InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Aftermath's Destruction ❯ A Prophecy? ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: Yes, as Pruningshears pointed out, I did make Kagome the classic girly shopper. To tell the truth, I'm nothing like that. I have a phobia of shopping, so it's nice to have a character that does shop. Ignore me on that, I won't play much into it.

Thanks for the support and reviews!

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Disclaimer: Je n'ai pas d'Inuyasha

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Aftermath's Destruction

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--- Last Chapter ---

Souta closed his eyes and backed away until he came to a corner. Sliding down the wall, he curled into a small ball for warmth. Keeping his tears at bay, real men don't cry he reminded himself, he let loose one last sentence before drifting off.

"They'll have to make it."

--- End of Last Chapter ---

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Chapter Four: A Prophecy

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"Inuyasha...?" Miroku calmly looked up from his rice balls to his companion across the table from him.

"Keh?" The longhaired youth answered, his nose still turned down as the man stuffed unbelievable amounts of ramen into his mouth.

Miroku picked his question apart, and then put it back together in his head. The descendent of a long line of monks decided to be direct with his query, not to

beat around the bush, but come straight out with it.

"Inuyasha, do you love Kagome?"

Inuyasha paused from his gorging session and glanced his lavender eyes up at his best friend. Truly thinking it over, the chopsticks still positioned in his mouth, Inuyasha gnawed on the wooden utensils. Miroku smuggled the urge to comment about the unbelievable fact that his friend looked to be in deep thought, and waited for the answer.

Inuyasha finally crawled back into life from his battle with his consciousness, and stated bluntly, "No."

Miroku flinched. He'd expected shouting, or fake sounding declarations that it wasn't true. A small shocked expression crossed his face as he watched the businessman go back to shoveling noodles with renewed vigor. "Are you sure?" Miroku pushed his lunch away and leaned in further over the small table in the little restaurant. He searched for any signs of lying from Inuyasha. None came.

Inuyasha finally gave up on his wish of finishing his meal in peace, and looked up at the violet-eyed man. "Do I love Kagome?" he echoed, "No, I don't."

Miroku nodded slowly. "You haven't gone on a date for almost four months, since we first met her," he tried a new approach.

Inuyasha shrugged. "What? Is that against the law or somethin'?" he leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, and coolly looked at his lunch `date'.

"No," Miroku defended himself. "It's just...odd. You know? You were the kind of guy who dated all the time, always had a girlfriend. Now, all you do is hang out with your friends or even, sometimes, your brother."

Inuyasha shrugged and gave a snarl, "Are you calling me anti-social, monk?"

Miroku sweatdropped and held up his hands. "Of course not, my friend! I was just wondering. You two...well, you act different around each other."

Lavender eyes glared at him critically. "Why are you being dense? Normally you're the smart one," Inu snorted. "Just a few months ago, Kagome came out of a relationship where her boyfriend beat the crap out of her. Not only that, but when she tried to get away, he stalked and then tried to kill her," he pointed out.

"Yes," The shorthaired man said slowly.

"So," Inu went on, "Kagome is probably relationship phobic at the moment."

"That doesn't explain why you don't date!" Miroku gave a small grin as he jabbed his friend in the chest.

Inu batted his hand away and scowled at him. "So?" he retorted, "Maybe I just wanted a break! Gods...I'm not as lust filled as you," he sneered.

Miroku looked back at him, his violet eyes wide in amazement. "How do you do it? Four months!"

Inuyasha glowered back at him. "Will you finish your food?! I'd like to get out of here before I grow old and have gray hair!" he easily changed the subject.

"Dude! Say `silver', not gray! You'll feel younger!" Miroku let the subject drop.

Inuyasha sighed in relief before pulling his now cold bowl of noodles back in front of him.

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Kagome smiled as she looked closely at the silver bangles in her hand, weighing the price against the need to have the bracelets. The need won out. Putting the

jewelry into a shopping cart, the young woman turned to her equally young friend who was eyeing a denim skirt.

"Hey, Kag-chan?" Sango called over her shoulder. "What do you think?"

Kagome tilted her head in thought, "Good, but a shorter one will show off your killer legs and make them look longer. I can't wait for spring when we can

actually wear these things."

Sango nodded, "True. Thanks for taking me along."

Kagome threw her head back in disgust. "Inuyasha just had to make me take the day off. Jerk. He said something about my co-workers `hounding' me since the kidnappings are big news and wanting me to get away from it, for at least a day."

"What an Ass!" Sango agreed jokingly. "He was just doing you a favor, you know?"

"Yeah. But I can take care of myself. I told you about his `being my protector' line, right?"

"Uh huh," Sango looked at her blue-eyed friend. "What did happen with that cop yesterday afternoon?"

Kagome laughed lightly, "Well, first she started to give me the `don't- strangle-men-while-they're-driving' lecture, but when I told her why* I was doing it, I though she'd join in!"

Sango joined in with her chuckling, "Why don't we grab some lunch? It feels good to get some shopping done, it takes your mind off things."

"Mhmm, sounds good." Kagome nodded and led the way to the cash register of the mall department store. "Hey, Sango? You have a shift at the SHA in an hour, right? Can I join you?"

"Bored?" Sango smiled at the younger girl's vigorous nod, "Okay, sure. I think it might be good to have someone who survived their problems around there. You might be able to keep their spirits up!"

Kagome smiled faintly, "I did survive, didn't I? Well sure." She shrugged and searched her purse for some money to pay for her newly acquired items.

After having said items bagged, the two girls left the store to find the way to the food court. A sudden idea struck Sango.

"Um, actually Kagome, there's this new girl I want you to meet. She just came in on my last shift, four nights ago."

`The night before the boys were taken,' the cobalt-eyed girl mentally calculated. "Yeah?"

Sango nodded, and the friends sat down at a corner table with some teriyaki chicken. Picking at the meat with a toothpick, she explained, "Her name is Tsuyu. She was happily married to a nice man for a few months, but then last week he became violent."

"Oh?" Kagome looked up from her meal. "Go on."

"Well, her full name is Ojo, Tsuyu."

"Ojo? Princess? What an odd last name..." Kagome murmured. "How old?"

"Nineteen," Sango said calmly.

"Nineteen?" Kagome looked at her magenta-eyed friend sharply. "She got married?"

"It was an arranged marriage. Her parents set it up," Sango elaborated.

"Oh."

"So?"

"So what?" Kag asked idly.

"Do you think you can help keep her spirits up?" Sango looked at her friend pleadingly.

Kagome nodded resolutely, "Yes. I bet I can!"

"Good. Finish up, then we'll head over. When are you going back to work?"

Kagome sighed and slumped down on the table. "Who knows? Maybe my guard dog will let me go back tomorrow?"

Sango laughed at the reference to Inuyasha.

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(A/N: In case you don't know who Tsuyu is, she's the princess that Inuyasha and Kagome rescue in the third manga, or the 8th episode...I think that's the one. Anyway, Nobunaga is the young man that helps; he steps off cliffs all the time. And if you remember, in this fic, he's a friend of Kag's from work.)

"Ms. Ojo?" Sango asked politely as she knocked on the door to the young woman's room at the Sakura-Hide-Away where she volunteered to work at.

"Just call me Tsuyu," the pretty black haired girl opened the door and smiled at the arrivals. "Ms. Taijai, isn't it?"

"Can I speak with you a moment? Maybe down at the cafeteria, we can grab a drink if you want." she said, smiling softly. "And it's just Sango."

"Good," Tsuyu grinned and turned to the second girl. "Who is this?" she asked as she stepped out of her room and shut the door. The three girls started to walk towards the cafeteria to have a place to sit.

"Higurashi, Kagome," said girl chirped cheerfully. "Just Kagome."

"Good," the youngest female echoed and nodded a little. They all sat down together, Tsuyu across from the two others who sat side by side. "What can I do for you?"

"Well," Sango began slowly, not wanting to scare her off. "Kagome, she came here, too, for some help not too long ago."

"Really?" Tsuyu raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. "May I ask...about what it was like? Who it was from?"

Kagome nodded eagerly. "I was hoping I could do just that. So you know you can get through this," Kag gave her a sympathetic look.

"Sure," the girl smiled good-naturally. "Proceed."

"Well...you see, I was in a relationship with a man for four years. It was after I turned seventeen, and had a year left of high school. I'd skipped the third

grade," Kagome explained.

Tsuyu laughed, "How wonderful."

`She seems to be so proper,' Kagome noted mentally. Out loud, she went on with her story. "His name was Naraku, and I lived with him. So did my little brother, Souta, and my adopted son, Shippou." A sad look flashed by her blue eyes, but she shrugged it off.

"Of course," Tsuyu digested the information.

"The year before I came here, he started to hit me. Abuse me to help relieve his anger, he made me believe all the problems in our lives were my fault. That I was just a useless, ugly part of life."

"How horrible!" Tsuyu clapped a hand to her mouth. Her young husband simply abused her vocally; he'd never laid a hand on her to hurt her physical. Maybe she could get through this.

"Naraku was into some...heavy things. Enough was enough when he took some things that didn't belong to him, including two men's lives."

"There were other things?" the youngest girl questioned timidly.

Kagome smiled a small smile. It didn't bother her to talk about it as much as she had thought it would a few months before. "He also took a jewel. The Shikon no Tama."

"Really?" Tsuyu's brown eyes sparkled as she leaned in a little more, "I've heard of it. I went to the museum where it was supposed to be last month, but the owner said it'd been bought a few weeks prior."

"What?" Kagome's mouth went dry. "I've never heard that. It's weird that such a small thing can bring so much harm to people's lives. I hope whoever has it will treat it carefully."

"So you made it through all right once you arrived here?" the new girl nudged Kagome back to the topic.

"Yeah. Here I met Sango. She and her friends, now my friends too, Miroku and Inuyasha helped me out."

"That Naraku, he didn't come after you?" Tsuyu asked.

Kagome shook her head. "Actually, he did. He came and tried to get me back. In the end he died a horrible death on accident."

"Oh. A sad ending to a sad story."

"Yeah, I guess it is," Kag said faintly. "But I'm still here in Tokyo, and I'm

still friends with Sango and the others. I'm happy, and I have a good life." Her soft voice was slightly choked and Tsuyu noticed.

Brown eyes looked up and assessed the woman who'd just told her an intimate part

of her life. "You seem familiar now that I think about it..."

Kagome quirked an eyebrow. "Really?"

Tsuyu's eyes widened in recognition. "Higurashi," she murmured. "I heard that on the news this weekend." Kagome and Sango flinched. "Your brother looks like you," the girl commented, regarding the picture of Souta that had flashed onto the screen on the news. "I hope you find them. Such misfortune should never come to one woman," she reached forward and placed a small hand on Kagome's own. Giving it a small squeeze, she stood up. "Excuse me, but I think I'll take a nap. I hope we stay in touch, I'd like to get to know you, Kagome."

Kagome smiled up at her, "Yeah. Sure. Actually...you should come to work with me one of these days. I found out that it feels good to get out of this place once in awhile."

"Sounds good. Sango can probably help make arrangements. Good day," Tsuyu smiled before moving away.

"Bye!" Both girls called over to her. Tsuyu gave a wave and then disappeared down the hall to her room.

"She was nice," Kag said as she gathered her things and stood up too.

"Yeah. That was nice of you Kagome. I know you're not in the best shape, emotionally, right now. I didn't mean to make you live through it again, but I was hoping it'd help Tsuyu. She's a nice girl." Sango stood up too and stretched the kinks out of her back.

"What'll happen to her and her husband?"

Sango looked off to the way where the girl had disappeared. "Tsuyu has a divorce going through right now. I'm helping getting the papers straightened out in my spare time. I don't have much to do since I don't work besides here at the SHA. It feels good to help."

Kagome nodded, "Good. Once she's untied from that creep, maybe she can have a fresh start. She's younger than me, and I made a new life for myself. She can too. I think it'd be nice to bring her to work with me."

"Sure, you could use someone at the office that won't be force feeding you pity all day long." Sango laughed.

"Yeah, I think so too."

"Hey, I got to go man the desk. Jinenji just got off, so I'll take over for him. Have a good day, and stay occupied. It won't do to have your mind wander," Sango advised.

"I know. Have a good day, `kay?" Kagome gave her a small hug.

"Uh huh, bye Kagome," Sango waved as Kagome left to go hail a cab, considering they'd driven Sango's car.

"Bye!" Kagome called as she went through the doors.

Sango waved again as she retraced her footsteps back into the building and sat behind the desk. "Great, now time for another long afternoon," she grumbled.

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"Kagome? You here? I'm home!" Inuyasha announced gruffly as he slammed into the house and shrugged off his heavy coat.

"What? Oh hi, Inuyasha!" Kagome smiled as she walked into the entryway, drying her soapy hands on a washcloth. "I was doing the dishes. Keeping my hands doing something helps keep my mind busy."

Inuyasha shrugged and kicked off his boots. Instead of tucking them near the door, next to Kagome's, he left them wherever they landed. "How was your day?"

"Great. Me and Sango got our spring shopping in this morning and then-."

"Spring? Gods, wench, it's the middle of December!"

Kagome shrugged. "Exactly! Everything was on sale, so we spent less," she winked at him. "Then we went to the SHA and I-."

"Why go there? It so...depressing!"

"Inuyasha!" Kag scolded, waving the damp cloth in his face. He glowered down at her, but she ignored it. "If you would stop interrupting me!" she gave a petite growl and Inu smirked at her. "I met a girl, Tsuyu, who's really sweet. I told her about Naraku-." Inuyasha growled at the name, and she glared at him for interrupting again. He looked a little guilty and let her go on. "-And then I invited her to come to work with me to keep her busy." Kagome finished.

"Oh, wonderful," he said dryly.

"How was your lunch?" she asked as she backtracked to the kitchen to finish the dishes and start on dinner. Inuyasha followed her like a puppy, his stomach

demanding food.

"I went with Miroku. It was okay."

"What did you talk about?" she asked innocently, looking over her shoulder from the sink.

Inuyasha plopped into a chair and shifted uncomfortably. He blushed lightly, "Nothing. Don't worry about it. Miroku's doing fine by the way."

Kagome brushed off his rude answer. "That's good." She finished drying the plates and moved to the stove to heat water for spaghetti. A thought struck her and she turned around quickly. "Hey, Inuyasha?"

"Huh?"

"Did you know that someone bought the Shikon no Tama?"

"Really?" Inuyasha answered faintly, his mind on the talk he had had at lunch.

Kagome sighed and gave up her attempt to start a conversation with her friend,

and began to cut up herbs to add to the sun dried tomato sauce. Maybe they could talk during dinner? Kagome thought about Inu's mad dash to eat as fast as humanly possible and sweatdropped. No chance of that happening.

She'd just have to make do.

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-Ring- -Ring- -Ring-

Kagome got up to go answer the buzzing phone, but Inuyasha's hand shot out to stop her. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her back into her seat beside him at the counter, all without looking up from dinner.

"It's dinner time. Don't answer," he grumbled.

Kagome scowled. "You forget, I need to answer it! It could be someone calling about the boys!"

Inuyasha winced when he remembered the situation. It had been easy to forget with Kagome acting so normally. "Fine," he grunted.

Kagome pried off his fingers and lunged for the phone just before the caller got transferred to the answering machine.

"Moushi, moushi. Youkai residence, Kagome speaking!"

"Hello? Kagome? Hey, it's Sango!"

Kagome smiled and leaned against the wall beside the phone. Holding the phone to her ear with a shoulder, she crossed her arms and asked, "Hey, what's going on?"

"Oh, I'm just calling from Shakura. My shift ends in," Sango broke off to glance down at her watch, "Ten minutes. Miroku's going to pick me up. Just wanted to see how you're doing!"

Kagome laughed and glanced over to smile at Inu, who seemed to be listening in on the conversation. "Nothing much, just eating."

"Oh, sorry to interrupt! Any news on the boys?"

Kagome sobered down and Inuyasha noticed, he mouthed `What?'

Kagome ignored him and turned away, still leaning on the kitchen's wall. "No Sango. No news yet on Souta or Shippou. No one has called me for any updates...Are you and Kohaku still living at home with all those cops?"

Inuyasha turned back to his food as soon as he realized why Kagome seemed sad. `So that was why she got all depressed.'

"No, we moved in with Miroku...Can you believe he's actually a slob?" Sango burst into hysterics.

Kagome followed suit, laughing her ass off. "No! Oh, my God! He is?"

"Is what?" Inuyasha yelled from his seat.

Kagome turned to him with a bright smile, and his heart leapt into his throat. She laughed and filled him in, "Miroku's a slob!"

Inuyasha snorted and went back to his food. Around his chopsticks, he informed her, "I know. That idiot and me were roomies in College. He's almost worse than I am."

He glowered back at her when Kagome burst into giggles. "Yeah right! No one is worse than you!" He sulked and scowled as he went back to his food.

Kagome tuned back into Sango still laughing. "Yeah, anyway. I talked to Tsuyu a little later and she wanted to know if she could tag along the next time you go to work."

"Oh?" Kagome turned a questioning look onto her current housemate. She covered the phone and pulled it away from her ear and called, "Inuyasha?"

"Huh?" he answered intelligently.

"Can I go back to work tomorrow? Please?" she begged, complete with a pout.

He narrowed his purple eyes back at her. "I don't know..."

"Oh come on! Please?"

"Keh. Whatever."

"Thanks." She returned the phone to its right position, "Sango? Yash says I can go back tomorrow. Can Tsuyu make it?"

"Yeah, probably. I'll ask her before I leave. Can you pick her up? She doesn't have a car," Sango asked as she leaned back in her chair.

"Yeah, sure, no problem."

"Great. It'll be good for the both of you. Tsuyu can meet some new people and you'll have someone with you to hang out with when Inuyasha gets boring."

Kagome laughed, "Him? Nah, he'll never get boring."

"Him? Him who?" Inu looked up from his meal to watch the girl across the room from him.

Kagome smirked back at him. "Don't worry about it! And quit eavesdropping!"

"I'm not!" He snorted, "Your conversation is so fucking boring I could fall asleep, why would I listen to it?"

Kagome shrugged and turned back to phone, "Sango? Remember that guy we talked to today in the sports section? He was so hot..."

"What?" Inuyasha shot up, outraged.

"See? I knew you were listening! Jerk..." she chortled. "Anyway, I'll let you go Sango, it's hard to have two conversations going at once. Tell Kohaku I hope he does good at his soccer game tomorrow, and say hi to Miroku for me, `kay?"

"Sure, Kag, no problem. Bye!"

"Yeah, see you soon," Kagome hung up and trotted back to the kitchen counter to finish eating...only to find her plate was clean. She glared up at the man.

He looked back innocently, "What? Something wrong?"

"No, just that I'm hungry," she huffed and transferred their plates to the sink, deciding she'd wash them later. Seating herself back down next to Inuyasha, she looked up at him. "How was work?"

`How was work? Did that just sound like those wives talking to their husbands in all of those movies or am I insane. Wait. Shouldn't answer that, should I...?' "Fine, I guess."

"The Yoshi case?"

He shrugged, "Ayame took it over."

"What? That was my case. Our case!" Kagome slapped a palm down on the counter.

Inuyasha eyed her warily, "Don't sweat it. Ayame is good at her job. Plus, you could do with one less case."

Kag sighed, "I guess."

"Sesshoumaru should be back on Thursday."

"Really? I miss Rin. I can't believe they brought Miko with them!"

Inuyasha smirked at her; "You really love my dog, don't you?"

She grinned back at him; "Yeah. She's a sweetheart! Akitas are great!"

`I'll have to remember that,' he mentally noted. `Christmas is awfully close...'

"I'm going to go to sleep now," Kagome sat up and yawned. "I'll see you tomorrow at work."

"I'm not giving you a ride?"

"No, I need to go pick up a friend. I'm taking her to work with me, is that okay?" she asked.

"Sure," he said slowly. He'd been planning on spending Tuesday with her, helping her out and stuff. Something suddenly struck him as she was walking out the door of the kitchen. "Hey, Kag?"

"Hufft?" she asked, yawning.

"How would you define, you know, `classify', `stuff'?"

"Uh...where the hell did that come from?" She half frowned, half grinned while looking at him.

Inu smirked at her before tilting his chair backward, balancing on the two back legs. "I don't know, I was just wondering." He crossed his arms and sat further back.

THUNK

Kagome fell on her rump, laughing harder than she had in weeks. Inuyasha looked up from the floor, rubbing his head and scowling. "That was quite a spill you took!" she choked out. "Oh, my God!"

"If you'd stop laughing..." he scowled deeper.

Kagome grinned and walked over, holding a hand out. He took it and used her as leverage to pull himself up. She smiled up at him and reached out to tweak his nose. Inu did not look amused. "You're insane, you know that?" she laughed.

He growled a soft human growl in the back of his throat. He would have told the chuckling woman off if it hadn't have been for her standing on her tiptoes to peck him on the cheek.

"'Night Yash. I'll talk to you tomorrow since you'll be leaving before me." She smiled more at him before prancing out of the room, her skips only slightly weighed down by her sleep deprivation.

"...Yeah, night, Kagome..." he muttered, too late as she had already left and turned down the hall to her room.

`Night...'

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"Inuyasha!" Kagome called as she ran towards the young man.

He turned around and gave her a cocky smirk. "Kagome! Hurry up, or we'll be late, Wench! Sesshoumaru will skin my ass if we show up late again!"

Kagome stopped to catch her breath. With her palms on her knees as she bent over, panting, she looked up and grinned at him. Brushing some ebony strands out of her azure eyes, she raced off again. Inuyasha's smirk widened before he started up again, walking further ahead, not turning back to her. "Hey! Yash! Can you slow down? I'd like to catch up. I'd like to go with you to the meeting!" Kagome's breath grew ragged as she forced herself to run faster to catch up with her friend.

Inuyasha looked over his shoulder but continued to walk at his fast pace. "Yeah, Kagome, I'd like to go with you to," he admitted softly, his gruff voice not as rough.

"Really?" she reached out a hand, still straining to catch up to him. "If you want to, then why do you keep going faster? Please, slow down, don't leave me here!"

Inuyasha finally slowed his walking, and turned to face her. He smirked and opened his arms to her. "Then come on!"

She smiled appreciatively, and began to move even faster. But then he started to disappear, to move farther away even as she moved toward him. "Inuyasha!"

"Kagome!" His voice sounded worried, but far away. She couldn't even see him now.

"No," she slowed to a walk. "No," she repeated. "He can't just leave me!"

She glanced around herself, realizing for the first moment that she wasn't all that sure of where she was. It was a long hallway, with several doors on either side. As she starred harder, she realized that all the doors were the same. Wooden, with a single tiny glass window at the top. The small round lights overhead flickered. The light in the narrow passage was dim. Shivering, with a foreboding feeling of where she was at, she paused to hug herself. It was cold, and so very dark.

And Inuyasha had left her here. He had just walked away, leaving her all alone is this scary place.

"Kagome!" A cheerful voice yelled.

Kag spun on her heel, frantically looking around. "Souta? Was that you? Oh, my God, Souta!" Trying to look everywhere at once, she strained her vision. "Souta! Where are you?"

"I'm right here," the boy whispered and his sister whipped around to find him just a few feet in front of where she was last looking.

"Souta!" she screeched, starting to run again. Kagome was afraid that if she blinked, her little brother would disappear, just like Inuyasha had done. But, to her relief, he stayed in one spot. As she came to a skidding stop, just short of the black haired pest, her hand reached toward him. She wanted to touch him, make sure he was real. She wanted to hug him, to reassure herself that he was there. As her shaking fingers were mere inches away, two people appeared.

Appeared to take him away from her again.

The shadowed men had no faces, and there were no facial features. Their dark arms, as black as any black hole, looped with Souta's outstretched ones. Yanking the terrified boy backwards, dragging him away from his sister, his salvation, they ignored his shrieks. "Kagome! Don't leave me! Get me out of here! Please, Kagome," he sobbed as the figures threw him behind one of those identical doors. "Kagome..." As soon as the wooden slab was shut into piece, the men disappeared, leaving Kagome alone once again.

"Souta..." she shuddered as she fell to her knees, all energy drained from her body. "SOUTA! NO!"

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"Kagome! Shit, woman, wake up!"

"Souta!" Kagome sprang up in her bed, covered in sweat and panting heavily. She looked up at Inuyasha with wide, terrified blue eyes. "Inuyasha, please, we have

to save them! They had him! They took him away from me, and you just left! You left me to deal with it on my own! Why-?"

"Kagome," he reached forward in a hug, stopping all of her scared mumbling. "I won't leave you, all right? Calm down, I'm right here," he rocked her back and forth, trying to soothe her.

Kagome's hands entwined in the back of his T-shirt as she sobbed into his shoulder. "Inuyasha...don't leave me alone. I don't like being alone..."

"Shhh...go back to sleep. It'll be okay; I'll stay right here. I'll sleep in the chair in the corner, you won't have to be alone."

Kagome sighed and began to lean back into her pillows. "Thanks Inuyasha," she sounded beyond tired.

"Just sleep," he commanded as he tucked the quilts around her body and stood up. "I'll be over here," he reminded as he collapsed into the large armchair in the

bedroom. He had dragged his comforter with him, and now wrapped it around himself to fend off the December cold.

"Goodnight, Inuyasha." She whispered as she laid further back, snuggling into her pillows, hoping to get some rest.

"Goodnight, Kagome." Inuyasha refrained from telling her how scared shitless he'd been when he'd awaken to her screaming.

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A/N: Okay that was one of my longer chapters. I'm having an easier time writing for this.

Please Review!

Ja ne!