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Done For

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It had been a weird freaking day. Kagome had traveled to the other side of the planet - okay maybe not planet but it felt like it - to fill the prescriptions for her friends. It had taken hours and every minute away from her hanyou made the knot in her stomach grow tighter. The higher doses weren't sitting well with him and he had been vomiting most of the morning. Dr. Kobayashi insisted it was nothing to worry about but she really wanted a second opinion. It was strange, or perhaps not, but Inuyasha had actually been a lot less...well, rude and obstinate since he'd come back. He'd been sweet and affectionate, which almost blew her mind. Maybe he just didn't feel well enough to be his usual stubborn, gruff self but while it was weird, she really liked it and stranger still, she got the distinct impression he liked the change in his behavior as well. He was smiling a lot more than she'd ever seen, and just seemed overall happier aside from when it got really bad. Then he was miserable.

The scariest it ever got was when he cried...and he'd been tearing up a lot lately. He was crying earlier after the tenth time he'd emptied his stomach. Just sat and buried his face in his knees that he'd pulled tightly against his chest as she rubbed his back unsure of what to say. She didn't know how his stomach still managed to find stuff to expel. He was barely eating as it was and yet it kept coming and coming and coming.

As she wrung her hair dry, Kagome quickly changed into fresh clothes and placed the mask over her mouth. She'd showered and sterilized everything she planned on bringing to her friends who she prayed hadn't caught this bitch of a disease. He didn't want her to leave but he knew she needed to. He didn't want his friends to die from what he had anymore than she did but he was nervous as hell that she'd carry it back and give it to them if they hadn't caught it. So, she took the bag full of medicine and took a deep breath as she made her way towards the well.

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It'd been almost a week since Inuyasha had shown up, blood gurgling out of the corner of his mouth, looking skeletal and gaunt. If it wasn't for the firerat robe, she wouldn't have recognized him at all. It was almost impossible to believe that was the same rough and tumble hanyou they'd all come to know and love and that scared her. She knew demons could catch diseases but...she'd never seen anything like that. How did he catch it? Would they catch it because they cared for their friend, even though it was for only a few hours?

Shippo was sitting against the hut door, anxiously wringing his hands as he cast glances at the others and bit his lip. As much as he bullied Inuyasha, he'd always thought of him as an older brother of sorts and he really, really didn't want him to die. That Kagome hadn't been back in a week scared him. They'd all thought she'd come back to tell them after the night of the new moon whether he had survived or not but she hadn't which meant either that he died and she was mourning him or that he was so sick she couldn't leave his side. He really hoped it was the latter.

Miroku sat under the Sacred Tree, running a solitary finger down his covered palm. For whatever reason, he always assumed that if one of them was going to die it would be him. That it was Inuyasha, whom he thought of as almost invincible, that was now the forerunner in that department was sobering. Life was unpredictable and unfair. It had never been more clear than when he saw the hanyou that fateful day. In a way, he was glad they'd seen Kikyo but he also felt enormous shame. They were so quick to assume the very worst about their friend that it never even occurred to them that he had a reason for sending Kagome home. They should've known better. Everything Inuyasha did was to protect the people he cared about so that he'd turn on all of them so suddenly should have alerted them to a bigger issue. Their friend would have died, still might die, because they believed he was capable of betraying them. What did that say about their friendship? Did they really not trust him? Did they truly think so little of him?

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As Kagome threw her leg over the lip of the well, she frowned at the distinct lack of noise coming from the direction of the village. She'd never given it much thought before but there were no voices, no soft sounds of footprints or animals, no gentle sloshing of men in the rice paddies. Just silence. Could she be too late? She should've come back sooner but...that might've been too dangerous. She should have...
"KAGOME!" Shippo screamed as he collided with her chest so hard the miko had the wind knocked out of her, "you came back! Where's Inuyasha? Is he..is he..."

"He's going to be alright but we're going to be gone for a few months. What he has is really serious and contagious," Kagome stressed before she asked nervously, "Have any of you..."

"I've been making sure they don't smell like Inuyasha," Shippo reassured her, "I thought he smelled weird for a while before he sent you home but I didn't know why. Now that I know, I'm keeping track of everyone's scent."

"Good job, Shippo. I'm proud of you," Kagome cooed as she rubbed his hair, "I've got some medicine all of you need to take to make sure you don't get sick like him and some stuff to disinfect Kaede's hut. Where are the others?"

"Miroku's by the tree and Sango and Kaede are in the village," Shippo answered before frowning, "Everyone else left though. Apparently, what Inuyasha has is real bad and people wanted to leave in case he came back."

"Yeah, it's pretty bad but he's taking medicine and we're hoping he'll get better soon," Kagome responded quietly, not wanting to go into the full extent of how bad it really was, " After I explain how to take all this stuff, I've got to go back but I'll come back in a week to let you guys know some more."