InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity ❯ Suds-n-Bubbles ( Chapter 22 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Kagome leaned against the bathroom door and closed her eyes. The simple white dress shirt she'd retrieved from InuYasha's closet hung by her side, and she willed her heart to stop hammering so hard in her chest. `Easier said than done. You always let him do this to you, Kagome. Pathetic!' She let a weak smile surface at her chiding thoughts.

Her hand still tingled from the feel of the odd red haori that she'd touched while searching out a shirt to wear while he washed her clothes. There was something mysteriously familiar about that garment, something that she knew.

Kagome stripped off the dirty clothes and used one of the fluffy white washcloths to rinse the ramen residue from her skin before donning the white shirt. Taking her time buttoning it up, she breathed deeply, bringing the collar up to her nose to savor the clean untamable scent that clung to the material, stronger than the laundry detergent that lingered. It smelled like InuYasha.

A soft knock on the bathroom door startled her, and she pulled the door open to stare at the hanyou. He shifted from one foot to the other as she watched him, and soiled sheets spilled out of his arms. "I was going to start the washer," he explained nervously. `Nervous? Why would he be nervous?'

Kagome scooped up her dirty clothes and reluctantly handed them over, tugging at the hem of the shirt, as though to stretch it. He grinned slightly at her modest gesture. "Are you sure? I can start it up, if you want to change?"

For some reason, her offer seemed to offend him. His back straightened, and his eyes flashed in silent challenge. "Are you kidding? There ain't nothing to starting up a washer. I could do it any time." With that, he snatched the clothes out of her hands to add to the sheets he carried and stomped off.

She blinked in surprise as he stalked away. Why was he so upset? `You stung his pride, implying that he couldn't do a simple thing like start the washer.'

Kagome shook her head slowly and grabbed another wash cloth off the shelf. After using the other one to wipe off the sink and then laying it over the towel rack to dry, Kagome wet the clean cloth with warm water and wrung it out before turning off the light and heading back down the hallway.

InuYasha wasn't back yet. Kagome set the washcloth aside and started spreading the clean sheets on the stripped bed. `The poor guy. He isn't feeling well, and then, because of my clumsiness, he has to work.' She sighed as she tugged the sheet flat on the bed.

She'd just finished spreading the deep red comforter when InuYasha stomped back into the room with his scowl still in place. But his shirt was missing, and Kagome's heart skipped a beat at the expanse of flesh revealed. There was something poetic in his movements, something that spoke to her body, drew on her like the attraction between the yin and the yang. Did he feel that, too?

"Will you stop staring?" he grouched at last.

`Maybe not,' she thought with an inward sigh. Kagome wasn't sure whose flush was worse: his or her own. She averted his eyes as she straightened the blankets and swiped up the washcloth.

"Sorry," she mumbled as she extended the cloth. "I thought you might want this."

He didn't take it right away. Instead, she heard him flop onto the bed and finally dared a glance at him. Hands tucked neatly behind his neck and looking thoroughly relaxed, he looked like he hadn't just snapped at her, at all. She did a double take.

"You spilled the ramen," he remarked almost idly, plaintively. "If you're so concerned about me being dirty, you clean me up."

Her mouth dropped open. He caught the awestruck look and turned his face away. She swallowed hard and sat down on the edge of the bed. `Do it fast, Kagome, and don't pay attention to what, exactly, you're wiping,' she told herself.

It didn't really do any good. She might not see what she was touching, but she certainly could feel it. What began as a fast rub down slowed drastically as the heat of his skin radiated through the cloth. Odd, she had thought that his washcloths were quite thick. Obviously not. That strange rumble of his was back with a vengeance, and Kagome slowed her hand even more, allowing him to enjoy her touch and reveling in the knowledge that she was the cause of the contented sounds. Gathering her courage, Kagome peeked at his chest.

Her hand stopped for a moment as she stared, transfixed. Lean muscle, sinewy strength under his skin, it beckoned her, called to her, wrapped around her with invisible fingers that held her close, as though he was afraid somewhere deep down that he would lose her if he let her go. The perfect symmetry in his body was enthralling. Her throat was dry, rasping. She coughed once. He chuckled, as though he knew what he was doing to her and was enjoying her discomfort thoroughly.

The phone rang, cutting through the near-trance like a knife, and Kagome jumped. InuYasha grumbled something as he rolled off the bed, and she had a feeling that it was something that she was better off not hearing. He paused in the doorway long enough to glance back at her. His dark human eyes raked over her, a fierce yet gentle mix of emotion that Kagome didn't understand.

It wasn't until after he was gone that she realized that she held the cloth against her chest. Her shirt was damp, and her heart wouldn't slow down. With a weak laugh, she followed him out of the room, deciding to drop the cloth into the washer before the first cycle ended.

She stopped before InuYasha, who was glaring out the window as he held the phone receiver to his ear. Wordlessly, she held up the cloth and shrugged. He jerked his head toward the area of the house where the kitchen was, and Kagome started away.

She rounded the corner—one of the few corners in the house, actually—and stopped dead in her tracks. Eyes bugging out, mouth dropping wide, Kagome squeaked as she stared in horror at the mountain of bubbles engulfing the room. "I—nu—Yasha!" she muttered as she stepped carefully into the room.

She started scooping up handfuls of bubbles and dropped them into the deep sink across from the washer. The washer had stopped itself, apparently from too much soap, and more bubbles oozed out of the crack around the lid.

Kagome worked for nearly fifteen minutes in silence to clean up InuYasha's mess. If anything, the fiasco had spread and was even more daunting.

"Kagome? What are you—? Shit!" She turned her head to stare over her shoulder at InuYasha, who stood just inside the doorway with his eyes bugging out, too. "What happened in here?"

"You happened in here, I'd say," she remarked dryly as she shook more bubbles off her hands into the sink. "What'd you do? Add the whole bottle of detergent?"

"Of course not!" he snapped as he flushed. Then he flinched. "Just what was left in the bottle."

She didn't know if she wanted to ask the next question. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer. With a deep breath to brace herself, she asked, "Which was, how much?"

He scooped up an armload of bubbles and deposited them in the sink before answering, and his tone was disgruntled, as though he'd realized too late that he might have made a mistake. "Well . . . over half . . ."

Kagome rolled her eyes but kept working. "Why didn't you read the bottle if you didn't know how much detergent to add?"

"Keh!" he snorted, as though she ought to give him more credit than she was at the moment. "I did read the bottle. It said, for regular wash, add a capful of soap. For extra soiled wash, add more. So I added more."

Kagome stopped long enough to pin InuYasha with an incredulous stare. He couldn't have really been that silly, could he? She started to smile despite her best efforts against doing do. But the smile spread till she finally threw her head back, laughing so hard that tears pooled in her eyes and coursed down her cheeks. When she caught the look of utter disgust on InuYasha's face, her laughter escalated even more.

"What the hell are you laughing at, bitch?" he snarled as he continued to scoop bubbles. His face was red, his frown was fierce. For some reason, that only served to magnify Kagome's humor at the entire situation.

Kagome's laughter escalated. She was laughing so hard that she fell back against the washer. The jarring motion forced out more bubbles, soaking the back of her shirt. Her bare feet slid slowly out from under her, and she flopped down in the midst of the bubbles as her giggling became infectious. Suds floated in the air, landed in her hair, kissed her cheeks. Still she laughed.

InuYasha couldn't help himself as he chuckled with her. He knelt down in the suds next to her. She collapsed against him as another bout of laughter burst forth. He retrieved a small pile of bubbles and dabbed them on the end of Kagome's nose.

Her eyes crossed slightly as she stared at the suds on her face. With a mischievous glint lit her eyes, Kagome scooped up some soap and plopped it on his head.

He retaliated in kind, and Kagome shrieked when he smeared suds into her hair, and she paid him back for it.

"You asked for it, wench!"

"InuYasha, no!"

"Beg for mercy, and I might let you off the hook."

"I don't think you have any—Stop!" She laughed even harder as he chucked another armload of bubbles at her. Wiping off her face and sputtering, Kagome pushed herself onto her knees and slowly grabbed more suds. "All right, you had your chance. This is war."

He ducked as she lunged toward him. The pile of bubbles meant to hit him flew over his head and hit the wall. InuYasha straightened up, glancing over his shoulder at the suds oozing down the wall. "The housekeeper's going to be really mad," he commented. "Do you think I broke the washer?"

The seriousness in his tone made Kagome dissolve into another round of giggles. She scooped up more bubbles and managed to smear them all over his chest as he tried to get away.

By the time their battle was over, both of them were soaked to the skin and the room looked just awful. The bubbles that were left clung to odd place—hanging from the ceiling like stalactites, slowly creeping down walls and windows . . . The floor was slippery as a sheet of ice. But they were both smiling and gasping for breath. "Don't look at me," Kagome complained, trying to shield her face from his gaze.

InuYasha gently pulled her hands away. Her smile faded, though, when he let out a strangled sort of gasp and his eyes widened. He looked completely shocked, and Kagome glanced down to see why.

"Oh, my God!" she gasped out, realizing a little too late that the shirt that had been reasonable enough coverage was anything but reasonable now. She could feel her face flaming as she reached up to cover her chest with her arms.

InuYasha reached into the closet and dragged out the first thing he could find. "Here," he rasped out, shoving the garment at her, his expression a mix of wonder and pain. "I'll go . . . pants . . . dry pants . . ."

She watched his hasty departure with a puzzled frown on her face. Of course she was embarrassed. He'd just seen more of her than she'd anticipated. The shirt clung to her in such a way that left very little to the imagination. She grimaced. At least she still had her bra on, which provided some coverage even if it wasn't enough to have hindered his view.

Using the deep sink to rinse the suds from her hair, Kagome figured it was the best she could do, for the moment. A bath would definitely be in order. Her skin was slick, tacky from the sheer amount of soap in the bubbles.

`Still,' she had to admit, `he was quite gallant, letting me have privacy to change.' His stammered parting statement had touched her heart and served to remove the lingering embarrassment, and now that she thought about it, she had to admit that it was absolutely endearing, his shyness that had surfaced in the end. `Who is he, really?' she asked herself as she stripped off the soaked shirt.

Kagome smiled. Did it matter who he was or where he came from, as long as he made her feel so good inside? She adored him for that.