I Forgot to Tell You: I Love You

By Seabreeze

A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, and RK-128 for being my "bouncer". Also, this is the one where the P3-H20 kicks in. If you've seen it, some of the conversation here should seem familiar.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or the song "I Love You", for which this whole story is named. Sarah McLachlan.

*~*~*

oh and every time I'm close to you

there's too much I can't say

and you just walk away

*~*~*

Eventually we began to see the signs of an approaching village. Smoke rose in slow spirals above the trees ahead. Inuyasha was tense again, and I wondered if it was another demon.

"Inuyasha, is something the matter?" I asked. He looked at me, and then at the village.

"Not yet." He replied, and I got the sense that it was one of those things that I would just have to find out on my own. I looked curiously at the village, but it didn't look out of the ordinary. Even as we got there and walked down the common streets, nothing was odd. Sure, the people were frightened of Inuyasha, but that's normal. At least they didn't try to attack him, like usual.

I could detect the shard getting closer and closer, but I didn't dare disturb Inuyasha. He seemed to be on some sort of. . . mission. He was acting really weird. . . like he was trying to recall something. It took me a little while to realize that even when I followed Inuyasha, the strength of the shard's nearness grew. How did he know where it was? Or did he know?

Inuyasha took a sharp turn down a little path and I followed him. I kept shooting him questioning looks, but I really doubt he got them. He was focused on a little house just ahead, and nothing else was getting to his senses. As we got closer to the home, a small man stepped out onto front porch. He saw us and gasped, stumbling backwards.

"I-I-Inuyasha. . .!" he stuttered.

"Where are my mother's things?" Inuyasha demanded harshly.

"I-in the backr-r-room." The man whimpered. I would've felt sorry for him, but Inuyasha had hurried into the house and I had no choice but to follow. With every step I could feel the shard getting closer, and once we got to "the backroom", I knew it was in there.

"Inuyasha!" I said excitedly. "the shard! It's in here!" I began digging through a box, and after 30 seconds I had found it, glowing for all its size. I turned to him happily, holding the miniscule shard of the shikon no tama. "Look." but he was frozen, back facing me. He kneeled slowly to a crate.

"Kagome," he said softly. "These are my mother's things." I put the shard safely in the glass jar and knelt by him quietly. He pulled out the first item, a packet of silk tied in string, and set it on the floor. Underneath that was a folded kimono, dusty with age, but beautiful. Inuyasha pulled it out, shaking gently. He sneezed, and for a minute one of his ears went lopsided and I couldn't help thinking how cute he looked. He pressed the kimono to his nose and inhaled, then set it down next to the silk packet. The rest of the crate held ordinary things, like a small painting of a dog demon (Inuyasha's father, without a doubt), recipes, a small red ball.

Inuyasha tossed the ball into the air and caught it a few times, and I picked up the silk packet gently. Carefully untying the string that held it together, I found several letters- old and fading, but letters.

"Inuyasha. . ."

"What is it?"

"Letters. . ." I held them out for him to see, and he grabbed them from me.

"Letters from my mother. . . to my father. Is this a. . .?" he looked at me.

"A love letter?" I asked cautiously. We began reading shyly, alternating paragraphs as we went.

"'I understand the difficulties of a youkai-human relationship and my answer is still the same as it always was. No one understands me the way you do, no one can.'" I read, engrossed in this ancient love story.

"'What I wouldn't give for what other people consider ordinary- ordinary problems that don't concern evil spirits or mortal danger, being with the one I love without a second thought, a life of freedom.'" Inuyasha's face burned as he looked at me, and I began to blush as I looked away.

"It's like I could have written these. . ." I murmured.

". . .I wish you had." His reply came softly, in a cracked whisper, and I shook my head.

"What would it've changed?" I asked quietly, staring him straight in the eyes. He looked away guiltily. I took the letters from him and folded them up in the silk, tying it neatly. "Are you taking them?" I asked, holding them out to him, but my voice was hoarse. He shook his head.

"No. Kagome. . . I. . . I want you to have them." He pressed them back into my hands. I held them tightly to my chest but couldn't hold back my bitter reply.

"What, is this part two of my consolation prize?" tears burned my eyes and I wiped them away, not caring if he saw. He reached for my face sadly, but I stepped away. "You have already chosen Kikyo, Inuyasha." I think at that moment my heart broke all over again, and from the look on Inuyasha's face, so did his. But that was his choice, and nothing could change that.

For a moment nothing happened, until I noticed that my shikon detecting senses were acting oddly. I pulled the glass jar out to see that the light it had radiated when I first found it was slowly fading.

"Oh no. . ." I whispered, horrified.

"We need to add it to the rest of the shikon, quickly, " Inuyasha said.

"It's with Sango. . .but. . . how can we get back there in time to. . . can you? I mean, is it breaking the rules?" I clutched the jar gently along with the packet of letters. Inuyasha looked at me again, and it was clear that so many emotions were running through him right now.

"What rules haven't we already broken?" he asked. He stepped towards me. "I have to hold you," he said. I relented and let him scoop me up gently. "Hold on tight," he said. I was glad, because it gave me a good excuse to do just that. I wrapped my good arm around his neck tightly and buried my face in it , if for the last time. As he ran towards Sango and Miroku's, I sobbed into him. I don't think there was any way he could've not noticed, because I was shaking with sobs and getting him pretty wet. It didn't take more than two hours to get there, and I cherished every moment.

*~*~*

and I forgot

to tell you I love you

and the night's too long

and cold here

without you

I grieve in my condition

for I cannot find the strength to say I need you so

*~*~*