As he had agreed on the day of the new moon Inuyasha went with Kagome back to her own time. Souta and her mother weren't home yet when they arrived. Kagome made some ramen for Inuyasha while they waited. Before long her mother and Souta arrived home.
"Kagome you're home." Her mother said. "Hello Inuyasha."
Kagome gave her mother a hug. "We came before, but you were gone." Kagome told her.
"Well we're glad that you're here now. I'll have to make something special for dinner." Mrs. Higurashi replied.
Inuyasha played with Buyo in the living room while Kagome talked with her mother in the kitchen.
"How are you dear?" she asked.
"I'm fine. It is so much more peaceful now that Naraku is gone." Kagome told her.
"What are you going to do now that you've finished what you intended?" her mother asked.
"I don't know. It's so complicated. With Inuyasha and the others..." Kagome started.
Inuyasha's ears twitched at the sound of his name. He knew he shouldn't, but he decided to listen anyway.
"I miss you when I am there, but I miss them when I am here, and then there's Inuyasha. Mama, I don't know what to do. I didn't plan on feeling this way, it just happened, and he's been acting so different lately. It's almost like maybe he really does want something more than friendship from me." Kagome finished.
"If Inuyasha did feel the same as you, what would you do?" she asked.
"It is so hard, but if I thought that he loved me and that he really wanted me for me, and not a replacement for Kikyou, I wouldn't be able to leave him." Kagome said. "I really feel like he is the reason I was pulled through the well was him."
"Well it isn't like you have to decide now." Mrs. Higurashi offered.
"I will soon. I talked to Kaede. She believes that when I purify the jewel it will seal the well. The longer I wait to purify it, the more dangerous things become. Demons still seek the Shikon no Tama." Kagome told her.
"Kagome, I've known since the first time Inuyasha came here that you might one day chose to stay with him in his time. I would have followed your father anywhere. I love you and would miss you terribly if I wasn't to see you again, but I would take comfort in the fact that you were happy. That is all I have ever wanted for you. I know that when the time comes you will make the right decision for yourself." her mother replied.
Both Kagome and her mother were near tears. "Oh mama, I would miss you so much."
"No matter where you are Kagome I will always be with you, just as your father is. You are a part of me." she said.
"Thank you mama, for understanding." Kagome replied.
Inuyasha heard the chairs sliding back from the table. There was no way he could pretend he hadn't heard. He got up and raced outside. He jumped up into the sacred tree. Kagome wanted him to love her. She wanted a reason to stay with him forever. He couldn't believe it. He didn't want her to feel like she had to make a choice between him and her family, but she already felt that she would have to. He didn't know if the thing that affected him most was that she would choose him or that her mother would understand.
Kagome went into the living room once she had dried her tears. Inuyasha was no where to be found. He must have gone outside she thought, and if he was outside, she knew where he would be. She found him in the sacred tree.
"Mama said dinner will be ready in about half and hour." Kagome called.
Inuyasha jumped down. Kagome looked so beautiful in the fading light of the day. She hadn't grabbed her coat and her lips were trembling. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her. Instead he settled for taking her hand and leading her back inside. "Baka, you'll get sick out here." he scolded.
They went inside. Inuyasha had always like Kagome's mother. She had never made him feel unwelcome even though he was different and had taken her daughter away to fight demons. Now he had even more respect for her. She had a kind heart like his mother. He knew how much Kagome would miss her because of the way he missed his own mother. Ever since Kagome had come into his life, he hadn't missed her as much. Maybe it would be the same for Kagome. Could he bear to take her away from her family?
"Kagome, would you mind doing the dishes?" her mother asked.
"Not at all mama." Kagome replied.
"Come with me Inuyasha." Her mother said.
Kagome looked at her mother curiously, but said nothing. Inuyasha followed Mrs. Higurashi into the living room. She sat on the couch and motioned for him to sit beside her. "I know you heard Kagome and I talking earlier." she said. "I saw you run out of here when you heard her get up."
"I'm sorry." he mumbled.
"I'm not upset that you were listening. I was concerned about you. At dinner you seemed upset about something. I assumed you were thinking about what you overheard." she told him. He nodded. "It must be hard for you. Kagome told me that your mother died when you were very young and that you never knew your father. Inuyasha, when I married Kagome's father, my family disowned me. They wanted me to marry someone else, but I was happy. I missed them. I still do, but if I had listened to them, I wouldn't have had Kagome and Souta. Do you understand what I am trying to tell you?" Inuyasha shook his head. "Don't worry about taking Kagome away from us. She could be happy with you. Would you have her stay with you?"
"Yes." he said softly.
"Then tell her." she said. "She needs to know the truth so that when she decides it will be her choice. Perhaps you and Kagome should go for a walk around the shrine."
Mrs. Higurashi went back into the kitchen and Kagome came out. "Mama said you wanted to go for a walk." she said. He nodded. "All right. Let me get my coat. Do you want something to wear? The sun is almost down." she asked.
"Keh." he replied.
Kagome came back from the closet with her coat and a hat, as well as one of her fathers old coats, that Souta liked to wear, for Inuyasha. They put them on and went outside. "It's getting cold. I think winter will come early this year." she said.
He stopped waking. When she turned around he was human. "Maybe." he replied.
"What did you and mama talk about?" she asked.
"You." he whispered.
She barely heard him. "Me?"
He nodded, and stepped closer to her. "I want you to stay with me." he said.
She looked into his eyes. What did he mean? He couldn't mean that he wants to be with me. She tried asking him, but the words wouldn't come.
"You don't need to say anything. I just wanted you to know." he said.
Kagome could tell that he wanted her to respond. He was trying to protect himself from rejection. "I'm not going anywhere." she said at last. She took his hand.
He looked at her. Her cheeks were red with cold. He was sure his own were as well. She was trying to hide the trembling of her lips. "You're cold. Let's go inside." he told her. She nodded.
Kagome sat beside Inuyasha on the couch and they watched a movie. She rested her head against him. It had been an emotionally exhausting day, so when the movie was over Kagome went up to bed. Her mother came up shortly after to say goodnight.
"Mama, what did you say to Inuyasha?" Kagome asked.
"He heard us talking earlier. I just told him that he needed to tell you the truth and let you decide for yourself what you wanted to do. Did he say something?" she asked.
"He told me that he wanted me to stay with him." Kagome replied. "They way he said it, he wasn't talking about for now, he was talking about forever. It is the closest he's ever come to telling me how he feels about me."
"It can be hard to tell someone how much you care. Have you ever told him?" she asked.
"Not exactly." Kagome admitted.
"Then you know how difficult it can be. Kagome, I think he loves you. I'm sure a part of him thinks if he tells you that you'll stay because you don't want to hurt him and not because you love him back." her mother told her. "Goodnight dear."
"Goodnight mama." Kagome said. She fell asleep thinking about what her mother and Inuyasha had said.
Inuyasha laid down on the couch. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't fall asleep. He was thinking about what Kagome's mother had said and how she had reacted when he told her that he wanted her with him. Would he be able to bear it if she didn't chose him? A few hours before dawn he fell asleep.
Kagome woke him the next morning by rubbing his ears. "Breakfast is ready." she said. He got up and followed her to the kitchen. "Inuyasha, I think we should go back today. You and Miroku need to finish before winter comes. We can't all stay with Kaede." Kagome said. He nodded.
After breakfast they went back through the well. Just before they entered the village Kagome stopped. Inuyasha still hadn't said anything to her. "Inuyasha, is something wrong?" she asked.
"No. I was just thinking." he said.
Last time he had said something like that Shippou and Miroku had made fun of him, but Kagome suspected he spent a lot of his time thinking. She nodded and they continued on.
Things went back to normal. Miroku and Inuyasha worked most of the day on the house and Kagome helped Kaede attend to those who had fallen ill with the cold weather. Inuyasha wasn't sure he liked the idea of Kagome being around sick people so much. Humans were so weak and she could fall ill as well, but he knew she needed to help people. It was her nature.
Three weeks passed and at last the house was done. It was just in time too, as Kagome had predicted winter had come early. The house had three rooms. There was a main room and two rooms for sleeping. For now Kagome and Sango would share one and Miroku would sleep in the other. Inuyasha had at first refused to stay with them, but when they were alone Kagome had convinced him to sleep inside. She had told him she would feel safer, giving him an excuse to agree.
Many of the villagers fell ill. Not many had anticipated the weather change as Kagome had. When the snow fell many still had to gather wood and supplies. Kagome and the others faired better than most, because she could go home and bring supplies.
Inuyasha was sitting in the main room waiting for the others to wake. It was the third day since the snow had fallen. Sango came out of the room she shared with Kagome. "Inuyasha you must bring Kaede here at once." she said. "Kagome is ill."
Inuyasha didn't need to hear anything else. He moved as fast as he ever had, until he reached Kaede. He burst inside. "Kaede!" he shouted.
She came out of the other room. "What do ye need Inuyasha?" she asked.
"Kagome is sick." he said. "You have to come." He didn't care that it sounded like he was begging. Kagome was the most important thing. He knew she shouldn't have been going out everyday.
"Let me get some herbs." Kaede said. She grabbed a few things and followed him.
"Old woman you move too slow." He said. He picked her up and carried her to the house. He set her down inside. Sango showed her to Kagome.
Kaede came back out looking very grave. "Perhaps ye should take her to her own time. She is very ill. She has said they have many strong medicines. They will be able to do more for her than I can. I fear I cannot be of enough help." she told them.
Inuyasha hadn't even waited for her to finish talking. He picked Kagome up and wrapped her tightly in her blankets. She was burning up with fever, and her breathing was labored. He stopped before leaving. "Monk, take Kaede home." he said and then he was gone.
He entered Kagome's house. "Higurashi-sama." he called.
"Inuyasha?" she called stepping out of the kitchen. She was smiling until she saw Kagome. "What happened?"
"She was tending the ill and sometime last night she became sick. Kaede said she wasn't sure she could help her, so I brought her here. She said there are people here with medicines that can help." He said quickly.
Mrs. Higurashi looked at Inuyasha. She could tell he was close to losing it and was hanging on tightly to the hope that she would be saved by something in this time. She felt her daughter's head "We must get her to the hospital." she said. She grabbed her coat and he followed her to the door. She handed him a hat.
They went to the car. "Lay her in the back." she said. Inuyasha laid Kagome inside and growled a little at the car. "You don't have to come."
"I'm coming." he said getting in back with Kagome.
They drove to the hospital and Inuyasha carried Kagome inside. Inuyasha looked suspiciously at the woman who brought out a bed on wheels. He looked to Kagome's mother who motioned for him to lay her down.
"This way." the woman said. At the door she stopped them. She looked at Inuyasha. "Family only beyond this point."
"He is family." Mrs. Higurashi said. Inuyasha gave her a grateful look.
The woman looked skeptical but nodded and they continued. "Doctor." she called to a odd looking man in a white coat. "This girl needs to be seen immediately." the doctor nodded.
The woman pulled a curtain around them and Kagome. She began using tools he had never seen and started writing things on a piece of paper. He kept looking to Mrs. Higurashi to make sure that what they were doing to Kagome was all right.
Soon the doctor came and looked at what the woman had been writing. He opened Kagome's eyes and shined a light into them. Inuyasha felt her mother take his hand. He was comforted by her gesture. The doctor made note of a few other thing and began giving instructions.
At last he turned to them. "This girl is very ill. She has a severe case of pneumonia. We need to preform and X-ray to see the extent of fluid on her lungs, to decide if we feel that antibiotics alone will be enough. Before we take her, she needs to put on a gown. The nurse can do it, or if you prefer I will leave it to you."
"I'll do it." Mrs. Higurashi said.
The doctor nodded. "I will have a nurse show the young man to the room where you can join him while you wait." She nodded.
Inuyasha trusted Kagome's mother, so he followed the man and then a different woman to a room with several chairs and a television. "Someone will come tell you when we know more. Don't worry, she has the very best doctors looking after her now." The woman said kindly.
Inuyasha nodded. He tried to watch television but all he could think about was Kagome. He was about to go yell at someone to tell him what the hell was going on when Kagome's mother appeared. He looked at her expectantly.
"She is with the doctors now. They will come get us when they have finished examining her, and we will be able to stay with her." she told him. She moved to sit beside him and took his hand. "She'll be all right."
He wanted to believe her. He couldn't lose his Kagome. She was too important. Nearly an hour passed without a word. Inuyasha got up and started pacing. "The waiting is always the hardest." she said. "I waited for two hours when they brought Kagome's father here. I dreaded the news, but somehow not knowing was worse."
"I haven't told her." He said. "What if she..." He couldn't finish. "I thought I had time."
"You do." her mother said. "Kagome is going to be fine."
Just then a doctor came in. Mrs. Higurashi stood and Inuyasha went to stand beside her. This time he took her hand. "I am pleased to say that she will not need us to use other methods to drain fluid from her lungs. We have given her something to control her fever as well as some thing to help relieve the pressure from her chest to make breathing easier. She hasn't yet become conscious, but she will as her fever goes down." He told them. Mrs. Higurashi breathed a sigh of relief. "I assume that this is Inuyasha."
Inuyasha nodded. How did this guy know his name? "In the last few minutes she has started to call out to you in her sleep, so if you will both follow me I will take you to her."
Inuyasha stopped in the door way of her room. "Go ahead." her mother prompted. following him in.
Kagome looked so small and fragile in the bed and among all the equipment. "What is all this stuff?" he asked.
"They are to make sure she doesn't get worse before she gets better." She told him.
"Inuyasha." Kagome breathed.
He went to her and took her hand. She's still too warm, he thought. He leaned down. "I'm here." he said. He sat in the chair by her bed.
"I'm going to call Souta at school and see if he can get a ride here from school." she told him. He didn't look at her, but nodded in response.
Inuyasha began to gently brush back her hair. "Kagome, you have to get better." He said softly. "I can't live without you. You have to get better, so I can tell you that I love you."
"Inuyasha." she said. He looked at her. This time her eyes were open. She was smiling.
He hugged her. "Kagome, don't you ever do this is again. You got that baka." he said. "Your mother was so worried."
"Did you mean it?" she asked.
"What?" he asked in kind.
"When you said you loved me." she replied. He nodded. She got tears in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothings wrong. Everything is perfect." she told him. "I love you too baka. I'm just upset that I had to get sick before you'd tell me how you feel." she laughed.
The part of him that had still been worried let go when he heard her laugh. "What's so funny?" her mother asked from the doorway.
"Oh nothing mama." she said.
"Souta will be by later." she said. Her daughter who had just been unconscious was glowing. She could only think of one thing that would inspire such a change. Inuyasha must have told her. "The doctor says you will most likely have to stay here for a few days, and then you will need to stay in doors and rest for at least two weeks." her mother told her.
Kagome groaned, but the smile never left her face. "Two weeks in a bed. That's going to be unbearable." Kagome complained.
"Don't even think that you are going to get up before those people says it's okay." Inuyasha told her.
That first night Mrs. Higurashi convinced the doctors to let Inuyasha stay with Kagome. The next day he made a quick trip through the well to update the others on Kagome. They were relieved to hear that she was going to get better.
For the next few days he almost never left Kagome's side. Finally they released her from the hospital with strict orders to stay inside and in bed as much as possible for the next two weeks. Several times she asked Inuyasha if he wouldn't rather go back and wait for her, but he refused. He insisted that he be the one to bring her all her meals and carry her if she wanted to lay downstairs.
"I can walk." she said.
"Keh." was his reply.
In truth she loved all the attention and care he was showering on her. Neither one had mentioned what had happened at the hospital, but he was showing her that he loved her in a thousand ways everyday.
Finally after a last check from the doctor she was pronounced well. She was ready to go back to see her friends. She was getting her things ready to leave when her mother called her to the phone.
"Hello...Oh, I'm much better...I was just...well, all right..." she said and hung up.
She went over to Inuyasha who was holding her bag. "I have to stay here for a little longer." she said. "Hojou is coming by." Inuyasha started to growl. "Please Inuyasha. I'll just get rid of him and then we can go."
He set her bag down and went up to her room. She was going to following him, when there was a knock at the door. Hojou must have run, she thought. The only reason she had agreed to see him was because he had called from the store across from the steps to the shrine.
She opened the door. "Hello Hojou." she said, letting him step in out of the cold.
"Hi Kagome. I'm so glad to hear that you are feeling better. I brought you this tea. It is supposed to strengthen your immune system." he told her.
"Thank you." she replied.
"Listen Kagome, I was wondering, if we could go out again?" he asked.
"Hojou, you are really nice, but I can't. I have a boyfriend." she said softly. "If I am being completely honest, it has always been him. Yuka said yes to all those dates for me. I never told her I wanted to go out with you. I'm really sorry."
Hojou looked hurt and disappointed. "I understand. I'm sorry too." She tried to hand him back the tea. "You keep it. Tell that boyfriend of yours he better be good to you, or he'll have to answer to me."
"Thank you." she said
Hojou nodded and left. Kagome went upstairs to find Inuyasha. He was sitting on her bed. She stood in front of him and started to rub his ears. "Is it true?" He asked.
"What?" she questioned.
"That you never wanted to go out with Hojou." he finished.
"Yes. Since I met you, I haven't wanted anyone else." she told him. He came to his feet and hugged her. "Let's go home."
A/N: Thanks to Owari Nai Yumes - daydreamer62386 - shorti51 - lyn - Samatha for their reviews. It really makes me want t o post the next chapter, to hear that you are enjoying it. I really like this chapter, and I hope you do too.
You may think InuYasha is a little out of character in this chapter, but I don't really think so. Remember when he tells her how he feels, he doesn't think that she can hear him. He thinks that she's still unconscious.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have and please R/R