InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Changing Heart ❯ Encounters ( Chapter 7 )

Changing Heart

Chapter 7: Encounters

Disclaimer: I don't have any rights to Inuyasha and co.

*****

Kagome woke up in an empty, sunlit room, snuggled in silk sheets and a thick feather duvet. Throwing back the warm bedclothes, she was greeted with a wall of cold air which immediately took her breath away.

"C-cold!"

Shocked by the frigid morning, she retreated back into her warm covers and observed her room for the umpteenth time since her arrival at the castle. Thick red curtains hung by the windows, hiding only a small portion of the floor-to-ceiling glass panes, velvety to the touch. Directly in front of her majestic four-poster bed was the great fireplace, so deep and high that Kagome could easily have stepped inside. Her deep grey-brown eyes scanned the beige flagstone floor, covered with soft, fluffy rugs deep and red, just like the curtains. To her left stood the grand, mahogany wardrobe, in which now hung her new set of kimono as well as those that belonged to the mysterious woman… She glanced quickly at the dressing screen, the three panels of delicate, painted rice paper, on which her clothes for the day were hung.

`Okay, Kagome. It's only about three meters to the screen. The faster you have your clothes on, the warmer you'll be…'

With a groan, the young woman buried herself deeper into her feather pillow. She mentally kicked herself for being so lazy, but it DID take her about half an hour to get dressed… Those darn obis were so time-consuming to tie…

`Come on, Kagome. You've gotten so lazy lately… You were never like this at home…'

Home! Kagome quickly counted how many days she'd been at the castle. Nineteen… twenty… twenty-one days! Three weeks! She could go home for a while and see her family!

She dashed out of bed, feeling a new burst of energy. After dressing as quickly as she could, a difficult task with fingers numb from the cold, she sprinted out into the dining hall.

******

Miroku and Sango were seated at the long, polished wood table, waiting patiently for Inuyasha to arrive.

"Good morning, Kagome-sama, I hope you slept well. You were quite exhausted last night."

Kagome pulled out a seat across from Miroku and beside Sango, seated right next to the end of the table. She had forgotten, in her rush that morning, about last night's events.

Looking away in shame, she whispered,

"I'm sorry I couldn't purify the jewel yesterday. I tried as hard as I could, I really did. Maybe… Maybe Inuyasha is right. Maybe I am useless to you…"

The dark-haired monk sighed.

"No, Kagome-sama. You see, it is impossible to purify the jewel using the standard techniques I have been teaching you. Prince Inuyasha didn't know, and I apologize for his behavior last night."

Kagome flicked her head back to look at him. "Then how? And… how did I get back to my room last night?"

The young warrior woman beside her placed a reassuring hand on the miko's shoulder.

"Prince Inuyasha brought you back to your room."

"Inuyasha-sama? How? Why? He was so angry with me!"

"Inuyasha did not know that the curse could not be broken in that way. After you had exhausted yourself, he felt quite guilty and insisted to carry you back." He smirked. "But at least now he is convinced that the curse can only be broken by - OW! That really hurt!"

Sango tucked her kicking foot back beneath her chair with a soft smile as servants in soft grey kimonos brought in steaming bowls of rice and miso.

"We'll keep thinking of ways to break the spell. In the meantime, Kagome-sama, what did you have planned for today?" She did her best to smooth over Miroku's slip of the tongue, preferring that the girl did not know of the curse's secret.

Kagome's eyes brightened as she shoved rice into her mouth with her chopsticks. "Well, I've been here for three weeks, now. Miroku and I agreed that I can go home for a few days once every three weeks-"

Sango's dark brown eyes shot open and she turned her face to her partner's, whose own face was becoming redder and redder by the second. "Miroku!?! What did you do!?!"

The monk was now pretending to pick remaining grains of rice out of his bowl with his chopsticks, even though there were none. "I told her she could go visit her family every three weeks for a few days, as long as she agrees to remain here and help us in breaking the curse…"

Kagome nodded. Why was Sango overreacting? What was the big deal?

"What?!?" Sango was standing up, now, her hands itching for a weapon to throw across the table. "Does the prince know about this?"

"Do I know about what?" The silver-haired young man stood in the doorway of the dining hall, arms crossed and looking a little irritated.

Suddenly tense, Miroku cleared his throat and pushed away his breakfast dishes.

"Nothing, nothing, your majesty. Good morning, and I hope you have slept well. Now, if you will excuse me, some urgent matters require my attention." He hurried out of the room, half running, hesitating by the door to bow quickly to the prince. Hot on his heels was a raging Sango, much to Kagome's confusion.

Inuyasha smoothly made his way to his seat at the end of the table, right next to Kagome. "What's with them this morning?"

Kagome shrugged and slurped the last few gulps of her broth.

"I don't know."

Still groggy from too few hours of sleep, Inuyasha's dark amber eyes were flecked with gold. The girl smiled inwardly as she realized that she'd not noticed this before. Silver hair and golden eyes… How could a man with such delicate, mesmerizing features be so violent and angry? `If what Miroku said earlier was true,' thought Kagome, `then the prince must be a walking whirlwind of contradictions…'

"Oi, wench!"

Kagome jumped slightly, shaken out of her train of thought.

"What are you staring at me for?"

The girl giggled nervously and looked up, to the side, anywhere but the penetrating yellow eyes of the young man beside her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" She stood up from her chair and bowed lowly. "I am going to go walk in the gardens. If you see Miroku or Sango, may I be as bold as to ask you to tell them to find me, please, your Highness? And thank you very much for bringing me back to my room last night. That was very kind of you. Have a good day, Inuyasha-sama." She bowed deeply again before turning to walk away, but was stopped by a grunt.

"Stop doing that, wench."

The ebony-haired miko spun around to look him in the face, her hair falling softly over her shoulders.

"Stop what, your majesty?"

Another grunt.

"The BOWING and the `Your majesty' and the `-sama'… It's fucking pissing me off."

"As you wish, Inuyasha-san. Now, I really have to -"

"QUIT IT! IT"S FUCKING ANNOYING!"

"Wha-?"

"GO AWAY!"

"FINE! What made you so grumpy this morning?"

"Keh," was the only response she got, and with that, she left the dining hall, stopping only to get a warm cloak from her room, and sped down the path into the garden.

Inuyasha devoured the rest of his breakfast, but not before it had gone cold while he was thinking. He didn't know why the girl irritated him so, but there was something about her that just…

With a soft grunt, he pushed back from the table and set off after his advisor, hoping that the monk would be conscious enough to be of any use during that morning's council meeting.

*****

Autumn had definitely arrived in the gardens. When she'd first arrived at the castle, Kagome had found it strange that the grass was still green and the trees still had their leaves. Eventually, though, the weather had gotten colder and all that had been green slowly turned red and gold before finally fading to brown. The last of the leaves had fallen the week before. `Funny,' thought Kagome, `how things seem to be out of step here.' This was her least favorite time: the season between the crimsons and golds of fall colors and the first snows of winter, the dead, brown, cold, and lifeless time.

Even so, the young woman enjoyed her walks outside, finding the fresh air refreshing. She often pitied the children of the castle, youkai and human alike, for being trapped within the stony confines of the palace walls. Though her games and lessons helped alleviate the symptoms and severity of their cabin fever and restlessness, most were still quite hyperactive, much to the dismay of their parents. That is… all except for one.

Several times, now, when Kagome had noticed a pair of large, dark maroon-brown eyes watching her and the children play from a room a few floors above the courtyard. They would only watch for a few seconds at most, until they caught Kagome's glance, then they would disappear, backing away from the window.

When she'd mentioned the subject to Sango, the warrior woman turned her head, biting her lip as though in pain, and said nothing. Confused, Kagome had not brought it up again, but wondered if Miroku would know anything…

Of course! Miroku! She had to go talk to him about visiting her family that day, perhaps she could slip in the question of the boy in the window…

Before she could turn, a figure appeared before her as from thin air. Kagome found herself looking into a pair of bright blue eyes. Shocked, she took a hasty step back from the young man's abrupt entry into her personal space, him having pushed his face into hers and inhaling deeply.

"Excuse me! What do you think you're doing?" She exclaimed, having regained her composure after having retreated a meter of two away from him. To no avail. He simply advanced, closing the gap between them.

"I'm just taking in your wonderful scent, Kagome-san."

The girl pushed the strange man away, taking a good look at his clothing, perplexed. A thin, metal armor covered his torso, held together at the shoulders by patches of thick brown fur. A very short cloth of some kind was wrapped around his hips as a makeshift kilt that allowed free range of motion for his wiry legs. There was something definitely odd about him… Something in his mannerisms was off…

"H-how do you know my name? Let go!" She attempted to twist out of his grasp, which was becoming stronger and closer to him by the second. "I'm serious! Let go! Who do you think you are?"

He gave her a wide grin, showing long and sharp canine teeth.

"I am Koga, leader of the wolf youkai pack in the mountains of the kingdom, and your future mate."

Kagome's eyes flew open. `My WHAT????' Her struggling amounted to kicking and punching to break free from his embrace, but he had picked her up, now, and was beginning to run toward the woods, in the direction of the foothills. "Let go! What do you think you're doing? Don't you understand the word `no'? You're gonna regret this!"

"Oh really? I don't think so…" He chuckled. "Hey, stop moving. It's making it hard to run," said Koga as a response to his captive's struggles. In order to limit her mobility, he threw her over his shoulder. "At this pace, we'll only get back to the lair at- OOF!"

Kagome had taken advantage of her position (with her legs dangling over the young man's abdomen) to kick her captor forcefully in the torso. As a result, he stopped abruptly and doubled over violently, releasing his grip on the girl and ultimately flinging her into a nearby tree.

`Well, at least I'm free…' were her last thoughts before the side of her head struck the oak trunk and everything went dark…

Koga coughed a few times, regaining his breath, before he got up from his crouched position. For a human female, she had a pretty strong kick… `Her strength will be an asset as a mate,' he thought.

He attempted to take a step toward the girl, only to find that he could not. Someone had taken hold of his ponytail…

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, wolf trash?"

He was pushed away in the opposite direction of where Kagome had fallen. Lifting his head, all he saw was a blur of red coming at him. With superhuman speed, he jumped out of the way just in time to avoid a swipe of long claws. His attacker had long, silvery hair with two little white ears poking out. A hanyou? The attacker turned around quickly to prepare another attack, boring holes into Koga with his amber eyes. Koga smirked. Everyone in the kingdom knew that face.

"Prince Inuyasha… You do know that, royalty or not, you have no right to interfere in my pursuit of a mate."

"Keh. I do when the wench being pursued is not available." Inuyasha lunged at Koga, only to find that the wolf youkai had dodged him yet again.

"Not available? She has no male scent on her, no intent claims… Kagome is as available as any other female in the kingdom, but so much more attractive…"

Kagome, unbeknownst to the two men fighting, was slowly regaining consciousness by the tree, but everything was still very blurry and sounds were but mumbles and moans.

"What are you talking about, wolf-trash?" Swipe, dodge, pounce…

Koga smiled to himself as he easily jumped out of the way of the hanyou's fist or claws. He remembered the times he had watched her from the forest, or through the castle windows. He'd found out so much more when he had followed rumors of a girl gone missing to a small town in the country a fair bit away, and listening to a drunk farm boy tell his friends of the friendship and love he felt for the said girl. Capturing the boy was fun, and squeezing out all his knowledge about Kagome had been quite easy. Hojo, if Koga remembered his name correctly, was certainly not a difficult person to intimidate… And her family had been easy to convince as well. He chuckled as he remembered how gullible they'd been, accepting his role as Hojo even though the two men looked quite different.

"She is so kind and loving, thoughtful and strong… I've watched her in the windows of the castle and in the garden… She takes good care of whelps. And her scent! A fine candidate for a mate, even though she is human. I love her."

Inuyasha froze as anger boiled within him. He didn't even know why, but he wanted to tear the wolf youkai's head off, and not only for having kidnapped Kagome.

"SHUT UP!" In a whirl of action, the hanyou prince took after Koga with triple the fervor and speed he had before. So much so that Koga actually was being challenged, now.

This went on for a few minutes, back and forth until both were panting and bleeding from various lacerations, with no sign of stopping. Out of the corner of his eye, however, Koga noticed Kagome pull herself up to her knees, then unsteadily to her feet. Just as she was about to turn and face the two fighting men, her legs buckled and she collapsed to the ground again. The wolf youkai froze, opening his mouth to call out her name, but was instead clawed deeply in the stomach by Inuyasha, who's taken advantage of his opponent's hesitation.

As Koga fell to his knees, clutching the wound on his stomach, Inuyasha turned to see the end of Kagome's fall to unconsciousness on the forest floor.

"Kagome!"

Koga chose this moment, when Inuyasha's back was turned, to plant and swipe his claws down the hanyou prince's back deeply. Enraged, the silver-haired half demon turned around again to attack, only to find that the wolf youkai was standing a few meters away from where he had been crouching, ready to pounce, but still clutching the wound on his abdomen that was bleeding profusely.

"Stupid mutt - prince. I'll never forgive you for this. I even have permission from her mother to marry her! I'll be back for her, you just watch." And with that, he had fled into the depths of the woods before Inuyasha could reply.

As soon as he'd let out a stream of obscenities for all youkai (civilized and non) in the forest to hear of his anger, Inuyasha ignored the ferocious burning of his back wounds to gently pick up Kagome and carry her back to the palace.

*****

The set a few hours by the time Myouga, a flea demon and the castle's main doctor, put down his stethoscope and sighed. The girl had come, unconscious, with a slight concussion, but a fever had risen in the last few hours. The girl kept moaning for her mother. The medic looked up at the prince's brown human eyes. He'd known the young man since his birth, and he'd only seen that expression in the hanyou's eyes twice. Accented by the flickering firelight that served as the only illumination in the room, Inuyasha's eyes held a helplessness that startled the doctor.

"Her fever has stopped rising, but she's still quite delirious." Myouga put away his stethoscope and the remainder of his medical tools back into his black leather bag. "I am not sure what has brought it on. It may be mental stress. She keeps calling for her mother… Perhaps it would be a worthwhile risk to bring her to her home for a while."

Inuyasha made no motion to move from his position at the foot of Kagome's bed, his gaze flicking from Miroku and Sango, standing at Kagome's bedside, to Kagome herself, unnaturally pale, her skin damp with sweat and tears.

"Inuyasha-sama, if you would let me treat your -"

"No."

"But you're a human at the moment, it's not healing as fast as -"

"Shut up, old man."

Myouga rolled his eyes in exasperation and admitted defeat.

"If her condition worsens, please call me. Goodnight."

When the doctor had gone, silence reined the room until Kagome's whimpers resumed.

"Mama… Coming… Miroku… promised… three weeks…"

Inuyasha's eyes met with Miroku's.

"You what?"

"I promised her she could go see her family every three weeks if she agreed to stay here and help us until the curse is broken…"

The prince was silent for a few seconds, considering the possible meanings of what Miroku had said.

"I see."

Sango and Miroku gave each other incredulous stares. Had the prince actually said two words that pertained to understanding and sympathy???

Kagome's moans increased, grating at something deep in Inuyasha, but it wasn't annoyance. Finally, he could take no more of her suffering.

"Sango, I am going to use Kirara and bring Kagome to her family. Do you know the way there?"

Sango nodded and went off to find her pet neko-youkai, agreeing that they should meet at the front entrance of the castle in ten minutes. On her way to her chambers, she remembered what Inuyasha had said. `Since when does he call her by name?' She wondered with a smirk.

In the meantime, Inuyasha and Miroku delicately wrapped Kagome in a heavy blanket and duvet, getting ready for the trip to the Higurashi shrine. Rather, Inuyasha got Kagome ready while Miroku lay unconscious on the floor after accidentally brushing his hand on her bottom.

"Where is Miroku? Is he not coming?" Asked the army general, noticing that her colleague was absent when Inuyasha met her by the castle doors with a sleeping Kagome in his arms.

"He's sprawled out on the floor in Kagome's room, unconscious. He won't be joining us this time."

Sango rolled her eyes. "What did he do this time?"

"'Grabbed her butt when we were bundling her." Inuyasha fumed as he carefully hopped onto the large, flaming neko youkai.

Sango did the same, but with a smirk. "Calling her by her name, now, heh Inuyasha-sama?"

"Keh. Not to her face."

After a few minutes of silence, flying on Kirara's back, Sango tentatively touched a bloodstain on Inuyasha's ripped haori. Her actions were rewarded by a sharp hiss from the prince.

"You should really get that checked out, milord."

"Keh. I'll live." Another few moments of silence. "How far away is it?"

"About another hour or so, flying," Sango estimated. "Is she ok?"

Inuyasha looked down at the girl in his arms, sleeping but moaning fitfully.

"She'd better be."

*****

A/N: I'm really, really, really sorry that I haven't updated in a long time. I had final exams to study for and write. Not only that, I tore ligaments in my knee doing judo. That sucks (I'm out for 3-6 weeks), but what got me was that they found a tumor in my tibia that might have been malignant (read: bone cancer). So I've had that hanging over my head for the past two weeks until I FINALLY got a phone call from my doctor to say that I didn't have cancer. (THANK GOODNESS!) Anyways, I made this chapter a bit longer to compensate. I hope you like it. Please give me any feedback, but take it easy if you feel the need to flame. Happy holidays and thank you to all my wonderful reviewers! I especially appreciate those who take the time to write long reviews. So, again, thank you!