AN: Just a whimsical little drabblish-one shot for you guys. It's got plenty of WAFF in it.
Let me know what you think!
- Jiru
Dim moonlight bathed the silver circumference of the miko's irises, as she peered from the castle's ledge. Her breath evaporated into a ghostly mist, leaving behind an emptiness in her lungs. The air was thin, cold. The others slept in their rooms quilted in a surplus of blankets that had followed in her bag. She, herself, had chosen to feel the wintry kisses of the wind, and wind her fingers around the old wooden rafters.
Feeling alive had barely been a thought. The idea of it was so simple, and her body yearned for comfort. It had been too long since the hanyou had been close to her. In fact, it was beginning to feel as though she was alone.
Limbo was cruel. She was neither here, nor there. The weight of her responsibility had begun to spread like a plague. It was present in her muscles, her sore back and brittle fingers. The splinters in the pads of her fingers were beginning to callous, leaving her longing for feminity.
Of course, Kagome was a blooming bud, but it was if she had been weeded. Every inch of her craved to put on make-up and pretend to enjoy the normality of her era. Yet, Fate had chosen this destiny, and she was content to indulge.
How often did life offer such an opportunity?
Closing her eyes, her chapped lips creased into something similiar to a smile. The cold hands of winter smoothed over her cheeks until they were red, touseling her hair lovingly behind her ears.
The miko hardly realized that her body leaned over the railing, arched into the murky light. She was radiant in the indigo haze that draped over the sleepy country. There was something sweet in the air making her heart flutter at the smell of spices being burned.
Nights like this hardly existed.
There was no danger, no pesitlence, no evils lurking near her dream-like world. All that existed was her. And, in that, she began to hum a soft tune she had heard in her childhood. It was a sea-shanty that her father sang to her often. It was one of the few things that she remembered about him - other than the stout, masculine aroma of his cologne, and the darkness of his eyes.
His grandfather fought in the war, serving as a naval capitain. There was romance begotten in those old tunes and lazy plights to a freedom they didn't know. It wasn't long, however, before a clawed hand slithered away from its perch along the inner wall of the castle.
It searched in the blackness for the door, and quietly slid it open. A pair of tawny eyes loomed brightly in the blanketed burrows of the night. They watched the girl intently, as she was so prone to ignorance.
Watchful as they were, they still flittered behind their owner's lids and merely rested as his ear's twitched in response. Kagome was the rebirth of all things holy in those eyes. Resolving to subjectively listening to her voice hum, and cradle the silence with its softness, was plenty for the ease of this eve.
Pardoning the sadness, the Lord crossed his arms across his chest and leaned against the polished door-frame. There was seldom enough time to simply enjoy her company anymore. Those days, how few and far between, were graciously appreciated - whether he admitted it or not.
The moment a smile injected his cheeks with flush, he lowered his head to hide behind a silky web of hair. If she turned around, she wouldn't see the pert fangs protruding so raptly from beneath his upturned lips. He wouldn't allow her to see, for that matter.
Yet, the longer he waited in his hiding place, the harder it was to stay still. He was the embodiment of restlessness, and his spirits were bustling like the wind howled. Cautiously, he steadied himself on his bare feet and breathlessly glided closer.
His heart, oh, it thrummed like the war-drums quaked.
Breaking her concentration had never been a generous idea, and never did he benefit. More so than not, he was buried by rumble and several feet under ground. Taking a silent breath, he stood right behind her. She had to have felt him. She felt everything.
It had almost taken the surprise out of sneaking up on her general. It was his boyishness and innocence that lead him to believe he could always do so, and ended up as a failure. Yet, as he inched forward, he noted her blindness. Her guard was foolish laying amongst the garden in front of her.
Kagome still hummed, rolling her fingers along the railing, with closed eyes and a sway to her diminutive frame. Hesitantly, InuYasha leaned forward, pressing his chest against the crook in her spine. Once adhered, he laid his nose in the slope of her shoulder, mouth barely grazing the tender flesh.
Not once did the miko flinch, or move from her position as his clawed hands grasped at hers. He pulled them to her sides and buried his embarrassment in the curls of her hair. She was sweet smelling and soft, like he imagined.
The rumble of her reverberrated through her lungs and chest, lulling him to a half-alert state. It was relaxing, easy as waking up to find out a dream was real. For her, opening her eyes from the bewitching clutches of her reverie, a gasp slipped from her lips.
InuYasha's grasp around her tightened, pulling her closer into the warmth of his body. The miko was rigid, and her breath vanished as she felt her chilly skin thaw. It was like all of her senses had been eletrocuted and her fingers tingled with something akin to magic.
Terrified, the girl calmed herself as InuYasha nuzzled her throat. She felt him scoff like a phantom, "It's kind of funny how you react when it's the other way around." He rasped, solemnly amused. His fingers took the time to link the valleys in his miko's hands, squeezing in reassurance.
The girl lolled her head back into him, barely turning it to see the glimmer of his golden eyes flickering in the passive light. He looked playful, delighted, a million things that he never was. The weight of their journey was akin to a world and this...
This made up for all of the times she had wanted to feel him, hold him, love him.
"I'm sorry if I woke you." Kagome whispered, "I couldn't sleep and I started feeling sorry for myself, I guess." She feigned a smile, seeing his thick brows furrow in response.
"You're human. You can feel." He shrugged against her, easily swaying her body side to side. He hadn't though much of it. Comforting her was second nature, after all. The closeness was still fresher than an open wound, but he ached for it more often than not.
"I can help everyone else, but I can't help myself." Kagome sighed, feeling her eye-lids curtained with heaviness.
InuYasha grinned againt her cheek, "Isn't that what I'm for?" He asked in earnest. A pert ear flicked as he heard her breath hitch a laugh. The answer was never verbalized. It wasn't meant to be, or was of any necessity.
The feel of her warm mouth lazily capturing the corner of his was enough. The stinging heat that followed lead to another comfort, and more so than intended. Their refuge was housed in the folds of his haori, tossed and hung around the bare parts of her body.
They had experienced more in their lifetimes than centuries in between them. Each pressing finger, calloused caress of a searching palm - they all lead to the same end. It was an innocence that couldn't be beseiged by another - good, bad, anything in between. It was simple. All of the want that the miko had had been pushed aside for another lonely night. One, of which, her lover would scale the mountainous terrain to take her to the moon if she asked.
InuYasha was what she had dreamt of.
And she, in her longing for normality, understood what it meant. It meant boring, jaded, all of those things that she was not. She was a savior to a man that had been left amongst the thrush and vine to be forgotten and his story never told.
Beneath the cruelty, the sorrow, the insignificance, he became the answer to a dying world.
Thus, Kagome laid her gossamer hair down upon the bareness of his chest, smoothing a hand over the taut flesh of a scar. As he slept, curled in silver bedding and heavenly pallor in that dim fire light, the girl recalled pulling the arrow from his heart.