Night
Inuyasha woke up in a cold sweat. His brow was furrowed. His breathing was raspy.
"Inuyasha?" A sleepy Kagome whispered from below.
He didn't answer but concentrated on getting control of his emotions. Everything seemed like it was spinning out of control. He gripped the tree branch tighter. He closed his eyes and waited for it all to come to a stop. He heard a rustling, but blocked it out of his mind.
When he opened his eyes, Kagome was a few branches below him, trying to make her way up to him. She looked up at his tear-stained face and choked back a sob. She hated to see him like this.
He jumped from his branch to hers and carried her off into the night in one motion. He held her close and she hugged him tighter. He needed it and it was a cold night.
Inuyasha broke out of the trees and came to a stop, agile as a cat on an overhanging branch. It was a beautiful view. An ebony lake reflected a pale moon, suspended in the night sky by invisible strings. The air was crisp and the hanyou's breath came in white clouds of warmth that looked ghostly among the stars.
Kagome sat in silence. She was watching Inuyasha carefully. She was worried, but she kept it all inside; Kagome didn't want to scare him off.
Inuyasha turned to face her. His amber eyes held so much emotion, it hurt Kagome to look into their depths. He saw her honesty and her love in the reflection of her gaze. She hugged him to her, stroking his hair and ears like a child. He held on to her like she was the only thing that kept him sane, which was basically true.
"What is it Inuyasha?"
He was silent, then he began to pull away.
"Kagome...whenever...whenever I change into a full-demon, I remember my uhh...childhood."
She didn't know what to say. She knew Inuyasha had had a terrible childhood, but she didn't know any details or that it had affected him this much.
His mother's death. Cold and lonely. No one would love him now.
A tiny boy with demon ears and claws, rejected and taunted by a crowd of onlookers stoned and beaten for stealing food to stay alive.
A small child bringing flowers to a little girl in a pink kimono. A mother's scream. A child's cries. His own tears mixing with the watching rain.
A teenage half-demon with shaggy white hair, being hunted by demons for his human blood.
Loving a priestess that would never return his love...
"And now, whenever I sleep, I remember more and more, things that I thought...well, hoped that I had forgotten. And it makes me want to be a full-demon again. Because when I am, it's like I'm seeing all the people that hurt me again. They are the ones under my claws."
Kagome just sat in silence. Inuyasha couldn't withstand that gentle gaze. He continued to watch the sky with increasing interest.
"Everything will be all right, you know?"
He turned to face her, "Will it really, Kagome! Will it really be all right! I can still smell the blood of those innocent men on my claws!"
He looked disgusted by the thought. Oh, he had changed so much.
"You're not you when you're a full-demon..." Silence drifted to fill the space.
"You are the only one who can stop me, Kagome. That scares me. I almost hurt you last time."
"I don't care! Haven't you realized it yet? I will never leave you."
"Kagome! You could get seriously hurt!"
"Inuyasha!" She turned so he couldn't see her tears. She was exhausted with this game.
She spun around, " I love you, you idiot!"
And then he said, no louder than a whisper, "I love you, too."