Warriors Of A Forgotten Sun

Warriors Of A Forgotten Sun

Chapter One

Into Every Generation

Higurashi Kagome whimpered as she lay in the dank alley, curled up into a ball to prevent her attackers from hurting her. She had been walking home from a club when she was jumped. It was dark, and Kagome had not sensed anything until it was too late. She cringed as she heard one of the men laugh cruelly. She whimpered again, not understanding why she was so affected; she had taken out demons much bigger before. What were they doing to her?!

Then, suddenly, a rush of adrenaline and power ran through her, lighting her veins on fire.... Her mind cleared.

As one on the men's fists came down towards her face, she put up one arm to block it. The man looked surprised, then angry.

In a series of movements she had put hours into learning, Kagome dispatched the men easily and walked out into the street. In the glow of the streetlamp, she examined her hands, flexing them. She could feel raw power running through her veins. She had to find something to let it out on.

When she stumbled into her small flat the next morning, she was covered in slime and demon bits. Feeling satisfied, she took a shower and fell into a dreamless sleep, after reminding herself not to mention the incident to Inuyasha.

~Seven Months Later~

Kagome was lounging on the sofa in the den, watching TV and trying to convince herself that she should go work out. It wasn't working very well, so she took another stick of Pocky out of the box and munched on it. She savored it, well aware of how hard it was to get in London.

Kagome channel surfed, ending up on an old episode of Alias. She had resumed her inner fight about the exercise when the doorbell rang, deciding for her. She sighed and lurched off the couch, clicking off the TV.

The doorbell rang again.

"I'm coming!" she grumbled as she neared the door. If Hojo was back to ask her out again....

Kagome opened the door. To her surprise, two strangers were standing on the doorstep, instead of the rather thickheaded senior. A middle aged man, with glasses and a tweed suit stood in front of a man dressed in a heavy coat that was entirely too hot for the day.

"Hallo."

"Kagome Higurashi?"

"Yeah...you're not selling anything, are you?"

"Er, no. We're here to tell you that you're in danger."

Kagome snorted. That was all? "I know that."

"What?"

"Of course I'm in danger. Look, just come in." She opened her door wider and let the two people in. Kagome resisted the urge to stare at the younger one. Sure, he was no Inuyasha, but this guy was definitely attractive. He had bleached blond hair, cheekbones to die for and remarkably intense blue eyes.

"Whew. I was gettin a bit hot under there," he said as he removed his jacket. "I'm right famished. Got any blood, dove?"

Kagome looked bemused. She felt the strange aura around him, something she had felt many times but never had a chance to figure out. It tickled at the edge of her mind.

"I don't think so."

The older man shot the blond one a look. He responded with a "What?" look of his own.

"So, who are you guys? And what was this about danger? What new Big Bad am I going to have to face?" The blond looked slightly surprised, for whatever reason.

"Forgive me, I'm Rupert Giles, and this is Spike."

"Nice name."

"Thanks," Spike said.

Kagome waved her hand towards a couple of pouffy chairs. "Sit. I'll get you some tea. And I'll check for blood."

Spike and Giles were under the impression that she was kidding, but when she returned from the kitchen a few minutes later, she held a tray with three mugs and some sugar and cream. Two of the mugs were filled with tea, but the one she set in front of Spike held a dark thick liquid, crimson colored.

Spike perked up and took a sip. "Oh, that's good too. Fresh."

"Why did you--?"

"Have blood in the fridge?" Giles nodded. "I get interesting company."

"Apparently," said Giles, obviously a little taken aback.

"So, you were going to tell me why I'm in danger?"

"Right." Giles paused and closed his eyes. "As long as there have been vampires, there has been the Slayer. Into every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. One born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of evil."

Giles opened his eyes.

"Sounds positively medieval. What does it have to do with me?" Kagome cleverly hid all of her feelings behind a smooth mask, hiding her shock and fear.

Spike snorted. "You're the new slayer."

"Oh. So I have to go around killing creatures of the night, do I?"

"Well, yes and no."

"Huh?"

Spike rolled his eyes. "Nice going, Watcher. He means, yes you do have to go around killing vamps, but you're not going to have to move to the Hellmouth."

"Hellmouth," Kagome said the way she would have said 'cloud'. "Well, I'm not going to ask what that is, as it seems pretty self explanatory, but I am going to ask why you do or don't need me there."

"Because we've got a slayer back home in Sunnyhell to take care of it for us," Spike said, setting his cup down.

Kagome blinked. "I thought there was only one slayer. You know, one into every generation and all."

"Our friends brought her back from the dead."

Kagome raised her eyebrows. "Impressive." Spike smirked.

"Quite. We now have three slayers in existence." Giles looked as if he very much wanted to smack the blond upside the head.

"Three?"

"Buffy's died twice."

Spike nodded. "You've been miss super strength for about seven months."

Kagome frowned. Yes, that made sense. She had suddenly become stronger, more agile. She had always been a suprisingly fast healer but while it once had taken about a week to heal broken ribs, now it took only a couple of days. She had attributed it to her growing powers.

"Okay, that makes sense. I've been able to do things I hadn't been able to before. But, you still haven't told me why I'm in danger."

"The vampires are growing bolder. There's a Hellmouth here, in London." Kagome nodded. "They're also growing stronger, and we can't figure why. Thank God they haven't found a way to go out in daylight."

"Hey!" said Spike indignantly. "You have any idea what it's like to be in the dark all the time?"

Kagome let out an "Oh!' of realization. The two men turned back to her. "You're a vampire!"

"Eh, yeah."

"So that's what you are! It's been bugging me for months!"

"What?" Kagome turned to Giles.

"I can feel them, their auras; I can tell when someone isn't human. I've been feeling auras like Spike's here, but haven't been able to find out what they were, due to an overly protective friend." Kagome rolled her eyes. "I swear, he's like a guard dog...."

"You can feel auras?"

Kagome nodded. Giles looked very interested. "I can do a lot more than that, actually. We're not sure where they come from, but they've always been there. "

"What else can you do?"

"I can...well, purify a demon. With enough power, it disintegrates them completely." Spike shrank back and Kagome sent him a feral grin. "I can also heal. I've been training for a few years now, and like to think myself pretty accomplished."

"You use them on demons?"

"Relax, Spike, I'm not going to purify you. I'm not even sure it would work on a vampire."

Giles opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out, the doorbell rang again. Kagome sighed. "The one day I kick back, people keep ringing my doorbell. If it's Hojo..." she left the room, muttering to herself, signaling that she'd be right back.

Kagome opened her door again and brightened. "Wotcher, Inuyasha!"

"Hey Kag." He sniffed. "Who's here?"

"Come in. They're...well, I guess they're friends."

"You guess?"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Honestly, if anyone had told me how possessive dog demons were beforehand..."

"But you love me like this."

You have no idea how right you are.

"Yeah, yeah, get in here, you arrogant bastard." She pulled him inside and propelled him into the living room.

Spike and Giles stopped talking as soon as they saw a rather tall man enter the room, Kagome right behind him. He looked like a refugee from a Sex Pistols concert, wearing ripped trousers, a beat up black leather jacket and motorcycle boots that made loud clumping noises everytime he put a foot down. He looked to be no older than twenty-two or twenty-three, with amber eyes and a black bandanna over his long silver hair. It was disheveled, giving the impression that he hadn't brushed it in days. He had two silver rings in one eyebrow and a stud in the middle of his lip. Another stud in his nose didn't -as it would've on many other guys- make him look a bit feminine. He grinned at the frozen Giles and Spike with a mouthful of unbelievably white teeth, obviously enjoying their reactions. Giles noticed that his canines were long and razor sharp.

"Oi. What's up?"

Kagome peered over his shoulder and giggled at the two men in her living room.

"Mr. Giles, Spike, this is my friend Inuyasha." She pushed him a bit further in, causing him to lose his balance momentarily. The rattle of chains was heard and Spike noticed that he was wearing one on his neck, one around his wrist and a few on his trousers.

Inuyasha took a seat on the couch, flopping down tiredly. He fixed Giles and Spike with a piercing look. "So, who are you then?"

Kagome sat next to Inuyasha. "That's Mr. Giles, and that's Spike. They came to tell me I'm in danger." Inuyasha snorted.

"We know that."

"S'what I told em." Kagome proceeded to explain, with Giles helping, what they had told her earlier.

"So, you're a...slayer."

"Apparently."

"How's that different from what we do now?"

"I kill vampires as well. Not Spike though, he's a good vampire."

"Good vampire?"

"Yes."

"They exist?"

Kagome smacked Inuyasha with the back of her hand.

"You know, I would've known about the vampires if you hadn't been so stubborn about letting me feel the auras."

"The last time you did that, you went into a seizure. There's no way I'm risking that again."

Giles and Spike exchanged curious looks.

"So," said Kagome, still glaring at Inuyasha, "All you want me to do is add vampires to my list of Big Bads to kill?"

"We were hoping you'd host a couple of potential slayers here. Just a few, no more than five, and Buffy would join you."

"Buffy?" Inuyasha questioned.

"Buffy Summers. She was the slayer I was talking about earlier. I was her Watcher."

"Watcher?"

"Yes. I worked for the Watchers Council-"

"Bunch of old stuffed shirts," interjected Spike. Giles smiled wryly.

"Yes, well, they're all Watchers. We need to assign you one, now."

"Me?"

"Yes."

"Bummer. Can Inuyasha act Watcher? He already does, anyway."

"We'll see." Giles didn't look too hopeful.

"So, Kag's gonna get some roommates?" He turned to Kagome. "Don't let Miroku in." Kagome shuddered.

"Course not, I don't want to scare them off."

Spike snorted into his mug.

Spike and Giles left with the promise to come back in a week with the potentials and Buffy. A pair of eyes watched them as they left, one hand curling around a wand.

Once they were gone, Inuyasha turned to Kagome. "I did actually have a purpose for coming here."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Miroku got us a tip about a nest of demons in Soho."

"Wonderful. And to think this was my day off."

"Yeah, slayers don't get days off, from what I've heard. Let's go."

"Lemme change."

Inuyasha looked down at her. "What's wrong with what you've got on now?"

Kagome pointedly looked down at her outfit--a purple t-shirt, chains and very old, very thin jeans-- then looked at Inuyasha deadpan. " Oh, yes, this is so stealthy and practical."

"Ha ha. Very funny."

"Shut up and sit down." The girl disappeared into her room, the door shutting with finality.

A few minutes later, Kagome came out wearing a black boyfriend muscle tank, black stretchy pants and black boots.

"Isn't it a little hot for all the black?"

Kagome glared at him. "It's fine. Let's go."

Kagome slipped on two arm guards that had knives hidden in them and belted a thin sword at her waist. "Hold on, I need to do the illusion." She pointed at her sword, muttered something under her breath, and the sword took on the appearance of a cell phone.

"Ready."

"Right then. Let's go." Inuyasha strode out of the flat, Kagome locking the door behind them.

"Let's kick some demon arse!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Do you think you could be a little more cliché?"

"Probably. Shut up and move."

They took the underground, keeping as quiet as possible. They did attract a few odd looks, but nothing too abnormal. Inuyasha just stared down anyone who was too interested.

They got off at Soho, and Inuyasha led her to a nearby club. Kagome could feel the auras coming from it and frowned.

"If they're in there....they've either got good illusions, or they're wreaking havoc."

Inuyasha shrugged. "We're just gonna check it out, see if anything needs killing."

Inuyasha walked right in, giving a fake ID to the bouncer. Kagome followed suit. They moved to the bar and sat down. Inuyasha scoped out the area, looking perfectly normal. Kagome sent her power out in a wave and gave the barest of nods towards a blue haired youth.

"I'm feeling something strong from him. And there's a weaker demon off to the left, the one with greasy black hair. Wearing the Lord of the Rings t-shirt." Her voice was low.

Inuyasha slid a drink over to her. "Dangerous?"

"Maybe."

Suddenly a jolt of power had Kagome sloshing half of her drink on the floor. Inuyasha looked at her, alarmed. "What is it?"

"Demons...outside, I think. Strong."

Inuyasha got up, looking calm, but Kagome could see the tenseness in his shoulders and neck.

"Let's go." He threw down some money for the drinks and they left. Outside, Kagome felt it again.

"To the left."

They came upon an alley, and three centipede demons. The demons reared up and grinned horribly as the two came close.

"Ah...dinner...Look, sister, look what we've got."

"Oh, they look right tasty, they do..."

"Let's just kill them."

They never got the chance. Inuyasha, with a quick swipe of his claws, dispatched one, Kagome hit another with a blast of power, and the third one met her sword. Annoyingly, the last centipede would not die, and it took the combined force of Kagome's sword, her magic, and Inuyasha's claws to finish her off.

Kagome wiped her sword off with a kerchief from her jacket. "Nasty creatures."

Inuyasha snorted in amusement. "C'mon, it's getting late."

Kagome and Inuyasha got as far as the underground station when Kagome felt a weird twinge. It was that aura, the one that belonged to vampires. Kagome was suddenly quite aware that it was just she and Inuyasha, taking a short cut. The station was not far away, within running distance, but to a killer, it was far enough.

Kagome stiffened, and Inuyasha looked at her, alarmed for the second time that night. "What now?"

"Vampires."

"Lovely. You know, we should start carrying around stakes," Inuyasha remarked conversationally.

"Or crossbows." Kagome whipped out her sword and spun, catching the demon in the heart. He disintegrated into dust. Unfortunately, there were more.

"Inuyasha, go for the heart!"

"I'm not an idiot! I watched as many horror movies- ouch!- as you!"

Kagome lopped off the head of a female coming at her, and Inuyasha stuck his hand through another's chest.

The last one, a young man, ran.

"Oh no you don't!" Kagome shouted, shooting a dagger from her arm band, which caught him in his heart. He screamed and then was a little pile of dust on the ground.

Inuyasha walked over to Kagome, who was breathing a little heavily.

"Nice shot. You alright there?"

"Yeah. Just a little winded."

Kagome retrieved her dagger, placed it back inside her band and they left on the underground.

Inuyasha dropped her at her apartment, making sure she was alright before leaving to his flat. Kagome had to assure him that she would be fine three times, and remind him that he lived very close by before he left.

Kagome went into her bedroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She had luckily avoided most of the demon blood, but her clothes would need a wash. They were covered in dust.

She threw the clothes in the hamper and pulled on her pajamas, falling into bed. It seemed she had gotten her exercise after all.

~

One week passed in no time, what with nearly nightly patrols. The demons were getting bolder, and Kagome kept running into vampires. Sometimes she swore they sought her out. She'd never met one before...

They weren't any harder to kill than any other monsters, but they were possibly more annoying. They tended to talk to you about world domination, and once a very smelly vampire had tried to woo her with truly awful poetry. Inuyasha had found that particularly funny.

Life was never uneventful for Kagome Higurashi, but her nights were slowly returning to the norm.

~Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry~

Dumbledore was sitting calmly at his desk, sucking at a sherbet lemon, when there was a disturbance outside his door. He looked up rather interestedly, abandoning his parchment on the Merits of Sherbet Lemons Over Cheek-Puncher Sours. The door flew open, bringing with it a Mad Eye Moody and a Mundungus Fletcher. Moody was holding him up and by the look of it, Mundungus was quite inebriated.

"Tell him what you told me!" yelled Moody, shaking the poor thief a bit.

"Dear me, Alastor, what is it? Nothing too life threatening, I hope." Dumbledore conjured a large orange chair and motioned for Moody to place Mundungus in it.

"No, not at all. In fact, this could help us win this war."

Dumbledore leaned forward, his eyes intense. "Yes? And what is this?"

Moody shook Mundungus. When the man's head only lolled about on his shoulders and he made a feeble grunting noise, Moody gave up in exasperation. "There's a slayer in town, along with her own band of monster fighting...," he paused, "fighters. She's got a watcher on her side, and a vampire, if what this idiot tells me is true. They're bringing what they call potentials to her." Mundungus giggled. "Love tho' extendable ears o' theirs." Moody glared at him and continued speaking. "I don't know what that means, but we're damn lucky to have the next slayer here. This could save our arses, Dumbledore!"

Dumbledore winced a bit at Moody's rather loud voice. "Well, if we don't put our wands in our back pockets, I daresay our 'arses', as you say, are quite fine. This in an interesting new development Alastor, would you please gather together a few of the Order, those best at reconnaissance? Have them watch her. We need to determine if she would help us. Not everyone who kills the things that go bump in the night are on our side."

~

Inuyasha spent a couple of late nights at Kagome's house, after hard patrols, and she couldn't say she didn't like waking up to find him on her sofa, rather a pleasant feeling, really. She didn't dwell on these thoughts, pushing them down with a faint blush.

She was so used to Inuyasha's daily visits that when she heard her doorbell ring, she immediately opened the door with a scowl and a "What now?" To shock and embarrassment, however, the person (or rather, people) outside her door was not what she was expecting.

No fewer than five girls stood outside her door, flanked by Spike and Giles. She should've known it was Spike, but she hadn't read the auras before she opened the door. Upon later reflection, she realized that wasn't a very smart thing to do.

"Er, hallo. These the potentials?"

A blond girl in the front nodded. She looked to be about five years older than Kagome. "Hi. I'm Buffy Summers." Kagome was surprised. She'd expected someone larger. Buffy, a petite woman dressed in a flowery skirt and a pastel tank top was not the image that Kagome had had in mind.

"Nice to meet you. Come on in. I'll fix you some tea. Or, er, something."

The girls filed past, Giles and Spike following. They made themselves comfortable while Kagome brought out a plate of biscuits and mugs. She placed several different kinds of tea on the table and put a large pot on to boil.

Kagome sat down. Everyone stared at each other for a moment, then Kagome spoke. "Right, well I reckon we'd better do introductions then. I'm Kagome."

"You've already met me, I'm Buffy. This is Avery Fulk," Buffy pointed at a strong looking brunette with an open face, "Jaime Ainsworth," a girl with vibrant red hair nodded slightly, "Beatrix-"

"Don't call me that. " Beatrix was tall, with closely cropped green hair. Her face was heart shaped and lovely, even twisted in annoyance as it currently was.

"Beatrix Maxine Clows, who likes to be called Max."

"So would you, if your mum had named you Beatrix Maxine."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "And Sango Yamamoto." Her eyes were slanted, like Kagome's, and almond colored.

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "Konnich'wa." Sango smiled.

"Konnich'wa." The girl was also tall, and independent looking. She held her long chestnut hair out of her face in a braid, and she wore a pair of loose trousers and a white tank top.

The tea kettle demanded Kagome's attention. "Be right back." True to her word, a moment later she returned with the kettle and poured hot water into everyone's cups.

"I'm pleased to meet you all." Kagome lifted her cup to her mouth and took a sip of her tea. "I have a couple things you should be aware of now, so we can avoid nasty scenes later.

"I work with demons."

Avery raised her eyebrows, Jaime blinked and Buffy looked a bit startled.

"If any of you have a problem with that, you can leave." No one moved. "Good. You'll be meeting my friend Inuyasha pretty soon, and as long as you don't provoke him, he's pretty harmless.

"Another thing, I can do a form of--of magic, I suppose. And no, I'm not delusional. I can sense auras, purify demons, etc, etc. If you feel a strange tingling feeling in your stomach, don't worry, it's probably just me."

The door burst open and Inuyasha ran into the room. He was brought up short by the eight pairs of eyes blinking at him.

"Um, hello."

"Good Lord, he looks like Sid Vicious exploded all over him," Avery commented good-naturedly. Max sniggered.

"Inuyasha? What's up?"

Kagome's voice seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he had been in. "Miroku's hurt."

"What?!"

"Yeah. Shippou's bringing him right now. Some slimy thing clawed him a good one right down his thigh. It's deep, and whatever poison was in that thing, it's preventing the blood from clotting. He can't stop bleeding."

"Shit." Kagome jumped up, completely forgetting about her guests and grabbing medical supplies from her bathroom. She scooted Avery and Jaime off the couch and removed the pillows from it.

Thumping noises were heard from the hallway. Inuyasha hurried to the door and helped a boy with reddish hair carry a moaning man into her living room. He had his dark neck length hair pulled into a small ponytail at the back of his neck, and the one time he opened his eyes, the girls could see that they were violet.

Inuyasha and Shippou placed Miroku gently on the couch. His face was dangerously pale. Kagome reached into her pocket and brought out a switchblade. She flipped it open and cut the fabric of his jeans away from his thigh.

"How did this happen?" Kagome asked as she looked at the wound. "Shippou, could you grab me the water that was left in the tea pot? There's a big bowl in the cupboard over the sink, if you could bring that too." Shippou brought them and Kagome emptied the water into the bowl. She soaked a clean rag in the hot liquid and wiped off the blood on Miroku's thigh with it. He hissed. Avery winced.

"We were fighting something. We've never come across anything like it before, and it got him. I'm not sure how it slipped past our defenses," said Shippou, "But it did, and cut him good. He's lost a lot of blood." Shippou's concern was plain in his voice.

Kagome placed her hands on Miroku, one on his hip just above the injury, and the other on the knee, just below it. She concentrated, her brows furrowing. Giles made to speak, but Inuyasha silenced him with a look.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the wound stopped bleeding. Then, starting at the very edges, the claw marks started to disappear sluggishly, as the cuts were deep. The four potentials, Buffy, Giles, Spike, Shippou and Inuyasha watched intently. The demons took involuntary steps back as her power came ominously close to them.

The humans in the room experienced a tingly feeling in their stomachs, as warned by Kagome. It was not altogether unpleasant.

Kagome fell back, Inuyasha rushing forward to catch her. The sensation of power dissipated. Miroku groaned and sat up.

"You're looking a bit pale, mate."

"Thanks for the urgent bulletin from the drawer marked obvious, Yash. Massive blood loss does usually result in pallor, you know."

Inuyasha chuckled. "Glad to know you're okay. Now scoot over, your savior passed out." Shippou helped Miroku sit up, and Inuyasha sat Kagome gently next to him.

Giles was standing up, looking thoroughly interested, Spike was inspecting his mug for more tea and the five girls were watching, concerned.

"Is she going to be okay?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah. She'll be fine. It was just a lot of power to heal something like that. Who are you lot, anyway? The potential slayers?"

The girls nodded. "I'm Inuyasha, this is Shippou," the kid looked to be about fifteen, with intense green eyes, "and the groaning idiot over here is Miroku."

Miroku scowled. "I am not an idiot."

"Yes you are. You're a bloody idiot, getting yourself clawed like that."

"Yes, I just stepped right in front of those claws, I did. Fancied a bit of pain."

Jaime giggled. Miroku looked at her and his countenance brightened. "Now who might this lovely young woman be?" Jaime giggled again.

"Jaime. Jaime Ainsworth."

"Ah, a beautiful name for a beautiful lady." Jaime blushed a bit.

"Don't you get started on these five. Don't mind him, he's a prat. Hit him if he does anything."

Miroku looked wounded. "I would never--"

"Save it for someone who didn't room with you for two years."

Shippou, who had been oddly quiet, suddenly grunted a bit. Inuyasha frowned. "Oi, runt, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Shippou winced, a clawed hand going to his arm briefly.

"That's not nothing. Let me see that arm."

"No, really, I'm fine."

Inuyasha ripped his sleeve up. "Bloody hell, Shippou, that's not fine!" Shippou had wrapped a makeshift bandage around his arm, which had a large gash in it. Blood was slowly leaking through, staining the blue fabric a dark purple color.

Inuyasha quickly grabbed some bandages and fixed up Shippou's arm.

"Well, you two aren't patrolling anytime soon."

"Inuyasha!" Two plaintive voices spoke in unison.

"No."

"Uh, excuse me," Max spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"Are you all, er, demons?"

Inuyasha grunted. "I am. Shippou too. Miroku's human."

"As you never fail to remind me." Miroku sounded distinctly grumpy.

Kagome stirred.

"Welcome back to the land of the conscious, princess."

Kagome scowled and sat up. "I'm not a princess."

Inuyasha grinned.

At the demonstration of her powers, Giles felt a bit better about leaving the potential slayers in Kagome's care. He stood up. "We'd better be leaving. It was nice to meet you, Inuyasha, Shippou, Miroku. Come, Spike."

"I am not a dog."

Giles sighed. "Please, let's just go." Spike rolled his eyes and got up.

Giles and Spike left, Inuyasha escorted Shippou and Miroku home, and Kagome was left with a house full of girls.

She invited them to get groceries with her, seeing as how she had no idea what any of them liked. They took the underground to the supermarket, piling food items into the basket. As they passed Housewares, Kagome stopped.

"Wait. I need more towels for you guys. Each of you grab two towels."

Jaime placed two green towels in, Max put in purple, Avery got red, Buffy got white and Sango had coral. Kagome laughed. "Just like your name."

Sango smiled. "Yeah, well, it's a nice color, ne?"

When they left, Kagome had a fairly large dent in her account, but wasn't too worried. She worked part time at a fancy Italian restaurant, and Inuyasha could help her out in a pinch.

The conversation was often stilted between the girls who were forced to live together, so Kagome brought out beer and soda, turning the music on.

Sleeping places were a problem, but Kagome solved that by unearthing her incredible supply of blankets and making beds all over her living room floor.

Sleep came easily that night.