A/N: Props to Diana for convincing me of the greatness of InuYasha. Idea inspired by Revena on Ashwinder, so some credit goes to her. Though not my first fic, it is my first InuYasha fanfic ever... don't be too harsh... It's a vignette.

Necessary

"I'm sorry, Kagome... koishii..." he said, trailing off.

Her eyes dropped from from his face to his his hands, stained with blood. He stiffened, wondering if he should have taken a moment to clean up so as to look more somber for the occasion, before dismissing the notion. She was used to seeing him like this, and it wasn't as if he was uncivilized.

There had been nothing civilized about her lover, anyway. Unkept hair, baggy kimonos, exposed scars and scabs - he was a visual nightmare. He had been rough and brash, impulsive and quick to anger. It was a miracle that he had lived as long as he had.

There had been some good in him, he supposed, or the miko wouldn't have fallen in love with him like she had. He had been merciful and even gentle at times, his affection for the miko girl softening his heart, making him smile.

But InuYasha had also had that... that wildness in him. Deep inside, not clearly apparent, it had lain dormant, waiting to strike out, always just emerging, surfacing in his eyes, in the motions of his body, in his voice...

"What happened?" she asked. Her upset voice drew his attention away from his musings, and he looked at her, his eyes soft.

She was clasping her hands together tightly, holding them between her knees, sitting rigidly on the edge of the bone-eater's well. Sango had prepared her for the bad news, greeting her when she had returned from her trip to her own era, telling her to wait at the wall, that something had happened, but leaving the task itself to him. How fitting, he supposed, to wait for news of death in a place where the dead refused to stay silent, no mater how carefully one covered them up.

He sank down beside her, his hands now at rest on his own knees, pointing towards her slightly.

"It was necessary," he said softly. "He was out of control, his youkai blood surging. He was endangering everyone, killing innocents as he moved closer towards your friends hidden in the woods." He paused, watching tears gather in the young woman's eyes. "I blame myself. If I could have only gotten the Tessaiga back to him..."

"Don't blame yourself, Kouga," she said, her voice wavering as tears began to stream silently down her cheeks. She unclenched her hands long enough to impatiently wipe them away.

He produced a handkerchief and patted her back gently, tentatively, issuing a silent invitation. He almost held his breath in the long moment before she accepted, sliding over a few inches on the well, allowing him to enfold her in his arms.

"It'll be okay, aisuru," he murmured, his lips against her silky raven locks. He could feel the wetness of her tears slide down his skin, her body shuddering against his as she sobbed silently into his chest, the longed-for warmth of her body seeping through his clothes. "It'll be okay."

Oh, yes. It had been necessary.

Very necessary.

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