Disclaimer: I don't own the Inuyasha characters, I'm just borrowing them.

The Crystal Wish

By Inu Esca Fanatic

Chapter 1

The gang was walking along a dirt road, looking for more jewel shards. Miroku was getting slapped every few minutes, for groping Sango, obviously. Inuyasha was leading them, as always, with Kagome at his side, holding Shippo and Kirara in her arms.

'What am I going to do now? How am I going to tell him?' Kagome thought worriedly.

She looked over to Inuyasha and thought about all the good times and bad times they've had. Like when she first saw him, and thought that his ears were absolutely adorable. When he first gave her his haori to protect her during the battle with Yura of the Hair. When he first told her that he loved her scent. Their first fight, when they first meet. When she first saw Inuyasha and Kikyo kiss. After that kiss she thought she could never hope to have him love her completely.

She had to bite her lip to stop herself from crying.

Inuyasha soon smelt the salt of tears, and he immediately knew Kagome was crying.

He absolutely hated to see women crying. It wasn't the crying part that bothered him; it was the fact that couldn't control it that drove him insane.

Gingerly, he looked over at Kagome and said, "What's your problem now?"

"Inuyasha…I…I…" Kagome tried to speak but she didn't know how to put it.

"Spit it out, wench." He replied rudely.

"Inuyasha, I…do you think we could go somewhere private to talk, after we stop for the night?" Kagome said in a pleading, yet embarrassed voice.

Inuyasha looked at her strangely for a second, and then he tried to sound uninterested when he said, "Sure. Whatever."

That night, after they stopped to make camp and Kagome made them ramen for dinner as was usual.

Soon after, Miroku and Sango fell asleep on opposite sides of the fire, with Kirara curled up next to her mistress. Although, Miroku had managed to move to where Sango was, but for some reason she didn't hit him when curled around her, instead she cuddled up to him.

'She must be in a very deep sleep,' Kagome decided.

A little later, Kagome and Shippo cuddled in her sleeping bag, as always, and Inuyasha was perched in the tree directly above Kagome.

After an hour of debating with himself, Inuyasha moved from his comfortable position in the tree to sit next to Kagome. Finally he woke her up.

She looked up at him sleepily and said, "What do you want?"

Suddenly she was afraid that something had come after them while she was sleeping, so she asked scared, "Are we in danger?"

"No, we're not in any danger. You wanted to talk, so let's talk," he replied gruffly.

"I know, but not here," Kagome whispered as she crawled out of the sleeping bag, being careful not to disturb Shippo, then she climbed onto Inuyasha's back.

As he started to run she was afraid about having to tell him everything, but she would not give into that fear, therefore she did nothing to stop him from taking her to talk.

Inuyasha gently set Kagome down on the soft moss-covered ground, when they stopped in a glade ten minutes later. Then set himself down across from her.

They sat there for a while, savoring each other's presence, before Inuyasha finally decided to speak up.

"So…what did you want to talk about?" He asked, afraid that she was going to tell him that she wanted to stay in her time and never want to see him again.

"I…you know that I will eventually die, right?"

He looked up at her, his expression full of confusion and worry, "Yeah, but that won't happen for at least seventy or eighty years. So I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Why?"

"I…um…I…it's been…cut short…to about…a month." She stammered uncomfortably.

His eyes widened to the shape of saucers and his ears flattened against his head as he reached over to take her hand in his.

"What do you mean a month? Are you going to leave me here? Why are you going to die? What happened? Is there something I can do to help you?"

So many emotions flowed over his face at one time: confusion, betrayal, fear, sadness, and hope.

It was too deep that she couldn't hold back the tears any more as they began to roll freely down her cheeks and onto their joined hands.

Inuyasha frantically looked around for something, anything that would make her stop crying, but he found nothing. So, he did the only thing he could think of and wrapped his arms around her small, trembling body.

Kagome gasped in surprise at first, but soon she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his neck. He held her there for a long time, even after she had stopped crying.

'Oh Gods! I love the feel of Kagome in my arms. To know that I can comfort her when she is hurt means so much to me. All I want is to tell her that I really do love her instead of that walking corpse, Kikyo. But how can I tell her if she plans on leaving me?' Inuyasha thought sadly as a frown grew on her face, 'I guess I will just have to let her go if that is what she really wants. All I want is for her to be happy, even if it rips me apart from the inside out.'

Kagome was surprised when she pulled back and saw the love and hurt in Inuyasha's eyes. How could she break his heart now, when he is most vulnerable? She had no choice if she didn't tell him someone else would, and it would only prove to make the situation worse.

"I don't know how to tell you this, so I am just going to say it," she said carefully as she saw his eyes swivel to the side, making him look like a lost little puppy, "I have a rare disease called angiosarcoma. It is a heart disease."

"What do you mean?" he said in the most rejected voice she had ever heard, "I don't understand. Do you hate me?"

"No, Inuyasha," she looked at him lovingly, "my heart is failing, not my feelings for you."

"Oh, so you like me?" Inuyasha asked with hopeful eyes that soon darkened to the pain he held inside, "Wait! What do you mean your heart is failing?"

When she saw the pain she had inflicted onto him, she wanted to throw herself off a cliff for hurting him, but instead she spoke softly, "I mean I am dying. I've got about a month to live."

Then she saw into his soul and it touched her own heart and soul. 'He really does care about me.' Kagome thought, 'How could I have broken his heart like that?'

"I'm so sorry Inuyasha, I wish that there was a way to stop this, but there isn't," she said, broking the painful silence that had been formed.

Inuyasha looked so scared and traumatized that Kagome wanted to hold him in her arms again. But she wasn't sure if he would accept the touch, so instead she looked at the ground as the only thing that stopped her.

Suddenly without warning, she felt his warm lips upon hers. It took her a second to realized what had happened, but soon she closed her eyes and began to kiss back.

AN- This is my first fanfic ever, so please R & R. Criticizing reviews are always welcome. I should have the next chapter up in a couple of weeks.