Author's Note: Ack! It's been almost three days since I last updated. I am so sorry. I got distracted and busy and sick, I feel so bad. Anyways, this is the third version of this chapter. The other two version of this chapter were vastly different and I didn't like either of them. Oh well. Please review and tell me what you think!

I was pleasantly surprised at some of the reviews in response to the last chapter. I didn't think that a lot of people would care what happened to Kikyo. (I do, I'm a huge Kikyo fan, although with the events of this story and my other ones, you probably wouldn't have been able to tell.) Now I feel bad for killing her off…oh darn, I can't change it now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.


Bread Crumbs Part II

Chapter 9: The Sweet Aroma of Ginger

The buried her in the cemetery, under a poplar tree that seemed to reach for the sky and go on forever. There was no ceremony, no funeral, only the digging of a hole and then filling it back up again. The headstone was a simple white slab with her name and dates written on it. Inuyasha didn't want anything more, claiming that she wouldn't have either. He was clearly upset by the turn of events and no matter what Kagome or Shippo said or did, he still blamed himself.

After Kikyo had died, Kagome had invited Inuyasha and Shippo to come and live with her. She had a spare bedroom (that had once been hers when she was growing up) that they could share. She had seen the conditions that they had lived in and decided that she could help them. It took a lot of convincing, threatening and yelling, but finally the two moved in. Immediately, she put them both to work in her store, her previous fear of the homeless and employees was now gone.

It was now exactly a week since Kagome had first met Inuyasha. It was a week since he had banged on her door in the night, demanding food.

It was late, and Shippo had long since gone to sleep. Kagome and Inuyasha were sitting in silence in the kitchen. Kagome was washing dishes, her back to him, and staring out the window. It was snowing. Soft white flakes drifted down peacefully from the dark sky. Kagome shuddered, thinking how cold it would have been in that shack that the three had been living.

She removed her soap-suds covered hands from the dirty water, which was draining away. As she dried her hands she walked over to Inuyasha, who was sitting on the counter, a frown on his face. In his hands was the sheet of paper that came in the mail earlier, from the hospital.

"What does it say?" she asked timidly.

He looked up, clearly surprised that she was still there. "The ultimate cause of death was sub acute hypothermia. Her body got so cold it just shut down and stopped working. I still don't know why she was outside though. You would think that with the rain coming she would have stayed inside." His brow was crossed as he ran over possibilities in his mind, but he couldn't think of anything that suited him or made sense. "I have no idea how long she was outside either, and Shippo doesn't know. Now that I know how she died, I still have so many questions. I should have stayed home that say."

Kagome glared at him and slowly counted to 10. This non stop blaming of himself was driving her nuts. "It's not your fault that she decided to go outside for whatever reason. It's not your fault that she fell in a bad way and couldn't pick herself up. So stop blaming yourself! I'm sure if you had known that this was going to happen you would have done everything you could have to save her."

"She sprained her ankle, that's why she couldn't get up. She had a cold as well, which weaken her immune system and made her more susceptible to the cold." He handed her the autopsy report. She skimmed the report over. It was mostly medical talk that she couldn't understand, but what she could read was consistent with what Inuyasha was telling her.

"I'm sure that Kikyo doesn't blame you." She said quietly, setting the report on the counter beside them. He nodded, to her surprise. For once he agreed with her on something relating to her death.

"She was always like that." He said sadly.

Kagome returned the dish cloth to the stove, where she hung it from a rack. "You know, it's pretty awkward, still not knowing the history between you two." He had been about to tell her how they became homeless when Shippo had burst in the store and interrupted them. "I know that she was your wife, but how does a couple that was clearly as in love as you two were become homeless?"

He was quiet for a moment.

"We weren't always homeless." He said after they had moved to the kitchen table. Kagome was munching on an apple that she plucked from the fruit bowl at the center. Inuyasha had an orange, which he peeled as he talked.

"Obviously not." She said.

"We met each other in the last year of high school, in Redding City. She was a high maintenance kind of girl, with designer clothes and her daddy's credit card in her purse. I was a little bit the same, but I considered myself a 'rebel' and I was in a band. A damn good band too." He smiled at the memories. In the first few months of their homelessness, Kikyo and Inuyasha had often reminisced about old times, telling each other jokes, and laughing about past events. He could almost hear her voice laughing because in reality his band sucked.

He continued "At first, I thought she was a stuck up snob, but once I got to know her, I change my opinion. We were introduced by a mutual friend at a party. At the start she hated me, but after she met me she was no match for my irresistible charm." His eyes twinkled with sarcasm. This was the first time Kagome had seen an emotion in him other than depression or anger or blame. She smiled. 'He must really miss her' she thought sadly.

"We were an 'item' by the end of the school year. So we went to prom together, as was expected from our friends and classmates. I guess you could say that we were the kind of people that most people envy. We had no shortage of money or happiness. We had anything we wanted and we were in love by the next summer."

Kagome was listening with rapt attention. His life sounded like a fairy tale, so different from hers. Her school didn't even have a prom! "Wow." She breathed. Why had he left all of that? What could have possibly been a strong enough to force to make them leave such a life?

"It was two years later that everything changed. It was summer and Kikyo and I were planning to elope. Neither of us wanted the hustle and pain of a huge wedding. In July, the day after we were married we had a party of sorts. Everyone was there, our friends, our close family, and some extended family. I still don't know how it started, but there was a fire. It got really bad and we didn't have insurance." He paused, popping an orange slice in his mouth. "People died and we lost everything. We had no place to live; our families were dead, or to far away to be of any help. In one night, all our money was gone because we had to pay for damages to the building. Our happiness was gone and we had no idea what to do." He smirked. "We were literally left with only the clothes on our back."

"So…you left the city? Did you not have friends you could stay with, until you got back on your feet?" In her small town, when someone lost everything the whole town banded together to help. Kagome went from wanting his life to be bewildered and put off by it.

"Important people died in the fire. It went without saying that a lot of people were mad about it and at us. We left the city to escape the scandal and the people who were mad at us. After a while, the two of us began to travel around. We went hungry a lot, and rarely practised hygiene that had been so important to Kikyo in high school. However, we got into the mindset that it was an adventure, all the more romantic because it was just the two of us, fighting the wild on our own." He explained the situation calmly, before returning to thought. His orange was finished; the peelings lay on the table all alone. Kagome played with her apple core, not sure of what to say.

Inuyasha stood up. "I told you what happened to us Kagome. Happy now?" He dropped the peels in the garbage can. He turned and began to walk down the hall, intent of retiring for the evening.

"Inuyasha wait." She called, throwing her apple core out and following him down the hall. Their bedrooms were opposite each other, with the bathroom at the end of the hall. He stopped, hand on the doorknob. He looked at her.

She breathed deep and spoke. "I really appreciate you telling me your story and I apologize for being so nosy. I'm sorry for Kikyo's death, and I hope that you get over it someday. I just want you to know, that no matter what your plans for the future are, there will always be a place for you and Shippo here at my store and my house. You can stay as long as you want.

His look softened. "Thank you Kagome." He said and smiled. "May I go to sleep now?"

She smiled back and nodded. "Good night."

"Good night Kagome."


Author's Note 2: Some notes for reference: sub acute Hypothermia occurs on a scale of hours, most commonly by remaining in a cold environment for an extended period of time. (Source: Wikipedia.) Also, I made Redding City up. Thus, I think I own it.