Disclaimer: I dont own these characters.
A/N: This is slightly (okay, MAINLY) angsty. Reader discretion is advised.
"I hate you, Inuyasha! Get out of my sight!"
Inuyasha stared at her in shocked silence, eyes wide, mouth slightly agape. "Uh, but…but…"
"Just go run off to your dear Kikyou. I'm sure she's waiting to take you back to hell with her!"
She had never been so mad as to say she hated someone before, and her words were meant to hurt him, he knew. But the sad thing is…it worked.
The words cut deep. It was a physical pain that tore through Inuyasha. His chest hurt and he could barely breathe. He felt like he would pass out at any moment. His mind was blank, only her voice echoing through it. Inuyasha…I hate you…dear Kikyou…I HATE YOU…
He raised a hand to his chest and pressed it hard over his rapidly pulsing heart. It seemed the pain was centered there. His head was spinning, and he felt like he was going to throw up. He needed to sit down, yet found he was incapable of doing so.
He heard her run off, smelled the tears that spilled from her eyes. As soon as she was goine, he doubled over, coughing madly. He felt a hot liquid build up in the back of his mouth. He spid it out, thinking it was his dinner, but when he looked, he surprised to see a red liquid in front of him. He blinked and rubbed his eyes hard, thinking his eyes were deceiving him, but it was the same when he looked again: blood. He wiped off the excess still dripping down his chin with a sleeve, his mind not quite processing the situation. All he could think about was her…how he hurt her…how much he loved her-Whoa! Where did that come from!
Maybe he wouldn't admit it, but he couldn't stop thinking that. He stood straight and breathed deep. She should be at camp by now, he thought. …guess I should head back…
He composed himself, made his heart calm to a normal pace, and tried to think, instead of Kagome, of a wonderful memory with his mother, and took off toward camp
…………
When he got back, everyone was just settling down for the night. Kagome refused to look at him, and all Sango and Miroku did were look quizzically at him. He felt the pressure in his chest again and tried not to cough, but ended up losing that battle. He tried to cover his mouth, but could not stop the blood dripping through his loose fingers.
Miroku was the first to ask. "Inuyasha, did you get hurt? Poisoned? How come your bleeding?" He gave him a quick once over. "I don't see any wounds. Is it internal?"
Inuyasha straightened up, wiped off the blood that clung to his lips, and simply said, "I'll be the night guard." His voice was oddly thick and didn't have that rough edge to it. All Miroku could do was stand and stare as Inuyasha limped to a tree and sat down beneath it.
This was the first time that Miroku had ever seen Inuyasha sit beneath a tree instead of in it. He was getting very worried about him. What happened to him? he wondered. Is he poisoned? Or…was it Kagome?
Miroku looked toward Kagome. She had already curled up in her sleeping bag. But, unlike her, she laid completely opposite Inuyasha. What is wrong between them?
After everyone else was asleep, he walked over to Inuyasha and sat down. Minutes passed by in silence.
"…Well?" asked Miroku.
"'Well' what?"
Miroku looked at him. Inuyasha simply stared into the fire. "Tell me what happened."
Inuyasha turned and looked into Miroku's eyes. The sadness that rested in those golden orbs was enough to make Miroku gasp.
"Kagome…wishes me dead."
He turned back to the fire. (sigh) "She said that she hates me. She said…she inferred she never wants to see me again. I've really messed up this time 'Roku. I don't know how I can fix this one." As he talked, his voice grew more and more sad until Miroku caught the glint of a tear rolling down Inuyasha's cheek.
Inuyasha looked at Miroku, tears streaming openly down his face. "She'll leave…I know she will…And this time…I can't bring her back…" Inuyasha looked frightened. He was visibly shaking and he was staring at Miroku with such fierce fear that Miroku began to be scared right along with him.
…………
The next day came with rain and storms. Inuyasha could smell it in the air. And at the beginning, Kagome came to him saying that she wanted to return home…just as he had said to Miroku the night before. He agreed and insisted to come with her. The feeling that something bad would happen was too great for him to ignore.
When the storms hit, it was so dark with clouds that any person who had just woken up would think it night. Lightning was their only light and still they trudged on, Inuyasha in just his under-kimono, having lent his Fire Rat coat to Kagome for warmth. Not that it would provide much, being soaked as it was.
Inuyasha looked behind him, where Kagome was. Or should be, as was the case. She was gone. "Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted into the rain. His only response was the thunder.
All of a sudden, hundreds of demons came through the gloom, towards him. He quickly made to attack, thinking only of getting to Kagome. With one sweep, they were gone. But the danger was not.
A shrill scream tore through his ears. His eyes grew wide as he smelled blood…her blood. "KAGOME!"
He dashed to where he had smelled it. A brief second he had caught it, before it was washed out by the rain and he was praying to himself that she hadn't moved…or been moved.
He lucked out…but Kagome hadn't. When he reached her, she was a bloody heap curled up underneath a tree. He dropped to his knees, his sword left behind. "Oh, Kagome…what happened to you?"
A malevolent chuckle sounded behind him. "Inuyasha…poor, poor Inuyasha. Lost the only friend who actually didn't hate you or fear you. Now what to do? Are you lost? Scared? Mortified?"
Inuyasha stood as he heard the voice. So familiar, yet said in a tone that he never thought possible of them. He turned toward it. "How could you?"
"It was easy. Want me to describe it to you? Well, first I simply…"
"NO! How could you think to live afterwards? How could you kill her and then possibly HOPE to see daylight!"
"But, I was just doing what you always wanted. I was eliminating the only thing keeping us apart."
"No. You eliminated the only thing that could have saved your life right now."
"I thought you loved me…"
"Oh, you delusional Kikyou. I love Kagome," he said, not surprised to find that it was true. "And if you seek to harm her, you will have to go through me first."
Kikyou's gaze darkened. "Fine then. If I can't have you, no one will."
She uplifted her bow, an arrow already notched.
Inuyasha was moving toward the forgotten sword, in a defensive position.
"You'll never reach it. I have you pinned."
She shot off an arrow, infusing her relentless energy into it. He managed to dodge it, barely. It nicked him in the shoulder and landed in the tree Kagome was underneath.
He thought quickly, defending the lifeless mound behind him. "Blades of BLOOD!" The attack surged toward her, ineffective because of her quick movements.
A moan sounded behind him. Kagome! he immediately thought and turned without thinking.
She was sitting upright, her head touching the arrow in the tree. Her hand was clutching her side, her eyes affixed upon Inuyasha, Kikyou hidden by his body. "Inu…yasha?"
He smiled at her, then suddenly jolted forward, his face contorted in pain. "Inuyasha!" she screamed.
He fell to his knees, Kagome rushing as quickly as she could in her current state to his side. "Inuyasha…" It seemed that was the only word she could say. He looked at her, tears in his eyes, and said, "You're…alive…"
She smiled through her tears. "You are, too. You're right here, with me, alive."
He took her face in his hands and brought her forehead to rest against his. "I have loved you, Kagome." He pressed a soft kiss to her left cheek. "With every beat of my heart." He kissed her right cheek. "And I will continue to love you after death."
Kagome was crying openly now. "You won't die. You can't! You can't leave me…don't leave me alone…"
Inuyasha smiled. "I told the others to watch after when I…couldn't anymore," he whispered, pain evident in his voice. "But, I won't die alone…"
Kagome silenced him with a kiss, her mouth pressed gently against his. After a moment, she left his mouth, only to kiss every inch of open skin on his face. "You…will…not…die," she said in-between kisses. She claimed his mouth once more, and this time, he responded. He pressed against the back of her neck to press her lips ever more securely to his. He ran his tongue along her closed lips and she immediately complied to the silent question.
I hope that this is what heaven would feel like…I wish her to feel this after she leaves…I may never feel it again… She tasted of strawberries, sugar, and something different…something…uniquely Kagome.
He had no idea where or what Kikyou was doing, nor did he care. Right now, Kagome was his world, his life, his breath, his entire being. As their tongues danced, he could feel his life draining. Finally, he had to end the kiss. He backed off to nibbles, then quick kisses, then one last one to end it.
"Kagome," he panted, "I will not die alone. Kikyou shall pay for stripping you, leaving you alone. She dies too."
He got up and picked up his sword that had somehow gotten closer than he remembered. Kagome was powerless to stop him.
"Kikyou!" he roared, when he spotted her where he'd left her. "DIE!"
Her eyes widened and she turned to run, but it was too late; the wind scar was cast and her fate was sealed. The tearing wind ripped her pody apart until there was no trace of her left.
Inuyasha leaned on his father's sword. "Kagome," he sighed. Then, on that scene of battle, defending the woman he loved and defeating the foe with his last ounce of life, he died, leaving Kagome to run to him in grief and cry out into the dark sky his name, the name of her half-demon lover, the one whose fate had tied her so tightly, life seemed incomplete without him.
…………
Three days afterward, the funeral of a king among kings was helf. The Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Lands gave him highest honors and buried him alongside his great father. It was the first, and last, tear the great Sesshomaru had ever let roll down his silken cheek, that he cried at his brother's final honors.
Kagome, grief-stricken and alone, went into exile. No one has heard from her since Inuyasha's ashes were lowered into the earth. They say, now, that in Inuyasha's forest, near the God Tree, you can still hear Inuyasha and Kagome's laughter in the wind through the trees, echoing among the stars themselves. Kaede and many other religious persons often find solace meditating about the tree that once bound Lord Inuyasha of the Golden Forest. Every spring, the white blossoms of the tree blankets the ground, and in the fall, the golden leaves, as if a sign that he is in eternal peace.
A/N: Sob, sob, Cry, cry...