Niara: Hey! Uh, look, I don't update well and sometimes leave things unfinished, so, please bear with me if it takes me a long time to update any of my stories. Thanks!

And please review, but no flames. Those will be used whenever I next go camping.

Summary: When someone dies, all people have to fight to move on with their lives. But when the person who died is someone like Kagome Higurashi or Serena Tsukino, how can three people, so bound up in their friends' deaths, let go of the past and move on with their lives? (RH/I)

Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha or Sailor Moon, do you honestly think that I would still be trying to get a job? So, no suing…unless you want pocket lint.

That's Life, Folks Prologue: Two Funerals

Everyone was silent as they lowered the casket into the ground in the Higurashi plot of the cemetery, all of them there for one reason: to mourn the passing of a girl who touched each of their lives and changed them forever. Her death marked one of the saddest days in many of her friends' and family's lives. Without Kagome, it seemed as if the sun had run away from them, leaving them in perpetual darkness.

Her little son, a fox demon who was only five, kept sniffling, trying to hold back his tears until he was alone, away from prying eyes, so that he could scream, cry, and rage at the unfairness of the universe to take away his parents and then give him a mother, only to take her away from him too. He buried his face in the leg of the red hakama that his half-demon friend wore, not wanting to see them cover his mother's body in sand forever.

Sango and her brother, Kohaku, stood together, dressed in the Demon Slayer outfits that marked their profession so clearly, their last promise and testament to their friend and sister. The young miko had given Kohaku his life back and had saved Sango as well, leaving both of them in her debt forever. It saddened them both to have to watch as another friend and family member was buried, never to return to their side to aid them in their battles again. And both knew that, had they been there, they could have saved her life, a guilt that would stay with them forever.

Miroku, a monk and the one who had performed the last rights for Kagome, too felt the loss deeply, knowing that she had given him back his life as well; at the cost of her own. He would always wear the prayer beads that had sealed his Wind Tunnel in memory of her, a constant reminder of what she had done for him. He and Sango shared a look, both of them knowing what she would have said to do, had she still been alive. They would tell the others when the mourning was done.

Her mother, brother, grandfather, and friends all had tears streaming down their faces, the loss of their sister/daughter/granddaughter/friend almost too great a grief to bear. For Souta, it was terrible, knowing that he would never get the chance to apologize to his sister for the things he had said to her. Their mother held the jewel that her daughter had died protecting in her hands, wondering what to do with such an item. She knew that Kagome would have wanted a protector for it, so they had to find a priestess willing to do it or just give it to Inuyasha. Kagome's grandfather just cried, knowing that he shouldn't have outlived his beloved grandchild.

Sesshomaru stood silently off to the side, his little ward, Rin, and Jaken at his side, all three of them mourning the late girl who had gone out of her way, even after he had tried to kill them, to mend the bridge between him and his half-brother, Inuyasha. He glanced at where the hanyou stood, his back stiff and his eyes never leaving the large black coffin as dirt began to pile up on it. The kit had burrowed into his hakamas, seeking comfort from the numb warrior. When the time came, he would train the boy.

Kouga and Ayame, now the Lord and Lady of the Northern Lands, also watched the hanyou and the coffin, wishing they had some way to mend the broken heart that was Inuyasha's. Kagura and Kanna stood beside them, equally worried and saddened. The two of them owed the girl their freedom, their ability to live their own lives. Each of the demons had agreed that they would protect Kagome's family like their own as a last promise to the girl that had brought such an unusually group together.

But for Inuyasha himself, the grief and shock of her death had let him numb to all that was going on around him. Dressed in the red Cloth of the Fire Rat and his red hakama, the same thing he had been wearing when they had first met, he stood out among the mourners, his grief making him believe that they, like him, thought it was his fault she had died. As Shippo burrowed into his pants leg, he decided to raise the kit and train him until he could handle Sesshomaru's training. Her dying words echoed in his ears, repeating over and over like a broken record, a constant stab to his already shredded heart.

"Please, Inuyasha," she said. "Please find someone to love as much as you loved me. I couldn't stand it if you were miserable because of me." Then she smiled at her son one last time before allowing her lashes to flutter closed and breathed no more.

------------------

She was gone. She was really gone. All of her friends had come to the funeral, had been able to say good-bye. All of them, save one. Rei knelt down in front of the fresh grave of her best friend, a bouquet of white roses in her arms. She ran one hand over the words carved onto the stone, wishing that it had been her grave that they had been forced to dig. That the mourning could have been for her instead of Serena. Why didn't I move faster? She would still be alive if I had!

Her fingers caressed the words again, burning them into her mind forever.

Serenity Tsukino

July 30, 1987-

November 16, 2005

Beloved Friend, Forever missed.

R.I.P.

Tears swimming in her eyes, Rei set the flowers on the grave and rose, a few lone drops slipping done her cheeks. "I am so sorry, Serena. Please, forgive me where I can not forgive myself."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Niara: Well, that all for now, folks! See you next time! Oh, and please review! Thank you!