Disclaimer : I don't own InuYasha, or any of the characters, much to be my eternal dismay. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi, who I thank with every fibre of my being for giving us such wonderful and interesting characters to work with. So, please, don't sue me : )



Authors' Notes:

1 - This is part 2 of chapter one, so it won't make much sense unless you've read chapter one part one : )

2 - I've tried to stay as true to the characters as I could. I'm not very familiar with Sango or Miroku, which is why they don't show up much. InuYasha and Kagome will probably be out of character a goodly amount . . . but then, anytime the two of them show their emotions to each other in a story like this it's OOC, so bear with me. Hopefully, you'll like the changes in their characters I've made. Just enjoy as is, a fan fic. This is stuff that I personally see in their characters, so of course, it's my POV on what COULD happen to them in situations like what I'm doing. With that said, enjoy the story, and please review. Reviews make me feel loved, and make me more inclined to put more stories up : )



Last time:

'Oh God, he's all right, he's alive, it really was just a dream!' Kagome thought, her heart soaring as she hugged him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder.

Bewildered, InuYasha raised his hands to her shoulders, slowly raising her up so he could look into her face. Her eyes seemed like bottomless pools of blue, starlight sparkling on her skin where her tears had fallen. Without thinking, he reached up gently, tracing a path through her tears with his fingertips. 'Her skin is like warmed silk . . .' he found himself musing, looking at her tears glittering on his fingertips.

"Kagome," he whispered, afraid of disturbing the moment of peace between them. "Nani . . . ?"

"Please," she interrupted softly, "don't say anything. I don't want to end up fighting right now, and it seems sometimes that's all we ever do." She sighed and forced herself to push away from him, away from his warmth and the comforting feel of his heartbeat, away from the faint, musky scent of him that told her she wasn't dreaming. Embarrassed by her outburst, she carefully took her weight off of him, a faint blush staining her cheeks red. She kneeled nearby, wiping away her tears, shoulders hunched as she waited for him to get over his shock. She could still feel his fingertips on her skin and see the look that had been on his face.

"I'm sorry, InuYasha," she whispered. "I just . . . after that awful dream . . ." she hiccupped slightly, "I just couldn't help myself. I was so scared . . ."





Chapter 1 - New Moon, New Revelations

(Part 2)



InuYasha managed to get himself to a sitting position, feeling strangely empty with her warmth no longer on top of him. Shaking his head to rid himself of the feeling, he stood slowly. He bent down to pick up Tetsusiaga from where it had fallen and tied it carefully at his side. Then, bending down near Kagome, he slid an arm around her back and under her knees, picking her up so that she was cradled in his arms, against his chest.

"My pack . . ." she protested weakly, her voice raw from weeping.

"We're not going far. I just don't like being so exposed out in the open like this . . . especially not tonight." He carried her carefully back to where he'd been sitting when she arrived, walking cautiously so as not to overbalance himself. His strength in this form, while still stronger then the average human, was no where near his normal strength, and he wasn't used to carrying her when he was like this.

As he set her down beneath the tree, he found himself hugging her to his chest gently, inhaling her scent. He pulled back quickly, unsettled by the sudden rush of emotion his action evoked within him.

Kagome nearly froze in shock as she felt him hug her. Before she could relax into it, however, he had drawn back and put some distance between them. 'What's wrong with him?' she found herself wondering. 'He's actually being nice . . . and sensitive! Where's the normal jerk InuYasha? Is this how he usually is on the night's he's human, when he's not protecting me?' She considered that thought carefully for a moment. 'Well . . .' she sighed, 'If it is, I wish he was like this all the time.' She instantly regretted that thought, as she remembered all InuYasha's grumbled remarks and complaints about being human. 'Who am I to wish he was something he hates so much? That would be totally selfish of me!' Her mind froze as something dawned on her. 'That . . . that would make me like . . . like Kikyo! She wanted him to become human for her!' She found herself suddenly disgusted with the former miko. 'How could she say she loved him . . . when she couldn't accept him as he is . . . '

InuYasha, watching her face, rocked back on his heels as her eyes widened at some thought. 'Ah, here comes the 's-word' for doing whatever it was I did now.' He closed his eyes, waiting to eat dirt. When moments passed without the utterance of the dreaded word, he opened his eyes slowly to find Kagome staring up at the night sky.

Unconciously, his eyes roamed over her pale, upturned face. 'She's so beautiful . . .' he mused, then caught himself and started in shock. 'Where the hell did THAT come from?!' he berated himself. 'Get your head together, hanyou! Just cause you're human for one night doesn't mean you should start ACTING like one!' He looked back at her carefully, noting the shadows that still haunted her eyes. 'Something had her really scared though . . . and I find that I want to know what it was. She looked like she was really . . . happy . . . to see me! She's never happy to see me . . . well, not very often at least.'

He hesitated a moment before making up his mind. "Kagome?" he said softly. She turned her face to him, her eyes dark and troubled. "Why were you so scared? What was this dream you had about?" he asked gently, his eyes soft with concern.

Kagome, already off balance by the surprising shift in his attitude towards her, was even more surprised by this sudden interest in her mental well being. 'He's never cared before about something upsetting me like this. Look at all the fights over Kikyo. Why is he suddenly so concerned?' she wondered. Coming out of her shock, she just caught the look of hurt before the cold indifference she knew so well slid back over his features.

InuYasha watched her eyes widen in surprise at his question, and quickly tried to cover the stab of pain it cause him. 'Here I am trying to be understanding on one of the most hated nights of my life, and that's what I get?!' He stood up abruptly, angry with himself for letting his walls down for even a moment.

"Feh!" he growled, turning his back on her as he tried to get his emotional barrier back into place. "Don't tell me then, wench! Why should I care about some stupid dream your pathetic little human brain thought up anyway?!"

'You stupid hanyou!' he thought to himself. 'Would have thought you'd learned more from Kikyo's betrayal than this.' He steadfastly ignored the pain in his heart, moving to collect her pack from where it had landed.

Kagome reached forward and grabbed his hand, stopping him. She looked at his back, standing stiffly in front of her and sighed. "InuYasha . . . I'm sorry," she murmured. His head turned towards her, looking down at her from over his shoulder, his eyes cold and dark, his face a mask. 'Gah! Why is he so difficult to understand?! His moods change nearly as fast as the weather! Will I ever know how to react to him?' She sighed again, her shoulders slumping as her thoughts engulfed her.

"I got home late from school . . ." she said softly, staring at the ground. "I accidentally fell asleep on the couch . . . it was a REALLY lousy day at school!" she said defensively, knowing her falling asleep wouldn't go over well with him. " I had this . . . horrible . . . nightmare . . ." Her voice began to break up as the images from the nightmare flashed through her mind. It had seemed so real . . . all the blood . . . the broken and battered bodies . . . and InuYasha. Tears fell silently from her eyes to the ground as her shoulders began to shake with renewed sobs.

InuYasha's face slowly softened, and he dropped back to his knees in front of Kagome, watching as she tried to get her tears under control. A feeling of total and utter helplessness engulfed him. 'That dream REALLY got to her . . . was it about school?' he wondered. 'No, if it was about school she wouldn't have been so scared when she got here. So what . . . ?' His train of thought screeched to a halt as Kagome completely broke down, letting his hand go to cover her face as she sobbed.

"Oh Gods!" she moaned, her voice barely audible. InuYasha had to lean forward to hear her. "It was so real! You were hurt . . . and there was so much blood . . . and it was the new moon . . . you weren't healing . . . I was so scared!"

On impulse, InuYasha reached out to her, gathering her against his chest in an odd, tender hug that startled them both. 'She's crying because she . . . dreamed that I was hurt?' he marveled. 'She was scared . . . for me! Why?' He listened to her sobbing against his chest, and lightly began to run his hand over her hair and down her back, something he vaguely remembered from his childhood that his mother had used to soothe him. 'She couldn't be . . . I mean, why would she . . . I'm just some half-breed demon! She doesn't care about me that much . . . does she?' He looked down at the crying girl, bewildered. She was still sobbing softly, shivering with her hands pressed against his chest. He gathered her closer to him so as to better share his body warmth, his arms wrapping around her tightly. Overcome with a feeling he didn't understand, he buried his face in her hair, breathing in her warm scent. 'She smells of sunlight, summer winds, flowers . . . life. So warm and alive . . . nothing like the way Kikyo . . . ' He froze at that thought. 'Nothing . . . like . . . Kikyo . . . it's true! Kikyo was so . . . pure, almost cold, like a porcelain doll. She would never have cried in front of me . . . or for me.' Startled by this sudden revelation in his feelings towards the undead miko, he inhaled Kagome's scent again and sighed softly. 'Why did I never see this earlier . . . I've been fooling myself for so long . . .'

Kagome was slowly getting a hold of herself, feeling his heart beat steadily under her hand. 'He's so warm . . . and he smells like the forest after the rain . . . so wild and clean. But . . . why is he holding me like this? It's so unlike him!' She shivered at his closeness, a thrill shooting through her as she felt his breath puff gently against her ear as he sighed. 'I wish . . . I wish we could stay like this. I could almost believe he cared about me . . . but I'm sure he's thinking of Kikyo right now. After all, he said he thinks of her all the time.' She sighed gently, relaxing as his hands smoother down her hair slowly and repeatedly, tears running down her cheeks to wet the shoulder of his outer yukata (AN: not sure if I'm right here, but yukata is the shirt or top, hakama is the pants.... I think.) 'Who am I kidding?' she despaired. 'I love him . . . but he'll never see me as anything but another Kikyo . . . or a shard detector at best. I love him . . . he loves Kikyo . . . gods what a mess! I'll just . . . I'll just enjoy this while it lasts . . . and wish things could be different.'

Immersed in their own thoughts and each other's arms, neither of them heard the footsteps approaching them across the clearing until it was too late.



To be Continued



AN: Evil, yes? So, what's gonna happen next? Who is it that's approaching them... and is it good or bad? C'mon people, review! I'm a review junkie and I need my fix so I can keep typing!