Nothing to say, really.... :)
"No."
Kagome feels her smile begin to fade. "What?"
"I said, 'No.'"
Now it was morphing into a frown. "But..."
It takes her a moment to find something to say. He was wearing a determined look under his slightly-pained one, and she knew that there would be no changing his mind, no matter what she offered. Still, she wasn't one to give up so easily.
"But...you were injured defending me, and..."
"And I would have been killed if it weren't for him. If anyone deserves a promotion it's him, not me."
The young guardsman turns away with an irritated--and borderline angry--snort, glancing briefly at the woman by his side before staring out the window. Sango stays quiet as she changes Miroku's bandages, even though she can feel two holes being burned into her head by the other girl, as Kagome wills her into meeting her eyes.
Sango barely knew the guard, wasn't there during the attack (though Kagome and Miroku had explained it in detail, prior to her mentioning the guard's pending advancement), and had no stake in his acceptance or refusal. The situation had nothing to do with her, so she didn't think it pertinent to offer her opinion on the matter, and firmly keeps her own eyes on her task.
Kagome finally--reluctantly--turns her gaze to the only other person in the room, as it was obvious that neither Miroku nor Sango were going to help her make her point. Neither she nor Inuyasha had spoken to the other directly since he'd insinuated that she was to blame for the guard's injury, and the tension inside the building had not yet had a chance to dissipate.
Despite her annoyance with him, however, Kagome chooses to ask the smith's opinion. She didn't necessarily disagree with Miroku's assertion that the Bandit deserved compensation more than he did; the demon did save their lives, not that anything would ever come of the suggestion. But the guard should be rewarded for what he did do to protect her and Sota. There was no guarantee that they would have been even half so lucky if they had stayed with the rest of the caravan, and she wanted someone besides herself to support Miroku's appointance to Captain. As his friend, Inuyasha should have been on the guard's side.
Kagome feels a strange trepedation, however, as she looks at the blacksmith, into his azure eyes. As if what she's about to ask is somehow taboo, though she hasn't the faintest idea why she should think that.
"What do you think...Inuyasha?" she asks, her voice almost a whisper. His gaze was so intensely focused on her, it was almost intimidating. "Would you take the promotion, if it was you?"
The young woman feels a thickening of the atmosphere inside the barracks as the man stares at her, his face carefully blank. It seemed to Kagome that he was searching her expression for something, though she hadn't a clue what. She fights the urge to break his gaze, feeling her cheeks warming as the seconds pass, but she doesn't drop his stare. After several oppressive moments, during which Kagome can feel the force of two more gazes upon her, the smith finally answers, his voice low, soft, and strangely decisive.
"Yes."
Apparently, Kagome isn't the only one shocked by this answer, if the sputtering gasps from the bed are any sort of a give-away. She closes her mouth as Miroku finds his voice.
"Before the girls came in you were saying that I should be de-moted for--and I quote--my 'serious lack of defensive training by those pompous morons,' and the disastrous tragedy that my naivety so narrowly avoided..."
"She's right, though, idiot," Inuyasha snaps, his cheeks darkening as his impassivity from a moment before changes suddenly to annoyance. "Just because you were taken by surprise a second time...," the smith ignores the scoffs coming from the guard, "...doesn't mean that you screwed up the first time. They were obviously after the girl and her brother; there was not..."
"What?"
Inuyasha stops as Sango interrupts, turning to face him, her carefully neutral expression being replaced by disbelief.
"Why would they have been after Kagome and Sota? They're not royalty; a ransom wouldn't have gotten them much to speak of," she says, her brows furrowing as she thinks. "It would've made more sense to take Paime or Rokku...."
"I agree, but none of the carriages were marked. The marauders would have had to have been following us since Kirin, at the least, to even know who was traveling," Miroku says, wincing as Sango ties off the ends of his bandages--rather tightly, in his opinion, though he doesn't say anything about it.
"So they had some of their people attack the caravan, and others waiting for Kagome and Sota? What sense does it make for them to split their forces? There was no guarantee that you would have taken them away from the others..."
"That may have been why they were lighting the carriages; to force us into the forest, and away from reinforcements. I've asked Boei; he says it's plausible. He also thinks it might be because of Kagome's..."
"You two don't mind telling us when you've decided what they were after? I've got orders that need to be filled, and little Miss here looks like she might need something from the castle's wine cellar."
Miroku and Sango glance up, only now noticing that Kagome is sitting on the windowsill, her brown eyes wide and her face pale. Inuyasha is standing beside her, looking irritated and somewhat uncomfortable, his arms folded across his chest.
"Oh, Kagome, I'm sorry! I didn't think...."
"Why don't you try?" Inuyasha mutters, without looking away from the younger female. He conveniently forgets to mention that he was the one who originially brought up the topic of discussion.
"Kagome, you know that we did not mean any offense," Miroku says, as a look of fury crosses Sango's face, and words seem to become stuck in her throat. "We were only speculating..."
"I...I know," the girl answers, forcing a smile onto her face, though it's obviously strained. "It's not....not that I haven't thought of the reasons, it's just that..."
Kagome stops and glances around the room, though she doesn't actually seem to be looking for anything. She finally looks back to Inuyasha, blinking at his closeness. She hadn't noticed that he had moved from his stool.
"...it seems so much more likely, to hear you speak of it," she says, softly. "I could convince myself that it was simply coincidence, before, but now..."
The girl stops, stares blankly at nothing for another moment, then shakes her head and stands.
"It doesn't matter. They didn't get anything of value, and they certainly didn't kidnap Sota or myself," she says, firmly. "Boei will find out what they were after, and hypothesizing their intentions in the meantime will just cause unnecessary worry. And we're in the city now; the raiders aren't going to get a second chance to carry them out, anyway."
"We don't know that," Inuyasha says, his words sounding somewhat like a growl. He rolls his eyes at the others when they frown and continues in the same low tone. "We assume that the city is more secure, but villagers from all over the country come here every day."
"He's right," Sango says, reluctantly, when Kagome gives her an pleading glance from across the room. "We can't be sure that everyone who comes through the gates has honest intentions."
"The Guard is good, but we can't be everywhere," Miroku adds, frowning again at his long-time friend when her face pales once more. He offers her a grim smile. "But the castle is obviously better protected than the city. And knowing those men's goal could tell us if they're willing to try something again. Boei will find out what they were after; if it was truly you or Sota, or something else. That way we can be prepared...for anything."
Though her resolve is now slightly shaken because of the looming unknown, Kagome draws some measure of strength from Miroku's determined expression. She glances at Sango and receives an encouraging smile, which she partially returns before Sango turns to help Miroku into lying back down.
Kagome switches her gaze to the man beside her, with some trepidation. She want to know his thoughts on her safety, and though he hadn't exactly been approving of her thus far (and the feeling was mutual), his opinion on this subject would--obviously--be a deal-breaker. To her great surprise and displeasure, however, Inuyasha is looking at her as if he was about to be ill.
"Something the matter?" she asks, as a coldness settles in her stomach. She tries to keep her voice even and her expression relaxed, though she was suddenly craving that wine he had mentioned earlier. A lot of it.
The smith is quiet for a moment, then turns his head and takes a step away from Kagome, running his fingers through his mess of hair in the process. "No... I was just thinking..."
Kagome watches in confusion as he frowns to himself, then utters what she's sure is a muted expletive under his breath. She doesn't have time to ask what's wrong with him, as Inuyasha abruptly turns on his heel and walks out of the room. He stops outside the door as an unexpected yelp catches both of their attentions. They each turn to the bed and see a suddenly murderous-looking Sango.
"Do you want your nose to be broken?! Keep your hands to yourself!"
The young woman stands abruptly, slings her bag over her shoulder, and stomps from the barracks, yanking the door handle away from Inuyasha and slamming it shut. Kagome turns to the guard in exasperation.
"What did you do?" she asks, raising a brow when Miroku shakes his head.
"Nothing."
But the young man was rubbing a very red spot on his hand with the other, and seemed to be having trouble keeping a grin off his face. He looks inordinately pleased with himself. For about 3 seconds.
"Curses! I didn't get her name!"
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
"You could have warned me."
"You seemed to handle him fine by yourself."
Sango sends a glare to the man walking beside her, before grabbing his arm and pulling the pair of them behind a stack of barrels, releasing a sharp Hey! from the male.
"You said he was a suggestive philanderer; you didn't say anything about touching!" the girl says, gripping the boy's arm harder and shaking her free fist. Inuyasha eyes each of her hands for a moment, then pulls his arm away and shrugs.
"You didn't ask."
If Sango was expecting more of an explanation, she wasn't going to get it. Inuyasha simply crosses his arms and stares at her, then lets his gaze wander back in the direction they had come. He doesn't look back at the young woman until she huffs at him.
"That may be true," she says, adjusting the strap on her shoulder in an attempt to keep from pinching him as well, "but it was something you should have mentioned. There are protocols, you know!"
Inuyasha doesn't respond for a moment, then finally rolls his eyes at her. "I didn't expect him to do anything the first time. Usually he waits until you actually agree to an outing before scaring you off."
"Scared, ha! He'll be lucky if I don't break his fingers the next time I see him," Sango seethes, clenching her fists against her sides. "The only reason I didn't just now is because I don't want Kagome to see that."
The smith is silent for a second, then quickly turns on the girl. "Why? You think she'd report you?" he asks, his expression something between loathing and desperation. Sango stares at him in exasperation before responding.
"No... I think she'd agree with me. I just...want to get to know her better before I....get violent," the girl says, her cheeks coloring a little. "She's not like the other girls around here," she adds, somewhat petulantly.
"What makes you think that?" Inuyasha asks, his frown disbelieving.
"Woman's intuiton, I suppose," Sango replies, shrugging. "She seemed keen to get out of the castle, and when she saw Buna practicing she only looked surprised. Her skin isn't pale, either, like...."
"Don't start," Inuyasha says, virtually growling. Sango glances sideways at the smith then shrugs again, hiding a smirk.
"I'm just saying. Kagome probably spends a lot of time outdoors in Beru."
"And? What does that have to do with anything?"
"What do you think, you fool? You won't have to spend a fortune courting her with useless trinkets and baubles."
This time, Sango can't help but let her smirk show on her face, as Inuyasha's frown morphs into a scowl, and his cheeks darken to a deep crimson.
"I'll pay Miroku back; I should never have agreed..."
"You'll go ahead with it, because you gave them your word," Sango says, her glaring attitude challenging him to be anything but agreeable.
"But it'll never work. We can hardly stand to be in the same room together!" Inuyasha responds hotly, his cheeks still radiating.
"You don't know that. Though your first meeting was hardly the best of circumstances," the young woman responds, distractedly. She glances at the barracks they had left, some distance away, her countenance turning thoughtful as she watches the dark-haired girl leave Eagle, look around her for several moments, then head away in the opposite direction. Sango looks back to Inuyasha to find him frowning, something like nervousness showing on face, which he quickly covers on seeing Sango watching him.
"You don't know that it will," he says, quietly, rubbing one hand over his face and spreading the soot in a wide arc across his forehead. "She looks so much like..."
"That doesn't mean she is," Sango interrupts, but Inuyasha acts as if he hadn't heard her and keeps talking.
"...her. I thought it was her for a moment... How closely related are they?"
Sango has to search her memory before the relationships come back to her. "Uh... third cousins, I think. Her parents are first cousins to the King, so...yes, second cousin to Kiku, and third to...Ki.... her daughters."
Inuyasha nods absently, glad that the woman beside had corrected herself at the last moment. He preferred to keep that aspect of his past as far from the present as possible.
"She'll be twenty in June?"
"That's what you told me."
"What's wrong with her?" he asks suddenly, as if the thought had only just occurred to him. Truth be told, he had been wondering about that over the past three months, ever since Miroku had left to escort Lord Rokku and his family to the capital city. The guard had only grinned and told him that Kagome was as stubborn as he when Inuyasha had asked.
"She's seems fine to me. I like her," Sango responds coldly, her cinnamon eyes glaring daggers into the side of the boy's head.
Inuyasha chances a glance at the apprentice, but doesn't respond immediately. He turns and continues to watch the distant figure until it disappears, then looks back to Sango, who was muttering to herself about a pregnant girl. He nods toward the open causeway between the buildings, indicating they should go, before speaking. His utterance comes across as so uncomprehensibly testy that Sango can't bring herself to respond due to her consternation.
"We'll see then."
-- -- -- -- -- --
Well, at least he's thinking about it...
Kagome mentally congratulates herself on getting Miroku to do that much, then pushes the stubborn guard out of her mind as she wanders through the Gauntlet. She smiles reminscently as she notices a familiar stable here, a practice ring there, the name of the Compound coming back to her as she overhears several guards speaking about the Exhibition later in the summer. She had completely forgotten about the event, and was immeasurably glad that they had lucked out in visiting Tama Shima in a year when one would be taking place.
The girl continues on, earning appreciative glances from several of the men in the Guard as she passes, though she does nothing more than smile politely in return. She could not in good conscience give any of them encouragement. She was already obligated to another.
I'm going to kill Miroku...many more times...
The young woman had already given the guardsman her opinion on the situation, but Miroku had held firm against her recrimination: He still insisted that she and the dirt-covered blacksmith would be good for one another.
Yes...good enemies... Kagome thinks, scowling, as she remembers the hate-filled glare that had greeted her when Inuyasha had first set his gaze upon her. The image of another set of eyes unexpectedly superimposes over the cerulean orbs, ones that were a dark, shimmering gold.
Where did that come from? the girl asks herself, bewildered, as there was nothing at all similar about the two. She shakes both visions from her mind as someone nearby yells her name.
"Kagome!"
The girl turns to discover a tall young man hurrying in her direction, his chin-length, dirty-blonde locks falling into his blue-grey eyes so that he has to push them out of the way. He comes to a stop a few feet away, grinning so widely at her with his perfect smile that Kagome can feel herself blushing.
"Yes?" she asks, studying the man carefully. He looked familiar....
"You don't remember me?" he asks, teasingly. "We used to cause our mothers such trouble..."
Kagome gasps as the boy's name comes back to her, before she throws herself at him in a tremendous hug.
"Kaidan! Kai?! But...you don't look anything like you!" she says, leaning away to get another glimpse of him. "You used to be a such a little thing!"
Said 'thing' frowns, but without any real anger behind it. "I've grown up, Kagome," he says, releasing all of the girl except for her hands, which he uses to turn her slightly back and forth. "And I see that I'm not the only one."
Kagome finds her blush returning full force, and quickly releases the young man's hands, earning a chuckle in return. "Well, we can't have stayed children forever. But you look nothing like your father! I thought you'd look exactly like him... Everyone used to say so...," she says, examining Kai with a critical eye.
"Yes, but that when I was 11, and it's been a few years since then. Sorairo does, except for the eyes, and so will Honon, someday. I take after mom's family more than dad's."
The second child to the King and Queen was at least a head taller than Kagome, thin, but solidly built. His facial features, however, were soft for a male's, as though he hadn't quite gotten rid of the roundness that accompanied childhood. They were also very expressive, but he had always been that way. He was fairly tanned and wearing what looked like a basic tunic and breeches, like every guard she had so far wandered past.
"What...are you practicing with the Guard?" the girl asks, as she takes in Kai's dress, her expression betraying her astonishment. Besides the fact that his father shouldn't have allowed such a thing, Kai had always been somewhat prissy when it came to the men (and some women) who were responsible for protecting the royal family and their city. Being of a noble birthline, he considered it to be a 'commoners' or 'lowly' work, and deemed it beneath him, as it required physical prowess. He would throw a tantrum whenever his father commanded him to swordplay.
"Er...well, yes," Kai answers, his ears and the apples of his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. "I've been with the 2nd Company for almost 5 years now."
Kagome is so stunned that she can only gape at the young man in front of her, one hand waving vaguely in the air, though there's no sound to accompany the action.
"You're wondering why I changed my mind?" he asks, giving the dark-haired girl a shrewd glance, breaking into another grin when she nods mutely at him.
"It was Sorairo, mostly," he says, just a hint of irritation in his tone. "He had just started training here. My head was too big for my breeches, and thought there was no way it would happen, so I bet him that he couldn't last 5 minutes against old Fuda. You remember Fuda, don't you?"
Kagome nods, smiling warmly at the memory of the gnarled but paternal guard that used to sneak her onto stabled mounts when her parents weren't looking. She glances up to Kai a moment later, then looks around to the men and buildings around them, a frown now marring her face. The elderly guardsman had always seemed to be everywhere whenever she had visited the city previously--grooming a horse here, repairing a saddle there, moving hay to the stables. If he wasn't flitting around them now, then Kagome was positive she knew what had happened.
"It was just after I was posted to the 2nd," Kai says, reading the troubled look in the girl's eyes. "It was peaceful, though. Went in his sleep, I was told."
Kagome nods, a pang of sadness leaving her unable to respond. She had always admired the elderly guard. The two are quiet for several moments, in silent remembrance, before the young guardsman continues with his explanation.
"Uh...well, I lost, of course. Fuda may have been old, but that had never stopped him from checking all the new recruits the minute they walked through the gate. But Sorairo was better than even Father knew, as it turned out, which is why he's letting us train with the Guard. Also, Sora was determined to show me how wrong I was," Kai says, now obviously annoyed. "He's head of the First Company."
"Really?" Kagome asks, glancing around again, as if she might see the man and his Company walking past them right that minute.
"Yep," Kai says, with a hint of a grin. "Never misses a chance to flaunt it, either."
"Are you sure you're not just jealous?" Kagome asks, her tone quiet. It was fairly obvious that she was trying to hide the giggles threatening to spill out of her. "He never seemed the type to brag about such things." Kai gives the struggling girl a beady look before answering.
"Well....maybe a bit," he admits, now scowling. "But he won't let me forget that I had to spend a week with him and his mates; not that that wasn't exactly what I needed. Joined the Guard the minute I turned 15. Still.... Sora had to dress me by the third day; couldn't lift my arms higher than my waist...."
Kagome forgoes trying to hold back her giggles, the mental image of a young Kai trying to swing a sword as big as he was, and having his older brother dress him being too much to hold in. Kai crosses his arms and rolls his eyes, waiting for the fit to subside.
"Wh....where is he now?" she finally asks, getting control of herself. "I'd like to see him."
Kai frowns a moment, glancing back to the guards he had left, who were milling around an open door to a building that didn't look like anything like a barracks to Kagome. It was one and half times as tall, and more than twice as long, with multiple windows set near the roof and a large, brick chimney at one end. She wonders if it's a mess hall.
"He's supposed to be leading a group to Chusei; one of the raiders was overheard speaking of it, and Boei thinks we might find the ones who escaped there. They should be leaving soon; the storm Nazorei predicted is supposed to be here by nightfall."
Kagome doesn't have time to wonder who Nazorei is, as several shouts and the sounds of breaking and splintering wood floats across the short expanse of gently waving grass beneath their feet. The pair immediately glances over, the young woman stifling a gasp as a man comes flying out of the doorway, crashing into and knocking over several of the men in Kai's company. The fallen group mutters angrily among themselves, some yelling back into the hall as they stand. All move quickly out of the way a moment later, though, as what looks like half of a heavy wooden bench follows the man out the door, flipping end-over-end twice before coming to rest. It's succeeded by half a dozen wooden bowls, which spill their contents over debris and men lying on the ground.
"What in the....?"
Kai takes several steps toward the commotion, but is stopped by someone yelling his name. He and Kagome turn toward the sound of hoofbeats.
The girl has to hold back another gasp as a man slides his mount to a stop only a few yards away, kicking up clods of dirt and grass. He jumps from the saddle and lands on his feet, almost as if he was a cat. Glancing between the pair through his white-blonde locks, which had fallen into his eyes, Kagome has only a moment to see the anger behind the silver-grey irises, before the man begins striding toward hall, where the sounds of a many-personed fight are beginning to echo.
"Kai!"
The man beside her jumps at the sudden snapping of his name. He gives her an apologetic glance, his expression somewhat abashed.
"You wanted to see Sora," he says, as he hurries off after the Crown Prince.
Yes, there are 6 royal kids. If you're having trouble remembering, they are:
Sorairo (24 years old, white-blonde hair, and dark grey, silver-tinted eyes; he was misnamed, if anyone knows what his name really means ;P); Kaidan (20, dark blonde, blue-grey eyes); Usagi/Amaya (16, strawberry-blonde, smoky-grey eyes); Honon (12, golden blonde, blue eyes); and Iemi (7, golden blonde, blue eyes). Queen Nusema has dark blonde hair and smoky-grey eyes, and Alaidir is now silver-haired, but was a light blonde when he was younger, and has bright blue eyes. We'll see him eventually, as we will Boei. Everyone properly lost yet? :)