Hello!

Welcome back to Earthshake!

This is the final chapter. My second completed fanfiction ever (the first is not up anywhere), and one of the shortest continuation stories I've ever written. I have to say that I needed a break from Pretty Kagome and From the Future, and thought that writing a two-chapter story would be a nice distraction. (sorry!)

…So now I'll go back to Pretty Kagome until I need another distraction. XD

Enjoy!

SugarRos

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Dedication: Earthshake as a whole is dedicated to Kaeru Shisho for being a wonderful beta for this story.

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and the gang do not belong to me. But maybe one day, when I take over the world and all, I'll enslave Takahashi-sensei and demand she hand over their souls so that I might force them to do my bidding….

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Earthshake: Affirmation

.o0o0o0o0o.

A timid knock was heard from the door, and Kagome drew her attention away from the cartoon she was watching on the hospital room TV and sighed, wondering if she'd have to be poked with anymore needles today. She'd already gone in for two tests this morning, and didn't feel like being prodded or examine any more. She grit her teeth, and tried to calm herself. "Come in!" She sang, trying to plaster a pleasant look on her face.

One of her regular nurses poked her head in the door and smiled at Kagome, before coming in all the way and shutting the door behind her. "Higurashi, there's something the other nurses and I think you should see!" She plucked the remote from Kagome's hand, much to her displeasure, and flipped over to the local news station.

"If it's about the quake, I really don't want to hear it."

The nurse smiled sheepishly. "Well, it's about it a bit, but mostly…" Her smile turned into a grin, and Kagome could swear that a flush crept up her cheeks. "Higurashi, you didn't tell us that you had such a brave, handsome boyfriend!"

Kagome jerked back slightly. "I'm sorry? Boyfriend?"

"Shhh! It's starting!"

She shook her head, but turned back to the television, wondering what the heck was going on.

"Welcome back from the commercial break. This is channel six news at seven; I'm Ito Yumi reporting live from our studio. It's been two weeks since one of Japans' largest-scaling earthquakes hit central Tokyo, causing several buildings to collapse in on themselves, including Sakiyuki high school, which trapped more than two-hundred students under tons and tons of rubble. Yamato Kenji is live on the scene, were thousands of volunteers are working to clear out and rebuild the school. Yamato-san?"

"Thank you, Ito-san. As you've mentioned, it's been only two short weeks since the earthquake hit, and we're just now starting to rebuild and recollect our lives. Hundreds have lost their lives throughout the city, and there are many amazing survival stories, but none as amazing as the one that happened right here, where I'm standing.

"Sakiyuki high school had collapsed on top of hundreds of students while they were in the process of taking the last exams of the school year. For three days and two nights workers dug at the rubble, pulling students from the wreckage, some much more lucky than others. Workers had dug about halfway down into the pile when they hit a block they couldn't get through, leaving students literally counting down the hours until death. However, someone entered unexpectedly out of nowhere, dressed in a bright red haori, donning some sort of K-9 ears atop his head.

Ito-san, the strength of this individual was absolutely amazing. I believe he had a friend trapped down in the wreckage, a… Higurashi Kagome, if I'm not mistaken. Once he learned that she was in danger, he pushed back security and climbed up onto the wreckage himself, picking up giant pieces of concrete and literally throwing them over his shoulder. After a few minuets other bystanders rushed in to help him. Once Higurashi was pulled from the rubble and taken away, this man continued on to uncover every single individual trapped under the school, then disappeared without a trace, some swearing that he actually flew off into the night sky. No one has seen him since. We're all wondering who this amazing person is, where he's from, where he's hiding, and why he was dressed as if he'd come from the feudal era. Back to you, Ito-san."

"Thank you, Yamato-san. We are looking for any sort of information you may have on this individual. He stood at about six feet tall, was wearing a dark red haori, had long, white hair that reached his mid-back, amber-colored eyes and white fuzzy dog ears atop his head. We're giving a money reward out to those who have information on this man. Now to Kito Hitomi for the weekend weather."

Kagome sat with her mouth hanging open as the television replayed a clip of a red-and-white blob over and over again as it leapt from the barricades and onto the wreckage and started digging away.

"Look at him go!" The nurse shouted gleefully, clapping her hands together in excitement.

"That's… um…" She tried fervently to come up with an excuse. "Why, I don't know who that is!" She stated in an extremely fake way. "I- I have never met him in my life."

The nurse smiled slyly again as she clicked the TV to mute and proceeded to tidy the room. "Oh, no need to be embarrassed, hon. Your brother told us all about him, how he's always been so protective and stuff…"

Ugh, she was going to kill Souta. "Yeah, well-"

"Buuut…" She sighed, and shook her head. "I know that it's cool to have a boyfriend that can lift all that weight and save you, but you might want to talk to him about the steroids."

Kagome coughed a little. "Steroids?"

"Don't worry, your grandfather told us that's why he's so strong. He might be cool, but steroids aren't healthy at all." With that, she gave out last smile and left the room, humming as she did.

Oh, the old man was dead.

.o0o0o0o0o.

Kagome huffed and placed down the unrealistically sappy romance manga she was in the middle of reading. It was making her angry, the way the heroine always just stood there and shouted out the name of her love interest over and over without doing a thing to defend herself in the least.

She snorted and shoved her back up against the raised part of the hospital bed, crossing her arms and fuming. The manga series usually cheered her up a bit, because even if she couldn't get the guy she was in love with to admit it, at least the girl in the manga could. And it was nice to read that some romances worked out in the end. …Even cheesy, ridiculously annoying romances.

The thought made her anger deflate in mere seconds. Because although Inuyasha would probably never tell her to her face that he loved her, his actions proved enough that he at least cared deeply about her.

…Just as a friend, as far as she could tell, but cared deeply nonetheless.

A soft sigh tore from her lips as she remembered how Inuyasha had looked that night as he'd reached down to pull her out of the wreckage. How the light from the tractor had shone around him, making him seem eerily holy. She had thought she'd been hallucinating.

But alas, he'd gone and saved her again. How the hell had he known she was in trouble? How had he found her underneath all that cement and broken pipes?

…How had she held on long enough for him to find her? …And why hadn't Hojou…?

Tears sprang up into her eyes, and she couldn't help the flood of emotion that washed through her body. Hojou had been annoying at times, sure, but he was the sweetest boy Kagome had ever known. She'd been so lucky to have him as a friend. He was just so… caring. None of her other friends ever brought her gifts for healing. It had only been him. And she had all but pushed him to the side, took him for granted. If she hadn't fallen for Inuyasha, then… She closed her eyes and placed a finger softly to her lips, remembering the feel of his kiss, the last word he uttered, the last breath he took.

It had been different than she'd thought a kiss would be. Of course, the circumstances had been desperate, for she'd had to make a split-second decision then and there. Hojou was dying. And when she leaned in the few inches to kiss him, a strange sort of calm had come over her. His lips had been soft, but cold, and instead of tasting anything sweet, she'd tasted the metallic blood in his mouth.

It was driving her crazy. While she thought it had been the right thing to do at the time, she couldn't get the thought out of her head that she was slightly disappointed Inuyasha hadn't been the one to feel her lips first. Her first kiss hadn't been stolen, but she certainly felt as if she'd been cheated of it.

…Which made her feel guilty all the more. Who was she to deny her dying friend his last wish? If it had laid his soul to rest, she'd done the right thing. …Hadn't she?

She let out a painstaking groan. Inuyasha was going to be so mad.

She wiped the tears that had escaped down her cheeks, steeling her reserve, and picked her manga back up, hoping the annoying little schoolgirl in the story could take her mind off things again.

A soft knock at the door jolted her from the story half an hour later, and she looked up at the door to see her attending nurse smiling mischievously at her. "Kagome? You have a visitor."

She didn't know if she liked the way the nurse had said 'visitor,' as if she was letting in a secret lover.

Her first, immediate thought was that it was Inuyasha, although that surely could not have been the case.

The nurse had stepped aside and let in a tall man with short black hair and the largest sunbonnet she'd ever seen placed atop his head. He wore comedically-huge, dark sunglasses, and a simple jean-and t-shirt combo, with warn-out old sneakers. There was an extremely familiar sneer on his face.

Before Kagome could ask the nurse who this strangely-dressed man was, she had left the room and shut the door, and was now alone in the room with the stranger. There was an awkward silence, before Kagome finally cleared her throat nervously and spoke up. "Um. Can I help you?"

The man folded his arms in a rather arrogant way. "Keh. What, even you can't recognize me, wench?" He sneered, then lifted his hands and brought the giant glasses away, revealing that deep, amber color she knew so well.

Kagome's eyes went wide with shock as she stared up at Inuyasha. "Wha… Inuyasha?! What the-"

"Keh. Looks like your mother was right after all. I didn't get hassled once on my way over here." He exclaimed, a bit too proud of the fact than he should have been.

"Wha… But… Your hair!!" Her mouth was agape as she looked at a completely unrecognizable Inuyasha. Before he could stop her, the covers of her hospital bed were thrown back and she had jumped up and yanked the hat away, yelping as the dark hair came off with it, letting the platinum locks that usually dawned his head fall gracefully down his shoulders.

"What the hell did you think, that I cut it or something?" His smirk grew larger.

"I- well, I-" Relief flowed through her as she now stared at the hanyou she knew so well, comfortable now that he looked normal, although his usual fire rat coat was nowhere to be seen. She blinked down at his attire. "How did my mom get you to wear shoes?"

"Keh." He turned his head defiantly. "She said that I'd better do it or the people with the flashing lights would come after me." He huffed. "She didn't like it when I told her I'd just kill them if they did."

Kagome couldn't help but laugh at this. "Yeah, she wouldn't take too kindly to that." She grinned up at him, emotions seeming to rush though her faster than she could feel them. Inuyasha had finally come to see her. She knew he'd tired to before, but the reporters outside had been a giant problem, and her family had decided it would be better to wait.

She stood there, in her hospital gown, staring up at Inuyasha's beautiful, caring, worried, arrogant eyes, wondering what he had felt when he'd found her. How he felt when he pulled her back to life. She studied his face, still the same tan color she'd always known it to be, still the strong jaw line and shaggy bangs that half-hid his eyes. Momentarily forgetting that she hadn't yet told him he held her very heart, she reached up to brush his bangs away, wanting more than anything to kiss him. Then she suddenly felt woozy. But not the I'm-in-love sort of woozy, the tunnel vision sort of woozy.

Oh yeah… She hadn't actually stood up for about two weeks now.

Her knees buckled under her, and she let out a grunt as she started to collapse.

Those familiar, warm, strong arms wrapped around her and lifted her up bridal-style. Inuyasha's gruff voice growled into her ear. "What the fuck do you think you're doing, wench? You're supposed to be resting!"

"Mmm." She replied, letting her head fall into his chest as he walked her the few feet back to her bed and laid her down again. "I'm alright, really. They just haven't allowed me to move around much."

He snorted. "I can see why."

She huffed weakly. "It's so annoying! I need to move around, do something! I'm not used to staying still!"

"Yeah, well, no moving for you until you stop fainting all over the place." He was demanding, as usual. "I can barely protect you as it is. If you're weak all the time, we might as well just forget it."

Kagome smiled. "You'll protect me no matter what."

He didn't really reply, just grunted in agreement. "Whatever. What have you been doing this past two weeks, then?"

She shrugged. "Reading, that's about it. But I'm getting sick of doing that, also. I need a new distraction."

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and leaned over, reaching for the discarded book and snatching it up off the bed. "What the hell is this crap?" He asked, looking at the sparkly pink cover with slight disgust. "These two girls look like they're about to… to mate!"

"Eh? Two girls?" She bent the top of the book back to take a look. "That's a boy." She pointed down at the pretty male on the cover.

"What the fuck?!" He exclaimed. "Why does he look like a wench?"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "It's a romance manga, Inuyasha. A shojou. All the characters look feminine.

He tiled his head the way a dog would, and turned the book over on it's side. "Kinda reminds me of that idiot Sesshoumaru."

"Mmm, your brother is very feminine-looking." She snickered. "I totally thought he was a girl when I first saw him. I think my first thought was: 'She's so beautiful!' And then I realized she was a he."

Inuyasha smiled a small smile. "Better not let him hear you say that."

She nodded in agreement and held out her hand. "Can I have my book back? I was getting to the good part."

He grunted, but thrust the book at her. "I don't know why you read this crap, anyway. No male acts like the ones in these things."

Kagome raised her eyebrow, surprised at his remark. "Inuyasha, have you been reading my manga?"

"Keh." He turned his head to the side, lifting his nose in the air and crossing his arms.

She gasped and placed a hand to her mouth, trying to cover her humored smile. "Oh my God, Inuyasha, you read my manga!"

"Keh, I can't read that crap! I don't understand most of it." He paused, averting his eyes, a light blush gracing his cheeks. "I just look at the pictures."

"That's so cute!"

"It is not!"

She laughed. "It is!"

"Shaddup Kagome, shouldn't you be sleeping or something?" He growled.

"No way." She sighed, her annoyance slipping back. "I'm sick of sleeping and resting. I want to go running." She leaned back against her pillow and took the book from Inuyasha's hands, flipping it open to where she'd left off, although she didn't really feel like reading it much anymore. "You know what? I'm sick of reading about the perfect relationship." She muttered, sighing again for good measure, she shook her head. "This stuff just isn't realistic. The girl in this story has all these dramatic, tragic things happen to her, and every time she comes out okay." Her eyes had now become sad and teary as she looked up at Inuyasha. "…You know what I mean?"

.o0o0o0o0o.

"…You know what I mean?"

Inuyasha bit his lip and leaned back in his chair, watching as Kagome's demeanor fell from playful and happy to depressed. He didn't really like the way she'd said 'okay,' like it was the most painful word she'd ever spoken.

He could understand her pain. She had, in fact, lost a lot of her friends underneath the rock-like structure that had fallen in on them. It had taken him a while to sniff her out because of the insane amounts of blood from other people covering the area. Once he'd pulled Kagome out of the wreckage, he would have stopped digging through the pile of rock then-and-there if she hadn't uttered that human's name just before she'd been swept away. "Hojou…" She'd moaned. And Inuyasha had instantly known what had happened to the poor bastard. Her tone was all it took.

Inuyasha had let her be taken away from him. Her mother was with her, so she'd be okay with the other humans and their ridiculously confusing contraptions and medicinal potions. Besides, he knew from her smell that she wasn't going to die. She was halfway there, maybe, but she wouldn't leave the world tonight. So instead he concentrated on digging at that pile like it was his lifeline and, in a way, it was. It would probably make Kagome feel better if she knew that that stupid male friend of hers was dug up also. Maybe she'd be able to cope with what happened a bit better if she knew her classmates were laid to rest properly.

He was glad she hadn't been there when he had finally uncovered Hojou's body.

Kagome had seen crushed, twisted bodies plenty of times before. Traveling in Inuyasha's time, fighting demons as they did, they were bound to come across gory, horrific scenes every once in a while. But he knew she wouldn't be able to handle seeing her friends' body that way. The very sight could have caused her to go away to a place where he wouldn't be able to reach her.

…It happened sometimes, humans seeing things that made their mind snap. Most never came back from such a depression.

No, Inuyasha didn't want that to happen to Kagome. Not Kagome. Kagome was the sane one in his life. The person he had to keep close in order to keep himself grounded. He would snap into something he did not want to be if she wasn't with him, wasn't the constant whisper in his ear that kept his insanity at bay.

Of course, he couldn't think of a good reply to her words, to the obvious inflection in her voice that said she wanted a mate the way the girl in her books did. Wanted some girly-looking pretty boy like Hojou to come sweep her off her feet and kiss her senseless and take her out on 'dates' and stuff. Inuyasha couldn't do that. He wasn't good with words. Not at all. And he'd certainly never kissed anyone senseless before.

It was a strange sort of roll-reversal from the usual way things happened. Kagome tended to be the one to comfort Inuyasha, not the other way around.

His heart really squeezed painfully when he suddenly smelled the salt leaking from her eyes. He drew his gaze up to see her hair covering her face like a soft curtain, watching as it shook with violent, silent sobs.

She was trying to hold it in, which made his heart hurt even worse, and he couldn't help the soft growl that rumbled deep in his chest as her pain finally bubbled up through her lips and she let out a soft wail, as quiet as one could be, bringing her hands up to cover her face as her sobs grew more vicious, as her body shook and shook and her shoulders curled up into herself.

"Oh Gods." She moaned, inhaling between sobs. "Oh Gods, Inuyasha, they all died. I told them to just hold on, to just stay with me, but they all died! None of them spoke back to me, they were just… And Hojou! Oh Gods… Hojou!" She cried out, wailed his name out with all her pain and suffering stuffed into that single name.

Inuyasha pressed his ears back against his skull and whimpered. His claws dug into the chairs' wooden armrest as he gripped on tightly to stop himself from leaping up and digging up Hojou's body so he could bring him back to life and kill him again for making Kagome feel the way she was feeling.

Of course it wasn't Hojou's fault. It wasn't anyone's fault but the land beneath their feet. And Inuyasha just couldn't figure out how he could make her feel better. He just wanted her to feel better.

"Kagome…" He spoke as softly as possible, slowly reaching his hand out to push her hair back.

"Hojou…"

Something in the way she said his name made him stop and pull his hand back, and he couldn't help the flood of insecure thoughts that rushed through his mind. Kagome had always said Hojou was nothing more than a friend. Inuyasha wasn't so inclined to believe her when she'd appear back in his time smelling of the human brat. Then he'd wanted to kill the bastard. But Kagome had always insisted. And although he smelled the boy on her once in a while, it wasn't all the time. Inuyasha never smelled a claim, and he never sensed that Kagome was lying.

The doubts filled him now, though. She was using that voice that she used when she was crying over his body, and he wasn't liking the fact that she was using the same tone for Hojou.

It was selfish of him to think so, but it plagued his mind like a spreading virus, and all he wanted to do was kill the punk all over again for taking this much of Kagome's attention.

Inuyasha was so lost in his own thoughts that he barely registered Kagome's next words.

"-kissed him!"

Wait.

WHAT?

He shot up in his seat and leaned over her bed, his ears twitching in her direction, his teeth grinding together anxiously. "Kagome, what did you say?" He couldn't help the way his tone turned harsh. Demanding.

She sobbed into her hands and shook her head, hiccupping. "I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do! He was dying, Inuyasha. He was dying, and he told me his one regret was me! Was not kissing me! He was bleeding and dying, and I didn't know what to do!"

Another growl pushed up through his chest. This, however, was not one of worry, but one of pure, heated, fury. "So you kissed him?" He seethed, teeth clamped together, fists flexing, itching to pound something. Something needed to die. "You fucking kissed him, Kagome?!!"

She flinched visibly, still shaking her head. "He was dying, Inuyasha, what could I do?!!"

"You could not fucking kiss him, that's what you could do!" He shouted as he paced the floor in front of her bed. He wished he was back in his time, with his sword at his hip so he could just fucking cut something, anything down to size. He wanted to cause destruction. He wanted to kill. He wanted to-

"Inuyasha, please."

What made him stop wasn't her sobs. It wasn't her wails or her tears. It wasn't even her smell.

It was a tone in her voice, an inflection that he'd never heard before, which was strange. He'd known Kagome for years. He thought he'd heard all her inflections.

This one, though…

This one made his breath catch in his throat. It made him freeze in his tracks and turn to look down at her face, which was wet with tears.

Her skin was red and blotchy, her eyes puffy and her lips swollen, her nose wet.

And she was still the most beautiful being he'd ever seen in his entire life.

"Please." Her voice was a whisper, a tremble, a sigh. And her eyes rose slowly to meet his own. "Please don't leave me. Please don't be mad. You have to understand that Hojou was in love with me, Inuyasha. He was in love with me and he was going to die, and his one, last wish in his short amount of time to live was to kiss me." A soft sob escaped her red lips, and she placed a hand to her mouth to give herself time to calm down enough to keep talking. "There was blood dripping from his mouth, his lower body was crushed under concrete and he was going to die. And he wanted to kiss me. So I leaned over and I let him. I let him kiss me."

Her eyes glistened with fresh tears as her gaze never wavered from his eyes. "Was that wrong of me?" Another soft sob. "Was it really wrong? Because I've been laying here these past few weeks agonizing over the fact that I let a man I don't love kiss me. I gave my friend my first kiss because I wanted him to be happy when he left me. I wanted him to remember me when he left. Was I wrong? Did I do the wrong thing?"

Inuyasha didn't speak for a long time. He stood at the foot of Kagome's bed staring down at the girl he was desperately in love with as she confessed to kissing a guy she in turn didn't love, asking if it was okay with him that she'd done it.

Of course it wasn't okay with him. Of course he hated the fact that her lips had touched another mans'. Of course he wanted to beat the shit out of somebody. That had been her first kiss, and it should've been his. Goddammit.

For some reason, at that very moment, Kikyou popped into his head. And it wasn't just any image of her. It was a flash of the time she had pressed herself up against him and pulled his head down for a kiss. A kiss that had been between two people with such a history that nothing could possibly be said. The only thing that had been able to pass between the two of them at that moment was a kiss.

Kikyou. His friend. The woman he hadn't been in love with, or, at least, had fallen out of love with. Hadn't that kiss, too, been one to sooth Kikyou's soul? That was the reason he'd let her kiss him, with her cold, earthy lips.

Inuyasha's anger deflated. Kagome had done what was in her heart, as always. And it was absolutely killing her. Would it hurt less if he told her it was okay? Had she, in actuality, done the right thing?

The answer was obvious, and he suddenly felt not only like the worlds biggest asshole, but like he could actually let his anger go. His gaze broke from Kagome's, and he turned to look out the window, into the sky, which was a deep, clear blue, and spoke silently to Hojou.

'You may have gotten her first kiss, but I've got every kiss from here on out. Got it, you little bastard?' The corner of his mouth curved slightly in the smallest of smirks as he heard the gentlest of whispers:

'….Got it.'

And then he knew that Hojou was truly gone.

Another hiccup from Kagome brought him back to his surroundings, and he turned back to look at her still-shaking form. She wasn't sitting anymore, though. She had laid down on her side and curled her body into a ball, silently crying into her arms, which covered her face, her hair spread out like some sort of dark halo around her head.

He felt the sudden urge to comfort her, but couldn't figure the best way to do so. The only comfort he'd ever given her was saving her life every now and again. He'd never held her while she cried before.

That's what he should do, right? Hold her? It's what she did every time he needed comfort. Every time he was on deaths door, he somehow ended up in her lap as she cried over him, comforted him, hugged him. That contact had been his lifeline. The physical touch had kept him alive when he should have just off and died.

Before giving it any more thought, Inuyasha placed his hands on the end of the hospital bed and crawled slowly up the stiff mattress, shoes and all, closing in the short distance between him and the frail-looking woman quivering in her hospital gown. If she felt his added weight on the bed, she didn't make any recognition of it. Slowly, his heart reaching out to her, he laid down beside her, folding his body to match hers as he placed an arm around her stomach and pulled her back into his chest, enveloping himself with her presence, nudging the back of her neck with his nose and inhaling her scent.

Her sobs became violent again as she melted into him, grabbing the hand that he'd thrown over her and bringing it to her cheek, holding it between her two hands as she sobbed relentlessly into his fingers. He didn't know what else to do but hold her as close as humanly possible while emitting a low, comforting growl, feeling it rumble deep in his chest.

They laid like that for a little over an hour before Kagome finally calmed down enough to breath normally. He felt her squeeze his hand before she moved to turn over, scooting down and hiding her face near his clavicle, hiccupping every now and then into his chest. Once she was situated, he let out another low, rumbling growl and snorted softly. "Feeling better?"

She nodded and cleared her throat. "I'm sorry I broke down like that. I don't normally-"

"Keh." He interrupted before she could finish her thought. "These aren't normal circumstances, are they?"

A long sigh broke through her lips, and he felt her breath graze across his skin. "No. Not at all."

They both went back to breathing quietly, feeling slightly drowsy after such an exhausting emotional battle, both lost in their own thoughts. Inuyasha felt the urge to put her mind to rest, and was contemplating ways to bring it up before he decided he'd just better say it in case he lost his nerve or fucked it up.

"Kagome."

"Mm?"

"You, uh…" He cleared his throat. "You did the right thing." He felt her tense up underneath him, and rushed to finish his thought before she started sobbing again. "With your friend, I mean. Hojou. You did the right thing. His soul will be at peace because you gave him the one thing he had wanted the most in his life."

Kagome had pushed herself away from him a little so she could look up into his eyes. "Inuyasha…."

"Keh!" He muttered, a light flush gracing his cheeks. "You asked me if it was the right thing to do, right?"

She nodded.

"Well, I'm telling you it is. You did the right fucking thing. I'm sure he's very happy, wherever he is."

New tears filled her eyes, and for a second, he thought he'd said something wrong, but then she broke out into one of her brilliant smiles, and his heart sped. Yeah, the tears were falling again, but she was smiling, and that was a good sign. "You said his name right, Inuyasha."

He growled. "What do you mean, wench?"

"I mean you said Hojou's name right. You didn't call him 'Hobo' or 'human brat.'" She let out a tiny giggle. "You said his name right."

"Well, I can show some respect for the dead, can't I?" He muttered gruffly. "Besides, he kept you talking for a bit down there, didn't he?"

She diverted her eyes and nodded, tears still leaking from them. "He stayed awake and talking for two whole days." She drew in a shaky breath, and Inuyasha could smell another onslaught of tears coming. "It must have been so painful for him." Her voice cracked, wavered, and she inhaled again as she re-hid her face in his neck. "He must have known he was about to die… It was just so… out of the blue when he brought up the kiss."

He frowned, still not sure if she was okay with what happened. He opened his mouth to reply when Kagome uttered something so quiet even he couldn't pick it up. "What was that?" He asked, pulling his head back this time to get a good look at her.

She didn't meet his gaze. "I… I wanted you…" It was then that her eyes fixed on his, all wet and dewy from her tears. "I wanted you to have my first kiss." She all but whispered. "I wanted it to be you."

Inuyasha's heart stopped. His breath hitched. His eyes widened at her innocent-like confession, and it took a few seconds for what she said to really hit him. He couldn't speak.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to save that for you." Her full lips trembled, and more tears fell. "I really wanted to find out what kissing was like with you." With that finally said, she squeezed her eyes shut, and fisted her hands into his shirt, trying to bury her head back into his chest.

"Kagome." He stated gruffly once his throat started working again.

She sniffed loudly.

He placed a finger under her chin and lifted her face, bringing her nose close to his. "Kagome." It was a whisper this time, a sort of comfort, and he rolled over so he was on top of her, his left arm placed securely under her shoulders, his finger still under her chin. The gasp she let out sent a sort of soft chill up his spine, and all he wanted to do was make her feel okay.

She wanted him to kiss her? He could do that. He could kiss her if it meant she'd be okay again. If it meant she'd stay with him and still comfort him when he needed her to. If it meant she'd come back with him when she was physically able and let him run with her on his back again.

He could kiss her.

"Inuyasha…?" She whispered, her eyes drowsy, her lips parted, her chest heaving underneath him with heavy breaths.

He found the parted back in the hospital gown she was wearing, and traced her upper spine lightly with his fingertips, listening to her gasp and sigh as he brushed over sensitive skin. She was soft all over. It was driving him insane. "Kagome…." He whispered back to her, nudging her nose with his own, feeling her breath on his lips, pressing his hips into hers, tracing her skin. "No one else." He urged to her, his voice low and rough. "No kissing anyone else after me."

She let out a moan and nodded, and, with her nod as confirmation, he pressed his lips onto hers, hard.

She sucked in air through her nose and pressed back just as intense.

Their kiss became needy. Rushed. Inuyasha couldn't control the flood of pure feeling that pooled inside him, that sent pleasure shooting straight through him as he felt Kagome's lips nibble at him hungrily. He swept his tongue out to taste more of her.

More. He need more.

His hands felt hot as they moved over her back, rougher than before, braver than ever as he found her hips, her sides, trying to touch as much skin as possible under the paper-ish material that covered her.

She was grabbing at his shirt, her nails scraping lightly over his skin, making him feel like never before. The pooling got more intense, more urgent as she pulled his shirt up to his arms.

Annoyed at the fabric, Inuyasha sat up, noting Kagome's moan of protest, and tore the flimsy material over his head, thrusting it to the side before ducking down and capturing her lips again.

He found it came naturally, kissing. He was surprised at how intense the feelings were, how they dictated his movements, controlled how he nipped at her bottom lip, at her tongue, and it still wasn't enough. He needed to taste more of her.

More. He needed more.

His kisses moved from Kagome's mouth to her chin, and he felt a thrill at the way she breathed out his name and bore her neck to him, slender and vulnerable. Oh Gods. He was losing it. He was losing all rational thought as his lips moved slowly down her throat, kissing and nibbling and lapping at her skin. He pressed his lips to her clavicle and relished in the way she gasped and thrust up into him.

That was the spot. He nipped at her skin, teasing, caressing the curve of her side, the swell of her hip, listening to her heartbeat, watching her chest swell, her lips part, her throat purr.

"Kagome."

She moaned in response.

"Kagome."

She breathed and gasped and pressed into him.

"Kagome."

"Oh Gods…" She murmured, her voice trembling. "Inuyasha." It was a breath, a gasp, a whisper.

He was going absolutely insane, and he needed her to know that this was it. She was his. He wasn't letting her go ever again. He placed his lips to her ear and growled. "You're mine."

A single nod.

"Mine."

"Inuyasha." She breathed. "I love you."

His heart burst.

And Kagome's cheeks were suddenly wet with silent tears again. Ones that showed her raw, pure emotion at their actions and words.

He brought his head back to look down at her, her entire mouth red and puffy from his rough kisses, her eyes wet again from her salted tears. In this moment, Inuyasha felt that he was the closest he had ever been with anyone. He felt the safest he'd been since his mother had been alive. In this very moment, Inuyasha knew that he had found the one person that would be his entire world. "I want you to be with me, Kagome. No more kissing anyone but me."

"I love you." She whispered.

"No more kissing other guys, even dying ones."

She nodded.

"Only me."

She smiled. "It's always only you."

He leaned down again, his eyes never wavering from hers, and pressed a light, soft kiss against her lips.

This time it was slower, softer, more gentle. One of comfort.

"I love you, too."

.o0o0o0o0o.

Two weeks later, Kagome wheeled herself out of the hospital, her family not far behind as she pushed out into the sunlight and into the massive horde of reporters surrounding the entrance.

She smiled wearily, hesitantly, a bit shocked, into the cameras as multiple microphones were shoved into her face, and people started shouting questions at her from left and right. Her mother had come up behind her and was now trying to shoo away the reporters.

"Give her some room already, come on now!" She cried as she waved her hands around wildly.

One reporter stayed put. "Kagome Higurashi, I'm Yamato Kenji, with Channel Six News at Seven, and I'd like to ask you a question!"

Kagome nodded. "Go ahead."

"What's the first thing you're going to do, now that you're out of the hospital?" The mic was shoved into her face once again.

Kagome looked up into the clear blue sky, squinting slightly at the bright sunlight she hadn't seen in weeks. Then she reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses, slipping them on before she looked back up at the reporter, the biggest grin she could muster planted across her face.

"I'm going to visit my boyfriend in the Feudal Era."

She smiled at Yamato-san's confused expression as she was wheeled around the press and towards her mothers' car.

.o0o0o0o0o.

THE END.

.o0o0o0o0o.

Thanks again for reading! (and hopefully reviewing as well?) I can honestly say it's done, and I'm happy with it, and I can't wait to read what you guys have to say.

Back to work on Pretty Kagome: Revised! See you all there!

SugarRos