Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. *sigh*
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*sigh*...I reread this fic and I realized how much better the first chapter is...
Oh well...I hope you all like all of the chapters...-_-
Anyways, here it is! 19 pages for your enjoyment!!
The 6th chapter!
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Your...Not so Average Princess...
Chapter 6
Jealous Misunderstandings
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When Kagome returned with the water spritzer, she noticed Kikyo and Fluffy delicately piling sand up with...spoons...
"Um...here's the spritzer, Inuyasha...what should I do now?" she asked while glancing at the well-crafted cylinder of sand.
"This is the one from the kitchen, isn't it." Inuyasha said dully as he took the spritzer from her.
The princess rolled her eyes, "Yes, it is...so sorry that I could not get my royal hands on your mother's IVORY spritzer. Please realize that if I brought it out, she would probably notice it missing, or if we managed to get it back before her noticing, I doubt that she would miss the pile of sand around it."
Inuyasha sighed dramatically.
"I GUESS we'll just have to use THIS one." He muttered with a hint of contempt towards the plastic make of the spritzer in his hand.
He passed it back to her and instructed her to lightly spray the cylinder as he began to carve. Kagome did as she was told as Inuyasha started carving with a butter knife. Kagome observed his graceful movements as he cut out his first turret. As she continued her circle, she glanced over at Sango and Miroku to see how they were doing. Miroku was showing Sango how to cut into the sand to form the triangular roof of a turret. Kagome stopped squeezing the handle of the spritzer so that the sand didn't get too wet. She looked to the soft sand where Kikyo and Fluffy were working.
"I'll be right back, Inuyasha," she muttered more to herself than to him.
She walked up the beach to the shaded area.
"Um...spoons...?" Kagome asked them.
"We'll make our castle, and you can make yours!" was the haughty reply from Kikyo.
"You see, Kagome," Fluffy patently explained, as if everyone should know this, "by using spoons, we can craft the sand pile and not get sand stuck up our nails! You should do that too, because you're nails are important," (Kagome glanced at the navy-blue band-aid on Fluffy's cheek, and nodded as if understanding completely) "and also, your hands don't get dirty and they stay as soft as cream!"
Kagome glanced at her own hands, that were rougher than a princess's should be, because of all the tree-climbing, horseback riding, sword fighting, and outdoor activities that she did.
She then looked at their pathetic pile of soft sand.
"I can see that you two are going to be here until the time limit." She observed.
"Well we won't be going past it!" Kikyo snapped.
"Duh! You're not allowed to!" Kagome rudely reminded her.
"Hey Kagome!" Inuyasha called her, "You gonna gossip with the commoners all day, or are you going to come and help?"
Kagome grinned as she jogged back out into the sun.
"Here you go," he passed her one of the butter knives. "It'll be easier if you mark the tiles on this turret's roof, instead of carving the turret itself." He told her.
She got to work on the tiles, which weren't easy at all.
'None of this would be easy,' she chided herself, after she mentally complained at how imperfect her roof was, 'so why does he have to make it look like it would be???'
She glanced over at her sister's 'castle' for reassurance, and as a wind blew out of nowhere, she felt her confidence return as the top of the dry 'castle' blew away. She returned to her work of trying to mimic Inuyasha's roof tiles.
After a few more fruitless tries, she decided to try lightly drawing the stones that built the castle. THIS, she found, was easy. It was lightly tracing lines and as bits of sand fell from the blocks when she drew them, they looked irregular and because the blocks in a castle aren't perfect, it looked good.
Inuyasha smiled as he looked over at her progress. He liked the fact that she knew she was bad at doing the roof tiles and then tried doing something on her own. He still walked over to her to make a suggestion.
"Don't do the blocks all over the turrets, okay?"
"How come?"
He looked for better words than 'It looks better'.
"...have you ever seen a water painting of a castle?" he asked her.
She thought for a second and then nodded.
"Okay, so on the walls you'll notice that there aren't blocks everywhere."
"...right...I see what you're saying." She nodded with the light of realization in her eyes.
"One, it looks better, and two, it won't take you all day." He grinned encouragingly at her.
"It makes it look...older...doesn't it?" she thought out loud.
Inuyasha turned that statement over in his head.
"Yea...you're right..."
Kagome returned to her art with a new passion.
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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARAGH!!"
Sango's outburst caused Miroku to look up.
"What is it, Lady Sango?"
"This darned, cursed, window ledge keeps falling off!!" she snarled in a very unladylike manner.
"Hmm..."
Miroku wandered over to Inuyasha's castle.
"May we borrow your spritzer?" he politely asked.
"One sec." Kagome stopped her block building and lightly sprayed the castle over to keep it moist.
"Here you go!" she handed it to him cheerfully.
"Why thank you, Lady Kagome!" Miroku bent down and kissed her hand when he took the spritzer from her.
To the four of them (Kagome, Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango), this was good manners. A little overdoing it, but that was all part of Miroku's charm.
But Fluffy looked at him with resentment.
"How does HE get to kiss her hand without getting slapped, and yet I, Sesshomaru, the heir to the throne, get another injury to my face for it?" he puzzled hard about it.
"I would say something critical and mean, but this IS Miroku that we're talking about..." Kikyo commented dryly.
"Kikyo, DEAREST," he added sarcastically, "Why do you want Inuyasha?"
Kikyo sighed and then became 'girly'.
"Because he's so STRONG! He rides horses, and fights with swords...Hero material!"
'Hero material??' Fluffy thought bitterly. 'But if that's what Kagome sees in him, too, then all I need to do is tone up!" He thoughts became excited.
Eagerly, he returned to work.
(Sadness)
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2 hours later...
As much as Fluffy tried to pack down the dry, loose, sand, it would not stick. (no surprise there...)
He pushed the sand (with spoons) into a small, conical shape.
"Does it have to be a castle?" he hollered at Miroku, who had set the rules. "Or can it be a pyramid?"
Miroku gave him a look.
"This is a sandCASTLE contest, my dear lord Sesshomaru."
Fluffy sighed.
"I am at the mercy of my brother and his best friend...all for my precious Kagome...HOW did this happen?"
Kikyo's slow mind finally processed that SHE could ask FLUFFY what he saw in Kagome. That could be the key to winning over Inuyasha's heart!
Not really.
"So Fluffy...what DO you see in Kagome?" she purred.
"She's really pretty...no, I mean damn sexy...I mean look at her in that bikini!" he exclaimed.
Fluffy is a very shallow person.
'Damn sexy?' Kikyo thought, 'Her??
"And what's wrong with my bikini?" Kikyo asked, referring to her black and off-white, 'spray painted on', target swimsuit.
"...you look like you're naked."
"Isn't that 'sexy'??" Kikyo was confused.
"Yes, but on you it looks like something out of a horror movie. The dead weeds in your hair add to that effect."
"They aren't weeds!" Kikyo cried out indignantly, "They're baby's breath!"
"...But you don't deny the fact that they're dead?" Fluffy asked to confirm.
"Well, I brought them from MY home by the mountains, so they're probably only 2 weeks old..."
"Anything THAT dead deserves a coffin..." came a mumbled reply.
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"Why is your sister's face so...pale?" Inuyasha questioned to make conversation.
Kagome shrugged, "I don't know. This is probably the longest she's ever been out in the sun. I asked her if she had bleach injected into her skin before I was born but she asked me what bleach was."
"Well, if she didn't know what it was, maybe she dumped it on her face thinking that it was face cream...that's what my brother did."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Well...no...but you see...he has a whole lot of bottles in his bathroom and being the prankster that I was (and still am), I poured bleach into two of them...his hair used to be black, by the way."
"...YOU BLEACHED HIS HAIR???"
Inuyasha grinned wickedly but it soon dissolved into a pout.
"Mine used to be black, too."
Sibling rivalry at its high points.
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It was five o'clock when Sango and Miroku stood back and marveled at their work of art.
"Are we done, Miroku?"
"Yup! Proud of your work?"
Sango nodded eagerly. "Thanks for helping me, too!!" she hugged him around the neck.
Kagome looked up and grinned at her friend's castle.
"How much more needs to be done, Inuyasha?"
"We're done! Great art-work, Kagome!"
She grinned. "Thanks~!"
All of them looked over at the mound of sand that Fluffy and Kikyo were now delicately placing shells on.
"...Indeed..."
"There's still sunlight, out! Would you like to play in the water?" Miroku asked.
Kagome laughed as she ran into the salty liquid and dragged Sango after her. Inuyasha jumped in and shoved them both over into the soft sand and Miroku charged in after him and shoved Inuyasha over. Kagome suddenly gagged on the salt water she had just swallowed.
As Inuyasha whacked her on the back he explained, "Don't get the water in your eyes, either. It really stings."
Kagome peered into his eyes. For points, she made them look like she was gazing into them.
'She's...she's looking at me...in front of everybody else...' Inuyasha started breathing faster, whether it was out of 'romance' or embarrassment, I'm not too sure.
"Huh? What are you doing, Kagome?" Inuyasha became nervous.
"So...THAT'S why you're eyes are all funny look'n..." she teased, "You opened your eyes up underwater too many times..."
It took a second for her statement to sink in.
"Why you...!!" He charged at her and she giggled as she raced away from him.
"Ah...love is in the air~!" Miroku sang after them.
They both froze and then glared at them.
"C'est L'Amour~!" Sango added dramatically.
Their glares became icy.
Miroku sidled over to Sango. "Um...why do I get the feeling that we're a new killing target?"
She gave him 'the look'.
"Hmm...good question..."
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Inside the castle...
... "I see...Well then, we will always welcome you here at court, for your father is a great friend of mine. My two sons and the Kingdom Shikon's two princesses are currently outside, down at the beach." He turned to a servant that was standing at ready, "Take Lord Naraku to his room where he can change to join the others."
The servant rushed to obey and Lord Naraku followed.
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"Hey Inuyasha...Miroku...who's that man...coming towards us...?" Sango pointed.
"Huh?" Both boys looked up.
An audible gasp escaped their throats and the girls even heard Fluffy gasp.
"It's...it's...Naraku..." Fluffy hissed.
"Who?" Sango asked curiously.
"Naraku. He's mean. And he stole my pillow once. The furry one with a picture of a teddy bear on it." Fluffy explained matter-of-factly.
"He's not very nice." Inuyasha muttered to Kagome. "Just stay clear of him."
She nodded in response.
"Oh, he's coming this way..." Fluffy continued to hiss venomously.
They all looked at him.
"Thank you, Fluffy, I didn't notice." Sango dryly remarked.
Naraku reached them. "Well, well, well, if we aren't all playing in the sand!!" he said pleasantly. Kagome, however, noticed the falseness of his smile.
She smiled back, however, but was on her guard incase he made a move to touch the castle she and Inuyasha had carefully constructed.
Naraku checked out Sango and Miroku's castle, and then Kagome and Inuyasha's. Then he turned, sneered at Kikyo's castle (who, by the way, was staring starry-eyed (for whatever reason) at Naraku), and then walked ankle deep into the water.
"Hello, Inuyasha." Naraku smiled smoothly. "Aren't you going to introduce me to you're new friends?"
Inuyasha stepped in front but did not smile back. "This is Princess Kagome, of Shikon, and her lady-in-waiting, Lady Sango."
(Kagome snickered inwardly as she noticed he didn't introduce Kikyo.)
"Charmed I'm sure." Naraku checked the two of them out.
Kagome and Sango smiled pleasantly, but their smiles did not extend to their eyes. They privately decided to be nice to Naraku, until he became unworthy of their good side.
"So, it's been a while since I've been here..." Naraku started. "Shall we explore the waters?"
Miroku shook his head. "It's not a good time of day to see the fish, and plus, if you want to explore the underwater caves, you have to do that in the morning."
"Ah yes, I should have remembered..."
They all sort of stood around. It was like Naraku showed up and automatically, all activity stopped. He made them feel a little uncomfortable, and he just didn't seem like the kind of person that would fit in with the four of them.
"I don't suppose we could just get the masks and flippers..." Miroku started uncertainly. "And then we could just...swim around...?"
Everyone sort of looked at him, waiting for someone else to move first.
"Excellent idea, Miroku!!" Inuyasha gave him an over-enthusiastic pat on the back, in thanks for breaking the uneasy silence, and then dragged Miroku off to get enough equipment for the five of them.
Kagome shot Naraku a sideways glance and noticed that he was *still* checking her out. Her mind ticked and she was about to turn and glare at him, when he adverted his gaze towards Sango. The look he was giving Sango was pure predatory. Kagome then glanced at Sango, who was staring after Miroku and Inuyasha. Kagome was slightly afraid of what Sango would do if she knew this guy was staring at her, and she assumed Naraku didn't know Sango was already taken. So...
"Isn't he CUTE??" Kagome squealed in Sango's ear.
Sango jumped.
"Huh? Who??"
"Inuyasha!!" Kagome exclaimed.
She mentally hit herself in the head. She realized that she should have said Miroku, if she was trying to ward Naraku away.
"Huh? Oh, yea, he is, actually~!"
"But then so is Miroku." Kagome recovered slyly.
The face she got from Sango was exactly the reaction she was looking for. Sango smiled peacefully, her brown eyes softened.
"He's more than cute, Kagome..." she said.
"Yea, but I can't look at him the way you do. Now Inuyasha on the other hand..." she smirked.
"No, I know Inuyasha is cute and all, but Miroku's better!"
"Well I guess from *your* perspective..."
"I mean, he's so cuddly~!" she squealed.
"Uh..." Kagome couldn't and didn't share that view of him.
"And he does have a 6-pack..."
Naraku has a 6-pack.
"Uh, right, and his, uh, arms are really strong too..." Kagome started finding this a little more difficult than she anticipated. I mean, she was trying to describe her best friend's boyfriend and make him sound better than her own guy *and* the bad guy she was trying to ward away.
"Oh I know!! And I like his hair too~!"
"Uh...yea!! I mean it's not too long or anything!!" Kagome stated with a smirk, because Naraku's hair was *much* longer than Miroku's...but then so was Inuyasha's...
She mentally banged her head against an invisible wall.
"Uh, err, I mean, It's perfect for HIM!! Uh, cause Inuyasha's hair is a *perfect* length for *him*, you know what I mean?"
Sango started glancing at Kagome funny.
"Uh....yea...." she said.
'I'm in trouble...' Kagome thought.
"And...and...and..." Kagome fought to save herself from this hole she was digging herself into, "...and...AND HE DOESN'T WEAR MAKEUP!!" She exclaimed...and then started mentally shooting herself with an invisible gun.
Fluffy looked up. "What's that about somebody not wearing makeup?" he called.
"NOTHING!!" Kagome screamed back.
It was true though. Naraku was wearing eye makeup.
Bishie.
"...Kagome...?" Sango looked at Kagome as if Kagome had just confessed to her that she was growing another toe, and it was going to be multi-colored and grow tulips, with a side order of fries.
"Well, he, uh, doesn't wear makeup...right?"
"....right...but where'd *that* come from...?"
"MY HEAD!!"
"Ah, right..."
Inuyasha and Miroku returned. Kagome shot a glance at Naraku, who looked as if he had not heard a thing the two of them had said.
'Idiot.' She thought.
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~*Kagome's POV*~
I walked backwards into the water, just as I had been instructed, and then tripped. Again. Over what? THESE STUPID FLIPPERS!!!
Not just because of the flippers, mind you, but also because the tide threw me off balance. The tide is amazingly strong when you're only ankle-deep and graceful 'ol me fell face-first into the wet sand. I struggled to get back up again, but the tide washed over my head, causing me to swallow a mouthful of salt water. It made me want to puke. But instead I gagged, and coughed.
I was a pile of sand, hair, salt, and flippers. For the second time, too.
I felt gentle hands pull me up and then carefully straighten my hair. I coughed some more and then sighed pitifully at Inuyasha.
"Man, I thought you were invincible! You can beat me at sword fighting, and archery and you ride hella fast on horses...but you can't walk into the water with flippers?" he teased.
My pitiful look turned deadly and I shoved him roughly into the salty water.
Causing me to lose my balance.
Making me fall.
Again.
And I fell face-first into the sand, and the tide washed over my head, causing me to swallow a mouthful of salt water, making me gag.
Does any of this sound remotely familiar?
I sighed, as I managed to get myself upright again. I watched Inuyasha get himself up again, as I continued to walk backwards. I was now knee-deep. And a huge wave came crashing down on me. I *would* have screamed with impatiens if I hadn't been underwater. The only reason why I hadn't given up yet was because my mask was firmly in place and I could still see. The wave passed, and I stood up. Inuyasha reached me (somehow the guy didn't manage to fall over like I did the third time), and scooped me up into his arms. I blushed, and was obvious to the whoops from my oh-so-closest-friends that were already out further and swimming (Sango and Miroku), but clung on to his neck.
When we were waist deep, Inuyasha looked around, said, "We're here", and then dropped me. Literally.
Instinctively I inhaled, but I went down kicking and throwing punches at him for dropping me.
He laughed playfully and then dove into the water, towards Miroku and Sango. I followed, still grumpy, as best as my swimming capability allowed. I wasn't the best swimmer, as I had only really swum in a small lake, but I was impressed with the power the flippers gave me. I caught up relatively quickly, and did not fail to notice that we were no longer touching the ground.
"Ready to look underwater?" Inuyasha grinned.
I blinked. I hadn't yet done that, and when I was being spun around in the turbulent tide, all I had seen was muddy sand.
I looked underwater and gasped (as best as you can gasp underwater).
It was like a whole new world underwater! There was massive coral that was 20 feet high, and as I looked farther out, I saw the water get deeper and the coral get bigger. I saw a few rainbow colored fish swim together amongst the coral and then disappear inside. There was anemone of all sorts swaying back and forth with the slight current of the tide, but the thing that caught my attention was how blue the water was! It was just like in the pictures: Aquamarine but became a deep blue the farther I looked out.
I pulled my head up for air.
"Well?" Inuyasha grinned.
I stared at him with wondrous eyes while opening and closing my mouth, looking for the right adjective to use.
"...whoa..." was all I managed to say.
"Any other words you like to use, or does that just sum it up?" He just gave me his smile and then all the adjectives I meant to use came tumbling out: "Incredible, breathtaking, amazing, wondrous, exhilarating, elating, thrilling, exciting, astonishing, bewildering, fabulous..." I babbled.
He grinned as I stopped for air.
"Wow. All those words right off the top of your head, and none repeated." He congratulated me.
I decided to stop blabbering and glanced over at Sango...and watched her do the same thing with Miroku.
"*I* don't see what's so impressive." Naraku drawled from a short distance away. "It's just the sea."
Inuyasha scowled at him.
"Maybe so, Naraku, but if you will be kind enough to notice, I didn't actually use the word 'impressive'." I smirked.
Naraku narrowed his eyes at me, but turned away and dove under the surface.
"Can we explore underwater?" Sango asked excitedly, breaking the building tension.
"No....You can't!! I'm not going to let you, *even though* I have no way of stopping you..." Miroku sarcastically remarked.
Sango pouted.
Miroku's sarcasm faltered as he saw her lip tremble.
"You're not going to cry, are you??" he asked worriedly. He, like Inuyasha, hated it when girls cried, especially if it was because of them. Miroku, however, didn't often make girls cry...
"OF *COURSE* NOT!!" Sango thundered at him. "I ONLY ASK IF I CAN DO SOMETHING BECAUSE IT'S POLITE!!!!"
Miroku whimpered.
"You can't go down that deep without an air tank and such. The pressure is a bit much." Inuyasha warned gently.
I squealed with delight and then dove under.
The scenery took my breath away again (you know what I mean. If it took my breath away, I'd be drowning. I'm not drowning.). I kicked hard and felt my body be propelled deeper. I kicked again and as I swam deeper, I felt my mask squish tighter to my face. I kept kicking until I was amongst the coral. There were no fish around, except for tiny ones. They were actually really pretty to look at, when they kept still enough. I was fairly deep now and the pressure felt like it was going to crush my chest. Someone tugged on my flipper and I spun around to see Inuyasha holding out his hand. I took it and as he dragged me up to the surface, I felt the pressure around me lessen until my lungs expanded and were struggling for oxygen. I gasped as we broke through the surface.
"Cripes! I really *do* need to keep an eye on you!!" Inuyasha berated me as he breathed heavily. "*I* didn't even go *that* deep on my first time down!"
"Yea, but I'll bet the first time you went down was when you were just an itty bitty boy." I teased.
"Kagome, don't go too deep with out oxygen. The last thing I need is for you to be unconscious on the bottom of the ocean because you ran out of air and the pressure squashed the rest of it out of you." He shook his head at me.
"Oh come ON. It wasn't THAT bad!!"
"It could have been."
"It's called drowning, right?"
"Basically."
I sighed. "Well *that's* no fun, anymore if I can't swim deep!!"
I watched him roll his eyes.
Off on shore I saw a servant come out, talk to Fluffy and Kikyo for a brief moment and then disappear back into the castle.
Sesshomaru stood up and walked to the waters edge.
"INUYASHA??" he hollered out to us. "FATHER SAYS IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR DINNER!!"
Inuyasha smirked at Miroku, who smirked back.
"FATHER SAYS TOUCH YOUR ARM!!" Inuyasha hollered back to Fluffy.
"FATHER SAYS TOUCH YOUR LEG!!" Miroku followed.
"FATHER SAYS SPIN AROUND!!!"
"FATHER SAYS HOP ON ONE FOOT!!"
Sesshomaru yelled insanely on the beach and then ran inside covering his ears.
I glanced at the two of them. "...?"
They both grinned at Sango and I and said something similar to "inside joke".
The two of us nodded as if understanding perfectly.
Naraku just looked at them with a face that said "childish and immature."
But who cares what Naraku has to say?
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~*Authors POV*~
"...You want us to judge your sandcastles?"
Kagome and Sango nodded, while everyone else finished their meal. "At 7:00 tonight."
"All four of us?"
The six of them nodded.
Inuyasha's father sighed. "Well, that leaves us one hour."
Kikyo and Fluffy excused themselves from the table.
The four remaining contestants smirked and then excused themselves, to follow.
When the four of them arrived at the beach they were greeted with the site of Fluffy wailing and pounding the ground like a baby, and Kikyo staring blankly at a spot in the dirt.
"...What happened?" Kagome asked with wonder.
"OUR CASTLE!! IT BLEW AWAY!!!" Fluffy continued to wail.
Miroku turned his snickering in to a cough.
"...We worked SO hard..." Kikyo said blankly.
An insane light came across Fluffy's face. "WE WILL FINISH!!!"
He bent down, and with his 'oh-so-carefully-manicured-work-of-art-nails' he started to dig madly in the sand, flinging the sand at Kikyo (who shrieked and fell over).
He didn't stop. Even though Kikyo was still there, he continued to pile sand on top of her.
Kagome was quite enjoying this. Her sister was getting buried in the sand because she was too weak to move the huge bundle off of her. And being the oh-so-helpful sister that she was, she ran and got the spritzer.
"Here you go, Sesshomaru~! You wouldn't want your castle to crumble, now would you?"
"Oh, of course not, my sweet buttercup!!" he said gallantly as he took the spritzer from her.
She gagged.
Kikyo glared at Kagome as she continued to shriek insanities at Fluffy for treating her so horribly.
"MY NAILS!! AND MY SKIN!! AND *GASP* MY HAIR!!!!!"
Fluffy ignored her as he continued to dump sand on her.
As 7:00 rolled around, and the kings and queens (makes this whole contest sound very important, doesn't it?) of Shikon and Tetsusaiga walked to the beach, Fluffy piled the sand on top of Kikyo's head (muffling her shrieks of protest) and covered the pile of sand with shells, stones, and seaweed.
It looked....well, I'll just leave my opinion out of this.
Kagome's parents gapped at the castles. They, too, had never seen a sand castle before now, really.
"OoOoh~! I like THIS one!!" Kagome's mother squealed, as she went and stood next to Kagome and Inuyasha's castle.
"And *I* like *this* one!!" Inuyasha's mother giggled, and went to stand next to Sango and Miroku's.
Each parent picked their castle.
"Sesshomaru...Where is your castle?" his mother asked him, as she went and stood on the mound of sand (covered in seaweed, stones, and shells) to get a better look around the beach.
Fluffy whimpered and fainted.
The mound of sand squirmed beneath his mother's foot and then screamed. His mother fainted and so did Kagome's, while Kagome herself and Sango cracked up.
Inuyasha, meanwhile, was doing a victory dance, and then grabbed Kagome.
"WE WON~! WE WON~!" he yelled.
Kagome blinked in realization as she noticed that three parents were standing by her castle, and then ran to the water, splashing amongst the waves, while whooping in victory.
"Hmph," muttered Miroku, "bad winners."
Kagome stuck out her tongue, "Sore losers~!!"
Sango nudged Miroku in the ribs. "That's my best friend you're talking about. Besides, Fluffy didn't win." She winked.
They both glanced at Fluffy, who was still lying in a faint.
Suddenly, from the packed pile of sand came a pitiful cry. "Inuyashaaa~!!!!"
Inuyasha glanced up and saw Kikyo sadly trying to get out of the sand.
Kagome walked over with him. "Hm...Fluffy did a good job mummifying you."
Kikyo shot her another nasty glare.
The light went on in Inuyasha's head and his shoulder angle was blown to pieces. ^___^
Inuyasha sighed dramatically. "Aww, poor Kikyo. That was *really* mean of Fluffy, now wasn't it?"
Kikyo pouted at him and the nodded as best as she could.
"Here, let me help you out of there." Inuyasha smiled benignly at her.
Kagome's blood boiled.
'...What's he doing??' she thought.
Inuyasha's clawed hands dug Kikyo out in a matter of minutes.
"There you go!" he continued in his honey-sweet voice. "Oh, Kikyo! I've got a beautiful spot on the beach I'd like to show you~!"
Kikyo's eyes sparkled at the attention, while Kagome looked like she was going to snap.
'What the HELL is he doing??' she thought. 'He hasn't shown me *any* special spot of his...why her?'
Sango and Miroku watched him with curiosity, knowing that he was going to do something to Kikyo, but weren't sure what.
"Hop on." Inuyasha winked flirtatiously at Kikyo.
"...hop on?"
"Yea~!" He tossed Kikyo onto his back and then sped off at a high speed.
".....he's....fast..." Sango commented.
Miroku blinked. "Well, he *is* a hanyou. He didn't tell you that?"
Both girls blinked.
Kagome's anger deteriorated to confused sadness. '...he's a hanyou?' she wondered to herself, 'I never thought of it...but...why didn't he tell me? That's so cool! But, why does Kikyo get a ride on his back? I want one too! ...and I thought he hated Kikyo...'
"He's a hanyou? I guess he is." Sango commented.
"Did you know that, Kagome-chan?" Miroku asked curiously.
"...No, I didn't. I never thought much of his ears...I assumed he was a demon, but he acted so human, I just didn't care what he was. I never knew he could run so fast and carry...someone else." She said, wondering why they were taking this so lightly, when inside she felt a pinch at her heart. "Is Fluffy a hanyou, too?"
Miroku smiled grimly. "Nope. Our wussy Sesshomaru is indeed a full demon. The only reason Inuyasha doesn't get the crap beaten out of him daily is because Fluffy is scared he will break a nail."
'I wonder why he didn't tell me.' Kagome thought to herself and then started berating herself as she felt tears start to burn at the back of her eyes. She wouldn't cry. Not just because Inuyasha's attention was divided for a moment.
Sango glanced at Kagome. "Is something wrong, Kagome?"
Kagome blinked. Out loud she smiled and said "Nothing is wrong, Sango-chan," (adding the 'chan' to the end of her name to lighten things up) but inside she started yelling 'IS SOMETHING WRONG? IS SOMETHING WRONG?? OF COURSE THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG!! THE GUY I REALLY LIKE, JUST CARRIED OFF MY BITCHY SISTER ON HIS BACK TO SHOW HER A PLACE THAT HE CALLES SPECIAL. HE'S NEVER CARRIED *ME* ON HIS BACK, NOR HAS HE *EVER* SHOWED ME *ANY* PLACE THAT HE LIKES. ...except for the top of the cliff that over-looks the ocean....BUT I FOUND THAT ON MY OWN!!! SO IS ANYTHING WRONG, SANGO? YES THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG. EVERYTHING'S WRONG!!!'
"I'm gonna go see what's happening!" Miroku exclaimed.
Sango grabbed his hand and followed, expecting Kagome to come too.
'...it's his 'beautiful spot'...I don't know if it's right to intrude...' she thought.
She turned to go to bed, feeling sad. Inuyasha had never told her that he was a hanyou.
So what if she'd never asked? What was she supposed to ask?
Kagome snorted at the idea: 'Hi, so what exactly *are* you?'
Right, like that would go reeeeally well... and Sango and Miroku hadn't even noticed that she hadn't followed.
She stepped over Fluffy, who was now waking up.
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"...Oh Kikyo, isn't it nice?" Inuyasha asked cheesily.
Kikyo didn't see why it was so much better than in front of the castle, but wanting to stay on Inuyasha's good side she enthusiastically agreed. "Oh, it's so marvelous, Inuyasha!!!!! Thank you for showing me!!! Did you know how *strong* your back is?? It's so nice...you should give me rides more often~!"
Inuyasha let his fake smile grace his features as he thought 'What am I, a pony?'.
His nose told him that Sango and Miroku had arrived for the fun. He extended his sense of smell as far as it could go to find how far behind Kagome was...but then realized that she hadn't followed.
Kikyo interrupted his thoughts. "But I really wish I could have a bath. I'm all covered in sand..."
'Now *that* was the line I was looking for!!' Inuyasha thought with a smirk.
"A bath? Come with me~!" He picked her up princess style and leapt to the dock
Miroku smirked as he saw what Inuyasha was going to do.
Inuyasha sighed, with Kikyo still in his arms, "It isn't fresh water but-" he dropped her into the salt water "It's better than nothing, right?" he grinned wickedly at her.
Kikyo started splashing around.
"...Inuyasha..." Sango stared dully at Kikyo, "...she's drowning..."
"...how?"
"Just look at her! Does it look like she's swimming?"
" well no......but there's like...three feet of water..."
"...I know...she can't swim in the bathtub. She needs a small one so that she can stay upright."
Inuyasha squinted his eyes in disgust. "I didn't need that image of Kikyo sitting in a bathtub, Sango."
Sango smirked. "Oh yea, and she sings in the tub, too, did you know?"
Inuyasha shuddered. "Yes, Sango, I did know. I heard her once. I was all the way down the hall, even."
Sango snorted.
"...Um...I don't suppose one of us should save her...?" Miroku asked innocently as he watched the pitiful figure splash around in the water.
"You can. I'm going to bed." Inuyasha turned and leapt from the dock to the beach and then took off in bounding leaps, that the rest of them (save Miroku) had no idea he was capable of demonstrating.
Sango looked around as Miroku waded into the water to drag the poor, idiotic princess out.
"Where's Kagome?"
Miroku looked up. "...good question."
"I'll ask her later." Sango shrugged.
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Something was nagging at Inuyasha as he gracefully landed in front of the castle. Why had Kagome not followed? They had just won the contest that they had spent most of the day on. Watching Kikyo drown in three feet of water would have been the *perfect* way to end a glorious day.
Another thing caught his attention: "...Did you know how *strong* your back is?? It's so nice...you should give me rides more often~!"
Kikyo had said that, and it just now caught his attention that Kagome had never said anything like that to him. It didn't seem like something Kagome would say but she'd never had the chance to because she'd never gotten a ride from him.
And there was a reason for that.
He'd never mentioned that he was a hanyou. It had been hard enough being a prince to be accepted by others, but to be shadowed by your older brother because he's so much stronger than you and always will be made it harder. He didn't want her to know what he was. People had never liked him much for it. The only reason they liked him *as much* as his brother was because his brother was a wuss and he wasn't.
He slapped himself on the forehead.
'Perhaps bounding across the sand with another person on my back, *and* moving faster than Miroku could run without someone on his back, wasn't the best idea.' He sighed to himself.
A new idea of fear burrowed deep inside of him.
Maybe she didn't follow because she didn't like the fact that he was a hanyou. Was she that picky? Dear God, he hoped not. She was all he wanted. As long as he could have her, then he would be happy.
He blinked.
Was that true? He decided to ponder the idea as he went to sleep. What was the most important thing in his life?
He supposed things would work out in the morning.
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Kagome lay on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.
Was she being stupid? Not really...
Why didn't he tell her??? That was the main thing that was bugging her.
'What, is he afraid that I won't like him or something?? Does he think I'm that dense?? ...so confused...maybe I am being stupid.'
Sango entered her room.
"Where were you?" she asked with curiosity.
"He never told me he was a hanyou." Kagome decided to not dance around the reason and just jump to the facts.
"So?"
"Would you expect Miroku to tell you something like that?"
"...hm...I suppose I would. But think of it this way, Kagome-chan: For Inuyasha, being a hanyou can't be easy. I mean, they're really rare, and most humans are afraid of anything more powerful than them, and full demons always look down on them. He was probably afraid of your response to it."
Kagome squinted her eyes trying to work the pieces together. "Does he really think I'm like that, Sango-chan?"
Sango shrugged. "Probably not, but who knows? He may have taken a chance at telling someone before, and they probably responded in the worst ways."
"...and why did you guys follow Inuyasha when he took Kikyo to his 'special spot'? It sounded to me like he wanted some privacy, or something..."
Sango nearly fell of the bed. "KAGOME!! It was a friggen joke!!! He actually dumped Kikyo into the water off of the dock!!!"
"...oh..."
"...she almost drowned..."
Kagome still looked a little glum.
Sango sighed. "Kagome-chan, I'm going to add a new word to your dictionary. It's called jealousy."
"..."
"Do you know what that word means?" Sango teased.
"...I am NOT jealous..."
Sango grinned. "You *are* too~! Ooh wait till Inuyasha finds out!!"
"you WILL NOT tell him!!!" Kagome's slight depression melted away to panic. What would Inuyasha think when he found out how stupid she had been, just because of a little jealousy? He would tease her to no end...-.-
Sango grinned, and Kagome could have sworn that she saw devil horns...
Her lady in waiting got up and sang "Kagome's jealous~! Kagome's jealous~!" as she danced out of the door.
"SANGO!! SHUT UP!!!"
Sango stuck her head behind the door and stuck her tongue out at Kagome, "Kagome's jealous~! Kagome's jealous~!"
A new voice sounded behind Sango. "What's Kagome jealous of, Sango-chan?"
Kagome's face paled and she ran into the attached bathroom and locked the door, as Sango grinned and turned around to Inuyasha.
"Hm...*I* don't know... Maybe you should go and ask her yourself~!!" She smiled angelically.
'Oh gee thanks, Sango...' Kagome thought exasperatedly.
"Ok," responded Inuyasha.
Sango flounced to the next room over and prepared for bed, while Inuyasha closed the door behind him.
"Kagome?"
Kagome huddled up in the bathroom and didn't make a sound. She was embarrassed for being so stupid, and didn't want to talk about it with him.
But he was not going to let her out of it. ^__^
"...Kagome...?" He rapped lightly on the bathroom door.
Silence.
"..Kagome, I know you're in there. What's up? Why are you hiding from me??"
Kagome ignored him and glanced around the bathroom, to keep herself occupied.
Inuyasha sighed impatiently. "Kagome, don't make me come in there and get you."
Kagome's eyes fell upon a spider. And, damn, it was a huge spider. Oh, and guess what? It was on the ceiling right above her.
Kagome screamed bloody murder and ran out of the room, eyes wide in fear.
"Kagome!! What's wrong??" Inuyasha grabbed her wrist and pulled her in, and held her close.
"fuh...fuh...there's a hell of a big spider in there!!" she gasped.
"hm...would you like me to kill it for you?"
Kagome nodded her head like a woodpecker at a tree.
Inuyasha let go of her and ran into the bathroom with his claws ready, and Kagome took the opportunity to escape from confessing her stupidity. She shut the door behind her and dashed down the hallway to the staircase, while her savior slashed the spider into ribbons.
"...there we go. Nothing to be afraid-" he stopped short, realizing that she was no longer in the room.
He sighed and leapt to the door.
'WHY is she running from me?? I want to know what's wrong, and now I KNOW that there's definitely something up. I'm gonna find out what it is.' He thought.
He inhaled and traced her scent to the staircase.
There was no way she could escape him. Not with his abilities. ^.~
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Kagome skipped steps until she reached the bottom. She ran down another corridor and picked another flight of stairs to go up.
'I can't keep running from him,' she thought. 'I mean, he's a fricken hanyou. He can run twice as fast as I can... Oh well.'
She breathed evenly as she reached the top of the stairs. She had an eerie feeling that he was close behind, so she picked a door and closed it behind her. It led her to another room with another door. She ran to it and opened it, revealing a hallway. She turned left and ran. Fast.
'Oh look, another staircase.' She thought and went down. She heard the first door that led to the room she had gone through slam shut and as she reached the middle of the stairs, she heard the door that lead to the hallway open and close again. She jumped down the remainder of the stairs, landed heavily and then realized that she needed a plan.
And a plan she had.
It wasn't a very good plan. Chances were it wouldn't work. But it was worth a try.
She dove into a room and stood behind the door, leaving it open. Inuyasha bounded up to the door, with the word 'victory' running through his head, until she slammed the door.
WHAM!
The door shuddered as Inuyasha ran head-on into it.
Inuyasha yelled insanities and cursed in several different languages and Kagome hoped she had not broken his nose as she sprinted for another door to go through.
"KAGOME!!"
"I'M SORRY!!!" she yelled over her shoulder.
Inuyasha got up, as his nose started to mend. It hadn't broken, so it should be good as new in about an hour.
He yanked open the door, crossed the room in a leap, and dashed out into the hall.
"KAGOME!! THIS ISN'T FUNNY!!"
A door down the hall slammed shut in response.
He dashed down the hall and smirked as he reached the door. He knew where he was in the castle. This room was a dead end.
He opened the door and looked around.
The window was open.
He cursed. "I REALLY didn't want to chase her around all night, but damnit, what is wrong??" he muttered to himself. He leapt out the window and followed the trail of ivy down the side of the castle wall.
Kagome smirked. Her plan had worked. He hadn't even bothered to check if she was still in the room. The open window allowed him to assume what had happened. She crawled out from under a covered table she had been hiding under and ran out into the hall. While he was hunting around outside looking for her, she could get some rest.
...Now where was her room...
Kagome looked around for a maid that perhaps would know her way around.
"Excuse me?" she asked a passing servant.
The girl bowed and politely asked what she could do for her.
"I'm...lost." Kagome blushed. "Can you show me to my room?"
The young girl smiled pleasantly and led her up a series of staircases to the hallway that Kagome recognized.
Kagome smiled. "Thank you very much."
The maid bowed and left Kagome in her room.
She prepared for bed, and went to sleep.
'I hope Inuyasha isn't *too* angry in the morning...'
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Inuyasha hunted through ivy. He decided that there was no way she could have gone too far. It was when he realized that he couldn't smell her personal scent anymore, it made him stop and think. He climbed back up into the room. Yes, she had defiantly ran into this room...and she had even opened the window...but...
He furrowed his brows in annoyance. She had only opened the window, making him assume she had gone out it. She escaped. He headed back to his room.
But it made something else nag at him.
Why was she running away from him??
He paled.
No...It couldn't be because...because he was a hanyou? Because she didn't like the idea that he was...that he was what? Better than her? Yea right.
Stronger than her? No...he was a guy, and that already meant that he was a little stronger...and heck, she was pretty strong already.
She wasn't afraid of him, was she?
No, it couldn't be that...he had just held her in his arms......but then she ran away.
Inuyasha thought worriedly about it as he lay on his bed.
The fear had already started eating away at him. He had to know the answer.
And what was the most important thing in his world right now?
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I hope you enjoyed that chapter ^__^
Please review~!
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*sigh*...I reread this fic and I realized how much better the first chapter is...
Oh well...I hope you all like all of the chapters...-_-
Anyways, here it is! 19 pages for your enjoyment!!
The 6th chapter!
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Your...Not so Average Princess...
Chapter 6
Jealous Misunderstandings
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When Kagome returned with the water spritzer, she noticed Kikyo and Fluffy delicately piling sand up with...spoons...
"Um...here's the spritzer, Inuyasha...what should I do now?" she asked while glancing at the well-crafted cylinder of sand.
"This is the one from the kitchen, isn't it." Inuyasha said dully as he took the spritzer from her.
The princess rolled her eyes, "Yes, it is...so sorry that I could not get my royal hands on your mother's IVORY spritzer. Please realize that if I brought it out, she would probably notice it missing, or if we managed to get it back before her noticing, I doubt that she would miss the pile of sand around it."
Inuyasha sighed dramatically.
"I GUESS we'll just have to use THIS one." He muttered with a hint of contempt towards the plastic make of the spritzer in his hand.
He passed it back to her and instructed her to lightly spray the cylinder as he began to carve. Kagome did as she was told as Inuyasha started carving with a butter knife. Kagome observed his graceful movements as he cut out his first turret. As she continued her circle, she glanced over at Sango and Miroku to see how they were doing. Miroku was showing Sango how to cut into the sand to form the triangular roof of a turret. Kagome stopped squeezing the handle of the spritzer so that the sand didn't get too wet. She looked to the soft sand where Kikyo and Fluffy were working.
"I'll be right back, Inuyasha," she muttered more to herself than to him.
She walked up the beach to the shaded area.
"Um...spoons...?" Kagome asked them.
"We'll make our castle, and you can make yours!" was the haughty reply from Kikyo.
"You see, Kagome," Fluffy patently explained, as if everyone should know this, "by using spoons, we can craft the sand pile and not get sand stuck up our nails! You should do that too, because you're nails are important," (Kagome glanced at the navy-blue band-aid on Fluffy's cheek, and nodded as if understanding completely) "and also, your hands don't get dirty and they stay as soft as cream!"
Kagome glanced at her own hands, that were rougher than a princess's should be, because of all the tree-climbing, horseback riding, sword fighting, and outdoor activities that she did.
She then looked at their pathetic pile of soft sand.
"I can see that you two are going to be here until the time limit." She observed.
"Well we won't be going past it!" Kikyo snapped.
"Duh! You're not allowed to!" Kagome rudely reminded her.
"Hey Kagome!" Inuyasha called her, "You gonna gossip with the commoners all day, or are you going to come and help?"
Kagome grinned as she jogged back out into the sun.
"Here you go," he passed her one of the butter knives. "It'll be easier if you mark the tiles on this turret's roof, instead of carving the turret itself." He told her.
She got to work on the tiles, which weren't easy at all.
'None of this would be easy,' she chided herself, after she mentally complained at how imperfect her roof was, 'so why does he have to make it look like it would be???'
She glanced over at her sister's 'castle' for reassurance, and as a wind blew out of nowhere, she felt her confidence return as the top of the dry 'castle' blew away. She returned to her work of trying to mimic Inuyasha's roof tiles.
After a few more fruitless tries, she decided to try lightly drawing the stones that built the castle. THIS, she found, was easy. It was lightly tracing lines and as bits of sand fell from the blocks when she drew them, they looked irregular and because the blocks in a castle aren't perfect, it looked good.
Inuyasha smiled as he looked over at her progress. He liked the fact that she knew she was bad at doing the roof tiles and then tried doing something on her own. He still walked over to her to make a suggestion.
"Don't do the blocks all over the turrets, okay?"
"How come?"
He looked for better words than 'It looks better'.
"...have you ever seen a water painting of a castle?" he asked her.
She thought for a second and then nodded.
"Okay, so on the walls you'll notice that there aren't blocks everywhere."
"...right...I see what you're saying." She nodded with the light of realization in her eyes.
"One, it looks better, and two, it won't take you all day." He grinned encouragingly at her.
"It makes it look...older...doesn't it?" she thought out loud.
Inuyasha turned that statement over in his head.
"Yea...you're right..."
Kagome returned to her art with a new passion.
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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARAGH!!"
Sango's outburst caused Miroku to look up.
"What is it, Lady Sango?"
"This darned, cursed, window ledge keeps falling off!!" she snarled in a very unladylike manner.
"Hmm..."
Miroku wandered over to Inuyasha's castle.
"May we borrow your spritzer?" he politely asked.
"One sec." Kagome stopped her block building and lightly sprayed the castle over to keep it moist.
"Here you go!" she handed it to him cheerfully.
"Why thank you, Lady Kagome!" Miroku bent down and kissed her hand when he took the spritzer from her.
To the four of them (Kagome, Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango), this was good manners. A little overdoing it, but that was all part of Miroku's charm.
But Fluffy looked at him with resentment.
"How does HE get to kiss her hand without getting slapped, and yet I, Sesshomaru, the heir to the throne, get another injury to my face for it?" he puzzled hard about it.
"I would say something critical and mean, but this IS Miroku that we're talking about..." Kikyo commented dryly.
"Kikyo, DEAREST," he added sarcastically, "Why do you want Inuyasha?"
Kikyo sighed and then became 'girly'.
"Because he's so STRONG! He rides horses, and fights with swords...Hero material!"
'Hero material??' Fluffy thought bitterly. 'But if that's what Kagome sees in him, too, then all I need to do is tone up!" He thoughts became excited.
Eagerly, he returned to work.
(Sadness)
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2 hours later...
As much as Fluffy tried to pack down the dry, loose, sand, it would not stick. (no surprise there...)
He pushed the sand (with spoons) into a small, conical shape.
"Does it have to be a castle?" he hollered at Miroku, who had set the rules. "Or can it be a pyramid?"
Miroku gave him a look.
"This is a sandCASTLE contest, my dear lord Sesshomaru."
Fluffy sighed.
"I am at the mercy of my brother and his best friend...all for my precious Kagome...HOW did this happen?"
Kikyo's slow mind finally processed that SHE could ask FLUFFY what he saw in Kagome. That could be the key to winning over Inuyasha's heart!
Not really.
"So Fluffy...what DO you see in Kagome?" she purred.
"She's really pretty...no, I mean damn sexy...I mean look at her in that bikini!" he exclaimed.
Fluffy is a very shallow person.
'Damn sexy?' Kikyo thought, 'Her??
"And what's wrong with my bikini?" Kikyo asked, referring to her black and off-white, 'spray painted on', target swimsuit.
"...you look like you're naked."
"Isn't that 'sexy'??" Kikyo was confused.
"Yes, but on you it looks like something out of a horror movie. The dead weeds in your hair add to that effect."
"They aren't weeds!" Kikyo cried out indignantly, "They're baby's breath!"
"...But you don't deny the fact that they're dead?" Fluffy asked to confirm.
"Well, I brought them from MY home by the mountains, so they're probably only 2 weeks old..."
"Anything THAT dead deserves a coffin..." came a mumbled reply.
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"Why is your sister's face so...pale?" Inuyasha questioned to make conversation.
Kagome shrugged, "I don't know. This is probably the longest she's ever been out in the sun. I asked her if she had bleach injected into her skin before I was born but she asked me what bleach was."
"Well, if she didn't know what it was, maybe she dumped it on her face thinking that it was face cream...that's what my brother did."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Well...no...but you see...he has a whole lot of bottles in his bathroom and being the prankster that I was (and still am), I poured bleach into two of them...his hair used to be black, by the way."
"...YOU BLEACHED HIS HAIR???"
Inuyasha grinned wickedly but it soon dissolved into a pout.
"Mine used to be black, too."
Sibling rivalry at its high points.
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It was five o'clock when Sango and Miroku stood back and marveled at their work of art.
"Are we done, Miroku?"
"Yup! Proud of your work?"
Sango nodded eagerly. "Thanks for helping me, too!!" she hugged him around the neck.
Kagome looked up and grinned at her friend's castle.
"How much more needs to be done, Inuyasha?"
"We're done! Great art-work, Kagome!"
She grinned. "Thanks~!"
All of them looked over at the mound of sand that Fluffy and Kikyo were now delicately placing shells on.
"...Indeed..."
"There's still sunlight, out! Would you like to play in the water?" Miroku asked.
Kagome laughed as she ran into the salty liquid and dragged Sango after her. Inuyasha jumped in and shoved them both over into the soft sand and Miroku charged in after him and shoved Inuyasha over. Kagome suddenly gagged on the salt water she had just swallowed.
As Inuyasha whacked her on the back he explained, "Don't get the water in your eyes, either. It really stings."
Kagome peered into his eyes. For points, she made them look like she was gazing into them.
'She's...she's looking at me...in front of everybody else...' Inuyasha started breathing faster, whether it was out of 'romance' or embarrassment, I'm not too sure.
"Huh? What are you doing, Kagome?" Inuyasha became nervous.
"So...THAT'S why you're eyes are all funny look'n..." she teased, "You opened your eyes up underwater too many times..."
It took a second for her statement to sink in.
"Why you...!!" He charged at her and she giggled as she raced away from him.
"Ah...love is in the air~!" Miroku sang after them.
They both froze and then glared at them.
"C'est L'Amour~!" Sango added dramatically.
Their glares became icy.
Miroku sidled over to Sango. "Um...why do I get the feeling that we're a new killing target?"
She gave him 'the look'.
"Hmm...good question..."
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Inside the castle...
... "I see...Well then, we will always welcome you here at court, for your father is a great friend of mine. My two sons and the Kingdom Shikon's two princesses are currently outside, down at the beach." He turned to a servant that was standing at ready, "Take Lord Naraku to his room where he can change to join the others."
The servant rushed to obey and Lord Naraku followed.
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"Hey Inuyasha...Miroku...who's that man...coming towards us...?" Sango pointed.
"Huh?" Both boys looked up.
An audible gasp escaped their throats and the girls even heard Fluffy gasp.
"It's...it's...Naraku..." Fluffy hissed.
"Who?" Sango asked curiously.
"Naraku. He's mean. And he stole my pillow once. The furry one with a picture of a teddy bear on it." Fluffy explained matter-of-factly.
"He's not very nice." Inuyasha muttered to Kagome. "Just stay clear of him."
She nodded in response.
"Oh, he's coming this way..." Fluffy continued to hiss venomously.
They all looked at him.
"Thank you, Fluffy, I didn't notice." Sango dryly remarked.
Naraku reached them. "Well, well, well, if we aren't all playing in the sand!!" he said pleasantly. Kagome, however, noticed the falseness of his smile.
She smiled back, however, but was on her guard incase he made a move to touch the castle she and Inuyasha had carefully constructed.
Naraku checked out Sango and Miroku's castle, and then Kagome and Inuyasha's. Then he turned, sneered at Kikyo's castle (who, by the way, was staring starry-eyed (for whatever reason) at Naraku), and then walked ankle deep into the water.
"Hello, Inuyasha." Naraku smiled smoothly. "Aren't you going to introduce me to you're new friends?"
Inuyasha stepped in front but did not smile back. "This is Princess Kagome, of Shikon, and her lady-in-waiting, Lady Sango."
(Kagome snickered inwardly as she noticed he didn't introduce Kikyo.)
"Charmed I'm sure." Naraku checked the two of them out.
Kagome and Sango smiled pleasantly, but their smiles did not extend to their eyes. They privately decided to be nice to Naraku, until he became unworthy of their good side.
"So, it's been a while since I've been here..." Naraku started. "Shall we explore the waters?"
Miroku shook his head. "It's not a good time of day to see the fish, and plus, if you want to explore the underwater caves, you have to do that in the morning."
"Ah yes, I should have remembered..."
They all sort of stood around. It was like Naraku showed up and automatically, all activity stopped. He made them feel a little uncomfortable, and he just didn't seem like the kind of person that would fit in with the four of them.
"I don't suppose we could just get the masks and flippers..." Miroku started uncertainly. "And then we could just...swim around...?"
Everyone sort of looked at him, waiting for someone else to move first.
"Excellent idea, Miroku!!" Inuyasha gave him an over-enthusiastic pat on the back, in thanks for breaking the uneasy silence, and then dragged Miroku off to get enough equipment for the five of them.
Kagome shot Naraku a sideways glance and noticed that he was *still* checking her out. Her mind ticked and she was about to turn and glare at him, when he adverted his gaze towards Sango. The look he was giving Sango was pure predatory. Kagome then glanced at Sango, who was staring after Miroku and Inuyasha. Kagome was slightly afraid of what Sango would do if she knew this guy was staring at her, and she assumed Naraku didn't know Sango was already taken. So...
"Isn't he CUTE??" Kagome squealed in Sango's ear.
Sango jumped.
"Huh? Who??"
"Inuyasha!!" Kagome exclaimed.
She mentally hit herself in the head. She realized that she should have said Miroku, if she was trying to ward Naraku away.
"Huh? Oh, yea, he is, actually~!"
"But then so is Miroku." Kagome recovered slyly.
The face she got from Sango was exactly the reaction she was looking for. Sango smiled peacefully, her brown eyes softened.
"He's more than cute, Kagome..." she said.
"Yea, but I can't look at him the way you do. Now Inuyasha on the other hand..." she smirked.
"No, I know Inuyasha is cute and all, but Miroku's better!"
"Well I guess from *your* perspective..."
"I mean, he's so cuddly~!" she squealed.
"Uh..." Kagome couldn't and didn't share that view of him.
"And he does have a 6-pack..."
Naraku has a 6-pack.
"Uh, right, and his, uh, arms are really strong too..." Kagome started finding this a little more difficult than she anticipated. I mean, she was trying to describe her best friend's boyfriend and make him sound better than her own guy *and* the bad guy she was trying to ward away.
"Oh I know!! And I like his hair too~!"
"Uh...yea!! I mean it's not too long or anything!!" Kagome stated with a smirk, because Naraku's hair was *much* longer than Miroku's...but then so was Inuyasha's...
She mentally banged her head against an invisible wall.
"Uh, err, I mean, It's perfect for HIM!! Uh, cause Inuyasha's hair is a *perfect* length for *him*, you know what I mean?"
Sango started glancing at Kagome funny.
"Uh....yea...." she said.
'I'm in trouble...' Kagome thought.
"And...and...and..." Kagome fought to save herself from this hole she was digging herself into, "...and...AND HE DOESN'T WEAR MAKEUP!!" She exclaimed...and then started mentally shooting herself with an invisible gun.
Fluffy looked up. "What's that about somebody not wearing makeup?" he called.
"NOTHING!!" Kagome screamed back.
It was true though. Naraku was wearing eye makeup.
Bishie.
"...Kagome...?" Sango looked at Kagome as if Kagome had just confessed to her that she was growing another toe, and it was going to be multi-colored and grow tulips, with a side order of fries.
"Well, he, uh, doesn't wear makeup...right?"
"....right...but where'd *that* come from...?"
"MY HEAD!!"
"Ah, right..."
Inuyasha and Miroku returned. Kagome shot a glance at Naraku, who looked as if he had not heard a thing the two of them had said.
'Idiot.' She thought.
*
* * *
*
~*Kagome's POV*~
I walked backwards into the water, just as I had been instructed, and then tripped. Again. Over what? THESE STUPID FLIPPERS!!!
Not just because of the flippers, mind you, but also because the tide threw me off balance. The tide is amazingly strong when you're only ankle-deep and graceful 'ol me fell face-first into the wet sand. I struggled to get back up again, but the tide washed over my head, causing me to swallow a mouthful of salt water. It made me want to puke. But instead I gagged, and coughed.
I was a pile of sand, hair, salt, and flippers. For the second time, too.
I felt gentle hands pull me up and then carefully straighten my hair. I coughed some more and then sighed pitifully at Inuyasha.
"Man, I thought you were invincible! You can beat me at sword fighting, and archery and you ride hella fast on horses...but you can't walk into the water with flippers?" he teased.
My pitiful look turned deadly and I shoved him roughly into the salty water.
Causing me to lose my balance.
Making me fall.
Again.
And I fell face-first into the sand, and the tide washed over my head, causing me to swallow a mouthful of salt water, making me gag.
Does any of this sound remotely familiar?
I sighed, as I managed to get myself upright again. I watched Inuyasha get himself up again, as I continued to walk backwards. I was now knee-deep. And a huge wave came crashing down on me. I *would* have screamed with impatiens if I hadn't been underwater. The only reason why I hadn't given up yet was because my mask was firmly in place and I could still see. The wave passed, and I stood up. Inuyasha reached me (somehow the guy didn't manage to fall over like I did the third time), and scooped me up into his arms. I blushed, and was obvious to the whoops from my oh-so-closest-friends that were already out further and swimming (Sango and Miroku), but clung on to his neck.
When we were waist deep, Inuyasha looked around, said, "We're here", and then dropped me. Literally.
Instinctively I inhaled, but I went down kicking and throwing punches at him for dropping me.
He laughed playfully and then dove into the water, towards Miroku and Sango. I followed, still grumpy, as best as my swimming capability allowed. I wasn't the best swimmer, as I had only really swum in a small lake, but I was impressed with the power the flippers gave me. I caught up relatively quickly, and did not fail to notice that we were no longer touching the ground.
"Ready to look underwater?" Inuyasha grinned.
I blinked. I hadn't yet done that, and when I was being spun around in the turbulent tide, all I had seen was muddy sand.
I looked underwater and gasped (as best as you can gasp underwater).
It was like a whole new world underwater! There was massive coral that was 20 feet high, and as I looked farther out, I saw the water get deeper and the coral get bigger. I saw a few rainbow colored fish swim together amongst the coral and then disappear inside. There was anemone of all sorts swaying back and forth with the slight current of the tide, but the thing that caught my attention was how blue the water was! It was just like in the pictures: Aquamarine but became a deep blue the farther I looked out.
I pulled my head up for air.
"Well?" Inuyasha grinned.
I stared at him with wondrous eyes while opening and closing my mouth, looking for the right adjective to use.
"...whoa..." was all I managed to say.
"Any other words you like to use, or does that just sum it up?" He just gave me his smile and then all the adjectives I meant to use came tumbling out: "Incredible, breathtaking, amazing, wondrous, exhilarating, elating, thrilling, exciting, astonishing, bewildering, fabulous..." I babbled.
He grinned as I stopped for air.
"Wow. All those words right off the top of your head, and none repeated." He congratulated me.
I decided to stop blabbering and glanced over at Sango...and watched her do the same thing with Miroku.
"*I* don't see what's so impressive." Naraku drawled from a short distance away. "It's just the sea."
Inuyasha scowled at him.
"Maybe so, Naraku, but if you will be kind enough to notice, I didn't actually use the word 'impressive'." I smirked.
Naraku narrowed his eyes at me, but turned away and dove under the surface.
"Can we explore underwater?" Sango asked excitedly, breaking the building tension.
"No....You can't!! I'm not going to let you, *even though* I have no way of stopping you..." Miroku sarcastically remarked.
Sango pouted.
Miroku's sarcasm faltered as he saw her lip tremble.
"You're not going to cry, are you??" he asked worriedly. He, like Inuyasha, hated it when girls cried, especially if it was because of them. Miroku, however, didn't often make girls cry...
"OF *COURSE* NOT!!" Sango thundered at him. "I ONLY ASK IF I CAN DO SOMETHING BECAUSE IT'S POLITE!!!!"
Miroku whimpered.
"You can't go down that deep without an air tank and such. The pressure is a bit much." Inuyasha warned gently.
I squealed with delight and then dove under.
The scenery took my breath away again (you know what I mean. If it took my breath away, I'd be drowning. I'm not drowning.). I kicked hard and felt my body be propelled deeper. I kicked again and as I swam deeper, I felt my mask squish tighter to my face. I kept kicking until I was amongst the coral. There were no fish around, except for tiny ones. They were actually really pretty to look at, when they kept still enough. I was fairly deep now and the pressure felt like it was going to crush my chest. Someone tugged on my flipper and I spun around to see Inuyasha holding out his hand. I took it and as he dragged me up to the surface, I felt the pressure around me lessen until my lungs expanded and were struggling for oxygen. I gasped as we broke through the surface.
"Cripes! I really *do* need to keep an eye on you!!" Inuyasha berated me as he breathed heavily. "*I* didn't even go *that* deep on my first time down!"
"Yea, but I'll bet the first time you went down was when you were just an itty bitty boy." I teased.
"Kagome, don't go too deep with out oxygen. The last thing I need is for you to be unconscious on the bottom of the ocean because you ran out of air and the pressure squashed the rest of it out of you." He shook his head at me.
"Oh come ON. It wasn't THAT bad!!"
"It could have been."
"It's called drowning, right?"
"Basically."
I sighed. "Well *that's* no fun, anymore if I can't swim deep!!"
I watched him roll his eyes.
Off on shore I saw a servant come out, talk to Fluffy and Kikyo for a brief moment and then disappear back into the castle.
Sesshomaru stood up and walked to the waters edge.
"INUYASHA??" he hollered out to us. "FATHER SAYS IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR DINNER!!"
Inuyasha smirked at Miroku, who smirked back.
"FATHER SAYS TOUCH YOUR ARM!!" Inuyasha hollered back to Fluffy.
"FATHER SAYS TOUCH YOUR LEG!!" Miroku followed.
"FATHER SAYS SPIN AROUND!!!"
"FATHER SAYS HOP ON ONE FOOT!!"
Sesshomaru yelled insanely on the beach and then ran inside covering his ears.
I glanced at the two of them. "...?"
They both grinned at Sango and I and said something similar to "inside joke".
The two of us nodded as if understanding perfectly.
Naraku just looked at them with a face that said "childish and immature."
But who cares what Naraku has to say?
*
* * *
*
~*Authors POV*~
"...You want us to judge your sandcastles?"
Kagome and Sango nodded, while everyone else finished their meal. "At 7:00 tonight."
"All four of us?"
The six of them nodded.
Inuyasha's father sighed. "Well, that leaves us one hour."
Kikyo and Fluffy excused themselves from the table.
The four remaining contestants smirked and then excused themselves, to follow.
When the four of them arrived at the beach they were greeted with the site of Fluffy wailing and pounding the ground like a baby, and Kikyo staring blankly at a spot in the dirt.
"...What happened?" Kagome asked with wonder.
"OUR CASTLE!! IT BLEW AWAY!!!" Fluffy continued to wail.
Miroku turned his snickering in to a cough.
"...We worked SO hard..." Kikyo said blankly.
An insane light came across Fluffy's face. "WE WILL FINISH!!!"
He bent down, and with his 'oh-so-carefully-manicured-work-of-art-nails' he started to dig madly in the sand, flinging the sand at Kikyo (who shrieked and fell over).
He didn't stop. Even though Kikyo was still there, he continued to pile sand on top of her.
Kagome was quite enjoying this. Her sister was getting buried in the sand because she was too weak to move the huge bundle off of her. And being the oh-so-helpful sister that she was, she ran and got the spritzer.
"Here you go, Sesshomaru~! You wouldn't want your castle to crumble, now would you?"
"Oh, of course not, my sweet buttercup!!" he said gallantly as he took the spritzer from her.
She gagged.
Kikyo glared at Kagome as she continued to shriek insanities at Fluffy for treating her so horribly.
"MY NAILS!! AND MY SKIN!! AND *GASP* MY HAIR!!!!!"
Fluffy ignored her as he continued to dump sand on her.
As 7:00 rolled around, and the kings and queens (makes this whole contest sound very important, doesn't it?) of Shikon and Tetsusaiga walked to the beach, Fluffy piled the sand on top of Kikyo's head (muffling her shrieks of protest) and covered the pile of sand with shells, stones, and seaweed.
It looked....well, I'll just leave my opinion out of this.
Kagome's parents gapped at the castles. They, too, had never seen a sand castle before now, really.
"OoOoh~! I like THIS one!!" Kagome's mother squealed, as she went and stood next to Kagome and Inuyasha's castle.
"And *I* like *this* one!!" Inuyasha's mother giggled, and went to stand next to Sango and Miroku's.
Each parent picked their castle.
"Sesshomaru...Where is your castle?" his mother asked him, as she went and stood on the mound of sand (covered in seaweed, stones, and shells) to get a better look around the beach.
Fluffy whimpered and fainted.
The mound of sand squirmed beneath his mother's foot and then screamed. His mother fainted and so did Kagome's, while Kagome herself and Sango cracked up.
Inuyasha, meanwhile, was doing a victory dance, and then grabbed Kagome.
"WE WON~! WE WON~!" he yelled.
Kagome blinked in realization as she noticed that three parents were standing by her castle, and then ran to the water, splashing amongst the waves, while whooping in victory.
"Hmph," muttered Miroku, "bad winners."
Kagome stuck out her tongue, "Sore losers~!!"
Sango nudged Miroku in the ribs. "That's my best friend you're talking about. Besides, Fluffy didn't win." She winked.
They both glanced at Fluffy, who was still lying in a faint.
Suddenly, from the packed pile of sand came a pitiful cry. "Inuyashaaa~!!!!"
Inuyasha glanced up and saw Kikyo sadly trying to get out of the sand.
Kagome walked over with him. "Hm...Fluffy did a good job mummifying you."
Kikyo shot her another nasty glare.
The light went on in Inuyasha's head and his shoulder angle was blown to pieces. ^___^
Inuyasha sighed dramatically. "Aww, poor Kikyo. That was *really* mean of Fluffy, now wasn't it?"
Kikyo pouted at him and the nodded as best as she could.
"Here, let me help you out of there." Inuyasha smiled benignly at her.
Kagome's blood boiled.
'...What's he doing??' she thought.
Inuyasha's clawed hands dug Kikyo out in a matter of minutes.
"There you go!" he continued in his honey-sweet voice. "Oh, Kikyo! I've got a beautiful spot on the beach I'd like to show you~!"
Kikyo's eyes sparkled at the attention, while Kagome looked like she was going to snap.
'What the HELL is he doing??' she thought. 'He hasn't shown me *any* special spot of his...why her?'
Sango and Miroku watched him with curiosity, knowing that he was going to do something to Kikyo, but weren't sure what.
"Hop on." Inuyasha winked flirtatiously at Kikyo.
"...hop on?"
"Yea~!" He tossed Kikyo onto his back and then sped off at a high speed.
".....he's....fast..." Sango commented.
Miroku blinked. "Well, he *is* a hanyou. He didn't tell you that?"
Both girls blinked.
Kagome's anger deteriorated to confused sadness. '...he's a hanyou?' she wondered to herself, 'I never thought of it...but...why didn't he tell me? That's so cool! But, why does Kikyo get a ride on his back? I want one too! ...and I thought he hated Kikyo...'
"He's a hanyou? I guess he is." Sango commented.
"Did you know that, Kagome-chan?" Miroku asked curiously.
"...No, I didn't. I never thought much of his ears...I assumed he was a demon, but he acted so human, I just didn't care what he was. I never knew he could run so fast and carry...someone else." She said, wondering why they were taking this so lightly, when inside she felt a pinch at her heart. "Is Fluffy a hanyou, too?"
Miroku smiled grimly. "Nope. Our wussy Sesshomaru is indeed a full demon. The only reason Inuyasha doesn't get the crap beaten out of him daily is because Fluffy is scared he will break a nail."
'I wonder why he didn't tell me.' Kagome thought to herself and then started berating herself as she felt tears start to burn at the back of her eyes. She wouldn't cry. Not just because Inuyasha's attention was divided for a moment.
Sango glanced at Kagome. "Is something wrong, Kagome?"
Kagome blinked. Out loud she smiled and said "Nothing is wrong, Sango-chan," (adding the 'chan' to the end of her name to lighten things up) but inside she started yelling 'IS SOMETHING WRONG? IS SOMETHING WRONG?? OF COURSE THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG!! THE GUY I REALLY LIKE, JUST CARRIED OFF MY BITCHY SISTER ON HIS BACK TO SHOW HER A PLACE THAT HE CALLES SPECIAL. HE'S NEVER CARRIED *ME* ON HIS BACK, NOR HAS HE *EVER* SHOWED ME *ANY* PLACE THAT HE LIKES. ...except for the top of the cliff that over-looks the ocean....BUT I FOUND THAT ON MY OWN!!! SO IS ANYTHING WRONG, SANGO? YES THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG. EVERYTHING'S WRONG!!!'
"I'm gonna go see what's happening!" Miroku exclaimed.
Sango grabbed his hand and followed, expecting Kagome to come too.
'...it's his 'beautiful spot'...I don't know if it's right to intrude...' she thought.
She turned to go to bed, feeling sad. Inuyasha had never told her that he was a hanyou.
So what if she'd never asked? What was she supposed to ask?
Kagome snorted at the idea: 'Hi, so what exactly *are* you?'
Right, like that would go reeeeally well... and Sango and Miroku hadn't even noticed that she hadn't followed.
She stepped over Fluffy, who was now waking up.
*
* * *
*
"...Oh Kikyo, isn't it nice?" Inuyasha asked cheesily.
Kikyo didn't see why it was so much better than in front of the castle, but wanting to stay on Inuyasha's good side she enthusiastically agreed. "Oh, it's so marvelous, Inuyasha!!!!! Thank you for showing me!!! Did you know how *strong* your back is?? It's so nice...you should give me rides more often~!"
Inuyasha let his fake smile grace his features as he thought 'What am I, a pony?'.
His nose told him that Sango and Miroku had arrived for the fun. He extended his sense of smell as far as it could go to find how far behind Kagome was...but then realized that she hadn't followed.
Kikyo interrupted his thoughts. "But I really wish I could have a bath. I'm all covered in sand..."
'Now *that* was the line I was looking for!!' Inuyasha thought with a smirk.
"A bath? Come with me~!" He picked her up princess style and leapt to the dock
Miroku smirked as he saw what Inuyasha was going to do.
Inuyasha sighed, with Kikyo still in his arms, "It isn't fresh water but-" he dropped her into the salt water "It's better than nothing, right?" he grinned wickedly at her.
Kikyo started splashing around.
"...Inuyasha..." Sango stared dully at Kikyo, "...she's drowning..."
"...how?"
"Just look at her! Does it look like she's swimming?"
" well no......but there's like...three feet of water..."
"...I know...she can't swim in the bathtub. She needs a small one so that she can stay upright."
Inuyasha squinted his eyes in disgust. "I didn't need that image of Kikyo sitting in a bathtub, Sango."
Sango smirked. "Oh yea, and she sings in the tub, too, did you know?"
Inuyasha shuddered. "Yes, Sango, I did know. I heard her once. I was all the way down the hall, even."
Sango snorted.
"...Um...I don't suppose one of us should save her...?" Miroku asked innocently as he watched the pitiful figure splash around in the water.
"You can. I'm going to bed." Inuyasha turned and leapt from the dock to the beach and then took off in bounding leaps, that the rest of them (save Miroku) had no idea he was capable of demonstrating.
Sango looked around as Miroku waded into the water to drag the poor, idiotic princess out.
"Where's Kagome?"
Miroku looked up. "...good question."
"I'll ask her later." Sango shrugged.
*
* * *
*
Something was nagging at Inuyasha as he gracefully landed in front of the castle. Why had Kagome not followed? They had just won the contest that they had spent most of the day on. Watching Kikyo drown in three feet of water would have been the *perfect* way to end a glorious day.
Another thing caught his attention: "...Did you know how *strong* your back is?? It's so nice...you should give me rides more often~!"
Kikyo had said that, and it just now caught his attention that Kagome had never said anything like that to him. It didn't seem like something Kagome would say but she'd never had the chance to because she'd never gotten a ride from him.
And there was a reason for that.
He'd never mentioned that he was a hanyou. It had been hard enough being a prince to be accepted by others, but to be shadowed by your older brother because he's so much stronger than you and always will be made it harder. He didn't want her to know what he was. People had never liked him much for it. The only reason they liked him *as much* as his brother was because his brother was a wuss and he wasn't.
He slapped himself on the forehead.
'Perhaps bounding across the sand with another person on my back, *and* moving faster than Miroku could run without someone on his back, wasn't the best idea.' He sighed to himself.
A new idea of fear burrowed deep inside of him.
Maybe she didn't follow because she didn't like the fact that he was a hanyou. Was she that picky? Dear God, he hoped not. She was all he wanted. As long as he could have her, then he would be happy.
He blinked.
Was that true? He decided to ponder the idea as he went to sleep. What was the most important thing in his life?
He supposed things would work out in the morning.
*
* * *
*
Kagome lay on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.
Was she being stupid? Not really...
Why didn't he tell her??? That was the main thing that was bugging her.
'What, is he afraid that I won't like him or something?? Does he think I'm that dense?? ...so confused...maybe I am being stupid.'
Sango entered her room.
"Where were you?" she asked with curiosity.
"He never told me he was a hanyou." Kagome decided to not dance around the reason and just jump to the facts.
"So?"
"Would you expect Miroku to tell you something like that?"
"...hm...I suppose I would. But think of it this way, Kagome-chan: For Inuyasha, being a hanyou can't be easy. I mean, they're really rare, and most humans are afraid of anything more powerful than them, and full demons always look down on them. He was probably afraid of your response to it."
Kagome squinted her eyes trying to work the pieces together. "Does he really think I'm like that, Sango-chan?"
Sango shrugged. "Probably not, but who knows? He may have taken a chance at telling someone before, and they probably responded in the worst ways."
"...and why did you guys follow Inuyasha when he took Kikyo to his 'special spot'? It sounded to me like he wanted some privacy, or something..."
Sango nearly fell of the bed. "KAGOME!! It was a friggen joke!!! He actually dumped Kikyo into the water off of the dock!!!"
"...oh..."
"...she almost drowned..."
Kagome still looked a little glum.
Sango sighed. "Kagome-chan, I'm going to add a new word to your dictionary. It's called jealousy."
"..."
"Do you know what that word means?" Sango teased.
"...I am NOT jealous..."
Sango grinned. "You *are* too~! Ooh wait till Inuyasha finds out!!"
"you WILL NOT tell him!!!" Kagome's slight depression melted away to panic. What would Inuyasha think when he found out how stupid she had been, just because of a little jealousy? He would tease her to no end...-.-
Sango grinned, and Kagome could have sworn that she saw devil horns...
Her lady in waiting got up and sang "Kagome's jealous~! Kagome's jealous~!" as she danced out of the door.
"SANGO!! SHUT UP!!!"
Sango stuck her head behind the door and stuck her tongue out at Kagome, "Kagome's jealous~! Kagome's jealous~!"
A new voice sounded behind Sango. "What's Kagome jealous of, Sango-chan?"
Kagome's face paled and she ran into the attached bathroom and locked the door, as Sango grinned and turned around to Inuyasha.
"Hm...*I* don't know... Maybe you should go and ask her yourself~!!" She smiled angelically.
'Oh gee thanks, Sango...' Kagome thought exasperatedly.
"Ok," responded Inuyasha.
Sango flounced to the next room over and prepared for bed, while Inuyasha closed the door behind him.
"Kagome?"
Kagome huddled up in the bathroom and didn't make a sound. She was embarrassed for being so stupid, and didn't want to talk about it with him.
But he was not going to let her out of it. ^__^
"...Kagome...?" He rapped lightly on the bathroom door.
Silence.
"..Kagome, I know you're in there. What's up? Why are you hiding from me??"
Kagome ignored him and glanced around the bathroom, to keep herself occupied.
Inuyasha sighed impatiently. "Kagome, don't make me come in there and get you."
Kagome's eyes fell upon a spider. And, damn, it was a huge spider. Oh, and guess what? It was on the ceiling right above her.
Kagome screamed bloody murder and ran out of the room, eyes wide in fear.
"Kagome!! What's wrong??" Inuyasha grabbed her wrist and pulled her in, and held her close.
"fuh...fuh...there's a hell of a big spider in there!!" she gasped.
"hm...would you like me to kill it for you?"
Kagome nodded her head like a woodpecker at a tree.
Inuyasha let go of her and ran into the bathroom with his claws ready, and Kagome took the opportunity to escape from confessing her stupidity. She shut the door behind her and dashed down the hallway to the staircase, while her savior slashed the spider into ribbons.
"...there we go. Nothing to be afraid-" he stopped short, realizing that she was no longer in the room.
He sighed and leapt to the door.
'WHY is she running from me?? I want to know what's wrong, and now I KNOW that there's definitely something up. I'm gonna find out what it is.' He thought.
He inhaled and traced her scent to the staircase.
There was no way she could escape him. Not with his abilities. ^.~
*
* * *
*
Kagome skipped steps until she reached the bottom. She ran down another corridor and picked another flight of stairs to go up.
'I can't keep running from him,' she thought. 'I mean, he's a fricken hanyou. He can run twice as fast as I can... Oh well.'
She breathed evenly as she reached the top of the stairs. She had an eerie feeling that he was close behind, so she picked a door and closed it behind her. It led her to another room with another door. She ran to it and opened it, revealing a hallway. She turned left and ran. Fast.
'Oh look, another staircase.' She thought and went down. She heard the first door that led to the room she had gone through slam shut and as she reached the middle of the stairs, she heard the door that lead to the hallway open and close again. She jumped down the remainder of the stairs, landed heavily and then realized that she needed a plan.
And a plan she had.
It wasn't a very good plan. Chances were it wouldn't work. But it was worth a try.
She dove into a room and stood behind the door, leaving it open. Inuyasha bounded up to the door, with the word 'victory' running through his head, until she slammed the door.
WHAM!
The door shuddered as Inuyasha ran head-on into it.
Inuyasha yelled insanities and cursed in several different languages and Kagome hoped she had not broken his nose as she sprinted for another door to go through.
"KAGOME!!"
"I'M SORRY!!!" she yelled over her shoulder.
Inuyasha got up, as his nose started to mend. It hadn't broken, so it should be good as new in about an hour.
He yanked open the door, crossed the room in a leap, and dashed out into the hall.
"KAGOME!! THIS ISN'T FUNNY!!"
A door down the hall slammed shut in response.
He dashed down the hall and smirked as he reached the door. He knew where he was in the castle. This room was a dead end.
He opened the door and looked around.
The window was open.
He cursed. "I REALLY didn't want to chase her around all night, but damnit, what is wrong??" he muttered to himself. He leapt out the window and followed the trail of ivy down the side of the castle wall.
Kagome smirked. Her plan had worked. He hadn't even bothered to check if she was still in the room. The open window allowed him to assume what had happened. She crawled out from under a covered table she had been hiding under and ran out into the hall. While he was hunting around outside looking for her, she could get some rest.
...Now where was her room...
Kagome looked around for a maid that perhaps would know her way around.
"Excuse me?" she asked a passing servant.
The girl bowed and politely asked what she could do for her.
"I'm...lost." Kagome blushed. "Can you show me to my room?"
The young girl smiled pleasantly and led her up a series of staircases to the hallway that Kagome recognized.
Kagome smiled. "Thank you very much."
The maid bowed and left Kagome in her room.
She prepared for bed, and went to sleep.
'I hope Inuyasha isn't *too* angry in the morning...'
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Inuyasha hunted through ivy. He decided that there was no way she could have gone too far. It was when he realized that he couldn't smell her personal scent anymore, it made him stop and think. He climbed back up into the room. Yes, she had defiantly ran into this room...and she had even opened the window...but...
He furrowed his brows in annoyance. She had only opened the window, making him assume she had gone out it. She escaped. He headed back to his room.
But it made something else nag at him.
Why was she running away from him??
He paled.
No...It couldn't be because...because he was a hanyou? Because she didn't like the idea that he was...that he was what? Better than her? Yea right.
Stronger than her? No...he was a guy, and that already meant that he was a little stronger...and heck, she was pretty strong already.
She wasn't afraid of him, was she?
No, it couldn't be that...he had just held her in his arms......but then she ran away.
Inuyasha thought worriedly about it as he lay on his bed.
The fear had already started eating away at him. He had to know the answer.
And what was the most important thing in his world right now?
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I hope you enjoyed that chapter ^__^
Please review~!
=^.^=