Disclaimer: I don´t own any of the characters, they belong to the talented Rumiko Takahashi.
This is a short one, but we need to keep moving forward.
8 Fishing expedition
Kagome was cleaning the table after washing the bowls. She was humming a song and smiling happily. She hadn´t always enjoyed doing the house chores, but now that she had her own place, she felt she was exactly where she was supposed to be. She still wanted more, but she felt she was getting what she had been wishing for since the first time she realized she was in love with Inuyasha.
The breakfast had been frugal, she didn´t think Inuyasha would be satisfied with just that after she had seen him devour large quantities of ramen, rice and anything edible in front of him. She had been searching through the jars in the cabinet and hadn´t found any more food. She knew the house had been empty since it was built, but she didn´t think about the food up to this moment.
"Inuyasha, we don´t have anything else to eat. We´ll have to take care of that. I wonder what job I can do around here for me to make a living."
She expressed her thoughts out loud without noticing the change in Inuyasha face. He had been sipping his tea with a content smile on his lips until he heard her.
"You don´t have to worry about anything wench. Now that you came to live with … us I will take care of everything. I will provide for you." He said in a matter of fact tone, not expecting any replies from her.
"And am I supposed to just sit around and do nothing?"
She could feel her blood raising about to boil with his words. She was suddenly reminded of the differences between this era and her own. She was raised in a time when a woman was allowed to decide for herself what to do with her own life, she wasn´t used to be told what to do or to wait for a man to dictate her fate.
"There´s a lot you can do. You can talk to Kaede about it if you want. You have the spiritual powers of a Miko, remember?"
His words seemed to appease the sudden anger surging inside of her.
"Ok, I think I could talk to Kaede about training me if she will have me."
"See? You can help a lot of people around here. But I will be providing for you wench, mark my words."
She didn´t mind his saying so this time. She had something she could do, she could help people, it was a good plan. She could let him have his pride if it meant so much to him.
"I better go hunt something then. I can exchange some meat with Rikichi or Humiko for rice and vegetables. Or maybe some fish?"
"Why not Miroku?" She asked curiously.
"Because he would just give away his food, no trading. Same with Kaede. They have to feed the kids and Rin. And in any case, I always share what I hunt with them, no need to change that."
With that, he implied that many things were about to change. But she didn´t ask what.
"Can I come with you? I need to practice with my bow. I see you kept it here." She pointed to the wall where she had spotted the bow and arrows hanging by the door along with his Tessaiga. She realized he had left his sword there so that it would protect the house with its barrier.
"Fine, let´s go then. I want to be back before noon to make the exchange."
They left the house and Kagome climbed on his back, she felt overjoyed to be able to travel on his back like in old days. They headed to the forest trying to find rabbits or deer, but they had no luck there, so they decided to try and fish something from the river bank.
The sun was quite hot by the time they reached the shore. Inuyasha, as usual, used his claws to catch the fish but Kagome wanted to try her bow on them from the river bank while Inuyasha laughed at her failed attempts. She was getting frustrated until she had an idea, she took off her shoes and got in the cold water. Despite the hot sun, the water felt pretty cold, but she wouldn't back down.
Inuyasha was amused by her sheer determination, this woman never gave up. It was one of the things that he loved about her. That and her big heart, her smile, her smell. What the hell was wrong with him? He was acting like a smitten girl, today he had brought her flowers and called her adorable. He knew that he loved her, but this was ridiculous. If Miroku or Shippou learned any of these, he would never hear the end of it.
He was shaking his head to dismiss the idea when he heard Kagome scream and then a huge splash. What just happened? He couldn´t see Kagome anymore. Where was she? The sound of her coughing and splashing was a relief, thank Kami, she was alright. He was by her side in just one leap.
"What happened? Are you okay?" The river was shallow in this part but she had managed to almost drown in knee high water.
He reached out his hand to try to lift her and to his surprise, she was smiling.
"I got it!" She was beaming proudly as she got up, with his help, and produced a large fish attached to an arrow.
"I slipped on the rocks trying to get it out of the water."
Inuyasha had to laugh at that.
"Yeah, you got it alright." He confirmed.
He had caught half a dozen fish with his bare hands, all of them bigger than hers, but he still felt proud of her.
"Now get out of the water before you catch a cold as well."
He grabbed her free hand and guided her to the shore. By then she was trembling and her lips were turning blue.
Inuyasha just looked her up and down before he took off his suikan.
"Here, take off your wet clothes, you can wear this while it dries."
The colors returned to her face when she took the garment from his hands. She went behind a tree for a moment and stripped off her wet clothes.
"I had to wash these anyway." She mumbled to herself and started to undress smiling. She felt sexy wearing nothing but his suikan.
"I wonder what will he think when he sees me like this?"
