Chapter Eleven: Midnight Musings and Dusty Memories
Sometime after midnight, Inuyasha stirred, then started awake when he realized something was weighing down his legs. Blinking in the darkness, he slowly remembered where he was: at Kagome's home, on her couch, with said girl at his side. Or rather, sleeping in his lap. Once his eyes had adjusted to the dark, Inuyasha sat watching the young miko. He was grateful to her for the night away from the new moon in his own era, but doubts had begun to surface. Dreams about what might happen because of it had broken his peaceful slumber.
Kagome's mouth hung slightly ajar as she slept, breathing the steady breaths of a deep sleep. When Inuyasha moved, she murmured something which sounded a good deal like Inuyasha's slurred name and nuzzled into the hanyou's chest.
It would be nice if just once Inuyasha could do something without worrying. It would be nice if being a hanyou came without negative consequences. Hell, it would be nice if Inuyasha had solid answers to his questions. He sighed as Kagome snuggled against him, and suddenly felt as though he should be pushing her away. What if this wasn't such a good idea? What if he should go back to the Sengoku Jidai? How would that work, with the night half over?
With a soft snort sound, Kagome woke and blearily blinked her eyes. She lifted her head from Inuyasha's chest and scanned the room. "What time is it?" Her voice was thick and her words came out more like "whatimezit?" but that didn't stop her from rubbing her eyes and glancing around for a clock. When she did find one, she stared at it for a moment before yawning and placing her head back against Inuyasha's chest. She was asleep as quickly as she'd woken up.
Damn it. Sitting with Kagome across his thighs made it almost impossible for Inuyasha to think. He looked down at her, almost apologetically, then carefully slipped his arms under her. When she didn't wake, he lifted her with him as he stood, then turned and laid her back down on the couch. It seemed a little cold, he supposed, so he slipped out of his haori and draped it over Kagome's shoulders. He'd be back soon, but he needed some time to think, and he did his best thinking outside.
The hanyou's footsteps carried him towards the Goshinboku, and he hopped the short fence that surrounded the tree in this time. Once he was settled between the ancient roots, he leaned his head back against the tree's thick bark and closed his eyes. He'd never spent a month without turning human, before. Even as a small child, he'd endured the change. Could he do this every month? Somehow, he didn't think so. There had to be a reason behind the changes. What would missing one mean?
Now he was starting to miss Myouga. Myouga! Of all creatures. If Inuyasha could find the flea when he returned home, maybe he'd ask the old demon his questions. Not that Myouga would actually give him any useful answers. Sometimes he couldn't believe that he'd been stuck with such a pain in the ass retainer. Hell, sometimes he thought even Jaken would be better.
Inside the house, unaware of Inuyasha's musings, Kagome once again woke with a start. Staring straight up, she wondered for a moment where she was. There were no crickets chirping, or branches creaking above her. There was no smokey smell from a fire that had burned out hours before. It was her house. Why had she expected anything else? She looked around the room until she found a clock to check the time. It was nearly two in the morning.
She stifled a yawn with her hand, pulling the covers around her. Except this wasn't her bed or her covers. She was on her living room couch, with Inuyasha's haori wrapped around her. Pulling the material up to her nose, she inhaled deeply, wishing not for the first time that her sense of smell was as keen as that of the hanyou that the jacket belonged to. The material was tightly woven and thick, made from fine threads of fire rat fur. Her sleep-adled mind briefly wondered exactly what a fire rat looked like, and she giggled at the image of a large flaming rodent.
She took another deep breath of the scent that she'd smelled so many times before. Deep forest trees, river water, wind, and the essence of doggy smell that made Inuyasha what he was. She rose from the couch and slipped her arms into the billowy sleeves, yawning once more before trudging out into the yard to find the owner of the fire red haori.
By now, Inuyasha had fallen into a light doze, his mind occupied with visions of what might happen, and he frowned in his sleep.
Though Kagome had expected to find him high in the branches of the Goshinboku, she was pleased to see him within her reach on the ground. Carefully stepping over the low fence, she removed his haori and placed it over his shoulders.
Inuyasha jerked awake, the haori falling to the ground, his ears flattened. It took a moment for his brain to clear again, and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Did I wake you?"
"No," she said as she sat next to him. "I just woke up and thought you might want this back." She indicated the haori.
"Oh." He scooped the garment up, then wrapped it around her shoulders while doing his best to avoid her gaze. "You need it more than me. It's a little cold out."
It wasn't really that cold. She smiled at him and accepted the haori back from him, feeling warmed more by the fact that he was going out of his way to look out for her than by the body heat that the haori held in. "Is there something the matter?"
He shrugged. "Just needed to think."
"You can tell me if something's wrong, you know." She frowned. "Did you not have a good time today?"
"That's not it," he hastened to assure her. "It was a good day. A really good day. I just needed to sort a few things out."
Kagome decided not to press the matter. She cupped her hand over her mouth and yawned, standing as she did so. She handed Inuyasha his haori once again. "I need to brush my teeth. I'm going to go to bed, okay? I'll see you in the morning."
He nodded. "All right. I think I'll stay out here, with Goshinboku."
She smiled softly at him. "I think Goshinboku enjoys your company. As much as a tree can enjoy anything, anyway." She chuckled lightly at her own joke. "Goodnight, Inuyasha."
"Feh." Inuyasha leapt into the lower branches of the old tree. He waited until Kagome had returned to the house before softly whispering, "Goodnight, Kagome."
A beam of warm morning light peeked through the window of Kagome's room, moving slowly across the floor until it shone into her eyes. She stretched and yawned scrubbed her face with her hands. She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of her bed, stretching her limbs once more before walking to the window and opening it.
Inuyasha was still asleep at the base of Goshinboku, an unusual occurance for him since he tended to be up before dawn. It seemed as though he was sleeping peacefully.
Kagome wished she had a camera with her to capture the image of Inuyasha sleeping under the tree. He looked so content, almost innocent. She made her way outside in her blue checked pajamas and stood outside the fence for a moment, watching him sleep. It made her smile to think that he could be so relaxed in an era so far removed from his own.
One ear twitched atop Inuyasha's head. He'd heard Kagome exit the house, and by the time she reached the tree, he was awake. He kept his eyes closed and muscles relaxed, though. He honestly wasn't quite ready to be up and about.
Turning quickly, Kagome hurried into her house and found a light quilt. Satisfied that her mother wouldn't chew her ear off for using that specific blanket, Kagome took it outside with her and carefully tucked it around the dog-eared boy. With that done, she decided to leave him in peace a while longer while she went back in to make breakfast.
Beneath the blanket, Inuyasha tucked his arms around himself and snuggled down into the warmth. He appreciated the gesture, although later he probably wouldn't even remember it. After all, he was still half asleep.
In the kitchen, water boiled on the stove for the ramen that would be cooked shortly. Kagome stood with a large bowl in her hand, mixing pancake batter. After all, she wasn't the one who wanted noodles for breakfast. Or for every meal, for that matter.
Finally, Inuyasha gave up his efforts at dozing when a little sunlight flashed off something metallic in the yard and right into his eyes. He yawned, blinked at the old quilt covering him, and suddenly blushed. After a moment, the hanyou stood and folded the blanket. It smelled of Kagome, and he knew she'd been the one to bring it out. How best to deal with this? Maybe his usual gruff morning manner would work.
Kagome hummed a cheery tune as she turned a pancake with a large spatula, not being brave enough to attempt flipping the thing lest it end up on someone's head. A few sat in a plate next to the stove, and after a moment she scooped up the current one and set it on top of the stack. She would make several more. After all, hanyou could eat a lot more than regular humans.
By the time she had enough pancakes to feed seven shrine families, Inuyasha decided to walk through the door. He ignored Kagome at first, instead going to the living room to set the blanket down, but soon the smell of food drew him to the kitchen. "Oi. Is it breakfast yet, wench? I'm hungry!"
Kagome's knuckles went white when her hand clenched around the pan handle in a tight death grip. Inuyasha sure did have a lot of nerve to come into her kitchen and demand food of her while she was trying to be nice to him. She felt a bit crestfallen and rather stung by his words, and more than a little tempted to introduce him to the business end of her frying pan, but she expertly squashed that desire and took in a soothing breath.
"Good morning to you, too. And you're welcome." She eyed him cooly as he sat at the table. "There's food on the counter here."
Oops. Inuyasha didn't need superior senses to know that Kagome was not happy. She's going to slam my face into the ground again, isn't she? he thought. It was enough to make him feel a little remorse for how he treated her sometimes--but not much. After all, he wouldn't treat her that way if she weren't so damn confusing. "Morning," he mumbled as he approached the counter--a little warily. You never knew when Kagome was going to go crazy and try to hurt you.
Picking up her own short stack of pancakes, Kagome set them on the table and fetched the maple syrup and butter from the refrigerator. "I boiled some water for ramen, but you should eat some pancakes first since I spent so long making them. Why don't you have a seat, Inuyasha?"
Ears automatically flattened at the tone in Kagome's voice, the hanyou did as told, taking a stack of pancakes and joining her at the table. He still didn't trust her, and his eyes never left the girl as he moved about.
Pasting a false happy smile on her face, Kagome began to slice up her breakfast and try to relax herself. She was used to this sort of attitude from him, more or less. She was just glad her mother wasn't there to hear the way he talked. A long and rather uncomfortable ensued while they ate.
Having never eaten pancakes before, it took Inuyasha a little while to figure out how to keep from getting sticky. Instead of taking his frustration out on Kagome, though, he imagined having to fight off Shippou for his meal. It kept him from yelling at Kagome, at least.
After Kagome's anger subsided, she felt rather disappointed over the mess that this day was shaping up to be. She sighed lightly as she took her plate to the sink, snagging Inuyasha's as well on the way since he'd finished eating several minutes before her. "Are you full or do you still want ramen?"
"No thanks." The pancakes had left Inuyasha with a full stomach, something that surprised him a great deal.
Kagome nodded and used the water she'd boiled for the ramen to make cups of tea for herself and Inuyasha instead. "I'm going to go take a quick shower while the tea steepes, Inuyasha. I'll be back in a minute."
"Okay." It was probably better to keep his mouth shut than to gripe about Kagome's obsession with being clean. I don't have to find her a hot spring, so what do I care?
About two minutes after Kagome left the kitchen, Mrs. Higurashi scuttled in to prepare breakfast for the rest of her family. She smiled pleasantly at Inuyasha as she took things out of the refrigerator and cabinets. "Good morning, Inuyasha. Have you had breakfast yet or would you like to eat with us?"
"Uh, Kagome made some round floppy things," he replied. Feeling a little awkward just sitting in Mrs. Higurashi's kitchen while she was going about her daily chores, the hanyou went to the sink where Kagome had left the dishes. "I can wash these, if you want me to. How does the water work?"
"You just turn the handle here, dear." Standing by the sink where Inuyasha was, Mrs. Higurashi began to slice vegetables on a cutting board. "You should come and visit us more often. Souta absolutely adores you, and Kagome always speaks so highly of you." She watched the boy working with the dishes out of the corner of her eye with smile and an innocent look on her motherly face.
Inuyasha scraped the plates and utensils clean with his claws. He hissed and yanked his hands clear when the water got too hot. He used it as an excuse to dodge Mrs. Higurashi's comments, and blew on his fingers. "I don't want to get in the way..."
She chuckled and adjusted the water for him. "You're not in the way." She examined his face for a moment before her disposition sobered a bit and she continued to speak. "You know, I worry so much about Kagome when she travels back in time. To me... she'll always be my little girl. To think of all the things that could happen to her, it makes me lie awake at night sometimes. It feels like my little girl is growing up without me. But I'm glad to know that she has you to watch out for her. That makes it easier to handle her being gone so much."
Inuyasha matched Mrs. Higurashi's serious expression with one of his own. "You should be proud of her. She's pretty brave for a girl who grew up without having demons to worry about. I guess that's why I keep an eye on her." He smirked. "In case she doesn't really know what she's getting into."
"I'm more proud of her than you can imagine." Her tone softened and she turned back to finish slicing the neglected vegetables. "You'll know how I feel when you have children."
Those few simple words made Inuyasha twitch. He'd never thought about having children of his own. His ears drooped a little. "Hanyou don't have children."
Mrs. Higurashi decided not to ponder the implications of Inuyasha's statement. "Oh, I'm sure you'll find a nice girl and settle down some day. You're a very nice young man, things will work out for you." Finished slicing her veggies, she put them in a pan to cook and turned to go find something she'd forgotten in the refrigerator.
Wondering if maybe he shouldn't have said anything, Inuyasha figured out how to put the dishes in the drying rack, and used a towel to wipe up the water he'd splashed around.
Kagome meandered into the kitchen then, hair still wet and a towel draped across her shoulder. "Goor morning, Mama. Inuyasha and I need to leave soon, I think." She looked at him for confirmation.
He nodded. "Yeah. I want to find out if there've been any rumors about the shards."
"I understand. It must be quite a responsibility to try and find all of those. Kagome, before you go, I found something while I was cleaning yesterday that you might like to see." Mrs. Higurashi turned down the heat on the stove and motioned for the two of them to follow her.
Inuyasha cast a curious glance at Kagome.
Kagome shrugged at him and followed her mother to the storage closet, where the elder Higurashi retrieved a box and handed it to her daughter. "It's one of our old photo albums. It's been in this closet for a few years. Maybe Inuyasha would like to look too?"
"Photo album?" the hanyou asked.
"It's a book where we keep pictures of our family," Kagome explained as she took the box from her mother and opened it to reveal the thick album. "This has some really old pictures in it."
Mrs. Higurashi nodded and smiled pleasantly. "Why don't you two look through it, and I'll pack some food for you to take back with you."
His brow creased in confusion, Inuyasha peered at the book. "Pictures? You mean you have artists make portraits?"
Kagome shook her head and pulled Inuyasha to the couch to sit down. "They're photographs. Sort of like paintings, but... not. It's hard to explain without getting really technical. They're sort of like paintings made by machines." She cracked open the first page and dusted it off to reveal the collage of black and white pictures. Family members long dead smiled up at them from the pages, preserved forever on paper. "These are my Ojii-san's parents," she said, indicating one faded photo. "There's Jii-chan right there." She pointed to a small boy situated between the two adults in the image.
"That's the old man?" Inuyasha sniffed at the photo album. "It smells like your school books."
She nodded. "Yeah, that's him as a little boy. These two people on this side are my mother's grandparents. These are her parents here." She tapped on the different images as she spoke. There weren't many pictures of grandparents or great-grandparents save for family portraits or wedding photographs.
"You're all shrine people?"
"No, only on my father's side. But this shrine has been in the family for who knows how many generations." As she turned the next page, she paused for a moment and bit her lip. The new image was in color, a wedding photograph. A younger version of her mother stood in a traditional wedding kimono next to a man in black. "That's my father," she said.
Inuyasha leaned forward to better inspect the picture, then nodded in apparent satisfaction. "Looks like you."
"People who knew him or have seen pictures say that." She grinned softly and turned the page once more, revealing images of herself as an infant in the hospital. Blushing and mumbling a vague "oh no," she moved quickly to skip those particular pages.
"Hey! Go back. I want to look at those."
Kagome groaned and handed him the book.
Inuyasha took the book with extra care so his claws wouldn't damage it. He eagerly scanned the pictures of the little girl, smirking evilly. "So. Kagome used to be not-so-scary."
She snorted indignantly. "I'm not scary now! You only say that because of these," she said as she poked at the rosary of beads around his neck.
"No. I say that because you're crazy." There wasn't any bite to the words, but maybe a hint of affection.
"I only got this crazy because I met you." Leaning over, Kagome looked at the page that Inuyasha had just turned to. The photograph was of her family on vacation several years before her father had died. A tiny Kagome, about three years old, sat perched in her father's arms, waving while he point
"Vacation? Where?"
"Tokyo Disneyland. I don't remember much of what we did, but it was a lot of fun." Kagome gently ran a finger over her father's face before turning the page again.
"Disneyland?" Why did Kagome's era insist on using such strange words?
"A theme park with rides and things. Don't worry about it."
Inuyasha frowned. He didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Maybe something they both understood would work better. "You miss him."
Kagome took a deep breath, pausing a few moments before responding. She leaned back into the couch and folded her hands together in her lap. "I do. I miss him a lot. He was... really really great." She faltered. It wasn't that she didn't have hundreds of adjectives to describe her father or the kind of man he'd been. She just couldn't choose the perfect ones. "It's different for Souta. He was just a baby when Papa died, so he doesn't remember him at all."
Like me and Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha thought. I don't remember our father, either. Just stories and bones. "Do you tell him about your father?"
"Yeah, we talk about him sometimes. Jii-chan will tell us stories about when he was young, and Mama will tell us stories from when they were dating or before we were born, or from when we were little and he was still alive." She sighed and twiddled her thumbs self-consciously. "It helps to talk about him, I guess. It's our way of bringing him back for a little while in our memories."
"Okaa-san didn't talk about Outo-san much. I think she was afraid to."
Kagome frowned sympathetically and gently pat Inuyasha's back. "Well, I bet he was a great guy. Really brave and strong." Just like you.
The hanyou snorted. "He was a taiyoukai."
"Well I knew that Inuyasha." She crossed her arms. Why did he always have to make things difficult, even when she was trying to be nice?
Oops. He hadn't meant to upset her. "I just meant that he had to be brave and strong. I don't need stories to tell me that much! It's other things that I don't know, like why he left me Tetsusaiga or what he was thinking when he got my mother pregnant."
"Oh," said Kagome. There wasn't really much she could say to that. After all, she'd never personally met the Inu no Taishou, and had heard only a few stories of him. She'd tried at one point to puzzle out what he'd have looked like by going on the appearances of Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, but that still wasn't enough to go by.
"Anyway, I still think he'd have been pretty neat." Oh, smootheKagome. Real smooth.
Inuyasha flicked one ear and mumbled, "I guess so." Anxious to move on with the conversation, he flipped ahead in the picture album until he found more familiar images of Kagome. "Where's this?" he asked, pointing at a photo of Kagome in front of a large iris garden.
"That was a school field trip a few years ago. ... I can't actually remember where it was at." Kagome chuckled and scratched the back of her head. "I was about ten at the time."
"Huh." Inuyasha continued to flip through the book, asking Kagome questions every now and then, but mostly intrigued with the way the photographs had documented the years he hadn't known her. She almost seemed further away to him, now. The pictures drove home the reality that Kagome had grown up in a different time and a different culture.
Kagome couldn't help but feel self-conscious at the fact that Inuyasha was closely scrutinizing her life through the photos. He'd been especially amused (much to her dismay) by the picture of her at age two with chocolate cake covering the majority of her face. She realized how long they'd been leafing through the book when her mother came into the living room where they were seated and asked if the two of them would be having lunch at home that day.
"We should go," the hanyou said quickly. "Miroku and Sango will wonder where we are."
Though Kagome wanted to protest and spend a little while longer with her family, she knew that Inuyasha would pout and sulk the whole time if he didn't get his way. "No, Mama, we can't stay any longer. We already stayed too long, actually." She sighed and got up, stretching.
Surprisingly, Inuyasha offered Mrs. Higurashi a polite bow and thanked her for her hospitality. Perhaps his words and tone were a little gruff, but the sentiment held true. Then he glanced at Kagome. "Ready, or do you still have to pack?"
"Oh, don't worry about packing. Kagome, I already have all your things ready in your backpack." Mrs. Higurashi smiled kindly and gave her daughter an encouraging look. "It's up in your room. I threw in a few extra containers with food in them, so eat those today or tomorrow before they spoil."
"Extra food? Thanks!" Kagome's mother had just become Inuyasha's favorite human in twenty-first century Tokyo.
"Thanks Mama!" Kagome hugged her mother tightly and kissed her cheek before racing off to pick up her supplies. "All right, let's go!"
Inuyasha scooped up Kagome's pack on the way out, and ushered her out the door. Now that they were on their way, he didn't want to waste anymore time.
All in all, Kagome decided that Inuyasha's stay in her time had been a success. She knew to avoid her friends next time she tried it, though. They were bad news where Inuyasha was concerned. Opening the door to the well house, Kagome let Inuyasha in and closed the door behind him. "All right. Sengoku Jidai, here we come!"
Author's Note: Updates are going to be sporadic because both of the co-authors are kind of busy with school and work and wonky internet hours. We promise not to quit the story but updates are going to be sort of spaced out. Hope you're enjoying the story so far. Review to tell us how you like it, okay? It makes us fuzzy inside.