned, now on Kagome, the woman who had changed his entire life twice. Once on coming here, and another when she'd left. How he'd met her, and how it had all began…

We were strangers

Starting out on a journey
Never dreaming

What we'd have to go through
Now here we are
And I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you

Inuyasha looked down from his position on the God Tree. His eyes adjusted to the dim light, the sun was going down. Then he heard breathing, and he looked up. A girl, Kikyou was running towards him. Wearing really weird clothes. She had no weapon, she was scared, she reeked of fear. Something was chasing her.

Anger boiled up inside him. And that came out as he shouted,

"What are you doing Kikyou? Why ya running? Just do it like ya did me!"

She looked up at him,

"I'm not Kikyou! What are you-" just then the demon attacked her, it was a weird looking thing, she flew in the air and fell beside his tree. He frowned,

"What are you doing Kikyou? You gone soft or something? Kill it!" she glared up at him,

"Listen, Kikyou, Kikyou, who ever she is she's not me cause my name is Kagome got it? Ka-Go-Me!" she yelled, he blinked,

No, she wasn't Kikyou, she didn't smell like Kikyou had, and she, she was way more beautiful than Kikyou had ever been.

"Your right, Kikyou was cuter, much cuter…"

Inuyasha smiled at this memory, and slowly began to fall into many more…

No one told me
I was going to find you
Unexpected
What you did to my heart
When I lost hope
You were there to remind me
This is the start

Kagome sat on the bank beside the river, while he tried to wash his hands of the smell of human blood that tainted them. He growled to himself, he'd lost control, he could have hurt her. He could have killed her! How had he lost control? Snarling, he walked over to the bank and sat a few feet from her.

She held out a rag for him to wash off with,

"Keep it." He snarled, she just sat there, her eyes on the ground, not saying anything he growled again, "You don't have to force yourself to stay by me." She looked over at him, her eyes practically welling up with tears, at this he snarled, "Listen, I'm so tired of all of you pussy footing around me! Cause I don't have a problem with it, I don't give a damn what I did!" he yelled,

"Don't kid yourself." She said, he blinked, then looked away, ashamed. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, she leaned against him, her head on his back,

"Oh Inuyasha, I know how you feel."

Life is a road

And I want to keep going

Love is a river

I wanna keep flowing

Live is a road

Now and forever

Wonderful journey

I'll be there

When the world stops turning

I'll be there

When the storm is through

In the end I wanna be standing

At the beginning with you

Inuyasha smiled as he thought about all of these things. The woman that he would one day marry, have a child with, but now. What now? She loved Kouga, for now he had Li to talk to and to keep him from missing her totally, like he had all the years before, but after Nireku? Li would probably go his own way. And then what? Inuyasha would be on his own again, left to rot most likely until death took him. And that was going to be ages. Maybe there was something left for him, but nothing that he could think of…

Just then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up, it was Kagome, smiling at him with that little soft smile that she had.

We were strangers

On a crazy adventure

Never dreaming

How our dreams would come true

Now here we stand

Unafraid of the future

At the beginning with you

He just stared at her for a moment, his mind not comprehending her appearance. Slowly Kagome bent down to him, and began to kiss him deeply.

It took Inuyasha a moment to register this too, but when he did, it was with passion harbored for 16 years.

Life is a road

And I want to keep going

Love is a river

I wanna keep flowing

Live is a road

Now and forever

Wonderful journey

I'll be there

When the world stops turning

I'll be there

When the storm is through

In the end I wanna be standing

At the beginning with you

I knew there was somebody somewhere

Like me alone in the dark

Now I know my dream will live on

I've been waiting so long

Nothing's gonna tear us apart..

Inuyasha pulled back from Kagome,

"Kagome, what?" he muttered, she put a finger to his lips stopping him,

"I told you once Inuyasha, that I would love you until the day I died, did you think I was lying? I love you more than anyone else in the world, no matter what happened 16 years ago, I don't care. I love you now. Do you still love me?" she said, he smiled, then pulled her into a hug and put his nose in her neck,

"Fool, I never stopped loving you, mate." He growled possessively, talking again like the Inuyasha Kagome remembered so well.

The two just sat there after that, smiling and grinning to each other, loving everything around them, and then they began to reminisce about the times that they'd been separated. And even as the day continued, they were like they had been so many years ago, untouched by time…

Kouga looked at his daughter who sat beside him. A wolf in her lap, and a smile on her face. That was the part that was bothering him.

Kouga had just told Anè of her mother's decision to stay with Inuyasha, and Kouga was more than a little surprised to see her just smiling and nodding with the pup on her lap.

"Uh, Anè, are you ok with this?" he asked softly, she grinned at him and nodded vigorously,

"Yeah papa, think about it, this way I can still be part of Li's family and Inuyasha can be a part of mine! It's perfect! Don't you think so? I mean, mamma's happy, and you said that that is what makes you happy, so why aren't you happy?"

Kouga shook his head trying to make sense of that sentence, however, when he finally did, he just shrugged,

"I love your mother, that's all that matters. Don't worry Anè, I'm plenty happy." He said, the girl nodded, and then looked out toward the distant skies, her brown eyes glowing with the sun, and then she said quietly,

"Daddy, I was wondering, when are we going home?" Kouga shrugged,

"When it's safe to, why?" he replied calmly, she smiled,

"Because I like it here, I mean, not as much as home, but I just wanted to know how long I've got here. Li's around again, mama's happy here, and I get to play with a ton of other kids, I love this place daddy." She said, he smiled at her softly,

"Anè, when all of this is over, Li probably won't stay here, I don't know what your mother will do, the only other person here will be the kids for sure, it won't be like this." He said, she sighed,

"I know, but, I feel like this place is a good place, a safe spot, a special place." She said,

"Why?" he asked,

"Because when we came here, mom was happy again, Li met his daddy, and I got to see him again, and he met that slayer girl Sara and now he's happy, and he got his own pack, and I got to see all of it, I mean, so many things happening in a single spot, that must count for something, don't you think daddy?" she said, Kouga smiled at his daughter,

"Yeah pup, I do." he whispered, and then the two watched as the sun set…

Rey stood against a tree outside the village panting, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Only one eye open, but it was darting every which way. Silently he was thanking every god he could think of that he knew this village so well. Had he been anywhere else, Rey surly wouldn't have been able to avoid getting caught and killed by his new father-in-law. He shivered,

Damn, even for a demon that bastard is fast! I am so screwed; I have just sealed my fate as a man who died from loving women too much. I think I have officially topped my father on the lecherous scale of stupidity. Falling in love with a Taiyoukai's daughter, yeah BRILLIANT!

Just then Rey heard a twig snap behind him. He didn't even turn,

"Kanna?" he asked, a hand was on his shoulder and a kiss on his neck. He smiled,

"Yeah love, hiding are you?" she cooed, he rolled his eyes,

"Wouldn't you?" he snapped, though not unkindly, she shrugged,

"No, he wouldn't kill me." Then she was silent before saying, "I don't think he'll kill you yet, just maim you maybe, he doesn't kill the men I love, he promised he wouldn't, he just make it impossible for them to have children."

Rey's eyes snapped open. And he spun backing away,

"Are you serious?" he said, she nodded wryly,

"Sorry." She replied sheepishly, "I should have told you who I was, that was stupid of me." She said,

"Yeah you should have." Rey snapped, then sighed, and wrapped his arms around her, "Ignore me, I probably wouldn't have done anything differently had you told me anyway, and you aren't stupid. Just, you're an untouchable, and I touched, I'm screwed, that's just my life, this isn't the first time this has happened."

Kanna laughed,

"I believe that!" she said grinning, then looked up at him, kissing him, then lying against his chest; he smiled, and hugged her. "Hey Rey, how'd you get away with it the other times?" she asked, he shrugged,

"I just never went back to those villages." He said, "I really didn't love those girls so I didn't care, you're different though, no easy solutions here."

She laughed at this and the sighed,

"We could always ask Li for help." She said, Rey nodded,

"Yeah, that sounds good, surly he can do something. Of all people." He said, and then the two laughed together as they watched the setting sun…

Li and Sara walked back into the village, only to see many huts overturned and people rebuilding, Li's eyebrows raised,

"Uh, do I want to know?" he asked to no one in particular, someone dragging a top to a hut said,

"Rey's attempt at escaping Lord Sesshomaru I'm afraid." Li nodded,

"Ok, well, here, let me help out, Sara, take that and, we'll have this up in no time." Sara nodded and the two got the top onto the hut with little strain.

Li went over to another hut, his own, and growled to himself about Rey and Sesshomaru and how stupid they were. As he began to pull the collapsed roof away, he found a sudden help with the wait, it was Kouga.

The two rivals looked at each other for a long moment, then nodded to one another, and began to rebuild the hut.

They were working on the walls when another pair of hands joined them, Inuyasha. Again, there was the stare of two rivals, but again, there was a compromise. And as the three worked to rebuild the hut, something much more important was being repaired…

They had just finished Li's hut, the sun would soon finish falling, it was then that the last drama of the day unfolded, Rey and Kanna crept out from the village, both looking for Sesshomaru and not seeing him.

Li called them over, partly to talk, and partly to be within jumping range to protect them from his uncle's wrath.

When they got over he grinned and was about to ask how their day had been before Sesshomaru materialized behind them. Li's mouth was half open before his eye-brows rose alerting the couple of their danger.

Rey spun, Kanna jumped behind him, and Li growled softly making Sesshomaru glance in his direction. Just at that moment however, something happened that totally distracted Sesshomaru from the couple in front of him.

Kohaku called to Sango from where he stood in the middle of the village. Sesshomaru turned, and saw the one thing in the world that could have made him turn that weird white color.

Kohaku stood there, his arm around Rin's waist. Her very, very, pregnant, waist. At that instant Sesshomaru went from white, to a very deep shade of red, then purple. Then his eyes turned red.

He rushed Kohaku, death in his eyes.

But Kohaku, having had Sesshomaru as his Father In Law for a time, was an expert, and was already prepared. He ducked away from Rin, dodging Sesshomaru's attacks, never pulling out a weapon, he just kept dodging until suddenly he twisted on his hand and flipped away, and began talking as he resumed dodging and avoiding,

"Sesshomaru-listen-to-me! Will you, give me, TWO SECONDS!" he yelled in between the demons grabs for him. Then Rin's voice cut through everything as she screamed,

"DADDY STOP!" Kanna had run over to her and been trying to talk to her but Rin hadn't been able to hear because of the two men's fighting. Now she turned to Kanna, "You were saying dear?" she said, Kanna explained in a whisper, and then Rin was grinning,

"Ok, yeah, that's nice." Said Kohaku ruefully, "You stopped him so you can chit-chat, I guess I matter a ton to you don't I woman?" he snapped, Rin rolled her eyes at her husband,

"If you didn't matter I'd not have stopped him, I'd have left with Kanna somewhere quiet. Now, Daddy, can you please let Kohaku explain why we haven't told you sooner? We've been so worried you'd not approve. It took us ages just to get here, please listen?" Rin said, Sesshomaru grumbled but accented. Kohaku sighed and began to talk to the demon.

"Ello everyone!" Someone called from the village wall, it was nearly night; however; this personage was ignoring that fact. Shippo lazily strutted his way into the village, about a thousand village girls running up to him as he did so. Only to be attack by a demoness by his side.

"Shippo!" called Inuyasha smiling, "I was wondering when you'd show up again, it's been nearly four months. What were you doing?" he asked the Kitsune, Shippo grinned,

"Well first if you'll recall, I was spying on Li and keeping track of him for you." He replied, Inuyasha glared,

"Yeah, that lasted long. You quite on me!" The hanyou snapped, Shippo shrugged, and put up his hands defensively,

"Hey, hey, I'm getting to that, anyway, after a while, I'll admit I got a little distracted," he gestured to the girl beside him, "and so I may have kinda wandered off for a time, way, way, way off." He sighed, as if the thought of doing so was weighing greatly on his conscience, however, Inuyasha doubted this highly. "However, after a time I regain enough self control-"

"Over your self or from her?" Rey cut in, Shippo went in as if he didn't notice,

"To find my way back here, however, I met up with Li along the way, he was heading to Totosai, and since I had been supposed to watch him, I figured I owed him one, and he told me to spy on Nireku, and I did." He finished, then shrugged.

Inuyasha sighed,

"Well if you're lookin for Li, he's not here. He's rather busy now…"

Li stood there beside Sara, the bonding ceremony finishing as the night fell upon them. He smiled at his lover, wife, and finally bonded.

"I love you Sara." He whispered, she nodded,

"You have no idea how much I love you." She replied, and then kissed him.

They had no idea, this was only the beginning…