Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or its characters. I earn no profit from this work.

A/N: Edited/Updated August 2016

Chapter Eleven

"I close my eyes, thinking that there is nothing like an embrace after an absence, nothing like fitting my face into the curve of his shoulder and filling my lungs with the scent of him." – Jodi Picoult, Keeping Faith

She knew what she was seeing, but couldn't really believe it. Her bow fit comfortably in the figure's hands as she lifted it to sight her target. Her narrowed mahogany eyes focused on the incoming hanyō as she leveled her weapon. A devilishly happy grin spread across her face.

"No." Kagome stared at herself in disbelief. "This isn't right. It didn't happen like this."

Her deranged counterpart moved her eyes alone to wink at her. "You can't stop the inevitable."

Kagome didn't understand. She strode over to face herself and watched as the woman notched a sleek arrow to the bow. "What are you talking about?"

Her twisted twin chuckled at her confusion. "Don't you get it?" She tilted her chin in the hanyō's direction. "Look at him. What do you see?"

Kagome gazed at the hanyō rushing towards them, his motions sluggish, as if time was slowed around him. His shining mass of silver hair flowed behind him like a banner and the sleeves of his haori flapped in a nonexistent breeze. She smiled involuntarily at the sight. "I see Inuyasha."

"Yes, Inuyasha the hanyō." Other-Kagome pulled back the bowstring and smiled.

Kagome lunged forward and grabbed her arm. "No! You'll kill him!"

Her twin shouldered her away. "Exactly!" She whirled back to adjust the arrow thrown askew by the attack. "If you continue along this path, eventually you will kill him."

"I would never kill Inuyasha!" Kagome crawled to her feet, face livid with rage at this offending mimicry's audacity.

"Priestesses and yōkai can never be joined as you envision in that feeble mind of yours." Her darker self grimaced as she pulled the bow tight.

Kagome felt her lips lift in the facsimile of a snarl. "How can you say that and be me?! I've never,everthought that, so how canyou, portraying yourself asme, think that?! I've never proclaimed to be a priestess anyway! Everyone just assumes that because I have Kikyō's powers!"

Her twin merely sighed. "Then I have no choice but to show you what will happen to your precious hanyō if you do not heed my warning."

"Who the hellareyou?" Kagome was just too shocked to move.

She loosed the arrow and grinned as the jewel shard around her neck flared powerfully. "You'll know soon enough."

"No!" Kagome snapped free of her trance and bolted across the meadow, blood rushing through her ears as she watched the flashing arrow streak towards him. "Inuyasha! Look out!"

Her words fell on deaf ears and he ran straight into the attack. The intensity in his face faded and was replaced by an utterly painful look of heartbreak. Kagome watched with horror as the arrow pierced his heart and sent him sprawling to his knees. The waterfall of silver hair melted away as his body was enveloped by the blinding light of her purifying energy. The adorable dog-ears that tugged at her heartstrings disappeared, as well as the golden glow of his eyes.

Kagome collapsed in front of him, staring into the eyes of his mortal form. She reached out to him tentatively. "Inuyasha..."

His warm brown eyes seemed to finally see her. "Why, Kagome?" It was all he could manage as he collapsed before her...dead.

Her vision swam as she screamed to the beat of her doppelganger's laughter.

Kagome's eyes snapped open with a start and she instantly stilled. Sweat coated her entire body like a thin film and she shivered. Blinking to clear her vision, the breath caught in her throat.

Inuyasha's sleeping face was maybe a foot away from her own.

She could feel the sticky residue that the tears had left on her face – that stiff, crinkling sensation that meant she'd been crying in her sleep. She hadn't done that in a long time. Kagome slipped her left hand up and rubbed the tear tracks away, and took the chance to really look at Inuyasha. He was real and he was breathing and her mind was just playing horrid tricks on her.

His face was serene with sleep, softening his angular features into an almost boyish quality. It was times like these that reminded her of the pup he had undoubtedly once been, often finding herself enthralled by his youthful ease in sleep in the past. It was likely because his mouth was usually slack and he molded along whatever surface he'd fallen asleep against. She could see the strengthened line of his jaw and the overall ruggedness that came with age. Even the puppy-dog ears she adored had gotten taller and sharper in their shape, proof of their time spent apart. And despite having a single fang visible at his mouth, giving sufficient proof of his inu-yōkai ferocity, Kagome couldn't help but want to kiss him.

She honestly hadn't known what to expect given the fact he was a hanyō. She couldn't take his fifty year slumber into account of his aging because, technically, he'd been dead. She frowned at the familiar distaste at that thought, hedging away from entertaining the concept of him lifeless. Full-blooded yōkai, like his brother Sesshōmaru, didn't age at all; they were immortal. Inuyasha was part yōkai, so in her assumption, partially immortal. Or maybe the influence of yōki was strong enough to override the aging process completely? She did know that he'd aged somewhat; she could see it in his face.

Kagome swallowed and grimaced at how dry her throat was. Shit, she was thirsty. She glanced at Inuyasha, oddly calmed by how peaceful he looked. She didn't want to bother him just to get her a drink. She could get up and get it herself. Using her left hand, she tossed back the blanket and decided to sit up all in one shot in the hope it would minimize any pain. Sucking in a deep breath, she threw her upper torso forward.

She managed to keep her shout down to a mild-mannered yelp. If felt like someone was jabbing a hot poker through her body. She hunched forward with a groan. "H...holy shit."

His inu-yōkai caught the muted sound and snapped to attention, tossing him out from the folds of deep sleep. "What?"

Shaking his head as he sat up, his eyes fell on the girl beside him, though he quickly amended that thought as he absorbed the sight of her. There was no doubt in his mind that Kagome was no longer a girl and he'd have to be a fool not to see it as her supine shoulders went taunt with tension. Although, at the moment, all he could see was the bloodstained bandages beneath the thin, borrowed yukata she wore – it reminded him of the many "warning" labels slapped on everything in her future era

Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he noticed the rigidity of her hands gripping her blanket and it gave him pause. There was an oddness leaching from her stiff frame, as if he'd just caught her red-handed doing something forbidden. It was obvious that she had tried getting up, but was thwarted by pain. Was she trying to leave? Inuyasha suddenly felt nauseous. "Kagome?"

She physically flinched under the heavy questioning tone. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." Her voice was a soft, raspy whisper. "I just wanted a drink of water."

If he had a jewel shard for every time he felt this bumbling around her – some things just didn't change, it seemed – then he'd have enough pieces to complete the Shikon no Tama a hundred times over. He swallowed. "I would've gotten it for you."

"I didn't want to disturb you."

It was driving him mad that he couldn't see her face. Sango had undone the long braid she'd worn the night before and the wavy locks hung around her face like a hood – she also wasn't turning to face him, and that bothered him. "I'll be right back."

Kagome caught a glimpse of his hakama and Tessaiga's sheath out of her peripheral vision. She didn't let out her breath until he'd exited the room. When he'd spoken her name, it had reminded her of when her father had reprimanded her back before he'd died, part scolding and part angry. She didn't have to guess what he had to be angry about, considering she'd shot him and 'sat' him within a relatively short span of reuniting with him. She shook her head sadly; she'd come back to remedy her mistakes, but all she seemed capable of was piling more onto the mountain she already had.

Inuyasha took a moment to watch from the doorway before he made his presence known. Her bangs couldn't quite hide her face and he could see the elegant outline of her profile in the early morning light. Yeah, Kagome was definitely no longer a girl. She had seemed so young to him during the year they'd traveled together, but her face had lost any remnants of her childhood roundness and was now sleekly refined. She'd been a teenage then, nearly sixteen and if he did the math, it made sense that she'd changed physically, as humans did; Kagome was close to twenty-one years old.

She must have felt his eyes because she flicked her bangs out of her face and looked up at him. Their eyes met, chocolate to gold, and it felt just as intense as when he'd seen her in that bloodstained meadow, as if they were the only two people on the planet. Her wide brown eyes were swirling with what looked like a hundred different emotions, but none of them fear. He looked down at the thought. Had he really thought she was afraid of him? He glanced at her innocently curious face and almost nodded to himself in confirmation.

And, really, that was what he had been afraid of in some deep recess in his heart.

Kagome watched him somewhat nervously, but her mouth practically screamed when she saw the cup of water in his hand. "Thank you for the water."

"Huh?" He blinked at her and then down at the cup. "Oh, yeah." He stepped into the room and held it out to her. "Here."

She greedily accepted it and savored the feel of it as it ran down her parched throat. She drained the cup and set it down. "That feels so much better."

"Do you want more?"

"No, I'm alright."

Inuyasha stepped to her left, moving to crouch between her and the wall. "You should rest some more. You lost a hell of a lot of blood."

She shrugged and immediately regretted it. "Dammit."

He would've smirked if her body hadn't started trembling all over. "How bad is it?"

"Oh," she sucked in a breath through clenched teeth and straightened up a bit. "It's manageable. I don't think you'd believe me if I said I was fine."

"Nope." He reached out to steady her.

Kagome breathed through the pain and glanced at his arm, right were his chest met his shoulder. There was a small rip with a faint blood stain around it. She could barely make out the ruddy hue of it from the red of his haori.

"If you continue along this path, eventually you will kill him."

Kagome shoved the image of her twisted sister away. She gulped a breath and tentatively reached out to slide her fingers across the torn fabric, feeling the soft bandage beneath it. "Does it hurt?"

Inuyasha watched her closely, concerned with how ashy her pale complexion had gotten. The bleak glisten in her eyes had him shaking his head. "No, it's just a scratch."

Her face went disturbingly vacant. "A scratch that could've killed you." Her brows furrowed deeply as she fixated on the torn cloth. "I wasn't sure if I could stop it. I had no idea my power had grown that strong and it wouldn't listen to me." White teeth flashed as she pulled her lower lip between them and bit down, almost gnawing on it with sudden anxious energy. "I could've sworn that I'd saved you from my mistake, but I saw you die in my dream." Her chest was heaving by now, breath coming short and ragged as her hand dragged lower to press over his heart. "I shot you right here and watched you die."

Inuyasha knew panic when he saw it, but it bewildered him to see it gripping Kagome of all people. She was tangled up in her head, no doubt finally processing the previous night's events and her actions. Her usually warm, bright eyes were dulled and vacant, lost to images he couldn't see and if he didn't do something to calm her, she'd pass out. Cradling her delicate face between his hands, he turned her head up and she woodenly resisted the movement. "Kagome, look at me." He kept his voice to a gentle murmur, pressing his fingers into the locked muscles of her neck. "'Easy, Kagome. I'm alright. Look at me and breathe."

Ever so slowly, her reddened eyes traveled upwards to rest on his face and blinked dazedly. "Inu...Inuyasha?"

He almost sagged to the floor with relief. "Yeah, that's right. I'm just fine, Kagome. It's okay." He used his claws to brush her bangs out of her face, pleased that her breathing seemed to be slowing. "I am very much alive and breathing. I know you can feel my heartbeat under your hand, Kagome." She seemed to focus and nodded jerkily. "You didn't kill me, or even hurt me." He smiled wryly. "Actually, you probably saved me."

She suddenly took a deep breath and the tension in her frame seemed to finally shatter, leaving her shuddering even as her hand tightened against his chest. "Only from myself."

His own nerves settled further as her eyes went watery, making sure to hold his confident smirk and supportive hold on her neck as his other hand dropped to cover hers. "That may be true, but you've saved me from myself countless times."

Whatever hanyō-magic he'd worked on her, the cold clutches of fear eased their hold on her and Kagome felt herself warming with embarrassment – the first time she saw him in years and she nearly had a breakdown. Blinking against the burn in her eyes, she took another deep breath and did her best to ignore how exposed she felt. "I couldn't live with myself if you died by my hand." She sniffed. "Besides, I made a promise to myself that I'd never lift a weapon to you again, possessed or otherwise." Calm despite the trembling in her limbs, Kagome pulled away from the scorch of his touch. "Can you forgive me?"

"Keh." He scowled, folding his arms over chest in a familiar, self-conscious gesture. "There isn't anything to forgive."

"Inuyasha, please."

His strong jaw clenched as he blew out his nose harshly. "Yes, alright? I forgive you."

Relieved, Kagome managed a bleary smile. "Thank you." Clearing her thick throat, she pointed at the rip in his haori. "I want to fix that, too"

The hanyō closed his eyes and sighed. "Sure. Whatever you want."

They were silent for a moment, merely observing each other, and he recognized how Kagome still felt awkward being vulnerable, though now she boldly looked him in the eye instead of turning away like she'd done in the past. It reminded him of the fiercely elegant creature he'd encountered the night before in that bloodied clearing. Kagome had grown capable and confident in her absence, and he wasn't sure where exactly that left him now; he had sense that this was only a temporary furlough past the reinforced walls she'd been building back before she'd left.

Inuyasha swallowed the knot in his throat and figured he should take advantage of the opportunity. He held out an arm. "Come here."

Kagome's heart flip-flopped at the hopeful glint in his eyes, laughing nervously as he beckoned. "Oh, no. I must smell absolutely horrible with the sweat and the blood and-"

"Kagome."

She felt like flinching again and cursed the flutters in her belly. "Yes?"

"You know you want to." He sounded amused, but she refused to look at him to confirm it.

She pursed her lips stubbornly, annoyed that he presumed so accurately. "Fine." She bit it out between her teeth and slid as close as she could, stopping when her knees brushed against his. "Good enough?"

He tipped his head to the side in the eerily similar manner of Inusaiai. She almost opened her mouth to comment about it when she realized he would have no idea who she was talking about, much less believe it. His abrupt movement snagged her attention as he stood up and bent towards her.

"No."

Kagome's brows knitted with confusion. "What are you doing? Inuyasha!" She let out a shocked yelp when his lean arms slipped around her shoulders and under her knees.

He shrugged, still carrying her, and sat back down against the wall. "If you're going to be difficult, then I guess it's up to me." He was positive this was going to bite him in the ass somehow, but he couldn't be bothered to care all that much – if he had a tail, it'd probably be wagging up a storm right about now.

Kagome sat so stiffly in his embrace that her back was beginning to ache. He'd never, ever gotten this close to her by choice and even when she tried, he used to act like scalded cat. She was sure he wasn't doing this just to knock her off-kilter – he sounded as surprised as she did, but it still stained her cheeks red. Her heart was setting a sprinter's pace in her chest, wholly unprepared for this kind of proximity. "Inuyasha, please put me down. I'm-" Kagome cursed the flustered tremor in her voice. "I'm probably going to get blood all over you."

Inuyasha stared at the wall over her head. It was true that the cloying metallic scent of blood hung about her even now, though he had difficultly believing anyone without his nose could detect it. If he allowed himself a modicum of honesty, he was sure this desire to be close to her was partly due to the fact it riled the protective instincts of his inu-yōkai – and with truth being the deciding factor here, her natural scent, the one that smelled of cool water and mountain air, pacified the rampant restlessness that plagued the duality of his nature

He wasn't about to overstep, however. "Do you want me put you back on the futon?"

She resisted for another moment, but that bizarre juxtaposition of feeling that always accompanied him – the enthusing blend of arousing thrill and assuaging security – had her pushing her half-hearted protests aside and accepting the warmth he was offering. "No, not really."

Inch by inch, the tension left her body and she allowed herself the indulgence of sagging against his strong chest. She shifted so her wounded side was untouched and pressed her head on his good shoulder. Kagome sighed exhaustedly when his head dropped to lean against her, his cheek resting on the crown of her head, the pull of sleep dragging at her brain. "Inuyasha?"

"Hm?" He brought his arms up to wrap lazily about her back.

Kagome yawned and nestled her head tighter against his shoulder. "I missed you."

Inuyasha felt his own eyes droop and tightened his hold. "Me too."