A Warm Embrace of the Heart

Mourning

A/N: SO, I DID A THING. And I just wanted to write some inukag feels with papa higurashi in it, there's honestly not enough of papa higurashi fanfics in my opinion. XD Anyway, Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, but the plot belongs to me. :)
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Inuyasha's POV
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"Where is that woman?!" Miroku sipped his tea peacefully, yet with an annoyed aura.
"Inuyasha, calm down, Kagome probably had some business to attend to at home," Sango spoke up.
"Yeah," Shippo piped up as he jumped onto Sango's shoulder. "She seemed different though, as if she was in a rush or something."
"Yes, I'm honestly kind of concerned," Sango said after a while.
"Maybe you should give her some time before going after her Inuyasha," Miroku pointed out. I groaned in annoyance, I hated it when these kind of situations occurred.
"Keh! Fine, an hour at the most then," I snapped. With that I jumped up into the trees and sprinted towards the well. I arrived and sat there, waiting anxiously for the hour to pass by. Time was seeming to take forever to pass by, I groaned in annoyance and frustration and leaped into the well. No sooner than after I blinked, I found myself back at the bottom of the well, but when I looked up the sky it was covered by the familiar oak wood brown that was the shrine covering the well. I leapt up and out of the well and pushed open the sliding door. I looked around the area surrounding the shrine, only much to my surprise, to find no activity occurring that and the fact that I could smell that no one was here. I frowned in concern and walked over to their house. I reached the side of the house that Kagome's room was in; I then leapt up onto the ledge of her window. As I expected, no one was there. I tried pulling her window open only to find it locked.
   "Locked? Damn, there must be something going on." She never locks that window because she knows that I can come at any time and her family all welcome  and accept me here. I frowned and jumped down from the ledge. I then started walking over to the front door to find that unlocked. Is someone home or not? I pushed the door open and walked in. The house seemed... vacant, of any life for that matter. Wait a minute, someone is here; I sniffed the air and looked towards the stairs. Kagome's mother then walked downstairs and smiled when she saw me.
   "Oh! Hello Inuyasha, what brings you here? I'm sorry, I thought I heard something from Kagome's room so I went to see what it was." She reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over to me. "Would you like something to eat?" I nodded silently and she chuckled softly to herself. "Go ahead and sit down at the table, I'll go prepare some ramen for you." I nodded again.
   "Thank you." I went and sat at the 'dining room' table, at least that's what Kagome called it, and waited patiently. A few minutes later, Kagome's mother came into the room with a tray in her hands. She set the tray down and took the bowl of ramen off of it and carefully placed it in front of me. I learned to pick up this habit before eating  from Kagome, 'thanking for the meal' is what she called it, at first the crazy ol' coot known as her grandfather got after me for not doing it. Then later on Kagome explained to me that it was a tradition from their culture, and since her family apparently comes from a long line of priests and priestesses, her grandfather was strict about that. I had learned to pick up that habit as a form of thanks and respect for everything that they've done for me, I had come to understand that everyone from our time are not the only ones who need her. Her family needs her, her other friends, heck the woman even has a full life ahead of her! And-
   "So, Inuyasha, what brings you here?" Mrs. Higurashi looked up at me patiently.
   "W-Well, I was wondering whether you knew where everyone was, Kagome left in a hurry and everything and everyone else was concerned for her. So I came to see what was wrong," I explained. Kagome's mother sighed and smiled.
   "I'm glad that Kagome has you and all of her other friends back in your time looking out for her, I'm not trying to pressure guilt onto you, but I worry a lot about Kagome. After all, you can honestly never say 'you know what life throws at you'. I that she wants to do this, and I won't stop her, and neither am I upset about it. She's just doing what she thinks is right, and I'm proud of her for that, but I honestly can't help but worry about how she is doing." I avoided her gaze, not wanting to face the truth of a mother's words, I didn't have one to listen to for most of my life as of right now. I loved my mother dearly, and I know how worried she could get when I got hurt or sick as a kid. "Please, don't doubt that I trust you, I know that you care about Kagome almost as deeply as we do, and I know you're a good person at heart. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said any of that. I don't know I've had a lot on my mind, and I honestly didn't know what to do," I gasped in surprise as tears started trickling down her face. "I-It's just that, I lost my husband when Kagome was a child, and today is the anniversary of his death. Father and I always dread this day, because then Kagome becomes upset, and she always blames herself for her father's death," she continued on, sobbing. I sat there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do. I reached around the table and carefully wrapping my arms around Kagome's mother.
   "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know..."
   "It's okay, I'm sorry as well, I guess I was just venting because of all of this stress. Kagome's at the cemetery, father is out at the store buying groceries with Sota." I nodded silently and let go of Mrs. Higurashi. She smiled at me and wiped her eyes.
   "Thank you, Inuyasha, for listening and all. I really appreciate it. Please, all I beg for is that you take care of Kagome, she's going to need some comforting more than she ever has before. I couldn't do very much myself to help her," she explained. I nodded again and thanked her for the information.
   "Kagome will be okay, I'll make sure of that myself." With that I left the house and jumped onto a nearby rooftop and kept jumping, looking for a cemetery. Kagome said that a cemetery was a place where people were buried with grave stones. I jumped around until I finally found the place that they had been talking about. I leapt down into the entrance of the place and looked around until I finally picked up Kagome's scent. I started walking towards the area where her scent was radiating from. After a bit of walking, I finally spotted the familiar head of raven colored hair. I walked over to her carefully and silently as to not alarm her.
   "I know you're there Inuyasha, I sensed your presence the moment you entered the cemetery." I flinched at how... distant her voice was. I gulped nervously, I had no idea how she'd react or what she'd do, I've never seen her act like this.
   "A-Are you okay Kagome?" She sighed and stood up, I unconsciously backed up a bit. I then noticed that her attire consisted of a black dress. She looked at me and smiled reassuringly, yet at the same time, that smile felt anything but reassuring, and she knows that.
   "Yeah, I'm perfectly fine," she lied. I looked at her face carefully and felt my heart break a little, she clearly has been crying a lot. "Are you ready to go back? I'll go with you, but, I'm g-going to n-need some time t-to change." Her voice cracked. I looked at her eyes, she had them closed and her hand was outstretched towards me. It was clear as day though, Kagome was on the verge of breaking down in tears, I could faintly smell the saltiness gathering behind her eyelids and her voice was cracking really bad too. Instead of answering her, I walked over to her and hugged her. I looked back at the grave lying innocently behind her.
   "Here lies Daichi Higurashi, a loving father, son, husband, son-in-law, and father of two. May his heart Rest In Peace," was what the grave stone read in neat cursive writing. I noticed that there was something else written on the bottom left corner, what it read was what completely made me realize how hard it has been for Kagome, even though I have no idea what really happened.
   "Daddy, I miss you a lot. I'm so sorry daddy." It took me a while to get out of my stupor, only to realize that Kagome really was having a breakdown, she was sobbing and heaving, screaming that she was sorry, something about if she hadn't gotten sick. I knelt down as she suddenly dropped to the ground, catching her in just the nick of time.
   "Kagome! Hey, Kagome! Look at me, are you okay?! Calm down, everything will be alright." I picked her up carefully in my arms and leapt back onto the rooftop to take her back to her home. It didn't take long at all before I arrived, I jumped onto the ledge of Kagome's window; thankfully it was unlocked now, so I set her down carefully on the bed. I turned around and closed the window and lied down next to her and held her close in my arms. My mother used to do this to me when I mourned over my father's death as a child, I hope this helps Kagome a bit.
   "Shh, calm down, it'll be okay. You're home now, everything is okay." I kept mumbling words that I thought would help to comfort and calm her down. Eventually, her sobs silenced and the flooding trail of tears had calmed to be a few tears. "Hey, go ahead and take a nap, okay?" I then noticed how cold her skin was. "How long have you been out there woman?! You're gonna get sick," I sighed in mild irritation, but that soon faded as I looked at her. "Here, I'll go get something warm for you to drink." I was turning to leave and walk downstairs when something grasped my wrist. I looked back to see Kagome looking up at me.
   "I-I'm sorry Inuyasha, I didn't mean to make you and everyone else worry about me." I turned to fully face her and knelt down beside the bed.
   "Keh, it's only natural that we worry about you, you're our friend. So don't be going around and getting yourself sick like that, okay?" She smiled at me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders and rested her head against my neck. I noticed my face started heating up slightly.
   "Thanks a lot, Inuyasha, I really needed to hear that." I sighed and wrapped my arms around her shoulders as well carefully and smiled.
   "No problem, Kagome. You know we're always here if you need us." She hummed in acknowledgement.
   "Yeah, thanks." We sat there like that for a few moments in blissful silence. "Hey, Inuyasha?"
   "Hmm?"
   "C-Can I lay down with you?" I looked at her curiously.
   "How come?"
   "Because, I don't think it's going to be the same as blankets," she nuzzled her face into my chest, "you're just too warm." I laughed lightly and crawled onto the bed with my back towards the wall, and facing her to look at me. We lied there in silence for a moment, but I just wanted to know what she had meant back then before I brought her back here.
   "So, what you were saying earlier, something about 'if you hadn't gotten sick' or something like that? Do you want to talk about it? If you don't, that's understandable to you, it seems like a tough subject. She sighed and nuzzled her head into my chest.
   "Yeah, sure, I've been looking for a way to get if off of my head anyway."
   "So," I started awkwardly. "Where do you want to start?" She hummed in thought for a moment.
   "Maybe at the beginning? Would that work?" I nodded silently.
   "Yeah."
   "W-Well, I guess I was about four or five years old when it happened. It was a rainy day, and I had gotten sick from playing outside for too long. So, mama brought me inside and rested me down on the couch. Papa later came in and lied down with me, I was starting to fall asleep while they were talking about going and getting me some medicine. After a while, papa kissed me on the forehead and picked me up and took me to my room. He lied me down on the bed and kissed my forehead again and told me that he loved me and that I would see him later. Then, papa took off to the pharmacy, but the storm got worse. Papa was driving when he died, apparently, the rain was so bad that he couldn't see out of his windshield and the guy who crashed into him didn't have his headlights on. Mama, grandpa, and I attended the funeral and a few weeks after that, Sota was born, and I've always felt like it was my fault that he never got to meet our father. If I hadn't been out in the rain for that long, I wouldn't have gotten sick," she trailed off. She was crying again, but not anywhere as bad as before. I wrapped my arm around her and held her head to my chest while she cried.
   "I-I'm sorry, I feel stupid, you lost of your parents, right?" I sighed and rested my chin against the top of her head.
   "Yeah, I did, but that doesn't mean that you don't have a right to be suffering like you were earlier. You and your father were really close, right? He seems like a good man Kagome, anybody would be suffering when they lose someone they love dearly." I sighed and kissed her forehead. "I would be suffering a lot if I lost you, but I'll make sure that that'll never ever happen, okay?"
   "Yeah, thank you again Inuyasha. I'd be pretty sad if I lost you too." I felt her heartbeat slow down and looked down to see her asleep. I held her hand in mine tightly, I promise, I'll never lose her. "Inuyasha," she mumbled tiredly.
   "Hmm?"
   "I love you," she whispered. I smiled softly and kissed her cheek as she closed her eyes.
   "I love you too, Kagome. Sleep tight, you need it."