Title: Hues of Violet and Blue
By: HalcyonMoments11
Rated: T (to be safe.)
Pairing: Miroku/Kagome
Drabble Summary: In which Miroku ponders the many ways Kagome says "I love you." Cannon Divergent
A/N: Because this pairing needs a bit more love, here's a collection of Mir/Kag drabbles. This collection began as an idea I got from an iTunes shuffle story, which asked for 10 short drabbles based on or inspired by 10 songs. While several stories are inspired by music, not all of them will be. They may or may not have a connection to each other, and may take place in cannon universe or AU. I hope you all enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any of the lyrics/songs used in this story.
"Talking."
'Thoughts'
Flashbacks/Dreams/Lyrics.
6: Gravity - Canon Divergent Universe
The first time Kagome tells Miroku she loves him, she is laughing so hard she can barely breathe. He does not recall what he has said or done to draw such mirth from the blue eyed woman before him, but he recalls the way the words seem to echo inside him, steal his breath, rattle his bones.
"I love you, Miroku."
"W-what, Kagome-sama?"
She stills quickly, eyes wide and almost panicked, a deep flush spreading across her face as her hands shoot up to cover her lips as if trying to muffle words that have already tumbled forth.
"Oh! I-I… I'm sorry Miroku-sama! T-that's a more widely used expression in my time. We use it for more than… t-to express delight and amicability between friends. I-I didn't think…"
Miroku blushes then, embarrassed that he has allowed her words and her presence to impact him so thoroughly. He ignores the despondency that settles in.
"Ah, yes, of course Kagome-sama." He offers her the most winsome smile he can muster, hopes she is too distracted to see. "I cherish our friendship as well."
The second time Kagome tells the monk she loves him, she is cradled in his arms and under some sort of sleeping spell. She has been captured and has had this spell cast upon her because of him, because of his philandering, his seemingly insatiable allure when it comes to beautiful women, which led him into a trap by a demoness seeking the Shikon no Kakera.
Somehow, he has found her and she is intact, her powers instinctively having formed a barrier around her to protect her and the Shikon no Tama for the time being. She is beautiful even in her sleep, the light about her making her look effortlessly serene and stunning. He takes a breath, prods the barrier gently with a cautious hand and it lets him in, envelops him in its sharp purity and warmth, bringing goosebumps to his skin below layers of robes. She stirs when he presses a hand to her cheek, delicately brushes strands of her hair out of her face. Blue eyes blink open slowly, take him in drowsily.
"Miroku-sama?" Her voice is gravely with sleep.
He smiles gently, whispers "Yes, I'm here."
She reaches for him and he pulls her to him, bracing an arm beneath her knees, one around her shoulders as he lifts her into his arms. She breaths in deeply as he does, turns her head into the crook of his neck. He ignores the way his skin tingles as her hot breath disperses across his skin.
Her fingers tangle in his kesu as he moves quickly and quietly through the youkai's fortress, praying to Buddah, to the Kami, to whoever will listen, that they make it out without detection.
He doesn't have time to think about the sleep induced words that tumble from her lips in that moment, or the way his heart seems to skip a beat when they do, but they linger with him for weeks after they escape the demoness that night.
Lips brushing his neck where her face is tucked against him, she smiles and mutters "Love you."
And she must be dreaming, and certainly not of him, but his violet eyes glance down at her beseechingly anyway, arms tightening their hold.
The third time Kagome tells him she loves him she is flushed with excitement and her reiki lingers around them in an enticing flourish of warmth and clarity, having just successfully summoned a barrier and expelled it, billowing over him and swirling around him in ways that he has never felt her power before, pulling a shuddering breath from his lips.
They had been training periodically since escaping the youkai's fortress, seeking to hone her priestess capabilities beyond what she could call forth for her arrows, for her travels through the well. Miroku had known that she was powerful, to be able to muster such techniques instinctively throughout their journeys, but had not realized just how strong she was until they had started training. He had never anticipated that her reiki would affect him so, that it would draw him in, hold him until he was craving more.
Her blue eyes are wide with wonder, cheeks flushed elatedly and she is moving toward him across the small clearing they had settled in to train away from their companions. "I did it!" she exclaims, her hands squeezing his and then trailing up his arms before wrapping around his neck to pull him into a hug.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
His arms wrap instinctively around her, pull her closer until she is pressed flush against him. He startles when she presses her lips to his cheek, tucks her face back into the crook of his neck, whispers "Oh, I love you," in a rushed breath against his skin.
He can't breathe. She stills against him, realizing what she has said, pulls away from him slightly, hand over her lips in a gesture he's slowly, heartbreakingly becoming familiar with.
"I suppose those words are also used to express gratitude in your time, Kagome-sama?" He asks, tries to apply a teasing edge to his voice. Knows he fails. Hopes she can't tell.
Kagome nods slowly, blue eyes meeting his violet.
He chuckles ruefully. "You have such strange customs in your time."
Miroku doesn't realize he's counting the ways Kagome tells him she loves him until he's taking note of the ways she tells him without words.
When he is curious she lets him take her textbooks from her hands, ask her questions, share his own knowledge. Occasionally, by firelight, when their hanyou companion follows the call of the shinidamachuu, she shows him how her sadness sets in, lets the weight of it rest against him as he draws her into his arms. When he questions his own attentiveness to the taijiya, she supports him, offers him encouraging words, small smiles of recognition. When he needs to see past the cruelty of the world she shows him grace in the form of motherly love for Shippō, sisterly concern for Sango, friendly banter with Inuyasha, hushed companionship for him. Sometimes, when the weight of the kazaana takes hold, and the others do not notice, she offers her observations of his weariness with tenderness, she sees through his façade of bravado and offers him moments where fragility is welcome. When he is injured she monitors his healing, her hands lingering to check for infection, for fever, for self-assurance, and when he reaches back, entwines his fingers in hers, she lets him. Sometimes, when he flirts she teases back, bestowing him with coquettish smiles, winks, a breathtaking flush of her reiki against his whenever she is near. And there are times when she recognizes his philandering as longing, takes his wandering hands in hers to offer something to hold.
He feels how he is being consumed by her, he knows that with every small offering he is falling. He knows the gravity of it all, of these moments, of her.
But he cannot stop.
The first time Miroku tells Kagome he loves her they have all just witnessed what a break in the kazaana can cause, how close he is to the edge of oblivion.
In the midst of a battle with a hoard of youkai—one of many they have faced as they close in on Naraku—the edges of his kazaana tore, expanded just enough to make him fear this was his end. As it tore his flesh, his sanity, it ravaged the earth around them, consuming anything and everything in its path. In his fear—his certainty that this was the end—he couldn't move, couldn't stop how viciously it devoured.
Kagome had fought her way to him, stumbled into his back, wrapped her arms and reiki around him desperately, pleading for him to stop, to snap out of it. She took his hand in hers, curled her fingers around his, forced them closed, wrapped his prayer beads around his wrist as she had seen him do hundreds of times before.
Her breath fell in a shudder in the silence around them as she fell to her knees with him, his hand still cradled against her chest. He turned dazed violet eyes to her then, barely hearing the way she repeated "It's going to be okay. You're ok."
Tears fall from her blue eyes as she pulls him closer, brings her hands up to his face, brushing tears he hadn't felt fall away with her thumbs. His hands move of their own accord, echo her movements, move back into her hair as he braces his forehead against hers and closes his eyes, breathes.
"Say something, Miroku," she pleads, her hot breath on his lips.
"I love you," he chokes out hoarsely. And of course the meanings she has taught him are all there—gratitude, kindness, affection, devotion, hope—but he means it in the only way he cannot quite convince himself he's heard from her. He means these words with all the passion and warmth and intimacy they can imbue.
He hears her breath hitch, opens his eyes to meet her gaze.
"I love you," he says again and surges forward, lips claiming hers in searing kiss, worries, consequences, fears be damned. They'd deal with what this means for their companions, for the days to come when they stumbled upon and fought Naraku for the final time, for what happens after the battle and the Shikon no Tama is complete whenever those moments presented themselves.
In this moment, lips crushed against hers, hands tangled in her hair, she is all that matters. And when she leans in, presses back, he lets himself fall into her, the only kind of gravity that can steady him now.
I live here on my knees as I try to make you see.
That you're everything I think I need here on the ground.
But you're neither friend nor foe though I can't seem to let you go,
The one thing that I still know is that you're keeping me down.
You're keeping me down.
You're on to me, on to me, and all over.
Something always brings me back to you;
It never takes too long.
-Sara Bareilles (Gravity)
Vocabulary: sama - term of respect; Shikon no Tama - Shikon Jewel; Shikon no Kakera - shards; kazaana - wind tunnel; shinidamachuu - soul stealers; youkai - demon; kesu - outter robes
Word Count: 1,628
A/N: I've had the first line in my head for a long time. I hope you enjoyed it! Please review? -HM11