Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. I really don't want to. Because you'd all come after me and kill me.

So many hits but not as many reviewers.

Note to people: it's okay to review me even after the story's been posted, or if I haven't updated in a while. More reviews recharge my writing powers, making me stronger and more creative, and not having writer's block for the past few months and also makes me say "screw homework and tests and reports." just kidding about the last one. But seriously. I really don't care. It actually makes me happier to think that people have FOUND my story after such a long time and have decided to read it.

Hooray for findings.

This chapter, well this chapter's a bit short, and a little pointless, but it's still good. Note: the reason for Inuyasha's insightful behavior. Well, I believe that underneath that tough exterior is the soul of a poet. I believe he's very deep in there, he just doesn't like to show it.

Anyway, on with the story.

Dog

By Sun and Moon

Chapter 4

The doorbell rang around 2'o clock that afternoon. Kagome was overjoyed and immediately ran down the stairs, skipping some as she flew down, and answered it. A girl around Kagome's age stood there, her mahogany eyes gleaming in delight, her long brown hair flowing behind her in a high ponytail. But who wouldn't be overjoyed to see their best friend?

"Sango!" Kagome cried. "Thank god you came over. Come in." Sango stepped inside, hugged Kagome and closed the door behind her. By habit, she took off her shoes, and hung her sweater on the wooden coat rack standing behind the door. Kagome grabbed her hand and dragged her upstairs to her room. She closed the door, locked it, and met with Sango on the bed.

"What's this all about Kagome?" Sango asked her friend, dazed and confused. Where had she gone just now?

"I need to have as much privacy as I possibly can." she whispered to Sango. "There isn't any in this house anymore."

"Why are we whispering?" Sango whispered. In her mind, she hoped that nothing had happened to Kagome or her family. Yes she was concerned for her friend, but at the same time, was hoping that Kagome wouldn't have to explain it. Kagome was never good at explaining things to her, let alone keeping her sanity in times of "distress." Sango had often called Kagome "the worst storyteller in history," as when she went to tell of her ventures, she would sometimes trail off, and often over-extenuate things that didn't need it.

"There's a guy in the next room."

"So?"

Kagome went on. "He's a sideshow freak."

"You mean like the bearded lady, or the skeleton man, or that guy Joseph Merrick that you found pictures of in a medical book?"

"I don't think he's as drastic as Merrick, but yes." Kagome stopped for a moment, rethinking what she had said, then decided to change her statement. "Scratch that. He's worse. He's practically a dog in every possible way."

"A dog?"

Kagome nodded.

Sango raised a dark eyebrow at her friend. Had she gone crazy? Nobody was part dog. "Kagome, I think you've been reading one to many werewolf stories."

"No really. He has dog ears, and yellow eyes, and even acts like a dog. He sits like one, growls like one, and talks like one."

"How does he talk like a dog?"

Kagome remembered back to earlier that day when Inuyasha had finally come out of the bathroom. She had been standing right outside the door, hesitating to knock, go in, and talk to him. That was when he jerked the door open, and found the startled Kagome standing there. He had raised an eyebrow at her.

"Can I help you?" he asked, seeming a little annoyed.

Kagome was a little speechless. What was she supposed to say to him? She was not used to talking to somebody under Inuyasha's circumstances; dog ears or no dog ears. That was when she realized that he was actually talking. "So you do talk." His voice was hoarse, but still audible. It was deep, but seemed as if it wasn't done developing yet. He sounded like an eighteen year old.

"Yes. I talk, I walk, I even breathe," he said sarcastically. "Surprised?"

"Uh…"

"You know what?" he continued. "I don't even know why I'm talking to somebody like you. You're just like all the others." He gave her a slight nudge, which sent her out of his way, and he continued down the hall to the guest bedroom. He opened the door, and slammed it behind him.

What did he mean? Just like all the others? What others? Did I insult him in some way, thinking that he couldn't talk? He seemed so much different when he was in that cell. There, he was an innocent, almost like a child in pain. Here… I don't know what to think. What happened in the few hours I was gone?

Inuyasha puzzled Kagome in a way that nobody had before. He was a confusing creature, and she was just waiting for him to come out and apologize. Not like he would. Was this an effect he had on other people he met too? He didn't seem that old, but she doubted that he had spent his whole life in that cell, obeying Naraku the way he was. Where were his parents? His family? Did they willingly leave him there? Had he chosen to go there on his own accord? After for standing in the hallway for some time, the bathroom forgotten, she went into her room, and locked it behind her.

It's hard to forget an even like that. That was a good first impression for him. Dangerous but mystifying. She recapped the morning to Sango, but left the latter out of the story. She didn't want to give Sango the wrong idea about what her feelings. He was just a bad room-mate; nothing more.

"So he's a bitch basically," Sango said to Kagome, confirming what she had just heard.

"Son of a bitch is the proper term," Kagome corrected her friend, using a nerdy sort of sarcasm as she talked.

Sango sighed at her friend. Kagome was a little air headed at times, but she was her friend.

"He's rude, crude, and if you ask me, he holds himself up a bit too high," she continued. "He's so proud of himself. I don't even know him that well, but he acts like the whole world owes him a favor. Pushing me aside like that; the nerve of that guy!"

Kagome dragged on about him for another few minutes before Sango decided to change the subject.

Inuyasha lay on his back staring up at the white ceiling above him. He was still unable to accept the fact that he wasn't in Naraku's presence anymore. He was a free being. He could walk around without being punished for it, but he still chose not to. Walking to the bedroom in itself was a challenge for him, despite the fact that he had just eaten. Naturally, since his legs had not been used excessively for a while, he couldn't walk in them, and they were still stiff. He was lucky he hadn't had fallen over when walking past that girl. That would have been dreadful and humiliating.

There was something weird about her. He couldn't place it. On her outside, she seemed to be fascinated, yet terrified of him. She couldn't talk in his presence, and she got tense, especially when he had talked to her. Yet, somehow, he could detect the littlest hints of sympathy from her, and maybe a bit of pity.

"Feh," he said to himself. "I don't need her pity. I don't need anybody's pity."

Then why are you here? his conscience said to him.

Inuyasha didn't talk back to it. Being alone for as long as he had-- god knows how long that was-- he needed someone to talk to. The voice just answered back sometimes.

I guess living in isolation for as long as I have makes you go a little senile.

Inuyasha yawned, and closed his eyes. The mattress was like nothing he ever remembered feeling before. It was soft, yet firm. He was used to sleeping in trees, or on the ground, but the mattress was a nice substitute. He was drifting deeper and deeper into sleep when he heard feminine voices coming from down the hall. Whispering female voices. His ears perked up, and he listened intently.

"He's a sideshow freak," he heard Kagome say.

Definitely talking about him. No doubt about it.

"You mean like the bearded lady, or the skeleton man, or that guy Joseph Merrick that you found pictures of in a medical book?" an unfamiliar voice chimed in. Probably a friend of hers.

"I don't think he's as drastic as Merrick, but yes."

He really didn't care who Joseph Merrick was at the moment. He could ask Kaede that later. He continued to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Scratch that. He's worse. He's practically a dog in every possible way," Kagome said, her voice raising a bit above whispering level.

Sweet girl.

He listened as she continued to recap the story of their meeting that morning. He was surprised at her. Gossiping behind his back like that. She didn't seem like the type to gossip. Then again, he really didn't know her that well.

Well, he was a good judge of character.

He heard the words "bitch," said more than once as well as her insulting him a bit more, calling him egotistical and rude. So maybe he was. He could be however he wanted to be. He really didn't care how she felt about him.

He didn't care about how anyone felt about him.

There were only two people he could remember caring about him enough to treat him like a normal person. One was his mother.

The characteristics of his mother, as the years passed by, got harder and harder to remember. He couldn't even remember what she smelled like. He looked into the depths of his mind constantly, hoping to draw out some memory that could help him. There were none. All he could remember were the emotions he felt around her, and small

The faint memory of his mother had stuck with him for all of the years he had been out on his own. All of the years that he had suffered. She was a pure soul. She was one of those rare creatures that could hug him without squirming or without tension, or could look him straight in the eyes, and speak honestly to him without insulting him or causing him harm. Nobody else, not even Ichiko was able to do that to him. He respected her and everything, but she couldn't really go near him without tensing up, and usually kept her distance despite constant persuasion from his mother that he wasn't harmful or, as she called it, "unholy."

Where she got her religious beliefs from he had no idea.

There were no people in his life that at the moment. His mother was gone, Ichiko had left him, and Kikyo…well Kikyo was gone too, just like all the others. Another feather floating in the wind. You pick it up when it falls, and it just takes off again when the breeze picks up.

He fell asleep and watched a blank slate for the few hours he was.

Done for now, but I promise I'll update even sooner so we could get a bit more into the story.

R&R pretty please

Next time:

-Sango meets Inuyasha

-We find out a couple of things about him that Kagome doesn't know (for example: how old is he?)

-What happened to Izayoi.

-Another character. And it's not a made up one. It's somebody you know.

PS: Joseph Merrick is a real person, the Elephant Man. I decided to pay homage to him since a lot of my story's going to come from it. Not all of it. Just some. Look it up. I know in the movie, his name is John, but his real name is Joseph. Trust me.

R&R

Sun and Moon