Inuyasha focused on the ground as he walked, trying hard to shut out everything.

The scent of blood, the desperate pleading cries that echoed through the trees around him... The guilt.

But when she managed to choke out his name he couldn't help but look back. Her face, splattered with blood and streaked with tears, was only made all the more heart-wrenching by her pleading expression as their eyes caught.

"I-Inu... ple-please..." she begged breathlessly.

He stared back helpless. The words, 'I can't save you,' rose up in his throat. But he couldn't say them. Maybe he could have saved her... 'If I hadn't gone to sleep... If I'd just stayed awake. Spell or no spell, I SWORE to protect you, and I...'

The black haired demon raised its Knife drawing her attention again. "O-Oh, please..!" she sobbed out again, the last traces of hope in her eyes flickering out with every second he hesitated.

Inuyasha leaped forward, the world a blur of dark colors as he released an anguished roar and swiped viciously at the creature with his claws.

He was left grasping at air the same as always. But this time, instead of harmlessly passing through, the demon vanished like a thin cloud in a breeze.

He whipped around just in time to see the rope at Kagome's wrists and neck vanish and in an instant, he'd reached forward to pull her into his arms before she could hit the ground. Only when he felt her full weight against his chest did he dare to release a breath of relief.

Finally, she was safe.

But his relief was short-lived as she clutched at his haori and sobbed into him. He dropped to his knees to pull her closer, cradling her head to his shoulder, reeling as he tried to compose himself.

"Kagome..."

"H-How could you?" she cried miserably.

His eyes shot open wide and his arms stiffened. "I..?" he whispered with a small tired voice.

She slowly pushed herself away and looked up at him with a heartbroken expression in her bright blue demonic eyes. Something cold filled him.

"How could you do this to me?" she asked, staring up at him with a look of confused betrayal.

Inuyasha's heart constricted. "You... You said you wanted a little longer with me..."

Tears filled her eyes again.

"I didn't ask for hundreds of years!" she sobbed. "I didn't ask to LOOK like something I'm not! I didn't ask you to change me!"

"I KNOW you didn't!" he argued desperately. His hands ran over her shoulders, trying to console her. He didn't know what else to do. His voice softened once more in an attempt to sound calm. "I only... I'm just doing the best I can..." he pled.

"...Liar," she whispered. Tears were rolling down her bloodstained cheeks in earnest now. For all her softness, she might as well have screamed it at him. "You're happy about what you did to me. You're GLAD I can't run away to my world. That I won't grow old and die like the others now!"

He stared down at her with wide eyes, his whole body tensing. Unable to argue, unable to deny the truth of her words. "You let that monster HURT me," she cried, and again he had no defense. "You promised to protect me and you didn't!" Inuyasha dared not speak. Because of course, she was right. He didn't deserve her. This was all his fault. The months of misery he'd put her through, her torture, making her hanyou…

Kagome's voice broke as she sobbed out, "I HATE you Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha bolted away from the wall he'd been sleeping against with a gasp, looking around the dark space with wild eyes, fully expecting to see trees and the red eyed demon. Kagome bound and bleeding... or almost worse, her looking up at him with that expression of betrayal in her eyes.

He shuddered even as the walls of the hut started to come into focus around him. 'A nightmare,' he realized slowly. Although he knew that wasn't really true. Kagome growing to hate him was still a very real possibility.

"Inuyasha?" whispered a quiet sleepy voice just to his left.

He took a few deep breaths, still testing his surroundings. But he did not dare look at her yet. Even so, a warm solid hand crept from under the covers to wrap around his fingers.

"Are you okay?" she asked, voice thick with concern.

"M'fine," Inuyasha lied in a soft mumble. But even as he said it, he wanted to throw up. His stomach felt hard. Like all his muscles were too tense. 'How could I let that happen to you?' he wondered, daring to glance at her through his hair. A pair of bright blue eyes stared up at him with worry.

Her thumb rubbed the back of his, offering some small comfort. "Did you have a nightmare?" she prodded gently.

"Yeah," he admitted, if reluctantly. "Just... a bad dream."

Kagome's frown deepened a little and she carefully pushed herself upright, looking around. "Is it... morning?" she asked, looking a bit confused.

"It's the middle of the night," he muttered softly. "You should go back to-"

"But everything's so bright," she interrupted quietly. "And there are no candles."

Inuyasha blinked and looked up in surprise at her statement. She turned and looked back with her new reflective blue gaze. Had not just her appearance changed, but her eyesight too?

Wanting to test her, he pulled his free arm away from her at a distance he felt would have given a normal human trouble to see in this level of darkness and held up three fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked.

"Three," she answered automatically. "I can see your hand perfectly."

"Okay..." He glanced around the barren hut for something a little harder to test her with. "How many of Miroku's ofuda do you see on the walls?"

She looked around the room. "Seven" she replied after a moment. "...And one on the ceiling."

Her answer left him a little stunned. It was hard enough to process just her physical changes as it was. Kagome getting his eyesight wasn't even something he'd really considered.

The girl smiled at his expression of stunned surprise. "Does that mean I'm seeing in the dark right now?"

"It looks... like it."

Her smile broadened. "You know, I've always wondered what your eyesight's like," she told him smilingly. She looked around the hut again, her expression curious and cheerful. "This is pretty amazing."

"Er... not really," he grunted, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed. Maybe because of the way she'd said it.

"Yes it is!" Kagome insisted. She turned back to look at him with inquisitive eyes. "Is this how it's always been for you?"

He searched her face for the smallest sign of fear or distress. When he found none he reluctantly nodded. "Except new moons at least."

For some inexplicable reason, her eyes lit up at his words and she started to push herself to her knees.

"H-Hey! what are you-"

"The moon!" she interrupted, looking excitedly toward the covered window. "I want to see it!"

"Wha- right NOW?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course right now!" The girl released his hand and started to her feet. "It's night time isn't it?"

He watched her with an uncertain demeanor, his hands raised slightly as if contemplating reaching out and stopping her.

And sure enough, she'd barely gotten onto her second foot and started to rise before the first buckled beneath her and she stumbled forward with a soft gasp.

Instantly he was on his knees reaching out. He caught her mid-tumble and pulled her to the safety of his chest with his arms wrapped around her. She clung to him, her sharp startled breaths pervading the air.

"Stupid!" he scolded. "In case you forgot, you're goddamn injured!"

"I-I'm fine, it doesn't hurt," she argued softly.

"That doesn't mean anything, you idiot!" Inuyasha's arms wrapped around her more securely. "No human on earth can just walk off a stab to the chest. Even with my healing ability helping you've still gotta be careful!"

"I'm sorry'" she replied after a moment. "I didn't mean to worry you Inuyasha." She stayed still a moment longer, then pushed gently against his chest until, reluctantly, he allowed her to pull away. She looked up and smiled meekly. "I'm fine really. I just got a bit lightheaded."

Once more she started to her knees, but this time his grip on her shoulders stopped her. "You're sure?" he asked hesitantly. "That's really all it is?"

She blinked at the concern she heard in his voice but inclined her head calmly. "I'm really okay. I mean it. I just got up too suddenly after being in bed all day."

He stared at her searchingly. The slightest sign of discomfort or pain and he was prepared to bully her back to bed. But she didn't seem to be lying.

After a moment of indulging him, she tugged at his sleeve, her deep blue eyes penetrating his hopefully. "Come on Inuyasha, I really want to see the moon with you. I bet it's so much more beautiful now."

Still, he hesitated. On one hand, he didn't like the idea of letting Kagome overexert herself or letting her be seen before she'd recovered. But on the other hand, she seemed so enthusiastic about her new eyesight. Something he'd have thought any normal human might have rejected or been frightened of...

Maybe it shouldn't have surprised him that Kagome would just see it as something exciting. It also didn't escape his notice that she'd tagged on the words "with you" to her request. How the hell was he supposed to say "no" to her when she asked him like that? Inuyasha looked from Kagome's pleading expression over to the door.

He was still extremely glad Miroku and Kaede had seen fit to leave the door's seal off so that he and Kagome wouldn't have to shout down the hill every time they needed to go out to use the bushes. But in the current predicament, he sort of wished he had SOME kind of excuse to fall back on.

The half-demon gave an unwilling sigh and turned back to face her. "Fine. but I'm carrying you, so no overdoing it. And when I say it's time to go back, then it's time to go back. Got it?"

She seemed to consider his terms and then without too much hesitation nodded. Inuyasha snorted and gently wrapped one arm around her back and the other under her legs and lifted her up easily.

In minutes, Inuyasha had them both perched on the wooden roof of the hut with her situated at his side. He glared out at the village, practically daring some unfortunate soul to wander outside and happen to see them. Regardless of whether they would have really deserved a scare, he was more than ready to deliver one to the first moron who so much as cast his miko a look of confusion.

Kagome herself sat looking up at the growing crescent moon just as still and quiet as promised. In fact, the longer they sat there the more her silence started to worry him. Usually, when they stargazed together, they spent the time talking. Having her sit quietly not saying a word was a bit disconcerting.

He hesitantly nudged her a little. "Kagome?"

She didn't look away from the sky.

"I suddenly feel like maybe... I've never really seen the moon before," she whispered in quiet awe.

Inuyasha's ears twitched up in surprise then he blinked and looked up as well. It wasn't as if he'd ever had a chance to see the moon on his human nights. So for him, this was pretty much how it always looked. It's bright white surface haloed in a blue and golden light, with all it's shadows perfectly defined, even its dark side. And scattered all around, the stars showed their subtle colors of red, orange, gold, white, and blue.

On new moons, the sky was just black or blue with white dots. But to him, THAT was odd.

He glanced back to her awestruck face, wondering what it must feel like to see it this way for the very first time.

"The whole SKY looks so different," she murmured."I never imagined there could be so many colors."

Then she surprised him by turning to beam a smile at him that could have melted snow. "Thank you for bringing me up here Inuyasha, it's more beautiful than I could have imagined."

Inuyasha felt something tighten in his chest a little more. There was something about seeing her smile like that that made him wonder how many more of her smiles he was going to see before the humans crushed all the happiness from her.

Half of him wanted to just let her be happy about this if only to ease his own guilt. But the other half latched onto his nightmare, onto the look on her face when she'd realized what her life was going to be now. The pain... The despair...

He looked away from her. "You shouldn't be thanking me," he whispered abruptly.

Kagome's soft expression vanished, quickly morphing into a look of surprise. "What?"

The tightness in his chest clenched. His ears flattened against his head in abject misery. "You should be fucking cursing me," he murmured in a tight voice.

The girl straightened up with a look of outrage. "Why would I ever want to curse you?!" she demanded, instantly provoked on his behalf. "In case you forgot, I'm alive because of you!"

"You were fucking tortured because of me!" he snarled.

Every lingering trace of the peaceful atmosphere from before was shattered in an instant. "You were screaming for me," he continued, voice choked with emotion. "Begging me to come save you and I fucking failed!"

The look of outrage disappeared as Kagome's eyes widened. "...You saw?" she breathed in horrified realization. " The memory? You... You had to watch?"

The worry in her voice made him feel more miserable than ever. But he couldn't help finally saying something. From the first moment he'd woken up yesterday, he had thought of almost nothing else.

"I should'a been there protecting you like I promised," he confessed hopelessly. "You shouldn't have had to go through all that, least of all for ME." He lowered his head. "Then after all you did to protect me I went and brought you back as a hanyou," he spat the last word bitterly. "People are gonna look down on you for it, they'll treat you like a fucking monster for it. Do you have any CLUE what your life's gonna be like now because of how god damn SELFISH I am?"

"Selfish?" she echoed softly, reaching out to brush aside a strand of silky white hair that was blocking his face from view.

His guilt welled to a head at her expression of worry and her tone of innocent confusion. But it was her touch that somehow pushed the next words past his lips.

"I was relieved when I found out you'd become hanyou," he admitted shamefully. Her fingers paused and then withdrew completely. "To hell with being normal and growing old like the others. To hell with everything else." His voice grew almost imperceptible. "I just wanted you with me, forever."

"Sit."

Kagome said it softly, like she was holding back tears.

The sharp sudden pain as he was flung to the hard slanted surface of the roof and then rapidly pulled by gravity to the ground below did nothing to dull his rapidly forming thoughts.

Kagome was finally punishing him just like he'd expected her to, but it didn't make him feel any better. Not if she was going to cry over it.

Inuyasha felt he should have known better than to go opening his damn mouth. She'd been just fine with everything not a minute ago and in a moment of weakness he'd had to go and say every stupid thing he could think of.

But the fact of the matter was he knew he couldn't just pretend things were going to be okay. He couldn't sit there and act like turning her hanyou wasn't about the worst possible thing he could have done to her.

Did she regret falling for him in the first place now that she knew how selfish he really was? Did she hate him? If she did, would she still go through with the plan to mate him regardless? Kagome wasn't the type to let herself be threatened into doing something she didn't want to do, even to save her own life.

Or would she begrudgingly allow the binding and then send him away? Or perhaps she would simply never acknowledge him as her mate? Treating him the way she always had, as a companion and nothing more?

Would she ever even speak to him again? Would she ever treat his wounds or let him hold her again? Would she ever hold his hand again? How could anything ever be normal between them after this? Why'd he have to go and open his DAMN-

"Feel better?" interrupted a cheerful voice from somewhere above him.

Slowly the spell eased its grip a little and he lifted his head to stare up at her in wide-eyed confusion. Kagome was leaning over the edge of the roof with her messy black hair hanging down in her face and over her shoulders, smiling. He stared in disbelief.

"I can keep going if you want," she told him almost playfully.

He didn't get it at all. Shouldn't she look angry or disgusted with him? She'd SAT him, hadn't she? Why the hell was she grinning?

"...I don't..." he started uncertainly. "Why'd you..?"

"Because that's what you wanted right?" Kagome answered simply. "For me to punish you?"

He blinked at her in surprise. But she just continued to smile, something in her expression all too knowing, and far too forgiving.

Then there was a sudden shuffling noise from the closest hut followed by a voice that made her look up, breaking their eye contact and snapping him back to the situation at hand. He had to get them both back inside before people saw her. The last thing they needed right now was an angry mob before Kagome was ready. They could sort this out in a minute.

Fighting the last effects of the spell, Inuyasha shoved himself upright and leapt back to the roof, gathering Kagome up into his arms. She reached for him expectantly, as if nothing had changed. He frowned and dropped them both down in front of the door, stepping inside and firmly sliding it shut behind them.

There was a beat of tension where he stood with his back to the wood, rigid as a living shield between Kagome and the villagers. He listened hard as the soft sounds of two or three humans approached, and held his breath as they seemed to stop in front of the hut.

The light from their candles and lanterns glowed faintly from just behind the curtain.

They stood there a moment, apparently in contemplation, then sighed and grumbled before turning to walk away. From their reactions, he concluded that he'd left a good sized imprint in the ground from his fall. They probably correctly assumed he and Kagome'd just had a nighttime spat.

When the area settled into quiet once more, he slowly set Kagome down on her feet. She was unsteady for a moment but even after she'd caught her balance she remained exactly where he'd placed her holding onto his forearms and looked up expectantly. He quickly glanced away from her.

"How'd you know?" he asked quietly.

"Well you didn't make it that hard to figure out the way you were dragging yourself over the coals up there," she answered. When he made no reply, her voice gentled. "Besides... I know you."

One of her hands released his arm to reach upward. Her fingers brushed across his cheek and pushed aside a lock of long white hair. "Did you really think I would blame you for what happened? After everything you did to save me?"

"I failed you," he reminded her in a soft miserable voice.

Kagome shook her head. "No, If you'd failed me, I'd be lying dead in a forest somewhere right now," she pointed out bluntly. "You found me, didn't you? You helped me lower a barrier I had no control over. Then you rushed me here and gave me a piece of your soul, even when you found out the cost…"

Her voice grew soft. "Not to mention you apparently had to watch some of my worst memories, including me being tortured. ...You went through a lot to bring me back. Don't act like that's nothing."

"You did MORE for me," he replied in an equally soft voice. "No matter how bad it got, you didn't breathe a word to them about me."

"I don't really remember much about that night," she admitted openly, "But I know I didn't do anything you wouldn't have. And we both know you'd sooner jump off a cliff than betray me or anyone else to Naraku."

"I betrayed you by making you hanyou," Inuyasha muttered.

Kagome went quiet again. Her expression serious and searching. He stared pointedly at the floor.

"I'll admit," she said softly, "when you first told me I would become hanyou and that you were going to give up Kikyo for me... I was terrified."

His shoulders tensed up at those words and his eyes became hard, but he said nothing.

"I mean... Before all this happened, you always made me think you were going to be with Kikyo in the end. And sometimes you really went out of your way to show you weren't interested in me. And for a long time I believed it," Kagome explained.

Inuyasha bitterly thought of his own ugly words that had been carved into her flesh only too recently. 'Shard detector, weak, ugly…'

Kagome carried on, unaware of his silent self-loathing. "For all I know, you could have just told me you wanted to stay so I'd go along with the mating thing quietly."

He instantly bristled at the thought. His fists clenching and his face contorting in anger.

"Then you could always abandon me after my life was no longer in danger and run off with Kikyo."

"I would NEVER do that!" he snapped furiously.

"Or more likely," she continued, ignoring his outburst, "you could have lied about being over Kikyo but are still prepared to sacrifice your own happiness for mine... That I could see you doing."

A second time he opened his mouth to vehemently deny her words but this time he was stopped at her smile. Far from seeming upset or angry, she just beamed up at him with that familiar warm look that seemed to imply some hidden knowledge.

"But... either way I thought about it, I had a feeling I was wrong. Like... Something in me knew better. And... I decided to believe in that feeling. I trust you Inuyasha. So if you say you no longer have feelings for Kikyo... a-and that you want to stay with me, then there's nothing else to worry about." Kagome blushed shyly and her voice softened ever so slightly but she didn't look away. "I-I'm GLAD I won't die before you!" she told him, blushing harder now, "I'm GLAD I get to stay with you and be your mate!" her voice dropped to a timid mumble but still her eyes stayed locked with his. "Whatever else happens... please trust that."

At her words, the knot in his gut finally eased and a feeling of lightness took its place, expanding until it filled his chest.

And to his own deep surprise, for the first time since they'd woken up from their enchanted sleep, he found himself staring into Kagome's altered eyes and felt no guilt. He stood transfixed, marveling in their color, the same bright blue they'd always been. Just a little brighter. The emotions that swam in their depths as openly displayed as ever.

Inuyasha found himself leaning down, his left hand reaching out to cup her cheek. His heart starting to race as his fingers brushed gently over soft smooth skin. At the contact, her eyes widened even as his half closed.

It was like something had finally shifted between them. Looking at each other, everything that had held them apart until now suddenly seemed so trivial. Traveling and fighting demons, the jewel, Kikyo, The attack, the spell, All of it.

It all just… fell away.

Slowly, almost reverently, Kagome returned the gesture, reaching up with both her hands to touch each side of his face.

But she'd barely grazed his skin before he smiled ever so slightly and leaned down to close the gap between their lips.

Her eyes fluttered completely closed at the sensation. And her hands, seeming to forget their original intentions, slid back to entangle themselves in his hair. He too closed his eyes completely and felt a tremendous satisfaction as she rose on the tips of her toes to better reach, tilting her head a little and pulling her lips away for a fraction of a second before returning the kiss anew. He followed her lead blissfully, their kisses growing a little more bold with each reunion.

Then Kagome opened her mouth oh so slightly and Inuyasha thought he would lose his goddamn mind as her tongue timidly brushed across his bottom lip. The intimate sensation combined with her taste made him utter a low moan and open his mouth wider for her, eager in his response, his kisses growing more ardent by the second until they'd reached a fevered pitch.

Their hands were no longer content to stay in one fixed place. Kagome's reached up to stroke and rub his ears and Inuyasha's left abandoned her cheek to run down the side of her neck and over her shoulder, unthinkingly pushing aside her borrowed kisode as he went, savoring the feel of her bare skin under his fingers.

His right hand had found the small of her back and was starting to pull her insistently against his heated body.

But that was a mistake. No sooner had he pressed her chest tight against his than he heard her make a sharp hiss of pain and push away to clutch at the wound beneath her breast.

Realizing with a start that he'd forgotten her injury, he drew back as though burned. He stared down at her breathlessly. "You okay?!" he panted, his voice thick with concern.

But to the half demon's surprise, and despite the lingering traces of pain on her face, Kagome was laughing. "I-I can't believe we got so carried away!" she giggled in an equally breathless voice, her eyes were shining as she spoke.

Despite himself, Inuyasha smiled a little in return, leaning forward to press his forehead against hers and release a breath of relief.

"I think… I'm tired," he murmured a little reluctantly. Kami knew he would have liked to have gone on kissing Kagome like that forever, but now clearly wasn't the time.

"Alright," Kagome answered, though he still heard a hint of laughter in her voice. She took one of his hands in hers and tugged him toward the bed. "Let's go back to sleep. But no more nightmares okay?"

Inuyasha released a snort of laughter then replied, "Don't think I need to worry about that anymore."

Edited by: Mustard Yellow Sunshine

Art by: Grapefruitwannabe

Author's note

I can't believe how hard this chapter was for me to do. And unfortunately, I still haven't finished the very last chapter of this like I wanted to. FOUR freaking months of hard work and I'm not done yet. Makes me wonder if I'm tackling this the right way.

Normally I go back and forth between my stories more as I work. Stopping to read other things doesn't hurt much either. But for this chapter, I focused on bulldozing my way through the problem areas instead of setting the story aside until inspiration struck.

usually, that's my process with THBW too but this story wasn't having it.

Next, I guess I'll do a chapter of THBW before I can finish this off for good. But we'll see.