InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Once Upon an Inuyoukai ❯ Queen of Hearts ( Chapter 10 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

The muses love me right now.So sorry, I know I said I'd move faster but there's all these stories that need to be told first. Gnuh! The characters won't shut up and let me get on with the plot. Yell at them, not me.

I've had a couple glasses of Argentinian wine now, so if it's a little more... flowy... than usual, you can just laugh at me. If it's too bad, I'll rewrite it later. But it won't be, I don't think. Someone once told me I write my best work while under the influence. Let me know if it's true, will you?

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Chapter X: Queen of Hearts

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If she could have torn the cruel sun from the sky, she would have. It tore through her flimsy, redveined eyelids, lancing into her brain like tiny spears. I'm hungover, she realized incredulously. That bloody green stuff... Her stomach heaved and she threw herself blindly for the cave entrance. She would have missed, but for a couple of very strong helpful hands, which caught her and redirected her. "Oh kami," she whispered, feeling as though she'd been sat on by a dragon. "Kill me now."

"That's the second time you have asked me to do that," a very deep voice said behind her, sounding more amused than it had any right to be. Inutaisho, her helpful mind supplied.

"Unnngggghhh," she replied articulately, to his continued amusement.

"That will teach you to cook with strange plants," he said. She wanted to hit him, but was afraid that if she moved she'd break. Her memory was very hazy regarding the night before. She remembered firelight, and golden eyes, and hushed speech, but little else.

"What happened?" He was silent. "What did I say? Kami! What did I do?" He took pity on her.

"Nothing embarrassing," he reassured her. "You danced, and sang, and told me stories." She stiffened.

"What stories?" Her head lifted and she looked him square in the eye. "What did I tell you?" His eyes were so calm, so soft and honeygold. She relaxed. It couldn't have been anything too terrible, else he'd be looking at her with disgust... the detritus of another's obsession, a toy. Her secret was safe.

"You told me what my enemy did to you," he said, blunt as a rock. There was no way to finesse that that would make it hurt less, so she supposed it made sense to just be clear and concise. And it did hurt. She looked at him and saw her past reflected in his eyes. She curled up and started to cry. "Why do you weep?" His voice was so gentle. Almost as if... he wasn't...

"You must be so disgusted," she sobbed. "I was his plaything. And I didn't have the courage to do anything about it. I just... let him. I'm so ashamed!" She gathered herself and stumbled from the cave into the harsh sunlight. She reached out, for once not needing her crystal in the magic-saturated air, and found a hot spring near the castle. She felt dirty. Low. The water called to her, promising clean skin if not a clean soul.

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He wrestled with himself. To follow her or not to follow her? She was distraught, and he had no experience handling a distraught woman. But if he didn't... they were in enemy territory. Her safety was not guaranteed alone and defenseless. Looking over, he confirmed that she had not even taken her dagger. It was settled then- he was following.

Her trail was easy to follow- she blundered through the brush with none of her customary grace, leaving a trail any child could have followed. He caught up to her at the hot spring. She was standing in the middle of the enclosed rock pool, fully dressed, weeping fit to make it rain. He slowly advanced.

"Woman..." Her face crumpled and she sobbed harder.

"That's right... 'woman!' I'm not a person, I'm just a member of the female sex, there for using and toying with. Have you too come to ravish me, my lord?" Her wide, mocking eyes turned to him, and he suddenly felt cheap and common for refusing to call her by name. But her name was so... forbidden. Its very syllables sounded like caresses, and he could not bring himself to let them touch his tongue. She whirled away from him, hair floating on the water in a spreading fan of darkness. "Apparently that's all I'm good for."

His heart stretched out of its long sleep, and the motion hurt. "No..." he started, but she shook her head violently.

"Don't bother trying to deny it. I understand now. It's all right." Her back straightened. "If that is my purpose... so be it. Do what you will." Kami, but she sounded so defeated. Defeat and her voice did not belong together, he decided. She was his ally, if nothing more, and he would not allow her to wallow in self-pity like this. It was unbecoming of anyone who stood by his side.

"You are valuable to me," he admitted, not realizing it was an admission until he'd said it. But admission it was. He'd meant to say it to snap her out of her funk, but instead he'd meant it. And he couldn't decide whether that was a bad thing or not.

"Am I?" The question was so soft he almost missed it even with his demon hearing. "Why?" And that was the crux of it. He stood at the crossroads. He could either tell her the truth, that she was valuable first for her abilities and second simply because she was on his side, but he knew that was not he answer she was looking for. Or, he could tell her a pleasing lie that would make her happy, if she bought it. 'If' being the operative word. She was very perceptive, he doubted she would. So what to do? Tell the painful truth or the pleasing lie?

Once again, she took away the choice. "Never mind. I don't want you to lie to me. If it's only for political reasons, I understand." She turned and walked out of the water right past him, pausing just past his shoulder. "Thanks for saying it though." And then she was walking into a cave he hadn't seen in the curving rock wall. He could hear her shedding her grimy clothes, and made himself turn away and walk off. But he only went a very short ways away before remembering that he couldn't leave her alone in enemy territory. So he retraced his steps and stationed himself outside the entrance to the little stone hollow.

He heard her emerge and enter the water slowly, exhaling deeply at the feel of the warm water on her skin. Then he heard her suck in a breath, in pain he thought. Her bruises, he remembered. Washing herself had to be painful. She gasped, and he guessed that she had reached her midriff, and the great yellowblack bruise he knew had to be there. He winced in sympathy. And then... he smelled the salt of her tears, and knew where she had to be now. It was affecting him more than he thought wise, but there was little he could do to change that.

He wondered if she wanted help. She had to be sore, reaching some of the more remote places on her back would be difficult right now. But he knew that the timing could not be worse, and so he did nothing but sit outside and keep her safe. When at last she emerged, smelling clean and wonderful once again, he merely led the way wordlessly back to the cave.

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"Ma y I speak to you?" she asked, almost timid. They had been sitting, silent and uncomfortable, in the cave for the past three hours. Humans never could stand silence. He nodded, mute permission. Even so, she did not speak for another ten minutes.

Finally..."What do you think of me, now that you know?" He wanted to roll his eyes. Of all the pointless, needlessly painful questions...

"Why do you wish to know?" Ah, an old interrogation classic- answer a question with another question.

"Because your opinion matters to me. I don't know why," she answered, unexpectedly candid. Damn. I suppose the technique will not work then. He resigned himself to the massively unpleasant conversation he knew was coming.

"For a human, you are tolerable," he said honestly. Be damned if she was getting any more than that out of him. She snorted with laughter.

"'Tolerable.' How very like you. Ah well, I guess that's a sort of compliment, coming from you." A smile twitched the corners of his mouth. "But that's not what I meant." He froze. She was going to ask for the even more uncomfortable answer... "I mean, how do you see me now that you know what I've allowed to be done to me?" He grimaced. It was time for honesty, and for once he did not feel like being blunt. She waited, expectant and high-strung with nervousness. How could he put it without sounding like an utter sap?
If you were a demon I would admire you... she would kick him for the slight to her species. My wife would have liked you... passable, but not an answer to the question. What did he think of her? Mentally he reviewed the situation.
One- she was young, vulnerable, and a hostage for her father's honest dealings. Two- she was raised in his household, so he had ample opportunity to manipulate her. Three- his power to hers is as leaf to tree, candle to sun: no comparison. I am... ashamed for my species, that one of us could stoop so low, even if he is a dragon. Still, nothing intelligent came to mind. She visibly withered at his continued silence. Grimacing, he bit the bullet and spoke the truth.
"You did nothing wrong. What he did was honourless and low, and I recognize that there was nothing you could have done." Salt on the air, again. Would she never be done with weeping? He inhaled deeply, bracing for what was to come. "Furthermore... I find that I have some respect for how you endured in order to save your father. You acted... honourably. More so than Ryunomei." She stared at him, wide-eyed and uncomprehending.
"You mean... you don't think I'm disgusting?" The hope in her eyes was too bright to look at, so he looked at the dry, root-knotted ceiling instead.
"No. On the contrary, despite being human I almost admire you." There. He'd said it. Now please, leave it alone? When she said nothing, he was childishly grateful.
Long minutes later, when she'd apparently absorbed it, she sucked in a shaky half-breath. "Only almost?" she laughed, breath rattling with leftover tears. He smiled.
"Only almost."
"It's a start." His eyebrow raised of its own volition.
"Coming from me, that is high praise. You should be thankful for what you can get."
"I am," she said soberly. "But that's not to stop me from aiming higher yet, is it?"
Somehow, the prospect did not seem as onerous to him as it might have.
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Wah, I'm not sure I like this chapter. I couldn't get it to click. If you have any suggestions as to what it's missing, let me know so I can rewrite it before going on too far. But for now, I have to put it up just so I don't have to look at it anymore right now. 'Til next time.