I don't own Inuyasha or the characters there in.
Streams of the Heart Section 3
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The morning sun rose early. Its golden beams of light danced in and out of the trees' foliage. Ayame's eyes flickered open to the sight of Jinenji walking into the forest. Ayame leapt to her feet and ran after the horse hanyou.
"Jinenji! You started with out me!" shouted the wolf youkai. Jinenji stopped and turned. His eyes were a deep robin's egg blue. His shoulders bared a pole with four buckets on each end of the pole.
"Oh, my..." Ayame gasped. "Jinenji, who did this to you?"
"I did," replied the horse hanyou. He took the shaft of wood from his shoulders. "It is the only way to gather appropriate amounts of water from the stream..."
Ayame walked closer to the hanyou. He had such a sad look to his face. Ayame reached up and touched his cheek. Jinenji drew back and blushed.
"I can help you, Jinenji," Ayame whispered. She knelt down and took two of the buckets from the pole. "I am stronger than I look."
Jinenji smiled but his eyes remained soulfully sad. Ayame smiled hopefully.
"We must work fast, if we water the herbs too late, the sun will dry up the water before the plants can drink," said Jinenji. He turned and walked further into the forest. Ayame snatched up her buckets and ran after the young man.
They ran several runs, before the second one Jinenji had gotten two more buckets to put on his pole. Jinenji then continued going back and forth to the river. Ayame followed for a while but her physical endurance did not compare to Jinenji so she did not carry any buckets for a while.
"I'm sorry about not being able to help more," said Ayame to the horse hanyou.
"It is ok, it would have taken longer if you had not been there," said Jinenji. He kneeled down and caressed one of the herbs, "but I fear that no amount of extra help can save the harvest..."
"Is there nothing we can do?" asked Ayame quietly. She looked up at Jinenji.
"I do not know..." Jinenji said and looked up at the sky, "It is up to the priests' and priestesses' prayers to the kami at the temple..."
Ayame reached up and touched Jinenji's back. "Do not worry..."
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The morning passed on. Jinenji worked in the field. He instructed Ayame of what to do. Later that morning Jinenji's mother came out. She saw the wolf youkai helping her son.
"Wench, get away from my son!" screeched the old woman. "My son isn't going to be tricked by you!"
"Mother," grumbled Jinenji. He lumbered between the two women. "She is helping me. Now, you have not been feeling well, you should stay in the house, and keep out of the sun."
"You, I do not trust," growled the old woman as she pointed at Ayame, "and I'm watching you!"
The old woman growled loudly as Jinenji herded her into the house. She stomped into the house and disappeared there in. As Jinenji came out, Ayame saw the old woman glaring at her through the window.
"She's scarier than some youkai I've met," whispered Ayame. She smiled softly at Jinenji.
"I know," Jinenji sighed. He turned back to his work.
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A week passed, with basically the same result. Each day the old woman would walk out and each day Jinenji would usher her back into the house, with her snapping and growling the entire way. Jinenji's mother would then glare through the window at Ayame. The two of them, Ayame and Jinenji, would then work in the field, with the old woman sporadically shouting about something needing to be done. This would lead Jinenji to go back into the house to appease the old woman. Eventually he'd return and they'd continue their work in the field.
The evening would bring them to the stream to gather water for both themselves and the plants. Jinenji would then stay with Ayame till late in the night and then would return to the house to appease his mother. Everything was so calm and peaceful. Jinenji was so kind and nice. He started to bring vegetables and what stew he could to her, even though she was hunting for herself. He was so gentle and bashful. He had a cute quality to him that Ayame couldn't put her finger on.
It was a wonderful week that is until its last day. The dawn had come and gone, Jinenji was no where to be seen. Ayame, though suspicious, but let it pass. Seeing as Jinenji had not appeared she decided that she needed to get something to eat. Ayame caught a rabbit that morning, and had cleaned it and even had cooked and ate it, and yet Jinenji did not appear. She looked forlornly at the house.
She didn't really wish to go up to the hut and force herself into a face to face confrontation with Jinenji's mother. She was worried though about the man. He never was delayed in watering the herbs. She closed her eyes and nodded. It would take all of her courage but she would go to the hut and find out where Jinenji was.
She walked stoutly to the hut walking past the poor, wilting herbs and sighed. She came to the door and rapped lightly on the wooden siding of the house.
"We're taking any visitors today!" came the sharp voice of Jinenji's mother. Ayame winced and knocked again. There was a huffing noise then the sound of a walking stick on a hardened floor. The door swung open, "I SAID WE'RE NOT…" the old woman hesitated and looked into Ayame's hazel eyes, "….oh…it's you; what do you want? Probably decided to eat us all up…"
"I am not!" retorted Ayame quickly. She narrowed her eyes, "I was worried about Jinenji; is he ill?"
"No, he is not ill," groused the old woman as she shut the door of the hut in Ayame's face.
"Well then what's wrong?" Ayame ran to a window, "Please…is he ok?"
"HE is fine," growled the old woman through the window, "He'd be better if you demons would leave him be!"
The window's storm panel slammed shut sharply jabbing Ayame's nose. The wolf youkai hopped back and held her nose.
"Stupid old goat," Ayame grumbled as she pushed on the tip of her nose, back and forth. Ayame narrowed her eyes and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Well, fine, be that way!"
Ayame then slouched off back to where she had made camp.
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"Is that demoness still there?" grumbled the old woman, when Jinenji looked out the window.
It was growing closer to evening and it was that anxious time when Jinenji paced back and forth counting down till the sun disappeared. Jinenji's human form was very tall and thin, his back was severely curved from the amount of muscle tone he lost at these human times. He groaned a little as he watched the sun slowly fall beneath the horizon.
"Come on, come on…" groaned Jinenji as the sun to its slothful plunge into night.
"Don't rush it," Jinenji's mother said quietly as she sipped at some tea. "You shouldn't even be standing; you know the kinks it puts in your back! I'm sure the demon is still there waiting…" She took another sip of her tea, "probably scheming to get you far enough away so they won't find the body…"
"She is not a demon," growled Jinenji. He turned from his mother. "She is not a malevolent spirit; Just think about it, all of this day she could have come and killed us, instead what did she do?"
"She picked weeds and attempted to water the herbs," grunted the old woman, "You know you'll have to make sure she didn't poison them!"
"Mother, why can't you accept the fact that Ayame is not an evil demon but a very kind hearted youkai…?" Jinenji winced as the last rays of sunlight dispersed below the horizon. A flood of strength and energy ran through his veins and he felt his body filling out. He stood straighter and stretched in relief as his muscle returned, "Mother, you loved a youkai, you had a youkai's son, why can you not accept Ayame for who she is?"
"Because your father was killed by youkai, protecting us..." growled the woman. "I just worry that she will harm you..."
"Ayame is not like the others...she has a heart," said Jinenji. He turned to his mother. His storm blue eyes looked at her. "Please, at least let her come in and eat with us...let me explain why I was gone today?"
The old woman looked up at her son. Her jaw went rigid then relaxed. "She may come in to eat...but do not think she can stay..."
Jinenji smiled and nodded. He turned and actually ran from the house.
"Jinenji, I wish you wouldn't place your hopes so high," said the old woman as she looked out the window.
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AN: I apologize, for taking so long, but I've been going like gangbusters on another fic of mine, and well this fic kind of needs reconstruction from here on out, due to the human time of Jinenji. So things may be a little off and on.
Chesbutler: Thanks for the endorsement.
Inu fan: Well it's strange because it was born out of a discussion I had on a forum about weird pairings and really this one kind of just came up and I said, I can write a story about Ayame and Jinenji falling in love and at least have it be half as good as some of those Sesshoumaru/Kagome fics. I also believe in the Jaken/Kaede love…but that's for another time…