InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ You Don't Know What You Have 'Till Its Gone ❯ A Meeting of the Minds ( Chapter 3 )

{Disclaimer: Inuyasha doesn't belong to me so don't sue. ::sighs:: unless someone would like to give him to me. I would have a ball playing with those ears.}

You Don't Know What You Have 'Till It's Gone

By Striking Falcon

Chapter Three: A Meeting of the Minds

{Song is Brandy's 'Almost Doesn't Count'}

"No offense, Sango, but Kagome gives the best hugs," Shippou said as he snuggled into Sango's lap. Sango giggled slightly.

"I agree, Shippou. Her hugs do tend to be soothing, even to a certain bull-headed half demon we know."

She looked up into the trees above them, staring at a bright red spot in the trees. Sighing, she returned her attention back to Shippou, who was fast asleep. Sango leaned back against the tree, watching the stars. She felt the tree shake slightly as Inuyasha settled onto a branch right above her.

"What is it?" she asked for the fifth time today. Since Kagome's disappearance a week ago, and her outburst hours afterward, Inuyasha watched her intently. It almost seemed like he expected her to explode, her anger swelling out to destroy him.

"Do you think-"

"Yes?"

"That Kagome is still alive?"

Sango looked up, her eyes watching his face closely. 'He's worried about her. He should be.'

"I think so. After all, the villagers we've come across haven't said anything about finding a body in one of the fields that looks like her."

The blood drained from Inuyasha's face as he considered her words.

"Do you hate me, Sango?"

"No, I don't. You just don't think before you do something. Kagome is hurting, was hurting, before Sesshoumaru stepped in. You just don't realize that you can hurt her more than any demon we've ever faced. That you could kill her without even lifting your pinky finger."

"I would never hurt her."

"Yet you prefer someone else, even though Kagome cares so much for you. She worries for you, even when you put up your 'I heal so much faster than you weak humans' defense. You shut her out, but she continues to stay by your side. When she's in danger, you fight with a strength that has yet to be beaten, even by Sesshoumaru and Naraku combined. Still you push her away. I'll never understand you, but I don't hate you."

Sango sighed and brushed a few strands of hair from her face.

"It's just that Kagome doesn't deserve to suffer, by your hands or anyone else's."

Inuyasha nodded and leaped back to the highest branches in the tree, leaving Sango to sleep with Shippou in her arms. Inuyasha watched the moon, wondering what Kagome was doing, if she was still alive to do anything. He sighed.

Sango is right. I am kind of mean to her. But if I'm not, she'll only hurt me, or be used to hurt me. She doesn't deserve that, just like Kikyou didn't.

You simple bastard. Naraku wasn't after you. He wanted Kikyou. You were just a means to an end.

True, but it was me he used to hurt her.

That wasn't you, remember? Jeez, how dumb can you be?

Hey, I don't need this shit from you. Who are you anyway?

For the love of- I'm you.

Great, I'm talking to myself.

Not for the first time, either. Anyway, Kagome and Kikyou are two different people. Kikyou was never as passionate, nor as defiant, as Kagome. That girl is always into something.

But they're the same person.

No, they're not. Kagome is Kagome. Kikyou is Kikyou. Kagome would give up her life for you. Would Kikyou have done the same?

I don't know.

Let me ask that a different way: If it had been Kagome, not Kikyou, fifty years ago, do you think you two would have turned on each other?

No.

Yet you betray her trust every time she sees you and Kikyou together. Sango is right. She doesn't deserve to suffer, not because she trusts you.

Kagome does trust me, doesn't she?

Stupid question. And stupid questions don't get answered.

What a jerk.

I'm you. What do you expect? Anyway, something else is bothering you. The song you caught Kagome singing when you went to get her last time.

**********

Inuyasha bolted out of the well house to Kagome's window without breaking stride. 'Stupid woman, always late. I'm going to stop coming to get her if she keeps this up.

No you won't. You're afraid she won't come back.

"Feh," he muttered to himself as he glared at her through the window. 'She's just sitting there. Why doesn't she come on?' Her scent floated to him on the breeze, the gentleness of it comforting him, shielding him against the assault of the other smells from her time. The sorrow mingled with the scent disturbed him greatly, causing him to leap onto the little roof outside her window when her back was turned. Inuyasha listened intently, trying to find the cause of the tears. 'She's singing. Why is she so sad if she's singing?' He decided to listen to the words, hoping to get some sort of clue.

"Almost made you love me
Almost made you cry
Almost made you happy, baby
Didn't I didn't I
You almost had me thinkin'
You were turned around
But everybody knows
Almost doesn't count"

Kagome sang to herself, the words of the song hitting a little too close to home. Her thoughts instantly went to a certain half demon that was probably fuming at the other side of the well She sighed, the next verse coming to her as easily as if she wrote it herself.

"Almost heard you saying
You were finally free
What was always missing for you, baby
You'd found it in me
But you can't get to heaven
Half off the ground
Everybody knows
Almost doesn't count"

'But you don't want to go to heaven, do you Inuyasha?' she asked as she tossed a few lip sheers into her pack. 'You'd rather burn in Hell with her.' The depressing thought brought tears to her eyes, which she desperately tried to blink away.

"I can't keep on lovin' you
One foot outside the door
I hear a funny hesitation
Of a heart that's never really sure
Can't keep on tryin'
If you're looking for more
Than all that I could give you
Than what you came here for

Gonna find me somebody
Not afraid to let go
Want a no doubt be there kind of man
You came real close
But everytime you built me up
You only let me down
And everybody knows
Almost doesn't count"

'You do let me down, but never when my life is in danger. You just don't feel the same way I do. I'm nothing more than a shard detector to you. But I just can't see myself loving another.'

"Maybe you'll be sorry
Maybe you'll be cold
Maybe you'll come runnin' back, baby
From the cruel cruel world
Almost convince me
You're gonna stick around
But everybody knows
Almost doesn't count

So maybe I'll be here
Maybe I'll see ya 'round
That's the way it goes

Almost doesn't count"

"Kagome, are you ok?" asked a voice behind her. Kagome spun around, wiping the tears from her face in the process.

"Inuyasha! You scared me," Kagome chirped as she lifted the pack from the room floor. She flashed him a quick smile as she scampered out of the room and out the kitchen door, calling goodbye to her family as she went.

*********

But you never found out what made her so sad about that one song, did you?

No. But when I find her, I'll ask.

She might not tell you. Why not leave her with Sesshoumaru? She's a nuisance anyway.

The others would never forgive me.

You could leave them behind and search for the shards yourself.

I need the help.

But what do you need Kagome for? To see the shards? Kikyou could help you do that.

I don't want Kikyou's help.

But Kikyou is better than Kagome.

No, she's not.

But that's what you tell Kagome.

Inuyasha stopped to think.

Maybe I do tell her that.

You know you do. And you know it hurts her when you say it.

Maybe I do.

What are you planning to do about it?

Find her, Inuyasha responded, raising himself off the branch. Find her and rip out Sesshoumaru's eyes. Then I'll tell her how I feel about her.

Good. Finally, you're starting to make some sense.

------

Shippou: SF says to keep going.