Love that Dog

Chapter 26

READ THIS!!!!! 6/12/2007: I changed the ending a lot!! Please reread this chapter, or at least the ending! Please!!!! Thank you!!!

--Previous Chapter:--

She scooted back against the tree when there was a loud crack. The branch she was sitting on began to bend, and she could hear the bark of the tree begin to snap. This was definitely not good. She was at least eleven feet off of the ground. If she fell, she knew that she would either seriously injure herself, or if she fell the wrong way, she could even die…

"HELP!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Why wasn't there anyone to save her? This couldn't possibly be the end, it was way too soon.

Ayame tried to stand up, but as soon as she was on to feet, the branch gave way, and she fell forward, head first towards the ground, with no one around to save her.

Sometimes, things just don't work out like they do in the movies.

--Current Chapter:--

A warm hand was gently place on Koga's shoulder, "Are you gonna be alright?"

Koga smiled sadly, and nodded to Kagome, "Yeah, I just regret everything that happened. I mean, if I would have done something differently, we wouldn't really have to be here right now."

Kagome sat down on the chair, after adjusting her dress, to the right of Koga, and looked at him with concern. Koga had really been hit hard by the whole situation, and so had everyone else. They just had all been in shock, and no words could even come close to describe what they were feeling. Sadness, anger, despair, every person in the room felt something terrible and they hadn't even known the girl for a week yet. "It wasn't your fault; you've got to understand that."

"I know it's not my fault," His eyes showed great pain and frustration, "I just can't help thinking that if I hadn't acted like such a jerk to her back at that photo shoot, then none of this would have happened!" His fist slammed down on the chair next to him, causing the bang to echo through the quiet room, and many eyes turned toward his direction when he broke the silence. The chair he hit had jumped back into isle behind him, and caused a shriek from everyone sitting in the row.

Koga's fist was quickly taken into Kagome's hand as she tried to stop the bleeding with a tissue she had in her purse. "You shouldn't do such things… Now look what you've done to yourself." She carefully held his fist and dabbed the area's which were bleeding. "Maybe if you stepped outside, you could recompose yourself."

His chest rose and then quickly fell as he let out a sigh, "I don't really care. The sooner this is over with, the sooner I can put this to rest. When is the damned service going to start? Haven't we all been standing around for two hours now?"

She understood how Koga felt. When her grandmother had passed away, it seemed like they just wanted to drag everything out. Why did people elongate funerals to the point where everyone has cried so much that they can't anymore? "It's three now, so the service should start soon. The program said the visitation would be around two hours."

"I just think she needs to be put to rest for good. Everyone's been staring at her, even if she is dead, who wants to be constantly stared at?" Koga turned his attention to the casket placed on the table in the front of the room.

Before Koga saw Ayame in the casket for the first time, he was very nervous and anxious. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he suspected that he just didn't want to believe that it was true. Seeing Ayame in the casket would mean that she was dead, that she was really gone, and there wasn't any turning back. No waking up from a dream. But when he finally reached the front of the room, his heart gave out a sigh of relief. She looked so peaceful and happy lying there. It was like she was asleep and having a pleasant dream.

He looked at the back of the room to see the priest walking towards the center to begin the service. Finally, this nightmare would begin to end. The priest walked down the center of the room, occasionally comforting those in his path. He was a good man, Ayame's family was poor and they knew that they would be able to have a proper funeral service, and the funds for the casket alone was going to make them bankrupt. However, the kind priest of their local church raised enough money to help the family put their daughter to rest properly in their time of need.

After a few more minutes of consoling Ayame's family member's, the priest stood at the front of the room and began to talk. "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen." He paused as he was greeted by others, and then he continued. "We are gathered here today, not to grieve over the loss of a loved one, but to celebrate her journey to another place. While many of us are saddened by the loss of young Ayame, we must realize that she has gone on to a better place. I have been asked to read a small story about Ayame to you from her aunt who could not join us today."

The priest organized his papers and began:

"Ayame to me and to everyone who ever met her was a very special person. She was always befriending everyone, even those she had known for only a few minutes. She wore a smile on her face even during the hardest times and she was willing to sacrifice everything to help a friend.

Ayame was a dear friend to us all.

Ayame was a daughter, a niece, cousin, and sister.

Ayame never gave up no matter what the circumstance was.

She was a brilliant young make up artist in the prime of her life.

Ayame…

Ayame…

Ayame…

AYAME…

…AYAME!!!!"

"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD WOULD YOU WAKE UP AYAME!!!!!"

"Quit yelling in my ear… I'm dead and I'm trying to sleep."

Was the mumbled response.

Ayame was shaken and the voice spoke again. "Cut the crap Ayame or I'll drop you from the tree and next time I won't save you."

Realizing that she wasn't dead, her eyes quickly opened and she looked around. She was by the gate of the Higurashi mansion. The gate was in front of her and she was leaning against the tree that she had tried to climb up. How was she alive? There was no one around when she climbed the tree and how could anyone had gotten to her fast enough so that she didn't even have a scratch?

She looked up at her savior and smiled, "Thanks Inu Yasha, I guess I really owe you one."

He scoffed and quickly got up off the grass, dusting off his shorts, "Hell yes! If I hadn't been picking up my stuff that I left at the pool, you would have cracked your head open, or died a slow, painful death as a human shish kabob."

Inu Yasha began to walk away, leaving her alone, outside of the Higurashi residence. "Ah- Wait!" She yelled towards him. Ayame cursed herself. What the hell was she thinking? What was she supposed to say? Take me inside so I can talk to Koga, the guy I have secretly liked for the past decade. Yeah, that would go over real smooth. They would think she was crazy, plus Koga probably didn't want to talk to her anyways.

Amber eyes stared back at her, waiting for more of an explanation. "What is it now? I saved your life didn't you? Haven't I given you enough favors by now?"

"No! I mean yes! " She spoke quickly, "I'm very grateful, I thank you for saving my life, and it's just that I wanted to… Well, I just wanted to visit- I mean talk to, you know…"

Fed up with her gibberish, Inu Yasha threw his hands up in the air. "My god woman! Who the hell do you want to see!?"

A blush tinted her cheeks and she stumbled on her words again, "I… well… I want to see. You know, the person, I mean…"

By now, she had begun to fidget and was picking the grass around her out of the ground in big chunks; the gardener's were going to love her for messing up their perfectly organized lawn.

"Oh for crying out loud, just follow me woman, and then you can go see everyone if you want to!" He began to walk back to the house, and Ayame followed him far behind, caught up in her thoughts.

Her death had been a dream after all. Everything seemed so real though, she saw herself lying in the coffin, all of her family was there, people actually cared that she was gone. Ayame knew that her family loved her, but even if it was her imagination, it was nice seeing so many people who cared about her all in one place. She was glad to be alive. What she did was stupid, and ending her life before she could actually sit down and have a real conversation Koga would leave her full of regret.

The majority of her childhood, she had lived in Japan along with her grandfather who owned a small, private dojo. She grew up practicing martial arts and often participated in local competitions, but once she grew into a teenager, her likes changed. Instead of practicing fighting for hours upon end, she stayed in her room and would practice applying make up to herself, her friends, and just about any face she could even get her hands on. At one point, she had even purchased a life-size Barbie head from a toy store to practice on.

She had met Koga in one of her cram schools, and it just happened to be that they were both trying to get into the same high school. It took them a while to eventually meet and start hanging out, but once they were friends, they always were hanging out with each other. That spring when the new school year started, they were not around each other as much. Koga had scored higher on the entrance exam, and with his middle school grades being as high as they were, he was placed in more advanced classes. Ayame was smart, but was put in the more general classes, so they never saw each other during school. When they occasionally saw the other in the hall, Koga's flirtatious girlfriend was always drooling all over him, and kept other girls away.

The next semester proved to be more successful. Koga had changed classes, and Ayame was surprisingly in most of his classes. The overly protective girlfriend had dumped Koga, leaving him for the senior track star. With the increase of meetings also came a great increase of feelings on Ayame's part. Although she never admitted it to any of her friends, she was infatuated with Koga and her life began to revolve around him. By this time, word of Ayame's amazing talent of make up artistry began to spread. Other girls in her class were inviting her over to their parties for a couple of hours to give a group of girls makeovers. Even if she wasn't friends with the girls, she saw it as a good way to get more practice.

As time went by, Ayame drew closer to Koga and her grandfather became sicker. It had been stated in her parents will that her grandfather was the only who was to be allowed to have guardianship over Ayame due to bad relations between her parents extended family. When doctors had finally located the problem, they suggest that Ayame's grandfather move to America because the doctors had more experience with his kind of condition. After much thought and consideration, it was final, they were moving to Los Angeles.

It took everything Ayame had to tell Koga that she was moving without breaking down. Everything was going so great, she was looking forward to starting her second year of high school with Koga, and then she had to move across the country. By the time Ayame had finally confessed to Koga that she was leaving, it was only two days before their departure, and he had gotten another girlfriend. The last time that she saw him was when they spent the day together before she had to leave. During their day spent together, they went shopping, and Koga and Ayame took photos in a photo booth. In Ayame's picture, she held up a necklace that Koga had just bought for her. He had promised her that he would always be there for her and stay with her forever. Unfortunately, once Ayame left Japan, she never heard from him or saw him until just a few days ago.

Currently, her life was heading down hill. Her grandfather was in his late eighties, and not showing signs of good health. She had just been fired from her job and forced to constantly search for money to help pay for her grandfather's medicine and hospital bills and the rent on their apartment. The jobs were very limited when it came to what she was able to do. Ayame had gone to college, but had majored in cosmetology which gave her a small selection of jobs to choose from.

"What am I going to do…" Her heart dropped as she thought about her grandfather. She knew that he was going to pass away soon, but without the money he received from the government, it would be even harder for her to support herself. There was no one to take her in, and after six years of not seeing her relatives, they surely wouldn't want to take her in.

There had to be hope somewhere, it would be hard to find, but she knew that she would find it. Still thinking about everything, her eyes glanced over beside her and noticed beautiful flowers growing high out of the ground. Ayame slowly bent down and took in their pleasing fragrance. It was a very sweet smell that tickled the inside of her nose. Slowly, she extended her arm and grasped the stem of one of the flowers. They were magnificent and rare in their beauty. The color of the flower was deep and majestic, a low purple that reminded her of fine purple felt.

Her ears detected a growl and she snapped out of her thoughts to see Inu Yasha a few feet beyond her standing by the entrance to the house. "Keh, would you move your ass! I said I would take you inside, and all you want to do is smell the flowers! Can you move a little faster?"

"Uh, yes sorry! I'm coming. Right behind you…" Her eyes followed his moves as Inu Yasha turned around and began to walk inside the house. Glancing every which way to make sure that no one saw her, she snatched the purple flower and ran swiftly to catch to Inu Yasha. As she neared closer to the house, her heart began to beat faster, fear and anxiety spreading throughout her body, unsure as to what was going to come.

Immediately as she entered the house, the bright, welcoming smile of Kagome greeted her at the door. "Ayame! It's so good to see you again. After what happened at the photo shoot I've been so worried about you? Are you doing alright? Have you found another job? My mother has connections and could surely get you another job."

Ayame smiled warmly in return and gave a small laugh, "It's nice to see you too Kagome." It touched her that Kagome was so worried about her. She hadn't told her grandfather about the job issue because it would just cause him more stress on his heart which would be very dangerous for his health. So she couldn't do that.

Kagome reached out and took hold of Ayame's hand, "Come on! I've been waiting in such suspense recently, Sango might be pregnant, but I don't know because she and Miroku have been locked up in her room for a half an hour!" She pulled on Ayame's hand until Ayame decided that she would go with her. Ayame remembered Sango; she was the one who had told her that Kagome wasn't in love with Koga. Now if only Koga wasn't so love struck with Kagome thing's could work out.

As they walked through the house, Ayame had to use all her self control to not start freaking out over the size and fine furnishings in the house. She had seen houses like this before, but she had never imagined that they looked so elegant on the inside. Famous paintings covered the walls Van Gogh, Matisse, Buonarroti, and most of the paintings were originals! There had to be over half a million dollars spent on paintings alone, not including all of the other decorations in the house. How lucky it would be to live in such a house.

Trying to break the long period of silence, Ayame spoke up, "So, uh… Kagome, how have you been? Do anything interesting?" She felt uncomfortable talking to Kagome because she knew that all she really wanted was to see Koga. How was she going to information out of Kagome about Koga? She couldn't just come out and say it. That would be much too suspicious.

Kagome flipped a switch to turn off a set of fans before she spoke up, "I've been doing alright. Not much going on with me, Miroku and Sango are really hitting it off. Inu Yasha and I are uh well… in an interesting situation right now; of course he and Koga are always fighting. I guess boys will be boys even when they are around twenty years old. Koga's just been doing his own thing, hanging around the pool a lot." While Kagome had been talking, she watched Ayame as she talked about everyone. She couldn't help but smile as she saw how much more attentive Ayame became when she mentioned Koga.

There was another long silence, and Kagome noticed how uneasy Ayame was behaving. "You like him, don't you?"

This caught Ayame off guard. She had never mentioned anything to Kagome before about liking Koga. Had Sango told Kagome about it? Or was she really just that easy to read? "How did you- I uh… I mean why do you think that?"

Kagome gave Ayame a little pat on the head, "A little bird told me Ayame, you don't have to hide it from me."

Ayame blushed and began freaking out. Kagome knew that she liked Koga! What was she supposed to do now? Would it be best just to drop it and forget the event ever happened, or should she spill and tell her whole life story to Kagome? "I guess you noticed then? Well, it doesn't really matter since he is currently after someone else. Shouldn't we see how Miroku and Sango are doing?" She continued to walk ahead even though she had no idea where she was going.

A frown crossed Kagome's face. It was terrible how Ayame was just ignoring her feelings like that! How did she know that Koga still didn't have feelings for her? "Ayame… Maybe you two should do some catching up; it's been such a long time you know." They needed to talk, even if Koga didn't have the same feelings for Ayame as she did for him. If she never talked to Koga again, there would always be that empty feeling of wishing that she had talked to him.

"I don't know. He didn't seem too interested at the photo shoot; it's probably for the best." She stopped walking as Kagome approached a door and opened it. Ayame followed her as she walked inside. It appeared to be a small study, there were two couches and a few bookshelves with many books lined across the room.

Ayame watched as Kagome began to search for something around the room. She began looking everywhere, but was having no luck in finding it. "Hey, wait here Ayame, I wanted to show you something, but I think it's in my room. I just have to go right around the corner, so sit tight." Kagome quickly walked out of the room leaving Ayame to herself.

She saw pictures on a desk and went over to look at them. There was a picture of a younger Kagome looking over the side of a crib and smiling at a young baby boy who Ayame assumed was Kagome's brother. Other pictures were of Kagome and her brother on the first day of school, at Christmas, and some she guessed were pictures of her old friends from back in Japan.

After looking at the pictures, she turned her attention to the books on the wall on her left. There were many books, some she had read, and even a few that appeared to be written in foreign languages. She figured that Kagome's mother must speak at least three different languages. Ayame noticed a shelf that was dedicated to all of the classics. Although she had originally found it difficult to read some of the older written books, and she went through high school and college, she began to understand the books and grow to appreciate them.

Footsteps behind her made her jump, but she thought nothing of it, figuring that it was Kagome coming back from her room. "Did you find what you need Kagome?" Ayame asked still engrossed with all of the books.

There was no response, and then she heard the door to the study close and a small click as the door was locked. What was so secretive that Kagome needed to lock the door? What on earth did she have to show her?"

"Kagome, why are you-"She turned around and gasped, "K-Koga! What are you doing here?"

From the expression on his face, Ayame could tell that he was just as surprised to see her. "Oh, hey Ayame. I'm just headin' back to my room after a few hours of tanning down at the pool. What brings you to this part of town?"

"Er… Well you- I mean I-" She could feel the blood rushing to her face. Why did he have to be standing there looking so gorgeous in those deep navy blue swim trunks that emphasized his tanned and toned body not to mention his stunning blue eyes. It was a beautiful sight. How many times in a girls life does she see the man she loves looking so god-like and just down right sexy? It wasn't fair. Then she noticed his hair. He had it back like he always did except this time his hair was slightly damp and some of the hair had fallen down on his face.

Koga cleared his throat; even that was god-like to her.

Wait. Oh shit, she thought. Here she was gawking at him and he noticed! What was she supposed to do now? She had never been in a situation like this before! Act normal, she told herself, act like nothing ever happened. "Sorry, I forgot what I was going to say, but now I remember of course! I mean- I thought I did." She looked at him sheepishly, "What did you ask me again?"

He smirked. "What are you doing here, in this house, in this room that has a door to my room?"

Ayame felt her body get twenty degrees hotter. She just made a complete ass of herself. Why did she have to stare at him like that! It was absurd! "I came to visit Kagome." She said quickly before anything stupid could come out of her mouth. "For Kagome."

"Sure," Koga nodded, "For Kagome."

Oh she felt so stupid. He had to know that she wasn't really there for Kagome. Now she had ruined everything. Speaking of Kagome, where was she? Shouldn't she have been back by now? Then she realized that Kagome was her escape goat. Tell Koga that she needed to find Kagome and leave. Brilliant! She could get out of there before anything else happened. "Well, uh, it was nice seeing you Koga," She started to turn around and give him a little wave goodbye. "I need to find Kagome."

Before she could even progress two steps, Koga grabbed her hand. Ayame froze and couldn't move. What was he going to do? Could this be the moment she had always been waiting for? Koga walked closer to her until her back was pressed against his chest. 'Oh my God.' She thought. 'I could die now and die happy. His body is so warm, and it is like we are melting together…' Ayame was brought back to reality when she felt his breath on her ear.

"Tomorrow," It sent chills through her body as his breath tickled her ear, "at six o'clock meet me at Maison Akira. It's in St. Pasadena, so it shouldn't take you too long to get there." He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "See you tomorrow."

Ayame stood there, frozen. What the hell just happened? It wasn't a dream, right? All she could think about was meeting Koga tomorrow at Maison Akira, a fancy French restaurant that she never imagined she would have the chance to eat at. This had to be one of the greatest moments of her life. Nothing could ruin this moment, absolutely nothing could. It was the best day of her life.

A minute later, Kagome walked through the door. Ayame was so excited; she couldn't wait to tell Kagome the good news. "Kagome, you're never going to believe what just happened-"

There was something wrong with this picture. Why was Kagome looking so sad? Ayame saw such a pained expression on her face and looked down to see a piece of paper clutched tightly in her hand. She was confused as to what was going on. Had someone been hurt? Ayame reached out and rested her hand on Kagome's shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?"

For the second time that day, Ayame was brought into an unexpected embrace. Kagome was hugging her tightly and Ayame heard sniffs coming from her and knew that she must be crying. "K-Kagome, what is going on here? Really, I mean, you're freaking me out." Ayame wrapped her arms around Kagome, believing that something terrible had just happened to her.

Kagome composed herself, still having her arms wrapped tightly around Ayame she spoke in a soft, trembling voice. "I-I'm so sorry Ayame. Your grandfather- he- earlier today he-"

No. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening! She just saw her grandfather earlier that morning, he was doing great! The doctors said that his condition appeared to be improving. Why today? Today was turning into such a great day. She had a date with Koga tomorrow! She was going to go back and tell her grandfather the news, he would be so happy for her! He always regretted having to move Ayame away, he knew how much she cared for Koga.

Tears began falling down her cheeks and her knees began to buckle. There was nothing left anymore, there was no one left. She lost her grandfather, her job. "Why me?!" She screamed. "Why are you doing this to me?!" She was a mess, the tears continued down her face and were no longer silent tears, she was sobbing and her mascara was running down her face as well.

Kagome continued to hug Ayame, supporting her. "I'm so sorry Ayame. I'm really sorry."

Hadn't she suffered enough? She worked multiple jobs and long hours to help support her and grandfather and then in one moment, it didn't matter anymore. All that work for nothing. "He can't be gone!" She sobbed. "He's not gone! Don't lie to me!" Ayame finally fell to the floor in a hysterical mess. Her eyes were bloodshot and she began shaking. "It's not true!"

"Ayame…" Kagome bent down and reached out to comfort her, but Ayame pushed her away.

"Don't touch me!" She screamed violently, "You're lying! He's not dead! He's not dead. He's not- he's not… dead."

A door flew open and Koga appeared, he had put a shirt on, but hadn't had the chance to get out of his swim trunks yet. "What on earth is going- Ayame? What's wrong with her?!" He looked and saw her on the floor, clutching the hair on each side of her head tightly. He quickly ran over to her and kneeled down next to her. "Kagome! What happened?!"

Before Kagome could answer, Ayame began to ramble again. "Grandpa… where are you?" She sniffed, "You promised to be there for me. You would be there…"

Knowing immediately what had happened, he held her tightly. This time, she was not so excepting of his embrace. "Get off of me!" She yelled. Ayame began clawing at his arms, scratching him, doing anything to escape from him. "Let me go! Please! Let me go!" No matter how hard she pushed, she didn't have enough energy to break away from him.

"Don't do this Ayame," he said soothingly, rubbing her arms, "We'll get through this." Koga felt Ayame's body relax and rest against his although she was still crying hard. "We'll get through this…together." He was trying his hardest to stay strong for her and not to cry as well. He understood what it was like to loose someone close, and how helpful it was to have someone next to you during that time.

Ayame sat in Koga's arms until she finally fell asleep, exhausted from all of her crying. Koga and Kagome hoped her dreams would be filled with happy thoughts that would help her get through the hard times to come.

TBC

So obviously that was a completely different ending. The last ending just sucked, so I made a new one. ) I'll try to update soon! (Yes, I know it has been over a year since I last updated.)