Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha he belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

Warning: Contains rape. And a possible lemon...-.-

Every Time A Rainbow Dies

.:Three:.

With the exception of one recurring event, every Wednesday was like every Monday, was like every Tuesday. That Wednesday Inuyasha rose, showered, stepped into a pair of baggy Bermuda shorts then went out onto his roof to be with his birds. Instead of sharing last night's dreams wit them, ha asked out loud, "What should I do about her? It's Wednesday."

For the past five weeks since that night, he had spotted her, the raped girl, coming down Eastern Parkway every Wednesday at eleven-twenty, by the bank clock. The first time he saw her, he felt a strong urge to get to the street, just as he had done that night. Unfortunately, like that night, he couldn't move. He simply let her pass and watched her until she slipped into what had to be Nostrand Avenue. Then he'd stay on his roof and listen to music, stare at cloud formations, or design bigger dovecotes in his head, until the bank clock showed one-fifteen and she returned from wherever she went.

He knew she would be passing through.

He looked to his birds for advice, resolved to take any hint as a sign and act upon it. Ayumi and Eri cooed sympathically, but this told him nothing. Hojo demonstrated the graceful art of diving for lasts night's pizza crust but was cut off by Souta, who swooped down and snatched it.

"What, you crazy?" he asked Souta. "I'd scare her."

The fact remained, Souta had the pizza crust.

Inuyasha turned to Ayumi, who, as usual, was off to herself. "Hey, A-yumi, hey, Ayuumii. Hey, girl."

Ayumi hopped away.

"Don't be like that. Tell me what to do, what to say, you being a woman."

Ayumi did not want to be bothered. She perched on the antenna.

Inuyasha waved her off. His birds could not help him, and he had detained them long enough. He watched them fly away under Souta's lead, banking right, left, and out of sight.

It was early yet. He had time before she would appear. he went inside to take breakfast. His brother, Sesshoumaru, had come in from his shift and was off to bed. This left him with Rin, who was stirring a pot of thick, lumpy, whole-grain porridge. She ate these concoctions whether she liked them or not for the sake of her unborn child. Natural food were better for the baby, according to Rin. He grabbed a bowl, his box of Cap'n Crunch, or "processed sugar," and sat at the table

"Correct me if I'm mistaken," Rin began, "but I did not sleep with you last night."

Inuyasha grunted at her, rather than say the, "Good morning, sistah dear," she wanted. He watched her pour the glop into a bowl and thought, 'Vile.' She read his face well but joined him at the table nonetheless. He would be content to eat in silence, although, Rin would never let him get away without conversation, sitting face-to-face. She swallowed a spoon full of her porridge, took a moment to clear her mouth, then asked, "Ya have plans?"

He never took this to be a serious question. She always asked him this and his answer was always the same" "Naw", or a head shake.

"Ya let this whole summer go by, no work, no studies, no friends."

"So."

"You're not a child, Inuyasha. Ya should be planning. Doing. Thinking about college."

He poured more milk and cereal into his bowl.

"Ya drink too much cow's milk." With Rin it was always some new thing she got hold of from books and magazines. She had come to the house touting goat's milk as "the righteous milk." Then it was soy milk. Now rice milk.

He knew what to do in this situation. "could you be loved," a favorite of his father's. His music was there in his head when he needed to drown out Rin. "Don't let them change you." He crunched loud, bobbing his head while she talked on. At this point The Wailers were much to mellow. he switched to Shabba

Rin had to know he had left her, although this did not discourage her. After nearly three years of Rin in the house he knew her litany cold: He was too much into himself. He sat on his roof, talked to birds, got tanner by the sun loads, ate Cap'n Crunch, had no ambitions, no girlfriend, yah, yah. She could talk and talk. None of these things was on his mind. He thought only of her, the girl, and that she would be passing by in yet another hour.

Inuyasha washed and dried his bowl, watched some TV, then went back up to his roof. It was ten minutes past eleven. He knelt at the edge of the roof, in his "waiting for her" position. He still had not figured out what he would do or say, but he knew he would do something. Perhaps come down off the roof, tap her on the shoulder, and say "Girl, I've been thinking about you. Are you all right?"

He played this back to himself to get a feel for her reaction. As he tried to picture her expression and what she might say, he realized he only had a distorted face to go by. True, he had filled in his dream girls face with her face, but he had wiped away her blood and healed her scars.

This made him wonder if she had healed in five weeks. Could he look at her without pausing on her scars? Would she recognize him and thank him for rescuing her, or would she fall apart?

He began to think that trying to talk with her was a bad idea. He was about to step away from the edge of the rooftop but then he saw he coming down Eastern Parkway, her head and chest high, her gait proud and undaunted as she passed that alley. She carried a backpack and wore a long skirt that swayed as she walked. He imagined it was much like the skirt he had pinned to his wall, made of fine silky cotton, except for its single color, bright marigold. As he watched her walking swiftly with her head high, it puzzled him that she was not hiding and her colors so bold.

He followed her for the three blocks with his eyes, not realizing that he had crept along to the other end of the rooftop. It was when she disappeared down Nostrand Avenue that he told himself that he might never get another chance to talk to her. He ran inside that apartment, past a startled Rin, and was on Eastern Parkway running after her. he stopped to catch his breath at Nostrand Avenue and to see if he could spot her. There were only a few bystanders at the bus stop; not one of them was the girl.

She could have turned on Lincoln Place or gone into a store on St. Johns, but which one? Inuyasha looked into shops along the block. Although he didn't know her, he couldn't imagine her going for pizza before noon. He didn't glance inside Ayoka's Hair Braiding, for braids didn't require a weekly visit. Besides, she wore her hair pulled up on her head, never braided. He did glance inside the real estate office, the money transfer place, and the music store. No girl in a yellow-gold skirt. He tried the flower shop, this time going inside.

"Yeah, boss?"

"Just looking," Inuyasha said. "For someone."

The florist's eyes said, 'Do you see anyone here?' Inuyasha backed out of the store, accidentally kicking a potted plant.

Why was he running after her? This was crazy. He was crazy. Obviously she was all right. She had filed her police report and gotten tested. She didn't need him to ask how she was, remind her of that night, or stare at her scars. She had passed by with her head held high, not offering the alley a side glance. She didn't hide in dark colors. She didn't need him to rescue her.

He decided to turn back, and there she appeared in her skirt, bright and yellow. She had stepped out of a shop on the opposite of the street and tucked something, perhaps a small bag, into her backpack and continued down Nostrand.

He crossed the street to get a better look at the shop she had come out of. It was a store with Japanese characters painted on the door, and a sign propped in the window that read Japanese Herbs and Medicine, Acupuncture on Premises.

He didn't want to go inside; he just wanted to know what it was all about. Inuyasha pressed his face against the window but saw no one. On the counter sat a mortal and pestle and a set of measuring scales, much smaller than those used in grocery stores. Behind the counter were cabinets with about fifty little drawers, each one marked with Japanese characters.

When the shopkeeper, a middle-aged Japanese woman in a white lab coat, appeared from the backroom, Inuyasha stepped away.

What did she want with Japanese herbs? Why did it take five or ten minutes to prepare? Where did she go next, and why did it take an hour before she returned to Eastern Parkway?

He could see her up ahead. There was a block and a half between them. He took one step, another, and a broad Mother-May-I in her direction. Her skirt movement hypnotized him. The dance of her lean and sensual body made him forget she was a rape victim; she was a girl whose skirt swayed with the sea. Not only did she pull him with her motion, but other men turned to watch her walk by.

Inuyasha wondered if she wore no bra and if her nipples showed against the fabric of her top. Picturing her body in detail made him erect, something hat happened seemingly all the time. Girl had aroused him before, but this was different. She was flesh. Warm. Angry. And he did not have to imagine her. He had seen her. Touched her.

The she stopped abruptly, and he froze, expecting her to turn around. Just as abruptly as she stopped, she continued, only now at a slightly faster pace.

'What now?' he thought. 'Run after her? Then what?' He only wanted to know she was all right. This is what he told himself as he walked faster to keep up with her.

She vaulted up the steps of some building in the next block. As he approached, he saw it was St. Augustine's, a Catholic church. A statue of St. Augustine, a black missionary in a long robe, held out welcoming arms. Inuyasha wiped his hands on his Bermudas, wiped his sweaty forehead and face on his shirt, and went up the steps to the Catholic church. he entered the church, but he did not want her to see him just yet, so he stepped into a little room off to the side. The entrance to the room was draped in a maroon velvet curtain. There was a dark screen before him that separated his little room from yet another.. before him were the words "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned" in English, Spanish, and French.

If he remained quiet, he would not be discovered. He would wait and peer out of the velvet curtain until the service was over. When she came out, he would talk to her.

Excluding his brother's wedding, it had been years since he had attended a church service. His mother was Episcopalian. He too was Episcopalian, back when he attended Holy Trinity on Fulton. That was three Easters ago. His mother was nom longer with him, and he hadn't been Episcopalian ever since. His brother had become a Rasta, the creed of his father. Now Sesshoumaru was married and a transit worker. Those were his religions. Work and Rin. He seemed less and less a brother.

The aroma of incense that drifted from the alter had found his hiding place. Through the slightly pulled-back drapes he watched a black priest say mass to the girl and mostly elderly men and women. The priest spoke and made hand gestures, raising his fingers to his forehead, lips, and heart. The parishioners responded in kind. Inuyasha tried to follow what was being said but could not, for the priest and the parishioners spoke in what he thought was French.

"Haitian," he said aloud. "She's Haitian."

He watched her make the sign of the cross, kneel and rise several times. When they sang hymns, he picked out her voice, which rose above those of the old people, the organists, and the priest. It was a voice that wore bright colors. She then took communion, her pride replaced with humility. When the mass was over, and the priest had left, she went to the alter of candles, took dollar bills from her backpack, and put them in a box. He watched as she lit the tallest candle and knelt, her head bowed, her back curved, legs extending in sandaled feet, making a number two in profile. She rose, dipped her fingers into a ceramic fount, and made the sign of the cross, touching her forehead, above her abdomen, then both sides of her chest. She repeated an anointing of her abdomen and pelvis-something no one else did. She then took a small vessel of some kind, dipped it into the fount, capped it, and placed it in her backpack. Each action she carried out with her head lowered.

Inuyasha had to get out of there. He slipped out of the confessional and left the church. She would be outside within seconds. While waiting for her in the parking lot, he had made up his mind. No more following her. When she came down the church steps, he would walk up to her and offer to walk her home.

She was awfully fast, or he wasn't as brave as he thought. She sped right past him and was halfway down the block by the time he saw her.

Inuyasha walked fast. His legs were longer than hers, and his stride was greater. He lost sight of her in front of him and was practically on top of her when she turned around.

"You!" she screamed. Even then accent was thick.

He was stunned, tongue-tied. before he could explain or apologize or ask if she was all right, she took off, the backpack bouncing against her. She never looked back.

Inuyasha vowed to leave her alone and to let her die in his mind. He would stop filling in his dream girl's face with her face. Her prayers, candles, and Japanese herbs were silly next to his vow.

Before he fell asleep that night, he faced the skirt nailed to his wall and said, "To hell with her."

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