{.x.o.} | Rapture's Remorse | {.o.x.}
{x| Chapter 8: Rehab |x}

Jitters waved over him, his muscles ached constantly, sweat penetrated his skin often, he couldn't sleep, and ever part of his day was filled with utter agony. Days felt like years, weeks were like decades, he needed a fix but each time he decided to give up on his resolve someone would be there to yank him back in line. It was the most annoying thing to have one of the terrible trio with him at all times. Not even a minute went by that the nagging nurse Sango wasn't there or the proper priest Miroku or the one that was responsible for it all, Kagome, weren't there to make sure he didn't revert back to his old habits.

For that, he hated each and every one of them. A lot, a lot.

They'd even screwed up his apartment and 'Inuyasha-proofed' it. They changed the locks and even made it so that each of the doors locked from the inside, each of them had a key to each bolt but him, no, they pretty much determined where he could be… worse yet, they never let him out because none of them trusted him. It was like they were holding him prisoner, which he constantly reminded them was illegal.

"You should let us take you to an actual rehab, then," Kagome would always say in reply.

She bothered him the most, certainly it'd be alright for him to strangle her, wouldn't it? Yet he never got that far… now the priest he had actually punched but, damn, the man could handle himself better than Inuyasha had ever expected and somehow he ended up on the ground with a black eye himself and that annoying priest above him, perfectly fine.

The idiots, it wasn't right that they kept him locked away.

"Kagome will be here soon," Sango assured as she flipped to the next page in her magazine, "so settle down already."

"I don't care!" Inuyasha shouted as he smacked the window, "I'm so sick of this! I take it back! I want out!"

"Sure," Sango sighed with a shake of her head.

"I'm serious!"

"Right."

"Damn it, I'm going to kill you!"

"Uh-huh," she nodded, "you say that and then Kagome gets here and you settle down. Just wait for her and it'll be OK."

"I hate her," Inuyasha grunted.

"Sure you do."

"I hate you, too."

"I'm not very partial to you, either," Sango countered, "you're lucky I like Kagome or else I wouldn't bother with babysitting you like this."

[…]

"Oh, really, Kikyou-sama?" Kagome whispered as she sat on the edge of her hospital bed, leaning towards her dear friend, "why?"

A minute smile brightened Kikyou's glum features for only a moment, "because, it is for the best. I do not believe that Suikotsu and I… we're just not meant to be. I wish him the best but… him and I are…"

"So, you two are not together any longer?" Kagome inquired with a tilt of her head, trying her utmost to try and win the attention of Kikyou's chocolates but failing each time.

"We were never really together," Kikyou whispered before she began towards to the door, "have a nice day, Kagome, I will visit after my shift is over."

"OK," she muttered back. She waited for some time before she grasped the IV she was hocked up to and got up to drag it along with her for a walk around the hallways of Saint Raphael's that she knew so well, too well. The passages of her high school were never so familiar but she did not lament over that for too long, instead she curved her lips up to hurry over to the one she was searching for all along. "Suikotsu-sensei!"

"Kagome-san," the handsome doctor replied with a beaming grin, "should you really be out and about?"

"I wanted to see you, Suikotsu-sensei," she chimed as she stopped in front of him, "I have something I need to tell you."

"Is that so?" He inquired with a frown, "is there something wrong? Do you feel worse—?"

"No, it's not that," she said with a shake of her head and another step towards to him, "I just have to tell you… that I… I love you, Suikotsu-sensei."

Truly, it was not reassuring in any sense to watch his beautiful beige eyes bulge so magnificently before he pushed his glasses up his noise and looked about to verify that no one else had heard that, "Kagome-san, that's very nice… but it is called transference, because you are my patient and I am your doctor you form these feelings but that are not real. It is common, do not worry—"

"No, Suikotsu-sensei," Kagome frowned as her eyes averted his for the floor instead, "it's not that. I've felt this way for a very long time… I just thought that you and Kikyou-sama would be better together so I said nothing but… Suikotsu-sensei, will you tell me the truth?" She murmured, lifting her hurt hazels up to look at him, "if it were not for Kikyou-sama would you have noticed me?"

"Kagome-san," Suikotsu coaxed softly, "it is not like that at all, you are just… a patient, that's why I've never—"

"I know I am not very pretty because I'm so pale and petite and that Kikyou-sama is very beautiful and radiant—"

"Kagome-san," Suikotsu interrupted to tilt her chin up, "don't say that, you are a lovely girl."

"You have to say that now," she muttered back with a pout.

"I mean it," he reassured, "Kagome-san, whoever you end up with will be a very lucky man. Now, please, go back to bed and rest."

"Suikotsu-sensei," Kagome whispered after she took another step closer to him, barely any space was left in-between their bodies, his breath hitched along with hers, "will you kiss me?"

"Kagome-san," he gasped.

"Please, Suikotsu-sensei?" She begged as she reached her frail hand up to remove his glasses, his face was ever so near to hers, "I do not want to die without ever kissing someone."

His eyes wondered about hers until he could form a stuttered reply, "your surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, Kagome-san, after that you will be fine."

"If I manage to survive it and only for another four years, at most," she grumbled back.

"Your first kiss should be with someone you truly love, Kagome-san," Suikotsu assured her gently as he reached to take his glasses back from her, but his hand lingered upon hers when she swiftly replied.

"I do love you, very much," her pure declaration stumped him for some time as his eyes wandered about her features in search of any fault, any doubt, yet he found nothing...

"If you'll go back to bed I will." Obediently, giddily, she did just that to end up sitting upon her uncomfortable mattress and look up to the kind façade she had first fell for, he was so handsome, her heart only pounded all the more. Cautiously, he placed a knee on the bed beside her and leaned down to cup her face with tender care, just like he did with everything else. It was completely inappropriate; he knew this for certain as he pressed his lips to hers, but would it really have been right to deny her this small victory? Perhaps no, perhaps yes…

When he pulled away she smiled up at him and he down to her for only a short while before he witnessed her eyes widen gravely. He gradually turned to see what had won her awe-struck attention. A stunned nurse, a nurse he knew so well…

"I'm sorry, Kikyou-sama, I'm really sorry—" Kagome sped long before Suikotsu could form a single word.

"Why? I have turned him down for the final time, if you can make him happy I'd be thrilled, you are old enough now anyway." Though her voice was even and her feature's stoic Kagome still felt her words were empty, it broke her already defected heart all the more when she looked up to see the way Suikotsu was gazing at his most beloved Kikyou.

A love that would never belong to her... That was when she decided she didn't want to pull through the surgery that she only had a forty percent chance of surviving anyway. She was too sick of watching the man she doted over constantly lust after another that would never return the affections. It simply was not fair… why did Kikyou deserve his undying attention when she did nothing but turn it away, reject it, and even stomp all over it? If she had his heart, if she had even a fraction of his attention, she would never hurt him... not like Kikyou did.

It. Was. Not. Fair... but what in life was?

[…]

"I'm perfectly capable for bathing myself," Inuyasha snickered as he sank deeper in the water that washed his sticky skin clean and soothed his aching body.

"You think I enjoy monitoring this?" Kagome retorted with a pout, she sat on the edge of the bath, her hands firmly gripped to the ceramic material and back turned to him so she would not have to see any indecent part of him ever again.

"You don't have to," he hissed, "you could just all leave me alone. I'm so sick of you, that pesky priest, and that stupid nurse chick."

"You are in a particularly foul mood," she mumbled back, "do you want to hear something funny to cheer you up?"

"The only thing that could cheer me up is getting rid of you," he growled back.

"When I was little," she started anyway with a warm smile as she shut her eyes, "I used to think that talking to God was kinda like talking on a telephone, that if I didn't do the sign of the cross in the right fashion then he'd always be able to hear my thoughts or if I did it too few times he couldn't hear my prayers at all. I was always worried that I did it one too many times or not enough."

He wrinkled his nose at that, "you're stupid. What was it that you were thinking about that you didn't want Him to hear about, eh?"

"Nothing perverted like you," she jested back, "I just didn't want God in my head always because I was supposed to act strong, I didn't want anyone to know how scared I was when I was little… I didn't even want God to know. I thought he'd be able to tell my parents or something… but now I know how silly I was," she laughed lightly, "God's always there and I can trust him with all my secrets."

He couldn't really grasp that, for so many reasons, but the one he chose to focus on the most was what he considered to be the worst of it. How would it be like to grow up and not know if you would ever really grow up? Somehow, he knew she was thinking that, too, and even though she was trying her best to keep a smile she was anything but happy. Sure, he was in a 'particularly foul mood' and had been all day, even when she got there, but she had been in an awfully unpleasant one herself, not one of her multiple smiles seemed true… he wanted to change that, to lighten whatever worries she might have had.

"Hey," he began with a mischievous grin, "wanna come in here?" The glare she gave him was enough to widen his smirk and encourage him to grasp her wrist to jokingly tug her towards him, she yanked back and he pulled, somewhere along the way she lost her balance in their unneeded struggle and slipped in. With haste she placed her hand down to keep herself from falling all the way into the water.

Both of their eyes grew too grand as they stared at one another, her mouth went agape when she realized what she was touching and his, too, dropped some. It had been a while since anyone grabbed him there, another side-effect from his weird form of 'rehab', he no lingered worked for Kagura. For weeks he threw a fit over it, how the hell was he supposed to buy food or pay the rent without working?! And each time Kagome would assure him that she'd take care of both of those matters for him.

"Forever, huh? Because I'll need a job when this is all done!" He'd coarsely counter.

A frown would always appear as she bent her brows together and placed her hands on her hips, "we'll help you find a new one, a better one, Inuyasha!"

Her shriek shocked him back to the 'now' when she leaped up and shook her hands, "ew! I can't believe! Ah! Inuyasha, why!?"

He couldn't help but laugh at how innocent she was, if it was anyone else he'd probably be deeply insulted from her reaction but it was her and he was more than sure that with any man she'd react the same way. Right...?

[…]

Fidgeting around was really all he did when he lied down to go to sleep, the sheets made it too hot but to sleep without them was too cold, he wasn't comfortable on one side but the other was worse, lying on his back was alright but only for a short time, he groaned as he flipped onto his stomach to punch the pillow into a pile under his head.

"You need to settle down, Inuyasha," Kagome sighed as she crossed her legs and placed her hands in her lap while she sat upon the dresser.

It only made it worse that someone was always watching him as he fell asleep, too. "Whatever…"

"I'm just saying, you'll never get some sleep if you keep moving around. Do you need me to sing you a lullaby?" She teased after she glanced at the clock, it would only be a short while before Miroku arrived to take over the next shift.

"Hey," Inuyasha murmured, opening his eyes just enough to see her across the dark room, the only light that entered his studio was from the city outside the window that she sat in front of so causally. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she chimed.

"When you halfway fell into the bath earlier…"

"Please," Kagome whined as she covered his reddened cheeks, "that was an accident, let's not talk about that."

"That's not what I'm getting at," he assured, "I saw down your shirt when you—"

"Inuyasha!"

"I didn't mean to!" He countered, "I saw… a scar down the middle of your chest...?"

"Oh," she whispered while she raised her hand up to the middle of her bosom, "I'm self-conscious about it so that's why I always wear the high neck stuff, I don't want people to see it. It's terrible, I know, vanity is a sin but… it's ugly," she muttered, "but, at the same time I love it."

"What?"

"It's a scar from all the surgeries and without them I wouldn't be alive. It's a symbol, an important one. It's a mark that will never go away, it's how I'll never forget…"

He wanted to inquire more about it, he wanted to know more about her, but the sound of the locks coming undone and the door opening caught his attention, "sorry I'm late, I picked up Chinese food on the way over from that place down the street."

"That's fine," Kagome smiled as she slid off the dresser and picked up her things, "that smells good."

"Would you like some?"

"No, I'm tired, I'll see you tomorrow morning, Inuyasha."

"Bye," he muttered just barely before she closed the door behind her, a glimpse of a real smile was his reward.

A/N: Short chapter, I know but bear with me. I've got a hectic weekend and not too much time but I felt I needed to update and this chapter fulfilled all that I needed it to.

Thank you so much for the reviews and I hope that you keep to enjoy the story and review :)