Deceit, Lies and Malice|

(FanFiction/Inuyasha/Angst)

By Danyealle

Chapter 12

Heaving a sigh of relief, Inuyasha stretched and yawned.  Leaning back against a tree he watched the fire dance and flicker, something that was almost hypnotic.  One more day.  One more day and they would reach the fortress then he could see Kagome.  Hopefully, seeing her would eliminate the rest of the tension within his pack.  They were talking to him again, a positive sign, and the open hostility was gone but there was still a frosty attitude lingering in the air.

From the beginning of the shard hunt he had always professed that he didn’t give a rat’s ass what those in his pack said or thought about him, that it didn’t worry him in the least.  Over the last several months he realized he was wrong about that.  He did indeed care and it did bug him.  He hated being thought of as a two timing creep that didn’t care that he was ‘hurting’ Kagome.  Yes, their reaction to the situation was the right one and the one the three had hoped for but that didn’t mean he wasn’t bothered by it. 

Honestly, at this point, the stress associated with the whole situation was getting to him.  If something didn’t give soon he was sure he was going to ‘snap’ and ‘go nuclear’, as Kagome put it. It wasn’t going to take much to get him there. Certainly, he was one of those beings with a temper and a short fuse but it was now even shorter and kept shrinking as the days passed by with no resolution in sight.

In the past Kagome had always been around to sooth and calm the hanyou down.  They had been able to sit down and talk it out, allowing him to unburden himself.  Without her and that release he wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

Sighing deeply, he mentally chided himself for wallowing in self pity.  After all he wasn’t the only one hurting.  Miroku had the wind tunnel but if Naraku wasn’t caught in the foreseeable future then it may well kill him.  Shippo lost his parents.  Sango lost not only her parents but her entire village as well, leaving her with a brother that was alive only because of the jewel shard embedded in him.  Not only that but the boy was under Naraku’s control.  They were all suffering along with him just all in a different ways. 

Ears drooping, he shut his eyes and leaned back against the tree trunk and thought about Kagome and all she had lost or had to sacrifice because of the stupid hanyou spider.  Eventually he would be able to tell everyone what had really gone on but for Kagome there was no guarantee she would be able get back all she had lost.

Things were bad enough for her after she and Sesshomaru began the courting dance but sealing the well was the worst thing she ever had to do.  Of all the things she had lost that was the one that had broken her heart. 

Her last trip home had been for a week.  One the first day she had sat down with her family and told them she was going to have to seal her only way of getting home.  Of course, like her, they had been upset.  The assurance that once things were safe again she would unseal it had helped.  It had been left unsaid that it probably wouldn’t be safe until the jewel was complete.  Even then there was no guarantee that it would still work.  There was a very good chance that when she went back to the feudal era she would be stuck there, never to return. 

Both he and Sesshomaru had gone with her on that trip.  Her mother, after hearing the news, had extracted promises from both of them that they would do their best to protect her and keep her safe.  She also wanted assurances that there was no way around the situation, that all other avenues had been explored.  Of course, the two males laid the situation out for her and told what they had done to that point but she realized, unless somebody could come up with something drastic very quickly there was no way around it.

When the time had come to leave the event had broken the hanyou’s heart as much as it had Kagome’s.  He considered her family to be his family as well and it wasn’t easy to say goodbye knowing he might never see them again.  Even the normally stoic Sesshomaru had looked uncomfortable. 

After coming out of the well in the feudal era they sealed it.  When it was all over she dropped down beside it and leaned against the weathered boards, sobbing.  Both he and Sesshomaru had held her and just stayed with her so she wouldn’t be alone.  But, as much as they wanted to comfort her and tell her everything would be alright, they didn’t, knowing there really wasn’t any comfort or soothing words that would do any good.

It had taken a month for her to pull out of the depression she had sunk into after that.  During that time both half-brothers had spent as much time as was possible with her, either individually or together.

On the heels of the ordeal both of them knew that the time was quickly approaching where it would no longer be safe for her to continue traveling with him.  Neither brother felt it was a good idea for two epic, life-changing events to happen so close together so they postponed her moving to the fortress as long as they could.  Sesshomaru had sent Rin and Jaken ahead then began to shadow the pack more closely.  Most nights, after everyone was asleep, he would slip into camp so there would be an extra set of eyes to watch over her.  That was needed more so than in the past because of the meetings with Kikyo.  There were even times that he traveled with him for short periods of time when they felt that the danger level was too high.

Those times were a bit on the awkward side for the two.  Because they were now getting along, having no desire to go back to things the way they were, making it look like it had been in the past was no easy feat.  Eventually they decided that Sesshomaru would stay around Kagome most of the time, they were still ‘courting’ so no eyebrows would be raised, and the both of them would just ‘ignore’ each other. When he was with them tensions were very high.  Already the group was upset with him over his betrayal of Kagome and how much he had hurt her by running off with Kikyo every chance he could get.  Toss Sesshomaru into the mix, after past encounters with him they had reason to be wary of his presence, everyone was on edge. 

During that time it became much harder for him to slip away and spend some alone with her like he wanted to.  The only real time they could squeeze out was late at night.  Despite what one may have thought, because of his relationship with Kagome, Sesshomaru was good at ensuring they would have some time together.  In turn, he had done the same for the taiyoukai.  The only problem with all the late night skulking around was it left Kagome with not enough sleep and in a permanent state of exhaustion.  Of course that meant she was short tempered and emotional.  Though she tried to keep it under control it was still noticeable.

All that subterfuge and sneaking around lasted a few months until it became apparent that the little miko could take no more. Two weeks before the mating Kagome had what she called a breakdown.  Nothing out of the ordinary had happened that day.  In fact, it had been fairly quiet and tensions were low.  For about a week they had been ‘chasing their tail’ as Kagome put it, finding no jewel shards, Naraku or any kind of clue as to what he might be up to. 

After supper everyone seemed to be in a good mood, even joking around with each other a bit.  Shippo had wanted one of the toys she kept in her pack.  When she couldn’t find it she had bust into tears.  Nothing anyone said or did could get her to stop.  Finally, Sesshomaru had picked her up and took her away from camp.  He had sat down and just held her, soothing her the best way he could until she finally cried herself to sleep, exhausted.  It was that incident that made it apparent that the little miko could take no more.  Returning to camp, Sesshomaru held her while she slept rather than put her in her sleeping bag.

While the little miko slumbered in her future mate’s arms, they had a serious discussion about what had to be done.  After a while of mulling it over they decided it was time for her to become Sesshomaru’s mate and take up residence at the fortress. 

The next day, rather than waking everyone as dawn slowly illuminated the horizon; he had let them sleep in.  Once everyone had finally returned to the waking world and ate a leisurely breakfast they had pressed on.  Rather than hunt jewels they made their way to a place that wasn’t far away near a lake.  Even though there was plenty of time before dark started falling they had pitched camp.  Both he and Sesshomaru thought that everyone needed a break and to take a few days off to rest.

While they enjoyed their ‘r and r’ preparations were starting to be made for her move.  Sesshomaru would go to the fortress while she was asleep to get everything that was needed done.  The rest of the time he was with her.  Surreptitiously they had decided that one of the two should be glued to her at all times from that point forward.  Her crying jag seemed to have been an isolated incident and had reset her dials a bit but neither of them were convinced that it wouldn’t happen again.

Smiling, Inuyasha thought about how proud he was of Kagome.  She had managed to pull off one helluva of an acting job for so long and had held up under the tremendous strain of what they had been doing better than most people could have.  Yes, she had passed her breaking point but had lasted longer than he would have imagined he could.  She had proven that she was tougher than most people gave her credit for.