Brother Dearest by PublicDisaster

Sad Story

EDIT: I just went back and fixed some spelling mistakes that I missed the first time around. The second chapter will be up in a few days.

Yes, I know that I have written this story a million times over the past four years, but this time I actually do not hate it, and I am getting back into the plot. I have ideas, and now that I have some of my school work out of the way, I am hoping that I have time to get a lot more chapters to all of my stories out. Yes, I am talking about actually updating my stories. I know, something that I rarely do, but I promise that one day very soon I will have all of my stories finished, and until then I will try not to add the five that I have saved on my computer.

Anyway, review and all of that. Please, do not tell me to update. I know that I need to, and when I can I will, but until then please only send reviews about my story, not about my updating.

WARNING: Vague much? Yeah.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha, but my original characters are of course mine.

"Papa said to give Aria back to me!" a little girl called out as she ran after her brother, her beloved doll clutched in his small hands.

"No, you may not have her back," the small, silver haired boy yelled back to his sister, making her run even faster than she had been before.

She had almost caught up to him, but right when she was about to reach out and grab his shirt, she tripped and tumbled to the ground. She sat up from her spot on the ground for a full minute before the tears began to flow, making her brother stop running at the sound of her sobs. He ran back and knelt on the ground in front of her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, worry evident in his eyes and in his voice.

"I'm fine," she said, though her tears continued to silently roll down her cheeks.

The little boy stood up and held his hand out to her, helping her up before handing her back her prized possession.

"Next time try not to trip, crying makes you look weak,"

"I love you too, Sesshoumaru,"

The air was cool from the upcoming fall as five companions laid around a fire, sleeping under the beautiful stars that would watch over them for the rest of the night. They had been so tired that they almost skipped making a fire, but they knew that the night would turn into a cool one, so Inuyasha offered to do it since he was, as he put it, the one that has to take care of the weak humans. Everyone had fallen asleep fairly quickly, making the night seem even more peaceful than it usually was. Inuyasha sat in a tree as usual, seeming to be asleep, but actually watching over his friends that were sleeping below. He would never admit to them that he was doing it, but in a way they all knew, especially Kagome.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome's voice could be heard, though faintly as not wanting to wake the others.

She knew that Inuyasha was not actually asleep, and it made her smile to think that he sat up there all night making sure that they were safe.

"What do you want?" he asked, feigning annoyance and a grumpy attitude, something that he did often.

Kagome just sighed, not knowing why he always did this, but then again she had a few clues. She knew that he liked to close himself off from people, not being able to trust anyone because of everything that happened in his past. What confused her is why after all of this time that he still pushed her so far away.

"I can't sleep. Something feels off, like something bad is about to happen. But-" she stopped in the middle of her sentence, trying to figure out exactly how to explain this feeling to him.

"But what?" he asked, obviously getting irritated with her, not having to fake it this time.

"But, somehow it also feels like it might be a good thing. I am not sure how to explain it, but I think that we should keep an eye out for whatever it may be," she finally got it out, now feeling stupid for sharing something like that when he seemed to genuinely not care.

All she could do was hang her head and wait for the harsh reply that she knew he would have for her. She knew that Inuyasha could be sweet, and often times he was, but more often he used his amazing ability to be the biggest jerk in the world.

"Fine, we'll keep an eye out for it. Now go back to bed, I do not want to have to stop tomorrow because you did not get enough sleep," was all that Inuyasha said before closing his eyes again, signaling the end of the conversation.

"I love you too, Inuyasha," she thought to herself as she walked back to her sleeping bag.

Kagome did not know what she expected from him, maybe a little comfort? Maybe, but deep down she knew that he was just not like that. Sometimes he would surprise her with a comforting gesture, but it was just something that he was not very good at, and she accepted that about him.

Kagome laid in her sleeping bag, but she was not asleep, instead she was looking up into the night sky. The stars were so bright out here, she never got a very good view of them in her own time, so she was happy that she had this chance. They were still looking for those cursed shards, and Kagome wished that they could just forget them at times, but she knew that it was not possible. They still had a fair amount to find, and she almost wished that this feeling she had was related to the shards in some way, but in the very pit of her gut she knew that was not so.

"Whatever happens, I hope that it happens soon, I hate waiting." she whispered to herself before she shut her eyes, falling into an uneasy slumber as Inuyasha continued to watch over them.

The next day when the group woke up, they went through their usual ritual of eating breakfast and then packing their things before they headed off. The morning was a beautiful one, just like the night before. The sun was shining brightly, but the weather was perfect. A nice breeze could be felt, giving comfort to those walking through the forest. Kagome was still feeling uneasy about the night before, and that feeling that just would not go away.

"What is this? I wish that it would just go away, I cannot take feeling like this anymore," she said to herself, looking around to see if her friends could tell that anything was wrong.

They all looked normal, like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. She hated being the only one to be going though this, not knowing if something good or bad is going to happen, but always being on the lookout for whatever it may be. She just wanted this to be another normal day, as normal as any of their days can be. After a few more hours of walking, it was getting to be late in the afternoon, all six of the companions were getting hungry and wanting to stop, even Inuyasha.

"I will make lunch," Kagome said as she sat down on the ground and pulled all of her cooking supplies out of her bag.

She was use to this by now, cooking for everyone. She did not mind it, though sometimes she was just tired and wished that someone else would take over, but she never complained about it. She liked doing this for them since they did so much for her all of the time, she figured that it was the least that she could do.

"I am going to go look around, is that okay Kagome?" Shippou asked, giving his best puppy-dog-eyes, something that Kagome could rarely say no to.

"Yes, just stay close by and try not to get into any trouble," she told the little kitsune before he gave a squeal of happiness.

He ran off to go explore while Kagome continued to cook. Inuyasha had found a tree to wait in, again, something that he did often. Sometimes he was just so predictable that Kagome could guess everything that he was about to say and do. Not that it was a bad thing, but sometimes it was nice to have a bit of variety in your life, though she had to admit that hunting the shards did put them in some interesting positions.

"Lunch will be ready in a few minutes," she called to her friends as she stirred the soup.

Miroku and Sango were currently talking, though Kagome could not hear what they were saying. The only thing that she could hear was when Sango smacked Miroku upside the head for giving her another one of this 'special' touches. Kagome had to laugh at them, they were so cute, yet so oblivious to how perfect they were together.

"Speaking of oblivious," she said to herself before looking up into the tree that Inuyasha was in.

She did not see him, though she swore that he was just there a minute ago. After a few more seconds of looking, she gave up, she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the task at hand. However, when she did turn back, she found Inuyasha with his nose almost practically in the soup. She had to smile at the way that he looked when he sniffed something out, he looked like a giant puppy that she just wanted to hug, but she knew better than to do that by now.

"Is it done yet?" he asked, reminding her of her little brother and long car rides.

His constant asking of 'are we there yet' always grating on her nerves, but this was different, as it always was with Inuyasha.

"Yes, it should be just about ready-" she was cut off by a scream, a scream coming from where Shippou had headed off to.

"Shippou!" she cried out, forgetting all about the soup and grabbing her arrows.

Inuyasha had already gotten up and had tessaiga drawn. He ran to where he had heard the scream, Kagome, Miroku, and Sango following close behind. Kagome's heart was racing, she could not imagine anything bad happening to Shippou. She loved him with all of her heart and could not stand anything happening to him while she was not there to protect him. She ran as fast as she could, which she had wished was a lot faster, running until her legs ached. She had told Shippou not to go too far, but it felt like miles, and she just wished that she could get there. Finally after what seemed like forever she saw Inuyasha stop in a small clearing. She ran to stand beside him, and when she got there she was shocked.

Shippou was hiding behind a tree, seemingly fine, just a bit scared. The beast that had been the cause of the scream, or so Kagome assumed, was a boar demon. He was big, smelly, and seemed like he was out for blood, but that was not the shocking part. The part that seemed out of place was that a silver haired woman was fighting the demon. She was so graceful in her movements, almost reminding her of when Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru had fought so many times in the past. She was poised and made sure that the demon had no view of Shippou, that part was obvious. She was protecting the little kitsune, and for that Kagome was eternally grateful.

Inuyasha seemed almost as shocked as Kagome was, not being able to say anything. The woman seemed like she was playing with the boar, like she was having fun with it. She dodged each attack, but she did not make a movie to kill it. Instead she seemed like she was trying to tire it out, and it was working, the bore was becoming even more sluggish with its attacks. Finally the woman made her move, slicing its head off with her claws in one clean, swift motion. She landed on the ground so smoothly, making Kagome jealous of how well she could move. After a second Shippou looked over and saw Kagome, and before she knew it he was in her arms crying his eyes out telling her how scared he was. The woman just stood there, looking at the group, not saying a word. Kagome finally got a good look at her, and she had to admit that she was very pretty. She was tall and skinny, with long silver hair, though it had a hint of blue. Her eyes matched the blue in her hair, and the strips on her face.

"Inuyasha, doesn't she look an awful lot like Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked after a few more moments of staring.

Inuyasha did not say anything, he looked like he was in some sort of trance. Kagome waved her hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention. After another moment his gaze broke, and his blank look turned to one of anger and confusion.

"Hey, who the hell are you?"