Shrine of Love
A/N: Thank you for your reviews! :D Now get ready for some more drama!
Chapter 14: A Broken Heart
It was Wednesday of the following week. The four friends were eating lunch…the only difference was that Sango and Miroku, who were usually talking to each other, were kissing.
"Kami," Kagome said in disbelief. "Sango and Miroku hooked up."
Inuyasha looked away from his sketchpad and glanced down at her, "Well, we've known since Monday when they told us that."
She glared up at him from the branch she sat on, "I know that. I just can't believe it actually happened."
Kagome stared curiously at Inuyasha when he began flipping through his old drawings in the sketchbook. He stopped at a page, wrote something at the bottom of it, and tore out the sheet.
"What are you doing?" Kagome asked suspiciously as Inuyasha folded the paper into an airplane. He just grinned at her.
Then, Inuyasha threw the paper airplane at the couple sitting on the grass. It hit Miroku hard in the head.
"Ow," Miroku flinched, breaking the kiss he had going. Sango picked up the airplane and opened it up. It was a sketch of her and Miroku eating lunch together…and at the bottom of the page, 'lovebirds' was scribbled. She blushed and looked up at her two friends sitting in the oak tree above her and Miroku.
Inuyasha and Kagome waved back with sly looks on their faces.
"What does it say?" Miroku asked, taking the sketch from Sango's hands. When he saw the drawing and word at the bottom, he shifted his view towards his two friends in the tree and stuck out his tongue. "That's right, Sango and I are lovebirds. That's why she doesn't mind me groping her anymore."
As if to prove his point, he reached out a hand and grabbed onto Sango's bottom. Her face reddened.
"HENTAI!" she screamed and slapped Miroku hard.
He laughed nervously with a twitch, "Hehe…or maybe she does still mind."
Inuyasha and Kagome laughed at the scene below them. However, Kagome's laughter cut off when she felt the branch she was sitting on give way. The branch broke off completely and she screamed as she began falling.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted, jerking his eyes away from Miroku and Sango. He launched himself off the branch he sat on.
Kagome winced as she felt leaves scrape against her cheeks, her eyes closed tightly as she waited for a collision with ground. However, her eyes flew open when she felt strong arms wrap around her, pulling her close to a warm body. It was Inuyasha. Right before they hit the ground, he flipped their positions. Inuyasha crashed into the grass, Kagome feeling the aftershock.
"Oh, my god! Are you two okay?" Sango called out in concern as she and Miroku started running over to the fallen pair.
Kagome clenched Inuyasha's shirt and whispered, "Thank you."
She expected Inuyasha to let go any time soon, which was why she was surprised when he kept his arms around her.
"Don't ever…" he said in a serious voice. "…scare me like that again."
She nodded grimly.
"Well, well," Miroku's sly voice came from above her. "Looks like Sango and I aren't the only lovebirds around here."
That was when Kagome noticed the position she and Inuyasha were in. She pushed herself away from him with a blush.
Miroku and Sango laughed.
:o:O:o:O:o: After School :o:O:o:O:o:
"You know, you could've easily landed onto another branch nearby," Inuyasha remarked as they wrapped up training for the day.
"Well, I'm sorry for being so shocked to do so," Kagome snapped.
"Grouchy now, are we?"
"I am not grouchy."
"You shouldn't be grouchy. I'm the one who should be grouchy. You nearly threw my back out!"
"Well, I didn't ask you to save me!" Kagome yelled. She blinked. "Wait, are you calling me heavy?"
"Eh, no," Inuyasha said, backing away as she began advancing on him.
Kagome cracked her knuckles, glared at him for awhile, and then sighed, "Whatever."
Inuyasha changed the subject, "Hey, could you go over next door real quick and tell Rin that I'll be coming home a little later today? I have to help Miroku move a few things around the shrine."
"Why me?"
"Because I don't want to go in there when that bastard Kouga is there."
Kagome rolled her eyes, "Fine."
Kagome slid the door open to the beginners' training room and walked in.
"Hey," Kouga greeted her when he saw her. "What gives me the pleasure of your visit?"
"Well, I was looking for Rin."
"I let her, Shippou, and Ayame go change early about a minute ago."
"Alright then," Kagome smiled. "Thanks. I'll see you later."
"Hold up."
Kagome halted in mid-step and turned around, "Yes?"
"I heard you fell from a tree today," Kouga said slowly.
"Yeah. But Inuyasha pretty much caught me."
Kouga grunted at Inuyasha's name, but then asked, "So are you okay?"
Kagome nodded with a cheerful look, "Yup."
"You say that, but I can see some scrapes on your cheeks," Kouga grinned.
"Oh, them? They only hurt a little."
Kouga closed the distance between them, and said quietly, "I know a way that'll make them feel better."
When Kagome looked at him questioningly, he planted a kiss on both of her cheeks.
Kagome blushed, "Uh…thank you."
He didn't respond. Instead, Kouga bent down and pressed his mouth against hers in a hard kiss. Kagome's eyes widened and she winced in pain when his arms wrapped around her in an iron hold. With difficulty, she slid her arms onto his chest to push away, but to no avail.
Kagome made a sound of protest. Kouga mistook it as a sigh or moan and slipped his tongue into her mouth. Kagome desperately continued to tear away from him.
And that's when she heard the door give a silent clatter as it slid slightly open. Her eyes flew over to the door and saw Inuyasha standing at the doorway, blankly staring at the both of them.
'Inuyasha! No! It's not what it looks like!' she yelled out to him in her mind.
She saw him turn and walk away silently.
Now she felt more desperate than ever to get out of the room.
'I swore I'd never do this to a guy unless it was necessary,' she thought. 'And apparently, it's necessary right now.'
Kagome kneed Kouga hard in the groin. He immediately let go of her and shouted out in pain, doubling over and falling onto his knees.
"You don't win a girl's heart by jamming your tongue down her throat," Kagome told him coldly before running out of the room to go chase after Inuyasha. The hallway was empty. She ran next door and peered inside the intermediates' training room and saw that it was empty too.
She was too late. Inuyasha was gone.
Kagome gloomily ate her lunch beside Sango on Thursday the next day.
"What's wrong, buddy?" Sango asked her best friend. "You seem so down today. Is there a particular reason why you and Inuyasha aren't having lunch together like usual?"
Kagome glimpsed at Inuyasha, who was eating lunch with Miroku today.
"Well…something happened yesterday," she said slowly. "And I think Inuyasha's mad at me because he's been avoiding me all day."
"Oh, he'll get over it."
'He did not get over it,' Kagome thought. It was Friday and Inuyasha still wasn't speaking to her. On Thursday after school, they'd trained together, but he didn't speak to her unless she made a mistake on one of her moves or anything else that related to training.
And then today, he told her they would have a break from training. Which was why she was sitting in the kitchen at the moment, staring out the window and watching him sit in front of the pond, doing nothing but sketch.
"What should I do?" she asked herself miserably. She stood up and headed to the training room for the advanced where Miroku and Sango were.
Inuyasha was busy sketching when a voice broke through the silence.
"Hey."
It was the bastard Kouga. Great.
"Aren't you supposed to be teaching right now?" Inuyasha asked with an icy voice.
"Training's over."
Inuyasha grunted.
"So anyway," Kouga said in a cocky voice. He was still in his gi. "I bet you didn't know that a few days ago, I got to share a lovely kiss with Kagome Higurashi."
"Oh, really."
"Yes. And even though you got to kiss her during play practice, I got to kiss Kagome for real."
Inuyasha kept his eyes on his sketch as he replied, "I bet she didn't kiss you back."
Kouga felt anger boil up inside him. He snapped, "Oh, yeah? Well, did she sigh when you kissed her?"
He smirked when he saw the pencil in Inuyasha's hand begin shaking. His eyes wandered to the sketch Inuyasha was drawing, "Hm, drawing a hobby of yours?"
He reached down to take hold of the sketchpad. That was when Inuyasha jammed his needle-sharp pencil into Kouga's hand. Kouga howled in pain and withdrew his bleeding hand.
"Don't you dare touch it, you asshole," Inuyasha said, his eyes dark.
Kouga trembled with fury. And then gave Inuyasha a solid punch in the face.
Kagome, Sango, and Miroku were busy talking with each other as they slid the door open to leave the training room when they heard shouting coming from the area near the pond.
Their eyes roamed the area and spotted Inuyasha and Kouga fighting.
Kagome gasped when she saw that Inuyasha had a bloody lip…but then again, that seemed a lot better than the bloody nose and black eye that Kouga had. Both of them looked extremely mad at each other.
"Inuyasha!" she cried out, moving toward him. Miroku grabbed onto her wrist to stop her.
"No," he said firmly. "Kagome, I want you to watch this and see how anger can take over a person."
Kagome's whole body continued shaking as she watched the brawl that took place in front of her very eyes. She was shocked every time Inuyasha delivered harsh blow after harsh blow to Kouga. She'd never seen Inuyasha so violent before. She flinched every time Kouga countered with an attack of his own.
Inuyasha grabbed hold of a wad of Kouga's hair and fiercely dunked Kouga's head into the pond. When he pulled Kouga's face back out, Kouga was sputtering.
"I've never hated you as much as I hate you right now, bastard," Inuyasha said in a deadly low voice. He made a move to stick Kouga's head back into the water.
"Inuyasha, stop!" Kagome screamed at the top of her lungs. "STOP IT!"
At the sound of her voice, Inuyasha's hold on Kouga loosened. Kouga took that as an opportunity to roll onto his back and used the last of his energy to kick up into Inuyasha's chin. It became silent. The two males laid on the grass panting heavily. The battle was over.
"Go home," Miroku said quietly to Kagome.
She objected, "No. I'm staying-"
"Kagome."
She flinched at the harsh tone of her older cousin's voice.
"Go home now," Miroku ordered. "You should leave Inuyasha alone today."
Kagome opened her mouth to protest again, but Sango took hold of her arm and steered her away.
"Come on, Kagome," Sango said quietly.
Miroku watched Sango and his cousin until they disappeared from view. Then, he turned his attention to Inuyasha and Kouga.
"Inuyasha, you really need to control that anger of yours," he said calmly as he squatted down beside his best friend.
"Well, I've got plenty to be mad about right now," Inuyasha spat. He stood up and brushed himself off before walking away. Miroku stared after him and then shifted his eyes to Kouga.
"You look pretty beat up," he said as Kouga sat up painfully. He stood up and offered a hand to Kouga. "Let me help you."
"Back off," Kouga said, slapping his hand away. "Just leave me alone."
Miroku frowned, but returned his hand to his side, "Okay then. But I suggest you get those wounds taken care of soon."
He turned his back on him and followed after Inuyasha.
Kouga wiped an arm across his nose and when he brought his arm back down, he noticed a streak of blood on it.
"Damn, I have a bloody nose," he groaned. He let out a heavy sigh.
"Kouga?"
He whipped his head around. Ayame, already back in her regular clothes, stared back in shock at his condition.
"Leave me alone," he growled.
She didn't. Instead, she took a step toward him, and then another. She knelt down in front of him.
"Are you okay?" she asked, her eyes filled with concern.
"I said leave me alone!"
"No," Ayame said back sharply, much to Kouga's surprise. "I won't. You need help."
She reached into her backpack, dug around, and pulled out a handkerchief. She dipped it into the pond and when she pulled it back out, she held it toward his face.
"Hold still," she commanded. When Kouga turned his head away from her hand, she repeated, "Hold. Still."
Kouga slowly turned his face towards hers again and didn't say a single word as she gently started wiping his face clean.
It was Saturday morning. Kagome rode her bike over to Houshi Shrine early. As she reached the top of the shrine steps, she saw Inuyasha sweeping.
"Hi," she said cheerfully.
"Hi," he said back in a monotone voice. Kagome's cheeriness dissolved. At that moment, Miroku stepped out with the shopping list in hand.
"Here's the shopping list, Inuyasha," he said, handing it over to his friend. Inuyasha took it without a word. Miroku watched him for a minute before turning to Kagome. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"
Kagome nodded and they walked into the shrine house.
"Do you know why Inuyasha's been so mad this week?" Miroku asked her as they stood in the living room. "He won't tell me anything."
"Well," she paused. "It might have been because of the fact that Kouga kissed me on Wednesday."
Miroku's eyes went wide as saucers, "Kouga? Kissed you?"
She nodded, "I think he's mad about that."
They heard a loud thump come from somewhere in the house.
"What was that?" Kagome asked with an alarmed voice.
"Mushin," Miroku answered with a sigh. "That geezer. He probably dropped to the floor from drinking too much sake. Again."
"Is that all he does? Drink sake?"
"Yeah. He stays in his room all day sleeping and drinking sake, and doesn't come out until midnight, which is when he eats his breakfast, lunch, and dinner all in one hour. And then he goes back into his room and the cycle starts all over again. The only good things about him are that he's paying the taxes and he does his own laundry."
Kagome shook her head.
Miroku opened his mouth to add something, but a voice interrupted.
"I'm going shopping right now," Inuyasha's voice echoed in the hallway from the front door. Then, the two heard the door close shut.
Miroku turned Kagome around and gave her a small push towards the front door, "Go cheer him up. We're having okonomiyaki again because we couldn't really eat it that Saturday two weeks ago when my parents…well, you know what happened.."
Kagome nodded.
Miroku continued, "Moods can affect everything…and I don't want my okonomiyaki tasting less delicious than usual."
"Hey, wait up!" Kagome called after Inuyasha. She was pedaling like crazy to catch up to him. Just when she thought she had reached him, he sped past a yellow light, leaving her by herself to wait at the red light that followed immediately after.
She watched him pedal off, his figure getting smaller and smaller, farther and farther.
"Inuyasha…" she whispered, a pain developing inside her.
She'd never felt so far from him in her life.
She thought it couldn't get any worse.
But it did.
By the time she'd reached the supermarket and found Inuyasha, she saw that he already had almost everything that was on the shopping list in the shopping basket he was carrying.
She tiredly followed him to the grocery section. She watched him quietly as he picked up potatoes and placed them in the basket. They moved on to the onions. By that time, Kagome snapped.
When Inuyasha laid a hand on an onion, she laid her own hand over his.
"Okay, that's it, Inuyasha," she glared at him. "I can't take this anymore. Tell me why you're mad."
"I'm not mad," he muttered. He slipped his hand out from underneath hers and took a different onion instead.
"That is the biggest lie I've ever heard."
Inuyasha didn't respond. Instead, he proceeded to the cash register. Kagome let out a heavy sigh and rushed after him. After Inuyasha paid for the products, he walked out of the supermarket toward his bike. Kagome gloomily followed and wasn't surprised when he climbed onto his bike and rode away without her. Again.
She climbed onto her own bike. The pain inside her had increased more and more as the day wore on. She looked up and saw Rin's Ice Cream in front of her. Obviously, they wouldn't be enjoying ice cream together today.
She felt something prick in her eyes. Tears? Kagome crazily shook her head to get a hold of herself.
She threw the brakes up and pedaled off, mumbling, "Rin, your uncle is such a jerk."
:o:O:o:O:o: Back at the Shrine :o:O:o:O:o:
Inuyasha was doing the laundry. Miroku, surprisingly, was in the living room dusting. That left Kagome with the cooking.
As Kagome silently cooked okonomiyaki in the kitchen, she went into deep thought.
She was beginning to miss it all. Inuyasha's smiles. His laughs. Even his flirting.
What exactly was he mad about? This whole thing was making her angry, sad, and worried all at the same time.
Kagome flipped the okonomiyaki over and frowned when she saw that she'd burned the side she just cooked.
Miroku was right. Mood affected everything.
With her being the only one cooking, Kagome finished the okonomiyaki by dinner time, which left no extra time for her to do any training. As usual, Miroku began piling his plate with his favorite food right when she set it down on the table. However, when he saw that some of them were burnt, he frowned and glanced at Kagome, but didn't say a word when he saw her depressed expression.
Something that cheered her up a little was when Inuyasha sat down beside her for dinner. Then again, he probably only sat next to her because of the fact that they were having okonomiyaki-Miroku would be wolfing everything down in a very scary matter.
It was quiet all throughout dinner. No one talked to anybody. And then it happened.
Miroku had finished his last helping of okonomiyaki. He stood up, stretched, and said, "I'll clean the table today."
With that, he picked up his plates and began taking them to the kitchen. As he left, Kagome caught him winking at her. When she registered what was happening, she gave him a small smile. He'd given her a chance to be alone with Inuyasha.
When she no longer heard Miroku's footsteps, she turned to Inuyasha and the both of them sat in an awkward silence. She took a deep breath.
"Inuyasha," she finally said. "What's bothering you?"
He didn't answer her.
She tried again, "Is this all because of the kiss that Kouga gave me?"
Inuyasha turned his head away.
"Are you jealous of Kouga?" Kagome asked.
That gave her a response.
Inuyasha pounded a fist onto the table and shouted, "I am not jealous of that bastard!"
Kagome fumed. She shouted back, "Then why are you acting this way! You've been avoiding me all week! And it all started after you saw Kouga kissing me!"
Then, for the first time that day, Inuyasha met her eyes with his. Kagome stared into his violet eyes, astonished to see that they didn't hold the usual warm and cheerful look that they always had.
"I don't care…" he said coldly. "…if you were kissed by Kouga."
The words slowly sunk into her head.
SLAP
Inuyasha brought a hand to his slapped cheek and turned his head to look at her with a stunned expression. Kagome felt a lump growing in her throat. The hand that she'd just slapped Inuyasha with quivered.
She stood up and ran to the front door, shoving her feet into her shoes and throwing the door open.
It was raining. The sky was dark and gray with no sign of sunlight.
Kagome ran toward the steps. She wanted to go home. Now. She didn't care if she had to ride her bike in the wet rain to get there. Kagome reached the stairs and hastily ran down the first steps. She slipped and fell. Her body tumbled down the rest of the stairs.
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
When her body came to a stop at the foot of the stairs, Kagome painfully rolled onto her back.
It began raining harder.
Kagome burst out crying, the pain inside her now overwhelming. The tears trickled down her face, melding with the rain that was already soaking her. Her shoulders began shuddering as her crying became sobs. She couldn't speak. Her whole body was sore. Her right leg felt fractured and it hurt…a lot.
But, at the moment, nothing hurt as much as her broken heart.
A/N: How sad! X.X Wonder what will happen next? :P
Please review!