InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Shed a Little Light ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

A/N: Warning: sexual content in this chapter, but not enough to edit. I reiterate - this fic is rate M for a reason!

 

Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews, and, of course, a big thanks to thyme_cat for proofing this fic. Amazing eye for detail!

 

MMorg: docbevculver, Rinseternalsoul - mind-blowing, yes! , WhiteLuna, brower47, golden_kitsune, Amoraluv, obese_a_tron5000 (love the name), coldTenshieyes, thyme_cat

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

 

Chapter 5

 

Focusing her attention on the text in her hand, Kagome tried to ignore the violet robed monk who was slowly inching his way toward her seat on the ground. He was so subtle that at first she thought she'd been imagining it; any time she snuck a glance at him out of the corner of her eyes, he seemed to be sitting in a state of relaxed meditation, staring into the fire. She'd been forced to mark his progress by a small stone lying near the fire pit. Sure enough, he was getting inexorably closer, one inch at a time. Never in her life had she seen someone so perfectly execute the two-cheek scoot while sitting cross-legged.

 

Maybe if she ignored him, he'd get the hint that she didn't want to be bothered, though she had to admit that that was looking less and less likely.

 

Inuyasha had certainly picked up fast that she was irritable. She hadn't meant to sit him quite so hard, but really, what had he expected? `Shard detector, indeed.'

 

What a thing to say after almost kissing her (and she had almost let him, he'd been so gentle), costing her a piece of her soul, and then allowing her to be kidnapped and felt up by a monk. He was getting lousy marks in protection. His attitude toward her had also changed; after seeing his previous girlfriend, he'd become more distant and reserved, avoiding touching her except to carry her on his back or fend off the amorous monk. She supposed that she shouldn't complain, since she hadn't liked his advances any more than she liked Miroku's, but now she missed the attention. An insidiously unpleasant feeling told her that his only attraction to her had been her raging hormones and her resemblance to the priestess Kikyou. That jerk.

 

Her lord's behavior was another source of discontent for the teen. He'd been angry that she had the scent of another male on her person and possessive almost to the point of frightening her; not for her own safety but for the males with whom she traveled. But did he sweep her off her feet and carry her away to his castle in the clouds like a proper Prince Charming? No, he pleasured her until she could barely walk and then sent her back to camp with a warning about letting others touch what belonged to him. Though it warmed her to know that her lover felt some attachment to her, Kagome had to admit in her heart of hearts that the skulking around was wearing her down.

 

She'd tried to broach the subject of birth control, but had blushed so hard that the words had evaporated in her throat. Why could she talk about this stuff with her girlfriends but not with the man with whom she actually had sex? It made no sense and it could possibly have enormous repercussions for them both; however, Kagome had still washed semen from between her thighs without once mentioning using precautions against conceiving a child.

 

She wondered what she would do if she wound up pregnant: would he abandon her to her fate? Hanyou were not well liked, as she had seen by the reactions of the villagers to Inuyasha. What would Inuyasha do? Dump her down the well and tell her to piss off? What would her mother do? Kick her out of the house or send her to the countryside to marry some yokel? Boy, would that guy be surprised when the baby was born half-demon. What had been a titillating game had suddenly taken a turn for the terrifying. Just the same, Kagome could not help herself; she found that she craved his brief moments of tender affection as much as feeling him move inside of her and she was afraid that no matter how this turned out, she would end up getting hurt.

 

Gasping, Kagome whirled on the monk and smacked him over the head with her textbook, yanking her bottom out of the cup of his hand. “Keep your hands to yourself, pervert!”

 

“Now, now, Lady Kagome, I meant no harm. It simply looked lonely and I thought to offer it comfort,” Miroku held his hands up in a placating gesture and gave her an innocent smile.

 

“What do you mean by that?” she hissed between her teeth, incensed at his presumption and the fact that he'd managed to sneak up on her while she'd been wrapped in her thoughts. She may be a trifle paranoid, but she didn't like the way he was waggling his eyebrows; it was as if they shared some private joke.

 

“Nothing inappropriate, I assure you! Though should you miss the warmth of a male's touch, please know that I am ever at your service.” He sketched a mocking bow at her.

 

`He knows,' she thought to herself. `And he thinks I'm loose! Why did I ever convince Inuyasha to let him join our group?' Thought she couldn't remember what it was, she was sure she had had a reason.

 

“Back off, monk, before I pound you into the ground,” Inuyasha yelled from his perch in the lower branches of a tree. Leaning forward with a slight snarl to his lips, he looked ready to pounce.

 

“That's not necessary, Inuyasha!” Kagome called up quickly. Miroku smirked at her and Kagome had a sinking feeling that she would end up having to bribe the monk to keep quiet but she doubted he would be happy with candy. Speaking of which…

 

Glancing around the campsite, Kagome spied Shippo lounging against her bedroll and lazily sucking on a lollipop. Dropping her text next to her book bag, she gathered her bathing supplies and swept the kit into her arms.

 

“Bath time!” she sang, spreading a wide, fake smile across her face. Shippo didn't have time to protest before they were well on their way to the chilly little stream near the campsite. “And don't you guys dare follow us!” she called over her shoulder. “I mean it!”

 

Once they had reached the stream, Kagome dropped her shampoos and held the kit up under his arms to look him eye to eye. Shippo had begun to shake and sweat, his tail a blur as his eyes danced in their sockets.

 

“Shippo,” Kagome warned him, waiting until he met her gaze.

 

“He suspects!” the kit finally blurted, “but he doesn't know anything for sure!”

 

“Oh, Shippo, how did this happen?” Kagome whined and sat heavily on the ground. When the kit realized that he wasn't going to be punished, he relaxed and shook his head.

 

“It was during your `bath' the other day. He tried to sneak up to the spring but I caught him before he could see anything.”

 

“Then why would he suspect something?”

 

“Well…” Shippo scratched at his fluffy red ponytail and had the grace to blush. “You, uh, were making a lot of noise…”

 

“Oh,” Kagome interrupted him, flushing bright red as she realized to what Shippo was referring. Her lord had been particularly frisky that night and, as though he were attempting to prove that no man could please her like he could, he had done things with his tongue that felt so good that they had to be sinful, if not downright illegal. Hard pressed not to scream in ecstasy, she had bitten her lip until it bled (which he'd later licked up with a growl of pleasure) but had not been able to stifle all of her moans. “What am I going to do?”

 

“Maybe you should use your scarf as a gag instead of a blindfold,” Shippo suggested casually.

 

Kagome stared at him with her mouth hanging open, aghast. She did not want to know how he had found out about that. “Shippo!”

 

The kit shrugged and gave her a lopsided grin. “Don't worry, Kagome. I've got your back. You brought me candy, remember?” He held up the purple lollipop for her inspection. “Besides,” he said, his voice lowering to a whisper as his expression darkened, “that youkai knows that I'm in on this and if something were to happen to you, he'd kill me.”

 

“What?!” Kagome gasped, horrified, clutching Shippo tightly to her chest. She would never have involved the kit if she'd known she was putting him in danger. “Surely he wouldn't!”

 

Shippo cuddled closer, sucking on his lollipop like a teat. “Youkai males are protective of their bitches. He might let you stay with Inuyasha and Miroku for now, but if one of them hurt you or took you from him, even if you went willingly…”

 

He shuddered and Kagome tightened her arms around him. `I'm such a horrible person!' she thought, guilt churning in her stomach. She was sinking in a quagmire of lies and deception, the mud pulling at her feet and crawling up her thighs, but she had no intention of pulling Shippo down with her. How soon until it would begin to flow down her throat and block the air from her lungs? Maybe she should learn to breath underwater.

 

“I don't want you to get hurt,” she whispered to the bundle of fox demon in her arms. “I won't ask you to do this anymore.”

 

Leaning away from her chest to look her in the eyes, Shippo shook his head, flashing her a quick grin around the stick of his sucker. “Too late: he wouldn't allow me to stop even if I wanted to. And you need a strong demon like me to watch over you and make sure you can see your-”

 

“My what?” she prompted, wondering what it was about demons and not finishing their sentences.

 

Shippo sniffed and crossed his arms, trying to put on an air of superiority, but it was ruined by the lollipop and the fact that he was cradled in her arms. “It's a youkai thing. You wouldn't understand.”

 

“I suppose I wouldn't,” Kagome rolled her eyes and breathed a long-suffering sigh. If Shippo was content to coordinate her affair and her lover would have it no other way, then she was resigned to allowing it. After all, it didn't look like there was a thing she could do about it, including breaking it off. Not that she wanted to do that; the idea of leaving him tore at her soul with claws sharper than that of Urusae's soul-stealing spell.

 

“Shippo,” she said suddenly, startling the kit with the intensity of her low whisper. “Have you ever seen him?”

 

Giving her a long, hard stare, the kit rolled the sucker around in his mouth before finally answering her, “Not really, but I can sense that he's very powerful.”

 

“My friends say that he's using me.”

 

Shrugging noncommittally and giving her the impression of a much older being than he appeared, he punctuated his next statement with a jab of his lollipop. “You're thinking about peeking. I wouldn't, if I were you. If he's hiding himself, then he has a very good reason.”

 

`I should never have gotten involved with a demon,' Kagome bemoaned to herself. `It seemed like a good idea at the time!' And not just any demon, a powerful one with a need to keep secrets! Why did stuff like this always have to happen to her? Setting the kitsune on the ground, Kagome clambered to her feet, “Well, I guess we should take that bath.”

 

Shippo snickered, mischief dancing in his green eyes.

 

“Shippo! I mean, a real bath!” What did he take her for, a hentai?

 

“Sure, Kagome.”

 

XxxxxxxX

 

In the three years she had spent as a sexually mature female, Kagome could never remember greeting grinding cramps in her abdomen with such relieved enthusiasm. What she had always scathingly referred to as a curse in previous months was now a blessing. Clutching her sides and leaning forward slightly as she sat in front of the fire, Kagome grinned through the pain and thanked all that was holy that something had gone right for a change.

 

“What's wrong with you?” Inuyasha cocked his head and twitched his ears in a look of puppy-like confusion.

 

Miroku smirked and opened his mouth but Kagome cut him off at the pass before he could say anything incriminating. Not that Inuyasha would get it; he was a blockhead when it came to innuendo and subtlety. “It's nothing, Inuyasha! I'm fine.”

 

He took a long whiff in her direction, and then his eyes widened to golden saucers. Kagome didn't like that bright, slightly vacant look in his eyes, nor the way his nose twitched but his ears perked straight forward, locked on her. If he had had a tail, she was sure that it would have been swishing the air behind him.

 

The hanyou advanced on her slowly, almost crawling on his hands and feet. After each step, he would pause and sniff and Kagome had the impression that he wasn't really seeing her; he seemed to be looking inward or relying on his other senses for information. She leaned back a little in her seat, ready to scoot away if he tried something weird. Miroku was watching all of this with a raised eyebrow and a quirk of his lips. No source of help there.

 

Stopping about a foot from her folded legs, Inuyasha sniffed her, rising up on his haunches and then hunching over to taste the air all around her body, his nostrils flaring wider the closer he got to her crotch. Moving her arm calmly to her side, Kagome picked up a spiral bound notebook and swung it into the side of his face.

 

He yelped and reared back, blinking in hurt and confusion. Kagome almost felt sorry for him: almost. “What was that for?”

 

“Honestly, Inuyasha,” the monk spoke up. “For how long did you know Lady Kikyou?”

 

“What has that got to do with anything?” he groused, rubbing the side of his face.

 

“Surely you must have encountered her monthly-“

 

“Miroku!” Kagome protested, blushing and utterly mortified.

 

Inuyasha flushed bright red but didn't back away. “That was different!”

 

“Indeed no, every woman of child-bearing years-“

 

Kagome lobbed the notebook at the monk and it hit his face with a flutter of lined pages. “Do you mind?”

 

Miroku swatted at the notebook, giving it a curious glance as he tossed it out of reach of the fuming girl. “My lady, I was merely attempting to explain to our thick friend-“

 

Hands balled into fists, she interrupted with an impressive growl, “I know what you were trying-“

 

“That's not what I meant!” Inuyasha interjected between the arguing humans. “It's different! She's different!”

 

“Of course I'm different! I'm not Kikyou!” she rounded on the hanyou and shouted in his face. The Kikyou Issue was a sore spot for her; Inuyasha took every opportunity to remind her that she wasn't the markswoman that Kikyou had been; that she didn't have her spiritual powers. She said and did all sorts of stupid things that Kikyou never would have said or done. If there was nothing Kagome had learned to hate more, it was being compared to a glorified funerary urn and coming up short.

 

“Well that's fucking obvious!”

 

Scrambling to her feet, she glared down at Inuyasha. “Osuwari!” The hanyou was leaning backward and the force of the spell laid him flat on his back, giving him a clear view of Kagome's furious face. “See if Kikyou can do that!”

 

“Kikyou wouldn't do that!” he spat up at her.

 

“Friends, please calm yourselves…” Miroku tried to diffuse the situation and was summarily ignored.

 

“No, she'd seal you to a tree!” Kagome was beyond livid. How idiotic could one half-demon be? She'd stolen fifty years of his life, for kami's sake, and now that she had been resurrected, he would only defend her! Spinning on her heels, she stormed away from the campsite and into the trees, angry at the hanyou for pressing her buttons and spoiling her good mood and angry with herself for letting him. Who was he to her, anyway? A traveling companion, and not even a good one, at that!

 

A strange buzzing tickled her ears and she stopped, glancing around at the dark canopy of branches overhead, suddenly wishing that she'd brought Shippo along. Where was the kit, by the way? He hadn't been at the campsite, now that she thought about it, and that wasn't like him. Usually, she had her own personal kitsune appendage.

 

The volume of the buzzing increased for a moment, and then abruptly ceased. `Bees?' she thought to herself incredulously. `But I thought they slept at night?'

 

The familiar prickle of youki raced down her spine and she released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. A hand reached around her waist to cup the mound between her legs, drawing her against a muscled chest as breath fanned her cheek.

 

“The scent of your anger is as delicious as that of your blood,” he whispered into her ear and her neck erupted in an explosion of gooseflesh.

 

“I'm lucky to be bleeding at all!” she whispered back, trying to retain her anger despite the fact that someone had snapped all the threads that held her body upright. He nudged the fabric of her shirt off of her shoulder with wet, open-mouthed kisses. “What if we-“

 

“You would have been honored to bear my pup.” His fingers pressed against her, prodding at the thick liner that separated him from her heat. She let her eyes slowly drop, tilting her head down only when her eyes could go no further. The white sleeve of his under-kimono stood out stark in the close shadows of the dark forest. His pale hand almost seemed to glow in the wan light of the moon that managed to creep through the dense overgrowth, except for where two dark slashes marred the skin, wrapping around his wrist and curling over the back of his hand.

 

`What a beautiful hand,' she thought, desperate to see the rest of him but not daring to turn her head and catch a glimpse of his bent head. Besides, watching that large, clawed hand push away the hem of her skirt and pull aside the crotch of her panties to manipulate her sticky folds had to be one of the most erotic things she had ever seen.

 

“But-“

 

He silenced her with a bite to the inside of her collarbone. “Now is not the time for that.”

 

She wasn't sure if she liked the sound of that at all, but couldn't seem to focus as she felt a long digit push into her body and watched the base of his thumb rub slow, firm circles over her clit. She wanted to ask what he meant and how he would prevent it. She wanted to ask why he thought she would be honored to bear anyone's child, let alone some demon whom wouldn't let her see him. She wanted to ask him to add another finger or two to her aching passage, or better yet, the throbbing length pressed against her backside, but all she could vocalize was a breathless, “Nnggh!” as his fangs broke through the skin of her shoulder.

 

A cramp twisted in her womb, reminding her that she was not at her most fuckable. Twining her fingers in his hair and placing a hand over his as he massaged her folds, she rubbed her cheek against the top of his silky head. “Wait, we can't do this. I'm…you know.”

 

“Do I seem repulsed by you?” he asked as if she were a small child having difficulty understanding a simple truth.

 

“No, but…”

 

“Kagome!” her name echoed through the trees, muffled but disturbingly close. Her heart skipped a beat as her lord stiffened behind her, his hand pulling out of her panties to grasp her waist. The growl that rumbled through his chest was low and vicious, sending a tremor of fear through her gut for the hanyou that was crashing toward them. The arm around her tensed, claws pricking her skin, and still he made no motion to leave.

 

She was suddenly aware of the buzzing sound from earlier, much closer and coming from directly behind her. `Does he have a beehive in his pocked or is he just happy to see me?' Kagome thought with a silent, hysterical giggle.

 

Miroku's voice joined that of the hanyou's, “Kagome, where are you?”

 

Her lover's growl vibrated through her body and for a fleeting moment she felt her feet rise off of the forest floor. Time stopped for an impossible moment: moonlight mottled dark leaves that halted mid-shiver, an offended owl peered at them with glowing yellow eyes, its neck frozen at a zigzagged angle, a mosquito hovered over her arm as if hesitating to grab a late-night snack. Kagome was preternaturally aware of all of this and nothing as she strained her eyes for the first damning glimpse of red and silver. He would see them and he would know…

 

She fell backward as she was left standing unsupported, a cold breeze replacing the warmth of her lover's breath on her neck, just as Inuyasha burst through the trees in front of her. He skidded to a halt, barely managing to avoid running her over, and stared at her sprawled form with wide, glassy eyes.

 

“Kagome, are you okay? Did you see him?”

 

“Wh-what? Him? Who?”

 

Trembling as the adrenaline rush receded, Kagome sat in the mulch and tried to make sense of what her friend was saying and hoping that what Shippo had said about her lover hiding his scent was still true.

 

“The demon, wench! Where is he? I can smell his stench; I know he was here!” he snapped with his usually tact and diplomacy, invading her personal space as he pushed his face up to hers.

 

“Which demon? Nobody's here but us!”

 

Panting harshly as he joined the small group, Miroku gasped out, “We both felt the presence of evil, and Inuyasha traced the scent to here. We were afraid that it may have found you before we could!”

 

“Kaaaaaa-goooo-meeeeeeeee!” a bullet of red fur hit her diaphragm at warp speed.

 

“Oof!” Dazed and struggling to stay upright, Kagome gasped as she tried to reclaim the air that had been so unceremoniously knocked out of her, her arms wrapping unconsciously around the fox child.

 

Inuyasha made a swipe at his tail, “Get offa her, runt!”

 

“Leave me alone, you big meany! I was worried about Kagome!” Shippo yelled from her embrace.

 

“But I'm fine!” Kagome tried not to wail but tears were rapidly forming behind her eyes. However, she wasn't fine. It was too much: the stress of waiting to see if she were pregnant, Inuyasha's bizarre behavior, the roaming hands of the monk, not to mention her frightening feelings for a demon who she only knew physically, topped off by a generous dollop of almost being caught with said lover and a sprinkling of hormonal imbalance and, well, Kagome really wanted a good cry. She deserved it, in fact.

 

Tears spilled over her bottom lids and Inuyasha reared back, waving his hands frantically with an expression of near panic plastered on his face, his ears pinned flat against his skull. “Don't cry! Why are you crying? You said you were fine!”

 

Shippo blinked up at her with limpid green eyes, his face crumbling slowly as he whimpered.

 

“Whoa, there's no need for that!” Miroku looked as nonplussed as the hanyou, though instead of flapping his arms, he was making soothing gestures.

 

`Idiots,' Kagome thought as the first sob shook her body. Throwing his head back, Shippo let loose a mournful yowl.

 

“Shippo! Demons don't cry!” Inuyasha snapped and was rewarded with another howl from the kit and a shuddering hiccup from Kagome. Glanced around wildly, he dropped to his haunches in front of them. “Look! I'm sorry about what I said back there. Please stop!”

 

“Words spoken in anger are often not meant from the heart,” Miroku confirmed, trying to adopt a pious air but only succeeding in looking anxious. “Come, we should get back to camp. There is evil in this forest. You are lucky that you were not attacked.”

 

`Lucky, my left elbow,' Kagome groused silently between the tears as she rocked the weeping kit. What had started out as a joyous, if painful, evening had become decidedly sour. The only things that could be salvaged were that facts that she was not expecting, she had not been caught, and that she had seen her lover's right hand. `Stripes,' she mused. `I wonder where else he has them?'

 

Staggering to her feet, Shippo balanced on one hip, Kagome pushed away the monk's helping hands, knowing where they would eventually end up. With her lover potentially close, she did not need him coping a feel. If what Shippo had said was true, then that would have been the last adventure of the amorous monk, Miroku.