InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Catch a Falling Star ❯ for he had an excited look in his eyes ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three

"Inuyasha-sama!" Kagome tensed at the sound of the voice, shifting so as to look past Inuyasha at Kouga, who seemed unruffled, then towards the sound of the voice coming from the path ahead of them. She could hear the boy--the young man, she corrected herself; he was only a few years younger than she, and was a man full grown by the standards of the feudal era--running along the path; moments later he was in sight. "Inuyasha-sama," he exclaimed with poorly-concealed delight. Kagome stole a look at Inuyasha as well, noting that he had arranged his features into the expression of gruff annoyance he usually wore around the b--Kohaku.

"You were louder than a herd of oxen, twerp," Inuyasha observed sourly as Kohaku approached them.

Kohaku grinned unrepentantly, looking up at the hanyou with eyes shining in pride. "Humans wouldn't have heard me at all."

Inuyasha grimaced, uncomfortable as always with the hero-worship so plain in Kohaku's treatment of him. He's rather cute when he tries to look annoyed, Kagome thought wistfully. She was glad he hadn't said anything about her having embraced him earlier, when trying to get him not to hurt Kouga-kun. She wasn't quite sure why she'd done so, and he probably didn't care for her to have done it; he'd been increasingly distant ever since Naraku and then the whole thing with the Shikon jewel. Although now she had an idea of why he'd been so angry with her when she woke up the morning after that fight with Naraku; characteristically, he'd never explained.

"Keh! With all your yelling? Walking quietly's no help when your mouth gives you away. What good would that do you if a hungry youkai happened by?"

Kohaku laughed, walking backwards in front of the other three as he continued to talk to Inuyasha. "It's your forest; you'd let that kind of youkai in this far? Besides, I'm sure they would've run when they heard me calling you." Without waiting for a reply to that, he added, "You didn't tell me you were going to find Kagome-neesan," in a reproachful tone.

I should figure out a way to apologize to him. I'd do it again, but I didn't know what it might imply to him. Suggesting--whether by word or action--that Inuyasha wasn't capable of protecting her, or the others in the pack, was not something Kagome would ever want to do. Sometimes his self-confidence seemed so fragile, and he'd been trying hard to be responsible to them all. "Inuyasha, why don't you introduce Kohaku?" she asked, mentally shaking herself. I'm so tired that I'm not paying attention. Stop it. I almost forgot that Kohaku wasn't here when Kouga stopped by this spring. She'd not been sleeping well since, well, for ages; but that was no excuse for rudeness.

"Your friend," the hanyou retorted, before grudgingly saying, with a jerk of his thumb towards Kouga, "Kohaku, this is Kouga. He's a wolf pack leader."

Kohaku, having refrained from looking directly at the stranger until introduced--his mother had instilled some really beautiful manners in him, Kagome thought--paused in his backwards walk to bow politely. "Pleased to meet you."

"Aa." Kagome relaxed at the wolf youkai's offhanded response; she didn't think they'd ever met each other before the last fight with Naraku, but Kagome was fairly certain that Kohaku had been fighting with Kouga's pack while Kouga was in the courtyard with Inuyasha and the rest of them. Inuyasha had mentioned once that Kouga had lost some of his pack in the fighting; Kagome experienced a rush of relief, glad that the wolf youkai appeared to have traveled by himself this time.

As Kohaku straightened, he smiled at the wolf youkai. "Elder Sister has mentioned you. She said you were almost the fastest youkai she'd ever seen." He began his backwards walk once more as they moved forward, glancing over his shoulder from time to time to make sure of the path. Their pace had him walking at a skipping step as he sought to keep in front of them.

"Yeah, dog turd here can't keep up with me," Kouga bragged. He ignored Inuyasha's growl, asking, "Elder Sister?"

Kohaku nodded. "Sango. The female taijiya in Inuyasha's pack." His smile reappeared. "She was the best taijiya in our whole village."

"Oi, twerp, stop jumping about like a grasshopper," grumbled Inuyasha.

"Only Inuyasha is a demon stupid enough to travel with a demon hunter," Kouga said dryly.

Kagome closed her eyes at Kouga's remark, resigned and tired both; Inuyasha was unlikely to let the comment pass, and she didn't know what to expect from the two of them. There was so much she'd missed to their earlier fight. "Kohaku-kun, would you mind carrying my basket for me?" She passed him the basket without waiting for a response, hearing Inuyasha beside her draw in a breath. Hastily, she added, "Ne, Kouga-kun, I'm sure Kohaku would like to know more about your pack. Tell him about Ginta and Hakkaku; I'm sure he'd like them." With that, she reached out to take Inuyasha's hand and tug on it, slowing her pace to let Kohaku and Kouga draw ahead.

As soon as Kouga and Kohaku were several yards in front of them, Kagome loosened her hold on Inuyasha's hand. Disappointingly, he didn't try to retain their clasp. "Hell, bitch, you shouldn't try interfering like that," he said, displeasure evident in his scowl.

Kagome pitched her voice low, trying to keep it out of earshot for Kouga. "Inuyasha, on the way back here from Naraku's, do you recall how Sesshomaru kept insulting you, but refused to fight?"

"That asshole. . . . "

"I think he's like that, too," Kagome said, tipping her head towards Kouga. "Most of the time it's because they know you'll react."

"Keh! They ought to expect me to!" Inuyasha crossed his arms, claws digging into the cloth of his sleeves.

Kagome nodded patiently, looking up at the hanyou. "That's just it, Inuyasha, they do." His bangs had grown so long that his eyelashes flicked against them when he blinked, as he was doing now, the irritated scowl easing into puzzlement.

"They want me to react?" His ears lowered uncertainly before turning forward. Inuyasha grinned, a certain aggressive relish entering his features. "Then they want to fight."

Pushing her hair back from her eyes as she made a noise of dissent, Kagome shivered when her hand brushed in front of one of her ears, ruffling the sensitive guard hairs. "Oh!" She twitched, then shook her head more firmly, dropping her hand with fingers clenched; claws pricked into her palm and she eased her fist before she hurt herself. At Inuyasha's checked stride and inquiring glance, she said, "It was nothing, really. No, I don't think they want to fight, exactly. That comment Sesshomaru made about how you used Tesutsaiga, for instance. . . ."

Inuyasha's teeth clicked together in an angry snap as his scowl returned. "What of it?"

Kagome shifted her gaze to study the leaves of the birches alongside of which they were walking. The leaves had started to turn over the past few weeks, and their gold was just the color of Inuyasha's eyes. "Well, do you remember why you didn't take a swing at him in response?" She'd always liked the contrast of pale white trunks and vivid birch leaves in the autumn; and now, as the wind ruffled through them and brought her their scent--she tried to put a finger on what it reminded her of; almost like grass and drying hay, but more mellow--she drew in a little breath of delight. No matter how unexpectedly events had turned out, there were some gains; not quite sufficient to compensate for the loss of her family or the trouble she'd caused Inuyasha, but trees and family were different orders of things, anyway.

"I was holding Kohaku, that's why!" Inuyasha said indignantly, after a pause. "I couldn't carry him and fight Sesshomaru." He said this in a tone that indicated it should have been obvious to a five-year-old.

Kagome looked away from the trees to smile at him. "I think he was counting on that."

Inuyasha drew back, appalled; she could even catch the tang of it in his scent. "He was doing it just to irritate me? For kicks? What kind of fucking asshole is that twisted?" Kagome lifted a finger to her lips in a gesture for him to lower his voice, looking pointedly at Kouga. Inuyasha's eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth, following her gaze to the wolf youkai. "I should rip both their guts out."

"Half of their amusement is seeing you get angry, though. I could suggest another way for you to respond." Kagome felt momentarily guilty for her willingness to explain this to Inuyasha--it wouldn't exactly promote very social behavior--but if it kept him from getting his temper ruffled so predictably, it was probably a good thing. It's been used against him, sometimes, his temper. People taunting him so he'd get angry and maybe loose his head in a fight, that they might kill him. I don't want that. Besides, I've become such an obligation on him; if this could help, then I ought to tell him. Inuyasha looked suspicious. "Just do the same to them. Wait until they're in a position where they can't respond the way they'd like, and there you go."

"Keh! It doesn't sound too great."

"It doesn't have an invitation to draw swords in it," Kagome conceded, eyes closing as she grinned up at Inuyasha. Her earlier delight in the leaves returned, swelling into a flash of joy; she was so glad, no matter what had happened to her in consequence, that his wish hadn't been to become a youkai. He was so perfectly himself; she loved him intensely for that. "But it will irritate them the way they irritate you now, as long as you don't say something so wicked that they've no choice but to fight over it."

Kagome opened her eyes to find Inuyasha looking down at her, his cat-slit pupils narrow against the afternoon sunlight filtering through her trees. She wondered if hers looked the same, or if her pupils were even noticeable, since her eyes were darker. In a voice less irked than she had anticipated, he said, "So you think that'll work."

"You've insulted people to get them to fight you; it's just like that, only not so extreme. It might take some practice, but I think it will work. Or you could just ignore them. Since they want you to react, if you don't react, they'll have no reason to keep trying."

A grin turned up the corners of Inuyasha's mouth. "Training, eh?"

Kagome laughed. "Not like Toutousai's," she said, knowing he was remembering his efforts building the old demon's bathing tub. It had taken him almost a year afterwards before he'd told her of that fiasco, too aware of the humor of the situation not to want to share it with someone, but too touchy about his pride to tell it easily. He'd told it to her one of the rare times they were alone, on the way to the well from Kaede's village--their village, now. Knowing he felt comfortable enough with her to share the story . . . she hoped to meet the little cat youkai one day. Of course, he did refuse to tell me the ending until I promised to come back after only three days in my time. A bribe and a promise that I'd be back soon . . . that was rather clever of him, really, as an alternative to yelling or making me "sit" him.

Inuyasha glanced away, his grin becoming smug. Kagome would bet it was the prospect of being thought to do something wicked.

Ahead of them, Kohaku turned around, his eyes wide with laughter. "Kagome-neesan, did they really steal all a daimyo's flowers for you?"

Kagome flushed, red warming her cheeks. "Well. . . . "

Kouga snorted. "Those baka. I didn't need their help."

Inuyasha said, with a goading gleefulness that Kagome hoped she was the only one to hear, "No-one could have helped you, wimpy wolf. Your cause was doomed."

"You never brought Kagome flowers, dog turd."

Kagome said to Kohaku, talking over the squabbling of the other two youkai, "They took all the peonies out of a daimyou's garden in Kouzuke province a year ago this past spring, because they knew I liked the flowers Kouga brought me once. Only when they came to bring them that night, they disturbed Inuyasha."

"They nearly pissed themselves when I jumped out of the tree to talk to them," Inuyasha inserted, abruptly turning his attention away from Kouga. Kagome wondered who had gotten the last word in that argument. When she saw the hanyou's eyes slide over to give Kouga a pointed stare and a fanged smirk, she bit down on her lower lip--holding back a smile or a sigh, she wasn't sure which. It looked like the quarrel was still ongoing.

"Ginta and Hakkaku were so startled that they dropped all the flowers, you see. And then, when they were--were--"

"Running away," Inuyasha supplied.

Kouga bristled. "You'd recognize it from experience, dog turd."

"Ah, well, they trampled on all the peonies." Kagome glanced between Inuyasha and Kouga, having second thoughts about her earlier comments to the hanyou.

Kohaku's face crumpled with laughter. "Did the daimyo catch them?"

"Fuck," said Inuyasha sourly, "he came after us."

"I guess that Ginta and Hakkaku had been a little too noisy when stripping the garden, and as petals kept dropping as they ran, it left a trail straight to us," Kagome explained. Now it was Kouga who had started to smirk, as Inuyasha's features continued to darken.

Kohaku looked appropriately awe-struck to satisfy both Inuyasha and Kouga, Kagome noted; his expression was a perfect mix of laughter combined with dismay. "What happened then?" he asked.

"Miroku managed to convince them that we weren't the culprits, but the daimyo--"

"Kagome." She looked at Inuyasha inquiringly. "Not. One. More. Word."

"But," Kagome protested. Her eyes rounded as she remembered how the incident had concluded. "Oh."

"What happened, what happened?" Kohaku asked eagerly, glancing between the two. Kouga looked interested as well, sizing up Inuyasha's obvious disgruntlement with the beginnings of humor glittering in his eyes.

"Um, well." Kagome flicked a nervous glance between those two and Inuyasha, who gave her a flat stare. Her ears lowered. "Er. Well. We--we--we satisfied the daimyo and left his territory the next day," Kagome finished in a rush.

Kohaku's expression was crestfallen. "That can't be the whole story."

"It's all you're going to hear, twerp," Inuyasha said gruffly, catching hold of Kagome's wrist and dragging her between Kohaku and Kouga in the direction of the village. She could see the tall branches of the God Tree over the canopy around them, the ancient tree looming over those around it; they weren't too far from the village, now.

Kagome lengthened her stride so as to keep up with Inuyasha without stumbling. "Ginta and Hakkaku went back to Kouga--Inuyasha, you can slow down, I'm not going to say anything--"

"I could ask Older Brother to tell me," Kohaku said, hurrying to catch up.

"Look at that. Dog turd's embarrassed about something," Kouga observed, strolling after the other three at a casual pace, crossing his arms behind his head.

Kohaku shot him a startled glance. "Inuyasha-sama, embarrassed?"

Inuyasha snarled. "Miroku is not going to say a word to you on the subject, twerp."

"He probably had to play fetch for the daimyo," Kouga suggested slyly.

"The only stick I'd fetch is one to shove up your ass!"

Certain that neither Kohaku nor Kouga could see her face as they walked behind, Kagome shot Inuyasha a quelling look, saying at the same time, "Inuyasha, Miroku was going to be handling the service for Sai-san; he died while you and Kohaku were away. I think Kaede-bachan was planning to tend the shrine this afternoon. Do you want them there to listen to Kouga's news?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder to smile at the wolf youkai reassuringly. He grunted a terse acknowledgement; Kagome turned back to Inuyasha, raising her brows in question.

"Aa. Might as well," Inuyasha said grudgingly; after a remark like the last one, Kouga was fortunate not to have started another fight. And Kagome imagined she'd be in for an earful later when Inuyasha gave her his opinion on her continued interference. The hanyou paused for a moment, then looked back in turn. "Kohaku, you run ahead and tell Sango, and see if you can find the others and have them come."

"Hai," Kohaku said crisply, bowing once again to Kouga. "Please excuse me. It has been a pleasure to meet you, Kouga-san." He straightened. "Shall I leave your basket with Elder Sister, Kagome-neesan?"

"If you don't mind. I'm sorry for the trouble."

"It's no trouble. Ja, then!"

Kagome smiled, watching the b--young man dash off down the path. "He has such beautiful manners."

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, facing her suspiciously. "Is that supposed to make me feel guilty? Because it doesn't."

Laughing, Kagome shook her head, stepping apart from Inuyasha to look at both him and Kouga. "Not at all. You and Kouga-kun are . . . unique unto yourselves. True individuals."

The two unique individuals shared a bristling glance, uncertain that they cared to be lumped together.

"Keh! I'm nothing like that wimpy wolf."

"Who'd want you to be, dog turd?"

"Wimpy wolf."

"Dog turd!"