After the Battle

Chapter 10: Fading Scars

(A/n I'm not quite sure why it's called fading scars... It kinda fits...but then it doesn't. Hum.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. I do own your spleen. I bought if off eBay for 10 bucks. Now it sits on my shelf and looks at me. I'm thinking of cooking it up with a nice cucumber salad for Thanksgiving though. Yummy!

Kei's eyes widened in shock. Was that really how Inuyasha felt? She couldn't stop fresh tears from falling down her cheeks, starting new trails across her already salty face. How could she have said those things? She raised her hands to cover her face and took off running in the other direction, oblivious to the calls from the others to return.

Inuyasha watched his daughter flee with a sorrowful look in his eyes. He knew she was right. He wanted to be a good father, and he thought by leaving her alone he was doing just fine. Isn't that what the girls in Kagome's time yelled at their parents, and always got mad when they tried to hug them or talk to them? Inuyasha was so confused, and disappointed he had failed again. He didn't deserve Kagome. She was way too good.

He looked in her direction to see tears running down her face, almost identical to her daughters. His daughters. He walked over to her, and carefully embraced her.

"I'm so sorry Kagome." He mumbled shamefully. She welcomed him in her arms, but faced the direction in which Kei had fled.

"Where could she be going?" Kagome wondered aloud, instantly wishing she could take back the words as guilt clouded in Inuyasha's eyes.

"I'll find her for you Kagome. When I come back we will be a real family. I promise." With that being said, he kissed her on the cheek, and she could only look on as he followed the same path Kei had taken just minutes before.

Due to his high demon senses finding Kei should have been unbearably easy for him, but that special time of month was coming along, which posed for a few interesting challenges.

Kei ran quickly, wanting to get away from there. Anywhere but there... She didn't know where she was running to, or what she was running from, and her thoughts didn't even seem to be flowing coherently. She just kept running. The foliage seemed to increase. Instead of the ferns she had been running through a few minutes before the greenery had thickened to small shrubs and trees. She stopped to take a small break underneath a massive tree that almost completely hid her from site when she sat under it.

Kei couldn't have picked a better time to sit, as not only a few minutes after she had sat, the figure of a female came through the trees, holding the hand of a small child, stumbling through the undergrowth. The woman was dressed in ancient priestess robes and seemed to be talking quietly to the girl, but her words were covered by assorted bird calls.

They walked closer and closer to where Kei was resting. Kei wanted to speak to them, but were unsure if they would be friendly enough to her. Sure, they looked nice and all, but she was in a totally different place then what she used to. She decided to wait until they passed before she continued.

The small girl and woman were passing by now. It looked like they wouldn't notice Kei, but at the last possible second, the little girl turned and looked her square in the eye.

"Momma!" She said excitedly. "Look it!" The girl pointed under the tree.

The mother smiled cheerily and bent to take a look under the tree.

"Do you see a bunny rab-"she started, but was abruptly cut off when she saw Kei staring back at her. Suddenly, she was on guard.

"Are you friend or foe lady?" She asked smoothly, eyes showing no traces of the happiness they just had before. They were a steely black, like dark pits filled with venom. Kei smiled nervously.

"I'm... uh... Kei. I don't want to hurt you or anything; I'm just taking a break..." She said sheepishly, rather embarrassed that she got caught.

The woman didn't seem to believe her much though, but her eyes softened a bit.

"I still need to take you with me. You can't be wandering around here all by yourself. Dangerous things lurk these forests. You are lucky you haven't gotten hurt already..."

She absentmindedly took the young girl's hand in hers before starting off again, but not before making sure Kei was still following behind her.

Inuyasha sighed inwardly. How stupid could he be? Kagome was back, and with their daughter, and it hadn't even been a few days before he screwed everything up. Why did he have to have all the bad luck? Why did he have to fail Kagome again? He couldn't live with himself if Kagome left his life for a second time. Those years where she was gone had been filled with the same ebbing nausea of sorrow and depression, thoughts of how he would never see her face troubled him during the days. He was plagued nightly by thoughts of her warm touch, of her loving embrace, of her cheerful smile. He feared he would never again experience her soft kiss. Inuyasha had removed himself from everything that reminded him of her, casting away his friends and his home to move into a shack in the middle of the woods. He made amends with his brother, and invited him and his wife Rin in with him. Life after that had been merely a shell, a partial existence from everything that it had been just a few years earlier. Still, he went on, though some nights he found himself staring at the starry night sky wondering why.

Now Kagome was back in his embrace, and he messed things up because of his own insecurities. He would find Kei if it killed him. Thanks to it being the night of the full moon, finding her might do just that...

He took off at a greater speed into the canopy of the forbidding forest as the sun began to sink slowly from sight.

A/N: Wow, sorry that took an ungodly amount of time. That's what I've been saying with all of my stories though, haven't I? Tee hee. Sorry, I'm way too busy with all my schoolwork and stuff. Something really happy happened to me today though....

I MADE THE MOCK TRIAL TEAM! My friend and I are the only freshman. I'm so excited because I wanted to do this so bad, but I didn't know if I had the chance. Hoo ha! I'm excited!

Anyway, about the story, I have a pretty good plotline lined up for the next few chapters, so be sure to stay tooned!

Review or I'll come for you. I know where you live, mortal! Ahahaha!