A/N: It took a while for me to figure out where I wanted this to go, and then a while to write it. In this chapter, we take a glance at the relationship between InuYasha and Kagome because, clearly, there's something there, and it needs to be addressed before all the lovely Sesshomaru/Kagome goodness can come to pass. Eternal gratitude to Authoress Mujitsu, InuYasha beta-reader extrodinaire.
Many thanks to all those who reviewed! Please, continue to review! I love hearing what my readers think!
Elements
Chapter 3
"Kagome!" Sango rushed over to Kagome, who was just entering the camp. "Where've you been? Are you okay? What happened to your shirt?" she whispered frantically. She seemed to be making sure not to wake the sleeping kitsune that lay by the fire, but she was obviously worried for her friend.
Kagome looked down at her torn blouse, realizing just how large the slit in it was. "Oh," she said faintly. "I'd forgotten that had happened."
"If you wish to leave your shirt that way," Miroku leered at her from across the fire, "by all means, do."
"Hentai," Sango muttered, moving to shield Kagome from the perverted monk's view. "What happened, though? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Kagome reassured her. "I tripped over a root while I was running and tore my shirt on a bush as I fell. That's all." She looked at Sango warily, feeling slightly guilty about lying to her, but the look of relief that crossed her friend's face was so palpable that any thought of telling her the truth of Sesshomaru's attempt on her life vanished from her mind.
"Thank Kami," Sango said quietly. "The last thing we need is InuYasha flipping out because you've gotten hurt."
"Where is InuYasha?" Kagome asked, being sure to keep her voice down. "Are he and Koga still fighting?"
Sango cast a glance back at Kaede's hut, before turning back to Kagome.
"He got back a while ago," she said quietly. "Kaede's in there, looking at his wounds."
Kagome gasped. "Are you serious?" she asked. "They usually don't fight too badly anymore."
"Koga really laid into InuYasha after you ran off," Sango told her. "He kept yelling about how obviously upset you were with InuYasha. He didn't seem to know that you've been going off on your own lately."
"Kami," Kagome breathed. "Is InuYasha okay?"
"He's wounded, but he'll heal fairly quickly," Sango said. "InuYasha eventually got angry enough that he stopped holding back and used the wind scar on Koga. After that, the fight was pretty much over, as Koga was unconscious. His wolf friends carried him off."
A sharp yell came from the hut. Sango sighed.
"You should go let InuYasha know that you're back," she told Kagome. "He might quiet down then, before he wakes Shippo."
Kagome smiled tiredly, nodding.
"I suppose you're right," she said, walking towards the hut. "I'll go talk to him."
Reaching the hut and pushing aside the bangles that hung in the doorway, Kagome swooned, nearly overcome with the scent of blood. Shaking her head, she entered the room to see InuYasha, cuts scattered across his skin, his clothes soaked in blood, fending off Kaede, snarling at her while she tried to bandage a cut on his cheek. They both froze as Kagome entered, turning to look at her.
"Kagome!" InuYasha exclaimed, his face happy and his eyes sparkling, betraying his joy at seeing her. As if catching himself, his face quickly hardened, and he glared at her. "Where've you been?" he demanded. His eyes trailed lower. "And what happened to your shirt?" he asked, his eyes fixed on the tear in her blouse.
"I am glad to see ye back, Kagome," Kaede smiled thinly. "InuYasha has been most disagreeable since your departure."
"Feh!" InuYasha snorted, turning to glare at the old woman. Kagome hid a smile.
"Kaede, I'll take over from here," she said, falling to her knees beside the wounded hanyou. "I'll treat his wounds."
Kaede slowly got to her feet, her age evident in the way she moved. "Go ahead, child," she bid, leaving the hut, "and good luck to ye. Ye shall sorely need it."
"Shut up, you old crone!" InuYasha shot back, scowling after her. Kagome smirked.
"Can't you be nice?" she remarked. "Kaede's only trying to help"
"I don't need her help," he scoffed. Kagome smiled, before focusing on the task at hand.
"InuYasha," she said. "You need to take off your haori so I can get to your wounds."
"I don't need you to treat my wounds," he said, turning to sneer at her. "I can heal on my own."
"You're dripping with blood," Kagome said, incredulous. "Even you can't heal such large wounds quickly."
"It's mostly Koga's," InuYasha said dismissively, waving his hand. Kagome looked nauseated. "I only have a couple scratches."
"They look like deep gashes to me," she said, looking at the slice on his cheek pointedly.
"Scratches, gashes, it's all the same," he said airily. "They don't need looked at. They'll heal on their own." He tuned away defiantly, pointedly breaking eye contact.
Kagome looked at him, internally sighing. Didn't he know she only wanted to help?
Kagome sighed. Turning to face him completely, she looked directly into his eyes. His golden orbs widened slightly as her intense blue eyes met his own.
"InuYasha," she said quietly, reaching out and caressing his slit cheek. He winced visibly, pain in his eyes at the sharp sting of the contact. She smiled softly. "Don't you understand?" she whispered. Her hand glowed with a soft pink light, and when she pulled her hand away, his cut was gone.
"I can make you feel better, InuYasha," she said gently, watching as he touched his cheek in disbelief. "Not because I need to, but because I want to. I want to help."
InuYasha looked at her squarely, his eyes boring into her own, before tugging his haori over his head, followed by his gi. Kagome's eyes widened at the thick gashes and bruises that scattered his chest. Tossing his clothes aside, he lay back on the futon, watching Kagome, who was still staring at his bare chest. Kaede must have gotten him to bathe, she realized, still looking at him. Although the wounds remained, there was no sign of dried or wet blood.
Swallowing heavily, Kagome ran her hand across his chest, pausing on a particularly deep wound on his right bicep. InuYasha's golden eyes bored into her as she summoned her miko power, making her squirm.
She felt him stiffen under her hand as she channeled her healing energy into the cut, tingling pink sparks dancing from her hand to his chest, magically sewing up the wound. Her heart hammered as the gash closed under her palm, a thin scar forming and then vanishing, leaving only his smooth skin behind.
"I didn't know you could heal wounds," InuYasha said, his voice slightly husky. "Is this what you're practicing whenever you go off into the woods on your own?"
Kagome glanced up, her breath catching in her throat as she met his burning gaze. "Sometimes," she said softly, quickly looking away. Something about him was different, something in his voice and his eyes. It was making her feel warm.
Breathing heavily, Kagome traced her hand over to his left bicep, where another gash lay. Placing her hand on the wound, she summoned her power again.
His heart was beating as fast as hers, she realized, as she felt it hammering underneath her hand. She glanced up as she healed the cut, meeting his intense gaze.
InuYasha's eyes smoldered with passion, the golden irises darkened to deep amber pools, flickers of desire rippling across the surface. She watched, entranced, as his eyes lowered slightly to regard the slit in her shirt which hung open, clearly exposing her, before raising his gaze back to her own, a hungry look coming over face.
Kagome tore her eyes away from his, flushing while the wound finished knitting itself together. Desperately trying to focus, she ventured an attempt at conversion.
"Koga did this to you?" she asked, moving on to a slash at the end of his sternum.
"Yeah." InuYasha's voice was husky when he spoke, the deep timbre of his words resonating through her body.
"I don't understand why you and Koga fought so furiously," Kagome remarked as she channeled her energy once again, desperately trying to distract herself from the hanyou's half-naked body. "Sure, you don't like each other, but you usually get along relatively well, now that you're both united against Naraku."
"Koga – he wanted to claim you," InuYasha said darkly.
Kagome looked at him oddly.
"What's that mean?" she asked, not understanding. "How do you claim someone?"
InuYasha looked away.
"Don't worry about it," he said, shifting uncomfortably. "I took care of it."
Kagome looked at him for a moment longer. It was obvious that he wasn't going to tell her, for whatever reasons. She sighed, before moving on to a particularly deep gash.
The nasty-looking graze seemed to have things oozing within it, like shadow demons or something. Unfortunately, the wound was located on his side, just above his hip and waistband, one of the most sensitive places on the body. Biting her lip, she pushed her healing power into the wound, trying not to pay attention to just how soft the skin she found was there.
Seemingly against her will, her fingertips softly stroked his side as the pink healing sparks danced about his cut, working their magic as her fingernails dragged lightly across his skin. InuYasha's eyes closed, and he let out a low groan of sorts.
Kagome looked up. "Am I hurting you?" she asked, a tinge of worry in her voice. The last thing she wanted to do was make the damage worse. His eyes flickered open, molten pools of gold meeting her own blue.
"No," he said. His voice seemed strained. "It – it doesn't hurt."
Kagome frowned. "What's wrong?" she asked quietly, her concern becoming evident in her tone. "Am I not healing you right? I can stop, if need be."
"No. Don't stop," InuYasha said quickly. His voice had that husky quality again, and it was making her shiver slightly. "It doesn't hurt. It just feels – different."
Kagome looked at him oddly, not understanding. He certainly wasn't being very clear.
Internally shrugging, figuring he could deal with his own problems if he didn't have the gall to tell her what was wrong, she slid her hand across his abdomen to a gash on his far side, pausing briefly when her forearm bumped into something. Glancing down as she began healing the cut, she saw that she had hit some sort of bulge in his hakama, before refocusing on healing the wound, determined to do it properly.
It took her a moment for the implication of what she had just seen to register.
Whirling her head around, Kagome looked back at the bulge strategically located at his groin, her eyes widening as the realization of just what that bulge was dawned.
Oh.
Oh my.
He– he was– she had– he– he–
He was aroused.
Kagome bit her lip, her face coloring violently. She hadn't expected that.
As if realizing that she had figured it out, InuYasha looked up at her silently, his eyes meeting hers, desire burning in the depths of his liquid eyes. She quickly looked away, struggling to concentrate. Healing wasn't easy, and she couldn't give in to distractions.
At least she knew what the odd feeling he had been referring to earlier was, most likely. The pink healing sparks were tickling her hand as she healed him, and she could only imagine what the tingling felt like as it danced about his bruises and coursed through his blood to stop infections. No wonder he had reacted in such a way.
It was very distracting, however, to feel him pulse beneath her forearm as the wound began to sew itself up.
Kagome jerked her thoughts away from that, shivering slightly as strange tingles went through her body. It was only a natural physiological reaction, she reminded herself firmly. It wasn't her his body was responding to; it was a side effect of the healing.
Still, she couldn't help but remember how hungrily he had been looking at her body earlier through the hole in her shirt.
Finally, the wound finished closing, a scar quickly forming and vanishing from sight. Kagome sat back, letting out a sigh of relief. She looked up at the hanyou, a tired but triumphant smile on her face.
"All done," she said softly.
InuYasha turned to look at her. She smiled at him.
"I'm pretty sure I healed you correctly," she said, smiling. "I've been working it for a while. I'm glad I could help you."
InuYasha just looked at her.
Kagome shifted slightly, wondering why he wasn't saying anything.
"Well, let me know if you start to hurt again," she said. "If you do, I can- mmph!"
Kagome's words were abruptly cut off as InuYasha's lips crashed down onto her own, kissing her passionately as he held her close, one hand holding the back of her head while the other arm snaked around her waist. She gasped from shock, and he took advantage of her open mouth, deepening the kiss, his tongue slipping into her mouth and ravaging it fervently.
Kagome felt as if her world was crashing down around her. Colors and memories and emotions swirled inside of her, like a giant whirlpool had taken the place of her middle. She didn't know what to feel. As if trying to help, random thoughts started flashing across her mind, telling her exactly what was going on, as if she didn't already know.
InuYasha was kissing her! Her! InuYasha never kissed her! He kissed Kikyo, maybe, but never her! She had wanted him to kiss her before, many a time, but he never did. But here he was, kissing her, for no apparent reason! What was going on?
Kagome was lost.
"InuYasha, Sango wants you to- oh."
Before she knew what was going on, InuYasha had quickly pulled away and stood up, leaving her swaying and unbalanced on the floor, stunned, wondering what had just happened. She turned to see Miroku standing in the doorway, a knowing smirk on his face, making her blush.
"What?" InuYasha snapped at the monk, clearly irritated.
"Forgive me for interrupting," the houshi said, bowing deeply. "I have a message to deliver. I did not know you were otherwise... engaged. I shall leave you alone, if you wish to continue your... activities."
Kagome's looked down, her face flaming. She wondered why she was so embarrassed when she hadn't done anything, while InuYasha, the initiator of the embrace, didn't seem affected by Miroku's sudden intrusion at all, save for his anger.
"Forget it," InuYasha said dismissively. "What do you need?"
"It's not that important," Miroku commented. "Really, if you and Kagome are busy, I'm sure it can wait-"
"Spit it out!" InuYasha snapped, angry. "What do you need?"
Miroku looked taken aback at his harsh tone, but quickly composed himself.
"Sango requests that you come and sniff around the camp," Miroku dutifully told him. "She believes there may be a youkai nearby and wants you to check it out, if your wounds are healed..."
"I'm fine," InuYasha said curtly, striding past Miroku and out of the hut without so much as a backward glance a Kagome. "I'll take a look around."
Kagome watched numbly as he left, disbelief etched into her features. She felt like she had just been stabbed in her stomach with a dagger, before it was twisted and roughly yanked back out. Her eyes stayed fixed on the spot InuYasha had just been in, her finger coming up to trace her lips numbly.
He had kissed her, for the first time, and then he had left her suddenly, acting like nothing had happened. Why? How could he kiss someone like that one moment and then be so emotionally vacant the next? Had he just been craving contact with someone because he was turned on, no matter who it was? Why had he just run off, even though Miroku had said that he didn't need to go? Didn't he want to stay with her? Did she really mean so little to him that he felt he could do whatever he wanted to with her, regardless of her feelings on the matter?
Miroku looked at Kagome, taking in the hurt expression on her face, apparently gathering what had happened from the little bit he had seen. She looked away, trying not let him see the tears glistening in her eyes. Wiping them away, she stood up and straightened out her clothes, before looking up to meet Miroku's violet gaze.
"Are you okay, Kagome?" he asked quietly. Kagome smiled a sad smile that did not reach her eyes.
"I will be," she said softly. "It just hurts to know that while I still care for him, he just sees me as a tool, to be used and cast aside."
"Kagome-chan, he cares for you on some level-" Miroku began.
"Yes, but not the same level I care for him," Kagome shot back, interrupting. Miroku fell silent, and Kagome sighed, before walking out of the hut, Miroku following after her.
InuYasha was arguing with Sango in hushed tones, waving his hands about, while Sango stood in front of him, arms folded, clearly annoyed. Kagome paused a ways from the camp, her keen senses letting her see through the dark and overhear parts of their conversation. It was at times like these that she was most grateful for this part of her enhanced powers.
"I'm telling you, there's a youkai watching us right this very minute!" InuYasha told Sango harshly. "What if it's a minion of Naraku? We should go after it now!"
"InuYasha, it's late," Sango reasoned. "If the demon were after us, surely it would have attacked by now. It's probably just a harmless raccoon youkai or something."
"No, it's not!" InuYasha insisted. "Whoever this youkai is, they're masking their presence! That takes a very skilled demon to do! We can't sleep with such a threat hanging over our heads!"
"I wish I hadn't mentioned the matter to you now, baka," Sango grumbled. "I'm going to sleep. It hasn't attacked us yet, and it's obviously not going to."
InuYasha was obviously completely intent on this strange intruder and the discussion. He had clearly forgotten what had just transpired between them in the hut minutes before.
Kagome tuned out their conversation. Miroku was looking at her curiously. Kagome wasn't surprised; she hadn't mentioned what all she could do now to her friends yet.
Kagome sighed and looked up at the stars, as if searching for answers. She knew she wouldn't have been able to forget what had occurred nearly so easily.
Why did she care, anyway? She knew InuYasha was a mentally and emotionally unstable person. She practically expected him to react in stupid and hurtful ways, she was so accustomed to him. He was a dangerous, volatile half-demon with a possessive dtreak who didn't like anyone to get in his way. He was selfish, he was mean, and he was nasty.
Kagome knew all this. She knew it, and she had known it for as long as she had known InuYasha. She knew this so well it was practically engraved on the back of her mind.
But if she knew all this, why did it still hurt so much?
Kagome sighed. She hadn't meant to fall in love with the hanyou. She certainly hadn't intended for such a thing to occur. And if she had meant to fall in love with someone, she would have fallen for someone who would at least return the feeling, like Koga or Hojo.
It wasn't like she could change it, though. Love tended to be annoying like that; resisting all attempts at alteration or rejection. Love was insane like that, driving all it touched mad, in a way.
"There is always madness in love," she remarked, reflecting.
"Hai," Miroku said quietly. "But there is always reason in madness, Lady."
Kagome turned to look at him, considering.
His words made sense, in a way. There were reasons, she supposed, that she had fallen for InuYasha, even though she had known she would ultimitely be hurt. Besides physical attraction, she was by him all the time, wasn't she? And he had protected her and been her friend for a long time, just the two of them.
In retrospect, how could she have not felt anything? She was only human, after all, and humans fell in love without regard for circumstances or common sense.
She looked at Miroku. His words had soothed her, somewhat, making her understand more. He always seemed to have some gem of wisdom to offer when it was needed, a fact she was most grateful for.
"Thanks, Miroku-sama," Kagome said quietly. Miroku nodded once in understanding, before looking back towards the camp.
"It is late," he observed. "We have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow. We should retire soon."
Kagome glanced upwards again and was surprised to note how far the moon had traveled across the sky already. She had spent more time in the woods and healing InuYasha than she had thought.
"You're right," she said, shocked. She started walking towards the camp quickly. "We probably should go to bed now."
"Why, Kagome," Miroku smirked, winding an arm around her waist. "I had no idea you fostered such lascivious intentions towards me. Of course we should go to bed."
"Hentai!" she exclaimed, turning and punching him on the arm.
Miroku just smiled as they kept walking. After a moment, Kagome smiled as well.
He hadn't meant it seriously, that she could tell. The only one he truly went after anymore was Sango, and Kagome was pretty sure Sango didn't mind as much as she pretended to. He probably did it to take her mind off things.
Well, if such were his intentions, he had certainly succeeded.
"Baka," Kagome muttered, reaching the campfire area.
"Yes, but you know you love me that way," Miroku shot back, smirking. Kagome laughed, before entering the circle.
He may be a bit of a lech, but Miroku really was a great friend.
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So there's an idea of what's going on with InuYasha and Kagome. Remember, they've both matured a bit before this fic starts. Next chapter, more Sess/Kag interaction; I promise.
Please, on your way out, leave a review. Let me know what you think, tell me if you like it, yell at me to update, whatever suits your fancy. :P
Please, review!
