Soft Velvet by Kalah

Prologue

Beauty and the Beast

Remember the first dance we shared?
Recall the night you melted my ugliness away?
The night you left with a kiss so kind
Only a scent of beauty left behind

Ah, Dear friend I remember the Night
The moon and the dreams we shared
Your trembling paw in my hand
Dreaming of that Northern Land
Touching me with a kiss of a beast.

I know my dreams are made of you
Of you and only for you
Your ocean pulls me under
Your voice tears me asunder
Love me before the last petal falls

As a world without a glance
Of ocean's fair expanse
Such the world would be
If no love did flow in thee
But as my heart is occupied
Your love to me now has to die
Forgive me, I need more then what you can offer me

Didn't you hear the tale
Where happily ever after was to kiss a frog?
Don't you know this tale
In which all I ever wanted
I'll never have
For who could ever learn to love a beast?

However cold the wind and rain
I'll be there to ease up your pain
However cruel the mirrors of sin
Remember, Beauty is found within.

…Forever shall the wolf in me desire the sheep in you…

Prologue

Kagome sighed softly as she sat at the edge of the bone eater's well before jumping in to return to where Inuyasha and the others were... Something was nagging at her mind, something she didn't really want to remember. Images of Inuyasha's face flashed in front of her eyes but as soon as the images appeared, she swallowed them back into the darkness of her mind before they could continue to resurface. The thought of Inuyasha caused her heart to throb with a slow, familiar ache that she always seemed to have whenever she thought of him. The pain was her heart ache and her longing to be near someone who would never love her in return as she so deeply wished... The slow realization of this made it harder and harder for her to return to the Feudal era that she had grown so used to being in. But she had to return... If not for herself, for Inuyasha and the friends she had gained there.

Slowly sliding her legs over the edge she looked down into the darkness below her. The bottom of the well was right there, just a few feet down and it always seemed to make her tense up, knowing the impact that would come when she landed but ironically, she knew that the impact she had prepared for would never come... she would just simply be thrown back into the past where the person she loved was at... Where her friends were at. Where her destiny was at. She placed her palms on the edge of the well, slowly beginning to lift her hips up to allow herself to jump in when the door suddenly slammed open.

Kagome jumped, her heart beating quickly within her ribcage as she looked up to see Sota holding a flash light in his right hand and Kagome's yellow over-stuffed back pack in the other. He blushed as he quickly made his way down the stairs to the shrine to hand Kagome her things, giving a weary look at the well that his sister was about to jump fearlessly into once again. The worried expression on Sota's face touched Kagome's heart.

"What's got you so fretful, Sota?" Kagome asked softly, reaching out to grab the heavy back-pack from her little brother's clutches, slipping her arms into the worn out straps once more, still keeping an eye on her brother's facial expression. His brown eyes quickly darted away from Kagome's penetrating gaze. 

"I just have this feeling..." Sota began, but before he could even mutter what was on his mind, a blue light shot out from the bottom of the well, signalling Kagome's entrance into the past. Kagome quickly leaned in and gave Sota a kiss on the cheek, smiling at the blush and the look of surprise that appeared on his small face before she leaped into the well and vanished before the little boy's eyes.

"...that this will be the last time I'll see you..." he muttered to himself, once he had regained composure of himself, slowly turning away with the flashlight that Kagome had forgotten to grab still in his right hand.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kagome inhaled deeply as she appeared at the bottom of the well in the Feudal era, her heart beating like a drum in her ribcage, anticipating the well-known confrontation that was about to set foot as soon as she climbed up the those vines that would reveal her presence into the past. She reached up to grab ahold of the vines that laced down the bone eater's well's walls and started to slowly climb up, the back-pack stuffed full of who-knows-what was so heavy it was causing her arms to ache as she made her way to the top. And as she suspected, there he was, Inuyasha in his furious glory, glaring at her with his golden eyes. Rolling her eyes inwardly, Kagome threw a leg over the side of the well and glared back at Inuyasha.

"What's with that look, Inuyasha?" She demanded, leaping down from the edge of the well and onto the grass below her. The impact was gentle, a certain grace that she had to learn to have in this era was required for what she was usually facing here. Demons beyond galore. Deadly children. Weird old ladies. Yes... this grace had to be learned to keep Kagome alive. Unfortunately, Kagome would always be a klutz.

"You left me again without telling me you were going home, Kagome." Inuyasha growled, finally answering her question.

"I told you I was going back home for a day off or two. It's not my fault you never hear me!" Kagome snapped, tugging her back-pack onto her shoulders up more to make her back feel better from the weight.

"Oh yeah like I can't hear your noisy ass! You make more noise then a dying dog." Inuyasha hmphed, crossing his arms as he watched her.

'Dying dog...?' Kagome thought, sighing inwardly she stomped down hard on the dog demon's bare foot with her heel. She pressed down hard until she heard him yelp loudly in surprise.

"What the hell was that for?!" Inuyasha snarled, making a fist out of his right hand.

"Because obviously a dying dog makes more noise then I ever do..." was her reply before she started to walk away, making her way to Kaede's village, ignoring Inuyasha's bickering behind her the best she could. All the while, still trying to ignore the images of Inuyasha into going into her mind once more.