Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha -looks around-

Claimer: I do own Inu-Yasha!

Rumiko: -ahem-

Disclaimer: Aww...dang...yeah, I don't own Inu-Yasha.

Stay tuned for more of me trying to steal Inu-Yasha away from Rumiko Takahashi!

Souta was now 19. Not 18. 19. He never wanted to turn 18 years old ever since that day, so he didn't really care what everyone else said. Souta would always correct them though, saying that he was actually 19 years old. Those people would get rather confused, but they wouldn't mention it. Souta now really thought of the number 18 as a horrid number. It was like a curse that was put on his family. So he'd always think of 18 as being a false number, a fake number. Sango and Miroku were now both 20 years old, still helping to find their long lost friend. After all, like Souta had said to that news lady, it was his dying father's last wish for all of them to set out in search for Kagome. And search they did. For two whole years, unfortunately without any luck.

The three friends currently were sitting at a cafe, sipping on their drinks silently. Souta was munching on a muffin, his pupils darting around as if they were expecting Kagome to appear right in front of him, as he had wished would happen for the last two years.

Miroku sighed and stretched his tired muscles. "Not that this isn't so much fun, but do you want to do something else?" He looked over at Sango hopefully, but she was too busy gazing over at the T.V. Her eyes were as wide as saucers.

Souta swallowed his muffin and looked at her in confusion. "What's so interesting that's on the T.V.?" He noticed that Miroku had also locked his eyes on the small screen. "Guys, what are you looking at?"

"Souta, look!" Sango cried, pointing towards the screen. Souta looked and his eyes went as wide as Sango's were.

It was Kagome.

Souta jumped out of his seat, nearly knocking over every drink in a 5 mile radius and scampered over to the T.V. It was definitely Kagome on the screen. She looked rather scared, with a lost look in her eyes. His sister was standing near a dog hanyou, a dog hanyou that had piercing golden eyes. Souta recognized the man. It was Inu-Yasha Tashiou, that rich police officer. He smiled, so glad that his sister was safe.

"Wow. She got saved by Inu-Yasha," Sango said, breaking the silence. The taijiya was standing near Souta, with Miroku beside her. "At least we know she's safe."

Miroku nodded then looked over at Souta. "Do you know where Inu-Yasha lives?"

"Naturally," Souta replied. For the first time in a long time a true smile spread across his face. "Being the king's son, I was trained to know these things. The bad thing is that Inu-Yasha lives rather far away from here. It would take days, even weeks to make it to his home."

Sango smiled brightly. "Well, we can still try. Let's go tomorrow. The sooner the better."

Souta nodded in agreement, returning his gaze back towards the T.V. His sister and Inu-Yasha were still on it. They were both walking off towards his car. Before Souta knew it, the car drove off out of sight. Souta prayed in his mind that Inu-Yasha was keeping Kagome safe.

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Did you ever have that feeling that someone was watching you? You're the only one in the room and you know that, but you just can't help feel that some other person's or thing's eyes are upon you. You can feel you're neck hair rising, and a chill comes up from your tail bone and through your spine. This is how Kagome felt as she laid silently and emotionlessly in the guest bed.

She had fallen asleep quite easily, but woke up as a sudden chill came through the open window. When the cat hanyou had awakened, she was expecting to see the metal bars in front of her, so she panicked a little, un aware of her surroundings. After a few moments she came to her senses and shut the window. Kagome couldn't get to sleep after that. For some reason, she could feel eyes staring over at her. The hanyou didn't know if they were a figment of her imagination or if they were real. Kagome pulled the cover up to her nose so it was covering her chin and her mouth. It was just her imagination...

Suddenly the girl saw gold, glistening eyes coming from the crack of the open door.

'Inu-Yasha?' Kagome thought. The eyes were glowing brilliantly and she saw that they were looking away, so she strained her cat eyes to see more clearly. It was much too dark, he was too far away. Kagome couldn't tell who it was. But suddenly, for just a second or two, she saw his eyes get covered by a carpet of red. Kagome gasped and pulled the covers over her head. Just her imagination...just her imagination... Kagome thought this over and over again. Maybe she'd be lucky and she'd wake up to find herself in her own room. 'Well,' she thought, 'I do have some luck. I was saved.'

Kagome sighed. 'That's not true, actually. I don't have luck.'

If Kagome had any luck, her sister would still be with her, neither her mother nor father would have died, she would never had even met Koga, she wouldn't be in the house of a stranger, and she'd be home laughing and eating and enjoying herself with her friends and family. The cat hanyou carefully and slowly pulled the covers back up just so her eyes were exposed. There was nothing now. The eyes were gone and the door was shut. Kagome strained her ears to listen for footsteps but there was nothing. Kagome sighed again and leaned back. 'You're sighing way too much now.' That was the last thing she thought before she fell into a deep sleep.

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Kagome's eyes fluttered open as she felt the warm rays of the sun beat against her. The cat hanyou rolled out of the bed, yawning lazily, stretching herself. Kagome looked around to see herself still stuck in the guest room of the Taishiou mansion. The girl opened the door of the room and walked outside to the hallway. She went to the gigantic bathroom and washed her face and hands before heading down the spiral staircase. Kagome stepped into the kitchen to see Inu-Yasha standing there...wearing nothing but boxers.

"Good morning Kagome," Inu-Yasha greeted, a bit side tracked by how Kagome's shirt was a bit big for her.

Kagome broke out her day dreams and blushed. "Oh, um, good morning." She walked over to Inu-Yasha to see that he was cooking instant ramen. The cat hanyou looked up at him, a bit puzzled by what he was cooking for breakfast.

"Actually, I should say, good afternoon," Inu-Yasha said, giving her a lop sided grin when he saw the look on her face. "You must've been really tired yesterday. It's 12:30 right now."

"Oh." Kagome's blush turned a faint red and spread a bit more. Inu-Yasha raised an eyebrow at her, but smirked.

"What're you blushing for?" he asked playfully, turning off the oven and putting the pot on the counter. "Did I make you blush?"

Kagome frowned and she arched her eyebrows, demanding for the blush to go away. "No! It's just...a little warm in here."

"Uh huh." Inu-Yasha took out two bowls and looked over at the cat hanyou. "Do you want some...uh…" He sweat-dropped when he saw the starving look on Kagome's face as she drooled over the ramen. "I'll take that as a yes." Inu-Yasha poured the ramen into both bowls and led Kagome out into the living room. They both sat down beside each other on the huge couch and started to chow down on their ramen. Inu-Yasha turned on the flat-screen T.V. and his eyebrows went up further than they ever could when he saw Kagome wolf the ramen down in 3 gulps. Then he retreated when the girl looked like she was about to puke.

"It passed," Kagome finally said. Inu-Yasha sat down back beside her. The cat hanyou lifted her shirt a bit and poked at her stomach (which made Inu-Yasha blush a bit, seeing more of her exposed skin) and sighed. "I guess over those two years my stomach grew smaller. Such a shame. I was really hoping that if I were to get out of there that I'd be able to get a double big Mac at WacDonalds." Inu-Yasha laughed a bit.

"You're really not like all the other girls I know," Inu-Yasha commented, leaning back into the couch. "All the other girls I know think that one little piece of chocolate is too fattening. They wouldn't dare go through their whole life eating a double big Mac."

Kagome stared at him in both horror and disbelief. "Through their whole life? How would they be able to live?"

The dog hanyou chuckled. "You know what? I like you. I'm rather glad that I saved you from that man." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer.

This really made Kagome blush as she felt herself brush against his bare chest. She swallowed hard, not daring to look up at him. Inu-Yasha smirked, heaving in the scent of her embarrassment, and pulled his arm tighter. She smelled so sweet...so...so...

'Aw! No!' Inu-Yasha's mind screamed, his arm loosening it's grip on Kagome. 'Mom and dad ordered me to not get like this! I have to calm down! Think of other things...killing Sesshomaru...yes that helps a lot.' As he thought this Kagome looked up at him, a bit confused. But then again, she was a bit confused with herself.

'Why do I feel disappointed that he let go?' Kagome thought. She looked up at him again, her eyes starting to travel down to his chest. The cat hanyou blushed and shook her head. 'What the heck is wrong with you woman? You just met this guy! And he's probably just another one of those men...' As the two of them panicked mentally, they didn't hear the door open. Izayoi, Inu-Tashiou, and Sesshomaru poked their heads in through the doorway to the living room and looked at the two panicking young adults.

"What's going on here?" Izayoi asked all of a sudden, grabbing the couple's attention. Both of their faces when beet red when they saw all three of them standing there, smirking at them.

"Um, nothing mom!" Inu-Yasha cried, breaking the silence.

"Are you sure nothing happened?" Inu-Tashiou asked, chuckling a bit. "Cause, by the way you're both dressed, it sure looks like it."

"No, no, nothing!" Kagome exclaimed in protest. She looked around at them all nervously. "Um, I'm going to upstairs to get dressed." The girl went up as fast as she can.

"I'm going to go up too," Sesshomaru said, following after Kagome. Inu-Yasha growled and was about to go after him when his parents pulled him down back onto the couch. Their faces were changed immediately back into serious looks. Izayoi sighed and looked down at the floor.

"Inu-Yasha, please, remember what we said?" she asked sadly, still looking down. "We don't want that girl to get hurt like the other one." There was silence for a few moments...

Upstairs...

Kagome opened the door to greet Sesshomaru. The cat hanyou was wearing a black and red striped t-shirt, ripped black jeans, and long silver and white toe socks. Sesshomaru looked at her for a second before going into his own room. Kagome frowned at his door. There was a lot of signs on it. Signs that inscribed stuff like, 'Stay Out', 'Knock First', 'Do Not Enter,' and 'Go Away'. As the cat hanyou scampered downstairs, she wondered why Sesshomaru was like this. The only time she had seen him smile was when she first came in and she tripped onto him. Sesshomaru was nice, just misunderstood. Kagome had recently found out that he was a tai youkai, and he was Inu-Yasha's half brother. The only thing the two had in common was their father, Inu-Tashiou. Maybe Sesshomaru missed his mother, who had died many years ago...

The girl walked down the stairs and suddenly heard voices. Inu-Tashiou's, Izayoi's, and Inu-Yasha's. The weird thing was that Inu-Yasha's parent's voices were much more rougher than usual. Kagome stopped in her tracks and listened. What was going on? What were they talking about? The girl strained her ears and listened.

"Mom, Dad, I won't let anything like that ever happen to Kagome," she heard Inu-Yasha say.

"Son, we heard you the first time. But, how do we know that you can't control that side?"

"Dad, I can-"

"How can we tell for sure Inu-Yasha?"

"I WON'T LET WHAT HAPPENED TO KIKYO HAPPEN TO HER?!"

It was like the whole universe had suddenly torn apart.

Kagome's heart stopped beating, her blood froze in her veins, her lungs had popped like balloons, and her stomach churned and lurched like a roller coaster when she had heard the name of her very own sister. Kikyo. He did say Kikyo, right? If Inu-Yasha had, it wasn't probably the Kikyo that she knew. The Kikyo she loved. The Kikyo was her long lost sister. Kagome listened, her pulse getting faster by the second by anticipation. But, there was complete silence.

"Inu-Yasha. Please don't yell. What if Kagome heard you?"

"We can't let her know about what happened to Kikyo."

"Yes. Especially because she was her sister."

That was it. Kagome let out a silent gasp of air and fell to her knees on the stairs. She felt like she was going to vomit forever and her vision became blurred by tears. Worthless tears. Un wanted tears. Wasted tears. The tears came and they went down her cheeks like a small river. The cat hanyou flattened her ears and pulled her knees up to her chest as if to protect her from some invisible force. Kikyo, her sister. Inu-Yasha knew her. Something horrible had happened. But what was the question. But what...

Kagome took her breathing and tried to console it. Once it had calmed down, the girl got up, her knees wobbling around clumsily. Her vision was still blurred and it going in and out. Kagome stumbled down the remaining stairs and was about to go into the living room when she heard them talking again.

"What's wrong Inu-Yasha? Why are you sniffing the air?"

"I smell a very heavy scent of salt water."

Kagome took a deep breath, knowing that they had spotted her, and walked into the living room. Everyone stared at her, their mouths agape. Kagome's eyes were red and puffy from crying, and looked like they were drained from all life. Even her hair had somehow got a bit messy when she slid down to her knees. Inu-Yasha's eyes widened.

"How much did you hear?" he asked, getting up and walking towards Kagome. The dog hanyou stopped when she took a step back.

"What the hell did you do to my sister?"

WOOT! I'm actually rather proud of this chapter! I got the writer's boost from a story we're reading in school right now. It's called 'Hatchet'. (Pretty good book. It's about a kid named Brian who had been in a plane crash while going to visit his father. He was crash landed in the wilderness of Canada and has to try to stay alive). Well, I really hope you like in. In the next chapter, you will find out what I call...

'The Secret.'