Disclaimer- I do not own Inuyasha

A/N- Thanks to all who reviewed. This will be the last regular (well, semi-regular) update for awhile. Chapter six is being worked on, but I have to sit down and plan out how I really want the next few chapters to go. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Five- The Letter

Pain robbed his senses for a moment and Kohaku dropped his plate as his hands flew up to hold his temples; the plate shattered into pieces on the floor. Black spots danced across his vision and he swayed for a moment as the painful throbbing in his skull escalated.

His headaches sometimes came out of the blue, and it was all he could do to be prepared for them.

Squinting and hissing in pain, he stumbled from the kitchen (cutting his foot through his sock on a stray piece of sharp glass) and made it to the bathroom to his medicine cabinet. Almost blindly, he searched through it, knocking aside bottles of anti-depressants prescribed to him by Kaede and sleeping pills. He managed to find the aspirin, dumped what was left of the bottle into his palm (seven pills) and put them in his mouth. He bent over and turned the faucet to the sink on, cupping water in one hand and drinking as much as he could.

The pressure in his head was agony, and his mouth started to numb. Hurriedly, he threw himself over the toilet, making it just in time as his stomach emptied its contents into the porcelain basin. Kohaku's body shuddered with dry heaves, and a few tears pricked out of his eyes.

Without moving anything but his arm, he shakily flushed the toilet.

It was a moment before he noticed a stinging sensation on his right foot, but with his head still throbbing painfully, he took no action to relieve the painful feeling.

Curling his body in the best fetal position he could manage while still laying across the toilet, Kohaku fell in to a light doze.

"Kohaku?! Kohaku!"

Kohaku groggily opened his eyes, aware of a dull pain in his foot, and a headache of lesser proportions than the one that occurred earlier.

He felt somebody grab his wrists, and heard them breath an enormous sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank Kami," he heard his sister whisper. "I saw the broken dishes, and the blood trail on the floor, and I thought—I thought you gave up again. Oh, thank goodness it wasn't that."

Forehead resting on the seat of the toilet, Kohaku tilted it slightly so one squinted eye could peep at her.

"Jus' a headache," he mumbled, and winced when she raked her fingers through the short hair not pulled back by his ponytail.

"Did you take an aspirin?" she asked softly, gently rubbing the back of his neck and between his shoulder blades in an effort to soothe the pain.

"Projected it into the toilet a second later," he winced and closed his eyes again, turning his head back to its original position. "Can you check my foot?"

His sock was pulled off and tossed into the small garbage can next to the sink. "It'll need stitches," Sango told him, wetting a washcloth and cleaning it off as best as she could.

"I'll take you to the emergency room," she offered when he didn't respond. She sighed, and stood up, using the edge of the sink to brace herself.

"You scattered all of your prescriptions," she said and started to rearrange them as Kohaku shakily pulled himself up to sit on the toilet. He clutched a hand to his forehead and took deep breaths, listening to the rattle the pills made inside their little bottles as Sango neatly stacked them back inside of the medicine cabinet. There was a pause in the rattling a minute later.

"Kohaku," Sango spoke after a pause, eyeing the label of a bottle in her hand. Her voice sounded tense. "Why do you have sleeping pills?"

"I need them," he answered curtly.

She turned to him; lines of fury on her face and angry sparks in her eyes. "You know what Kaede said about you taking sleeping pills. They might not mix well with your anti-depressants and you're liable to become reliant on them."

"I can't sleep," Kohaku retorted angrily. "I need them to sleep."

She slammed the bottle onto the counter, "You're not getting the point, Kohaku! These pills may turn out to be more harm than good! If you're having nightmares again you should talk about them! Then you'd be able to sleep better!" Her voice rose in volume.

There was a silence as Kohaku gritted his teeth together.

"Just take me to the hospital," he managed out tightly. There was a pause and then Sango sighed, setting down the bottle and moving to put his arm around her shoulders. He stood up, wobbling slightly on his left leg and they slowly began to make their way across his apartment and to her car.

Rin swatted Shippou's hand away as he yet again flicked her hair.

"Shippou-kun, you are getting extremely annoying," she said, trying to sound miffed but not succeeding in doing so. He pouted at her. It was then that Inuyasha entered the living room, carrying a box full of books.

"He's a fox-demon," Inuyasha stated matter-of-factly, as if this explained everything that was remotely wrong with Shippou.

"Ah," Rin said in complete understanding, pointing one finger towards the ceiling and shared a knowing look with her guardian's brother.

"Hey!" Shippou complained indignantly, and shoved Rin off of the couch.

"Shippou!" Kagome reprimanded as she entered just behind Inuyasha, also carrying a box, although much smaller.

"What?" Shippou said innocently, which didn't fool anyone in the room. Inuyasha rolled his eyes, 'keh'ed' softly, and walked out into the next room. Kagome gave Shippou one last warning look before following after her husband. Rin pulled herself back onto the couch, practically sitting on top of Shippou. He put his arm around her shoulders and turned on the television with a click of the remote.

"They should have a baby," Rin said after a brief lapse into comfortable silence. Shippou's jaw dropped for a moment before he could manage to speak.

"Well…that's up to them to decide if they want one or not," he explained.

"Kagome wants one," Rin said, "She said even one would be enough for her now. When she was younger she dreamed of having a bunch of children, but Inuyasha's hesitating. She just wants to have something that's a part of her and Inuyasha that completely belongs to them."

Shippou thought solemnly for a moment, scratching the back of his neck idly. "Well, Inuyasha had it rough when he was younger, you know? Maybe not so much when he was a teenager, because anybody who gave him crap, he beat the hell out of. I guess he's hesitating because he doesn't want it to go through what he did. I'm sure he wants one, but his kid's possible miserable future outweighs his own—and even Kagome's happiness. And he's irresponsible anyway."

Rin stared at him with wide eyes. "Wow, Shippou-kun, that's really, really deep," she said mockingly. "Even for you."

His reply was to shove her back off of the couch.

Kagome sipped her drink through a straw as she listened intently as Sango told her about Kohaku.

"Should I go and tell Kaede about it?" Sango finally asked. Kagome paused in her drink, and sighed.

"If you think that's best," Kagome finally answered. She took another sip of her drink as Sango stirred three fries around in a pile of ketchup. "And I know he's you're baby brother and you love him to death, but you have to force yourself to stop worrying so much about him. He's moved up a step—he's stopped cutting himself. He has nightmares and I don't blame him for having them. When he's ready to talk about them, he will. What you really need to do is focus on your two beautiful children and the one on the way. Miroku's worrying about you…Sango, you have to realize someday that Kohaku is a grown man that can take care of himself."

"But he needs me," Sango said angrily, glaring at her friend. "I can't just abandon him."

"I'm not asking you to," Kagome replied patiently. "He still needs your support, but you just have to give him more space. Now he needs to heal on his own. I'm sure sometimes he feels smothered—not that he doesn't love you or appreciate you."

Sango sighed, her anger deflating as she rested her head in her hand, still stirring the fries around. "He's just so reclusive now…he doesn't interact with people around his age."

Kagome shrugged. "So he's socially withdrawn, he's spent eight years of his life at an asylum with other crazy people. Wasn't the one patient he interacted the most with at that place sort of mute? Saw things in mirrors? Besides…he's helping you with those extra-credit lessons with the girls."

"They're high school girls, Kagome," Sango said flatly, finally devouring the fries. Kagome rolled her eyes.

They ate a few bites of their WacDonald's food in silence for a moment, until Kagome smoothly changed the subject.

"So I hear from Shippou that my brother's already interested in another girl," she said nonchalantly, crumbling the wrapper to her hamburger. "But he won't say who."

Sango looked surprised. "Really? But he and Hitomi only broke up a month ago, and they've been sweethearts since they were nine."

Kagome shrugged. "Well, he is a boy. I'm sure the girl is really amazing if he's already interested. That, or he's already known her for awhile."

Sango smirked. "So are we going to have to do some sleuthing?" Her smirk grew into a grin. "Maybe we could send the boys to have a guy chat with him…Shippou already is his confidant, but Mirkou and Inuyasha would spill their guts to us."

"They have no tact. Sending Sesshoumaru to have a heart to heart with Souta would be more effective," Kagome snorted, and then caught Sango's eye.

Next second, they burst into fits of hysterical laughter.

Kohaku hobbled around his apartment with difficulty. The doctor had ordered him to use crutches, but in his cramped apartment there was hardly any room to use the things. It was on more than one occasion where they caught on a chair or another piece of furniture and he fell flat on his face.

So now he was hopping on one foot everywhere.

He sighed, settling on the small, slightly battered loveseat as he elevated his foot on the coffee table in front of him and clicked on the television with the remote.

There was nothing particularly interesting on, so Kohaku opted for a game show rerun that he had seen sometime a few years ago. He sighed, feeling completely empty and bored and—he wasn't sure if he dared to believe it or not—but he thought he was developing some semblance of cabin fever. Although he had hardly gone out except when teaching the classes and sometimes for food, he at least chose to stay home. With this injured foot, he had no choice but to lie around all day, and that felt more constraining than ever.

Suddenly the buzzer rang throughout the apartment. Kohaku was so surprised by the noise that he jumped, dropping the remote on the floor.

Someone was visiting him? It couldn't have been Sango, because she usually burst through the door usually without warning, and Miroku had a key to the building, so he didn't ring the buzzer and usually politely knocked on his door.

Heaving himself up from the couch, Kohaku hopped his way towards the intercom. He pressed the button.

"Hello?"

"Hi!" said a bright, cheerful, female voice on the other end. "It's Kagome! May I come up?"

Totally bewildered, it took a total twenty seconds for him to press the button to release the lock in the front of the building. It was about three minutes later when there was someone knocking on his door.

Opening it, Kohaku came face to face with his sister's best friend. Nakamura Kagome, formally Higurashi, was beaming at him.

"Hello, Kohaku-kun!" she said cheerfully, letting herself in as he stepped aside. "Shouldn't you be using your crutches?" she reprimanded slightly.

"There isn't enough space," he answered, hobbling his way to the couch. Kagome still looked disapproving, but she did not comment on it again. Instead, she fixed her beaming smile back on her face.

"Sango-chan asked me to come over and fix you something to eat," she told him. Kohaku's face tinted pink, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "She's out with Miroku, getting an ultrasound."

"You don't have to," he said awkwardly. Kagome waved his answer aside.

"Ah, it's no problem," she said, making her way to the cabinets. She started rummaging through them and then sighed in exasperation.

"Ramen, ramen, ramen," she exclaimed, "I swear you're turning into Inuyasha. That's all he ever eats. No wonder Sango sent me here," she muttered under her breath.

She clapped her hands together and turned around towards him. "Well! Since it seems you are low on a variety of foods, I think I'll go out and do a bit of shopping. How does oden sound to you?"

"Umm...good," he replied.

"I'll make it the way my mother does," she smiled at him, excitement filling her eyes, "Mama makes the best oden--you'll love it."

Kohaku allowed himself to grin a little. "Thanks," he said, before the curve of his lips fell completely flat.

Inuyasha quickly flipped through the mail, tossing the usual bills and credit-cards advertisements on the table. His eyes came to rest on a particular envelope, however.

It was addressed to him, but the writing was neat, even, and definitely feminine. He recognized the handwriting, and his suspicions were further confirmed when he glanced at the return address.

"Kikyou," he whispered in wonder, then glanced around the kitchen. Clutching the letter in his hand, he went to the living room and saw Shippou idly reading a magazine.

"Where's Kagome?" he asked gruffly.

"At Kohaku's," Shippou answered dully, as if he wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings.

Inuyasha didn't even ponder the abnormality that Kagome was at Kohaku's. Instead, he hurried to his newly rendered office, which was stacked with several boxes at the moment. Locking the door behind him, he quickly opened the envelope, and unfolded the letter within.

It read:

Dear Inuyasha,

I know it seems strange that I am writing to you now, since we have not had contact directly for several years. I heard through my mother that you married Higurashi Kagome, and to that I offer my congratulations. She is a kind woman of strong spiritual power, and she seems like she suits you well. Much better than I did, in fact.

I must admit, for the first few years after I heard of your marriage, I have been jealous. It seemed to me as though you had gotten over our relationship too quickly, but I realize that I am wrong now. You have been married for seven years, and it was time for me to let go. In fact, I have most steadily moved on.

You may have heard that I attended medical school, in the hopes of becoming a surgeon. I still find time to train young priestesses, but there are very few left with any semblance of spiritual power. I graduated at the top of my class two years ago. I have also met someone, whom I think compliments my personality well. He is kind-hearted, and he is also in the medical field. He cannot stand the sight of blood, so he is a pediatrician instead. Suikotsu is his name, and we have lived together for the past two years, and met three years ago.

I suppose one reason I am writing to you is to gain some kind of closure. But I know in my heart that is not all. About a week ago, I had a dream. You know I am not superstitious, but I believe this dream was in some way prophetic. I had a feeling that you, or someone close to you was involved in the dream. It was dark, and there is no way in words that I can describe it. There seems to be a storm brewing.

I have given you this warning. Take heed, Inuyasha, for I fear for your life and well-being. There is no need to reply to my letter; in fact, I would prefer if you do not. It is meant as a sign of closure of our past, and a warning. If I want to hear anything, I will contact my mother. Farewell, Inuyasha.

Love,

Kikyou

Inuyasha stared at the sheet in his hand in bewilderment. The letter was sudden, and it felt as though lead had dropped in the pit of his stomach, leaving him with an uneasy feeling. What could her warning mean?

He dreaded to know the answer.

Come on, tell me what you think of this story so far. Any suggestions? I might stick them in here.