Author's Note: Written for the prompt 'Blood' at iy_themes. Word limit was 750 and this is part 7 of the serial Harsh Reality.
Three years previously
Inuyasha stomped along the road, in a bad mood, his companions trailing after him. With every step he took, the unwelcome beads clattered around his neck, reminding him of his obligation to Kagome.
No one had ever asked him whether he wanted it in the first place. They – even she – had treated him like a savage beast to be tamed and subdued.
Losing the beads had been... liberating. He did as he pleased like in the years before; he said what he felt like saying without fear of being slammed face-first into the soil with a word. Inuyasha was truly his own master again.
When the fight was over, the hanyou had been dismayed to be tricked into wearing the symbol of his bondage again; he had returned to Kagome's side faithfully like the dog in his blood only to be leashed and muzzled. He trusted – maybe even cared for – the strange, lovable girl in his own way but this was a betrayal of his feelings.
The worst part: she was happy about it.
"Don't you trust me by now?"
"Sure I do. I just don't want you running off by yourself."
"Inuyasha?"
A tentative voice breaking through his red haze; Sango was standing just behind him.
"What?"
"It's late. We should stop and set up camp for the night."
His eyes darted around; the others tried not to show their fatigue.
"Fine," he said curtly. "I'm going hunting for food."
"I'll come with you."
Inuyasha scowled; Sango stared back, her eyes just as determined as his. He backed down, not wishing for another conflict with the other female member of the group.
"Keh. Do as you please."
She vanished into the forest to change into her slayers' attire; the hanyou folded his arms and waited, not even bothering to clout Miroku as the lecherous monk inched closer to the thicket Sango was concealed in.
Sure enough, once he crossed an invisible boundary, a pebble shot out of the wood and hit his cheek.
"Ouch!"
Sango emerged from the thicket, adjusting her boots and wearing a deeply disdainful expression. "The next time you try that, Houshi-sama, and it'll be more than a pebble."
She brushed off his apologies, motioning to Inuyasha to be off, taking up her short sword as she walked.
Together, they melted into the forest, all the hanyou's senses afire for the prey. By unspoken agreement, they had their tasks: she would stalk and flush them out, he would dispatch them.
Sango knelt down and traced a mark in the muddy ground with a finger. "Rabbit. Still fresh."
"Better than nothing," he snorted, crouching low and sniffing the air vigorously. Inuyasha nearly missed her small smile as he picked up the scent of the rabbit.
They broke into a run, moving through the clearing soundlessly. The hanyou struck: the rabbit fell dead with barely a cry.
"Let's go back," he told her, wiping the blood from his face with the back of his hand.
Sango made a sound of irritation, plunging the tip of her unsheathed sword into the ground. "I don't understand why you let me come along, Inuyasha, when you're not going to give me anything to do."
He smiled for the first time that day at her unhappiness. "Hey, you wanted to tag along. I didn't ask you." She shrugged carelessly at that and turned to go, wiping the dirt from her sword with a leaf.
Inuyasha hefted the carcass over his shoulder and fell into an easy pace with her. It was refreshing to be away from the others: Kagome's quick temper and even quicker tendency to 'sit' him; Miroku's never-tiring lechery and dishonesty; even the antics of Shippou.
"Kagome-chan shouldn't have done that. It must be hard for you." Inuyasha glanced sharply at Sango; the expression on her face was deliberately blank. He refused to say anything, he knew she knew his exact feelings without him having to verbalize it.
Sometimes, it seemed that he and Sango were the only sane people. She had the same warrior's fierce pride, she understood his way of thinking better than the others did. Above all, she knew what it was like to lose everything.
"Yeah," he answered off-handedly. Inuyasha was never going to tell her why he always let her come hunting with him whenever he had fought with Kagome.