Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Inuyasha. Nor do I own Kagome, Sesshoumaru, Rin, Kagome's family, or any of the other copyrighted characters that may or may not appear in this fic. So please don't sue me, and enjoy the story!
Notes: To clarify something I think is a little difficult to see at this point (though it will become clear later), Inuyasha is in a very dangerous position right now - he's not just being stubborn and overreacting to Kagome treating him like he's not a slave. People can't punish Kagome for letting Inuyasha act above his station - she's not a slave, and her family is way too important and powerful. So anything she does wrong will be taken out on Inuyasha. Hope that makes things a little clearer.
Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you all got what you wanted and that this chapter is a little more satisfying than the last one! ^_^
And for everyone who reviewed saying the Inuyasha was going to kick some
ass... of course he's going to kick some ass!
Learning to Let Go
Chapter 13: Don't Let Me Fall.
She sobbed, still holding her eyes tightly shut with both hands covering her face. She couldn't bear to see, she really couldn't
"Hey!" Kagome gasped and jerked her head up in shock at Inuyasha's voice. "You didn't answer my question wench," he told her irritatably. "Do you want me to kill him or not?"
Inuyasha was no longer standing a few feet away from Naraku - now he was standing right in front of him, holding the terrified boy two feet off the ground with one hand. The gun lay discarded on the ground beside him.
"You're okay," she whispered slowly. Then, "How could you scare me like that, you jerk! I thought you were dead!"
Inuyasha blinked, then glared back at her. "I just saved your life, you ungrateful little - "
"Please!" Naraku rasped, cutting him off. "Please don't kill me"
Inuyasha glanced over at Kagome grimly. "It's up to Kagome, you sick bastard."
Kagome felt tears rising again. "I just want to go home! I want to pretend this never happened!"
Inuyasha seemed to consider for a moment. "Soo I should kill him?"
Kagome shook her head back and forth violently. "Don't kill him."
Naraku rasped in relief, still clawing at Inuyasha's vice-like grip on his throat. Inuyasha frowned, looking sorely disappointed. "Can I at least hurt him?" he wheedled plaintively. "Just a little bit?"
"Inuyasha!"
He heaved a sigh. "I'll just tie them up then."
While he was working on binding Naraku's wrists - none too gently - Kagome got to her feet shakily and walked back to the nearest payphone to call the police. Within minutes the area of the crime was flooded with people, and Naraku and his friends were being taken away in handcuffs.
The police took statements from both Kagome and Inuyasha, assuring Kagome that Naraku would get the maximum sentence for assault with a dangerous weapon, while his friends would be judged harshly for their complicity and for attempting to mug her. The one who questioned her asked about her family and told her that he would personally go over the details of the trial with her mother so that she wouldn't have to deal with any of it. Knowing how influential her mother was, Kagome didn't doubt that Naraku would never be able to get near her again.
After what seemed like hours of questioning and going over the details, punctuated by someone asking her if she was *sure* she didn't need medical attention at least every five minutes, they finally started to clear out. Kagome leaned back against the wall, overwhelmed and exhausted and weak with relief that the ordeal was finally over. As the last police car drove off, she sank down against the wall and wrapped her arms around her knees, leaning her head forward as if to block out the entire world.
"Hey." She looked up to see Inuyasha standing over her, arms crossed impatiently. "Are you just going to sit there? I thought you wanted to go home."
Kagome sniffed, struggling with her tears. "I dropped the milk," she told him in a small voice. "And your Ramen. And - "
"How can you think about stuff like that at a time like this?" Inuyasha demanded hotly.
Kagome only sniffled again, wiping at her nose with her sleeve. Inuyasha held up a bag in front of her face. "Here. I found the stuff you dropped so you can stop crying now."
"I'm not crying!" Kagome protested, swiping her hand across her eyes again innocuously.
Above her, Inuyasha heaved a long-suffering sigh before turning and crouching down with his back facing her. "Well? Hurry up and climb on."
"What?" Kagome queried, not understanding what he meant. He turned and glared at her over his shoulder, his golden eyes catching the moonlight and throwing it out at her in a way that was almost hypnotizing.
"Get on my back," he said, as if to a slow child. "Unless you'd rather stay here than go home."
Slowly she gathered her legs under her and stood shakily. Hesitantly she put one hand on his shoulder. Feeling her pause, Inuyasha took matters into his own hands, reaching back to catch her behind the knees and straightening easily from his crouch. Kagome let out a surprised little cry and fell against his back.
"Inuyasha!" she began indignantly, but her reproach was ended abruptly as he took off, forcing her to fling her arms around his neck and cling to him for support. She couldn't even scream as the feeling of freefall in the pit of her stomach stole her breath and the ground moved away from them at an alarming speed.
Feeling her tension and her fear, Inuyasha curled his arms more securely around her legs. "Relax, would you? I'm not going to let you fall."
Slowly, ever so slowly, she obeyed. The trembling bundle of scattered nerves became a warm, soft weight against his back, and her head dropped to rest in the curve between his nape and shoulder, arms draped warmly around his neck.
Kagome sighed in contentment. She'd been so cold and so afraid, and it was so *nice* to just relax against Inuyasha's warmth and strength. She felt herself drifting in and out of sleep, but she wasn't afraid of falling anymore. If he said he wouldn't drop her then she trusted him.
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Inuyasha carried the sleeping Kagome into the house and closed the door behind them. Moving to the living room he dropped the bag he'd been carrying onto the floor and turned to let Kagome slide off his back and onto the couch. Immediately she curled into a ball, cuddling up against one of his pillows.
"Hey! Kagome! Wake up and go to your own room."
She sighed contentedly. "Mmmnope. Sleeping here."
He glared indignantly down at her. "You can't sleep there - that's where I sleep."
"S'ok. Y'can have my bed," she told him agreeably. "For tonight."
He frowned. Sleep in Kagome's bed while she got the couch? That wasn't going to work. This whole arrangement just wasn't acceptable at all. With a sigh, he leaned down and picked her up in his arms, frowning when she took the pillow she'd been cuddling with her. He carried her up the stairs, nudging the door to the room with the clearest scent of Kagome defining it. He blinked at the room, nonplussed. This wasn't a bedroom - he snorted with amusement. Kagome *would* spend more time in her study than in her own room. Trying the next door down, he found the correct room and carried the sleeping girl to her bed.
He set her down carefully, easing her head from his shoulder to the pillows. She murmured something indistinguishable and hugged the pillow more tightly. "You'd better give that back," Inuyasha threatened, reaching to pull it from her grip.
Kagome frowned in her sleep and rolled over on top of the pillow, refusing to relinquish her hold on it.
Thwarted, Inuyasha hovered over her indecisively. "Fine, you can have it," he told her, "But I'm stealing it back tomorrow!"
When there was no response from the unconscious Kagome, he sighed, feeling slightly ridiculous. As an afterthought, he absently folded the edge of her blanket over her to keep her from being cold during the night before retreating from the room and closing the door.
Today had been a harrowing experience for the hanyou. First he'd deceived everyone into thinking he wasn't a slave, and then Kagome had been attacked. His brow creased, bothered by the strength of his reaction to seeing her being accosted by that asshole. It hadn't been the response of a slave whose duty it was to protect his master. Something deeper, more disturbing.
*You're my friend, and that's all that matters,* Kagome's voice echoed in his mind. He shook his head as if to clear it. I don't have friends, he told himself firmly. But how else could he explain it?
With a growl, he sprawled across the couch. What are you doing to me, Kagome? He thought uneasily, staring out the bay window at the pinpricks of light that twinkled in the midnight sky.
Everything was happening too quickly. His life had been so simple last week - everything had been planned out for him, preordained, beyond his control. Now, suddenly, he was thinking about things in new ways, worrying about things he'd never thought he would have to consider. It was all very frustrating and new to him. Before all this had happened Before he'd gotten a taste of what freedom might be like Before Kagome.
Another sigh, and he rolled over to his back and stared thoughtfully up at the ceiling. The most disconcerting thing about all this uncertainty and disorganization was that he actually *liked* it. The taste he'd gotten so far had made him hungry for more. I couldn't go back now, he realized, with a pang of anxiety. It's too late to ever go back. The realization hurt. It hurt because no matter how nice of a prison being Kagome's slave was, it was still a prison. He couldn't forget that and it hurt.
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Ohh... lil bit angsty there at the end. Poor Inuyasha... he's always got it
so rough. Learning to deal with unwelcome feelings can't be easy, especially
when in his experience those feelings can only be used against him. Lets hope
that Kagome proves to be the exception to the rule!
I think the title for this chapter is really appropriate - it applies to both Kagome *and* Inuyasha - Kagome in the obvious literal sense, and Inuyasha in the sense that he's so afraid of having his precarious emotional balance shattered.
