Author's Note: Hey everyone, I hope you enjoy this fanfic, please let me know what you think, thanks! And no, of course I don't own Inuyasha. Enjoy!

Side note: "Normal parenthesis" means that someone is talking; parentheses italicized means that it's a message/email and parentheses italicized and underlined is Kagome's thoughts during that moment or her reflecting back on that scene. As always, enjoy!

Part 22: Going Crazy

"Will you forgive me, no matter what mistakes I make in this first time love?" I asked Inuyasha one night.

"No. There's one thing I won't forgive you for."

"What's that?"

"Cheating."

"Well obviously. I wouldn't forgive you either in a situation like that."

While waiting for his reply, I fell asleep holding onto my phone.

"Where's that brick phone of yours?" Sesshomaru asked one night at dinner.

"Hidden away for now." It was actually in my pocket. I just didn't want Sesshomaru to take my phone hostage again.

"No fun." He pouted.

"I'm a serious person, and you should know that by now." I finished with my dinner, bringing my tray up to be emptied.

When I came back to grab my things, I noticed my keys were missing. Checking under the table and in my bag, I still couldn't find it. Then, it clicked.

"Sesshomaru, give it."

"Give what? Did you lose something?"

"Don't try to be cute with me. Just hand it over. I gotta go to the library."

"Meeting with Ayame to study again? You guys are doing a lot lately."

"We want to pass our finals, nothing wrong with that."

"Nothing wrong with it. Until it becomes your obsession."

"Are you giving it or not?"

"Can I have your phone?"

"No."

"Then no keys."

I grabbed his phone on the table. "Give it or I'll tell that girl you secretly like her too." I smirked. I knew I had him this time.

"Alright, alright." He handed me my keys, and I gave him back his phone.

"Now, was that so hard?" I laughed as I walked with him outside. I started to turn left when I felt a tug on my backpack.

"At least hug me before you go."

Turning around, I hugged him around the waist briefly before letting go. "See you later!" I called back as I left.

"Hey!"

"Oh hey!" I slipped into the room as Ayame greeted me.

"The boy? The love boat?"

"It's been nearly a week now.. It's the longest time he's ever not contacted me..."

"Were you the last one to text him?"

"Yes."

"Why not contact him now?"

"Maybe he's busy? I don't want to disturb him while he's busy.. So I decided that I'll practice being patient."

"I see. Are you also testing him to see how long it takes for him to reply?"

"Yes and no. But I know that he has a lot on his plate.. I don't want to add to his stress."

"But not saying anything.. Is it alright?"

"Perhaps not, but I feel like because we love each other, we'll be able to understand each other. Even without speaking for awhile..."

"Have you had any face-to-face video chats? Maybe you can skype him?"

"um.. I don't know.. What if he doesn't want to see the real me?" To be honest, every time I had thought of seeing him in person, the real life version of him, I got so... nervous. I didn't know why, but it would become so hard to breathe. All types of knots would constrict my stomach as I imagined the possible scenarios of us meeting up. Why was I so nervous? How could I possibly meet him when my body reacted this way?

"Perhaps start with just pictures then? And build up to video chatting? Does he have a snapchat? You could record videos on there and send to him?"

"He has one. But last time I asked, he said he doesn't use it much... so I just dropped the topic.." I was being hesitant again.. Argh! When did I become this hesitant?

"Oh.. But he wants to meet the real you someday."

I knew that. I wanted it too. But... when would this nervousness die down? "How's your end of the love boat, Ayame?" I needed a change in topic.

"...Still working on the letter."

"Ah, so now we're both in the boat, but paddling in the wrong directions? We'll just go in circles this way!"

She laughed, understanding my joke. "At least we have homework to fill the leak in the boat for now."

I nodded. Thank goodness for homework and studying indeed. Otherwise I'd probably be glued to my phone, sensitive to every buzz. The both of us resumed working, hoping that by doing so, we would make our goals of passing our exams possible.

"Sometimes.. I just wish you'd be able to be by my side 24/7. Guiding me on what to say and what not to say in a relationship. I just keep feeling like what I'm saying is all wrong, or it's being misunderstood."

"You have to communicate with him. You guys need to work it out by yourselves, but I'll try to help in any way I can." Ayame said.

"True." We had reached our dorm rooms by this time. As I stepped into my room, I checked my phone again. Nothing. Nothing again. How many times had I checked it by now? Putting my phone down, I headed towards the showers. Are you really going to let me wait for you forever? If this continues… I really can't be bothered with you anymore.. I sighed, stepping under the shower head, feeling the hot water cascading down my body. That's a lie. I'm nervous about you.. I'll try to not think about you, but when I get a text from you, I can't help but talk to you.. So we'll talk and I'll smile again. Only you know when you're looping, making me upset, but you act like nothing's wrong.

I turned, letting the water engulf my naked back. I'm going crazy. I must be. Perhaps I've loved too unreasonably.. I've forgotten that these things can never happen.. I've started mixing reality with my dreams.. No, my beautiful fantasies. Why can't you share some of your burdens with me? Why do you have to hold everything in? Why can't I deteriorate in your place? But I knew deep inside that even with his loops and spirals, I never regretted falling in love with him. How many times must your fate have been toyed with by other people to become the current you? To become so unstable?

I slowly started remembering his every text. His cute whine, the cute "noooo" or "ugh" when I announced that I had to leave for short periods of time to either eat, shower or do homework.. How those indicated how much he wanted me to stay by his side.. How those started decreasing more and more now as compared to when we first started dating.. How I had broken up with him twice.. And on the second time, he was so exhausted. Exhausted by me running away each time we had a fight, exhausted by me running from reality, from him. And how he had said "I'm not going to chase after you anymore. You've started expecting that after each time you run away. I'm tired of chasing after you. That's not how relationships work..."

Was he really not going to chase after me anymore? Leaning back to let the hot water stream down from my head to my chin, I realized one thing. It doesn't matter if he doesn't chase after me.. He must have felt like he needed to because of the 3 years that he's already been doing it for.. Is it my turn to chase after him? But how? I've never liked anyone like this before.. This seriously.. How do I express my love? How do I convince him to stay by my side? How do I convince him that I need him as much as he needs me? How can I help him off that dangerous path to be happy with me? My words just seem to be like wind blowing through his ears...

As I stepped out of the shower and went back to my room, I prepared for the next day of classes and fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

While eating dinner with Ayame, I heard my phone buzz. Looking down, the new message said:

"Hey I know you've been busy with finals and all. Just wanna say keep working. I'll do the same on my end. Love you."

"Is it from him?"

"How... How did you know?"

"You just suddenly smiled. What did he say?"

I showed her the phone, watching as she leaned in to read it. "Oh my god! That's so sweet!"

I beamed, nodding. "Ah! I should reply.. Oh... Um.. How should I reply?"

"Tell him how you feel about that text? Haha calm down first."

"Hey this text made my day! I was hoping you'd text me all week...Lately, I've been stepping back to see if you'd text me first..and I'm glad you did after 5 days. Anyway this last week of college has been pretty busy, being my last week before graduation and all. I've missed you." Turning the phone back to Ayame, I asked her, "Like this?"

"That's perfect. Send it."

"Sent!"

"I knew you were stressed I just let you focus on your grades. I missed you too baby." His reply read.

"Although I was, I wanted to spend more time with you. Don't worry anymore about "giving me space" or "letting me focus," because, really, having a conversation with you, while I'm going through everything, is what I'd prefer." Seeing Ayame read the conversation over my shoulder now made me feel calmer. "Do you think I'm coming on too strongly?"

"No. You're just being honest. I think that's fine." She whispered.

"I got you." His reply read.

"He understands! This conversation is getting somewhere.. He's listening to me." I grinned, putting the phone close to my chest.

"See? The only strength that can overcome all obstacles is love.. I believe you will definitely be able to defeat the demon in him."

"Thanks. How has your week been?" Curious to know what had happened in the week that we didn't talk to one another, I asked him about it.

"Busy as hell. Stressful but busy."

"Same. Do you need to talk about anything? Rant about anything?" Could he share his burdens with me?

"Nah, I've been steady knowing that were working hard. It made me work more."

"aww."

"hm?"

"It's cute ^_^ Are you busy now too?"

"A little, what about you?"

"Just eating dinner. What are you doing?"

"I'm at the studio."

We had reconciled, and it was as if we had never left each other. Ayame sat back in her chair, getting her own texts from her boyfriend.

It was nearly 4 hours later when Ayame and I were studying in the library that we received snapchats from Sesshomaru.

"Help me."

"What's wrong?"

"I think I'm in love with someone else."

I looked over to Ayame, who looked up at the same time.

"Did you get a snap… " We asked at the same time, trailing off when we realized that we had gotten the same messages.

"Who is it?" I typed back, getting more and more curious by the minute.

"It's…"

Author's Note: Hey everyone, thank you very much for reading! As always, please leave your reviews on what you think about what you've read so far. Would you want to see more? Please favorite the story or feel free to hit the "follow" button for me, so you'll be notified first of any new chapters/stories. Thank you guys again!