Chapter 2: Planning and Pouting
Kagome sat on the floor of her bedroom, running through catalogue pages so fast that her eyes seemed nothing more than a blur. Despite their big fight, she still wanted to throw Inuyasha a birthday party. There were some cute things in the several magazines that she had perused over the past two days that she'd been back home, but "cute" wasn't an adjective that was used to describe Inuyasha very often.
Not like he'll be grateful. He'll probably make fun of you for being such a girl, said that small, all-too-truthful voice in her head that tended to give her migraines and suffer from self-doubt when she listened to it.
Kagome riffled through the magazine half-heartedly. There was nothing in here that she wanted to give him...Nothing that was good enough for him. There were the standard presents for guys: baseball caps, watches, sports-related items, tools, car stuff, and she'd even considered on one or two occasions giving him the now-dormant Shikon no Tama, but she thought that may be cruel. It'd just remind him on how she'd "wasted her wish," and how he hadn't been able to become full-demon in the end anyway.
But the more she was around him lately, the less he seemed to want to become a full demon. She didn't know what had evoked this change within him, but after seeing some of the atrocities that had been performed against Naraku's victims, he seemed to be less occupied with his own wants and become more concerned for the welfare of others. He didn't even ask how she had purified the jewel. He just made the occasional snide allusion to the fact that not much had changed since she had purified it when he was fairly annoyed with her.
Wasn't that a change. In the beginning, Inuyasha had tried to kill her outright to retrieve the Sacred Jewel from her and was only stopped by Kaede's rather quick thinking when she forced the prayer beads around his neck.
Thank god for "osuwari."
Kagome sighed, tossed the magazine across the room where it collided with the wall, and stood. She stretched her sore muscles and yawned, working out the kinks in her back and legs. She hadn't realized that she had been sitting there for the past four hours and now her body was letting her know quite obnoxiously. Perhaps she was getting arthritis in her old age.
She crossed the distance between her little nest and her bed in a few steps and sat down on the comfortable, rather pliant surface. That was one thing that she liked most about the modern age. Her bed. When she spent more time in the feudal era than her own, she used to think quite fondly of her little bed in her little room. A sleeping bed on the hard earthen floor of the great outdoors somehow just didn't quite compare in comfort levels.
But Inuyasha was there. He more than made up for that.
She drew a deep sigh. Don't even start thinking about him. He's just your friend and you know he'll never see you as anything more than that, said that small, annoying voice once again. What made it worse was she knew it. Kagome had seen the look on Inuyasha's face as Kikyou drew her last breaths in this world, heard his pleas for her to stay, and even saw the tears glide their silvery paths down his tawny cheeks.
Kagome lay down and closed her eyes against the dimness of her room, thinking of Inuyasha in her mind's eye. Slowly, she began to drift off into sleep, with the amber eyes of that young hanyou flitting throughout her mind as her consciousness dripped away like sand in an hourglass...
After Kagome had vanished through the well, Inuyasha had jumped down from the tree in a rather foul mood. The skies were cloudy and ominous, which suited his general feelings towards life quite grandly. He was genuinely frustrated at his inability to keep his temper in check when he was around Kagome. He tried to tell her how he felt, he really did. But his annoyance with his inability to do so welled up in him each time and he inadvertently took it out on Kagome, who in turn caused him to grab a face full of dirt or whatever surface he happened to be standing on at the time.
Before he knew it, his feet had carried him back down the path to the little village, and with his scowl firmly in place, he made his way towards Kaede's hut. The old woman wasn't there and strangely enough, he had a feeling that he wanted to talk to her about it. But Miroku and Sango were. Damnit.
Ever since Miroku had asked Sango to bear his children, the two had been intolerable. Or perhaps obnoxious would be a better way to describe them. Granted, he cared for the demon-slayer and monk quite a bit more than he'd ever admit to anyone, but they were all over each other as of late and Miroku wasn't getting slapped nearly as often as he had been. For a time, Inuyasha was rather sure that Miroku's cheeks would have a ruddy patch on them forever after Sango got done with him.
The monk spied him first and smiled in welcome, but was cut off with a rather nasty glare from Inuyasha. Miroku's expression darkened considerably and he stood, clutching his staff.
"Inuyasha, Sango and I have been meaning to talk to you for a while about Kagome."
Inuyasha glared vehemently at the monk, but chose to say nothing. He merely sat down on the wood planking in front of the fire and waited for the monk to continue, looking every bit as menacing as usual.
Miroku had never been afraid of Inuyasha and still wasn't to this day. "Listen. You know Kagome cares about you a great deal. So do we," he cast a wary look to Sango who was sitting beside him, hanging on his every word, "and the both of us know how you feel about her, regardless of what she thinks. But it'd be nice if you'd just quit being such a creep about it."
Inuyasha was taken aback momentarily, but leaned forward adopting his best 'don't-mess-with-me' expression. "I wasn't aware that me and Kagome were any of your business, lecher. Stay out of it."
"Listen, Inuyasha," Miroku stopped, as though he wanted nothing more than to stop this conversation and it hadn't been his idea in the first place, but Sango elbowed him from behind and he continued hesitantly. "I'm not threatening you or telling you how to live your life. But just know that Kagome's purpose here has ended. She has purified the Shikon no Tama and we have defeated Naraku. She doesn't have to come back anymore and if you keep being so wretched to her, she might stop completely."
Inuyasha had taken off the Tetsusaiga and it now leaned against his shoulder. His arms were crossed defiantly over his chest and his ears twitched in annoyance. His mulish expression indicated that he had stopped being reasonable as soon as Miroku had started talking. "You think I don't know that, Miroku? If she weren't such a stupid wench all of the time, I wouldn't have to be like that--"
Hearing Inuyasha's slur against her friend, Sango stood up, as fiery and protective of Kagome as ever. "Listen here, you baka. Kagome has always been there for you, me, everyone here. Don't you DARE insult her. She's a wonderful person and shouldn't have to put up with--"
"What are you saying, Sango, that I'm being a bastard to her?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying, Inuyasha. Just because you can't tell her that you love her---"
"What makes you think I love that scrawny excuse for a human--!"
"Because you do. Its that simple." The finality to Sango's tone rang through the now silent shack. "I don't know when it was that you fell in love with her, but you did. And she you. I've seen the way you look after her when you think no one's watching. But that's not the point. You have to TELL her or you'll never see her again! And if you can't tell her, just quit being so foul to her. I'm halfway sure that she'd appreciate that gesture just as much, maybe even more."
Inuyasha's nostrils flared and his eyes widened. He got to his feet, a slew of insults to yell at Sango rising to the front of his mind, but none of them working their way out of his mouth. With a defeated look, his ears flattened against his head and he looked down at the ground, flushing.
"I know you need time to figure this out, Inuyasha. But time is running out." Sango sighed and walked over to the defeated hanyou. She put a hand on his shoulder, squeezed it gently, and muttered "If you need any help...Even just to talk, be sure to ask." With that, she walked out of the door. Miroku shot him one of those 'What can you do?' expressions and slunk out behind her, leaving Inuyasha alone, once again, to mull over his thoughts.
