Title: Work-A-Holic
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I do not own the greatness of Hiei, Kagome, or any others unless I made up their greatness, which kind of makes them un-great. So I don't want to own them either... un-great-ful creatures...

WARNING: This chapter is not the "next chapter" you were promised. Sorry, and you won't be getting ANY chapters from Hiei's POV at this point. The story will remain mostly from Kagome's side.

Chapter seventeen:
Alone

Over the next few days, Kagome had many things on her to-do list. Shuichi was fully healed, but couldn't stand on his own. His right leg gave out under him each time he tried to stand, and his right arm was just a useless lump of flesh.

She found herself feeling bad for him and couldn't bring herself to tell Souta about Shuichi's secret. When she saw how devoted her little brother was to the other man, it nearly sent her to tears because she was alone. She'd never enjoyed being alone, and Souta was the only one to view her tears in the last ten years. He knew at least a little bit how much it meant to her to be known.

He also knew that no one else knew her pain. It was due to this that she could not bring herself to talk. As Shuichi lay on the living room floor, Souta sat next to him, ready to do whatever the demon asked of him.

Kagome couldn't heal Shuichi's leg and arm completely until she fully harnessed the power she had become; until she accepted the ghosts completely. She didn't know how she could do that but she had suspicions that accepting her past would help. Part of her past seemed somehow connected to her paralyzed demon.

Talking to him was another thing she had to do over the next few days but it grew hard to do because she was afraid of him. That much she could admit, at least to herself. So all she could do was take him his food and leave as fast as possible to continue on doing other things, like job hunting, or checking up on Shuichi and Souta, or grocery shopping with money from her silent benefactor.

But she knew she couldn't wait forever, because she made a vow to herself to make Hanagi pay for what they did to Shuichi. And it became even clearer to Kagome that she couldn't wait when Souta approached her only a few days later. She was in her bedroom pinning her hair up when Souta came in.

The look on his face told her he hadn't come to chat about the weather. He didn't beat around the bush but rather jumped directly into his topic. "I want you to train me to do what you do."

She was stunned and didn't know how to respond. She knew exactly what he was asking but the words brought back memories instantly. They weren't as painful today as they had been at that time the week before, but neither were they incredibly pleasant.

"How long have you been in here?" she asked quietly, and in the memory it seemed almost as if her voice was apprehensive to know the answer. The memory was a new one. The memories she had usually circled around the same ones with no alteration, so this memory was one that had remained forgotten for a long time.

Crimson orbs stared at her from the dark corner of the dingy underground chamber, light from the candles reflecting hauntingly off the irises. She couldn't see anything else of his face because he was mostly hidden in shadows, but those eyes—she could almost feel them burning her because he usually stared at her.

The memory was, if she remembered correctly, two months into her captivity in the slave pens. There used to be more people in the room with her and the other person, but they were all bought weeks ago.

She'd never heard the other person talk before and was always too afraid to go over by them. They seemed scary and unapproachable. She was surprised to hear him answer her, "I donno… I donno how many years… a lot."

He sounded uneducated; almost as though he'd grown up piecing together how to talk on his own. At the same time, he sounded her age.

She had fallen silent and some time later, the heavy iron door swung open, admitting several people into the room. One of them she could recognize as her slave master. Most of the others were people who reported to the slave master. Two of them were magnificently garbed men.

"This is our last male slave until we get a new shipment in." the slave master said, indicating Kagome's cell mate. "He's a very fast study if you decide you want him as a body guard, although I would recommend against that with this one. He's very unpredictable though I assume it is because of his fire and ice elements."

"And who is this lovely morsel?" one of the buyers asked, looking at Kagome. By then, Kagome was used to being looked at as produce in a market because essentially that was what she was. She was a slave, to be made ready for purchase.

"Ah, that one is not yet ready for sale." The slave master told the men regrettably. "She was recently acquired; she needs to be broken in and trained before I can send her out."

"Broken in, eh?" the second man asked, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "You have sold us untrained ones before; we would not mind another. We can train her."

"She is a miko and a feisty one at that. However, I assure you when she is trained you will be the first to be informed."

The first man boldly walked up to Kagome, grabbing the chain connecting to the eye at the center of the floor. With such a long chain, she could walk all around the room, but she couldn't escape out the door when it was opened as it was now.

"A miko, eh?" the man sniffed at Kagome before yanking her to her feet by dragging on her collar. All she wore was a filthy loincloth and the iron collar. Her hair was muddy and matted still, and her ordinarily tan skin was almost a brown-grey color. He wasn't sniffing her for a flowery scent; he was trying to smell the traces of power. "She smells ordinary," he said finally.

It only took about two seconds for Kagome to get sick of being dragged about so she reached out placing her palms on the man's chest and pushed the power of the Shikon no Tama into the man. Bright pink energy burst from the man's shoulder blades and he collapsed in a pile of blood; dead almost instantly.

The second man looked outraged but he kept his senses and didn't attack her. A few clipped words were exchanged and the second man left without making a purchase. The slave master was furious at Kagome for the loss of a sale. He ranted and raved and beat her, all the while keeping out of her reach. He left with the dead body and his men shortly later.

Kagome moved away from the pile of blood still on the floor and curled up. She was tired and lonely and still in a past world she didn't belong to. She must have fallen asleep because after that she could remember a warm hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. A voice breathed in her ear, "Girl, get up."

She was surprised as the memory progressed and she recalled seeing the boy's face for the first time. Her memory showed her Hiei, slightly bruised and dirty and somewhat younger looking than he looked now. Now he looked about twenty, and back then he looked about sixteen or seventeen.

He held a tray of food in his free hand and he set it in front of her as she sat up. A brief glance around the dimly lit chamber showed only one tray of food. They were punishing her, but the boy seemed to be giving her his food. "Eat," he said, his collar and chain clinking as he made himself comfortable in front of her.

Usually the soup was ice cold when it was served, but as she accepted the food with a grateful smile, she dipped a finger into the chilled liquid and used the power of the Shikon no Tama to heat it up. She offered to share the food and she and the boy split the hard bread and hot soup.

When they had finished eating, the boy took the tray back and set it by the door, but he didn't retreat to his usual corner. Instead, he moved back by her and said, "I wanna know how ya do that." He pointed to the blood on the floor.

"Aiko?" Souta called softly, waving a hand in front of Kagome's face. Kagome was startled by the abrupt change from memory to reality but she did her best not to show it. Now she remembered where Hiei knew her from.

"I'm sorry, Souta, what did you want?" she asked, trying to regain her bearings. She almost wanted to go down by Hiei right then and apologize to him for the game of master-and-slave that she had attempted with him—the game she would have played if the ghosts hadn't continued haunting her.

Did she have to be so cold? Was everyone out to get her? Did everyone want her power?

"I said I want you to train me." He repeated.

Kagome looked at her brother and then at herself in the mirror. What she saw was a perfect, ice cold being who cared very little about the rest of the world. What if it was true, and she wasn't remembering her mistake right? What if they really were all alive again? What if Miroku was sterile and Inuyasha gave Sango and Miroku a child?

She watched as her own eyes softened rather unbidden at the thought of little Kagome, Sango and Miroku's half-breed child. A tiny smile tilted the corner of her mouth as her blue eyes sparkled like sapphires and somehow she felt younger than ever before. She turned to her beloved little brother and he was staring at her in awe.

"Aiko, you're so beautiful when you smile!" he told her.

"Thank you Souta," she said, placing a kiss on his cheek. "If you really want to do what I do… it's hard work. There is nothing you can do for Shuichi," Souta seemed a little hurt when she told him that, "but with hard work and a lot of help… maybe I…" he glanced at her hopefully. She squeezed his shoulder gently. "Maybe I can harness the power of the Shikon no Tama again and do something more…"

Did she really say 'again'? She was sure she did. Was there a time she had done so? Was there something she wasn't remembering? She shook herself mentally and added that to a growing pile of questions she had.

"I," Souta started hesitantly and she silently urged him to continue. "I still want to know. I still… I need to." He grabbed her hands in his and clasped them tightly, almost desperately. "I'm not asking entirely because of Shuichi, Kagome!" He had her full attention when he used her real name. "I've been thinking about it for a long time. Since you came back to us ten years ago, as the living Shikon no Tama, I wanted to be with you. I'm your brother, and I wouldn't care a single bit if I could share your burden! I still want to be with you forever, Kagome, and I'm totally sounding lame and incest but it's not! It's not, Kagome, because I love you!"

His voice rose as he spoke, and the more he spoke the more desperately he would cling to her hands. She opened her mouth, trying to formulate something to say to that in response but nothing came. How could she tell him that no matter what, she would live long past his death?

But there was a small pull inside of her, almost as though she were collecting her power together—only she wasn't doing it. Souta continued, almost near tears. "I love you so much, Kagome, and I can't lose you. You're just as important to me as Shuichi, but you can't die and I can. Why should you have to hurt so damn much? Why? Why should you be the only bearer of the jewel? Why can't someone ease that burden and why can't that someone be me?!"

He pulled her close to him and kissed her forehead. He was now crying and she was completely stunned. "You're my sister, Kagome, and I've been thinking for a long time about this. Please, Kagome, let me in with you. If I'm just like you, then you won't have to see me die, and I won't have to go to my grave worrying whether or not my sister loses her mind and destroys the world."

She felt that pull growing and realized what was happening. He was touching the Shikon no Tama and the Shikon no Tama granted wishes. But she realized it too late, because his next words sealed his own curse. "My one wish is to die when you die."

When that power inside her reached its peak and threw itself into his body, she saw the look on his face. She knew he hadn't expected that to happen because he collapsed to the ground, trying to breathe for several long minutes. She couldn't tear her eyes away from him.

When he collapsed in a heap and fell into unconsciousness, she sat down beside him to wait. At least he hadn't wished for the power of the Shikon, she thought, but she wondered if he understood what fate he just chose. While everyone around him would die, he would not. Shuichi's human body would age and then die, but Souta's body would stay alive and young.

The wish couldn't be undone, but she wished it could. She questioned why she had no control over the wish made. Shouldn't she have been able to control over whether or not it was granted? She supposed if he hadn't touched her, she may have had the option to grant it or not.

Did that mean she could never touch anyone? It made her want to cry because suddenly the world was so big and she was so alone. She lay on the floor beside her brother, wishing she knew what would happen next but everything happening to her life had become unpredictable. She didn't know what to do anymore because even when she did nothing, things happened.

Chapter has been reviewed and approved of by ancient-relic. Thanks again and don't worry about it. You still got it back to me and that's all that really matters (oh, I suppose it matters that you liked it too...)!

Next chapter: I won't do a next chapter preview, because last time I did that, I hated the 'next chapter' because it screwed up the story and had to redo it. This chapter is the resulting next chapter.

THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT REVIEWS!! Sorry for the long wait. I put a lot into this chapter. Please review again!