o-o-o-o-o-o

“Why can’t you tell me where we’re going, Yash?” Why does he always do this to me?

“So impatient,” Yash sighs, his expression carefully bland.

Impatient? I‘ve been at the mall all morning with my friends, who I haven’t seen all summer, and I was looking forward to a relaxing afternoon. But when I got home Yash was sitting on the shrine steps waiting for me, claiming that he had something to show me, and he dragged me off before I could even get in the door. Fifteen minutes later, I’m still hungry and my feet are tired, and there’s no destination in sight. Really, I’d much rather be cuddling with him on the couch.

Impatient? Keh. “If you don’t tell me right this instant, Nishimoto Yash, I’ll deny you ear rubs for a week.”

Yash stumbles slightly, and glares at me when I giggle.

“We’re here,” he mutters darkly. I blink, and look around. There’s nothing on this side of the street except a thickly wooded hill, walled off by a high, forbidding barbed wire fence with a scary-looking Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted sign.

“Uh, Yash?” I say confused. “There’s nothing—eeek!”

Yash has a really bad habit of grabbing me without warning or permission, but I’m more or less used to it by now. It’s just the initial surprise of it that always gets me. With one light bound, we’re standing in the soft grass on the other side of the fence.

“Yash,” I hiss, clutching at his shoulders. “It says no trespassers!”

“I know,” he says calmly, gently detaching himself from my grasp and starting up the hill, disappearing into the undergrowth.

“Yash!” I call after him, running to catch up. “We’re not supposed to be here! What if somebody sees us?”

That’s when I notice the small grin hovering around Yash’s lips. He’s laughing at me!

“Relax, Kagome,” he says. “It’s Nishimoto land.”

Urg! Of all the infuriating…! I hit his shoulder, hard, but his grin only widens. “You big jerk!” I inform him, scowling as he chuckles.

I’m hardly mad, though. Out of the corner of my eye I see Yash reach up to rub furtively at his shoulder, and I can’t keep up the pretense any more. Laughing, I sidle back up to him and take his hand.

It’s the end of summer now, and some of the leaves are already starting to turn colors. Graduation feels like ages ago. My first year of college starts tomorrow, and I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited. After all, Yash is going to be there too. We spent the summer traveling together, growing even closer as we backpacked through South America, including a lot of more remote places. Yash said something incomprehensible about wanting to visit the loneliest places we could find so that he yell out how much he loved me, and make them a little less lonely. He was true to his word, too.

Leaning up, I quickly kiss his cheek. He arches an eyebrow at me, his golden eyes glittering with good humor. “What was that for?”

“For being you,” I smile back.

Yash just shakes his head and keeps walking up the hill, but I see his expression soften around his eyes.

The undergrowth is actually pretty thick, and there’s no sign of a path, so progress is slow. I’m concentrating so hard on not snagging my clothes on twigs or tripping over a root that I don’t realize we’ve reached the top of the hill, until Yash stops so abruptly I nearly walk into him.

“We’re here,” he says quietly, pushing up a branch so I can pass. His face is strangely serious as he watches me, and I feel a bit of trepidation as I step past him…and emerge in a small, grassy clearing.

Oh, it’s beautiful! The sunlight shines through the green grass, and the bright new autumn colors on some of the trees add bursts of fiery color to rival the wildflowers scattered around the clearing. Standing here, high above the noise of the street, you would never think that you were in the middle of a city.

Yash rests a hand on my shoulder, and silently points with the other. I gasp.

It’s Inuyasha’s grave.

I… I never thought that it would have lasted all these years. I didn’t want to look for it, for fear that it had long since been bulldozed over. But here it is, immaculate, free of overgrowth except for the grass around the time-worn gravestone, marked with a single word. Inuyasha.

“I didn’t know about it until Dad told me recently.” Yash says quietly. “He said that your friends Sango and Miroku took care of it for years, until they passed away, and then their children did. But people died, or moved…” his voice trails off. “Anyway my dad was the only one who knew about it any more. He took care of it, made sure it wasn’t disturbed.”

I bite my lip. Thank you, Sesshoumaru.

Yash gives my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Take as long as you need,” he murmurs, his hand falling from my shoulder. “I’ll be over here.”

I nod, not trusting my voice to speak.

Slowly I approach the gravestone and kneel on the soft earth in front of it. Reaching out, I slowly trace the worn characters of Inuyasha’s name, tears in my eyes.

Inuyasha.

His presence still lingers here, at least for me. I close my eyes, remembering… remembering the happy times, and the fights, and the osuwaris; his smile, and his good heart, and his over-protectiveness. Camping and ramen and friendship and the thrill of battle….

I sit there for a long time. Tears roll down my cheeks, but for once they don’t hurt. The sun feels warm on my skin; a light breeze flutters in my hair, and my heart is healed.

I love you, Inuyasha. Thank you… Thank you for everything.

With a soft smile I lean forward and briefly rest my forehead against the gravestone, before rising to my feet.

Yash is sitting over at the far end of the clearing, his back to me as he toys with a piece of grass. His hair is silver now; I guess he feels secure enough here to revert to his true form. A butterfly fluttering around Yash’s head perches on one of his silver dog ears, and the ear flicks, sending the butterfly spiraling off through the air.

I giggle, and he looks around at me, standing up as I approach.

“Hey,” he says softly, carefully brushing away my tears with one clawed hand. “Are you okay?”

I nod, and reach for him. He quickly envelops me in a warm, gentle embrace, running his hand through my hair. I sigh, and snuggle closer.

I told Yash, the night that we made up, that he saved me. And I meant that. A year ago I was broken, a shadow of my former self. Now…

Now, I am happy. And I am not afraid anymore, because I have Yash with me, and I dwell within the shelter of his love.

And the boundless, glorious future stretches out before us.

o-o-o-o-o-o

There is a tinge of sadness to Kagome’s scent, but the gratefulness in her eyes as she looks up at me is clear. I’m glad that bringing her here was the right decision.

“If you’re ready, why don’t you go ahead and start back down. I’ll catch up in a sec,” I tell her.

Kagome nods, and kisses my cheek. Giving the grave one last glance, she smiles, and walks back into the trees, disappearing from view. I gaze after her for a moment, listening to her receding footsteps, before moving over to stand before the grave.

“Hey man,” I say quietly. “How’s it going?”

The breeze stirs up the scents of the forest, warm earth and flowers and wood. I close my eyes. The usual smells of the city are much weaker here, and as accustomed as I am to them, I definitely appreciate their absence.

I take a deep breath before opening my eyes and speaking again. “So there’s this girl, Kagome…” I grin crookedly. “I love her, very much. She means—everything, to me.”

I slip a hand into my pocket, and close my fist tightly around the small velvet box there. I don’t know if Kagome realizes it, but today is the first anniversary of the day we met—the day she tripped in front of the school, and I helped her up. So much has happened since then—it feels like she’s always been a part of my life.

I figure I’ve waited long enough.

“Thank you, Inuyasha—for always protecting her, and keeping her safe.” I swallow. “I promise—I promise I’ll always do the same. I’ll make her as happy as I possibly can, and I’ll always be there for her, through everything, and support her, and give her a family, if she wants one too. I promise I’ll love her as much as she deserves, forever.”

I promise…

Fuck, now I’m all choked up. I rub at my eyes with the heel of my hand, and snort at my own pathetic-ness. I better not cry at my wedding, or I’d never hear the end of it.

“You think she’ll say yes?” I muse aloud, and then chuckle to myself. “She’d better, after all that shit she put me through.”

Of course, I forgave her for that a long time ago. How could I not?

I take a step forward, reaching out to touch the gravestone. “We…We’ll never forget you, Inuyasha.”

I stand there for a moment, savoring the feeling of peaceful calm that comes over me, like the warm summer breeze. The burden of my worries and fears lightens, and my mind is clear. Of course Kagome will say yes. She loves me.

“See ya,” I whisper. And, turning, I leave the clearing and start down the hill—towards the woman I’m going to ask to marry me, tonight.

Kagome’s sitting in the grass near the bottom of the hill. She jumps up when she sees me coming, her eyes lighting up. “There you are,” she says, meeting me half-way and giving me a hug.

I pluck a leaf from her hair and put two fingers under her chin, tilting her face up so I can kiss her. Gently, because there’s still a slight, quiet sadness to her scent, and I don’t want to bruise her sensitive emotions. But Kagome surprises me by deepening the kiss, tracing her tongue over my fangs and pulling me closer against her, setting my nerves on fire. “Yash,” she breathes against my lips, sighing happily, and the last hint of her sadness fades away. “You’re wonderful, you know that?”

“Keh. You’ve only just figured that out now?”

She laughs. I press another brief kiss to the corner of her mouth before I pull away, nipping lightly at her earlobe as I do so just to hear her gasp. She does, of course, and I close my eyes against the surge of desire I feel for her. The things you do to me, Kagome…

“Come on Kagome, let’s get you home. I’m taking you out to dinner tonight.”

“Oh, really?” she says dryly, as I disguise my hanyou features once more. I felt that it would be disrespectful to conceal myself, up there on that hill. Wrapping an arm around Kagome’s waist, I jump out of the woods, and back over the fence.

“And just when,” she continues as we land on the other side, “were you going to ask me?”

I give her my best Bambi eyes. It works better with the dog-ears, but oh well. “Uh, right now?”

“Fine,” she says, throwing up her hands, muttering something about impossible puppies. “But only if that means I can claim couch time with my Yashie-kun when we get back to my house.”

I growl at her in mock anger, putting my nose right up against hers. She loves to tease me with that stupid pet name.

“Only,” I demand, “If I can have an ear-rub.”

She appears to ponder that for a moment, even though I know she loves giving ear-rubs almost as much as I do receiving them. Then she smiles, her blue eyes sparkling at me.

“Only,” she says softly, sliding her arms around my neck, “If I can have a kiss?”

I chuckle deep in my throat. “Yeah,” I tell her, nuzzling her gently. My love. My mate. My Kagome. I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her closer, unable to keep the smile off my face.“Yeah, I think I could manage that.”

o-o-o-o-o-o

o-o-o-o-o-o

THE END

o-o-o-o-o-o

o-o-o-o-o-o

A/N: (Stares at worn-out toothbrush) My dentist is going to hate me… or love me, depending on how you look at it. ;)

I am very proud of this epilogue, haha. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I did writing it:D :D (euphoria!):D :D

Note: Any future changes to this story will be (minor) revisions only. No more chapters, and no sequel.

Now—on to Unleashed!

Review review review!

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o-o-o-o-o-o

Speaking of which…

Thank you SO much to all of my reviewers, especially those of you who reviewed multiple times. I tried to get all your names down, so if I missed you it’s not because I don’t love you, it’s because my copy and paste skills suck.

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