I turned around, "Inuyasha…" I knelt down as he lay on the ground, putting a hand to his shoulder wound. "Are you all right?"
"I think so…" He tried getting up, but the pain stopped him. I put a hand on his. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't knocked the sister's staff in this direction, you never would have gotten hurt so badly."
"Don't blame yourself… it was bound to happen." He groaned in pain. "C'mon, I need to get you to my cave. We need to find shelter." It started raining. Ignoring the pain in my stomach, I helped Inuyasha to his feet. Miroku gave me a hand as we helped him up the hill to my cave. I was ready to fall apart, but I kept my heart strong. I was going to need every bit of my strength for this.
We got inside as the rain started to come down heavier. Kagome ran in, "Inuyasha, are you okay?"
"Kagome…" He put a hand to his shoulder, "Yeah…" He hissed. She reached for his face. "Don't move, you're in pain."
"Yeah… I know…" I looked at them, trying to fight to hold the tears back. Sango pointed, "Princess, you're injured…" I looked down, "I don't care… it doesn't matter. It didn't stop me from doing what needs to be done."
I walked over and knelt down next to Inuyasha. He was trying to put on a brave face, but I knew it wasn't looking good. Kagome gasped, "Princess… you're…"
"Yeah, I know… don't worry about it. I'm not." I wiped my eyes. "Inuyasha, could you remove your coat? I need to take a look." He inched up and took it off. His undershirt was stained even worse, but I didn't want to think about that. "Kagome, do you have a towel or something?"
"Sure," she rummaged through her backpack and handed me a large rag. I helped him slide the shirt off and I got right to work wiping up all of the blood. The smell was almost overwhelming, but I bared with it. The wound itself was two slashes that intersected each other at the end, leaving an almost triangular sort of wound. "Ok, just gotta seal this up. Kagome?"
"Right on it, I have some bandages in my first aid kit." I wrapped the cloth around the wound a couple of times and tied it. "All right, that should do it."
"You…" Inuyasha's eyes were starting to droop. He gritted his teeth and groaned. The bandages were starting to bleed. I sighed, "Oh, now what?"
"Wait… until the bleeding stops."
"No… I can't… you've lost too much blood already. In your human form, you…" My eyes started to water and I completely lost it. I leaned against Inuyasha's chest and started crying my eyes out. "This is all my fault… I just can't do anything right… I tried my hardest, but it's not good enough. I… I'm worthless!"
"No you're not… the way you dealt with Sesshomaru was… you held him off the best you could. I couldn't have done it better…" Inuyasha's eyes met mine and I could see the weakness behind them. I put my left hand to his chest, "you need to fight, Inuyasha… you need to hang on… fight for your life…" I wiped my eyes, "and I'll fight right along with you."
"Thank… you… princess." He then shut his eyes. I quickly grabbed his wrist. "Oh no, his pulse is dropping." I sat up and shook him, "Inuyasha! Inuyasha, you have to stay with us!" I breathed heavily when he was barely breathing. "No, no, you can't… you can't…" I leaned my head to his heart and I cried more. "If you don't come through this, I'll never forgive myself. Never, never, never…" I sobbed, "I refuse to let you die." I swallowed to help stop the tightening of my throat.
His heart was down to the slow, subtle beat like when he was sealed to the tree. I listened my head to look at him. Even though he was human, I saw and felt that presence that he had. Miroku knelt down next to me. "Princess, you should get that wound of yours looked at."
"I don't care about that. It means nothing to me." I leaned closer to him and held his hand. "Inuyasha…" His pulse was getting slower by the second. I sobbed, "Please don't die…" I leaned my head on his chest and put my arm around him. I sniffed as I got the last of the tears out of my eyes. "You have my heart, Inuyasha; I love you…" I whined. "All those years, you've given me everything. Now it's my time to repay you. With all of my heart and soul, my final wish is for you to live, even if I have to give my own life to do it."
"Princess, no!" Miroku called to me. "My mind's made up, monk!" I shouted.
"Inuyasha…" I said as I slowly grew tired. "My wish is for you to live and I can't care what I have to give for that to happen. You've stolen my heart and I could never love anyone else the same way I do you. Even if you could never give me that kind of love, that's fine with me. Kagome deserves that more than I do."
"Why do you keep saying that I deserve more than you?" Kagome interjected.
"You're unlike any other human I know. You're strong, but you're also kind. You're the perfect match for Inuyasha… I can just tell. My heart told me so. That's why it stopped me from going after you when I was transformed." I looked outside and saw a third star pop up in that empty space in the sky. I slowly shut my eyes and drifted off to sleep, completely exhausted from all that crying.
In his sleep, Inuyasha saw himself walking through a thick white fog. He put a hand on his eyes, trying to see through it. The grass under his feet felt familiar, but he couldn't tell where he was going. He stopped when he heard someone crying. He blinked, 'I know that cry…' he thought. He rushed through the fog and came upon the tree he was sealed to. He was startled when he saw himself pinned to the tree and me crying on him. "I'm so sorry, Inuyasha… I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't mean for anything bad to happen to you." He called to her, "Hey, stupid, I'm over here!"
That still didn't change anything. He looked at himself, how motionless he was, almost apprehensive about it. He blinked everything got dark. He saw the image of himself change from half-demon to human. The seal broke and he fell down the tree. I was still crying my eyes out. Inuyasha then went to a nearby pond and saw that he too had become human. He looked at his own claws and found them to be normal fingernails. "What's going on?" He whispered. He saw that he was slowly disappearing.
He increased his breathing as he got nervous. "No, I can't disappear… I… no… I can't!"
"I won't let you die, Inuyasha." He gasped as he saw me approach him in the fog. "Both of us have been greatly injured by the Lightning Twins and Sesshomaru. I will see to it that if either of us is to survive this, I want it to be you."
He gasped, "But…"
"I've already made up my mind," I blinked. "Not even you can make me say that I'd rather live and have you die. I'm not programmed that way and nothing will change my mind." I grabbed his hands. He watched, shocked, as he was coming back into focus and I was slowly fading away.
"Stop being so damn noble!"
"Too late," I said, "I've already made my wish and I'm not taking it back." Before the transformation was complete, Inuyasha woke up with the rising sun. He opened his eyes slowly. "What?" He inched up, "I'm back…" He looked outside as the sun came up and he saw his claws coming back and his locks fading back to silver.
"Inuyasha! You're alive!" Kagome hugged him. "I was so worried…" He looked at his bandage and slowly removed it. The wound was completely gone. He dusted the dry blood off of his chest with his claws. He put a hand to his eyes, "Damn, was I that out of it?"
"Your wound was pretty nasty and it didn't help that you were also human." He got to his feet, but held his head with one hand. "Inuyasha! You lost a lot of blood, you shouldn't move just yet." He looked around, "Where's the princess?"
His eyes focused to the other side of the cave. Ignoring Kagome's orders, he walked over and knelt down next to me. He put a hand to my cheek, "You did everything to save me… but did you risk your own life… to save mine?"
