InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sister Blister ❯ The Lady or the Tiger ( Chapter 2 )

Revised:

 

Chapter Two

The Lady or the Tiger

The moon hung high in the sky, the winter stars were taking their bright places in the blue blackness. Kikyo's shinidamachu swam in the sky above our heads.

Her cold hand reached out and grasped mine. I allowed her to take it squeezing her hand in returned. She dropped it at the sound of bare feet slapping the earth.

“Kagome?” Inuyasha's voice cut through the darkness like a knife. “What the hell are you all the way out here for?”

I said nothing and just stood waiting.

Inuyasha crested the hill and we knew the moment he saw us because he froze. There is nothing on this earth that compares to the expression on a man's face when he finds both of his loves together in a friendly moment waiting to confront him.

The night wind blew over the well wrapping us in each other's hair. I lifted my hand and Kikyo accepted it. We held our hands over the well, our pale skin almost glowing in the moonlight. Our miko powers surfaced and I felt her power surging and flowing into me in a rhythm as old as the tides on the beach.

Depending on your point of view we were either Inuyasha's greatest fantasy or worst nightmare.

“Kikyo? …Kagome?” His golden eyes narrowed and he bounded up to us and stopped short at the foot of the well.

Kikyo called out in a velvet tone sharp with decisiveness, “Inu Yasha. Choose!”

His eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

I squeezed my sister's hand and turned to face him. “Yes Inuyasha choose. Me or her.”

Kikyo lifted her chin, “You made me a sacred promise. How can you turn your back on me?”

I countered this in a dark tone never looking away from his face, “She's dead. She's lived her life and is made of clay and stinks like a graveyard!”

Kikyo barked, “Choose now.”

I added, “Yes Inuyasha, no more games.”

He took a step back. I could see the thoughts running through his mind. `Oh my Gods! They're fucking possessed!'

I dropped Kikyo's hand and leaned forward. “I'll release you from the beads and the subjugation.”

Kikyo stood up, holding her head high, “I've embraced this life. I won't ask you to die with me.”

If the eyes are truly the windows to the souls than Inuyasha's soul was cloudy with blind panic. His head turned from her to me than back to her. I stood my ground following the example of my elder sister miko.

He dropped his head and hid his hands in his long red sleeves. “You really want this?”

Kikyo's voice was clear and crisp, “Yes.”

I nodded.

He tossed his silver head and we could hear him sucking in his breath from between clenched teeth, “And Kagome, if I choose Kikyo where will ya go?”

His golden eyes glittered and bit at the edges of my soul. “Home. You won't need me to find the shards. I could apply to graduate school.”

Inuyasha sighed and closed his eyes. Then he turned to Kikyo who stood beside me unblinking. “Kikyo, if I choose Kagome what'll become of you?”

Her lips barely moved, “I will leave.”

“Where?” he pushed.

“There are villages who need a miko of their own.”

His fist clenched for a brief moment. “Kikyo… you wouldn't go off somewhere and… die?”

She gave a chilling smile, “Perhaps, if the mood strikes me. But would it be any of your concern?”

He bit back, “Kikyo, no! It's not like that.”

Kikyo cut in, “But Inu Yasha it is what it is.”

He faltered and for a moment looked as though he'd lose his footing and land flat on his ass on the ground in front of us.

Kikyo snapped, “Choose Inu Yasha!”

I looked to her determined posture and joined her, “Yes choose.”

Inuyasha dropped his chin to his chest. He whispered, “I …can't.”

My head snapped up, “You can't what?”

He whispered his answer, “Choose…”

My heart pounded against my ribcage. Of course he couldn't choose. What the hell else did I expect? “Do you want me to follow you to the end of time? I deserve to have a life of my own. It's quite simple Inuyasha. Pick one of us and set the other free.”

His voice caught in his throat, “I…I ...love you both...”

Kikyo answered, “We know and that is the problem.”

His golden gilt gaze fell to his bare feet, “Do you hate me so much?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “No. In all honesty, I don't hate you.”

Kikyo glared at him, “Sometimes I do. But I love you more than I hate you.”

He turned his head and muttered, “That's good to know.”

I took a step towards him, “Choose Inuyasha, just get it over with. In this world, this time you don't get both of us. It doesn't work that way.”

He swung his head around to face me, “Kagome. Is this really what you want?”

My thoughts went back to a fifteen year old girl who told a younger hanyou that she didn't care that he hadn't chosen her. She just needed to be by his side. “Yes. I'm no longer that same girl. I've grown, I'm my own person. I need this. I cannot keep hoping, and waiting on you! It's not fair to me or to her. Damnit Inuyasha choose!”

His voice was faint, “Kagome…”

Kikyo jumped in, “Is she your choice?”

“No…not yet…” He ran a clawed hand through his hair, desperate for a way, any way out.

I leaned forward gazing in to the depths of his eyes where little jagged pieces of pain surfaced. Inuyasha drew back and threw his hands in the air. "Why are you doing this to me? What the fuck!"

Kikyo spat back, "And what you've done to me, to us? That's fair? You owe me. I own you, you gave me that."

Her words hit my ears like a swift kick to the belly. But she was right; he did give himself to her. I'd heard the words with my own ears. I was the intruder here, perhaps I always have been.

Inuyasha's gaze switched to me, "Kagome... please."

I shook my head. "No not this time. No more what ifs, maybes, no more beads." No more games.

"Kagome...don't!"

My hands balled into tight fists by my sides, "I won't do this!"

He paled, "Do what Kagome?"

A hot tear snaked it's way free of my eye, "I won't follow you like a little girl. Can't you see? I grew up Inuyasha."

I was through playing Wendy to his Pan, done with silly button kisses.

Kikyo ordered, “Chose your wife Inu Yasha.”

The word wife played silently across his lips and pure horror shown in his eyes. Today the hanyou was getting more than he'd ever bargained for. “Wife…?”

The priestess banged her bow against the ground punctuating each word. “Yes Inu Yasha. Wife.”

He stood in silence absorbing the full impact of what he had to decide.

Kikyo threw back her raven head, “You made me a promise. Are you not honorable?”

Inuyasha's face hardened and I knew he was thinking of his father. The very same `old man' he claimed not to care about who meant more to him than anything. “I am. How can you ask me that?”

Her reply was simple, “Because you forced me to.”

Inuyasha bit his lip, closed his eyes and tilted his head up towards the moon. “So it's come to this?”

I said, “Didn't you always know that it would?”

He opened his eyes and they glowed in the dim light. “I guess so.”

We three stood in silence and I had the thought that if this were Miroku, he would've asked to sample both of us before settling on just one. But then Inuyasha's heart was heavier than that of that newly renewed monk. Kikyo's was colder and my heart, it was just exhausted.

The past five years had breathed a life into my spirit I hadn't thought possible… but now I needed it to end. I needed peace, a plan; hell even a normal routine would be nice. Losing Inuyasha would damn near kill me but if we stayed in this constant state of indecision then it was very possible I might drown.

I watched Inuyasha draw a deep breath and saw the points of his fangs flash in the moonlight. His ears dropped flat against his head and he looked from me to her and back again. Kikyo stood with perfect posture and narrowed eyes. We stood there for at least thirty seconds before I started feeling like a dog in the pound waiting to see if it'd be adopted or left behind.

He opened the palms of his hands and I saw where his claws had left red half moons on his skin. He opened his lips but said nothing. Then he shut his mouth and looked over our head to the trees behind us.

Kikyo crossed her arms over her chest.

Inuyasha sighed and met my gaze then turned to the older miko. My heart dropped because I knew. But then we weren't here for his decision that was only a small part of this. “Kikyo, I honor my promises.”

Then under his breath, “Kagome…I'm sorry.”

My chest constricted then ached as though he'd run me through with the hot blade of his Tetsusaiga.

We were here and it was done.

Now all that remained was to see if my sister would be true to her mettle.

Kikyo slung the bow over her shoulder. “Inu Yasha.”

He smiled at her, it was open, genuine and full of hope, an odd feeling to have for a dead woman. “Kikyo.”

Dark guilt pulled me down but my resolve was strong. He was truly happy… had we done the right thing?

One of Kikyo's shinidamachu glided past and she ran her hand down it's eel back. The soul gatherer seemed to respond to her touch.

Unnatural.

She'd fought for our side; we were part of one whole. Connected in a way not even Inuyasha could begin to understand, yet we were ultimately strangers. Attached at the soul, the sickest form of Siamese twins. Yet she'd betrayed me before, made it harder for me. Were we even capable of working together, was it possible? How much can one soul endure before it breaks?

Kikyo, you and I have been disloyal to our family, to the calling, our very blood. Could this one act redeem us? The shrine priestess was never meant to have her love, the Shikon no Tama would never allow it. We must always protect the jewel.

That afternoon when we were alone at the well I'd found more than an end to my pain. I'd found a sister.  

I stood, waiting to see the final outcome. Kikyo opened her arms and Inuyasha stepped into them. She held him to her and he pressed his face to her kimono. Her red haori blew around her thin body.

He tilted her chin up with a clawed finger and placed a chaste kiss on her bloodless lips. When he lifted his face from hers Kikyo met his eyes and I wondered what he saw in their inky depths.

They were in a world of their own, it was time for me to leave but I didn't. Inuyasha's back was to me. I saw Kikyo's eyes from over his shoulder. Her cold gaze sparked and met mine.

She lifted her chin and took a step back.

That's when I knew I never should've doubted her.

“Inu Yasha.”

He frowned and his ears perked in her direction. My love for him surfaced and boiled in my belly. Oh my beautiful boy. Must it come to this?

“Kikyo?” He reached for her but she stepped out of his reach.

“I've made up my mind.”

He shook his head in confusion. “What?”

“I don't want you.” She spun around on the heel of her geta sandal towards the woods. The shinidamachu followed in her wake.

Inuyasha stood slack jawed and mortified.

My heart slowed to a steady dependable beat. Two sisters and one man all with something to protect but the jewel's protection had been charged to her not him. That meant it was mine not his.

This afternoon under the waning sun and crisp autumn leaves I'd lost my heart but gained a sister. Kikyo found my plan to be adequate and seemed to revel in the chance to twist this last drop of blood from the hanyou's heart prior to taking charge of our own destiny. Sometimes destiny is bigger than love. Accepting your fate takes courage…something these last few years had instilled in my gut.

I sat on the wooden lip of the well, waiting for my turn. I knew Kikyo, her part done was now watching from the woods… if I turned on her now surly she'd plant an arrow between my shoulder blades without so much as flinching.

Inuyasha swung around, his shoulders slumped and his eyes brimming with pain. Then to my utter astonishment he shook it off.

“Kagome?”

I cocked my head unable to look at him.

“Kagome?” His tone was full of budding hope.

I took a deep breath and somehow forced my legs to stand. “No Inuyasha. You chose her not me.”

I picked my book bag up from it's hiding place behind the well and slung it over my shoulder.

I felt his brimstone eyes burn into my back as I slid my butt across the wood well planks and fell into the darkness; leaving him standing in the grass absorbing the rejection of both his loves.

How cleansing is pain?

If burning white hot agony is good for the pores than I'm sure Inuyasha's complexion was the glowing picture of health.

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Fin!

 

 

Notes:

_-_-_-_

 

(Hides behind a fire proof shield)

 

Please don't hate me, oh hell why am I begging? Go ahead and hate me. There was a warning posted at the beginning of this fic after all. And in case you're wondering… if you have a cheating boyfriend this trick, working with the `other woman' and ganging up on him, is priceless.

 

I know this was mean, spiteful, OCC and yada, yada, yada but I have ALWAYS wanted to see Kagome and Kikyo realize how close they really are and turn the tables on a certain hanyou who just can't seem to get it together. In case you missed the twist: Kagome and Kikyo got together and scammed Inu on purpose. NO matter whom he chose, the girl was going to dump him. This is probably the closest I'll ever come to a songfic. And if you wanna hear this song it's on the latest Alanis Morisette CD: The Collection.

 

The Lady or the Tiger is a famous short story.

 

Sister Blister Lyrics

You and me we're cut from the same cloth

It seems to some we famously get along

But you and me are strangers to each other

Cuz you and me: competitive to the bone

Such tragedy to trample on each other with how much we've endured

With the state this land is in

You and me feel joined only by gender

We are not all for one and one for all

Sister blister we fight to please the brothers

We think their acceptance is how we win

They're happy we're climbing over each other

To beg the club of boys to let us in

You and me estranged from the mother

You and me have felt impotent in our skin

You and me have taken it out on each other

You and me disloyal to the feminine

Such a pity to disavow each other with how far we've come

With how strong we've been

You and me are on this pendulum together

You and me with scarcity still fueling

Sister blister we fight to please the brothers

We think their acceptance is how we win

They're happy we're climbing over each other

To beg the club of boys to let us in

We may not have priorities same

We may not even like each other

We may not be hugely anti-men

But such a cost to dishonor a sister

You and me have made it harder for the other

We forget how hard separatism has been

You and me we can help change their minds together

You and me in alignment until the end

Sister blister we fight to please the brothers

We think their acceptance is how we win

They're happy we're climbing over each other

To beg the club of boys to let us in