InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ My Life, My Love ❯ Muddled Spirit ( Chapter 16 )

:Chapter 16:

 

:Muddled Spirits:

 

Kagome shivered as she stepped out of her car and into the frigid air. Grateful for the warmth of InuYasha's house, she headed towards the door. Seeing her breath billowing out in front of her, she smiled. The cold, mid-December air reminded her of something: InuYasha. Christmas was quickly approaching.

 

Wincing as she misplaced a step, the loud sound of a metallic watering pot sounded across the gigantic concrete patio. Hopefully it went unnoticed, though she doubted it.

 

InuYasha's home was located in the middle of a secluded forest. There was bound to be an echo. She'd make sure that the next time she planned to sneak out of the house without InuYasha's notice, she'd map out her escape route…

 

Kagome had decided to do a little pre-wedding gift hunting for InuYasha. The last time she'd snuck out, it had been during the new moon. She'd made the excuse of grocery shopping so that he wouldn't suspect what she was up to…

InuYasha paced the large outside patio. His bare feet didn't register the freezing temperatures of the early December air. He'd been pacing and grumbling to himself for the past two hours, since he'd realized that Kagome had left in the middle of the night for reasons not yet clear.

“Damn bitch,” he mumbled irritably. “Leave it to her to leave in the middle of the fucking night.”

It didn't help that the new moon was tonight. His demon senses had receded leaving him human. Knowing Kagome, she had probably waited until he had accidentally dozed off to sneak away.

Holding his hands out in front of him, he glared at them. Demon claws gone, he was left with blunt human finger nails, along with his human black hair, devoid of his usual dog ears.

“Damn new moon,” he grumbled again, “stealing my fucking senses.”

If it wasn't for the new moon, he would've been able to hear her leave, sensed her presence thinning. InuYasha made a promise to himself to light into her ass when she returned.

“InuYasha? What are you doing?”

InuYasha growled low in his throat. Spinning around he came face to face with Kagome, arms laden with grocery bags.

“Where the fuck have you been?” he bellowed even more irritated that he hadn't been able to sense her aura.

Kagome rolled her eyes at the hanyou's bark. Brushing past him, she ignored the loud warning growl emitting from him.

“I went to the store,” she said simply. Balancing the bags, she turned the door knob and entered into the warm house.

“Wench! It's 10:30 at night! What the hell did the store have that I ain't got?”

Making her way to the kitchen with InuYasha tailing her, she sighed.

“InuYasha, stop yelling! Do you want to wake everyone up?” she hissed.

InuYasha gave her an incredulous stare. “That ain't got nothing to do with why you were out this late!”

Slipping out of her coat, Kagome set to work pulling groceries out of the bags. “InuYasha, will you help me? There are a lot of things that need to be put away.”

Leveling a stubborn glare at Kagome for completely ignoring his questions, he growled.

“Fine,” she sighed, giving in. “I went to the store.”

“I know that, idiot! What the fuck were you doing at the store this late?”

“I was shopping.”

“Oi!”

“If you help me put away these groceries, I'll tell you.”

Sniffing curiously at the bags, but complying, he reached into one of the large bags and pulled out a jug of milk and a dozen eggs.

`This is what she went to the store for? Fucking eggs and milk!'

`Oh stop whining. She came back didn't she?'

`Oi, whose side are you on?'

“InuYasha, did you hear me?”

Shaking his head, he replied intelligently, “Huh?”

Rolling her eyes, Kagome repeated her question. “I asked if you were hungry.”

“Oh, now you're worried if I'm hungry.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“I was hungry when you left, bitch.”

“You were sleeping when I left, InuYasha.”

“No I wasn't!”

“Yes you were,” she countered, reaching into the nearest bag. To InuYasha's surprise, she pulled out a packet of ramen. “And if you must know, I went to get some food for you, as well as for the house.”

Stifling the urge to roar at the simplified answer, InuYasha dragged his hand across his face.

“That's what we have cooks for, baka!”

Frowning, Kagome turned around and waved the unopened package at him. “Yeah, well, I didn't want anyone to go to the trouble when I could've done it myself.”

InuYasha growled. “Feh, stupid girl. It could've waited till tomorrow. You didn't have to go out into the cold-ass air for fucking eggs and milk.

Kagome grinned and dropped the ramen into a pot of boiling water. So he was worried after all. She did fell guilty for sneaking out on the new moon, though. And she had brushed his hair—despite his protest—inducing him into an unwanted sleep so she was able to sneak out.

`Not that he'll ever know that, though.'

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you, InuYasha. I was only trying to earn my keep.”

The hanyou snorted. “Your keep is with me, not with the damn elements.”

Kagome just smiled.

Yes, indeed, it had been a cover. Why else would she go to the store at 10:30 at night? Between the Thanksgiving holiday, Rin's pregnancy, and Sango's issues with Miroku, she hadn't had enough time to buy anything for her hanyou.

 

However, she hadn't really known what to get InuYasha, anyway. He never accepted gifts from anyone, especially her. He'd told her that all he wanted to do was to marry her in order to complete their bond, attaching them together forever.

 

She smiled at the thought.

 

`Oh, InuYasha…'

 

She'd tried the local jewelry store, but he'd told her to return the fourteen-karat watch she'd bought him. InuYasha had huffed, grumbling about how he didn't need some metal contraption constricting his wrist for the sake of telling time.

 

He had a built-in time-teller, as he'd told her while shoving the bag back into her hands.

 

She'd tried the shoe department, but InuYasha had scowled at the `foot-demons', complaining about the way the shoes “devoured” his earth-hardened feet. He'd even threatened to use the Kaze-no-Kizu on the tennis shoes.

 

Finally, after many, many hours of contemplation, and help from Ayame over the phone, she'd come up with the perfect gift. She was sure InuYasha would like it.

 

After all, didn't he like anything that had to do with battle?

 

Reaching inside the bag, she ran her finger across the Shinken, the old sword she's purchased for InuYasha at the antique store owned by one of her grandfather's closest friends. She's felt the energy coursing from the ancient sword, calling to her.

 

The cold metal hummed beneath her fingertip, accepting her. For some reason, something about the sword's reaction spurned a sense of…maternity from her.

 

`I wonder…'

 

“Damn it! Kagome!” InuYasha's gruff voice rang out in the still air.

 

Kagome stilled, then dashed behind the large pillar to her right, out of InuYasha's sight…hopefully.

 

“Get your ass out here right now, dammit!”

 

Kagome bit her lip and berated her clumsiness. He'd heard the watering pot after all. She stilled completely.

 

Silence…

 

The sudden silence unnerved Kagome.

 

Frowning, she peeked around the pillar. Seeing nothing but the chilled mist rising off of the ground, Kagome let out a sound of relief at the disappearance of InuYasha's form and voice, which signaled his departure back into the house.

 

“Maybe he figured he imagined it,” Kagome mumbled to herself.

 

“Not fucking likely.”

 

Jumping with surprise, Kagome opened her mouth to scream at the abrupt voice directly behind her ear, but was caught off guard by the firm hand that had clamped itself over her mouth, efficiently thwarting her attempt.

 

“What the hell are you doing?! Where were you?!” Removing his hand from her mouth, InuYasha glared at Kagome through molten crystals of hanyou fury.

 

“Well?!”

 

“InuYasha? I—I though you'd gone back inside! How'd you—,”

 

“That's not important! Just answer my damn question!”

Bristling at the commanding tone of InuYasha's voice, Kagome yelled back, “It's none of your business where I've been!”

 

Although she was technically wrong. It was his business since it did concern him. In fact, he was the center of her business. But Kagome ignored that.

 

“The hell it ain't!”

 

“You're not my father! I don't have to answer to you!”

 

InuYasha growled low in his throat. Here he was worrying over his mate, wondering if she'd been hurt, or raped, or beaten, or…worse. And she had the balls to yell at him?

 

He'd just gotten back after three hours of searching for her, when he'd gratefully gotten a hold of her scent and followed her to the patio. But he'd seen her get out of her car from his newly gained perch on the roof. He'd even seen her duck behind the pillar when he'd called her name.

 

“What the hell is wrong with you? I've been looking for you for hours!” InuYasha growled.

 

Poised to growl back, Kagome suddenly softened, as she always did, at the worried tone that had entered InuYasha's voice. “You were…worried? About me?”

 

InuYasha huffed at the question. “Feh. As if I worry. Why would I worry about you?”

 

“So you weren't worried?”

 

“Oh, I was worried alright. I was worried that I was gonna starve because my Ramen wasn't ready when I came down to eat it!”

 

Kagome gritted her teeth against the tears she knew were getting ready to surface. “What's that supposed to mean?! You could've gotten Satomi or Ginko or any of the other cooks to make it for you! Why do I have to do it?”

 

Throwing the bag with the sword in it, and relishing the grunt that sounded as it made contact with his stomach, Kagome sped to the door. Trying to hide her frustrated tears, she called over her shoulder, “By the way, that's for you!”

 

InuYasha winced at the sharp slam Kagome left in her wake as she stormed into the house. Damn it all.

 

Opening the bag, he pulled out the Shinken encased in its scabbard. Registering the pulse of recognition from the blade, he remembered why he had it forged in the first place.

 

In hopes of marrying Kagome, and in retrospect optimism, siring a pup. He'd planned to give it to his first son.

 

Even though he rarely accepted gifts of any kind, Kagome had unwittingly given him the very thing he'd always wanted…besides her love and devotion, of course. By giving him the sword, she was accepting that she would give InuYasha his first pup.

 

It was only a matter of time before Kagome found the sword, in view of the fact that she was to be the pup's mother. It was only natural that the sword would accept Kagome.

 

`I'm starting to turn into the old man, telling the future,' he though, grudgingly admitting the truth about his father to himself.

 

The truth of the matter, however, was that he'd had some instinctual impulse to have the blade forged. He hadn't, at the time, known why he'd had this impulse, but he had. And if it was one thing that InuYasha did right, it was follow his instincts.

 

However, even doing this one thing right wasn't going to help him apologize to his mate.

 

“Damn it…Kagome…”

 

Cursing his luck, InuYasha sulked into his abode, broodingly trying to scrap together a plan to make Kagome forgive him for his big mouth.

 

On his way back inside, he also slated himself for realizing too late that the only reason he'd ever insulted Kagome about making his treasured Ramen was because he wouldn't touch the stuff if it was made by someone other than the one thing he treasured more than anything.

 

Her.

 

 

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“Okay. First, take a deep breath; try to clear your mind,” Miroku instructed.

 

Complying by closing her eyes, Sango breathed deeply, anticipating the telepathy practice. Settling into the loveseat of her living room, she tried not to slap Miroku as his hand inched closer to her thigh.

 

It'd been going very well, and despite having to slap Miroku constantly for trying to touch her, she'd made significant progress. Since he'd agreed to teach her, she'd learned how to partially shield her mind, communicate with Miroku, and she had even come to recognize that the little voice in her head wasn't just a little voice.

 

It was a piece of her previous life, a branch of her subconscious that had come to call itself her `Nature'. Miroku had told her that he'd studied the concept as a separate subject when he'd first begun college. According to his research, everyone had a `Nature'.

 

Hers was just more developed because of the given circumstances.

 

“Don't try anything weird, monk. Even though my eyes are closed, I can still kick your ass,” she said lightly. Even though her excitement was nearly overwhelming, it wasn't so unbearable that she couldn't keep tabs on Miroku while he was out of her focus.

 

“Would I, Monk Miroku, ever do anything so audacious as to touch a lady without her consent?”

 

Sango opened a disbelieving eye. “That question better have been rhetorical.”

 

Miroku grinned. “Of course not. Do you trust me?”

 

Sango bit her lip. Opening both eyes, she stared at Miroku, considering his question. It seemed so light of a question.

 

However, that one question held more weight than any other she'd ever known.

 

Did she trust Miroku?

 

`Of course you do, damn it!' barked her nature. `You've always trusted Miroku, lecher that he is. Even when he wasn't with you, you know you've always had that one connection.'

 

`Yes, but…oh, shut the hell up!'

 

`You know I'm right, though.'

 

“Well?”

 

Sango looked up. “What?”

 

Miroku's face turned serious. Sango realized that that face didn't suit him.

 

“Do you trust me?”

 

Sango swallowed hard, suddenly becoming nervous. “I—I guess I do.”

 

Miroku shook his head. “No. There can be no `guessing'. You have to be sure. If you're not, you could ultimately hurt yourself.”

 

Sango froze. Miroku seemed so serious. Did she really want to got through with this?

 

`Maybe I should stay the way I am,' Sango thought to herself.

 

`Maybe you should. But when did Sango the Demon Exterminator become such a coward?'

 

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A/N:

This chapter was definitely longer than the last one, I hope ^^

 

 

Reviews

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Thankies to all my reviewers! Love you guys!

Final Deliberation:InuYasha:

`Damn…'

All characters from InuYasha are copyrighted to Rumiko Takahashi. This applies to any and all chapters of My Life, My Love.