Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. I give all my thanks to Rumiko Takahashi for bringing that extraordinary story to life! You rock!
A/N: PLEASE REVIEW EACH CHAPTER INDIVIDUALLY! I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE THAT! :D
IMPORTANT: It's your fault if you don't read this and therefore get confused ;P. This chapter takes place before Rin's run-in with Menomaru and Gatenmaru.
Read and review :D.
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CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR:NARROW ESCAPES AND OTHER WEIRDNESS
I barely had time to whirl around and scream before Inuyasha was in motion. Before I could even so much as jump backwards, before I could scream or fight or hit or run, Inuyasha's fist was going for Gatenmaru's neck.
Menomaru, almost appearing from nowhere, caught his fist and smirked.
"Look what we have here," he said. "The half breed and his bitch."
Inuyasha hissed in pure fury, and my hands balled into fists. "Don't call her a bitch," Inuyasha growled, as I snapped, "Don't call him a half breed!"
We glanced at each other, and maybe, if the situation weren't so dire, we would have blushed. But as it was, we didn't have time to be juvenile.
"Get the fuck away from her," Inuyasha growled. "Or my fist is gonna rip out your throats."
Menomaru and Gatenmaru laughed.
"Oooh, scary," Gatenmaru said, doubling over, pretending to gasp for breath. Watching him like that, watching him look so careless and so cruel and so hateful, made my vision begin to go red. In that instant, for threatening me and mocking Inuyasha, I hated Gatenmaru more than anybody else in the world.
In that instant, I might have let Inuyasha rip his throat out, but then I recalled what the consequences for Inuyasha would be.
"Calm down," I muttered, taking his hand gently. Only after I'd done it did I realize what I had done. Only after I'd slipped my small fingers into his large, clawed hand did I realize that it might feel a little different from simple comfort.
When Inuyasha's hand tightened around mine, I stepped closer to him, my heart and blood racing.
"Aww, isn't this cute," Menomaru cooed. "You guys would make a great couple… except that we need your bitch."
A low snarl escaped Inuyasha's throat, a snarl which made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, a snarl which sent a shiver coursing up my spine. A snarl which made me think that Menomaru might not live to see the sunset.
"Yeah, well," Inuyasha snapped at him, "You also need a brain, but we can't all get what we want."
Now it was Menomaru's turn to hiss.
"Half breed," he spat. "Look, we don't have time to deal with you, so just step away from your girlfriend and it'll make everything easier."
Stiffening, I almost thought about how stupid a thing that was to say. It was almost like saying, 'Look, just let us kill Kagome and we won't bother you.' And who in their right mind would agree to something like that? That would bother him… I think….
But then I thought of something which chilled me to the core.
Maybe… maybe it wouldn't bother him? Maybe he was tired of fighting for me? Maybe that was why he had stiffened, maybe that was why his hand had gone slack around mine? Maybe that was why he hadn't retorted yet… maybe… maybe he really was going to hand me over.
But then Inuyasha took his hand out of mine and pushed me roughly behind him.
"Over my dead fucking body," he growled, flexing his claws.
I almost cried. First, because he was about to get himself into danger. Second, because he was protecting me. Third, because I wanted to punch myself in the face for being helpless, for not knowing how to use my spiritual powers, and for looking like a stupid moron. Fourth, because I'm a stupid, paranoid, emotional idiot. How could I even have thought for a second that he would hand me over? HOW?
Oh, and there's a fifth reason I almost cried, too: what Menomaru said next.
"What it is, it is," he said, grinning, stepping toward Inuyasha. "But it doesn't have to be over her dead body."
Inuyasha's voice was deadly when he said, "I don't know what you want her for, but I'll die before I let you so much as touch her. Bring it, fucker."
And that was when Menomaru's fist collided with Inuyasha's head.
The fight was like most fights tend to be. Rough, terrifying, and fueled by pure rage. Fueled by a need for violence which emanated off of Inuyasha, which burned in Menomaru's and Gatenmaru's cruel eyes. Fueled by a sadistic pleasure in causing pain which, surprisingly, burned with just as much vigor in Inuyasha as in the others. The fight was the stereotypical fight—the guys beating the crap out of each other, and the stupid, cliché damsel in distress screaming her head off.
Guess which one I was?
"Stop it! STOP IT!"
I didn't want to see the yearning for violence in his eyes, I didn't want to see his fists closing slowly around their throats, gently squeezing the life out of them, moment by moment. I didn't want to see him snarling in rage, thirsting for blood. But even more than that, even more than his chilling fury… I didn't want to see him hurt.
It was when Menomaru kicked Inuyasha in the stomach, sending him flying all the way back to me, that I realized I couldn't take it anymore.
There had to be something I could do.
Anything.
"Kagome, stay back," Inuyasha growled. "I'm gonna take care of them."
"No," I said quickly. "I bet somebody's already called the police. We have to get out of here before they come, or—"
He must have been fed up with my attempts to protect him, because the next second, he yelled at me, voice merciless.
"I'm not afraid of the goddamn fucking police! So shut the fuck up and let me protect you!"
Not even the last part made up for the way those words twisted my heart. And not in a good way. Suddenly I felt sick, sick to my core, like I was going to throw up and cry… suddenly I wanted to scream, I wanted to yell, I wanted to do something, anything… I wanted him to know how he had hurt me… I'd just wanted to protect him….
"Kagome…"
His eyes were soft, his voice regretful, as he whispered my name, making eye contact for the first time since Menomaru and Gatenmaru had showed up.
"Fine!" I spat, voice choked. "Go! Go get yourself killed! Just… just go!"
I marched back to the spot where we'd left the doll, making as if to leave. But I didn't leave. Instead, I picked up the doll, rocked it close, protectively, in my arms, and watched as Inuyasha cast one last long look at me and leapt toward Menomaru and Gatenmaru.
If he got himself hurt, I would kill him. If he got himself… if he… if…
I couldn't even think that. But the notion made me think about what my last words to him would be… if that happened.
No. It wouldn't happen. Of course, it wouldn't happen. It wouldn't happen because… it wouldn't. It couldn't.
It just doesn't.
But when Gatenmaru and Inuyasha met each other in a headlock, when Menomaru leaped over Gatenmaru, claws aimed for Inuyasha's head, eyes locked on me, when the baby in my arms started to wail, I couldn't take it any longer.
My feet moved of their own accord until I flew straight past Inuyasha… and into Menomaru and Gatenmaru.
That's right. As in, collided with them. And in the second when our bodies touched, the entire world froze and two things occurred to us.
First, I had just thrown myself in the midst of a demonic fistfight, with nothing to aid me but uncontrolled spiritual power.
…Okay, not my smartest move.
Second, the next split second would decide whether I lived or died.
As it turned out, there was no decision involved, because in the next split second, Menomaru and Gatenmaru flew ten feet backwards, colliding heavily with nearby tree trunks.
Inuyasha and I could do nothing but gape.
There was a moment where nothing happened, where a buzz filled the air, where our thoughts churned. There was a moment where Menomaru and Gatenmaru, dazed, struggled to their knees. Where Inuyasha gawked at me in shock and anger. Where I glared right back at him, and he at me, and we glared half-heartedly at each other, not actually angry, but instead desperate to know what had just happened.
Inuyasha summed the situation up very nicely by saying, "What the fuck?"
"I… I…" suddenly a slight heat drew my eyes to my chest… where a gemstone glowed. "Inuyasha," I said suddenly. "It's the ward."
Inuyasha stared at me in surprise, and then his eyes drifted downward until they rested on my… uh….
THE FREAKING WARD. NOT WHERE IT RESTED.
"Keh," Inuyasha said, a grin stretching across his face. "Looks like it saved your life."
Blushing, I said, "Guess so."
Menomaru and Gatenmaru, eyes a bit loopy, staggered to their feet. "What the… what the fuck…" eyes narrowing, Menomaru glared at me and spat, "The bitch has a fucking ward!"
"What?"
Gatenmaru's eyes landed on my chest and he swore. "Goddamnit… what do we do now?"
"You get the fuck away from us," Inuyasha spat, stepping forward. "If you know what's good for you."
"Why you little—"
"Stop it," Menomaru growled. "We've got better things to do than fight with half breeds."
Gatenmaru, after a reluctant nod, muttered, "We're not done with you."
"Of course not," Menomaru said softly, turning cool eyes to us. "But we're done for now. Let's go."
I didn't like the look in his eyes at all. Even after he had turned and walked away, even after he and Gatenmaru were out of sight, the gaze he had settled on me still gave me chills.
It was the gaze that told me he hadn't given up. And it told me he had a plan.
Inuyasha, as if coming out of a daze, shouted, "O-oi! Hey! Where the fuck are you going?"
He took an aggressive step in the direction in which they'd gone, but almost reflexively, my hands latched around his arm. "Let them go," I muttered. "There's no point. Let's get out of here."
I had expected him to be angry, to be pissed, to be furious and frustrated. What I hadn't expected was to have his wrath directed at me.
"Don't you tell me what to do!" he hissed, whirling around to face me. Suddenly his hands were on my arms, pinning them to my sides. Suddenly his breath was in my face, suddenly our faces were very close, so close that his eyes burned into mine and our noses almost touched and my heart raced and my eyes widened with something between nervousness and fear….
I couldn't speak. And I couldn't do anything as he burned holes in my face with his gaze, because I was trapped between a very furious Inuyasha and a very solid tree.
"You fucking idiot," he growled. "What did you do that for? Why didn't you leave it well alone like I fucking told you to?"
"I'm sorry!" I snapped, almost, but not quite, frightened. His rage was so close, our faces were so close, his body was so close to mine… his hands were rough on my arms… I could feel his claws grating against my skin, I could hear his breath coming heavy….
"I didn't want you to get hurt," I muttered. "And besides, I saved your life."
"No you fucking didn't!" he snarled. "I was gonna save your life. You almost got yourself killed."
Rage flaring up, I started, "Well, thanks to the ward, obviously, I wasn't going to get ki—"
"YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT."
The words, the fact that they were true, and the betrayal, fury, pain, and rage in his voice shut me up. Suddenly he leaned almost, inexplicably, closer to me. Now for the first time, I saw the red glint in his eyes, and as it began to absorb the gold, I did feel afraid.
My breath stopped when he pushed me slightly against the tree and muttered, "You forgot it would protect you. I forgot, too. You weren't thinking about anything when you ran in, and if you hadn't been wearing the ward, you would've died. Fuck it, Kagome."
"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I can say I'm sorry for being careless, and for worrying you, but… I can't say I'm sorry for worrying about you."
Inuyasha was very still, and we remained like that for several minutes. Both quiet, his hands on my arms, our faces inches apart. His breath wafted down my neck, and suddenly the quiet wrapped around us, enveloped us, blocked out the rest of the world. The park, the grass, the lake, the trees… all gone. The sky, the flowers, the abandoned ice cream truck, the cars… vanished. All that existed was him, and me, and his hands sliding down my arms. His claws skimmed my ribs and my breath caught. Very, very slowly, he began to bend down, and almost automatically I looked up… and the proximity of our lips stunned me just enough to paralyze me, but not enough to stop me from wondering:
What the heck am I doing pinned against a tree by a half-crazy, red-eyed Inuyasha?
My last thought before he leaned closer was that it wasn't every day I found myself so flustered that I felt like the protagonist in one of those corny romance novels, because then one of his hands brushed the small of my back, and I froze.
He leaned closer, and I couldn't think enough to wonder what we were doing… I couldn't breathe enough to speak… I didn't have enough air in my lungs to gasp when one of his claws gently touched my chin. He looked into my eyes, and I watched the reddish tint fade. His golden eyes widened in dazed surprise, and for a moment, just a moment, we froze.
Then the moment was over, and Inuyasha, almost on a whim, it seemed, leaned his lips even closer to mine.
A shrill scream pierced the air.
We jumped apart rapidly, me staring wildly around to pinpoint the source of the shriek… and when I saw no one, when I felt a strange shaking in my arms, I had the strangest urge to collapse with laughter.
It was the baby. The baby was crying.
"Shit," Inuyasha growled, running a hand through his hair, stepping away from me.
"It's okay," I cooed, voice trembling as I breathed deeply, hands shaking as I stroked the doll's head. "It's okay."
It's okay… it's okay, Kagome… everything is okay….
But my racing-the-marathon heart and my rushing-river blood and my desperate, rapid breathing said otherwise.
Inuyasha was quiet as I stroked the baby's head. He made no comment about what had almost just happened, and neither did I. Did that mean that he wanted to forget about it…? That he would have regretted it, if it had really…?
Had he been… had he been about to kiss me?
I gulped at the thought, unsure whether I was thrilled or terrified.
"Oi, Kagome," Inuyasha growled after a second. "She's been quiet for a minute and a half."
Nodding even though I'd already known that, I said, "Yeah."
I kept petting the baby's head until I realized something.
"Hey," I said, staring up at Inuyasha, eyes alight. "You… did you… did you call me Kagome?"
Of course it meant nothing. Sometimes he would do that when he was stressed… or when he was angry… or when he feared for my life… and of course he would be stressed, now… for a variety of reasons… so of course it meant nothing that he had called my by my name.
I would be "wench" again soon enough.
But Inuyasha was silent, and his silence made me scrutinize his face, only to realize that he was looking deep into my eyes, as if searching my soul for a sign. A sign of something I couldn't comprehend but desperately wanted to know….
A sign of what…?
And then, just when I thought he hadn't heard me speak, just when I thought I'd have to repeat the question, he said the last thing I'd thought he would say.
"What the hell are you talking about, Kagome?"
I blinked.
…what?
"What?" I said blankly. "What the hell are you talking about?" When Inuyasha's eyes remained blank and hazy, when they remained dazedly focused on my face, I said a little nervously, "Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha frowned at me, frowned as if he had never spaced out. "Hey… you okay, Kagome?"
I gawked at him. "Inuyasha… repeat that one more time."
He stared at me like I was crazy, even though I was the one who was questioning his mental health.
"What the hell do you mean?" Inuyasha demanded.
"You called me Kagome," I said obstinately. "Again. Why?"
And then, very slowly, his grin spread across his face.
"As far as I knew, it was your name."
No. No….
It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible.
You couldn't really forget that you'd refused to call someone by their name for two weeks… could you?
Let me rephrase that—could he?
"Kagome," he said, smirking, "I think you might want to see a doctor. You've got a case of… what the hell is it called… amnesia?"
And then I caught on, and burst out laughing.
"You moron," I choked out, leaning against his shoulder. "I don't know what you're playing at, but you know what? I don't care. I don't care at all."
Inuyasha laughed also, wrapping an arm around my waist, holding me to his side. And in that moment I didn't care. I didn't care that we'd almost kissed, I didn't care that we'd almost died, I didn't care that somebody in the park had probably called to report a brawl on public property, and I didn't care that his hand was around my waist. I didn't even blush.
All I could think about was that Inuyasha had called me Kagome… and that he was pretending he had never even called me wench.
I can't explain that decision, but you know what? I don't care.
If that's how he wants it… I'll take it.
And I was still thinking about this incredible phenomenon when suddenly, it occurred to me that Inuyasha's arm was around my waist and we almost kissed.
Face burning up, I began to near Full Panic Mode on the Kago-meter.
So it was pretty good timing that a few seconds later, the cops showed up.
"Aw, shit," Inuyasha growled, stepping away from me, face as red as mine, looking anywhere but at me.
"I told you," I growled. "I told you."
"Fuck… uh… come on!"
I hadn't been prepared for the almost-kiss, I hadn't been prepared for the almost-panic it caused me, I hadn't been prepared for the cops, and I wasn't prepared when Inuyasha slung me and the baby doll over his shoulder.
"What—what are you—whaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?"
Inuyasha grumbled to himself about loud wenches as he took of in a full sprint, with me on his back, trying my hardest not to make myself look like anymore of an idiot than I already had. My eyes widened to the size of basketballs as I dared a glance over his shoulder—and immediately regretted it, seeing that we were jumping from rooftop to rooftop, several stories above the ground.
"Stop it. Stop it. STOP I—"
"You want to face the police instead?" Inuyasha growled.
"Maybe I was wrong," I moaned. "Maybe they're nice—they might understand if we talk it out with them—"
Inuyasha turned his head just enough so that I could see him quirk an eyebrow at me… and smirk.
"Kagome, if you think they'll understand the situation if we just 'talk it out with them,' then you're even crazier than I thought you were."
"CRAZY?" I retorted, voice cracking slightly due to the fact that Inuyasha had just jumped five stories and landed on the sidewalk without breaking the pace, eliciting many sidelong stares from nearby citizens of Tokyo. "I'm not—"
I cut myself off.
Who am I kidding?
And as if Inuyasha knew what I was thinking, he began to laugh. And something about that laugh made me laugh, too, and we kept laughing the whole way until we were far away from the park, until my fear of riding on his back was long dead… until we had come to a stop on a quiet street.
Choking out words through laughter, I managed, "That was… that was…."
"Awesome," Inuyasha finished, grinning widely.
"Yeah," I agreed. "Well, not the fighting part. But everything else. Everything else was…."
I blushed.
Inuyasha frowned at me. "What?" But as the frowned faded and was replaced by comprehension, he, too, blushed.
We were silent until the baby made a tiny sound.
"What the hell does it want now?" Inuyasha demanded, grimacing at the doll.
"Don't know," I said honestly. "It's not crying though. It's sort of… it's sort of…."
The baby made the sound again, and then, suddenly, I knew.
"She's laughing," I said, stunned. "She's laughing!"
And something about this made me smile. Something about this made me laugh, too. I was so preoccupied with our adorable plastic child that I almost didn't notice the strange look Inuyasha was giving me.
Almost.
"Hey, Kagome," he said. "It's just a baby doll."
"But she's laughing!" I cried, eyes alight.
My eyes glowed as I looked up at him, and I was almost taken aback by how this simple thing made me happy. Inuyasha frowned dubiously at me… but after a moment, even the creases on his forehead were smoothed by the baby's giggles, and he smiled.
Looking at her, I suddenly had the weird and disturbing feeling that she was laughing at us.
A/N: Review, guys! Love you all! …I have a feeling there's something I wanted to ask you, but I have no idea what it is, so… see you soon! REVIEW!
