****Author's note: If you're just arriving, this is an alternate ending to the main story: Reviving a flame. so, if you'd like to read the whole story start to finish, there's an entire 6 chapters to read prior. There's a note telling you when to switch over here for this ending. I might continue this if people like it enough and really want to see more on it.****
Kagome's mouth dropped open as she lowered the bow and let slack back into the string. She stumbled forward a little and put her hand over her mouth as her and Inuyasha's gazes met.
The world stood still as the bow and arrow fell from her hands and clattered on the ground. A breeze whipped between them.
Inuyasha was stunned into silence.
His eyes were as wide as she'd ever seen them and the color had all but drained from his face.
Kagome gasped and it was only then she realized she'd started crying. "Inu...yasha?" She choked through a sob.
The sound of her voice released Inuyasha from his stupor and he took a few uncertain steps towards her. He was almost mechanical. She had expected him to run at her. He normally would run into everything, but now he was uncharacteristically quiet and careful.
As he neared her, she could see his eyes darting over her anxiously, trying to discern if she was actually real.
Her heart broke a little just then. The poor man had been subject to a demon impersonating his dead mother, his lover being reincarnated as a clay golem and trying to kill him on multiple occasions, and witnessed her death as well. She couldn't blame him for being skeptical but the hurt in his eyes was eating right through her. All she wanted was to heal that hurt.
In any other scenario, she might have cried out to him and leaped into his arms. She'd done that on many occasions but this time there was a tension. She wanted him to come to her. That's all she ever wanted was for him to come to her. Her heart hammered in her chest as he slowly moved closer. She could feel an eruption of emotion bubbling up in her chest. The pressure was starting to build behind her eyes and she struggled to keep from bursting.
Inuyasha approached her and stopped a few feet away. Kagome was breathless. She panted slightly and lowered her hand from her mouth. Inuyasha slowly reached a hand out and his fingertips grazed the soft flesh of her cheek. His skin was warm. He was incredibly careful not to scratch her delicate skin with his claws. His golden eyes were still wide with wonder and his lips were slightly parted. She choked back another sob. It was almost getting too much to take. She hungered to hold him. Words threatened to leap from her mouth and she was overly tempted to express them through touch. The hand at her side twitched with the urge to carry out the words she refused to let her mouth say.
Butterflies were swirling about in her stomach with a whirlwind of emotion. First and foremost she was overwhelmed with joy to see him again and her heart was overflowing with love. However, that nightmare she'd been having about breaking his heart twice was now an unrelenting reality. She couldn't change that. Her mind raced back and forth between the two extremes and it made her a little lightheaded. It also could have been from the hyperventilation but she was in no mindset to even contemplate it.
A tear rolled down her cheek and he immediately wiped it away with his thumb. She saw a tear welling up on the edge of his eyelid and as it crested the rim and plunged down onto his cheek, she slowly raised her hand and reached to wipe it away. Inuyasha closed his eyes as her hand touched his face and he let out a sigh before as he hastily pulled her against his chest.
Kagome looped her arms around his waist and held him tightly as she finally let the tears flow. She felt no remorse for ugly crying against his chest. The pure elation of their bodies touching filled her with a warm, and tender comfort. He was really here. She was really here.
She grasped the fabric covering his back and squeezed him as hard as her arms would let her. She felt the muscles in his chest heaving against her and she discovered he was crying too. She nestled her head in his shoulder and breathed his scent in deeply and a warmth spread throughout her. His arms enveloped her and she felt like he was crushing the air out of her. She never wanted to let him go, and he seemed content with that as the minutes passed and the two of them were still wrapped up in one another.
"Kagome..." He finally spoke, just barely above a whisper. The sound of his voice reverberated through her body and she sang in response. She slowly pulled back, careful not to let him get too far away. She only allowed enough space so that they could look one another in the eye but no more.
"Yeah?" She said softly with a gentle smile.
Inuyasha smiled back at her. He bent his head and pressed his forehead to hers. "Hmmm." He sighed happily. "I missed you."
"I missed you too." She said as she reached up and cupped his cheek. "What happened was-."
She started to speak when his head jerked back and his eyes snapped open. She paused as he looked into her eyes intensely, almost angry. She flinched.
"We can talk about it later." He said curtly.
She nodded nervously. "Ok...that's ok." For the first time in several minutes she remembered where she was and gazed around briefly. "What should we do now then?"
Inuyasha had also been pretty obviously distracted so he utilized that moment to scan the surroundings. When his search proved fruitless he returned his gaze to Kagome.
"Kagome I never thought I was going to see you again."
Kagome looked down as a pang of guilt rang through her. She couldn't look him in the eye knowing that she planned to never let him see her again. What kind of horrible person am I?
"I'm never going to let Naraku hurt you ever again. I promise." He lifted her chin up with his hand when she sniffled and still wouldn't look at him. "Kagome, look at me."
She looked up at him. "I'm sorry."
He instantly looked confused. "Sorry? What are you sorry for?"
"For making you worry...but I'm here now." She decided the best course of action would be not to divulge her plans to him.
"Kagome...I think it's probably best if you go home."
That was like a slap in the face.
"What? Why?" She stepped back, finally letting go of him. "Don't tell me you're going to try and banish me to the other side of the well again." She crossed her arms. He'd done that once in the name of her safety and it was horrible. She couldn't bear being shoved through the well at his behest and prohibited from returning.
"Just for a while...please." His eyes met hers; pleading and she was struck down from whatever moral high ground she thought she was climbing on. "I want to know you're safe at least for a while."
It was beyond odd for Inuyasha to beg. He did not beg. He was as stubborn as an ox and proud as a lion. If he was reduced to begging, he meant it and it was not within her to deny him the request.
Kagome nodded. She'd wanted so badly to go home even if just for a proper shower and grooming and sleep in a damn bed for once with a blanket and pillows. She wanted to come back though because Naraku was still alive and she wanted to help her friends defeat him.
"Ok." She smiled. "Shall we go then?" She knelt down and picked up the bow and arrow she dropped and slid it into her quiver. She slid the bow around her arm and perched it on her shoulder.
"In a minute. There's something I wanna do first."
She tilted her head to the side. "Yeah?"
He nodded. "Yeah." He stepped forward and grabbed the bow and tossed it across the grass.
"Inuyasha! I just got that bow!" Kagome stared after it but as she did so, Inuyasha also stripped the quiver from her back.
"Inuyasha!" She looked back at him and scowled.
"Kagome I don't want to waste the second chance I have to do this." He said as he stepped closer and ran a hand gently along the side of her neck.
The angry words she'd intended to fling at him caught in her throat as the warmth of his hand seemed to spread. Her heart fluttered in her chest as a nervous giddiness bloomed in her stomach. Her eyes widened as he looked down at her with a grateful smile on his face.
"I should have done this a long time ago and I'm sorry I didn't." He pressed his forehead to hers again.
"I love you." He whispered.
The words caused a tremble to rattle her knees and her body swayed. It was the most beautiful sound in the world. She'd waited so long for it.
Although she wasn't happy about Kikyo's death, she secretly harbored the thought that with Kikyo's eternal absence from their lives, maybe now he would finally choose her. And he had.
Kagome closed her eyes and let a relieved breath through her nose that turned into a hint of a breathy chuckle at the end.
"I love you." She answered back very quietly, restraining a squeal of delight. She opened her eyes as he pulled his head back and wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her against him. He only hesitated briefly before he bent to press his lips to hers.
An electric current flowed through her as he kissed her gently and continuously. The hand at her waist moved up her back and the hand at her neck gradually moved into her hair at the back of her head.
She responded slowly, having never been kissed and overcome with the realization that she didn't know what to do. She lifted a hand to run it underneath the hair at the back of his neck and imitate the sprawl of fingers through her own hair. He seemed to enjoy it as he moaned lightly when her fingertips brushed the nape of his neck. She placed her other hand on the small of his back.
He tilted his neck back after a last, firm press of his lips to hers and just looked over her face for a moment.
Kagome was left breathless and she laughed quietly and shook her head.
"What?" Inuyasha asked, looking down at her. "Did I do something wrong?" Finally some of the typical personality was returning, and it warmed her heart in only a way Inuyasha could by being a little bit irritable.
"Yeah." Kagome looked up at him with a confident determination.
Inuyasha scowled.
"I wasn't finished yet." She smirked and fisted the beads of subjugation around his neck. She gave a sharp yank and tugged his head back down so that she could kiss him more.
She felt his lips curve up against hers and felt him laugh through his nose as his breath gusted against her cheek.
He indulged her for a few more minutes as her kisses became more aggressive and at one point she nipped his lip. He hadn't planned to go any further than this, at least not on the side of the road on a cold night, exposed to eavesdroppers and hungry demons alike. For the moment, he was satisfied that she was alive and he would ask her to marry him after she had been tucked away from danger for awhile. He would be lying if he said he also said he didn't need time to properly process the situation and inevitably, they would need to discuss the events that had transpired.
She had died. She had stopped breathing. Her heart had stopped beating. Her body had gone cold and stiff.
She was revived somehow and he needed to know how, but he didn't intend on spoiling the only moment of bliss he'd had in some time.
"Ok." Inuyasha said as he disconnected their lips and took a step back.
Kagome had already long since been blushing, but she blushed even deeper.
"Sorry." She said with a sheepish smile.
Inuyasha shook his head. "Don't worry about it. We just shouldn't be doing this out here for much longer."
Kagome was jerked back into the literal cold reality of the situation. The wind which had magically gone unnoticed for the past several minutes blustered around her and sent an icy shiver through her bones. The moon wasn't full, but it was bright enough to cast a smidgen of light onto the earth.
She shuddered and rubbed her arms. Inuyasha removed his robe and handed it to her. She took it gratefully and huddled up in it. The smell of him and his body heat clinging to the fabric returned a sliver of warmth to her body. He turned around and squatted down so that she could mount his back.
It was second nature by now, but they both appreciated it a little more this time around. The weight of her on his back breathed the life back into him that had been drained since the last time he saw her. His determination to protect her grew exponentially and there wasn't a thing that could stop him. His heart raced with a newfound ambition.
She finally had the reciprocation of the love she gave him for all those years. Sure, he could be tender and protective sometimes but never once did he actually tell her he loved her. So much time had been spent playing a perpetual game of tag, see-sawing from one emotion to another. Many times he held her in his arms and at the time it made her happy but he quickly squandered it with a show of jealousy, or spouting off hurtful words. She knew that this very well might turn sour, but she had a restored hope now that he'd taken that step.
"Ready?" He turned his head and asked her with a sideways glance.
"Mhm." She smiled as she gripped his shoulders and he jumped into the air, soaring over great chunks of the landscape.
