InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Possessing ❯ Chapter 8

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

 

Chapter 8

 

 

 

 

Walking down the street, just enjoying the cool but not overly cold night as they casually made their way back to the car, they were no longer talking about what they’d already agreed needed to wait until they could have a serious conversation at home, but there was a peacefulness between them from already getting the love confession part out of the way. They needed to discuss the logistics, the pros and cons, but Kagome had already told him she didn’t see a reason why they couldn’t be together, which was all Inuyasha needed to hear to have him feeling happier and more content in that moment than he ever had before in his entire life, even when his mother had still been alive.

 

After all, his mother had taught him that upon her death he’d have to go out into the wild and live amongst the youkai, while also acknowledging that he might have a hard time of it, knowing he probably wouldn’t be accepted as a hanyou. Even so, staying among humans hadn’t seemed a viable option. Finding a romantic partner, with a human or a youkai, had seemed like a downright impossibility, especially after he’d experienced first hand how the youkai of the world truly did not accept him. For decades he’d figured his only shot at real companionship would be another hanyou, but they were so rare that during his few excursions into the wild it made sense that he’d never run across another one, male or female.

 

Now, though, he lived with a human woman, whom he had fallen in love with and who also loved him in return. Nothing else mattered.

 

So the walk back to the car was peaceful, Inuyasha content to follow Kagome anywhere. If she had wanted to go back to the street party he would have agreed, although truth he told he was ready to go home, and thankfully so was she. Kagome had asked him, but Inuyasha had no desire to drink any more alcohol, and the miko couldn’t because she was going to need to drive them home at some point, so she needed to stay sober now. Their mutual light buzzes had served their purpose, with unplanned but fabulous results, and they had also successfully passed Inuyasha off as a costumed human. It was best not to press their luck.

 

It was just really bad timing that they’d decided to head back to the car right when they had.

 

Kagome’s quiet gasp was the first thing that alerted Inuyasha to there being a problem. When she stopped walking he stopped as well and looked at her in concern.

 

“What is it?” he asked her quietly. “Do you sense another youkai? I haven’t smelled any, but if they’re downwind-”

 

“Not youki, reiki,” she explained quickly. “And not Miroku, I’d recognize him.”

 

“Crap,” Inuyasha grumbled under his breath. “Can we make a run for it?”

 

She shook her head.

 

“That might make things worse.”

 

Indeed, if this person who was rapidly approaching sensed the two of them making a hasty retreat, they would probably assume Kagome was actually giving chase of some youkai or another and might even call in reinforcements.

 

“This is why I made sure to bring your card,” Kagome stated then.

 

Nodding his understanding and agreement, Inuyasha’s nose flared as the scent of approaching reiki reached his nose, his ears swiveling as they picked up the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. At least there was no one else around. They were on a residential side street and it was way past time for Trick-or-Treaters. Everyone was either in bed or at the nearby street party.

 

Standing their ground, they held their position and waited, and they didn’t have long to wait at all before a woman dressed in full miko garb and armed with a quiver of arrows rounded the corner.

 

She paused in surprise at the sight of Inuyasha and Kagome standing together. She obviously hadn’t been expecting to see the reiki user she’d sensed dressed identically to the hanyou she’d also sensed as she’d come running.

 

A presumption that was proven accurate when this new miko relaxed her posture somewhat and said, rather disapprovingly, “Well, this is...interesting.”

 

“I apologize for our presence startling you,” Kagome spoke up right away.

 

“That’s one way of putting it,” the miko replied as she continued to close the gap between them a bit more casually, the bow she’d been holding tightly in her left hand now slung nonchalantly across her back, beside her quiver.

 

Inuyasha tried his best to project an aura of calm as she approached, especially since she could actually sense his aura, so it wasn’t just a figure of speech, but truth be told, this woman made him nervous as hell. If he’d encountered her by himself – not that he’d have ever been in the city by himself, but disregarding that fact for the time being – he’d have hightailed it out of there as fast as he could. It was only Kagome’s presence by his side that made him feel safe in this other miko’s presence.

 

While he would fiercely protect Kagome with his life in the heat of battle with a rogue youkai, knowing she felt the same way – in more ways than one, he’d just discovered – really meant a lot to him. As the new miko neared, Kagome was subtly shifting her stance to keep him slightly behind her, and it did not wound his pride to let Kagome protect him in such a way when he knew that in this situation she was in no danger herself. Unlike in a fight with a random monstrous oni that was putting countless human lives at risk, the hanyou knew that this new miko meant his miko no harm.

 

Theoretically, she also now meant him no harm, since it was obvious – in more ways than one – that he and Kagome were together. Not that he wanted the other miko to know that he and Kagome were together, he just literally meant that it should be obvious from their peaceful behavior with one another, not to mention Kagome’s choice in Halloween costume, that he was not just some random youkai she’d happened upon and was in need of assistance when it came to getting him out of the city.

 

Still, despite how obvious it should have been that he and Kagome were partners, Inuyasha wasn’t taking any chances, staying put right where he was, beside and slightly behind Kagome, as the miko-turned-hanyou said, “We were just patrolling incognito.”

 

Hey, it was their story and they were sticking to it.

 

At least neither one of them were tipsy any longer.

 

“My name’s Kagome. Inuyasha here is registered to me,” Kagome added then, with a nod of her head in the real hanyou’s direction. “I thought coming out here tonight might be a good idea, just in case there was a humanoid youkai taking advantage of the holiday to hunt in the crowds, and since I have Inuyasha I thought it would be a good idea to bring him along, since he can smell where a youkai was while I can only sense where a youkai is. I also decided that dressing myself up to look like him would help put everyone’s minds at ease, so that the regular population wouldn’t suspect what he was, because so many people are understandably nervous around youkai.”

 

“Is that so...” the other miko said slowly when Kagome finished rambling off her explanation, the older woman looking them both up and down with an unmistakably judging expression, and while trying to maintain his blank face and peaceful attitude, like the well trained ‘service youkai’ he was supposed to be, it was all Inuyasha could do to not visibly shudder under the weight of this other miko’s scrutiny.

 

It was actually really weird, because not only had Kagome’s reiki never given him the creeps like this before, not even back when she’d thought he was a kitsune and had been using her ofuda against him, but Miroku’s reiki hadn’t really affected him like this, either. It took the hanyou a moment longer to realize that it wasn’t really this other miko’s reiki that was giving him pause, but her emotions.

 

Generally speaking, his sense of smell worked so much better than his sixth sense. Of course, on the busy streets and in the bars of the city he hadn’t been able to filter much from the jumbled mess of alllllll the smells. He would have instantly noticed a youkai’s scent, true, but picking up a specific human’s mood was a lot more difficult when there were tons of other humans all around. But now they were on a quiet side street, Kagome the only other human present, and not only could he smell this other miko’s reiki – which was definitely not tainted because the difference between a light and dark miko was as easy to tell apart as youki and jyaki – but he could also smell her emotional state, and while he could understand why Kagome thought the other miko must have been startled, frightened even, at the sudden discovery of what she must have thought was going to be a battle between a miko and a youkai, that was in fact not the case.

 

Not at all.

 

In fact, she actually seemed disappointed to realize he wasn’t a threat, as if she’d been looking forward to the prospect of killing a youkai in the predawn hours of All Saints’ Day, and had gotten her hopes up before rounding the corner and seeing he and Kagome together, and now she was disappointed because she’d realized this meant she didn’t get to kill him.

 

That was why her presence raised his hackles. It was the natural reaction of any prey when faced with a predator, and his instincts were just as sharp as ever even despite living a relatively safe and sheltered life for the most part.

 

Even though he couldn’t voice any of this to Kagome in that moment, he wasn’t without other ways of communicating with her. He’d stood tall and proud in front of Miroku and Sango, showing no fear, so as this other miko started talking again, saying, “I was not informed you would be here, and with your...youkai,” Inuyasha took the opportunity to shift himself even further behind Kagome.

 

Kagome noticed the move immediately, of course, and turned to glance his way for a moment. He expressed his concern for her eyes only, then, as their gazes locked for a brief second, the look in his eyes easily revealing his apprehension.

 

“It’s okay,” she told him then, both still playing along, talking to him as if he were merely her service dog, and also letting him know in real life that it was in fact okay, or rather everything would be okay, because she understood, and she would not let her guard down around this woman.

 

She was also pretty sure that this other miko was Kikyou, although she couldn’t be certain. Kagome hadn’t missed how she’d failed to introduce herself back, after she’d told her her and Inuyasha’s names. Kagome hadn’t gotten a good look at Kikyou’s face when she’d watched her on the news that one time, and that had been over six years ago, but generally speaking this miko resembled the one she’d seen shoot that snake youkai. Not all warrior miko were scheduled for their monthly training on the same weekend, so Kagome had never before met the woman standing in front of her, or a miko named Kikyou. That she’d never met the infamous Kikyou also had her thinking that this woman was she.

 

“I was not aware I had to inform anybody,” Kagome said then, in regard to what this miko had said, which wasn’t exactly true because she was in fact aware that she did not have to ‘inform’ anyone of her plan to bring Inuyasha into the city that night, as if she were doing an official Spiritual Forces operation and as such needed to file all the proper paperwork with HQ.

 

He was registered to her now. She was allowed to bring him out with her in public, simple as that. She was a reservist, like all warrior miko, and while she was always ‘on call’ in the event of her services being needed, she was free to do whatever she wanted the rest of the time, save the days she had mandatory training, of course. But if she chose to spend her free time wandering the streets patrolling for possible youkai threats that was just her being a good citizen, except that in the event that she did find something, she was authorized to deal with it herself, like an off duty police officer taking the initiative to intervene if they noticed a robbery in progress. Except that was really a flawed analogy because while they were organized in a similar fashion to law enforcement or the military, they were usually little more than glorified animal control, so it wasn’t really the equivalent to vicious criminals she’d been keeping an eye out for, but wild animals on the loose.

 

As for Inuyasha, Sango had already explained that registering him was basically akin to having a license for a mortal dog; a legal requirement as you were not allowed to own a dog without a license. So too was nobody allowed to own a youkai without registering it, and then of course certain species were prohibited. But while Kagome being a warrior miko and registering Inuyasha as her service youkai meant that he was now legally allowed to assist her in battle, like Kirara, it still also more simply registered him as hers, her pet, more or less, and Sango had told her that she often took Kirara with her whenever she was out running errands, her armor and weapons in the car, so that in the event of suddenly being called in to a youkai attack while out and about she wouldn’t have to waste valuable time going home first.

 

So too was Kagome legally allowed to bring Inuyasha with her out into public, now, although neither of them were too keen on the idea of causing a stir for no reason. After all, Inuyasha couldn’t transform into a cute little puppy she could just carry around in a bag slung across her body with most people being none the wiser. So he was perfectly content to spend most of his time at home, and in the event of Kagome being out of the house and getting a call, she could then call him and have him meet her at the scene. But if she wanted to bring him out with her somewhere, she was allowed to, and she didn’t have to ‘inform’ anyone at HQ of what she was doing.

 

Kagome didn’t bother arguing any of these points with the other miko, though. She just wanted to defuse the situation and get her and Inuyasha the hell out of there. So before Kikyou could chime back in again with any sort of retort to her comment about not knowing she’d needed to inform anyone, Kagome added, “Regardless, we’re done for the night, now, so if you will excuse us.”

 

That said, she gave a little bow and then glanced at Inuyasha to instruct him with her eyes and a subtle nod of her head to go ahead and turn around and start walking away. She would be sure to walk directly behind him, not that she honestly expected this miko to up and shoot Inuyasha in the back, even if she was Kikyou, but it was enough for Kagome that he was nervous, and so she would do whatever she could to comfort him. Even though he was nearly a hundred years old, in some ways he was still like a child, or perhaps more accurately, he really was like a dog, and right now his frightened animal side was showing.

 

Didn’t make her see him as any less of a man, of course. She obviously wasn’t the only human to see youkai as people, either, or hanyou such as Inuyasha wouldn’t even exist. So if his mother could love a full-blooded inu-youkai then her having feelings for one who was in fact half human and unquestioningly possessed a human soul wasn’t really so much of a mystery or perversion in her mind.

 

Thinking of him as an equal was unfortunately hard to conceal, though.

 

As she and Inuyasha turned to leave, the Kikyou chimed in with, “We? You speak of your youkai as though he were your companion.”

 

Pausing, and clenching her jaw so hard her fake fangs fell off, Kagome spat her plastic fangs into her hand and tucked them into her pocket before turning back around, Inuyasha hesitantly pausing as well.

 

“Even if I were out here walking my dog...my mortal dog...” she added when Kikyou snorted, “...I would have probably said we, because animals are living, breathing beings,” she said. She was done keeping up appearances, though. “However, yes, you’re right, I do think of him as my companion. He’s sentient, after all, and biologically half human. As far as I’m concerned Inuyasha should be treated like a person. I don’t care what the law says.”

 

Inuyasha’s heart soared at Kagome’s defense of him, and that she might earn this other miko’s ire actually made him put his nervousness on hold in favor of being prepared to protect Kagome if it came to that. Yes, this miko could kill him – because while reiki itself wouldn’t kill him an arrow in the heart while he was momentarily human certainly would – but if Kagome was in danger then his own life didn’t matter.

 

Fortunately, the older miko was not angry over Kagome speaking back to her like that, instead merely looking unimpressed, and in fact her expression almost implied she pitied the younger miko’s naivety.

 

“I suspected he might be a hanyou,” she said after a heartbeat of silence passed between them. “The ears aren’t necessarily a giveaway, as weaker youkai cannot form more perfect human guises, but his aura hints of a daiyoukai’s power. It’s carefully suppressed, but it’s there, below the surface, and a true daiyoukai would not have such an appearance.”

 

Done with her basic biology lesson, Kikyou then added, “You think that him being half human makes him more relatable, that he might harbor a loyalty to mankind, but the fact that he’s hanyou actually makes him much more dangerous. If you aren’t careful, he’ll turn on you like a disloyal inugami.”

 

Unable to take this anymore, his instincts still warning him not to lower his guard although his honor also demanded that he defend himself, and Kagome, Inuyasha kept his distance but chimed in with, “That’s not true! No human has anything to fear from me, but especially not Kagome.”

 

Before it could sound too much like a declaration of love, he smartly added, “She is my handler and I am her inu, true. She is a warrior miko, and my duty is to fight alongside her and protect her from rogue youkai. But because I do not have the brain of a lower animal, and I especially didn’t start life out as a mortal dog that underwent a horrific transformation at the hands of its master, I am not trained like an animal and I will never turn on my owner.”

 

Yes. Technically, legally, Kagome was his owner. He knew that. But he would never not be thrilled by that fact. Maybe part of it really was his dog side, but his human half also understood that logically they’d both just done what’d needed to be done in order to give him any minuscule measure of protection in their world. Without being registered it was the humans’ job to banish him to the forest, and so he’d agreed, he’d chosen to let Kagome register him as hers, because he knew she wouldn’t have done so without his permission. Anything that allowed him to legally remain in that house, with her, he was all for. Getting to protect her during battle was an added bonus. His place was by her side, in whatever capacity she’d have him.

 

Of course, thoughts of their recent conversation, and what their relationship might become in the near future, wanted to bring a smile to his lips, but he definitely knew better than to let anything like that slip while facing off against this other miko.

 

Kikyou didn’t waste time letting her opinion be known, of course.

 

“You say that now,” she said, addressing Inuyasha directly for the moment because even she had to admit that he did have the intelligence of a human. “But what happens when your youkai blood is pushed beyond the limitations of your half mortal body and mind, and you transform into a bloodthirsty killing machine?”

 

The way Inuyasha’s eyes widened in surprise and fear told Kikyou he hadn’t even been aware such a thing was possible, and the discovery worried him, as well it should. The way Kagome’s eyes narrowed, on the other hand, told Kikyou the younger miko was well aware that so-called ‘daibanyou’ like Inuyasha, a hanyou with a daiyoukau parent that’d inherited said parent’s powerful youki, could indeed get pushed over the edge and do their version of a transformation, which being trapped in a non-transforming body meant all that demonic energy had to go somewhere else, and she was not happy about it being brought up in front of him. Before Kagome could say anything, though, either disapprovingly to Kikyou or reassuringly to Inuyasha, the former spoke back up again.

 

“You should, at the very least, make him a subjugation rosary,” she said, addressing Kagome again.

 

The younger miko was now certain that this other miko was indeed the Kikyou that Sango had told her about, the one she’d seen on the news.

 

“Hanyou may deceivingly seem human at times, but push one too far and you have a raging youkai beast on your hands, as I’m sure you’re aware,” Kikyou added. “I’m not sure you’re up to the task of keeping him under control without the added security of a rosary.”

 

Kikyou shifted her eyes to meet Inuyasha’s again for a moment, and saw genuine fear there. Fear of himself and what he was capable of.

 

Good, at least he is now aware, she thought, before refocusing her attention back on Kagome. She should not have kept something like that a secret from him.

 

“Without subduing beads your only other alternative, should he transform during battle, would be to shoot him with one of your arrows, and you’d only get one shot because that would make you an enemy in his limited, one track mind.”

 

“How dare you...” Kagome said then, her eyes narrowed even further, which considering she still had her demonic yellow contact lenses in at the moment was pretty spooky. She then turned her head and met Inuyasha’s eyes. “Don’t you dare listen to a single word of this nonsense,” she instructed.

 

She then decided to be completely honest with Inuyasha, right there in front of Kikyou, because she had nothing to hide from anyone. Turning to face the hanyou, then, her back to Kikyou again, she said, “I was going to tell you about this possibility once we started training together next month, or this month, rather, since it’s past midnight, but the truth is you would have to be near death in order for something like that to happen, your youkai blood taking over in order to save your life. I don’t plan on ever letting something like that happen, I don’t plan on letting you get that hurt, but if you are, and you transform, then you know I’m capable of making a barrier around myself and purifying with a touch. Perhaps some miko can only channel their reiki into purifying arrows...” Oh yes, the dig was intentional. “...but I could safely run right up to you and purify you just enough to reverse the transformation without you ever being able to lay a claw on me.”

 

He visibly relaxed at her reassurances, but Kikyou wasn’t finished.

 

“And what if, at your approach, he took off running in the opposite direction?” she asked, not at all appreciating what Kagome had implied about her own limitations as a miko.

 

Turning back to stare at the older miko, Kagome answered, “Well then I’d fire one of my blunt arrows at him, if I had to. The quick jolt would probably be enough to reverse the transformation, but if not, it’d at least stun him long enough for me to get to him and either purify him or slap some sealing ofuda on him, like I did with that kuma-youkai.

 

Kikyou’s eyes widened in surprise at the mention of blunt arrows and the kuma-youkai. She’d watched that incident on the news, but it made sense that she hadn’t recognized Kagome considering her Halloween costume. They were in the middle of the big city, after all. There were loads of people in the city and Kikyou had no way of knowing Kagome wasn’t from there, or where she was from. Kagome smirked as she saw the recognition in Kikyou’s eyes.

 

Inuyasha, meanwhile, had completely calmed down at everything Kagome had said. It was clear to him she’d already thought it all through, and even if he couldn’t scent her honesty he would have believed her when she swore she had already been planning on discussing this all with him. He trusted her explicitly, and so even though he was still disturbed to learn that he was biologically capable of transforming under dire circumstances he had full confidence that Kagome would not allow him to harm her or anyone else if he ever did.

 

“So you’re that miko,” Kikyou said then.

 

Kikyou had actually been relieved when she’d first heard that the small border town now had its own residential warrior miko, because she did not like having to drop whatever she was doing to drive a half hour to the rescue of a town that had its own Shinto shrine. As far as she was concerned, somebody from that shrine family should have already been registered with the Spiritual Forces long before now. But there was no point in dwelling on the past and should-haves. She also had to reluctantly admit that this young girl child of a miko standing before her was a powerful little thing. If Inuyasha really was registered, which she’d assume he was because young or no, surely she was smart enough to not go flaunting her hanyou in public if he weren’t legal, then that meant that HQ had deemed her powerful enough to keep such a powerful being under control.

 

“Yup, that’s me,” Kagome replied.

 

Kikyou nodded her head in Kagome’s direction. The best the younger miko could hope to get as far as a bow went from her superior. Kikyou did not have a higher rank than Kagome, but she considered herself superior to the foolishly dressed young miko nonetheless.

 

“That was admittedly an impressive display, regarding the kuma-youkai,” Kikyou acknowledged then. She couldn’t ignore the younger miko’s obvious talents when she’d seen them for herself live on the news.

 

She still thought it was a mistake not making the hanyou wear a subjugation necklace, though. Transformations or no, that hanyou needed to know his place. With human-like emotions he might one day think to overstep his bounds. Not necessarily an unreasonable notion from his perspective considering his own mother had likely been the human parent. A female daiyoukai playing with human men would have probably killed the whelp. If not, he would have undoubtedly been raised to act and think like an inu, and would not now be loyal to a miko of all things. Being raised by a ‘loving’ human mother, on the other hand, could have planted the false notion in his head that other humans besides his mother could also care for him as if he were human himself. Couple that with the fact that this young miko had admitted to letting his higher intelligence affect her judgment when it came to how she viewed him, and he could mistakenly perceive her ‘companionship’ for something more than just a woman acknowledging her demonic dog could think and act like a person.

 

That Inuyasha already had such feelings for Kagome, and that Kagome returned those feelings wholeheartedly, was fortunately not on Kikyou’s radar. Kagome suspected as much from her reaction to them so far, that Kikyou did not suspect anything along those lines, and she wanted to keep it that way.

 

“Thank you,” she answered then, in reply to Kikyou’s compliment of her handling of the kuma. “If you will excuse us, then,” she quickly added before Kikyou could say anything else.

 

She offered the older miko her own bow, deeper than the last time, Inuyasha immediately following suit this time because if his ‘master’ was bowing to the other miko then he figured he sure as hell better as well, for appearances’ sake. “We really must be going now,” Kagome said as she straightened back up.

 

“Yes, of course,” Kikyou acknowledged dismissively. “I bid you good evening, then.”

 

Turning, she headed back in the direction from whence she came, glad the other two were headed in the opposite direction.

 

What Kagome and Inuyasha didn’t know was that Kikyou hadn’t been out and about doing her own patrol when she’d sensed them. She had been at home, although not yet asleep. Surprised, but also with her adrenaline pumping because no way was she going to let some rogue youkai cause havoc in her city, she’d thrown on her miko garb and grabbed her arrows and been out the door just a few short minutes after sensing his aura go by. Since youki could be sensed by a reiki user from slightly greater distances than reiki, she hadn’t sensed the other miko until she’d already been en route, but she had indeed originally thought the other miko was also pursuing the youkai, until she’d rounded the corner and had immediately realized that wasn’t the case. Knowing the truth, now, Kikyou didn’t particularly want this miko and hanyou duo knowing where she lived, but fortunately they’d been the next block over, causing her to run past a few houses and turn down the cross street before rounding the corner to come back up the other street.

 

As Kagome and Inuyasha turned down a different side street to head one more street over away from Kikyou’s street, and their auras faded away into nothing in her mind, the older miko merely shook her head at herself, at the absurdity of all that had just transpired. She would definitely be double checking with HQ that that Kagome person had indeed registered her hanyou, although she was pretty confident she’d find that she had. She momentarily contemplated seeing about getting her monthly training schedule changed to match whatever Kagome’s schedule was, so that she’d be able to test the girl, and her hanyou, and make sure they were really up for the task of being a human/youkai team unit, but after a moment she thought better of it because honestly, Kikyou had no desire to see either of them again if she could help it.

 

The feeling was mutual.

 

As Kagome and Inuyasha made it back to her car without further incident, they breathed a duel sigh of relief when they sat down inside the vehicle and closed the doors.

 

“Well that was an experience I hope never to repeat,” Inuyasha blurted as soon as he felt secure enough to voice his opinion freely.

 

“Likewise,” Kagome admitted easily.

 

Pulling down the sun visor and sliding open the makeup mirror, Kagome clicked on the car’s internal lights for a moment and, after popping off her press-on nails and dumping them into the cup holder for now, fiddled in the mirror with removing her contact lenses. Her eyes had been bothering her for a little while now, but that had been the least of her worries while standing off against that other...really irritating miko that showed up to potentially ruin what had otherwise been a fabulous night.

 

Putting her contact lenses in their container and just putting that in the cup holder for now, as well, Kagome blinked a few times and then glanced Inuyasha’s way.

 

“Let’s just get home, but then, we’ve still got lots to discuss.” Smirking, she added, “But nothing that’s got to do with Kikyou. Hopefully we won’t ever have to see or think about that woman ever again.”

 

“No argument here,” he agreed, on both counts.

 

He had so much he wanted to say to Kagome, and then yet at the same time, his mind was drawing a total blank. He’d rehearsed his lines so many times that now, he was afraid that saying any of the stuff he had memorized would somehow sound insincere. He’d just try his best to wing it, he supposed, while also letting her take the lead.

 

Of course, Kagome’s mind was in just as much of a jumbled mess. This whole thing was her fault, she knew, because she’d stupidly gone and danced with him in a provocative manner. But hadn’t she done that on purpose, just for that very reason? Sort of like hurrying up and making yourself dial a number before you had time to think about it, when you were apprehensive about making the phone call, and then you had the time of listening to it ring to realize okay, now you’re really doing it. So too had Kagome gotten a quick ‘screw it, just go for it’ notion in her head, when she’d decided to dance with him like that. Now she was facing the consequences, but that was a good thing as far as the miko was concerned. She loved him, he loved her, and if this whole thing was her fault then she’d never been so happy to take all the blame.

 

She couldn’t wait to get home.