here- sorry about not updating since forever! I know there's no excuse for it, so I'm just going to cut to the chase and let everybody read the newest chapter! Thanks again for all you guys who have supported me and sorry for not updating recently!

6.

Kikyo smiled at Rin. With her alabaster skin and demure smile, Kikyo reminded Rin of a little china doll, full of beauty but oddly devoid of life. The pallid quality to her complexion, the pale hospital gown that lay white and lank like sheets over her shoulders— Kagome seemed much livelier and healthier than this girl. They were so different and yet so similar.

"Rin? Where'd you go?" Sango's voice rang out, and Rin was drawn away from the woman's face.

Kikyo gave a soft but indiscernible smile, her hair falling as dark and stained as ink down her white gown. "You should get going. It seems that you have people who are looking for you. You wouldn't want to worry them."

Rin sensed something in her words, something deeper, and something closer to the woman. The words had the same rhythm as a fluttering heart, a little off-beat, a little too weak. "Do you have people who will look for you?" she asked simply, titling her head.

The woman gave that same vague smile.

"Rin!" Sango called out again, and watching the spectral figure of the sickly woman, Rin slowly staggered away.

As soon as Rin wandered over to her, Sango said in a fluster, "Where did you go off to? I thought you might have just left."

"I don't know where to leave," Rin said simply, bewildered by Sango's concern. Whenever Kagura or one of the other working girls was looking for her, they just screamed and complained when Rin hobbled over to them belatedly. Their concern over her absence was usually limited to a spill or broken glass that needed to be swept up.

"That's right!" Sango gasped. "Your guardian! You said they were waiting for you at the store— they must be so worried about you. Wait, I can call them," Sango said in a hurry and grabbed out her cellphone. "What's their number?"

"I don't know," Rin said simply, thinking.

Sango and Miroku watched her in surprise. "You don't know your parents' phone numbers?" Miroku asked in disbelief.

"Lord Jaken's not my parent," Rin said dismissively. She was filled with curiosity over what a child of Jaken's would actually look like. Probably fascinating. Rin shook the idea out of her head and then looked up at Sango. "You probably know his phone number, though."

"Me?" Sango said in confusion.

Rin nodded her head. "Kohaku said you knew Lord Sesshomaru." As Miroku and Sango looked at her with expressions of shock and horror spreading steadily across their faces, Rin smiled and said, "Could you call Lord Sesshomaru for me?"

Sango clutched her phone, speechless, looking at Rin as if she couldn't quite make out what she was. Miroku gaped at Rin and clutched a wall for support. Their eyes were both wide and astonished.

"Wait," Miroku said hastily, trying to compose himself, trying to think, "You don't mean Sesshomaru Ookami, do you?"

Rin's face glowed with the widest of smiles. Sango and Miroku looked more shocked than ever. "That's right!" Rin answered cheerily. "So you do know him!"

Sango's mouth moved aimlessly for a moment before she could articulate the words, "y-you're with Sesshomaru Ookami…?"

"Yup!" Rin smiled. She felt her heart soar after she heard the phrase. "He's looking after me!"

It was hard for Miroku and Sango to even begin to reason with this absurdity. They looked at Rin like they had never seen anything quite like her. With fumbling, slow fingers Sango began to look under the number for her business contacts and slowly dialed the number while Miroku watched Rin with a smirk growing across his face.

…

Sesshomaru sat at a red light, trying to turn his mind away from that Naraku Onigumo and Rin and back to the important matter, or so they should have been—Inuyasha, that Kagome Higurashi, and his inheritance. It had been to his amazement as he drove through the city that he realized he hadn't thought about the succession and his father's empire throughout the entire day. He had even walked into that dump of a brothel Shikon Jewel, willingly, deliberately, for the sake of Rin, not for his inheritance and his brother. He had gone there for Rin, not for himself.

This couldn't be good.

Sesshomaru swerved around a slow car and sped back to the apartment, trying to distract himself from that brothel and that girl, Rin. It was a good thing he had driven the second car today instead of having been chauffeured by Jaken. At least he could take his mind off it all.

Sesshomaru felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Clutching the sleek, black device in his fingers, he found a number he didn't recognize on the screen, a business number. Then he saw the heading RYOUSHI CORP. Sesshomaru pressed his cellphone to his ear while he laid his other hand languidly on the steering wheel.

"Mr. Ookami?" A tentative voice said from the other end. Where had Sesshomaru heard that voice before? "This is Sango Ryoushi."

"Miss Ryoushi? Why are you calling me?" Sesshomaru pressed his phone between his shoulder and his ear. "If this is about business, call me back later—"

"It's not—that—" Sango said uncertainly. She paused. Sesshomaru was getting annoyed. Then Sango cleared her throat, sending a static fizzle through the cellphone connection, and she said in a unsure tones, "do you know a girl named Rin?"

Sesshomaru pressed down hard on his gas pedal, pushing quickly back over the brake when he nearly rammed into the car in front of him. These were the times when he wished Jaken were driving. Sango waited in timid silence from the other end.

"…why do you ask?" Sesshomaru said, clutching the wheel so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"It's just that she's at the hospital with me and my brother right now. She said that—"

"Hospital?" Sesshomaru interrupted. He was thinking hard, and he felt the plastic of his wheel shift under his furious hands. The scenarios flashed quickly through his mind—Rin, beaten battered, her dark eyes closing, and her mouth bright with blood. He remembered seeing Rin sprawled on the ground and bleeding like that one time those drunkards had dared to hit her. "What happened?"

"N-nothing," Sango said hastily, and Sesshomaru could sense the surprise in her voice and the uncertain lapses in her words. Sesshomaru was surprised with himself as a sigh of relief escaped his mouth. No, he told himself, firmly. He didn't care about her. He couldn't. He shouldn't. Despite all the illogic to caring about this girl, his heart seemed to outpace his brain and he felt the maddening corner and care all the same.

Sango cleared her throat from the other end of the phone. "Rin's fine, my brother got into a…situation, and Rin came along with us. She's fine."

"Which hospital?" Seshomaru said icily.

"The general hospital," Sango answered, the surprise still audible in her quiet voice. She waited for a moment before speaking again. "So she is with you?"

Sesshomaru considered the question for a moment, and the car languished. Behind him he could barely hear the angry honks of the other drivers, and when he did, he ignored them, saying smoothly, "for now," before hanging up the phone. He pressed on the gas pedal, and he went skidding through the roads toward the hospital. Of course. That girl never failed to surprise him.

Jaken was going to suffer for this.

…

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin gasped in delight as she saw Sesshomaru appear through the revolving glass doors. He returned her happiness with his regularly reserved look and strode calmly over to Sango and Miroku, who watched the young, cheerful girl and cold man in complete surprise. When Rin grabbed ran closer to Sesshomaru and just touched his sleeve, he didn't even draw himself away from her. It was certainly a spectacle. Neither of them knew what to say or even think. Sesshomaru and a young girl?

"Where's Jaken?" Sesshomaru asked Rin as she ran around him in circles. She certainly wasn't hurt, at least not the way she pranced around him with such excitement that Sesshomaru couldn't understand it.

"Last time I saw him he was still at the store," Rin said. "I'm not sure if he's still at the mall, though."

Rin walked in spirals around Sesshomaru, and finally Sesshomaru put a hand down on her dark head to stop her repetitive trek like a deviant wind-up toy. His hand on her head, he barely moved his fingers to stroke her dark hair. Feeling Sesshomaru's touch, Rin nudged her head closer to him and closed her eyes contently under his hand. Sango and Miroku watched Sesshomaru carefully caress Rin's hair with expressions of complete astonishment.

"Why isn't he with you?" Seshomaru asked the girl and he finally drew his hand away.

Rin blinked her dark eyes at Sesshomaru, drawn out of her reveries when his touch was gone from her skin. "We got separated after I ran out of the store and Kohaku chased after me. Then he had an attack and that guy showed up and then we came over to the hospital."

Rin pointed to Miroku and Miroku waved at Sesshomaru with a cunning smile on his face. Sesshomaru narrowed his golden eyes.

"I didn't know you had any kids, Sesshomaru," Miroku said with a smirk. "What a surprise."

"I'm not Lord Sesshomaru's child," Rin argued.

"My mistake." Miroku smiled. "I didn't know you were into them."

Sesshomaru glared at the man. Miroku looked content.

"I suppose," continued Miroku with the same satisfaction in his voice, "that Inuyasha doesn't know about this? It certainly isn't in line with your character. I would have never guessed you'd be looking after a young girl."

"It's my business," Sesshomaru replied coolly, and he turned away and proceeded through the glass doors, commanding, "Rin, come."

Stumbling in Sesshomaru's wake, Rin turned around to Miroku and Sango one last time and waves to them.

"Bye!" she shouted, and then she followed Sesshomaru out of the hospital and into his black car.

In the lobby of the hospital Sango and Miroku stood frozen to the spot, surprise still stretched across Sango's face while Miroku watched the place where Sesshomaru and Rin had just been with a visage of amusement. He fingered his chin, thinking.

"I…can't believe it," Sango gasped. Her eyes were still wide and listless. "Why does a guy like him have that girl…?"

"I would have never guessed," Miroku said with a smile. Then he laughed and ran a hand through his tousled hair. "Those Ookami brothers never fail to surprise me."

…

Inuyasha remembered the days when his mother was still alive. Izayoi Takahashi, a woman of beauty and grace and most famously known as his mother, had been hated by the entire Ookami household. She had been a simple governess before, and now she was the illustrious mistress of the esteemed Inutaisho Ookami, a loose woman without a single cent to her name or any political connection. Just an eyesore, just like Inuyasha, the illegitimate son.

Inuyasha hated them all, all the pompous bastards who talked about prestige and eminence and treated those below them, namely him and his mother, like trash. It had taken all Inuyasha's restraint to bear their scorn without leaping for their throats.

It was with the most clarity and familiarity that Inuyasha remembered Izayoi. Although strong and graceful, it was hard for her to endure the constant day-to-day harassment of the entire Ookami household. She suffered their gossip and outward, blatant criticisms. Whore, they called her. A conniving gold-digger with a pretty face, they murmured to each other behind cupped hands. They laughed at Izayoi in her presence and made her life a living hell. And, like always, Inuyasha's father was never there when he needed him, not even to protect his beloved Izayoi.

"It's okay, Inuyasha," Izayoi told her boy again and again after he put up with the Ookami household and upper-class scorn without a word or cry. He had no place among them. Neither of them did. "It will be alright. You'll see."

It never got better, and soon, Izayoi got worse after the constant stress caused her health to begin to fail. The stress and fatigue left Izayoi open to other illnesses and soon she was in the hospital from a day to day basis. Inuyasha was in middle school then, and he never once forgot the way she persevered through the worst of it with a small, crinkled smile on her once lovely face and began to waste away on her hospital bed. Inuyasha hated everyone then, everything. He hated the Ookami household and bureaucrats who tortured Izayoi from their envy; he hated his father for having done nothing to try and save his lover; he hated his half-brother, Sesshomaru, who treated Izayoi and Inuyasha as little more than nuisances in his upper-class and esteemed world. Most importantly, Inuyasha hated himself for being unable to help his mother at all.

It was on one of those visits to the hospital with Izayoi that Inuyasha had met her for the first time. He had never thought he would meet her again, but she kept on reappearing every time in his head every time things became unbearable.

Kagome.

Inuyasha was fourteen when he saw her for the first time. Or, more appropriately, when he had burst onto the roof of the hospital and Kagome had hurled her bag straight into his face. It wasn't the best first impression in the world.

"What—?!" a younger Inuyasha gasped as he clawed the bag away from his face. He had escaped to the rooftop to avoid the misery of his mother's hopeless situation and her progressive illness. His frustration was already at its peak, and then he was hit by something, hard and squarely in the face. Inuyasha tore the bag from his face, and yelled to the open roof, "—the hell is your problem?!"

When Inuyasha hurled the bag at his feet, he was surprised to find her. She was probably the same as he was, and she was leaning against the chain-link fence of the rooftop, her short, ebony black hair tossed by the wind and tears in her swollen, blood-shot eyes of hazel. She pressed a hand to her face in shock.

"What…" she began, sniffling, and Inuyasha watched her watery eyes fill with anger as she said, "are you doing?"

Inuyasha stomped forward, shouting, "That should be my question! Why the hell did you throw your bag at me, you stupid girl?!"

"I—I panicked," Kagome answered hastily, and she turned around to wipe the tears from her eyes. She her eyes were dry and red, telltale of her once flowing tears, she faced Inuyasha resolutely and stood against the chain-link fence. Never had Inuyasha seen someone with so fierce a will unless he considered himself.

"Well, you can just sob your heart out," Inuyasha growled and turned his back on Kagome, "but I've got enough to deal with without a deranged girl attacking me."

"Do you have someone in this hospital, too?"

Inuyasha froze, and slowly, he turned around to the girl. Kagome was watching him with her unwavering gaze, the ends of her short dark hair occasionally drifting into her pale face and puffy eyes with the help of the wind.

Inuyasha stared hard at the girl, and then said in a low, guarded voice, "What do you care?"

"If you do," Kagome said simply and tightened her fingers on the chain-link fence, "then you can stay here, if you want to."

Inuyasha looked at Kagome, and saw the resolve in her eyes and none of the pity, none of the scorn that he was used to dealing with. It was just this girl who seemed so like him. Inclining his white-gold head, Inuyasha walked over to the chain-link fence and hoisted himself up with Kagome.

That was how it had all started, so simply. Every week Inuyasha came over to the hospital to visit his mother in her room, and every time he found Kagome on the roof, sometimes staring off into the distance with a dazed look on her face, other times wiping the tears roughly from her eyes.

"So your Mom is sick?" Kagome said one day as she leaned against the fence and wrapped her hands around her skirt.

"Yeah," Inuyasha said to the wind as he lay on the roof and crossed his arms beneath his head. "She wasn't that sick before, but now they think that it might be cancer. They'll never tell me when she's going to get better," Inuyasha said and gave a bitter laugh, moving his arms from beneath his head to ever his face. "The only person that matters, and nobody will tell me anything about whether she'll be okay or not."

Kagome said nothing and lowered herself onto the roof beside Inuyasha. She watched the blue sky and let Inuyasha press his arms to his eyes and stave off the tears. After a moment Inuyasha let his hands fall back to his side and he turned his face to Kagome.

"Why are you here, anyway?" He asked her.

"I'm here today for Jii-chan," Kagome said simply, her short, black hair splayed around her like unraveling shadow. "He's old now, and he keeps on throwing out his back and catching colds. Mom was worried about him, so here I am."

"Why were you here before?" Inuyasha said.

Kagome let her eyes vaguely roam the blue sky dotted with clouds for a moment, and then she pressed the side of her face to the ground, facing Inuyasha. Their faces were only inches away from each other, and Inuyasha could feel the warmth of Kagome's breath on his skin.

"I'm here," Kagome said quietly, "because someone very important to me is in here…and I don't know what to do. At first it was just for regular check-ups, but now it looks like the illness if getting worse and worse."

Without a word, Inuyasha let his hand slide into Kagome's and he touched her fingers ever so gently. He didn't remove his golden eyes from her. Returning Inuyasha's gaze with her eyes of brilliant hazel, Kagome pressed her forehead against Inuyasha and remained that way with their faces touching.

Inuyasha didn't know when he started, but soon the close friendship slowly bloomed into something more. When he sought Kagome out at the rooftop, he wasn't just looking for another lonely companion and kindred soul— he hoped for her smiles, her lovely gaze, and her touch. He wanted to go to the hospital more frequently, and not primarily for his mother, he realized with a pang of guilt. He wanted Kagome.

And then everything began to fall apart. One day, Inuyasha was at the mansion and Myoga timidly appeared at his door with his bulbous head bowed. He played with his small fingers in his lap.

"I'm afraid Lady Izayoi has passed away."

Inuyasha watched the old man, his golden eyes growing wide, and he could hear his heart stop. He couldn't breathe.

"Mother is…?" Inuyasha began, and then his throat choked up, and he ran out the door, ignoring Myoga as he called out to him.

Inuyasha didn't know how long or how far he ran, and at some point when he had made it into the hospital it had begun to rain. His legs just carried him up to his mother's room like they always did, his mind vacant, his heart caught in his throat. When he came to his senses, he was howling and struggling against the doctors and nurses in his mother's room as his mother lay, pristine and white, on her bed. He reached for her, he fought to get to her— no, no, it couldn't end like this, not this way—

"Mom!"

Inuyasha was eventually forced out of the room, and then, with their same, senseless movement, Inuyasha found himself on the roof of the hospital. The rain was pouring hard and fast now. Of course, it was on days like this that it rained. Kagome wasn't even there this time. It was just empty.

He was empty.

"Inuyasha?" A voice called out through the deluge of rain, and Inuyasha turned around to find Kagome entering the rooftop, her clothes clinging to her body like a second skin, strands of dark hair plastered to her face.

Kagome watched Inuyasha long and hard and said nothing. She merely stood in the heavy rain.

Inuyasha's face broke into a wide, bitter smile and he felt the rainwater in his mouth. It was cool and tasteless. And then he felt something warm and salty trickle into his open mouth, and Kagome watched tenderly as the tears slid down Inuyasha's face.

"She's dead," Inuyasha said slowly, with a dark smile. He felt chilled to the bone, and then he felt the rage burn and flare like fire inside him. "Now, she's dead, just like everyone always wanted. Every single one of them— and it's all their faults, those bastards! They tortured her, and now they got what they always wanted. Now she's out of their goddamned ways!"

"Inuyasha," Kagome began helpless, rain bright and shining on her face.

"They always wanted her to be gone. And now she's never coming back!" Inuyasha shouted into the rain and wind, and he couldn't tell if it was tears or raining pelting like a waterfall down his face. "That damned old man of mine didn't even try to protect her. He could have done something! He could have saved her! I—" Inuyasha said finally, and he was looking at Kagome hopelessly, feeling his heart falling into pieces, "—I could have saved her!"

"Inuyasha—"

"And I was just too weak! Too weak to do anything!" Inuyasha turned his face to the rain and felt it wash over him. He felt like he could drown there and then. "Why didn't I save her?" Inuyasha said in a weak, shaking voice.

"Inuyasha." Inuyasha felt Kagome wrap her arms around him, and she laid her dark, rain-soaked head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said in a small voice, and Inuyasha was holding her tight, his hands on her back and in her wet hair. "Inuyasha."

Kagome removed her head from Inuyasha's chest, and slowly, gently, Inuyasha cupped her face with his hands. Ever so hesitantly he pulled her in for a kiss. At first their lips just touched, as wet and tasteless as the gray rain. And then they were holding each other, pressed close, kissing long and deep, and their mouths desperately searching the other. They stayed like that in the rain.

When Inuyasha escaped to the hospital now, he didn't go for his mother, but he sought Kagome on the rooftop. He longed to hold her in his embrace, he sought the warmth of her touch, and he welcomed the taste of her bittersweet mouth.

"Why are you always at the hospital?" Inuyasha asked one day, lying on the rooftop with his mouth in Kagome's hair. Her hair had grown longer by this point, and she had grown ever so beautiful.

Kagome looked at Inuyasha, her hazel eyes blinking. "For someone important."

"Who is that someone?" Inuyasha repeated, drawing Kagome closer to him.

She smiled into his face. "Are you jealous?"

Inuyasha laid his elbow on the ground and put the side of his face in his hand. "Maybe," he said slowly.

"Maybe I won't tell you, then," Kagome laughed and flipped onto her back, facing the sky.

Looking impatiently over to Kagome, Inuyasha suddenly leaned on top of her on his hands and knees, and Kagome's hazel eyes grew wide. Her face was flushed, and Inuyasha stifled a smile.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kagome said in a low voice, her face red.

Inuyasha smiled, and lowered his face closer to Kagome's, the ends of his white-blonde hair touching her cheeks. "I'm cornering you," he replied smoothly. "Tell me who it is."

"Stop, Inuyasha—!"

"Kagome?" a clear, ringing voice rang out.

Before Inuyasha could even look for the source of the voice, Kagome had pushed him away, fiercely blushing, and she rose to her feet. That was when Inuyasha saw it.

It was a girl identical to Kagome in almost every way— she had the same sculpted face, the same dark hair that unfolded over her slender shoulders. As she walked onto the rooftop, the clean, white folds of her hospital gown sunk swept around her slim ankles, and a look passed over her face that convinced Inuyasha that she was starkly different from Kagome. In her expression, there was detachment— in her coy smile, something cooler, aloof found itself in the corners of her pale lips.

"Kikyo!" Kagome gasped, and ran over to the girl. Together, the girls looked more identical than before, and Inuyasha stared at them in shock.

Kikyo looked at Inuyasha and then at Kagome with a playful smirk. "I was wondering where you always ran off to after our visits, but I didn't expect anything like this—"

Kagome went crimson, and Inuyasha finally rose to his feet.

"Are you Kagome's boyfriend?" Kikyo asked Inuyasha. She smiled. It was a different kind of smile than Kagome's.

"Kik—"

"Yeah," Inuyasha answered simply, and Kagome glared at him. Kikyo only smiled.

"Kikyo," Kagome began, coughing, pulling her hair away from her face. Her complexion had now returned to its creamy color— well, thought Inuyasha with a smile, at least it was closer to its original peach tones instead of flaming, blushing red. "This is Inuyasha."

Kikyo gave a little smile.

"Inuyasha, this is Kikyo," Kagome finished. "She's the reason I'm here every week. She's my twin sister."

Hope you guys liked the newest chapter. Here we finally get into the past of Kagome and Inuyasha and the mystery of Kikyo (sorry Sesshomaru and Rin- we'll get back to you guys very soon!) We'll be getting into how the twins are involved with Naraku soon... until then, I will try to update again soon, so thanks for reading and reviewing my work! It means a lot to me!