InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Autumn Bane ❯ The Language of Love ( Chapter 3 )

Author's Notes: Despite the sequence of events in the original tale, the romance between Inuyasha and Kagome won't be developing that fast. The romance build up is half the fun right? So this story is going to, roughly, be divided into two halves - the first half being the set up to the actual transformation, and the second half being about how it is resolved. (Of course if you've never seen Swan Lake or Swan Princess, you won't have a clue what I'm on about, in which case ignore me ^_^)

Autumn Bane

Chapter 3

The Language of Love (according to Miroku at least)

~Kagome~

Breakfast the next day was, fortunately for me, a public event. I didn't have to sit in private with Inuyasha and endure another verbal fight since this time I got to sit with Sango and half the other people living in the Castle.

Beside me, my mother set down her spoon as another coughing fit took her body. I glanced over at her and tentatively rubbed her back until she stopped. "You should drink some water." I told her.

She gave the faintest roll of her eyes as she reached for her cup. She'd never liked being mothered by anyone, especially by her daughter. "I'm perfectly fine, thank you." She informed me in clipped tones as she sipped her water… then succumbed to another round of coughs.

"Must be that cold Lord Inu was on about." I went back to my breakfast and didn't bother rubbing her back again, seeing as how she seemed to take it as an insult.

Across the room from us I spotted Inuyasha looking in our direction… or more specifically looking at my mother. In fact he was so engrossed in staring at her that he didn't notice I was watching him. I glanced momentarily at my mother who was rubbing her throat with a wince then looked back at Inuyasha.

I had always wondered… but maybe Inuyasha really did fancy my mother?

I shuddered at the thought. If I was a man I wouldn't touch my mother with a barge pole… not that she wasn't attractive, but because I wouldn't like to get involved with a human icicle. But then again, if I was a typical man then I probably wouldn't give a damn. Human icicles was probably what turned Inuyasha on… take Kikyo for example.

He finally noticed my attention and quickly looked away, striking up a conversation with Miroku beside him as though he hadn't been staring. I narrowed my eyes slightly but got back on with my breakfast before it got cold.

"Oh, Kagome," My mother suddenly touched my arm. "I want you to do something for me." She pulled a small, flat box from her inside her kimono and handed it to me. "I want you to deliver this to Kikyo, it's a thank you present for her medicine."

Inwardly I groaned hard. On the outside I tried to sound casual. "Can't you have one of the servants give it to her?"

"I don't trust the servants to take it." She opened the box for me to see. It was a piece of jewellery, a bracelet of jade if I wasn't mistaken. "I doubt it would ever get to her if one of them took it."

"Ok, I'll take it to her." I took the box and slipped it inside my kimono. I glanced back at Inuyasha, just in time to see him look away from me. My heart squeezed slightly and I took a deep breath to calm it.

Maybe I should ask Kikyo if she knew the symptoms of a heart disorder. All this fluttering was getting me worried…

Kikyo wasn't at home when I called on her later that morning. I knocked several times on the door, but I got no answer. She wasn't tending to her herbs on the allotment either. I wandered around the compound for the good part of an hour, asking people if they'd seen her.

"Probably down the stables, Princess." The blacksmith pointed his metal hammer towards said stables. "Likes tending the animals that girl."

"Thank you." I smiled at the old man and he went back to work, forging some strange kind of sword. I would have asked who it was for, but I didn't want to stall any longer. The sooner I had the meeting with Kikyo, the sooner it would be over with.

I found her in the stables. I also found Naraku.

"You stay because you love Inuyasha?"

Those few words made me freeze, only a foot away from the stable door. I knew it was rude to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help it. Pressing myself back against the outer wall of the stable, I listened in through the open doorway. Amongst the odd stamping of hooves, two people could be heard conversing within… one was unmistakably Kikyo.

"Why do you continue to ask me that question day after day, Naraku?"

Ah… so Sango had been right when she'd said Naraku had a fancy for Kikyo. And more than just a passing one. I also wondered… shouldn't Kikyo be calling Naraku 'Lord Naraku'. It seemed a little too informal…

"It isn't right for a pure miko such as yourself to long after a half-bred demon mongrel like the Lord's son." Was the man's response. I clasped a hand over my mouth… I really didn't think that the advisor to Lord Inu should be saying such things about his son.

"What makes you think that I long after him?" Kikyo was allusive as ever in her answers.

"Why else would you stay here in this grotty little castle when you could have so much more?"

"Maybe the reason why I do not accept your offer is because I do not wish to lead a more glamorous life." There was a crunching sound inside the stable, which I presumed was from Kikyo feeding the horses their daily meal. "I do not want to be a Lady. I am a miko, and I will always be such."

"Would you be saying that to Inuyasha when he proposes to you?"

Since when was Inuyasha going to propose to Kikyo?! I found myself scowling.

"Perhaps." Kikyo sighed as she moved elsewhere in the stable. "Or perhaps his offer will be more appealing than yours."

She shouldn't really be provoking this man, he sounded dangerous.

"I will come to you again tomorrow, Kikyo. And I shall ask you again… to be my Lady."

"And I will reply the same as I do everyday, and say 'no thank you'."

That was the end of the conversation. There was a few passing moments of silence before I heard someone coming towards the door, I quickly ducked out of sight behind a barrel of half-rotten apples and peeked out as Naraku stormed out of the stable. Well… not quite storming, since he seemed pretty calm, but there was definitely an air of anger around him as he purposefully made his way back towards the castle. He didn't look back… if he had, he probably would have seen me.

I waited a minute or two before straightening and brushing out the creases in my kimono that had come from crouching down. I walked into the stable.

"Good morning, Kikyo." I smiled pleasantly, hoping that maybe this year she would have grown out of her dislike of me.

She turned slightly and regarded me silently for a moment. Her scrutiny made me uneasy and I shifted uncomfortably as I tried to hold the smile on my face. She finally went back to feeding a black horse some grain from a bucket. Her dislike still hung in the air. Go figure… "Good morning." She returned evenly.

"Um…" I stepped forward slightly. "My mother wants to thank you for the medicine you gave her." Not that it had helped or anything from what I'd seen.

"She's welcome." Kikyo went to the next horse, putting a metre distance between us. Feeling foolish and childish I quickly stepped forward to follow.

"She wants to give you a present." I pulled the box out of my kimono and held it out to her. "It's a bracelet."

She took the box from me. Her fingers brushed against mine for a moment and I tried not to recoil… they were very cold hands. Carefully she opened the box and regarded the contents for a moment, neither smiling or frowning. Then with a firm clap she shut it again and passed it back to me. "I can't accept this gift."

I blinked. "Why not?" I'd give anything for my mother to offer me a gift in such an offhand manner as a 'thank you', or a 'well-done'.

"I have no need for materialistic possessions." She said simply with a light shrug of one should and picked up a new bucket to feed the last horse. "Her thanks are enough for me."

I wanted to slap myself. Or slap Kikyo, either would have done. Now my mother would think that I had said something to make Kikyo rebuke the gift… she'd blame me of course. I sighed aloud and turned. "Ok, I'll tell her."

"Will the wedding be soon?"

I stopped and turned back. "Sorry?"

"You and Inuyasha are to be married by the end of Autumn, aren't you?" she glanced back at me coolly. "When exactly will it be?"

This was all news to me. "I… I don't know."

She shrugged again and went back to feeding the big animal, stroking its neck as she did so. I stared at her for a second before frowning to myself and walking out. That miko made little to no sense whatsoever…

~Inuyasha~

"You know… I think Lady Kagome really has a thing going for you."

I glared at Miroku. Very hard.

"What?" he asked innocently. "It was only an observation."

"Well not a very good one." I retorted. "Kagome has nothing going for me. And likewise I have nothing going for her. Now stop talking because this conversation is creeping me out." I went back to practising my sword swings… but it didn't feel quite right with a wooden substitute.

"Inuyasha… what is it exactly that you don't like about the Princess?" Miroku asked from the sidelines of the practise hall. "I mean, you always complain about her, but what exactly is it that makes you hate her so much."

I stopped swinging the rod. "She always cheats when we play board games."

"So do you."

"I have to!" I snapped. "Otherwise I would lose all the time."

"Well I cheat as well, but you don't hate me."

I glanced at him in surprise. "You cheat on me?"

His eyes darted left and then back again. "No." he lied.

I growled slightly as I rolled my eyes and went back to my practise. Now what else didn't I like about the Princess? "Oh yeah… she always flirts with the guards - no - she flirts with everyone! You leave her alone for a minute and she's chatting up the next guy she sees."

"Maybe what you perceive as flirting is what is actually called friendly conversation?"

"Shut up."

He sighed and fell quiet for a while, but it wasn't long before he piped up again. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

"Haven't noticed what?" I said irritably, practising a vertical slash at my invisible training opponent.

"That whenever you're in the room, her eyes always seem to draw back to you." Miroku said casually. I stopped mid-stroke and looked over at him. He seemed deadly serious.

"What are you talking about?" I scowled. "I never see her looking at me."

"Of course you don't, because the minute you look over she looks away. But I see it all… and there's something about the way she looks at you." He cocked his head thoughtfully. "She didn't look at you that way last year… but this year, things seem to be different."

Everything was different this year. "Looks at me how?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Like… she burns for you." His eyes twinkled.

I threw the wooden sword at him. "You're making things up! It's not funny!" It was so frustrating how he dodged the sword. "You're disgusting!"

"I'm honest!"

"You're anything but!"

"I'm only saying what I see." He picked up the sword that lay behind him and twirled it between his fingers like a baton. "Something is different about this year. Even Miss Sango told me that something strange happened when you two saw each other for this first time this Autumn. She said that Kagome near fainted at the sight of you."

"She said I smelt." I folded my arms huffily. That had kinda hurt…

"It was more likely that the sight of you made her weak at the knees." Miroku; the romantic. "I'm telling you, she's seeing you in a different light this year."

All she'd done so far was insult me and shout at me. There wasn't all that much of a difference in her attitude from last year. "You're wrong." I marched over to take the sword back.

He rapped me on the head with it as soon as I was close enough. "Ow!" I yelped, reeling back, holding my forehead. "What was that for?"

"Perhaps a knock on the head would knock some sense into it?" he shrugged and tossed me the wooden weapon. I fumbled with it before gaining a steady grip.

"You're a bastard."

"So a lot of people tell me." It didn't really bother him it seemed.

~Kagome~

"I saw something strange today." I told Inuyasha as we played our board game that evening in one of our 'arrangements from hell'. Two in as many days. What bad luck…

"Oh?" His attention remained fixed on the board before us, probably debating his next move.

I fiddled with the counters I had hidden in my hand… Inuyasha hadn't noticed that I had already taken three of his pieces in the last ten minutes. "I went to see Kikyo this morning."

"You two had a scrap in the mud yet?" he smirked. "When are you going to get it through your thick skull that she doesn't like you."

"I know that." I ignored his jab. "But at least I'm mature enough to be nice about it and - oh my god! What's that?!"

"What?" he turned to look where I was pointing. With his back turned I quickly snatched one of his counters off the board and added it to the pile growing under the table. He turned back to me dubiously. "I didn't see anything?"

"It was only a bat, you shouldn't get too worked up, Inuyasha." I said with a wave of dismissal. "It's my turn isn't it?" I moved one of my counters. He frowned as he counted his pieces… it was only a matter of time before he realised his counters were decreasing in number. "Anyway, I saw something strange this morning."

"Yeah, you said." He said sulkily. At least he'd noticed he was losing.

"Naraku seems to be proposing to Kikyo."

His eyes slowly slid up from the board to meet mine. "What?" that had sounded like a very disgusted and disbelieving 'what'.

I shrugged. "You heard me."

He gave me a long look, but I kept my attention on the board. "Did… is she accepting?" he asked quietly.

Why, did he want Kikyo for himself? "No. She seems pretty much opposed to the idea."

I heard him sigh in relief. "Good."

I looked up. "You seem relieved."

"Wouldn't anyone be?" he folded his arms grouchily. "I feel sorry for the woman who has to marry that man."

"You don't like him?" I asked. He shook his head. For some reason that made me feel better… at least he didn't have any delusions about the advisor. "I don't either."

"Looks like we agree on something." He smirked lightly. I felt a smile tug at my own lips and we looked at each other.

We were smiling at each other…

Urgh!

We both snapped our eyes on the board, all smiles wiping off our faces as our attention became forcefully transfixed on something else. I cleared my throat, feeling my cheeks burn and my stomach be consumed with butterflies. I wasn't used to having this flustered reaction every time Inuyasha did something reasonably pleasant. "Um… your turn." I mumbled.

"Right." He coughed as well. It almost seemed as though we were both coming down with my mother's cold. He made his move quickly… a good move. He'd win if I didn't do something quick.

I looked up and stared at the wall behind him.

It wasn't long before he noticed my gaze and turned to see what I was looking at. In the brief moments he looked away, I grabbed the counter that had just moved and started to retract it under the table.

He looked back too soon, spotted my hand and with an angry sound slammed his hand down on top of mine, pinning it to the table with a bang, upsetting the rest of the counters and ruining the game. "You sneaky cheat!"

"What are you talking about?!" I tried to pull my hand out from under his but I didn't want him to dig his claws into my delicate skin anymore than he had done. "This is my piece - I was just moving it!"

"You lie badly!" he swept his other hand out and upturned the table. The four counters I'd hidden under it were suddenly on display.

"Ah…" I couldn't think of what to say.

"And where's the rest of them?!" he demanded.

"What rest?" I shot back in outrage.

He grabbed me by the arms and hauled me to my feet. He gave me a shake that had my brain rattling… and several counters falling out of my kimono. When he stopped shaking me and my head stopped spinning I looked down and saw the evidence of my crime. "Ah…"

"You," he hissed. "Are just one big waste of space!"

And with that parting sentiment he stomped out. I took a moment to straighten my rumpled clothes before looking down at the upturned table with a sigh. I really couldn't recall a time when one of these games hadn't ended with the table upside down.

The door opened behind me and I turned, expecting it to be Inuyasha for some reason. I was mildly surprised when I saw it was Miroku. He smiled, ignoring the destroyed board game and table on the floor like it wasn't there. "Evening, Lady Kagome."

"Good evening." I was supposed to be wary of this guy according to the advice of more than half the castle women. I'd known him since he was thirteen… he hadn't changed in six years.

"Lady Kagome, would you mind taking a walk with me?"

Suspicious… but I didn't want to be rude, and I doubted that Miroku was all that bad, so I nodded and followed him. "Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked as we made our way through the corridors. They were fairly empty at this time of the evening - people were either going to bed, eating, or having little get-togethers.

"I suppose." He said in an off-hand manner. "Does my wanting to talk to you seem to have an ulterior motive?"

I shot him an incredulous look. Everything he did seemed to have a hidden motive. "Does it happen to have anything to do with Inuyasha?"

His eyes darted quickly right, and then straight again. "No." he lied.

We walked to the end of the corridor in silence.

"But seeing as how you brought him up," Miroku started suddenly. "You wouldn't happen to know when you're marrying him, would you?"

I sighed. "Everyone keeps talking about the wedding." With a frown I stopped and turned to him. "I think I must have missed something here but no one told me that the wedding would be this Autumn."

"So… you don't know why they put forward the date?" he asked me with a slightly bewildered look. I shook my head emphatically to get my point across. "So… you didn't know, that in actual fact, it was Inuyasha who set the wedding forward?"

My stomach dropped. "Excuse me?"

Miroku looked unsettled. "Forgive me, it isn't my place to tell you… Inuyasha forbid me not to - and if you ever talked to him about it he would deny it strongly. But the truth is… I do believe he's quite taken with you this year."

Since when? I racked my memory for any indication that Inuyasha had shown interest in me. So far… he'd been treating me like he had every other year… I couldn't detect anything different. "Are you sure?" I asked uncertainly. "Maybe you've got us mixed up - I heard he was after Kikyo, not me-"

"Oh, I'm very sure." Miroku beamed at me. "He told me himself. Couldn't stop talking about how beautiful you've become this year. But… you know how much of a private person Inuyasha is, how insecure and shy he can be when it comes to members of the opposite sex… he'd get embarrassed if you approached him about this…"

At the risk of sounding like a potty-mouthed Princess… what a load of bull.

"So, don't tell him I told you." Miroku patted me on the shoulder, I eyed that gloved hand dubiously. "Just between you and me… pretend you don't know anything."

"You're pulling my leg." I told him bluntly.

"Why would you think that? My hands are no way near your… oh, I see." He nodded knowingly. "You think I'm lying? Well… you can see for yourself. At supper… keep your eyes on him and you'll see how often he looks at you when he thinks you're not looking. In reality he pines after you, Lady Kagome. All you have to do is open your eyes and see for yourself."

I didn't believe a word of it… but I would keep my eye out and look for telltale hints if what he said was true. I really doubted it. It was a case of seeing for myself.

~Inuyasha~

I was beginning to suspect Miroku was up to something… after I had made that stupid comment about Kagome's handmaid being interested in him the day I would be willing to marry Kagome herself, he'd been acting very suspicious.

"I'm telling you, she's interested." Miroku said subtly as he took a sip of his drink at supper time.

I glanced over to Kagome… she was looking at me again. She'd been doing that an awful lot lately. We both quickly glanced away from each other and I darted a look at Miroku. "She's not interested - she's glaring." I hissed quietly.

"She's looking at you with curiosity." He returned, flicking a glance to Kagome and then back to his food. Actually… I was almost certain that he'd been looking at the handmaid, not Kagome. I didn't make anything of it. "See, she's doing it again."

She was watching me out of the corner of her eye… I don't think she realised I was doing the same, but it was certainly strange. "I never noticed she did that before…"

"What? Gaze at you with love and adoration?" Miroku smirked slightly. "You really should be more observant Inuyasha. That girl is giving you all kinds of signals… and you're just not hearing any of them. Maybe that's why she gets so frustrated with you, because you are oblivious to her affections."

"You're making that up." I snapped.

"Am I?" He looked at me. "You only say that because you do not know the language of love, my friend."

I stared at him through hooded eyes, chewing slowly. What a load of… "And what would the 'language of love' be?" I mimicked his smooth romantic tone. "You only say one thing to woo a girl and that's 'will you bear my child?'. Your language of love has got a vocabulary of only five words."

"That isn't my only pick up line." He admonished shortly. "At least I know the signs a girl gives off when she's interested and when she isn't."

"And they are?"

He cleared his throat. "When you lock gazes with a girl across the room, the natural reaction is to keep your eyes moving elsewhere. If the girl who catches your eyes for that moment is interested, she will look away, look down and fiddle with something like her hair or her clothes. A gesture of nervousness that you've flustered her."

I stared at him with widening eyes. It sounded like it made sense… but. "I've never noticed a girl do that?"

"Do you stay to watch her for long enough when she's looked away?" he challenged.

A good point, no I hadn't. I glanced over at Kagome again, she wasn't looking my way… but I waited. And sure enough… after only twenty seconds she glanced over, then quickly glanced away whilst reaching a hand up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear.

Miroku gave a soft laugh beside me.

"No…" I breathed. "That doesn't mean anything."

"And when you talk to her… you'll notice that the dark parts of her eyes get larger." Miroku nudged me. "A certain sign that she's attracted to you."

"Or has been drinking." I noticed a lot of dilating eyes on the very drunk.

"There are other ways of telling whether or not she likes you." Miroku went on. "All subconscious acts of course, but haven't you noticed she makes more eye contact than other girls her age-"

"Yes, but she does that with everyone-"

"And haven't you noticed that she touches her neck a lot around you."

"Cause she says she gets a pain there whenever I'm around-"

"And she tends to lean toward you in the middle of conversation."

"Because she needs to - she says I'm deaf and I don't-"

"The mouth will tell a million lies, but the body and the eyes will tell only the truth." Miroku interrupted abruptly. I scowled at him. He may like to think of himself as a smooth ladies man but in truth his only reputation with women was to chase them away from him… I wasn't sure I could trust his judgement about such matters. Besides… I'd known Kagome since she was a child. I doubt she was attracted to me back then, and her attitude towards me hadn't changed in ten years… so I doubt she was attracted to me now.

But… some small seed of doubt had been planted in the back of my mind, and I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe… what if he was right?

AN: You can so tell that all this is going to come flying back around like a boomerang and hit Miroku in the eye.