DISCLAIMER: Nope, I don't own Inuyasha or anything to do with it.
You're not Alone
By: Of Memories Past
Part VII
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"Kikyo?" Kagome's hand went to her chest as she took a step back and sat once again on the soft bed. She seemed to have suddenly gone pale. Her breaths were sharp and ragged as she tried to take in air.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked.
"Kikyo," she repeated again. The normally vibrant, dark eyes were a stark contrast again her paled skin. A sudden red flush crept into her cheeks as she tried to steady herself on the bed and with a sudden bout of courage and strength, Kagome stood up and angrily looked at Inuyasha. "You didn't tell me she was still alive."
Inuyasha scowled and glared at her. She did not have any reason to be getting angry with him. He had not even done anything yet. All he had done was be nice. "I hadn't exactly gotten around to it yet!"
The vehement reply was not at all what Kagome had needed to hear. "You haven't changed have you? What were you going to do? Use me and then go back running to her again when she showed up?"
"You're overreacting, Kagome," Inuyasha growled. He walked over to his dresser and pulled out a t-shirt. If he did not have to work today, then he was not going to bother with the uncomfortable dress shirt. "I haven't been involved with her for years." He furiously worked at the buttons before giving up and ripping the shirt over his head to replace it with the more comfortable one.
Kagome laughed disbelievingly. "How am I suppose to believe you when every time you thought I wasn't around, you went running back to her."
Inuyasha whirled around, his amber eye flashing. "That's unfair, Kagome!"
"Unfair?" She inquired, taking and angry step forward. "Unfair is me having to wonder whether or not the person I care about is going to end up in hell." Kagome's next steps wavered and the red flush in her cheeks became deeper. "Unfair is sitting back and watching you kiss and embrace her while I myself receive mixed signals. Unfair is…" She stopped for a moment, a hand going to her head as her balanced dithered. Her eyelids began to droop. "Unfair is…"
She passed out.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha rushed forward and caught her in his arms as she descended to the floor. He looked down at the unconscious girl in his arms. Even though unconscious, she did not seem to be at peace. Lines of stress were etched in her face and her brows were still slightly knit together. His eyes clenched shut as he brought her closer to his chest. "Is that what you've thought all this time?"
Sesshoumaru, having kept silent through the whole dispute, laid a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. "Can you blame her?"
Inuyasha turned his face to his brother and frowned. "I waited agonizingly for five hundred years to see her. I thought she would know."
The older demon smiled sadly and shook his head. "You still have so much to learn, Little Brother."
Inuyasha growled and lifted Kagome.
"Don't growl at me, youngling," Sesshoumaru chuckled. "I know what I'm talking about." He turned his golden gaze to the girl in his brother's arms. "Bring her out to the couch. We need to wake her."
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"I don't even want to know what you did," the childlike Kirara voiced, draping a cool cloth over the sleeping girl's forehead. "How long has she been out?"
"Just a few minutes," Sesshoumaru answered. "Her and the runt had a little argument."
Fiery pink eyes snapped up to the hanyou, glaring angrily. "Why did you upset her? Do you know how overwhelming these last few days have been for her?"
"Kirara, I don't need this from you right now!" Inuyasha shouted. "So shut your mouth!"
Kirara stood up and closed her eyes. A second later, a tall woman stood in her place, reaching out to grab the hanyou that matched her height by his shirt. "I'm telling you to loosen up on her."
Inuyasha quickly got over the surprise of seeing Kirara turn into a full-grown woman and pushed her arm away from him. "You don't even know what you're talking about!"
Sesshoumaru glanced her way and mouthed "Kikyo."
Running a hand through her short black hair, the fire-cat sighed and sat back down on the couch next to Kagome. She dipped a cloth back into the bowl of cool water resting on the coffee table and began to sponge the side of Kagome's face, praying that the girl would wake soon. The sooner the mess was settled the better. She did not want to be living with Inuyasha while he was irate. He was always impossible when like that.
Shippo chose that moment to walk into the room and smirked when he saw the transformed fire-cat. "What's shakin', Sexy?" He winked at her.
Kirara smiled seductively before bursting out with laughter. Shippo laughed with her and walked over to join his small group of friends. The laughter left his body when he saw Kagome lying unconscious on the couch.
"What happened to Kagome?" The tone in his voice revealed his obvious worry.
Kirara opened her mouth to spill the truth, but a sharp look from Sesshoumaru made her think twice. At the moment it would be better not to get the kit riled up. "Just too much information at once. It was a bit overwhelming for her."
Well, it basically was the truth. She gave the cloth over to Shippo and stood up to go to the kitchen. The poor girl. Kirara knew that whenever either Shippo or Inuyasha were overwhelmed a good cup of soup and coffee usually fixed the problem. And considering that Kikyo was involved, Kirara figured that it would take a pretty decent cup of soup for Kagome to feel better. And better substitute the coffee for hot chocolate.
"Where are you going?" Inuyasha demanded, as she passed him by.
"Kitchen," she snapped. All of a sudden, Kirara raised her hand into the air and slapped Inuyasha across the face. Hard.
Sesshoumaru and Shippo stared in shock.
The hanyou reeled back a bit from the force. That slap had stung. But he soon recovered and was glaring dangerously at the fire-cat. "What was that for?!"
Choosing to ignore his anger, Kirara slowly turned away and headed toward the kitchen again. "Sango told me to let you have it if you ever upset her."
With that she disappeared behind the counter. The noise of pots and pans crashing together was heard as she searched for the right pot to start her soup.
Inuyasha held back from growling obnoxiously loud. "Thanks a lot, Sango," he muttered under his breath.
"Feisty little thing, isn't she?" Shippo grinned.
"Shippo?"
Kagome's soft, confused voice turned his attention immediately to his surrogate mother. Her brown eyes fluttered open, still slightly dazed over what had happened. She groggily sat up with his assistance putting a hand to her head as another wave of dizziness flooded over her.
"Take it easy," Sesshoumaru warned, going to her side and helping Shippo get her up. "You should not stress yourself right now."
"Stress?" Kagome muttered sardonically. She allowed the two youkai to help her up and leaned into their hold for support. Now sitting up fully on her own, the girl's eyes rested on the one cause to her anguish, and her own orbs narrowed dangerously. "I don't want to talk to him right now."
Inuyasha threw his hands up in defeat, taking a few steps closer to Kagome. "You didn't even give me a chance to explain, wench!"
"Give you a chance to explain?" She laughed incredulously, though she visually flinched at the insult. "What is there to explain? Kikyo is still alive. The woman that you loved and ran to time and time again while I sat right under your nose is still alive." Tears of anger and hurt began to burn in her eyes as she hastily reached for her purse. "I am not setting myself up for heartache again, Inuyasha. It hurts too much."
Kagome threw an apologetic look to Kirara, Sesshoumaru, and Shippo as she walked to the door. "I'm sorry. I don't think that this is the best time for me to visit."
"It's okay, Kagome." Kirara walked up to the distraught girl and wrapped her arms around her form. Anger seeped through her being as Kagome immediately broke down crying. She threw a blistering glare toward Inuyasha before pushing the sobbing girl back to look at her. "Shippo's going to drive you home, okay?"
Wiping at her eyes, Kagome mustered a small smile for the fire-cat.
Kirara smiled back at her. "Good. Now take this. It will make you feel better."
Taking the two thermoses that Kirara handed her, one of soup and the other of hot chocolate, Kagome voiced her thanks and headed out the car.
Shippo followed behind her, snatching Inuyasha's keys as he made his way out the door. "I'm taking your car, Jerk." He sent one final glare toward the hanyou before slamming the door behind him.
"Fine, I don't care!" Inuyasha slouched onto the couch, crossing his arms stubbornly over his chest. He sat wallowing in self-pity until her felt a pair of eyes burning into him. Looking up, he found his brother staring sternly down at him.
"What?" he asked rudely.
Sesshoumaru simply shook his head. "You have a lot to learn, Pup."
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"He just doesn't understand, Shippo!" Kagome lay on her stomach, her arms entangled around the pillow on her bed as the kit soothingly scratched her back and let her vent. Though, he did not like the tears that had ceased to stop since they left the apartment.
"It's okay, Kagome," he soothed, secretly vowing to pound Inuyasha over the head as soon as he got back home. "He's just too ignorant for his own good."
Kagome sat up and looked at Shippo with tearful eyes. "He'll go back to her again, Shippo. He always does." A fresh bout of sobs took over her body.
Shippo took the girl he considered his mother into his arms and stroked her back. "It will be okay, Kagome." He simply held her as she cried. "It will be okay."
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"I'm not doing it."
If one thought that Sesshoumaru was a frightening being in his natural form, then that individual had never seen the dark and threatening glare that he currently bestowed upon his younger brother. His amber eyes flashed dangerously for a moment before a devious and sickly sweet grin covered his normally passive features. Calmly, he made his way toward the hanyou seated on the couch. It did not matter to him how stubborn his brother could be. It did not matter that his brother had a terrible temper when things did not follow the lead he wanted them too. And, it did not matter to him that Tetsusaiga was in the other room. For all he cared, Inuyasha could allow his demon blood to take over if he became angry. He would still get his point across.
Inuyasha dropped the stubborn glare on his face as he watched his elder brother slowly come toward him. The uncanny grin on his face engrained an uneasy feeling in him. His eyes opened wide as that smile suddenly turned devious.
"Don't look at me like that," his voice cracked as Sesshoumaru got down in his face. The "tough guy" pretense that he showed to the world cracked, and he reached for a throw pillow, clutching it to his chest. "St…stop it, Sess…Sesshou…" he swallowed, noticing the grin growing more sugary. "Sesshoumaru?"
His movement came quicker than lightning. Sesshoumaru's hand shot forward and had wrapped its clawed fingers around the hanyou's throat, constricting the air passage just enough to keep his brother's full attention. The menacing smile had disappeared from his face, and he lifted his current prey into the air until his feet dangled above the floor.
Sesshoumaru growled for good measure before delivering his orders for the last time. "You will go, and you will buy a dozen roses. Red ones. You will dress up nicely, and you will go and apologize to her, setting everything straight before you kiss that girl better than you ever have before." His grip tightened. "And you will swallow your pride and do all of this, or by the grave of our father, I will kill you!"
Inuyasha raised his own clawed hand to those constricted around his throat. "Sesshoumaru," he wheezed, "I can't breathe."
"Do you understand me?" He was not going to let go until he got that stubborn boy to shape up and agree.
"Yes," he barely breathed out.
"Good." Sesshoumaru smirked and promptly dropped Inuyasha flat on his backside. He pointed to the door. "Go."
Inuyasha was gone before the elder demon could even drop his hand back down to his side.
"Well, you certainly know how to apologize to a woman."
Sesshoumaru looked up to see Kirara slowly making her way toward him, a knowing smile on her own face.
"What did you do to merit giving such an apology?" She place her hands on her hips, those bright, pink eyes of hers demanding an answer.
Her answer was a calm passive face that shone with veiled innocence. "I do not know what you are talking about."
Kirara rolled her eyes and slapped the dishtowel she had previously been using against her thigh. "Spill."
Sesshoumaru smirked. "I learned the hard way, Kirara, that you never comment on a woman's weight. Even in a joking manner."
A chuckle erupted from the fire-cat. "Oh, Sesshoumaru."
A/N: Well, looks like Inuyasha has quite a task ahead of him. Please review; I love hearing your comments. God Bless! ~Of Memories Past