InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Slayer of Nightmares ❯ Chapter Six ( Chapter 6 )

Slayer of Nightmares

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Chapter 6

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Author's notes: There's some fairly tame citrus in this chapter. (Smut, for the non-anime fans. LOL.)

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Willow woke sometime around twelve-oh-dark at night, after turning in early. The hotel room should have been pitch black, but there was a blue glow coming from Buffy's bed. She lifted her head, heart pounding, expecting to see something supernatural in the room. It would be far from the first time.

Tap ... tap ... tappity-tap-tap.

Buffy sat there, cross-legged on the bed, a laptop computer open before her. She was typing with two fingers, hunt-and-peck style.

"Buffy?" Willow said, sleepily.

"G'back to bed, Wil," Buffy said.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Research on something."

Willow contemplated that for a moment, lifted her head, and regarded Buffy with great suspicion. "Okay, who are you and what did you do with Buffy Summers?"

Buffy's brief answering grin was brilliant white in the glare from the laptop screen.

"Buffy doing research. In the middle of night. The world is ending, isn't it?" Willow rolled over onto her stomach and squinted at the clock radio. It said '11:53'. "Please tell me the world isn't ending. I don't have any room in my schedule for an apocalypse right now. It needs to wait until September. I might be able to fit it in then."

"Go back to bed, Wil."

"You know I'd look up whatever you needed." Willow was wide awake now, because this was weird and unusual behavior from Buffy. Not that Buffy wasn't smart enough to do her own research -- witness SAT scores higher than Willow's own -- but she was generally not interested. Buffy was a leader and a warrior woman; she was not a research geek. "That's sort've my job."

"Wouldn't ask you to do this one," Buffy said, quietly.

"It's about Inuyasha," Willow guessed -- accurately, by the frowny look Buffy gave her. "What happened with you and Spike, anyway?"

Buffy sighed. "Not so much the happy reunion."

"Is he an item with that other Slayer?"

"Who, Kagome? No. Kagome has the hots for Inuyasha." Buffy answered that casually, almost absently.

"Thereby proving that you are not the only Slayer in existence to fall in love with an evil demon," Willow said, then batted aside the pillow that Buffy shot in her direction.

"It's not really funny, Wil. I've been doing some reading on Inuyasha. We looked up inu-youkai in general, remember? But we never thought to see if he had a history of his own. And he does. A significant one. As a good guy. Both with Kagome, and later, over the last few centuries -- he's taken out a few significant big bads. He's stopped a few apocalypses, even, and was involved in closing a Hellmouth in Mongolia in the 1800's. Inuyasha's supposed to be very much the white hat type dude ..." Buffy trailed off. "The demon woman we killed? Was his wife. They've been fighting the good fight for centuries."

"Huh?" Willow sat up. Buffy was right; they'd just researched his species, not anything specific about him. He'd sounded reasonably easy to kill -- at least, compared to some of the big bads they'd taken down. He was tough, but certainly not invincible, particularly against white magic. She gave him ten days, tops, before he was dead of the spell she'd hit him with. To find out he wasn't one of the big bads ...

"Here. Read." Buffy stood up, unhooked the laptop from its power cord, and passed it to Willow. "I'm going to go patrol. Need to go dust a few vampires or something."

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"Man, that was a good movie!" Kagome was still laughing when they emerged out into the parking lot, hours after leaving her apartment. They'd watched a funny but forgettable comedy -- to her delight, Inuyasha had really laughed, for the first time since she'd found him; softly, but he had. Even in the past, he'd laughed only rarely.

Some of the things he'd been amused by surprised her. The comedy had featured quite a few American cultural in-jokes and she'd only understood about half of what had made the rest of the audience howl with appreciation. She remembered the books, DVDs, and music that filled Inuyasha's house, and smiled faintly. Five centuries. The fact that he gets popular culture more than I do now -- it drives all the time he's lived in the world home.

He smiled at her, though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. They remained troubled -- as well they should, she thought, humor fading. His laughter earlier had made her forget, for a moment, what he faced if they couldn't beat the spell. "Kagome?"

"Yes?"

He murmured, "Thank you. For everything. Past and present."

She gave him a startled sideways look. 'Thank yous' from Inuyasha were rare, but heartfelt when he issued them without prompting.

"You've been hurting," she said, quietly, understanding that he was feeling bad for the way he'd treated her in the beginning.

"I miss her," Inuyasha said, sadly. He tucked hands into his pockets and walked beside her towards her car. "I'll always miss her."

Impulsively, she put an arm around his thin shoulders and hugged him against her as they walked. He didn't resist, somewhat to her surprise. She said softly, "You'll be okay eventually. I'm here with you."

"I'm starting to realize that." He leaned back, away from her, stopping when they reached her car. Brown eyes studied her, illuminated by a streetlight. A smile played about his lips -- sad, wistful, but honest. "I was so angry, Kagome. So really angry. I was all alone -- nobody to talk to, nobody to tell ... anything to. I ... it helps, you know. To talk to you."

He brushed her hair back from her face, then cupped the side of her face in the palm of his hand. "Kagome, I think I remember you made me feel this way before, too. And I haven't always treated you the way you deserved."

"You shouldn't feel guilty, Inuyasha. Both of us made mistakes."

He met her eyes, smile fading. "I feel guilty for past and the now. The right now."

There was a hunger in his eyes -- a desperate, wild, lonely hunger. Once upon a time, when they'd only known each other a few days -- maybe weeks, at most -- he'd moved to kiss her. And she'd panicked and fallen over backwards and it had been an embarrassing mess. She'd been what, fifteen? His eyes hadn't looked like this, then. It was as if he was baring his soul to her.

"Inuyasha ..." she said, stepping towards him. There was a huge difference between a naive fifteen and a confident twenty, she thought, remembering her reaction years before ...

Kagome reached for him and he eagerly stepped into the circle of her arms, his own hands wrapping around her to crush her to him. The kiss that followed made her tingle all the way to her toes. She'd dreamed of embracing him like this since almost the first day she'd met him ... but the reality was so much more real than anything her imagination could provide.

Somehow, she found herself up on the trunk of her car, knees on either side of his hips, and arms around his neck. She was glad the car was there; she wasn't sure her legs could have supported her weight. And after, she would never be able to remember how she moved from standing and kissing him to sitting on the trunk.

After a moment, he leaned back a little, and rested his forehead against hers, and just held her. "Kagome ... if you don't break the spell on me, well, you know what's gonna happen. If you don't want to ... go any farther, I'd understand." His breath ruffled her hair, and when she transferred her hands from his shoulders to his chest she could feel his heart beating under her hands. It was racing; she wasn't sure if that was emotion or, disturbingly, illness.

"Inuyasha, if I fail, I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering what could have been between us." She answered him quietly, reminded of his mortality by the rapid pulse under her fingers. She would give everything she had to save his life -- but if everything she had wasn't enough, and if all they had was a few days, so be it. She was willing to take that chance, if he was.

Though the way he talks about Amelia ... does he even really love me? Is it even possible?

She didn't know. She hadn't known with Kikyo, either. There was an uncomfortable sense of familiarity in that uncertainty. Maybe I'll never be sure. But if I can bring him some small measure of peace ... I'll do what I can. And not regret it. Even if this turns out to be loneliness and not love on his part, I'll not regret it. Because maybe I can ease his loneliness for awhile, until he's stronger. And I love him.

"I'm going to beat this spell. I have to," she whispered.

"Keh. That you do. Or I'll come back as a spirit to bitch at you later." Light words, joking, to hide his very real fear that she could not break the other witch's curse. He slid his hands up to cradle the back of her head and pulled her close for another kiss. She realized with deep relief, He wants to live. Did I change that in him? Did I give him the reason he needed?

"Sorry to interrupt," a voice said, not sounding very sorry at all, "But I need to talk to you two."

Inuyasha ripped free of her grasp with a snarl -- it was amazing how, even human, he could growl like that. There was pure and complete menace in the sound he make. His lips rose over blunt human teeth and he crouched, seconds from attacking. She hopped off the trunk of the car, landing lightly, her own startlement quickly turning to alarm.

Buffy stood, arms folded, regarding them with evident amusement. "I've been here about five minutes. Like, I understand the smoochies and all with the very hot demon guy, but Kagome you really ought to get a room before you get distracted next time. It's dangerous out here."

Inuyasha sprang, blunt human fingers curved so that he would have been lethally dangerous if he'd had claws. Buffy dropped into a deadly crouch of her own, and Kagome realized that Inuyasha could die from the first blow that Buffy threw ... he was human and Buffy could hit him that hard.

"Osuwari!" she shouted, in fear of what would happen. Buffy'd slay him and then make some witty little comment, and laugh, and think she'd done something grand and wonderful, and never even understand who she'd just murdered..

He did a face plant at Buffy's feet -- unfortunately, she was lunging towards him at the same time. She tripped over him, and landed on top of him with a grunt of surprise. Kagome leaped forward, grabbed Buffy by the arm, yanked her off Inuyasha, and crouched between her and the hanyou. "Touch him and I will kill you, woman."

"Sweet trick." Buffy nodded at Inuyasha, who was making strange squeaking noises. Since he wasn't swearing, Kagome thought she might have knocked the wind out of him. "I need one of those necklaces for Spike."

"You'd kill Inuyasha in a fight right now," Kagome said, anger touching her voice. And Spike doesn't need a rosary. Is she nuts? Spike had impressed her quite a bit with his ability to think. She met Buffy's gaze head-on with a grin of challenge. "However, in a fight between the two of us, I think I've got a decent chance. Why don't you take me on instead?"

Inuyasha made a choking, whooping noise as he finally sucked a full breath of air into his lungs. "Kagome, no!" Inuyasha sounded panicked. She heard him trying to stand up. Yeah, he's in 'save the girl' mode! She would need to cure him of that eventually; she wasn't the breakable little girl she had been.

"Osuwari!" She repeated, before he got high enough that he'd be hurt by another face plant. "And stay down!"

"Kagome, she'll kill you!" Inuyasha fought the rosary -- she could hear him panting and thrashing behind her. "Kagome, no! I couldn't bear to lose you too! No! I'd be alone!"

"Shush," Kagome said, not looking back now. "And osuwari," she repeated, to ensure he'd stay put for the next several minutes. The last thing she needed was a human (and ailing) Inuyasha complicating matters with Buffy. She had a plan -- it was wild and reckless but it just might work

"Kagome!" He wailed.

Buffy said, eyebrows raising, "That's ... handy. Does he shake hands and roll over on command too?"

Kagome ignored Inuyasha ferocious sputtering in response to Buffy's words. She fixed Buffy with a deadly glare. "I've had just about enough of your little comments. I don't think that's very funny."

"Anybody ever tell you that your sense of humor is seriously lacking?" Buffy sounded offended that Kagome was irritated by her irreverent attitude.

It's not a joking matter, what she did to Inuyasha's wife. I can't believe she'd make light of this fight. People have died. Kagome reached into her pocket and thumbed the trunk release on her key fob. The trunk popped open. Almost absently, she repeated, "Osuwari!" -- Inuyasha had been about to get up to his hands and knees. She winced, hoping she wasn't doing him any permanent damage. But the rosary seemed to base how hard it 'sat' him on how angry she was -- and she wasn't mad at him at all, she just didn't want him fighting the Slayer.

"Fucking A, Kagome, let me up! Kagome! I swear to God, if you die, I'm going to follow up to the gates of Hell if necessary and kick your ass!"

"You wouldn't happen to be able to mute dog-boy too, would you?" Buffy frowned at Inuyasha.

"What, are your ears offended by a little well-earned profanity?" Kagome was surprised when the other Slayer didn't stop her from opening the trunk of her car. Buffy's attention was still on the hanyou -- which, Kagome supposed, wasn't entirely irrational. Buffy had no way of knowing how long Inuyasha would have to stay down, and it was Inuyasha who was being overtly threatening.

"Look, we need to talk again." Buffy sighed, finally looking away from the spectacle of the dark-haired man flatted on his chest on the asphalt of the parking lot. "Kagome ... Inuyasha ..." she nodded at the hanyou, who had been reduced to sputtering in Japanese at her. Kagome was rather glad Buffy didn't seem to understand any Japanese. "We need to talk about a few things."

"Yeah, we do." Kagome reached down, wrapped her hand around the quiver of arrows in her trunk, and charged the whole bundle. Swiftly, in one fluid movement, she pulled them out, concentrated for a second, turned around and threw the whole dozen arrows with intent at Buffy, like a fistful of darts.

Buffy flung a hand up. Some of the arrows collided with her fingers and the rest bounced off her shirt. One or two left scratches on her arm. Purifying light flared, and Buffy gasped and stumbled backwards. Gotcha! Kagome thought, with supreme satisfaction.

"What -- what was that?" Buffy said, in shock. She stood frozen.

It was Inuyasha who spoke next -- he propped himself up on his elbows as the rosary started to release him and said, with a note of keen appreciation, "Kagome, that was pure genius. Way to end the fight before it started!"

"I don't ... I don't understand." Clearly, Buffy sensed something had been done to her. She shook her head, puzzled. "This is so of the weird .. what did you do to me?"

"Slayer powers are demonic in origin," Inuyasha slowly clambered to his feet. He was moving stiffly, obviously bruised and hurting. Kagome felt a brief stab of guilt at that -- but Buffy would have killed him in a fight. "She just purified you. You're just an ordinary human, now, woman."

"You ... that's impossible." Buffy stalked towards Kagome, and grabbed her shirt, obviously intending to hold her up by her collar. She strained, and couldn't lift Kagome at all ... Kagome easily broke Buffy's grip with a contemptuous swat of her hands, then drove her fist into Buffy's stomach.

With a painful -- and rather startled-sounding -- woof of exhaled air, Buffy doubled over. Kagome balled her fists up, intending to hit the other woman on the head and finish the fight before it started, but suddenly Inuyasha was there, grabbing her wrists with his hands.

He shook his head, dark hair swishing back and forth. "Don't."

Kagome could have pulled free of his grasp, but his tone of voice arrested her still. It was almost pleading.

Buffy ducked away from them. She tossed her hair back over her shoulder and regarded Inuyasha with wide eyes. Sounding almost awed, she said, "Why did you stop her?" Then her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Do you want to fight me yourself? 'Cause I'm all for that, Rover."

Inuyasha gave her a disgusted look, then said in a somewhat shaky voice to Kagome, "Miko, you kill her, it's murder. I can't ... I can't have you ... not for me. Do you understand? I don't want ... don't want you to be a murderer. Not like I am."

He averted his face from both of them, trembling. Kagome could see terrible guilt and grief written on his face, and in the lines of his thin frame.

"I wasn't going to kill her," Kagome said, indignantly. "Beat the shit out of her, maybe."

Inuyasha gave her a sideways look. "Even so. You're good, Kagome -- that's always been your greatest strength, the goodness in your heart. You hurt her, you lose something of that. Do you understand? I won't have you compromise that for me. Not ever." He exhaled a long, shuddering breath. "Nothing is ever going to bring Amelia back; I won't have you making yourself dirty for me."

Buffy had been very quiet, watching them. Kagome was a little surprised the other woman hadn't bolted. She had guts that extended beyond those inspired by Slayer Super-Powers, apparently. Finally, Buffy spoke, "The thing is, I wasn't coming to fight with you two."

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, suspiciously. He growled.

Buffy tossed her hair back again, and met his gaze. "Way to make a girl feel guilty n' all, you know?"

"Get to the point," Kagome snapped. Buffy was -- well, not helpless, but at least far less of a threat -- than she had been earlier, but that didn't mean Kagome was anywhere near willing to make friends.

"I thought you were a monster, Inuyasha." Buffy said, voice quiet -- she sounded very shaken. She said in a quieter tone, "Now I see we both were."

"Inuyasha's never been a monster!" Kagome's defense of him was instinctive, almost a spinal-level reflex. She took a step towards Buffy, and Inuyasha grabbed her arm again.

"Kagome, let's go." Inuyasha's tone was strained -- when she glanced at him, she could tell he was pale even under the harsh glow of the streetlight. "Buffy, you're right. We've both acted like monsters. I've had enough of this fight between us. Have you?"

Buffy sounded almost like a little girl when she said, "Kagome -- i-is what you did to me -- is it, like, permanent?"

Kagome said, with a grin that could only be described as evil, "Guess you'll find out."

"Wait!"

Inuyasha was already walking away, towards the passenger side of the car. Kagome turned to follow him, leaving Buffy alone under the light.

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Kagome felt Inuyasha's gaze on her for half a block before she said, "What?"

"I don't remember you being nearly this aggressive," Inuyasha said, with an low laugh. "But I like it."

"You don't remember me at all," she scoffed, glancing over at him. Though he was right, and she knew it, because three years of being a Slayer on her own, without guidance or friends to back her up, had taught her to fight and win. She wasn't the little girl she'd been when he'd known her past. She'd had nobody to run to her rescue; no close friends who knew her secrets. It hadn't been easy at first -- but she'd learned she could fight by herself and win.

"Keh. I'm remembering a few things." He gave her a crooked, amused smile. "So will Buffy's powers come back?"

"Oh, eventually," Kagome giggled suddenly. "I didn't do any permanent damage to her. Slayer abilities seem to come from a higher power even I couldn't touch -- I'll have to ask Spike how much he knows; I can sense a few things, but I think there's a story there."

"Letting her wonder was mean," Inuyasha said, with a smirk that said he approved of her decision to leave the other Slayer hanging.

"She pisses me off. She's always joking about stuff that shouldn't be joked about." Kagome shook her head, slowly. "She just rubs me the wrong way. But -- thank you, for stopping me. I think you may have made Buffy think about a few things."

"I'm not sure that Buffy thinks all that much about anything," he said, dourly. "She just reacts."

"Reminds me of someone else I know who isn't always the world's greatest brain," She said, then held her breath, wondering if she'd just offended him greatly. Stupid comment, she hadn't been thinking. much herself before making it!

But Inuyasha simply said, "Keh. You're right."

And that's half the problem here. Both of them have a tendency to hit first, without thinking things through. Diplomacy certainly isn't Inuyasha's strongest skill! And I don't think Buffy's much better.

"Sorry about sitting you," she added, merging with traffic on the freeway. "I didn't have time to explain and I was worried ..."

"It's okay," he responded, after a moment. To her surprise, he gave her another wry grin. "I promise I won't kill you in your sleep over it. And you were right to stop me -- you had a plan, I just wanted to tear her limb from limb when I saw her."

"Inuyasha? What you said about me having a good heart?" She reached out, caught his hand in her fingers, and squeezed. "It goes for you, too. I couldn't bear to see you kill someone."

"I ..." He exhaled with a harsh, shuddering sound. "I have, though. Not demons. People."

"Yeah. I know." She squeezed his fingers. She didn't really want to think about that. It seemed unreal that he could do anything like that -- part of her consciously knew just how dangerous he was when his demon half took over, and she knew that the single easiest way to really stir him to a rage was to hurt someone he loved. But picturing Inuyasha killing a human was even harder than picturing him dancing.

He didn't say anything for the rest of the ride back to her apartment -- he just sat there in silence, staring out the window of the car. He showed every sign of going into a major brooding fit -- he was still quiet when he followed her up to her door.

She pushed the door shut after him, locked it, set her purse down on the couch, then turned towards him. He was staring out the living room window. Yup, clinical diagnosis of brooding, she thought, damn Buffy.

Kagome walked up beside him, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, "Hey. Inuyasha. Look at me."

He regarded her uneasily, brown eyes troubled. "Kagome ... I'm sorry, for earlier."

"For what?" She was surprised by the apology. Inuyasha said 'sorry' even less than he said 'thank you' -- and it was always sincere and heartfelt when he did.

Now he looked down, at his feet. "For coming on to you. It was ... it wasn't right, Kagome. I'm sorry. It's not fair to you. I know how you feel about me. And I'm all muddled up in my head and ..."

"Okay, then I apologize in advance for this too." She reached up, put her hands round his neck, and kissed him. He stiffened, not responding at first, and she almost let him go, disappointed and embarrassed -- then with desperate intensity he opened his mouth and returned it. His hands dropped to rest on her hips, pulling her closer.

He felt so good. Under her hands, he was slender yet muscled; the incredible power of the hanyou translated into one very fit human man. He didn't apologize again, either and he didn't hesitate anymore. He was holding her tight against him, and she could feel a hot heat pressing through his jeans against the pit of her stomach.

When he pulled back a few inches, her knees were weak and she was shaking with need. He murmured, "Bedroom?"

"Or right here." She said, with a low laugh. She wasn't sure she could walk after that kiss.

"Keh. Bedroom. More comfortable." He chuckled, breath hot against her cheek, "I'd carry you -- but that'll have to wait until I'm me again."

Did he just say he'd stick around after ...?

He crushed his mouth back down on hers, and all conscious thought faded. Only dimly was she aware of him guiding her through the apartment and towards the bed. Any coherent thoughts she had remaining were focused simply on him.

Much, much later, she lay curled against his chest, spent and utterly relaxed. He ran his hand through her hair and said quietly, "You should have told me."

"Told you what?" She said, puzzled.

"You know. That you'd never ..."

"Idiot," she growled, "What, you think I'm easy?" She briefly considered the circumstances in which she'd posed that question, and Inuyasha's notorious lack of tact, and said hastily, but with some amusement, "Don't answer that. If I have to sit you, it might break the bed."

"I just thought ... you're twenty, Kagome. Most girls in this time ..." He trailed off, then said, "You're right. I won't answer that."

"That's a good boy," she said, grinning into his shoulder.

She felt his shoulders shake and realized he was suppressing a chuckle. He lifted his head up, kissed her cheek, then reached a hand out, grabbed the blanket, and flipped it over both of them. His hands continued to stroke her hair and her back until she drifted down into a dreamless sleep, safe and secure in his arms.

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