A/N: Okay, so here it is, the long awaited chapter which I believe has been dubbed "the dance chapter" by consensus. ^_^ I reallyreally hope I don't disappoint. I tried not to make it too mushy but might have made it too dry. Maybe I made it mushy regardless of trying not to make it mushy. I was rather proud of the reason I came up why Inu might actually dance…see if you agree!
So, what happened is that I meant to edit when I got home tonight, but actually ended up adding some stuff more than really reviewing grammar and sentence structure and such, so if you find those mistakes, just kindly gloss over them…or maybe review and point them out to me.
Disclaimer: I'm not afraid of you stinkin' lawyers…:: squints menacingly:: I know things about you! lawyers back off slowly, muttering what sounds like "Don't show her fear, boys!" before turning tail and running off into the distance, contracts and releases fluttering in their wake.
Rating: Moon Fairy has helped me decide that my story is a solid PG-13…and a half. snickering Take that censors!
Thanks:
Kagomesjewel: ::the blush spreading to her scalp and into her hair:: aww, shucks…thanks! Death two people, huh? Well, it's certainly something to ponder. It might actually work. Since I haven't really written that part yet, but have only a very vague idea of how I want it to go, I really appreciate the suggestion. It could be the inspiration I need to fit it all together…that is, if the voices in my head will let me write this story the way I want to write this story…(sometimes they don't…they take over all on their own…shh…don't tell the authorities…I've been able to hide here for quite some time and I don't want the nice men with the white jackets to show up…again!) hehe. I emailed you about the rest…I don't have aol, though, just yahoo and msn!
Sailor Universe: whew! What a relief! Yeah, I kinda was happy with the way that little bit slipped out of her so that her friends could hear. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but as Geoffrey Rush says in Shakespeare in Love "It'll all work itself out in the end." Or at least…I hope. ^_^; Hojo after Kagome? Hmmm…
Moon Fairy: Oh, yeah. Definitely spoiling me, but who's complaining? Not me. big grin What trouble will the girls get into, indeed…I wish I could tell you I knew, but I don't…they haven't told me yet. ^_~. NC-17 is worse than R, huh? Well…that explains things! Heehee…
So I guess PG-13 ½ it is.
Xtreme Nuisance: You're back! Yey! ::does happy dance:: Yeah, Kag's a little tipsy. If I can swing it, you'll see it a little bit more as the night wears on. I'm trying not to make it that obvious.
CorruptedAngel: Hey, there! How you doin'? Glad you're back! Fluffiness…well, that depends on your definition of fluffiness, I guess. Does this chapter qualify? I will try, but in the worst case scenario, it'll probably be at the end. I'm going to try to add in a chapter with a little more levity and it might go in there, but I can't help the angst that comes out whenever they try to be a little fluffy with each other. Jealous Inu is fun. Hmm…jealous Kagome? ::frowns:: Something to ponder.
Shiroryu of the moon: ::gulps hard:: well, here it is, the dance chapter. I hope I don't disappoint! Thanks for saying I'm good at this. I love writing and it means a lot to me to think that people actually enjoy what I love to do! ^____^
Chapter 10: Fly With Me
"Why don't you believe me / Why don't you give up / Why won't you relieve me / Why don't you just stop / I won't give you anger / I won't give you fear / I'll just think of somewhere / Different from here / Why don't you fly with me?"
-Fly With Me, Franka Potente
When he got a hold of her, he'd kill her. No, first he'd strangle her and then he'd kill her. Fuck the jewel, the satisfaction of finally driving home the stupidity of her actions so she wouldn't put him through this again was satisfaction enough. What the hell was she thinking, leaving him like that? He wasn't about to keep traipsing after her all over the fucking city as if he were her faithful lap dog who comes running at her bidding. 'Feh.' She's so stupid. What if Death came for her while she was playing her little prank? Out on her joyride? Shit, Kagome had never been this stupid before. She had always known when to ask for help and when to accept it. What the hell was the matter with her, anyway?
The thought called up an image of the way she had been dancing, the way her body had moved and swayed…he shook himself of the image and focused on her scent…not that that made it any better.
Because I need to know if I can protect myself…
'Why would she…?' He didn't understand. If you were weak, you relied on someone stronger to protect you. That was the way of the world. There was nothing wrong with that. She pulled her own weight or she wouldn't have lasted as long as she had with them, even with his protection. There had been times…
He shuddered to think. So many times when she had been so close to the edge…so close to losing her…
'Stupid girl.' He shook his head.
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Mirouku asked, breaking into his thoughts.
The interruption was not unwelcome. Inuyasha didn't know how he knew where to find Kagome, but he did. He had no doubt that she was in that hellish looking club at the end of the street, even if there had been hundreds of other scents all over the street, he hadn't faltered for a moment. Inuyasha pointed to the club with the sign above it proclaiming the word "Gash" in slash-like letters highlighted in a light blue neon above a pitch black background.
Mirouku caught sight of a man in line and took in his numerous body piercings and dark colored attire. His attention was diverted by the woman standing next to him wearing a red leather bustier and a pants which looked as if they were painted on, leaving little to the imagination. He started to smile as she turned to look at him. The smile, however, faltered briefly as she stared at him with her black kohl lined eyes. All the black made her pale flesh seem even more striking and almost luminescent. She smiled at him and licked her lips. Only Mirouku's extensive training preventing him from choking as he caught sight of the sparkling silver stud running through her pink tongue.
He smiled politely and turned away to look at Inuyasha. "Did you…?" he whispered fiercely, wanting to look back at the girl but for some reason, quite afraid. Inuyasha looked at him impatiently. "She was…" he stumbled, unsure of how to explain.
"What?" he growled.
Mirouku caught himself and schooled his face into some semblance of passivity. "These people look like…like demons of some sort."
Inuyasha snorted. "Or demon wanna-be's," he answered as he looked for a way around the line forming at the door. He was in no mood to wait in a line. He needed to find Kagome now.
Mirouku was about to comment when the man at the door, just as brawny as Jackie from the previous club, caught Mirouku's eye and motioned them over. Mirouku might not have been so prone to comply being as how their last encounter with one of these brawny men had nearly ended in a fight, except that this man, unlike the previous one, wore no dark glasses and was smiling. Mirouku poked Inuyasha in the arm and motioned to the expectant face of the bouncer when Inuyasha glared at him.
"Mirouku? Inuyasha?" the guy asked as they approached.
"Yeah?" Inuyasha admitted suspiciously.
"I'm Ping," he introduced. "Go on in, Kagome told me you'd be coming."
"You know Kagome?" Mirouku asked. The man nodded and seemed prone to continue the conversation when Inuyasha grabbed Mirouku by the shirt and pulled him in the door. "Thank you!" Mirouku called out before he disappeared.
The music that assailed their senses here was different—darker somehow, deeper. Which matched the atmosphere perfectly, Mirouku thought. The walls were covered with a thick, velvet fabric in a deep burgundy red, the first room they entered sported dark red, almost purple couches strewn about artistically with several couples already occupying them. Mirouku narrowed his eyes in an attempt to confirm if those couples were doing what he thought they were doing but the light in the room, or lack thereof, prevented his confirmation. He could see almost nothing but shadows and silhouettes by the light of the many candles flickering in chandeliers above them and candelabras surrounding them. As they walked into the larger room where the music was coming from, Mirouku decided that the very energy of this place vibrated a dark red and that if he would chose any place for Death to reside, this would be it.
He looked at Inuyasha who was standing silent and still at his side in order to tell him this, but stopped when he realized that he had found what he was looking for. He had found Kagome.
+~+~+~
Inuyasha stood at the edge of the dancefloor, ignoring the feel of the eyes on him. He knew that despite the fact that he was probably the only real demon here, the lightness of his hair and his eyes made him stand out like a sore thumb in this den of make believes. He was used to standing out, that he could ignore, but the sight of Kagome moving sensuously to the slow rhythm of the song he could not ignore. It seemed that in the darkness surrounding them, Kagome's form was surrounded by a bright light, highlighting every inch of her form, accentuating each of her features…not that he needed it, he realized. He knew every inch of her face as if it were his very own. More, even, since he never really looked at his own face, but he saw Kagome's all the time. He knew what each of her looks meant, what her face was like in rest, in anger, in pain. That didn't mean that he could decipher why or how those emotions came to her face, but he could always see them.
But now…there was something about the way she was moving…her eyes closed, her lips slightly parted, gleaming wet in the light of the candles as her pink tongue reached out subconsciously to moisten them…something like she was tapping in to the basic emotions in the music…the base nature of the night and the rhythms vaguely suggested by the music.
He growled low in his chest, the anger easily evaporating into something else, something as base and wild as the music pretended to be.
Gods, he wanted her.
The thought surprised him, but not as much as the realization that he had somehow, sometime, moved until he was standing right behind her, within touching reach of that sinfully tempting chain hanging down the flesh at her back. He could smell more than her scent now, he could smell…her. That infuriatingly particular mixture of scents he could never describe. He was reaching out for her and even though a part of his brain knew this wasn't the thing to do, he couldn't seem to stop himself…
+~+~+~
'It's so much easier to get lost to this music,' Kagome thought as the brooding voice sang over the speakers. Her eyes were mostly closed so she didn't know who was dancing around her. The alcohol was finally starting to affect her, swimming around pleasantly in her head, making everything seem a little bit hazy, rubbing off some of the edges of the night around her. It felt good, anonymous, like she was flying…like she didn't have to worry over who was looking at her or looking for her…
Inuyasha
The name came to her mind unbidden. This whole night had been about trying to forget him. About claiming back some sense of her independence, yes, but that was so tightly intermingled with forgetting him, realizing if she could live without him, be without him that she couldn't really make a distinction between the reasons. She thought about being independent and it was being independent from Inuyasha. Being self-reliant meant being able to not rely on Inuyasha. Surviving meant being able to live without Inuyasha. And even now, even when she's just one more anonymous girl in a big mass of anonymous people dancing to a song she probably wouldn't remember with the alcohol swimming in her head and knowing that Inuyasha wasn't out there somewhere watching her, she couldn't stop thinking about him.
She wasn't thinking about how she was moving, only that she was. Her eyes were closed and she could see only the faint impressions of the lights on her closed lids. In the morning, she wouldn't remember how long she stayed like that, or at what time they got there or what song she had danced to, but she would remember how somehow, without even realizing it, she felt his eyes on her. She squeezed her eyes tighter and continued to move, chastising the drink in her for making her imagine things, but the feeling wouldn't go away, she could almost feel his heat at her back…she shivered and opened her eyes. She would remember how when she turned, opening her eyes, she looked straight into his eyes unerringly and the look of barely restrained hunger brightening the pure amber eyes into the color of molten honey.
She knew with absolute certainty as the song faded and a new one started, that that look, that moment, would be forever etched in her memory.
+~+~+~
Inuyasha swallowed hard and tried not to think about how those eyes looked into his. "What do you think…" the words died away in his suddenly dry throat as he felt Kagome lean into him. He could feel every inch of her touch as her hands caressed the bare skin of his arms from wrist to forearm. 'Point two for the ridiculous shirt,' Inuyasha thought inanely.
+~+~+~
He was trying to say something to her, but she wouldn't let him speak and break the spell. She wasn't sure if it was a dream or real, but she wouldn't question it, wouldn't ruin it. She just wanted to feel him close to her.
+~+~+~
"Shh…: she said, her lips almost at his neck. She pulled his arms around her waist and joined them at her back. "Just dance with me," she whispered as the singer's melancholy voice started.
Whenever I'm alone with you / You make me feel like I am home again.
The beat was slower and he felt the movement in Kagome's body as she wrapped her arms around his neck, closing the distance between them.
Whenever I'm alone with you / you make me feel like I am whole again.
Kagome started moving in time to the music, her body undulating so that one moment it was pressed tightly against him and the next all he felt was the cold of her absence. He kept his arms tight against her, but with her movement, he couldn't keep her close. He found himself moving just to maintain the contact between their bodies and it felt so natural to move in time with the rhythm of her body, to seek out her rhythm to maintain the contact and soon he wasn't sure if she were keeping the rhythm or he was. It was as if there were nothing else in the world but Kagome, the music and this feeling of belonging right where he was…like Kagome's arms were made just for him.
Whenever I'm alone with you / you make me feel like I am young again.
He could feel her heart beating through her flesh, the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed and her scent was all around him…The flimsy material of her dress and the thin material of his shirt allowed him to feel the very heat of her touch, as if he were touching her very flesh. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he thought it should feel wrong to feel so much of her, but his heart wouldn't hear it…he wanted more. His hands spread at the small of her back and he closed his eyes against the feel of her in his arms.
Whenever I'm alone with you / you make me feel like I am fun again
He took in her scent and found himself leaning into it, his arms tightening around her waist, trying to get her closer. The scent that was particularly Kagome assailed his senses…the fruity smell of her soap, the smell of lavender… He wished with all of him that he could breathe her in, every bit of her. He felt her hair drape over his shoulder, mingle with his.
However far away, I will always love you.
He knew suddenly that he didn't want this to end, that this is what he had been waiting for, this moment in Kagome's arms, her scent surrounding him…enfolding him…welcoming him.
However long I stay / I will always love you.
The words the man was singing became clear to him suddenly and he realized that Kagome was whispering them under her breath.
He wanted very much to speak, to tell her…what? Something, to tell her he didn't want this to end, that he didn't mean all the crazy things he said, that he…but he couldn't find the words, the pain in his heart still too raw…too fresh.
Whatever words I say, / I will always love you.
He held her tighter as the new words echoed around him. He felt the frustration tear at him, but then Kagome tightened her hold of him.
"Shh…" she whispered soothingly as if she could feel his pain.
Just dance with me.
He was dancing with Kagome. Maybe he didn't know what to say, maybe he couldn't let go of the pain just yet, but in this moment, it didn't matter. In this moment, all she wanted was to dance with him. He sighed and relaxed in her arms, surrendering to the moment.
Whenever I'm alone with you / you make me feel like I am free again.
She had freed him from so much more than just that damn tree, he realized in awe. She had freed him from the pain of being half of something. How long had it been since he thought about using the Shikon Jewel to become a whole demon? The fact that he couldn't remember shocked him. He was finally starting to be content with being just what he was, and he had to admit that it was mostly because Kagome believed in him…she accepted him as he was.
Whenever I'm alone with you / you make me feel like I am clean again.
He was so stupid to not have realized before. Maybe he did, but just didn't want to face it. He could remember every single time he had seen her smile. And every single time he had made her cry or angry.
The music faded away seamlessly into the next song and a more upbeat tempo surrounded them.
Kagome realized that the song had ended and that she was no longer moving as if awakening from a dream. Even though the bodies around them were moving, they were still and it must've been the magic that is Inuyasha's presence but not one touched them.
His arms were still around her waist and she was still pressed tightly against him and even though she wasn't looking up at him, she could feel him looking down at her. They couldn't stay that way forever, no matter how pleasant it was to be in the circle of his arms. They had to move.
Kagome was hoping upon hope that Inuyasha might break away and glare at her or do something to alleviate this weight, but uncharacteristically, he just stood still.
'Think, Kagome, think,' she told herself, trying to get her lethargic mind to come up with something. She might not have his sense of smell, but she could pick up his smell this close to her and it was exactly as she remembered it. He smelled of trees and earth after it was drenched with the rain and exactly what she imagined the moonlight smelled like, or the air…
Why wasn't he doing something? Why was he leaving it up to her? 'Of course,' thought Kagome. 'He would just stand there and let me embarrass myself further by having to do something.' Or, they could just go again. This song wasn't as slow, but maybe if she just started moving, he would move with her again? The thought was ridiculous and even her slightly intoxicated mind recognized the fact that if she couldn't even figure out why he had followed her into the dance in the first place, she couldn't press her luck a second time.
'OhMyGod,' Kagome realized. She had practically forced Inuyasha into a dance. 'Well,' she thought. There would be plenty of time to be mortified later. First things first. She got them into this—she would get them out. She wanted to be independent again and not only was she weak enough to dance with him when he obviously didn't want to, she practically forced herself on him! But she then expected him to get her out of this mess? She was so sick.
She sighed and leaned back. His hold instinctively tightened, then loosened, but he didn't remove his arms. Did she really have to remove them? She didn't want to…but she had placed them there…God, did she really think he'd make this easy for her? No, of course not.
She settled on just stepping back out of his grasp and slipping her arms from around his neck. It would've worked too, if Inuyasha didn't do another uncharacteristic thing and hold on.
"Kagome…" he started when she met his eyes.
She was confused, unable to make out the look in his eyes. Inuyasha was a puzzle to her even when she was at the peak of her mental acuity, but now? She knew with absolute certainty she couldn't take hearing him ask her what she thought she had been doing or make some arrogant comment, or even, heaven forbid, look at her with that 'thanks-but-not-interested' look. She wouldn't give him a chance. She took a deep breath and smiled brightly. "See?" she said with forced cheerfulness. "That wasn't so bad."
Inuyasha just stared at her and she didn't know what else to do so she grinned even wider and pulled fully away from him. She felt his hesitation and the smile gave way to confusion.
'Why are you doing this to me?' she yelled in her head. 'So I made you dance, does that mean you have to embarrass me? Punish me?'
His eyes were almost expressionless, lidded and shut off. She didn't know what was going on, what game he was playing, but she wasn't in the mood. She needed to get out of there and fast. "Excuse me," she said aloud while gently pulling back. She didn't want to touch him anymore than she had to. She wasn't sure what her reaction would be and she knew he could hear her heart beat. Slowly, as if he were pulling his hands out of molasses, he let his arms slide from around her waist. With a glance at him, but not trusting her voice to say anything more, she walked away.
'What were you thinking?' she chastised in her head. 'Did you really think you could just touch him and not feel anything?' She shook her head as she walked, but didn't know where to go.
+~+~+~
A/N: Okay, the song from the title is from the soundtrack to the absolutely wonderful movie The Princess and the Warrior directed by Tom Twyker and starring Franka Potente. It's in German, but wow, is it good. I loved it. It's the same director and writer of Run, Lola, Run and incidentally, it's the same actress (Potente). It's all about destiny and it's a kind of modern day fairytale. Anyway, it's a great song. It's a great movie. Go see it! (But not before you review, of course!)
The song they dance to is from The Cure, it's appropriately titled Lovesong. I have it on their Greatest Hits album. You really should download it, then play it as you read this chapter…it'll really put you in the mood I was in when I envisioned it and maybe it'll help you make sense of my writing! ^_~.
Yeah, so…um…review? That was worth at least something, wasn't it, Angel Moon? Don't leave me hanging, here people! The emotion in this chapter drained me!