Woohoo: 200 reviews, and I have Omnitoad and his question to thank for that ^_^! This makes 35,000 words broken, and that's pretty much it…except for a response to Omnitoad's question/yell!
Omnitoad: I get my Inuyasha episodes from Kazaa; I have DSL so it's permanently connected, so I just d/l them all day…I'm gonna buy the DVDs as soon as I actually have some money (i.e. after this summer; I'm saving almost every penny I can get for what will probably be Sado Club's last exchange program to Japan), because they're hella cool, or I may just buy them in Japan ^_^.
Codename: Anrui Yuy: Yep, I'm a guy…I've actually said it twice before, but I guess people are still surprised; it's funny because my two biggest strengths in writing are romance and fighting. ::shrugs shoulders:: Complete opposites…
Sorry about the unexplained absence…I didn't run out of ideas, but I've just been pretty busy for the past couple of days (one of my friends had a problem; I went and saw Anger Management again; I went skating (rolling, not skateboarding for those of you who are wondering); studied Japanese some more (I've been kind of lax recently; I know everything we're gonna learn in Japanese 4, but I like to study on my own); and, finally, I've started work on an original piece of fiction—essentially all the stuff I'm supposed to be doing on Spring Break ^_^. Well, without further ado, here you go!
I don't own Inuyasha. (What, you were expecting something funny? ^_^0)
Chapter 23
They'd stayed together, locked in each other's embrace, for an untold amount of time—each completing the other, soul reaching out to touch and inflame the other—until Kagome's stomach had decided to take a page out of Inuyasha's book and growled loudly enough to wake the dead. This was, of course, certainly loud enough for a hanyou with sensitive ears to hear, especially when he was less than a foot away from her.
Inuyasha smiled, unable to see Kagome's face but imagining it glowing with embarrassment at such an unladylike noise; releasing her, albeit reluctantly, from his grasp, he snickered slightly and said,
"Hungry?"
Kagome made a motion to nod, but her stomach usurped her planned response as it released another growl; not as vicious as before, but still enough to let anybody nearby know that she was hungry. Stiff legs fighting all the while, Inuyasha got up, gently shoving Kagome off his lap as he helped her up; then, giddiness and euphoria filling his mind, bounded out of the clearing.
The same giddiness and bubbly, giggly happiness coursed through Kagome's mind, giving everything a pink and rosy glow; watching Inuyasha leave, Kagome ignored the roars of her stomach threatening to eat itself as she lowered herself to the ground, still feeling like she was locked in his warm embrace.
That feeling had stayed with Inuyasha as well, but it was rapidly fading as his youkai blood surged within him, goading his senses into heightened awareness, preparing him for the hunt. Not that he really needed it, however: his mind was already tuned to the hunt, it always was: it seemed he was always hunting something…prey, Naraku, Kagome's love…it was all the same. But now was not the time to think about his quests—his mate was sitting, hungry, back at their campsite. He didn't have time for thought.
And indeed, the need for thought vanished as the scent of deer took its place; blocking out thought, replacing it with instinct, as Inuyasha entered into the age-old predator-prey, fight or flee mindset. Smirking slightly, claws glinting in the sunlight, he launched himself towards a particularly huge buck.
'More food for my mate and I…' Inuyasha said to himself as he brought his claws down in screaming arcs, yellow light lancing from them as a cry of, "SANKON TESSOU!" startled the deer far too late…
Kagome, meanwhile, had decided to do the womanly thing while Inuyasha hunted: take a bath. It had been nearly a day since her last bath, and she had practically been able to feel herself growing grimier by the second…she shuddered, sinking deeper into the warm mineral water of the hot spring…being softly caressed by the gentle kiss of the water lapping against her bare skin…
'Not as good as Inuyasha's caress, though…,' Kagome thought softly to herself, closing her eyes and letting herself sink into the warm water as her face tinted a slight red, remembering all the special moments she had spent with Inuyasha.
Memories flitted through her mind like butterflies, beautiful sparks of light that played in her calm mind; showing themselves to her, then vanishing, all the while trying to hold onto them as they gently brought back times past…
They bore her back to a time almost a year ago, to the first time she had ever seen Inuyasha as a human…unnatural to her, yet natural at the same time, as if she'd known him forever…head laying on her lap as the poison took effect—and just as suddenly the scene changed, and she was flying towards Inuyasha, locked in the spider's web; tears falling from her eyes as she refused his demands for her to leave him.
Raven hair spiraled out on top of the water as another memory took hold of her—their first kiss. A night charged with pain, passion; love, hate; revelations and dispelling of lies in equal measure. Everything changed with that one kiss; with Inuyasha's spoken, yet untold, confession that he'd rather die than have Kagome risk being hurt…that one action that stopped time in its tracks.
She shook herself to try to clear the memories out of her head and get back to taking a bath, but still they flitted outside her immediate thought; begging to come back in and gently lift her up to the perfect past they represented…and Kagome couldn't resist. Washcloth and soap sank to the bottom of the spring as once more the memories took gently over, like pictures in her head they played over and over…
Inuyasha found himself in a similar predicament, although the situation was a little different: instead of absentmindedly cleaning himself (something he did weekly, as opposed to it being an everyday event…he'd grown accustomed to sparse bathing as a child) he was absentmindedly flaying the hide from the buck that he'd brought down with a single stroke of his claws.
For he too was contemplating Kagome, but the memories that were being brought up were not all as pleasurable as Kagome's were…for every emotion he thought he felt for Kagome, a nasty voice reminded him of how he'd had the same for Kikyo; for every memory he replayed inside his mind, a mirror sprung up and reflected the same actions he'd once done with Kikyo…
But something was different this time: there was no darkness threatening to overwhelm his heart; no all-encompassing pain threatening to swallow him up in its murky depths as it rushed over him; no fearful contemplation if he'd made the right decision by choosing Kagome and killing Kikyo…
The lack of fear and emotional turmoil was enough to surprise him in itself, but there was something else beyond that that simply shocked him: he was sure of himself. He didn't doubt the action he'd made; was prepared to face the consequences; and was sure of himself; for the first time since Kikyo had entered his life—for the first time since tainted love had poisoned his heart—he was confident and sure in a decision.
And it was Kagome that he was sure about.
Inuyasha stopped ripping out the deer kidney he had been absentmindedly picking at for the past minute and stopped in realization: he was confident in Kagome? But…he'd never been sure of anyone before this (aside from his mother, of course), and he'd never been sure about anybody in this particular way before: not even Kikyo.
When he had been courting Kikyo, he had been doubtful, for lack of a better term—he had been far more than doubtful. Every day he worried he'd wake up and it would all be a dream; every day he'd worried that he would wake up and Kikyo would merely be a dream.
'But not Kagome…' He thought to himself, finally just tearing out the annoying vital organ from the deer and tossing it aside as he looked up into the azure sky—the same beautiful color as Kagome's eyes…
Gah, I know it's short and that it's rotten of me to leave you like that after what, five day's absence? Sorry…but don't worry, I've got more stuff (that actually moves the story ahead! GASP!) planned for next chapter, and stuff will really start getting interesting…hee hee hee…as always, please Read and Review!
PS: I would've kept going, but I've put off my history poster all week, and seeing I'm as bad at drawing as Galadriel believes I'm good at keeping characters in-character, I've gotta get a jump on it…I promise I'll try my best to update tomorrow! Really!
::ducks as annoyed fans throw stuff at me::
::still gets hit by fluffy bunny::