InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Remembering You ❯ Inuyasha or Touken? ( Chapter 4 )

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

Author Notes: I started school, summer vacation and I have no time to write like I used to. I'll try my best, but I'll update less frequently from now on, maybe once every two weeks. I hope you enjoy this chappie! R&R!

Disclaimer: Of course I own Inuyasha, I also own Cuba and I've skated on an ice rink in hell.

". . ." dialogue

`. . .' thoughts

(. . .) author's useless commentary

Inuyasha or Touken?

By Hoshi-ni-Onegai

#warning: cuss words come up here and there b/c that's Inuyasha's character and I tend to cuss in real life. . . sorry#

There stood Kagome, matured over the years. She was no longer the awkward skinny teenager, but a woman who filled out nicely in all the right places. In Inuyasha's opinion she was breathtaking, then again he always thought that about Kagome. She was wearing a blue-gray blazer that hugged her curves, without being too tight, a matching same hue skirt, and instead of a button up shirt, she wore a simple white cotton spaghetti strap tanktop. She looked very professional in her clothes instead of the school uniform she used to always wear. Her hair was up in a tight bun, her bangs were slightly longer, the ones on the side longer than the rest framing her face. Her eyes held the same bright shimmer and the rest of her face; although the same, had changed a bit. Her face slightly more defined, the baby fat that most girls have was now gone. She wasn't heavily made up, although she wore some it still looked very natural. Over the years Inuyasha was wondering if Kagome would end up looking more like Kikyou, but it was the opposite. The five years of growing made Kagome look more like herself, if that makes any sense. When seeing her, the only thing that can be thought of was simply: Kagome.

She smiled her bright smile and gracefully made her way up to the desk. Her movements were much more graceful than before, this was noticeable as she extended a hand over the desk to shake hands with Inuyasha. He didn't know exactly how to react so he dumbly took her hand and gave the standard professional handshake. "Hajimemashite, Higurashi Kagome to moushimasu." (translation: It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Higurashi Kagome). Letting his hand go she handed him a manila folder in which he took into his hand and he sat down. There was a moment of silence where Inuyasha was gazing at Kagome and she was still standing. "Um. . ."

Her eyes glanced at the chair and Inuyasha finally understood, "Oh! I'm sorry, please have a seat. My name is Touken Inuyasha." Thankfully, she sat down and continued smiling.

"Thank you so much for hiring me, Mr. Touken. Although it seems that your secretary chose me because she was rushing. . . but nonetheless I am extremely grateful."

Seeing that Kagome didn't remember him at all, Inuyasha was crestfallen. Even though he became extremely depressed, he tried to act natural and friendly. "Why do you say that? Graduating at the top of your class would probably get you a lot of job opportunities." He said as he looked in the manila folder that contained her resume.

"That's nice of you to say, but I wouldn't know. I was recruited for my last job, as I was for this job as well." She continued smiling.

"But aren't you a recent graduate? This is already your second job?"

Kagome started looking slightly uncomfortable which confused Inuyasha. "I graduated in April and a week later I was already working."

"Where?"

Now she was fidgeting in her seat, but it was unnoticeable to the average person. Then again, since when was Inuyasha average, especially when it came to Kagome? "Hitobito no Ginkou." (translation: The bank of the people)

"You worked at HitoGin? (abbreviation) Why did you leave there? They're known to pay very well." Not that Inuyasha was complaining, because now she was working for him.

"They pay their employee's well for a reason." She mumbled this under her breath.

"What reason is that?" She whipped her head up, surprised that Inuyasha had actually heard that.

"I would rather not say. . ." Her reluctance worried Inuyasha.

"Okay, then why aren't you working there anymore?"

"I quit." Kagome said that abruptly. Inuyasha smirked in the inside for he knew her mannerisms very well. Kagome used to always try and answer quickly with short responses when she was trying to hide something.

"Can I know your reason for relinquishing your stay at HitoGin?" As can be told by his speech, it is obvious that his vocabulary expanded. Putting that aside, Kagome's behavior was becoming unusual. She avoided eye contact, pretending to admire the furnishings of the office. He could smell fear on her and became worried. "Ka-. . . Miss Higurashi?"

Kagome finally looked at him, uneasy about what she was about to say. "I could not deal with the environment that HitoGin provided certain employees."

"Environment? Are you just evading saying that they treated you badly?" He really began to worry. `What kind of treatment would HitoGin be giving their employees? Kagome's not one to give up for any little thing.'

"If I don't answer your question will I lose my job here?" Kagome said. Now he knew that she was definitely avoiding the subject, but he didn't want to push her. He didn't want to come off as creepy just yet.

"No, you won't lose your job." Kagome gave a slight smile. Inuyasha was still wondering about her employment at HitoGin but he had to get down to business. "Miss Higurashi, do you know what part of the bank you will be working at?"

Giving a sigh of relief for the change in subject she answered him, "Your secretary said that I will be working under a Mr. Williams. I was surprised at first that it was a foreigner, but then she informed me that he dealt with the major clients that do many transactions overseas. She also told me that Mr. Williams would be retiring soon and that they needed a replacement. She told me that my language skills was what set me aside from all the other applicants."

"Oh! So you are that new employee I was waiting for. I really have to tell Miss Imai to speed things up around here. Because of that, I have to sadly inform you that Mr. Williams will be retiring in a month. Instead of the seven months I thought you would have to learn the ropes form him, now you have a month. Sorry." Inuyasha said sheepishly scratching his head with his finger just like he used to always do. Kagome saw this gesture and stared him as if thinking. Inuyasha saw her staring and became curious, "Do I have something on my face?"

Kagome didn't blush because she was caught staring, she just kept right on staring. "Have we met before?"

Inuyasha's heart skipped a beat or two. "Y-you remember?"

Kagome stood up from her chair suddenly, "I knew it! I do know you from somewhere!" But then she slumped back in her chair, "But I would think I would remember someone with long white hair and gold eyes."

Even with his concealing spell Inuyasha wanted to keep his hair and eye color. Sango told him that he would stand out but Inuyasha responded that he didn't care. When in reality he hoped that keeping some of his traits the same it would help Kagome remember, but his plan didn't seem to have helped much. He hid his ears with a spell, but kept his fangs and claws. Inuyasha didn't wear his red haori anymore, he now wore the typical Armani suit that most CEOs of companies wore. He missed his old clothes though, but again Sango made him wear modern clothing. Then aging he would stand out even more if he wore his old clothes.

"So, where do I know you from Mr. Touken?" He was pulled out of zoning out when he heard her voice.

"You should find out for yourself. It will be more rewarding that way." Inuyasha said this with a smirk.

Suddenly something clicked in her brain and she stood up abruptly again, this time knocking her chair over. She pointed her finger at his face leaning over the table, balancing herself with her other hand by grabbing the edge of his desk. "I know that smirk from anywhere!" She threw her arms around Inuyasha's neck from across the desk. "Onii-chan!"

Inuyasha was surprised by the sudden hug but circled his arms around her waist in automatic return. `She remembers Touken, the one that took her to eat ice cream. She doesn't remember the Inuyasha that yelled at her to collect shards. Maybe we aren't soul mates. Maybe she doesn't want to remember.' Even so, it was nice to know that she remembered him in one way or another.

She pulled away to be able to look at him in the face but her arms were still around his neck. "Why didn't you say anything?! You should have gone by the shrine if you had come back!"

Inuyasha sadly smiled, "It was more fun if you figured it out. Sorry, I've been pretty busy so I wasn't able to go visit you at the shrine."

Kagome let him go finally and pulled the chair she had been sitting on closer up to the desk. "Oh, I don't live in the shrine anymore. My mom, grandfather, and Souta still do though."

"You live alone?" Inuyasha had expected for her to always live at the shrine near their well.

She looked at him flatly, "I'm twenty-two years old, Onii-chan. I had to live on my own sooner or later. I live in an apartment with an old friend of mine. I've told you about him, you know Hojo-kun."

Inuyasha froze, "Hojo? As meaning in a male human living in the same apartment as you? Just the two of you?"

Kagome waved his concerns away with his hand, "It's really no big deal. We're not dating, he needed a place to stay and I needed someone to help pay rent. I had a spare bedroom, and so there he is living next to the bathroom."

A vein could be seen pulsing on Inuyasha's head now. He grinded out the words, restraining himself from killing Hojo that very minute. "If I remember correctly he asked you out on a few dates. Aren't you afraid he'll rape you in your sleep or something?"

Kagome looked at him with a serious face, "Too late." Inuyasha's eyes bugged out and was ready to kill, until he heard her laughing. "I'm just kidding Onii-chan! That's was funny though! Don't worry, Hojo-kun isn't the type to be a creepy rapper. Think about it. After I got out my coma, he gave me an already prepared two years worth of class notes and a non-cramping grip mechanical pencil. The only thing I'm afraid he'll do is smother me to death with weird alternate medicine novelty items."

Inuyasha was pissed that a man was Kagome's roommate, the first thing on his to-do list was make Hojo move out. Then Kagome put in a fact that made Inuyasha VERY happy, "Besides, he's gay. We have this whole Will&Grace thing going. It's a lot like the show's story line. In middle school and high school we weren't all that close but we were best friends in college. He stopped being boring all of a sudden. We started dating, heck we even got engaged! Then I found him cheating on me with my friend Jun."

"You fell in love with him?" Kagome had started looking around the office checking out the furnishings during her explanation, but with his question she faced him with a carefree expression. She was about to answer when the intercom beeped and Miss Imai's voice was heard.

"Mr. Touken?"

Inuyasha sighed in frustration, his time with Kagome was being interrupted. "Yes, Miss Imai?"

"Mr. Williams says to send her down ASAP. He wants to get started because so much time was lost thanks to you."

Inuyasha glared at the intercom, "But isn't it your fault that she came in six months late?"

"Let's not point fingers or name names. The gist of it is that she came in late on her own fault and now she needs to go down to see Mr. Williams."

Inuyasha was yelling at the intercom now, "But it was your fault! Not mine, not hers, YOURS!"

"Yes, yes. Well Miss Higurashi can you here me?"

A giggling Kagome answered, "Yes. I'll be right out." Then the intercom beeped, ending their conversation. Kagome smiled and bowed down to Inuyasha respectfully. "Well, Mr. Touken I'll be on my way to see Mr. Williams."

She was reaching for the door handle and Inuyasha started panicking. He just had her back and he felt like he was losing her again. "Kagome!"

She turned around smiling waiting for him to continue.

"Uh. . ." He didn't know what to say. He had just blurted it out to make her stay longer. "um. . . uh. . . do you want to have dinner to catch up?"

She smiled even brighter, "Sure, Onii-chan! Bye then!"

And she left out the door before Inuyasha could tell her when and where. He shook his head with a smile on his face. Then he whipped his head up. "Coma?"

________________________________________________________________ __< /div>

It was ten o'clock and the building was nearly abandoned, save for a few late night workers, security guards, and janitorial staff. Inuyasha was in the elevator on the way down towards his car on the second sub floor. As he was stretching, trying to get the cramps out of his arms the elevator doors opened three floors down from his office floor. In walked in a western looking foreign man in his mid sixties, he had gray hair, a kind face, and stood slightly taller than Inuyasha. The man noticed Inuyasha in the elevator and smiled.

"Good evening Mr. Touken, or should I say good night? Working late as always I see." The man reached over and pressed the button for the first sub floor.

Inuyasha smiled back tiredly and leaned against the elevator wall, "Hey Mr. Williams, how was your day?"

"Can't complain, especially when I finally got the recruit to train. When Ms. Imai said that my replacement was here, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I had been waiting for her to arrive for some time now." Mr. Williams said with no malice held in his tone.

Inuyasha sheepishly scratched his head, "Sorry about that. I asked Ms. Imai to hire someone six months ago but she forgot. Do you think you'll be okay with only a month to train her?"

"That's alright Mr. Touken, I'm sure Ms. Imai didn't mean any harm. And I think we'll be just fine with a month, it will be pushing things a bit but with the person that was hired I think we'll do fine."

"So Miss Higurashi is doing well?"

"Very well! The moment she walked in through my office doors she has soaked up everything I need her to learn. She catches on very quickly and doesn't need things to be repeated twice. She very determined and a hard worker. I'm very pleased a person like Kagome-kun was hired to replace me."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at that, "Kagome-kun?"

Mr. Williams blushed at that, "She asked me to call her that, saying that since I was going to be with her so often for the next month it was futile to go by formalities. Even though she insisted on me to call her by her first name, she never slipped in giving me so much respect as to call me Mr. Williams. I told her to call me Evan, but she said that she must respect her superiors. When I called her Miss Higurashi she yelled at me. I like her, she's very cheerful and down to earth. Exactly what we need in this bank."

Inuyasha smiled. `That's Kagome all right. I guess she hasn't changed much.' His thoughts were interrupted when Mr. Williams spoke up again.

"She is at her desk at this very moment still working. She was so determined to get some numbers done before she went home. I told her not to push herself on her first day but she just said that she had to cram in seven days worth of things in each day for her to be ready when I retired. I told her she was doing better than I expected and that she should be ready by then, even without working late nights, but she just said she wanted to finish off the numbers. And so she's still up there working at her desk." Right then the elevator door opened for Mr. Williams' floor. He stepped out and bowed slightly, "Good night Mr. Touken."

Inuyasha straightened himself and returned the bow. The doors slid shut and he was soon moving towards his stop, which was one floor down. When the doors opened again he stared out for a moment contemplating something when he reached over and pressed the button for the thirty-seventh floor.

"Evil computer! Windows too ancient to work! Arg! Die you evil leprechaun!" Kagome was standing over a computer at her desk yelling at it. Her desk was still bare, nothing there to indicate that it was hers. The computer she was using now was to be replaced by the end of the week, it was a temporary solution to her computer deprivation so she was saving everything into a CD-R.

She raised her desk lamp over her head to hit the computer, in the motion of swinging down a hand sudden grabbed the lamp of her hand. She finished the swing when she noticed that the lamp was gone. She glared at the computer, "Now you're stealing my lamp?! Give me back my lamp you green midget!" (no offense meant towards midgets. . . is that even politically correct?)

"Kagome?"

By the sound of someone calling her name directly behind her she whipped around and there stood Inuyasha with an amused expression on his face. She noticed the lamp in his hand and exclaimed, "You stole my lamp!" She turned around to and bowed apologetically at the computer, "I'm sorry for blaming you when the true culprit was Onii-chan, but nonetheless you're destroying my files! Arg!"

"Kagome?" Inuyasha tapped her on the shoulder.

She brushed his hand away, "Not right now Onii-chan. I have to defeat this thing if I want to save anything." Suddenly she whipped out an ofuda and stuck it on the screen of the desktop computer. Inuyasha was surprised to say the least. Then a puff of green smoke came whirling out and the computer started making the noise it makes when it's saving a file.

"What the hell was that?" Inuyasha pointed at the computer.

"That was a leprechaun. Whoever spread the rumor that they're only Irish was stupid, because they enjoy attacking people's things so they don't work correctly. At least I get a new computer soon." The file was saved and she opened to CD drive and put the CD in a jewel case. Tucking that in her bag she turned around and smiled. "So what can I do you for Onii-chan?"

"I was going to ask you if you wanted that dinner we talked about. . . but now I have more questions to ask you."

Kagome glanced down at her watch, "It's 10:08pm right now, and I don't think anyone is open. I'll have to get a rain check on that dinner then."

"We can eat at my place. . ." Inuyasha was reluctant to offer his place, because he didn't want to come off as creepy.

"Sure! Let me just shut down my computer." She turned around, shut down her computer, and gestured him towards the door.

As they made their way towards the door Inuyasha had many questions popping into his head. `She knows about leprechauns? She can use ofudas? Why did she dismiss the topic like it was the weather?' Inuyasha just stared at Kagome while in the elevator as if she had grown a second head.

Seeing his stares she protested, "What?!"

Inuyasha continued to stare at her skeptically and decided to fain ignorance, "You're kidding about leprechauns right?"

Kagome looked at him flatly let out a sigh and leaned against the elevator wall. She crossed her arms and blew her bangs out of her eyes. "Like you should be talking Onii-chan."

Confusion was the state Inuyasha had been in since the moment Kagome walked in through his office doors that morning. "What do you mean?"

She looked at him bored, "Don't act innocent Onii-chan, I know you're a inuyoukai hanyou."

The said hanyou's eyes grew wide and he was speechless.

Since it didn't seem like Inuyasha was going to respond she continued. "I didn't realize it the last time I saw you but you were a hanyou all this time! I mean I don't blame you that much for not wanting to tell me, because of the Underground and all."

"How do you know about the Underground?!" Inuyasha was slightly angry, although the Underground was not an evil `organization' he did not like the fact that she involved without him knowing.

Kagome waved her right hand, gesturing that the subject was no big deal. "After I came out of my coma some weird stuff happened. I've encountered with a couple youkai here and there, some were even in my college dorm. I have my connections here and there, but I'm not what you might call a full-fledged member of the Underground."

"About this coma you keep talking about. . ." He trailed off allowing her to pick up on what he was saying.

Kagome looked at him confused, "You don't know about my coma? Weren't you there when I woke up though?" Inuyasha shook his head. "Really? The thing is, when I woke up from my coma the first thing I said was the name `Inuyasha.' When you said your name was Touken Inuyasha I just assumed maybe you visited me while I was in the hospital and talked to me. . . but then why didn't I remember Touken?"

Inuyasha was getting more confused by the second, "Why would you think I visited you? Wouldn't you have remembered?"

Kagome shook her head, "Nope. Right after I woke up my memory and state of consciousness was somewhat fuzzy for forty-seven days. Because of that hazy period right after I woke up I keep on thinking I was on a quest, trying to get something back that I broke. I remembered a white haired guy named Inu-something, but I thought it was an old man. The only way I found out the real name was because when I woke up Souta was in the room and heard me say `Inuyasha.' He also mentioned that I was crying, but I don't remember any of it."

A silence fell upon the two as Inuyasha stared at Kagome in shock. `She remembers bits and pieces of it, she only thinks it was a dream.' The elevator doors opened indicating that they reached the floor to Inuyasha's car. Kagome casually stepped out of the elevator, seeing that he wasn't following she gestured him forward. He slowly made his way towards her, then led them to his car.

Seeing his car Kagome gasped, "You own a Jag?!"

Pulled out of his state of shock he glanced down at his car as if noticing it for the first time, "Huh? Oh, this? Did you expect a Porsche?"

"No, its just that I didn't think you would own a Jag. I always imagined my Onii-chan driving a busted up Toyota. This is a change in my perspective of you." She looked at him and smirked, "You're cooler than I thought."

The smirk surprised Inuyasha. `She smirks? Since when? Kagome is supposed to smile, not smirk, smirking is entirely my department. Although. . . she does look really hot. . .'

Without consent or asking, she swung open the passenger door and slipped in, mindful of her skirt. A few seconds later he noticed that he had been daydreaming and got into the driver's side blushing slightly.

"Where to?" Inuyasha asked putting the key in the ignition.

Kagome looked at him flatly, "Is the old age catching up to you or something? We're going to your house remember? Restaurant closed, rain check, food at your house?" Inuyasha let out his famous `keh' and pulled out of his parking spot. "You're getting senile old man."

Inuyasha glanced at Kagome as she was looking out the window, "What do you mean `old man,' we're not that much in age you know."

Kagome continued looking out the window, "If you call twenty years not much, I want to know what you consider massive."

"Twenty?"

Kagome now turned in her seat to face him, "Yeah, you're forty-four right?"

That made Inuyasha almost swerve off of his side of the road, "Forty-four?! Do I look forty-four to you?!"

"No, actually you look sixty-six, but I didn't want to be rude."

"Sixty-six?! What, are pulling these numbers out a hat?!" Inuyasha did not enjoy the prospect of being thought to be that much older than Kagome, it made him feel like a cradle robber or had a Lolita complex.

Kagome just sighed, "You are hanyou so I'm just going by past references. In human terms you look about twenty-fiveish."

He gave out a sigh of relief, "Good, but I'm really twenty-four."

Kagome shook her head and chuckled, "I miss by one year and you're correcting me, you're so vain."

"And how old may I ask are you?" Inuyasha didn't even need to ask. When it came to Kagome he prided himself in knowing a lot about her, except for what occurred in the past five years.

"Twenty."

Inuyasha was the one to chuckle this time, "Look who's calling who vain. Don't lie Kagome, you're twenty-two."

Kagome smiled, "You remembered! But in all reality I think I'm twenty, because I didn't get to live for two years. So I decided to subtract those years from my total sum."

"You didn't live of two years?"

"You know, the coma." She stated as if it was the most obvious thing and that Inuyasha was off in the head for not figuring it out.

"Okay, about this coma. How the heck did you get into it?" He glanced at her but soon returned his eyes back to the road.

"A year after you left, on my fifteenth birthday, Buyo ran into the well house and when I went after him Souta came up behind me. He scared me and I fell, I guess I hit my head or something because I went into a coma. The doctors thought that it was weird that I went into it, the worst they expected was for me to have a concussion and temporary amnesia."

Inuyasha finally pulled up to his apartment and drove into his parking space. She was about to step out of the car when he grabbed her right wrist. She turned her head towards him and smiled, he was still buckled up and staring straight ahead. "What's wrong Onii-chan? Aren't we here?"

`Why don't you remember me?' Inuyasha shook his head and let go of her wrist. He reached to unbuckle his seatbelt, "Never mind. . . Yeah, we're here."

"Um. . . Onii-chan?" Kagome asked from the kitchen as Inuyasha was getting changed out of his suit in the bedroom.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you only have ramen? On top of that it's instant cup ramen." Inuyasha walked into the kitchen, wearing a pair of baggy jeans and a white t-shirt, where Kagome was looking through the cupboards for some form of food. "Don't get me wrong, I like the stuff too, but I don't live by it."

"Don't blame me, you're the one that got me hooked on it." He pulled out a stool and sat next to the island in the kitchen. He was drumming his claws on the marble as he observed her.

Kagome looked at him quizzically, "I got you hooked? What are you talking about? I never ate instant ramen with you. You're so weird sometimes." She turned around and continued to rummage through the cupboards.

`Oh yeah. . . that was a memory with Inuyasha, not Onii-chan. . . a memory she no longer has. . .' He looked sadly at Kagome as she made her way towards the pantry. She was about to turn the knob when Inuyasha tried to stop her but it was too late.

"Ahhh!!!" A pile of instant ramen came pouring down on her like a tidal wave. Thankfully, there were no casualties.

Inuyasha was at her side in an instant (like the ramen). "Are you okay?! Shit! I knew I should have locked that door."

As she was trying to get her wits back together Kagome spotted a package of "Chicken Ramen." (a brand of ramen in Japan that uses little animated chicks as advertisement)

"Ah ha! I knew you would have a pack of this some where!" She leaped up, headed for the stove, and started to boil water. Inuyasha shook his head and started to pick up the natural disaster that is instant ramen. "Don't you have any vegetables or meat to put in the ramen? You have nothing in here except for beverages." Kagome was leaning over looking through his fridge now.

"You put vegetables in those? Wow, I've got to try that some time."

Kagome looked flatly at him and sighed, "You're hopeless, a sixty-six year old hanyou that can't cook. With that kind of bio, you'd have to marry a nice girl that can cook you a decent meal. I'll have to fix you up with a friend of mine, she's like a Japanese Martha Stuart, except for whole back taxes thing."

She was opening up the packets for the ramen and dumping the noodles into the boiling pot when Inuyasha spoke, "Are you good at cooking?"

Kagome reached for some cooking chopsticks that were next to the stove and started stirring the noodles to get them loose in the water, "Huh? Uh. . . I guess you could say that. . . my mom said that I needed to learn, when I told her she was being sexist putting the typical female role onto me, Souta started learning the next day. Souta's pretty good, but then he'd have to be, his girl friend is an awful cook."

"If you can cook why can't I marry you?" Inuyasha said, frightened of what her answer might be.

Kagome turned around, chopsticks still in hand. "Aww~! That's so cute! That's so sweet Onii-chan, remembering my stupid major crush and all." She turned back around looking over the contents in the pot, "But you don't have to worry about me. . . I don't want to get married for a very long time."

He could have sworn that he heard his heart break. `Your stupid major crush. . .' Then again this was Inuyasha, he had an ego the size of an elephant, he could swing back from any blow to try again. . . later. "Why don't you want to get married for a long time? Did something happen?"

Kagome froze but she resumed a moment later in stirring, "Hey Onii-chan where are the bowls?"

"In the cupboard next to you on the left. Why don't you want to get married?"

Kagome started pouring in the contents of the pot into the two bowls, "Are you really hungry? I could give you mor-" Her words were cut off when she felt Inuyasha's hand on her shoulder.

"Did something happen?" By the tone of his voice one could tell that he was worried, worried for her emotional stability.

She sighed put the empty pot down and picked up the two bowls and took them over to the island. Evading Inuyasha as she went searching for the chopsticks.

"Why aren't you answering my question Kagome? Did something happen?"

She found the chopsticks used for eating in a drawer and made her way back to the island. "Let's eat Onii-chan, you know how ramen stretches." (ppl in Japan say that ramen "nobiru" which directly translated means stretches. . . it does, and it starts tasting not as good)

"What is it that you can't tell me?"

She sat down without a word and started slurping up her ramen. He sighed and pulled up a stool to join her. (you slurp ramen, it is not considered bad manners, it is actually considered a compliment)

As she was halfway through her ramen she suddenly stopped. No longer hearing the slurps coming from Kagome he turned his head toward her and what he saw surprised him. She bent over the bowl, chopsticks midway to her mouth, her hair covering her face, and ripples were forming in the ramen broth. The tears that were slowly making there way down her cheeks kept on splattering into the broth. The salty sent of her tears took Inuyasha back to the memories of when she cried. When she used to cry because of something stupid he said, when he hurt her with his words and actions. The way they seemed to always come, as if on cue, when she spotted him with Kikyou. The way she would leave him to go to her time, and she would be crying because he said the wrong thing again. But what he remembered the most when she cried for him. All the times she thought she may lose him, and would cry for him. She would cry for the sheer happiness of seeing him at rare times. The memory that stuck the most was when she shed a single tear that spoke so much. So much of her pain, sadness, loss, and love. The single tear that had rolled down her cheek when they said `good-bye' for the last time, five hundred years ago. There were so many unneeded tears that were shed for him, so much pain he caused. He knew what he had to do. Inuyasha quickly got out of his stool and pulled Kagome into an embrace, promising himself: `I'm going to make it all up to you.'

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A/N: I know that the honorifics I use in this fic switch from Japanese to English like there is no tomorrow but please bare with me!