Paper Wings
===
Chapter Four
===

If Kagome thought her day couldn't get any worse, she was obviously wrong. As she approached her home, her courtyard was swamped with a line leading towards her chicken coop, where Inu yasha was obviously placed. Her hands clenched in anger as she pushed past the would-be onlookers who had come to her home like visitors of the freak show that appeared from America every four years. At any rate, as she pushed through the people of her village, as well as some from neighboring villages, she scooped out her mother on the other side of the massive line, where a temporary fence had been set up around the chicken coop. Kagome wondered idly what she was going to do with the chickens before the real issue took over her senses and she charged forward, fire in her eyes.

Her mother was standing on a soap box and collecting pieces of silver from every person in line who approached her before instructing them when it was ok for them to see the 'forbidden angel' as she had so dubbed him. Didn't she realize that Inu yasha had a name? Of course she hadn't, the poor boy was probably cooped up in the chicken coop with rice paper around his ears in the shape of horns and his hands dipped in chicken blood so he would look at least remotely like the picture her mother had drawn.

Kagome wondered how many of those pictures she'd made, and how many she'd actually posted…but worst of all she feared the amount of people who would come to taunt her captured winged man. She refused to call him an angel, because she wasn't absolutely sure if that was what he was. Was he from heaven? Or somewhere else? How could he come from somewhere she didn't believe in? That was the one question that always plagued her mind when she thought about Inu yasha. Perhaps they were right and she was wrong, perhaps Inu yasha was Lucifer's hell spawn who had come to seek revenge on Earth. But then, why did he seem so gentle and sweet to her?

Well, as of late he'd been more interested in sending her deadly glares than he was actually being gentle and sweet.

Kagome approached her mother with a new furry deep within her. "Mother!"

"Kagome!" Her mother greeted her cheerfully, seemingly having forgotten that she was supposed to be in trouble for hiding such a 'hell spawn' in their family's chicken coop.

"Mother, what are you doing?" Kagome shrieked over the loud crowd that had collected in her home. She knew what was going on, the answer was clear, but that didn't stop Kagome from feeling enraged and betrayed. Inu yasha was in there being treated like an animal, and all her mother cared about was making some money.

"Why, putting the hell's child on display." Her mother turned from her for a moment before yelling at a child trying to sneak in. "Hey! That's one piece of silver to see Lucifer's right hand demon!" she snapped and the boy feebly dug in his pocket before producing the said wage to see Inu yasha. Her mother turned to the crowd. "Next in line, please step forward in order to see the magnificently horrifying hellion!"

"Mom!" Kagome's mother was once again drawn back to her daughter and the issue at hand. "How can you put a person on display? He has feelings, too!"

"How would you know?" Her mother said calmly as she continued to collect coins from the villagers. "It doesn't speak, It doesn't move, all it does is glare and clench its fist like it rules the world. Father said it was perhaps an angel, but an angel is from the sky. One who falls isn't an angel; it becomes a demon. Therefore, this demon I have in my chicken coop cannot feel anything but evil. I deserve to put it on display since it is my property."

'Property? Property! How can she say that?' Kagome was shocked. He mother knew nothing about Inu yasha. Inu yasha could talk, he had spoken to her, but since his throat had been damaged the day she found him, it hurt him to speak. Same went for his moving. He had broken bones! She was surprised that he hadn't died from the amount of blood loss alone. And he didn't always glare. He wasn't always enraged with her mother. Perhaps if her mother had left him alone and let him heal, he wouldn't be classified as a 'hellion' as her mother so rudely called the beautiful man.

"He is not your property! He belongs to no one! He's his own person, mother!" Kagome was beyond angered.

She stormed past her mother in an attempt to close the chicken coop's doors and shoo away the villagers. It took her a while to push past the many onlookers but what she saw astounded her.

The chicken coop's doors had been knocked down, as well as two of the side walls, leaving the back wall completely bare with Inu yasha leaning up against it. His eye was closed in pain as if trying to drown out all the people staring and pointing and laughing at him. It was almost too much to bare. The majority of his wounds were open to the onlookers, the bandages having been removed, by her mother, no doubt.

But what angered her the most was the fact that people were throwing stones at Inu yasha. His eyes remained closed and he made no move to oppose the forces acting upon him. Instead he allowed them to inflict their wrath upon his already tarnished body. Kagome would have known of this. "Don't you people have any shame?" she yelped to the person closest to her, who happened to be one of the rock throwers. He spared her a glance before continuing to throw the stones.

Kagome silently fumed and turned towards Inu yasha, wishing she could help, only to see that he had met her gaze. His golden eye stared at her with such clarity and such emotion she felt rooted to the spot with that look. He didn't seem angry at her, maybe he realized she was trying to stop the villagers, but yet he still seemed so betrayed.

"Stop!" Kagome yelled as she forced her gaze away from Inu yasha. "Stop! Leave him alone!"

Some villagers faltered in their assault to glare at the woman who was trying to interrupt their fun and simply threw the rocks, and now food, with renewed vigor.

One villager boy dared to near Inu yasha, a large rock in his hands, and stand dangerously close to the 'hell spawn'. His arms were shaking from the weight of the rock and he was happy to drop it in Inu yasha's lap. He let out a small shriek, something Kagome hadn't heard him do, his voice always remaining near or slightly over a whisper. He closed his eye in pain and bit his lip, clenching his fists in the dirt as he tried to suppress the pain that shot through him when the rock landed on his stomach.

Kagome's eyes widened and she stormed to the boy, who looked very impressed with himself, that is until he saw Kagome coming, and then he began to run away. She stood in front of the man with wings and glared the people she had grown up with. "Have you people no shame?" she yelled to them. "He's defenseless, and all you can do is injure him more? Continue this and he will die!" her speech landed on deaf ears as they began to throw the rocks at her. She yelped in surprise and raised her hands to shield the beating.

Then she heard a rustle of cloth and the fluttering of broken wings behind her. With a gasp she turned to see Inu yasha was standing, one hand leaning against the wall so that he didn't fall over. But his eye was alit with anger and rage. His eye narrowed and he bared his teeth at the people. Then he struggled forward, making sure one of his wings covered Kagome.

Kagome's eyes widened in surprise when she realized that Inu yasha was protecting her. He was willingly putting himself in harms way in order to make sure she wasn't hurt. She was profusely touched by his actions, his desire to protect her overriding his pain that was obvious from his posture and the amount of bruises the rocks had been delivering him.

She gently touched his back, feeling the firm muscle she hadn't felt before underneath his torn and dirtied kimono. His back was completely bare in order to let his wings be free, and she noticed the healing scrapes there. "Please, don't," she begged him, not wanting him to be hurt more at her expense. He didn't move. He didn't even make any sign of having heard her. But she knew he had, because his ears turned back towards her.

Kagome felt tears collecting in her eyes. This was all her fault. If she hadn't found Inu yasha, he wouldn't be in this mess. He'd be safe and free from this torment. He wouldn't have to endure the torture of her kinsmen, nor would he have to feel that he had to protect her from said kinsmen. It was all her fault.

'But if I hadn't found him, he would have died…I was destined to find him,' she decided with a small sob. Inu yasha tensed as a particularly large rock hit him as well as the sounds of Kagome's sobs hit his ears.

He turned around and allowed the rocks to hit his back as he stared down at her. He seemed puzzled from her display of emotion, but she couldn't miss the small amount of panic that flashed past his golden orb. She flashed a watery smile and shook her head. "Please, stop trying to protect me, I'm not worth it."

He stared at her for a long time, unblinking and his gaze unwavering. "You're always worth it," he finally said and turned back around, taking on the attack of pebbles. Kagome stared at his back in surprise and she knew, she knew no matter what she did, he wouldn't stop. She also knew that no matter what she did, Inu yasha would always protect her.

Always…

===

"I can't believe you did that to him," Kagome scolded that night as her mother ushered the villagers out of her courtyard, declaring to come back tomorrow to see the devil. Until then, the monster needed his rest as well. Her mother was delighted with the amount of customers she'd received for the winged man who now occupied her destroyed chicken coop. Turns out her mother had moved the chickens to a temporary home in the back of their hut, away from the customers and visitors.

"Like I said earlier, Kagome," her mother said smoothly as she locked the gate to the courtyard, so no one could sneak in for a free peep of the demon. "It has no feelings. It's an evil being who deserves whatever it gets. Besides, I made 256 pieces of silver, at this rate we'll be living it like the villager leader in no time."

"He's not evil. You don't even know him!" Kagome said, fuming, completely ignoring her mother's enthusiasm about the money.

Her mother turned to glare at her daughter. "And neither do you. It just showed up on the beach, you say, and you've been caring for it ever since. Do you know anything about it? It was doomed for exile from the very start. Why do you think it was here?"

"Mother, don't tell me you actually believe what the Father says," Kagome said in horror.

"I think that what we have here," her mother said as she walked by the sleeping Inu yasha, who had been knocked unconscious from the abuse he'd received and had yet to wake up. "Is another Lucifer. This creature became too pompous and arrogant and thus was exiled. This may be a lesson to you, Kagome."

"You do believe what the Father says," Kagome declared, her eyes widening. "Mother, how can you betray your heritage just like that?" she snapped her fingers for emphasis. "You would never believe that stuff!"

"Until now," her mother said crossly, "now I have seen proof of God's will. This must be a sign from Him to tell me that I was unsaved. Souta shall be saved. Kagome, you shall be saved."

"Saved from what?" Kagome asked angrily.

"Hell."

"How can I be saved from something I don't believe in?" Kagome inquired, her temper quickly disappearing at these turns of events. Her mother had practically converted right before her eyes. She turned her eyes towards Inu yasha. "He is not from heaven, he is not from hell."

"Then where is it from?" Still her mother refused to call Inu yasha a 'him'.

Kagome stopped her rant about heaven and hell, about Inu yasha, about converting, about everything. Her eyes drifted back to Inu yasha and her heart broke. "I don't know."

"And I do. It is destined to go to hell," Her mother said firmly, in a tone that left no room for discussion. "We'll be attending church from now on and praying at meal time." Kagome stared in horror. How had this happened? How had her mother converted without her knowledge, how had she allowed Inu yasha to be found? Where had she gone wrong when trying to protect the most beautiful man she'd ever seen? What? What did she do to deserve this?

Kagome stared at him, her eyes softening and her heartbeat speeding.

Her mother narrowed her eyes and watched her daughter's reaction. "If the devil gone in the morning, I'll know who it is that did it." she gazed at her daughter and sighed. "Kagome I love you dearly, I just don't want you to get hurt. Can't you see that it's dangerous to be around this thing? Can't you see that it's casting a spell on you? Look at you! You're defending it!"

"I want to defend him!" Kagome snapped as she turned towards her mother. "Can't you believe me and trust me enough to let me make my own decisions?"

"Kagome, you can't continue to show this thing kindness. The villagers believe you are in love with it." Her mother's eyes went from rage to sadness. "You're my only daughter, and my first born. I love you so dearly. I don't want you to get hurt by this thing or the villagers. They'll kill you if they discover that you're in love with it."

"I'm not in love with it!" Kagome snapped, though she wasn't entirely sure herself. "And I won't let anyone hurt me. Or him. He protected me today, mom, and I've been healing him. And nothing you say can change that!" She started walking towards him. "Now I'm going to take care of him and if you don't like that, then you can go read the bible to Souta, because I'm not changing my mind!"

With that she marched towards Inu yasha.

She knelt beside the sleeping man and felt for a pulse, grateful when she found one. She let a stray tear fall from her eye as she touched his forehead, smoothing out the bangs. How she'd like nothing more than to release him or to run away with him. But she couldn't. Her home was here, and besides, he was too injured to fly anywhere yet.

She took a deep breath and pulled medical supplies from her kimono sleeve she'd supplied earlier. She began to wrap the old and new injuries he'd acquired and felt a small tear leak out from her eye. She bashfully wiped it away as she worked on his wounds.

She felt him stir and pulled away, giving him room to stretch and recollect himself. "Are you okay?" she asked after a moment.

He rubbed his eye and shook his head. "Fine."

"I'm glad," she said sadly as she stared at the bruises on his chest, the kimono having been pushed back while their small conversation took place. "All this over me," she murmured and sighed. "This is my entire fault."

"I thought you had told them," he said and she stared at him, surprised by the long sentence he'd just uttered. Normally he tried to keep his voice as quiet and brief as possible. "That's why I was mad."

"I understand. If I had done a better job at hiding you…" He shook his head and Kagome trailed off.

"No."

"But-"

"No."

Kagome sighed. So her winged man was stubborn?

"Even so, maybe it would have been better if I had never found you," she admitted but she didn't miss the pained expression on his face. She immediately felt guilty for saying it. "Not that I don't like being near you. You just keep getting hurt on my account; it makes me feel horrible. Like it really is my entire fault."

"I would be dead without you," he whispered what she had thought earlier.

Kagome stared at him, entranced by his beautiful voice and his secretive smile. "Why don't you ever talk more? You're voice is pretty," she heard herself say before she could stop herself.

He blinked at her as her cheeks turned a bright pink and he tilted his head to the side, surveying her. She bowed her head in embarrassment and couldn't meet his gaze.

When she looked up again, he hadn't moved his position, but he seemed deep in thought. Finally, he spoke quietly, "Because I have nothing to say."

Nothing to say? What an odd thing to say. He must have lots to say, he had to be joking. But as she looked at him, she realized that he was completely serious. Perhaps he really didn't have anything to say. But yet, she wanted to hear him so badly…

"Oh," she said, suddenly feeling very bashful. Inu yasha was much more literate than she had given him credit for, all this time she'd thought he was a mute being with broken wings and bones. Never would she have guessed he was capable of higher thought and speech.

He closed his eyes and let out a small sigh and Kagome suddenly remembered her job. She continued to heal him until he fell asleep yet again.

===

Kagome awoke the next morning to laughing and jeering. She feebly opened her eyes and stared at her ceiling, just lying pointlessly on the futon. She took a deep breath of salty sea air and wondered what had awoken her. Then she heard her mother's voice, "Next please!"

Kagome couldn't believe it! She was at it again! And so early in the morning.

"Where did it come from? Heaven? Hell? Find out! The forbidden angel, the spawn of Satan himself! Come see it! One piece of silver to see it!"

Kagome felt infuriated. She kept calling him it! And she was collecting money for villagers to throw rocks at him. Dressing quickly in a kimono, Kagome stormed out of her hut, only to be met with many villagers.

They were throwing fruit at Inu yasha, who was once again making no effort to stop them. His eyes were closed and his breathing was soft. It almost seemed like he was sleeping, unaware of what was going on around him.

That is until an orange hit him and splattered across his face. He cringed as the citrus sunk into his wounds and stung him. His eyes shut tighter and his jaw was set. Kagome was infuriated as the sounds of her villagers' laughter filled her ears. They were mocking him now, little children flapping their arms as they pretended to fly, and the adults throwing various fruits, mostly settling on citrus fruits now that they realized it had the most affect on him.

"Stop it!" Kagome yelled again, much like she had yesterday. Inu yasha cracked open an eye to look at her, before a rotten orange hit him in the face, causing the orange's juice to get into his eye and on the cuts on his cheeks. He yelped and keeled over, trying to protect himself. His broken wing fell over him like a veil, while the other one stuck up like a sail on a boat. More laughter from her people.

How could they do this? How can they stand there and laugh at another's misfortune? And why wasn't she doing anything about it?

At that realization, Kagome snapped out of her horrified shock and charged forward once again, standing in front of Inu yasha with her arms outstretched.

"Stop it, you horrible people!" was what left her mouth. She couldn't even express how enraged she was and she sputtered as she tried to think of an excuse to get rid of these people.

Instead they tried throwing fruit at her, but she would have known of it. With a snarl she walked behind the bundled up Inu yasha and grabbed a long plank of wood, an extra from the chicken coop. "Get the hell out of my home!" she yelled, holding her weapon high above her head. "Stay away!"

The people stood uneasily, since they hadn't brought weapons, simply fruit and pebbles to throw at the demon. They looked at each other uneasily before backing up a step.

Kagome saw her mother staring at her in shock. "Tell them to leave. Now," she growled out towards her mother and made a step towards the crowd. She wasn't the strongest girl in the world, but she would do what she had to in order to protect Inu yasha. "NOW, mother."

Her mother, surprisingly, listened to her daughter and shooed the people away, promising them they could come back tomorrow and those who were sent away before they could get a proper visit would get in free. Kagome watched them go, fuming.

"Kagome, I don't know what that was just now," her mother berated her with a frown. "But I hope you don't do that again. That can and will make our income suffer."

"Is that all you care about?" Kagome hissed angrily.

Her mother said nothing and stomped into the house when Souta began crying.

After she was sure her mother was out of sight, Kagome raced to Inu yasha, tears already falling from her eyes. "I'm sorry," she cried when she fell beside him; he was still twitching in pain, but said nothing. "I…didn't mean for this to happen…" she said softly as she began to cry harder.

Inu yasha stared at her and lifted his hand, his fingers gently touching her cheek, where a single tear ran down his hand. "Why…are you…crying?" he whispered out quietly.

Kagome bit her lip and tried to suppress her sobs. "Why? Why are they like this to you?"

He was silent for a long moment before he began to shift in his seat. Kagome blinked and backed away from him to give him room. He sat up straight, making Kagome aware of the fact that he was much taller than her. Before she could stop him (not that she would have) Inu yasha's arms were wrapped tightly around her and holding her to his chest. Kagome tensed in shock before relaxing in his embrace. She hesitantly moved her hands around to his bare back, her hands landing on the skin that wasn't covered by his kimono.

"They don't understand," he murmured, and Kagome knew he was right.

After a few moments, Kagome found herself no longer crying but simply enjoying the protective grasp Inu yasha held her in. When had he found it necessary to protect her so willingly? He truly was a mystery to her, and yet the most beautiful person she'd ever seen. She pulled away slightly to look at his face and saw that he was looking back at her, a shadow of a smile on his face.

"It will be alright, I promise," he assured.

Once again Kagome wondered why he didn't speak more often.

===

"We shouldn't tempt fate like this," the Father said harshly to the town leader. The leader turned and looked at him, his red eyes narrowing as his look quickly became a glare.

"I will be the judge of whether this is fate or not," he said harshly.

"Naraku," the father said with a downturn of his eyebrows, "We don't know what that thing is! And now the healer has put him on display. If he truly is a spawn of Satan, don't you think that he's only biding his time before he kills us? We're throwing rocks and food at him, Naraku. That cannot be something welcomed, especially with a supposed evil being."

Naraku snorted and tapped his chin in thought, "I suppose you're right."

"Of course I am," the priest said with an upturn of his nose. "I know the ways of the Lord."

"Indeed," Naraku folded his hands into his lap, "So what do you propose we do?"

"Well…" the Christian preacher thought for a long moment. "I suppose we could dispose of him."

"What of that healer's child," Naraku snarled. "I have heard rumors."

"I have too, Naraku."

"That the brat is in love with the demon?" Naraku asked and the priest nodded, clarifying the fact they'd heard the same rumor. "Is it true?"

"It is unknown," the priest said gravely. "She protects him and he protects her. My hunch is that he's casting a spell on her and making her treat him like a slave against her will or knowledge."

"Do you have proof of this?"

"No, it is simply a hunch…"

"Hm…"

"At any rate, we should dispose of this man, whether that girl gets in the way or not. I propose we kill him, that's the simplest we can do."

"Oh, and that would not anger the demons?" Naraku said sarcastically as he sent a withered glare towards the priest.

"Hm, I hadn't thought of that." The father bit his lip in concentration. "Do you have any ideas, then?" he questioned the town leader.

Naraku smirked and nodded his head. "Why not give him to someone else?"

"Who could possibly want him if they are aware of the wrath that could be thrown upon us?" the preacher said with a large sigh and a shake of his head. "This is impossible. We've been hit by the plague."

"Don't be so sure."

"Then who would possibly take something that could be dangerous to our health? And to other's?" The preacher nearly screamed at Naraku but managed to regain his cool before he lost his temper.

Naraku smirked. "The Americans."

===

author's notes: Oh, look who updated early?

-I am not Christian, I am a Buddhist. Therefore, there is probably some things about Christianity I've either forgotten or I've screwed up completely. Please forgive me, for I am ignorant in the ways of the Christians.