InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ My December ❯ So Cold ( Chapter 3 )

A.N: Alright.. I haven't gotten like any reviews yet except for two and thanks guys that was nice of you to tell me how I was doing ^.^. Anyway I just wanted to say that I am much happier READING fanfictions then actually making them. SO.. if you want to hear the story keep reviewing guys I need to hear from you!! Thanks as always! ~ Lily

Disclaimer: Don't own IY & Company or Breaking Benjamin's So Cold, However all ideas are solely mine and I hope no one steals them. Thanks. *Pssst! Awesome song!!* hehe ^.^.

So Cold..

Kagome's Dream:

Snow.

It was everywhere.

It coated the top of the shrine's shingles and created tiny glacier like icicles to dangle precariously below the rain ducts on the house. They looked like gleaming daggers ready to strike down on their opponents when the wind would lightly sweep tufts of snow up through the rain ducts and gracefully licked past the menacingly beautiful ice structures. Kagome shifted her gaze to look at her surroundings.

`N- Nani?' She thought with a startle as the realization of where she was flooded to her, "My home. I'm at the shrine. How is that possible? I was just with Inuyasha and...." She shuddered at the memory she had of Suzakuo and his mother, Amira. Her hands were so cold. The second Queen Amira had applied the unwanted freezing appendages to her face she immediately felt ill. Her touch spread from her cheeks all the way down into her throat and crept painfully slow into her very soul. The same awful feeling she had when Inuyasha had been struck down by the giant ogre youkai and seemingly passed from this world into shadow had returned with a vengeance. It ate around her very being and started to burn her mind with painful images from someone's eyes. The pain that these images had brought her was too immense and evil for plain words to describe. The flashes of the man that she had seen seemed so familiar, and yet so far away. Whoever he was, Kagome had felt extremely attached to him and made her feel the same sense of safety and belonging that she felt with Shippo, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, and Inuyasha..

"Inuyasha! What happened to him? He was standing right next to me he…" Kagome gasped as the sound of her voice in the peaceful silence had rang loudly in her ear. It was so different. A completely alien voice to her own. She grasped her throat and willed it to grow just a little bit louder and deeper. "Nani!?" she yelled pushing her diaphragm to make her voice normal to her ears. She stopped abruptly, however, when she felt the silken cloth under her fingers. Kagome looked down to observe the strange feeling cloth. She gasped at unfamiliar sight that greeted her. She was dressed in a plain white night gown with lacing patterns that were placed along the fringes of the v-neck collar and short-sleeve cuffs. She looked at her bare feet and gasped at the size of them. Her entire body was so young, so tiny, so cold…

Kagome stared at the junction from her hips to her waist and gasped. The shikon-no-tama's light filtered through her skin and night gown giving off an iridescent lavender glow. `The shikon-no-tama? But how? I broke it. It's gone…' Kagome thought and stared in awe at the glow coming through her body.

Her entire world seemed to come crashing down as a flood of memories oozed into her brain and washed over her entire soul creating an empty place as terror, sadness, and the longing to know more about what was causing her so much distress crashed into her with such force she stepped back with tears spiking the back of her eyes and stung with the forced effort to hold them back.

"What is happening to me.." Kagome gasped out with a choke as the tears finally surfaced from the depths of her eyes.

~Crowded streets all cleared away, one by one

Hollow heroes separate, as they run…~

Kagome stopped and stared out at her home. It came as no surprise to her that the entire grounds seemed bigger and longer. She turned around and shivered as the sweep of the snow blew passed her legs and feet, sweeping into the crevices of her toes and lifting the cocktail length night gown and sweeping her dark ebony tresses into the air. She lifted her tiny arm to her face and pulled the offending strands out of her face and tucked it behind her ears. Sighing loudly, Kagome started towards the familiar landscape.

She passed by the old well house and wondered in the back of her mind if the time rip would still work. She was just about to enter the snow-topped building when she heard a deep masculine voice call her name.

The man chuckled, "Kagome? Kagome-chan, you will freeze out here in weather like this. I won't tell your mother you're out here this late at night but I will recommend you come in and warm yourself before you catch ill."

When Kagome didn't answer and stiffened at the warm respect he had used towards. `Who was he?!' Kagome started to panic but quickly relaxed when two large warm arms wrapped around her shoulders. She fell back into them and a giggle forced it's way through her lips as if it was ripped from the bottom of her abdomen and pressed through her lips.

"Daddy," she said in a soft giggle, "I love the snow it's so pretty and white. It is quiet and it never makes me cold." Kagome could tell even from her own head that the lie in her voice became evident. She inwardly smiled. Even when she was young, lying was never her strong point. She tried to keep calm but her body voice and spirit acted on it's own and soon she turned herself around in the strangers arms and closed her eyes. `EVEN BLINKING!!! I can't even control my own eye-lids!!," she mentally cursed as she tried to flutter open her eyes to catch a look at the man.

"Kagome-no-mitsukai," he said giving his daughter a rub on the back as if to warm her stubborn soul, "I understand how much you love the snow but you WILL catch ill and I won't stand for that, you understand? Now let's go inside and make some cocoa."

Kagome's wish came true as her eye shutters flew open and a smile was forced upon her rosy lips. "Just a little longer daddy? PLEEEEASSE!! I won't tell Moma that you broke her favorite vase… She still thinks Souta bumped into it when he was crawling around the ichidou."

Kagome's father lost the smirk that was etched on his face as he looked at his daughter with amusement at her attempted black-mail. He chuckled at her, "Kagome, I told your mother already that I was the one he knocked over her vase while I was practicing my kenjutsu," he laughed some more as his daughter's face turned to the ground and her lips formed into the word "Oh."

"Kagome-chan. Have I ever told you the story of the great miko who struck down an evil hanyou in one blow?" Her father asked her as he lifted her chin up to eye level. He kneeled down softly and looked her straight in the eyes, "She was very strong and powerful, and as story has it she was very beautiful to. Just like you," he added making the young one giggle.

Kagome's mind was going into over-drive. `Daddy. My father. He's here! But how? This doesn't make sense what did that snow witch do to me?' Kagome tried to move her lips. Tried to move her body, but to no avail. Her body was only listening to the child's mind. Not the one that had seemingly been trapped inside of it.

~You're so cold, keep your hand in mine

Wise men wonder while starved men die…~

"Anyway," her father continued, "As the legend has it, the priestess was mortally wounded by the hanyou and passed away shortly after she pinned him to a tree. Not just any tree though. The tree she suspended him to was Goshinboku." Her father stopped and looked at his daughter for any signs that she wanted him to stop. Kagome's eyes were forcefully stuck into an interested glare and he continued on, "After years of being suspended in slumber to the great tree, he was released by another miko. This one was very similar to the first except for one thing. She was inhumanly sincere and caring. She inspired this hanyou, making him into a good being."

Kagome stared at him in the same interested glare but her mind was racing with a thousand questions. `Nani? Me change Inuyasha? HA! That is definitely the last thing that I am to him. Inspiring ne?' Kagome inwardly sighed trying to force the agitated air through the young girl's lungs. But none came.

"Kagome? You are turning blue from the cold. It was wrong of me to let you stay out this long come on inside for some cocoa now. Warm your bones ne?" As her father stepped away from his daughter he couldn't help but notice the saddened expression that his daughter now sported on her tiny plump face. "Kagome-no-mitsukai? What is it?"

Kagome turned her face towards her father and looked at him with love-filled eyes. "Daddy. The hanyou wasn't really evil was he? I mean, if he was evil, he would never have changed for that one miko, right?" Kagome's mind was screaming at her younger self. `Of course he's not evil!!'

Her father smiled at her, "No one is evil Kagome. Evil is only in those who wish to be it. I doubt anyone is born evil. If memory serves, the legend said that he loved the miko even though she struck him to Goshinboku. Evil can't love Kagome," he stated pointedly to his daughter while extending his hand for the frozen girl to come.

Kagome's body was frozen but her younger mind refused to move it. "I'm still not cold. Can we walk by Goshinboku please?" she asked giving her father a little pout. Her father gave her a questioning look but grabbed her hand and walked over to the tree.

Unlike Kagome's young bodied hands. His were warm and comforting. A little callus, she admitted but comforting none the less. Luckily for Kagome's older spirit, the child turned her head to face her father. He was dressed in a faded black hakama and a pure white haori, just like her grandfather did when he went to priest-conventions or whatever he called them. He had the same face as Souta except it was more defined and matured. He had the same ebony hair as she did. It was short and tussled with white specks from the snow being drifted over the shrine grounds. He had the same deep chocolate eyes as she did. Kagome could tell why her mother had fallen in love with his looks the moment she saw him, but Kagome was still shocked that he was even here at all, and she was in her younger body. Truth be told, she was freaked out of her mind.

~If you find your family, don't you cry

In this land of make-believe, dead and dry…~

~Your so cold, but you feel alive

Lay your hands on me, one last time…~

Kagome was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realize that they had arrived at the base of the sacred Goshinboku. She stared at her father then lifted her gaze to look at the diamond shaped indention in the tree. Kagome could feel her older mind gaining more control over her body as her heartbeat had sped up from the confusion and fear that she felt. She tentatively swept her hand over the sukuro-ro scrolls that hung down from the spot.

"Daddy?" Kagome's younger mind said, gaining more control over her body, "Can you lift me to the hole in that tree?" Kagome's father looked down at her with a questioning look in his eye before he smiled and lifted her onto his shoulders and braced her against the side of Goshinboku. She slowly touched the spot where the arrow had impaled Inuyasha and left him in a dormant sleep for 50 years. She traced her tiny digit over the entire place where Inuyasha had been and thought to herself. Kagome felt the familiar sting of tears pricking the back of her eyes and couldn't force them back as a small whimper escaped her lips as her father pulled her off of his shoulders and down to the ground where he looked and asked her softly, "Kagome? What is it?" he rubbed her back lovingly trying to reassure the young child everything was fine.

"N-nothing dad-ddy. It's just... Why would the miko pin him to the tree If they loved each other," Kagome's dad looked shell-shocked at her statement but quickly calmed the child down by saying very quickly, "Kagome, the miko never really loved the hanyou. If she had she would never have pinned him to the tree. However, the legend says that he attacked her first. She may only have been trying to defend herself. Besides, she's not the one that died did she? The hanyou lived and stayed with the other miko. The other miko changed his heart into a better thing then before. The first miko died trying to rid the world of it's evil heart.

`Inuyasha…is not… EVIL!!!' Kagome kept saying inside her head as a mantra trying to make the young girl memorize this line very well. `If this is the past, why do I have no memory of it?' This question bothered her to no end and every option for an answer she came up with seemed inadequate or just plain stupid. The young girl's head started shaking up in down in acceptance of her fathers answer. Obviously against her older minds will.

An especially nasty gust of cold wind hit the two and her father's system immediately reacted by shivering. Surprisingly, his young daughter didn't even flinch. "Kagome-no-mitsukai, I think it best if we head inside for that cup of cocoa now. You may enjoy this weather but your father and mother worry about your health. Come now it's late, dark and cold." With that said he started to walk away. His daughter was stalking bare-foot closely behind him until she decided to run to his side and poke him in the back. Kagome's father shot her an amused look as she continued to poke his back when she didn't think he was looking. She gave an innocent look to him and then kicked snow onto his black pants and ran ahead of him towards the shrine entrance giggling the entire way.

Kagome's father caught her easily and lifted his daughter in the air by her waist and swung her round and round with ease. The two of them could be heard late into the night laughing and giggling as a last stubborn leaf that had refused to break off until the dead of winter. Had broken off. As he put his daughter down a dark voice could be heard off in the shadows of night.

"Aww, isn't that sweet? The shrine master and his daughter sharing a bonding moment. Puh! You sicken me Katashi. You made a big mistake in marrying that Sumiko wench. Boss says we should off with the trash who dare abandon us. So… will you die with honor? Or would you rather beg for forgiveness? It matters not though, in the end there will only be me left standing. I would hide your child in that pitiful excuse for a house over there. They may have time to escape, but I doubt it…" The dark voice said with a menacing chuckle.

Kagome didn't recognize the owner of a voice but it seemed oddly familiar. It sent shivers down her spine. The hateful way the voice had said her mother and fathers names had hit her almost as hard as a punch to the stomach. No one had ever spoken badly about her family before. In fact they were the most respected family in the city. This awful way that she had addressed them shocked her to no end.

Her father then turned to her and in a low monotone voice said to her slowly, "Kagome, go in the house now. Wake your mother and tell her to stay in the house. Do you understand me?" his voice was urgent but powerful and her younger mind got scared and grabbed onto her father. "Daddy who is that?" she asked her voice faltering in fear. Her father pushed her aside. She lost her balance and fell into the snow.

"Kagome, NOW!!" He yelled a little louder trying to get her to see the importance of her leaving. Kagome then did something she rarely ever would do. She feared her own father. She ran through the snow towards the house before a dark chuckle could be heard behind her.

"I don't think so little girl, "the voice in shadows said. With a loud click a strange a mount of fear was pressed into older Kagome's mind. `Oh no that's not what I think it is, is it?!?!' But her fears were confirmed when a loud bang was heard throughout the shrine grounds and a sharp pain tore at the back of her left shoulder blade. Kagome stopped mid step as warm crimson fluid flowed onto her back and down her legs on the cold snow. Staining it a pink color and slowly turning darker. She reached over to her back wincing as her shoulder moved and touched the wound. Kagome cried out as the burning sensation of the bullet sizzled into her skin and back muscles. She brought her hand around and surveyed the sticky oozing life fluid in her fingers as tears soaked right through her eyes. Kagome's vision faded but she didn't forget the awful bellow her anguished father yelled across the grounds.

"KAGOME NO!!!!"

`Daddy,' Kagome's mind said subconsciously, `Wait, daddy come back!'

And then in the blackness came silence. She felt the slight wetness of falling snow against skin and silk. Then, a new feeling came. The urgent budging against her shoulders as if to shake her awake. She could hear clearly in the back of her mind.

"Kagome? Kagome? Oi Wench, wake up your having a nightmare!"

Reality - Ice castle bedroom suite:

"Kagome? Kagome? Oi Wench, wake up your having a nightmare!"

Inuyasha shook the girl's arms profusely, trying to wake her. He had smelt her tears and fear in the middle of the night. He had been positioned on the futon next to the window and was in the middle of identifying the star constellations and just how far south they had traveled since noon. The North Star was centered a bit east of here but it was hard to tell from the clouds that constantly floated past and dimmed its brilliant light. He was shaken out of his thoughts when he smelt the salty freshness of her tears streaming down her face.

"Keh. What is it wench?" when the inu hanyou got no reply from the girl he crept over to the left side of the bed to see what her problem was that she had started to cry. Inuyasha caught the slight but fear-filled whimper escape Kagome's lips and carefully lifted her chin to see if she was awake. He only caught the sight of her beauty as she slept which made his breath catch in his throat. He took a step back from the girl as if he had just been punched in the gut by a powerful enemy. She looked absolutely stunning with the soft light from the stars streaming through the windows and catching every detail on her face and hair. She seemed god-like in the glow from the frosted windows. Kagome gave another light whimper as her face scrunched into itself. He realized the look. It was the one he had seen too many times to count as she looked after him when his own stupidity got the better of him when he went after stronger youkai. Inuyasha had felt all his life like he had something to prove to everyone. That he was worth the flesh and bone his mother and father gave to him. Inuyasha sighed as he stepped over to the bed again. She was mumbling incoherent things in her sleep that even his hanyou hearing couldn't pick up. He knew she was having a nightmare but couldn't control himself enough to do more then watch her right now.

`What the hell is her problem?' Inuyasha thought stubbornly as he looked at the way the lines on her forehead kept constricting tighter and tighter until it looked like the tiny folds of her skin were about to explode. Inuyasha noticed this and fought against the urge to hold her to him as he straightened the lines on her forehead. He delicately rubbed her temples all the way to the centre of her skull to make sure her skin wouldn't pop. His efforts were in vain however as Kagome mumbled a little louder, "..no..not what I think.. is it?" her fear scent spiked to the nth degree filling the room leaving Inuyasha terrified that she was in pain. He started to shake her arms to wake her. The noxious fumes of her fear drifted across the room making Inuyasha feel helpless.

`I can't protect her from something I can't see,' he realized making his own fear spike into her scent. Any youkai within ten feet of the room would have smelt this and thought something terrible was happening on the inside. Kagome's whimpers got louder and louder until she blurt out one final thing. "Daddy… wait come back," she screamed into the air before jumping awake in her bed so violently fast that Inuyasha's body flew to the other side of the room with a loud `Thud' as his body collided with the obscenely large and heavy oak doors. He comically slid down the doors with a look of shock, surprise, fear, worry, and a tad bit of irritation on his face.

Kagome's breaths were coming out in pants and deep gusts of air as she tried to get her heartbeat to calm to its normal pace. Kagome coughed and moaned as her head felt about ready to fly off her head. How did she get so dizzy all of a sudden? She lay back on her bed and started freaking out. She jumped up again and looked around.

"Oh my gods! Where the hell am I?! Where's Inuyasha?!! What happened to Shippo?!?! Whe..MMPH!!!" Kagome was cut off as a hand cupped itself in front of her mouth. She tried screaming again but was silenced as a deep angry voice rang in her ears.

"Baka!! Do you WANT the entire world to hear you? Keh. Stupid girl, with that said he let go of her face and stomped back over to the windowsill. Kagome stared at him in shock. `Since when was he in here?' she thought but shook her head and tried to catch her breath. Way too much trauma for one night if you ask me. Kagome looked over at Inuyasha. He looked very pissed off. Whatever happened tonight didn't help his attitude any better then it did her nerves.

"Inuyasha?" she asked softly trying not to tick him off further. "I'm sorry if I woke you I was having a bad dream and.." she was cut of by a loud obnoxious snort coming form the hanyou.

"No shit, you were having a bad dream. I nearly choked on your scent of fear," he spat out at her but refused to turn his head 30 degrees to look at her. "Keh, just go to sleep wench."

"Not tired."

"You're afraid."

"Am not!"

"Are to."`

"Am not!"

Inuyasha leapt off of the futon and stalked towards Kagome. "You're afraid that whatever monster was in your dream will come back and eat you, right?" he said chuckling as he sat on the edge of her bed. Kagome stared at him. Her eyes clearly saying "You-Don't-Know-Anything-You-Baka" She crawled over to him and whacked him upside the head. Not enough to hurt, but enough to get his attention.

"What the fuck was that for?" He growled out to her baring his fangs.

"Where are we?" she asked as she sat a respectful distance away from him. She didn't want to argue with him at this time of night. 1. She was tired. 2. If she pushed her to far she'd probably osuwari him till there was nothing left to osuwari. (And the fact that if she used # 2 that'd be the end of the story.. eheh) So she decided to be the mature one and just talk it out.

"We're in The Central Mountains Palace. Baka ningens can't even tell when they shouldn't follow a stupid kid…" he muttered.

"If I recall correctly you kept following him to. It's not like you told us to stop or anything," she pointed out silencing the hanyou's grumbling, "And I know where we are but where in the palace are we?" she asked again this time with a bit more irritation in her voice. It was amazing how quickly he could annoy her. What came out of his mouth next made her face pink.

"We're in our bed chambers," he said matter-of-factly. He looked over at her and realized the blush creeping across her face. "Aiya! That's not what I meant!" He said very quickly. Kagome stared at him and started to laugh as his own face started to pink to.

"Suuure you did," she said still giggling at the stubborn hanyou's red face. He looked over at her as his mouth opened wide to growl at her for laughing at him but then got a better idea. His mouth stretched into an evil smile. "Inuyasha… why are you looking at me like that," Kagome said cautiously as the hanyou's grin turned almost maniacal.

"You sure you want to laugh at me?" The hanyou questioned her with the same grin on his face. Kagome knew that his smile was fake, but she couldn't help the strange feeling she got in her gut. Kagome freaked out when he chuckled a little and reached for her neck. Kagome just sat there dumbly as he placed a finger along her neck and ran it to the back where her spinal cord met her skull. Kagome then knew what he was doing. `Oh crap'

The next thing she knew she had rolled over onto the floor and scrunched her neck so far into her shoulders it hurt. Kagome could still feel the tingly sensation as she tried to force away the irritated skin at the back of her neck. She looked up from the carpet at the one she would now name `The Tickle-Monster' Kagome scowled at him. "Don't do that!" she yelled at him as she scrambled back to her feet and stood her ground placing her hands on her hips and glaring at the hanyou with a death stare. Inuyasha looked at her with shock before laughing at her.

"You… should have seen… your face.. bwahahaha!!" Inuyasha toppled back onto the bed holding his gut as his laugh rocked through his body. Kagome looked at him with an amused stare and then said, "Yeah! Well let's see how you like it?" With that said Kagome jumped to his right side and forced her hand under his neck and started fiddling around for a soft spot. Kagome frowned when all Inuyasha did was stare back at her with a victory smile on his face.

"Okay," she said defeated, "Your neck isn't ticklish."

"Keh, I'm not `ticklish' at all wench," Inuyasha said staring at her with the same victory smile firmly planted on his face. Kagome looked at him, all amusement wiped from her features. "Oh yeah? All I have to do is find it one of these days and then watch your back cause you'll get it back ten times worse!" she stuck out her tongue and rounded over to the other side of the bed where she hopped in and tried to warm herself under the covers.

Inuyasha stared at the girl with an amused glance. `Keh! Baka ningen girl. As if I'd be ticklish.' He thought as he hopped back over to the window seat again and stared out the window.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome started as she turned her head to look at the hanyou across the room, "Can you lie beside me. I know it's stupid but I had a bad dream and…"

Kagome didn't get to finish her sentence as Inuyasha leapt over to the other side of the bed and pulled the covers over Kagome's shoulders. He kept his own body on the outside of the covers as to not create any embarrassing assumptions by any of the friends the next day. Kagome turned over and looked at the light in Inuyasha's eyes. They were full of warmth and comfort. She had thought on more than one occasion that a girl could get lost in eyes like those. But for now the eyes were her safety. They were there to help her into an unconscious state of peace.

"G'night…"Kagome mumbled as her heavy eyelids weighed down on her face.

"Keh, just go to sleep wench." Inuyasha said with an embarrassed irritation in his voice. He looked down at the now sleeping girl. Her eyes closed and her face was sporting a peaceful expression. Inuyasha pushed aside a stray strand of hair and looked at her goddess like features. Inuyasha stayed up that night. Listening to her steady breathing pattern and guarding over her dreams…

~Show me how it ends this time

Show me how defenseless you really are

Satisfied but empty inside

That's alright

Lets give this another try…~

~It's alright. It's alright. It's alright…~

((A.N. Read and review please!!))