Timeless

A/N: This story takes place six months after the events in the final chapter of ‘Beautiful Souls’. It is not necessary to have read ‘Beautiful Souls’ to enjoy this fic since I tried to explain everything relevant, but I highly recommend it (since I wrote it, and all).

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Kaede was sixty-one years old.

She was of an age that most women in her time would never live to see.

So why was she acting like the young girl she had never been?

The old miko stared out through the window of her hut as her aching hands separated leaves from stems. It was still early yet, and only a few chickens betrayed the life that existed beyond the four walls in which she silently worked.

Sighing, Kaede turned her attention back to her task, reaching for the mortar and pestle that sat nearby. Placing some of the dried leaves inside the stone bowl, she began grinding them into a fine powder. Before she could restrain it, her mind wandered back to the subject that had been occupying her to a point she felt was ridiculous.

Kagome’s Jii-Chan.

Kaede had first met the old man on the day her young apprentice had finally married Inuyasha – the inu-hanyou who had played a significant part in the older miko’s own life since she was a young girl. That day was supposed to have been all about the new young couple, but somehow, both Kaede and Jii-Chan had managed to find an opportunity to leave a favorable impression on one another.

The two had barely spoken, but Kaede had returned to her own time that evening with a distinct and most disturbing sensation of loss. It was a feeling that she had not experienced since her sister’s death… her first death, anyway.

Although she had managed to shake it off and resume her normal routine in the weeks that followed, Kaede received a shocking reminder of her instant attraction, in the form of a letter. Jii-Chan had written to her via Kagome, and from that point on, the old woman found her thoughts turning to the man more and more each day.

Absently, Kaede ran her fingers over the folds in her kimono where she had taken to carrying the worn paper. He had written words that her heart - gilded for so long by a faded sorrow - had never expected to hear, and it had touched her unexpectedly.

Clearing her throat harshly and scowling at her own foolishness, Kaede forced her mind back on the task at hand and reached for the small colored jar she would keep the herbs in until they were needed. She was not a girl, or even a young woman for that matter. The time for such nonsense had passed, and she was too set in her ways to change now.

Besides, the old man wasn’t even all that good looking.

Creatures of habit - that’s all any of them were. It was the reason that the village in which she lived had continued to run so smoothly, despite its more than abundant share of unusual occurrences. It was the reason the chickens were even now wandering away from her hut towards where their own mistress would be coming out to feed them at any moment. It was the reason Kaede herself was awake and working now, instead of indulging in a few extra hours sleep to ease the soreness of her muscles.

There was little she knew about Kagome’s Jii-Chan, but one important detail stood out above the few things she did know. The old man was from a world that she had trouble even imagining.

Sure, he was kind and gentle. Kaede could admit that she admired Jii-Chan’s knowledge, even if she’d heard that his charms didn’t often work. He had made her laugh more than once in the several occasions they’d met, and though she was hardly a stern and humorless woman, genuine laughter was something she was unaccustomed to.

But after so many years of solitude, maybe all of those good qualities were not enough to convince an old woman to leave the comfortable embrace of habit.

Kaede sighed… it was something she found herself doing a lot of lately. Unbidden, thoughts of her elder sister Kikyou came to mind, testifying to the main reason for the old woman’s hesitation. It had been fifty-three years since her true death, and almost one year since the specter with her sister’s face had vanished from this earth. Although Kaede had grown accustomed to her memories, time had yet to heal them completely.

When Kaede was eight years old, Kikyou had died, leaving her younger sister an orphan. The elders in the village had raised her and when she was old enough, Kaede followed in her sister’s footsteps by becoming a miko herself. Although she was well cared for, Kaede never developed close ties with anyone, and the villagers came to know her for her noble bearing, and spiritual superiority.

No one ever knew that her pleasant, but slightly formal façade hid wounds that never healed.

At the time, the true story of how Kikyou had died was unknown, and Kaede was to live for fifty years with the belief that her sister had been betrayed by the hanyou she’d loved. It was a bitter knowledge that had begun nibbling at the eight year olds’ heart, and had shaped her life for a very long time.

It was not unusual for spiritual power to exist in multiple members of the same family, and it had seemed natural for the young Kaede to repay the village that had cared for her by serving as their miko. Still her powers were never as strong as Kikyou’s, and the reason for that may have been due to the ache in her soul, courtesy of a strengthened mistrust in those who loved, but also left.

The loss of Kikyou had a profound effect on young Kaede, no less powerful than having born witness to the ultimate penalties of love. By the time she’d become a miko at ten, the nibbling at her soul had developed into a worm that would become the biggest demon she’d ever fight.

Kaede had not understood why her sister had given her heart to the betraying hanyou. She didn’t comprehend Kikyou’s reason for choosing death over life. She’d raged inside at the thought that she had been abandoned; swindled by a duty and a love that she’d not chosen.

It wasn’t fair.

Kaede had steeled herself against the mistakes her sister had made, and strove always to fulfill her duties as priestess to the best of her ability. It would be many years later that she would discover the error in this philosophy. Although it had afforded her protection, it had also separated her from those she most needed to protect.

She was helping, but not enough. She was effective, but only just. The intensity of her fury blinded her vision, and although she protected her people – her sister’s people – she was not one of them.

You cannot hope to make a difference through detachment.

So Kaede struggled, and stopped fighting the flow of time. Time has a way changing people in ways nothing else can, and so life goes on. Slowly, the young miko was able to come to terms with her loss - to accept and even understand her sister’s decisions. The bitter anger and sorrow were released, and then one day, it was all over but the healing.

It was the healing that took the longest. Restoration is often a slow and lengthy process, and Kaede could not be sure that she had completely rejuvenated, even today. Twenty-five years had been lost to her darker emotions, and regret is a persistent gadfly that continually picks at the scab of time. The miko tried to accept herself, and even to forgive herself for the wasted years.

And to some extent, she had.

Letting go of the emotions that had clouded her heart had freed Kaede, while still leaving their mark. She became a stronger, more powerful Priestess, but her efforts would never match those of Kikyou before her, or Kagome after her. The scar on her heart was healing, but the tissue was still soft, and tender.

By the time Inuyasha had been freed from Kikyou’s spell by young Kagome, Kaede had already spent many years finding peace with her sister’s death. The knowledge of what had really happened between the hanyou and the older miko had given Kaede a more sudden and final tranquility, and none of her new young friends would ever know about the rage and resentment that had fueled the old woman’s young life for so long.

Kaede still experienced sorrow when thinking of Kikyou. She still suffered the agonies of self-recrimination when she examined the path she’d chosen in her earlier years. Mostly though, she was calm and accepting. She could not go back and change the past, but there was still a future before her, and clemency would come in time.

The question now was, ‘what of this future?’ Kaede had chosen a loveless life, at the time thinking it was to avoid her sister’s grief, but now she realized that it had been fear and shame that had prevented her from losing herself to another. Now, she had a chance, but a lingering residue of doubt from time gone by remained to clutch at her heart.

She could happy – she knew that. Jii-Chan could offer her a final chance to accept the patterns of life, and even if nothing ever came of their tentative relationship, Kaede would be freed by just taking the opportunity offered her. She liked the man well enough, and were she any other woman….

That was it exactly. She wasn’t any other woman. She was Kaede. She was too long steeped in the vinegar of solitude. She was stubborn, as befitted her advancing age. More importantly, she was a miko, with duties to perform and people to look after until such time that she was no longer able to perform said functions.

Kaede sighed again, cursing herself soundly for it after. She was beginning to act like the young shard hunters, who had spent so many nights sitting around her fire, pretending not to notice one another. She had always found their mooning slightly amusing.

She was not amused now.

There were things to be done before the sun reached its apex in the late August sky, and the heat became intolerable for her. Shouldering her bag of various herbs and medicines, Kaede struggled out of the door.

Of all the arguments she had against accepting Jii-Chan’s offer of courtship, this daily routine proved the most persuasive. Kaede’s village was small, who else would care for it, and its inhabitants, if not she? There were spring babies to be tended to, and wounds to be treated. Colds needed medicating and there were war widows to assist with various tasks. Were she to ignore their needs and feed her own whims, who could be counted on to do these things?

The morning chickens were long gone by the time Kaede passed through her garden and stopped upon the road, breathing in the fresh morning air. Her neighbors now stirred all around her, and the sounds of building drifted down the from the hillside shrine she attended, attesting to the industrious efforts to rebuild the temple after the fire that had hollowed it last year.

As she turned to head down the road into the village, Kaede noticed a slim figure approaching her at a brisk pace. The person became visible through the dust from the road, and the miko smiled as she recognized Kagome’s bouncy step, and the baby snuggled tightly against her chest.

“ Good morning, Kaede,” Kagome greeted warmly.

“ Good morning, child. And how is my Amara-hime this morning?” The tiny hanyou baby was securely held in a bizarre looking sling from Kagome’s time, five hundred years in the future. Although Kaede couldn’t imagine how the thing was any safer than the methods used in her own era, she trusted her apprentice enough not to voice her uncertainties. Carefully, she pulled the baby into her own arms.

Amara gurgled in delight and Kagome brushed the silvery hair away from the child’s face. “ Right now she’s fine, but she’s been colicky all night. It’s the first time she’s had it in three months and we’ve been walking around the village for hours already.”

Kaede grinned gently and bounced the baby she thought of as her own grandchild. “I’m sure everything’s fine. She’s always been such a healthy one.”

Wide, slate blue eyes that reflected gold, eyed the string cinching Kaede’s top closed. Amara’s tiny, clawed fingers grabbed at the ribbon, instantly inserting the knotted ends into her mouth and soaking them through. Little noises happily burbled from her and Kaede laughed in delight.

Kagome smiled apologetically as she liberated the material from her daughter’s grasp and pulled her back.

Amara’s petite face scrunched up in displeasure and she stretched her arms back towards Kaede, grunting with effort. “ Ba-ba,” she stated clearly.

Kagome’s eyes opened wide in surprise and she immediately looked up to gage Kaede’s reaction.

Kaede burst out laughing.

“ I’m sorry,” Kagome stuttered embarrassedly. “ She must have gotten that from Inuyasha….” The girl frowned in exasperation at her innocent daughter.

Wiping a tear from her good eye, Kaede managed to control her chuckling. “ It’s alright, child. At least she knows who I am.” Feeling better than she had all morning, the miko breathed deeply. “ Is Inuyasha at the shrine?”

Kagome nodded. “ He and Miroku left while I was sitting with Amara earlier. Miroku’s really excited about the rebuilding of the shrine.”

The fire had occurred suddenly, and amidst suspicious circumstances in the village. Only the temple had been affected, but the building was completely destroyed, and utterly unsalvageable. When it was discovered that Miroku had done it while possessed by a snake demon, the young group of warriors had immediately set out to fight this new enemy, and for a time the shrine had remained in a state of disrepair.

Much work was needed before the temple could be rebuilt. The charred skeleton of the former shrine needed to be hauled away, piece by piece. By the time this had been done, autumn was setting in and the harvest was upon them.

After the warriors had returned to the village, inclement weather had further delayed the project. The villagers had moved their worship activities to the home in which Kagome and the others lived, and so the births of Amara, and Sango and Miroku’s son Tenshi, were received as great omens of luck.

Spring finally brought together everything necessary to complete the task of rebuilding the temple, and Miroku appointed himself as leader on the job out of a sense of misplaced guilt. His first action was to level the surface of the hillside shrine, moving away layers of scorched earth. This was an arduous task, but when all was said and done, the results were surprising.

Kagome had been first to make the connection, and Miroku was pleased with her recognition of his work. In the young miko’s own time, the temple stood closer to the house – at exactly the same site where their own home had been built by the villagers the year before. The monk had designed the layout of the new shrine, and based his model on his knowledge of the future. The finished building would rest not far from the Goshinboku tree, and closer to the Bone-Gobbling Well.

Kaede was pleased with all the effort being made in the restoration of her temple, and although it would now be a bit further of a walk for her to reach it, the new location was appropriate and certainly more prominent. It furthermore served to re-enforce the villagers’ impression of Kagome and the others as gods.

Smiling, Kaede shifted the weight of her satchel to her other shoulder and slung the strap around her next. “ Well Kagome, I suppose I should be going. Tanaka-san will be needing help in her garden after her injury yesterday.”

“ Actually, I was already there this morning,” Kagome told her cheerfully. “ I stopped in to check on her leg since we were near her hut, and she played with Amara while I weeded her vegetables.

“ We also went to visit Watanabe-san and checked on her little boy - he’s feeling much better after the herbs you gave him yesterday. Oh, and here!” Kagome reached into Amara’s little diaper bag and removed several cloths filled with different herbs. “ These are from Saito-san. She wanted to thank you for helping with her chores yesterday, and she asked me to bring you these when I stopped to see her this morning.”

Kaede was silent as she took the proffered items. Suddenly she felt strangely old, and useless, and she didn’t quite understand why. “ That’s very kind of her.”

Kagome nodded. “ I know how tough it’s been for her since her husband was killed in the wars. Her son Sato is only four, and it’s hard for her to get anything done while he’s under foot.” The girl smiled sympathetically. “ Amara and I played with him today so that she could do their laundry.”

Eyes twinkling, Kaede asked, “Was there anyone in the village whom you did not visit this morning?”

Kagome reddened, and giggled in embarrassment. “ It’s hard not to stop when everyone greets you so warmly, and they’re always so grateful for offering to help with the little things….”

Kaede nodded. “ That is one of the few joys of being a miko,” she confirmed.

Kagome’s blush deepened, and she frowned. “ Oh, Kaede! I didn’t think about that. I didn’t mean to do your rounds for you. I know how much you enjoy it. I’m sorry.”

Waving her hand to indicate that it was nothing, Kaede told her, “ Don’t be silly, Child. There are still plenty of things that this old woman can do today. It’s nice to know that someone cares about the people as much as I do.” It was a bluff, but Kagome didn’t need to know that.

Smiling gratefully, Kagome inserted Amara back into her carrier. “ I suppose we should be getting home. This one will probably need a nap soon, and I’ve got things of my own to take care of.”

Kaede nodded. “ Bring her back by later if you need some time to yourself. I’d be happy to sit with her.”

“ Thanks, I will.” Turning to leave, Kagome stopped once more. “ I almost forgot! Jii-Chan’s birthday is tomorrow night, and he asked me to invite you.” The girl’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “ I know he’d be terribly disappointed if you weren’t there… will you come?”

A moment’s hesitation was all Kaede needed before she nodded. “ I’d love to.”

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One of the main downfalls of being a miko in the Sengoku Jidai was the lack of clothing options. Kaede’s wardrobe solely consisted of the same outfit, three times over. She wore the priestess garments for any occasion, and in all weathers, and normally it suited her just fine, thank-you very much.

It was Kagome’s opinion, however, that the traditional red and whites would not do for Jii-Chan’s birthday celebration, and she’d taken it upon herself to find something more suitable for her sensei to wear. The selection was simple – something Kaede would not feel overly uncomfortable in – yet elegant at the same time.

The blouse was maroon, and made of silk, with gold embellishments at the collar and sleeves. Flowing black slacks and black slip-on shoes completed the ensemble, and with her hair down, as Kagome had insisted, Kaede hardly recognized herself. She looked strange. Unfamiliar. Younger.

It was going to be a long night.

The entire family had gathered for the occasion, and the Higurashi household had never felt so full of love and laughter. Souta had involved Shippou, Kohaku, Inuyasha and even Miroku in a video game, and the five of them sat in front of the television, arguing and cheering like children. Nearby, Kirara eyed Buyo uncertainly.

Mrs. Higurashi sat with Kaede, Jii-Chan, Sango and Kagome, eagerly talking about what had been the center of their lives for the past six months. Amara and Tenshi, aware that they were the focal point of the adults attention, seemed to be competing silently with one another to see which of them could be the cutest.

Dinner was declared ready, and all gathered around the table for the feast. To Kaede’s delight and fear, she was placed next to where Jii-Chan sat at the head of the table. Not for the first time since passing through the well earlier that evening, she wondered what exactly she thought she was doing.

Meals like this were rare, but becoming increasingly more common at the Higurashi home. With the completion of the Shikon no Tama, and its subsequent division into the souls of Kagome, Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango and Shippou, the gang had gained the ability to travel through the well as they pleased. Others, such as Kirara, Kohaku and Kaede, were able to pass through in the company of one of the shard bearers, as well.

The friends were now well known to Kagome’s family, and were always welcomed warmly as if they too, were much-loved relatives. Although Kaede’s visits were less frequent than any of the others, she had been persuaded to travel with them on several occasions. It was clear to all of them that Kagome was up to something, concerning the miko and her grandfather.

For his part, Jii-Chan didn’t mind at all. He was old and all right, maybe a little senile, but he wasn’t stupid. In Kaede, he saw a familiar spirit of loss that served to hide a blossom of warmth beneath it. Although time had faded her looks, he still thought her a beauty, for her soul took his breath away.

All of this was clearly betrayed by his eyes, which mirrored the similarities in his own soul, and Kaede fought the urge to jump up and run, as she never had before. All through a dinner of rice balls stuffed with lobster and avocado, with pickled plum and shisho leaf salad, the old woman struggled to avoid meeting his gaze, and catching her breath when she did.

He smiled softly, and suddenly the talking in the room seemed much too loud to Kaede. A childish blush colored her cheeks, and she felt a tremor of something akin to fear run through her, as though everyone were staring at them. Looking around, she was surprised to see the others deeply involved in several conversations, and no attention was paid to either her or Jii-Chan at all.

When dinner was winding down, and she felt that it wouldn’t be too obvious of her, Kaede excused herself to get some fresh air. The house was suddenly too warm. Walking over the grass, she stopped to stand beneath the Goshinboku. After five hundred years, it was still magnificent with branches reaching ever onward towards the heavens.

Somewhat higher than where it was in her own time, the scar from Kikyou’s arrow still marred the otherwise flawless tree trunk. Stepping over the small fence surrounding the base, Kaede fingered the bare space in the bark, feeling suddenly like an eight year old once more.

She liked him. Kaede liked Jii-Chan, and the more time she spent in his company, the more her affection for him grew. It was foolish and impractical and completely out of character, but that didn’t make the facts any less true.

But, what of duty? What of honor? What of ancient betrayals and wounded spirits?

“ She is beautiful, isn’t she?”

For a moment Kaede thought he was referring to her, until she realized that Jii-Chan was also looking at the tree.

“ Are trees women?” Kaede asked in light amusement.

Jii-Chan laughed. “ I don’t know about other trees, but this one most certainly is. I met my wife under this tree. My son proposed to Kagome’s mother here, and as for Kagome… well, you know the story. Our family’s entire history - good and bad - is weaved into the bark of this old woman, and we protect her as she protects us.”

Kaede was quiet for a moment, pondering the man’s statement. “ My family has history with this tree as well. My earliest memories are of my sister and I sitting in this very place. Our mother died giving birth to me, and father was taken during the earlier wars. Kikyou-onee-sama cared for me all of her life, short though it was.

“ It is here that her life ended, as well.” Kaede raised her hand again to touch the blemished surface of the tree. “ I watched her fall to her knees only moments after pinning Inuyasha to Goshinboku’s trunk… the love who had betrayed her… and sent her to an early grave.”

“ Only, that was not the truth, was it?” Jii-Chan commented solemnly.

Kaede shook her head, still examining the tree. “ No, Inuyasha was not responsible for her death after all. But at the time, I knew no different. It would be another fifty years until I learned of the demon Naraku, and his part in Kikyou’s demise.”

Jii-Chan seemed to understand the unspoken message she was trying to communicate. Instead of moving forward to offer her comfort, he moved to sit on the stone bench further away. “ It must have been difficult… a young girl, alone in the world. Mother lost to the physical result of love’s gift, and sister believed murdered by love’s hand.”

Kaede nodded. “ Yes. Only, in truth… wasn’t Kikyou indeed murdered by love’s hand? The thief Onigumo sold himself, body and soul, to youkai in order to satisfy his desire for my sister. His appetite’s were unsavory enough to begin with, but the demon he became killed her; tried to taint her love for Inuyasha with malice and hate.

And in the end… it was tainted. No, she did not succumb to her despair and instead, chose to go to her death rather than empower the Shikon no Tama with any sort of evil. However, when she was awakened as a clay shadow of her former self, it was her enduring hatred that kept her going, long after Kagome had regained the borrowed soul.”

Jii-Chan nodded thoughtfully. “ If you were asking my opinion, I would tell you that there is a fine line between love, and lust. What make’s the difference is the intent of the soul. I would also say that love and hate are merely opposite sides of the same coin. They can exist equally, balancing each other perfectly, but one side always weights more than the other. You can flip the same coin one hundred times, and the results will never be even.

“ The soul is the same. All beings have within them the potential for great evil, or immense good. It is our choices that decide our fate. We flip a coin, and our soul is thusly weighted.

“ I would tell you these things, but you have not asked me, and you already know the answers anyway.” There was seriousness in Jii-Chan’s voice and face, belied only by the small twinkle in his eyes.

Kaede did not respond. She had been feeling like a young girl because of this man, and now she understood what that meant for her. She had not been a youth like Kagome had. Kagome was sparkling and vibrant… full of life and free from darkness of any kind. Kaede’s experience with adolescence had been one of anger, pain, and sorrow.

To say that Kaede had been acting like a young girl was incorrect. She was behaving the way a young woman in love did. The way Kagome had in her lighter moments with Inuyasha. The way Sango had, once love had been allowed to blossom between her and Miroku. By crowning herself with recollections of youthful follies, she had also tried to retake the staff of burdens she had carried then.

Love had made her feel young. Youth reminded her of pain that had long been forgotten. Pain made her doubt her self.

Kaede was sixty-one years old.

She was of an age that most women in her time would never live to see.

She had a chance at the happiness she’d been blinded to before.

So why wasn’t she acting like the young girl she had never been?

Tentatively, Kaede went to sit beside Jii-Chan on the bench… not looking at him, but pretending to admire the stars above them.

“ I’m an old fool,” Kaede told him quietly.

“ The same has been said about me,” Jii-Chan assured her.

“ It is odd, isn’t it, how often, it is the wise ones that are the most foolish?”

“ Aye, and only the fools are wise. It is due to their simplicity. They don’t complicate matters by thinking, the way we do.”

Kaede nodded. “ Simplicity. Is anything ever really that simple?”

Jii-Chan shrugged. “ It’s a cyclical judgment. If the wise are foolish, and the foolish are wise, then which are we? Or, are we both? And, if we are both, then couldn’t we also be neither?”

Kaede’s eyes narrowed. “ Now you’re teasing,” she accused.

He chuckled, “ You may be an old fool, Lady Kaede, but I am a simple fool.”

The two fell quiet. Soft laughter danced to them across the yard from the house, and both Kaede and Jii-Chan followed the sound with their eyes to see Inuyasha and Kagome emerging from inside. The young couple didn’t notice the older one, and stood close together talking silently. Moonlight illuminated Inuyasha’s face, and the happiness shining in his eyes was evident, ever from a distance. The hanyou laced his hands through Kagome’s and drew her close to him.

“ There is a saying, that ‘youth is wasted on the young’, but I disagree with that sentiment,” Jii-Chan said quietly. “ I wouldn’t go back for anything.”

“ Nor I,” Kaede agreed, once again feeling the weight of her history.

Jii-Chan turned to her and smiled. “ I may be old, and my looks may have gone, but I’ve earned sixty-three long years of wisdom that can’t be replaced by youth or beauty. My son is grown and gone, and his children are having kids of their own. Now I have the time to enjoy what life I have left, and let the young people rule the world now.”

Kaede nodded, but didn’t say a word. Give the world to the young people? What did they know about the world? What could they do that she couldn’t do better? The knowledge she had worked so hard for – was she supposed to just leave everything to others who didn’t know anything?

Glancing at Inuyasha and Kagome, who were now kissing gently, Kaede felt the fear inside her lessen. They were young. They might not have the knowledge that she did, but they would learn, as she had before them. Wasn’t that what life was for? Would it really be such a bad thing if she reclaimed the opportunity she’d passed by when she was young?

That’s what Jii-Chan was trying to tell her. For all his talk about fools, he could sense her reluctance, and was not pushing… just nudging her thoughts in the right direction.

Wise indeed.

Kagome and Inuyasha went back into the house, and their passing left a sense stillness of in the night. Crickets plied their trade all around, and the sound of automobiles from the city below them continued to climb the hill at their feet, but to Kaede it felt as though they were alone in the world. Somehow, nothing seemed to make more sense than that.

Jii-Chan rose and formally extended his arm to Kaede. “My lady… would you allow me the privilege of your company on a walk?”

The soft smile that teased Kaede’s face was one that she had never displayed before. For the first time in her life, she looked youthful, and radiant.

Kaede placed her hand in Jii-Chan’s, and together, they left the past behind and stepped further into the future.

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Glossary:

Amara-hime = Princess Amara (meant as a term of endearment as opposed to an actual title).

Kikyou-onee-sama = Literally, “Kikyou, older sister above me.” Very respectful address used by Kaede in reference to Kikyou.

A/N = All characters with the exception of Amara and Tenshi belong to Rumiko Takahashi... I just like playing with her toys.

Hi all! Okay, here’s the first one! I hope it was enjoyable, even for a nice piece of fluff. This is all there will be to this story, as they will not play a significant role in the sequel ( sorry). The next one SHOULD be out next Monday, pending disasters. What is it about you ask? I think I like keeping it a secret... that way you’ll come and read it instead of blowing me off!

Keep reading and keep reviewing! Thanks for all the love for ‘Beautiful Souls’, and stay tuned for further word on the upcoming sequel, ‘Beautiful Lives’.

Love - Kimberlee