InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Starlight ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3

*Note: I've decided to put thoughts in (parenthesis) for clarity. The single quotes just got to confusing.

The sun was well up the next morning when Kagome awoke. She sat up slowly, then collapsed as her back and legs screamed in protest. (Maybe I should've taken Sango up on that offer...) Kagome had gently refused Sango's offer of a place to stay the day before. Feeling empty and a little more than depressed, Kagome had wandered, and occasionally ran, through the surrounding forests. Her reputation luckily proceeding her, she had not yet met any bandits or harmful demons. (But that nice fox demon did offer me a ride to the nearest village...) Kagome smiled as she thought of him. (He would look just like Shippo, if his hair were red. And longer. And if he were shorter. With a smaller nose. But other than that...)

* * *

Rin skipped ahead of Sesshomaru, giggling as she danced in and out of the spots of sunlight speckling the ground through the trees. Sesshomaru kept his eyes on the path ahead, careful to keep his mind blank. He had managed to dismiss his dreams as the result of his interrupted sleeping, and as long as he didn't think about the woman, he would soon forget her. Something ahead caught his eye. Underbrush and weeds were trampled in one spot next to the path. Rin had stopped to look at it.

"Look, Lord Sesshomaru, something ran through the bushes here, and trampled all the ferns..." Rin stated, as though thinking aloud as she touched the crumpled plants.

Sesshomaru stopped by the space and lifted his head as two scents caught his nose. (The human, Kagome.) He turned his head down the path. (And Inuyasha.) His eyes narrowed as he assessed the scent. (It's faint, last night maybe. Inuyasha's is stronger. Was he tracking her?) Anger tightened his chest and Sesshomaru started again down the path, ignoring Jaken's inquiries of the type of creature that made the hole, and Rin's thoughtful coos as she removed on of the smaller ferns and placed it gingerly in her book.

(Kagome ran through this forest. Found the path and followed it.) A new scent touched him. (Salt. Did she realize she was being followed? Did the half-breed catch up with her and-) He stopped the thought and unconsciously quickened his pace even as he considered turning around. (Why is it my business what the half-breed does?) His anger steadily. (Because someone must keep him in line.)

He arrived at a break in the foliage, a large field spotted with flowers. The human's scent was stronger here, but Inuyasha's faded away. (Why would he run off?) Sesshomaru mentally shook his head. (No matter. The coward has let his human be. But for how long?) The foreboding question slipped into his thoughts before he could stop it.

"Hi!" Rin's voice sounded from the field and Sesshomaru looked up from his thoughts. "Why are you laying in the flowers?"

With fear for Rin and anger at the fiend hiding in the grass, Sesshomaru was at Rin's side in an instant, hand already on Tojikin's hilt.

"Well, I was sleeping." None other than the human girl, Kagome, lay in the grass, now blinking up at him with neither fear nor surprise.

Removing his hand from Tojikin, Sesshomaru allowed a flicker of anger to pass over his face, locking eyes with Kagome's. "Rin go pick flowers for a bit. This girl and I have much to discuss." Tilting his head to the side, he addressed Jaken, who waited somewhat apprehensively behind him. Kagome stood up. "Leave us." He ordered firmly and Jaken sputtered an assent and scuttled off behind Rin.

Once the two were sufficiently out of earshot, Sesshomaru refocused on Kagome, who now stood before him, a few steps away. (Why is her face red? It is not hot...)

Kagome tried to keep the heat in her face down, but failed. She had stood up quickly when he turned, but then realized how close she was to him. She had backed up, trying not to think about how his muscles has rippled when he pulled Tojikin on Inuyasha. (Wait!) The heat disappeared. (I'm getting turned on by how he scared my...how he scared Inuyasha off? What's wrong with-)

"You seem to have been expecting me." Sesshomaru stated, his irritation apparent for once, jarring Kagome from her thoughts.

"Well, where Rin is, you usually aren't too far behind." She stated, as nonchalantly as she could manage. Silence filled the void after her statement and she broke eye contact and looked around. "Did you-um-want something?"

Refusing to be rushed into a rash answer, Sesshomaru inclined his head and looked down at her, carefully going over his thoughts. (What do I want? There seems to be something I was supposed to tell her but- No. I am supposed to tell her nothing. She is beneath me.) "There is nothing." (Inuyasha?) "Did you realize Inuyasha was following you last night?"

Her eyes snapped back to his and her expression told all. "No-I-we broke up." Her eyes fell away again. "I told him not to follow me."

Something about her sudden depression struck a nerve in Sesshomaru. "I told you not to see him again. What you tell him to do, unless it is what he wants as well, will have no effect on him. You were in danger." (Why do I care?!) He thought angrily, as he seemed to be pulled into something of conversation.

But silence fell again, and Kagome couldn't bring herself to meet the amber fires that held her in place. (He's right. But how could I just leave things...like that? I don't have any control over him, other than `sit' but still...) Her eyes lifted, catching Sesshomaru's briefly, but rose to watch the sky. "I couldn't leave things like that." She whispered, more to herself than the unmoved dog-demon before her.

(Why can she not look at me when she speaks?!) Sesshomaru carefully kept his anger from his face, and instead watched the emotions pass, less schooled than his own, pass over the human's face. (She is depressed. Did she...love him?) Disgust clenched in his chest and his hand darted out to firmly clasp the human's chin. "Look at me when you speak." The scent of surprise, and fear, rose in the air. "Leave him." The command sounded much more like a plea than he intended. Her skin was warm under his touch, and he brushed away the familiar feeling of taking Rin's chin under his hand when she was frightened. "You humans put yourselves in too much danger for your emotions."

The fear faded, but was still there, and she did not pull from his hand. "It's not my emotions." She said quietly, still not meeting his eyes.

"Look at me." He tightened on her chin and she tentatively shifted her focus back onto him. (Why are you touching this human!?) He let his hand drop. "If not for your emotions, then why?" This time, he made the question a clear demand for information.

She hesitated, still looking at him, but her eyes unfocused as she became lost in thought. (Why tell him? He's not-) She couldn't bring herself to minimize him. (I just need to tell someone impartial to me or him...) "He's kind of like my anchor." She dropped down to the ground, once again breaking eye contact. "Without him, I really don't belong here."

* * *

In a nearby village, a dejected Inuyasha walked through the small town. (Why couldn't I do it? But how could I tell her I was following her?) He had not worked up the courage to find Kagome since he had seen her crying the previous night.

"Hey, boy, you look pretty down." A garbled voice called off to his right and a wrinkled hand brushed his coat. Inuyasha looked down, not in the mood for a fight.

"I don't have any money, old man."

The man waved it off. "I don' need it." He held up his other hand, currently clenching a dirty bottle. "But here's somethin you could use."

"Get lost-" Inuyasha tried to wave him off.

"No, no, listen. Just take a good drink o' this stuff," He spread his hands. "And all your troubles go away.

Inuyasha stopped, and looked down at the old man, dressed in an oversized, ragged, dirty coat. "They will?" (A potion?)

The man straightened as much as he could. "Gur-an-teed."

* * *

Refusing to be turned off without a straight answer, Sesshomaru reached down to pull Kagome back to her feet. (No. Inspiring fear is not the way. This time.) He stood and waited patiently for her to continue.

"I don't belong here, but he was always my anchor to come back. The others- I really loved them all, but he was just what kept pulling me back here." Her head moved as she slumped over. "I guess I wanted to be pulled back. I wanted to belong here. But now, with him...gone, I don't belong. I'm just..." She searched for the words.

"Lost." Sesshomaru supplied absently, staring across the field at Rin. (Lost?) Rin had once described her life after her parents were killed and before she met him. She too had been `lost'.

Kagome finally looked up at him to find him staring at Rin. "Yeah..." She whispered and he tore his eyes from the little girl to return his gaze to the woman sitting beside him. He could not see, or even smell any fear in her.

"Do you not fear me?" He was suddenly curious, strangely not angry. (She is just a human. Why do I feel as though she should not fear me?)

"I don't think so." She said seriously. "I feel like I should but I don't." She blinked and frowned. "You've tried to kill me so many times-"

"You've deserved to be killed many times." He cut her off. "I do not attack without reason."

Kagome blinked again and a faint smile appeared. "Yeah. I guess I kind-of did deserve it." The smile faded. "But I'm still human."

"At least a clean human." Sesshomaru corrected. His voice tainted with distaste. "You humans do not bathe enough. You work to a sweat everyday, and do not bother to wash everyday." This time, the disgust reached his face. "That is a reason I dislike humans. You reek of sweat and grime."

Kagome blushed. "Geez, I took a bath-" She stopped as she remembered exactly what happened last time she bathed.

"You need another." Sesshomaru said bluntly.

Breaking eye contact to stare out over the field in mild embarrassment, Kagome sighed. "You really aren't much of a people-person, are you?"

Sesshomaru let the question go unanswered.

* * *

"Hey, hey..." Inuyasha waved at the old man as he tried to take to bottle back. "Give i' back!"

"Hey, boy, you've had plenty for tonight..." The man hobbled out of the drunken hanyou's reach. "But didn't I tell ya? Don't you feel...better?"

Inuyasha smiled as his head rolled on his shoulders. "Yeah. I don' know why I was so upset..." He waved his arms as he tried to get up. "All I gotta do is talk to her an' she'll..." The sentence trailed off with his thoughts. "See ya, ol' man..." With that, he stumbled off into the wake of the setting sun, following the breeze that held the scent of hazy hope with it. "Hey, Kagome... I jus' gotta make you see..." the last syllable trailed for a moment as he entered the dimming forest.

Hmmm. A drunk Inuyasha. I know it's something new, but I think it works. Anyway, I know Sesshomaru seems talkative here, but I tried to make it seem natural. Did it work? Let me know and leave a review!