(More content was added to the end of last chapter, if you had read it when if was first posted. Check it out just in case, ok? ;))
Ok. So this is it. This chapter ende up bigger than I wanted, as usual, but I chose to let it the way it is. I know I promised InuSess confrontation by last chapter, but things spiraled out of my control as I began writing what I once had as general ideas. This chapter, for instance, was completely unplanned, and I'm still half surprised myself with what happened because, to be honest, I didn't plan on doing anything like this for a while. But I guess the fingers want what the fingers want, so I stripped myself of my previous plans and decided to just roll along with this chapter. This is what came out.
Please review. Opinions are fuel, be them good or bad, they help us grow as writers. :)
Ps: The itallic might seem crazily out of place, but it's meant to be there.
Chapter 8
Kagome bit her lower lip nervously while averting her eyes from the hanyou's undressing figure. It was silly, really, considering she had volunteered to clean him - and the whole consequences of said assistance just dawned on her - and patch him up. But as drastic as the situation may be, he was still a male, and though in theory she had studied the human body and its maladies, in practice she'd never seen a man bare chest before, not even her father.
'Come on, Kagome. You have fought a war. You are covered in the yucky blood of trolls. You are a strong, independent, Lad- KAMI' she had been slowly turning around and caught a glimpse of his lowered hakama. She shrieked like a dying cat, full out covered her eyes and blurted out.
"For kami! What are you doing! Keep your pants on, you... You... I don't even know your name! Oh for kami!" suddenly she became very uncomfortable. Hiperventilating was an understatement. Kagome's heart was beating so fast it started to sound like music along with her raced breathing. She barely knew this man, whose strength was probably unparalleled to her, whose name she didn't even know, and who was dropping his pants! Was he one of those opportunists that took the virtues of young ladies of whom her governers had told in whispered tales throughout her teenage years? The trust she instinctually felt at first sight shuddered and gave way to an engraved fear, that little had to do with Inuyasha - it ran deep beneath her skin - but that was discharged on him as an outlet nonetheless. It's the way of fear. It does not always make sense.
Inuyasha's enhanced hearing kept up with the progression of symptoms as panic struck Kagome. He was a simpleton, however; had always been and would always be. Whatever was happening to the girl was out of his comprehension. At first, he thought she might have choked on an onigiri, but having canceled that out, tried approaching the human to investigate what had stricken her. To Kagome's fear induced sight, he looked like a predator, head slightly bowed, lips curved in a lewd smile. In reality, his face was distorted with utmost apprehension and a little bit of anger. What the hell was wrong with the girl? She might have a heart attack at any point and that would be no good for him! Not to mention he didn't actually want her to die… The girl did save him after all… Twice.
"What is wrong with you? Look, I can't fix humans, so you better get a hold of yourself! I have to take you back to father in one piece!"
"You're here do kidnap me?!"
Kagome threw herself on her knees and crawled away from Inuyasha as if he had evoked the devil himself, putting as much distance between her and the hanyou as she could until she had enough balance to stand up with the assistance of a nearby tree. Trembling, her fingers, now free of the armor's handpiece, emitted a frosting sparkle when she pulled the hand away from the trunk as if burnt; but it was the tree that began freezing; so di the ground she'd crawled in, resulting in a path of crystal clear ice leading to the frozen trunk of the dying old oak.
Inuyasha was stupefied. Kagome was more terrified by the moment. Not only did she have an attacker on stalk, her power, her long locked away powers were spinning out of control. The fear grew larger in her chest to a point where her own chestpiece began to freeze, a materialization of the exasperation of the powers that no longer fit within her, that had to leave. Random puffs of snow escaped from her opened mouth, and when she tried to close it to keep it in, she inflated to the point of feeling as if she were to blow up at any point. She had to do it.
And who better to do it to then the person who was attacking her?
He deserves it, the fear whispered in her ear. He earned it.
It would be so easy to welcome this building, raging power, to welcome this change to a new waking world, to welcome the hurt and the destruction it would bring as a bystander of a universe of paper. Just once, and the ice would be her coffin and companion. But the regret would remain… Who would remember her for the good things she'd done when all that's left is ice and cold winter?
"Conceal… Don't feal…" she whispered, and as expected, missiles of spiral ice escaped her mouth toward the floor as she paced, the light that previously shone so brightly at the tip of her fingers receding ever so slowly to the palm of her hands, fearful that it might never get a chance out again. Following it, the cold mist and snow retreated, shutting down through her skin, leaving her ice cold, alone, fearful,with a storm raging silently inside. "Don't let it show."
Inuyasha was speechless. He had just witnessed what he was absolutely sure was a human show paranormal behaviour. At least that's what he would call it, for certainly nothing youkai could do stuff like that. He was beckoned nearer, though not by curiosity, nor by thirst of power, or anything of the sort. The hanyou knew a lot about fear, that was it. He'd lived the life of an outcast - a real outcast, an orphan hanyou - for years until Touga found him strong enough to take him in. He understood that look, that panic. Provided he was never taken over in the same fashion, but he could not help but feel… Sympathetic. It was a new feeling, for he, who was never shown sympathy to, never knew too, how to show it. This girl, however, inspired something good, something sprightly and - though a little mean - free spirited, friendly. He wanted to explore this. Whatever she was so afraid of - it was not him. He would show it, she would see reason, and it would be fine. She would be fine, he reminded himself, not knowing precisely why it mattered.
Kagome reclined against the frozen tree, backsliding across the already melting trunk to drop on the ground, blindly staring ahead onto the nothingness she hoped to embrace. Her eyes were moistened, she couldn't see a thing and didn't bother try. She had failed. Now the mist was gone, the hime could see, if not clearly, slightly better: she had been a fool to lash out on the hanyou. Yes, she didn't know him, but he had been nothing but friendly - brutally friendly, but still - while he could, indeed, have left hours ago when he had woken up already half-healed thanks to his youkai heritage. He had an earnest stubbornness that was revigorating, and Kagome, in full control of her faculties, knew she had made an awful mistake that had probably cost her the only friend she would make at this forbidden land, where she expected everyone to receive her with hostility and prejudice.
Closing the eyes to contain the stream of tears that threatened to pour down, feeling silly for weakening out in the face of the unknown, Kagome reopened them to find Inuyasha - fully clothed once more - kneeled opposite to her. His eyes were serious, but were not hard as his brother's were, when serious too. THey held a tenderness that Kagome hadn't seen since her father, a tenderness that invited out her secrets, that tempted her to trust. It was a look that could not be staged, only given, and even then it was not by choice, but circumstance. The giver in the case also had no idea that the stare he was giving was the same he was receiving. Wordlessly, a friendship was being formed. It was not a promise of undying devotion, nor a promise of love, or anything equally unreasonable. It was simply.. a promise of understanding. Of trying to understand. Something that the world lacked, and that each, in one single look sent back and forth, promised each other.
And once the moment was done, the eye contact broken, their breathing - which had been suspended for a moment too long - returned and they both mimicked each other as they coughed and tried to diverge the attention. What had just happened had been too intense, and the moment after was.. well… awkward. They were, after all, still strangers. Nothing had changed, and at the same time, something had.
"Nhm…Kagome, ne? My name is Inuyasha… and what I Meant, WENCH…" Inuyasha stressed the word, but Kagome knew he just wanted to lighten the mood after the incident she caused and the moment afterwards. Which… She would eventually have to explain. He would demand explanation, wouldn't he? Why hadn't he already? Was he so oblivious to think that all human women were able to sputter snow and freeze vegetals? "Is that my father is the Western Lord. He sent me to escort you to the citadel."
Kagome nodded in understanding. Of course it all made perfect sense in the end; it did not improve the pitiful reaction she displayed originally while underneath fear's persuasion. She had a long way of making up to the Hanyou, starting then.
A distant youki nagged Inuyasha's balance center, and he brushed it off. Even from a distance he could pinpoint wherever his stoic prick of a half brother was. And the last he wanted was to dwell on his whereabouts. Inuyasha rose before her, reaching out for her hands in assistance to get her back and straight once more. She looked off center for a couple of seconds, during which blindly stared at her bare hands, but soon her regular contented expression kicked in as she corrected her posture as squared her shoulders. For the first time, Inuyasha saw her as Lady material, beneath all the dirt.
"I had not idea Lord Touga had another son. Forgive me, milord." she bowed at head level and Inuyasha wasn't quite sure if she was serious of messing with him. She had been hours ago calling him filthy commoner, she could not possibly think him any deserving of a title of a sudden.
"Yeah, the illegitimate hanyou tends to stay out of conversation. Keh."
Kagome laughed gently, rolling her eyes. "There is no half recognition. If he took you in, you are a Lord, however lousy one you may be."
"Look who's talking, troll queen. Talking of which... You still have to tsll me what happened after I estratégicas turned unconscious. "
"You mean to say when those trees knocked you out and I - little miss not so much of a lady - saved your buns?"
"That's your version of it, woman. I remember it differently." Inuyasha grumbled, slightly blushed. The whole concept of freidnship was alien, and he was not used to having his ass saved by anyone, let alone a woman.
"You don't remember at all." she tried to laugh the subject off, but his face urged her on. She sighed, nervously wrapping her fingers on each other. "Wold you trust me if I told you it is better left alone? The truth might be sometime you are eager to break, but I'm not ready to go back there. Or rather.. To go so far away forward.
"It has to do with what just happened? With this... Sorcery?" Inuyasha knew these were dangerous grounds topic wise, but he had to push it farther still. He couldn't walk around with a ticking bomb and not even know what made it tick! Fuck, it was hard for her, he understood, he wasn't an emotionless pineapple! hell yeah, but he didn't want to have his butt frozen anytime soon too!
"Don't use that word!" Kagome whispered and shied away from his body, turning hers toward the rising sun to have a moment, if only a moment, of enlightenment in the bathing light of the Burning star. This warmth, so unlike the cold she was bound to carry forever, was to her forbidden then if she were to lose the battle against these storming powers. If she did not conceal it for good, this heat would be lost to her, if not to all her people. "It's a curse. Please leave it at that. I have never hurt anyone, don't worry. I'll controll it, you won't see it again. But please drop it. And don't.." she resumed their staring contest, tears sliding from the corner of her eyes f or just realizing all she had come there to fight for might be on the line "Please, don't tell your Lord."
"Kagome... "
Suddenly he cut short the steps between them and hovered over her like a hawk, closing his eyes to spread his senses. Kagome would have been scared had it been any other setting, but his instance was protective other than offensive, so, for once, she allowed herself to relax and wait for the coming explanation.
"There is someone nearby I have to deal with. Stay here."
"What? No! You are injured! I'm not letting you run into another fight. This is nonsensical."
"Stop whining you're giving me a headache! I'm not going to fight stupid girl. Did I say that? It's just... A nuisance"
"Is this nuisance dangerous?"
"Not to me"
"I demand to go!" crossed arms, Kagome ran towards her slumbering horse. With a few pats on his back to wake him up, she mounted, but Inuyasha pulled the reins to stop the stallion from getting worked up.
"You are not coming, girl!" Inuyasha was annoyed and frustrated. Sesshounaru was getting closer and he feared what he might do to the hime if they were to collide.
"Good luck trying to stop me big boy!" she dared, and the Hanyou both conceded to the chase for honor and instinct sake, and for the fact that he knew she wouldn't be able to keep up with his pace as he lept from tree to tree in a blot of red and white, guiding their run toward a river for utility sake.
As presumed, Kagome was delayed by the dense forest, the dark oak trees that had attacked and then covered her were now giving unfair advantage to the jumping hanyou as they gave him abundant propelling surface while keeping the horse from a straight path.
Inuyasha had qualms on going very far, as the girl had lost his track way back by the stream line. Hoping she'd stay there and busy herself with the soaking she'd so desperately claimed to need, he moved on to confront his half brother half way.
