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Blindsided

Part I—ii

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noun — blind side

a direction in which a person has a poor view, typically of approaching danger

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Shippo was the first one to respond.

Kagome heard the patter of his little feet down off the roof above her, and he heard him shout her name. His little hands were cool on her now fevered skin, patting his way up her leg as if to tell her of his position as he hopped towards her.

"Kagome? Kagome, it's okay…it's me, Shippo." he said in a rush, crawling into her lap.

Her face was buried in her hands, and her eyes were clenched tightly shut, but Kagome could feel Shippo's warmth and presence so clearly she could practically see him on the back of her eyelids. An all-encompassing sense of dread gripped her tightly. Her body was tense and taught as a bow string.

"Kagome…" Shippo said again, more softly this time. She felt his little hands come to rest on hers. "It's okay—"

"No!" Kagome yelped, hurriedly grabbing the kit and removing him. "Don't touch me Shippo, something is wrong with me—my eyes aren't working, I can't see anything—"

A shout cut off her rambling and Kagome's eyes flew open as her head jerked upwards. A thud on the roof seemed to echo through her skull, and Kagome's empty stare followed the answering groans of the wood throughout the hut as the figure moved.

InuYasha… Kagome's heart leapt in her chest.

"It's just InuYasha," Shippo said consolingly, misreading her rigid posture.

"KAGOME!" InuYasha barrelled into the hut. Kagome barely resisted the urge to throw her hands over her ears. Surely that was louder than normal?

"Not so LOUD, InuYasha!" Shippo snapped, his hands patting Kagome comfortingly. "Kagome just woke up."

"Yeah, I heard you runt." InuYasha huffed. Nudging the kit out of the way, he plopped down beside Kagome's pallet and folded his arms and legs.

Kagome's eyes were still clenched tightly shut from InuYasha's entrance, but she was listening intently. She could hear the shuffling of his hakama as he walked, heard the crack in one knee as he crossed his legs. She could practically picture his concerned expression: a gruff face but his eyes tight with concern.

"How are ya, Kagome?" InuYasha was much quieter now. She heard—and then felt—his rough, warm hands reach out to grasp hers, slowly untangling them from where they were knotted in her blankets.

"InuYasha," Kagome's voice cracked, and her eyes burned with tears. "I can't see anything." she whispered. InuYasha squeezed her hands tightly in response, and she felt his claws scrape lightly across her palms.

"I know," he said slowly. "The old hag predicted this. There was an accident."

Kagome stiffened, pulling her hands away. She heard InuYasha shift uncomfortably, his own hands retreating.

"What are you talking about?" Kagome's eyes focused on where she thought his face was. "What happened?"

"Well actually…" InuYasha's voice wavered. "We don't exactly know."

"What?" Kagome felt the hysteria creeping into her voice. Shippo had crawled back into her lap, and her hand rested on his back out of habit, while the other propped herself up. Suddenly she felt weak.

"We were hoping you could tell us when you woke up, Kagome," Shippo piped up. "Don't you remember what happened?

"I—" her voice caught in her throat.

She could practically feel her friends' concerned stares, the tension was so palpable. The heat from InuYasha's body felt like a furnace to her right, even though he wasn't touching her anywhere. She could tell her knee was closest to him. Shippo was more relaxed, but he shifted minutely in her lap, belying his anxiety.

"I can't remember anything." her voice was hoarse. "I can't remember anything, we were just out hunting for shards."

"That was almost two weeks ago," InuYasha grit out, his ears drooping. Kagome could hear his teeth grind.

"Oh god…" Kagome brought her hand up to her face again, rubbing at her eyes. She opened them again, and felt her stomach drop as blackness was all that met her.

"Kagome-chan!" a voice reached her ears, and Kagome turned her head towards the door. Her hand came to rest back on Shippo's back, who patted her again.

"Miroku and Sango?" Kagome's voice wobbled as she asked.

This time, she heard surprise in InuYasha's voice. "You heard that?"

"Well, yeah," Kagome frowned. "Are they okay? And Kirara?"

"Yeah," InuYasha grunted, folding his hands into his haori. "They went looking around the battle site for clues when Kaede told us you'd be asleep for a while."

"How long have I been sleeping?" Kagome listened as she heard the pattering of two sets of footsteps approaching.

"You were unconscious for almost five days when you got here," Shippo said quietly, his voice sad. "We couldn't see you during that time, Kaede was in here looking after you. Since then you've been asleep for six days."

Before Kagome had a chance to respond, her missing companions burst into the hut, out of breath.

"Kagome-chan!"

"Kagome-sama!"

Their voices were loud but not nearly as harsh as InuYasha's was. Kagome could hear them breathing loudly, and she heard Kirara jump down from one of their shoulders and she felt the fire cat's feet on her blankets and she approached, purring.

"How are you?" Sango asked breathlessly, collapsing ungracefully beside InuYasha. Kagome felt her hand on her knee. "Kaede-sama told us you'd fallen into a natural sleep finally, and would be awake soon."

Kagome turned to look at her sister and confidant, and felt her lip wobble. "Oh Sango-chan…"

"She can't see." InuYasha said gruffly.

"So Kaede—" Miroku's staff jangled as he put it down near the entry way, his robes swishing as he moved to sit beside Sango.

"—was right." InuYasha continued. "Said this is almost certainly gonna be permanent." he said to the whole group, although Kagome could feel his eyes on her. His stare was penetrative, seemingly burning into her own.

Kagome's thought process seemed to grind to a stop as InuYasha's words repeated themselves in her mind.

Permanent.

The silence in the hut was loud as Kagome turned her face away from InuYasha. She stared at nothing, unaware if she was looking at one of her friends. A cold numbness, not unlike the ache in her shoulder when she woke up, encompassed her body and drained the emotions from her face.

"I think…" Kagome paused, trying to hold her voice from wavering. "I just want to be alone right now, you guys, if that's okay."

"Kagome-chan…" Sango sounded like she could cry.

"No, I think Kagome-sama is right," Miroku voiced, unusually sombre. "She just needs to get some rest right now."

Shippo's little hands squeezed Kagome's fingers, and then he hopped off her lap. InuYasha wordlessly clambered to his feet, nearly stomping out of the hut. Shippo bounded after him. Kagome listened as Sango pulled herself to her feet, hesitating in the doorway as Miroku followed. The slayer stepped outside, but Miroku paused before following her.

"We're here for you, Kagome-sama. You are not alone." his voice washed over her, a soothing, calm tone seemingly unaffected by the grief of her friends. She appreciated his stolid stance, realizing that he was likely as conflicted as everyone else, but she couldn't continue listening to her friends bemoan her circumstance.

Miroku's steps were far away when Kagome lay back down, rolling back onto her side. She pulled her blanket up to her shoulder, and tucked her hands to her chest. Finally the tears fell, rolling down off the side of her nose and soaking into the pallet with soft plops.

She cried for a long time, silent tears falling from unseeing eyes.

tbc.