InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Do You Love Me? ❯ Pretending and Breaking ( Chapter 2 )

AN: Me again. I think that this fic is the best one I've done so far. It's gotten so many positive feedback. (35 visits of mediaminer.org the first two hours) and I already got a review from mm.org too!

I haven't put this up of fanfiction.net as I'm typing so, yeah.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Do You Love Me?

Chapter Two

Pretending and Breaking

By: blue sakuras

"Inuyasha." Sango said in a gentle and motherly tone, "What happened?" She had been his comfort pillow for a few hours. She hadn't known he was capable of so many tears. Over the past two years, she had gotten to realize him as a younger brother.

He was physically older than her, but mentally, he was more immature than Shippou on some things. Each sob he made, made her heart ache and every time he cried out Kagome's name in a whisper, a hole in her heart threatened to tear her apart. She loved him. Not like Miroku, but like Kohaku. He was the one who wanted to rid of him in the first place, but then again, he was also the one to stop her from killing him. And now where was her dear little brother? With her father, finally at rest.

The question she asked him had the same effect as all the earlier times she asked him. He broke down into sobs and clutched her at the torso. His head was buried into her stomach and his arms were wrapped around her. Just like Kohaku did when he lost his dog. Only now, it was Inuyasha, and it wasn't a dog that he lost, it was Kagome.

"Oh, Inuyasha." Sango's voice was filled with concern and sorrow. She wanted Inuyasha to tell her what had happened to make him get an emotional breakdown. But she knew it would not be a good thing to question about with his state of mind right now.

Miroku and Shippou watched all this from a distance.

"Do you think Inuyasha's ok?" Shippou whispered to the monk, for fear of being heard by the broken down hanyou.

Miroku looked at the kitsune, and shook his head slowly and with a sad expression on his face.

"Inuyasha has never been one to be open with his emotions. If he is like this, then who knows how long it will take for him to become that arrogant hanyou again?" he looked off at Sango and Inuyasha. How ironic it was that Inuyasha was the one breaking down like this and not Lady Kagome? Then again, she could be. They just couldn't see her do it.

"Miroku." Shippou began, tugging on the hem of the monk's robes.

"Yes Shippou?" he stated, kneeling down so he was nearly face to face with the fox.

"I miss Kagome. When will she come back? And what did Inuyasha mean when he said that the well was sealed? Does it mean she's never coming back? Will she come back? She didn't abandon us because of Inuyasha right? Did she?" he said in a rush, almost in a panicky state.

"I'm not sure she's going to come back that soon. If she IS mad, then she needs to have some time away to clear her mind right?" he answered back, hoping that the response would be sufficient in answering all the questions he had. The child only looked back at him thoughtfully, before slowly nodding his head.

Miroku breathed a sigh of relief. The questions stopped. For awhile anyway.

^.~

"Kagome?" Mrs. Higurashi called from the stairs. "Are you in your room?" she voiced, concerned that her daughter hadn't come running down the stairs and welcoming the family home.

"I'm fine." Came a muffled reply from her room. "How did you know I was home?"

Mrs. Higurashi smiled. "Your backpack."

Oh yeah. Her backpack. She heaved it onto the floor before she hurriedly ran up the stairs and into her room. She hasn't left it since.

"Would you like anything?"

"No, mama. It's alright. I'm just really tired." That was strange. Kagome's always wanted a warm bath to soak in, right when she got back. Mrs. Higurashi was worried now.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine. I've just been running around too much in Feudal Japan." Alright, maybe she came home a few hours ago and already took a soak. Mrs. Higurashi dismissed it as her daughter's weariness from rampaging all over Feudal Japan with Inuyasha.

"I'll fix oden tonight alright Kagome?" she called up one last time, just to make sure her baby was alright.

"ODEN!" came a gleeful shout from the room above.

Grinning like a madman, wait no, madwoman, Mrs. Higurashi strayed to the kitchen to prepare Kagome's favorite dish.

^.~

Kagome sat on her soft pink bed and put a pillow to her face. She was lucky to break out of her emotional state and fake a happy voice to her mom, who was WAY too observant.

She was just so tired. Emotionally and physically. She had run. All the way to the well, all the way to her house, and all the way to her room. Carrying a HUGE backpack didn't help her situation.

That was what tired her physically.

Emotionally, she was drained. All she wanted to do now was curl up and cry her heart out. She already did that. And all that did was make for a very blotchy faced Kagome with a runny nose. Her head was throbbing, her eyes sore, her nose runny (AN: I always get a runny nose when I cry. So duh… Kagome does too, now….), and her ears. Oh, her ears were the worst. Her ears, were ringing with a voice she loved, saying a phrase she hated so much.

`I'm sorry. I don't love you.'

Over and over, that was all she heard. She wanted to take a knife and kill those words, but that was impossible. They were imbedded in her head and heart forever.

Forever.

`I'm sorry. I don't love you.'

`I don't love you.'

`sorry….. don't love you.'

Tears started streaming out of her eyes once more.

She was so tired and so sick of pretending.

Because that's what she was doing.

Pretending….

^.~

It was now dark. Inuyasha was now in the hut of Kaede, with Miroku, Shippou, and Kaede. They were all watching him. Not staring outright. Just watching every little movement he made out of the corner of their eyes. He felt angered and irritated. How dare they watch him! How dare they! He turned to face the wall and pressed his face up against Sango's stomach. He wouldn't be able to see their prying eyes then.

Up, over his head somewhere, Sango sighed. She used the hand that wasn't wound protectively over his head, to run her fingers through his long silver locks.

"Oh Inuyasha. You have to let go of me sometime." Sango lectured the hanyou who was curled up into a fetal position against the youkai exterminator. She, however, made no move to get up or release Inuyasha of his comfort.

"No." came the muffled reply. The same answer he had given her an hour earlier when she had asked him the same thing.

"Inuyasha, don't you want to eat anything?" Miroku asked, walking over the isolated side Inuyasha was on, with two bowls of soup in hand.

Inuyasha just ignored him.

Miroku sighed and kneeled next to Sango and Inuyasha, placing the two bowls of food next to them. He gave Sango a meaningful look and she stared him right back in the eye, as if to dare him to say something more. Sighing, the rejected monk went back to sit next to Kaede.

Sango leaned down towards Inuyasha and whispered something into the hanyou's ear. Inuyasha slowly released his grip on the girl and sat straight up next to her, his back facing the others. Sango then reached for the two bowls and handed one to Inuyasha. As though an obedient child listening to his mother, Inuyasha took the bowl and began to eat. Slowly. Sango did the same, although her pace wasn't as slow, for her appetite grew while she was comforting Inuyasha. She hadn't wanted to leave the broken hearted hanyou, so she stuck with him.

Miroku watched this whole process and then leaned over to Shippou and whispered in a tone that the kitsune could barely hear, "What did she say?"

Shippou just looked at Miroku and shrugged his shoulders. Something he had learned from Kagome and her time. Miroku gave a puzzled look at Shippou and then proceeded to watch his two gloomy companions eat out of the corner of his eye.

Sango was mouthing something to him. She was mouthing slowly, as to not attract unwanted attention of a certain hanyou.

He gave her a puzzled look. She groaned in frustration, which caught the extremely unwanted attention of a certain hanyou.

"What is it?" he asked her quietly, but in a sharp and deadly tone. He looked over sharply towards Miroku, who was getting up, but stopped when Inuyasha looked at him. It wasn't a good look. It was a `back off or I'll kill you' look that Inuyasha was giving Miroku.

Miroku stood up and walked briskly over to Sango, and pulled her up by her arm.

"Get away from her." Inuyasha said, growling as he shot up from his sitting position and grabbed the other arm of the stressed out demon exterminator.

"No." was the reply the monk gave as he stood protectively in front of Sango, and shook off the hanyou's grip on her.

"Get out of the way, Miroku." He growled at the monk, then possesively shoved Miroku aside and clutched at Sango. Miroku was angered by this, and yelled at Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha! Deal with this! Whatever you did to Kagome was obviously hurtful! You don't have to burden us ALL with your problems!" Miroku's eyes widened after his outburst. "Inuyasha, I…."

"Save it monk." Was the cold reply he gave his `friend' and tossed Sango over his shoulder and ran.

Miroku immediately responded by chasing him.

"INUYASHA! STOP!" Miroku shouted after the running hanyou. As Inuyasha headed near the forest, Sango looked up from her position and yelled to Miroku.

"Stop chasing us! It's alright!" the look that Miroku had when Sango's and his eyes met was incredible. It told so much. It showed the concern with Inuyasha and worry with his relationship with Kagome. He nodded to her and stopped running, leaning against a tree to catch his breath and watch the angered hanyou run off, quite literally, with his wife.

"My god. Why are you doing this?" he asked to the dark blue sky, filled with twinkling stars that seemed to be laughing at him. "We have all been through too much. Me with my hellhole. Sango with Kohaku. Kagome with Inuyasha. Inyasha with Kikyou. Shippou with us all." He sighed in frustration. "Sometimes I think it's not worth becoming an actual monk following a god which gives us all so much grief." And turned to walk back towards where he came, Kaede's hut. To rejoin Kaede and Shippou and their worried glances and anxious questions.

^.~

"Inuyasha." Sango started gently. "Why are we here?" she asked, puzzled at why Inuyasha had brought her to this place. She didn't see anything important about it or anything extremely special. She knew it had a nice view, but that was probably not the reason he brought her to this place. They were sitting on a big boulder. Inuyasha was sitting in his sulky position, with arms across his chest and all.

"Because." He was being stubborn. He didn't want to tell her. That was fine, but she was getting cold.

"Inuyasha. You have to stop this. How can anyone help if you're like this?" she looked at him meaningfully.

"I don't want help." Was his reponse.

"Inuyasha, everyone needs help." She said, looking reproachfully at him.

"No. Not everyone."

"Yes, they do. Everyone does."

"No."

"Alright, name one person you and I both know that doesn't need anyone else's help."

"Sesshoumaru."

"No, he joined up with us, and it was because he needed the help. Inuyasha, please stop acting like this."

"You have Miroku." Sango was startled by this sudden and completely random outburst.

"What?"

"You have Miroku. And I don't have Kagome." He looked up at her, coming out of his current position. He crawled over to her.

"Inuyasha, what happened?" Sango questioned as Inuyasha slowly positioned himself in a comfortable position next to her.

"She told me she loved me. And I said I didn't love her." This was different. Now he was being blunt. Wait, did he just say….

"You said what? Are you insane?" was the mad cry from Sango as she jumped up and looked down, glaring at the hanyou. "And I was comforting YOU?"

She expected Inuyasha to jump up and either yell an excuse back at her or tell her it was none of her fuckin' business.

He did neither.

"Sit down." And pulled down the outraged, but now shocked girl down next to him. "You shouldn't be jumping around like that when you're carrying a child." Sango was mad. She was beyond ma- Hold everything. She was carrying a child?

"I'm pregnant?" she gasped out of shock, more than anything.

"Yeah. Three weeks. And don't look so shocked." He stated calmly, now a completely different person than that of a minute before.

"Inuyasha?" was all she questioned.

Looking off at the view their place gave them, Inuyasha said, "That's why I brought you here. I didn't want Miroku to know yet, not until you can tell him yourself. And if better not be when you're in labor." He said in a joking tone.

Sango just gaped at him with an open mouth.

"That's why? That's all? THAT is the reason you brought me here?"

"No. That would be stupid. I wanted to show you this place. This is where Kagome told me." He turned to her with a paternal look in his eyes. "You're shivering. You must be cold. I'm sorry for bringing you out like this." And took off his outer red layer of fire rat, putting it over Sango's shoulders. "Here. I'll take you back now."

And he started getting up, offering a hand to pull her up. As they walked in silence, Sango watched his back as they sauntered back.

She looked fondly at his back, and remembered how, over the past two years, he had softened and revealed his emotions easier and let his guard down. Well, more often now anyway.

`Wow, he ran a far distance.' Was her thought before she realized something. When he talking to her, he was faking something. His happiness. His care free attitude. But inside, she knew, and it was breaking her heart.

He was hurting, deep inside.

His spirit.

His heart.

His mind.

His life.

Was falling apart. And he, he was, well…..

Breaking……

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: Understand the title now? Well, I let my sister read this and she was all "That's not Inuyasha!" Yeah. I know. Well, I explained it in the last chapter, but I'll put it here again.

Anyway, I KNOW Inuyasha's pretty OOC. Actually he isn't. Confused? Let me explain. Ok, let's see, there's about 130 some episodes out right now, in Japan. In america, I have no idea. But anyway, I reckon that their WHOLE journey for the shikon shard has been 6 months so far…. I know, sounds unlogical. Actually it's pretty logical. I think Inuyasha's only turned human, hmmm… about three times so far. I THINK. So don't go flaming me about being wrong (which I usually am….-.-;) anyway. So TWO years have passed. You know, Inuyasha actually cries one time. (Sorry for the spoiler.) It was because of Kagome, Sango, and Miroku so there. No other spoilers.

So, Inuyasha + 2 years + contact with Sango, Miroku, Kagome, and Shippou = a very softened Inuyasha.

K, so maybe not SO soft. He's just having an emotional breakdown! (and I sound cheery why?)

Explanation done.

And I have the SADDEST ending to write. Or do you want a happy ending? Well, tell me! I think I'll still do both, and put one as the `alternate ending'. The sad one is the real one. Just because. It has more drama in it. And has anyone noticed Sango as a sorta makeshift mom for Inuyasha? I tried to portray it as Sango filling the role of his mom (sorta) and for Inuyasha to be the little brother for Sango to care for. Because, as I have mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, Kohaku died.

::Silence::

Come on peoples!!!! Pay more attention! Or you could just read the author's notes…. -.-; same difference.

I put that up because, well. Frankly, my sister said I was making it sound like a San/Inu pairing….. I'm sorry. But I think those don't really make sense…. -.-; then again, does this fic make sense?

By the way, Naraku is dead. I think. I don't think I'm gonna EVER clear that up in this fic. Because it doesn't really matter I think. Oh and ummm… they completed the Shikon no Tama (Or Shikon Jewel for you English readers.) They used the wish up to wish that Miroku's wind tunnel would not kill him. They didn't wish for it to go away. Because they thought that it might backfire and kill Miroku or something like that. So now, his future children aka the child Sango's carrying, won't have a wind tunnel.

So yeah.

And Kagome never needed the jewel to travel through the well. Because remember that one time, with Yura? And she didn't have jewel shards, and she went back. So, duh.

That's my little view on things!

And if any of you were wondering, this is NINE pages on Microsoft Word. Woohoo! (But then again, my an's are like a page….) -.-;

Neko signing out~