InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chronicles ❯ The Other Side ( Chapter 10 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

By: Sueric

~~Chapter 10~~

~The Other Side~

Kagome stared at the calculus book without seeing anything that was written on the page as InuYasha restlessly stomped around the fire. She hid her grin. He really hated to be ignored. She knew he did. `So predictable,' she thought as she suppressed a giggle. `The Diamond Spear Blast was a bit much. Still, it's nice to know that he likes my company, even if he doesn't admit it.'

She almost did smile when she caught a glimpse of his pouting face. `Does he have any idea just how cute he really is?' she wondered. She sighed. No, she supposed he didn't. `He's been told he's nothing but a worthless half-breed for so long . . . does he believe it?'

She hadn't meant to fall asleep while studying last night. She had wanted to explain to InuYasha that she wasn't trying to hurt his feelings when she'd told him that she hadn't been upset by Rin's strange line of questioning. He'd been so upset over it that she had only been trying to make sure that he knew she didn't blame him for it. Somehow it had gotten confused, and she'd ended up doing more damage than good at the time.

Then earlier today . . . .

“Put that on before you get sick,” he said as he shoved his haori under her nose.

“Are you sure?” He'd offered it to her so many times before, but always in times of danger, when she needed the extra protection, or when her own clothes were destroyed or taken, like in Togenkyo. She could only remember him giving it to her out of anything other than necessity a few times . . . .

“Keh! I don't have time to run you back to the village,” he explained.

`Duh, Kagome. Did you really think he'd let you wear this just because? Don't be an idiot.' She sighed softly. “Yeah,” she agreed, “I wouldn't want to slow us down.”

He glared at the trees ahead. She was starting to think that maybe something was about to attack even though she didn't sense anything when he stopped suddenly and turned to face her. She stopped, too, and shot him a questioning look. `Amazing, the way his eyes sparkle,' she mused as she stared at him. `Like liquid gold . . . .'

He reached over and gently tugged her hair out from under the fire rat haori. His hand lingered, touching her hair. She grabbed his wrist, staring at him, willing him to read her mind. `Kiss me, InuYasha . . . I won't run this time . . . .'

He swallowed hard. His gaze narrowed, dropping to her lips, and for just a second, Kagome had thought, had hoped, that he would. He quickly turned away and started walking again. Kagome wanted to scream or throw something at him but sighed instead as she fell in step beside him.

She was drawn back to reality as InuYasha dragged his claws over Tetsusaiga's blade to sharpen it. She hated that noise, and he knew it. Like fingernails on a chalkboard, the sound of his claws grating over the steel fang was just as bad, in her opinion. Still she kept her head lowered and stared at the page without actually seeing it.

`How dull can it possibly be?' she wondered as she tried to block the nerving sound out. She clenched her teeth together and concentrated on the book in her lap.

“Shouldn't you go to sleep now?”

Kagome hid her amusement at his sulky tone. “In a bit. I'm not tired yet.”

He stood up and jammed Tetsusaiga into the sheath. Kagome peeked up through her lashes and caught the pouting glower on his face and did smile.

“If you don't stop glaring, your face will freeze like that,” she remarked, remembering the few times her mother had said the same thing to her.

“Keh!”

She reached over and located her water bottle by feel, managing to open and drink half of it without taking her attention of the book. She nearly choked at the mutinous look on the hanyou's face as he continued to glare at the textbook. It would have been comical, if she hadn't been worried that he really would grab the book and chuck it on the fire. From the look on his face she could tell it was exactly what he was thinking about doing.

Very slowly and deliberately, InuYasha dropped his arms and wandered back over to Kagome, sinking down beside her. “Okay,” he said mulishly.

“Okay?” she repeated, giving up on her studies when she heard the sadness under his otherwise stubborn tone.

He lowered his head. She blinked in surprise when he said, “Go ahead.”

Her tone was suspicious, reluctant. “And do what?”

He sighed. “Just remember, wench. They're sensitive.”

Understanding dawned on her as she let the book slide off her lap. She gently grasped his fuzzy ears and rubbed as a smile broke over her features. He sighed again and leaned in closer to her. Kagome's grin widened.

`I win.'

Suddenly he pulled away. Kagome didn't have long enough to be disappointed, though, because InuYasha stretched out and let his head fall into her lap. “Continue,” he remarked almost grudgingly after settling himself comfortably.

Kagome giggled as she resumed the ear-rubbing. He sighed and let his eyes drift closed. She almost thought he had gone to sleep when he broke into a low rumbling noise. “InuYasha?”

The noise stopped abruptly but he didn't open his eyes. “Hmm?”

“What was that sound?”

“Dunno,” he murmured. “More.”

She smiled. `It comforts him,' she thought as the rumble started again, `and that sound . . . comforts me.'

::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::

`Touch . . . nice,' he thought vaguely he fought to stay asleep. `Ears . . . .'

InuYasha blinked as he lost the battle and stared into Kagome's smiling eyes. “Morning,” she remarked as her fingers continued to rub his ears.

`I could get used to this,' he thought as he stifled a yawn. Her greeting slowly sank in, and with a mental curse, he sat up quickly. “Morning?” he echoed stupidly. “What the hell do you mean, `morning'?”

Kagome's eyebrows drew together in confusion as she slowly stood up. “Isn't that normally what one says when they wake up?”

“I was asleep?” he croaked incredulously. “What the fuck did you do that for?”

“Do what? I didn't do anything.”

InuYasha shot to his feet and made quick work of smothering what was left of their fire with dirt. “If it hadn't been for your weird obsession with my ears, this wouldn't have happened,” he pointed out.

Kagome straighten up from folding up her blankets. “Me? You're the one who came over shoving your head under my nose because you were jealous of my math book!”

“I wasn't jealous! I don't get jealous! There's nothing to be jealous of! It's just a fucking book!”

She stood up, hands on hips, and she marched over to glare up at him. “Well for someone who wasn't jealous, you sure acted like you were,” she huffed.

“Keh! I did not because I was not, bitch!”

“I don't understand you,” she finally said. “Can't you be consistent?”

“Consistent how?” he snapped.

She crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at the ground between them. When she slowly lifted her chin again, she looked like she was close to tears. InuYasha flinched inwardly. “Shouldn't we get moving?”

He watched helplessly as she turned and trudged down the path that led to the stream. Shoulders slumped and arms still crossed over her chest as though she was trying to protect herself, he shook his head. `Great, baka. You're mad because you had a decent night's rest, and what do you do? Yeah, you took it out on Kagome, as if it was her intention to put you to sleep like that.'

He sighed and tempered the desire to take a swing at the nearest tree. If it hadn't been so incredibly nice, so completely comforting, he never would have fallen asleep like that, and the truth was, waking up with his head still cradled in her lap had been, well . . . a little too nice. Still . . . .

`What if she had been attacked in the night? She could have been killed faster than I would have been able to react . . . Damn!'

He grimaced. He hadn't meant to hurt her, and he had a feeling that he had.

::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::

Kagome cupped her hands together and lifted the icy cold water to her face, against the ache in her eyes. `Don't you dare cry, Kagome! That baka doesn't deserve it!'

Drying her face on a clean kerchief, she nodded slowly. She just wished she understood why he was so angry. She's the one that had sat up all night. She kept her bow and arrows close, just in case. Most of the night, though, she had been happy enough to listen to that peculiar rumble of his and stroke his ears. He always spent the nights sitting up or dozing against the base of a tree. He didn't really get a chance to sleep very often. She thought she was doing something nice for him.

Close to dawn, a rat youkai had stumbled into the clearing. Kagome could tell by the way it had stopped and sniffed the air before staring straight at her backpack that it was after the jewel. It had taken her less than a minute with one of her arrows to destroy the beast. Her pride at being able to protect the jewel, herself, and InuYasha had been sweet.

She sighed. `Don't tell him about the youkai, unless you want him screaming even louder.'

Kagome stood up and squared her shoulders. If InuYasha was going to be a jerk, then she was not going to give him any more reason to gripe at her, she decided as she headed back toward the campsite.

He was waiting for her. Everything was packed up and ready to go. Her backpack was casually slung over his shoulder, and he was only scowling a little. She stifled a sigh when she saw what he had in his hand. It was the arrow she'd used to kill the rat youkai.

“What's this?” he asked, his tone a little too neutral.

“It was nothing, just a rat-youkai, and you know how much I hate rats . . . .”

He digested that in silence and started walking. Kagome followed. “One arrow, huh?” he asked as he glanced back over his shoulder. She nodded. He turned to look straight ahead again. “Nice.”

She smiled slightly as she stared at his back, recognizing what he said to her beneath the words he'd spoken. `I forgive you,' she thought as she hurried to walk beside him.

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A/N:

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Chronicles): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

~Sue~