I strongly recommend you read Dashed Hopes before this. Just a reminder: This is a modern AU, and everyone is human in this story. (Therefore, Inuyasha has his human black hair and dark eyes. Sesshoumaru remains the same, since it seems silly to change his physical appearance when he doesn't have a canon human form.) Eye colors are from the manga. (Therefore, Kagome's eyes are blue.)

Edited: 7/22/2011

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Aftermath's Destruction

Chapter One: Three Months Later

"Last night I looked up at the stars and matched each one with a reason why I love you. I was doing great, but then I ran out of stars." The young man's eyes danced with a mixture of seriousness and playfulness as they locked with his girlfriend's, a charming smile playing on his face.

"Oh, that's so sweet," the young woman gasped, her eyes half-lidded. She leaned towards him, her cheek resting on her hand as she gazed lovingly back at him. All the noises around the two seemed muted; they were officially in their own little world. Eating utensils clanged against dishes; music played lightly in the background; and the occasional chair scraped against the restaurant's hardwood floors. The couple tuned out all of it.

"They say you only fall in love once, but that can't be true. Every time I look at you, I fall in love all over again," he continued in a breathy whisper, as oblivious to his surroundings as his date was. The only thing that currently mattered to him was the twinkling eyes of his girlfriend.

"That was beautiful," she murmured, completely entranced with his sweet nothings.

"When I look at you, I cannot deny there is a God, because only God could have created something as wonderful and beautiful as you."

A very feminine snort from across the table interrupted the cute moment.

"What, Kagome?" Sango snapped as she pried her eyes away from Miroku's and rounded on her best friend. "Do you disagree with what Miroku just said, because I'm not beautiful?"

Kagome quickly held up a hand in her defense, waving it in a placating manner. "Of course not, Sango! It's just that Miroku said 'God,' but he's Buddhist!" She continued to snicker quietly, unable to hide the amusement this caused her. Running a hand through her thick black hair, Kagome attempted to suppress her laughter.

Inuyasha, however, didn't seem to be even trying to hold back his loud guffaws.

Miroku, seemingly unaware of his slip up, went back to seducing his date without missing a beat. "If I could reach up and capture a star for every time you've made me smile, I'd have the whole evening sky in the palm of my hand."

Sango, for her part, eagerly went back to drowning in his loving quotes. To anyone walking past their table, it would appear as though the pair were enjoying the current stage of their relationship: that stretch of time where a couple is so sugary sweet to each other that it was borderline disgusting. It didn't occur to either Sango or Miroku that to everyone else, their flirting was kind of revolting and more than a little cheesy.

On their side of the table, Kagome giggled as she turned away from the couple. "Hey, Inuyasha?" she asked, sipping her water.

He snorted before he was able to fully quell his chuckling. "What?"

"Do you think that I shouldn't have interrupted them...?"

Dark eyes rolled as the man scowled jokingly. "If you hadn't said something, I would have. I'll lose my appetite before the food even gets here," he muttered. As much as he loved Miroku and Sango, the constant adorable one-liners were grating on his nerves. Oh, how he longed for the days when the only exchange between the two was an inappropriate grope followed by a counter-slap. While it was almost a sure thing that one of those would happen at least once a night, they weren't as frequent as before.

Kagome laughed. "Like that could ever happen," she teased, amused by his seemingly endless appetite.

He smirked back at her, one of his slightly pointed canines digging into his lower lip. "I'm more than just a stomach, you know!" He pretended to look wounded at the flash of disbelief that crossed her face.

"I know, I know," she immediately calmed him. "Oh look! The food's here!" She groaned as an overly large pot of ramen was placed in front of Inuyasha. Steam rose from the surface, carrying a tantalizing aroma of meat and vegetables towards Kagome's nose. "Could you eat something other than ramen for once in your life?"

Inuyasha immediately dug in, leaning down so that his chopsticks traveled the shortest distance possible from the food to his mouth. A few bites later, he looked up from his meal, noodles hanging from his mouth and chopsticks poised, ready to grab more. "Could you eat something other than that once in awhile?" he gurgled while nodding to the dish in front of her.

Kagome looked scandalized. "What? Oden? Never!" she declared, pressing her chopsticks against her chest, her baby blues wide with seriousness.

Their companions were still too busy to notice their own dinners had arrived.

Inuyasha finished in record time and slouched in his seat, half tempted to pat his stomach in satisfaction like he would if he was home alone. While waiting for the others to finish their meals, he was content to watch the woman sitting next to him.

Kagome was eating at a much slower rate than he would have ever had the patience for. Even her love for oden wasn't persuasive enough to make her shovel the food into her mouth any faster. Every so often, she'd set her eating utensils aside to pick up a napkin and dab at her lips or to brush a lock of her loose hair back over her shoulder from where it had fallen. She was oblivious to the fact that Inuyasha was watching her intently.

It was another of the four friends' outings in the city. Kagome and Inuyasha just put up with the lovey-doveyness of Miroku and Sango, because they almost always picked up the bill. Besides the allure of free food was the ever-entertaining lovers' spats that happened at least once an evening. Even now that the two were dating, Miroku still wouldn't keep his hands in check, but Sango was happy to do that for him.

Three months, Inuyasha mused as he watched his friends joke and chat with one another. It's been almost exactly three months since Kagome became the Vice President. I still can't believe she hasn't screwed up!

In truth, he had always known she was the perfect VP for the Inutaisho Company; not that he'd ever willingly admit it. Kagome was, surprisingly, one hell of a businesswoman. Who would have known the petite beauty had it in her? Sesshoumaru seemed to if the contract the three coworkers had signed was anything to go by. After the trial basis to see if the young woman could handle the company as well as the brothers had hoped, Kagome had been officially, permanently given the role. A five-year contract at a business meeting that very morning assured Inuyasha that Kagome wasn't going anywhere for a long while.

It had also been three months since the mess with Naraku had been cleared up, and Kagome still wasn't giving Inuyasha any clues that she might be thinking of him as more than a business partner and good friend.

However, in all honesty, it wasn't as though Inuyasha was running around, shouting his feelings for her from the rooftops. He had not told her directly that he wanted to try something beyond friendship. Being straightforward with his "feelings" was definitely not easy for him, and he was still trying to sort out what exactly he thought of her. He could be blunt, outspoken, and loud about almost any other subject. But not this one.

It would just be so much easier if she would make the first move.

The next morning, Inuyasha fiddled with a tiny strip of paper before smoothing it out to read for the umpteenth time. The black ink glittered under florescent lighting overhead, and the words flashed mockingly up at him.

Crumpling up the fortune, Inuyasha tossed it into the little trashcan sitting in the corner of his office. Crossing his arms on top of his desk, he cradled his head on them and thought over how much his luck sucked at that very moment. Why a Japanese restaurant handed out fortune cookies was beyond him. Weren't they traditionally handed out in Chinese restaurants in America? He'd only seen them during various business trips to San Francisco or New York and had never seen them back home.

What made the situation even worse (or ironic, depending on how you looked at it) was the message printed on the fortune.

Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

If this was the universe's way of telling Inuyasha that he shouldn't be so hard on Kagome's lack of romantic affection for him, then... screw the universe.

"Inuyasha!" a preteen boy shrieked as he ran through the doorway, startling the man almost to the point of falling out of his chair.

"Souta?" Inuyasha asked, blinking stupidly back at the grinning boy. Shuffling his paper into something that vaguely passed as a pile, he got up from his chair and walked to the front of his desk. Leaning back against the edge, he crossed his arms over his chest and eyed Kagome's little brother. The boy nodded eagerly back at his hero and beamed a sticky smile, a half-eaten cinnamon bun clenched in one hand. "Not to sound rude or anything, but what the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?" Inuyasha pointed out while glancing nervously around the room as though the kid's older sister would jump out from behind the filing cabinet.

Kagome would kill him if she found out he'd taught the boy how to play hooky.

Souta grinned mischievously while finishing off his treat. "Nuh-uh! I get to skip that torture chamber— I swear they created math just to traumatize kids— and come here for the day! It's Take Your Kid to Work Day.'"

"Yeah, again with the not being rude, but the last time I checked, Shippou was your sister's kid, not you."

Souta huffed, "Shippou went with our mom, so I get stuck with Ms. Sunshine and Daises for the day."

The boys locked eyes and at the same time feigned a high-pitched voice. "But I like yellow and blue!" they mocked Kagome together.

Before their imitations of her could carry on, Kagome herself stuck her head into the office. "Kouga's here!" she announced as she smiled widely at the two.

Her younger brother grinned back at her, obviously excited. Even with a new role model (meaning Inuyasha) in his life, he couldn't forget about Kouga. "Great!" He raced from the room, passing Kagome in the doorway, and crossed the empty room outside that had once been Kagome's secretary post.

"I'll be right down!" Kagome called to her brother's retreating back, hoping he could still hear her. Turning back to her boss, she adopted a business-like air. "I have all of the accounts given to me sorted out; can I take the rest of the day off? It's Friday, so any new projects I can do over the weekend... which you're letting me spend outside of the office, right?"

Inuyasha looked put out. He raised a finger to wag in scolding kind of way in her direction. "Why are you asking me? You're Vice President now, Kagome, you need to learn that you can make your own decisions."

Kagome paused, letting the words sink in, and then replied, "Thanks, I'll have to remember that."

A comfortable silence passed between the two before Inuyasha said something to ruin the moment. Typical. "Vice President or not, I still don't like you hanging out with that idiot."

Kagome's smile melted into a frown. "Inuyasha! I've told you before, and I'll tell you again; Kouga has six years of medical school under his belt. He graduated high school at 16! He is anything but an idiot... Plus, he's my friend. Call him an idiot again, and I'll have to hit you," she threatened, holding up a hand angrily.

Inuyasha huffed, mirroring Souta's earlier look of displeasure when asked why he wasn't spending the day with his mother instead of his sister. "It doesn't matter how much school that wimp has, he'll always be a moron."

True to her word, Kagome fully entered the office and bopped her friend on the shoulder with a closed fist. Inuyasha didn't feel a thing, but he pretended to stumble back from the hit. "I haven't seen Kouga for awhile with all those projects he has with his hospital internship. It'll be good to catch up... What are we doing this weekend?" She steered the conversation away from her old friend, which had always been a sore spot for her and Inuyasha's relationship.

Inuyasha's expression brightened a little. "Well, Sango and Miroku are going to do a family outing thing today and are taking Kohaku to the zoo or something. If Kaede watches Souta and Shippou, that just leaves us... Want to crash at my place and watch a movie?"

"Sounds perfect."

Kagome spent the rest of the day wandering around the city with her brother and Kouga. Their 'guy talk' began to wear her down, so she turned her thoughts to other things.

For one thing, why did Inuyasha always insist on being so huffy when she went out with male friends? As far as she was concerned, he was being an over-protective ass and wouldn't let her have any fun away from him. She snorted quietly and read the signs over the shops the group walked past, checking a mental to-do list to see if she needed to stop anywhere. A video rental store tucked between a pet shop and a boutique caught her eye.

"Hey, Kouga?" she asked suddenly, turning her eyes back onto her brother and friend.

"Huh?" he asked, looking away from Souta. He smiled at her, his hands buried deep into his winter coat and his long hair being tugged at by the wind. A strand from his ponytail streamed in front of his eyes, and he brushed it away with his gloved hand. His piercing blue eyes traveled up and down his long-time friend, but not in a (completely) lecherous way. It was just that she looked so adorable bundled up in a maroon sweater and scarf. Her nose, tips of her ears, and cheeks were all flushed slightly pink with the bitter winter winds.

She flashed a quick smile back at him and buried herself deeper into her scarf, grateful for her long hair that kept her somewhat warm. "I'm heading over to Inuyasha's place tonight. Do you mind if I go look for some movies?" She tilted her head in the general direction of the store she saw.

Kouga shrugged amiably. "Not a bit. I was thinking of taking the kid to a gaming store, anyway. Meet back here in an hour?" he asked as he ruffled Souta's hair affectionately. The preteen beamed up at him, batting the man's hand away before grabbing it again and tugging on Kouga's arm.

"Sure, no problem. See you soon!" Kagome waved at the two as she backed away towards the curb. Looking both ways, she raced across the narrow street and stopped at the other side.

"Ma'am? May I help you?" a polite (shocking!) teenager asked as Kagome stomped her snow-covered boots on the welcome mat. A clump fell off and splattered, dusting the floor with the fine, white powder.

"No, I'm fine."

"Call me if you need me," the employee told her and then went back to talking with a group of friends hanging around next to the counter.

Kagome walked down the aisles, scanning her options. She was a fan of romantic comedies, but Inuyasha was more of an action-adventure kind of guy. She toyed with the idea of getting a foreign film, probably an American or British movie, but decided against it. Reading subtitles seemed like too much of a chore for her overworked brain. Checking out the selection categorized under 'Classics,' she snatched a box off the shelf and read the little blurb on the back.

Jack pot! Biting back a triumphant cheer, Kagome paid for the rental at the counter and left the store.

There were only a few hours left before Inuyasha expected her to drop by for movie night, and she wanted to get as many hours in with her brother as she could before then. She had half a mind to invite Kouga along, but he and Inuyasha were getting along less than usual lately. If a fight broke out, Kouga might be leaving Inuyasha's without a throat.

She spent the rest of the day laughing over high-school moments that Kouga brought up. Souta enjoyed listening to the two, hearing about what Kagome was like the years before she'd started to take care of him on her own. He loved the stories about what a goofball his sister had been. It sounded as though she was constantly getting herself stuck in sticky situations. There was the time she'd promised to help out all three of her friends (Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi) during a festival; she ended up working in the kitchen, singing in a choir, and playing a major part in a school play when she wasn't originally going to be doing anything at all.

Kagome eventually checked her watch and nearly jumped out of her skin. "Oh, I need to get going!" She stood up quickly and swung her purse over her shoulder. She bent down and pecked her brother on the forehead, horrifying him in front of everyone else in the restaurant (who wants to be kissed goodbye by their sister in public?), and giggled wickedly when he immediately scrubbed at his forehead.

"You'll be all right getting there?" Kouga asked, dunking a fry into a pile of ketchup and munching on it.

"Yeah. I'll probably head home and change, and then take the truck. Hey, Souta?"

"Yeah, sis?" He looked up from his WacDonald's milkshake, blinking his big brown eyes back at her; he looked so much like their mother sometimes.

"Be good for Kaede. No pranks. I don't want to come to pick you up and hear how you put a frog in her soup again," Kagome told him seriously, wagging a finger in his direction. "And thanks again, Kouga, for dropping him off with Sango's nanny." Kagome gripped her friend's shoulder briefly before starting towards the fast food restaurant's door.

"Aww, I don't mind taking care of the kid! Have a good time, Kagome," he hollered after her. When she rounded a corner and disappeared from view, Kouga nudged Souta. "Do you like Inuyasha?"

The black haired boy nodded eagerly. "He's almost as fun as you!"

"And does Kagome like him?" the brunette went on, leaning forward onto his elbows as he gave his full attention to the kid.

"Yeah."

"Hmm... Finish your milkshake, and we can get some hot chocolate before you go to Sango's." Kouga ruffled Souta's hair for the umpteenth time that day. Inside, he wasn't as happy as he appeared. The last thing he wanted in the world was for Kagome to get too attached to Inuyasha and have her heart broken. When Naraku turned out to be such a monster, Kouga vehemently wished he could have rewound time to save Kagome from the heartache she was forced to go through. If Inuyasha turned out to be anything like Naraku, Kouga would do whatever he could to protect her.

"I have found the perfect movie!" Kagome announced as soon as she let herself into Inuyasha's massive house. She kicked off her shoes in the entryway and tore off her coat, throwing it haphazardly on a nearby chair. The house was unnaturally quiet; Sesshoumaru was in Kyoto for a business meeting that evening and had taken his adopted daughter, Rin, with him. Without the other residents, it only took a moment to locate Inuyasha. Kagome followed scraping sounds into the living room.

"Oh, really?" he grunted as he shoved a heavy couch into a corner. Wiping his hands down the front of his jeans, he stalked over to the fireplace. Grabbing a lighter from the mantle, he bent over and lit the wood. Once he was sure the fire took to the kindling, he turned away, loving the warmth spreading across his back from the crackling flames.

In the doorway, Kagome was rustling around in a small plastic bag. Whipping out the movie, she held it aloft for inspection.

Inuyasha wandered over and leaned in closer to get a better look. Sengoku- Jidai: A Feudal Fairytale, he read to himself, raising one eyebrow questioningly. "And just how is this perfect?" he asked, bemused, looking up from the title and into Kagome's bright eyes.

In response, Kagome wrinkled her nose at him, opting to plop down on the couch in front of the wide screen TV before answering. "Because it has romance, action, adventure, mystery, comedy, and horror all rolled into one movie! Personally, I think it sounds too good to be true, but we should give it a try."

Inuyasha sat down next to her, propping his feet up onto the coffee table. "Fine, but why does it have to be a romance?" He made a face.

Kagome ignored him. She looked dreamy for a moment, a naive smile tugging at her lips. "A forbidden romance between a young woman with unusual powers and an outcast afraid to trust anybody... Who could resist that?" She sighed happily, staring off into space.

"Feh," he grumbled. 'Fairytale' seemed like the right word to have in the title. "Start it already," he said impatiently as he studied the case again. There was an extremely wicked sword shown on the front that caught his eye.

As the theme music, both catchy and fast, started to play, Kagome was instantly sucked in. Loud monsters, disturbing traps, a twisted bad guy, a sweet heroine, and a cocky but drool-worthy hero graced the screen. Inuyasha enjoyed all the adrenaline pumped fights and appreciated the horror scenes that forced Kagome to clamp onto his arm.

It really was the perfect movie.

Kagome fell asleep a good half hour before the ending, though. Deciding that he wouldn't mind seeing it again with her the next day, Inuyasha covered her up with a blanket. He continued to watch, entranced by the final battle, with Kagome curled up at his side.

So, Kagome... I have no clue what exactly I feel about you, and I don't know how you feel about me, but... I think it'd be a good idea to maybe date for awhile to figure it out. Inuyasha rehearsed what he could say as he watched Kagome coiled against the arm of the couch. Deciding that option was too weak and unsure, he gnawed at the inside of his cheek angrily. He tried again. I'm not Naraku, Kagome, and I'd never hurt you like he did. If anyone even tried anything like that ever again, I'd rip their throats out and parade their heads around on pikes.

Perhaps that one was a bit too aggressive.

Kagome... When you first showed up, I really wanted to get to know you better because you weren't like any other woman I'd ever met. Even though you'd been through so much crap, you were still so fiery. The more I got pulled into the situation, the more I respected you for how you faced things. When it was all over, I was relieved that you decided to stay here. I don't know exactly what I feel for you... but I'd like to find out.

Better. But would that be saying too much? Probably.

Leaning back, Inuyasha stared up at the ceiling. He followed the ridges and bumps in the paint with his eyes, his mind bouncing from thought to thought. Kagome shifted in her sleep, gravitating towards his warmth. Inuyasha nudged her away from the edge of the couch until she was a safe distance from the risk of falling off, her head propped up on his knee. Once he was sure she was comfortable, he began to drift off himself.

"Mm... So warm..." Kagome mumbled, burying her face deeper into her pillow. One of her hands reached up to brush away a lock of her hair tickling her nose. Squeezing her eyes tight against the light seeping in through the window, she attempted to fall back asleep. Need food... and a bathroom... but mostly food. So warm...don't wanna get up yet... Kagome shifted through her thoughts, becoming more awake as the seconds ticked by.

Inuyasha watched her with a highly amused smile but become impatient when five minutes passed without Kagome stirring any more. Leaning down, Inuyasha put his lips against her ear and whispered, "Good morning, Kagome."

Blue eyes snapped open. "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah?"

She flinched away and blinked rapidly against the sunlight flooding through the window and hitting her full in the face. Kagome had been sleeping on Inuyasha! At least it explained why her pillow was so warm. Accessing the situation, Kagome figured that she must have moved in the night and ended up with her face buried in Inuyasha's shoulder. "I'll be right back," she said as she wrenched herself away from him as fast as humanly possible. She leapt off the couch and backed away, looking more like a startled rabbit than anything else.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha called after her, sitting up and looking at her confusedly. This wasn't exactly the good morning he had expected when he'd waken up to find her curled up, asleep in his lap. Shaking off the sour feeling of disappointment, he got up himself and made his way to the kitchen.

Down the hall, Kagome was locked in the bathroom. She splashed cold water on her face, forcing her complaining body to wake up. Waking up to Inuyasha had felt good. She winced as her mind, against her will, took her back to those few precious moments on the brink of consciousness. It had felt so warm and comfy and safe, just lying there in his arms.

She balked against those thoughts. She couldn't let herself feel that way about a man. After Naraku... Well, you could say she'd learned her lesson. No matter how nice they seemed at first, how perfect or how wonderful, they always showed their true colors eventually. Although it had been a little over three months, Naraku's cold words on his death day, fifty stories above the ground, still rang fresh in her mind.

"And then there's Inuyasha… He doesn't care for you, in any way at all. He's a shallow playboy who sleeps around with anyone who will have him. He'd just use you and throw you away."

No matter how many times Kagome told herself that Naraku was wrong, she couldn't get those words out of her head; that maybe, just maybe, Inuyasha was like that.

And if Inuyasha used her? That was one thing she wouldn't be able to bounce back from. Because it was Inuyasha, her knight in shining armor, her friend, her proof that not all men were as bad as Naraku.

Because it was her Inuyasha.

The good guy.

And if the good guy really was a bad guy? That would shake her to the core.

Several minutes later, Kagome looked into the mirror and decided she looked halfway presentable. With a deep breath, she forced herself to retreat from the bathroom.

"You feeling all right?" Inuyasha asked her when she finally wandered into the kitchen. He was standing at the stove, his tangled hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and still wearing the clothes he fell asleep in the night before. His jeans and sweater were rumpled and a day's worth of stubble shadowed his jaw line.

Kagome gave him a rehearsed smile, brushing her hands down her own wrinkled jeans. "Fine, fine."

Inuyasha scowled at her vague answer, but returned to fixing breakfast all the same. The phone began to ring shrilly, startling him from his thoughts. "Hey, Kagome, can you get that?" he asked, watching the boiling water. He didn't have the nerve to face her yet after her reaction that morning, so looking at food was the only alternative he could think of.

"Yeah, ok." She beamed a real smile at him this time, but since his back was turned to her, he missed it. She shoved her previous thoughts from her mind and was relieved when the bad feeling in her gut lessened as she chose to pretend that morning had never happened. "Hello, Youkai residence." Kagome tucked her hair behind an ear with one hand, frowning into the phone. "Sango?" she asked uncertainly after the person on the other end spoke. It sounded like Sango... Only more frantic and worried than she'd heard the brunette in a long time.

At the stove, Inuyasha heard the buzz of someone shouting through the phone. Wondering why Sango would be yelling at Kagome; he turned to ask what was going on just in time to see Kagome faint. Thankfully, he caught her around the shoulders before her limp form hit the kitchen floor.

The last thing Kagome remembered before her mind went black were Sango's words.

"Kagome! I've been trying— we've all been trying— to find you for hours! Something happened to the boys; you have to get here right away!"

Next Chapter: A Family's Fate