Author's notes: Don't know why I haven't updated ORALL in a while… I'll get to it soon. By the way, about the sudden, major weather change in this chapter from the previous one, ask anyone living in Northeast Texas. It seriously does this. In the beginning of October this year, around the second, it was exactly 108 f. on the highway, and the next day it was in the low forties. Also, just a note, the move last time was loosely based off of my father's in the middle of September, when it was incredibly hot out. I wasn't present for the actual moving of furniture, but I was there for some other not-so-pleasant activities.

Yes, actually, we did move into an apartment 'G.' it's my father's joke that it stands for 'ghetto.' I was the one threatening him about the excessive mockery of it, though. Enough of my prattle.

HEDGEHOGMADHATTER: Thanks; again, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well. (By the way, I love your fics!)

DARCIA PLUSHIE: Thanks! (Your fics are great, too!)


It was hot. Burning, scorching, inhumanely hot. It felt like the world had caught on fire sometime during the ten or so hours he'd been asleep.

The silver-haired, winter-clad boy ripped off the orange sheets to his bed and thrashed about for a moment before untangling his foot from them. Bare feet pounding on the hollow floor, he sprinted down the hallway to the thermostat. Noting that the temperature wouldn't read on the dial, he repeatedly poked the power button. When that failed, he resorted to the only rational thing his brain could conjure at the time: He proceeded to beat the shit out of it.

Frantically, having worked up an enormous sweat, he rushed over to the sink and prepared himself to feel a steady flood of icy water flow into the glass. But it was in vain. Why do you hate me?

The stony, yet irritated voice of his brother behind him confirmed Inuyasha's fears.

"The power is out, Inuyasha. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out."

Yes, this definitely confirmed it: He'd woken up in hell.

Doing his absolute best to ignore the incredible urge to strangle Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha left the kitchen to return to his newly dubbed room.

The boxes were still piled on top of one another, each labeled 'bdrm2,' and one of them contained some hastily thrown in summer clothes. He just hoped to high heaven that it was one of the first ones he looked in.

But of course, he had no such luck.

Twenty minutes, and eight boxes later, he emerged from his room dressed in a dark red tank top and black shorts.

The windows and doors were all open, so as to vent in a breeze, and from the looks of it, the power outage was not exclusive to their apartment. The neighbors (or at least the majority of what he could now see) had all their own methods and solutions to the ordeal; apparently, this type of thing was something that most of them seemed to be accustomed to. Having pulled up the blinds on the kitchen window, he stuck his head out in boredom and mild curiosity.

Three doors down, there was a young, tough looking little boy playing some form of imaginary battle with another, less harsh looking boy. Their 'swords' hit against the other, twigs or splinters flying off and hitting their sweaty hands and faces, it was surprising that they didn't collapse from heat exhaustion.

Beside him, the kindly young woman he'd briefly met the day before, Kikyou had set a damp towel out beneath her knees as she knelt down in her open doorway, mixing herbs in a bowl, a medical book outlaid on the concrete beside her. Had she not been so engrossed in her task, he might have attempted a conversation with her.

Across from him, the 'psycho's' apartment, the door was open, mostly; shadows from inside stood still and silent, but he could still hear someone yelling at someone else from further back. A few moments later, the same blood red eyes made their home in the window and focused themselves intently on the task-ridden Kikyou.

Averting his attention elsewhere, Inuyasha watched a rather effeminate looking little boy and a tomboy-ish girl approach the two 'sword fighters' and enter the play with them.

He gazed at the lot of them go at it for a while, and nodded his attention back to the doorway in front of him to find the same unhealthily pale little girl sprawled out immediately behind it, letting a tepid breeze waft over her; he couldn't help but wonder if she was half-dead, though logic said she certainly wasn't.

The menacing pair of eyes had fled from the window, and having heard a brief word-battle once again beyond his sight, he observed the older of the two, who he'd seen battered the night prior, walk towards the open door. She balked her exit, halting to raise a brow at the younger.

"Dead, huh?"

"…"

"Are you coming?"

At this, the once motionless and vacant child let her eyes widen a bit, and she stood slowly to her feet, left to disappear in the heavy shadows behind the tattered doorway, returning promptly with sandal-clad feet and a torn up back pack. Without a need to nod her head or speak any reply at all, the two of them set out from the flat, shoes clacking unmelodic and sharply against the scorching gravel of the stairs.

Paying no further heed to the goings on outside, Inuyasha seemed vaguely inspired to go somewhere himself, anywhere to get out from the hellhole that was currently the apartment complex.


The Sun burned down on him with out mercy, but somehow, he'd managed to both escape angry and heat-agitated 'citizens' and make it inside a half-decent facility… one with much needed food and beverage.

There was hardly a line at this time of day, even though it was Saturday and around noon. Inuyasha stood behind two or three people at the McDonald's register, waiting slightly impatiently for the other customers to finish their orders.

Someone had begun a mild argument with the cashier, who's irritated and exhausted voice seemed a bit familiar. Tapping his foot intentionally loudly, he caught the toe of his shoe sole on the heel of a leather sandal. The girl in front of him turned around to face him with a vague look on her face.

Her voice was calm, but she sounded somewhat confused. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, sorry…" He remained irritated towards whoever it was that was in front of them, but tried not to let it seep through his generally sincere apology. He frowned a little. "It's just…" He gestured towards the offending customer.

"Don't worry about it; he comes here a lot, and almost always gets into some kind of fight with her… it wouldn't be the first time he's made people behind him upset."

"I'll have to make a mental note not to come here when they're not around…"

Her navy eyes softened from their minor scowl, "Oh, no; they are normally not that hot headed, at least not usually when the other isn't there… They'll never get along…"

"So why the hell does Mr. Jackass have to prance himself over here all the time"

She seemed thoughtful for a moment, "He probably doesn't realize that he's doing it; if he does, then he likely just takes pleasure in making everyone wait behind him or something."

"Wouldn't surprise me either way… he seems kind of dimwitted to be fighting about… what is it that they're fighting over?"

"Knowing Kouga, it's almost definitely got to do with the price of the drinks or that something isn't free…"

"You know each other…?"

"Kind of; we go to the same school."

"What school's that?" Not knowing whether or not he'd be pleased if it was the same one he would be attending, he decided to chance seeing a familiar, pleasant face in classes.

"Oh, a stalker!" Jokingly, she covered her mouth and mock gasped. "Cleavers."

So he would be seeing her… and unfortunately, the one she called Kouga. "That's where I'll be going."

"Really? I'll be glad to show you around, if you want… umm…?"

"Inuyasha."

"That's a nice name… I'm Kagome, nice to meet you."

"You too." Personally, he thought it quite odd that they'd acknowledge the fact that they'd met so long after the conversation had begun, but it was a cardinal rule, or something like that… it's just how things were done, he supposed.

Regaining some mild focus on the unending battle at the counter, they finally found some relief when the manager confronted them both and sent the customer on his way. Kagome offered Inuyasha a seat when he finished ordering, with which he gladly complied. Upon reaching the register at long last, he found the cashier to be none other than the girl that lived across from him.

That would be why she sounded familiar.

Walking over to where his new friend was nibbling on a salad, he placed his tray on the table; he asked if she came there often.

"Err… I guess so; it's close to home and school, and I know some people who work here, so yeah… why?"

"Curious, I guess."

"I've been a little curious myself… Is that your natural hair colour, or…?"

Having become slightly accustomed to strange glances and outright stares all his life, he grinned inwardly at this. "I was born like this, yeah."

"That's a pretty rare colour, I've only seen it on one or two other people. It looks nice, though."

He was prepared for something more rude, or disbelief. This was a pleasant change. He had to wonder how she'd react if he didn't have his hat, however. "Thanks; it's genetic, from my father."

She smiled. "Do you get along?"

"With who?"

"…Your father."

"…Oh… Well, it's hard to say yes or no; I never really knew him…"

"Oh. Sorry. If it helps, I never really knew my father either…"

"It's okay; sorry you and your old man had the samefate as us."

"S'okay…"

An awkward silence grew between them, Kagome eventually broke it by saying she had to get back to her house.

"I'll see you on Monday, or if you want, I'll meet you here again tomorrow…?"

"That'll be nice."

"Okay, at noon, then."

"All right."

She walked out the door, and noting that he didn't at all much feel like going back until the sun went down, he stayed at the table and stared at his now cold French fries.

He walked over to the side of the counter to get a few packets of ketchup, and on his way back, he noticed someone sitting quietly at the back of the eating area, scribbling something on a piece of paper…or napkin. The fact that this was the same albino looking child that he'd seen tagging along with the cashier (who, thanks to the name tag, he'd now learned to call Kagura) confirmed what he'd already known.

Looking to the clock, he was immensely pleased that time had gone faster than he thought it had, as it was now three in the afternoon, but was crestfallen at the notion that he'd have to be there for much longer to wait out the heat.


Inuyasha had passed the time somehow, he wasn't really sure how he had managed, by making another order and taking up a conversation with various McDonald's employees on their breaks. At one point, he'd even tried to talk to the little girl in the back corner, at last wringing out of her when she and Kagura would be leaving.

Which turned out to be not such a bad time to leave. Eight o' clock was an hour or something's way off, making it an eternity for him, but he would endure it if it meant the peace of mind knowing that the Sun would be absent.


Notes: I know this seems short and cut off, but that's because it is. Two-parter… I'm too tired to go on right now… it's four in the morning. TT And yes, I suppose that I LIED about the HS being in this chapter, but hey: It. Got. MENTION. Right?

Reviews are appreciated, I'll be back… sometime in January. Or who knows, tomorrow…?

Hope you have nice holidays (or HAD, rather), and a great new years!