InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 3: Forever ❯ Christmas Wish ( Chapter 23 )

~~Chapter 23~~

~Christmas Wish~

 

“What do you want for Christmas, Nez?”

 

Nezumi peeked over the top of her magazine to glance at Ryomaru. He looked serious enough. Sitting in front of her on the floor, he twitched his ears. She reached out and rubbed the left one. He leaned back toward her. “Christmas? You've never gotten me anything for Christmas before.”

 

He pushed his head against her hand. “Yeah . . . there's a first time for everything, ain't there? Besides, you love presents.”

 

That wasn't what she meant, and he knew it. Christmas was more of a time for lovers to exchange personal gifts. Ryomaru never had done that before, and that he wanted to do it now . . .

 

“I don't need anything,” she replied, careful to keep her tone neutral as she continued to rub his ears. He rotated his head in a little circle, reminding Nezumi of a happy cat. She grinned at the irony in that thought but thought better of sharing it.

 

“The house'll be done soon, maybe next week,” he told her, his voice betraying him. She could hear the hint of sleepiness underlying his tone. “We can move in whenever you want.”

 

“We?” she echoed as he flicked his ear away from her probing fingers. She thwapped him with her magazine as she grabbed his ear again. “Who said I'd move in with you?”

 

“You will,” he assured her in an all-too-smug tone. “You love the Harley.”

 

“Hmm, nice try. You already signed it over to me.”

 

He tilted his head back to look up at her. “I did because I know you'd never renege on your word.”

 

`No,' she admitted to herself, she wouldn't, though not for the reason he probably believed. She'd grown used to having Ryomaru around. It was nice. It was really nice.

 

“You know, I was thinking . . . if we just left your bed here, it'd be one less thing to have to move,” Ryomaru pointed out.

 

Nezumi rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the sudden fluttering in her belly. `Knock it off, Nez! He's teasing! Teasing? You know, joking?'

 

`Right. Joking.'

 

“I mean, we'd have a lot less to move that way.”

 

“Oh? And where would you sleep?” she countered as she held up her magazine with one hand and rubbed his ear with the other.

 

“In my bed,” he remarked.

 

“Then where would I sleep?”

 

“In my bed,” he repeated as he stifled a yawn.

 

“Think again, dog breath,” she grumbled despite the distinct pink tinge that infiltrated her skin.

 

He sighed, long and loud. “If you change your mind . . . would it help if I said I sleep naked?”

 

“Very funny,” she choked out as her skin darkened to more of a crimson hue.

 

“You should try it,” he continued. “It's good for circulation.”

 

“How do you figure?”

 

He shrugged. “Because it'd probably get you---”

 

“Ryo!”

 

With a wicked chuckle, he relented. “Can't blame me for trying.”

 

She snorted and tried to concentrate on her magazine again. It was impossible. She remembered all too well just how he looked naked. She didn't really need that reminder . . . `He was joking again, Nez, so calm down. He doesn't do any such thing. He's teasing---again.'

 

And he'd been doing that a lot in the last couple of weeks since the night he'd cooked for her. He seemed to think that the incessant provocative teasing would somehow wear her down. Trouble was, he was right. When he said things, even outrageous things, she couldn't help but think about that night, and though she'd bite her tongue off before she'd admit as much to him, the memories . . . They just weren't quite enough.

 

“Uh, Ryo?” she began cautiously.

 

“Mmm?”

 

“You . . . you were joking, right? About sleeping . . . that way?”

 

“Come visit my room some night and see for yourself,” he countered.

 

“Baka,” she muttered as she scratched gently at the base of his ear. His retort was cut off when his leg jerked suddenly, kicking the coffee table and sending the piece scooting across the floor. Nezumi jumped at the commotion then giggled as it occurred to her. “You kicked like a dog!” she accused as her laughter escalated.

 

“Feh!”

 

“No, you did! I scratched your ear, and---”

“It ain't that funny!”

 

“Oh, yes, it is!”

 

“It was a reflex!” he growled.

 

Nezumi let her head fall back over the arm of the sofa as she laughed helplessly. “Yeah . . . knee . . . jerk . . .”

 

“Wench!”

 

Which only made her laugh harder.

 

Tears squeezed from the corners of her eyes to run down her temples as she held onto her stomach. Ryomaru snorted. “Stop laughing, will you?”

 

“Can't . . .” she gasped. “Oww . . .”

 

“Serves you right,” he grumbled. “You can't laugh at your mate. It ain't right.”

 

That killed the laughter. Nezumi wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and sat up straight. It was the first time in a long while that he'd used that term. She still didn't like it. “Stop saying that,” she mumbled as she retrieved the magazine that had fallen on the floor during her laughter.

 

“It's true,” he argued. “You can't laugh at your mate. You also can't argue with me.”

That got her attention. “What?”

 

As though something had just occurred to him, Ryomaru grinned in an entirely too-smug way as he crossed his arms over his chest and flicked his ears. “That's right . . . you can't argue with me, either. As the dominant mate---”

 

Nezumi narrowed her gaze at the sound of the hated word. “I'm warning you,” she threatened.

 

He ignored her. “As the dominant mate,” he continued in a louder, more authoritative tone, “I get to call the shots.”

 

“Dominant, my ass,” Nezumi countered as she whacked Ryomaru with the magazine, “and stop saying that word!”

 

He laughed at her. He actually laughed at her. “What? Mate? Mate, mate, mate, mate, mate.”

 

Nezumi clamped her mouth closed and stuck her face back into the magazine again, determined to do the one thing Ryomaru never could tolerate. He kept talking. She tuned him out, concentrating instead on an article on rebuilding motorcycle engines.

 

It didn't take long before Ryomaru seemed to realize what she was doing. Hiding her smile as he scooted closer, Nezumi knew it wouldn't be much longer before he tried to take the magazine away. Before he had a chance to try, she got up and dropped the publication on the sofa. With an exaggerated yawn, she arched her back to stretch as Ryomaru uttered a sound half-way between a whine and a growl.

 

She stopped mid-stretch to glance at him. He was staring at her in an almost dumbstruck way and though he hadn't moved off the floor, he looked like he was contemplating pouncing on her. “Ryo?”

 

“Damn, Nez,” he mumbled without a change in expression.

 

She dropped her hands from the small of her back and shook her head. “What'd I do?”

 

He swallowed hard. “Y-you win.”

 

 

-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-

 

 

“I can't figure her out.”

 

Kichiro inspected the carpentry around the doorway of the new house. “That's not surprising. It's because she's smarter than you.”

 

“Funny, Kich,” Ryomaru grumbled then sighed, planting his hands on his hips as he glowered at his deranged sibling.

 

“She always has been,” Kichiro went on as he turned away from the glass doors to eye his brother. “I gave up trying to outsmart her long ago.”

 

“I've tried everything. What does she want me to do? Jump through fucking hoops?”

 

“Maybe you're trying too hard.”

 

Ryomaru rolled his eyes. “What the hell does that mean?”

 

Shrugging as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his khaki colored dress pants, Kichiro made a face. “Has it ever occurred to you that you might be making things harder for her? You do have a tendency to come off pretty strong.”

 

“So what? You think I'm scaring her away?”

 

“Maybe.”

 

Ryomaru flopped down on the new sofa that had just been delivered and sighed. “Damn . . .”

 

“Look, Ryo . . . Have you explained anything to her?”

 

“Like what?”

 

“Anything at all. She can't read your mind.”

 

Ryomaru shook his head. “I know that.”

 

“Do you?”

 

“What's that supposed to mean?”

 

Kichiro sighed. “Remember when we were pups, and she found that kitten? What did you do?”

 

Ryomaru winced. “I told her that cats were stupid.”

 

“And?”

 

The wince shifted into a grimace as he remembered that day. They'd been on the way home from school. Ryomaru and Kichiro were up to their normal scuffling, and Nezumi had noticed the weak mewl coming from the bushes.

 

“They're stupid, Nez. You don't need that damn thing! They're just a hella nasty waste of fur.”

 

“Can't you take it home with you?” Nezumi asked as she cradled the emaciated little kitten to her chest.

 

“Feh! If you want a cat, you take it home.”

 

She made a face. “I can't, remember? We're not allowed to have pets, Papa said.”

 

“Then leave it. It won't live long anyway, as scrawny as it is.”

 

Nezumi quickly ducked her head. “Please, Ryo?”

 

Ryomaru snapped out of the memory as he dragged his hands over his face. They'd been fourteen years-old at the time, and in all that time, he'd never heard Nezumi say `please' about anything. “That damn thing reeked of death,” he pointed out defensively.

 

Kichiro wasn't satisfied that Ryomaru had gotten his point. “Anyway, you were probably right. It was too weak and little to have lived. My point is, would it have hurt to let her think she saved that kitten?”

 

Ryomaru hadn't thought of that incident in a very long time. In the end, he'd walked across town with Nezumi to the animal shelter, and he had waited impatiently as she had given up the kitten. Tapping his foot as she took her sweet time saying goodbye, Ryomaru hadn't missed the sad look on the man's face, as though the veterinarian in charge sensed, too. The kitten was beyond help.

 

“Can I come visit her?” Nezumi asked suddenly, stopping with her hand on the door as she turned back to face the vet.

 

The veterinarian winced. “I don't think that'll be necessary. This kitten is sick. She won't live long.”

 

Nezumi refused to talk to him on the return walk across town. Whether she blamed him for refusing to take the kitten home or not, Ryomaru never knew. She didn't talk to him, at least about that, and at the time, Ryomaru didn't notice or care.

 

“It was just a fucking cat,” he argued. Ryomaru's voice sounded hollow to his own ears.

 

Kichiro sighed. “To you, it was just a fucking cat. To me, it was just a fucking cat. To Nez? Maybe it was the mother she couldn't save. You ever think of that?”

 

Ryomaru glared out the glass doors at the surrounding forest.

 

No, he never really had . . .

 

 

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A/N:

The husband is sick now, which just figures, since he's a bigger baby than the babies … ::sigh:: Anyway, Here's another chapter … enjoy!

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Final Thought from Ryomaru:

…A cat …?

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Forever): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

 

~Sue~