Chapter Text
Kagome didn’t realize how fragile she was. How fucking delicate. How human.
Did she not notice how slowly her wounds healed? How a wine-dark bruise would mar her skin for days; how fangs and claws and all the sharp things in the world left cuts and gouges that took weeks to seal up. Left criss-crossing scars across the flesh of her arms, her thighs, her neck. There were times he feared she’d never heal at all, just bleed and bleed and bleed until she was still and cold and quiet.
It was why he would take hit after hit for her. Curse himself each time she staggered from a fight battered and bloody: just more proof of how he failed her.
Because Inuyasha healed in days, if not hours.
Sometimes he healed so quickly he could feel the strain of his muscles, skin, blood vessels, skin knitting itself together.
He never hated himself more than when he compared his unblemished skin with hers.
And he never loved what he was more than when he was able to shield her from a blow, as if that was what he was born to do.
Protect her. From everything.