Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Geez.

Italics denote thoughts.


oOo

It was raining again; the light drizzle earlier on now fell steadily, just like it had the entire week. Raindrops hit against the glass making muffled thumping sounds, demanding to be let in. She looked out the window but nothing could be seen; the city was hidden from her view by a heavy gray veil. A soft sigh escaped her lips, her warm breath leaving its mark upon the cool glass of the window.

The rain, she remembered a time when she had liked it but now she hated it. It was as if the sky above was mocking her in her misery and laughing at her stupidity. She is stupid; a fact she acknowledged long ago. She was stupid enough to be attracted to him like a moth to the flames, stupid enough to fall for him without realizing it, stupid enough to go blurting it out for him to hear and stupid enough to still want to love him despite his words. His words, she could still hear every single word uttered by his cold voice in the graveyard.

-- Flashback --

"Sesshoumaru…wait!"

Wait he did. He had stopped in his tracks but his long, silver hair and broad back was all that she could see. A million thoughts ran about in her mind, criss-crossing and tripping each other up. She wanted to ask so many things of him, wanted to tell him her feelings about him, make him understand even if she couldn't understand herself, get through to him and touch his heart. But her voice had refused to cooperate at all. She could only stare at him with her big blue eyes. As if he was tired of waiting around all day, his voice cut through the air before she could even produce a word.

"Do not waste your time."

He had walked away after saying them, without even once looking back. She watched with a heavy heart as his back moved further into the distance with every step. Rain fell soundlessly from the skies above, striking and pelting her without any mercy. The water droplets were like a hundred little arrows that flew straight to her heart, piercing it in a hundred different places. Rivulets of tears ran their course down her cheek but the rain camouflaged them so well that she couldn't differentiate one from the other. She wanted to call out to him again, but all that came out was a sob. She wanted to run to him, throw her arms around him and prevent him from leaving but her legs failed to obey her. They felt like they were made of lead and weighed down with iron.

All she could do was stand there under the magnolia tree and watch him leave.

-- End Flashback --

Even now, she could still hear his voice. She couldn't have heard wrongly for his voice, his low yet clear voice, did not give her that chance. Those words of his were like daggers; she could still feel them stabbing at her heart, reopening wounds that have not yet even begun healing. He had broken the heart that she unknowingly gave to him.

Nevertheless, she could not bring herself to hate him although no one would blame her if she did. Her mind told her to forget him but her heart would not. It was still clinging stubbornly to every little piece of her memories of him. Tears were welling up in her eyes, blurring her vision but she removed them with the back of her hand before they could fall.

Taking a deep breath, she told herself that she wouldn't cry, not now.

oOo

He sat in the study, an unopened book in his hand. From the sounds, or lack of it outside, the heavy rain earlier on had been either demoted to a fine drizzle or stopped entirely. It was fine by him. Right now, anything was fine by him; he couldn't care less what the sky decided to do with itself. Looking out the window, he could see that the sky was slowly ridding itself of gray clouds.

Gray clouds, they brought with them memories of that fateful day. He could still recall that day. That day had been a very bleak day too, just like today. It was the day when he, Kawamura Sesshoumaru had … He shook his head, not wanting to think about it now. Every time he thought about her and the day at the cemetery, it was as if his heart was being sliced into paper-thin slices slowly by his own hand.

It was already a week, yet, he couldn't stop thinking about her and how he had broken her heart. Breaking her heart was something he had decided to do, for both their sakes, but he had not counted on being disturbed by his actions later on. Even during his sleep, he dreamt about her and her hauntingly beautiful, sapphire eyes staring at him forlornly.

The doorbell rang, interrupting the wanderings of his mind. He removed himself slowly from the armchair, seemingly reluctant to answer the door. Nobody was supposed to be ringing his doorbell at this time of the day, or anytime else for that matter. He never had any visitors and to the best of his knowledge, neither had Rin. It couldn't be the young girl because 6pm was too early to be home from a date and she had her own set of keys so there was no need for her to be ringing the bell.

He opened the door just as the bell chimed for a second time.

Amber eyes grew wide as they fell upon the petite form clad in a cardigan and short denim skirt, standing at the door. He was seeing things and he quickly came up with two explanations for what he was currently seeing. The first is he had fallen asleep and was dreaming and the second is he's awake but hallucinating. If given a choice, he would prefer it to be the first because the second would mean that he's losing his sanity, and soon. There wasn't much time for him to ponder upon whether was he dreaming or not for her voice effectively cut short his thoughts.

"You're not telling me what I'm supposed to do with my time, Sesshoumaru," she said, her voice laced with determination.

She had stepped over the doorstep, officially entering his home. All he could do was stare at her flabbergasted, although one couldn't tell from the state his face is in, as he mechanically closed the door behind them.

A soft giggle escaped her as she waved her hand in front of his eyes saying, "It's rude to stare, didn't you know that? By the way, I hope you haven't eaten because I brought you dinner."

She held up a bag for him to see and led him into the kitchen, their roles reversed like she was the host and he the guest. Sesshoumaru, for all the intelligence he possessed, could not even form a single coherent thought, much less a sentence, at the moment. He was very surprised to see her here, thinking that after the incident last week, she wouldn't want to be anywhere within a 3-mile radius of him. But he had clearly underestimated her for she was now standing less than 3 feet from him and setting down what he recognized as a bento box on the table.

"What is this?" Finally, something came out of him, although it wasn't one of the questions he had in mind for her.

"Your dinner," she said uncovering the lid and handing him a pair of chopsticks. "I hope I've packed enough."

The smell of warm rice wafted up to his nose and teased his sense of smell. The aroma coming from the other side dishes didn't do much to help him either. They only served to make his mouth water. He groaned mentally as he saw the food. It had been arranged in a neat, pleasing way that basically screamed 'Eat Me!'

This was not supposed to be happening. She was supposed to have been driven away. He had been harsh with her, cruel even, giving her not even the slightest amount of sympathy. Hence, it was simply impossible for her to cook something so pleasant to the eye, the nose, and probably even the taste buds, all for the person who had just broken her heart. She must be out of her mind; it was the only logical reason he could come up with.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

He didn't need any further prodding. The food was gone in a matter of minutes and the bento box looked like it had just been polished clean. It had been quite a while since he last had something that felt so … satisfying. He had been unconciously craving for something, and her food had satiated it.

Indeed, the food didn't just fill his stomach; it filled his heart and soul with a kind of warmth and comfort that he couldn't really place his finger on. It was like having hot chocolate on a cold day, but this was no hot chocolate. The food wasn't anything fancy; it was just rice, soft warm rice with chicken, vegetables and pickles, nothing out of the ordinary. They were simply the everyday fare that any housewife would dish up for dinner. Yet, they tasted better than any of the exotic and wildly expensive food that he could create.

The more he ate, the more every bite and every morsel seemed to remind him of both Higurashi-sama and his mother's cooking.

As he devoured the food, Kagome could only look at him with eyes wide in wonder and amazement. She didn't know it was possible for anyone to eat so fast without looking like a pig; he could beat Shippou hands down any given day. His reaction towards her food was simply unexpected. Truth be told, she would have been very happy if he even took a small mouthful. But to finish off everything, she felt like she was on cloud nine. Heck, she didn't even think he'd allow her in his home in the first place.

"It's rude to stare, didn't you know that?" his velvet voice brought her out of her daze. Amusement glinted in his amber eyes as a pink blush stained her cheeks.

"Why are you here Kagome?" he said, in a voice so gentle, she thought she was hearing things.

He had fully intended to revert back to being cold towards her but he couldn't bring himself to do so. His pride and conscience would not let him rest in peace if he did that to someone whose heart he had not only broken but had just made him a delicious meal.

"I just wanted to let you know how I feel," she said, her sapphire eyes looking straight into his amber ones.

A slight frown appeared on his face as he digested the information she had given him. Let me know how she feels? What-

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Sound familiar to you?"

He might have heard it before in passing but that was unimportant. She had succeeded in what she set out to achieve. He was, although a little halfheartedly, fighting a losing battle at trying to push her away. His heart, like the fickle-minded traitor that it is, had been won over by her delicious, lovingly made food. There was no ignoring the fact that she had already secured a place in his heart without him knowing it. Damn her food for tasting so good! However, he wasn't going to let her know that. He was trying to get her out of his life for heavens' sake! Steeling his resolve, he decided to end it here and now.

"That was very naïve of you. It would take more than a simple bento to get to the heart of this Sesshoumaru." The gentleness earlier on had vanished as if it was never present.

He expected her to fly into a rage, get mad at him or maybe send a few curses his way. He certainly did not expect to see a smile on her face. Had she gone insane?

"So you're admitting that you do have a heart."

Her words left him dumbfounded. It disturbed him, as it was a remarkable feat indeed for it wasn't every day that someone was able to render Sesshoumaru incapable of articulating. True, he had and still has a heart, which currently was telling him to grab her and kiss her breathless. That part, she did not have to know.

"Don't deny it Sesshoumaru. I can see it in your eyes. The feelings that do not show on your face are playing in your eyes."

So now his eyes have betrayed him too. First his heart, and now his eyes. He wondered which part of his anatomy would be the next to desert him. He had clearly taken the girl too lightly. Standing up from where he was seated, his tall form towered over the smaller one that belonged to her.

"This Sesshoumaru's eyes are not a silver screen and do not play any emotions." Golden eyes narrowed, as his voice grew colder with every word. He turned his back towards her. He wasn't sure if what she said about his eyes were true, if they were, he certainly didn't want her to see them and then decipher his feelings.

"Sesshoumaru, why are you doing this to yourself?" her soft voice starting to crack. "Why do you not let yourself feel anything? Why do you refuse to acknowledge what you truly feel?" A silver pearl glistened at the corner of her eye.

He heard her voice cracking and it wrenched at his heart.

"I can see that you've enjoyed the food I made. It satisfied you didn't it? It satiated your longing for something that you didn't know you craved right? You've felt every emotion that I had put in it. I know that you feel something for me just as I had felt something for you. Yet here you are denying everything and lying through your teeth. You're a very bad liar, do you know that?"

Tears were flowing steadily down her cheeks now. A soft sob reached his ears. Still, he kept his back facing her. He knew that if he turned around right now, his resolve would crumble. There was no way he could face the crying girl behind him if he wanted her to leave his life.

"You're assuming too much."

Kagome wiped away the tears with her hands. He was right, she is naïve. She thought that she could get through to him but all this while she was fooling herself. There was no way anyone could get through that stoic block of ice. He had not felt anything towards her; they were all her own assumptions just as he had said. She is stupid and she deserved this for her idiocy.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come."

With that, she ran out of the kitchen. So intent was she on leaving this place that she didn't notice a very speechless Rin standing in the shadows.

The front door slammed shut, shattering his heart on the spot. Right now, he hated himself, very much. She was crying and he had been to one responsible for those tears. It disgusted him, and he felt that he was lower than even the vilest of creatures. He had not only broken her heart once, but twice. Tonight was going to be an extremely long night.

Turning, he made a move to leave for his room but he was stopped short by a furious looking Rin standing a few paces from him.

"Kagome did not deserve this. I'm very disappointed in you, Sesshoumaru-sama," she said with a glare that closely resembled his own. Minutes later, the front door slammed shut again.

oOo


A/N: Here it is, chapter 8. Thank you for reading and for all those reviews. The next chapter will be the last. It'll be up as soon as I'm done editing it.

To:

cookiemonsterks - me no likey mushy-gooey love scenes in the rain. they're a bit too cliched in my opinion. i'm glad u liked the chapter. ::grins::

lil mutt face grl - yeah, Sesshoumaru's a big meanie and also being a little perverted. ::grins evilly::

Kohana - so that's where the name Kawamura came from. now that i think of it, i happened to be watching Prince of Tennis during the time i was writing this fic. definitely a weird coincidence. anyway, good luck for your exams!

Ru-Doragon - don't you just want to pound him after reading this chapter?