InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lemon-Scented Bath Salts of Fate & Time ❯ Fate Adds Bath Salts ( Chapter 2 )

Lemon-scented Bath Salts of Fate & Time.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I make no profit off this story other than the ability to sleep at night because it’s not longer pinging around in my skull.





Chapter 2 – Fate adds some bath salts

She climbed out of the well and a second later heard the flash that meant her hanyou had followed.

Opening the door to the well house, she strode out into the yard and over to where her mom kept the garden hose. Knowing he'd follow, she turned on the water pressure and grabbed the nozzle end, walking it over to the dog boy.

"Actually, I'm kinda glad you're here," she said. His quickly suppressed smile made her glad she'd said that. "THIS! Is a garden hose. I don't want to track all this ick into my mom's house. So I'm going to go stand over there," she pointed toward a row of bushes, "and if you can take this, and point it at me and squeeze the trigger." She demonstrated, and he jumped when the water sprayed out of the nozzle with great force. "That way, we can rinse the worst of it off me."

She held out the nozzle and he hesitantly took it from her. Then she turned and began walking toward the bushes.

Before she could even turn around, he squeezed down on the handle, and the water blasted a chunk of goo off her thigh.

"GAH! Inuyasha! You were supposed to wait til I was ready for it!"

He continued to hose her off as she sputtered at him. "Why? What difference would that make? There was stuff on your back, and now it's gone, right?"

She slowly spun, and he continued to spray her. The motion of the hose went lazily up and down her torso, and she realized that her clothes were clinging to her in places that they normally wouldn't. The motion of the hose on her made her feel almost like she was in one of those cheesy music videos, and a sudden urge to lean forward and make a sexy face hit her. She began laughing at the thought. Then she started dancing around, shivering, as Inuyasha lifted the spray to hit her head, rinsing off the biggest chunks that were in her hair.

He released the handle and the water stopped. Running back to him, she took the hose, hung it up where it belonged and turned off the water pressure. Her arms hugged her body. "C-c-c-c-COLD!" Teeth chattering, she ran toward the house.

Inuyasha slowly followed.

Her clothing had been sticking to her in places. He'd had a hard time not staring. Those places... sometimes at night, he'd catch a whiff of her while he was asleep, and the dreams he had... Those places featured prominently in those dreams.

He had kept his demon in check though. The odor of the dead demon had helped. It hadn't hidden her pure Kagome smell. But its presence was still there. Which was good. Otherwise, that sight, combined with her scent...

Once, long ago, he had been reminded of Kikyo by her smell. But it was just a remembrance. Kagome's scent was cleaner. Purer. The two were similar in the way that the smell of flour smells KIND OF like the smell of loaves of fresh whole wheat bread baking. One was a nice smell. The other made you drool. Okay, maybe there really wasn't any comparison.

Entering the house, he closed the door behind him. He saw Kagome's shoes, sodden, by the door. Wet footprints and cast off drops of water left a trail on the floor. Oooh. Her mother wouldn't appreciate that.

He entered the kitchen and opened the drawer from which he'd seen Mrs. Higurashi produce towels as needed. Sure enough, he found one, and taking it, began to wipe up the Kagome trail. He started in the kitchen and worked toward the back door. Then turned around, and followed the path she'd left, wiping it clean as he went.

The footprints led up to her bedroom door, and disappeared behind it. But the door was closed. Sighing, he knocked gently. When there wasn't a response, he opened the door. Yup. The wetness continued into her room before turning back toward the bathroom. He wiped up the trail til the point where he was standing, hunched over, in between her bed and her desk.

"WHAT'RE YOU DOING?" She screeched at him, and his ears flattened back toward his skull. He straightened up, still holding the now fairly soaked rag in one hand and looked at her, helplessly. She was wearing nothing but a towel, and holding it tightly closed around herself. She looked horrified. He'd thought she'd be pleased that he'd bothered to clean up after her.

When he stood up, still holding the rag, her brain didn't compute. Had he snuck in to peek on her? Why was he holding a rag? She looked at the floor. It was mostly dry. 'OH. Oh my god. He was cleaning up after me.'

"Did you... Did you clean up all of it?" Her eyes were wide as she looked at him. She didn't look horrified any more. And she smelled surprised and pleased.

He looked down at the floor blushing slightly, embarrassed. "I got all the water up off the floor in the kitchen and on the stairs. I didn't think your mom would like it if we left it."

Her face crinkled up in that smile that she only got when somehow he'd managed to do something right. 'Wow. Who'd've thought just wiping up some footprints would make her so happy?'

"Thank you, Inuyasha." She was beaming at him. And her scent... was making him...

"What're you waiting for? Go take your damn shower before you catch a cold from bein' all wet!" He yelled at her as if she were an idiot, and her scent became laced with disappointment. That was easier to deal with at least. At least with the acrid smell of her disapproval, he wouldn't be tempted into doing something stupid.

"Oh. Right." 'Why did I even bother worrying that he was trying to sneak in on me. He doesn't feel about me like that.' She couldn't suppress a small sigh. "I'm going to have to do some laundry when I'm done bathing. If you'd like, there's a yukata that my mom made for you in my closet. You can put that on, and I'll wash up your clothes too, if you like." 'I am the biggest idiot on the planet.'

He watched as the door to the bathroom closed behind her.

It always made him nervous knowing that she spent so much time in that room. The floor was slippery in there, and the layout seemed to be designed to support natural selection - anyone with a case of klutziness could sustain serious damage. And Kagome - though she was brave beyond words - often seemed to trip or slip on nothing. Shaking his head, he decided he'd wait in her room. That way he'd be nearby if she needed him.

Opening her closet, he saw a bright red yukata hanging. This had to be the one she was talking about. Her mother had told him he looked good in red. Which was just another reason to like the woman. And Kagome would have been swimming in this yukata.

As he stripped off his haori and pants, he tried to force the image of Kagome smiling at him in nothing but his new yukata out of his brain. Why did that image make him feel funny? He sat on the floor by her bed to wait for her.

X


"I am sorry, Lady Sango, but one of the women in the village is giving birth, and I cannot accompany you to the bath today."

Blushing, she whispered to the miko, "Could you... maybe pretend you were accompanying me? Then that hentai monk won't follow..."

Hiding her smile, the older woman assented. Raising her voice, she declared, "It is high time we bathed and removed the stench of that foul demon from us. Shall we go, Lady Sango?"

In an equally loud voice, "Thank you, Lady Kaede. Nothing would please me more."

They walked toward the spring together until they were out of sight of Miroku.

"Here I must leave you."

"Thank you so much for your help, Kaede."

And the two went their separate ways - one toward town, the other toward the pursuit of cleanliness.

X

Back near the well, the townsfolk and Miroku watched the two women as they walked away.

"That's odd." One of the men had a puzzled look on his face as he watched.

"What's odd, Namiki-san?"

Cocking his head, he stared after the women. "Well, Tanaka Suki-san is in labor, and Kaede just told me that she'd be leaving from here to go attend to the birth. Do you suppose she's becoming senile? Or did we finish so quickly that she thought she'd have time to bathe before going back to the village?"

Miroku smiled broadly. "I would wager that the Lady Kaede will arrive at the birth promptly. And to be certain, I'll just go check up on them."

A couple of the smarter townsmen laughed at that. The remainder took him at face value and nodded.

Whistling a little tune, he sauntered jauntily down the path toward the spring.

X