Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Shippo, after agreeing that they would all continue to work together to find the last jewel shard, searched everywhere they could think of for Naraku. Finally, they found him in his castle in the backwards lands. They arrived only to be swarmed by Naraku's minions.
"Damn it, here they come." Inuyasha snarled, backing in front of Kagome.
When the first wave came, Inuyasha obliterated them with his wind scar but still missed a few. One of the monsters flew toward Kagome but Inuyasha blocked its attack, receiving the blow himself. He grunted and slashed the monster, killing it. When the second wave came, he used wind scar again, but some of Naraku's bugs got poison into Inuyasha's wounds.
On and on the enemies came, Inuyasha growing weaker every second as the poison worked its way through his system, but, stubbornly, he did not want to show it. Finally, all that was left was corpses of the monsters they had killed. Kagome was untouched, thanks to Inuyasha, and she ran over to her protector, wanting to examine his wounds.
"Are you okay?" she asked, worried.
"Yeah," he winced, "I'm fine."
Miroku was also wincing, holding his hand with the hell hole. Sango was panting, barely able to hold up her boomerang, Shippo alongside her. Inuyasha just stood there, trying to look cocky, his eyes only slightly closed in pain. He murmured, "Feh…that was…easy," before collapsing in a pool of blood.
"INUYASHA?" Kagome exclaimed, kneeling down beside him. Miroku walked over and bent down, relieved to see that Inuyasha was still breathing, even shallowly. Inuyasha had started to shake and moan, unconscious.
"He must've been poisoned by the bugs." Miroku observed gravely. Kagome started crying, but Miroku kept his head. "Let's get him somewhere safe in case any more of Naraku's minions come."
They dragged Inuyasha's shaking body to a tree, collapsing down beside him to rest. Kagome knelt in front of Inuyasha, pulling off his fire rat robe carefully to reveal deep gashes extending from his left shoulder to his right hip. Kagome hesitated, stunned, then traced a finger lightly around one of the gashes, and even her light touch caused Inuyasha to cry out.
Suddenly he woke, screaming, "KAGOME!" Kagome jumped at the outburst, and then moved closer to him, not wanting to leave his side. He was panting, his eyes squeezed shut in pain, unwilling to show Kagome. Slowly, his occasional cries quieted and he only let out a short whimper when the pain became too much.
"I-I-Inuyasha?" Kagome asked tentatively. Inuyasha just groaned in response. "I'm going to put some wrappings on your wounds, okay? This will sting a- a bit." Kagome bit her lip for lying and took out the bandages, unrolling them and wrapping Inuyasha's stomach tightly. He screamed bloody murder, the pain beyond words. Kagome bit her lip so hard that blood started pooling at the mark. She started to cry, but continued to wrap up Inuyasha, ignoring, mostly, his tortured screams.
When she was finally done, he laid there, panting hard. The blood from his cuts had already started to soak through the bandages.
_Crap_, Kagome thought. In between sobs, she called his name to ask if he was okay or feeling a tiny bit better, since his screams had died down a little, and he slowly opened his brilliant amber eyes.
"K-K-Kag-ome." He stumbled over the name, coughing up blood. "D-damn it…." He murmured, then passed out again.
Kagome wiped the blood away from his mouth, but still couldn't stop crying. Inuyasha started to shake again, whimpering as the poison spread further.
He murmured Kagome's name, along with the three words she had always wanted to hear him say.
"I love you."
Kagome blushed deeply, even under the strained circumstances, and turned self-consciously to see if any of the others had heard. Shippo, possessing sharp ears, heard everything, but decided to ignore it out of respect. Kagome was grateful to him, and she turned back to Inuyasha, who was sweating and shivering violently.
_He must have a fever… But what can I do? I don't have anything for it…_ Kagome sighed tiredly. It had been a long day, and her vision had started to get blurry. She leaned up against the tree, exhausted, and fell asleep.
In the morning, the dawn just starting to creep in, she woke to Inuyasha's groans. His fire rat was covered with a mix of sweat and blood, and his eyes were squeezed tight with pain. Kagome quickly stood up and leaned over him to take the wet cloth off his forehead, finding that it had heated up overnight, and replaced it with a cold one.
When she put the cool cloth to his forehead, he stirred and opened his eyes a crack. "Oh, h-hey Kagome." Kagome had started crying when he said her name, and she just sat there, tears spilling down her rosy cheeks. "Why are you crying for m-me?" he asked softly.
Kagome looked at him with tear-filled eyes and responded "Because I don't want you to d-" she hesitated, changing her words mid-sentence, "l-leave me…" Then, without warning, she kissed him.
At first he winced with pain, but it suddenly faded into a gentle ache. Glowing lights danced around them and, if they had been paying attention, they would have seen a faint heart pattern illuminated in the sky like a second sun. Inuyasha had stopped panting abruptly, sitting up, his wounds sealing shut and his eyes opening, wide and alert. They stared at each other for a long time, and Kagome thought she heard chuckling behind her, but decided it was just the wind teasing her.
Kagome blushed, realizing that she had just KISSED Inuyasha, thinking he was going to die!
Inuyasha laughed at her expression, and stood up, mentioning, "Feh! I guess it just took me a long time to heal!" Kagome stared at him until he finally had to ask "WHAT?" The irritation was obvious and refreshing. The others were still asleep, luckily, but probably wouldn't be for long.
She answered by yelling, "WHAT DO YOU THINK 'WHAT?' I THOUGHT YOU WERE DYING YOU LIAR! FAKER! And I…I…!" She couldn't bring herself to say "kissed you!" "INUYASHAAAAAA!"
Inuyasha started backing away from Kagome, protesting, "WAIT, KAGOME! I can explain!" Kagome looked at him with the red fury of embarrassment flaming in her eyes and cheeks, and if you listened hard enough could just hear the silent "WELL?"
Inuyasha stammered and started rambling, his ears flattened on his head. "Okay, maybe I can't explain-but I definitely know that I was dying because I know what dying feels like and that was it because I was starting to get very cold and my vision was fading slowly to blac- " He never got to finish his sentence because Kagome shouted "SIT!" and he got a mouthful of dirt.
Kagome was at least eighty percent positive he was lying, but how could that be possible? She had seen the blood, had felt it oozing through her fingers as she put on the bandages, and now there was…nothing. It was all dried, like an old wound that from days ago. Why would he suddenly heal, then?
"Then why are you okay now?"
Inuyasha sat up shakily and spit out a couple of mouthfuls of dirt, shrugged, then answered, "No idea, but after you….." He blushed a deep red and looked away from Kagome. She in turn blushed a rosy red and looked toward the others…then gasped, giving a small squeak of surprise.
She had turned to see Miroku, Shippo, and Sango with their heads tilted to the pair sitting by the tree. Kagome opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. How long had they been up? How much did they hear? Did they see her do….that? She blushed again, afraid to ask whether they had seen anything.
Miroku saw her looking over at them, so he waved, grinned like the perverted monk he is, and gave her a thumbs up. He received, in response, a whack on the temple from a ticked off Sango's boomerang.
Kagome felt strangely amused, thinking _He definitely saw… That idiot…_
Shippo hadn't noticed that Kagome found them eavesdropping, so he leaned his head even father over until his head was at a 90 degree angle from his body, ears perked up for any sound from the tree couple.
Kagome shrieked, and Shippo jumped and skittered behind Sango. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Her face was in flames. Lord, this was embarrassing! How could this have happened?
Miroku piped up in that annoying way of his. "Kagome-chan, if you're worried about revealing your true feelings, don't. We already know you lo—" His words were cut off as his head was knocked by a familiar boomerang. Again.
"Could you be any more blunt, idiot?" Sango hissed. Kagome, at this point, seemed to have a permanent startled look on her face, and her friend was hoping to break it. "Sorry, Kagome-chan, he's kind of a moron. What he means is that we're sorry for eavesdropping on your private moment with Inuyasha." She glared at the pervert. "Isn't that right?"
He took one look at her expression and sighed. "Sorry."
*Twack*
He rubbed the back of his head, whining, "Are you trying to give me a concussion?"
"You didn't sound sorry at all! Apologize again!"
He frowned, confused. "But I'm not sorry. I don't see why a girl should be so sensitive about showing her feelings to others! I do it all the time." Shippo felt the need to point out that he's in his own category in that department.