Chapter 16: Ironic Mishaps

Waking up the next morning, Kagome allowed her eyes to adjust to the light and found herself...in her apartment living space. Confused she examined the all too familiar environment and tried to remember just how she got there. Rubbing her eyes, she stopped when she felt the wetness there and pulling her hand back groaned when she saw the signs of crying, a few droplets of tears running down the digit and into her lightly burning palm below. If there was anything she hated more to do than complain, it was cry.

"Never." Standing up quickly, the demoness prepared to walk to her bedroom, stopping when she felt something out of place on her body. Seeing her bandaged wrists all of a sudden, she narrowed her eyes and cut through the bindings with her claws, the fresh skin underneath rubbed raw from the tightness of gauze she had been wearing. The same was done to her ankles and after removing the dressings from there; allowed the material to fall to the floor while she tried to process what had occurred. Gala event. Eiichi Minamoto. A demon attack. Children's bodies on the ground. Kejoro. All these things came back to her in a mixture that made no particular sense at the moment. Continuing on to her bedroom, she paused again and began to run towards the area; remembering who she had left in her penthouse the night before and who also seemed to be missing now.

Throwing open the double doors she skidded to a halt in bare feet and halted when she saw two figures in her bed. "What the…."

Setting the coffee maker to brew, a still blushing Sango hastily prepared breakfast for the three of them, hoping to finish with Kagome in the shower while Miroku sat silently on a bar stool watching her. He was supposed to be gone long before she got back. "Sango" he finally said; ducking out of the way when a wooden spoon came flying at him.

"You don't say a word!" she hissed out.

"But Sango…."

"Nothing!"

"But she had tattoos….and, and claws…."

"And she walked in on us naked in her bed, we're even."

"But how…." recalling the supernatural appearance of his girlfriend's best friend, Miroku shuddered as he thought about when she growled at him. "I mean...does she wear makeup, and dye her hair? What about those teeth?!"

"I already told you, you don't say a word!"

"But Kagome….she's a beast!"

"She's a friend and a good one at that. You just be lucky she didn't attack you for being naked in her bed!"

"You were there too, and you saw her growl at us like a dog! What were those, dentures?!"

"Their called fangs, Don Juan."

Nearly jumping from his seat, Miroku gawked at Kagome who stood in her kitchen wearing black lounging pajamas, her body still in its demonic form. Using superior speed, she came to stand directly in front of the man, playfully using her hand to force his mouth to close. "Need to see them more closely?" she asked playfully, snapping the pearly whites at him. Seeing how pale his skin became, the demoness smirked and warned him, "I catch you in my bed again and I'll show you just how sharp they are too."

Joining the two of them at the bar, Sango quickly placed two plates in front of the pair, calling out happily with way too much enthusiasm. "Breakfast!"

"Breakfast!" Ume called out happily, setting out the last of the omelettes on the table. Inuyasha was the first to appear, swiftly taking a seat and digging into his food, while his wife and eldest daughter came later, both with tousled hair and dark circles under their eyes.

"Smells delicious Ume." Kikyo complemented, inspecting the plates decoration.

"Yea...really good Sis…" Kaede added, taking her own first bite.

"Where's Ojiisama?" she asked softly. Seeing his empty seat.

Reaching across, the half demon cautiously grabbed his plate, helping himself to his brother's meal. "Keh. Hell if I know."

"Inuyasha!"

"What?" he responded angrily, growling at his wife. "What am I, his keeper?"

Waking up from his dream, Sesshomaru stared off into space, the memory of that tragic event still affecting his beating heart. 'Rin'

The little human girl that had followed him endlessly in his youth when Kagome was still an active part of his life. Recalling the time they had taken her to one of their kinds festivals, a smile crossed his face as he remembered the way she looked at everything with her child like curiosity. Her death had been unwarranted. Feeling his palm burn he glanced at it absently and flexed his hand a few times, hoping to somehow alleviate the pain. 'Does she suffer the same?'

He knew Kagome probably thought the worst of him by now, her feelings only provoked when he had walked away from her last night. As much as he had wanted to stay, and force her to finally hear him out, the words of the prophet still rang in his ears, telling him that she would die if he approached her before she found that book. So many promises broken between them, with every passing year the pain in his hand grew. Narrowing his eyes, he made a decision, he would go to the seer again and even if she refused him for she tired of repeating herself, he would reaffirm his original plan. He would make sure he was doing the right thing, not only for Kagome, but for his pack in its entirety.

"Miroku cut that out!"

"I can't help it," he whined pathetically. Continuing to scratch at various parts of his anatomy, the young man tried desperately to explain, "It feels like something's biting me!"

Huffing Sango told him, "Well cut it out, you're making me itch!"

"But it itches!" he insisted

"And I said cut it out, Kagome's gonna think you have fleas or something!"

"Well hell, wouldn't she be the perfect candidate for buying a brand of flea powder!"

A voice from down the hall was heard, making the man sweat. "I heard that, Joker."

In her office Kagome was was busy searching for information on Eiichi Minamoto and his company which was the largest technology distributor in Japan. Seeing the familiar picture on the screen, the demoness was confused when it felt like her heart dropped in her chest. Could this man really have been her lover in a past life? From the way he had treated her it didn't seem possible. Looking through the list of directors she saw the COO's name and clicked on it only to snort in amusement when she realized who it was. So Inuyasha was going by the name of Toshi Minamoto. Chief operating officer and younger brother of Eiichi who served as the company's head. What a weird choice of name.

Speaking of weird. Hearing a crash along with a barrage of curses, Kagome rushed into her living room and rolled her eyes at Miroku who was now actively rolling around on her floor; madly swiping at his clothes as though fire ants were attacking his person. "Miroku what the hell..."

"There's something on me!"

Kneeling next to her boyfriend, Sango screamed in his ear, "Miroku you're making a fool of yourself!"

Thinking this to still be part of his flea joke from early Kagome sighed and informed the man, "Really, if it's that hard for you to accept, you can just leave, nobody's forcing you to stay."

"No Kagome, I apologize for him, he's just new to all of this and he doesn't understand that this isn't funny!"

Rolling onto his back, Miroku angrily beat at his chest. "Get it off me!"

If she had blinked she would have missed it. Something indeed twitched from up under Miroku's shirt. Reacting fast, Kagome knelt and reached her hands fully under the material, ignorant of his startled girlfriend who was trying to figure out what she was doing. Her clawed hands caught onto something and yanking it back stood up and stared suspiciously at the insect in her hand.

It wasn't a normal flea that was for sure. The most outstanding characteristic was that it was clothed, two large bulbous eyes that looked up at her with admiration blinked when they saw her looking back down at him. A flicker of recognition crossed her features and before the tiny flea could speak, Kagome called out his name.

"My...oga?"

A/N: The goal here was to make this chapter a little lighter than the first. As you can see Miroku is a damn fool. Lol. Anyway, I wanted to mention that the previous past memory took place AFTER the chapter where Kagome kept trying to kill herself. Her memories are coming back in waves as you can see, and they will be at various points in her life before crossing over. I hope you enjoyed this installment. Please review. -Theores