"Kagome don't fall asleep on me!" Inuyasha said, shaking her slightly as he walked into the cave.
Kagome jerked awake, wondering how long she had fallen asleep. Inuyasha sat her down near the back of the dark cave on something soft. 'Fur?' she wondered, her head feeling fuzzy. The cave brightened quickly as Inuyasha started a fire, taking off his soaked haori. Kagome leaned back against the furs, sighing at their softness. "Kagome I said stay awake," Inuyasha said as he approached her. Inuyasha could smell the venom in her blood; it seemed like her miko side was attempting to purify her blood, but was failing.
"Inuyasha my head feels fuzzy," she said softly, forcing herself to sit up, leaning against the wall. "I just want to sleep."
"If you sleep now Kagome, you will never wake back up," Inuyasha said, taking off her shoe and sock. It was a clean puncture wound but there was no telling how much venom got into her bloodstream. "You can't go to sleep until I say so okay? I need to suck the venom out first; it's gonna hurt a bit."
"Okay I'm ready," she said softly as she shivered in her wet clothes. Inuyasha glanced up as she shivered, wanting to make her change out of her wet clothes but the venom needed to be taken out of her. 'One problem at a time,' he thought. Inuyasha put his lips to the bite mark and began to suck out the venom and her blood, trying to be as gentle as possible as he heard her whimper softly.
'It hurts so much,' Kagome thought as Inuyasha began to suck out the venom and spit it out next to him. She bit down hard on her lip, trying to hold in her cries as much as possible. Inuyasha wasn't trying to hurt her; as a matter of fact he was trying to save her life. She didn't know how strong the snake venom was, the mere fact that it was a snake youkai that bit her had her fearing for her life. Still she couldn't keep herself from whimpering at the pain. She was startled by Inuyasha's hand landing on her knee, rubbing her skin slowly as he tried to soothe her as much as possible. Kagome smiled a little as she tried to focus on Inuyasha's rough hands on her soft skin instead of the pain in her leg that seemed to race through her body.
After ten minutes, Inuyasha raised his head up from Kagome's ankle, looking at her flushed face with her eyes squeezed shut to hands fisted in the furs on the floor. "Kagome?" he said softly, reaching forward to touch her cheek but pulling his hand away at the last moment. "How do you feel?"
"It d-doesn't hurt a-as much anymore," Kagome said as her teeth began to chatter. "I'm just really cold now."
"You need to change out of your clothes; you can wear this," he said, handing her his haori that had dried by the fire and turning away from her quickly.
Kagome fumbled with her wet clothes, quickly stripping down and wrapping Inuyasha's haori around herself, sighing with contentment, as she smelled him on the cloth. Kagome loved when she got to wear his haori though she would never tell him this. "Okay I'm dressed," she said, tapping him on the shoulder. "Thanks for lending me this."
"Keh, I couldn't let you catch a cold ontop of getting bitten by a youkai," he said quickly, a faint blush coloring his cheeks. Kagome smiled softly and sat in front of the fire, attempting to warm her fingers.
"Inuyasha," she said softly as he sat beside her, "am I going to be okay? Is the venom going to kill me?"
"You're going to be fine," Inuyasha said, putting his arm around her as she shivered. "But you're going to be in some pain soon."
"Pain?" Kagome said, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat.
"I-I'm sorry Kagome. I couldn't get all the venom out. I got a lot of it out but the time it took us to get to the cave some of it got into your blood," he said, his voice full of worry.
"What's gonna happen to me?" Kagome asked as she leaned into Inuyasha's side, inhaling his scent.
Inuyasha pulled Kagome onto his lap, tucking her head under his chin. "Your stomach is gonna start hurting you, like something is tearing you apart inside. It won't hurt as much as normally but I still don't know how bad it's gonna hurt especially since you're human." Inuyasha held her tighter, as if he could protect her from the pain. "Then you're going to get a bad fever; you might start hallucinating or having weird dreams, depending on how bad your fever is. You'll be okay once the fever breaks but it might take a while."
"How do you know all of this?" Kagome asked, looking up at him.
"I got bitten by a snake youkai when I was a little kid. I was playing in my mom's garden and it bit me. At the time I didn't know what it was so I ran back to my mom, which only made it worse. I was sick for almost a week," he said as he stared into the fire. Kagome wrapped her arms around Inuyasha's body, picturing a small silver-haired boy writhing in pain. "You won't be sick that long though. Maybe a day or two."
"That's good," Kagome said, leaning into his chest as she rubbed her stomach slowly.
"I'll take care of you Kagome; I promise," Inuyasha said as he looked down into her eyes.
Kagome smiled as she looked into his deep amber eyes. "I know you won't Inu-ah!" Kagome yelled, doubling over in pain. "Inu-Inuyasha," she called out, as her vision began to blur. Inuyasha picked her up quickly and laid her on the bed of furs, brushing the hair from her eyes.
"It's gonna be okay Kagome, I'm right here," he said, taking her hand in both of his. "I won't leave your side, I'm right here."
"Inuyasha, it hurts so much," she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut. She tossed and turned on the furs, trying to find some way to escape the pain. "Make it go away please," she begged, her voice cracking.
Inuyasha closed his eyes at the agony in Kagome's voice, his heart breaking for her. 'I should have done a better job protecting her; I should have gotten the venom out faster.' "It's going to pass Kagome," Inuyasha said, putting his hand gently on her stomach. Kagome lay still for a moment, causing Inuyasha to pull his hand away quickly, thinking he injured her. Kagome cried out again, curling into herself as another wave of pain swept through her stomach.
"Kagome, try to stretch out for me," Inuyasha said softly, pulling her legs away from her chest. Her hands laid next to her body, clutching the furs tightly. Inuyasha gently stroked her stomach, which seemed to ease her pain. "Does it still hurt Kagome?"
"Y-yes but not as much," Kagome replied, gasping to catch her breath as the pain eased off a bit. "Please don't stop," she whimpered, closing her eyes slowly.
"Don't worry about that Kagome," Inuyasha said, sitting next to her. "Just try to relax. " Inuyasha sat by Kagome's side for hours, rubbing her stomach slowly and humming songs his mother sang to him when he was ill. He jumped everytime Kagome whimpered from the pain. His rubbing had eased her pain a bit, but her stomach was still fighting a war.
Finally as the sun began to brighten the sky, Kagome's breathing deepened as she finally fell asleep, the stomach pain leaving her at last.