Disclaimer: Me no own Inuyasha. (I think I've used that one before…)

Thanks for the reviews, once again. Strange, that was the best chapter I've written? Well I did feel a little like that was the less shittiest of the crap that I've written so far. So, yeah. Summer vacation is finally here! Start expecting sooner updates from me, peoples. Other than the fact that I have classes at the local community college every Monday through Thursday from six to almost ten at night and the weekly piano lessons on Tuesday from eleven to twelve, I pretty much have endless free time.

So…yeah…Damn I hate these awkward moments! Fucking awkward moment!

Chapter 16: Damn Broken Heater

All she could see was black. Lots and lots of black. Sango tried to open her eyes but to no avail. She shivered despite the fact that her body temperature was abnormal at the moment and the fact that she was covered from head to toe in a dizzying warm feeling. She felt light-headed, woozy, and…floating on clouds? Wait. When the hell did this 'Weeeee! Look, mommy, I'm flying!' feeling sneak up on her? Hold the fucking phone! Floating in clouds- now where the hell did that come from?

When Sango finally managed to snap open her heavy eyelids, all she saw around her were clouds and the sky. And at the exact moment she knew that this just has to be a dream. There were no other fucking explanations. All the while repeating 'This is just a dream.' over and over in her head, Sango began to take in her environment. Other than the fact that she was floating in the clouds, beneath her feet all she could see was the pavement and DAMN THAT WAS A LONG DROP BACK TO EARTH! She was currently experiencing a feeling that was something along the lines of the Drop Zone, only this was worse. This had to be two Drop Zones stacked on top of each other.

Oh shi…

Sango opened her mouth to scream and scream she did. She must have been free falling, from what; a thousand feet in the air, without a parachute anywhere near her. The ground was coming up fast and there was nothing she could do but squeeze her eyes shut.

Just think about Miroku. Just think about Miroku…

Wait, if this was a dream then why the fuck would she be thinking about that? No time to argue with herself, in about .03 seconds she's going to be a blob of imploded human flesh and organs on the street.

Slowly, Sango opened an eye. Then the other. Nothing. Touching her face with one hand Sango felt solid flesh under her hand. Taking another reality check test, she slapped herself on across the face. SLAP! She immediately regretted doing that and continued to feel like an idiot. Rubbing her sore, stinging face, Sango looked around her. She was on a sidewalk with rows and rows of houses that all seem to be like clones of each other.

"What's going on here?" She asked herself. Her voice sounded like it was bouncing off walls, like she was in an echo-y room. But she wasn't, she was in a freak neighborhood in an even freakier dream of hers. What the fuck did she even eat in the morning to be dreaming this?

Oh, yeah she didn't have breakfast this morning because some little bitch coughFlareniicough woke her up at the bloody crack of dawn to drag her to the other bloody side of town to buy some bloody costume for some bloody American holiday and that was when that bloody little bitch sent her bloody running into the bloody arms of those bloody-…

Okay, shut up, breath, think. That better? No more blood, okay? Taking a few more deep breaths, Sango didn't notice a change in the scenery until a boy with wild silver hair stepped out from the house that she was facing. He closed the door softly behind him and made his way down the front steps and into the yard where she was standing. She watched him in silent fascination, his head was down and his steps were wobbly and uncertain. Who was he? There was no one else around them for what looked like miles.

He stopped when he was right in front of her. He couldn't see her could he? Sango suddenly felt conscious of the feeling of embarrassment she would feel if he could see her. I mean, if he lifted his head up he would be getting an extreme close up of her chest. The only man that had done that had done it about eleven times and all those eleven times she had beaten the shit out of his face.

"Buddhist tradition, my ass! Miroku, you are such a pervert!"

"But, dear Sango, how could any normal man resist such luscious temptations? It was only natural-"

"NATURAL! Why I ought to…"

Good times, good times indeed. Sango smiled and tears began to unconsciously collect at the corners of her eyes. A single drop escaped from her and landed on the top of the boy's head. To her surprise, it fell right through.

Sango blinked a few times, successfully clearing away the rest of her tears. What the fuck? So, which way was it: her transparent or him transparent? Maybe both of them were…

It was only when he looked up did she take a couple steps back in unnatural shock. No, it wasn't from the close proximity of his face; it was the familiarity of it: those same stone cold silver eyes, the dead pale look, the thin slightly sunken face, the wild hair with the bangs that covered his eyes; Sango nearly tripped in her haste retreat. The way he stood, slightly hunched over, the way his eyes could look into you and you'd feel like he wasn't really looking at you.

Itachio.

He looked like a younger, miniature version of the Itachio that she knew. He took no noticed of her reaction and stood still at that same spot. A thin pale arm reached up and smoothed the hair where the tear passed through out. The hair popped back into its strange position before the boy looked up and muttered what sounded like, "It's not raining. Weird."

Hell, even that same robotic, devoid-of-any-personality voice was the same. What exactly was she dreaming? Could it be possible she was dreaming Itachio's memories of his childhood? Okay that was crazy talk you would only hear from a shrink. Or from Kaede when she's had too much of her herbal remedy teas. Sango liked to think of it as the former. Never again did she want to see Kaede high on herbal remedy teas, EVER.

Sango took a slow, careful step towards mini Itachio and waved a hand in front of his face. He didn't appear to react or anything. Sango leaned in even further and gasped softly- she couldn't see her reflection in his silver eyes. Then she sighed in relief, good. Like I said earlier, it would have been totally awkward if he saw some twenty-four year old woman just lean in on him like that. Speaking of age, he looked like he was around Kohaku's age. Maybe even a little older, but it was hard to tell since he was so…small…well, not exactly small. He was a tall kid, but she was pretty tall herself. So, given the fact that the top of his head almost reached her boobs, she'd say he was around thirteen or fifteen. His voice sounded like it still had that girlish pre-pube tinge to it.

Sango walked in a circle around mini Itachio. Not that she was checking him out or anything like that. God, you fucking sickos... So anyway, mini Itachio stayed that way for a while almost to the point where Sango almost thought that he must have fallen asleep standing up or something. It sure seemed that way. I mean, he wasn't moving at all; not much blinking either. What was he? Some kind of alien mini Itachio?

She finally saw a reaction. From somewhere, a muffled high-pitched voice called, "Tachi-Tachi!"

Tachi?

What the fuck?

Tachi.

Was that supposed to his nickname or something?

Tachi…

Mini Itachio abruptly shook out of his reverie and immediately scanned the neighborhood for the owner of the voice. Sango didn't know how he found her seeing as how suddenly the entire place was covered in a thick white fog. He smiled and brought a hand up in a pathetic wave. But he was smiling. It wasn't the half-assed smile that he gave her or anybody else; it was a GENUINE smile.

A girl came into view. She was running with a jump rope loop flying after her, she had something in her hand that she was waving at mini Itachio. The girl smiled even though she was breathless from running so hard. The closer she got, the more apparent her shiny silver hair grew. Silver hair? Could she maybe be related to mini Itachio?

"Issa," Mini Itachio said when the girl finally stood in front of him. She grinned up at him like him acknowledging her was the best thing that happened to her. Sango felt her stomach do a weird somersault. The girl was standing a little too close to him. Their toes were maybe a thumb's width apart.

Hang on a sec- Issa? Now where has she heard that before? Despite squeezing her brain out from everything she's remembered in the past few days, Sango still couldn't quite place where she's heard that name before. Sango bit her lip in frustration. Damn it, she usually was good at remembering things. The two silver heads were talking again.

Mini Itacho tilted his head to the side. Puppy dog cute. Gah, stop thinking about that! "So, where have you been?"

Sango must have been imagining it, but when mini Itachio tilted his head to the side, the girl, Issa seemed to have appeared a little redder. "I-I was at the park. Look what I found!" She held out the hand that she was waving at him with, it held a baby robin. It chirped and tried to hop around in her fist. "Isn't it cute?" She giggled, bringing the tiny chick up her face. "Tachi-Tachi, its feathers are so soft!"

Given her childish attitude and her miniature height, Sango would have to say that Issa might have been a little older than Shippo, but younger than Flarenii.

Mini Itachio's smile widened by a tooth. "Yes, it is kind of cute." Sango's eyes popped out of her socket. She had never expected Itachio to be the type of person to use the word 'C-U-T-E'. 'C-U-T-E' probably didn't even exist in their dictionary. But here he was, flinging that word out of his mouth like he was any other ordinary person. Okay, that was mean right there- she didn't mean to call him a freak. Hell, she didn't even mean to call him a freak indirectly.

Slowly, he reached a hand out and stroked its soft chest feathers. The chick robin chirped softly and briefly reminded Sango of Kirara purring whenever she would scratch Kirara around the ears. Her cat seemed to enjoy people touching her ears. It was strange, but definitely cute. Mini Itachio smiled again.

Issa giggled, taking another step closer to mini Itachio. Not that they weren't even close enough to begin with. "Look, it likes you." Her eyes drew back into the small 'young and cute girl' smile that sends hormone-driven teenage boys and crazy, fantasizing pedophiles reeling. Was she imagining it or did mini Itachio just blush? Sango suddenly felt a little ashamed of watching the two kids in front of her. Somehow, it felt like she was watching a couple making out with each other. Those were the times when after a practice game she was the one stuck with bringing all the balls, mitts, and bats to the storage room. Right when she opens the door, she would find some guy and girl making out right where she was supposed to put her baseball stuff and for some reason she would always open the door right when the crinkling of a condom wrapper discarded was heard. Needless to say, Sango had always had a 'Don't do it!' sing-song voice in the back of her head whenever she opened her closet doors after that.

The open and slamming of a door immediately brought Sango's as well as Issa's and mini Itachio's attention back to the house. Another silver head boy walked out only this silver head definitely looked older than the other two. Despite her telling herself that Issa and mini Itachio were all part of her dream, this new arrival was definitely the one and the only: Hiroshima.

"Ah, if it isn't my dear little brother and my oh-so-loveable baby sister. Why oh why are two adorable children such as you doing outside in the cold?" That guy even had his Prince Charming sparkles radiating in circles around him. His teeth looked bleached. There was no other explanation; they just HAD to be bleached. Nobody, I mean, NOBODY could have teeth that fucking shiny!

Mini Itachio glared venom at Hiroshima as if he was ruining the moment while Issa only smiled up naively at Hiroshima before making her way up the front yard steps and towards the front door.

Sango watched as the young girl skipped past her, but when she turned back to mini Itachio, she felt a shudder go down her spine. And not in a good way mind you. His face was blank, but his fists at his sides were dripping blood. Literally, he was clasping his nails a little too deep into his palm skin. Why was he so upset? Sango followed his eyes' gaze back towards Hiroshima and Issa who were chatting most amiably and only then did mini Itachio's eyes flash when Issa suddenly leapt up and threw her arms around Hiroshima's neck happily.

Whatever they had been talking about didn't matter now. Itachio's face split in a frightening look that Sango had never seen before. A loud voice boomed and echoed in her head so loud that it pained her like her skull was about to burst. Her hands flew up to her temples as Sango gritted her teeth, trying to hold back the waves of angry emotions.

"Why do you do this to me!"

What…?

"Every time you speak to me, every time you look at me, everything. This feeling…"

What are you talking about?

"Yet, HIM…It's always about him isn't it?"

A dry, bitter laugh.

"Anissa."

One last thought before his phantom like smile repeatedly flashed before her mind.

Then, Sango jolted awake, and obviously her first thought was 'What in the fucking hell was that?'

Seriously.

Sango blinked her sleepy eyes several times. She still had that feverish warmth surrounding her, but at least this time she wasn't floating in the clouds a thousand feet in the air. Sango turned her head to her right and immediately saw Kirara's big head in her face. Sango smiled, and reached with a tired hand to pet her cat on the head when something in the tiny cat's paws caught her eye. Sango never took her eyes off the item as she carefully pulled it out of Kirara's closed paws. It was the yin-yang necklace that Hiroshima had bought her at the mall. Maybe it was because of this that she was having such a weird dream.

Turning over so she faced her ceiling, Sango sighed tiredly. She certainly wouldn't be going to work now. With the necklace chain looped around her wrist, Sango absentmindedly began to stroke Kirara's furry little head until she heard the voices in the kitchen. Turning her head towards the door, Sango saw that a sliver of light fell into her room. Who turned the kitchen lights on?

"…and it's still all fucking dark like it's at night or something," That was unmistakably Flarenii's drawl of a voice. There was a rustling of some kind of food package. Was that brat raiding her food supply?

"The news dude totally didn't say anything about this…" Itachio's voice sounded far away.

There was a screeching of a chair being pushed back followed by the soft tap of somebody walking on the wood tiled kitchen floor.

Flarenii stretched her arms and pushed her finished bowl of stew away from her. "That was good, man. I didn't know you could cook like that. Hey, there any seconds left?" Was this girl a glutton or what? How does she manage to maintain that skinny frame?

Itachio looked sternly (or has stern as he could) at the younger girl. "Hey, you forgetting that Sango hasn't eaten yet."

"Psh. Sandy's out cold. Besides, she's probably not hungry anyway."

Itachio didn't say anything but proceeded to bring a bowl of stew to Sango's room. "Who knows. Maybe she's awake now. She's been out for a while."

Hearing that, Sango's eyes immediately went for her clock, and it told her that it was almost 10:30 in the morning.

"Whatever. I'm watching t.v. Peh, some Halloween morning this is." Sango flinched when Flarenii jumped onto her couch with a loud THUD! Damn it, that little bitch is going to destroy all her furniture by the end of this day!

Sango closed her eyes as soon as she heard the first squeak of her room door being parted further. The smell of hot vegetable stew reached her, and Sango's stomach growled loudly instantly. Right, she still hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

"Hungry or what, huh." Itachio's soft voice said from right next to her. He glanced down at her when she didn't respond. He frowned, "I know you're awake, Sango. You can open your eyes."

Reluctantly, Sango did and she turned her sleepy gaze to him. Kirara awoke as well, but the cat didn't seem to like it. With an annoyed hiss, Kirara bounded further away from Sango's side of the queen size bed. Itachio felt relieved that the cat didn't try to claw him to death or anything. After seeing what the cat did to Flarenii's chin and arms, he had almost been afraid to enter Sango's room again. When the Chinese girl flat out refused to take Sango's bowl of stew to her, Itachio felt like his flawless looks were on the line. Not to be bragging or anything, even through puberty he had gotten relatively few pimples. Hiroshima on the other hand…well, let's just say that at one point he looked like a basketball- rubbery with bumps all over. Fortunately, it had all gone away by the beginning of the next year. Damn, Itachio was actually starting to get his hopes up when he awoke one morning hearing Hiroshima shrieking at the bloody crack of dawn, "NO! MY BEAUTIFUL FACE IS RUINED!" Sometimes, the Prince Charming was just too…vain. Then again, aren't all princes vain?

Itachio set the warm bowl on her bed stand and the spoon right beside it. The bed covers didn't look like they had been messed with too much. She was dead asleep all right. He glanced down at her to find her rubbing circles around her eyes.

She sniffed once. Great, a high fever and a cold? "How long have I been out? I don't remember."

Itachio shrugged and sat down at the edge of her head, near her feet. He could sense her unease through the covers. He couldn't blame her for being paranoid, not after what she's been through. "About three and a half hours or so." After a second of silence, he scratched his head. "You should drink it while it's still hot. It tastes better that way." He mentally yelled at himself for not looking at her when he said that. Crap, was he going through his mid-life crises or what. Not even twenty-three and his silver hair were already losing its shine. Maybe it was a sign he was getting old. Peh, yeah right…

Sango pushed herself up into a setting position with her back resting against the queen bed's backboard. Even if her stomach was dying out at this moment, for some reason she didn't feel like shoving food down her throat. Maybe she'll do that later. "Thanks, but I'm not hungry."

Itachio still kept his gaze trained on her door. "You didn't eat breakfast." When Sango made a surprised sound, he closed his eyes and explained, "Flarenii told me she, Hirunashi and Hiroshi came and picked you up around six. Retarded I know, but she has this crazy thing in her head about 'getting the best costume of the year' or something. That kid's still young and she already lost it." Itachio tapped his temple lightly before making a corkscrew gesture.

"Heh," Sango's small smile lasted for not even a second before it disappeared.

Itachio finally managed to look at her from the corner of his eye. "Sooo…are you going to eat now or not. Flarenii's been pining after your portion."

Sango rested her chin on her knee and wrapped her arms around her legs. "I'm fine, thanks."

Itachio stood up without a sound before heading over and picking up the stew. As he headed towards the door, the silver head looked over his shoulder and asked, "Do you need anything else."

Sango draped her sheets around her shoulders and shivered. "It'll be nice if you could turn up the heater."

"Sure thing." Itachio reached over to the thermostat built into the wall next to Sango's room door and flipped the degrees up by a little before closing the door with a soft click. Almost instantly, the low hum of the heater went to a crescendo as more warm air was forced into the apartment room.

Itachio sat himself down on the couch next to Flarenii with a tired sigh. Rubbing his temples with his thumb, he reached over and turned off the television.

Flarenii immediately responded with a loud, annoyed, "Hey, man, what the fuck? I was watching that!"

Itachio turned and gave the girl a half glare. "It was getting annoying."

Flarenii glared right back before pouting and stuffing her mouth with another cookie. She reached over and snatched the remote back, turning the t.v. on.

"How long are you going to keep on eating." Itachio asked, leaning back into the couch and watching her as she stuffed yet another chocolate chip cookie into her mouth. How could somebody that small ingest that much food in just a few hours?

"I'll keep on eating till I'm finished." She replied, tossing the empty bag over her shoulder where it landed on a small pile of other junk food bags.

Lightning flashed against the window causing the shadows in the house to play tricks upon their eyes. Flarenii stopped the mini Oreo bites halfway to her mouth when the t.v. started to fuzz out and the lights started to flash. Both Lame-ass and Dog Monkey kept their gaze glued to the light on the ceiling above them.

Out.

On.

Out again.

…

Flarenii turned her attention back down to the t.v. set. "Well, I guess everything's fine again."

Oh how wrong she is. The second she said that, a huge bolt of lightning hit the apartment complex's front yard, kicking the soil all the way up to the third floor. Flarenii screamed loudly, surprisingly it sounded like a deranged monkey. Itachio flinched as the thunder that sounded overlapped Flarenii's screaming. Then, it was all over. Everything electrical within the next six blocks as well as the entire north side of Blue City unplugged simultaneously. The entire Feudal Village apartments plunged into darkness.

However, the heater was still rolling.

"What the fuck?" Well said, dear Flarenii. The girl stood up on the couch and reached a cookie crumb covered hand toward the air duct. She glanced down at Itachio with her eyebrows in 'The Rock' mode. "The heat's still coming."

Itachio hurried over towards the front door and pulled the door open. All down the halls, neighbors were spilling out of their rooms and conversations erupted everywhere about the freak black out that the storm had just caused. Another rumble of thunder reminded them that the storm has still yet to pass. When Itachio came back to the couch, he sat down perplexed. "Seems like we have the only working heater."

Flarenii dropped back down onto the couch before pulling out her cell phone. "Tch. My cell's dead."

"So's mine. That wasn't your average electrical surge. Great way to end the year, huh?"

Flarenii frowned. "Shut up. If this weather fucking keeps up, my birthday'll be a complete blow, man." Yep, dear Flarenii's thirteenth birthday was coming up in a few days- November third to be exact.

Itachio made his way over to Sango's room and opened the door. The heater's hum was more pronounced in here, and so was the heat. The moment he stepped in, Itachio was hit with a wave of warm air. It felt like it was summer all over again in here. "Hey, Sango…-"

Itachio stopped short when he saw that Sango was sitting up with her sheets clutched tightly around her. Kirara was right next to her, sitting on her hind legs and both were staring at something in front of them. Itachio stepped hesitantly further into the room, but neither of the room's other occupants took any notice of him. He followed their gaze towards the top of the dresser where Sango's photos were. The one that she was staring at was the one that stood out the most- the photo of her and Miroku together.

The one that I flipped face down…Itachio thought.

"Sango." He called her name again. There was no response. Kirara blinked and that was pretty much it. He waved his hand slightly at her; however Sango was unfazed. Her lips moved continuously as if she was lisping something over and over again. Slowly, Itachio reached over to the photo and once again flipped it face down.

That caused Sango to blink a few times before she finally noticed that Itachio was in the room.

"What are you doing?" Harsh wasn't she. Was she completely out of it or what?

Itachio twiddled his fingers and scratched his head. "Um…the power went out. Major power failure."

"And…" Sango said, eyeing him with what was it? Annoyance?

"…and…" Itachio paused. Wait, was she mad 'cause he flipped Miroku's picture down? Or, was she mad because he just barged in without knocking? Whatever. "…your heater's still working."

"That's good isn't it." Sango looked him in the eye. Oh, so now she's being indifferent, huh?

Itachio sputtered. "D-don't you find that weird. Almost everywhere the electricity went out and you're the only one in this place that still has a working heater." He's losing his cool- NOT GOOD.

Before Sango could give him another smart-ass, indifferent answer, there was a loud popping sound like something just gave a small explosion. Both Sango and Itachio turned their eyes toward the door where the Chinese girl was standing, looking back at them sheepishly. "Um…I didn't do it?"

"Do what?" Itachio and Sango asked in complete synch. They didn't give it a second thought.

Flarenii pointed to the thermostat on the wall. "I just poked it a little and then something popped."

The other two looked back at her with something that was along the lines of, "Yeah, right. Cut the bull shit, bitch."

Flarenii pouted and leaned on a leg with her hand on her hip. "Okay, fine. It wasn't just a 'little poke'. I stabbed the stat switch a couple of times with my finger before the heat finally started to go down. What? The place was turning into a fucking oven!"

"…"

"…"

"Think of it like, I fixed it. The fucking thing was still going when it should've been off."

"…"

"…"

"It's just a damn broken heater. Sheesh, you guys are making it look like I bombed the building or some shit like that."

"…"

"…"

"So, um…anyone wanna play Parcheesi?"

End Chapter 16

Okay, so yeah, the title kind of blends with Flarenii's next to last line. I understand if the beginning dream sequence was weird. I just wanted to point out the fact that a younger Itachio was feeling jealous of a younger Hiroshima over a girl named Anissa. I hope the next chapter explains things a little bit (if I get working on it.) Damn, I feel like I just spoiled it. Whatever. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Please review. No. Really. PLEASE. REVIEW. Thank you. (Flames welcome.)