InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Black as Night, White as Snow ❯ Rude Awakening ( Chapter 14 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Sorry it's been so long...Uhhh...I've been dragging this story out since it's near the end...::nods and smiles and winks::

MOONLIT WRITER: Thanks for the review, I really appreciated it. I know quite a few people are pretty OOC, and I cringe when I re-read some of my chapters, but then I remind my self that this story is more for laughs while my other stories are more serious. Then I burst into hysterics and start writing again...

--- Oh, and read SaiyanAlmaSol's 'Dawn of a New Beginning' for a really good Miroku/Sango and implied Inu/Kag. I've known her for years and she's a great writer and that ONESHOT is a great read. Review too, she loves it!

So...::deep breath:: Here I go...and I'm trying humor again. (Be warned)

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Disclaimer: Je n'ai pas des Inuyasha ou Blanc Neige [uh...neige blanc?] (If I got that wrong...um...well, I'm out of school hence I'm out of French, which means the information has fled).

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Black as Night, White as Snow

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--- Last Chapter ---

A small weight appeared on his shoulder and he sluggishly looked into the red, sore eyes of Shippou.

"I finally have my answer to the question of if your heart is evil," Shippou whispered.

"And what is that?" Inuyasha asked the kit just as quietly.

"You are evil."

"Why?" Inuyasha breathed.

"Because if you weren't, you would have been there."

--- End of Last Chapter ---

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Chapter Fourteen: Rude Awakening

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Inuyasha stood there, as still as the rest of the group, staring listlessly at the unmoving face. The young woman's skin was pale, and smooth, and still...just as if she were asleep.

Sango sniffled a little and stubbornly rubbed at her red eyes. "We warned her. We told her every morning not to talk to Kikyou."

"...You mean I told her," Miroku interrupted, turning to look at Sango.

That earned him a hard slap in the chest. "Shut it, Houshi-sama! Don't be so impossible, poor Kago-!"

"Shut up! Stop talking!" Inuyasha growled, holding up an irritated claw while he glared at the dwarves.

Sango glowered back at him, her hackles raising in defense. Who was this moron to tell her what to do? She knew Kagome longer! First Naraku, and now this guy...

'Damn, all half-breeds have to be idiots!' Sango raged in her head, not very sympathetic towards the dog demon.

"I don't want to hear her name while your yelling at the monk!" Inuyasha snapped.

Sango blinked back at him, her anger momentarily replaced with confusion. "Why? Since when is using my friend's name disrespectful?"

"Let me say it a different way, then," Inu snarled, "I don't want to hear her name for the first time while you're yelling at the monk."

"...Oh. So she still hadn't told you? Her name, I mean." Sango's anger finally melted away as she asked her question with true interest.

"...No," Inuyasha admitted hesitantly. He finally realized how pathetic it seemed that he didn't even know the name of the girl he was in love with...

The dwarves blinked back and forth between Inuyasha, Sango, and Kagome.

"Oh. Then I'll have to introduce you," Sango stated grandly while a humorless smile twisted her lips. She then leaned over to nudge Inuyasha in the ribs with her elbow. "First, I need your name," she whispered.

...

Inuyasha stared blankly back at her. Sango was going to 'introduce' him to the young woman he loved...not exactly how he pictured his fairy tale love story.

While he continued to space out and think over the oddities of his life, another of the dwarves stepped forward to give Sango what she asked.

"He is Takashi, Inuyasha, Lord of the Western Lands," Kaede supplied, a wry grin on her old face.

Inuyasha started and then bent over to look into the chocolate eye of the ancient miko. "Kaede...is that you? Damn, I haven't seen you since you were a little brat...with the whole claw in the eye...sorry 'bout that, by the way."

Kaede's grin dropped off and she glared at the hanyou. "I would rather not be reminded of that. Now, girl," she gave a sharp look at the taijiya. "Get to thee introductions, we don't have all day."

Sango sighed. This wasn't normal...

...Although, come to think of it, nothing in her life was 'normal'. She was a demon slayer, put under a spell to look like a dwarf, in love with a perverted monk (not that she'd ever admit that...especially to said monk) who was also a dwarf and friends with an ex-princess who's older step-sister's favorite pass time was trying to kill said ex-princess.

Mentally shrugging, Sango took a deep breath and tried to remind herself that this was not a laughing matter...

"Takashi, Inuyasha, Lord of the Western Lands...This is Higurashi, Kagome, Princess of the Southern Kingdom," Sango said regally.

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Inuyasha ignored the title, but instead thought of her first name. Kagome. He rolled it in around in his mind and let it sink in.

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It fit.

A game children sang and played was Shippou's clue, and 'Kagome Kagome' was a game in his home country of Japan.

"Kagome..." he whispered under his breath, trying it on his own. It seemed to roll off the tongue.

Perfect.

He even went so far, embarrassingly, to state in his own mind: 'Inuyasha and Kagome. Kagome and Inuyasha'

They fit together. The names, they went together...at least he thought so.

Kagome...perfect. He wouldn't have changed it if he could.

Things had to be turning up. Sesshoumaru had told Inuyasha that the only way out of the marriage with Kikyou was if he married a (willing) royal female. Now, here was his princess (ex-princesses still had to count, right?) and he actually cared for her.

The only problem was she was in a glass coffin, dead to the world...no pun intended. What to do, what to do...?

The best Inuyasha could up with was to use the situation to his advantage. First he needed to get out of the marriage and then worry about saving Kagome. How? Easy...

If he could find a way to carry the fragile case to his castle, Inuyasha could use Kagome's death as a way to prove to his elder half-brother that Kikyou would not be a good addition to the Western Lands.

With Fluffy convinced, the betrothal would be broken and Inuyasha would be single again.

...Hopefully that wouldn't last long, he thought as he looked down onto the still face of the princess.

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"Kanna, after my wedding we'll have to honor my sister's death. It's only right to give her a proper funeral and burying. You'll have to remind me...And I'll have to retrieve her body..." Kikyou breezed into her room, as graceful as ever.

"Yes, my queen." Kanna's smooth face was still and gave no hint to emotion what so ever.

"Good. And the preparations for my wedding? I expect that my invitations and gowns are all ready and the minister has been paid for." Kikyou gave a pointed look at her weapons' wall, "I did put Kouga in charge. If my wedding isn't set up I have every right to punish him."

"Of course," Kanna whispered, her eyes blank.

Kikyou sighed. "I haven't seen him since I fist met him...do you think Lord Inuyasha is doing all right?"

Kanna tilted her head slightly as she looked at Kikyou. The queen was flushed from her hurried journey back to the castle...the hint of color made her seem more real, and not like a porcelain doll.

"Yes, I am sure M'Lord is fine. My mirror would have told me if this was not so," Kanna's small hand tightened around the small, round looking glass.

Kikyou nodded gently before turning back to her weapons' wall. She began to count each and every dangerous item. Soon enough, however, she paused and paled. "My grandmother's fork...where is it? It was an heirloom! It would have done her honor to have used it to eat with at my own wedding..."

Kanna's head turned slowly toward the wall and took in the blank spot where the piece of metal would had been. "I believe..." she said slowly, "That Kouga came in earlier to get it. I think he set it next to your dinner plate so it wouldn't been forgotten in the...excitement."

Kikyou nodded and twisted her hands in her lap, a rare sign of nervousness. She was used to having to take care of everything herself, and didn't very often have to sit back and watch everything go on around her.

She was not lazy. Kikyou had the habit of keeping busy, and doing what needed to be done.

Now what could occupy her until her wedding if everything was ready?

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His amber orbs narrowed as Inuyasha laid them on the dwarves. "I need to bring Kagome back to my castle."

"I know some people have odd tastes in decoration," Sango stated dryly, "But isn't that a little over board?"

The hanyou glared back at the young woman. "I need her there as proof to my half-brother that I can't marry Kikyou."

"Using her for your own problems? And I thought I was low..." Naraku quirked an ebony eyebrow in the second half-demon's direction.

Inuyasha growled his warning low in his throat.

Before the dog demon's clawed hands could reach Naraku's throat, sadly, a solid object slammed on top of the evil youkai's head.

"Naraku," Kagura purred deceivingly, "Use Kagome to get back at Inuyasha one last time and I will personally see to it that you never return to your normal size."

'Normal size'...Inuyasha didn't even want to think about what that meant...

"Are you going to help me or not?" Inu snapped, tired of listening to these idiots yell at each other.

"Fine," Miroku broke the tension. "We will, if you are sure that it will help you."

"Of course I'm sure," Inuyasha hissed. How many damn times were they going to make him repeat himself?

Miroku let the insult roll off him easily. He strode over and lifted a single corner of the coffin; Naraku, Hojo, and Inuyasha took the hint and grabbed the remaining three.

As they began to lift and slide the case over uneven ground, it hit a few rocks and Kagome's body leaped inside from the turbulence.

"Careful!" Miroku shouted at the others. "We don't want to hurt her!"

...

Inuyasha blinked.

"Monk...How the hell are we supposed to hurt her if she's...dead?" Inuyasha's rough voice lost its edge as he seemed a little lost. He hated feeling lost.

Miroku gave him a weird look, his violet eyes clouded with some emotion Inu couldn't name.

"Excuse me, Lord Inuyasha, but can't you hear it?" Miroku asked slowly.

"Hear it? Hear what?" Yep, the edge to his bark was back.
"...

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...Her heartbeat," Sango whispered from the sidelines, her pink eyes filling with fresh tears.
All of his energy was spent as the young lord strained to advance his hearing even further than he already could. And, sure enough, seconds later a faint 'thump' sounded.
"...

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...She's alive?" The golden eyes widened further and he waited again...moments later, much later than seemingly possible for a person to stay among the living, a second heartbeat sounded.

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But how?

Kikyou had poisoned her! Hadn't she...?

In his excitement, Inuyasha almost dropped the glass onto the ground. He caught it again in time, but the coffin still jolted...

...Somehow Inuyasha missed the flutter of lashes that accompanied the jolt.

"How?!" Inuyasha kept looking between the faces of all seven dwarves. Had they kept her alive? Kagome had hinted to him that there was something magical about them, but she never told him what was magical about them.

"I have a...theory," Miroku said slowly, not wanting to raise the hanyou's hopes any more. There was no promise that they could save Kagome.

"And what the hell is that?!" Did these morons take lessons in how to keep an irritable hanyou in suspense, because they sure as hell would get a lesson in why not to keep an irritable hanyou in suspense...

"Well, I believe Kikyou...forgot an ingredient in her potion. For most deadly poisons a key part is a thing called the 'eye of newt'," Miroku began.

"What he's trying to say is that we think Kikyou didn't add it, for whatever reason, so the poison didn't work. So it couldn't kill her, but it could put her in an enchanted sleep," Sango finished for him.

--- "My Queen, where are you going?" Kanna's void eyes were widened slightly in concern as Kikyou draped a cloak around her shoulders.

"I forgot to add the eye of newt." Kikyou looking at the amused mirror demon before giving a deadpan look. "Eye of newt, the flower. Apparently without it the recipe was able to take a shorter time. The poison wont' be as strong, but it'll still work."

Kanna nodded slowly. She wasn't going to morn the loss of Kagome, she'd already accepted that that particular woman wasn't going to be the one to free her. "Are you leaving now then?"

"If I do, I'll arrive by dusk," Kikyou explained. "If I have to, I'll wait in the forest and poison my sister in the morning. I'll be back for my wedding."

"I'll have everything set up for you," Kanna nodded and backed out of vision. 'Sorry, Kagome.' ---

"So in other words, Queeny screwed up?" Inuyasha's eyebrows were scrunched together.

Miroku nodded solemnly. "That's the only good news, though. I don't know how we can wake Kagome-sama again."

"How do you know these things?!" Inuyasha looked at Miroku with a guarded expression.

Miroku shrugged easily, "I don't know. I just do; does it matter? She's alive, isn't she?"

Inuyasha swallowed.

She wasn't dead.

She wasn't dead.

That meant he could still get her back. Apologize for lying to her...

'Although, technically, I didn't lie. I just didn't tell her the whole truth,' the hanyou huffed in his mind. But...he wasn't sure Kagome was into technicalities.

...

"What the hell are you all just standing around for? We need to get her to my castle," Inu snapped, taking the dwarves by surprise.

"Why?" Shippou asked innocently.

"Just because she's alive doesn't mean I still don't need her to get out of my marriage," Inu growled at the adorable little kitsune.

"Oh, okay. In that case..." Shippou gave a sharp look to Naraku and Kagura. "Servants! I command you to take Kagome-Okaa-san to the Evil guy's castle!" He clapped his paws for added effect.

Kagura kneeled down to look the fox in the eye, "Oh I'll show you servant..." she growled before leaping at the young boy.

While Shippou ran in circles, screaming bloody murder, Inuyasha, Miroku, and Naraku hefted the glass coffin up, careful not to jar it in movement.

Naraku and Inuyasha, being of demon blood, didn't tire easily. Sango, Miroku, and Hojo switched off with each other so they could take rests in- between their turns.

Surprisingly, it didn't take long to arrive at Inuyasha's home.

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"FLUFFY!" Inu bellowed as he kicked open the front door behind him so that they could carry the case in. "Sesshoumaru, get your tailed ass down here!"

"I thought we went over what I would do if you called me 'Fluffy' again, little brother," Sesshoumaru, in all his glory, drawled from the top of the staircase.

The welcoming was a little more cheery from Rin.

"Inu-bro! Inu-bro! Inu-bro!" The tiny little girl chanted as she raced round Sesshoumaru's legs to get to her other stepbrother. She lunged and glomped one of Inuyasha's red clad legs in a death grip. "Rin missed you!" she announced, giving the grinning half-demon a sugary smile.

"I missed you too, Rin," Inu told her, but too quietly for the others to hear. What? You didn't expect him to let them know he could be sweet to children, right?

"What do you want, brother? I was just about to prepare Rin for the wedding...where you should be at right now," Sesshoumaru glided down the steps and then gave a dry, humorless chuckle. "Or do you not have enough honor to turn up at your own wedding?"

Inuyasha growled; Sesshoumaru returned the gesture and they both battled with glares.

Miroku, well away from the brewing sibling brawl, whispered in Sango's ear, "If I had known we were going to watch a dog fight, I would have brought popcorn."

Sango, if she were still not pissed at the monk, would have laughed. Instead she simply sidled away from the now putout monk.

What could poor Miroku do to show Sango how much he really cared?

...

...Better not stick around to find out.

Kaede cleared her throat to break the tension between the two brothers. "Inuyasha-sama, I do believe you have something better to do with your time...?" she gave a pointed look at the glass coffin that was sitting in the entryway.

Inuyasha stopped mid-growl and blinked until his mind was back on topic.

"Oh...yeah...Fluffy," The hanyou ignored the threatening flash of claws, "I will not marry Queen Kikyou."

"Then you will not keep your title and riches and will be disowned by this family."

"Actually," Inuyasha gave his older half-brother a cool look, "I won't be marrying her because you will call off the wedding."

Sesshoumaru's hackles rose, "I will do no such thing, and I doubt you could change my mind."

"Oh? And this won't?" Inuyasha growled and waved a claw at the coffin. "Look what Kikyou did to her own sister!"

Sesshoumaru's attention was drawn towards the enchanted sleeper. She was more captivating than his brother so he stepped away to scrutinize the maiden's face closer. "Kikyou's sister?"

"Stepsister," Shippou chirped from the corner.

"Hm...Surely this maiden deserved whatever she is cursed with. I have met Kikyou and she is a level-headed, charming woman."

"Yeah, if you get past the fascination with eating utensils and the obsession with monkeys..." Sango hissed under her breath.

Sadly her quiet comment brought the demon lord's attention to her.

"I would credit your information more than my brother's...is what he tells me true? Queen Kikyou has done something to her own sister to make her sleep in such a way?"

"Stepsister," Shippou corrected again from the back corner, but was ignored...like most of the time.

Sango stood straighter and looked the lord back into the eye. "Yes," the demon huntress stated without a hint or trace of disbelief.

Sesshoumaru sighed silently. What was it about his bothersome, pesky little brother that brought trouble all the time?

This reminded him of the time when a toddler Inuyasha had sneaked the frog onto the visiting king's dinner plate...

"Inuyasha..." Sesshoumaru finally turned back to his brother. Damn the little hanyou brat...he'd won again. "I cannot force you into a marriage with a woman of unquestionable morals-."

"Fuck yeah," Inuyasha ground out, angry with his brother for even trying in the first place.

"However," Sess continued, "If I find that any of you here have lied to This Sesshoumaru or had this staged, I will personally hunt you down and hang you by your entrails."

A few of the dwarves gulped and gave each other nervous glances.

Unlike the others, Kaede's glance was on the outside sky. Judging by the sun it had to be late morning...

...The curse wore off at sundown.

Or it was suppposed to.

Maybe it was noon...

...Or even midnight...?

Maybe the old miko should have paid more attention when Midoriko was casting the curse. But that is kind of hard to achieve when your entire body is slowly shrinking to roughly 2/3 of it's original size.

Kaede toddled over and tapped Sango on the shoulder. The taijiya, in Kaede's mind, was the only one beside herself that had any common sense. The elder of the two women tilted her ancient head in the direction of the sun.

Sango followed Kaede's line of sight and saw the time.

"Shit! Oh, we have to get back! Inuyasha, grab Kagome," Sango ordered as she began to shuffle the group towards the door. It had taken them hours to get Kagome to the castle (they had started not long after sunrise and got there almost at noon) so it would take a long time to get back.

"Wait, why does she have to go?" Inuyasha complained before a thought hit him. "Why the hell do I have to go?!"

Sango gave him a sharp look, reminding the hanyou that she, not him, was in charge of their little group. Inuyasha was just someone she'd let tag along...

Inuyasha didn't like it, and would have showed Sango he didn't like it if some of the dwarves hadn't already started carrying the coffin out.

They didn't look like they were dropping the glass case anytime soon so he didn't have much choice but to follow if he wanted to stay by Kagome.

After all but shoving the others out the door, Sango turned back to Sesshoumaru.

She gave a slight bow (a little stiff since she wasn't used to bowing before demons...she killed them, not served them). "Thank you M'Lord for allowing us the courtesy of being welcomed into your home. Sorry for the sudden departure and thank you for allowing that ass of a half-demon out of the marriage."

She paused for a minute before looking back up into Sesshoumaru's eyes.

"I may not like Inuyasha much, but I have a feeling that Kagome would be devastated if he married Kikyou and not her." With one last nod of respect, Sango whipped around and was gone.

Sesshoumaru stood looking after his guests for a moment. Looking back and forth between Rin (who was at his side, pouting at her adopted brother's leaving form) and Sango...

...Convinced that not all humans could be bad.

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"Will you watch where you're going?!" Inuyasha snapped, glaring at Miroku when the monk stepped on his toes.

Miroku instantly defended himself, "That must have been Lady Sango who stepped on your foot, not myself, surely."

"Nice try, Houshi-sama, but I'm over here!" Sango snapped from several feet in front of the little procession. She was trying to find a smooth path through the forest back to the seven dwarves' cottage.

Miroku sighed. "I'm sorry everyone. It's been a hectic day and I'm not in the mood to lie smoothly right now," he announced sadly.

"Oh, I'm sorry you can't weasel yourself out of situations anymore. It must be a pain," Inuyasha snarled (his foot still hurt); even after such a short time in the monk's presence he wasn't sure he liked the monk too much.

In fact...Inuyasha was now convinced that all men of the cloth deserved to die.

But that might be due to the fact that his foot was crushed, he was tired, and the girl he wanted to be with for all eternity was in an enchanted sleep.

It was not a good day.

Perhaps one of the worst days of his life.

...

"Watch out!!!"

But the warning came to late and Inuyasha, along with Naraku walking next to him, had already had his foot caught in the uprooted tree root.

Before you could say 'the day just got worse' the entire group went head first into the rough ground...the first falling people's limbs entangling into the other's arms and legs till they all fell together.

...The fragile, glass coffin slamming into the ground first.

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Her silky eyelashes fluttered open, revealing slightly clouded blue-gray eyes. The beautiful stormy orbs took a moment to adjust to the slanting rays coming through the trees all around her.

The first thought to nudge itself into her numb mind was that she was lying comfortably on a silken, padded bed.

It felt nice.

The second thought to enter her head was that her view of what looked like the canopy of a forest was somewhat obstructed by silver and gold.

An interesting combination...most would associate the colors silver and gold with money, but the young woman's mind immediately snapped from the colors to a person.

That person, of course, had a name. But names weren't the best thing on her mind at the moment.

The maiden proceeded to give a wide yawn and then arched her back like a cat to wake herself up.

It had been so comfy in her little dream world, why had someone had to have waken her up?

It was so beautiful...there were flowers, and unicorns, and singing, puffy, cotton-ball clouds...

...And then some major shake had woken her up. To whoever had shaken her:

Bastards...

Now, back to the silver and gold.

"G'Morning...how did you sleep?" A fairly distinctive male voice interrupted her musings. "You take your sweet time waking yourself up, girl."

"Mphf!" Kagome mumbled, throwing an arm across her eyes to block out the slanting rays from the sinking sun. "...Inu...Yasha?"

"Ah, so you do remember me. Amazing, with how long you've been knocked out, wench, I'd think you'd've forgotten everything...But first I have a question..."

"No questions, too early..." Kagome snuggled deeper into her little padded cushion where she had been sleeping.

"It's almost evening," Inuyasha prodded her shoulder and then continued to poke her 'till she finally rolled over to face him. "And I'm being serious, I have a ques-."

"Aren't I dead?" Kagome interrupted.

"No, Kikyou screwed up," Inuyasha snapped, tired of her holding off what he wanted to ask.

"Oh. Aren't you married?" Kagome made a small face at his slightly blurred image.

"Are you drunk?" Inuyasha responded. "You're acting drunk..."

"No...just tired," Kagome frowned at him. Why did his face keep swimming around? Didn't he have the decency to keep still while she was angry with him?

"..." Inuyasha sighed and finally clasped her hands in one of his callused palms. "Hey, will you stop moving around? I have to ask you a question," He growled.

"I'm moving?! You're the one upside down and on the ceiling...or tree top or wherever we are..." Kagome trailed off as she closed her eyes tightly. When she finally opened them again, everything seemed to be in focus and staying in one spot...

...Who knew poison was this...disorientating?

"...What did Kikyou try to kill you with?" There was Inuyasha's voice again...always scattering her thoughts. Damn him...

"Ramen. Chicken ramen...or beef...or some kind of meat ramen." Kagome removed one of her hands from his and shoved him a little to make him stop drooling after she mentioned ramen. "That was your important question?"

"Huh? No...Actually, it was 'will you marry me' but you pretty much ruined the romantic mood. I was actually going to..." Inuyasha began to list how he was supposed to propose, and how Kagome had ruined it, but his words fell on deaf ears.

Marriage.

Marriage.

Kagome kept blinking at the hanyou. Maybe she was still asleep in her little dream world, dead, and this was some bizarre fantasy...

...

...No, if it was her fantasy, candles, roses, and sweet words would have been involved.

So...he did just propose...

Kagome smacked him lightly on the side of his head to stop his ramblings. He looked down at her wide eyes. She was still laying in her little coffin, on the ground of the forest, and he was sitting cross-legged beside her.

"Marry you. Marry you?! I've only known you for three weeks. And most of that time I didn't even know your name!" Kagome's mind kept going over how weird (and pleasant) the situation was.

"Actually..." Inuyasha turned an unnaturally somber face to her. "You've known me for a few years..." he paused and pointed a finger lazily at himself, "Remember? Hanyous don't age like humans. We stay young longer."

"How long have I been asleep?!" Kagome looked horrified. A few years? A few years?! Oh god...

She looked so horror-stricken that Inuyasha sighed, his fun ruined. Did this girl have to take everything so seriously?

He laid a hand on her shoulder to push her back down as she began to struggle to raise from the little bed that was in the coffin.

"Calm down," he growled. "You've only been asleep since this morning, just before sunrise."

...

...

"Oh." Kagome blinked.

Then it dawned on her.

This guy had lied just to scare her!

Of course this earned him a hard hit to his chest. "You jerk! I can't believe you just did that! You bastard! You just purposely...purposely...wait, how'd I wake up? I thought I was dead."

Inuyasha scratched the back of his head.

This was where he came in with some charming, hero story to make her fall in love all over again. A dashing tale of how his kiss, a kiss from a true love, had awoken her from her horrible curse.

...

Like who would believe that? This was Inuyasha...

"Um...you see..." He swallowed.

"Actually," A still very dwarf looking Miroku stepped out of nowhere...followed closely behind by the others. "We found out that every time you were jolted...whatever poisonous food, apparently ramen...that was lodged in your throat came a little loose."

Sango deadpanned behind him. "What he means to say is that they dropped you and you choked up that damn thing that was poisoning you."

...

Kagome pursed her lips. "Oh, wow, what a romantic tale..." she drawled sarcastically.

"Hey, you get the guy..." Inuyasha grumbled.

"Oh, yeah, how wonderful."

Inuyasha poked her. "Could you be any happier?"

Kagome sighed and then stretched. "Still tired," she explained.

"Oh."

Kagome stopped mid-stretch and turned to the others. Hmm...it was evening; they were still dwarves, so they had to change soon. So that wasn't what was bothering her...something was nagging at the back of her mind.

Oh...so that's what it was.

Turning back to Inuyasha, she gave him a look that a mother would give to a disobedient child.

"Has anyone told Kikyou yet...?"

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"He's going to come," Kikyou snapped as yet another guest left after giving her their apologies for being left at the alter.

She was truly beautiful...she'd held back nothing. Her thigh length, gray- tinted black hair had been brushed till it shone and hung loose around her hips. Her silk white kimono was long and dragged along the ground a few feet behind her. Satin blush-pink flowers were sewn on strategically on her gown and her obi matched the shade.

She was even wearing some blush, a pale pink, on her cheeks to give her face color.

Behind Kikyou was a mountain of presents, all wrapped prettily, and a snow white cake.

It was almost dusk and the wedding had been set to begin at noon. The minister had long since disappeared...some witnesses even saw him leave with pretty maid...

The guests had also started to disperse and the last of them were beginning to sneak away from the fuming bride.

Besides the lack of guests, there was also a lack of a groom...

"Inuyasha...where the hell are you?!" Kikyou hissed. Ooo, now she was sure hell was where he was going...even if she had to drag him there herself.

Off to the side, Kanna let a silent laugh slip. Just like Kikyou to be more beautiful when she was scheming something evil than any other time...

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"You never answered me," Inuyasha sulked. Damn, Kagome had him acting more like a child than the cocky, arrogant, irritable...

...Better stop, he wasn't doing himself justice.

Kagome looked back at him for a moment, and seemed to study him. She had finally climbed from the coffin and now sat on the stump. Inuyasha sat nearby and the dwarves weren't far off...waiting for the moment they became normal again...

...Or as normal as they had ever been.

Kagome looked at him, straight in the eye, and said calmly. "I don't know..."

Inuyasha swallowed. He'd never thought about what he'd do if Kagome turned him down... "Would it help if I...?" he cut himself off. You know what? He was tired of asking permission for everything!

Damn it! He'd been so meek lately!

He met one woman and she turned him from a strong man into someone who needed advice everyday!

That's it.

...

Inuyasha got up silently and kneeled down before Kagome...who looked at him, startled.

He laid down one knee in the dirt and lifted his other leg onto the foot...Kneeling on one leg. Inuyasha then took Kagome's hand into his own and looked at her...eye to eye.

His molten gaze, his liquid golden eyes, his amber orbs...they expressed something in them. An arrogance that challenged Kagome to refuse him what he wanted. It was a confidence that made her feel like she'd do anything he asked...

...And he wanted her.

"Kagome," He said, and then relished the name on his tongue. It was the first time he'd ever called her by her name. It felt so...so right.

"Yes?" She replied faintly. Why was she feeling so weak in the knees? He'd never affected her like this! Sure, she'd been attracted, but now it felt like her heart would burst...her stomach was twisted in knots.

The chatting of dwarves dwindled and then ceased as they watched the scene unfold.

"Kagome...Will you marry me?"

It was question. She knew it was a question, it sounded like a question. But the look in his eyes told her that he commanded it.

A command from a lord.

Now who was she to refuse a lord?

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A/N: Again, so sorry this took so long to get out! I wanted it to be good since there's only one more chapter after this.

I actually planned for this to be a lot longer with the dwarves turning back...but that can wait until later on. The last chapter will be really long...

Review please!

Ask questions if you're confused on anything! (And do not ask why I used 'poking' a lot...you really don't wanna know)

Ja ne!

Day