InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ By the Cycles of the Moon ❯ Make a Choice ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: Warning: Minute traces of lime… why am I giving you a warning at all, cuz it's so small… well… I dunno… maybe I'm just feeling especially courteous today…

Oh yeah, and some violence. It's not that graphic, but it's still there…

And here's to your guys' questions and comments:

K005: I say bed like `bed' since most of the beds in Japan were like mats or futons. Since I don't really know if they have certain names or anything, I just call them `beds' (cause since I live in the US, saying `bed' make me think of a cot and mattress and bed frame and all that jazz.) I can start calling them futons and mats and what-not if it really confuses you. ^_^u

EjqHorseLady: Actually, I don't have this story on Fanfiction.net. I've really only stayed with MediaMiner, but I may try going over to fanfiction.net sometime. I actually tried once, but it wouldn't let me make an account. -___-u

TwiztidJuggalette: Why are you sorry for reviewing late? Reviewing at all is fine with me! ^_^ hehe.

And thanks to everyone else who reviewed! ^___^ *feels all warm and fuzzy*

Chapter 4: Make a Choice

Kagome awoke the next morning to something warm behind her, with the warmth also draped over her waist, and hugging it closer to itself. She felt unbelievably calm… as though nothing could cause her to get upset because of those two arms around her… The warmth was just too great, and she enjoyed it too much. A soft vibrating was felt on her back and she closed her eyes to enjoy the feeling. She didn't know why she felt so nice; she should be scared, since a full-demon Inuyasha is around here somewhere! But the warmth and those two arms made her feel so… protected. As thought nothing could penetrate them.

Kagome opened her eyes half way and made to stretch into the warmth behind her. She ran her hands down the two strong arms on either side of her waist and felt them shiver from her touch. Her hands kept moving until they got to the hands of her beholder behind her and she rested her small ones on the larger ones which held… claws?!

Kagome snapped her eyes opened and suddenly froze. A nose had started nuzzling her neck through her hair and a tongue began lapping at her neck as well. She began to shudder in fear, hoping to God that nothing had happened. The nose and tongue stopped, and she heard a sniffing sound behind her. She swallowed with great difficulty and began to turn her head around. Her body was turned with her from the arms around her, and she gasped.

Inuyasha was staring at her with his deep red eyes… but they held an emotion there… but, Kagome couldn't decipher it right away. His face held a rare smile and he nuzzled her hair near the top of her head. When his face returned to her view, she was sure she saw something close to love in his eyes. It was very animalistic, of course, and probably was more like lust or something… but it was very close to being love.

Kagome was shocked. Yeah, sure he had acted like she was his mate and stuff like that, but… she felt more like he thought of her as a possession rather than a mate or an `equal.' She…she needed something to hold onto, as her thoughts raced through her mind; the closest thing being Inuyasha.

She tugged at his white shirt, (A/N: Heard that it was called a `gi,' but I'm not even gonna try for that… I think I would mess up the story horribly, so yeah, they are now `shirts' and `pants.' Rawr.) (which she guessed he had put on after she fell asleep) and pulled herself closer to him. She nuzzled her face into his chest and pressed her ear to his chest to listen to his heartbeat. For some reason, listening to his heartbeat calmed her.

Inuyasha, on the other hand, was completely confused. Her scent had changed drastically in such little time, he was wondering if she was going to slip into a coma or something. The first scent had been that of calm nothingness; the one most humans have when they are asleep. The second one had been of contentment. She had woken up happy. His heartbeat had actually sped up on that one. Maybe she was ready to become his mate? But no, because at about that time, hands had traveled down his arms (which he had thoroughly enjoyed) and had come to a stop at his claws. Her heartbeat raced and the spiced potent scent of fear erupted from her body in waves. He purred to try and calm her, and it worked a little bit, but she had then begun moving around in his arms. Once she had turned around and stared into his eyes, her fear had changed into shock and excitement. He was wondering what she had seen in his eyes.

And now she was trying to bury herself in his chest. He had no idea what was going on, but who was he to complain at her actions? He was hoping she was ready to become his mate, because he knew he sure was. He still wanted to wait until she would have pups, but a little, practice wouldn't hurt, would it now?

Inuyasha gave a growl and dipped his head to Kagome's neck and began lapping at it, sucking on her pulse point. Kagome had frozen and Inuyasha could smell her fear and hear her heartbeat race faster. He growled in frustration and pulled her away from his chest to stare at her.

"Why… why do you still fear me?! I have brought you to a good home! I have brought you food, and I will always protect you! I am a good mate, and yet you still fear me! What is it that causes you to push yourself away?!" Inuyasha growled in Kagome's face. Her eyes were wide with fear and confusion and it looked as though she were in shock. Inuyasha growled again and shoved her away. He got up and walked over to the slab of rock where he had placed the cooked meat last night.

"Don't… don't you want to heat that up?" Kagome squeaked out. Inuyasha turned his head to look at her. "I just thought you wouldn't want it cold…" She mumbled, casting her eyes down. Inuyasha just glared at her.

"What?! What is your problem Inuyasha?! I'm only thinking about you! And all you do is glare at me! You are such an ungrateful, selfish, cocky demon who-!" Her shouting was suddenly cut off as Inuyasha disappeared, and reappeared in front of her, slamming her into the rock wall of the cave. His hand was around her small neck, pressing it closer to the wall, as his other hand roamed over her body. Kagome gasped and her eyes widened with unshed tears of fear.

"You will do well as to make up your mind quickly, bitch, for my patience is running low." He shoved his face close to hers, their noses almost touching. Kagome squeezed her eyes shut, unable to look Inuyasha in the eyes. "You WILL make your choice of being my mate or not. I have been nice enough not to take you by force, but you should remember one thing. I do not take `no' as an answer lightly. You will stay here and make your choice. If I come to find you gone…" A crazed smile grazed his lips, "You may regret that choice later…" Inuyasha growled lowly, and finished by dragging his hand under Kagome's skirt and grazing it across her clothed womanhood. She squeaked in surprise but when she opened her eyes, Inuyasha was gone.

~*~

Sango had won the fight over the bed. She swore she did. She also swore that she had knocked the monk out for good last night. He had fallen down in the corner near Shippo and Kirara. She could've sworn it on her boomerang he did. SO HOW IN THE HELL DID HE END UP IN BED WITH HER NOW???

A roar erupted from the Inn, causing the Innkeeper to jump up and shake his head from side to side furiously until he realized where he was. He straightened himself and sighed. `That poor monk… must have had a really rough night…'

Oh how right he was.

"S-Sango! Calm down! Please tell me what is distressing you so!" Miroku shouted over the cursing and swearing she was roaring. She rounded on him (who happened to be still in the bed and held up the covers as a sort of "shield") and started screaming.

"WHAT IS `DISTRESSING' ME?!?!?! YOU OF ALL PEOPLE ASK ME THAT!!! TELL ME THIS HOUSHI!!!! HOW IN ALL OF HELL DID YOU MANAGE TO MAKE IT TO MY BED DURING THE NIGHT, ALL THE WHILE BEING UNCONSCIOUS?!?!?!" She roared at the top of her lungs. All the while she thought Miroku was staring at her with wide eyes, but she wouldn't entirely know, since she wasn't exactly looking at him when she yelled. Rather, she closed her eyes and was screaming into the air in front of his face. When she opened her eyes, she saw Miroku staring at her… well… rather her body than her eyes, where she'd rather have him stare. She waved her hand in front of his face, but he made no reaction, only his jaw dropped and a little dribble of drool leaked out of the side of his mouth.

"Ugh… that's disgusting Houshi!" Sango said, standing back up. She didn't think his eyes could get any wider, but they did and a trickle of blood ran out of his nose. Sango looked at him and then down at herself frantically and found that all she was wearing was her undergarments… which were quickly falling away from her body from all her movements of yelling and pacing. She yelped and drew her garments back to her body, falling back to a sitting position, quickly grabbing her outer garments and running out of the room.

Amazingly, Shippo had stayed asleep throughout the entire ordeal. Well, he had been asleep, but the morning rays had finally gotten to his sleeping form and he awoke slowly, rubbing his eyes. He saw the state Miroku was in and scratched his head.

"What's with you, Miroku?" Shippo asked sleepily. (I'm a poet and didn't know it -__-u)

"I just saw the most beautiful thing in my life…" Miroku managed a replied, still drooling over the fresh memory, falling back into the bed with a large lecherous grin plastered onto his face.

"Uh, Miroku?"

"Hmmm?"

"You're bleeding…"

"Oh…"

~*~

Inuyasha was in a bad mood. He needed to kill something to calm his nerves. Or at least a really good fight with something. And what a better `something' than a certain hateful dog-demon on the area?

Who would've known Sesshoumaru was actually useful to Inuyasha?

Inuyasha dove down to the ground and sniffed at it viciously. Good, Sesshoumaru was still in the area. Why? Well what did Inuyasha care? All he wanted was a fight.

Inuyasha ran off in the direction of where the scent was strongest. Three other scents came up, and he knew two of them belonged to Sesshoumaru's toad-demon servant and his young mate-to-be human. But that third smell was different-it was about a day old-telling him it wasn't exactly the beholder of the scent, but it could be a possession or something. And there was some other scents on it too. He recognized his own hanyou's scent and then the kistune's scent was even stronger. As he almost made it to the clearing, he heard the clicking of wheels spinning on a metal frame in midair and the toad and human's voices. Inuyasha recognized the scent as he burst into the clearing to see Sesshoumaru holding up the pink bike, with Rin and Jaken looking at it curiously.

The scent was Kagome's.

Inuyasha roared in fury and jumped at Rin-who was running her hand along the rounded metal frame of the bike's body-and caught the three in surprise. No way were Sesshoumaru and his young mate going to saturate something of Kagome's with their scent!

Inuyasha thrust his hand out behind his head and brought it down in a flash of yellow. Instead of feeling the soft texture of flesh, which he had expected to feel, all he felt when he landed was the dripping of blood from a ball of fluff in his hand.

He looked up to Sesshoumaru standing protectively in front of Rin, a large wound in the tail that was draped over his shoulder, bleeding freely. Sesshoumaru had blocked Inuyasha's attack on Rin, but he had paid for it. He narrowed his small gold eyes and set his jaw in pain. It was sort of difficult to stay emotionless when his tail hurt like hell. Sesshoumaru slid his eyes over to the dark gaping hole in his tail, moved a clawed hand over to hover over the injury as though he were going to touch it. But he stopped and suddenly threw a furious yet calm gaze over to Inuyasha.

"What is the meaning of this, Inuyasha?" Sesshoumaru hissed in a deathly calm tone.

"What is the problem, dear half-brother? Are you saying you're afraid?" As Inuyasha finished, he sprang at Sesshoumaru, this time leaving four large gashes in the dog-demon's arm as he thrust it up to block. Inuyasha jumped back to his original position and smiled as he watched Sesshoumaru's scarlet blood run down his hand and arm. But he threw a furious glare at the emotionless dog-demon.

"Why are you not fighting you bastard?!" He growled anxiously. As if in cue, Rin poked her trembling head out from behind her master and stared at Inuyasha with wide, fearful eyes. Jaken was also cowering behind Sesshoumaru, the coward.

"Jaken, I want you to take Rin and get out of here. Go back to the castle." Sesshoumaru ordered without looking behind at them. His eyes were too busy glaring at Inuyasha.

"Yes, of course, milord," Jaken said, bowing and taking a hold of Rin's hand. But the human girl wriggled out of the toad's grasp and ran up to her master, grabbing fistfuls of his cloak-like clothes.

"You're gonna be OK, right Fluffy?" Rin asked, eyes wide. Sesshoumaru glanced down at her, but that ended up not being such a good idea, as Inuyasha charged in for another attack. This time Sesshoumaru grabbed both of his half-brothers wrists as the came down and the two pushed at each other for dominance of the hold.

"I'll be fine Rin. Now go." He barked at his mate-to-be, and she dashed back to Jaken. After taking one last look at the discarded pink bike, lying at the edge of the clearing, and then lifting her gaze back to her battling master, she and Jaken bounded off, out of sight.

~*~

"So my assumptions are true…" Sesshoumaru stated as he grappled with his half-brother.

"Stop bickering and fight me!" Inuyasha roared.

"You are now a full demon from the poisoning from Kagura," Sesshoumaru replied simply. (A/N: I'm not sure if Sesshy knows who Kagura or Naraku are, but now he does. ^_^)

"Why won't you fight?!" Inuyasha growled, shoving at Sesshoumaru with his hands.

"I will not fight a pointless battle, Inuyasha. Though there is no doubt that I wish to kill you, but I wish to do that by my own accord and not by your stupidity," Sesshoumaru hissed, his eyes still emotionless. He glanced down. "I see you do not have Tetsusaiga with you. Oh well, for that would be expected from someone such as you."

"Stop talking and fight, Bastard!" Inuyasha shouted, shoving Sesshoumaru again, causing him to take a step back. The hanyou-turned-demon's eyes glowed a blood red from his flaring anger.

"No. I will not fight you now, but I must repay you for the injuries you have caused me," Sesshoumaru growled as his nails glowed a sickly green. He brought his and Inuyasha's arms out and down in a large sideways arc. After quickly twisting his wrist so his palm faced the sky, he thrust his claw up and left four long, deep, green gashes in its wake upon Inuyasha's chest, slicing through his white shirt. Inuyasha snarled in pain and drew his arms back to his chest as he took a step backward. Sesshoumaru twisted his wrist again and slashed his arm back down, leaving a trail of fresh cuts over both of Inuyasha's arms and cutting parts of Inuyasha's original injuries on his chest in the process.

"Now that poison will not kill you, but you would do well as to dress it properly, for there may be…" Sesshoumaru paused slightly, and you could almost see an evil glint in his small, piercing gold eyes. "…hazardous results." He finished with a near smile and suddenly disappeared.

Inuyasha, on the other hand, had dropped to one knee and was panting heavily. He growled in frustration. After finding someone tampering with one of Kagome's possessions, finding someone worthy enough to have a good fight with, being denied the fight, and poisoned, he was beyond pissed. He now wanted something to die.

Inuyasha roared in frustration, jumped up, and slammed his fist into a poor tree nearby. The tree splintered and shattered and fell into a tree next to it, causing them to both to go down. Inuyasha smirked at the sight, but his triumph was short lived, as he suddenly noticed his hand was covered in his own blood, full of splinters.

Inuyasha growled and dismissed it as nothing as he made his way over to Kagome's bike. He went to crouch down to pick it up, but suddenly collapsed as the poison began to take hold of his body.

~*~

Once all of the… issues… were resolved from the from morning, Sango, Miroku, Shippo and Kirara were sitting around a table at the local tavern in silence. Well, all the silence you could get from Shippo's slurping at his drink and Kirara's lapping at her dish of crème, mixed in with the regular din of the tavern. Miroku was sporting a new red mark on his cheek and Sango had a violent blush on her face.

Oh how public displays of affections bring people closer together…

…not.

"Well we cannot sit in this silence forever," Miroku stated, nodding his head.

"I can sure as hell try," Sango `humphed,' taking a sip of her tea. Silence fell over them again. Shippo, who couldn't stand the depressing silence of the stubborn people in front of him, spoke up to break it.

"I wish Kagome was here," He sighed sadly. Oh yeah, that really takes the word `depressing' off the list.

"So do I, Shippo. And we can't lose faith in her," Sango replied, suddenly throwing a glare at the monk, who looked away sheepishly, "As some people have done." Miroku whipped his head up at that.

"Now that is quite uncalled fo-!" He started.

"No it's not! You were the one to even say that Kagome may be-be… dea…" Sango's voice wavered as she couldn't bring herself to say the word. Her eyes teared up, but she bowed her head to hide her eyes from view.

"Well you must understand, as much as it hurts, it is a possibility…" Miroku added. He knew just what to say, didn't he?

"You-you…you…!" Sango choked out from her tears. She couldn't think of an insult horrible enough for him. She suddenly stood up, almost upsetting the table, and ran from the tavern as the looks of a few men followed her, and then turned to glare at Miroku, seemingly the source of her crying.

"Now you have to go and make the poor girl cry…"

"Some boyfriend you are man…"

"Yeah, she's prettier without tears…"

"Any girl is prettier without tears you dope…"

"Oh shut up…"

"Would you please silence your voices!" Miroku suddenly shouted, slamming his palms onto the table, upsetting all of the drinks on it; their contents splashing over one another and dripping onto the floor. Shippo hugged Kirara closer to him and stared up at Miroku, startled by his actions.

"You will do well as to not interfere in matters that are not your own!" Miroku shouted, his violet eyes glaring into each of the men's.

"No need to start something, sir!" One man said, narrowing his eyes and standing up to meet Miroku. Shippo jumped off the bench he was sitting on and landed next to Miroku's feet, glaring at the man who stood up.

"Yes, it is still only morning," Another chimed in, standing as well. Soon Miroku was surrounded.

"What-what are they doing?" Shippo whispered as Kirara growled at them.

"No need to worry yourself about them Shippo," Miroku whispered back to the kitsune. He looked back up to the men surrounding him. "I am sorry for causing you a disturbance fine sirs," Miroku muttered in a low voice, walking out of the circle with Shippo and Kirara following him. Once he was almost at the door, he thrust his left hand, which held his staff, to the side and brought it down, slashing a poor table into a pile of wooden mess.

Shippo face faltered and shouted up at Miroku.

"What was that for?!"

"Come, Shippo. Kirara," Miroku ordered, walking out of the tavern and away from the disproving shouts of the men still in there.

"Don't expect to be welcomed back you horrible monk!" A man shouted, running out after Miroku. Miroku fought the urge to just knock the man senseless with his staff. `I will not hurt innocent bystanders… I am a man of my word… I will not hurt innocent bystanders…' Miroku chanted over and over in his head as he kept walking with Shippo babbling at him, asking him what happened. Miroku ignored the fox kitsune and pressed a hand to his temple, feeling a headache coming on, and thought, `Oh gods, I'm becoming like Inuyasha…'

"Miroku, are you alright?" Shippo asked, looking up at his friend, as Kirara mewed in agreement.

"I am fine Shippo, please do not worry yourself," Miroku said calmly, but he suddenly grabbed his right hand and winced in pain.

"What's wrong?" Shippo asked, bouncing up and down to get a better look at Miroku's hand.

"My Wind Tunnel… it hurts…" Miroku's eyes widened. "It is an omen…"

"Are you sure?' Shippo asked, suddenly scared. "What kind of omen?"

"I am… not sure," Miroku lied. `It has to be a bad omen. The Wind Tunnel has never hurt this way before, but I can not scare Shippo.' Miroku thought.

"Maybe we should go back to Keade's," Shippo suggested.

"We probably should, but first we must find Sango, and then maybe we will come back and look for Kagome and Inuyasha," Miroku said, smiling at the kitsune.

"Alright! Come on Kirara, we can sniff Sango out like Inuyasha can!" Shippo cried happily, bounding off. He never admitted it, but he looked up to Inuyasha… in ways. Miroku chuckled quietly, not wanting to embarrass Shippo for just admitting something without knowing it. He slowly followed, throwing glances at his hand.

Shippo had found Sango relatively easily, (mostly because of Kirara just having a sense of where Sango was) and was trying to get her to stop crying.

"It's alright Sango! Miroku didn't mean it! He says that after we go to Keade's that we can go look for Kagome and Inuyasha again!" He piped, patting Sango on the back. She looked up at him in confusion.

"Why are we going back to Keade's?" Sango asked, wiping the tears away from her face.

"Because Miroku said something about how his wind tunnel hurts and it's a sign…" Shippo answered, scratching his head and putting a finger up to his mouth in a little-kid manor.

"Oh really?" Sango snickered, smiling at Shippo.

"It's not that big of a deal, but we should probably tell Keade." Miroku added, coming up to the group, blushing at Sango.

"If it's not that big of a deal, then why should we tell Keade?" Sango snickered again, smiling triumphantly at Miroku.

"Let's just say it's a feeling that we should," Miroku answered sincerely, surprising Sango. He began to walk away towards the road to Keade's, leaving Sango there, looking at him curiously. Shippo ran off after him.

"But what about-?"

"We can come back and look for Kagome after we tell Keade," Miroku called back, answering Sango's question before she asked it.

"So comes from the monk, who told us the bitter possibilities of reality," Sango muttered darkly at him.

"I don't think you are listening to your heart Sango. Like I wasn't before," Miroku replied thoughtfully, surprising Sango once again. She stopped walking and stared at him in curiosity again.

`Something's different with him. I wonder what is wrong…' Sango thought. She desperately wanted to comfort him and ask him what was wrong, but she was afraid he would wave her away and reject her comfort. Besides, she wasn't ready to admit to the perverted monk that she liked him anyway.

"What are you thinking about?" She suddenly heard his voice right next to her as the familiar pressure on her butt was felt. She hadn't realized he noticed she stopped walking and had made his way back to her while she was in deep thought. Momentarily, she realized what he had just done and a blush covered her face and she whipped out her bone boomerang upon Miroku's head.

"PERVERT!!!" She screamed, stalking off in a huff.

"I was only asking a question…" Miroku mumbled into the dirt, rubbing his head as he got up.

"With some unwanted touching, mind you!" Sango called after him. He rubbed his head again wondering, `Did she really hear me?'

"Well is that such a problem, my lovely butterfly?" Miroku asked, suddenly by Sango's side.

"YES!" She shouted, shoving him onto his but.

`What I do for love…' Miroku thought darkly from the ground, not taking the chance that Sango might hear his muttering again.

~*~

A/N: Hope you guys liked the chapter! (I found a way to update without using the computer that has the rest of my story in it! Yay!!!) ^_^ I'll try to get Chapter 5 up in a few days. Thanks for reviewing everyone!!!