InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Broken* ❯ Hide and Seek ( Chapter 7 )

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

Kagome took her time going back to camp. She was lucky enough to stumble upon a small stream of water trickling down between a pile of rocks. It was icy cold, and sufficient for her needs; wetting the handkerchief she always carried in her pocket, she wiped the worst of the caked dirt and blood from her skin. The damage was minimal, thank goodness. A few cuts and bruises, nothing to worry about. Her knee was the worst injury, and she wrapped the cold cloth around it to soothe the ache.

Her temper began to settle, which she wasn't all that happy about since it left her heart wide open for the hurt to creep back in, along with no small amount of confusion. She wanted to be angry with Kaede for putting the rosary in the bag, thereby making an already serious situation even worse, but she knew the old miko had only been trying to help. Besides, she wasn't even sure Kaede was to blame. Shippou could just as easily have slipped it in, but he wasn't to blame, either. He was just a child and didn't know any better. She couldn't even blame Inuyasha for being so furious about the rosary; she could, however, blame him for believing she was heartless enough to actually try and use it on him!

Although, she thought uneasily, with the way things were going, it might just come down to that. No matter what, it seemed the two of them weren't able to see eye-to-eye about anything anymore. What if he really tried to destroy the well when they returned to the village? Could she let him do that? How could she stop him from trying, short of shooting him down with one of her arrows? The thought of hurting him like that made her sick to her stomach. Why couldn't he just trust her? Why did he have to always threaten her? She didn't want to fight with him, but he made it so hard not to anymore. Up until now, she'd honestly believed they were friends. The thought that she might have been wrong was just as sickening as the thought that she might be forced to raise a hand against him.

Eventually, she roused herself to return to camp before Inuyasha came looking for her; she didn't have it in her to deal with another yelling match, unless she wanted to give herself a nervous breakdown. She found the hanyou crouched beside the fire, head bent in concentration as he busily mashed plant leaves together between two rocks, forming a thick, rather lumpy poultice. He sniffed it, shook his head with a snort, then picked up another leafy plant that Kagome recognized from her lessons with Kaede as a medicinal herb. He shredded its leaves with his claws, mixing it into the mash and again pounding away.

She watched curiously for awhile before he finally stopped to study the contents, which now had the consistency of thick, pale-green paste. He seemed satisfied with the results, picking up a large, shiny green leaf to carefully scrape the mixture onto it. Kagome's knee throbbed as she lowered herself carefully onto her sleeping bag, trying not to alert him to her presence, even though he'd probably smelled her long already.

Or maybe not. Her nose wrinkled. She could smell that poultice even from this distance. It was probably wreaking havoc with his sensitive nose. What was it for, anyway? He wasn't injured as far as she could tell. Was it … maybe … for her? Her expression softened, and she again regretted yelling at him, even if he had deserved every word of it. But she was alone with him and they had a long trip back. With both her bike and her knee out of commission, he'd probably have to carry her the entire way, which probably didn't please him very much.

She sighed softly. One of these days, she was going to learn how to put a reign on her temper. No matter how mad he made her, yelling at him certainly wasn't helping to repair anything. Still, she had pride enough that she wasn't going to go groveling at his feet begging forgiveness, either. It was just as much his fault as hers that they were fighting, if not more so, she thought stubbornly. She wasn't about to apologize for anything she said to him until he apologized for his horrible behavior towards her!

And, considering how bull-headed the hanyou could be, that might not happen for a very long time.

Inuyasha stood and turned, still holding the leaf as he made his way silently over to her. She blinked up at him, tensing, and swallowed nervously when he seated himself cross-legged in front of her, meeting her gaze with a serious, guarded expression. "Lemme see," he commanded quietly. Almost … kindly, she thought. He gestured at her swollen knee.

She blinked again, speechless. First, he was yelling at her and accusing her of being treacherous and a liar and now … and now this? When would she finally understand what went through that mind of his? She slowly straightened her damaged leg and nearly yelped when he caught hold of it—handling it like a piece of fragile china—and draped it across his lap. A blush bloomed across her cheeks as she reached to hastily tug down the skirt that had ridden up her thighs.

Inuyasha didn't appear to notice as he gently probed around her knee, feeling her twitch every time he hit a sore spot. He frowned, his brows furrowing in concentration. "Looks like you pulled some tendons," he stated gruffly. "Don't go walkin' on it or it'll get worse. Guess I'll have to carry you back to the old lady."

She bit her lip. "Um, in case you forgot, there's a shard still missing," she reminded him. "We can't leave until it's found." She hesitated, then drew a deep breath. "Besides," she added, even more hesitantly, "haven't you noticed the viper hasn't vanished?"

"Huh?" He looked at her, startled.

"I mean … I remember that when we removed shards from other youkai, they crumbled into dust. But, there are still pieces of this one around." She carefully gauged his reaction. "I-if there's still a shard embedded in its flesh, won't it eventually pull itself back together? Like that crow did?"

He swore softly. "I didn't think of it," he admitted, picking up the leaf of plant-mash and dipping his fingers into it. "This'll feel a little weird, but it'll ease the swelling," he added, before smearing the concoction onto Kagome's knee. She jumped when the medicine touched her skin; she hadn't expected it to be so cold! Cold enough to burn, in fact, and she winced as her knee began to tingle uncomfortably. It smelled very much like the joint medicine her grandfather used to ease his arthritis when it acted up, and she imagined that it probably worked about the same way, too. But … was her skin supposed to burn like that? She frowned a little as she eyed the concoction suspiciously.

"If it burns, you know it's doin' its job," Inuyasha said gruffly as he continued to gently massage the medicine into her skin, apparently noticing the uncomfortable expression on her face. Kagome looked at him with wonder, and he fought the sudden urge to squirm. "What?" he demanded. "What're you lookin' at?"

She immediately dropped her gaze. "I was—Um, it's just I never realized you knew so much about … this sort of thing," she mumbled, plucking at her skirt with nervous fingers. "I just never took you for a healer type, that's all. Wh-where did you learn how to…?"

He smirked. "Idiot. How often did the old lady show you stuff like this? I can pay attention, too, ya know." He finished his task and sat back, setting the leaf aside and lifting Kagome's leg from his lap carefully. "You got a bandage in that bag of yours? I should wrap your knee so the poultice has better effect and won't rub off."

She handed him the first aid kit. He carefully bound her knee with the ace wrap and secured it with metal tabs. "There. Just take it easy. In a couple of days you'll be good as new." He tossed the kit back into the pack. "Get some sleep now. I'll be wakin' you up nice and early to look for that shard."

"What about the viper?" Kagome asked nervously, eyeing the still-unmoving chunks of flesh that littered the area.

"As big as that thing is and as many pieces as it's in, it'll take awhile to pull itself together," he snorted. "Besides, I'll notice if anything happens long before it does. All we gotta do then is look for the biggest chunk of snake and get the shard from it."

“And any other youkai that might happen to wander by?”

“Keh. I'll take care of 'em. Don't I always?”

"You seem pretty confident," she muttered, unzipping her bag and crawling stiffly into it. Her entire body was screaming for more sleep. Her head felt strangely heavy, and her ears felt like someone had stuffed them full of cotton. No doubt she had one mother of a cold coming on after all this.

"Least one of us is," Inuyasha snorted, turning his back on her to lean comfortably against the felled tree. "Now quit talkin' and sleep."

She obediently pillowed her head on her arms as she allowed her body to relax. Her eyes studied Inuyasha silently. He looked like he was sleeping, sitting with legs and arms crossed and his eyes tightly closed, but she knew better. His twitching ears gave away the fact that he was still alert, if not fully awake. She sighed and smiled wistfully. Her anger and frustration had disappeared, at least for now. How did he always do that to her, acting like such an ass one moment and then turning a one-eighty to completely disarm her and make her forget why she was mad in the first place. He'd never give her a real apology, but she'd come to realize that his actions usually spoke a lot louder than his words, anyway. The fact that he'd taken care of her meant more to her than any apology. Words were only words, but kindness—especially coming from him—was straight from the heart.

It gave her hope that just maybe he didn't hate her so much, after all.

"Inuyasha?" she called softly, and one ear twitched toward her in acknowledgement as he grunted a response. "Thank you," she whispered, watching as his eyes opened and he turned his head to look at her. "For taking care of me," she added with a small, hesitant smile. "I … um … you didn't have to do that for me and I really appreciate it. I-I'll make it up to you. I promise."

"Keh," he muttered, turning away again and shutting his eyes, but not before she saw the slight smile twitch at his lips, allowing a fang to poke through. Her own smile widened, and she felt much more relaxed as she allowed sleep to claim her again.

~*~*~*~*~

As promised, as soon as the sky lightened, Inuyasha was up and searching for the missing shard. Several more snake chunks were missing, a sure sign that the shard was doing its job in helping the youkai repair itself, and the hanyou was becoming a bit worried. It shouldn't have been this hard to find a half-formed youkai, especially one bearing the scent of the jewel, yet it continued to elude him. The only thing he could think of was that the shard had been blown so far outside the immediate area that even his senses couldn't pick it up. He sighed. It looked like he needed Kagome's help, after all.

He turned to the sleeping girl reluctantly, padding silently over to her huddled form in the padded bag and crouching beside her. He really hated to wake her up; she looked horrible, completely exhausted, and he could detect a change in her scent that suggested she had come down with some form of illness. Not that he blamed her; running around in this godforsaken weather wasn't exactly the healthiest thing for a person to do, especially if that person was a weak human like her. He sighed and almost absentmindedly reached out to gently push her bangs away from her overheated forehead. He wrinkled his nose; as pleasant as the girl normally smelled, right now she was in dire need of a bath, smelling of sweat and damp air and sickness. He sighed again. Well, the sooner they found that thrice-damned shard, the sooner he could get her back to the village and let Kaede take care of her. He was no good at things like this, anyway.

"Hey," he said softly, stroking his thumb along the girl's cheek in a surprising display of tenderness. "Kagome, wake up."

She stirred under his touch, her brow furrowing. "In…yasha," she murmured. "D-don't—"

"Don't what?" he asked, blinking down at her in puzzlement.

She tossed a little. "Need t'go … home…" she mumbled, looking distressed. Inuyasha froze, breath catching in his throat. "Grandfather… Where are you, Mama?" She tossed again, her hand flying out to strike Inuyasha lightly in the chest. Then she released a noise that sounded suspiciously like a little sob, and the hanyou's eyes widened in alarm. Suddenly, her eyes flew open and she stared right into his startled face, her expression panicked as she sat up to grip his robes in fisted hands. "Where is it?" she demanded. Tears sparkled on her lashes and illuminated her glazed eyes. "Where is it? I can't … find it … an'more. He hid—In'yasha … hid it fr'me…" Her voice trailed away and she slumped against him, her head falling against his shoulder. She was trembling and he unconsciously wrapped his arms around her to keep her from falling over, realizing that she was still asleep, and dreaming.

"What're you dreaming about?" he whispered, trying to ignore the churning in his gut. He closed his eyes and inhaled her scent, grimacing at the strangeness of it. "Wake up, Kagome," he commanded, although his voice was too gentle to really be demanding. "You're havin' a nightmare. C'mon, wake up now."

She stirred in his arms as his soft tone slowly coaxed her into consciousness. Her eyes fluttered open as she looked around, expression dazed. She stiffened when she realized that she was in his arms, her confused gaze flying up to meet his. She realized, to her trepidation, that she had one hand fisted tightly in his clothes, and forced her stiff fingers to release the soft fur. She opened her mouth to speak, but her throat was so parched she could hardly force words past her throat. "Wh-what's going on?" she finally managed to croak out.

"Do you feel well enough to stand up?" he asked, completely ignoring her question. "We gotta find that shard."

"Oh. Right. The shard," she murmured, allowing him to help her to her feet. She stood swaying for a moment, one hand gripping his arm for support, before she got her bearings enough to stand on her own. Her knee gave a twinge of protest and she winced. Surprisingly, though, it didn't feel half as bad as she thought it should have felt. That poultice sure packed a wallop.

Inuyasha was holding her plastic water bottle to her lips, as though sensing her need for a drink, and she took it and gulped greedily. She would have continued drinking if he hadn't firmly pulled it away and closed it. "You'll get sicker if you drink like that," he told her firmly.

"I'm not a horse. Give it," she protested, but he ignored her in favor of returning the half-empty bottle to her bag.

"I been lookin' for the shard, but I can't catch wind of it anywhere. It's definitely workin' to pull that viper back together, but I can't detect it," he explained calmly.

She sighed in defeat. "Okay, let me try." She closed her eyes and focused her concentration on the shard. It was hard to focus; her head was muzzy and her senses irritatingly dull, but after a long while she felt the faint tingle of magic touch her from the left, as though from a great distance. "Go in that direction," she murmured, pointing into the forest. "Should be out there somewhere … a mile, maybe? I can't tell."

"Good enough for me," Inuyasha muttered as he began scattering the remains of the fire and tossing stuff into Kagome's large pack.

"Might as well leave the bike. It's no good anymore," Kagome said, looking at the ruined contraption sadly.

"It could be fixed," Inuyasha replied.

"Nobody in this time would know how to properly fix a bike, and as you don't seem inclined to ever let me go home again, there's no point in keeping a useless thing like that around." Her words came out a bit more snappish than she'd intended, but to her surprise, he didn't yell back. He merely grunted and hauled her pack over his shoulder before crouching, an indication that he wanted her to climb onto his back. She hesitated. "I … I don't know if I can hang on. I don't feel well and I might get dizzy and fall off," she muttered sulkily, hating to admit her weakness. She wasn't dumb enough to risk her life over her pride, though.

He sighed. "I won't let you fall off. I don't want you walkin' on that leg any more than you have to. It might feel better but it ain't healed yet, and you'll just make it worse in the end. Besides, it would take too long to walk, anyway. There ain't much time left before that youkai pulls itself back together and then we'll have another fight on our hands. You're out of arrows, and Tetsusaiga didn't even make a dent against those scales."

"Yeah, but there are two less shards in it this time, so it shouldn't be quite that strong, right?"

"I ain't about to risk either of our lives to find that out, idiot!" Inuyasha barked, losing patience entirely. "Now climb on unless you want me to just sling you over my shoulder or somethin'! Either way, I'm carryin' you. End of discussion!"

She blinked at him, then dropped her head and meekly climbed onto his back. He hooked his arms under her knees to pull her more securely against him, then froze when she gave a yelp of protest. "Watch the knee, idiot!" she snapped, cuffing him lightly on the head as punishment. She was clearly in no mood to be polite, and he bit his tongue against the urge to yell back. Instead, he muttered a short "sorry" (which stunned her speechless) and eased his hold on her left leg. He gave the knee an apologetic caress that nearly made her fall off his back from shock, before tensing to leap into the trees.

Kagome did her best to hang on to Inuyasha's neck, pressed against his strong back and burying her face in soft hair to ease the nausea she felt. She could tell he was taking it easy for her sake, and was secretly grateful for that much consideration. She only hoped she could pay him back by not being sick all over his hair before they reached their target. "Do you sense anything?" he asked after a short while, alighting atop a high tree branch. She groggily lifted her head and peered down at the forest. The tingle of magic touched her in a strong pulse, and she pointed to the right.

"I can see the shard's light. It should be right down there," she mumbled. He nodded and leaped to the forest floor, easing her off his back and settling her against a tree.

"Stay here," he commanded. "This shouldn't take long." He unsheathed Tetsusaiga, which immediately transformed.

"W-wait!" she protested weakly, struggling to her feet again. "I'm coming, too. Who knows how strong that youkai's gotten again. You might need—"

"You ain't in no condition to fight a battle. Even if you had any arrows left, you're probably too dizzy to aim straight. You'll just get in the way." There was no maliciousness in his words, just honest truth, and her shoulders slumped.

"Fine," she muttered, sinking back to the ground. He may have been right, but she didn't have to like it. "I'll wait here. Just as useless as ever." She added the last bit under her breath, knowing he would hear her anyway. And instead of disagreeing as she'd hoped he would, he merely grunted and turned to crash into the underbrush in search of the youkai. She sighed heavily and sat back to wait.

As promised, it didn't take long. In a few minutes she heard a loud, screeching hiss, followed by Inuyasha's furious battle cry. Then came the sounds of two enraged youkai engaged in deadly combat, causing the trees, the ground, the very air to shiver with the violence of the fight. After several long, tense moments, there was a final loud screech, the resounding crack of a tree splitting in half, and then … deafening silence.

Kagome held her breath, staring wide-eyed into the shadowed forest around her, waiting for Inuyasha to come bursting through with his usual smirk and the shard in hand. She waited … and waited, and when he still didn't come, she began to panic, rising shakily to her feet. "I-Inuyasha?" she called, fearing the worst. Had they miscalculated? What if the youkai had managed to grow stronger faster than they'd expected? With as much trouble as they'd had killing it the first time … what if, even with two less shards to empower it, it had still proven too powerful for the hanyou? What if he was…?

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed, clenching her fists as her heart clenched painfully in her chest.

"What're you yellin' for, idiot? I'm right here!" came the disgruntled response, making her shriek in surprise and stumble back, losing her balance and landing painfully on her tailbone. She glared at the hanyou, who was blinking innocently down at her from the branch just over her head.

"What're you trying to do, give me a stroke?" she yelled. "I thought you were dead!"

"Keh. You're such an idiot," he snorted, hopping nimbly from his perch to land beside her. "Nothin' to it." He held up a large chunk of the jewel between two claws. "Here, put this away."

She snatched it from his hand angrily, and it immediately brightened as her powers purified the taint out of existence. "Well, what was all that screeching about?" she demanded, her voice filled with accusation. "It sure sounded like a life-and-death battle to me! And then you didn't come back right away and everything was so quiet and … and…" She broke off with a pitiful sniffle, horrified to find that her eyes were now burning with unshed tears, and quickly turned away. In doing so, she missed the softening of his expression as he realized how scared for him she'd been.

"I had to get the jewel, but it'd migrated from its eye so it took awhile to find it," he explained.

"You could've come and gotten me. I'd have found it easily," she sulked.

He smiled a little at her expression. "We got what we came for. Let's get back to the village. Come on, climb up." He picked up her pack and knelt, patiently helping her to adjust herself when she slowly climbed onto his back and slumped forward. He could feel her trembling slightly, hiding a wince of concern when he realized how warm she was. Hopefully she wouldn't become seriously ill from this trip; he wouldn't be able to handle the guilt of having made her sick on top of the guilt he already felt for making her so miserable the past few days. He sighed and stood, gripping her arms tightly around his neck to keep her from sliding off; he doubted she had enough strength left to hang onto him by herself.

"Let's go home," he said quietly, hearing her murmur in response as he started off at a careful pace back to the village.