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Summary: An orphaned hanyou who wanted nothing more than a friend, a young girl that just wanted to catch a butterfly, and a chance meeting in a meadow far away from the world that would come to shun them both.

Warnings: Character death, violence, language

Miscellanies:

Word Count – 5718

Post Date – August 8, 2013

Note: If the writing style seems a bit different, that's because I actually wrote this first chapter nearly four years ago :O and have only started to work on this more seriously in recent months.

The First Steps

By the time Inuyasha had made his way home, herbs and tea leaves in hand, his mother seemed to have paled another two shades. He could feel the water stinging behind his eyes as he looked upon her sickly and thin form on the bed. A foreign and vile smell had started polluting her natural scent, and Inuyasha held in a whimper as the panic rose in his chest.

"Mama, I brought your medicine," he poured the small bag of herbs onto a nearby table and swiftly began preparing them exactly as the doctor had instructed. When her medicine was ready, Inuyasha wasted no time bringing them to her and helping them down her throat.

After she had swallowed the mixture, Izayoi, his mother, cracked a small grin, though her lips seemed already too stretched, and waved a bony hand to motion him to her. "Come lie with mama, Inu-chan," she encouraged, using his favorite nickname. "You don't need to be so gentle. Mama's tough. She's not going to break if her baby wants to sleep with her." Izayoi chuckled lightly, but it evolved into another fit of coughs, and Inuyasha was at her side in a flash.

"Mama's strong. Just wait for the medicine to eat the bad guys, Mama. Then you'll be all better again and we can go play," Inuyasha whispered and cuddled into her side. "You'll be better, Mama, right? You promised we could pick flowers when they came back. Remember? And we never-ever-ever break promises." It took almost all her strength for Izayoi to keep her tears from falling as she did indeed remember her promise, but this time, she didn't think she would be able to keep it.

"Mama remembers, Inuyasha," she managed when Inuyasha turned his shining amber eyes at her. She felt under the covers from Inuyasha's small hand. When she had a firm hold on one of his hands, she gently pulled it up to her face and traced the small, but developing claws.

"You are the most beautiful boy in the world, Inuyasha...Don't ever forget that." She lifted her worn hand and soothingly rubbed her little boys puppy ears, one of her favorite features, but also the one that marked him as a hanyou.

Izayoi was no fool. No matter what kinds of medicine Inuyasha brought back to her, her time on earth would be cut short. Losing her mate had been devastating, and she knew that it was only her baby that managed to keep her from giving in. But now her life was running out, and her heart ached as she remembered how Inuyasha had always been treated by the humans in neighboring villages. She couldn't bear to leave her tender, soft-hearted baby to face their cruelty alone, but it seemed the kami had different plans for the both of them. A solitary tear started to slip down her cheeks as she held Inuyasha closer and shut her eyes.

Inuyasha, misinterpreting her tear but sensing that something was wrong all the same, hurriedly reassured his mother, "Boys can't be beautiful, Mama. Everyone knows that you're the beautifulest." She offered no response, and Inuyasha shook her hand to get her attention again. When she managed to open her eyes, he asked, "You're going to be better again, right? Will you be better by tomorrow, Mama," looking up imploringly for the reassurance that her words always brought.

Izayoi managed to weakly hum a yes but turned away from Inuyasha so he couldn't see the guilt and pain etched on her face. 'I'm the worst person in the world...' She looked one last time into his amber eyes that reminded her aching heart of her deceased mate and shut her eyes one last time.

"Don't worry, Inuyasha. We're both going to be okay."

Those were the last words she had spoken.

The first few months after she passed had been the hardest, and he knew he would never forget being awakened by stench of death and the haunting horror as he tried to shake her lifeless body awake. He had screamed and cried at her body, and hid in her tiny clothing chest for hours on end in his desperate attempts to keep her smell with him.

"Mama! Come back!" He had screamed in vain at her, crying into her cold body with despair. The first day he had prayed to every kami he could think of. Then he begged. Then, when the reality hit, he didn't have any more tears to cry.

He would always remember his terror of being in a world with no one, no one who loved him, no one to protect him, and he bitterly held the cruel villagers' antipathy and scorn in his memories.

It was because of the heartless monsters that Inuyasha had first felt the consuming desire for revenge, for refusing him a meal when he was starving, for whipping a five year old boy for 'stealing' food from the trash, for abandoning him in the woods just half a year after her death.

Within those few months, he had lost his mother, the only person who had shown any kindness towards him, and his home, terrible as it might have been. He had nearly starved the first week because he had no hunting skills, and the first time he managed to catch a rabbit, his hand stilled and tears came to his eyes at the thought of killing the same little rabbits that he and his mother had played with not so long ago. And at his size, he was the prey, not the hunter.

He had considered allowing simply giving in to one of the monstrous youkai hunting him, allow himself to be captured and join his mother in the afterlife, but something drove him to fight, to wait for something better.

During his first winter, he had approached a small town for shelter out of desperation and minimal hope that he might find a home. He had brought a small rabbit as an offering and nervously walked into the village. Not two minutes passed before a young man spotted him and cried out to alert the entire village that a demon had 'infiltrated.' Even as some dozens of armed men surrounded him and threatened to skewer him if he did not reveal what evil he planned, the small boy had resolved not to attack, terrified but still hoping for a chance to prove himself.

He had presented the rabbit, crushed in his frightened grip, to the village headman and requested to stay and work in the village. A mocking laugh and sneer were the headman's replies.

"Half-breed, no one would take you in even if you offered my hungry villagers an ox every night. Why would we dirty ourselves with your kind?"

One of the men had grabbed the rabbit out of his hand, and the headman proceeded to threaten to kill him like the rabbit.

"You took my rabbit. That means that I can -"

"It means nothing. We might have to burn nearly all the meat away just to purify your taint."

"I can work! I can be just like the other boys! I can..."

He held back a whimper, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. The headman pulled a young boy to his side and spoke proudly.

"This is what a young boy should be: like my Hideki, not a filthy half-breed."

The headman's son had smiled tauntingly at him, his face twisted into a haughty smirk. But before Inuyasha could reply, a large rock cracked violently against the side of his head, thrown by one of the impatient village women, and a series of frenzied shouts arose in the mob.

"Out of our village!"

"You're not welcome here, hell-spawn."

"Just do the world a favor and kill yourself!"

"Filthy, worthless mutt!"

He fled, bloodied, empty-handed and hopeless, before the villagers did serious harm. He swore that would be the last time he would put any faith in humans, and he lost hope in his mother's final words. Clearly, as a 'half-breed,' he would never be okay. That winter, he found a hole in a withered tree to live in, barely surviving on the meager meals of berries and occasional small creatures scurrying on the snowy floor before spring came to save him.

Yet, even so, his young heart yearned for someone to love and accept him again after nearly three years of solitude and fear. And perhaps it was this that made him trust in the next human he came across, small as she may have been.

Thus he lived, fearful of the villages on the edges of the forest, fleeing from demons until he learned to use his claws in defense, feeding himself off the land, and believing that he was a deformed monster, until his eighth year*.

Spring had brought life and cheer once again to the forest around him, with flowers blooming, wildlife grazing on the returning flowers and grass, and familiar critters scurrying across the warm forest floors. And wherever there were animals, there were hunters.

He awoke one morning to the rowdy shouts and cheers from a group of human men near the village he had been kicked out of. Having seen his fair share of hunts and knowing that he wanted nothing more to do with violent and bloodthirsty humans, Inuyasha moved deeper into his forest.

Surprisingly, other demons and beasts seemed to avoid the area and it was normally too far for humans to venture into the forest, so he enjoyed the purity and gentle waters by himself.

He sought peace and quiet near a pristine lake spring that he had discovered some months ago while fleeing from demons. The comfort that the crystal clear water and gentle aroma of flowers and wood brought had become one of the only blessings in his life. Oftentimes, he had wandered into the field of flowers and grasses, picking up the most beautiful. He would allow himself, if only for a moment, to remember the days he would bring back handfuls of flowers to his mother before helping her weave them into her hair. And in his loneliest times, he could pick some flowers, hold them to his nose and pretend that his mother was there with him, holding his hand and smiling like there was no wrong in the world.

Quickly blinking away the tears the always came when he thought about those happy memories, he climbed on to rest on the same branch and began drifting off into dreamland before a sudden rustling startled him awake. Inuyasha continued the routine of leaving for the spring every morning he heard hunters coming into his forest, and today had seemed no different until now. Shooting straight up, he looked around for the source of the noise. When he saw nothing, he convinced himself that it was nothing. After all, he had never before met anyone else here.

But soon a small giggle from below had his ears twitching again, and his golden eyes swept the forest floor for the intruder.

To his utter surprise, a giggling toddler girl seemed to be chasing something a little ways away from him. He stared agape at her as she clambered clumsily to catch a butterfly on a large boulder. The butterfly flew away, she would look hopefully into her tiny hands, and the game continued.

Had he been thinking clearly, he would have been wary, as he had learned that wherever the cub was, the much more dangerous parents were sure to be lurking nearby. But her happy smile and mischievous giggles struck something inside him; he found himself wanting to join in her game, if only to relive the times when he could frolic carelessly in the open.

'What could a baby do to me anyway?'

Before he could stop himself, he had jumped off the branch, and his feet were drawing himself closer to her playing field. His heart beat steadily in his ears as he waited for the distracted toddler to notice his intrusion. He didn't have to wait long.

Despite his quiet approach, the girl seemed to sense him and turned startled eyes up to him. In that moment, time froze for Inuyasha as the young girl looked dazedly at his face. She could burst into tears at the site of him, as many others seemed to do, or she could accept him, as he hoped that she had not been taught to fear hanyou yet. Thankfully, she chose the latter.

Inuyasha felt his chest warming too rapidly for comfort and relief overwhelming him when he saw a smile grow on her face until she was laughing happily again.

The edges of his lips began to quirk into perhaps the only smile he had had in years, when she suddenly cried, "KITTY!" Before her ecstatic exclamation registered, she had hobble-ran over to him and started climbing the small boy in her mission to reach his "kitty" ears.

Startled, he leapt back from the girl's grasp. Despite having stumbled from his sudden movement, the girl was up and moving towards him again with the same persistence that she had gone after the butterfly.

Seeing the gleeful look on her face stirred something in him, especially considering that this was the first time in years that someone seemed to associate him with anything but terror and hate; whatever it was, it kept him from running back again as her small form came nearer. She grabbed at his fire-rat pants eagerly and pouted when she couldn't reach his ears.

"'Gome wanna kitty!"

"Hey, I'm no cat! Inu...Inu-Ya-Sha, ok?" She acted as if he had never spoken and squirmed and jumped to reach the furry, pointed ears. Inuyasha quickly darted away, reached down and plucked a bright purple flower from the field and waved it in front of the girl's face to distract her. Delighted, she turned her attention away from her quest for the "kitty" and to the flower dangling from his hand.

Inuyasha took a small jump back and grinned when she followed the flower happily. He waited for her to follow and jumped back again, repeating a few more times before finally handing the flower over to her eager hands.

Simplistic as the game was, Inuyasha could not remember the last time he had genuinely had so much fun. How long had it been since anyone looked at him with happiness? The girl's giggles and squeals acted as a salve to his heart, and for those few minutes, the past two years of misery started to fade away. The game continued on each time he found a new flower until he saw her tiring out.

As she started to slow down, he stopped the game and gently picked her up into his arms. Though she was much smaller than him, his eight year old arms still didn't have the easiest time carrying the toddler; with the yawning Gome in his arms, he made his way to the towering tree that was his temporary home while the hunters were around.

The magnificent tree stood lofty at the edge between the forest and the meadows, with twisted, deep roots sinking into and wrapped in an embrace by the soft soil. Through his most recent years alone, it had been his comfort, shelter and solace. Normally, he slept fairly high on the branches, admiring the birds, butterflies, insects and the beautiful view of his forest home. However, as there was currently a young child in his arms, he settled himself comfortably at the base of a tree and placed the tired girl on his lap, within the folds of his red firerat robes.

She seemed content to observe the tree and pluck at the grass around him, and, to his dismay, occasionally biting and drooling on his clothing. Inuyasha lost track of time as they napped together under the shade, watching as the sky began to darken and the sunset cast a reddish hue over the meadow.

He knew that darkness was fast approaching, and there had been no sign from any outsiders looking for the girl, so he wrapped her in his firerat and slowly climbed up to a higher branch. The movement jostled the girl awake, and she wriggled out of his clothing as soon as he leaned back against the tree.

For a minute they simply stared at one another. She looked up, somewhat dazedly and her small limbs stilled. Her eyes, brown and shining up at his, held his gaze for what seemed like forever, and they focused on him with such intensity Inuyasha forgot it was a baby he was staring at. In that moment, he was her world and she was his. Then, as suddenly as she looked up, she began to smile and laugh. "Nasha!" she cried out and plopped face first right back down into his firerat.

'She remembered my name!...sort of…' Inuyasha smiled to himself.

He wanted so much for the fun he'd enjoyed that afternoon to last, but the longer he sat there, the more he realized how crazy the situation was. Years without any contact, and all of a sudden he wants to keep a little girl who somehow wandered deep into his forest? He knew something would happen to destroy the little comfort he had found, but at the moment, he didn't want to dwell on it. Reclined peacefully with her in his lap, he listened to the night air. All seemed quiet until he heard the sounds of clanging metal and harsh voices from closer to his little sanctuary than he was comfortable with.

'This makes no sense...all the hunters should have turned back by now. And why would they be walking further into the forest?' He wanted to move closer to investigate, but couldn't just leave Gome by herself. 'Maybe...Did they come for Gome?'

He looked down at the girl, who couldn't be any older than two or three years of age and held her soft, pudgy hands in his own. He had to face it, he thought to himself. Gome obviously wandered out on her own, and only the kami knew how she managed not to get eaten as she hobbled to his meadow, but there had to be people out there looking for her. Nonetheless, he felt an odd fear and desperation at the thought of his new friend being taken away so soon.

He didn't realize how lonely he was until then. It would be nice if he could have someone to play with, even if that meant just waving flowers around. All he wanted was to have someone to hold as he lay in his tree at night, the same way his mother held him as a child. That was wishful thinking. Impossible, Inuyasha reminded himself. "Still..." Inuyasha whispered, eyes drawn to the sleepy toddler.

The sound of horse hoofs and voices shook him from his thoughts once again, and he noted with alarm that they were definitely closer this time. It had to be a group of humans, possibly the hunters from earlier that day, either looking for something else deep in the woods or perhaps searching for the young Gome currently resting in his arms. He did his best to hold her still as he turned around and surveyed the area beyond the open meadow. While he couldn't pick up any faces, there was no mistaking the bright torches he saw moving through the shadows of the forests- and more alarmingly, in his direction.

Despite his attempts to calm down, Inuyasha could feel his heart begin to race in fear and anxiety. His last encounter with humans had left him with scars, both visible and internal, and he never wanted to live through something so humiliating again.

As he strained to hear what the humans were saying, a lone voice-a woman's - frantically cried out, "Kagome! Kagome! Where are you?"

'Kagome...is Gome?' Reluctanctly, he called out what he suspected her Gome's actual name to see if she responded. "Kagome?" She lifted her head and blinked up at him with half-asleep eyes, but there was no denying the recognition in her eyes. As much as he hated this, he knew that he had to get Kagome down to the humans who apparently risked being attacked by demons and wild beasts in the middle of the night to find her.

He carefully held her in his arms and slowly made his way down the tree, all the time thinking how much he didn't want to let her go. He wasn't stupid. Most kids, even ones as young as Kagome, were taught to fear demons and to flee at the sight of them. So it had to be fate, he insisted to himself, that perhaps the only young village girl who wouldn't fear him somehow wandered into his forest, managed to not get herself killed and proceeded to find her way directly to him. They were meant to be friends.

He looked down, ready to unravel his sleeves, but couldn't bring himself to wake Kagome once he saw her slumbering form, her puffy cheeks, relaxed after hours of laughing and giggling, and her tiny fists clutching to his firerat hakama. He snuggled her in closer and quietly set off in the direction of the humans, using the woman's voice as a guide in the darkness.

He kept an eye out for any of the animals that hunted at night, but it seemed like they were as wary about coming close to the humans as he was. Before he knew it, he found himself approaching the heels of the human group. Some sound must have given him away, because a dozen heads spun around at once, with weapons raised, to stare at him.

"Uhhh..." In the few seconds where they stared in shock, he lost every ounce of the courage he'd been gathering and froze.

"It's a demon!" Someone in the group whispered out harshly. Three spears charged at him at once, and Inuyasha frantically jumped back as best he could, unintentionally jostling Kagome. Her startled cry stopped everybody mid-motion, until the only woman traveling with the group stepped out from their midst.

"Kagome?" She called out. Even in the darkness of the night, Inuyasha could see the tear tracks and redness in her eyes.

He opened up his sleeves and let the toddler, who had begun squirming as soon as she heard her mother's voice, down gently.

Kagome ran over to her mother, who fell to her knees crying in relief.

"I-...She was...I found her and..I didn't know..." he managed to get out to the woman, though it was clear she wasn't paying attention.

"Lies! The demon child took her!" One of the villagers brandishing his spear accused. He nodded to the other two and signaled them to move forward.

Inuyasha crouched, prepared to run away when Kagome's mother yelled, "Wait!" His eyes darted to the woman still kneeling on the floor, and those few seconds were all it took for the three men to reach him and strike with the blunt end of their spears, causing him to cry out in pain and crumple to the ground under their blows.

Horrified, the woman immediately jumped forward, letting go of Kagome, and desperately tried to stop the men. "Stop!" The men paused and looked back at the woman questioningly. "He hasn't done anything wrong! Kagome is fine." Kagome peaked out from behind her mother and rushed to Inuyasha who was frozen in either shock or fear on the ground.

Kagome called out "Nasha" again and climbed onto Inuyasha. She put her hand on Inuyasha's forehead, as if feeling for a fever, and exclaimed, "Gome fixes it." Inuyasha smiled at her, holding back a flinch when she stepped on his quickly bruising thigh, and looked back up at his attackers and the woman who had stopped them.

"I didn't hurt her or nothing. I promise," he explained.

"A demon's promises mean nothing!" The same villager who signaled the other two originally shouted back.

"Ichiro! Stop this! Please, Kagome is unhurt, and the boy is probably the reason she's fine," Kagome's mother tried to reason, and she put her hand on the man's arms to get him to lower the weapon.

The man roughly yanked his arm away from her and snapped out, "Fine. Ungrateful wench! Just don't blame me if your soft heart gets you killed by the demon." He waved the small group of men forward in the direction out of the forest and they began to move out.

The woman waited for them to move out of the way before stepping towards Inuyasha and carefully lifting Kagome off of him.

"Are you going to be okay? They didn't hurt you too bad, did they?" The woman knelt down and reached out her hands to check for injuries, but stopped when Inuyasha instinctively flinched back. "I'm not going to hurt you," she spoke calmly, "What's your name? Are your parents out here with you?"

Inuyasha began to relax at the sound of her gentle voice and quietly replied, "Inuyasha...I don't have any parents."

"Oh...well Inuyasha, would you like to come to our house for tonight? Why don't you let Kagome and I take care of you?" She offered her free hand again, to help Inuyasha off the ground, and he accepted it readily. He was half-ready to slap himself out of what had to be dream. He couldn't tell if he was simply deluded by his isolation, but he swore he saw his mother's gentle, kind eyes in the woman's smile, and his heart skipped a beat when she spoke again. "Come on," she whispered soothingly and helped dust off Inuyasha as best as she could with Kagome bouncing around and calling out for "Nasha" in her arms.

The trio followed in the safe half-shadow behind the village men, but Inuyasha kept his eyes and ears alert, trying to be strong and ready to protect Gome and her mother should anything attack. So focused was he on his surroundings that he nearly jumped when Kagome's mother reached out and held his hand. She squeezed gently and smiled down at him.

As he looked up at her, Inuyasha was suddenly overcome with the urge to cry for the first time in years, and he quickly shook his head to will away the tears.

They arrived at the village and Kagome's hut, which sat at the edge of the village, and it was then the village men seemed to notice that Inuyasha had followed them.

"What do you think you are doing?!" The man Inuyasha knew as Ichiro shoved his way through the men as soon as he spotted the hanyou. "You can't bring this demon into the village!" He shouted, enraged at even the thought.

"He kept Kagome safe and I'm going to return the favor by keeping him safe!" Kagome's mother whispered back harshly.

"I won't allow it!" Ichiro raved, uncaring of whom he woke so late in the night with his voice. The two argued back and forth, and Inuyasha noticed a few men and women stepping out of their homes, sleepy-eyed, to figure out what the commotion was all about.

"It is my home and I can invite him in if I want to!" Kagome's mother finally yelled, after spending so long trying to keep her voice down. Inuyasha held onto her clothes and squeezed his eyes shut to ignore the other villagers. He already regretted accepting Kagome's mother's help and wanted to tell her to just let him go back, but the lump in his throat kept him from speaking up.

"Well then, I'll banish the demon from this village entirely!"

Before she could respond, a weary voice spoke up from behind the men. "Ichiro. You don't have the authority to do that." Inuyasha watched as the crowd parted for a man who looked to be in his late fifties. "What is the problem here? Mai?" He turned to face Kagome's mother who had calmed down at his appearance.

"Kagome went missing earlier today, and when we went out to look for her, Inuyasha here brought her to us safely. I would like to offer Inuyasha a place to rest, at the very least for a night." She cautiously stepped to the side to show Inuyasha, who was clutching to her clothing, to the village headman, though everyone's eyes had already latched onto him at that point.

"I refuse to let a demon - child or not! - pollute our village. We were only blessed by passing monks a week ago, and we need the kami on our side for our hunting season to go well. The child could starve us all!" Ichiro explained to the village head.

"Don't be so dramatic," the headman sighed. "Keep the boy with you -" Ichiro began to protest "- for the night. We'll figure everything out tomorrow after we've all had some sleep."

"Thank you," Kagome's mother bowed and turned to walk back to her home, Inuyasha in tow. The village head waved his hand, and everyone dispersed, some without shooting a dirty glance at Inuyasha.

He followed along quickly and before he knew it, they had arrived at the small, but invitingly cozy home. Kagome hobbled in as her mother dusted off their shoes at the doorway. As Inuyasha stood at the entrance, the warmth of their cot enveloped him, his heartbeat quickened to match the pulsing of the fire in their hearth, and when he took his first step in to the smiling Kagome, he knew he was home.

Seven years later

Kagome darted behind one of the enormous trees at the border of the forest, eyes searching desperately for a sign of silver hair or red firerat in the green foliage. Sweat poured down her face, stinging her eyes and tracing her cheek. 'Where is he?' She was growing more nervous every second that passed with no sign of the hanyou. Hesitantly, she stepped off the large roots of the tree and checked to make sure the coast was clear. Bending down to prepare to sprint, she counted to three and took off for her house as fast as her still-scrawny legs would take her.

The approximately hundred yard sprint was always the most difficult and dangerous part, and she risked taking a look back to see if she could spot him...WHAM!

She ran straight into a solid block of hanyou and fell onto the straw-covered dirt.

Inuyasha smirked down at her and bent to her eye level before poking her straight in her stomach. "Haha, runt. You're it."

Kagome pouted angrily, her eyes squinting in a childish glare. "I'm not a runt!"

Inuyasha laughed and plopped down in front of her, as if taunting her by saying she wouldn't be able to reach him fast enough even though he was right in front of her.

Of course, Kagome being Kagome couldn't help taking the bait. With as sudden a burst as she could, she pushed herself at him, but Inuyasha dodged as if he hadn't even noticed she moved. "Grrr...That's not fair!"

Inuyasha smirked teasingly. "Life ain't fair, runt."

Kagome turned her nose upwards and declared, "I don't like this game anymore. You always win! Let's play something funner."

"Fine, fine." Inuyasha relented and lay down on his back. "What do you want to play?"

Kagome crawled over and lay her own stomach over his to they made a "t" on the ground. She picked at the straw absentmindedly. "I think I wanna play...Inu carries me around and flies!"

She wiggled off of him and attempted to lift him off his back so she could climb on. Inuyasha allowed her to flip him over and latch onto his back and cried out in joking despair, "Noooo! Not this again!" Kagome giggled and pulled on his shoulders to get him to stand up.

"Kagome!" Kagome's mother suddenly called from outside their home, intruding on their games. "No more play time for you two! Dear, have you gathered everything we need for dinner today?"

"Umm...I was going to do it...later?" She replied. At her mother's gentle but stern frown, Kagome climbed off of Inuyasha sheepishly. "Sorry! Inuyasha and I are going to get everything right now!"

"Hey!" Inuyasha protested. "Don't drag me into doing your chores, runt."

"But I have to get some fruits and berries today. I don't want to go to the market so you have to take me into the forest to get them!" Kagome explained, tugging on Inuyasha's sleeve. "Let me go get my basket."

A few minutes later, the two were heading into the woods. Kagome bounced along with the energy of a hyper child, occasionally stopping to pick some berries that her mother had specified, while Inuyasha kept an eye out for anything that could be dangerous to his friend.

He knew he didn't honestly need to be so aware, because he had spent many years hunting down any rogue demons or wild predators that encroached on his territory for dinner. Nonetheless, when it came to Kagome's safety, there was no such thing as too cautious.

Kagome may have forgotten how they had met, but for Inuyasha, the memory was fresh in his head. While many things hadn't changed since that fateful day - the villagers still sneered and commented about his dirty presence whenever he accompanied Kagome or her mother and they still forced him to sleep outside of their village - the things that had changed made all the difference. He got to spend most afternoons playing with the girl who had become his world. He had a family to eat with, to protect. And most of all, the aching loneliness that he had resigned himself to so many years ago became nothing more than a memory with Kagome in his life.

He wouldn't let anything threaten his family, Inuyasha promised fiercely as he looked down on his young friend.

Author's Note:

*Inuyasha is eight when he meets Kagome, and thus he is fifteen at the end of this chapter. This wasn't clearly stated, but Kagome is three when they meet and the fun age of ten at the end of the chapter.

This story is a little different than my usual ideas (I have a habit of wanting to turn even the simplest of stories into some wild adventure with a million complicated little plot twists and turns that even I have trouble keeping track of), but I hope you enjoy regardless!

Thanks for reading and please hit that review button if you liked it :]!