Hehe... sleepy hanyou goodness.=^-^= He's so cute! Oh, and for the Kikyo lovers, there's a remark in here you may not like.^_~ You have been warned! Lol
Merith- I totally know what you mean. Kouga's a sweetie and all, but he had to go. Sorry Kouga fans! Oh, by the way, be prepared for a special mention in the next chapter.^_~*
Venus Aeternus- All I have to say is that you hit the nail right smack dab on the head! I had finished the chapter mid wed. and saw you're comment around midnight.^_^; lol But yeah, you'll see what I mean.^_~
Acorngirl- You know I love ya, and it's great to have ya back!^_^ Yeah, I know he was a little OOC, but I'm allowed to do that sometimes right?^_^; lol
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any of the characters in it. If I did I'd be rich, but I'm not... and if I had lots of money I'd probably spend it on anime anyway so pleeaasseee, don't sue me.^_^ lol
Oh, and as always,
_= thoughts *_* = sound/ italicized "_" = speech
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Memories of the Present
Chapter 21: Sleepy Puppy and the Confrontation
"... NOW!"
Wow, this is WAY too fun to be healthy!
With the stealth of a demon, Inu Yasha tracked down Kagome. Of course, he knew that she knew how to get back to camp, and he knew that he could catch her easily, but why spoil the fun? Swiftly and easily, he herded her like a flock of sheep. Whenever she would turn towards camp, he'd call from that direction, making her run the other way. He was having WAY too much fun for his own good, and soon the temptation to catch her was beginning to overwhelm him. His demon blood began to stir to life with the thrill of this chase and, as Kagome began to get tired, she stopped and used the last of her strength to climb into the higher branches of a tree.
He'd never suspect that I'd climb up this high!, she thought triumphantly. Unfortunately for her, he was one step ahead of her.
"Boo."
"AHH!!!" She screamed and jumped, slipping off of the branch only to be caught by an extremely playful hanyou.
He set her back on the branch, facing him this time, and smirked. "Scared you?" Surprise turning to anger, she clenched her fists and, before she could think about what she was doing, did the one thing that would probably be bad in this situation, "SIT!"
Oh, how ready he was for that! Right before that accursed word escaped her mouth, he had picked her up and dropped down to the ground. When the word finally came, he was forced to fall on top of her, pinning her to the cold, damp soil.
Furious, her face turned beet red and her knuckles white. Hair was in her face, but she couldn't move it and made a lame attempt to blow it out of the way instead. Chuckling, Inu Yasha carefully took a claw and moved it for her. She huffed irritably, but even when the spell wore off he refused to move.
"Wanna try that again?" His grin spread from ear to ear as his golden eyes twinkled in mischievous delight.
Oh yeah, she was PISSED, but one look up into his grinning face and she couldn't help but smile. It was rare when she saw him this happy, and she really didn't want to ruin it. Suddenly, she got an idea. Slyly, she looked up at him, taking a lock of his hair between her fingers. She twirled the snowy white strands and wove them around one fingertip innocently; giving her best puppy-eyed, cute look, she feigned a slight confusion, "And what if I do?"
His eyes grew wide and he blushed fiercely. In a desperate attempt to hide it, he sat up to turn away, letting down his guard, and giving Kagome ample opportunity to take advantage of this situation. In one swift, strategic move, she slid out from beneath him and made a mad dash towards the first light she saw; Kagome could feel him gaining on her and could hear him chuckle slightly at the new development in their chase. The hanyou had maybe a minute before she was there, but could he catch up?
"Okay houshi-sama, one minute more and I win the bet! What color string do you want your bell on, pink or *baby* blue?"
"Be patient Sango-chan."
"Got'cha! Muahaha!" Inu Yasha and Kagome came rolling across the campsite, almost out of thin air.
"Time!" Sango looks up, "Oh no."
"Oh Saaangoooo..."
"Oh, no no no no no no no no no no..."
Kagome, noticing where they were, shouted, "Ha! I made it here before you caught me!"
"Want to bet?" He growled softly and brought his face nose to nose with hers. She squealed and squirmed beneath him as he laughed almost huskily and tightened his grip. Suddenly, she stopped and looked to Sango who had just paused and looked at them. Inu Yasha and Miroku turned and found themselves each staring at the other.
With all if the red in the clearing, one would think a fire was burning uncontrollably in the wilderness, and in a way, it was. Everyone had a stubborn blush they simply could not get rid of! (like a stubborn stain, you know?) Miroku and Inu Yasha both jumped back, smacking their heads against trees on the opposite sides of the camp site. Sango and Kagome just stopped, looked at each other, and then turned away quickly.
Being so used to head trauma, the houshi was the first to speak. "So Sango, I won." He beamed proudly.
Kagome looked over, "Won what?"
Grumbling, Sango sat up and faced Miroku, face burning and promise of death in her eyes if he even DARED to do something to set it off. "Fine, a bet is a bet, but two things are going to be made clear. First, I said I'd do it, but I never, *NEVER* said I'd have to be happy about it! Second," she raised her hand and gave Miroku the biggest slap in his life, causing him to fall over backwards and skid a few feet.
"OOWww... Sango, what was that for?," Miroku whined.
"That was for the perverted things you're going to do after this."
"But that's not fair...ah, ah, ah, a, a,..." Sango had him by the ear and was tugging him back over to his sleeping bag.
"Let's get this over with."
Kagome looked to Inu Yasha, but he just shrugged and looked back at the two. Both of their eyes burst open when they saw Sango give Miroku a small peck on the cheek, and Kagome thought her heart had collapsed. She fell over, gasping and the monk drifted around, floating in a dreamy, perverted way with an expression of pure lecherous bliss etched into his features the entire time; not that you could tell through the grin of course. Sango, on the other hand, was a different matter. She looked more like a pissed off Inu Yasha than anything else, and, when someone was about to speak, sent a death glare that could kill Kikyo herself! (and you know how hard THAT is to do!)
Inu Yasha placed himself protectively between Kagome and Sango, a clawed hand on Tetsussaiga's hilt, but then opted for hiding behind her instead. Sure, it was embarrassing, but at least he'd live, and Kagome could take care of Sango better than he could anyway. Kagome just shook her head, and turned back to Sango, cringing slightly when she saw Miroku float back down to Earth and pull his sleeping bag next to the demon hunter's. Oh, he was dead this time for sure.
Of course, when Sango was about to hit him, he "tisk"ed at her, waving his finger in front of her face. The normally correctional behavior, it seems, is nothing without the look however, as Sango was about to beat his grinning face until he had no head left to grin with. (probably in both areas.~_~; ouch...) This was effectively stopped when Miroku reminded her of the other half of the bet she had lost, and she promptly curled up in her sleeping bag, making sure to face as far away from Miroku as she could, and attempting to get some well needed rest. This was completely impossible, of course, when sleeping next to a pervert, but what else could she do? Miroku, still grinning like an idiot, went to bed as well, and Inu Yasha climbed into the nearest tree and pretended to sleep.
Kagome shook her head and sighed; it was WAY too late for this. She'd deal with it when she woke up. Curling into her own bag, she found that Shippou was already asleep inside. She cuddled up against him, moving him slightly so she could snuggle in, and quickly dozed off into a peaceful slumber. Of course, that was not to last long.
Sometime during the night, Inu Yasha had managed to fall out of the tree and roll over to Kagome's bag. She awoke to a soft whimpering and found Inu Yasha lying there, leg kicking in the air, whimpering like a scared puppy; she couldn't help but laugh. Suppressing her giggles, she bent over and began to gently massage his furry little ears. A soft growl emanated from his chest, reminding Kagome of a purring cat. As she moved her massage to the base of his ear, his "purring" got louder and he nuzzled her hand, licking her wrist as he did so. After seeing this, she had to bite her lip to keep from giggling.
Okay, she had to do it, there was no way around this one; moving slowly, as not to wake him up, she began to rub his stomach through his haori. He stopped whimpering and rolled over on his back to expose a little bit more stomach for her to rub, but upon doing so, rolled over onto an incredibly uncomfortable rock. She jumped, startled, and almost screamed as a hand sharply wrapped itself around her wrist. Looking down, Inu Yasha had one eye on her, face EXTREMELY irritated; she gulped.
"And WHAT do you think you're DOING?!," he ground out, not wanting to wake the others, lest he be caught in a potentially embarrassing situation.
"I...um...you rolled over and..." He scowled at her and she lost all traces of any voice she had once had. Mumbling something she couldn't hear, he picked her up and tucked her back into her sleeping bag before jumping back up into his tree and mumbling something about stupid humans and not touching his ears.
She watched him fidget slightly on his branch and yawn a one-eyed, incredibly canine yawn, before rolling over and covering her suppressed giggles with the top of her sleeping bag. She soon fell asleep with thoughts of fuzzy ears and sleepy hanyou running through her head.
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During the next few days, not much happened. Miroku had decided to be more "friendly" towards Sango at first, but after suffering her wrath once, he decided to lay off a little and was a good boy, much to Sango's delight. They became just that much closer without him groping her, but she knew it wouldn't last forever and was determined to enjoy it while she could. Kagome spent the days remembering when she was scratching Inu Yasha's ears; he was so cute! Now, if only he'd let her brush his hair...
Inu Yasha spent his time avoiding Kagome's eventual realization that he'd been watching her even more than before since that night, and just daydreaming in general. Shippou did his best not to get in the way and stayed with Kagome for the most part, watching her giggle occasionally for seemingly no reason at all. There were no demon attacks, no shards to hunt, no annoying wolves, and no hot springs to gossip in; needless to say, it was pretty peaceful.
They had arrived at Kaede's village after dark, much too late to do much of anything but sleep. Without even eating dinner, they did just that, slept. The morning, however, was beginning to prove to be much more difficult. With morning came breakfast, with breakfast came no news on the condition of the shards, and with all of the traveling and silence lately, there was only one solution for two nervous and dirty members of the group, hot springs.
"Kagome, come on!," Sango shouted, waving to Kagome to hurry up.
"Coming!" She grabbed her supplies and, making sure Inu Yasha was watching Miroku, set off to go have some gossip time with her best friend.
After making one too many perverted remarks, Miroku had been knocked out, where he'd stay for a good hour still. Shippou was asleep after finding Kagome's candy stash and making himself sick, and Kaede was off visiting the villagers, all pointing to one thing, a VERY bored hanyou. Inu Yasha jumped up into the higher branches of a tree outside of the hut. He was high enough that he could still hear and see everything, but that the leaves covered him from others' eyes. Right before he was about to doze off, his ears swiveled, catching part of the conversation between two girls coming back from taking a nice hot bath.
"He did WHAT?! That's so cute!"
"I know!" She squealed happily, "They were so soft and the face was adorable!"
"Did he really roll over?"
"Yeah," Kagome chuckled and shook her head gently, "right onto a rock." Sango laughed. "So, what about you and Miroku hmmm? What possessed you into making that bet with him?"
"What else, I thought I'd win."
"MMhmm..."
"What, wait a minute, you don't believe me?"
"Not in the slightest."
"WHAAaa?!"
"Oh come on Sango, you know you loved it!"
The older girl blushed a deep crimson, "Well... maybe... ONLY a little..."
"Ha ha! See, I tooold you!"
"Hey, well, what about you and Inu Yasha hmm?"
Deep within his hiding spot, the half demon opened his eyes; Yeah, what about us?
"Wha...what ever do you mean Sango?"
Sango laughed, "Kagome, don't play dumb. You know you love him."
She WHAT?!
"But really, I almost envy you. You've been way more affectionate towards him lately. Hey, why is that anyway?" Kagome blushed. "Oh! Kagome-chan!!!! What is it?! What haven't you told me?! And more importantly, WHY didn't you tell me?"
"Well..."
"Kagoome, come on!"
"Well, when I was in my world and got sick, Inu Yasha was being, well, kind of sweet."
"Really?"
"Mhmm..."
"What did he do?"
"Well, he carried me home, put me to bed, and..."
"And what Kagome-chan?"
"Well, he came here to talk with Kaede and when I went outside, I got sick and fell. I guess he had just gotten back because he caught me..."
"Yeah...?"
"... and kissed me."
"He WHAT?!"
I *WHAT*?! Inu Yasha practically fell out of his tree; Kagome simply blushed and nodded.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"What was it like?"
Remembering, she sighed softly, "It was heaven."
"Ooooh, Kagome, I'm so happy for you!" Sango squealed and hugged the young miko tightly. "What else has he done?"
"Well," Kagome kneaded her hands and tugged at her shirt nervously, "actually, that's it."
"That's it?"
"Mmhmm."
"Oh." They sat there in silence for a few minutes before Sango smiled and hugged her again; "Well, I'm still happy for you! Who knows what'll happen next."
Kagome hid her face in her hands, "Sango!" They laughed and headed into the hut, coming out with Kagome's not-so-bulging backpack swung over her shoulder. "Well, I'm off. Say bye to everyone for me when they show up." Or wake up for that matter.
"Sure, no problem. See you soon!"
Kagome waved back and walked towards the well, completely unaware of the other following her.
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What did she mean he had kissed her?! Sure, he wanted to do that, but he'd never, she'd never, what was she talking about?!
I remember putting her to bed, then coming here. After talking to Kaede I went back to her world, but... why *was* she on the ground anyway? Maybe her illness made her delirious? Maybe she fell and hit her head? Or maybe... maybe someone HAD kissed her! Maybe she thought it was me because she was sick! Or maybe, maybe she knew it wasn't me? His heart sunk in his chest. Of course, he knew that she couldn't love him, so why was everyone pretending like she did?
Sango seemed to believe it. Maybe she just didn't want them to know she had someone else when they thought... that had to be it! How could she love me?! Damnit, someone must've kissed her; someone must've kissed *MY* Kagome! I'LL KILL THEM!!!
With that thought in mind, he sped up slightly, dropping down in front of the startled girl. She reeled back for a second, watching him pop out from out of the blue. When she realized who it was, she started to calm down and was about to lecture him when he reached over and grabbed her shoulders forcefully.
She winced, "Inu Yasha, what're you doing?"
"Who...was it...Kagome...," he ground out, half growling as the worlds passed through his lips. She stared, dumbfounded at the hanyou before her until she actually saw him. She saw his eyes, hard, cold, filled with pain and unshed tears; she saw his mouth, fangs bared and jaw clenched. His scowl was replaced with an expression of true hatred and concentration as he stared at her. She could feel his every muscle move, flex with his every action, straining against something, but what?
She was scared. He had never looked at her this way before; why now? What had she done? Her eyes filled with tears and she tried to back away, but his grip held firm. The further she tried to get, the closer they became. Her mind was blurred, hazy, in other words, unusable.
Unconsciously, she spoke the only words that came to mind, "W... why?" He obviously took that the wrong way.
"DAMNIT Kagome, why are you protecting him?!!!" Tears streamed down her face in waves, washing over her lips and dripping onto his hands, but this only fed his hatred. He didn't hate her; how could he ever? He loved her with every fiber of his being, but he hated whoever had taken this from him, had taken her from him. Why wouldn't she tell him? Why was she protecting him?
"Kagome, who... kissed you?"
Her eyes grew wide, "Y...you did, Inu Yasha. You're the only one to ever..."
"STOP IT! Sango may buy that, but I won't! I was never THERE, Kagome! How in the hell could I have kissed you if I wasn't there?!"
Fresh tears began to slide down her cheek, "Why... why would you... after all this... I... I thought you cared." She began to weep.
"W... what?"
"Why would you deny it?!" The hanyou let go of her, shocked into silence. What was she talking about? Deny what? She was the one protecting the soon-to-be corpse!! Why would she be mad at him?!
"Oh," she almost whispered, tone alarmingly dark and cold, "I see how it is." Inu Yasha broke out of his daze to see Kagome in much the state he was, hands balled in fists, stance rigid, a look of incomparable hate flushed across her features. Frankly, it scared him." I'm not going to stand for it this time Inu Yasha!"
He jumped back, "What?"
"I'm not going to let you play with my heart anymore!" He thought he was going to have a heart attack! Play with her heart?! What the hell was she talking about? "I'm not going to put up with it this time! First it's all about Kikyo, then you kiss me and bring my hopes up, then you deny it ever happened? I thought you cared!"
"What in the hell are you talking about?!"
"I'm going home!" In a flash Inu Yasha had grabbed onto her wrist, dragging her back over towards him.
"You're not going ANYWHERE wench!"
"Oh, so it's back to that again huh? Well, forget it! I have tests and a life back home you know! I'm leaving!"
She tugged and he let go of her wrist. "Kagome... wait." His tone was so soft.
She turned around; she couldn't believe that her heart could break anymore until she looked at him. His head was lowered, gaze shut off by closed eyes and shielding bangs. His ears were lain back against his head and she could hear soft whimpers every time he spoke. His figure was slouched, and the only thing that seemed to move around him was his chest, as his breathing became shallow and labored.
"Kagome..." Her breath caught in her throat. "Kagome... don't go." She looked towards the well and back at him. She couldn't leave him like this; she just... couldn't. He looked so sad. Had she really hurt him that much? "Why won't you tell me?"
"T...tell you what?"
"Why won't you tell me who it was? Why won't you tell me who kissed you?!" She couldn't believe her ears; after all that, she had WORRIED about him and yet he still denied it! He had shattered her heart and she still felt enough compassion to stay, and then he took another swing?! When was she going to learn?!
"What's wrong with you?! How could you do this to me?! I just... I can't..." She ran, as fast as her feet would carry her. She knew he was reaching for her, but she didn't care; it didn't matter anymore; she couldn't live like this. Maybe she would stay away for a week, maybe a month at most, but what would stop him from coming after her? There had to be something... but what?