Butterfly Kisses by OnyxIvyStone

Crash Landing

Butterfly Kisses

Crash Landing

Chaos theory, or the butterfly effect, changed how scientists viewed the world. The idea that something so gentle and soft as the fluttering of a butterfly's wing in a field in California could cause a tsunami in Japan seemed like science fiction until mathematics made it science fact. Suddenly it wasn't so unbelievable. I wonder if the butterfly ever realized its importance.

The butterfly effect gave way to a revolution in scientific thought. From it came advances in physics that, until then, were only vague concepts floating around in fiction author's heads. String theory, the evolution of quantum mechanics, theories of parallel realities all stem from this one beautifully constructed idea illustrated by the fragile, nearly insubstantial and inconsequential fluttering of an insect's wings.

In the face of a nearly unendingly vast and still expanding universe and the mathematical possibilities born from it, the human life is just as insignificant. Our breath is the fluttering of an insect. Our span on this earth is merely an instant in the face of eternity. What is purpose in the face of such a thought? What is happiness or love?

Scientists can't measure those things. Mathematics and theories on how the world works are merely our way of trying to control the uncontrollable. But understanding the universe doesn't mean we matter any more or less in its wake. It only means we see how unimportant we really are as we stand to face it. Those rules, however, cannot govern the universe within our selves and our minds and hearts and imaginations. To feel deeply, know implicitly our own boundaries are something that science cannot find rules for.

When I close my eyes, I open myself to a universe without boundaries and infinite space to expand into. My imagination is an infinity that cannot be quantified and so I write and write and dream and wait and hope one day some small part of that dream will come true.

My fingers race over the keyboard as I record yet another possibility for one of my favorite worlds where inuyoukai and miko run together and fight great evils with mystical and divine power. It is a world filled with magic my world doesn't possess. I love to visit there with my imagination and play with the puppy boy, finding him amusement while I weave another story for his brother and best friend. They should be together. I have so many reasons why that they defy being written down in any intelligible format.

It is yin and yang. It is the balance they make at the heart of every other reason I could list that Kagome and Sesshomaru should be together. Inuyasha and Kagome are too alike to be able to balance each other and, since, in my mind, the story is really about Kagome's journey and not the hanyou or the inuyoukai's, I focus on that which will help her grow completely into the woman she should become. She is my favorite character, after all, quickly followed by Fluffy and his fluffy and then the puppy boy and then the rest in a sequence that doesn't even need to be mentioned.

Still, as my third favorite character and with no suitable pairing for the hanyou in sight, I find myself focusing more and more on ways to make him happy. Kagome and Sesshomaru are an easy pairing for me. They will always have some sort of happily ever after, but Inuyasha... That's another story. There does not exist a single character in that universe that could adequately balance him as he should be balanced unless I manage to alter a previously existing character substantially or create one of my own.

It was during the time I was writing "To Know The Man" that he began talking to me. Writers have muses. It's a known fact. Sometimes I have written dialogues with mine. It helps me to figure out what will happen next in a story. I called them my "conversations" and took to recording them while I wrote in a separate document. I had done so before with my own fiction. It had always helped me to write and so I found nothing wrong or odd about my discussions with the foul-mouthed puppy boy who seemed to materialize from my imagination when I reached a bit of writer's block. I became very attached to him. At times I almost wished he was real, my imagination had so carefully recreated him and filled out his character while we spoke. Lately he even seemed to be very attached to me as well, though I thought that to be more a simple musing than an actuality. Daydreams can't fall in love with their dreamers. That is utter nonsense. Even I know that.

I was sitting quietly one evening, thinking about the wish on the Shikon no Tama. It had to be a pure and unselfish wish in order for the jewel to be completely dispelled and the energies balanced. I've mused on what that wish could have been in every story I've written. Every time it's a little bit different. But, really, what kind of wish could Kagome make under the circumstances? She loves all of her friends and wants them all to be happy. Truly and unendingly happy. So much has to happen in order for that to be true. Kohaku would have to be able to survive once the shard is removed. Shippo's father would have to return from the dead. Miroku would have to start thinking with the head perched on his shoulders and not the one settled between his legs... So many things. Including Inuyasha. I don't believe Kagome could make him happy and he couldn't make her happy either. So what would the wish be? How would she phrase it? What words would she use? Wording and phrasing are very important in wishes. Anyone who knows the legends surrounding genies and the like could tell you that fact. A badly worded wish can lead to disaster. Wording became even more important when one knows the disasters felt in the wake of the Shikon no Tama's creation. Words are the butterfly's wings fluttering. Words can change the universe in such a chaotic and unimaginable way that they become the key to every possible shift for the good or bad. Then the wording came to me.

"I wish that those who were touched by the shattering of the Shikon no Tama will find a true and lasting happiness."

There were the words. A whole new universe opened up in my mind and, to my own terror, I found myself drawn into it against my will. There were lights flashing and power surrounding me as I was dragged from my world into another. My head spun and I felt a dizziness that almost made me ill. Unconsciousness is kind. It took me shortly after the strange shift began. I never could have been prepared for what happened when I woke.

*

It was cold and wet. There were the sounds of birds and wind and the air smelled fresher than any breath she had drawn in before, honeyed with the perfume of spring flowers just beginning to open with the sun. The grass she lay upon was soft, like her downy bed at home, however the morning dew soaking through her pink pajama bottoms and white fitted sleeping tank alerted her to the fact that she was not in her warm bed. She startled and sat up sharply with a gasp, dark cherry chocolate curls cascading around her, casting a red halo at the crown of her head with the light of the raising sun. Her hazel blue eyes were cast with the morning light, making them more lavender than the other range of colors they fell on with the contrast of colors around her or the sharp change of her emotions. She looked around the small clearing and trembled.

"I'm not here. I'm not really here; I just fell asleep while I was writing. I'm not actually here..." She paused and frowned. When she spoke again, she listened to her words carefully. "I'm not here, I'm at home in my bed... Holy shit, I'm speaking Japanese!" She jumped up and tried to focus on the words she was saying so they came out in English and, after much coaxing and focusing, found the words of her native tongue before allowing herself to slip back into the oddly natural Japanese language that flowed far more easily. "Oh... Oh, this is just great!" She looked up at the pure blue sky and felt her breath catch. She'd never seen such a clear blue sky before, not even after it had rained. "Whatever god or goddess is playing this little trick on me, you are really, REALLY not cool and definitely not funny. I want to go home now." She stamped her foot, and then yelped as her tender sole collided with a branch but did not cut into her. It just hurt like hell. She whimpered and sat on a nearby boulder, examining her heel. "You know, whoever it is whose watching me and laughing their divine ass off, the least you could have done after playing this practical joke was provide me with my Docs. And my jeans. And a bra and underwear, but no. NO. You had to throw me into some other world in my pjs...." She touched her face and smirked as she removed her reading glasses. "At least I'll be able to read, wherever the fuck I am. I wonder if I can read in Japanese too... Oh, you better have given me the ability to read or I swear I'm hunting you buggers down."

She had never been much of a morning person. She was cranky, crass and temperamental until she had two things. A piece of toast with some marmalade and a cup of very strong coffee and then the world became bright and shiny again. It looked like she was going to have a craptacular day. She let out a long, heavy sigh and spun around several times with her arm pointed outward. Once she was significantly dizzy, she stopped and slowly opened her eyes to see what direction she was going. Instead of placing her gaze on a direction, she found herself face to face with a very large, very menacing looking samurai and a few of his friends. They were watching her with amusement and a gleam she wasn't so sure she had ever wanted to see. Something between mischief, malevolence and sadism sparkled in their gaze.

Her lips parted, as if to say something, but no witty comments found their way from her brain to her tongue. Instead, she spun around very quickly, stumbled from her dizziness, heard them laugh, cursed, then stood again and began to run away. They didn't follow her at first. Apparently they desired a game of cat and mouse. She smirked wickedly. Fine. If she was going to be raped, she wasn't going to take it lying down. If she were lucky, she'd run into someone who would help her. Oh wait, no. It was feudal Japan! No one defies a samurai. Fine, then. She'd have to settle for hurting them and dying. It is important to note that she wasn't entirely sure that she was even awake. This was the first time she'd been pulled into another reality. Things like this just didn't happen. At least not to real people.

So it was with these thoughts coursing through her confused brain at a mile a minute that she ran through the forest being torn at by branches, her feet cut by stones and thorns seeking desperately for the heaviest stick she could find. She came to a river and found just such a log and several smooth river stones. She turned to face the samurai who were leisurely jogging to catch her with those lustful looks adorning their faces. She paled but kept her smirk. What was her father's advice to her about rapists again? Oh, yes... It's about power and hurting a woman. It's about degradation. If they did get their hands on her, and it looked as if they would, she should relax and take their power from them by trying to enjoy it. It seemed an equally unlikely thing, but more than wanting to get away from them, she wanted to live. Desperately wanted to live.

"Come on you cock suckers." She growled, trying to stare them down. She really had no chance in hell of defending herself against them, but maybe she could scare them enough or convince them she wasn't worth their effort. Nope. She only made them angry. Their smiles faded and she felt herself tense with fear. She gripped the stones in her hand and as they approached, threw them at their faces as hard as she could. She was unusually strong for a woman. At five foot ten with a muscular build, she could easily rough house with the boys all her life. The first she hit in the eye with a sharp stone. He howled and held his face, blood pouring between his fingers. His friends didn't seem to appreciate that and charged her all at once. She raised her stick and released a feral scream that ripped through the forest. She'd been trained as an opera singer. She knew how to throw her voice and if she were going down, it wouldn't be quietly.

The forest shuddered with the rage filled shriek that originated almost a mile away. Without the noise pollution of the twenty first century or buildings to dampen the sound, her voice carried very far. Far enough to alert the small encampment further up stream where four men with very good hearing found themselves woken up or roused from their meditation by her desperate cry. Even the humans woke at the sound, looking at each other in confusion.

"Inuyasha... What was that?" Kagome asked, looking to the hanyou whose ears were pointed in the direction of the scream.

He frowned and listened as another scream pierced the air along with a line of curse words that nearly made him blush. "A girl..."

"A girl with a very foul mouth." Kouga added, scowling as he looked to the hanyou. "Do you two know each other?"

Inuyasha growled. "She sounds like she's in trouble. Come on..." He motioned to Miroku and the two began racing toward where the woman continued to curse and screech.

The others followed a moment later. The scene they came upon they did not expect. A young woman, cut and tattered with fiery auburn hair whipping in the wind collided the heavy branch she held with an advancing samurai's jaw. He howled and backed off from her with the others, all of whom were bloodied already. Before he could move too far from her, however, she reached out and stole the hilt of his katana, brandishing the sword menacingly at them.

"Come on, I dare you." She whispered, snarling faintly. "Who wants their dick cut off first?"

Miroku's lips quirked. "Not exactly a damsel in distress, Inuyasha."

The samurai looked from her to each other, then to the advancing party of youkai and humans. One mumbled softly and the others nodded before turning quickly and running from the scene.

She frowned. She had not seen or sensed the others approaching. She shook her head and looked at the sword, then back toward the retreating samurai. "I am entirely not scary enough for that to have worked." She blinked and then followed where the gaze of the samurai had fallen shortly before they'd turned and run. She blinked again, frowned, and then opened her eyes wide in shock as she dropped the sword. "Oh, you've got to be shitting me. Hell no. Fuck no." She stepped back and tripped, falling into the frigid waters and screeching again, causing the advancing party to scowl, some more than others. She shivered and stood, backing further into the water until it came to her thighs. The raven-haired woman with the deep blue eyes followed her with her hands out.

"Calm down. You're all right. We won't hurt you, they're friends." Kagome said softly, smiling in a comforting manner.

Suddenly it was hard to breathe. Her eyes moved from Kagome to the hanyou who was staring at her intently with his molten gold eyes. They seemed to sparkle in recognition. "'Yasha..." She whispered and began to gasp, hugging her chest. The world was going black. She began to slip into the water and then there were warm arms around her. She shuddered and gripped the clothing of who ever it was who was ensuring she didn't get swept down stream. She opened her eyes partially and again met the deep, warm sunshine of his gaze.

He smirked and pulled her fully into his arms. "Hello, Ivy."

~

If you're digging this and have read my Inuyasha conversations before in my other works, this is entirely for my pleasure and to silence my muse. And also to amuse myself, as it were. I promise this is a Sess/Kag story. I swear it is. However, I felt, for the sake of my own sanity, I'd introduce my alter-ego (Ivy) that I constructed for my online writing in the first chapter so that you'd get to know her as a character.

It is important to note, right now, that Ivy is not me and I am not Ivy. You've read "Roll of the Dice" and you can guess that I'm a role player. I constructed the "Ivy" persona much like actors and actresses and any entertainer; really, construct their identities, whether or not that is who they really are, so that I could create with detachment and to guard my true self. Granted, Ivy and I share a lot of similarities in personality and, I'm sad to say, the foulness of our mouths when distressed. However, she is not me. The Ivy who speaks to the puppy-boy in my conversations with him and who is in this story is not me. If you met me on the street, from my descriptions of her in this story, you would not be able to recognize me either in demeanor or physicality aside from the shade of hair and eyes I describe. I hope this doesn't make me sound any more insane than you all already probably think I am. I'm really, really not crazy... Ok, I might be a bit off kilter now and again, but creative sorts usually are. That being said, I hope you enjoy this story and have enjoyed the first part of the work. I will be basing whether or not I continue this upon the reviews I receive.

Thanks and Love.

~M

~

(Note: If people are wondering where the hell all of my Inuyasha Conversations are, I have posted them in sequence on my livejournal. Here's the link. http://onyx-ivy-stone.livejournal.com/ Enjoy!)

Amadoni~ Thank you for your review. I'm glad that you found the chapter humorous. I was laughing as I wrote it and, after reading it aloud to my roommate, G, several times and much coaxing from her, I decided to post it here. I will look into "Sophie's World" as you have suggested. I always question my reality, so it sounds like it will be fun!!!

Faby~ Read on if you like and maybe some of the other stories if you feel like it. Feel free to tease me. I come from a family who lives by the creed "I wouldn't pick on you if I didn't love you." Teehee.

KougaLover123~ More is coming and I'm glad that I caught your interest.

Violetcarson~ Squee!!! I'm glad I caught you up again. I will be posting the next chapter within the next week or so, I just want to make sure that I get as much feed-back as I am able from readers. Teehee. Good to hear from you again! Lovies.

Violett407~ That's the plan! I always felt bad for Inu. He always gets beat up in one way or another in these stories... I wanted to write one that wasn't so much him getting hurt as both he and Kagome moving on mutually in happier directions without the whole heart-rending scene where you wonder if the puppy-boy will ever REALLY move on or where Kagome is so hurt that you ache for her. Some break-ups simply aren't the end of the world. My ex-boyfriend (Current dear and beloved friend) and I are an example of what happens when both parties just realize that it isn't going to work but love each other enough to remain friends and wish each other only joy. I want to see that with Yash and Kagome.

Moonflames~ Yay! Hooking readers is my favorite thing ever! I'm truly flattered that you have read my other works and have enjoyed even my happy insanity with the "Inuyasha Conversations." They were fun for me as much as the actual story was to write and, thus, this story was brought to life. It was more of a happy accident as I was musing about the wish that always, innevitably, is made on the Shikon no Tama and it took off from there. Thank you for your kind words, again, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter as well as you did the first.