Summary: Looking at Kagome Higurashi, you'd never know that she carried a secret storm. Her therapist suddenly quits on her, and she must go to find someone else to help her. She struggles to keep her new therapist out of her life. She tells him the best of her is gone. Why won't he believe it? Kagome's POV.

"Talking"
"Sign Language"
Flashbacks

Warning! This specific chapter is rated "R" for romantic. I'll be trying to put in a lot of fluff. If there's hardly any fluff, then I forgot to put it in.

Hey look, it's raining outside!

Best of You
Chapter 8: Thick Layer of Romance

I guess this isn't as romantic as I thought. I'm happy, since i don't know what I could have done... My emotions are all strange recently. Sure, I do like Inuaysha, but I don't want to have these things happening. I don't want the romance because, well... He could find out about my past and then he'll hate me.

I'd rather keep him and my secret than lose him and my secret...

- - -

It's been another three weeks. That makes it nine months that I've been in his therapy. Nine months that he's been attempting to get me to open up. Nine months is also the gestation period for a woman.

Speaking of pregnancies. Sango's really cute. She comes in here to feed Miroku. Sometimes she brings food, but they usually eat for free at the restauraunt. Sometimes she'll talk to me, but not on most days.

"Hey, Kagome. Inuyasha's coming in today. You should get cleaned up." She tells me. I look at her, wondering why I need to be cleaned up. I've been working in the kitchen for a few hours. After long enough of staring, she gets out her compact mirror.

"Kagome, what are you doing back here?" Inuyasha asks me. I look at him, wondering what's up with everyone thinking I can't work in my own company. He looks at me then chuckles.

"Been working in here that long, huh?" He asks. I stare at him as he brings a hand up to my face. He takes it down, showing me a piece of cake batter. I smile sheepishly then take Sango's compact from her. Indeed, I have cake batter in a fwe spots on my face. The rest of it is covered in flour.

"She's been having fun in here." Sango says. I glare at her then walk to the elevator, Inuyasha closely behind me.

"Where are you going?" He asks. I punch in the code for the elevator then turn aroudn to answer him.

"I'm washing up." I tell him. He raises an eyebrow then shrugs.

"I'm going in with you." He states. I shoot him a glare, wondering why. "I'm curious what your part of house looks like." He adds. I roll my eyes then go in the elevator, holding it open for him to get in.

Times like this, I'm glad I don't have elevator music. Soon enough, we're at the top. I let him in then I go to my room. I can hear his astonished gasps from the door to my floor. I guess he assumed that I'd have a small, pathetic place up here. No, all my profit seems to go into my home. And this is my home. Not the best, but it's something.

I go into my bathroom and wipe all the flour off my face. I take in a deep breath then look down at the clock. It's around four, and I haven't eaten lunch yet. Perhaps Inuyasha won't mind if I get something to eat before the date.

Oh, I forgot! It's not a date. We're going to the movies, but he calls it a therapy session. I think it's a date, but he's convinced otherwise. He's just in denial about it.

I get some clothes from my closet and then begin to put them on. I doubt Inuyasha will barge in here without permission. As I pull off my shirt, I can swear that he's coming in. I look at the doorknob for a while, wondering if it's moving or not. After a short staring contest, I finish getting dressed and go back out to where he is.

He's sitting on my couch... Correction. He's laying down on my couch, seeming to be in heaven. I smile then go to the fridge and attempt to find something decent to eat. I hardly eat from my own fridge. I usually eat from the one downstairs, the one that the club owns. I groan in defeat then close the door.

Inuyasha's right there in front of me, causing me to jump backwards. I probably would have squeeled in surprise, but my voice doesn't seem to know how to function anymore.

"What were you doing?" He asks me cautiously.

"Looking for lunch so I wouldn't starve during the movie." I inform him.

"Well, don't. Come on, much more stalling and we may not have enough time!" He says. He grasps my hand then takes me down the elevator. He takes me out to his car and opens the door. He's in a hurry, but why? What's he got to get to that's so important to him?

I get in the car, pulling the seat belt over my chest. He gets in, and we're leaving my club. He's driving calmly, even though I can sense the urgency in him. I look at him curiously, but that doesn't give me an explanation either. I sigh then look out the window.

Turns out, he was taking me to dinner. Well, I call it lunch, but he referred to it as dinner. It was a very nice place, but there wasn't a fancy dress code like you'd expect. Inuyasha was such a gentleman to me, too! I can't believe how nice he is sometimes. Other times, I wonder where the nice guy has gone.

This isn't one of those times, though. I'm sitting in the movie theater, and he's getting me something to drink. He won't tell me what we're watching, which intimidates me a little. I know that guys take chicks to horror films so we'll jump into their arms. Well, I can't handle horror films. I have a bad history. Most of these films may seem fake compared to my experiences, but they remind me of what I'm trying to forget.

Speaking of forgetting, I'm doing a great job of it. Have you noticed that I haven't had any major flashbacks today? I'm proud of it, but no one else would really understand if I told them. So, it'll be my silent victory.

Inuyasha comes back, a bottle of water in his hand. He gives it to me, making me smile. I've been trying to cut back on my soda intake recently. I'm not doing good at it so far, but this will help me a bit.

Well, the movie is a horror film. It's about some guy goes on a murdering spree and does the things violently. The police are trying to catch him. So, it's all about the chase of this guy that's doing gruesome things. I watch, half-interested in the movie, as a woman is killed. Her skin is too tan for it to be real. If the actors were doing dead-like things, then they should have tried to make her face pale.

"That's not even close to real." I signal to myself. Rather than mutter things like someone else might do, I sign them. I look at Inuyasha to see if he's enjoying it. If he is, then I'll be content. His head jerks away, and I know he probably just saw my hands and their words. What will I say to him when he asks about it?

I lean against Inuyasha, trying to relax him a bit. He's got to be tense after seeing me comment on what a real murdered person looks like. I think this is working, because his shoulders are relaxing. I smile in my own victory and stare at the screen.

But, my mind isn't on the movie. It's on what I'll say. I know Inuyasha's going to ask me what I meant. I don't know how else to explain it to him, other than using the truth. The truth is too violent, and I'm sure that he'll be disgusted by it once he knows.

"No one will understand! You can try to tell them what I'm doing, Kagome, but they won't understand! You know what will happen if the police search our house? I'll put her drugs in your room. Then they'll arrest you and you'll be punished for telling others! No one can understand what's going on right now! No one!" He shouted at me. I could do nothing but believe him...

Before I know it, the movie is out. That's a relief, since I didn't like the movie. Of course, this means that Inuyasha is going to ask me about what I signed... I haven't come up with an answer yet. I don't want to lie to him, because I know he'll find out the truth. I don't want to tell him the truth either, since he may turn on me still.

Inuyasha drives me to a hill with a nice city view. I guess he wants to relax me before he pries information from me. He turns the car off, then turns to face me. My heart must be beating a million times a minute. I can hear it pounding in my chest.

"Kagome... I've spent a long time being a therapist. I've learned that when someone doesn't talk, there's a reason. I never push my clients to talk if they don't want to. They'll tell me when they're ready to... But, I want to know about what you did in the theater. You said something about the murdered man being real or not... I'm not asking you to tell me as your therapist. I'm asking you as your friend who's really worried." He says.

I bite my lip, wondering what to do. I really want to tell him so he can know. So he'll be able to help me get over it... But I can't. It's not as easy as I think. There's so much that I have to get out of my head, I don't know how to do it.

It's like my memories are a big tangled mess. Naturally, I'd show the mess to everyone else to get their help. But, this kind is horrible. This kind of mess I have to keep to myself. So, I have to work on it on my own. And I'm not making it anything but worse. I guess... I guess I should tell someone. And a therapist sounds like the best start for that...

"My... my brother... He was murdered. I saw the end of it... I saw my brother trying to take in more air, but he couldn't. He was bleeding pretty badly, and there was nothing else I could do for him. Mom was a few feet behind him, but she wasn't capable of doing anything..." I signal to him. My hands are quivering as hot tears begin to streak down my face.

Mom couldn't help because mom was on another planet. She started taking drugs when she met the man who broke this family apart. He got her hooked. Soon, she spent all her time being high, just so she could escape reality. Just so she wouldn't realize that the man she brought close to Souta and I, was the man who was hurting us.

He yelled at us everyday. Sometimes he got so mad, he'd hit us. We started having to be homeschooled a week after he began getting physical. The bruises were getting harder to explain and he didn't want anyone to guess what he was doing. So, we had to stay home. That's when things went the worst. I'd rather have hidden each of my bruises rather than staying home with him. Because being home with him is what destroyed Souta and I the most...

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize that your past was that bad... You never mentioned it, so I just assumed that you missed your brother that much... I'm so sorry, Kagome." Inuyasha tells me. He hugs me tightly, probably trying to comfort the tears away.

But, there's no comforting someone with a tangled mess. I still have to straiten it out, and this isn't helping. It's just making me more hesitant on asking for help. I don't want to tell him, but I know I should. I need to tell someone soon, because it's ready to spill out of me. I've come close to talking and telling people what happened too much. I'm going to have to do something about it.

Perhaps some old advice will still work for me...

Next time on The Best of You...
Just because I can't talk doesn't mean I'm deaf. And just because my sign language doesn't make sense doesn't mean I'm dumb. It means that I'm taking notice of my disorganized brain. I need something to straiten myself out. A diary works! So, now that I can tell something, everything will be fine!

Has anyone ever seen Shaun of the Dead? I was watching some of that with my dad, and it's creepy, yet funny. These guys are totally oblivious to the zombies that are trying to eat them. Well, they're oblivious in the beginning.

I had to stop updating in the middle of the chapter so dad and I could play Halo 2. Sorry, I just felt like saying that...

ScariMoi: Thank you for saying that! I feel so special that you've complimented me... -sniffle-

aGreatPenName: I usually don't do Inu/Kag fanfictions. I'm more of a Sess/Kag person, but I felt like doing more of them. My friend was giving me the shame finger for doing an odd pairing. I'm working on Inu/Sango (but it's not going good), so I cna have more strange pairings. Still, I'm glad that I entertained you!

This is for you all to read, well... Only if you like this story. I have finished typing all the chapters (there are 15 chapters total), and now it's up to you. I will give you chapters upon counting reviews. So, as long as you review, you'll get chapters. Finals or not...

Next chapter requires... I think I need 80 reviews before you can get the next chapter!

- Bipolar Tangerine