Deceitful Time
Chapter Four: Tease

"So…?" Sachiko dragged out as she escorted Kagome out of their school after their last day before winter break, "you didn't mention that Shiro guy coming to visit you at all today. What happened? Did he ask you out? Which college does he go to? Tell me more; tell me more," Sachiko demanded lightly as she pulled on her friend's jacket's sleeve with a pout, "please?"

"I don't know much about him," not Shiro, he was a stranger, everything about him was different. Inuyasha she knew well, probably better than any of her friends, but Shiro—even if he was Inuyasha five hundred years later—was nothing like him. He didn't really lose his temper with her even when she was being difficult, there was never a 'keh', he never folded his arms with a glare, he never… did anything very Inuyasha. That was why it was so hard to believe it was her adored Inuyasha…

But when had she ever run into a genuine demon in her own era? Never. Ghosts, yes, demons? No, weren't they all gone…? Apparently not, but did that really mean Inuyasha could survive for five hundred years? And why, really, why had he used the shikon no tama to become a full demon? Why would she have allowed him to do such… no, she couldn't even wonder because she knew. If that was what Inuyasha really wanted she'd never stop him. She never wanted to be like all those before her that told him what he should do—be it become human or stay a half-demon, she just couldn't. She wanted to support him in anything he did… apparently, if what Shiro said is true, that even meant even supporting him in becoming a full demon.

"Kagome," Sachiko called out as the crosswalk light signaled them to go, "we live this way."

"I'm going to go visit a friend," she smiled with a wave as she headed off to the bus stop not too far away—why'd Shiro have to live on the opposite side of Tokyo from her and her school? It was so bothersome.

"You are going to see Shiro, huh?! Call me later tonight and tell me what happens! Good luck, Kagome!" Sachiko cheered her on as she went off in her proper direction.

Luck, ha, luck never had anything to do with it.

{xoxoxoxoxoxox}

A knock, knock, knock, irked him enough that he finally bothered to roll out of bed and pull on pants and a sweater before he yanked open his front door. "Kagome?"

"Hi, you said I should come by today, right?" She reminded as she stepped by him to glance around the fine décor of his condo, she vaguely remembered what it looked like but the alcohol and confusion made it more a blur. There were some paintings and a few scrolls that lined the walls. She got the feeling all of those were quiet old but for the most part it lacked a sense of attachment. The walls weren't painted, sure there were decorations about but she did get the feeling that Shiro hadn't done it himself.

"I did but I didn't think you'd come in your uniform," he declared as he closed his door, never letting his auburn mixed amber eyes the chance to leave her figure. A. School. Girl. A high school girl, she was so young, she'd proven herself childish, immature, and… why had she enchanted him so?

"I just came from school," Kagome scoffed as she spun around to give him quiet a stern glare, "so you think I should have gone all the way home to change then come all the way over here to see you? Besides," she smiled slightly, "this is what I always wore when I went back to the feudal era."

He rolled his eyes before he led her into his living room, "what are you? Fifteen? What the hell was I thinking…?"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" She shouted back as she folded her arms upon her chest and plopped down on the less than comfy crimson couch, "I'm sixteen, almost seventeen, thank you."

"Wow," Inuyasha mouthed mockingly with a shake of his head as he went to a fine cherry oak cabinet to fetch himself a glass of whatever happened to be in the cabinet at the time.

"Every time I see you," with the exclusion of that time at McDonalds and when he came to visit her at school, "you have a glass of something in your hand."

"So?" he glanced over to her and she simply shrugged, "do you want one?"

"I'm under aged," she scoffed with narrowed gaze.

"Yeah, 'cause that mattered a whole lot the night before last."

Well, he had her there so she bit her lips and looked away, "anyway, didn't you say you could prove to me that you're Inuyasha with some stuff you have here?"

"Did I say that?" He mused with a few swirls of his glass before taking a sip, "I can show you two things I've had forever, I don't know if that'll prove anything to you, though."

"Try anyway."

Their eyes met once she turned her head back to look at him, a strange array of emotions fluttered about them before he broke their gaze so he could open the bottom door of the cabinet to pull out a six inch glossy black box but instead of walking over and kindly handing it to her he simply threw it.

"Uh, you jerk," Kagome jeered once the hard box dropped on her lap. It was only because he completely ignored her that she kept glaring at his turned back as he fiddled around with something in the very back of his cabinet instead of paying attention to what was inside the box while she opened it up. When he turned around and stood up he had a seethed sword in hand.

"Does that mean anything to you?" He inquired as he nodded towards what was inside the box.

Slowly she turned her attention from him to what was inside and just like that her eyes soothed as she took out the purple beaded necklace with candor, "where did you get this?"

"I wore it for a few hundred years; it was only in the mid-1800s that I met a mystic that could remove it. I remember a priestess put it on me, I think I was doing something that I shouldn't have… but I don't know. It doesn't do anything; it just wouldn't ever come off."

"You were trying to kill me, it was the first time we met," Kagome whispered as she let the necklace glide along her hands, it was all she could focus on, "when you wore it and I said the word 'sit' you'd slam to the ground."

'SIT, boy!' Rang through his head, his hand snapped up to his forehead as he closed his eyes…

"Is that the…?"

"Tetsusaiga," he nodded while he unsheathed it, but it made no change from its rusted form, "it was my father's sword, made from…" it always eluded him for a moment or two, "from…"

"One of his fangs," Kagome coaxed as she set the box down and let the necklace slide down her wrist before she got up to walk over to him, "do you remember going into your father's bones to retrieve it? Fighting Sesshomaru?"

"Bits and pieces of it, Sesshomaru and I talked about it every now and then."

"I was the one that pulled the Tetsusaiga free," she somewhat bragged but the blank look he gave her made her frown, "you don't remember that, huh?"

With a shrug he seethed it again, "it doesn't turn anymore, have you seen it when it did?"

"Yeah, you were always using it. What do you mean it doesn't transformer anymore? Why? Is it because you're a full demon?"

"No, it still worked for me afterwards for a while but…" he paused while he carelessly threw the sword back into where it had once been hidden, "shit happened and there really isn't any need for it. You sound like you believe me now," he declared as he picked up his glass again and took a step away from her, "do you?"

"Well…" her hazels moved away from him. Did she? Her head wavered but, as ridiculous as it sounded and she knew it was… her heart told it otherwise. "How," she stopped herself from calling him 'Inuyasha', "could you… for five hundred years?"

"Live?" he mused before he finished off his glass and set it down. "Kagome, in the past, what were we?"

Eh? What… her cheeks were sure to have flushed pink as she stuttered out her answer, "wh-what were we…?"

"Obviously I waited for you for five hundred years," hence the tattoo, the details of a woman he burned into his mind that described her, "that's why we had to be something, right?"

She opened her mouth to retort but nothing came out so she closed it once more, why would he in less…? Did he? That much… that he waited for five hundred years for her? Could anyone ever top that? Who could? Who could say that someone cared so much that they'd wait for hundreds of years for them?

"Well? It's not a hard concept, either we were something or we weren't," he slowly said to try and get through her stunned mind. After a few steps forward he was right in front of her, she didn't move and couldn't speak as he rose his hand up to brush some of her rouge strands of ebony out of her face, "the other night you reacted perfectly when we kissed," almost as if they had many times before.

"K-kissed?" She choked right before her hands swept up to cover her lips.

"What?" he retracted his hand as his auburn-amber orbs moved about her face until they widened, "that wasn't your first… it was, wasn't it!?" That meant… they'd never kissed? How could he have fallen for a woman that he never even… he shook his head as he turned around to walk up to his windowed walls, he shouldn't overact. Maybe he just intercepted her before them become intimate, before they kissed, yeah, he'd just rather think like that.

Inuyasha hadn't even kissed her yet and she let—wait, she closed her eyes as she let her fingers slid across her lips—Inuyasha had been her first kiss just… a different Inuyasha, Shiro.

She can't go back to his original era… he couldn't allow that, he didn't even bother to wonder why anymore, he just knew. "If I told you never to go back to the feudal era, would you listen to me?"

"Why?" She wirily questioned while her hazels avoided his ambers, "does something happen to me…?"

"I don't know," he shrugged nonchalantly as he returned to fill up his glass once more, winning himself a slap on the shoulder when he passed her.

"What do you mean you don't know!? Wouldn't that be something you remember?"

"Seems like something I should," he agreed as he capped the bottle once more to turn and look at the still flustered girl, "but that's besides the point. If I told you not to go, would you listen to me? Would you never return?"

"No," she stated fairly surely with a firm look on her façade, "I can't. I promised Inuyasha… you, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou that I would help them find the full jewel and kill Naraku."

He sighed while he swirled his glass and glanced around, somehow he figured as much. Strong minded was defiantly a word he'd tie to her but that didn't matter, he had to keep her away from that well… he could probably just destroy it, that'd work, she'd probably get beyond pissed at him so… why not do what he always did to get a woman to do as he said?

After his final swig he set his glass down and looked her square in the eyes before he placed a hand on each of her stiff shoulders, "Kagome."

"Shiro," she said without thinking, she just… couldn't call him Inuyasha.

"Just settle down," he soothed as he let his hands slide down her shoulders to her upper arm and, reluctantly, she let her shoulders sag some but her stare didn't alter, "I won't ask you to then, OK?"

"Really?" She lightened with a bit of awe, Inuyasha—the one she knew and adored—would never just let it go like that. It was usually by this point that a shouting match would break out between them and a few 'sits' would be thrown about but… had five hundred years cooled down his hot head?

Yes, or something like that, she could tell from looking into his estranged eyes. The not right colored things that they were, there was something behind them, in them, that called out to her… not for love, not for joy, but something she truly wanted to fix. That must have been why she allowed him another kiss, why when he wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer she let her arms hug his neck. Somehow she allowed their kiss to deepen, somehow she allowed him to pick her up and hold her closer as he moved their scene from the living room to the bedroom. Somehow she didn't see the implication as he gently laid her down on his unmade bed and kicked his own shoes off before climbing onto of her.

"Kagome," he whispered into her ear once their lips parted.

Sweet shivers cascaded down her spine as his hand moved up her exposed thigh and under her skirt right while his lips met hers to muffle her protest.

This was the best way. This way she'd submit to him, in more ways than one. This way he'd win her over; make his past self nothing more than a foggy memory, so she'd forget him. She'd stay.

She'd be safe.