InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Presence of Autumn ❯ A Trip to the Hot Springs ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: You know the drill.

(A/N) This chapter is much fluffier overall. Enjoy!

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Chapter 7: A Trip to the Hot Springs

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Kagome and the other human girl Sango woke Akiko about an hour before dawn. They were going to a nearby spring to bathe and wanted to know if she felt up to joining them. Delighted at the prospect, bathing wasn't something Naraku had given her time to do this past month, she struggled to her feet and did her best to keep up with them. They walked slowly, for Akiko's benefit, she was sure, but nevertheless she did appreciate the easy pace. Her still weak body ached all over and it would be some time before she was truly healthy.

So much was she looking forward to the idea of bathing that she failed to notice the fact that Inuyasha had decided to accompany them, albeit without their knowledge.

The spring they found was, to their delight, naturally heated. Akiko nearly whimpered with delight at the sight of steam rising off the water. She did her best to try and undress herself, but her trembling fingers proved inadequate to the task of untying the belt of her hakama. With a gentle and understanding smile on her face, Kagome offered her a hand.

"Thank you." Akiko nodded, and Kagome moved in front of her to pull the knot apart. "Again."

"What else did you thank me for?" Kagome wondered.

"Everything. Helping me. Catching me. Feeding Me." Akiko sighed as the belt came undone. She almost literally had to peel her hakama off; they were so encrusted with filth that they would be no good beyond this for anything at all, not even scrubbing floors. "I don't know what I'm going to wear after this." She mumbled.

"Not to worry." Sango said brightly as she came over. In her arms she held a bright red yukata patterned with large beige flowers. "This should fit you well enough; at least until we can get you some replacements for you own clothes." She unfurled it and laid it across a large rock to let the wrinkles in it settle out while they bathed.

Akiko was moved by their open hearted generosity. Blinking at the sudden stinging behind her eyes she vowed to herself that someday, somehow she would repay them.

Her worn-out beige yukata was peeled off next and then she was free. She took a hand from Kagome and settled into the hot spring slowly, one agonizingly wonderful inch at a time. Immersed in the hot water she felt layers of scum begin to soak off of her skin.

It was only a short while later that Kagome produced from a bag she'd brought with her an assortment of oddly shaped bottles and strange looking implements. One thing was something fluffy, but it appeared to be made of a fine net-like material and was a pale pink in color. Kagome handed it to her with one of the oddly pliable bottles and told her what to do with it. The body-puff, as Akiko soon learned it was called, was the most wonderful invention ever! It not only scrubbed the layers of grime off her skin but it also held a delightful substance called body wash that smelled of jasmine and vanilla and produced a mass of tiny soft bubbles that scoured the filth away without making her skin rough and raw.

The next miracle that Kagome produced from her Bag of Wonders was something she called shampoo. It was the same type of substance as the body wash only it was meant to be applied to hair. Akiko had to use half the bottle to fully clean both her hair and her tail, but it was worth it! It was so very worth it! Kagome next produced conditioner and Akiko was left in awe. Her hair had never felt so soft and silky, nor had it ever shined so brightly!

Doing her best to wring her hair out as much as she could she left the water with Kagome at her behest and took a seat on a rock next to the spring. Kagome brought out a comb and began carefully untangling Akiko's hair. It took about twenty minutes just to comb through all of the female hanyou's hair; cleaned and combed out wet it fell to the backs of her knees standing up. It took some work with the oddly shaped comb that Kagome provided, but finally all the snarls were worked out of her tail as well, while Kagome and Sango took turns combing through each other's hair.

Setting the comb aside and donning the borrowed yukata, Akiko smiled blissfully.

She felt like a new demon.

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Inuyasha was no letcher. He didn't follow the girls to watch them, only to make sure that he could hear them if they needed help. He picked a nice tree to perch in and wait for them to come back out of the forest.

Despite being a jerk sometimes, he took his job of protecting the girls very seriously. Every time something serious happened to Kagome he felt terrible; when she was in the past, she was in his care. Sango he looked after as a sister; even though she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, he was still there for her when she needed him, which she did from time to time. So he didn't know what to think about Akiko.

Part of him wanted very badly to send her on her way and have nothing further to do with her. She was a very possible threat to him and his friends; there was no telling if she was out of Naraku's influence, she might go ballistic on them and try to murder them all in their sleep. With that collar still around her neck, what was to stop Naraku from coming after her to get back his jewel shards?

However there was another part of him that wanted to keep her very near. She was the only hanyou he had ever met, aside from himself of course, and he wanted to have the chance to get to know her. Had her life been similar to his? Had her parents been killed? Had people shunned her for being a halfling, but belonging in neither the human world nor the demon world? Did she have problems with her demon blood dominating her? Did she have a human night?

Many questions ran through his mind, all of them screaming to be answered, but a slight sound in the woods silenced them all.

His ears flipped forward, honing in on that slight sound. Was it music? It sounded like someone humming. Leaning forward to concentrate better he frowned. It wasn't a voice he recognized well, so it must have been Akiko's. It was warm and vibrant in tone, and it filled the air with a sense of peaceful contentment. The gentle wind was blowing in precisely the right direction for him to catch her scent before she emerged from the shadows. Her scent was positively intoxicating; it filled his nose to bursting with its warmth and depth, so many layers of subtly different scents that he felt he could spend days analyzing each one by itself. Her scent brought to mind unspeakable things involving moonlight and throaty laughter and long sweaty nights; it made his stomach clench in a not altogether unpleasant feeling knot of heat and shivers.

He was surprised when she came into view. When last he'd seen her she'd been a positive wreck. Matted hair and tail, filth caked into her clothes and hair and onto her skin, wounds half healing or infected. She was still emaciated. But all the filth had been literally washed away.

The first thing he realized was that her hair was not gray and black as he'd first thought. The gray had only been the dirtiness, because now it was pristine silvery white fading into deep ebony black at the ends and shiny as silk and it fell fully to the backs of her thighs. Her tail was long and sleek, waving slightly from side to side like a pendulum with the gentle flow of her hips from step to step. Her skin was tanned in the same manner that fair skin becomes tanned when exposed to many hours of sunlight. It was a warm, slightly nutty looking golden color. A gorgeous scarlet and beige-flower patterned yukata had replaced her worn out hakama and haori. Her eyes still leapt out to him. Fully opened they were a shade of startlingly bright green to rival sun-drenched emeralds, but hooded with her long black lashes they became a deep, secretive forest green; opening them fully, therefore, had the affect of completely changing their color. Her lips were dusky rose color and he again found himself wondering how they would taste.

Forcing himself to snap out of it, he cleared his throat and leapt down from the tree. She stopped in her tracks and looked at him with a light blush on her cheeks and a question in her eyes.

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Inuyasha dropped out of the tree ahead of her with all the grace of a mountain lion. He landed touching the ground with one knee and the opposite hand then rose to his full height to turn eyes of molten gold on Akiko. It surprised her somewhat that he was actually taller than her; she lived in a village consisting mostly of humans and she was as tall as or taller than all of the men. She had to look up slightly to look into his eyes. It also surprised her to see the slight tinge of color in his cheeks.

Her ears twitched back as she caught the sound of a foot scuffing the dry earth of the road, and the sound of Sango's laugh reached her. She searched Inuyasha's face one more time before turning to watch Kagome and Sango emerge from the woods.

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Kagome realized something as she caught sight of Inuyasha and Akiko. They looked right standing beside each other. They'd only known each other for a day, but the two Hanyous looked like they belonged together, even though it was probably only because they were both Hanyous. They had such similar physical traits that it was slightly unnerving; similar fuzzy dog ears (Akiko's being black at the tips), uniquely colored eyes (Kagome'd never seen such a green green), long white hair (though Akiko's was black at the ends). It had been Inuyasha the Hanyou for so long that it was odd to see another one.

Nevertheless, they had found her, and it had only taken a little bit more to accept her. She was a Hanyou, just like Inuyasha, and they all had a good idea of how rough life had been on him, so they naturally assumed that her life hadn't been much easier.

Purposefully wiping the frown off her face, Kagome stepped up into a happy trot as she came out of the trees' shadows. Akiko smiled at her. Inuyasha's frown became less intense. Sango followed her out and smiled in greeting. Together they all walked back to their campsite.

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(A/N) Slightly shorter than last time, but I promise that the next one will hold interesting plot stuff.