Disclaimer: You know, I just packed up boxes so it looked like I had something to move. In all honesty, everything I own rode in the front seat of my car.

Run Kagome

Chapter 21 "Delusional Grandeur"

Elkonigin

She rode on his back feeling the subtle movements of his muscles underneath her hands as he moved. She smiled to herself and buried her head into his shoulder, smelling him as discreetly as she could. He smelled of the earth, the wind, the rain, everything wild. Just like him. There was nothing else that smelled like he did. The few times that she'd hugged him, when she smothered her face into his robes, she always breathed in his scent.

She should have reprimanded him for supposedly teaching Shippo a lesson, but you know what? She wasn't that fond of Shippo right now. She didn't hate him or anything, but Shippo wasn't exactly on her good side. She could have broken her neck if Inuyasha hadn't saved her.

Again.

He never seemed to tire of saving her. She shifted her head and looked at the side of his face. He didn't seem to mind doing anything for her lately.

"Inuyasha?"

"Hmm?" He rumbled from back in his throat.

"Are you still angry with me? For not telling you sooner?" She asked.

"Yes." He answered quickly and then sighed. "No, not really anymore. I was really pissed off at you." Kagome winced. "But not anymore."

"Why not?" What? She was curious.

"Does it matter?" He grumbled.

"Not really, no." She rested her head against his shoulder with her face mere inches from his neck. She could see the sinews that ran underneath his jaw. The bone was chiseled but not harshly. Just enough for him to have that boyish charm that she loved about his looks.

"How's your back?" He asked suddenly.

"Okay, I guess." She furrowed her brows trying to figure out what he was getting at.

"Kagome?" Sango asked, Kagome turned her head towards her voice. Inuyasha eased her legs down to the ground and let her go.

"Kagome? Kagome!" Shippo said, launching himself at her. Kagome braced herself as she watched Shippo leap at her in all his bloody, demon-gutted glory. Inuyasha grabbed his tail and flung him back into the gore. Kagome winced as he rolled to a stop in the midst of the blood and guts of what remained of a large cat looking thing.

"Watch it runt!" Inuyasha growled. "You want to hurt her even more?"

"I wasn't going to hurt her!" Shippo yelled back in his defense.

"You should have thought about that before you made her climb up the damn tree!"

"Inuyasha, it's ok, really. Shippo was just doing his best to protect me." Kagome said, wrapping her arm around his, to remind him that she was still there.

"Then he should have found me! He knows that he doesn't have the strength to take on a full demon!" Inuyasha kept yelling. Kagome stepped in front of him, which promptly caused her to move muscles in her back, which protested very, very painfully.

"Inuyasha--!" She started to say, but when the pain in her back registered, she couldn't speak or move anymore. Sounds faded away into the distance and she could hear herself breathing as she tried to subdue the pain pounding in her body. Her body finally gave out and she collapsed, not caring that Inuyasha caught her before she hit the ground.

Kagome wrapped her arm around his, probably trying to calm him down. Like that was going to work. He was beyond pissed off.

"Then he should have found me! He knows that he doesn't have the strength to take on a full demon!" Kagome moved in front of him and he watched her face change.

"Inuyasha--!" She started and he prepared for a sit, but after a couple seconds, there was nothing. He looked at her, with the blood rushing from her face, giving an eerie paleness to her.

"Kagome?" He asked, but she just took in ragged breaths. Her eyes rolled back into her head and Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her as she began to fall back. He had one arm wrapped around her back and another underneath her neck to keep her head supported. Her knees had buckled and he was forced to lean over with her in order to keep from tumbling backwards. The only sign of life was that she was breathing. Her body lay limp in his arms and her head lolled back in his hand.

"Kagome!" Sango yelled as she watched the girl collapse.

"I'm taking her to Kaede." Inuyasha said, as he shifted the girl around enough to pick her up off the ground. He turned and began to walk away with Kagome, but turned his head so they could hear him. "By the way, Kagome said there wasn't a shard."

The sounds of a scuffle could be heard in the background, as he could hear Shippo using words that he didn't know he knew. He must be a better influence on the kit than he realized. He allowed a small smirk to slip onto his face. Kagome was going to be pissed once she found out.

Now if he could only manage to keep her safe every once in a while. Of course that could prove to be a challenge.

He could always tie their wrists together and that way she'd always be right next to him. But then they'd be together all the time and he didn't think that he could handle that much concentrated Kagome-time. Not that he didn't enjoy being around her, but that's a lot of Kagome, not to mention she'd be pretty pissed.

Hmm, now what were his other options? Or at least ones that wouldn't get him sat.

He rolled his eyes, like that was even remotely possible. He attempted to not get sat at every opportunity possible. It's not like he tried to get sat, Kagome was just impossibly moody and he couldn't figure her out if their lives depended on it. He sighed as he walked, turning his shoulder to keep the brush from hitting her. He saw Kaede's hut and shifted her in his arms a little bit. She groaned as she shifted and he shoved the mat out of the way with his shoulder. He glanced around as he laid her down on her stomach, to get the pressure off of her back and neck.

Kaede wasn't anywhere to be found.

"Dammit! Why isn't she around when you need her?" Inuyasha growled as he stepped outside the hut, searching for any sign of the old hag. He stepped further out from the hut and tried to find Kaede. He jumped around the village searching for any sign of her. He growled as he landed back at the hut. He stepped inside not only to find Kaede, but Kagome's shirt off as well. His mouth dropped open and his face became the color of his jacket.

"What the hell is the problem with you!"

"Avert ye eyes, Inuyasha, if it is that much of a problem for ye." Kaede stated plainly.

"You could put up a sign or something. You don't just strip her in the middle of the room!"

"You're still looking." Kaede reminded him, and he turned his attention to the wall.

"What's wrong with her? Is she injured badly?" He asked, glancing at the girl on the floor of the hut from his position in front of the door. He wasn't about to let some random villager wander in or God forbid, Miroku.

"Not anymore than she was before. She just fell too hard and moved too quickly. I have applied some herbs that should lessen the pain."

"So, she'll be okay?" He asked tentatively.

"Yes, Inuyasha, she will be fine in a couple days." Kaede reassured him. "Just in time for you all to leave to continue on your hunt for the sacred jewel shards."

"You make it sound like I don't care about anything."

"Do you?" Kaede asked, as she rubbed some more ointment into the girl's back. Inuyasha glanced at Kagome periodically from his position in front of the door.

"Do I what?" He asked.

"Care about anything? You don't seem to act like you care about anything or anyone."

"What are you talking about hag! Of course I care about . . . stuff."

"Oh? And what sort of 'stuff' do you care about?" She asked and Inuyasha's mouth moved, however, no sound ever came out of it. "I'm waiting Inuyasha." Kaede stated while she wrapped a blanket around Kagome's shoulders.

"I'll take her into the back room." He told Kaede as he knelt down beside the unconscious girl lying on the floor. "She'll sit me into next week if she finds herself like this."

Inuyasha wrapped the blanket more securely around her body, as he picked her up and carried her into the back room. He stretched her out on the floor mat, letting her muscles stretch out. She would be sore for a while, until the bruises on her back began to dissipate.

Inuyasha wrapped the blanket around her securely and used some of the sheets as a pillow. She shivered from the cold seeping in from the setting sun and he noted that her arms and shoulders were bare of clothing. He pulled his jacket off and laid it over her shoulders, keeping the cold out. He brushed the hair from her face and tucked it gently behind her ears. He stood up and walked out of the room.

He felt Kaede's eyes on him as he emerged jacket-less.

"Don't give me any more shit about not caring, Hag." He growled as he stomped out of the hut. His ears burned when he heard Kaede snickering behind him. When the snickering turned into full blown laughter, he turned back and lunged back into the hut. Kaede merely looked up at him in agonizing amusement. "Yes, Inuyasha?"

He opened his mouth to speak and still no words came out, all that could be understood was a frustrated growl.

"ARGH!" He yelled, clenching his fists. "You. Are. A. Horrible. Person." He said, accenting each world with a jab of his finger in her face. He then turned back around and started back out the door, simply because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

This only caused Kaede to burst into another fit of laughter.

"Is that all Inuyasha?" She laughed. "Have ye become so mellow that ye can't retort? Has Kagome tamed you so?"

Remember: You promised Kagome you wouldn't kill her.

Do not kill.

No killing.

Don't do it.

Keep walking.

Keeeep walking.

Inuyasha managed to keep a tap on his anger and avoided killing any living objects. Unless you counted a few trees in the forest that met their untimely demise. He leapt into his tree, the God Tree, and proceeded to pout and scowl out the rest of his angry temperament.

Stupid hag.

Who does she think she is?

"Tamed"?

Like I could ever be tamed by the likes of a human. If it weren't for this necklace I wouldn't even be in this place.

Hell, the jewel would still be in one piece if they would've let me have it.

Inuyasha leaned back in his perch in his tree and growled. He didn't mean it like that. He was just so fed up of seeing people get hurt. It irritated him beyond belief. It was just so hard to sit around, knowing that there was nothing that he could do. He knew that Kagome was right about her time. He couldn't just go and kill that bastard of a father that she had. It wouldn't do anything except make matters worse for her and her family.

Although he didn't think that anything else would be quite as fun. And it was just so tempting.

There was nothing that he could really do that wouldn't upset Kagome or make matters worse. He knew about those authority figures that always walked around her time. He knew all about them.

And he wasn't always as brash and impulsive as he seemed. Let his enemies mistake his impulsiveness for a weakness, they'd realize their mistake soon enough after he'd gutted them twice over.

And as of right now, he just wanted to get on the road and get back to collecting jewel shards and beating down that bastard Naraku. That's what he really wanted to do right now. He just wanted everything to go back to the way it was. For Kagome to be herself again instead of the beaten down imposter that she was trying to pass off as herself. He knew who she was and that person wasn't her.

But then maybe he didn't know the real her. Maybe the person that he knew was all made up and this was the real her.

No. That wasn't it. The person now, may be a part of her but it wasn't the whole thing. Not even close. He'd seen her scared of her wits before and she'd fought back, but now, she was just scared and the thing that she was scared of she couldn't fight back against. That's what the problem was. And if she couldn't use her fists, then he would be her hands. He'd fight to the death for her and hopefully, she knew that.

It would make sense with all the times he'd been stabbed with a sword, or arrow, or halberd, or nearly bitten in half, or, well hell! Every time that he got injured it was all he could do to keep her from crying. And crying had to mean something, didn't it? He sure as hell wasn't making a mountain out of a molehill was he?

Well at any rate, it shouldn't be too much longer before they could get back on the road with every one in tow. He'd even wandered out, looking for the damned demon that caught them by surprise a few times. No one had even heard of the thing. And it was far too real to be an illusion, or even a golum. Last he knew, Naraku only had the power to make golums of himself, not other creatures. And it certainly didn't smell of Naraku, so it couldn't be one of his offspring like Kagura.

Since when had his life gotten so damn weird?

A lecher, a demon exterminator who was originally out to kill him, an annoying brat, and a girl who acted like she owned him from 500 years in the future. He really needed to work on getting normal friends. Or at least some that didn't grope women, beat people with a giant boomerang, annoy the hell out of him, or send him flying to ground with a command.

The firecat was cool though. She could stay.

He started tearing leaves with his claws making small pieces of confetti that littered the ground beneath him and his branch. He let his feet dangle off the side and let his muscles move his legs.

Being this at ease made him edgy. He needed to do something, destroy something, beat the tar out of something.

Breathing in deeply he resided to watching the pieces of leaf fall towards the ground as he cut it with his claws.

Kagome forced her eyes open and felt the residual effects of a major headache wash over her. She groaned and pulled her arms underneath her. The room was way too chilly; she shuddered and pulled the blanket tighter around her.

That would be about when she noticed two things.

One being that the blanket was red, and two being that there was skin touching skin where skin shouldn't be touching. Not if she was properly clothed.

What was going on? She looked out the window and saw the moonlight filtering through onto the wooden floor. She pushed herself up and felt the tenseness of the muscles in her shoulders and neck. She reached up and rubbed them gingerly, wincing as her fingers came in contact with the bruises.

How did it always end up with her being in pain? She glanced around the room and noted that there was no sign of Inuyasha. She sat up, the weight of the firerat jacket shielding her from the cold that threatened to make her sick. She pushed herself up to her feet, feeling the real blanket slide out from around her and she wrapped the jacket close around her.

How long had she been asleep and why did her head feel so woozy all of a sudden? She stumbled towards the doorway of the room.

Her head started to fog up and she shook it for good measure and to clear it up. However, as much sense as it made, it didn't work. She stumbled into the main room and saw the foggy light of the fire burning, and everyone asleep around it. Well, not everyone. She stepped over Miroku and headed outside where he would be sleeping. He never slept inside.

Unless he was human, but most of the time, they were never back here. They were outside most of the time, so when he was human, he actually slept outside. So then he slept outside most of the time. Right?

The firecat mewed in interest and she waved it back to sleep.

She moved the mat aside and stepped outside where the cold lived and slept and played. She let the mat slowly fall back as to not disturb the others. She stumbled down to the ground and wrapped her arms around herself as the cold began to seep in.

Oh yeah, she forgot her shoes. And where was her shirt?

Oh yeah, that was MIA.

She looked around slowly and back at the hut. He was not there and she had to find him. She needed to know something.

Hmm, maybe she would remember once she found him.

Her head hurt a little too much to think ahead for anything.

She reached the edge of the forest and leaned on the trees for support. Her head was beginning to pound in time to her pulse; she could almost feel the blood flowing through her brain. In fact, she could feel it, but the sound of her blood rushing through her capillaries made her ears bleed.

She rubbed her temple and shivered violently, leaning her shoulder against the tree.

Why was she out here again?

Oh yeah, him.

She kept walking, feeling the cold earth seep into her feet. Her toes began to lose feeling as she walked.

It seemed as though every sharp twig, every broken branch, every rising root managed to catch her foot as she walked. She stumbled forward, striking her temple on a tree as a particularly sharp root reached out to jab her innocent and tender foot. She whimpered and rubbed the abused part of her forehead tenderly as she rubbed the bottom of her foot along her calf to try and scrape off any other pieces of the forest that wished to travel on the underside of her feet.

Now, where was she going? Ah yes, to him. The one that needed to be asked something, right? That's why she was going right?

Aw damn, she couldn't remember at all anymore. What was so urgent?

But thinking about it made her head hurt. So, might as well just go along with it. She wrapped his jacket more securely around her as she tried to retain some sort of warmth.

But at least she knew where he would be, otherwise, she would have been completely lost altogether. She didn't pass it, did she? No, it was just a little further up. But everything looked so different in the dark, compared to . . . to the light. She mentally shrugged her shoulders at that statement. If only her head would cease the pounding, then maybe she could think straight. Maybe.

She almost passed her stop, the reason she trekked all the way out here. She only noticed because of the bare human-looking foot that dangled just in her view. She turned and reached out to touch it, when it moved of its own accord. She jumped back in alarm, her foot catching on one of the up grown roots and fell backwards. She yelped when her body hit the ground and the figure in the trees bolted up right, the moonlight reflecting the predator in his gaze as it searched and found her.

She was his prey.

Inuyasha had come thiiiiis close to falling asleep and sleeping soundly. One thing he rarely ever did. This feat was halted mid-stride with a loud yelp in a reasonably quiet forest. He bolted upright in his tree, withdrawing his hanging foot, ready for anything to jump at him.

For a moment, nothing happened and he leaned forward to scan the ground.

Kagome stared at him from her position on the ground and he could hear her gulp. His eyes narrowed.

What is she doing out here this late into the night?

And what the hell is she doing halfway dressed!

He jumped down to her side and she began to push herself up and he helped her.

Her eyes were glassy. Her stare went right through him, like she wasn't even concentrating on him.

This was not good. So instead of yelling at her, he chose to be sensible in his yelling and word choice.

"Kagome." Her gaze focused on him briefly. "What. Are. You. Doing?" Okay, so maybe the sensibility of his statement and word choice was lost because he spoke through gritted teeth.

"You." She breathed. "I was . . . looking for you." Her eyes glazed over again and he furrowed his eyebrows at her.

"Why? Is something wrong?"

"No . . . I needed to ask you something." He noticed that she was tightening his robe around her.

"Yeah? It couldn't wait till morning?" She shook her head, wincing at the motion. "What was it then?"

"I don't remember?" She asked.

"You don't remember?" He held back his tendency to yell and tried to think his words through.

"I was hoping that you would know." She whispered.

"How would I know what you were going to ask me?" She frowned as though the thought had never occurred to her. "Where are your clothes?"

"Um, I don't remember?"

"Do you remember anything?"

"Yeah. Maybe. Well, no, not really." She admitted, giving him a small childish smile.

"Come on, let's get back to the hag's place, so you don't freeze to death. What were you doing on the ground anyway?"

"The ground tripped me. And I fell."

"Did you hurt anything? Like your ankle?" Or your head?

"No. It feels fine." She said, moving to push herself up. Inuyasha slid his hands under her arms and hoisted her to her feet. "Wow. You're strong." She stated as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and proceeded to guide her back to Kaede's hut.

"So, I've heard." He mumbled. She was delirious. It was obvious with the way her eyes glazed over whenever she talked and the way she looked through him unless he made her focus on him.

They had walked a little ways before he noticed the scratch on her temple.

"What happened to your head?"

"I think I fell again."

"You are a klutz of the highest degree, Kagome."

"And you are a . . . a . . . "

"A what?"

"A really strong guy." She paused. "Of the highest degree." She giggled deliriously and stumbled.

"How about I carry you the rest of the way, before you kill yourself." He said, moving to pick her up.

"No, I can walk. I don't want to wear you out, we have to go shard hunting tomorrow, remember?"

"But I thought you said that I was a really strong guy. Of the highest degree." She seemed to think about this and before she could object, he had her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked at him.

"Where's your coat? Did you lose it?"

"You're wearing it."

"Oh. Yeah. That's why you look different." She reached up and rubbed one of his ears, giggling when it flicked under her touch. "Did I ever mention that I loved your ears?"

Inuyasha blushed and drew his head away from her hands.

They reached Kaede's hut and he let her feet hit the ground gently and guided her through the door, over Sango, and back into her current bedroom.

"Now, how about you get some sleep, before you injure yourself?" He stated, lowering her into her bed. He pulled the blanket over her and watched as she nestled herself into his jacket.

"But I wouldn't hurt myself."

"Oh yeah. What do you call that scratch on your forehead?"

"The tree did it, not me. It's not my fault that it doesn't like me." Inuyasha began to draw away from her bed and her hand reached out and snatched his pant leg. "Stay."

He grinned.

"Did you forget the command too?"

"No, stay here. With me." He loosened her fingers from his pant leg and then settled back against the wall.

"I'll stay. Now get to sleep."

"So we can go shard hunting tomorrow, right?"

"Right." He answered as he watched her, laying on her stomach close her eyes. Within moments she was asleep and he rubbed his eyes. Sometimes he briefly wondered if the shards were worth all of them getting hurt all the time. But then again, the shards had nothing to do with her father beating her. That was something that happened in her time before the shards ever came into play.

Inuyasha sat in the hut watching her all throughout the night, knowing that he couldn't let her go shard hunting tomorrow, because tomorrow night was the moonless night that he'd been waiting for.

And besides she needed to be here and rest without getting hurt so that she could you know heal and everything.

Why does my head hurt?

Kagome opened her eyes and shut them just as quickly as the light burned into the back of her eyelids. She grimaced and turned her face into the ground.

She had a vague feeling of doing something the night before, but she couldn't remember anything, or at least anything that she could put a firm finger on. She pushed herself up on her elbows, feeling the crick in her neck pop as she moved, and rubbed her palm against her forehead.

It feels like I've been out all night, ran a marathon, and got catapulted into a brick wall all at the same time.

She held her hand over her eyes and cracked her fingers open a bit so that she could see without all the blinding UV lights piercing into her retinas and burning them beyond repair. She groaned and laid her head back against the ground.

She heard someone come into the room and moved her eyes so that she could possibly see who it was.

"So you're finally awake." Inuyasha stated matter-of-factly. Kagome groaned and dragged her head over her face to block out his and the light.

"Go away Inuyasha." She muttered.

"I would, but you've been wearing my clothes for the better part of two days now." He said, sitting down in front of her. She looked at her clothes. She was bare-ass naked with only his jacket on as a shirt. She yelped and made sure that she was covered. She looked at him, squinting in the sunlight.

"And why am I wearing your clothes?" She asked.

"Because you were injured and Kaede had to take off your shirt in order to heal you. So being the nice guy that I am, I used my jacket to cover you."

"You didn't want to get blamed and get a face-plant into the dirt." She muttered, resting her head in her palms.

"Can you blame me?" He asked, resting back on his hands. "You nearly had a face-plant yourself and nearly died. Don't you think that should be a sign to go easy on me?"

"Or maybe it's a sign that you shouldn't be so stubborn and impulsive and possibly show a shred of human kindness to others for once." She smiled.

"And what do you call letting that father of yours live?" He asked, leaning forward on his knees to stare down at her.

"You would have killed him?" She asked, wide-eyed. She knew that he was harsh, but she didn't think that he could actually kill her father.

"I killed demons who threatened to even touch you." His eyes narrowed at her. "What makes you think that I wouldn't kill a human that beat you senseless?"

"He didn't beat me senseless."

"Would you stop defending him!" Inuyasha yelled at her, making her cringe. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and clutched the jacket closed.

"I'm not defending him! I'm stating facts!"

"You were delirious! He left you lying on the floor! He choked you and snapped your ribs! He didn't care if you lived or died! He didn't care if you died, Kagome!"

"He's still my father!" She screamed back at him, tears pouring down her face. "No matter what he does or what I do, he is still my father! You may hate your family, but I can't hate mine!"

You may hate your family . . .

Her words burned his ears.

He loved his mother. More so than any other son ever could.

He couldn't love his father; he never knew him. His father was never a father to him. Sesshomaru remembered him, but Inuyasha was a baby when he died. And Inuyasha was doomed to have an ambiguous semi-love for his father.

. . . but I can't hate mine!

Kagome wasn't him. Kagome wasn't anything like him. Which was probably a good thing because he might have killed her in the beginning of the whole damn thing.

He watched tears spill down her face as she yelled at him. He couldn't understand what she was going through, no matter how hard he tried. His parents died when he was so young and the people that did hate him and beat him weren't his family. Sesshomaru was only his half brother. He wasn't really family. And the people that did beat him, he could hate all of them, because he didn't have to live with any of them.

But Kagome lived with her abuser. Her home was infected with him. There was no escape for her, except here. This was the only place that she could get away from him. She was so desperate to go shard hunting because the further from the well they got, the further from her father they were.

"Kagome, stop crying." He told her and she looked at him with red, puffy eyes.

"Why? Why should I?" She said, wiping her face with her hands. "Most of the time you're the reason that I end up crying!"

"So what if I am?" He asked. "I've never laid a hand on you and I never will. I said that I would protect you Kagome and that's what I'm going to do. Whether or not you agree with it is beside the point. I'm going to protect you Kagome. Even if it means protecting you from your own family."

"And what about my family? What am I supposed to do then?"

"What about them? You said yourself that your father won't touch them."

"No, what about when I return home? Are you going to follow me around wherever I go?" She asked, trying to catch him in something that he wouldn't be able to uphold.

"Yeah. I will." He told her. "I will follow you wherever you go. No matter what." She glanced up at him and wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand.

"Inuyasha, you know as well as I do that you can't follow me everywhere." She sniffled, "What about when I go to school, you can't follow me there."

"But I can sit outside your window."

Like I have been for the past couple times.

"But you'll be bored to tears."

"So, I'll think of ways to thrash your father without killing him."

"Inuyasha." She said, with a slight chuckle. It was a start; she felt well enough to laugh a little bit, no matter how small it was, and that was an improvement. "That's not fair to either of us."

"No, it's just not fair to me. And I can live with that."

"But Inuyasha, I can't ask you to do that."

"See, that's the great part about all this. You don't have to ask me to do anything. I'm doing this on my own, whether you want me to or not."

Kagome rubbed her temples with her hands and squinted her eyes at the light coming into the room. Inuyasha's brow furrowed as the argument came to an abrupt halt as Inuyasha watched the girl before him clutch her head and rest herself firmly against the floor.

"Kagome? You okay?" She nodded slowly.

"My head hurts. It feels like it's going to explode or something." She mumbled. Inuyasha slid behind her to grab the medicine that had been left over. He grabbed a couple bottles and held them out to Kagome.

"Which one is it that you take?" He asked and she pointed to one, wincing as she kept rubbing her eyes and temples. He unscrewed the top of the bottom and poured out a couple of the pills into his palm. "Here." He held his hand out and she took the pills and popped them in her mouth.

"Thanks." She mumbled and she slid herself along the floor until she was lying down. "I think that I need to sleep for a little bit." She winced as she adjusted herself. Inuyasha noted that she used one arm as a pillow for her head and the other to keep his jacket closed.

She hadn't exactly asked for her shirt back and Inuyasha grinned as he brushed some of her hair from her eyes. The bruise on her cheek had finally disappeared, and the bruises on her neck were slowly fading away much to Inuyasha's liking.

Whenever she got hurt, even the slightest bit, he felt responsible. And every time he looked at her now, he saw those markings and he remembered how he failed her on several occasions. So many times that he could have prevented those bruises, but he didn't and now they were just beginning to heal.

Shit happens. He knew that. He just didn't want it to happen with Kagome.

"I think you need to sleep for a little bit too, Kagome." He whispered. "It's getting late. I'll see you in the morning."

Elkonigin here, again.

And I hope that everyone enjoys the chapter. At least more than I enjoyed writing it. And this chapter was so hard to write. I'm not good at being delirious, as I usually don't remember what happens. So, at any rate, enjoy and I'm working on chapter 22 right now as we speak. Wow, chapter 22, it's so much fun to think about. Chapter 22. It seems like yesterday I was on chapter 8. So anyways, I hope that you all read, relax, and review, reviewing especially, and bear with me.

Elkonigin out.