A/N: I'm realizing that ending a chapter like I ended the last one is bad for my mind. Because not only do I feel less inclined to write more when it's not some sort of cliff-hanger, it makes it harder to come up with a way to start the next chapter. So…expect more cliff-hangers, I guess.

Haven't been satisfied with this chapter, as usual. That's why it took so long. And I started school two weeks ago, so that kinda sucks and all.

Chapter 29

As I suspected, Kagome was not ready to walk after just a few days of bed rest. The moment she'd been balanced on her own without any help from me, she cringed and reopened her wound a little. Kaede immediately made her lay back down so the stitches and bandages could be replaced.

A week later, Kagome tried again, and she was quite a bit better. She could only take a few steps before she'd reached out and put a lot of her weight on my arm, but it was better than her first attempt. I'd helped her walk outside, where we sat in the grass for lunch and then she had to go back inside to take her medicine. We did this for several more days, and finally she begged me to take her into town.

So I carefully lifted her, one arm scooping under her knees and the other around her waist. Normally I would've carried her on my back, but I was too worried that she would hurt herself trying to climb on so I made her concede to this arrangement. We went to a little clothing store so she could get some new things, since she'd been wearing practically the same outfit since we'd arrived on the island.

I noticed Kagome looked tired after shuffling around the store for a while, so I forced her to let me carry her back to Kaede's hut. I have a feeling she only agreed because she was getting so worn out so quickly, and she knew I would never let her leave the hut for another week or two if she fainted or something. (Which is true.)

Finally, three weeks of rehabilitation later, she could take wobbly steps around outside without me standing directly next to her, waiting to steady her, so I had her climb onto my back. Of course, I knelt down to the ground, practically on my knees, so she wouldn't have too much work to do, and she settled herself between my shoulder blades easily enough. Her arms wrapped around my neck securely and I brought us farther into town than usual.

Oddly enough, we encountered Miroku and Sango that very same day. After Kagome had woken through her haze of painkillers, they'd gone to find rooms at a hotel because Kaede's hut was very crowded with five of us in it. They'd said they would go around the town to find whatever clues they could, and occasionally stopped by to keep Kagome company.

"Kagome!" a voice called from behind me. I turned and met Sango's surprised gaze. "How are you feeling today?"

"Much better, thank you," Kagome replied. "This is the farthest we've gone yet. Anything new?"

"Afraid not," Sango said, frowning slightly. "Have you seen Miroku yet?"

"No. Have you guys been searching together or separately?" Kagome asked.

"Usually together, but he disappeared on me while I was talking to a store owner a few minutes ago. Where could he have gone…" She trailed off, seeming like she was talking more to herself than to us.

Sango glanced around, hoping to spot the dark haired man. I had a feeling of what I would see when her eyes locked onto something behind me to the left and her face darkened in fury. I turned and sure enough, there was Miroku, talking it up with a few waitresses at a store. He had that all-too-familiar expression on his face, the one meant to be charming. He held the hands of one of the girls in his.

Sango stomped over to him, grabbed him roughly by the shoulder, and interrogated him angrily. His face transformed into one of innocence, although his guilt was obvious. I tuned out their conversation, him trying to explain himself with weak excuses while Sango yelled at him.

"Where should we start?" I asked Kagome.

"I'm hungry," she said decidedly. "Kaede hasn't been letting me eat real food for three weeks. Just that mushy stuff for breakfast and broth for lunch and dinner. If you value your life, you will find me something better."

I laughed at her empty threat. I couldn't blame her; I'd probably say the same thing, although I would've made threats much sooner. I walked into the first restaurant I saw and carefully settled Kagome in a chair. I noticed she was watching me, her expression slightly quizzical.

"What?"

"You always handle me like I'm porcelain doll about to break or fall apart in your hands," she told me.

"Well, you are fairly breakable," I told her.

She made a face at me, but smiled. "I'm sturdier than I look, you know."

I raised a brow at her. "Says the girl who was handicapped for weeks from a single sword wound to the gut."

She stuck her tongue out. "We can't all be super-fast healers like you, Mr. Half Demon."

I rolled my eyes. "You're still fragile," I mumbled.

She ignored me in favor of ordering three people's worth of food. I ordered something small, because I knew I'd end up having to eat most of her stuff anyway.

She shoveled food into her mouth for a few minutes before she slowed down, nibbling on bread here or taking a small bite of meat there. She'd barely gotten through one person's worth of food before she gave me a guilty glance that meant she wanted me to finish her food. Rolling my eyes, I slid one of her plates across the table and she smiled.

Full and satisfied, we paid and got ready to leave. That's when I noticed Kagome was a little green.

I watched her for a long moment before speaking, slowly and steadily. "Do we need to go back to Kaede?"

"No, no," she insisted. "I'm fine. I swear."

"Really?" I asked, unconvinced. "Because you look a lot like you're about to relive lunch. Or faint. Or both, which would be even more unpleasant, by the way."

"I'm just…a little dizzy," she said, pausing to swallow hard. She had a sheen of sweat on her face.

I scooped her up carefully before she had time to protest and marched her back to Kaede. As soon as she was sitting back on her little bed, she covered her mouth with a panicked look in her eyes and Kaede handed her a bucket. Kagome's lunch came back up seconds later, and—

Is she crying?

I rushed over to her, worried. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" I demanded, frantically wiping tears from her cheeks.

"I just—wished I could—be more useful," she bawled, pausing to take breaths between her sobs, which were gaining strength and volume.

"Kagome, you are useful," I asserted.

"No—I'm—not!" she wailed. She was in full break-down mode now. God, all I could think about was I hope she doesn't break her stitches again instead of ways to calm her down. "I'm useless and I can't walk or eat or do anything!"

I sent a desperate look to Kaede. What do I do? Technically, she was right about the walking and eating. And if you can't do those, it's hard to be helpful in our situation. But that's what she has me for, right?

But…the eating part was my fault. I should've known better. If Kaede didn't want Kagome to eat certain things yet, I should've continued giving Kagome the bland meals she complained about.

It's just so damn hard to say no to Kagome, though.

Kaede, sensing my helplessness, swooped in and wrapped and arm around Kagome's shaking shoulders. She talked to Kagome in a soothing voice and gradually Kagome quieted, only a few hiccups and sniffles left. She accepted a glass of water to rinse her mouth, then gulped the rest down greedily.

"Um…" She hesitated.

"Yes, child?" Kaede said.

"I'm…hungry," Kagome said in a small, embarrassed voice, eyes averted.

Kaede chuckled. "I will make you something to eat. As ye learned the hard way, ye are not ready for such difficult to digest foods yet."

Kagome nodded, shamefaced. "Sorry," she mumbled. I couldn't tell if she was sorry for getting me to buy her the stuff or for eating it. Probably both.


The process of going through town was pretty boring, to say the least. Most people just gave us these weird looks. I'm not sure if it was because I was carrying Kagome on my back everywhere, or because we were looking for something we couldn't describe.

After about a week of searching, we ran out of people to ask and had to decide how to go about leaving this little town. The best idea was the Kagome and I stay behind until she was strong enough to walk on her own for the whole day and have Miroku and Sango move on. And so they gathered their things and we agreed to meet for breakfast in the morning before they left. (Kagome wanted to say goodbye, of course, because she's weird and emotional that way.)

And this is the part where things get a little…odd.

I carried Kagome into town in the morning like I said, right? But then when we were waiting for Miroku and Sango at the little restaurant near their hotel, they were really late. After we sat there for about half an hour, we decided to go check their hotel for them. When we asked the people at the front desk about them, we were told they never returned the night before.

So by now Kagome's starting to freak herself out. She was going into full-out panic mode. I stepped into the street and peered around the area carefully, looking for signs of the missing duo. I took us down the block and looked into some of the forest that bordered the town behind a grouping of tiny houses. When I made to enter them, Kagome finally came out of her panicked oblivion and pulled my hair.

"Ow! Damn it, Kagome, what was that for?" I demanded.

"We can't go in there!" she exclaimed.

"And why the hell not?" I asked. Then I remembered something. "Like you're gonna stop me? I'm the one walking, therefore I decide where we go."

She tugged one of my ears angrily. "We are not going into the creepy forest."

"Stop that!" I growled. "What makes the forest so 'creepy'?"

"We don't know what's in there. Plus, those don't look like the kinds of trees we have back home," she said, referring to the tropical-looking plants.

"Well, of course we won't know until we go in. What if Sango and Miroku are out there? You want to leave them for dead?" I asked, knowing her response.

"Well…no, but—"

"But nothing. We're going, whether you like it or not, so just shut up and stop trying to pull my hair out."

She gave a final annoyed tug on my hair and I continued on my merry way.

So, I may have underestimated exactly how different this forest was from the ones back home.


A/N: Kinda short, but at this point I don't really care. I'm happy to at least have been able to get this much written, 'cause my mind is elsewhere and does not want to cooperate when it comes to this story.

I'm thinking of writing a story based on Snow White. Thoughts?