Heartbeat

Well it's been a long time since the last chapter, and this has been sitting in my .txt file since I uploaded the second chapter. I'll explain why it took me so long to update at the bottom of the page. Enjoy.





Chapter 3:



"Inuyasha, do you not like seeing me like this?" She sounded completely serious. 'What am I talking about? I hope he doesn't think of me the wrong way after that.' She thought, mentally berating herself. "What?" Was his intelligent reply. She waved her hands in front of her and shook her head. "No, no it's nothing, I was just kidding. Besides, I really don't have anything else to wear." She said before turning away from him and sighing.



Shiori heard the rustling clothes before she felt the tap on the top of her head. She turned around to see Inuyasha standing behind her holding his fire rat shirt out to her. "Here, it's better than nothing." He finished it with a "Keh." and dropped the shirt on her head, then returned to his seat against the wall, the jewel rattling as he walked.



Shiori quickly put the fire rat clothing around her, it didn't fit very well and was pretty loose so she had to hold it or it would come open. She eyed the pink sphere against Inuyasha's chest and brought a finger to her lips. "Inuyasha, what's that thing you're wearing?" He was surprised she asked, he figured that all demons, and half demons, could sense the power in the jewel.



He slipped the necklace off and held the jewel in his hand, staring at it with a sad look in his eyes while he spoke. "It's the shikon jewel, it's what we had been looking for all those years ago." Shiori's lips formed an o shape as he continued. "I'm surprised you couldn't tell what it was, being so near it. Once we finished it, Kagome purified it, it's aura is much stronger than it was when I first happened upon it... Back then I... I... I don't remember." He scratched his head.



'The hell? What's with this gap in my memory?' Shiori waved a hand in front of his face and he snapped back to reality. "Huh? Oh, sorry, um what was I saying?" Shiori was a little shocked but didn't let it show, he had spaced out for several minutes there, and now his eyes looked blank as he looked into her's. "You were saying something about when you first found the jewel, then you spaced out."



"Oh. I don't remember anymore. All I remember was finding a village that held the jewel, and the next thing I can remember was waking up pinned to a tree." He stretched and turned his head to stare out the window, towards the moon. "Inuyasha are you sure you're alright?" She felt his forehead with her palm to make sure he didn't have a fever.



"Keh, I'm fine wench, knock it off." He brushed her hand away from him. "I just can't remember what happened is all, it must not be very important." He moved his hand in a dismissive gesture, forgetting the jewel was in his hand it slipped and rolled across the wooden floor of the hut. Shiori walked over to it and bent down to pick it up. "Wait!" Inuyasha jumped to his feet to try to stop her, but was too late.



A bright pink flash and a crackling sound, that's all Shiori noticed before she found herself on the floor doubled over in pain. It felt as if she had been struck by lightning, and she could do nothing but curl into the fetal position and hold herself. "Shiori!" Inuyasha picked her up and wrapped his arms around her in a protective manner. "Are you alright? I should have warned you." She shook in his arms, at that moment he felt horrible.



"The jewel... When we completed it, and Kagome purified it, it was filled with her priestess powers, it's strong enough to purify any demon that touches it." He stroked her hair. She finally spoke up. "But you were wearing it all that time." Her voice was weak and shaky from the near purification. He sighed. "Yes but I've gotten used to it, it's been ten years after all, I've been wearing it this whole time."



"You mean you've felt like this, for ten years?" She squinted, it was hard to open her eyes without her head pounding. "I'm okay with it, I've felt worse after all. Are you okay now?" He seemed genuinely worried about her, and that made her smile as he laid her back down. At her nod he went to pick up the jewel. "Inuyasha wait, why don't you just leave it for now? We're safe her, have you seen a demon since you got here?" She stood on shaky legs and walked over to him, pulling him back to her by his shoulders.



'How should I do this?' She thought to herself for a moment. It was hard, he was so much taller than her but she turned him around and made him kneel slightly so that they were face to face. "Inuyasha, do you think maybe the jewel is why you can't remember things?" Her face moved closer to his. "The priestess energy in the jewel, the strength of it could really hurt you, if you keep wearing it like that." Inches closer, they could feel eachothers breaths on their faces. "I don't want Inuyasha to be in pain." The tips of their noses touched, neither was breathing now. "Because ever since the day Inuyasha came here, when I was a child..." Their lips touched. A gentle, short kiss. "I fell in love with you."



Her bright red cheeks clashed with her pale skin. Inuyasha's own cheeks would match the color of his fire rat clothes as he stood there shocked. 'She just said... She loves me?' "Okay, I won't wear the jewel." She smiled at him, taking that as his confession to her. Her eyes widened and she gasped as he picked her up roughly. "But you should rest, you were hurt by it too." He smiled down at her and she stopped squirming in his arms. "Don't worry, I'm just taking you back to your room."



Inuyasha did just that, as he laid her down on her mat. "I'll cook dinner for you tonight." He kissed her forehead before heading back to the other room, where she had cleaned the fish. "Inuyasha wait." He turned around and anwered her with a "Yeah?" only to see her sitting there in only her undergarments again. "Here, I'll just wrap up in a blanket, you can have this back." She said as she tossed his shirt back to him.



"Yeah... thanks." He hurried out, the sight of her near naked body causing blood to rush to places other than his cheeks.



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Okay. So it's been weeks. Months maybe. The thing is, I wanted chapter 3 to be the last chapter, and I wanted to conclude the story and explain a lot more. But the day after I uploaded chapter 2, a bunch of crap happened in real life, and I lost my train of thought. I came back to the story a few days later, trying to finish it, but I couldn't even BEGIN to continue it. Tried it again today, still a complete blank.



Again, I really wanted to explain more in this chapter, why everything was going on how it was, and I may or may not have explained the holes in Inuyasha's memory, to be honest I don't even remember what I did and did not add in this chapter...



This story is discontinued unless it gets some interest, reviews, requests to continue, etc...