I'm back:smiles happily: I'm very glad to be back. Sadly, I have a life outside the Internet, so I can't update all of the time. Omfg, this story has more reviews than Betrayed! O.o people must like this story.

Inuyasha:runs for his life while Shahirah tries to catch him on fire with gasoline and a match:

Sami: Er…not sure what's going on over there…

Enjoy the story!

Luffs and Inu plushies (cuz you know you want one )

Shahirah Abal

It had been seven hours since Sango and Kagome had returned from the hot spring, and Inuyasha still hadn't stirred. Kagome was very worried.

Finally, Shippo got irritated and, in his bubble-thing form (rofl), spewed water all over the hanyou. When the hanyou still didn't stir, everyone became even more worried.

"I'm going to take him to my time. Maybe my mom can help him." Kagome said, the fear evident in her voice. The others nodded and helped her carry the inu-hanyou to the well.

He's really light… Kagome thought. I could probably carry him here on my own.

Gently dropping into the well, she leapt through time, soaring five hundred years into the future.

As soon as she felt the ground beneath her and Inuyasha's bodies, she called for her mom and Sota to come and help her.

A few minutes later, they had the hanyou on her bed, and her mom examined him carefully.

"He's definitely unconscious." Mrs. Higurashi said, checking the boy's pulse.

"His ear was bothering him a few hours ago, and when I came back, I thought he was asleep." Kagome said nervously.

"Kagome, dear, how about you ask that lady, Kaede I think, if she knows anything?" Mrs. Higurashi suggested.

"But-"

"He'll be fine, I promise."

Kagome glanced at her hanyou love before nodding. "Okay." I'll do anything to make him better.

Scene Change!!!!

She headed towards Kaede's quickly. Upon reaching the old woman's hut, she slipped in.

"Ah, Lady Kagome. It is nice to see ye again." Kaede said in greeting.

You know I'll take your hand,

"Hi, Kaede. I have come to ask you if you know anything about youkai illnesses, or anything of the sort." Kagome said, her chocolate eyes fixed on the old woman.

"Ah, I know much about youkai illnesses. What do you wish to know?"

"Inuyasha is sick. He's in my time right now, so I can't bring him here, but I want to know what he has."

"What are the symptoms?"

"His ear was hurting him, and he's unconscious."

"Ah." Kaede nodded grimly. "He probably has an infection caused by a youkai parasite."

"Do you mean like the one that possessed Shippo some time ago?"

When it gets cold…

"No. They are related to those, but do not make their host evil. Instead, they make the host deathly ill." Kaede paused here, not sure whether to tell the girl the rest, but deciding that the young miko needed to know the truth, she said, "It is very rare for a youkai to be infected, but those who are always die."

Kagome gasped. She couldn't fathom Inuyasha dying. It was too farfetched.

"He can't die. Inuyasha can't die…" Kagome said, trying to convince herself and the old miko in front of her.

"I hate to hurt ye like this, but as farfetched as it seems, Inuyasha can die as easily as any of us."

"Is there anything we can do for him?"

"Aye, we can only wait and watch."

Kagome nodded. She knew what was wrong with him, but she was no closer to finding out how to save him than she was when she returned from the hot spring hours before.

Standing up, the miko bid farewell to Kaede and left for her time, feeling heaviness in her heart. She felt cornered for the first time in her life, and she hated it.

Scene Change!!!!

Each step to her room seemed to take her farther away from her hanyou, rather than closer. Her heart pounded in the fear that he had died before she returned.

Thankfully, when she reached her room the hanyou was conscious again. As she walked in, he turned his gaze towards her, and Kagome almost cried.

His eyes, those eyes that always shone with some emotion or another, the same eyes that were always filled with bravery, that occasionally reflected the pain deep inside, were nothing more than a dead expanse of color, reminding her of the cracked golden earth, dry and lifeless. He looked as though life had lost its charm for him.

"Oh, Inuyasha…" She whispered, and ran over to him, tears rolling down her cheeks.

He tried to hug her, he really tried, but his arms wouldn't listen to him. She saw the muscles in his arms flexing, trying to lift them, and she started to sob, pain filling her heart at seeing her hanyou in this state.

Mrs. Higurashi watched her daughter cry for the boy, and she felt a lump form in her throat (A/N: It's happening to me as I write this… It's sooo sad!). Quietly, she and Sota left the room.

"Ka-Kagome…" Inuyasha croaked, his voice breaking. "Wh-what's happening to m-me?"

It tore Kagome apart to see him reduced to this, but she had to tell him.

"I asked Kaede, she said you're sick with something that youkai don't live through…" She whispered, looking him in the eye. It was difficult, though, to look at those eyes that had once had the ability to be windows to the soul.

"Do you m-mean d-die?" Inuyasha whimpered. He was afraid now. "I-I d-don't wanna d-die!"

"I know Inuyasha, I don't want you to die either." Kagome said, cradling his head in her lap. "But Kaede said that all we can do is wait and watch."

Inuyasha shivered slightly, not just from the fact that his fate might be sealed, but also from the fact that he suddenly felt as though he had been plunged into icy water.

Then, the pain hit.

It was like being stabbed with a thousand daggers. Inuyasha could barely think as he thrashed, fighting the unknown force even though he knew he would never win.

Kagome gasped as Inuyasha flailed about, trying to ward off some unknown assassin. "I-Inuyasha?" she cried, trying to hold him in place.

The pain was quickly robbing him of energy, and he was slowly weakening; his thrashing stopped and all that he could muster were pathetic whimpers for help and for relief.

The pain slowly ebbed away, leaving Inuyasha exhausted and thirsty. He whimpered and moved as close to Kagome as he possibly could. She was his only hope for survival.

"Kagome…" he managed to whimper as black slowly started to make its way into his line of vision.

The last thing he heard was Kagome calling his name before he gave in to unconsciousness.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha, can you hear me? Inuyasha!" Kagome cried as his body relaxed, the tenseness leaving.

Quickly she felt his pulse and relaxed. He's just unconscious. She thought.

Reaching for a bottle of water on the table by her bed, she took a sip, saving the rest for Inuyasha when he woke up.

Lying down, she pressed herself against her hanyou's chest. Sighing deeply, she prepared to sleep as she felt the infectious warmth of the young man envelop her and take her cares away.

Inuyasha…

Scene Change!!!!

Inuyasha woke up a few hours later, yawning slightly.

Looking down for the source of the soft warmth against his chest, a flush painted his cheeks a cute pink when he saw that it was Kagome. As he snuggled down, everything hit him suddenly, the pain in his ear, the unconsciousness, Kaede's diagnosis, the pain, everything, shot through his mind, giving him a huge headache.

What will I do? I want to be with Kagome, but this…this makes it hard.

Trying to forget about that for a while, he rested his cheek on the top of her head and decided to think about something not so…depressing.

And of course, the first thing that popped into his head was a family.

Not just any family, but his family. Kagome's family. Their family.

He could imagine it, but he just couldn't believe it.

A soft sigh from beneath him jolted him out of his thoughts and he looked down only to get lost in twin pools of chocolate.

"Are you okay?" Kagome asked softly.

He nodded, noticing one little problem…

"Um, actually…I can't move my legs."

"WHAT?"

Stopping it here because I need to put this up. The goal for this chapter was going to be 10 pages with a song, but that didn't work out. :( Oh well…

BTW, I did not like doing this to Inuyasha, but it's essential for the story, as painful as it is :( Don't get pissed, okay?

Luffs and Inu plushies (cuz you know you want one )

Shahirah abal (call me shay-shay )