Chapter 11
"Ways I Fucked Up This Time and How You Can Do Better"

The moment that they were out of the well, Kagome's grip on his shoulders tightened exponentially the closer they came to Kaede's hut. She couldn't help it; there was an end, an opportunity to solve this mess, just a few moments away, and Kagome was practically vibrating because of it.

Within a few short bounds, they were at the front of Kaede's hut.

The moment, the instant that her feet hit soft grass, she ran, throwing the mat aside.

"Kaede!" She shouted, nearly diving to the floor in front of the elderly woman.

"Hey!" Inuyasha shouted after her, walking in a moment later.

"Kagome," Kaede greeted, "we were not expecting ye for a couple days now." She looked up from grinding a mixture of dried herbs, shock passing over her face. "Child, what has happened to ye?"

"It's nothing," Kagome said with a wave of her hand. "I have—"

"The asshole trying to court her in her time beat her."

"He didn't—"

"Kagome!" Kaede let go of her pestle, shifting to hold Kagome's face in her hands. "Surely your mother doesn't agree with such treatment?"

"My mom doesn't know, but that isn't—"

"How does your mother not know, child?"

"Because we left before she saw it," Kagome explained, trying to start her reason for actually coming to Kaede's hut in the first place. But she was to be thwarted at every direction it would seem.

"Oh, Kagome!" Sango shouted as she entered the hut. "You're ba—what happened to your face?" She whirled on Inuyasha. "What were you doing?"

"It ain't like I did that to her face!" He defended.

"You are supposed to be protecting her!"

"Bitch disappeared on me! I spent all fucking day looking for her!" He jabbed a clawed finger in Kagome's direction. "I found her like that, passed out in some alley, so what the fuck was I supposed to do about it!"

Sango turned her head to face Kagome, concern clearly etched in her furrowed brows.

"Why would you run away from Inuyasha?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you. Something's wrong."

"Like what, child?"

Sango sat down next to Kagome and Kaede with Kilara jumping into Sango's lap to curl up and sleep.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think that there's a ghost haunting me. I think it's a ghost. It might be something else. I don't know. It seems pretty ghost-y to me, you know, and—" Kaede grabbed Kagome's hand from where it had fisted itself into the hem of her shirt, unfolding the fingers gently as she spoke.

"Kagome, child, calm down. Let an old woman make some tea to settle your nerves. Sango, fetch the kettle, will ye?" She turned her head towards Inuyasha, who watched them intently. "Perhaps fetching the monk as well might be useful?"

"I'll go find the lecher," Inuyasha stated, waving a hand at them before stepping towards the door.

"But—" Kagome started, and Kaede squeezed her fingers, drawing her focus back on her.

"Child, Inuyasha will be fine. There's no danger in this village to him."

That wasn't why she wanted him to stay though.

Sango hung the kettle over the fire.

"I know that, but it's just—can ghosts travel through time?"

"Pardon?"

"Can ghosts travel through time?"

The palm of Sango's hand pressed flat against Kagome's forehead.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" She asked.

"I'm not sick!" Kagome said, shoving the hand away from her face. "I just—I need to know if there's anyway that Hina could come here through the well too."

"Hina?" Kaede asked.

"My friend."

"I thought you were asking about a ghost?" Sango tilted her head in question as Kaede prepared their cups of tea as the water heated over the fire.

"I am!" She shouted back at her, burying her face in her hands in frustration at, well, just everything today.

"Kagome," Kaede interrupted. "Be calm, child. We are only asking questions to better understand."

"I know! I—It's—" Tears welled up in her eyes, and she already knew that it was too late to stop the crying fit she was about to have. Her hand fisted in her shirt again as she tried to muffle her crying with her other hand.

"Oh, fuck me," Inuyasha groaned as he entered the hut. "What the fuck did you two do?"

"Not helping," Sango hissed, shifting to rub Kagome's back as she cried.

"How long has this been going on?" Kaede asked him.

"Yeah, well, she's been doing that all day in between puking up everything she's eaten," Inuyasha said, moving to sit against the wall. "Lecher is on his way."

"You're sure you're not sick?" Sango asked again.

"I'm fine!" Kagome's voice was thick.

"You ain't been fine for days now. Let the hag take a look!"

"Shut up, Inuyasha!"

"Listen here, bitch—"

"Quiet!" Kaede shouted, making both parties turn towards her. Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head, whether at being chastised by Kaede or the volume of her voice, Kagome wasn't entire ly sure.

"Sorry," Kagome mumbled as Sango slipped an arm around her shoulders.

Inuyasha grunted his own form of apology or maybe just acknowledgment.

It was hard to tell.

"Now, Kagome—"

"Lady Kaede?" Miroku's voice came through the doorway as he stepped inside. "Inuyasha said that you—Oh, Kagome, you're back!" She glanced at him over her shoulder, and he started at seeing her face. "What happened?" He leaned his staff against the wall before moving to take a seat near Kaede and Sango.

"A young suitor struck Kagome apparently."

"He's not—" Kagome tried to explain for the umpteenth time.

"Why would he—" Miroku started.

"He's a prick," Inuyasha said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Hojo's not—"

"Wait? Hojo did this?" Miroku asked. Grabbing her chin, he turned her head towards the fire to see better.

"Hands off, monk!" Inuyasha leaned forward, waving a hand to knock Miroku's away from her face.

"I was just trying to—"

"You can see without touching!"

"Inuyasha, calm down," Kaede repeated.

Five little birds.

Hina's words rattled around in her head as she realized something ominous.

Oh no.

Hojo!

She'd left him in the tunnels, and she hadn't told anyone! What if he was still down there?

Hina had said that there were only five little birds left. What if that meant that something terrible had happened to him?

What if he was dead?

What if she had killed him? She hadn't meant to!

And she hadn't even stayed to see if he was alright! What if Hina had done something to him after she'd left? Her wrists and chest were proof enough that she had some ability to hurt living people.

She didn't think that she could handle two friends haunting her.

Sango grabbed her face, forcing Kagome to stare at her.

"Kagome, breathe in. Deep breath." Sango took an exaggerated breath, urging Kagome to follow, but she couldn't keep up, almost panting now. Her lungs were burning. Inuyasha sat a bucket down at her side as he knelt beside her. Not a bad plan considering the events of today. "It's okay. Whatever it is, we're going to help, okay?" Another comically deep breath, but Kagome did manage to slow hers down just a little.

Nodding in agreement, Sango rubbed her hands up and down Kagome's arms.

"Breathe in—and out."

This went on for a few more minutes until Kagome's breathing had settled into more of a normal pattern. Kaede gave her a hot cup of tea, urging her to drink.

"What had ye so upset, child?" Kaede asked.

Her hands shook as she held her tea cup.

"It's been a really rough few days." She swallowed back the urge to cry again.

"Aye, we have gathered that much."

Kagome closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to find some measure of calm to tell her story without completely breaking down into a blubbering mess.

"Kagome," Kaede spoke, dragging Kagome's attention to her. "Perhaps start at the beginning. You spoke of a ghost."

Kagome nodded, sniffling. Sango's hand began lightly rubbing her back in an attempt to comfort her.

"Yeah, I think it's a ghost. I'm not really sure anymore."

"Can you describe it?" Miroku asked.

"My friend, Hina, died a couple years ago. And the past few days, I've been seeing her at school and at home." Another deep breath as she wiped her eyes in a pathetic attempt to compose herself. These were her friends, but it was still embarrassing to not be able to control herself like that.

"What do you mean at home?" Inuyasha asked. "At the shrine?"

She nodded.

"Why the fuck didn't you say anything?" He snarled, lunging towards her, stopping his face only inches from hers.

"Inuyasha!" Sango hissed, her hand still rubbing along her shoulder blades.

"Sango!" He mockingly shouted back at her; his voice purposely high pitched and annoyingly grating on the ears.

Kagome could practically feel the two glaring at each other over her head.

"It is a valid question, Kagome. Why didn't ye say anything to Inuyasha about it?" Kaede asked.

"Because, well, at first, I kinda thought that I was just seeing things because of the pain medication, and you," she motioned to Inuyasha beside her, "never said that you sensed anything, so I just assumed it was in my head."

"When did you stop thinking that?" Miroku asked.

"I guess when a light fell on me at school? I saw Hina right after in the ceiling, and I guess that's when I realized that it wasn't all in my head since I'd stopped taking the pain meds. But by then she was sort of starting to show up everywhere I went."

"So why the fuck didn't you say anything?" Inuyasha growled.

"She—" Kagome swallowed, because this was going to go over so well. Inuyasha was about to shift gears from overbearing to insufferable. "She might have threatened to hurt people if I told anyone."

"Might have?" Kaede asked, surprised.

"The fuck, Kagome!"

"Kagome!" Sango admonished.

"Do you have any idea—"

"Inuyasha, calm down," Miroku interrupted.

"I'll fucking calm down after she says why she didn't say something!" He snarled, turning back towards her. "What the fuck, Kagome?"

"She threatened to hurt you too!" Kagome said.

"Ghosts can't do jack shit!"

"Yeah, they can!" Kagome countered.

"Like what?"

"Like this! Remember?" She pulled her sleeves back, exposing the bruising on her wrists, which Kaede and Miroku both stared at wide eyed.

"That's who fucking did that?" He snarled, fangs fully exposed.

"Uh, yes?" Kagome looked away, tucking her arms carefully back into her sleeves.

"Kagome—" Sango murmured, taking her wrists in hand, examining them. "These are deep." Her thumb drifted over the mottled skin.

"Yeah. Inuyasha was the one to notice them when I woke up."

"You didn't notice these marks before?" Miroku asked him. Inuyasha snarled at the insinuation that he'd overlooked them entirely.

"She didn't have them before yesterday morning!"

"It was only a question, Inuyasha," Sango chided, and he rounded on her, with Kagome in the middle.

"You wanna say that again, slayer?"

"Could you two not fight right next to me?" Kagome asked. "I'm bruised up enough as it is."

"So the spirit of your friend did these?" Kaede asked, leaning forward to look at her wrists. "These are quite dark, child." She let go, and Kagome drew her hands back into her lap. "I assume that this behavior is unusual to your friend?"

Kagome nodded, as Inuyasha settled down into a seated position beside her.

"She was one of my best friends. And then—" She sighed. "I just don't get it. She's been dead for two years. Why would she start haunting me now?"

"Spirits are sometimes difficult," Miroku said. "Something could aggravate them into waking or maybe she finally garnered enough power to manifest."

"But why would she come after me? She was my friend!"

"Do you know how she died?" Kaede asked, taking another sip of tea.

"In a fire. She and her mother died; they think that they might have burned alive," Kagome swallowed, "Sometimes that's how she looks."

"On fire?" Kaede asked.

"Well, that too. But sometimes she turns—burnt." She opened her mouth to continue speaking but hesitated.

"What is it?" Miroku asked, taking a sip of his own tea. "What were you going to say?"

"She's so angry, all the time. But she died in an accident miles away from home. I just don't understand why she's doing it. Why me?"

"That will take some time to figure out," Kaede said. "Spirits, especially the ones who died so young are sometimes unable to find—an outlet for their anger. Sometimes they are angry at a person. Sometimes it is merely that their life was cut so short."

"But why me? Why would she come after me? I didn't do anything wrong! I was her friend!"

She dropped her head into her hands. At least they hadn't ruled her out as completely insane.

"Inuyasha, have you sensed anything out of the ordinary?" Miroku asked.

"I haven't sensed anything. I've seen spirits in her times before, even the Soul Piper, but this time, nothing."

Oh good.

There's no way they're not going to think she's insane.

Hell, she's pretty sure that she might actually be losing it.

"You okay?" He asked her, and she turned her head slightly to look at him, eyes already watering and she could feel the familiar burn in her nose as she fought the urge to cry.

"No. Not really."

Her arm throbbed, and she hissed at it, shifting to hold it away from her body and any pressure.

"What is it, Kagome?" Sango asked.

"My arm hurts." She gripped it as it gave a sharp throb, making her wince.

"It hasn't done that in a while," Inuyasha commented.

"Does it do this often?" Kaede asked. "May I?" She motioned to Kagome's arm, and Kagome held it out to her. Kaede took her wrist, pushing her sleeve up to expose the bandage wrapped around her arm. Holding her wrist, she began unwrapping the bandage, slowly revealing the stitched up wound.

"This is healing quite nicely from the look of it," she pulled away the last of the bandage, letting it fall to the floor. The black stitches stood out against her skin, pulling the punctures closed and keeping them that way.

But the wound was still bright red and looked almost discolored.

Kaede pressed her hand across the stitches.

"Hmm," Kaede frowned as she felt around her arm, pressing her thumb against the stitching and glancing at Kagome as if measuring her reaction to the pressure. "Your temperature is normal, no fluids, no signs of infection. Indeed, this is healing very nicely except for the color."

"It shouldn't look like that though," Inuyasha commented.

"Aye. Do ye smell any infection?"

He took her wrist, dragging it closer to his nose, as he sniffed her stitches, scowling as he breathed, taking a deeper sniff of her wound. Her cheeks flushed, and she felt the heat roll under her skin.

Why though? Why did this feel so intimate?

"I don't smell anything bad." He let go of her arm, and she drew it back to herself.

"Then it would appear there should be no reason for it to be hurting ye," Kaede stated. "Though the color of it is concerning."

Great. Of course there would be no reason for it to hurt, even though it very clearly was.

Honestly, she was really done with her weird issues.

"So why does it hurt then?"

"I am not sure, but I will consult my scrolls further and see what they have. As for the rest of it, I'm not sure that there is a simple answer."

Of course not.

Kaede must've noticed the crestfallen look on her face, because she continued.

"Inuyasha has not sensed anything in your era, and he has been with ye since the start of this."

"I swear, I'm not making this up!"

"No one thinks that Kagome," Sango added, hand rubbing along her spine.

"No, I know it sounds like I'm crazy. I hear it. I'm the only one that can see her and hear her, and I know it sounds like I'm losing my mind, but I swear, she's there. I swear it!"

"Kagome, we all know that spirits are," Miroku paused as he searched for a word, "flimsy when it comes to what they do and how they do it. You, out of all of us, are perhaps the most sensitive to them. No one thinks that you're making anything up."

"Aye, it is only troublesome to solve a problem we cannot see."

Kagome nodded, giving them a weak smile as her eyes watered.

"It's just—I—I'm exhausted."

"Aye, child, ye look the part too," Kaede said. "I will prepare some tea for Inuyasha to take back."

"And I can give you some ofuda to help seal the house."

"I don't think that it will work," she said, lightly scratching her nail across her tea cup, feeling the imperfections in the glazing.

"What do ye mean?"

"Uh, I tried to purify her, and it didn't work." There was a long pause, and she was sure that if she had Inuyasha's ears, they would've been flattened back against her hair.

"Where the fuck was I?" Inuyasha grabbed her arm, just above the elbow, forcing her to look at her.

"I—" She paused, thinking, "I don't know actually." She stared at the wall behind him as she tried to remember. Did she actually try to purify her?

Maybe she hadn't?

Wait, was it in a dream? Was that why?

"Kagome," Kaede said, drawing her back in. "Try Miroku's ofuda first. If they don't work, ye can always return here."

"Yeah, of course," she said with a smile. "Thank you."

Kaede glanced at Inuyasha as Miroku pushed himself to his feet.

"I'll go get started on them. You'll be here for a bit longer?" He asked. Inuyasha leaned back to look outside and nodded.

"We're leaving at nightfall. No exceptions."

"Of course, I'll hurry." Miroku ducked outside to begin.

"I'll start preparing the tea for ye, Kagome." Kaede said as she started to rise. "Inuyasha, if ye will stay here for the time being. Ye too, Sango."

"Of course," Sango said as she rubbed Kagome's shoulders.

"I'm sorry," she moaned.

"It's okay, Kagome. We had no idea."

"Is it bad that I don't want to go back?"

"I don't blame you if you don't. It sounds like you've had quite the time of it."

Miroku reappeared, kneeling down beside her to hand off a small stack of ofuda.

"You know how these work?" He asked, and she nodded, taking them in hand.

"They won't hurt Inuyasha?"

Miroku gave her a genuine smile.

"They should only work on spirits. If they do bother Inuyasha, you can always take them down."

She gave him a slight nod of understanding as another wave of exhaustion passed over her. Seeming to sense her complete and utter exhaustion at the week's events, Inuyasha turned towards where Kaede was working and scowled.

"She's taking her sweet time," he mumbled.

"Be nice," she chided.

"Kaede is working. Could you show a little patience?"

Inuyasha growled in response, and Kagome patted his knee.

"What?" He snarled, and she flinched at the tone, so reminiscent of the time when he hadn't made it. He'd been lying there, and they'd just draped a sheet over him and just left him on the ground like trash.

He'd been angry, so angry, and she couldn't fathom how he wasn't angry at her now, after everything, and just—his body—so still and red. There had been so much red; it had covered her hands and her clothes, and she remembered how it felt to have it dry on her skin and flake off as it dried.

"Kagome?" Sango asked, reaching out and holding onto one of her trembling hands. She darted her head up and smiled.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to drift off like that! I'm just really tired. Sorry!"

Sango glanced over her shoulder, and Kagome knew that she wasn't convincing anyone. There were just parts of that dream that she didn't want to address just yet.

"I'm taking her back," Inuyasha stated from behind her. "Kaede! I'll be back in a bit for the tea," he shouted.

"It's a small hut, Inuyasha. There is no need to yell. I can hear ye just fine."

"Not as well as you used to," he mumbled.

"Aye, but I still hear just fine."

His ears flattened back against his skull, and he reached for her to help her stand.

"We don't have to go back yet. It's not nighttime yet."

"You need to sleep and put up those scribbles."

Miroku sighed, standing with them.

"There's no need to take your frustration out on everyone, Inuyasha."

"I'll come back by after she's gotten it done."

"Really, I can wait."

But her words fell flat as Inuyasha hauled her up to her feet anyway, despite her protests.

"Honestly!" She pushed against his arms as he lifted her up by her armpits. "Inuyasha, I can wait for a few minutes!" She tried pushing at his arms. "It's not even nightfall yet!"

"We're leaving, Kagome."

His tone brokered no option for argument, but she still felt that pull and push to fight him on this. She didn't want to go. She wanted to stay. She looked to Sango, who was also rising to her feet.

"If Kagome wants to stay, she can stay for a bit longer. There's no real need to rush off like that."

He looked over Kagome's shoulder at Sango, glowering at her, and Kagome wriggled in his grasp, but her feet weren't even touching the ground now. She couldn't resist him even if she wanted. Like she had nothing to use as leverage against his iron-clad grip. It was hard to fight anyone when your feet didn't reach the ground.

She kicked her legs out weakly at him with a little grunt; he refocused his glower on her, this time raising an eyebrow at her antics.

"Really?" He asked, and she let her body fall limp in defeat with a groan once she realized that even if she did kick him, she'd probably just wind up hurting herself. "You gonna give up?"

"Fine," she moaned as she lolled her head back, again, showing him her willing acceptance of her defeat.

He set her down on the ground, and she crossed her arms, looking away from him. Sango's hand on her shoulder made her pause and turn.

"We'll see you in a couple days, okay?"

"Yeah," she said with a weak smile. "See you in a few." She walked out, moving past Inuyasha, and clutching Miroku's ofuda.

This wasn't how she'd expected the visit to go.

She'd wanted to feel better than when she'd come here, but now she was leaving to go back, and she still didn't have any answers. She knew nothing more than when she'd arrived.

She tried to focus on the fact that she had something to protect herself and her family with. She would be able to leave in a couple days, and her family would be able to be safe from Hina's attacks.

This was a good thing. This was good. She could do this.

She just had to go back for a little bit, and she didn't even have to go to school. She just had to go home and take a nap, and sleep off whatever today was. That's all.

Inuyasha caught her arm, stopping her from moving any farther from the hut.

She looked up at him, and he just stared for a moment before looking back at the hut.

"I'll come back and get your tea from Kaede. Let's go put those up before it gets dark." He pressed a hand to her back, guiding her back towards the well.

How terrible was it that she really didn't want to go home? The idea of facing Hina again terrified her.

The idea that she might go after Inuyasha?

Even more so.

She shuddered at the thought, and then the familiar weight of a red robe draped around her shoulders. She pulled it tighter around her, glancing up at Inuyasha as he walked in step with her.

"Thanks," she whispered.

It was quiet only for a few minutes while she felt the weight of it on her shoulders. He was waiting for the right moment to explode, she just knew it. Might as well get this party started.

"You're angry, aren't you?"

"Keh," he scoffed, but she could hear the sound of his teeth grinding together.

"Go ahead. Yell if you want, it's not like I don't deserve it."

He let out his breath in a long sigh.

"I ain't gonna yell at you," he said much calmer than she expected. "Even though you do deserve it." She winced, but he wasn't wrong either. "I still don't understand why you didn't say something."

"I wanted to, really. But," she let her statement drift off with a shrug.

"But what?"

"I told you already," she whispered, tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear and out of her face and hissing as she stepped on a twig in her bare feet.

"Here," Inuyasha moved too quickly for her to negotiate her own balance, sweeping her off her feet and into the air. "It'll be faster if I carry you anyway."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, holding tightly to the ofuda so they didn't blow away in the wind as Inuyasha ran towards the well.

He didn't say anything, but leapt up into the air to slip into the well easily and gracefully. His silence was answer enough to her apology; she was not forgiven.

There was a strange tugging sensation, like someone had tied a rope to her spine but was only applying the barest of pressure to it. Just enough that she felt the resistance, but not enough to stop her from going anywhere.

It was—well, weird.

But she really didn't have a word for it. And it didn't seem to be stopping her from being able to make the transition from the past to her time. And she was tired, so maybe it was just all in her head after all. A lot of things seemed to be that way too these days.

He carried her to the back door.

"Ready?" He asked, and she nodded. He set her feet on the ground, and Kagome held the one ofuda in her hands, staring at Miroku's perfectly designed, spaced, and written ofuda. It was almost a work of art. Kagome reached to put it up on the top of the door jamb, but she was way too short for it, even standing on her tiptoes.

Kagome sighed, preparing to jump and slap it against the wooden frame, but Inuyasha's hands grabbed her waist and lifted her up high enough that she was eye level with where she'd wanted to place it. She applied it to the wood with a charge of reiki from her fingertips, pressing it firmly, and he lowered her back to the ground.

"How many more you got?"

"Three?" She said, spreading them out so he could see. "I want to do one on my window, but only if it doesn't bother you."

"Let's put one on your door too," he suggested, and she gave him a quick nod in agreement. "Alright, let's get you upstairs before your mother notices."

He scooped her up again, leaping up to her window. He held her while she charged the slip of paper and then pressed it firmly on the wooden frame of her window. He opened the window, passing her through, waiting until she was standing on her own to climb in.

Standing in her room, she watched him climb through the window, shutting it behind him.

"Are you okay?" She asked, and he looked at his hands, flipping them over and shrugged.

"Seems like it," he said, looking back at her. "Put it up." He motioned to her door with a wave of his hand. She wandered over and quickly slapped the paper over the doorframe.

"Okay, it's done. I have one more," she said, waving the ofuda in the air.

"What do you want to do with it?" He asked, and this time, she shrugged. She didn't know where else to put it. The roof maybe?

"We can see what those do and then put it up tomorrow?"

"Sure, whatever," he said with another shrug, leaning back against her desk.

"You're mad," she wanted it to come out as a question, but the reality was that she knew that he was upset with her, and she knew that he had every right to be so.

"Go change for bed," he ordered, nodding his head at her pajamas sitting at the end of her bed in a pile from when they'd left earlier.

She turned away from him, setting the unused ofuda on her nightstand, before taking her clothes with her to the bathroom to change. It was quiet, and Kagome sighed as she stripped and redressed, brushing her teeth and splashing some water on her face, as well as scrubbing a wash cloth against the soles of her feet.

She just needed a good night's sleep and then she could attempt to make amends for everything that she'd done—or hadn't done.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she glanced down the stairs, hearing the television set still playing and the soft voices of her family downstairs. Feeling very much like a grounded child, she turned back to bedroom and opened her door.

A brief flash of fear darted across her brain, that she'd find him sprawled across the floor, bleeding out, like the street. Some part of her still thought that this might be a dream.

"What?" He asked, and she snapped her head up at the sharpness of his question.

She opened her mouth to speak, hesitating for just a moment, before smiling and shaking her head. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

She tossed her clothes into her hamper, before climbing into bed. She leaned back against the headboard, letting the blankets bunch around her waist.

"Go ahead," she said. "Let me have it. I know you want to. And it's not like I don't deserve it."

He stood next to her desk for a bit, and she ran her fingernails underneath each other, cleaning the invisible dirt beneath them.

It was quiet, and it felt like there was a heavy weighted silence between them.

Maybe she should just shut up and wait for him to come to her when he was ready.

Inuyasha wasn't one to actively talk about his feelings, and maybe he just needed space at the moment.

"Don't worry about it. It's fine. I'm going to bed," she lied, slipping down into her blankets and curling up on her side. "I'll see you in the morning."

A soft and long exhale came from across the room, and the lights went out a moment later. He shuffled back to her bed, settling down on the ground beside her.

"I'm allowed to be mad at you," he spoke softly in the room, and she played with the hem of the blanket in front of her face. "You should've said something, anything, about this."

"Yeah, I know," she whispered.

"I would've believed you."

"I know."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I was scared."

"Of a ghost?"

She nodded before realizing that he couldn't see her from where he was sitting.

"Of what she could do to you. To my family. I don't even know if Hojo is okay. I just left him there. What if he died?"

"I'm sure that he's fine."

"How do you know?"

"Because the little fucker is a cockroach. He'll find a way to come crawling out of there and wind up being perfectly fine." He growled.

She rolled over to face the back of his head. His ears flicked at the noise and air movement.

"Why do you sound upset about that?"

"I ain't upset!" She could practically feel him bristling at the comment, and she couldn't fathom why exactly.

"It was just a question. That's all."

He growled, head twitching back towards her ever so slightly, but he didn't actually look at her directly.

"Go to sleep would ya? You look like shit."

She curled her hand under her face, staring at the back of his head in the moon-lit darkness of her room.

"I really am sorry, Inuyasha," she added.

It was quiet for a long moment, and she took a slow breath, rolled back over.

There was a short but gentle tug on her hair, and she rolled over slightly to look at him. He still wasn't looking at her, but a small lock of her hair was wrapped around one of his fingers. She smiled nonetheless.

Maybe she was forgiven, and the mere possibility was enough for her.

"Goodnight Inuyasha," she whispered, settling back into her blankets.

"So, explain something to me," Inuyasha asked, sitting back on her bed as he played with the unused ofuda from Miroku.

When he didn't continue, she turned to look at him from where she was brushing her hair at the vanity.

He was staring at it intently, holding it up to the light and inspecting it.

She turned her entire body towards him, knocking the vase with the single flower; it rattled a little, but didn't fall over completely.

"What?" She asked.

"How are these supposed to stop a ghost but not a youkai?"

"Well, you heard Kaede and Miroku, they're written to stop spirits, not youkai."

"So how do we know if they're working or not?"

"Well, I haven't seen her at all since we put them up." She shrugged. "So they must be working."

He scoffed.

"That is the world's shittiest argument for the monk's lame ass excuse for an ofuda." He tossed the slip of paper on the floor, and she sighed at his antics. "I ain't seen her either, but that doesn't mean shit."

"You're never seen her."

Inuyasha spread his arms as if that proved his point. Kagome rolled her eyes and turned back towards the vanity to finish brushing out her hair.

She stared at herself in the mirror.

Something was off—wrong. She just couldn't put her finger on it.

But it was there—jingling like the far off distant chimes of the shrine—enough to notice, but not enough to draw your full attention.

Ding!

What was it?

What was it?

Whatever it was, it was important.

At least they weren't fighting anymore.

Ding!

They had been fighting, hadn't they?

He'd been upset about Hojo and her disappearing.

She looked back at her face.

Ding!

Flawless.

Her skin was flawless.

No marks. No bruise covering her cheek, stretching up to her eye and her jaw.

Ding!

She swallowed down the bile, as she stared at the flower on her dresser. The one that had never been there before. She made a note of not putting flowers in her room after Inuyasha complained about the smell of them when they were on the other side of the well.

This—this wasn't real. She was dreaming again.

Ding!

The familiar shrine bells tolled over and over as the sound drifted through her open window.

This wasn't real.

So where was she hiding now?

She turned slowly, praying that she didn't see another bloody rendition of Inuyasha sprawled out across her floor. Her heart couldn't take it, and this might be the one thing that finally did her in.

"I know this is a dream." She finally spoke aloud. It was all that she could do to keep her voice from breaking as she stared at the singular flower on her vanity.

Ding!

"Why would you think that?" Inuyasha asked, and her head snapped towards him, expecting to see the worst, but he was just there. Sitting on her bed like it was the most normal thing in the world. He always sat on her bed when he was here. Always. It was his favorite place to be while she was here working on homework or doing chores. He always catnapped on it while he was here too.

She stared at him for a moment, before letting a soft smile cover her face.

He'd waited until she was asleep to slip out from the room and back down the well. He didn't want to be gone for too long, but he felt safe enough with the ofuda that she'd put up. That should keep whatever was haunting her out of the house.

It still bothered him.

He hadn't sensed a single fucking thing, and he still didn't.

If he hadn't seen the marks himself, and known that they weren't there the night before, he might have doubted her and thought it something else, namely someone else. It was the only thing preventing him from bodily harming that little fucker. He definitely wasn't too sad that the little shit was currently missing.

But he knew Kagome; she cared about every living little thing. If she thought that there was a spirit, there was definitely something.

She was untrained, powerful but untrained, and that put limitations on what she could do and how she sensed things. She was definitely sensing something; he had no doubt about that, but whether it was a spirit or not, was up for debate.

He leapt through the well, landing carefully, and immediately bounding back out and heading towards Kaede's.

"Ah, Inuyasha, I was wondering if ye would be returning this evening." Kaede looked up from her cushion where she sat sipping her own tea cup. Miroku and Sango were also in the hut along with the kit, who scowled at him.

"What?" He snapped at him, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You brought Kagome back!" The kit snapped. "And you didn't let me see her!" A handful of acorns went straight for his head, and he easily, and effortlessly, knocked them away.

"Get over it. She'll be back in a day or two." He turned back towards Kaede. "You got the tea ready?" He asked.

"Aye," Kaede said, shifting to push herself to her feet. "Hush, Shippo." The kit was ready to lay into Inuyasha for keeping Kagome from him, but he settled at Kaede's command, though he still stuck his tongue out.

The only reason that Inuyasha didn't retaliate was that he knew that he was going to go back to Kagome and the kit would get nothing from her until she returned. And he was going to take advantage of every minute alone he had with her.

"I can get it," Sango offered, standing to her feet with more ease than Kaede.

"How is Kagome?" Miroku asked.

"Sleeping. Finally," he said with a shrug. "She put up the ofuda though."

"And they didn't bother ye?" Kaede asked, and he shook his head. "And ye still sense nothing?"

"There's nothing there," he said, running a hand through his hair. Sango retrieved the tea from the high shelf where Kaede put her finished medicine. "I tried looking around, but there's nothing there."

"She seemed really—" Sango paused, looking for the right word. "Upset?" She frowned a little at her own word choice.

"She's a fucking disaster." He quipped.

"That's one way to put it," Miroku added. "But her appearance today was troubling to say the least."

"Aye, I concur."

Sango handed him the small bag of tea, and he quickly shoved it into his sleeve for safe keeping.

"Has she been having dreams?" Miroku asked.

"She's been having nightmares for the past few nights. Probably why she's so fucking tired."

Kaede hummed to herself.

"But no other strangeness?"

He tried to think back, but all this was just so fucking weird and out of his wheel house.

"The marks on her wrists," he stared at the fire for just a moment. "Today was just fucking weird." He ran a hand across his face, trying to think, but he also wanted to leave and head back to Kagome's time. He'd been gone for a little while as it was. "She says that the little prick punched her."

"Do ye doubt her story?" Kaede asked, and his head shot up to glower at her.

"Kagome wouldn't lie about that."

"No one is suggesting that, Inuyasha." Miroku held up his hands in front of him in a placating gesture. "We're only asking if you think she was wrong."

"Doesn't seem the type to hit women."

"From what Kagome's told me about him, I don't think that was likely either," Sango suggested, and Inuyasha bristled at the idea that Kagome spent time conversing about the little boy from her time.

"Maybe a spirit pretending then?" Kaede asked.

"But wouldn't she notice that?" Sango asked.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not," Kaede answered. "Kagome is largely untrained, but if the spirit is strong enough, then she may not be able to tell the difference. Perhaps it is strong enough to hide itself from ye too, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha scoffed at the notion.

"I'm going back now. You lot can chat about it all you want." He moved towards the door mat.

"Are you coming back tomorrow?" Sango asked.

"Depends on her mother," he said, grimacing a little. "She's—not happy with her at the moment."

"Aye, I would imagine so." Kaede nodded and gave him a wave. He was out and leaping off towards the well, passing through the time slip in an easy bound.

He leapt out, closed the door behind him, a common routine by now. He was climbing through her window with ease, the ofuda not even tingling across his senses like he expected.

Setting the tea on her desk, he wandered over to her, pushing the blanket away from her face as he watched her sleep for just a moment. She was out, completely unaware of anything around her. He pulled his finger away, squatting down to stare at her.

He was dying for answers, something to quell this disquiet that was rumbling through him. But he could wait. She was finally asleep and looked as though she wasn't suffering through a nightmare at the moment.

He could wait.

He settled down beside her bed, sitting so he could see the door and her window in his range of vision. Nothing was sneaking in under his senses; he was going to be high alert until morning.

She woke up so suddenly that she threw herself away from whatever was next to her, sending her body sprawling into the wall behind her, knocking against the painful bruise that Hina had left as a parting gift from her time pretending to be Hojo.

She groaned as she pushed herself away from the wall, falling face first back into her damp sheets.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, and she looked up blearily at him. On his feet, claws extended, ready to maul whatever was nearby. He was on the defense, and she felt bad for waking him, or at the bare minimum, disturbing him in the late hour.

Because it was late, if the darkness of her room was any indication.

"I'm fine," she mumbled into the sheets as she let her face fall back into them, muffling the sound of her voice even more.

"What happened?"

She opened her mouth to speak, suddenly aware of how much her throat ached. Instead, she shook her head, keeping her face buried into her damp blankets, the back of her shirt sticking to her skin in the coolness of the night.

He placed a hand on her shoulder before quickly pulling it away. No doubt she felt gross too.

"You wanna talk about it?" He asked, the weight of his hand returning to her shoulder, blissfully away from the deep dark bruise.

"There's nothing to talk about." She turned her head slightly to look at him. He was sitting on the edge of her bed, his far leg hanging over the side, the other curled almost underneath himself. His long sleeve hung partially covering her as he stared down at her prone figure. "Nothing happened."

"Seemed to scare the shit out of you."

"Yeah, I know," she sighed, closing her eyes for a breath. "I don't even know why I did that."

"What happened?"

"Nothing," she groaned. "Literally nothing happened. No one got hurt. No one was dead. Hina wasn't there. It was just—normal!"

He didn't say anything in response, and she buried her face back into the blankets. Maybe if she just smothered herself all of her worries would be over.

At least she wouldn't have these weird-ass dreams.

"I'm going back to sleep," she mumbled.

He didn't move nor did move his hand away from her shoulder.

She heard his slow exhale, a long sigh to no one but himself, and she battled the urge to sit up and curl herself around him, accepting his comfort and protection.

But she didn't deserve to take that from him, not after what she'd done in her fit of insanity. He deserved someone nicer than her.

She was punishing herself for her transgressions, an act of self-flagellation, so to speak, and she knew that, but she didn't deserve him. If anything, the past week had proven that. He was too good for her.

How did someone who had been so violently abused by so many and for so long still turn out as good as he did?

"That shirt is soaked. You should change."

"It'll be fine. I'll take a shower in the morning."

He huffed, an almost silent sound as the weight and heat of his hand disappeared, taking the rest of him when he went.

She heard a drawer open and close, and it was only because of her curiosity that she shifted her head to look at him.

"What're you doing?" She asked, pushing herself up and trying vainly to hide the wince that went with the bruising on her back.

"You need to change before you get sick." He tossed the shirt on her bed, next to her knee and crossed his arms in front of his chest before turning around to stare at the opposite wall.

He was waiting for her to obey, but he wasn't going to look.

She should make him stand there and wait, but she was tired, of everything, and decided that listening for once wouldn't be the absolute worst thing she ever did.

Peeling the wet shirt off of her, she tossed it on the foot of her bed.

She picked up the fresh one, and slid it over. It was an oversized t-shirt and it hung loosely from her body, letting the coolness of the air wash over her skin more freely than its predecessor.

"It's safe," she said, shifting so that she was sitting back against the wall. Inuyasha turned, staring at her, his golden eyes glowing in the timid darkness of her moonlit room.

"Thought you were going to sleep."

Kagome patted the bed beside her in invitation.

"Changed my mind. Can you come sit with me?"

He didn't move from his position next to her desk, looking away from her and out the window, eyes searching for evidence of something she didn't quite see.

"You need to sleep."

Her eyes drifted down to her lap, where she focused on her fingers wrapping them around each other in an attempt to self-soothe herself.

Of course.

Sleep would at least allow her to escape. Into some alternate version of hell, but escape nonetheless.

Another long sigh and he'd strode across the room, nimbly settling back against the wall next to her. She looked up at him, eyes focusing on the shadow of his ears flickering in the dark of her room.

Curling her legs up under her, she leaned against his shoulder, the only thing that she was willing to allow herself. He shifted too, settling back further against the wall.

Kagome let her eyes drift closed as she exhaled slowly, letting the tension slowly dissipate.

"You should go to bed," he whispered.

"Sshhh," she hushed. "Just be quiet."

He snorted, shifting his shoulder a little.

"What was the dream about?"

This time she huffed in frustration.

"I don't even know. It wasn't weird or scary. We were just sitting here, talking, and then I woke up and—" she spread her arms out in front of her, because she honestly didn't know what else to say. "Maybe I just need some good sleep."

"Keh, you think?"

"You don't have to be so rude, you know."

He shifted his arm again, pulling it away and then looping it over her shoulders, letting the sleeve drape over her.

"You don't have to be so dumb, you know," he replied in a slightly higher pitched voice, an obvious mockery of her own, and dragging her against him a little more as he shifted again.

She giggled, and let herself be dragged up against him, willingly taking whatever he offered her.

"Go to sleep, Kagome."

She hummed and let her eyes drift closed as she sagged against him.

The sun was bright in the room, and she immediately regretted whatever she did to earn her this blaring ache behind her eyes.

Groaning, she pulled the pillow up over her head and tried to bury herself back into the darkness from whence she came.

The door opened, and she sincerely hoped that whomever it was took a hint and just left her alone.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked.

Maybe if she just lied really, really still he would think that she was asleep and just leave her alone to get more sleep.

She didn't even know what time it was, but it was obviously too early for consciousness at the moment.

Just be really still, and he'll go away.

"I know you're awake," he said and the pillow disappeared from her face making her squint back up at him as the sun attempted to blind her for the second time that morning. "Your mother wants to talk to you."

Oh good.

Because that conversation was going to go swimmingly.

She was so grounded.

"Can we just run away and hide in your time?" She asked him, and he only raised an eyebrow at her question.

Traitor.

"She's going to kill me. You'll have to find someone else to find the shards if I die, you know."

He sighed, rolling his eyes at her.

"She's not going to kill you." He rolled his eyes at her dramatic response. "Just go down already so we can go."

"Go where?"

"To Kaede's! Where else?" He narrowed his gaze at her, as if she was crazy.

"I thought—never mind," she mumbled with a shake of her head as she pushed herself up the rest of the way, and shifted to the edge of her matress.

"Did you sleep okay?" He asked, holding his hands out to her.

"Yeah, I think so." She yawned as she took his hands, letting him pull her to her feet.

"You think?" He asked, tilting his head at her answer. "You still tired?"

"I don't even know anymore," she groaned, taking a step towards the door. Her head was pounding, but she wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. She opened the door and headed for the stairs with Inuyasha a step behind her.

It felt more like a prison march than it did a walk to breakfast.

Oh no. Her face.

She froze halfway down the stairs; Inuyasha crashed into her, nearly bowling her over. His reflexes were the only reason that they both didn't tumble down the stairs. He grabbed her around the waist, drawing her up against his chest as he snagged the banister next to him.

"What the hell, Kagome?" He snapped. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"

"No, of course not!"

"Then why'd you fucking stop?" He set them both to rights, making sure that she was steady on the stairs before he let go.

"My face!" She hissed at him. "My mom doesn't know! I need to go fix it."

"You want to hide it?"

"Of course I want to hide it! If my mom saw this, she'd freak!"

"You really should tell her."

Kagome almost recoiled at the statement, because first off all, how dare he put her in danger so willingly like that, and secondly, how dare he say something so smart. That was her job! That's what she brought to the group: good decision making skills!

Okay, well, maybe not in the last, like, seventy-two hours, but still she had a record to keep!

Kagome stared at his face, trying to figure out if he really wanted her to die today. Hadn't he sworn to protect her? Didn't that qualify for her mother too?

His head snapped up, staring out past her as his ears craned forward. He narrowed his eyes, tugging her closer.

"What is it?" She whispered.

"Something happened." He sniffed the air, eyes widening.

"What?" She fisted her hands in his fire rat, shaking him or at least trying to. "What?"

He didn't answer, instead he pulled her closer, leaping down the rest of the way."

"What is it?" She insisted, watching as his ears twisted, listening to whatever only he could hear at this distance.

"I'll be right back," he said. "Stay here." He pushed her hands away, as she reached out for him.

"No! You don't get—" She clawed at him, trying to keep him from leaving. "Inuyasha!"

He turned, facing her, hands on her shoulders, keeping her at arm's length.

"I'll be right back. I just—" He sniffed the air again, pausing as he smelled something that made his nose crinkle slightly; his eyes darted to her and back to the door. "Stay in the house, Kagome. Understand?"

"Can you at least tell me what is going on?"

"I'll be right back. Stay here. Inside the house."

"Inuyasha!" She shouted after him as he darted out the door, leaving her at the bottom of the stairs.

In her excellent decision making skills, she ran after him, stepping outside the back door, as she tried to figure out where he'd gone. Actually—she glanced back inside the house—her mother wasn't in the kitchen. Didn't she want to talk to her? Where had she gone off to? It wasn't like her mother to just disappear like that.

An insidious and unsettling disquiet washed over her, and she shivered as she looked out across the shrine grounds, trying to find out where her family had snuck off to and what exactly had Inuyasha so suddenly on edge, but there was no sign of her family at all, or Inuyasha. Kagome stepped back inside, closing the door behind her and taking a few steps back into the kitchen. She paused, looking around the suddenly very empty and very quiet house.

"Miss me?"

Kagome turned to her left, coming face to face with the spirit she'd been trying to avoid, barely having time to inhale before the darkness swallowed her whole.

Inuyasha bounded out of the door heading straight for the shed where her grandfather usually worked. It was all the way across the grounds, but he could hear her mother talking loudly, too loudly, at the old man, sounding panicked more than anything else.

Not to mention the smell of blood that doused the air, making him almost nauseated at whose it could be.

He cleared the doorway, the smell of blood overpowering. Her mother knelt over the figure of Kagome's grandfather, who had a bloody towel pressed against his forehead.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Oh, Inuyasha! He fell, and I need to take him to the hospital." She pulled the towel away for just a moment, wincing a little, and then pressed it more firmly against his head. The old man had blood covering the front of his shirt.

"I don't need to go to the hospital, dear. I'll be fine. Just a few bandages is all." His face as blood covering the entire side of it.

"I think that we should still go. You fell off a ladder," she said. "One I told you to stay off of."

"It's just a little scratch," he reassured her, trying to push her hands away from his head.

"I think that you're going to need stitches. Let me go get the car keys, and we'll go." She turned to look at Inuyasha, worry and concern written plainly across her face. "Can you get him down the stairs? I need to run back to the house."

"Yeah," he said, stepping forward.

"Try to keep pressure on the wound," she said, shifting to allow him to move in next to her and place his hand over the towel and the still seeping head wound that the old man had managed to accrue.

"Come on, old man," he said, pulling the old man up to his feet by his arm.

"I am not some frail old man," he countered, trying to shove the towel away from his head, but he was no competition against hanyou reflexes and strength.

"Didn't say you were," Inuyasha gently tugged the old man into motion towards the stairs. "What were you even doing?"

"Checking my sacred sutra supplies. Something I do every day! By myself! Without incident! I just took a small tumble is all. I've slipped before, you know. I'm perfectly fine, boy."

"Keh, her mother said to take you down the stairs."

"Are you always so obedient?"

Inuyasha started to snap out a response, but quickly realized the statement for what it was. Goading. Kagome had been urging him to 'take a step back' when it came to arguing with Shippo and recognize when the little shit was trying to get into a fight and ultimately get him sat by Kagome.

It had worked once since she had mentioned it a few months ago.

Well, twice now.

And with two different people.

"You always this clumsy?"

The old man grumped a bit as Inuyasha tugged him forwards.

Despite her complaints, his 'people skills' were clearly and obviously working just fine.

"Come on, old man," Inuyasha urged as he helped the elder man down the shrine steps, maintaining a firm grip on his upper arm and the towel pressed against his head.

"And it's not even a ladder! It's a step-ladder! There's a difference! This hardly merits being carted off to doctors and the emergency room. A few bandages and good bottle of sake is all that I need!"

Inuyasha scoffed under his breath at the sentiment. The wound, though not life threatening, was still serious enough to merit care, especially at his age.

"You're still bleeding like a rabbit."

"I suppose you would be the one to know."

"Keh, I've hunted them enough."

The old man sighed.

Inuyasha suddenly panicked at the implication that he'd been feeding Kagome something that would be considered 'less-than' in her world. People here kept them as pets, they didn't eat rabbit like he did in the past. He'd initially chalked up her surprise at the type of meat as her being spoiled and unaccustomed to the 'real' world outside the town. But when he found that her time didn't seen rabbits as food, it made him reconsider the level of care and consideration that she was used to, a level he was afraid he could not, and would never be able to, meet. It was why he'd never, well, pursued her; he'd take what he was offered and be thankful that he had that much.

"The world has not been kind to you, has it, boy?" He said as they continued to walk down the steps.

"Keh."

He was worried at being gone for so long. He knew that the longer he was gone from Kagome, the likelihood of her doing something incredibly stupid and life-threatening increased.

But he couldn't just let the old man wander down the steps alone after hitting his head like that. Head wounds bled a lot, but it was different for him. He could lose a lot of blood and still be a functional person. The old man wasn't like that.

The blood loss seemed to have subsided, with only a couple minor trickles instead of the heavy gush of blood at the beginning.

They were almost at the bottom of the stairs when he heard Kagome's mother coming down quickly after them.

"Thank you, Inuyasha," she said, breathing heavily as she ushered them towards the car, her keys and purse in hand. He helped the old man inside, shutting the door after him. "We'll be back as soon as we can, alright?"

Inuyasha gave a nod as her mother checked on the old man before moving to the other side of the car. She paused before climbing in.

"Tell Kagome not to worry, and if Souta beats us home, there's money in the kitchen for some food." The old man tugged on her skirt.

"They'll be fine. Now, are you going to let an old man bleed to death in his own sedan?"

Her mother frowned, sitting down in the seat, and saying something very quietly, so quietly that he couldn't quite make it out over the sound of a door closing. He stepped back as the thing made some horrible noise and smell and rolled away under its own power. He didn't understand how those things worked, and he really didn't care. His legs were faster than they were anyway.

He leapt up the stairs, quickly bounding towards the house, searching for Kagome.

Who was not outside.

Good.

Maybe she was finally listening.

He stepped inside, searching for her.

"Kagome?" He called out to the empty house, heading straight for her room.

But she wasn't there either.

"Kagome!" He called again, agitated, though it was borne out of concern for her than it was his own irritation. He leapt back down, following her scent, which went right to the back door, where she'd obviously followed him.

And then it just—stopped at the threshold. Panic swarmed him. He could track her right to the edge of it, and then nothing. He ran out, leaping up to the roof to survey the area, trying to find some trace, sign of her presence. His eyes and ears darting around, looking for any trace of her presence.

She was human and not that fast. She couldn't have gotten far.

"Kagome!" He shouted across the shrine grounds, his voice loud and almost echoing.

But there was nothing but silence and the birds chirping overhead to greet him.

A/N: Hey look! It's only been like three weeks instead of four, which, while only slightly better, is still an improvement!

Anyway, I wanted to thank whomever nominated this for Best Dark at Feudal Connection; you're amazing, and I'm so glad that you're enjoying the story. It's a little-well a lot weird, but the psychological torture I've inflicted on these characters is probably some of my favorite. Because I mean, who doesn't love some good terrifying ghost stories?

But anyway, I hope that you enjoy the chapter, and let me know what you think!