Part 1

---oOo---

It's time.

That thought rang through his mind, over and over, and the elegant Inu let it echo everywhere within his being - after all, he'd been waiting for five hundred years to get his claws into the female he'd decided would be his, and even for a youkai that's several thousand years old, that's a long time to wait for something.

Especially when you want it to distraction.

Mattaki stared out over the great city of Tokyo, and his eyes unerringly closed on the Higurashi shrine. Even from across the city, he knew exactly where it was - he could feel her aura from here.

With an inward chuckle, he wondered what his sons were going to think when they found out just who his next - and final - mate was going to be.

Sesshoumaru would probably shrug - after all, he'd mated Rin centuries ago, and had stayed faithful to the small human woman ever since. They were still happy, even after five hundred years together.

Inuyasha, though... he'd probably have problems with it.

Not that the whelp had anything to say, after all - he was with Kikyou. Much as he loved his son, he still wasn't too fond of the former miko. There was just something about her...

It could be, of course, the way she'd treated the object of his affections - the Shikon Miko herself, Higurashi Kagome.

Oh, yes, he knew all about everything that had happened between Inuyasha, Kikyou, and Kagome - from the moment that Kagome had pulled the Tessaiga from it's resting place inside his remains, he'd been a silent observer to everything that had happened on the quest for the jewel.

Tessaiga, as a part of him, had carried his spirit and consciousness from the moment of his death, and so he'd been a part of the groups travels as much as any of the rest of them.

He'd watched her fall in love with his son, watched as Inuyasha had hurt her over and over, and watched as she had finally fallen back out of love with the boy, though she'd always cared for him.

That's why she'd made the wish that she had.

She'd returned Kikyou to the hanyou, just after dropping down the well for the last time - so that she wouldn't be trapped in the feudal era once the jewel was gone.

It had worked - the former miko had indeed been brought back to life, right there near the well, with Inuyasha still standing there - along with Sesshoumaru, and the rest of the group.

But it had also had the unexpected effect of bringing him back.

Apparently, with the power of the jewel focused on bringing life back to one of the dead, the proximity of the well, another power source, Tensaiga, with it's affinity for returning a spirit to its body, and his own consciousness and spirit stored within the Tessaiga itself, a magical cocktail of enormous proportions had catapulted him back into the land of the living...

And he'd never looked back.

He'd already been in love with Kagome at that point, having spent the three years of the quest being around her, though of course she had never known of it, but had been resigned to never having the chance to do anything about his feelings, due to his non-corporeal form.

But the moment he'd taken his first breath, he'd known that one day, five hundred years away or not, he'd have her.

And now, that day was finally here.

He was nothing if not determined, but he'd decided that his patience would probably be all run out by the time the five hundred years had passed, and so, he set about figuring out how to woo a female across the abyss of time. That way, he wouldn't have to start at the beginning after waiting for so long, she'd already be receptive to him, and his advances.

He was, admittedly, taking shortcuts...

It had taken about two hundred years, but he'd finally figured it out - and he'd spent the next several hundred years of his own wait time romancing her...

In her dreams.

Time was certainly a funny thing - and easily manipulated, if you knew what you were doing, and the great Dog General always made sure that he knew what he was doing.

Because of that, Kagome was already halfway in love with him, even though she thought it was all in her dreams.

He chuckled. "And now your dreams, and mine, are about to become reality, sweet Kagome..." he said softly.

Yes, Inuyasha would probably have a fit...

But he really didn't care. She would be his by the time Inuyasha returned to Tokyo, and the boy would just have to accept it.

---oOo---

Kagome sighed as she woke, unwillingly pulling herself from her dreams.

She sat up, pulling her knees to her and wrapping her arms around herself as she did so, to stare out her bedroom window into the morning light. It was a beautiful day, obviously, but it couldn't touch her.

At least, not enough.

She'd returned through the well for the last time two weeks ago, and while that was part of her sadness, surprisingly, it was only a small part.

Ever since she'd been back, she'd been having certain dreams. When she thought about it, every aspect of those dreams was disturbing. But she couldn't bring herself to care that it was... she wanted those dreams to be true with a fierceness that dismayed her.

And even though it had only been two weeks, it seemed as though she'd been dreaming those dreams forever.

The strangest part of it all, was that she was dreaming of Inuyasha's father... someone she'd never met. She had seen him the one time, sort of, when they'd fought Sou'unga, but he'd been a spirit, and not fully visible - she'd had an impression of power, and she'd felt the almost... purity of his aura, but that was it.

So she couldn't understand why her subconscious was bringing him up in the fashion that it was.

That she was lonely, she knew. She'd loved and lost Inuyasha, and after being around youkai, and seeing the things that she had, not to mention doing the things that she'd done, a normal human male just didn't suit her.

Perhaps that was the true problem - she was a miko, and as such, held a power that no other human now living had. So... no human male could ever really hope to be her equal.

For that, she needed a male of power... and the only ones would be youkai. If they even still existed, and she wasn't sure they did. If they were still around, they were in hiding, and that didn't help her any.

All around her, her human friends were finding relationships and making lives for themselves... but because of who she was, she was handicapped. She couldn't do the same.

But even with that understanding of herself, and her predicament, she couldn't figure out why her mind had picked Inuyasha's father to dream about. Why not a demon male that she'd actually met?

She sighed and her nose wrinkled as her alarm clock woke her from her reflections. Reaching over, she shut it off, then stretched and climbed out of bed.

Time to dress, and face the day.

Since she'd come back permanently, she'd taken over a great deal of the responsibilities of running the shrine day-to-day from her grandfather. He was getting on in years, and it was difficult for him to run such a large shrine alone.

She was a miko, so she decided that she may as well perform the duties of one.

She pulled her clothes from the closet, and had to laugh a little when she thought about a certain hanyou's reaction should he have seen how she spent most of her days dressed now...

He'd always hated it when she'd worn the traditional clothing of a miko, since it reminded him too much of his beloved Kikyou.

Oh, well... not like he's around anymore for it to bother - and besides, I gave him Kikyou back, so he probably wouldn't care what I dressed like anymore, anyway.

Her mind abruptly wandered to what her dream demon would have thought of her get-up, but then she yanked herself away from such thoughts - it was counter-productive to want what she couldn't have, and she definitely couldn't have a male that had been dead for seven hundred years or so.

Not to mention, one who wouldn't know her from any other pathetic human female even if he were alive.

Another flash of loneliness and pain crashed through her. So how did my mind convince me that I'm falling in love with someone I've never met, and never will? She shook her head. I'm losing it...

I have to be.

Little did she know how much her life was about to change.

---oOo---

With breakfast over, she stepped out of the house, breathing in the cool, sweet morning air, and walked slowly up the steps to the main shrine from the house.

Her grandfather was already inside, and Kagome was pretty sure that most of today's activities would wrap around cleaning - she certainly wasn't looking forward to that. The only good thing about that was that on the days they cleaned, the shrine remained closed to visitors.

That's why gramps only has us do cleaning twice a month... he doesn't want to lose the income for closing it anymore than that.

But at least she wouldn't have to concentrate on visitors and tourists today - she was too distracted by thoughts of her dreams, and cleaning the shrine was simple busy-work, leaving her mind free to wander.

And wander it did... to a beautiful Inu Lord. Seeing him in her dreams, though, made her wonder, how had he looked in life?

Was he just as tall as he was in her dreams? His hair as long, tied in a top-knot, and soft as silk? Had his eyes truly been the ever-shifting gold they were in her imagination?

She let out a sudden sound of distress, and threw the dusting rag she had been using down, then stared at it for a full minute before turning and walking out of the building. She felt smothered, as though she was trapped, it felt difficult to draw air, and she needed to get outside... now.

It was almost like having a panic attack, and before she knew it, she found herself hunched against the trunk of the Goshinboku. It had always been her safe haven, no matter which era she'd been in, and now was no different, when she felt hounded by her dreams and the longings that they were bringing to life within her.

She sat at the foot of the tree for some time, she was never sure, afterwards, how long she drifted inside herself, there in the soft breeze and sunlight, soothed by her dream-lover.

It seemed that those dreams were the only times she was even happy, anymore, and with her lost in them at this point, she was actually smiling.

And that was where Mattaki spoke his first words to Kagome outside of dreams.

---oOo---

A/N: After I finished my first Inupapa/Kagome pairing, a full length action-adventure/romance, The Longest Journey, several people that enjoyed it asked if I planned to write another story with this pairing. I, personally, have a huge crush on Inupapa, and so my answer to that was yes - though I had nothing specific in mind at that time.

This little short romance came to me last week, and has hounded me near to death to get it finished. At this point, all but the epilogue is finished, and I'll be finishing that today. Because of that, I will post two chapters a week on this story. Hopefully, everyone enjoys this little short story.

Amber