Disclaimer: No, they're not mine. At all. -sigh- Not even the title. I stole it from yet another song. From Titanic soundtrack this time, track number 12. (I like the idea of borrowing titles from songs)

Chapter one – A life so changed

"Kagome!" a female voice managed to break through the buzz of the crowd and reach the ears of the young dark-haired woman.

She stopped on her tracks and turned to see her friend Eri waving her hand in the air.

She walked over to her and they hugged each other warmly.

"It's been a while! How have you been, Kagome-chan?"

"I've been just fine. What about you?"

"Oh, everything's great. How's the restaurant?"

"Blooming," Kagome replied with a smile.

"It's funny though," Eri said, answering Kagome's smile with her own. "Somehow I always pictured you as a nurse or something, you know, taking care of people. But then you decided not go to college and entered the work-life straight away!"

"I wouldn't have made it to college," Kagome pointed out. "As you know, my high school grades weren't that good… Maths was particularly horrible." Kagome shook her head at the memory.

"Hey, you know, the girls and I were about to see each other this Saturday. There's an art exhibition opening that Yuka has been helping to organise. It's not a professional painters exhibition, but Yuka told us that he's really good nonetheless. We planned to go there together and I was about to call you anyway to ask you to join us, so… please, do come."

"Sure. I have no other plans anyway. I'd love to see you guys again!"

"Great! I'll call you – Waah! Look at the time, I must hurry! See you, Kagome-chan!" She hugged her friend tightly again and then was already hurrying away, disappearing among the many pedestrians before Kagome had even time to say goodbye.

She smiled to herself and started walking again, into her own direction.

Higurashi Kagome was twenty years old and living on her own. She saw her family once a week for when they came over to eat dinner at the restaurant she worked at. That had become a Monday-tradition for the Higurashi family. Shaere-san, who was the sister of Kagome's mother, had finally got up a business of her own and had founded a little cozy restaurant and had hired Kagome to help her.

Kagome walked down the crowded streets, trying her best to ignore her throbbing headache.

Must be the dream, she thought to herself. Indeed, she had seen the weirdest dream last night. She had dreamt of a boy who had white hair and dog-ears, and who had been pierced by an arrow and pinned by it to a tree. She snorted. Dreams were so weird sometimes! Like such dog-eared boys could exist. An odd feeling tugged her soul. The tree had looked rather familiar though. It had been just like the ancient sacred tree near her childhood home.

"Good morning," Kagome greeted Shaere-san, her aunt and boss, as she stepped into the little restaurant. The owner was sitting behind a wooden counter, glancing over some papers.

"Ahh, Kagome-chan. You'll be in the serving shift today."

"All right!"

"We'll open in half an hour. Please clean the tables." She grabbed the papers and got up. "I'll be in the kitchen."

"Alright!" She hurried to the room in the back and left there her purse and then changed into her waitress' uniform.

And then she was on it. First cleaning up the tables as she was ordered to, then after the restaurant had been opened, welcoming the customers with a smile on her face, hurrying from one table to another taking orders and delivering the meals and drinks. It was a tiring job, for there were no other waitresses besides her. Well, there was Kayade, but she was today helping Shaere-san in the kitchen. And when Kayade was working as a waitress, then it was Kagome's turn helping out in the kitchen. Shaere-san did not want to hire much people in her staff, and she was very strict about who were accepted. There were just the three of them: Shaere-san, Kayade and Kagome. Well, the restaurant was rather small, so it was all right, but for a small restaurant it was quite a popular one. Actually, it was a bit more like coffee-house than a restaurant for most of the time for the meals were ordered mostly at the lunch time or on evenings.

On mornings there were few people who occasionally dropped by to sip a cup of coffee before going to work, during lunchtime there were people who worked in the company few blocks away. On afternoons the restaurant was full of students from a high school nearby. On evenings there were mostly adults and some families with their children. But all in all, she really liked the restaurant and working there. It was a nice job and it paid quite well too. She worked there for nine hours every day, from ten to seven. On Saturday she was working less, from eleven to four.

There came the quiet hour, when students were gone and the evenings' usual customers had not yet arrived. Kagome was sitting behind the counter on which was the casher. Her head fell to rest on her arms that were folded on top of the counter and she closed her eyes, oh, for just one single minute...

There was a sword in some kind of a stone. Neither of them had been able to pull that out. Kagome stumbled forward and put her hand on the hilt of the sword, in order to support herself. Two figures were ahead of her, fighting with each other. Both of them had long silvery hair, but otherwise they were all different from each other.

She turned around to shout out a name she did not recognize herself, and her hand moved along her body. The sword was pulled out by her movement and she nearly fell onto the ground again, having lost her support.

Both of them stopped fighting and looked at her in awe. She stared at the sword in her hand.

"Impossible!" the little green something gasped.

And then the other one of the fighters was there, right in front of her.

She shuddered when she looked into his golden eyes. They were gazing upon her coldly.

"What are you? How were you able to pull out this Tetsusaiga?"

A hand was placed on her arm and it was shaking her. She awoke instantly and raised her head. Several moments passed by and she could only stare.

There was a frown on his beautiful face and for few seconds she saw something akin to recognition flashing in his golden eyes.

It was the guy from her dream. Alive and breathing and oh so real, standing right before her, staring at her. She swallowed and then seemed to get her voice back.

"Good afternoon and welcome. May I take you order, sir?"

"Just one cup of coffee." his voice was cold and distant, almost rude, and his face was now blank, wrapped up in an emotionless mask.

"All right. Please choose any table you want." Kagome rushed off to get the coffeepot and then walked up to the man who had settled himself to a table by the window.

She poured until he told her to stop.

"Milk? Sugar?"

"Not necessary."

"Please enjoy your coffee!" Kagome wished with a cheery bow and then went back to sit behind the counter to watch through the windows how people walked by the restaurant. She straightened her short black skirt.

He followed her with his eyes.

It could not be.

And still, it had to be, his senses could not err. He frowned. How come this human miko was still alive? That she had survived the battle against Naraku was remarkable, but how could she possibly have lived through all these centuries? She was a mortal, a human. She had aged a bit, she had clearly matured, but she was still young and there was no doubt that she wouldn't be the miko who once had followed around that whelp of his half brother. He frowned again. Something was amiss, however. He could sense something strange about her, some kind of a presence that clung to her, but he could not point out what it was exactly. But of course, it was not like he cared.

He did not, of course. He did not care. She was the miko from centuries ago, so what? He snorted arrogantly. Whatever reason it was why she still was alive and breathing, it had to do with him. He drank his coffee, paid for it and left the restaurant for good.

Kagome watched him go and shook her head when he was gone. He was exactly like he had been in her dream. He had beautiful white – no, silvery – hair, amber eyes, indigo crescent moon on his brow, magenta stripes on his cheeks... It truly had been him, alive and real! Did this mean that the red-clad, dog-eared boy was real too? Kagome was frowned. Just why had she been dreaming about so weird stuff lately? She was probably losing her mind. Yes, that was the only sensible conclusion that she was able to draw. She rose to her feet and walked over to the table where the man with the amber eyes had been sitting at, picked up the empty coffee-cup and took it to the kitchen for being washed. She wiped the table clean and then was off again, to take an order from a couple that had just walked in.

"Shaere-san," she said while pulling a shirt over her head, "I'm sorry, but I'd like to leave an hour earlier this Saturday, if poossible. A few friends of mine who I haven't seen for quite a while – "

"It's alright," her boss assured, smiling. "Kayade-chan and I will able to take care of that one hour just by the two of us."

"Yeah, don't worry about it, Kagome-chan," Kayade joined in, smiling as well.

"Thank you, Shaere-san, Kayade-chan." Kagome bowed her head. "Well, I'm off now." She adjusted her purse so that it would not slide down her arm. "Good bye!"

"See you tomorrow."

"Bye!"

"Hello, Shue!" she greeted the purring toffee-coloured cat as she picked him up. She walked over to the sofa and sat down. Shue curled up in her lap and she buried her face into his fluffy fur.

"Oh, what a day..."

She felt tired and looked around in her own apartment.

It was rather little an apartment, only two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom, but there was well enough room for her, after all her only company was the purring, fluffy cat.

White was the main colour in the decoration. The two little soft sofas in the living room were white, too, and square rosy pink pillows rested on them. There was little TV on a wooden desk. Next to it was a bookshelf where she had all her precious books, Kagome just loved reading. Four white wooden chairs were circling the little round dinner-table, on which her laptop currently rested. Her mother had bought it for her on her last birthday. The kitchen was more the size of a cupboard than that of an actual room; two people would not have had enough room to cook in there. But it was just Kagome there and she managed to cook in the small kitchen just fine, so it was okay.

Her bedroom was rather small too; the only furniture in there were her bed, a bedside table, a cupboards where she kept her clothes and a small chair next to the cupboard. All in all, she really liked her own small apartment. It was nice and cozy, and the best thing about it was that it was all hers. One could clearly see her in every furniture, item and textile. And that was why she loved her apartment so much.

Little cleaning up wouldn't have hurt, but she right now she was simply too tired to even think about it. She hadn't really slept peacefully lately, and when she was awake, there was an odd restlessness that kept tugging her soul. And she had been in a serving-shift for three days in a row now. Three days of smiling, cleaning, serving the customers and running around…

Absent-mindedly she scratched the cat behind his ears. Maybe she should go straight to bed..?

No. She wasn't that tired. She got up and Shue the cat jumped safely down and walked out of her sight. Kagome walked to the kitchen and soon she was sitting on the sofa again, a book waiting in her lap, holding a warm mug in her hands. Steam was lazily whirling near the surface of the liquid and she raised the mug to her lips and carefully sipped the hot tea. It tasted heavenly. She sighed happily and closed her eyes and took another careful sip. She put the cup on the small table that was in front of the sofa and then opened her book. She had not got even halfway down the page when her phone rang. With an annoyed sigh she rose and walked over to answer it.

"Higurashi."

"Hello, my darling!"

"Ah, Hojo," her annoyance melted. "How are the exams?"

"Pretty tough, but I'll manage. Tomorrow's the last one, and after that I'd want to treat my beautiful girlfriend a dinner. I miss you, darling."

"I miss you too," Kagome said softly.

"So, I'll come to pick you up tomorrow evening. Is eight o'clock okay?"

"Umm.. Sure. But.. Where are we going exactly?"

"It's a surprise. I'll see you then."

"Okay."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

Kagome hung up. She gave a happy sigh and sipped her tea. It had now cooled enough to be drinkable and Kagome emptied the cup.

She hummed to herself for awhile. It had been some time since she had last seen Hojo. The young man had been terribly busy with his studies and his part-time job. Well, Hojo was always busy... But usually he still managed to make time for his girlfriend. They had started dating in high school, a little after she had recovered from the various illnesses of which she had suffered back then. It was quite weird, actually. She had been wondering about it so many times. The illnesses had stopped so suddenly and afterwards she had been very healthy, as if she never had been sick her whole life.

A wide yawn broke the line of her thought.

She glanced at the clock. It was half past nine. Where had the time gone?

Because she still felt exhausted, she got up and carried the empty tea-mug to kitchen sink and then walked into her bedroom, changed into her pajamas and curled up under the blankets. Soon the cat landed onto her bed with a quiet thump. He curled up against her back and purred himself into sleep. Kagome sighed contently and let the sleep claim her.

He had dark eyes and pitch black hair. He was wounded, and he lay still, next to her. Somehow, she could not exactly explain why, she knew it was the same dog-eared boy of whom she had been dreaming before. But this time, something was different about him.

"Let me... use your lap," he said slowly.

She nodded in approval and gently pulled his head to rest in her lap.

"Do you feel a little better," she asked softly.

He had his eyes closed.

"You.. smell nice.."

She blushed.

Just why was her heart pounding that fast...?

Kagome woke up. She stared at the white ceiling and let out a silent little groan. Not again those silly dreams..! She raised her hand to rub her temples. Maybe she should drag herself to a shrink or something...

Well, now wasn't the right time to wonder about that, anyway. She got up and dressed. Holding a tea-cup in one hand, she stood in front of the mirror, grimacing to her reflection as she brushed her long blue-black hair. She ate some breakfast and fed the cat. And then she bid her cat goodbye and was off to work.

"So, anything special planned for today?" Kayade asked as she was pulling on her uniform.

"I'm going to see Hojo tonight. He'll take me out for a dinner."

"Oh, how nice! When did you last go out on date?"

"I suppose it was two weeks ago. He's been busy with his part-time job and he lately had exams too..."

"Oh, pity," Kayade patted Kagome's arm in sympathy.

"Yeah, but there's really not much I can do about it," Kagome said quietly and tied the apron-string on a knot. She would be on the kitchen duty today.

Kayade nodded in understanding.

"Come on, girls, we don't have the whole day," came Shaere-san's yell from the kitchen.

Kagome and Kayade exchanged grins and then prepared themselves for yet another day at work.

He didn't know what was wrong with him. Surely he did not even want see that place again, but something kept bothering him. A nagging feeling that something was not quite right, and that it had something to do with her. So that was probably the reason why he found himself heading to that pitiful little restaurant again. He did not care, that was true, but it bothered him nonetheless. Why was that wench still alive? Maybe she could answer a few questions...

He did not know what had happened. He had only been informed of spreading rumors according to which his half-brother had killed the hanyou Naraku, and shortly after that, committed a Seppuku himself.

He had always been a fool. Filthy, worthless half-breed. And yet he had been left with Tetsusaiga instead of Sesshoumaru, the righteous heir and ruler of the Western lands... It was an outrage.

And there he was. He shook his head. Just what the hell he was doing here, anyway?

The waitress stared in awe at the tall, white-haired man who stepped in, his face wrapped up in a mask that lacked all emotion. Though the golden colour of his eyes was warm, the stare he gave her was as cold as ice. His skin was pale and he was well build.

He was so hot!

"Welcome, sir, may I take your order?" she asked smiling, maybe a slight hint of flirt in her voice.

He stared coldly at the blond-haired waitress.

It wasn't the miko.

So he had walked all the way down here for nothing? He glanced around the little restaurant, seeing nothing that pleased his high standards. Without a word, he turned on his heels and walked out of the whole place.

The waitress blinked.

Just what had that now been? She shook her head.

The guy was awfully rude, it seemed. But yet, he was such a hottie. Kayade shrugged and went to clean the tables.

Kagome was nervously watching her reflection. She straightened her skirt. Was this outfit proper? What about the shoes? Oh, why her hair had to be so messy? If only she knew to where Hojo would be taking her... Shue was purring and rubbing his head against her feet.

"Not now, Shue, dear," Kagome hissed when she bent closer to the mirror, trying desperately to do something to save her hair.

The doorbell rang.

"Shit," Kagome muttered under her breath.

"Just a second," she shouted out loud.

Desperately she just grabbed a hairbrush and quickly brushed her hair. She would have to leave it as it was.

She hurried to the door and grabbed her jacket from the rack and then reached to open the door.

"Hello sweetheart," her boyfriend greeted her, bending down to place a soft kiss on her lips. "You look charming."

"Thank you, dear," she said softly and her lips melted to a tender smile.

"Shall we get going then," he asked, offering her his arm.

"Yes, we shall," Kagome replied, stepping out to the corridor and pulling the door shut. She carefully placed her hand on his arm.

Hojo smiled and led her to his car.

"Oh my gosh, this place is so great," she winced, eyeing the fancy restaurant. She was sitting at a peaceful lonely corner table with Hojo. Her hand was resting on the table and Hojo set his hand gently on top of hers.

"Just order anything you want, dear."

"Are you sure you can afford this all?" Kagome asked, frowning a little in her worry.

"Don't worry about it, dear," Hojo assured her with a smile.

The frown disappeared.

"As you wish, my darling."

They made their orders and waited for the food to be served.

Kagome was casually holding the long glass, sipping her wine every now and then, as she listened to Hojo when he told her about everything that had happened since they had last seen each other.

"You got promoted? Darling, that's wonderful!"

"That's not all," Hojo said. "I've started to put some of my salary money aside...To buy us an apartment."

"Oh, you..." Kagome felt tears welling in her eyes. She swiftly wiped them away.

"There's still some more..." Hojo said quietly. He reached over the table and grabbed Kagome's hands into his own.

"Kagome... I've loved you ever since the first time I saw you. You have my heart in your hands."

Hojo looked at her closely. Kagome started blushing. She tried to look away from his chocolate eyes but couldn't.

"I've been living in a dream ever since you started dating me, and I've enjoyed every single moment. And lately, I've been thinking about extending my dream to a whole different level."

Kagome's eyes widened. He couldn't mean… Did he? Was he really talking about what she thought he was...?

"Kagome, my love, will you marry me?"