Chapter 6
Kagome sighed and gathered the wash from the outside clothesline. She'd been working at the manor for about a week or two and had fallen into a comfortable if hectic, routine. Wake early, do wash, hang it up to dry, make breakfast and bring in the clothes from the day before with her friend and fellow servant Hanii. Then she would check on the wounded knight, who was healing very nicely; something Kagome suspected Hanii was responsible for, try to gently break the bad news to Kouga that she couldn't marry/mate him, avoid the Lady Kikyo and go to town with her friend to pick up supplies. She would then come back and help Hanii make salves and medicines for the household and administer them, as they were needed.
Kagome was actually very fond of Hanii and she'd become very good friends with her. She'd even found out that she had a thing for Kouga, and kagome could see why, but Kouga was far too impulsive for her. Besides, marrying a noble would force her back into the upper society, a place she never wanted to enter again. Another downside was the fact that she would be privy to his every whim and want, and she refused to subject herself to that again.
Although that's what she did with the Lady of the house. Kikyo seemed to have it in for her, and if she ran into her it was sure to mean extra work. She supposed it was because she didn't want her precious son marrying some low-life servant, but it seemed to be more than that. And she had been steering Kagome away from Dai very efficiently.
Kagome refused to be driven away, however. She finally had a safe and secure shelter and she wasn't afraid to work for it. Besides, things like doing the wash and tending the Lady Knight weren't really chores. Doing wash, she got to spend time outside in the fresh air, something she hadn't appreciated as much as when she hadn't had an inside to go back to. Now that she did, the outdoors were much more alluring.
And Lady Sango was very polite and gracious. Her noble rearing was highly evident in the way she spoke and the way she held herself, and Kagome enjoyed being around her. They would chat while Kagome was tending her wounds, and she'd even learned a few basic defensive moves from Sango's coaching. It was Kagome's secret, selfish hope that once Sango got better she wouldn't return to her family but stay with them.
It was possible that Sango's family was dead or perhaps had refused to have contact with her, because in all of the time that she had been there she had received only one letter. The one letter had caused her to cry, but Sango didn't know that Kagome had seen her tears. Kagome refused to bruise Sango's pride by telling her that she had.
Kagome couldn't find the basket that she used to carry the clothes in, and there was no way that she could carry all of the clothes inside without one and still have time to meet Hanii and go to village. She also needed to tend Lady Sango's injury, and she needed more time. If she was going to be honest with herself, she was afraid of Kikyo. The woman positively radiated a malicious energy, almost strong enough for her to see. So she wasn't going to skimp out on any of her chores.
She mentally listed the places where it could be and decided it was probably in that little clearing, the one with the big tree, next to the hot springs. The hot springs were where they washed all of the clothes, and then they usually dragged them back to dry.
But that morning Kouga had showed up and insisted on carrying the clothes back for her. Kagome shook her head at the memory. The boy still thought that she was going to be his mate as long as he killed her fiancé. The one that she didn't have.
Kagome bit her lip, thinking. She probably had time to go get it if she ran, and it would definitely be faster than making four or five trips to get the clothes into the house and to their respective rooms. She hitched up her skirt and took off for the forest.
She arrived at the grove, panting slightly. She had made it there in about a sixth of the time it normally took her when she walked. She spotted the basket and went to drag it back towards the manor when she heard a rustle in the tree above her head.
Kagome stiffened. She hadn't lost the wariness that living on the streets had given her. She was ready to bolt when she remembered Kikyo. She internally cursed the "over-bearing, power-hungry, paranoid, whore-like, over-bred, schizophrenic sluttish bitch." (0.0 Kagome may have a few anger issues to work out...) She turned back towards the tree and tried to tiptoe up to her basket when a loud "Feh!" stopped her dead in her tracks.
Kagome couldn't move, but she could hear her heart beating. She waited for the gruesome, bloody end, thinking that maybe a few extra trips wouldn't have been so bad. Then Inuyasha, the youngest son from the manor dropped out of the tree. Kagome did a face-vault, relieved and a little disgusted with herself for her paranoia.
"Umm...hi..." she managed shakily. Her only response was a flick of long silver hair as he turned away.
She fought to control her temper. He'd scared ten years out of her, the least he could do was be polite! He'd been nothing but a jerk since the first time she'd talked to him, he was always so rude to her! She forgot that she was a servant and proceeded to tell him exactly how she felt.
"You insensitive jerk! You sit in your stupid tree and make weird noises, then you jump DOWN from your tree and scare me half to death! And THEN you don't apologize or even say 'Hi' back to me! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?! I was always pleasant to you! I know you don't like me that much but I'm staying and you should just learn to live with it! GOT THAT?!" She took a deep breath to stop herself from screaming again and tried to calm down.
Inuyasha stared at the red-faced girl in disbelief. He hadn't known that a female could be that scary, other then his stepmother Kikyo. He'd pegged Kagome as quiet and unassuming, but apparently he'd been wrong. He would also be damned if he was going to let her talk to him like that, no matter how frightening she might be. He snapped his mouth shut and narrowed his eyes.
"Oh yea? Well, you're stupid if you're scared of the things that go shake in the bushes. Or maybe that's what happens when you're a weakling, stupid shit scares you. Stupid bitch, you come in and bother me when I'm trying to sleep and then yell at me for scaring you. Pathetic." He was slightly alarmed to see a vein throbbing in her forehead, but didn't let it show on his face.
Kagome's face turned redder, something that he hadn't known was possible. She seemed to grow a foot and her face was furious enough to send a grown man running for cover. "You JERK! I'm not weak, and I'm NOT pathetic! Just because you hide in trees and wait to fall on people's heads doesn't mean that I'm scared of everything! It just makes you an un-educated JACKASS!!"
Kagome looked shocked for a moment, quickly covering her mouth with her hand. She seemed to be coming back to reality quickly, and amazingly getting over her fury at the same time. Inuyasha sent rushed but sincere thanks to his collective gods.
"Oh. I'm so sorry...I shouldn't have yelled at you like that! I just lost my temper, and I haven't had enough sleep for WEEKS now. But that doesn't excuse my poor behavior, and I really didn't mean a word of those insults! Well, maybe a few, but I really do regret them, truly. Just...please don't tell your mother?" With the last few words she looked beseechingly up at him, fear and hope evident in her soulful brown eyes.
"Feh. She's not my mother." Inuyasha couldn't think of anything to say that meant that it was all right, he wasn't mad at her with out making himself sound weak. So he changed the subject, hoping that she would never lose her temper with him again. His half-brother, now...that was a different story. He would love to see Kouga have his ill-proven affections thrown back in his face.
While Inuyasha was imagining his brother's humiliation, Kagome was trying to figure something out. 'If Kikyo isn't his mother, then why is he living like the son of a noble? If he was a bastard blowback of Lord Dai's, it's REALLY unlikely that Kikyo would even accept him as a PEASANT working the lands. She doesn't seem to be the tolerant type.' She figured that she had effectively screwed herself already, and Lady Kikyo was going to kill her for being late already, so why not ask him one more thing? He didn't look like he was going to turn her in to Kikyo, and she was sick to death of playing the dutiful servant. She wanted to be normal again, and it seemed that being nosy would be a good first step.
"Kikyo isn't your mother?" she inquired. "Then why do you live here? In my manor-I mean where I worked before- I'm pretty sure you would've been kicked out. Or never allowed in." She knew that she was being incredibly rude, and to the son of her new Master, no less. But to tell the truth she was still mad at him for what he'd said to her before and she hadn't entirely let it go.
"No." he stated shortly, turning away from her. But something honestly curious in her voice made him explain himself anyway. "Dai IS my real father, but my mother wasn't his wife. She was a poor village wench who had a pretty face and soft voice." A hint of bitterness crept into his voice. "My father never could resist the pretty, innocent ones. He still can't. Either way, she threatened him, and I got to stay. How wonderful for me," he finished sarcastically.
Inuyasha vividly remembered the last time he'd told someone the truth about his past. It had been a girl from the village, the smith's daughter, who he was courting. When she found out about his blemished bloodlines, she'd broken off their relationship. He strongly suspected that she'd been hoping to marry a rich noble to bring her out of her current impoverished state and had chosen him only because he was noble.
He expected Kagome to gasp and make a hurried excuse as to why she couldn't stay and chat. Everyone else did, and he wasn't sure if it was because he was half-demon or half human. Or maybe it was because he was half noble. Either way, everyone he let himself care about turned him away. It was better that she leave, better that THEY leave.
However, the expected gasp of horror didn't come like he'd expected it to. Instead he heard her mutter something about bastard fathers who couldn't remain faithful to their wives or children. Then she put her hand on his shoulder and told him, "Well, you know, I'm actually kind of glad that you're here. And your mother must've loved you, to go against a powerful man like Dai for you. He easily could've killed you both, and I'm sure she knew it."
Kagome felt awful for the poor hanyou. He'd been shunned by those he'd loved all of his life, and before she knew it she was trying to comfort him. It couldn't have been easy, living his life. He tried to put on a brave face, but now she could see underneath the mask, if only a tiny bit. And what she glimpsed made her heart bleed.
She marveled that only a moment ago she'd been screaming at him, absolutely furious at the fact that he would dare say things like that to her. She sighed. Recently her emotions seemed to be a wild fair-ride with many humps and valleys.
The pity that she felt pouring out of herself towards the obnoxious hanyou shocked even her, and she'd always been one to try to heal birds with broken wings. It looked as if this bird would need a lot of healing, but she was willing to try. In fact, she was more than willing. She was determined.
Sango was going slowly insane, being locked in the small room. She'd found out that the aloof Sesshomaru had, for reasons unknown, decided to bring her back to his lands and get people to care for her. She was grateful, but still it puzzled her.
She knew that it wasn't a matter of debt, or duty. He owed her nothing, and besides, he seemed to hate the ningen race. And it certainly couldn't be that he had romantic feelings for him. She didn't imagine that she was attractive to anyone but Miroku, who usually used the excuse of "checking on you only, my dear Lady Sango" to feel her more...private areas. She suspected that the thought of her lying on a bed was too much for the poor pervert. She was fairly certain that it couldn't be anything else.
She did little to try to appear beautiful, and she was far from dainty. Her muscles were over-developed and her breasts were usually bound, and she was sure that the fact that she wore pants and pulled her hair back without decorative or elaborate styles did nothing to enhance her looks. It wasn't as though she ever planned to get married.
Especially not now that she had no family to go back to. The only contact that she'd had with them was a note once she'd arrived at the manor telling her that as far as they were concerned they no longer had a daughter. They'd also told her to never contact them again and requested that she change her name, so as not to shame them. There had been no explanation.
Sango had then shamed herself by crying. Her family had never been flawless, but she'd also never not loved them, and she'd always assumed that they loved her too. They'd certainly acted as though they did, and she couldn't imagine why they were doing that to her. So she'd stopped staring at her mother's fancy handwriting and her father's sealing wax with the family crest pressed into it, called Kirara over to herself and cried herself dry into her soft fur.
Sango shook herself out of her memories and debated what she should do about exercise. She couldn't just sit in her bed any longer; it just wouldn't work for her. Perhaps she could ask Kagome what she could do when she came in to check on her.
Kagome was another puzzle to Sango. The girl was obviously not a peasant, she had too many signs of noble rearing. She was well-spoken, educated, gentle, and her hands were not those of the working class. She had few calluses, and she held far too well to be peasant-born. Besides, she had taken a book form the library and read it last night. Only nobles and scholars could read, but Kagome was just a maid.
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OK, yea it's a little melodramatic and really boring, but I'm trying. REALLY soon she's going to reject Kouga PERMANENTLY and Sesshy's going to come home...(EEEE!!!!! SESSHY!) so it should pick up soon.
Kagome sighed and gathered the wash from the outside clothesline. She'd been working at the manor for about a week or two and had fallen into a comfortable if hectic, routine. Wake early, do wash, hang it up to dry, make breakfast and bring in the clothes from the day before with her friend and fellow servant Hanii. Then she would check on the wounded knight, who was healing very nicely; something Kagome suspected Hanii was responsible for, try to gently break the bad news to Kouga that she couldn't marry/mate him, avoid the Lady Kikyo and go to town with her friend to pick up supplies. She would then come back and help Hanii make salves and medicines for the household and administer them, as they were needed.
Kagome was actually very fond of Hanii and she'd become very good friends with her. She'd even found out that she had a thing for Kouga, and kagome could see why, but Kouga was far too impulsive for her. Besides, marrying a noble would force her back into the upper society, a place she never wanted to enter again. Another downside was the fact that she would be privy to his every whim and want, and she refused to subject herself to that again.
Although that's what she did with the Lady of the house. Kikyo seemed to have it in for her, and if she ran into her it was sure to mean extra work. She supposed it was because she didn't want her precious son marrying some low-life servant, but it seemed to be more than that. And she had been steering Kagome away from Dai very efficiently.
Kagome refused to be driven away, however. She finally had a safe and secure shelter and she wasn't afraid to work for it. Besides, things like doing the wash and tending the Lady Knight weren't really chores. Doing wash, she got to spend time outside in the fresh air, something she hadn't appreciated as much as when she hadn't had an inside to go back to. Now that she did, the outdoors were much more alluring.
And Lady Sango was very polite and gracious. Her noble rearing was highly evident in the way she spoke and the way she held herself, and Kagome enjoyed being around her. They would chat while Kagome was tending her wounds, and she'd even learned a few basic defensive moves from Sango's coaching. It was Kagome's secret, selfish hope that once Sango got better she wouldn't return to her family but stay with them.
It was possible that Sango's family was dead or perhaps had refused to have contact with her, because in all of the time that she had been there she had received only one letter. The one letter had caused her to cry, but Sango didn't know that Kagome had seen her tears. Kagome refused to bruise Sango's pride by telling her that she had.
Kagome couldn't find the basket that she used to carry the clothes in, and there was no way that she could carry all of the clothes inside without one and still have time to meet Hanii and go to village. She also needed to tend Lady Sango's injury, and she needed more time. If she was going to be honest with herself, she was afraid of Kikyo. The woman positively radiated a malicious energy, almost strong enough for her to see. So she wasn't going to skimp out on any of her chores.
She mentally listed the places where it could be and decided it was probably in that little clearing, the one with the big tree, next to the hot springs. The hot springs were where they washed all of the clothes, and then they usually dragged them back to dry.
But that morning Kouga had showed up and insisted on carrying the clothes back for her. Kagome shook her head at the memory. The boy still thought that she was going to be his mate as long as he killed her fiancé. The one that she didn't have.
Kagome bit her lip, thinking. She probably had time to go get it if she ran, and it would definitely be faster than making four or five trips to get the clothes into the house and to their respective rooms. She hitched up her skirt and took off for the forest.
She arrived at the grove, panting slightly. She had made it there in about a sixth of the time it normally took her when she walked. She spotted the basket and went to drag it back towards the manor when she heard a rustle in the tree above her head.
Kagome stiffened. She hadn't lost the wariness that living on the streets had given her. She was ready to bolt when she remembered Kikyo. She internally cursed the "over-bearing, power-hungry, paranoid, whore-like, over-bred, schizophrenic sluttish bitch." (0.0 Kagome may have a few anger issues to work out...) She turned back towards the tree and tried to tiptoe up to her basket when a loud "Feh!" stopped her dead in her tracks.
Kagome couldn't move, but she could hear her heart beating. She waited for the gruesome, bloody end, thinking that maybe a few extra trips wouldn't have been so bad. Then Inuyasha, the youngest son from the manor dropped out of the tree. Kagome did a face-vault, relieved and a little disgusted with herself for her paranoia.
"Umm...hi..." she managed shakily. Her only response was a flick of long silver hair as he turned away.
She fought to control her temper. He'd scared ten years out of her, the least he could do was be polite! He'd been nothing but a jerk since the first time she'd talked to him, he was always so rude to her! She forgot that she was a servant and proceeded to tell him exactly how she felt.
"You insensitive jerk! You sit in your stupid tree and make weird noises, then you jump DOWN from your tree and scare me half to death! And THEN you don't apologize or even say 'Hi' back to me! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?! I was always pleasant to you! I know you don't like me that much but I'm staying and you should just learn to live with it! GOT THAT?!" She took a deep breath to stop herself from screaming again and tried to calm down.
Inuyasha stared at the red-faced girl in disbelief. He hadn't known that a female could be that scary, other then his stepmother Kikyo. He'd pegged Kagome as quiet and unassuming, but apparently he'd been wrong. He would also be damned if he was going to let her talk to him like that, no matter how frightening she might be. He snapped his mouth shut and narrowed his eyes.
"Oh yea? Well, you're stupid if you're scared of the things that go shake in the bushes. Or maybe that's what happens when you're a weakling, stupid shit scares you. Stupid bitch, you come in and bother me when I'm trying to sleep and then yell at me for scaring you. Pathetic." He was slightly alarmed to see a vein throbbing in her forehead, but didn't let it show on his face.
Kagome's face turned redder, something that he hadn't known was possible. She seemed to grow a foot and her face was furious enough to send a grown man running for cover. "You JERK! I'm not weak, and I'm NOT pathetic! Just because you hide in trees and wait to fall on people's heads doesn't mean that I'm scared of everything! It just makes you an un-educated JACKASS!!"
Kagome looked shocked for a moment, quickly covering her mouth with her hand. She seemed to be coming back to reality quickly, and amazingly getting over her fury at the same time. Inuyasha sent rushed but sincere thanks to his collective gods.
"Oh. I'm so sorry...I shouldn't have yelled at you like that! I just lost my temper, and I haven't had enough sleep for WEEKS now. But that doesn't excuse my poor behavior, and I really didn't mean a word of those insults! Well, maybe a few, but I really do regret them, truly. Just...please don't tell your mother?" With the last few words she looked beseechingly up at him, fear and hope evident in her soulful brown eyes.
"Feh. She's not my mother." Inuyasha couldn't think of anything to say that meant that it was all right, he wasn't mad at her with out making himself sound weak. So he changed the subject, hoping that she would never lose her temper with him again. His half-brother, now...that was a different story. He would love to see Kouga have his ill-proven affections thrown back in his face.
While Inuyasha was imagining his brother's humiliation, Kagome was trying to figure something out. 'If Kikyo isn't his mother, then why is he living like the son of a noble? If he was a bastard blowback of Lord Dai's, it's REALLY unlikely that Kikyo would even accept him as a PEASANT working the lands. She doesn't seem to be the tolerant type.' She figured that she had effectively screwed herself already, and Lady Kikyo was going to kill her for being late already, so why not ask him one more thing? He didn't look like he was going to turn her in to Kikyo, and she was sick to death of playing the dutiful servant. She wanted to be normal again, and it seemed that being nosy would be a good first step.
"Kikyo isn't your mother?" she inquired. "Then why do you live here? In my manor-I mean where I worked before- I'm pretty sure you would've been kicked out. Or never allowed in." She knew that she was being incredibly rude, and to the son of her new Master, no less. But to tell the truth she was still mad at him for what he'd said to her before and she hadn't entirely let it go.
"No." he stated shortly, turning away from her. But something honestly curious in her voice made him explain himself anyway. "Dai IS my real father, but my mother wasn't his wife. She was a poor village wench who had a pretty face and soft voice." A hint of bitterness crept into his voice. "My father never could resist the pretty, innocent ones. He still can't. Either way, she threatened him, and I got to stay. How wonderful for me," he finished sarcastically.
Inuyasha vividly remembered the last time he'd told someone the truth about his past. It had been a girl from the village, the smith's daughter, who he was courting. When she found out about his blemished bloodlines, she'd broken off their relationship. He strongly suspected that she'd been hoping to marry a rich noble to bring her out of her current impoverished state and had chosen him only because he was noble.
He expected Kagome to gasp and make a hurried excuse as to why she couldn't stay and chat. Everyone else did, and he wasn't sure if it was because he was half-demon or half human. Or maybe it was because he was half noble. Either way, everyone he let himself care about turned him away. It was better that she leave, better that THEY leave.
However, the expected gasp of horror didn't come like he'd expected it to. Instead he heard her mutter something about bastard fathers who couldn't remain faithful to their wives or children. Then she put her hand on his shoulder and told him, "Well, you know, I'm actually kind of glad that you're here. And your mother must've loved you, to go against a powerful man like Dai for you. He easily could've killed you both, and I'm sure she knew it."
Kagome felt awful for the poor hanyou. He'd been shunned by those he'd loved all of his life, and before she knew it she was trying to comfort him. It couldn't have been easy, living his life. He tried to put on a brave face, but now she could see underneath the mask, if only a tiny bit. And what she glimpsed made her heart bleed.
She marveled that only a moment ago she'd been screaming at him, absolutely furious at the fact that he would dare say things like that to her. She sighed. Recently her emotions seemed to be a wild fair-ride with many humps and valleys.
The pity that she felt pouring out of herself towards the obnoxious hanyou shocked even her, and she'd always been one to try to heal birds with broken wings. It looked as if this bird would need a lot of healing, but she was willing to try. In fact, she was more than willing. She was determined.
Sango was going slowly insane, being locked in the small room. She'd found out that the aloof Sesshomaru had, for reasons unknown, decided to bring her back to his lands and get people to care for her. She was grateful, but still it puzzled her.
She knew that it wasn't a matter of debt, or duty. He owed her nothing, and besides, he seemed to hate the ningen race. And it certainly couldn't be that he had romantic feelings for him. She didn't imagine that she was attractive to anyone but Miroku, who usually used the excuse of "checking on you only, my dear Lady Sango" to feel her more...private areas. She suspected that the thought of her lying on a bed was too much for the poor pervert. She was fairly certain that it couldn't be anything else.
She did little to try to appear beautiful, and she was far from dainty. Her muscles were over-developed and her breasts were usually bound, and she was sure that the fact that she wore pants and pulled her hair back without decorative or elaborate styles did nothing to enhance her looks. It wasn't as though she ever planned to get married.
Especially not now that she had no family to go back to. The only contact that she'd had with them was a note once she'd arrived at the manor telling her that as far as they were concerned they no longer had a daughter. They'd also told her to never contact them again and requested that she change her name, so as not to shame them. There had been no explanation.
Sango had then shamed herself by crying. Her family had never been flawless, but she'd also never not loved them, and she'd always assumed that they loved her too. They'd certainly acted as though they did, and she couldn't imagine why they were doing that to her. So she'd stopped staring at her mother's fancy handwriting and her father's sealing wax with the family crest pressed into it, called Kirara over to herself and cried herself dry into her soft fur.
Sango shook herself out of her memories and debated what she should do about exercise. She couldn't just sit in her bed any longer; it just wouldn't work for her. Perhaps she could ask Kagome what she could do when she came in to check on her.
Kagome was another puzzle to Sango. The girl was obviously not a peasant, she had too many signs of noble rearing. She was well-spoken, educated, gentle, and her hands were not those of the working class. She had few calluses, and she held far too well to be peasant-born. Besides, she had taken a book form the library and read it last night. Only nobles and scholars could read, but Kagome was just a maid.
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OK, yea it's a little melodramatic and really boring, but I'm trying. REALLY soon she's going to reject Kouga PERMANENTLY and Sesshy's going to come home...(EEEE!!!!! SESSHY!) so it should pick up soon.