Half Breed's Song
"I smell blood," Chiyumi's left ear twitched and she placed a hand on her side, "Lot's of blood," Ashi continued.
"Get a clue fox-boy," Inuyasha said disdainfully, "We're in a forest. Things get eaten in forests."
"Yeah well, they get pinned to trees with spelled arrows too," he shot back.
"Shut up you."
"You gonna make me?" Inuyasha swiped at him, Ashi dodged and crashed into Chiyumi who fell over, taking Ashi and Hoshi with her.
"Ow. Will you two cut it out? That hurt y'know!" Kagome extended a hand to the half-breed girl.
"You ok?" Chiyumi took it and stood up, "You're really pale."
"I'm ok," Chiyumi replied with what she hoped was a confident smile, "I'm still recovering a bit from last night. That demon got me good."
"Got you well," Ashi corrected, Chiyumi cuffed him.
"Listen to what you just said, does 'Got you well' even sound a little correct to you?"
"Do you need to stop?" Chiyumi raised a brow.
"Such brotherly affection doesn't usually come out of you Inuyasha-kun. Maybe it's you who needs a rest?"
"Camping does sound good," Miroku said, "If you half breeds weren't arguing you'd smell the rain in the air. It's coming and soon."
"Humans," Inuyasha said condescendingly. Chiyumi snickered as Ashi growled at them both. Shippo was prodding Hoshi, who had fallen asleep, "Kitsunes. I don't know which is worse," Inuyasha looked at Ashi evilly, "Oh wait a minute, a combination. That would be worse," Chiyumi was plowed over again as Ashi ran at Inuyasha. The larger half-breed kept Ashi at bay by placing a hand on the boy's forehead. The others burst into laughter. Chiyumi winced as a sharp pain appeared in her side. Inuyasha looked at her.
"Are you sure you're ok?"
"I'm fine, now leave me be Chibi-hanyou-kun."
"Chibi-hanyou-kun?" Kagome sounded as if she was trying very hard not to laugh, everyone else except Inuyasha was just laughing.
"Chiyumi has this annoying—"
"Adorable."
"—Annoying habit—"
"More of a quirk really."
"—Of attaching 'Chibi' and 'Kun' to everything."
"Don't worry," Chiyumi added, "You'll all be Chibi something's by the end of the week. Besides Inuyasha-kun, juts think of Sesshoumaru-sama's name if you don't like yours," Inuyasha began laughing and had to hold onto a tree to keep from falling.
"Ok, I'll ask," Kagome, said, "What's Sesshoumaru name?"
"Chibi-youkai-kun."
"Chibi-youkai-kun?" Shippo asked in total disbelief.
"Chibi-youkai-kun."
"And yet she's alive to say that she has called him that."
"Haven't you ever noticed that people act differently around certain people, Miroku-san?"
"Chiyumi has that effect on people," Inuyasha said, "She was accepted on both sides. Human and demon."
"Demon because I can fight better than most of them, human 'cause I'm so cute!" she flashed a peace sign and a bright smile as Inuyasha and Ashi rolled their eyes.
~*~*~*~*~*
"Yumi-chan! Psst! C'mere!" Chiyumi looked up at her brother's whisper. Everyone else was asleep or very close to it.
"What do you want?"
"C'mere. Whaddya sleepin' on the ground for anyway?" Chiyumi sighed and crouched, legs tensing for the jump, then leapt straight onto the branch where Inuyasha was sitting, "Why're you sleepin' down there?" he asked again.
"I don't want to fall out of the tree and aggravate the wound in my side."
"Liar. You've got better balance than anyone I know," Chiyumi sighed.
"It's Hoshi ok? She freaks out if I'm not near by and I told her that I'd spend the night right next to her. If she wakes up and I'm in the damn tree she's liable to break down right there and then."
"You're kiddin' right?"
"She's only six."
"So?"
"Whatever. If that's what you're going to be like then I'm leaving," she swung her legs over to one side of the branch in order to jump down.
"Wait, wait, wait."
"What?"
"Look, I just wanted to say that I'm glad I found you that's all. I missed you y'know?" Chiyumi smiled, warmed by this unexpected display of affection.
"Yeah. I know. I'm glad to," Inuyasha clasped her hand and gave it a squeeze, "Good night Chibi-hanyou-kun," she hopped down.
"Good night Chibi-Yume-Chan,"
I like when he's like that, Chiyumi thought as she drifted off to sleep, nothing makes me happier than random bursts of brotherly affection………
*~*~*~*~*~*
Ashi woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of someone having a nightmare. He was about to ignore it and go back to sleep when the strong smell of blood hit him. Looking up he saw Chiyumi toss and turn fretfully, the blood came from the long scratches she had inflected upon her stomach, apparently she was trying to get the bandage off her wound. All around her were small puddles of blood. Ashi crawled over and shook her.
"Wake up, you're making a mess of yourself. Hey!" he leapt back as she swiped at him, "Wake up!"
"What's going on?" Miroku asked, rubbing one eye with his hand.
"She's flippin' out," Miroku inched over and grabbed Chiyumi's arms.
"Get her legs or she'll kick you," whatever he thought of the situation, it didn't show on his face, "How long has she been like this?" Ashi shrugged, "Wake up Inuyasha, maybe he knows what's going on," Ashi nodded and backed out of Chiyumi's range of kicks.
"Inuyasha!" he whispered-shouted, "Wake up moron!" he picked up a small rock and hurtled it at the sleeping half-breed. The rock hit him but the only result was a twitching of Inuyasha's ear. Ashi picked up another rock when suddenly Chiyumi, still fast asleep, let out an earsplitting shriek. Inuyasha's eyes snapped open as he sat upright and fell off his branch.
"What the hell?!?" he sputtered.
"What's going on?" Kagome asked.
"Go back to sleep Lady Kagome," Miroku said pleasantly, "Chiyumi's just having a nightmare," just then she shrieked again, "A bad nightmare."
"Sounds worse than that," Kagome replied as Chiyumi shrieked a third time.
"What the hell did you do to her?" Inuyasha demanded.
"He didn't do anything!" Ashi snapped, "She woke me up that's all. She was…is flippin' out."
"Yeah I can see that. Why the hell is she bleedin' so much?"
"She scratched herself, she's still trying to scratch herself. I think there's something wrong with the sword wound she received from the demon. Is there a river we can clean her in?" Ashi bit his lip.
"I think so. It's not far from here. C'mon, I'll show you."
"I'll go too," Kagome started to get up.
"That's not necessary, Lady Kagome. Someone needs to stay with the kits."
"Oh, all right," she winced as Chiyumi let out another scream.
"I'd better go then," Inuyasha said, "There's no way you two can handle her if she should get violent."
The river that Ashi spoke of wasn't far from where they made their camp. It wasn't deep, nor did it flow very fast. In fact it was more like a bubbling brook than an actual river. Once there Miroku instructed Inuyasha to hold Chiyumi's arms straight above he head and Ashi to hold out her legs so that she had little room to struggle once she was in the water.
"You'll have to forgive me for this," Miroku murmured to the girl as he began to cut through Kagome's shirt.
"Don't worry," Ashi told him, "She can probably sew Kagome a new one," the bandages were half torn off and Miroku cut them too. The wound underneath bled profusely, though it didn't look infected.
"Chiyumi…that's why she wanted to barrow the shirt. She didn't want anyone to worry. I guess the pain she must have been feeling finally got to her," Inuyasha said softly, Chiyumi shrieked again when Miroku began pouring water from his cupped hands onto the wound.
"There's no reason she should have this kind of pain," he said as he washed the gash, "Nor should it bleed this much. Something tells me that there's more than this then we can see," Chiyumi had quieted down.
"I don't make sense though," Ashi said.
"Doesn't. Doesn't make sense," Chiyumi whispered, half asleep still.
"Chiyumi? Can you hear us?"
"Yes, you're only just above me," she replied softly.
"Do you know why this is happening?" Inuyasha asked. Chiyumi opened her eyes.
"No. I have no idea. Please make it stop…it hurts so much."
"I know," Chiyumi smiled peacefully.
"It feels like being stabbed, over, and over, and over…" her head dropped to the side as she fell back asleep.