Authors Note:
Hi all. This is my first work of fanfiction. However I am an experienced writer so do not go easy on me. This was essentially something I thought up of while experiencing writers block. If everyone likes it though I might just turn this into a small hobby. Also feel free to correct me on any grammar or spelling mistakes. I do not think there are but I have not proof read it. Enjoy!
BTW: I hope its obvious, but if it is not, Italics indicate some sort of thought or introspection or flashback.
Disclaimer:
I, in no way, shape, or form, own Inu Yasha or any of the materials and characters involved in said Anime/Manga.
Inu Yasha sat crouched on a high branch that overlooked Kaede's hut. His nose twitched as he checked the air for any possible threats. He could not pick out any scents other than the cold chill of winter. His golden eyes trailed lazily over the ground beneath him. The talk of the group drifted up from below him and to his ears. It was almost relaxing. A slap rang out across the area, putting a temporary silence to the antics below him. However, it was only moments before his odd companions were once again busy chatting away.
Sango sat close to the fire that provided the group with warmth and light in face of the setting sun. She was polishing her large oversized boomerang while obviously still fuming from Miroku's latest offense. The aforementioned monk sat no more than five feet away rubbing the pulsing red handprint on his cheek. Whenever they gathered together for the night Miroku would always try to pull something. Whether it was his wandering hand or his perverted mouth, he would end up on the receiving end of some type of physical pain. After that Sango would place five feet between them. As the night wore on, the monk would try to inch closer to her location. He would close the distance to perhaps two or three feet before Sango would scoot around the fire to keep him away. Occasionally he would get within groping distance before she would notice. In those instances she would be rudely interrupted from her polishing and the peace would be broken by the monk getting his brains knocked out once again.
Curled up next to the demon huntress was Kiara the fire cat. The neko seemed to be peacefully sleeping, but Inu Yasha knew that she was just alert as he was. The third and final demon of the group, Shippo, was hopping around the person Inu Yasha most often found his thoughts drifting off to, Kagome.
He sighed as he began staring at the priestess who so dominated his thoughts. He did not understand her at all. Even in the near freezing weather she still insisted on wearing those scandalous clothes of her time. When it had begun to get cold he had hinted that she should get some warmer clothing, but of course, she had ignored his suggestion.
"Listen Wench! It's fucking cold. If I'm letting you go back to your time for a day then you had better get warmer clothes"
"What do you care you loud mouthed jerk?"
"I don't need my shard detector getting sick because she is too stupid to dress properly."
"Don't worry. Your SHARD DETECTOR will be fine! She doesn't need you telling her what to do."
Inu Yasha flinched at that. He probably should NOT have called her a shard detector. Still it was for her own good.
"I bet you just want to go on wearing that to flaunt yourself to all the men we come across. I bet you are just hoping we come across Kouga!"
"You, you… You Jerk. Sit! Sit! Sit!"
Okay he definitely pushed it with that.
"SIT!"
That hurt.
"I don't need you telling me how to dress. Besides why would you care if I was trying to flirt with other men?"
This threw Inu Yasha's mind for a loop. Why should he care? After all, she was just suppose to be his shard detector. He did not tell her but he had spent countless nights asking himself that question. Why should he care? Before he could stutter out a reply or at least come back with his standard 'feh' the young girl's voice rang out again. If it was not for what she was saying, it would have been like music.
"Sit boy."
And with that she was down the well again, and he was down eating dirt again.
He smiled. In the end though, he had been right. On the return trip for their latest jewel hunt, the temperature had dropped at least ten degrees. Of course Kagome remained her stubborn self and refused to admit that she was cold. That did not mean that he did not notice her shivering. After about fifteen minutes he had decided that she had learned her lesson. He had leapt over to her side and dropped his haori over her shoulders. She had given him a weak apologetic smile, to which he just fehed, and promised to wear something warmer when she came back next time. In the end he had won that argument.
As she sat by the fire, she still wore his haori. She shivered slightly as a icy breeze blew by. She suddenly let out a laugh at something Shippou had said. Kagome was sitting on top of her sleeping bag, which was placed near the others. Her odd yellow bag lay on the ground next to her. He watched as a smile graced her visage and her countenance simply glowed. He loved it when she smiled like that. He only wished that it would be directed at him more often.
Inu Yasha growled slightly at that thought. He found himself thinking like that more and more often. He did not care about her. She was only his shard detector. He could not care about her or anyone else for that matter. If he cared about her, about any of his traveling companions, but especially her, then he could get hurt. Just like with his mother… and Kikyo.
He let out a sigh. He was not fooling anyone. He definitely had feelings for the strange girl from the future. The question was, just how strongly did he feel. He definitely thought of her as a friend. But it was different than how he thought of Miroku and Sango. It was something more. It could possibly be love? He had once thought he had felt love before when Kikyo was still alive. But should it have been so easy to destroy love. He did not think so.
After many hours, Inu Yasha had decided at one point that he probably had never really loved Kikyo. Sure, he had cared for her. He had cared enough that he was willing to turn human. But most of the feelings in their relationship had likely come from loneliness. That thought, that he had never loved Kikyo, made him happy. The reason was simply because he knew what he felt for Kagome was different than what he had felt for Kikyo. That meant he could love Kagome. But he still was not sure.
Once again he looked at his companions. No they were more than that; they were his friends. Inu Yasha shook his head. They were his family. Yes, he was not sure when it had happened but they had become one big happy family. Sure they were a bit dysfunctional, but it was better than being alone. They were his family and he would die before anything hurt anyone of them. The thought was such a revelation. They were his family. Inu Yasha gave an imperceptible nod of his head as he came upon another thought. If they were a family, it was another reason for Kagome to continue returning to the Warring States Era.
At the moment Inu Yasha needed every reassurance he could receive that the primary object of his thoughts would come back from her time. Just as he was unsure of his feelings for her, he was unsure of why he had become more lenient. Recently he had found himself caving in more and more frequently to Kagome's requests to return home. It was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it made Kagome happy, and anything that made Kagome happy was good. However, it also means that she spends more time away from me… I mean from hunting for shards.He shook his head. He was pathetic. Still a small smile spread across his lips. He had a family to watch out for. He could figure out how he felt about Kagome later. At the moment he was content. Inu Yasha leaned back on his branch and folded his arms into his selves. After a minimal amount of fidgeting he finally got comfortable. His eyes drifted shut as the smell of potatoes cooking and the pleasant sound of his family's chatter began to lull him to sleep.
"Inu Yasha, the stew is ready. You can come down if you would like some." Inuyasha's ears flicked forward at her voice.
After several moments Kagome sighed and returned to the campfire. She had thought that perhaps Inu Yasha would like to join them, but his moods were unpredictable. She checked the stew pot to see how much was left. Shippou would probably have a second helping, so she would have to make sure some was set aside for Inu Yasha. If he was not hungry when they were all eating, then he would be later. As she began taking in the delicious aroma of the stew while listening to Miroku discuss a new shard rumor, she heard a large thud that seemed to originate directly behind her. Her instincts immediately kicked in to deal with the potential danger and she did what came naturally. She screamed and threw her potato stew at whatever had landed behind her.
A scowling Inu Yasha with an empty bowl on his head stood in front of a now bashful Kagome. His clothes were dripping with the previous contents of the bowl. It had landed on his head lopsided so that it covered one of his eyes and one of his ears. The other ear stuck out from underneath it and was twitching furiously. Kagome opened her mouth to begin apologizing when Inu Yasha beat her to the chase. Only it was not to apologize for anything.
"What did you do that for wench?" He roared into her face.
Shippou sat eating his tasty stew and sadly shook his head.
"What did you mean 'What did I do that for?'" she was now yelling back.
"Why did you dump all of your stupid soup on my head moron?"
"Well, maybe I wouldn't have done that if someone didn't go around trying to scare me. And besides, for your information, it's stew, not soup. Plus it's very good." She huffed at this point.
"I wasn't tryen to scare ya! It's not my fault you're such a fraddy cat. You were the one that offered me the soup. Or stew, it doesn't really matter. It smells just as bad either way."
"If the STEW smells so bad then don't eat it!"
"Maybe I won't"
"Fine!"
"Fine wench!"
"Don't call me wench!"
Shippou shook his head again. Any moment now.
"I'll call you wench whenever I want to wench."
Here it comes.
"Sit Boy!"
Yep, he got sat alright. Shippou glanced over to Miroku where he was sighing in defeat. Whenever a little argument broke out both Miroku and Sango would usually place bets on whether or not Inu Yasha would get sat or how long it would take for it to happen. Miroku almost always placed his money on Inu Yasha not getting subdued even though he knew it was a losing proposition. He claimed he liked to have faith in his friend and give him at lest some form of support. Shippou had his suspicions though. Sango rarely would bet that Inu Yasha would get away with his antics and if Miroku went the same way there would be no way they could bet against each other. It probably had less to do with faith and friendship and more to do with making an excuse to bet with, and thus spend time interacting with, the demon huntress.
Kagome slowly exhaled to check her anger. When she was done counting to ten, she sat back down and found that Shippou had already prepared her another bowl. Behind her Inu Yasha continued to mumble curses into the ground while he waited for the spell to wear off.
Inu Yasha sat slowly eating his stew. There was not as much as there should have been because of his unplanned bath. Still, it would be enough. Despite smelling like potatoes and being sat his spirits were still surprisingly high. At least they were until Sango reminded him to the idiocy he had agreed to.
"So Kagome, could you explain just one more time why you are leaving this time."
Inu Yasha groaned. A whole week he had agreed to. He was not sure what it was that had broken down his defenses. Maybe it was the promise of all the ramen he could eat, even though there is no way she could ever get enough ramen, or maybe it was the look she had on her face, she really wants to go to this Christmas thing of hers, or maybe it was the promise of an uninterrupted month of shard hunting. Though, she will probably end up going home before the month is up. It was not like it would make too big of a difference anyway. It had reached a point where, unless something unexpected came up, they were simply waiting for Naraku to make his move. Inu Yasha suddenly realized that Kagome had been explaining this holiday of hers again and decided to try to figure it out. All of the other times, it had not made sense to him.
"So that's what the holiday originally celebrates."
Damn he missed some of her explanation.
"It still celebrates that today, but it has become something more," she paused while thinking of how to explain it, "not just Christians but almost everyone participates in Christmas now. It is a season of goodwill and giving. People come together to spend time with their friends and family. The season is meant to be spent with your loved ones. That's why it's important to me to make it back to my time. I want to be able to spend the holiday with my family."
Shippou started bouncing up and down excitedly asking about the presents Kagome had mentioned earlier. Kagome laughed and after promising to bring him back something explained how people exchanged wrapped gifts on Christmas day. However, Inu Yasha was no longer paying any attention to the conversation. Kagome had mentioned the presents earlier so he knew all about them. What had derailed his train of thoughts were here previous words. She is going back because she wants to spend time with her friends, her family… her loved ones.
Kagome turned around when she felt the rustling of Inu Yasha leaping away. The only sight that greeted her was that of the shadows. She glanced at Sango who only shrugged her shoulders. After letting out a sigh she continued on with her story. Miroku frowned. It seemed as if he had been the only one to notice the look of pain that had crossed over the Hanyou's face. They would have to talk the next day.
"What do you mean I'm not leaving?"
"You heard me. You're not going anywhere!"
"Didn't you listen to a word I said about why this is important to me?"
"Yea, but I don't care!"
"You promised you would give me a peaceful week back in my time!"
"Well wench, I changed my mind!"
"Sit, Sit, SIT!"
By the time Inu Yasha pulled his face out of the dirt, Kagome was already down the well. He ran to the time portal with the intention of following after her and dragging her back if need be. But when he reached the edge and gazed down into its black depths, he stopped all movements. His shoulders slumped and a defeated feeling overcame him. After reaching a decision the night before, he had spent over two hours that morning trying to prevent the girl from returning to her time. But he had failed, and now she was gone.
He leaned against the side of the well. A sense of dread passed over him. The confidence he had felt after determining that he had family was now completely gone. Replacing it was only a feeling of emptiness. He felt alone. Some part of his mind registered that it had begun snowing again and that he was getting cold. The half-demon did not care though. It could never compare to the chill that had hit his soul. He was not sure why the girl's departure was affecting him in such a profound manner. On past occasions he would sulk, be grouchy, and brood, but that would be the extent of it. This time though, he was filled with despair. He had simply given up.
Maybe it was because he had finally allowed himself to feel hope, and as soon as he did, it was snatched away from him. Even after hearing Kagome's words the other day, he had still hoped that he could prevent her from leaving. She was gone. That meant he was wrong, they were not a family. If they were she would spend at least some of this weird holiday with them, but no, she was spending the entire week in her time. The only reason she ever came back was to fulfill her responsibility of restoring the Shikon jewel. It was never out of friendship of love. His fist slammed backwards into the well, splintering the ancient wood. Then he sat.
That was how Miroku eventually found him. Inu Yasha was leaning against the side of the well with his head resting on the edge. His eyes stared strait up but did not focus on anything. They had a glazed over appearance and were only a dull reflection of their usual amber. Miroku could not be certain but he thought he saw the dried trail of tears on the hanyou's cheeks. He was uncertain as to what had sent the great warrior into such a funk but knew that he had to do something.
After trying unsuccessfully for fifteen minutes to get the half-demons attention Miroku took a seat next to Inu Yasha. He sighed as he tried snapping his fingers in front of his face again. Still, he received no response. If it were not for his shallow breathing, Miroku would think that his friend had passed on. The two of them sat like that for close to an hour. The one was wallowing in self-despair and fighting his own inner demons, while the other one contemplated the origin of his friend's condition.
Eventually Miroku found himself shivering and when he felt Inu Yasha's arm found him to be as cold as ice. With slow movements he stood up next to his friend. Miroku removed his outer robe and draped it over Inu Yasha's shoulders. After a little bit of adjusting, Miroku had managed to tuck him in satisfactory fashion. Miroku shivered as another breeze whipped past him. Without his additional clothing, the air was at least ten times as cold. Lifting up his staff, Miroku began to make his way back to the village. If Inu Yasha did not return to normal, then the monk would need assistance carrying him someplace warmer.
Final Note:
That is it for this first chapter. If people liked it I will write some more.