Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha
A/N: Last chapter redone - the next one is in progress. Thanks!
Watching Over You
By: Moonlit Seductress
Chapter Two: Of Time and Perverts
The phone trilled loudly, sending its message pealing through the small house. The hanyou with his head buried under his pillow groaned loudly, dragging one hand out from under the covers to pick up the receiver, and held his near his sensitive ear. "Hello?" he uttered, voice clogged with sleep.
"Inuyasha!" the returning voice cried.
"Shippou, you little snot," Inuyasha snarled. "This had better be good – I just got off a shift!"
"Will you shut up and listen to me!" Shippou shouted. "There's a demon heading for Kagome's school! A spider demon!"
There was no answer, only a clatter and the sound of pounding footsteps. Shippou replaced the receiver and stepped out of the phone booth, racing on scampering feet back to where he'd left Sango and Miroku.
He wasn't surprised to hear someone following behind him, and he didn't even blink when Inuyasha blurred past, a fuzzy blob of black and white. He wasn't, however, expecting the clawed hand that reached back to grab his head. "Hurry up, runt," Inuyasha said, settling the kitsune on his shoulder. "Is it Naraku?" he continued.
Shippou shrugged, recovering from the shock of his sudden snatch. "Dunno. I don't think so – didn't smell like him, but with spider demons, you can never be too sure. Even if it isn't Naraku, it's still a spider."
"True," Inuyasha agreed, springing off the roof of a parked car to land on a rooftop. He leapt from building to building, hitting the ground as they neared Kagome's school. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Miroku sprinting behind him, stopping a short way from the school to put up a barrier, keeping anyone from entering or escaping.
Sango was waiting on the roof, Hirakotsu ready in her hands. Her feet were bare, her high-heeled pumps abandoned a few feet away, and she had hiked up her knee length skirt. "Figures," she hissed as Inuyasha landed in a crouch, flipping Shippou off his shoulder. "The one day I wear girl clothes."
"The pervert's gonna love that look on you," Inuyasha commented, scanning the school grounds for the demon.
"I know," Sango grated in reply. A sudden rush of power was felt, and they watched as the blue barrier rose, enclosing the school in a dome of spiritual power. The door leading to the staircase crashed open, and Miroku stumbled through. "Wish Kagome could lend a hand with that," he said, gasping for air. He glanced appraisingly at Sango, who leveled a murderous glare at him. "Make one remark and you will find yourself hurtling over the edge of this roof," she threatened.
Miroku merely grinned, saying all he needed to with the tilt of his lips and the sparkle in his eyes. Sango growled, but was cut off by Shippou's cry. "There it is!"
The group sprang into action. The spider was on the outskirts of the grounds. It attempted to pass through the barrier, but the shield crackled with purifying power, sending the demon skittering back. It whirled to face Inuyasha, who had jumped from the roof to land in front of it.
"I will have the Jewel," it hissed, striking at Inuyasha with one clawed leg.
"Fat chance," Inuyasha retorted, swiping Tetsusaiga from the sheath and neatly slicing off the same leg. The demon howled, shooting venom-laced webs at the hanyou, who dodged the burning threads. "I will have it!"
The spider jumped suddenly, firing a line of silk at the side of the school and pulling itself onto the building. "That child has it – and it will be mine!" It scuttled up to a fourth floor window, preparing to smash the glass.
Inuyasha grabbed two hairy legs and hurled the spider off the building, ducking as an ofuda flew over his head to land, burning, on the demon's back. "Watch it, you nearly nailed me with that stupid thing!" Inuyasha yelled at Miroku.
"Wouldn't want that to happen, would we?" The monk returned innocently.
"Damn right! What would you all do if – "
"Watch out, Inuyasha!" Shippou shouted. Swearing, Inuyasha whirled and jumped as the spider shot the poison dripping webs at him.
Twelve-year-old Kagome glanced out the window and did a double take. There was a strange looking man outside – with long white hair and a huge sword. As she watched, the man jumped – impossibly high – and brandished the sword at a large, hairy…something. Kagome wanted to say spider, but something was wrong about that statement.
The spider like thing knocked the white haired man out of the air, and Kagome felt her heart lurch. Without thinking, she sprang to her feet, running to the window.
Inuyasha caught sight of Kagome at the window, and his heart sang. "You're starting to piss me off," he told the spider demon. "Wind Scar!"
The deadly energy ripped through the demon, leaving not even a single spider hair in its wake.
Inuyasha smirked, dropping Tetsusaiga back into its sheath. Miroku approached, his attention on the window where Kagome stood. "Seems that her presence is as effective as always," he remarked.
"Higurashi!" The teacher's voice filtered into Kagome's conciousness, and she tore her eyes away from the strange man. "Get back in your seat!"
"Sorry, sensei," Kagome gasped, hurrying back to her seat. The teacher glared for a moment longer, before turning back to the blackboard, and Kagome turned back to the window.
But the both the spider creature and the strange man were gone.
Kagome continued to stare out at the now empty schoolyard.
'What was that?'
Miroku stretched his arms above his head, sneaking a peek at the generous amounts of creamy thigh Sango was revealing. She had forgotten about the skirt pulled up above her knees, and he was certainly enjoying it.
"So," Inuyasha started, plunking his Coke can on the table and leaning back. "What do we do now?" He looked inquiringly at Sango, who shrugged.
"The same thing we've been doing for the past twelve years, I guess," she replied. "Sit and wait."
"Well, obviously," Inuyasha scoffed. "But what I meant was what do we do when the waiting is done? We've got three more years. What happens after those three years?"
"Don't you know the story?" Miroku teased. "The pure hearted and beautiful miko falls down through time to pull the evil hanyou off the tree, freeing him from the spell that fixed him there for fifty years – although Kami knows why she'd want to free him."
Shaking a warning fist in the monk's direction, Inuyasha continued. "I know all that. But while she's back in Feudal Japan playing around with our former selves, what are we doing?"
"The same thing we've been doing for the past twelve years," Sango repeated. "Keep her safe from demons in this time, same as we will in the past. Or rather, our former selves will." She stared hard at Inuyasha. "You do realize that you can have no contact with her until she is seventeen – the day you made the wish."
Inuyasha made no reply. He knew, of course, but he had some idea of how hard it would be to watch himself tagging after Kagome. Sango moved suddenly, springing from her chair to grab his forelocks, pulling his face to meet hers.
"No. Contact." she said, voice deathly calm. "If you talk to her, or even if she just sees you, this will have all been for nothing. She will tell your past self, and you know very well that you'll come after yourself, and possibly even kill yourself."
Inuyasha blinked. "What?"
"I wonder if that would be considered suicide?" Miroku mused.
"It doesn't matter," Sango gritted out. "It will mean death for our plans, and the 500 years of waiting. And I, for one, am not willing to let that all go down the drain just because you can't stay away from a teenage girl!" She gave Inuyasha's hair one last tug before releasing him, ignoring his glare as he rubbed his abused head.
"Be realistic, Inuyasha – we knew this going in," Miroku commented. "Obviously, any contact with Kagome before the day the wish was made will alter things. We're playing with time, and that is not something to be rash about."
"Another five years," Inuyasha growled, raking a clawed hand through his hair.
"What's five when you've already waited five hundred?" Sango demanded. "Will it be worth wasting all those years, to catch one glimpse of Kagome?"
"Yes." Inuyasha lifted his chin, stubbourn as usual. Sango merely stared at him. Eventually, he hung his head. "No." His eyes flicked upwards. "I ain't stupid, you know."
He dropped his eyes again, and his voice lowered until it was almost inaudible. "I just miss her."
Sango's expression softened. "We all do, Inuyasha," she soothed. "Five years isn't that long. You'll see."
"Sango is as correct as she is lovely, Inuyasha," Miroku agreed. Sango blushed. "You be quiet," she told him, her voice gentle. She turned to smile at him, but the smile slipped off her face as she beheld the lecherous gaze that was fixated on her still bared legs.
The sound of flesh meeting flesh echoed through the house.
"Pervert!"
A/N: Please review!