InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Catch a Falling Star ❯ this comfortable situation ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter Four

Kohaku jogged along the last mile or so of the path leading towards the village, Kagome's basket bumping gently against his ribs with every stride. As he ran, he concentrated on his breathing. Inuyasha-sama had said one could run longer if one moderated one's breathing, in through the nose and out through the mouth; his own father had said something similar about fighting. Kohaku was pleased that their advice complemented each other's so well. He also paid attention to the placing of his feet; landing heel-first was quieter, and he could be quieter still by making sure not to brush against any of the undergrowth, or do something stupid like stepping on a twig.

Kouga had seemed pretty interesting, a full youkai--the first one Kohaku had met aside from Sesshomaru and Jaken, if one didn't count whomever he had met while being manipulated by Naraku; well, and he lived with Shippou and Myouga-jii, so he supposed it didn't really count as anything special after all. But Kouga looked tough, rougher than Inuyasha-sama; wilder, Kohaku supposed. He was glad that his family hadn't run into any wolf youkai in the past; from something Elder Sister had said, Kouga's pack had once eaten humans when they felt like it, though they'd stopped sometime after meeting Kagome-neesan.

There: only a short distance from the last of the trees stood the house, the closest of all the village homes to the forest and the shrine. Unlike the others situated not far from it, its front doors and spacious porch faced the trees; there was another door on the village side of the house, too, but Kohaku preferred the forest-looking, paper-screened aspect to the house better than the more formal village-side entrance. No other houses in the village had paper screens; they'd only been able to manage such by bringing them back--he'd been the one to fetch them--from his and Sango's old village; he liked how they reminded him of Shinta, who'd been his best friend. He'd knocked a hole in one of the paper panels a few years ago when over at his friend's house, and his mother had sent him back with a gift of food and paper that Kohaku could patch the tear himself. The paper had come all the way from Kyoto, a gift from one of the village's former clients, and had a translucent pattern of maple leaves worked into the thin whiteness of it.

Stepping onto the porch, he slid the door back. "Elder Sister?" Kohaku called, setting the basket down. If his sister were awake to hear him, he wouldn't have to take off his sandals.

"Kohaku?" Her voice sounded muffled, as if it were maybe coming from cooking area.

"I'm on the porch, Elder Sister," he called back, shifting his weight impatiently from one foot to the other. "Inuyasha-sama sent me ahead; he's coming back with a friend of Kagome-neesan's, the wolf youkai you told me was here this spring? Kouga-san. I--" He lowered his voice as his sister appeared; she'd definitely been in the kitchen, and was patting her hands dry on the green apron she wore. It was tied a little higher than was her wont, to accommodate the loss of her waistline and spread of her belly.

"Kouga is here?" Sango's delicate eyebrows raised in surprise as she came to greet him, Kirara following after her, tails flagged high in the air. "I didn't think he'd be back after the ruckus he caused this spring."

"Kagome-neesan said something about him--his having some news," Kohaku said, trying to remember Kagome-neesan's exact words. He eyed his sister carefully as Kirara approached him, sniffed carefully, then wove a greeting around his ankles. Sango's skin was creamy, flush with--with heat, maybe, if she'd been in the kitchen. "Hey, Kirara," he murmured, bending to pet the fire cat's small form.

"Really? I suppose Miroku will be interested. Would you mind fetching him? They're burying Sai-san in the cemetery field behind the shrine, and are probably to be done soon if they're not already." Sango looked past Kohaku at the forest, then back to him. "How far behind you are the others?"

"About a mile," Kohaku replied, straightening.

"Then I've time to heat some water for tea."

"Aa, I think so."

"If Miroku's standing next to a pretty girl, watch him carefully and smack him for me if he does anything perverted, would you?" Sango smiled at Kohaku; his most recent growth spurt had put him just at eye level with her, finally, and he could see the glint in her eye that indicated she was serious and Miroku in trouble if he were up to any antics.

"Haaai," he said, turning the step off the porch to the ground into a jump. Kirara chirped a farewell. "I'll be back soon."

"Take care!" Sango called from behind him; as he jogged away, he could hear the door slide shut again.

Kohaku wished again, for possibly the hundredth time, that he hadn't been on a trip to their old village when Kouga had last come. He'd missed so much, being away then! Everyone had noticed how strangely Kagome-neesan had begun to act late that spring, starting nervously at the least bit of noise, flinching when she'd passed by outhouses and the ovens wherein roasted the cocoons of the silkworms cultivated by several of the village women; but with her obvious health contradicting any suspicion of illness, the situation had been chalked up to lingering bad dreams about Naraku's defeat, and the abnormalities subsumed by routine.

That was how things had been when Kohaku left; by the time he'd returned, Kouga had come and gone, leaving an infuriated Inuyasha and a stricken Kagome in his wake. It had been a horrible situation to which to come home; Inuyasha-sama yelling at Kagome-neesan, having finally pressured her to confess the wish she'd made that had dispersed the Shikon jewel, and Kagome-neesan saying nothing but apologies. It wasn't really her fault. She didn't know what was going to happen, Kohaku thought. Even though she said she was responsible, it doesn't make it her fault.

Kohaku sighed, hurrying along the dirt streets towards Kaede-baasan's house. He'd try to see if he could find her first, as she would need the most time to get to the pack's house. He never wanted to see Kagome-neesan weep; she had not done so since returning from her last trip through the well, and she didn't after finding out what the consequences of her wish were to be--but her face had been so tight, and so guiltily miserable when looking at Inuyasha-sama that Kohaku almost wished she had wept; he could have tried to comfort her, then, if Inuyasha-sama had still been angry.

"Kaede-baasan?" he called, approaching the house; but a tentative peek past the door curtain into the room showed it empty, the fire stoked carefully without a pot over or by it; she'd not been here in a while, then, and hadn't planned to be back soon. The shrine was next, then.

Just past Kaede's were the steps to the shrine and its first gate. Kohaku jogged up them, wondering what a youkai like Kouga could possibly have problems with that he couldn't handle himself, now that Naraku was dead. Was his pack being attacked? But surely he wouldn't have left them if that were the case. At the first landing of the stairs, just inside the second gate, Kohaku paused by the stone basin to ladle some water over his hands and rinse his mouth, careful to spit the rinse water only into the little moat surrounding the basin. The purification done, he climbed the last few stairs and looked around the shrine grounds. No sign of Kaede-baasan. That meant the temple itself, though he hoped he wouldn't be interrupting anything important.

Kohaku didn't have to. Before he even got as far as the temple, a russet streak shot through its doorway at him, shrieking. "Diiiiiiiiiiie, taijiya!" Leaping off the porch straight at him, it howled piercingly, "I am a fearsome youkai and I will killlllll youuuuuu!"

With a laugh, Kohaku shrank back, pretended to cower at the small form as it landed in front of him. "Don't eat me! Don't eat me!"

A puff of tail twitched in satisfaction. "Not today. You're too scrawny." The exchange was routine, though the initial threats varied every time Kohaku returned. Shippou hopped from one foot to the other, demanding, "Well? Well? How startled were you? Did I sound scary?"

"Pretty startled, and very scary--for a ball of fluff," Kohaku replied, meeting the small-fanged growl with a grin as he shifted his cowering stance to a crouch that put him at eye-level with the young kitsune, who otherwise only came up to Kohaku's knees.

"Next time I'll come at you from behind! Did you just get back? Is Inuyasha back with you?"

"I've been back a short while only, and yes. We've a visitor, though," Kohaku answered, standing as the red hakama of the old miko's garb caught his eye.

"Kohaku-san, welcome back. Did your trip go well?" Kaede said, stepping onto the temple porch.

"Who? Who's visiting?" Shippou asked, tugging on Kohaku's trousers for attention.

Kohaku nodded to Kaede, "It did, thank you." He reached down to tap firmly on Shippou's nose in a gesture he'd picked up from watching Inuyasha-sama. "It's not nice to interrupt when I'm talking to someone else, Shippou-kun." Ignoring the kit's disgusted grimace, he looked back up to Kaede to say, "Inuyasha-sama and Kagome-neesan were hoping you might be able to join them at the pack house. Kouga-san is here."

"Hm. That one again. Yes, I'll join them. Shippou, do you want to go with Kohaku-san? --I assume," Kaede said, glancing from the kit to Kohaku, "that you're also in search of Miroku-san? The rest of Sai-san's family came back by here a while ago; I think he should be about done."

"Thank you," Kohaku replied, then turned to Shippou inquiringly.

"I'll go with Kohaku," Shippou announced. "I want to ride on your shoulders."

Kohaku knelt again, letting the kitsune clamber over his back and straddle his neck. He held up his hands for Shippou to grasp, "No pulling the hair," he instructed, carefully standing up to adjust for his new balance without lurching.

"Yeah, yeah. Go up!"

The one and only time the kitsune had managed to talk Inuyasha into letting him ride on the hanyou's shoulders, Inuyasha had moved so swiftly that Shippou, startled and fearing to unbalance and fall, had grabbed hold of Inuyasha's ears. Kohaku turned his laugh at the memory into a smile for Kaede-baasan. "Thanks again." He'd learned a few new curses from that incident; Shippou might have, too, had he not been dazed by the speed with which he'd changed a perch on Inuyasha's shoulders for a seat on the ground.

Shippou tugged on Kohaku's right hand, steering the human boy around the temple. "This way. Is Kouga by himself? Did he and Inuyasha fight? They always fight when they meet each other," the young youkai informed Kohaku in a knowledgeable tone. "Kouga once stole Kagome, and Inuyasha doesn't like him at all. And Kouga says that dogs stink, so he doesn't like Inuyasha, either."

"So I've heard," Kohaku said, amused at the flood of information; he'd heard it all before, but refrained from saying so to Shippou; the kitsune was a gossip at heart, and liked to feel as if he were first in sharing any news. "Kouga-san is here by himself, and if he and Inuyasha-sama fought, it was before I caught up with them. But they argued a lot."

"Go this way now," Shippou replied, squeezing again on Kohaku's hand as the path made a turn towards the back of the shrine. "That's weird, that he's all alone. What did he and Inuyasha argue about?"

"It was mostly just insults. Kouga-san and Kagome-neesan were telling me about a thing with peonies, and Inuyasha said some of Kouga's pack were cowards, so they called each other names."

Shippou giggled. "The peonies!" He squeezed Kohaku's hands, demanding, "Jump down some of the stairs. Inuyasha must've been talking about Ginta and Hakkaku. They're nice, I guess. They let me have some of their fish, one night when they were sleeping nearby us. But they're awful idiots sometimes. Worse than Inuyasha when he's being the biggest jerk ever. Did he try getting Kagome to be his mate?"

Kohaku passed under the gate at the rear of the shrine and began descending the stairs, skipping every other one with careful jumps. Reaching the landing, he skipped over the last three stairs to land with a thump that had Shippou shrieking and clutching tightly at his hands. "No, he didn't." He looked over the field at the bottom of the stairs, seeking out the dark earth of a fresh grave and--there, yes; Miroku was standing at its foot by himself, staff tucked into the crook of one arm as he clasped his hands together.

"That's weird," Shippou said again, kicking his heels against Kohaku's chest; obediently, Kohaku moved forward again, taking the last flight of stairs more slowly. "I wonder if he doesn't like how she smells now. But Kagome's scent is really nice." The little kitsune sniffed, as if he could smell his adoptive mother right there.

Kohaku flushed, imagining what Kagome-neesan must smell like, if he could tell. It seemed he wasn't the only one to think that the changes were an improvement for Kagome; he'd thought her cute before, for a girl, but now . . . her ears. It was adorable the way they'd turn towards you. They looked so soft, too; he kept having to squelch the urge to feel them. And her long canine teeth, too, sometimes their tips would peep over her lower lip when she smiled. Kohaku would have wished to be her age, if she hadn't set such a vivid example of what could happen with wishes.

"Miroku! Miiiiiirokuuuu!" Shippou shouted as soon as Kohaku stepped off the last stair into the field. Across the grass from them, Miroku turned in their direction, shading his eyes from the lowering sun's glare with a hand, then waved. Shippou jigged excitedly, clutching Kohaku's hands. "Let me tell him, let me tell him, please?" he begged Kohaku.

"Alright, but tell him straightaway. No guessing games, or making him figure out which hand you've hidden the pebble in, or I'll tell." Kohaku grinned at Shippou's groan of disappointment before the kitsune grudgingly agreed.

Miroku having started toward them, they met up with the priest midway. "Welcome back, Kohaku-kun," he said in his smooth voice and with one of his genuine smiles. He had a repertoire of them that Kohaku had seen him put on display for various women, from the wistful, lost-boy grin that had obtained them a night's shelter on the way back from Naraku's, to the wicked, just-ask-me-and-see-what-I-won't-do smile he reserved for the prettiest women in a village when requesting a favor. It always worked; they blushed, looked away, and invariably gave whatever he'd been asking for. He thought Elder Sister had them catalogued, too; she always seemed especially vigilant when Miroku was walking around with a particular type of grin. "Did Inuyasha return with you?"

"Hai, older brother. He--" Kohaku choked to a stop as Shippou let go of Kohaku's hands to slap both his palms across Kohaku's mouth. "Mmph!"

"My news to tell!" Shippou cried, then tumbled forth with, "Miroku! Kouga's here! And he and Inuyasha have been arguing and calling each other names!"

"Is that so?" the priest asked, bemused.

Shippou lifted his hands from Kohaku's mouth. "There!"

"Shippou-kun, you forgot a part," Kohaku said, wiping the back of one hand against his mouth; Shippou's hands had been dirty, with what he hesitated to ask.

"I forgot a part? I didn't forget a part!" Shippou said, indignant.

With a sigh, Kohaku said to Miroku, "Inuyasha-sama and Kagome-neesan were hoping you could meet them at the house. --That's the part you forgot, Shippou-kun."

"I didn't forget that," Shippou protested. "I wanted to leave something for you to do."

"Thank you," Kohaku said wryly. "I appreciate the consideration."

"Geeze, don't be a jerk about it!"

"Maa, maa," Miroku interjected placatingly. "Of course I'll come right away."

Kohaku turned to head back towards the shrine steps. "They've probably arrived by now."

"Hmm. Has Kouga said why he's come?" Miroku asked, the rings in his staff chiming softly as he walked alongside the younger man.

Kohaku shook his head, "No. Kagome-neesan just said he had some sort of news."

Miroku cast an eye over the forest. "And I see no trees falling. How . . . unexpected."

"They weren't fighting when I left them," Kohaku said, uncomfortably; it didn't look like they'd been far away from it, either. Arriving at the steps, he reached up to lift Shippou from his shoulders. "You can climb back up yourself."

Shippou stuck his tongue out at Kohaku. "You're just being mean because I called you a jerk."

Kohaku smiled slightly. "I'm in good company with Inuyasha-sama, aren't I?"

"Heh," scoffed Shippou; after a couple of steps, he dropped to all fours, scampering up the tall stairs more easily than he could relying on his short legs alone.

For a moment Kohaku considered asking Miroku about the thing with the peonies, then discarded the idea; Inuyasha-sama had obviously been unhappy with how the occasion had concluded. It wouldn't be considerate to find out behind his back something he'd been so unwilling to discuss. Kohaku sighed. It had been an interesting story, though. He hoped it really wasn't that Kagome smelled like a dog that made the wolf youkai decide not to court her anymore. "What's Kouga-san like?" he asked Miroku instead as the two climbed the stairs. Shippou had already reached the top and sat there, tail twitching, as he called at them to hurry up.

"In some ways, he's a lot like Inuyasha," Miroku replied, head slightly bowed as he studied the stairs. His staff jangled with each step that he set it down. "Very confident in a fight and sure of his own abilities. About as rough-edged, though probably more social since I presume he grew up among the pack he led. Most of them are dead; Kagura killed them, which is why he ended up fighting Naraku with us that last time."

"Oh," Kohaku said, mouth twitching downwards as they crossed the shrine grounds. He wondered what he'd been doing during that last fight; no-one had ever mentioned it to him. At least he knew he hadn't hurt Elder Sister again; he'd been told of that, had almost remembered it from time to time himself. He smoothed his features before Miroku had a chance to look at his expression and question it. "Elder Sister said that he was really fast, and that he stole Kagome-neesan once."

Miroku nodded, a smile creasing the corners of his eyes as he responded readily. "He did. He wanted her to find some Shikon shards that some bird youkai had; the bird youkai had been picking off his pack members: they lived in the same mountain territory. Inuyasha was furious, of course. He ended up arguing with Kagome afterwards, because there'd been a fight and she'd protected Kouga--he was injured and needed her help, she'd said." As he walked, he swung the end of his staff further ahead of him, pretending to be about to pin Shippou's tail with it as the kitsune jogged along in front of them.

"Oi!"

Miroku said solemnly, "It's good exercise for you, Shippou. How quickly can you keep out of my way?" As his foot swung forward, he made another attempt to pin the kitsune's tail, failing as Shippou whisked his brush away just in time. "A little slow, are you?"

"I think she's good at that," Kohaku said, brightening.

"Aa. She's a soft touch when it comes to someone needing help; she even saved Kikyou's life a couple of times."

"Slow, hell!"

"Kagome-sama once said that her mother made her eat soap for using bad language," Miroku said, giving Shippou a meaningful look.

The kitsune was taken aback. "Eat . . . soap? But that would taste awful!"

Miroku closed his eyes and assumed a prayerful mien. Kohaku had noticed he often did so when providing instruction on some topic; Elder Sister had commented once that she thought it was because he believed it showed off his profile to advantage. "I believe that was the point; for how else do we learn the lessons of life but through experience?"

Kohaku privately thought that the comment made little sense in the context of soap-eating, but remained silent as they passed Kaede's house. Shippou's curled lips and grimace were too amusing to interrupt.

The kitsune's eyes popped open again. "Hey, that means Inuyasha should be eating a lot. We'd have no soap left at all!"

"Maybe that is why Kagome-sama has never tried to make him eat any," Miroku replied.

Kohaku supplied with a grin, "We'd never be able to wash if he had to eat some for all the bad language he uses."

Shippou giggled. "I'm going to tell him you said that."

"Do," Kohaku said readily, "and I'll tell him you told me about the peonies."

Shippou paled. "I didn't!"

"But," Kohaku whispered as they stepped inside the village-side front door of the house, "do you think he'd wait to find that out first, or after he had dealt with you for telling?" He slipped out of his sandals as Miroku slid the door shut.

With a glare, Shippou drew breath to reply, but was shushed by the two adults as they listened to voices coming from elsewhere in the house.

"The porch, I think," Miroku said quietly, making his way in that direction.