Paper Lanterns by insomniac_amy

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: No matter how badly I might wish it otherwise, I do not own Inuyasha or any of the Inuyasha characters.

A/N: I’m still new at this and constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome, but please be gentle with me. This will hopefully be just a fluffy little chapter story with a little drama thrown in for good measure. Hope you enjoy! This is my first attempt at a true chapter story. I also wanted to acknowledge YoukiYume. I got my inspiration from her Doujinshi "Raindrops" Page 25 of Chapter 07. Here is the URL to the page http://youkaiyume.deviantart.com/#/d4o2zys. It was the look on Kagome's face as she is holding the lantern and saying a prayer for the departed that really inspired me to write this.

Kagome let out a sigh as she passed yet another window display filled with giant hearts, smiling cupids and chocolates. She could just imagine those stupid little smiling cupids with their tiny little arrows of love laughing at her. “Stupid, smiling cupids,” she groused as she continued walking.   It was still a couple of weeks until Valentine’s Day and she couldn’t wait for the holiday to be over already. Not only was all of Tokyo trying to remind her that she was alone, but she had to be reminded about it at work as well. For the past few weeks it was all the girls at work could talk about. One girl was sure her boyfriend would be proposing and another was positive that her man was taking her on a romantic get away. Kagome couldn’t help but feel some resentment at the fact that they all had that special someone to spend the day with, while she would be stuck at home by herself watching a sappy romance and eating a box of chocolates that she had bought for herself.   Maybe she would just call in sick to work that day so she could avoid the emptiness that came with watching bouquets of flowers being delivered and knowing that none of them were for her.

It had been two years since she had returned from the feudal era and she was trying to get back to a normal life. For the first few months after she returned, she had spent her time crying and throwing herself pity parties. She found that as time went on, even though she still missed her friends terribly, that the pain had lessened somewhat. So she had finally put on her big girl panties, enrolled in school, and tried to get on with her life. Now twenty years old, she had her own small apartment and a good job working as a medical assistant in a doctor’s office. She was mostly happy, but she was very lonely and truth be told, she found life a little boring. For so many years her life had been full of excitement. Sure it was hard and many times it was spent fighting for her life, but it had been strangely fulfilling. She couldn’t help but feel that a normal life was a bit of a let down. There was no excitement in her life anymore. It left her with a hollow, empty feeling.

The thing she found most difficult about trying to be ‘normal’, aside from the fact that she was not a normal girl and never would be, was trying to date and find love. After having spent so much time around such powerful males, how was a normal human man supposed to measure up? Besides, she was quite powerful in her own right, even though she had only felt some weak demonic aura’s and would probably never use her powers again, she was still a strong female. It would take a strong man to challenge her. She would never be satisfied with a man she could just walk all over.  Which brought her thoughts to another question she had been pondering: “Why hadn’t Inuyasha or Shippo tried to contact her? Maybe they hadn’t lived to her time, or maybe they just didn’t want to contact her, or maybe they couldn’t find her.” Rubbing her forehead, she decided to stop that train of thought before she gave herself a migraine. She had gone over the “what if’s” and “maybe’s” a million times already, so it would do no good to have the same arguments with herself.

She had been so deep in thought that she failed to watch where she was walking. She was abruptly brought back to the present when the wind was suddenly knocked out of her and her backside painfully getting acquainted with the sidewalk. With a slightly dazed expression she looked up, practically having to lean back because he was so tall, and saw what had to be the most handsome man that she had seen since Sesshoumaru. He was gorgeous! He had long silver-blonde hair that was tied back into a low ponytail and laughing honey golden eyes that seemed to peer right into her soul. He was dressed in a sleek black Armani suit, obviously tailor made just for him. ‘Great job Kagome, the first good looking guy you see and what do you do? You try to bowl him over.’ Smacking her forehead with an exasperated sigh, she looked up “I am so sorry that I ran into you, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” The man simply smirked and offered her a hand. After a mumbled “hn” he continued on to the black limo that was waiting at the curb and left. Still a little dazed, she couldn’t help but feel that she knew him. Laughing at herself, she chalked it up to her fall.

Putting the incident out of her mind, she headed towards her empty apartment to prepare a paper sky lantern. She knew that it was childish and perhaps even a little silly, like wishing on a star, but it was a habit that she had started when she was a little girl. Over the years the various wishes she would write on her lantern had changed. She chuckled as she thought about her past wishes, whether it was a wish for a new doll or maybe even for luck on a test: once a week without fail for as long as she could remember she had been making them. Now, as they had for the past five years they all said the same thing, longing for love.  After dark she would step out onto her small balcony and release the lantern, whispering a small prayer to any kami that might be listening. Once those lanterns had been meant for Inuyasha, but that time had come and gone with her wishes remaining just that. Even though her lanterns had mostly gone unanswered, it helped to keep her hope alive that one day she would indeed find love.

In a high rise office building across town a phone was answered and three words were exchanged. “I found her.”