Chapter 5
Kagome looked up at the sky, noting that the sun hovered directly above her. It had to be just a little past noon and Kagome felt the rumbling from the insides of her stomach. She wanted to ask Inuyasha to take a break in order for her to rest her legs and grab a bite to eat, but he showed no signs of exhaustion and kept moving onward as a steady, fast pace. Even though she would rather chew glass with bare teeth than admit it, Kagome was falling bit by bit behind Inuyasha and for the last hour had to jog just to keep up.
Inuyasha moved forward only sparing Kagome a few backwards glances to make sure she was keeping in step with him. He could hear her footsteps hitting the ground with a greater frequency, signs that she was had to quicken her pace to keep up with him, but he did not want to look back at her or stop. If he looked back, Kagome would ask him to stop and when they stopped she would start with the questions. Kagome loved questions, and he had a sneaking suspicion that most of those questions would deal with Kikyo. Most of Kagome's questions were a lot like the arrows she carried on her back; pointed, direct, and had an incredible knack of hitting its intended target. Inuyasha had no desire to answer any questions.
For the next few minutes, Kagome tried to focus on the forest around her rather than the brooding hanyou in front of her. It was the same as before. The trees were tall and untouched, unlike the trees in her time. There were flowers and herbs that grew freely upon the dirt paths they took, and there were birds calling from the limbs of the trees. She had missed this; the trees, the birds, the flowers, and the simple way of life that existed in this era. Kagome smiled to herself; it was not too difficult to ignore Inuyasha with all of the beauty that encompassed her.
Inuyasha's sensitive ears heard Kagome's footsteps slowing, and took a quick peak behind his shoulders to see what she was doing. Kagome walked slowly and it looked as though she was staring into the woods with a soft look on her face. He frowned; trust Kagome to get all sappy over stupid things.
"Hey, Kagome! Keep up." Inuyasha yelled over his shoulder.
Kagome sighed, "Can we stop? I'm hungry and we've been walking for hours without a break. Surely we covered enough ground that even you can't complain." Without waiting for a response, Kagome pulled the bundle off her back and pulled out the bread Kaede had given her. She searched Inuyasha's face for any hint of defiance as she plopped to the ground and pinched off a piece of bread.
"Guess I don't have any say in the matter," he grumbled under his breath. He turned back and sat down a foot or two a way from Kagome, holding his hand out for a piece of bread and rolling his eyes all the while.
"It'll only take a few minutes to rest and eat." Kagome said, ignoring the look on Inuyasha's face. "Why are you in such a hurry anyway?"
"We're chasing after something that doesn't exist. It's a waste of my time."
"How do you know angels don't exist?"
"You haven't exactly seen any winged creatures around here before have you? Kaede's brains are getting all soft in her old age." Inuyasha snapped.
Kagome broke off another piece of bread, "Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There has to be a reason why they've stayed away from everyone."
"You don't actually believe all that angel garbage Kaede was feeding us?" He raised his eyebrows and looked at Kagome as though he believed all common sense had leaked from her head.
"I saw a lot of things in this era I never thought existed; demons, dragons, witches, magical spells." Kagome lifted one finger to count off every thing she mentioned. "I don't see why angels couldn't be one of those things. Besides, Kaede has never been wrong about anything before."
"Feh." Inuyasha crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the ground impatiently.
"Inuyasha, you've keep saying you don't want to waste your time. What are you're in such a hurry to get back too?"
"It doesn't matter."
"No, it does." Kagome frowned. "I want to know what's happened to you since I left." Inuyasha yawned and tapped his fingers against the sleeve of his arm. "Well, you haven't exactly been a great conversationalist all morning. I just thought I'd give it a try." Kagome said.
"Nothing important," he responded, "just traveling around with Miroku making sure there aren't any dangerous demons attacking humans."
Kagome's mouth dropped, "You're protecting humans?"
"I've got to do something with the Tetsusaiga." Kagome tried to hold back the snicker in the back of her throat by clapping a hand over her mouth, but the laughter made it through. "What's so funny?" Inuyasha demanded, his tone hitting a precarious level.
"Nothing," Kagome giggled. "It's just that for someone who wanted to be a full demon so badly and despised humans, protecting them isn't what I'd expect. It's kind of funny."
Inuyasha balled his fist and shook it at her, "Well, what have you been doing that's so important?"
"I'm at the university."
"The what?"
"School. I'm at the highest level of school that my time has."
"You always liked those stupid tests you had to run home and take."
Kagome chuckled, "I hate tests, but I do like to learn. You might find this funny, but my major is history and my area of interest is this era."
"I'm laughing so hard I may cry." Inuyasha said without a dash of emotion.
"I give up." Kagome placed both hands up in the air in mock surrender. "I've tried to be nice and make conversation but you keep giving me the cold shoulder. What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I just want to go to this stupid mountain and prove to you that there aren't any stupid angels so I can get back to my life and so you can go home."
"Is that what you want? You want me gone." Kagome stood up, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Well by all means let's go so I can get out of here."
"You were the one who said you didn't want to be here," Inuyasha barked back at her, his face cold.
Kagome looked at him with understanding, "You're angry with me because I said I needed to get back home."
Inuyasha shook his head furiously, "That's not what I said."
"No, but that's what you meant." Kagome inched closer to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, smiling gently at him. "I've know you too well. You always get mad and moody when someone has hurt you. I don't know why I didn't see it before."
"I never said that you hurt me," he continued to protest.
"You didn't have to." Kagome inched back to her spot. "I can read you like a book."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing." Kagome stood up, dusted herself off, and wrapped the bread back up. "C'mon lets go. I've rested long enough."
"Finally." He stood up and watched her place the bread back into her bundle.
"And, Inuyasha," Kagome grinned, walking past him, "You don't have to say you missed me. I know you did." Inuyasha's mouth dropped and he watched Kagome walk ahead of him, shock holding him in place.
"Don't worry. I missed you too." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Now let's get a move on."
* * * * * * *
The two spent the rest of the day walking in silence; one being too confused to speak and the other merely content to walk along and nature. Soon, the sky's color began to dim and dusk covered it. Kagome looked up at the sky and hoped they could stop and sleep. She walked all day long and the sandals began to rub her skin and her legs were tired.
"Inuyasha, can we stop now? I'm worn out."
He looked out at the woods and his ears twitched, "Might as well. If we don't stop now we're going to run into some demons soon enough. I'd rather avoid trouble if we can."
Kagome smiled, "Never thought I'd see the day you tried to avoid a fight." She set her bundle on the ground.
"I'm not in the mood to pick a fight. If we leave them alone they'll probably leave us alone." Inuyasha took a few steps to the left and bent down to pick up some wood. "And if they don't. . ." he pointed to the Tetsusaiga, "they'll wish they had."
Kagome began to gather wood for a fire as well. Soon there was a warm fire burning, and the two had eaten dinner. Kagome looked at Inuyasha; he was staring at the fire as though he were caught up in a whirlwind of memories. "What're you thinking about?"
Inuyasha lifted his golden gaze to her, "Nothing important."
Kagome shrugged; no point in trying to drag it out of him. She sighed, "I think I'm going to sleep." She stood up and left Inuyasha with the fire and his thoughts. Kagome felt for the ground and pushed some leaves in a pile before she lay down on the ground. An arm curled underneath her head for a pillow, and heavy eyelids shut. Kagome breathed in deeply and enjoyed the smell of the forest and the quiet that hovered in the air.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha's quiet words drifted through the dark.
"Hm?"
"I did miss you." Kagome raised her head from the ground and looked at Inuyasha's back. "I missed you a lot, sometimes so much that I thought I could feel what you were feeling across time." Kagome inched towards Inuyasha and sat mere inches away from him, his back still facing her.
"Inuyasha, there is something I want to tell you." Inuyasha turned his head and Kagome looked up at his face. His face was covered in yellow warmth from the fire while the embers of the flames shot through the air. "You don't have to tell me anything, but I want you to know this. I had been back to my time for a few weeks and I had a vision of you. You were running through the woods and you were so sad. I felt all this guilt in my stomach and I knew that it came from you. I felt what you were feeling."
Inuyasha stared wide eyed at Kagome for a moment and could not shape any words to come off of his tongue.
"I just thought you should know." Kagome shrugged at the stoic expression on Inuyasha's face and then turned over to side, ready for sleep to come.
It was quiet for a moment or two when Inuyasha's voice hit Kagome's ears, "Kikyo chose to move onto the next world and she wanted me to go with her. I couldn't go. I felt horrible, Kagome. I couldn't keep my promise to her." He stopped speaking and looked in Kagome's eyes for several moments, each of which seemed to be stretch out before Kagome. "That's what you felt."
"You promised to protect and be with her not die with her, Inuyasha." He turned away his head away as though he were refusing to listen to the sense that was laced through her words. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"What are you sorry for?" His tone was sharp and angry. There was no way Kagome could understand what he went through so how could she be sorry for him.
"I'm just sorry that you had to lose her a second time." Kagome stopped with these words and wrestled with the one question she wanted an answer to. She tried to keep it inside, reminding herself that it was unimportant; the decision had been made and there was no second guessing it. "Inuyasha, why didn't you die with Kikyo?"
He looked away from her, "I wanted to live. That's all." He mumbled and turned his face away from her, his hair blocking any view of his face and eyes.
Kagome felt an instinctive urge to comfort him, an old habit that could not be repressed. She pulled herself up from the ground she had made warm with her body heat and moved next to Inuyasha. Her hand moved to his shoulder and she rested her head on his upper back very near her hand. Something within her, some innate impulse, brought her to his side to bring comfort to him just as she had several years ago whenever he had been heartbroken or worried. Slowly, Inuyasha's hand inched towards her hand, his claws and fingertips barely touching the skin on her own hand. He rested his hand on hers, his claws unconsciously caressing her hand.
Fireflies moved around the forest, and for a few seconds the pair reveled in the nearness of the body next to them. Inuyasha felt the connection he had shared with Kagome flare up; almost ignite, after he had pushed it down for so many years. His hand was still placed on hers and he could feel the warmth of her hand along with a cool and rather large gem on her finger.
"Kagome?" His voice was more a murmur than anything, a half-hearted question that unwillingly broke the silence. "What's this huge rock doing on your finger?"
Kagome snatched her hand away and jerked her head from Inuyasha's back. She berated herself for forgetting Shiro for just a few seconds and she could not lift her head back up to look at Inuyasha squarely in the face.
"Kagome? It's just a question." The hanyou laughed lightly at her skittishness. Surely she was not afraid to be close to him after all the time they had spent together in the past.
"It's a ring, Inuyasha." Her words were tight and each one was pronounced with a distinct and clear air.
"Of course it's a ring. I was just asking why you're wearing it." Inuyasha was confused by her change in manner and he took on a bit of his old cynical tone. "You were never big on jewelry and now you have a ring the size of the Shikon on your finger."
"It's an engagement ring."
"A what?" Inuyasha asked.
Kagome had forgotten that the concept of an engagement ring like it was in her time did not exist in this era. There were dowries and money exchanged, but men did not give their future wives huge rings as tokens of their love and future promises.
"It's a gift from my fiancée, Inuyasha. He gave it to me when he asked me to marry him." Kagome still looked directly at the ground, afraid to look up at Inuyasha.
Inuyasha's face darkened and his eyes narrowed into thin slits, "Hoho." His tone was dangerous and his eyes were clouded with rage. His hand grabbed the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, as though he were about to draw it from its sheath, and squeezed until the bones in his hands were about to crack.
"No, not Hojou."
"Who then?"
Kagome breathed deeply, "His name is Shiro. I met him at school. He loves me, Inuyasha, and he wants me to be his wife."
Inuyasha stepped in front of her, and Kagome found herself staring at his feet, "And you consented?"
Kagome nodded her head, numbly. In all honesty she was frightened by Inuyasha's tone and remembered how angry he used to get whenever Kouga would do as little as grab her hands.
"When is the wedding?" Kagome still looked stared down at the ground. "Look at me, wench." Kagome lifted her head. "Answer me," he bellowed.
Kagome's face contorted into a very nasty expression and she leapt up from the ground. Inuyasha backed off several inches, but the stone look in his eyes remained firm. "I'm getting married in three weeks! Does that bother you?" Kagome balled her fists up and screamed at him.
"It doesn't bother me!" His expression was as equally as nasty.
"Then why are you screaming?" Kagome yelled. Inuyasha did not bother to answer and turned to walk away. Kagome watched him for a few seconds and then red flashed before her eyes, consuming all rational thought and emotion. He had no right! No right! She ran to catch up and stepped right in front of him. His glower switched to a look of surprise.
"You listen to me." Kagome hissed. "You have no right! If I want to get married and be happy, that is my choice! My choice!" She stamped her foot for emphasis. "Once upon a time all you had to do was lift your hand and I'd come running. Not anymore! I grew up, Inuyasha. I couldn't spend my life wishing things were different. I had to go home and live." Her anger began to dissipate and the words became quieter, "So don't demand me to answer you or talk to me like I'm a child. I won't stand for it. Understand?" Tears welled up in her eyes. Of all the times to cry! She wanted to make a point, stand up for herself, but now she was crying.
"Feh," Inuyasha replied. He moved to step around her.
Kagome stepped to the side refusing to let him pass. Inuyasha looked as though he were about to plow right through Kagome, but she put a hand up to his chest to keep him fro moving any further. "You made your choice a while back. Now I've made mine." A hot tear fell down her cheek, and her hand wilted to her side.
With these words, Inuyasha's face and hands went limp. "Are you done?" His voice sounded ragged and torn.
Kagome folded her arms, "I'm done." Inuyasha gave Kagome a withering glance and walked away from her, leaving Kagome standing there. She felt a new hotter anger bubble up within her; he had not listened to a word she said. One coherent thought sprouted in all the anger, Inuyasha still wore the rosary beads. He had not let her take them off of him when she had left the era five years earlier, and a malicious grin covered Kagome's face, "SIT!"
Inuyasha was pressed to the ground, crying out in surprise and pain. Apparently, he had forgotten about the beads and the spell that attached him to Kagome as well. "You, you. . ." He growled from the dirt.
"Until you can listen to what I say," Kagome screamed, "you can just stay there. SIT! SIT! SIT!" Pain pressed itself down all the vertebra in Inuyasha's spine, popping each one as it went along. Kagome turned and walked away from him, leaving him in the dirt.
* * * * *
The next two days seemed to become longer and longer, but Kagome refused to be the first to speak to Inuyasha. It should be his responsibility to apologize she told herself over and over again, and she kept trying to rationalize sitting him repeatedly.
Inuyasha kept his mouth shut as well. He refused to look at Kagome, and told himself it was because he could not stand to look at such a dishonest wench. After all, Kagome could have told him immediately that she was engaged to another but she did not, and that temper of hers was ridiculous. He forgot how much it hurt to be sat by her and he did not want to risk another event like that anytime soon. All in all, it just made more sense not to speak to her at all.
At the end of their third day of traveling, Kagome finally broke the silence. "Inuyasha, how many more days will it take to reach the mountain?"
He turned and looked at her as though she had done something terrible by breaking the silence, "Two days." Inuyasha immediately returned to his task of building the fire and pretended as though Kagome did not exist.
Kagome watched him, frustration and sadness crossing her face, "Can you look at me for just one second?"
"What do you want?" he sneered.
Kagome sighed, "I'm sorry I sat you. I shouldn't have done it." Inuyasha still refused to look at her. "I'm apologizing. What more should I do?" He only grated the wood together faster and harder.
Kagome tapped her foot on the ground and counted to ten. Still, her patience had run out and she crossed the distance between them. Her hands grabbed his ears and pulled her head very close to hers. "You cannot ignore me for the next several days. I'm sorry for what I said, but you earned it. Now would you please put it behind you so we can at least be civil to each other." Kagome gritted her teeth and each word came out in a slow and harsh manner.
Inuyasha's eyes lost the angry flash and sunk down, looking away from her, "Sorry."
Kagome pitied him for a second, "I just want the two of us to be friends. I meant it when I said I missed you, and I didn't mean to make it seem like I'm unhappy to be here. I'm glad I got to see you again." She moved her hands away from his ears and rested one hand against his cheek, "We were friends once. Why can't we do that again?"
Inuyasha spoke with a shaking voice, "I hurt you didn't I?"
"Inuyasha?"
"Not just now, but back when we were hunting for the shards. I had to hurt you a lot for you to have all that anger."
Kagome wished she could deny his statement, "It was a long time ago. It's been forgotten."
"You can forget just like that?"
She rolled her eyes and gave him a tiny smile, "It was all five years ago, and don't forget that there were a lot of good times too." Inuyasha continued to look at her with such a heartbreaking look on his face. "Listen, I'm not sorry about anything that happened."
Inuyasha grabbed her hand and took it in his and squeezed it, "Thank you, Kagome." He could feel her ring as he clasped her hand; a painful reminder that gave created a dull ache in his chest. "Why don't you go to sleep? You look tired."
Kagome nodded her head and laid down on the ground. Inuyasha backed away for a moment and watched her settle down, only risking being near to her once he heard her breath coming in a steady pattern of sleep. He watched her sleep, thinking about innocent she looked when her eyes were closed.
Kagome looked up at the sky, noting that the sun hovered directly above her. It had to be just a little past noon and Kagome felt the rumbling from the insides of her stomach. She wanted to ask Inuyasha to take a break in order for her to rest her legs and grab a bite to eat, but he showed no signs of exhaustion and kept moving onward as a steady, fast pace. Even though she would rather chew glass with bare teeth than admit it, Kagome was falling bit by bit behind Inuyasha and for the last hour had to jog just to keep up.
Inuyasha moved forward only sparing Kagome a few backwards glances to make sure she was keeping in step with him. He could hear her footsteps hitting the ground with a greater frequency, signs that she was had to quicken her pace to keep up with him, but he did not want to look back at her or stop. If he looked back, Kagome would ask him to stop and when they stopped she would start with the questions. Kagome loved questions, and he had a sneaking suspicion that most of those questions would deal with Kikyo. Most of Kagome's questions were a lot like the arrows she carried on her back; pointed, direct, and had an incredible knack of hitting its intended target. Inuyasha had no desire to answer any questions.
For the next few minutes, Kagome tried to focus on the forest around her rather than the brooding hanyou in front of her. It was the same as before. The trees were tall and untouched, unlike the trees in her time. There were flowers and herbs that grew freely upon the dirt paths they took, and there were birds calling from the limbs of the trees. She had missed this; the trees, the birds, the flowers, and the simple way of life that existed in this era. Kagome smiled to herself; it was not too difficult to ignore Inuyasha with all of the beauty that encompassed her.
Inuyasha's sensitive ears heard Kagome's footsteps slowing, and took a quick peak behind his shoulders to see what she was doing. Kagome walked slowly and it looked as though she was staring into the woods with a soft look on her face. He frowned; trust Kagome to get all sappy over stupid things.
"Hey, Kagome! Keep up." Inuyasha yelled over his shoulder.
Kagome sighed, "Can we stop? I'm hungry and we've been walking for hours without a break. Surely we covered enough ground that even you can't complain." Without waiting for a response, Kagome pulled the bundle off her back and pulled out the bread Kaede had given her. She searched Inuyasha's face for any hint of defiance as she plopped to the ground and pinched off a piece of bread.
"Guess I don't have any say in the matter," he grumbled under his breath. He turned back and sat down a foot or two a way from Kagome, holding his hand out for a piece of bread and rolling his eyes all the while.
"It'll only take a few minutes to rest and eat." Kagome said, ignoring the look on Inuyasha's face. "Why are you in such a hurry anyway?"
"We're chasing after something that doesn't exist. It's a waste of my time."
"How do you know angels don't exist?"
"You haven't exactly seen any winged creatures around here before have you? Kaede's brains are getting all soft in her old age." Inuyasha snapped.
Kagome broke off another piece of bread, "Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There has to be a reason why they've stayed away from everyone."
"You don't actually believe all that angel garbage Kaede was feeding us?" He raised his eyebrows and looked at Kagome as though he believed all common sense had leaked from her head.
"I saw a lot of things in this era I never thought existed; demons, dragons, witches, magical spells." Kagome lifted one finger to count off every thing she mentioned. "I don't see why angels couldn't be one of those things. Besides, Kaede has never been wrong about anything before."
"Feh." Inuyasha crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the ground impatiently.
"Inuyasha, you've keep saying you don't want to waste your time. What are you're in such a hurry to get back too?"
"It doesn't matter."
"No, it does." Kagome frowned. "I want to know what's happened to you since I left." Inuyasha yawned and tapped his fingers against the sleeve of his arm. "Well, you haven't exactly been a great conversationalist all morning. I just thought I'd give it a try." Kagome said.
"Nothing important," he responded, "just traveling around with Miroku making sure there aren't any dangerous demons attacking humans."
Kagome's mouth dropped, "You're protecting humans?"
"I've got to do something with the Tetsusaiga." Kagome tried to hold back the snicker in the back of her throat by clapping a hand over her mouth, but the laughter made it through. "What's so funny?" Inuyasha demanded, his tone hitting a precarious level.
"Nothing," Kagome giggled. "It's just that for someone who wanted to be a full demon so badly and despised humans, protecting them isn't what I'd expect. It's kind of funny."
Inuyasha balled his fist and shook it at her, "Well, what have you been doing that's so important?"
"I'm at the university."
"The what?"
"School. I'm at the highest level of school that my time has."
"You always liked those stupid tests you had to run home and take."
Kagome chuckled, "I hate tests, but I do like to learn. You might find this funny, but my major is history and my area of interest is this era."
"I'm laughing so hard I may cry." Inuyasha said without a dash of emotion.
"I give up." Kagome placed both hands up in the air in mock surrender. "I've tried to be nice and make conversation but you keep giving me the cold shoulder. What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I just want to go to this stupid mountain and prove to you that there aren't any stupid angels so I can get back to my life and so you can go home."
"Is that what you want? You want me gone." Kagome stood up, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Well by all means let's go so I can get out of here."
"You were the one who said you didn't want to be here," Inuyasha barked back at her, his face cold.
Kagome looked at him with understanding, "You're angry with me because I said I needed to get back home."
Inuyasha shook his head furiously, "That's not what I said."
"No, but that's what you meant." Kagome inched closer to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, smiling gently at him. "I've know you too well. You always get mad and moody when someone has hurt you. I don't know why I didn't see it before."
"I never said that you hurt me," he continued to protest.
"You didn't have to." Kagome inched back to her spot. "I can read you like a book."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing." Kagome stood up, dusted herself off, and wrapped the bread back up. "C'mon lets go. I've rested long enough."
"Finally." He stood up and watched her place the bread back into her bundle.
"And, Inuyasha," Kagome grinned, walking past him, "You don't have to say you missed me. I know you did." Inuyasha's mouth dropped and he watched Kagome walk ahead of him, shock holding him in place.
"Don't worry. I missed you too." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Now let's get a move on."
* * * * * * *
The two spent the rest of the day walking in silence; one being too confused to speak and the other merely content to walk along and nature. Soon, the sky's color began to dim and dusk covered it. Kagome looked up at the sky and hoped they could stop and sleep. She walked all day long and the sandals began to rub her skin and her legs were tired.
"Inuyasha, can we stop now? I'm worn out."
He looked out at the woods and his ears twitched, "Might as well. If we don't stop now we're going to run into some demons soon enough. I'd rather avoid trouble if we can."
Kagome smiled, "Never thought I'd see the day you tried to avoid a fight." She set her bundle on the ground.
"I'm not in the mood to pick a fight. If we leave them alone they'll probably leave us alone." Inuyasha took a few steps to the left and bent down to pick up some wood. "And if they don't. . ." he pointed to the Tetsusaiga, "they'll wish they had."
Kagome began to gather wood for a fire as well. Soon there was a warm fire burning, and the two had eaten dinner. Kagome looked at Inuyasha; he was staring at the fire as though he were caught up in a whirlwind of memories. "What're you thinking about?"
Inuyasha lifted his golden gaze to her, "Nothing important."
Kagome shrugged; no point in trying to drag it out of him. She sighed, "I think I'm going to sleep." She stood up and left Inuyasha with the fire and his thoughts. Kagome felt for the ground and pushed some leaves in a pile before she lay down on the ground. An arm curled underneath her head for a pillow, and heavy eyelids shut. Kagome breathed in deeply and enjoyed the smell of the forest and the quiet that hovered in the air.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha's quiet words drifted through the dark.
"Hm?"
"I did miss you." Kagome raised her head from the ground and looked at Inuyasha's back. "I missed you a lot, sometimes so much that I thought I could feel what you were feeling across time." Kagome inched towards Inuyasha and sat mere inches away from him, his back still facing her.
"Inuyasha, there is something I want to tell you." Inuyasha turned his head and Kagome looked up at his face. His face was covered in yellow warmth from the fire while the embers of the flames shot through the air. "You don't have to tell me anything, but I want you to know this. I had been back to my time for a few weeks and I had a vision of you. You were running through the woods and you were so sad. I felt all this guilt in my stomach and I knew that it came from you. I felt what you were feeling."
Inuyasha stared wide eyed at Kagome for a moment and could not shape any words to come off of his tongue.
"I just thought you should know." Kagome shrugged at the stoic expression on Inuyasha's face and then turned over to side, ready for sleep to come.
It was quiet for a moment or two when Inuyasha's voice hit Kagome's ears, "Kikyo chose to move onto the next world and she wanted me to go with her. I couldn't go. I felt horrible, Kagome. I couldn't keep my promise to her." He stopped speaking and looked in Kagome's eyes for several moments, each of which seemed to be stretch out before Kagome. "That's what you felt."
"You promised to protect and be with her not die with her, Inuyasha." He turned away his head away as though he were refusing to listen to the sense that was laced through her words. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"What are you sorry for?" His tone was sharp and angry. There was no way Kagome could understand what he went through so how could she be sorry for him.
"I'm just sorry that you had to lose her a second time." Kagome stopped with these words and wrestled with the one question she wanted an answer to. She tried to keep it inside, reminding herself that it was unimportant; the decision had been made and there was no second guessing it. "Inuyasha, why didn't you die with Kikyo?"
He looked away from her, "I wanted to live. That's all." He mumbled and turned his face away from her, his hair blocking any view of his face and eyes.
Kagome felt an instinctive urge to comfort him, an old habit that could not be repressed. She pulled herself up from the ground she had made warm with her body heat and moved next to Inuyasha. Her hand moved to his shoulder and she rested her head on his upper back very near her hand. Something within her, some innate impulse, brought her to his side to bring comfort to him just as she had several years ago whenever he had been heartbroken or worried. Slowly, Inuyasha's hand inched towards her hand, his claws and fingertips barely touching the skin on her own hand. He rested his hand on hers, his claws unconsciously caressing her hand.
Fireflies moved around the forest, and for a few seconds the pair reveled in the nearness of the body next to them. Inuyasha felt the connection he had shared with Kagome flare up; almost ignite, after he had pushed it down for so many years. His hand was still placed on hers and he could feel the warmth of her hand along with a cool and rather large gem on her finger.
"Kagome?" His voice was more a murmur than anything, a half-hearted question that unwillingly broke the silence. "What's this huge rock doing on your finger?"
Kagome snatched her hand away and jerked her head from Inuyasha's back. She berated herself for forgetting Shiro for just a few seconds and she could not lift her head back up to look at Inuyasha squarely in the face.
"Kagome? It's just a question." The hanyou laughed lightly at her skittishness. Surely she was not afraid to be close to him after all the time they had spent together in the past.
"It's a ring, Inuyasha." Her words were tight and each one was pronounced with a distinct and clear air.
"Of course it's a ring. I was just asking why you're wearing it." Inuyasha was confused by her change in manner and he took on a bit of his old cynical tone. "You were never big on jewelry and now you have a ring the size of the Shikon on your finger."
"It's an engagement ring."
"A what?" Inuyasha asked.
Kagome had forgotten that the concept of an engagement ring like it was in her time did not exist in this era. There were dowries and money exchanged, but men did not give their future wives huge rings as tokens of their love and future promises.
"It's a gift from my fiancée, Inuyasha. He gave it to me when he asked me to marry him." Kagome still looked directly at the ground, afraid to look up at Inuyasha.
Inuyasha's face darkened and his eyes narrowed into thin slits, "Hoho." His tone was dangerous and his eyes were clouded with rage. His hand grabbed the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, as though he were about to draw it from its sheath, and squeezed until the bones in his hands were about to crack.
"No, not Hojou."
"Who then?"
Kagome breathed deeply, "His name is Shiro. I met him at school. He loves me, Inuyasha, and he wants me to be his wife."
Inuyasha stepped in front of her, and Kagome found herself staring at his feet, "And you consented?"
Kagome nodded her head, numbly. In all honesty she was frightened by Inuyasha's tone and remembered how angry he used to get whenever Kouga would do as little as grab her hands.
"When is the wedding?" Kagome still looked stared down at the ground. "Look at me, wench." Kagome lifted her head. "Answer me," he bellowed.
Kagome's face contorted into a very nasty expression and she leapt up from the ground. Inuyasha backed off several inches, but the stone look in his eyes remained firm. "I'm getting married in three weeks! Does that bother you?" Kagome balled her fists up and screamed at him.
"It doesn't bother me!" His expression was as equally as nasty.
"Then why are you screaming?" Kagome yelled. Inuyasha did not bother to answer and turned to walk away. Kagome watched him for a few seconds and then red flashed before her eyes, consuming all rational thought and emotion. He had no right! No right! She ran to catch up and stepped right in front of him. His glower switched to a look of surprise.
"You listen to me." Kagome hissed. "You have no right! If I want to get married and be happy, that is my choice! My choice!" She stamped her foot for emphasis. "Once upon a time all you had to do was lift your hand and I'd come running. Not anymore! I grew up, Inuyasha. I couldn't spend my life wishing things were different. I had to go home and live." Her anger began to dissipate and the words became quieter, "So don't demand me to answer you or talk to me like I'm a child. I won't stand for it. Understand?" Tears welled up in her eyes. Of all the times to cry! She wanted to make a point, stand up for herself, but now she was crying.
"Feh," Inuyasha replied. He moved to step around her.
Kagome stepped to the side refusing to let him pass. Inuyasha looked as though he were about to plow right through Kagome, but she put a hand up to his chest to keep him fro moving any further. "You made your choice a while back. Now I've made mine." A hot tear fell down her cheek, and her hand wilted to her side.
With these words, Inuyasha's face and hands went limp. "Are you done?" His voice sounded ragged and torn.
Kagome folded her arms, "I'm done." Inuyasha gave Kagome a withering glance and walked away from her, leaving Kagome standing there. She felt a new hotter anger bubble up within her; he had not listened to a word she said. One coherent thought sprouted in all the anger, Inuyasha still wore the rosary beads. He had not let her take them off of him when she had left the era five years earlier, and a malicious grin covered Kagome's face, "SIT!"
Inuyasha was pressed to the ground, crying out in surprise and pain. Apparently, he had forgotten about the beads and the spell that attached him to Kagome as well. "You, you. . ." He growled from the dirt.
"Until you can listen to what I say," Kagome screamed, "you can just stay there. SIT! SIT! SIT!" Pain pressed itself down all the vertebra in Inuyasha's spine, popping each one as it went along. Kagome turned and walked away from him, leaving him in the dirt.
* * * * *
The next two days seemed to become longer and longer, but Kagome refused to be the first to speak to Inuyasha. It should be his responsibility to apologize she told herself over and over again, and she kept trying to rationalize sitting him repeatedly.
Inuyasha kept his mouth shut as well. He refused to look at Kagome, and told himself it was because he could not stand to look at such a dishonest wench. After all, Kagome could have told him immediately that she was engaged to another but she did not, and that temper of hers was ridiculous. He forgot how much it hurt to be sat by her and he did not want to risk another event like that anytime soon. All in all, it just made more sense not to speak to her at all.
At the end of their third day of traveling, Kagome finally broke the silence. "Inuyasha, how many more days will it take to reach the mountain?"
He turned and looked at her as though she had done something terrible by breaking the silence, "Two days." Inuyasha immediately returned to his task of building the fire and pretended as though Kagome did not exist.
Kagome watched him, frustration and sadness crossing her face, "Can you look at me for just one second?"
"What do you want?" he sneered.
Kagome sighed, "I'm sorry I sat you. I shouldn't have done it." Inuyasha still refused to look at her. "I'm apologizing. What more should I do?" He only grated the wood together faster and harder.
Kagome tapped her foot on the ground and counted to ten. Still, her patience had run out and she crossed the distance between them. Her hands grabbed his ears and pulled her head very close to hers. "You cannot ignore me for the next several days. I'm sorry for what I said, but you earned it. Now would you please put it behind you so we can at least be civil to each other." Kagome gritted her teeth and each word came out in a slow and harsh manner.
Inuyasha's eyes lost the angry flash and sunk down, looking away from her, "Sorry."
Kagome pitied him for a second, "I just want the two of us to be friends. I meant it when I said I missed you, and I didn't mean to make it seem like I'm unhappy to be here. I'm glad I got to see you again." She moved her hands away from his ears and rested one hand against his cheek, "We were friends once. Why can't we do that again?"
Inuyasha spoke with a shaking voice, "I hurt you didn't I?"
"Inuyasha?"
"Not just now, but back when we were hunting for the shards. I had to hurt you a lot for you to have all that anger."
Kagome wished she could deny his statement, "It was a long time ago. It's been forgotten."
"You can forget just like that?"
She rolled her eyes and gave him a tiny smile, "It was all five years ago, and don't forget that there were a lot of good times too." Inuyasha continued to look at her with such a heartbreaking look on his face. "Listen, I'm not sorry about anything that happened."
Inuyasha grabbed her hand and took it in his and squeezed it, "Thank you, Kagome." He could feel her ring as he clasped her hand; a painful reminder that gave created a dull ache in his chest. "Why don't you go to sleep? You look tired."
Kagome nodded her head and laid down on the ground. Inuyasha backed away for a moment and watched her settle down, only risking being near to her once he heard her breath coming in a steady pattern of sleep. He watched her sleep, thinking about innocent she looked when her eyes were closed.