No more heart stopping cliffies! (At least not for a while…at least not this chapter.) This chapter is pretty dramatic.

Chapter 25

Kagome was holding her hands and shaking as she waited to hear any news about Ikuto. Thanks to her quick use of CPR, Ikuto had begun breathing again and long enough for her and Inuyasha to rush him home and to a hospital. Lots of people had questions for her, but since she herself was hurt, doctors treated her as well and so she was left alone for a while. But there was one person she knew she had to talk too sooner or later and she was afraid to. She didn't know quite what to say.

She jumped as she heard the door open and Suno walk through. He looked angry, frustrated, and detached. Kagome felt so guilty. He crossed his arms and waited for her to explain herself, but she only kept her head down like a child and waited for his scolding. 'I wish Inuyasha was with me, but I was the one who told him to stay on top of the roof.' She looked up and saw the anger on his face. She quickly put her head down again so she wouldn't have to see his anger.

"Well?" He finally asked.

"Well what?"

His anger flared even higher. "What do me mean 'well what?' Don't you anything to say? Don't you have some type of explanation to why my brother is a bleeding mess? The doctors told me he's lost so much blood that they wouldn't be surprised if he was a vegetable for the rest of his life! Don't I deserve some sort of reason to why all of this happened? Don't I Kagome?"

She looked up at him fragile and felt even guiltier, but she still didn't know what to say. "I don't know what to tell you" she answered quietly.

"Don't know what to tell me? You don't know what to tell me, Kagome? How about the truth? That's what I would like to hear. You owe me that."

She shook her head. "You wouldn't understand."

He gave out a short amused chuckle. "I wouldn't understand? Is that so Kagome? Do you know what I do understand though? Let's go right down the list. I understand all too well that my brother and I don't get along, so he ran away thinking that avoiding our problems would make them go away. Bad idea. So when he didn't come home, I started looking for him. I thought the most logical place would be your home, so Kagome, I went there asking for you. Your grandfather told me you were sick, but he couldn't keep his story straight. I soon found out you weren't even home. You weren't home and he was missing. It seemed like this wasn't an accident, so I did some digging."

Kagome's mouth slightly dropped. She didn't think he would investigate her life. She's a good kid. She didn't think her life would ever be investigated. She couldn't really blame him, but there was too much behind the lies.

"I found out that you're barely in school due to absences. You've been sick, but the problem is it's impossible for you to have half of the stuff on your excuse list. Not only that, three of the illnesses didn't even really exist."

'Grandpa!'

"Your grades started to slip up quite a bit from what it was at the beginning of the school year, Kagome. What's the matter? Are you doing drugs? Did you join a gang?"

"No" she said quietly, still shocked that this was happening to her. "No!" she yelled offended when she finally realized what he was saying. "That's not true at all. I would never do something like that."

"My brother was with you Kagome. Where were you?"

She calmed down and put her head down after that. What could she say to that? She had nothing to say. She had absolutely no excuse that she could come up with. Suno didn't even deserve an excuse. He deserved the truth, but she didn't know how to give it to him. 'He wouldn't understand. He would think I was lying and if he thought I was telling the truth, everything would get more complicated. Other people might find out and then I could really begin to mess up my family's life. I can't do that.' "I'm sorry, Suno. I just can't tell you the truth."

Suno's anger flared up in his face. "From this day forward, you are forbidden to ever have any contact with my brother."

"But" Kagome rose to her feet "I don't want to be separated from him!" Kagome felt her heart breaking. She so desperately wanted to see him and make sure that he was going to pull through. She knew that he needed her, and more importantly, she knew that she needed him. She wasn't strong enough to go on without him by her side. She at least needed to see him one last time. It took her a while to figure it out, but she loved him. She didn't mean to, but she did. She honestly loved Ikuto.

Suno showed no compassion to the pain in her eyes. "Don't make me get a restraining order, because I will, Kagome."

She had nothing else to say. She knew by looking in his eyes, he couldn't be persuaded, and she frankly couldn't really blame him for his anger. She couldn't give him the truth that he desperately wanted to know. She sat back down on her hospital bed as he left the room. 'Now I can't ever see him again?' She began to sob. 'But I have to see him! I…I'm in love with him.'

Inuyasha was on the roof top like Kagome instructed him to. He didn't want to cause a big commotion, and he wanted to stay on Kagome's good side since he soon wouldn't be seeing her at all anymore. 'I made a promise to Kikyou and I'm not going to break it.' He sighed and looked up at the starry sky. 'Besides, Kagome really seems to like Ikuto. Maybe he'll take care of her while I'm gone. It makes not seeing her a little bit more bearable.' That was a lie. He still didn't want to lose Kagome, even if he lost her to his reincarnation. "Oh Kagome."

Suno walked to Ikuto's room, but hesitated to go in. He didn't want to seem like the weak one that apologized first. He put his hand on the knob but didn't choose to turn the knob. 'The doctors said that he wouldn't be waking up for a while.' He decided to open the door and step inside Ikuto's hospital room. "Ikuto?" he asked quietly. He walked into the room slowly but picked up the pace once he saw that his brother was sleeping. He came to his bed side and gazed at his brother. He looked so helpless and it made Suno angry to look at him that way. He had bandages around his body, on his arms, legs, chest, and forehead. He had one of his arms in a sling, a couple of stitches, and had a neck brace on. The doctors said he was having trouble breathing, so he also was on a respirator. They said he had seen the worst of it and would probably make it. The doctors did say he had a major blow that damaged his spine. The doctors didn't know if Ikuto would be ever able to walk again, but Suno wouldn't let that be. He wouldn't accept that his brother would be paralyzed for the rest of his life.

"You fool" he said under the sound of his breath. He sat down in the guest chair next to Ikuto's bed. Suno was thankful that they listened to his request and put Ikuto in a room alone. "You've always been doing stupid things, ever since you were a little kid. You haven't grown up yet, even after everything we've been through." He leaned back into the chair and tried to relax himself as much as possible. "I've been bailing you out since you were a kid." It was then that he decided to remember when Ikuto was a child.

Suno pulled up in his car in front on Ikuto's elementary school and looked around for his little brother. It wasn't hard to pick him out of the crowd though. "Ikuto?"

Suno saw his brother with a group of children. They started yelling at him and pushing him around. "My mother said that your mother is an American slut that wanted your father's money!" The biggest one said.

"No she's not!" Ikuto said. He tried to stop them from pushing him around, but he wouldn't physically defend himself by pushing or hitting someone else.

"Demon child! Demon child! Demon child! Ikuto is a demon child! Ikuto is a demon child!" The all started chanting this while he tried to escape.

"Stop it!" Ikuto yelled. They pushed him on the ground but one of the kids spotted Suno and they all became afraid and ran away, thinking that they would get in trouble. Ikuto had a few cuts here and there, but was fine. But of course, children like to act like their going to die when they're wounded. He just sat on the ground and tried to stop himself from sobbing.

Suno got tried of waiting and walked over to his brother and scowled him with his eyes. Ikuto didn't look up to face his brother. He was too humiliated. "Why didn't you fight back?" Suno finally asked.

Ikuto then got up and looked up to see his brother. Ikuto was six at the time. The kids that picked on him were older by a year or two, but Ikuto was just as big as them. His father was taller than most Asians and his mother was a tall woman as well. "My mother told me not to get into anymore fights."

"So you let them push you around and talk about your mother as if she's trash?"

Ikuto shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

"Don't let anyone dishonor our family like that! That is the worse thing anyone can ever say to you. Don't let people push you around. Even if they're bigger than you, you fight them going down fight. Do you understand?"

Ikuto hated being scowled at. He struggled not to cry. "Yes big brother."

Suno couldn't believe that his brother would be so weak, but he blamed it on Ikuto's mother. "Let's go get something to eat."

Ikuto's eyes suddenly brightened up. "Can we get some ice cream?"

In an attempt to make his brother feel better and convince him to defend himself next time and to fight, he agreed. They went to the closest ice cream shop and Suno had a hot fudge sundae while Ikuto was instructed to get whatever his heart desired, which was exactly what he did. Ikuto ordered a giant brownie hot fudge sundae practically smothered in cherries with crumbled cookies and sprinkles. It didn't look very pleasing while Ikuto made a complete mess out of himself, but at least it made him happy. He didn't even eat all of it, and he complained about how full he was, but at least he was happy. "Ikuto" Suno said, finishing off his ice cream "I want you to beat the next kid that picks on you. Show them how strong you are and the rest will back down."

"Really?" he asked sick sounding, feeling the ice cream in his stomach.

"Of course. Just trust me. Bring down the leader of a mob and then the mob will retreat. Mobs are only a huge group of cowards. They won't do anything to you once you start defending yourself. Take out the leader."

Ikuto nodded and smiled, even though he was sick. "I'll do it. Thank you big brother." His smile increased and his innocence shone through. Even though he had fudge and cookie crumbs all over his mouth, he was still adorable.

Suno sat up in his chair but then hunched his back. 'I haven't seen you happy since you were a child, before the accident. I know that Kagome was beginning to make you happy, but however she thinks she's helping you, she's not.'

Kagome's mother walked into Kagome's hospital room with Souta behind her. "Mom…" Kagome said quietly "I've really messed up this time. Mr. Kazasami doesn't even trust me anymore and doesn't want me to see Ikuto."

Kagome's mother sat on Kagome's bed next to her and gave her daughter a tight hug. "Everything will work out Kagome. Just give it some time."

'But I want to make sure he's alright!'

Just then, there was a knock at Kagome's door. "Hello" Sarah opened the door with Rina behind her. "Is it alright if I talk to Kagome alone?"

Kagome wanted to say no, but she knew she was going to have to face the family some point of time. She nodded and said "Of course." Kagome's mother kissed Kagome on her head and walked out of the room with Souta following. Kagome kept her head down, feeling ashamed that she let all of this happen to Ikuto. "I'm very sorry" she said quietly.

"Rina" Sarah said "leave us for a moment."

Rina had such sadness in her eyes. The last time she saw her uncle, he was in a fight with her father. Everything was going so horrible. She wished that everything could be like they were before. She didn't want her uncle to be hurt. "Yes mama." She walked out of the hospital room and closed the door behind her.

Sarah crossed her arms and asked "So what's the matter Kagome? Why aren't you telling us the truth?"

Kagome looked up into her eyes. "I didn't say anything."

"And that's the problem." Sarah sighed in frustration. "I really like you Kagome. You're a nice girl and there's something just…wonderful about you. You've made Ikuto so happy, but the truth is that I can't let you be with him if he's going to get hurt like this and you can't tell us what's going on."

"I'm sorry" Kagome said quietly. She put her head down and tried not to sob when she thought about how she was ruining everything that she had Ikuto and what they could have possibly had. "I didn't want this to happen."

"And why did it happen, Kagome?" She stepped closer to Kagome and took her hands and held them. "Look Kagome, if you tell us the truth, then Suno would forgive you. He wouldn't trust you, but he would forgive you. Just tell me the truth."

Kagome really wanted to, but there was nothing she could say to her. "I'm sorry about all of this, I really am. It's just that I can't tell anyone."

Sarah rubbed her eyes tired and slightly chuckled. "Okay, if you think a secret is worth what you and Ikuto had, and then I don't care. I don't want any liar in my family." Sarah quickly got out of there after that. She didn't have the heart to talk to Kagome anymore. Sarah just wanted to know the truth and have Suno and Ikuto back together again.

"Isn't it ironic, little brother?" Suno asked the sleeping Ikuto. "We got into a fight because I told you to fight. I didn't think you'd be fighting all the way to high school. Now everything's getting more complicated. You're a complicated thing to handle, I'll admit. I blame that on your mother. She was complicated too."

Suno walked into Ikuto's bed room before he left for school and shook him lightly until he woke up. When he did, Ikuto of course tried to pretend like Suno hadn't waked him up, but Ikuto couldn't fake for very long. "What is it?"

"Just remember what I told you. Take out the leader and the rest will crumble."

Ikuto decided to wake up, even though hed still had an hour or so of sleep left before he had to get ready for school. "I'll remember to fight next time."

"Good, and don't let me down."

Ikuto promised to fight if there was trouble and after school while Ikuto was waiting for someone to pick him up, a group of kids came to him, looking for trouble. Ikuto stood his ground though. "What do you guys want?" Ikuto asked.

The biggest one started pushing Ikuto. "Hey demon child. How are you?"

Ikuto stood his ground and started to push him back. "Don't touch me!" All of the smaller kids started to gasp. They didn't expect him to fight back. All the other kids stepped back and the oldest one started to get nervous. "I'm not scared of you and I'm not going to let you keep pushing me around and talk about me and my mother."

The older kid started to look nervous. He didn't expect Ikuto to do anything. "You're just a little kid. You can't defend yourself." He pushed Ikuto again."

Ikuto got angry and punched the older boy in the stomach. He must have been all show, because he was knocked down and holding his stomach. All of the other kids left and ran to tell the teachers on Ikuto. Ikuto felt like he had ultimate power once he had knocked him down. "I did it!" He ran happily to his brother's car. "You were right! You were right! I beat him and everyone else went away. He wasn't very strong at all!"

Suno almost could have smiled, he was so proud of his brother. "Let's go home then."

"I feel like I can do anything! Thank you Suno!"

He sighed. "Of course, when I actually got home your mother practically went nuts once she found out you had fought. Even once I told her what those children were making rude remarks about her. She still didn't want you to fight. She was scared for your safety. I suppose I can't blame her for that, but she should have known that a man has to stick up for himself once in a while. She just always felt so guilty and thought all of your troubles were because you were different. I guess that's true on some level."

Sarah opened the hospital room door and came inside and was happy when she saw Suno in there with Ikuto. She hated the fact that Ikuto being hurt had to bring them together, but at least Suno was at his bedside. "The hospital won't let Rina come to see him. They say she's too young and his condition is too serious."

Suno sat up straight in the chair and tried to keep is proper and calm composure, just as always. "Alright, get Jamon on it."

"He went…" she frowned "Uh; well I told him he could go home."

He stood up to his feet getting a little angry with her. "Why did you tell him that he could?"

"Well, he looked tired and I knew he wouldn't ask you if he could and I know that you'd want him to be in top shape for work tomorrow so I thought he should go home for at least two hours of sleep."

Suno ran his hands through his hair and sighed. "Alright, fine. He can sleep."

"Are you…going into work tomorrow? I mean, I know you haven't missed a day, but I think you should. Your brother needs you, even if he's not awake yet."

Suno didn't want his brother to know he was by his side. He didn't want to be the first to apologize. Ikuto was the one who didn't deserve Suno's concern, not after how he ran away with some girl only to get into trouble. "I guess I shouldn't go in tomorrow." It was so hard to say those words. He wanted to go into work as always, but he was reliving the day when his father died. He almost lost his brother that day. If Ikuto were to die, then Suno would really never be able to forgive him for giving his heart to girl and nearly getting himself killed. 'I won't go in tomorrow.'

As Kagome, her mother, and Souta were leaving the hospital, Inuyasha jumped off from the roof and landed in front of them. Kagome would have normally been worried that someone saw him, but she was too depressed about Ikuto. "Inuyasha" she said almost begging "would you please stay here and check up on Ikuto? I would, but Suno had forbidden me to see him anymore."

"Suno?" Inuyasha asked. "Who is he?"

"He's Ikuto's brother." She placed her hands on his shoulders and looked into his golden eyes. "I need you to do this. I really need your help. Just watch over him for me."

Inuyasha was planning on leaving while she slept, and not saying goodbye. If he told Kagome the truth about Kikyou, then she would only be angry. "Kagome, I…"

"Please Inuyasha! I really need you to do this."

'Man, I can't just tell her no, but I've got to get out of this time and go back to my own time. I'll stay in mine, and Kagome will stay in hers.' Inuyasha sighed, but nodded. "Alright Kagome." 'It's not like I can actually stop her from coming back if she has the jewel shards. I have to steal them from her while she doesn't suspect it.' "I'll keep an eye on him."

"Thank you, but don't let Suno see you! Don't let anyone see you."

"Kagome" Souta said "Wouldn't it be easier to just tell Suno about Inuyasha? I mean, if he does then wouldn't he understand the truth about why Ikuto got hurt?"

"I think Souta's right" Kagome's mother said. "It might just be best to tell him the truth about what you do."

Kagome shook her head. "I can't. I can't do that. I don't want anyone else involved in this. Besides, I wouldn't know how to explain any of this. I don't know Suno that well and I don't know how he would take it. It could make things better, or it could make it worse."

"Kagome's right" Inuyasha said. "I'll stay here with Ikuto and you guys go home. It's not that big of a deal." 'Besides, I think I want to talk to him before I leave…forever…'

To be continued…

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