A/N: Hello all! I'm sorry for the long absence but I got too busy to write, then when I managed to get a little free time I just didn't want to. Again I'm sorry, but I am kind of back on track. I'm still not making any promises because chapter 11 isn't finished yet, but most all of the story has been planned out so it's just a matter of me having the time and the will to write it. I shouldn't ever have reason to cry writer's block - at least not for this story.

All the same, I literally just finished writing this chapter and I've only gotten to read it over once, so I'm not absolutely sure that everything is as impactful as I'd like it to be or that it's all grammatically correct, or that all the spelling's fine, or that everything is consistent (though I'm slightly less worried about that one for this chapter). I'd contemplated sitting on it for another week so I could have a bit more of a chance to look at it with fresh eyes, but then I remembered that I'd been silent for like, months - so I'm just going to post it and do my usual retrospective editing (dear God I hope nothing major is wrong) so that the silence can be ended. If anything is wrong with it, I am deeply sorry. I hope you find it within yourselves to enjoy something about it regardless.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the original characters who appear in this story; I don't own the rights to InuYasha.

Chapter 10

Perhaps it was the glorified sponge bath after handling frigid water and nearly freezing half to death outside the night before, or more reasonably, exhaustion from my diligent practice earlier in the day, but I woke like one coming out of a coma.

Awareness came to me with the suddenness of someone flipping a light switch, but that only made me that much more aware of the dead pieces of meat I had the audacity to call limbs. My arms and legs were heavy; leaden. The most movement I could muster was a spasmodic twitch of my right index finger. And for all that it was the smallest isolated section of skin on me, and therefore should have been the first thing I unconsciously moved, I never opened my eyes. Either because I was unable, or out of a private contentment to remain as I was. My mind skirted the edge between pleasant and unpleasant fuzziness, and I was at once cognizant of my cadaverous limbs and ignorant of my breaths. I suppose they'd been too shallow – what with me having been awake for some 10 minutes, because I suddenly sucked in a long breath through my nose.

Loud and obnoxious though it was, the oxygen in that aggressive suction was the electricity to my Frankenstein impression. My back hunched then arched as my arms pushed me up with elbows locked in silent rebellion of remaining recumbent, my eyes popping open.

"Hisako?"

My head turned to the right, tangled, dark brown hair falling over my left shoulder, "Hm?"

Kagome's slight smile widened at the huskiness of my hum, and I saw that Kaede, Sango and Shippou had turned to see what had caught Kagome's attention.

They were sitting around the little pit of lit coals and speared fish like last night, and as my eyes strayed to the bright red coal I abruptly realized that I wasn't cold.

Small graces.

"You're finally up, we thought you'd sleep all day."

I dragged my legs under me to bend them loosely to the side, then raising the right leg to stand upright in front of the other I dropped my chin to my knee and used a hand to rub my eyes, "What time is it?" I cleared my throat.

When my eyes could maintain a reasonable openness, I saw that Kagome's head had tilted to the side, eyebrows drawn together in wry amusement, "Almost 1:00."

My raised knee dropped at the opposite angle of the other one on the straw futon to cross at the shins, my spine shot straight and I shoved my fingers into the roots of my hair at my forehead, "Shoot."

"Indeed," Kaede's rumbling voice held a sliver of the kind of dignified reproach I'd only ever seen the elderly master.

I dropped my hands to my lap, looking at my upturned palms and bit the inside of my bottom lip.

Kagome's chuckle brought my eyes back to her, features again relaxed, "Are you hungry? We were about to have lunch."

I lifted my head to look at her and my brow knitted to raise up into my forehead, but I nodded.

Kaede took a fish from the bucket to spear and roast it over the fire for me and with a newly smoothed expression, I walked gingerly over to plop down in between Kagome and the wall. All the while I carded my fingers through my hair to get out as many tangles as I could.

My concern about hypothermia notwithstanding, there was something to be said for spring water riding the tail end of winter; my fingers that had been so sore the day before now felt mostly fine. I supposed the icy water had acted as a cold compress for them or something of the like, but it was a singularly unpleasant way to sooth inflamed skin, so when I practiced today I would need to be more aware of my limits – or come better prepared.

As I tugged my fingers against a particularly stubborn knot, I had a rough look about the room, my brows attempting to kiss again.

"What's wrong Hisako?"

I turned to my left to look into Kagome's inquisitive brown eyes, "Where are Inuyasha and that monk?"

Kagome's hand rushed to her mouth, the back pressing into her lips as she shook with silent laughter. When I looked past her, I saw that the corner of Sango's lips had quirked up and her eyes were half lidded, "Inuyasha went out to patrol the outskirts of the village, so he'll likely be back soon," she dropped her head and there was the sound of air puffing out of her nose before she raised her face to me again, her smile twisted and sardonic, "…however I imagine that 'the monk' will be about doing his usual rounds."

I finally loosened the knot, so having deemed my hair smooth enough I shook it out a little and tucked some of it behind my left ear as I focused on Sango who had just retrieved the first golden brown fish, "Rounds? You mean he's going to individual houses to pray for the families?" I raised an eyebrow, "I'm surprised, I would've never thought him capable of any diligence actually having to do with his job."

Kagome choked, but before I could inquire after her health, Shippou piped up from in between Sango and Kaede where I'd missed seeing him beyond the coals and fish, "Pray? That's funny." He crossed his little arms and legs and looked disdainfully into the fire, "He's not going to pray for the families. He'll probably use that as an excuse but we all know he's just using it to be a pervert."

I interlaced my fingers in my lap, raised my eyebrows and leaned back into my spine and tailbone, "Ah."

Seemed the monk was dedicated enough to make an entire livelihood out of his depravity. It was a little ironic that while I should never have expected something so drastic purely because people just didn't usually go that far, I still wasn't exactly surprised.

I took in the bitterness souring Sango's expression and sighed.

Truly it was sad, but I almost wanted to stay with the group just so I could see how Sango would bring him to heel.

I reached for a fish and held the stick in my hand as I waited until it had cooled enough.

"What are your plans for today child? Do ye wish to explore the village, or will ye practice again?"

I looked to Kaede where she sat almost flush with the wall, "Well I think I already saw most of the village yesterday, and I'd rather I be incompetent for as short a time as possible, so I'll likely go practice again."

She manifested a labyrinth out of the pre-existing wrinkles in her tanned forehead as her eyebrows drew together, "Then I regret that I need inform ye of this, but I will be unable to accompany ye as I had before; there are many things to see to in the village that I neglected in order to teach ye."

I sucked in a breath and the tension translated into a hand pulled into a half fist at my stomach and a scrunched face, "I'm s-"

"However, that is not to say that I will not be able to supervise ye at a later date, there is simply too much to be done today."

I deflated, "Oh."

She replaced a fish in the fire for the one Shippou took then tilted up her chin and folded her hands neatly in the lap of her nagabakama as she held eye contact with me, "Thus in my absence, I think it would be wise that ye bring along Inuyasha; that at the very least your safety may be ensured."

Even as my cheeks flared with gentle heat at hearing his name, I quirked an eyebrow.

'At the very least' huh? How very pointedly she makes no mention of the only other person here really qualified to both train and protect me.

It served that lewd monk right for being a womanizer.

I tested the fish with the fingertips of my other hand, then deeming it cool enough I picked off a piece, "Alright," and I popped it into my mouth.

We ate in comfortable silence for a while but soon Kagome's voice was prodding at the blanket of quiet.

"So Hisako, I know you want to try the well this afternoon, but how do you want to do this exactly?"

I flipped the fish I held to the side I'd yet to set upon, "Well I was thinking that just as the sun started to set we would go to the well to try."

I looked around and gauged the crowd, "I'm not sure how many people will want to come along but I think at the very least, I need you and Inuyasha."

She tilted her head to the side, and though the smile that stretched her lips was small, it still managed to look a little smug, "Inuyasha? Why him?"

The muscles at my brow viciously contracted even as the blood heated my cheeks, "Because as far as I can tell, he's physically the strongest person I've met here and it's not like I can ask a complete stranger to wait at the bottom of a well and catch me if my theories prove false and I can't disappear into thin air and travel five hundred years into the future."

She brought her hands together to rest in the lap of her pleated grey skirt and ducked her head a little, but though she mimicked contrition, I could still see the mischievous little sparkle in her eye, "Alright, I hear you."

My glare didn't let up, "So I need him to stand at the bottom of the well on this side and make sure I don't get a concussion if I don't make it through. But I need you to go through to the present and wait there for me, so if it works you can tell your mother what happened for me – because I don't even want to begin to think about how I'd explain that, and we can plan what to do next."

Sobering, Kagome straightened and nodded, "Alright, that sounds like a good plan."

My answering hum was ambiguous as I drank water from one of Kaede's little bamboo cups and went about eating the rest of my fish.

When everyone finished some fifteen minutes later, we gathered the bones into a pile Kaede would later have Miroku bury and returned the sticks to her for when the group would inevitably be having more fish.

I rose from my spot on the floor, my palms pressing into the smooth wood to help me up onto my protesting knees, and picked my way over to the straw futon I had been sleeping on.

Inuyasha's image flashed in my mind, his face twisted in righteous fury when he realized I'd shown up to practice more or less empty handed as I rolled the mat. If the day before was anything to go on, there was a fair chance he'd give me flack if I didn't come up with something to feed myself.

I picked up the rolled up mat and walked gingerly to the right corner toward the back of the hut and grimaced.

Where was I supposed to get food in a village I didn't really live in, at a time of year where apparently next to nothing was in season? And it wasn't as though I knew anything about edible roots I could dig up.

I raised my eyes as my fingers left the straw and I straightened, landing on Kaede's white, hunched back to my left.

I bit my lip.

Was a little lecturing really that bad? I was a big girl; I could handle it.

Probably.

The muscles in my face all seemed to draw each other down simultaneously and I heaved air out of my lungs.

God, I hate everything.

"Ah…Kaede?"

She turned her head to look over her shoulder to meet my eyes, "Aye lass?"

I brought my hands together in front of my lap, the fingers tightening into fists over each other, "I ah…I'm really sorry to impose on you more than I already have, but I was wondering if, since I had planned to practice right up until we meet at the well, if you happened to have anything around that I could have for lunch?"My fingernails dug into the skin of the backs of my hands and tension bunched the muscles in my shoulders, "It doesn't have to be big or anything, and if you don't have anything to spare it's totally fine, I just…I just thought I'd ask since I wasn't really sure where…"

And dear God bless him but I couldn't do those apples again- I just couldn't.

Her eyes, which honestly hadn't even looked the least bit hard or sharp before, softened as she took in my hand-wringing. Raising a deeply tanned, gnarled hand, she gestured me toward her, "Come child."

I fair hobbled over to her and bending over a large wooden bucket, she raised the cover, took out some rice and pressed it into four almost hefty triangles.

She wrapped each in what might have been small sheets of bamboo then reached for a burlap sack, "'Tis a shame ye had not said something sooner, I could have had a look about to see if I didn't have anything dried to put in the middle."

She turned and handed the sack to me, her cheeks rising though her smile was a modest thing in her face.

I bobbed a bow as I accepted it, keeping my head lowered so that I could see very little above her chin, my ears hot, "Thank you Kaede, I'm sorry."

The sudden touch to my right cheek startled my eyes upward to find that her smile had widened, "'Tis nothing at all child. Ye may always ask for anything you need; there is nothing to be ashamed of."

My cheeks and ears burned hotter and I clutched the shoulder strap of the burlap satchel in a death grip, my fingertips exploding in pins and needles, "Sor-"

Inuyasha's face flashed in my mind again and I bit the inside of my cheek, bobbing a little bow again.

Air puffed out of Kaede's nose, her lips stretching wider and the rough palm of her hand gave my cheek a gentle pat, "Alright, off with ye."

I bobbed a little unnecessary nod then slowly made my way to the wall by the entrance where several of the weapons had been set to lean. I picked up my bow and quiver, slinging them over my shoulder and fumbling a little out of a lack of familiarity. I rested my right palm against the wall to stabilize me as I bent my knees to slip a foot into one of my dusty black school shoes and Kaede called to me.

I turned to see that the muscles around her thin lips had become a little pinched to complement the small furrow that had grown in her brow, "Remember to stay with Inuyasha. Please, it is not yet safe for ye to wander alone. Do not become reckless in the discovery of your abilities."

I ducked my head at her concern, the heat finally starting to leave my cheeks, then I stepped down to slip on my other shoe, turned to face her and bowed, "I will."

I rose, made eye contact with her for as long as I could manage without looking creepy, then I turned and walked into the early afternoon sun.

~o0o~

I was immediately pelted with wind, but everywhere it made contact with me: on my hands, legs and cheeks it stung. The gust had stirred up the dust so now everyone was fair game for target practice. It was so strong it was a wonder we hadn't heard it from inside the hut.

I raised my arms to block my face and turned my back to the wind, my skirt flapping against my upper thighs. I felt my hair spreading and waving around me, getting caught up in the riot of sediment and brushing my hips. But though it was likely to be coated in dust at the end of this fiasco, I was glad for it because it helped block me from the wind some – the parts of it that weren't slapping me in the face anyway. I started walking to try to find the side of Kaede's hut so I could block another one of my sides, but suddenly the wind cut off.

Creasing my brow faintly, I lowered my arms only to feel something brush one. I thought it might be my hair being pushed by the eddy current petering out, until I opened my eyes and saw white.

But that didn't make sense; my hair wasn't white at all.

I turned my head, following the length of silvery white up to the bright eyes and fine boned face it belonged to.

Inuyasha.

The wind hadn't really stopped at all. Now that I listened, I realized that I could still hear it, but I felt none of it because Inuyasha had followed me and tucked himself at my back to shield me from the brunt of the wind.

My eyebrows rose with my lids at the realization and I turned fully to face him, my head tilting up to see his eyes, so bright they were like gold coins in his face despite the manufactured shadow his silhouette cast.

Before I could think better of it, my fingers reached up for his shirt and pressed lightly into his breast bone. Either in answer or to better shield me, he crowded me closer into the wall of Kaede's hut – now on the point of just backing me up against it.

I licked my suddenly dry lips, "Inuyasha?"

At the sound of my voice, his eyes seemed to darken; the startling gold deepening to amber and his pupils widened to take more of me in.

He grunted and raised his left hand to press against the wall where he was more closely blocking me off from the world with his body.

Heat floated up to my head as I breathed steadily in, my lips falling open and I loosely clenched my fists in the striking crimson of his haori.

I'd utterly forgotten he had another hand until I felt the firm heat of it brushing my hip.

My remaining blood supply shot to my cheeks and I gripped his haori with a vengeance, using it to pull myself into him. Nearly the entire length of me was pressed to nearly the entire length of him, but I could only take so many things at once so soon, so I set it aside in my mind and raised myself up on the balls of my feet to stick my face into his neck.

The hand at my hip smoothed around the curve of my hip to the small of my back, maintaining pressure against my skin through my clothes so that I'd never forget its presence again. Mimicking the spirit of the movement if not necessarily the direction, his head turned into mine, pressing his cheek into the crown of my head.

I knew it was strange, that I had no real reason to be quite this close to him, but I didn't want to move; I hadn't the will to force myself away from him to a distance that could be explained to polite society. So I stayed pressed to him through multiple gusts of wind, as it seemed they were incensed by the united front we presented and were therefore compelled to try that much harder to bring us down, or just cover us in dust.

Eventually my face cooled to an acceptable temperature and I could feel my chest again enough to know that my heartbeat was steady. But despite having this closeness with him, it suddenly wasn't enough.

I was so greedy.

I slipped my arms from between us and underneath his arms to wrap around his back so I could press more fully against him.

I wanted to feel him.

It still wasn't enough. I wasn't content with his neck anymore. I had to have more of him. So I pulled my head back and he matched me. I had only to catch sight of the warm shade of his eyes for me to chicken out again, but unwilling to return to where I'd been, I compromised.

Riding the waves of his heady scent, I tilted my head up and he obliged me, bringing his down. I pressed my cheek to his, nuzzling into it.

I'm not sure if I expected him to be shocked by my behaviour, but perhaps he was just as caught up in the current of the atmosphere we were generating, because the hand at my lower back began to rub lightly into it, spreading his heat, and his head moved to return my cheek nuzzles.

I breathed a sigh and my eyes fell shut.

It was the absolute height of ridiculousness for me to be in such a position with someone I'd known for such a short time, but he was just so comfortable. And no matter what I knew to be rational, my body just kept doing whatever it wanted. What's worse, he didn't even admonish me for my forwardness; he gave me just as much as I gave him.

I couldn't stop the full smile that bloomed on my face, my teeth making an appearance like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, and my lids lifted a little to take in the stillness of the village beyond.

My eyes greeted the blue March sky, and the stillness of the dirt ground as well as the rice paddies that I could now see. The wind had stopped at some point and had I not just opened my eyes, I wouldn't have known.

What was this? Was it normal to feel this way about you barely knew?

My lazy gaze resting on the village picked up a lone figure coming our way. My eyes fell in and out of focus as my eyes swept back and forth over the horizon only to sharpen the barest bit on the figure as its proximity urged me to acknowledge it.

As it came closer, I noticed the black, purple, and dull gold. Then the billowing robes, the pale face and the dark hair.

The hateful face grinned from ear to ear at us like the cat who got the cream.

"Inuyasha, now I see why you were so upset. Had I known you'd taken an interest in the lady I would have refrained from proffering my services."

My entire face burned and Inuyasha ripped himself from my arms to whip around and glare bloody murder at the antagonistic monk.

"Shut your trap, crooked monk! I ain't interested in anything!"

I winced.

Anything?

Wait, any-thing?

Was it his disregard or overcompensation?

He widened his stance and clenched his clawed fists, his soft hair brushing me as he tried to take up as much space as he possibly could.

Miroku held up his palms to Inuyasha, taking a small step back with a little closed-eyed smile, "Now, now, Inuyasha, there's nothing to be ashamed of. It's perfectly natural to take an interest in people of the opposite sex as we get older. I'm happy for you that you've finally decided to embrace this phase of your life."

It didn't even matter that it wasn't directed at me, the snarl that ripped from the enraged angel in front of me set my hair on end. I flinched. "Come over here and say that again monk!"

Miroku took another little step back chuckling nervously now, his smile strained, "Now Inuyasha, there's no need for violence. We all experience these things, it's a natural part of li-"

The gust of wind that rippled my hair and clothes against my skin was my first sign that Inuyasha had left. The second was Miroku face down in the dirt, clutching his skull and groaning.

I looked up from the lecher on the ground to the back of his assailant.

Still spread in as wide a stance as he could maintain without falling over, his fists remained clenched and he panted, staring off into the village. Likely with a look on his face strike the fear of Jesus into several people.

I heard the bamboo shade being pushed out of the way, then, "What's going on out here?"

A pause, then a gasp, "Miroku, what happened to you?"

He groaned from the dirt.

Inuyasha whipped around, but it was to look at the doorway to my right, "Don't coddle him Kagome! This is why he never gets any better: because people like you never put him in his place!"

From my periphery I saw Kagome step forward, "What're you mad at me for? I didn't do anything!"

Inuyasha roared at her, "You've done plenty! You gotta be firm with people like him or they'll always be lechers!"

Kagome jerked back, straightening her spine, then leaned forward as Kaede came up behind her, "Firm?! I'll show you firm! Sit boy!"

Inuyasha dropped like a rock, but after only half a second began to squirm under the weight of the subjugation.

"Sit boy! Sit! Sit! Sit!"

Inuyasha was pushed deeper and deeper into the ground with every command, until he was at the centre of a small crater.

"Is that firm enough for you?!"

She huffed, then turned on her heel and marched back into the hut.

I may have to rethink this chaos thing…

Kaede shuffled a little past the doorway, letting Sango through, "Come now, ye all have had enough fun. It is time that Hisako went to practice," she pointedly looked down at Miroku whose head had just raised from the ground as Sango came to loom over him, "it would be inconsiderate to impede her any further."

Miroku blinked hard, then pushed himself to his feet when it became obvious that Sango wasn't actually going to help him, "Yes, of course Lady Kaede."

The lady in question turned to shuffle back into the hut, but stopped before she passed the threshold, "Ah I almost forgot, Miroku, I have need of ye," then she continued to walk into the hut.

Ah, the fish bones.

Seeing that she'd already left, Miroku mumbled, "Yes Lady Kaede," then dragged his way after her, with a quietly smug Sango in tow.

In the wake of the flurry of activity and heightened emotion, it was almost strange to be alone with Inuyasha – especially when he still remained in the little crater he'd been forced to create with his face.

I considered going over to see if he was alright, but judging by the vengeful abandon with which Kagome had punished him, it was unlikely that this number of occurrences of the subjugation would injure him irretrievably. I wanted to go over and have a look at him anyway, but I had the feeling that he might violently reject anything even vaguely resembling cossetting. So I put my back against the wall as closely as I dared with my bow and quiver attached to me, slid down it, bringing my legs up to my chest with the satchel nestled in my lap and wrapped my arms around my knees. I dropped my chin on my knees to watch for when he was ready to move again.

Any-thing.

I supposed I could ask him about that, but like the cossetting, I felt like he'd violently reject something he clearly wasn't yet comfortable with, so maybe I would just let his actions speak for him. He didn't seem like the type who was too fond of words anyway, so it was likely just as well.

Still, it hurt being referred to as a "thing", even if that was just him overcompensating.

I directed my eyes to the sky, and away from the prostrate boy in the hole in the ground.

I hadn't expected it to be quite so windy, but I likely wouldn't have noticed it nearly so much had there not been easily eroded dust all around the area. Considering it was early Spring, it was a little strange that the ground was so dry, but perhaps they'd had a particularly dry winter and the rains had yet to catch up. Or they were going through a drought? But that didn't make any sense, the forest was lush, none of the plants had really felt deprived to me-

I winced.

There was the "communing with nature" thing coming up again – when was it ever normal for someone to be effectively having honest to goodness conversations with plants to know they weren't too under-watered?

I dropped my eyes back to the earth then cut a sharp right to look at the rice paddies.

Either way, the water level didn't look like it'd really gone down, so that lowered the chances of drought. Unless of course these were still only the early stages-

A groan interrupted me.

Thank God, I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to sit here musing to myself about the weather all wretched day.

My eyes flitted back from the water in the distance to the boy who was now rising from the crater, pebbles and dust shaking free as he pushed himself to stand and snorted furiously, presumably to get the dust out of his nose.

I crossed my ankles and interlaced my fingers in front of them to make sure my underwear wasn't showing and he finally turned to look down at where I sat.

Colour crested his cheeks and he looked off toward the rice paddies.

I raised my ribcage to urge my diaphragm to drop and suck air into the vacuum, but lost the air just as quickly struggling to my feet and using the wall as a crutch.

At the sound his eyes surreptitiously stole a glance then jumped back to the water but I persevered, "I'm sorry I embarrassed you in front of Miroku. I didn't mean to."

Tension I hadn't even realised had been in his shoulders seeped out and they dropped with his sigh, "Don't worry about it." He turned his head to look at me, "What did you want?"

I craned my neck back a little and furrowed my brow, a somewhat disinclined to ask him for anything now that I knew exactly how shamed he was by indulging me, "Just…Kaede said I should ask you to take me to go practice again because she's busy today."

The muscles in my brow clenched further.

Goodness, I felt like a child being passed from one parent to another when the first didn't have time to babysit her.

He grunted, "Alright, let's go."

How much more easy-going he was when we didn't have an audience.

I gathered myself and hobbled to him as he was turning away to walk toward the rice paddies, favouring my knees. I huffed a breath and tried to urge my knees to get more comfortable holding weight so I could move faster; I didn't want to lag and make him regret taking me. But suddenly there was blissful relief in my joints; my knees fair wept for being granted sweet respite from supporting my weight.

After the relief, the weightlessness, and heat and pressure of hands pressing into me through my clothes at my back and straight into the skin at my legs registered. I turned my head to him, "What are you doing?"

Though he never broke his stride, my question must've caught him off guard because he didn't immediately speed up or take to the tree tops, "What's it look like? I'm carrying you."

I sputtered, "Bu- but why?"

He maintained his pace but dropped his head to glare into my face, the longer locks of his bangs brushing my cheeks and I could smell the warm, almost savoury note of his breath, "Because you pushed yourself too hard yesterday. You didn't stop and tell me when you were tired so I could take you back to Kaede's or wherever. And now you can't walk – I shouldn't even be taking you to this place. You'll probably just be more of a stubborn idiot when we get there."

'Or wherever'?

I dropped my eyes, though not my head, secretly too greedy to lose this closeness though too frightened to capitalize on it, "Sorry."

He grunted and the brief exhalation stirred a lock of his hair to sweep across my cheekbone, "Quit sayin' sorry and just say somethin' next time."

I hummed at him the finally dropped my head to hide my face in his collarbones, properly chastened.

He turned his head into the crown of mine and I felt the warmth of his breath seeping into my scalp again, "Hold on to me."

Unwilling to upset him again, I didn't ask questions as I raised my arms to wrap around his neck. Then he took two sprinting strides and as his foot connected with the ground on the end of the second, he shot up into the air, sailing toward the treeline.

Just as I had the day before, I felt the insistent press of gravity the instant he took off, and still unable to quite handle the reality of it, I shut my eyes. But unlike the day before, I opened them again once he reached the peak of his parabolic trajectory.

The unrestrained sunlight from the cloudless sky, hardly dimmed for having been a little past midday, lit up the forest so that if you didn't really focus on it as you looked, it was rather like hooker's green moss. I had the strangest urge to take off my shoes and socks and wriggle my toes in it, then we were descending into it. The enlarging moss, showing details like individual leaves, rushing up to us so fast that I almost forgot to shut my eyes as though it could shut the feeling out of my stomach.

We dropped into the treetops and he lunged forward, hopping from limb to limb like a ninja until we landed lightly in the little clearing we'd been in the night before.

Perhaps since it was morning and there was no rush he wanted to minimize visibility?

He bent to deposit me onto my feet then held out his hand.

Subtly shifting my hips to test out my knees, I looked to his open palm then up to his bright eyes and lightly creased brow, "Hm?"

He curled his fingers in then loosely straightened them again, "The bag."

"Mm."

I lifted the satchel over my shoulder and handed it to him, only to watch him turn around and plop down at the base of the tree he'd been watching me from the day before, his eyes intent.

I stared at him in silence for a moment or two, then deciding that he would do what he wanted, I turned to my abused tree and prepared my bow and an arrow.

I gripped the wood and winced as I pulled the string with the nocked arrow back to my cheek.

"What is it now?"

My fingers dropped from the string and I whipped to the voice that was suddenly rumbling next to me, staring dumbly up as I saw his gold eyes looming over me, "Huh?"

The sound of the arrow thwacking into the trunk was lost in the background as he seemed to take up all the space to my right.

A muscle ticked in his cheek and his brow ridge compressed as tightly as it would go, "Somethin's wrong – I can smell it. What hurts?"

I blinked, then dropped my head and experimentally bent my knees one at a time. Babying them seemed to have paid off because they were much improved than they'd been even in Kaede's hut when I'd woken up.

I looked up at him, coming up empty.

He growled lowly and took a step back.

Choosing to disregard the sound that, from an animal I would have thought signified my imminent end, I turned my head to look at the trunk so that I could ready another arrow and the air stilled in my chest. My jaw went slack.

"I did it…" the fingers of my right hand compulsively tightened around the arrow that I'd already drawn to nock, "I di-"

He was on me like a strike of lightning, wrapping my hand in the heat of his and bringing it up to his nose.

I felt the barest breeze as he sniffed me and I locked every muscle in my body to keep from touching his face.

He lifted his eyelids, the way his eyelashes brushed the lower part of his eyebrows making me wish I was close enough to feel them feather across my cheek.

Jesus, what was wrong with me today? Was I starved for affection or something? Maybe I needed to give Kagome a hug.

His eyes blazed like newly minted gold coins in his face, "Why didn't you tell me you hurt your fingers?"

The barest breath whispered over my cupid's bow and I dropped my eyes to inspect his stomach instead.

He really needed to decide if I was going to be the sort of person he went out of his way to bring apples to, or if my importance was closer to that of an inanimate object, because this back and forth was making it a little difficult for me to know how to feel.

He huffed a breath, the gust ruffling the strands of my hair to brush the cheek he'd just nuzzled not half an hour before, then moist warmth was slicking my digits.

My back shot ramrod straight and I swore every little hair on my body stood to attention.

What?

Something warm and thick smoothed along the skin of my fingers, slipping in between each to make sure that no spot was missed until nearly my whole hand was wet.

A shiver slid up my spine to disperse all about the crown of my head and my face – then everything when dead. I could feel nothing but the foreign body.

System shut down; most of my neurons just left the building.

My eyelids were pasted open, my brain having shorted out to such an extent that blinking was now utterly out of the question.

Too shocked to move, I slid my eyeballs to look up at him as best I could and it took every one of my remaining neurones to comprehend what I was seeing.

Was he licking my fingers?

Not having noticed my spontaneous state of distress, his eyes remained half-mast as he reached for my other hand, "This one's injured too, right?" Then he was sliding the firm, wet pinkness of his tongue along my burning index finger.

My throat contracted, compulsively trying to swallow but the normally smooth motion was halted by the Sahara of my mouth.

What in the living hell?!

The very outer edges of my epidermis began to tingle and I wondered if perhaps that meant my neurones had come back from vacation early, but rather than a restoration of my motor functioning, my skin broke out in a fever like I'd set fire to the tumbleweed in my mouth. Combined with the tingling that hadn't gone away, my whole body felt confused and I wondered if it meant that I was more grossed out than I could conceivably stand, or if him licking my fingers was the one of the hottest things I'd ever experienced in my short life.

Not that the answer to this conundrum much mattered, because a second later he slipped his tongue back into his mouth and dropped my hand, turning on his heel to return to his spot by the tree, "I told you," he flopped onto his bottom again, crossing his legs and bringing his hands together in the sleeves of his haori as his glowing eyes managed to pierce even as they were half lidded, "say somethin' next time."