Some people this may bother. Some it may not. Some may hate it. Some may love it. Some might have nightmares... OK, well, hopefully not nightmares, but I guess it depends on the person.
Disclaimer #1: Inuyasha does not belong to me. (Falls to the floor, sobbing hysterically...)
Disclaimer #2: The song, Baby of Mine, does not belong to me, either, but I don't know who the real owner is. Disney, maybe? Bette Midler? Anybody know?
Hope you enjoy. ;)
OoooOoooO
"Hey...Inuyasha?"
The dark-haired miko hears a low grunt from above, and the creak of a branch as the hanyou she was calling shifts his position to glance down at her.
"What?" he asks, almost sounding annoyed that she had bothered him. Kagome feels a frown starting to form on her lips, but quickly pushes it away, determined to get the boy out of the tree. It's not like she could do it up there, anyways.
"Can you come down here?"
An irritated snort floats down from the boy's perch, before he responds in a superior tone, one that suggested that he had better things to do.
"Why?"
Kagome bites her tongue, telling herself that it will be worth it; that Inuyasha deserves this. After all, she and the others didn't spend nearly the same amount of time on theirs as the hanyou did. When was the last time Inuyasha had been treated to something like this? Had he ever been treated to something like this?
"Because...I have a...surprise for you."
Nothing but silence follows this statement. And now it's not only the half-demon who's listening, but their friends as well.
Kagome refuses to meet her companion's confused and slightly too interested glances, choosing instead to look at the ground and try not to blush at how inappropriate her statement had sounded. It wasn't like that at all. She was going to give Inuyasha a surprise, but it wasn't even close to what everyone was thinking.
"What kind of surprise?" the boy says, dropping like a rock out of his tree and grimacing slightly before he stands, narrowing his amber gaze at the miko. Kagome presses her lips together to either keep herself from grinning like an idiot or frowning in sympathy, but she can't decide which.
"Just...something I thought you might like. Something nice," she adds, when the hanyou gives her a suspicious glare. "Si...take a seat, somewhere. I need a few minutes to get things together."
Inuyasha frowns at the miko's back as Kagome turns away and walks to her bag, pulling out a small pot and disappearing in the direction of the stream that was flowing a few yards away. Wondering what she could possibly have planned, the boy cocks one ear in the girl's direction in case she should run into trouble, then turns to the others, shrugging in answer to their silent question.
"You know as much as I do," he says, plopping into a cross-legged position beneath the tree he'd just vacated and putting his hands in his sleeves, gritting his teeth a little at the pain.
"Do you know what this 'surprise' might be, Sango, dearest?"
The slayer turns to the monk beside her, her dark eyes narrowing at the devious gleam she can see reflected in his own.
"No, monk. And I very much doubt it's what you're hoping it is," she says, turning away from the boy with an angry growl. Miroku blinks innocently at the tajiya.
"How do you know what I hope it is?" he asks, his voice low as the monk moves his right hand toward the slayer.
A high-pitched squeal suddenly echoes around the campsite, followed promptly by a loud SMACK! as Sango's hand connects with Miroku's face.
"It's not that," Kagome says, returning to the camp and guessing what the pair had been discussing when she looks at the red-faced demon slayer, who is glaring at an equally colored hoshin.
"It's still worth it," Miroku mumbles, rubbing the hand-print that's been left on his cheek. "Every time..."
Inuyasha snorts loudly, rolling his eyes at the starry-eyed monk before tilting his head in confusion, when Kagome places her filled pot on the fire.
"Is it food?" Shippo asks, jumping onto the miko's shoulder when she kneels beside her bag and begins digging through it.
"No; its not food," she answers, huffing in impatience when she can't find what she's looking for and begins emptying her bag of it's contents, books, ramen containers, and spare clothing falling helter-skelter around her.
I know it's in here somewhere... I had it yesterday...
"Why do you need to heat water then?" the kit asks, his eyes widening a little when the miko suddenly holds several cloths in a wooden bowl up to him.
"Hold this a minute, please Shippo? Because cold water is...well, cold," Kagome says, ignoring the looks she's getting for stating the obvious. "Warm water will be nicer."
"Nicer? Are you going to give Inuyasha a bath or something?" Miroku says, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively until Sango's hiraikotsu hits him on the head, knocking the boy mostly unconscious.
"Eh...sort of," the miko says, refusing to look at the stares from an instantly alert monk, a shocked tajiya, and two very confused demons. Kagome instead turns her gaze to the hanyou a few feet away, who's expression seems to be a cross between surprise and embarrassment. The boy has removed his hands from his sleeves, evidentally preparing to return to his branch. "Just trust me, Inuyasha," Kagome mumbles, turning back to her bag and finally finding the bottle she'd been looking for. "Ah-ha! Knew it was here somewhere..."
The girl picks up her bottle, along with with a small, innocent-looking plastic packet, then removes the pot from the fire and walks over to the hanyou, kneeling at his feet. Ignoring the suspicious glare she's receiving, Kagome sets the bottle and packet on the ground on one side of her, the pot of warm water on the other.
Taking the bowl from the kistune, the miko removes a few of the cloths and sets them beside the bottle, then pours the water over the remaining ones, adding the contents of the packet afterward. She smothers a grin when she sees the hanyou take a deep breath, then close his eyes, almost immediately snapping them open again.
"It's supposed to be 'ocean water,' or something. That's what the package said, anyway. Nothing too girly," Kagome says, letting her smile show when she looks up at the half-demon. Inuyasha holds her gaze for a moment before looking away, the slightest hint of a blush crossing his cheeks, though he's not really sure why.
"What is that?" Shippo asks, jumping to the ground and sticking his nose almost directly into the water, inhaling deeply of the light, breezy scent.
"Don't drink it, Shippo. It'll make you sick," the miko says, rolling up her sleeves. Both the fox and the dog-demon give her puzzled looks, and Kagome is sure that the three behind her are wearing similar expressions. "It's...the powder does two things: it helps clean wounds...mostly burns...," she mumbles, glancing quickly at the hanyou and dropping her eyes again before she can see his reaction, "...and it also...uh, feels nice."
"Feels...nice? What does that mean?" the kitusne asks, glancing back and forth between Inuyasha and Kagome, completely missing the slight scowl the half-demon is now wearing.
"You'll have to ask Inuyasha," Kagome says softly, reaching toward the boy and wrapping her fingers around one of his ankles.
The hanyou feels his irritation fade away as a hot blush begins crawling up the sides of his neck and face, when the girl slowly stretches out his leg, resting his foot in her lap and beginning to undo the tie at the bottom of his hakamas.
"Kagome..."
"Oh, that's what the surprise is," Miroku says, giving the hanyou a leering glance, then mock-sighing. Loudly. "I wish someone would give me..."
"Shut up, Miroku. You're ruining it," Sango says, turning a glare on the pouting monk before she looks back at the miko, echoing the other girl's wide grin. "I wonder how long he'll last..."
"How long I'll last?" Inuyasha growls nervously, quirking a brow at the slayer and making a half-hearted attempt to remove his leg as Kagome places one of the dry cloths in her lap, then picks up one of the wet ones, wringing out the excess water before she begins rubbing it over his ankle and foot.
The boy tries to ignore the soothing sensation the tingly, warm liquid is having on his sore feet, shifting his position a little so that Kagome is blocking the grins he's receiving from the others.
"I don't ne...," the boy starts again, but Kagome cuts him off before he can adequately protest.
"Just enjoy it, Inuyasha," she whispers, looking up at the boy and giving him another smile. "I know how sore your feet must get--always walking or running everywhere, carrying me while the others ride Kilala... You're the only one who never gets a break..."
The hanyou swallows the lump in his throat as Kagome soaks and wrings out her cloth again, before going back to his foot. She continues speaking a moment later but doesn't look at him, which the boy is grateful for as he's sure she wouldn't be able to distinguish his face from his robes right this minute.
"...but you never complain. Not once, which is definitely less than me," she says, laughing lightly at herself before going on. "Even today, when we traveled over all that hot rock in the Fire Lands. I know it had to hurt, but you never said anything about it. You just kept going."
Inuyasha drops his eyes from the miko's face, her softened expression somehow being reflected through her hands, which are slowly working over the top of his foot to his toes. The boy bites his tongue to keep from squirming--partly in embarassment--but also because the water was sliding in between the digits, tickling his skin. He unconsciously growls, feeling his face warm even more when Kagome looks up, smiling at the fact that the noise had sounded more like a low purr.
"Well?" she asks, raising one brow in question, though the hanyou guesses that Kagome already knows exactly what he thinks about the situation.
"It's...nice," he huffs, crossing his arms and leaning back against his tree, trying to look offended, but at the same time having a difficult time keeping his eyes open.
Kagome doesn't respond, but turns her attention back to her task, making sure that the medicinal water was reaching all of the hanyou's burns. When she's satified that his left foot has been well-cleansed, the miko places it on another cloth, then moves on to his right, treating the other appendage with the same patience and care.
"Inuyasha sure looks relaxed," Miroku says wistfully, stiffening when he feels a pair of golden irises trained on his head. The monk quickly mumbles something about 'seeing things,' sliding over so that Sango is blocking him from the half-demon's heated gaze.
"Does he?"
The miko purposely refuses to meet the hanyou's stare, turning to the others and giving them an innocent look, blinking several times, like she has no idea what Miroku might have been talking about. The other two humans stifle laughs behind their hands, breaking into fits when a low growl echoes from their object of amusement.
"I am not relaxed!" the boy yells, sitting up and glaring at his tormentors. "I'm just letting Kagome do this because I'm...I'm...injured. Because I got burned. Not because..."
"Because you like it, Inuyasha?" Shippo says, giggling at the scowl that's aimed at him while he uses Kagome as a shield. "Just admit it. We all know..."
"Leave him alone, you guys. This is supposed to be something nice for Inuyasha, and teasing him about it isn't part of the surprise," Kagome says, as she finishes washing his right foot and sets it on another cloth.
The girl smiles when she hears Inuyasha snort loudly, and the others give soft moans of frustration. She glances down at the boy's feet, her expression falling into a slight frown.
"Are you finished?"
The miko glances up, seeing the hanyou almost sulking at her, disappointment quite evident in his sour expression. Kagome fights the urge to smile again.
"No...," she says, hesitating a moment before going on, her cheeks starting to warm at what she was about to say. "I'd really like to uh...do your nails, but that's probably going a little too far."
"Do...my nails?" the hanyou says, his eyes widening considerably from a second before, when Kagome nods. He pauses a moment to snarl at the blatant laughing coming from the other side of the fire, then turns back to the embarrassed miko with a suppressed sneer. "Why?"
"Because...I don't know. I just thought you might like... Ne... nevermind..."
The miko sighs, waving one hand dismissively as she shakes her head, reaching for the bottle sitting behind her. A soft snort draws the girl's attention back to the half-demon.
"Humph. It's your 'surprise.' Do whatever you want."
Kagome just stares at the demon as he leans back against the tree again, crossing his arms and acting as if this was all a waste of his time. The girl looks around to their friends, seeing her shock echoed on their faces before she turns back to Inuyasha. When he raises his brows in impatience, the girl has to bite down on her lip to hide yet another smile, thinking that she'd done way too much of that so far this evening.
"Hey, Shippo? Look in my pack and bring me a thin, flat board that's about this long, and is rough on both sides," the miko says, holding her hands a few inches apart. The kitsune nods and hops over to her pack, digging through the contents on the ground before he moves to the bag itself. After a few seconds he frowns, holding something up for Kagome to see.
"This?" he asks, giving the girl a strange look when she nods. "Why does it have flowers on it?"
"To make it pretty, I guess," the miko says, laughing at the fox's perplexed expression. "The people who made it thought that other people might like it better if it had flowers on it."
Shippo gives the girl a disbelieving glance before he hops back over to her, handing her the item. Kagome picks up Inuyasha's foot again, thinking that this has to be one of the strangest things she's ever done as she begins filing his worn, jagged nails so that they'll all be even, if nothing else. The miko almost laughs out loud when she hears the hanyou utter a quiet gasp.
"Your world definitely has different customs than what we're used to, Kagome," Sango says, eyeing the miko with a narrowed gaze before she glances down at her own fingernails, sighing. "Can you bring me one of those the next time you go back to your...time?"
"An emory board? Sure. And you guys really have no idea. There are people who get paid to do what I'm doing right now."
Kagome glances up when only silence reaches her ears, tilting her head at the disbelief on her friends' faces.
"Your villagers are paid to...?"
"Pervert," the tajiya grumbles, raising her weapon threateningly when she sees the lecherous grin on the monk's lips. "The closest you'll ever get to a woman's feet is when you see them walking away, after the girl kicks you for having asked her to bear your child."
Miroku ignores the giggling aimed in his direction and stares down his nose at the slayer, his words taking on a slightly arrogant tone. "I'll have you know that I give very good..."
"Shut it, Miroku. I don't want to know what it is that you're 'giving,' " Inuyasha says, smirking when the monk glares at him, despite the blush still staining his cheeks.
The hoshin holds the other boy's gaze for a few seconds, then crosses his arms, grinning widely at the half-demon.
"Then perhaps Kagome should do this for a living? You certainly seem like you'd be willing to pay her, Inuyasha..."
"It's true, though," the miko says, interrupting the low growls floating from the hanyou and the demon slayer before everyone starts bickering and her surprise gets ruined. "There are people in my time who do this as a profession. And they get paid pretty well for it, too."
Inwardly smiling when no one replies to this statement, Kagome finishes the nails on the boy's right foot, then wrings out another cloth and washes over his toes, before moving on to his left. Quiet murmuring can be heard from the pair behind her, though the girl is pretty sure that Sango and Miroku aren't actually talking to one another, and Inuyasha is just sitting with his arms crossed over his chest, not moving. Shippo--meanwhile--seems to be entranced with what the girl's hands are doing, while simultaneously having an almost disgusted look on his face.
The group sits in awkward companionship, the sound of the crackling fire and and an occasional owl hooting in the distance the only real disruption to the mostly-silent campers. Kagome begins to hum absently to herself to fill the void, but finishes working on the hanyou's left foot--also washing over that one with a cloth--before anyone can make a comment. She turns to the boy who is leaning back against his tree again, his fingernails tapping nervously on his opposite arms.
"Are you ready for the really nice part?" the girl asks, giving the boy an innocent look when he frowns at her.
" 'Really nice part' ?" he repeats, raising one brow in question.
Kagome just grins, setting the bowl, used cloths, and emory board to the side, and reaching for the bottle that has been waiting patiently behind her. She unscrews the top, then pours a small amount of some kind of white, liquid-like stuff into her hand and sets the bottle back on the ground.
Taking the nearest appendage into her lap again, the miko raises her gaze to the half-demon's as she rubs the lotion onto his foot, seeing his eyes narrow at her for several seconds before they suddenly relax and he blinks dazedly at her.
"You know what a massage is, don't you Inuyasha? It's like applying a poultice to a wound, only better..."
The hanyou barely answers, nodding his head a few times before he leans back and closes his eyes, a faint hint of a smirk crossing his lips. Kagome smiles to herself, glancing down to concentrate on the worst of the boy's injuries.
"I can't watch this anymore. I'm going to sleep."
Sango exchanges a grin with the miko as Miroku begins bedding down, annoyed huffs floating to the girl's ears every few seconds.
"I think that's a good idea," the slayer says, raising her arms over her head and imitating the yawn the kitsune has just released. "Come on, Shippo. You can sleep with me tonight. I think Kagome might be busy for awhile," Sango adds, winking to the other girl when an angry Humph! echoes from the monk lying a few feet away.
"Ok. Goodnight, Kagome. 'Night, Inuyasha," the fox says, giggling to himself when the half-demon just blinks at him.
"Oh, fine. No one even wants to say 'Goodnight, Miroku,' " the monk mutters, raising his arms over his head and effectively hiding himself from the others.
"Goodnight, Miroku...," Sango mimics, shaking her head at the boy. She hesitates a moment before leaning over and patting his hair, whispering quietly, "...sleep well, monk."
Miroku rolls over so that he can stare at the tajiya while she beds down, giving the girl a flashy grin when she finally looks at him.
"I knew you loved me, Sango."
The slayer rolls her eyes at the miko laughing in her direction, scooping the kitsune and the nekomata closer so that the demons form a barrier between herself and the hoshin.
"Goodnight, Miroku," she says, glaring at the boy. Miroku just shakes his head, laughing to himself as he lays down again.
" 'Night, guys," Kagome whispers, watching her friends for a few more minutes before she turns back to the hanyou, her gaze softening when she sees his almost peaceful expression.
The miko continues working on Inuyasha's sore foot, the faint sounds of snoring carrying to her as each of her companions drifts into sleep. Kagome yawns, then begins humming to herself again, not really noticing when she begins to say the words to the song.
"Little one, when you play
Don't you mind what you say..."
"Mom used to sing that when I was little."
The miko stops, glancing at the half-demon, who is watching her with lidded eyes. "When I couldn't sleep," he adds, as if she needed to know why Inuyasha knew the words. Kagome just nods, smiling at the boy for a moment before she gently lays down his foot, picking up his other and pouring more lotion into her palm. She hears a low growl from the boy as she begins massaging again.
The pair sits in comfortable silence, listening to the quiet chirping of crickets, seemingly timed with the soft flashing of fireflies and the almost silent flames of their dying fire. Kagome begins humming again, eventually closing her eyes when she begins to sing.
"If they knew sweet little you
They'd end up loving you too..."
The miko is startled out of her semi-trance when a voice joins with her. She looks up, feeling the slight sting of tears in her eyes as she watches the hanyou singing, Inuyasha's deep baritone barely audible, even with the encompassing silence.
"From your head to your toes
You're not much, goodness knows..."
The girl drops her eyes back to her task, not wanting the boy to see her watching him. Inuyasha so rarely talked about his feelings; Kagome was positive that catching him singing would definitely start an argument of some sort, and the miko didn't want that to happen when the half-demon looked more relaxed than she'd ever seen him. So Kagome continues to work, pretending to be oblivious to the echo to her words.
"But you're so precious to me
Cute as can be, baby of mine."
The young priestess continues to hum softly when she finishes the song, eventually raises her eyes to the boy when she hears a light snore come from that direction. Smiling at Inuyasha's sleeping face, Kagome gently sets his foot down, then quietly stands and gathers her things, moving to the stream to wash out the bowl and cloths.
When she returns, the miko replaces everything in her pack and changes into her pajamas, then sits quietly and watches her sleeping companions, her dark eyes continually drawn to the one with the puppy-dog ears.
Sighing at the fact that Inuyasha will be very upset with her if she lets him sleep all night, the girl finally moves, stepping softly over to the hanyou and sitting down beside him. Still unwilling to wake him so soon, Kagome continues to simply watch the boy, unable to wipe the smile off her face.
Thinking that she won't get a chance like this anytime soon, the miko raises one hand and pushes the boy's silver bangs off his face, releasing a squeak of surprise when he rolls onto his side and wraps his arms around her waist, his head resting in her lap.
Kagome freezes--barely breathing--but feeling her face warm as her heart starts beating at least double-time, when the hanyou growls lightly against her leg.
After several minutes she relaxes, and is busy trying to think of the best way to remove herself from the half-demon when she's suddenly shocked again, as a low voice floats up from the boy in her lap.
"Thanks, Kagome."
The girl is silent for a moment, then slowly, gently, rests one hand on the back of the boy's head, feeling a soft vibration against her hand a few seconds later.
"Anytime, Inuyasha."
OoooOoooO
I'm a goober... I know... ;P