InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Bond Few Understand ❯ A Bond Few Understand ( One-Shot )

A Bond Few Understand

From Dana, To Luther

By Fay-of-Faerie

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Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha

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There are a lot of bonds in life that few can understand. One, (don't laugh) is between a girl and her cat. Dogs are wonderful, especially the silver haired and golden eyed ones, but cats are just so different. They refuse to do silly tricks for attention, yet somehow earn it anyway.

There is just something about the feline population that makes them so different.

These short and fuzzies are sly, cunning, smart, and feather soft. When you're upset, like if after a certain dog-boy insults you, a cat will listen as you rant. There is nothing better to do on a rainy day than to curl up with a good book and your cat, and read the day away.

Although one cat was highly unappreciated in the grand scheme of things, when he is gone, he will be missed. Without the lazy cat known as Buyo, two lives may never have been intertwined.

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`Damn wench! Yesterday morning she said she'd be back by noon today! It's almost dinner time!' Inu Yasha thought bitterly. Colors and shapes flashed by the edge of his vision as he raced through the Sunset Shrine's grounds.

Leaping lightly up from the ground, the boy landed on a window on the second story of the house: Kagome's window.

"You're late! I'm here to drag your ass back through the well. Shards are waiting," he growled as he stepped in onto the carpet. "Oi, bitch?!"

Kagome was just sitting there. She was right on the edge of her bed staring into the air in front of her. At Inu Yasha's questioning tone she slowly dragged her line of vision to him without turning her head.

Inu Yasha leapt back in horror as soon as he could see the young miko's face. `She crying!'

He hated it when women cried, especially his best friend. It made him feel uncomfortable and nervous and guilty. Said guilt, at the moment, had him pinning his ears flat back along his head. "-Er-Kagome?"

Kagome moved her watery gaze back to the oh-so-interesting air. "Mama took Buyo to the vet today. You know, the pet doctor?" Kag stated smoothly. Her voice was calm and indifferent, but Inu could smell the sadness rolling off of her in waves. "His obesity has caused real bad heart problems, he's suffering." At the last statement a stubborn tear forced its way out of her eye and made its way down her cheek, but she made no move to brush it away. "We have to put to him to sleep."

Inu Yasha didn't know what to say. What was so wrong with allowing an animal to take a nap when it was tired? He scowled at her back. He also hated it when Kagome made no sense---at least less than normal.

"Kagome, dear, the vet is here!" Mrs. Higurashi's voice floated up from downstairs. Mama had already done her crying for the house pet and decided it best not to mope around. However, Inu Yasha could easily hear the strain of her `cheery' voice.

"Coming Mama!" Kagome called back. Standing up stiffly, she made her way to the bedroom door. Pausing at the opening, she looked back over her shoulder. "I'm going to hold Buyo when they do it," Kag told him, and then frowned at his scowl. "You don't know what putting him to `sleep' means, do you? It means that I'm going to help kill my cat," she told him before walking out the door.

Inu Yasha stared at her retreating back. Since when did `sleep' mean death? Apparently, it did today. Scowling even more than usual, Inu squatted down and leaned against the wall to wait.

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Kagome nodded to the man before kneeling down and picking up her pet. Buyo instantly relaxed in her arms, and she cradled him to her chest, belly up. "It'll be over soon, Buyo," Kagome cooed to his calico head.

She gently kissed the feather soft fur on his forehead and nodded to the vet to continue.

He looked the teenager in the eyes, and the pity and sorrow was evident in his dark brown orbs, even though he had long been used to this part of the job. Taking out the first syringe, he inserted the sterile needle into Buyo's soft skin on his belly.

Kagome stroked his cool fur and the lazy cat soon gave into the impulse and was fast asleep. Buyo's breaths were slow and even. Kagome gently petted him some more as the vet brought out the second, and last, syringe.

He inserted the thick liquid; this time the syringe promised death and not just drug-induced sleep.

Kagome tightened her hold on her pet as the medicine did its job. Buyo's breath soon began to slow even more; the time between the intake and release becoming longer. In mere moments, too soon, the breaths stopped all together.

Kagome held him for a short while longer, kissing him one last time between the ears.

As the body began to grow cold and stiff, the vet took her dead pet away with promises to return the cat's ashes. Kagome had wanted to keep them in a special glass jar; Buyo was her pet...not Souta's, or Jiisan's, or even Mama's.

Kagome had taken care of Buyo since he was a tiny kitten.

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Kagome moved slowly back up the stairs.

The news of the event and the actual taking place of it had been too close together. Losing a precious pet was like losing a member of the family. Things wouldn't be the same without the fat feline.

Collapsing on her bed, Kagome did her impression of a statue again.

Standing up, Inu Yasha eyed the frail young woman. He scowled. What did you expect? He was a dog demon, after all.

"If-If B-Buyo-," A dry sob choked Kag as she tried to tell her demon friend something. But she had already cried, and wasn't going to again. She retried the words, "If Buyo had never been here, I never would have met you, Inu Yasha. Or Sango or Miroku or Shippou or Keade or Kirara or Kouga!" Kagome burst out.

Inu Yasha raised a questioning eyebrow, but decided against raging about the Kouga bit. Chewing his cheek to keep from bursting out yelling, he scowled and waited for Kagome to continue.

"If Buyo had never gotten lost on my fifteenth birthday, all those months ago, I never would have gone into the well house to find him. If I was never in there, Mistress Centipede never would have brought me through. I would have stayed a normal girl in Tokyo." Kag lay down on her side on top of the covers and began to go to sleep, to take a nap. The day was too stressful.

'I'm glad I'm not just a normal girl in Tokyo...' the ebony haired girl sighed mentally.

Inu Yasha nodded as he put one foot up onto the window sill before looking at her again. "Three days. You have three days before I drag you back!" He threatened lamely. It was just too half-hearted to be taken seriously.

Kagome nodded, "See you soon, Inu Yasha," she whispered, her voice hoarse from held back sobs.

Inu Yasha mumbled something like `damn wolf' before leaping out of the second story window to go back to prepare for her return when they could go shard hunting again. Kagome drifted off into sleep, tears slipping through her eyes as she thought not only of her deceased cat, but also of the fate that had brought her to the Feudal Era.

Buyo was gone, and soon she'd return to her friends and second family in Feudal Japan and work on the Shikon no Tama. But for today, it'd be okay if she took a break.

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Inu Yasha stood frowning and grumbling at the lip of the well.

Preparing the jump that would take him back to his home, he looked down into the darkness. The memory of the beginning of his journey, the meeting of Kagome, flashed lazily before his eyes.

Glancing back at the house one last time before jumping in, he thought about the now late feline friend. The only other cat besides Kirara that he'd ever semi-gotten along with.

`You may be a stinking, feline blooded beast, but-,'

"Thank You."

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Dedicated to Luther, a cat that has been a good pet and friend for longer than I have been alive.