InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Staring You Right In The Face ❯ Chapter Three: Always ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three: Always

 

When I came to, I found that I was too weak to even move. It took me almost twenty minutes just to force my eyes to open. When my heavy lids slowly slid up, I found myself laying on a futon in Kaede's hut. A fire burned low in the hearth, and cast its dim glow upon my sleeping hanyou. He was seated against the wall a few feet from where I lay. His Tetsusaiga rested on his shoulder in the ancient samurai sleeping stance.

 

“I-Inu-InuYasha,” I croaked.

 

His eyes slid open quickly and he fixed me with a concerned gaze.

 

“Kagome,” he said quietly.

 

I cleared my throat and blinked hard to regain my bearings. “InuYasha,” I said slowly. “H-how did I get here?”

 

“I carried you,” he stated simply. “You've been unconscious for almost a week now. We weren't sure if you were gonna make it. ”

 

I groaned and tried to roll on my side to see him better, and I felt a sharp pain sting across my chest and the back of my head. He was at my side in an instant.

 

“Don't, Kagome. You're still really weak. You shouldn't try to move yet,” he said tenderly, as he tucked a stray hair behind my ear. I smiled up at him shyly, and he blushed a deep crimson at the realization of what he had just done. He muttered something that sounded like sorry and moved to resume his position a few feet away from me. I stopped him by lifting a shaky hand and placing it on his. He looked at me through his gorgeous silver bangs. I tried to raise my hand to brush them out of his face, but my strength gave out and it slumped back down across my stomach.

 

“InuYasha, what happened?” I asked him.

 

“You don't remember?” He asked. There seemed to be a trace of remorse in his question.

 

“The last thing I remember,” I told him, “Was trying to purify the jewel. And then…and then…”

 

“And then what?” He asked me.

 

“And then I woke up here…but, there's something else too. Something that's just on the edge of my memory. It's like when you wake up from a really vivid dream and you can't remember it, but you can remember the feeling of it, ya know?” I was silent for a moment before going on. “Maybe if you told me what happened, it would come back to me.”

 

“Well,” he started, “The second time you purified the jewel, all this light started coming out of it and it grew really big. Then it sort of…swallowed you up.”

 

I somewhat recalled what he was saying. Not the part about the jewel growing, but defiantly the sense of being swallowed by something larger than myself. “Go on,” I urged him.

 

“We could just barely see what was happening inside the jewel, and only I could actually hear what was going on.” He paused. “Then Midoriko showed up and told you to purify all those Yokai.” His voice got low and husky as he continued. “She told you to think about the thing you loved the most.”

 

InuYasha looked down at his clawed hands, at a loss of words for once.

 

“And?” I urged, regaining enough strength to prop myself up slightly.

 

“And…” he repeated, trailing off. He slowly raised his head and looked me in the eyes. The desperate yearning for acceptance was clearly written across his features, and his golden eyes reflected all the loneliness and solitude he had faced over the years. “And,” he said again. I gave him an imploring nod of my head, urging him to go on.

 

“Then you purified them all.” He stated.

 

All of a sudden the memory of my experience inside the Shikon-No-Tama came rushing back to me. The vision of the noble priestess, Midoriko flashed before my eyes. I saw myself filling with light, and I seemed to gain back a little of the physical strength I had lost in the battle. I then saw myself getting swallowed by the light, as I screamed InuYasha's name to the four winds. When the vision cleared, I sat myself up a little more, InuYasha's name still chanting like a mantra in my brain.

 

He had fixed me with a worried look, seeing that I was visibly shaken. “Kagome, maybe you should rest now. You need to build up your strength.”

 

“That's not all you heard, is it, InuYasha?” I asked with a boldness I didn't think I had in me.

 

The gaze of desperate longing in his face halted my breath. “Did you really mean it?” He asked in a tiny voice that was not his own.

 

I brought my hand to his cheek and lightly brushed my thumb against the corner of his mouth. He sucked in a tiny ragged breath and held it when my thumb made contact with his tender lips.

 

“Did I mean what?” I asked.

 

“That I was the thing you loved the most ,” he whispered with averted eyes.

 

I used the hand that rested on his face to pull his gaze back to mine. Through my eyes I tried to project all the love that had laid unspoken inside of me over the past few years. I blinked, releasing a single sparkling tear. He reached out with one clawed hand and rubbed it off my skin, laying his hand gently to cup my cheek. He locked my eyes with a soul searching glance. I raised my hand again to cover his, pulling it slightly away from my face. I closed my eyes and turned my head to place a soft, gentle kiss on his palm.

 

After a moment, he took his hands away from my lips and studied it, realizing that some of my aura had attached itself to him through the kiss. He took in a quick gasping breath. Apparently he had forgotten to breathe for a moment. He looked up at me, slightly embarrassed.

 

“InuYasha, you have always been the thing I love the most,” I said softly to him.

 

His eyes widened in disbelief as I brushed my mouth against his lightly. I pulled back and searched his eyes to make sure that this is what he wanted too; however his eyes were securely locked on my mouth. He ran his tongue slowly over his lips to taste what mine had left behind.

 

“Kagome,” He moaned as his hands tangled in my hair and he pressed his lips to mine. I wrapped my weary arms around him and gently pulled him down against me, as he drank from my mouth. His lips parted slightly as he shifted his weight next to me, rather than on top of me. I took that opportunity and slipped my tongue between his warm lips to run along his teeth. He gasped at the intimacy of my gesture and opened his mouth wider to allow further exploration. The texture of his tongue surprised me as it began a slow dance with mine. It was the most intense feeling I had ever experienced. I moved my arms so they could wrap around his back. As I deepened the kiss even more, I ran my fingernails in slow swirling patters across his back and felt him shudder. He held me tightly, and I moved my lips to trail sweet kisses down his jaw line and onto his throat. I stopped when I felt the pulse point on his neck and gently sucked, grazing my teeth over his pulsing flesh. I heard and felt a rather dog-like whimper ensue from him. I looked up at his face in time to catch a tear slipping out of the corner of his eye.

 

“Kagome, that was…I…I never…” He trailed off, his voice hitching slightly. “I never knew this would feel so… right.”

 

“I love you InuYasha,” I said simply, through swollen lips. And at that moment all of the loneliness and pain was erased from his ethereal eyes. He buried his head in the crook of my neck and placed a lingering kiss there.

 

“I love you too, Kagome,” he whispered against me.