WALKING IN MOONLIGHT
Chapter 2: Hidden Views
"Inuyasha!"
The enraged feminine cry echoed throughout the forest, darkened by the fall of night, as living creatures of all types either stilled or ran for their lives as the furious figure stomped among the trees in search of her prey. The target of her hunt found himself huddled high amid the branches of a large leafy tree overlooking the pond located a short distance away from the village. As unwanted anxiety roiled within him, he became angry as he remembered the gut reaction that had sent him fleeing to this ignoble position before he had thought it through, a completely humiliating action for a hanyou male to run and hide from an angry human female.
That damned flea, he cursed silently, if only the tiny old bastard had kept his trap shut then Kagome would never have known.
He'd caught sight of her and the flea just when he'd come out of the forest, returned from a search on his own of the surrounding area to see if he could pick up any scent of a Shikon shard or a youkai that may possibly have one. The moment she'd looked up at him when she noticed his presence, he'd known immediately that the flea had blabbed it all and had taken off towards the forest the moment she'd started towards him, before he could even hear her speak a word to him on the matter. He'd found himself hidden before he finally came to his senses and realized how foolish he was being.
And was still being.
With a sudden rustling of foliage, Kagome burst onto the scene as she angrily stalked closer to the nearby pool while Inuyasha unconsciously sank back deeper into the tree's concealing leaves before he realized what he was doing. Once he did, he straightened his hunched form, not wanting to do anything stupider than what he'd already done, but he still didn't make his location known. He knew he'd be yelled out, even knew that he'd been wrong though he didn't want to admit it out loud. So he watched as she circled around the pond, searching for him by trying to feel his presence as she did seem to have some ability for detecting youkai energy, while he tried to figure out a way to handle this situation.
Unfortunately, nothing brilliant came to mind.
When she stiffened suddenly, then began purposely heading for some tall dark bushes located opposite from him, he decided he'd had enough. He had no desire to spend the rest of the night in hiding from a human girl of all things and thought that he might as well get it all over with. Besides, no matter how scary her anger was, it usually blew over quickly so all he had to do was put up with a brief moment of unpleasantness. Of course, that didn't mean that he was looking forward to it.
"Hey, stupid!" he called out, freezing her in her tracks before she swung around in confusion to face his general direction. "I'm not over there."
With a rustling of leaves, he dropped from the tree and landed near its base in a crouch. He straightened, crossing his arms and trying to keep a look of unconcern on his face as her eyes narrowed at him and she began stalking towards him silently, vibrations of pent-up rage practically rising off of her like steam off of hot springs. When she finally stopped before him, glaring up at him with her intense gaze, he was able to stop himself from taking a step back at the force of her anger. Barely.
"What," she nearly growled the word as she waved a tattered book under his nose, "did you think you were doing?"
"I was just curious," he said, as if he didn't care.
"Enough to take it out of my room with my permission? You thief!"
"What's the problem?" He was irritated now, at her, at himself, at the whole situation. "You've got it back now."
"But not when I needed it the most! Do you know how long I spent looking for my math book? How worried I was about my make-up test since I couldn't find it to study with?"
He pushed aside the niggling feeling that, if he hadn't known better, he would have called guilt. "So what?"
"'So what?'" she repeated in partial disbelief. "How many times have I told you how important taking those tests are to me?"
"Bah!" he spat, looking away. "You take so many of them, what does just one matter?"
She was silent so long that it worried him and had him glancing back at her. She had stopped glaring at him and stood there with her head bent so that he couldn't see her face. Seeing that, he had a flash of déjà vu back to what had happened several days ago and felt a hint of nervousness overtake him. Her low voice, almost sad, didn't help matters.
"Inuyasha," she said softly, "you really don't care at all what happens to my future, do you?"
"I-I didn't say that," he began anxiously, but was forestalled from saying anything further as she started speaking again.
"No!" Kagome's voice shouted and, just as he'd feared, raised her head to glare at him with that tearful expression that made him feel like dirt. "The only thing you care about is gathering the Shikon shards. Never mind what I feel!"
"Hey," he said nervously as he tried to placate her in the face of her wrath. "It's not that bad. You were able to take the test anyway, right?"
"No thanks to you!" she cried. "It would have gone a lot better if I'd had this," she gave the book another shake, "in the first place!"
"Feh," he snorted, irritated again.
"Also," the hard tone of her voice had him looking at her warily, "I would never have gotten it back, or known where it had gotten to, if I hadn't heard it from Myouga-jiji."
"That was the point," he grumbled. "Damned flea."
"Inuyasha!" her sharp voice silenced him. "I should have heard it from you, not him!"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you took something of mine without asking and it should have been your responsibility to return it, or at the very least tell me about it."
"It's just a book!"
"And one that's important to me!" Then, looking down at the tattered book that had been carelessly tossed aside to weather several days out in the elements of the fields and whatever animals had happened to wander by, she frowned. "Or had been anyway." She glared at him. "Now I'll have to go through the trouble of trying to get a new one."
"I don't see why," he snorted, hating the fact that felt even the slightest bit in the wrong. "What good is it for? Senseless stuff like that is useless. You're better off without it."
"Inuyasha?"
"What?" he asked when he caught her staring at him suspiciously.
"Did you try to read my math book?"
He stiffened as something akin to horror and embarrassment crossed his features. The uncomfortable feelings inside of him only grew worse when he saw her lips twitch in a sign that she was undeniably amused. It was confirmed when she started giggling, any traces of anger she may have felt apparently vanishing with her humor.
"Shut up!" he yelled in irritation. When she didn't stop laughing, not knowing what else to do, he kicked the ground in annoyance which sent dirt scattering across Kagome's lower legs.
"Hey!" she cried, jumping back.
"Feh. Serves you right."
"Geez," she huffed, hands on hips. "You act like such a child sometimes. Is it all males who are like that or just those with youkai blood in particular?" The faint sound of a twig snapping had her eyes flicking to her right but her attention was quickly captured by Inuyasha's words.
"Who are you calling a child, bitch?"
"Well," she said dryly, "none but the one in front of me."
"You talking about me?"
"Who else?"
"I'm older than you!"
"I wasn't talking about physical age."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Kagome merely rolled her eyes as she sat down on one of the large rocks ringing the pond and brushed the dirt off of her lower legs. She grimaced when she noticed that some of it had gone into her shoes and took them off, tilting them upside down and shaking to remove the excess dirt. When they were as clean as she could get them, she slipped them back onto her feet, all of this done while Inuyasha continued to yap around her.
"What did you mean by that, huh? Tell me!"
"Inuyasha!" Kagome was exasperated. She pointed a finger at him and shook it. "Should I use that word?"
He immediately fell silent although it didn't stop him from glaring at her. That is, until his eyes fell on the red slash on the hand that was pointing at him. He stared at it, remembering the battle that had happened recently which had resulted in the acquisition of another Shikon shard found in her own time, no less.
"Is your hand better?" he asked.
"Oh, this?" She looked down at her hand. "It's fine, only a scratch really." She sent him an amused smile. "Why? Are you worried about me?"
"Yes." His eyes widened when he realized what he'd said. "I mean, no!"
"Which is it?"
"Of course I am!" He shifted uncomfortably. "After all, if that weak human body of yours gets sick from even a tiny scratch then you won't be able to detect the Shikon shards."
"Geez, would it kill you to express a little concern?" she asked in irritation.
"I just did!"
"That's what you call concern?"
"What about it?" He was the one who pointed at her this time. "It's your own fault anyway! If you hadn't booted me aside in the first place, then you wouldn't have gotten into that situation or been injured."
"Are you still upset about that?"
Kagome was amazed. She had no idea his feelings could be hurt by such a little thing but here he was, days later, bringing it up again. She'd only wanted to buy a few more days to take her make-up test for math but his refusal to listen to her pleas had made her impatient and she'd toppled him back through the well without thinking about it. It hadn't bothered her until he'd reappeared with her brother Souta at the construction site just when she was about to be attacked by that ugly mass of flesh controlled by the Noh mask. Thinking of how it had almost taken her still caused her to shudder in revulsion. But even in that life-threatening situation, Inuyasha had apparently been so preoccupied with her last words to him that he'd demanded an apology before proceeding to rescue her. In hindsight, she thought it was flattering that her words had had so much effect and kind of sweet. Of course, she could never tell him that or he might really try to kill her.
"Of course not!" Inuyasha was practically yelling as he glared at her. "You told me it was a stupid thing to be upset over since you already said you were sorry so I'm not upset. I'm not upset!" he repeated when she looked amused.
"Okay, okay," she said in a placating tone. "You're not upset."
"That's right. I'm not."
He sat down, arms crossed, and looked so much like a petulant child that it took a lot of effort to prevent herself from bursting into laughter. But she restrained herself, knowing that it would only lead to another argument that she didn't feel like getting into. How long they sat like that, she didn't know. She merely enjoyed the soft sounds of nature as they echoed around them as she deciphered their surroundings as best she could with the aid of the moonlight shining from above. She gazed curiously at the scenery, almost certain that she'd never been here before. But she could be wrong since she was a city girl and different parts of the forest tended to look the same to her.
"Inuyasha?"
"What?" he asked, disgruntled.
"What is this place? I haven't been here before, have I?"
"Of course you haven't," Inuyasha sighed in disgust at the stupid question. "Can't you tell where you are?"
"Hey!" she cried indignantly. "I wasn't raised to live in a forest. I was just following you. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
"Pretty stupid to come to a place you don't know."
A dark eyebrow arched upwards. "Let's not forget whose fault it is that I had to come out here in the first place."
Shoulders hunched, he muttered, "A watering hole."
"What was that?"
A little louder this time, he said, "This place is just a watering hole." At her blank look, he explained, "There are several other bodies of water around the village. This one's the smallest and the furthest away so it's not as useful as the other water sources. No one really comes here except for the animals that are in the area. Especially at night."
Kagome tilted her head curiously. "Do you come here often?"
Inuyasha hesitated then shrugged. "Sometimes."
"I see."
And she did. That statement revealed a lot to her. She'd often wondered where he disappeared to sometimes when he left her alone in the village during the times they stayed overnight in between their travels. Also, Kaede had told her that Inuyasha didn't usually spend his time, especially the nights, in the village during the periods when she returned to her own era which had left Kagome wondering where he did stay while she was away. This was probably the place he disappeared to when he wanted to get away from the village.
She wasn't blind to the way the villagers edged around him or whispered about him behind his back because of his so-called 'tainted' blood and the way Inuyasha acted as if it didn't bother him. She'd had her own share of suspicious glances and whispers thrown her way because of how differently she dressed and how she was in almost constant company of the hanyou and knew it would have been worse if not for the support of Kaede, who was a respected and essential member of the village, and for how they regarded her as the reincarnation of the famed Kikyou who possessed many more abilities than Kagome could be credited for. Unfortunately, the near- worship of her because of who she was supposedly reincarnated after was almost as bad as the veiled aspersions cast her way because of her modern mannerisms and the company she kept. There were times when she just couldn't take it anymore but she found that, when it got to be too unbearable, she could always escape back to the era she belonged to.
Inuyasha couldn't do the same.
She couldn't pity him because she knew he'd hate that but she still felt a bit sad at the unfairness of it. Trapped between the worlds of human and youkai, belonging fully to neither and despised by both because he couldn't seem to claim complete rights to either side, it appeared to be a harsh existence in her mind and she wondered how he'd dealt with it while growing up. At the thought of what Inuyasha's childhood might have been like to shape him into the person he was today, another figure immediately sprang to mind.
Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's half-brother.
She slid a sidelong glance in Inuyasha's direction but he paid no note of it as he gazed off into the distant foliage. She felt a bit guilty for thinking about his half-brother considering what she'd seen done to Inuyasha before. Of course, she'd been near victim to Sesshoumaru's brand of violence herself but, for some reason, it didn't bother her as much. She was more concerned about Inuyasha's feelings towards his half-brother that seemed to be wholeheartedly hostile which was only to be expected considering how his emotions had been toyed with by that false mother figure. She supposed she should tell him about her brief encounter with Sesshoumaru but she couldn't bring herself too since she knew it would only lead to more pointless arguing and would no doubt center around her stupidity.
She didn't need Inuyasha to tell her that her actions concerning Sesshoumaru were foolish.
She'd berated herself many times over her sheer idiocy in getting unnecessarily close physically to the enemy who had tried to kill her. She'd tried to no avail to find an answer behind her actions ever since she'd left Sesshoumaru behind with a bottle of aspirin. Aspirin! As if a youkai lord possessing powers she could never hope to comprehend would need puny human medicine like that. No doubt, he'd thrown it away. What a waste, she thought with an inaudible sigh. If her adventures with Inuyasha continued on like they had been, she had a feeling that aspirin would come in handy on their future travels.
Suddenly she shook her head, trying to free her mind from the odd thoughts of youkai lords and aspirin that had popped up from nowhere and earning a quizzical look from Inuyasha as a result. She smiled weakly, not sure how to answer if he were to ask her what was on her mind. In order to distract him, and her own thoughts, she looked around.
"Inuyasha?" she asked.
"What now?"
"Do you think I can come here whenever I want?"
"Why?" He eyed her suspiciously.
She gave a half-hearted shrug. "Sometimes I just want to get away from the village for a little while," she said truthfully. "Not long enough to warrant returning to my home but just away from everyone for a short time."
"Why would you want to get away from them?" His gaze on hers was curious, wondering why a human wants to get away from humans.
Kagome sighed. "Because I don't completely fit in with the rest of the villagers. I'm different from them and you know it." Though he didn't say anything, Kagome somehow knew that he was listening. "I get tired of the whispers and the stares." She grimaced. "Also the occasional person who tries to pray at me. I think that makes me more uncomfortable than the rest and that's when I really want to get away to someplace where none of that can bother me."
Inuyasha mulled her words over in his mind, surprised that they were similar to some of his own sentiments. He thought it was sort of nice that there was someone else who shared those feelings of wanting to be away from time to time, although he'd never tell her that. He looked at her only to find her gazing at him impishly in a manner that was disconcerting to him.
"So," she began. "May I have your permission to come and visit this place?"
"Feh," he snorted, turning away, feeling slightly unsettled. "It's an open forest. You can do what you want."
Kagome grinned, knowing that was as good as permission granted as anything else he could have said. Her grin only widened when the sight of it seemed to discomfit him even more as he suddenly stood up and began striding into the forest. He paused to shoot her a disgruntled look over his shoulder.
"Come on," he barked. "I'll take you back to Kaede-babaa's so you can rest. I don't want to have to carry you all the way when we start traveling again tomorrow."
"Okay," she conceded easily, deciding she'd teased him enough for the night as she followed after him, pausing a brief moment to send a puzzled look over her shoulder.
"Are you coming or not?!"
Inuyasha's irritated yell had her snapping back around and quickly tramping after him, leaving the clearing behind.
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From his position amongst the bushes, Sesshoumaru slowly emerged as he stepped into the recently vacated clearing. He stared impassively in the direction the two figures had disappeared into for a brief moment as the moonlight danced across his features. Soundlessly, he turned in the opposite direction as he did a vanishing act of his own.
The clearing was left as empty as it had been when he had first come upon it.
Chapter 2: Hidden Views
"Inuyasha!"
The enraged feminine cry echoed throughout the forest, darkened by the fall of night, as living creatures of all types either stilled or ran for their lives as the furious figure stomped among the trees in search of her prey. The target of her hunt found himself huddled high amid the branches of a large leafy tree overlooking the pond located a short distance away from the village. As unwanted anxiety roiled within him, he became angry as he remembered the gut reaction that had sent him fleeing to this ignoble position before he had thought it through, a completely humiliating action for a hanyou male to run and hide from an angry human female.
That damned flea, he cursed silently, if only the tiny old bastard had kept his trap shut then Kagome would never have known.
He'd caught sight of her and the flea just when he'd come out of the forest, returned from a search on his own of the surrounding area to see if he could pick up any scent of a Shikon shard or a youkai that may possibly have one. The moment she'd looked up at him when she noticed his presence, he'd known immediately that the flea had blabbed it all and had taken off towards the forest the moment she'd started towards him, before he could even hear her speak a word to him on the matter. He'd found himself hidden before he finally came to his senses and realized how foolish he was being.
And was still being.
With a sudden rustling of foliage, Kagome burst onto the scene as she angrily stalked closer to the nearby pool while Inuyasha unconsciously sank back deeper into the tree's concealing leaves before he realized what he was doing. Once he did, he straightened his hunched form, not wanting to do anything stupider than what he'd already done, but he still didn't make his location known. He knew he'd be yelled out, even knew that he'd been wrong though he didn't want to admit it out loud. So he watched as she circled around the pond, searching for him by trying to feel his presence as she did seem to have some ability for detecting youkai energy, while he tried to figure out a way to handle this situation.
Unfortunately, nothing brilliant came to mind.
When she stiffened suddenly, then began purposely heading for some tall dark bushes located opposite from him, he decided he'd had enough. He had no desire to spend the rest of the night in hiding from a human girl of all things and thought that he might as well get it all over with. Besides, no matter how scary her anger was, it usually blew over quickly so all he had to do was put up with a brief moment of unpleasantness. Of course, that didn't mean that he was looking forward to it.
"Hey, stupid!" he called out, freezing her in her tracks before she swung around in confusion to face his general direction. "I'm not over there."
With a rustling of leaves, he dropped from the tree and landed near its base in a crouch. He straightened, crossing his arms and trying to keep a look of unconcern on his face as her eyes narrowed at him and she began stalking towards him silently, vibrations of pent-up rage practically rising off of her like steam off of hot springs. When she finally stopped before him, glaring up at him with her intense gaze, he was able to stop himself from taking a step back at the force of her anger. Barely.
"What," she nearly growled the word as she waved a tattered book under his nose, "did you think you were doing?"
"I was just curious," he said, as if he didn't care.
"Enough to take it out of my room with my permission? You thief!"
"What's the problem?" He was irritated now, at her, at himself, at the whole situation. "You've got it back now."
"But not when I needed it the most! Do you know how long I spent looking for my math book? How worried I was about my make-up test since I couldn't find it to study with?"
He pushed aside the niggling feeling that, if he hadn't known better, he would have called guilt. "So what?"
"'So what?'" she repeated in partial disbelief. "How many times have I told you how important taking those tests are to me?"
"Bah!" he spat, looking away. "You take so many of them, what does just one matter?"
She was silent so long that it worried him and had him glancing back at her. She had stopped glaring at him and stood there with her head bent so that he couldn't see her face. Seeing that, he had a flash of déjà vu back to what had happened several days ago and felt a hint of nervousness overtake him. Her low voice, almost sad, didn't help matters.
"Inuyasha," she said softly, "you really don't care at all what happens to my future, do you?"
"I-I didn't say that," he began anxiously, but was forestalled from saying anything further as she started speaking again.
"No!" Kagome's voice shouted and, just as he'd feared, raised her head to glare at him with that tearful expression that made him feel like dirt. "The only thing you care about is gathering the Shikon shards. Never mind what I feel!"
"Hey," he said nervously as he tried to placate her in the face of her wrath. "It's not that bad. You were able to take the test anyway, right?"
"No thanks to you!" she cried. "It would have gone a lot better if I'd had this," she gave the book another shake, "in the first place!"
"Feh," he snorted, irritated again.
"Also," the hard tone of her voice had him looking at her warily, "I would never have gotten it back, or known where it had gotten to, if I hadn't heard it from Myouga-jiji."
"That was the point," he grumbled. "Damned flea."
"Inuyasha!" her sharp voice silenced him. "I should have heard it from you, not him!"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you took something of mine without asking and it should have been your responsibility to return it, or at the very least tell me about it."
"It's just a book!"
"And one that's important to me!" Then, looking down at the tattered book that had been carelessly tossed aside to weather several days out in the elements of the fields and whatever animals had happened to wander by, she frowned. "Or had been anyway." She glared at him. "Now I'll have to go through the trouble of trying to get a new one."
"I don't see why," he snorted, hating the fact that felt even the slightest bit in the wrong. "What good is it for? Senseless stuff like that is useless. You're better off without it."
"Inuyasha?"
"What?" he asked when he caught her staring at him suspiciously.
"Did you try to read my math book?"
He stiffened as something akin to horror and embarrassment crossed his features. The uncomfortable feelings inside of him only grew worse when he saw her lips twitch in a sign that she was undeniably amused. It was confirmed when she started giggling, any traces of anger she may have felt apparently vanishing with her humor.
"Shut up!" he yelled in irritation. When she didn't stop laughing, not knowing what else to do, he kicked the ground in annoyance which sent dirt scattering across Kagome's lower legs.
"Hey!" she cried, jumping back.
"Feh. Serves you right."
"Geez," she huffed, hands on hips. "You act like such a child sometimes. Is it all males who are like that or just those with youkai blood in particular?" The faint sound of a twig snapping had her eyes flicking to her right but her attention was quickly captured by Inuyasha's words.
"Who are you calling a child, bitch?"
"Well," she said dryly, "none but the one in front of me."
"You talking about me?"
"Who else?"
"I'm older than you!"
"I wasn't talking about physical age."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Kagome merely rolled her eyes as she sat down on one of the large rocks ringing the pond and brushed the dirt off of her lower legs. She grimaced when she noticed that some of it had gone into her shoes and took them off, tilting them upside down and shaking to remove the excess dirt. When they were as clean as she could get them, she slipped them back onto her feet, all of this done while Inuyasha continued to yap around her.
"What did you mean by that, huh? Tell me!"
"Inuyasha!" Kagome was exasperated. She pointed a finger at him and shook it. "Should I use that word?"
He immediately fell silent although it didn't stop him from glaring at her. That is, until his eyes fell on the red slash on the hand that was pointing at him. He stared at it, remembering the battle that had happened recently which had resulted in the acquisition of another Shikon shard found in her own time, no less.
"Is your hand better?" he asked.
"Oh, this?" She looked down at her hand. "It's fine, only a scratch really." She sent him an amused smile. "Why? Are you worried about me?"
"Yes." His eyes widened when he realized what he'd said. "I mean, no!"
"Which is it?"
"Of course I am!" He shifted uncomfortably. "After all, if that weak human body of yours gets sick from even a tiny scratch then you won't be able to detect the Shikon shards."
"Geez, would it kill you to express a little concern?" she asked in irritation.
"I just did!"
"That's what you call concern?"
"What about it?" He was the one who pointed at her this time. "It's your own fault anyway! If you hadn't booted me aside in the first place, then you wouldn't have gotten into that situation or been injured."
"Are you still upset about that?"
Kagome was amazed. She had no idea his feelings could be hurt by such a little thing but here he was, days later, bringing it up again. She'd only wanted to buy a few more days to take her make-up test for math but his refusal to listen to her pleas had made her impatient and she'd toppled him back through the well without thinking about it. It hadn't bothered her until he'd reappeared with her brother Souta at the construction site just when she was about to be attacked by that ugly mass of flesh controlled by the Noh mask. Thinking of how it had almost taken her still caused her to shudder in revulsion. But even in that life-threatening situation, Inuyasha had apparently been so preoccupied with her last words to him that he'd demanded an apology before proceeding to rescue her. In hindsight, she thought it was flattering that her words had had so much effect and kind of sweet. Of course, she could never tell him that or he might really try to kill her.
"Of course not!" Inuyasha was practically yelling as he glared at her. "You told me it was a stupid thing to be upset over since you already said you were sorry so I'm not upset. I'm not upset!" he repeated when she looked amused.
"Okay, okay," she said in a placating tone. "You're not upset."
"That's right. I'm not."
He sat down, arms crossed, and looked so much like a petulant child that it took a lot of effort to prevent herself from bursting into laughter. But she restrained herself, knowing that it would only lead to another argument that she didn't feel like getting into. How long they sat like that, she didn't know. She merely enjoyed the soft sounds of nature as they echoed around them as she deciphered their surroundings as best she could with the aid of the moonlight shining from above. She gazed curiously at the scenery, almost certain that she'd never been here before. But she could be wrong since she was a city girl and different parts of the forest tended to look the same to her.
"Inuyasha?"
"What?" he asked, disgruntled.
"What is this place? I haven't been here before, have I?"
"Of course you haven't," Inuyasha sighed in disgust at the stupid question. "Can't you tell where you are?"
"Hey!" she cried indignantly. "I wasn't raised to live in a forest. I was just following you. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
"Pretty stupid to come to a place you don't know."
A dark eyebrow arched upwards. "Let's not forget whose fault it is that I had to come out here in the first place."
Shoulders hunched, he muttered, "A watering hole."
"What was that?"
A little louder this time, he said, "This place is just a watering hole." At her blank look, he explained, "There are several other bodies of water around the village. This one's the smallest and the furthest away so it's not as useful as the other water sources. No one really comes here except for the animals that are in the area. Especially at night."
Kagome tilted her head curiously. "Do you come here often?"
Inuyasha hesitated then shrugged. "Sometimes."
"I see."
And she did. That statement revealed a lot to her. She'd often wondered where he disappeared to sometimes when he left her alone in the village during the times they stayed overnight in between their travels. Also, Kaede had told her that Inuyasha didn't usually spend his time, especially the nights, in the village during the periods when she returned to her own era which had left Kagome wondering where he did stay while she was away. This was probably the place he disappeared to when he wanted to get away from the village.
She wasn't blind to the way the villagers edged around him or whispered about him behind his back because of his so-called 'tainted' blood and the way Inuyasha acted as if it didn't bother him. She'd had her own share of suspicious glances and whispers thrown her way because of how differently she dressed and how she was in almost constant company of the hanyou and knew it would have been worse if not for the support of Kaede, who was a respected and essential member of the village, and for how they regarded her as the reincarnation of the famed Kikyou who possessed many more abilities than Kagome could be credited for. Unfortunately, the near- worship of her because of who she was supposedly reincarnated after was almost as bad as the veiled aspersions cast her way because of her modern mannerisms and the company she kept. There were times when she just couldn't take it anymore but she found that, when it got to be too unbearable, she could always escape back to the era she belonged to.
Inuyasha couldn't do the same.
She couldn't pity him because she knew he'd hate that but she still felt a bit sad at the unfairness of it. Trapped between the worlds of human and youkai, belonging fully to neither and despised by both because he couldn't seem to claim complete rights to either side, it appeared to be a harsh existence in her mind and she wondered how he'd dealt with it while growing up. At the thought of what Inuyasha's childhood might have been like to shape him into the person he was today, another figure immediately sprang to mind.
Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's half-brother.
She slid a sidelong glance in Inuyasha's direction but he paid no note of it as he gazed off into the distant foliage. She felt a bit guilty for thinking about his half-brother considering what she'd seen done to Inuyasha before. Of course, she'd been near victim to Sesshoumaru's brand of violence herself but, for some reason, it didn't bother her as much. She was more concerned about Inuyasha's feelings towards his half-brother that seemed to be wholeheartedly hostile which was only to be expected considering how his emotions had been toyed with by that false mother figure. She supposed she should tell him about her brief encounter with Sesshoumaru but she couldn't bring herself too since she knew it would only lead to more pointless arguing and would no doubt center around her stupidity.
She didn't need Inuyasha to tell her that her actions concerning Sesshoumaru were foolish.
She'd berated herself many times over her sheer idiocy in getting unnecessarily close physically to the enemy who had tried to kill her. She'd tried to no avail to find an answer behind her actions ever since she'd left Sesshoumaru behind with a bottle of aspirin. Aspirin! As if a youkai lord possessing powers she could never hope to comprehend would need puny human medicine like that. No doubt, he'd thrown it away. What a waste, she thought with an inaudible sigh. If her adventures with Inuyasha continued on like they had been, she had a feeling that aspirin would come in handy on their future travels.
Suddenly she shook her head, trying to free her mind from the odd thoughts of youkai lords and aspirin that had popped up from nowhere and earning a quizzical look from Inuyasha as a result. She smiled weakly, not sure how to answer if he were to ask her what was on her mind. In order to distract him, and her own thoughts, she looked around.
"Inuyasha?" she asked.
"What now?"
"Do you think I can come here whenever I want?"
"Why?" He eyed her suspiciously.
She gave a half-hearted shrug. "Sometimes I just want to get away from the village for a little while," she said truthfully. "Not long enough to warrant returning to my home but just away from everyone for a short time."
"Why would you want to get away from them?" His gaze on hers was curious, wondering why a human wants to get away from humans.
Kagome sighed. "Because I don't completely fit in with the rest of the villagers. I'm different from them and you know it." Though he didn't say anything, Kagome somehow knew that he was listening. "I get tired of the whispers and the stares." She grimaced. "Also the occasional person who tries to pray at me. I think that makes me more uncomfortable than the rest and that's when I really want to get away to someplace where none of that can bother me."
Inuyasha mulled her words over in his mind, surprised that they were similar to some of his own sentiments. He thought it was sort of nice that there was someone else who shared those feelings of wanting to be away from time to time, although he'd never tell her that. He looked at her only to find her gazing at him impishly in a manner that was disconcerting to him.
"So," she began. "May I have your permission to come and visit this place?"
"Feh," he snorted, turning away, feeling slightly unsettled. "It's an open forest. You can do what you want."
Kagome grinned, knowing that was as good as permission granted as anything else he could have said. Her grin only widened when the sight of it seemed to discomfit him even more as he suddenly stood up and began striding into the forest. He paused to shoot her a disgruntled look over his shoulder.
"Come on," he barked. "I'll take you back to Kaede-babaa's so you can rest. I don't want to have to carry you all the way when we start traveling again tomorrow."
"Okay," she conceded easily, deciding she'd teased him enough for the night as she followed after him, pausing a brief moment to send a puzzled look over her shoulder.
"Are you coming or not?!"
Inuyasha's irritated yell had her snapping back around and quickly tramping after him, leaving the clearing behind.
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From his position amongst the bushes, Sesshoumaru slowly emerged as he stepped into the recently vacated clearing. He stared impassively in the direction the two figures had disappeared into for a brief moment as the moonlight danced across his features. Soundlessly, he turned in the opposite direction as he did a vanishing act of his own.
The clearing was left as empty as it had been when he had first come upon it.