InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Aftermath's Destruction ❯ Meanwhile ( Chapter 11 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Fay-of-Faerie 
Kagome regrets her earlier actions, Inyasha acts strange, and we get a glimpse of Sango and Miroku. Another surprise visitor arrives.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Drama / Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 08.22.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 295 | Status: Work In Progress
Kagome regrets her earlier actions, Inyasha acts strange, and we get a glimpse of Sango and Miroku. Another surprise visitor arrives.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Drama / Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 08.22.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 295 | Status: Work In Progress
Aftermath's Destruction
Chapter Eleven: Meanwhile
Chapter Eleven: Meanwhile
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
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“Here you go,” a cheerful worker chirped as he handed the take-out to Kagome. She accepted it dully.
Inuyasha nodded to the guy behind the counter before placing a hand on the small of Kagome's back to lead her out of the restaurant. She'd been pretty quiet since her emotional outburst in the car.
“Thank you,” she mumbled when Inuyasha opened the passenger door open for her. She plopped down while he slid into the driver's seat and started up his car. Kagome leaned forward to fiddle with the radio and, as soon as music filled the confines of the auto, leaned back to sit docilely with the food resting in her lap.
Inuyasha tapped along on the driver's wheel in time with the beat of the song while Kagome sat on her side staring at the dark road ahead, thinking about the strange day.
She was embarrassed. Did she have to have to make that little scene?
No...
...But at least Inuyasha didn't think she thought a relationship with him was joke anymore.
“Hey, we're almost there,” he broke through her musings.
Tired of keeping quiet, she smiled back at him and nodded. Inuyasha sighed, happy to see her acting a little more alive for the moment.
Pulling to a stop at the end of the driveway, they both clambered from the car.
Inuyasha motioned impatiently for her to come to him. Once she picked her way through the snow, he waved a hand at the driveway. “It's dark and the ground's covered with at least two feet of solid snow.”
Kagome looked ahead of them at the sparkling powder; it shined brightly in the moonlight. “I noticed,” she said dryly.
Inuyasha scowled. “What I meant was,” he growled, “I'll walk first and you can step in my footprints.”
Kagome shrugged. Sounded good to her.
Inuyasha reached back and clasped one of her hands in his and began to lead the way, Kagome following, staring at their linked hands. What the...?
He tugged her a little as she started to lag behind. “Come on, Kagome, we'll get up there in a minute. You look tired; we can eat some dinner and you can go to bed early.”
“Uh...thanks?” Kagome didn't get what he expected her to say.
Apparently, he didn't really expect anything. “Whatever. When we left, Sesshoumaru was already gone. He left early from work to pick up Rin so he'll be home. If we're lucky, he's already fed the Witch and her little sister.”
Kagome glared at the back of his head. “Kagura is a perfectly nice, albeit moody, person. Don't call her a witch!”
She became even angrier when she heard him laugh. “Kagome,” he looked over his shoulder at her, his purple eyes sparkling, “She helped Naraku track you down!”
Kagome huffed. “She also, if you don't remember, helped you save me.”
Inuyasha looked back ahead of him, his breath puffing out in little foggy clouds. “I would have saved you with or without her help.”
Kagome just stumbled after him, staring incredulously at his head.
Inuyasha (an extremely relationship constipated man) was holding her hand, leading her through the dark and snow, and telling her that he'd have saved her no matter what...
...Did someone at the office slip something into his coffee again?
Abruptly, Inuyasha stopped a few feet away from the door. He glared at the snow and kicked a mound a little.
“It looks like the wind banked the snow up here,” Inuyasha informed her. “How tired are you?”
“I'm fine,” Kagome added quickly, not wanting him to suddenly think she was a complete damsel in distress. “I can make it.”
“Yeah...I bet you could,” Inuyasha shrugged before dropping her hand. He turned back to her and snatched her around the waist, throwing her over one shoulder without too much effort. Then he easily plowed through the wall of snow; “Doesn't matter, now you don't have to climb over it.”
Once they were at the doorstep, he let her down and fished the key out of his pocket. Opening up the front door he entered without breaking his stride.
Kagome blinked after him for a bit. What just happened...?
“Are you coming or not?” Inuyasha barked gruffly from the warm house.
Kagome stopped gaping and went through the door; she traded her boots for some slippers and hung up her coat. Clutching onto their dinner, she toddled into the kitchen to find Inuyasha making some warm tea for them both.
`I don't feel tired, but everything doesn't seem to be making much sense. Maybe I really do need to go and get some sleep...Thank Kami tomorrow's Saturday!' Kagome sat down at the table and started to rip open the paper bags to sort out the meals.
Inuyasha brought over two mugs of orange spice tea; the tips of his ears were still red from the cold outside.
He pulled out a chair and collapsed in it. Dragging his food towards him, he dug in happily, devouring the entire thing.
Kagome ate a little slower, still thinking about his strange behavior. Inuyasha wouldn't willingly show as much affection as he had in the last twenty minutes. Maybe he would to a girlfriend or a wife that he'd been attached to for a long time; Kagome wasn't either, she was a friend and a coworker. She thought back to when they were in the car on their way home. Inuyasha had asked her about their relationship. He sounded like he was seriously thinking about dating her.
Kagome, sadly, didn't discourage his thoughts any by hugging him.
She mentally groaned; `I can't believe I did that! Inuyasha probably thinks that I'm emotionally unstable and he needs to be nice to me so I don't turn on him and rip him to shreds...'
Kag entertained the thought of her slicing him to ribbons for awhile...
Knowing him and his odd moods, Kagome decided that once she'd gone to sleep and woken up the next morning, he'd (hopefully) be back to normal. Taking a last bite of her meal, Kagome laid down her chopsticks and smiled at Inuyasha apologetically. “You know what? You're right, I guess I am pretty tired. It was a really weird day. I'm going to head to sleep; do you mind cleaning up?” Kagome looked at the take-out box covered table.
He shrugged and continued to gobble down his food. “Keh. G'night Kagome, don't worry about it.”
“Thanks,” Kagome told him sincerely and left the room, heading towards her bed.
Sleep sounded pretty good to her right about then...
...She would forget about the boys' disappearance, it would dull the pain of being without them, and it might even fix Inuyasha's weird acts.
Not that she didn't enjoy said acts...
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In the morning Kagome toddled down the stairs and made her way to the kitchen.
`Maybe `Yash's back to normal,' Kagome mentally wondered.
He'd been acting strange the night before. He had really seemed to try to be nice to her and had kept a lot of physical contact with her. Even after Kagome had been so aloof and moody the past week...
Something told her that he wasn't acting so strongly about his feelings for her just because Souta and Shippou were gone.
Kagome thought back to the Saturday the week before, before she'd first gotten news that the boys were gone. She'd enjoyed waking up in his arms so much that morning!
When her mind had come around and realized what had made her so happy about the situation, it pained her that she'd liked it so much. Her and Inuyasha? For one, they were friends. For another, Inuyasha had never straight out admitted that he wanted to see her a more than that.
Thirdly: What if once she started to date him, he turned out to be a bad person? Naraku had seemed so sweet at first and look at where that had gotten her...
Kagome sighed. It was useless; she just didn't get it.
She'd admit, grudgingly, that Inuyasha did seem to look at her a little differently then he did with (for example) Sango. He looked at Kagome like she could be more than just his friend...
`Oh come off it,' she scolded herself, `Inuyasha is just naturally a cocky, arrogant playboy! He doesn't seriously mean anything in his advances. And even if he did, he'd probably try harder.'
...
Yeah, that conclusion would have to do...for now.
Back to the present...Kagome heard some noises in the kitchen. Someone was clattering around pretty loudly for a Saturday morning. So the person was being inconsiderate; meaning it was more than likely Inuyasha.
“Inuyasha?” she called as she entered through the doorway attached to the hallway. “Whacha' doin'?”
Inuyasha didn't answer.
In fact, as Kagome soon saw, he couldn't answer.
The last time the black haired beauty had checked, it was pretty hard to answer questions with a knife through your throat.
“Oh, my God!” she shrieked, leaping back in horror.
Blood...everywhere, blood was there. Splattered on the walls, dripping towards the kitchen floor, even the ceiling sported specks of it.
Kagome swallowed disgustedly as she eyed the large bladed chef knife that had done the deed.
“No,” she whispered. Who'd done it? Did those bastards that took the boys kill him? Or...did he do it himself?
No, she wouldn't believe that.
“Inuyasha?” she whispered again, edging forward. She waited for him to answer, to just jump up and tell it had all been a joke. “Inuyasha, please...”
Kagome reached out a trembling hand and shook his shoulder gently. Looking at her own fingertips, she saw his blood there too...
“Oh, my God...no....No!”
“Inuyasha!” she screamed. This was just too much! Why did he have to get killed because of her mistakes? Because of her attraction to trouble?
“Inuyasha, no, no, no, please wake up! Inuyasha!” Kagome could feel the tears flooding down her cheeks.
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“Kagome! Kagome, wake up. Come on!”
“No, Inuyasha. No, no!”
“Kagome, it's ok, I'm right here,” Inuyasha shook her even more frantically. What the hell was going on? Damn...Kagome was having another nightmare. Her flailing body and harsh whispers had woken him enough to come and see what was wrong.
“Inuyasha,” she sobbed, tears slipping through her tightly closed, silky lashes.
“Kagome!” Inuyasha stared down at her. What was he supposed to do? What was so wrong in her nightmare that she was so scared?
Finally, her stormy orbs snapped open. She panted wildly as she looked around her dark room. They landed on the wide-eyed Inuyasha and she burst into frantic tears.
“Inuyasha! You were dead. Oh, my God. You were dead! And there was blood, a lot of blood. It was everywhere...you were dead,” she babbled, still trying to settle her breathing.
Inuyasha looked around; he wanted something obvious in the room to tell him how to fix the problem.
Finally giving up the hope that the armchair in the corner or the alarm clock would help him; he turned back to the young woman.
“Kagome, I'm alive. I'm right here, it's okay,” He leaned forward and hugged her.
Kagome continued to sniffle as her arms tangled around his neck, squeezing him hard as if to make sure he was real.
“Shh,” Inuyasha whispered as he pulled her into his lap, cuddling her to his chest. “It's ok. I'm right here.”
The wisps of Kagome's nightmare that were still floating around started to disappear as he rocked her back and forth. Kagome struggled to get her breathing under control as she reminded herself profusely that the dream was just that- a dream.
“You're not dead?” she asked timidly, feeling beyond childish that she was 21 and still having nightmares.
“I'm not dead,” Inuyasha agreed as he buried his face in her hair. “You really need to learn to get over these nightmares...” he told her.
Kagome buried her face into his chest; “I know. I'm sorry.”
“I don't mind,” he admitted. And he didn't...
“Hm,” Kagome hummed. Her heartbeat started to slow back down to normal.
“Want to talk about it?” Inuyasha asked, still hugging her to him.
“I guess...it was morning, and I was going downstairs. It seemed so real. I was thinking about...things, and I got to the kitchen. And you were there,” Kagome told him.
`That explains why she said my name in her sleep...she dreams about me?' “Go on.”
“Well...there was so much blood,” Kagome mumbled.
`That sounds familiar,' Inuyasha thought. Three months before, when Kagome had been passed out from being sick, she'd talked about a lot of blood. That time it was the blood of the Thunder Brothers, the two men Naraku had hired to steal the Shikon no Tama. This time...
“It was your blood,” Kagome whispered. “You were dead.”
“I gathered that much,” Inuyasha grumbled. “How'd I die?”
“Um...”
“Well?”
< br> “Someone...they, well, there was a butcher knife in your throat.”
Inuyasha winced. When he left the world, he didn't want to go like that. “Oh.”
Kagome shifted, reminding him that she was still curled up against him. “So...you're not dead, right?” she asked again slowly.
“I hope not,” he muttered. “No, I'm not dead. I'm fine, you're fine, Sesshoumaru upstairs is fine.”
Kagome laughed at that. Granted, it was a little strained. She thought about her situation. The Saturday before, she'd waken up in his arms that time too.
It wasn't that bad, she decided. Maybe, just maybe, she could let it happen when it happened and analyze it later?
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Kagura eyed her friend and Inuyasha warily a few hours later as they sat down in the kitchen.
Kagome kept giving the room weird glances like she expected a corpse to pop out of nowhere, or a maniac with a knife to lunge at her.
Also, Kagura's guestroom was roughly just above Kagome's room and she'd heard voices somewhere around the neighborhood of three in the morning.
“Sleep well?” The scarlet orbed woman asked idly.
Kagome gave a small shiver as Inuyasha glared at his guest accusingly. “Just fine,” he bit out.
Kagura smirked at him and the two held a glaring contest for a spell. “Good to hear,” she finally drawled.
“Hm,” Kagome hummed. “You?”
Kagura shrugged elegantly, “Fine, I suppose.”
“That's good,” Kagome told her friend with a small smile as she buttered her toast.
Kagura couldn't take it any longer. “Are you okay, Kagome-san? You seem a bit...shaken.”
Kagome swallowed; “I'm fine. I'm just...tired. It was cold last night and I didn't sleep deeply,” she replied. `Although, it wasn't cold in Inuyasha's arms...'
“I'm sorry to hear that,” Kagura stated while looking between the two. Was there something going on that she didn't know about?
“Good Morning,” Sesshoumaru swept into the room and sat down at the table. Kagura was distracted from her thoughts as she spent the rest of brunch glaring at the newest arrival.
Kagome looked between her elder boss and Naraku's ex-secretary. `Kagura and Sesshoumaru. That would be very...interesting.'
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“Mir oku, let go!”
“But Sango, dearest, you're just going to-.”
“No! Kagome is my friend and I'm going to call her if I damn well feel like it!” Sango grunted as she stretched toward the phone, dragging her boyfriend behind her. Miroku's arms were currently wrapped around Sango's waist while he tried to pry her away...
...He had forgotten that Sango was stronger than he'd like to admit his girlfriend was.
With one last lunge, she triumphantly snatched the phone.
Miroku continued to nag in the background [something about how most sane people, Kagome included, liked to spend Saturday mornings sleeping] while Sango punched in Inuyasha's number.
“Youkai residence,” a smooth voice answered.
“Hello, Kagura-san, is Kagome around?” Sango waited patiently while the requested person found her way to the phone. “Hey Kag-chan!”
“Oh, hi Sango-chan,” Kagome greeted her friend.
Sango remembered the last time she called Kagome during a Saturday morning. “Are you doing ok?” The brunette's voice was sympathetic and concerned.
Kagome sighed. “Besides some nightmares, yeah, I guess,” she mumbled into the phone. Sango got the hint that there were some people in the kitchen with her that the ocean-eyed girl didn't want to overhear.
Sango winced. It seemed that a way Kagome's body dealt with stress was for her to have severe nightmares. “Are they real bad?”
Kagome laughed this time. “I seem to have a fetish for killing `Yash off in my dreams.”
“Again?” Sango gaped. It was true, Inuyasha seemed to be the most killed person in the nightmares.
Kagome shrugged on her side of the conversation even though Sango couldn't see her. “I worked it out. I'm fine. Any news?”
Sango scowled. “No one from the police department has called. In fact, I haven't talked to anyone from there since you punched out the detective.”
“Ah, what fond memories,” Kagome muttered. “Are we even sure they're doing their jobs? I mean, what if they're just sitting around shoving their faces with donuts?”
“Kagome-chan, don't take this the wrong way but I never pegged you as a stereotypical person. Not all cops eat donuts. I eat donuts and I'm not a cop,” Sango pointed out practically.
“I know,” Kagome answered shortly. “Hey, I just heard the doorbell. Mind if I cut this talk short?”
“Nah, that's ok,” Sango waved it off. “I'll call you later?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” Kagome said her good-byes and hung up. Seeing as everyone else was too busy to answer the doorbell [Inuyasha was eating; Kanna and Rin were eating too; Sesshoumaru and Kagura were reading] she went to go answer it.
Opening the door wide, Kagome's eyes swept over a familiar figure.
Inuyasha heard her shriek from three rooms over at the kitchen table. He winced and started to grumble as he tried to think up the perfect murder.
“KOUGA-KUN!”
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“Here you go,” a cheerful worker chirped as he handed the take-out to Kagome. She accepted it dully.
Inuyasha nodded to the guy behind the counter before placing a hand on the small of Kagome's back to lead her out of the restaurant. She'd been pretty quiet since her emotional outburst in the car.
“Thank you,” she mumbled when Inuyasha opened the passenger door open for her. She plopped down while he slid into the driver's seat and started up his car. Kagome leaned forward to fiddle with the radio and, as soon as music filled the confines of the auto, leaned back to sit docilely with the food resting in her lap.
Inuyasha tapped along on the driver's wheel in time with the beat of the song while Kagome sat on her side staring at the dark road ahead, thinking about the strange day.
She was embarrassed. Did she have to have to make that little scene?
No...
...But at least Inuyasha didn't think she thought a relationship with him was joke anymore.
“Hey, we're almost there,” he broke through her musings.
Tired of keeping quiet, she smiled back at him and nodded. Inuyasha sighed, happy to see her acting a little more alive for the moment.
Pulling to a stop at the end of the driveway, they both clambered from the car.
Inuyasha motioned impatiently for her to come to him. Once she picked her way through the snow, he waved a hand at the driveway. “It's dark and the ground's covered with at least two feet of solid snow.”
Kagome looked ahead of them at the sparkling powder; it shined brightly in the moonlight. “I noticed,” she said dryly.
Inuyasha scowled. “What I meant was,” he growled, “I'll walk first and you can step in my footprints.”
Kagome shrugged. Sounded good to her.
Inuyasha reached back and clasped one of her hands in his and began to lead the way, Kagome following, staring at their linked hands. What the...?
He tugged her a little as she started to lag behind. “Come on, Kagome, we'll get up there in a minute. You look tired; we can eat some dinner and you can go to bed early.”
“Uh...thanks?” Kagome didn't get what he expected her to say.
Apparently, he didn't really expect anything. “Whatever. When we left, Sesshoumaru was already gone. He left early from work to pick up Rin so he'll be home. If we're lucky, he's already fed the Witch and her little sister.”
Kagome glared at the back of his head. “Kagura is a perfectly nice, albeit moody, person. Don't call her a witch!”
She became even angrier when she heard him laugh. “Kagome,” he looked over his shoulder at her, his purple eyes sparkling, “She helped Naraku track you down!”
Kagome huffed. “She also, if you don't remember, helped you save me.”
Inuyasha looked back ahead of him, his breath puffing out in little foggy clouds. “I would have saved you with or without her help.”
Kagome just stumbled after him, staring incredulously at his head.
Inuyasha (an extremely relationship constipated man) was holding her hand, leading her through the dark and snow, and telling her that he'd have saved her no matter what...
...Did someone at the office slip something into his coffee again?
Abruptly, Inuyasha stopped a few feet away from the door. He glared at the snow and kicked a mound a little.
“It looks like the wind banked the snow up here,” Inuyasha informed her. “How tired are you?”
“I'm fine,” Kagome added quickly, not wanting him to suddenly think she was a complete damsel in distress. “I can make it.”
“Yeah...I bet you could,” Inuyasha shrugged before dropping her hand. He turned back to her and snatched her around the waist, throwing her over one shoulder without too much effort. Then he easily plowed through the wall of snow; “Doesn't matter, now you don't have to climb over it.”
Once they were at the doorstep, he let her down and fished the key out of his pocket. Opening up the front door he entered without breaking his stride.
Kagome blinked after him for a bit. What just happened...?
“Are you coming or not?” Inuyasha barked gruffly from the warm house.
Kagome stopped gaping and went through the door; she traded her boots for some slippers and hung up her coat. Clutching onto their dinner, she toddled into the kitchen to find Inuyasha making some warm tea for them both.
`I don't feel tired, but everything doesn't seem to be making much sense. Maybe I really do need to go and get some sleep...Thank Kami tomorrow's Saturday!' Kagome sat down at the table and started to rip open the paper bags to sort out the meals.
Inuyasha brought over two mugs of orange spice tea; the tips of his ears were still red from the cold outside.
He pulled out a chair and collapsed in it. Dragging his food towards him, he dug in happily, devouring the entire thing.
Kagome ate a little slower, still thinking about his strange behavior. Inuyasha wouldn't willingly show as much affection as he had in the last twenty minutes. Maybe he would to a girlfriend or a wife that he'd been attached to for a long time; Kagome wasn't either, she was a friend and a coworker. She thought back to when they were in the car on their way home. Inuyasha had asked her about their relationship. He sounded like he was seriously thinking about dating her.
Kagome, sadly, didn't discourage his thoughts any by hugging him.
She mentally groaned; `I can't believe I did that! Inuyasha probably thinks that I'm emotionally unstable and he needs to be nice to me so I don't turn on him and rip him to shreds...'
Kag entertained the thought of her slicing him to ribbons for awhile...
Knowing him and his odd moods, Kagome decided that once she'd gone to sleep and woken up the next morning, he'd (hopefully) be back to normal. Taking a last bite of her meal, Kagome laid down her chopsticks and smiled at Inuyasha apologetically. “You know what? You're right, I guess I am pretty tired. It was a really weird day. I'm going to head to sleep; do you mind cleaning up?” Kagome looked at the take-out box covered table.
He shrugged and continued to gobble down his food. “Keh. G'night Kagome, don't worry about it.”
“Thanks,” Kagome told him sincerely and left the room, heading towards her bed.
Sleep sounded pretty good to her right about then...
...She would forget about the boys' disappearance, it would dull the pain of being without them, and it might even fix Inuyasha's weird acts.
Not that she didn't enjoy said acts...
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In the morning Kagome toddled down the stairs and made her way to the kitchen.
`Maybe `Yash's back to normal,' Kagome mentally wondered.
He'd been acting strange the night before. He had really seemed to try to be nice to her and had kept a lot of physical contact with her. Even after Kagome had been so aloof and moody the past week...
Something told her that he wasn't acting so strongly about his feelings for her just because Souta and Shippou were gone.
Kagome thought back to the Saturday the week before, before she'd first gotten news that the boys were gone. She'd enjoyed waking up in his arms so much that morning!
When her mind had come around and realized what had made her so happy about the situation, it pained her that she'd liked it so much. Her and Inuyasha? For one, they were friends. For another, Inuyasha had never straight out admitted that he wanted to see her a more than that.
Thirdly: What if once she started to date him, he turned out to be a bad person? Naraku had seemed so sweet at first and look at where that had gotten her...
Kagome sighed. It was useless; she just didn't get it.
She'd admit, grudgingly, that Inuyasha did seem to look at her a little differently then he did with (for example) Sango. He looked at Kagome like she could be more than just his friend...
`Oh come off it,' she scolded herself, `Inuyasha is just naturally a cocky, arrogant playboy! He doesn't seriously mean anything in his advances. And even if he did, he'd probably try harder.'
...
Yeah, that conclusion would have to do...for now.
Back to the present...Kagome heard some noises in the kitchen. Someone was clattering around pretty loudly for a Saturday morning. So the person was being inconsiderate; meaning it was more than likely Inuyasha.
“Inuyasha?” she called as she entered through the doorway attached to the hallway. “Whacha' doin'?”
Inuyasha didn't answer.
In fact, as Kagome soon saw, he couldn't answer.
The last time the black haired beauty had checked, it was pretty hard to answer questions with a knife through your throat.
“Oh, my God!” she shrieked, leaping back in horror.
Blood...everywhere, blood was there. Splattered on the walls, dripping towards the kitchen floor, even the ceiling sported specks of it.
Kagome swallowed disgustedly as she eyed the large bladed chef knife that had done the deed.
“No,” she whispered. Who'd done it? Did those bastards that took the boys kill him? Or...did he do it himself?
No, she wouldn't believe that.
“Inuyasha?” she whispered again, edging forward. She waited for him to answer, to just jump up and tell it had all been a joke. “Inuyasha, please...”
Kagome reached out a trembling hand and shook his shoulder gently. Looking at her own fingertips, she saw his blood there too...
“Oh, my God...no....No!”
“Inuyasha!” she screamed. This was just too much! Why did he have to get killed because of her mistakes? Because of her attraction to trouble?
“Inuyasha, no, no, no, please wake up! Inuyasha!” Kagome could feel the tears flooding down her cheeks.
.
.
“Kagome! Kagome, wake up. Come on!”
“No, Inuyasha. No, no!”
“Kagome, it's ok, I'm right here,” Inuyasha shook her even more frantically. What the hell was going on? Damn...Kagome was having another nightmare. Her flailing body and harsh whispers had woken him enough to come and see what was wrong.
“Inuyasha,” she sobbed, tears slipping through her tightly closed, silky lashes.
“Kagome!” Inuyasha stared down at her. What was he supposed to do? What was so wrong in her nightmare that she was so scared?
Finally, her stormy orbs snapped open. She panted wildly as she looked around her dark room. They landed on the wide-eyed Inuyasha and she burst into frantic tears.
“Inuyasha! You were dead. Oh, my God. You were dead! And there was blood, a lot of blood. It was everywhere...you were dead,” she babbled, still trying to settle her breathing.
Inuyasha looked around; he wanted something obvious in the room to tell him how to fix the problem.
Finally giving up the hope that the armchair in the corner or the alarm clock would help him; he turned back to the young woman.
“Kagome, I'm alive. I'm right here, it's okay,” He leaned forward and hugged her.
Kagome continued to sniffle as her arms tangled around his neck, squeezing him hard as if to make sure he was real.
“Shh,” Inuyasha whispered as he pulled her into his lap, cuddling her to his chest. “It's ok. I'm right here.”
The wisps of Kagome's nightmare that were still floating around started to disappear as he rocked her back and forth. Kagome struggled to get her breathing under control as she reminded herself profusely that the dream was just that- a dream.
“You're not dead?” she asked timidly, feeling beyond childish that she was 21 and still having nightmares.
“I'm not dead,” Inuyasha agreed as he buried his face in her hair. “You really need to learn to get over these nightmares...” he told her.
Kagome buried her face into his chest; “I know. I'm sorry.”
“I don't mind,” he admitted. And he didn't...
“Hm,” Kagome hummed. Her heartbeat started to slow back down to normal.
“Want to talk about it?” Inuyasha asked, still hugging her to him.
“I guess...it was morning, and I was going downstairs. It seemed so real. I was thinking about...things, and I got to the kitchen. And you were there,” Kagome told him.
`That explains why she said my name in her sleep...she dreams about me?' “Go on.”
“Well...there was so much blood,” Kagome mumbled.
`That sounds familiar,' Inuyasha thought. Three months before, when Kagome had been passed out from being sick, she'd talked about a lot of blood. That time it was the blood of the Thunder Brothers, the two men Naraku had hired to steal the Shikon no Tama. This time...
“It was your blood,” Kagome whispered. “You were dead.”
“I gathered that much,” Inuyasha grumbled. “How'd I die?”
“Um...”
“Well?”
< br> “Someone...they, well, there was a butcher knife in your throat.”
Inuyasha winced. When he left the world, he didn't want to go like that. “Oh.”
Kagome shifted, reminding him that she was still curled up against him. “So...you're not dead, right?” she asked again slowly.
“I hope not,” he muttered. “No, I'm not dead. I'm fine, you're fine, Sesshoumaru upstairs is fine.”
Kagome laughed at that. Granted, it was a little strained. She thought about her situation. The Saturday before, she'd waken up in his arms that time too.
It wasn't that bad, she decided. Maybe, just maybe, she could let it happen when it happened and analyze it later?
.
---
.
Kagura eyed her friend and Inuyasha warily a few hours later as they sat down in the kitchen.
Kagome kept giving the room weird glances like she expected a corpse to pop out of nowhere, or a maniac with a knife to lunge at her.
Also, Kagura's guestroom was roughly just above Kagome's room and she'd heard voices somewhere around the neighborhood of three in the morning.
“Sleep well?” The scarlet orbed woman asked idly.
Kagome gave a small shiver as Inuyasha glared at his guest accusingly. “Just fine,” he bit out.
Kagura smirked at him and the two held a glaring contest for a spell. “Good to hear,” she finally drawled.
“Hm,” Kagome hummed. “You?”
Kagura shrugged elegantly, “Fine, I suppose.”
“That's good,” Kagome told her friend with a small smile as she buttered her toast.
Kagura couldn't take it any longer. “Are you okay, Kagome-san? You seem a bit...shaken.”
Kagome swallowed; “I'm fine. I'm just...tired. It was cold last night and I didn't sleep deeply,” she replied. `Although, it wasn't cold in Inuyasha's arms...'
“I'm sorry to hear that,” Kagura stated while looking between the two. Was there something going on that she didn't know about?
“Good Morning,” Sesshoumaru swept into the room and sat down at the table. Kagura was distracted from her thoughts as she spent the rest of brunch glaring at the newest arrival.
Kagome looked between her elder boss and Naraku's ex-secretary. `Kagura and Sesshoumaru. That would be very...interesting.'
.
---
.
“Mir oku, let go!”
“But Sango, dearest, you're just going to-.”
“No! Kagome is my friend and I'm going to call her if I damn well feel like it!” Sango grunted as she stretched toward the phone, dragging her boyfriend behind her. Miroku's arms were currently wrapped around Sango's waist while he tried to pry her away...
...He had forgotten that Sango was stronger than he'd like to admit his girlfriend was.
With one last lunge, she triumphantly snatched the phone.
Miroku continued to nag in the background [something about how most sane people, Kagome included, liked to spend Saturday mornings sleeping] while Sango punched in Inuyasha's number.
“Youkai residence,” a smooth voice answered.
“Hello, Kagura-san, is Kagome around?” Sango waited patiently while the requested person found her way to the phone. “Hey Kag-chan!”
“Oh, hi Sango-chan,” Kagome greeted her friend.
Sango remembered the last time she called Kagome during a Saturday morning. “Are you doing ok?” The brunette's voice was sympathetic and concerned.
Kagome sighed. “Besides some nightmares, yeah, I guess,” she mumbled into the phone. Sango got the hint that there were some people in the kitchen with her that the ocean-eyed girl didn't want to overhear.
Sango winced. It seemed that a way Kagome's body dealt with stress was for her to have severe nightmares. “Are they real bad?”
Kagome laughed this time. “I seem to have a fetish for killing `Yash off in my dreams.”
“Again?” Sango gaped. It was true, Inuyasha seemed to be the most killed person in the nightmares.
Kagome shrugged on her side of the conversation even though Sango couldn't see her. “I worked it out. I'm fine. Any news?”
Sango scowled. “No one from the police department has called. In fact, I haven't talked to anyone from there since you punched out the detective.”
“Ah, what fond memories,” Kagome muttered. “Are we even sure they're doing their jobs? I mean, what if they're just sitting around shoving their faces with donuts?”
“Kagome-chan, don't take this the wrong way but I never pegged you as a stereotypical person. Not all cops eat donuts. I eat donuts and I'm not a cop,” Sango pointed out practically.
“I know,” Kagome answered shortly. “Hey, I just heard the doorbell. Mind if I cut this talk short?”
“Nah, that's ok,” Sango waved it off. “I'll call you later?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” Kagome said her good-byes and hung up. Seeing as everyone else was too busy to answer the doorbell [Inuyasha was eating; Kanna and Rin were eating too; Sesshoumaru and Kagura were reading] she went to go answer it.
Opening the door wide, Kagome's eyes swept over a familiar figure.
Inuyasha heard her shriek from three rooms over at the kitchen table. He winced and started to grumble as he tried to think up the perfect murder.
“KOUGA-KUN!”