Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Inuyasha.
Author's Notes: I thought about calling this the REAL Fire on the Island, but decided it would be way too cheesy.
…..Inuyasha pretended like he was asleep. In fact, he was wide awake. He had just finished telling Kagome and the others about Horai Island…. How he and Kikyou had found it on accident and been attacked, though luckily both had escaped with only minor wounds. He had conveniently left out the reason they were going for a boat ride so late at night. And now he wanted time to think… Time to remember all that had happened after they had left the Crimson Horai Island.
…..There was silence most of the way back to the village. Inuyasha struggled for a bit to row the boat towards shore, with Kikyou keeping a careful eye on the bloody tears the demon made across his back. Her eyes never strayed from him for an instant. As the wounds closed, the hanyou was finally able to stand.
"Are you all right, Kikyou?" He whispered for what seemed like the hundredth time.
"Yes," she replied, finally looking away. "I'm sorry I caused you to worry."
Kikyou, you're the only one I've ever worried about.
…..As they docked, Inuyasha helped the miko off the boat. As his hand held her arm firmly but gently, Kikyou felt the familiar tingle of his warm touch. She blushed, despite her wounds. Inuyasha turned her to face him.
"Will you be all right, Kikyou?" He looked concerned, flushed, the heat of her gaze smouldering him.
"Inuyasha…." She whispered, and moved towards him.
"I don't want to leave you alone…" He lowered his hands to gently encircle her wrists. Is it just me, or are we stepping closer together? "Something about that island," he was able to mutter. "Your wounds…."
Again, Kikyou seemed to gravitate towards him. "It will be fine. Kaede will…" Her voice trailed off as she stared into his golden eyes.
Inuyasha winced as a searing pain shot through his back, causing him to lose his footing. What the hell?
"Inuyasha!" Kikyou cried as he suddenly fell into her arms.
The hanyou started, surprised. "Kikyou!" He could barely gasp, and then wrapped his arms around her, aware that the heat from his face was visible, embarrassing him.
He didn't care.
"Inuyasha…" She hesitantly reached her hand up to feel the silky strands of his hair before deciding against it. Her hands fell uselessly to her sides. However, she thought that she could feel the hanyou's heartbeat, and wrapped her arms around him, troubling thoughts flooding to the surface of her mind. A recollection about the island suddenly became clear to her, as she had been thinking about it the whole way to shore.
"Kikyou." Inuyasha murmurmed into her hair, salty from the sea water. She smelled slightly of blood as well, from her wounds, and there was a different, slightly salty smell. The smell of…. Could it be her tears?
Stepping reluctantly back from her embrace, he noticed the shimmer in her eyes. He smiled widely. "Kikyou! Don't cry!" His voice neared laughter. This powerful miko could be reduced to tears over this? After all the battles they'd fought together? And yet, her concern touched him in another blissful way that he forced to ignore as the cause of his sudden joy.
"Inu…" The miko turned away, flushed.
"Keh! Those assholes were nothing! We'll go out there again tomorrow, and I'll teach those bastards a lesson! Trying to make the island, disappear, well-" He looked towards the misty horizon with clenched fists. "When it comes back in the morning-"
It was Kikyou's turn to smile. "We can't go there tomorrow."
"Huh?" He turned back to her. "Are you sure you're okay, Kikyou?" Then he smiled arrogantly. "Or just not up to the battle? That's not like you at all! When did you-" he stopped as the miko started laughing. "What the hell are you laughing for?" He blushed. "And to think that I was concerned…"
With that last remark, Kikyou ceased her giggles and resumed a more solemn face. "Inuyasha, meet me here tomorrow morning. And I'll tell you the legend of Horai Island."
"Huh?" He asked as she turned away. "Kikyou wait! I'm not so sure that I want to leave you alone tonight! Are you sure you're okay?" He called to her retreating back. She turned her head.
"I'm fine." Her cool voice throbbed throughout his body, sending him chills that had nothing to do with the cooling night air, and very much to do with something he didn't want to admit. "I'll see you tomorrow morning." Her voice rang out like chimes.
"Well, if I'm not busy doing anything else!" He blurted out. He could almost see her smile. They both knew he'd be there.
…..And he was. In fact, the hanyou had stayed perched atop a tree branch outside the cabin Kikyou shared with Kaede. Of course, he rationalized that it would be pointless to go anywhere else if he was to meet Kikyou in the morning. He kept it to himself that he did, in fact, spend most nights resting there.
. Shortly before sunrise, he made himself look like he was asleep as she stepped outside into the bright sunlight.
"Inuyasha?" Her voice called out fondly. "Have you been here all night? Didn't you rest at all?"
Keeping his eyes closed, the hanyou turned his head in the other direction, feigning disinterest. It took all he had not to look upon her beautiful visage.
"Well," she began. "Shall we get something to eat and I will tell you about that island?"
…..Inuyasha looked down at the grass as Kikyou finished speaking. An island that only appeared once every fifty years through the mist…. A place where humans and demons could live together and have hanyou children… Children like him. His face flushed as an unbidden thought leapt into his mind. Kikyou standing next to him in a lush paradise, holding their hanyou child…. He stood up suddenly.
"Inuyasha, where are you going?" She looked up at him with those deep, chocolate eyes. He froze on the spot. "Don't you want to tell me your thoughts on such a place as Horai Island?"
"Keh!" He spat. "Some place where humans and demons get along and have loads of brats and live in harmony? I'll believe it when I see it!"
"But we did see it," Kikyou said quietly and stood up. "Last night. You were there, you saw the children."
Inuyasha felt the very tips of his ears burn. He was at that place with Kikyou last night… They could have just stayed there. What! What in the hell am I thinking? Before he could move, he felt something strange. Heavy sleeves wrapping around him from behind, a head leaning against his back.
"Inuyasha," a mutter from Kikyou surprised him. What's Kikyou doing? Why is she wrapping her arms around me like this? But he couldn't make a move. He didn't dare.
Kikyou breathed in the scent of the hanyou's Fire Rat Cloak, and the earthy smell of his shining silver hair. How did she come to love him so? For she knew that was what it was. She loved him, she had realized it just last night. She wanted to be with him every second. She wanted to never leave his side as he never left hers, she wanted to be on that Horai Island with him, even though it could never be… To be together in harmony, without the warring and the violence and the Shikon Jewel to protect.
"Don't leave me," she barely whispered, aware of the tension in the hanyou, and ashamed of her unexplainable actions. She could feel his heartbeat through his kimono. But above all else, she was afraid to let him go.
"Kikyou," he murmured huskily. "What… What's gotten into you?"
"I just…." She finally released him from her embrace and reached down to pick her bow up off the ground. "I was just worried about losing you last night." Then, before he could retaliate with a cocky remark, she managed to stammer, "Do you… Do you think that we will ever see the Island again?"
"I might, but you'll be as old as the hills in 50 years," Inuyasha replied, relaxing, but already missing her arms around him. Taking a chance, he turned around to look at her. "But if you are holding me like that, then I'll be there in 50 years," the hanyou gave her a rare smile. What am I saying? I mean, it's not like we would go there for any reason other than to fight those damn demons. But the words were pouring out. "Or we'll both be old together. Even though I can't picture you looking any different, even in 50 years. So stop crying." Looking at her weeping like that; she was so vulnerable…
Did she really think he would die last night? Kikyou was smarter than that. What was with her? As a breeze whipped through the clearing, Inuyasha watched Kikyou's miko garb cling tightly to her curves, admiring the way the fabric fit her. She looked so strong, yet gentle with her hair askew from the wind and her bow clutched tightly in her hand, the other hand holding the belt of her quiver over her shoulder. The hanyou felt a surge of lust run through him, causing him to shake slightly. He came to her and took her in his arms. "Kikyou, I…" I want to kiss you, to taste you, to make you mine…
Her eyes met his like molten lava, heated and glazed…
Inuyasha felt his sudden urges overtaking him. He brushed a strand of hair from her face, his clawed fingers accidentally touching her soft lips, which slowly parted as she continued to look at the hanyou, drinking in his rugged handsomeness.
I want her… I… Inuyasha's heart beat as he moved in close to her face. I'll just kiss her tears away for now.
"Inuyasha…." Kikyou dropped her bow to the ground.
"Kik…" He breathed her scent in deeply, moving his hand to lift the quiver from around her.
The miko's hand went up as if to stop him, but instead helped drop the burdensome arrows onto the ground haphazardly next to her bow.
"If I were to go to the island again," he cleared his throat nervously, all the while moving closer and closer to her, "I would want to be with you, and not to fight, or die…" He could barely speak; her porcelain skin was so near to him.
"But to live?" She whispered, and closed her eyes.
Inuyasha closed his as well, his last glimpse of her flushed cheeks, so becoming, and her soft, parted lips moist with tears as he leaned down….
….."Inuyasha?" Kagome's voice rattled him. He startled, disrupted from the happy memory.
"Don't you guys sleep?" He said, annoyed.
"What will you do, Inuyasha?" The monk said. "Will you save the children?"
Quickly, Inuyasha searched his mind for an excuse. "Not to save the children, but to teach those bastards a lesson!"
Kagome nodded. But she didn't quite understand.
But how could she? How could she know what the hanyou was truly thinking about?
Because Inuyasha couldn't stop thinking about the first miko he visited Horai Island with, on a moonlit boat ride not so long ago, in his remembrance, and maybe he could be with her there again…