InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Who Says Words Can't Hurt? ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )

… Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me…

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Kagome sat on the living room couch with a scowl firmly planted on her face. Shippo, at the moment, was currently positioned on top of the very loud television. His little nose was pressed against the screen as he hung his head over the front of the contraption with wide green eyes. Inuyasha was trying his best to pry Souta out of the death grip he had on the hanyou's red-clad leg.

From what Kagome could see (and hear) through the kitchen threshold, Sango was trying her best to help Mrs. Higurashi with cooking dinner, failing miserably. Besides not knowing how in the world to work the oven, she was having trouble remembering if it was the fishcakes or the mint pistachio pudding that was to be fried on the stove. Finally giving up, she opted for putting a little of both contrasting foods into the refrigerator and frying the rest on the stove… in the same pan.

And all through this disaster, a certain monk's cursed hand was creeping further and further away from the task of chopping onions and closer and closer to her own mother's rear.

'…Ew…' was the only thought that ran through Kagome's mind as Miroku's hand finally came in contact with Mrs. Higurashi's butt. Not knowing of the less-than-virtuous habits of their beloved priest, the woman just jumped up with a small blush tinting her cheeks, never suspecting the now slightly frowning Miroku standing but a foot away chopping onions. Dismissing the sensation of something brushing her rear end as her imagination, Mrs. Higurashi turned back to helping Sango with her vain attempt at cooking.

'Sango's ass seems like it's gotten a bit saggy since I last groped her…Maybe she needs a little more exercise.' He thought with a perverted grin.

Kagome vaguely remembered the time when Sango had been trying to make some ramen noodles and she'd caught fire to their campsite. Miroku, being the caring and oh so honorable houshi that he was (insert sarcasm here), had begun patting her rear rather… hornily, using the excuse that he had seen a spark on her outfit and had been afraid that the Taijiya's clothes were on fire. Not that anybody had actually believed him…

"Hey, uh, Kagome?" a tentative voice pulled her from her amusing thoughts. The girl looked up to see the last person she wanted to talk to at the moment. There was some unknown emotion twinkling in Inuyasha's eyes, something a bit darker, but before she could decipher what it was the hanyou had lowered his head so that his bangs shadowed his face.

"Yeah?" Kagome asked just as nervously. She knew what this little preamble was bound to lead to, and she really didn't want to talk about it. Truth be told, she wasn't really all that sure she even wanted to talk about it. It would be so much easier just to forget it.

'Yeah, I can forget how comfortable Kikyo looked while she was lying in Inuyasha's lap. I can forget how soft and loving he looked when he confessed his undying love to a living carcass. I can forget the feeling of my already-dying heart being ripped cleanly from my chest only to be stomped and trampled over on the hard ground. I can forget all about that stuff!'

But when she looked down at the little hint of white bandages that peeked out from the bottom of the sleeves of her loose green sweater, Kagome knew she really couldn't forget. She'd been there when the walking corpse and her hanyou had one of their little rendezvous', on many occasions in fact. But… but this was the first time, the only time she'd actually been physically harmed.

"Um… could we go talk somewhere… quieter…?" the hanyou mumbled.

Kagome nodded with a determined look in her eyes. Grabbing his wrist on the way past him, she led Inuyasha up to her room. After closing and locking her pink door, so as not to be interrupted, Kagome turned to face him. Inuyasha shifted from one foot to the other, eyes to the floor as he fidgeted under the girl's scrutiny.

"Inuyasha."

"Kagome."

Looking down again as they both tried to begin at the same time, Kagome spoke to him again. "You can go first," she offered in a timid voice.

"I'm sorry!" he blurted quickly. Looking up to see that his companion had yet to lift her head, he continued uncertainly, but determinedly nonetheless. "I… I don't know what came over me. I don't know why I… why I wouldn't let you come here this evening when you invited us to dinner. I guess I was just-"

"Wait, you're sorry for what?"

"For opposing the idea of letting the group come to dinner…?" he asked hesitantly.

Kagome just stared at him, jaw dropped in morbid astonishment. "That's… that's all you're sorry for?" she asked him in a quivering voice. When she received no answer, her bottom lip quivered with suppressed sobs and she lowered her head to keep the hanyou from seeing tears that rolled slowly down her pale cheeks.

The salty smell of tears reached Inuyasha's sensitive nose and his eyes widened in horror as quiet whimpers began to emanate from Kagome's hidden features. He knew that look. Posture slumped, shoulders quivering, head lowered; she was crying!

"H-hey!" he exclaimed as he rushed quickly to her side. Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her trembling form and held the now openly sobbing girl to his chest, stroking her back in slow comforting circles. "Sh, sh, please don't cry," he pleaded quietly.

Inuyasha was surprised when he was met with resistance. Looking down to see Kagome pushing furiously at his chest with her tiny fists, he tried his hardest to keep a firm hold on her. "Let go!" she choked out angrily, wincing every time her hands pushed into his body. She could feel the muscles of her wounded arms tighten with every strike and it hurt like Hell!

Finally letting her tug out of his grasp, Kagome stumbled backwards onto her bed and just laid there sobbing into the pink sheets. Inuyasha stood stunned, still extremely uncomfortable with all her crying. He waited for what seemed like hours before she finally croaked out an answer, her voice stiff and hoarse. "How… how could you tell Kikyo… that… that you loved her?" came her quiet voice.

Inuyasha recoiled slightly at the pain evident in her voice and tried his best to come up with a liable answer to her broken question. "Kagome… I… I still love her…" he admitted quietly. He noticed how the girl on the bed flinched at his answer and was quick to continue with his explanation. "Back fifty years ago I was alone in the world, everyone hated me, I had no reason for living. I lived day-to-day on what I could catch or what I could steal from local villages, never knowing if I'd live to see the next day, never having someone to comfort me or tell me it was going to be alright. I wanted to change that. I wanted to get rid of all those human emotions… so I sought out the Shikon Jewel… and I met Kikyo. She was the only one that ever cared for me, you know?" he stated in a quiet voice rather than asked.

"I care for you," came Kagome's tearful whimper.

"I know, and I care for you, Kagome," he told her softly, coming to sit beside her on her bed. He scooped her still slightly trembling form into his sturdy arms and hugger her firmly. "But I owe Kikyo… and I have to keep my promise."

"… I know…"

.

"R- ri- n," Jaken managed to choke out. He was lying prostrate on the ground in front of a small white-haired fair-skinned young girl. She was holding up a mirror that seemed to be sucking the life right out of his body! Or rather his soul…

"Jaken-samaaaaaaaaa!" Rin screamed to the little toad, kicking and struggling as hard as she could in her captor's arms. Twice this had happened to her! Twice! Twice this Kagura demon had stolen her away from her Sesshoumaru-sama!

Kagura kept a reigning hold over the lashing little human girl in her arms as her sister used her magic mirror to keep the young girl's protector at bay. "Kanna," she spoke to her younger sibling. When the girl slowly turned her head to face the elder demon, no expression at all hinting her discomfort at having to completer her father's cruel tasks, Kagura continued in a commanding voice. "Lay this note beside the toad. Make sure the dog will be able to find it."

The girl only nodded and took the note from her sister's outstretched hands. Laying the small piece of rice paper beside the still Jaken, she made her way to Kagura's side and they were off on a gust of wind within seconds, riding on one of wind sorceress's giant feathers.

.

As Sesshoumaru approached the clearing in which he'd left his servant and charge, a sense of foreboding suddenly drenched over him like a bucket of cold water. Something didn't feel quite right in the forest…

Always one to trust his instincts, the demon lord sped with unseen speed and was standing in the clearing in less than two seconds. He looked around the clearing with scrutinizing eyes, following the trail of trampled grass to the other side of the clearing. The wind shifted and the foul scent of Naraku drifted to his nose. He suppressed a growl as he realized what exactly had happened here only moments before.

Rin had been kidnapped… again…

It was then that Sesshoumaru noticed something slightly less… upsetting. Jaken was gone, also. 'Now where could that ugly toad have gotten to?'

He suddenly felt a shifting below him and looked down to see said toad croaking and wheezing under the weight of his boots, eyes bulged and tongue lapping out the side of his lipless green beak. Slowly stepping off his companion, he looked down upon Jaken with no little amount of not-so-well hidden anger.

"Get up now, or I will leave you here," he spoke calmly, though inside, he was raging a war against himself not to kill the toad right there and then.

All that Jaken was able to gurgle was something about his soul being stolen. Well, as far as Sesshoumaru was concerned, he was about to have a few choice appendages stolen along with it. A glimmer of white parchment at his foot caught the demon's attention and he stooped to retrieve the note the sisters had left.

"Greatest Sesshoumaru-sama (and I say this with no small amount of sarcasm),

I have taken the little human girl that you seem so attached to, if you haven't already guessed. If you would like to have her back any time soon, I suggest you head to the eastern mountains. Or, you could just let this Naraku keep her here with me; I'm sure I can find some use for her.

Your Old Friend,

Naraku"

Sesshoumaru stooped to pick up the powerless Jaken, clutching his fist around the toad's neck cruelly. He would retrieve Ah-Un from the woods and then the Great Demon Lord of the Western Lands would be well on his way to the eastern mountain ranges.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

REVIEW!