When She Loved Me - By Rachel

When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful,
Every hour we spent together, lives within my heart.

It was a warm summers day. The sun shone brightly, making the glistening dew on the grass and leaves shimmer like a jewel. A small group walked down the a path, a shimmering group of hope and passion. At the front walked a hanyou and a taija, behind them a kitsune and a fire neko, and trailing behind a miko and a houshi. The miko was smiling brightly as the houshi spoke to her. Words of caring and comfort, talking of his past and what he wished for in his future as she listened. Every hour was locked in his memory, every one of her smiles and every giggle. He would never admit it, but he was falling.. And he thought she was as well.

“And then Mushin-san said..”

And when she was sad, I was there to dry her tears,
And when she was happy, so was I, when she loved me.

There was this one time when she appeared at the bottom of the well, as per usual, but she was not happy. Her eyes were always misted over, her voice distant and sad. It confused them all, but the hanyou was too busy with his dead miko, and the taija was too busy trailing her onii-san to realise. Only the houshi noticed, and only he acted.

“Kagome-sama?” He asked when they were alone for a moment, and she turned to him, tears in her eyes. She knew she could trust him, and so she did.

“My Jii-chan died yesterday,” She told him. “I didn’t even know he was ill.. I’m such a bad person!” The houshi shook his head.

“No, Kagome-sama. Your grandfather knew about your mission here, and he did not wish to worry you, for he knew that if you worried you could get hurt. He loved you very much, and he would like you to think of yourself as being bad,” Kagome looked up at him, and his thumb lifted, drying her tears. It was unsaid, but they both knew it was there, shimmering in each other’s eyes.

“Really, Miroku-san?” She asked softly.

“Yes, Kagome-sama. Now, let’s get back, Shippou will be worried.”

Through the summer and the fall, we had each other, that was all,
Just she and I together, like it was meant to be.

At the back of their group, they always held hands, but broke apart if the hanyou or taija looked back. It was there secret, lasting through the seasons. The hanyou thought the miko was his, both of them, and the taija hoped she held the houshi’s heart. The kitsune knew, but didn’t say a word. The fire neko knew, but couldn’t say a thing, so she sat by and watched, praying that hearts wouldn’t be too broken.

When they camped, it was always the houshi and the miko that went off together to fill up the water or collect the wood. The others thought nothing of it, it was less work for them after all. They always came back with a blush, or giggling, and the others just thought one of them had done something stupid. But the miko and the houshi knew. It was special. It would last.

And when she was lonely, I was there to comfort her,
And I knew that she loved me.

She had ran. The hanyou had been horrible to her as usual, and she had run, hiding from the cruel names and dark thoughts that followed wherever he went. He thought he owned her. The houshi glared at the red clad half-demon and chased after her, leaving a stunned taija behind. The kitsune smiled knowingly, and the fire neko mewled. They all blinked as the sound of his running feet followed and faded.

He soon caught up with her, touching her cheek softly as he smiled. She nuzzled into his, her loneliness and desolation disappearing at the sight and feel of him. Still, no words were spoken, but their thoughts were known.

So the years went by, I stayed the same,
And she began to drift away, I was left alone.
Still I waited for the day, when shed say I will always love you.

It had been three years, and she was different. She had left him to walk ahead with the hanyou. Ever since the death of the undead miko, she had been walking with him, laughing with him.. Seemingly falling with him as well. And the houshi stood in the background, his heart breaking. Now that her brother was free, the taija came to him and smiled her smile, glittering and caring as it had been with her, before she left.

He watched her still, her soft laughs that were once only for him, her smile that were his, as she hugged the hanyou with joy. It should have been him that she was hugging, not the person that had broken her heart, the person that had driven her away..

Still, he knew. He could still see it in her eyes. Was she just following what was expected of her? He could see it in her eyes still, and he was waiting for the day… Just waiting. He knew it would come, and his heart clenched at the thought. He hoped it would be soon, for he decided that it would kill him, quite literally, if it wasn’t soon.

Lonely and forgotten, never thought she’d look my way,
She smiled at me and held me, just like she used to do.
Like she loved me, when she loved me.

Naraku was gone. Finished by a blow from Tessaiga and then the miko’s arrow, the dark hanyou had been destroyed. At a price. Wounds from Naraku made the taija disabled, unable to use her legs. The red clad hanyou became blind, and hours after the battle, he committed suicide. To live without something he needed was a life he didn’t wish for. The miko and the houshi sent the taija, her fire neko and the kitsune cub back to the village. They needed to be treated the most.

They hung back, and when he turned to face her, he could see the true love shining in her eyes. He loneliness and how forgotten he felt left him at that moment, and she wrapped her arms around him, careful of his wounds. He wrapped his around her, the purple glove that once covered his hands gone, forever. His hand reached down, slowly and carefully, until he rubbed something he loved to rub more than anything. A teasing slap rang out around them as the miko cried “hentai!”

When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful,
Every hour we spent together, lives within my heart, When she loved me.

It was a year after that final battle. The taija had decided to marry her prince, who said he loved her even if she was no able to use her legs. He allowed the fire neko and the kitsune cub to stay with him, telling them that he needed strong demons to protect his palace. He offered the houshi, once his rival, and the miko, his wife’s best friend, and home as well, but they declined, hand in hand once more. But now, they didn’t have to hide it.

Returning to their home, or what had become their home, they lived beside the elderly miko until her death, where the younger miko took over the position, the houshi as her partner, lover and husband. They were married in the village, surrounded by new friends, and they were happy.

Soon, their home was filled with little Kagomes and little Miokus. Their laughter was a joy, and when their eldest son came home with a red handprint on his face and a perverted smile on his lips, so much like his father’s, the houshi turned to the miko and gave her an ‘I told you so’ look.

He had always said that it ran in his family. Now she knew it was true.