This was written in response to a challenge for the Inuyasha Fanfiction
community, and I'm quite proud of it especially since I got an award: Best
Original Romance! Feel free to comment and tell me what you think of it,
there's always room for improvement.
Disclaimer: Nobunaga, Nazuna, and all other characters from Inuyasha are the property of Takahashi Rumiko. I just messed with them for a bit to have some fun.
*****
"Hiyashimaru!"
A lean slip of a man jogged through the forest, his breath laboring with each clumsy step. Panting, he braced himself against a tree. His arm was bound in a sling and had been so for a fortnight now, but the wound was long in healing since it was inflicted by a demon.
He looked resentfully into the trees. "Give me back my food, Hiyashimaru! How's a little runt like you going to eat that much?"
A small, pure-white bundle of fur poked its head from the thick foliage above. With a simian grin that looked almost taunting, the puff retreated again leaving a wake of falling leaves behind it. The young man sighed, staggered onto his feet, and pushed his way through the trees. With as much speed as he could muster, he made his way to the edge to the forest and his feet met the touch of stony ground.
At least for a moment they did. The outcropping was short, and the man's ungainly movements pitched him over a cliff.
"Hiyashimaruuuu—!!"
* * * * *
The white bundle of fluff, showing itself to be a monkey, found the man several hours later lying in a heap near the banks of a stream. After dumping more water than necessary on his face and tempting his nose with the smell of food, the monkey sat on the man's chest and screeched loudly. With water up his nose, an ungodly scream in his ears, and visions of food in his mind, the young man opened his eyes and was not pleased by what he saw.
"Food, Hiyashimaru," he growled, making a wild grab for the monkey and missing. With a sullen squeal, the monkey threw some vegetables and a strip of dried meat into the man's lap.
"Don't even try fooling me, Hiyashimaru. Where's the rest of it?"
Another bundle of vegetables and three more strips of meat seemingly flew from nowhere into his lap.
"I'm not even going to ask where you were keeping them all this time," he sniffed, and pulled himself painfully into a sitting position to survey his surroundings. "Oh, not again. Where are we? What are we doing here, Hiyashimaru?"
"I might ask you the same thing."
The man wheeled painfully around to find staff with a barbed tip staring him in the face, glittering in the late afternoon sun. On the other end of the staff was a young woman with short, dark hair and dressed in faded shades of pink. A bucket, filled with water from the stream, rested near her feet.
"Just who are you?" she demanded, shoving the staff inches closer to his face. "Demons roam here all too often. You're either brave or foolish to come here armed only with a monkey and vegetables."
"Not brave, lady, only a fool," he sighed, and hoisted himself to his feet with his good arm. "I am of the Takeda clan and called Nobunaga."
Her doubtful expression didn't waver, but she did deign to loosen her grip on the staff. "I know of the Takeda clan... and you're awfully far from your borders to be traveling without your men-at-arms. What is your title in such a noble family?"
Nobunaga's ears burned and he sullenly refused to meet her eyes. Wonderful...not only did this woman think he was an intruder or worse, but revealing that he was barely above a commoner – the youngest son of a retainer – would certainly only raise contempt in her eyes. "Well, I...cannot reveal my title. But lady, who might you be?"
"Why should I tell you my name when you can't even tell me your title?" she asked obstinately, lowering the staff and crossing her arms.
A pang of dislike rose within Nobunaga, but he pushed it down and gave her a weak smile. "You may have a point, lady. Now, if you'll excuse me, I should be on my way."
As he turned to go, he heard her utter a click of exasperation. "Oh, don't be ridiculous. The sun is nearly down and your borders are far from here."
He turned slowly, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Lady..."
"You certainly seem too bumbling to be a demon, and you wouldn't survive a night of fighting off the monsters of this mountain," she said confidently, hefting the water bucket in her hands.
"Uh... well..." stammered Nobunaga, not sure how to take this blunt statement.
With one last eye roll, the girl started to walk down the stream towards the mountain path.
Nobunaga stood rooted to the spot. Was it an unspoken invitation for food and sleep? He would have guessed that she wanted nothing more to do with him from her brusque attitude. Hiyashimaru clawed his way painfully up Nobunaga's shoulder, and they exchanged identical looks of confusion.
The young girl looked over her shoulder, her annoyed expression clearly visible in the rapidly dimming light. "Well?! Are you coming or not?!"
"Um...yes! One moment!" he cried, gathering his food into a bundle. Trotting quickly to her side, the young man attempted a small bow. "A thousand thanks, my lady—"
"Nazuna," she said shortly.
"Ah. Yes. A thousand thanks, Lady Nazuna. If you'd allow me," he said awkwardly, gesturing towards the water bucket. She gave him an odd look, and he felt his face burn anew; she was not a dainty thing but a good-sized girl, and though he bested her in height by only a few inches, he wouldn't have been surprised if they were equally matched in strength.
"I'm fine, really."
"But I insist!"
"Your arm is in a sling, my lord."
Nobunaga winced. There was that too.
"Never mind that... the wound is almost healed."
"Oh, here, if you're so bent on helping," Nazuna sighed in exasperation and shifted the bucket to her right arm. "Take the other side, come on."
Of course, this didn't solve all of their problems; the bucket between them sloshed a considerable amount of water over their feet whenever they fell out of step and knocked painfully against their thighs if they walked too close together. It also didn't help that Hiyashimaru would jump onto the rim of the bucket without warning and add another seven pounds to their troubles. As they hobbled over the last of the cobbled steps leading up the mountain, Nobunaga could have cheerfully thrown the bucket in a fit of annoyance over cold feet and sore legs.
* * * * *
The temple was spacious yet run down, and a pile of rubble on the eastern edge suggested that one of the temple's wings had recently been demolished. Nobunaga raised his eyebrows – though Nazuna's master had been a man of the cloth, he had been the caretaker of a beautiful temple that had obviously once flourished.
Nazuna ushered him into the dusty main hall of one of the surviving buildings. Rickety furniture and trinkets littered the floor, and decorative scrolls adorned the walls. "You'll find a bedroll and a screen in the next room, but it would be better if you slept in here... I haven't quite patched the walls of that room yet, and it gets very drafty."
"Thank you again, Lady Nazuna," murmured Nobunaga, nursing his fingers. The water bucket was heavy despite the water that kept sloshing over the rim, but they'd managed to salvage enough for the night's meal. "As long as I am a guest, is there any way I can help you?"
"There's not a lot you can do with a wounded arm," said Nazuna bluntly.
Nobunaga said nothing, feeling like his pathos with Princess Tsuyu was beginning to follow him everywhere; no matter what he did with the best intentions it always came across the same, bumbling and stupid. A slip in horse manure, a tumble down a cliff, the wrong remark at the wrong time. It didn't matter if he was the only one who saw, because it annoyed even himself. "I'm sorry, Lady," he said softly, blushing to the roots of his hair.
Nazuna winced, and averted her eyes awkwardly. "I meant no offense. You'd save me a lot of work if you'd let me use those vegetables with you for the night's repast."
Nobunaga looked up swiftly. "You want me to give you my food?"
"Well," amended Nazuna hastily, "Let me borrow them at least. I'll make sure to give you provisions when you leave."
Nobunaga only nodded, not wanting to speak. Handing over the bundle, it was only a short pause later before Nazuna left Nobunaga to set up his bed and stew inside his own mind.
* * * * *
He was very grateful when she returned, but the sentiment was short-lived.
Nazuna returned by dusk, bearing a small kettle of a hot stew and a roll of bandages tucked under her arm. Nobunaga's stomach rumbled at the smell of the stew, but his eyebrows rose at the sight of the bandages.
"Give me your arm," she demanded, her no-nonsense attitude obviously revived.
"That's really not necessary," replied Nobunaga, forgetting about his hesitance to speak. Something about her tone truly alarmed him.
Rolling her eyes, she doled out the stew into bowls. "That dressing needs to be changed. And it will be, before your dinner gets cold."
Hiyashimaru sniffed interestedly at the contents of the kettle while Nobunaga untied the sling, not removing his eyes from the spoon in her hands. The last thing he wanted to do was remove the top half of his kimono to her, but she seemed like the resourceful sort of girl who could make a weapon out of anything. Over slight embarrassment versus a spoonful of boiling stew crashing down on his head, Nobunaga thought that the choice was rather obvious.
When the last bandage fell away, Nazuna gasped. The wound was large, and ugly. Nobunaga hadn't lied that it was almost healed, but the scar conveyed in no uncertain terms the depth of the wound and the pain it must have caused. "Oh, gods! How did this happen to you?"
Nobunaga blinked and said nothing.
Nazuna cocked an eyebrow and began to clean the wound. "Fair enough, I suppose. But you know, the night won't go any faster if we don't talk to each other. What's the good of visitors if they have no stories to share?"
Nobunaga blinked again. He seemed to do that a lot where Nazuna was concerned.
She shrugged and bound the wound perhaps a little too tightly. "Okay, then. Suit yourself."
"Have you ever heard of the Tsukumo no Gama?" he asked, inwardly sighing. It's not like she could think him to be any more of a fool. He hoped.
"A toad demon?"
"Yes. It possessed the lord and husband of a good friend of mine."
"That is a shame," she murmured quietly, passing him a bowl of stew.
He took the bowl and warmed his hands against the china. "Thank you. However," he continued, "though trapped within the demon form, the Lord was still very much alive. If there was any hope left, I didn't want to watch an innocent lord be slain."
"Watch?" asked Nazuna, peering at him over her bowl. "Then you were not alone," she said, stating a fact rather than asking a question.
Nobunaga shook his head and laughed. "No. On the road I met a hanyou and a miko seeking a jewel. My part in the tale is small...they did all of the work and I have all of the injuries to show for it."
Nazuna stared at him, a spoonful of food frozen halfway to her mouth. "A hanyou? What was his name?"
"Inuyasha, he called himself." When she didn't reply, Nobunaga continued. "The miko managed to drive the toad from the lord's body, and I was nearly slain myself because I don't believe in killing during these dark times. Because I refused to kill my rival in love." He chuckled and took a small bite of lukewarm stew. He noticed that the vegetables were just slightly overcooked. "I should say 'former love.' You must think I am a fool."
Nazuna didn't answer immediately. "Was his life spared?"
"Yes. And for that, I don't regret my decision," he said truthfully.
"I understand," she said, and chewed thoughtfully. "I have also had the pleasure of meeting Inuyasha."
Nobunaga blinked again, but gestured for her to continue.
"I came into my former master's care when my father was killed by the demons of this mountain. Unfortunately...there never was a master. I trusted my life to my father's killer. I didn't know until Inuyasha and the miko Kagome came here with the shards of the Jewel." Her voice was clear, and she looked up to reveal dry eyes to Nobunaga. "You refused to kill your rival in love, and I refused to believe that my master was a demon."
Nobunaga nodded, but said nothing. Everything he could think of sounded trite or nauseatingly sappy, qualities he'd been trying to stay away from of late.
She waved her hand dismissively. "I thought I would spend my life in utter terror of demons, but Inuyasha proved to me that there are good demons after all. I spent a few weeks in a village nearby, but I couldn't help coming back here. Until the last hours, I owed my life to my master...he was gentle, and kind."
"It's good to know that I am not the only fool," said Nobunaga lightly.
"No, I suppose not."
They finished eating in silence, but the air between them seemed charged somehow, as if the brief exchange between them made the room feel a little more like home. Their hands brushed together for mere moments as Nobunaga handed his bowl back to her, and he couldn't tell if the warmth of her skin, Hiyashimaru's piercing shrieks, or his own weariness made him feel a little dizzy.
* * * * *
That night, Nobunaga noted that his sleep was dreamless and his mind gave him some reprieve from Princess Tsuyu's lingering influence. This was hardly the first time, as pure weariness and confusion had pushed her aside in his mind as a trivial matter, a lost cause that would never come to fruition.
To be honest, he was overwhelmed with a sense of relief. He had tried to hold onto his infatuation as long as he could, tried to make himself miss her with an ache that should have killed him. But like water slipping through his cupped hands, it didn't sustain and passed into memory.
Nobunaga was glad of Princess Tsuyu's happiness and prosperity, but it had taken him many weeks to discover the layers of truth in her words: To me you can only be a kind and gentle childhood friend. She didn't love him, and his feelings for her were not what Nobunaga had fooled himself into believing. To Nobunaga, she would always be his dear friend, but not his first love.
Love was another matter entirely.
* * * * *
Nobunaga woke early the next morning, barely aware of where he was or the hand on his shoulder. After he oriented himself, he faintly wondered how he could have possibly slept over the sun's bright glare or the racket the birds were making.
Nazuna said nothing, only handed him a roll of bandages and a bundle of food. Nobunaga noticed that the bundle was considerably larger than the one he'd brought with him, but she averted her face to attend to some task or another before he could speak. Hiyashimaru yawned hugely, but his usual nervous, twitchy sort of energy was already apparent as he jogged outside to chase the squirrels on their morning romp.
"You should leave early," she said finally, clearing the ashes of last night's fire. "The borders are far, and you're wounded."
"Er..." said Nobunaga. He searched his mind in a panic, not able to imagine why. "I should probably eat first."
She made an indistinct noise in her throat. "You can eat on the road, can't you?"
Nobunaga blinked. Arguments raced through his head about how he'd have to stop to eat, which would leave him helpless to demons since he had no weapon, whom he probably couldn't bring himself to fight even if he had a weapon, but the words wouldn't come. He came to his senses before he started to gibber stupidly, nodded, and shouldered the pack she'd given him.
He took as much time as he could to stretch his back and check the dressing on his wound before he followed her from the room. Outside of the temple, he turned to speak to her while waiting for Hiyashimaru to come. "Why did you help me?" he asked quietly. "It is dangerous to show mercy during such dangerous times."
"You're one to talk," she retorted, "Unable to kill a demon who threatened your life."
"You know why I didn't."
A brief pause followed, and the blood rushed to Nobunaga's face. The aura of foolishness he always felt became a little tighter, threatening to choke him.
When Nazuna spoke again, her voice was soft and reflective though her words were short. "Because you are not the only fool, Nobunaga. You don't regret your decision, and I don't regret mine."
And then Nazuna leaned forward, and her hand tilted Nobunaga's head slightly to one side to plant a kiss on his cheek; but just at the last moment Nobunaga turned his face against the guidance of Nazuna's hand, and their lips brushed instead. Nobunaga felt Nazuna draw a sharp intake of breath; Nobunaga reached forward and placed his good hand on Nazuna's face, holding her there as he pressed their lips fully together in a kiss. It was a gentle chaste kiss, friendly and reserved but on the brink of something more, something he held back and in the process left it open for interpretation.
When they both drew apart, Nobunaga's eyes sought Nazuna's with some measure of embarrassed uncertainty. Their eyes met, and held for a long moment; Nazuna eventually looked away, flustered.
Hiyashimaru scuttled painfully up Nobunaga's leg and arm with sharp claws, and Nobunaga noticed with a detached sense of amusement that there was dark, softer squirrel fur among the pure white of the monkey's coat. "Thank you for your hospitality," he said finally, and started down the steps of the temple. "Goodbye, Nazuna."
He hadn't gotten far before he heard her voice, quiet but close behind. He turned and smacked painfully into her, feeling the color rise in his face. Hastily retreating down a few steps, he wondered just when he was going to pitch himself down them and whether she'd be there to see it.
Her words surprised him even more than the fact that she had followed. "Will you come back?"
Nobunaga blinked. He shouldn't have been surprised; Nazuna was involved.
She took a single step forward, and Nobunaga got the distinct feeling that his personal space was being breached. She bit her lip awkwardly, but stubbornly held his gaze. "Well...fools should not dwell alone," she finished lamely, and for the first time Nobunaga felt like he understood her, that he wasn't the only one who felt hopelessly awkward or alone.
He didn't move, only blinked again. "I'll come back."
He turned to leave, and his fleeting glimpse of her face made the painful tumble down the next dozen steps just a little bit easier to bear.
Disclaimer: Nobunaga, Nazuna, and all other characters from Inuyasha are the property of Takahashi Rumiko. I just messed with them for a bit to have some fun.
*****
"Hiyashimaru!"
A lean slip of a man jogged through the forest, his breath laboring with each clumsy step. Panting, he braced himself against a tree. His arm was bound in a sling and had been so for a fortnight now, but the wound was long in healing since it was inflicted by a demon.
He looked resentfully into the trees. "Give me back my food, Hiyashimaru! How's a little runt like you going to eat that much?"
A small, pure-white bundle of fur poked its head from the thick foliage above. With a simian grin that looked almost taunting, the puff retreated again leaving a wake of falling leaves behind it. The young man sighed, staggered onto his feet, and pushed his way through the trees. With as much speed as he could muster, he made his way to the edge to the forest and his feet met the touch of stony ground.
At least for a moment they did. The outcropping was short, and the man's ungainly movements pitched him over a cliff.
"Hiyashimaruuuu—!!"
* * * * *
The white bundle of fluff, showing itself to be a monkey, found the man several hours later lying in a heap near the banks of a stream. After dumping more water than necessary on his face and tempting his nose with the smell of food, the monkey sat on the man's chest and screeched loudly. With water up his nose, an ungodly scream in his ears, and visions of food in his mind, the young man opened his eyes and was not pleased by what he saw.
"Food, Hiyashimaru," he growled, making a wild grab for the monkey and missing. With a sullen squeal, the monkey threw some vegetables and a strip of dried meat into the man's lap.
"Don't even try fooling me, Hiyashimaru. Where's the rest of it?"
Another bundle of vegetables and three more strips of meat seemingly flew from nowhere into his lap.
"I'm not even going to ask where you were keeping them all this time," he sniffed, and pulled himself painfully into a sitting position to survey his surroundings. "Oh, not again. Where are we? What are we doing here, Hiyashimaru?"
"I might ask you the same thing."
The man wheeled painfully around to find staff with a barbed tip staring him in the face, glittering in the late afternoon sun. On the other end of the staff was a young woman with short, dark hair and dressed in faded shades of pink. A bucket, filled with water from the stream, rested near her feet.
"Just who are you?" she demanded, shoving the staff inches closer to his face. "Demons roam here all too often. You're either brave or foolish to come here armed only with a monkey and vegetables."
"Not brave, lady, only a fool," he sighed, and hoisted himself to his feet with his good arm. "I am of the Takeda clan and called Nobunaga."
Her doubtful expression didn't waver, but she did deign to loosen her grip on the staff. "I know of the Takeda clan... and you're awfully far from your borders to be traveling without your men-at-arms. What is your title in such a noble family?"
Nobunaga's ears burned and he sullenly refused to meet her eyes. Wonderful...not only did this woman think he was an intruder or worse, but revealing that he was barely above a commoner – the youngest son of a retainer – would certainly only raise contempt in her eyes. "Well, I...cannot reveal my title. But lady, who might you be?"
"Why should I tell you my name when you can't even tell me your title?" she asked obstinately, lowering the staff and crossing her arms.
A pang of dislike rose within Nobunaga, but he pushed it down and gave her a weak smile. "You may have a point, lady. Now, if you'll excuse me, I should be on my way."
As he turned to go, he heard her utter a click of exasperation. "Oh, don't be ridiculous. The sun is nearly down and your borders are far from here."
He turned slowly, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Lady..."
"You certainly seem too bumbling to be a demon, and you wouldn't survive a night of fighting off the monsters of this mountain," she said confidently, hefting the water bucket in her hands.
"Uh... well..." stammered Nobunaga, not sure how to take this blunt statement.
With one last eye roll, the girl started to walk down the stream towards the mountain path.
Nobunaga stood rooted to the spot. Was it an unspoken invitation for food and sleep? He would have guessed that she wanted nothing more to do with him from her brusque attitude. Hiyashimaru clawed his way painfully up Nobunaga's shoulder, and they exchanged identical looks of confusion.
The young girl looked over her shoulder, her annoyed expression clearly visible in the rapidly dimming light. "Well?! Are you coming or not?!"
"Um...yes! One moment!" he cried, gathering his food into a bundle. Trotting quickly to her side, the young man attempted a small bow. "A thousand thanks, my lady—"
"Nazuna," she said shortly.
"Ah. Yes. A thousand thanks, Lady Nazuna. If you'd allow me," he said awkwardly, gesturing towards the water bucket. She gave him an odd look, and he felt his face burn anew; she was not a dainty thing but a good-sized girl, and though he bested her in height by only a few inches, he wouldn't have been surprised if they were equally matched in strength.
"I'm fine, really."
"But I insist!"
"Your arm is in a sling, my lord."
Nobunaga winced. There was that too.
"Never mind that... the wound is almost healed."
"Oh, here, if you're so bent on helping," Nazuna sighed in exasperation and shifted the bucket to her right arm. "Take the other side, come on."
Of course, this didn't solve all of their problems; the bucket between them sloshed a considerable amount of water over their feet whenever they fell out of step and knocked painfully against their thighs if they walked too close together. It also didn't help that Hiyashimaru would jump onto the rim of the bucket without warning and add another seven pounds to their troubles. As they hobbled over the last of the cobbled steps leading up the mountain, Nobunaga could have cheerfully thrown the bucket in a fit of annoyance over cold feet and sore legs.
* * * * *
The temple was spacious yet run down, and a pile of rubble on the eastern edge suggested that one of the temple's wings had recently been demolished. Nobunaga raised his eyebrows – though Nazuna's master had been a man of the cloth, he had been the caretaker of a beautiful temple that had obviously once flourished.
Nazuna ushered him into the dusty main hall of one of the surviving buildings. Rickety furniture and trinkets littered the floor, and decorative scrolls adorned the walls. "You'll find a bedroll and a screen in the next room, but it would be better if you slept in here... I haven't quite patched the walls of that room yet, and it gets very drafty."
"Thank you again, Lady Nazuna," murmured Nobunaga, nursing his fingers. The water bucket was heavy despite the water that kept sloshing over the rim, but they'd managed to salvage enough for the night's meal. "As long as I am a guest, is there any way I can help you?"
"There's not a lot you can do with a wounded arm," said Nazuna bluntly.
Nobunaga said nothing, feeling like his pathos with Princess Tsuyu was beginning to follow him everywhere; no matter what he did with the best intentions it always came across the same, bumbling and stupid. A slip in horse manure, a tumble down a cliff, the wrong remark at the wrong time. It didn't matter if he was the only one who saw, because it annoyed even himself. "I'm sorry, Lady," he said softly, blushing to the roots of his hair.
Nazuna winced, and averted her eyes awkwardly. "I meant no offense. You'd save me a lot of work if you'd let me use those vegetables with you for the night's repast."
Nobunaga looked up swiftly. "You want me to give you my food?"
"Well," amended Nazuna hastily, "Let me borrow them at least. I'll make sure to give you provisions when you leave."
Nobunaga only nodded, not wanting to speak. Handing over the bundle, it was only a short pause later before Nazuna left Nobunaga to set up his bed and stew inside his own mind.
* * * * *
He was very grateful when she returned, but the sentiment was short-lived.
Nazuna returned by dusk, bearing a small kettle of a hot stew and a roll of bandages tucked under her arm. Nobunaga's stomach rumbled at the smell of the stew, but his eyebrows rose at the sight of the bandages.
"Give me your arm," she demanded, her no-nonsense attitude obviously revived.
"That's really not necessary," replied Nobunaga, forgetting about his hesitance to speak. Something about her tone truly alarmed him.
Rolling her eyes, she doled out the stew into bowls. "That dressing needs to be changed. And it will be, before your dinner gets cold."
Hiyashimaru sniffed interestedly at the contents of the kettle while Nobunaga untied the sling, not removing his eyes from the spoon in her hands. The last thing he wanted to do was remove the top half of his kimono to her, but she seemed like the resourceful sort of girl who could make a weapon out of anything. Over slight embarrassment versus a spoonful of boiling stew crashing down on his head, Nobunaga thought that the choice was rather obvious.
When the last bandage fell away, Nazuna gasped. The wound was large, and ugly. Nobunaga hadn't lied that it was almost healed, but the scar conveyed in no uncertain terms the depth of the wound and the pain it must have caused. "Oh, gods! How did this happen to you?"
Nobunaga blinked and said nothing.
Nazuna cocked an eyebrow and began to clean the wound. "Fair enough, I suppose. But you know, the night won't go any faster if we don't talk to each other. What's the good of visitors if they have no stories to share?"
Nobunaga blinked again. He seemed to do that a lot where Nazuna was concerned.
She shrugged and bound the wound perhaps a little too tightly. "Okay, then. Suit yourself."
"Have you ever heard of the Tsukumo no Gama?" he asked, inwardly sighing. It's not like she could think him to be any more of a fool. He hoped.
"A toad demon?"
"Yes. It possessed the lord and husband of a good friend of mine."
"That is a shame," she murmured quietly, passing him a bowl of stew.
He took the bowl and warmed his hands against the china. "Thank you. However," he continued, "though trapped within the demon form, the Lord was still very much alive. If there was any hope left, I didn't want to watch an innocent lord be slain."
"Watch?" asked Nazuna, peering at him over her bowl. "Then you were not alone," she said, stating a fact rather than asking a question.
Nobunaga shook his head and laughed. "No. On the road I met a hanyou and a miko seeking a jewel. My part in the tale is small...they did all of the work and I have all of the injuries to show for it."
Nazuna stared at him, a spoonful of food frozen halfway to her mouth. "A hanyou? What was his name?"
"Inuyasha, he called himself." When she didn't reply, Nobunaga continued. "The miko managed to drive the toad from the lord's body, and I was nearly slain myself because I don't believe in killing during these dark times. Because I refused to kill my rival in love." He chuckled and took a small bite of lukewarm stew. He noticed that the vegetables were just slightly overcooked. "I should say 'former love.' You must think I am a fool."
Nazuna didn't answer immediately. "Was his life spared?"
"Yes. And for that, I don't regret my decision," he said truthfully.
"I understand," she said, and chewed thoughtfully. "I have also had the pleasure of meeting Inuyasha."
Nobunaga blinked again, but gestured for her to continue.
"I came into my former master's care when my father was killed by the demons of this mountain. Unfortunately...there never was a master. I trusted my life to my father's killer. I didn't know until Inuyasha and the miko Kagome came here with the shards of the Jewel." Her voice was clear, and she looked up to reveal dry eyes to Nobunaga. "You refused to kill your rival in love, and I refused to believe that my master was a demon."
Nobunaga nodded, but said nothing. Everything he could think of sounded trite or nauseatingly sappy, qualities he'd been trying to stay away from of late.
She waved her hand dismissively. "I thought I would spend my life in utter terror of demons, but Inuyasha proved to me that there are good demons after all. I spent a few weeks in a village nearby, but I couldn't help coming back here. Until the last hours, I owed my life to my master...he was gentle, and kind."
"It's good to know that I am not the only fool," said Nobunaga lightly.
"No, I suppose not."
They finished eating in silence, but the air between them seemed charged somehow, as if the brief exchange between them made the room feel a little more like home. Their hands brushed together for mere moments as Nobunaga handed his bowl back to her, and he couldn't tell if the warmth of her skin, Hiyashimaru's piercing shrieks, or his own weariness made him feel a little dizzy.
* * * * *
That night, Nobunaga noted that his sleep was dreamless and his mind gave him some reprieve from Princess Tsuyu's lingering influence. This was hardly the first time, as pure weariness and confusion had pushed her aside in his mind as a trivial matter, a lost cause that would never come to fruition.
To be honest, he was overwhelmed with a sense of relief. He had tried to hold onto his infatuation as long as he could, tried to make himself miss her with an ache that should have killed him. But like water slipping through his cupped hands, it didn't sustain and passed into memory.
Nobunaga was glad of Princess Tsuyu's happiness and prosperity, but it had taken him many weeks to discover the layers of truth in her words: To me you can only be a kind and gentle childhood friend. She didn't love him, and his feelings for her were not what Nobunaga had fooled himself into believing. To Nobunaga, she would always be his dear friend, but not his first love.
Love was another matter entirely.
* * * * *
Nobunaga woke early the next morning, barely aware of where he was or the hand on his shoulder. After he oriented himself, he faintly wondered how he could have possibly slept over the sun's bright glare or the racket the birds were making.
Nazuna said nothing, only handed him a roll of bandages and a bundle of food. Nobunaga noticed that the bundle was considerably larger than the one he'd brought with him, but she averted her face to attend to some task or another before he could speak. Hiyashimaru yawned hugely, but his usual nervous, twitchy sort of energy was already apparent as he jogged outside to chase the squirrels on their morning romp.
"You should leave early," she said finally, clearing the ashes of last night's fire. "The borders are far, and you're wounded."
"Er..." said Nobunaga. He searched his mind in a panic, not able to imagine why. "I should probably eat first."
She made an indistinct noise in her throat. "You can eat on the road, can't you?"
Nobunaga blinked. Arguments raced through his head about how he'd have to stop to eat, which would leave him helpless to demons since he had no weapon, whom he probably couldn't bring himself to fight even if he had a weapon, but the words wouldn't come. He came to his senses before he started to gibber stupidly, nodded, and shouldered the pack she'd given him.
He took as much time as he could to stretch his back and check the dressing on his wound before he followed her from the room. Outside of the temple, he turned to speak to her while waiting for Hiyashimaru to come. "Why did you help me?" he asked quietly. "It is dangerous to show mercy during such dangerous times."
"You're one to talk," she retorted, "Unable to kill a demon who threatened your life."
"You know why I didn't."
A brief pause followed, and the blood rushed to Nobunaga's face. The aura of foolishness he always felt became a little tighter, threatening to choke him.
When Nazuna spoke again, her voice was soft and reflective though her words were short. "Because you are not the only fool, Nobunaga. You don't regret your decision, and I don't regret mine."
And then Nazuna leaned forward, and her hand tilted Nobunaga's head slightly to one side to plant a kiss on his cheek; but just at the last moment Nobunaga turned his face against the guidance of Nazuna's hand, and their lips brushed instead. Nobunaga felt Nazuna draw a sharp intake of breath; Nobunaga reached forward and placed his good hand on Nazuna's face, holding her there as he pressed their lips fully together in a kiss. It was a gentle chaste kiss, friendly and reserved but on the brink of something more, something he held back and in the process left it open for interpretation.
When they both drew apart, Nobunaga's eyes sought Nazuna's with some measure of embarrassed uncertainty. Their eyes met, and held for a long moment; Nazuna eventually looked away, flustered.
Hiyashimaru scuttled painfully up Nobunaga's leg and arm with sharp claws, and Nobunaga noticed with a detached sense of amusement that there was dark, softer squirrel fur among the pure white of the monkey's coat. "Thank you for your hospitality," he said finally, and started down the steps of the temple. "Goodbye, Nazuna."
He hadn't gotten far before he heard her voice, quiet but close behind. He turned and smacked painfully into her, feeling the color rise in his face. Hastily retreating down a few steps, he wondered just when he was going to pitch himself down them and whether she'd be there to see it.
Her words surprised him even more than the fact that she had followed. "Will you come back?"
Nobunaga blinked. He shouldn't have been surprised; Nazuna was involved.
She took a single step forward, and Nobunaga got the distinct feeling that his personal space was being breached. She bit her lip awkwardly, but stubbornly held his gaze. "Well...fools should not dwell alone," she finished lamely, and for the first time Nobunaga felt like he understood her, that he wasn't the only one who felt hopelessly awkward or alone.
He didn't move, only blinked again. "I'll come back."
He turned to leave, and his fleeting glimpse of her face made the painful tumble down the next dozen steps just a little bit easier to bear.