InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Not My Fairy Tale ❯ Happy Endings ( Chapter 8 )

Part eight

Happy endings

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“All fairytales have a happy ending.”

 

“Even mine?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“Even Sango's?”

 

“That's right.” Kagome grinned at the inquisitive little fox's questions. They had found a little wood shed in the middle of no where, on the sloping side of a mountain overlooking a sharply gouged valley. The sun had set early behind the other side of the mountain, filling the deeply carved valley with the darkness of night like water seeping into a ditch. Since it was `that night' the group had promptly agreed to stay safely indoors in the small, lonely hut.

 

Thankfully, there was a lot of wood from a previous traveler's kind forethought and InuYasha tucked himself away in the corner sulking while the rest started dinner over a fire, set up holy wards, and laid out beds.

 

Kagome now sat on the step, leaning against the side of the front door, Shippo beside her, the fire a comfortable warmth at her back.

 

“Does Miroku have a fairytale too?”

 

“Yes he does, just like the rest of you, he's got a story of his own.”

 

“Is his a very happy ending?” Kagome's eyebrows flew up, her wide eyes and red-stained cheeks revealing her surprise and embarrassment. From somewhere in the premature evening, Kagome heard the monk's steps falter.

 

“Oh please, Buddha, please!”

 

“Miroku!” Both Sango and Kagome shouted at the delinquent houshi who just chuckled tensely.

 

“Yes, his is probably as happy as he can make it.” Kagome shook her head at her friends in general.

 

“What about InuYasha?” Shippo asked once everyone finished laughing at his joke. A `keh' was heard from behind them and an ebony-haired InuYasha stood, his Tetsusaiga clutched in his crossed arms and he pushed past the pair on the hut's threshold. Kagome frowned, unsure if she should be annoyed with the irritable boy or sensitive to his obvious dislike of the topic.

 

“What about him?” Kagome brought her melted bronze eyes back to the kit plopped on the ground in front of her.

 

“Does he get a happy ending too, even though he's mean and picks on me?”

 

Kagome smiled sadly. “Yes, he most of all gets to have a happy ending. Anyone who has suffered and still manages to take care of the people he loves gets to live happily ever after. He takes care of you and me and Sango and Miroku when they're hurt and strangers when they're in trouble . . .”

 

Shippo sensed the Kagome's ever-cheerful smile grow more somber and quickly changed the subject.

 

“What was your happy ending, Kagome?”

 

“I don't have a story, Shippo. I'm not cursed or neglected or alone. I don't need a happy ending.” Her melancholy deepened, her expression falling more downcast as she answered almost thoughtlessly. She stared off into the swiftly darkening night, her miko senses following the faint bubble of mist in her mind that was her hanyou to where he perched in a nearby tree.

 

“But everyone has a fairytale!” Shippo protested regaining his foster mother's wandering attention.

 

“Not `everyone', just a special few. Like you and InuYasha and Miroku and Sango.” Kagome smiled down at him warmly, patting his head.

 

“I think you're special.” He grasped her fingers in his tiny hands and smiled as brightly as the cub could.

 

“Thanks, Shippo-chan.” She returned the grin, noticing too late that Sango had snuck up behind her and Miroku was leaning against the outside wall in the shadows beside her.

 

“We all think you're special, Kagome-chan.” Sango assured her friend. Kagome blushed at the unwanted promises. She knew that, they didn't need to say anything!

 

Shippo hopped up on her knees and looked deep into her eyes, nose to nose with the girl from the future. “Don't you want a happy ending?”

 

“Well, yeah, of course, but I'm happy just being with you guys and my family. I don't really need anything more, Shippo. Don't worry about me.” She gave the fox kitsune a big hug and stood, the cub still tucked in her arms. Sango was holding the mat in front of the door open for her and Miroku as he followed her and the youkai child inside.

 

Sango smirked as she caught the other girl's eye as Kagome entered the hut. “Ah, but what about your prince to carry you to his castle to be his queen and bear his sons and daughters?”

 

Kagome pursed her lips in an impertinent scowl. “Isn't that YOUR happy ending, Sango-chan?” She raised an eyebrow, tossing a meaningful glance over her shoulder in Miroku's direction. Sango's eyes widened and a pink tint crept across her cheeks.

 

“Ano . . .

 

Kagome smiled teasingly and stepped aside so Miroku could join the girls and Shippo indoors. She sat down on her sleeping bag tossed across a bed of hay in the corner. “Who needs a prince anyway, I'm too young for that kind of happy ending. I'm not even sixteen yet.”

 

“In this time, that's plenty old enough. I'm considered an old maid.”

 

“Not by me, Sango.” The monk had sidled up to the exterminator, one of his hands obviously MIA.

 

“Remove your hand, houshi-sama, or I will.” Kagome laughed as Miroku raised his hands, protesting his innocence and Sango slapped him anyway.

 

Several hours later, the gang had eaten dinner, cleaned up, and set up watch for the evening. InuYasha had come in to eat but promptly left to sit on the step then on the roof.

 

Kagome and the others chatted until each eventually drifted off to sleep. Kagome gently picked the little kitsune up from where he'd fallen asleep against a lazing Kirara and tucked him into her blankets. She brushed his bangs out of his eyes then stood with a deep yawn. She could hear the former hanyou shifting as the wood roof overhead creaked quietly. She raised her gaze but got nothing more.

 

The young miko stepped outside, just far enough to peer up at the obsidian-haired boy lying across the spine of the hut. He was just a pitch-black shadow against a hazy, starry sky, the jagged teeth of the mountain rising beyond his supine form. Kagome stood in the cool, humid silence a moment before a low rumble reverberated from somewhere beyond the trees and high mountain ridge behind her. Even her human nose could smell a building thunderstorm rising beyond the mountain that protected their little valley.

 

“InuYasha . . ?”

 

“I know, wench. It's gonna get wet and cold real quick.” Without hesitation, the boy hopped off the roof to land lithely beside the waiting girl.

 

“I didn't think it would rain this late in the season.” She offered amiably.

 

He snorted. “Feh. Shows what you know. Snows'll be here soon too.” He glared sullenly at her with his slate gray eyes. “You should get some real clothes before that happens.”

 

Kagome took note of her short skirt fluttering lazily in the brisk breeze that slithered down the mountainside. She understood his unspoken words just as well as if she could read his mind. His dark charcoal eyes were soft with concern; he didn't want her to get sick- again. She clutched her arms around her chest and glared poutily back. “I know. It's just we're higher up this time and I wasn't expecting it to be so cold.”

 

Without another word, InuYasha turned away to lead her back into the hut. “Ano, InuYasha . . .” Kagome stayed where she was as if she'd suddenly taken root, the rising winds playing with her long locks and loose clothing.

 

He turned and glowered impatiently at the girl. “Kagome, it's too cold out here for you. Come on.” Again, he turned away, expecting her to follow him indoors.

 

He was disappointed.

 

“I don't mind.” Her words caused a slow but inevitable reaction. His shoulders slumped, his head fell and he turned back to her with sigh and rolled his eyes.

 

He shook off his haori and walked back to hand it to her. She raised her hands in protest but he tossed it over her shoulders anyway. “You obviously want to talk about something so if we're gonna stay out here, you're not gonna catch another friggin' fever.”

 

Kagome clutched the warm red coat closer, her eyes downcast. She started to walk into the less windy shelter of the trees, wary of the thick dark clouds spilling across the sky. “I'm sorry.”

 

“For what?”

 

“For causing you so much trouble. Getting sick, being slow, needing to be protected- If it weren't for the fact that only I can see the jewel shards, you'd be better off with me gone.”

 

“Shut up, baka. You apologize too much. I thought I told you- The runt needs you here, Sango needs you- I don't care what the monk wants-”

 

“That's right, you promised Shippo . . .” She murmured, her eyes losing their focus as she tried to recall something. “I had a dream, I think, you said you weren't going to let me go.”

 

“Damn straight.” He retorted confidently, crossing his arms, and looking particularly arrogant for a moonless night.

 

Kagome's brows rose in askance, surely there was more to this abrupt, half-confession. The former hanyou looked down at her out of the corner of his eye and seeing her confused expression he sighed. “Demons have a law, one that humans probably wouldn't understand. Once you rescue something, it belongs to you and you've made a promise to protect it, forever. That fierce loyalty, over time, turns into affection like you with that damn pup. He knows it so he expects you to take care of him.”

 

Kagome's eyes lit with a grin and she crossed her arms into his haori in a perfect mimicry of his best stare. “Oh really? That does sound familiar. Humans obviously do it to, me protecting Shippo and all the times I saved your ass-”

 

InuYasha spun around so quickly he almost fell over. “Wh- What?!” He sputtered. “All the times YOU saved ME?!”

 

Kagome just smiled beatifically at him. “Don't worry, I'll protect you, forever. It's a promise.”

 

“You're just a troublesome, weak little human. I don't need you to help me, I never needed you-“

 

“InuYasha?” She called sweetly, gazing up at him with a dangerously soft adoration. The human boy cringed at her tone of voice and if he had his cute little puppy ears they'd be laying flat against his skull.

 

He was going to get Sat and he knew it.

 

“Ka- Kagome, I-“

 

Her grin dropped, her face darkening with exasperation. “I wish you'd trust me a little more.” She reminded him, deciding at the last moment not to use the subduing spell against him. “You know you need me, I don't get to rescue you nearly as often as you save me but I do, sometimes. I woke you from your seal, and just like you said, once you rescue something it belongs to you. No matter how hard you try to get rid of me, you belong to me and you damn well know I'm not going to let you go.” She scowled at him, unknowingly echoing his own words from a night not so long ago.

 

“I don't care if you like it or not, we've had this argument a thousand times. We're your friends, for better or for worse, we're going to stick with y-“ Her repetitive tirade was interrupted by a particularly violent and loud roll of thunder, the air itself seemed to reverberate with the force of the electrical explosion.

 

Kagome's eyes widened and she was suddenly cowering in InuYasha's arms. InuYasha didn't have time to be surprised, he was growling at the sky for scaring his girl. “Enough of this! Kagome, we're going inside.” He forcibly lifted the miko in his arms and ran back to the relative safety of the hut.

 

Kagome hesitated only a moment before relaxing in his strong, protective arms, not even noticing when it had begun to pour buckets over their heads. She snuggled deeper into his grip, feeling for all the world that she had found a perfect niche, a place only for her . . .

 

She laughed out loud, startling InuYasha as he carried her and the girl threw her arms ecstatically around his neck.

 

She caught his suppressed grin as he shook his dark head at her. She just tucked her head under his chin, her forehead pressing into the warm skin of his neck and sighed contentedly. This took back everything wrong in the world and powerful emotions flooded her like a wave.

 

Ah, now she remembered why she loved him, how much she loved him.

 

He held her tightly, his lips for a moment on her temple then they were gone and it was like a dream that they were even there at all. Except that he still held her so close. “You're very special, Kagome, to all of us.” He whispered, warm breath close to her ear. “Who needs happy endings when I've got you?”