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I do not own Inuyasha, the characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. Similarly, I do not receive any financial benefit from this story, just the pleasure of knowing people enjoy it.

Thank you to Fawn Eyed Girl, Neutronstarchild and AnisaAnisa for your help in writing this scene, I appreciate it so so so much.

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Chapter 35

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

She heard his voice crying out in anger as she felt the wind fly past her as she was thrown like a doll.

"You bastard!"

Her love's voice carried a tone of desperation, of fear: a sound she had never heard from him in their centuries together. She only had a moment to discern what had caused his terror before her body erupted in pain, her flight cut short as she slammed into a tree. Her head cracked back and the world began to spin around her, colors fading into gray, as she slid to the ground. She struggled to open her eyes, the movement difficult, almost beyond her strength.

Ryukotsusei, the gray dragon.

For centuries he had been a thorn in their side, but over the past few decades he had been stalking them, attacking them at every opportunity. Yet never with this much animosity, this much maliciousness.

He knew.

He knew what they had kept from so many. It had only been a matter of time until someone investigated the undying miko.

"You have grown weak, Hoshiyomi," Ryukotsusei hissed, and she heard the slithering sound of his scales against the ground. "This human has destroyed you."

"She has strengthened me, something you will never understand." She heard him—her love, her mate—snarl back.

Ryukotsusei laughed, the sound chilling, as his voice drew nearer.

"She has weakened you; even now, you refuse to fight me because she is here. Look at her: how easily she was broken, the undying miko, the great lie."

Yoki streamed around her, a soft gold light beginning to burn away the gray. He was helping her, trying to heal her, not focusing on what he needed to do.

"Do… do not," she whispered, her lips barely moving.

"Midoriko…"

"It…" she coughed, each breath harder and harder to take. "It's time." Her pain-filled eyes opened to meet resigned green. She let them slide over his face one last time—the beloved purple markings, his shimmering green hair—before at last coming back to meet the determined gaze. He gave her a slight nod, his jaw setting.

"Let's end this," Hoshiyomi growled.

Her eyes closed as she called forth her reiki. In her heightened state she could see it, the bond between them, the tightly woven ribbons making them one. She fed her reiki into the ribbons, and saw them begin to glow, the gold brightening as her reiki blended with Hoshiyomi's yoki.

It was… It was beautiful.

She knew Ryukotsusei was speaking, gloating most likely, but she could not hear the words, only the muffled tone of his voice over the rush of energy coursing through her. All that mattered was giving every bit of her power to him, so he could act for both of them. One final stand.

Her reiki faltered as her body began to shut down. A golden glow was forming behind her eyelids, and she knew it was Hoshioyomi.

The ribbons between them tightened as if they were being pulled, the edges beginning to fray.

'I will find you again; wait for me in the next life.' His voice floated through her mind as the ribbons tore apart and everything went dark.

Kagome slowly came back to awareness at the sound of voices, barely audible behind the fog in her brain. She tried to reach for Inuyasha… but there was nothing. No brush of yoki, no soft voice, no touch of his hand.

"She's panicking, Jinen….ive me the syr…"

"Sh…egecting the reik… we need to get her stab..."

"Hel… hold her dow… The transfusion has to go slo… oesn't reject..."

Kagome struggled to make out the voices; they felt vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place them. She felt a prick in her arm and the fog grew thicker, dragging her back into the world of gray. She struggled against the encroaching darkness, one thought was clear to her as she slowly succumbed.

She needed to see Inuyasha.

They wouldn't let him fucking see her.

Inuyasha's fist hit the wall, his eyes burning from unshed tears as his head dropped. His black hair shielded him from everyone's gaze, but at the moment, he didn't care if they saw the tears. He just… he needed to know she was ok. He hated being fucking human, especially at a time like this. He couldn't smell her, couldn't feel her reiki… just…

"Dammit…" His voice was hoarse, emotion choking the words. She had to be ok. She just had to be.

His father had rushed Kagome back to the compound, and Inuyasha knew Rin and Jinenji had already been waiting to help her. The jeep hadn't even come to a stop before Inuyasha had jumped out, running as fast as he could to get to her, only to find the door locked and a grim Toga barring him from getting to Kagome.

"You can't go in there, pup."

"Get out of my way," Inuyasha had snarled, his purple eyes flashing at his father.

"Inuyasha," Toga had sighed, "they need time to help her."

"I won't get in the way I just… I just need to be there."

"You can't; not until they say it's ok. Rin can't be distracted."

That had been more than two hours ago… and they still wouldn't tell him a fucking thing.

Inuyasha was going to completely lose it soon.

"Inuyasha, what happened?" Toga's hand came to rest on Inuyasha's shoulder. Hell, he hadn't even heard him approach.

"Talk to Kagura."

"We did. But she wasn't able to tell us everything."

"What do you want to know? We got attacked, then fucking ambushed, and I … Fuck…" Inuyasha swore, pushing himself away from the wall. "I started to turn, then Kagome woke up and, hell I don't even know what happened from there."

"She purified you."

"I don't even think she knows what she did. Hell, I don't know what the fuck she did. She was starting to wake up when the lizard-brain tried to attack, I jumped to keep his focus on me, then she screamed my name and everything just…"

"Kagura said it was like the sun erupted in the clearing."

Inuyasha let out a choked sound.

"About accurate. Fuck, she turned everything in front of her to ash."

"Seems she did a good job singing everything else too, Kagura was grumbling about losing some bangs and an eyebrow."

"She lost control… Kami, she…" Inuyasha's eyes closed, the tears finally falling down his cheeks. "She couldn't control it. It was like standing in the middle of a storm, everything chaotic and erratic."

"She did get control back, though, at least that's what Kagura told us."

"No… no she didn't," Inuyasha whispered. "She couldn't. She was burning out, burning up. It wasn't until…"

Toga stilled.

"Until?"

"Until I touched her shoulder. Dad… I could see and feel her reiki all around us; hell, I fucking controlled it. How the hell is that possible?"

"You... controlled it?"

"Yeah… I could see it, feel it running through me, and I just… hell I don't know, I just pulled it back, so it didn't keep burning through her. It was like our energy called each other, then the fucked up thing? We finally get her reiki calmed down, and it starts almost feeding my yoki, as if to help it recover. She's fucking burning out and she's subconsciously worried about having purified me."

Toga froze, his thoughts turning back to what he had told Inuyasha only one month prior.

'Hoshiyomi and Midoriko had shared their energy with each other, and it in turn calmed and stabilized their powers. It was almost symbiotic, as one energy faltered the other strengthened.'

"Her reiki was … Inuyasha, have you mated with Kagome?" Inuyasha's eyes shot open to glare at his father, his cheeks flushed red. "I don't mean sex; I mean the full bond."

"No." Inuyasha groaned, dropping back against the wall. "I was gonna bring it up, then everything happened, and I didn't want to spring that on her and… yeah. What the fuck does that have to do with anything though?"

"I don't know, honestly." Toga's tone was troubled as he watched his son. "The only time I've heard of anything even remotely like that was Midoriko and Hoshiyomi, but it wasn't… it wasn't the same. They drew strength from each other, from their bond but…"

"But?"

Toga raised a hand to rub his eyes, his thoughts racing as he thought back to the pair he had known briefly a thousand years before.

"It seems different; it has to be different. Hoshiyomi was a full yokai, not even Midoriko could bring him back if he was purified, but it sounds like Kagome was trying something that… something that should be impossible."

"Keh, that sounds like something Kagome would do." Inuyasha let a small smile curve his lips, the first in hours, but it soon faded.

"What was it like?" Toga asked, his voice hesitant, almost afraid.

"It… I almost can't describe it. It was different from yoki, but at the same time, it just felt… I don't know, almost comforting, it was like my mind knew I was supposed to be afraid of it after what had happened, but I just… I just wasn't. I could see it, ya know. The moment the reiki washed through me I could fucking see it, like ribbons tying us together, pulling us closer, but they were… they were trying to merge, to bond, incomplete without the other… like us. Just… just like us." Inuyasha's voice dropped to a whisper as his head dropped back against the wall.

Father and son stood in silence for a few moments, and Inuyasha was grateful the others were keeping their distance. He didn't know who he had to thank for that; he knew Sango had to be at her wits' end too but… he needed the quiet, he needed to be able to try and hear, to feel anything, because...

"She almost died, Dad," Inuyasha whispered. "I thought she had and… just that one moment, even as a human…I couldn't… I… how did you survive it?"

"I almost didn't." Toga's voice deepened as he thought about the first days without Izayoi. "I had you, and I had Sess, so I had to keep going, but you remember how I was for decades after she passed away." Toga sighed. "You feel like part of you is just… gone, and you know your soul will never be complete."

"Yeah…" Inuyasha whispered.

The click of a door unlocking pulled both men out of their thoughts just as Jinenji emerged. Inuyasha's eyes were trained on the hanyo, and at Jinenji's soft nod he took off, rushing through the door to get to Kagome.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Toga took a deep breath. "What happened?"

"She nearly depleted her reiki. Rin had to slowly feed some into her to get her stable; if she tried to do it too quickly, Kagome's body rejected it. I've never seen reiki do that before."

"What about a hanyo, even as a human, who can control reiki?"

Jinenji's wide eyes turned to Toga. "I've never heard of it, but honestly, if you told me Inuyasha could, I would believe it."

"Why?"

"There's something about the energy around them, the way their auras blend; Rin's noticed it, too. It's not like other mated pairs, and even though it's incomplete, it's strong."

"Is Kagome going to be ok?"

Jinenji nodded, his eyes relieved. "It will take time, because she needs to recharge, but yeah. She will be. Rin thinks that Inuyasha being there will help."

Toga watched the giant disappear back down the hall, his shoulders dropping as the adrenaline and worry began to ease, letting his mind fully process everything that had happened… and what it could mean.

Toga's hand ran down his face. Inuyasha and Kagome weren't fully mated, but their souls still felt the bond and would struggle to help each other. Inuyasha wasn't Hoshiyomi, but it seemed that his blood had given him a strength that the other yokai had lacked, one that had ultimately cost both mates their lives. Toga's head dropped, his deep amber eyes closing as the weight of what that meant hit him. "Izayoi… I wish you were here, love."

She was still, too still, her raven hair spread beneath her on the bed, her hands resting on her stomach. The gentle rise and fall of her chest was the only thing that kept Inuyasha from giving in to the tears that threatened to fall free. He sat next to her, careful not to disturb the bed, and let his hand rest against hers.

"You saved us; you saved me," he whispered, letting his pinky rub against her hand. "When you wake up, I'm going to show you how much that meant to me, how much you mean to me." He leaned down to kiss her forehead, his eyes closing.

At the soft brush of reiki against his skin his tears began to stream down his cheeks.

She was going to be ok.

Chocolate eyes slowly opened, the dazed look giving way to confusion as they met purple rather than gold. Kagome shifted to lift her hand towards his cheek, a tremor visible in her movements. Inuyasha caught her hand to bring it to his lips before settling it against his cheek. Her fingers traced the tracks of tears with a soft sound of distress.

"Hey there, beautiful," Inuyasha whispered, leaning his cheek into her hand. "Welcome back."

"I...Inu...ya…"

"Hey, hey, shhhh, it's ok. You're ok, we're ok," he soothed, his thumb stroking her hand as his lips curved.

Kagome's brow furrowed as her eyes ran over his face, concern and confusion evident. "Wh..." When her voice broke she cleared her throat and tried again. "What… what happened?"

"We can talk about that later; for now, I want you to rest, Kagome."

"Did I do that?"

When Inuyasha didn't respond immediately tears began to collect in her eyes.

"Hey hey, it's ok. It's ok, Kagome."

A small whimper broke through her lips. "I… I hurt you… oh Kami, Yash."

"You saved me, ok? You saved me." Inuyasha lifted her hand from his cheek to clutch it against his heart. "No matter what happened, you protected me, just like I protected you, ok?"

He leaned forward, letting her hand drop to her stomach as he gave her a gentle kiss. The moment her lips touched his, he felt her reiki flow through him, once again seeking out his yoki. The reiki surrounded the small tendril of yoki and began to share its energy, this time Inuyasha was sure of it. His yoki began to pulse in time with Kagome's reiki, and he felt the moment it returned to full force with a rush. The hushed whispers outside the room made his ears flick, but he tuned them out, losing himself in the vanilla and rose scent that was Kagome.

Warm gold met Kagome's eyes as they drifted open again, and she gave Inuyasha a watery smile.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"For what?" Inuyasha's other hand lifted to stroke her hair.

"I hurt you."

"You didn't hurt me, Kagome… no, you didn't." he insisted when he saw her look.

"You were crying when I woke up."

"Cause you fucking scared me, Kagome." Inuyasha let out a choked laugh. "I thought… I thought I had lost you."

She tugged on his hand, pulling him down beside her as she turned towards him, resting her head against his shoulder. His arms wrapped around her, holding her close, his body beginning to shake as his head dropped down to touch his forehead to hers.

"Fuck, I thought I lost you… You were so still, and I couldn't hear you, I couldn't smell you." Kagome's eyes welled up again at his words. "Your energy just… stopped. I couldn't feel it, I couldn't feel you, and it felt..."

"Yash…" Kagome's voice was soft as she buried her face in his chest.

"Just… just let me hold you for a bit," he breathed, resting his face against her hair.

Kagome's eyes closed as she felt his yoki surrounding her, soothing it and her as his hand stroked down her back. With every touch she could feel it pulsing around them, and let her reiki rise to meet it, feeling the relief as they began to merge. She could see it, it almost looked like…

"Ribbons," she whispered as Inuyasha stilled.

"Wh...what?" he stammered, shifting back to meet her eyes.

Her cheeks flushed. "Sorry, it's just... I had a dream after I passed out, about us, but it wasn't us us—does that make sense?"

"No… not really?"

"Yeah, but in the dream there were ribbons connecting us, and just now, I thought I saw the same ribbons but they were… there was something different about them they were…"

"Incomplete?"

Her eyes darted up to his.

"Yeah."

"Like they want to be woven together, but aren't, at least not yet?"

Kagome nodded, her eyes locked on his. "You saw them too?"

"Not just now, but before, in the forest, when I touched you and your reiki flooded into me, I saw… I saw them then."

Kagome was quiet, her thoughts going back to her dream.

"Is it… is it possible for a human to stay with a yokai for centuries?"

"Where did this come from?" Inuyasha's cheeks felt warm as he lowered his eyes from hers.

"My dream… in the dream we had been together for centuries… but I was human."

"K… keh."

"So there is a way?"

"Y… yeah…"

"Oh…" Kagome's head dropped, her bangs hiding her eyes from him. "I… is that not something you would want?"

Inuyasha gave a pained chuckle as he lifted her eyes to his.

"I want that more than anything, but I only just found out about it, and I was gonna talk to you about it but then everything went crazy and I didn't… I didn't want to add to the stress or anything." His ears lowered as he spoke, his voice soft.

"Is that what it means to be a mate?"

"No...not exactly," he stammered. "Your mate is the one your soul chooses to be with, the person who completes you. And for someone like me, there's only one person, for me… for me there's only you."

"Does that mean I live as long as you?"

"No…" He shook his head with a laugh. "I… you know, this isn't the way I wanted to have this conversation, laying on a hospital bed."

"Seems like the perfect time to me," Kagome countered.

"How's that?"

"I… after the attack at the dorm, then seeing you almost killed by lizard breath, I… I realized I almost lost you and… then I almost died…" Inuyasha's arms tightened around her, and she could feel the tremor in them. "... and I don't ever want to be without you, and I don't want you to be without me."

"It's.. it's forever Kagome—forever with me, aging with me, you would watch your friends and family grow old and pass before you did. That's why I didn't want to make you have to think about it or worry about it until things were better, till you were safe."

"It would just make me treasure the moments I have with them even more." Her hand raised to his cheek. "As long as I have you there, that's what matters."

"Kagome…" Inuyasha's head lowered to hers, breathing in her scent. He couldn't smell any fear or anxiety in her scent, just the heady perfume of vanilla and roses. "I wanted to ask this properly but… will you go through the soul bond with me?"

"Can we do it now?"

Inuyasha laughed, a true laugh as he pulled her tighter into his embrace. "Not when you are still recovering and we are in the middle of the infirmary, woman."

"Well I don't know what it entails, so I wanted to check."

He smirked, nudging her nose with his.

"Trust me, we will want privacy for this."

"Inuyasha?"

"Hnnn?"

"I want to grow old with you, and have every moment I can at your side," she whispered.

She lifted her lips to his for a slow, tender kiss. When she pulled back, she could see the love, the wonder, in his eyes.

A cough from the hallway broke the moment, and Rin entered the room with a small smile.

"Sorry, we have to kick you out, Inuyasha. We need to run a few more tests, and she needs to get some more rest."

"Can't he stay?"

"If it were up to me, yes, but his father is also asking for him, and as much as I can see it helped you to have him here, we just need a half hour, then he can come back."

Inuyasha reluctantly released Kagome, settling her back on the pillow before capturing her lips for another kiss.

"Rest up, love. I'll be back soon."

Inuyasha waited till he was outside the door to let his eyes close, and he took a shuddering breath of relief, his hand resting against the wall.

She was going to be ok.

He pushed off the wall to hurry down the hall; the faster he got this done, the faster he could get back.

And there were things he needed to talk to his father about.