InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strange Wishes ❯ Break Away ( Chapter 5 )

Almost every house and hut had been either burned to the ground or crushed down as if made of toothpicks. It looked as if there had been a battle; the carrion of demons and humans lay in one great pile, and blood clotted in the dust of the otherwise lifeless streets. The large storehouse near the center of the village was still aflame, the smoldering timbers belching clouds of smoke against the sanguine sky to hang over the scene like a morbid mist.

“The women and the children too...,” Miroku trailed off with a gesture of respect and a prayer.

“Those thieves could never have made it here before us.” Sango’s knees wobbled, “Could this have been--?”

“Sesshoumaru.”

They all turned to InuYasha.

“His scent is all over this place. He slaughtered all these demons, massacred the village, then left.”

Kagome felt sick, I wish I could believe this was coincidence. I see Sesshoumaru’s tomb in my time, and then after not seeing a single sign of him for months we come across two villages he attacked.

She was staring at the village yet not seeing it. The spectral image of Sesshoumaru’s grave haunted her mind’s eye as Miroku conjectured.

“But why? These unprovoked attacks don’t seem the type of thing he would do unless he was getting something out of it. As usual, he has no interest in the jewel shard. It is still here, is it not Kagome?”

She brought herself out of her chasm of confusion, “Yes. It looks like it’s in the burning storehouse.”

“InuYasha, Sesshoumaru is your brother. You of all of us have the best guess as to why he would sojourn to seemingly insignificant villages,” Miroku reasoned.

“No idea. I don’t exactly devote my interest to his schemes. Let’s just get the jewel shard he left behind,” InuYasha replied, pulling Kagome along with him so she could lead them to the jewel.

“We must be cautious. We do not know the strength of any demons drawn by the shard that may yet be alive,” Miroku warned, running alongside them.

“He’s right,” Sango added. “There is something lurking.”

What if that something is here on Sesshoumaru’s orders? Or worse: what if it was what put Sesshoumaru in his grave? Anything capable of killing InuYasha’s brother is bad news for us. But--InuYasha would have smelled something if Sesshoumaru had died...right?

“Kami...,” Miroku breathed as they came to a halt at the periphery of the body pile that surrounded the storehouse.

“Ugh!” Shippou plugged his nose as InuYasha covered his own with his haori sleeve.

“Yep. This is definitely Sesshoumaru’s doing, and less than a day ago too,” InuYasha confirmed looking around at the bodies, the flesh that was still left on the bones, youkai and human alike, marred by fatal wounds from poison claws and whips, “Bastard. If we try to bury any of the villagers we’ll be poisoned.”

“This is sick,” Kagome tried her best not to vomit all over the pool of dead demons and humans, “The bodies...they’re laid out like an offering or something.”

Sango glowered, “The shard is here, Kagome?”

Kagome nodded weakly, “It’s in the storehouse.”

She pointed to the edifice composed of kindling and ashes, but the only way to get there was across the river of poisonous corpses.

“I’ll take you across,” InuYasha’s voice came from beside her. He scooped her and Shippou up and took the body pile in a single jump.

Luckily the section of the storehouse where the jewel was located had already burnt itself out, and InuYasha strolled easily through the still-in-tact doorframe and set her down. She followed her eyes until she was feet away from the jewel shard in the dim room.

“The shard’s over--” She stopped when she heard a strange noise: like slithering....

“Kagome, look out!” InuYasha yelled, stepping in front of her just as something lunged at her from out of the darkness.

“Snakes!” Shippou screeched, and Kagome watched in horror as InuYasha acted as her shield, a large serpent’s fangs lancing into his neck.

He raked his claws across its scaled body, freeing the perforations in his skin from the creature’s bite.

“InuYasha, are you alright?” Kagome asked shrilly.

“Dammit! These snakes are venomous,” He ranted as a dozen more of them shot at them only to be severed into moieties by InuYasha’s demon claws, but one slipped past his defenses, and Kagome screamed when she felt one wrap its long tail-like form around her leg.

The snake didn’t even have a chance to open its jaws before InuYasha had ripped it from her leg, tossing it malevolently from him as he searched for more.

Sango came running into the storeroom from behind them, “We heard Kagome scream.”

Miroku halted as the taijiya went to Kagome’s side, “There is a youkai here.”

InuYasha shredded yet another serpent that tried for Sango, the taijiya stepping forward to where she sensed the same demonic presence that everyone else did.

Kagome blinked from behind InuYasha when she saw the shard move through the dark, as if someone were picking it up, “It’s got the shard!”

The demon slayer hefted Hiraikotsu in her hand, taking a step back as she lifted the deadly boomerang over her head and hurled it from her. Kagome gripped her bow tightly as the shard twinkled out the line of fire, the only sound in the room that of Hiraikotsu flying through the air until it connected with the scorched wall of the storehouse.

The darkness was pierced with bloody twilight in an explosion of wood, and everyone’s eyes went to a tall figure standing in a pool of snakes, a large bushy tail waving behind him as he slipped the jewel shard into a silver medallion on his chest.

“He’s a fox demon,” Sango informed them with a small amount of awe.

As Hiraikotsu soared back to its master the youkai extended his midnight claws, cutting the demon bone in two with a quick slashing motion. Both pieces were arrested as they smashed into the floor, and what little snakes remained scurried to his pawed feet, vanishing as soon as they made contact with him, then remerging as green patterns upon the fabric of his hakama.

“Name yourself!” InuYasha commanded, his hand gripping Tessaiga’s hilt. A flush had come to his face that Kagome assumed had to do with the snake venom.

Where’s Myouga when we need him?

The stranger took a step forward, giving them a clearer view of his dark skin. The light of the dying sun glinted off of it just as it did the scales of his snakes. His neck and hands were emblazoned with bright orange stripes to match the eyelids that enshrouded reptilian eyes. Dark hair flowed elegantly from where it was tied atop his head, much in the way two bright red feathers cascaded off of his two shoulder plates.

“I am Lord Takakuri, defender of my father’s lands,” The young man bellowed, revealing lethal fangs. He nimbly drew two Sai from his obi, “You stink of the youkai who has slaughtered this village under his protection.”

He crouched, then shot like a spear toward InuYasha, the blades of his Sai caroming off of the already drawn Tessaiga.

Oh no! He must think we’re allied with Sesshoumaru! Kagome thought as she watched the youkai deftly hop back from Tessaiga’s parry, How long will InuYasha be able to hold him off with that toxin inside him?

Kagome stumbled past the demolished wall out onto the village streets after the others, pulling her yellow backpack off and nocking an arrow as she went. A bright explosion came from within the storehouse, and it crumbled to the ground as InuYasha and Takakuri leapt away from it, their blades entwined as they landed near Miroku, both trying to gain advantage over the other.

Kagome hailed the monk, “Do something! InuYasha won’t be able to fight as well as usual! He’s been poisoned!”

He comprehended immediately, charging at them as he released an ofuda. Making contact with Takakuri’s shoulder armor, it distracted him by disintegrating the material as Miroku swung at him with his shakuju. The youkai shoved Tessaiga away with his Sai so he could deflect Miroku’s staff. InuYasha stumbled back, panting.

Kagome wasn’t sure what to do as Miroku got in a few good blows, only to be thrown back by the youkai, I hope that venom isn’t deadly; I don’t think we can win this without InuYasha!

As Miroku was flung to the ground Kirara came out of nowhere to attack the youkai. The giant fire-cat roared and tackled him, his arm viced between her fangs.

Takakuri took a leaf from behind his tipped ear, and the next thing anyone knew his body had disappeared in a burst of blue sparks that sent Kirara to the ground, her enormous body crashing down onto Kagome’s backpack.

Dammit, the miko cursed mentally as she heard its contents give under the pressure, My medical supplies!

As Sango ran to Kirara’s aid Kagome followed her feelings, using her sense of the jewel shard to find out where Takakuri had reappeared. In a split second she turned and fired her arrow at a point just above InuYasha.

The miko energy swirled around the arrow as it arced upward toward Takakuri, whose Sai were poised to strike an unwitting InuYasha from above. He dodged her arrow at the last second, but not before he had hurled both his Sai down at InuYasha. The blades impaled him, one through each shoulder blade, as Kagome’s arrow was evaded by the youkai, leaving instead a gaping hole where the branches of a tall tree once swayed.

“InuYasha!” Kagome gasped, reaching out as if she could touch him where he stood several meters from her.

InuYasha grunted as he yanked the forked blades from his shoulders and hurled them to the ground, whereupon they shriveled up into crimson-daubed leaves. Takakuri landed lightly in front of a collapsed hut, his sea green eyes locked on InuYasha as he pulled two more leaves from the argent medallion on his chest that housed the jewel shard, bearing upon it the insignia of a leaf. The real leaves in each of his hands shone bright blue and transformed once more into Sai.

Pointing, Shippou called out from Kagome’s shoulder, “I don’t know what kind of youkai that is, but he’s not a kitsune!”

Takakuri’s gaze flitted over to Shippou. As he turned to them a bloody InuYasha suddenly leapt in front of her and the kit, blocking them from his disquieting stare. He brandished Tessaiga before him.

“What the fuck are you attacking us for? We had nothing to do with destroying this village!” InuYasha snarled, his speech slurred from the poison.

Takakuri didn’t seem to believe him, “My father is the Taiyoukai of the south. I defend the inhabitants of his territory,” He stroked his silver medallion thoughtfully, “Also, just as you seek this jewel shard, I will have yours.”

InuYasha straitened, looking back at Kagome just as the miko discerned something very wrong exuding from the youkai. The glint in his eyes made them seem almost hypnotic, and though he wasn’t looking at her she started when his pupils flashed orange. Shippou stiffened on her shoulder, and she turned her head to see his eyes glowing the same color.

With a whoosh Kagome was encircled by Shippou’s foxfire, the flames trapping her and the kit within a mystical sphere of blue. InuYasha shouted her name, throwing himself at the barrier as he endeavored to reach the inside, but the barrier threw him back with a vengeance, and he landed sprawled on the ground some feet away. He grimaced, cursing his wounds as well as the turn of events that put Kagome in such danger.

“Shippou?” Kagome asked charily, staring into his undulating orange eyes.

The kit did not respond, but moved, trance-like, to yank the bottle of Shikon slivers from around her neck, then hop to the ground beside her.

What did that Youkai do to him?

Through the blur of the foxfire around her she saw Sango run at the youkai wielding her sword, but when she swung at him the blade passed beneath his fox-like feet as Takakuri leapt skyward, landing in the bows of the giant tree.

Suddenly the shield encircling Kagome and Shippou lurched, and she became alarmed as it began to move. The ground disappeared below her, the foxfire shield flying up toward Takakuri like a magnet, bringing them along with it. InuYasha’s voice rang in her ears, his lips forming her name.

Kagome barely had time to think before her mind acted of its own, her hands gripping her bow and aiming it at the barrier. She loosed the arrow, and she and Shippou stopped their ascent as the foxfire flared pink in a conflagration of sparks that disintegrated the arrow she had shot.

“Ah!” Kagome shut her eyes against it, feeling the fire lick at her skin, singeing it, her means of support evaporating as the barrier finally flickered out.

Kagome snatched Shippou out of the air as they fell, but they never hit the ground; Sheathing Tessaiga, InuYasha caught Kagome in midair, bringing her safely back down to earth just as Takakuri hopped down from the tree to retrieve the bottle of jewel shards that had fallen to the ground a ways away.

Shippou opened his eyes, which had turned back to green, and clutched tightly to Kagome’s shirt, “Kagome? What happened?”

She held the kit to her protectively as InuYasha held her in much the same manner, growling dangerously as Takakuri tossed Kagome’s bottle of the Shikon no Kakera in his hand.

“You bastard!” InuYasha barked as the shards were deposited in his medallion with the intaglio of the leaf.

Takakuri turned just in time to block Sango’s sword with his Sai. She wore her slayer’s mask, and just as he was preoccupied with defending against her blade she pulled a poison bomb from her armor, unleashing it at his feet.

The noxious gas swirled around him as he fended off Sango’s sword. Her eyes widened when he did not show any signs of being affected by the poisonous powder. In fact, he inhaled a great deal of it with apparent imperturbability before extricating a leaf from behind his ear and tossing it to the ground as Sango backed away. The leaf became a writhing pile of snakes that immediately launched themselves at the sweating slayer.

“SANGO!”

Miroku jumped into the cloud of virulent gas to stand in front of her just before the serpents overcame her, opening his wind tunnel in one swift movement. Sango grasped his shoulders as the poison gas as well as the legless lizards were drawn into the howling abyss of his blighted hand, along with Takakuri’s Sai and bits of wood that had once been homes to the deceased villagers. The earth itself moved with the force of the kazaana, and the youkai’s face registered astonishment before he vanished from within the maw of the cursed winds. His body was replaced by a stone statue very much like Shippou’s save that it was an imitation of a snake, but it too soon disappeared into Miroku’s hand.

“Ugh!” Sango’s body was ripped from Miroku’s back as Takakuri held her fast by her wrists so that she couldn’t get her sword in him, his knee digging into the small of her back as she struggled in his hold.

Miroku closed the kazaana in horror, the beads falling across his hand as he turned to face Takakuri with a dark determination, “Let her go, fiend!”

All in one second Miroku drew his ofudas, Kagome felt InuYasha’s hand fly to Tessaiga, and a cacophonous rumble of thunder shattered the air, followed by a tempestuous gust of wind. Eyes pointed skyward, Takakuri released the taijiya, thrusting her into Miroku’s arms. They all looked on warily as he addressed InuYasha, scowling.

“Now that I have the shards I suppose I will spare your lives, but only if you forbear intruding upon my father’s lands in the future.”

With that he flicked another leaf to the ground, and his body disappeared in a scintillating puff of blue.

After recovering from the abrupt cessation in fighting Sango escaped Miroku’s ferocious hug to run to Kirara’s side and Kagome felt the presence of all four shards recede from her mind.

“Is he gone?” Shippou’s trembling voice asked hesitantly from her arms.

“Yes.” She gave the affirmative as InuYasha lowered them to the ground, then suddenly noticed that Shippou had been burned--but it wasn’t from the foxfire, “Shippou, your skin....”

Just like the foxfire burned me when I dispelled the barrier, my purifying powers must’ve hurt Shippou!

Shippou gave a weak moan as he looked down at his raw palms, his tiny clawed fingers flexing faintly.

“Kagome, where’s your--” InuYasha’s suddenly looked up to see Sango coming toward them carrying kitten Kirara in one hand and Kagome’s backpack in the other.

Sango dropped the yellow lump beside Kagome. The fabric had been torn to reveal the entrails of the backpack. All the gauze had been coated in various food and drink stuffs that had burst when Kirara had fallen on it, and her first aid kit looked like it had been ground by a mortar and pestle. Her sleeping bag was badly torn and more than one of her school books had been ripped all the way in half.

“We have to get back to the village,” Sango stated firmly. “Without Kagome’s medicine our injuries will have to be treated by Kaede.”

Just then a tremendous peal of thunder clapped over them like the symbols of the gods, and they all looked toward the foreboding clouds in the sky, the sun only just having set.

Miroku stopped with a distance of a few feet separating himself and Sango, “We should find shelter for the night at least. It would not be safe to travel during such weather. I suggest we find a hut that is still mostly intact to bed down in.”

InuYasha picked up Kagome as the others nodded. His injuries had stopped bleeding, though the shoulders of his haori were still stained with it. Kagome didn’t complain as he carried her off after Miroku; she figured he had probably spotted her injuries and would refuse to let her alone because of them. She herself thought she might have trouble walking anyway. The fire had gotten her pretty bad on the calf of her left leg, and the burnt skin tingled with pain as they wandered the demolished town in pursuit of a place to sleep, hopefully out of the upcoming rain’s reach.

By the time the group found a suitable hut that was far enough away so that InuYasha wasn’t bothered by the stink of the corpse pile, Shippou was asleep in Kagome’s arms. Inside the small space was a pit for a fire and enough bedding to meet their needs, so Kagome immediately set up a bed for the kit, who was accompanied in sleep by an exhausted fire-neko.

A fire was built. There was plenty of dry wood outside since the rains had not yet begun to fall, and they kept several of Kagome’s ruined school books handy incase the flames died.

The monk and the exterminator sat in opposite corners of the hut. Miroku clandestinely watched Sango through narrowed eyes as she examined the severed pieces of her Hiraikotsu that she had retrieved.

InuYasha walked over to where Kagome was sitting in a far corner and sat down close to her, his ears and nose twitching in a dog-like way.

“Kagome, is the pain of your wounds bearable?” Sango asked from her corner.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. I’m just glad we all came out of it okay,” Her eyes lingered on the snoozing kit before traveling back to Sango, “What about your weapon?”

She looked down at Hiraikotsu, “I have some special ointment. I recovered it from my village when we last went there. I should wait until we return to Kaede’s to use it however; if we decide to travel in the morning and it is still storming the rain waters will make the ointment useless.”

Kagome nodded. She looked over at InuYasha, then drew close to him, “InuYasha, how bad are your injuries?”

“Feh, they’re already healing,” He assured her, sounding a little more lucid than before, which pacified her to some degree.

Sango gave the couple a sideways glance, then set her boomerang down, “Come with me Houshi-sama. I have another task for you.”

Miroku, who had been looking at Kagome and InuYasha, turned his gaze Sango’s way as she pulled him out of the hut, the wind whipping the bamboo flap behind them. Kagome paid no mind. She was getting used to Sango’s leaving InuYasha alone with her--or at least relatively alone.

“Has--has the poison worn off?”

“It’s not affecting me so much now,” He answered, blinking at her. “Lie down, you’ve been burned.”

Kagome sighed, “I can’t believe he took the jewel shards.”

He gave her a light yet stern shove, forcing her to lie back, “Who cares. We’ll get them back, and gut Takakuri in the process.”

Kagome stopped him in his quest to assay the exigency of her burns, “But InuYasha--he can’t be all that bad. He thought we attacked the villagers because your scent resembled Sesshoumaru’s. He was defending them.”

InuYasha’s brows knitted, “So you’re taking the side of someone who hurt you and Shippou and the others? You could’ve been killed! He doesn’t deserve your understanding or mercy just because he jumped to the wrong conclusions! Dammit Kagome--!”

She grimaced, “I’m not taking his side!” She looked over at Shippou, making sure he was still asleep. “I’m just glad he wasn’t on Sesshoumaru’s side.”

“Keh,” InuYasha’s attention returned to her burns, “He might as well have been. He could’ve been tricking us, you know.”

“Could be, but like I said, I don’t think he’s a bad guy, and I know you don’t either,” She said staunchly, looking down at her hand that was splayed behind her, “I just wish I knew what Sesshoumaru was planning.”

“He probably woke up and realized he hadn’t killed anyone in a while and decided to go reek some havoc,” InuYasha muttered caustically as he pored over her wounds.

That doesn’t sound like InuYasha’s brother. This--it was like he went and gathered everything he killed to make it more conspicuous! At both of the villages they were attacked wantonly, and I’ve never known Sesshoumaru to go looking for--

Kagome’s head snapped up when she felt something warm and moist slide over the burn on her calf. It wasn’t painful at all--rather soothing actually--but when she realized what it was goose bumps raised themselves all along her arms and legs and her face heated furiously.

“InuYasha--?” She uttered his name in a choked whisper that even his ears had a hard time hearing as she watched his tongue pass over her cauterized flesh a fourth time.

At her voice he seemed to come to his senses. His tongue ceased its licking and he raised his head to look at her for a split second before he averted his gaze, a blush tinting his cheeks.

“S--Sorry. I was just trying to help,” He explained in a meek voice. He chanced a few glances at her, his hands balled up on the floor as he squatted.

No bathroom to run to this time, Kagome, She thought to herself, shame biting at her, There’s no reason to run away! InuYasha was just concerned, and he was showing it in the best way he knows how.

“No--it’s alright,” InuYasha dared a cautious glance at her as she tried desperately to keep her head up, “You were helping. You were making it feel better.”

She then ducked her head shyly, unable to keep herself from doing so. The vulnerable and open feeling that washed over her was making her nerves dance, a sensation that was all to familiar when she was with the hanyou. A few nebulous thoughts crossed her mind, wondering if he was feeling the same things she was when he scooted closer to her, taking a seat beside her.

She looked to the clawed hand that had nestled itself upon her shoulder. Kagome swallowed.

Is it the poison that’s influencing him to act so--?

“I--” He began shakily, “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

Kagome’s heart welled up and her hand reached up to cover his. She met his wide-eyed gaze, “It’s okay. None of it’s your fault. You did all you could.”

InuYasha’s lip curled slightly, “That’s the problem. I did all I could and it wasn’t goddamn enough. Next time you might not be so lucky Kagome,” He drew her close to him, hugging her upper body to him as her legs remained stretched out on the floor, one over the other.

He sighed in her ear, his breath tickling her as any thoughts of pain were blown away. Kagome couldn’t help the tiny gasp that escaped her as he held her tight to him, the smell of dried blood mingled with his own scent--wild and untamable as his demon half, yet at once conscientious and mundane like his human side--filling her nose.

“I hate it when you fight. I never knew this kind of fear until I--I realized your getting hurt was a possibility,” He breathed, sending a warm shiver up her spine.

Trying to regain some equanimity, Kagome eased herself away from him, but still remained where he had drawn her into his lap. She looked toward the fire, but made the mistake of leaving her hand on his chest, her fingers playing lightly at his collar where his cream undershirt peeked out from beneath his haori.

Kagome kept her gaze shifted sideways even as his eyes tried to capture hers, “InuYasha....”

Her heart felt ready to beat its way out of her bosom when his hands tightened, pulling her nearer, “Kagome.”

She was eye to eye with him, her fear and uncertainty now insignificant in juxtaposition to the rays of heat shooting from those ocherous eyes and dripping down her entire body as his nose brushed hers, his ivory hair whispering against her face.

She could feel his need for her, more real than ever it had been before, with each warm breath against her lips that drew her deeper into his embrace. She realized his want for her by the way his eyes--the eyes she’d found refuge in for so long--seemed to drink her in. His love--his hands lightly caressing her back, the claws he’d inherited from his youkai father leaving warmth on her skin that she felt all the way up her spine and at the base of her neck to the bottom of her toes.

Screw it--if this is the poison then I guess it is.

She pushed herself forward and her lips found his, pressing a gentle kiss against his fangs as a shaky breath left his body, just before she felt his grip on her constrict, locking her body to his. As he pulled back after that first chaste kiss the clouds released their rain, the hard droplets pounding on the frail straw of the roof. Kagome watched him through fluttering lashes as he bent his head and exhaled heavily, then tipped his nose back up, his lips brushing across her jaw line as he inhaled her scent in deep whiffs.

What started off as the softest kiss evolved, and suddenly they weren’t close enough to each other. Kagome felt his heart thudding like Thor’s hammer under her slender fingers that clutched at the dark beads of his kotodama, his lips moving urgently over her own. The experience was thrilling; exploring a part of InuYasha he had never shown her. She was certain her soul would deliquesce surrounded by his raw power, his light, his affection, everything she believed so perfect yet just as unattainable. Also, she registered the obligation to give something back to him, her heart coercing her into giving him exactly what he was giving her.

Relying on instinct, she searched his face out with her hands. She cupped his cheeks, then found the wetness of his lips with her tongue, tenderly brushing one of his fangs as a few drops of rainwater wriggled past the barrier of the roof to splash on their heads. InuYasha was taken by surprise for all of one second before he came back to meet her full force. His passion turned her blood to fire and her body gave in, becoming weak in submission as breathing became an operose enterprise.

In the next few moments where they were both tip-toeing on the hairline border of prurience, something clicked in Kagome’s head. The voice that had previously been muffled by the steaming fumes of ecstasy had clawed its way to the surface of her mind, shouting at her to break away, though every other part of her screamed and cried to continue.

The little voice was victorious, and InuYasha relinquished her when Kagome froze, slowly pulling her mouth away from his.

“Kagome?” His timbre was rough, his eyes weighted down with a honey-glazed rapture. She shivered.

“We can’t,” She met his suddenly stupefied face with a grimace, “I--”

They both jumped as footsteps clapped on the wet ground outside, procuring Sango and Miroku before the couple could move an inch.

“Oh...,” Miroku looked between them. “Are we interrupting something?”

Sango watched the scene play out with worry in her eyes as Kagome unglued herself from InuYasha, whose arms first had to untangle from around the miko. Both were at the height of ruddiness.

“I’m going to sleep.” Kagome announced in a small voice as she plopped down beside Shippou. Another tintinnabulation of thunder rumbled outside.

Kagome curled up beside Shippou, purposefully facing the wall. The battered body of the kitsune rose and fell in a tranquil breathing pattern, and she willed her own to follow likewise. Her eyes fell on a burn across the young youkai’s face.

Damn that Takakuri. I’m so sorry Shippou. I hope you’ll be o--huh?

She looked up over her shoulder when a blanket was draped over her, only to see InuYasha retreating to sit by the fire across from Miroku. Kagome turned her head back toward the wall, pulling the blanket close. Her pulse was still resounding in her ears and her heart slamming against her rib cage.

I am so not going to be able to sleep tonight.

“Toss another one of Kagome’s school book into the flames, would you?” Miroku requested.

“Keh.” That was one of the last sounds she heard that evening, followed by the crackling and spitting of the fire pit as it devoured her math equations, before the hut grew quiet and the sounds of the storm took over. - * - * - * -  

The light spilling into the flimsy shack awoke Kagome, and she blinked her eyes open, immediately remembering the night before, Was is a dream?

Hell no, it wasn’t. I may have dreamt of InuYasha before but I sure as hell didn’t--couldn’t--dream that up.

Shippou and Kirara had left her side, and there was no noise in the hut behind where she was curled in the fetal position facing the wall. Still, she dreaded turning around.

Pretend you’re asleep, pretend you’re asleep, pretend you’re asleep--

“Kagome?”

“Sango?” Kagome sat up too quickly and stretched a burn that was trying to heal, “Ouch!”

“What’s wrong?” The taijiya asked from beside her, trying to assess what ailed her by looking at her pained face.

“Just...just my injuries.”

“Don’t worry. The weather has cleared up. We’ll be back at the village before night falls.”

Kagome nodded, looking around the hut and then back at her friend, her demeanor exhausted.

Sango leaned closer to her, “He’s out gathering breakfast with Houshi-sama.”

Kagome winced. Was ‘I kissed InuYasha’ stamped on her forehead or something?

“Kagome--what happened last night?”

She’d been expecting that. Kagome noticed Shippou glance at her from beside the hearth, and suddenly it dawned on her that she didn’t really want everyone knowing, “Let’s just say...your plan worked.”

Sango might not have heard her response but for the reassuring pat she gave her friend. For some reason it quelled a bit of her uneasiness, but then she was assailed by a pang of guilt. Had Sango felt so lost after getting pregnant with Miroku’s child, dealing with the confusion on her own, acres past the limits of Kagome’s reach?

Kagome shook the thought away. She was glad to be here for her friend now. “Kaede can make some more of that potion once we get back to the village,” Kagome mentioned to the taijiya as she wandered toward the fire, a few shapeless book covers molting atop the blackened timber.

Sango nodded, then pointed to a generous purple cloth that was spread out on the floor, the separate pieces of Hiraikotsu resting in the center, “Houshi-sama told me to tell you he can carry the remains of your knapsack home in that.”

“Okay,” Kagome agreed, getting up to put her ruined things in Miroku’s raiment.

Breakfast was quiet but satisfying, Kagome keeping her eyes pointed downward throughout the meal as she unabashedly gorged herself on InuYasha’s fabulous catch.

Shippou, youkai though he was, had not healed well overnight like InuYasha and Kirara had, and Kagome wanted to get him to Kaede as quickly as possible. They were packed and ready to go shortly afterward, Kirara transforming so she could carry her passengers and InuYasha looking at Kagome expectantly.

Kagome’s eyes eluded his just as they had all morning. Instead she found herself gazing at the fire-cat preparing for takeoff. Perhaps it would be best if she rode Kirara. After all, she really wanted to avoid talking to InuYasha, or just plain being in awkward silence with him. But no, if she were to ride Kirara he would think her a coward.

I am though.

Before she could say a word the hanyou was standing in the mud in front of her, “Don’t worry about your burns. I’ll take it easy on you.” And with that he turned around, offering her his back.

His unanticipated words had numbed her, and she stumbled forward into his arms. Next thing she knew she was positioned comfortably against his haori as they soared after Kirara under the still gray but rainless sky.

As the minutes melted into hours and the sun plied the sky above the clouds Kagome’s attitude changed. She had started off reveling in the silence, wishing it could last forever and she would never have to have that cumbersome conversation with InuYasha. Soon enough however, she was longing for him to say something--anything--to her, even if it was a cold and callous remark reminiscent of their first year together. It was driving her nuts trying to figure out the meaning behind his silence. Was it disappointment? Fear? Disgust? Those were the possibilities that made Kagome cringe, but even as she worried she knew she was just being paranoid, and that he was probably having qualms similar to her own.

The negative feelings overwhelmed the positive though, and by the time they reached Kaede’s village Kagome was ready to hurl herself down the well. The pair had spoken hardly a word during the entirety of the trip, which was not something the others had neglected to notice. The trend continued even as they sat around Kaede’s fire as the old miko tended to the kits wounds, Sango rubbing her special ointment on her demon-bone as Kagome watched Shippou anxiously. She waited to make certain that he was fine until announcing that she was going home down the well.

“What?” InuYasha bellowed, startling the entire hut.

“You have ears,” She eyed the lineaments, “I’m going back home.”

With that she picked up the tattered remains of her backpack and marched out of the hut and into the gloaming.

“You can’t just go home! What kind of nonsense is that?” He ranted, stomping after her as she made for the well, “You haven’t even let Kaede bandage your wounds!”

“You just won’t give it a rest, will you?” Kagome yelled as she rounded on him, her anger giving her more courage than she had retained after the previous night. “I’m going and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

She marched up the hill, the well in her line of vision, but it was promptly blocked out by red fire rat robes. InuYasha loomed over her, his countenance smug, “Well, your mother says she trusts me to keep you safe over here, so I think that gives me more than enough power to stop you.”

Kagome blinked at him. Her mother’s words had obviously gone to his head; he’d said it with such pride. She decided to ignore the fact and do what she had to do.

“You can’t just keep me here--I need a new backpack you know!” She indicated the dilapidated scrap of yellow in her arms.

Kagome tried to go around him, but he kept stepping in front of her, finally grabbing her on both shoulders to firmly hold her in place.

“Stop,” His eyes pierced hers, “Running away from me.”

Shock and shame and a little bit of anger pricked her heart at his words, and she jolted as he drew her closer, clearly not wanting her to get away. She struggled to get out of his hold even as she blushed, but possessed no such strength to overcome him.

“InuYasha--let me go.”

He held her tighter, his arms caging her like iron bars.

“I’ll say--”

“You’ll go down with me,” He countered obstinately, a tenacious fire in his eyes.

Kagome glared at him, “I don’t care. So let me go unless you want us both to get hurt.”

Her words having sunk in, he lowered at her with every ounce of stubbornness he had, then freed her. She couldn’t ignore the sorrow shadowed behind his eyes however, as she walked past him and leapt down the Bone Eater’s Well.

She passed through the time slip and arrived in her own era, the magical light slowly fading from her vision as she found herself at the base of a ladder in a pitch black well house.

“I can’t believe him,” She grumbled as she climbed each rung with minute focus on the actual task at hand. “He can be a real pain.”

Kagome pulled herself over the lip of the well, bumbling toward the staircases while muttering darkly about the inuhanyou, when she heard a strange noise.

That had better be Buyo, Kagome thought fervently as she peered about in the darkness.

It didn’t take long for her eyes to adjust and she went up the steps, her mind shouting something else regarding InuYasha with each one, when her foot connected with something breathing harshly.

Oh my God, “Grandpa?”