Innocence

An Inuyasha one-shot by Kitsama

The lives that are lost…are not ever really lost. Nothing will ever be forgotten and the people who have left us will never leave us.

Dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina

Inuyasha was dying. He knew that he was dying. Sango, Miroku, Kirara, and Kaede all knew he was dying. The only one who remained slightly optimistic was Kagome. The miko's optimism had always managed to rub off on those around her, so the monk and the taijiya had both kept moving, kept racking their brains for a way to save their hanyou friend.

Kagome ran back to her time every few hours before returning with more bandages, books full of large complicated words, bottles of pills, pillows, and blankets. She came with anything and everything she thought would help and that she could carry.

Sango and Miroku flew to all the villages close by, asking healers, mikos, and priests if there was anything they could do to save him. Sometimes they returned with someone who had agreed to help them, only to have the person say there was nothing that could be done. Sometimes the healer, miko or priest would offer to purify Inuyasha or to give him something to ease his passing. Half-breed or not, the hanyou that defeated the evil Naraku was well known and finally respected. But Sango, Miroku or Kagome would yell, shout, and in Kagome's case, deny the simple truth staring her in the face. As it was, the hanyou was often alone in Kaede's hut, besides the old miko herself and Shippo.

Presently, Shippo was alone with the injured hanyou. Kaede had been in the process of changing the hanyou's many bandages when a young woman from the village had rushed in, begging the miko to care for her sick daughter. Kaede had nodded and completed making sure the hanyou was comfortable before telling Shippo to watch him, and to come find her if anything happened.

The young kit had actually been waiting for this moment for while. The battle had taken place a little less than two weeks prior. Inuyasha had been heavily injured, more injured than his body could heal. Plus, during the hours long fight the young kitsune vaguely remembered Inuyasha being partially purified. That couldn't be helping his youki heal his body very much.

Shippo took a deep breath and crawled over to where Inuyasha had been sprawled out on a strange looking futon from Kagome's time. At first the hanyou had merely rested on one of Kaede's spare futons but a few days after Inuyasha's wounds had refused to heal Kagome had rushed off to her time. A few minutes later she had came back, asking for Sango, Miroku, and Kirara to help her bring something back to the village. She had called it a mattress and had said it would help make Inuyasha more comfortable. Shippo had to agree with her. The mattress elevated Inuyasha off the floor a few inches more than a normal futon would.

Shippo inched closer until he was sitting right next to Inuyasha's deeply asleep form. The hanyou's breaths were long and drawn out, rattling in his throat. His heavily bandaged chest rose and fell under the thick, heavy coverlet Kagome had brought him as the air escaped through his slightly parted lips. The hanyou's face was turned toward him and his expression was relaxed and pain-free. Despite that, the image the Inuyasha displayed was one of a broken man. There was a weakness there that made Shippo's heart ache.

He had cried when Kaede had announced that, for the first and last time, Inuyasha's wounds would prove to be too much for him. Kagome had cried as well; loud, heart-wrenching sobs that had echoed off the walls of the small hut. She had wailed into Inuyasha's chest and had hugged the hanyou to her, as if her embrace could somehow heal him of his fatal injuries.

The little kit hadn't and didn't want to cry for Inuyasha. To him Inuyasha was one who deserved far more than to be cried over. Even though their relationship was an odd one; one that was a complicated web of verbal and physical abuse, love, concern, adoration and respect, Shippo had known from the moment he met Inuyasha that the hanyou would be a bad enemy and a wonderful friend. So far that had been proven again and again and now…it was all about to be over.

Shippo sniffed and gave a soft sob as his eyes began to burn. He didn't want to wake Inuyasha. He had to be silent. The tears ran down from Shippo's bright, pain-filled eyes and he placed his curled fists there in an attempt to stop them. In his pain and panic he missed Inuyasha's face tightening as he fought to wake up. But the kit did hear the hanyou's sudden change in breathing. The air still rattled in his chest, but now his inhales and exhales had become a little more rapid, more pained.

Shippo cursed himself for what he had done and kept his eyes averted from Inuyasha's. The hanyou blinked to clear his vision and gave a confused frown when he found himself staring at the top of Shippo's head.

He opened his mouth to speak but his throat was dry sand, scratchy and rough. He found himself coughing instead. Shippo's head snapped up and he jumped to his feet.

"Inuyasha! Do you want me to go find Kaede?"

The hanyou shook his head and coughed a few more times before swallowing hard.

"Runt…why're you crying?"

Shippo rubbed his cheeks furiously with his fists and glared at the hanyou. "I'm not crying! Why would I be crying for you?"

Inuyasha just raised an eyebrow before he closed his eyes. "Okay Shippo…"

The kitsune felt himself deflate and crawled closer to Inuyasha's side. He eyed the spot near the hanyou's neck as he contemplated curling up there. Inuyasha must have noticed because he gave a soft snort and shifted slightly, making room under his arm.

"Come 'ere runt."

Shippo climbed onto the mattress and cuddled up near Inuyasha's side. He placed the side of his head on the hanyou's chest and smiled when he heard the still strong heartbeat thudding under his ear. Inuyasha's chest rose and fall as he gave a deep sigh. It was hard to believe Kaede's words at that moment. Could the hanyou that was lying right next to him, his heart beating steadily underneath him, actually be dying? Shippo wasn't sure. So he asked.

"Are you going to die Inuyasha?"

It was a while before Inuyasha made any move to answer and when he did his voice was soft and soothing.

"I think I might, runt."

Shippo frowned. "You don't act like you're dying. This is all some trick isn't it?"

Inuyasha gave a soft chuckle, a small playing over his lips as he looked down at the young kitsune at his side. Shippo glared up at him. "That's something you would do. I knew it." No he didn't. Shippo knew the hanyou was dying and on some deeper level he knew Inuyasha knew he knew.

Inuyasha just shook his head and shifted until he was curled up on his side, his back resting against the wall. "I don't go around tricking people. That's what you do, brat."

Shippo grumbled but said nothing in his defense. It was true.

"Are you in pain Inuyasha," Shippo asked after a few minutes of silence.

Once again, there was a long pause before Inuyasha could answer. "Not as much…as you'd think."

Shippo sniffed before daring to ask his next question. "Why? Why does everyone I know have to die?" The kit began to sob. "First my mother, than my papa, now you. Sango, Miroku, Kagome and Kaede can't live forever and I'll be alone again."

Inuyasha heaved another sigh before he, slowly and carefully, placed a large hand on Shippo's head. The movement was heavy and slightly clumsy, as if he didn't have complete control over the limb anymore. Shippo began to remember all the things that he had done with that arm. All the times the hanyou had saved him, or Kagome or both him and Kagome at the same time, flashed through his mind. Inuyasha wasn't meant to be clumsy. He wasn't supposed to be so weak that it took effort to simply raise his hand.

"Come on runt. That's not true…well….actually……yeah it is." Shippo cried harder. "You'll never be alone Shippo…but people dying is something that happens…You know that."

The kit sobbed. "I k-know…but…"

"When a person dies they never really leave. If they had someone who loved them then someone will remember them. You remember you're parents don't you?" Shippo gave a little nod and nuzzled Inuyasha's bandaged chest. "Then they never left you and they never will."

"What about you're parents? Do you remember them?"

Inuyasha gave a sleepy smile and his eyes drooped as he began to loose himself in his memories. "My old man died the night I was born…but I remember my mother…"

Inuyasha's eyes closed completely and he once again heaved a large sigh. Shippo sighed as well and let his tears dry on his face. He swore that he wouldn't cry for Inuyasha again.

"Would you tell me about her?"

Inuyasha blinked his eyes open in surprise. "Why do you want to know?"

"So I can keep her for you when you leave."

Inuyasha was completely silent for a long time. In the position that he was in, Shippo couldn't see the hanyou's face. He thought that maybe he had crossed a line and winced at the implications. He tried to climb out of Inuyasha's arms, thinking that he if Inuyasha was mad, that he should leave him alone. Instead Inuyasha wrapped an arm tighter around him.

"I'll tell you," he whispered softly.

Shippo nodded and snuggled in closer.

Inuyasha spoke for hours, his voice soft and even as he described his mother to the young kitsune. He told about her laugh, her voice, her hugs. He told about how she always smiled, even when there was nothing to smile about.

"She said…that happiness was alive…and that…happiness was attracted to happiness. So even if you're sad, you should smile. If you do…then good things will happen," Inuyasha whispered quietly to the kit in his arms, his eyelids heavy.

"Does it work?"

A slow smile lifted Inuyasha's lips. "I think so."

Shippo stared up at Inuyasha worriedly. Dark circles were marring the skin under his eyes, which were barely open. Shippo hadn't noticed when the hanyou had been talking, being so wrapped up in his voice, that Inuyasha's scent had changed.

Instead of smelling of one who spends a great deal of time outdoors, a kind of light, airy but ancient smell, the hanyou's scent had turned bitter.

"Inuyasha?"

He didn't answer. His eyes were open. His heart was still beating. He was still breathing. He wasn't dead yet. Shippo sat up and shook the hanyou's shoulder.

"Inuyasha, do you want me to go find someone for you?" The hanyou just closed his eyes and passed out under Shippo's little hands. "Damnit Inuyasha…"

The kit jumped from the mattress and scampered to the door, glancing back once, before running through the village, screaming for help at the top of his lungs.

Later that night Inuyasha died. Kagome came back just in time to see his last fading moment. He confessed his love for her and she did the same. He died with a soft peaceful smile on his face. Before Kagome showed up Inuyasha had been aware enough to use his position to wish Sango and Miroku the best of luck.

"I think…you could…'ve…done better Sango…but what the hell…do I know?" he had said. Then he had choked out a laugh.

When he died, the forest that had shared his name had suddenly shifted in an unseen wind. Some of the villagers, who had no way of knowing the exact instant the hanyou died, fell to their knees and wept.

Only a few miles away from Edo, Sesshoumaru suddenly stopped walking and turned to the face the direction of his half-brother's village. The very earth around him seemed to shake.

Near Kouga's den, the ookami prince skidded to a stop and snapped his head up in surprise. With a sudden curse he punched a tree next to him and snapped it clean in half. When he had reigned in his surging emotions, he lifted his head and howled.

The wolves at his side took up the mournful note and helped raise it over the trees until it carried to his den. The remainder of his pack heard them and filtered out of the cave before lifting their faces to the clear night sky and adding their own voices to the growing chorus.

Back inside the hut Kagome wept over the body of the man she loved. Shippo sat next to Inuyasha's head and simply watched the two of them with a mournful expression on his face. True to his word, not a tear was shed by him.

Sango sat nearby, being cradled in Miroku's arms as she shed silent tears for the man that had given so much for her. The monk did his best to be strong for her, but his own sorrow mixed with hers as he mourned the loss of one of his best friends. Kaede was shedding tears as well as she watch all the young people around her loose the man whose name she had grown up knowing.

The howls only reached Shippo's ears, everyone else being so caught up in their shock and pain. The kit blinked in amazement and glanced down at Inuyasha's smiling face once, before running to the opening of the hut.

All of the villagers were out on the street and had were listening to the sounds of mourning with sorrowful looks on their faces, as if they could suddenly understand the pain of the animals that they had feared all their lives. Shippo ducked back into the hut and ran to Kagome's side, tugging at her arm.

"Kagome! Kagome, come with me!"

The young miko turned her bloodshot eyes to the young kitsune before her. "Shippo…"

He glared. "I know you're sad and I know you miss him, but please, you need to hear."

Sango, Miroku and Kaede all stared at Shippo as he managed to tug Kagome to her feet. They also stood and followed them outside where the whole village was gathered. With a flash of fire Kirara transformed into his larger form and added her own voice to the song. It sounded like all of Japan was mourning the passing of the Inu no Tashio's second son. Kagome, Sango Miroku and Kaede looked slightly shocked and looked down at Shippo who was smiling up at all of them.

"He said that as long as there is someone to remember you when you die, you never really leave." The kitsune's smile turned into a grin. "It doesn't look like Inuyasha is going anywhere to me."

Kagome smiled back and picked him up, holding him tightly to her chest. "I think you're right Shippo."

"What else did Inuyasha tell you, Shippo? I'm saddened that I missed his words of wisdom." Miroku asked, grinning slightly.

Shippo thought for a moment. All the talking that Inuyasha had done was what had sapped the last of his strength. That realization hit the kit hard and he swallowed. Suddenly every word Inuyasha had spoken seemed precious. He didn't want to share them.

"Nothing you guys would find important."

Kagome, Sango, Miroku and Kaede smiled knowingly and nodded.