Chapter Three: Pizza and Conversation

There is a certain loneliness that accompanies being separated from those you love. A part of life that transforms from warmth to a cool void. Only feelings of hopelessness and negativity remain in such a empty place, a weed rooting itself to the soul. Digging it's way mercilessly into the consciousness so it will not be easily forgotten. The only way to fully remove and recover from this wicked emptiness is to find new people with which to ease the pain of loss.

Scars can be recovered from if time and care is taken when they appear.

Yet, the longer one waits, the deeper they allow these roots to grow, the more difficult it becomes to remove them. So many cling to the hope that they can recover if the continue to cling to the problem…yet letting go is the first step to digging oneself free of such bonds.

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"I'm not sure of that myself." He answered Kagome with a shrug, snatching himself another slice of the pizza - he hadn't realized just how hungry he'd been. "With magic not existing here finding records of portals will be difficult."

"Well, I guess I could get some mythology books from the library…" She commented, smiling at his vicious appetite. At least someone appreciated her cooking. "Seems like a lot of old stories are more real than most people believe."

He nodded at that, considering her words. It made sense, many rumors and tales of mythical things in his own time were based in truth. He had to admit that luck had favored him when he'd gotten tossed to the wind of fate as to which dimension he would end up in. It was only a matter of time and he would find a portal free of this place and back to his Lenneth. Time was something he could afford while he recovered from the attack that mortal witch and the combined force of the Valkyrie.

Lezard still had to test just how much he was capable of after a bit of time to rest. Once his injuries had closed fully he would have a better stand as to how much power he could call on - on how deep the real cut had gone. Things that effected his powers of his mind were much more limiting than those that cut into his body - at least as far as the necromancer was concerned. Though his current lack of magics didn't seem as if it would be a real issue in this place. He'd gotten quite lucky as to his realm of recovery.

"What will you tell your family?" He was curious, he didn't want to trust too many people in this world just yet - he already had to rely more heavily on this girl than he would like. "I would rather not tell them what I'm capable of if people react as you say. There are people after me…which should be obvious by the wounds I arrived with. They shouldn't be able to follow me here but I'd prefer to keep myself from anyone's sight as much as possible."

"Um…I suppose we could say you are a transfer student from Germany." She pondered between bites of her dinner. "You'd have to come to school with me and get signed up though…it'll be a little hard if you don't have any paperwork or a passport but I guess we can say that it got destroyed or something."

"If we need to speak with people about it don't worry too much, I can handle it as long as too many onlookers aren't there." He shrugged off the small detail as if it were nothing. He understood the basic idea of a passport but he had no way of easily getting one or forging one when he didn't know what they looked like.

"How?" Kagome considered his comments, not liking where this was going.

"I can use my spells to confuse them long enough to get the needed things." He commented as if it was no more difficult than lifting a book. She'd rarely heard people speak of magic so easily and it was a little intimidating. "It will not hurt them but you did say I needed to remain stealthy in my actions here."

"Yes I suppose, I just don't like the idea of messing with people's minds, someone in the past used to do it to people a lot and he was just…a scourge on humanity." She answered him honestly. "I don't think I've ever felt evil like his before."

Which reminded her of dark energy that had heralded this man's arrival…he seemed reasonable (which was already better than her first encounter with Inuyasha) and kind but demons had sometimes acted nice to further evil plans they had. She had to remind herself that she didn't fully know this person - she shouldn't trust him so easily…

"It will not cause them damage, more than likely they simply won't remember the influence at all." He reassured her, he was well practiced in pretending to be kind after all. That fool Alicia had provided him that much at least. "You did say it would be difficult otherwise."

"I suppose so…" she repeated, nodding a little. She was hesitant but she couldn't still sense the darkness around him - perhaps it was just a fleeting thing but she knew she should keep an eye on him. "I've just had bad luck with many of the people I've met that use magic."

"Though you use it yourself." He commented, a bit curious, the more he knew of this girl the easier it would be to adjust her will to his whims without casting a spell at all.

"Well, not really…today was the first time I ever used it consciously…and well…I still don't even know what I did." She shrugged some. "I told you before it was never something I was trained in."

"That is true." He nodded, it was obvious she wouldn't trust him easily…just meant he needed to be careful but he'd been playing the nice guy for some time now…he could for a while longer. "I hope that I can prove to you that not all casters are to be mistrusted. So, I am an exchange student…what sort of school?"

"Um…junior high school." She had nearly forgotten that he didn't know things here…he was already starting to pick up more of a natural accent and using more complicated phrases than before. "Perhaps he was just still disoriented, no one learns that quickly."

"I meant what does it teach." He rephrased the question, glancing to the table and the lack of further pizza - covering the frown that followed the missing food after only a moment - he shouldn't eat further anyway - it might only make him sick.

"Oh, well, it doesn't really specialize in anything in particular you can take different sorts of classes but mostly general stuff like math and sciences." She explained, launching into a further explanation of the Japanese school system as she moved to get them each a soda.

She was explaining for nearly an hour when she heard the door opening and then her mother calling. "Kagome?"

"In the kitchen mom." She yelled back. "I need to talk to you."

"Okay dear…what's the matter…oh we have a guest." The older lady smiled kindly to Lezard and her daughter, carrying grocery bags in her hands over to the counter and setting them down. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

His stomach growled just enough for him to hear.

"That would be very kind of you. Thank you." He answered with a deep nod. "I am Lezard Valeth."

"Lezard…what a funny name." The lady commented but paused to bow lightly. "It's good to meet another of Kagome's friends, she doesn't bring people home often."

"Yeah mom about that…" Kagome offered sheepishly. "I sorta signed up a while ago as a back up for exchange student housing and one of the other volunteers had to pull out so…"

Her mom caught on quick. "Kagome, you should ask me if you are going to sign up for something like that. But I suppose it's okay as long as they try to find another home in the meantime. I wouldn't want him to just have no where to stay."

"Thanks mom, I'm sorry…I'll try to get it worked out with the school soon." She promised and nodded her head. "You're the best."

"Thank you for your hospitality." Lezard added kindly. "Let me know if there is anything I can do for you."

"I'm sure grandpa will take you up on that request…" Kagome chuckled. "I wouldn't offer the same to him."

"Wouldn't offer me what?" The old man didn't have too bad of hearing just yet and had caught the comment as he walked into the kitchen.

"Um, nothing, nothing at all. Hehe." Kagome awkwardly answered as she held her hands in front of her innocently.

"Mmm." He eyed her skeptically. "I'm gonna head out to clean up some boxes that fell over in the shrine warehouse yesterday. Let me know when dinner is ready."

He grumbled about 'young people' as he left the room.

"Shrine?" Lezard asked curiously.

"We run an old shrine here…well grandpa does mostly. It's mostly a tourist attraction." She explained. "He takes his work really really seriously. If you were to volunteer your time you'd be cleaning for months."

"I see, then I shall refrain from that." He answered her as he glanced after the older man.

"Kagome, your friend may stay in the den…you'll need to help him set up the folding bed though. You can work on that while I prepare dinner." Her mom commented, she wasn't one to stay angry and tended to be understanding of things that happened. If this person needed a place to stay he needed a place to stay - and as he was an exchange student it would look poor on Japan to just turn him out after all.

"You really are awesome mom." Kagome smiled to her mother, and felt bad for lying to her but she couldn't just betray Lezard's trust either, nodding to him and motioning him to follow as she moved into the room that was their den. After her father's death they'd never used the room much - it had always been his room and she figured her mom didn't want to be there much - probably had painful memories for her. It had become a makeshift room for guests over the years. It was a little cluttered with other stuff but it had a bed that folded out of one of the walls - which saved a lot of space.

"We'll need to pile these boxes over there to get to the bed." She said, picking one up to start the work. "You seem to be doing better with Japanese."

"Yes." He agreed, moving to follow suit with her example…he wasn't one for physical labor but at the moment a bed sounded very worth the work. "I am beginning to remember more and picking up things as I hear you and others speak. It will still take some time but soon enough I should be able to speak normally again."

"Well, tomorrow is Thursday so we'll have to go to the school and I'll get you set up with all the paperwork, after school we should find the time to browse the library for applicable books." She explained. "Hopefully we'll be able to find something for you without needing to hit the larger libraries downtown."

"You are quite the optimist." He commented. "Your family is interesting, I think I'll enjoy my stay here."

"I'm glad…" she was interrupted as her brother burst into the room.

"Hey Kagome, do you know where I left my baseball glove?" He paused to look at the guy sharing the room. "Who's that."

"This is Lezard." Kagome answered with a sigh. "He's an exchange student that will be staying with us for a little while."

"Neat, where is he from?" Souta lost interest in his glove as his attention switched.

"Germany. I think I saw your glove out in the warehouse last time I was out there." Kagome replied, hoping to get of her little brother - she loved him but he was annoying.

"Oh, neat. Later then Kagome, Lezard. I'm eating dinner at a friends so I won't see you probably until tomorrow." And off he ran in pursuit of his glove.

"That's Souta." Kagome explained. "He's my little brother, he's all right but he's pretty annoying sometimes, just tell him to go away if he's getting to you. If he bugs you too much let me know and I'll deal with it."

"Hmm, I never had siblings." Lezard commented neutrally.

"It has both good and bad parts, but mostly good…I couldn't imagine life without the dork." Kagome chuckled, reaching up to pull down the bed from the wall, folding the mattress down. "Now then…ah here."

She found the linen and started making up the double mattress for him.

"What a convenient design." He observed the saving of space by the way the bed was built into the wall. "I never considered something like that."

"Yeah, not too many people have them but it's nice when we have a guest." She smiled. "I hope it's comfortable enough, some people don't seem to like it."

"It will suffice better than dirt." he reassured her with a small smile. "You have done much for me Kagome, I hope I'll be able to repay you by opening your portal for you again."

"Well, we'll get to work on that tomorrow." She settled a pillow on the top of the covers as she finished, sitting on the side of the bed. "If not that is all right, I want to help you how I can though. You must have been put here for a reason after all."

"I believe myself beyond the strands of fate." He replied, settling himself on the bed but not too near her, he was very tired after the days events but still wanted to eat a bit more, his stomach was still growling at him and he'd kept the pizza down well enough that he figured it was safe. "Though perhaps you are right, it's hard to truly know such things."

"Very true." She chuckled a bit. "It's nice though to have someone that can understand where I've been…"

It wasn't as if she could tell most people she traveled through time and fought demons, even if it was just for a while…helping this sorcerer find his way home was a great distraction from the pain Inuyasha being torn from her life had caused.

She yawned then. "I don't think I'm going to join you for dinner if you don't mind. I'm tired and school starts early. I'll see you in the morning Lezard."

"Sleep well." He wished her and glanced after his odd savior before retreating back down toward the lovely smell in the kitchen.

End Chapter

Lezard in junior high school! Heh, I'd love to see him in the uniform at least. This chapter was sooooo hard to write. I'm trying to keep Lezard in character - his niceness I hope I justified enough during the chapter though. He can't exactly be mean as hell and hope for help from Kagome after all. Anyway, my one review made me squee and it's why I worked on continuing this. Many many thanks to my reviewer.

-Nera