InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Rivals in Love ❯ Awkward Healing ( Chapter 1 )

“Puppy get up!” Kouga shouted, but the half dog just stared blankly into nothing. `No,' he thought. Grabbing Inuyasha's wrist he shouted again, hoping the insult would stir the worthless dog. “MUTT!”

~*~*~*~*~*

The dark brown furs were soft and warm, the wolves had been sleeping there earlier and the body heat lingered. With a grunt Kouga set Inuyasha down and stood to face his companions who were just now coming into the cave.

“Did you find them?” He asked them as the came to a stop in front of him. He had sent the two to find Kagome and the others soon after he arrived at the cave with the injured Inuyasha.

“All we found was this.” Ginta held up a small paper. The writing was strange, very thin, as though scratched onto the parchment. It read:

I'm going home.
-Kagome.

Then in a thick blue color it read:
P.S. SIT!

Kouga guessed the young kitsune wrote that when the others weren't looking. Crunching the helpless parchment in his fist he rested his cheek against his knuckles, fighting back his irritation.

“I guess this means…the mutt stays.” He said to no one really.

~*~*~*~*

When Inuyasha was released from the grip of his heavy dreamless sleep, soft whispers where the first thing he heard. He listened intently, `someone is sitting close to me.'

“Are you awake?”

A familiar scent assaulted his nose; gentle hands smoothed away his bangs from his forehead, water eased through his lips to cool the fiery thirst that was consuming him. He opened his eyes to see Kouga sitting over him, his head turned away, averting his eyes.

“Where am I?” Inuyasha asked. He was lying on a soft pile of furs, some dark some light brown, with several wolves around him including the other two demons Ginta and Hakaku who were tending the fire.

Kouga glanced over to him. “A small cave not far from the river; I brought you here after the fight. We had set up camp for the night but now we'll have to stay for a few more days because of you.” Kouga tried sound irritated, but the truth was, he needed a few days rest too. His pack was tired and couldn't go on much longer. Inuyasha just provided a good excuse.

“Where is Kagome?” He asked, shaking Kouga from his thoughts.

Kouga looked away, afraid to meet the hanyou's gaze, Kagome had left him, not even worrying about what might have happened without the others with him, this close to his time. “She went home.” He said.

“Heh, I see.” Inuyasha turned away, cringing from the pain, not only from his wounds, but from the feeling of abandonment. After protecting her so many times, after Kagome had worried about him so much, it may have seemed that they were in love. But Kouga knew from looking at him that she had left him like this far too many times then she should have.

“Can you sit up?” He asked. Inuyasha gave him a quizzical look but complied. It hurt, but he wasn't going to let Kouga know.

 

Rough fingers combed through the thick mane of silky silver hair, moving it away from Inuyasha's back and over his right shoulder, exposing the bandaged wound; evidence of the seemingly fatal blow when the vine pierced through his back so easily. Gently the rag moved over his back, reminding him of when Kagome would tend to his wounds, fussing every time he refused a simple gesture of kindness. He felt no such restraint from accepting Kouga's help, maybe because he was too tired to complain…it often happened with Kagome. Inuyasha found he enjoyed the caresses in a suspended kind of way, like a fevered dream.

 

“You don't have to do this.” Inuyasha said, trying to keep his voice from cracking.

 

“Do what?” Kouga asked, noting the soft, low tone Inuyasha used, almost husky…The delicate rhythmic motions stopped as he took the time to rinse and ring the frail withered cloth.

 

“Help me…” Inuyasha sucked him a breath through clenched teeth and turned to face Kouga, wincing at the jolt of pain the action obviously caused, “you don't have to…”

 

“I want to.” Kouga answered, a little bewildered as to why he said it then realized it was the truth. “Besides, Kagome will thank me for helping you.” he said smiling.

 

Warm and wet the tattered rag licked over his arms and chest in gentle rhythmic motions.

 

Inuyasha's next words shocked him. He had his head bent so far down his chin almost touching his collarbone, his bangs hiding the pain that was perceptible in his voice. Kouga had to lean down to hear him, nose in Inuyasha's hair he inhaled the clear sent that told him Inuyasha was close to his vulnerable time.

 

“Sometimes I don't think she really cares…” Kouga stared curiously at him, hazily aware of their close, almost intimate, propinquity of each other. Inuyasha's voice was so faint… “She's always running…always leaving me.”

 

Inuyasha's expression was so foreign to Kouga…for a moment he thought he saw tears, but Inuyasha quickly blinked them back. `He's so sad...” Kouga thought as he watched Inuyasha stare into oblivion…maybe into his tragic past…maybe into his hopeless future… He really didn't want to know what had or may happen to him, only that he had never seen Inuyasha like this…looking so… vulnerable.

 

Inuyasha was so tired. The warm cloth running so gently over his wounds…Kouga's strange, but familiar sent and body heat that emanated from him…it was like a balm, soothing him in a strange and confusing way. Kouga's presence, so powerful, it made Inuyasha feel safe…like he didn't have to be strong anymore…someone else would look after him…someone he didn't have to worry about defending. Not worrying about waking to screams for help and having to fight so soon after he was injured. He felt like, for once, he was being protected.

 

He looked over to Kouga who seemed lost in thought as well; their eyes met for a moment before he felt himself drifting away…sleep sounded nice and the fur pelts were so soft and warm beneath him. Letting out a relaxed sigh he closed his eyes, falling back onto the soft fur with a trust that would have shocked him…if he had noticed….but he didn't. He was safely tucked away in his dreams, content to be watched by someone capable of defending himself as well as a friend.

 

Wide-eyed Kouga watched Inuyasha collapse back onto the pile of fur. “Hey?” he asked softly, reaching out he could feel the heat emanating from Inuyasha's body even before he touched his face. He could feel Inuyasha's breathing deepen and slow. It was a strange feeling, the warm breath rhythmically flowing over his fingers; it sent a tingle through Kouga's body. His stomach quivered and he pulled back, startled by his bodies reaction.

 

~*~*~*~*

 

Inuyasha awoke before dawn. It was a, odd sort of waking for him; slow and lazy, rather than quick and alert. A feeling of calm, of rightness, was inside him as deep as his heartbeat. He felt the warmth of a body laying close beside him and the feel of fur delicately placed over him. Rubbing his eyes he looked around bewildered. He never woke up under fur before.

 

`Where am I?' he wondered as the events from the previous day came back to him. Kouga saving him… Kagome leaving him… Kouga tending his wounds… `I wonder, why Kouga is helping me…” It certainly would get him extra points with Kagome, but wouldn't it have been easier to just let him die and take Kagome for himself? `Where IS Kagome?'

 

He could hear shifting furs and felt movement as the weight that was by him moved and soon he felt Kouga's gentle hand smooth the bangs away from his eyes.

 

“You still have a fever.” Kouga said, his voice slurred by sleep.

 

“Kouga…” Inuyasha whispered the name as he felt darkness taking him again. `Kagome left me…' he thought. `Kagome left me for her time again…Kouga was the one…he took care of me.'

 

Kouga watched bleary-eyes as Inuyasha fell back into the deep sleep he had succumbed to hours before. Settling down beside him again Kouga stared at the stone ceiling to the cavern they rested in. Light from the fire cast shadows onto the smooth surface, he watched silently as the distorted figured danced their performance that had put him to sleep not too long ago. Again their hypnotizing movements lulled him into the subconscious world of dreams and visions.