When 2+2=1 chapter 3/5

[Little Green Miko]

Chapter 3:

She sat there silent and dazed, staring blankly up at the tree where Kikyou had vanished with her shindamachuu just a few seconds before, her fist balled up on her chest and seemingly completely immobile.

?Kagome! There you are! Where have you been?! I?ve been looking all over for you! Damn wench?Why do you run off like that?? Inuyasha growled stalking over to her. He stopped then, and blinked, looking down at her. Her eyes were unfocussed and she didn?t seem to realize he was there, let alone hear him. ?Aa?Kagome?? he knelt down and waved a hand in front of her dazed face. She failed to respond at first, and this perplexed him, so he placed a hand on her shoulder speaking her name. ?Kagome??

Suddenly she gasped, as if she?d been holding her breath for too long, and blinked at the hanyou, her eyes coming back into focus and realizing he was there. ?Inu-ya-sha?? she murmured, kind of panting.

Inuyasha gazed at her. ?Kagome?are you alright? Is something wrong? Did something happen here? Are you sick??

?No?no?Not sick?? she mumbled in response-again gazing up at the tree.

Inuyasha stared at her now, and turned his face to look at the tree too, but saw nothing there. He looked back at her. ?Well-then what?s wrong? You?re acting oddly.?

And as if to prove that statement the miko began to cry. Not loudly, not willingly by any means, just she started to cry. She turned to the boy and buried her face in his fire-rat suiken and sobbed quietly.

Far be it for Inuyasha to understand why she was crying-and became stalk still when she turned and used him as a crying pillow? ?N-no! Kagome-don?t-don?t cry!? he stuttered, unable to figure out what to do. ?I-is this about the fight earlier?!? He tried, trying his best to get her to stop. He never could stand a girl in tears, especially Kagome. It made his heart wrench. ?Look-it-it was stupid, and pointless-just forget about it! Though I?m not apologizing?so let?s just go??

Of course he got it all wrong. And now, reminded of the fight she sat up and glared at him. ?Th-that?s not why I?m crying you-you DOLT!? She yelled, scooting back from him to lean against the tree Kikyou had been leaning on and dragging her knees up to her chest.

?What-?...? Inuyasha looked more confused and a bit sheepish, if that was possible. ?She?d forgotten about it?? he thought to himself. ?Damn it! And I just had to go and bring it up. Now she won?t talk to me for the rest of the week!? he snorted a bit, and righted himself, looking at her as she curled up into a ball looking sad. His face lost its sternness as he gazed and he cleared his throat. ?So-what-were you crying about then?? he asked carefully.

She looked at him, a frown deeply inset into her face, tear-tracks having made their mark along her cheeks, making her more pitiful looking then before. She was silent for a while, refusing to say a word to the confused hanyou, and then looked away, her face relaxing its irritated frown. ?Nothing?never mind?? she mumbled, looking off sideways, anywhere but him. ?Let?s go??

Inuyasha?s brow lifted. She was avoiding the topic all together now, but since things seemed to be going his way and she seemed to have somewhat forgiven him for the whole fight thing earlier, for now, he failed to question her further on the matter and nodded at her instead. He moved to sit in front of her and helped her up onto his back, and then hoisting her, stood up preparing to leap off.

As he did Kagome gave one last fleeting glance at the tree where Kikyou had vanished minutes before. One single, lone soul light still remained there, bouncing about the branches, looking lost. It was the only thing that remained to let any know that the crimson miko had been there and gone.

Kagome sighed, and placed her head on Inuyasha?s back, her hand fisting in his hair as she looked at the one soul as it slowly faded into nothingness, and recalled the last thing Kikyou had said to her-and repeated the last word in a hushed whisper-wondering on what she had fully meant by it.

?Mine??

~end chapter 3~

[Lara Winner]

:-? I wonder what Kikyo meant by that too...

[Noko Marie]

It's enough to make you wonder altogether.