Chapter 40

"No. She wasn't supposed to dream this. She wasn't supposed to know...nevermind. It will not alter the path they will eventually fall to. It will all come into line. After all...dreams are just dreams, are they not?"

'Why am I running? I..I don't understand! It's so dark! This forest is so dark!' Kagome thought, her panic rising as a lump in her throat as she sped through the blinding whizzes of green trees. The darkness closed in on her like a big, black, billowing ghost. Those sheets she had lain in with Inuyasha so close, demented and dirtied. 'But I washed them! W-What?' She was just trying to make sense of it all as she ran uncontrollably. She couldn't stop her bare feet from slapping the dirt beneath her.

'I don't understand! Make it stop!' Her mind screamed as no words make it from her dried and bleeding throat. That lump pushed them all back down into the pit of her stomach where they swam and swam, making her sick as if the icy cold talons of panic did not.

Her shadow trailed behind her like a lost puppy. So innocent and small, being dragged over obstacles behind the frantic miko. It wanted freedom, it wanted control. Right before Kagome's eyes, it grew, stretched high above her own form and her feet pounded harder and faster over the rough dirt.

'Who am I running from?' She screamed in her head, struggling to force the words out, to not stumble on the rubble beneath her feet. Rubble of what? She glanced down with wide and teary eyes, breathes catching her throat and choking her. A large, bloody, boomerang. A once-teal bow of nearly red now. A golden, crimson streaked staff. Blood splotched tan fur.

'Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kirara!' She tried screaming out again but no words came as her legs began to wobble and shake, ache and pound, but there was no way to stop herself now as her panic took control. That was when she realized one name she hadn't called out yet.

Without telling herself to, her bloody and bruised feet stopped dead in their tracks in the middle of pitch black. Nothing. Nothing. 'I can't see anything!' She informed herself, her wide, brown eyes searching the darkness for anything but black, even for that envious shadow of hers which had faded into the blackness around her. Finally, her eyes caught a strange and terrifying sight. Red. Speeding towards her. So fast. It was time to scream out that name.

"Inuyasha!" She cried, the hanyou almost right upon her as she cried out the single poison. A smile nearly lit her face until his features set into view. Those long, bloody claws and wide, red eyes with narrowed blue pupils. Those magenta stripes along his wrists and darting across his cheeks. And those fangs, dripping with blood that trailed from the corner of his mouth. Pure crimson smeared the front of his yukata. His blood or someone else's?

The sight flickered, switching rapidly between a sight that she loved and one that she huddled in fear of. He was kind, staring with wide eyes filled with sympathy, awareness, worry, love, and…fear. Then the other side of dark red eyes, glaring with nails that were destined to rip through her untouched skin. Untouched? 'I...I...hurt...' She moaned in her mind, her eyes lowering to the red haori that was tied around her bleeding body.

'How did I get this way?' She wondered, her knees buckling from the fiery pain. She could feel it? In a dream? Did she know it was a dream?

Her blood trail down her legs and neck, arms and down from her bruised lips. But she ignored the wounds to glance back to the boy in front of her just as his short, pained, scream echoed through her ears.

His blood splattered over her, his eyes rolling back towards hers. Flicker. Claws struck her down her back and shoulder. Flicker. Inuyasha was back to normal and an empty bow rested in Kagome's bloody hands. Now she knew why he screamed, why he moaned quietly with half-closed eyes.

It was too confusing. She just didn't understand. Which was real? Which sight it was flickering between was the real thing? Or was it the same thing? No. Too confusing. Was that an arrow embedded in his chest? What had he just said, stuck to the tree with his blood dripping down the trunk? 'I lo-' What? Who? Did his eyes just close? Did he just fall limp? Did he just die? No! No way! Where had she seen all of this before?

"NO!" Kagome screamed, a cry to curdle one's blood as she dropped to her knees, her blood smeared hands twisting in her dark hair. "NO!" She cried again, her tears streaming down her face in streaks of red, like blood. Like the blood of the hanyou that smeared her hands, the tree, his body and her own.

"No...No...No!" Kagome jerked, flinching under the warm caress of the blankets that hadn't been there before. She blinked harshly, her eyes stinging from the tears that shed before her long, agonizing dream. Sweat trickled down from her forehead where her damp bangs were stuck to. Everything was blurred by darkness. That same darkness she had found herself bleeding and crying in just moments before.

A crack of thunder exploded outside her window, mounting onto the mountain sized horror she felt. She could still feel the hanyou's blood over her. And…something else?

She squinted at the long, limp object that lay over her body, curling in to rest on the pillow beside the girl's face. That warmth, spreading over her side and back. That rhythmetic beating against her spine. What were they?

A gentle smile tugged at the corner of her lips as those familiar claws twitched along with a soft moan in his sleep. Relief flooded through her, filling ever crook and crevice of her insides to know that he was alive and well, and more than that, curled at her back fast asleep. The smile just wouldn't fade as the terror of the dream melted away as if it had never happened. It was just a dream after all, right? I didn't mean a thing.

Slowly, Kagome twisted around under his light grip, that same pleased smile on her lips. It was like it just wouldn't go away. Not ever...or maybe at least until the sun rose. But that was still a couple hours away. Now she could smile while she still had Inuyasha cradling her in his arms. But she wanted to hold him back. Maybe if she could just show him how she felt while he was asleep, he could feel it in his dream so she didn't have to utter a word. What a paradise. No fuss, no rejection. If he knew, he knew, and it was his choice to make something of it or not.

It was stupid and crazy, and she knew it, but the thought stuck as she snuggled in against him, palms spreading over his chest where she lay her head and nuzzled in. Inuyasha groaned, shifting himself and absentmindedly wrapping his arms around her slim form and holding her in a sleepwalking embrace.

A soft sigh stole from her throat, but she didn't bother to hold it back. The sigh was of pure contentness, happiness, relaxation that she hadn't had for so long. Now she knew, by the way he curled to naturally against her, that he had been doing this all along. She didn't doubt it. many times in the night she had rolled over to feel a warmth next to her and many times when she awoke, the sheets next to her would be disturbed and stained with the hanyou's smell. His scent would be smothered against her pillow and the mattress was even slightly warm to the touch.

Kagome wasn't mad. No. Not at all. Not even the whipping wind, exploding thunder and lightening, and pounding rain could reach through those closed windows and thick walls to dampen her mood. And her completely gleeful smiled showed so as she nestled her forehead to his chest and closed her eyes once more, easily falling under the blanket of sleep again with Inuyasha's warm arms holding tightly over her. She could sleep peacefully, now, with her angel watching over her.

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

Cute, huh?

Well. I haven't heard from my bestest review buddies in awhile! Ah! What's up with that?

Okay. I'll put up a Sango and Miroku part next so you people don't get tired of just Inuyasha and Kagome.

Thanks guy-wha-ah!...-blink-...Okay. I'm going to pretend I didn't see that... -turns away from tv-. Right. Anyway. On to the next chapter!