InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity ❯ Stay With Me ( Chapter 23 )

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

InuYasha stared thoughtfully at the game board between them. With deliberate slowness, he reached out and moved his red checker into striking range of both of Kagome's last two game pieces. She tugged at the hem of the too-short boxers she had found to wear while her clothing dried and tried to concentrate on the game instead of on the half-dressed hanyou who sat directly across from her. Clad in nothing but a pair of loose red warm up shorts tied at the waist, Kagome thought it was a bit of an underhanded tactic to use his body to thoroughly distract her mind from the game. `Giving yourself a little too much credit there, Kagome? He's not dressed like that for you.' Kagome stole another glance. InuYasha chuckled softly, and she tried in vain to keep her embarrassment from showing. `A girl can dream, right?'

"I ought to quit," she grumbled though she smiled. She could hardly believe that she had just taught him how to play this game. Since her initial instruction, they'd played five games, and he'd won each one with flourish. Now she was about to lose the sixth. She sighed.

When she peeked back up at him, she caught his troubled stare. With a small grin, Kagome shook her head. "I taught you too well, I think."

"You thirsty?" he asked as he started to get up. Kagome was faster.

"I'll get you whatever you want," she assured him. "Water? Soda?"

InuYasha slowly sank back down, careful not to move the checker board. "Water's fine," he called after her.

She shot him one last look before rounding the bar into the kitchen. "I'll know if you cheat," she remarked then shook her head at her own thoughts. "As if you need to, anyway. I thought you'd never played this before." She grabbed two bottles of water out of the refrigerator along with a wooden bowl of rice crackers and headed back into the living room just in time to see InuYasha jerk his hands away from the board.

"You're cheating!" she accused as she thrust a bottle of water and the bowl at him. InuYasha looked guilty, but shook his head in denial. Kagome snorted and sat back on the sofa. She blinked in surprise as she glanced at the checkers' arrangement before her mouth dropped open and she stared in wonder. Cheated, yes. But he'd arranged the checkers so that she could easily beat him in one single move. "You're letting me win," she said softly.

"Keh!" InuYasha snorted just before he stuffed a handful of the rice crackers into his mouth. "I wouldn't have to if you weren't so bad at your own game."

Kagome giggled. She reached over to get some crackers. He pulled the bowl away. Clamoring to her knees, she leaned across the game board. It slid off onto the floor, and she crawled across the sofa to take another swipe at the bowl. He pulled it away again as his deep, husky chuckling filled the quiet room.

"Didn't your mother teach you to share?" she demanded after her third failed-attempt.

"Only child," he retorted just before dropping another handful of crackers into his mouth.

"You've got a brother, though, don't you?"

InuYasha took his time chewing and swallowing. "Sesshoumaru? He doesn't count, damn bastard. Anyway, he's only my half-brother, and he was grown by the time I was born."

Kagome's frown faded, and she stopped trying to get the bowl though she didn't sit back down. She cocked her head to the side and bit her bottom lip. "You . . . didn't have a very good childhood, did you?"

InuYasha shot her an almost frightened look before staring into the dancing flames on the hearth. "It wasn't so bad. Why?"

"Come on, InuYasha . . . You didn't even know how to play checkers."

"Checkers is for pups," he scoffed.

"Jii-chan plays checkers."

"Pups and old men, then."

With gentle fingers, Kagome reached over and turned his face toward hers. Her thumb stroked his jaw line. His eyes wouldn't meet hers. "And you've never had anyone to love?" When he refused to answer and still refused to meet her gaze, she drew her own conclusion. Her hand dropped away, and she sank back on her haunches, wrapping her arms around her raised knees and resting her chin on them. "Where is she now?"

InuYasha shook his head slowly, as though he wasn't going to answer. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft despite the dejected look on his face. "She . . . She forgot about me, about us." His eyes finally met hers. He slowly leaned forward, looping his fingers under the prayer beads that she still wore. He rubbed them idly, lovingly. A single tear welled in his right eye and traced a salty path down his cheek. Before he could wipe it away, Kagome reached out and caught it with her index finger.

He watched in mute wonder as she lifted the same finger to her lips, her tongue flicking out to catch the moisture. "Why did you do that?" he asked as his hand fell away from her.

Kagome shrugged, her own eyes suspiciously bright. She cleared her throat before answering, and as she did, she offered him a weak smile. "Mama always said that if you catch the first tear, your wish will come true."

He looked even more pained at that. Kagome sighed softly.

"What did you wish for?" he questioned.

She tried to smile. She really did. But the searing pain in her heart nearly undid her, and she knew that the attempt had failed when he grimaced. "I wished that she'd remember you."

"Kagome . . ."

The clock on the mantle above the small fire chimed ten.

Before he could say more, and before Kagome lost her nerve, she dragged off the necklace and shoved it into his hand. "You wanted these before, right? Because they remind you of . . . her . . . don't they?"

"Yeah," he replied slowly, staring in wide-eyed amazement at the prayer bead and fang necklace in his open palm. "But . . ."

He started to reach for her. Kagome shot to her feet and hurried toward the door. She grabbed her shoes and sat on the bench to put them on. InuYasha knelt down beside her, his hand on hers to stop her. "What are you doing?"

She forced a shrill laugh. He cringed but didn't let go. "It's getting late, and . . . I should get home. I think you'll be fine."

The expressions seemed to fly over his face. Panic, desperation, and finally determination. InuYasha leaned against her, letting his head drop into her lap. "I feel really dizzy, all of a sudden," he said. "I don't think I'll be able to stand it."

Kagome realized two things. Firstly, he really wanted her to stay longer. Secondly, he was a horrible actor. She giggled and let her shoes drop with a sigh. "A little longer," she allowed. "But I've got to get home soon, InuYasha."

His chin lifted enough so that he could grin up at her. His smile faded slowly, leaving a burning intensity in its wake. "Kagome, will you stay with me? Until I fall asleep?"

For reasons that Kagome didn't want to dwell on, her heart soared at his request. "All right," she agreed slowly. "Let me call Mama."

InuYasha nodded and stood before catching her hands and dragging her to her feet, too. He headed back toward the living room to bank the fire and pick up the game as Kagome punched in her home phone number. She ended up leaving a quick message on the answering machine as she stared at the old sword that hung above the fireplace mantle. Her mom had gone out to play bridge with some friends. She was obviously still out.

She was still staring thoughtfully at the sword when InuYasha turned off the lights and headed past her, down the hallway toward his bedroom. Before he reached the door, however, he stopped to cast her a curious glance. "Aren't you going to tuck me in?"

"Tuck you in?  How old are you?  Five?"

"Keh!  You're never too old to be tucked in, wench."

"Wench?"

He snorted again but didn't answer, disappearing into the bedroom with a very pronounced sigh.

Kagome's smile returned as her idyll was lost. She shook her head and followed him down the hallway. He was already in bed. She pulled up the covers and tucked them under his chin. Then she sat in the chair beside the bed. InuYasha frowned but he didn't comment.

She reached over and turned the lamp lower and settled down with her chin in her raised palm. Try as she might to keep her eyes open and her mind alert, she could feel her lids getting heavier, and when InuYasha's low rumble sounded, she thought that the all-too-comforting resonance he made sounded like a lullaby. Transporting her mind to another place, a gentle whisper of fantasies wrapped her up in a single sound, a vibration that reached out to her and drew her in as the darkest shadows faded. Her eyes closed, and she was captured in the comfort of his world as the remaining traces of coherence disappeared, and suddenly she was with him in a wild place where time meant nothing. InuYasha's resonance surrounded her, sheltered her, protected her.

He ran through a meadow with her on his back. Flying by light of the full moon, she laughed at something he said as he sprang off of the ground to soar into the skies. `Touch the moon, Kagome?'

`A little higher, InuYasha . . . just a little more, and I think I can . . .'

`Then hold on tight. I've never jumped this high before. I can do it, though. Watch!'

Kagome giggled though her grip didn't tighten. He wouldn't let her fall . . .

Lighter than air, she mused. As though being lifted in the strongest arms that gave her a sense of immense security, Kagome smiled. A fluid movement, and suddenly she found herself cradled against a warm chest, wrapped in strong arms, and so completely content that she didn't want to wake.

The flutter of warmth, the velvet of flesh . . . Kagome's mind registered what it was even if her body wasn't quite awake. A lethargic happiness seeped over her as the fingers of sleep stretched over her again.

Her last conscious thought was that InuYasha's kiss was sweet.