Inuyasha and Kagome sat in front of each other for a while, just looking at one another. Kagome smiled at the hanyou and he found himself returning the gesture. Something was different about him, the way he looked at her, and she couldn't help but notice. She knew that look, but he didn't show it often – only if she had been in danger, or when he was trying to make stay her out of danger. Those were the times when she truly saw that he cared for her, in one way or another.
Now Inuyasha was showing something that he would usually consider as a weakness. He was well aware of that and could see the slightly surprised look that Kagome was giving him. And for the first time since he had met her and come to care for her he was honest with himself – he liked it when she saw that 'weak', vulnerable side of his personality. Involuntary his smile widened and seeing Kagome's utter shock he started laughing.
"Inuyasha..." Kagome frowned at him but soon smiled too. "Stop making fun of me!" she said well aware of why he was laughing.
"S-Sorry..." he said breathlessly and held one hand on his mouth.
"That's better." the girl said and moved closer to him. "Let's see that wound now." she reached with her hands to move away the hanging shreds of his shirt.
Inuyasha removed the hand from his mouth and looked down at his chest. There was blood all over him; actually nobody could tell that his shirt had been white. Had this even been a shirt? Now it was soaked with his blood and hanging in shreds on his chest. When he was free from the ruined cloth he saw Kagome frown. "What is it?" he asked and she continued to look at the wound.
"It's too bloody." she said and was about to touch his chest but then decided not to. "We'll have to wash you clean and then see the damages." she then looked at him and smiled when she saw his worried expression. "But I don't think it's serious."
"Well, I don't feel it anymore." the hanyou shook off his worry and shrugged. "It's probably healed."
"Maybe, but I want to be sure." after saying that Kagome stood up and went to pick up the haori, which was lying a few meters away.
Unknown to the couple outside the others were watching them. Although Kouga had said that he knew that he didn't have any chances with Kagome, he felt like he was going to explode. He couldn't help but be angry with Inuyasha. The hanyou had taken his shards and his woman! And he felt really bad for loosing to him. Actually he was ashamed that a full demon like him, the wolf demons' prince, had lost to a half dog demon.
'I wonder if he'd agree to keep this a secret...' Kouga thought miserably as he watched Inuyasha and Kagome separate from their hug. 'They actually look good together.' he added and scratched his head.
"Kouga, are you alright?" Miroku asked, seeing his thoughtful expression, and the others also looked at him.
"Yeah." the wolf demon said and they turned toward the two outside again.
Inuyasha and Kagome were talking and when she removed his shirt to see his wound everybody grimaced at the amount of blood on his chest. Just now they took their time to look at the hanyou better. Although he hadn't received any serious injures in the fight, to their eyes he was simply a bloody mess. His ears were all bloody, his claws too, his hair was soaked with blood, we already know about his chest.
"It must be because of the transformation." Kouga answered everybody's question of why their friend looked so bad. "It must've been too much for his body." he added and the others slowly nodded in agreement.
Kagome was just heading back to Inuyasha with his haori when he started to stand up and wanted to say something. "Inuyasha, stay down." the girl screamed and pointed at him.
Inuyasha looked down and saw that the rosary's beads were glowing. He was half up already and quickly lifted his head to look at Kagome wide-eyed. "Hell no..." he said and just a second later he crashed face-first on the ground, forming a pretty Inuyasha-shaped crater.
"That was bad." Shippo said and looked at his friend's broken form with sympathy, while Kagome was running toward him.
"He deserved it this time." Miroku said and the others nodded.
"It came a little late, though." Sango added.
"But we can have some fun with him, can't we?" Kouga said and stood up to exit the cave.
"I don't like the sound of this." Miroku said and the others followed the wolf demon out of the cave.
As Inuyasha was lying on the ground, growling, Kagome was leaning above him and trying to pull him up. Although it wasn't her fault this time she was apologizing to him and he was trying to tell her that it was ok. The others came to them and helped her sit the dazed hanyou up.
"Hey, dog but, you are really stupid." Kouga laughed and Inuyasha desperately tried to focus his vision to see the hated wolf, but all he could do was growl at no one in particular. "Just when I thought Kagome was history for me you make her sit you and thus give me new hopes!"
"Just wait 'till..." Inuyasha growled and tried to stand up but Kagome pushed him back down.
"Inuyasha." she threatened and he immediately shut up and remained on his place. Although he was pretty uncoordinated he managed to cross his hands in front of his chest, which was the least he could do to save his dignity. Then Kagome turned to the wolf demon. "Kouga-kun, please don't fight with him." hearing that he gave her a disappointed look. "At least wait until he gets better."
"For you, Kagome, I would wait even after the end of the world." Kouga said and held her hands in his. An annoyed 'Feh' was heard from the hanyou and the wolf demon smirked. "Anyway, Kagome, I'll be going now..."
"Wait, Kouga-kun." Kagome said and he looked at her questioningly. She took the small bottle where she usually kept her Shikon shards and took the one that was inside out. "Take this."
"But, Kagome..." the wolf demon wanted to protest – he wasn't going to accept gifts. If he was to have another Shikon shard he would earn it in a fair fight. But with Naraku having all the rest that wasn't possible anymore, was it? He could hear the low growl that was coming from Inuyasha and thought that he could at lest make him angry. However, he didn't know that the hanyou was growling because he wanted him to take the shard.
"Take it, Kouga-kun, if you have this it would be more difficult for Naraku to get them all." Kagome continued. "And it would be easier for us to predict his moves."
"She is right, Kouga." Miroku said and Sango nodded.
"Alright then." the wolf demon grinned and took the Shikon shard. He then put it in his right leg. "Well, I'll really be going now. Take care and don't let that puppy of yours go anywhere alone, ok?" after that he quickly ran off in order to save himself from the raging hanyou, who received another sit to stay quiet.
"Be reasonable, Inuyasha." Kagome was crouching next to the hanyou's head and was stroking his hair. "You have to be thankful that he wasn't angry with you."
"She's right, Inuyasha." Miroku said and held back a smile, while Sango was doing the same and was holding Shippo's mouth in order to silence his laughing.
Just as the spell wore off Inuyasha bolted up and growled at the monk. "She's right!" the hanyou imitated him. "Shut the fuck up, bouzu!"
"You shut up and let's go." Kagome said and taking his right hand pulled him after her. The others followed them and started to go down the slope of the mountain.
The sun still hadn't risen when they got down, so they decided to make camp until morning came. They found a nice small clearing, shadowed with big trees and a spring nearby. They made a camp and started a fire. While the others took their places around the fire Kagome dragged a very flushed and unwilling hanyou toward the hot spring.
Once they were at the spring Kagome made Inuyasha sit on the ground. She tore off a part of her left sleeve and wetted it in the water. She then carefully started to clean his chest. Inuyasha watched her with great interest. There sure was a lot of blood but he didn't feel like there was any wound anymore. After a few minutes he was clean and Kagome looked first at his chest and then at him.
"There's no wound." she said surprised.
"I told you it was ok, didn't I?" the hanyou said triumphantly and started to get up. Although he didn't show it this was starting to worry him – he wasn't supposed to heal so fast, there had to be something else.
"Just where do you think you're going?" Kagome pushed him back down, shaking him out of his thoughts, and he looked at her in confusion. "You need a bath..."
Inuyasha cursed mentally – he had hoped to get away only with his chest cleaned, knowing that Kagome would probably want to stay with him while he bathed. "I hate you." he muttered while removing his pants and entering the warm waters of the spring, while Kagome was standing aside with her back on him.
"I know, I know..." she smiled. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah." he said and sunk himself in the waters so that only his head was out.
Kagome turned to look at him – he was sitting in the far side of the spring and she was sure that not the warmth of the waters was making his face so red. She felt herself blushing while she sat on the shore and wetted her injured hand. She winced a little in pain as she started to wash the dried blood.
"Does it hurt?" Inuyasha asked and raised himself a little.
"Yeah." Kagome nodded and continued cleaning her hand.
"Well, it serves you right." he said and she looked at him surprised. "You shouldn't have been so reckless." he turned his head aside to avoid her eyes and missed to see her smile – she was happy that his behavior was turning back to normal.
TBC