InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dancing Blades, Silks, and Sakura Blossoms ❯ Chapter five ( Chapter 5 )

Yumi watched helplessly as Kagome sat at Sesshomaru's bedside. He had been unconscious for days now. The tentacle that had been met for her new little sister had been slathered with a strong poison so if the wound had not killed her, it would have. Sesshomaru was now fighting for his life. The wound had healed easily, but the poison… his body would either live or die fighting it. Yumi could feel the hopelessness coming from Kagome's form. She had not left her beloved's side for even a moment. Not even InuYasha or her friends could pry her away from him. She had barely touched the food they had given her and her hand stayed clasped in his as she prayed silently for him to awaken.

The usually collected elf now wanted to collapse and weep her eyes out for them. Sesshomaru had always been a close friend and Kagome was her sister. Her life felt like it was on the brink of shattering. Yumi's hands shook as she clutched the doorframe. `Onegi… Kami, give us strength. Spare them from this torment, they have such hardship coming to them in the future. Onegi…' she prayed.

"Yumi?" a voice asked from behind her.

Yumi spun around to see InuYasha standing behind her. She was sure she looked hideous. Her hair was loose and unkempt, her eyes red with unshed tears, and her skin paler than usual. Her bottom lip trembled at the pitying look he was giving her.

InuYasha was taken aback. Yumi, even in this state, looked beautiful to him. He couldn't believe he was thinking that, here his brother was probably dieing and he was checking Yumi out? Quickly, he broke eye contact with the lovely elf before him. "Um… Yumi, Jin wanted know Sesshomaru's status?" he asked quickly.

Yumi adjusted herself and wiped her unshed tears from her eyes. "He's improving, albeit slowly, I'm sure he's going to gloat about how he had purposefully taken his time healing, to make us all squirm," she joked, hollowly.

InuYasha nodded. "I'm sure he will. I'll go tell him and the others. Uh, how's Kagome?"

"She's stronger than me, if it were someone I was hopelessly in love with, I wouldn't have lasted the first day. She's still by his side, trying to use her power to drive the poison out."

InuYasha smirked. "She is a stubborn one." Yumi smiled sadly. InuYasha wanted to take her into his arms at that moment and tell her everything would be alright. But, he just stared awkwardly at her and then shifted his feet. "Um… I should probably go tell Jin and the others."

Yumi nodded. "Of course," she nodded. She was starting to get a strange feeling when she was around InuYasha, her chest would tighten slightly and she had a tendency to blush more. She was so confused but she had been pushing it aside during this time. It wasn't right for her to evaluate how she was feeling when her friends were in such need. She then turned back to the room and entered as InuYasha dashed down the hallway to where his friends were awaiting Sesshomaru's status.

****

Kagome smiled slightly, the poison had finally started to dissipate. She had been sending in bits of purifying energy to eliminate the youkai poison, but she had to keep it in check so as not purify Sesshomaru to dust. All she needed to do now was kill the last of the poison and he would be able to fully recover. She squeezed his hand slightly and sighed as she felt the last of the poison become nothingness with her miko power.

Yumi placed a hand on Kagome's shoulder to announce her presence. "Did it work?" she asked softly.

Kagome placed her free hand on top of her sisters. "Hai, now it's up to him to heal himself and wake up."

Yumi let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank Kami."

Kagome released Sesshomaru's hand and placed it next to him while she turned to Yumi. "You know, I heard your conversation with InuYasha."

"You did?"

"Hai, did you know that you two get aroused when your around each other?" Kagome asked.

Yumi's face paled. "Nani?"

"Oh don't lie to me, Yumi. You like InuYasha. I was at the gathering, you ignored every male there but him. you blatently flirted with him even!" Kagome teased.

"I certainly did not!" Yumi said hurriedly.

"Liar! Anyways, I think he likes you too," she said as she turned back to Sesshomaru. "He should be up in a day or two. I'm going to kill him when he wakes up."

"I have to admit, although stupid, that was one of the most romantic things I've ever seen. But stupidity and romance seem to coincide with each other," Yumi commented.

Kagome snorted, "That they do."

"Are you going to help in the fight against Naraku?" Yumi asked, suddenly serious.

"Of course! He's hurt too many people I love. Plus I have to purify the Shikon no Tama. Has Jin talked to the other Lords."

"Hai, they're forming a war council as we speak. He wants to wait until Sesshomaru is ready to begin planning our attack. Lord Kouga said that he has his shards for you, but will give them to you later. InuYasha said that he and your friends found only four shards while you were gone and have them ready to add to the growing collection. Plus, there are the shards we found."

"I haven't sensed any shards for the longest time. I think it's only us and Naraku that possess them now," Kagome stated.

Yumi nodded. "I suppose. I should go talk to Jin and get an update on their ideas."

Kagome smiled. "Can you tell everyone that Sesshomaru is going to be fine."

Yumi nodded. "Of course, you two should have some time alone together, now that the worst has passed," she said as she turned to leave.

"Alright, don't go too crazy on InuYasha now."

Yumi blushed as she closed the door behind her.

Kagome snickered to herself. "That was too easy."

"You know, I think you've been around her for too long," a cool but hoarse voice said.

Kagome gasped as her blue eyes locked with the half-lidded gold of Sesshomaru. "Sesshomaru! You're awake."

"Hai, I seem to be alive as well, your doing I suppose?" he asked.

"Hai, you have no idea how much you scared me, I thought you would die," she said as she moved closer to him.

Sesshomaru placed a hand on her cheek and lightly grazed her soft skin with his claws. Kagome felt shivers travel up and down her spine as she kept her eyes locked with his. She smiled slightly and leaned into his touch. "Sesshomaru I-" her words were suddenly cut off as he pressed his lips to hers in a passionate kiss.

Sesshomaru could take it no more. He had spent the last three years loving her from afar but now that they were alone he could finally do the thing he had always wanted to. His mind was a jumble of emotions and thoughts as she returned the kiss with equal fervor and passion and wrapped her thin arms around his neck. Suddenly his mind was quiet, only chanting the three words that had ever come to mind when he thought about her. `I love you, Kagome.'

Yumi sat under her favorite sakura tree with a sleeping kitsune in her arms. Since Kagome had been spending so much time training and now with Sesshomaru, Shippo and Yumi had bonded and he had accepted her as a good friend and aunt, now that his `okkasan' was her sister in blood and power. She didn't mind the kitsune at all as he slept in a ball halfway on her lap. She had told her brother and Kagome's friends of Sesshomaru's healing and now she sat outside to center herself and sort through what she was feeling for a certain hanyou.

InuYasha watched from the boughs of one of the trees as Yumi and Shippo lay under the tree across from him. He had been thinking hard since he had overheard what Kagome and Yumi had been talking about. He then had started thinking back on his life. He knew now that Kikyo had never truly loved him, only had wished to use him so she could have a normal life. Then he remembered when he thought he had loved Kagome. He was still hung up on Kikyo at that time, and the attention that Kagome had been lavishing him with had been comforting. But she was truly in love with his brother, not just a crush, as he had been for her.

Yumi, though, he had known her when he was a pup, she had always been a good friend and he had always harbored underlying feelings for her, but had brushed them aside as friendship. Now that he truly looked on it, Yumi was everything he had loved in Kagome and Kikyo combined. She was strong, she was kind, and she didn't care that he was a hanyou. Then it dawned upon him. He had been looking for her in both Kikyo and Kagome. He had always compared them to her, albeit unconsciously. The one he had truly loved all this time had been right in front of him.

InuYasha leapt down from his perch in front of Yumi. She seemed only slightly startled by his presence. "Oh! InuYasha, I didn't sense you there, must have been the other things on my mind."

"What're you thinking about?" he asked, suddenly feeling nervous around her. `What if she doesn't feel the same?'

"How your brother and Kagome reminded me that it's about time I take a mate, but I've never been interested in my suitors."

"I see…" he said as he took a seat next to her.

"You see, I've always had feelings for a certain someone, but I denied them. You see, he's younger than me and well, I don't know how he feels about me, he's never called upon me."

`She loves someone else…not me.' "Do I know him?" he heard himself ask.

"Rather intimately."

"Who?"

"I can't say, but he is a Prince of the Western Lands."

InuYasha was confused. `Huh? Does she have a thing for Sesshomaru? But he's with Kagome.' "I thought Sesshomaru was with Kagome?"

Yumi giggled. "You really are dense sometimes, you know that?"

"Hey! Well, there are only two Princes of the Western Lands. Him, and technically he's a Lord, and…" InuYasha's voice trailed off as it dawned on him. `Me! She loves me!'

Yumi then smiled and lifted Shippo into her arms. "I should probably get this little one to his room, it's late," she said as she stood and started for the castle.

InuYasha stood and raced to her side. "Wait!" he shouted as he grabbed her arm.

"Hai, InuYasha?" she asked.

"I feel the same."

Yumi's eyes widened. "Y-you do?"

InuYasha then grasped her by her waist and pressed his lips to hers. Yumi almost collapsed into his arms, but remembered that Shippo was in her arms. She moaned slightly as his tongue brushed against her bottom lip and opened her mouth to his. Quickly, he thrust his tongue into her hot mouth and clutched the back of her neck with his free hand as he continued to kiss her. For a good while their tongues battled for dominance, their eyes closed as they reveled in each other's kiss.

"Well, I don't know what to say, either `dear god, the kitsune's in her arms' or `it's about damn time you two got together'," Jin's voice rang in the garden.

Yumi and InuYasha quickly parted and turned to Jin. Yumi's face was bright red. InuYasha only glared at the Eastern Lord that leaned against a nearby tree. "What do you want, Jin?"

"Sesshomaru's awake, and pissed off as hell."

"Big surprise," InuYasha huffed. "When do we attack?"

Jin smirked. "Right to the point aren't you?"

InuYasha rolled his eyes. Yumi gave her brother a depreciating look. "Did he say when he wants to attack?"

Jin nodded. "I believe his words were `as soon as possible'."

"When does the war council meet?" Yumi asked.

"Tomorrow evening, we still have one more Lord on his way here."

Yumi's eyebrows furrowed. "Who?"

Jin let out a heavy sigh. "Lord Kagoto of South Western Lands. Anyways, I can take the pup and leave you two to whatever you were going to do," Jin mocked.

Yumi shook her head, "That's okay, I can take the kit. Konbonwa, InuYasha," she greeted as she left the two males in the garden.

Jin's face then took on a serious look. "What are your intentions towards her?"

InuYasha's shoulders slumped slightly. "I have no idea."

"Do you love her or just lust after her? She may not show it, but Yumi wears her heart on her sleeve, so to say."

InuYasha stared at the ground for a few moments. "I really can't tell. How do you know when you love someone?"

Jin snorted. "That's a stupid question, InuYasha, you can't describe it. It's a feeling and an instinct. You just know," he said as he turned and headed inside.

InuYasha leapt onto a tree limb and sighed as he leaned against the cool bark. `You just know, eh? Well I think I'm in love with her, but how the hell do I tell her?'

Levii: sigh… ah, young love! ^_^

Inu: she's getting weird again…

Sess: I am recovered… that is all that matters

Inu: You are so full of yourself

Levii: You both are full of yourselves… just shut up and bathe in that fluffy glory that is this chapter. ^_^

Inu: (Shakes head) whatever, Levii… Okay, peoples, you know the drill, read and review and send cookies… we like cookies.