Disclaimer: Yes, I do own Inuyasha.  I also own the squirrel that is sitting on your head as you are reading this. (It is 12:18 on a school night…give an authoress a break!)

That was sarcasm by the way…

Somnium et Umbra: Dream and Shadow

Shadows Rise

"Trust Inuyasha to wait for a potentially fatal situation to admit his feelings," Sango reflected aloud as she sharpened her boomerang, "I don't know if it's his innate stupidity or his stubbornness."

            "It's probably both," Miroku answered, taking the opportunity to close the distance separating him and Sango, "But is doesn't really matter now, does?  At least they both know they love each other.  I think they will be happy together."

            "So do" *SLAP!* "I," agreed Sango. 

Miroku hastily pulled back his stinging hand and scooted away from Sango's piercing glare with a sigh.  So close, and yet so far…how can her hand move so fast?

"If they're happy together, why did Kagome have to go home?" Shippo protested, his voice quavering somewhat.  He had been heart broken when Kagome insisted that she had to return to her time only a day after she and Inuyasha had barely survived a blizzard that had separated the companions.  Sango and Miroku had privately expected to find their absent friends dead from exposure, even without knowing the true extent of Inuyasha's wounds.  They had said nothing about these fears to Shippo, but the little kitsune had been in near-hysterics by the time the storm had ended and Sango and Kirara went out on a search.  Out of all of them, he had been the most relieved to have both Kagome and Inuyasha back safely.

"She didn't even stay an entire day," Shippo continued plaintively, "Are you sure she's still not mad at Inuyasha for trying to seduce her?"
            "No, I'm pretty sure they're past that now," Sango told him, making a mental note to smack Miroku upside the head for ever teaching Shippo that word.

"Even if Inuyasha has trouble showing it, he cares deeply for Kagome-sama," Miroku explained, "Now that she knows this and that he loves her, it's less likely she'll be angry at him.  She understands Inuyasha more than anyone."

'Maybe a little too well,' Sango thought, remembering how Kagome had been willing to stay and help Inuyasha despite the fact he had said his life belonged to Kikyou.  'Why would anyone prefer an animated corpse over a sweet girl like Kagome?'

Shippo looked at the two older humans who had become part of his foster family and mulled over what they, in their greater worldly experience, had told him.  "So that means," he said thoughtfully, "Inuyasha and Kagome will mate."

Sango dropped her boomerang and Miroku made a choking sound that was somewhere between an embarrassed cough and laughter.

"I d-don't know if they will do that," the youkai-exterminator finally managed, "Kagome is from a different time, a different world after all."

"So?" Shippo countered.

"Ano, well…she might not…Inuyasha…they…" Sango looked over at Miroku for help.

"Maybe they will, maybe they won't," Miroku said carefully, surprisingly uncomfortable talking about something as delicate as "mating" with someone who did not look a day over five, "Love is never simple."

"But…" Shippo began.

"We just have to let them figure it out for themselves," Miroku interrupted, "We'll just have to stay out of their business and let them take their own time to decide what to do."  There was a moment of silence as they looked at each other, reflecting over the wisdom of the monk's advice.

'Yeah, right,' was the immediate thought that came to all three minds, 'They'll figure out what to do when Inuyasha stops using swear words.'

'~*~'

The thick, pristine blanket of snow made only the lightest crunching noise as his feet blurred over it with the speed of a hurricane-driven wind.  No ice-encrusted bough or sleeping creature stirred at his passing.  For once, Inuyasha's headlong rush to the Bone-eater's Well was not motivated by anxiousness; Kagome had promised to return that very day, and Inuyasha trusted her.  However, although he ran through the forest as if borne on silent wings, his thoughts roared and tumbled in his head till he almost swore with frustration.

First and foremost in his mind was how to protect Kagome when their quest would inevitably put her in danger.  The thought of potential harm to himself did not enter his mind (of course), both out of masculine pride and the unselfish desire to shield the one he loved from any harm.  'I can't ask her to stay in her world,' he told himself, remembering how well such a resolve turned out the last time he tried it.  If a twenty-foot tree rammed down a well could not keep Kagome from returning to Inuyasha's time, he was hard-pressed to think of anything else.  'We…I need her.'  And it was not just finding Shikon shards or defeating Naraku.  He could not deny the empty feeling, the void that grew in him hourly when he was not with her, hearing her voice, her laugh.  'Hell, I'd even be glad to let her "Osuwari" me if I got to see her again,' he admitted, grinning somewhat foolishly, '…so long as we're not close to any thirty-foot cliffs…'  Inuyasha twitched his ears, recalling, for a fleeting instant, the time that had happened…and the cause.  'Can't blame her for that, but still…augh!  Focus, baka!  The future's what's important!  You need to talk with Kagome…talk with, not at, or she'll sit you flatter than a one of those "book" things she's always carrying…'

Suddenly, the trees parted and Inuyasha saw the well not a hundred paces ahead.  He slowed, sniffing the air; Kagome had not yet arrived.  'Guess I ran a little faster than I thought,' he told himself, 'I wonder if she'd be upset if I just went to her world.  I could say I came to help her with her stuff…'  Inuyasha came to a halt at the lip of the well and peered down into its depths, considering.

The shadow flew from branch to branch.  It had crossed many leagues since its master had sent it out, and was now reaching the end of its journey.  To say the shadow thought or felt by any means known to man or beast would be to lie.  It merely was and soon it would cease to be; and that is what it wanted.  Soon, it would once more sink back into the comforting miasma of Hell that was its element, having finished its mission.  The light in this realm was an anathema to it, and it took a very strong will indeed to have given it shape, let alone make it obey.  But now, now! it had finally arrived.  Only a short distance of that accursed light to span, and it would once more sink into Oblivion…

Inuyasha placed one foot on rotting wood of the well, his mind decided.  'Wonder if she's going to be surprised when she sees…what?!'  He froze instinctively, his youkai blood alerting his body to the presence of an intense you-ki.  A split second later, his nose caught a familiar, hated scent… 'Naraku?!  Where?'  Inuyasha jumped back from the well, his hand flying for Tetsusaiga's hilt, his blood thrumming as he prepared to fight… but there was nothing.  Inuyasha whirled around, glaring around the clearing, seeking the enemy.  The sensation had been too intense to have been his imagination.  'Where is that bastard?'  "Naraku, come out here and stop hiding!  I don't have time for your stupid games!" he roared.

Nothing.

'Dammit, where is he?!'

Impatience had made it miss its mark.  Impatience and the agony of being in the light.  It would not miss again…

'I can't even smell him anymore.  What in the Seven Hells is he up to?  If Kagome comes through the well right no...'

Strike!

"Augh!"  Fire!  His body was on fire!  Inuyasha raised a hand to the back of his neck, searching for the dart or arrow that had struck him.  His fingers brushed against something, something that burned worse than Naraku's poisonous vapors.  He jerked his hand away, then snarled; like hell Naraku was going to think Inuyasha could not handle one of his cowardly attacks!  Inuyasha felt for the thing again and ripped it out of his flesh, throwing it onto the snow.  He tried to slash at it with Tetsusaiga, but it merely evaporated, leaving a stench that made Inuyasha want to throw up and pass out.  Grimly, he shook his head, and inspected the place where the thing had been.  There was only a hole melted into the snow, not a single trace of you-ki or anything else that might give a hint as to who or what his attacker had been.  'If I've been poisoned, I suppose I'll feel it in a moment or two…' a little voice in his head told him that he was being far too calm about this, but he ignored it, 'I was here for something, now what was it…?'  His eyes slowly came to rest on the well, and his damp brow furrowed slightly.  'Oh yeah, Kagome…better hurry up before…better hurry up…'

With slightly unsteady steps, the hanyou stepped up onto the lip of the well and plunged into the shadows…

'~*~'

"Kagome!"

"Hai, Mama?"

"Are you going to bring all of these packets of hot chocolate?  You've got enough for a polar expedition, and you've dressed for it too.  Is that my old ski hat?"  Kagome's mother frowned at her sternly, to which Kagome responded with the most innocently beseeching face a teenager could hope to summon.  Mrs. Higurashi tried to keep up a frown, but when Kagome added a little bit of pouting lips, her sternness dissolved in chuckling.  "Oh, for goodness sakes, Kagome!" she admonished gently, "Sometimes you act like you haven't outgrown second grade!"

"So, can I bring them?" Kagome asked carefully, ever-so-stealthily slipping the nearest packets into her already bulging backpack.

"Of course," her mother said with a little sigh, "I can't imagine what it would be like to have never had hot cocoa on a snowy winter's day…"

"Oi, nee-chan, why are you bringing all these blankets?" Souta wanted to know, pawing curiously through Kagome's backpack.

"Hey, that's none of your business!" Kagome yelped, batting his hands away.  Souta wrinkled his nose at her and stuck out his tongue.  Kagome half-snorted in exasperation; Souta had been hanging around her ever since she had gotten back, peppering her with questions until she hit him over the head with a stuffed panda.  "Why aren't you in school today?"

"Duh," snapped the little boy, "School's closed because of the blizzard!  It's the worst one in twenty years!  Didn't you hear us talking about it at dinner last night?"

"No," Kagome admitted sheepishly; she had been so tired she had nearly fallen asleep in her ramen bowl.  Her brother rolled his eyes.

"Well, I guess it's just a case of good timing," Mrs. Higurashi interpolated cheerfully before Souta could think up a smart remark, "At least you won't be missing any school for a couple of days."

"Yeah, lucky me," Kagome said, shivering unconsciously.  The last blizzard she had experienced was less than pleasant.  'Although…he really was so warm…and…'

"Nee-chan's blushing!" Souta observed, "Hey, does Inuyasha-nii-chan have anythin…"

"Well, I think it's almost time I went back!" Kagome said loudly, slinging the bag onto her back, "I'm sure everyone's waiting for me.  I told them all about hot cocoa and Shippo really wanted some."

"Have a good time, dear, and you can keep the ski cap," said Mrs. Higurashi, "I only wish Grandpa's poker friends hadn't stayed so late last night, or he would have been up to see you off."

"Give him a kiss for me," Kagome replied, turning for the door.  She stopped to slip on an old pair of work boots that had belonged to her father, then raised her hand to the knob.  "Bye, everyone!  I'll see you in…ah!"

"Kagome?  What's wrong?"  Mrs.  Higurashi and Souta rushed out into the foyer at the sound of Kagome's startled outburst.

"Inuyasha-nii-chan!" Souta cried gleefully upon seeing the hanyou standing in the doorway, snow swirling about him.  Souta would have rushed to cling onto to him, but his older sister was in the way.  'She gets to see him all the time, it's not fair!'

"Inuyasha, what are you doing here?" Kagome asked, "I said I was coming right back, you didn't have to…"

"You mean, you didn't want to see me?" Inuyasha interrupted, but with none of his former peevishness.  Mrs. Higurashi's eyebrows quirked up slightly; she had seen enough interaction between this hanyou and her daughter to notice something was out of the ordinary.

"Of course not, baka," Kagome said affectionately (her mother's eyebrows twitched up a little further), "You just didn't have to go through the trouble of crossing time, since I was coming right back."

"What if I wanted to?" Inuyasha asked softly, leaning forward somewhat (Mrs. Higurashi's eyebrows were now currently somewhere in her hairline and Souta was beginning to work up an oh-my-God-are-they-being-mushy? face).  Kagome blushed and hastily drew Inuyasha into the house, shutting the door and cutting off the swirling winds of the snowstorm that had scattered flakes all over the floor.  Inuyasha stumbled slightly and emitted a soft groan, which Kagome instantly picked up on.

"Inuyasha, are you okay?" she asked anxiously, noticing the flush over his face that could not just be from the wind and the slight sheen of sweat over his features.

"Nothin's wrong with me," Inuyasha almost growled and pulled his arm away from Kagome, but with none of his normal strength.  Kagome was instantly alarmed.

"Mama, can Inuyasha come in and lie down on the couch for a bit?" she asked her mother, dropping her bag onto the floor.  She seized a hold of the slightly protesting hanyou and began dragging him toward the living room.

"I'll get some pillows," Mrs. Higurashi said, the question "What exactly have you and my daughter been up to?" dissolving instantly from her mind.

"Look, Kagome, let's just go back," Inuyasha complained as Kagome tried to push him down onto the sofa.  He was being stubborn about it, so Kagome resorted to sitting down on the couch and pulling Inuyasha down next to her.  Well, that was what she wanted to do…

"Nee-chan, I don't think you should be doing that with Mama home," Souta pointed out teasingly.

Kagome glared at him and tried shifting Inuyasha out of her lap.  'Mou!  He's so heavy!'

"I don't wanna move!" Inuyasha whined, sounding like a disgruntled toddler.  He leaned his head onto Kagome's shoulder and burrowed his nose into her neck.  "I like this better."

'Eep!'  "Inuyasha!" Kagome hissed, aware that Souta was giving her a very disgusted look, and, more importantly, that her mother's footsteps were approaching the living room.  'Wait, he's so hot!  He's practically burning up!'  The sudden shock that came with this realization gave Kagome the strength to stand and lay Inuyasha out on the length of the sofa, just as her mother entered the room with an armful of pillows and blankets.  Inuyasha growled feebly and squinted up at her, his hand on his forehead.

"What's wrong with him?" Mrs. Higurashi asked as she watched her daughter kneel beside the hanyou and feel his forehead with the back of her hand.

"I think he has a fever," Kagome answered.  She took the pillows and blankets from her mother and quickly arranged them around and on Inuyasha to make him more comfortable.  As she did this, Inuyasha continued to growl and shift irritably, pushing her hands away from him.  Kagome did not take it personally, but she was upset that Inuyasha had come to see her when he was obviously sick.  Mrs. Higurashi and Souta looked on anxiously, sensing that something terrible and unexpected was occurring right under their eyes.  'Why does he have to be so stubborn about things like this?  If he's sick, then it must be really bad!'  "Do we have a thermometer somewhere?" she asked, more for want of saying something to dispel the tension than for any real purpose.  She did not even know Inuyasha's normal body temperature.

"I'll get it!" Souta offered, darting down the hall to the bathroom.

"I guess I should make some hot tea," Mrs. Higurashi said doubtfully, but she did not move.  She watched her daughter as Kagome stared down intently into Inuyasha's face.

"What's going on?" Inuyasha croaked.  His condition seemed to worsen with each passing moment.

"Why aren't you home resting if you're sick?" Kagome shot back at him, but her words were soft and full of concern.  Inuyasha turned his head and squinted his eyes at her, as if he was having trouble seeing properly.

"Why did it get so dark all of a sudden?" he rasped, apparently having not heard Kagome's question, "Kagome?  You're still there, right?"

"I'm right here," Kagome reassured him, taking one of his hands and touching his cheek, "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

"Found it!" Souta called out, running back into the living room, the thermometer in his outstretched hand, "It was all the way at the top of the medicine cabinet!"

"Souta, I told you not to climb up there!" Mrs. Higurashi scolded half-heartedly, for everyone was more concerned with Inuyasha's condition than any eight-year-old's transgressions.

The thermometer was one those ultra-modern ones that was supposed to give instantaneous readings after being placed in a person's ear.  Kagome pushed the button to turn it on and glanced at Inuyasha's dog ears, which were laying almost listlessly against his skull.  "Inuyasha, I'm going to take your temperature," she said to him slowly, "You're going to feel something in your left ear, but it will be gone in a moment, okay?"

"Wha…?"

"Done!" Kagome said, quickly depressing the temperature recording button and looking at the small screen.  She instantly turned white at the high numbers.  "40*C!  Mama, we have to do something!"

"We must take him to the hospital," Mrs. Higurashi said, "They'll know how to treat him there."

"We can't do that, Mama, don't you think they'd say something?!" Kagome retorted, pointing at Inuyasha's ears.  She could feel the panic rising in her chest, and hastily thrust it down.  'Nothing good ever came of panicking,' she reminded herself, 'But what am I supposed to do now?'

"Kagome?!"  Inuyasha's hand grabbed her arm with such suddenness and strength Kagome yelped.  "I don't think I… I …I'm kinda tired now…" Inuyasha's hand slowly relaxed and fell to his side.

"You need to rest, okay?" she told him, stroking his hair and cheeks, "Souta, can you get me a wet washcloth?" 

"Right!"

"Mama, maybe some water could help?"

"Of course, dear," Mrs. Higurashi said, walking immediately to the kitchen.  As she filled a glass from the tap, she briefly reflected on Kagome's calm demeanor. 'She's acting so grown up, like she's been a situation like this before…'  She shook her head and moved back into the living room.

"I have to go back and bring Inuyasha with me," Kagome said an hour later.  Inuyasha's condition had not worsened, but it had not improved either.  It was obvious he was fighting whatever disease that had taken hold of him, judging from the strain on his features and the way his body occasionally spasmed with pain.  Kagome's grandfather had joined the vigil, taking over for Kagome's mother, as she had to make a run to the supermarket for extra batteries and candles should the storm knock out the power.  Kagome could do no more than bathe his face and coach him in drinking water, for she did not know what effect modern medicines and painkillers might have on him.  'His clothes are beginning to soak with sweat…'  "But first, help me get him out of his kimono.  Grandpa, can he wear one of your yukata?"

"All right," Grandpa agreed immediately, "Souta…?"

"On it!" said the boy, glad that he could help his hero in any way.

"I'll get him into sitting position while you get the kimono off," Kagome said, standing and gently pulling Inuyasha upright by his shoulders.  Inuyasha groaned and lolled his head, and Kagome reached around to support it.  As she did so, her hand brushed against the skin on the back of his neck.

"What's wrong?" Grandpa asked her, noticing her sudden stillness.

Kagome did not answer.  Instead, her hand pushed aside the long fall of Inuyasha's white hair and she stared at the place where she had sensed the chilling bite of you-ki.  Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the ugly wound: in the very center was a ring of small, blood red punctures about the width of her first thumb joint.  Veins of black radiated from this center, tracing the blood vessels just under the skin, which was dead white and corpse-cold to the touch.  The concentration of you-ki Kagome sensed, however, was farther down Inuyasha's spine.  'It's spreading…it's reaching for his heart!  There's also some of it going up, toward…'

"Grandpa, I need to get him out of here!"

"What's wrong, nee-chan?" Souta piped, entering the room with a navy-blue yukata in his hands.  The shrillness of Kagome's voice scared him; she had been so calm and collected before, what could possibly have changed?

"He's been bitten by something, some kind of youkai, I think," Kagome explained hastily.  Grandpa came up beside her and looked at the wound she was pointing to with a trembling finger.  His eyes widened in dismay and he nodded.

"But how are you going to get him to help all by yourself?" Grandpa asked her, "We'll help you carry him to the well, but from what you told me, it's a pretty good walk to get to the village."

'And Kaede-baa-chan is the only one who could help with this.'  "I guess I'll have to…I have to leave and tell the others so they'll be there and can take him to Kaede-baa-chan's house," Kagome said reluctantly, loathe to even think about leaving Inuyasha's side.  She gently lowered Inuyasha back down onto the couch and stared into his face.  His eyes were closed in fevered sleep and his jaw was clenched so hard the muscles stood out in sharp relief.  Without second thought, Kagome kissed him quickly on the lips, whispering, "I'll be back, I promise," then rose, her face set with determination.  "Please take care of him," she said as she walked toward the door, "I'll be back as soon as I can!"

"Kaede-baa-chan!  Miroku-sama!  Sango-chan!  Shippo-chan!"

"Kagome-sama?"

"Kagome-chan, you're back!"

"Where's Inuyasha?"

"I don't have time to talk about it right here!  I need you to come with me to the well, I'll explain on the way!  Kaede-baa-chan, I…Inuyasha really needs your help!"

'How is he?!" Kagome called as soon as she burst through the door, pulling at the laces on her boots, and then finally tearing them off with impatience.  She sprinted into the living room.

"His fever went up a little bit," her mother told her, "But you need to calm down Kagome!  You might hurt yourself!"

"I really don't care about that right now!" Kagome fairly raged, slipping past her mother to kneel down beside Inuyasha.  He had been changed into Grandpa's yukata and a pair of her father's sweatpants, but these, too, were almost drenched in sweat already.  "Where are his other clothes?" she asked.

"Right here," said Grandpa, handing Kagome her backpack, "I took the liberty of repacking it and adding some medicinal herbs that might be a little hard to get over there."

Kagome took it from him and hugged him tightly.  "Arigatou," she said fiercely, "Arigatou, all of you, for helping him."

"That's what families are for, Kagome-chan," her mother chided with a smile, "Now, let's get him down to the well!"

"I feel kind of bad about leaving Miroku behind like that," Kagome admitted as Shippo rocketed through the forest in his demented-rocking-horse-form [A/N: I know that's not what it is, but that's what it looked like to me in the movie!].

"Don't," Shippo answered shortly, saving his breath for pushing every ounce of speed he could, "He insisted."

"True," Kagome replied.  Far ahead and above, Kirara, with Sango and the nearly unconscious Inuyasha, flew with greatest speed toward the village.  Miroku had been left to his own devices (and Kagome's backpack) at the well, saying, as he climbed out from going down to help Kagome, that: "Speed is what matters now.  We don't have time on our side for something like this."  His cursory examination of the wound had only produced a grim set of his mouth and a small shake of his head.

"Look, Sango and Kirara are already there!" Kagome shouted as they broke free from the concealment of the forest and the village spread out below them.

"I'm hurryin', I'm hurryin'," Shippo gasped, forcing himself to go even faster.  He blasted down the hill, kicking up flurries of snow as he went.

"I already took him inside," Sango informed Kagome as the pair pulled up to Kaede's hut, "Kaede-sama is looking at him right now."  Kagome dismounted and Shippo instantly returned to normal with a *pop!*  His eyes swirled in his head and he passed out from sheer exhaustion on the snow.

"Shippo-chan!" Kagome cried out, picking him up in her arms and cradling him tenderly.  'Everyone's trying so hard…we all want him to get better...Inuyasha, you have to get better, please!'  She ducked inside of the hut, and approached Kaede.  "Kae…"

Kaede shook her head and looked up into Kagome's face, her one eye telling everything in a single glance.  "I cannot cure this," she said unnecessarily, "I have not the skill, nor the power to…"

But her voice was already far away, muffled like it was coming to Kagome through thick, black fog.  She fell, her knees giving out on her, her arms still clutching Shippo's unconscious form to her chest.  'No, no, no, no, no, NO, NO!!!  It can't happen like this!  Just when we were…just when he and I…I won't let it happen!  I WON'T LET IT BE LIKE THIS!!!'

Narrator here.  Yes, I am being very inconsiderate by leaving off like this, but do not fret!  I have pretty much the entire story written out in my head and a day off from work to write it!

Note:  40*C (degrees Celsius) is approximately 104.3 degrees Fahrenheit.