The muse for this ficlet just will not leave me alone.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha and characters.
Kagome peered nervously through her bangs as he walked into the small clearing, a fine layer of dust from their earlier fight with an earth demon still clinging to his fire rat robe. Curling her hands behind her back, she willed herself to keep her distance. No more. She could take this no more.
She had been a fool to believe that he could forget Kikyo, would realize that the resurrected body was merely a shell of the person he once knew. Blinded by her love for him, she had pretended not to notice the way his gaze sometimes slid through her, as if seeing another in her place. As long as he held her, as long as he was by her side, they could handle anything, or so she had thought, until he had cried out another's name in passion.
Anger bubbled within her, deep and dark. She wallowed in that anger, a welcoming contrast to the misery and emptiness that she had struggled to hide for the past week, which he had neither noticed nor cared.
Dragging her gaze down his form, she noted the impatience etched across every line of his body and frowned. Kikyo had been spotted in the area. So, of course, he was anxious to see her again. Perhaps Kagome should feel honored that he had condescended to attend this meeting at all prior to rushing off. Irritation fanned the flames of her anger
"Do you love me?"
Her lips kicked up in a humorless smile at the look of pure surprise on his face. She wanted answers. This time, she wanted the truth and not the pretty words that he had been able to distract her with before.
"No."
His response was barely audible but it resonated in the air as if he had shouted at the top of his lungs. Shame tinged his amber eyes as he turned away, unable to meet her gaze any longer.
Kagome felt as if she had been punched in the gut. Her vision swam and she couldn't breathe. All the mental preparations she had made were a pale comparison for the reality of his answer. That he had respected her enough to give her the truth was a small comfort for the agony ripping through her heart.
"But there is something between us." He stepped forward and reached out to pull her into his arms. "I can feel it. In time, maybe it can turn into love."
"I am NOT a consolation prize!" Kagome screamed as she slapped his hand away. Stepping back, she looked at Inu Yasha as if seeing him anew. Did he even know her? To suggest such a thing…had he ever seen her as Kagome or had it always been Kikyo looking back through her eyes.
"Sit, boy!"
As Inu Yasha crashed face first into the ground, she ran from the clearing. Half blinded by tears, she ran as fast as she could towards the Bone Eater's Well. The only thought in her head was to get as far away from here as she could. Away from Inu Yasha, away from this time, and away from the shattering of her heart that was threatening to swallow her whole.
One day, she may come back, for Miroku, for Sango.
But not today.
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