InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Expectation ❯ Chapter 2

Part 2

When Inuyasha finally came across Kagome, she was sitting on the lip of the well, the one and only portal that lead back to her own time, crying as if she'd lost her entire family. He approached her slowly, not unreasonably fearful that if he startled her, he would find himself kissing the ground.

"Kagome…" he called softly, approaching with his hands held out in front of him defensively, in a gesture reminiscent of how one might approach a pit viper. She gasped at the sound of his voice, looking up from her hands. She honestly hadn't expected him to follow after her, even if deep down she had secretly hoped that he would. She had been such an emotional wreck over the last few weeks that he had eventually stopped coming after her when she had her outbursts. There had been just too many of them, compounded by the fact that she would never explain to him what was going on with her anyway. And yet there he was, walking up to her, wearing a concerned expression upon his face, sitting down beside her on the lip of the well, putting his arm around her shoulders…that sweet, caring… possessive, selfish, insensitive prick!

"Leave me alone!" she sobbed, shoving him off the seat with all of her strength. He fell the two feet from the lip of the well to the grass, landing on his backside with an audible "UF!" Struggling to maintain a hold on his rising temper with an uncharacteristic amount of maturity that he might never again possess, Inuyasha cleared his throat and tried again.

"Koibito…" he called her his lover, speaking a little more forcefully and tugging gently at the hem of her kimono.

"Oh gods, don't start that!" she wailed, burying her head in her hands and crying with renewed abandon.

"Start what?" he yelled, his last, thin thread of sanity snapping in two, "Don't flatter yourself! You think I'd want to do that when you keep attacking me?! I just want to know what the hell is wrong with you?! Why won't you stop crying all the time?!"

"What do you mean 'Don't flatter yourself' ?!" she said angrily, rising to her feet and coming towards him, her little hands balled into fists. "Oh, I get it! You don't think I look pretty anymore!"

"What?! No! You're pretty, you're very pretty! STOP CRYING!" he pleaded, grabbing her by the sides of her arms and shaking her roughly.

"Prettier than Kikyo?" she sniffed when he had finished, making big, liquid eyes at him.

"Why is everything about Kikyo?! Who said ANYTHING about Kikyo?!" he cried, tugging on his own forelocks of hair, then screaming "PLEASE STOP CRYING!" when his response set her off on a fresh torrent.

"Why?" she sobbed miserably. "I have plenty of reason to!"

"What have I done? What am I doing? Please tell me and I'll stop it right now if you'll only stop crying!" he pleaded desperately with her. "You don't eat, you're sick all the time, and you're always picking on me! I can't take much more of this, it's driving me insane!"

"YOU?!" she screamed. "YOU'RE sick of it? This is all about YOU?! Why of all the selfish, self-center, egotistical-"

"FOR THE LOVE OF KAMI WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT UP?!" he roared to the heavens. Kagome blinked at him, then her face shattered.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Kagome please stop crying! I'm sorry!"

"GO AWAY!" she screamed, throwing herself to the ground.

"Ok, Ok, I'm going…" he began to back away from her, holding his hands protectively in front of him again in case she made any sudden movements.

"W-where are you going?" she asked suddenly, turning around to face him, her eyes filled with hurt and betrayal.

"Away?" he said uncertainly.

"Don't go!" she said graspingly, genuinely surprised by his reaction.

"Alright…" he said slowly, dropping into a crouch on the ground beside her, eyeing her distrustfully the entire time. He waited patiently while Kagome caught her breath and dried her tears. When she started to speak, he didn't argue or interrupt. Instead, he did what he should have been doing from the start; he listened.

"We…I…have a very serious problem." she spoke slowly and hesitantly, her eyes never leaving her hands as she wrung them nervously in her lap. "And I can't go home anymore because I'm afraid of what they'll say or do, and I haven't told you because I'm absolutely terrified of what you'll say or do… The only person I have told is Sango, and that's only because she had already figured it out and confronted me…and now I'm fairly certain that Miroku's figured it out, too… I guess I was just hoping that you'd figure it out like they did and I'd never actually have to tell you." Inuyasha's heart was thundering in his chest, and he was beginning to feel slightly ill. There was an uneasy, churning feeling in his stomach as he listened and waited helplessly. When she didn't continue, but rather stared at him intently, he realized that she was waiting for him to say something in return.

"What is it, Kagome?" His voice was shaky, hinting at the tempest of emotions that raged within the hollow of his chest.

"I'm so afraid to tell you…" she whimpered, her eyes pleading with him to understand intrinsically without having to be told.

"Can you show me?" he asked. Nodding silently, Kagome began to undo the ties that held together her miko's robes. Inuyasha's mind began to race in panic and fury. 'She is injured! Who did it?! I'll gut them with my bare hands and eat their entrails, the stinking-' his thoughts screeched to a halt as she lifted her top, exposing the white, flawless skin of her torso, where he'd spent many a night resting his head after satiating their lust for one another. He stared at the newly exposed skin, confused. There wasn't a mark on her. What was she trying to tell him?

"I don't understand…" he whispered reaching out to lay the palm of his hand on her stomach, before his voice abandoned him completely, his eyes widening in wonder. Something WAS different. Her stomach, which was normally soft, flat and yielding, had rounded out into a tiny, hard, almost unnoticeable little hill.

'No…Oh no…' Inuyasha thought to himself.

"Inuyasha," Kagome whispered softly but determinedly, closing her eyes. "I'm carrying a child. You are going to be a father."

'No no no!' his mind screamed. Slowly, he rose up onto his feet and began to back away from the unhappy girl.

"I'm sorry, Kagome." he whispered, his legs trembling as he tried to get away, "I'm sorry." When she opened her eyes again, he was gone.

Inuyasha raced through the forest, dodging what trees he could at that speed and plowing over the ones he couldn't, leaving a wake of splintered ruin behind him. As he sped along, a frightening red blur to any unlucky creature who happened to witness him pass by, he berated himself angrily. 'What have you done?! Baka! You ruined her life! Everything you touch gets ruined! You destroyed Kagome, just like you destroyed Kikyo! No wonder she hates you…'

"AaaaarrrAAAA!" he screamed, leaping into the air and landing solidly on a thick tree branch, high above the ground in a massive old tree.

'There's no way to fix this,' his mind continued, 'so you'd better just stay the hell away from her! She doesn't need to see your face again and be reminded of how your weakness and inability to control your desires has permanently cut her off from everyone and everything she loves! You heard her, she doesn't want you and she doesn't need you, so just stay away. It may hurt like hell, but it's best this way.' Swallowing his fear, his anger and his self-loathing, Inuyasha sat down on the branch, resting his head in his hands.

"What have I done to you, Kagome?"

Far from where Inuyasha had eventually come to rest, the demon slayer and the hoshi were sitting quietly in the shade of another tree, listening to the sounds of the afternoon. The wind whistled through the high grass, and the birds sang to one another as they flitted about from place to place, seeming to enjoy the sunny afternoon as much as the humans who shared it with them. It was serenely beautiful and they were totally at peace with it and with each other, which was rare considering the hoshi's tendency to use situations such as this to his advantage. Not that he ever succeeded, mind you, but he usually tried. In fact, at that very moment, unbeknownst to the beautiful young lady sitting beside him, his hand was creeping unseen through the grass, making it's way toward her as if compelled by destiny to ruin this perfect moment. That is, until the peaceful silence was broken by the sounds of a young woman crying.

"Ah, that would be Kagome-sama." Miroku sighed, drawing his hand back reluctantly. "Why did I even think that Inuyasha would be able to improve this situation?" The sound of her crying grew louder as Kagome appeared over the crest of the hill, then ran down to them and threw herself into Sango's arms.

"Oh Sango-chan!" she cried, howling like a wounded animal and clinging to the demon slayer desperately, "I told him about the baby and he ran away! He's abandoned me!"