Insane-san says: Weeee, chapter sevennnn. -grin- You readers seem to love this fanfiction, so I'm sure I don't have to pray that you like this chapter. There were some real issues with this chapter for me. I had it finished. Finished. But then guess what I did?
I went back and deleted more than half of it.

Why? I wasn't happy with it. That's happened to me a few times...I think it's because I write too fast. I need to really plan things out before I get into them. So I spent a lot of time doing that for this chapter and I'm pretty happy that I went back and did that.

And after that, I just got so hooked on Oblivion. Every day when I go on the PC I think, 'Okay, today's the day I finish that chapter. It's almost done. I'll just do that.' And then I see the little Oblivion icon on my PC...And my finger...Moves on its own...and I click it. o.o My bad? n.n;

Anyway, I changed Kouga's name to Koga. In Japanese, when you spell Kouga, the O is prolonged with another character. So you say the O in a kind of slow way. Basically, kOUga. But you don't say a U sound, you just say O only longer...It confusing, I know. If you try it a few times with that pronunciation you'll probably see what I mean. So I decided to adopt the American way to spell it and now he is Koga. :) I'll try to keep the updates rollin' in smoothly. n.n 'cause after this, there's no more writer's block 'cause I know exactly what's gonna happen. So hopefully, the next chapter will come out sooner than this one. :3 Enjoy.


Shousetsu no Kowai

Page seven.


"So then she starts cussing at me and I'm like, 'Who do you think you are, lady?'"

Inuyasha walked next to Kagome. His black hoodie with the goth skull billowed in the late afternoon breeze. His feet were bare and his baggy black pants crumpled over them. His silver hair cascaded down his back and swirled around him occasionally in the wind. The shock of gold that were his eyes moved constantly over everything in front of him. He was truly a dark figure to anyone else if they were to see him. Human instinct would tell anyone who saw him to run.

Standing next to him was a bony black-haired girl with very clean clothes and grey-blue eyes. Her over-sized blue leg warmers sagged down her legs, but that was the only flaw in her clean look. She tugged at her white fitted polo shirt every now and then, and her jean skirt was stiffer than most normal skirts. It had a blue jean jacket to match. She had an intelligent face, but her eyes were distant. It was plain to the eye that the two just didn't seem right together. Yet they walked next to one another in an almost intimate fashion.

Meanwhile, Kagome raped Inuyasha's ear with random stories. She was so quiet sometimes, but then she would flip into a babble monster. Sometimes she dragged on and on. Other times, she got straight to the point almost shockingly fast. But it really didn't matter. He wasn't paying attention to what she was saying. "Over a carton of milk?" He asked boredly.

Well, maybe he was paying attention. But he couldn't help it. It wasn't like he could force himself to go deaf.

"Yeah!" Kagome replied and continued her story. He remembered the road to Kagome's school and knew they were getting close. Somehow she had managed to get out of the house with a quick, "I'm going out for some air," and then just leaving. She surprised him here and there. He could never get used to her twists and turns of emotions and attitudes. "So uhhh..." She paused briefly in her walking and then continued. "What was I saying again?"

Inuyasha turned his head to stare at her with a look of eerie, shocked disgust. "You lose track of what you're saying?" He asked quietly. She flushed and smiled nervously. "Well, I have a lot on my mind these days so...Umm..." She glanced around, looking for something else to talk about it seemed. "Ah, see my school? Well," She paused to correct herself. "What used to be my school." Her face grew nearly emotionless and she raised an eyebrow at the building in the distance. "Should I tell them you exist right out?" She asked without looking at him.

"Who am I, your bloody mentor? Figure it out for yourself." He glared at the building ahead of them. He couldn't tell if the boys were there or not. "Fine, fine." She waved a hand. They got to the front gate of the school and paused. Kagome fingered the bottom of her shirt and flicked her eyes over the school grounds. It was very quiet and still. But then there was a break in that silence.

It was the sound of someone opening a bottle. It was loud and it echoed. Kagome sighed with relief and walked into the school yard. Inuyasha followed with a bored look. "It might be fun." She whispered. "If they still like me after I tell them everything, then I can come here to hang out and stuff." She smiled a little. Inuyasha smiled broadly. "Yeah, and then you can throw happy tea parties and wear pink dresses with frills!" Kagome glared at him. "Maybe we will." She said with a pouting face.

She turned the corner to get behind the school. The change in climate washed over Inuyasha. The air was cold and there was a constant wind. It was even worse than the last time he had been there. In front of them not very far away were the three boys. They were grinning about something and drinking from frothing soda bottles. Manten said something and Hiten and Koga spit out their soda and burst out laughing hysterically. Manten joined in with them. Inuyasha curled his lip back.

Kagome wanted to hang out with them?

Abruptly, Kagome cleared her throat a little. The laughter died down and they all looked towards her. The air went silent and no one spoke. They simply exchanged looks. Then Hiten jumped out of an inflatable chair and spread his arms open. "Welcome!" He shouted. Kagome flushed a bit and scratched the back of her head. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her weakness. Koga sat up straighter on his throne box and stared at her. He stared a little too long in Inuyasha's opinion. He struggled hard to bite back a growl. What was it to him if someone stared at her?

"We heard you got expelled." Manten blurted out. Hiten threw back his head with a laugh. Manten clapped and laughed with him.

"Shhh," Koga hissed. They were silent instantaneously. Koga looked back at her regally and put an arm on top of his raised knee. "What brings you here?" He asked. Kagome stared at the grass and tugged at the hem of her shirt. "I'd like to..." She looked up and looked at the three of them. "...Tell you...About some things." She said. They stared at her with serious faces and waited. A moment or two passed and Hiten suddenly said, "You can sit down." He waved an arm to their seating arrangements. Kagome smiled gratefully but declined his offer.

"You guys can sit down, I'm alright." Hiten and Manten took their seats and watched her. Manten put his arms over his mouth and burped into them. Hiten slapped a hand over his face and tried not to laugh. Koga was even biting back a grin. The sudden belch in a serious situation had them near giggles.

Inuyasha was appalled.

He didn't think it was right for Kagome to be with those guys. It wasn't like he cared about her well-being, but it was just ridiculous. They weren't intelligent. They were stupid wanna-be thugs who laughed when they heard someone burp. Who had they killed? No one. Otherwise they would be in prison. Did they destroy any clans? Take over any kingdoms? Destroy and plunder villages?

No, no, no.

They didn't.

But who did? Who did those things numerous times? Inuyasha glared at Kagome. The day that she acknowledged his amazing evil powers would be a sweet day indeed. It would be the day that he was released from his seal. It would be the day that he would kill her. And he would like it, too. He stared at the back of her head and played pictures in his mind of different ways he wished to destroy her. Somehow, the harder he thought of it, the less pleasing it seemed. The images kept getting replaced with flashes of him falling to the concrete in the pouring rain. Instead of the sound of his claws ripping through her flesh, he kept hearing her yelling his name in that horrified worry.

"You all know what happened yesterday." Kagome said. The three nodded. She sighed and wet her lips. "Well, you're probably wondering what it was about." They nodded again. "You see, there's a guy behind me, only you can't see him." They stared. "He has long white hair, gold eyes, claws...And other in-human stuff." Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. They continued to stare. She went on to explain how he came to be with her; how he was released from the book and how only she could control and speak with him.

He bared his fangs at her back. He longed to sink his teeth into her jugular and kill her slowly.
Being the happy little subject of an, "Oh my gosh, guess what?" Story didn't really please him.

"So that's what you saw yesterday." She said. It was dead silent. Manten looked like he wanted to laugh, but he did a magnificent job of hiding it from the others. Kagome frowned. "Do you need proof?" Manten and Hiten glanced at one another but Koga shook his head once.

"I believe you." He said in an almost dark voice. He was dead serious. His blue eyes were flashing their fascination. Inuyasha knew that Koga found Kagome extremely interesting. Something inside his chest and stomach itched badly. He narrowed his eyes. Koga probably planned to have Kagome use her "demon", him, to his advantage. If that was his plan, Inuyasha wasn't going to let that happen.

He'd kill him first.

But something other than that was bothering him...He didn't know what it was. It was like someone was taking a hot fork and poking it against his brain every time he saw Koga staring at Kagome.

"You believe me?" Kagome said with a happy smile. Koga nodded and flashed a grin. The sound of Kagome's heart fluttering reached Inuyasha's ears and his eyes burned. Hiten and Manten exchanged looks and then burst out laughing. "Good one!" Manten gushed. "Yeah!" Hiten agreed, falling out of his chair from laughter.

Inuyasha smirked. "See what happens when you confide in imbeciles?" He said quietly. Kagome tried to look completely confident, but she was failing fast. Why was it that she was so easily disturbed by two brainless adolecents, but she didn't even give him one single, quiet, terrified gasp? Humans truly were pointless beings. He had told himself that many times. "Let's just go." She muttered. He clenched his teeth but shook off his anger. "What?" He said in a taunting voice. "Why are you so quick to run away?" He asked in a prodding tone. It wasn't fair to him that she would argue with him, but she was running away so easily from them.

She whipped around and brushed past him. His eyes widened. How could she brush past him so carelessly? She had absolutley no fear of him at all. He didn't understand how it was possible. Why was it so hard for him to make her afraid of him? He had tried numerous things. Glares, curses, insults, threats, growls, promises of her imminent downfall...

All had proved useless.

Koga was struggling to get off of his box. He, at least, had somehow believed her. Inuyasha didn't know why, but Koga had reason to believe her. "Stay on your box with your idiotic kin, whelp." He said with an eyebrow raised in arrogance. "You belong with them."

He turned around to follow Kagome to wherever it was she wished to go. That was how it was, he realized. He followed her wherever she went. He couldn't control it or stop it. It just happened against his will. "Hey," Koga was trying to shout. He pushed through Hiten and Manten and trotted after Kagome. Inuyasha faced him in one quick movement. "Stay where you are!" He snapped. Koga, to his surprise, stopped completely. His body was bent over in a defensive way and he was looking through the air in curiosity.

He was afraid.

A slow grin smoothed its way across Inuyasha's face. "Do you feel my hatred?" He wondered alloud. A sharp pain hit his head like someone was tugging his hair harshly. It came again and again and he found himself backing up. His head turned in Kagome's direction. She was walking farther and farther away. He could hear her hateful mutterings faintly. A different pain hit his head so hard like someone had thrown a rock. Suddenly it wasn't the pain he was worrying about. He rushed after her, completely forgetting Koga.


A soft sigh came from Kagome's parted lips and she stared thoughtfully at the sidewalks.

Just as it had happened many times before, she had been rejected from her peers. She didn't blame them for their reaction. If she were in their place she would have probably done the same thing. She frowned and put a stray locke of hair behind her ear. It didn't hurt that they laughed at her or that Koga had just been saying he believed her to toy with her...It hurt most that she had completely misjudged them. Of course they weren't any good. They were bullies with low IQs. She didn't even remember why she had wanted to be with them in the first place.

She had enough on her plate with Inuyasha there and all of her family troubles and getting expelled from school. She sighed again and shook her head slowly. It was stressful. Far too stressful for any normal 16-year-old girl. "Maybe I wanted friends." She said to herself in a slurred mumble. "Tch, there isn't any such thing as a friend." She said. Her eyes widened a little and she thought of Inuyasha. He had said the same thing to her. "Maybe he was right...No, he wasn't." She shook her head with a grimace at her thoughts. "Come on, I got over this years ago...What the heck is my problem." She rubbed her hand over her face and groaned.

"Ten years from now, I'll be in some kind of psych ward. And will I have friends there?" She raised an eyebrow uncaringly and shrugged. "No, I won't. They don't let psychos have friends, I hear. They get boxed up alone." She slowed her walking for a moment in thought and then picked her pace back up. "That's right..." She said in almost a whisper. "I wouldn't be alone if the curse was still there by then...Then Inuyasha would be..." She raised her head to the clouds for a moment as she walked. "...My friend...?" She tilted her head.

Then she laughed. "He'd laugh so meanly if I told him that..." She said with a shake of her head. "Who?" She heard a rough voice ask. Her head snapped up to the fence beside her. Inuyasha walked along the top of the fence with ease, staring down at her all the while with his arms crossed in the large sleeves of his hoodie. She blinked and slowed her pace a bit. "Oh...No one." She said in an innocent voice. He narrowed his eyes just slightly. "If it was no one, then you were talking to yourself." He said. She smiled embarrassedly and was about to speak. He spoke first. "And you said 'he' which means you called yourself a boy."

Kagome turned her face away and stared at the sidewalk. "Well..." She said slowly. Inuyasha sighed and raised his head. "I feel sorry for you sometimes." He said in a belittling tone. "You're so stupid and insane...A bad combination...You even have yourself confused with being a boy." He glanced down at her. "Hmph, well...I guess that part isn't so unbelievable. Sometimes I question your gender myself." Kagome's jaw dropped at the insult and she gaped at him.

"Who-Who-" She was almost beside herself with shock at his rudeness. "Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?" She yelled. He smirked, obviously pleased at annoying her. "Who do I think I am?" He echoed her. "First you confuse your own identity, and then you confuse mine? You poor, pathetic thing..." He frowned at her. Kagome felt the heat sting her face and she curled her hands into fists. She ground her teeth and glared at him. "Well...Well..." His smirk broadened at her struggle. "At least I actually bathe!" She blurted out.

"Hah, that's because I rarely need to. Demons are clean, unlike you filthy humans." Kagome's face fell and she blinked slowly. "Oh..." She said quietly. He seemed surprised at her answer for a moment. Maybe he was surprised that she didn't have a come-back for what he said. "Well at least I know how to do math." She said in a less angry voice. She knew that she was giving up the argument slowly because it wasn't going anywhere and she was far too tired to continue much further.

"What does math have to do with survival skills?" He asked in a snap. Kagome pressed her lips into a line and narrowed an eye. "Now who's the stupid one?" Kagome asked slowly. She heard him seethe in a breathe at her comment. "What would you use math for, anyway? If you need something you take as much from it as you want. And if something is heavy, it's heavy. I never understood why stupid humans use that stone method anyway." He growled. Kagome's eyes widened and she stared at him. "Stone method?" She asked, not hiding her surprise. He gave her a burning stare and looked away. From the look of him, he had completely lost patience in even answering any more of her questions.

"You mean how people in England use stones instead of pounds or kilograms?" She asked. He ignored her. "Woah, you really must have been born a long time ago." She said in quiet fascination. Her mind wandered to years and years and years ago before many of her early relatives had even been born. He had been born before then. At some point he had made it clear that he had control over many places and people. Kagome chewed her lower lip absentmindedly and let her eye follow a fly that zipped around in the air.

Several minutes passed, and Inuyasha grew more and more bored as time went on. Soon there weren't any more fences for Inuyasha to walk across. He was forced to jump down on the concrete next to Kagome. She jumped at his sudden movement. He grinned at her reaction, pleased that he had done something to upset her mental ballance. "Oh," She sighed heavily, placing a hand over her heart. "It's just you..."

Something in Inuyasha's head snapped and his pupils thinned in anger. He was in disbelief. It was just him? Wasn't that enough? To jump in front of someone so suddenly surely meant death. But no...It was just him. His fangs gripped his lower lip and his fists vibrated. He stared holes into her head and let his pace fall behind hers. It was all he could do to try and keep his cool. He didn't want to seem affected by what she had said. To show his emotion about that meant instant defeat. He had to think of something to focus his rage on. He had to think of something to do that would make her very upset or hurt.

"Aha," He heard Kagome laugh suddenly. His head snapped up at the sound and tried to see what she was suddenly so happy about. She was smiling broadly and put a hand up to wave. He stared off to where she was looking and saw three girls walking on the opposite side of the road. It was the three girls Kagome had been with at her school. Her so-called friends. He didn't remember their names, but then again, he really didn't care. Instead of answering Kagome, the three girls quickened their steps and turned a corner around a house.

He glanced at Kagome and saw her face fall into an emotionless stare. Her eyes were hollow and she let her once waving hand drop to her side. He raised an eyebrow at her quick change in persona. Her jaw tenses as she clenched her teeth in her mouth. "A second time, huh...?" She said in a whisper to herself. Inuyasha's eyes flicked over her back as he thought. She began walking again. He examined the back of her head and picked at one of his claws. The thoughts in his head were strange and he didn't want to think them any longer. He decided to be cruel instead and said, "Told you that there was no such thing as a friend." She didn't answer for a few seconds. The straight silence after he spoke was unnerving to him. Usually she would instantly get mad over something like that.

"I know." She said softly. He felt his mouth open slightly at her reply. He closed it quickly. "But I think..." Her voice was quiet. He felt his ears grow tense to listen. "...Maybe...In the world...There are good people, and bad people...and..." There was a crack in her voice and she cleared her throat. His heart was suddenly pounding and he felt like he wasn't supposed to hear what she was saying. "There are good people, too." His eyes narrowed. She continued. "And even though the friends I've had haven't been that good," She swallowed and put her hands in the pockets of her skirt. "There's at least one person out in the world somewhere...who was meant to be my friend." She said softly. His eyes widened a little and he stared off at the houses that lined the street. He had to look anywhere but at her.

Saying something so stupid and sappy had thrown him off ballance. Some people weren't meant to have good relationships with people, and others were meant to. That was it. He didn't understand how she could say something so strange. Her range of thought was beyond him. How could she be so understanding of people? He had broken himself away from attachment long ago. Saying something like "there's at least one person" had opened a locked door in his head. It had made him think, "maybe there is just one single person." It had made him think, "what if that person was Kagome." His head pounded and he began working hard to shut the door in his mind that had opened just a crack.

"One time when I was little," She started. Inuyasha bit his tongue on the inside of his mouth. He didn't want her to speak anymore. He wanted to concentrate on going back to the same, normal train of thought. "Me and my best friend were playing in the park not to far from here. I used to pour my grape juice on the sand and make things out of it. One day, I made an outline of a little turtle," He could hear the smile in her voice. "And a big kid I hadn't seen there before came up to me and my friend and said, 'Wow, you make things out of the sand? You babies!'" Inuyasha smirked. That had been what he was thinking almost exactly. "So then my friend said, 'I don't make things out of the sand! It's only her! I don't even know her!'"

Inuyasha curled his lip to show a fang at the thought. If someone had been so careless as to deny his leadership over them, they would have been killed by him personally. But that didn't sound like Kagome. Maybe she had cried. He listened.

"So then I stood up all hurt and everything," Inuyasha smirked. He knew that she had been upset over it. "And I grabbed a hand full of sand and threw it at her face." Inuyasha's mouth opened and he raised an eyebrow. "It went in her eyes and everything." She laughed.

No, it was impossible. He was hearing things. She was laughing at someone's pain? "She starting screaming so loud. I got real mad and told her to shut up. And then my mom came and I got in bad trouble." She shook her head with a grin on her face. "Keh, you..." He stopped speaking and realized that it had become strange for him to talk. He blinked and tried to push the odd feeling away.

He glared at Kagome as she smiled and walked on the concrete. She seemed happy. But how could she possibly be happy with what was happening in her life? Was she stronger than he thought she was? Maybe all humans weren't stupid weaklings after all. Inuyasha felt his head sway at the impossible thought that had just passed through his head. His fists clenched and he stared at Kagome's back in complete disbelief at what she had done to his brain to make him think so strangely. All humans weren't the same? That couldn't have been true. Yet he had thought that for a split second.

"Oh," She stopped walking and turned her head to look at him with a playful grin. "Did you like the ice cream yesterday?" She asked. He blinked and pressed his fingers against the black sleeve that went past his knuckles. Suddenly it didn't seem so bad to tell her honestly if he did or didn't. Maybe it was becoming tiresome to torment her and fiddle with her annoyance boundries. "It was too sweet." He lied. Kagome pouted her lip with a narrowed eye. "Too sweet, eh? Never heard someone say that before." She shrugged and turned back around. Realizing that he had gotten back to annoying her, he began to think of more to add to the ice cream lie. "I usually put blood on everything I eat," He said with a dark smirk. Of course, that was also a lie. "Human blood." He added.

To his stunned horror, she turned around with a grin. "Ha-ha, very funny." He felt his eyebrows raise at her reply. "Funny?" He echoed quietly. Her grin lessened and she put a loose hand in her pocket. "I thought you were this scary demon guy who almost ruled the world with all this experience and stuff. But you can't even tell a good lie."

Inuyasha felt himself get sucked into a mental category-five tornado.

"You're insane!" He found himself shouting. "I'm the best liar in the world, curse you!" He bared his fangs menacingly and his eyes flashed their murderous intent. She simply rolled her eyes and said, "You know, that's not really a good reputation to be fighting for." Inuyasha's mouth moved without words as he searched for something to say. "Weh...Well who cares!" He snapped. He tried desperately to hide his embarrassment at stuttering. "Ooh, clever. 'Who cares'." She said sarcastically through a smile. His pupils thinned and he completely lost his ready-to-kill posture. She had beaten him.

Again.

"Ahh, I just remembered what I wanted to ask you last night." She said. Inuyasha glared at the concrete with a bratty frown and tuned her voice out of his head. She wasn't worth listening to anyways. After a few moments he became proud of his ability to drown sounds out, because he couldn't hear her voice at all. He looked up with a smirk at Kagome. She was standing perfectly still. Her head was bowed slightly and she was breathing deeply through her nose. He narrowed his eyes in curiosity and walked closer to her. He came around slowly to her front and bent his head down to look at her face.

Her eyes were confused and wavering and her face was dotted with sweat. She shook her head a little and her lips moved to form a word that didn't come out. Inuyasha looked closer at her face and wondererd what was wrong with her. He didn't care, of course. Suddenly her grey eyes darted up to stare into his golden ones. She gasped and moved backwards. He jumped back and threw his fists up in defense. A very embarrassing move, he came to realize, as it meant he thought she could physically hurt him. "Oh," She heaved and put a hand to her forehead. "Sorry..." She murmured. He blinked and lowered his hands. "Keh..." He narrowed an eye and examined her.

She smiled as she stared at the concrete and rubbed her forehead. She let out a breath and said, "I'm just...Uhh..." She shook her head and slapped her cheek. "Feelin' a little weird is all..." He glared at her response and scoffed. "Pathetic human." Right after he spoke, Kagome's head swayed and she dropped almost gracefully to her knees. Inuyasha's eyes snapped open and he took a step away from her.

The sounds of her deep, rasping breathes itched in his ears. Something was very wrong. Was she poisoned...?

"Hey," He walked up to her. "Hey!" He said louder. She looked up at him, her eyes strange. "I'm not feeling too good." She said quietly as if it were some shocking revealation. "So?" Inuyasha answered her with a cocky expression. She blinked at him. "I don't think...I can get up." She said in a stunned voice. Inuyasha swallowed harshly and took a step backwards. "Heh," His eyes flickered over her. "You gonna die?" He swallowed again and clenched his fists. "Don't say things like that!" She snapped. "I'm sick. I can tell I have a fever." She mumbled to herself in anger. It was as if she were scolding herself.

"Well, so what?" He said scornfully. "Suck it up and walk." Kagome relaxed further into a sitting position on the sidewalk in response to him. "I'm too sick." She said. Her breath came out in puffs. He could see the red discoloration of her face. She was obviously ill.

"Humans are so weak!" He said, his head pounding. He had never seen her so weak before. Surely it was time to strike. Of course. She was so vulnerable. The wheels in his head began their devious turning as he thought up a plan for her demise. Kagome sighed loudly. "I really can't move." She said. "I'm too tired." She shook her head and stared up at him. The wheels in Inuyasha's head stopped. Something about her expression...It wasn't right. He blinked slowly and raised his chin. She was thinking of something...

"Carry me home." She said through a sigh and closed her eyes. Inuyasha's eyes snapped open and he felt his legs move on their own. He tried with every fiber of his being to stop them. Desperately he tried to stop them. He prayed to God to stop them. But still they moved.

His body bent over and he picked her up. One arm went to support her back, and the other went under the backs of her knees. He swallowed and tried to hide his face from her with his hair. His legs moved on their own again as he walked in the direction of her house. "No, no, don't just walk on the road. Run across rooftops or something!" She whined sleepily. Inuyasha's head clicked at the command and he jumped onto the nearest building's roof. "This is disgusting." He growled to himself. His head pulsed and his face was probably red. He had never picked up a girl before. He had never even thought of picking up a girl before, much less Kagome.

He felt Kagome's head drop to his chest in her weak state. His heart jolted and he raced onto another roof. The only thing he wanted to do more than anything else was get back to her house so he could throw her on the ground and leave her there for dead.

"You're hot..." Kagome mumbled. Inuyasha's face turned a deep shade of red and he raised an eyebrow. He swallowed and tried to remain indifferent. "No, really." Kagome persisted. She pressed a hand to his cheek. Inuyasha's mouth opened and he swallowed back a gasp. "Get off me!" He hissed. She lowered her hand. "Do you have a fever, too?" She asked.

'Wait, she meant...Literally...?' He thought to himself. He clamped his teeth together and glared at the the next roof he was to jump onto. He felt completely ridiculous. How could he think she meant that? Slowly, he was turning into a fool. It made him despise himself more and more. His stomach churned sickeningly and he bit back a growl.

Just one quick minute later, they arrived at the front door of Kagome's house. Inuyasha let her down, finally relaxed. He felt that he could breathe again once she was away from him. Kagome moved slowly to the front door and opened it. She sniffed up snot deeply and closed the door once Inuyasha was inside. "I thought that I was just tired 'cause of the few hours of sleep I got." She mumbled. She almost fell over walking to her room. Inuyasha had to rush forward to help her back on her feet. Once she was up, Inuyasha moved his hands away as if he had touched something burning hot.

"Thanks," She said tiredly. She turned the doorknob to her room and walked in. "I guess they went out." She said. "I'll wash your shirt now, nnkay?" She bent down slowly to pick up his blood-red shirt. It used to be white, he realized. He had bled that much...?

She grunted as she stood back up. She walked past him slowly and walked to the laundry room. "I should wash all those sheets too...And my clothes." She was completely out of it. She turned on the washer and tossed Inuyasha's shirt in. Water flowed into the machine and began to fill it up. Inuyasha stepped closer in interest and stared into it. Kagome brushed past him sluggishly and went back into her room. She returned a moment later with her arms full of bloodied sheets and clothes. She shoved them down into the washer.

"There," She smiled, dark circles visible under her eyes. She poured a strong-smelling powder into the machine and closed the lid. "Now we wait a bit and then I stick them in the dryer." She grinned at him and walked out of the laundry room. Inuyasha waited there, staring into the strange machine. He waited a long time, just staring and thinking. When the machine stoppped, his mind cleared as though his thinking had been on the same cycle as the washing. He turned his head to the doorway, expecting Kagome to be there any moment. Surely she had heard the silence of the machine and the loud beeping signaling its completion.

"Hey," He shouted finally into the silence. He wanted his shirt back and it wasn't getting any dryer by just sitting in the machine. He narrowed his eyes in impatience and shouted again, "Hey!" Still there was no reply. Something in his head pulsed its concern and he pushed it away. He walked out of the laundry room and turned into her room. He staggered backward a few steps in surprise.

Kagome was kneeling in front of her bathroom door with one hand against her neck, and the other clutching her stomach. She seemed to be having some kind of tremor attacks. There was vomit on her chin and sweat shined from her almost white skin.

Inuyasha's mouth was open as he stared. "Wha..." He stepped closer and tried to get a grip on the situation. "What's wrong with you?" He managed to say, though it hadn't sounded as rude as he wanted it to. She was deaf to him, he realized. Something was wrong. So wrong. He had never been ill before, let alone see anyone who was ill. The worst he had seen was an old lady who would have short coughing fits.

He didn't want to admit it to himself, but he was afraid to approach her. He didn't know what her illness was or what it would do to him. It was like seeing a strange animal for the first time. Slowly, he moved towards her. Careful, hessitant steps. He let his knees buckle and he knelt beside her at a daring closeness. "Hey, you." He called her in a rough voice. She turned her head to him, her grey eyes dark and clouded. She took a deep, rattling breath. His insides froze up at the sound. Maybe she would die...?

"Inuyasha..." She murmured in a sick shudder. She moved a hand up over her mouth and gagged. She struggled to rush herself up to her feet and staggered quickly into the bathroom. She dropped herself in front of the toilet and threw up. Inuyasha turned his head away, his eyes wide. Seeing that almost felt wrong. Like he wasn't supposed to see.

When the sounds of her sick ended, he turned his head back to her. She had her back against the wall and she clutched a towel to her mouth with shaking arms. She groaned quietly and closed her eyes tightly.

"Hey you stupid human," He tried to shout. His throat was tight and sick af the smell of her vomit. "How did you get sick?" Only after he asked did he realize how stupid a question it really was. He lowered his eyes to his hands and hoped she didn't hear it. His ears moved to the sound of her rising to her feet. She flushed the toilet and washed her face in the sink. She dried her face in the towel she held on to so desperately and she walked out of the bathroom. She climbed onto her bed and pulled the covers up around her.

"Hey wait, what...You're going to sleep?" He asked, insulted. "You can't!" He shouted, getting up to his feet. He went to her bedside and shook her shoulder. "It smells in here and my shirt needs to dry!" He shook her harder, his eyes widening in a kind of fear. Somehow, her sleeping was bad. She was very ill. He wanted her to be awake so that he could watch her. What if she fell asleep, and she didn't wake up...?

"Kagome!" He shouted angrily and shook her again. Cold fingertips touched his hand and moved themselves to grip his hand. His heart leapt to his throat at the eery feeling. The tremors she went through transferred into his hand. The color was draining from his face. He didn't like it. It was sick. Her sickness wasn't right. He didn't want to feel how ill she was. He wanted no part of her.

"Get off of me." He choked. He couldn't bring himself to rip his hand away. Suddenly his ears shot forward. She had said something very quietly. He moved closer to her to hear. "Cabinet...Above the fridge." She whispered. She loosened her grip on his hand and he slid away from her. He backed up and grabbed his hand and moved his sleeve against it as if to wipe something off.

He turned away from her bed and went to the kitchen. He opened the cabinet above the fridge and looked inside. There were different kinds of salts and a black box that said in red letters, AID. He pulled it out and stared at it. He realized with a twisted sway of his head that she hadn't even commanded him to bring it to her. His claws dug into the metallic box and chipped the black paint. His mind raced.

He wanted her to die. Of course he did. Wasn't that his whole objective? If she died, he would be free to wreak havoc among whatever he pleased without any penalty. If she died, he'd be happy. And wasn't it also his objective to make her life harder until she died or the curse upon him was removed? So if she didn't command something, why listen? And if it benifitted her in some way, that was even more reason not to listen.

A little itching voice in his head pushed away all of those thoughts and told him, 'Yes, it's true...But of course, I'm the one that wanted to kill her...Wait until the curse is broken, and then take her life. It would be more gratifying than watching her die of some trivial illness...'

He blinked down at the box with a blank face.

A moment later, he found himself back in her room. He stood at the side of her bed and opened the box. He didn't understand anything about what kind of medicines did what, nor did he know anything about using them. "I have the box." He said loudly. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at the box he had in his arms. She glanced up at his face with an unexpected look of gratitude in her eyes.

Inuyasha grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes. "Just take the stupid box!" He shouted in frustration. A smile moved onto her face and she reached a hand out from under her covers and took the box. He was more than glad to be rid of it.

"Thank you." She said quietly. His eyes widened and he snapped his head away from her. "Whatever." He said in a low voice.

Her hands moved slowly around the contents of the box. He watched her take two bottles and a small box out. She looked up at him with her dark, clouded eyes and managed to whisper, "Glass of water, please?" He clenched his teeth and went back to the kitchen. He grabbed a clean glass off the counter and filled it with water from her sink. He went back to her room, mumbling curses. He handed her the glass lazily and glanced away in a careless manner. "Thank you." She mumbled once more as she took the glass. He crossed his arms and glared at her window.

"Inuyasha," She called quietly. He glanced over his shoulder at her. There was a look of pathetic apology on her face as if she really understood her own weakness and was sorry for it. "I can't..." Her eyes narrowed as she struggled to keep tears back. She sniffed and cleared her throat. "When I try to sit up, I feel sick." She said in a quiet, choked voice.

The breath left Inuyasha's lungs and he stared at her sad face. His mind raged with a mental battle as he decided what to do. He wondered how hard it had been for her to really swallow her pride and tell him that. Or maybe it was easy for her to say it. Whatever the case, he knew that she was asking for his help. He remembered the mental conversation he had with himself in the kitchen and walked close to the side of her bed. His eyes flickered down at her and he wondered how to proceed.

Kagome reached a hand up and he grabbed it. He put his other hand under her back and pulled her up slowly to a sitting position. She sighed in relief and leaned against her headboard. Inuyasha let go of her hand and ripped his arm away from her back. He tensed his arms at his sides and tried to occupy his eyes with something. Kagome opened the two bottles and took out two pills from each. She put them in her mouth and swallowed them with the water he got for her. Then she opened the little box and took a pink tablet from it. She put it in her glass of water and let it disolve. Then she drank the rest of the water.

It seemed a harsh struggled for her to get the water down, but in the end she managed. She put the glass carefully on her night table and then lowered herself back onto her pillow. She sighed and pulled her covers up to her chin. Inuyasha tried to sneer at her but failed. He glared at her book shelf instead. Being in her room was suffocating. Not only from the fading smell of her vomit, but from the way he was thinking as he stood next to her bed. He curled his clawed fingers into fists and walked away from her bed. When he got near her door, Kagome gasped, "Inuyasha," He turned around to look at her. His eyes moved over her face in curiosity. The voice she called him in was desperate. "What do you want?" He asked impatiently.

There was silence after he spoke. She seemed very reluctant to speak. A vein bulged on his temple and he raised an eyebrow in annoyance. "What is it?" He asked harshly. Her face twisted in a kind of fear at his tone of voice. She tried to force out the words as quickly as she could. "W...Will you...Stay with me 'till I...Fall asleep?" She sputtered.

Inuyasha's ears turned to the sides and he stared. An odd melting went through him and he stared hard at her. She looked at him expectantly, but she moved the covers slowly further up her face as if to hide. "Stay with you?" He asked. She nodded. The wheels in his head turned slowly in their confusion. Had she really asked that question? It couldn't have been a real question. There was no way she could see him as a comfort to her...Someone to think about happily as she slept.

"I'll stay." He said monotonously. Her eyes lit up with a smile and she closed her eyes happily to sleep. He walked to the foot of her bed and sat down in a sloppy position. He tilted his head to his shoulder and blinked in confusion at her carpet. Maybe the seal between them was strong enough to transfer her illness to him. He was feeling sick. His head was clouded in confused thoughts and he felt altogether ill.

He leaned his head against the bottom of her bed and listened to the sounds of her breathing. Something was wrong with him. He realized it when he had woken up that morning. He had gone far too long without causing someone to scream in the horror of his existence. He had gone far too long without the exciting rush of being chased by imperial guards, only to turn around after he was bored and kill them.

He had been too long with the strange human girl who called herself Kagome.

Her breathing evened out as she slept. He glanced over his shoulder at her. She slept peacfully. At least in sleep she didn't have sick tremors or gags. His ears perked up and he heard voices outside of the house. As they got closer to the front door, he matched them up to Kagome's mother and aunt. His lip curled in distaste at the memory of the two human women. He decided that he really disliked them both.

The front door opened noisely and he winced. They walked in, chattering loudly. "Ah, she's home." Yura said, breaking away from their conversation abruptly. Inuyasha stared at Yura's smiling face in dislike. She walked to Kagome's room and smiled at her sleeping form. A surge of protectivness coursed through Inuyasha and he stood. "She's sleeping." Yura whispered. "Oh, is she?" Her mother answered from the kitchen. "Do you think you could wake her gently and ask her if she wants to eat some of my leftover pasta? It's her favorite kind." Yura smiled at Mrs. Higurashi's idea. She stared a moment longer at Kagome and then looked over her shoulder.

"That's a good idea since she hasn't eaten." She called quietly. Inuyasha moved forward and closed the door harshly. He flicked the lock sideways and stepped back with a grin at his handy work. Now she couldn't get in. He chuckled darkly at the confused, shocked sounds the foolish woman was making. It must have been strange to see Kagome sleeping peacfully in her bed one second, and then having the door shut and locked in her face the next.

Inuyasha turned away from the door with an evil smirk and went back to sitting at the foot of Kagome's bed.


Insane-san says: Well there we go. The next chapter should be fun. And the one after that will be even better. Sometimes when I think of this fanfiction, I think of an orange. Technically you can eat the peel, but when you work your way further in, it just gets juicier and juicier...Oh dangit, now I've gone and made myself hungry for oranges. x.x

I'll see you little readers later. A review would be nice. Maybe it would take my mind off of oranges. :'D