InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Centre ❯ Things Broken And Fixed ( Chapter 8 )

Ahh… Summer's too hot. I could really go for some ice cream right about now, but then I'd just get it all over the keyboard…

 

Disclaimer: I've just had a great idea—I shall compose a disclaimer song (a jingly! Hurrah! :D) that I will then sing for you all every time you suggest that I own Inuyasha! Well? What do you think? If my singing isn't enough to convince you I don't own Inuyasha & Co., then nothing is! ;)

 

Chapter Eight: Things Broken And Fixed

 

 

When Inuyasha walked past her with that strange, far-off look on his face, Kagome had been confused. When he had kept walking until he was practically standing inside the blistering flames of the fireplace, she had begun to worry. But when the hanyou suddenly collapsed to his knees, his head clutched in his hands, she came close to panicking.

 

“Inuyasha!” she called loudly, knowing that he wouldn't respond. She had been trying to get his attention for close to a minute now, and all he did was kneel there like some tragic hero downed in battle. “Inuyasha you… you stupid mutt!”

 

The only reaction she got was a small twitch of his ears.

 

“Damn…” Kagome had been sure that the hated insult would be enough to jerk him out of the stupor he'd sunk into. Giving up on the verbal approach, she cast around the room for something to throw at him. Her gaze landed on the long, official-looking desk with its official-looking paperwork. There's bound to be something in those drawers… maybe a paperweight?

 

Hurrying over to the polished wooden desk, Kagome began rummaging through the scattered papers for something suitable to chuck at her oblivious partner. “Ah ha!”

 

Triumphantly, the girl grabbed an expensive, black marble figurine of something vaguely human-like off the top of the desk and moved as close to the fireplace as her body could stand. Taking careful aim, she lobbed the figurine at Inuyasha's back. The carving sailed through the air, landing with a loud thunk on the floor beside its target and cracking into two neat pieces.

 

Kagome's eyes widened. “Oh shi— shoot!” Just because Dog-boy has a foul mouth doesn't mean I have to develop one, she thought absently, wringing her hands together as she wondered what to do next. How much did that thing cost, anyway? She winced, struck by the sudden image of herself carelessly smashing priceless objects in a rich stranger's office. What if they chuck me in prison? Or maybe they don't even have prison here; maybe they have a dungeon! Aw, crap… Kagome quickly squashed down on her rambling thoughts, returning her focus to the task at hand. How was she going to bring Inuyasha back to reality?

 

After a few moments consideration, the girl decided to chance another throw. I mean, I almost hit him the first time, right? This time I'll get him. Marching over to the desk, Kagome began searching for something else to use as a missile. Behind her, she could hear tiny whimpers, like those of a young dog in pain.

 

The realization that something wasn't normal came to her suddenly. She paused in her search, trying to identify the source of her unease. Then it hit her; she could hear the pitiful whimpers with her own ears, but she could also feel them vibrating in her chest, as if she herself were making the sounds. Kagome put a hand on her collarbone, unnerved. Is this… part of the Bond?

 

She found that if she concentrated, she could feel things—emotions, thoughts, sensations—that had nothing to do with her. Hazel eyes widened further as an intense, emotional pain flooded through her body, threatening to sweep her along with it. Frightened, Kagome jerked her consciousness back to her own body and the currents of feeling running along the Bond ebbed. Inuyasha is feeling all that?

 

The young miko's face tightened in sympathy, and she renewed her search through the desk drawers with earnest concern. “There's gotta be something else that I can… Huh?”

 

A soft, purplish glow had caught her eye, thin rays of light slanting through a crack in the drawer on the bottom left. Curious, Kagome reached down and opened the drawer fully. The glow, released from its wooden prison, shone upwards and made shadows dance across the girl's face. Squinting against the light, Kagome could make out what looked like a shiny crystal sphere of some pink-purple substance where it rested on a piece of rough cloth, along with a narrow wooden case and a soapstone statue of a snake. Ebony streaks swirled beneath its surface like dark clouds across a twilight sky. It's beautiful… Kagome thought wonderingly, her hand coming down almost of its own accord to lift the sphere gently from the drawer.

 

As soon as her fingers made contact with the glowing orb, the colours that had been drifting lazily along its exterior were suddenly whipped into a frenzy, pinks and purples clashing with black and dark grey. Kagome held the sphere level with her face, watching the display with wide eyes that reflected the tumultuous glow given off by the object. Neither the dark colours nor the light ones seemed to be winning; each was countered by the other in an endless, spiraling dance.

 

The orb was singing to her. Kagome could hear it now, a melody that was as much a part of her as her soul, and she found herself smiling in delight as the song wound its way through her mind. The tune was quirky and lilting in accordance with the surges of colour and light, notes jarring each other as they jockeyed for dominance. Still smiling like a child with its favourite toy, Kagome moved over to Inuyasha in a dreamy, half-conscious state, the glowing sphere cradled in her palms.

 

The flames in the fireplace were a distant, roaring heat against her skin; she was too absorbed in the song and the play of colours across the orb's surface to be concerned with earthly things such as pain. All Kagome knew was that she had to share such an intensely joyous feeling with someone or she would burst.

 

“Inuyasha,” she said softly, holding out her hands. “Look.”

 

The flickering glow washed over the hanyou's hunched figure, picking out the individual threads in his fire rat clothing and illuminating the silver-white of his long hair. Coupled with the warm radiance of the blazing fire, Inuyasha appeared to be lit from within, glowing with a beautiful, ethereal light. He knelt motionlessly, the uneven sound of his quickened breathing the only indication that he was even alive.

 

“Inuyasha,” Kagome insisted, her own face shining in the twisting light, “look at this.”

 

One soft, white ear angled her way; clawed fingers loosened their hold on the taught face.

 

“Please, Inuyasha.” The dark-haired girl leaned closer, kneeling next to him, her large eyes glimmering with unshed tears as the sphere's song soared upwards to unbearable beauty. “Look.”

 

Inuyasha slowly lifted his head from his hands and turned towards her, his golden gaze gradually becoming focused. He seemed as transfixed by the dancing colours and lights and melodies as she was.

 

Kagome's lips curved into a stunning smile as the hanyou shifted his eyes to her face. He looked infinitely vulnerable, as if a single wrong word spoken could crush him completely.

 

“It's okay,” she told him gently, extending her hands once more. She moved at the prompting of her heart; her brain's suspicion and the warning twinge of her miko instincts were muffled by the intoxicating power of the song and the shimmering battle waged within the sphere.

 

Inuyasha moved a hand towards her uncertainly, his eyes fixed on the orb. Kagome made a small encouraging noise as the colours within it writhed frantically, faster and faster. Just before his hand closed over hers, Inuyasha's gaze clouded, ears twitching back towards the crossed swords above the mantle.

 

“Shouldn't touch…” he murmured, but the words were lost in the poignant melody and his calloused palm came down on top of the glowing sphere that rested in Kagome's hands.

 

Both the miko girl and the half-demon boy knew instantly that this was a big mistake.

 

The swirling music escalated to a discordant shriek, so jarring that Kagome gasped and Inuyasha's head actually snapped backwards, his ears lacing back to lie flat against his skull. The shimmering colours, mesmerizing and beautiful only seconds before, boiled horribly beneath the glossy exterior of the orb as their battle increased to pure, primal violence. The tiniest of cracks began tracing its way along the surface of the sphere, spiderwebbing off in all directions amid the fretful bursts of purplish glow that were emitted as the dark and light colours collided.

 

“Oh no,” Kagome whispered, horrified. She tried to pull her hands away and found that she couldn't. “No…!”

 

A single note, impossibly high, resounded throughout the room, and with a tinkling noise, the orb shattered into four jagged quarters. There was a blinding flash of colourless light and a powerful sense of motion, like a funnel of wind. Kagome instinctively clenched her hand shut as she bent her head and closed her eyes. The sharp pricks along the back of her hand told her that Inuyasha had done the same, unintentionally gripping her fist with his claws.

 

A split second later, everything was still.

 

The first thing Kagome saw upon opening her eyes was Inuyasha's stricken face as he stared around the room. Following his gaze, the girl let out a low groan. We are in so much trouble…

 

The once-tidy office was a mess. Pieces of paper fluttered about the room, landing haphazardly on the floor or catching fire as they drifted too close to the giant fireplace. Wall hangings and tapestries had been torn from the wall and they lay in sad-looking bundles on the floor, loose threads sticking out everywhere like bits of fur on an animal. Several expensive ornaments were smashed, including the one Kagome had thrown at Inuyasha, and the long mahogany desk lay on its side, drawers half-open and their contents strewn everywhere. The only things that had remained upright were Kagome and Inuyasha themselves.

 

The dark-haired girl took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. “Wh-what do you suppose just happened?” she asked her stunned partner.

 

Inuyasha didn't answer; he had just noticed the two swords that had apparently landed in his lap. With something like reverence, he ran a hand along the smooth sheaths and the hilts, checking for damage. Miraculously, there was none.

 

“Those swords…” Kagome hesitated, not sure what kind of territory she was treading into. “You recognize them?”

 

Inuyasha raised his gaze to her face and she flinched at the pain in his eyes.

 

“They belong… They belonged to my father,” he said, his voice uncharacteristically quiet. He clenched his hands and Kagome squeaked in pain; he still held her closed fist tightly with his claws. Inuyasha looked surprised and then guilty, quickly releasing her hand and wincing at the five droplets of blood on her skin. “I'm… I didn't mean to,” he muttered.

 

“Don't worry about it.” Kagome moved to wipe the blood away and was startled when something fell between her fingers to land with a clink on the floor. She leaned down and her eyes widened; it was one of the four pieces of the shattered orb. She gingerly picked it up and nearly dropped it again as the colours within gave one last frenzied spin, the pinks and purples seeming to devour the darkness before settling into a lazy drift underneath the surface of the fragment.

 

“The black is gone,” the girl said wonderingly.

 

“Is that… part of the orb?” Inuyasha asked. For some reason, he avoided looking her in the eye.

 

Kagome nodded, turning the glittering fragment in her fingers. “It broke into four pieces. I guess I grabbed this one before the rest… disappeared.”

 

Abruptly, Inuyasha stood up, a katana gripped in either hand. His face was hard. “We should leave before someone comes in and discovers this mess.”

 

“What?” Kagome scrambled to her feet after him, questions whirling through her mind. “But what are we going to do? Should we tell someone about what happened?”

 

“No. Just leave that shard here and let's go.” He turned and began to move towards the double doors.

 

“Hey! Inuyasha, wait a minute!” Kagome grabbed the sleeve of his haori and yanked him backwards. The hanyou growled, trying to disengage her hand from the material, his long hair hiding his face from view.

 

“Inuyasha.” Kagome's voice turned firm. “Look at me.”

 

“Lay off,” he snarled, wrenching his arm away. Kagome doggedly hung on, tucking the shining fragment safely into a fold of her obi.

 

“I'm not letting go until I get some answers,” she told him. She put her hands on the boy's shoulders and turned him, with difficulty, towards her. “First of all, what happened to you? I pointed out those old swords and you suddenly went into a trance or something; I couldn't snap you out of it.”

 

“That's none of your fucking business,” Inuyasha snapped, giving up on dislodging the dark-haired girl's hands and choosing instead to glare fiercely at her.

 

“Inuyasha, we're Bonded now; that makes it my business.”

 

“I don't give a damn about the Bond. I'm not telling you anything,” he said angrily, somehow managing to cross his arms despite the sheathed sword in each hand.

 

Kagome sighed. “Fine. I just wanted to help you, that's all.”

 

“That's never `all',” Inuyasha said lowly, his eyes focusing on something she couldn't see. “Everyone's got an motive.” His hands tightened on the hilts of the katanas.

 

I wonder what he's remembering, Kagome thought, studying his face. He must've had a rough childhood. Out loud, she said, “Well, if you don't want to talk about that, then what about that strange crystal orb?”

 

“What about it?” the hanyou retorted belligerently.

 

Kagome gave him an exasperated look, but she was relieved to see that the haze of memories was slowly clearing from his vision. “Why do you think it shattered?”

 

To her shock, Inuyasha's reaction to this was even worse. “How the hell should I know? It broke when I put my hand on it, didn't it? Maybe it couldn't stand the touch of a filthy half-breed.”

 

“Inuyasha, I didn't mean—”

 

“I think you did, miko. You saw what happened, saw those colours. The dark and the light—doesn't take a genius to figure out what those symbolize, now does it?”

 

“Are you saying you're—”

 

“What I'm saying is leave me the fuck alone!” Inuyasha shouted, shoving her away from him. He was breathing hard, and a wild light had appeared in his eyes.

 

Kagome stumbled backwards, catching her balance before she toppled to the floor. She straightened slowly, her eyes fixed on the tense form of the hanyou in front of her. “There's no reason to take out your anger on me,” she said coldly.

 

“What are you going to do, call on your magical powers?” Inuyasha sneered.

 

Kagome eyed him levelly. “Sit, boy.”

 

CRASH

 

“You bitch!” Inuyasha's voice echoed off of the floorboards his face was embedded in, accompanied by the clatter as the two swords hit the ground next to him. “I didn't mean for you to actually do it!”

 

“Then you shouldn't tempt me,” Kagome told him, feeling much better. She grinned as he pried himself painfully off the floor, a scowl plastered on his face. “You know you deserved that.”

 

“No one deserves to have to deal with you,” Inuyasha muttered, but he hastily shut his mouth as Kagome raised her eyebrows threateningly.

 

“And people say you can't teach old dogs new tricks,” she said, laughing when Inuyasha's face flushed red with anger.

 

“I'm going to wipe that smirk off your face, wench,” he growled, lunging at her.

 

Kagome dodged his outstretched hands, still laughing, and darted behind the overturned desk for protection. This is good, she thought with satisfaction. He doesn't look so… unpredictable anymore. For a minute there I thought he was going to bolt or something. At least now, his mind isn't on the past or that weird orb. She batted away a crumpled ball of paper that Inuyasha had chucked at her head and ducked as the whole waste bin was thrown her way.

 

“Hey!” she called indignantly. “That would've hurt!”

 

“Oh, and those `sits' you give me don't?” he asked sarcastically. “You should be more careful of who you piss off, miko.”

 

Kagome opened her mouth for a clever retort but then stopped, listening. She frowned, ignoring the ball of paper that bounced off her forehead. “Do you hear something, Inuyasha?”

 

The hanyou narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously but cocked his head to the side, ears flicking back and forth. “This better not be some lame attempt at a prank, wench.”

 

“Shh.” Kagome crouched down, her eyes going to the smashed remnants of what had once been the statue of a coiled snake. That was in the same drawer as the orb, Kagome remembered. The soapstone fragments were moving, broken pieces scraping along the floor and creating the rattling sound that she had heard originally.

 

“Inuyasha, come here.” Kagome waved a hand in his direction, her eyes glued to the statue pieces as they slowly melded back together.

 

Inuyasha made his way over to Kagome, squatting down so that he was facing her across the shifting pieces. “Something's not right,” he said, sniffing the air. “Almost smells like…”

 

The final piece scraped into place, completing the statue, and for a moment nothing happened. Then suddenly the snake figure uncoiled, lithe body a blur as it shot towards Kagome's throat. She screamed and threw up her hands, but Inuyasha was faster; he snatched the snake out of the air, his claws digging in deep between the emerald-green scales that covered its body. The snake writhed in his grasp, hissing angrily, as Inuyasha jumped to his feet.

 

“I knew I smelled a demon,” he said, eyeing the serpent scornfully. It hissed again and sank its fangs into the muscle of his thumb.

 

“Inuyasha!” Kagome said fearfully as the hanyou swore loudly, flinging the snake away from him and flexing his injured hand.

 

The serpent hit the wall and fell to the floor, its fangs still bared ominously as it coiled itself like a corkscrew. Kagome stared at it with a sort of horrified fascination. It was about as long as her arm but thinner, with brilliant, dark green scales all over its body except for a diamond pattern around its eyes where the scales were pure white. The eyes themselves were long and slanted, completely jet-black and filled with cold malice. The snake's open mouth showed off an impressive set of fangs, long and thin and fatally sharp.

 

An aggravated noise drew Kagome's attention back to Inuyasha as he examined the twin punctures in his skin. They were bleeding sluggishly, and the flesh around the wounds was tinged a mottled green-black.

 

“Damn serpent,” Inuyasha breathed, grimacing as he pinched the pierced skin. Translucent green fluid oozed from the punctures along with blood.

 

“Are you… are you okay?” Kagome asked worriedly. “That looks like—”

 

“Poison,” Inuyasha finished for her, still trying to clear the nasty-looking fluid from the bite marks. “The little bastard injected me with paralyzing venom.”

 

“How do you know?” Kagome asked. Her gaze automatically moved to the snake where it lay, hissing softly.

 

“Because I can't move my hand anymore, that's how,” Inuyasha snapped. “Now, if you're done asking pointless questions, just stand somewhere out of the way while I take care of the demon.”

 

Kagome tried to protest, but the hanyou was already in motion, his good hand raised as he charged towards the coiled snake. It watched him emotionlessly, head swaying from side to side. At the last second it uncoiled, darting out of the way of Inuyasha's vicious swipe and circling behind him. Inuyasha spun in midair, kicking out with one foot to propel himself off the wall. The snake shot towards him, evading his scything claws and embedding its needle-thin fangs in his thigh.

 

Inuyasha let out a purely canine growl and grabbed the serpent's flailing body, jerking it away from his leg. With a frightening single-mindedness, he closed the demon snake's head in his hand and squeezed. There was a high-pitched whistle, like a kettle releasing steam, and the emerald-scaled body thrashed frantically but Inuyasha grimly tightened his hold until the snake went limp.

 

“Keh.” The hanyou dropped the corpse to the floor where it twitched a few times then fell still. Absently wiping his good hand on his pants, Inuyasha turned his attention back to the snakebite. His thumb had swollen to twice its size, and the skin was darker than before.

 

Kagome glanced at the motionless form of the serpent demon and shuddered, moving over to Inuyasha. “You killed it so… quickly,” she said.

 

Inuyasha snorted, pinching the discoloured punctures until they began to ooze greenish fluid again. “It was weak.”

 

“But still, it was a demon.” Kagome watched his attempts to get rid of the poison for a few seconds before shaking her head. “That's not going to work.”

 

“How do you know?” the hanyou asked, mimicking her earlier question.

 

Kagome gave him a deadpan look. “I'm a miko, O brilliant one. I've been learning the healing arts for years. If you don't have the proper tools, you have to draw the poison out with your mouth.”

 

“What?” Inuyasha looked revolted, which Kagome found a bit ironic, him having just crushed the head of another creature with his bare hands.

 

“I said, you have to—”

“I know what you said! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.”

 

“Well, if you don't suck out the poison then you'll never get rid of it completely.”

 

“No way in hell.”

 

“Oh, for the love of—give me your hand!” The girl grabbed his wounded hand and pulled it towards her, trying to remember everything Kaede and Kikyo had taught her. She put her lips on the cut before Inuyasha could protest and forced herself not to gag as she began sucking the mixture of blood and poison from the snakebite, pausing at regular intervals to spit out the venom.

 

Blushing furiously, Inuyasha tried to pull his unresponsive hand away from Kagome, but the venom had worked its way up to his shoulder by now, rendering his arm useless. He pushed half-heartedly at her shoulder with his good hand, trying to ignore the small part of him that was disappointed by the numbness in his other hand. What, that small part of him wondered, did Kagome's lips feel like?

 

I don't care what they feel like, he thought firmly. I don't care at all, not one bit, not even a little—

 

“It would be easier to bring down the swelling if I had my herbs with me,” Kagome mumbled, examining the wound with a practiced eye. She carefully wiped away the blood and venom around the cuts before releasing his hand. “Still, that should do until we can get it looked at by a healer.”

 

Inuyasha craned his neck to look at his hand where it hung numbly by his side. The skin on his thumb was less mottled, and the cuts were clotting neatly instead of leaking poison and infected blood. The feeling had already begun returning to his fingertips.

 

“I could've done it myself,” he muttered by way of thanks.

 

Kagome rolled her eyes. “You're welcome.” She suddenly looked at him strangely, as if remembering something. “Uh, Inuyasha?”

 

“What?” he replied vaguely, concentrating on gaining control over his fingers. The youkai half of his blood was already eliminating any residual venom in his bloodstream, and he could tell it would only be minutes before he was back to normal.

 

Weren't you… um… bitten on the leg?” Kagome asked nervously.

 

Inuyasha's head jerked up in shock, red staining his cheeks at the implications of her words. “No! I mean, yes, but the fire rat cloth protected me, so it didn't poison me or anything, so there's no need to…!” He halted his babbling in favour of simply showing her, stretching out the undamaged material of his hakama. “See?” he snapped embarrassedly.

 

Kagome couldn't help but laugh at his harried expression, ignoring any and all strange emotions that rose in her at his hasty denial and focusing on her relief. “I'm glad,” she said, smiling.

 

“Keh.” Inuyasha turned his head away, swinging his arm as it began to tingle with renewed life.

 

A sudden loud roar, muffled slightly by the walls, made them both jump.

 

“That sounds like cheering,” Kagome said, looking from the huge double doors to the black opening of the chute they had tumbled down. She stiffened abruptly as she realized what this meant. “Inuyasha, I think the Bonding is done!”

 

Inuyasha stood still for a moment, listening, then nodded. “It sounds like they're all moving out of the Room of Divine Unity.”

 

“We have to get back to the waiting room!” Kagome grabbed his unhurt hand and pulled him towards the door. She cautiously opened one of the double doors, poking her head out and peering around before walking into the corridor. Inuyasha followed her, shutting the door behind them.

 

“Now which way?” Kagome wondered, frustrated. “I have no idea where we are.”

 

Inuyasha let out a long-suffering sigh, crouching down slightly. “Hop on. I'll track our scent back, if I can.”

 

“Are you sure?” Kagome asked apprehensively, knowing how he hated people clinging to him.

 

“Just get on, stupid girl,” he ordered roughly. “It's payment for… for getting rid of the poison. But after this we're even,” he added hastily as Kagome happily clambered onto his back.

 

“Okay!” She put her hands on his shoulders as he gripped her legs, shifting her body around in a most disconcerting way until she was comfortable and laughing every time he twitched.

 

Inuyasha muttered under his breath as he took off down the long corridor, testing the air with his nose and trying to ignore the combined sensations flowing through his limbs via the Bond. This is turning out to be one of those days…

 

“Whee! Inuyasha, I didn't know this would be so fun!”

 

“Only an idiot would think this is fun, wench. Ack! Stop moving around up there!”

 

More laughter.

 

“And no giggling, goddamit!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, Inuyasha… he takes all the fun out of life. But don't worry, he will get better! Just as soon as Kagome trains him, that is ;) Well, what did you all think? This chappy was a little longer than the others, but I'm sure that's nothing to complain about, right? Hopefully it was enjoyable—I was having trouble deciding how I would write this one, so I'm not sure I got the desired effect, but I'm too lazy to go back and rewrite it. You will have to manage :) Anyway, you know the deal—read and review, and I will give you candy. Hurrah for candy! :D

 

~SilverMyste~