InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Commitment ❯ By Her Side ( One-Shot )

Ok, so this is my first…in Inuyasha. I've written before, although I've taken most of it down. Anyway, this is a direct continuation of Pareathe's `Love and Obligation' so I would definitely recommend reading that before you read this. With her permission and blessing, I continue right where she left off…

~*~

She had missed feeling him against her.

The steady beating of his heart, the slow, even breaths against her throat. It all came to prove how much she had really missed him over the past few days. She buried her head deep into his chest, sighing contently.

"Kagome."

His voice, gruff and gentle, rang clearly in her ear. God how she had missed him. She pressed her head further, her mind hazy with happiness. "Can't we just stay like this a bit longer?"

He gave a throaty little chuckle. Her heart jumped at the sound of it. "What about your friends?"

Her eyes snapped open. Friends?

For the second time that day, she was thrown back to the present. She was still in school. Her friends were still standing to the side frozen in surprise and Hojo-kun continued to hold a bewildered expression.

Oh God.

She blushed and took a step back, reluctantly loosening her hold on Inuyasha. Her eyes slowly drifted over her classmates, watching as their expressions changed from shocked to ecstatic. Without second thought, Kagome grabbed Inuyasha's hand and ran.

*~*

She stopped when she felt the pain of stitches in her stomach. After finding that she had indeed put enough distance between herself and the school, she had released Inuyasha's hand and found herself leaning against a towering tree. Between pants of air, she snuck glances at him, completely amazed that he was still there. Her eyes caught his, and she was surprised to find a note of weariness in them.

"Fuck…" he cursed softly, wiping sweat with the back of his hand, "do all humans get tired this quickly?" He stood up straight and then bent back down, wincing in pain. "Wh-why the hell does this hurt?"

Kagome smiled and helped him move over to the shade. She looked around, unsurprised to have ended up where she did. After all, over the past week of heartbreak, she had ended up here many times. She gazed up at the tall memorial, her hand naturally coming to rest beneath the groove of the bark. "Inuyasha?"

He looked up in-between breaths. He scowled and stood up straighter. "Hn?"

"Do you know where we are?"

He looked around without any true interest, and with a small `Feh', Inuyasha shrugged. His gaze eventually drifted to where her hand lay and after a moment, Kagome noticed the light of recognition.

"So this is it, huh?"

She nodded.

"Wouldn't really recognize it if it weren't for that dent…"

She nodded again.

He took a step forward. Without word, his hand reached up and his fingertips traced lightly on the bark of the wood. He came upon the five-hundred year old mark, remembering how he had been bound to that very same tree…

"Five-hundred years…" he noted quietly, "…that was yesterday…"

It brought her back to her question. Had he kept his word?

Without preamble, he answered: "He died with Kikyo."

She looked down. She couldn't think of anything to say, and so she muttered a soft "Oh…".

"You mad?"

"No!" Kagome answered quickly and fell silent. She wasn't angry, she knew that. She wouldn't have given him the Shikon no Tama if she hadn't known he was going to use it with his heart. But she couldn't help but to feel sad. The Inuyasha she knew…the one she had traveled with…the one she had grown to love…he was gone.

She stepped forward and quickly closed the gap between them, her fingers grasping the fabric of his shirt and pulling him forward.

"You smell just like him."

"I am him," he countered brusquely.

`But I'm not…' he reminded himself mentally. `I feel different.' With a small grunt, Inuyasha wrapped his arms around Kagome and pulled their bodies closer. He couldn't help feeling changed. The last memory he remembered having was the making of the wish: the warmth that surrounded his body, how he willed the jewel… To die with Kikyo, to have their souls bound for eternity, to follow Kagome to the present… He had thought of nothing but the wish. He hadn't cared about consequences, had never really thought about the fact that if he had been truly reborn he wouldn't have been able to recognize Kagome. All he knew was the yearning, the peace and emptiness he had felt afterward, and the abrupt appearance in the present.

"How did you get here?" Her murmured query broke the silence.

"I don't really know," he mumbled. "I asked for it."

"But," she pulled out from the crook of his neck to look up at him, "then…if you're reincarnated, how can you recognize me?"

He frowned. "I'm not sure, maybe I'm not …after all, I couldn't exist here if my soul was being used back there."

"Then…why did you say 'he died with Kikyo' if it's really you?"

Inuyasha pulled away. "Look, Kagome, I'm him, but if you take a closer look you'll notice I'm not the youkai or the hanyou, I'm the damn ningen. I don't have the strength that you're used to. I died back there and I came here. I don't know how the hell it happened, but the next second I was in front of your school, wearing-" he picked at his shirt "-these clothes and all I really gave a fuck about was finding you. So if you're going to start doubting me just because I don't look like the hanyou that you're used to-"

"So you're still an arrogant, self-centered, jerk."

"Hey," he growled, "don`t start that shit again. You-"

"I missed you."

He stopped mid-sentence to look down. She had nestled up against his chest again. "What?"

"I didn't want to go." She stood on tip-toe and planted a soft kiss on the base of his throat. "I really missed you."

He felt his face burn. "…Yeah?"

Ok, that's it. I might keep going, I'm not sure…hell, it might even become a lemon. But I just want to thank the brilliant Pareathe for letting me use her idea and run with it. After reading the last chapter of her fic I couldn't help but to want more. Sorry for those of you who might of wanted it to be longer…but after not writing in so long, it's hard to write anything longer than 3 pages. Thanks to those who leave comments (especially constructive criticism)!

BVtBear