Regretful Repetition
Chapter Three: Hurt Heart

She should have known… she shouldn't have left him to tend to others. She really should have done something to help him. There had to have been a way to prevent the poison from killing him. Instead of lamenting on all of that, she shut her eyes and took a deep breath. The sky was bright and blue which meant she got to restart that day yet again.

There was no way she was going to let anything horrible happen to Inuyasha this time. She was going to save him, no matter what it took. Again, she took a deep breath to calm herself. She couldn't be a wreck right then, she had to have her senses with her… regardless of how tired she was.

It had been almost three days since she last slept if she stopped to think about it but sleep wasn't important. There was always that saying—she could sleep when she's dead. She just hoped that wasn't the cost to stop him from dying.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted while he leaned over the edge of the well to look down. "Come up already!"

A smile slipped up her lips, even though his impatience would usually annoy her. At least he was there to annoy her. She'd take that over the alternative any day. She had known for a long time that she cherished him so each time she lost him only brought her grief instead of any helpful realization.

"Kagome!" he called out again, irritation lacing each her name.

"I'm coming!" she answered before she started her climb up. When she grabbed the wooden rim to pull herself over she could see that all her friends were waiting for her. Each looked happy and healthy. It wasn't just Inuyasha she worried about, it was each of them, too.

"Where's you big bag?" Inuyasha asked with a cocked black brow. His golden gaze glanced over her unusual choice of outfit—jeans, a shirt, and tennis shoes. Slowly, he thought he realized what that meant and began to growl lightly. "Kagome… you better not be here to tell me you need to stay longer in your time."

"I'm not," she assured him easily much to his surprise.

"So," he drew out, "where's your bag?"

Really, she didn't know. She had left the bag she had at the village that was attacked but that apparently hadn't happened yet so… she supposed it had to still be back at her home? That wasn't important though.

Trying to figure out how to logically explain to them what was going on was vital. It was just… how was she going to do that without them thinking she was crazy or it was just a dream like last time?

"Are you alright, Kagome-sama?" Miroku inquired with a lifted brow.

"I have to tell you all something and you'll probably just think I'm crazy," she blurted while her hazel gaze shifted from each of her friends until they rested solely on the one with a gaze that matched the burning ball of flames in the sky.

"What is it?" Sango dared to ask, ever so cautiously.

"This is the third time I've started this day," she stated. "I… keep reliving this day. Every time it goes wrong I just have to go back down the well and then I pop back up here and its morning instead of the evening."

"How does the day go wrong?" Miroku questioned.

"Inuyasha," Kagome slowly began, "dies…"

"I what?" Inuyasha snapped, "how?"

"The first time you burned to death, the second time you were poisoned," she explained before she raised her hands slightly. "And don't say it. I know I wasn't dreaming. This is really happening."

"No," Inuyasha retorted, "I wouldn't get killed either of those ways. Who the hell keeps supposedly killing me?"

"It's been a different demon each time," she countered with a biter frown, "I don't want to argue with you. I just don't want it to repeat again. I don't think it's any crazier than saying that I go through this well," she paused to point at it, "and go five hundred years into the future."

"She does have a point," Sango whispered.

"That's stupid," Inuyasha insisted in a grumble. "I ain't getting killed by some demon."

"Inuyasha," Kagome dragged out with a frown, "please just listen to me… I don't want to see anything else bad happen to you."

"Nothing is going to happen to me," he kept up.

As usual, he had to be difficult but she supposed she should have seen that coming. But… regardless of what he thought, she wasn't going to let anything happen to him again. She already had a plan to keep him safe. It was just… well, he probably wasn't going to like it.

With the assistance of Miroku, Inuyasha was locked away in the most demon-proof hut in all of Kaede's village. He had helped her all morning to write a variety of demon warding scrolls to plaster across the first empty hut they found. They wanted to use Kaede's but there was a rather bad ailment going around the village and she needed to treat them. Apparently, there was a thief going around robbing people so they were less prone to letting someone into their home and more willing to go to hers for help.

So, their drama had to be kept elsewhere.

Inuyasha had to be difficult about it, too. Constantly he insisted that he didn't need to be protected because he wasn't going to get killed. Kagome had a bad dream, that was all. It wasn't a big deal.

But her sincere panic got to the others in their group. Enough so that they were willing to give up a day to make her feel better. Alas, her prideful hanyou was refused to be pinned up in a demon-proofed hut so much so that she had to use the word so that Miroku could tie him up and get him into the hut.

All she received in return was a harsh glare for her hanyou comrade the entire time she sat across from him. It didn't matter to her if he was mad—they had already lasted longer than any other day. In the not too distant future night would cascaded across the sky and the horrible day she was stuck in would finally be over and Inuyasha would be alive.

"Untie me," Inuyasha growled to gain her weak attention. Most of the time she was ever so close to falling asleep—for a while, she even did.

"Will you promise to stay in the hut if I do?" she questioned.

"Yes," he grumbled.

"I don't believe you," she muttered back before she crawled over to sit beside him instead of across from him. Yet again, she let her eye fall shut... that time, though, she let her head rest upon his shoulder which instantly got the hanyou to tense up.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"Resting," she answered.

Fine… he supposed he could deal with that but he had to swallow back whatever lodged itself in his throat. "Kagome," he drew out again until he heard a 'hm?'. "What are we doing?"

"I told you I'm resting—"

"Not that," he countered, "I mean… with all of this. You can't possibly think that—"

"Inuyasha," she sternly stated before she sighed and sat up to look him in the eye. "I really do mean it."

"The well doesn't work like that, it never has," he kept up. "I think it's more likely that you had a bad dream."

"I think you just don't want it to be true because… you're scared of dying," she replied cautiously while she looked at his reaction. The way his golden gaze diverted hers seemed to say yes. "Inuyasha, I'm never going to let something bad happen to you again. I couldn't stand losing you… I just… I just…"

"You just… what?" he asked with a bent brow.

"I… love you," she admitted, sheepishly. She wanted to look away from him in fear of what his reaction to hearing that might be but she couldn't. She would find out eventually so she should prepare herself. He froze up, his cheeks flashed red, and wide eyes.

Surprised. He was surprised to hear it but did that mean he was unhappy or joyful? She couldn't really tell.

"Kagome," he stretched out while he forced his golden gaze back to her. "Untie me."

"No," she whispered while her gaze felt to the ground.

"I'm not helpless, untie me," he repeated.

She frowned at hearing that because, "I am… "

"No you're not," he countered. "You're helpful most of the time."

She smiled, faintly, at that. It was sweet that he was trying to cheer her up the best he could so she leaned back to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Still, I feel helpless to save you."

"Untie," he ordered again, "please, Kagome?"

Well, if he was going to say please… when she looked out the sky she saw that the sky was turning from blue to navy and orange so the day was almost up and there was nothing happening. She got up to go check outside and see that the others were still away seeing how Kaede was doing. Really, she would rather wait until they returned but… she did go back to start to take off the charms that Miroku had put on the rope then undid it completely.

Quickly, he sprung up and stretched his arms high in the air to hear the fresh crack of his back.

"I've been sitting around all day! Do you have any idea how annoying that is?" Inuyasha grumbled.

"Do you know how annoying it is to confess your love for someone and not have that person comment on it at all?" she wanted to ask but didn't. Instead she just shook her head before her hazels widened at the sight of what happened to him as the moonless sky took the night…

His hair turned as black as hers and golden gaze gave way to the brown.

Oh, why did it have to be a new moon night?

"Inuyasha please stay inside for the night," she begged while she grabbed his arm.

"I'll be fine," he countered as he opened the door and stepped out but before she got the chance to follow she heard something that made her heart sink to her stomach.

"Trespasser! What are you doing on my property?" then a grunt. As soon as she stepped outside her heart broke at the sight of an elder man with a knife stuck in Inuyasha's chest. Her heart might be broken but his was bleeding out.

"Inuyasha!" she screamed while she grabbed him and held him as they fell to the ground. She placed her hand over the blood that was gushing out but… she didn't know what to do about that. Even if she could get him to through the well to her era and to a hospital the knife was in his heart—could they fix that?

No… no… no!

There was too much blood.

Her breath quickened as she shook her head and put more pressure onto the wound. "Inuyasha… You're going to be alright. OK? You're going to be perfectly alright."

"Ka… Kagome," he choked.

"Sh," she requested as she felt a steaming stream of tears trickle down her face. "Sh, I'll just go back down the well and it'll be alright again. I promise. It'll work."

"I lov…" he started but she'd never know what he was going to say.

She could only guess for that day.

Again, she failed him and had to run away.

A/N: Thanks for reading, reviewing, and all that good stuff. I have a request, go to my profile and take the poll. I'm not sure if I'll write either story but if I do, I'll probably only start one of them. I have the two summaries for you to vote from. Thanks.

Please continue to review, thanks!