InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Between Darkness and Light ❯ Conflicted ( Chapter 9 )

Sorry for taking so long to upload this chapter…stupid ff.net wouldn't let me!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

Between Darkness and Light

Chapter 9: Conflicted

By Cataluna

She felt like a coward, like a scared child running away from the taunting and teasing of bullies at the playground.

Instead of demanding a better excuse from Inuyasha, she ran off, blindly and madly, running away became her only option. Somehow her legs had managed to carry her back to her room, her safe haven. Gasping for breath, she collapsed face first onto her bed, burying her face to a pillow, her heart still pounding loudly in her ears, threatening to explode.

For a few minutes she laid there, breathing loudly, trying to catch her breath, to calm her beating heart, her hands squeezed the sheets tightly. Then her shoulders shook, the rest of her body tumbled, muffled noise seeped through the room.

She wasn't crying.

She was laughing.

`God, what was I thinking? Why did I get so emotional over a kiss?' She couldn't stop laughing at the image of her practically begging Inuyasha to take her. She clutched her stomach and rolled over, feet kicking wildly in the air.

And just as suddenly, she stopped, her laughter died down to a low inaudible gasp. She sat up and hugged her pillow and her knees tightly to her chest, eyes drifting out at the window. `Who am I trying to kid?' she thought, knowing full well she was in denial, and that she was laughing hysterically to keep from crying.

She clenched her teeth, fighting against her emotion, stubbornly attempted to hold the tear that was threatening to seep out again from her eyes. She knows why she got so emotional, there was no denying it…the feelings he had awakened from deep within her. `God, how can I face him again?'

`Pretend', a voice in her head told her.

`Pretend it never happened…forget that you feel anything for him.'

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A week past by in an agonizing pace.

Try as she might, she couldn't forget her feelings for him. The only thing she could do was to keep herself busy, keep herself from thinking about that night, their incredible kiss, and the way he held her in his strong arms.

They hadn't seen each other since, not a glimpse, not a trace. The street has been strangely quiet, not much demon activities, almost as though they wanted to help her avoid Inuyasha, or help him avoid her. She still went patrolling nightly, half-hoping she'll get a chance to see the hanyou.

He never came.

But for some strange reason, she felt as though he was still watching her, looking out for her from afar. She could feel him…the tingling sensation she gets whenever he's near.

She sighed, and twirled around again to look at her outfit, a silver tube top dress with matching high heels, a bit of concealer helped her hide the phoenix. `How did I let them talk me into wearing this?' She tugged at the top and the bottom, attempting to stretch the material, to make it seem longer, most importantly, less sluttish. `Argh! Why do they have to make this dress so small?'

After confiding in them about her Inuyasha situation, careful to leave out the part about him being a half-demon and her being a demon hunter, they, like any other caring girl friends tried to persuade her that she was way better than him, that she deserved better. Yui even offered to beat Inuyasha up for her. She giggled quietly at the image of him getting beat up by a girl.

To help Kagome forget him, they had set her up with a rebound guy, Hojo something. They were all going to a new club that had opened downtown. She chewed on her bottom lip, tasting the lip-gloss, her face twisted into a frown. `But I don't want to forget him…'

A car honked from outside startling her a bit. She gazed at herself in the mirror one last time, running her hand through her hair and checking to make sure there's no lipstick on her teeth, before running downstairs.

`Here goes nothing.'

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"You know…I'm starting to think we're not here on vampire-hunting business," Inuyasha glared at Miroku, who was busy ogling at every girl that passed by.

"Sure we are, vampires love attacking cute young girls in the dark."

Inuyasha snorted, with an expression of disbelief, and hit Miroku on the head, "You mean YOU love attacking cute young girls in the dark, lech."

Before Miroku could response with another lame excuse, two blondes with big chests approached their table, both beautiful and dressed in revealing outfits. Inuyasha sneezed as the smell of their cheap perfume invades his nose, while Miroku's eyes doubled in size, his jaw hanged dumbly. He quickly recovered and gave them his most charming smile. They ignored him. Their eyes feasted hungrily on the hanyou, who couldn't care less about them.

The girls introduced themselves, and daintily held out their hands to Inuyasha. Inuyasha in turn glared at them coolly as he folded his arms across his chest, refusing to touch them, unmoved and unimpressed by their efforts.

Despite his lack of response, one of the blonds boldly got on his lap. That was the last straw, giving them a deep-throat growl, Inuyasha shoved her from his lap. "Get the fuck away from me bitch!"

She got up from the floor, not used to getting rejected, or the humiliation that follows, and let out a stream of curses while her friend laughed at her failure. Miroku tried to repair the damage and get them to turn their attention to him.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was oblivious to what's happening around him, for his eyes were riveted to a girl that had just arrived at the club. A beautiful goddess in a short silver dress that clung to her like a second skin.

Kagome.

Images of the searing kiss that they shared flashed through his mind. He groaned inwardly, teeth grinding together, eyes burning a clear path across the room.

Their eyes locked gaze, it was as though they were the only ones there, and everyone else was a blur. He heard her grasp softly from where she was standing, stopping dead in her track, causing her friends to bump into her from behind. She appeared frozen, like an animal trapped in the glare of headlights.

Then a boy appeared behind her, breaking her out of his hypnotizing stare. He snaked his arm around her shoulder and led her to a table on the other side of the room, with her friends on their heels.

Inuyasha gripped at the table tightly, nails digging deep groves onto the surface, a deep growl rumbled from deep within his throat. `How dare he touch MY Kagome!'

He choked on his breath, eyes widening in shock. `Umm…since when is she mine? Since when did I start thinking of her as mine?' He snuck another glance at her, not missing the appreciative looks guys were giving her.

Flexing his fingers, he felt like ripping out their eyes, each and every one of them. His hands fisting at the side, especially the boy with his fucking paws all over her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Miroku asked, temporarily disrupting Inuyasha's plan on how he could torture the boy. The blond bimbos have finally left, now after a new conquest. He followed his unwavering gaze to across the room. "Ah…the slayer." Winking his eye as he gives him a slight nudge, "Why don't you go say hi to her?"

"Keh. Why would I do a thing like that?" he said in annoyance, while picking invisible lint from his shirt.

Quickly picking up that something was wrong. "What happened between you two?" giving the hanyou a pointed stare.

He remained quiet, suddenly fascinated by the marble design on their table, refusing eye contact.

"Well?" Still receiving no answers, Miroku knocked him hard on the side of the head.

He finally looked up, his expression flickering between confusion and annoyance. "Ouch! What the fuck did you do that for?"

"Trying to knock some sense into you." For as long as he's known Inuyasha, no girl has ever affected him the way this girl has. In fact, he's hardly given another girl so much as a glance. Now it seems as though the new slayer has done the impossible, captured Inuyasha eyes, and maybe even his heart. `And looks like he'd fucked things up.'

Inuyasha touched his sore head and sighed, he knew Miroku would not let this go unanswered. "We kissed. I told her this can't happen. She ran away. There, end of story," folding his arms stubbornly across his chest, completely satisfied with the answer he had provided.

He ended up receiving another painful smack on the head.

He grabbed Miroku's throat, not hard enough to bruise, but more than enough to get his message across. "Damn it, Miroku! You're trying to get yourself killed or something?"

Used to his temper, Miroku calmly unhooked his hand from his throat. "I know you like her."

He gulped loudly, then quickly regained his composure. "Keh! Shows how much you know. I was just weak, caught up in the moment, that's all," he lied, then added, "You kiss girls all the time and they don't mean anything."

"Inuyasha, this isn't about me. You don't go around kissing girls…in fact, she was probably the first girl you've kissed. You care for her as more than just a friend." Miroku grabbed Inuyasha's head and turned it toward Kagome. "Look at her, she's beautiful…and a lot of other guys would love to take your place…including the guy sitting next to her."

Jealousy seeped through Inuyasha's face, breaking his reserve. He pushed Miroku away.

"This doesn't have anything to do with your par-"

The jealousy turned quickly into anger. He roughly grabbed a fistful of Miroku's shirt, his eyes boiling with rage. "Don't you fucking DARE to say it!" he growled out each word slowly, shaking him a bit for emphasis.

Miroku refused to back down, not this time, "If you're staying away from her because of what happened to your parent, then you are a fool. And…if you still don't want to be with her, you owe her a real explanation since you two will be working closely together."

A growl rumbled loudly from his throat before he released him with a shove, causing him to fall to the floor. He stood up, his eyes now focused entirely on Kagome.

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Kagome stirred her drink with extreme boredom, nodding every once in a while at Hojo's mindless chatter, wishing she was anywhere but here. It wasn't that he was a jerk, in fact, her was a perfectly nice guy, a guy all girls could appreciate. But he just wasn't the guy for her.

`Yea Kagome, what you want is a guy who's rude and has a bad temper.'

She thought she was going to faint dead away when she locked eyes with Inuyasha, this was the last place she had expected to see him. Her legs turned jelly, that's why she didn't attempt to move away when Hojo put his arm around her, she needed the support.

"Higurashi, would you like to dance?"

She opened her mouth to decline, but Yui pinched her hard on her thigh, emitting a loud squeak from Kagome. The other girls quickly jumped in and accepted Hojo's invitation for her, "She'll love to dance," and pushed her towards him, almost causing her to fall face first into his lap.

Totally clueless of her reluctance, he gave her a brilliant smile and led her to the dance floor. His arms wrapped around her waist in a gentlemanly fashion. She closed her eyes and rest her chin lightly on his shoulder, her mind drifting off to the man that didn't want her, and imagined it was him holding her in his arms instead.

Pleased and encouraged by her action, he held her closer to his chest, and stroked her hair.

Kagome opened her eyes halfway at the sound of a low animalistic growl, barely audible by normal human hearing, but was ringing loud and clear in hers. Two golden eyes, glowing darkly with anger, glared at them from across the crowd.

"Inu…yasha"

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