Kagome had cleaned her injured palm from the blood and was now bandaging it with her other sleeve, which she had torn off too. The whole time she kept her look away from Inuyasha, concentrating on the heat she felt in her cheeks. She couldn't help but think about the night when she decided to give herself to him – she had voluntary undressed in front of him. At the thought of herself and Inuyasha naked her blush deepened.
Unknown to the girl on the shore, the hanyou was intently staring at her. He saw every single shade of red that her face turned into and his interest grew even more. What was she thinking about? She more than obviously was embarrassed, hell he was too! He raced through his memories trying to remember if she had seen him naked before – maybe one or two times...
"Inuyasha?" Kagome's voice interrupted his thoughts.
Unconsciously he had dropped his look to the water and when he heard her he quickly lifted his head. "Yea?" he asked, blinking at her.
"Everything ok?" she asked, her voice suddenly filled with concern.
"Yes, I'm fine." he said and gave her a nervous smile.
"Alright then." she returned the smile and started to stand up. "I'll leave you to bathe now."
At first Inuyasha didn't react. He was actually relieved that she was going back to the camp, leaving him in peace. But as she turned to leave he felt a sudden rush of unexplainable panic and fear and a painful tightness in his chest. "No, Kagome!" he almost screamed and stood up in the water.
Hearing his worried voice the girl immediately spun around to face... "Sit!" she screamed at the completely naked Inuyasha in front of her, closing her eyes and bringing her hands to her face.
The poor hanyou splashed in the water and hit the bottom of the spring. Realizing what she had done Kagome rushed toward the shore, worriedly calling his name and apologizing. Although Inuyasha was still dazed from his meeting with the ground he knew perfectly well why Kagome had panicked like that. So, as soon as the spell wore off the only thing that he showed above the surface was his head.
"Thank God, you're alright, Inuyasha." Kagome sighed. She was just going to enter the water when she saw him. "You startled me." she said, her face reddening with every passing second of thinking about what she had just seen.
"Sorry..." the hanyou said, the color of his own face matching hers. "I just wanted you to stay."
"Um... Ok." the girl said, nervously gripping her hands. "I-I'll go over there." she pointed at a nearby tree and Inuyasha nodded. "I'll sit behind it." after that last sentence she waited for another nod of approval from Inuyasha and hurried toward the tree.
At the camp the others were just sitting around the fire, yawning once in a while. Miroku and Sango were sitting side by side; Shippo and Kirara were snuggled close to one another, slowly drifting off to sleep at the opposite side of the fire.
"Houshi-sama, are you awake?" Sango asked weakly, adjusting herself more comfortably as she was leaned on his left shoulder.
"Mhm..." was Miroku's response. Despite the closeness of the demon exterminator, surprisingly even for him, he hadn't made even an attempt to grope her. He was just too tired.
"There's something that's bothering me..." she said with her weak voice again.
"What is it?" the monk asked equally weakly.
"The shouki crystal... What happened to it?" the demon exterminator voiced the question she had been asking herself since Inuyasha turned back to normal.
"I've been thinking about that too." Miroku said. "I didn't see Inuyasha remove it."
"Maybe the Shikon shards destroyed it when Kagome-chan purified them?" Sango suggested.
"It is very possible." the monk said and sighed. "We'll have to talk with Inuyasha about that."
"Yea..." the young woman said yawning and closing her eyes.
When Inuyasha and Kagome returned to the camp, everybody were sleeping. The two sat by the fire and Kagome rubbed her arms trying to warm herself. Inuyasha watched her with a guilty look and there was a good reason for it. When he had gotten out of the spring and redressed with his still wet clothes, Kagome had gone to him just when he had dried himself. I hope you can well imagine Inuyasha on his hands and knees, shaking all the water off of himself. Kagome wasn't so wet but still, he had really chilled her.
"We'll have to work on your dog habits." the girl said and sighed.
"Dog habits..." Inuyasha muttered under his breath and removing his haori threw it over her head.
Kagome was a little surprised by such an action from him but it also made her happy. "Hey!" she laughed while removing the cloth from her head.
"I'm not gonna say it." the hanyou snapped and knowing what he meant Kagome smiled to herself. He was going to continue but she interrupted him.
"For the past few hours I've apologized more than I have in my entire life." she said trying to imitate his voice.
"I guess so..." Inuyasha looked at her slightly confused. "If you could tell me what an hour is..."
Kagome was sure that he knew what an hour is but he was forgiven for having forgotten, because he was funny. She laughed and was just going to explain, or rather remind him, when an annoyed grunt was heard and she and the hanyou turned to look at Miroku. Just now they noticed the way he and the demon exterminator were sitting side by side.
"Some people are trying to rest here." the monk said and effectively silenced his noisy friends.
A light wind blew around the group and being only with his pants on, Inuyasha involuntary shivered. He sighed and glanced at Kagome, who was expectantly looking at him. He quickly turned away and heard an annoyed sigh from the girl. Yes, he was cold, actually he was freezing, and she knew that. After everything he had been through, it was understandable that his body was weakened.
"Inuyasha, are you cold?" Kagome asked after noticing him shiver again.
"N-No." he stammered, a little nervous of what she might say next.
"Why don't you come closer to the fire?" she asked and patted the grassy ground at her right side.
Inuyasha eyed her suspiciously and reluctantly went to sit beside her. He couldn't hold back the content sigh that escaped his lips when he felt the warmth of the fire. But soon enough he shivered again, after all his hair was not enough to keep his back warm and the fire became useless. Kagome looked at him again and saw that he was slightly shaking. Shaking her head she unwrapped the haori from herself and moved closer to Inuyasha.
"K-Kagome..." he stammered out and more than everything wanted to run away. What was all that panic about? First when she wanted to go back to the camp and now when she wanted to be close to him. And why the hell did he feel so embarrassed all of a sudden? Usually he was able to control these things but now...
"Stay down." Kagome commanded after seeing that he was going to stand up, and he froze on his place. She then sat next to him and wrapped the haori around them both. "That's a good boy." she giggled.
"I'm not a dog." the hanyou snapped and adjusted the haori better around them. He moved his left hand and placed it behind Kagome letting it rest on her waist. With this hand away Kagome leaned on his left side and to steady herself she lifted her left hand and let it rest on his chest.
'What am I doing?' she screamed in her mind and noticing the familiar heat rise in her face, she wandered if Inuyasha could feel it, since she was so close to him. Suddenly she was aware of the strong and quickened heartbeat under her ear and hand. She sighed in relief – not only she felt embarrassed by the situation. But she was also very comfortable in this position and soon became happy as she felt Inuyasha's stiffened hand – the one on her waist, relax and hold her tighter.
"It's all their fault..." the hanyou mumbled under his breath after a while of peaceful silence. He was angry beyond belief because of his incapability to control his emotions. After receiving an approving 'Mhm' from Kagome he decided to continue. "Those stupid Shikon shards... I hate them even more than Naraku!" he almost growled and got another sleepy 'Mhm.' "Well, maybe not..."
"Mhm..." Kagome mumbled again and sighed deeply, her breath making Inuyasha shiver.
"Kagome..." he looked at her but this time she didn't answer.
"She's asleep, you idiot." Sango's voice startled him and he looked at her. "Humans need that from time to time, you know." she said and deciding that this was enough to keep him quiet she closed her eyes again.
Inuyasha sighed and looked at Kagome for the last time before resting his head on top of hers and closing his eyes. He couldn't help but think over what had happened to him. One troubling thought kept appearing in his mind – ever since he had removed the Shikon shards from his body there was a strange heaviness in his chest. It had actually become really painful when Kagome wanted to leave him to bathe, back at the hot spring, but now that she was so close to him the pain was gone. Now he felt calm and warm and just couldn't think about this anymore, at least not now...
But there was someone else that was very concerned about what was happening to Inuyasha. Naraku was sitting in his dark room, staring at the wall across. Kagura, Kohaku and Hakudoshi were sitting a little aside, expectantly watching their master. Although he seemed to be calm and cold as always, he was actually enraged. That pathetic and filthy hanyou – Inuyasha, had overpowered him.
After much thinking the evil hanyou had come to the conclusion that it wasn't Kagome's purifying powers that destroyed the shouki crystal, but Inuyasha's youki. And on top of the humiliation and the shame of such a defeat, the shouki crystal wasn't really destroyed – it had 'melted' inside Inuyasha's body and he had absorbed it.
'This could result in only one thing...' Naraku thought and fisted his right hand, in witch he was holding the almost completed Shikon no Tama. 'Now the connection he had made with the help of the Shikon shards is permanent.'
TBC