Chapter 2: The Pain of Your Pain

The team split up again, Miroku and Shippou, Sango and Kirara, and Inuyasha all by himself, who sped through the forest at lightning speed. It wasn't traveling alone that bothered the hanyou. It was traveling without her. He never admitted it to anyone, and he would hardly ever admit it himself, but he needed her by his side. Their time together seemed like a wonderful eternity to him now, and that eternity was now lost to him. To Inuyasha, Kagome was eternity.

He raced through the forest, screaming out Kagome's name with every breath. If truth be told, it wasn't helping. It only made him more exhausted to have to inhale every five seconds. But he kept going. Inuyasha always kept going, no matter what. As he panted for breath, he didn't want to think about what would become of him if he lost her. He felt as though he might as well drop dead if he couldn't save her. He clenched his fists and snarled, 'Damnit! It was a trap all along. Naraku planned for us to attack that rock demon, so that he could have the chance to get to Kagome. Now… now…'

He yelled out, "Kagome! Don't give up on me! You promised me you wouldn't leave! So don't leave me!"

He must have been searching for a considerable amount of time. Already the clouds began to illuminate a soft orange and pink as the sun started to fade away. Inuyasha had no idea how long he had been searching for her, but any time was too long. The emptiness of her absence was eating him alive. Kagome, the girl whom he loved, and never told, was missing.

Inuyasha was already letting his rage get out of hand and he thought more and more about what happened. His frustration boiled over and he tore down anything that came into his path. A trail of trees ripped from their roots led Miroku to where Inuyasha was.

"Inuyasha," he looked up at the sound of Miroku's voice.

The monk was sitting in a lotus position on top of Shippou, who at the moment was transformed into a flying pink ball. Inuyasha stopped, "Miroku. What's happened? Have you found her yet?"

"Yes. Sango found her and brought her back to the village," Miroku replied simply.

Inuyasha let a smile spread across his face and didn't care that the monk was there to see it. But when he expected to see a smirk come across his comrade's face, he instead saw a very downhearted look, which in turn made Inuyasha's face well up with fear. "What is it, Miroku? Is she okay?"

"I… I don't know," Miroku replied.

Inuyasha didn't have time to wait. He took off in a run towards the village. Shippou and Miroku followed close behind, barely able to keep up. They reached the village in no time, and were greeted at the entrance by a very depressed-looking Sango. Her face was pale and her eyes had obviously cried a lot of tears in the past few minutes, for they were puffy and red. They stopped to question her. Inuyasha asked, "Sango, where is she?"

"She doesn't want to be seen," Sango replied solemnly.

Inuyasha looked at her shocked, "Doesn't want to be seen? Sango, what the fuck happened to her?"

Sango looked at the ground. She obviously knew something about the situation. "I'm sorry… I'm not allowed to tell you."

Inuyasha snarled at her for a moment and pushed his way past her into the village. His ears perked up to catch any familiar sounds, and he sniffed the air to locate Kagome. The hanyou could faintly make out the sounds of sobs coming from Kaede's hut. Inuyasha knew that Kaede was out of town, so Kagome was there alone, and it only frightened him more that she would be all by herself if something was wrong with her. Sango held the others back, saying that it was probably best to just let Inuyasha comfort her. Inuyasha was the best medicine for her now.

Inuyasha knocked down the door rather than opening it, frustrated that it was blocking his path to the one he loved. He glanced around the room quickly, "Kagome!"

He didn't see her, but he could distinctly hear horrific sobs coming from the next room and he knew the shaking voice was that of his Kagome. He made his way to the door, which was locked. "Kagome, are you okay! Open the door!"

He heard silence for a moment, but it was followed by even more painful cries. He pressed his ears down, trying to suppress the sick feeling in his stomach at the sound of her pain. He couldn't take it anymore. He ripped the door open, practically taking it off its hinges. It shut up itself behind him. A heart aching sigh escaped his lips as he saw her huddled in the corner of the room. She raised her head to look at him, and her face was drenched in tears and her eyes and cheeks were red and puffed from crying so much. Never had he seen something more heartbreaking than this. He couldn't even move, it was so terrifying to him. A feeling of helplessness enveloped him as he smelt the salt of her tears. "Kagome, what…"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome sobbed, and she got up to run into his arms.

He grabbed a hold of her and nearly fell backward with the force of her body colliding with his own. She wrapped her arms around his torso and buried her face deep into his collar bone, muffling the sounds of her hysterical crying. She couldn't even stand up, she was so weak, and Inuyasha felt himself lose strength as he saw her like that. He slid to the ground along with her and took her into the tightest embrace he could muster. For a few moments, he was completely at a lost for words. After a while, he found his voice again and tried to pry her off of him so that he could talk to her face to face. "Kagome, please, what happened?"

She grabbed on tighter, refusing to let go of him at all. She let out an angry whimper as he tried to pull away from her, and she continued to sob. "I beg of you, Kagome. Tell me what's wrong."

He felt her shake her head against him as she managed to muffle out, "I can't… I can't… I can't."

Her tears were now drenching his haori, and some tears had managed to come into contact with skin on his neck. It made him shiver. He wrapped her closer still to him, "Kagome…"

It was like she couldn't even hear him, like she was a lost little girl who needed rescuing. He wanted to rescue her. He would do anything to rescue her from whatever troubled her. What had happened? Had she been injured? There was no sign of serious injury, only a gash of blood on her arm that wasn't worth the amount of her tears. There was no smell of sickness in the air. She was breathing fine. He could feel her heartbeat against his own. Had something perhaps happened to a loved one? It didn't even faze him that he was worrying for Kagome's sake about Kouga, a rare occasion indeed. The cries still wouldn't seize, and so he began to rock with her slowly, obliviously to what he was doing and how close he was holding her. "Shhh… It's alright. I promise I'll always take care of you."

He shut his eyes tight, trying to block out the rest of the world, trying to block out her fear with his embrace. Why couldn't her pain just go away? It wasn't fair that she was suffering. He would die in a heartbeat if it meant making her happy. What could he do? Inuyasha knew himself that he was never any good at being sensitive. It was a miracle in itself that he hadn't said something stupid already. But if there was ever a time to muster up affection, it was now. He ran one hand through her hair several times, occasionally stopping to hold her head up and caress her back soothingly. The sounds of her sobs slowly faded away to whimpers and sniffles, which in turn slowly faded away into nothing. He felt her breathing grow deeper and deeper and he knew that she must have fallen asleep. He prayed with all his might that she did not relive whatever happened in her dreams. In her dreams, he had no idea how to reach her, except to wake her up. He sat there for a while longer, just holding her close to his heart and making sure that even if she couldn't hear it, she could feel his love. Affection growls came from deep within his chest, almost as soft as a purr. But he knew he couldn't stay that way forever. He needed answers, and he needed them now. Very carefully, he carried her to a futon nearby and tucked her into the blankets to keep her warm. With one last lingering gaze, he brushed a few strands of hair from her face and leaned forward to give her a chaste kiss on her forehead. He lingered there a little longer than intended, nuzzling his cheek against her forehead and feeling tears threatening to spill from his own eyes. "I'm going to help you, Kagome! I promise you!" He whispered.

To be continued…

I don't think there are two rooms in Kaede's hut, but try to let that one slide for story sake . So yeah, I'm sure you can pretty much guess what happened. Oh well. And this story is evolving rather quickly, I know, but this is pretty much a test story to see how the fans like my writing, so it's not going to be as long as my other stories. Okay, please respond! Bye!