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an Inuyasha fanfiction
by
mkh2
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Hello, all! This is the (mostly) Kagome version of the epilogue. Originally, I only meant to do one, but when I started writing it, I noticed that it was really from Kagome's point of view, and I wanted – especially for the epilogue – "Who I am" to be from Inuyasha's point of view. (Not that I can write well for a guy, I mean, I'm a girl. Duh.) It might not make sense if you haven't read it, but I think it stands on its own pretty well. For reference, though, in the italicized flashback in the opening, the "He" Inuyasha was referring to was his youkai himself. All further notes on the bottom. The disclaimer from "Who I am" also stands for "Who he is: Inuyasha."
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~Who he is~
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Epilogue 2: He is Inuyasha
Kagome's p.ov.
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"He was marking you." He peeked over at her and saw that she was waiting for him to continue. "As a… potential mate."
"Oh." Kagome blinked thoughtfully and leaned back, glancing at the sky momentarily before looking back at him. "Is that all?"
"Is that all?!" Inuyasha stared at her, aghast. "Is that all?!? Kagome, I could have forced you into being my mate—"
"But you didn't. I don't think you would have, not until I was ready," Kagome interrupted, saying so with the utmost sincerity.
"How do you know?" Inuyasha started tugging at the loose threads on the Tetsusaiga's hilt out of sheer nervousness.
"Because I know you, and you would never do anything to hurt me – not like that, and never on purpose. He's you, and you, whether you are the hanyou, the youkai, or the human will always be Inuyasha to me."
Inuyasha stared for a minute feeling relief wash over him in a calming wave. He let out a soft sigh before moving to sit next to her again.
They sat like that together for most of the night when, as the sun came up, a thought occurred to him.
"What do you mean, when you were ready?"
She laughed.
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"Ne, Kagome, what did you mean by it, huh, huh?"
They had been traveling for an hour now, searching for the shards, Inuyasha content enough with her answer to let her stay but not enough as to let it drop. Kagome for her part, as evidenced by the look on her face, was beginning to regret losing this chance to go home.
She sighed softly and glanced over at the twitching white puppy ears on his head, careful to avoid his gaze. The only bright side to staying right now seemed to be in watching Inuyasha work his ears overtime. While it was true that during much of the day after turning human he would start swiveling his ears around more than usual – he was always happy to have his senses back to normal (well, happy for him, anyways) – but this time they had worked themselves into a frenzy, trying to pick up the slightest sound she made, and trying to keep all danger away from her. She noticed, too, that he was walking a lot closer to her than usual, and often his nose would start twitching, trying to get a good whiff of her scent, she guessed.
She was beginning to wonder what would happen if— Why not?
She started running down the path, made easier by the fact that it was sloping downwards and Inuyasha was carrying the bag – he insisted he carry it, which, though he normally did carry it whether asked to or not, he had never done. He seemed more considerate somehow – except he refused to let it drop.
"…not until I was ready."
Ooh! She just had too open her trap, didn't she?
She ignored the calls of Inuyasha as she leapt lightly over the small sticks, a fallen log, a few rocks here and there, her feet skimming over the well beaten path, right before she ran into a solid wall.
A warm, soft, red sold wall, one with a heartbeat.
Uh oh.
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"Inuyasha, put me down, put me down! I can walk you know."
"Yeah, I know, I've seen ya. I've seen ya run too."
Inuyasha, to put it succinctly, was annoyed. More than a little annoyed, he felt angry – why would she run? He also felt a bit sad – did she not want to be near him? Maybe he did scare her off yesterday.
Kagome sighed, tapping her fingers lightly on Inuyasha's back, one elbow pressed just above his shoulder blade. He had picked her up and slung her over his shoulder in huff, ignoring her protests and pinning his ears to his head. Okay, so she shouldn't have run, but it was just too tempting.
"Please put me down? Inuyasha? I'm hungry…"
"Get some chips out of your bag then."
"You'll get crumbs in your hair."
"Feh."
Well, that didn't work. Strike one.
"Can we stop? I'm tired."
"How can you be tired? I'm the one doing all the work."
He had a point there. Strike two.
"I'll say it, Inuyasha, I'll say the word!"
"You really wanna risk breaking your legs under me?"
Strike three! She's out! …Although…
She hadn't even been thinking about it. First her legs started twitching then she crossed her feet. Next thing she realized she was practically bouncing on his shoulder.
"Would you knock it off?"
"I can't help it… I have to go to the bathroom."
Bingo! Hit the nail on the head, and this time, she was telling the truth – not that she lied before (she spent roughly fifteen minutes picking the crumbs out of his hair) – and he would have to comply.
"Fine." He dropped her without ceremony on the ground and she sprang to her feet, running headlong for some nearby bushes. Inuyasha tossed the bag over near her and sat down to wait.
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Fifteen minutes. She sat there for fifteen minutes. Once she was done with her… business… she tried to think of a good way to talk him into letting her walk on her own. Her stomach was all sore – she wasn't used to "riding" this way.
"Kagome…" Inuyasha called.
She sighed and picked up the antibacterial wipes – five, she counted, far more than she had really needed to clean her hands, but, hey, she wasn't exactly paying attention – straightened her skirt and, dragging her bag, headed back to the clearing.
Inuyasha made a move towards her. She quickly let go of her backpack, the large pack seeming to almost deflate where it sat, and stepped backwards, one hand clutching her stomach, the other held out in front of her.
"No more, no more – I think my spleen is going to rupture."
He froze. "What?" He really looked just like a confused puppy dog.
"I– I'll walk, I'll behave, just please, don't carry me like that… I think my stomach's gonna bruise." She rubbed her hand gently over her sore abdomen.
He stared for a minute before, grabbing her bag, he sat down.
"Well, it is lunch time…"
"Yay! Fetch me some wood, would you?" and she set about setting up the stones, pot, water, and cups. He grumbled as he went to get the wood ("I'm not a dog! I don't 'fetch!'") and returned momentarily with the wood. She set up the fire and set the water to boil.
As she watched the pot, she was suddenly aware of how close Inuyasha sat by her. He had never sat this close before and it was almost… uncomfortable, especially considering the recent events of the past two days. Even when it was just the two of them, he never sat this close, except one time, but that was her being a scaredy-cat… and he got all flustered, so they hadn't really sat so close since. She scooted away.
He followed.
"Well?"
She bit her lip, refused to answer that question. Suddenly she gasped. Something was poking her in the side.
Poke, poke. Poke, poke.
She couldn't help it. She giggled.
Soon Inuyasha had tickled her into a little red, white, brown and green giggling heap on the forest floor, her breath coming in short gasps as she tried to stop her laughter.
"I give! I give! Just… stop!"
"Then tell me."
Kagome's laughter died down and raised her eyes to his. She was vaguely aware of the sound of boiling water and the hot "phsh!" of it splashing into the fire below, letting out small bursts of smoke. She didn't want to explain to him… she felt that she had done more than her fair share of explaining stuff in the past twenty-four hours, but she wanted to be able to breathe.
As she looked into his eyes she noticed for the first time since he had asked his question that morning what he was going through. Fear, love, uncertainty – he must have been a nervous wreck. Her behavior wasn't helping him… he needed to be reassured badly.
She didn't even know when she started loving him. It happened so quickly and yet so slowly... it just crept up on her, and one day she realized – 'I love him.'
Naturally she adored his ears, the way they twitched and told so much of himself even when he was doing his best to hide away what he felt. Anger, fear, sadness, excitement – thanks to his wonderful, soft, cute little ears she had been able to bond to him better. She fell in love with those ears the moment she saw them, even if falling in love with the rest of him took a while to catch up.
He was the first man to hold her. She couldn't say boy, not really, even if by physical standards he looked hardly older than her. He was much more mature than she cared to give him credit for, when he wasn't acting like he was Shippou's age, that is (though, from what she could gather of his childhood, he probably really needed it.) He was a man, a boy, her best friend.
He took care of her. Even if at first he didn't want to, he did. The first time he willingly dead, she knew he wouldn't admit to it, that he was concerned over her frailty – he said that she was thin-skinned and could easily get hurt, so she needed the hi-nezumi* coat more than he did, and left it at that. She had seen, for a moment that day, as he fought against Yura, that he could feel, could show care and concern, despite his rough manner, and she was quick to reciprocate, though her attentions went unrewarded as she found out the next morning that her First Aid wasn't quite needed. Despite that, he again protected her, practically demanded he protect her, from his brother, and a friendship, though unstable at first, was forged.
The thought of having to leave him pained her. When it seemed that he had already chosen Kikyou (why didn't she think about this before she said those words the other night?), she ran away, unwilling to really accept the idea that they were finally breaking up – though, technically, they were never together in the first place. They had somehow become more and more involved until it seemed like it was true, but it wasn't, and even the thought of that hurt. However, she wanted to be with him, and he had let her, and as long as he would allow her, she would remain at his side – at least, these were her thoughts.
What did he think when she said those words – was he disgusted? She didn't think so, for looking in his eyes, she saw the hope in them… which was quickly being replaced by the sorrowful look of rejection. Did he too want—?
"Please?"
She blinked up at him. He really wanted to know so badly… how could she refuse the man she loved any longer?
"I wouldn't mind being your mate someday."
He seemed to panic for a moment, then gave a start, as if he wasn't quite sure what he heard.
"Ah… wha?"
She giggled and reaching up started massaging his ear, starting at the tip and working down the base. The warm, contented, purring weight of Inuyasha settled itself on her, a dazed half-smile on his face. Guess he likes it.
"I said, I would like to be your mate someday, if you want me."
Inuyasha lifted his molten gold gaze to hers and gave her a soft kiss on her forehead.
"Someday," he agreed and kissed her on the mouth softly, more a whisper of a kiss than anything.
They spent the rest of the day like that, in each other's arms.
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Of course, they went back to their usual arguments the next morning.
"I need to head back home! I have tests! Homework! Obligations!"
"You have obligations here too!"
"Inuyasha, oswurai!"
As Shippou would say, "Ah, nice weather."
~End Epilogue 2 – He is Inuyasha~
1 hr 45 min. I had actually started on this one first, but realizing that it wasn't following the same format as the rest of "Who I am", I copied and pasted it into another document and reworked it until it became the actual Epilogue for "Who I am." However, I like this version far too much to delete, so I decided to make it all in Kagome's view and post it separately. So, here you are. An Inuyasha fic, finally complete. Bonzai!
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*hi-nezumi: literally, fire-mouse; I think the story of the fire-mouse was probably created because of way that lava tends to creep in little roiling bursts like a flood of mice down the side of the volcano (anyone who has seen Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade (the one with his dad in it) and volcano footage {ignore the parts where it spews in chunks) could probably compare them and see what I mean)
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Note: The "nice weather" comment was when, after Inuyasha spent the night at Kagome's house, thereby making it hard for her to study and depriving her of her bed, they had headed back, and Kagome, tired and upset over her test, was really cranky. Naturally, it wouldn't be polite to drag it on, so he "changed" the subject by greeting with the standard comment on the weather.
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Any other notes, refer to "Epilogue: I am Inuyasha" from "Who I am."