Deceitful Time
Chapter One: Destined

Inuyasha, he remembered that much. It was his real name, the name that was given to him by his human mother and demon father. He never knew what his father looked like but he once remembered his mother. He stopped feeling bad about forgetting her a hundred or so years ago.

He didn't really know what was supposed to be beautiful anymore, either, or else he'd think his penthouse on the top floor of his building had a lovely view. The night took over the sky while the lights of the city illuminated it so much that stars couldn't even break through their barrier. He often stared out the window walls that wrapped around his current 'home' but this time a shift in his bed made him turn his head ever so slightly to glance to see the temptress he had brought back that time.

With a few swirls he took a drink of the glass of brandy and returned his dulled amber gaze to the outside world. Sex was something to help pass the time, at first he didn't dare because he was in love with someone—right? That girl, that faded image, but then she started to disappear and he learned how much he enjoyed it. Now it was nothing more than a small means of amusement, like television, music, or the movies used to be. One can only do something so many times before it becomes mundane, no matter what act it is.

Some could bring back the thrill of it and others just allowed him to go through the motions but for the most part he stopped feeling anything. So many things had become like that, no sport kept his entertainment, no object, no person, nothing.

Everything meant nothing.

"Shiro," he heard a lull of a voice whisper, "come back to bed, babe."

"Go back to sleep," he countered and heard a rustling of sheets. When he glanced but she had turned around so her back was to him. A sign of displeasure, he was sure, yet honestly couldn't have cared less.

Five hundred years was far too long. What if she had already passed him by? Then it would all be meaningless.

A Few Hours Ago

"Kagome," the woman he shared his bed with him whispered as her fingertips laced around his bland tattooed shoulder, "she must have been important to you, hm?"

"I suppose," he grumbled.

"You suppose?" the woman murmured as she kissed his shoulder, "is it a sore subject?"

"No." It was impossible for something to be irritating if he couldn't even remember why it was there. Had he gotten to wasted one night and allowed his body to be disfigured with that name? No. It couldn't be that… why was that name there again?

Ebony waves, hazel eyes… Kagome. That's right. He had to think long and hard about it, there was too much that jumbled his mind and clouded his past. She meant something to him. She meant a great deal to him. But why was that again?

{xoxoxoxoxoxox}

"Kagome," Eri sighed with a small shake of her head, "I can't believe you… flunked that test."

"Oh my god," the hazel eyed, ebony waved, school girl whined ever so bitterly, "I can't believe I did either!"

"I'm sorry, Kagome," Hojo murmured with a shuffle of his feet, "do you need me to tutor you? I don't mind coming over when you are sick, I'll wear a mask so I don't catch anything. That way you can do better on your exams."

"Translation," Eri nudged Kagome with her shoulders, "if you don't start getting better grades you are never going to get into a college! Not even a community college. And if you flunk our exams in class how are you going to pass a university entrance exam?"

"Don't remind me," Kagome groaned with slouched shoulders and a hung head. If it weren't for the fact she went back and forth between times she'd be a straight 'A' student for sure! She knew it, but stupid fate had to get in the way and now Eri spoke nothing but the truth… how was she going to get into a university? But…

Inuyasha, that brought a smile to her lowered lips no matter what. Inuyasha was waiting irately back in the past for her to return after the week of finals ended. Winter break was coming and she'd be able to stay in feudal era for the entire time, which should make him happy. But was it the fact that their search for the jewel shards and Naraku would not be hindered of that she was there?

She'd like to think it was her…

"I'm sorry!" She sputtered after bumping off of a rather stiff man. It was only a flicker, only a fleeting moment in time, but she glanced up just quick enough to see the oddly familiar face with weirdly recognizable colored eyes. It stopped her in her tracks but not him; he barely gave her a gaze before he looked ahead of himself and began off on the busy sidewalk.

No… that… no. First off, it's not the full moon it's the morning. Secondly, he had short hair and the color of his eyes wasn't right. They weren't a deep chocolate brown like they should be when he was mortal, but it wasn't the blinding gold they usually were when he was his good old irritable self. So… that wasn't him.

"Kagome!" A unison of friends shouted to her, snapping her free from lala-land.

"Oh, sorry! Wait up!" She requested with her hands gripped to her backpack as her feet began to meet the pavement quicker so she, too, faded into the sea of people.

It was the name, the muffled shouts that caught his attention. Kagome, he had met many before but each time he heard that word he had to stop. A flush of feelings just barely took over for just a short time, always too short, always not enough, he almost hadn't noticed.

By the time his more golden than hazel gaze moved back to the girl he didn't give a second thought to he was not able to see her and if he had she didn't stick out. She was probably lost in the flood of similarities.

Oh well, it was probably nothing.

{xoxoxoxoxox}

"I totally failed that English exam!" Kagome whaled as she walked along with her friends, "I'm just a failure."

"Yes, you are," Eri muttered only to get an elbow to the side by Hojo.

"Kagome, it'll be OK, the teachers will have to take into consideration that you have been ill all year. It's not your fault your health is so frail," Hojo defended, winning him the smallest of smiles that still made his heart flutter.

"No they don't, you'd think you'd have plenty of time to study since you are always at home, no offence," Eri nagged, "let's go get something to eat, wanna come, Kagome?"

"I don't think I feel up to eating…"

"Are you not feeling well today?" Hojo frowned.

"No, it's just that English exam," she kept up but with a small sigh she let her smile appear. She owed it to her friends to spend some time with them when she was in her own era, after all. Inuyasha wasn't expecting her for another three or so days anyway.

Fast-food, the worst yet best addition to Japan since… who knows, a burger with fries and a soda always made her feel better even if she had just flunked another exam and fallen further from her goal of getting into a good university. Then again… did it matter? What if after high school she just stayed with… her cheeks almost blushed at the thought, would he even want her to stay? He liked her, she knew that, but did he really, really like her? Because she loved him.

Loved.

She knew it, Sango knew it, Miroku knew it, Kaede knew it, hell, Shippou even knew it so why try to deny it to herself? There was no reason. Maybe she should tell him. After all, Kikyou had—regrettably, truly, she had never seen Inuyasha cry before…—passed away.

"Kagome," Eri repeated over and over again until her friend snapped back to reality, "are you thinking about that boyfriend of yours again?"

"Boyfriend?" Hojo picked up right away, "you have a boyfriend?"

"I do not," Kagome complained with her hazels stuck on her half finished burger. She only wished she did…

"You so do," Eri grinned with mixed in giggles, "no need to deny it. I bet he's some badass and that's why you won't introduce us to him. I can just imagine it now, some guy in leather jacket. I bet he has a motorcycle right? Who would have thought, sweet, innocent, Kagome was in to that type!"

"Is that true, Kagome?"

"What? No!" Kagome weakly laughed, "no, not at all. I don't have time for a boyfriend."

She wasn't familiar but fit the description. Ebony waves, hazel eyes, and apparently had the name 'Kagome'. Was it odd for him to just stay where he heard that name all day? Enter the fast-food burger place that was right behind him when he heard the name. Perhaps she'd have to walk by there on her way back from wherever she had gone and if she was the Kagome wouldn't it spark something in him, something like never before?

Was it luck that she returned? Was it even the same girl? Was it just another Kagome?

Did it even really matter?

She was so young, was that right? Should she be? A high school student, what? Sixteen? Seventeen? What if she was younger? Did he really fall for someone so youthful? So immature? Had he fallen for her?

What did Kagome mean? Why did it mean anything?

But it did, that was what motivated him to get up from the seat he had situated himself in all day—you might think that's crazy, that it would bore you to death to sit somewhere all day long with nothing to do but, well… have you ever lived for centuries upon centuries with no hobby? A day of sitting is as simple as breathing after that.

"Excuse me," he began like he almost always did when a Kagome came along, with one hand on the table and another on the back of her seat he leaned in so to break off her eye contact with Hojo, who sat beside her. Not that he cared she was with another man, mind you. It was probably her high school boyfriend, after all.

"Eh?" Her hazels widened as she opened her mouth to say something yet couldn't. It was him.

"Did I hear that your name is Kagome?" it was always after then that he didn't know what to say. 'Do you know me'? He sometimes asked, 'you look familiar, have we met?' was always a good one but this time he'd go with something else… he just hadn't figured that out before she her gawking ceased and her mouth began to function again.

"Yes…" wirily she replied while he eyes migrated over to Eri who she could tell from the almost dropped jaw that she'd very much like the strange to go over and ask her for her name, too. "You look so familiar," Kagome spat out without meaning to but… he did. He looked like her Inuyasha almost too much.

"I do?" He almost awed, that was a first—maybe, probably, he couldn't remember.

"Uh," she dragged out before laughing it off, "I'm sorry, what did you come over here for?"

"Try to be smoother," Eri whispered harshly.

With a swift look to the hushed girl then to the baffled boy he stood up with his hands back in his Dior jacket's pockets, "will you come with me for a moment?"

"Kagome, no," Hojo shook his head, "you don't know this guy."

"Go," Eri mouthed, cheering her on with a clenched fist all the way.

Honestly, Hojo was probably right. Was it ever a good idea to wonder off with strangers? If he was trying to flirt with her that was one thing but he wasn't, he was very... absent almost. Like behind those less hazel than golden spheres there wasn't a whole lot going on, it was eerie, a part of her—the smarter part, she guessed—beseeched her to listen to Hojo, not to go but... He looked like Inuyasha, so how wrong could it actually be? So, with that, she got up and followed him out of the restaurant but she did decide to stop short of leaving the view of the windows. Just in case something did happen, Hojo and Eri were bond to be watching ever so carefully from within.

"How can I help you?" She began as she regain her normal smile, he just stared at her almost as if she was nothing more than a plant to examine, label, and then move on. It was strange, yes, but she felt just like that, "um, hello?"

"Kagome," he whispered once his gaze finally stopped at her face. Nothing. Nothing, nothing... why did it not spark anything? Again, was it nothing? Another wrong person? He was certain if he met the Kagome everything would just magically return to him.

"Yes," she nodded as she clasped her hands in front of her lazily, "and you are...?"

"Shiro!" Doubled delighted voices laughed just as two attractive woman grabbed at each of his arms, one had flows of flirty curly coffee hair, the other was dyed, straight, blonde beaut, both pressing their overly large chests against him. Flawless wasn't a word that could be tied to either, make-up and high classed clothes were needed for them but they were trophies to be.

Her hazel eyes widened at the sight, he jerked forward only slightly but didn't seem surprised so... it was reasonable for her to assume it happened, often.

"Who's this?" Blondy inquired with her perfectly manicured finger pointed to Kagome, "she wouldn't be your new interest, right, Shiro?"

"She's a kid," the other giggled, "I bet she's confessing her love to you, huh? I'm sure that happens a lot," and with that she held on tighter to his arm and tilted her head to the side ever so slightly in order to try and win his attention.

It was true, it did occur often but did any of them mean it? How could they? Did he ever really spend that much time with one woman? It wasn't like he dated them. Perhaps he'd take them out to eat every now and then but nothing more. Nothing 'love' worthy. Then again, his money was.

"Scurry along, Shiro needs a woman not a child," blondy bickered with a condescending stare.

"Well, excuse me!" Kagome huffed, "he was the one that asked me out here!"

"Is that true, Shiro?" Blondy frowned, "but she's so young, too young, right? What are you fifteen?"

"Sixteen!" Almost seventeen, but they needn't know that.

"See, Shiro, let's go."

"I suppose," he replied after one last glance over her, she would stand out... right? "Sorry," he muttered as the girls led him passed the obviously fluming female.

"Sorry!?" Kagome scoffed to herself as she turned around—why was she so mad? What did it matter that she just got blown off by a stranger with two hookers on his arm?

That was a stupid question, of course she knew. He looked like Inuyasha, a human one. That mattered. What if... it was silly, but almost brought a strange smile to her face. What if it was his reincarnation? If she was Kikyou's then wouldn't it only make sense that Inuyasha had one in her era, too? Wouldn't it be great to meet him? If only he wasn't an asshole...

A/N: So, thank you everyone that reviewed. I really meant to update this sooner but I became too busy. I'll try to update this again soon because this was a rather weak chapter.

A/N2: chapter updated for grammar, spelling, and some content