Third Time 9
Inuyasha's POV
I drew a blank at Miroku's question.
"I figure she cares about me..." I started, sounding a little unsure as I felt. "I mean, what idiot in their right mind would protect someone they didn't care about? Especially someone like me who treated her like crap before she even said her name." I elaborated. Miroku nodded.
"I see." He stated. I looked at him waiting for him to go on. "What?" He said next.
"You gonna finish your statement?" I asked.
"Nah." Miroku shrugged.
"Whatdya mean 'I see'?" I inquired, trying to hide the frustration.
"I see is all. I see what's going on between the two of you and I'm just trying to get you to admit to it already." Miroku smirked.
"What's going on between us?" I replied.
"You can't tell me you don't see, or let alone feel it." Miroku sat down on the other side of the well.
"What are you babbling about? I'm not the quickest when it comes to your word games so can you just spit it out already?" I grumbled.
Kaori's POV
"How do you feel towards him?" Sango asked. I turned to look back at the water, searching for my answer in its reflection.
"It's hard to say. I've never met anyone who is like me before. I mean a half demon…" I clarified. "Honestly I've never met anyone as confusing or as stubborn as he is either, demon or human!" Sango laughed in agreement.
"Well I mean do you feel any affection towards him? Or just friendship?" Sango asked. My ears dropped flat on my head and I became quite pensive. I saw one little fish in the shallow end of the pond. I stuck my foot in and saw it swim swiftly away. It reminded me of how quickly people were put off by my heritage, and how they would always judge me off the bat.
Not to say that Inuyasha didn't judge or like me the instant we met, but we had a common bond that I felt has prevailed since; we were both half-demon. We could both sympathize with the time we are left vulnerable, and how people have treated us, currently treat us, and will treat us. He did after all feel terrible when I was seriously injured protecting him, and I didn't just protect him because I had to, but because I wanted to.
After all, why would I want someone I cared about to be hurt?
"I uh…" I tried to spit it out. "Um…I don't exactly know…" I answered.
"What do you mean?" Sango asked, sounding concerned.
"I've never had friends before, let alone a person I loved beside my mother." I stated looking back at her. "How am I supposed to know if it's more than what it is?"
Inuyasha's POV
"Do you love her?" Miroku finally asked.
"Thank you for being blunt." I retorted.
"Are you going to answer my question?" Miroku responded.
"I don't know let me think of my answer." I said.
"It's a yes or no question." Miroku sighed.
"There can be maybes." I fought.
"No one is going to sit here and tell you loving another woman is wrong, Inuyasha." Miroku sternly stated. I scoffed.
"It's like you read my mind." I said, trying to sound as sarcastic as possible. I flicked a pebble into the well and watched it fall. I heard it make a light tap as it impacted at the bottom. The echoes just seemed to remind me of how my life was a far cry from what I wanted. "I feel like…without even meaning to I'm betraying Kagome's memory…caring about her the way I do." I answered.
"Kagome wouldn't want you to go on in life lonely, or unhappy." Miroku said. "She also would want you carrying on blaming yourself for her death."
"Even if your point is right Miroku, I still don't feel like I should move on…" I spat out finally.
"Moving on is a part of life, and I think you'll come to terms with Kaori being in your life soon." He answered.
"What makes you say that?" I inquired.
"I don't think she's leaving the village anytime soon. I mean, where else is she gonna go?" Miroku shrugged.
"Good point…" I replied.
"What do you feel is right? Fighting the feelings you have for her, or just going with it? Which is easiest?" Miroku asked. I looked at him puzzled.
"Isn't this why we are here, talking this out? So that I can find out which is easiest?" I sarcastically retorted. Miroku sighed.
"That's why I am asking. Stop avoiding the questions!" Miroku stated.
"Why do you think asking me is going to get anywhere?" I asked.
"Because only you would know which feeling is the easiest. Obviously I'm not the one experiencing these emotions." Miroku replied. I just gave him another blank stare. "Ok tell you what, Inuyasha…" He began. "Let's skip the asking part…and just get straight to the doing."
"Excuse me?" I replied.
"As in you are going to go and spend time with her, and just go with the flow, if your memories of Kagome won't allow you to move on, other thoughts of loving Kaori that same way will be impossible to have. If you do have those feelings for her, the thought of moving on from Kagome will be much easier." Miroku explained.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, I think I tuned out half of what you said." I said. Miroku began pushing me back down to the Village.
"You are going to go spend time with Kaori, and you are going to tell me how it feels!" Miroku commanded.
Kaori's POV
"Well, you know when you start to feel differently." Sango explained. I looked at her puzzled.
"Feel different?" I inquired. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, when I'm around Miroku, I feel my heart beat speed up, I get a light hearted feeling when I look into his eyes, and best of all when I know he's looking at me, experiencing, the same feelings, I feel like there is something fluttering in my stomach. Like butterflies or something." Sango furthered explained. "Do you feel those when Inuyasha is around you?"
"I…I feel the heartbeat speed up thing." I answered.
"So maybe you have some feelings for him and you just didn't know how to interpret it?" Sango said. I shrugged.
"Hey Sango! Hey Kaori!" We both turned to see Inuyasha and Miroku walking towards us.
"Here's your chance to find out!" She whispered to me urgently. She hurriedly got up and greeted Miroku with a kiss. I waved at Inuyasha.
"Hey, how're you doing?" I asked. He shrugged and was looking away.
"Fine…I guess." He answered. "You?"
"I'm pretty good." I answered. There was a bit of a pause.
"Well, Sango and I have some plans with Kaede later. We'll se you guys back home around dinner!" As that was said they both walked back towards Kaede's.
"Well…I guess that leaves just you and me." I said.
Inuyasha's POV
I made a mental note to stab Miroku a lot later whenever I got him alone again.
"So…what do you want to do between now and dinner?" I asked. She shrugged. Oh god this was going to go no where.
"I guess we could go on a walk…or you finish giving me a real tour of the place." She smiled.
Oh my god it was adorable. How did I not see it before? Maybe cause I was too busy trying not to notice the feelings like Miroku said I was?
"Sure…um tour sounds good." I stuttered a little. "C'mon let's go."
And so went out past the terraces and into the forest.
"This is the forest that surrounds the village. There's a couple land marks here like the Bone eater's well, and the Shikon jewel Shrine not too far from that. There's also a sacred tree." I began to tell her about it. Then that's when she asked "Can we go to the sacred tree?" very eagerly.
"hmmm…Sure." I tried to shrug it off. I brought her through the woods to it, was more of a pain in the ass than I originally thought. She didn't know the way like I did so I had to constantly wait for her to make it through certain tight spots between trees. "Gimme your hand…" I finally said. She took it and I felt some sort of spark just ignite on my palm. We made eye contact, briefly, but her eyes still shimmered as they looked into mine, and I realized she had eyes that were as green as the leaves around us.
Kaori's POV
What Sango had described must have been for her feelings with Miroku, because not only was my heart speeding up, but those butterflies were not in my stomach, sparks were on my hands, and I saw something in his golden eyes. I saw something that I couldn't exactly describe. All I registered next was that he was leading me by my hand to the most beautiful clearing I've ever seen in my life. There was a massive tree, and the sun was shining down on it majestically.
"Inuyasha this is so beautiful…" I murmured. I looked over at him and caught him staring at me….smiling at me. And that's when I felt the butterflies flutter in my stomach.
"I'm glad you like it out here." He replied turning toward me.
"Inuyasha…" I said. "Can you tell me more about this tree?" I felt like there was something really special that drew him here. He gulped.
Inuyasha's POV
"You see…" I started trying to compose myself. "I fell in love with the priestess here in the village who guarded the Jewel…Then there was an Evil demon named Naraku who tricked her into placing me into a curse, on this very tree…" I just let it all out. There was no sense in hiding it anymore, Miroku was right I just needed to go with it. "Then…50 years pass and the next woman I fell in love with released me from the curse. Although it took a very long time for her and I to finally admit our feelings, she had meant something to me since that very day, I couldn't tell you why or how, but she was the reincarnation of the priestess I first loved…" I looked away from Kaori and then to the tree. "The priestess's name was Kikyou, and the one who released me was Kagome…The girl who I called you by a while back. Kagome and I were the reasons the sacred jewel had been broken, then replaced back together. We traveled everywhere with Miroku and Sango and Shippo and had other comrades along the road. When the jewel was completed was when we had defeated Naraku, who had hurt every once of us…even in his demise." I felt a tear run down my cheek. "In the last moments of our battle Kagome had gone to celebrate by running to me in joy. Naraku had one last trick where he had lashed out at her with an extended demon claw and killed her. She died in my arms…"
Finally I looked back at her and she was looking up at me with the utmost sadness, but understanding in her green, gorgeous eyes.
"I know I come off as an ass…but I don't mean to push you away, I'm afraid to move on from her…I'm afraid because both women I ever loved were hurt because of me. I don't want you to be that way too…" I finally admitted it. "I wanna be able to protect you in the ways I couldn't protect them. I don't want a repeat of that snake lady." I added.
Kaori's POV
I couldn't believe everything I was hearing. He was confessing something totally personal, and at the start of this all I figured that most I could probably ever get out of him would be a "How're you today?" with a side of snide.
"Inuyasha…I'm not in any danger, I know you can protect me. The last incident was a fluke…I'm safer with you than anywhere else in this wretched land." I said. With that his lips crashed into mine and he was kissing me. I was taken aback but I didn't so much as mind! I kissed back and finally broke for air after a long moment. Both of us were taking in deep breaths as he leaned his forehead against mine, peering down at me.
"I can't believe I just did that…" he said incredulous.
"Would it be bad if I agreed?" I stated. He shook his head and smiled.
"What the hell…" he shrugged and kissed me again. This time we both were grappling for one another and ended up in a heap on the ground.
"about time..." We heard a scoff and both look up to see Shippo standing in a tree branch trying to hide.
"Shippo!"
