Deceitful Time
Chapter Five: Traitorous

WHACK!

The sound echoed about the still room. Both were left breathless… speechless. It was abrupt, all of it, and far too much. She couldn't… she wasn't surprised when she finally pried open her eyes to see that Shiro lingered over her still with his face turned from the force of her smack, his eyes wide open. It was clear it didn't hurt him, it didn't even leave a mark, but she was sure it stunned him.

She… she slap him? Reject him? How often did that happen…? Almost never, he's had plenty of practice, plenty of praise, so how could she push him away and run out of his bedroom to slam the door behind her?

"Wait, Kagome!" He called out as he leaped off his bed and jetted to the door.

"I don't know you!" She shouted back, which caused him to stop; he could tell she was right there, standing with her hands to the door.

"Of course you do, I'm—"

"I know you are but… but you wouldn't do this! It's too quick, I can't!" As of two days ago she had never been kissed a boy so how could anyone really expect that she'd just pull of her panties for him? How could he? She didn't want her first time like that… she had the same girlish dream as all others, something romantic, something sweet, something brilliant and memorable. Not something that just happened.

Alright, so he had been waiting five hundred years for her… that was nice, it was sweet, but… but… but, "you don't really remember me, do you?"

He supposed he should have seen this coming, after all, he just took her first kiss not more than two days ago but he'd done that before and bedded the girl all in the same night. Great, she was the sentimental type, he sighed as he rested his forehead on the door. He shouldn't be shocked, he had been hoping she was so that she'd become attached to the present him instead of the past him, hadn't he?

"Maybe this'll help me remember," he muttered back just loud enough so she could hear him.

"No," she shook her head as she, too, leaned her forehead against the almost so deep red oak door that it was black. "No, it doesn't work like that. I won't… no, not unless you remember me… I know Inuyasha from feudal era Japan, I don't know Shiro. I can't."

He didn't bother to open his door until he heard the thumps of her loafers upon his floor stop with an almost silent close of his front door. It wasn't until she had time to leave the building and, very luckily, catch the bus that was waiting at the stop across the street that a daunting thought popped into his mind.

What if she was going to go through the well?

{xoxoxoxoxoxo}

"Kagome, what is wrong with you?" She silently scolded herself as she began up the stairs to her home, how could she even allow him to go so far…? Then again, really, she didn't allow him to go far at all. Just another kiss, granted, a deep one, but still just a kiss... When his hands roamed up to below her skirt she got her sense back and smacked him away. It was only because it was Inuyasha that she allowed it to go as far as it did. But it was wrong; he was the wrong one…

"Where have you been?" The harsh almost raspy voice that she had yearned to hear barked at her as soon as she got to the top.

Right away she knew what she'd see when she looked up from the concrete; she just had to smile when she saw it was true. There he stood in all his pissed-off glory, his arms tucked away in his sleeves, folded upon his chest, his perfectly golden orbs staring right at her with furrowed brows and a snarling frown. Silver long locks with dog ears on top, everything was right, everything was ideal. That, no, he was Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha!" She cried back with the greatest of grins as she ran over to him, almost too giddy, but before she could get another word out he started the same lecture she always expected from him when she was supposedly 'late' to return.

"Ain't your school done? Why aren't you back? Get your bag, let's go, you're wasting time."

"I'm so glad to see you!" She declared disregarding what he had said completely as she clasped her hands in front of her chest.

"You… are?" He asked with a raised brow and a half step backwards, "what's wrong with you?" The joy she radiated was odd and a great deal more than she usually did. It hadn't been more than a few days…

"Why does there have to be anything wrong with me?" She snapped back with her hands upon her hips, "can't I just be happy to see you?" Good old, normal, ignorant, half-demon Inuyasha.

"I… guess," he stumbled over his simple two words as his eyes avoided hers, "just get your--" before he finished her arms pried under his to give him a… hug? He froze up right away, she was, "wh-what are you doing?"

"I'm so glad to see you because your future self is so strange and constantly tries to sexual assault me," was what she thought about saying but instead she just smiled and hugged him tighter before taking a step back with a shrug. Right when she looked at him her smile faded, he had the strangest expression… did it bother him that much that she might like him enough to want to give him a hug every once and a while? It's not like she was trying to steal a kiss from him.

A laugh almost broke out when she thought about the look that would arise if she ever told him how often his future-self kissed her.

"You smell…"

"Inuyasha," she sizzled with clenched fists.

"No," he sped before she said the dread word he could just feel was coming, "I mean you smell weird like… me… but like Sesshomaru, too."

"Huh?" She titled her head ever so slightly to the side, "Sesshomaru isn't here."

"It's not his scent, it's a hybrid between the two, has something happened?" It was defiantly a demon scent but he was sure there weren't any in her world. That was why he didn't worry about her getting into any trouble while she was in her own era.

"Uh, oh," Shrio's scent… 'well, it's your scent after you use the shikon no tama to become a full demon and live for five hundred years' seemed to be what she should tell him but there was just something that snatched up her tongue before she could, "nothing's happened. I'll go get my bag and tell everyone goodbye then I'll meet you at the well, OK?"

"Alright," he wirily replied with a narrowed gaze, "Kaede just made a stew so I'm just going to head back, you'll be there shortly, yeah?"

"Yep, I just need to pack my bag, it shouldn't take more than twenty minutes," she nodded before heading off to her house like, somehow, he understood the concept of a 'minute'.

{xoxoxoxoxoxox}

Is that how they acted? He stiffened up like a tree as soon as she wrapped her arms around him, did he always do that? He had learned centuries ago how to hide his presence, his aura, his scent, so he couldn't hold it against himself that his past self didn't notice him hiding just out of sight watching the odd scene.

Kagome defiantly had a thing for him, he could tell that without a doubt but why'd he act so weird? He had a troubled childhood; he couldn't remember any specifics but knew that was true, so was that why he didn't necessary rejected her but didn't embrace her, either? After he was sure his past self had gone through the well he wondered out of his hiding place, something struck him right as he walked under the sacred tree that's leaves had all fallen from the chill…

A pulsing feeling coursed through him, his hand grasped his head lightly as he closed his eyes… he was surrounded by trees and shrubbery, it was night, when he opened his eyes Kagome was right in front of him. No, Kikyou… wait, that wasn't Kikyou--she smelled alike but they didn't appear the same. She got irked when he called her that, there was something wrapped around them that pinned him to the tree, a bug… a centipede.

"Pull the arrow out and I can save you," was something similar to what he said, but pull what out? He glanced at her hand as she yanked an old arrow from his chest. A blur of events followed in a series of static flashes, he ripped them free, the shikon no tama appeared, he went after her for it, a burst of beads spun about his neck, he heard 'Sit', slammed to the ground…

When he looked up they weren't anywhere near the tree, there was a desecrated land, the sky was thick with purple smog. Weakly, he got up, pain surged through his entity, it took him a moment or two to lock onto the closet living thing but… she wasn't living, she was on the hard, dirt, ground, her body tattered and torn, her uniform ruined, her eyes opened but with a haze of white over them as blood smothered he dirty, bruised, face.

His eyes shot open, he shouldn't be surprised that he was back because he knew he had never left. His breath was irregular, a sweat almost broke, but he was able to recover his cool façade as he walked away from that tree and around the house. He just knew that the top window that had it's light on was her room, with a light jump he grabbed the window seal and pried open the unlocked window to startle her near death.

With a light shriek she leaped onto her bed and grabbed her heart, "don't do that!" Now that was a very Inuyasha trait.

"Sorry," he shallowly replied as he slid through the opening, "you should really lock that."

"Go away," Kagome demanded before throwing the first pink, lacey pillow right at his face.

"I refuse to let you go back," he countered as he caught the pillow and set it down on her desk, "I remember something."

"I don't really care right now," she stated with folded arms, still a little tart that he had tried something so vulgar with her such a short while ago, "I'm leaving so go away."

"I don't remember exactly what happened," he murmured before leaning against the edge of her desk, "the land was dead and barren… misaim poisoned the air… I was hurt, weakened, but able to get up and find…" his gaze moved from the floor to her as he, too, folded his arms but not out of stubbornness like her. It sparked something in her right away…

He looked so earnest, Inuyasha never spoke like that, so calmly, so simply. He never had such a look of calm chaos clouding his eyes; he never looked at her like… she had to look away. It was like he was looking straight through her.

"I found you in the mist… Kagome," he whispered and waited until she meekly looked back at him, "Kagome… you were… I," he took a breath, "failed to protect you."

Dead. She was dead, that had to be what he meant. It was such a surreal feeling, almost an out of body experience, being told about her future death. That would, sadly, explain that. Why he'd chose to be a demon instead of staying the way he was, with a swallow she inquired, "how did I…?"

If she was clever she'd accuse him of lying, of trying to keep her there but… she didn't believe that'd be true intelligence, it'd just be her being untrusting. She had faith in Inuyasha, she trusted Shiro enough to believe his wavering eyes. It was only because that expression that was always hidden in his eyes, that always spoke to her and that, came to the surface completely as he told her of what he recalled that she believed him.

"I'm not sure, I remember meeting you now, and a centipede demon was involved, right? I was pinned to the tree by an arrow, I thought you were Kikyou," he murmured the end as he hopped up to sit on her desk and let his hands fall to his knees.

"You remember," she hid a choke, "Kikyou?" But not her? He could remember a love form five decades before she met him but he couldn't remember her? The priestess had passed, nobly, in his arms, he loved her, cried for her, cherished her… It was the worst quality of her, but even then she was jealous of the woman, forever she'd have such a hold on him. Kikyou was his first love, the first to accept him for who he really was, and even five hundred years later he still remembered that? Still appreciated it?

"The name sparks something," a twig in his chest, a pull, a tug of guilt. Just like the name 'Kagome', it was something he knew he should know but didn't really. "Can't say I remember her, I just know I called you by her name when we first met."

"I'm her reincarnation, you two were… close," she couldn't say anything about the romantic attachment they shared, she just couldn't… "then Naraku deceived you two into betraying each other. She pinned you to the tree under false pretense for fifty years, I freed you and you saved me. We went on a journey not too long after that to collect the jewel shards, Kikyou was brought back from the dead… you two figured out Naraku was behind it all then we went on a search for both the jewel shards and Naraku."

"Naraku," he mused before closing his eyes and nodding, that name still brought a seeping, sizzling, hatred up into his heart but that wasn't what mattered right then. "Kagome, please don't go back. All my time would be wasted if you go back and only get killed."

"Inu…" she barely even spoke before slowly getting up, "Shi…ro, you're waiting for me right now in feudal era—"

"Believe me when I say I'm doing myself a favor," he cared about her, even if he tensed up from a hug, he could still tell that Kagome meant a great deal.

"Let me go there and explain this to you, then," she requested as their eyes met, "I'll be back after that."

"No," he protested plainly, winning from her a cocked brow, "I'm not sure if fate can be altered. Maybe your destined to die there, maybe I can't change what's going to happen, maybe I'll always use the shikon no tama to become a demon only to meet you five hundred years later and to lose you all over again…" the truly daunting thought of it all twisted his mind into utter, inescapable, confusion, "but I don't think that I should ever know the past me and he should never hear of me."

"But—"

"Sorry," he murmured to himself as he caught her falling body. He know the exact spot to hit to knock anyone out right away, she'd probably have a bit of a sore spot for a day or two but it was for her own good. She'd just never accept what he had to do...

{xoxoxoxoxoxo}

It was the smallest of chilled breezes that brushed against her face to wake her. Not too long after her eyes focused on her naturally lit room did the memories of the night before flow back enough that she popped up in bed to look at the sun shined window that was just barely cracked open.

A pulse of pain made her wince as her hand reached to her neck, "ow… how'd that happen?"

She was still in her school uniform but in bed, neatly tucked under the covers that she took no care in throwing off before speeding down the stairs.

"Kagome," her mother brightly called out from the kitchen, "good morning, would you like some breakfast before you return through the well?"

"Hey, aren't you glad it's winter break?" Souta cheered as he picked up some rice with his fish and soy sauce to chop on.

"It'll be good not having to call you in ever day," her grandpa nodded with a flip of the newspaper.

She had… slept through the night and Inuyasha never bothered to come and get her? That seemed wrong, really, really wrong. He might not get what 'twenty minutes' meant but he knew it wasn't a night and even if thought that was what it meant he'd never ever let her dilly-daddle that long.

"Kagome?" her mother called out as she ran out of the house and to the well hut, threw open the door, and almost tripped down the stairs.

"No," she whispered as her hands grabbed onto the closed shutters… they never sealed up the well like that anymore. She knew before she even tried that she'd never be able to open it no matter how many times she yanked it. It was all because of those strange scrolls that were placed about the wood. She could rip a few of them off yet still not get it open. The chains, that was what really kept it closed. No, no, no... that could not have been the last time she saw him, no, she had to blink away a few tears, "Inuyasha!?"

Damn them. Damn those cursed chains. Not normal chains, not physical chains, they were ghost like. No matter how many times she tried to grasp them she could never ever get a hold of them, never pry them off…

Never open the well.

A/N: Thank you for the in-depth reviews, they are awesome. I'd like to credit for the idea of Shiro/Inu seeing Past-Inu and Kagome interacting to , originally I didn't think about doing that at all.