Doubled over and desperate for breath, he sucked in a few needy gulps when she - thankfully - stopped.
Agile fingers curled into the lip of the well she'd been poised to enter right before her last remaining supporter caught up, but she didn't turn around.
Sensing her flightiness, he powered through his breathlessness.
"Don't go!" he gasped desperately. "I know it... didn't go well today-"
"Bit of an understatement," she muttered curtly, glaring into the abyss.
"But you can't just leave." The sharp, scolding edge in the normally jovial pervert's tone was enough to earn a wary glance over her shoulder.
Still exhausted from his desperate sprint, Miroku pushed off his knees to straighten.
"He'll be here soon," he said, face holding the stern disappointment of a father whose daughter just broke curfew.
She was so tired of disappointing everyone, and the way she met his eyes caused his own to gentle.
"That's why I have to leave now." Regretful yet resigned, she turned back around and threw a leg over the ledge.
"So that's it?" Nearly choking on distress, the helplessness straining Miroku's throat stilled her again. His weary eyes reflected her anguish.
"You're just giving up? Isn't he worth it?"
He'd been patient with her. He'd been sympathetic. And she'd been so painfully close this time.
His frustration was warranted; and after all he'd done to help her, she felt like she was letting him down - like she was leaving him, too. From his wounded cadence, he clearly felt that way too.
"Of course," she replied, still straddling the ledge. "But so is Inuyasha. I don't want to hurt either of them." Determined blue eyes sought his understanding. "I just need to buy a few days. I know if I can just decompress, organize my thoughts, talk to mama-"
"Stall?"
Kagome frowned, unwilling to agree with his assessment.
She knew her confession was way overdue, but things had been so crazy lately. She barely had a moment to herself, and with the constant stress of keeping this huge secret... It wasn't an excuse, but it was a reason she was so frazzled. With a little time and space, she knew she would find a way to fix this, in a way that caused minimal damage.
It just didn't feel right to blurt it all out, like Sesshoumaru wanted. That her friends agreed with him had her second-guessing her motives, however.
Sensing her doubt, Miroku chanced closing the distance on his time-traveling friend. When he nearly reached her, she swung her leg back over to face him and sit more comfortably.
"You've seen him lately," she said, lifting sullen blue eyes imploringly.
"Tell me I'm crazy," she begged. "After the way he's been acting; tell me I'm just coddling him, and I won't go."
She refused to believe the daiyoukai's accusations, writing them off as impatience and general disregard for his half-brother. He didn't care how Inuyasha felt, which both saddened her and rendered him unsympathetic to his plight, and hers.
She refused to entertain the notion that her lover actually wished her best friend harm – or at least, that it was his angle. Rather, his disinterest in sparing him pain made her look to be coddling the hanyo – and at his own expense, no less. But that wasn't the case... was it?
Miroku appeared startled at first by her request, and then was clearly torn.
He obviously thought she needed to stay, and she just handed him the tools to make it so. However...
"I admit," he finally said, "he has been particularly delicate since he and Kikyo-sama's little quarrel."
Miroku looked on conflicted as he reluctantly strengthened her resolve. But he could not deny she was right. Kagome had made several earnest attempts at informing their half-demon friend of her relationship, but nearly every time it was quashed by an uncharacteristic declaration of trust or loyalty or love.
The gruff young man never spoke such a way before, but since Kikyo had rejected his proposal, he had been especially sensitive. And clingy. At least where Kagome was concerned.
"Everyone he's ever cared for has betrayed him at least once," she parroted somberly. "Now, I'm just like all the others."
"He will understand," Miroku assured her, resting his cursed hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "You just have to tell him."
"I know, and I will," she promised back. "I just need to give it a little more thought. If I do this just right, I know I can save him a lot of pain."
The monk did not look entirely convinced, however.
"He's holding onto my loyalty like a lifeline," she continued, heels scraping against the well. "When he finds out his trust in me was misplaced too... it's going to crush him. I have to handle this very carefully."
Though that was the crux of her reluctance, it didn't mean she wasn't a coward. It was her cowardice that got them into this mess in the first place, and now it was twofold – because it wasn't just Inuyasha she was hiding from.
The reason she ran toward the modern era at a full sprint was because the Western Lord hadn't given her a set timeline. 'A matter of days,' was what he had said. And when considering he needed said days to handle some punks at his border, she was surprised he hadn't returned in a matter of hours.
Sesshoumaru had probably taken care of those demons on the very first day, and was just giving her a few extra days grace to be generous. But he could show up at any second, and she just couldn't face him.
Couldn't tell him to his face that she couldn't meet his meager requirements; couldn't do this one little thing that would mean the world to him.
Couldn't hurt his brother, to make him stop hurting.
She wasn't choosing one over the other; she simply wasn't choosing.
How did something that started out feeling so good end up feeling this terrible?
It felt just as wrong to drop that bomb on Inuyasha as it did to stay and tell Sesshoumaru she wouldn't. She would return and tell him – and soon. She just needed a little more time, just needed-
"Perhaps you should let me tell him."
It wasn't his first time making the suggestion, and her answer was always the same.
"NO!" she commanded, wild-eyed and frantic. "Do not do that, Miroku, please. I will think of something; let me handle this."
Miroku huffed, wanting to argue that she'd had long enough, while mulling the familiar impulse to disregard her wishes.
All it would take would be one little 'slip-up' from him, and this shitty game would be over. He wasn't the most honorable monk in town; his reputation could take it.
But he'd never been able to say no to a pretty girl. He could humor her a little more, but he'd reached the end of his tether with this favor.
"What about Sesshoumaru?" he asked. No matter her decision, the dog demon expected an answer when he returned. If his miko wasn't there to give it, he would have questions for all of them. Unhappy, impatient questions, for certain.
A/N: On time, as promised! Update 3/3 will be posted sometime in the next 24 hours.
Also, I just wanted to share that Only Human has been nominated for an award! BEST ANGST, more specifically, in the 2021 Feudal Connection's quarterly Inuyasha awards on Tumblr. So thank you, for whoever nominated me!
Voting isn't open yet, but I'll post something when it is at the end of the month in case any of you want to participate. In the meantime, you still have 4 days (the 15th) to nominate other works, and there are a few categories that aren't full yet. This is not a SessKag specific awards like Dokuga, so if you want to give InuKag a run for their money, you gotta go nominate your favorites lol. Theres already a few great SessKags on the list, so go check it out!