Owari Nai Yume; Unending Dreams

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: InuYasha and all its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Wahhhhhh!!!!T-T

InuYasha walked along the road, ahead of the rest, doing an activity that was rare for him, though not as much as it had been. He was thinking. And thinking very hard, because everyone kept looking at him funny. Everyone, but Kagome. The girl hadn't looked at him since he had met her coming out of the well, and then only for a split second before she threw him a fake smile and walked off to the village, throwing herself into Keade's hut, which had nearly instantly had become warded so he couldn't hear. She was hiding something from him.

And it hurt.

He had never thought that the girl from the future would hide anything from him, but since their last encounter with Naraku...Kagome just hadn't been quite the same. Something had changed in her, and he had his suspicions. It had to do with Kikyo, he was sure.

He felt a pang of guilt at the name. Kikyo. He hadn't meant for it to happen, hadn't seen the tentacle in her direction, only the one in Kagome's. He had moved from his spot near the un-dead miko's side and ran over half the battlefield to save Kagome, just as Kikyo was hit. Then Naraku had laughed, asking how it felt to kill the one he loved twice. The puppet had died a moment later by his own hand as he attacked in rage and pain. Even after the demon puppet was dead, he had had a desire to destroy, to kill, to slaughter. He had nearly even turned on his friends before he had calmed down, after destroying the better part of the forest. That night, under the full moon, he had prayed. Prayed for Kikyo's soul to be at peace, for her to forgive him, for her to give him her strength so he could kill Naraku. Nearly two months, and it still hurt as bad as the day it had happened, and Kagome had grown steadily worse.

That day, Kagome had gotten the missing part of her soul, which had been infinitely smaller than he had ever thought, but it had been tainted terribly by the hate and betrayal its previous owner had felt in life and its un-dead experiences, growing stronger everyday. It had been slow, but one morning, she had woken up, and given him the saddest look he had ever seen from anyone, and apologized. When he had asked what for, she just shook her head and mumbled something about still being asleep.

And it had gotten worse.

Soon, she gave him all these sad, secretive looks, like she knew something about him he didn't know she knew. Then, she'd have looks of understanding and pity and say things that he couldn't believe she could say, sometimes a reference to a long dead villager, or a slip of the words, like calling Kaede 'sister'. Then was the use of her powers for things even Kaede was surprised she could do. Then, by the well, she had had an almost scared look in her eyes as she forced herself away form him. She had looked haunted by some terrible thing, almost crushed for a split second before determined and defiant, but she hadn't willingly looked at him since.

It lead him all to one conclusion. The part of her soul that was Kikyo was changing the Kagome he knew and loved into something she wasn't meant to be.

His thoughts were broken by the unpleasant sound of Kagome sniffling. That made him notice the minuscule amount of salt in the air. He looked back and saw the girl wiping away some tears in hopes that he wouldn't notice her crying.

He stopped walking and allowed the girl to walk into his back before he turned around and met her eyes. The brown orbs were wide in panic as she began to walk away, but he stopped her from going far by grabbing her wrist gently, but firmly so she couldn't get away.

"L-let me go, InuYasha," she asked after struggling with his grip a few minutes.

"No," he replied simply, "We need to have a long talk about how you've been acting around me lately."

She froze. "W-w-what do you mean?" she asked, the panic rising to her scent.

"Don't play dumb!" he shot, rougher than he meant, "Ever since Kikyo died, you've been acting all weird! Don't even try to deny it. We've all noticed."

Kagome looked to Sango, Shippo and Miroku for help, but their eyes showed they agreed with the hanyou. They had all lost sleep over her behaviour.

"We'll camp here," he declared loudly. It was already late afternoon. "You and me, Kagome, are going to have a nice little chat right now."

"B-but Sango needs me to-"

"We'll manage without you, Kagome," the demon slayer replied. "You and InuYasha have had this talk coming for several months, now," she said lightly, but her eyes were dead serious.

Without waiting for her to ask something else, he lifted the girl over his shoulder and dashed off into the woods surrounding the road. It pained him to hear her struggle to get away, to smell the panic and terror in her scent, to think he was causing her to be scared. Why did she fear him? Did she think he meant even half of the mean things he had said to her since they had met over a year before? Did she think her would even try to hurt her?

By the time he stopped in a small clearing, only two minutes later, Kagome had stopped struggling and seemed content with dry-sobbing on his back. When he placed her on the ground, he renewed his hold on her wrist to keep the jumpy girl from darting off into the woods. In her current state, she was sure to get into some kind of danger without realizing it.

"Kagome?" he asked after a few minutes of silence, "Kagome, what did I do?"

She looked up at him for a moment, her old self, before dropping her eyes to look away from him. "W-what do you mean?"

"What did I do to make you so scared of me?"

"I'm not scared of you!" she shot, still not looking at him, "It's my problem, InuYasha," she said quietly, "You didn't do anything. Let it go,"she leaned her forehead on his chest, "I don't want to talk about it."

With his free hand he cupped her chin and forced it up so he could see her face. "Dammit, wench. Why won't you even look at me?"

"Just leave me ALONE!!" she shouted and he felt his skin tickle.

Instinct made him jump back and release her just as she flared pink, saving him from the girl's miko powers. They both stared at the burn mark in the tree he had been standing in front of a mere second before. Clapping her hands over her mouth, Kagome screamed before falling into the ground, her tears renewed.

Cautiously, InuYasha walked over to her shaking form and touched the burn. He held back a snarl when pain shot through him, enough pain to sear his skin right off. Kagome had...nearly attacked him? No, he didn't 't believe Kagome would... He had seen he powers in use before, out of her conscious control, the day they had met. She had been nearly frightened of herself then. Confused. Terrified. Solitary. Now, that fear of herself was back, but ten-fold. Her shaking form reminded him of...him, after his demon blood had taken over and he had killed all those people, nearly turning on his friends.

"K-Ka...gome?"

"Don't touch me, InuYasha," she cried, "I...I don't know if I can...if I can control my...my powers."

He backed away slightly, surprised at her confession. "It's alright," he replied, reaching a hand to her back, "You have them under cont-" his hand was thrown back by a barrier. "What the... Kagome, take down this barrier right now!"

"No."

"Please, Kagome."

"No."

"Do I gotta beg? Let down this barrier!"

"No!" She lifted her head and stared into his eyes and he shuddered at what he saw.

A dead woman's eyes.

Kikyo's eyes.

R&R please