InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Expectation ❯ Chapter 6

Part 6

If spring had been unseasonably warm that year, then the summer that followed was bordering on unbearable. It was one of the hottest summers that the elders could remember, at least those who hadn't already succumbed to the heat. It was a sad fact that quite a number of the village's elderly had sought final refuge in a cold grave that season.

It was a lazy summer, one in which, apart from grave digging, little work was done. The villagers were finding it difficult to move in the oppressive heat of the daylight hours, and by the time night fell, there were too many insects and hungry youkai scouring the countryside to remain out of doors.

On this particular day, the heat of the noonday sun had driven Miroku beneath a large red maple, where he was currently trying nap. He sat with his back to the tree, resting his head against the trunk, and lamented the fact that the shade offered little comfort from the rising temperature. He might have gone down to the river, had his limbs not felt quite so heavy, his feet leaden by the oppressive, exhausting heat. He barely had the energy to breath, let alone move, tempting though the cold water may have seemed. Even though his clothing was stuck to his body with perspiration, and he had definitely smelled better, he did not move. Even though he loathed feeling as uncomfortable and unkempt as he felt, he did not budge. Even though he knew that at that very moment, the village women had decided en masse to take a communal dip in the river wearing nothing but their short, white bathing robes, he did not stray from beneath that tree. It was that hot.

Somewhere, not too far off, a disembodied voice was calling his name. Miroku closed his eyes, a slight grimace settling over his features as he tried to fall asleep before whoever was calling him discovered where he was. He had no intention of answering and revealing himself, but it probably wouldn't matter. He had a nasty suspicion that it was Inuyasha calling him again. The grimace changed to an outright frown as the red behind his eyelids turned suddenly to black, signifying that someone was now standing between his face and the sun. Reluctantly, he cracked open one lazy, half-lidded eye.

"Oi."

Even Inuyasha had stripped down a few layers, he noticed. He had tied his haori around his waist, and the white kimono beneath was tucked very loosely, leaving a small portion of his chest exposed to that air. Not that there was any air…

"How can you stand all that hair on your neck?" the monk marveled, murmuring weakly as he closed his eye once more. Staring at the flushed, sweaty hanyou had only served to remind him of how incredibly hot and uncomfortable he was himself. Inuyasha shrugged before realizing that Miroku was not looking at him anymore.

"I don't have time to think up any nasty comebacks right now. I told Kagome to stay put for five minutes, so naturally she ran off somewhere. Do you have any idea where she went this time?" Miroku peeked his eye open again and made a show of looking the hanyou up and down.

"You left her alone for five minutes?" he mumbled, his voice heavy with disbelief. "No wonder she ran off."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

I mean you haven't left her alone for five SECONDS in almost three months. I'm surprised she hasn't killed you yet. This he thought, but he kept it to himself. He didn't have the energy to deal with the hanyou at present. Of course, with the way Inuyasha had been acting lately, no one did.

"Nothing. Never mind, it's too hot to argue. I think she went to the river with Sango, to cool off. But if I were you, I'd wait until they come back on their own. The other women from the village-" but as the warning was leaving his lips, the darkness behind his eyelids popped back to bright red. Inuyasha was already gone.

"Oh well have fun…" Miroku sighed. Running a parched tongue over his lips, he let his mind wander of its own accord. Right before nodding off, he entertained a lovely little fantasy in which he had discovered the secret of how to make rainfall, and the young women of the village were very, very grateful…

~

"Oh, this feels so good!" Kagome purred, raising the dipper into the air again and pouring the icy water over her head. It cascaded down her body, soaking through the bathing robe and sliding into each and every overheated crevice. All around her, the village women were standing in the knee-deep water, similarly dressed and repeating this same ritual to themselves and each other.

"Here, Kagome-chan, let me." Sango offered, taking the dipper from her hand. She draped Kagome's long wet hair over one shoulder, then brought the dipper up again, pouring the cold water down Kagome's neck and back.

"Ooo!" Kagome cooed blissfully, closing her eyes as the shivery, delicious sensation of a thousand icy little pin-pricks ran danced down her spine. "Haaaa…Arigatou!"

Sango laughed, pleased by her friend's reaction.

"That's quite alright, Kagome-chan. I know how badly this weather is affecting the rest of us. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for you."

"Mmmnn…" Kagome groaned in dismal agreement. "I've never felt so heavy and awkward in my entire life, Sango-chan. Between this belly and the heat, and those stupid heavy robes…" She sighed heavily, all traces of her former cheerfulness draining from her face.

"What's the matter?" Sango asked quietly, pouring the cold water over her friend's back a second time.

"It's nothing." she whispered, glancing around nervously at the other bathing women. "I'll tell you later."

Kagome hated to admit it, but she didn't feel comfortable talking about her problems or her pregnancy with the other village women so close by. In the past, she'd never been aware of any disapproval or malice on their part, but over the last few months, she had sensed a mounting discord within the village, one that grew steadily with each passing day, just as Inuyasha's child had grown within her womb. Now, when she walked along the dusty paths of their village, she could feel harsh, judgmental eyes burning into her body, following her every footstep. Feeling like some sort of detestable bug under their constant scrutiny had been bad enough, but lately she thought that she could hear them whispering as well. Just today she could have sworn that she had heard someone stifle a nasty snicker when she had almost fallen as Sango had helped down the rocky banks and into the river. Then, when she had peered up into the sea of feminine faces, no one had dared to meet her gaze. She had found that this was the worst part; she could never be certain if any of it was real or if she was simply imagining things. What she did know was that she hated feeling this way. She didn't like feeling paranoid and suspicious of the other women, but then, she liked the feeling of being ostracized from the community even less. It wasn't fair. She had always been kind to the people in Kaede-bachan's village. The only thing that had changed had been her relationship to Inuyasha. Why had something as innocent as her love earned her the revulsion of everyone in the community? Why should something so small and helpless be abhorred by everyone?

A woman behind Kagome's right shoulder gasped, startling her from her thoughts. Someone to her left forced a cough, and soon the women were all buzzing around her like a swarm of angry hornets.

"Oh dear." Sango whispered, turning Kagome by the shoulders to point her in the right direction to see what all the fuss was about.

Inuyasha, radiating with feral beauty and anger, was standing on the banks of the river, staring at her intently. For one, brief instant, she saw him as the other women present must have been seeing him. Never before had she been so painfully conscious of how alien his features were, how otherworldly and apart. From the golden eyes to the pointed ears tipped with light tufts of fur, he seemed almost bestial. She flinched a second later when he barked her name. The hard, clipped edge to his voice left no room for misinterpretation. He was not simply calling to her, and this was not a request. It was a command, as clear as if he'd shouted "Get over here now!" instead of simply saying her name.

Kagome's face grew red as she heard someone chuckling behind her. With a little help from Sango, she climbed ungracefully out of the water. Her body had become a difficult thing to maneuver, weighed down as she was with water and child. As she stumbled onto the bank, she distinctly heard whispering.

'…animal…'

'…shameful and disgusting, really…'

'Well that's what she gets…'

Kagome glanced up at Inuyasha, instantly regretting the way she had allowed herself to look at him only a few seconds earlier. She could hear their poorly suppressed whispering quite plainly; there was no way that he couldn't. But if Inuyasha had heard, he gave no indication. He simply waited with his arms folded for her to waddle past, then followed closely on her heels, shepherding her away from the river bank.

"So this is what we've come to." he growled softly once they were out of earshot. "I can't even leave to take a shit without having to worry about you wandering off."

"Inuyasha-" she began to protest, but he quickly cut her off.

"I thought I told you to stay put? Funny, but this doesn't look at all like the meadow where I left you!"

"Inuyasha, it was hot."

"Thank you, I hadn't noticed! And if you think that's an acceptable excuse, then you're sadly mistaken."

"Oh for crying out loud!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "It's not like I wandered off into the mountains with a Yeti! I went to the river along with Sango and every other woman in the village. Haven't you ever heard of safety in numbers?"

Inuyasha snorted at this, lifting a low branch out of her way so that she wouldn't have attempt the awkward task of trying to duck beneath it.

"Cattle stand around together, too. You think they're safe? What exactly do you think we were eating last night?"

"Really?" she asked, deftly changing the subject. "I thought that was venison. How did you manage to get beef? Don't tell me you've been raiding the villagers' livestock!"

"What are you nuts? You don't piss where you sleep, Kagome." he frowned at her, taking her hand as he absently helped her over a fallen log. Little gestures like that had quickly become second nature since he'd learned of the pup. It was around that same time that he'd started watching over Kagome's every waking moment. He couldn't explain why exactly, but he seemed incapable of resisting the urge. She just seemed so damned…helpless.

"I got it from Miroku." he went on to explain. "He got it from the headman, as a token of appreciation for staying in the village for the last few months and warding off youkai. And since I'm the one who's been doing all the 'warding' around here, he gave it to me."

"Miroku did that? Wow. How…honest…of him."

"Yeah, I was surprised too. But I'm pretty sure that the only reason he did was because you're about to pup."

"Oh?" she asked conversationally. "What makes you say that?"

"Ah, the bastard tried to lecture me about how pregnant women need extra nourishment, like I'm some kind of idiot. Now if you're done trying to distract me, I want you to listen."

"damn!" Kagome cursed under her breath. She'd thought he hadn't noticed.

"You have got to stop wandering off without me! Do you know how dangerous it is for you right now? Do you have any idea just how vulnerable you are? All we need is for some stray youkai with nothing better to do to come sniff you out…" he trailed off, the growl in his chest reverberating to a deeper resonance at the very thought of the unspoken possibilities. "You're risking both of your lives, you know. You're being careless and stupid and it's really starting to piss me off."

Kagome stared off into space, nodding her head every so often as he ranted. She had hardly listened to a single word he'd said in the last five minutes, choosing instead to ponder her own thoughts about what had happened at the river. She was fairly certain that he wouldn't notice, caught up in his own tirade as he was, and he'd developed a habit of repeating himself as of late, so she wasn't too worried that she'd miss anything that she hadn't already heard a hundred times before. Although apparently, she'd grown a bit too complacent, because she realized a bit belatedly that there had been a large gap in the "conversation" and that Inuyasha was now regarding her rather suspiciously.

"You're right, Inuyasha." she said much too quickly and far too late. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Inuyasha stared at her for a full beat, a funny, unreadable expression on his face.

"Alright. What? What is it?" he demanded, shaking his head in what appeared to be disgust.

"What do you mean?"

"Why don't you tell me what the hell is bothering you so much that you can't even listen to me when I'm yelling at you?" Kagome swallowed hard. She took a minute to collect her thoughts, trying to think of a way to put it delicately, so as not to hurt his feelings.

"Those women at the river…" she began carefully.

"Yeah? What about 'em?"

"They…said things." she finished weakly. She waited while Inuyasha sighed through his nose, then seemed to stop and collect his own thoughts. She wondered what his idea of 'putting it delicately' might amount to.

"I heard." he said finally. "Listen, Kagome…you can't let shit like that get to you. Believe me, those cackling hens are the least of your worries."

"I know…" she whispered, "I'm just not used to being…"

"Hated?" he offered. Kagome nodded miserably. "Yeah, well, get used to it. It's only going to get worse."

"Oh thanks a lot!" she laughed bitterly, "You sure know how to comfort a girl." She sped up her pace just enough so that she outdistanced him by a few steps. Inuyasha hopped forward, falling back into step beside her.

"Kagome, I'm serious." he said softly, shooting her a sidelong glance. "You're about to become the mother of a half-breed. You are going to have to be tougher than this. A lot tougher."

"Well maybe it would be easier to deal with the people who hate me if the people who are supposed to care about me weren't always yelling at me!" She was trying to sound disdainful, but an unexpected sniffle killed her pretense.

"Don't start crying." he said flatly, which, of course, had the adverse effect on Kagome. She exploded.

"I can't help it, you asshole! Pregnant women are emotional! What do you expect when you won't stop harassing me? You're supposed to be supportive, you know, not lecturing me all the time!"

"Toughen up, Kagome. I lecture you because you worry me, and because I care about you. If a couple of harsh words are all it's going to take to start you whimpering, then what's going to happen after the pup comes along?"

"I bet your father didn't treat your mother like this!" Kagome sobbed into her hands, dropping down lightly to sit on a large rock jutting out along the side of the path. "I bet he was nice to her, and told her she looked pretty and that he l-lo…oh forget it!"

He clenched and unclenched his fists a few times, trying to control himself from lashing out and demolishing the nearest tree. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have cared, but the nearest tree was situated in such a way that there was the slightest possibility that it would land on her, so he stayed his claws. Instead, he grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her to her feet. He wrapped one arm around her back, and with the other hand, grasped her chin firmly and tilted it upward until her watery gaze met his.

"My mother died." he growled softly. "I expect you to do better."

After that, there wasn't anything she could say. He released her as soon as she had stopped crying, then lapsed into a moody silence. They continued on in that same weighty silence all the way to the Goshimboku, where Kagome finally mustered up the nerve to break it.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked quietly. Inuyasha shrugged.

"I don't know. You seem to like it here, and I thought you might not want to head back to the village right away." Kagome smiled at the ancient tree. She clasped one of his hands and rested her head against his shoulder.

"Thank you."

Inuyasha shrugged again.

"Just because I won't go easy on you doesn't mean that I don't understand."

"Well then, so you that know, just because I don't always understand doesn't mean that I won't go easy on you." She gently squeezed his hand, then laced his fingers between her own.

"Keh. You go easy on me? That'll be the day." he muttered darkly, scoffing. She might have believed it, too, if hadn't been so obvious that he was trying not to grin.

"Tell you what, I'll go easy on you the same day that you go easy on my poor swollen feet. I need to sit down."

Releasing her fingers, Inuyasha walked over to the foot of the Goshimboku, then turned dropped onto his seat, resting his back against the trunk. Looking up at Kagome, he patted the ground between his splayed legs. "Come over here. Sit with me."

"You don't think it's a little hot for that?" she asked, rubbing the back of her neck. She felt sticky and grimy now after their walk, despite her cooling bath.

"Nah. You're soaking wet. If anything it'll cool me off." Kagome wasn't entirely convinced, but she humored him. She carefully lowered herself to sit between his bent knees, resting her back against his chest.

"Oh…" she sighed wearily, drawing another deep, labored breath into her constricted lungs. "Ugh. I feel so fat and heavy all the time…Inuyasha?"

"What?" he asked quickly, sounding slightly panicked. "I didn't say anything! You look fine!"

"No, not that." she laughed softly, amused by his reaction. "I was going to ask if you didn't mind if I closed my eyes for a little while. The heat is making me sleepy."

"Uh, sure." he said, a little hesitantly. "I've got nowhere else to be, I guess."

"Mmmm…good." she murmured, closing her eyes. "…because I'm halfway there already."

~

When Kagome awoke a few hours later, the sky was considerably darker. The air had cooled slightly, and she could hear the first tentative night noises sounding off from the depths of the forest. The sun had not yet set entirely, however, and it's last rays were washing over them, bathing them in a warm, orange glow. She felt Inuyasha shift behind her, and she turned her head to look back at him. He met her gaze, a faint smile twitching on his lips, and Kagome suddenly began to feel a warm stirring inside of her. It was a familiar, insistent pull, mixed with an excited tingling that she hadn't felt in a long time; not since she'd learned of the baby.

She knew what it meant, what she wanted, although the feeling wasn't exactly the same as it once had been. Before, when she had slept with Inuyasha, it had been because she loved him, and had hoped that he loved her in return. It had always been about love, and having sex, for her at least, had seemed like a means to that end.

But not now. This was not that heady swell in her breast that made her want to give herself like a gift, sweetly in the name of love. This was a hunger. When she looked at his face, at his lips, at his neck and his chest, all she could imagine was ripping off his clothing and rutting like a pair of wild animals beneath the Goshimboku, his silver hair pooled out beneath them like a blanket in the moonlight. Kagome closed her eyes and let this image play out behind her eyelids. She was trembling in seconds. Was this normal, she wondered? This heat, this intensity? She's have to look it up in the baby book when she got back to the village, if they ever made it back. With each hot flash of her pulse, it seemed less likely.

"Inuyaaaashaaaa…" she let his name slide out of her in an airy sigh. He grunted; a safe, noncommittal answer that revealed nothing. That was alright. She could play this game. The heat that raced through her veins was making her feel bold. She turned onto her side and ran a finger down his damp chest, dipping right into the loose neck of his kimono and continuing down his body.

"Kagome?" He looked confused. How could there be any confusion she wondered? Couldn't he feel her pulsing? Wasn't he able to smell her desire, as he'd once so arrogantly claimed? Why had he retrieved her hand from the inside of his shirt, and why was he frowning at her? And why oh why oh WHY wasn't he undressing her? Perhaps she was being too subtle? Well, in that case, she would just have to try something more obvious.

Kagome pulled herself up onto her knees, then turned around to rest between his legs, facing him fully. Before he had a chance to protest, she reached up and pulled down the shoulders of his robe, exposing his broad shoulders and chest. He flinched in surprise at her forwardness, but she didn't back down. Instead, she buried her face into his neck. She kissed, sucked, and licked anything she could get and with a ferocity she'd never known before. It had been so long since she kissed him at all, and she'd never kissed him like this. She could taste the saltiness of the sweat on his skin. It made her feel lightheaded, dizzy with need. She was burning. She had to couple with him, or she'd go up in flames.

Then, much too abruptly, she found herself being pushed away.

"Inuyasha?" his name came out sounding like a grasping, desperate whine. Had she been on the outside looking in, she wouldn't have recognized herself. Her face was flushed and glowing, and small, dark tendrils of hair clung to her moist cheeks. She had dropped onto her hands and knees when he had risen, and she was now panting heavily, her sides heaving with the effort.

He was panting as well, but he had turned away from her.

"You must be hungry." he said conversationally, his voice sounding forced and unnatural.

"You don't know the half of it." she growled.

"Let's go meet the others."

"The others?"

"Yeah. Someone must have dinner ready by now."

Dinner? What the hell was he talking about? Then, the reality of the situation began to slowly sink in. Inuyasha had just pushed her away, rejected her. He had turned his back to her.

And my god, what a sexy back! her mind screamed before it registered that he was walking away, heading back for the village.

"Wait." she called. He stopped, his back stiffening all the way up to his ears.

"Inuyasha, what are we?" she asked, her eyes dropping to stare at the dry, cracked earth beneath her hands.

"We're…" he began, his voice cracking slightly. He paused, took a deep, solemn breath, then continued "We're late for dinner. Come on, Kagome. The pup needs meat."