Title: Carry Me Home
Rating: PG-13 and R for violence and occasional sexual implications
Summary: Inuyasha's been wounded and is trapped in a sleep in which visions of a life he doesn't remember plague him. A life in which he was not a small child running from humans to become a nervous young man in love with a miko, but something else completely.
Disclaimer: Copyright for Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and the author does not write for profit
Author(ess): bluefuzzyelf
Chapter One
"Why won't you fucking DIE!"
On the last word, Inuyasha ripped the moth youkai in half. Kagome ran to the corpse and dug two shards out of it's antennae before it could pull itself back together and then made her way through the blood and gore towards the hanyou.
Inuyasha was standing, though he looked a little pale. He fell just as Kagome got to him. She yelped and caught him.
"Help!" Miroku, who was closest, came and helped her hold the unconscious hanyou up. "Oh no" Kagome looked him over, but couldn't see what or where the source of his ailment was. Why did his clothes have to be red, anyway?
Kagome opened the front of his haori and saw the large wound in his shoulder, oozing puss and blood. She reeled at the smell. It shouldn't smell like that at all, thought Kagome. "Miroku"
Miroku looked at her, worried by the tone in her voice. "Yes, Kagome?"
"We need to get him to a healerHe's been poisoned."
Miroku nodded curtly and motioned for Sango. The two of them carried the hanyou over to Kirara and secured him to the firecat's back.
Luckily, they had just left a village, and so it was not a long walk back. Miroku was the one to go ask for help, and he came back with a nod and directions to the healer's home.
The group crowded at the hut's door, Miroku knocking politely.
"Yes?" It was a woman's voice.
"Konnich'wa. We have an injured here and were told you were a healer."
There was a slight pause. "Yes. Come in."
Miroku opened the door cautiously. Kagome helped Sango carry Inuyasha in. He was heavy. The woman was nowhere to be seen.
"Where should we lay him?"
The voice came again, disembodied and to their left. "On that pallet there, in the corner." They lay him down, Kagome sitting near him and wiping his sweaty forehead with one of her handkerchiefs.
There was a rustle of cloth, and the mysterious woman emerged from the shadows. The groups gasped collectively at the sight of her.
The healer was not human. Her hair was the same silky white silver as Inuyasha's, her eyes were a mix of green and silver, and her hands were clawed. Kagome's eyes automatically flicked to the top of her head, expecting to see Inuyasha's ears. They were there. Slightly larger, and, unexpectedly pierced, two silver hoops in one and three in the other.
The lady walked over to Inuyasha and opened his haori. Seeing the wound, her nose wrinkled a bit, and she picked up one of the various bowls around the pallet. It was full of some milky liquid, and she poured it onto Inuyasha's shoulder.
Kagome winced when Inuyasha hissed and bared his fangs.
The healer showed no emotion as she quickly mopped the hanyou's shoulder with a clean rag, pressed a poultice of some heavily scented herbs into the wound and bandaged it up tightly.
No one spoke the entire time. When the healer sat back and wiped her brow, they all started.
"Will he be okay?" Shippou's little voice startled Kagome. The healer's mouth curled up in the corners in a faint smile.
"Yes, little one, he'll be fine." Her speech pattern was informal, surprisingly.
"We thank you, mistress. What can we do to repay you for saving our friend's life?" Miroku's smooth as silk voice spoke up.
The healer near-smiled again. "Well, you could catch dinner for myself and your companions."
Miroku nodded, bowed and left, taking Shippou and Sango with him. Kirara, apparently not worried in the least, settled down for a nap.
There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments.
"What's your name?" asked Kagome softly.
The healer looked up. "Hakura."
"Thank you, Hakura-sama. We are very much in your debt."
Hakura raised a slender eyebrow. "No, not at all. Just bring me dinner, because I can't leave your companion here without me to look after him."
Kagome nodded.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Kagome. The man you're treating is Inuyasha."
"Hanyou."
"What?"
"He's a hanyou, not a man."
"Oh. Er, yes." Kagome bit her lip. "The monk is Miroku, and the lady with him is Sango. She's a taijiya."
"A taijiya who travels with three of youkai blood?"
"Yep. The kitsune is Shippou, and that's Kirara over there." Kagome pointed to the corner where the firecat was happily snoozing.
Inuyasha moaned, immediately commanding all of Kagome's attention. Hakura glanced at him. "He'll be fine. They're just nightmares."
"Nightmares?"
Hakura nodded and gave Kagome a bowl of fresh water and a cloth. "Here. Keep him cool."
Kagome nodded, content with her job.
While Kagome watched over Inuyasha, Hakura mixed, ground and sorted herbs. She moved back and forth in the room, muttering to herself.
Miroku, Sango and Shippou came back with several fish, over which Hakura smiled and immediately marinated. She introduced herself as she did so, and spent the entire time she was cooking trying to get Miroku to drop the 'sama' from her name.
"Kagome?" Sango laid a hand on Kagome's shoulder. "Dinner." Kagome went over to the fire, looking behind her at the prone figure of Inuyasha, pale in the moonlight.
Once the fish had been polished off and everyone except Hakura and Kagome were asleep, Kagome felt comfortable enough to ask Hakura about her heritage.
"Um, Hakura?"
"Yes?"
"WellI was wondering"
"About the fact that I'm a youkai?"
"Well, yeah." Kagome blushed lightly. Hakura smiled.
"I'm a hanyou, just like your friend here. I decided to become a healer, and here I am."
Kagome got the distinct impression that this was all she was going to get and let the subject drop.
Hakura picked up a new bowl of liquid and set about untying Inuyasha's bandages. Kagome wasn't expecting any change, but it seemed the other woman was. Hakura frowned when she saw no change, and poured more liquid over his wound. Inuyasha hissed again, and Kagome slid her hand in his. If Hakura noticed, she didn't let on. Instead, the hanyou bandaged Inuyasha up again and told Kagome to go to sleep. Kagome protested, but not very strongly. She was asleep within five minutes.
Hakura sat next to Inuyasha and let her eyes roam. She thought back on his wound and frowned again. He shouldn't be pushing it away.
"Who are you," she whispered, "to be able to resist my healing?"
She brushed his hair away from his forehead gently, silvery green searching and finding nothing. Inuyasha moaned again and turned his head from side to side. "I am sorry," Hakura continued, "that these nightmares are so terrible."
She woofed softly in inu-youkai, and the tenseness in between his eyebrows relaxed somewhat. Hakura resituated herself into a more comfortable position, crossing her legs in the Lotus, and laid a soft hand on his forehead, concentrating fiercely.
This was how the occupants of her home found her the next morning.
