Here are some more Japanese phrases we'll be using in this chapter that you guys may not know. If you find some that aren't listed here…well you shoulda read the freakin' notes on the first chapter, shouldn't you?
"Hai" – Yes
"Betsuni" – "It's nothing"
"Nani?" – "What?"
"itai" – Sorta like "ouch"
"Oi" – Hey
"Mou" – Sorta like 'geez"
And for the record…we say "osuwari" in place of the very stupid "sit boy".
Blooming Love – Chapter II
Verbal silence ensued for a good 6.34 minutes before Kagome found that she could no longer take the tension. It was like she was being held where she sat by particularly strong saran wrap. Clearing her throat, she looked around for her sack, and then stood. "Since the group split up, I don't suppose any hunting can happen now."
Inuyasha blinked from his post. Hunting...all the hotel-searching and ensuing madness had allowed his mind to ignore his stomach's pleas. Now it dawned on him that neither he nor Kagome had eaten. Food. That's the perfect excuse to completely forget any of the bullshit revolving around this "akai netsu-whatever" thing. But...he did have to talk to Kagome, and for some reason looking down to answer her was much harder than usual.
"Wh...what, you didn't bring any food in there?" He stammered, glancing at Kagome's obese yellow backpack. Kagome was already sorting through her assortment of essentials.
"Anou...I think we already at most of it.."
"What? How much is left?" Inuyasha sat up, kicking his feet over the edge of the tree's limb. It's been a rare occasion that Kagome didn't have enough with her to feed at least him. Now his stomach was starting to nag at him. "Is there anything?"
"Ahh..." Kagome shuffled about her sack a few more seconds before holding up a single cup of chicken ramen. "This is it." Inuyasha's eyes caught and locked themselves to the familiar sight of the cup, and on a very eager instinct he hopped to the ground. After a brief swoosh and rustle of fire-rat fabric, he was crouched on the grass beside her.
"Cook it."
Kagome nodded, shivering slightly because she was more than aware of his presence at her side. She wasn't as good at ignoring things as he was... At any rate, Kagome proceeds, reaching into her sack to methodically perform the sacred ritual of instant noodles. I hope he leaves me some... she thought blandly between reassuring herself that the flower meant nothing.
Inuyasha's not one to stay intently focused on too many things...particularly not the rather mundane task of cooking. After Kagome had gotten her portable cooker out and had gotten to work, he started to glance around a bit. The hanyou's mind rolled over a few topics in order to keep itself occupied...how many days it's been since they've found any trace of Naraku, how much distance he planned to cover tomorrow...how long Kagome was taking to cook some damned noodles... Inuyasha let out a little sigh, and looked up to the sky for a moment. The stars continued to go unappreciated. Then his gaze fell once more, turning to his left, where Kagome was...and a very attention-grabbing red forced itself into his vision. It's that flower.
The boy's heart skipped a beat. That legend...pssh, what a heap of crap. Just because it decided to plant its ass in the ground doesn't mean that he's about to slobber all over Kagome.
...she's sitting too close. And she smells too nice.
Damnit, Kagome...this is so freakin' stupid. Just hurry up and cook that food, already. Maybe the smell of that will start to cover... Inuyasha's heart, unbeknownst to him as of yet, was beating faster. His propped up knee was slightly starting to bounce. Meanwhile, Kagome was counting bubbles, and doing her best to be utterly absorbed in the mundane task. If she just kept counting, she might not think about any of the things that flower had indicated. Kagome's always been able to think about multiple tasks at the same time...and for once, that gift was a curse. The counting became a background drone in her mind as the petalled predicament rolled around in the front.
Why is he sitting so close to me? Has he really forgotten about all that? I mean, how could...then again, it's good that he's forgotten, isn't it? Then he won't do anything.
...Of course...at the same time, the idea of him having entirely dismissed the problem was a tad insulting.
"It's almost done…"
Kagome's voice breaking the all-too-long silence sent an unexpected shock through the hanyou. With a "GAK!", his body shot into a fully-upright sit, hair bristling. Gaze zipped to the girl, eyes comically wide.
"N-nani!"
Kagome was already on edge. His jolt and exclamation made her jump as well, sending her hand for a rendezvous with the portable burner. Kagome's wide eyes opened further as the heat nipped at the side of her hand. Of course, there was an audible cringe to go with the visual, followed by, "Itaiiii!"
Inuyasha's mouth hung open as his hands went up weakly in a form of protesting self-defense. "O-oi, I didn't...what the hell are you doing? Are you okay?"
Kagome nodded a little between blowing on her hand, "Hai. I just burned it a little, is all." Inuyasha bore a look of concern on his face for no more than a second after Kagome had finished her sentence. He swiftly crossed his arms through their sleeves and whipped his gaze off in the opposite direction.
"Keh! Well be more careful!"
See, I really don't have to worry about anything happening. Not even 'destiny' could make Inuyasha half as romantic as he'd need to be to--not that that romance would make me go that far! Kagome had bug eyes for a moment.
"It's done."
"G-good."
This time, Kagome very carefully de-lodged the ramen from its hearth and sent it towards Inuyasha with her usual warning. "It's hot."
Inuyasha took the cup by the top, holding it carefully between his fingers. "Feh, don't need to warn me." He reached for a pair of chopsticks from Kagome's open bag.
"Nn, I already got them out." They had been sitting on her lap since the rummaging adventure. Still blowing on her burnt hand a little, she used her left hand to hold the chopsticks out to Inuyasha. Inuyasha had his first big clump of noodles shoved into his mouth before he took any notice of the fact that Kagome had no food. With a stream of them still hanging from his lips, he asked,
"Oi. You gonna eat?"
Kagome looked up in mild surprise. "Anou…are you offering to share?"
Inuyasha slurped up the rest of what was hanging from his mouth and swallowed hard. "Eh…that's not what—damnit do you have any food for yourself or not?"
She sighed. "I told you already, this is all I have."
Inuyasha groaned and rolled his eyes, then shoved the cup in her direction. He made absolutely sure not to make any eye-contact with the girl.
Kagome smiled a little, and took the cup carefully into her hands. "Arigatou." She said softly. Her smile and tone, pleasant as they were, made Inuyasha very uneasy. Glancing at her from the corner of his eye was of no help either. Where he would normally have displayed nothing more than feigned indifference after an act of kindness, now he had a large blush going over his face. Fingers tapped against his knee uneasily, which was prone to fidgeting. Now that the food was out of his hands, that unpleasant stew of feelings was letting itself be known again.
A grunted "Ehn." was his only reply.
Kagome's manners were as delicate as ever. Perhaps more so than usual. After all, she didn't want to listen to herself slurp when she was already in an embarrassing, uncomfortable situation. She doesn't realize that she just might be making herself look graceful and pretty as a result. Meanwhile, Inuyasha's pupils resembled a flickering flame as they darted about the corners of his eyes, trying to focus on anything and everything that wasn't Kagome. He kept getting drawn back, though...damnit, it's just Kagome. What the hells was making her so hard to look away from all of a sudden?
Kagome had been moderately successful in keeping her eyes off of Inuyasha. However, as she began to feel his own glances falling on her, her resolution waned. She just so happened to catch his eyes the first time she gave way to the urge to glance.
Kagome froze, mid bite. Her chopsticks are holding a small ponytail of noodles to her mouth.
Inuyasha swallowed again, this time ingesting nothing. "Jeez, what do you keep starin' over here for?"
Higurashi Kagome bit off what's in her mouth and lets the rest drop back into the cup, "Me--? Mou! This is the first time I've looked up at all! "
"Keh! The hell it is. I can feel you lookin' over here!" The boy bristled, more defensive than was usual even for him.
"Well I wasn't looking at you! I just looked up because I thought you were looking at me." Kagome seemed a tad more insisting about such a trivial matter than usual, as well.
"Then how come you were lookin' over here when I looked over there, huh?"
Kagome's eyelids lowered a little. "I could say the same for you." Her tone was flattened.
Inuyasha jerked back a little. "N-nani?" After taking a moment to blink, he leaned aggressively back in toward her. "You were the one who was lookin' first!" She wasn't prepared for him to zoom in on her this time, so she leaned back a good deal, blinking wide, flustered eyes at him.
"M-mou!" Kagome held her awkward pose, and stared at him.
…..and so a pause ensued that felt much longer than it really was. Kagome's lids suddenly lowered halfway, while her pupils shrank.
"...You're thinking something dirty, aren't you?"
Inuyasha's face instantly went beet red. She'd probably be able to feel the heat radiating from it had he not backed off with a jerk of his torso. "Wh-what the hells did you just say!" He asked, unnecessarily loudly.
"You've been thinking dirty things, haven't you?" She reiterated with a higher hint of fervor.
Inuyasha bristled when the accusation was repeated. "What's wrong with you, woman? Why would I be thinking anything dirty, eh?"
"Well, it seems like you've been acting weird since the flower appeared..."
"Keh! You think this is because of that damned flower? You're the one that's been acting weird, Kagome!"
"That's just because I'm concerned!"
"Concerned about what?" Inuyasha demanded.
"About..." Kagome heaved a big sigh, letting herself slump a little, "About all the things they said about the flower..." She looked off to the side, folding her arms a little, "I don't like it..." The girl's face had gotten rather pink by this point, and she begins to stutter a tad, "I mean...I'm not ready for anything like that at all, really. "
Inuyasha had calmed a little...just a little, when Kagome's tone eased. But as she went on, he interpreted what she was saying completely wrong, as one should expect. The poor boy felt accused.
"A-and you think I am!" He spat out, ears folded back.
"No!" She answered. "Not at all!" Kagome shook her head vigorously. She might have seemed a bit too sure of his incompetence, actually.
"Good!" Inuyasha crossed his arms roughly. "Because you'd better have it straight in your head that I'd have to be whacked off my ass to want to do anything like that with you!"
Kagome froze, eyelids a tad lowered and eyebrows a tad raised. "Oh. I see." Vein. Veinveinvein.
Vein-popping unnoticed, Inuyasha wasn't finished yet. Inuyasha wanted to dig himself a very deep grave, apparently. He swished his gaze in the opposite direction of both Kagome and the akai netsuai hana once again. "Especially not because some freakass flower of 'destiny' told me to!"
"Hai-hai." Kagome attempted to patronize. He can drop it now...
"You all must think I'm freakin' easy as hell." He scoffed. That was more than enough. Inuyasha had his face planted in the ground before he could draw another breath, and Kagome stalked a few feet away to stew silently as the dust of the impact began to settle. Inuyasha peeled his face from its bed in the dirt once said dust had settled. A large red mark had placed itself squarely over his features. That was a big one. The subdued hanyou spit a clump of soil from his mouth and whipped a furious stare over in Kagome's retreating direction. "What the hell was that for, you damned idiot!" Honestly, he really didn't know what that was for. Kagome could realize or care less. She threw the rest of the cup ramen at him. Noodles sloshed everywhere, particularly onto him…seeing as the cup itself hit him squarely on the head.
Five minutes later, Inuyasha was sitting squarely on the opposite end of the small clearing from Kagome. He was crouched in a dog-sit, sleeves and hakama cloaking his hands and feet from view. An upside-down, tattered container of cup ramen was resting atop his head, noodles hung about his ears. He didn't even seem to be aware of them there. All that seemed to be on the hanyou's mind was just how damned stupid Kagome was, and how pissed off he so justifiably happened to be. Inuyasha resembled an angry five year old all too much.
Kagome was sitting with her arms around her knees, hands balled into insulted little fists. Ooh, she never should have worried about a THING. Apparently, she was too revolting for him to even think that it might ever be possible. The stewing continued undaunted until a foreign speck of H20 scattered itself on her head. The girl ceased glaring at her grubby knees to look up at the blackened sky, and receive a raindrop right in the eye.
Inuyasha's left eyebrow gave a twitch as the first raindrop penetrated his poof of bangs. Stupid Kagome. It gave another twitch as the second drop plunked onto his ear. She's worried about somethin' happening, I tell her what she wants to hear... Yet another as two more patted onto the back of his head and other ear. ...and she freaks out. What the hell is wrong with her?
A sinking feeling crawled into Kagome's lap as the drops began to rain down on a parade that had been crashed a good thirty minutes ago. The world was bleak and ugly. And Inuyasha was still a jerk. Now we're just going to sit like this and get wet the rest of the night, I guess...
The jerk's eyes rolled upward as the few drops plinking here and there evolved into a steady stream of rain. Raining...he hadn't even noticed the clouds gathering over the stars, or the heavy, humid scent of storm clouds in the air. He'd been too focused on his anger. Inuyasha hunched his shoulders a little and stubbornly flattened his ears as the downpour started to pick up. Sudden and strong...this was indeed a thunderstorm. But that wasn't going to make him move for shelter near the tree or the flower or the girl, nope. He'd show them all that he was made of tougher stuff than that.
Meanwhile, Kagome's anger was being washed away with the rain. The rain was a soft distraction that pulled her away from her anger and set her at a neutralized point of view from which to review recent events. He overdid it, but...Maybe that's because he didn't want me to worry anymore. He's always stupid about what to say, after all...Maybe I was a little too hard on him, just now.
The boy that was the focus of Kagome's thoughts continued to display his back to the girl for a while longer...that is, until something finally possessed him to glance over his shoulder. Kagome was staring at the ground...not looking angry anymore. She looked...pensive. Almost sad. And she was getting soaked. He hadn't even considered her getting wet. Returning his head to facing forward, Inuyasha let out a heavy sigh.
Kagome unfolded her arms and leaned back, letting her hands splash into the wet grass behind her. Tilting her head back, she let the rain fall on her face. She was going to make the most of this. The rain was actually...refreshing, when she looked at it this way. Kagome didn't have long to appreciate it, though. A coarse, heavy fabric was suddenly felt draping carefully over her shoulders. Though the outside of the cloth was wet, the inner-side was dry, and very warm. Her hanyou companion was full of rude surprises, it seemed. The girl hardly even jumped, because the surprising gesture was so carefully executed. A tad bewildered, Kagome partially turned around to look up at Inuyasha, who was now getting truly soaked as well.
…..
Kagome smiled. It was a pretty smile. "Arigatou." Inuyasha cast his eyes to the dripping leaves that formed the walls of their clearing. He lifted one arm to scratch at the back of his head, and kept his eyes closed...as if it would disguise the light blush starting to form upon his cheeks once again.
"Keh." His voice was a soft grumble. "Not like I can't handle gettin' wet." Inuyasha bended one leg and sat himself a few inches from the girl, crossing his much less heavily-cloaked arms. Kagome had more than forgiven him by this point. His most recent behavior earned many points. Still smiling warmly...and perhaps blushing, she scooted herself over a couple inches and carefully lifted the haori up over her head, and then his. Clearly, she intended to drape it over him as well. Inuyasha's heart gave a skip for what was at least the fifth time that night. Kagome's creeping warmth actually felt...really good, right now. And this seemed to be one of those rare instances where that really didn't bother him. He allowed her to hang his robe over both their heads. Fully opened it was able to cover the lengths of both their shoulders, his sleeves providing a decent guard from the wind. Comfortable as this may have felt, the poor hanyou now found it more difficult than it had been all night to obey his desire to look the girl in the face. Eyes darted about uneasily, killing time while the boy pondered saying something to her or not. When leaned upon, the gruff hanyou gave an audible gulp. Surprisingly this act caused him to turn his head to Kagome quite quickly, his gaze falling upon the top of her hair.
"...you're not still pissed off?"
"No, not anymore." She answered cheerfully.
Inuyasha asked no further of the girl's mood, figuring that to be the wisest way. "Good..." he mumbled out, seconds prior to a rather powerful gale blowing from the left side of the pair. For a good few moments they were pegged with hard raindrops and lashed with cold wind. Kagome instinctively curled in on herself and leaned away from the onslaught. As a result, she was looking quite cute and leaning into Inuyasha's chest at the same time. A couple of self-conscious blinks after the gust died, Kagome found herself blushing a good deal. Due to all the times he's snatched her up out of harms way, Kagome usually wouldn't think anything of her head's current location. This time, the flower glowed above their heads, still emanating an unnerving prophecy. Her whole body went stiff.
Inuyasha was usually more awkward in situations where Kagome was so close to him, aside from moments of intense danger. It always took a lot more for him to dare stretch his arm around her than for her to lean against his shoulder. The lack of his outer haori only enhanced the feeling of her against him. Needless to say, Inuyasha's body became very stiff as well.
…..
After another awkward silence, the hanyou glanced away, peering off at the falling rain. "Woulda been a nice night to go with Miroku, eh?" He said softly, starting to feel too uncomfortable letting his feelings swim around in silence.Kagome began to slowly remove the side of her face from his chest, half-disguising her escape as a nod. She wanted to look casual, yes. Too bad he could probably feel the heat emanating from her face.
"Nnn, Hai. I guess we should have started looking for lodging earlier..."
As soft, distant thunder rumbled from not too far off, the boy closed his eyes and blew out a sigh, which was hopefully covered by the sounds of the rain. Taking his eyes off of her didn't ease his tension very much. Against the sudden cold of the weather, her warmthwas most poignant...as was her scent, enhanced by the wetness. And her voice was soft, and calming. The best way for Inuyasha to keep himself distracted was to keep talking.
"You...won't get very wet, under that. It does a pretty good job against the rain..." His voice was low.
Kagome smiled, laughing slightly, "Hai...it generally does a pretty good job against everything, doesn't it?" A pause. "…thanks again, for letting me use it."
"Yeah, well...it's not like-- rrn." His turn to pause. "Didn't wanna hear you complain tomorrow mornin'."
"I know." She smiled to herself.
"Sure is lastin' a while, ain't it?" Inuyasha's head looked straight ahead and slightly upward...turning back in her direction just a bit.
"Not really...it just started a few minutes ago..."
"EH...well, these things always seemed to last too long to me!"
Kagome couldn't help but chuckle at that. Yes, to you. Her pretty laugh complimented the patter of the rain...ringing through the night softly. He could feel his blush start to rise again.
"What's so funny about it?" He said, voice rising a little. Not too much, but just in a slightly defensive way. Enough to make him seem a little cute to her.
Her answer was a bit playful. "Betsuniii!" That tone has sometimes been successful at egging him on. This was one of those instances.
"Tell me what you're laughin' at, Kagome. You think the things I don't like are funny?"
"Nothing, really!" I'm not going to even try explaining it to him. "I'm just in a good mood now, that's all." Kagome explained with a sigh and a smile as she gazed off into rain she could hardly see. The mental threat of the flower was starting to wear thin, finally...
Inuyasha didn't appear satisfied with her answer, but neither did he persist. Instead he blinked at her sort of unexpected response.
"You're...in a good mood?"
Kagome nodded to the rain, and then turned her head to smile at him. "Hai." Her smile drew him in. He was looking down at her before he could stop himself.
"Well...good. I was thinkin' that you were still all worked up over that...stupid flower."
Kagome closed her eyes briefly to shake her head, "No...I'm not worried about it anymore..."
"Yeah." He said in a grumbly, still slightly awkward voice. "That was a load of crap."
"Nn...probably so..." And yet...there might be something to it. It's given us a chance to show how we feel, a little bit, hasn't it? Maybe it did that for others...but to greater degrees. That could be how it earned a 'reputation" like that... Kagome's eyes drifted aimlessly around Inuyasha's hair and shoulders as these analytical musings ran through her head. Inuyasha was still watching her while her eyes were roaming him. His level of tension was starting to rise simultaneously with a wave of warmth and calm. The two feelings battled each other within. Those droplets clinging to her bangs...falling off delicately and dripping to her knees...it was making her look very pretty.
"Of...of course it is."
Her eyes ran up his hair, over his ears, down his bangs, crossed his temple...and then met his own eyes. They were instantly locked there. She encountered an unanticipated rise in heart rate as she realized that she couldn't look away. Inuyasha caught his breath in his throat as he felt the painless sting of the girl's eyes locking in place with his. Their dark brown shade suddenly appeared very deep...her scent enticing. His breathing was starting to shorten and quicken, his ears were slowly beginning to droop.
Now there was a good deal of sentiment in her eyes...because there was a good deal of sentiment in his. Inuyasha was always playing casual, as if feelings were something foreign to him. But right now...she could see them in his eyes No...she could not look away from something so rare, so beautiful, so real...and so ephemeral. No, she was going to hold, treasure, and reciprocate it as long as the world about her would allow.
That something that appeared so real in the boy's eyes was there because he had only felt like this a few times before, in his life...and those times had been with Kikyou...or more recently, with Kagome. As of now, only she could bring this out in him. Only she could draw him in so close, that his conscious probably didn't even notice that his head was leaning closer. In fact, the same gravity seemed to affect her. Or rather, it was magnetism. At any rate, she could soon feel his breath on her face, and vice versa. His mind didn't even have the capacity to react to her warm breaths blowing onto his skin. Something deeper was controlling him now. It was making him close his eyes. Kagome's eyes were not only closing with his, but her hands were starting to move forward to rest on his chest.
The rain pattering on the fire-rat skin and their legs went unnoticed. So did the flower that glowed softly, directly above the point at which there lips were about to meet.
Footnotes – (This is where scenes of the next chapter would be playing over the voices, if this were on tv…with the 'next time on Inuyasha' theme music.)
Kagome: You probably want to kill us now. ;
Inuyasha: Rrn? Why would they want to kill us?
Kagome: Because we're leaving off at a really big cliffhanger! Most of our readers are romantic fangirls.
Inuyasha: Keh! You call that a cliffhanger? I don't see any cliffs, or any action.
Kagome:sigh: I'm not going to try to explain this to you, either.
Inuyasha: Fine! Those brats want a fight, bring 'em on!
Kagome:blank stare:
Inuyasha: …what?
Kagome: Never mind…keep posted for the third and final chapter, everyone! And don't forget to check out nillia. to see illustrations of this fic! Don't miss it!