InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Wake Me Up Inside ❯ Chapter 22

Wake Me Up Inside   Chapter 22   Beta-read by: Many Voices In My Head and DarklessVasion   Japanese Glossary   Baka - Yall should know this word by now. It’s a catch all insult meaning idiot, stupid, dummy, fool, ignoramus, etc. Onegaishimasu - A polite version of please. Literally means “I beg you.” Onegai - Casual form of onegaishimasu. Yameru - Stop it! Anta - Extremely casual form of Anata, meaning you. When coming from another, it tends to be meant as an insult. Oyasumi - Casual form of oyasumi nasai, which means good night. -gumi - group, band, army       ------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------        ;          Within his spiritual prison, Inuyasha drifted back to awareness by an incessant nagging from his conscience. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ he wondered groggily. He lay still for a moment, letting his mind wake up enough to tell him what was happening.               Kagome slept peacefully in arms, her body draping over his stomach both in spirit and reality. Inuyasha indulged in a gentle hug before focusing back on his surroundings in an attempt to figure out what was bugging him. In the room beyond, he could hear the continuing drone of the radio Kagome left on. The tune of one song faded out and a new one began. Inuyasha instantly recognized it as an Evanescence song from Keito’s favorite album. In the next moment, he felt a lurch of his heart and a tingle throughout his entire soul at the notion that this song was entirely significant.            & nbsp;  Inuyasha gave Kagome a shake, “Kagome!” The miko only stirred long enough to snuggle closer. He’d barely gotten her name out a second time, this time drawing her semi-awake, before his world froze. He could suddenly no longer speak nor move. He found it a strange stroke of irony that the lyrics of the song sang through clear as ever, and somewhere nearby he heard Kagome call his name.   ---------------------------------------------    &nb sp;          Kagome felt and heard someone trying to wake her. But she was so warm and comfortable, she wasn’t ready to let go yet. A second time, she heard Inuyasha call her name. Lazily, she opened her eyes. Having forgotten about the eclipse, she was prepared to give him a reprimand for waking her. Seeing him staring at her wide-eyed with a wild expression caused her to start. The next thing she knew, she was bolting up in bed in Yue’s room. She looked down at him and called out in confusion, “Inuyasha?” Then she heard the song playing on the radio.       How can you see into my eyes like open doors
Leading you down into my core
Where I’ve become so numb without a soul? My spirit sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home.   Wake me up inside! Wake me up inside! Call my name, and save me from the dark! Bid my blood to run before I come undone! Save me from the nothing I’ve become!             Kagome found herself imagining again the first time she ever saw this creature she’d fallen so hopelessly in love with. For a moment, she saw, not a man with black hair laying in a hospice bed bathed in darkness of night, but a silver-haired hanyou bathed in sunlight and forest shadow as he hung pinned to a great tree by an enchanted arrow. Her hand moved to caress the spot where that arrow had once pierced the hanyou’s flesh, and the miko gasped as she felt an energy surrounding the man in the bed with a sensation that tingled as Sherry had described, but now also pulsed. As it pulsed, she also felt the familiar sensation she always felt from the Shikon no Tama. Upon this realization Kagome gasped, knowing now why Inuyasha had woken her, “Inuyasha!” --------------      &nbs p;        Inuyasha felt a tingle spread through him as the song progressed and his world shifted from black to Shikon pink. He felt Kagome’s hand move across his chest to the place where the arrow once protruded. He knew immediately what kind of thoughts this song was conjuring in her mind.     Now that I know what I’m without, You can’t just leave me. Breathe into me, and make me real. Bring me to life!     Wake me up inside! Wake me up inside! Call my name, and save me from the dark! Bid my blood to run before I come undone! Save me from the nothing I’ve become!   Now, more than ever, he cried out for her to use her miko powers to free him just as she had done then. But the tingle became so strong, it soon drowned out everything and the pink light became too much for him to take open-eyed.     Frozen inside without your touch, without your love, Darling only you are the life among the dead!   All this time, I can’t believe I couldn’t see! Keep in the dark, but you were there in front of me. I’ve been sleeping a thousand years it seems. Got to open my eyes to everything. Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul… Don’t let me die here, there must be something more! Bring me to life!           &nb sp;   He couldn’t feel anything anymore but that tingling, nor hear anything but that song. Not Kagome, not the usual crickets, not even the sound of his own breath and heartbeat. It was an unnervingly eerie existence. ‘I’ve entered the Twilight Zone,’ he thought with a weary shiver.   Then, the song and its music too died out as a great nothingness filled his ears. This nothingness flowed through him like molasses, driving him mad from its overwhelming silence. “Silent as the grave” gained a whole new meaning to him as he felt what it was like to be truly alone.   Here, he hung in an endless nothing filled with a tingling that began to cool until a great sea of frozen air replaced it. It took with it the pink light of the miko and left him floating in what seemed like space beyond the edge of the universe were there were no galaxies with their brightly burning stars and planets bearing so many different expressions of existence. There was nothing but darkness, cold, and himself. No one came to whisper in his ear. No one came to wrap him in their warm arms. No one came to see the tears well in his eyes as his heart filled with a great depression like none he’d ever known before at the thought of being left here for eternity where no one could hear his screams of perpetual agony.   He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t move. He could barely even think with such frigid loneliness and sorrow filling him as the pink tinkling once had. What felt like hours, months, centuries ticked away until he could no longer stand to be here. He reached deep within himself to gather up every last ounce of energy he had left, then the great hanyou known as Inuyasha screamed out with everything he had as he tried to fight the darkness filling what was left of his mind. One word came out of his mouth as he screamed through his very soul, “KAGOME!!!!!”   --------   Wa ke me up inside! Wake me up inside! Call my name, and save me from the dark! Bid my blood to run before I come undone! Save me from the nothing I’ve become!           & nbsp;   Kagome listened as the words of the song spoke of a great inner struggle that must mirror what Inuyasha was going through right now. Turning to look out the window, she could see the moon turning a deep crimson red as the earth’s shadow crossed its surface. Keito was right. The end of the Shikon no Tama’s spell was dependent on the eclipse of the moon. Now that she thought about it, she remembered Myouga having said Inuyasha was born during a lunar eclipse.              ;  As she turned back to face Yue, Kagome’s heart began to beat so hard she wondered how it was that the nurses didn’t hear it. She reached up to caress his face with her hands as the song screamed through its climatic stanzas. His flesh was somewhat cold. Then she noticed, for a moment, he ceased to breathe. Nervousness gave way to blinding panic as she called out his name which came out in a hoarse whisper, “Inuyasha?”          &n bsp;    Nothing happened, and she called out again, this time more frantically, “Inuyasha!”          &n bsp;    Suddenly, somewhere in the deepest part of her, Kagome heard Inuyasha scream out her name in a horrific voice she was quite sure she never wanted to hear again. For an instant, she thought he was calling out to her from some part of hell as he crossed over into death from something gone horribly wrong in the Shikon’s spell.   Bring me to life…          &nb sp;    “Inuyasha, no! Don’t leave me! Please!” Kagome pleaded through tears wrought from the most destructive kind of pain dealt to her very soul. She bent down to wrap the human boy in her arms as she kissed a dozen places on his face before pressing her lips firmly to his.
Bring me to life!!           &n bsp;   Pleading through their hearts and souls to any and every deity who would listen, the late Midoriko included, the two lovers each cried out the name of the other one last desperate time. At long last, when they thought there was no more life for the one known in the past as Inuyasha and in the present as Yue would no longer mingle amongst the living, the crimson shadow over the moon began to bleed out the other side. As it did so, a pink aura over took Yue’s body, causing Kagome to gasp. But she defiantly held onto him, throughout the remainder of the seal’s end.               That miko pink aura engulfed Yue and gave Kagome a bizarre twittering tingling sensation. It grew in brightness until Kagome had to squeeze her eyes shut and hide them in her own hair. That tingling flowed into her and filled her as well as the man she held so tightly.   ------------------------------------------------     &nbs p;           Inuyasha and Kagome opened their eyes to the beckon of a woman’s gentle voice. There, in front of the two of them stood the mighty miko Midoriko under a sea of stars and over a sea of sakura petals that continued to fall from the mist shrouded trees surrounding them all. Kagome’s face was marked and wet with tears. Inuyasha, meanwhile, lay devoid of energy in her arms.             &n bsp; “I am sure the two of you are wondering where you are and why I am here. This is the bridge between heaven and earth. I am here, first, to thank you for freeing me from my own unending struggle with the youkai I fought while creating the Shikon no Tama. Second, I owe a bit of explanation for my spell,” she told them.             &n bsp; “You’re damn right you do. What the hell was all that I just went through?”           &nbs p;   “That was the Shikon no Tama’s test of worth. This was a test I created using both my power of light and the youkai power of darkness. Only someone pure of heart with the ability to love and endure in the face of total darkness would have ever been able to survive the jewel’s test and truly inherit it’s greatest power. Those who tried in the past only ever got part way. You, Inuyasha, are the only one to make it through alive.   “You survived because your heart, though damaged by a lifetime of pain, remains pure at its core. You also survived because you had friends praying for you, and a soul mate, who is also a powerful miko, purifying the darkness and protecting your life. Therefore, in the end, it was the strength of this combination that overpowered the darkness and allowed you to win,” Midoriko explained.   “Kagome,” Inuyasha rasped as he weakly reached up to clasp one of the arms she encircled him with.   “I’m here,” Kagome whispered back as she let her finger tips brush his bangs out of his eyes. The hanyou relaxed, upon knowing it was her who held him protectively close. Turning to look at the miko again, Kagome asked, “Forgive me for asking, but what exactly did he wish for?”   “He wished for the harm the jewel had done to be repaired and those harmed by it placed where and how they belonged. There were so many people affected by its polluted power so generously flaunted by Naraku that the jewel was forced to act differently with each person,” the older miko answered.   “Then… how was Shiori affected, if she’s with us now like Sango, Miroku, Shippou, Kirara, and others?” Kagome asked in confusion.   Midoriko smiled, “I had nothing to do with that. Shiori became Sherry by her own fate.”   “I’m glad. Shiori certainly had it bad enough without the Shikon no Tama making a mess of things,” Inuyasha grunted.   “Now that you know why and how what was done was done, I must return you to earth and myself where I now belong. It has been a very long time since I last saw my own family and friends,” Midoriko smiled. Then, like that, before Kagome or Inuyasha could object, she vanished. In her wake, the mist became thick and bright pink until that was all the two of them could see.   -----------------------------   That tingling sensation filled Kagome once more, followed by sensations for the normal world. Bright pink gave way to darkness, and silence gave way to the sound of a radio playing a commercial for a circus coming to town. She opened her eyes and looked to Yue whom she still held quite firmly in her arms. However, Yue was now dressed in Inuyasha’s fire rat haori, cream colored yukatta, and red hakama pants. In his lap was the legendary Tessaiga. Upon seeing such things worn and held by a man born in the modern era, she knew she had her Inuyasha back. The black hair said that his demon blood was still sealed, but that could wait for another day.   Kagome’s heart leapt into a flutter as she kissed his cheek then whispered into his ear, “Inuyasha? I’m sure it’s hard, but try to wake up for me. Onegaishimasu.”   “Radio.. turn.. off.. “ he rasped in a voice that had become nearly non-existent from lack of use.   “Open your eyes, and I will,” she bargained.   “Keh!” he sassed before he let his eyes flutter open. He saw nothing but fuzzy darkness at first, but then Kagome’s face swam into focus. Seeing her bathed in moonlight took his breath away. She smiled at him while fresh tears rolled down her face, this time from joy. He frowned at her and spoke a hardly decipherable, “Don’t.. cry.”   “I’m a girl, baka! I can’t help it. I nearly lost you tonight,” she told him as she hugged him tightly.   The door suddenly opened, startling both occupants of the bed with Kagome managing a brief scream as her eyes darted to towards it. In the door stood the nurse Gerdie with an expression of alarm, “I thought I heard a faint scream and came to investigate. Is everything all right?”   Kagome took a few deep breaths to compose herself, “Yes. I was just.. excited. Could you please turn off the radio. Yue wants it off.”   “Yue wants..?”   “Yes. Please don’t wake people yet. Let him adjust first. It was a big transition he’s gone through tonight,” Kagome told the woman.   “Radio…” Yue rasped irritably the moment Kagome finished.   “Oh, my goodness! Of course, Yue!” Gerdie said as she rushed over to turn the radio off.   “Thank you, Gerdie,” Kagome said softly.   “Not a problem,” the nurse smiled as she walked over to the two of them. She then blinked at the outfit Yue was wearing. Hadn’t he been wearing a t-shirt and jeans earlier? She shook her head, dismissing the matter as a trick of her aging mind in this darkness. “How are you feeling Yue?”   He rasped out something the nurse couldn’t quite understand, but Kagome apparently did, because she laughed.   “Basically he said, ‘Terrific’ with a ton of sarcasm,” she interpreted. “If you don’t mind, might we have the few hours until dawn to rest? Life will be crazy tomorrow and both of our minds have hardly slept at all. No, I can’t explain that. It’s a miko thing.”   “Of course. I was just wanting to make sure everything was all right first,” Gerdie nodded. Yue managed to give her a thumb up sign with his left hand. This satisfied the nurse thoroughly. She then headed back to the door, “If there is anything either of you need, Kagome, please ring the desk.”   “I will,” the miko nodded. Gerdie then left the room, shutting the door behind her. Kagome then shifted into a more comfortable position, lying on her left side beside Yue with her arms around him. On second thought, she rolled back to reach out and grab the teddy bear sitting on the night stand. She then resumed her previous pose curled up beside Yue.   Yue, though weak, stole the bear from her grasp to look at it. His voice came out hoarse, but he stubbornly forced the words he wanted to use out of his mouth anyway, “So.. this is.. Yume.”   Kagome giggled, “Hai. I never realized how popular he would get when I bought him.”   “Sherry.. gets him next,” he told her. “When.. he’s done here.”   “I think that’s an excellent idea,” the miko beamed. She then yawned widely as her body told her it craved sleep.   “Kagome?”   “Hmm?”   “ ;When I get out… when I..  recover enough.. I want…” he paused to endure a weak cough from his irritated vocal chords.   “You want what?” Kagome was all ears.   “Custody.”   Kagome blinked, “Of Sherry?”   “Yeah. She’s not,” he paused again to cough some more, “safe there.”   “That would be a very noble thing to do, Inuyasha,” Kagome praised with a warm smile.   “I want.. her out of there. Away from him.”   “I do too, Inuyasha. I do too.”   There was a long silence, and Kagome was nearly asleep when she heard his faint words, “Thank you.”   She smiled and kissed his cheek, “You’re welcome. Good night, Inuyasha.”   He merely grunted at her, too busy trying to chase the blush from his face from her kiss, ‘What the hell is wrong with me? She kisses me in that hellhole, and I’m fine. She kisses me here and I blush like a little boy! Gods!’   “Quit frowning or I’ll be forced to tickle you, since I can’t sit you,” Kagome chided, grinning again though her eyes were closed.   “Keh!”   Kagome sighed at her lovable idiot soul mate. Then a thought occurred to her, ‘Wait a minute. He didn’t argue about not being ticklish. I wonder where.’   “Don’t even.. think about it, wench.”   “Argh! Just for that!” Kagome shot back as her fingers went to dance over his stomach.   “H-hey! Quit it!” he rasped irritably before weak laughter bubbled up in reaction to her dancing fingers. Kagome giggled at him, creating more butterflies in his stomach just from the sound.   “Say please,” she grinned wickedly as she continued to tickle torture him.   “S-stop Baka!”   Kagome tickled more, grinning wider as he weakly squirmed and batted at her hands through fits of raspy laughter. “Say please.”   “W- we’re.. suppose.. to.. be.. sleeping! Baka!” he panted as his muscles began to ache.   “Say please.”   “Argh!”   “Say please.”   “D-dammit!.. YAMERU ONEGAI!”   Kagome’s fingers stopped and she leaned in to kiss him, “See? You’re capable of being a good boy. Why don’t you try it more often?”   “Where’s the fun in that?”   “Baka.”   “Why are women… so evil?”   “I thought you wanted to sleep,” Kagome said wryly.   “You said it first,” Inuyasha pointed out.   “To get the nurse to go away, stupid!”   “So if you weren’t.. going to go to sleep, what were you.. going to do?”   “Get you’re mind out of the gutter! You’re too weak to do much more than this anyway.”   “Who said I.. had my mind.. in the gutter?” he protested, trying his best not to wince at how much his throat hurt already from talking so much.   “It’s obvious.”   “Oh? Really? Are you sure it’s… not you thinking like that?” Yue replied slyly. “You have.. grown up after all.”   “Inuyasha!” Kagome blurted as her face turned beat red.   “Calm down. Don’t break the bed.”   “Anta! You know, I can always drive back to my apartment.”   “No.”   “No?”   “No. It’s not safe to drive half asleep.”   “Who says…” Kagome was interrupted when he shifted just enough to kiss her squarely on the lips. Instantly, her mind began to fuzz over. “Damn you,” she cursed softly.   “Such language,” he mumbled and kissed her again. Even though he managed to make her forget her anger towards him, along with everything else, her lips did the same to him. When he broke away, she snuggled tighter to him, using his chest as a pillow. Though his throat now hurt like hell, and his muscles ached from fighting her tickling, he felt better than he had in a long time. These were good pains that he could put up with as long as she held him the way she was. “Oyasumi,” he whispered before following her into the land of sleep.       ----------------------------------------------- --------------             &nb sp;     Nine o’clock the next morning, after having stopped for breakfast, the Inuyasha-gumi arrived at the hospice in time for the doors to open upon their arrival. Chattering lightly amongst themselves, the mighty eight (Kirara being hidden in Shippou’s coat again to make nine) traversed to the closed door of Yue’s room.             &n bsp; Keito grinned wickedly as he pushed to the front then turned around with a wicked grin. Having called last night to get confirmation from Gerdie that Yue had indeed awoken, he addressed the group with a shushing gesture. They all made confused expressions, but got quiet. Keito then quietly opened the door and gestured for them to quietly enter. The group found Kagome still sound asleep beside Yue who was now dressed in Inuyasha’s clothes with an old sword laying at his right side. Yume was sandwiched between the two who held onto each other like there was no tomorrow. The truth began to dawn on the many confused minds as Keito shut the door. Then, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, he pulled out a bike horn to honk as he yelled out, “Nine o’clock! Wake up call! Come on, ya lazy bums! We’ve got a party to run!”            &n bsp;  Everyone jolted and grumped at him, including one Kagome Higurashi and Yue Taisho who were instantly awakened by such racket.               “Keito! You ass!” Yue hissed through his still hoarse voice.             & nbsp; A chorus of “Yue!” and “Inuyasha!” erupted from the group.             & nbsp; “Hey Davy, Sherry, Yall,” Yue smirked.              ;  “Good morning everyone,” Kagome grinned with a blush as she extracted herself from Yue and stood up.             &nbs p; “I’m going to go fetch some pillows so he can sit up,” Beth grinned as she turned to leave.             & nbsp; “I’ll go with you so I can freshen up. Sherry, could you come too so the guys can help Yue get dressed for the day?”            &n bsp;  “Sure,” Sherry agreed. She then turned to the guys, “Do the purple one!”            &n bsp;  “Oh! Right!” Keito cheered. With that, the girls left the room.             &n bsp; As the door shut behind Beth, Kirara leapt out of Shippou’s shirt to curl up in the armchair. Keito literally launched himself at Yue, “I missed you, Man!”            &n bsp;  “Keito! You jackass! You’re gonna kill him!” Dave bellowed trying to pull the other stooge off of Yue. Keito held on, glomping the stuffing out of Yue.               “I seriously doubt that, Dave. The only one to successfully put him down and keep him down was Kikyou,” Shippou commented.            &nb sp;  “Keito, chill,” Yue wheezed. “Besides, I haven’t.. forgotten about that shirt! And Shippou, shut yer damn mouth!”               “Make me,” Shippou challenged, rolling his eyes.             &n bsp; “Hey! I like that shirt!” Keito defended.            &nbs p;  “So did Margaret!” Yue shot back. Zach and Dave shuddered. He looked to Shippou, “Yours is coming… like everyone else’s.”            ;    “Well, I didn’t exactly count on Margie entering the equation,” Keito laughed nervously.            &nb sp;  “I look forward to seeing what you can do to me anymore,” Shippou smirked.              ;  “He can do plenty,” Dave nodded.                “This purple thing…” Yue started, changing the subject.              ;  “Uhhh, it’s in the drawer here,” Keito said as he reached into the dresser and pulled out the pieces to said outfit.                “What happened to the clothes you were wearing yesterday?” Mark asked.             & nbsp; “Still here,” Yue frowned.              ;  “Under all that?” Dave asked, making a disturbed face.             &n bsp; “Yeah. Hot as hell,” Yue replied, sticking his tongue out.             &nb sp; “Obviously so, with how close Kagome was,” Keito teased as he walked back over. Dave actually joined the laughter at this joke.             &n bsp; “Ha-ha. Let me guess, you helped with those.. naughty ideas she kept me.. up with last night, right?” Yue challenged. His throat still hurt from last night, but he’d be damned if he let it hold him back.             &n bsp; “Tell me you didn’t deny her,” Mark begged with an appalled expression.            &n bsp;  “Of course not. It shut up her damn ranting!” Yue replied, gaining a new chorus of laughter.            &nbs p;  “Such children,” Shippou said, shaking his head.               “Hey! Who said they had to grow up?” Keito defended. “All right boys. Strip him.”            &n bsp;  “Keito.. that was just wrong,” Dave said in disgust.              ;  “I didn’t say have sex with him, you imbecile!” Keito yelled back.             &n bsp; “Imbecile… That’s a big word for you, Keito,” Zach chuckled as he began helping Yue out of his haori.             & nbsp; “No, it’s just uncommon. Kiss my ass.”            &n bsp;  “I think not.”            &n bsp;  “And you say this is common between them?” Shippou asked Yue who was slapping his hand over his face with a groan that turned into laughter.            &nbs p;  “Yes, and I wouldn’t take them any other way,” he answered with a grin.     ---------------------------------------------------- &n bsp;             &nb sp; “So… how did Keito know all about this?” Beth asked.             & nbsp; “Was it the eclipse? Because he got me up last night to watch it with him,” Sherry commented.               “Yes, it was the eclipse. Yesterday afternoon, at lunch, he told me of about a lunar eclipse coming up. He said he had a hunch it might have some sort of effect on Inuyasha. But he wasn’t sure and didn’t want to raise hopes if he turned out to be wrong. So the only person he told was me, telling me to stay overnight incase he was right,” Kagome explained. Then she paled, remembering Midoriko’s words. “I’m glad I was there. Midoriko said my power helped him pass a test of darkness that the Shikon no Tama made him go through for it to complete the task of granting his wish.”            & nbsp;  “Oh my god!” Sherry blurted in sudden horror. Beth had a similar expression.            &n bsp;  “But everything seems to be fine now,” she said reassuringly.                “It sure does. I’m surprised he’s even talking as well as he is,” Beth replied.              ;  “That’s probably half chalked up to stubbornness,” Kagome laughed.              ;  “Probably,” Sherry giggled.              ;  “Okay Sherry, you go help S- err Beth,” Kagome said, immediately correcting her near mistake. “I almost called you Sango again,” she told Beth with a laugh.             & nbsp; “I don’t mind,” Beth grinned.                         “Anyway, I’m going to head home for a few minutes to shower and change clothes. Beth, do you have Margaret’s number anywhere?”           &nb sp;   “No, but I can get it for you. You’re actually going to call her and tell her?”            &n bsp;  “Well, yes. Like it or not, she is his friend. She’s also been helping the past week too, so she deserves to be told. If she starts something, Yue’s capable of speaking up for himself now.”            &n bsp;  “You have a point, Kagome,” Beth nodded. “I’ll get it for you while you’re gone.”            & nbsp;  “All right. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Kagome said before heading out to her car.     -------------------------------------------------------- -                ;  Thirty minutes later, Kagome Higurashi returned to the hospice. She had chosen to wear a cream-colored blouse with a maroon skirt depicting minimal-style forest leaves and harvest berries in thin lines of orange and gold. In her ears were garnet teardrops, and upon her feet were simple off white wedge sandals. Her hair was pulled back by a golden ribbon with a sunflower tied in and fell in cascading curls beyond that. From afar, she looked much like her past incarnation, save for the red hair, with the colors of her clothes almost looking like the white and red of a traditional miko’s outfit. Up close, she was all her own thing, a beautiful woman of the east dressed in complementing elegant clothes of the west. That was just exactly the impression she wished to give.             &n bsp; She stepped through the door of Yue’s room and received whistles from Keito and Mark. The other male occupants, Dave included, were momentarily caught in a gawking spell. Yue, dressed once again in the purple Japanese clothes Kagome had given him, was propped up in his bed by a mountain of pillows at his back. His lips spoke her name as he stared, much the same way he had when he saw her dressed as a miko for the first time, but no sound issued from his mouth.             & nbsp; Kagome smiled with a blush gracing her face, “I take it my choice in clothing is approved?”           &nb sp;   “I would ask you to bear my child, Kagome-sama, but Inuyasha and Beth would both kill me. And each of them mad on their own is a scary thought,” Mark answered.            &nbs p;  “Mark, dude, that was great!” Keito laughed. “Though I have no female to kick my rear, I’m sure Yue would do enough damage for ten, let alone two. So, I concur to Mark’s comment.”           &nbs p;   “Here, we brought you take out since you weren’t there at breakfast,” Dave said, passing her a bag of fresh donuts and a cup of coffee. “Sherry just finished nuking the coffee.”             ;   “Why thank you Dave. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were trying to get me fat,” Kagome said with a teasing grin as she set her purse down then took the donut bag and coffee cup.             &nb sp; “Hey, don’t go blaming me! Beth and I voted for Cracker Barrel. Everyone else voted for Ralph’s,” Dave retorted in his usual manner. But Kagome had gotten use to his attitude by now and knew he meant nothing by it.               “I see. My apologies then. I’ll blame Keito for trying to get me fat then,” she joked with a giggle.                “Yeah. I figured Yue might give you to me if you blew up like a blimp. But, the way he’s been talking about you non-stop since you left, I suppose I’ve lost on that one,” Keito answered as casually as though he’d truly planned such a conspiracy. Kagome blushed profusely while others laughed.              ;  “Keh!” Inuyasha barked in a croupy voice as he crossed his arms.   To his right sat Sherry, being mindful of the IV and other lines still connected to his arm. She held Yume in her arms, staring at Shippou while the fox was busy watching Kagome. In the expansive space on the left side of the bed sat a large cluster of chairs holding Keito, Zach, Dave, Mark, Shippou, and Beth in the armchair with Kirara.                Kagome walked over to have a seat in the empty spot on the bed Inuyasha’s left.               “Will you share?” he asked, eyeing the coffee and bag of donuts.                “Inuyasha, I already told you no!” Beth scolded.              ;  “I didn’t ask you,” he snapped back before looking back to Kagome for an answer.                “Beth s-“            &nbs p;  Inuyasha let his face morph it to the saddest puppy face she’d ever seen him make, then, a moment later, he spoke in a pitiful voice, “Please?”          &nbs p;    Kagome blinked then narrowed her eyes at his poke at their conversation from last night. Try as she might, she couldn’t resist that face coupled with the rare voluntary utterance of “please” from the man. “If you get sick, it’s your fault, Puppy,” she told him as she pulled a piece off of an ordinary donut and gave it to him.             &nb sp; Inuyasha winced at the nickname, but he didn’t object as he took the piece of donut and put it in his mouth. He savored the morsel like it was ambrosia.            &nbs p;  “Kagome! You naughty girl!” Beth chided, but couldn’t keep the grin off her face.             &n bsp; “How can I argue when he actually says ‘Please’ all on his own?” the miko defended before putting a piece of donut in her own mouth.             & nbsp; “She has a point. That’s a word I didn’t think existed in his vocabulary,” Shippou laughed.              ;  “Oh, you better believe it does. I watched his mother belt that one into his hide,” Dave argued with a smirk.             & nbsp; “Someone’s called his pare-“ Kagome started. Beth immediately answered.            &nbs p;  “Yes. I did that when I got the pillows, but no one’s home. I’m wondering if they aren’t on their way here considering how much Hiroshi knows about what’s going on here.”            & nbsp;  “Oh, I see. Speaking of which, did you get that number?”             ;   “Yes I did,” Beth nodded, handing her a slip of paper. “I got it off of one of the other girls.”                “What number? You’ve lost me,” Keito frowned.              ;  “You weren’t there for that conversation, Keito,” Beth smirked.              ;  “I think she’s saying butt-out,” Zach advised.              ;  “Bite me, Blondie,” Keito returned. “You too, Beth,” he said and stuck out his tongue.                “Poor thing. He just can’t stand not to be the center of attention,” Dave wisecracked melodramatically.           &n bsp;   “Well duh!” Keito laughed.              ;  Kagome finished eating her first donut then picked up the phone and dialed a number. It rang three times before a groggy, irritable voice answered, “Who the hell is calling so early in the damn morning?”           &nbs p;   “Kagome. Listen, get dressed and down to the hospice. I have a surprise for you,” Kagome said as she clamped a hand over Inuyasha’s mouth. She felt a strange sensation against her palm and frowned as she turned to him, “Lick me again, and I shall tickle you mercilessly.” The room erupted in laughter and a whistle from Keito.             & nbsp; “What? The hospice?” Margaret repeated, trying to make sense of things. Then she realized something must have happened with Yue. She gasped and was instantly awake, “I’ll be right there!”   --------------------------------------------   &n bsp;   Penguine’s Piece   This was a damn hard chapter to write, but I think it turned out perfect in the end. By the time I got around to the editing part though, it had been so long since I’d written this that it was almost like reading someone else’s story. I couldn’t remember what I’d written. So, of course, I read it like the rest of you do. I nearly died laughing myself at Kagome, Yash, and the Stooges. Sassy tried to attack me, but thankfully I had my door shut tight enough that the latch actually held her back for once. :P   Okay you guys, this marks the half way point. If anyone has ideas for the second half, ya better throw them at me so that I can put them in order before I start attacking the rest of the story. That’s not to say that I don’t have any of my own. I’ve got quite a few. I’m just working on coming up with some things to tie what I’ve already come up with together with everything else.   One person has requested that I write a Shippo/Sherry story after this one is done. I’d thought about that myself. However, I want to make sure more than a handful of folks will read it if I do in fact write one. So.. all those in favor of a Shippo/Sherry spin-off… lift yer Whizzbang hats and say ayEEEEEEEEEEE!! -lol-