InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Changing Heart ❯ Severed ( Chapter 2 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: ceruleanrain 
The meeting, and what did Miroku do to Kagome's skirt?
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.02.2004 | Updated On: 11.12.2004 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 314 | Status: Work In Progress
The meeting, and what did Miroku do to Kagome's skirt?
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.02.2004 | Updated On: 11.12.2004 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 314 | Status: Work In Progress
Changing Heart
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A dark-haired girl swept the landing at the summit of the Higurashi shrine steps. Autumn had swept quickly through their part of the country, causing the trees to lose their frost-gilded leaves within two weeks. Setting the bamboo broom aside for a moment, she brushed the stubborn strands of silky black that fell out of her loose bun. It was amazing, the way nature worked. Only two weeks before, the wind made waves in the emerald seas of grass in the fields near her house and rustled trees full to burst with bright green leaves. And now, here were all those leaves. On the ground. Barely golden. Needing to be swept off the stairs in case one of the visitors to the shrine slipped and fell. Yeah... Grandfather would not be happy then.
Speaking of grandfather... The girl looked at the road which passed by the shrine. He'd left in the wee hours of the morning, making a lot of noise when he did so as he tried to assemble his travel bundle. She hoped everything was all right with the old man, knowing his tendency to depend on his "natural sense of direction" - one that had an unusual ability to point him in the direction of trouble. A small smile grazed the girl's rosy lips when she recalled her grandfather's latest mishap: an unfortunate confusion with a brothel when he was trying to find the neighboring town's shrine.
"Kagome! Could you come help me for a moment?" Higurashi-san's voice came from the kitchen.
"Yes, mama. I'm coming."
Sliding open the screen door, the young woman carefully took off her outside shoes and slid on her indoor slippers. In a few steps, she stood at the entrance the kitchen.
She didn't know whether to laugh out loud or cry.
Before her stood Souta, her little brother, covered from head to toe in black soot and smoke. Behind him, the oven was billowing angry black fumes that matched the color of the large pot in the fireplace bubbling over with something incredibly vile-looking. An oddly-colored substance was splattered along the walls and ceiling, thick and sticky and dripping. Her mother, a usually youth-faced woman in a conservative blue kimono, was staring blankly at the mess. Then to Souta. Then to her daughter.
"What was going on here?" Kagome took a step closer to her brother and rubbed a bit of soot off the end of his nose with a smirk.
"I was trying to make supper."
After taking another good look at the mess to clean up, Kagome sighed and looked at her mother, who was kneeling on the floor of the kitchen. She saw an unusually tired and worried expression where smiles and good humor were typically worn.
"Don't worry, mama. I'll clean this up. Go rest. Souta, how about you go wash yourself off at the stream?"
Once she was alone in the kitchen, she began her work, bucket and mop in hand. After a few minutes, she noticed that her heavy woolen skirt was dragging in the soiled water on the floor, leaving a dirty trail behind her. Not wanting to roll a sopping hem of skirt onto her waistband (as she usually did when she needed more movement to do her chores) she pulled out the old obi knife from her pocket and cut her garment just above her knees. A few ripping sounds later, two-thirds of the wet cloth fell to the ground, leaving a large portion of her legs bare but freeing her from the constraints of the long skirt. After having unloaded the burden of long clothes - and wondering why she hadn't done it before - Kagome finished cleaning up the room in record time.
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Groggy from two hours' rest, Higurashi-san slid open the screen of the kitchen to find it nearly glowing with cleanliness. In the corner, on hands and knees, was her dark-haired daughter scrubbing away at the last stubborn spot of suspicious goo that had splattered on the plank floor. The woman's jaw fell in awe.
"Oh Kagome, thank you. What would I do without you?"
Kagome got up from her spot and gently rubbed her aching knees. She gently bowed to her mother with a small smile. "Oh, mama, don't say things like that. It was no trouble."
"Kagome!" Now that the girl was standing up, the length of her skirt showed off a very conspicuous amount of leg. "What have you done to your skirt?"
"It was heavy, so I cut it. Things go a lot faster and easier this way..." She laughed nervously. "I'm gonna go finish sweeping the steps now, I'll be back later."
"Wait, Kagome -" It was too late. The young girl had swept by her mother to exit, leaving her standing in an immaculate kitchen. "That girl..." With tired hands, Higurashi-san grabbed the now-shining pot that sat in the cupboard and headed outside to the well to fetch water.
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Flanked by a tall, black-and-purple robed monk and a strong-looking young warrior woman, the Higurashi shrine keeper was stuck. He wished he'd never had opened his mouth and spoken while at the castle. He wished he'd never had taken the wrong road to begin with. He wished... Oh, what was the use of wishing? There was nothing he could do now. Thanks to his stupid mistake - and his stupid blathering - his precious only granddaughter was going to be taken away from his family to live with a cursed, and very frightening, demon. With a sob, he lowered his head and watched as his feet dragged him nearer and nearer to the shrine. Nearer and nearer to Kagome. 'My dear granddaughter,' he thought, 'I am so sorry.'
It had been a surprise that Miroku and Sango had been able to leave the castle at all, since the other servants and attendants could not. Miroku suggested that perhaps it was because they were individually cursed, each with his or her own burden to bear, instead of all having the same curse brought upon them like the servants. It made sense. And now here they were, on the way to fetch a girl which could maybe, possibly, save them. Miroku didn't like taking a girl away from her family, but...
The road was getting uneasily familiar to the old man. The curve of the dirt road, the trees, the rice paddies... Only a few minutes' walk away now...
They were silent for a long time, until they approached a long flight of stairs which led up to a yard with a house and another few, smaller, buildings. Suddenly feeling desperate, Higurashi-san took once last desperate measure.
"You know my granddaughter... She's only very small. No taller than this." He gestured a hand near his hip. "And very young. And she's a dear, sweet girl, but, as the neighbors say, it would take a blind man to marry her-" A slightly annoyed and dubious look from Sango shut him up. Dejected, he looked up the steps to find his granddaughter waving at him, running down the steps as she had ever since she's been able to walk.
Oh well. At least he'd tried.
"Jiisan! Jiisan!" cried Kagome, her black hair fluttering behind her as she padded down the shrine steps with excitement, wondering who those people were with her grandfather. "I didn't expect you home so early. You only left this morning!"
The sun was setting, now, and the old shrine keeper bent his head to the shadows. He couldn't look at her.
"Jiisan? What's going on? Who are these people?"
She was far from being the disagreable wench her grandfather had attempted to pass her off as. VERY far. The tall man in the black and purple robes bowed politely and explained in a soft voice. "Your grandfather was caught trespassing on our lord's territory. We are in need of a girl at the castle, so you are to come with us to pay for the consequence of his actions."
"Very funny, grandfather. Good one, this time." Kagome reached out and played with the rings on Miroku's monk staff, making them clink in the breeze. "Very nice costumes. Why don't you come in for supper, and you can tell us who you really are."
Sango shook her head. "I am Sango, and this man is Miroku. I'm sorry, but we have strict instructions to bring you to the castle immediately. We must leave immediately if we are to return to the castle on time."
Kagome looked at her grandfather and caught his eye. A daunting realization set in: they really were going to take her away. With a sudden rush of adrenaline, she turned on her heel and began to run. 'Grandfather... what have you done?'
She didn't get very far. A few strides into her sprint, a huge boomerang slammed upright into the ground directly in front of her. The young woman from before, Sango, was racing towards her, Miroku not far behind. Kicking and swinging her arms, she resisted the calm hands that tried to restrain her.
"Grandfather, do something! No! Let go of me! NO!!!!!!!!!"
Higurashi-san was kneeling on the dirt road, head in hands. His heart broke as he heard his granddaughter's cries. His tears wet the dry dust at his knees. He couldn't look up. He couldn't move.
A long, long time after they'd left, he knelt there still, in the middle of the road, head down. Somehow, once the waxing moon had risen, he found enough strength to climb the freshly-swept stone steps. But he never thought he'd find the strength to tell his daughter in law that her little girl had been taken away from them on account of his stupidity. How can you tell a mother that she may never see her child again?
The old man softly shut the screen door to the house and padded into the sparkling kitchen, where his daughter-in law and his grandson were eating supper.
"Why hello! We didn't expect you back so soon! How was the conference? Do you see how well Kagome cleaned the kitchen? It's so neat it glows!" Souta, as usual, was a bundle of questions for his grandfather. The old man, however, did not return the enthusiasm and merely sat down at the table and stared at the floor.
"Speaking of Kagome, where is that girl? I don't like the idea of her running around in a short skirt like that. She might catch a cold... or a boy might catch her. Otosan? Did you see Kagome on your way in?"
Two sets of identical brown eyes bore into the old man's head.
"Otosan?"
Slowly, the man lifted his tear-streaked face. "It's my fault. It's all my fault… They took her away…"
There was a moment of silence before a soft thump echoed through the room.
"Mama? Mama?" Souta shook at his mother's shoulders, worried. Then he turned to his grandfather. "What do you mean, 'They took her away'? Where did she go?"
All Higurashi-san could do was look away so his grandson could not see the wetness of his eyes.
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About a half hour into their journey, the girl finally exhausted herself by struggling and fell unconscious. She lay, sleeping, cradled on Miroku's back the rest of the way to the castle.
As they approached the castle, Miroku noticed a soft sniffle from his companion's direction. Could it be? Was it the strong, fearless, unmovable Sango, head of the army?
"Sango-san? Are you crying?" The monk halted for a moment to better consider the young woman's facial expression.
"No!" Was the stern response, but was promptly nullified by another soft sniffle.
"Sango-san?"
This time, a few feet ahead of him, Sango stopped too. She lifted the sleeve of her cream-and-green kimono to wipe her eyes. "It's not right, what we're doing. We're taking her away from her family, from everything she loves, to stay with strangers. She didn't even do anything, and we're going to use her to try to save ourselves... I feel like the worst person in the world... we're being so selfish."
Miroku pondered her words. "You're right. I feel the same way. But..." He took a step closer to Sango, "Maybe we can give it a trial period. A month or two. If she is miserable, we bring her back nomatter what Inuyasha says. If she becomes accustomed to the castle and this plan works out, she stays."
After a moment of silent contemplation, Sango turned her back to him and continued on the road back to the castle. "That sounds a little better."
The dark-haired monk readjusted the young girl on his back (nomatter how light, an unconscious lady will always be heavy to carry) and sped up to fall into step next to Sango.
A few minutes passed before the warrior felt something brush circular motions on her bottom.
"Houshi-sama?"
"Yes, dear Sango-sama?" The young monk responded in a falsely innocent tone.
"Your hand... is patting my bottom."
"You have a wonderful bottom, my dear Sango-sama."
"Pervert!" A strong slap echoed through the woods, scaring away any small animals in their near proximity.
Miroku brought his hand up to his cheek, but not in pain. He was too much in a daze to feel the pain.
Her hand. Her hand had touched his cheek. Her warmth had grazed his face. With a sigh, he pushed open the brass gate and followed behind a steaming young woman all the way back to the castle.
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At the sound of the grand oak doors opening, two thirds of the castle population gathered in the entrance hall to see this girl who would save them.
They were disappointed.
Spread out on her back on the soft red velvet runner was a young woman, maybe 18 or 19, with thick, shiny black hair. She was covered, from head to toe, with dust and dirt. Her green skirt was shockingly short, looking as though someone has ripped it to be that way. Upon noticing this, many eyes turned to Miroku, who threw his arms up in innocence.
"That's how we found her, honest! Ask Sango!"
Loud stomping down the main staircase caused the crowd of people in the hall to part down the middle and bow. Prince Inuyasha had come to take a look himself.
Dressed in his usual red haori and hakama, he softly tread over to the girl and sat on his haunches. His nose wrinkled.
"She's dirty and she smells bad."
"She's only a country girl, Inuyasha-sama."
"Keh." The powerful young prince turned on his heel and began to tread to the woods behind the castle. Before he left the hall, however, he said, in an unusually soft voice, "Put her in my mother's old room in the East wing." In his usual, aggressive and semi-angry voice, he added, "And do something about her clothes!"
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Kagome woke up to a beam of moonlight streaming softly on her face. She was in a strange, but tremendously large and comfortable, bed, in a room that would have made up half of her old house. The walls, the floor, the ceiling… everything was a smooth stone, contrasted sharply with thick, soft velvety tapestries and rugs. Even the nightgown she wore was soft. Wait. Nightgown? Last she had known, she was wearing her white haori and the green skirt she had ripped. Where was she?
Then the memories of that evening flooded back to her. Her grandfather... the young woman, the man, her struggle to get away... Then it had all faded to black. And now she was here. Wanting to be home again and missing her mother and brother and grandfather, Kagome pulled her knees to her chest and began to cry. Heart-wrenching sobs of a child severed from her family and alone.
"Oy. Stop crying, wench." A tall figure stepped out of the shadows toward the side of the bed. It wasn't Miroku. This man was taller than Miroku, and his hair was longer.
Kagome halted her crying for a moment, but her tears continued. "Who's there?"
"Keh." The man edged closer to the bed and peered closely at her. They were nearly nose-to-nose when Kagome pushed him away.
"Who do you think you are?" She cried. "Get away from me!"
"Wench! It's not my fault I can't smell as well with a human nose as I can with my demon one. You're clean now but you still smell bad." He didn't look at her when he stated the last sentence.
"Who are you? What are you doing in my room?"
"YOUR ROOM? Who do you think YOU are? This isn't YOUR room! It's a room you're going to STAY in. Forever." He turned his back to stomp out the door and slam it.
"Wait! I don't even know what I'm doing here! Can't anyone answer me?" She got up quickly and rushed to the door only to find it locked. Banging on it, she cried for help over and over until she tired herself out again and fell asleep at the door, her face tight and stinging with tears.
On the other side, Inuyasha sat with his back against the thick oak door. He sighed. This was never going to work. There was no way that a girl so beautiful and whose scent was so captivating could ever love him. And what was he? A monster. Once a demon, now alternating between human and hanyou forms. He placed his head in his hands.
No one wants to go to hell...
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A/N: By the way... I don't own anything to do with Inuyasha. Oh well. He and Kagome make a better couple anyway. And I already have someone I have my eyes on :P
I hope you guys are enjoying this. I am having fun writing this fic. If you have any questions (about me, about the fic, etc.) fire away!
Oh, and for all the mediaminer readers: Something is going VERY wrong with the review system, and no reviews are coming in. If you want to comment, please do so via my email. As of yet, I've only been able to view one, but I know that more are there, so email me!
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A dark-haired girl swept the landing at the summit of the Higurashi shrine steps. Autumn had swept quickly through their part of the country, causing the trees to lose their frost-gilded leaves within two weeks. Setting the bamboo broom aside for a moment, she brushed the stubborn strands of silky black that fell out of her loose bun. It was amazing, the way nature worked. Only two weeks before, the wind made waves in the emerald seas of grass in the fields near her house and rustled trees full to burst with bright green leaves. And now, here were all those leaves. On the ground. Barely golden. Needing to be swept off the stairs in case one of the visitors to the shrine slipped and fell. Yeah... Grandfather would not be happy then.
Speaking of grandfather... The girl looked at the road which passed by the shrine. He'd left in the wee hours of the morning, making a lot of noise when he did so as he tried to assemble his travel bundle. She hoped everything was all right with the old man, knowing his tendency to depend on his "natural sense of direction" - one that had an unusual ability to point him in the direction of trouble. A small smile grazed the girl's rosy lips when she recalled her grandfather's latest mishap: an unfortunate confusion with a brothel when he was trying to find the neighboring town's shrine.
"Kagome! Could you come help me for a moment?" Higurashi-san's voice came from the kitchen.
"Yes, mama. I'm coming."
Sliding open the screen door, the young woman carefully took off her outside shoes and slid on her indoor slippers. In a few steps, she stood at the entrance the kitchen.
She didn't know whether to laugh out loud or cry.
Before her stood Souta, her little brother, covered from head to toe in black soot and smoke. Behind him, the oven was billowing angry black fumes that matched the color of the large pot in the fireplace bubbling over with something incredibly vile-looking. An oddly-colored substance was splattered along the walls and ceiling, thick and sticky and dripping. Her mother, a usually youth-faced woman in a conservative blue kimono, was staring blankly at the mess. Then to Souta. Then to her daughter.
"What was going on here?" Kagome took a step closer to her brother and rubbed a bit of soot off the end of his nose with a smirk.
"I was trying to make supper."
After taking another good look at the mess to clean up, Kagome sighed and looked at her mother, who was kneeling on the floor of the kitchen. She saw an unusually tired and worried expression where smiles and good humor were typically worn.
"Don't worry, mama. I'll clean this up. Go rest. Souta, how about you go wash yourself off at the stream?"
Once she was alone in the kitchen, she began her work, bucket and mop in hand. After a few minutes, she noticed that her heavy woolen skirt was dragging in the soiled water on the floor, leaving a dirty trail behind her. Not wanting to roll a sopping hem of skirt onto her waistband (as she usually did when she needed more movement to do her chores) she pulled out the old obi knife from her pocket and cut her garment just above her knees. A few ripping sounds later, two-thirds of the wet cloth fell to the ground, leaving a large portion of her legs bare but freeing her from the constraints of the long skirt. After having unloaded the burden of long clothes - and wondering why she hadn't done it before - Kagome finished cleaning up the room in record time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
Groggy from two hours' rest, Higurashi-san slid open the screen of the kitchen to find it nearly glowing with cleanliness. In the corner, on hands and knees, was her dark-haired daughter scrubbing away at the last stubborn spot of suspicious goo that had splattered on the plank floor. The woman's jaw fell in awe.
"Oh Kagome, thank you. What would I do without you?"
Kagome got up from her spot and gently rubbed her aching knees. She gently bowed to her mother with a small smile. "Oh, mama, don't say things like that. It was no trouble."
"Kagome!" Now that the girl was standing up, the length of her skirt showed off a very conspicuous amount of leg. "What have you done to your skirt?"
"It was heavy, so I cut it. Things go a lot faster and easier this way..." She laughed nervously. "I'm gonna go finish sweeping the steps now, I'll be back later."
"Wait, Kagome -" It was too late. The young girl had swept by her mother to exit, leaving her standing in an immaculate kitchen. "That girl..." With tired hands, Higurashi-san grabbed the now-shining pot that sat in the cupboard and headed outside to the well to fetch water.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
Flanked by a tall, black-and-purple robed monk and a strong-looking young warrior woman, the Higurashi shrine keeper was stuck. He wished he'd never had opened his mouth and spoken while at the castle. He wished he'd never had taken the wrong road to begin with. He wished... Oh, what was the use of wishing? There was nothing he could do now. Thanks to his stupid mistake - and his stupid blathering - his precious only granddaughter was going to be taken away from his family to live with a cursed, and very frightening, demon. With a sob, he lowered his head and watched as his feet dragged him nearer and nearer to the shrine. Nearer and nearer to Kagome. 'My dear granddaughter,' he thought, 'I am so sorry.'
It had been a surprise that Miroku and Sango had been able to leave the castle at all, since the other servants and attendants could not. Miroku suggested that perhaps it was because they were individually cursed, each with his or her own burden to bear, instead of all having the same curse brought upon them like the servants. It made sense. And now here they were, on the way to fetch a girl which could maybe, possibly, save them. Miroku didn't like taking a girl away from her family, but...
The road was getting uneasily familiar to the old man. The curve of the dirt road, the trees, the rice paddies... Only a few minutes' walk away now...
They were silent for a long time, until they approached a long flight of stairs which led up to a yard with a house and another few, smaller, buildings. Suddenly feeling desperate, Higurashi-san took once last desperate measure.
"You know my granddaughter... She's only very small. No taller than this." He gestured a hand near his hip. "And very young. And she's a dear, sweet girl, but, as the neighbors say, it would take a blind man to marry her-" A slightly annoyed and dubious look from Sango shut him up. Dejected, he looked up the steps to find his granddaughter waving at him, running down the steps as she had ever since she's been able to walk.
Oh well. At least he'd tried.
"Jiisan! Jiisan!" cried Kagome, her black hair fluttering behind her as she padded down the shrine steps with excitement, wondering who those people were with her grandfather. "I didn't expect you home so early. You only left this morning!"
The sun was setting, now, and the old shrine keeper bent his head to the shadows. He couldn't look at her.
"Jiisan? What's going on? Who are these people?"
She was far from being the disagreable wench her grandfather had attempted to pass her off as. VERY far. The tall man in the black and purple robes bowed politely and explained in a soft voice. "Your grandfather was caught trespassing on our lord's territory. We are in need of a girl at the castle, so you are to come with us to pay for the consequence of his actions."
"Very funny, grandfather. Good one, this time." Kagome reached out and played with the rings on Miroku's monk staff, making them clink in the breeze. "Very nice costumes. Why don't you come in for supper, and you can tell us who you really are."
Sango shook her head. "I am Sango, and this man is Miroku. I'm sorry, but we have strict instructions to bring you to the castle immediately. We must leave immediately if we are to return to the castle on time."
Kagome looked at her grandfather and caught his eye. A daunting realization set in: they really were going to take her away. With a sudden rush of adrenaline, she turned on her heel and began to run. 'Grandfather... what have you done?'
She didn't get very far. A few strides into her sprint, a huge boomerang slammed upright into the ground directly in front of her. The young woman from before, Sango, was racing towards her, Miroku not far behind. Kicking and swinging her arms, she resisted the calm hands that tried to restrain her.
"Grandfather, do something! No! Let go of me! NO!!!!!!!!!"
Higurashi-san was kneeling on the dirt road, head in hands. His heart broke as he heard his granddaughter's cries. His tears wet the dry dust at his knees. He couldn't look up. He couldn't move.
A long, long time after they'd left, he knelt there still, in the middle of the road, head down. Somehow, once the waxing moon had risen, he found enough strength to climb the freshly-swept stone steps. But he never thought he'd find the strength to tell his daughter in law that her little girl had been taken away from them on account of his stupidity. How can you tell a mother that she may never see her child again?
The old man softly shut the screen door to the house and padded into the sparkling kitchen, where his daughter-in law and his grandson were eating supper.
"Why hello! We didn't expect you back so soon! How was the conference? Do you see how well Kagome cleaned the kitchen? It's so neat it glows!" Souta, as usual, was a bundle of questions for his grandfather. The old man, however, did not return the enthusiasm and merely sat down at the table and stared at the floor.
"Speaking of Kagome, where is that girl? I don't like the idea of her running around in a short skirt like that. She might catch a cold... or a boy might catch her. Otosan? Did you see Kagome on your way in?"
Two sets of identical brown eyes bore into the old man's head.
"Otosan?"
Slowly, the man lifted his tear-streaked face. "It's my fault. It's all my fault… They took her away…"
There was a moment of silence before a soft thump echoed through the room.
"Mama? Mama?" Souta shook at his mother's shoulders, worried. Then he turned to his grandfather. "What do you mean, 'They took her away'? Where did she go?"
All Higurashi-san could do was look away so his grandson could not see the wetness of his eyes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
About a half hour into their journey, the girl finally exhausted herself by struggling and fell unconscious. She lay, sleeping, cradled on Miroku's back the rest of the way to the castle.
As they approached the castle, Miroku noticed a soft sniffle from his companion's direction. Could it be? Was it the strong, fearless, unmovable Sango, head of the army?
"Sango-san? Are you crying?" The monk halted for a moment to better consider the young woman's facial expression.
"No!" Was the stern response, but was promptly nullified by another soft sniffle.
"Sango-san?"
This time, a few feet ahead of him, Sango stopped too. She lifted the sleeve of her cream-and-green kimono to wipe her eyes. "It's not right, what we're doing. We're taking her away from her family, from everything she loves, to stay with strangers. She didn't even do anything, and we're going to use her to try to save ourselves... I feel like the worst person in the world... we're being so selfish."
Miroku pondered her words. "You're right. I feel the same way. But..." He took a step closer to Sango, "Maybe we can give it a trial period. A month or two. If she is miserable, we bring her back nomatter what Inuyasha says. If she becomes accustomed to the castle and this plan works out, she stays."
After a moment of silent contemplation, Sango turned her back to him and continued on the road back to the castle. "That sounds a little better."
The dark-haired monk readjusted the young girl on his back (nomatter how light, an unconscious lady will always be heavy to carry) and sped up to fall into step next to Sango.
A few minutes passed before the warrior felt something brush circular motions on her bottom.
"Houshi-sama?"
"Yes, dear Sango-sama?" The young monk responded in a falsely innocent tone.
"Your hand... is patting my bottom."
"You have a wonderful bottom, my dear Sango-sama."
"Pervert!" A strong slap echoed through the woods, scaring away any small animals in their near proximity.
Miroku brought his hand up to his cheek, but not in pain. He was too much in a daze to feel the pain.
Her hand. Her hand had touched his cheek. Her warmth had grazed his face. With a sigh, he pushed open the brass gate and followed behind a steaming young woman all the way back to the castle.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
At the sound of the grand oak doors opening, two thirds of the castle population gathered in the entrance hall to see this girl who would save them.
They were disappointed.
Spread out on her back on the soft red velvet runner was a young woman, maybe 18 or 19, with thick, shiny black hair. She was covered, from head to toe, with dust and dirt. Her green skirt was shockingly short, looking as though someone has ripped it to be that way. Upon noticing this, many eyes turned to Miroku, who threw his arms up in innocence.
"That's how we found her, honest! Ask Sango!"
Loud stomping down the main staircase caused the crowd of people in the hall to part down the middle and bow. Prince Inuyasha had come to take a look himself.
Dressed in his usual red haori and hakama, he softly tread over to the girl and sat on his haunches. His nose wrinkled.
"She's dirty and she smells bad."
"She's only a country girl, Inuyasha-sama."
"Keh." The powerful young prince turned on his heel and began to tread to the woods behind the castle. Before he left the hall, however, he said, in an unusually soft voice, "Put her in my mother's old room in the East wing." In his usual, aggressive and semi-angry voice, he added, "And do something about her clothes!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
Kagome woke up to a beam of moonlight streaming softly on her face. She was in a strange, but tremendously large and comfortable, bed, in a room that would have made up half of her old house. The walls, the floor, the ceiling… everything was a smooth stone, contrasted sharply with thick, soft velvety tapestries and rugs. Even the nightgown she wore was soft. Wait. Nightgown? Last she had known, she was wearing her white haori and the green skirt she had ripped. Where was she?
Then the memories of that evening flooded back to her. Her grandfather... the young woman, the man, her struggle to get away... Then it had all faded to black. And now she was here. Wanting to be home again and missing her mother and brother and grandfather, Kagome pulled her knees to her chest and began to cry. Heart-wrenching sobs of a child severed from her family and alone.
"Oy. Stop crying, wench." A tall figure stepped out of the shadows toward the side of the bed. It wasn't Miroku. This man was taller than Miroku, and his hair was longer.
Kagome halted her crying for a moment, but her tears continued. "Who's there?"
"Keh." The man edged closer to the bed and peered closely at her. They were nearly nose-to-nose when Kagome pushed him away.
"Who do you think you are?" She cried. "Get away from me!"
"Wench! It's not my fault I can't smell as well with a human nose as I can with my demon one. You're clean now but you still smell bad." He didn't look at her when he stated the last sentence.
"Who are you? What are you doing in my room?"
"YOUR ROOM? Who do you think YOU are? This isn't YOUR room! It's a room you're going to STAY in. Forever." He turned his back to stomp out the door and slam it.
"Wait! I don't even know what I'm doing here! Can't anyone answer me?" She got up quickly and rushed to the door only to find it locked. Banging on it, she cried for help over and over until she tired herself out again and fell asleep at the door, her face tight and stinging with tears.
On the other side, Inuyasha sat with his back against the thick oak door. He sighed. This was never going to work. There was no way that a girl so beautiful and whose scent was so captivating could ever love him. And what was he? A monster. Once a demon, now alternating between human and hanyou forms. He placed his head in his hands.
No one wants to go to hell...
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A/N: By the way... I don't own anything to do with Inuyasha. Oh well. He and Kagome make a better couple anyway. And I already have someone I have my eyes on :P
I hope you guys are enjoying this. I am having fun writing this fic. If you have any questions (about me, about the fic, etc.) fire away!
Oh, and for all the mediaminer readers: Something is going VERY wrong with the review system, and no reviews are coming in. If you want to comment, please do so via my email. As of yet, I've only been able to view one, but I know that more are there, so email me!