Miyu: can't talk, must type.

Ryuu: I think I'm going to leave. This is getting boring.

Miyu: …BITE ME.

Ryuu::strongly considers the suggestion:

"Oh, please! Please! I'm begging you, just stop!" The rather plump woman clenched her hands together in a prayerful position. "Just sto—"

"Shut up!" Inuyasha pulled his hand back and brought forward to connect squarely with the woman's face, who in turn went flying. "You stupid bitch!" The woman hit the side of the family's small hut and lay there unmoving. Her two boys cried out and ran towards her. "Mommy! Mommy!"

"Be quiet!" Inuyasha barked at the children, staring coldly down at the quivering figures. "You're going to be just like him, aren't you? You're going to be just as disgusting, filthy…" He stopped, his eyes shadowed, his fists clenched.

Taking a sigh, he looked back at the boys, a renewed, but somehow empty, determination filling is eyes. He was…unfeeling. A shell. A shell of a shell. He couldn't feel anything even if he wanted to; the night had drained him of all emotion. The moon had evaporated his soul, the darkness freezing his heart.

It was all very mechanical. Kill the man first, keep his dirty hands from moving anymore. Next, prevent anymore children from being born by eliminating the woman. And stop the next generation from becoming like that father. All simple. Easy. A mere job that must be carried out.

"Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha froze. He knew that voice, quiet, meek, but with an underlying strength that no one could see, a strength that can only be felt. But he couldn't feel anything.

He popped his hands, blood dripping smoothly from his fingers, his nails stained red. The still form of Wild-hair lay before him and stank of raw, bloody flesh. Kagome wanted to throw up. She needed to throw up.

She refused to throw up.

"Inuyasha. It's me. Don't you see me? Can you hear me?" She slowly walked over to him, past the now quiet boys, towards the red-clothed half-demon with a silent heart. "Inuyasha, I'm okay. Well…I'm not okay, but I will be. But I need your help. I need you to come with me, stay with me…don't leave me alone."

Inuyasha stood quite still, the epitome of statues. One would even swear that he wasn't breathing. Perhaps he wasn't. Perhaps when one's heart stops, their breathing stops as well.

"Inuyasha, please." Kagome's voice broke this time, her calm demeanor starting to crack without the comfort of her…her…whatever he was. "Listen to me. I need you. You can't leave me alone. Please."

For a moment, it appeared as if Inuyasha were considering her. But as soon as that possibility entered Kagome's mind it was immediately eliminated by his swift, powerful arm striking out at one of the two boys hovering by their mother. Blood flew in all directions, and the boy barely had time to scream before his heart ceased to beat and his eyes glazed over.

Kagome stared in shock at the now dead child before her. Had she not seen it happen right before her eyes, even if she had known it was Inuyasha's doing, she might still have accepted him unconditionally, might have still believed he needed her.

But all that was lost when the little boy died right in front of her.

Inuyasha slowly turned to face the other little boy.

"How…"

He paused.

"How…how could you?" Kagome glared daggers at Inuyasha's back. "How could you, Inuyasha? How could you?"

Inuyasha moved towards the boy.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!"

Inuyasha blinked in disbelief, perhaps the first emotion to cross his face for the past several hours.

He deliberately turned around, a gradual process, and faced Kagome. "How could I?" His voice was hoarse with newly found emotion. "How could I! What do you mean how could I! Look what he did to you! He's the bastard, the villain, the monster that hurt you! And you're asking how could I?"

"He could never do to me what you just did!" Kagome lashed out at Inuyasha verbally, a deep pain growing even deeper in her heart. "He could never do that!"

"No, of course not! Instead he could just rape and beat you! He did that, Kagome!"

"He hasn't hurt me like you have!" Kagome screeched, deafening the inhabitants of the silent woods.

Inuyasha stared at Kagome.

Tears streamed from her eyes, over her cheeks and down her neck. "He only hurt my body! You're hurting my heart, Inuyasha! He could never do that! You're killing me inside!" Kagome's voice wavered and she sniffed hard. "Don't you see? It hurts to see you like this…it hurts so bad. It hurts like nothing I have ever felt before."

"Kagome…" Inuyasha moved to go to her, but she held up her hand.

"I asked you not to leave me, Inuyasha. I hoped and prayed that I at least had the power to make you stay with me. But I guess I can't even do that." Her voice cracked then, and she collapsed onto the ground, unearthly wails of pain and sorrow emanating from within her. She sobbed, loud, heart-wrenching sobs, sobs that carried a pain so harsh the devil himself would envy such a sight.

Inuyasha swallowed hard. "K-kagome, I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."

"No, Inuyasha! You've already gone! You've already left me! When you killed that boy, you crossed a line that I will never be able to get over! What we had, you and me? It's gone. When you killed that boy, you killed us."

And for the first time, the weight of what he had done hit him like a ton of bricks, nearly crushing him not only emotionally, but physically as well. The guilt, the sickening smell of blood on his hands nearly suffocated him. But most of all, the guilt of knowing. Of know that what Kagome said was true.

He had killed them.

"What do you supposed is going to happen now?" Shippou looked over at Sango questioningly. "I mean…if Kagome doesn't reach him in time…what…?" Shippou's sentence trailed off into nothing.

Sango stared up at the stars silently. Truth was, she didn't know. Nothing would ever be the same again, that was for sure. But…she didn't know how either of them would be able to handle such a possibility, much less how she would handle it.

"We don't know, Shippou," Miroku interjected softly. "No one knows the future."

Shippou sighed heavily, arms crossed and mind deep in thought.

Sango leaned back until she lay across the large boulder, hands cushioning her head.

Miroku sat nearby, one knee next to his chest, the other hanging over the side of the boulder with his staff dangling precariously on the edge.

They all three remained this way for a while, wondering and waiting and hoping and dreading…neither one of them wanting to voice their thoughts for fear of them becoming real.

After a bit, Sango stretched and sighed. "He's fallen asleep."

Miroku nodded. "I know." He glanced over at the bushy form of Shippou, who's mouth may or may not have had a bit of drool on the side; it was hard to tell in the dark.

"Miroku…"

"Hmm, Sango?"

"I'm scared."

Miroku silently agreed with her. "We have to be strong for them, no matter what the outcome is. We have to—" He was cut short when a surprising Sango latched onto him in a sort of strangling hug.

"I'm really scared, Miroku. I don't like this. Any of it. I want it go away. Why can't it go away?" Sango bit her lip hard in order to hold back the tears that once again threatened to spill over.

Miroku sat there for a moment, silent and still, then momentarily wrapped his arms gently around Sango. "I know. I do too. But it can't. I wish it so bad, but it just can't." He held onto Sango for a while, keeping quiet as she finally let the tears fall, knowing that the best comfort is just to be there.

It wasn't too long before her tears subsided, and her short, jerky breaths had evened out into deep, steady breaths. Miroku looked down at the strong, battle-hardened woman in his lap and could hardly keep back the chuckle that nearly burst forth when he realized she, too, had fallen asleep. It wasn't hard to believe, really. They'd had a long night.

And so it came to be that the small group soon found themselves wondering down a dirt road a few tension-filled days later. The sun shone warmly and the sky was dotted with fluffy white clouds; birds sang cheerily in the trees nearby and it took all of Inuyasha's willpower to keep himself from killing those birds where they stood.

But Kagome wouldn't like that.

He glanced subtly down at the woman walking beside him. Things had been…well…edgy with them that past few days. Kagome followed Inuyasha everywhere but refused to say a word. Not that he had actually tried to engage her in conversation, but still. Things were bad and they didn't look like they were gonna get better.

"Ya know…you can have a different relationship." The entire group nearly died of heart failure at the sudden appearance of Myoga.

"Where the hell have you been, you flea!" Inuyasha growled as he smashed Myoga between his hands.

"My lord, I was simply scouting the surrounding area for any demons!" Myoga returned to his normal stature and bowed. "I wanted to see if Naraku was nearby."

"Yeah, okay," Inuyasha's gaze returned to its previously vacant appearance and the group continued it's now meaningless journey to find Naraku.

"Didn't you hear me? I said, you can have a different relationship."

Inuyasha paused. "…What do you mean?"

"You. Kagome. You two. You can have a different relationship. If you guys are stuck in this stint where you think you can't ever be the same again, then don't be. Have a different relationship."

Inuyasha blinked and Kagome stared blankly at Myoga.

Myoga sighed. "Look! Sango and Miroku already have the right idea." He pointed over at the two and chuckled as the two rushed to hide the little secret, albeit too late.

"Were…were you two…holding hands?" Kagome asked in disbelief.

Sango shrugged indifferently. "Maybe."

"They've been holding hands the entire time," Myoga stated matter-of-factly.

Inuyasha and Kagome stared at the monk and the demon slayer, which was probably the cause for the heavy sweatdrop that formed over Sango's head. "I don't what's so weird about it. Grow up." With that, she proceeded to march down the pathway followed by a slightly amused Miroku.

Kagome shuffled her feet nervously as she watched the two walk away, this time holding hands in plain sight for all the world to see. Inuyasha cleared his throat and glanced over at a butterfly. Kagome swallowed loudly.

"Oh, please. You two really do need to grow up," Shippou jumped out of the basket on Kagome's bike and began to walk after Miroku and Sango.

A second or two later, the little fox-demon was passed out on the ground with a huge bump on his head. "After you," growled an annoyed Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha."

The silver-haired demon suddenly realized the extent of his miscalculations, and slowly turned around to face the brunt of the "sit" head on.

To his surprise, Kagome was smiling at him, her arm outstretched towards him, hand open and palm up. She seemed to be expecting something, although Inuyasha had no idea what.

"Would you like to hold my hand?"

Inuyasha's eyes widened in surprise, and although he wasn't sure if he was comfortable with holding-hands-Kagome, he certainly preferred her over the loud-sit-Kagome.

And so it came to be (again) that the small group found themselves walking a small dirt road in Feudal-era Japan, except this time…things were different. While searching for an empty truth, they happened to stumble upon…love.

But none of them would ever admit it.

Miyu: The end! I'm not sure if I'm happy about it, though.

Ryuu: Why not? The gods know how long you've been working on it…when you could have been working on your internet course.

Miyu: Weren't you just leaving?

Ryuu: I tried, but you tied me down to the bed with ropes.

Miyu: So THAT'S what happened to my rope! Good to know!