Okay! I've finally gotten a story down after a long time of absence! Many apologies to Miss mewtwofangirl for delaying this for so long…it was a request that she had asked of me a while back, but of course, school throws a hitch in everyone's plans! Well, without further delay, here is the one shot!
It was a bright sunny day, but the attitudes and moods of the Inuyasha group was far from bright and sunny. After their run-in with Naraku's Illusionary Death trap, they decided it wasn't a good idea to continue their pursuit until everyone had recovered from their ordeal. Fortunately enough, they found a remote farmer not too far from their location that was willing to allow them to stay at his house. It was then agreed upon that it was best to stay there for a week before moving to a different location as to not impose for too long.
Currently, everyone was split up. Alina was watching over her father, Tsubakimaru, in one bedroom while Kagome, Sango and Shippo rested up in the room next to theirs. Miroku up and went to mull over his thoughts outside, out in a remote field not too far from the house. Inuyasha left to go think in a tree. And Trinity…she walked off to the same field where Miroku was, just a little further away to get a breather, but what she saw in her Illusionary Death was fresh in her mind…
"Inuyasha! Alina-nee-chan! Otou-chan! Sango-san! Miroku-san! Shippou-chan! Kagome!" Trinity called out, running through a thick, dark and foggy forest, careful to not trip over stray tree roots. "Where are you guys! Are you alright!"
The girl's eyes widened and she put up her arms just in time to divert a tentacle that had come flying at her face, injuring her arms in the process. She skidded to a stop and looked around for the culprit.
"That was you, wasn't it, Naraku!" she shouted. "You bastard, show yourself!"
"Kukukuku…" came Naraku's evil laugh. "So impatient, Trinity. Are you really that eager to join your friends in hell?"
A shot of fear went through her heart. "What did you do to them! I'll never forgive you! Where are they! Bastard, tell me!"
"Do you…really…want to know…? Trinity…?" His voice came out in a deep purr, reverberating off the trees and sending unpleasant chills down her spine. "Very well…I shall show you…but I do not guarantee…that you'll like what you'll see…kukukuku…"
The fog that had laid so thickly amongst the forest trees suddenly began to lighten up. Trinity's eyes started to widen when the silhouettes began to grow stronger and thicker. She took an unconscious step back, her boy beginning to tremble. The fog lifted entirely and strewn on the ground were the mangled bodies of her friends and family.
The girl fell to her knees. "No…no…! This…this can't be…this can't be happening!"
Naraku's laughter pierced the air and he appeared right behind Trinity, grasping her shoulder firmly and whispered into her ear, "But this is happening, Trinity…it must make you feel worthless…being unable to save your friends and family. It must you feel awful, knowing that if you were there, this wouldn't have happened. But it makes me wonder…would you have made a difference if you were here? After all…you don't compare to your sister or Kagome at all…if anything, it would be surprising if you could even as so much scratch Sesshomaru with your powers…"
Trinity lashed out at him, tears welling up in her eyes. "Shut up, bastard!"
"T…Trinity…!" She stopped and turned around. Her father was pushing himself up with one arm, an eye open and staring intently at his daughter.
"Otou-chan!" she cried, rushing to his side and helping him up.
"No…Trinity, don't stay here any longer. You have to run…! Get away from here…!" Tsubakimaru coughed, blood staining his lips.
"No! I can't leave you guys here!" she said, distressed.
"It's…it's dangerous…you have to run…" Trinity looked over her shoulder to find Miroku struggling to get on one knee.
"Don't get up, Miroku-san!" she cried, moving to stop him.
"My…beaten this badly…and still talking…? How annoyingly resilient…I suppose I will have to fix that…" Naraku grinned, tentacles growing up from his back.
"No!" Trinity immediately stood in front of Tsubakimaru and Miroku, taking a fighting stance. "I won't let you hurt them any longer!"
"You say you won't, but do you have the power to back up those words…?" Vines suddenly shot up from the ground and wrapped themselves tightly around her, pulling her to the ground and holding her there.
"Guh!" The girl immediately tried to break free of the vines, but the more she struggled, the tighter they became.
"Trinity…!" Tsubakimaru struggled to his feet. "Naraku…!"
The man laughed. A tentacle shot from behind him and wrapped itself around Tsubakimaru's neck, choking him. The fox hanyou desperately tried to claw off the tentacle, but in his state, it was virtually impossible. Naraku slowly began to approach him, another tentacle growing from his back. Trinity from then on saw nothing but red. Once he was finished with one person, he immediately moved onto another, not giving them a chance to wake up or fight back. Every thought that she had in her mind left her as did her strength. Trinity couldn't help but sit and watch as Naraku quickly executed every single one of the people she had grown to trust and love in quick succession. Tears silently flowed down her cheeks. Suddenly, to her surprise, the vines that had held her so tightly burst apart and Inuyasha roughly pulled her up into his arms.
"I-Inuyasha…!" she whispered, surprised.
"We're getting out of here…" he told her, panting.
"Oh, one escaped…" Naraku turned to the two, his blood-soaked tentacles waving about in the air.
"Bastard…!" Inuyasha cursed. "I'll get you for this…!"
The dog hanyou dug his sword into the ground and forced it up, sending dust, smoke and debris at Naraku before turning and pushing off the ground to run. However, Naraku had anticipated this and appeared in front of him, a smirk on his face.
"You think you can escape me, Inuyasha? How naïve." Tentacles appeared out of nowhere and pierced Inuyasha all over the place, forcing him to drop his Tessaiga and Trinity.
In a fit of panic, Trinity picked up Tessaiga and charged at Naraku with it. "Naraku! Let Inuyasha go!"
Naraku was not phased. "How vexing." As she neared him, he side-stepped her strike and grabbed her throat. "You have feelings for Inuyasha, don't you? Then it would be fitting for the two of you two die together, no?"
He threw her at Inuyasha and the last thing she could remember was seeing his blood-soaked tentacles racing towards them…
Trinity stared at her hands, the last scene of the illusion replaying over and over again in her mind. Her hands began to tremble. She sighed, pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and then rested her chin on them, mulling over the illusion. After what she had seen, she was starting to question her ability to keep up with the others. Of course, in the past battles, she was able to keep up with everyone else, but now she was wondering if she could continue to keep up with them now that the crisis with Naraku was reaching its climax. If she looked back on it, she could tell that she was slowly to fall behind.
"Oi! Trinity!" Trinity shrieked and fell over in surprise as Inuyasha's face suddenly appeared in front of her. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong? What's wrong! The fact that you suddenly popped up in front of me and scared the crap outta me is what's wrong!" she screamed, trying to regain her wits. He fell over, shocked.
"U-uh…?" he gulped.
"Oh, nevermind," she sighed, sitting back up. "What brings you over here?"
"Well, I was going to check up on Kagome, but I saw you over here with your knees up so I was wondering if you were okay," he said, looking away a little embarrassed. "And from what Miroku told me, you were crying pretty hard from your illusion."
Trinity nearly fell over from shock and made a fist with a sobbing face. D-damn you, Miroku-san!
"Trinity?" Inuyasha prompted.
"Oh, I'm perfectly fine, don't worry!" she immediately responded.
The dog hanyou silently watched his companion with a slightly worried face, not really believing that she was 'perfectly fine,' but decided against saying anything. An uncomfortable silence settle between the two.
"Ne, Inuyasha…?" Trinity finally spoke up, looking far away.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Do you…do you think I'm strong?" He fell over.
"What kind of question is that!" he shouted, standing up.
"I was just wondering!" she defended.
"You're strong in your own way! You're not as strong as I am, but you're definitely strong in your own way!" Inuyasha said. "What brought this on anyway! What did you see in that trap, Trinity!"
"Oh no, nothing! Like I said, I was just wondering, Inuyasha! Really!" Trinity said, waving her hands in front of her. "It was a stupid question!"
"Trinity – " Alina cut across Inuyasha's sentence right then.
"Oi! Trinity! Could you come back to the house!" she called.
She immediately jumped to her feet. "I better go see what Alina-nee-chan wants!"
"E-eh? Ah – oi!" Inuyasha reached out to grab the girl's shoulders, but she was already gone. His hand dropped back to his side and he couldn't help but think that she was purposely avoiding the question. She was hiding something from him…probably because of what she saw in that Illusionary Death Naraku had set up for them. He knew that Trinity wasn't the type of person to really question herself unless prompted to.
"Is something wrong, Alina-nee-chan?" Trinity asked, coming to a stop in front of her sister. Alina raised an eyebrow.
"Are you okay? You seem a bit…agitated," she pointed out.
"Oh, no, I'm perfectly fine!" the younger girl replied without a beat, waving her hands in front of her.
Alina narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "You don't sound too convincing, Trinity."
"Honest!" Trinity said.
The older girl sighed. "Alright, whatever you say. Come on, Otou-san woke up."
"Really! Is he okay!" Trinity pushed passed her sister and ran into the room.
Tsubakimaru was sitting up in his bed, looking zoned out and seemingly depressed. He twitched when his younger daughter touched his shoulder. The fox hanyou looked up, wide eyes, looking back and forth between his two daughters, as if it was the first time seeing them.
"A…Alina…? Trinity…?" he whispered. To the girls' surprise, he grabbed their wrists and pulled them into a fierce hug.
"O…otou-chan?" Trinity squeaked.
"I…I thought I had lost you guys…all of you…" he whispered, referring to their brother as well. "That…was it all an illusion…?"
"Yes, Otou-san, it was…don't worry, we're fine. He hasn't killed any of us. We're alive and so are you," Alina reassured, returning his hug.
"Oya? Tsubakimaru-san is awake?" Just then, Miroku walked in.
"Yeah, but he's upset over what he saw." Trinity squeezed her father real hard and felt him relax.
"But it was all an illusion. Just a ploy for Naraku to break us…" Miroku sounded disgusted but Trinity could tell that he was also very disturbed by his vision.
"Well, it's working," Alina huffed, pulling away from Tsubakimaru. "I mean, Trinity broke down crying, Miroku was scared out of his mind, Kagome is depressed and Sango is out of it. If this keeps up, Naraku's gonna kill us in no time."
Trinity tentatively pulled away from Tsubakimaru. "Kagome is depressed? What did she see?"
Her older sister shrugged. "She wouldn't tell me."
The girl got up, kissing her father on the cheek. "Okay, I'll go see what's up."
She walked into the next room and found Kagome sitting next to the window, looking out of it and looking a little sad. Shippo was asleep in her lap while Sango was resting on the opposite side of the room. Sango and Trinity inclined their heads at each other, acknowledging each other's presence.
"Kagome?" Trinity spoke up, tentatively approaching her. "Are you alright?"
Kagome blinked and turned to her. "Trinity?"
"You alright?" Trinity repeated.
"Yeah…yeah, I am…just…" Kagome broke off, sighing. "I saw Kikyou and Inuyasha kissing in my Illusionary Death."
Trinity was really startled by the sudden confession and then felt a little down. She knew of Kagome's feelings of Inuyasha and she also knew that Inuyasha loved both Kagome and Kikyou. She herself loved Inuyasha too, but she couldn't compare to the other two.
"Don't worry, Kagome," she forced herself to say. "It's only Naraku trying to get to you. I know that Inuyasha loves you much more than Kikyou."
Kagome studied her for a few minutes and then quietly said, "You love Inuyasha…don't you…Trinity…?"
Outside of the room, Inuyasha froze. He had originally planned to check up on Kagome and Trinity, but hadn't really expected to come across this.
Trinity blinked a few times. "What? Me? Love Inuyasha? Oh, no, that's just your imagination, Kagome! I think your love paranoia is getting to you!"
"Trinity…" The girl jumped, completely forgetting that Sango was in the room. "Everyone knows that you're in love with him. We just kept quiet about it."
"That's silly talk!" she said, forcing a smile. "We're just friends!"
"I…was hoping that if you were confronted by the fact that we knew, you would start to be honest with me…I guess I got my hopes too high." Kagome gently placed Shippo on the ground and stood up. "I'm going outside for a bit."
Trinity was taken aback. She stood up and followed her friend outside. "Wait, Kagome, what do you mean by that? To be honest with you? Haven't I always been honest with you? I'm your friend, aren't I?"
"Apparently you don't see me that way when it comes done to Inuyasha." Kagome stopped walked and turned to face her. "I must've been blind if I didn't see that you were in love with him. But recently, I started to notice things. I've noticed how you would always side with him when we got into a fight. How you would always seem to look at him with this sadness and…and longing. How you would always seem to concern yourself with Inuyasha with the littlest of things, more so than others."
"Like I said, Kagome, it's only love paranoia on your part!" Trinity stressed.
"Stop treating me as if I'm stupidly in love with him! Yes, I love Inuyasha, but I'm not so head over heels about him that it stops me from thinking clearly!" she snapped. "At first, I thought I was imagining things, but then I started to ask everyone else and they agreed that they saw how much you were attached to him, despite you trying to hide it!"
"…then…why? Why are you asking me these questions!" Trinity shouted.
"Like I said, I was hoping you would be honest with me – as girls in love with the same man," she told her angrily.
"You want me to be honest with you! I'll be honest with you!" she yelled, fisting her hands. "Yes, I love him, but I know! He doesn't love me at all! He loves you! He loves Kikyou! There's no way I can compare to you guys! I…I know that Kagome loves him too, so I…I didn't say anything. Kagome, you're my friend and I didn't want to get in your way."
Kagome was shocked. "T-Trinity…?"
Trinity closed her eyes tightly as a few tears leaked out. "I…I love Inuyasha. I can't help it, it's not my fault that I do. But…but it can't be helped that he loves someone else, right? Kagome, you should hurry up and take him before Kikyou does…"
She sniffed heavily, furiously trying wipe her eyes and walked off, feeling relieved and depressed at the same time. Relieved because now Kagome knew what she felt and got the facts out in the open. Depressed because she now wouldn't ever have the one she loved. She would now have to look on as the two shared their love and she would now have to move on and find someone else. Trinity walked passed a stunned Inuyasha, but didn't even acknowledge that he was there – she was too much caught in her thoughts. Inuyasha watched as she walked away. He never knew that she had thought this way of him. He had always thought that Trinity thought of him as a good friend; nothing more, nothing less. He was startled to see Kagome in front of him, staring at him with a sad expression.
She sighed. "Trinity's blind to not see that you love her too."
He choked on his own spit. "Wh-what!"
"Don't deny it, Inuyasha, everyone knows about this too," she told him, turning towards the house. "You better go comfort her. She's probably really miserable right now."
"What? Oi, Kagome, wait!" he said, reaching to grab her arm.
"Osuwari!" she demanded.
"Buh!" The dog hanyou face planted into the ground as the rosary pulled him forward. When he was finally able to move, Kagome was already gone. "Oi, Kagome!"
Cursing, he got to his feet and took off to look for her, to ask her to clarify everything for him. He ran past a large tree and smelled Trinity's scent. He stopped in his tracks. Sobbing was heard from the tree and he gingerly approached it. On the other side was Trinity, her knees up to her chest, crying.
"Um…uh, hey…Trinity…" Inuyasha greeted a little lamely.
She jumped and started to wipe her eyes. "Inuyasha!"
"Why are you crying?" he asked, taking a seat next to her.
"Oh, it was just a stupid fight between me and Kagome. Don't worry, it's nothing! Everything's fine!" she answered, forcing a smile.
Inuyasha frowned and absentmindedly started to wipe away her tears. "No, everything is not fine."
She swatted his hand aside, blushing a little. "No, everything is fine, Inuyasha, don't worry about it!" She got up, brushing the grass off of her pants. "I better go check and see if Otou-chan has calmed down now."
Inuyasha got up as she started to walk away. "I…actually heard everything in the argument."
She stopped and turned to him. "What?"
"I heard everything in the argument. And…" he paused, scratching his cheek, a little embarrassed. "It's not Kagome or Kikyou that I love…it's…uh…you, Trinity…"
Trinity paused, not believing what she had just heard. "No…you're only saying that to make me feel better…and just to let you know, it does not make me feel better."
"I'm not taking pity on you; I'm telling you the truth!" he protested.
"No, I don't want to hear it!" she shouted, running off.
"Wait, Trinity!" he yelled, running after her and grabbing her wrist.
"No! No!" she screamed, trying to fight him off.
"Trinity, listen to me!" But she wouldn't.
Finally fed up with her trying to fight him, Inuyasha grabbed her shoulders and kissed her straight on the lips. Almost immediately, Trinity stopped fighting, her eyes wide. A blush creeped up to her face and he pulled away.
"Do you believe me now?" he asked, blushing a little himself.
She made a face and looked away from him. "Not entirely."
"Then what am I supposed to do to make you believe me?" he asked, exasperated.
"Answer this one question." Trinity took hold of his kimono sleeves. "Since when did you start to love me?"
Inuyasha lifted her chin up so he could see her beautiful blue-green eyes and said, "From the beginning," before bending over and kissing her again.
Okay! So! Some characters might have been out of character. Many apologies. This was a series I wasn't very familiar with. Naraku might have had more power than he was supposed to and that was because I'm more familiar with the part when Inuyasha basically masters the Tessaiga and slaughters him. Ahem, anyway, I hope this is to Miss mewtwofangirl's satisfaction as well as to all you readers. If it went a little fast, it was because I was afraid of making this one-shot too long. Anywho, any favorites and/or reviews are really appreciated. Thank you for reading! And I'm still open for requests! ^.^
Head over to DeviantArt to see the accompanying picture! :3 (You're gonna have to go through my profile in order to reach my DA page. Sorry for the inconvenience!)
Thanks again!
~Shinny out~