Here it is, the second and final chapter! And as I promised to those of you who thankfully gave this story a second chance, this is a InuKag fanfic. Let's just say as far as the whole restaurant scene, that looks can be deceiving nudge nudge, wink wink Tons of thanks to all the people who read and reviewed, especially The Ninja Who Wanted To Be a Samurai who BETA this two-shot. On to the story!
Two Hearts, One Decision: Part 2
"Hojo, I would love to marry you."
For a few seconds Inuyasha couldn't move, couldn't breath, couldn't think. Soon three words began repeating themselves over and over again in his head.
'She said yes.'
Kagome continued to talk after that but he wasn't listening. He couldn't feel his legs running away from the window or the heavy rain that poured down from the angry sky above. The only thing he could feel was his heart breaking in half. Without even realizing it he plopped down on park bench.
'She's going to marry him…She's going to stay in her time, probably seal up the well, and never come back.'
Her face popped into his head, all their memories, everything, would soon be for nothing. He had put so much trust in her, he opened up his heart to her, protected her, offered her everything he had and she had rejected him. He wanted to hate her, he wanted to be angry with her, most of all he wanted to forget her, but he couldn't.
'What was I thinking? That she'd stay in our time? That I'd be reason enough for her to stay?'
He held his hands out in front of him and hated the sharp nails that looked back at him. All the ridicules, all the beatings and all the shunning by everyone around he had received for just being a half demon, non of them hurt, like those three little words did.
Everything around him that had gone unnoticed finally seemed to kick in. The rain he hadn't felt or heard was suddenly soaking him. He looked up at the sky. All the built up frustration that he had felt finally kicked in too. "Why are you doing this to me?! You took away my father, my mother, Kikyo and now Kagome! Why?!"
He wasn't sure what he expected, a voice to answer him or some kind of sign to tell him that he was wrong, and his life had meaning. Whatever he expected, after a minute of nothing he stood up, not sure where he was going or even sure if he cared. All he knew was that he was tired of loving people only to have them disappear.
Just as he was about to take off, a small hand grabbed his arm. He whipped around, preparing to slice whoever it was in half. He froze when he saw who it was. Under a small umbrella stood…Kagome.
"Hey stranger, what are you doing out here? Enjoy getting soaked in the rain?" she asked with a joking smile, moving closer in an attempt to get him under the umbrella. He could only stare at her for a few seconds in disbelief.
"What's wrong? Are you getting sick or something? Your face is all red," she noticed concerned, taking a step forward to place a hand on his forehead. He backed away from her and only stared.
"Wha-what are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be with your-your husband?" he asked, embarrassed that instead of his voice being full of venom it was shaky and all over the place.
Her mouth dropped open, "You were there?"
"Yes I was there! I heard everything!"
"So what are you so mad about?" she asked nonchalantly, even laughing a little.
He stared at her and shock his head in disbelief, "What am I mad about? I don't know Kagome, what the hell do you think I'm mad about! First you lied to me just so you could be with him and then you agree to marry him? Your going to come to this time and leave all of us just so you can be with that asshole! What about us? What about me? I trusted you, I protected you, I gave you everything I could and you…you choose him…"he trailed off.
He turned around, he could feel hot tears coming down his face. Not since his mother died had he cried and felt so angry at himself. 'Just perfect, another way that jerk is better than me.' It was easy to blame Hojo, even though he knew it wasn't his fault. 'It's mine…I wasn't good enough for her. Miroku was wrong, they we're not meant for each other at all.'
He was so wrapped up in his thoughts and angry at himself for loving her it took Kagome two hard shakes to his arm for him to finally turn around.
"Inuyasha, I'm not marrying Hojo." He ran his hands through his wet hair, hurt that she would continue to lie to him, but before he could say anything she continued on.
"Next time you want to eavesdrop on my conversations, eavesdrop on the whole thing. I said, 'Hojo, I would love to marry you… but I can't.' After that I explained why I couldn't. But you know what Inuyasha? A large part of me wanted to. When he asked me to marry him and he looked up at me…all I could see in his eyes was love."
She stopped for a second and sighed before continuing, "Inuyasha I know you don't love me. You'll never love me like I love you, and I accepted that a long time ago. I want to move on, I wanted so badly to say yes to Hojo because I know he loves me, if I'm with him I'll never have to question that, but I couldn't."
Tears started to form in her eyes and she sadly smiled, "Your face popped up and I couldn't say yes, I'll never say yes, to anyone, because I love you Inuyasha, and I always will." Inuyasha smiled as she tried to hide her tears he felt so happy. 'She loves me… she said no to him because she loves me.'
"Look you don't have to say anything to try to make me feel better, I know you love Kikyo, you don't have to explain anything. Let's just-"
She never got a chance to finish that sentence because at that exact moment, in the pouring rain, Inuyasha put a hand on each side of her face and softly kissed her lips. Kagome knew this was probably to just make her feel better after she had embarrassed herself and revealed something that she had been working hard to keep hidden for the past 3 years but at this exact moment, she could of cared less. He would never love her, but if she could live in this moment…maybe it would be a little easier to accept.
So with trembling hands she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, with all the love she had for him. Inuyasha pulled away, much to soon for both and rested his forehead against hers, looking deep into her eyes.
"You stupid girl, why didn't you tell me you loved me?" She tried to avert her eyes but found she couldn't escape his powerful amber eyes.
"Inuyasha…I'm sorry I let that slip out. It's just I've tried so hard to not get in your way so you and Kikyo could be together because you love her and I just… I want you to be happy and you're happy with her. Plus after everything you do, protecting me and just being my best friend… I don't deserve you and we both know it, I proved that today when I lied to you just so I could spend some time with a friend. So I'll try to be more careful and I wouldn't say anything again. Do you still wanna be friends?"
"No Kagome, I don't ever want to be your friend again." Her face fell and she could feel tears start to well up again. 'I blew it, he doesn't even want anything to do with me now.'
"I want you to be my mate." Her eyes got huge and she could only look at him with shock clear in her features.
"What? But Kikyo-" she started, beginning to shake.
"Kagome, me and Kikyo haven't been a couple for over two years. We settled this a long time ago."
She shook her head, "No no, you still go after her at night, whenever her soul collector's pop up I've seen you several times," she insisted.
"What you saw was me checking up on her, seeing if she had any news about Naraku, not getting together because we're in love because we aren't, I promise."
"So… you love me, not Kikyo, and I love you, not Hojo right?" Kagome asked, as if trying to sort everything out for herself.
"That's how understood it." With that said he did something quite uncharacteristically for him, something Kagome thought she'd never see, he dropped to one knee on the filthy, wet, muddy ground and took her hand in his.
"I don't have a fancy ring like that guy did, but um… Will you be my mate?" With tears rolling down her face for the third time that night, she dropped to both knees, effectively ruining her expensive dress and tackled him to the ground and kissed him again. "So is that a yes?" he asked a few moments later, a little dazed.
She laughed again and smiled, "Yes it is."
"Good," he replied pulling her into his arms. As the two of them laid in the pond of mud and dirt while more rain continued to fall, they both had never felt more happy in their entire lives. Because at that exact moment they had the one thing they wanted most in the world…each other. Something neither of them realized was right away their heads was the Sacred Tree, and the 'park bench' was a bench, property of the Higurashi's. The very place were Inuyasha had gotten pinned for 50 years, the place where they had first three years ago would now be known as the place where the two of them started their lives together.
See? I told you it would all work out in the end, thanks again to my reviewers and don't forgot to review!