A/N: Enter the Snow Queen!


Freezing Over

Oh! That kiss was colder than ice, it went right through his heart, which was already fast becoming a lump of ice.


"It's no fun playing tag with you," Kagome complained, small lips trembling as she tried hard not to cry. "You always win!"

The memory came back to him so suddenly that Inuyasha decided it was a signal.

All he had to do was play tag.

He'd never played it with anyone but her, but the boy knew he was good. Kagome never lied.

Inuyasha would not be eaten by demons after having given a piggyback ride to a half-dead person.

He absolutely would not die in that clearing.


He made his way back to the village in a trance. The boy was more aware of his surroundings than ever, but he felt strangely detached from reality. Inuyasha walked slowly, almost leisurely, as if he didn't have a care in the world—because honestly, what could possibly harm him now?

After that morning's incident, he was certain of something he'd always suspected.

He was close to invincible.

The half-demon had known his body could heal fast, but he hadn't been sure of just how fast. Inuyasha had never been pushed quite like this to survive.

For his astonishment, the hole in his chest had begun to close almost immediately after he'd hit the ground. The demons had started attacking the body on Inuyasha's back, seemingly looking for something, splashing blood everywhere.

The blood of a half-breed like him.

Something had woken inside Inuyasha, clawing at his chest to be set free.

In the end, he hadn't had to kill all the demons. Some flew away of their own accord after seeing the boy playing havoc down there, destroying their companions like they were no more than insects.

They really weren't.


When Kagome saw him making his way to their huts covered in blood, she screamed.

"Dear God!" Lady Higurashi gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

Without glancing twice at his clothes, Kagome ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. Inuyasha smelled her familiar scent and felt the warmth of her body against his chest, but he was still strangely cold.

He didn't feel the urge to put his arms around his best friend, and that should've been his first clue that something wasn't quite right.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "A few demons thought I'd be easy prey, but they had another thing coming."

"Y-you should go to the river and w-wash yourself," the girl stuttered, drying her sweaty hands on her green kimono. Its upper lining was stained by blood. "I'll check you for wounds!"

Her voice was hurting his ears. He'd never realized it sounded so high-pitched.

"There are no wounds," he declared, checking himself not to sound too proud. "But I feel like cleaning anyway."

"What's wrong with you?" She asked quietly, taking a piece of something off of his forelock. Her big brown eyes were scrutinizing his face, and Inuyasha felt like a spotlight was put on him when she did that.

It was irritating him to no end.

"I feel fine." He shrugged. "A stranger came stumbling in before the demons arrived, but he was already done for. Gotta go back there and get his body later."

Not even looking at Lady Higurashi, who'd been silently watching the exchange, Inuyasha turned in the direction of the river.

For once in her life, Kagome didn't try to follow.

Thank God for small blessings, huh?


"Maybe we should go to a neighboring village and fetch a priestess," Lady Higurashi suggested quietly.

The small party of misfits was standing in front of the unmarked grave. Kagome had put a bouquet of wild flowers there to appease her conscience, not knowing what else she could possibly do.

Some people had seen Inuyasha when he came back from the clearing with the body, and he said he'd told them to stay as far from that place as possible.

Kagome could only imagine what the passers-by must have thought, seeing the half-demon carrying a man covered in blood.

She looked at him and felt her skin crawl when she spotted his eyes. It was like Inuyasha didn't care that this man had died, didn't care that he'd seen it happen, and certainly didn't care that he was a half-demon too. The girl was very much aware that they lived in a violent time and place, but this behavior wasn't like her friend at all.

"No self-respecting priestess will pray for him," he said, glaring at the earth. "He was a half-demon."

"Mama, why can't a priestess come pray for my bird?" Inuyasha asked, golden eyes blinking fast to avoid the tears.

Kagome let the memory of the little boy wash over her. How caring and righteous her friend was, always worrying about everyone and everything. He's just shocked, I'm sure, but he'll never admit it.

"We've nothing left to do here. Let's go," Inuyasha urged, tugging at Kagome's sleeve.

"D'you think my bird will come back as something else, Kagome?"

Looking back at the stranger's grave and taking in the canopy of trees above it, the girl prayed in her heart for him to find peace wherever he went after death.

She looked at Sota from the corner of her eye and draped an arm around his shoulders. Her brother's face was a little ashen, but he managed a small smile anyway (for her benefit, she was sure of it).

They lived a sheltered life, a privileged one in a sense. Sota wasn't used to seeing corpses all the time.

Neither is Inuyasha.

Once they got out of the forest, Inuyasha mumbled something about still needing wood and went away. Deciding she should respect his space, Kagome spent the rest of the day helping Old Kaede find herbs for stocking. Even though the village people respected the woman, it was best they had their own provisions for the fast approaching winter. People liked to keep their distance from Inuyasha, and Kagome doubted they'd walk to the outskirts of the forest in case he was the one in need of medicine.

Not that he usually needs it.

He remained in her thoughts for the rest of the day.

She didn't see him coming back that night.


During the next two days, Inuyasha kept mostly to himself. He went on errands for hours and came back home smelling of snow and the wild. Kaede was very worried, but there was only so much an old human woman could do to keep track of a young half-demon. Every time Kagome tried talking to him when he was around, Inuyasha dismissed her with crude words or spiteful comments.

"Go sew with your mother or something," he sneered when she confronted him on the path to Izayoi's grave.

Kagome braced herself under the heavy mantle, feeling more cold from the look he gave her than from the weather.

"Until you tell me what the hell is wrong, I won't," she defied him, trying very hard to hold back her traitorous tears.

He'd never treated her like this before.

"I can smell your tears, you know," Inuyasha remarked, briefly resembling the friend she knew. "Just don't."

"I'm not crying." Kagome huffed. "I know you hate it when I do."

She threw the bait and waited for his reaction.

"You look ugly when you do, too."

It felt like he'd just slapped her. Without missing a beat, Inuyasha turned on his heels and left.

He didn't even give me a chance to step closer, she thought dejectedly. And I saw faint scratches on the side of both his cheeks...

Unfolding her arms, Kagome brought out the bouquet of camellias she intended to leave his mother. The girl had a very vivid memory of Lady Izayoi, recalling even the smell of her long dark hair.

"Camellias mean humility and discretion, Kagome," Izayoi said cheerily, smelling the flowers they'd just collected. "They also mean 'perfect love'."

As the wind picked up and a few red petals flew away, the girl couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched.

Her gut told her it wasn't Inuyasha this time.

She left the bouquet on the path, knowing he'd have to come back eventually, then ran.


On the next morning, Kagome opened the hanging to see that the white snow had covered everything. It was easy to pinpoint Inuyasha's red robe moving in the distance while he checked the tree line. Grabbing her mantle, she debated whether or not to go after him.

It's too early for a confrontation. I'm barely awake.

Sitting on a wooden stool outside her hut, the girl listened to the sound of her family waking up inside and observed the roaming half-demon.

When he looked at her suddenly, she thought his eyes were glowing red, but it happened so fast that she couldn't be sure.

His strange behavior made her think of Kaede's tale of the Seven-Men Army. According to the story, one of the bandits, Suikotsu, had two different personalities. The girl was not a doctor, but she figured it was perfectly possible for something like that to happen.

Not liking the direction of her thoughts, Kagome decided to enter again and help her mother straighten up their small room. Sota would be impatient very soon for not being able to stay outside, and she predicted a long day of telling stories ahead of her.

She felt Inuyasha's eyes burning holes in her head as soon as she turned her back to the snowy landscape.


Kagome woke up that night with Inuyasha shaking her shoulder lightly.

A very human Inuyasha.

Quickly standing and grabbing three mantles to keep them warm, she followed him outside without a second thought. They needed to talk, and while she knew it was dangerous to stay outside in total darkness without counting on his demon senses, they couldn't do it inside and risk waking up her family.

As soon as the girl let the hanging mat fall behind her, Inuyasha held her in a loose embrace. Surprised, but wanting to reacquaint herself with his nearness, she quickly hugged his middle and sighed into his chest.

"I feel funny," he whispered, lips brushing against her forehead.

Frowning, Kagome retreated and tried to make eye contact in the darkness. The only light they had came from the stars, and although there were many, it wasn't easy to stare at someone beneath a moonless sky.

"Funny how?"

He seemed to consider what to answer.

"Just… wrong."

"Is it because of the man who died during the demon attack?" Kagome asked cautiously.

"Keh," he mumbled. "I don't know."

They stood quiet for a few seconds.

"Someone was watching me a day ago."

Kagome didn't know why she said it; the words had been out before she knew it.

"Where?" He asked quietly.

"Just past the tree line, on the path to your mother's grave. I felt it after our… talk."

He didn't even cringe at the reminder of his rudeness, which seemed oddly out of character for him. The bells inside Kagome's head were ringing.

"I'll check it tomorrow, and the clearing too."

Suddenly, she knew. Her entire body tensed at the certainty, the overwhelming, horrible certainty that he wouldn't come back if he left her side.

"I'll go with you," the girl blurted. "It'll be good to leave the hut."

"Not a chance," he said in an eyebat. "If there's something lurking out there, I can't have you distracting me. You'll just be in the way."

She knew he was right, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt to hear it—especially when he'd been acting so strange.

"You're such a brat," she whispered without conviction.

Kagome decided to let it drop for the moment, but she secretly vowed they would return to this discussion on the next day. Hugging Inuyasha again, she felt his muscles tensing for no reason, but he relaxed when she playfully tugged at his forelocks.

They bid each other goodnight after that.


Inuyasha woke up with a start just before dawn.

Looking around from his sitting place against the wall, he saw that the hut was still dark. Aside from Old Kaede's snoring and the sound of the wind outside, there wasn't any noise.

Then why was his heart pounding?

And why did he sleep sitting up?

Still in a sort of daze, he got up and lifted the hanging to see if something was amiss outside. There was a light blizzard, but the sky was already clearing. He could feel his body changing back to its natural state, and it made him uneasy for some unfathomable reason.

As his black hair turned white and his nails elongated, Inuyasha started to feel a strange urge to go outside; though ice was literally raining from the sky. It was such an overpowering call that it made him want to sink his claws in the wooden doorframe.

Deciding that no stupid blizzard could make him sick, he stepped outside and walked through the heavy snow in the direction of the tree line.

Feeling suddenly uneasy, he stopped.

Something eerie was in the air, something that made him want to bolt back home and go ahead at the same time.

Before he could shake it off and scoff at himself, Inuyasha spotted her.

There was a woman standing not too far away.

With his sharp vision, he could see her through the blizzard. Golden eyes looked at him with something akin to amusement, but maybe a little too cold to be called that. Her long white hair ricocheted around her in two ponytails, and she had a purple crescent moon on her forehead.

"Walking barefoot, young man?" She asked, seemingly confident he could hear her. "My, you could catch a cold."


A/N: The real Naraku would never die so easily, but he'd been fighting off demons for a long time with a single shard. Inuyasha's chest wouldn't normally heal so fast, but I'm using the jewel's regeneration properties to my advantage. Remember Mistress Centipede? Lol.

A fragment of the cursed mirror makes you see the bad in everything, and a corrupted jewel shard makes Inuyasha's demon blood take over (like it did in canon when he attached one to his sword). I thought it'd be interesting to mix the Shikon no Tama's properties with the mirror's, so he's turning more into a pessimistic demon the longer the shard stays in his heart.

I should also say I don't have a beta reader, and English is not my first language. Sorry for any mistakes!

Ah, yes: Inuyasha's human nights aren't such a big deal in this AU, since he didn't grow up in the wild.

That's all for now, guys! Review and tell me what you think *winks*, or send me an ask on kongosoha dot tumblr dot com.

Ps: Kay really says Gerda is ugly when she cries.