InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Carousel's Shorts ❯ Sacrifice ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

(Theme: Happiness)

She stumbled as she stepped off the boat. He moved faster than anything human to catch her, pulling her hard against him, and she forgot to breathe.

He was everywhere around her, and she was drowning in him. She could feel every line of his body as she leant against him, from his thigh touching hers, to his chest, to his breath soft against her forehead. The distinctive forest smell was around her, the heat from him. His arms flexed around her as he inhaled sharply, and she could feel his strength, so easily able to break her had he wished.

She swallowed, unable to meet his eyes for fear of what he would see in them, focusing instead on the rapid hammering of his pulse in the base of his throat.

And then as she raised her head, his lips touched hers, and the world stopped, and for one moment, she felt exquisite, perfect happiness.

She kept her eyes closed as his mouth withdrew, wanting to savour the moment.

"Kikyo..." his voice was low and husky, and he held her close to his body as a life line. "I'll become human for you."

She opened her eyes and stared up into his golden ones, and read so many conflicting emotions it hurt to track them. Longing, hope, resignation, regret, fear, love. Swallowing, she realised something that she had never realised before. Inuyasha would never be happy as a human. He would never be free of fear, having the memories of a strength becoming human would steal from him. He would be placing himself amongst people who despised him and had never accepted him, and abandoned both him and his mother. He would never be accepted by his only living family, and would be disgracing himself further as he lost all his demon blood.

He would sacrifice everything that he cared for, everything he dreamed, because he wanted to make her happy at the cost of himself.

Almost, Kikyo wished he would take it back, that he would run back to the youkai. That he would become what he originally wanted, and leave her. It hurt her that, for him, she would be his fall from grace, and the reason he would never be truly happy.

He was offering to make the first pure, unselfish wish on the Shikon-No-Tama she had ever heard, and he did not even realise it himself.

Whilst her heart remained divided, the Miko in her was unequivocally clear.

"I'll bring you the jewel tomorrow."

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