All "InuYasha" characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi and associated copyright holders. No money is being made from this fan fiction. No infringement is intended.
Plink!
Dammit, this really hurts! I can't believe I was so clumsy…
Plink!
The thick viscous drop fell into the steaming water… Plink...and spread, thinning into swirling red stands, separate but equal for just a moment before dilution hid the passage of the drop from her watery eyes.
Slowly the sad miko slid her body into the waiting arms of the hot spring, wishing in her secret heart of hearts that she had her silver-headed demon lover to engulf her instead of the hot, milky blue water. Easing her abraded body, wincing as both skinned knees were submerged, she dunked her left hand beneath the water, washing the thin, red, weeping line caused by some rock, most likely…
I should have minded my own business, I should have known he'd gone to her again… but no, I just had to see, didn't I? Too bad, I saw too much and then on that gravely slope on the way back to camp, not enough.
Sigh… she palpated her cut hand to remove any remaining grit. The smallest red flower bloomed as she dunked the cut once more, only to dissolve in a few seconds in the turbulence of her body's wake… just like her chances to reassemble the Shikon no Tama, just like her chances to get out of this alive, just like her chances to touch Inu Yasha's ever-guarded bastion of a heart and be touched by him in return.
Satisfied with the cleanliness of her wound, the Shikon Miko sat herself on the soft black sand in the shallow spring, attempting to calm her spirit and her oft-broken heart. Closing her eyes, she slid her body along the rounded ancient rocks, the water slowly creeping up her white body, inch by inch, like the slow build-up of time after time she had been slapped in the face by the carefully banked embers of Inu Yasha's golden eyes when he thought of Kikyo. She eased carefully down within and was covered up to her neck in the milky blue blanket of the spring.
Plink!
I'm so damn stupid! Why must I hold out this hope when it's like swallowing burning charcoal, like rubbing ash into a raw wound? Kami, hear my heart's cries, make him once...just once.. Look in my eyes and see only me!
Plink!
Plink!
The tears from her eyes did fall into the water, but did not bloom brilliant like her blood had, yet it hurt just the same. She just kept her eyes shut and let them fall. Hot springs were good for you, weren't they – they were supposed to ease the soul and purge away sickness, she thought. She hoped.
Let go, Kagome. This too shall pass. C'mon girl, pull it together again…
Relaxing very slowly, crying herself silently out, she drifted fully down into the water and the buoyant mineral water lifted her softly up. Spreading her arms in unrealized supplication she hoped for someone, something to fill them. Above her, in the green canopy, the softest creak of wood belied his presence. Taking a deep shaky breath, he blew it out slowly, thinking: Not yet, I can't love you yet. He knew it was no use and denying it all he wanted got him no relief. Tracing the white milky lines of her bare body floating upon the steamy water, he etched them into his long memory… her sad face, her open waiting arms…
She was so beautiful he wanted to jump and join her body to his within the warm embrace of the insulating spring and stay forever. His body stayed above in the trees but his heart shook itself of its old chains and leaped.