InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lemon-Scented Bath Salts of Fate & Time ❯ Fate's Big Idea ( Chapter 3 )

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 3 – Fate takes an idea and puts it to use

As she arrived in the clearing by the spring, she'd pulled her everyday kimono out of her bag and set it so it would be handy upon concluding her bath. Then, she'd walked into the water fully clothed in her gore encrusted demon-slaying attire. Submersing herself, she began scrubbing herself all over, loosening the dried bits and rinsing them off. Once she felt the bulk had been flushed off of her, she took off her clothes while still in the water.

Laughing, she chastised herself, 'Getting undressed underwater. The one time I can be fairly certain that no one's looking, and here I am stripping underwater. I know the clothes needed the rinse, but it just feels a little bit ironic.' Once she had the clothes off, she used a fern to scrub up a lather, making sure that her uniform was nice and clean.

(AN: Ferns really do produce a lather when you get them damp and rub them. This is not just something that General Hospital made up during the Luke and Laura on the island of Dr. Shrinker-with-the-winter-ray-gun-Cassadine saga. I've actually tested it in the real world and it DOES indeed work. Although the level of cleanliness it produces is questionable.)

Next up, her own bad self. Using her fingernails, she lightly scrubbed herself all over - spending extra time on her hair and scalp. She took great care to stay upstream, as it were, from the demon detritus, which eventually floated to one side of the spring and was trapped by some reeds. Soon, she felt herself as clean as it was possible to be in feudal Japan.

Settling back in the water with a sigh, Sango breathed a sigh of relief. It was truly amazing how much better it felt once she was able to remove the foul drippings from her skin, hair, and clothes. Sometimes, she really envied Kagome. Her time-traveling friend had described to her modern showers and baths. It sounded absolutely heavenly.

Still, bathing under an open sky had its advantages. During the day, the sun beat down and its warmth filled you while you refreshed yourself. 'And,' she thought, 'while indoor plumbing sounds wonderful, Kagome can't feel the warm spring breeze tickling her skin while the stars are twinkling overhead.' Kagome hadn't had the heart to tell her about skylights.

Smiling, she gazed upward. The stars were just becoming visible - the brightest ones just bare twinklings in the darkening indigo sky. 'If only Miroku truly cared about me. But all he wants is someone to bear his child. And I could not stand that - not without love.

'If he loved me, he'd talk about romantic things - like pulling down all the stars in the sky just to see me smile.' Reaching up, she pretended she could gather the stars to her. He'd said something to some maid in some town once that was something like that. And hearing it, she'd felt her heart break. 'He's never even asked me to bear him a child. He's asked everyone else - even Kagome. But not me.'

'I know Kagome thinks he cares about me, but... if so, then why does he not act awkward and silly like Inuyasha does around Kagome.' A picture of Miroku calling her an idiot and storming away just to try to cover that he'd let something slip that might show that he cared made her bark a laugh. "HAH!"

'Why is it that every time I'm naked, I think of that pervert.' She drew a deep breath before rationalizing, 'I'm just... protecting myself. Because he's a hentai. And he might sneak up. It has nothing to do with anything else. And I certainly don't WANT to think of his broad shoulders and his strong chin.

'Or his big chocolate eyes. Or how forceful he is whenever we're challenged. Or the way he uses his curse to protect those he loves - like that time he used the wind tunnel to suck up all those poisonous bees so I wouldn't be stung...'

She blushed furiously. 'That did NOT mean he loves me like that - it was... just as a companion, I'm sure.' Disappointment painted her face. She stared back up at the sky again longingly.

A shooting star blazed across the darkening sky, and she reached out to try to catch it with both hands so she could make a wish on it - the wish of her heart already formed, if not given words.

As she reached, she rose a bit from the spring. Her breasts never quite cleared the water, but they did rise out about quarter-way. That's when she heard it.

X

As he neared listening distance of the spring, his whistling stopped. But his grin remained firmly on his face.

He'd seen their footprints. Kaede clearly had parted with Sango after they were no longer visible from the well, and continued on toward the village. Sango's footprints continued toward the spring.

'It's just not safe for a woman to bathe unguarded. While Sango is quite fierce,' he flushed from imagining her fierceness tempered and shaped into passion, 'she is still a lovely lady. It would be wrong to leave her unguarded where anyone could happen upon her unaware.' He began picking his way quietly through the foliage to find a good vantage spot from which he could observe. 'And with as shy as she usually is about these things, it is always possible that she could potentially be too flustered to defend her virtue. Therefore, I must act as her guardian.' Nodding to himself as he continued sneaking through the brush, 'My honor simply demands it.' Ah. Isn't rationalization wonderful.

Finally settling in, he saw her rise, her back toward him. She stopped before the water became any lower than waist deep - so all he could see was her bare back as she laid her slayer uniform on a rock to dry.

His eyes were glued to her. All he could really see was her head and her arms, and a vague outline of the rest of her under the water. But still. How many times had he risked bodily harm just to obtain the slightest touch?

She still hadn't realized yet that each time he "groped" her, his hand was in a slightly different place. It was never like that for any other girl. Because he really didn't care about any other girl. But with her, he wanted to learn every inch. Each touch - even though it invariably ended with his lights punched out - was seared into his memory. Inch by inch, he was memorizing her.

And in his dreams, he remembered her more vividly. Each touch. His imaginative mind filled in the blanks in a quite realistic fashion - rarely did he have to make adjustments once a new area was branded into him.

So the lack of transparency in the water really made no difference. His mind's eye filled in everything.

She finished scrubbing and sank against a rock with a sigh. As she smiled, he couldn't help but smile back. He was sure that she had no clue he was there. Otherwise she wouldn't smile like that. She must feel relieved to have that gore off of her.

In honesty, he didn't know how she had lasted so long. If he had been the one covered in that nastiness, he might not have been able to wait until the clean-up was done to bathe. Truly, Inuyasha needed to learn how to be more careful with his Windscar!

But she never shirked a responsibility. She was the strongest woman he'd ever met. He didn't know it, but his expression softened, got dreamy, as he thought about her. She was, in every sense of the word as he could figure it, perfect.

The only thing was, she hadn't figured out that he felt that way about her.

Women were such beautiful creatures. Stronger than men, and yet more delicate. And they had a need to feel appreciated, cherished. So many women never felt that way - never knew how lovely they were. So at a fairly young age, he'd decided that it was important to do something to make them feel special. Unfortunately, his first attempts led to the women believing that he wished for something serious.

Eventually it came to him that levity was the key. He could make each woman feel beautiful - while making them feel like he was a flirtatious fool - by asking them to bear his child. Most of them would roll their eyes or call him a pervert, but he could see it - they felt pretty and special for his asking. And with the exception of a few very young girls, none ever took him seriously.

In his journeys, he'd met many beautiful women. There was only one who'd stolen his heart. And so, he never asked her his silly flirtatious question. Because that would have... just felt wrong.

But one day... if the gods were kind and removed his curse, one day he would ask her the question he'd never asked any other woman. To become his wife. But not until the curse was gone. He would not willingly pass it down to her child. Not even if it meant never knowing her love. That would just be too cruel to do to a woman as perfect as her.

Lost in his thoughts, he had no way of knowing that as his expression became first wistful and then sad, it was perfectly matched to the one he was spying on - as if they were capturing each other's thoughts.

Abruptly, Sango let loose a loud, "HAH!", startling him from his reverie. Quickly focusing on her, he saw that she had on the face that she wore when she was berating herself. 'What could she possibly be thinking about?' She smiled shyly. 'There's no way she could possibly be thinking about me.' But the look on her face made him wish it. Even more so when she blushed.

He could feel himself stirring. God she was just so beautiful. And then, she gasped and looked at the sky. A shooting star blazed through the darkness. He saw her reach out like she wanted to catch it and make a wish on it. And as she reached, her breasts - he hadn't ever seen them, although he had touched parts of them before being smacked unconscious - rose from the water. Riveted, he didn't realize that he'd gasped aloud.

X

She knew the sound instantly. 'Miroku! That damned hentai!' Coming to sneak a peek again. 'I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he figured out our deception. But still! That damned monk needs to be taught a lesson.'

With a deep breath, she forced her expression to relax, and her eyes to wander to the stars. 'Can't let him know I know he's here. Otherwise I won't be able to figure out how to make him pay!'

Now to think of something. 'If I know him, he'd just say that he was keeping his back turned, but standing guard at the spring as a level of protection - that he's only here in order to make sure I stay safe.

'Hmmm. Stay safe. I could expose him for spying if I caught him in the act. And I can do that by pretending to slip on the rocks. OH, and if I were to "hit my head"!' She reached under the water and cautiously grasped a rock in either hand. "He'll think I'm in danger and expose himself!"

Smiling, she turned toward her kimono. "Well, I guess it's about time to get dressed." She pitched her voice to carry, but to not seem like she was speaking loudly. Turning her back to him, she slid to a slightly deeper part of the spring and then stood up. The curve of her hips was just visible above the water. Her hands were in front of her holding the rocks. Taking a step toward her kimono, she pretended to slip. As she splashed forward in the water, she brought the rocks together - they made a dull THUNK sound. And then, she allowed herself to sink toward the bottom of the pool of water.

She knew he couldn't see her as she swam underwater to a place hidden from Miroku's vantage point by some rocks. There, she sat and waited. It didn't take but a second or two.

X

That noise.

No.

That noise couldn't be right. His Sango would never be damaged by something like a slip in the bath. She was strong.

But he'd HEARD the noise. Seen her fall into the water. And then disappear.

Without a word, he burst from his hiding spot and ran at full tilt toward the spring. There was no thought in his head except that he had to save her. He'd give his own life. If the gods were merciful in any way, they'd take his life and spare her.

He'd never run so fast in his life - he was a blur to match Kouga. He jumped fully clothed into the spring and began to search for her under the water. He couldn't find her. Turning, frantically, he had to find her-

"AH-HAH!" Sango jumped out from behind the rock where she was hiding. Her right forefinger was pointed up in accusation. She'd caught him spying. On her bathing. Naked.

X