InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Divine Interventions ❯ So Far To Go ( Chapter 9 )

A/N: Hey, thanks to my readers the positive reviews! I really appreciate it! In the quality-vs-quantity debate, I'll take quality any time!

 

Chapter 9 So Far To Go

Inuyasha didn't slow down until he reached his destination. He landed and released Kagome gently. The night air was chilly, but still. Kagome was shivering with cold. What little clothing she wore didn't offer much protection from the wind, and she was trying to stop her teeth from chattering. Inuyasha took off his coat and draped it over her small form, wrapping the edges.

She looked up at him and smiled in gratitude but said nothing. They stood there together in darkness, the under the ancient God-tree in her mother's back yard.

Somehow, Kagome knew this was where they would end up. She was happy and grateful to be here with Inuyasha now, but the memory of Michael's words kept repeating in a loop in her mind:

“I pray I didn't make a mistake with you. . . . “

Inuyasha watched her. She stood with her back leaning against the tree, and looked smaller in his coat, miserable. He had found her in the parking lot in time to hear and see most of what had happened.

“The way that damn bastard bullied her and the way she just TOOK it.” He didn't know which bothered him worse.

He had known Kagome a long time, had yelled at her more than a few times himself, both when she deserved it and when she didn't. He had never known her to be passive, to be silent when attacked. Kagome was fiery, sometimes hot-headed, but he respected her for that.

He kept his eyes on her steady and unblinking, and his jaw clenched as he watched her shivers slowly subside. “He acts like he owns her. No one fuckin' owns her!” He stopped and his eyes grew wide with realization. “Haven't you treated her just like that, like she is bound to you, claimed by you. Do I. . . .do I want that?”

Inuyasha shook off those disturbing thoughts only to return to a vision of others. A hot tension hit him in the chest and moved up through his arms as he remembered how she looked with her body entwined around the human's.

It was still a bitter picture that made him what to yell in rage, but at least now he understood her, knew that she acted with a motive. He mentally winced, remembering he was thinking earlier.

“I never wanted to think the things I was thinking about you. I'm ashamed for thinking so little of you, Kagome, even for a few, terrible minutes.”

It was true, she acted recklessly, but Kagome has always been fiercely loyal to those she cared about. Knowing this about her, and understanding why she was angry at the man, her actions made more sense, even if he hated them.

Grudgingly, he even felt a little admiration for the way she so skillfully trapped the man and deftly dealt with him, using the weapons at her disposal. “And she definitely has some new weapons” he thought, as the image of her body, her face, her warm breath on his neck came unbidden to his mind.

Then there was the other new development, her powerful, new abilities. THAT was definitely something he needed to know more about.

So why had Kagome cowered, like a disobedient child, when her human bastard threatened her?

“If he was her mate and she disobeyed him, the way they were both acting would make sense. But he isn't, so . . . .”

Just what Michael was to Kagome he didn't quite know yet. Somehow, this guy knew about her miko powers, but why was Kagome willing to submit to him? Did he have powers too or just some kind of power over her?

He badly wanted to know, but knew now was not the time to press her. She wasn't crying any longer, but Kagome's eyes were fixed on some distant point. She remained silent, lost in an ocean of sadness and guilt.

Watching her, he felt a joy that he realized was selfish. “Yes, she does still need me. This proves it. Even though she's a woman now and her life has changed without me, she's still Kagome underneath it all, vulnerable, too caring for her own good.”

Inuyasha shook his head at her and, trying to suppress a smile of gratitude, said, “You've really made a mess of your life without me, haven't you, girl?”

With this, Kagome looked up at him and laughed. “Inuyasha, you don't even know the half of it.”

Suddenly, he didn't feel so light. Unformed thoughts were swirling like raging waters behind a damn in his mind, and he knew that damn was about to break.

“Then tell me Kagome. Tell me all of it. . . I want to know, I need to know, everything about you.”

“I've never seen you use your miko powers like that before,” he said, betraying no emotion. “I didn't know you could control them at will,”

He wanted to hear more information, but he also just wanted to keep her talking.

“I didn't know I could either. It's only been in the last two months since I met Michael that. . . .” Kagome realized she was telling him more than she meant to and stopped.

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and tried to catch her eyes “Since you met Michael?”

“Uhm, yeah since then.” Kagome pointedly looked away, closing down again.

“Is it possible this Michael is a priest or a monk like Miroku? Is he helping her learn to control her powers? This is the control he has over her? That makes sense, I guess, but she's gotten so strong, how?”

Inuyasha had been truly awed, and more than a little nervous when he watched her caused the man to crumple with a touch.

“Even for a miko, this kind of power would take years, a lifetime, to develop. . . . if she's only been working with him for two months, how did her powers develop so quickly?”

A dark and jealous thought came thundering into his mind: “I've known her a lot longer than this idiot. Do her new powers have something to do with how she feels for him? Does he mean more to her than-than I do?”

“Inuyasha?”

“Yeah?”

“I'm sorry, about tonight, about everything.”

“Hmph! forget it wench, I don't want you to apologize anymore for it.”

She sighed deeply. “I used energy twice tonight in ways that I shouldn't have. I've never done anything like this before, and I really don't have an excuse for it.”

He wanted to say something to comfort her, but she was talking, and he didn't want her stop.

“I was angry with you, it's true, when I saw you at the club, but that's just because I was embarrassed.”

“I know Kagome, we've already discussed it, remember?” he interrupted. He really didn't want her apologizing anymore.

“Yeah, I know,” she said self-consciously. I explained about me getting mad at you and being embarrassed, but not about why I used my powers.”

His ears swiveled up. He thought he had been the reason she used her powers. He didn't know how she had channeled that kind of energy into her singing, but he still remembered, still felt some of the effects of it, the way the very air around her seemed to sizzle with heat and energy.

“I don't know if I'll ever be able to stop seeing her down on her knees singing with her mouth on that metal tube. . . “He shook his head, willing the memory and his newest wave of arousal away.

“When I got backstage with Clo, I saw what Brad did to her. She tried to hide it from me, but--”

“But you found out anyway,” he said dryly.

“Yes--”

“. . . . just like I'm going to find out all your secrets.” The thought was no empty threat in his mind; it was a driving need now, a steely resolve.

“I found out anyway,” she continued, “And when I saw her face, I just got so angry, Inuyasha. I think some of it happened because I was still angry at you, but mostly it was about Brad.”

“I understand, Kagome.”

“When I was singing, I didn't actually plan to use my powers, it-it just kind of happened.”

Inuyasha listened, sensing she was about to tell him more and not wanting to chance stopping her. He was listening to her with an intensity he was keenly aware was new for him, hanging on her every word.

“When I saw Brad at the bar, laughing, all I could see was Chloe's poor, lovely face, the sadness in her eyes. I thought about the way she keeps lying to herself and her friends about him. . . .I got so angry, so very, very angry.”

She closed her eyes and gave a short laugh, before voicing her next thought. “I haven't been that angry since Naraku had us all trapped in his castle. Back then, I didn't know I was using any powers. I just knew I was angry and wanted to make him stop laughing at us, feeling so superior and knowing we were all about to die. Tonight was the only time since then I've wanted to hurt someone, not just to protect and defend myself and others, but just because of my own anger.”

Her voice dropped to a terrified whisper and the sharp scent of her fear hit Inuyasha's nose.

“This was different than Naraku. I knew this time. I knew what I was going to do, I planned it.”

Listening to her, he began to understand.

“This is why he was so angry with her.”

Thinking about it now, he even conceded Michael had a point. What Kagome did was rash, dangerous.

He knew her gentle nature, knew she wouldn't want to kill, but if she made a habit letting her anger control her energy, she could become very lethal, at least to any humans that made her angry enough.

“She'll be able to protect herself against demons better,” he thought, trying to consider the bright-side of this development.

As much as he hated to admit it, her human was right. She needed to keep control so her emotions didn't drive her powers.

She stopped talking after her confession. She didn't cry, but he could smell the unshed tears in her eyes as she watched her shoe make little tracks in the dirt below the tree.

Inuyasha knew intimately what it felt like to loose control to anger, and he knew the feeling of shame that came after it too. He had been in this situation with Kagome many times before, but she had always been on the other side of it, the one consoling him, forgiving him. He hated that she was the one facing these feelings now.

“Was it as terrible as I think?” she asked, not lifting her head, but glancing up quickly.

“What do you mean?” he looked up at her, not understanding.

“The things I did when I was channeling my energy into my anger. The way I behaved, was it, was I, as bad as I think?” she said, wincing.

“Kagome-don't you remember?”

“Not all of it, no. When I use my powers it's a little like being, like being, well. . . . drunk.” she admitted blushing. “Or like in a dream. I know what's happening when I'm in it, but later it all gets sort of fuzzy. I think a part of my mind blanks-out or something.

Michael says it will get better, and I'll be able to remember more as I get stronger. That's why he pushes so hard with the training.”

Inuyasha eyes narrowed as he took in everything she told him. He thought about the last part, what she had just said about Michael and training, but was intently focused now on what she said before that.

“Shit Kagome, you mean to tell me you don't remember what you did when you were singing and then when you were dancing with Brad?”

The color drained from her face and Kagome looked ill. “Inuyasha, tell me, please! I already know I hurt Brad. What else did I do?”

Inuyasha had never seen her look more scared, more vulnerable. “What should I tell her, that she became a temptress I'll never forget?”

A part of him felt better, relieved, knowing that she wasn't in complete control of her actions, and now had little memory of them. “She really doesn't know what she did, what she was making me feel.”

“Kagome, stop worrying. You weren't that bad. You sang and you danced with that human scum. That's it. Nothing special.” He swallowed and tried very hard to suppress the blush he felt spreading across his own face.

“Yeah, right, she was `nothing special' to you tonight.”

Kagome gave a sigh of relief. “Are you sure? Is there anything you're not telling me?”

“I told you, it was no big deal! Now will you just drop it!?”

“Maybe I'm not telling her everything, but she feels bad enough already. Telling her all of it would just make her feel worse, and all I want to do. . .

. . . . all you want to do is hold her.” Inuyasha blushed at his own thoughts, forcing his mind down a different path.

“So Michael is her teacher. I suspected this, but now I'm sure. At least there's one more part of the Kagome- puzzle solved. . . .Still, for a teacher and student, they looked very close tonight, too close. . . .”

“Inuyasha?”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks for the save. I really needed a break, sometime to think and clear my head, you know?”

“It would take a lot more than a few minutes to clear your head,” he snorted.

Kagome sneered, “Same old Inuyasha! It really is great to be insulted by you again,” she said, smiling at him now.

“Hhmph!” He folded his arm across his chest and looked at her, making sure he did not let the smile he was feeling show.

“Okay, tough guy. As much as I appreciate it, I think it's time you take me back now.”

This surprised him, but he shrugged and said. “About time. Let's go.” He started walking in the direction of the old well-house shrine.

“No, Inuyasha, I didn't mean back there--not yet. I meant back to my apartment.”

He was surprised again, and this time, not happy. “No Kagome, we're already here and we've wasted more than enough time with your `birthday surprises'.”

He felt bad as soon as he said the last part; sure she was going to be mad at him again for not caring more about her birthday.

Kagome wasn't mad, she actually agreed with him. “Yeah, I'd like to put that whole part of tonight behind me,” she said, shaking her head. “But I still have to go back and take care of some things before we leave. I have to explain to Chloe and Mika why I need to take a break from the band, I need to pack, and I really need a shower and to change clothes. I just want to get the smell of Brad's cologne off me as quick as possible.”

“Uugh Kagome, you don't know the half of it!” The hanyou made a face like he was going to be sick.

Kagome reddened. “Oh sorry Inuyasha. If I don't like the way I smell right now, for you it must be just overwhelming.”

“YOU STINK WOMAN!!-IT SMELLS LIKE A HUNDRED DIFFERENT MEN HAVE BEEN ALL OVER YOU!”

Kagome's blush deepened and she looked down. “God Inuyasha, Is that your way of showing tact?!”

“Oh, if I had the rosary now I would sit his ass so hard!”

“You can wash at the spring and Kaede will have decent clothing for you,” he replied, strongly emphasizing the word “decent.”

“Inuyasha,” she said wearily, “I have to get back to my place. Michael's waiting for me. I haven't told him I'm leaving with you or why.”

“Hhmph! He grumbled. You don't need to tell that idiot anything!”

“Yes, Inuyasha, I do, I really do. I don't want to fight about this, but I'm not going until I'm ready.”

Inuyasha looked at Kagome. Draped in his coat that pooled around her, she had her arms folded across her chest, mirroring his most stubborn posture and was looking at him steel-eyed.

She looked “Damn cute.” Once again, he shook his head, causing his hair to sweep across his face.

Kagome kept her pose. As she watched him, taking in the way his hair shimmered in the moonlight, she couldn't move if she had wanted to. “God, he still takes my breath away.”

“She's tired,” he thought, grimly noticing how pale and drained she looked. “More tired than she knows. She needs to rest and calm down. She won't do either if I take her back against her will.”

Inuyasha frowned at her. “Okay, wench, I'll take you back, but we leave tomorrow morning whether you're ready or not. No later.”

Kagome's face showed instant relief and she dropped her arms. She smiled weakly. “Thanks Inuyasha, It means a lot to me that you didn't fight me or try to force me to go.”

“Hhmph! Just climb on and let's get going already,” he said.

“He's still so cute when he's trying to act tough!” Kagome thought with a weary smile, suppressing the urge to reach up and fondle one of his ears. She climbed on his back, wrapped her arms around his waist, and was happy to close her eyes and take a few minutes to rest, feeling completely safe once more.

Still, even surrounded by the warmth and comfort of him, she couldn't stop her worry.

“If Michael had really wanted to find me, he would have been here,” she thought, frowning. “What does it mean that he didn't come? Is it good or bad?. . . “