-1AN/ My first HP/IY crossover. Thought I'd break this Kag/Hiei streak I've been on lately. I'm working on a full-length story for the pairing, but am having trouble getting through the first set-up chapter (I just wanna get to the juicy stuff in the middle!). Maybe getting away from it for a while and then going back with fresh eyes will help.

Anyway, this will be a series of interconnected one-shots. I know where I want to take this, just not how I want to get there. So, updates will be sporadic; I'll write when an idea strikes me. Also, I haven't read the last book, because I'm a coward. So, I don't have a specific timeline for this. -shrugs- Maybe the sixth book.

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Beauty in the Breakdown

The Boy With Rain Cloud Eyes

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Kagome knew there was a good reason she'd been told to stay out of the sight of the students at the school, but only coming out of her room at night was becoming more and more unbearable each day. Nonetheless, she was trapped here at this odd, magical school in this foreign land whether she liked it or not.

She'd already been here a few weeks, but she had yet to become accustomed to this strange, new direction her life had taken. She missed the birds and the flowers and the trees. She missed the feeling of the sun on her skin, the warmth that soothed her aching soul and the light that illuminated all the darkness in her life. And before all the other precious things she'd lost to the Jewel of Four Souls, she missed her family and her friends. Knowing her loved ones and her old life were now and forever beyond her reach almost broke the young woman. But, she was strong. She had a purpose. Herself besides, there were still other lives at stake in this deadly game of chase her life had become, and Kagome had never been one to turn her back on her responsibilities.

The sun had sunk over the horizon and the last vestiges of its orange glow trickled into her single window that she'd thrown open wide that morning before she went to sleep. Last night's heavy spring rain had left the world outside her window bejeweled with little diamonds. The smell of the sun-soaked garden several stories below and the damp vines climbing the walls of the castle did nothing to soothe her. Instead, it only stirred memories of her days in the Feudal Era and made her heart ache for that freedom once more.

Restless, Kagome threw off her blankets and sat up in her bed. There was no way she was getting back to sleep anytime soon. Her eyes searched around the room for a distraction. She shivered as a too-cool breeze blew in and slid off the tall mattresses with some trouble. Crossing the room, she pulled the window closed and latched it. Then, she padded softly to the fireplace and poked around at the dying embers. With effort, she put on a couple more logs and used the matches on the mantle to light them.

As the air started to warm again, the young miko began wandering around the room, contemplating her options. Her eyes were distant and unfocused as she trailed her fingers idly over the cold, iron bedposts and the worn wood of the small desk in the corner. A quill and several sheets of parchment, things that had taken a while to become accustomed to since she came to England, were scattered across the surface, untouched for the most part. Sometimes she wrote to Kouga or Sesshoumaru, the only survivors from that lost era, but she didn't like to trouble them. Kouga had a family now, and Sesshoumaru was always so busy. She hadn't told them where she was (Dumbledore had "advised" against that, what with Naraku still somewhere out there), and what she could say in the letters was limited. Usually, the extent of their correspondence was something along the lines of "I'm alive; how are you?"

But impersonal letters to one-time acquaintances in far-off lands wasn't enough for the little miko. Kagome was a social creature; she liked to be around other people and always loved to be right in the middle of things. It was so quiet and lonely up in this room.

She perused the small collection of English books on the shelf above the desk. Most of them had been given to her by Dumbledore and a few of the other professors in the school to help acquaint her with the culture. For the first time in her life, she was thankful for the required English courses in junior high school. However, she'd already read them all once through and none of them interested her enough to have a second look.

Heaving a sigh, she pulled open one of the drawers of the desk and retrieved a little box of chocolate goodies. Kagome plopped down heavily on the rug in front of the fireplace and began snacking on the contents of the shiny, foiled box. After she'd polished off the last of the chocolates, she stretched out on her back and extended her feet to warm in front of the flames. For a while, she watched the shadows dance across the ceiling.

But her legs were restless. She needed to move, she needed to do something! But the only thing to do around this place was bathe, and she'd already taken a dip early that morning. Sighing, she decided an extra bath had never hurt anyone and stretched her muscles before rising to her feet. Kagome padded softly to the entrance and slid her feet into her white slippers. She pulled a white satin robe from the peg on the wall and wrapped it around herself just in case she ran into any of the professors. It wouldn't do to have anyone seeing her in only her silk nightgown.

Cautiously, the miko pushed open the painting of a young woman and her little black dog and peaked through the hole. She checked to make sure there was no one in the hall before slipping through the portal herself. Replacing the painting on the wall, she whispered to the slumbering woman, "I'm going to bathe, Miss Anne. I'll be back in a little while." The woman merely waved her hand sleepily, not bothering to open her eyes.

Kagome rolled her eyes and turned to start down the hall. The corridors at this time were dark and yawningly empty, the scant moonlight that streamed through the high windows illuminating a thin, silver path but leaving the walls in eerie, black shadow. When she'd first arrived here, the miko had gotten lost more often than not on her way to the bathroom or the kitchens, but by now she was very familiar with the west wing and could usually navigate the maze-worthy halls of Hogwarts with relative ease.

Coming to a set of stone stairs, Kagome once again glanced behind her and searched the shadows with narrowed eyes to check for any stray students. Dumbledore had told her that the students here had a curfew and so weren't allowed out in the halls after dark. He'd also said that even if she did happen upon a student or two, in the darkness of the castle's night-drawn halls, anyone who saw her would probably write her off as a ghost.

Satisfied that she was alone in the hall, the young miko quickly descended the steps. She shivered as the air became chilled the farther she went into the hall. This whole section was underground, apparently, and maintained a constant cool temperature that bordered on uncomfortable to a warm-blooded creature. Kagome couldn't wait to sink into a hot bath.

Finally, she reached the large, wooden door of the bathroom and pushed it open with some difficulty. It was even heavier than it looked and made a horrible scraping sound against the cold stone floor. She thought nothing of the steam that rolled out of the open door as she stepped through the threshold.

Kagome, though, immediately stopped in her tracks and gasped loudly when she saw that the bath was already occupied by… a boy! And boy, was he!

His back turned to her, he glowed in the colored moonlight that streamed in through the stained-glass window above the large, circular bath. Only knee-deep in the steaming, scented water that still flowed from the many faucets around the edges of the pool, he looked to the lonely little miko like some kind of god. He was tall, thin and lean, and pale as moonbeams. He had platinum hair and pale gray eyes the color of rain clouds. She might have been imagining it, but they looked quite sad under the veil of snowy lashes.

The boy dropped the little wooden bucket he'd been using to wet himself into the water with a splash that sent little droplets of water at Kagome's feet. He turned toward her with an arrogant scowl that quickly melted into confusion when he saw the blushing woman in the doorway.

"I- I-" Kagome, in her mortification, struggled to find the words in English she wanted to say. "G-Gomennasai!" she sputtered, bowing profusely to the stranger. She didn't give him time to respond or herself any more time to ogle him before she was out door, slamming it behind her. She ran back up the hallway and the stairs and didn't stop until she turned a corner. Panting and red-faced, the young miko leaned against the cool stone wall.

She must have looked like such a fool standing there gawking! And then she couldn't even produce the words to apologize! Cautiously, she peaked around the corner. He hadn't followed her, thank goodness! Kagome laughed sarcastically at herself. What had she expected, for him to come chasing after her naked and dripping with suds?!

After she had calmed down, the girl shook her head at her own thoughts and quietly made her way back to her room. She'd planned to stop by the kitchens, too, and get some dinner and rations for tomorrow, but was too mortified to make the trip now. What if she ran into that boy again? No, she just couldn't risk it.

Later that night, Kagome laid in her bed contemplating. Even if it hadn't been an ideal first meeting, it had been an exhilarating experience just to see another human being. She wondered about the pale boy and what he'd been doing out of his dorm after curfew. Was he maybe an instructor here at the school? Was he sneaking out?

The question that bothered Kagome the most, the one that weighed most heavily on her red, red heart, was why his eyes had looked so sad and so lost.

When she finally drifted into sleep, her slumber was restless as it always was. But this time, instead of the usual demons, her dreams were plagued by a pale specter with rain cloud eyes.

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