Disclaimer: I own nothing…T-T

Chapter Nine

The Truth Will Set You Free

"Um…Inuyasha? Can I ask you something?" Kagome glanced over at him as he rose quickly.

"Let's go for a walk." He grabbed her hand and led her out of Kaede's hut. "I'll explain the answers to your questions when we get a little farther from here."

After about fifteen minutes of walking with Kagome on his back, she started to get eager for answers. "Can we talk now!"

"Yes. What did you have on your mind?"

"Well, why does everyone act so leery around me? Why did you say 'Please return to your proper age? And, why did you say you were my boyfriend?" She was in tears at the end of her interrogation.

Inuyasha set her down on a hill side and sat next to her, sighing as he sat. "Let me tell you a story. It's about a girl who overcame time itself, fought great challenges, and still remained optimistic and cheerful. On the day of her fifteenth birthday, a centipede demon pulled her into an enchanted well. When she climbed out of the well, she found that she was in a place that was completely foreign to her. After a while of wandering around, she discovered a half- demon sealed to a tree by a sacred arrow. She removed the arrow and set the boy free. They had a terrible relationship at first, but they eventually grew to love eachother deeply and would sacrifice anything for eachother. They traveled together to gather shards of a jewel that she had accidentally shattered. While traveling they met a young fox kit, a lecherous monk, and a brave demon slayer with her pet fire cat. They battled numerous demons and defeated them all, save for two demons. They seemed undefeatable. One was the half brother of the half- demon and the other was an evil demon that had done something to everyone in their group."

"Did they ever defeat them?" The young girl had nestled herself against his arm, he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her towards him.

"Not yet. They continued to battle them, but a new opponent arose. It turned the Half- demon into a toddler during their battle. Now the girl felt the need to save him, so she watched over the toddler until they could find the new demon. The toddler ran off into the woods and she followed after him. They ended up finding the demon." Inuyasha took a deep breath. "Kagome looked up at him to see tears in his eyes that refused to fall. "The girl begged with the demon, she persuaded the demon to allow her to take the place of the half- demon, to turn her into the child and turn him back to his proper age. The demon agreed and changed the half- demon back to his age and the girl into the child. And it left before the half-demon regained consciousness and discovered the girl as a child." Inuyasha stopped and looked off into the sky.

"Then what happened?" There was a lot of worry in her voice; she could sense where the story was going.

"I don't know. I hope that the story doesn't end there though."

"Shouldn't you know! This is your story isn't it!" She rose and looked him in the eye.

"No…this is our story. I'm the half- demon and you're the girl."

"No one knows were the demon is, do they?"

Inuyasha shook his head. "But the minute I find her, I'll kill her and change you back!" Inuyasha rose and held out his hand. "Want to go back now?"

She looked at him with teary eyes; they only remained teary for a moment. She started to cry into his leg.

"There's no need to cry. Have faith in us, we can do this! We've defeated much stronger demons than this." Inuyasha smiled with reassurance. He picked her up and pulled her into a tight hug. "No more crying, okay? We both have to be strong, for everyone. We're the strongest ones, we have to be brave and everything will be fine. Things have always turned out fine before. So, there's no more need to cry." He kissed her forehead lightly. "Dry your tears and we'll head back to camp."

With the others

Since Inuyasha hadn't told them that they had to stay behind, they didn't. They had been sitting in the bushes quietly, listening; only listening. Sango was surprised that Miroku hadn't taken the opportunity to grope her. They had seen and heard everything. And since they had been up wind from Inuyasha, he hadn't caught them, plus he was too wrapped up in what was going on to even notice all the noise they were making. They had seen all that he had done, all of his unshed tears and all of his moments that he had to take to be able to keep going with the story. They had even heard him admit his love for Kagome. Miroku turned back to Sango with a look of pity in his eyes. He got really close to her ear. "We should leave, this isn't fair to him; this is really hard for him."

She nodded somberly and they left.

With Inuyasha and Kagome

He had put her on his back again and started off to camp. He hummed some of the old lullabies that his mother used to sing to him to sooth her into a sleep. He knew that what he had done was unfair to her, but he felt she had to know, she had the right.

'I bet you sing wonderfully.'

'Not as well as you and my mother. Of course, I wouldn't really know how I sound when I sing; I haven't since I was really little.'

'And why not?'

'The only reason I sang when I was little was to celebrate my mother's birthday. Other than that, I was never happy enough to sing.'

'And what about now? Why don't you sing? Are you not happy?'

'That's not it. I really don't know why, but I just don't. I'm plenty happy, especially in my dreams…with you.'

'Thanks. I'm happy, too!'

He could imagine her blushing at that, he loved to make her blush, but rarely did. (A/N: My freakin' boyfriend loves to make me blush. It's like he's got a freakin' illness! Sick Bastard! Okay, I'm done now, please continue. -) 'Well, when I can say I've returned you to normal, I'll sing to you, but only once, and only one song!'

'Deal! What song are you going to sing?'

'I'll have to listen through some songs of your era, maybe I can find something there, that describes my feelings just right.'

'Sounds like a deal! But you might have to listen for a while.'

'I don't doubt it. All right, I'm almost at camp. Should I expect to see you in my dreams?'

'I'll be there, I control most of the elements of the dream and I'm predicting a very good dream for you tonight.'

'Really? And what have I don't to deserve this?'

'Nothing yet, for me at least, but I have faith in you, even if you don't.'

'Cool, see you tonight then.'

'Yeah, see ya'.'

Inuyasha arrived at camp and set the sleeping girl down next to the fire. Sango flashed him a weak smile. Causing him to worry.

"What's with you?...What did you do!" He glared bullets into her eyes.

"Um, nothing…It's just…I think it's sweet how strong and sweet you're acting towards Kagome."

He swallowed hard, then realized that she meant the small girl, not his beloved. "Ah…yeah…I guess I'd have to anyways. She's little, after all." He looked down at her and smiled, he hurt him that she was like this, he couldn't stand to have her like this for much longer. He wanted to kiss the real Kagome in person, not only in his dreams.