Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha.
Self-indulgent Fluff Warning: If you're looking for plot, you've come to the wrong place.
Out on Your Own
Chapter 1: Says Everybody
She was dead. A dead meat-popsicle buried in a snow drift on the side of the highway. No one could have found her in that blizzard, let alone rescued her. Yep. Definitely dead.
Dead...
Damn.
Kagome mustered up the strength to open her eyes and saw...fire?
Well that can't be good… she thought as she blinked hard to clear the blurriness from her eyes and tried to regain her bearings.
She was in some place warm—a little too warm if she was being perfectly honest—lit only by the roaring fire before her. She tried to move only to find it quite difficult due to the thick blanket in which she found herself tightly swaddled like a infant. She let out a frustrated groan as she gave up and relaxed back onto whatever soft, furry thing it was she was lying on.
"You finally awake?" an unfamiliar, masculine voice asked from somewhere beyond her current field of vision.
"Am I dead?" she croaked out weakly at the unseen spirit or angel or Satan or whoever was there with her as she resumed her wriggling to try and free herself from her wool prison. It was then she heard footsteps approach from behind and felt a unnecessarily hard pinch on her upper left bicep. "Ouch! Hey! What was that for?!" she protested as she rolled her cocoon over to face her assailant.
"Huh...guess you ain't dead," he said in a tone dripping with attitude.
Kagome looked the man up and down as she worked her arms free and pushed herself up to a sitting position. "You really are the devil, aren't you?" she asked as she took in the appearance of the man dressed all in red—and a very antiquated looking ensemble she might add—with long, silver (despite a rather young looking face) hair that reached well beyond his waist, and...were those...dog ears?
Yep. Dead. There was no way this could be real life. She was definitely dead. The bucket was kicked, the farm was bought, the dust was bit. Her mother was going to be devastated.
"Somethin' like that," the man answered with a cocky smirk.
And what was the question again? Oh right. He's the devil. "That seems about right," she said, her shoulders slumping in disappointment. "So...I really am dead then?"
"Why do you keep saying that? That blow to the head must have been worse than I thought."
"Blow to the head?" she asked, furrowing her brow and lifting her hand to feel her scalp and wincing as her fingers made contact with an egg-shaped lump just above her hairline.
"You crashed your car into a tree. You know, you really oughtta learn to drive that thing before traipsing out into a snow storm."
Kagome let out a little growl of frustration. "I know how to drive, thank you very much," she ground out through clenched teeth, "for your information, there was a stupid deer standing in the middle of the road!"
"Oh, right. How presumptuous of me. That deer really should take a drivers-ed course," the man said sarcastically.
Kagome rolled her eyes and gave a heavy sigh. "You're a real ass, you know that?"
"An ass who saved your life," he retorted.
Oh, yeah...right… "Well, thanks for that I guess, but you're still an ass," she said as she kicked her legs free of the blanket and patted down the pockets of her coat only to find that she was no longer wearing it.
"Looking for this?" she heard the man say as her balled-up, heavy winter coat pelted her in the chest and fell into her arms.
"Thanks," she said without any hint of sincerity. "I was on my way to my mother's house. I need to call and let her know I'm okay." She removed her phone from the pocket, but couldn't seemed to get anything from it but a blank screen. "It's dead? How long have I been here?"
The man shrugged and somewhat sheepishly said, "a couple hours, give or take."
"The battery was at full charge before I left my apartment! How did it go dead so fast? Did you mess with my phone?!" she asked, darting to her feet and pointing an accusing finger at him. Only when she was on her feet did she realized she still hadn't quite regained her bearings and lightheadedness overcame her, but before she could fall she felt herself being scooped up by two strong arms against a hard chest.
Like, really hard...and broad...and chiseled…and...this guy must chop a lot of firewood.
"If they didn't make those games so damn addicting…" he admitted reluctantly.
"Aha! So you did break into my phone!" she accused, jabbing a finger into said hard, broad, chiseled chest.
"Well, it's not like there was a lock on it or anything!"
"That's not an invitation to go snooping in a stranger's things!"
"For your information, I was looking for your identification Higurashi Ka-go-me. It just so happens that I got a little side-tracked."
"A little side-tracked? You drained my fully-charged battery playing some stupid game!"
"If the game is so stupid, then why'd you put it on there in the first place, huh?! And besides, I'd never used one of those things before," he defended. "I was curious!"
"Those things?" she repeated. "You mean a phone?" she asked incredulously.
"I've used a phone…just not that kind of phone..." he said, nodding toward the device she still held in her hands.
Kagome wanted to press him further, after all what kind of person had never seen a smartphone? And for that matter, what kind of person had dog ears? Were those even real? She certainly hoped so, otherwise he was just a grown man who wore fake dog ears around the house, and that, to her, was significantly more unsettling than a real live person with real live dog ears…
But for the moment she had more pressing matters at hand than worrying about his ears or his lack of knowledge about modern technology.
"May I please use your phone to call my mother?"
"Ain't got one," he said nonchalantly.
"What?!" she shrieked, and he winced as those cute little fuzzy—and now undoubtedly real—dog ears flattened into his hair. "You drained the battery on my phone and you don't even have a landline?!"
"I didn't mean to! For such fancy technology you'd think they'd make better batteries for those things!"
"Oh! I could just strangle you!" she said, making a choking motion with her hands against his throat, and in response he let out a growl that would put Cujo to shame.
Unfortunately for him, Kagome had never been afraid of dogs, or horror movies, and she most certainly wasn't afraid of this guy.
"Grrrrrrrrr!" she growled back at him quite unconvincingly, bearing her blunt, human teeth at him in the least intimidating display she was sure he'd ever seen in his life.
In response, he growled again, and again she growled back before bursting out in laughter.
The man shook his head as he set her back on her feet, but she didn't miss the slight smile of a stifled laugh that was on his face. "You really did hit your head harder than I thought."
"I'm starting to think so myself," she said through lingering giggles as he laughed tapered off as her eyes once again met his furry white ears and she took on a more serious tone. "Who are you anyway?"
"Don't you mean what? What am I. That's what you really wanna ask, right?"
She looked at him for a moment, contemplating the repercussions of her response before shrugging. "Yeah, sort of," she said honestly, "but I was asking who you are. As in, what's your name? You do have a name, don't you?"
"Keh!" he scoffed, seeming offended. "What do you think I am? Some sort of Neanderthal? Of course I have a name, it's InuYasha."
"InuYasha," Kagome repeated as she thought over the name for a moment, piecing two and two together. "You're a dog demon," she stated, eyes wide. "No," she corrected, shaking her head in disbelief. "No. Dog demons aren't real."
He raised his brows at her. "Is that so?" he asked, giving his ears a little twitch as if to demonstrate his point. "Says who?"
"Says everybody," she answered, her tone changing from shock, to something more akin to awe. "Everyone thinks demons are just fairy tales."
"Well what do you think?" he asked with a smirk that revealed to her a glimpse of sparking white fangs. "Still think you've died and gone to hell?"
She didn't really know what to think, but she knew she wasn't dead, and she knew the man standing in front of her—InuYasha, he called himself—wasn't just your average, run-of-the-mill human wearing a dog ear headband.
"Look. I can take you up to the rangers station when the storm lets up. It's only about six or seven kilometers from here, give or take. They have a phone you can call your mother on."
Kagome sighed in relief. "Oh, thank you!" she said, clasping her hands before her. "Thank you so much, InuYasha. I'm sure she's worried sick. How much longer do you think the storm is going to last?"
He crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. "No idea, but it should break before too long. At least for long enough to get to the station."
Kagome nodded, then sat back down on the floor where she'd awakened, on what she could now see was a thick, plush, bear skin rug. "Well that's not creepy at all," she said sarcastically, giving the still attached head of the bear a little pat. "At least I had a better day than you, huh?"
In response the bear merely stared at the wall with a frozen, and rather pronounced look of malcontent.
She looked up to find InuYasha still just standing there watching her wordlessly.
"Umm...what are you doing?" she asked uncomfortably.
"Waiting," he said nonchalantly as he continued to watch her.
"Well…why don't you sit and wait with me?" she said, patting the rug next to her.
InuYasha eyed her skeptically, as if he thought she was luring him into a trap, and reluctantly approached and sat down beside her cross-legged.
"So...you live here alone?" Kagome asked.
"Yes," he answered simply.
"Don't you get lonely?"
"Don't you?" he turned the question around on her.
"I live in the city," she defended. "There are always people around. In my building, at work...I have friends that I hang out with."
"I'm not the only one who lives in these woods, ya know...far from it."
"Okay, but that doesn't mean you have-" she paused for a moment before continuing, "wait a minute. I never told you I lived alone. How did you know that?"
"If you lived with someone their scent would be all over you."
"Scent?" Kagome asked, lifting the collar of her shirt to her nose and sniffing. "You can smell me?"
"Of course I can smell you," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"What do I smell like?" she asked and immediately began to regret her curiosity.
"Like a human," he answered vaguely.
"So all humans smell the same?"
"No, not the same, just alike," he clarified. "You all smell different, but you still all smell like humans."
"Oh, I see," Kagome said, nodding in understanding, or at least, as much understanding as she could have without actually experiencing the heightened senses for herself. "Hey, you never answered my question."
"You never answered either," he shot back, and he was right. She'd dodged the question just like he had.
Well, it wasn't exactly fair of her to ask him a question that she wasn't willing to answer herself, so she did. She answered honestly, "I do sometimes." Then she waited for him to answer, but when he said nothing she prompted, "What about you?"
A sputtered, "Keh!" was all she got in return, and she expected that was the most she was going to get out of him on the subject.
After a few moments of awkward silence she decided to turn the conversation to a different subject. "So, I didn't think to ask about my car," she grimaced, dreading the answer. "How did it look?"
"It's totaled," he said flatly.
"Totaled!" Kagome gasped. "The crash was that bad?!"
"Not really, your car was just a complete piece of shit to begin with."
"Ah!" Kagome squeaked in offense as she punched his arm. "You're an ass!"
"Yeah, you mentioned that already," InuYasha said dryly. "And don't shoot the messenger. I'm just telling you like it is. What would be the point in sugar coating it? The car's trashed. The wreck wasn't all that bad, but the thing isn't worth half what it would cost to fix it."
Kagome let out a disappointed sigh as she slumped down, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. "I figured as much, but it still sucks to hear."
"Why are you so disappointed? You shouldn't even have been driving that death trap in the first place. It didn't even have airbags for crying out loud!"
"Sentimental reasons, mostly. I've had it since I learned to drive. I've made a lot of good memories in that car."
At that, InuYasha scrunched up his face in a frown of disgust.
"Not like that, you pervert!" Kagome said, punching his arm again, only this time more playfully. "That was my mom's car when I was growing up, then it became my car, I had it all through high school, college, drove it to my first real job, moved my stuff to my first apartment...that car has taken me to every significant milestone event in my life. I mean...I knew I wasn't going to have it forever, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm a little sad to part with it."
"Well, look on the bright side, it definitely made one last memory for you that you won't soon forget."
"Huh...I guess that's true," Kagome said with a chuckle. "It went out with a bang."
InuYasha shook his head and gave an amused snort. "That was really lame."
"Yeah, I regretted it as soon as I said it," she agreed and at that they both chuckled and InuYasha stood and walked over to the window to look out.
"Looks like the storm's let up some," he said with a hint of something that Kagome would almost swear was disappointment if only she didn't know better. "Are you ready to go, Kagome?" he said as he turned back to face her.
At the sound of him calling her by name Kagome couldn't help but smile.
"What?" he asked, furrowing his brow. "Is there somethin' on my face?"
"No, it's just that you said my name just now."
"Yeah...and?"
"And it's just that I think you like me more now, is all."
"Keh," he scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Don't read so much into it, you'll end up disappointed. C'mon," he said as he approached her with an outstretched hand and helped her to her feet. "We need to get going before we miss our chance," he said before grabbing her coat that lay discarded on the ground and pulling out the long, white scarf that was tucked under the collar. "You have to wear this," he said as he wrapped the scarf around her eyes as a blindfold.
"Hey!" she protested, pushing the scarf up from her eyes as she stood from the floor. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"I don't want you knowing how to find your way back here," he said matter-of-factly.
Kagome was grateful about his lack of knowledge of modern technology. Not knowing about things like smartphone locators or tracking apps was something he clearly didn't know anything about and she sure wasn't going to be the one to tell him. The result would no doubt be a crushed phone. No, she'd save that little bit of information for another day. After all, she'd have to come back at least once. She was sure her mother would want to send him a thank you gift or something like that.
"I don't need a blindfold. It's nothing but white out there. I won't be able to tell up from down, much less find my way back here," she argued.
He contemplated a moment before agreeing with her somewhat reluctantly. "Fine. Bundle up," he said, again tossing her the jacket and scarf. "I'll get us there as fast as I can, but it's gonna be cold as hell for a weak human like you. I don't want you dying of hypothermia before you can tell your mother you're not dead," he said as he closed the door to the wood stove and pushed the damper rod in with his bare hand.
Kagome smiled as she started to put on her jacket. "Thank you InuYasha. You're a lifesaver...literally."
He fumbled a moment before acknowledging her with nothing more than a snort, clearly uncomfortable with her expression of gratitude. She couldn't help but wonder when was the last time anyone had thanked him for anything, or even when the last time was that he had even spoken to another person.
"Get on," he said, turning his back to her and taking a knee.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"What does it look like I'm doing? We're leaving. Get on."
"On your back?" she squeaked.
He rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh. "How else did you think we were gonna get there?" he said over his shoulder.
"A car, duh!"
"Do I look like I have a car? Duh?!" he mocked her.
"So you're going to carry me six kilometers? That'll take half a day?!"
"It won't even take half an hour," he assured her. "What do you take me for? Some wimpy, slow, human weakling?"
Kagome rolled her eyes and finally conceded. "Fine," she said, climbing aboard the dog demon's back (which she noticed, off-handedly, seemed to be quite the solid match for his front). Her stomach suddenly filled with butterflies for reasons unrelated to the impending high-speed piggy back ride she was about to embark on. "You'd better not drop me!"
"Or what?" he asked with a smirk and he abruptly stood and started towards the door of his tiny home.
"Or I'll tell everyone I know about the dog demon I met in the national forest."
"Half-demon," InuYasha interjected, "and they'd send you straight to the looney bin."
"Half?" Kagome repeated curiously. "What's the other half?"
"Keh!" he turned and scoffed at her over his shoulder. "Human, stupid!"
"Well, excuse me for not knowing! How was I supposed to know. From the way you act you seem more like you're part troll!"
InuYasha let out a frustrated growl as he whipped open the door and they were blasted by a rush of frigid air and icy snowflakes that had Kagome squeezing tight to his back and snuggling her face into his shoulders. "You ready?" he called out over the wind and he must have understood the nod against his back because as soon as Kagome gave him affirmation he crouched slightly before springing up into the trees in like a rocket.
If Kagome had had any breath in her lungs she would have screamed, but as it was she was mostly just latching onto the half-demon's back with her full body like she some kind of parasite, holding her breath and squeezing her eyes shut so tightly she saw stars. It was for the best anyway, because the second she did lift her head to try to look where they were going she was assaulted by ice crystals pelting her face like tiny shards of glass, which had her burying her face back into its soft, white nest of hair.
Despite the abrupt take off, the rest of the ride was actually rather smooth. Especially considering the mode of transportation was a man, running barefoot through a thick forest of evergreen trees covered in at least a foot of snow..
No more than fifteen minutes elapsed before he was setting her to her nearly frozen feet and she opened her eyes, peering through her icy lashes to find them standing in front of the door of a little, snow-covered forest ranger station.
She let out a sigh of relief before turning back to him and throwing her arms around his neck in a hug, "Thank you, InuYasha," she said sincerely, and as she turned her head to pull away her ice-cold nose brushed against his warm cheek and she paused, crazily considering planting a kiss right there on that impossibly warm cheek, but then thinking better of it upon considering the possible repercussions.
"I-it was nothin'," he sputtered, patting her on the head awkwardly in a way that ever so slightly pushed her away from him—whether intentional or unintentional, Kagome couldn't be sure. "Just get in there. Sango will help you get back home."
Kagome quickly pulled back from the hug, looking him in the eyes with a furrowed brow. "Y-you mean you're not coming in with me?" she said incredulously, removing her hands from his shoulders and tucking them into her armpits as she shivered violently.
"You're a big girl," he said as he turned his back from her, "you can take care of yourself from here."
Kagome stood gaping like a fish as she watched him start to walk away. "That's it?! You aren't even going to say goodbye?"
He turned and looked back over his shoulder with a smirk before cheekily calling out "Goodbye!", and then he was off again, darting through the snow into the forest like a frightened rabbit.
I can't believe it...he left...he really left just like that…
It wasn't as though she thought they had become fast friends or anything like that, but she'd thought saving her life would be a significant enough experience that at the very least they'd part with a proper goodbye. Especially considering the fact that he clearly believed they'd never cross paths again.
"Hmph! Just goes to show what he knows," Kagome grumbled to herself before jumping, startled at the sound of the door opening behind her, and as she whipped around she saw a friendly looking, blue-eyed man poke his head out from behind the door.