AN: It's done? Oh my god, it's actually done! Slightly shorter than usual (well…average I guess) but it's done. Sometimes I think it's going too fast, other times I think maybe it's just the strange feeling of returning to fluff…haven't written fluff in awhile…anyway in either case the speed can't be helped….I planned the story for 12 +/- 2 chapters and I can't stretch it any further, and I don't want to. Um…enjoy the chapter ^^.
Reasons
Inu-Yasha so did not like the look on Kagome's face.
"There's…there's something behind me, isn't there?" he said in a low voice.
"Yes," she whispered in a squeak, not diverting her eyes.
"Something big and monstrous?"
"Uh-huh."
"With loads of sharp teeth?"
"Looks like it."
"Right." Inu-Yasha took a deep breath. "If we move slowly it won't bug us…" Slowly he drifted toward her.
Kagome's face turned a shade whiter. "Inu-Yasha! Don't move!" But the shark's eyes had now slid towards Inu-Yasha, watching him move ever so slowly towards her.
"It's okay," he said soothingly, reaching her and taking her arm. If we swim really slowly, it won't disturb us." Very carefully he shrugged out of the loosely tied light rope around his waist. Kagome did the same, though she a sinking feeling of what Inu-Yasha was planning to do. The shark still watched its prey curiously.
Once the rope was off, Inu-Yasha smiled brightly. "That wasn't so bad, see? So let's just inch on by and get the hell out of here!" he finished with a yell, grabbing Kagome's arm and shooting out of the wreckage.
Immediately the shark pounced, snapping at where they'd just been. Kagome couldn't help screaming as she swam furiously through the bars of wood, dragging Inu-Yasha along, since she was obviously the stronger swimmer.
"Down!" Inu-Yasha yelled. Kagome immediately dove downward to the bottom of the ship. "Out!" Inu-Yasha yelled. Kagome changed her direction and shot forward, the shark still nipping at Inu-Yasha's heels.
Inu-Yasha kicked at it furiously—the shark was close enough for him to bonk his nose with his foot…that is, if he wanted to lose his foot to the shark. Kagome was doing all the swimming, while he was the one yelling, "Skat! Shoo! Skidaddle! There ain't nuthin' to see here, boy," or something similar to that anyway.
"Inu-Yasha!" Kagome screamed.
He looked up. A huge rusted metal bar was flying his way. He caught one end just as the other fell on his head. "Ow…" he groaned, his vision crowded with bright yellow stars. "What was that for?"
"So you'd be actually useful for something," she shot back, nearly sending him flying into debris as she made a sharp turn.
He rolled his eyes. "I am useful." He held the bar up and waved one of his feet toward the shark. "Hey, you, wanna try some of this? I'm pretty tasty." He snickered and Kagome muttered something like 'useful yeah right.'
The shark put on more speed and opened his mouth, revealing rows and rows of sharp teeth. Inu-Yasha was close enough so he could stare inside, transfixed. "Whoa, it's like an army of teeth monsters," he commented, amazed. "Wonder how much that would hurt?"
"Inu-Yasha!" Kagome screamed again. "Do something, he's going to bite your legs off!"
Her voice made Inu-Yasha spring into action. Quickly he brought the bar down as hard as he could on the shark's nose. It fell behind, shaking its head furiously and roaring at the pain.
At that moment Kagome shot out of the wreckage and out to somewhat open sea. The shark was still within the ship. She stopped abruptly to catch her breath. "Phew, that was way too close…Inu-Yasha, what have you been eating? You're a lot heavier than I remembered."
Inu-Yasha was rubbing his head. "Hey, it's all muscle, don't tell me I'm—"
The shark burst through the wooden side of the ship, charging straight into their direction. Kagome grabbed Inu-Yasha's arm again and swam to the only place she had an advantage in—back in Olympia.
"Look," she said breathlessly as she wove through the ship again. "We have to think of a plan!"
"Yeah, we do." Inu-Yasha waved the bar menacingly in the shark's direction. The shark snapped his teeth very closely to his pants. "Um, Kagome, are you slowing down?"
She put on an extra burst of speed, but it was difficult to do. "I can't swim with you dragging me down," she panted, darting into another room.
"Oh, so you're just going to drop me off to become shark fodder? I don't like that plan," Inu-Yasha said as he swiped at the water.
"If I don't let go of you we're both going to die," she said. Inu-Yasha raised his eyebrow and started to object about his apparent abandonment. "Hold on tightly." His protest turned into a loud yell as she suddenly shot upwards through a hole in the ship. The shark followed, tearing an even bigger hole into it.
Kagome swam alongside the cliff a couple of meters from the ground. "When I say let go, let go," she said, twisting and turning this way and that to move out of the shark's grasp. Hide behind the boulder and don't move at all. I'll distract him while you think of something."
"Wait, wait—too much! What boulder?"
"Let go!!"
Inu-Yasha immediately let go and into a tiny space between a boulder and the cliff side, way above the ground. Hey, cool, so this is what she meant—aaah! Water rushed around him furiously as the shark swam by. "Kagome!" he shouted, ready to swim after her. Then he remembered—don't move at all. Think of something.
What was he supposed to think of?
He peeked out from behind the boulder. Kagome was swimming back towards the wreckage, dodging each snap of the shark's mouth. Inu-Yasha's heart began to beat even faster. He had to think of something now or else Kagome would die. She was already tiring, and her dodges were already becoming more desperate. Think, Inu-Yasha, think…you can't let anything happen to her…
He looked down at the metal bar in his hand. He measured its width, then looked at the shark.
Okay, he'd thought of something. But it wasn't a very good idea.
"Hey, shark, over here!" he yelled, waving one arm over his head and banging the boulder with the iron bar. The shark stopped swimming and turned towards Inu-Yasha's direction. "Yeah, bozo. Come here. She's too skinny, not a good meal. Get me instead! Wooo! Come on, you big stupid thing!"
The shark probably didn't understand the words, but it seemed to know when it was being insulted. Kagome stared at him, bewildered, then yelled, "When I said think of something I didn't say change the eating order!"
Inu-Yasha kept making huge moves, to attract the shark's attention. "Yeah, you know you want to, you moron!" he shouted. "What are you, a man or a shark?"
Kagome cringed.
But it was okay, because the shark fell for it. Or rather, it wasn't okay, because now it was headed straight for Inu-Yasha.
Inu-Yasha held the bar in both hands now as the shark advanced toward him. His heart was pounding in his ears. He only had one chance to do this…
The shark's mouth burst open as he prepared to swallow Inu-Yasha whole. Milliseconds afterward, Inu-Yasha's arms shot out and stuck the bar into the big, ugly, teethy void vertically, so that he couldn't close his mouth.
Inu-Yasha breathed a sigh of relief as the shark reeled back, making a high-pitched, strangled sound. It fought to close its mouth but found it impossible because of the iron. Oh, thank the gods, I did it. Do I still have both my arms? One, two. Okay. Everything's intact. Gooood.
But the shark wasn't finished with him yet. It shot towards him, looking even scarier with a big piece of metal in its mouth. Inu-Yasha barely had time to duck into the hole as the shark crashed into the stone just above him.
Suddenly Kagome was there, and she swiped the shark angrily with her tail. The harsh skin of the shark made slight scratches on her delicate scales, and this the shark could smell. "Come after me," she said, swiping again. Then she darted off. The shark gave the equivalent of a snarl and shot after her.
"Inu-Yasha!" he could hear her voice faintly as she continued her dance with the shark. "Start pushing the boulder. When I say now, push it over the edge, okay? Push!"
He didn't question the orders, and immediately began pushing the boulder. He turned his back on it and pushed with his feet against the cliff. Slowly the boulder began to move from its firm position. Inu-Yasha turned around and placed his arms on it, just as it was close to the edge. "Now?" he asked, wincing with the effort of trying to hold a giant rock—even if it was underwater.
"Wait!" He heard Kagome below him.
He really couldn't hold on much longer. "Now?!"
There was a pause from below. For a brief moment Inu-Yasha panicked and thought the shark had swallowed her alive, until he heard her scream, "Now!"
With a grunt Inu-Yasha shoved the boulder off—and it fell, rolling down the pile of rocks, until it hit something with a small thud and hit the ground with an even louder thud. There was silence. A really long one.
His eyes widened. "Oh my god…Kagome!!!" He had loosed the rock too soon. Now Kagome was crushed under the boulder and he had just signed his own death sentence. He yelled again, "Kagome!"
From the bottom, a weary voice said, "Um…that wasn't me."
Inu-Yasha had never been more relieved to hear a person's voice, especially hers. Quickly he swam down to the bottom, where a cloud of sand was settling.
Kagome emerged from the cloud and threw her arms around him. "Inu-Yasha, we did it! We actually made it! Of course, I thought you were nuts when you were yelling at the shark but then—" she was silenced when Inu-Yasha's own arms encircled her body and pulled her tightly to her.
"That…" Inu-Yasha began shakily, "Was the freakiest thing I've ever gone through." He was speaking into her hair. "You know, when you told me to let go I thought you were leaving me for dead."
Kagome laughed. It felt so good to laugh, now that the danger was over. "I'd never do that," she said softly. "I saved your life, remember? And all that work would go to waste."
"Yeah…" He was still holding her close to him. "I wouldn't leave you either…I mean, I could have just swum up and left you here, but I didn't."
She grinned. "No, of course you wouldn't. You were very heroic back there…even though I ultimately saved the day."
"What? No way! I'm the one who pushed the rock. I—" Suddenly Inu-Yasha broke off. The hands on her back flew up around his throat, as he tried to breathe but drew water. He reeled backwards, choking.
Kagome realized it had been a long time since he'd received the breath, and with these past incidents they'd forgotten it completely. Quickly pulled him down towards him and put her lips on his. She breathed into him, long enough for him to stop his struggling and to get back to breathing normally.
When Kagome thought he'd gotten enough, she tried to pull back. But she realized that Inu-Yasha's arms had returned back to her waist and were holding her against him. And his lips were still on hers, but no breath was passing between their lips.
Oh my god…he's kissing me.
One of his hands reached up and gently brushed away the strands of hair floating around her face. With that one touch Kagome felt shivers run down her spine. She liked how it felt. She wrapped her arms tighter around him and smiled against his lips as his kisses grew deeper. Her hands roamed upwards and tangled themselves in his hair.
He broke away from her lips and down to her neck. Kagome arched her neck and let out a small sigh. She heard him whisper her name against her skin. She kissed the top of his head, burying her face in the cloud of soft silvery hair. She peered dreamily past his head at the wall, where she saw their shadows intertwined—
—Except at the bottom, where two of his feet were visible, and so was the tip of her tail.
Kagome's eyes widened just as Inu-Yasha was returning back to her lips. "No," she said hoarsely as his lips touched hers again. Their closeness was too tempting for her to just forget about it and go back to kissing him, so she pushed him away. It felt like her own hand was going against her will, the way she halfheartedly nudged him away.
Inu-Yasha's eyes were open now, and confused. "Did you just say no?" he asked.
"Yes."
He frowned. "Why? Was I doing something wrong?"
"No," Kagome said immediately. This made Inu-Yasha even more confused. "Then why can't I—" he reached towards her again to hook his arm around her waist.
She drifted backwards. "Yes, I mean. Yes, you were doing something wrong. No, not with the kissing," she said quickly when he opened his mouth. "No, that was, um, great." It had been better than great. She wanted more than anything to return to that, but the shadow kept bugging her and reminding her of why she was stopping. "I mean, this whole thing. You and me. Man and mermaid. Forbidden, remember?"
Inu-Yasha was bewildered. "You're going to let a law stop us from being together?"
"Inu-Yasha. The law is there for a reason," Kagome said, this time her voice harder.
He stopped and realized what she was talking about.
"It's not just that…you aren't staying here. As soon as Miroku helps Sango out you have to return to land with Rin. You can't return after that." Kagome's throat tightened. "Ever."
"Then I won't leave you," he said, for the briefest moment thinking of one of Miroku's romance novels. "I've broken the law hundreds of times, I've—"
"Mom says that's exactly what my father said, that he'd never leave." Kagome said tightly. "Even if you wanted to stay, you couldn't. You can't stay in the mercity, even with the permanent breath of life. And these are laws you can't break."
He looked at her coldly. "You sound like you don't want to be with me at all," he said accusingly.
"I don't!" Kagome shot back. "I don't and I can't!"
"Then why were you kissing me back?"
She looked extremely frustrated. If she had feet, she probably would have stomped her foot. "Inu-Yasha! I don't want to be with you because I can't! It would save us a lot of heart break of you just accepted that. Look," she took a deep breath. "We were just caught in the heat of the moment. We had just killed the king of sharks. We were giddy. So when I gave you the breath, one thing led to another and then…it doesn't mean anything at all." The lie flew out of her mouth before her throat tightened and she tried determinedly not to cry.
He was scowling now. "Well, if that's what it is to you, then I'm sorry I ever started it. But you know," he added rather angrily, "I'm not the one going around kissing people's foreheads when they're sleeping."
Kagome blushed. So much for being positively sure he was knocked out.
"Please," she said quietly, so Inu-Yasha barely heard her. "I can't speak for you, but don't make me fall in love with you. I don't want to go through what happened to my mother."
Inu-Yasha desperately pulled out his wild card. "Don't you think you're going a bit too far here?" he asked. "I mean, your parents' relationship was deep. I'm not thinking of marrying you or having children with you or anything. I just want to be with you. Is that against the law?"
He was making this very, very difficult. "Any sort of relationship is forbidden," Kagome insisted. "It might start off small, but then it could turn into something huge, and—"
"Kagome." he interrupted her. "You kissed me back. Are you just going to...to float there and lie to me?" Well, he couldn't say 'stand' could he? "Were you just teasing or did you really mean it?"
She glared at him. He was accusing her of teasing him? Trying to do the right thing did not define teasing in her book. "Of course I meant it," she snapped. "I wouldn't be here torturing myself if I didn't—"
She stopped as Inu-Yasha moved closer to her, lowering his face so that he was level with her. His closeness made it hard for her to breathe. She wanted to move away, to try once again to tell him they couldn't have a relationship, but her hand was betraying her, reaching for his, and her eyes were betraying her, eyeing his lips…
"Then screw the law," Inu-Yasha whispered.
Kagome closed her eyes. No, she had to argue, she had to say that those nice feathery kisses down her cheek were not right, that those arms did not belong around her waist…
..Ah, she could argue with him later…
No, NOW.
"Inu-Yasha," she forced out. "I mean it. Let go or I'm going to slap you. With my tail. It hurts a lot more that way."
"What are you so uptight about?" he burst out suddenly. "It's just kissing, it's not anything else!"
Kagome's jaw dropped, and Inu-Yasha was beginning to think that was the wrong thing to say. "Oh, so it's just kissing?" she repeated. "You call me a tease then say it's just kissing? Hmph! I can't believe you!"
She was so baffling.
"Well, what else would it be?" he asked. "We were kissing, it's not like I was throwing you on the sand and…doing other things."
Two bright spots appeared on Kagome's cheeks. "You…you…arrggh!" She took a few deep breaths. "None of this is allowed. No kissing, no hugging, no doing other things!"
She broke away from him and began swimming upwards beside the rope. "I can't do this," she said, loud enough for him to hear. "Inu-Yasha, you have to understand. It would never work out." She had nearly disappeared from his sight when she added, "I'll meet you when you reach the top. I just need time to think." She'd just left him…left kissing…to go up and think.
Riiight.
* * *
Kagome had indeed been waiting, though she refused to speak a word to him all until they were near the mercity. The long trip seemed even longer with the silence and having to swim so far when they were dead beat. Inu-Yasha lagged behind slightly, the light rope messily wrapped around his body.
Some of what she'd said was true, though. He'd surprised himself when he started kissing her (that is, after his body started breathing in oxygen again and he wasn't gulping like a suffocating fish), he hadn't meant to do it at all. It sort of was in the heat of the moment, as she put it. He supposed it was a combination of feeling incredibly happy at still being alive, the panic of not being able to breathe and then finally being able to, her arms around his neck, her lips on his, and the fact that she was warm though it had been very, very cold down there…plus the attraction-that-was-already-there…what man wouldn't want to kiss her after all that?
And she kissed him back. Inu-Yasha scowled at her, swimming ahead of him. You couldn't kiss someone back and then say stop it's wrong we shouldn't do it blah blah blah…
She was just going to pretend it never happened.
Aw, hell no.
"Admit it," he called out to her. "You felt something back there."
Her shoulders grew rigid. "Yes, I did. I felt that something was terribly wrong and I should put it all behind me."
"You're just going to lie about it?"
"Lie about what?"
He scowled. "Don't play stupid."
She whirled around, but kept swimming backwards. "I am not playing stupid," she argued.
"Yes you are. Your last two answers have been incredibly stupid."
"You are such a jerk!"
"You're even worse," he shot back. "At least I'm not pretending."
Kagome's face was so furious she looked ready to lash at him and try to tear his eyes out. But he didn't care, he was angrier. "What is it going to take for you to understand?" she said through gritted teeth.
"Explain it to me, then. All you've said was, 'Oh, it's not allowed, we'll break the law, and I know you'll leave me' and all that crud. That's not a real explanation."
"Fine," she said shortly. "Say we did hook up."
"Okay."
"Then it grew into something deeper, like love. Real love. Where we'd want to marry each other and spend the rest of our lives together."
"I think you're taking this too far—"
"No! Listen to me! Say it happened. Then what would happen after that? The king is not going to let you stay in the mercity, but he would readily banish me. I've already got a black mark over my head because of my father leaving, he's got every reason to cast me out. And then where would we go? I can't go to land, you can't stay in the water unless you've got the permanent breath—this isn't your habitat, it will eventually do damage to you, you know—and I wouldn't want any harm to come to you. So I'd send you back on land, and you'd continue your life there while I wander around wasting away."
"Kagome, what makes you think we'll be falling so deeply enough we'd have to resort to that—"
"Because I'm starting to!" she snapped.
That shut Inu-Yasha up.
"You've done so much for me since you came. You've made me laugh, fought for me, been concerned about me, and I really like you. I don't know if it's love yet, but I like you. I'm not going to deny anything. I want to kiss you and do all that and hug you but if you think forward, it's just going to cause a lot of pain and if you get any closer, Inu-Yasha, I'm going to force feed you live octopus." While she'd been talking, Inu-Yasha had been drifting closer and closer until they were about an arm's width apart.
"Would it hurt that much to love me?" he asked.
She glared at him. "Have you even been listening?"
"I was in the beginning, but when you started babbling about pain and threatening me with your food I tuned out."
"Inu-Yasha. My mother went through it all, so I know how it's going to end up. The king told me how much it hurt her—"
"Does she hate him?" he asked suddenly.
Kagome raised her eyebrow. "What?"
"You heard me. When she talks about him does she look really mad, or start swearing, or basically say anything bad about him?"
"Well…no, but she doesn't have to, she—"
"And what about Sango and Miroku? How come no one is jumping on their case?"
She fidgeted. "The whole community knows it's only to get Naraku off her back. It's different!"
She tried to swim away, but Inu-Yasha grabbed her arm. "Look," he said, while staring deep into her eyes, "What do you want?"
"I want you to let go of me—"
"No. Listen first because you answer. Forget about the king, the law, Sango and Miroku, everything. Just what do you want?"
Her shoulders slumped. Inu-Yasha wasn't going to leave until she told him the truth that he already knew. "I want to be with you," she murmured in defeat.
"And?"
"And…to go to sleep."
Inu-Yasha was slightly thrown off. And it started off so nicely, too…but he saw Kagome's whole body was dragging, and her eyes were drooping. He remembered with a twinge of guilt that he'd made her take him down the abyss (using Kikyo as a threat! Oh, what kind of a terrible monster was he?) and she'd had to fight a great white shark. He recalled her saying mermaids only needed to sleep occasionally…well this must be one of those occasions.
"Lean on me and go to sleep," he suggested, pulling her towards him. "I'll take us back to city."
Kagome laughed weakly. "You're just trying to take advantage of me," she whispered, though she made no move to go away. It was amazing how once she allowed sleep to take over her body it turned into lead so quickly.
"Woman, there's a time to talk and a time to shut up." He grabbed the floating ends of the glowing rope in one hand and held Kagome with the other. She wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled into his shoulder. "Thanks," she mumbled.
Inu-Yasha swam the rest of the way slowly, careful not to move too jarringly so he wouldn't wake her. When they reached the city borders he tapped her gently on the shoulder. "Kagome, we're here," he whispered.
The grip around his shoulders strengthened. He felt Kagome stir, and a soft voice in his ear breathed, "Maybe…just for a little while wouldn't hurt…right?" She pressed her face against his neck. "I mean…well…I'm kind of scared…I know even saying for a little while could lead to something bigger…but I'm willing to try it. Are you?"
Inu-Yasha looked down at her. "Yeah," he said gently, bending down to kiss her top of her head. "Just for a little while."