InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Silence the Fairytale ❯ Try and Try Again ( Chapter 9 )

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

Chapter Nine: Try and Try Again

Inuyasha held the cat up in one clawed hand, watching as it pathetically struggled and mewled from its position in his palm as he raised it up and down at varying speeds.

Granted, he was torturing it. But he was bored.

Kagome and he had stopped for a while, and he had insisted she practiced with her bow. He watched as she strung it a bit tighter, then plucked on the string to test its resistance. Despite the fact she didn't know much about archery, she was rather brilliant and picked it up quickly. She may have acted childish, but underneath it she had a sharp mind that learned things quickly and oft Inuyasha felt guilty he didn't have much to teach her.

He was good at two things: one, hunting. Two, swinging a sword.

And that was about it.

Granted, Inuyasha was by no means stupid. He had a strategic mind, and had a way of getting out of tough situations, but that wasn't something you could really teach someone. That was survival. And survival came by instinct and experience, not by lesson.

“Let me see you do it, Kagome!” he shouted to her from where he sat under a tree across the plain. He saw Kagome nod as she lifted an arrow and aimed it along her arm, pointing towards the sky. Inuyasha blinked.

What was the point of aiming it that way?

When she released, it flew straight and true… until the wind blew and knocked it from the sky, and it sailed aimlessly towards the ground.

Kagome turned her head and gave him a pathetic look accompanied by a deep, throaty whine and ran to retrieve her stray arrow.

Inuyasha gave a small smug smile, tossing the ball of fur in his hand into the air and caught it. Kagome was amusing, to say the least.

“Try it again, and this time don't waste you time pointing it that way!” Inuyasha called out to her. She simply nodded dismally, and aimed it across the plains. The tall grass waved around her in the breeze, creating sort of an earthly presence about her. It made her look strong…

Until she pulled again, and the arrow landed about ten feet from her, sticking straight up in the ground.

Kagome stomped her foot and gave another sound of protest towards him, casting him an angry glare when he began to laugh aloud.

Buyo meowed loudly at the sound, escaping from his iron grip of fury to run towards his mistress. Squealing lightly, Kagome picked her pride and joy up, swinging him around on her heel in the air. Unfortunately, she tripped up and ended up falling in the grass because of it. Inuyasha simply chuckled and stood to make his way over to her.

When he finally reached her, she looked up at him with a pathetic sort of smile on her face and she giggled, lifting a hand to indicate she wanted help up. The other hand held Buyo firmly to her chest and he meowed loudly.

“You're such a klutz,” Inuyasha grabbed her hand and pulled, sending her flying through the air a moment before landing on both feet gracefully.

She loved it when he did that.

It made her feel weightless.

And perhaps a teensy bit graceful, but she wouldn't say that.

So Kagome simply shrugged and handed the small ball of fur over to Inuyasha, and picked up her bow again. She trotted off to grab her arrow again.

Even if she wasn't so great, she was determined to get better.

Besides, Kaede-obaa-chan used to tell her all the time about her mother's archery. So hopefully, such mastery ran in the family.

If Kagome didn't know about it, she probably wouldn't have the guts to keep after it like she did.

After a while, Kagome somewhat lost track of time. Pull after pull, she felt a twinge of excitement each time her arrow got a bit farther. Then she'd go and fetch after it, only to pull again. She wanted to get better. She wanted to do her best.

And it wasn't long after she turned her head to see if Inuyasha was still watching that she found him napping under the tree.

She smiled softly at the sight. It was so adorable…

Buyo slept on his chest, and his ears twitched.

Silly Inu… he looked like an angel.

~~~*~~~

“…I wasn't sleeping!” Inuyasha protested as she gave him a know-it-all look, one that said she knew quite differently than what he was saying.

She knew he was lying.

But Inuyasha wasn't about to admit it.

He hadn't fallen asleep in the afternoon like that since he was a pup!

He didn't know what possessed him to do it then. But it was such a lazy afternoon, and watching Kagome practice was relaxing for some reason. The sun was shining, the shade of the tree was so cool… that stupid fur ball was curled up against him… and he didn't want to wake it when it fell asleep against him, so he supposed he just fell asleep too.

But still, he felt as if he were a bad kid being caught doing something wrong when Kagome rubbed his ear to wake him up, and he cracked an eye open to be greeted with her warm and smiling face.

It was embarrassing.

“I was meditating for the last time, damnit!” Kagome simply rolled her eyes.

“Don't give me that! And don't give me that look!”

Inuyasha flinched when Kagome pinched him.

“OW! What the fuck was that for?”

Kagome stared at him, “Lying.”

Inuyasha's mouth gaped open as he felt Buyo being roughly shoved into his grasp as she stormed off in front of him.

What the fuck is she so pissed about?

Come to think of it, the girl hadn't ever really been pissed at him. And then again, he hadn't ever really lied to her before. Not so straightforwardly to her face before, anyway, especially when they both knew what was coming from his mouth was dribbling bullshit.

Even though this was a stupid lie, he got caught up in it. Since it made him feel vulnerable, like he had gone against what he had learned so long ago.

Don't let your guard down.

And he did just that, by letting himself nap so easily.

…but he had just been so fucking comfortable…

Then again, why go making excuses for it? It wasn't all that bad, and it had been a nice nap. At least she had the decency not to tease him about it.

But he still felt the need to defend his actions anyway.

Still, no matter what he did, he felt like he fucked up about it all.

And it was really something meaningless.

It really didn't matter.

Glaring down at a sleeping Buyo, Inuyasha sulked.

“This is all your fault, you stupid fucking cat,” Inuyasha growled quietly, so as not to wake the sleeping creature. It was simply easier to blame the damn thing than feel guilty about Kagome's anger.

So, he blamed it all on the cat.

Sighing miserably, Inuyasha increased his pace to catch up to Kagome. She pointedly ignored him. His ears flattened against his skull.

He felt like a reprimanded puppy that was still being punished.

“What do you want for dinner, Kagome?” Inuyasha muttered quietly.

He might as well try.

But Kagome simply shrugged, her sign that she didn't care. That he was to choose.

He hated choosing. Usually she did. And she only made him choose if she wasn't feeling well.

Damnit.

“…how about rabbit?”

Kagome shrugged.

“…Fish?”

Again.

Inuy asha growled.

He looked around for something to break her out of this stupid, dismal situation. It was pointless. He wasn't going to apologize, no matter how mad he ever made her, no matter how upset she ever got. He just didn't do it.

Looking down at Buyo, he got a wicked idea and grinned.

“Fine, since I'm choosing... I want a cat for dinner,” Inuyasha said as seriously as he could possibly muster, sniffing and trying to appear unaffected by the suggestion.

But he could see it was having the desired effect on her.

Slowly, her eyes widened as comprehension dawned on her, and she turned her head to look at him with uncertainty as if trying to gauge if he was joking. And she must have fell for it, for she began to look aghast as her eyes filled with tears, and her bottom lip began to tremble.

That was her `kitten face', the one she did right before she began to seriously cry.

And that's when Inuyasha decided to tell her he was bluffing.

“I'm only fucking around, jeeze. Chill out. At least you responded that time.”

Kagome's tears were quickly replaced with indignant anger.

She reached over and smacked him firmly on the shoulder, grabbing Buyo from his arms and skulked away from Inuyasha.

Inuyasha's jaw dropped as he stuttered, “W-what did I say?”

...he really didn't get women.

What did I do this time…?

And he was right.

She really was driving him insane.