Chapter 28

'Dead…I'm dead…I hit the bottom and died…' Kagome thought, her eyes squeezed shut as she waited for the pain. Or perhaps she had died before she had hit the ground. She had died with Inuyasha's face, twisted in surprise, shame, and guilt, clear in her mind as he watched her fall to the cement below.

Had he seen it? Had he watched her fall to the bottom with the crime of driving her off the edge written all over his face? Were the people crowding around her body now, with eyes wide with horror and surprise. Were they crying, dragging away their young children? Were they calling for the ambulance, hoping that just a sliver of the poor girl's life was still caught somewhere inside of the shell that seemed to be all that remained?

But what was this? Slowly, her honey brown eyes cracked open to reveal complete black. She was in Hell. She had died and gone down, down, down, just like she had fallen. She had just fallen straight through. But why would she go to a place like that? She was innocent, wasn't she? Only a few demon lives were taken under her hand, and for good. How could that be that she was in the place only Inuyasha and Kikyou were destined to be?

What? No…She could feel tensing arms wrapped tightly around her and holding firmly to her back. She had just shut her eyes so tightly that her eyes had to focus to the light all over again. That was all. That was all and she was still alive? Was that it? Was the one who held her even human.

As her eyes adjusted once more on the face so near hers, she determined the one who held her was not human. A hanyou. Inuyasha.

Her head tilted to the side to see below her, see the tiny ant like people crawling beneath, pointing upward at the girl who leaned so far over the edge of the building that she would fall straight down if it weren't for the steady arms that held her up.

"Ka-Kagome…" He stuttered her name quietly before he drew her in, pressing her tightly to his chest. And there, she could feel his heart beating fiercely against her own. Had he really been that scared, that convinced that she was about to die?

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He said, his voice so unreal, so unlike himself as he apologized again and again for driving her off the edge.

Willingly, longingly, her arms wrapped around his neck as she buried her face against his shoulder and let the realization of life sink back in.

"Thank god I was so close. One more second and you would've…damn it all if I ever let you die, Kagome!" He cried out, pulling his arms even tighter around her thin form. So tightly that it made her ribs ache and both their bodies tremble against each other.

It shocked her, how it had shaken him so much. Just that little slip, that little stumble. That could set him off to this? But, Kagome could imagine him being even more shaken and guilty with it being his fault if she really had fallen over the edge and died as she collided with the ground below.

"You're so damn clumsy!" He scoffed afterwards, drawing back with his brows knitted inward.

'So much for that.' Kagome thought, dropping her arms from around his neck as he returned to normal.

The hanyou sighed, dropping lazily to the hard paved ceiling of the large building. His eyes returned to the horizon as he left Kagome standing there, dazed by all that had happened.

Within time, Kagome dropped down beside him as well, letting her eyes trail from the sky to his amber orbs, that thought still on her mind. She didn't dare ask it again; to get the reaction she had before; to shatter the moment again.

So much had happened to the two. They had talked and hugged and done so many things together that they never though imaginable, they had even almost kissed. Almost kissed. But it hadn't been her. It hadn't bee her that Inuyasha had hugged so many times, had spoken of his past to, had stared at for all eternity, had leaned so close to, leaning in for a kiss. It had been Kikyou he had done that to, deep inside. He saw her as Kikyou's reincarnation, as Kikyou. As a jewel hunter. Everything but herself.

"It's beautiful…the sky…the view…" Kagome whispered, finding it near possible to strike up a conversation with nothing but two rocks and a few sticks with Inuyasha.

"If you say so." He replied flatly, making Kagome sigh at her failed attempt.

Her jaw tightened as she fought back those words. She wanted to scream so many things, ask so many questions that she knew would just send Inuyasha over the edge without the miko being able to catch him like he had for her. Then, maybe he wouldn't catch her if she just happened to fall again.

"I-Inuyasha…just now…You-"

"I was scared."

"What?" Kagome replied, shocked. This wasn't Inuyasha. Not the Inuyasha she knew. He would never, never admit to her that he was scared, frightened of anything at all.

"Scared…for you. I thought you were gonna fall, Kagome. I thought you were gonna die." He said again, turning to look the miko fully in the eyes. And when she stared at him, stared right into those amber eyes of his, she could tell that he wasn't playing by the least bit. She could tell, this time, that he was looking at her and not Kikyou.

"That was the most terrifying moment in my life…" He added, his eyes moving down to his legs and then back to the horizon where slips of bright orange, yellow, and pink began to appear in the sky.

"I thought the moment Kikyou di-"

"She's not everything in my life, you know."

"Oh, really?" Kagome snorted back, sarcastically. All those times she had caught the hanyou speaking soft words to the deceased priestess that should have been the first to reach her ears. So many times had she watched them kiss, again and again, as if she wasn't even there.

"Tell me, Inuyasha. Would you leave me, let me go, forget me forever just to be with Kikyou?"

The question froze the hanyou were he was, his eyes widening for only a few moments before returning to regular size and staring out, distant and cold. How could he ever answer a question like that. Basically, he knew, she was asking if he cared for, maybe even loved Kikyou more than her.

"No." He replied, his voice firm and true.

"Liar."

"Well what if I left you…for someone else, let's say. Would you cry?"

"No."

"Really? You wouldn't? Not at all?." Kagome said back, her voice about to crack as those brown eyes watered up with tears.

"…Ka….Kagome, don't tell me you're gonna cry?" Inuyasha yelled out, his eyes turning to her and catching those tears that rest at the rims of her eyes.

"I'm not going to cry, who says I was going to cry!" She screamed at him, hiding her face.

"No one, sheesh. I was just…Kagome…you know how I…." He turned back, shaking his head. He wouldn't say it aloud, at least not yet. But he could think it all he wanted.

'Seeing you cry makes me feel like saying sorry….'

"No…I wouldn't cry, Kagome. I'd die." He added, his eyes avoiding hers completely as his cheeks burned a deep red.

Kagome froze at his words. He wouldn't cry, he'd die. All if she just left him just like that. He wouldn't have the will, the encouragement, anything to keep going on. Sure, it was an exaggeration, but she loved that answer.

"We should go back soon." Inuyasha said, dropping the subject in the blink of an eye.

"Thank you." Said Kagome, ignoring Inuyasha's statement after those other comforting words. She knew it would lead no where if she just tried protesting or even replying at all. But her thoughts lingered on his words before that. Her eyes sparkled. So he did care.

'Good. Because I'm never going to leave you. So you can live forever.'

"What for?" Inuyasha said, making it sound more like a statement than a question to her.

"Saving me. I…don't know what would've happened if you hadn't been there to catch me." Kagome said, reaching up a hand to rub under her eyes, though she knew they were dry.

"You wouldn't be up on this building in the first place, remember?"

"Yeah, well."

"Forget it."

And Kagome acted as if she did. She dropped it. But never would she forget the feeling of Inuyasha's arms wrapped around her back just in the nick of time before she toppled over the edge. Never would she forget the way held her close and cursed himself for almost letting something horrible happen to her. She would never, ever forget the way he had looked at her afterwards and told her that he was scared for her, scared that she was going to leave him and how he would never leave her, not even for Kikyou. How he told her he'd die if she were to leave him.

Slowly, a comforting warmth spread over the miko's hand and her eyes drifted downward. Her eyes glistened as she stared down at the pale, clawed, hand that was spread over her own, clasping her hand limply. She rose her eyes to his, but he was looking away, far out at the sunset. And he could feel her eyes, feel the smile that graced her pretty, youthful features as a smile graced his own.

Thoughts, and so many of them crawled through their minds as they returned their eyes to the setting sun, the glowing colors, as glowing as their smiles, their eyes as they held tightly to one another's hands.

'There's something about her.'

'There's something about him.'

'Something about the way her brown eyes sparkle'

'Something about the way his golden eyes become so mysterious and distant'

'The way she smiles at me'

'The way he teases me'

'The way she laughs'

'The way he makes me work to make him smile'

'The way she tries so hard to make me smile…and the way it works'

'The way she cries for me'

'The way he's always so strong'

'The way she whispers my name in her sleep'

'The way I constantly dream of him'

'The way she trusts me'

'The way he's always so confident, like I can never doubt him'

'The way she clings to me'

'The way he holds me'

'The way she can always cheer me up'

'The way he speaks to me'

'The way she listens'

'The way he touches me'

'The way her skin feels so soft under my fingers'

'The way his silver hair sways'

'The way her face is so perfectly made, just like of a porcelain doll'

'The way his velvet ears randomly twitch'

'The way her full lips quiver'

'The way he's so solid beneath his clothes'

'The way her frail body feels against mine'

'The way I never want him to let me go…'

'I'll never let you go, Kagome…I swear on it…'

..:---...-.-..-.-.-.----:..

Hmmm...I liked this chapter. It was cute. The thoughts thing is really sweet...but it sticks out in the open, just a little, doncha think.

Psh...you tell me!

Note of Advice: Don't interrupt me when I'm talking to myself.

I get mad...

-pulls out machete-