Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha®…but suckers are yummy!

Inuyasha: sweat drop huh?

Amehana: randomness rocks! licks sucker Dustin gave her

Inuyasha: yeah…

Amehana: Lets gooooooooooooooooo! Horn of Gondor sounds

Chapter II– A Doubting Heart

"No, Kagome, don't close your eyes, stay with me…please." Inuyasha begged, fear seizing him, when he saw her head weakly drop onto him as it just had.

The miko forced her eyes back open, she was finding it hard to breath. "Inuyasha, there's something I need to tell you…"

"Shh, don't talk, just stay awake" he whispered softly

"But…it's important…and…and I don't think I have much time to tell you." (A/N: erlack, that was WAY too corny :p) Something cold and unforgiving was creeping up on her. She could feel it.

"Listen to me Kagome, you baka idiot/stupid/fool , you're not going anywhere, do you understand?!" It came out a little harsher than Inuyasha intended.

The girl in his arms would've looked around providing she had the strength, but all she could was allow Inuyasha to support her limp body. She didn't meet his eyes as she spoke,

"Where's Kikyo?" she whispered rhetorically (rhetorical to herself that is).

Inuyasha sighed, and something flickered through his eyes. "She's gone, Kagome". Why was that so hard to say?

The miko still couldn't bring herself to look at him, but Inuyasha could clearly see her eyes as they lowered in the pain that is worse than those that yield blood. "Oh"

The hanyou knew exactly why she looked so sad and spoke so little; Kagome wouldn't ever wish for Kikyo's death…or at least she wouldn't say so, but she thought that Inuyasha didn't care if Kikyo killed her…

Without a word Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga from its sheath without transforming it, just keeping the sword in its thin and rusty original.

"Stay still, Kagome." Inuyasha said softly, but his eye's hardened.

Kagome watched while Inuyasha gently rested her body against him, easily supporting her with his knee and spare arm. She knew he would never draw his sword on her; she trusted him…she had to wonder, what the heck was he doing?

Her eyes then widened in horror as the inu-oni drew a long slit down his wrist with Tetsusaiga. "Inuyasha!" she yelled as he cupped his hand and watched with stoic features, waiting for his palm to fill with his own blood.

Without a word Inuyasha covered Kagome's wounds with the liquid, and the young miko could feel herself healing just as the his blood, equipped with healing capabilities, mixed with her own. Then Inuyasha turned his wrist upward to subdue the crimson waterfall.

Gently as ever he laid Kagome on the ground, and quickly striped to his shirt and wrapped it tightly around her thin body in a makeshift bandage around her chest where her wounds were worst. Slipping his haori shirt worn over kimono back on he picked Kagome back up in his arms and stood.

Kagome looked up at him with wide eyes. "Inuyasha…why did do that?" Her awe suddenly turned to angered concern. "You could die if you too much blood!"

The hanyou looked away stubbornly, as he felt skin slowly stretching over his self-mutilation. "Feh, I'll be fine, woman."

Kagome clenched her fists. "Yeah right, even you shouldn't have done that! And another thing, Tetsusaiga is really rusty, and there's a disease called Tetanus (A/N: YES I did spell that right– I had to look the freaking thing up in the dictionary!) and it comes from open wounds…Inuyasha you can die if you get it!"

"So be it."

Kagome blinked in confusion as the addressed hanyou nodded towards Kirara to get her to transform, Inuyasha finally looked down and met her wondering gaze. "As long as you're ok."

He laid her down on Kirara's soft back. Kagome glared at him. "That doesn't make any sense!"

Inuyasha smiled a little "Shut up, Kagome." silently; he reached up, slid his hand under her neck and softly pressed his claws into her flesh. Kagome gasped for breath a little before her eyes shut and her body went completely limp on the fire-cat.

Miroku walked up to Inuyasha and put a hand on his shoulder; the hanyou turned around to see the monk was wearing a very mischievous smile. Inuyasha gave a "feh" then shrugged his still smiling friend off.

"Lets go already!" Inuyasha yelled the others exchanged smiles and caught up. Inuyasha and Kagome had gotten closer over the years, but this night was to be an edict in destiny.

Sango and Miroku were constantly on their guard the whole way back, so Shippo was the only one who noticed: Inuyasha didn't remove his eyes from Kagome's sleeping form the whole walk to their camp.

'Damn it, Kagome, where the hell are you!?' Inuyasha yelled to himself as his frantically scanned his surroundings for the miko, driven by concern.

Even after getting very badly wounded, she had refused to go back to Kaede's village, because (as she recently let the bomb drop) Naraku had completed the Shikon No Tama, so there was no time to lose, and they couldn't afford to waste any more time by going back there.

Well, Inuyasha didn't think waiting for Kagome to heal was a waste of time, but now she had gone off somewhere without telling anyone, which really got on his nerves.

'Probably went to get away from you, she still thinks you let Kikyo get away, you baka.' a voice in his head answered. It didn't talk very often, but when it did it was blunt. Kagome called it a conscience.

'Shut up!' he told the voice

'You shut up.'

'Iie no , you shut– Kagome!' He completely forgot about his argument with himself at the sight of the miko.

Inuyasha dashed to where the girl was sitting in a flower field all alone. The setting sun was casting an orange glow on her skin as she stared up aimlessly at the sky.

He crouched on all fours in front of her with a glare that masked his deep concern "You're supposed to be resting!"

Kagome gracefully extended her arm to him, which had been covered with gashes just the night before; it was scar-free. "I'm not going to let this slow me down, Inuyasha…besides, I'm almost healed, thanks to you."

He blinked, sighed, let go of his support of himself and fell back into a sitting position in front her. He held out a clawed hand. "Let me see it."

The miko did as instructed and gave him her arm. The measure of how badly she had been wounded had been equally distributed all over her really, and her arm was easiest to inspect, so it kind of stood as an example of how the rest of her was doing.

After staring intently at the limb for a long while, Inuyasha finally looked up, straight into her waiting hazel eyes. "There's something I need to do, Kagome."

Kagome didn't have time to ask what that was. Inuyasha slipped his hand gently behind her head then pressed his lips to hers, her eyes widened as she felt Inuyasha's tongue in her mouth, but she didn't even time to close her eyes before he pulled away and stood.

The girl looked up at him helplessly from the ground "Inu…yasha? …"

"Swallow" he commanded

She blinked "Swallow?!"

"Just do it."

Once again, she did as instructed, as soon as she did whatever pain was left started to diminish, somehow she felt as if a large burden had been taken from her, which was case.

Then the miko lowered her head as she understood what he had just done. 'He wasn't kissing me really, just speeding up the healing process…of course he wouldn't kiss me…he still…' She couldn't bring herself to think of it.

She clenched her eyes shut to stop the tears to stop before they had a chance to escape her hazel orbs.

"Arigato thank you , Inuyasha." Kagome said quietly, as she stood to go back to their current camp.

The hanyou somehow felt her emotions shift, and he decided he was going to do something about it. "Kagome…"

In a spilt second he wrapped his arms her and tightly hugged her back to his chest. "Gods, Kagome, I thought I had lost you back there…". He took in her scent, her wonderful scent, the aroma of an accumulation of flowers, each one selected to make the total effect perfect.

She was relaxing under him before she could stop herself, yet that didn't stop her from absolutely denying any concern he might hold for her. 'I hate this– why do I feel so safe in his arms?' She sighed inwardly 'don't get used to this.'

"Kagome, Kikyo said that you didn't care if she killed you…as long as you could help to finish Naraku first, please tell me that's not true." Inuyasha whispered as he reached up and gently ran his clawed hand through her raven hair.

"I can't deny that, Inuyasha." Kagome said looking down.

His youki a demon's aura flared in anger, he turned Kagome around and held her shoulders at arms length, although grief replaced anger when he saw the dark forlornness her eyes. "Why?" he asked, barely able to speak.

Kagome's eyes narrowed to slits as she forced him off her. "Why not!? You're going to leave with Kikyo after the battle, and then I'll have nothing so I see no reason for me to live after that." She looked away. "I know it's selfish, but I don't care."

"Kagome…"

Even though she wasn't looked in his direction he could see her eyes narrow in anger again, but her voice was calm a she spoke. "You told me last night that you would always be here…but you shouldn't make promises you can't keep, Inuyasha."

The inu-oni clenched his fist. "I can keep that promise, Kagome, and I swear I will."

She blinked in surprise then looked back at him. "Nani?"

Inuyasha's face softened. "You didn't hear, did you?"

"Iie …I was trying to use my miko energy as a shield, but that failed… so it shifted itself to stop my pain without me even knowing about it." said Kagome. "Hear what?"

The hanyou walked up to her, and locked his amber eyes with her hazel ones. "I'm not going to hell with Kikyo, Kagome, not after what she did."

Her eyes widened, and for the longest time all the girl could do was stare head on at him.

"Nani?" Inuyasha demanded

Kagome didn't look away this time "I thought you didn't care, that's all…"

His only reply to her was not to burst out in a rage but simply to give a sad sigh "I really screwed up all those times, didn't I?"

The miko jerked back a little ways "huh?"

Inuyasha shook his head, and for the longest time he didn't say anything, he was pushing away the feeling that he was making an idiot of himself.

Sometimes people just spill. "I just want you to know, Kagome, that I won't be able to go on without you by my side…and I also want you to know that I really care about you, and I didn't kill Kikyo for a reason." he couldn't stop the blush from spreading across his cheeks as he spoke, much to his own dismay.

Kagome looked down.

She was glad he admitted to caring about her but still, it had taken him so long to say it. She knew that he didn't kill Kikyo because he still loved her, and a lot more than he loved Kagome, if he even loved her at all.

She wouldn't allow herself to believe anything else.

Owari Chapter Ni

Amehana: I'm sorry for stopping so early…O.o o.O or are you glad? If you like this short chapter be sure to tell me!

I'm also sorry making it so sad, I had to stop there you see I was watching an episode of Inuyasha with that &$! Kikyo in it & Inuyasha made me SO ANGERY! smites him

Turns to readers well, I guess I should tell you that the story will get a lot more romantic later or so help me! I love fluff, and I'm having such a hard time resisting it!

slaps hand away from typing fluff no, bad! Must wait for plot to set first, then fluff

It'll get more exciting too.

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ONEGAI PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED MORE REVEIWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!