The birds sang softly in the trees above as the Inu-Hanyo sat in the tree. below, a young woman in red and white was sorting herbs, picking the unsatisfactory leaves from the branches. She was humming a song softly to herself as she worked and the half demon who watched over her flicked an ear, liking the way the melody licked at the fur covered appendage.

The young woman turned back and looked at him, making his heart stop, she smiled and gestured to her side. "I know you're there, Inuyasha. Why don't you join me?" He stood up on the tree branch and prepared to jump down, using his powerful legs to launch himself up.

As his feet hit the ground, the scene changed. 

All around him, fires burned, and the trees crumbled and creaked with embers. Tetsusaiga glowed with its power in his hand, drawn and surrounded with the Wind Scar's power. His eyes burned from the smoke and he coughed, crouching on the ground. Growling, he clawed at his shoulder, feeling something sticking out of it, inches from his heart. Grabbing hold of it, he yanked the arrow that had struck him free, throwing it to the ground.

He smelled blood, but not just his. Two others' blood was leaching into the land around him. One scent belonged to a crumpled, burning mass of flesh and miasma that lay at his feet. And the other scent, sweet and reassuring, coated his hands and made him feel like someone had ripped his heart from his chest. 

Looking down, the fire revealed the blood on his claws, and he looked up, seeing her through the smoke, laying on her back a few yards away, her eyes staring sightlessly at the full moon above, the Shikon Jewel laying mere inches from her, glowing with dark, malicious power.

A wail  of her name ripped through his throat as he witnessed the red and white robed priestess laying there, her chest ripped open and blood already clotting as she grew cold in the flames. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he covered his face, his claws digging into his scalp. He could feel the fires trying to close in, but they didn't, lapping harmlessly around his clothing made from fur of a fire rat. His teeth were gritted in anger as he scratched at the ground in his rage.

"Inuyasha," He heard his name spoke flatly, making him look up from his place huddled on the ground. He saw the large white shape of his brother, sword drawn as he stood over the dead woman's body. He was looking down on her, yellow eyes rather cold as he took in the dead mortal woman. 

Sesshomaru closed his eyes, letting out a seeming breath of disappointment before kneeling down and picking up the small marble of dark light in his claws, the power of his own youki overcoming the tainted jewel and releasing the malicious power from it.

"Brother," The hanyo whimpered, unable to hide his weakness as he watched the flames crawling towards the priestess' body, "If you have ever considered me our father's son, please, save her. The emperor glanced back at him, his eyes cold.

"There are no Emissaries of the Underworld for Father's fang to cut down," he says flatly, Tenseiga sliding back in place at his side, "Her soul cannot be called back to this body."

~~~~~

Inuyasha shot awake, breathing hard. He could still feel the stinging wound in his chest, and he felt his hand gripping at it through his shirt. Closing his eyes, he felt his breathing coming back under control and he let go of his chest sighing.

Why had that horrible memory come to him? He didn't want to think about that time. About her death and the end of his life as he knew it. When Sesshomaru had found him covered in her blood and took him into this world of diplomacy and unmeetable standards.

And arranged marriage.

Glancing down, he saw an arm draped over him, her hand resting against his stomach. The young woman it belonged to grunted in her sleep, her hand clutching into the thin linen of his kosode in a fist. Her hair was messy and unkept, sprawled out like a hair demon and she was drooling, letting out soft snores.

She was warm, and her soft, soothing scent seemed to almost make him sleepy. Part of him, deep in the back of his mind, whimpered and begged to cuddle into the comfort her presence gave off after such a dream. He reached for her face and a claw pushed a strand of hair away from her face. Her long dark eyelashes twitched a little, fluttering against her pale cheek as she dreamed.

It was oh so very tempting to just relax back into her and do just what the inu-yokai half of him was whimpering for. To cuddle up to this beauty, wild black curls, soft snores, drool and all, and dream something calmer, get some real rest for once in his life.

Shaking his head, pushing back every bit of those weak willed thoughts, he reached down and gently disentangled his new wife from on top of his abdomen. She let out a soft moan that had his ears pulling back but he carefully laid her back down, facing away from him, and pulled her blanket back up on her shoulder. 

Huffing, he jumped to his feet, scratching his head. He needed to get out of here and away from her scent. Its similarity to the woman of fifty years ago was messing with his head. Grabbing onto his suikan, he quickly tied it around himself and gripped up his sword from where it still lay by the futon, sliding it into the tie of his hakama.

Kirara woke up as she heard her new master stirring, the dip of the futon as Kagome settled into her new position fully rousing the cat demon. Her crimson eyes blinked, and she shook herself, stretching in the predawn light. 

She leaped up on Kagome's hip and let out a questioning mew, tilting her head at the young prince as he reached for the door. Inuyasha turned and looked at her shaking his head.

"Take care of her for me, Kirara," he says quietly, careful not to disturb the sleeping woman. "I, I need to get out of here for a while." Her red eyes blinked at him as he disappeared through the door. Yawning, she laid down, curling up to sleep in the rising sun that streamed down from the nearby window.

The hanyo prince walked down the open air of the castle walkway, feeling a lot more like himself than he had in the bed chamber. The air was fresh, chilly and crisp from the still fading frost of early spring. It completely cleared away the thick scent of his sleeping bride that had leached onto him from her tossing and turning through the night.

He didn't have to worry about her pressing herself over him in her sleep out here. He knew that it was probably her that gave him that nightmare, with that stupid doppelganger face of hers. It wasn't like he forgot that day, or the woman who was lost. He thought about it all the time. 

But the dreams, they hadn't plagued him in over a decade. He had though he had finally moved beyond them, only to come back with a vengeance as so as he met this new girl.

A small jingling stopped him and he looked out into the slowly lightening forest that surrounded the Musashi Palace. A lone windchime moved slightly in the breeze, a forgotten trinket from the banquet hanging from the Goshinboku. The princess' veil, torn when he tended to her hand, lay caught on the root where she had been sitting when he had greeted her there.

Sighing, Inuyasha leaned on the railing of the wooden walkway. Who was this girl really? Why did she intrigue him despite his best efforts? What kind of mess had he gotten himself into now by going along with Sesshomaru's stupid plan for the damn Shikon Jewel. 

"Was she everything you thought she'd be?" He heard, making him flick a white furred ear, huffing in annoyance. He turned to glance at the monk who had just come from his chambers and sighed, leaning against the castle wall, crossing his arms in his sleeves, "What, was it that bad? I figured with a woman as lovely as the new lady of the castle you'd of had a splendid time deflowering her." Inuyasha felt a growl rising in his throat as he spoke with that perverted mind about her.

"Watch how you talk about my wife, you wretch," He hisses through his teeth and Miroku chuckles, noting the sour look that crossed his master's face, "What goes on between me 'n' her ain't none of your damn business." 

"Perhaps," The monk says with a shrug, "But if you don't mind me saying, maybe you should go back in and allow Lady Kagome to release the rest of that pent up anger of yours. It's the best way to relax and unwind in the morning. It is for me at least. There's this one girl down at the teahouse who is quite talented at massaging your more delicate places and I'll tell you it-" 

Growling, Inuyasha pushed past him and kept walking.

"We didn't do anything like that," he mumbles and Miroku rubs his chin in wonder, pondering his response.

"Yes, well I suppose both of you are beginners, so it wouldn't be all that exciting, but it is still a way to relieve stress at least," he says, lost in his own thoughts, "You could disclose some details and I could advise you on some pointers. After all, the female form is a complicated one and sometimes you just have to-" 

The young lord of the castle felt his ears pull back to the sides of his head and a snarl was working its way to his face.

"We didn't do anything!" he growls again. Miroku was snapped from his thoughts and looks at the long white hair of his lord as he walked further away.

"You mean?" the monk starts and Inuyasha looked back at him, his cheeks red as his robes.

"We went to bed," he says. "That's it."

"And you laid next to that beautiful young woman and only, slept next to her?" Miroku asks in shock. "I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed. You two are quite well matched. I expected you to be holed up in your chambers for a week or so, sexually repressed as you've been."

"What do you take me for?" the hanyo asks, "She's terrified of me. You think I'd force myself upon her?"

"Well, Lady Kagome did seem a little nervous, but I imagine any bride would be if she'd never met her groom before," the monk says. "And you two seemed to be getting on quite well from what I saw under that tree over there. I guess I just expected more of my favorite pupil but apparently you haven't been listening to my lessons. " Inuyasha looked out at the tree he and leaned on the railing, sighing.

"As though I'd actually listened to any of that drabble that comes out of your mouth after a visit to a tea house. Look, I want nothing to do with that girl," He says. "I'll take care of her and let her live out her life here, but that's it. I ain't gonna get her mixed up in my life." Miroku looked at his friend for a moment and sighs, leaning against the castle wall.

"Stubborn as always I see," Miroku says. "Will the Lady of the Castle at least be joining us for breakfast?" 

"She was still asleep when I woke up," he says. "It was a long journey, from her home to Musashi. She's probably tired." The monk saw the solemn look on his master's face and decided not to press the mater any further. Clearly, newlywed splendor is not what the former day's groom was lost in. Stepping forward, he rested his hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go then," he says. "Koga and Ayame are already in the den with reports of their rounds on the forest and the lovely Sango will be joining us after she checks on the human barracks."

With one last glance at the tree, the tattered purple veil he'd carelessly tossed aside still hooked on a branch, Inuyasha sighed and followed the monk back into the castle.

*****

Back inside the royal bed chamber, the young bride slowly blinked open her eyes. Her small nekomata companion leaped up on her shoulder, blinking her bright eyes at the young woman. Kagome slowly sat up and looked around. The room was quiet and dark, save the light streaming in and onto her bed. The other side of the futon was ruffled, but in a way that suggested that Inuyasha had only slept on top of the blanket. She reached out, finding the cloth cold.

He had left long ago.

"I guess I must have slept in," She says, not wanting voice her uncertainties aloud, even when the only witness was a cat. Crawling out from under the blankets, she walked to the trunk of clothing and rooted through it, finding a white and green yukata near the bottom, which was one of her favorites. "This one is so comfy and light. Not exactly a grand princess' kimono though, is it?"

She sighed, setting it down and looking until she found a deep blue kimono that she supposed would have to do. Even though she thought it would be a little warm in the spring sun in with such a dark fabric, it was simple enough for her to put on alone without calling any attendants, which she really, really didn't want to do.

Being a bother because she couldn't pull on a kimono by herself was exactly what Inuyasha probably expected. Things were done differently here, the absence of any servants shadowing them last night to tend to them before bed making that quite clear. And she refused to be the spoiled brat her husband undoubtedly already thought she was.

Pulling the fabric around her shoulders and tying it shut, she pulled her hair over her shoulder in a leather barrette, pinned with a wooden skewer. Kirara leaped down, resting on her haunches as Kagome washed her face, glancing in the mirror. She felt lost as she looked at the woman in the mirror. Dressed up like this, subdued as it was compared to her gown the day before,  just didn't feel very much like herself.

But she supposed this was her new normal as the wife of the lord of the region, even if last night hadn't exactly suggested he saw her that way. At least, not as though he had some great desire for her. He almost seemed bored with her and annoyed at the idea that she was who he had signed into his life. That the possibility that he would lay with her was sickening to him, that he didn't want her to even touch him.

"But if that were entirely true, why would he say he would protect me, that I didn't need to be scared anymore?" She wondered to herself. "Was it just to try to stop her tears or had he really meant those words?" Sighing she turned and reached for the door, pulling it open and stepping out.

"Come on, Kirara," She says and the two step out onto the open-air walkway. She could feel the smooth painted wood beneath her bare feet as she stepped forward and slid on a pair of sandals, her toes flexing as they settled in.

Birds fluttered in the trees and she watched as some servants milled around, rolling up discarded decorations and gathering the lanterns from the night before. It was making it feel as though last night never happened. Walking along further, she came to the room she had first been brought to upon the descending the stairs from the royal tower, and she saw a tall man in fur standing outside of it, resting his eyes. He glimpsed her and suddenly straightened.

"Oh my," he says. "So this is the Lady of the Castle? I must say, Inuyasha is a lucky man for an insolent pup." Kagome looked up at him and crossed her arms. Kirara sensed the way that her new mistress kind of stiffened at the wolf yokai's comment. Puffing up, she quickly scampered towards the open meeting den a few doors down.

"Insolent-pup?" Kagome asks, a little shocked by his brashness in regards to his leader, "And who are you to call our king and most honored prince that?"

"My name is Koga," he says. "I'm leader of the Wolf Demon Tribe of the West. Your husband's equal if not his better."

"I see," She says "Then perhaps you could tell me where my husband, the mutt-face, is this morning, since you are such an important, high ranking Western Yokai? It seems he thought it best I sleep in and I would really like to join him now that I have gotten some much needed rest." She says, trying her best to use flattery. He reached forward and clasped her hand.

"My Lady," he says, making her blink at him. "I am so sorry you were abandoned so cruelly by the half demon you were so cruelly wedded. If you were my mate I would never leave your side." Kagome looked down, trying to pull her hand back. Perhaps her flattery had worked too well.

"Uh, that's very kind of you, Koga, but if you could just direct me to where he went this morning I would really-"

"Get your mangy paws off her, you stinking wolf," she heard growled to her side and she looked over to see Inuyasha walking over, arms stuffed in the sleeves of a bright red suikan. As Koga hesitated, the golden eyes of her husband narrowed. "Don't make me make you." The wolf demon let go and Kagome backs away from him.

"I guess I better go make my rounds," Koga says. "Catch you later, Kagome." Inuyasha growls and the wolf demon leapt off the walkway and ran off in a whirlwind.

"What were you doing talking to him?" the hanyo asks and she looks up at him, playing nervously with her hair.

"I was looking for you," she says. "It isn't like you left me a note to say where you went."

"Why?" he asks, and Kagome crosses her arms.

"Why was I looking for my husband the day after my wedding?" she says. "That's a pretty good question, don't you think?" He sighs and she watches as the hair on his shoulder moves and Kirara's  pale yellow face appeared, blinking her large red eyes as she sat on Inuyasha's shoulder. Kagome felt her heart flutter, realizing the cat yokai hadn't been by her side as the wolf demon approached her. 

"Yeah, well, you were sleeping and had traveled a long way," He says. "Wasn't like I was gonna bother you just 'cause I woke up. Some pipsqueak like you would probably get sick if I didn't let you sleep in."

"Pipsqueak?" she says, and he sighs. "Really, Inuyasha. Is it that had to say my name?" He just shrugs and starts walking away. "And just where are you going?"

"I only came here to make sure Koga left you alone," he says. "I got better things to do than stand around and argue with you."

"You came here to what, mark your territory because Kirara came to get you?" She says and he looks back at her, his eyes narrowing. "That is the only reason isn't it. You want nothing to do with me, but the Buddha forbid another man in this castle takes the time to greet me."

"Are you saying you wanted to be man handled by that creep!" Inuyasha growls and she just stares at him, his cheeks turning red. Was he actually jealous that the wolf demon had been hitting on her.

"I hate to break it to you, but Koga isn't really my type, Puppy," Kagome says, watching as his ears pulled back with a bit of amusement, "And besides that, I don't need you to rescue me from every person that comes my way."

"Keh," he scoffs, "Please, a weakling like you that's never been out in the world has no idea what she's getting herself into wandering around this castle alone, flirting with any mangy thing that flashes his eyes at you. I may not have been eager for this marriage, but I won't be having you make a fool out of me either."

"Oh, really," she says, "Is that what you think?" He turns away from her, crossing his arms into his sleeves. Rolling her eyes, she reaches into her robes, feeling for the beaded bracelet the monk had slipped her. Pulling it out, she looks over the white and black jade beads. "Kirara, I'd get out of the way if I were you."

Inuyasha glanced back as the cat jumps from his shoulder seeing the stupid rosary in her fingers. He felt his blood run cold. That's what that damn monk slipped to her!

"You wouldn't dare," he growls, and she rolls the beads between her fingers, not looking up at him.

"How would you know?" she says, pulling the beads up to her lips, "It isn't as though you've taken the time to get to know me enough and know what I would and wouldn't do. And seeing as you want to keep running off as soon as I get near you, I guess I need to take matters into my own hands." Remembering Miroku's words to her the night before, Kagome smiled to herself.

"Your new husband is a tad stubborn so I figured you might need to be the one with his leash. Simply kiss the beads and cast your spell. It will give you the control over his subjugation from now on. You may find it handy."

"Hey! Don't!" He tried to stop her, and she pulled the beads away a moment.

"My name isn't Hey. It's Kagome," she says bringing the rosary to her lips and kissing them, pulling away and thinking about it a moment before the perfect, petty word came to her.

"Sit boy!" She says and he fought for a brief moment before he was shoved face first into the floor, groaning. After a while, he lifts his head a frown on his face and eyes glaring angrily up at her.

"You wench!" He grumbles and she crouches down, tilting her head a little.

"If you are so worried about me wandering around here by myself, then take the time to show me around," she says. He looks away, grumbling.

"Well what you gonna do if I don't?" He asks and his ear twitched as he heard the rattle of her swinging the rosary around her finger.

"I wonder," she says, tapping her chin, mildly amused by his reaction.

"Keh, fine. " He got up and turned around. "I guess I have some time to spare. But I don't want to hear any complaining out of you, especially not about being tired. You had your chance to rest." He starts walking back into the castle and she stays put. "What is it now?" She glanced back, towards the forest that surrounded them and formed the garden.

"Can we start out here?" She says. "I've seen a castle before, and while I'm sure yours is different and only vaguely similar to where I grew up, I've never seen anything like your forest, Inuyasha. Do you mind showing me around outside first?"

The hanyo prince blinked at her a few times, confused by her request. What kind of princess was this, who would rather walk out in the forest than see the riches and splendor that had caused her family to hand over her so willingly?

"Uh yeah," He says. "I guess that's fine." He walked past her, and she grabs onto his arm. He glances at her and she pulls back.

"Sorry," She says. "I forgot you don't want me to touch you." She was looking down, folding her arms into her sleeves. Seeing that look on her face made his heart seemingly melt a little. Sure, he still didn't want her getting too close, but at the same time, he wanted her to be happy here. As happy as she could be, married to someone who couldn't let himself fall victim to a woman's affections again at least.

"It's fine, I guess," Inuyasha says, "There's uh, a lot of roots in the forest and dressed like that being the klutz you are, you're bound to hurt yourself." Kagome blinked at him and grabbed his arm again.

"Well, I was only trying to look nice," She says, "I do still have impressions to make. If it were truly up to me, I wouldn't be wearing this in such warm weather. It's pretty inconvenient if I'm being honest. "

"Yeah well," Inuyasha looked away as he helped her off the stairs down into the garden. "In the future, remember it is up to you. You're my wife. Ain't nobody you got to impress around here. You're a queen and  princess to the Western Lands now. They should have to impress you. Wear whatever the hell you want." Kagome felt a blush rise to her cheeks and she leaned against his side.

"You know Inuyasha," She says. "You certainly aren't what I expected."

"Yeah, yeah," He says, "Come on. I don't have all day to entertain you."

Nodding, Kagome walked with her husband into the shade of the tall, dense forest.