What you said

The world was at peace and birds sang softly from the tree branches. They ruffled their feathers and chirped happily as the sun's rays fell from the sky and lit the world with a heavenly glow. It was a morning and the villagers wanted nothing more then to close their eyes and return to the blissful sleep, their thoughts drifting to the unrequited dreams of their youth and longing. To do nothing more than to sink into oblivion and allow the soft songs of birds to heavy their eyelids and to have them float in a never-ending river of dreams.

But alas, life is always cruel in some ways, and the crops needed to be harvested, children to be watched, clothing to be mended, shrines to pray to. The daily life lives on in a dreary, melancholy way of living, but yet the small flame of hope that something exciting will happen resided in every heart, praying that something worthwhile would transpire.

Perhaps that is why no one expected the high-pitched scream to sound from the hut of Kaede's dwelling, nor a disgracefully dressed girl to catapult herself from the bamboo doorway and to run like hell itself was on her heels. Anyone who had gotten a good look at the poor child would have seen the crystallized liquid falling down her soft, pale cheeks.

Shortly afterward, a large red-clad figure emerged from the hut, his face like a broken china plate, broken and cracked. He looked like he was on the verge of tears, and it was legend that a youkai never cried, if they did, they were destined to die on the very spot their tears touched. His eyes were glassy and his long silver hair swayed in the breeze. The accursed traits of a demon, the small dog-ears, twitched sadly on his head before drooping down to his skull. He bowed his head in defeat.

The villagers gazed at the hanyou protector before returning to their morning chores, ignoring the odd hanyou boy. It was a common accustomed to the arrive of the odd travelers to the village. Though they were rarely welcomed. The girl's remarkably disgusting lack of clothing was enough to burn her as a witch, the hanyou's blood of a demon and human, and an abomination of the earth. The houshi with his perverted ways that would put Buddha to shame and the youkai exterminator, she was hardly a woman, with her occupation a responsibility fit for a man and a man only.

The birds quickly flew away as a young teenaged miko ran through the forest, tears falling down her cheeks and shinning in the morning sun. Her swirling blue orbs of liquid dropped to the earth and wwereas soon forgotten. The girl ignored the fact that the twigs cut her hands and her bare legs, she only had to get away.

Bursting into a clear field, a rotting well was positioned in the middle. The girl paused in her steps before walking slowly to the well. Standing before it, with the sun beaming on her back, warming her cold skin, she regarded the portal that connected her to this world and her home.

Glancing over her shoulder she looked at the God tree with a forlorn expression, of an abandoned child in a park. She sniffed softly and placed a foot on the lip of the well. The darkness plunged down until nothing but shadows lingered in the bottom. Vines grew along the walls and wild grass grew on the outside. She sniffed softly and picked her other foot up, preparing to jump into the well.

"Kagome!" she stiffened at the sound of her name, already knowing whom it was. She didn't turn to meet him, nor did she make any move that she was to respond.

The person who had called her name walked slowly to her, his bare feet leaving foot indentations in the grass, the wild flowers snapping in half under his weight. His eyes looked pain and the swirling mass of lava looked dead and deprived.

"What do you want?" Kagome whispered, trying to keep the quiver from entering her voice. The world seemed silent as the two stood in the field. The birds had grown silent and the wind had died down, the world seemed as dead as the inu hanyou's eyes.

"Why are you running?" he said in an equally quiet voice. He looked at his feet before looking off to the side. He stared off for a while, lost in his thoughts. After a moment of contemplation he returned his fiery gaze to the girl's back, his eyes alit with anger and betrayal. "You asked me a question and I told you the truth!"

Kagome turned back to him, her eyes streaming with tears and her eyes sparkling with the tears yet unshed. "You lie," she said venomously.

Inu-yasha took a step towards her, his face hurt but his eyes angered, "I wouldn't lie to you!"

Kagome looked to the side, her lips pursed in anger and her eyebrows knitted together in anger.

"What do you want me to say, Kagome?" he snapped angrily and ran a clawed hand through the silky mass of hair. "Do you want me to deny what I said so you'd feel better? Do you want me to pretend that I said nothing? Do you want me to say that I didn't mean it?"

Kagome said nothing, instead, she bit her lip in concentration.

"Do you want me to pretend that these feelings aren't here?" Inu-yasha asked softly, his eyes flooding with a painful, rejected emotion, "Do I embarrass you that much, Kagome?"

"No," Kagome said softly, she looked at her feet in shame.

"Then what do you want me to do? How can you stand there and lie to me when its obvious that what I'm feeling is not a lie?" he gasped out as he stomped his foot down and walked towards her, him looking down at her. "Do you think I'd be that cruel as to lie to you?"

"I...." she couldn't finish, she collapsed to the ground and began to sob, her body racking with the inevitable pain.

Inu-yasha stood above her, his eyes cold and betrayed, hurt and pained. His hands were clenched at his sides and his shoulders were squared off, his back ridged. He stared at the girl for a long time before he too, sighed, and collapsed to the ground next to her.

She turned away from him when he reached out a hand and continued to sob. The hand reaching for her fell idly beside his knee. He looked away, not wanting the girl to see his pain. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes. "Don't cry. Please."

She continued to cry, loud sobs and silent tears.

He looked at her sadly, "if you weren't going to believe me, why did you ask me such a question? Why did you put me on the spot?"

Kagome stopped her sobbing and lifted her head from her hands, which had been covering her face from his view. She bit her lip again and rung her hands together in a nervous gesture. "I didn't think you'd answer me."

"I kind of wish I hadn't if I was going to make you cry like this," he whispered as he reached out a hand hesitantly, expecting her to pull away like he was fire. Instead she closed her eyes and allowed his hand to cup her cheek. Tears fell from her closed eyelids and traveled down the hanyou's hand.

They sat in silence for a long time before opening her eyes and casting her sapphire eyes into his golden lava depths. She seemed to be looking for something in his orbs, something that she could grasp, hang on to. Something that would erase that feeling of unreciprocated feelings deep within her soul. She seemed to find what she was looking for because she smiled and whipped her eyes. "You aren't...lying."

He returned the smile and nodded, before standing and pulling her up with him. His eyes danced with emotion and his hand enclosed around hers. The finger intertwined like they were made for each other's warmth and they stood in silence for a long moment.

"Should we...head back?" he whispered softly and brushed hair from her forehead to behind her ear, only for it to escape to its original position.

"Let's," she agreed and they started the trek towards the hut.

They walked in silence, a comfortable silence that was shared between two lovers reunited after a long time, but having nothing to talk about. The birds seemed to return to their cheerful songs and the wind fluttered back to life. Villagers bustled about in their everyday, unexciting lives, and the two only heard the other's heart beat.

Kagome looked up at the taller, older hanyou, his eyes holding the love and admiration that she only now could comprehend, "So, you love me then?"

He smiled and squeezed her hand in response.

Owari