The night of the new moon was only hours away. Still, the group pressed on looking for a place to take refuge for the night.
"Come on guys," Shippou finally said. "We can't let that witch beat us like this."
No one responded, but the stiffness in the air let up a bit. Kagome smiled at Shippou, taking him into her arms.
"Thank you Shippou-chan."
*Later*
"Sango-chan," said Kagome as the two girls settled into the hot spring they'd stopped at.
"Yes Kagome-chan?"
"What do you think about all this?"
Sango thought a moment.
"I'm not sure Kagome-chan. I'm still processing it myself."
"Yeah, but if we don't all talk about what happened, then we're never going to get over it. And then that awful Amaya will have beaten us!"
"True, but I doubt we'll be able to get Miroku to talk. And we'll NEVER get a word out of Inu Yasha."
The girls looked at each other and, for the first time all day, laughed. It was refreshing.
Over around the campfire, a human Inu Yasha and Miroku sat in silence. Kirara and Shippou were curled up together and sound fast asleep.
"So, Inu Yasha, care to discuss"
"No."
"But"
"No"
"I simply"
"Look Monk!" said Inu Yasha getting up. "I don't want to talk about it. I don't even want to think about it. That whole mess brought up a bunch of bad stuff that we should just leave alone okay?"
With that said, Inu Yasha went off to do some thinking. Truth be told, the dream had revealed to him that he really wasn't sure about Kikyou and Kagome. Still, he'd promised to die with Kikyou. But, did that mean he couldn't live with Kagome? He sat under the stars on a field, waiting for an answer.
"Inu Yasha," came a voice from behind him. He did not turn around. It was Kagome.
"Did you want something?" he asked in a rather monotonous way.
"No." she said sitting down beside him. "I just wanted to come watch the stars."
The two sat together in complete silence. It wasn't necessary to say anything. They'd traveled together so long, they could almost feel each others emotions without words.
"Inu Yasha," she finally murmured.
He looked up at her. "Yeah?"
"What happened with Amaya?"
"Feh, the dumb bitch couldn't hold her own in battle so she took off."
"Then you woke up first?"
Inu Yasha felt his anger rise as he thought about his dream, but it was almost immediately engulfed in sorrow.
"W. . . Why did you wake up?" she finally asked.
She was expecting a furious Inu Yasha to start yelling at her and saying it was none of her damn business. She expected him to walk off in a huff. She expected that she'd be going home for a few days until the heat died down. She wasn't expecting what happened.
Inu Yasha quietly slipped his hand onto hers and looked up at the sky. "Look Kagome, I don't want to talk about it now. When I'm ready, I'll tell you, okay?" He gave her hand a quick, reassuring squeeze and then got up. His voice had been eerily calm.
She watched him go, somewhat in shock. Her heart was pounding just from a simple touch of his hand. He had spoken to her so softly, so gently. After a while, she got up and went to join her friends in sleep.