Lie to Me

A/N: Updated at last. Don't worry if this chapter doesn't make sense until the end. Combined with the next chapter it is all rather long, I mean in Univers font size 12 double spaced on Microsoft word it takes up like, 19 pages. But that is including the paragraph sized author notes. /.

Forgotten Angel, I want you to know that I wrote these two chapters only because I read your reviews. So I really hope that you like them because you're the reason that they are here. (By the way I am so embarrassed that you read my Aladdin story (blush!) I've been meaning to take that down for ages and I'm mortified that I ever wrote it (its so sloppy! T.T)! So thanks so much for all your reviews, and the same goes for all of you who keep reading my stuff even though I'm like, not updating.

Disclaimer: Any recognizable material does not belong to me

Enjoy - nanirain.

Lie to me…

She knew that he was mad. And for once Kagome didn't blame him, or rather couldn't blame him… not after what she had done. After she had pretended to betray him, throw herself into the jaws of a monster and join the other side. True, it had been the only way to trick the demon into believing that she was dead and no longer a threat. And true, it had been the only way to save Inuyasha. And besides, she had known what she was doing. She had it all planned out. But she had kept it a secret from him because it had to be convincing. She had to make him believethat she had left him or else Inuyasha would have ended up dead. And that was the last thing she ever wanted.

"I wonder how long… he'll be angry at me." She said distractedly, struggling through a patch of thorns that had latched stubbornly to her sock. The sun had drifted out of the sky an hour ago, and the instant they had made camp and settled down for the night Inuyasha had disappeared into the trees, telling them all not to follow him. Not to even think about it. Or else.

He didn't want her to come after him – didn't need her company. But she had to apologize, for herself if not for anyone else. She needed to talk to him and heave all the heavy guilt off her chest so she could breathe again.

A small frown line appeared on Kagome's face as she wandered distractedly after him. To say she was nervous was a huge understatement, but at least she was still trying to work things out. Although… she'd broken her promise to him… she knew. She'd made him think that she wasn't going to be there for him anymore. For a fraction of a second she had tried, in the worst possible way she ever could, to hurt him.

And she didn't know if they would ever be able to recover from that. She could only hope…

A few hours of tireless wandering brought her to the other end of the woods. She found Inuyasha standing at the top of a cliff, looking over a deep ravine, rocky walls caked with shadows. The silver moonlight had a way of cascading down on him and making him glow… But he looked so alone.

"Inuyasha." She couldn't believe she just called out to him. She didn't fail to notice the way his fists clenched at the sound of her voice. It made her feel as if her own heart were trapped between his white-knuckled fingers, squeezing it hard, making it ache. "I came to say I'm sorry." She said evenly, feeling insecure and sad with a voice that sounded far too calm and insensitive.

"Save it." Inuyasha said coldly, without turning around to face her. "I don't care about your stupid apology." He was silent for a moment more before he started up again, his voice still icy. "Let's get something straight: I don't ever want to hear you speak to me again, Kagome. Ever." He lied, his voice cutting and mean because he wanted to hide his pain. "Got that?"

Kagome bit her lip against the aching in her body that was spreading from her chest. She couldn't blame him for being so upset. She had known that he would react this way when everything was over. But still... this was too real.

"Listen," she said, putting her fingertips to her collarbone as if to protect herself from being hurt. "I know what I did was wrong… But I only did it because I care about you, Inuyasha." She started coming closer to him, until she was close enough to put her hand up onto his shoulder, the other still protecting her heart.

As soon as her hand skimmed the fabric of his shirt, Inuyasha jerked and moved away from her… almost violently. Kagome let her hand fall off his shoulder and back to her side, unable to keep from feeling surprised and hurt. It was the fist time he had ever reacted that way.

"What the hell did you think you were solving by doing something like that, anyway?" He asked her. She could practically hear him grinding his teeth together in anger. "I never took you for a stupid bitch."

"I was trying to help you." She said, defending herself.

"Yeah, well I didn't need your fucking help!" Inuyasha yelled. "We would have found another way, Kagome! Why the hell would you ever do something like that! Why wouldn't you come to us?" She frowned and kept herself from drawing away. He was speaking to her as if she were his enemy. It made her press her arm harder into her chest. But she could still feel the pain.

"I'm… sorry." She managed, her voice quiet and throaty from the oncoming tears. "But, Inuyasha, I… I was so afraid for you." She breathed, her words coming out faster now. "What was I supposed to do? … You were going to get yourself killed."

"Feh." He spat in his nasty tone, shamelessly ripping her feelings apart. "As if."

She smiled sadly spite of herself at the familiar show of his cocky attitude and then felt it melt away. Her expression changed to a worried, saddened face. Taking a careful step closer to him, she dropped her hand from her collar bone and wrapped both her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek firmly against his back. To her he felt so cold. But at least he didn't try to make her let go. Thank God he hadn't tried…

"Please don't push me away, Inuyasha." She begged quietly. "I already said that I'm sorry."

"You think that's going to make a difference this time?" He said quietly, angrily, the muscles in his body turning to rocks as he clenched his fists. "You think that just a stupid apology is going to be enough for this?" The growl tucked inside his throat made his voice sound gravely.

"I know." She said, inhaling softly.

"You betrayed me."

Kagome's grip tightened around his waist as the tears started to prick in her eyes. "I'm sorry." She said, her voice hoarse. "I didn't want to… and it killed me inside. But I had to try and save you."

He didn't say anything.

Just as her grip was starting to loosen, he turned around and their eyes met. She had a moment to feel the jolt of electricity between them that he sent through her before he crushed her body into his chest with his strong arms. His exhale was forced, as if he were trying to breath out the pain, and she could feel his cheek resting heavily on top of her head.

"Don't do it again." He said roughly, his voice thick and heavy with raw emotions. "Ever."

"Inuyasha." She said, smiling a little. So he had forgiven after all.

"Say it, Kagome." He said, moving his arms down from her shoulders to her waist so she could pull her head away and look at him in the eye. "Say that you promise."

She smiled sadly and took his face into her hands. She blinked when she felt the sticky dampness on his cheeks soak into her skin. She frowned thoughtfully, her eyes searching his face when she realized that they were tear tracks from before he had come. She felt her own tears threaten to slip from her eyes.

"I promise." She said, looking at him with as much assurance as she could manage to express. "I swear."

He leaned down to look at her, as if to see if she really meant it and she could taste his breath. She felt his lips barely touch together with her own for a fraction of a second before he pulled away and looked at her again. Their second kiss. And even though it had barely been one at all she was breathless.

She smiled as best she could because she expected a blush to be on his cheeks. Like the one that came whenever she mentioned their first. But it wasn't there. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw him looking at her again with those eyes. Golden and bittersweet and filled to the brim with loneliness and pain. The feelings that she knew she had caused him to feel. She closed her eyes and looked away, burying her face in his chest as he held her fiercely to him, two figures crushed together in the moonlight till they almost looked like one.

"Inuyasha-" She breathed haltingly. And he kissed her again, full and hard and on the mouth, leaving her floating somewhere between reality and dreams, knowing only the ache of being with him and filling up the tears inside his heart with pieces of her own. When she came back to the real world she was resting against his chest, half asleep while he held her in his arms.

"I love you, Inuyasha." She said softly, so softly that she wasn't sure that even he could hear.

His grip tightened around her figure in what could have been a response, making her close her eyes, feeling secure. For now, that was all she needed – the feeling of his arms. It might be all she would ever need. Because she loved him so mu -

"Whoa!" Kagome sat bolt upright in her bed. Her body and mind racing while her heart pounded painfully somewhere up inside her throat. "Oh my God…" She managed, putting her hands to her head to make the world stop spinning, to make her heart stop pounding. "What was that…?" Slowly she drifted back down to the bed, though by now she was wide awake. "Oh... man."

'This is great…' The miko thought to herself in frustration a few minutes later, trying to bury her face and body deeper into the pillows, like suffocating herself was going to help. 'What was that' She asked herself, her heart aching with the feelings left over. 'Why is this happening? Urgh! If only I could believe that this wasn't real, then I could go back to sleep and –… wait,' she went very, very still, sealed tightly in the envelope of the dark. '… Can't I just pretend?'

The more she thought about it with herself the easier it sounded. Of course she could pretend. After all, it had only been a dream. And dreams didn't really mean anything, if you thought about it: they were just wild fragments of thought that your mind left behind and sorted through at the end of the day. It was like the garbage that was left over from rational thought. Real thought. And it had been a silly dream too, way to cliché and sappy to be taken seriously. Much like the feelings she had felt in her sleep. They weren't deep or meaningful, they were just surface feelings that she could ignore and throw away as she pleased. Silly schoolgirl crushes and fantasies that came and went and never amounted to anything. In fact, she was embarrassed that she had even dreamed to ever dream up that silly scene. Two broken lovers kissing in the moonlight… please. I mean, can you say 'overrated'? Seriously!

The more Kagome thought about it the more she realized that it the dream didn't really mean a thing. And neither did Inuyasha.

She nodded and rolled over, feeling happy, smiling even in the dark as she went to go back to sleep. It was just a meaningless dream filled with meaningless feelings and meaningless people. Nothing more. She lay there for a moment, just letting the relief wash over her, cleanse her, and strip away the worry in her body. She hadn't felt relief in a very long time.

And then, finally, when the relief was done, she turned over with a heavy sigh and buried her face into the pillows to cry out the hot, throbbing tears that the dream had left behind, allowing them soak into the silk. Because there's a limit as to how much you can lie to yourself. A limit as to how far you can allow your very own mind to be dishonest to your very own heart. And not only was she, Kagome Higurashi or Sayuri Asakura, an absolutely terrible liar, but she knew that she had passed that limit a long time ago.

And then… from the darkness came a whisper. Long and slow and raspy and… inhuman. "Why do you cry?"

She was not alone.

A/N: So concludes the cheesy love scene! For more intense author notes, read the end A/N in the next chapter as it also talks about this one. Thanks!

xox nanirain