Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or locations found in The Vampire Diaries or InuYahsa: A Feudal Fairy tale.

A.N.: WELCOME one and all to my new Damon/Kagome crossover pairing! I have fallen in love with this pairing and couldn't stay away, so here we are :D I hope you enjoy this new story, this chapter will seem a little sad, but it won't stay that way in later chapters, I promise! Onward!

Kagome shuffled into her small apartment with a weary sigh, her luggage and fatigue weighing her down. She dragged herself into her bedroom, dropping her bags onto the floor before collapsing onto her bed with a grunt. She sighed in exhaustion and disgust, toeing her traveling boots off and letting them fall to her floor with a dull thud. She pulled out her cellphone and turned it on, watching blankly as the phone screen flashed with each notification she'd missed since she'd boarded the plane. Most were her mother inquiring about her safety, but there was one from her brother, and several from her friend Yuka, the only one of her little group of girlfriends she'd kept in contact with since high school graduation when they'd all split up for university.

University for them, anyway. Kagome, much to her mother's disappointment, chose not to attend a university. She had kept herself mildly busy with some local college courses to appease her mother somewhat, but simply had no more heart for trying to build a typical, successful life on this side of time.

Kagome continued to stare unseeing at her phone long after the screen stopped flashing, making half formed plans to visit her mother tomorrow before drifting off to sleep.

'Another trip completely wasted.' She thought with disgust, scrubbing the fuzzy film from her teeth that had formed after she had fallen asleep the night before without brushing them. She splashed some warm water on her face, then patted her skin dry and examined her face in her mirror above her sink. What she saw made a dull echo of dread pulse through the pit of her stomach. It had been another year, 15 in total now, and she still looked no different at all as to when she'd returned for good from a distant era where she'd lived a true fairy tail, one that had ended in a nightmare. It was a nightmare she'd had often. It haunted her even all these years later, taunting her with all she'd sacrificed and lost, all that had been taken from her. She'd had it again just last night.

She shook off her daze, eyes refocusing on her image in the glass before her. She frowned at herself, then stuck her tongue out childishly before huffing and returning to her room. She grabbed her keys and phone and made her way outside, intent on making a visit to her mother today.

"Hello my dear, how was your trip?"

Kagome could hear the apprehension in her mother's voice, she'd had a harder and harder time trying to hide it each time she asked it. Kagome smiled kindly, understanding her mother's concerns and what she was really trying to ask. 'Did you find anything? Are they out there? Have you got your answers? Is my baby coming back?' She didn't hold it against her anymore.

"It was great mama, Russia was beautiful."

"Well that's good dear. Where to next?"

"Oh I don't know. I haven't decided yet. I thought I'd stay and help around here for a few days."

"I would love that Kagome! It's always so good to have you home. Your room is ready and waiting as always." Her mother patted her cheek and then shuffled off to the kitchen to make some tea, leaving Kagome to take her stuff upstairs to her old bedroom. She returned downstairs to join her mother at the kitchen table, sipping at her tea and letting it warm her completely. This was one of the few places she ever felt a measure of peace, she liked to soak up as much as she could.

"Kagome dear, how has work been?"

"It's been work. Nothing very interesting I'm afraid."

Her mother gave her a cheeky smile, and Kagome braced herself for what she knew was coming next.

"Have you met anyone special recently?"

"Afraid not mama."

"Well then, I suppose I could tell you. Hojo came by the other day asking about you! Maybe you should call him. It couldn't hurt."

"Hojo? I thought he was married."

"Oh that fell through years ago. But he's still the same sweet boy he always was. He'd be good for you!"

Kagome took another sip of her tea to hide her disgust at that idea. She'd worked pretty hard to shake Hojo off of her all those years ago, she was not going back down that path ever again. Still, she disappointed her mother enough with her decisions as it was. She supposed she could let her at least think she could have this one.

"Um, sure mom. Maybe. We'll see." Her mother's relieved smile made her feel the faintest bit guilty, but she'd tried so hard to make her mother see that the normal life she'd always dreamed for her daughter just wasn't in the cards anymore.

"How's Sota?"

"Oh, wonderful! He and Sakura are expecting! Finally, my first grand baby."

Kagome felt nothing but genuine excitement for her mother. She deserved grandbabies, even if she herself couldn't give them to her.

"That's so great mama. That poor kid is going to be so spoiled."

Her mother patted her hand and cleared the tea cups from the table, settling in to make dinner.

"Hello Kagome. Well done, my child. I give you my thanks for completing my jewel."

"Midoriko-Sama!" Kagome gasped, looking up at the shining Miko floating above her.

"Yes Kagome, it is I. Though I do not have much time, I'm afraid. I'm here to offer you a gift. A thank you for completing your duty to the jewel and the Kami. You may make your wish, whatever you please, and the jewel will grant it on one condition."

"Condition?"

"Yes. You must agree to guard it with your life. It will be yours to protect now. Your heart alone is pure enough to ensure it's safety. If you can agree to these terms, you may have your wish."

"Yes. Yes I... I agree. I'll protect the jewel, Midoriko-sama."

Midoriko appeared to visibly relax at Kagome's compliance, a radiant smile spreading across her ghostly face. Kagome just missed the edge of apprehension crinkling the edges of her ghostly eyes.

"Very well child. What is your wish? Think carefully Kagome, for once it has been spoken, it cannot be undone."

Kagome nodded firmly, then cast her eyes down at the grey void she now floated in. She recalled her most recent conversation with Inuyasha, and her heart constricted with the bittersweet memory. They'd stayed up well passed when the others had fallen asleep. Sango and Miroku had pulled their bedrolls close together, wanting to be as close as possible for as long as they could, the uncertainty of the next day's battle looming over them. Shippo and Rin slept in a tangled heap of limbs in her own sleeping bag, Jaken resting against a tree close by. Sesshoumaru had taken to patrolling around the camp in the night, ensuring no sneak attacks by dishonorable opponents. It was just she and Inuyasha, her best friend, the male she loved. He'd taken her hands in his and held them as he spoke, her soft blush invisible thanks to the warm glow of firelight. She tried her very best to hide her heartbreak as he spoke, but with every word her heart cracked and splintered further, and the pain drove several stray tears down her cheeks. He'd pleaded for her to understand, reassured her how much she herself meant to him. He was asking for Kikyo, another chance at their happiness. He must have known she would not have refused him anything. She felt no hesitation when she agreed, and he hugged her close. One cursed sob escaped her, and Inuyasha crushed her closer, whispering apologies into her hair for a love he couldn't return, a life he couldn't give her. She pulled away and went to her bed, taking comfort in the warm snuggles of the children she'd come to love so much in her three years here. She spared one last glance toward Inuyasha, catching the glint of his silver hair as he lept high into the branches of one of the surrounding trees. She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling several more tears leak past her lashes, and allowed sleep to take her.

She looked back up into the transparent visage of the long dead warrior Miko. She knew what she would do. She would sacrifice her happiness again. She'd do it for Inuyasha, for she loved him, and he deserved it. She'd do it for Midoriko, for she deserved rest and peace. And she'd pray that the Kami would have mercy on her someday, that she'd find her own happiness one day, that she wouldn't always find herself on the short end of sacrifice.

She bucked up all of her courage, sniffed back the fresh wave of tears that had built up in her throat and behind her eyes, and nodded again in determination.

"Inuyasha, he..." she closes her eyes and sighed, regrouping her thoughts. She had to word this right.

"I wish for Kikyo to be returned to life at Inuyasha's side."

Midoriko reached out and cupped Kagomes face in her corporeal hands, a look of pride and sympathy settling onto her beautiful features as she looked deep into Kagome's eyes.

"Oh my child, what a heart you have. So you have wished it, so it shall be done. Go in blessings my dear one, and rest in the knowledge that you have bought your own happiness this day, for you have made the gods proud." The jewel in question floated up between them before shattering into glittering dust and settling into the younger Miko's skin. Midoriko leaned forward, placing a kiss on Kagome's forehead. Kagome closed her eyes and sighed, a feeling of warmth and peace washing through her. When she opened her eyes again, she was standing back in the well clearing, a stunned Inuyasha greeting a newly breathing Kikyo; a tearful Sango and a pensive Miroku made their way towards her with their arms open. She readied herself for their embrace, the siblings of her heart, wishing that her beloved kitsune kit was with them instead of safely back with Kaede, when a surge of power from the well made her gasp in apprehension. Sango and Miroku stopped in their tracks, looking behind her with looks of confusion and dawning horror as they realized when was happening. Inuyasha's own panicked outcry made her turn her attention toward the well. The bright blue lights that usually engulfed her on her way through time were surging out of well, swelling up and around before reaching out toward her. Panic seized her and she turned, ready to run and hold on to anything that would anchor her here. Inuyasha reached out for her, and she had almost clasped his hand when the blue lights wrapped around her and began pulling her back toward the well.

"No.. Kagome!"

"Inuyasha! Help!"

He had nearly caught her when the azure lights of time engulfed her completely. His hand passed through hers as if she was nothing but a spirit. She was dragged down through the passage of time and deposited onto the dusty floor of the well in her own era. She glanced blankly around at the dark walls surrounding her, then up at the roof of the well shrine that housed the well in the present. Her shock wore off and the tears came again. Panic choked her, causing her breaths to become short and gasping. She stood and climbed halfway up the ladder hanging down into the well, before jumping off and down toward the floor again. She landed hard on her feet, pain lacing up her legs. She pushed it away and stood again, climbing half up the ladder again and leaping back into the wells depths. Several more times she tried to activate the time slip before a wrong landing had her rolling her ankle in a painful angle. She scooted back to lean against one of the well walls, holding her stinging ankle as tears marked tracks through the dust and blood on her face. She wept bitterly, tried digging her way through to the other side until her fingernails were all shorn away and bloody. Finally she gave up, gingerly climbing her way out of the well, only to collapse against the outside of it. When she woke again she was cleaned and in bed, a glass of water on her bedside table compliments of her mother. Her tears blurred her vision again, and she sank back into her pillows in despair.

Kagome woke with a gasp, her emotions swirling inside her as her crippling heartbreak from the dream lingered inside her for a few moments longer before fading to a dull ache. It receded back into the dark recesses of her heart where she'd been trying to banish it since she woke that first day after the fateful battle with Naraku that changed her life again forever. She laid in bed, as she usually did after having that particular nightmare, and let herself sulk in it for a time. If she'd known just what Midoriko meant when she had said she'd be the jewel's new guardian, "you must guard it with your life," she just might have thought a little harder before making her final wish. The true scope of her agreement hadn't been clear at first. It had taken many years for the true magnitude of the price she'd payed for that one wish to become evident. When Sota had turned 18, the age she'd been on her return from the past, many people had complimented her on remaining so youthful, asking her skin care treatments and remedies and secrets to maintaining her complexion. She'd brushed it off. She was only 24, many people remained quite youthful early in their 20s. When Sota graduated college, many asked her if she was proud of her elder brother, and if she'd be following in his footsteps to the same university. She'd laughed it off awkwardly, shocking people with the fact that she was actually the elder sibling.

She knew something was wrong when Sota had reached his 25th birthday, and then subsequently his wedding to his college sweetheart. Upon receiving the formal family wedding photo, her mother had had it framed and hanged it next to a family photo they'd had done when she was 17 on one of her brief visits from her mission. She was shocked to see that she looked exactly the same in each photo, despite them being taken 14 years apart. It had hit her then, what Midoriko had meant by "guarding the jewel." She'd meant forever.

That had started her on her current mission, which she was about to start anew this very morning. She'd never truly managed to shake out of the depressed fog that had clouded her mind since returning to her birth era. She had an ever present feeling that she simply didn't belong. She'd lived through to many spectacular events, known too many truly magical people and beings. This world she lived in now was too grey, too dull, too... not for her. The well had never opened again, and none of her youkai companions had ever come looking for her, so she determined to look for them. She'd swept her Miko aura out in large waves wherever she went, hoping to draw someone too her who could sense it. She widened her search perimeter more and more, worrying her mother when she kept getting fired from jobs for her excessive traveling. She began writing about her adventures, vaguely anyway, and making money as a freelance fiction writer to fund her searches. When it seemed Japan was a bust for supernatural beings, at least any that could still be sensed the traditional way, she looked OUTSIDE her birth country for any evidence of anyone with even a drop of magic In their blood. She scouted online newspapers and blogs and conspiracy sites, looking for anything that could mean someone somewhere was more than what they seemed. She'd follow a lead, search the area, pulse her aura, ask the underground conspiracy channels. So far all of her searches had turned up nothing. She could tell her mother worried, she'd been pretty obsessive about it, but she needed to find somewhere to belong, someone to who would be as long lasting as she was, something to cling too while she watched her family age and die before her. Her last lead had taken her to Russia, from where she'd returned only two days before. That search had also turned up nothing.

She sat down in front of the computer that was kept in her brother's old bedroom, booting it up and opening the web browser. She made her usual searches with her usual key words, scrolling past things that were obviously fakes, or paranoia laced ramblings. She was about to close it down and head downstairs for food and fresh air when one headline caught her attention. She opened the article, something about killer animals and large sygils burned into forest floors, and read through it, deciding that this is where she'd start for her next journey. She bookmarked the article, intending to use it as a starting point to further research this particular town. She scrolled back up to the top of the article, memorizing the location, feeling that unsinkable hope bubbling up in her heart again.

"Mystic Falls, eh? Well, I've never been to America before."

Kagome shoved her carry on luggage into the overhead storage above her plane seat before taking her spot by the window. She leaned her head against the glass and sighed, recalling the confrontation she'd had with her mother a few days before.

Kagome sat at the tablet across from her mother, picking at her breakfast, uncomfortable at the slight tension between them. She had already been there several days, and since starting her searches nearly two years ago, she never stayed for longer than that. That she would be off on another "adventure" was inevitable, and that her mother would disapprove was not a question. Her mother cleared her voice, a strained smile barely stretching her lips as she addressed her daughter before her.

"So, my dear, what are your plans now?"

Kagome allowed herself a moment to try to find a way out of the awkwardness that would follow, but it was unavoidable.

"There's this town in America I thought I'd check out. You know, mysterious happenings, occult symbols burned into the forest... and I've never been too America! So that will be exciting."

Her mother put her tea cup down and sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before meeting her daughter's eyes, agitation evident from their grey depths.

"Kagome... when will this end?"

"When will what end, mama?"

"THIS, Kagome! Traipsing across the world looking for magic, putting your life on hold to look for the past! It's time to move on Kagome, to settle down. You are restless and depressed. I want you to be happy!"

Kagome felt tears threatening to spill from her eyes. This was a conflict a long time in the making, but It didn't make it any easier to face.

"Mama... marriage, children... that's just not going to happen for me now. It's not in the cards for me anymore."

"And who decided that? You did! You've been punishing yourself long enough, Kagome. Inuyasha is gone, the past is dead. It's time to-"

"Mother LOOK at me! Open your eyes and LOOK! I'm not aging, mama. It's time to face the facts that I'm stuck like this... FOREVER! And don't give me that crap anymore about Aunt Mei always being youthful. SHE didn't look like and 18 year old GIRL as an almost 40 year old woman!" Kagome stared down at her mother from where she'd risen from her seat, taking in her wide eyes and the pale flush of her cheeks. She hoped she'd finally made her mother see.

"This is my price to pay for using the jewel, mama. When I agreed to protect it, it meant FOREVER. I'm going to watch you die. I'm going to watch Sota and Sakura die. I'm going to watch their children, and their children's children, and their children's great great grandchildren age and turn to dust. And still I will remain, just this way, forever. Don't you see? I NEED to find someone, ANYONE who might be even half so long lived. I cannot face the endless centuries before me alone. Mama, I would love nothing more than to live normally, to give you lots of grand babies to spoil into rotten monsters... but there's nothing to say they'd be as immortal as I am. Would you wish me to watch my own children age and die before me?" Tears streamed down her face as she uncorked the bottle of her darkest fears and poured them before her mother at last, praying to every Kami she'd ever heard a name for that her mother would finally understand her and her need to keep going, her fear of just settling down only to end up alone and adrift once more.

She watched as realization slowly trickled into her mother's blank stare, and the next thing Kagome knew, she was being cradled in her mother's arms, both of them a sobbing puddle on the kitchen floor.

Kagome sighed once more and placed her ear buds into her ears, rubbing her hand across her chest at the feel of old echoes of pain that were still leaching from her soul. Her encounter with her mother had been painful, but necessary, and she could feel her heart lightening every time she realized she was no longer carrying the burden of her secret immortality completely on her own shoulders. As the plane took off, Kagome turned her music off, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

Mystic Falls was one of the more picturesque places she'd seen on her extensive travels. It seemed, so far, to be a slow, quiet place. Perfect for her first voyage into America. Her English skills were still very sharp from how much time she'd spent in Europe over the years, which was another layer of comfort traveling alone in a foreign country so far from home. She turned down the radio in her little rental car to better focus on the navigating voice coming from her phone as she tried to find the little motel she'd be staying in over the coming weeks when a ping off her senses caused her to screech to a stop on the, thankfully empty, road she was currently driving on. Her face drained of all color, and she felt her heart falter and her palms sweat as she felt, finally, after so long, a feeling she'd spent much energy searching for. She reached out with her own aura and grabbed hold, spinning her car around and heading in the direction she felt the familiar tinglings of the faint, creeping tendrils of magic.

Damon Salvatore walked out of the front door of the house his now human brother shared with his now human wife. He and Elena had taken The Cure together just a couple years ago, and had moved into this small, quaint house after getting married just last year. It was very strange visiting with them now, though he tried to visit often regardless. They were like two completely different people since taking The Cure, and though it had been several years, it was still a lot for him to accept. There was a lightness to them now that neither had had as vampires, a contentedness that he didn't even know was possible. They had offered The Cure to him as well, but he had refused. While it was clear that they had never been meant to live forever as vampires, he wasn't so unhappy with himself the way he was anymore. He wasn't even sure he'd know who he was anymore if he wasn't a vampire. He tried not to think too much about the fact that they both already looked older, like more "adult" versions of themselves. That his "baby brother" wasn't so obviously the young one anymore. He focused instead on another bit of alarming news he'd just received-he was going to be an uncle. Another thing to wrap his mind around and assimilate into his new reality: his brother and Elena could have children. It was not something vampires were capable of, being technically dead, and just another box to check on the growing list of differences separating him from the only family he had left.

He made his way to the town graveyard to sulk for a while. It had become a favorite place for him of late. There were rarely people there, and when there were, they were quiet and kept to themselves. It was the perfect place to do all the thinking and introspective prodding he'd been doing. He didn't enjoy doing this, per se. Brooding was something Stefan liked to do. But he couldn't deny that it had helped him settle some things within himself that had previously been restless and volatile.

He had realized that he didn't really enjoy hurting people as much as he thought he had. One of those "over compensation" things from his rough upbringing, he supposed. He also didn't need Elena half so much as he previously thought, either. He had been able to completely settle his heart where she and Katherine were concerned, and could genuinely be happy for her and his brother. Still, there were several sharp things poking around in there and causing him discomfort, things that he wasn't entirely sure of, so here he came, as often as he could stand, to brood until he figured it out. He figured it was better than just murdering people and ignoring it, in any case. He was simply trying to be better. His brother's newfound mortality had sobered something in Damon that nothing else had successfully sobered before; he would be alone one day, and sooner that he would like. When Stefan finally grew too old and passed on, there would be no one left ready to accept him completely as he was. As often as they had clashed, as different as they were, as vehemently as Stefan had disagreed with most of the choices he'd made, Damon always knew there was someone out there worrying for him, loving him no matter what. And that, he realized, much to his disgust, was the whole problem: he wanted to be loved. And that was the other problem: he wasn't very lovable. His life thus far had been an extreme act of self destruction, most likely sparked by his abusive father. And then being pitted against his own brother by the first woman he'd ever thought he loved. And then having to compete against him again for that same woman's doppelgänger. He had lost both times, and he couldn't really say, anymore, that it was anyone's fault but his own. If he didn't want to spend the rest of his eternity on this earth alone, he had to stop trying to destroy anything good in his life for selfish, temporary gains. And so here he came, and here he sat, and here he brooded.

Kagome drove as fast as she dared, that tantalizing tendril of magic growing stronger, curling around her and beckoning her forward in a hypnotizing dance. Her heart thundered in her ears and her palms felt slick against her steering wheel, but she gripped tighter and breathed deeper and pushed forward, desperate to end this fruitless search once and for all, to finally have her answers one way or another. She parked outside of an old cemetery, ignoring the fact that it seemed a cliche place for this to be happening, and stepped gingerly through the already open gate. She walked slowly now, excitement and nervousness drumming through her heart and tingling her fingers, leaving her thoughts fuzzy and her tongue dry. She slipped into a sparse covering of trees to give herself the illusion of some sort of protection, or element of surprise, wishing to first observe from a distance and make sure she wasn't walking into trouble. Inuyasha was always ranting about how trouble seemed to follow her everywhere, and it made her cautious even all these years later. She stopped behind a tree with a wide trunk, gripping the bark and taking a deep breath of its earthy, woody scent before finally peeking carefully around at the source of the magic she'd been blindly searching for all over the world. She was awestruck at the sight before her. Leaned against a large, aged headstone, arm resting atop his raised knee, was man with a face that could nearly rival any youkai she'd ever faced in the past. He was beautiful, his features chiseled and strong, with a balancing softness around his mouth and eyes. He seemed deep in thought, and looked completely human, despite the obvious aura of something "other" that surrounded him. The mystery, the promise of him, began to draw her out of hiding against her bidding. She had not even known she was moving until a crunch of a twig under foot snapped her out of her trance, and drew his piercing attention to her for the first time.

Damon shook himself out of his depressing thoughts and began mustering up the drive to get up and leave. He was just eyeing some of the crows that were flitting around nearby as a possible food source when the sharp sound of a snapping twig alerted him to his company. His eyes shot up immediately, taking in the form of the woman before him. She was small, young, new. He'd never seen her around here before. He stood slowly, brows furrowed, feeling just slightly on the defensive.

"Uh, who the hell are you?" He asked, voice thick with confusion.

Whatever spell had trapped Kagome did not break at the sound of his voice, the wisps of his inhuman aura simply carried her forward toward him at a slow, steady pace. She stopped inches in front of him, his eyes wide and one brow lifted toward his hairline. She reached out, running her hand through the shimmering aura surrounding him that only she could see, confusing Damon further. She smiled the most brilliant smile he'd ever seen, causing his confusion to reach new heights. Tears streamed down Kagome's cheeks as she watched the magic of him bounce and spark off of her hand.

"It's YOU." She whispered reverently as her tears continued to track down her face. Damon felt himself lose any tiny grasp he may have had on the situation. He cast his mind back as far as he was able to try and remember this girl. Surely he'd met her before if this was her reaction to finding him, but for the life of him he couldn't remember her from anywhere. Just as he was about to repeat his earlier question, his own eyes widened in horror as hers rolled back and she fainted forward into him. He caught her to keep her from falling to the ground, looking around to see if there was anyone else around who could explain to him just what the hell was happening to him. Finally he scooped her up and rolled his eyes, before heading back in the direction of Sefan and Elena's. maybe they knew who this mystery chick was. He looked down once more on the face of the girl he was now "rescuing" to see if anything about her rang any bells as he exited the cemetery, but once again he couldn't deny that he had well and truly never seen this woman before, anywhere, in his life.

"Maybe I should count myself lucky that I didn't get outright attacked this time, but dammit, that was weird."