Disclaimer: I do not own Inu-Yasha

Warnings: PG – for language


The Rain

By Gabreilla Moushigo (aka Aeki Muffinhands)


Beginning Notes: This is sort of a prequel to "The Spider and the Butterfly". I guess I just wanted to write about what I had in mind when I wrote my first N/K fiction. I dunno... anyway… I hope you all enjoy this two part story. (grin!)
He looked up at the sky, lying upon the rooftop. The sky was so dark an ominous… but he was not afraid. Nor did he move when the first signs of rain appeared. Pitter. Pitter. Pat. One by one, the droplets fell upon the tin roof. The wind began to howl as it rushed through the trees. The shrubs and trees with their great trunks, large limbs, small twigs and tiny leaves rustled. He liked those sounds… he liked the way they made him feel inside. He also liked this feeling… that the chilled air and the smoke from burning wood in afar off village. All of these things… made him feel like he was home… with her. He closed his eyes… sealing the bloody irises behind his lids. A fleck of rain pittered against his face. Drop… tink… drip… pitter… pat. The rain fell in rapid succession now. His rich clothing that he cared nothing for absorbed the water greedily.

He opened his eyes once more, drops falling in and blurring his vision, forming mock tears that flowed down his ivory cheeks. Tears that he didn't have the strength to cry himself. It made him feel alive… this rain… because he needed to feel alive… because maybe then he wouldn't feel so dead. Was this how it felt to cry? Did other people see this hazy world too?

She was neither here nor there... not anymore. She had grown so sick… so old and pitiful before her time. It was not for the weakening of her spirit or her mind… she was hurt but could always endure such things… but because of the conditions in which she lived. A flower cannot be kept in the dark… and expected to grow beautifully… nor can a butterfly remain in spider's nest and live very long… no mater how much the spider tends to it… and that is what happened to her. She was dying… and he had noticed far too late.

His attention had been focused purely on Inu-Yasha and Kikyo: the tragic lovers. After the monk and demon hunter died… after the cub had wilted in Inu-Yasha's care… he chose to remain with Kikyo. But living things cannot remain with the dead… and he was no exception. She waited for him patiently… lovingly in her own soulless way. "Are you ready?" She would ask, to which he would reply. "Not yet." Then when the day finally came… he agreed and died peacefully with her. He was not angry… nor was she. He was in no trance… she did not bother. He looked into her eyes as they fell… and they were filled with tears and love. Those were the tears that he cried for Kikyo… for what could have been… and maybe cried a little too… for his beloved Kagome… that he believed dead… and could not protect.

Naraku smirked a little. Wouldn't Inu-Yasha be surprised when he didn't see his little Kagome waiting for him at the end? But that thought also brought a frown to his face. He also did not know where she was right now… the last time his eyes were set upon her… she was fluttering away from him… and he was helpless to stop it.

Water, little drops of rain collected and fell from his body in sheets. Cold on the inside.

He shook his head, his mind jumbled with thoughts. She was sick… or had been sick… for a very long time… and never showed it. He thought that maybe she wanted to die in that way. To shrink and die underneath his watchful eye, no doubt to spite him. He had shown her all their deaths, they all took a silent weight upon her heart… a weight that she buried deep within her. She never cried… never complained. She didn't do either for so long… he finally believed that he broke her will. And when she was at her weakest… when she could no longer remove herself from her bed… he realized his mistake. She was going to die.

It was very unlike him… but for a moment… he thought that maybe if he let her outside for a little while… maybe if he talked softly to her… maybe she would regain the life within her. Of course… things like these were not simple… and he knew it… but he wanted to believe that he could bring her back.

He didn't know why he cared.

He didn't know why…

TAP! TAP! PING! TAP! The rain poured around him, soaking his garments through to his skin and it chilled him. Alive… alive… Whish! Whish! The wind made a flapping noise, and he didn't know until the last minute that he had looked to the sound… didn't understand why he was so excited when he thought… He rested himself against the roof again, the water gushing down from the top slid across his back, cooling it.

He tried something else then… when she wouldn't respond to him. A method that he knew would work… one that his human half had tried himself. A deal.

He found a kind and gentle creature… the most gentle of all… one that suited her quite nicely. It was a little butterfly spirit… they were quite pitiful… but were in every way benevolent. It did not like him… but it jumped at the mention of sweet Kagome. It promised to be with her forever… and that the girl could take it's strength… it would never bother her… it's mind would die and it would not mind… provided that the girl was as pure and kind as this man, Naraku, suggested.

The spirit was not disappointed. It fluttered upon her back lovingly, and painlessly sank into her skin, leaving a mark as a quiet reminder of its presence. She regained her youth… but her recovery was only skin deep. Her mind and spirit was not comforted by the spirit's intervention. She told him so… she told him she hated him for making her like him.

Days went by… weeks… she had not recovered as he thought she might… but whatever strength the butterfly had given her… was fading quickly.

He didn't know why he did it… why he wanted her to remain… why he was wasting his greatest wish upon this lowly… pathetic thing… but he did. He made his wish… he couldn't quite remember the wording… but he wanted her to remain with him forever… to let her remain and be as she always was. Midoriko laughed at him, not in a mocking way, but out of sad and quiet understanding. She granted his wish, she would let Kagome remain alive… and… the strange woman did something unexpected. She ripped away the voices… she let him have his own mind… no longer to be haunted by that horrible human man again. She also took away some of his abilities… most… of his abilities. He was nothing more than a spider… a spider demon spirit that would live as he should. She flew away into the darkness… the long dead priestess… and leaving him to wonder why she smiled so happily at him.

Kagome had been there… in his den… his home when he returned. She was shaking in fright, unhappy… everything. "I will not stay here with you…" Her little knees knocked together as she stood. She has nearly translucent wings upon her back… pretty things… things she hated… because she believed that they made her impure… made her like him. Made her everything she didn't want to be. Her starved frame stumbling as she clawed her way to the top of the roof and let her wings take her where they might, leaving him to stare dumbly after her.

What should he have done? Should he have gone after her? The rain let up a little and he realized that he was shaking. Damn the cold… damn this body… damn this house… but longed for the warmth within. He stood, trying to get a proper footing on the slanted roof. He managed quite nicely, his toes were meant for griping now. He made his way down, letting his fingers glance upon the stonewalls with expert grace. He made his way through the dead courtyard… up the steps… on the veranda… through the door.

It was cold inside.

Was he talking about himself or the house?

It was colder in here than it was outside and he could not stop shivering. He removed his clothes swiftly, leaving them in a pile before dawning another heavier robe. He rubbed his face dry with a cloth, rubbing it through his hair, grateful that it could remove just the tiniest amount of moisture.

His vision was blurring and he felt a little dizzy. He must be hungry. He was also still cold… maybe if he wore something around his legs? He made his way back to the cabinet he retrieved his robe from, and found what he wanted. He fastened the ties, everything. When he reached up to get his tabi socks… his hand brushed against something soft… something equally as soft beside it. He immediately grasped onto them, bringing them down to his view. They were the tiny slippers that she wore on her feet while she was here. He had gotten them for her when she complained about the draft in the morning. Pitter. Pitter. Pat.

He was amazed at their size, while they were not overly small… and probably the size of an average woman's foot shape… they were little in his hands. Out of curiosity he let them fall to the ground and put his foot beside them. They were dwarfed by his fairly long and slender feet… and for some reason… it made him sad. He picked them up, and rather than putting them back, he carried them with him.

Why was he still shaking? Was he that cold? There was water on his face again… his hair was still wet. It was probably dripping on him… he needed to get a fire going. He was a demon… but he wondered if he still had to worry about being sick… did demons get sick from the cold?

He enveloped his head within a cloth before leaving the room, fashioning it in a sort of turban like he had seen the woman do so many times. He wondered if he looked ridiculous… but at least no one was around to see him. Drop… tink… drip… pitter… pat.

Naraku started a fire in the smallest room in the large house… the one she had picked out for herself. He had hoped that by doing so… he would grow warmer just a little faster. He had unfurled his hair, keeping his back to the flames to let it dry quickly, and when he was satisfied he turned forward, rubbing his hands together like a fiend and holding his palms flat to the fire. He had seen her do it millions of times before… so it must be how things were done.

There now… his hair was dry… his body was warm right? Yes… it was warm now… not on the inside… his body took no pleasure in it.

Why was he still shaking? Why was there still rain on his cheeks? Curiosity led him to the mirror in the corner… and he looked. He began laughing then… laughing at himself… laughing at his stupidity before resting his hot cheek on the cool surface. He laughed until there was nothing more to laugh about… when his own pitiful face mocked him. Tears! Hah! Tears… tears… so this is what it was like… and he found the rain in his eyes to be a pathetic comparison… a shallow surface as to what it was really like. Kagome… Kagome… Shut up! He smashed his image into a hundred little pieces… which only reflected hundreds more of him… all… with tears… with miserably weak and shaking shoulders. He fell upon the glass, but it did not cut him. He covered his face to hide his shame. How had he fallen so far? When had this happened? That bitch… that damn bitch… no matter how many times he rubbed his face the accursed moisture just came back. He was cold again… away from the fire… or what was left… the embers were already dying… and he felt that maybe he was too. She did this to meshe this

TAP! TAP! PING! TAP! The rain kept pouring. Fffffffssshhhh! The leaves and trees kept rustling. The world kept moving… even when he didn't.

His shoulders continued to shake uncontrollably, when he heard one of the most pitiful moan in the world. It took him a moment to realize it was a sound that was torn from his very own throat. He was sobbing… oh… how the mighty have fallen. He tried to prevent the other from escaping his lips… but in doing so it was just louder than the last.

It wasn't supposed to be like this… he was supposed to take her prisoner… he would make her watch as her comrades fell… and when she was at the deepest depths of her misery… he would make her beg for death.

Ku… instead he had tried to nurture that scrawny wench in the end. Twenty years of living with her… twenty years… since when did he get used to her presence? When did he become so inadequate that he couldn't live without her? When had he become the pathetic sniveling mass that he was right now?

He lay there, drying the tears from his eyes with his sleeve, blowing his nose with the drying cloth… trying to get a hold of himself. And when he did… when all the tears stopped falling… he felt… empty inside.

He looked at his hands as he dragged them away from his face – they were thin and calloused… They were not loving hands… he looked at his reflection in the mirror pieces. Hundreds or red eyes staring back at him… his face… even in sadness looked cold and calculating… how could he have ever believed that he could nurture something back to health? How?

The floorboards creaked behind him softly. Was the house still settling? Or when he looked behind him… would he see her face? Had his thoughts called out to her? Did his very desires pull her to him like a siren's call? Maybe not… but they did. He turned his head, half afraid to look around and realize that once more his mind had been playing tricks on him. Drop… tink… drip… pitter… pat. He looked, she was not there… although his conscious dearly wanted her to be.

"Naraku…" He heard a voice, causing him to jump. It was very quiet in the darkness… quiet with the storm. He strained his ears, trying to hear something… anything. "Nku…" It had to be her… he padded quietly through the house, listening for that sound. When he had visited the last room in the house, he frowned. No one… it must have been his imagination. "Narku…" Was she haunting him? Did she die and come back here? He listed to the voice, was it coming from outside? "Nku…" Yes… outside! TAP! TAP! PING! TAP! Despite his earlier efforts to keep dry he plunged right back out into the rain, the white robe he dawned quickly becoming muddy and brown as he made his way through the courtyard. The lightening became to crash around him, with a resounding BOOM of thunder. He looked up at the roof when something caught his eyes… flapping fabric… was it her? He grabbed onto one of the pipes that were attached to one of the gutters around the roof, his fingers clamping around it nimbly as he made his way up. Ffffffffssssssshhhhhh! When his head was about to lift his head above the roof, a rush of water came flooding down, catching him in the face by surprise. His grip was loosened and he fell backwards and fell… and fell… until his back hit the mud. He stared up into the sky in disbelief. I fell… He would have laughed then, if a figure had not came into his view.

"Naraku?"


Ending Notes: I did say I was writing another chapter! (smile) I hope you liked this chapter. I was originally going to make this a one shot kind of deal… but after I wrote most of the next chapter… I just didn't think it fit.