Chapter 5

Kagome's eyes opened. It's still dark, she thought. She rubbed her eyes and looked around as she sat up from her sleeping bag. She had woken up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.

"Bad dream?" Inuyasha asked. He was sitting down cross legged behind Kagome. She turned around to look at him. His eyes were closed, but he wasn't asleep.

"No", she whispered, "I think I just might be worried about going down the well tomorrow." Inuyasha opened an eye and looked at her.

"So you are worried?" She got up and sat down next to him.

"Yeah, my time might be really complicated more often than not and things might move ten times faster then anyone can keep up with, but it's still my time. My home. Not to mention my family is there. I'll be devastated if I can't go back home. But I'll also be devastated if I can't come back here once I leave", she was quiet for a second before continuing. "After so many years of chasing Naraku, I've gotten used to this era, all our friends… you." He turned and looked at her a bit astounded to hear her say that out loud. Her eyes began to water as she continued, "I'll miss you all so much…"

"Kagome", he said softly, "don't start saying your good-byes." The pit in his stomach just grew with each word that came out of her mouth. After another short pause, he whispered, "Kagome, would you feel better if I went with you?" Kagome's face went blank trying to hide her disbelief of what she just heard.

"Inuyasha", she bowed her head down to hide the face of amazement that was plastered on her. "But you might not be able to come back. Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I always said I'd protect you. I can't make sure you're alright if I'm not there. You said it yourself, Kagome, I haven't broken a promise to you yet… I want to make sure nothing bad happens to you." With tears in her eyes, she twisted toward him and rushed to wrap her arms around him. He was startled by her reaction, but after whispering her name in her ear, he hugged her back.

"I'll always take care of you, Kagome. I promise", he softly told her as she sat back. Her heart pounded in her chest as well as in his. With their eyes locked onto each other, their faces slowly moved closer.

"What is going on?" Shippou yawned. He sat up, stretched, and looked around. Kagome and Inuyasha's whispering had woken him up.

"GO BACK TO SLEEP", yelled Sango and Miroku in unison as they sat up. Shippou, frightened by them, just laid back down next to Kaede and Kirara, both of which were wide awake, watching what was going on. Inuyasha seeing that everybody was up, stood in panic and screamed, "You were all awake? Don't you have anything better to do than getting into other people's business!"

"I don't know what you are talking about, Inuyasha", Miroku calmly replied.

"The hell you don't!" he yelled back. Kagome just sat there mortified while the two men just went back and forth.