Inuyasha felt sick. He crashed through the bushes to where the blast had
hit, . . . where Kagome had been hiding. When he found her he was shocked.
Her skin was bluish and her lips were purple. She was shaking and her
breathing came in short gasps. She was slowly freezing to death! Inuyasha
glanced at the sky and saw that the sun was setting. He needed to find
shelter, and soon.
" I-I-I-n-n . . . n-u-y-y. . .y-a-a-sh . . .a," came Kagome's weak voice. "S-S . . . S-S-S-o-o-o c-c-c-c . . . o-o-l-l-d-d-d-d-d-d-d." With that she promptly passed out.
He took her up into his arms, slung her pack over his shoulder, and started running. He didn't know where he was running to, somewhere they could get help, hopefully. Luckily, he quickly found a little dwelling. It looked deserted. He kicked the door in and looked around. He could barely make out a little pile of wood in one corner of the hut, and that was all there was. He dropped Kagome's pack onto the dirt floor and gently set her down against the wall. He started ripping through her pack looking for anything that could help, perhaps even some inspiration or insight on what to do. He found some matches. Of course! A fire! That would be good, right? There was a heavy blanket, too!
He set to work on the fire and soon there was a merry little blaze in the middle of the hut. It emitted quite a bit of heat. Inuyasha went to put the blanket over Kagome and the he thought 'What good is a blanket going to do for her? Her body is so cold that it probably can't generate any heat of its own'. That was a problem. Suddenly Inuyasha remembered something Kagome had said once. She was talking about a first aid class she had taken. She said something about learning that the most efficient way to warm someone up was by skin to skin contact. He blushed at the thought. 'Yeah, that would do it alright!' He looked at her thin frame and wondered if it would really be wise to do anything like that. He thought a little longer and couldn't think of any other solution. He would have made ramen but they had eaten it all for lunch and he wouldn't have known how to make it anyway. He sighed. Skin to skin it was.
He turned to where she was laying and tried to figure out how this was going to work. Stripping down completely was out of the question. She would 'sit' him so hard that his children would be born with their faces mashed into the ground. He grimaced at the thought. 'I should probably try to get her body warm first, then worry about arms and legs'. That meant that the shirt, both his and hers, would have to go. He was turning red with just thinking about what he had to do. He figured he might as well try to warm her legs up too, which meant no skirt and no pants. Inuyasha was really struggling with his task. He had thought about something like it before, although he wouldn't have admitted it, but he never thought that something like this would actually happen!
When all the clothing items that were to be removed were removed. Okay, now what? What positioning would be best? Inuyasha pondered this a while and decided that he would sit against the wall and Kagome could lay on top, with her back to him, and he would put the blanket over the both of them. After a little shuffling and moving around, everything was set.
Being so close to Kagome he felt his body temperature rising. It couldn't really hurt the situation. He looked down at her and wondered if she was the same Kagome that had been yelling at him just that morning. She looked so calm and serene. For a while all he could think was, 'Kagome, you better not die on me!' but after a while he started to calm down some. He went through his memory of when they first met. While he was going through other memories he finally fell asleep.
Kagome's Dream: Kagome looked around and wondered where she was. Everything was dark and cold. Where was she? It seemed to be some strange sort of building. She opened a door and stepped into the room. It was some sort of meeting hall only there were some strange things about it. The ceiling was really high (something like 3 stories) and there were stars that were glowing on the ceiling but even weirder than that was that she could fly. She floated up to the ceiling for a closer look. The closer to the ceiling she got, the warmer she became. When she got about a foot away from the ceiling she examined the stars. They had a comforting, soft glow and they felt familiar. She admired them for a little while. They started glowing brighter and brighter until all she could see was white . . . End of Dream:
Kagome opened her eyes. Where was she? She looked around but she didn't get up. That's when she noticed that whatever it was she was laying on was breathing! She tilted her head up a little, almost afraid of what she might see. Her heart was racing with fear. She looked and saw Inuyasha's sleeping face only inches from her own. Her heart rate sped up a little, then slowly went back down. She laid her head back down and was just resting.
'Wait a minute. Is Inuyasha not wearing a shirt? Hold the phone! Am I not wearing a shirt?! AHH!!! What, my skirt's gone too!?! What is going on here?!'
She sat bolt upright and scooted away from her sleeping companion. Her face was scarlet. What had happened? She couldn't remember a thing. Inuyasha couldn't have . . . no, he wouldn't dare! Would he? She looked around for her clothes and found them neatly folded right next to where she and Inuyasha had been sleeping. She put them on as quickly as she could underneath the blanket and stood up. Inuyasha hadn't woken up. She covered him with the blanket and walked out of the hut. She needed some time alone to think.
Inuyasha woke up not long after Kagome had left the hut.
He didn't wake up right away, he slowly drifted upward into consciousness. He couldn't feel Kagome lying there with him anymore. He sat up abruptly and looked around the hut. All he could see were Kagome's bag and a black smudge on the ground where he had built the fire the night before. Her clothes were gone. Did that mean she was up? Was she okay? He donned his clothing and stepped outside the hut.
It didn't take long to find her, thanks to his demon nose. He found her sitting on a fallen log, watching a little stream lazily run by. He didn't approach her right away, just watched her from a distance to see if he could gauge what kind of mood she was in. He wasn't going to bother her if all he would get was a 'sit.' Was she mad at him?
After watching her for about five minutes he decided that she didn't seem mad. Usually, when she got mad, she would be mumbling things to herself underneath her breath. The fact that she wasn't doing that now was a good sign. He was going to take his chances.
"Kagome?" he asked hesitantly as he approached her from behind.
She didn't respond right away. She slowly turned her head to look at him, her expression was unreadable, then she turned her head away from him again and said, "So, how did you know that demon anyway?"
Inuyasha hadn't expected her to ask anything like that. Maybe 'What happened last night?' or 'What did you think you were doing?' or even 'You are such a jerk, Inuyasha!' but not 'So, how did you know that demon, anyway?'
He nervously cleared his throat. "Are you mad that I didn't tell you?" He walked over to the fallen tree and sat down about five feet from where she sat. He couldn't look her in the face so he studied the ground instead.
"I don't know," came her soft answer. Then, after a pause, "Why couldn't you have told me?" She looked at him. Her gaze drew his attention to her face. There was almost an expression of pain there.
He let out a breath of air, almost as if he were deflating. "I don't know." How was it that she could always make him feel so guilty about things that were none of her business? No one else was ever able to do that to him.
Both sat quietly for a moment until Kagome asked, "Why wasn't I turned into an ice person like the other people the ice demon got?"
Inuyasha cast his glance upward in thought. "Maybe it's because I had weakened her so much before she tried to freeze you. She was cut up pretty bad, you know."
Kagome silently nodded her acceptance of the theory. She could tell that Inuyasha hadn't wanted to talk about how he knew the ice demon and she didn't want to push the issue. Besides, there were other questions she wanted him to answer more. "What happened after she shot the ice blast at me? All I remember is a flash of light, getting very cold, and then you coming over to me trying to say something, but I couldn't understand you. Then I blacked out until this morning when I woke up in-" She didn't finish. She had almost said, "In your arms." She decided that she was going to ignore that part of the story . . . at least for now. She had been looking at the ground while she was talking, but she looked over at Inuyasha and asked, "How were you able to get me warm?"
Inuyasha hadn't wanted to answer these questions. In fact, he was kind of hoping that he would wake up before her; then he would have gotten both her and himself dressed so that Kagome would never have had any idea that anything out of the ordinary had happened. Maybe the fight drained him a little more than he expected. He sighed and began the story:
"After I defeated the demon I collected the shards. I had briefly forgotten that you had been hiding in the bushes, probably because of the fight. When I found you, you were turning blue with cold and you could barely talk, then you passed out. I carried you to the cottage we spent the night in and built a fire. I would have made ramen but we had eaten it all for lunch yesterday. I went to put the blanket on you but then I realized that it wouldn't do you much good, since your body wasn't making any heat of its own. That's when I remembered you talking about . . . " Inuyasha's face was turning red and his voice had gotten softer and softer. " . . . talking about what you learned in that first aid class. I remember you had said that if a person's body temperature had gotten too low that the fastest and easiest way to warm them back up was skin to skin contact with someone whose body temperature was normal," he finished in an uncharacteristically mild and quiet voice. "Are you mad at me?"
Kagome was surprised to find that she wasn't mad. "No, if anything I'm impressed. Here I thought that you always just ignored anything I was saying! You were listening after all. It's a good thing, too, or else I'd probably have frozen to death. You saved my life yet again, Inuyasha."
"Did you think I'd let you die?"
'What does he mean by that?' Kagome thought. 'Is he saying that he didn't want me to die, that he needs me?'
"I still need you to help me find the rest of the jewel shards, remember?" Inuyasha said, after a pause.
"Is that the only reason you saved me? Just so I could help you find the shards?!" Kagome's voice was raising in volume.
'Oh no! Now I've done it! I couldn't tell her that I was worried about her, she'd think I was sick or something. I'm going to get sat for certain. I guess it could be worse . . . ' Inuyasha thought. He winced inwardly.
"Of course. Why else would I have wanted to save you?" Inuyasha asked. He watched her expression get angrier and angrier. Yup, he could actually see it coming. Not long now, . . .
"SIT!" Kagome yelled. Inuyasha slammed into the ground with a thump that Kagome found quite satisfactory. "Why are you always such a jerk, Inuyasha? Maybe you should learn to keep that big mouth of yours shut!" Kagome yelled, adding in a kick after the last word for emphasis before she stormed off. Inuyasha sighed into the ground, not an easy feat. He figured he would just stay where he was until Kagome had cooled off a little. 'It's not like that was the first time I ever said anything like that to her. What's she so moody about, anyway?' Inuyasha thought. An idea came to him but he immediately dismissed it. 'Nah, Kagome couldn't possibly have feelings like that for me. Why would she? . . . Although I kinda wish she did . . .'
" I-I-I-n-n . . . n-u-y-y. . .y-a-a-sh . . .a," came Kagome's weak voice. "S-S . . . S-S-S-o-o-o c-c-c-c . . . o-o-l-l-d-d-d-d-d-d-d." With that she promptly passed out.
He took her up into his arms, slung her pack over his shoulder, and started running. He didn't know where he was running to, somewhere they could get help, hopefully. Luckily, he quickly found a little dwelling. It looked deserted. He kicked the door in and looked around. He could barely make out a little pile of wood in one corner of the hut, and that was all there was. He dropped Kagome's pack onto the dirt floor and gently set her down against the wall. He started ripping through her pack looking for anything that could help, perhaps even some inspiration or insight on what to do. He found some matches. Of course! A fire! That would be good, right? There was a heavy blanket, too!
He set to work on the fire and soon there was a merry little blaze in the middle of the hut. It emitted quite a bit of heat. Inuyasha went to put the blanket over Kagome and the he thought 'What good is a blanket going to do for her? Her body is so cold that it probably can't generate any heat of its own'. That was a problem. Suddenly Inuyasha remembered something Kagome had said once. She was talking about a first aid class she had taken. She said something about learning that the most efficient way to warm someone up was by skin to skin contact. He blushed at the thought. 'Yeah, that would do it alright!' He looked at her thin frame and wondered if it would really be wise to do anything like that. He thought a little longer and couldn't think of any other solution. He would have made ramen but they had eaten it all for lunch and he wouldn't have known how to make it anyway. He sighed. Skin to skin it was.
He turned to where she was laying and tried to figure out how this was going to work. Stripping down completely was out of the question. She would 'sit' him so hard that his children would be born with their faces mashed into the ground. He grimaced at the thought. 'I should probably try to get her body warm first, then worry about arms and legs'. That meant that the shirt, both his and hers, would have to go. He was turning red with just thinking about what he had to do. He figured he might as well try to warm her legs up too, which meant no skirt and no pants. Inuyasha was really struggling with his task. He had thought about something like it before, although he wouldn't have admitted it, but he never thought that something like this would actually happen!
When all the clothing items that were to be removed were removed. Okay, now what? What positioning would be best? Inuyasha pondered this a while and decided that he would sit against the wall and Kagome could lay on top, with her back to him, and he would put the blanket over the both of them. After a little shuffling and moving around, everything was set.
Being so close to Kagome he felt his body temperature rising. It couldn't really hurt the situation. He looked down at her and wondered if she was the same Kagome that had been yelling at him just that morning. She looked so calm and serene. For a while all he could think was, 'Kagome, you better not die on me!' but after a while he started to calm down some. He went through his memory of when they first met. While he was going through other memories he finally fell asleep.
Kagome's Dream: Kagome looked around and wondered where she was. Everything was dark and cold. Where was she? It seemed to be some strange sort of building. She opened a door and stepped into the room. It was some sort of meeting hall only there were some strange things about it. The ceiling was really high (something like 3 stories) and there were stars that were glowing on the ceiling but even weirder than that was that she could fly. She floated up to the ceiling for a closer look. The closer to the ceiling she got, the warmer she became. When she got about a foot away from the ceiling she examined the stars. They had a comforting, soft glow and they felt familiar. She admired them for a little while. They started glowing brighter and brighter until all she could see was white . . . End of Dream:
Kagome opened her eyes. Where was she? She looked around but she didn't get up. That's when she noticed that whatever it was she was laying on was breathing! She tilted her head up a little, almost afraid of what she might see. Her heart was racing with fear. She looked and saw Inuyasha's sleeping face only inches from her own. Her heart rate sped up a little, then slowly went back down. She laid her head back down and was just resting.
'Wait a minute. Is Inuyasha not wearing a shirt? Hold the phone! Am I not wearing a shirt?! AHH!!! What, my skirt's gone too!?! What is going on here?!'
She sat bolt upright and scooted away from her sleeping companion. Her face was scarlet. What had happened? She couldn't remember a thing. Inuyasha couldn't have . . . no, he wouldn't dare! Would he? She looked around for her clothes and found them neatly folded right next to where she and Inuyasha had been sleeping. She put them on as quickly as she could underneath the blanket and stood up. Inuyasha hadn't woken up. She covered him with the blanket and walked out of the hut. She needed some time alone to think.
Inuyasha woke up not long after Kagome had left the hut.
He didn't wake up right away, he slowly drifted upward into consciousness. He couldn't feel Kagome lying there with him anymore. He sat up abruptly and looked around the hut. All he could see were Kagome's bag and a black smudge on the ground where he had built the fire the night before. Her clothes were gone. Did that mean she was up? Was she okay? He donned his clothing and stepped outside the hut.
It didn't take long to find her, thanks to his demon nose. He found her sitting on a fallen log, watching a little stream lazily run by. He didn't approach her right away, just watched her from a distance to see if he could gauge what kind of mood she was in. He wasn't going to bother her if all he would get was a 'sit.' Was she mad at him?
After watching her for about five minutes he decided that she didn't seem mad. Usually, when she got mad, she would be mumbling things to herself underneath her breath. The fact that she wasn't doing that now was a good sign. He was going to take his chances.
"Kagome?" he asked hesitantly as he approached her from behind.
She didn't respond right away. She slowly turned her head to look at him, her expression was unreadable, then she turned her head away from him again and said, "So, how did you know that demon anyway?"
Inuyasha hadn't expected her to ask anything like that. Maybe 'What happened last night?' or 'What did you think you were doing?' or even 'You are such a jerk, Inuyasha!' but not 'So, how did you know that demon, anyway?'
He nervously cleared his throat. "Are you mad that I didn't tell you?" He walked over to the fallen tree and sat down about five feet from where she sat. He couldn't look her in the face so he studied the ground instead.
"I don't know," came her soft answer. Then, after a pause, "Why couldn't you have told me?" She looked at him. Her gaze drew his attention to her face. There was almost an expression of pain there.
He let out a breath of air, almost as if he were deflating. "I don't know." How was it that she could always make him feel so guilty about things that were none of her business? No one else was ever able to do that to him.
Both sat quietly for a moment until Kagome asked, "Why wasn't I turned into an ice person like the other people the ice demon got?"
Inuyasha cast his glance upward in thought. "Maybe it's because I had weakened her so much before she tried to freeze you. She was cut up pretty bad, you know."
Kagome silently nodded her acceptance of the theory. She could tell that Inuyasha hadn't wanted to talk about how he knew the ice demon and she didn't want to push the issue. Besides, there were other questions she wanted him to answer more. "What happened after she shot the ice blast at me? All I remember is a flash of light, getting very cold, and then you coming over to me trying to say something, but I couldn't understand you. Then I blacked out until this morning when I woke up in-" She didn't finish. She had almost said, "In your arms." She decided that she was going to ignore that part of the story . . . at least for now. She had been looking at the ground while she was talking, but she looked over at Inuyasha and asked, "How were you able to get me warm?"
Inuyasha hadn't wanted to answer these questions. In fact, he was kind of hoping that he would wake up before her; then he would have gotten both her and himself dressed so that Kagome would never have had any idea that anything out of the ordinary had happened. Maybe the fight drained him a little more than he expected. He sighed and began the story:
"After I defeated the demon I collected the shards. I had briefly forgotten that you had been hiding in the bushes, probably because of the fight. When I found you, you were turning blue with cold and you could barely talk, then you passed out. I carried you to the cottage we spent the night in and built a fire. I would have made ramen but we had eaten it all for lunch yesterday. I went to put the blanket on you but then I realized that it wouldn't do you much good, since your body wasn't making any heat of its own. That's when I remembered you talking about . . . " Inuyasha's face was turning red and his voice had gotten softer and softer. " . . . talking about what you learned in that first aid class. I remember you had said that if a person's body temperature had gotten too low that the fastest and easiest way to warm them back up was skin to skin contact with someone whose body temperature was normal," he finished in an uncharacteristically mild and quiet voice. "Are you mad at me?"
Kagome was surprised to find that she wasn't mad. "No, if anything I'm impressed. Here I thought that you always just ignored anything I was saying! You were listening after all. It's a good thing, too, or else I'd probably have frozen to death. You saved my life yet again, Inuyasha."
"Did you think I'd let you die?"
'What does he mean by that?' Kagome thought. 'Is he saying that he didn't want me to die, that he needs me?'
"I still need you to help me find the rest of the jewel shards, remember?" Inuyasha said, after a pause.
"Is that the only reason you saved me? Just so I could help you find the shards?!" Kagome's voice was raising in volume.
'Oh no! Now I've done it! I couldn't tell her that I was worried about her, she'd think I was sick or something. I'm going to get sat for certain. I guess it could be worse . . . ' Inuyasha thought. He winced inwardly.
"Of course. Why else would I have wanted to save you?" Inuyasha asked. He watched her expression get angrier and angrier. Yup, he could actually see it coming. Not long now, . . .
"SIT!" Kagome yelled. Inuyasha slammed into the ground with a thump that Kagome found quite satisfactory. "Why are you always such a jerk, Inuyasha? Maybe you should learn to keep that big mouth of yours shut!" Kagome yelled, adding in a kick after the last word for emphasis before she stormed off. Inuyasha sighed into the ground, not an easy feat. He figured he would just stay where he was until Kagome had cooled off a little. 'It's not like that was the first time I ever said anything like that to her. What's she so moody about, anyway?' Inuyasha thought. An idea came to him but he immediately dismissed it. 'Nah, Kagome couldn't possibly have feelings like that for me. Why would she? . . . Although I kinda wish she did . . .'