Chapter 1- Silence
Kagome silently watched Inuyasha as they walked back to Kaede's hut, taking in his expression as they walked into the forest, away from the well that connected their worlds. She had just gotten back and even in her time had realized that Inuyasha wasn't really focused on anything except one person. Kagome had taught herself how to tell when he was thinking about Her. She was silent only because she knew that Kikyo was the only thing on his mind at the moment. No one else. Not her. She sank deeper into her pit of silence, close to tears before she mentally shook herself. Get it together girl of course he's thinking about her….. He's always thinking about her. She stopped dead on the path at this point, Inuyasha noticed and slowly turned to face her, the look that meant he was thinking of Kikyo gone, concern for her slowly taking its place. "Kagome?" he broke the endless silence, a question in his voice. She said nothing but took a deep breath as her head began to clear, the painful haze making its way out the back door "I-I'm fine" She whispered, knowing that after her near meltdown she probably didn't look "fine" at all.
Inuyasha had just arrived back with Kagome in tow and now they walked toward old Kaede's hut. As they walked he let his thoughts stray to Kikyo and how Kagome had saved her life, even told her that she could go to see him and she'd left anyway. He began to think of all of the things that had happened since Kikyo's resurrection, knowing that Kagome was watching him closely. He could tell something was wrong with her by the way she smelled, before she suddenly stopped walking down the path. He felt her heart rate spike and turned in confusion, stopping when he caught her expression. His first irrational thought was She's gonna start crying any minute now and was quickly chased with What happened to her, what happened to make her look like this. "Kagome?" that was the first word out of his mouth. "I-I'm fine" he could barely hear her voice and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was nowhere near fine she had run past "fine" on her way to "freaked" and now she was in "meltdown" territory "Kagome" He took a deep breath to steady himself, ready to kill whoever had hurt her this badly…What had happened in her world while they had been separated? "You are not fine now tell me what's going on!" He began pacing to work off the steam so that he didn't go off on her while she was in such a state. He saw her head turn slowly away from the rock that she'd been so interested in and her eyes begin to focus on him. He saw the confusion cloud her eyes then wondered if he'd imagined it, because it was gone as fast as it appeared. He saw the tears hanging from the tips of her long lashes dry and her face regained its usual composure. "Inuyasha I'm fine…really" She smiled but he could tell that she was hiding her true feelings on the subject. "Kagome you are not I know you too well to believe that." Her mask cracked for an instant and he saw how much pain she was really in before it snapped back into place "Inuyasha I'm ok really" She turned around and began walking again as he began to wonder what it was that she was trying to hide. "Kagome….What is going on?" She stopped, spun around so quickly that she blurred "Look I said to drop it ok!" He shuddered at the anger and pain in her voice and, against his better judgment, ran towards her as she fled and easily stepped in front of her. "Kagome why won't you tell me what's wrong with you!"
"Kagome" she heard him suck in an angry breath and felt tears wet her dark lashes as she assumed that the anger in his voice was directed towards her. "You are not fine now tell me what's going on!" She slowly looked to him in confusion before she realized that the anger she had heard in his voice was not toward her but toward the instigator of her pain. It was then that she knew that telling him why she was hurting was not an option. She forced her tears to dry and set her face into a mask and smiled "Inuyasha I'm fine…really" No I'm not but you cant find that out. Inuyasha…please believe me. Her prayers went unanswered "Kagome you are not I know you too well to believe that!" at this she snapped Inuyasha you can't know me nearly as well as you think you do if you honestly can't guess what's going on. She stopped spun around and yelled "Look I said to drop it ok!" Angry with herself for accidentally giving away some of her true anger and pain. She ran away hoping against hope that he wouldn't follow her. He did. He stepped in front of her and began to shout "Kagome why won't you tell me what's wrong with you?" At this she looked up, she had expected him to be angry, as he usually was, but when she looked up at his face she saw only concern. By now the tears were threatening to spill over any second now but as she tried to step around him he stepped too and took hold of her arms. As she tried to pull away his grip tightened on her arms to the point where it hurt "Ah! Inuyasha you're hurting me!" she whispered, not speaking up for fear that the tears would flood her vision again. As he apparently realized just how strong his grip was he let go "I'm not letting you leave until you tell me what's goin on Kagome." he said this in the firm tone that she knew meant that he wasn't backing down an inch this time. "I-Inuyasha…" he apparently thought that she was going to tell him what he wanted to know and relaxed a bit. "Sit boy" she whispered it and as he crashed to the ground she made her escape, running straight toward Kaede's hut whispering "Sit" every time he almost caught up to her. When she made it to Kaede's she saw Sango and Miroku outside of the hut. Sango was glaring at Miroku and he looked content despite the fresh slap mark on his face. "you pervert!" Sango was yelling, Kirara looked up from the exchange to see Kagome running towards them and meowed to her Mistress. Sango broke off in the middle of a particularly heated string of insults directed at Miroku to see Kagome as well "Kagome-" She began brightly before catching her expression Miroku had now looked up as well and Kagome knew her face was dirty, tear streaked, and her hair windblown. "Oh, Kagome" was Sango's sympathetic reply, at this Kagome let the tears flow freely, throwing herself down next to Sango, sobbing, by now Inuyasha had come onto the scene, first looking angry then worried as he looked down at Kagome, and saw how upset she was, then fearful of her tears. Sango glared up at him "What in God's name did you do to her!" He began alternating between glaring back at Sango and watching Kagome "Nothing! We were walking and she stopped and got like this! I don't know why because she wouldn't tell me!" As he said this understanding flashed through Sango's eyes and she looked at Kagome and hugged the girl, letting her tears soak her armor "Oh, Kagome" she repeated sadly, at this Kagome sat up and dried her tears, then whispered in her ear "Don't tell Inuyasha, it would hurt him too much if he knew that he was the cause" Sango's eyes widened and she nodded slowly. Miroku had been watching silently throughout this but now spoke up "Would anyone care to explain what is going on?" Sango and Kagome looked at each other and shook their heads in unison. Kagome stood, her tears completely dried by now, and nodded at Sango, she stood as well and they walked away towards a nearby field as Sango trying to comfort the heartbroken girl all the way there.