Chapter 19
"Wow, This is Literally Exactly Everything I Never Wanted"

"Bellflowers. Kikyos to be exact."

Kagome fought the urge to throw the bouquet back at him, and the petals shook as her hands trembled while holding them.

"Kagome?" Hojo asked, stepping forward again. "You're awfully pale. Can I help you sit down?" He reached his hands out to her, as if to hold them, and her grip on Inuyasha's tightened.

"Uh, I—I—," she managed to stutter out. Was Hojo actually Hojo? Was the thing really gone or had it just been laying in wait this whole time? What if it had all been a show? Something to throw her off course and stop looking?

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked her, leaning over her shoulder slightly. His free hand lightly touched hers, and she jolted, looking up at him, completely unsure of what she should say.

"I—" She looked over at Hojo, who still looked concerned.

"Perhaps, I should help you sit down," he said taking another step towards her.

"I'm fine!" She shouted, and he stopped advancing. "I'm fine!" She repeated softer.

"Are you sure?" Hojo asked, and Inuyasha's arm tightened around her waist.

"She said she was fine!" Inuyasha snapped. "So leave her the fuck alone, would ya?"

"And who do you think you are?" Hojo asked indignantly. "You should not use such—such—bad words like that! And in front of a lady!"

Kagome watched as Hojo's self-preservation was clearly no longer present or active in his head, because Inuyasha sounded absolutely feral, and she could feel him practically vibrating behind her.

"Here, Kagome, I'll take you—"

"You step the fuck away from her!" He snarled, and she snapped her free hand down to grip the one that rested on her waist.

"I want to go upstairs," she whispered urgently.

"Kagome?"

"I want to go upstairs," she repeated just as quietly as before. "Please."

"Here, let me help you," Hojo offered, reaching out for her, and she recoiled from him, pressing herself farther back against Inuyasha.

"I've got her," Inuyasha said, quickly shifting himself so that he was in between them. "You can go punch someone else in the face."

"What—?" But a quick glance over his shoulder showed Hojo's own sudden pallor before his eyes darted off to the side. "Mrs. Higurashi!"

"What appears to be the problem?" She asked, wiping her hands on her apron. "I could hear the yelling from the kitchen." She looked down at the flowers in Kagome's hands. "Oh, those look lovely. I will take these and put them in some water."

"Kagome wants to go upstairs," he explained, and her mother turned to look at her as she took the flowers.

"I offered to take her up," Hojo reminded them—unnecessarily—again.

"Ah, that's very kind of you," her mother said with a smile, taking the flowers from Kagome's still trembling arms. "However, Inuyasha has already very generously offered to help her while she's recuperating." She rested a hand on his shoulder as she moved past them to stand in front of Hojo. "Would you be a dear, Inuyasha, and take Kagome upstairs? She looks tired." Her mother turned back to Hojo, removing her hand. "I'm afraid Kagome is not quite up to visitors just yet."

Kagome silently thanked her mother for picking up on her nervousness and her fatigue.

Inuyasha shifted slightly and picked her up as she wrapped her arms around him, hiding her face in his neck.

He took the stairs quietly up, no jumping and no quick movements, and she was grateful for that.

After a moment of walking, he set her on the bed, letting her go slowly. She pulled away, wrapping her arms around herself. He looked at her, frowning, before reaching over to grab the blanket and dragged it over her.

"You okay?" He asked, sitting down on the edge of her bed after a moment.

She wasn't okay. Why couldn't she just get over the fact that it was gone? That everything was going back to normal as soon as she could walk on her foot? Why wasn't her brain computing all that information and just letting her relax and sleep?

God, she was exhausted.

"Yeah," she answered after a moment, swallowing down the thick syrupy fear that coated her insides. "Yeah, I'm fine." Looking up at his face, proved that he didn't believe a single letter of anything she'd told him.

"Liar," he grumbled. "You look like shit." He paused for a beat. "You need a nap."

"What am I? Five? I don't need a nap!" Her brain processed the rest of his statement a few moments later. "And don't insult me! It's been a rough—whatever it is."

"You know that you're gonna crash and burn here. You can't stay awake much longer."

"You've done it."

"Hanyou, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm just a weak human, got it," she mumbled, tugging the blanket up so that it was up under her chin and bunched in her hands.

He huffed, standing up and gently sliding her towards the wall.

"Hey!" She said, already feeling her underwear slide up one butt cheek and giving her a really awkward wedgie that she had to shift inconspicuously to dig out as he settled down next to her.

"Come on," he sighed, "you know you want to."

"You don't know what I want," she muttered under her breath as he held his hand out to her.

He was warm though, and she was a little chilled.

So would it really be that bad to just—you know—borrow some body heat for a little while?

He wiggled his fingers a bit, like he was taunting her somehow—and he was, the jerk—and she finally gave in, pressing her hand to his and shifting to lay her head against his shoulder. He reached over and pulled the blanket back up and over her shoulder.

It was quiet between them, and she shifted a little more to wrap her other arm around his, holding him close to herself.

It was in the quiet that all Kagome could do was think.

Why had Hojo brought her flowers?

Why those flowers?

The good news was that he wasn't dead. He hadn't even blipped across her thoughts lately. She supposed that she might've heard something in the short time that she'd been home if he had, you know, died and all.

It all felt like a ploy, one that she was not going to fall willingly into this time.

That fucker! Inuyasha mentally snarled at the image of that asswipe with those pansy-ass flowers.

And she opened the door, which was the exact opposite of what he told her to do! It was like she had zero self-preservation at all!

It was a good thing he was here.

At least, Kagome had turned to him to take care of her. Right in front of that idiot too. The thought made him smirk to himself, feeling one of his fangs hang over his lip.

When that idiot had offered to carry up the stairs—he huffed a short breath through his nose, good mood gone just as quickly as it came.

He had fucking punched her in the face and then showed up with fucking weeds, acting like it was a big deal! He should've throttled the fucker.

Maybe he would. Little bitch deserved it.

Inuyasha let out a soft sigh as Kagome finally fell limp against him. She'd fought it for a while before she finally gave in.

His fingers played around hers as she slept, and he shifted himself so he was reclining a little more against her pillows.

Probably wouldn't hurt for him to get a little shut eye in the process either. He could already feel his eyes growing heavy, and with Kagome so near, it was hard not to doze off with the warmth of her pressed against his side. His head shifted enough so that it was resting against hers, and he moved her hand, situating his own arm to wrap around hers and hold it against his chest.

The afternoon was quiet, and there was a little noise downstairs, but everything else was just quiet and calm, and so, he allowed himself to doze.

His eye cracked open as the doorknob twisted.

Kagome had moved in her sleep, twisting further down the bed, but still keeping herself pressed close against him. Her cheek firmly rested against his shoulder and now both of her arms had wrapped around his, hugging him closer to her.

Her mother stepped quietly into the room, holding the vase of flowers the asswipe had brought.

What were flowers going to do to make her better? You probably couldn't even turn those into medicine.

"Oh good, she's sleeping," she mused, speaking quietly as she stared at the two of them. "Do you want to get up? It looks like she's got you trapped."

"I don't want to wake her," he lamely explained.

He was perfectly content to keep dozing right next to her, and he really didn't want to move at all.

He was tired too.

"I'll come up and check on you before dinner then," she said, moving to pull the curtains closed, darkening the room.

"She doesn't want it dark," he whispered, and her mother stared at him before shifting her gaze to look at her daughter, and the thought briefly ran through his head that maybe he shouldn't have said anything at all.

She started to speak, but closed her mouth as she pushed the curtains open again.

"I believe we need to have a chat. Sooner rather than later," she told him, disappearing out the door and shutting it behind her with a soft click.

Inuyasha sighed, ears flattening as he twisted his head slightly so that the bridge of his nose rested against the crown of her head.

He probably should've just kept his mouth shut.

He took a long breath, before letting it out and sinking further back into the bed.

Kagome felt herself slowly rouse to wakefulness. She was warm and comfortable, and everything finally didn't hurt so much.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, and she blinked, noting the dimmed room, which hadn't been that way before. She sat upright, the blanket falling off her shoulders as Inuyasha rose with her.

"Is this—am I—?" Her hands gripped his arms as he reached for her.

"You're awake," he told her. She stared at him, trying to discern his falseness to his face or likeness. But he just looked like himself. He always looked like himself.

"Kagome! Inuyasha!" Her mother called. "Dinner!"

"She knows I can hear her, right? Why does she always yell?"

Kagome looked at him, as he scowled before standing up, stretching his arms over his head. There were several satisfying-sounding pops that issued from that stretch, and she almost wished that she could do the same.

This was Inuyasha. The real Inuyasha. Her Inuyasha.

"Ready?" He asked, looking back down at her. He leaned down a bit to pick her up, and she moved quickly, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

He braced himself with one arm on the bed, as she tugged him close.

His hand, warm and solid as it rested on her back.

She leaned away after a moment.

"Ready?" He asked again, and this time, she nodded. His arm slid underneath her knees as she kept her arms around his neck. The ease of which he carried her was always a surprise, even though it shouldn't be. The boy had thrown boulders off a cliff with little to no effort on his part. Lifting her so easily shouldn't be a surprise.

He was always careful with her though, even as he carried her downstairs and to the dinner table.

Setting her down in the chair, she looked up at her mother, who was already starting to spoon food onto her plate. Souta and her grandfather were already seated, and Inuyasha took his seat next to her.

Her mother set an antibiotic pill down next to her plate before taking her own seat.

"You need to take it with food," she reminded her, and Kagome deftly swallowed it with a gulp of water. Her mother gave her a nod, as Kagome picked up her chopsticks to eat her dinner. At least as much as she could manage.

She caught sight of Inuyasha watching her carefully as she nibbled at everything in her bowl, trying to make sure that everyone was happy with her eating habits.

But everything felt like stones seeping down into her stomach.

"How are you feeling, Kagome?" Her mother asked.

"I'm okay," she answered, and her mother hummed a response as she took a bite of rice.

"You're foot isn't bothering you?"

"No," Kagome answered hesitantly. "I've been staying off it, like the doctor said."

She glanced up to see her mother staring at her intently.

"Well, I think it would be good for you to stay home from school tomorrow as well," her mother suggested.

Kagome, for one, felt relieved. She really should go to school. She'd missed more than enough as it was, but the thought of returning to that place, where all the creature had first really shown itself, made her innards freeze.

Returning to school was going to take some time. That was for sure.

She probably should work on some school work though. She hadn't touched anything in a while, and didn't Souta say something about her having tests coming up? She should look at her notes, just to be sure.

"Kagome?" Her mother asked, and Kagome quickly shifted her focus to her mother, who stared at her with a very concerned look on her face.

"What?"

"You just looked a little lost for a moment," she said, and Kagome took a small bite of food to reassure her.

"I was thinking. Sorry." She flashed her a brief smile to reassure her, and then stared back at her bowl as she continued taking small bites of food. It was something at least.

"How long are you staying?" Her brother asked Inuyasha.

"Dunno," Inuyasha answered with a small shrug. "Until she's healed up, I guess."

"Oh, well, do you think that you want to play video games after dinner? I just got a new one!"

"Uh, sure, I guess," Inuyasha answered with another shrug, but looking at her as if asking a question, though she wasn't entirely sure why it mattered what she thought.

"I can work on some of my homework," she told him. "You don't have to sit with me all the time."

Not that she'd complain if he did want to sit with her all the time, but she couldn't monopolize his attention.

Even if she wanted to.

Even if her heart was already pounding in her chest at being alone in her room.

It was fine.

Everything was totally and completely fine, because the whatever-it-was was gone. Inuyasha had said so, and Inuyasha wouldn't lie to her.

But what if he was wrong?

Nope, everything was fine and dandy. She didn't have to worry about anything.

Not a single thing.

Her hand trembled as she ate, and she pointedly ignored it.

It was after dinner, when she'd eaten almost everything in her bowl, much to her mother's—and Inuyasha's apparently—happiness.

But it all felt like lead weights in her gut.

She'd grabbed onto his neck when he offered to carry her upstairs and buried herself in him until they reached the top of the stairs.

"Where do you wanna sit?" He asked.

"At my desk," she shifted, pointing at her chair.

He moved silently across her floor, carefully depositing her into her rolling chair, and starting to step away, but she snagged his beads, stopping him from leaving.

"Thank you," she answered, and his own hand engulfed hers, covering her fingers wrapped around his beads.

His other hand was braced on her desk.

Their eyes were level, and she marveled at the shades of gold in his eyes. She was rarely ever so close to him without something happening.

But he wasn't complaining.

And he wasn't moving away.

He wasn't trying to escape.

Her traitorous fingers, slowly and gently applied just enough pressure to pull him forward.

And he moved with her willingly.

His eyes never left hers, even as they approached, and her mouth parted, ever so slightly, and she questioned the reality of what was happening.

It felt real.

But it always felt real.

Inuyasha's fingers tightened around her own, and she heard the distinct scrape of his claws on her desk.

But she didn't care.

It was dim, and maybe that's what made her so bold.

Inuyasha wasn't pulling away, and he didn't seem nervous. His head tilted to the side slightly, and—

"Big brother!" Souta shouted, loud steps echoing behind him as he ran in. Her fingers released his beads as Inuyasha rocketed up to a standing position.

Kagome immediately spun to face her desk, and her hands gripped her pajama pants as she stared at her notebook.

"You wanna come play video games?" Souta asked.

"Uh—I mean—y—yeah—sure!" Inuyasha stuttered out, briskly walking out the door.

Kagome felt her face flame as her brother waited a moment longer before leaving. She let out a long breath, struggling to keep herself from screaming her frustration.

What had she been thinking? She was going to kiss Inuyasha?

She covered her face with her hands and muffled a low groan.

She was lucky that hadn't backfired on her.

She blinked, still staring at her notebook, before sighing into her palms and reaching out to flip it open. Souta had said that he'd made some sort of notes for her about tests. She might as well study a little while the opportunity presented itself.

Because the thing was gone forever.

Inuyasha had said so.

Kaede and Miroku swore they destroyed it.

She was only having regular nightmares. While those were still utterly terrifying, there was nothing special about them.

Nothing special about them at all.

And it wasn't like she was going to have any more opportunities to make out with Inuyasha.

She groaned quietly again, still not quite believing her own audacity and foolishness.

Maybe she really did need a nap if she was going to continue to do stupid things like that.

What if he left?

Inuyasha was just as likely to flee from embarrassment as he was anything else. And here she was, putting him in probably one of the most awkward situations of his life.

"Idiot," she muttered to herself.

She flipped to the end of her notes, seeing her brother carefully writing in the dates of two of her exams, both of which were next week. Math and history.

It wasn't the worst thing.

Well, math was, but she could probably sneak by in history.

She still had time to prepare. And study. And complete her homework that she had definitely not touched in over a week.

Souta had gone so far to copy notes from—she guessed Ayumi, since she doubted Eri or Yuka would be motivated to be of any help to her.

She needed to get some rest anyway, might as well be productive while she did it.

Grabbing her math notebook, she opted to work on the harder of the two subjects first while her brain was still functional. She made it through the first assignment easily enough. It was one that she'd partially finished earlier—before she'd disappeared to the other side of the well via possession.

Her pencil paused just above the paper.

It was—there were things didn't quite add up in all this.

She wanted to know why—on all counts. Why her? Why possess the shape of her friend? Why threaten her family? Why not just move on? Why stay and scare the living daylights out of her? Just—just why?

But Kaede and Miroku were right. The thing was gone. For good. It had been defeated and exorcised, so it should be gone now from her time too.

There hadn't been a single peep from anything supernatural the entire time she'd been at home.

She worked mindlessly through the next few assignments, before her eyes started to ache from staring at the small numbers and stupid little symbols and letters that had begun to lose all meaning to them.

She leaned back, rubbing her eyes with a long sigh. But the blackness behind her closed lids suddenly became darker, like the lights had gone out, and her eyes snapped open, squinting in the brightness of her desk lamp.

It was just her brain messing with her.

Just stress. That's all.

And then her light flickered, making her heart leap up into her throat.

It was nothing.

Nothing was wrong.

She held her breath, waiting for something to happen, for that familiar voice to whisper to her about dreams and death. But it was quiet in her room. No voices. No noises.

She slowly turned her chair around to look at her room, searching the shadowy places for any trace of the creature's presence.

But it had always ever shown itself when it wanted to be seen.

Right?

But maybe, Miroku and Kaede had weakened it some. Maybe it couldn't hide itself from her any more—or at least for the moment. But there was nothing in her room. Nothing that she could see. Nothing that seemed like it was watching or waiting for her to relax for just a singular moment so that it could strike when she was at her weakest and most vulnerable.

That is what it had always done in the past. So why would it change its tactics now?

Kagome stared at the dark corners of her room, contemplating getting up to turn on the lights, or calling for Inuyasha, but he was downstairs. And she was a big girl. There was no reason to call him up here to turn on the lights.

Besides, she kinda didn't want to look at him right now when she'd been such an idiot for trying to kiss him like that. There had to be something wrong with her. Had to be for her to act like that.

Slowly, she spun herself around in the chair, dragging her attention from the dark corners of her room—that held absolutely nothing in them—well, nothing that ordinary dark corners didn't already hold—and back to her math homework. She had enough to work on as it was; she didn't need to worry about monsters that no longer existed.

She didn't need to worry about things that weren't a problem anymore.

Taking a deep breath, she exhaled, picking up her pencil again and pressing it to the paper, except that her brain didn't want to—or couldn't—focus on math any longer. The numbers and symbols were void of meaning, and she just couldn't.

Closing her textbook and her notes, she shoved it off to the side, and let her head thump down gently on the desk in a brief desperate respite from her anxiousness.

It was over. Everything was over and back to normal. She was fine. This was fine. Nothing was going to jump out from behind her bed and attack her. That wasn't normal, so she shouldn't act like it was.

She sat up, letting herself inhale and exhale, before moving onto her history assignments.

"Okay, you can do this," she whispered to herself, as she opened the book and began to read, taking notes on important information that was relevant to the exam review she'd gotten.

And then the light flickered.

Once.

Twice.

And then it went out completely with a large pop!

She squealed and shoved away from her desk, her chair catching on something and tipping over backwards.

Loud footsteps came barging into her room as she began trying to pick herself up.

"What the fuck happened?" Inuyasha asked as he flicked on the overhead light, and she squinted at the sudden illumination of everything around her.

"My chair fell," she answered weakly, turning to look at his face. He knelt down beside her, which didn't make her feel any better.

"Just what were you trying to do?" His eyes drifted down her form, clearly checking to see that she hadn't hurt herself even more.

"I—" She looked up at his face. "My light went out, and—" Her voice drifted off, because the more she spoke, the more ludicrous and childish it sounded. She stared at the floor beneath her as Inuyasha scooped her up from the ground, moving her to her bed, and then returning to right her chair. "Sorry."

"For what?" He asked, settling down on the edge of the bed beside her.

She spread her arms in a vague gesture of 'everything,' before pulling them back down into her lap and trying to stop her eyes from watering before he noticed and panicked.

"Don't worry about it," he said, with a slight nudge of his arm against hers. "It ain't like I was exactly winning on that dumb game anyway."

She giggled, rubbing her nose with the edge of her hand a little.

"Well, then, I guess I'm glad that I saved you from having to lose face to an eight year old."

"Keh," he muttered. "We all know who would win in a real fight."

She hummed, letting her head rest on his shoulder and wrapping an arm around his as he sat next to her.

"You okay?" He asked her, and she nodded against his shoulder.

"Yeah." She leaned away to look up at him. "Will you sit with me for a little bit while I finish up my assignment?"

He gave her a nod, standing and moving to her desk.

"What d'ya want?"

"The book and the notebook right in front." She began scooting herself back against the headboard and the wall. "Oh! And my pens!" Inuyasha gathered her supplies, carrying it over to her.

"That it?" He asked, and she nodded, eagerly taking them from him. He settled in beside her, leaning back against the headboard as well.

She nodded, shifting ever so slightly so that her arm touched his arm. He was always warm, and it reassured her.

He didn't seem to think anything was weird between them, so maybe the whole almost kissing thing wasn't a big deal to him, even though it was to her. Maybe he didn't even realize what was happening.

It wasn't like he hadn't kissed anyone before. She hadn't exactly kissed anyone yet, but still—

She felt her face flaming and made sure to keep it down in her book.

She'd work through her embarrassment, literally and figuratively.

Inuyasha had—in simple terms—panicked.

If Souta hadn't walked in when he did, he was sure he would've kissed Kagome. Not that he would've regretted it, but still! Kissing Kagome was a really big fucking deal. So much so that his brain had refused to work properly the entire time that Souta has been trying to show him how to operate the stupid flashing lights game with all the little buttons. He'd barely been able to press anything and do anything worthwhile until he heard the yelp and loud crash from upstairs.

It had given him the excuse to bail and run to check on her.

And now she was sitting next to him working on her homework.

And fuck him if he didn't want to at least try to reenact what had almost happened earlier.

Instead, he gripped his arms in his sleeves to remind himself that it was inappropriate, and Kagome definitely wasn't in a good place to go haul off and just kiss the shit out of her.

What had he been thinking anyway?

Nothing.

Obviously.

Otherwise he wouldn't have done something so dumb.

At least—at least, she didn't seem upset about it.

He'd been worried when he'd run up and everything had been dark, but she looked okay. She seemed okay about everything, actually. She even asked him to sit with her.

It might've been boring, but it beat getting his ass handed to him at every fucking turn. If that fight had been for real, he'd have won. He knew it.

But he also wouldn't have punched Souta. Well, he'd honestly thought about it for a good second right after that whole—mess. He didn't mind the kid really, just that he was so damn nosy about everything.

It was a first to have someone be excited to see him though. Well, someone besides Kagome.

Kagome slumped against him heavily, and he looked over at her, carefully reaching over to take the pen before it rolled off her book between them. He set it on her nightstand, and then gently slid her book from under her hands and set it on the nightstand as well.

It took some time before he could safely disengage himself without waking her, but he managed to free himself and slowly shifted her so that he could tuck her under the blankets. She rolled onto her side, facing him, and he paused, waiting for her wake, but she didn't. Instead, she nuzzled her head further into the pillow, and when she relaxed again, he continued, pulling her blanket free of her feet and gently draping it over her, before tucking it in around her form.

It took him a significant amount of time, but he did it.

He remained kneeling beside her bed for a moment watching her sleep.

No nightmares at the moment, and he was glad. She needed some good solid sleep right now.

Looking over at her nightstand, he took her books and set them on her desk. He turned on her lamp before walking over to the wall and flicking off the switch. Kagome didn't stir a bit, and he let out a soft sigh.

"Oh, Inuyasha," her mother said, and he turned around to see her partway up the steps. "Is she asleep?" He gave a short nod, and a look of relief passed over her face. "Come downstairs, I'd like to have a conversation with you."

Well, this sure as shit wasn't going to go well.

"But," he started.

"Kagome will be fine alone for a few minutes. Now, come, I put tea on."

He didn't want tea, but who was he to refuse? It was her mother, and he didn't exactly have a reason that he hadn't already voiced.

"Take a seat, Inuyasha," her mother said, and he looked at the table with some amount of fear. He swallowed it deep down and then took a slow step forward, dragging the chair out before sitting down slowly and carefully. She sat down a cup in front of him, the steam coming off the top of the water, and he waited until she took a seat across from him.

Lifting the cup, she blew a little on the top of the tea before taking a small sip.

"I noticed some of Kagome's injuries were—unusual, to say the least."

He stared at the tea, clicking the tips of his claws together quietly under the table.

"Kagome said that she was cut, but she wasn't exactly specific," she continued, and Inuyasha could feel his ears lowering, despite his intentions to not make himself look even guiltier than he probably already looked. "Would you care to shed some light on what happened exactly?"

"I think that Kagome—"

"Kagome doesn't want to talk about it," she interrupted. "So I'm asking you. What happened on the other side of the well?"

Well, there sure as shit wasn't a good way to back out of it now. There was a quiet moment as he tried to piece the words together so that he wouldn't screw this up.

"It was an accident," he finally said, and her mother seemed to almost relax.

"How was it an accident?"

"No one meant to hit her. It was an accident."

He took a deep breath as he glanced up at her, but she had turned to look up the stairs, holding her cup in her hands.

"Was she training? I know that Kagome talks about practicing in the Feudal era."

"Kinda," he squeaked out. Fuck him, he was terrible at this shit. But he felt pretty sure that Kagome should be the one telling her all this. Not him.

He wasn't exactly meant for long conversations.

He grabbed his teacup and tried to take an inconspicuous and gentle sip, but suddenly all he could think about was cracking the delicate material with his brute strength and how that would probably upset her mother if he did that. He took a deep breath. He'd picked up delicate things before. He knew how to measure his strength.

He managed to take a strong sip of tea, before setting the cup back down with an overly loud chink on the table. Wincing, he chanced another look up at her mother, who seemed to be contemplating him.

"Are you alright, Inuyasha?" She asked. "I've been so concerned with Kagome that I haven't asked you the same question."

"I'm fine," he answered quickly.

"Does talking to me make you nervous?"

"No!" He answered, again probably a little too quickly and too loudly, and his ears lowered back down to his hair as he grimaced at his own reaction.

Her mother sighed.

"I'm not angry," she said, setting her cup down on the table. "I'm only worried that something is wrong. I can't help if I don't know what is wrong or what happened."

Inuyasha wanted to disappear back into her room, where he was supposed to be.

But he was trapped.

"Why is my daughter afraid of the dark?"

"There was a fight, and it—it scared her." He stared at his cup for a moment. "It scared all of us a little."

Her mother watched him carefully. He knew she was, even as he fiddled with his cup on the table out of sheer nervousness.

He just wanted to go back upstairs to Kagome and his safe place.

"And this thing or monster—"

"Youkai," he answered for her.

"And this youkai—it's gone now?"

He gave a short nod.

"Miroku and Kaede said that it was destroyed," he explained.

"Well, that's the good news I suppose." She took another sip of her tea and set the cup down on the table.

He sat there, waiting for her to dismiss him.

"Thank you for talking to me, Inuyasha." She smiled at him, and he felt himself relax a little at that. She wasn't mad at him. She just wanted to know what had happened to her daughter.

Must be a mom-thing. Not that he'd really know or anything.

"And thank you for helping to take care of her."

That wasn't anything special. He didn't mind that at all.

He shrugged.

Her mother stood placing her cup in the sink.

"I think I'm going to go to bed. Do you need anything, Inuyasha?"

He shook his head, and she placed her hand between his ears.

"Get some rest," she told him, giving one ear a soft tweak between her fingers as she pulled away. He looked up at her, and she gave him a soft smile, patting his shoulder and then walking away.

After a moment, he downed the rest of his tea, setting the cup in the sink before he flicked the light switch and went back upstairs to Kagome's room.

Kagome squinted at the brightness of her room. Her brain felt foggy, but she knew that something was wrong. Something was off.

There was no Inuyasha. That was the problem.

The last thing that she remembered was working on homework and then—this.

Kicking her feet out, she leapt up from her bed, her injured foot quickly reminding her that she currently had stitches in that foot.

With a sharp yelp, she fell back onto the bed, and her bedroom door snapped open.

"What?" Inuyasha snapped, eyes darting around the room looking for anything that was potentially dangerous. However, there was only Kagome and clearly she was the biggest danger to herself at the moment.

She held her injured foot up, trying to soothe the throbbing that had started, and was now seeping up into her kneecap.

"You're not supposed to stand on that," he chided, moving to kneel down in front of her.

"I know that!"

"Didn't look like that when I came in," he mumbled, sniffing at the bandages as he cradled her foot in his hands. "Doesn't smell like there's any blood though."

"It hurts," she let out a soft whine.

"Well, what did you expect?" He gave her a half-hearted glare. "Dummy."

"I'm not a dummy," she griped, shoving gently at his shoulder as he let her foot rest against the floor, and then took a seat next to her. "Where were you anyway?"

"Excuse me for needing to piss every now and then," he grumbled.

Wow. She'd just assumed that without him here, it must've been a dreamscape. Well, those weren't really dreams. More like distinctive hellscapes that she never wanted to revisit again.

"Kagome?" He asked after a moment, a hand resting on her shoulder. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"No," she shook her head slowly. "No, it was just—I just slept. And I thought—I thought that this," she gestured to the room in front of her.

"You thought this was a dream."

"You weren't here, and I thought—it had to be a dream."

She could feel her eyes watering in relief that it was real. She wasn't stuck in some strange perverted reality, but instead, she was awake and alive and everything was real.

Everything was real.

But then, she realized how necessary Inuyasha had become in her life. How reliant she'd become on him. So much so, that he'd become a beacon, a defining thing in her life that everything revolved around. She knew him better than anyone else, even herself, and she didn't know when all that had exactly happened. Was she really so desperate and needy that she'd basically made him her emotional-support-hanyou?

"Why are you crying?" He asked, panic creeping into his voice.

She let out a small laugh at his expense.

"I don't know," she mumbled, wiping her eyes. "Sorry. It's dumb."

She sniffed a little, drying her eyes before turning to him and giving him a halfway decent smile.

He watched her carefully for a moment, as if waiting to see that she would actually stop crying, and she sniffled a couple more times before finally reining in her own runaway emotions.

"You good?" He asked, after a few quiet moments.

"Yeah," her bladder chose this moment to make itself known. "Um, can you—" she paused for just a moment, but he didn't pressure her or needle her about what she needed. "You know what? I can do it."

"Just tell me, Kagome," he sighed out, standing up in front of her. "What do you want?"

"Nothing. I can do it."

She pushed herself up, and the change in position put pressure on her bladder in a different way, but she really wasn't sure if that was better or worse.

"Where do you want to go?" He asked, moving directly in front of her. "You're not walking on your own."

"I just need to go to the bathroom, and it's not that far away. I can make it."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes at her, before quickly scooping her off her feet and carrying her to the bathroom, where he sat her down on the closed toilet seat lid, despite her protesting the entire way. Not that she really meant it, but she was going to have to learn to stand on her own feet again—both literally and metaphorically.

She exhaled, long and slow, trying to settle the anxiety building in her gut.

While she was in there, she took a moment and washed her face and brushed her teeth. It was quiet, and nothing bad happened. No visions in the mirror. No appearances from dead friends. Just quiet.

It felt surreal and unnatural.

But it should've been normal.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked on the other side of the door.

"I'm coming," she answered, glancing around the bathroom once more. Half expecting something to leap out of the corners and surprise her. Sighing to herself, she opened the door, coming face to face with what appeared to be a concerned Inuyasha.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's just—" she glanced over her shoulder at the empty bathroom. "It feels like it's still here."

"Well, the fucker's gone." She turned to look at him. "Good riddance."

"Yeah," she said, a smile cracking at the corner of her mouth.

"Come on," he said, picking her up and moving towards the stairs. "Your mom's had breakfast ready forever."

"Why didn't you go eat?"

He didn't answer, but have her a soft glare as if the question itself was inherently dumb.

He set her down in her chair, and her mother quickly fixed them a couple of plates, setting them on the table.

"When you're done, we'll change your bandages," she said, smoothing a hand down her hair.

Inuyasha inhaled his breakfast, and Kagome slowly picked through hers.

There had been no nightmares last night.

It was just empty and blank space between her doing homework and her waking up in bed. That was normal. That was a normal thing that people did: sleep without nightmares.

Maybe it was all over, and she was just holding onto things that didn't exist anymore.

But all that fear had been real. All those nightmares and visions had felt so real. The pain had been real. She suffered, and there was no one that could see it. There was no one that knew what she'd seen and experienced. And that's what made it so hard.

It was easy to say that it was just a dream and to get over it, but they're hadn't been just dreams to her. They'd been something awful and real and had explored realities she never wanted to experience in reality.

She'd thrown herself in front of a bus! She'd literally ended her life on the premise that everything that had happened had been a dream.

Her stomach churned at what she'd done.

She'd nearly drowned. Twice on top of that.

If Inuyasha hadn't been there, she would've died.

Her chopsticks chattered against her bowl, and she quietly set them down, holding her hands in her lap.

It felt like her entire body was shaking, and a clawed hand slid over her own, steadying the tremors.

She shook her head, clamping her eyes closed to stop the onslaught of tears. Besides, she was afraid if she opened her mouth, nothing good would come out.

"Kagome?"

Shaking her head, she hoped that he got the clue. Her stomach lurched again, and she quickly brought a hand to her mouth to stop it.

"Oh dear," her mother said, and the sound of a trash can sliding across the floor had Kagome turning towards it, her abdomen making its final leap upwards as anything and everything she'd eaten or attempted to eat came right back up.

Clawed fingers had already grabbed her mass of hair back from her face as her mother held the can under her.

"Poor Kagome," her mother cooed, a light hand running back and forth along her shoulders as she retched. "Is that all of it?" She asked, as Kagome took a few ragged breaths. She nodded, leaning away from the trash can, and moving to sit upright.

Inuyasha released her hair, but she was done with breakfast. Her mother set a glass of water down.

"Rinse and spit however much you need to," she said, still holding the trash can next to her.

"Sorry," she rasped, taking a swig and spitting it back out into the trash.

"Don't be, dear. It happens to the best of us." Her mother waited as she rinsed her mouth out. "Done?"

Kagome nodded, and her mother pulled the trash can away.

"Do you want to keep eating or would you like something else?"

"No food," Kagome said, grimacing at the thought of having to finish her eggs.

"Okay, then, would you like to go lay down instead?"

Kagome nodded, taking another long sip of water. She was already feeling queasy again.

"Alright. I'll bring the bandages up a bit later, and we'll change them then, okay?" She let a hand smooth over Kagome's hair as she took her plate away from the table.

Kagome rested her head on her arms on the table.

"Come on," Inuyasha said beside her, and she didn't even fight him on it, just twisted to the side and wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her up like a small toddler.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"What for?" He asked as they climbed the stairs. Well, he did the climbing, she was just there for the ride.

"That was so gross."

"Yeah, and?"

"It's gross," she mumbled into his shoulder.

He let out a longsuffering sigh.

"People puke, Kagome. It's not like it's weird or something."

"Still gross," she mumbled, "let me brush my teeth." He let out another long sigh, but detoured into the bathroom, setting her down carefully.

"You literally just did that," he said, leaning back against the counter as she put toothpaste on her toothbrush.

"Yeah, and then I threw up, and now my mouth feels disgusting."

He rolled his eyes as she brushed her teeth, leaning over to spit into the sink.

He didn't waste any time in picking her back up and taking her to her room, where he leaned over, setting her back in the bed and tugging the blankets over her. She rolled onto her side, shifting towards the back wall, dragging her pillow with her. The corner of her room still felt like the safest place.

"You want me to sit with you?" He asked, already taking a seat as she nodded.

Her queasy stomach settled a bit more as she hugged her pillow, and snagged a small piece of his hakama between her fingers.

His hand came down to rest over hers, and she took the initiative, wrapping her fingers around his. After a moment, his fingers curled around her own.

She was safe here. She was safe with Inuyasha.

He'd said that it was gone, and she believed that he believed it.

But there was that nagging little voice in the back of her head, warning her that it wasn't over and that thing was only hiding, biding its time before it resurrected itself and its ability to torment her endlessly.

And Kagome, for one, was unsure how much more she could take.

Her mother came up a little later as promised.

Kagome's stomach hadn't settled much, still too wrapped up in knots to relax. She sat up, still holding onto her pillow as her mother unwrapped her foot, checking the wound before cleaning it gently with a cloth and wrapping it again with extra padding.

"She didn't pop a stitch, did she?" Inuyasha asked as her mother worked.

"It doesn't look like it," she said, tying off the bandage before moving up to her arms. She took the damp cloth and ran it along the pinkened skin, still healing from the burns. "These look much better as well." Kagome stared at her arm from where she'd been burned by Miroku's reiki. Her right arm still had the strange colored mark on her skin from the scar.

She looked over at Inuyasha, who was frowning at the sight of it.

"What?" She asked, barely resisting the urge to tug her arm out of his line of sight.

"Did the healers say anything about the mark on her arm?"

Her mother skimmed her fingers over the mark. It wasn't sensitive or raised, just a small weirdly shaped patch of discolored skin. It was a deep red, with small jagged lines—almost like blood vessels—branching off of it. It was weird though; she would've thought that the mark would have radiated from where the bites were, but this was running almost between them.

"They took some skin samples, but they said it didn't look like it was infected," her mother answered, starting to wrap her arm and covering the unsightly mark, "but they are running some tests just to be sure."

Her mother taped off the bandage, moving to look at the wound on her upper arm, cleaning and rewrapping it as well.

They hadn't rebandaged the bite mark on her back, though Kagome wasn't entirely sure that her mother knew about that one either. But she wasn't going to bring it up either.

"There," her mother said, finishing up and pulling her sleeve back down to cover the bandage. "How is your tummy doing?"

"Not great," she winced, shifting back against the wall to lay back down as a wave of nausea rushed over her.

"Poor dear," her mother said. "Perhaps its the antibiotics. I'll bring you some cheese and crackers. Let's see if you can stomach that much, alright?"

Kagome made a face at the thought of eating anything, and she got a swimming feeling of deja vu, and her stomach lurched again as her mother rose up off the bed and out her bedroom door.

Letting out a low groan, she buried her head into her pillow. Inuyasha shifted on the bed beside her, and she blindly slid her hand out, holding fast to a wad of his fire rat. As if that would be enough to keep him in place, but a girl could dream.

"You'll eat it for me, right?"

"You need to eat, Kagome," he stated, and she let out another groan.

"I thought we were friends," she grumbled into her pillow, letting out a sigh.

She felt like crap. She was hungry but also completely nauseated. The idea of eating was pleasant enough, but the moment she conjured any food whatsoever in her mind, the nausea rolled up full force and did not hold back.

She was pretty sure that if she ate something, the majority of her problems would go away; however, she was also sure that eating something would cause an entirely new set of issues.

A warm hand gently ran over her back in a side to side motion.

The touch was soothing, and she felt herself relaxing a little more under it.

"You need to eat," he repeated, and for as much as she wanted to argue, she knew that he was right.

The door opened, and her mother walked in, setting the plate on her nightstand. The soft chink of the plate gave it away. Kagome shifted slightly to look at her mother from where she lay.

"Get some rest, Kagome," her mother said with a small smile. "You'll let me know if you need something?" She asked Inuyasha, and he gave her a nod. She patted his shoulder, before giving Kagome one last look and leaving the room, the door shutting behind her with a soft click.

"This is real, right?"

Inuyasha made a noise as she tightened her grip on his pant leg.

His hand came to rest on her head.

"You're awake, Kagome," he confirmed, and she relaxed as his hand returned to her shoulder blades. She was awake, and her Inuyasha wouldn't lie to her.

But that niggling little voice begged the question: but was this her Inuyasha after all?

A/N: So I've been on the struggle bus with this chapter. It's taken a long time to work through it, and I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I also don't entirely know what to fix. It's not doing what I want it to, but again, I don't know what to fix.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think!