Disclaimer:

Izayoi: Hanyou Yogonem doesn't own any of us, except perhaps a few names she used on nameless characters, like my parents and such…

Yogonem: Yep, but I want to tell you something about Inu no Taisho. You know I called him Toga, but you know what? That ain't his real name! It's used to identify his character, and it wasn't Toga, it was Togaou. He was never given an actual name, but recently many have been using Sugimi, because Myoga used that name once, so that's the closest you can get to a name for Inu-papa. And I found this out after I wrote the first chapter of this story, so sorry, but what's done is done.

Thanks for the reviews by the way! You don't know how much you guys mean to me!

Chapter 1

When we came home my father started on the one-hour-long lecture about walking in the forest alone and such… Then Takemaru started to talk about all the youkai I could have encountered, killed and been eaten by… And finally when I got out of there, Kuro came with fire burning in his eyes. He demanded to know why I hadn't informed him, and why I went alone.

"I thought I would be back before sun-set." I answered simply and went past a dumbfounded Kuro who stared at me with shock. The rest of the day was uneventful; I ate my dinner, worked on my broidery, and went to bed.

When I lay there on my futon, my thoughts were all about the dog demon lord, I wondered if he was okay now, if he was back to his family… Does he even have a family? The questions swirled around in my head till I got a bad headache, which made me fall to the comforting darkness of slumber.

I wasn't any longer in my father's mansion. I saw it burning in the horizon, I just got to see the roof falling down, I prayed nobody was in there, and I was relieved I wasn't one of those unfortunate enough to be in there when the mansion burned down to the ground.

I looked down and saw I had something in my arms. It was wrapped up in a bundle of red cloth, and it started to scream. I stared down into the face of a baby, with silver hair, and…dog-ears…?

The baby stopped screaming and stared at me with big amber eyes. My heart softened at that very moment. This was the cutest kid I had ever seen, and I had this weird feeling he was mine…

Suddenly I was standing in front of a pretty big house, not nearly as big as my father's mansion, but big enough to be of royal family.

In front of me was a boy, probably five years old or so, he was very cute, it was easy to see that he would be very handsome when he grew up. His silver-white hair stood out against his tan skin, he had chubby cheeks, and big eyes. He also had dog-ears, cute puppy-ears that twitched and turned all the time.

"Mother, what's a half-breed?" I looked down at him, he had hugged me without warning, his face was buried into my stomach, his little arms tried to circle my waist. Suddenly I felt the urge to cry, for he was so innocent, yet when he asked me that question I knew he was sad and confused, and it saddened me…

I didn't answer, I knew he was a half-demon; I just didn't want to tell that was why others hated him… Before I could stop myself my tears fell. I hugged him fiercely back, I knew he knew I cried, but I felt so sorry for this poor boy, the least I could do was hold him and comfort him.

Suddenly the house was burning, a man was standing over me with a sword, and he was smirking madly, like he had lost his mind.

"Time to die, my princess, and don't worry, I'll take care of your half-breed child, you'll see him again soon enough."

"Mother," I saw him, the half-demon boy; he was running towards me, screaming. The man with the sword smiled wickedly, and swung the sword down on me!

I screamed and waited for the blinding pain to come, but suddenly I was laying on my futon again, in my father's mansion. I used the back of my hand and wiped the sweat from my forehead. I heard wolves howling outside, and the moon shone, making my skin seem almost ghostly white. My black hair was messy, and my eyes shone with fear.

"My lady, may I come in?" I heard Kuro's voice outside my room; I had never felt so happy to have him around as I did then.

"Kuro-kun, thank goodness, come in!"

The rise paper door slid shut quietly after Kuro as he stepped inside.

"Izayoi-sama, I heard you scream, is something wrong?" His voice was worried, though I didn't need to hear his voice to know he was worried, for I saw "Worry" written with big letters on his face(not literally).

"No, Kuro-kun, just a bad dream, that's all. I'm sorry if I woke anyone up." I sighed and sat down with my legs crossed. Kuro frowned when he saw my position. My favorite night clothes were a bright red hakama, with matching hitoe, and a white kusode. My mother said the hakama and hitoe was made from the fur of the fire rat, fireproof and strong like poor armor.

It's warm and comfortable, and it means a lot to me, since it was my own mother who wove the fire-rat clothes to me. It's the only thing I have left from her…

But the source of Kuro's dislike was most likely the way I was sitting, it's not womanly to sit with the legs crossed. Kuro and father tried their best to turn me around when I was little, but I did what I felt like, so I sat with my legs crossed, and that's final.

"Izayoi-sama, I really wish you could, uhm how to say this, grow up. You're eighteen summers soon, Izayoi-sama, please act your age."

I was taken aback. Kuro wasn't the kind to talk like this; he usually just frowned and let it be.

But this time he actually told me right in the face to stop being what he considered childish!

A scowl grew on my face.

"Grow up? I am very much grown up, thank you! As you said, I'm turning eighteen soon enough, and maybe you've forgotten, but last time I checked it was me controlling my life, I'm still a kid, Kuro! Don't I have a right to be childish, to enjoy my child-hood?!"

Kuro looked shocked, to say the least. I took the bamboo-bottle lying beside the futon and drank of the deliciously cold water.

But because of my anger a big stream of water trickled down my chin, Kuro's frown deepened.

"Izayoi-sama, I was merely asking you to make yourself presentable to your future husband's family-"

I spat out the water. I coughed and wheezed; Kuro hurried and massaged my back.

"Kuro, I'm not getting married anytime soon. It's too early to talk about that."

Kuro's eyebrows furrowed, turning serious.

"Izayoi-sama, your father wants only the best for you, and this you got to understand, it's for the best, for everyone…"

I looked at Kuro; his expression had turned uncertain again. My expression darkened.

"What did he do?" I asked, venom dripping off my voice. Kuro fidgeted and twiddled his thumbs a little.

"Uhm, he has promised you to your old friend, you know, the little sissy who was scared of your pet mouse when you were young…"

My expression darkened even more, if that's possible.

"So, he just gave me to Setsuna no Takemaru, did he? I'll have a little pep-talk with daddy dearest tomorrow, let's sleep for now. Good night, Kuro-kun."

He sighed in relief when he heard I was adding the polite "kun" after his name, which he knew meant that I had forgiven him.

"Good night, lady Izayoi. And may the spirits and ancestors of your family guard and guide you the right way."

OoOoOo

The day after…

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!!!! THAT I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO FIND MY OWN HUSBAND? OR MAYBE YOU DIDN'T THINK AT ALL, YOU BETTER NOT SAY YOU GAVE ME TO THE FIRST AND BEST MAN THAT WALKED PAST YOU WHILE YOU WERE DRUNK!" To say I was raging would be an understatement; father was practically hiding under his blanket while I was screaming in hysteria.

"P-please, Izayoi dear, sweetie, calm down. I've got everything under control-,"

"CALM DOWN?!!! HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN YOU JUST GAVE ME TO THAT FUCKING PATETHIC EXCUSE FOR A MAN?! I'LL BOIL YOU ALIVE TILL YOUR SKIN FALLS OFF, THEN I'LL CUT OFF YOUR FINGERS, CHOP OFF YOUR HEAD WITH A BREADKNIFE, FILL IT WITH GARLIC, AND THROW IT ON THE RIVER!!!"

Yep, father was definitely scared when that declaration came.

"N-now now, sweetie, we can find a better way around this, please stop yelling-,"

"WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I STOP YELLING?! I FEEL LIKE I'VE GOT A DAMN GOOD REASON FOR IT, AFTER ALL!!"

He was whimpering and on the verge of crying by now.

"Please, please, have mercy…"

I smirked very unpleasantly. Father look even more horrified.

"You're going to take care of this, right?" I asked in a tone that promised pain if he denied.

He swallowed.

"Do I have a choice?"

I smiled (still evilly)

"Of course,"

"I have?" He asked, interrupting my sentence.

"Not." I finished, smirked at my father's horror-stricken face, and went out the door.

Kuro stood outside, again with the worried expression on his face.

"Izayoi-sama, don't you think you could have solved this problem in a better way?" He asked, uncertainly.

"No, Kuro, he's used to business, you can't try to talk your way out of my father's traps, and the only thing he can't take is my raised voice. As you probably heard, he has had experience with my wrath before; he knew what would await him if he refused."

Kuro raised an eyebrow. He opened his mouth to ask, but one of our older servants came by (I've known her since I was born; she's been there for my father always, even when I had my temper tantrums…)

Suki (yep, that's her name) shoved the laundry into Kuro's arms, and leaned close to his ear.

"Trust me; you don't want to know what she is capable of doing if she gets angry enough."

Before Kuro could say "angry princess", Suki had run to the other side of the house.

The evening went on without further problems, till I was in my bed again. I stared up at the roof, lost in thoughts, yet I didn't know what I was thinking, weird, huh?

Toga…I hope you came home safely…

I yawned, and fell asleep within seconds.

I felt my futon shift, and what was that warm thing behind me? Okay, I hope for father's sake that he didn't invite Takemaru to come into my bed.

I felt with my hand over my back, and found something to hold on to. I grabbed it, and pulled the hardest I could. Apparently the thing I had pulled was his hand, and fortunately I was quite strong. I managed to lock his arms and neck with my arms.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, coming into my bedroom like this," I hissed into the unknown's ear; while holding his arm twisted on his back.

"The Inu no taisho of the western lands, to your service my lady," He answered. I let go of him, and slapped his back a little.

"Don't sneak in on me like that, you never know when I might have a knife with me in bed, and then we'll see how much you smirk after I've stabbed you a few times," I sat down on my futon again, yawning.

"Do you know how late it is? I just fell asleep too!" I rubbed my eyes, while he was chuckling.

"What's so funny?" I asked gruffly. He tried to swallow his laugh, and it ended with a sound that normally would have come from a pig. The pig-like snorts stopped after a few minutes, both of us were sporting a red face, him from stifling laughter, and I from trying not to hit him when it had passed five minutes with his seemingly never ending piggy snorts.

"Okay, why are you here? Why are you sneaking in when you could have taken the front door?"

"I don't think your servants would be pleased if a youkai lord showed up on their doorstep. This was to avoid unnecessary trouble with your household. And I came because I missed you, okay?"

My jaw dropped. What the hell?! He…missed me?! He missed me?! He missed me, the tomboy, the childish almost grown up woman, once again, what the hell???!!!!!

"Can you write that down and put your signature on, I honestly can't understand what the hell you're meaning when you say you "miss me"!!" His expression got annoyed when he understood that I meant I didn't get his "oh-so-clear" statement.

"Are you stupid? I said that I missed you. M-I-S-S-E-D Y-O-U! Is it that hard to understand?"

A knocking broke off our bickering, and I heard a voice outside the door.

"Takemaru-sama, the princess is sleeping, you can't just go in there and disturb her sleep, she's been through a lot, and-,"

"Silence servant," Takemaru cut off Kuro rather rudely, "She is my fiancée; I have permission to go visit her, even at hours like these. Izayoi my dear, are you awake?"

I held my finger in front of my lips, signaling for Toga to be quiet.

He nodded, smiled briefly and jumped out the window.

I took a deep breath, and prepared for the man outside the door, I had a feeling I would be doing this a lot.

I opened the shoji door, and screamed at the top of my lungs, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE AT THIS TIME!!! THE SUN HASN'T EVEN RISEN YET, AND YOU DARE COMING HERE WAKING ME UP???!!!!!!"

Both Takemaru and Kuro looked scared out of their wits, and Kuro was slowly backing away, disappearing into the shadows, leaving Takemaru alone (of course Takemaru was too scared to notice that).

"Um, Izayoi, beloved, I didn't mean to-,"

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU MEANT, CAUSE THAT AIN'T CHANGING THAT YOU'RE WAKING ME UP FROM A MUCH NEEDED SLEEP!!" I was red in the face, man, I've got to stop these temper tantrums, I'm going to lose my voice!

"D-do you want me to leave?" He asked, still scared.

"What was that? I thought it would be clear now, I want to sleep, so leave me alone!" I slammed the door shut. Through the shoji door I heard Takemaru mutter "Must be that time of the month."

I was about ready to go back and beat some sense into him for that comment, but regained my control before I did so. I sighed heavily and lay back down on my bed. This was one hell of a boring day, the only funny moments I had was when I was yelling at my dad, and Takemaru, and of course when I got a visit from Toga.

My eyelids were heavy, I hadn't had any decent sleep for a time now, and I should try to get some sleep before I had to wake up for the new day.

A/N

Hey, hey people, long time no see, I'm sorry this update is very, very, veeeeerrryyyy late, but I've been out of ideas for a very long time in this story, but I'm not going to stop writing this, I like writing it, when I have ideas, so please come with suggestions, don't send them via PM cause for a reason I can't receive them right now, or any other mail from and it's very, very annoying, and it's been like this since before summer, and I've written two mails to the support in fanfiction, and I've got NO fing reply, this is getting really boring, cause I think I may have about 300 mails with alerts, PM's, and review replies! If you're going to suggest anything to me about my stories, then please send it via my email address (You can find it on my site), or with a review.

And please read my other stories, because lately there's been almost no one reviewing them, and I miss the reviews! My newest story doesn't even have a review! If you want to tell me it sucks, then do it, if you want to tell me I could improve it, then tell me!

R&R!