InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Autumn Bane ❯ An Old Friend ( Chapter 4 )

Author's Notes: The central heating's broken (or dad's being a snot again and turned it off), and it's absolutely freezing in this house… as I write this I'm wearing about three coats and seven pairs of socks…

Anywho, a lot of people have asked; which story is this fic based on? The Swan Princess or Swan Lake? Answer: Both actually ^_^. The first half of the story seems to be more Swan Princess style, what with the whole arranged marriage leading to a kidnapping and a transformation from princess to swan. In Swan Lake (which is a ballet, not a book or a film) the Princess was a swan from the very beginning and had been for some time apparently, and there was not just the Princess, but many other girls that had been turned into swans called the swan-maidens which differs quite a lot from the Swan Princess story line. So the second half of this fic will seem to stick with the Swan Lake side of the tale.

Or I could have done the French version: Le Lac des Cygnes et ses Maléfices, by Roland Petit and have Inuyasha be the swan for a while ^_^

Autumn Bane

Chapter 4

An Old Friend

~Inuyasha~

"I had the strangest dream last night," Kagome began at breakfast the next morning. Several people around our corner of the room turned to look at her expectantly… I just rolled my eyes and went on gulping down my soup. "I think I was dreaming about heaven, it was really nice and pretty and everything was so peaceful and tranquil. And you were there, and you were there, and you were there," she began going around the table pointing to every individual in order. Not surprisingly, she skipped past me with a deliberate pause to finally point at Miroku. "And you were there!"

I couldn't resist. "So where was I then?" I inquired quite innocently.

She glanced towards me, one eye narrowed slightly. "Downstairs. If you know what I mean."

Score: One - nil to Kagome. But I could still make evens by the end of the meal. "I had a dream last night too. It was about you, believe it or not."

Her eyes widened slowly and soon everyone's attention was on me, waiting for what I had to say. I could tell by the expression on half of their faces that they were expecting me to say something wittily nasty, say that I had been in heaven too and she'd been there with me - in several different pieces or something. It would be enough to even the score, but I knew of a way to make it two-one in my favour.

"And?" Kagome prompted, judging by her light frown she was probably expecting me to make a verbal slap.

"And what?" I gave her my blankest look. "I had a dream about you. That's all."

Her frown deepened. "Yes, but what about me?"

I let a secretive sort of smile grace my face… well, more like a smug 'I know something you don't know' smirk. "Wouldn't you like to know?" I effectively put an end to the discussion as I went back to eating.

A moment passed and her scowl deepened to a dangerous glower, people around us got back on with their breakfast without a second thought to the nerve that I had just touched. Kagome hated being excluded from things. I knew this from way back when we were small, if anything was going on, Kagome wanted to know about it. Telling her it was none of her business just wasn't acceptable.

I saw her glance around at the people around us before stealing herself to get back on with her meal. I smirked to myself. With so many people around she couldn't openly make any derogatory comments. Score: one all.

"It's ok, Sango," Kagome suddenly said quite loudly. "I suppose Inuyasha can't discuss his dreams openly because they tend to be rather raunchy. He was probably just fantasising about me again."

I spluttered into my soup and Miroku started thumping my back in concern. When I got my breath back I glared at her. "You can't just say that!" She'd just snatched another score right from beneath my nose!

"Why, was it supposed to be a secret?" she raised an eyebrow at me. Another point.

Everyone was staring at me. Kagome's points had gone up three to one in her favour and if I didn't do something quick I was going to fall drastically behind. Everyone was still staring at me… I hated it when they did that. "Well…" I started off uncertainly, at the same time her other eyebrow flicked up, awaiting my witty response expectantly, "Well… who'd want to fantasise about a girl like you?"

Lame… really, really lame…

"You would, obviously." Miroku said complacently from my side. I shot him a scowl… who needed enemies like Kagome when you had friends like Miroku? I decided to lay low for the rest of that meal. If I did and said nothing then I wouldn't leave myself open for an easy hit. I had to get my act together… I wasn't exactly on top form today.

Fortunately after breakfast I didn't have to see Kagome for the rest of the day, only from afar. On a normal day I would be glad for the chance to get away from her… but today I felt strangely dissatisfied. I put that down to my loss at breakfast.

"You spout a load of rubbish, monk." I snapped at Miroku as I threw some rocks down the well. Despite having fallen down that thing when I was young (don't ask me how, I don't remember after I bumped my head) I didn't have much fear of heights or wells. Kagome on the other hand…

"What do you mean?" Miroku said absently from where he stood a few metres away examining the cutting edge of his shakujo. Show me another monk who sharpens his staff like this guy and I'll eat my sword. Miroku's one of a kind. 'A kind of what?' you may ask.

"About Kagome." I dropped another rock and listened for the telltale 'clonk!' sound that signalled it had hit the bottom. "She was making digs at me all through breakfast, so fast I could barely get an insult in edgeways. There is no way that girl 'burns' for me."

"Oh dear." Miroku gave me a piteous look. "She hurt your feelings."

"No!" I slapped my palm against the well angrily. "I'm just telling you that Kagome is as despicable as ever and whatever you think you saw in her eyes when she was looking at me is total fiction!"

Miroku looked off into the distance as he rested the staff against his shoulder. "That's what you think…" he said in an airily light tone.

"What?" I frowned at him.

He blinked, as if only just realising he'd said something. "Oh… it's nothing…"

I narrowed my eyes but went back to throwing the rocks down the well. It was the end of the matter.

"Only, Kagome came to see me last night." Miroku went on quickly. I glanced back at him dubiously. "Oh don't look at me like that, she did. And she happened to tell me something very interesting."

"Like?"

"Like… how much she enjoys your company these days."

"You made that up."

"I certainly did not." Miroku lied. He saw my incredulous look and shifted his weight slightly. "Ok… maybe that was a bit of a fib… but I really didn't think you'd believe the truth of what she said."

"And what did she say?" I rolled my eyes. Trying to get something honest out of Miroku was like trying to make Lady Jun crack a smile. It was hard.

"She said that she doesn't know how to deal with her feelings for you right now." He said seriously. I wanted to laugh, but somehow managed to school my expression so I nodded as though considering his words thoughtfully. "She said that she finds herself covering her attraction to you by fighting with you and trading insults. But she also says that she's tiring of your arguments together, that she really wishes that she could marry you and have your children."

"She really said that, huh?"

"Indeed."

"Sounds like something you'd say."

"Why would I want to marry you and have your children?"

"Well you do have this hang-up about getting someone to bear you a-"

"The point is," he cleared his throat loudly. "Lady Kagome is struggling to come to terms with her feelings. She doesn't know how to approach you correctly. Can't you see? She adores you from afar but she needs you to make the first move - to show her what it's like to feel love, she needs you to melt the ice around her guarded heart so that she can finally become the warm, loving wife and mother to your children that she longs to be."

"Oh…" I sniffed and rubbed a hand over my eyes. "I think… I think I'm going to cry. That's so beautiful!"

Miroku was smart enough to sense my sarcasm. Clever boy.

I dropped my hand and smirked at him. "Why don't you go break the ice with her then? In fact you could probably break my little fiancée in for me."

He sucked in a breath through his teeth. "She really wouldn't like to hear you saying things like that."

I snapped my fingers in damnation. "Curses! Why do I always say cool stuff when she's not around to hear it?!"

Miroku muttered something under his breath about going to suffocate himself in a cupboard as he turned and stalked off. I didn't see him again until that night when we all went off to bed. I arrived late and had to tiptoe my way across the room in order to get to my bed without waking anyone up. I would have stomped and slammed doors if it had only been Kagome, but Sango could probably kick my ass so I didn't want to risk pissing her off.

Besides, Kagome wasn't actually asleep when I arrived in my room. Sure she pretended to be, but her irregular breathing gave her away, and her body seemed especially tense under that blanket. Whatever she was tense about, it wasn't my problem, so I stripped off my shirt and settled down into my futon… and had the worst nightmare of my life.

I dreamt that I kissed Kagome. And what was worse… I think I was enjoying it.

I literally screamed when I woke up the next morning, and I woke up the other three occupants of my room along with me. Sango shot straight up, looking around. "What was that? What's going on?" she finally blinked at me. "Why are you screaming?"

I felt dirty, cheap and defiled. I shuddered as I clamped the blankets over my head and pointedly tried to ignore Kagome's presence. She was sitting up out of bed with a big yawn, one of her joints cracked loudly as she made a soft noise in her throat. "What time is it…?" she mumbled out.

Urgh… bad images from my dream kept popping into my head. Yuck. Yuck, yuck, yuck!

"Time to get up?" Miroku was rising as well, and after a few exchanged morning greetings with the girls he left the room.

"Come on, get dressed quickly," Sango said to Kagome after the monk had left. "If we hurry we can probably see the sunrise."

"Sunrise is always the prettiest time of the day." Kagome agreed as they both grabbed their things and shuffled out of the bedroom.

I preferred sunset personally. But only because it looked quite nice in the sky… I didn't like what it stood for though… because usually a sunset on a night before the new moon was the most dreaded events of my life… coming straight in after Autumn time. I remember when I was young I used to silently beg that the sun stay up for just a little bit longer. It never listened.

I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed within half an hour. That didn't mean I was quite awake though, and I pottered aimlessly around the inner castle for quite a while before someone gave me my mission for the day.

"Inuyasha," My father caught my shoulder as he passed me in the shoulder, spinning me around abruptly to face him, my ankles held - but only just.

"What?" I pulled a groggy face, trying to get across that I wasn't in the mood for anyone's happy morning attitude. That dream was still fresh in my mind and Miroku would be lucky if he didn't come across me today. I was going to give him hell for putting such stupid ideas and thoughts in my head.

"I need you to do a little favour for me." My father began.

I held up my hands quickly. "No - I'm going for a walk. I think I have a hang-over or some kind of headache coming on, I need to clear my brain."

"Good. And while you're doing that you can take Kagome with you."

I closed my eyes and winced slightly. "No."

"Just one quick walk." He cajoled.

"No."

"A ten minute walk down the hill and back."

"How about I push her down then throw her back up?"

"No."

"Then no."

"Inuyasha…" His hand tightened slightly on my shoulder and his tone took on a slightly more warning nature. I glanced hesitantly at his hand before flicking my gaze back to his. "You are going to take the lovely Lady Kagome out for a walk and you are going to entertain her and make her enjoy your company. If she comes back with even one bad word to say about the trip then I will bring it down on your head. Understand?"

When my father used the fish eye he could be quite scary…

I swallowed, trying hard not to show any unease right then. "'Course." I shrugged quickly, sliding out of range of his hand. "I'll take her for a walk… we can… we can talk nice and stuff."

He narrowed his eyes slightly before his whole demeanour switched back again and he smiled. "There's my lad." He turned and walked away. "Remember! If she doesn't have fun it'll be on your head."

"Yeah!" I called after him, before adding quietly. "You crazy old fool…"

He probably heard that. He may be old but his hearing didn't suffer for it. With a sigh I pickled off in search of Kagome. She tended to hang around outdoors, unusual for a Princess, but that was where I headed in search of her.

I didn't have to search very long when I found her on the steps of the entrance having an in-depth conversation with Miroku.

"What are you two whispering about?" I demanded the moment I saw them.

Kagome jumped around with the most guilty expression she could have managed. Miroku didn't jump, but I could already tell from the faint flicker of his brow pulling down that I had interrupted something he wished I hadn't interrupted.

Either they'd both been bitching about me or Kagome really had been in the middle of confessing her 'long-denied' secret love for me. I have to admit… that at that moment I wasn't sure which I had walked in on.

I gave Kagome a rap on the head with my knuckles as I moved down the steps past her. "Come on. We're going for a walk."

She blanched at me. "I beg your pardon?"

"A walk. As in going for?" She could be slow sometimes. "Get your brain in gear, Princess."

"Yes, but why?" she stood up, frowning at me. "I've already been for a walk this morning with Sango."

"Yeah, well you're going again, with me." She was still staring at me in disbelief and uncertainty. She probably thought I was going to lure her out into the woods and bump her off so there would be no more wedding. I didn't quite blame her.

"Uh…" she managed intelligently.

My fists clenched with barely restrained impatience. She wasn't quite moving fast enough for my liking, and I wanted to get this over with as fast as possible. I took us all by surprise when I reached over and grabbed her wrist to drag her off. "Come on! No point dawdling!"

As soon as she was following at a sufficient enough pace I snatched my hand back. I didn't like touching Kagome for very long. She repulsed me. Though I hadn't been saying that in my dream…

"Where are we walking to then?" she asked as we passed the guards at the castle gate and started down the slippery steps.

I thought for a moment about our destination. A place that was close enough to make this quick, but not too close to make my father mad. I eventually decided on a reasonable place. "We're going to go to the meadow."

"There's a meadow here?"

"Sure there is." I replied evenly. "There are meadows all over the land, don't you notice? Or are you too busy sipping tea, Princess?"

"That's not all Princesses do, you know?" she said flatly.

I grunted. "Whatever." It wasn't going very well. If my father discovered that we'd been barking at each other the whole trip then he'd make me do a thousand sit-ups and take away my meals for a week. Better take the pleasantness up a notch. Small talk seemed fit right then. "You can see them from the castle… when there isn't any mist hanging around and stuff."

"No you can't." She was going to make this very difficult for me.

"Yes you can." I countered. "You don't live here in the summer do you so you don't have a clue what you're-"

"I'm guessing that the castle walls block the view of the landscape below for us ordinary people who can't quite jump as high as you can." She said.

Ah… a good point. I wasn't using a human point of view here. "Well…" I struggled for some kind of nicety. "They have wildflowers and that kind of crap. Pretty in Autumn with all the trees… if you like that kind of thing."

An odd silence came over her for the rest of the journey down the hill. She was probably confused at my obvious effort to be nice. She didn't know what to say. I smirked inwardly as I set out to confuse her even more. I turned and offered her my hand. "Princess, you're going to slip and fall and break that skinny little neck of yours. Why don't I carry you down?"

I don't think the skinny neck comment was going down well. "I'll manage well enough on my own thank you." She responded in clipped tones.

"I didn't mean skinny." I said quickly. "I meant… it's a nice neck. Like a… a… water bird's neck."

"Wet and oily?"

Probably. "No… long and thin." I struggled to recall what Miroku had said about her. But the only other thing I could remember him saying was that she had a nice bust and behind. Somehow I didn't really want to think about those particular areas on this girl.

She gave the slightest shake of her head and stepped around me as she continued on her way down the hill. "Which way?" she asked as the ground began to even out.

"Take a right towards that old black tree over there." I pointed and she followed my directions. I toddled after her swatting at the odd mosquito that took a flying dive at my face.

"I've just had a thought," Kagome said suddenly. "Aren't we supposed to have a chaperone with us?"

"Probably," I clapped my hands around a midge. "Why? Expecting something to happen?"

She snorted. "I'm expecting us to start killing each other any minute now, that's all."

Sometimes I just couldn't get over how un-lady like this girl was. "I bet you have a dagger under all those skirts don't you?" I remarked casually.

She whipped around to face me as I caught up to her. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

She narrowed her eyes. "What is under this kimono is none of your business. Future husband or not." She turned and walked on ahead. I shrugged to myself and wondered if this was the right way to where we wanted to go. "Besides," she said after a moment. "I don't fight with a dagger."

I processed that for a moment before stopping. "You fight… period?"

She stopped and turned to face me with a sly smile. "You don't spend sixteen years watching soldiers train each other in the courtyard and learn nothing."

"Yeah, but that's different. You can't learn anything from just watching people hit each other with sticks." I pointed out.

"Of course you can." She looked around before spying a lone stick on the ground, roughly long enough to be a proxy sword, though a little too short. "It's surprising what you can learn when you just pay attention."

She performed a short, but strong sequence of moves of an intermediate fighter. Her hold on the stand-in hilt was perfect, her balance good. Her footing was a little off, but I was half willing to put that down to the fact that it was hard to move with complete fluid grace in a restricting kimono.

If she'd learnt all that from just watching others…

"Not bad," I shrugged indifferently. "But I bet all you can do is imitate. In a real fight you wouldn't stand a chance."

"Oh yeah?" she looked back at me with definite challenge in her eyes.

"Monkey see monkey do." I looked down my nose at her. She was barely intermediate. I was a pro. Who was she trying to fool?

"Draw your sword then." She hitched her obi slightly towards the left, loosening the front of her kimono enough to let me see the flimsy white material of the two layers of skirt beneath the kimono. With a little more adjustment I glimpsed actual leg and she found enough freedom to get into a proper stance. I stared at her, aware that my mouth was hanging open a little. "Inuyasha, close your mouth, you're going to catch flies. And stop staring at my leg."

"I'm only staring because I thought you princesses rode on wheels, not legs." I scoffed, but I didn't draw my sword.

She noticed this. "Too chicken? Are you afraid you'll lose your pride if you lose to a girl?"

Not at all. I just didn't want to draw against a girl full stop. There wasn't even a match. "You're not worth my time, Princess."

She frowned at me "Try me." She seemed intent to prove that she could do more than she was expected to. But she'd always been that way, out to prove that she could do anything I could do, despite her obvious handicap of being both human and female. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was admirable. Right now I was torn between amusement, concern that I might actually hurt her, and the irrepressible urge to show her just how strong I was.

I wanted to show off… I admit it.

"You'll regret this." I said loftily as I drew the practise sword from where it was tied to my hip.

"You still fight with a little wooden toy?" she looked like she was going to laugh. "You're seventeen and you still carry that thing around like a beginner."

Said the girl who was holding a tree branch. "For your information," I retorted, stung. "I did have a real katana… but long story short, I don't have it any more."

"You lost it didn't you?"

"In a fight with a dragon. You know how thick their hide is, right? Shattered on impact." I made a small jerk with my sword to demonstrate the move. "I had to beat the thing with my bare hands."

She sniggered. "You misplaced it more like."

Actually I accidentally dropped it down the well… but she didn't need to know that. "I did too fight a dragon! I have the scars to prove it!"

"You're stalling, chicken boy." She taunted. "You're probably wetting yourself right now!"

"With laughter, sure!" I hitched the sword up. "Heads up."

I went slow and easy on her, making the path of my first strike obvious. She blocked quickly, the concentration obvious in her face. I struck another way, and she blocked without hesitation, her transition between positions was graceful and smooth, not something I often saw in other male fighters. Her blocks were relatively weak though, I could probably break through them easily.

Giving her the benefit of the doubt I sped up. She caught me off guard when she blocked then moved straight into an offensive mode, aiming a strike at my ribs. If I'd been any slower she would have clipped me, if I'd been human I would have been struck. Thank god I'm not human so I didn't lose face.

"Elegant and graceful in a girly sort of way," I observed flippantly. "Not the best I've ever seen."

"But not the worst, right?"

"Oh don't fool yourself." I narrowed my eyes. "The only reason you're any good is because you're pretty masculine anyway."

She launched a furious attack on me which I dodged easily, only having to block with the practise sword once or twice.

"Why do you always say such mean things?!" she snapped, clashing her branch against my sword. We were locked together in a momentary double block…

That's when I noticed how rigid and tense she was. I reckoned even a small puff of wind would knock her clean over. Giving our locked weapons a tiny little push in her direction, she tipped over and landed on her behind, blinking in astonishment. I cocked my head sideways and looked her up and down. She made a right sight…

With her hair sticking up every which way, her kimono parted all the way to her obi, giving anyone looking a good look at those two smooth legs that supported her weight. The last time I had seen those things was when she was ten. I hadn't seen them since. Back then they had been about as skinny and shapeless as any other ten year olds legs. It was amazing how much a girl's body changed in six short years.

"Ok…" she said, flicking back a bang of hair with a muddy finger, drawing my attention back to her flushed face. "So sword-fighting isn't my speciality"

"So what is?" I glanced down at her legs a moment as she sat up further, beginning to stand. What was such a good pair of pins doing on a girl with a rotten core like her? The back of my brain whispered 'devil's advocate'.

In answer to my question she stretched out an arm in front of her and drew her other hand up beside her ear in imitation of drawing an arrow. "Long bow."

Figured. It suited women better I suppose. "How pathetic."

"You won't be saying that when I'm sticking sticks in your rear from thirty metres away." She retorted.

At this point I couldn't remember the current score between us. Besides, I was fed up with this little 'walk' now. "We should be getting back. We can't be out here all that long without a chaperone."

"Jeez… what bit you on the…" she trailed off, seemingly schooling her tongue. "You know. You always bring out the worst in me, Inuyasha."

"Glad I'm so special to you." I reached out a hand to her.

She didn't take it. She just stared at it like I was a leper or something. "What?" I scowled.

Her cheeks flushed pink again, this time I had the feeling it had nothing to do with our little bout. "Sorry," she mumbled, taking my hand with hers and letting me help her get to her feet. I didn't get what her problem was. It was just good-manners to help someone up after you'd knocked them down in a sparring match… obviously this was one rule she hadn't been let in on whilst she'd been 'observing'.

The moment she was on her feet she made a show of brushing the mud off her hands and sleeves, refusing to lift her face to see me. She really was a very odd girl…

I probably would have stayed longer to check out this strange attitude she'd suddenly obtained, to see if Miroku was right when he said that Kagome secretly wanted me, but not a moment too soon I caught a musky scent in the air.

Turning my head in the direction that the wind blew from I inhaled deeply. Wolves.

I whipped back to face Kagome. "Go back to the castle, and tell my father that I had to leave… to take care of some business."

She gave me a suspicious frown but said nothing, so I turned and began to run. But no sooner did I get a few metres away when I spun and marched straight back to her. "And you're not walking in the woods like that!" I barked, reaching down to jerk her kimono back into place, shifting her obi to the right.

She squeaked in outrage. "Get your hands off me!" she started slapping my hands away aggressively.

I backed off. "Alright, alright! Calm down!" I turned heel and began to run again. "Go back to the castle, Kagome!"

~Kagome~

He actually used my name for once. Inuyasha slipped up now and then, saying my name without realising when he usually made every effort to keep it from rolling off his tongue.

Earlier, on the steps, Miroku had been telling me that Inuyasha was troubled with growing feelings for me. I had listened, uncertain and not sure whether I should believe him or not. Then the lunkhead himself had shown up and I'd decided, no, Inuyasha wasn't falling for him and I wasn't falling for him either.

But when the smallest smile, genuine smile, or half pleasant word from him sent my throat constricting and my heart fluttering I couldn't be so sure that I wasn't falling for him. My mother had once said that around the mid-teen years girls and boys tended to fall in love at the slightest inclination and drop of the hat. She'd just shrugged and said that was the way it was with the young. She even admitted that when she was my age she fell in love with several people that she wouldn't even look twice at normally. But my mother always said that teen love was foolish and not worth the time and energy youths put into it. She was a heartless pessimist.

Though it would explain why my heart fluttered when I thought of times when Inuyasha had smiled at me by mistake. There had to be something wrong with me…

I followed his orders anyhow and made my way back toward the castle, absent-mindedly brushing off the odd dead autumn leaf that stuck to my clothes.

"You missed one?" A voice said from close behind me, a voice I didn't recognise.

I spun quickly, half in fear. I was too far away from the castle to get help and Inuyasha (the jerk!) had abandoned me to find my own way. The guy that had cornered me unaware was tall… about as tall as Inuyasha with abundant dark hair pulled back in a high tail. If it wasn't for his barbarian-esque clothes then I wouldn't have recognised him.

"Kouga-kun!"

An: Yep, you may have noticed that Inuyasha's narrative kinda took over the majority of this chapter. I'm sure Kagome can have a turn next time ^_^