Our Last Goodbye

Summary: Her soul bore a tragic curse that never ends.

A/N: Inspired by Love You to Death by Kamelot.

Part I: Her Final Farewell

"On the day you'll be eighteen
The reaper's scythe you shall receive
'Tis a cycle that will not break
A curse resulting from your mistake!"

"Love will always come to you
But you'll always bid a sad adieu
'Tis a curse you can never flee
Star-crossed lovers you will always be!"

Kagome remembered that curse like a nursery rhyme. She remembered that curse as well as she remembered her past selves.

Izayoi, one of her past lives, was the first to perish from that spell. She had been trapped in her castle that had caught fire. Her husband, Inutaisho had fallen to a dragon demon shortly after.

Kikyou was pushed from a cliff by Bankotsu after breaking his Suikotsu's heart. She had hoped he wouldn't have to suffer in the curse with her if she did. Suikotsu found out too late that she was carrying his child.

Ayame was stabbed by Kouga's comrades for refusing to be his mate.

Kagura was drowned by her father for seeing her lover, Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru had slaughtered her entire village in his rage and vowed to chase Kagura's soul until he found her soul reborn. He never found her.

Rin was mauled by wolves on her eighteenth summer while her beloved Kohaku was fighting in a war.

Satsuki was beaten to death by her village just before she and Shippo decided to runaway together. Shippo lived more peaceably than Sesshomaru, but his heart ached painfully and he lived alone, away from civilization, to bear the loneliness by himself.

Sango died protecting Miroku from a demon attack. Miroku drank poison to join her soon after.

Kagome remembered each life like a distant memory, unable to recall anything but the time between falling for someone and her time of death. She was unable to stop meeting her death every eighteenth birthday and wound beloved hearts.

Her new home had been in a castle town. As she grew up, she noticed the headman's eldest son staring at her for too long. After countless tries at stopping love, she grew resigned to the fact that the gods were set to follow her curse no matter what she did to avoid any person getting to close. But when the boy tried to force himself on her, she ran away. She lived in the wilderness where she assumed the only person that would meet her would be a demon willing to kill her.

She was frightened she would die before her eighteenth year, as it happened before in other lifetimes, but it was because she wasn't expecting it. She accepted death and rebirth like it was natural to remember your past life.

She was fifteen when she met Inuyasha. It may have only been a fleeting glance as he was just passing through, but, unbeknownst to them that night, the gods tied a new red thread between her old soul and his.

He approached her weeks later. One night, when she couldn't catch a single thing for dinner for two nights straight, he came. He was slightly wary of her at first as he neared her small fire. In his hands, he held a dead rabbit.

Kagome had smiled and asked him to join her when he said she was pathetic at surviving on her own.

"I mean, I've seen you chase after rodents for days now. You don't just give up on food like that. No one's gonna hand feed you," he chided as he sat down across from her like he belonged there. After two weeks of loneliness, Kagome happily accepted his company. After learning what he was, she knew he appreciated her company as well.

She rolled her eyes. "It looks like you're about to do that now," she pointed out the cooking, skinned rabbit on a makeshift spit, "That wasn't there before."

"Keh. Pathetic females like you need second chances," he snorted, "Just be grateful that someone's giving you one."

She smiled wistfully, "A second chance, huh..."

Months passed and every few days, Inuyasha would visit her to make sure she's 'not starving to death' as he put it. But she knew he was concerned for her when she wasn't starving.

In the forests, she was always vulnerable to demons. Because of that, she was always on the move. Kagome was always well-aware that Inuyasha followed her, whether by the sounds of branches shaking or the whispers of his feet on hard-packed dirt. She stayed silent throughout her travels unless he showed himself to her.

Even with her deaths remembered, she never became mentally unstable. Each new life was a fresh breath of air, away from expectations and pressure her old life had. That was the only thing she looked forward to in life, knowing she could never grow old with a loving husband and a huge family.

Inuyasha became her friend. And, even if she got on his nerves from time to time, she was his. Of course, by then Kagome knew that if she remained with him, he would fall in love with her. She just wasn't aware how fast she would for him.

One morning, she was trying to catch her breakfast in the knee-deep stream. Standing as still as stone with legs apart, she glared at the water and the small fish swimming curiously by until one she deemed big enough swam by. He watched from his lounging position on the nearest tree as Kagome lunged, managing to catch one fish with both hands wrapped around the tail.

"What are you doing?" he asked slowly as if she was a few eggs short of a dozen.

Her head snapped up in surprise. When she saw it was him, she relaxed, waving the flopping fish at him. "What's it look like?" She grinned widely, "I'm catching fish. All by myself."

A corner of his mouth twitched, slipping off the branch and landing in a crouch. "There's a better way to do it and not get yourself wet."

Kagome sighed and walked back to shore. "Then show me, teacher."

Inuyasha smirked. "I will." He squatted close to the water, pulling one of his sleeves up above his shoulder. "That one," he pointed to a fairly large fish swimming closer. He timed it perfectly but lost his balance and fell into the water.

Kagome laughed as he cursed the fish that quickly swam away from him. "Yes, I don't see how I could get wet with that trick."

He scowled as he pulled himself back onto dry land, wringing his soaked haori. "It would have worked," he argued when he caught Kagome's own smirk.

She took his hand, "Come on, I'll show you how to get fish my way."

Glancing at their hands, he scoffed and got up, shrugging off his haori and kosode and laid them out to dry. "Fine."

In the middle of the stream, she got Inuyasha in the same position she had been beside her. She commented that they'd be waiting a while because he scared all the fish away. Inuyasha cut her a look but said nothing. This close, while his attention was on the water, she admired his fine muscles, not too bulky but not scrawny either. When she realized she's been staring few seconds too long, she quickly looked down at the water.

"Now?" he questioned as she noticed the fish swimming by them.

"Now!" she struck down, barely skimming a fish's side but not being able to catch it.

Inuyasha had managed to catch two and smirked at her empty hands. "One for both of us."

"I caught one too," she pointed at the fish that was slowly dying on the rocks.

"I caught two," he replied, as immature as a child as he waved them in her face.

Kagome huffed and splashed him in frustration. When she turned, a huge wave splashed up her back, soaking her white kosode to her skin. She turned to glare at him.

He waded towards the shore and placed his two fish next to hers. When he jumped back in, he splashed her with his landing.

She brushed her wet hair away from her face. "So that's how you want to play, huh?" she growled and a splashing war began.

All through her lives, she was solemn in most occasions. However, there were happier times in her lifes that let her recall with a smile on her face. Being with Inuyasha, she hasn't thought about her dreadful future in a long while.

A year passed and he fell in love with her, curse and all, even if he didn't admit it. He spent the next year protecting her with his life.

"If we can get you past eighteen, the curse has to break," he insisted.

She merely nodded, knowing better than to believe it.

He stayed by her side. But, since he became her fierce bodyguard, her life was more peaceful. No demons dared to look at her while he was there. But he wasn't taking any chances. He would remain vigil and protective. Because her time was nearing it's end.

Kagome wished he only knew how futile it was to protect her on her eighteenth birthday.

They had few lazy days as Kagome and Inuyasha sat in a meadow, the untamed grass tickling her legs. Inuyasha remained wary of their surroundings, as they were right in plain sight but Kagome was a bit more relaxed.

A ring of dandelions dropped on his head and he casted an annoyed look at his charge.

Kagome giggled as his ears flicked, moving his new flowery headpiece. "Live a little, Inuyasha," she looked up at the blue sky, "It's a beautiful day."

"Keh," Inuyasha shook off the flowers. "I'm not supposed to relax, wench."

"You can't stop my death," the sixteen year-old sighed. It still unnerved him that she believed it so fully. He wanted desperately to prove her wrong.

He bared his fangs in a deep scowl as he stared ahead to the line of trees. "Don't talk like that, Kagome. I'm trying my best."

"It's futile," Her brown eyes slid over to him. "I'm sorry..."

Inuyasha said nothing. He idly ripped the ring of dandelions apart with his claws.

She smiled at him, "I better enjoy the years I have left."

His amber orbs flickered to her smile. Her sad smile. "I'll do better than the others," he swore as he turned towards her. His golden eyes were fierce with determination, "I won't fall in love with you."

Kagome sighed. She leaned back on her hands, "It is a beautiful day."

Inuyasha stared at her before looking away, flicking a petal off his knee. "...Keh."

Still, he could protect her before her true time. He had learned that she could be killed even before eighteen.

When it rained, he kept her warm under the safety of a tree's many branches if they weren't lucky enough to find an uninhabited cave fast enough. He didn't want her to catch the slightest sniffle in fear of her cold growing worse as she neared seventeen.

One late autumn night, it poured heavily. Inuyasha couldn't find anything to shield them from the cold rain. After she talked him out of scaring the villagers out of their huts, he embraced her tightly, so tight, she couldn't get a breath in. She didn't mind as his body warmth kept her from shivering too violently, even wrapped up in his red haori.

"I'll protect you, Kagome," he vowed, "I'll follow your soul wherever it's reborn, I promise."

Kagome tried to keep her sobs to herself. Sesshomaru had said the same thing to Kagura when he found out she was treated poorly by her own kin.

They gotten an ounce of luck from the gods in the form of an old, abandoned shack of a hut. Kagome was safe in Inuyasha's arms as a roaring fire warmed them up inside out.

She allowed fresh tears to fall as he breathed a sigh of relief. "I-I love you, Inuyasha," she cried and buried her face in his chest. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"

Inuyasha merely placed a hand on the back of her head, allowing her to keep crying on his shoulder until she fell into a fitful sleep.

She awoke to sunlight on her face and Inuyasha's warm lips on her own.

"Don't say you're sorry, Kagome," he whispered as tears built up in her eyes again. "I'm in love with you because of you. Not the curse. I'm sure the other men before me did too." He sucked in a shaky breath, "If you die, I rather follow you than have another."

Kagome allowed him to kiss her again. She knew better than to stop what had already begun. As his love became known, a fate was carved out for her, awaiting her eighteenth birthday.

Then she turned seventeen and fallen ill.

It was only a few months after the storm. Inuyasha claimed the hut for themselves and remained by her bedside. He offered medicinal herbs but it did nothing to stave off the sickness.

Kagome's fever only went higher and her frequent coughs made her just short of breath. He held his breath for every round of coughs that shook her body, hoping after each cough would be her last so she could breathe again. Her body temperature rose and dropped to the point where she needed mountains of covers pulled on and off of her. When she claimed she was freezing, he would share his body heat with her, watching beads of sweat slowly form on her brow.

Inuyasha was exactly the loyal dog he was. The second she asked for something, he was one step ahead with water. He refused to fall asleep, afraid that if he did he would never see her lively brown eyes open again. Some nights as she slept, he let his tears slip as he watched her erratic breathing patterns. He knew his fate was with her.

It was on her eighteenth birthday when she spoke for the first time in months. Her weak, angelic voice made him sob as she gave him her last request.

"Live for me, Inuyasha," she whispered as she looked up at him with pleading eyes. "When I'm gone, I want you to live."

"Don't ask me that!" he growled hopelessly and rested his head on her chest, "Don't you dare ask me that!"

"Please," Kagome said, on the verge of tears herself. "I want you to be happy."

"Happy? Happy?" he snarled and lifted his head, "How can I be happy when- when-" Tears plopped on her face as he stared down at her.

"My soul will never rest. You know that," she smiled, "As much as I want you to be there with me, there are others who still live. They're in agony and I need you to comfort them."

Inuyasha was shaking his head as she continued, "Kouga, Sesshomaru, and Shippo. They were strong demons that managed to live on. I-I know they're still alive and mourning. Please, Inuyasha, I want you to live too. Live and help whom I left too soon to explain."

Kagome sucked in a heavy breath. "I love you. I always will love you. But we may never meet again. As soon as my soul passes, I am reborn. There is no afterlife for me and you will never find me," she closed her eyes for a moment. "This... is the first time I ever died slowly. It's... nice. I can talk to you one last time."

He bowed his head. "I will follow your wishes," he promised, "But I can't guarantee that I'll live like the others. I'm half-human, Kagome."

"For as long as you can," she replied, "Try to forget me. It'll ease your pain."

He didn't respond. Lowering his head, he gently kissed her cool lips. When she breathed her last breath, he didn't move from his spot. "I will always love you, Kagome," he whispered, "And I'll find a way for us to be together one day."

A/N: Trying to write, visualize, and cry during this story is hard. There will be a part two to this story following Kagome's death(I just made it sound like a good ending in case I forget).

Again, this was one of my older fics I haven't gotten around to until now (actually, I only had the little spell done at the top until I finally decided to fill it with a story)

Leave this story a review and tell me what you think!