A/N:

Wow everyone seemed to really like the last chapter, especially the scene between Kagura and Sesshy, and that makes me so happy! This chapter mostly has Kagome and Inuyasha in it, she wakes up too, for awhile (little spoiler) and some Miroku and Sango. You all seemed to be worried that Miroku's gonna do something stupid, I wonder what that would constitute as… what happens here or what could come along next…..

Disclaimer: Don't own em.

Hidden Beneath A Smile

Chapter Fiffteen: Nightmares

Cool and unsavory the night had suddenly turned an outing with her father becoming a grotesque scene of survival. Traveling through the wilds of the island that had been their abrupt vacation, the excuse of needing a break after so many long hours spent at the office. There was something not right with this quick departure, the whole family could see it, none but the father knew it and none but the father had paid for it.

Moving through the foliage, bramble, branches and low lying vines reaching out and grasping at her as she ran with her father, as she exerted herself beyond normal performance just to keep up with his swift strides. Fear choked at her heart, fear clogged her throat, and fear made it increasingly difficult to breathe normally as she ran. Hunting for seashells amongst the twilight lit beach had ended in bullets flying and father and daughter becoming the prey. The hand that held her father's own was growing moist and she soon began to fear that her hand would slip from his and she would become lost.

"Masume, how would like to see Miroku, he's going to meet us at that lake we found, remember the one you, he and Souta went swimming in?" He queried breathlessly, angling the little girl around a large rock that blocked their path, she nodded, and though he could not see, he continued anyway. "Masume why don't you sing that song your mother taught you, the one that is your lullaby."

Kagome nodded, flinching and crying out as the sound of more bullets flying wild reached her ears, and began to sing as her father had directed her to do. "I'll kiss the flame,

And reach for the stars…

I'll take your hand…

And ease all of your pain…."

The pair stumbled over the thicker bramble in their path causing the young girl to stumble in her song, however she pick the melody back up and began to hum the tune once more until enough time had passed that the next line would begin. She tried to ignore the burning of her legs and the aching of her lungs while she performed the task as her father bade, trying even harder to pay no mind to the angry men shooting at them from behind. The men that closed in upon the father and daughter running for their lives seemed to decrease in distance as time wore on and soon came to the point where if Kagome peeked behind her she could see the shadowy outline of their fast approaching bodies.

"I'll dry your tears…

And lift up your spirits…

I will make you laugh…

And guard your heart…."

Soon the lake came into view and with that observation Kagome began to search for her dear aniki that her father said would be there. Another fear began to take her, did Miroku know of the men behind them, would he be hurt because he had come out to meet them. She was both relieved and bothered by his presence, Kagome knew that aniki would keep her safe no mater what, but she did not want her aniki to be hurt. Soon she was pushed in her brother's open arms, their father's strict words barely audible through the pounding of her own heart continuing the song. "Miroku now matter what, you must keep Kagome safe, keep your sister safe." He paused seeming to consider something and then said in the most defeating air she could ever recall her father speaking in. "If I don't make it back Miroku protect the family. Above all else protect your sister and let no harm come to her, do you understand me do not let anything happen to her."

"Take me in…

I want to feel your light…

Hold me tight…

I can't stand this agony…

Drowning in Sorrow…"

Miroku gave what Kagome could only call a hesitant nod as he looked about argue but held his tongue. "I will," then his eyes narrow with something she could not pinpoint, "why is she singing that song?"

"She was scared, I couldn't think of how to make her feel any better so I told her to sing." Suddenly she and her aniki were being pushed in to the bushes as the sound of the men so close whiffled towards their ears. "Don't move and don't come out of hiding for anything, not until morning." With that their father disappeared and that was the last time Kagome would ever see him.

Miroku held her tight as he rubbed her back making soothing sounds in the back of his throat in between murmuring words of comfort and Kagome sang just as her father bade her to do.

"My soul is lost to Darkness…

Be my guide…

Show me the way…

Bring me freedom of my pain…"

Suddenly Miroku stood from their hiding place bidding her to sit still while she hummed their mother's family song, and remarked about their father's lengthened time away. Her aniki said that he would be back soon, that he had to check on their father to make sure that he was okay. Kagome agreed with that, there were men with guns tailing him, and Miroku was the strongest man she knew besides her father and so if any were to protect the man it would be her Aniki. Still she did not relish the thought of being alone in the dead of night in the middle of nowhere waiting for the sun to rise.

"Let me drown in you...

No longer hidden beneath a smile."

As the last words of the lullaby left her lips in a near muted whisper due to her fear, the world around her seemed to twist and turn before her very eyes. The landscape becoming a very familiar living room, a weight she was well accustomed to barring down in her hands Kagome let it fall with a clatter her only means of protection. The sound was deafening to her ears as her wide eyes bore sightlessly onto the bodies ambling towards her, screeching accusingly, while she sat rooted to her spot making no moves to deny the accusations made.

"What kind of daughter are you, where were you, you could have save me." Her mother bemoaned with bloodless lips, her cloths drenched in blood and her body a rotting decaying mess. Her grandfather was besides her making his own accusations, chastising her for her lack of respect for the old.

Tears pricked her eyes as she moved backwards, "I'm sorry," she whispered brokenly.

"Kagome." She turned and her heart stopped, there standing just as frightful in appearance was her father. "Masume, why did you leave me? Why did you leave me to die alone, why didn't you come, how could you allow me to die? How could you allow Miroku to become cursed as he was, allow him to be hurt because you were to frightened to come yourself." Her father grasped her shoulders with bonny fingers that had loose rotting chunks of flesh clinging to the bone, swallowing hard she resisted the urge to scream. "Your really just weak, even though you say your strong your nothing but a weak little girl."

Kagome shook her head roughly causing her heavy tears to fly about the place of her shrine home that twisted in appearance and splattering upon the face of her long deceased father. "No," she choked, "I'm strong, I'm strong."

Those hands grasped her face to look into his own eyes, her grandfather held on to her left side while her mother came upon her right, sneering hatefully. "You're just a weak little girl, if you were strong you could have save us." She did not know whom the words were from and maybe they were from neither of the apparitions before her, but it did not matter as despite the denials she knew they spoke the truth. She was weak, if she were strong or strong as she made everyone believe she could saved her parents before they were killed, could have saved her grandfather but because she was too weak she had not gotten there in time.

"No," She cried out nearly screaming as their hands descended upon her pulling her down, suffocating her, "no! It's not true, it's not true, I'm not weak!"

Three days Inuyasha had spent with the reeking stench of his sewer sodden cloths all because of his foolish endeavor to save the sister of man he had come to think of as a brother. His instincts would allow for nothing less, not the one to save his 'brother' but the one he had brought upon himself by melding his blood with a female he knew nothing about. Something he had sworn never to do he did out of love, the love of a brother, and despite the fact he was relieved Miroku would not have to know the pain of losing a sibling he was regretting his over the top actions.

There was no doubt about it, the girl would have died had he not performed the ritual, and she had lost so much blood yet was it really worth the consequences? Surprisingly the answer was something he did not expect, he knew he would be willing to throw everything away for Miroku just as he would for his irritating half-brother, and so having to live with this feeling always lying below his skin was okay for the time being. Eventually, if it were possible, he would have the ritual reversed. His partner would have it no other was even if it had saved his sister's life, not the he himself would not want it reversed even if Miroku for some insane reason was all for it.

Although he was clear across the safe house, the furthest bedroom from his own, he felt the pull of his blood in her. The pull the spoke to him in whispers of her mood, a ball of emotions in the back of his head that he couldn't even begin to get use to. She was in distress and he whimpered at the force such a thing brought to his body, the force of his instincts crying out to go and relieve of her of the feeling.

It was an itch in his skin, an irritating and insane itch that he could not relieve no matter how hard he tried to scratch at it with other thoughts it would not fall away. Eventually he found his feet upon the carpeted floor carrying him across the room in the direction of the girl's own, not once had she awaken in the last three days. Perhaps she had awoken now and maybe the feeling that was pulsating in the back of his head was her waking to find herself in a strange place. Maybe she was scared, and as these thoughts clouded his mind, he soon found himself in her room before her bedside.

For all appearances she seemed to be the same as the last time he had checked upon her when instinct became too much, however upon closer inspection that had him looking at her not from the doorway but her bed side in the darkened room he noticed her distress. She was making tiny noises of discomfort in back of her throat and if it were not for his sensitive hearing he would not have heard the tiny pleas she made with something he could not see. His limbs tingled, what could he do to elevate the obvious fear that cloaking her body in a putrid mist, and before he could think Inuyasha found himself beside her on the bed.

Would she wake if he tried to wake her or would she remain in the coma like sleep she had been sleeping in for the last three days? Would she remain as she had been unmoving? He whimpered again and then cursed viscously for the disgusting noise that had come from his throat, he was not a love sick fool that could not make the suffering of his lover better and yet that is what he had tied himself to. Inuyasha had no love for this girl only for the man he had come to think of as a brother, the one the girl was lucky enough to share blood with otherwise she would have been just as dead as her mother, grandfather and father. With out even realizing what he had been doing, he soon found himself stroking the side of her face murmuring reassurances in the inuyoukai language, the blood of his in her veins seeming to recognize the words causing her body to calm.

Inuyasha froze in his ministrations, swallowing thickly he just sat their still as the dead. Why, he found himself questioning again, why was it that his blood was reacting so strongly in her veins? Though none was particularly willing to discuss such a ritual with a hanyou he had heard enough about such things to know exactly how they were suppose to go and never had he heard a youkai's instincts going as haywire as his own seemed to be doing. Then again, the simple explanation for it all could be that he was trying to go against what his instincts wanted in completing the ritual, trying to suppress the pull of his crimson essence flowing through her body.

"Aniki," the girl whispered breathlessly reaching out with her hands wildly, "Miroku!" Her call was frantic this time.

The youkai of his blood sizzled when she called for the aid of a man that was not himself, and he clamped down upon the feeling trying to remind himself and his youkai half that there was no reason for such sentiments, as he did not care for her. Still he found himself reaching out for her waving hands grasping them softly within his own smiling slightly when he realized that Rin would have been laughing hard while his brother teased him for the show. More or less if anyone whom knew him were to witness the moment they might have died from shock as he was cold and ruthless incapable of showing the level of caring he had been displaying for the unconscious girl. Then again, all of his acts of kindness were always made in ways where he could not be fingered for it.

It wasn't a softening heart that had him doing this for the girl rather it was instinct, the driving need to quell the flesh that tingled from his prolonged avoidance of being near her person. Just for this night, just for now, he would indulge and then later go back to battle the ever-driving need that now seemed to lie just below the surface. Her hand squeezed his own tightly in her sleep, "Aniki, lay with me like when we were kids, please Aniki, I don't want to dream." Her words were heavy, lethargic, and as she rolled to her side, she bade him to lie behind her.

Trying to force down the lump in his throat, he moved in beneath the covers pulling her up against him, a deep crimson blush straying deeply across his cheeks. Inuyasha felt, even though she had invited him or whom she thought was her brother, as though he were taking advantage of her in her vulnerable unconscious state. Perhaps it was the thoughts his youkai half was throwing through his mind, thought's that pertained to the completion of the ritual in which he had started, the one he had no intentions of ever completing.

"Sing for me mother's song," she bade sleepily.

Her mother's song… Inuyasha had no idea what it could be, and was exactly the most graceful of singers and so shifting her dark locks behind her ear he whispered. "Not tonight imouto, not tonight." He hoped that she would not recognize his voice as a stranger, that she would be too exhausted with the amount of energy he was sure his blood had exuded to heal her wounds. As he started to get comfortable, he paused as though struck, he was not sleeping there with her only staying long enough for her to get over the distress that plagued her as she slept. With the level of awareness she had at moment that, Inuyasha was sure, she would likely be awake in the morning or sometime latter in the afternoon.

His arms around her, Inuyasha had his nose in her hair breathing in the scent of her body which despite days of not bathing did not smell all that bad. In a strange way, it was somewhat comforting and before he even knew what was happening, he had fallen into slumber.

His way to the spider's domain was made in intense unease, for some reason or another he could feel a tugging in his soul as though his siblings needed him but that was insane. Kagome and Souta were dead; Miroku had to get use to that. They would never need his brotherly protection again because 'he' had taken them away from him. Balling his fists tight, he shoved them into his pant pockets and hurrying up his step out of anger. The sooner he spoke with the spider and received his information the sooner he was likely to find his revenge.

Coming to the steel door, he mused for a moment of how he was becoming like that door, of how his heart had become an impenetrable force that did not even flinch at the dark thoughts that were running through his mind. The thoughts of his revenge and of how he would carry out such a plot, the grotesque images that flashed through his mind would have, before the rage his loss had instilled, caused his heart to shutter. Foolish, his thoughts were foolish, nothing had changed in him nothing except for this new driving need to find revenge for his siblings and his other family members that had been so horribly slaughtered. Breathing evenly, or at least forcing himself to, he pushed the visions of his dead parents from his sight and the ones of which he imagined for his siblings as it was doing nothing for the tender thread that held his rage in check.

Three bangs of his fist upon the steel door seemed to do the trick of snapping himself from the introvertive thought he had been trapped under, the little slot slid open with a clang to reveal annoyed and blinking eyes. "What do ya want?" A voice snapped a distinctly male voice that was not Kikyou at all.

Unperturbed, Miroku responded. "Tell the spider the monk is here to see him."

"Tch, the dog not with you today." The voice sneered while the door clanked, creaked, and moaned as it was quickly ripped open. With grinding teeth, the ex-agent chose to ignore the barbed words, and by the glint to the now visible man's beady eyes he knew of Inuyasha's death. Still Miroku chose to remain silent and followed swiftly behind the large balding man or at least at first glance he appeared to be a man. From the slight amount of Jyaki that he could sense from the 'man' seemed to speak otherwise, so despite appearances he followed behind a youkai.

With a tip of the head, Miroku signaled that he would wait for his summons at the table nearest the back exit as he always sat with Inuyasha. If there was a chance for a fight to break out before they could make it to the spider's office, or were something to occur where they would have to make a hasty egress then he felt safer being close to an escape. Though he and his partner had the entirety of the spider's club mapped out in their heads and could find a way out from any room of the place. He sat now in deep contemplative thought the feeling in his chest not lessening any with his mind's adamant screams of Kagome and Souta's death. That feeling only seemed to grow, his bother and sister's apparent need for him tugged at his soul. Perhaps it was their need for revenge, but as soon as the thought had come, it was quickly cast aside. His siblings were not the vengeful types, then, if his siblings were dead, then perhaps it would own need to see vengeance be done on their behalf that tugged at him so.

Miroku agreed to that assessment as he ordered a bottle of vodka, the cat youkai paused to raise a brow at his request but said nothing as she left to bring him what he had asked for. He was not one to drown his sorrows out with a bottle of alcohol. However, despite that he knew he'd have nothing but a headache in the morning with time spent in the bathroom, he could not help but to think that it would be worth it just to elevate that burning feeling in the pit of his gut. In addition, if it could, for just a moment, rid him of the breathlessness of his chest as every thought turned to his loss he could find the act worthwhile in the end. Maybe, he mused, as the bottle was placed before him, maybe that was what everyone else thought as they drank away their sorrows with their choice of alcohol.

Taking a swig from the bottle, he watched the chaos going on around him, the people, and creatures of the society laughing together, having fun. For some irrational reason, he was angry with them all for acting in such a joyous manner when his sister, brother and Shippo had died, and though they had no idea, how dare they not give time to mourn for Inuyasha. His partner, his greatest friend… his brother, taking a deep breath he mentally cooled the anger bubbling beneath his slow heating skin, who on this earth would mourn a hanyou? He would, his boss and leader of the society would, Rin would, and were Shippo alive he would have, such a small amount of beings finding sadness at his loss made Miroku even angrier despite the fact he tried to quell it.

Looking upward toward the Miko Witch, as Inuyasha had lovingly named the woman, who steadily walked toward him neutrally, the monk felt grateful. He was glad for once that she would be the one to take him to see the spider, he would rather deal with her and his partner's bickering than the man whom had answered the door for him, and then he froze. There would not be anymore bickering for him to bear and with that thought he took another deep draught of the liquid that would serve to numb his mind and body from the pain of loss.

Kikyou just smiled at him, no words, nor barbs, just a smile and a quick motion of the hand that bade him to follow her. Perhaps he was wrong, maybe there was one more mourning Inuyasha's death, then again she could have just thought to be respectful of his pain and forgo her usual course of action whenever he or Inuyasha showed up to speak with her mate. "Good evening, Miko." He murmured softly, solemnly, unable to summon up his cheerful demeanor.

"As well to you, monk, though I warn you my mate is not in a great mood this night, or morning as the case would be, there was bit of trouble in the bar earlier today. A fight broke out and we had a casualty, the report will be brought to Sesshoumaru-sama in the evening when the bar isn't busy and we can spare one of the staff to deliver it." She was quite talkative, normally she was reserved until Inuyasha goaded her past her limits, and when it was just him alone she would make an acidic comment about his partner and say not a word more. Was it the pity she had for his loss that made her speak so sociably? Were his looks so atrocious that it would inspire such a cold woman to try to offer a small comfort as kind conversation?

"I see," Miroku nodded, "then you are aware that Sesshoumaru-sama will likely send someone from his guardian division to monitor the bar for awhile to make sure that another incident does not occur. Three strikes and your out, or so they say."

Kikyou sighed, "precisely why he is in a bad mood, he always stresses to the patrons that if there is violence to be had then there better not be lifeless bodies to clean up afterwards."

Suddenly he stopped and since he no longer followed Kikyou was forced to pause as well turning toward him with a raised brow as if to ask why. Yes, that was a good question, why the kindness from her, why the good conversation when in all of his years dealing with her none had ever been had? "Do you pity me? Is that why you've not mocked Inuyasha, or is it something else, I do not need your pity nor do I want it so please stop this charade and let us go back to our customary silence."

The Miko's eyes flashed in anger, "I am not offering you pity, I never would. I too am morning Inuyasha, despite our rather foul encounters, I thought of the hanyou as a brother; a little brother mined you, though I am the younger. Yes we fought, and yes he nearly had me burned at the stake, however family is family and such petty things would not have kept me from aiding him in the future should he need it. I have known Inuyasha since we were small and he is the only one besides the spider that did not scorn me or set me apart for my miko powers, I could never be glad for his death." Towards the end of her angry tirade, tears had begun to slide down her cheeks in small rivulets, causing a pang to sound in the monk's heart.

Reaching a hand out to her that was tossed aside as Kikyou tried to compose herself, he murmured his apologies. "I didn't realize the extent of your relationship and for that I'm sorry, I had gathered that you two more then despised each other."

Kikyou shrugged off his words as though to keep them from touching her, "Don't worry about it, with the way Inuyasha and I carried on anyone would have thought us to be mortal enemies. Come on my mate will start to wonder what had become of use if we take any longer." Turning upon her heel, she bade him once more with the wave of her hand to follow her, which he complied wordlessly.

As he entered the spider's office after the miko the first thing he noticed was the tense atmosphere of the room, the spider himself sitting behind his desk a scowl firmly ingrained upon the hanyou's features. Kikyou moved in and kissed him upon his cheek, whispering a few words before she left them alone to speak of business. Miroku deftly moved without so much as a sound in his passing and took a seat, staring Narku square in the eyes. "There are but two reasons for my being here, one is to inform you of my raise in status, I shall now be taking Inuyasha's place. The second is, have you any news upon what I had requested near five days ago?"

The spider, without removing his red eyes from the monk, searched his top desk drawers, grabbing a file and tossing it toward Miroku with a small flick of the wrist. "That, unfortunately, was all that I was able to find. Apparently, that little secret you wanted the answer to was locked tighter then Fort Knox, I was at least able to break into their systems after a while of trying." He snorted angrily, the man despised with a passion when he was blocked from achieving what he was paid to achieve. The spider solely believed that he should have all of the world's knowledge at his feet, and when something happens to get in the way of that, the mood that followed was never pleasant. Miroku had been told once that the hanyou would break into said system, or place, repeatedly until it became a cakewalk.

"I see," he murmured, "I'm sure this will suffice."

"I don't like things to suffice, I prefer them to be perfect." The spider pointedly spoke, slamming his hand upon his desk. "I especially don't like when I come across a place that I cannot break, It puts a real damper on my mood and than when things like today I happen I don't deal with them well." He shook his head, looking almost mystified, "Why the hell am I telling you all of this?"

"I don't know, and quite frankly I don't care, now that you have supplied me with what I need, I will leave." Standing Miroku maneuvered around his chair to the office's exit, though the spider's next words had him stilling as surely as if the hanyou had slugged him across the face.

Speaking with a poisonous undertone, Narku said smirking wildly, "I heard about Inuyasha by the way." Breathing deep, the monk tried his hardest not to allow the muscles within his shoulders to tense and failed miserably, he prayed the spider not to speak a word more. Miroku did not trust himself were the hanyou to say one ill piece against his partner, his emotions at the moment volatile at best. "Perhaps it is best that things have turned out this way, no? The impertinence of that creature has forever been silenced."

Balling his fists tightly Miroku's body came alive with the words that were hurled at him from behind, turning he made a mad dash towards the spider jumping the wooden desk he shoved the hanyou back while he was still within his chair. Next, as he pinned the creature place, he opened his mouth with one hand and shoved his pistol inside eyes morphing into cold dots of rage. The monk's hands shook as he tried to contain himself, never before had allowed words to pull at him as he did now, and spoke a deadly note. "Don't speak of Inuyasha that way again," his voice shook as he forced the gun further into Naraku's throat. "Do not speak of Inuyasha that way again, I will hear nothing ill said of him, nothing do you understand me." The spider nodded his head as much as the position allowed. Satisfied, Miroku stood shoving the gun back into his coat and hastily egressed from the office before anything else could be said, anything that could set of that tender thread that was barely holding him together.

Walking down the barely lit docks, he was thrown into a sense of unease as though someone was following him. At first, he had thought that it was a person whom had ill will towards him, but when he felt out with his "sixth sense," he could find no evil radiating anywhere. So then, he began to wonder as the first rays of sunlight began to touch the earth, who in their right mind would tail him this early in the morning? Shrugging it off, he moved without pause, keeping one eye upon the shadow that traveled with him.

Growing annoyed that he could not find the name of what hounded him from behind, he tried to focus his mind elsewhere and found that it had become quite the trying venture. All he could think of was that one lone shadow that followed him without fail no matter where he moved, no matter the twists and turns he took always there. It was getting to the point were he could think of nothing else, and yet could not think of suitable answer as to why he did not force the person from hiding just beyound his vision. It had almost become a game, were he could almost forget the pains of his past teetering around in the back of his head shadowed by this diversion. In a way he was a bit grateful to this person for giving him something to muse over, soon he began to wonder if this person even existed.

Shortly he became accustomed to the presence beside him and went on to think of other things, most importantly where he was to go next. He had to bring the document he had gotten from the spider to Sesshoumaru for him to review and see if there was anything worthwhile in it's contains. Instantly he stopped in his place the name of his stalker coming to mind not understanding why he had not noticed it earlier. He knew those moves his silent companion used as she trailed him, knew because he had taught her those very tricks.

And the very idea of it all struck him as rather humorous, so for the first time in the last few days Miroku began to laugh. It started out as a gentle chuckle resonating in his chest, then grew to the point where he was upon the ground shaking from the humor of it all. It felt so good to laugh that he began to cry, feeling a hand upon his shoulder he looked up to find the very person that had been following him, Sango. "I knew you were there, you must be loosing your touch."

"I'm sorry," Sango offered sheepishly.

"Don't be," He smiled, and found the smile widening at the shocked expression upon the assassins face, "trying to figure out who you were I block everything else out. So for a moment my pain had vanished, and for that I thank you." Grasping her wrist he pulled her down with him, chuckling once more he said, "and here I thought that I would have to drown myself in booze to escape when all I really needed was you." Not knowing how to answer him, she just sat rigid in his embrace awaiting that hand of his to activate and ruin the moment, it never happened. "I have to go to the office and see Sesshoumaru once more, but could you do me a favor. Don't worry, I'm feeling much better now." He said as he noticed a shadow cross her face at the mention of separating.

Hesitantly she inquired cinnamon eyes pensive, "what is it that you need?"

Patting her head, he shut his eyes to hide the emotions that would be a veracious maelstrom into his soul swirling around in his violet pools from her. "Would you…" he swallowed and then changed his mind, "would you bare my child?" Then as the words left his mouth he copped a feel of, in his opinion, the greatest rump he ever had the pleasures of feeling.

"Hentai," Sango ragged as she knocked him up side the head rather brutally before remembering the tragedy that had taken place.

"As always it is well worth it," Miroku remarked with a silly grin, and then his eyes softened. "Thank you Sango, I needed that."

"Houshi-sama, you are strange." With that she stood and made as if to leave, but paused, smoothing down her dark jeans and black tank she threw over her shoulder. "Glad to be of service," and then melded in with the shadows to once more watch over him even if he knew of her presence there.

Bleary eyes opened slowly as the sleep drained from her body and she felt wonderful, there was so much energy coursing through her veins and she had the sudden urge to dance off the walls. She had never felt like this before, and as she moved to find a way to drain herself of this fidgety energy, she found an extra weight settled in next to her. Moving slowly, as not to disturb whom was most likely her aniki, she slid from the bed but froze as silver hair caught her eye. Last time she checked her aniki did not have silver hair, and neither did her otou. Steadying herself, she bit back the urge to scream, and swiftly placed herself beneath the sleeping stranger wrapping her arm around his throat. Squeezing hard, she demanded, "who are you?"

Before she could even register what had happened, Kagome found herself starring up into furious amber eyes with claws digging into her throat. Just as quickly as the situation turned against her, the amber-eyed stranger had moved from her entirely horrified, before rounding upon her again furious. "Are you insane," he shouted, breath ragged doggy ears twitching, "don't ever do that again, I could have killed you." Doggy ears? Why…

Taken aback that her captor, yes she had no idea where she was so decided she had been kidnapped, had embraced her and then tossed her aside as though he had been burned. This was going to be a long day, she could tell, since awaking with the lingering feelings of her nightmare that were overshadowed by the strange feeling that had stolen it all away. "Who are you?" She repeated and watched as his faced pinched in annoyance.

"Not this again," he complained and Kagome found herself raising a brow in question, "keh, you're little brother didn't recognize me either. I just thought that-" he cut off eyes widening in horror, then shuttering he acted as though he were picking up were he left off, "there is no reason for you to recognize me." He forced. "Inuyasha," he spoke with the flick of the wrist, "I am Inuyasha."

Kagome shook her head, slowly moving backwards, her eyes narrowed with her distrust. "No your not, do you honestly expect me to believe that?" She demanded, eyes narrowing more as she spun around and tried to run away. Tried being the operative word, she never made it off the bed before a strong clawed grip was pulling her back. Panic began to grasp at her heart, just what in the world was this man to match and even better the speed she had perfected all of her life, only her aniki could better her. "Where is my brother?"

"Which one?"

That stilled the fight in her, was that why he had kidnapped her, because of her aniki. Miroku said that there was reason he wanted the rest of the world to remain in the dark of their to relationship with one another, did this man find out and kidnap her for it, what her aniki feared. "I only have one brother, my outo." She replied smartly.

"We both know thats not true," amusement seemed to color his words and Kagome wished that her back was currently not held so tightly against his chest so that she would have the opportunity to wipe the expression away with a good right hook. "Listen girl, I am Inuyasha, I've already had to explain this to your brother. Actually Shippo had to explain it, I was too busy saving your life."

"Saving my life," she choked out, for some reason, those words struck a cord within her, and she could feel an intense thrill up her spine, but anything beyound that was lost, like coherent thought. "You smell bad," she shot back for lack of anything better to say.

"So do you," he returned unperturbed, "listen after I tell you this you'll enter into a society with a new set of rules. The same one your brother has now entered, and the one Miroku had been under for the eight years. I ain't gonna be baby-sitter, so you better understand that once your there your on your own, though you are lucky to have Miroku for a brother." She could feel the stranger, whom she was beginning to rethink that he had kidnapped her, shaking his head at something. "I'm youkai, or at least half youkai, the other part of me being human." He spat out as though it was a curse, the pain underlying his words striking her heart in an odd way.

She shrugged as well as she could with the… youkai's arms around her holding her steadfast. "Then I guess grandpa wasn't as nutty as we first thought," she laughed humorlessly. Why did even thinking of her grandfather bring such pain? She was strong, but even as she thought the words that she had so thoroughly convinced herself of, she could hear the whispers of her dream calling her on the lie. She was not strong, she was actually very weak, and she knew it too despite all of her bravado. Before she even realized what was happened so that she could put a stop to it, one tear slid down her cheek followed by another and another and another until full out sobs racked her form.

After the first sob that caused her to shake, she was spun around to face a very distressed looking man as the tears leaked down her face. The only thing she could feel in the moment was complete vulnerability; Kagome could not even muster the strength to be amused by the panicked fear that crossed Inuyasha's visage. "Hey," he hissed, "you can't do that, stop it now!"

"Do what?" She asked perplexed, the order distracting her for a moment from her pain.

"Cry," he accused ferociously, "what else?"

"I am not crying," from her new position she was able to hold her head up defiantly despite the cool sting of the air as it brushed against her wet face. "I'm not crying," she reaffirmed, proud this time that her voice was without the slight tremor.

Callused fingers brushed down her face, pausing before her eyes, a very visible wetness the slowly dripped down the length of his pointer and middle fingers. "If your not crying then what do you call this?" He queried softly; there was something strange about his voice that she could not at the moment pinpoint. It caused her to back away slightly from the sheer magnitude of it, as though he seemed to be warring within himself. Finally, he seemed to settle upon some words saying, "if your upset then you should show it. It's not good to hide away, things will only get worse if you go on like that."

Kagome shot him strange look, "but you just yelled at me for it."

"Keh, that was before I remembered," and he stopped, seemed to think about something and then changed his mind about his earlier words. "If you're that fearful about youkai, don't be, not all of the stories are true besides as I said before it pays to have Miroku for a brother."

Shooting him another strange look, the raven-haired girl replied defiantly, "I never said that Miroku was my brother-"

"But you ain't denying it either."

She gave him a withering glance before that glance turned into such a smoldering glare that by all rights the hanyou should have been incinerated on the spot. "I only have my outo." She answered simply and then after the slightest pause she again was speaking defiantly. "I'm not afraid of anything, I can't afford to be afraid." If she had fear in her heart then how was she ever to keep the strength that would be needed to shelter what remained of her tattered family.

"That's so stupid, every one has fears," he responded lazily, watching her with a guarded gaze. Suddenly Kagome wanted know more than anything why he was gracing her with such a look, it was beginning to unnerve her, making her feel very unsure of herself.

"Then what do you fear?"

"I have no fears," he responded.

"But you said-" she had begun to protest before had interrupted her.

"I'm not everyone," he said firmly and there was a touch of something to his tone, something bitter, acidic, an old pain. Kagome studied him a moment as he sat atop of the bed she had awoken in, his arms crossed, lips pulled into a petulant frown, as he seemed to be sulking over something. Somehow, she had a feeling that it had nothing do with the current conversation.

"This is stupid," Kagome suddenly exclaimed moving to sit upon her knees to look down upon Inuyasha, "this conversation is stupid. We should be talking about something else, like why am I here, what happened and why I can't recall anything except for a black haired violet eyed you looking for Miroku." Throwing herself back as a sudden exhaustion took hold and the previous energy that seemed to make limbs tingle with the uncontrollable urge to move fled from her. Her breathing slowed as sleep began to creep at the fringes of her mind threatening to take her body whole. "Tell me what happened."

It was silent the longest while, except for the sounds of their breathing, and she was content to wait before Inuyasha spoke. "There was an explosion, and you were badly injured. I had Shippo take Souta here while I stitched up your side." Kagome sat up abruptly pulling her shirt aside to see what he spoke of, the hanyou pausing to allow her the moment to check the injury herself of its existence. Seeing the black cord that weaved through her flesh, she felt a bit light headed, a sickening feeling building up in her gut. Still in her daze as seeing such a horrendous wound marring her side, something that she had never before had been given, she could scarcely believe it to be really upon her. She barely noticed being pulled into the hanyou's lap, the hand that smoothed up and down her back, as her eyes stared at that wound. Kagome could not recall ever being injured so badly as to need stitches, nor so badly to need, as she counted, over sixty some stitches. "Keh, its not so bad, and your alive right?" She nodded wordlessly. "So you have nothing to worry about, you're just lucky you have Miroku for a brother."

Turning in his grasp, she fixed the man that held her with a curious look, "why are you so fixated on that?"

"I'm youkai Kagome," he murmured almost self-consciously, "when you bled your scent was the strongest and I could piece together a trace that linked you and the monk as siblings."

"I see," she murmured, yawning.

Inuyasha stood from her, placing her back into bed, pulling the covers of to her chest. "You're done healing, but your body's still tired from it all, get some rest." With that said he moved from the room leaving Kagome to drift off as soon as the door had shut behind him.

His shoulders sagged as he shut the door behind him, the strain at having to contain himself in her wakeful presence nearly too much to bear. His instincts had gone haywire at being so near after waking beside her, after touching her and once the smell of her sadness had reached his nose he had almost come undone. A woman's tears were always his undoing.

Not for the first time Inuyasha questioned whether or not he had done the right thing by saving her life the way he had, marking her forever his. They had not mated, he would have to complete the ritual first, but any youkai would be able to scent him on her flesh and feel his blood in her veins, as would any with a spiritual sense. Miroku, he thought with dread, fell under that category. The hanyou only hoped that as time went by his blood would dilute to such a point that it would barely be discernible, he also hoped that she had no lasting traits that would bring about questions. So far, the only thing Kagome had acquired was his healing ability. Were anything else to happen, were his blood not to recede he would hate to have to face off against his furious partner.

Inuyasha moved from the door as though it were a coiled snake youkai readying for the strike as he actually contemplated returning to her side and once again falling into slumber beside her. He had never slept so fitfully in his entire life; he could not afford such a sleep, in his line of work even if they were temporarily dead to the eyes of the world. That was why he had nearly slit her throat with his claws, he shuttered in disgust, as he had taken her for an enemy that had gotten the better hand over him. Even in sleep he was always aware of what went on around him, who walked past his room and he rarely every dreamt so he assumed a drugged sleep had been placed over him. His youkai half mocked him silently for not recognizing the scent of someone that belonged to him, and he could not help but agree to the taunts of his foolishness that raced around his head.

Go back to her.

Inuyasha moved further away from the room sniffing out the kit, now that she had awoken, now that he knew Kagome would forever not be asleep, it was safe to leave for supplies. After he deemed it safe to return to the compound, or more likely after his blood had all but dissolved from the girl's veins, he would have to see to it that safe-houses such as these were stocked properly. As it were anything edible had slight traces of mold, and the only stitch of clothing he had given to Souta and the Kit, which were two oversized shirts so that they would not catch cold in the night. There were no blankets except for the one in Kagome's room and so they had to make due with whatever towels he had not used to wash the girl's body down to stave infection from her wounds. He would have to leave and find something close by to make due with, and the only place close to this dump was the spider's residence.

Go back!

Finding the kit's trail easily, he opened the door to the room he shared with the girl's brother, and kneeled beside his sleeping form. Gently he shook the kitsune awake, and as those bleary eyes turned to him, Inuyasha asked. "Do you have any transforming charms left from when you worked in the shape shifter's department?" He knew that he was not about to like what he was going to do, but he had no choice if they were to survive the week that was to come.

Fully awake now, Shippo sat up carefully as not to disturb the boy sleeping beside him, and turned bright curious eyes unto the man that had taken care of him since he was three years old. "Why? They already know about the youkai, unless of course you don't want Kagome to know," his nose twitched and his eyes brightened this time in excitement, "you saw her. Is she all right, did she wake up?"

GO BACK!

Inuyasha almost visibly winced at the force and this time dignified the part of him with a response, no, not yet and preferably not ever. Forcing his lip to twitch upward into a smirk, he answered the kit, trying to keep the annoyance he felt towards his ever growing need to run back to her room and watch her as she slept just to satisfy his other half of her safety. Still he could not bring himself to entirely regret his decision; he had at least been able to save one of his brothers some grief even if he could never seem to help Sesshoumaru, at least he was able to do something for Miroku. "Yeah she's fine, I already told her about you and youkai, so you can see her if you want but first I need that transforming charm."

The kitsune nodded becoming serious, though Inuyasha could scent the excitement that lied beneath the surface and this time a smile formed without coercion, as he dug around his discarded clothing after jumping from the bed. "I only have one that will last a really long time, but I don't think you'll like it." Shippo said anxiously, hesitantly holding out the beaded necklace for the hanyou to take.

Inuyasha grasped it, but did not place it around his neck yet, as he eyed it with distrust. "What's wrong with it."

"She," Shippo clarified, "is an old lady, the grandmotherly sort."

Taking it around his neck with pensive set to his eyes and lips, he inquired stiffly, his voice coming out in a soft elderly croon, "how does it look." Inuyasha now appeared to be a short stout old woman; a frown pulling his disguised features taut as the kit cackled his amusement. "Shut up kit, or I'll make you black and blue." He meant it as an empty threat, but from the irritation that was growing steadily worse everytime the tiny ball of awareness of her in the back of his head pulsed in distress it did not turn out that way. She was having another nightmare, he could sense it, it was the same feeling he had gotten the other night before the feeling had him crawling into bed with her. Inuyasha was just so tired that he could not muster the strength to resist after fighting it for so many days. Now that awareness of her in the back of his mind was driving him mad, he could feel her distress to the point where he could actually hear the soft tilt of her pules.

She is afraid. Go back!

Inuyasha swallowed thickly, this little ball of her in the back of his mind always giving off such intense emotions was going to be his undoing. Why had he given her his blood, he should have tried licking her wounds clean, as his saliva would have sufficed. The thought was quickly brushed aside, she had lost entirely too much blood, and it was that alone that caused her heart to beat so faintly. His saliva could not replace blood, nor could it stimulate her system to create more blood to replace the life fluid, which was already lost, at a faster rate. There was nothing else he could have done if he were to prevent her death, so he would have to suck it up and deal or so the saying went.

"Hey Inuyasha, are you okay." The kit asked, concern literally dripping from his words.

"Of course I am," not, he thought in dismay, though he was not about to tell his ward of the continuous struggle he was having to undergo just to keep from thinking of the raven haired girl.

Shippo jumped into the disguised man's lap, trying to picture Inuyasha's scowling face over the grandmotherly one that peered down at him, ignoring the creepy feeling it gave him. He wagged a finger in front of, he imagined, amber eyes saying gleefully, "ahah, you told a terrididle!"

"A what-a-diddle?"

The kitsune's smile widened at being able to tell the hanyou something he did not know, suddenly feeling very intelligent, and answered with a superior air. "A fib, or pretentious nonsense. You lied Inuyasha, I could smell it." He tapped his nose and for good measure began to sniff the air around him.

"Tch, whatever," and with that stood from his position causing the kit to topple over from the abrupt movement, "I'm going out for supplies so whatever you do don't, and I repeat, do not leave this place. I don't want you and that runt getting any diseases from playing in the sewers, we don't have the luxury of going to the hospital for next week or so."

Shippo giggled and then replied confidently, "that's not true, you'd takes us even if it meant getting caught. You'd be too worried, besides you could always take us to society's infirmary."

"Keh," he crossed his arms defiantly, "I'm leaving runt." Though the kid was right, he would still rather go to an ignorant hospital then run the risk of seeing his brother or better yet his other "brother," Miroku, whom would likely kill the hanyou for what he had done to his sister. Stiffly he left the room Shippo shared with the girl's brother, and moved towards the exit trying desperately to ignore the voice that was trying to dissuade him from the leaving the safe house. He could feel that Kagome was becoming decidedly more distressed as time went on, but it was not something he could deal with now. Making sure that there was food for them to survive on and clean, dry clothing to keep them from catching anything took precedence over comforting a woman whom was having night terrors.

Cannot leave, she needs me. Go back!

Kagome did not need him; Inuyasha tried to convince his other half of that, trying to explain by passing the knowledge of his human half along that most human women would not appreciate what it was thinking to do to ease her tension. He did not care for her, even if his youkai half insisted based upon his blood with in her that he should take care of her, he would not listen. The only care he would give was what would be expected of him as her current caregiver since Miroku could not be there in his place and so he would be nothing more then a stand in brother. Once his partner was back in the picture he would vanish from her life and go back to his own after having found a way to permanently chase whatever remained of his blood in her veins. He refused to live with that awareness of her in his head for the rest of his days, he would go insane from it all, that is if it did not drive him there now.

Moving through the sewers as swiftly as he was able wanting more then anything to be away from the foul odor wafting up towards his sensitive nose. His eyes looking up and ahead at the same time, Inuyasha watched for the exit all the while trying to keep his mind from thinking of the girl in the back of his head. She was still having the nightmare but had calmed a bit and that seemed to have lessened the pressure lying beneath his skin. He no longer had the intense need to return and placate her torment with on of the many ways of comfort his youkai half wanted to use upon the young woman.

The egress coming into view, Inuyasha hurried his step relieved that he would be able to cleanse his olfactory of the offending air he currently breathed in. Taking to the ladder up three steps at time, he removed the lid of the manhole, and climbed out looking around discreetly for any eyes that might have seen him come up from sewer system. Seeing, sensing, hearing, and smelling not a soul around, Inuyasha quickly slide himself between two large storage units. From there he would only need to keep between the larger of the units until he came to the end of the one marked for "international usage." Wait, he thought as sudden realization dawning upon him, he looked and smelled like an old woman and not his hanyou self. He could walk along the docks without being accosted for the few steps it would take to reach the spider's bar instead of having to travel the elaborate way he had first intended.

Stepping from between the storage units, the hanyou walked along as though he had a right to be there for any whom might have been traveling the docks that morning. The joint before his eyes he paid no mind to the bums and early drunks that drifted to and from the place, and narrowed his eyes. Now that he thought about it he had never really tried to remember the name of the spider's bar, thinking it unimportant, and as he stared the building down he looked for a sign stating it's identification only to find nothing. Perhaps it never had a name or maybe it was one of those, "if your in you know it and if your not you don't," type of things. He would have to make sure and ask someone sometime as, it, for some reason, was starting to bug him. Inuyasha had enough things getting under his skin.

Knocking upon the metal door with surprising strength for an old bat, Inuyasha waited for the eyepiece to slide open and a voice asking him to state his business. "What is it you-" the voice cut off, "are you lost?" The Miko witch, the hanyou almost smiled at his luck, Kikyou was just the person he wanted to see despite his better judgment.

"No," his voice crackled, a foreign note to his desguised hanyou ears, "I'm looking for the Miko Witch."

The eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Oh, and why could that possibly be?" Inuyasha did smile this time, as that was his name for her, only Miroku used it other than himself. "And just where did you hear such a name?"

"Why I need a bit of help," his disguised voice crooned, "and I call you that name just before they came and tried to burn you at the stake." Her eyes widened in shock, and quickly the door was wrenched open, her had grasping the material of his clothed arm dragging him through the joint and passed curious patrons. When they had finally come to a stop, the Miko Witch had brought them to an empty room locking the door behind them.

"That can't possibly be true," she murmured eyeing the old woman appearance up and down as though sizing it up, "that was Inuyasha." The hanyou smiled again and removed the charm from around his neck to reveal the true face of whom she watched in distrust. Again, her eyes rounded, only larger this time, her fists balling up as she looked about to cry. For a moment Inuyasha contemplated saying sorry, but that sympathy vanished as her fist collided with his face dripping of miko energy. "You bastard, how could you let me believe you were dead! I mourned you, you, for goodness sake!"

Inuyasha shot her a cheeky grin as he rubbed at his sizzling flesh that was already beginning to heal, "aww, really, I had no idea you cared Miko Witch."

Screaming her frustration, Kikyou decked him again, this time knocking him unconscious with the level of energy behind it. Sighing she berated herself for allowing her emotions to get the better of her and control her actions. Taking a seat upon the ground she resolved to sit and wait for the hanyou to awaken, it would not belong. Inuyasha never stayed out more then five minutes whenever she zapped him. Sadly he had provoked her to do worse many times, and Kikyou gritted her teeth as she thought about all of the times he had managed to make her loose the cool she worked so hard at constructing.

A/N:

This, regrettably, is where I must end the chapter. A bad place to end it, but I'm just so tired that I couldn't possibly continue, though I did write four more pages then I usually do. So I hope you all appreciate it, not that I didn't enjoy writing it.

Thank you all for the wonderful reviews, I enjoyed reading the ones this time around so much, they were simply wonderful, and I hope to receive more of the like to brighten up my days. Therefore, I would like to say my thanks to Fire, rubberbandll, ADSV, hook in, coykoi, MyFav. Anime, Demon Exterminator Barbie, and to AngelMiko289! Thank you so much for taking the time to review!

Anyways, here are some answers to the questions I was asked a lot in the reviews. I decided to answer some things rather then keeping you all guessing.

How many chapters do you intend to write?

Don't really know, when ever I write I kind of just go on until the story completes itself, though if I were to guess where it would end I might say around in five to ten chapters.

Why did Inuyasha leave his sword?

Well he does not want anyone to know that he was alive, or for anyone to come looking for him and lead the wrong kind of company to his whereabouts. Pretty much it was a, "in the moment," kind of thing. Right now, however he doesn't wanting anyone to know hes alive until he can figure out what do with Kagome.

When will Miroku realize that his family is alive?

Hmm… depends really, probabaly not for a while, don't really know.

How was Miroku cursed?

I won't be reaveling that until the after the next chapter…

Is Kagome going to be a miko in this story? Will she have dog-ears?

Is she a miko, all will be revealed in time, however I won't be giving Kagome dog ears. Some of you might be disappointed to hear that, but I figured there's too many stories that result in that when Inuyasha and Kagome share blood. I wanted to go about it in a different way, though I'm sure someone out there has done something simular.