(inukag week 2019, day 4: affection)
Kagome shifted on his back, leaning closer and looping her arms around his neck. She pressed her face where his neck and shoulder met, hiding under his hair, and he felt the muscles of her thigh lock up as she squeezed his middle.
"What's wrong? Afraid to fall off?"
Kagome shook her head, her nose brushing the skin of his neck for a second and shit it was icy. "I'm just a bit cold."
Damn. Humans were such high maintenance! How could she be cold when the sun was bright and strong, the skies were clear, and there weren't any winds?
All he found to complain about was the thick smell of grass and earth in the air, clogging his nose like he had stuffed dirt in his nostrils, and how it was too damn humid, his underclothes damp and the hair at the base of his neck sticking to his skin, leftovers from the vicious storm that had decided to piss on them for days and made travelling a nightmare.
And even then, those were more nitpicks than actual bothers. He'd gone through shittier conditions.
Kagome, though, lived sheltered and pampered and it showed. She slept much longer, without a single care in the world, took forever to get ready in the morning, ate three times a day (and insisted he did as well!), took a billion breaks to do her business, and every three days or so she'd ask to stop so she could fucking wash in a stream or something.
And now she was cold.
If he didn't do a thing about it, she'd not only feel cold, but probably catch one as well, because humans' defense systems were shit and Kagome wasn't one of those burly human guys, lotsa muscles and fat and almost as tall as him, built to resist all kinds of bullshit.
No, she was built like a goddamn twig and if a cold had managed to take his mother, who had been waited on hand and foot by the best of doctors, then he didn't even want to think what it could do to someone like Kagome.
The girl sure was lucky she got to team up with a half-demon instead of a full one. At least he could understand the pains of having a weak human body, even if it was once a night every month for him.
In his opinion, it was one night too many.
Swallowing an irritated sigh at thoughts of his most vulnerable moments, Inuyasha stopped, crouching and waiting for Kagome to disentangle herself. Still as he was, he felt her shuddering, teeth clacking softly and the chill in her hands sucking his warmth through the fabric of his clothes as she braced herself against him to regain her balance. When he turned around to face her, he found Kagome had pressed her legs together and wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm, muscles shivering to generate heat.
Bah, as if that'd work! Not with that short skirt and her legs exposed like that. No fucking wonder she felt cold.
He grabbed one of her hands, ignoring her indignant "hey!", and examined her fingers. Shit, was the first thing that came to his mind, this is worse than I thought. The skin of her fingertips was bone-white with lack of blood flow and her nails were bright blue, almost purple. The fine hair at the back of her hand was also erect, pulling at the flesh it was attached to and making goosebumps bloom on otherwise smooth skin.
"Ya're a dumbass," he muttered, gathering both of her hands between his palms to share his warmth and frowning when Kagome hissed at the difference of temperature, "how long ya've been like this?"
Kagome scuffed the ground with the tip of her shoes, looking a bit sheepish. "I wasn't that cold. I thought I could hang on until we reached the next village or something."
"Feh!" Kagome would have waited until she couldn't hold onto him anymore and fell off before she spoke of her discomfort, and even then he was pretty sure she'd claim to have lost her balance or some other dumb excuse to avoid the subject. She was a self-sacrificing idiot like that.
And he was an idiot for holding her hands like this: he could keep this up all day and it wouldn't do jack shit to warm her up. So instead, he took his firerat top off, throwing it her way. "Make sure ya wear the sleeves properly."
Kagome held it to her chest, staring at the fabric she held in her hands, brows knit together. He expected her to slip her arms through the sleeves and finish putting on the robe so they could get going, but all Kagome did was look up at him, eyes glittering with something he couldn't name. She asked: "What about you? Won't you be cold?"
He blinked. Cold? Him? Kagome was asking him that much when it was clear she was the one who needed the extra layers the most? She was exposed to the elements; her hands were as cold as a river in the middle of winter, and it was…
It was just like when he'd gone through his first new moon around her. She had cried over him, had wiped his forehead free of sweat, and had kept watch the whole night as he slept on her laps, the first time in a long while (if not forever) he trusted anyone enough to doze off in their presence, more so as a human.
"I was so worried for you!" Kagome had burst back then, her tears and her words sinking deep into his body.
It took him a good second to digest the realization, swallowing hard like there was a lump in his throat. Warmth bloomed through him and he felt it gather in his chest and pool in his stomach. "Half-demon," he finally managed to croak out in answer to her question. He winced as his voice broke a bit at the end with feelings he couldn't name.
Kagome's lips formed an "oh" of understanding, but she still hesitated in putting his damn top on, so he gently pulled it away from her hands and then threw the robe on the top of her head, arranging it until he could see her face. He caught her eyes, warm and soft, and gulped, feeling the heat rise in his cheeks.
He quickly broke eye contact to finish his task, but his hands shook faintly, betraying his inner feelings, as he slid the sleeves on her arms and tugged on the ribbons at the end to close the extremities as much as he could. He then tucked the lapels close, making sure they were snug around her form.
Since he was a good head taller than her, his top dwarfed Kagome in a sea of red fabric. It reached her knees and thanks to her tall socks, she was completely covered head to toe, though Kagome's modern-day fabric sucked when it came to keeping warm and as far as he was concerned, it was only good for fire fodder.
Kagome wrapped the ends of his sleeves around her hands and brought them to her face, blowing on them. She then looked up, face pink, eyes a brilliant blue, dark hair spilling out like a halo from under his red firerat top, and a soft smile on her lips. "Thank you, Inuyasha."
His first thought was that she looked like one of those fancy brides with their big headdresses he remembered from his childhood. His second was what the fuck did I just think. "B-bah! I wouldn't have to do something if ya dressed properly," he sputtered, facing away to hide the red creeping its way up his neck and to his cheeks, ears burning.
"I could bring a coat, but they're too bulky and heavy and I know you don't like carrying extra," Kagome answered, tucking the hood tight under her chin with a small smile. "This is much warmer and comfy."
"Y-yeah…" he mumbled, tugging at the collar of his underclothes nervously as his heart thudded in his chest. "W-well now that ya're all warmed up, let's go!"
Kagome nodded, that little free tuft of hair bobbing with the movement, before climbing onto his back, her body much more relaxed.
"Ya'd better not complain about the cold anymore, yeah?"
"Don't worry, I'm all okay thanks to you."
Oh… Good.