"What Could Be"

An Inu Yasha Fanfic by Nozomi

[A/N: Nooooooo!!!  19 days since my last Chapter and update.  -_-  A lot of things have been happening this month.  I moved back home from my apartment and will be moving again next month.  Yes, that's a lot of furniture to move around.  My boyfriend (and source of romantic inspiration) has decided to go back to his hometown (about 450 miles away!) to start a business, so I spent the rest of my spare time with him before finally bringing him to the airport two days ago.  Well, now I have more time to write this fic.  ^_^  So here we go again…

Burnsybabe: What's cruel?

Hanyou-Girl25: This is how Chapter 6 was supposed to end.  ^_^  But I realized that I had about 5 pages worth already, so I decided to put the ending into a separate chapter, which is what you'll be seeing now. ]

Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha and company.  [What?  I had to run out of funny stuff/sarcasm sooner or later]

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Chapter 7: Interlude: Kagome and Inu Yasha

There had been a time when she would have been scared to wander through the dark alone.  Even back home in her time, she never stayed out too late for fear of what may be lurking in shadows.  Thugs, kidnappers, creepy crawly insects.  Here, she had demons to worry about.

But I am not scared, she thought.  Not anymore.  Here in the Sengoku Jidai, she was strong and brave.  Yes, she was only a "mere" mortal, but that never deterred her from doing what needed to be done and going where most humans fear to go.  Somehow, in the years they have been trying to collect the shards, she had learned not to be afraid of the dark.  She had learned to show no fear.  For someone who had no powers…  well, aside from her purifying arrows… this was something to marvel at.

It also helped that Kirara was in her big, menacing demon form, walking beside her.

Ahehehe… Kagome thought sheepishly.

No, even if Kirara had not come with me, I would still not be afraid.

Is it because I know he will always be around to protect me?  Kagome stopped at the foot of the tallest tree, and looked up, knowing she would find him.

Sure enough, there was Inu Yasha.  He was sitting down, his back resting against the trunk of the tree with one leg on a branch and the other leg dangling freely.  The sleeves of his haori billowed gently with the breeze.  The look on his face was solemn, as if he was lost in thought.

This would have surprised Sango and the others-- in fact, Kirara sat down on her hind legs, looking questioningly up at the hanyou.  But Kagome understood him better.  She stood silently at the foot of the tree and waited for him to realize her presence.

Inu Yasha's gaze was steady on the vast expanse of treetops that littered the scenery.  He always sat on one of the tallest trees when he kept watch, for the simple and obvious reason that it was easier to spot anyone and anything that might be headed their way.  However, his task was painfully easier today, because most of the treetops had no leaves nor fruit to cover possible intruders.  His canine eyesight allowed him to clearly see the ground where bare branches and twigs could not cover, and his hearing would tell him if anything approached.

He was a little distracted though.  The last battle with Naraku confused him.  It had been hard, and there was no reason to doubt that he was dead.  No, that wasn't what confused him.  What confused him was how the Tessaiga's and Tensaiga's winds… fused together to form an ultimate attack.  How the hell could two very opposite swords seemingly complement each other?

And Sesshomaru.  He had come to his aid.  Yes, his half-brother had seeked out Naraku for his own purposes, but in the end, they had destroyed the bastard together.

It was the only thing they had done together in their lifetimes as brothers.

What had father been thinking? he mused.  Had father known all along that joining the power of two already-powerful swords would deliver an attack that could only be described as incredible?

It confused him to no end.  He shook his head, and made up his mind to go home to the Western Lands to find some answers after he saw Kagome and the others safely back to the village.

Kagome.

The corners of his mouth lifted into a small smile as images of Kagome played across his head.  How often had she intruded his thoughts?  How often did thinking of her bring such feelings of longing to him?  How could having her beside him make him feel…

Complete.

His heart felt like it would burst out of his chest.  That's how she made him feel.  She accepted him for all he was.  They argued, they fought, he yelled at her, she sat him, and they bickered with each other endlessly over differences in opinion.  He constantly annoyed her and she never ceased to infuriate him.  And yet she stayed by his side and he continued to protect her.

As he absently rubbed at the ache in his chest, his fingers brushed across the beaded rosary hanging around his neck.  He rolled the beads in his hands.  This is what made him stick by her side in the beginning.  When Kaede-baba had put it on him, he had been furious, and even more so when Kagome spoke out the spell that would brand him as her servant.  He didn't want to be around a reincarnation of the woman who had betrayed him.  But he needed to stay close to her because he could not remove it, and he needed her to get it off.  That's how it had been at the before.

That was almost three years ago.  Now, I can't stand to be away from her.  I need to know that she's safe, that she's nearby.  I want to be around her to protect her.  Always.

He blinked.  Was this how he really felt about her?  He knew he liked her, and that she liked him enough to stay with him.  They were friends, right?

Is it really just friendship?  Or is there more?

Inu Yasha was very much perplexed now.  He had always been too busy trying to find Naraku, trying to keep all of them safe, been too busy with their quest to really think about anything else than the shards and the perils they had to go through to get them.  But that's all gone now, they could lead normal lives again, and he was thinking thoughts he would never have bothered with before.

Damn that.  Now, he was actually *thinking*!  Was age finally catching up to him?

But he needed to think.  Think about the next few days and the next steps to take.

She's going to go home.

The ache in his chest would not stop now.  It's almost as if I love her too much to let her go.

Love?

Kagome?

No.  Yes.  I don't know.

Kikyou?

Yes.  No.  I'm not sure anymore.

"Inu Yasha?"

He was jarred out of his thoughts as the familiar voice reached him.  He looked down below him and found Kagome looking up at him with concern in her eyes.  He stood up and jumped down the tree.

Kagome watched him come down.  She had been worried about the look in his face in the last few minutes, and that was what compelled her to call out to him.  She watched him walk slowly to her, his eyes once again guarded.

"What do you want?"  His voice was gruff.

"I-- I came to call you for dinner," she told him hesitantly, unsure how to react.  He stopped a few inches in front of her.

"Kagome?"

"Yes?"

"Will… will you be going home?"

She was startled.  It was the question she had no ready answer for, even though Sango-chan had already asked her the question.  And she had especially not been prepared to hear the question from Inu Yasha.

She bowed her head.  "I honestly don't know yet."

Apparently, her answer didn't satisfy him because he asked again.  "Do you want to?  Go home, I mean?"

"Of course I do."

"I see."

The stood in silence for a moment before Inu Yasha told her that they should go back to the campsite before the others worried.  She didn't move.

Inu Yasha looked at her, with her head bowed.  He could not see her eyes, nor her face, could not make out her expression or what she was feeling right now.  Maybe he should not have asked her the question.

"Are you angry?"

"No," she replied, her voice barely a whisper.  But she knew he heard her.

Again, there was an awkward silence.

He was beginning to worry and worrying made him say things without thinking.  "What the hell is wrong with you??"

He regretted his words as she flinched, knowing he should not have said what he did.  He had no right to make her stay nor to be angry at her if she didn't want to stay.

"Do you want me to stay?"

She was looking at her feet when she asked that question, and she was preparing herself for his reply.  She just knew he was going to say something like "Keh, why would I want you to stay?"

Inu Yasha caught himself before saying the words he knew she was expecting from him.  They knew each other so well that way.

"Yes, I do."

"!"

"Ow!"

He was so close to her that she hit his chin when her head shot up in surprise.  He absently rubbed at his chin, remaining silent, and watched Kagome as she rubbed her head, looking at him.

Kagome could feel tears brimming her eyes.  He wanted her to stay.

He was now wondering what he could have possibly said wrong this time and he was at a loss.

He couldn't yell at her.

He didn't want to start a fight, not now.

He could make her angry, as he always did on purpose, but he didn't think she'd respond in anger tonight.

He couldn't leave her here, not alone.  He would never leave her alone.

He couldn't bear to see her cry.

It was times like these that Inu Yasha would surprise himself and go completely out of his usual character.  And surprise himself he did.

In fact, he surprised both of them.

He pulled Kagome into his arms until he closed the distance between them.  He circled his arms around her waist and back and reveled in the warmth of having her so close to him.  He buried his mouth into her hair, close to her ear, and whispered tenderly he was sorry if he hurt her.

Kagome had first stood in shock, but as the tone of his voice soothed her senses, she felt her own arms wrap around his back, and her palms felt his tense muscles relax as she returned his embrace.  She felt tingles across her skin where his hands were, and more so when he whispered in her ear, his lip briefly touching against the sensitive nerves on her earlobe.

Inu Yasha's head was swimming.  What was he doing?  His heart was racing and his body felt like it was on fire!  Having her close to him like this was overpowering his senses, and it felt. So. Damn. Right.

She was thinking that this was how she wanted to be held by the one she loved.

Love?

Inu Yasha?

The mere thought slammed her back down to reality.

Yes, she did love Inu Yasha.

But he didn't love her, did she?  He loved the woman who came before her.

Kikyou.

It was enough to make her reluctantly pull out of his embrace.  She plastered what she hoped would pass as a genuine smile on her face as she felt him slowly draw away from her as well.

His brow was creased with concern that he had done something wrong.  The smile on her face did not fool him.  He was about to ask her a question when she spoke.

"I want to go home…"

He tried not to show emotion.

She decided to be more honest.

"But I want to stay with you as well."

She saw relief flood his face even though he remained still.

He watched the smile reach her eyes and, he knew it was for real this time.

"Let's go back to camp."

[A/N: I confounded myself.]