Author's note: Hi fam. After doing some research on the rules for who can pass through the Bone Eater's Well, and learning that those rules have never really been well-defined, I'm going to break them. Don't worry. It won't twist canon too much. Just thought I'd put a warning up top. And to the people who are reading, thank you! I'm actually having more fun writing this than I anticipated. I'm excited to get into the story proper!

"I've decided. I'm going to go home to get some more supplies and take a bath—and I'm taking you with me, Kaya."

"Oh, you don't need to do tha—"

Kagome waggled her finger in the air as if Kaya were a misbehaving child, "I'm not taking no for an answer. Every girl should get to experience a hot bath and shampoo at least once in her life." The girl had already begun to gather the various things she had spread around the room. "If we get back soon, Mom will be able to cook us something really delicious for dinner!"

"Are you really sure your mother wants you bringing home random demons?"

"Well, she didn't seem to mind Inuyasha. And you're a lot more polite than he is to begin with. Besides, my mom has always welcomed my friends." Kagome zipped up the bag she carried, tucking a few things she was leaving behind into a corner of Kaede's small room. "I'm sure Inuyasha won't be happy, but oh well. He's got to get used to the fact that we need to rest sometimes."

Kaya had a distinct feeling that she would not win if she tried to resist going. Besides, she was curious about the era Kagome called her home. Per her previous comments, it was something like five-hundred years in the future. Kaya couldn't even to imagine what such a place would be like. Inuyasha had spoken about some of the strange things he'd seen when he'd gone to fetch Kagome from the other side of the well, but it hadn't really given her a good picture. She also knew her brother would throw a holy tearing fit when he learned Kagome wanted to go back to her home again so soon—not that he had any right to stop her. Hell, he may even insist on going with them and being a pain in the ass until they decided to go back. It was hard for Kaya to predict his moods when it came to Kagome and his precious Shikon Jewel.

"If you insist." Kaya relented and stood to tie a string of herbs across one wall of Kaede's hut. The old woman's arthritic fingers had a hard time tying such small knots, so doing it for her was the least the young half-demon could do in exchange for her purification of her wound. "I am curious about where you come from, but you know my brother is going to throw a temper tantrum."

"Oh well!" The human girl grinned. "He's going to have to learn that he can't get everything he wants!"

888

"You're going home again?"

"That's right! And I'm taking Kaya with me!"

"Taking Kaya—is she serious?"

"Kagome invited me to accompany her home and I agreed."

"Listen, Inuyasha, I know you're not going to understand this, but every girl needs to experience a warm bath once in her life." Kagome looped her arm through Kaya's and began to pull her forward towards the well.

"You just went home a few days ago! How are we ever supposed to find the jewel shards if you have to go home every other day?"

"Hey! At least I come back. I could just go home and stay there y'know."

A walk through the forest had never been slower. Kaya thought she might lose her hearing from being stuck between Inuyasha and Kagome's constant bickering. Did they ever need to breathe? At first, she'd had found it sort of amusing, but it had quickly worn on her over the days that had passed since Kagome first arrived. Each was just as stubborn as the other and just as loud, too. Luckily Kagome had seemed to tired of the bickering too by the time they'd reached the well.

"Listen, Inuyasha." Kagome said in a stern voice, "We'll be back tomorrow after dinner. And after this I won't need to go home for awhile and we can find some more jewel shards."

"Fine, whatever. I guess the two of you can do whatever you want. But don't be surprised if I ain't here when you get back."

Kaya couldn't help but roll her eyes. "How will you find the jewel shards if you leave without Kagome? We'll only be gone a day, spend some time getting a better feel for the Tetsusaiga."

Kagome stepped up onto the lip of the well and pulled Kaya up with her. "We'll be back tomorrow, so make sure you behave. Don't terrorize Kaede while we're gone."

"Feh, like I would."

Kaya's yellow eyes glanced back at her brother as they stood at the well's opening. He looked annoyed, of course, but she couldn't help but wonder if there was a deeper meaning to his bad mood. She couldn't tell.

"Ready, Kaya?"

She turned her eyes back to Kagome. "Yeah, let's go."

Kagome nodded. Kaya copied her movement as she stepped off the edge of the well and let herself fall towards the ground below. Even though she knew Kagome had passed through it—even though she knew Inuyasha had passed through it—she still expected to end up smacking against the dirt bottom at its depth. But no. It gave way to a dark passageway illuminated in places by an eerie pink light. Kagome didn't seem phased. Kaya had seen some strange things in her relatively short life, but this was on an entirely different level. It was though they had jumped from a great height and were falling through the air. And just as her body was acclimating to the sensation, they were back at the bottom of a well. But the bright sky was not above them as it had been back then. Now there was a dark-colored roof blocking the sun.

"Is that it?" Kaya asked.

"Yep! We're home."

Kaya hooked her arm around Kagome's waist and jumped to the lip of the well. She scanned the small, dark room. Yep, it was a building alright. Kagome walked up some stairs towards a set of sliding doors and Kaya trailed her footsteps.

Outside of the small well house, Kaya's nose was immediately accosted by a million smells. And a million sounds hit her sensitive ears, too. It was all she could do not to visibly wince. That would definitely take some getting used to. She must have stopped dead in her tracks, because next thing she knew Kagome had grabbed her hand and was gently pulling her forward towards a much larger building down a small stone path.

"Mom, I'm home!" Kagome called out, once they had passed through another door into the home. She stopped for just a moment to take her shoes off before leading Kaya inside.

Suddenly the half-demon felt claustrophobic. Or was it nervous? Something was making her heart beat out of her chest. She had to fight the impulse to run and follow her friend through the entranceway into the kitchen. It was there that a slightly older woman with short hair appeared. She was wearing an apron. Her eyes were dark, unlike Kagome's blue ones, but it was obvious that this woman was her mother. "Oh, Kagome! You're home again so soon. And you brought your—oh! This is a different friend than last time, isn't it?"

"Mom, this is Kaya. She's Inuyasha's sister. I brought her home with me so she can see what the future is like."

The older woman smiled. "Hello, Kaya. Any friend of Kagome's is always welcome here. Especially the ones with cute ears."

Ah yes, the ears. Inuyasha had mentioned that. But where were her manners? She had been taught manners, hadn't she, so, so many years ago? Kaya bowed slightly to Kagome's mother, "It's nice to meet you, ma'am. Thank you for having me."

"Any time, my dear." The woman smiled, reaching out to pat Kaya comfortingly on the shoulder. "Now, I was just getting ready to go shopping for dinner—what would you two like to eat?"

"Anything is good, Mom, as long as you cook it." Kagome grinned, "Though extra pickles would be awesome."

"Extra pickles, that's easy enough. Any requests, Kaya?"

"No ma'am, but thank you."

Kagome's mother took her apron off and hung it on a nearby peg. "Alright then, you've made it easy for me. Why don't the two of you get washed up before dinner, then? Afterwards I can do your laundry for you."

"That sounds great, thanks Mom. Come on, Kaya, you're going to love this."

888

Well, Kagome had been right about baths. After a life of very rarely washing herself up fully clothed in very cold water, this was… something. Maybe what the humans sometimes described as paradise. Even though the shampoo smelled rather strongly and so did whatever magic powder Kagome had put into the water, it was still nice. Kaya could probably remain in the hot water, which apparently would somehow keep itself heated to a particular temperature, for hours.

Since she was alone, Kaya examined the wound in her chest. It looked normal and pink since it had only been a day or so since Kaede had last purified it. But Kaya knew eventually the black-tinged purulence would return, kill the healing flesh, and she'd be back to step one yet again.

She found herself wondering, as she had done increasingly often since finding out what was in store for her, how Kagome would react to knowing. Kaya still had no plans of telling her, of course. Kaede said that if Kagome's power grew sufficiently, she might even be able to sense the corruption that Kaya carried in her chest. What would she tell her the?

What would she tell Inuyasha then?

Kaya sighed. The more she thought about it, the more unsure she became. Usually she just kept things to herself and dealt with them as she had to, but this… One way or another, she'd eventually have to tell them.

Well. It could wait awhile longer.

888

"You know, I still really can't believer you and Inuyasha are related."

Dinner had passed and nightfall had come. The two of them had retired with tea to Kagome's room for the night. The human girl sat cross-legged on her bed and Kaya sat on the futon Mrs. Higurashi had laid out for her on the floor. The half-demon held the warm cup in her hands, her back against Kagome's bed. "I've been hearing that a lot lately." She spoke, the corners of her lips turning up into a small smile.

"I'm sorry, you two are just entirely different. In pretty much every way except your looks."

"Well, you and Souta are also quite different. And Sesshomaru and I are quite different as well." Kaya noted, "But I know what you mean. You'd think, for twins, the two of us would more closely resemble one another when it comes to personality. After all, we've spent out whole lives side by side up until now." She paused for a moment, looking over at the window to Kagome's room. "He didn't take our mother's passing well. That was the start of it."

"Yeah, I kinda picked up on that." Kagome nodded, "He told me she got sick and passed away when you two were still really small."

"Yes, we were so poor we were unable to afford medicine. Whatever the illness was that took her—it was supposedly curable. But no one would take pity on a human woman who had bore two half-demon children, and back then we were too young to make anyone give us the medicine. So she passed away, and we were helpless to do anything about it."

"That's so awful. Humans can be so cruel." Kagome muttered softly. "But when we saw her—well, the Unmother… she looked like she was a princess."

"She was. The daughter of a wealthy lord, at least. But her family lost their status and wealth shortly after we were born, in no small part due to the fact that the lord's daughter had given birth to two half-demons. We lived among the wealthy for most of our young lives, but we and our mother were regarded as a curse among the former members of her noble house. The day we were born, I've been told, the entire castle burnt to the ground. Our father perished that day, too. Sometimes I'm inclined to think they were right."

Kagome was silent for several long moments. "Inuyasha made it seem as though you two barely knew anything about your parents. But you actually know quite a bit."

"It's all second-hand, where our father is concerned. He just… I suppose he thinks that if he doesn't talk about what happened, it will hurt less. Inuyasha avoids his emotions, I've learned to accept and ignore mine."

There was a rustling as Kagome laid down on her bed. "I can't imagine that kind of pain. My dad died in a car accident when I was little, but… that's nothing compared to watching your mother die."

Kaya looked back at her and shook her head slightly. "One isn't better or worse than the other, Kagome. Pain is pain. Loss is loss."

"Still though, I can't imagine how hard that was."

"It was hard," Kaya murmured, "but it's over now."

Kagome just nodded her head slightly and shifted her gaze from Kaya and up towards the ceiling. Kaya moved to lay down herself. The futon was warm and comfortable in a way nothing had been in quite a long time.

"Can I ask you one more question? I'm sorry if it's a bit personal."

"That's okay, go ahead."

"What did you think of Kikyou?"

Ah. That was a bit of a loaded question. Kaya pulled the blankets up over herself and turned onto her side to get more comfortable. "Well… I suppose it's safe to say we were not close. She did not think of me fondly, nor I her. I was the little sister that got in the way of the two of them playing house, and she was the human woman who was trying to take my brother from me. When he told me he wanted to use the jewel to become human—I was beyond ready. I was ready to tear him apart with my own claws. Not because he was deviating from our plan to use the jewel to become full demons, but because he was planning on leaving me behind, it seemed. And Kikyou was the catalyst of that, because she wanted him to become human to suit her."

More quiet. Kagome must have been thinking hard about something. Or maybe she had fallen asleep during that long winded answer. "Why do you think she wanted him to become human?"

"Because the guardian of the Shikon Jewel couldn't consort with a demon, half or otherwise. He had to be human for the two of them to be together. And I thought—where would that leave me? I certainly didn't want to become human."

"…do you think he really would have done that?"

Now it was Kaya's turn to hesitate. "I don't know. Before Kikyou, we didn't even need words to communicate the majority of the time. And now… we've become two different people. It's part of growing up, I suppose."

"At least you still have him though, right?"

"Yes," Kaya answered, "there is that."