Here we go!
Gossamer Dreams
Part 25
"I spoke with Shippo today." Inuyasha blurted the words out after sitting silently with Kikyo for barely a moment. She had been brewing tea when he found her in the room she had settled into on his brother's eastern country estate. They had been living there for a week now, and while Inuyasha, for propriety's sake, slept in a room down the hall, he spent most of his time in Kikyo's company.
"He has returned?" she asked the question in an absent tone as she poured herself a cup of tea and did not bother with offering any to her companion. It was odd, as she almost always offered, and it occurred to him that something might be troubling her besides the obvious situation at hand. "I have been reading all day…I must have missed it."
"Kohaku has been delivered to his own private estate, and is under heavy guard." Inuyasha went on, working out the proper words even as he spoke. "He says that he is more worried for our safety than forthe boy'sescape, and so he has returned to keep us under his watch."
"Interesting," she did not seem to be the least bit interested in what he had to say. She had drained half of her tea and was staring at the cup as though willing it to break in two or some such thing.
"Is something the matter, Kikyo?" he asked, unable to ignore her odd behavior anymore. She turned to him, and he thought she looked a bit odd. Something about her eyes was altogether wrong.
"What color are my eyes, Inuyasha?" she asked him, as though this were a vastly important question.
"Of course they are purple, you are a Gifted, Kikyo…" he drifted off, as his gaze rested on the object in question and he realized what it was that had bothered him about her appearance. "Grey? Since when are your eyes grey?" For they had suddenly, inexplicably, changed to a slate shade that in no way resembled their natural hue.
"It is a trick." She smiled at him then, and though the color of her eyes was still a bit odd, he offered her an answering grin. "I never learned it fully when I was a child, but I knew that Miroku must have taught Rin, so I made her explain it to me in detail. I use my spirit energy and this infusion to shift the color to something less…noticeably illegal."
"Is that how your brother has lived all these years in the capital?" Inuyasha sounded as though she had just solved a great puzzle for him, and his smile widened slightly. "That is indeed a clever trick. How does it taste, by the way?" he indicated the half-full teacup.
"Like rotten sawdust, to be honest." She pulled a face at the steaming liquid. "But with sugar…it is not so bad. Now then, you were telling me something about Shippo?"
"Oh…yes." He cleared his throat and looked away. Her grey gaze was somehow foreign, and it bothered him that she was not quite recognizable as herself. If her eyes had been blue…he would have sworn she had become Kagome. It was disturbing to think that she could shift her appearance like that. "I asked him to help me find my power…if I have any, that is. No one is sure how a Youkai Gifted child inherits powers and such, or if they are truly neutral. He believes, since I have fangs and claws, I should have some sort of Youkai ability, but he says they can be elusive in individuals if one does not know what to look for."
"Certainly if I can exercise Gifted abilities, your Youkai strength should be unhindered by your mother's blood." Kikyo was pouring the contents of her pot into a large canteen, and she carefully twisted the cap in place while Inuyasha stared at her as if she had grown a second head.
"But I am only half." He spoke very slowly, as though she might have misheard him before.
"As am I." She placed the canteen carefully to one side and set about clearing the rest of her tea preparations. "We are of the same sort, you and I. I suppose I forgot to mention, with the confusion of the Taijiya, and all of that. Miroku told me only after we came to his house. My father was a Youkai, and I actually have a twin sister who shows no signs of her Gifted heritage, and instead passes as a Youkai noblewoman."
"Kagome!" he yelped the name, and she frowned at him slightly.
"Yes, exactly so." She nodded, putting away the last bag of herbs before moving to sit next to him once more. "That is why we are so similar in appearance. We are sisters, but of course, she has no idea of any of this."
"This story…it seems so fantastical…" he was clearly struggling with this new information.
"So does your own story, does it not, my love?" she raised a pale hand to his cheek and sent him a reassuring smile. "I believe Miroku would never lie to me, especially not about this. True, he did not tell me all of the truth before, but think of how hard it would have been for me to accept or understand all of what that meant when I was young. I was a foolish child. No doubt I would have run away, intent on meeting my sister and learning all about her. I would never have made it past her front gates, though. How was he to know that no matter whether or not he told me the truth, I would end up in the Chambers before I even became a woman? It is a cruel thing, fate. It draws us together, and at the same time, keeps us apart."
"We are together now, Kikyo." Inuyasha clasped her hands in his. "I will not let go of you. I will grow strong and protect you, and we shall be married."
"Who will marry us, Inuyasha?" she laughed humorlessly. "You and I are fugitives, both of us half-breeds…admit it, our love is hopeless."
"It is not hopeless!" he was shaking with the violence of his belief. "Look how far we have come, you and I! Think of how we met in the first place. Truly, our meeting must have been arranged by the fates so that we would be happy in love after suffering so much in the rest of our lives."
"Inuyasha, I love you," she leaned against him then so that he would not see the flush in her cheeks. "You love me as well, and is that not what a true marriage is made of? Your brother married without a choice in the matter, and that is not love that he shares with Kagura. Cruel that they should be expected and encouraged to do the thing we are forbidden from."
"You mean…" Inuyasha was blushing now, as well.
"If we cannot be married by law, I do not care for such a thing. Let us marry our hearts, as they are truly united in these feelings that we share." She looked up then, and with a boldness that left them both breathless, pressed her lips briefly to Inuyasha's gaping mouth.
"You want us to…" he was still incapable of communicating properly, but it was clear that they understood each other without words.
"My mother died giving me life." She said, shifting the topic suddenly, her tone not changing at all. "It makes me wonder if my body can support a life of its own, or if birth would kill me as well." She kissed him again, moving so that her mouth brushed his as she whispered to him. "If I have only one chance at it, I want my child to be yours."
Inuyasha had no idea what he was supposed to say, but she did not seem in the mood for words in any case.
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"What are you doing?" were the first words out of the attractive young man's mouth after flinging open the door to the room he had acquired that evening at the small inn that was tucked neatly into the seedy back alleys of Yuurei where the pair had spent most of their day of freedom making not-so-casual inquiries as to the possible location of a young couple and anyone that might have asked after them before. Jakotsu had soon enough complained that his slippered feet were killing him, and Bankotsu, posing as the doting new husband, had been obliged to find his "bride" a place to rest while he continued with the questionings. He thought that he had a few leads, but at the moment, all the young man wanted was to climb into bed, and when he entered their room to find Jakotsu arranging flowers in a vase on the end table, he was understandably surprised. It seemed so…normal, like something a woman of this outside world would do. Not something that Jakotsu would take the time for.
"Are they not beautiful?" he turned a wide smile to his partner. "I asked a boy to go fetch me some fresh flowers, and I think he did a rather good job."
"You like flowers?" Bankotsu sat on the edge of the bed and began loosening the ties on his clothing, watching Jakotsu continue to fuss over the colorful flora. "I did not know that."
"Boys." Jakotsu rolled his hazel eyes and turned to face Bankotsu, apparently satisfied with the arrangement. "Why would I not like them? They are one of the few things that look beautiful even years after they have died. Imagine if humans could maintain that beauty, soaked in blood, trapped forever in that moment when life fled them so unexpectedly that they lost all control and let the fullness of their character shine forth, bringing out their greatest possible potential, and frozen in time, like a flower. Perfect."
"Flowers can become quite ugly if you do not preserve them properly." Bankotsu argued, not saying anything to stop Jakotsu from assisting him in the removal of his clothes, one article at a time. "Perhaps the next boy you kill, you should hang him upside down so that he can dry out. That way, he too can maintain his elusive moment of ultimate beauty."
"That sounds interesting." Jakotsu stopped helping his partner undress and instead they began unfastening his own feminine attire. "Do you volunteer to let me perfect that technique on you?"
"I think you are confusing the living and the dead again, Jakotsu." He chuckled darkly as he worked at the back of Jakotsu's dress, and the smaller man calmly let him go about the process without assistance. Bankotsu had plenty of experience undressing him, as it was.
"Are you jealous, Bankotsu?" he whirled around as soon as felt the sudden loosening of silk that told him the back was completely unfastened, and he shrugged out of his outer layer easily. "I have told you, I only like to look at them. They smell rather too horribly for anything beyond that, I assure you."
"At least if I find a corpse in your bed, you save me the trouble of killing him." Bankotsu tugged lightly at the under garments that Jakotsu was taking his time with. "Always the thoughtful one, Jakotsu. You want everyone to think you are so vicious, yet look at you now. Naked, just finished arranging flowers for us both, your only impure thoughts reserved for those who are beyond their realm of ability to make me need to worry about you running off with them."
"One day, I will run away." Jakotsu assured him, kicking the last of his clothes aside with his soft silk slippers. "I will leave behind Mother and all of the brothers, and I will be whatever I want and do whatever I like."
"Will you be alone?" Bankotsu asked him. "With only your pretty pressed flowers to keep you company?"
"I will be with you, of course." Jakotsu slumped forward, wrapping his arms around the taller man, who embraced him in return. "And we will both of us go to a place where we can escape all of this, and the only thing I'll think to kill will be pretty flowers."
"That will satisfy you?" Bankotsu's mouth was inches from the other young man's, and his breath was catching slightly at the familiar ecstasy of skin on skin.
"You are more than enough for that task." Jakotsu assured him, sighing deeply as the pin was pulled from his hair, letting the waves fall around his shoulders like dark silk. "Do I satisfy you?"
"Knowing you are happy…that is enough to satisfy me." Bankotsu pressed his lips to Jakotsu's for a brief, teasing moment. "Being with you like this is so far beyond that, I could not begin to explain it."
"Then stop explaining and start being," Jakotsu kissed his way along Bankotsu's jawline to his ear, "with me."
Night fell without either of them taking notice.
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The End (Of Part 25, That Is)