InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Confessions of a Broken Heart ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 2 )

****Though not described in detail, this story does deal with rape so be warned if that sort of topic bothers you****

 

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Title: Confessions of a Broken Heart

 

Author: dolphingirl0113

 

Chapter: One

 

Rating: PG-13 (rated for violence, language, and implied sexual situations)

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

 

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The afternoon was pleasant, with the sun shining brightly without a cloud in the sky to hinder its brilliant performance. The birds were singing, and a slight breeze whisked through the otherwise silent trees, rustling the leaves and creating a soothing sound that most people could have fallen asleep to. It was a sharp outer contrast to the inner turmoil of a certain hanyou.

 

Silver hair flying, sharp amber eyes flashing in frustration, he paced back and forth beside the ancient Bone Eater's Well, muttering incessantly to keep himself occupied, trying not to think about the fact that it had been eight days since Kagome had left…two days longer then she had promised. He tried not to be angry, knowing she had the pressures of school and something else she was doing called a play (though why someone would put aside time in the day to play was beyond him), but in the end Inuyasha knew it was no use. Every moment that passed caused his anger to draw closer to the boiling point.

 

“She said she would be back by now,” he growled, his chest rumbling furiously as he kicked the grass with his bare foot, creating a small divot as the offended dirt wad went flying. “Keh, I wonder what her excuse will be this time?”

 

From the bushes two conspirators watched with knowing grins as their friend did what they had come to call the `Kagome Routine'. One, a woman with long brown hair and soft brown eyes, turned to the other, a man with shiny black hair pulled tightly into a small ponytail at the nape of his neck, and giggled.

 

“So how long before he goes after her?” Miroku whispered, causing Sango to shiver as his breath touched her skin.

 

“I think another four or five minutes,” she estimated.

 

They continued to watch, burrowed safely out of sight, as Inuyasha paced back and forth, grumbling to himself about Kagome and her stupid habits. Of course if he had actually been aware of his surroundings he would have caught their scent a long time ago, but as he was not, they were completely out of danger.

 

Finally the hanyou glanced at the well and, with a sigh, jumped in, disappearing 500 years into the future. “I think that was more like ten minutes,” Miroku commented lazily, and Sango whacked him playfully across the head.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

The Higurashi Shrine was extremely quiet when Inuyasha arrived, and he couldn't understand why. Kagome's grandfather, short with white hair, was always out and about, and there were plenty of people coming and going throughout the day to pay homage to the ancient structure, not to mention the fact that it was the afternoon, and Souta, Kagome's younger brother, was usually out practicing with his soccer ball. But today it was like the normally warm, welcoming home had become a ghost town, and the thought caused a momentary shiver to pass over Inuyasha's spine.

 

Walking towards the house, the silence only became more noticeable, and before Inuyasha even reached the door a breeze caused him to turn and flip his hair over his shoulder, which gave him the chance to notice a chain strung across the bottom of the massive set of stone steps leading from the sidewalk up to the shrine. With great ease he leapt down to the bottom, forgetting that someone could be watching, and moved in front to read the sign that caused the chain to sag in the middle.

 

The Higurashi Shrine Has Been Closed Temporarily For Personal Reasons.

 

Inuyasha furrowed his brow, trying to understand what kinds of personal reasons could possibly warrant the closing of a public shrine. The thought caused him to feel uneasy, because he knew the Higurashi family well enough to know that they didn't take such things as closing the shrine lightly. They were all tough, just like Kagome…he hoped she was alright.

 

Leaping back up the stairs, he then took a giant bound and landed in the tree outside Kagome's window. But when he moved to step inside he was shocked to find the window was not only bolted but the blinds were drawn as well, meaning he was unable to see inside. And he could smell nothing but windex and the faint paint on the walls of the house. What was going on? Kagome always left the window open for him…

 

Forced to use the front door for once, Inuyasha felt his heart rate speed up dramatically as he turned the knob and pushed the door open like he'd seen Kagome do many times before, and found himself in the front hallway at the base of the stairs that led up to the bedrooms of the house. He moved to climb them, but was stopped by the scent of salt and the sound of someone crying in the kitchen.

 

Everything was all wrong. Normally this house was such a happy place, full of laughter and overfilling with love and joy. But today it was filled with a terrible silence, only pierced by the sound of heartbroken tears. Inuyasha had a hard time swallowing the constantly growing lump in his throat as he approached the kitchen, his footsteps light.

 

Mrs. Higurashi, Kagome's mother, was sitting at the table, her head in her hands, her short brown hair in a mess about her face, tears rolling freely down her face. She looked like she needed sleep, and he could smell her exhaustion as he also noted how pale her skin seemed compared to her normally healthy hue.

 

It was like a bucket of ice water was dumped on his head for Inuyasha to see such a normally positive and vibrant woman like that, and the hanyou found himself unable to do anything but stare, feeling like an idiot when the woman finally noticed his presence and jumped slightly in surprise.

 

“In-Inuyasha…” She stammered, quickly sitting up straight and wiping the tears from her cheeks as she sniffed, though the smell of salt sat heavily in the air between them.

 

Damn, he couldn't stand it when people cried, especially women. Taking a hesitant step forward, he clenched his hands at his sides, feeling very uncomfortable. “What's wrong?” He asked softly, and Mrs. Higurashi sighed, the tears beginning to flow again.

 

“I don't want her to see me like this,” she whispered, looking melancholy. “She needs me to be strong for her right now.” And as though agreeing with herself, she nodded, her mindless babble making absolutely no sense to Inuyasha.

 

“Who needs your strength?” He was truly afraid now, because there was only one other `she' who lived in the house, and that `she' was very dear to his heart.

 

But Mrs. Higurashi didn't seem to hear him as she continued talking. “She is so strong, and here I am crying like a baby. I have no right. I wasn't even the one who was…was…” The woman broke down into uncontrollable sobs as some thought Inuyasha could not see crossed her mind, and he felt his patience growing thin.

 

“Hey, what's going on?” He asked, this time more forcefully as he walked over and shook the weeping woman as gently, but firmly, as he could. He didn't like feeling afraid.

 

Mrs. Higurashi looked up, her dark eyes startlingly full of sorrow. “Kagome…she was…was…”

 

“Was what?” Inuyasha felt himself panic. “What's wrong with Kagome?” He was quickly becoming frantic, and had to know what was wrong. Why couldn't Mrs. Higurashi just say it? She was normally so strong…but maybe not as strong as her daughter.

 

Finally the woman broke down. “She was raped! My baby girl was raped!” And with that, she sank against his chest, as though saying the dreadful words had used up all her strength.

 

Inuyasha felt, in that moment, his entire world collapse as his heart shattered. Kagome had been what? He may have been from a different time, but he knew very well what that horrid word meant. She couldn't have been raped. No man could ever do such a thing to someone so wonderful, so beautiful, so…incredibly pure.

 

“Where is she?” He managed to ask, his voice coming out in an unintentional whimper, and the older woman in his arms leaned away to look at him, once more wiping her eyes dry of tears.

 

“She's in her room now. She just got home a few hours ago from the hospital.” Mrs. Higurashi sounded like a robot now, all emotion gone, and Inuyasha suspected she was reiterating what she h ad probably told dozens of concerned family members and friends over the phone. “Her friend Hojo found her this morning on the sidewalk on his way to school, and called for an ambulance.” Her lip trembled. “She was badly beaten, and, well…you know…but otherwise seemed okay, so the doctors sent her home after a full evaluation.”

 

She shook her head and put her hand to her cheek. “I thought it was so odd that Kagome didn't come home last night after practice, but she's normally so trustworthy that I just assumed she had gone home with a friend. I never thought…oh God, if I had known…I…”

 

Putting a hand to her mouth, she was clearly trying to hold back more tears, and Inuyasha could do nothing but stand there and gape like an idiot. He never had been very good at the whole comfort thing.

 

Thoughts were running around at a breakneck pace in his mind, scattered and without reason. He tried to organize them, thinking about how he had never liked that Hobo guy Kagome would sometimes talk about, but at that particular moment feeling like the young man was his hero. He had found Kagome and taken her to safety. Perhaps he wasn't so bad after all.

 

Finally, after he'd had enough of the tears, Inuyasha turned mechanically toward the stairs, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He looked down at Mrs. Higurashi, who was still holding back her sobs.

 

“She needs you know,” she whispered softly, “Even if she doesn't know it yet. But you must be prepared for the fact that she has changed. She is so afraid right now…afraid of everything. She was even afraid of Hojo, the poor boy, when he brought her flowers earlier today.” Mrs. Higurashi broke down finally, and Inuyasha took the opportunity to break away and walk the rest of the way up the stairs.

 

But as he neared the familiar door, he felt his steps begin to falter and his breath to become restricted. What exactly would he find beyond the threshold?

 

Surely Kagome would not be afraid of him, he assured himself confidently, but that thought only lasted a few seconds before the cruel seeds of doubt invaded his mind. He could be cruel to her sometimes, saying things he didn't really mean. What if that would all come back to haunt him now? What if, somewhere along the way, during one of their many petty arguments over the last two years, he had said something that she would remember now that would cause her to fear him?

 

Slowly, hesitantly, he pushed open the door, and was immediately surrounded by the scent of Kagome…of pure vanilla spiced with something exotic. Sighing, he stepped into the room.

 

She was lying on her bed, her back to him as she faced the wall, curled into a tiny ball. She was dressed in long black sweat pants that covered her legs loosely, a baggy white sweatshirt covering her entire upper half, her hair pulled into a messy ponytail, and her hands balled into tiny fists at her chest. Her eyes were closed, but having watched her sleep many times before Inuyasha could tell by her uneven breathing that she was nowhere near dreams, and noted how uncomfortable she looked.

 

Unsure of what else to do, he decided to break the silence. “Kagome?”

 

She lurched into a sitting position and whirled around, her body tense and fear on her face, and Inuyasha took a step back in horror at what he saw. It wasn't the bruises, or even the hideous black left eye, but rather the look in her eyes that shook him to his very core. Her eyes, once so full of life, were empty. There was nothing there, like someone had flipped a switch and turned off her soul.

 

She was devoid of all emotion…like a doll…

 

“Kagome…” He sighed gently, this time not in the form of a question but rather a soothing statement. She just stared at him, clutching the pink sheets of her bed in her tiny white hands.

 

There was a moment, the longest of his life, when Inuyasha was sure she would reject him; that she would turn her back and fail to acknowledge his presence. Or worse…that she would tell him to leave. He couldn't stand the thought.

 

But then, suddenly, she leapt from the bed as though she were carried by angel's wings and flew into his arms, sobbing. Unsure of what else to do, Inuyasha grasped her firmly in his arms, and felt an immense gratitude, along with something else, something warm, swell in his chest. She was letting him hold her. She was not afraid of him.

 

In the back of his mind he did a little victory dance despite the situation as he realized that Hobo had not been given this honor.

 

“Inuyasha…” She said no more, but buried her face in his red kimono, and he scooped her up into his arms and cradled her to his chest, walking over and sitting down gently on the bed, rocking her back and forth gently as though she were a child who had awoke from some horrible nightmare. In a way, he realized sadly, she had. A very real nightmare.

 

“It's alright, Kagome, you're safe now,” He soothed, rubbing her back with his hand, inhaling her scent as he rested his chin on the top of her head, her soft ebony hair ticking his skin. He never wanted the moment to end.

 

“I know you'll keep me safe,” she finally whispered back, her voice weak and afraid…so unlike his Kagome. He hated that. But her words still filled him with joy as he realized she still trusted him that much. She had spoken those words before, but only now did such faith in his abilities as protector mean so much.

 

“Kagome…” His voice cracked as he tried to say what had been on the tip of his tongue from the moment her mother had said the word rape. “I'm so sorry I wasn't there to protect you. I should have been, but…”

 

She leaned back and put a finger to his lips, her doll-like eyes boring painfully into his soul. He hated those eyes. “Just hold me,” she finally replied softly.

 

And he did. For nearly two hours all he did was hold her, whispering sweet nothings as Mrs. Higurashi came and went, delivering flowers sent by Kagome's friends and family. Before long the room resembled a florist shop, and Inuyasha had made a decision.

 

She had been raped, and he should have been there to protect her. He should have been there to fight off her attacker and string him up on the nearest tree to leave him hanging by his ankles. He should have been…but he hadn't. So now he would have to make up for that.

 

Without warning he stepped up off the bed, taking Kagome with him, and she just wrapped her arms tighter around his neck and buried her head against the crook of his shoulder. “Where are we going?” She whispered.

 

“Just trust me,” He replied softly, for a brief instant leaning down and nuzzling her cheek spontaneously with his nose in an act his mother had done for him when he was young. She nodded and became instantly still.

 

Her family was in the living room when he came down, sitting around the television, though it was obvious by their blank stares that no one was paying attention to the brown-haired newscaster currently forecasting sunshine for the next several days. They all looked up in surprise when they saw him.

 

“Inuyasha, where are you going with my granddaughter?” Her grandfather, his white hair bouncing atop his head, demanded protectively.

 

But the hanyou was unfazed. “I'm taking her back to my time. She needs to leave this world, and the people in it with their prying eyes, for a while.”

 

The old man seemed to want to say something more, his dark eyes challenging, but bit his tongue after he received a look from Kagome's mother. She then returned her gaze to Inuyasha and tried to smile, showing a trace of her normal self. “I think that is a good idea,” she commented gently and he nodded, though he knew deep down he would have gone with or without the family's approval.

 

Kagome turned her head slightly so that she looked at her mother for an instant, the silence between them stretching on into oblivion as they seemed to communicate something through their eyes, before the daughter finally looked away and back into Inuyasha's chest. “I love you, mama,” she whispered, and tears flooded Mrs. Higurashi's eyes for at least the hundredth time that day.

 

“I love you too,” she replied, her calm voice betraying her inner turmoil, as she watched Inuyasha walk out the door taking her angel, her precious daughter, with him. She glanced toward the ceiling and in that moment said a silent prayer: please let this young man who means so much to my daughter find a way to reopen her heart. Please give me my daughter back.