Chapter 38
Vitiis nemo sine nascitur
"No one is born without faults."


"What if all everybody needed in the world
was to be sure of one friend?
What if you were the one,
and you refused to say those simple words?"
Empire Falls


No one had made any objections to their leaving, and so Kagome took her allowance and started out towards the store. Inuyasha had crammed his ears into the familiar ball cap, grumbling about it the whole way, but never suggesting that he'd leave or should've stayed home.

He'd stopped when she'd tucked her her hand into his, and she caught the unfamiliar blush that ran across his face as he grumbled beside her, but his fingers wrapped back around hers.

She'd put on a dress that came down to her knees and a cardigan over the top that had sleeves down to her elbows.

It hid everything from view, and that gave her some measure of comfort. No one would look at her, give her a second glance even. She turned towards the store; it wasn't the one that she normally went to, but she hoped that they wouldn't run into anyone that she knew.

Not that she was embarrassed of Inuyasha in any way. She thought that maybe dragging him out into public would help with his acceptance issues, but it was more that she didn't want anyone to see her.

The doors opened, and they both stepped inside; she took a deep breath to steady herself.

She could do this. She could do this.

Inuyasha gently squeezed her fingers, and she turned towards him. He stared at her, watching her, but she gave him a small smile.

"Come on," she said, tugging at his hand. "We have a lot to get."

"Well, we wouldn't if you would quit spoiling the runt and the stupid lecher," he grumbled.

"You don't think I spoil Sango?" She asked.

"She'd kick my ass if I said anything. 'Sides, you both use the soap, so it ain't like—I don't know—not the same thing."

"Ah, so I'm not bringing it just for her, so it's okay?" She teased, and she saw the glower, but the corners of his mouth twitched a little. "Come on, you grump."

She giggled, and grabbed a basket, which he eagerly took from her.

"Look, I ain't gonna bitch about anything as long as we get ramen."

"I promise, we will get plenty of ramen." She turned to look at him over his shoulder and grinned.

He still hadn't let go of her hand. She wanted to think that it meant something more, but it was probably he didn't want to get separated, but she could pretend for as long as she could. When it would come crashing down on top of her, then she would deal with the ruin and destruction of her heart then.

The first aid kit came first. That was the most important thing in her backpack. The snacks and food would come next. Turning down the aisle, she sighed before starting to pull off box after box of band-aids, gauze, bandages, alcohol wipes, and setting them into the basket.

"Isn't that the stuff that burns my nose?" He said, pointing at a line of bottles on the shelf. "Don't we need that too?"

"Rubbing alcohol?" She said, and he shrugged. "We do. I just didn't want to make it too heavy."

"Keh, like that's gonna happen. Get what we need, Kagome," he said, jostling the basket at her to put what she wanted in it. She grabbed a couple bottles and set them inside. "That enough?"

"It's how much I usually bring."

He seemed satisfied at that, and Kagome led his way to the food aisle. She glanced at the basket, realizing that they maybe should've just grabbed a cart instead. She hadn't bought this many bandages in a while.

At least Inuyasha was here to help her carry everything this time.

She ducked down the soap aisle, picking out Sango's favorite shampoo, and setting it into the basket.

"I don't know how you can stand that smell," he commented. "It's too sweet."

"It's for Sango. Not for you." She picked up another bottle, holding it up. "I usually buy this one for you, because it's unscented, so it doesn't smell like anything. Well, it doesn't have any extra scents added to it."

His ears twitched a little, and he looked away from her.

Was it just her, or did this feel somewhat normal?

"Kagome," he started, looking over her shoulder, and she heard them the moment before they rounded the corner of that very aisle.

"Kagome!" came the unified cry of her friends, and she spun on her heel taking a step back towards Inuyasha, but they'd already circled her.

"Kagome!"

"You're here!"

"How are you feeling?"

"Yeah, they said that you were really sick."

"What are you shopping for?"

"That is a lot of bandages."

"Are the sores back?"

"Do you need help?"

"Is that Inuyasha?"

"You don't look well."

"We've missed you at school, you know."

"Have you lost weight?"

"You have so much make up work!"

"Have you heard about that girl who's been trying to ask out Hojo?"

"You look so good, Kagome!"

"Do you want to borrow my notes?"

"I'd kill to be that thin, Kagome!"

"Oh, we should have a study party!"

"That sounds like a great idea!"

"You can tell us your dieting secrets!"

She doesn't know when her hands started shaking, or that she kept retreating until her knee knocked into the basket.

"Hey!" He barked out, and she turned towards him. "Back. Off." He stared at the three of them, but none of them said a word edgewise to her. She turned to look back at them, and the girls had looks that ran back and forth between concern and fear and shame.

His hand rested against the small of her back, but she turned towards him, grabbing his wrist with her hands. She just needed to touch him and stop the roaring static that was pounding up her spine and into her head. She just needed it to be quiet. Just for a moment.

"Please," she whispered to him. He set the basket down on the ground as she supported herself with his arm.

"Are you sure that you're alright?" Eri asked, taking a step towards her, pausing in the movement, as Inuyasha swept his arm around Kagome's back, steadying her with a hand against her spine.

"You do look a little pale," Yuka added.

"Well, paler than before," Ayumi corrected.

"I'm fine, really. Just a little tired is all." She gave them a weak smile. "We're going to finish shopping and go back to the shrine."

"I really think that we should—" Eri started.

"She's fine," Inuyasha quipped, leaning down to grab the basket off the floor and pressing very gently against her back to guide her away. "Leave her alone."

His tone was brash, but she didn't chastise him. She should've, but she didn't. If anything, she was thankful for it. He was walking, but she knew that he had no idea where he was going or what he was doing. He was merely guiding her along.

He stopped in the middle of an aisle, turning to face her as he set the basket back on the floor. His now free hand came to touch her cheek, the one that had been so bruised not that long ago. She glanced at the aisle that they were in and started.

Pregnancy tests stared back at her.

She hadn't had her period in—in—well, not since—panic swelled in her. Surely, after everything, she wasn't—they'd said that she'd been given medicine to prevent that sort of thing, but there was no guarantee was there? Not for that sort of thing.

If she took one, she would know, wouldn't she?

She hadn't had her period.

She could be.

And if she was? What then?

Bridges, Kagome. Cross them when you get there.

"Kagome? You okay?" Inuyasha asked, thumb rubbing along the apple of her cheek. She nodded. Looking at the boxes lining the shelves, she grabbed one, throwing it in the basket.

"Can we finish up and go home?"

He leaned down and grabbed the basket, placing a hand on her back before he guided her away and back to their list.

"I still don't get why you're friends with them," he grumbled as they meandered around the store. He paused, sniffing the air, and turning towards the small display of Pocky on the shelf. He grabbed a couple boxes and stared at them. "They're nosy and stubborn and always getting in the way of—of things."

She giggled as he looked at the two different flavors of Pocky in his hands, before shifting his eyes to her.

"That's the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?" She asked him, and his hand flexed against the boxes before darting a look at her.

"What's pots and kettles have to do with this?"

A small smile drifted onto her face, a real one, and she caught the corners of his lips twitching even as he tried valiantly not to smile back at her.

"So which one is it?" He said, waving the two boxes at her. "Which one does the runt like?"

"I think Shippo likes all of them. He hasn't complained yet." Her shaking hands close over the two boxes, and she puts them in the basket.

"Suppose you want to get something for the lecher and the hag too, huh?"

He's distracting her, changing the focus of her brain. She knows it deep down, but she's glad for it.

"They—They've been really helpful."

"Keh. Fine. Whatever."

She giggled again, and his eyes slant towards her before looking away, a scowl plastered on his face. He placed his hand on her back again, guiding her through the store with no obvious knowledge of where to go to get anything.

She pointed down the aisle, grabbing a box of Miroku's favorite granola bars.

"Still don't know how he can stand those things," Inuyasha grumbled. "They taste like dirt."

She sniffled, wiping her eyes as they started to water.

"Ramen, then?" She asked, and she felt him jolt at the suggestion. He was excited about the idea, but was clearly suppressing his own excitement at getting to pick out his favorite food.

Kagome stepped forward with Inuyasha following a step behind her. She paused in front of the shelf filled with ramen. Looking over her shoulder at him, she expected to see pure rapture on his face at seeing so much of his favorite food available for the taking (and paying).

However, his face was just scowling.

"So, we can get however much I can carry, right?"

"I don't think I have enough money for that." His fingers twitched against her back as he growled quietly.

"But we can get three." She pointed to the flats on the bottom shelf.

"Three? Of those?" He pointed to the same thing she was, verifying her answer.

"Yes. Three of those."

He grunted, and she watched him as he leaned down to look at them.

"You'll be able to carry those?" She asked, and he glared over his shoulder at her.

"Don't ask stupid questions, Kagome."

She grinned as he returned to looking at the different ones.

"I usually get that one. It has all the different flavors in it." He picked up the one she pointed at, sniffing at the cellophane wrapper, and seemingly satisfied with the choice, picked up two more, balancing all three in one hand, and picking up the basket with the other.

They check out at the front of the store, and Inuyasha swatted her hands away when she reached for a bag.

"I got it," he snapped, grabbing them in a brutish show of strength. "You don't need to be carrying anything."

"I can carry something, you know," she argued, still reaching for the handle of a bag curled around his finger even as he stepped back. "It doesn't have to be big."

"Walk, Kagome," he ordered her as he stepped to the doorway, not even flinching this time as the doors opened behind him.

Kagome sighed.

"Will you at least let me help with something?"

"It's not heavy, now will you just walk?"

She huffed in irritation, crossing her arms as she walked beside him.

"You know it would probably help me to carry something. Build up my muscles faster."

"You're doing fine just walking."

"But Inuyasha," she whined, reaching for the handle of a bag, and he growled at her, jerking the bag away from her reaching hands. He snapped his teeth at her, fangs flashing in the sunlight, and she just kept reaching for what he was holding.

He finally switched them all to one hand, so he had a free hand to keep her away from them, even though she reached for them the entire time they walked back to the shrine.

It became a game. She'd walk a little bit without making a fuss about it, and then she'd lunge for the handles, only to have him bat her hands away as he sidestepped her easily.

She gave up only when they reached the shrine steps, and she realized that she didn't have the endurance that she once did.

Her legs burned as she continued to climb, feeling herself slow more and more with each step.

"Hey," she called to Inuyasha, who was a few steps ahead of her.

He turned as she lowered herself to sit on the stairs.

"You okay?" He asked, kneeling down beside her.

"Fine. Just going to take a breather." She took a couple deep breaths to calm her racing heart. "You can go on. I'll be up in a few."

He glanced towards the top of the stairs, before sitting down next to her, the bags resting on the stairs next to him.

"I can wait," he said, stretching out on the stairs with his hands behind his head.

She was jealous of his ability to heal and his sheer energy levels.

Staring at him, she remembered how she woke up this morning and resisted the very powerful urge to curl up next to him and take a nap.

"Can we take a nap when we get up there?"

She was testing the waters; she knew that, and he probably knew that too.

He cracked an eye open at her, watching her for just a moment.

"'Course. No one's stopping you."

She mused over that statement for a few beats.

He hadn't acknowledged the 'we' part of the statement, just plowing right through like it was nothing, and the fact that he'd agreed readily to a nap!

How strange was it to hear that from him of all people. Normally, he was the very one that was ranting and raving about the 'weak humans' and how they were slowing him down and holding him back.

"Huh," she mumbled, mostly just to herself.

"What?" He asked, head turning towards her, those familiar eyes boring into her.

"Oh, nothing," she dismissed the thought with a wave.

That made him sit upright.

"What?"

"It's nothing, Inuyasha."

Now, he was in her space, arms length, staring at her like she was the most puzzling thing on the face of the earth. A full scowl had settled onto his features.

"Tell me," he insisted.

"Honestly, it's not even worth mentioning."

"I ain't dumb, Kagome. What is it?"

This was definitely new. Since when had he pestered her for so long? He used to just let it go when she insisted, and now, he acted like the fate of the jewel itself hinged on this.

"I was just thinking about how you always told us that we were moving too slow, and you'd never let me take a nap in the middle of the day. You just always hated waiting around. That's all. Nothing serious."

If she hadn't been staring, she wouldn't have caught the sudden flicker shoot across his face that almost looked like a wince. He didn't scoff out a 'keh' or anything of the sort.

"Yeah, well," he turned his face from me, as if hiding his expression, "your mother said resting was good for healing." As if that explained everything, which it didn't.

But she wasn't going to push. Not this time.

It was another change. Another thing that proved that they weren't the same as before. Because for as much as Kagome had been irrevocably cracked, repaired, and remolded by her experiences, it would seem that Inuyasha had been through the very same process.

They were the same albeit different.

"You feel up to walking the rest of the way?" He asked, and she nodded. He held his hands out to her, and she took them, letting his fingers wrap around her hands as he pulled her to her feet with ease. She dusted off her skirt while he picked up the bags from the stairs.

She didn't ask to carry anything; somehow it already felt like she was carrying more than enough.


"I was thinking that maybe when we go back soon," Kagome stretched her arms above her head, "and that we should start looking for the shards again." She let her arms fall back against her sides, not quite having stretched the muscles that she was aiming for, but something had popped in her shoulder giving some mild relief.

Climbing onto her bed, she opened up her medical kit, looking at the empty space and then looking for the bag of supplies she'd bought.

"Where did you put the—" A clawed finger held the bag out in front of her, and she smiled. "Thanks."

He sat at the foot of her bed, while she shifted slightly so she could start spreading out the boxes and trying to figure out how to get it all in there.

Inuyasha leaned back against the wall watching her.

"Why do you want to go back so soon? We just got here." He turned his head to look at her and she met his eyes for only a moment before looking back at her box. She started shifting what was left and opening the boxes of bandages as she started playing medical tetris with her supplies.

"Well, I thought that you would want to start up again. You know," she ripped the top off a box and pulled out the bandages, "sooner rather than later. We've wasted a lot of time in the village."

"Kagome," he asked, and she hummed her acknowledgment before a clawed hand covered hers as she tried to work, forcing her to look back up at him. "Do you not want to be here?"

"It's not that. I just thought that everyone would be glad to be back on the road. That's all."

"I want to wait a few days before we head back."

She hesitated in her packing. Why would he, of all people, want to wait to go back to the past? He never wanted to wait.

Why now? Why did he want to wait when she was ready and willing to go back with him?

She shook his hand off hers and kept working. She had things to do.

"Haven't we wasted too much time already? Don't you want to get back on the road again?"

Glancing up, she took in his scowling face and refocused back on the medical kit.

He shifted, stretching out on his back next to her, staring up at her.

"What're you doing?" She asked him.

"You keep looking away," he said, giving a vague gesture as if that explained everything.

"No, I don't," she said, trying to not to look too guilty as she worked in the kit. Glancing over at him, his arms were crossed across his chest, and he was scowling at her.

Shoving things into the box, she made it all work, not wanting to waste any more time on it.

Why was he fighting her on this? What was he trying to do?

"I mean, I have my reiki back and everything, so there's just not a point in waiting around when we could be doing something useful. That's all," she said with a shrug, turning away as she put the kit in her lap, latching it and putting it into her bag. Lifting out the bath tote, she started adding in the additional bottles she'd purchased.

The bed shifted as he did, and she kept herself facing away from him.

"You're still healing. We can wait a few days. Don't you want to go to school?"

Honestly, after all this time, and now, now, when she didn't want to wait to go back, when she didn't want to be here, now he wanted to stay. Was he being contrary just for the sake of being contrary?

Kagome shoved the tote into her bag, before going to her closet and packing away clothes that covered all of her. Pants, jeans, t-shirts, long sleeved shirts since it was getting a bit colder in the past now, she pulled them out of her drawers and her closet and began folding them on her desk, keeping her back to him so he couldn't see her face.

"Weren't you supposed to help my grandfather today?" She asked him.

He huffed from her bed, but she heard him stand and walk across the floor to her doorway.

"You'll be okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, go on," she said with a wave of her hand, dismissing him entirely from her room. "I'll be fine."

"Keh."

She waited until she could no longer hear him on the stairs, before shoving the packed clothes into her back like always, everything else had remained in its little bags. She packed away the ramen and the other treats into the side pockets, again like always, and snapped the latch closed on the flap.

She was going back to the Feudal Era. If he wanted to stay, he could stay. She was going back. She was going to be useful, and he could catch up. He was smart enough, he'd figure it out.

The thought of going to school, of seeing that uniform again, of wearing the uniform again. That terrified her.

The fact that everyone might see the scars? Or that something might slip out and reveal what had happened? The idea of having to keep herself to together alone and without him?

All those things terrified her.

Kikyo had been right all along; she was a coward.

Dragging her backpack down the steps, she watched out the kitchen window as Inuyasha walked with her mother and grandfather into the shed. She had a few minutes to get to the well and down before he caught wind of her little escape.

So she hitched up her bag and walked right out the door.


A/N: So I hope that you lot enjoy this chapter. Someone commented that they felt like Inuyasha was giving off emotional support dog vibes, and I'd already written this chapter, and realized, that's literally what he's doing, whether he realizes it or not. I mean usually Kagome is his 'emotional support human' but this has kind of turned the tables on him.

Side Note: Would you guys rather me post a story that has a regularly scheduled update (like every two weeks) or post a story that gets updated as I feel like it (aka "as I have chapters completed")? I have a story, a modern AU, that's more fluff and trope-ish than my current stories. There's a wedding, fake dating, mutual pining, attempted murder, InuKag being oblivious to their own sexual tension, you know the drill. So anyway, opinions? And just so we're clear, I will listen, but I do not guarantee that I will obey them.

Anyway, I hope you guys have a fabulous weekend!