A/N: I lied! Had you all fooled, didn't I? Sometimes I regret fooling my loyal readers, but then I think about how little I have. You all know I love you. Anyway, enough of that. There's one more chapter after this. For real this time. I didn't think the last chapter would go as long as it did, but I was once again mistaken so I'm throwing out two more before we have to see this end.

Disclaimer: don't make me use vulgar language.

Life In The Fast Lane

Chapter Seventeen

One Final Race

"This is Hikari Kitsumo, and you're watching the 10 o' clock news. Right now, I'm live from in front of Sasaki Incorporated, where a heinous crime was committed late Friday night. Many are mourning the death of Naraku Sasaki, CEO of Sasaki Inc., who was murdered quietly, yet violently. We haven't had the exact time of death, but we know that he was stabbed in the back, a ghastly way to have your life taken away…

"When police arrived at the scene, every single floor in the building seemed to have been aggressively damaged. Crews have scanned, scrutinized and inspected a three-block perimeter to find any clues that could lead them to violent murderer. The search will be continued until even the slightest clue turns up.

"And now we go to Chief Nogami, who is conducting the search. Chief, have you found any clues that may help aid in the search?" the microphone went to a big built man, dressed in his blue suit. He had black hair, combed to the side, and a black mustache.

"Unfortunately, we have no clues as of yet, but we are searching every square inch within radius of a three-block perimeter. No finger prints or left over clothing has been found, which is very conspicuous because usually the one accountable of the crime makes a slip up."

"Can you tell us what your first thought was when you laid eyes on this scene?" The red haired woman held up the black microphone, patiently awaiting an answer.

"I was shocked to say the least. Naraku was a long time friend of mine. He was a great guy, real fair in his business ordeals. He was honest and a just man. To see his life ended to brutally, made me wonder what kind of a monster could do such a thing."

"Will there be anyone else taking over the business, now that he's gone?"

A slight pause.

"Unfortunately, there is no telling. When we searched the very top floor, we found that not only had Naraku been murdered, but that his son has passed too. We were informed that he has a daughter, but no one really knows for sure what's going to happen with that."

"I see. Can you give us an estimated body count?"

"We found forty dead, and twenty injured."

"We are all very sorry to hear that. Thank you for your time Chief Nogami." The camera panned back to her, as the chief left. "There will be a press conference held later this month, and the funeral service's time is unknown, due to privacy. In further news…"

Kagome clicked off the television. She didn't know why, but at the moment she wasn't feeling anything. She wasn't angry, she wasn't sad, she wasn't happy, she wasn't anything.

But then, as soon as she thought that, a new jar of butterflies erupted in her stomach. In less than thirty minutes, she'd have to make the hardest decision in her life. She didn't know how she'd go about doing it either. There was no easy way to break the news. I mean, who wants to tell the one they love, that they think it'd be best if they left. How could they even believe her?

Sure, she thought about just leaving a note and letting things go a little bit worse than horrible. She knew that Inuyasha would be angry about this decision. Probably beyond angry.

Enraged, maybe…

But she knew she had to. She even had reasons why. All the ones that she would tell him, to try and convince him that if she left, things would be better, and that there'd be nothing to worry about.

Although, every time she thought about it, something clenched her heart, and made her stomach drop. She knew it'd be hard when she though about it. When she thought the whole thing through.

Have you ever had to make a confrontation with someone – important or not – and every time you closed your eyes, most likely right before you got to sleep, you see it playing in your mind. How everything would work out, and you made a list of options of the things they would see and where that'd take you, whether or not it was good or bad. Or maybe you could be sitting down doing anything and then all of the sudden, your mind goes to that confrontation and everything that will happen during it. It haunts every waking moment, and you just have that dropping feeling in your stomach because you know that this is just a dream world, and everything's not going to go exactly the way you set it up in your mind.

Kagome felt exactly that.

She'd been dreaming about this confrontation since the Saturday after the whole thing at Sasaki Inc. But she decided to do it while she was with Naraku in his office, twirling her ring around her finger when he found a sudden interest in her.

Kagome sucked in a breath and stood up from Inuyasha's prize Italian imported, black leather couch. It had been comfortable, but she needed to go get her stuff. She walked towards the hallway entrance to get her gym bag but stopped short when a flash of lightning lit up the apartment's living room, and then a loud crash of thunder sounded, making Kagome jump, her heart pounding. The lights flickered a few times before they went out completely.

"Shit." She cursed. She held her hands out in front of her, until her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Everything had a blue glow about it, and shadows played tricks in her mind, freaking her out just a little bit. She sighed when she heard the peppering of rain on the windows getting louder. Just the perfect background for what she had to do. She shook her head and held a hand against the halls cools walls, sliding her hand until she reached the room where her stuff was. She was just throwing it over her shoulder and walking back to the living room, when she heard the front door unlock, and someone curse as they ran into the umbrella stand.

"Kag?" she heard Inuyasha's voice call out to her and she took a deep breath.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

"Are you okay? I tried calling here, but…" he trailed off, shrugging out of his wet hooded sweatshirt, what he said being muffled.

"Sorry, what?" she asked as she slowly set her bag down on the floor. Inuyasha shook his head and looked up at her.

"I said, but half of the city's power is out." he replied and raised an eyebrow, although she could barely see him do the simple gesture. "Are you okay?" he walked carefully over to her, titling his head in the darkness.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine." she took a step back in the dark, her legs hitting the arm of the sofa, making her fall back on her butt onto the cushions. She swung her legs around so that her feet could be planted on the floor, but after a moment she brought them up to her chest.

"Oh. Okay. That's good. I was worried." he said offhandedly, walking behind the sofa to find a flashlight in a drawer against it's back, but tripped over her gym bag. "What the fu-" he cut himself off and looked down at the heavy bag. "What's this?" Kagome turned around and squinted into the darkness.

"Oh. Uh, I went to the gym earlier while you were gone, and I got back and I was too tired t-to unpack, so I just left it there and went to take a shower," she lied. She hated having to lie to him, but if she could just hold off the unbearable moment for a bit longer, things could be okay. Inuyasha looked up at her strangely and when a flash of lightning lit up the room she could see doubt in his amber eyes.

"Okay…" he said slowly. Kagome turned back around and buried her face in her hands. This was not going to be easy. He wouldn't let her go. He probably wouldn't let her get a say in. "Well, baby, could you go into the kitchen and search the drawers for a flashlight?" and he was making it harder. She knew that he loved her, and her him, but that just made things all the more complicated. She clenched her eyes shut but stood up.

"Okay." she said weakly, and slowly trudged to the kitchen. Once she got in there, she felt along the counters for the first drawer and opened it up, realizing that it was silverware. She cursed, but moved onto the next, feeling inside and touching boxes of plastic wrap and foil. Where were those damn flashlights?

She walked over to another drawer, reaching inside but started feeling spatulas and serving spoons. She reached the last drawer and pulled it open, finding forgotten papers and phone numbers but under the pile of messy papers there was an object with a round handle. She pulled it out and almost jumped for joy, clicking the button, making light illuminate the kitchen.

"Success." She whispered to herself and walked back towards the living room, the flashlight leading her path. She handed it over to Inuyasha, who has been using his lighter as a light source, but it wasn't doing much good.

"Lighting a fire would probably be a good idea." Kagome said softly, almost more to herself. Inuyasha glanced up at her with a grunt before turning back to throwing fire into the fireplace.

"That's what I'm doing, wench." Kagome nodded and bit her lip, crossing her arms across her chest. Suddenly she just felt cold. Really cold, she realized as a shiver ran through her entire body. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, rocking from her heels to her toes. When she opened them, a bright orangey-yellow glow filled the room with immediate warmth. The fire was roaring and burnt pieces of newspaper floated around, the hot smoke going through a barred whole leading outside, which Inuyasha had opened.

"So…" Kagome said quietly, looking down at her feet. She had never, ever had problems with talking to Inuyasha before. They'd always been able to talk about whatever was on their minds. But she had never had to say that clumsy and awkward 'so' most people usually use when they can't find something intelligent to say. Inuyasha glanced over at her, the same eyebrow raised. He was looking at her as if she were growing a second head.

"What's up with you?" he asked coming to stand in front of her. Kagome stuttered, trying to come up with something good to say.

"What do you mean 'what's up with you?'" she gulped and looked up at him hesitantly, knowing that he could see past every part of her act. He grabbed her chin and sealed his lips over hers, wrapping her up in an embrace.

It hurt so badly…

But then again… it was the only thing that made more sense than anything…

"Miroku, I'm worried." Sango said, jiggling her foot. They were talking over coffee, at their favorite place to be. Miroku glanced up from stirring cream into his hot drink.

"What about, Sango?" his gaze was that of concern, but she quickly stomped down his fears.

"No, not about me. About Kagome." Miroku's lips set into a straight line and he went about emptying sugar into his mug.

"What happened?" he asked quietly. Sango sipped her coffee again before picking at the wooden table.

"She's just… not herself." She said frowning. Miroku looked up at her through his bangs, not bothering to raise his head, then back at his coffee.

"Sango, people change when they find out they've been stabbed in the back by people they once loved." He said in a hushed whisper. The goal was to not bring attention to themselves. The whole Sasaki Inc. ordeal hadn't been blown over, and probably wouldn't be for a while. And since no one who exactly who did it, it wouldn't be smart to just shout out names to the world.

"No, I mean. I know. But this is different. She told me she'd be relieved when she found out her parent's murderer was dead, so why now is she acting all distant? From us? That's what hurts me the most." she played with the handle of her mug, running her finger across the smooth, glossy polish. "Today, I told her I'd treat her out to eat at our favorite burger place and she declined, saying that she didn't feel good." She explained solemnly. Miroku frowned, assessing the situation.

"Well, babe, maybe she just didn't feel good." Sango looked up exasperatedly.

"Miroku, we know her better than anyone, except for maybe Inuyasha, but you know she'd never turn down a burger from Burger World. That's like her favorite place to eat, and she usually does, no matter whether she just had a three-course meal before or not."

"Okay. True." He nodded and glanced out the blurry window they were sitting at. The rain hadn't let up any, and the thunder and lightning were still doing their duet.

"I'm just worried. Yesterday she said goodbye to me, like it was the last time she'd ever get to talk to me. I mean, that's not normal right?" she glanced at him hopefully, wanting to convince him with her reasoning. Miroku looked up startled.

"No, I guess not. But I got one of those too. Maybe it's one of those things like you say I love you to someone, no matter what, because it could be the last time you say something to them. I do it all the time with you." He pointed out. Sango nodded slightly. It didn't calm her unsettled nerves.

"Miroku, you always told me to go with my gut. I'm going with my gut now, and it's telling me that something's wrong with Kagome. It's like a sister's intuition." She said. He raised a black eyebrow. Miroku bit his tongue to keep from pointing out that Kagome wasn't really Sango's sister, so she couldn't really use that, because he knew she'd bite his damn head off.

"Okay… but Sango, why don't you just call her?"

"Because every time I ask her if she wants to do something, she says she doesn't feel good, or she doesn't answer, or she says she's busy and can't get away. I mean, busy from what?" Sango asked, peering at Miroku intently, as if he could give her an answer. "And besides that. That whole thing with them happened last Friday. It's Tuesday for fuck's sake. I mean, I know it doesn't take four days to heal, but you'd think she'd be happy." Sango hissed in a conspirators whisper. Miroku sighed.

"I don't know. Just ease up, Sango. Everything we'll be okay. I promise." He grabbed her hand from across the table and gave it a gentle squeeze before returning to his coffee.

"At least this part of town still has its power." He said absentmindedly as thunder cracked in the sky. Sango sighed softly.

"Yeah…" she whispered.

Kagome was the first to pull away.

That rarely ever happened, but she was this time. She pulled out of his arms and sat on the couch, burying her face in her hands. Inuyasha stood by stupidly, his arms out where they were just holding Kagome. He turned around and looked down at her, confusion and concern written all over his features.

"Okay, now what's up?" he walked over and sat down on the coffee table in front of her, placing his hands on her knees. Kagome flinched, but settled down and took a deep breath. She lifted her head from her hands and smiled. But it wasn't as fake as he thought it'd be. It was actually almost real, only he could tell she wasn't completely happy. "Uh…"

"I'm fine. It's just… a little hot in here, is all." She said simply. Inuyasha tilted his head to her to catch a real look in her eyes but she glanced down at her hands. He stood up, flashlight in hand, and walked over to the door where his car keys and cell phone were.

"Okay. I'll order us a pizza. That sound good to you?" he asked in one beat. Kagome stood up, smoothing her hands down the front of her jeans.

"We're… not going to have take-out, Inuyasha," she said quietly. He looked perplexed, but then grinned.

"Okay. Want me to take you out to dinner? It doesn't even have to-" Kagome held up her hand and cut him off.

"No. I mean, we're not going… to do this." she bit her bottom lip and gestured between them. Inuyasha clicked the flashlight on and shined it in her face, the bright light almost blinding the poor girl.

"What are you talking about?" he had that grin still on his face, but his eyes held a different emotion, even though Kagome couldn't see all that well past the bright white light.

"Turn that off!" she snapped exasperated and Inuyasha clicked it off immediately, his arm falling loosely back at his side. It felt heavier than it did before, making his arm feel like dead weight, like it didn't belong there.

"Kagome?" she ignored him and went behind the couch, dragging the gym bag forward and keeping it at her feet. Inuyasha's gaze flickered downward, regarding the bag slowly before looking up at her. He could have sworn he felt his heart stop.

When he and Kagome talked about what she felt when Naraku was telling her about everything that happened with her parents, she tried explaining about what the feeling was at that moment. How before he even said what he had to she knew exactly, for an instant, and then it disappeared in a fleeting moment. He swallowed a growing lump in his throat.

He felt it. He knew.

But then it disappeared, and he couldn't remember exactly what it was that he knew for that one instant.

"What's in the bag?" he asked quietly, tossing the flashlight onto the couch, before shoving his hands in his baggy jeans pockets. Kagome rubbed her lips together, like there was newly applied lip-gloss, and stared down at the bag, as he stared at her. "What the fuck Kagome. What's in the bag?" his voice was clipped and a little cold, and it hurt her to know that it would get ten times worse, and she'd be the cause of it all. She sniffed and ran a hand through her hair quickly, ignoring the beat of rain against windows behind her.

"Clothes." She said simply and flinched as he snorted.

"No shit. Where are you going?" he leaned forward to look her in the face, his head tilting to catch her eyes – much like he had before – but only now could she see a cold smirk on his face.

She busied her lip.

"I-I um… I'm not sure, as of now. But I'm just going to go wherever fate tells me too." She whispered, her heart pounding so hard in her chest, she thought she might die.

"Holy shit, Kagome." Inuyasha whispered. He ran a hand through his hair, scratching the back of his head, glancing around the living room, noticing how she couldn't even look at him. "Why are you running away from this?" he asked softly, but she could still hear the underlying anger, not really sure what he meant by 'this'. It could be a number of things…

"I'm not running away from anything!" she yelled, finally looking him in the face.

"Okay, then. From me?" he glanced up at her and waited for her to answer, noticing how her bottom lip quivered. 'Gods, no, Kagome. Don't cry.'

"No! Not from anyone, either." She collapsed to the floor by her bag, hot tears running down her face. Inuyasha pursed his lips, looking down at his girlfriend while she cried in front of the couch, usually where people would put their legs. He looked up at the ceiling, willing this moment to have never happened, but nothing changed. He didn't wake up to a sunny day; he didn't find himself daydreaming over a bowl of his favorite flavor of Ramen.

Nothing

He sat down on the floor next to Kagome, and grabbed her hand, intertwining his hand with hers. She seemed to cry harder at that, and he didn't know if he should be confused or sad. But still, he sat there, and ran his hands through her hair.

"Kagome," he started. He kissed her temple and buried his face into the side of hers. "What's going on with you? Why are you leaving?" he asked sullenly. Kagome sniffed and attempted to wipe her tears away, but a few replaced the spot she just wiped.

"I'm not running away from you." She said, her voice cracking in some places. "I'm leaving to make things good for you. I want you to be happy."

"Kagome, what he hell is going on inside that head of yours? How does your leaving equal me being happy?" he asked upset. She didn't blame him, though.

"Inuyasha… you risked your life for me. You always do. I only seem to carry around bad things, life-threatening things. And I drag you right down with me," he opened his mouth to speak, but she stopped him. "If I leave, maybe you can be safer. If anything happened to you, anything to make you hurt or upset, then I'd never be able to live with myself. If you can live till you're an old, wrinkly man, than I'll be happy." She finished, picking at a loose seem on her jeans. Inuyasha crumpled his eyebrows.

"You're hurting me…" Inuyasha said with a frown. Kagome pursed her lips together.

"Inuyasha-"

"I honestly thought you were smart Kagome. I mean, don't all girls have like this thing they're born with to automatically know what's going to hurt their boyfriends and what's not?" Kagome wanted to slap him over the head. What kind of logic was that? But then, the sad part was, there were others who thought like that too.

Dense and illogical…

"No, Inuyasha. What the hell? Where do you get this stuff?"

"That's not important. Kagome, you're hurting me by leaving. You're not saving anyone from being hurt. You're being foolish." Kagome sighed.

"Don't. Just don't."

"Kiss me. And if you still want to leave after that, I'll let you." He said quietly. Kagome opened her mouth, but closed it, knowing it was fruitless to fight with him. But that didn't mean she thought this was a horrible idea. It was going to make it harder for her to just walk away. That's why she pulled away from the first one. She couldn't do it if he just expressed his feelings like that.

So that's why she wanted to beat herself up with a metal bat when he kissed her for the second time that night, making her completely melt. It was weird how she had never experienced a kiss like this with him before. Actually a kiss like this period. It was pure torture. She was whimpering and writhing, scared of what might happen if he let go and she walked away from this forever.

Inuyasha pulled away with a chaste kiss on the lips. He cupped her face, making her look him in the eye as they both gulped in sufficient amounts of air. He could see it there, the longing to stay. He could tell that her heart was telling her to stay, regardless of whatever was running through her head.

Which was blank up until a minute ago.

"Inuyasha." she breathed.

"Still want to go?" he asked, hoping to anything holy that she'd stay. He ran his hand down her back, stopping with three fingers on the small of her back where there happened to be a group of sensitive nerves. He knew that when he even touched them slightly, it drove her crazy.

"No. Inuyasha. Don't make it hard." She wanted to pull away, but she couldn't. He kissed right behind her earlobe, another weak spot, and she whimpered again, her whole body shaking against him. "You're making it hard." She whispered. He glanced up at her when she pulled away slightly.

"Race." He said it so simply; Kagome couldn't believe they'd just been locking lips.

"What?"

"I said, race." Kagome stared at him puzzled, before it dawned on her.

"No!" she stood up and walked around the coffee table, but he was on the other side, in front of her, ready to meet her.

"Yes. Kagome. It'll settle this fairly."

"I'm not going to race you!" she yelled indignantly. Inuyasha smirked.

"Afraid you'll lose?" he whispered, leaning forward like he had before. Kagome glared, crossing her arms across her chest.

"No. But I'm not going to race you."

"The terms are," he continued as if she hadn't just spoken. "You lose and you stay. You win, and I'll say goodbye… forever." As much as it pained him to say it, this had to be done. "Deal?"

"Inuyasha…"

"Deal?" he repeated, firmly. Kagome looked torn. He was right; the race would settle it fairly. But she'd never raced him before. She'd never been beaten in a race. And neither had he.

Two of the best racers…

And they were about to face each other for the first time. At the top of their game and everything. Kagome swallowed, contemplating. So many things could go wrong with this. She really did want to stay, but the guilt of not having them safe because she was there outweighed. And he was going to let her go if she won. He wanted her happy, if it meant sacrificing his own joyfulness.

"Deal." She said quietly, and stared into his amber orbs. Something flickered behind them, but it was gone before she could identify it.

"Meet me at the aqueduct at 12:00 sharp."

"Inu-"

"12:00 sharp." He repeated before grabbing his keys, cell phone and sweatshirt. He glanced over his shoulder before closing the door and leaving. Kagome stood alone, stupidly, in the living room of their apartment the fire dying down beside her. She walked over to the coffee table and picked up her phone, flipping it open slightly before flipping it closed and looking at the time.

11:00.

She had an hour.

"You're going to what?" Inuyasha pulled his cell phone away from his ear, glaring at it before returning it to its place.

"I'm going to race her." Inuyasha said calmly. Miroku was going on and on about the precautions and why he wasn't invited and what a stupid idea it was and why wasn't he invited. Inuyasha – outside leaning against his car – glanced around the aqueduct, feeling a little eerily by himself, but brushed it off looking up at the sky. The rain had cleared, and so had the clouds, so everything was just damp and crisp.

"Miroku, please stop. My ears might bleed." He said sarcastically. The aqueduct wasn't all that dark. The moon was big and bright now that it wasn't hiding behind ugly gray clouds, so everything had a bluish-silvery glow to it. There were puddles collected on the flattest part and columns holding up bridges above were dripping dirty water.

"But there's puddles!" he tried to reason, but Inuyasha already had an answer.

"Our tires have traction. And we might even be riding the walls once and while. It's okay."

"Okay, but Inuyasha, seriously. What if you lose? Just going to let Kagome walk away forever?" Miroku asked quietly. Inuyasha cleared his throat and kicked a pebble by his shoe, one hand in his pocket.

"I won't lose."

"You sound a little confident. You didn't rig her car did you?"

"Miroku! Don't be an idiot! Why would I rig her car?"

"Just asking! You never know!"

"Well that's low." He said, but it held no real anger. Truth was, he was all kinds of nervous. Yes, there was a huge possibility that he could lose and watch her walk away. But if he could prevent it, he'd do everything in his power to beat her.

"Sorry, yasha. Can Sango and I come watch?" he asked hopefully. Inuyasha shook his head, and then realized the black haired boy couldn't see him.

"Uh, not this time man. This is between Kagome and I." He said quietly. Miroku sighed and complied, but Inuyasha told him he had to go when a pair of headlights swung over his form from in front of him. Kagome swung her car around so it was even and right next to his, then she opened her door and walked to the other side to meet him.

She was still in her jeans, but she had a tank top on, probably not realizing that it was freezing outside. But then again, neither did Inuyasha.

"Hey." She breathed, looking up at him with a slight smile. He pocketed his phone and mirrored the action, glancing down at their feet.

"Hey." It was quiet for a minute, but neither seemed to mind. "Ready to do this?" he asked, flicking his eyes to hers. His heart was beating nervously in his chest; and he could imagine hers was too, although neither showed it.

"Yeah." She said quietly. Inuyasha stood up and pressed his lips to hers, before quickly pulling away.

"Good luck." He opened his door and stepped inside, and Kagome threw her hair up into a bun away from her face.

"Good luck." She whispered and walked over to her driver's side and sat down. Inuyasha started his car and it made a low humming sound, before he flicked on his brights.

Kagome sighed and looked ahead, turning her brightest set of headlights on too. Her muffler rumbled and she rested her head against the steering wheel. She looked over and noticed that Inuyasha was staring intensely at the pathway ahead of them. She waited patiently until he was done and he looked over at her. He rolled down his window, signaling that she should do, so she pressed the button and watched the barrier of glass come down.

"We'll count to three together. Okay?" Kagome nodded.

"Okay."

"1!"

"2!" they shouted together and took a breath of air before the last number.

"3!" Kagome and Inuyasha simultaneously pressed on the gas, her wheels screeching, back tires spinning incredibly fast. They zoomed side by side, shifting to first gear and picking up speed. Kagome drove up on the slanted wall to avoid hitting a column since Inuyasha zoomed through the only two with an opening. When she got down on solid ground, she was already in third gear, and sweeping up behind Inuyasha.

Inuyasha was just hoping this luck would stay the same. If he could keep Kagome behind him, then he'd win and all things would be close to okay. But if she won, he didn't know what he'd do.

Lost in thought he cursed as she saw Kagome pull up beside him, gaining more speed than he thought she had and pulling up in front of him. He shifted to fourth, really pushing his car to just get back around Kagome. He swung from the left and right – avoided puddles, but splashing through them when he couldn't – trying to get around her, but every attempt was in vain. He rode the slanted wall around another set of columns and pulled up coming neck and neck with Kagome who was on the other slanted wall of the aqueduct. The ending was coming up so fast. All he had to do was beat her by getting past the last set of columns.

"Damnit! I'm not going to lose!" he pushed his car, willing it to go faster but as they passed the last set columns and came upon their made up finish line, Inuyasha noticed that Kagome had beat him there. He slowed on his brakes and shifted down gears, swinging his car and around and swallowing the huge lump in his throat.

He totally just lost.

Besides it being a major blow to the ego, he'd made a deal, and not one he wished to go through with. He parked. And watched as Kagome slowly opened her door, but didn't make any move to get out. He got out instead, and walked up to her car, almost feeling like crying. He cleared his throat a couple times, shuffling his feet on the ground.

"Congratulations." He said dully. Kagome sniffed and glared at the ground.

"Thanks, I guess." She stood up and bit her lip, hugging Inuyasha suddenly. He was surprised, but he wrapped his arms around her, returning the embrace.

He didn't know how long they stood there exactly. But he wasn't dumb.

This was their goodbye.

Inuyasha pulled away, letting his hands slide inside his pockets. He watched idly as Kagome pulled back to herself, twisting the ring on her finger.

"I guess you want this back?" she asked sadly, beginning to remove it. Inuyasha stopped her.

"No keep it. Wherever you go, it'll tell stupid guys to stay the hell away because you're taken." He said quietly. They both chuckled, and it wasn't fake, which was surprising. But the reality was still crashing down all around them. He stepped closer to her and caressed her face with the pad of his thumb. She leaned into the touch, frowning. "Don't forget about me, okay?"

"No, Inuyasha. Never, I promise." He bit the inside of his cheek, needing something to focus on.

"Don't fall in love either, wench." She poked him in the chest, a smile on her face.

"I don't know…" she trailed off, just wanting to tease him, but he rolled his eyes.

"So… are you going to tell Sango and Miroku?"

"Sango would be the shit out of me, and I don't think you're supposed to travel when injured."

"Well if she'd be beating the shit out of you, doesn't that mean you shouldn't go?" he hand dropped from her face to her hands, holding them gently with his and pressing his forehead against hers.

"Inuyasha…"

"I know. I love you." He said it like it was a fact, like day turns to night, like it was inevitable, no matter what. And she could feel the familiar sting in the back of her eyes.

"I love you too." She said looking up at him and wrapping her arms around his neck, her lip quivering.

It might have felt like it… but it wasn't goodbye.

No. Not ever.

--

A/N: THE END! WOOOOOOT! That was great. Such a great chapter. Such a good story. I can't believe this is over. I mean… gee. It came so far. Thank you once again to all my wonderful reviewers. I'm totally happy with how this came out. In fact, almost ecstatic. Read and Review please!

TaintedMunkeyz