"Inu... Yasha...?" Kagome asked softly. It was nighttime, on the night of the full moon. She had followed after him, to the edge of a nearby riverbank. Sango, Mirouku, Shippou, and Kirara were back at camp. They had been out for several weeks, looking for the Shikon Jewel fragments, and Kagome had noticed that since his human night several weeks ago, InuYasha had been acting strange. He stood looking down at his own reflection, not even reacting to her voice.
'This isn't right.' Kagome thought as she got a sinking feeling in her stomach. 'Something's wrong with him.' She tentatively took a step toward him, and stepped on a small dry twig and it snapped loudly under her weight. InuYasha swiftly turned around, surprised, and his eyes went wide when he spotted Kagome.
"Are you okay, InuYasha?" She asked, taking another hesitant step forward. He quickly turned back around, crossing his arms across his chest as he turned, and huffed.
"Of course I am. I wasn't paying attention, that's all." There was something wrong, Kagome could feel it, but of course InuYasha was too stubborn to admit it. Kagome, thoroughly unconvinced, approached him until she was standing just out of his sight in the reflection off the river.
"InuYasha, we've been together for a year now. I know you better than that. Please, let me help you!" She placed a hand on his shoulder, expecting him to just shrug it off, but he didn't. After a minute, he even put his own hand on hers.
"I'm..." He began, but stopped. Kagome watched his face, and she saw his eyebrows furrow as he thought. "I can..." He growled a bit, frustrated. "Something's wrong. Ever since my human night I've felt... different. Restless, even more than usual. Like something's coming." He looked to his shoulder, where his hand held hers, and squeezed it just a bit. "I've never felt this before."
Kagome stood in silence. She had never heard InuYasha talk like this to her before.
"...Mirouku has been feeling strange aura in this area... I think I've felt it too. It's almost like when I feel a Jewel Shard near, but... different."
"I've never been able to pick up on things like you two. I'm a demon, remember?" Kagome fell silent. They stood together like that for a few minutes, neither willing to break the silence.
"...InuYasha..." Kagome started. "...Is that still your dream? To become a full demon?" She asked cautiously. "...Because... Because I... don't want you to change." She said the last very quietly, almost to herself more than to him. "I don't want to see you like that..." She mumbled, thinking about the times when he had lost control of himself and his demon blood overtook his consciousness.
He took minutes to answer her, and she was terrified of his answer.
"I... don't know anymore." He finally muttered. "I have to defeat Naraku, to avenge all those who have suffered because of him, and to gain my own revenge for what he did to me fifty years ago, but I really don't know after that." He turned away from her and went to staring at the moon.
'Of course he'd say that...' She thought sullenly. '...Wait... He said revenge for himself...'
"What about Kikyou?" Kagome asked, and InuYasha picked up on the pain in her voice.
"What about her?" InuYasha turned to look Kagome in the eyes. "She's been dead for fifty years, Kagome. The Kikyou that is here now is nothing but a thief, prolonging her existence by stealing the souls of dead women... In my eyes, she no better than the demons we fight..." He said the last very softly while looking away. "I gave her a promise, but... I never should have made it... and I won't be able to keep it."
'...Is he really saying what I think he is...?' Kagome asked herself, and was surprised to feel InuYasha's arms wrap around her suddenly, pulling her close.
"...It's more important to me to be here to protect you." Kagome's eyes went wide. "I don't want to lose you... because... I..." At that moment, Kagome felt something grab her by her collar and yank her backwards, out of InuYasha's arms. She felt herself lift off the ground, and away from the bank.
"INUYASHAAA!"
"INUYASHAAA!" Kagome yelled out in her sleep, startling awake Sango and Shippou. Mirouku, who had been dozing by the fire, jumped up and looked around, afraid something had snuck up on them, and InuYasha was immediately standing over her, hand on Tetsusaiga's hilt. Seeing nothing wrong, everyone turned their attention to the girl who awoke them. She was tossing fitfully in her sleeping bag, and as InuYasha bent down to her, he heard her mumbling something else.
"Kagome, wake up!" He called to her as he shook her shoulders. "You're having a bad dream, wake up!" Kagome's eyes snapped open and she looked scared to death of everything around. She searched everyone's worried faces before launching herself forward into InuYasha's arms.
"Are you okay?" Everyone asked her as InuYasha gently rubbed her back, awkwardly, to calm her down. After several minutes her breathing evened out and she pulled away, a slight blush on her cheeks.
"I'm okay now. Sorry to scare you all. It was just a bad dream." Slowly, everyone backed off and Mirouku, Sango, and Shippou all went back to sleep. InuYasha watched as Kagome lay back down with everyone else, and he stayed on the ground, lying against the base of the tree he had been in. He watched Kagome toss and turn for an hour before she finally gave up going back to sleep. She sat up and moved closer to the fire, to keep warm.
"What were you dreaming about that was so bad?" InuYasha asked quietly, bringing Kagome out of her staring contest with the fire. He couldn't help but notice the blush creep onto her face.
"I was kidnapped. I couldn't get away, so I did the first thing that I thought of." It was InuYasha's turn to blush a bit.
"And that was to yell at me?" He asked, crossing his arms and turning his head to hide his blush.
"No!" Kagome barely managed to keep her voice under control. "I was yelling so you could find me."
"...Oh..." InuYasha mumbled. Both fell silent for a while, listening to the sounds of the forest around them and the fire in front of them. Finally, InuYasha got up the courage to talk. "...Listen, Kagome. Why don't you try to sleep again? I'll stay up to watch over you..." He muttered quietly at the end. Kagome smiled a bit as he avoided her eyes. She flattened back out her sleeping bag and turned over.
"Thank you, InuYasha..." She said as she drifted off into an easy sleep, a smile on her face.
END!
Hello everyone! Well, my husband and I just got back into InuYasha, and I decided to write something again. This was originally going to be the start of a new story, but I turned it into this little fluffy one-shot instead. Hope you all enjoy!
I might write some more in the future, so keep a look out!
Shadow Kat-Lyn
