Hrm....not a lot to say... :)

"Inuyasha!"

Miroku can hear the panic behind Sango's yell as she drops her Hiraikotsu and dashes over to her friend, checking for a pulse as if she thinks the miko might drop dead right this second. The slayer stands after a minute, shaking, but looking somewhat relieved.

"No change. I don't think she's noticed that he's not here."

"Why would she? I don't notice anything when I'm sleeping."

The adults glance over to the kitsune, who's head was tilted to the side, his young features looking slightly lost. Neither Miroku nor Sango are sure how to respond to either the fox's question or his statement. They had convinced Shippo that Kagome was in a very deep sleep because that was the only way she could deal with her illusion. It was the closest approximation that Sango was willing to admit to, as they couldn't get Inuyasha to respond to ask what he thought.

It had slowly dawned on them that something similar to their situation now might have happened before, the second time that Kagome went to the future. And that was the reason that Inuyasha had stayed for so long in her time. To help the girl cope with something he did not yet know about. But, as they couldn't verify their suspicions--or do anything about them even if they were true--the pair was forced to tell half-truths to their young charge. It was easier for him to understand that way.

They couldn't tell Shippo that the only reason they thought they hadn't yet lost the priestess was because of her hanyou lover. Inuyasha had been attached to the girl's hip ever since Shinku had freed them, and it was plain to the monk and slayer that he was keeping Kagome from leaving them.

The others didn't know how he could be reaching her, but it was plain that he was. Love--though obviously there--was a part of it, but not all. The pair shared some other connection, even though it couldn't be seen, or even properly put into words.

So it was quite logical to the monk and slayer that Kagome might somehow register his absence, even in her current state. From her lack of reaction, however, it appeared that they were wrong about everything, and were in great danger of losing the miko if she didn't wake up soon.

The odd thing--though Miroku and Sango didn't know it--was that they weren't wrong.

And Kagome was going to wake up to prove it.

OoooOoooO

He's....gone....

Kagome fights down her panic, and the million reasons that had come with it as to why she could no longer feel Inuyasha's presence.

She was nearly there. She was nearly ready to face everything again: her friends, her future, her fate. She just needed a little more time.

But apparently Inuyasha couldn't hang on any longer. Kagome had felt their connection--whatever it was--solidly for the past.....well, the past while. Time didn't really exist in her room. It had just always been there.

But she had noticed that the bond between she and the half-demon had been varying in strength. It was steady in the beginning, and had slowly been weakening as the girl struggled to gain control of her mind and heart. And now it was almost gone. Only a tendril seemed to still exist. To still be hanging on.

And that's how Kagome knew that something was desperately wrong.

Inuyasha would not willing abandon her. She knew this. He had never abandoned he, therefore, something must be happening in the real world that meant he had to leave. In which case, he most likely needed her. If not her powers, then at least her support. And the knowledge that she was still with him, and now awake, would surely boost his spirits.

Right?

OoooOoooO

"Still no change?"

"No. She just....breathes," Sango whispers, before wiping a sleeve across her eyes. "She can't go on like this. We can get her to drink water, but she's not eating. I can tell she's lost weight. Too much of it."

The monk glances to their 'sleeping' companion, then holds a hand out to the tajiya. Sango takes it without question, and sits down next to her fiancé, leaning into the embrace when he puts that arm around her shoulders.

"I think....when he comes back...that Inuyasha should take Kagome home. I know he wants to, but...we cannot help her here," the monk says, very quietly, as if he might somehow be blaspheming. "Someone in her own time might be able to."

The slayer is silent for a moment before she nods, leaving her swollen and reddened eyes facing the grass beneath her feet. It was amazing how dull it looked just now, before sunset, when her emotions were so raw and exposed. She had always enjoyed walking barefoot through the lush green softness on evenings like this. The towering trees behind, the open sea of tall, swaying grasses before them. It would have been a lovely sunset under any other circumstances...

"Won't you please wake, Kagome?" the girl says, somewhat commandingly, as if she has suddenly developed the ability to will people into doing as she wishes. The tajiya looks through her bangs at her friend, as if afraid that she just might follow her order. "We...we miss...."

Sango stifles a scream as the dark-haired girl suddenly arches her back, her arms and legs holding her off the ground for a few seconds before she sags back into her sleeping bag. Miroku is painfuly aware of what is possibly another hole in his body, made by the claws belonging to the woman at his side.

"Kagome?" he manages to ask, extracting himself from the panicky woman, gritting his teeth through the pain as he breathes. That was going to leave a mark, even through his robes.

The pair watches in awed and apprehensive silence as the their miko simply continues to breath shallowly, then slowly struggles upright, an obviously pained expression crossing her thinned features. The two manage to hold in their gasps as Kagome opens her eyes, and an almost blank hollow stares back at them. It was like looking into nothingness.

"Wh...where...?" the girl asks, her vacant eyes sweeping the campsite once before she struggles to her knees. Miroku makes a movement to help her (Sango is still frozen in shock), but Kagome jerkily shakes her head.

"No...first...where?" she asks again, her voice gravely from disuse. It also sounds distinctly higher than a few moments ago.

"Th...that way," the monk finally says, pointing a few feet to the miko's left, where the hanyou had disappeared a few hours ago. Miroku silently thanks Kami that Shippo had gone with Kilala to fetch water. As a practicing monk, it was rare that he himself was actually disturbed by what he saw. But watching the young miko struggle to her feet and stumble in the direction Inuyasha had taken was heartbreaking and disconcerting. And he wasn't even speaking about her appearance. That was possibly even worse.

"But..."

Kagome doesn't respond to the soft impedement from the other girl, and only vaguely acknowledges it by pausing at the edge of the path before she continues on, slowly disppearing into the fading light.

"Let her go," Miroku says, when Sango makes a twitchy forward movement to follow. The girl turns a pleading glare on him. "They need time alone."

"But..."

Sango breaks off, turning back to the indentations in the brush that were already righting themselves. She chokes on a sob. Miroku pulls her back into his arms and places a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"I know."

OoooOoooO

Kagome stumbles through the deepening twilight, pausing more often than not, and falling several times. But she ignores the dirt and scratches rising on her arms and legs and bare feet, and the rips showing up in her clothes. If anyone had seen the girl, they might have questioned whether she even noticed, so intently was she staring into the trees standing before her.

As it was, not even a ground squirrel interferred with her slow pace. Not that the miko could have done anything about it if the small mammal tried anything. Kagome was using every ounce of her strength just to stay upright and put one foot in front of the other, and that was not going so easily as it should have. But the girl encountered nothing larger than an aspiring firefly, out much earlier than it's fellows, which, strangely, turned away at the last moment, avoiding the young woman. Perhaps even it sensed the impending struggle.

The girl finally breaks the tree line, the sun still holding it's head above the horizon, though it had felt to Kagome as if she had been walking for years. She stops for several moments, breathing hard, as if she's just been running for her life. And maybe she had been.

He was there, right in front of her, his back toward the forest from which she had just emerged. His was sitting at the edge of a small outcropping, though some of the trees hadn't been as brave as they had imagined themselves to be, and had lost the battle with nature some time ago. They formed a sort of natural aside, and he was sitting in the middle of them. His head was bowed, his silver hair shimmering in the dying light. He was motionless, silent, and almost seemed to be trying to blend in with the scenery. For the first time since she had woken up, Kagome feels a pang of dread.

This was wrong. He should not be here. He shouldn't be...alone.

She had been frightened when she had not found him in the campsite. She had assumed that he was in some kind of danger, and woken from her 'sleep' as a result. But as it was immediately plain that their friends were safe, something else must have happened to the boy to make him leave.

No explanation of any kind offers itself to her confusion and terror. It looked as if he had simply vanished into the forest like always, leaving her with their friends. Normal behavior. But they were not involved in anything that might resemble normal circumstances.

Kagome knew that she had woken too early. She was already doing everything in her power just to stay in the present. That was not made any easier by the fact that she had been unconscious for so many days, and the strain on her body was starting to overpower her will to remain awake. She was so easily broken right now...

Inuyasha had to know that she couldn't survive this without him. But...why had he left her? Why bother to stay in the first place, if he was eventually going to give her up?

Kagome manages to keep the emptiness at bay for another few minutes, and leaves the shelter of the trees, going more slowly because of her lack of energy, coordination, and support. A dizzy spell now would not be saved by a conveniently-placed branch.

The young priestess stumbles forward, hugging her body to dispel the increasing chill in the air, forcing herself toward the boy. Simply being in his presence again seemed to be giving the girl a measure of resolve and strength, though, oddly, her overall sense of anxiety and fear was increasing, as she gets closer to the half-demon.

Kagome realizes before she reaches him that Inuyasha's soul has not been healing since their time with the forest demon. His frame is racked with minute tremors, and despite his attempts to control them, the miko could still see him shaking, even through her tunneled vision. His posture is drawn in upon itself, as if he was attempting to vanish inside his fire-rat robes, and what she could sense of his demonic aura (which was, strangely, almost non-existent, though Kagome is surprised that she still has the ability to feel it, given the circumstances) was still pained and full of despair. The girl feels her own, broken spirit cry in agony as she circles the log he was sitting before and lets her gaze rest on his face.

There was no doubt in her fractured mind that she was losing him, or perhaps already had, though she hadn't a clue how or why. He was staring straight ahead, at nothing, his eyes half-closed and sunken-in, with irises that were no longer golden-amber. They were now a dull, bland, sickly shade of yellow-brown, and seemingly sightless. His face was drawn, lined, grey in most places, and purple-blue in others. And though she was now standing right in front of him, he still didn't seem to see her. He was looking right through her, as if she didn't exist.

Kagome finds her eyes damp from unshed tears, but none show themselves on her pale cheeks. She would have found that morbidly ironic if she had thought about it. She had not been able to stop herself from crying since that night more than month ago. Perhaps she had finally used them all up.

The girl somehow manages to find the voice in her throat, behind the dry burning, and it still feels lost and weak and pitiful, having not been used in so long. She summons the half-demon's name to her lips, the perpetual hope that resided in a secret place in her heart going out with it to find the boy and bring him back, though she didn't know it. It still only sounded like a frail squeak to her ears.

"Inu...ya...sha...?"

The boy instantly reacts to her soft word, though his response would seem miniscule, almost non-existent, if compared to a normal person. One who wasn't suffering.

Inuyasha raises his head, so that he's now looking into the girl's dark brown eyes. His hands slide off of his head, just a bit, so that tendrils of silver-white hair escape his fingers and form a halo around his drawn face. He blinks once at her, his eyes clearing for a moment before he speaks in a rasp.

"Go back to them, Kagome."

The girl feels her soul falling back into the shards that she had so carefully pieced together, when the boy looks away, but not before the emptiness returns to his eyes. He drops his head so that it hangs between his knees, his hands still in his hair, crushing his ears. Kagome hears a choked cough, then silence.

The miko doesn't move, too afraid of what the hanyou's behavior might mean. Was he giving up on her? Why? How could he? What had happened after she had fallen asleep?

He obviously didn't want to speak to her; he might be hurting too much to do so--like she had been, for awhile. But Kagome couldn't leave without finding out what was wrong with him. It was a slim possibility, but perhaps she could help; he had done the same for her. Besides being the right thing to do for her friend, this was Inuyasha. She would do anything for him. Even if it meant ignoring her own pain.

"I...nu...?"

"I said, 'Go back'!"

Kagome takes a step away, stumbling over her feet and almost falling, at the boy's sudden outburst and raging expression. She doesn't know that her own face is set in shock, the adrenaline igniting her heart so that a flush appears on her cheeks a moment later. She can only gape in disbelief as she rights herself, at the boy silently snarling at her. What in the world was going on?

Inuyasha glares at her for another second before again falling into his depression, which is now tinged with remorse. He seems even smaller than before, his robes almost hanging off him as he slumps against his log. Kagome suddenly wonders when was the last time he had eaten. Her own stomach growls faintly as the hanyou speaks again.

"Please...just...go..."

As her temporary rush quickly fades, leaving the girl feeling even more exhausted than she already was, she finds herself shaking her head, though faintly. Inuyasha would not willingly leave her; had not, now, except that something was desperately wrong. She could not live with herself if she left him when he needed her.

The boy utters a resigned sigh, again placing his head into his hands. This time Kagome can hear the sobs.

"You...have to go... I'll...be back in the morning. But...tonight..."

"But... Inu..."

Kagome's voice cracks, and at that moment she becomes aware of the depth of pain in both of their voices. It scares her. It sounded to the miko as if Inuyasha has already given up hope, and that she was very near to that point. Like everything now was just for show.

But that didn't make any sense; she didn't understand what was going on. Was he keeping something from her, as she suspected? And if it was so momentous that he had run off alone, and was now in such a deep state of despair that he was openly crying, why wouldn't he tell her? Kagome stands her ground and continues shaking her head.

"Please...."

"But....why...?"

"Because it's not going to happen!"

The girl takes another step back as Inuyasha yells, what blood was left running quickly out of her face and limbs and pooling somewhere around her navel. He couldn't possibly mean what she thought he meant. She tries to shake her head again, but finds that her muscles have stopped cooperating. Inuyasha speaks again when she makes a vague attempt to speak and only succeeds in opening her mouth before being overwhelmed.

"Us! Us, Kagome, us! The Kami forbid it, we aren't gonna happen!"

The miko feels a lightening sensation in her head, then opens her eyes to see the first stars beginning to show overhead, the fading orange glow only a sliver of light to the West. A few seconds pass in silence and trepidation before a red and silver shape fills what is left of the girl's vision.

"Kagome...!? Dammit...."

The girl finds her world suddenly righted again as Inuyasha lifts her, feeling her forehead and neck, his face an open mask of panic and pain.

"Don't...you leave again, dammit! Wake up!"

Kagome isn't aware that she has closed her eyes, but slowly forces her lids to flutter and part when the boy all but yells in her ear, while simultaneously shaking her, before he thinks better of it and stops. She feels him release a heavy, relieved sigh as her gaze focuses on his face. She watches in silent torment as the torment returns to his expression.

"Please...just...go back," he whispers, struggling to speak, his palm resting against her cheek. Kagome can see the anguish behind his dull eyes. "I can't...not now. You can't..."

Inuyasha shakes his head, stopping with his face away from her. He still refused to tell her what was hurting him; denied her the chance to help find an answer to this unknown problem. He wanted her to return to their friends, and leave him to face this torture on his own.

Kagome can't accept this. If Inuyasha was now convinced that they couldn't be together--after resolutely proclaiming the exact opposite only a few days ago--then she sure as hell wanted to know why before giving up. She wasn't about to let him off that easily. She'd been through too much to simply give him up without a fight.

"Why?" she says, the whisper barely registering in her own ears. Kagome isn't sure how she has managed to find it, but is thankful that her voice decided to make an appearance, however weak it still might sound.

Inuyasha doesn't respond at first, choosing to stare into the twilight for several minutes before looking back at her. She sees more anguish flash across his dull expression.

"Damn those...beautiful eyes of yours."

Inuyasha drops his head so that it rests against the girl's, then pulls in his arms, holding her tightly against him, trying to stop his shaking. The hanyou's words weren't meant to be funny, or teasing, or complementary. Now wasn't the time for jokes. Inuyasha was saying that he was going to tell her what was wrong, as much as he might not want to. He had never really been able to deny the miko anything she asked of him.

"The....that day," he starts, the strained syllables ominous against her cool skin, "on...the couch. I...I....had a....dream." Inuyasha stops, then continues forcibly. "But I...I only thought it was a dream. I... Shinku...made me realize... that... it was something else."

Kagome shivers as the chill in the air seems to deepen. Whatever the half-demon was about to tell her was not even remotely close to good. She had thought that they might be able to work through it, or around it, but from the desperation in Inuyasha's tone...

"You... I helped you find...something. Something you had lost," he says, his voice finally cracking. Kagome can hear the muffled sobs now, and struggles to keep herself from falling into his despair, though it was taking all of her willpower to do so. "My...fear... You... and...and...the boy..."

Kagome feels his shudder vibrate through her, but only barely registers it. The horror of what Inuyasha had just told her was overpowering everything else.

"N...no. I...I...couldn't....," she says, making a desperate attempt to shake her head, prevented from doing so by the boy's arms. Kagome doesn't realize that her barely checked tears have finally made a bid for freedom.

"But you do!" Inuyasha snaps, pulling away from the miko, his eyes wild with denial. "Shinku didn't know what he was showing me! He didn't know that it wasn't just a dream! I'd never imagined it like that before!"

Kagome isn't sure how she stays upright without his support, but she locks her arms into place so that she can continue to watch the hanyou, her mouth open in horror, as Inuyasha jerkily slides away from her. He pauses with his hands on the ground, as if he was about to be ill, and continues to speak. He seemingly can't stop himself from the spouting the verbal garbage, now that he had started. It was apparent to the girl that he had been dwelling on his illusions ever since the forest demon had released them. And she hadn't been there for him. A bad sign if ever there was one.

"It was all wrong! Everytime before you were with Koga or that irritating male that goes to your school! But...the...boy...."

Kagome can't do anything more than shake her head, trying to deny the truth underlying his words. She wanted to insist that what he had seen while sleeping on her couch was simply that: a dream. But if that was true, then his illusion should have matched with his previously envisioned fear, and not the dream. Which was impossible to deny. Shinku had not been wrong about any of them, so why would Inuyasha be an exception? The boy's next words confirm that what he had seen really was a vision of her future.

"...I don't know...who he is... I'd never seen him before..."

The young woman feels the tiny bit of hope that was still hiding in the smallest part of her heart fade into nothingness. Dreams contained people you knew, or had at least seen. How could Inuyasha know the features of the young boy in his illusion--enough so that Shinku could reproduce him--without having seen him before?

"It's not me you're meant to be with, don't you see? Shinku couldn't have known!" Inuyasha says, turning to face her again. He wasn't trying to deny the awful truth anymore. In his mind, there was no way around it; they were not meant to be together, however much they might wish otherwise. Now Inuyasha was simply trying to vent his anguish. Kagome can't do anything to stop the tears flowing down her cheeks, but she can't look away as he continues to rave at her, his expression bordering on hysterical. "He was human! I...can't... I'm not... I'm only supposed to...help...you..."

The half-demon suddenly stops, pausing with his face and his eyes full of grief, and his body motionless, as if he was only just realizing everything that he had said. After a few seconds he seems to come back to himself and quickly stands, grabbing the girl under her arms and setting Kagome on her feet, shaking his head.

"No...more...," he says, his voice a whimper.

Kagome watches in dumbstruck horror as Inuyasha lets go of her and returns to his log, dropping onto the ground in front of it and burying his head against his knees. After a few seconds she hears the sobs floating over the still, dusky air.

The miko--for the first time since she had come through the well--feels utterly and completely alone in Inuyasha's world. The hanyou had accepted--however reluctantly--that their future's were not destined to be one and the same, and had left her to deal with the revelation in her own way. Kagome wanted to blame him; for giving up...for refusing to find another way. She wanted to rant and rave and scream that life wasn't fair, and that he was taking the easy road out by refusing to even share his grief with her.

But she couldn't. It was so plainly obvious that the half-demon was barely keeping his sanity, that Kagome wonders why he hadn't slipped into his own mind like she had. In one moment he had seen his worst fear and greatest desire, and in the next, the first had come true, and the second seemingly never would. The young woman would not question why Inuyasha would not consider another over herself. It was clear from his tormented words that he would not explain that decision tonight, if ever. The miko feels a stab somewhere in the space her heart had previously occupied. Inuyasha would not to do her what she was apparently fated to do to him.

Kagome turns, to make her way back toward the trees from which she had emerged. He had given up, and now she had, as well. There was nothing more to say.

The girl doesn't feel the grass beneath her feet, or bothers to dry the wetness on her cheeks, or tries to stop the painful sobs trying to escape from her burning throat. She also doesn't truly see anything before her, or notice the darkness finally falling around her. There was no point in any of those things. Stopping or acknowledging them would change nothing.

She barely makes it to the treeline before the emotions overwhelm her, and she sways on her feet, only staying upright by leaning against the nearest oak. Kagome was about to walk away from the man who's life she considered so intricately wound around her own that she honestly couldn't remember--or imagine--a time when they weren't together. She was about to leave the hanyou, alone, and somehow begin a life that didn't include him. She couldn't ask him to make that sacrifice. It would be too much.

But she would be damned if she left before she told him how she felt. She was sure that he knew--he had seen her illusion, after all, even if he was that oblivious--but she had yet to tell him to his face. And she owed him that, at least. He had to know that he was now--and would always be--her first and only choice. The idea of another man...

Kagome braces herself against the tree, forcing her feet to turn once more, dispelling that thought before it makes her ill. She couldn't believe what she was being forced to do. It was wrong in so many ways that the miko thought she might be sick anyway, despite the fact that her stomach was empty.

The girl reflexively raises her free hand as she lifts her eyes back to the boy. A good thing.

Because her heart has just jumped into her throat, along with the hope that she thought had died several minutes ago.

Inuyasha had not moved. He was still sitting in front of his log, his head bent to his knees. The difference now was that his silver hair did not stand out like a beacon in the night.

His ebony locks blended virtually seamlessly with it.

Wow. Some parts of this got a bit deeper than I meant them to. Well, maybe it turned out all right anyway. Did we see that coming, I hope? Probably not...but I was giving clues all over the place, so maybe... I hope I didn't overly-confuse everybody, either... And I'm really not this mean. I'm working on the next chap right now. ;)