Kagome's Wish
Chapter Fifteen - Embracing Reality
By: inuyashasgirl789
Sango didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to react, how to cope or what to do. She had watched the river suddenly get wilder for unknown reasons and now, she was in a police's car with Miroku, going home to her house. She didn't care if her parents found out she had snuck out of the house, she didn't even care if she got grounded for the rest of her miserable life. All that mattered, was that she had been there, watching the two, and she couldn't do a single thing to save them. She had never felt so utterly useless, worthless and hopeless in all the years she had lived and she just wished she could have done something.
Miroku was next to her, staring out the window and watching the sceneries fly by in a blur. He was just as lost as Sango, not sure that this had all actually happened. The afternoon had been enjoyable since they went shopping and had lots of fun, but after that, everything started to go downhill. And downhill at a rapid pace.
He had watched his childhood friend possibly die saving the one he loved [maybe Inuyasha finally realized that] but he had done absolutely nothing. And worse, he had not let Sango do anything. But what good would it do for Sango to jump over the bridge after Inuyasha and Kagome? He couldn't watch someone else perish in front of his eyes. And especially not his dearest Sango.
It had hurt. It had hurt a lot to have to refrain his girlfriend from what she was begging him to let her do, but he knew it was for the best. Anyway, there's always a chance Inuyasha and Kagome didn't die.
Oh yea. Kikyou also went down into the river. Well...
Who really cares?
It wasn't like he absolutely hated that witch. It was more like he absolutely, positively, completely, utterly, totally, fully, downright hated that sad excuse of a woman nut. He wouldn't even grab Kikyou's ass even if someone paid him a thousand dollars to.
His thoughts were suddenly ripped away from him as he felt an abrupt pull on his jacket. He looked down and saw Sango crying into his jacket, hitting him quietly on his chest with her fists.
"Miroku! I can't! I just...CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DIED. This is Inuyasha and Kagome we're talking about! The two best friends we ever had...and...you made me watch them. Watch them just GO like that---THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO SWIM! How could you? How could you!?" she screamed into his jacket, her hits on his chest lessening.
"I just don't want to see you go like that. I don't want you to leave me alone and I guess my selfishness took over," he whispered and didn't notice that she had stopped hitting him.
"Sango, oh my dearest Sango, I'm sorry I refrained you. But you know, that Inuyasha and Kagome will not be dead. They are the two most stubborn, block- headed, blind, obstinate people I have yet to meet. They won't let death take them just like that," he finished and then looked down at Sango for a response, but her hitting had stopped and her crying had finished. Her body was rising slowly and her breathing was even and regular. In other words, she was asleep.
Miroku smiled lightly and then put his hands around his girlfriend's shoulder, positioning her so that her head could properly be on his shoulder. Stroking her long hair lightly, he whispered three words.
"I love you."
*~*~*The Next Day...
Sango stared. She continued staring. The ceiling seemed to be a curious staring spot. She just resumed staring at the ceiling in silence. Her parents had lectured her on sneaking out, had lectured her on having a boyfriend, and had lectured her on the responsibilities of being their daughter.
And they had did all those lectures in under two minutes at the front door.
But when Miroku had told them that Sango had just witnessed her best friend falling off a bridge and into a river, they had promptly shut their traps. Guilt had been etched across their faces, but Sango didn't respond. She didn't care. She just went upstairs without a word to anyone, not even Miroku, and walked quietly into her room, although she slammed her door with a resounding crack to the wall that made the floor vibrate.
Then she had just fallen onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
In fact, she had been staring at the ceiling for four hours and it was six on Sunday morning now.
The morning light dimly slid in through the yet open window, shining it's bright light into the dark room. After a while, the birds began to sing and the sun had fully came up, and Sango gently turned her view to the window, squinting her eyes shut when the sunlight hit her in the eyes.
A single tear fell from behind her lashes and then she swiftly swung her covers over her head and started sobbing quietly.
*~*~*At Miroku's Place...
He gently flipped through the pages of his photo album, watching the memories fly by. There was a picture of him and Inuyasha in elementary and throwing cupcakes at each other. The next picture showed Inuyasha stuffing a cupcake into Miroku's mouth as revenge for squashing a sticky cupcake on his face.
Then there was a picture of an angry Kagome throwing a football at Inuyasha's head in middle school. After that, there was the lovely picture of Inuyasha on a stretcher in a hospital ambulance.
The pages following that were similar to the ones he had just seen and he felt depressed. What if Inuyasha and Kagome really had died? What if Kikyou was the one who had survived? Well, if Kikyou had survived, he was sure Sango was just going to throw her over another bridge all over again until the witch died.
Sighing, Miroku slapped the album shut and threw it onto the ground. Making a sound of frustration, he collapsed backwards onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. Reminiscences just kept on flipping itself through his head and Miroku wanted to scream in utter annoyance.
Grabbing his pillow, he stuffed his head under it and screamed as loud as he could muster. Aggravated would be an understatement...
*~*~*Back to Sango.
"Come on Sango, you have to eat something!" Sango's mother said rather exasperatingly, already repeating that line about twenty times.
But Sango refused to go out of her room.
"Leave me alone! I want to be isolated alright?! Can't you just give me a break! I need to think." Sango's muffled voice answered from behind the closed doors.
"You'll starve in there!"
"No, I won't! I'll live!"
"No! You won't! It's nearly seven o'clock! You shouldn't skip breakfast! Now get out of that room before you starve!"
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Sango screamed and threw her pillow at the door, hitting it with a dull smack and seeing it land with an even more tedious thud.
"Sango, there's always a few things in life that we don't take the time to appreciate. And friends are one of them. I'm sorry that Kagome COULD be dead, but there's always the chance that she isn't. Keep the hope that she hasn't died yet and when she's back, appreciate having her as your best friend! Please dear---I don't think Kagome would want to see you like this over her. She'll rather have you eating and normal!" Sango's mother reasoned and listened intently for any sound from Sango's room. Nothing.
'I give up.' Sango's mother thought and was about to leave away from the entrance when the door creaked open, revealing a red-eyed Sango standing by the door frame.
Sango's gaze was down-cast, but when she looked up, she managed a faint, weak smile. "You're right mom.she wouldn't want to see me like this."
Sango's mom smiled a bit and pulled her daughter in for a hug, relief etched all over her face. "Now that's my daughter."
Sango smiled a little more and sighed when her mom led her down for breakfast. Her mom was right---there's a chance Kagome didn't die. After all.when she has a blockhead like Inuyasha saving her, who could just perish?
And when they were just a hair width's away from actually getting together, she dies? Nah! This couldn't be the end. Not for Inuyasha and Kagome.
The bell door rang and Sango excused herself away from her mother to answer it. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Miroku standing there with a bouquet of flowers. This sight certainly looked priceless enough as he started sneezing from the pollen in the flowers.
"Hey darl---*sneeze*" Miroku half-squeaked and handed the flowers over to Sango.
"For me?" Sango faked surprise as she accepted it.
"Only for you," Miroku continued and rubbed at his nose. "So, feeling better?"
"I guess," she answered and walked back to the kitchen to put the flowers in a vase. "Come in."
He didn't need a second bidding as he came in and took off his shoes. Following Sango to the kitchen, he saw both Sango's mother and father sitting at the dining table and eating breakfast. When they saw him, they both smiled a bit and nodded.
Miroku secretly breathed in a sigh of relief when he realized that Sango's parents weren't going to clobber him to Mars for being Sango's boyfriend. If Sango could obtain such brutal strength, then he wouldn't want a demonstration from where she had inherited it. He smiled back at the parents and they continued with their breakfast, watching the TV in the living room with much interest.
"So, what did you come here for?" Sango asked when she came back with the flowers in a vase and she set it on the counter.
"Well, you know.how Inuyasha and Kagome went.down? Well, I figured, that those two of all the people I know will be the most hardest to get rid of, even if we put them in a burning building surrounded by four solid concrete walls," Miroku began and Sango nodded gently at his explanation.
"I figured that they probably washed ashore on the side of some cliff or bank or something, you know? So, I thought that we should go search for them, since they could be stuck and we wouldn't want them to really die from starvation or thirst or something. The police already sent out a search party along the banks, but I can't really trust men with huge goggles and black suits carrying guns around, now can I?" Miroku explained and watched as Sango's expressions lightened up a bit when she realized what he was suggesting.
"Mom! Dad! I'm going out to search for Kagome!" Sango announced, reading Miroku's mind, and her mother looked at her daughter, before picking something up.
"Take a toast at least," her mom ordered.
Taking the toast quickly, Sango and Miroku rushed for the door in record time and they were out before Sango's father had time to say anything.
"Dear, do you really think it's alright to let our daughter run off like that with a boy?" Sango's father asked his wife and she put a comforting hand over his.
"Have some faith and trust in our daughter, honey. She's old enough to make decisions for herself," Sango's mother affirmed and continued her breakfast without another word.
*~*~*
This wasn't exactly the best situation to be in. In fact, he could consider it to be one of the worst in his life. He would be happy any other time to wake up with her in his lap, but with the current situation and location, it wasn't that romantic.
How did he get into this place? Only god knows.
How would he get out of this place? Only god knows.
How can two unconscious people who had fallen into a river, be stuck in what can only be described as a hole, in the side of a cliff bank? Only god knows.
Oh joy.
But at least they were alive. That's what counts.
Trying to shake the girl awake, he was met with a gurgle and some mumbling accompanied with a happy smile. Should he wonder what she was dreaming about? Probably not. But what got him confused was that they nearly died, possibly died, and she was still sleeping away in wet clothes and dreaming something he would rather not know about. That was what was so cute about the girl in his lap.
Did he love her? Possibly. He never told her those three words, 'I love you', but he wanted to at least make sure she wanted him as much as he did her. A boy can't read a girl's mind after all, and words were the only reassurance to one's mind.
She finally began to stir and he breathed out a sigh of relief. Any more of her weight on his legs and it would be dead for another fifty years.
Her eyes flitted open and he watched the realization dawn onto her face. First, she looked annoyed, which she probably did every morning. Second, she looked surprised for a moment. Then lastly, she sat up so fast she looked like a blur and was quite awake and alert as she looked around. Turning her head around, her gaze met with his and she stared for a while.
"Inuyasha?"
"Yes Kagome?"
"Are we in hell?"
"Yes..."
"This is what hell is like?"
"Yes...."
"I'm stuck in a hole in hell with you for the rest of my life down here?"
"Yup."
She cupped him a good one around the head. "I'm not as stupid as I look, smart one."
"Of course," he agreed. "You're more stupider than you look." He received another hit around the head.
"We've alive," she whispered breathlessly after she had made sure that she had inflicted enough pain upon Inuyasha for that comment.
"Yup," he replied while rubbing at his head. "Looks like your thick head saved us from that one."
She gave him a dry look.
He ignored it.
"Hey..." she started after a moment of silence.
"What?!" he snapped, annoyed that he had suddenly developed a headache from her hitting.
"Thanks for yesterday."
Inuyasha looked up to see if she was serious about that comment and all he could see in her eyes was sincerity and that she was truly grateful that he had chose her instead of Kikyou. Sometimes, he wondered if someone could look so beautiful...
"Keh. Not like I had a choice anyway. Your wailing distracted me."
"Mm-hmm," she answered and smiled up at him mysteriously. "My mouth was gagged, if you don't remember."
He went cherry-red when he realized his mistake and he responded with a very heart-felt "KEH!"
Then proceeded another moment of silence as they both took time to consider about the fact that they were alive, and stuck in a hole with each other. This strangely seemed familiar to the incident at Medieval Times, but it didn't look like there was going to be any interruption soon.
There was an air of awkwardness around as they both looked in places other than each other. Both of them didn't want to take responsibility for anything that happened if eye contact ensued, so not looking at each other was about as good as they could get.
She sighed a bit after staring at a hole in the wall got boring. How long would they be stuck like this? Would they even survive? How is Miroku and Sango? What would her parents think? What about Inuyasha's parents?
She exhaled even more when it got extremely boring and the only sound was of the river running by outside. When would they be saved...
She couldn't stay in here any longer...
Someone save her, please...
"Inuyasha, we're gonna die!" she suddenly screamed out of nowhere. "Why couldn't I have just died in the river?! Huh?! God hates me!! Now he wants me to die in agony and hunger and pain and misery! With you too!"
She suddenly heard a sound outside.
Stopping her complaining, she muted to listen for whatever had distracted her.
Someone was screaming something, or more specifically...
Kagome began to hear people call Inuyasha's and her name.
"Someone's calling us!" Kagome yelled over to Inuyasha, and they both didn't dare to even breathe as they listened.
Inuyasha looked like he would have perked his ears up if he was a dog and both he and Kagome looked at each other with wide eyes as they recognized the voices of the callers. "It's Sango and Miroku!" they both yelled at each others' faces and scrambled over to the opening of the "hole."
"Guys! Sango! Miroku! It's us!" they both screamed at the top of their lungs, using whatever energy they had left in them in that plea for help. "SAVE US!"
Miroku and Sango both looked at each other as they heard what sounded like Inuyasha and Kagome screaming at them. Could it be?
Calling over the men in black suits, they all began to look over the side of the tall cliff to the running waters below. Miroku and Sango could both hear the faint calls for help and they nervously yet rapidly scanned the banks of the river for a sign of their friends.
Their hearts and blood pounded annoyingly to their heads as they squinted for Inuyasha and Kagome. They weren't imagining it like they had imagined it for the last few hours that they had been out searching for the fallen couple! This time, they had genuinely heard the reply from no other than Inuyasha and Kagome!
"Where are you!?" they screamed back, seeing no sign of the couple, but hearing their voices.
Inuyasha and Kagome looked at each other as they realized that Miroku and Sango and whoever else was up there, couldn't spot them inside the hole. They couldn't jump into the river outside either and wave their hands around; their used up energy wouldn't allow that. What they didn't need now, was another drowning Inuyasha and Kagome.
Looking around for anything that could give a signal that they were in here, they realized that they were in an empty hole with nothing, not even a stick, that would allow them to wave around outside.
"No choice left," Inuyasha whispered to himself, and grabbed a hold of his red shirt.
Kagome, who had been trying to stick her head out of the hole, retracted it and looked behind at Inuyasha when she heard him mumbling. "What do you mea- --" she had been about to ask, but the force of Inuyasha's naked chest could halt whatever sentence a girl would have liked to say. Red covered her face as she felt her head go light and feathery, her eyes fixated on that, ooh, nice chest that belonged to Inuyasha.
"Your face is getting really red. I think you're coming down with a fever, Kagome. Just sit back," Inuyasha demanded and grabbed the girl before she had time to regain her power of speech, and set her behind him.
Leaning out as far as he could, Inuyasha waved around his red shirt as an object for help, while Kagome clutched her head in pain. Not painful pain of course! The joyful pain that she refused to acknowledge was more like it! His back looked about as fine as his chest!
Rubbing her flaming cheeks rapidly, the girl scolded herself inside her head for staring for so long at the boy's naked top half. But who could resist that temptation to just run her fingers along those well-built muscles.
'AH! Stop it!!' she continued scolding herself. 'Now is not the time to be appreciating Inuyasha's backside!'
Crawling over to where Inuyasha was busy waving his shirt around outside, Kagome went up next to him and stared intently at his face. She tried to ignore how admiring his face features were, and attempted to assist him with the help signal, but, his jaw line was suddenly so well defined at that instant, and his hair sticking stubbornly to his face was just so cute, plus not to mention the way his lips were just parted and he was breathing out lightly.
Trying to cease the urge she suddenly felt, Kagome tore her eyes away from the boy next to her. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that!
Sango narrowed her eyes as she eyed something red below. Seeing it wave around there, she realized that it looked strangely like the shirt Inuyasha had been wearing yesterday night.
"Miroku! I think I found them!" Sango called, waving her hands to urge Miroku over.
Her boyfriend moved next to her and stared down at where she had pointed, seeing the waving red material also. It was Inuyasha and Kagome! They were alive! Relief would have flooded through his body at that instant, but common sense took over. Looking at the men a few feet in front of him, he narrowed his eyes. He still didn't trust those people, but.
"Men! The two survivors are down there!" Miroku ordered the men in black suits, pointing down at Inuyasha.
The policemen didn't need another command as the captain of the squad took out his walkie-talkie from his pocket when he spotted the waving red material. "Flight 101, survivors have been spotted at point 5-6-11, over. Please come immediately and we shall begin the rescue mission without delay. Over." the captain ordered in an authoritative voice, before putting the walkie-talkie back into his pocket.
"Please stand at least ten feet away from the cliff, missy and mister," the captain demanded, and both Sango and Miroku stood back obediently as they watched the "Flight 101" fly towards them to lower directly above the squad.
A rope ladder was thrown down and the captain griped it in his gloved hands, giving a thumbs-up to the flight driver when he had on a secure hold of the ladder. The driver gave back down a thumbs-up as they moved out towards the river and began to lower down towards where Inuyasha was still waving his shirt around.
Kagome and Inuyasha both moved back a bit as they saw the man coming down towards them on a rope ladder. Inuyasha pulled back on his wet shirt and observed the man lower himself directly in front of the cave, watching the man take out some things that were attached to his waist.
"Put this harness around your waist and I'll tie the opposite end onto the ladder in case you slip off," the police man instructed, and handed the two teenagers the harnesses, as he held on tighter to the ladder. "You still have enough energy to hold onto the ladder right? We'll fly you over to the top of the cliff where your friends are waiting and it'll be only thirty seconds at the most."
Inuyasha and Kagome both nodded dumbly to the older man as they fastened and secured the harness to their waists, giving the other end to the police guy so that he could attach it to the ladder like he had said. Inuyasha urged Kagome to go first and the girl nodded quickly, taking the hand the police man had offered her and grabbing onto the ladder swinging in front of her. Squinting against the sun and ignoring the sound of the river only about a feet away, she saw that on the opposite cliff shore were camera crews from various news stations and she immediately looked away. This could get into top news for god's sake!
After Kagome had firmly held onto the ladder and she was sure her hold wouldn't slip off, Inuyasha immediately grabbed the ladder following her and stepped out. He didn't feel like being stuck in the mud hole for longer than necessary, and the faster they got out of here, the less the news cast could get.
Whenever there was something somewhat exciting that could be on the news, Inuyasha knew that the broadcast would be all over it in a matter of minutes, like a fat boy over chocolate cake. He could bet anything that there were reporters already flooding over at the shore above, waiting for the two "victims" to give them the story they wanted.
Kagome and Inuyasha both gave a thumbs up to the man and the man in the black uniform gave a thumbs up to the flight driver up above.
"Hold on tight and don't look down," the rescuer advised as the three people felt themselves being hurled away from the river and the cave.
But like any other teenager, when they hear "don't," it registers as "do" in their mind. Once they were swinging dangerously out between the two precipices, Kagome and Inuyasha looked down in interest.
Big no-no.
Kagome could feel her vision blur as she watched the river running down far below while they were dangling in mid-air on a vaguely sturdy rope ladder. The only thing between her and another deadly fall was her hold on the ladder which made her knuckles turn white, a thin thing called a harness, and an equally pale Inuyasha below her. Not very calming, if you know what I mean.
Looking back up, she took in deep stabilizing breaths and concentrated on the shore that they were coming close to. Thank god it was only a thirty second trip.
They neared the edge and Kagome noticed the anxious look from Sango instantly. But when Sango saw her friend, safe, the anxious look soon turned sour, to frowning, to downright fuming.
The man unhooked the harnesses from the rope ladder from both Inuyasha and Kagome's waist and Kagome jumped over to the clearing, taking in a deep breath and silently reminding herself to never look over a cliff ever again as long as she lived.
Looking up, Kagome stared Sango, and Sango just gazed back with an intent look. Silence and tension was filled in the air between the girls while Miroku and Inuyasha both looked at each other, smiling, before turning to stare at Kagome and Sango. The two girls just continued to gape at each other in a creepy sort of way, and the guys were about to say something, before Sango and Kagome both shrieked and ran towards each other.
Sango gave Kagome a big hug as the two girls smiled like happy chipmunks to each other. "You're safe, Kagome! You have no idea how much you scared me!" Sango screamed, and tears of joy nearly ran down her cheeks as she stared at her best friend in front of her.
Miroku walked over to Inuyasha and leaned over. "Seriously, Kagome has noooo idea how scared Sango was," Miroku mumbled, nodding to himself. Suddenly clapping Inuyasha on the back that ensued a loud slapping sound, Miroku yelled, "It's nice to see you alive though, man!"
Inuyasha nearly keeled over from the painful force, sputtering something ghastly horrible to Miroku, who just shrugged it off. "So dude, how are you and Kagome?" Miroku asked, a nice, big, innocent smile on his face and ignoring the threats that Inuyasha promised he would get when he had enough energy to swing a punch.
The two mentioned looked at each other, before looking away in embarrassment. "Nothing," Kagome and Inuyasha both answered as one.
"Hey, don't tell me you both aren't together, because if you ain't," Miroku left that threat open to the crispy air as he stared at his two friends with a dark look upon his face.
Kagome turned onto him with a frown of her own. "Stop babbling nonsense!"
"YOU AREN'T?!" Miroku practically screamed in Inuyasha's ear when he heard Kagome say that, causing the other poor boy to go deaf.
Inuyasha was about to angrily reply to that, but the next instance, reporters were overflowing from seemingly nowhere and Kagome and Inuyasha nearly fainted from the bright flashes from cameras. Why were they taking pictures of them!? Stupid idiots! Just film them!!!
"So Miss. Higurashi, what had happened to get you stuck in that cave?"
"I heard you both fell in each others' arms from the Koibitos Yakusoku bridge, is this true?"
"Did the other girl survive?"
"Can we please get an interview with you both tomorrow?"
"Are you both going out?"
"Is it true that a crazy lunatic that escaped from a local mental asylum had been holding you hostage for twenty-two days, feeding you mice the whole time?"
"I heard you were pregnant, Miss. Higurashi. Is this young man the father of your child?"
Kagome practically screamed at that last few questions. They were getting more absurd by the second! Where had these people come up with such despicable questions to ask her?! Oh yea. They're the notorious news reporters who come up with the most insane stories ever heard by humanity!
But luckily,
Sango and Miroku to the rescue again!
Grabbing Inuyasha's and Kagome's sleeves, Sango and Miroku practically dragged the two friends out from the tightly packed group of reporters and ran for the car that the policemen had so nicely provided for them.
The reporters were right on their tracks like hungry hyenas, as the four teenagers practically dived into the car and ordered the man in the driver's seat to step on the gas.
The reporters were banging on the windows and taking pictures of the people inside, and Kagome just moaned as she covered her face. Inuyasha was just keeping his head down, a deep frown on his face as he ignored the noise caused by the news cast. God have no mercy on reporters!
And so the car rolled away with the reporters jumping into their own cars and stalking the police automobile.
*~*~*
She took in a heaving breath as she dragged herself up from the water, her hair sticking stubbornly to her face and causing her to swipe it away just as many times. Her clothes clung to her tired, wet body and her eyes were blood-shot as she felt a tiny wave roll her onto the muddy bank.
Sputtering out the water she had swallowed, she clawed at the muck under her fingers in an attempt to drag her whole body away from the dreadful river. She had been washed ashore on a shallow part of this slow-moving fraction of the stream, and she had never felt more nasty and sick than what she was feeling right now.
Laying spread-eagle on the mud, for once, she didn't care about how her hair looked or that her face was pale without the makeup she wore all the time. Her shirt had been partially ripped on some rocks that she had crashed into before, waking her up from her unconscious state. Of course, she just had to crash into the rock headfirst, and even though it was gentle collision, it had caused a tiny trickle of blood to run down her forehead, down her nose, and along her cheeks to drip into the brown substance she was laying on.
Her body was weary and exhausted and her vision was seeing bright dots here and there. Her head pounded relentlessly and her legs felt like they were extremely numb, leaving only her arms with the last bit of strength in them.
"Kagome, you bitch..." were her last breathless words before she slipped into another sleep of unconsciousness oblivion.
Chapter Fifteen - Embracing Reality
By: inuyashasgirl789
Sango didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to react, how to cope or what to do. She had watched the river suddenly get wilder for unknown reasons and now, she was in a police's car with Miroku, going home to her house. She didn't care if her parents found out she had snuck out of the house, she didn't even care if she got grounded for the rest of her miserable life. All that mattered, was that she had been there, watching the two, and she couldn't do a single thing to save them. She had never felt so utterly useless, worthless and hopeless in all the years she had lived and she just wished she could have done something.
Miroku was next to her, staring out the window and watching the sceneries fly by in a blur. He was just as lost as Sango, not sure that this had all actually happened. The afternoon had been enjoyable since they went shopping and had lots of fun, but after that, everything started to go downhill. And downhill at a rapid pace.
He had watched his childhood friend possibly die saving the one he loved [maybe Inuyasha finally realized that] but he had done absolutely nothing. And worse, he had not let Sango do anything. But what good would it do for Sango to jump over the bridge after Inuyasha and Kagome? He couldn't watch someone else perish in front of his eyes. And especially not his dearest Sango.
It had hurt. It had hurt a lot to have to refrain his girlfriend from what she was begging him to let her do, but he knew it was for the best. Anyway, there's always a chance Inuyasha and Kagome didn't die.
Oh yea. Kikyou also went down into the river. Well...
Who really cares?
It wasn't like he absolutely hated that witch. It was more like he absolutely, positively, completely, utterly, totally, fully, downright hated that sad excuse of a woman nut. He wouldn't even grab Kikyou's ass even if someone paid him a thousand dollars to.
His thoughts were suddenly ripped away from him as he felt an abrupt pull on his jacket. He looked down and saw Sango crying into his jacket, hitting him quietly on his chest with her fists.
"Miroku! I can't! I just...CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DIED. This is Inuyasha and Kagome we're talking about! The two best friends we ever had...and...you made me watch them. Watch them just GO like that---THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO SWIM! How could you? How could you!?" she screamed into his jacket, her hits on his chest lessening.
"I just don't want to see you go like that. I don't want you to leave me alone and I guess my selfishness took over," he whispered and didn't notice that she had stopped hitting him.
"Sango, oh my dearest Sango, I'm sorry I refrained you. But you know, that Inuyasha and Kagome will not be dead. They are the two most stubborn, block- headed, blind, obstinate people I have yet to meet. They won't let death take them just like that," he finished and then looked down at Sango for a response, but her hitting had stopped and her crying had finished. Her body was rising slowly and her breathing was even and regular. In other words, she was asleep.
Miroku smiled lightly and then put his hands around his girlfriend's shoulder, positioning her so that her head could properly be on his shoulder. Stroking her long hair lightly, he whispered three words.
"I love you."
*~*~*The Next Day...
Sango stared. She continued staring. The ceiling seemed to be a curious staring spot. She just resumed staring at the ceiling in silence. Her parents had lectured her on sneaking out, had lectured her on having a boyfriend, and had lectured her on the responsibilities of being their daughter.
And they had did all those lectures in under two minutes at the front door.
But when Miroku had told them that Sango had just witnessed her best friend falling off a bridge and into a river, they had promptly shut their traps. Guilt had been etched across their faces, but Sango didn't respond. She didn't care. She just went upstairs without a word to anyone, not even Miroku, and walked quietly into her room, although she slammed her door with a resounding crack to the wall that made the floor vibrate.
Then she had just fallen onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
In fact, she had been staring at the ceiling for four hours and it was six on Sunday morning now.
The morning light dimly slid in through the yet open window, shining it's bright light into the dark room. After a while, the birds began to sing and the sun had fully came up, and Sango gently turned her view to the window, squinting her eyes shut when the sunlight hit her in the eyes.
A single tear fell from behind her lashes and then she swiftly swung her covers over her head and started sobbing quietly.
*~*~*At Miroku's Place...
He gently flipped through the pages of his photo album, watching the memories fly by. There was a picture of him and Inuyasha in elementary and throwing cupcakes at each other. The next picture showed Inuyasha stuffing a cupcake into Miroku's mouth as revenge for squashing a sticky cupcake on his face.
Then there was a picture of an angry Kagome throwing a football at Inuyasha's head in middle school. After that, there was the lovely picture of Inuyasha on a stretcher in a hospital ambulance.
The pages following that were similar to the ones he had just seen and he felt depressed. What if Inuyasha and Kagome really had died? What if Kikyou was the one who had survived? Well, if Kikyou had survived, he was sure Sango was just going to throw her over another bridge all over again until the witch died.
Sighing, Miroku slapped the album shut and threw it onto the ground. Making a sound of frustration, he collapsed backwards onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. Reminiscences just kept on flipping itself through his head and Miroku wanted to scream in utter annoyance.
Grabbing his pillow, he stuffed his head under it and screamed as loud as he could muster. Aggravated would be an understatement...
*~*~*Back to Sango.
"Come on Sango, you have to eat something!" Sango's mother said rather exasperatingly, already repeating that line about twenty times.
But Sango refused to go out of her room.
"Leave me alone! I want to be isolated alright?! Can't you just give me a break! I need to think." Sango's muffled voice answered from behind the closed doors.
"You'll starve in there!"
"No, I won't! I'll live!"
"No! You won't! It's nearly seven o'clock! You shouldn't skip breakfast! Now get out of that room before you starve!"
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Sango screamed and threw her pillow at the door, hitting it with a dull smack and seeing it land with an even more tedious thud.
"Sango, there's always a few things in life that we don't take the time to appreciate. And friends are one of them. I'm sorry that Kagome COULD be dead, but there's always the chance that she isn't. Keep the hope that she hasn't died yet and when she's back, appreciate having her as your best friend! Please dear---I don't think Kagome would want to see you like this over her. She'll rather have you eating and normal!" Sango's mother reasoned and listened intently for any sound from Sango's room. Nothing.
'I give up.' Sango's mother thought and was about to leave away from the entrance when the door creaked open, revealing a red-eyed Sango standing by the door frame.
Sango's gaze was down-cast, but when she looked up, she managed a faint, weak smile. "You're right mom.she wouldn't want to see me like this."
Sango's mom smiled a bit and pulled her daughter in for a hug, relief etched all over her face. "Now that's my daughter."
Sango smiled a little more and sighed when her mom led her down for breakfast. Her mom was right---there's a chance Kagome didn't die. After all.when she has a blockhead like Inuyasha saving her, who could just perish?
And when they were just a hair width's away from actually getting together, she dies? Nah! This couldn't be the end. Not for Inuyasha and Kagome.
The bell door rang and Sango excused herself away from her mother to answer it. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Miroku standing there with a bouquet of flowers. This sight certainly looked priceless enough as he started sneezing from the pollen in the flowers.
"Hey darl---*sneeze*" Miroku half-squeaked and handed the flowers over to Sango.
"For me?" Sango faked surprise as she accepted it.
"Only for you," Miroku continued and rubbed at his nose. "So, feeling better?"
"I guess," she answered and walked back to the kitchen to put the flowers in a vase. "Come in."
He didn't need a second bidding as he came in and took off his shoes. Following Sango to the kitchen, he saw both Sango's mother and father sitting at the dining table and eating breakfast. When they saw him, they both smiled a bit and nodded.
Miroku secretly breathed in a sigh of relief when he realized that Sango's parents weren't going to clobber him to Mars for being Sango's boyfriend. If Sango could obtain such brutal strength, then he wouldn't want a demonstration from where she had inherited it. He smiled back at the parents and they continued with their breakfast, watching the TV in the living room with much interest.
"So, what did you come here for?" Sango asked when she came back with the flowers in a vase and she set it on the counter.
"Well, you know.how Inuyasha and Kagome went.down? Well, I figured, that those two of all the people I know will be the most hardest to get rid of, even if we put them in a burning building surrounded by four solid concrete walls," Miroku began and Sango nodded gently at his explanation.
"I figured that they probably washed ashore on the side of some cliff or bank or something, you know? So, I thought that we should go search for them, since they could be stuck and we wouldn't want them to really die from starvation or thirst or something. The police already sent out a search party along the banks, but I can't really trust men with huge goggles and black suits carrying guns around, now can I?" Miroku explained and watched as Sango's expressions lightened up a bit when she realized what he was suggesting.
"Mom! Dad! I'm going out to search for Kagome!" Sango announced, reading Miroku's mind, and her mother looked at her daughter, before picking something up.
"Take a toast at least," her mom ordered.
Taking the toast quickly, Sango and Miroku rushed for the door in record time and they were out before Sango's father had time to say anything.
"Dear, do you really think it's alright to let our daughter run off like that with a boy?" Sango's father asked his wife and she put a comforting hand over his.
"Have some faith and trust in our daughter, honey. She's old enough to make decisions for herself," Sango's mother affirmed and continued her breakfast without another word.
*~*~*
This wasn't exactly the best situation to be in. In fact, he could consider it to be one of the worst in his life. He would be happy any other time to wake up with her in his lap, but with the current situation and location, it wasn't that romantic.
How did he get into this place? Only god knows.
How would he get out of this place? Only god knows.
How can two unconscious people who had fallen into a river, be stuck in what can only be described as a hole, in the side of a cliff bank? Only god knows.
Oh joy.
But at least they were alive. That's what counts.
Trying to shake the girl awake, he was met with a gurgle and some mumbling accompanied with a happy smile. Should he wonder what she was dreaming about? Probably not. But what got him confused was that they nearly died, possibly died, and she was still sleeping away in wet clothes and dreaming something he would rather not know about. That was what was so cute about the girl in his lap.
Did he love her? Possibly. He never told her those three words, 'I love you', but he wanted to at least make sure she wanted him as much as he did her. A boy can't read a girl's mind after all, and words were the only reassurance to one's mind.
She finally began to stir and he breathed out a sigh of relief. Any more of her weight on his legs and it would be dead for another fifty years.
Her eyes flitted open and he watched the realization dawn onto her face. First, she looked annoyed, which she probably did every morning. Second, she looked surprised for a moment. Then lastly, she sat up so fast she looked like a blur and was quite awake and alert as she looked around. Turning her head around, her gaze met with his and she stared for a while.
"Inuyasha?"
"Yes Kagome?"
"Are we in hell?"
"Yes..."
"This is what hell is like?"
"Yes...."
"I'm stuck in a hole in hell with you for the rest of my life down here?"
"Yup."
She cupped him a good one around the head. "I'm not as stupid as I look, smart one."
"Of course," he agreed. "You're more stupider than you look." He received another hit around the head.
"We've alive," she whispered breathlessly after she had made sure that she had inflicted enough pain upon Inuyasha for that comment.
"Yup," he replied while rubbing at his head. "Looks like your thick head saved us from that one."
She gave him a dry look.
He ignored it.
"Hey..." she started after a moment of silence.
"What?!" he snapped, annoyed that he had suddenly developed a headache from her hitting.
"Thanks for yesterday."
Inuyasha looked up to see if she was serious about that comment and all he could see in her eyes was sincerity and that she was truly grateful that he had chose her instead of Kikyou. Sometimes, he wondered if someone could look so beautiful...
"Keh. Not like I had a choice anyway. Your wailing distracted me."
"Mm-hmm," she answered and smiled up at him mysteriously. "My mouth was gagged, if you don't remember."
He went cherry-red when he realized his mistake and he responded with a very heart-felt "KEH!"
Then proceeded another moment of silence as they both took time to consider about the fact that they were alive, and stuck in a hole with each other. This strangely seemed familiar to the incident at Medieval Times, but it didn't look like there was going to be any interruption soon.
There was an air of awkwardness around as they both looked in places other than each other. Both of them didn't want to take responsibility for anything that happened if eye contact ensued, so not looking at each other was about as good as they could get.
She sighed a bit after staring at a hole in the wall got boring. How long would they be stuck like this? Would they even survive? How is Miroku and Sango? What would her parents think? What about Inuyasha's parents?
She exhaled even more when it got extremely boring and the only sound was of the river running by outside. When would they be saved...
She couldn't stay in here any longer...
Someone save her, please...
"Inuyasha, we're gonna die!" she suddenly screamed out of nowhere. "Why couldn't I have just died in the river?! Huh?! God hates me!! Now he wants me to die in agony and hunger and pain and misery! With you too!"
She suddenly heard a sound outside.
Stopping her complaining, she muted to listen for whatever had distracted her.
Someone was screaming something, or more specifically...
Kagome began to hear people call Inuyasha's and her name.
"Someone's calling us!" Kagome yelled over to Inuyasha, and they both didn't dare to even breathe as they listened.
Inuyasha looked like he would have perked his ears up if he was a dog and both he and Kagome looked at each other with wide eyes as they recognized the voices of the callers. "It's Sango and Miroku!" they both yelled at each others' faces and scrambled over to the opening of the "hole."
"Guys! Sango! Miroku! It's us!" they both screamed at the top of their lungs, using whatever energy they had left in them in that plea for help. "SAVE US!"
Miroku and Sango both looked at each other as they heard what sounded like Inuyasha and Kagome screaming at them. Could it be?
Calling over the men in black suits, they all began to look over the side of the tall cliff to the running waters below. Miroku and Sango could both hear the faint calls for help and they nervously yet rapidly scanned the banks of the river for a sign of their friends.
Their hearts and blood pounded annoyingly to their heads as they squinted for Inuyasha and Kagome. They weren't imagining it like they had imagined it for the last few hours that they had been out searching for the fallen couple! This time, they had genuinely heard the reply from no other than Inuyasha and Kagome!
"Where are you!?" they screamed back, seeing no sign of the couple, but hearing their voices.
Inuyasha and Kagome looked at each other as they realized that Miroku and Sango and whoever else was up there, couldn't spot them inside the hole. They couldn't jump into the river outside either and wave their hands around; their used up energy wouldn't allow that. What they didn't need now, was another drowning Inuyasha and Kagome.
Looking around for anything that could give a signal that they were in here, they realized that they were in an empty hole with nothing, not even a stick, that would allow them to wave around outside.
"No choice left," Inuyasha whispered to himself, and grabbed a hold of his red shirt.
Kagome, who had been trying to stick her head out of the hole, retracted it and looked behind at Inuyasha when she heard him mumbling. "What do you mea- --" she had been about to ask, but the force of Inuyasha's naked chest could halt whatever sentence a girl would have liked to say. Red covered her face as she felt her head go light and feathery, her eyes fixated on that, ooh, nice chest that belonged to Inuyasha.
"Your face is getting really red. I think you're coming down with a fever, Kagome. Just sit back," Inuyasha demanded and grabbed the girl before she had time to regain her power of speech, and set her behind him.
Leaning out as far as he could, Inuyasha waved around his red shirt as an object for help, while Kagome clutched her head in pain. Not painful pain of course! The joyful pain that she refused to acknowledge was more like it! His back looked about as fine as his chest!
Rubbing her flaming cheeks rapidly, the girl scolded herself inside her head for staring for so long at the boy's naked top half. But who could resist that temptation to just run her fingers along those well-built muscles.
'AH! Stop it!!' she continued scolding herself. 'Now is not the time to be appreciating Inuyasha's backside!'
Crawling over to where Inuyasha was busy waving his shirt around outside, Kagome went up next to him and stared intently at his face. She tried to ignore how admiring his face features were, and attempted to assist him with the help signal, but, his jaw line was suddenly so well defined at that instant, and his hair sticking stubbornly to his face was just so cute, plus not to mention the way his lips were just parted and he was breathing out lightly.
Trying to cease the urge she suddenly felt, Kagome tore her eyes away from the boy next to her. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that!
Sango narrowed her eyes as she eyed something red below. Seeing it wave around there, she realized that it looked strangely like the shirt Inuyasha had been wearing yesterday night.
"Miroku! I think I found them!" Sango called, waving her hands to urge Miroku over.
Her boyfriend moved next to her and stared down at where she had pointed, seeing the waving red material also. It was Inuyasha and Kagome! They were alive! Relief would have flooded through his body at that instant, but common sense took over. Looking at the men a few feet in front of him, he narrowed his eyes. He still didn't trust those people, but.
"Men! The two survivors are down there!" Miroku ordered the men in black suits, pointing down at Inuyasha.
The policemen didn't need another command as the captain of the squad took out his walkie-talkie from his pocket when he spotted the waving red material. "Flight 101, survivors have been spotted at point 5-6-11, over. Please come immediately and we shall begin the rescue mission without delay. Over." the captain ordered in an authoritative voice, before putting the walkie-talkie back into his pocket.
"Please stand at least ten feet away from the cliff, missy and mister," the captain demanded, and both Sango and Miroku stood back obediently as they watched the "Flight 101" fly towards them to lower directly above the squad.
A rope ladder was thrown down and the captain griped it in his gloved hands, giving a thumbs-up to the flight driver when he had on a secure hold of the ladder. The driver gave back down a thumbs-up as they moved out towards the river and began to lower down towards where Inuyasha was still waving his shirt around.
Kagome and Inuyasha both moved back a bit as they saw the man coming down towards them on a rope ladder. Inuyasha pulled back on his wet shirt and observed the man lower himself directly in front of the cave, watching the man take out some things that were attached to his waist.
"Put this harness around your waist and I'll tie the opposite end onto the ladder in case you slip off," the police man instructed, and handed the two teenagers the harnesses, as he held on tighter to the ladder. "You still have enough energy to hold onto the ladder right? We'll fly you over to the top of the cliff where your friends are waiting and it'll be only thirty seconds at the most."
Inuyasha and Kagome both nodded dumbly to the older man as they fastened and secured the harness to their waists, giving the other end to the police guy so that he could attach it to the ladder like he had said. Inuyasha urged Kagome to go first and the girl nodded quickly, taking the hand the police man had offered her and grabbing onto the ladder swinging in front of her. Squinting against the sun and ignoring the sound of the river only about a feet away, she saw that on the opposite cliff shore were camera crews from various news stations and she immediately looked away. This could get into top news for god's sake!
After Kagome had firmly held onto the ladder and she was sure her hold wouldn't slip off, Inuyasha immediately grabbed the ladder following her and stepped out. He didn't feel like being stuck in the mud hole for longer than necessary, and the faster they got out of here, the less the news cast could get.
Whenever there was something somewhat exciting that could be on the news, Inuyasha knew that the broadcast would be all over it in a matter of minutes, like a fat boy over chocolate cake. He could bet anything that there were reporters already flooding over at the shore above, waiting for the two "victims" to give them the story they wanted.
Kagome and Inuyasha both gave a thumbs up to the man and the man in the black uniform gave a thumbs up to the flight driver up above.
"Hold on tight and don't look down," the rescuer advised as the three people felt themselves being hurled away from the river and the cave.
But like any other teenager, when they hear "don't," it registers as "do" in their mind. Once they were swinging dangerously out between the two precipices, Kagome and Inuyasha looked down in interest.
Big no-no.
Kagome could feel her vision blur as she watched the river running down far below while they were dangling in mid-air on a vaguely sturdy rope ladder. The only thing between her and another deadly fall was her hold on the ladder which made her knuckles turn white, a thin thing called a harness, and an equally pale Inuyasha below her. Not very calming, if you know what I mean.
Looking back up, she took in deep stabilizing breaths and concentrated on the shore that they were coming close to. Thank god it was only a thirty second trip.
They neared the edge and Kagome noticed the anxious look from Sango instantly. But when Sango saw her friend, safe, the anxious look soon turned sour, to frowning, to downright fuming.
The man unhooked the harnesses from the rope ladder from both Inuyasha and Kagome's waist and Kagome jumped over to the clearing, taking in a deep breath and silently reminding herself to never look over a cliff ever again as long as she lived.
Looking up, Kagome stared Sango, and Sango just gazed back with an intent look. Silence and tension was filled in the air between the girls while Miroku and Inuyasha both looked at each other, smiling, before turning to stare at Kagome and Sango. The two girls just continued to gape at each other in a creepy sort of way, and the guys were about to say something, before Sango and Kagome both shrieked and ran towards each other.
Sango gave Kagome a big hug as the two girls smiled like happy chipmunks to each other. "You're safe, Kagome! You have no idea how much you scared me!" Sango screamed, and tears of joy nearly ran down her cheeks as she stared at her best friend in front of her.
Miroku walked over to Inuyasha and leaned over. "Seriously, Kagome has noooo idea how scared Sango was," Miroku mumbled, nodding to himself. Suddenly clapping Inuyasha on the back that ensued a loud slapping sound, Miroku yelled, "It's nice to see you alive though, man!"
Inuyasha nearly keeled over from the painful force, sputtering something ghastly horrible to Miroku, who just shrugged it off. "So dude, how are you and Kagome?" Miroku asked, a nice, big, innocent smile on his face and ignoring the threats that Inuyasha promised he would get when he had enough energy to swing a punch.
The two mentioned looked at each other, before looking away in embarrassment. "Nothing," Kagome and Inuyasha both answered as one.
"Hey, don't tell me you both aren't together, because if you ain't," Miroku left that threat open to the crispy air as he stared at his two friends with a dark look upon his face.
Kagome turned onto him with a frown of her own. "Stop babbling nonsense!"
"YOU AREN'T?!" Miroku practically screamed in Inuyasha's ear when he heard Kagome say that, causing the other poor boy to go deaf.
Inuyasha was about to angrily reply to that, but the next instance, reporters were overflowing from seemingly nowhere and Kagome and Inuyasha nearly fainted from the bright flashes from cameras. Why were they taking pictures of them!? Stupid idiots! Just film them!!!
"So Miss. Higurashi, what had happened to get you stuck in that cave?"
"I heard you both fell in each others' arms from the Koibitos Yakusoku bridge, is this true?"
"Did the other girl survive?"
"Can we please get an interview with you both tomorrow?"
"Are you both going out?"
"Is it true that a crazy lunatic that escaped from a local mental asylum had been holding you hostage for twenty-two days, feeding you mice the whole time?"
"I heard you were pregnant, Miss. Higurashi. Is this young man the father of your child?"
Kagome practically screamed at that last few questions. They were getting more absurd by the second! Where had these people come up with such despicable questions to ask her?! Oh yea. They're the notorious news reporters who come up with the most insane stories ever heard by humanity!
But luckily,
Sango and Miroku to the rescue again!
Grabbing Inuyasha's and Kagome's sleeves, Sango and Miroku practically dragged the two friends out from the tightly packed group of reporters and ran for the car that the policemen had so nicely provided for them.
The reporters were right on their tracks like hungry hyenas, as the four teenagers practically dived into the car and ordered the man in the driver's seat to step on the gas.
The reporters were banging on the windows and taking pictures of the people inside, and Kagome just moaned as she covered her face. Inuyasha was just keeping his head down, a deep frown on his face as he ignored the noise caused by the news cast. God have no mercy on reporters!
And so the car rolled away with the reporters jumping into their own cars and stalking the police automobile.
*~*~*
She took in a heaving breath as she dragged herself up from the water, her hair sticking stubbornly to her face and causing her to swipe it away just as many times. Her clothes clung to her tired, wet body and her eyes were blood-shot as she felt a tiny wave roll her onto the muddy bank.
Sputtering out the water she had swallowed, she clawed at the muck under her fingers in an attempt to drag her whole body away from the dreadful river. She had been washed ashore on a shallow part of this slow-moving fraction of the stream, and she had never felt more nasty and sick than what she was feeling right now.
Laying spread-eagle on the mud, for once, she didn't care about how her hair looked or that her face was pale without the makeup she wore all the time. Her shirt had been partially ripped on some rocks that she had crashed into before, waking her up from her unconscious state. Of course, she just had to crash into the rock headfirst, and even though it was gentle collision, it had caused a tiny trickle of blood to run down her forehead, down her nose, and along her cheeks to drip into the brown substance she was laying on.
Her body was weary and exhausted and her vision was seeing bright dots here and there. Her head pounded relentlessly and her legs felt like they were extremely numb, leaving only her arms with the last bit of strength in them.
"Kagome, you bitch..." were her last breathless words before she slipped into another sleep of unconsciousness oblivion.