InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ It Must Be Destiny ❯ Chapter 22

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

Chapter 22

Amber blinked fuzzily. It was dark outside- that much she could tell, but there was a fire somewhere that allowed light to filter into wherever she was lying. She blinked again, trying to focus on who was next to her. To her surprise, it was Inusouta. And… was he holding her hand? Was he… was he crying?

She tried to sit up. A firm hand on her belly pushed her back down. She stared at the hand on her stomach as if wondering what it was doing there. “Inusouta?” she asked softly, lifting her eyes to his.

He smiled at her, filled with love and relief. “Thank Kami you're awake. Are… are you in pain?”

She shook her head slightly. As long as she didn't have to get up and dance anytime soon, she was fine. She was just super tired.

Carefully, as if she were made of brittle paper that might turn to ash in his hands, he lifted her halfway into his arms, her shoulders propped half in his arms and half on his legs, with her lower half still on the sleeping mat. Gently, he brushed her hair back from her face.

“Kami, Amber… I thought you were gonna die on me.”

She gave him a weak smile. “I'm tougher than that. Besides,” she whispered, “I couldn't leave you.”

Infinite sadness filled his golden eyes. “I'm so, so sorry,” he said, trying not to choke on emotion. “I should've been paying better attention… I should've been able to protect you…”

“Shhh…” she lifted a hand and weakly placed a delicate finger across his lips. “It's not your fault. I didn't believe… that we were really in the past.” She gave a half-hearted chuckle. “That youkai proved it with flying colors. Or should I say, a flying me.”

He lowered his head until his nose almost touched hers. “Did… did you mean what you said? Right… right before you lost consciousness?”

She blinked. All she could remember was pain, and fuzzy vision… and begging God to let her live, so she could be with Inusouta. Flushing, she looked away, unable to answer.

Warm fingers grasped her chin and turned her back to face him. “Did you mean it?” he asked, even softer, even gentler this time. “Do you… do you love me?”

Tears sprung to her eyes. This is it, girl. You have to tell him. It's now, or never. She took a deep breath.

“Hai. I'm… I'm sorry I lied to you before. It's just… I've been in love with you for so long, and I know you don't love me back and…”

He cut her off with a frantic, passionate kiss, full of all the love and need he had for her.

(“Inusouta! You stop that right now or you're going to reopen her wounds!”)

Releasing her lips with much regret, he turned his head slightly to give his older sister his best glare. (“Minako, you have a talent for arriving at the worst times…”)

The wolf hanyou shrugged her slim shoulders. (“And at the most crucial as well. If I hadn't arrived when I did to help Okaasan…”)

Inusouta's glare softened. (“Hai. And you have no idea how eternally grateful I am.”) He turned back to the golden-haired angel in his arms. (“You've given me back my mate.”)

Amber's eyes turned to blue ice. (“I tell you I love you and you still only regard me as a one-night stand?”)

Minako looked at the girl in surprise, her large black wolf ears twitching. (“Didn't he tell you? A mate is the youkai term for spouse. He's calling you his wife.”)

Her jaw dropped. She pulled herself into a seated position, ignoring the little twinges of pain from her stitches. (“Your wife?”)

Golden eyes stared into hers, full of love and hope. (“Hai. You're my life partner, Amber. That's what I was trying to tell you all this time.”) He held up his arms, displaying the dark blue lines. (“These crests… these blue lines on my arms… it means that I've found my mate, and she's you.”)

Minako gave him an “older-sister-knows-best” smile as she left the sleeping area. (“Better explain it better than that, Inu.”)

He grinned sheepishly as her incredibly long black ponytail disappeared around the corner. She was really the only one allowed to call him Inu, as it was the only part of his name she was able to pronounce when she was just a cub. Izayoi and Suki did it only to annoy him.

Turning back to the dumbfounded girl in front of him, he shifted his position, so that he was kneeling instead of sitting. (“Amber, kanojo…,") he began, taking a deep breath. ("Every youkai and hanyou has a voice inside them- their inner youkai- that speaks to them and, in strange ways, guides them. Our youkai nature chooses our mates for us, knowing our soulmate before we, ourselves, really know it.”)

Amber blinked. (“So… you're saying that this voice is telling you that I'm supposed to be your wife?”) she asked flatly.

This isn't going well.

No kidding. You're just going to have to spit it out.

He took a deep breath. (“Even if I had no voice, no inner youkai, I would still want you as my mate. I love you, Amber. With everything that is me- the man and the hanyou- I want you with me forever.”)

She would've gasped if she hadn't been completely frozen solid. Holy… Did… did he just say… he loves me?

It's good to know that you didn't suffer brain damage from that attack. Are you just going to sit there like a dork or are you going to kiss the guy?

Flinging her arms around his neck, she pressed her lips to his as tears slid down her cheeks.

“I love everything you are… hanyou, human… I don't care. I just want you,” she replied as she covered his face with soft little kisses.

Inusouta's arms had just tightened around her waist, pulling her closer when he distinctly heard a chuckle from the main room of the hut.

.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.

(“It would seem that he finally admitted it,”) his mother said smugly.

His father snorted. (“He should still ask her parents before he takes her as his mate. It's only proper.”)

(“You didn't ask Kagome's okaasan,”) Shippou pointed out.

(“That was different!”) Inuyasha yelled. (“She already approved of us before Naraku was even defeated!”)

(“Still, you didn't ask her permission. Baaaaaka.”)

.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.

Inusouta pushed their conversation out of his mind as he pried himself away from Amber, looking down at her wounds. “Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head. “They… they only twinge. They don't really hurt.”

Perplexed, he moved the neckline of her kimono slightly to look at one of the stitched wounds near her neck, just under the collar bone. The stitches were still there, but the wound looked almost healed.

Inusouta's gaze narrowed. (“That's odd. They're… almost healed.”)

Shippou appeared, leaning against the wall, looking oh-so-nonchalant. (“I'd guess that's because she's got youkai blood in her,”) he said cheerfully.

Amber and Inusouta both turned and looked at him, somewhat confused. (“But… she's 500 years removed from you. How can that be possible?”)

Amber stared at the gorgeous man gazing down at her with beautiful emerald eyes. She saw that he had pointed ears and claws, and… a tail? (“You… are you Shippou-sama? she asked, her heart racing.

He grinned, showing his fangs, sweeping a gentlemanly bow, his long golden tail swishing behind him. (“That's me, kit. Kitsune extraordinaire and your ancestor, I believe.”)

This she had heard before, but she hadn't really expected to meet the guy. (“You… you're really a youkai? A… kitsune?”)

(“Yup.”) To demonstrate, he conjured a turquoise flame ball in the palm of his hand. (“Kitsune-bi!”)

Amber's eyes went wide with shock. (“That's one cool trick…”)

Inusouta rolled his eyes. (“Do you mind? I'm trying to have a private moment with my future mate.”)

Shippou simply grinned again. (“I don't mind at all. I wanted to take a look at her anyway. And she certainly looks like me, except for those eyes.”)

Startled, the hanyou looked at Amber, then up at Shippou. The likeness was, indeed, uncanny, except that Amber was a ningen. (“Scary… “)

Amber narrowed her eyes at him. (“I didn't realize my looks were so frightening,”) she snorted.

Shippou chortled.

Inusouta looked panicked. (“No! They're not frightening at all! I swear- you're the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen!”)

The kitsune nodded in approval. (“Good one.”)

Inusouta glared at him. (“Will you please go away?”)

He shrugged. (“Not yet. I wanted to check something out.”)

Possessiveness swept over him. (“Not on my mate. Check out your own.”)

Shippou snorted. (“You're just like your otousan. Hereditary baka-ness.”) He knelt down next to Amber, who stared at him as if she didn't think he was real. (“I just wanted to ask her some questions.”)

Amber swallowed. (“What… what do you want to know, sir?”) she asked weakly.

He rolled his eyes. (“So polite… maybe she's not related to me.”) Growing serious, he turned those emerald eyes to her sapphire ones. (“Now… tell me about your childhood, growing up. Were there any… strange happenings… that were unexplainable to your parents?”)

Her face grew red as she looked away, embarrassed. (“My parents… didn't want me. They gave me to my obaasan when I was four.”)

Sympathy filled his gaze. (“Gomen… I didn't know.”)

(“It's okay. I'm kinda used to it now.") Her eyes grew distant as she remembered her youth. ("The only thing I really know is that Obaasan would tell me I was special, that there was something very unique about me that my parents couldn't handle. That's why they gave me up.”)

Shippou nodded as if he were expecting that. (“Do you hear voices?”) he asked, completely serious and understanding.

She glanced at him, surprised. (“Hai… I do. But… how could you know that?”)

(“It doesn't matter. Lastly, have you noticed anything strange about your appearance lately?")

Inusouta's gaze flickered to her covered feet, where he knew the lavender stripes were still visible on her ankles. Shippou caught the glance, but didn't mention it.

Amber looked distinctly embarrassed. (“Wh-why? Am… am I going to die? Does it mean I've got cancer?”)

Shippou blinked at Inusouta. (“Cancer? What's that?”)

(“Sickness,”) he clarified. (“Usually fatal or requiring major surgery.”)

(“Oh, no!”) he cried, looked at Amber in dismay. (“You're not going to die! It's just that I wondered if there were any strange marks on any parts of your body that hadn't been there before. Say, before you met Baka Junior over there.”)

(“Watch yourself, kitsune,”) Inusouta growled. (“I'll turn foxhound on your ass.”)

Well, she thought to herself, maybe he can explain those stripes. Personally, I have no idea what they are.

Don't worry. Shippou-sama will be able to tell you exactly what they are, and what they mean.

Taking a deep breath, the pulled off the blanket that was covering her legs. The lavender kimono Minako had given her reached only to mid-calf with the way she was sitting, and her bare ankles and feet were now exposed to their scrutiny.

As were those bizarre lavender stripes on her ankles.

Shippou let out a breath that he hadn't really noticed he'd been holding. (“It's as we thought.”)

Inusouta stared at the stripes on her ankles, then dropped his gaze to the dark blue lines on his arms. A niggling feeling poked his thoughts.

Amber looked like she was about to panic. (“What? What's as you thought?”) she whimpered, extremely nervous now. (“I'm going to die, aren't I? I knew it!”)

Shippou gave her a distinctly amused look. (“Quite the opposite, kit. You're exhibiting youkai traits. That voice you say you hear- that's your inner youkai.”)

He's right. I am.

Amber would've gasped if she weren't completely dumbfounded. Then why didn't you tell me sooner?

That's not how we work.

She swallowed, absorbing that. (“Okay… so that's an inner youkai. What does that have to do with these odd stripes around my legs?”)

(“Those are her crests, aren't they?”) Inusouta asked quietly.

(“My what?”) she squeaked.

Shippou nodded. (“Give her a hug and find out.”)

Amber looked back and forth between the two males in absolute confusion. (“Wait! Why should he hug me? What will that do?”)

(“Watch,”) was the kitsune's only reply as Inusouta carefully put his arms around her shoulders and hugged her from behind.

The lavender mark pulsed and grew slightly brighter. Amber stared in mute shock.

(“That confirms it.”) Shippou stood up, stretching, his tail straight out behind him. (“I wonder if there are any other traits she's got… Oh, well. We'll have to deal with that later.”)

(“Wait!”) Amber cried as Shippou turned to leave. (“What did that pulse mean? And why did they get brighter?”)

The kitsune grinned. (“He's your mate, kit. Your crests react to his embrace because he's your soulmate. The same goes for his- if you touch him, they'll react too.”) With a smirk and a swish of his long tail, he left the sleeping area and wandered outside, where everyone had gathered to watch the children catch fireflies.