A/N: WELL THAT TOOK FOR FUCKING EVER! I spent waaay too much time on this haha but it was totally worth it! This is my present to the lovely keichanz! Happy birthday! This is officially 2827 words! I was gonna try and make it an even 3000 but it was pretty draining to write so I just settled. Hope you all enjoyed!
The moon sat high in the night sky, its light cascading down on a small village where all was silent except for the gentle breeze that had the leaves on the trees make a soft 'shhh'. All had been well in the village, especially well, for the past few months with the return of the young village miko from her far away land. The village's resident hanyou always seemed more at ease, the head village miko finally taking a break from her hectic duties, and, if it had even seemed possible, there were less youkai in and around the village, the knowledge of the young miko's homecoming spreading far and fast. The miko herself was quickly adjusting to her new life with the help of her now husband, aforementioned hanyou of the village. Life had all around been easier since her return and everyone was grateful.
However, life wasn't so merciful, with every two steps forward there was always one step back. Life in the real world was actually quite peaceful, it was the one the miko visited in her sleep that caused her so many problems. Living her life in the distant land she came from had been hard without her husband and many friends in the village, which in turn, lead the miko to her near breaking point on the grounds of her mental and emotional health, or so she had tried to explain to her fellow villagers. She had bad dreams a lot even now that she was home and they all knew that eventually they would go away with time and support from friends, but even with that knowledge, it was hard to watch the young girl suffer when her life was only starting. More recently, she'd discovered certain calming activities that helped with her night terrors, to lessen them, but she couldn't control them all and neither could anyone else.
Looking at her sleep, you could never know that inside her subconscious she was experiencing nothing more than pure terror, even as her hanyou had her pulled up against his bare chest and his fingers tangled into her raven lock, supporting her head and neck.
The village was suddenly deathly quiet as abruptly a large portion of a nearby mountain fell away, everyone stopping and turning to watch as rock, soil, and trees crashing to the ground with a sound like thunder. Of course mudslides were common during the rainy season but it was, what Kagome called, the end of 'August', meaning the time of the heaviest rainfall was long over. But even during that time, near halves of mountains didn't collapse in on themselves, certainly there was something amiss. Perhaps it was some of Naraku's youkai that had been stored away, finally breaking free.
After the final battle, there had been many reports of large hills or mountains giving way to some minor youkai. Inuyasha and the others (minus Kagome of course) had looked into it hoping that it wasn't some new threat coming to power. Luckily, they had been worried for nothing when they discovered that Naraku had merely had these demons stored away probably incase he was in need of bodily repair seeing as the newly freed youkai were not gathering anywhere or causing any mass destruction as a group, meaning they were not some part of an after-plan that Naraku had set up in advance to his death.
Unfortunately, this was not the case as there were no youkai seen flying away to the freedom of the skies. Kagome and Inuyasha, who had just been heading home to do laundry, looked at each other both with frowns and then over at Miroku and Sango. Each couple nodded as Miroku and Sango ran back to Kaede's hut to drop of their children and then back to their hut to change into battle gear, gather weapons and then meet Inuyasha and Kagome at the sight of the demolition.
Kagome shrugged her bow onto her shoulder and Inuyasha lowered himself so she could climb onto his back. Quickly, she climbed onto her husband's back and allowed him to hook his palms under her thighs as he sprinted off in the direction of the decimated mountain. The harsh winds whipped around the two, pushing their hair back as they traveled at breakneck speed. The both of them thinking nearly at the same rate as they traveled, hoping and trying to assure themselves that this incident was nothing to worry about. As the carnegie came into sight, so did the familiar steep steps of a shrine that looked as though it had long been forgotten if the moss and foliage growing on the stone stairs were anything to go by. Before the duo could reach the sight, Kagome felt Inuyasha stiffen under her and before she could ask what was the matter, the sound of trees crashing around them stopped her and the sight of a large creature with what looked like a tortoise shell made her suck in a sharp breath. Inuyasha hadn't even managed to skid to a stop when the creature smirked, barreling toward them and slammed into Inuyasha, the sicking sound of his ribs cracking accompanying his yell of pain and the youkai's malevolent laugh of victory. Kagome was thrown from Inuyasha's back and landed roughly against the grass, sliding against, surely leaving grass stains on her white haori and no doubt breaking arrows, if not her bow as well.
Through she was bruised, she was not broken. Kagome slowly sat up, groaning as she rose. Blinking quickly a few times to be rid of her fuzzy vision and the black dots floating around, Kagome looked over her shoulder quickly taking stock of her arrows, which were broken and which she could use. Fortunately, only a few had been broken in her fall and her bow was still of use. She discarded the broken ones on the forest floor so she wouldn't accidentally try and use a broken one. Her eyes shot up to see Inuyasha cry out in pain as he was thrown back against a tree. Remembering the sound of his ribs breaking upon impact earlier, the young women quickly got to her feet before the youkai could approach her husband any further who hadn't managed to get back up yet.
"Stay away from him!" She called to the youkai, efficiently stealing his attention away from the downed hanyou. The youkai grunted as he took her in. She swiftly drew an arrow, knocking it in her bow, aiming and firing. It was engulfed in a blinding pink light and she was sure that it would hit him in the back, in the center of his shell. The youkai only watched as the arrow grew closer, a sinister smirk in place and Kagome suddenly realized why as she watched in horror as her arrow harmlessly bounced off the shell. She had been betting that her purification powers would allow the arrow to breach the shell, striking the flesh of his back beneath the it, but unfortunately this was not the case. Obviously, she had to hit him where his flesh was exposed instead.
"Ya wanna try again, girlie? Yer wastin yer time tryin ta kill me with those puny arrows of yers." He mocked, his tongue coming out to lick his lips and Kagome almost shuttered with the way he was now looking at her.
"Maybe after I kill this half bred fool," The youkai spat with such discontent that it was almost like Inuyasha had personally wronged him in some way by merely existing. "I can take you and put ya ta good use." The youkai snickered and Kagome suddenly felt sick to her stomach.
"You're not gonna lay one slimy fucking finger on her!" Inuyasha shouted from where he lay, a growl reverberating in his chest. Gripping Tessaiga so tight Kagome could see his knuckles turn white, Inuyasha clenched his teeth as he thrust his sword upright so it went through the youkai's throat. Blood splattered over Inuyasha's face and hair and the youkai was as white as a sheet when he brought his hands over the front of his wound, trying to stop the blood and obviously failing. He looked impossibly furious while Inuyasha looked incredibly victorious. In a final attempt to take down his enemies, the youkai let out a horrendous battle cry and made a move to swipe at Inuyasha with his claws. Speedily, Kagome whipped out an arrow and let it fly as it became encased in a purifying light, aiming directly for the hand that reached towards her husband. It was too late when Kagome noticed the slight bend in the arrow, undoubtedly from when she was thrown. Instead of hitting her mark, the bend in the arrow made it so that the projectile hit lower than her target. Inuyasha.
A terrified and panicked look crossed Kagome's face as the arrow embedded itself just below Inuyasha's throat. Her breath hitched, a large lump formed in her throat, and a burning sensation could be felt behind her eyes. Inuyasha made a sound she could only describe as a scream of complete and utter agony. She could see the blood begin to trickle down from his wound and the frantic rise and fall of his chest as he tried to get more air. He fell to the ground from where he had been balanced on his side and her heart stopped for a moment. He looked like he was going to suffocate.
Unable to hold out for any longer, the youkai's hand fell away from his own bleeding throat and collapsed next to the injured hanyou, dead.
The sudden movement seemed to break the spell Kagome had been in and she blinked back some tears as she sprinted forward, dropping her bow and shrugging off her quiver, crying out the hanyou's name as she ran. Horrified, Kagome dropped to her knees beside him, watching the blood bleed into the fabric of his Firerat robe, turning it a deep and sorrowful crimson. Blood began to drip from his mouth and he made a sort of choking noise as drops of blood sputtered from his mouth. Quickly, Kagome wiped it away and elevated his head, letting it sit in her lap. She swallowed thickly before she began to take off her hoari, not caring about her near nudity.
"Oh my Gods. Inuyasha, I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry! I-I have to take the arrow out, okay?" She sniffled and as gently as she could, gripped the end of the arrow. She saw him wince and decided to make it quick, and yanked, hard. It came free and Inuyasha made a kind of gurgling noise. Kagome's hand covered her mouth at the sound and she choked back a sob. Taking her haori, she ripped it into long strips and began wrapping them around the wound, doing what she could to stop the bleeding, but it was no use. The blood was fast to go through the fabric, not to mention the internal wound causing blood to flood his windpipe. Knowing there was nothing more she could do, Kagome let herself weep while running her fingers through his hair.
"I-I'm so sorry, Inuyasha! I d-didn't mean to! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She sobbed, covering her face with one of her hands as the other fisted in his hair. Feeling his claws run over her arm, she pulled her hand away from her eyes and managed to stop sobbing to look at him. She nearly started sobbing again as she looked into his eyes, soft and melted holding nothing but love and forgiveness. He brought her hand to his lips and placed an affectionate kiss on her knuckles. She choked on a laugh, smiling.
"I love you." She breathed and watched as his eyes obtained a sort of milky film and looked far away, at the same time, his body went slack. The smile fell off her face as she looked at her hands, covered in his blood and sobbed.
Kagome sat up, pulling herself out of Inuyasha's arms and hit the top of her head on Inuyasha's chin, immediately waking him up. She squirmed panickedly under the blankets, screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs and didn't stop. Tears raced down her face, sobbing. She raced over to the basin of water in the corner of her hut, frantically scrubbing her hands making them red and raw.
"Jesus fucking Christ, Kagome! What the hell!?" His anger from being awoken faded as soon as he saw his wife sitting in front of the water basin, scrubbing her hands. He tipped his head in confusion and approached her slowly, staring.
"Shit! Kagome, what's wrong! Stop it! Stop it!" He yelled, starting to panic when he saw her blood taint the pure water. Her nails had begun to dig into her palms, scratching and clawing at something he could see. Trying to stop her from doing anymore damage to herself, Inuyasha grabbed her wrists, pulling her hands apart to let them just sit in the water.
"It won't come off! It won't come off!" She yelled, tears sliding down her cheeks. She struggled in his grip, unable to get free.
"What the hell are you talking about, Kagome?! There's nothing there! There's nothing on your hands!" He held one up for her to see but she shook her head and looked down, her bangs covering her eyes.
"Your blood! It won't come off! I killed you and it won't come off! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Her face screwed up as she began to sob again.
Sighing, Inuyasha relaxed his posture and loosened his grip on her wrists slightly, though not enough for her to get free as he wasn't sure if she'd start hurting herself again. It must have been another nightmare caused by her 'PTSD'. She explained to him a little while after she came back that she had developed it over the time she had been away most likely because she'd been so worried something would happen to him while she was gone and because of all the things she'd seen during the year she'd spent over in the feudal era trying to defeat Naraku. It caused her a lot of trouble, keeping her up at night, making her feel uneasy, stopping her from eating some of the time. Everyone did their best to help her with it and she had forgotten she had a bottle of some pills with her when she jumped into the well so that helped but there really wasn't too much that they could do other than just let her heal on her own and make sure someone was always around when she had a bad dream or flashback so they could calm her down. Most of the time it was Inuyasha.
"Kagome, love," He cooed softly to her, using the new term of endearment he had picked up not too long ago. "I'm right here. You didn't hurt me. Your hands are clean." Using his thumbs, he stroked the back of her hands. Slowly, he tried to bring her back to the futon but she refused to move, desperately shaking her head.
"Hey," He tried to look in the eye but she was having none of if, looking in the opposite direction, however, he remained patient. He couldn't get angry with her when she was like this, it would only frighten her more. "Kagome," He took her chin between his thumb and index finger, letting one of her wrists go. "Hey. Listen, huh? Look at me. Do you see any wounds? Do you see blood anywhere?" He held her gaze for a moment and then she blinked slowly, looking over his body, checking for wounds just as he had asked her to.
"N-No. There aren't any wounds." She replied taking a shaky breath and he smiled, snaking his fingers from around her wrist to tangle his fingers with hers, pulling her back to the futon. Helping her lay back down, he secured her sleeping yukata around her and pulled the blanket it up to her chin.
"You alright now?" He asked quietly as he pulled her back against his chest, nuzzling his cheek against her hair.
"Yeah. I'm alright." She murmured, closing her eyes and holding her husband close to her, taking a deep breath and letting it out steadily. It felt nice to have her cheek pressed up against the warm skin of his chest.
"Wanna talk about it tomorrow?" He let a soft growl rumble in his chest, knowing how much she liked it and how much it calmed her, helped her fall asleep.
"Mmhm."
"Sleep, wench." He replied, kissing her forehead as she drifted off, hopefully this time getting a better night's sleep.
"I love you."
"I love ya, too." She smiled, happy to get a reply this time and from the real him.