Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha. I don't claim to own Inuyasha. I never
will claim to own Inuyasha. So there! ^_^
A/N - (Pre-note: Anyone who doesn't want to read my very very very very VERY long, annoying rantings can just skip out on the author note today. Actually, I recommend that you do skip the author note. It's ridiculously long... ^ ^;; Anyway...) No!! I am so gonna cry! I can't read my reviews! (Well actually I can read the first two, the ones from "ME" ^_^) Bah... How upsetting is that? (Geeze, now I feel really...selfish...and spoiled... ^ ^;;) I checked my email and it said three of you guys reviewed! ^.^ I practically jumped out of my shoes! Three people!! I totally died. ^ ^ (I think I get excited a little quicker than your average girl...) But then when I tried to view the reviews, it wouldn't let me. I tried like fifty different ways, but it still didn't work. I even logged out, reset the computer, and then tried again. And guess what ended up happening anyway? The stupid thing wouldn't let me see my precious little reviews. . But still, now I feel really horrid for being so pathetically lazy and not updating sooner... I was planning on updating on Saturday, but after writing for like two minutes my brother forced me off the computer because he had to do homework. I was planning on writing up in my bedroom on some random piece of paper, but when I'd finally collected my paper and pencils and gone upstairs, upon opening my bedroom door I discovered that my sister was in there watching 'Kim Possible'. That show drives me nuts... (N-No offence to any Kim Possible fans out there! ^ ^;) And, of course, since we share a room, I couldn't kick her out. So I scooted my way to the basement (a favorite location of mine) and planned on lounging on the couch as I wrote. Only to find that my dad was down there blasting the oldies station and painting a bookshelf. I had two choices; either stay in the basement and try to write while risking being intoxicated with the horrid odor of spray paint and getting my ears blasted off while listening to 'Great balls of fire!', or playing Final Fantasy 9. What do you think I chose? Yeah... And then a friend of mine called and I had to go over to her house to practice a couple of duets that we had to play at her piano festival on Sunday. I ended up spending the night at her house, going to church Sunday morning, then going to the piano festival, then going to her house and staying there 'til 8:00, then finally getting home at 8:30, then dawdling around for a half hour, then finally going to bed. The on Monday I... umm... I uhh... Okay, Monday doesn't have an excuse. ^ ^; But that doesn't matter! Right? Anyway, I really need to stop talking now... all you people probably loathe my existence for writing such an incredibly long author's note. ^ ^;;; I think I set a record... Oops... But anyway, you can go read the chapter now. ^ ^;;;; (gosh, I took up more than half a page...)
With You
Chapter 3
Make an Effort
Inuyasha was dead bored. There was nothing to do in there! What in the world did the other prisoners do all day?
Ugh...He plopped down on his bed and tried to think of something - anything to do.
He'd exhausted himself of any and every thing that there was to do in this cramped little cell, and he was getting really fed up. Not to mention he was getting hungry...
He could always go see what that girl was doing...?
Well, that was something to be reconsidered... From what he'd seen of her, she was an annoying, stupid little girl, and actually- now that he thought of it, associating with her should have been one of the last things on this 'to do' list.
No. He was not going to resort to such drastic measures. He could just go and... and umm... Come now, there must have been something that he hadn't done yet.
Annoy the hell out of the guards? Naw, he'd used up a couple of hours on that already. Take his anger out on the walls? Nope, that got rather boring -not to mention a little tiring- after a while. Ponder a way to escape, perhaps? No, that was fruitless. He'd used up more time than necessary on that. Scribble on the walls with that stone again? Definitely not, that was another thing that he had used up way to many hours on.
He could always just sit and think...right? But...what about?
"....." (And the silence stretched...)
Or maybe not...
He gave up on that as he made a careful attempt to bend his back; he wanted to see if it was good to go yet.
"Yes!" he cried in a half-hushed voice. He could finally move without fear of splitting himself in half!
...Now what?
He laid down on his bed in a position that had his spine in kind of a twist. Being able to turn like that was nice...
A heavy sigh escaped him as he held his hand in front of his face, inspecting his claws. There wasn't anything left to do besides sleep; yet another activity that he'd spent much more time then needed on. Well...that, and looking into the next room to see what the girl in there was doing... (A/N - FYI, he is not thinking anything perverted with that statement. This is Inuyasha, not Miroku. ^ ^) He was getting rather desperate...
Maybe he could just peek through that little hole in the wall for a second...? Just to see if she was doing anything worth copying. It wasn't like he had any better activities up his sleeve. With the exception of the few actions mentioned earlier, he'd been sitting around for about half the day just staring at the wall. Strange as it may be, that hadn't been something he'd found very interesting. He was nearly convinced that he'd die of boredom in a few hours. Besides, he might figure out something to do by watching her...
So he crept over to the wall window and peered in; his gaze flicking around what he could see of the small cell in search of his neighbor. Even though he couldn't see her, he still knew that she was in there; he could smell her. But what was that other scent mixed in with hers...?
Inuyasha's eyes widened. That other scent...
She was...crying?
It was a very faint scent; she wasn't crying a lot, just a little bit. He hadn't heard her sobbing either, but his ears had picked up on her shaky breathing. For some reason he thought she was trying to hold it in. He really hated it when women cried...
Despite the fact that he didn't really consider her a woman...
Okay, he hated it when any female in general cried. Yeah, that sounded more appropriate...
He let out a barely audible sigh and placed his elbows on his knees, resting his chin on the palms of his hands. Great, now he felt a pinch of guilt for saying (or thinking, rather) that she was stupid and annoying, and for being rude to her earlier. Damn girl...
Wait, why did he feel guilty? She had been just as rude as he had! Well, maybe not... But he doubted that she was crying because of him anyway. "She's probably just upset that she's in prison." he tutted.
Speaking of, why was a girl like her in here anyway? He hadn't thought about it until now...
She didn't look like a thief, living on her own; her clothes -tattered or not- gave that away. Maybe she was a royal servant, or even a noblewoman? It was quite possible, because despite how soiled it was, she had on a really really nice, dress. Who knows how much gold someone would have to trade for a dress like the one she was wearing. It looked like... like an autumn evening. The patterns and colors fit right in with the season; the faded greens and reds blended perfectly with the bright yellows and oranges. Chances were, she was a very rich noblewoman.
Noblegirl, more like...
But if she was, then what had she done to get herself in here?
If she was a servant, it was possible that she had stolen from or disobeyed whoever her master or mistress was. That wouldn't really give a good explanation for the dress though... But what if she was a noble?
Another question popped into his mind; how long had she been in that cell? It could have ranged from days, to weeks, to months even. It was hard to determine...
"Keh!" he scoffed at himself. "...wasting too much time on that dumb girl..." he grumbled and stood up; wandering around the room and pondering which wall he should use his claws on. At least he'd thought of something to do. Not that he hadn't done that five or six times already, but hey, may as well do it again. He was still gonna keep an ear focused on that crying girl though...
~~*~~
Kagome snapped her head up from its place behind her huddled arms, straitening her bent knees. She'd just heard him talk; he'd said something about a 'dumb girl'. That jerk, he better not have been talking about her. She growled at the air in front of her and shot it a glare; pretending it was Inuyasha.
But wait a minute! If he was there that could've meant that he'd...
She took a thin intake of breath and her fingers flew to her lips as she sat there in anxiousness. That couldn't have happened...! He just couldn't have heard her!
No, he didn't. She had been careful not to make any noise at all. There was no way he could have heard...
She brought her knees up to her chin again, wrapping her arms around them protectively as in her previous position. Every time she shed tears she felt like a pathetic little crybaby; not emotionally strong enough to even resist the urge to cry. It made her feel so weak and helpless. She didn't want to feel that way...
There was only one other time she'd felt worse; when he had left her.
She squeezed her eyes shut and forced the memory out of her head. She remembered too much...
Kagome let out a labored sigh and contemplated what to do with her current situation. She was bored, as usual, but now she had a neighbor that she could talk with. The question was; should she try and talk with him and risk becoming mortal enemies with that ass, or just leave him alone and miss out on a new friend?
She laughed a little at the latter option. As if he'd befriend her. He didn't seem like a very easy-to-get-along-with person. And from what she'd seen of his attitude, she didn't particularly fancy the idea of getting to know him either. She had just asked for his name, and he got all upset. It really shouldn't have taken so long just to get his name out of him. Stubborn idiot...
But then again, he might not really be a total jerk. First impressions aren't always the best ones. She shouldn't give up on him so easily... He was probably just having a bit of a bad day. Really though, she couldn't blame him for that. He had been brought in unconscious from blood loss or something, and he really had some severe wounds on that body of his; emphasis on the fact that he'd been brought in. She had been upset when she was caught, and she still was. He had a right to that as well. In reality, he could be a nice, normal guy! A normal guy with a bit of an attitude, more like...but none the less, normal.
Though she really didn't know the true meaning of the commonly used word, 'normal'. She didn't really know too much about 'normal' people in general... She was penned up in the castle all day and night. There had only been a few times when she'd gone beyond the borders of the castle courtyards; and those times it was just to visit one of the towns or villages with her mother and her brother. Mom had never let her take Buyo with them...
That was probably why being brought to an entirely strange place by complete strangers had scared the life out of her.
She sighed push away all the somewhat tragic thoughts as she tried to snatch up all the pleasant memories and shove them into the 'Kagome's current thoughts' section of her brain. Those were things she liked thinking about. Beautiful memories that now seemed so, so very... distant. It felt like and eternity ago that she was out in the courtyards playing around with Souta...
~~Flash~~
"Kagome! Did you find him yet?" five year old Souta shouted to his eleven year old sister as he adverted his gaze to the bushes several meters away.
"Nope! No sign of that little hippopotamus anywhere..." she answered, trying not to squash the tulips as she pushed her way through the bushes she'd been searching in, breathing in a breath of fresh air. It had surprised her that they had stayed around for so long, last year they'd turned into fertilizer a lot sooner... The gardens always smelled lovely though, and she was glad her mom had ordered them planted. It was kind of a substitute for not being able to wander the gorgeous wildflower fields near the villages.
"Darn..." Souta huffed as he reached into a patch of ferns, spreading them apart as his eyes scanned the area for his target. Now where had he gone...?
"Ah ha!" Kagome chirped as she scooped up the certain someone they had been searching for. "Found him, Souta!"
"You did?" he chortled gleefully as he bounced over to his sister. "Yes! Where'd you find him, sis?"
"He was sitting in the rose patch..." she replied thoughtfully as she ruffled her little brother's hair with her free hand. Sometimes she wondered about that cat. He'd been acting like a masochist lately...
Don't ask.
"Buyo!" Souta took the cat from his sister's arms. Kagome... what had he wanted to ask her...? "We finally found ya, Buyo! What in the world have you been doing lately?" he scolded as he poked the cat's nose.
Was that a figment of her imagination, or had she just heard the cat sigh...?
"Uhh, Souta?"
"Yeah?"
"Why were we looking for the cat in the first place?"
"Oh yeah!" he said as if just remembering "Cm'ere, I wanna show you something..." he trailed as he pranced of into a more 'open' section of the courtyard.
Kagome trotted after her brother and watched him as he told her where he wanted her to stand, and she listened to him, curious as to what he wanted to show her.
Souta walked about a meter away from her and held Buyo on either sides of the cat, in quite an awkward position. "Okay, now all you have to do is catch Buyo." Souta instructed.
His sister raised an eyebrow at him "What do you mean, 'catch Buyo'?"
He gave a childish roll of his eyes and furthered his instructions. "I mean that I'm gonna throw Buyo up in the air and you have to catch him!"
"You're going to what?!" Kagome squeaked. Had her little brother gone insane?
"Just catch him! It's really fun!"
"For who!?"
"Us of course!" he blinked as if it was blatantly obvious.
Kagome furrowed her brow and curled her lip. Did he give a care about the cat...?
"Oh, come on." He prodded "It'll be fun! Buyo's fine - tossing him around a little won't bother him."
Apparently not...
But hey, why not give it a try? Just this once...
"Well, okay..." she conceded as she positioned herself to play 'catch the cat'.
"On the count of three" Souta began, acknowledging the nod from his sibling. "One...two...three!"
Kagome watched as the plump little cat flew into the air with a horrified look on its face. A little to the left... okay, here he came.
She held her arms out and closed her eyes as the cat came falling from the sky, its shadow laying on her arms.
"...Umm..." Kagome slowly opened an eye, shouldn't she have caught him by now...?
She looked around to find that the cat was no where in sight. "What on earth...?" her gaze adverted to her brother, she wanted to see his reaction to this odd situation.
"K-Kagome...!" Souta stuttered, staring up wide eyed.
Out of curiosity, once again, she followed his gaze up to an extending limb from the nearby oak tree. Her jaw dropped in surprise.
Just then, both of them broke out into simultaneous fits of laughter.
"Souta!" she managed in between laughs "You threw- him into the- into the tree!!"
He just laughed all the harder.
"Look!" he pointed at Buyo in between cackles, which were slowly receding into giggles "He's stuck- in between the- the branches!"
More laughter.
Their giggles slowly died down and the locked gazes with their bright eyes as two big grins tilted on their lips; their gaze slowly tilting its way back to the tree-bound cat.
...And yet another round of laughter abounded.
~~Flash~~
Kagome smiled as she caught up with her memories. She kind of felt like a drama-queen-wanna-be, but that didn't matter. She and Souta had had so much fun when they were little. It had kind of died down as the both of them got older...but they still had their moments. They had tortured that poor cat too many times to count...hence the immense amount of pity she had for Buyo. They'd thrown him back and forth for hours every week. Why hadn't they gotten bored of that...? She chuckled to herself. They had been such sadists...
A loud scraping noise brought her out of her thoughts; it was coming from Inuyasha's cell. What was he doing in there?
She stood up off her bed and kneeled down in front of the space in the wall. Her eyes widened in surprise at what she saw; he was leaving rather large scratches on the wall where he swung his claws. That guy was pretty strong...
He wasn't really making a dent in it or anything, just leaving lots of marks. But he still looked strong...
Kagome's jaw dropped; his previous action didn't seem like much compared to what he'd just done. Wow! He was so strong!! "Amazing..." she whispered as she stared in awe at the boy. That was really cool! And what had he said when he swung his arm? Sankon...Sankontetsou?
~~*~~
He'd trained his hearing on her cell, waiting for her to stop crying. He had kept it there even when she'd stopped, just incase she started again. He detested when girls cried...
Inuyasha didn't move his attention from her; even during the long pause that stretched out wearily. She wasn't crying anymore...so what was she doing? He listened intently for any kind of sound, but he didn't hear anything.
Wait! What was that noise...? Had she just...growled? What the...
Oh! Another sound! She had taken a rather sharp intake of breath...then she sighed, and...what was that...? A...laugh? It sounded more like a scoff to him...
A second sigh and a long pause... he didn't hear anything for a while. Then what... a chuckle? Wow - this girl could change moods quickly...
He let out a sigh of his own, and gave the wall a slash with his claws, just for good measure.
He focused a tad more attention on her when he'd heard her get up at the sound of his claws. She walked a few steps, and then stopped. His sixth sense told him that he was being watched, and by none other than the girl in then next cell.
Well! Despite how very little he liked this girl, why not take advantage of the situation? There wasn't anything wrong with showing off a little, was there? She'd be so damn surprised; it'd be amusing to see the expression on her face.
So he gave the wall several more nice long slashes, and decided to really give her a 'wow'.
"Sankontetsou!" Multiple thick yellow streaks flew from his claws and smashed into the wall, leaving a jolly good amount of dents in it.
Out of the corner of his eye, he'd just barely noticed that her jaw had moved - dropped, rather. It was kind of a vague assumption based on what he saw, but considering the context of the situation, it was a fair guess. Then he was positive that he'd heard her whisper the word 'amazing', which could have applied to none other than him.
A smug grin lingered on Inuyasha's lips as the girl gawked at him. He'd gotten his intended reaction. Any naïve little girl like her would think of his abilities as 'amazing'. Now it was time to have a little bit of fun...
"You're catching flies, you know." He taunted as he slanted her a look over his shoulder.
She stared at him for a moment then snapped her jaw shut; quickly knitting her brow together and giving him another mild looking glare.
He inwardly gave another contented sigh. And yet again he'd captured his intended reaction. "What? Don't plan on catching any of the local flies today? Too bad..." he gave a click of his tongue and turned on his heel towards her.
"Okay, Kagome" she thought "Just ignore his comments. You can be a decent human being - even if he would rather be an asshole."
He frowned when she didn't snap back at him; instead, her expression loosened a bit, and she visibly made an effort to slide a smile onto her face.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" she tried, making an attempt to be as cheerful as possible.
He furrowed his brow and returned her glare once again, just quite a bit stronger. Hadn't she heard him? She was supposed to get all upset. "Why do you want to know?" he questioned her.
"Just curious." She replied with a limp shrug.
"Why?"
She shrugged again and gave him a half sincere smile "I told you; I'm just curious."
"Just nosey? Or just curious?" he shot back.
She tilted her head slightly and answered him as kindly and softly as she could manage. "Sorry... I was just wondering. It was really cool and all, and I-"
She stopped speaking and stared at him blankly. He had rushed right up to her face and narrowed his eyes at her. Was it something she said...? She was kind of glad that wall was there...
He didn't speak or anything, just stared. What had she done to upset him so much? She was just about to ask when he stood up again and turned his heel on her.
Well, just because he didn't want to talk to her didn't mean she wasn't gonna talk to him. She was bored, and he hadn't snapped at her the last time...so maybe being kind to him had helped?
"W-Wait!" Kagome stuttered. She wasn't scared or nervous or anything, she just didn't have anything to say to him...
He took a step back and gave her another one of his 'over the shoulder' glances. "What?" he sounded irritated...
Damnit...What to say... What to say... "Umm... I didn't umm... upset you or anything, did I?" Geeze she sounded stupid... what kind of a question was that? Of course he was a little upset with her.
He answered her with a simple 'keh' and turned his head to face forward. He had just started to walk away again...
"I...I..." "Stop stuttering!!" "Inuyasha, I'm sorry if I did!" she all but shouted back to him in desperation. She didn't want another conversation with this guy to end the same way; even if she had to shove her pride out the window. She was dying for human conversation, and he was really the only way to get it.
He stopped. Why? Why was this girl sorry? She sounded a little strained when she'd said that, but she'd still apologized for something that really wasn't her fault. Why had she apologized to him? And the question that was nagging him the most was... why wasn't she rejecting him? Why wasn't this stupid girl acting just like everyone else and either fearing him or hating him?
And she'd called him... by his name. No one did that... only two people he'd really gotten know had called him by his name. And she'd been so kind when she answered him; not screeching at him like she should have. It was bothering the heck out of him...and he didn't want to hear her anymore. She didn't know what she was talking about... stupid idiot... He wanted this naïve little girl to just go away, so he wouldn't have to listen to her again.
"Just shut up."
Kagome just stared at his still form. What...? "But-"
"Just stop talking to me, okay?!" he snapped at her furiously. He really wanted her to leave him be.
Maybe... she should wait a day or two before she tried to talk with him...?
Yeah, at least that much.
A/N - Woo hoo! Chapter three is finished! And please excuse any spelling or grammar errors of mine... I don't always see my own mistakes. And I'd also like to mention that I fixed up the last section of chapter 2. I didn't like how it was... it just didn't work. So I fixed it. ^-^ Oh, don't forget to give me your opinion -good or bad- on the story. (If you're up to it... ^ ^;;) And I apologize again for the long wait. ^ ^; I didn't mean to take so long...
~Eternal White~
A/N - (Pre-note: Anyone who doesn't want to read my very very very very VERY long, annoying rantings can just skip out on the author note today. Actually, I recommend that you do skip the author note. It's ridiculously long... ^ ^;; Anyway...) No!! I am so gonna cry! I can't read my reviews! (Well actually I can read the first two, the ones from "ME" ^_^) Bah... How upsetting is that? (Geeze, now I feel really...selfish...and spoiled... ^ ^;;) I checked my email and it said three of you guys reviewed! ^.^ I practically jumped out of my shoes! Three people!! I totally died. ^ ^ (I think I get excited a little quicker than your average girl...) But then when I tried to view the reviews, it wouldn't let me. I tried like fifty different ways, but it still didn't work. I even logged out, reset the computer, and then tried again. And guess what ended up happening anyway? The stupid thing wouldn't let me see my precious little reviews. . But still, now I feel really horrid for being so pathetically lazy and not updating sooner... I was planning on updating on Saturday, but after writing for like two minutes my brother forced me off the computer because he had to do homework. I was planning on writing up in my bedroom on some random piece of paper, but when I'd finally collected my paper and pencils and gone upstairs, upon opening my bedroom door I discovered that my sister was in there watching 'Kim Possible'. That show drives me nuts... (N-No offence to any Kim Possible fans out there! ^ ^;) And, of course, since we share a room, I couldn't kick her out. So I scooted my way to the basement (a favorite location of mine) and planned on lounging on the couch as I wrote. Only to find that my dad was down there blasting the oldies station and painting a bookshelf. I had two choices; either stay in the basement and try to write while risking being intoxicated with the horrid odor of spray paint and getting my ears blasted off while listening to 'Great balls of fire!', or playing Final Fantasy 9. What do you think I chose? Yeah... And then a friend of mine called and I had to go over to her house to practice a couple of duets that we had to play at her piano festival on Sunday. I ended up spending the night at her house, going to church Sunday morning, then going to the piano festival, then going to her house and staying there 'til 8:00, then finally getting home at 8:30, then dawdling around for a half hour, then finally going to bed. The on Monday I... umm... I uhh... Okay, Monday doesn't have an excuse. ^ ^; But that doesn't matter! Right? Anyway, I really need to stop talking now... all you people probably loathe my existence for writing such an incredibly long author's note. ^ ^;;; I think I set a record... Oops... But anyway, you can go read the chapter now. ^ ^;;;; (gosh, I took up more than half a page...)
With You
Chapter 3
Make an Effort
Inuyasha was dead bored. There was nothing to do in there! What in the world did the other prisoners do all day?
Ugh...He plopped down on his bed and tried to think of something - anything to do.
He'd exhausted himself of any and every thing that there was to do in this cramped little cell, and he was getting really fed up. Not to mention he was getting hungry...
He could always go see what that girl was doing...?
Well, that was something to be reconsidered... From what he'd seen of her, she was an annoying, stupid little girl, and actually- now that he thought of it, associating with her should have been one of the last things on this 'to do' list.
No. He was not going to resort to such drastic measures. He could just go and... and umm... Come now, there must have been something that he hadn't done yet.
Annoy the hell out of the guards? Naw, he'd used up a couple of hours on that already. Take his anger out on the walls? Nope, that got rather boring -not to mention a little tiring- after a while. Ponder a way to escape, perhaps? No, that was fruitless. He'd used up more time than necessary on that. Scribble on the walls with that stone again? Definitely not, that was another thing that he had used up way to many hours on.
He could always just sit and think...right? But...what about?
"....." (And the silence stretched...)
Or maybe not...
He gave up on that as he made a careful attempt to bend his back; he wanted to see if it was good to go yet.
"Yes!" he cried in a half-hushed voice. He could finally move without fear of splitting himself in half!
...Now what?
He laid down on his bed in a position that had his spine in kind of a twist. Being able to turn like that was nice...
A heavy sigh escaped him as he held his hand in front of his face, inspecting his claws. There wasn't anything left to do besides sleep; yet another activity that he'd spent much more time then needed on. Well...that, and looking into the next room to see what the girl in there was doing... (A/N - FYI, he is not thinking anything perverted with that statement. This is Inuyasha, not Miroku. ^ ^) He was getting rather desperate...
Maybe he could just peek through that little hole in the wall for a second...? Just to see if she was doing anything worth copying. It wasn't like he had any better activities up his sleeve. With the exception of the few actions mentioned earlier, he'd been sitting around for about half the day just staring at the wall. Strange as it may be, that hadn't been something he'd found very interesting. He was nearly convinced that he'd die of boredom in a few hours. Besides, he might figure out something to do by watching her...
So he crept over to the wall window and peered in; his gaze flicking around what he could see of the small cell in search of his neighbor. Even though he couldn't see her, he still knew that she was in there; he could smell her. But what was that other scent mixed in with hers...?
Inuyasha's eyes widened. That other scent...
She was...crying?
It was a very faint scent; she wasn't crying a lot, just a little bit. He hadn't heard her sobbing either, but his ears had picked up on her shaky breathing. For some reason he thought she was trying to hold it in. He really hated it when women cried...
Despite the fact that he didn't really consider her a woman...
Okay, he hated it when any female in general cried. Yeah, that sounded more appropriate...
He let out a barely audible sigh and placed his elbows on his knees, resting his chin on the palms of his hands. Great, now he felt a pinch of guilt for saying (or thinking, rather) that she was stupid and annoying, and for being rude to her earlier. Damn girl...
Wait, why did he feel guilty? She had been just as rude as he had! Well, maybe not... But he doubted that she was crying because of him anyway. "She's probably just upset that she's in prison." he tutted.
Speaking of, why was a girl like her in here anyway? He hadn't thought about it until now...
She didn't look like a thief, living on her own; her clothes -tattered or not- gave that away. Maybe she was a royal servant, or even a noblewoman? It was quite possible, because despite how soiled it was, she had on a really really nice, dress. Who knows how much gold someone would have to trade for a dress like the one she was wearing. It looked like... like an autumn evening. The patterns and colors fit right in with the season; the faded greens and reds blended perfectly with the bright yellows and oranges. Chances were, she was a very rich noblewoman.
Noblegirl, more like...
But if she was, then what had she done to get herself in here?
If she was a servant, it was possible that she had stolen from or disobeyed whoever her master or mistress was. That wouldn't really give a good explanation for the dress though... But what if she was a noble?
Another question popped into his mind; how long had she been in that cell? It could have ranged from days, to weeks, to months even. It was hard to determine...
"Keh!" he scoffed at himself. "...wasting too much time on that dumb girl..." he grumbled and stood up; wandering around the room and pondering which wall he should use his claws on. At least he'd thought of something to do. Not that he hadn't done that five or six times already, but hey, may as well do it again. He was still gonna keep an ear focused on that crying girl though...
~~*~~
Kagome snapped her head up from its place behind her huddled arms, straitening her bent knees. She'd just heard him talk; he'd said something about a 'dumb girl'. That jerk, he better not have been talking about her. She growled at the air in front of her and shot it a glare; pretending it was Inuyasha.
But wait a minute! If he was there that could've meant that he'd...
She took a thin intake of breath and her fingers flew to her lips as she sat there in anxiousness. That couldn't have happened...! He just couldn't have heard her!
No, he didn't. She had been careful not to make any noise at all. There was no way he could have heard...
She brought her knees up to her chin again, wrapping her arms around them protectively as in her previous position. Every time she shed tears she felt like a pathetic little crybaby; not emotionally strong enough to even resist the urge to cry. It made her feel so weak and helpless. She didn't want to feel that way...
There was only one other time she'd felt worse; when he had left her.
She squeezed her eyes shut and forced the memory out of her head. She remembered too much...
Kagome let out a labored sigh and contemplated what to do with her current situation. She was bored, as usual, but now she had a neighbor that she could talk with. The question was; should she try and talk with him and risk becoming mortal enemies with that ass, or just leave him alone and miss out on a new friend?
She laughed a little at the latter option. As if he'd befriend her. He didn't seem like a very easy-to-get-along-with person. And from what she'd seen of his attitude, she didn't particularly fancy the idea of getting to know him either. She had just asked for his name, and he got all upset. It really shouldn't have taken so long just to get his name out of him. Stubborn idiot...
But then again, he might not really be a total jerk. First impressions aren't always the best ones. She shouldn't give up on him so easily... He was probably just having a bit of a bad day. Really though, she couldn't blame him for that. He had been brought in unconscious from blood loss or something, and he really had some severe wounds on that body of his; emphasis on the fact that he'd been brought in. She had been upset when she was caught, and she still was. He had a right to that as well. In reality, he could be a nice, normal guy! A normal guy with a bit of an attitude, more like...but none the less, normal.
Though she really didn't know the true meaning of the commonly used word, 'normal'. She didn't really know too much about 'normal' people in general... She was penned up in the castle all day and night. There had only been a few times when she'd gone beyond the borders of the castle courtyards; and those times it was just to visit one of the towns or villages with her mother and her brother. Mom had never let her take Buyo with them...
That was probably why being brought to an entirely strange place by complete strangers had scared the life out of her.
She sighed push away all the somewhat tragic thoughts as she tried to snatch up all the pleasant memories and shove them into the 'Kagome's current thoughts' section of her brain. Those were things she liked thinking about. Beautiful memories that now seemed so, so very... distant. It felt like and eternity ago that she was out in the courtyards playing around with Souta...
~~Flash~~
"Kagome! Did you find him yet?" five year old Souta shouted to his eleven year old sister as he adverted his gaze to the bushes several meters away.
"Nope! No sign of that little hippopotamus anywhere..." she answered, trying not to squash the tulips as she pushed her way through the bushes she'd been searching in, breathing in a breath of fresh air. It had surprised her that they had stayed around for so long, last year they'd turned into fertilizer a lot sooner... The gardens always smelled lovely though, and she was glad her mom had ordered them planted. It was kind of a substitute for not being able to wander the gorgeous wildflower fields near the villages.
"Darn..." Souta huffed as he reached into a patch of ferns, spreading them apart as his eyes scanned the area for his target. Now where had he gone...?
"Ah ha!" Kagome chirped as she scooped up the certain someone they had been searching for. "Found him, Souta!"
"You did?" he chortled gleefully as he bounced over to his sister. "Yes! Where'd you find him, sis?"
"He was sitting in the rose patch..." she replied thoughtfully as she ruffled her little brother's hair with her free hand. Sometimes she wondered about that cat. He'd been acting like a masochist lately...
Don't ask.
"Buyo!" Souta took the cat from his sister's arms. Kagome... what had he wanted to ask her...? "We finally found ya, Buyo! What in the world have you been doing lately?" he scolded as he poked the cat's nose.
Was that a figment of her imagination, or had she just heard the cat sigh...?
"Uhh, Souta?"
"Yeah?"
"Why were we looking for the cat in the first place?"
"Oh yeah!" he said as if just remembering "Cm'ere, I wanna show you something..." he trailed as he pranced of into a more 'open' section of the courtyard.
Kagome trotted after her brother and watched him as he told her where he wanted her to stand, and she listened to him, curious as to what he wanted to show her.
Souta walked about a meter away from her and held Buyo on either sides of the cat, in quite an awkward position. "Okay, now all you have to do is catch Buyo." Souta instructed.
His sister raised an eyebrow at him "What do you mean, 'catch Buyo'?"
He gave a childish roll of his eyes and furthered his instructions. "I mean that I'm gonna throw Buyo up in the air and you have to catch him!"
"You're going to what?!" Kagome squeaked. Had her little brother gone insane?
"Just catch him! It's really fun!"
"For who!?"
"Us of course!" he blinked as if it was blatantly obvious.
Kagome furrowed her brow and curled her lip. Did he give a care about the cat...?
"Oh, come on." He prodded "It'll be fun! Buyo's fine - tossing him around a little won't bother him."
Apparently not...
But hey, why not give it a try? Just this once...
"Well, okay..." she conceded as she positioned herself to play 'catch the cat'.
"On the count of three" Souta began, acknowledging the nod from his sibling. "One...two...three!"
Kagome watched as the plump little cat flew into the air with a horrified look on its face. A little to the left... okay, here he came.
She held her arms out and closed her eyes as the cat came falling from the sky, its shadow laying on her arms.
"...Umm..." Kagome slowly opened an eye, shouldn't she have caught him by now...?
She looked around to find that the cat was no where in sight. "What on earth...?" her gaze adverted to her brother, she wanted to see his reaction to this odd situation.
"K-Kagome...!" Souta stuttered, staring up wide eyed.
Out of curiosity, once again, she followed his gaze up to an extending limb from the nearby oak tree. Her jaw dropped in surprise.
Just then, both of them broke out into simultaneous fits of laughter.
"Souta!" she managed in between laughs "You threw- him into the- into the tree!!"
He just laughed all the harder.
"Look!" he pointed at Buyo in between cackles, which were slowly receding into giggles "He's stuck- in between the- the branches!"
More laughter.
Their giggles slowly died down and the locked gazes with their bright eyes as two big grins tilted on their lips; their gaze slowly tilting its way back to the tree-bound cat.
...And yet another round of laughter abounded.
~~Flash~~
Kagome smiled as she caught up with her memories. She kind of felt like a drama-queen-wanna-be, but that didn't matter. She and Souta had had so much fun when they were little. It had kind of died down as the both of them got older...but they still had their moments. They had tortured that poor cat too many times to count...hence the immense amount of pity she had for Buyo. They'd thrown him back and forth for hours every week. Why hadn't they gotten bored of that...? She chuckled to herself. They had been such sadists...
A loud scraping noise brought her out of her thoughts; it was coming from Inuyasha's cell. What was he doing in there?
She stood up off her bed and kneeled down in front of the space in the wall. Her eyes widened in surprise at what she saw; he was leaving rather large scratches on the wall where he swung his claws. That guy was pretty strong...
He wasn't really making a dent in it or anything, just leaving lots of marks. But he still looked strong...
Kagome's jaw dropped; his previous action didn't seem like much compared to what he'd just done. Wow! He was so strong!! "Amazing..." she whispered as she stared in awe at the boy. That was really cool! And what had he said when he swung his arm? Sankon...Sankontetsou?
~~*~~
He'd trained his hearing on her cell, waiting for her to stop crying. He had kept it there even when she'd stopped, just incase she started again. He detested when girls cried...
Inuyasha didn't move his attention from her; even during the long pause that stretched out wearily. She wasn't crying anymore...so what was she doing? He listened intently for any kind of sound, but he didn't hear anything.
Wait! What was that noise...? Had she just...growled? What the...
Oh! Another sound! She had taken a rather sharp intake of breath...then she sighed, and...what was that...? A...laugh? It sounded more like a scoff to him...
A second sigh and a long pause... he didn't hear anything for a while. Then what... a chuckle? Wow - this girl could change moods quickly...
He let out a sigh of his own, and gave the wall a slash with his claws, just for good measure.
He focused a tad more attention on her when he'd heard her get up at the sound of his claws. She walked a few steps, and then stopped. His sixth sense told him that he was being watched, and by none other than the girl in then next cell.
Well! Despite how very little he liked this girl, why not take advantage of the situation? There wasn't anything wrong with showing off a little, was there? She'd be so damn surprised; it'd be amusing to see the expression on her face.
So he gave the wall several more nice long slashes, and decided to really give her a 'wow'.
"Sankontetsou!" Multiple thick yellow streaks flew from his claws and smashed into the wall, leaving a jolly good amount of dents in it.
Out of the corner of his eye, he'd just barely noticed that her jaw had moved - dropped, rather. It was kind of a vague assumption based on what he saw, but considering the context of the situation, it was a fair guess. Then he was positive that he'd heard her whisper the word 'amazing', which could have applied to none other than him.
A smug grin lingered on Inuyasha's lips as the girl gawked at him. He'd gotten his intended reaction. Any naïve little girl like her would think of his abilities as 'amazing'. Now it was time to have a little bit of fun...
"You're catching flies, you know." He taunted as he slanted her a look over his shoulder.
She stared at him for a moment then snapped her jaw shut; quickly knitting her brow together and giving him another mild looking glare.
He inwardly gave another contented sigh. And yet again he'd captured his intended reaction. "What? Don't plan on catching any of the local flies today? Too bad..." he gave a click of his tongue and turned on his heel towards her.
"Okay, Kagome" she thought "Just ignore his comments. You can be a decent human being - even if he would rather be an asshole."
He frowned when she didn't snap back at him; instead, her expression loosened a bit, and she visibly made an effort to slide a smile onto her face.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" she tried, making an attempt to be as cheerful as possible.
He furrowed his brow and returned her glare once again, just quite a bit stronger. Hadn't she heard him? She was supposed to get all upset. "Why do you want to know?" he questioned her.
"Just curious." She replied with a limp shrug.
"Why?"
She shrugged again and gave him a half sincere smile "I told you; I'm just curious."
"Just nosey? Or just curious?" he shot back.
She tilted her head slightly and answered him as kindly and softly as she could manage. "Sorry... I was just wondering. It was really cool and all, and I-"
She stopped speaking and stared at him blankly. He had rushed right up to her face and narrowed his eyes at her. Was it something she said...? She was kind of glad that wall was there...
He didn't speak or anything, just stared. What had she done to upset him so much? She was just about to ask when he stood up again and turned his heel on her.
Well, just because he didn't want to talk to her didn't mean she wasn't gonna talk to him. She was bored, and he hadn't snapped at her the last time...so maybe being kind to him had helped?
"W-Wait!" Kagome stuttered. She wasn't scared or nervous or anything, she just didn't have anything to say to him...
He took a step back and gave her another one of his 'over the shoulder' glances. "What?" he sounded irritated...
Damnit...What to say... What to say... "Umm... I didn't umm... upset you or anything, did I?" Geeze she sounded stupid... what kind of a question was that? Of course he was a little upset with her.
He answered her with a simple 'keh' and turned his head to face forward. He had just started to walk away again...
"I...I..." "Stop stuttering!!" "Inuyasha, I'm sorry if I did!" she all but shouted back to him in desperation. She didn't want another conversation with this guy to end the same way; even if she had to shove her pride out the window. She was dying for human conversation, and he was really the only way to get it.
He stopped. Why? Why was this girl sorry? She sounded a little strained when she'd said that, but she'd still apologized for something that really wasn't her fault. Why had she apologized to him? And the question that was nagging him the most was... why wasn't she rejecting him? Why wasn't this stupid girl acting just like everyone else and either fearing him or hating him?
And she'd called him... by his name. No one did that... only two people he'd really gotten know had called him by his name. And she'd been so kind when she answered him; not screeching at him like she should have. It was bothering the heck out of him...and he didn't want to hear her anymore. She didn't know what she was talking about... stupid idiot... He wanted this naïve little girl to just go away, so he wouldn't have to listen to her again.
"Just shut up."
Kagome just stared at his still form. What...? "But-"
"Just stop talking to me, okay?!" he snapped at her furiously. He really wanted her to leave him be.
Maybe... she should wait a day or two before she tried to talk with him...?
Yeah, at least that much.
A/N - Woo hoo! Chapter three is finished! And please excuse any spelling or grammar errors of mine... I don't always see my own mistakes. And I'd also like to mention that I fixed up the last section of chapter 2. I didn't like how it was... it just didn't work. So I fixed it. ^-^ Oh, don't forget to give me your opinion -good or bad- on the story. (If you're up to it... ^ ^;;) And I apologize again for the long wait. ^ ^; I didn't mean to take so long...
~Eternal White~