A/N: This is something I've had for a little while, but I've been sort of nervous to put it up. It's more drabble-ish than anything, but I'm just so excited that I managed to finish a one-shot idea (I have over a dozen that I should really try to finish and upload) that I wanted to put it up, regardless of how much of a wuss I am.
Anyhow, on with it!
He always worried about her when she went home, and he hated that he worried. As safe as it seemed without youkai there (or any youkai that they knew of), there were still plenty of things that could befall her in her world. And there was that Hoho guy that liked shoving weird-smelling things at her because he thought she was sick all the time. Inuyasha had hoped that the guy would back off after a while – after all, who wanted a girl who was supposedly sick all the time? But it seemed that Kagome's being "sick" just made the guy even more persistent.
Inuyasha told himself he'd ask her nicely this time. She didn't have any "test" things she needed to take, she just wanted to go home for a few days. As much as he wanted her to restock on ramen, he'd feel better if he could go with her. But he didn't want to have to explain his reasoning to her, or even bring it up. He'd ask her to stay. And then, the next time she went through the Well, he'd have already told her what a great idea going with her would be, and she'd have gratefully accepted his offer.
"Hey, Kagome," he started as she began packing her things in Kaede's hut.
"Yeah, Inuyasha?" she paused what she was doing to look up at him, one of her weird flapping scrolls – Books, he reminded himself – in one hand.
"Uh, why don't you stay here? I mean, nothin's going on in your world. What's the point? I'm fine without ramen, and the runt doesn't need any more candy."
He could see her expression as she remembered what had happened the last time she had brought Shippo candy in the form of something called a "mo-kuh and cream" lollipop. Not even Kirara had been safe after that.
"True as that may be, I really want to go home and see my family."
Finished with her packing, Kagome stood.
Inuyasha followed her out of the hut. He had a nagging feeling, one that screamed at him not to let her go. He didn't know if something bad would happen there, but he didn't want to take the chance.
"Oi! Stay here, wench!"
Even as he said it, his ears flattened.
Kagome stood ramrod straight, not turning around. Her fist clenched at her sides.
Dammit!
"Inuyasha…"
He whined a little in his throat, glad that Shippo wasn't around to hear it. Bopping the runt on the head wasted energy he could be spending elsewhere.
"Sit!"
Kagome stalked off as Inuyasha waited for the command to wear off.
Even when he was prepared for it, being sat still hurt like a bitch.
It had only taken him until sundown to follow her through the Well. That feeling of worry still pressed at him relentlessly. He had tried to calm himself with thoughts that she wouldn't even leave the house unless it was for her school.
Not that it helped him any.
Finally, he'd given in. And now he sat in the lower boughs of the Goshinboku on her side of the Well, unable to keep out the sound and smell of Kagome's tears coming through her open window. They hadn't started until she'd turned off her light and gone to bed; she'd seemed perfectly fine before then.
Inuyasha's ears lowered, knowing that it was because of him she was crying. He hated when she did that, whether it was his fault or not – though oftentimes, it was solely his fault.
He hadn't been sure that she was awake and crying until she silently asked herself, "Why does this always happen to me?"
His ears flattened completely against his skull.
He didn't know if he could feel any worse. All he'd been trying to do was protect her, like he'd promised to do since the beginning. Or close to the beginning, but his mind liked to skip over the less savory parts of his introduction to the young miko.
They'd started out as reluctant companions, searching for the pieces of the Sacred Jewel that Kagome had broken. It wasn't obvious to him when they had crossed the line from acquaintances on a mission to actual friends, but it had happened early on. The line he himself had crossed from friendship to love had been much less noticeable, and one he'd only recently realized he'd crossed. It had been absolutely unintentional, but now that he felt that way, he refused to try and staunch his feelings. It would feel like slapping Kagome in the face. He did want to tell her about it, but not yet. It was much too soon. And as much as she'd proved her feelings for him in the past, he was still nervous about admitting how his feelings had changed. Most scenarios he'd come up with had ended with him saying something the wrong way and being sat.
Which is how everything pretty much ends, normally, he thought, his nose still assaulted by Kagome's sadness, though it was less so now.
When he could smell no more fresh tears, he hopped from the tree quietly, and onto the roof above her room. He waited for a while, assuring himself that her even breathing and lack of new salt meant that she had fallen asleep.
When he felt confident, he swung into her room through the open window, feeling grateful that she had left it open. It meant something to him that, even though she was undoubtedly still upset with him, she still left him an obvious invitation to come in.
Though she probably hopes it ain't so I can drag her back, he thought wryly.
Suddenly, he felt nervous again, though this time it was for coming into her room. He didn't know what he would accomplish just by hovering near the edge of her bed and watching her sleeping figure. He pretended for a moment that it was because he still had that gut-feeling that something bad might happen without him there to protect her. But, truthfully, that feeling had gone away the moment he'd gone through the Well.
Maybe I wasn't worried about her getting hurt here. Or maybe not completely, he thought. Maybe…maybe I just wanted to be with her, and that was what I was feeling.
"Inu…yasha…"
Inuyasha held perfectly still, certain he'd been caught before he'd come up with a good excuse as to why he was there. But before he could stumble over himself, Kagome frowned, shifting to try and get comfortable. She was still asleep.
"Don't…Kikyo's here…course he went…"
Kikyo?
Inuyasha didn't know why Kagome would be dreaming about him and her past incarnation. Things had been settled between Inuyasha and Kikyo for a while; she no longer believed him her betrayer, and didn't hold him to his promise to go to hell with her.
Like that'd work, anyway, he mused. Anything left would just go back to Kagome. Besides, I haven't even seen Kikyo in months. Why's it bothering Kagome now?
Thinking about the last several weeks, he began to wonder if her usual pep had been diminished because she was thinking about Inuyasha and Kikyo's relationship. He didn't know what might have started those thoughts. Kagome hadn't seen Kikyo for quite some time, just the same as Inuyasha.
Things have felt strained between us, lately, though. Maybe that's part of it, and I'm just picking up on her mood without thinking?
He frowned.
I wonder if her thoughts are crushing her as much as mine are crushing me?
He stood watching her for some time, not quite looking at her but here and there between heavy thoughts.
He didn't notice when she woke up.
When Kagome realized that the fuzzy shape she was blearily seeing next to her bed was the inu-hanyou, it took an enormous amount of restraint to keep herself from sitting him right away. She might have, had her family not been sleeping. That was the only thing really keeping the half-demon safe at the moment.
She took in his appearance. Kagome didn't quite mind that he was staring at her, if a little creepily, but the thought that he'd come to bother her while she was sleeping grated on her nerves. It was bad enough he'd demanded she stay earlier in the day.
And he'd asked so nicely, too, she thought, wishing he could have more random moments of decency without the demanding nature after. Before she allowed herself to wonder if the asking nicely was a new tactic he had picked up, she began pointedly staring at him, waiting for him to notice and acknowledge her.
When he didn't notice her for the first minute, she began mentally singing a nursery rhyme. When she had recited for the third time the part about one in a velvet gown, she could tell that he'd finally noticed when he began twitching.
She continued her wait until he snapped, "I'm sorry, alright?"
"Is that all?" she said stiffly, secretly excited that he'd apologized at all. Even if it had taken him a few hours and some non-verbal, stink-eye prompting.
Putting his hands in his sleeves, Inuyasha mumbled.
As happy as Kagome was that he'd apologized, she sort of wished he'd done it during the day – she was tired. Looking at her alarm clock on the little table next to her bed, she saw the time, huffing in her displeasure at where the hands pointed.
"I'm going back to bed," she informed him as she rolled over. She'd deal with this during normal people hours.
Inuyasha grabbed her shoulder suddenly, tugging her to turn back around to face him. As she looked at him in confusion, he meant to ask for forgiveness. He was proud of himself for managing to say sorry to her, but he still felt bad for yelling at her in the first place.
But something about the way she was looking at him drove him to panic, and he said what he'd secretly been wanting to tell her the whole night – and longer than that, really.
"I won't go home without you!"
Eyes wide, Kagome's mind took her back months and months past. A conversation during a lull in their travels came to the fore, when she'd asked him if he thought of Kaede's village as home.
"Nope. Home ain't just a village, or a hut, or a place to sleep and cook. It's someone to come back to," he'd told her gruffly. He'd looked at her then, and she'd blushed, though she couldn't comprehend why she had. It might have had something to do with the semi-eloquence of his answer; she'd rarely heard him say something so emotionally astute.
Holding her breath in the here and now, Kagome listened to Inuyasha as he began swearing at himself before her thoughts clicked together.
Like a wound spring, Kagome hopped from the bed without a word to turn on her light, dragging her backpack to her bed.
"I'll leave a note for Mama on the kitchen counter," she explained to him without deviating from her task.
Inuyasha watched almost dazedly as she went through the house quietly, gathering this and that to stuff in her backpack, coming back at one point in a new outfit of her strange, durable blue pants and a simple shirt. At that, he was too stunned to do anything but note that she put several packets of ramen in the yellow bag.
After ten minutes, she closed up the bag and shouldered it. Turning around, Kagome went to stand in front of him.
"Well?" she asked. "Let's go home, then."
Smiling, she grabbed his hand to lead him out of her bedroom door, turning off her light in the process.
"K-keh!" he finally said.
Kagome's smiled widened as she led him back to the Well.
A/N: So, I don't know if anyone caught my dog reference with the nursery rhyme Kagome was chanting to herself. It's "Hark hark, the dogs do bark."
I amuse myself heartily.
Also, if anyone noticed that this story goes rather well with a certain song, then you have excellent powers of deduction! I based the premise of this fic on one of my favorite songs (like several of those partially written fics I alluded to in the A/N at the top). But rather than be straightforward and tell you the song and artist, I'm gonna let you all try to guess for yourselves! Even if it isn't the song I used, if you imagined another song going well with this, then that's cool, too, and I would love to hear what song you thought of. :)