InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Fire Bearer ❯ Chapter 12

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

"No."

InuYasha looked at her, hurt in his eyes for a moment before closing them and sighing, nodding his head. When he opened them and looked at her, he didn't look hurt, or jealous, or angry. He looked almost... understanding.

Kagome looked at him a bit confused, almost scared at his reaction. Was he really cool with this? "Are... are you okay?" she asked quietly as she looked at him, her brows furrowing together lightly.

He half sighed half laughed and nodded, rubbing the back of his neck a bit. "Well... not like there's anything we can do at this point," he said to her, leaving her mouth gaping.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" she all but screamed at him, her arms spread out at her sides. "You... you... your just... giving up!" she screamed. "You never just 'give up' InuYasha!"

"Well what the hell do you want me to do!" he yelled back at her. "Do you want me to get on my knees and beg like a dog for you to feel something! I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do that!" he told her firmly, his eyes digging holes into her own.

She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again, not being able to find anything to say. He was right. What could he do? What could either of them do? She didn't feel anything, and that meant there was nothing. But what about him? She cleared her throat to keep it from cracking and looked at him. "Well... wh-what about you?" she asked quietly. "Did you feel anything?"

He looked up at the sky, sighing as he linked his hands behind his neck, his elbows pointed out and shrugged a bit. "Well... yeah, I guess," he told her. "I mean, I loved you, I should feel something shouldn't I?" he asked and looked down at her, smiling lightly.

"But I love you-"

"Oh cut the crap Kagome," he said, rolling his eyes a bit and clicking his tongue. "Stop speaking in the present, ok? You LOVED me, not love me," he told her, not giving her much room to argue.

She opened her mouth again before closing it and thinking. She closed her eyes and sighed for a moment, sniffling a bit as she blinked away the tears. "It wasn't supposed to go like this," she said quietly. "We were supposed to fall in love, go through all these battles and hardships, prove our love, and then... just... live happily ever after," her voice was quiet as she thought. She continued, as though not even talking to him, but to herself. "It looks like our fairytale got twisted somewhere. The prince isn’t gonna save the princess, and she’s gonna have to slay the dragon alone."

He looked down at her, raising an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" he asked, but she didn’t answer him.

Everything seemed to make sense now. Everything that the4 women had said, everything leading up to this point, everything... just, everything. Even her dream from the previous night, which hadn't made any sense before, now made sense. She was a princess, trapped by 4 women, who had lost her prince. And then outside, was her greatest enemy who she needed to destroy on her own. There were only two things missing from the story. She needed wings... and where was her tower?

"Nothing," she told him, shaking her head. "Nothing you really need to worry about." she smiled at him a bit and sighed as she looked around. "I died, and then I was brought back. That wasn't the plan."

"I know," he said quietly.

She looked at him with sad, tired eyes. "We lost our fates."

"I know," he said, nodding his head slowly.
"I loved you," she said quietly, her voice strained as she kept her eyes on him.

He looked down at her with the same tired eyes. He slowly dropped his arms and nodded his head as he turned around and started to walk away. "I know."

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The next few days went by as the normally did. Sesshomaru kept coming around every so often, to find out when the battle was going to happen. They kept getting bits of information from different sources, like exceeding levels of miasma in one area or another. Kagome stayed quiet most of the time, and so did InuYasha, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. They just didn't have much to talk about anymore. They got used to it after a while though and had there small conversations or smiles or laughs every once in a while.

They had been traveling to different villages every so often when their help was needed. They even gained a few more shards along the way. But that was it. Any lead they followed about miasma or something of the sort just turned out to be nothing.

Kagome never spoke of her encounter with the four women from that night. And no one ever asked about what had happened or why she had been gone all night. She kept thinking about what they had said, especially about the phoenix. She still didn't understand, even with the dream. She was a phoenix? But how could she be a phoenix? She kept getting extremely frustrated by all of it. And it didn't help that her miko powers were weakening still and it took all of her concentration to sense a jewel shard in a demon.

Everything had been building it up it seemed, all the battles, the encounter with Naraku and the truth about Kikyo. Now all they needed was the climactic conclusion to it all.
But... what was it? And when would it happen? Everything had seemed to come to a stand still now.

But then again, most things happen when you least expect it...

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"SHUT UP!" InuYasha's screamed.

"But I'm hungry!" Shippo protested from his perch on Sango's shoulder.

"I said to SHUT UP!" he yelled again as he looked back at him, murder in his eyes.
Shippo whimpered lightly and sat back as Kagome sighed and shook her head.

"InuYasha, give him a break," she said. "We haven't had a rest in a while and haven't eaten in hours."

InuYasha growled as Shippo jumped into Kagome's arms. "Yeah you big bully!" he yelled, obviously having a death wish.

"Why you..."

"Oh come now, InuYasha," came Miroku's voice. "Let us rest at least for a while. We haven't rested since breakfast, which was hours ago."

InuYasha sighed, his shoulder's slumping as he realized he wasn't going to win this one. "Fine," he mumbled lightly and walked over to a little cove in the trees by the side of the road. "We can rest here."

The others sighed lightly in relief and walked over, sitting down onto the ground and starting to make a fire for lunch. Shippo and Sango went out to get wood for the fire as Miroku went out looking for something to cook. Kagome sighed and leaned against a tree, closing her eyes as InuYasha jumped up into its branches.

He looked down at her as she closed her eyes, noticing she was concentrating hard for one reason or another. "Hey, you alright?" he asked her.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him in the branches, smiling lightly. "Yeah, I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night," she told him.

"No, not that," he said, jumping down from the trees and sitting next to her. "You've been thinking about something lately. What is it?"

She shook her head lightly and shrugged. "Nothing," she told him. "Nothing you need to worry about."

He sighed lightly and looked forward as he heard the others coming back. "If you say so."

The others came back into the clearing and smiled at them as they saw them sitting together. They hadn't told them about anything that had happened between the two of them. "I caught some rabbits," Miroku told them as Sango and Shippo set up the wood for a fire.

"Hey, Kagome, could yo-" but they didn't even have to finish as she waved her hand lightly towards the piled wood, setting it ablaze. "Thanks," they said in unison and took the rabbits from Miroku and Sango started to clean them.

"Anything else you guys want help with?" she asked them, wanting to do something.

"No, but thank you," Miroku said. "We just need you to keep your senses open in case any jewel shards come near."

"Oh..." she said quietly and leaned back against the tree. "O-okay," she told them, smiling at them brightly and closed her eyes, trying to concentrate.

They all looked at each other a bit confused but shrugged it off for the moment and continued with whatever they were doing. After a while Kagome opened her eyes and looked around. "Sesshomaru's coming," she told them as she stood up.
InuYasha growled lightly at the thought of his half-brother. "Why did we have to let him fight with us?"

"He's not fighting with us," Kagome corrected him. "He's just fighting against Naraku as well."

InuYasha rolled his eyes, muttering a 'whatever' under his breath just as Sesshomaru made it into the clearing. Jaken followed along with Aun, Rin perched on his back. He looked over them for a moment before his eyes landed on Kagome. She smiled lightly as she saw Rin before looking back at him. "What can do for you Sesshomaru?" she asked kindly.

"I know where he is," was all he said as he looked at them. Miroku and Sango stood up and InuYasha turned back around, his ears twitching in Sesshomaru's direction.

Kagome looked at him, her mouth left open lightly before closing her eyes. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, looking at him seriously, her eyes a deeper color. "Take us."