InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Stay With Me ❯ Part III ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: kanna37 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance / Angst | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 09.05.2011 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.3K | Visits: 758 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance / Angst | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 09.05.2011 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.3K | Visits: 758 | Status: Completed
Part III
~oOo~
Inuyasha sat near the campfire, staring into the flames pensively, waiting for Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Kirara to finally fall asleep so he could sneak off to join Kagome in her stargazing without a lot of interfering comments from the three members of the group that were busybodies.
No, what he needed to talk to Kagome about was the most important – and private - thing he'd ever needed to talk to anyone about, and with the way things had been going lately, he knew it was now or never.
Since Kikyou's final death three weeks ago, they'd been constantly on the move, fighting their way through Naraku's traps to try to get to him, and he was positive it wouldn't be much longer before the final battle.
This would likely be the last bit of peace they'd have before that... he wasn't about to waste it. He thought back to that conversation in her room the other night – he'd come so close to getting out what he'd needed to say, only to be interrupted before he could by her family. He'd been pretty furious, but what could he do? Nothing but wait for an opportunity like this.
He flicked a glance around the camp once more and was pleased to see that all were finally sleeping. Feh. 'Bout damn time, he thought to himself.
Silently as only he could, he stood and made his way out of the small camp, heading for the darker outline of the miko of his heart laid out on the hill just enjoying the brief moments of peace and quiet as she stared up at the sky, her aura drenching the area in feelings of contentment.
Stopping for a moment, he just watched her, his own aura responding to hers quite happily as it instantly soothed him, just as it always did. Just as it always has. She's my contentment.
Now I just have to tell her that.
A slight sigh escaped his parted lips as he finally moved forward to sit beside her reclining form. He wasn't particularly surprised to find her eyes closed, yet a smile of welcome on her lips.
“I wondered how long you were going to stand back there. Is something bothering you, Inuyasha?”
“How do you always know?” he groused, not really bothered, just playing with her. As always, she knew his mood, too, just as well as she was almost always aware of his presence. It took a lot for him to hide from her.
She chuckled, a spare sound in the suddenly heavy atmosphere. “I can feel you. So...?” she encouraged, eyes still closed.
“I'm sorry,” he said, folding his arms defensively into his sleeves. It was a habit he'd picked up to keep himself from reaching for her as desperately as he always wanted to.
If things went well, maybe he wouldn't have to stop himself anymore.
Her brow furrowed and she opened her eyes to look over at him. “For what?”
He turned his head slowly to look at her, and one hand moved almost without volition to settle over her heart.
Her eyes widened at the intensity in his...
“For all the hurt,” he replied. “If I regret nothing else since you woke me from that tree, this I'd have enough regret for to fill a thousand damn years over... how much damage I've done to you.”
She stared at him for a moment, and then placed a tender hand over the one he still had over her heart, and smiled at him, every part of her loving soul on display in her eyes for him and him alone. “Inuyasha... I would go through a million times worse to stay beside you. As long as I can help you or heal you, then I'd gladly go through it all again. So... please, don't apologize. I've always understood... even if it hurt. I told you before I could never ask you to forget Kikyou,” she said, once again disarming him with how well she could see into his mind.
Dammit Kagome... how do you always do it? He could feel the burn in his eyes at her words. He could live a hundred thousand lifetimes with her, and he would still be awed for every one of those lifetimes that she opened herself so completely to such an unworthy bastard as him.
“Kagome,” he choked, stopping to clear his throat of the emotion she always managed to pull from inside his defenses. It took a moment to get himself back under enough control to speak coherently. “Kagome,” he sighed, drowning in her eyes. “Thank you for the time you've given me to grieve the past, to put it to rest. I never had that chance the first time around...” he trailed off, because of course, she knew that.
Her grip tightened on his hand and she sat up, then turned to face him. Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears.
So beautiful, Kagome...
“I promised to stay by your side, Inuyasha. I will always give you what you need, and I will always be there for you, regardless of where that promise leads me.”
He knew what she was referring to. It was time to disabuse her of that notion.
“Keh. It won't be leading where you're thinking, wench,” he said gruffly, his fingers tightening around hers where she still clasped their hands against her chest. “The living have no place in hell, and the only way I'll be dying now is if you die – because I'm never going to let you go, Kagome, not even in death.” He lifted his other hand to press his palm against her cheek as he took in her stunned eyes, his own darkening to honeyed amber. “You promised a long time ago to stay by my side... and now I'm free to promise you what I've wanted to for so long in return - I promise to stay with you for as long as you want me to. Where you go, I will go. Always.”
“Inuyasha,” she breathed, stunned and completely defenseless. “You... you'd tie yourself to me like that?”
“I've wanted to be tied to you like that for what feels like forever – since almost the beginning. You have no idea, Kagome. But... until my past was laid to rest, I couldn't say anything to you. It wouldn't have been right.”
She smiled ruefully at him, her gaze affectionate and understanding. “I know. I always knew that you felt you had a debt to her. But I also thought that you loved her, and I couldn't come between you two. I didn't think there was any room for me in your heart.”
His hand fell away from her cheek to twine into her hair, and he marveled, as he always did, at its softness. He'd never seen hair like hers on a human – usually only youkai had hair this soft. He stared at his fingers in her hair, almost in a trance. It was so hard to believe that he was finally touching her freely – without boundaries. After all of the endless nights of dreaming, and the overwhelming days of wanting, he was actually free to touch her, to hold her...
To love her.
“I do love Kikyou – but it's not the same as what I feel for you. Kikyou was a friend, a companion. Someone who was just as chained to loneliness as I was. We basically decided to be lonely together, I guess,” he sighed, smoothing the lock he'd been playing with and pulling the hand he'd had against her chest to his own, then clasping both their hands in his. “But you... you're everything. All the things that Kikyou was, and all the things that she could never have been. Hell, one minute I'm waking up to you and that centipede demon, and the next thing I know, you not only took up all the room in my heart, you stole the whole damn thing right out from under me. But I don't want it back – I want you to keep it, because I know you'll take better care of it than anyone else ever would.”
Tears overflowed in Kagome's eyes, tears she made no attempt to hide, and she smiled at him so beautifully that he was literally transfixed. He'd never seen her eyes so blue...
“Inuyasha,” she whispered, unable to speak any louder for the tightness of her throat, “You know that I love you, don't you?”
Leaning his head against hers, he held her gaze, his own glowing golden eyes staring straight into her soul. “I do. I always knew, I guess, though my mind tried to deny it – how could someone who's everything like you are, love me? But after a while, the knowledge was just there. And I couldn't wait for the day that I could finally tell you how I feel.” He flushed. “Kikyou... there, at the end... she knew. But I never actually told her, because I would never allow myself to tell anyone else how I felt for you before I told you. I haven't spoken those words since my mother died, Kagome, not once, and I wasn't going to until I could say them to the one person that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I truly felt them for.”
Tears still running down her cheeks, Kagome almost stopped breathing in that moment, every single cell in her body waiting to hear the words she'd never thought to hear from him – at least not towards her.
His eyes softened with affection at the poignant hope so very visible in her gaze, and finally whispered, “Aishiteru. Aishiteru, Kagome. I love you. Would... would you allow me to one day call you wagimoko?” he asked softly. “I want so badly to have that right.”
In that single moment, something inside Kagome, something that had been painful and tight for so very long, released, and her eyes fell closed as a sob broke from her. With gentle ardor, she pressed her lips to his tenderly, the fingers of her free hand coming up to frame his cheek with adoration.
“Only if I can call you otto in return. Oh, I love you so much, Inuyasha, you have no idea of how much,” she managed to get out around the sheer, overwhelming emotion clogging her throat. Never in a million years would she have ever thought to be where she was right now – she'd been painfully resigned to him giving up his life to follow Kikyou into death after Naraku's defeat, unknowingly pulling her right along with him.
This, though... he had just handed the world to her on a silver platter.
“Always, Kagome. Always,” he choked, his emotions overrunning him more completely in that moment than they ever had on his human nights. He knew why, too. After his feelings for her had been locked up inside for so long, even his youkai blood was no proof against them. After all, youkai feel emotions, too – they just have better control over them.
Not this time. Even his youkai blood, vicious and bloodthirsty as it was, wanted this woman. Loved her.
Now he was free to finally just be with her.
And as the endless wheel of heaven turned slowly above them, the two in the field held each other, and loved each other, finally binding themselves to each other as the kami had intended from the very beginning.
They were born for each other... and what the kami had joined, would never be torn asunder, not in life or in death.
Stay with me, Kagome...
I will always stay with you, Inuyasha.
Always.
~oOo~
A/N: I don't want to hear any complaints that this is OOC, especially on Inuyasha's part. If anyone paid any attention to Inuyasha's behavior in the final season, he's not the same hanyou he was in the beginning. He's grown up. Everyone around him knows how he feels for Kagome, he even admits it in the final episode to Kaede, and he knows they all know. After everything those two went through, while I can't see Inuyasha talking like this in front of others, I have no problem believing he would be just this open with Kagome herself.
So... if I get any such complaints, I will ignore them.
Otherwise, I hope everyone enjoys~
Amber
Wagimoko-wife
Otto-husband
Converting /tmp/php5E7ur7 to /dev/stdout
~oOo~
Inuyasha sat near the campfire, staring into the flames pensively, waiting for Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Kirara to finally fall asleep so he could sneak off to join Kagome in her stargazing without a lot of interfering comments from the three members of the group that were busybodies.
No, what he needed to talk to Kagome about was the most important – and private - thing he'd ever needed to talk to anyone about, and with the way things had been going lately, he knew it was now or never.
Since Kikyou's final death three weeks ago, they'd been constantly on the move, fighting their way through Naraku's traps to try to get to him, and he was positive it wouldn't be much longer before the final battle.
This would likely be the last bit of peace they'd have before that... he wasn't about to waste it. He thought back to that conversation in her room the other night – he'd come so close to getting out what he'd needed to say, only to be interrupted before he could by her family. He'd been pretty furious, but what could he do? Nothing but wait for an opportunity like this.
He flicked a glance around the camp once more and was pleased to see that all were finally sleeping. Feh. 'Bout damn time, he thought to himself.
Silently as only he could, he stood and made his way out of the small camp, heading for the darker outline of the miko of his heart laid out on the hill just enjoying the brief moments of peace and quiet as she stared up at the sky, her aura drenching the area in feelings of contentment.
Stopping for a moment, he just watched her, his own aura responding to hers quite happily as it instantly soothed him, just as it always did. Just as it always has. She's my contentment.
Now I just have to tell her that.
A slight sigh escaped his parted lips as he finally moved forward to sit beside her reclining form. He wasn't particularly surprised to find her eyes closed, yet a smile of welcome on her lips.
“I wondered how long you were going to stand back there. Is something bothering you, Inuyasha?”
“How do you always know?” he groused, not really bothered, just playing with her. As always, she knew his mood, too, just as well as she was almost always aware of his presence. It took a lot for him to hide from her.
She chuckled, a spare sound in the suddenly heavy atmosphere. “I can feel you. So...?” she encouraged, eyes still closed.
“I'm sorry,” he said, folding his arms defensively into his sleeves. It was a habit he'd picked up to keep himself from reaching for her as desperately as he always wanted to.
If things went well, maybe he wouldn't have to stop himself anymore.
Her brow furrowed and she opened her eyes to look over at him. “For what?”
He turned his head slowly to look at her, and one hand moved almost without volition to settle over her heart.
Her eyes widened at the intensity in his...
“For all the hurt,” he replied. “If I regret nothing else since you woke me from that tree, this I'd have enough regret for to fill a thousand damn years over... how much damage I've done to you.”
She stared at him for a moment, and then placed a tender hand over the one he still had over her heart, and smiled at him, every part of her loving soul on display in her eyes for him and him alone. “Inuyasha... I would go through a million times worse to stay beside you. As long as I can help you or heal you, then I'd gladly go through it all again. So... please, don't apologize. I've always understood... even if it hurt. I told you before I could never ask you to forget Kikyou,” she said, once again disarming him with how well she could see into his mind.
Dammit Kagome... how do you always do it? He could feel the burn in his eyes at her words. He could live a hundred thousand lifetimes with her, and he would still be awed for every one of those lifetimes that she opened herself so completely to such an unworthy bastard as him.
“Kagome,” he choked, stopping to clear his throat of the emotion she always managed to pull from inside his defenses. It took a moment to get himself back under enough control to speak coherently. “Kagome,” he sighed, drowning in her eyes. “Thank you for the time you've given me to grieve the past, to put it to rest. I never had that chance the first time around...” he trailed off, because of course, she knew that.
Her grip tightened on his hand and she sat up, then turned to face him. Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears.
So beautiful, Kagome...
“I promised to stay by your side, Inuyasha. I will always give you what you need, and I will always be there for you, regardless of where that promise leads me.”
He knew what she was referring to. It was time to disabuse her of that notion.
“Keh. It won't be leading where you're thinking, wench,” he said gruffly, his fingers tightening around hers where she still clasped their hands against her chest. “The living have no place in hell, and the only way I'll be dying now is if you die – because I'm never going to let you go, Kagome, not even in death.” He lifted his other hand to press his palm against her cheek as he took in her stunned eyes, his own darkening to honeyed amber. “You promised a long time ago to stay by my side... and now I'm free to promise you what I've wanted to for so long in return - I promise to stay with you for as long as you want me to. Where you go, I will go. Always.”
“Inuyasha,” she breathed, stunned and completely defenseless. “You... you'd tie yourself to me like that?”
“I've wanted to be tied to you like that for what feels like forever – since almost the beginning. You have no idea, Kagome. But... until my past was laid to rest, I couldn't say anything to you. It wouldn't have been right.”
She smiled ruefully at him, her gaze affectionate and understanding. “I know. I always knew that you felt you had a debt to her. But I also thought that you loved her, and I couldn't come between you two. I didn't think there was any room for me in your heart.”
His hand fell away from her cheek to twine into her hair, and he marveled, as he always did, at its softness. He'd never seen hair like hers on a human – usually only youkai had hair this soft. He stared at his fingers in her hair, almost in a trance. It was so hard to believe that he was finally touching her freely – without boundaries. After all of the endless nights of dreaming, and the overwhelming days of wanting, he was actually free to touch her, to hold her...
To love her.
“I do love Kikyou – but it's not the same as what I feel for you. Kikyou was a friend, a companion. Someone who was just as chained to loneliness as I was. We basically decided to be lonely together, I guess,” he sighed, smoothing the lock he'd been playing with and pulling the hand he'd had against her chest to his own, then clasping both their hands in his. “But you... you're everything. All the things that Kikyou was, and all the things that she could never have been. Hell, one minute I'm waking up to you and that centipede demon, and the next thing I know, you not only took up all the room in my heart, you stole the whole damn thing right out from under me. But I don't want it back – I want you to keep it, because I know you'll take better care of it than anyone else ever would.”
Tears overflowed in Kagome's eyes, tears she made no attempt to hide, and she smiled at him so beautifully that he was literally transfixed. He'd never seen her eyes so blue...
“Inuyasha,” she whispered, unable to speak any louder for the tightness of her throat, “You know that I love you, don't you?”
Leaning his head against hers, he held her gaze, his own glowing golden eyes staring straight into her soul. “I do. I always knew, I guess, though my mind tried to deny it – how could someone who's everything like you are, love me? But after a while, the knowledge was just there. And I couldn't wait for the day that I could finally tell you how I feel.” He flushed. “Kikyou... there, at the end... she knew. But I never actually told her, because I would never allow myself to tell anyone else how I felt for you before I told you. I haven't spoken those words since my mother died, Kagome, not once, and I wasn't going to until I could say them to the one person that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I truly felt them for.”
Tears still running down her cheeks, Kagome almost stopped breathing in that moment, every single cell in her body waiting to hear the words she'd never thought to hear from him – at least not towards her.
His eyes softened with affection at the poignant hope so very visible in her gaze, and finally whispered, “Aishiteru. Aishiteru, Kagome. I love you. Would... would you allow me to one day call you wagimoko?” he asked softly. “I want so badly to have that right.”
In that single moment, something inside Kagome, something that had been painful and tight for so very long, released, and her eyes fell closed as a sob broke from her. With gentle ardor, she pressed her lips to his tenderly, the fingers of her free hand coming up to frame his cheek with adoration.
“Only if I can call you otto in return. Oh, I love you so much, Inuyasha, you have no idea of how much,” she managed to get out around the sheer, overwhelming emotion clogging her throat. Never in a million years would she have ever thought to be where she was right now – she'd been painfully resigned to him giving up his life to follow Kikyou into death after Naraku's defeat, unknowingly pulling her right along with him.
This, though... he had just handed the world to her on a silver platter.
“Always, Kagome. Always,” he choked, his emotions overrunning him more completely in that moment than they ever had on his human nights. He knew why, too. After his feelings for her had been locked up inside for so long, even his youkai blood was no proof against them. After all, youkai feel emotions, too – they just have better control over them.
Not this time. Even his youkai blood, vicious and bloodthirsty as it was, wanted this woman. Loved her.
Now he was free to finally just be with her.
And as the endless wheel of heaven turned slowly above them, the two in the field held each other, and loved each other, finally binding themselves to each other as the kami had intended from the very beginning.
They were born for each other... and what the kami had joined, would never be torn asunder, not in life or in death.
Stay with me, Kagome...
I will always stay with you, Inuyasha.
Always.
~oOo~
A/N: I don't want to hear any complaints that this is OOC, especially on Inuyasha's part. If anyone paid any attention to Inuyasha's behavior in the final season, he's not the same hanyou he was in the beginning. He's grown up. Everyone around him knows how he feels for Kagome, he even admits it in the final episode to Kaede, and he knows they all know. After everything those two went through, while I can't see Inuyasha talking like this in front of others, I have no problem believing he would be just this open with Kagome herself.
So... if I get any such complaints, I will ignore them.
Otherwise, I hope everyone enjoys~
Amber
Wagimoko-wife
Otto-husband
Converting /tmp/php5E7ur7 to /dev/stdout