InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Silence the Fairytale ❯ Inu Vs. Child ( Chapter 31 )

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

A/n: I know...it's been... an obscenely, obscenely, obscenely long time since I updated. World of Warcraft stole my muse, ripped her to shreds and left her out in the cold. I'm sorry. I rescued the poor thing and brought her back to life. Then she shoved me back into my art.

Go look?

http://white-luna.deviantart.com/

Just give me some feedback. Ideas to make it better. I'm so sorry it took so long T-T. <///3. I'll try and write a few chapters to make it up to you. No wonder you all thought it had ended, I left it off on a note that seemed over. Hm. SO SORREH DD;. I had been so busy with my family and with my life... sigh. Sometimes things don't turn out like you had planned. Things never turn out how you plan.

I guess that's how I learned what the river of life meant. It's pulling me along and I don't know where it's taking me o.o;;;. So, here's to you, what's left of my readers. Sorry for the wait.


PS... the stupid BOLD glitch happened again. I can't fix it... SOB.

Luna-






Inuyasha was watching Kagome from his safe haven... the Baba's roof.

Far, far away from the numerous little pups that skittered around Kagome's legs like a bunch of lovesick...

...well, pups.

"Kagome-sama, can I hold your basket?!"

"Kagome-sama, what's this herb for?"

"Kagome-sama, Kotaru-kun hit me!"

"Kagome-sama, Okaa-san says that Shinei-sama is old and senile!"

"Kagome-sama, my Okaa-san says that Yuki-chan's okaa is a bitch!"

"Is not! My Okaa-san says your 'kaa is a gossiping bakemono!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

Kagome hushed the quarreling children gently, and would answer each child with a soft smile and an occasional awkward laugh at their teasing. Inuyasha used to stroll with her, but the pups would coalesce into one mass and dog pile on top of him like a evil spirit coming to haunt him and devour him whole.

…and he would be angry and distressed because he couldn't do ANYTHING about it, and Kaogme would laugh at his helplessness and the children would laugh and pull on his ears and pinch his cheeks and pull at his clothes and tickle him and braid his hair and roll all over him and rub his stomach and make his leg kick... and...

He shuddered to think of all they did to traumatize him.

So he sat there, fuming at all the pups, with their innocent smiles and false naivety, giving him sly leers from his perch on the roof as he glared down at them....

...those sneaky little bastards, clinging to her like she had birthed them.

They better not think he didn't know better, because he did!

They had driven him away from his mate, vying for her, each crying out like little chicks waiting to be fed and starving for her attention.

...well, wasn't he a chick in his own right, too?

... a very... large... overgrown chick?

No, no, wait that wasn't right.

He was a rooster who deserved his hen.

Better.

...more manly.

Puffing out his chest with a mental pat on his own back, he figured that metaphor was a much more suitable one.

Inuyasha resisted the vague urge to scratch at the straw beneath his feet.

He wasn't like those snot-nosed little spoiled children who rarely saw a switch on their backside.

Back in his own day, you misbehaved and you got a good one.

Kids these days.

...Just didn't know any respect.

Inuyasha harrumphed moodily, ignoring his growling stomach and his watering mouth at the thought of Kagome's cooking.

...she used to make him lunch.

...now they got that delicious food.

And sure, he was invited to lunch, day in and day out.

But those damn little sprites would pile up behind her, looking up expectantly at him, and he could just feel those grubby little hands just pulling and tugging and...

His ears would flatten in sheer horror at the thought of their own abuse, and he resisted the strong urge to cover them with his hands as he flexed his fingers uncomfortably instead, and he would shy away saying he wasn't hungry.

But no...

No, he was starving!

And his stomach would cry 'why, why would you do this to us?'

And he didn't have a good reason to give.

And his stomach would cramp up in anger, and his mood would grow darker, and he was sure at any moment a horrid little raincloud might form only above him just to make him feel that much worse...




He peeked around the corner of the hut supiciously, checking every which way with his little satellites rotating 180 degrees for any sign of the enemy. It was a battlefield, to be sure, every man for himself. He had to take his opportunities when they came.

He, as a true warrior, knew the art of patience and strategy.

And here his opportunity had presented itself.

Kagome sat alone in the middle of the field, without her usual worshippers lying themselves at her feet.

....had the world stopped turning?

For clearly, Kagome was the center of it.

He had to be damn sure, DAMN sure nothing was out of the ordinary.

...yet, here, clearly, something was very wrong.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt the want to reveal himself, the more his wandering suspicions grew... growing along his back in the form of a dozen little eyes. They were watching him, he knew it!

Kagome then lifted her eyes to him, distracting him and somehow sensing him the way she always did with that soft and yet sad smile plastered on her face.

"Inuyasha... come sit with me?" she sounded hopeful.

His heart elated.

...alone?

...just the two of them?

Was it possible? Did he dare dream of that reality?

None of his instincts raised the alarm, and timidly he came out from behind the hut, like a prey animal waiting to be devoured by the predator...

"Are you hungry? You missed lunch again today, but I managed to save some rice and pickled radishes with fish for you."

...It looked promising, so luring and so tempting... He had to be on alert, but his stomach jumped at the chance of fullness before his mind could stop it.

"...really?"

He moved swiftly to sit next to her, accepting the portion of food she gave him.

"...looks good!" he said enthusiastically, making an attempt to get her to smile warmly at him once in a while.

It seemed to work for the time being, and the sadness slowly melted from her eyes at his approval, "Really? The children said it was too salty."

After a bite, he realized what they had meant, literally forcing himself from spitting it out in a gag reflex.

...it was.

For the first time in a long time, it was horrible.

Like, when she first starting cooking kind of horrible.

Swallowing all too audibly, his tone became that sort of sugary sweet that was too fake to be real, dripping off his words like honey.

"Naaaawww... they don't know what they were talking about!"

He gave her a smile that was all teeth.

And she bought it.

"Oh good!" she sighed, relieved, moving closer to him in an unconciously affectionate manner. He leaned toward her warmth knowingly when her shoulder brushed his, the tips of their knees touching as she spoke. His eyes wandered down to her lips as she spoke, his own tingling with a static electricity from the memory of them pressed against his...

"...I was afraid, well, you know... I didn't really eat anything but the rice, I wasn't too hungry. The kids suggested maybe the fish would be too much for me since I haven't been feeling too well today. I feel overworked."

His mind returned to their original subject, the more alluring thought of them locking lips lost as an inevitable result of the taste in his mouth. Inuyasha lolled his tongue back and forth, trying to divest it of the detested sensation. Looking down at the food with a carefully disguised look of dismay, he lowered his chopsticks with slightly trembling hands and made himself take another bite.

"...nope! Good!"

It was all he managed to say.

No 'keep at it, you're doing great!'. No 'really, are you okay?'.

No 'maybe you should rest then, I'm sure the baba would give you some time to yourself if you're feeling ill.'

Just... 'nope. good.'

He felt like an ass.

And then, something caught him in the midst of him feeling forlorn….

…A slight whiff, or a tingle on the back of his neck... like...

...like being watched.

The feeling had returned, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, his ears at attention like little soldiers ready for ambush.

He turned his gaze straight toward 5 heads clumped together behind the very same building he had previously used for his hideaway.

...and five matching, mischevious smiles all were painted perfectly on their horrible little faces.

Narrowing his eyes, Inuyasha looked down at the food in dawning realization, and then to Kagome who beamed at him like nothing in the world was wrong at all.





"GET HIM!"

"YAAAAAAY! INUGAMI-SAMA!!"

"CHAAAAARGE!"

Inuyasha, in blind panic, was galloping away from a group of ruffians that all of a sudden deicded he had had enough time alone with Kagome.

Upon seeing them convening to chase him down, he uttered a lame excuse as to why he had to go, and ran away from Kagome on all fours.

Of course, she was dumbfounded, even as five small children raced past her in order to catch the adult hanyou.

Unfortunately for them though, he had left them literally, all in the dust.

They all coughed as a cloud enveloped them, and even while they were coughing, they were silently congratulating one another on a job well done.




"They're... they're all demons I tell you, all of them..." Inuyasha felt as if he were going mad. Was he, at two hundred and fifty years of age… going soft?

It hadn’t struck him that anything might be out of the ordinary. Why, he felt quite…

…well, like an Inuyasha should.

Nothing else could be said…

But here, he-a protector of the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls, the son of the great Inu no Taisho, the person on which the Universe Itself took great delight in torementing…- was being outdone by mere human children.

“Inuyasha, are you sure you’re not exaggerating again?” Kagome murmured distractedly as she held back the sleeve of her kimono as she stirred their rice porriage. He had agreed to a light dinner in favor of her feeling well, but she insisted on cooking with such fevor he had a hard time denying her… just like he couldn’t deny anything her heart desired.

And quite to his luck, she did not ask the impossible of him, and for that he was greatful.

Because if she asked for the moon, he’d climb the great Goshinboku with an armful of rocks to knock it out the sky if he had to.

Or, well… at least he’d try.

“NO!” he proclaimed with an irritated huff. “You’re not listening, they’re evil I tell you! Damn fucking evil!”

Kagome nodded with a noncomittal hum as she pointed inattentively in the general direction of the river. “Inuyasha, could you go untie my clothes? They’ve been rinsing in the river for a while, they should be clean…”

Inuyasha’s ears flattened in defeat as he rose to his feet in dismay, knowing full well Kagome didn’t believe him one bit. And why should she?

They worshipped the ground upon which she walked like she were a tennyo came from heaven.

He couldn't say he didn't disagree with the thought, but still...

She was HIS tennyo and he wasn't inclined to share her.

Not that he had much choice in the matter, obviously, he noticed with a deep scowl.

Tredging into the cold water, he grasped at the clothes carelessly in his moodiness as he attempted to untie them from the rope which held them, and accidentally ripped a hole in them with his claws.

Cursing loudly, at his luck, at his position, at everything and anything that could possibly go wrong and did go wrong and didn't care that it went wrong and failed to inform him it would go wrong and hell, he told himself when he met Kagome it would all go wrong and now he was head over heels for a woman who sometimes was so lost in her own world she seemed to forget his very existence and he wasn't sure how to handle the woman who had accidentally and irrevocably had become his mate and the center of everything he knew and all he was left with was the impression of him telling himself 'I told you so'.

...Not to mention the fact, almost a full year after, he still had not told her all these things and it was gnawing at him day in and day out. His silence. His outright refusal to make her life harder. Things that made his harder. Things that should be spoken, and hell, why was he fighting these feelings anymore he didn't know and it was driving him crazy and all he wanted to do was stick his entire body under that water to cool off the burning hatred he had for himself at this very moment.

He was getting so fucking sick, so fucking tired of this place and these things and this life and all he wanted to do was leave.

What was he leaving?

I wish I could leave myself behind.

He ignored the thought, like he ignored everything else. Like he ignored her obvious feelings for him, like he ignored this stupid dance they were so caught in that was failing to make sense anymore and he was beginning to wonder if it ever really did. And if it did, was it worth it?

Gathering the clothes he had so easily torn up further into his palms, he felt them soak his clothes in the process. What should have been a simple task was becoming so much bigger than it should have ever been, and he ticked his eye in a slowly rising sense of deja vu. Was that everything in his life? That everything had to become somehow that much more challenging and that much more complicated and that much more infuriating and again he was left to question...

Is it all my fault...?

He straightened himself in the water, pulling the clothes up as he stuck one claw through the innocent little hole that spoke volumes about his life. He wiggled that finger around, poking at it and prodded at it and watched as the edges of the hole frayed wider and wider the more he messed with it.

The physical representation of himself, of all that he was feeling.

And suddenly, he wanted to ripped the damn thing to shreds. He was so furious, so tired, so exasperated...

So done with everything.

So done with letting the past haunt him and stop him from doing the things he knew he should be doing. So done with not telling Kagome everything, with trying to hide it all from her and shelter her and protect her when all it seemed to do was make everything worse. Like somehow the depth of her misery was all his fault, like he had thrown her into a hole that he could not pull her out of. Like the Shikon no Tama had swallowed up her daylight for itself, shining in all its glorious purity. A testament of the beautiful heart that beat in her chest, and he wanted that daylight back for himself in his selfishness.

He didn't want to share it with the world.

He wanted the smiles she gave him from before, the easy happiness, the lighthearted bickering. Everything he had come to adore about her evaporated before he knew what they had meant to him.

Like everything else.

Gone, before he had a chance to act.

He looked down in to his hand again.

The hole.

It could be fixed.. couldn't it? And there was nothing wrong, the clothes were still wearable. Still moveable. Not completely ruined.

Inuyasha breathed deep, wondering if he were looking for answers and knowing he must be desperate if he found them in laundry.

"Ok, Kami-sama," he felt himself mumble.

"If this is something, if this is a sign or some shit, if you're talkin to me... well, I'm fucking listening for once. Give me something to know that's you, cause I ain't got all damn day to figure this shit out."

He waited.

Predictably, nothing happened.

Inuyasha, though unsurprised, still felt cheated.

"Keh..."

Maybe, being a hanyou meant he was cursed after all. Maybe he wasn't supposed to taint Kagome with his unworthy love...

He exited the river, looking down at the clothing a little while more in longing. It wasn't telling him anything else. Just that it was a hole he'd have to fix later.

Inuyasha looked past it, to he ground. He kicked a rock that sat in front of him, mindlessly, wishing to take out his confusion on something.

It richoceted off a tree.

Then another.

He paid no mind.

It hit the tree behind him, causing it to shake from the force of his original kick.

...And from the tree, a singular object fell and hit Inuyasha square on the top of the head.

He blinked, and caught it, opening his palm as it fell there inconspiciously.

And when Inuyasha leaned forward to inspect it, this tiny little nothing that shouldn't have meant everything...

...it was a small acorn in the shape of a heart.

His eyebrow twitched, and Inuyasha looked to the sky.

...maybe Kami-sama did have a sense of humor not directed at sadism.... after all.