A/N: 'BESO' means 'kiss' in Spanish. fyi.
It was nearly dawn.
The cool stillness of the night had started to give way to the early morning rustling that whispered the coming of the sun. And Inuyasha sat in the exact same spot that he'd been in since they arrived - with his back turned to the hut that housed Kagome, distanced enough not to hear her sighs or moans, but close enough to keep an eye on that accursed wolf prince, who insisted on staying.
The thought of his rival made rage course through his veins. Pompous, self-important prick always acting like he was entitled to Kagome's affections… And to show up now, of all times, when Inuyasha's feelings towards her were finally clear, making things so much more difficult. When he'd seen Kouga hovering there, outside Kagome's tent, he nearly went berserk in a territorial frenzy.
But Kaede had intervened, holding Kagome's well-being over their heads. She scolded them both scathingly, saying that now wasn't the time for petty bickering.
Hn. Bickering, he grumbled inwardly. As though he'd just planned on insulting Kouga to death. Inuyasha rolled his eyes. The only real reason he hadn't killed the bloody youkai yet was because Kagome would throw a fit.
He winced at her name. Kagome… For the hundredth time since it happened, he was bombarded with another crystal clear recollection of what had transpired between them, complete with smell, taste, feel… On cue, he dug his claw into the flesh of his side, right next to a dozen other holes he'd given himself so far this night, until the visuals stopped.
He didn't have any more right to remember them than Kouga had to stake a claim to Kagome's heart. It's not like she'd given either of them permission. He shook his head and sighed heavily, wishing for the days when his life was less complicated.
"Inuyasha."
He jumped and turned to see Miroku standing over his hunched form. "Idiot!" he barked on reflex. Whether it was at the monk for sneaking up on him or at himself for not detecting his friend's approach, he was unsure. Either way, it was appropriate.
Miroku's dark robe crumpled as he plunked down beside the hanyou, picking absently at the grass. Inuyasha watched him through narrowed eyes. The monk's expression would have seemed blank to anyone else, but Inuyasha had spent enough time with him to know when he was trying to mask his concern.
Several awkward seconds passed, until the hanyou couldn't take it anymore. "Keh! Wipe that pitiful expression off your face, Miroku. Save it for-"
"She came on to you, didn't she?"
Shocked silence.
Miroku finally lifted his gaze, and stared at him knowingly - disturbingly perceptive for such a deceptively innocent face. It occurred to Inuyasha that the monk had every awareness of hitting a sore point dead on. Damn him. This whole 'friend' thing was more trouble than it was worth, sometimes.
Inuyasha opened his mouth to deny it. It's not like it was any of the monk's business. But instead of his customary rebuttal, he found himself sighing defeat. Wordlessly, he curled further into himself.
A solid hand clasped his shoulder. "How far did she get before you knew…?"
How could he answer that? Far enough to make him realize that she meant more to him than breath? Or not so far in that she still had her virtue? He chose the second one, and phrased it with his usual bite.
"Not as far as you would have let her get, lech."
Inoculated to such insults - after all, they were true - Miroku's expression didn't waver. He hadn't even flinched. Then Inuyasha perked in alarm. His hand snaked out and grabbed a fistful of Miroku's robes. "Not a word, understand? Tell no one."
His eyes widened marginally. "You mean you're not going to tell her?"
"I didn't say that!"
"Didn't say what?" Kouga's irritating voice came from behind them. Inuyasha spun around to catch the wolf prince glaring at him suspiciously. "You're hiding something, hanyou," he seethed, "and I swear by my ancestors that if you so much as harmed-"
Tetsusaiga was unsheathed and swinging before Inuyasha thought to restrain himself. Kouga hissed and jumped back.
"KAZE NO KI-"
"Inuyashaaaa!"
He froze, mid-swing. Kagome?
"SIT!"
"Gah!" His charmed necklace yanked him down ruthlessly, slamming his face unceremoniously in the dirt. Grunting, he winked an eye open at the hut. She was still inside, but must have heard him. Damn girl. Always interfering.
Then he opened both eyes and sat up. Kaede must have countered the spell if she was able to bark out that stupid command. Then Shippo came bouncing out of the hut, his tail wagging behind him. He looked exhilarated. "Miroku! Kaede wants you in here!" he chimed cheerily.
Miroku stood eagerly. "Me?"
Earlier offenses forgotten, both Inuyasha and Kouga frowned. "HIM?"
"Hai!"
Inuyasha's lip curled in a nasty snarl as he watched the horny monk saunter over to the hut. He growled, the sound unexpectedly hitting his ears in stereo. Disoriented, he looked over to Kouga who was projecting the same noise.
They both jogged over to the perimeter of the hut to listen intently to what was transpiring inside. Miroku's melodious voice leaked through the bamboo walls.
"Kagome-sama, will you have my child?"
A pause. "Eh?"
Another pause, followed by the sound of shifting material.
A scream.
"Ah, wait! No! No! Kagome! They told me to-AYIEE!"
SMACK!
Miroku stumbled out, his brow drawn in acute aggravation. The entire left side of his face was reddened, and swelling rapidly. With a disgruntled sigh, he mumbled, "You can go in now. She's back to normal."
Kagome huffed as she watched the monk walk out. "Why did he have to fondle me?"
The old woman patted her shoulder consolingly. "We had to make sure the spell was broken, dear."
"What spell?" she asked in growing alarm, noticing that she was attired in little more than Inuyasha's red armor. "And where are my clothes?"
Sango leaned forward, her brows drawn in the center. Still sternly pretty, she looked haggard, as though she'd been awake all night. "You don't remember, Kagome?"
"Remember what?"
"KAGOME!"
"KAGOME!"
She jumped as a very animated Kouga broke into the room, followed by an equally livened Inuyasha. Kouga fell at her side in an instant, cradling her hand in both of his. The sound of Inuyasha's gritting teeth filled the room, and the hanyou looked for a moment like he was about to explode. Then, as though reminding himself why he was there, his slitted gaze shifted back to Kagome, and widened with palpable concern.
She shied away from Kouga's attention, and eyed them all squarely. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"Ah. She doesn't remember," Kaede said quietly. "Perhaps it is for the best."
"You were abducted!" Shippo cried, materializing out of nowhere and latching on to her shirt. "An evil necromancer took you away to make you his wife!"
Kagome stared down at his amber head, and petted it absently. Abducted? She frowned in consternation, trying to recall… Then she covered her mouth with a worried hand as she remembered. A gnarly wretch of a wizard, who smelled of decay and potions had grabbed her. She shuddered as the memory of his maniacal cackle filled her ears.
"But fortunately, Inuyasha was able to penetrate the wizard's portal, and rescue you," Sango explained. "And Kaede was able to break the spell he cast on you."
The spell? Her last memory was a hazy one, of a stale room, and a foggy substance. Kagome looked up in question at Inuyasha, and froze. The look on his face stole her breath. So conflicted, pained… So not him. "What is it, Inuyasha?"
He startled as though she'd caught him torturing a cat, and broke the eye contact. "Feh. Nothing."
Kouga's grip on her hand tightened abruptly as his anger flared. He turned and fumed at the hanyou. "Nothing, indeed. How could you let her get carried away to begin with?"
Inuyasha's face snapped up and opened in appall, his jaw trembling with a hundred angry retorts that frothed at his tongue.
In his muted fury, Sango spoke up. "The necromancer was incredibly fast, Kouga. We did everything we could-"
"Hn. I could have caught him," Kouga said - something that was probably true. Kouga was nothing, if not fast. Kagome watched nervously as Inuyasha's face turned five shades of red.
"ASS! That's only because you have those cheats imbedded in your legs!" he yelled. "Your true strength is laughable without the Shikon shards!"
"Then I'll remove them right now and we'll settle this once and for-"
Kagome yanked on Kouga's hand, tugging him back away from Inuyasha. It broke the tension as he looked back at her, his elven features softening.
"Enough," she reprimanded.
Inuyasha seethed for a couple more seconds, nonplussed at Kouga's close proximity to her, and then spun his back to them and stormed out. She sighed and shook her head.
"Forget about him," Kouga said abruptly, his slanted cerulean eyes intense…sincere. "Come back with me, Kagome. I can protect you."
His gaze was so unwavering, she found herself struggling to say 'no'. "But…but we have to find the Shikon shards, Kouga-kun."
He pursed his lips, his eyes shimmering with admiration. He looked like he wanted to embrace her, and she tensed in anticipation, but instead he bowed his head respectfully, his obsidian tresses flopping over his shoulder and into her lap.
"So brave and so beautiful," he whispered.
Kagome felt her cheeks heat up. He was always so forward with her. She still couldn't figure out exactly what she'd done to make him so enamored.
"Very well."
She gasped as he lifted her hand to his face and kissed the underside of her wrist. It made her entire arm tingle. A confident smile curled his lips, and he stood. "I'm relieved you are well. I must return to my people for now." He turned to walk out and paused in the doorway. "Be safe, Kagome."
Wide-eyed and bashful in the wake of his advances, all she could do was nod. With a final wink, he took off, the sound of his departure whirring in the hut like a dying sand devil.
"You know," Sango mused, her cheeks nearly as flushed as Kagome's. "He is charming."
"And cute," Kaede added, and even Shippo swiveled his head in the old woman's direction. There was just something disturbing about the elderly commenting on the beauty of youth. "If that Inuyasha doesn't pull his head out of his ass, then it wouldn't hurt to consider the wolf prince's affections."
Kagome clenched her fists. Why did they all talk about her love life as though she had one? As though her prospects or lack thereof could possibly take precedent over finding the missing Shikon shards? She opened her mouth to retort when a derisive, 'Keh!' sounded through the walls of the hut. It was followed by the rapid patter of bare feet as they trailed off into the woods.
Inuyasha. He'd heard them.
Kagome rolled her eyes and smacked the heel of her palm to her forehead. That darn hanyou spent more time brooding over insignificant matters than any girl she knew. She thought about chasing him down to put out yet another fire he wouldn't admit was blazing, but decided that she'd let him cool off first. Besdies, she suddenly realized how exhausted she was.
Knowing Inuyasha, she was sure the necromancer was now continuing his practice in hell. She felt safe. Setting Shippo on the floor, Kagome leaned back heavily on the sleeping pad.
Sango obligingly placed a blanket atop her, and she snuggled under it. She would sleep for now, and deal with Inuyasha later.
It was dusk when she finally found him, sitting at the base of the tree. The one that had survived centuries, still standing in her own time…the one that he'd been sealed to for fifty years by Kikyo.
The rust-colored sky cast a shadowy, orange haze over his slumped form, tingeing his white shirt copper, and reflecting off his silver mane in small prisms of amber light. He almost looked statuesque, surreal, like the time she'd first seen him impaled to that very trunk. For some reason it made her knees weak, and on her next step she stumbled.
He startled at the noise, his wide golden eyes fixing on her in alarm. He hadn't heard her approach, giving her the impression that more than just petty things were on the hanyou's mind.
"There you are, Inuyasha!" she said, shrugging off her unease, taking comfort in the pacifying items she brought with her - his heavy, red shirt and assorted goodies from home stashed away in her backpack. "I've been looking for you all afternoon."
No snide remark. No habitual scowl. But his brows raised marginally, as though...distressed, at her presence?
How odd... "What's with the face?"
He blinked and averted his eyes, a dim remnant of his former self creasing his brow in projected aggravation. "Hn. What face?"
Perplexed, she strode up to him and stood at his feet. To her shock, he recoiled from her, curling his legs inward. The reaction didn't seem out of anger, so much as reflex. As though she were a poisonous cloud.
Nani? After several moments of strained silence, she crouched down over him, bowing her head to lure his eyes upwards. He gasped at the sudden proximity and scooted back…or rather, he tried to but the tree was in his way. He was cornered. She saw a fleeting expression of anxiety...inner conflict cross his visage. His breathing sped up and she could see the heart palpitations in his chest through the open neckline of his shirt.
She blinked. My word. He looks terrified...
Then, with no more warning than a frenzied glint in his eye, he sprung to the left, and stood to his feet. "Gah! You're so invasive, Kagome!" He snarled as he spun his back to her, crossing his arms.
She gawked, and an edgy silence passed between them. Getting her bearings, she got on her feet. "What's going on, Inuyasha? You're acting as though you're allergic to me..."
He flinched but didn't turn around. "I'm not…You're imagining things. I was just meditating is all."
He was tense. Unbelievably tense, and she thought it wouldn't have surprised her any if he suddenly bolted. She brought out her backpack for reinforcements and deliberately crumpled the potato chip bag, waiting for his ears to twitch at the sound.
"Well, I brought you some things," she said disarmingly, hoping to calm him down so they could talk. "Your shirt and some of your favorite goodies..." she held them out, waiting for him to turn and snatch the items from her and inhale the chips in his usual three swallows.
He fidgeted, bounced on the balls of his heels, but refused to face her. "You can leave them."
"Leave them?" Oi, he was acting so strange! "Listen, Inuyasha, about Kouga-"
"I don't care about him."
Yeah, right. "I wasn't flirting with him," she explained, wondering as usual why Inuyasha always acted so jealous when his heart belonged to someone else. It didn't make sense. But she went through the usual routine of reminding him where her affections didn't lie, anyways, as it usually made him relax. "And I don't have any intention of becoming his woman."
"I said I don't care about him."
Funny. She actually believed him this time. Then what was it? "Why won't you tell me what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wro-"
Her patience waning, she yanked his arm and whirled him around. His eyes met her face briefly in surprise, and then he clenched them tightly as though afraid she'd turn him to stone.
"My word, Inuyasha. You can't even look at me!"
His face scrunched and she could tell he was trying to prove her wrong, but he just ended up hanging his head until his thick bangs shadowed his downcast eyes. He moved to get away, but she twisted her fists in the neck of his shirt and pulled him back. This was getting absurd.
"Inuyasha!"
Tugging his bottom lip inbetween his teeth, he reluctantly met her eyes, his demeanor softening almost immediately. His brows were knotted in the center, his face flushed, and his eyes - those large, expressive eyes were shimmering…pained.
She suddenly understood why he didn't want her to see him. Whatever strength he relied on to keep up all those emotional barriers was depleted, and he couldn't hide his feelings from her. At all.
And Inuyasha looked more than just distressed. He looked vulnerable.
Her eyes stung, and she impulsively embraced him, burying her face in his chest. She heard his quick intake of breath, and waited for the absolute rigidity of his body to soften like it usually did when she hugged him. "I've never seen you like this," she whispered, her next words coming out in a tumble. "What happened? You were fine when I returned from my time, and you say it has nothing to do with Kouga, so what transpired between…" She stopped and blinked hugely as the knowledge hit her. "The necromancer!"
He flinched. She clutched at his shirt, and looked up in his creased face. "He did something, didn't he?" she asked, her pitch rising. "Something bad."
He didn't deny it, and the three seconds it took him to respond was all the confirmation she needed. The tears seemed to materialize out of nowhere and roll down her cheeks in warm, wet lines. She shook him.
"What did he do to me, Inuyasha?" she hissed, abruptly bombarded with nasty visuals of that stinking crazed wizard and her unconscious body. "What did he do to me that was so awful, you can't even stomach my presence, anymore?"
That broke him. She suddenly found herself wrapped up in his half demon arms, nearly crushed within his fierce embrace.
"Kagome-"
A quick sob escaped her lips and she closed her eyes. "He...he violated me, didn't he..."
"Idiot," he hissed in her hair. His voice wavered, choked with emotion. "You should know I wouldn't have let him lay a finger on you…"
She sniffed. "Then what...?"
Goosebumps unexpectedly raised on her arms as he turned his face inward. She felt the heat of his next words on her ear. "It was the spell," he breathed. "You...we..."
He inhaled deeply, and she realized that he was sniffing her hair. And with the response it elicited in her body, she thought he could sniff her hair for the rest of the day and she wouldn't particularly mind. It was a confusing, contradicting sensation to the panic and confusion she was feeling. "What are you trying to say?"
"When I look at you, I...remember..." He took a deep breath and tried again. "I...I want to..." With a quick, frustrated growl, he disentangled one of his arms and combed his fingers through her thick, raven hair, tilting her tear-streaked face upwards.
"Kagome," he breathed desperately, his gaze trailing back and forth between her lips and her eyes. "What do you feel for me?"
It caught her so off guard, she just blinked mutely, winded by his intensity. It was a good thing his other arm was bracketed around the small of her back, because his gaze seemed to suck the strength right out of her legs.
She was abruptly aware of every part of her that was touching him...every heated fold of cloth between them, every indentation in her skin from where he was gripping her... And she knew, without needing it spelled out that he wanted more than just the generic I-care-for-you answer.
Inuyasha wanted her to put her whole heart out on the table.
Kagome found herself tongue-tied. It was difficult to concentrate on much of anything when his mouth was just a couple inches from her own. It gave her the impression that if she answered the question just right, he'd close the distance between them and kiss her.
"In…Inuyasha," she whispered, inebriated with his warmth, his breath, his gaze, his touch…
"I…"