InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Future Beginnings ❯ Ch 12: Homesteading ( Chapter 12 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Ch 12: Homesteading

 

Saturday dawned bright and clear, if a bit cold. It felt good to Inuyasha to put on his `real' clothes, as he thought of them. It felt better to have Tetsusaiga with him.

 

Kagome packed them a small lunch in case they got hungry. She put on boots and a heavy sweater and was just pulling a jacket over the top of it when Inuyasha put his hand on her arm.

 

“Did you think I would let you get cold?” he asked. “Did I ever let you get cold?”

 

Kagome left the jacket behind. They went out Kagome's window, Kagome riding on Inuyasha's back with his red fire-rat jacket covering her completely. If anyone had looked up, they would have seen a momentary flash of red, no more.

 

Kagome sighed happily and laid her head on Inuyasha's shoulder. This brought back so many memories. It was funny how the mind glosses over the bad parts and only remembers the good. She wondered if Inuyasha saw it that way, too.

 

They headed north, following the treeline in a path Inuyasha had come to think of as his own. The trees were glorious in their fall colors. Once they cleared the populated areas, Kagome pushed back the red material covering her head and looked around her in wonder. They were moving rather fast, but even though the wind was cold, the sun beating down on them was warm. Inuyasha was right not to let her take her jacket.

 

She wondered for the thousandth time how someone so physically strong and heavy as Inuyasha could leap so lightly through the trees. Some of the branches were so small they couldn't possibly support his weight, let alone hers, but they did. She asked him how this was possible.

 

“I'm half-youkai, remember?” he answered. “Half of me is spirit. Of course it's light.”

 

It was a simple answer, but it made sense. “And what's that about your hair?” she asked him, remembering his comment to Peter the other day. “Is your long hair a part of being youkai too?”

 

“For us, yeah. It's part of our transformation.” Inuyasha continued on in silence for a few minutes. “I can't transform fully because I'm only a hanyou,” he said bitterly. “But I still have the hair that marks me as Inu-youkai.”

 

Kagome was almost sorry she had brought it up. She patted his hair. “I love your hair. It's so—“

 

“Better not say pretty,” Inuyasha warned.

 

Kagome smiled. It was pretty—prettier than hers. She let that subject drop. “Are there any other things about you that I should know?”

 

“Why? You know all the important stuff.”

 

She guessed she did. Anything else she would find out as time went by. They had the rest of their lives to discover each other.

 

It wasn't far to Inuyasha's new forest. After about an hour he stopped at the top of a large hill and set her down. Kagome realized she hadn't seen houses or even roads for quite some time now. “This is—beautiful!” she said, gazing out at the valley below.

 

“And there's a stream a little ways in,” said Inuyasha, gesturing behind her to where the hill disappeared into a dense wooded area. “No hot springs, though.”

 

“I didn't think there would be around here. That's all right. It's wonderful just the way it is.”

 

Inuyasha took her elbow and guided her right to the edge of the drop-off. “I thought this would be a nice place to build a house. What do you think?” He looked at her anxiously. What if she hated the idea?

 

To his disappointment, Kagome frowned. “Inuyasha, I love this place. I agree it would be a perfect place to build a house. But, Inuyasha, first of all, we don't know how long we are staying here—“

 

“So? We could still live here while you go to school,” Inuyasha countered.

 

“And second—“ Kagome continued as if he hadn't interrupted. “Someone must own this land. You can't just build a house wherever you please.”

 

“Why not? There's nobody near here at all. Why can't I make a house here?”

 

“Even if the people who own it don't live here, they wouldn't want other people to just take it. You have to pay for it, if they would sell it to you. Whoever they are. I have no idea how to even find that out. I don't have the money to buy this land, and neither do you.”

 

Inuyasha sat down, deflated. Kagome came up behind him and put her arms around his shoulders. She knelt down and nuzzled his cheek. “But we can still enjoy this land the way it is,” she told him. “In my heart it is your forest, and now it will be our home too. We just can't build a house on it, ok?”

 

Somewhat mollified, Inuyasha twisted around and pulled her into his lap. “I'm going to find out who owns this land,” he told her. “And I'll buy it for you and then we'll make our house.”

 

“It's fine even if you don't.”

 

“I will,” he insisted.

 

“Ok,” she replied, not wanting to get into it further. “Let's eat.” She spread out the food she had brought—a few apples, a bottle of water, and some saltines. “I want you to show me the rest of your forest.”

 

Inuyasha agreed, and shared her snack. Afterwards, they lay down and watched the clouds go by. “That one kind of looks like Sesshomaru,” commented Kagome.

 

“Keh.”

 

Kagome propped herself up on one elbow and looked down at Inuyasha. His eyes were closed. “Do you think Sesshomaru is still around?” she asked.

 

“Knowing him, yeah,” said Inuyasha, rolling over and getting to his feet. He pulled her up too. “Come on, let's go. I want to show you the rest of my forest.”

 

“Ok.” Kagome knew when to drop the subject. She dusted herself off and followed Inuyasha into the trees. It had warmed up considerably and she unbuttoned her sweater. Inuyasha glanced at her and raised his eyebrows. She shrugged.

 

A few feet into the forest, Kagome stopped. She looked around her then looked back at Inuyasha. “I feel something,” she said.

 

“What? What is it?” Inuyasha came to full attention, one hand on his sword as he glanced swiftly around.

 

“I don't know, exactly. It doesn't feel dangerous. Just—different.”

 

“Like youkai?”

 

“I'm not sure….” She looked around again, then shook her head. “It's kind of like Shippo or—“

 

“Where are you? Come out now or there will be trouble!” Inuyasha yelled. But nothing moved. Inuyasha decided to try tracking the elusive presence by scent, but it was as if it had disappeared.

 

“It was probably nothing.”

 

“Keh,” said Inuyasha again, but he didn't take his hand off his sword just in case.

 

They tramped around the woods until the sun went down. Then Inuyasha made a small fire next to the stream and told Kagome to wait for him. He took off his sword and handed her the sheath to hold in her lap since she didn't have her bow and arrows. It would offer her some protection in case of attack. “I'll be right back,” he said as he bounded off into the darkening woods.

 

Kagome felt perfectly safe. The presence she had sensed earlier had not seemed malevolent at all. On the other hand, if she didn't know that the tremendous crashing noises she heard in the distance were Inuyasha getting supper, she might have been a little scared.

 

He came back with a transformed Tetsusaiga in one hand and a pair of rabbits in the other. All that for some rabbits. Kagome sent him off again to get some fish for their supper, too. He took the rabbits with him to get them ready for the fire, much to Kagome's relief.

 

She really enjoyed their meal out in the woods, the way they used to eat back in the feudal age when they were journeying. It got cold again once the sun went down, so Kagome snuggled closer to Inuyasha. Eventually she drifted off to sleep as the fire died down.

 

Inuyasha gently picked her up and brought her back to the cliff. He had used Tetsusaiga earlier to cut down some evergreen trees and had arranged the boughs in a triangle lean-to. Inside he had made them a bed out of leaves and now he covered it with his haori and laid down beside Kagome so that they looked out on the valley below. He curled around her sleeping form and gently kissed her forehead. She was going to love waking up to the sunrise here, he thought.

 

 

The next morning was everything he could have hoped for. He nudged Kagome awake just as dawn was breaking over the trees. “Oh!” was all she said, but her wide eyes and parted lips told him all he needed to know.

 

“Wait until we have our house here,” he told her. “You can wake up to this every morning.”

 

Kagome's eyes filled with tears and Inuyasha started to get worried. “Thank you for this,” she said softly. She hugged him and went out to stand at the edge of the cliff until the sun was completely above the horizon.

 

They spent the day exploring Inuyasha's forest again, and again Kagome felt a strange presence at odd moments. Once she thought she glimpsed something staring at her from behind a tree, but when she looked closely, it was gone.

 

“I think maybe this place has its own spirits,” commented Kagome.

 

“They better not get any ideas,” Inuyasha growled. “This is my forest now!” He said it in a loud voice so that whatever was out there would be sure to hear him. Hopefully it understood Japanese.

 

“What if it was their forest first?”

 

“I'm stronger. It's mine now.” Inuyasha glanced around as he spoke to see if anything was reacting to his boasting words.

 

“Will you take care of this forest and everything in it?” Kagome teased, half serious.

 

“Of course I will! I always take care of my own.”

 

The two of them decided this forest and its possible friendly spirits needed further investigation, but Kagome needed to get back to school before classes Monday. They left Inuyasha's forest late in the afternoon, careful to keep to the shadows until they got back to Kagome's dorm room the same way they had left it—through the window.

 

Neither of her two roommates were back yet, and Kagome, much as she enjoyed the woods, felt sweaty and grimy. “Want to take a shower, Inuyasha?”

 

He grabbed the towel, grabbed Kagome's hand, and ran downstairs.