InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Ambiguity ❯ Two Final Shards ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 6

~Two Final Shards~

 

He felt like he was dying. There was no other possible way to explain it. His head pounded with the beat of his heart. His eyes burned, his body ached like he had been tenderized. His senses were dulled. And there was this unbearable pain on his shoulder blades that felt like someone had pressed white-hot irons to his skin. It even felt blistered, though he wasn't quite sure if it really was. Maybe if he just went back to sleep, everything would just stop hurting…

`Oh, suck it up! It ain't that bad! Besides… I think Kagome's taking care of us…'

Inuyasha groaned, flicking his ears in vain attempt to clear his senses, `Kagome…?'

`On second thought…let's milk it for all it's worth…'

He could hear voices; he wasn't sure where they were coming from. He was sure that it was Kagome's voice though…

“Yeah… fever's down… I didn't mean…”

“It's fine… alive… Naraku's dead…”

“I know… still…”

Slowly, the hanyou opened his eyes. Everything was blurry and disorientated. But, he could see the hazy outline of Kagome letting the bamboo screen fall back and turning around to kneel by his side. She gasped.

“Oh, thank Kami… Inuyasha… how do you feel?”

He would have winced at the concern in her voice, if his muscles weren't so uncooperative. Instead though, he cautiously turned his head to the side, “Like… shit…” he managed to mumble. His eyes were focusing a bit more and he noticed her grimace.

“I'm so sorry… this is all my fault…”

The scent of her tears hit him hard and fast. It acted as a stimulate, giving him the strength to try to sit up, “Don't… cry… please…”

She dashed her hand across her eyes, “B-but… it's all m-my f-f-fault… you're lying h-here… all hurt-t…” she noticed his determined struggle, “No… lie down… you're w-weak…”

He snorted rather pathetically, “Feh, s'nothing…” he sniffed, angry that he couldn't smell or hear anything, “Why can't I smell…?” he asked, more to himself than really looking for an answer.

“Oh, I gave you some Tylenol to ease the pain and help with your burns…” Kagome answered, checking his forehead for fever. She seemed to have stopped crying, but Inuyasha could tell she was still upset.

`Tylenol? Ain't that…'

`Yep… makes you feel worse than human? Oh yeah… you better believe I remember that shit…'

“Burns?” he wondered, shifting to the side. His hiss of pain was immediate, letting him know exactly what she meant by burns; the memory was painful, but oddly satisfying.

“Yeah, those ones…” she supplied, her voice melancholy as she helped him sit up. He realized then that he wasn't wearing his haori or under kimono and his shoulders were bandaged up. His body trembled from cold, despite the warm weather. This fever was kicking his ass…

“Here,” Kagome pressed a cold compress to his forehead, using her other hand to touch his face and neck, checking the remnants of the fever, before scooting behind him and peeking underneath the bandages. She bit her lip. Granted, the burns had healed considerably since she had first treated them last night, but they were still ugly. Angry red welts in the precise shape of her petite hands lay on either shoulder blade, the skin around the marks lightly bruised and scorched shiny, and the burns were still bleeding and pussing into the bandages. It was a miracle she hadn't purified the youkai right out of him.

As she peeled the bandage away from his mince-meat skin, Inuyasha dug his claws into his palms, centering his mind on the twinge in his hands to keep from making any noise. It had to be the worst pain of his life, even worse than Kikyou pinning him to the tree, than Kagura nearly killing him with his own weapon, worse even than Sesshoumaru shoving his fist through all of Inuyasha's vital organs. It was worse because the purification starved him of most of this youkai abilities and strength… and because Kagome had done it and her guilt was stinging him down deep.

She sniffled and he winced, hanging his head down, “Don't beat yourself up over it,” he mumbled, “It's really not your fault.”

Her hands stilled for a moment in applying a salve, before resting on his biceps, “But it is my fault…” she whispered, “I could have done something else…”

“Like what?” he interjected, glancing over his shoulder at her. He could just see the top of her head, “Name something else that you could have done.”

“I… I don't know…” tears welled up again. She blinked quickly, wrapping his shoulders again, “Anything… anything that didn't hurt you…”

He sighed. She was a little too late for that. He had been hurt too much already in his life to worry about little burns like this. Anything that didn't hurt you… she was the first person in his life that never hurt him in any way, shape or form. No doubt she knew that and it was eating her inside, “Hurt me? Feh… this is nothing, really… it'll heal right by tomorrow anyway,” he stopped her hand before she finished wrapping, flipping it over and inspecting it. She had no burn marks on her hands, nothing left over from the battle the night before. They were small, perfect and soft compared to his. The only mars on them were small calluses on her fingertips from pulling arrows. Calmly, Inuyasha ran his claws over them. Hands like this, her hands, couldn't hurt him…

Kagome's body went completely still. Just the small touch could send her head spinning and make her breath stop. Her eyes zoomed up to his face, void of emotion. It was his thinking face. What was he thinking about? How her hands had almost killed him? Did he even know how close he had come to dying on her? All night she had stayed up, stayed by his side, constantly checking him. She could sense his youki flickering on and off all night, switching from human to hanyou within seconds, finally stabilizing during the early morning. She, Kagome, had almost killed him. Did he know that?

She jerked her hand away from him, touching her neck in a completely feminine gesture. She gasped, feeling the chain. A smile lit her face as she pulled the chain off her neck, “Look, Inuyasha!” she exclaimed, dangling a nearly whole Shikon Jewel in front of his eyes, “Sango and Miroku found it after the fight! Look, look!”

Dazzled, the hanyou picked it out of the air and held it in his palm. Whole… it was whole… “Wait…” he said, turning the gem over, “Why are we missing a piece? I thought…”

“Think, dog boy,” Kagome hinted, a slight smile on her face. It was the first genuine smile she had shown in a few days, “Think, who has two pieces still?”

The image of a tornado of wind and blue eyes mocking him played like a hated movie in his mind's eye. He couldn't stop the bubble of jealousy that rose and the growl with it.

“Koga…”

 

* * * * *

 

He couldn't believe he was actually hunting Koga down. Not hunting in the sense that he would have enjoyed, but actually civilly searching for the man-wolf. Arms crossed inside his sleeves, Inuyasha walked ahead of the group, grudgingly sniffing out Koga, only the thought of re-building the Shikon Jewel driving him on.

The hanyou couldn't say that his morning hadn't been amusing. Kagome had changed his bandages again- his burns were doing much better- and they had gotten into a typical argument about Koga. He had just wanted to kill the wolf, considering that would just make life so much easier and the shards would be easier to obtain. Kagome, as always, was against the idea. It ended with her storming out of the hut, saying that she would search for Koga by herself and that maybe she would just stay with him because he was nicer to her. The jealous half of his ego kicked in and she didn't get far out of the village without getting an earful. She retaliated with a few `osuwari', leaving both of them considerably more frazzled than before.

Sango, Miroku and Shippou had caught up on Kirara and now, two hours later, the searching was still rather unsuccessful.

“This is pointless, Kagome…” Inuyasha pressed the already irritated miko.

Kagome pursed her lips, fidgeting with her bow, “He's around…”

The hanyou snorted, “He ain't gonna give us the shards, woman, not unless you give him something in return…” like hell anything like that would happen.

There was silence. Inuyasha glanced over his shoulder at her, uncertain about the little smile she gave him.

“Well, maybe I will…” she flashed him a golden smile and skipped ahead of him, humming to herself, rather pleased when his aura contracted with anger. `That might have been overstepping it slightly, dear…'

`What is he really going to do, anyway?'

`… good point…'

She stiffened, stopping in the middle of picking a sakura bud off a tree. She could sense shards closing in fast. Behind her, she heard Sango sigh, Inuyasha growl and the threatening click of his sword.

And there he was, hand braced on the tree above her head, leaning over her, blue eyes sparkling. She had never noticed before, but he was tall, taller than Inuyasha.

“Hey, lady,” he greeted with a smile.

“Hi, Koga,” she replied without missing a beat, “How are you?”

“Oh, you know, just a lonely, vagabond, rogue little wolf without you around,” he grinned shamelessly.

Inuyasha snarled, jumping over and thrusting himself between the two, forcing Koga to back up, “Get off her, fucking wolf.”

Impulsively, Kagome grasped the back of his haori, as if the course material was a relief after the closeness of Koga, “Inuyasha…” she warned.

“Kagome! How come you keep bringing your guard dog with ya? Don't you get exhausted draggin' him around all the time?” Koga teased, waving to Sango and Miroku, who had chosen to keep a reasonable distance away.

“I have to keep him on a leash…” Kagome replied, trying in vain to shove the snarling hanyou away from her. His body had her trapped to the tree, “Inuyasha, please move…” she whispered, “I'm just kidding… I need to talk to him…”

“Whatever you need to talk about, talk from right where you are…” venomous anger saturated his every word, “You ever get that close to her again, I'll shove my sword so far up your ass it'll be out your fucking mouth.”

Kagome sighed, “Don't make me do this, Inuyasha…” she whispered, “Osuwari…”

Inuyasha hit the ground hard. Kagome simply stepped over him.

“Bitch…” he spat.

She tossed him a glare over her shoulder, standing in front of Koga, “Look, Koga, I've- we've- come here to negotiate with you,” she started.

He nodded, the playful look fading from his eyes, “Yeah, I kinda figured you would be around at some point… I heard from the grapevine that you all defeated Naraku,” he gave his nod of approval towards Sango and Miroku, glancing at Inuyasha as the hanyou stumbled to his feet, the spell wearing off, “Perhaps we can talk in private?”

Kagome nodded, starting to follow Koga a little farther down the path just to be out of earshot when Inuyasha's arm snaked around her shoulders and pulled her back into him, his sword tip under Koga's nose.

“Whatever you got to say, say it now or I'll cut the damn shards out of you myself,” he snarled, tightening his hold on Kagome as she struggled.

Koga smiled sinisterly, “Oh, get over yourself, mutt-face, it's just a talk. Besides, I might not have the shards in my legs anymore… or for that matter anywhere in my body…” his smiled widened, flashing fangs.

“Inuyasha…” Kagome whimpered, gripping his arm, his hold hurting her slightly, “You're hurting me…”

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at the wolf youkai, before dropping his arm and sheathing his sword, “Damn it, Kagome… not out of my sight!” He told himself as they walked down the path a little ways that this was all for the shards, the reason he let them go off alone for even a second.

`Maybe I'll go see Koga myself… and he's nicer to me than you are! Maybe I'll just stay too!'

`You're hurting me…'

Why did he feel like he was always the one that hurt her?

 

“Koga? Why did you not want Inuyasha and the others to hear us?” Kagome asked, looking over her shoulder at the small figure of Inuyasha about a hundred feet away.

Koga was silent for a moment, arms crossed, looking at the hanyou, “I never had a chance, did I?” he asked quietly.

She was startled by his question, but she answered honestly anyway, “I… I'm sorry, Koga…” she whispered, looking at the ground, “But, Inuyasha…”

“Nah…” the wolf youkai shrugged, “I knew I didn't stand a chance the moment I saw you two together. And… as more time passed, I realized that you were more like a sister to me than anything else…” he grinned at her, “But mutt-face always looked so jealous when I came around that I couldn't help myself…” he sighed, reaching in his vest, grasping Kagome's hand and placing the two shards in it, “I think these rightful belong to you, priestess.”

She smiled at him, placing the two final shards in her pocket, “Thank you, Koga. You are a good man,” she leaned up and kissed his cheek, “And a very good friend.”

He didn't even blush, just shrugged, “We'll see each other again, I suppose. Promise that you'll take care of yourself? And don't let that dog push you around too much…” he patted her head, “I was just on my way to see Ayame…” he smirked.

Kagome nodded knowingly, “Good for you, Koga! Send her a hug and a hello for me!”

“She'll be thrilled… I'll see you around, Kagome!” and he took off, leaving Kagome there in a gust of wind, fingering the shards in her pocket.

 

“Did you get them, Kagome?” Sango asked when the miko rejoined the group.

“Yep… quite readily too, if I do say so myself,” she replied, looking around. Where was Inuyasha?

“So…” Miroku started casually, too casually, “What was the kiss for?”

Kagome blinked at him for a minute, “Oh, that? That was a courtesy kiss, I guess, like a thank you… why? And where's Inuyasha?”

Sango and Miroku exchanged a look. Shippou popped up between them, “He left when you kissed Koga,” the kit supplied nonchalantly, playing with one of his toys.

Kagome winced, remembering their argument from the morning, “Oh dear… was he mad?” `Good job, girlfriend… really make him angry, why don't you? He might just send you home this time…'

“Actually…” Sango started, “He wasn't mad… he looked… well, like a dog with his tail between his legs…”

“Defeated,” Miroku interjected, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

`Lookie! He's not mad!'

`I don't know but… defeated? That's not like Inuyasha at all…'

“Which way did he go?” she asked.

All three of them pointed silently in one direction and Kagome wasted no time in following after the so-dubbed `defeated' hanyou.

 

 

Thank you for your patience! Happy Hoildays, everyone!

 

~Jesachi

 

All rights to Inuyasha and Co. belong to Rumiko Takahashi and I take the credit for any new characters that are introduced. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.