Note: italic stuff is dreams, okay?
Tempting Fate
Chapter 6: Deadly Weakness
Naraku was not in the habit of throwing temper tantrums. They were childish and served no purpose.
But he was sorely tempted to have one right then.
'That miko! That is the second time now that she has defeated me in battle! It seems that a change of tactics is in order…'
Kagura watched her master fume in silence. The only outward sign of his anger was the fact that he was gouging claw marks in the arms of the chair she had found for him. Naraku had been plenty mad when Sesshoumaru defied his will, but that was nothing compared to this. Perhaps Sesshoumaru was the wrong person to approach for the task of getting rid of Naraku. Perhaps it was this girl – and her hanyou?
Her master's voice broke the silence suddenly. "Kanna." Kagura hid a scowl. The noiseless detachment had been found by Kagura herself that very afternoon on a quick flight. A flash of white had caught her eye and she had flown lower to investigate. To her shock, she had inadvertently come upon her 'sister' in the middle of the wilderness, wandering aimlessly. By some miracle she had retained her mirror through her long trek, and so Kagura had thought that Naraku would want to have the girl back.
In other words, he probably would have flown into a rage if he had found out that she had seen the girl and not brought her 'home'.
So, in hopes of keeping the hanyou relatively agreeable, Kagura had retrieved the wanderer and brought her back to the cave in which they were now hiding. Ever since then her master had called for Kanna every hour or so, glaring into her mirror as though it could somehow tell him what to do.
Sure enough, there he was – staring fixedly into the mirror's depths like his very life depended on it. She sighed in silent exasperation, leaning against the cave entrance and staring out over the darkened forest. Naraku's smooth voice suddenly filled the cave, startling her.
"Love."
She raised her eyebrows. 'Ah, a cryptic clue. How typical…'
"Jealousy."
She simply waited.
"Anger…Hatred…"
She began to see where he was going with this.
"A natural progression – and one of the most powerful forces known to man…or youkai. Once the hatred is kindled, there is quite literally nothing that can stop it." He grimaced in pained remembrance. "I can't touch that thrice-damned miko, nor the wolf she is protecting, but there is someone who can. Someone who, fortuitously enough, is already jealous."
Kagura couldn't help rolling her eyes at this – to her horror he saw it. He wagged a finger at her in a rare display of good humour. "Just watch, Kagura. I don't think you've truly seen Inuyasha in a full-blown rage before…it should be most entertaining." He patted the mirror that he held. "Of course, we'll help him along the way."
Predictably Kanna said nothing; Kagura wisely kept silent. 'This could backfire so badly – I wonder if you really know what you're doing this time?'
__________________________________________________________________________________
Since Kagome had awoken from her exhausted sleep, Kouga had been unhappily aware of a new development.
She was avoiding him. Deliberately.
Every time he approached her she would blush faintly, then turn away to talk to Mizumi or one of the other females. More often it was Mizumi, as many of the older females were still a bit wary of having a human (and a miko) in their midst. Then she would quickly drag her friend away to do something, leaving him behind.
He was, naturally, getting a mite annoyed at this behaviour. He was no fool – he had seen that no-good Inukkoro kiss his woman after the battle with Naraku's puppet. The foremost thing on his mind right now was reminding her exactly to whom she belonged! A growl escaped him as he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in a fury. 'I can't do that if she just keeps on running away!'
Kagome, for her part, was in something of a daze. Her thoughts kept straying back to the kiss that Inuyasha had given her – and how it had made her feel. It was almost embarrassing, really. In one instant it had been as though the past week (or, nearly a week, anyway) had never happened. For a brief moment she had been ready to call the whole deal off, forget the shards, forget Naraku, and just let him take her home so he could kiss her again...
Unfortunately, the sensible side of her knew that it was impossible. However, now when she saw Kouga she was reminded of Inuyasha. (Though her dear hanyou would throw a most interesting fit if he ever knew that!) Kagome knew that she was now in an awful fix. She would never betray Inuyasha, but Kouga had proven himself to be a wonderful person in his own right, and one who didn't deserve to have his heart toyed with. The persistent wolf had shown in the past that even the slightest encouragement could set him off into what she called 'courting-overdrive', so she had to be careful. Her solution?
Avoidance tactics. Not much of a solution, but the best she could come up with under the circumstances.
As yet Mizumi hadn't said anything about her rather strange behaviour, but she was sure it would only be a matter of time. After all, there are only so many times you can drag someone away from what they're doing with no plausible explanation and expect to get away with it!
And in the back of her mind, Kagome fervently hoped that Inuyasha could remain patient until the time was up.
Well, as patient as Inuyasha ever got, at least...
Inuyasha watched in horrified disbelief as Kouga casually walked up to Kagome and slipped an arm around her waist. When Kagome smiled up at him and laid her head on his shoulder, he snapped. Letting out an outraged cry he leaped forward, only to be jerked back into place by unseen chains. He roared as he fought against his bonds, never taking his eyes off of the couple in front of him.
Kagome never once gave any sign that she heard him at all.
Kouga, on the other hand, turned and smirked at Inuyasha, mouthing the words, "I win". Inuyasha could only watch helplessly as Kouga bent his head toward Kagome's, apparently intent on claiming her lips with his own. He couldn't watch – he simply couldn't.
But for some reason he couldn't close his eyes or turn away...
Miroku was uncomfortably aware of Sango's presence close by. More specifically, of the cold shoulder she was showing him. He hadn't quite managed to work out what the huge problem was, but he was desperate to get it out of the way so that things could go back to normal. Even if nothing else, he was NOT riding piggyback on Inuyasha again! That had been nothing short of humiliating and he was determined not to repeat the experience, thank you very much.
He looked over at Inuyasha, who was tossing and turning in his sleep, mumbling rather more than was usual for him. He felt a fleeting twinge of concern for his friend, then forcefully suppressed it. 'Time enough to worry about him later,' he thought grimly as he pushed himself to his feet. 'Words haven't worked,' he mused as he walked over to where Sango was sitting with her back to him. 'Time to try something else.'
Sango was completely, unequivocably miserable. She glanced over to where Kohaku and Shippo lay fast asleep, wishing that she could do the same. But her thoughts simply refused to leave her alone.
Thoughts of a certain nameless houshi, that is.
Ever since that encounter with the village girls, and that 'slip of the hand' that he had claimed was an accident, she had resolutely kept her distance from him. She felt quite justified in doing so, based on his undeniably scandalous behaviour in the past. But when she least expected it, the image of his face as he fought her at Naraku's castle kept flashing though her mind. He had looked so desperate, so determined, so ... sad. It wasn't something that she liked remembering at all.
Perhaps she was being too hard on him?
Sango tensed as she felt someone settle themselves behind her. It didn't help her nerves any when a pair of arms reached out and wrapped themselves around her shoulders, pulling her back to rest against a warm, firm chest. "Can't sleep?" Miroku's voice murmured in her ear.
"N-no, not really," she whispered. Miroku shifted himself to lie his chin on the top of her head.
"Mm, me neither." He slid his hands down her arms, idly stroking her with his fingers. Sango felt herself relaxing under the gentle assault, finally admitting surrender. Miroku smiled as he felt Sango slump into his hold. 'Finally...'
"Perhaps you would be able to sleep if you had some company?" he suggested with a grin. Gasping, Sango twisted herself around to face him in shock.
"Miroku! You -"
"Ah! So you do remember my name," he teased. She glowered at him wordlessly. "I don't mean anything by it, I assure you. I only meant that being close to another person may help you to fall asleep." He let his arms fall to the ground as Sango thought about what he had said. Eventually she gave in, as he had hoped all along. "Hmpf. All right, if you're sure you can behave yourself."
"Oh, absolutely."
There was a bit of shuffling as the pair lay down side by side. A rather tense moment followed when Miroku nonchalantly laid one hand on Sango's waist, pulling her closer to him. "Miroku, do I have to get Hiraikotsu?"
"Ah, no. No, I'm just a bit cold, that's all."
"Then put some more wood on the fire."
"No, I'm okay now. Really."
Sango sighed and decided to let it go. Sometimes there was just no fighting that houshi!
Later...
"Ugh, I still can't sleep."
Sango groaned and rolled over to face Miroku wearily. "After all that, and you still can't sleep?" He yawned and smiled sheepishly.
"Well, I thought that it was this 'silence' between us that was bothering me, and to an extent it was," he began. "But now that that is cleared up, I can sense something not quite right. Something...disturbing." He frowned in confusion. "But I can't tell what it is, exactly. It's blurred somehow."
"Is it going to hurt us?" Sango asked him, instantly alert. He concentrated, then shook his head slowly.
"No, I don't think so. But I think I'd better put up a ward, just in case. I'll just be a minute." He got up and grabbed his shakujou, walking out of the hut and going a small distance into the woods. Quietly, so as not to wake the rest of the sleepers, he muttered a few words and cast a protective ward over the group. Inuyasha suddenly gave a loud yelp and woke up, looking around hurriedly. Seeing nothing but some curious eyes looking in his direction, he got up from his corner of the hut and headed off into the darkness. Sango heard him grunt something about a 'weird dream – wimpy wolf' as he did so. As Miroku returned to her side, she filled him in on what had happened.
"Well...perhaps whatever it was that I sensed caused his nightmare," the tired houshi guessed. "At the very least, I don't feel anything else nearby. Now, my dear Sango, let us get some sleep. If Inuyasha tries to get us up at sunrise, I shall hit him on the head with my shakujou as hard as humanly possible." With that he yawned and settled down to sleep, once again pulling Sango to lie close to him. The demon exterminator didn't even start to argue about the sleeping arrangements this time. After all, it was kind of comfortable...
Shippo woke up when he heard the hanyou yell from his spot in the shadows of the room. He, too, heard Inuyasha mumble as he moved off, and he was a bit worried about what he had picked up. If the past was anything to go by, a dream associated with Inuyasha and Kagome would have the effect of putting him in a foul mood for the next few days at the least, perhaps for a whole week! 'Add to that the way I've been talking to him since Kagome went away, and you get a stressed out Inuyasha,' the kitsune thought. He was weighing up whether or not to go after his distressed friend (or distressed father-figure, on his good days) when a slow movement beside him made him jump.
Kohaku looked at his youkai friend sleepily. "Worried about him?" the boy muttered.
"Well...yes, actually. He hasn't been the same since Kagome went away."
"Since she left with Kouga, you mean."
"Of course that's what I mean! Although he's a basket case when she goes home, too -"
"So, what are you going to do about it?"
"Do? Er, I don't know. Got any ideas?"
"One."
"What?"
"Go after him. Talk to him for a bit. Let him know he still has a friend around here."
"Oh. Okay." Shippo picked himself up off of the floor and dashed off after his quarry. Kohaku grinned and settled down to sleep again, dreaming of a kitsune chasing an inuhanyou.
Inuyasha ran until he was certain that he was out of earshot of the rest of his group. Stopping, he let out an enraged growl and began tearing trees to bits. That dream had left him with a foul taste in his mouth. Kouga...kissing Kagome. Ugh. "Over my dead body!" he roared furiously, ripping some shrubs to slivers. He carried on in this way until part of the rage left him, allowing him to calm down enough to sit and think about what had happened.
'That bouzu did something, some trick with those wards of his I bet,' he thought wearily. 'I couldn't get away, couldn't stop dreaming about – that. No, I won't even think it. It didn't really happen. But I couldn't even close my eyes!' He laid his head in his hands tiredly. 'It only stopped when Miroku put that ward up.' He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear Shippo creep up on his position.
The kitsune peered through the foliage to see a very dejected-looking Inuyasha sitting on a log. 'What can I say to him?' he wondered frantically. 'I don't know what he needs to hear – that's what Kagome's for!' Finally he got up the courage to walk over and sit on the log beside the hanyou. Nervously, he cleared his throat. 'Here goes nothing...'
"I miss mom." Inuyasha's head whipped up in shock. What did that kid just say?! "I miss her laugh. She's always laughing. It gets annoying sometimes, but you really miss it when it's gone. I bet you miss it, huh?" Shippo didn't dare stop until he was sure that Inuyasha would let him stay in one piece. "I miss her voice. No offense to Sango or anything, but mom has the nicest voice I ever heard. But maybe it's not the voice itself, really, it's what she says. Yeah, I miss what she says. She always says nice things to everyone." He stopped talking when he saw Inuyasha shift abruptly.
"You're talking to me now, huh? Trying to cheer me up or something stupid like that?"
'Uh-oh.' "Well – don't you want me to talk to you?"
"Feh."
"We don't hate you, you know. I guess you can't help it that Kouga's a pain in the butt." Inuyasha crossed his arms, trying to look cross. But somehow it didn't look right with his mouth trying not to smile at that comment. "So – I can't speak for Sango or anything, 'cos she's pretty mad, but I guess I forgive you. And Kohaku was never really mad in the first place, and I think Miroku's okay with it, so...yeah. We all, and maybe Sango, aren't really all that mad at you now. Even if we were before. Umm...yeah. That's it, really." Shippo quickly ducked away in an attempt to avoid a fist to the head, but that proved unnecessary. To his astonishment, Inuyasha stood up and walked a few paces, stopping with his back facing the kit. "I guess I should thank you, huh brat?"
"Um -"
"Thanks. Really." The two of them stayed like that for a moment. "I miss her too." Shippo smiled.
"Hey, we'd better get back. Let's go." A few moments passed.
"Hey, kid?"
"Yeah?"
"You call her mom now? You know, that doesn't make me your father, in case you were getting strange ideas."
"Awww."
"NO."
"Daddy!"
"Shippo, you little runt -"
"Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad -"
"Kid, I'm warning you! Stop it, or.."
"Oh, daddy, you're no fun. Hey, wait! Aw, no fair, I can't run as fast as you – you're bigger! Hey, wait up!"
Mizumi watched helplessly as her human friend tossed and turned in her sleep. Every so often the girl would let out soft cries of "Inuyasha" and "no, Kouga!" It was all very worrying. What was Kagome dreaming about? She cautiously crept over to the pile of furs on which the miko was sleeping restlessly, trying not to wake her suddenly. The wolf carefully laid one hand on her arm, but got no response. If anything, the cries grew louder and more pained.
"What's going on?" a male voice asked gruffly. Mizumi leapt up and clapped a hand over the speaker's mouth.
"Kouga! Be quiet, for goodness' sake! Kagome is having a nightmare, I'm just trying to calm her down." Kouga's brow furrowed in concern, and she released her hold on him.
"A nightmare?" Mizumi decided it wouldn't be a good idea to tell him what the dream appeared to be about right at that moment. "And she isn't settling at all?"
Inuyasha, eyes coloured red. Long claws, dripping with blood. Kouga, long bloody rips across his chest. Eyes gazing sightlessly at the sky, fading slowly. The inuhanyou stood over the wolf, his fangs flashing in the light. "I win."
No!
Kouga lowered himself to the ground beside Kagome, gently easing her to lie against him. He softly rubbed one hand along her arm, murmuring words of comfort in her ear as she slept.
The red faded from Inuyasha's eyes. Kouga arose and walked away from him, his wounds miraculously healed. The scene faded into nothing...
Mizumi looked on in amazement, and a touch of awe, as Kagome stopped shifting about in her sleep. The girl's breathing gradually slowed until there was no sign of distress on her, and she slept deeply. Without a word the female wolf returned to her own bed. Kouga, she noticed, stayed by Kagome with no visible intention of leaving. 'I knew he had it in him,' she thought happily.
Kouga, meanwhile, was in heaven. He was able to hold his woman, and know she was his. After all, she responded to his touch without even knowing it was him. She took comfort from his presence. It was a sign of a deep bonding, a tie beyond mere friendship. He would convince her yet. He knew it.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Another night rolled by, and the sleep of the group in Kaede's hut was once again disturbed. No one could sleep through the noise that Inuyasha was making. The others didn't really want to know what was going on in the hanyou's head – anything bad enough to unsettle Inuyasha had to be bad. But they all agreed that it was a problem.
"Ngh – K'gome...c'mere. Kill that....wolf...mpf! Hands on my....No, no...."
"Miroku, would you just put up the ward and be done with it?"
"No, I think we'd better wait this time. We have to find out what is causing this."
"But I can't sleep!"
"Hush, Shippo. Stop complaining. None of us can sleep."
"What is going on here?"
"Nothing, Kaede. Did we wake you?"
"You might say that. Something didn't feel right. What on earth is Inuyasha doing?"
"Sleeping – kind of."
"Ngh! No, Kagome....K'ga, you b'stard..."
"Miroku, you're right. We have to do something about this."
The companions all agreed that the problem needed solving. However, at the moment, sleep was more important to most of them. With that in mind, Kohaku agreed to stand watch on the hanyou while the others went to find a more peaceful place to sleep.
They would tackle this in the morning.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha slept on...held captive in a dream.
A/N: Oh, man, it's finally done. Sorry it took so long, guys. Two months is an awful time to make you wait – please don't throw things at me. I have been looking for work, and we're in the middle of a heatwave like you wouldn't believe, and all kinds of stupid things. Very busy. And, I'm sorry to say, once I find full time work the updates will still be kind of far apart. No way out of that one.
But the story will continue to be updated. And it will be finished. No worries there. Promise.
And now....
Reviewer replies from Ch 5: Sneak Attack
ShadowHeart: Anime + fluff = very slow. Yes, I've noticed that. Extremely annoying. And yes, I yell at the screen too. How embarrassing. A post I/K hook-up story? Meaning probably another sequel to the sequel, hmm? Will think about it.
Jessica T: Can't resist those puppy eyes...so yes, this thing will stay I/K. I said so, didn't I? There was more Inuyasha stuff here, could you tell? *grins*
Aamalie: 'The boys are in the inuhouse.' I love it! Miroku v. the chicken. Will be fun!
Pasta Head: Scott McNeill does Kouga's voice? Oh, excellent, I love his voice. Speaking of weather, Sunday's temp here was 41.7 'C. Still want to trade? Didn't think so.
Poohsbestfriend: Super long review! Yay! Yes, it will stay I/K. Despite appearances at times in this story, I am pretty much I/K diehard. (Although some M/K is well done – don't hurt me!) So, this one will be I/K. But just wait till you see how this one is resolved!
Houshi – respectful title for a monk
Bouzu – not-quite-so respectful title. In fact, I'm led to believe it's quite rude. Sooo Inuyasha.
Time's mortal enemy: What a review! Whoa. Thanks so much. I'll reply to some bits. Yes, I love Kohaku. We don't see him enough in stories. And when we do, he usually dies. Not cool. Kouga definitely needed Mizumi to give him a 'kick' in the right direction (still does!). MS stuff picked up in this chapter – you will never see a lemon from me though. I just don't write them. And no more Kikyou. She's gone, no real Kikyou bashing intended. And Kagome remembered Inuyasha, see? Naraku v. Kagome will be huge. And, um, I forgot about Rin. Oops. She and Sesshy (and Jaken) will not be appearing in this fic. Maybe in the next one. And the timeframe is kind of uncertain. What, has the series ended?! I didn't know! I've only read up to that bit with the rats, if you know what I'm talking about.
Well, that's it from me. Quick notes – Trillian read my stuff! Whee! So proud. She writes beautiful fluff, much fluffier than mine. Go read! And I'm thinking about extending Where Do I Belong, by popular demand, for those who have read it and are interested. Well, I hope the next update won't be another two months, but you never can tell. See you then!