InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Little by Little ❯ Sewing Needles and Strands ( Chapter 2 )

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

Cradled in the roots of the Goshinboku was the newlywed couple, passing the time until they could make themselves useful again. While they were embarrassed to ask about the topic, the fact of the matter was that they needed a house of their own. Inuyasha didn’t really care where he slept, but he didn’t want for Kagome to have to stay with Kaede forever.

Inuyasha had drug in dead trees for the wood, and after purifying the traces of miasma they made for good, dry framing. That was all he got to do though. Several men from the village were aiding in building the house. As of now, he boredly stared off at bird’s nest while Kagome kept to herself beside him. He wanted to do something to help with the house, but he didn’t know a damn thing about framing or foundations.

Roofing? He knew a bit about that. He didn’t want to wait around for that point though.

Ah, the birds settled in for the night.

The sun was already dripping red, and the sky was beginning to darken. Inuyasha’s gaze wondered back over to his new wife. She had given up her modern attire for the familiar Miko robes recently. She had begun her training with Kaede, learning the names and uses of plants that grew during this time of year. It was only in the mornings for now, so it left her free time in the afternoon and evenings. She was currently using that time to practice sewing with some scraps of fabric Sango had given her. The scraps were very small, the only thing Sango could think to use them for were rags and hair ribbons anyway.

Kagome really needed the practice, she knew some basics about seems and alignments from her mother, but nothing that would help her in this world. Sango and Miroku together had gifted her a pretty role of fabric to make a yukata as a wedding present. Kagome wanted to make sure she had the basics down before she went diving into that project.

Not to mention she wanted to learn to sew for he husband’s sake. The Robe of the Fire Rat patched itself with youki, but the underlayer got torn every time something got past the Robe’s defenses. In their travels Inuyasha had gone through at least three of those layers that she knew of. Kagome knew how to patch holes, but if need be they could buy a bit of white fabric to have on hand to sew a new one if need be. It was probably a little cheaper than buying a new one every time.

Kagome glanced him when she noticed Inuyasha’s eyes directed at her. When she turned her head and he didn’t react she figured he was just spacing out in her direction. He looked…bored? Grumpy?

“Inuyasha?”

He mumbled something at the sound of his name. His eyes refocused to the worried face of his wife.

“What?” He blinked.

“What’s with the sour face?”

Inuyasha averted his eyes.

“Eh,” he shrugged.

Kagome sighed. She turned her attention back to her stitching, but continued; “You feel kind of useless out here, huh?”

Inuyasha straightened his back, blinking at her.

“N…No that’s not really—”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Keh,” Inuyasha scoffed. He crossed his arms in his sleeves and leaned back against the tree.

She paused her needle to look at him from the corner of her eye.

“If you’re bored, you could practice sewing too,” she said as she went back to sewing.

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at that.

“Honestly I don’t even know whyyou’rebothering practicing.”

“Andwhatdo you mean bythat?” His wife snapped back before he had a chance to realize what he’d said. He sat up straight, trying to back out of his words; their meaning having been skewed in Kagome’s mind.

“I didn’t mean—”

“Ouch!”

Kagome shook her hand away from her sewing, before turning it over to examine it. With her right hand she squeezed the index finger that had been pricked to see if it would bleed. She groaned quietly when red welled to the surface. Instantly, Inuyasha grabbed her hand with a muttered “gimme that,” and licked the blood off. He didn’t think anything of the action. He held it to his mouth and gently sucked until he was certain he didn’t taste blood anymore. Kagome slowly took her hand back as Inuyasha continued talking.

“What I meant was I don’t know why you’d need to practice anyway. You know how to patch holes and stuff already.”

“Inuyasha. I thought I told you already? I really want to use some of the fabric Sango and Miroku gave me to make a yukata.”

Inuyasha sighed. He leaned his head back against the tree; the bark would be rough on his scalp if not for the unusual thickness of his hair. Kagome tilted her head to the side, curious about Inuyasha’s behavior.

“Why are you—I don’t know—being weird about this?”

Inuyasha shrugged. “I dunno. It’s not me being weird so much as…” his voice lowered to a whisper, “you’re taking this whole ‘wife’ thing a little more seriously than I expected.”

Kagome burst out laughing. She was a little surprised as well, but found it more funny that some of her feminism had apparently rubbed off on him. Inuyasha’s startled, surprised face only made her laugh harder.

“What the hell, Kagome?!”

“Sorry, sorry, it’s nothing,” she said as her laughing fit died down. Inuyasha’s face was still hilariously bewildered with that one eyebrow lifted as high as it would go. Kagome smiled and set her sewing aside. She scooted closer to Inuyasha and leaned her back against his right arm, resting her head on his shoulder. She could almost feel the heat from his face as she snuggled into him. She heard him cough awkwardly before he spoke again.

“It’s getting dark. You won’t be able to see that needle for much longer out here.”

“Then I won’t sew anymore.”

She heard him cough again, but he didn’t make a noise to agree or disagree. She breathed deeply and leaned further into him. He tried shifting his arm to make it more comfortable, but only succeeded in making Kagome uncomfortable. She reached back around and pulled Inuyasha’s arm from behind her. She snuggled into his torso then, holding Inuyasha’s hand between hers. The palm was so rough, and the size was defiantly that of a man’s, but the fingers looked long and the claws created an interesting tapering illusion, like a woman’s hands. Inuyasha flexed the digits slightly, leading Kagome to ponder the deadly tips. Those claws had severed flesh from bone, ripped through small trees and put deep gashes into iron armor. Yet, the claws didn’t worry her. She had no fear of grabbing this hand whenever she pleased. The few times those claws had been used against her, the hanyou who owned them had no control over. Possessed by his own blood, or an evil spirit—now that Naraku and the jewel were long gone, those days were over.

She curled her own index finger. It didn’t hurt in the slightest, strangely. She blinked then looked back down to Inuyasha’s hand. She picked it up then and turned it over. She felt Inuyasha shift, trying to see what she was doing with his hand. She placed a gentle kiss on the palm. She squeaked a bit when his hand slid from her lips to around her jaw. He gently urged her to turn towards him before he pressed his lips against hers. She laid a hand on his shoulder and twisted her body to regain balance in such an awkward position.

“Hold on,” she uttered when they broke apart. She shifted her lower body into a more stable position beside his leg and leaned back over him into another kiss. Her incisors scraped against his bottom lip and he made a noise he hadn’t planned, so his body stalled. This earned a chuckled from Kagome. She licked his bottom lip before pushing her tongue between the two. He grunted when her tongue ran over his own incisors and pushed her back.

“What’re you doin’?” he panted.

“Hush,” she whispered back. She pushed a leg between his and raised herself up to get better leverage over him. She pushed him into the bark and continued on her way. She went right back with her tongue until Inuyasha got the gist of it and pushed his own back against hers.

“Ah!” She gasped into the kiss as he copied her actions a little more roughly. He squeezed on her waist again on his way to sliding his hands around her hips. Kagome pulled away for breath and Inuyasha’s lips continued to her jaw. He pulled her a little closer—his lips kissing her throat now. Kagome set her chin on top of his head. She opened her eyes to those fuzzy white ears, twitching against her breath. No wait, even between breaths. She tried to focus on the curious little appendages even with all that was going on with her neck at the moment.

‘oh,’she thought. His ears were twitching in time with hisheartbeat. Then, her own heart sped markedly. She realized she had pressed her knee intimately against another place that his pulse was strong and in rhythm with those cute ears. She noticed one hand had left her hip for support against the earth. They were leaning back—or rather—Inuyasha was leaning her backwards.

And right now, she would let him.

But as is happened, she felt a sharp pain in her scalp. She tried to ignore it, but when Inuyasha shifted them slightly to their sides, Kagome yelped. He lifted his head from her neck, concernedly.

“What’s wrong?”

Kagome raised her hand to try and find what her hair had gotten tangled around, but from her position, she couldn’t look up to tell. Inuyasha pulled himself away to see where her hand was and followed it to the vines that enveloped the tree. There was a good chunk of her black hair tangled in the vines just over their heads.

“Hold on, I gotcha.”

Kagome moved her hand for Inuyasha the cut the vine above and below the strands. She took the vine away and tried pulling the strands out with a good bit of difficulty. She huffed. Inuyasha tried his hand at untangling the strands, but it was if her hair had sewn itself around the vine. It didn’t help that the vine was covered in sap. Inuyasha began cutting the vine into smaller bits and unraveling the hair from there. Their hands quickly became covered in the sticky sap. Kagome yanked the last stuck strands out of her head, five strands sticking to the last bit of it.

She paused to touch her fingers together. The sticky substance made her fingers together. She reached up to feel her hair. Her face soured. Her hair no had the same sticky texture as her fingers. Inuyasha’s own face quickly fell into the same expression.He quickly untangled his leg from Kagome’s and stood up. He reached up to the vines over his head and began tearing them down angrily.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

Kagome put her hand down to help herself up, the sticky sap taking some of the dry moss with it. Inuyasha ripped down another vine. He turned to Kagome at her murmur of ‘ew’. His brows knit when he saw that she was trying to pick the moss off of her hand. He glared off in a random direction, focusing on the moss and leaves that littered the forest floor.

‘She should get something better than this crap,’he thought. He flexed his sticky hand and scowled.

“Let’s wait until the house is finished.”

Kagome’s face flushed.

“Wait for what?” she didn’t want to admit what they had been about to do.

Inuyasha’s blush quickly matched his wife’s. He didn’t respond. Neither of them did; they just stood staring at one another, fighting over who’s face could match the color of Inuyasha’s clothes the fastest. Inuyasha coughed, turning his head away and willing the color out of his face and neck.

“We should wash this crap off our hands and head back to Kaede’s.”

Kagome nodded, staring at her feet now, and followed Inuyasha back to the creek.