Wow! It's been a while. Man, oh, man!
Sorry I haven't actually gotten any chapters up for a while. It's been crazy lately. I'm pleased to announce, however, that Taming of the Shrew went splendidly. We knocked 'em dead.
Now, there was a question as to where this happens in the IY timeline. Two weeks completely split from the original timeline right before IY and the gang meet Kouga. I.E. right after InuYasha learns to use the wind-scar. AS for the rest of the stuff that has happened since then, it hasn't yet. No Kagura, or Kanna. IY can become a full demon only because his fight with Atma unlocked his Demon blood.
Anywho, here we Go!
It was early morning when Kagome woke up. She didn't set her alarm that early, and she was normally a late sleeper, therefore, confusion set in before reason. Why on earth should she be up this early? Her eyes crunched closer together, and her nose wrinkled in displeasure. Kagome did not like morning. Kagome didn't even like noon. Kagome had a mild tolerance for evening, but that was about it. And Kagome most certainly didn't open her eyes before nine, even on school days (Souta often had to guide her to school, because of this habit).
But there was a start for all things. One eye pricked open, ever so slightly. She could detect light, but not much more than that. The other eye slitted the same amount. Then they opened. And were greeted by two molten amber orbs.
Kagome's eyes widened, and she sat up very suddenly. This caused her forehead to ram almost directly up InuYasha's nose. The hanyou's eyes widened, and he fell backwards from his sitting position right above Kagome's head to the ground with a startled yelp and a titanic crash.
Kagome herself gave a little squeal of surprise, and was intantly out of bed, blushing madly, and clutching her blanket around her slim frame. Had InuYasha been watching her sleep? Her breath came in raggedy little gasps as one hand clutched itself just over her collarbone. She let out a long sigh as InuYasha struggled to his feet.
"What the hell wazzat for, wench?" He demanded angrily, his thick eyebrows furrowing.
"What were you doing in my room?" Kagome demanded right back, clutching the blanket around herself even tighter, blushing madly. Granted, she wasn't wearing anything obscene: a pair of light, loose shorts, and a loose tanktop, but still! It was the principal of the thing!
"I was waiting for you to wake up!" He said, crossing his arms. He was in his white under haori, and red hakama, and his expression was slightly hurt (Although the slightly swollen nose contributed to this greatly).
Kagome sighed, and sat back down on the bed. "Fine." She said, exasperated. "Just shoo. I need to get dressed."
InuYasha sighed, and strode out of the room. Kagome sneaked over to the door, and shut it behind him. Then she let out an extreme sigh. Well that was something to wake up to…
And not to bad of a something either.
Kagome made a sudden strangling sound at her own thought. No way! That thought had not come from her...
No matter how hot InuYasha is.
Kagome blushed even more, and strode over to her dresser. Jeez, see him without his shirt on once and you can't stop thinking about him. Her blush slowly died as she selected her clothes.
She grinned. One of the greatest things about being out of school. She pulled a pair of shorts out of the drawers, and a long T-Shirt out of another. It was nice to wear regular clothes occasionally. She pulled on the clothes, and ambled downstairs amiably.
InuYasha was already at the table, munching happily on an apple. Kagome nodded to him by way of greeting, and headed over towards the cereal cupboard. Quickly and efficiently, she pulled out some rice crispies, and poured herself a bowl. "So, what's the plan?" She asked, sitting down across from him.
InuYasha looked up at her, and shrugged. "I guess we'll leave just a little after breakfast." He mumbled. "You better pack all those books you love so much."
Kagome shuddered a little. Did InuYasha really think that she liked algebra? She giggled. "It's summer break, InuYasha." She said. "No more school for a few months."
InuYasha looked up suddenly, and grinned at her. Kagome blinked for only a minute, and winced. Shouldn't have said that…
InuYasha grinned. "Well, then. You don't need to come back from hunting jewel shards then, do ya?"
"Right." Kagome said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Let's just find Miroku and Sango first. Then we can worry about the jewel shards."
InuYasha snorted, and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. You're probably right." He sighed. "Naraku's probably having a hay-day on the shards while we're off doing all this crap, though."
Kagome nodded. "Well, then." She said, looking on the bright side. "We'll just have to get them back!"
InuYasha snorted. "Like that'll be easy."
Kagome gave him a low, threatening look, then stood up. "I'm gonna make us dinner for tonight."
"Ramen?" The word was instantly flung at her.
Kagome smiled at him. "Fried eggs, for tonight. I'll bring some ramen along, though."
InuYasha smiled happily, as Kagome began rummaging around in the kitchen. InuYasha never really learned to cook, but always enjoyed watching Kagome do it. She seemed really happy when she was cooking. Plus there were the smells. Kagome and fresh food. InuYasha loved tasty smells, and the food didn't smell bad either.
Kagome very quickly cracked the eggs into a bowl, whipped them, and had them in the skillet with record time. InuYasha smiled as the smell of cooking eggs hit him. It was a great smell. He stood up, and wandered silently over behind Kagome, staring at the frying eggs.
The smells tempted him, but he waited until they were almost done before he gave in. One clawed hand snaked over Kagome's shoulder, and towards the pan. Kagome noticed, and quickly pecked away the hand with a pair of chopsticks. This, however, turned out not to be the greatest of ideas. InuYasha scowled, and suddenly his other arm wrapped around her slim waist. Kagome's scheeks suddenly lit up in a blush, and she let out a frightened squeak as she was lifted of the floor. InuYasha held her above his hand like a rag doll, her screaming at him. He leaned down, sniffed the eggs, and popped a bit of them into his mouth.
"InuYasha!" Kagome screamed, pulling desperately at the hem of her T-Shirt, attempting to keep it from riding up. "Put me down. They'll burn!"
InuYasha shrugged, and plopped her down, grinning. "Not to bad." He said. "Hurry up and pack your stuff after your done." He said happily. "We need to leave pretty soon."
Kagome breathed hard, and turned quickly, not letting InuYasha see her blush. How dare he? She scowled, at him over her shoulder, and continued stirring the eggs, furious.
The sun was high by the time
InuYasha and Kagome managed to haul themselves out of the well. The day was
growing steadily hotter, and it was already unbearably humid. InuYasha leapt
out of the well with a simple leap, and landed on the edge of the wood border.
Kagome proceeded just a few
moments later, pulling herself up past the wood barrier, and planting her feet
on the lush grass. Plopping her backpack on the grass beside her, she took a
deep, vibrant breath, and sighed happily. "Wow, I haven't been back here in a
while." She said happily. "Sure feels good to be here again."
InuYasha smirked. "Yeah, yeah,
well, c'mon." He muttered. "You don't have your bike with you, so I'm probably
going to end up doing all the work."
Kagome blinked. She hadn't even
thought about her bike in what felt like forever. "What did happen to my bike?"
She asked, thinking hard.
"Probably just a pile of ash
back where we fought Atma." InuYasha remarked. "I didn't take it back with us."
Kagome shrugged. "Well, I need
to stop by Kaede's hut. I'm all out of arrows, and my bow is probably somewhere
in Vadise's forest."
InuYasha shrugged. "Feh. Like
those dinky little arrows of yours do any good." He declared loudly. "You just
get in my way."
Maybe some time ago, this
response would have annoyed Kagome. Maybe some time ago, she would have sat him
six feet under. But things change. "Feh." Kagome scoffed in almost perfect
imitation of InuYasha's demeanor. "Like those 'dinky little arrows' haven't
saved your butt a time or two." She said, her voice low in her range, and
arrogant.
InuYasha opened his mouth to
respond, but decided better of it. "Fine." He conceded, and knelt down, arms
out to the side. "Hop on, and we'll get there faster."
Kagome blinked, and a blush
slowly crept across her face. What? She hadn't expected this? Of coarse
InuYasha would carry her! Well, she didn't have her bike after all... and they
needed to fast.
The image of InuYasha's
chiseled form flashed once again through her mind, and the blush spread. This
was no big deal! She had ridden InuYasha before...
Ridden InuYasha...Her inner
thoughts echoed it back at her consiousness laughingly, and the blush turn from
a light pink to an outright burning red.
"Hey, C'mon..." InuYasha
grumbled. "Are you coming, or not?"
Stiffly, she put her hands on
InuYasha's back, and, thinking very hard of anything but the figure of the
hanyou in front of her, jumped on.
InuYasha must have noticed the
oddness in her movements, because he looked back, and raised an eyebrow at her.
"You okay?" He asked.
Kagome turned quickly away from
him, hiding her blush. "I'm fine!" She said quickly. InuYasha sighed, turned
around, and wrapped his arms around her legs, and with a few running steps,
broke into a full fledged sprint towards the village, Kagome blushing all the
way.
Kagome was still clinging oddly to his back. She had been acting odd all morning. First it had been the scream when she first woke up, and freezing up with he had touched her at breakfast... She had barely talked at all during lunch, and all while they we're riding, she had been holding on oddly.
Whenever he had carried Kagome before, She had always clutched him tightly, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She had been easy to carry then. But now, she was making it very difficult. She was grasping him lightly, joining her hands together across his sternum. He was practically having to hold her on by himself. He couldn't run much longer like this. But it was getting late anyway, and they should probably set up camp pretty soon. Kagome had brought her sleeping bag again, and had even cooked a special dinner for them. InuYasha hoped it was Ramen. The hanyou looked around momentarily, to see if her recognized where they were. They were heading east, so... there should be...
InuYasha's mouth widened in a grin. He knew exactly where they were, and there was a camp site just a few miles ahead. "We'll be stopping pretty soon." He said loudly over his shoulder, and quickened his pace. He honestly didn't envy horses. They didn't lead very good lives. But at least he had Ramen to look forward to, and not just oats.
It was almost half an hour before they reached their destination, and InuYasha was almost completely exhausted. He staggered into the clearing, and instantly set Kagome down. She blinked, and took a few step away, unsteady on her own feet.
InuYasha in the mean time, collapsed to all fours, panting heavily. He did, however, manage to look up in time to see the expression on Kagome's face when she saw where they were.
Kagome looked out in wonderment, letting her backpack fall to the ground. A smile rapidly spread across her face. She recognized this place. It was a large clearing, full of high, waist length grass. One end of the clearing swealled up a large hill, down which a tricklying waterfall cascaded into a large, natural pool. This was the place they had come to almost a month before, where they had played the gigantic game of tag. Kagome's smiled widened, and she whirled back at InuYasha. "Did you know this was here?" She demanded.
InuYasha staged to his feet, and crossed his arms. "Feh." He scoffed. "Trust a wench to get all sentimental about stuff. I just knew that there was a camp site here."
Kagome smiled at InuYasha, not really believing him at all. The odd thoughts that had been running through her head all day were finally receding along with the sun. Her smiled widened. "So you don't remember playing tag, do you?"
InuYasha blinked. "Umm..." He muttered, not sure what the right answer was. "Feh..." He finished intelligently.
"Then let me refresh your memory." She said, and suddenly dashed forward, slapping him lightly on the cheek. "Tag!" She called out as she whipped around and dashed into the grass. "You're it!"
InuYasha blinked, and blinked again. Damn! He was tired, sore, and out of breath. But he'd be damned a thousand times over if he was going to let Kagome beat him! He disappeared, following her furrowed trail into the deep, deep grass.
Tagged! Kagome Kagome scowled as she felt a light claw mark graze across her face, and whipped around to hear a loud, arrogant laugh, and a trail of red haori streaking away from her. She scowled angrily, and stretched slightly. InuYasha was fast, but he had also been running all day. Kagome, on the other hand, was fresh. Her grin turned wolfish, and she dashed of, giving chase.
It was much easier to run in proper sneakers. She twisted and turned through the grass, attempting to out-meneuver the quick hanyou. She even tried sneak attacks, croushing down in the grass, and waiting for him to pass by. But his stupid sensitive dog ears always clued him in on her location. She quickly dodged into one of the paths he had left in the grass, and started following it. One of her eyes was kept on the moving patch of red across the valley. He seemed to have taken to staying on the opposite side of the clearing, that she was on. She sighed, and turned to look strait at him. Even from here she could see him breathing hard. There was only one thing to do.
Kagome very suddenly took of at a full sprint, rushing strait at the hanyou. InuYasha paused only a second, as if deciding which way to run, and then took off to his left. Kagome instantly began veering to cut him off. InuYasha would of coarse say that he could have outrun her. He would say that his feet got tangled in the long grass on purpose. He would say that he meant to take so long getting up again. And he would definitely say that he meant to get caught. AS it was, none of this was actually true. InuYasha stumbled to his feet, cursing the damn long grass with every swear word he knew. Kagome was right behind him now, still sprinting. He stumbled to his feet, and got ready to leap away, but it was to late. Kagome jumped, and she seemed to hang in the air forever, sailing towards him, both hands out-stretched. Her face caught in a glorious expression of joyful exhaltation, her raven hair flying around her like a wild lions mane. InuYasha blinked at her, and just for that moment, she was the most beautiful creature in the world. Her hands connected with his chest suddenly, and reality came crashing down on him. Then he came crashing down, Kagome landing hard on top of him. Kagome laughed for just a second, before realizing the position she was in. She was lying directly on top of InuYasha!
His abs feel as hard as they look...The little perverted part of her mind stated matter of factly.
Her eyes widened, and the infamous blush instantly permeated her face. Almost instantly, she struggled to get up. Unfortunately, it was at this exact moment that InuYasha decided to struggle to get up as well. Their legs worked against each other, and quickly got tangled. Kagome squealed as she suddenly pitched forward again, only this time farther forward, her face now pressed into the side of InuYasha's head.
"Baka!" InuYasha declared loudly, shoving her aside. "Jeez, you're clumsy!"
Kagome rolled aside, and quickly pushed herself to her feet, willing the blush to leave her face. It didn't work. "Sorry." She declared, turning around quickly as InuYasha turned to face her. "Guess I don't know my own strength."
InuYasha snorted. "Whatever." His gaze shifted upwards. "We should probably make a fire pretty soon. It's getting dark."
Kagome looked up, and sure enough, the sun was disappearing behind the clouds. She sighed, and backed away from InuYasha. "I'm gonna go take a bath in the spring over there." She said, pointing in the direction of the spring.
InuYasha nodded, and headed back to where they had left her pack. Kagome saighed, and looked up at the rapidly appearing stars. She had never had these thoughts before. Her blush deepened. Well, sure, she had thought about kissing InuYasha, once of twice. Maybe even more than once or twice... but she hadn't really ever thought about him... this badly.
Her blush deepened even further, and she wrapped her arms around her chest. She just needed a good bath. That was it. She quickly wandered over to towards the pool, and began to strip of her clothes.
She was careful not to make much of a splash when she slipped into the cool water. It was a nice reprieve from the warm night, and she shivered slightly. Then she took a deep breath, and plunged her entire head under water.
Like a healing salve, the water caressed her, washing away the dirt and sweat from the road. Her head burst through the water, much clearer than it had been before. Why was it so much easier to think when you were suspended in water?
She swam around just a bit, and finally brought herself to rest on a rock near the side of the pool. Jeez, she really had to get all these weird thoughts under control. They were distracting. Her eyes slid closed a bit, and she sank down in the clear water all the way up to her neck. It wasn't like she was... okay, well yes. Yes, she did like him. A lot. But still...
So what if he was hot... very hot. But not really overly muscular. He didn't really have a six pack, even. He was just lithe, and the muscles were just sort of evident under his skin, almost like his body was made of liquid steel. Her smiled widened, and her eyebrows slackened... Really, really, really hot.
Heye eyes widened suddenly, and her blush rioted unchecked throughout her cheeks. Man, he was just a guy after all. And it wasn't like Kagome was wanting to have these fantasies... But the way her thoughts were going, you'd think she had a crush on him or something. And that was just not possible at all. He was a traveling companion, sure. Yes, she liked him a little. Yes, maybe even a little romantically. But she couldn't' afford a full, blown out crush! They were in the middle of a mission. Romantic stuff would only get in the way. She sighed. And besides, as far as she knew, InuYasha was still stuck on Kikyo. She hung her head ever so slightly. She hadn't thought about the dead priestess in a long time. A long sigh escaped her lips.
It was at this time, however, that the waning moon decided that it was time for her thoughts to be interrupted. It peeked out from behind the clouds, and illuminated the water. She looked down into her reflection in the water, the rippling surface bending it at odd angles. It shone on her face. But it also revealed the silver haired hanyou sitting right above her.
Her eyes widened, and she whipped around in the water. InuYasha was sitting on the rock she had been leaning on, facing away from her. She opened her mouth, and screamed, her face flushing with embarrassment. He had been spying on her! How dare he? The 'sit' in her throat died halfway out, and she sunk down into the water, defeated. What, like she could really stop him from looking now...
InuYasha gave no reaction to the scream, save to flatten his dog ears to the side of his head. "You're so loud." He mumbled, his voice arrogant as usual. "Hurts my ears."
Kagome's mouth tightened, and she turned around in the water, her face burning red. "You jerk." She whispered, knowing full well he could hear.
InuYasha scoffed, and held out his hand. "You forgot these in your backpack." He said. Kagome turned her head. In his hand was her change of clothes, a bar of soap, and a little travel bottle of shampoo. She blinked.
"You normally take 'em with you when you go bathing, so I figured you'd want them."
Kagome made no motiong to move towards the hanyou.
InuYasha sighed. "Jeez, don't be so uptight. I didn't look at you."
Kagome remained silent.
"Besides, this is the only real place that we can make a camp fire. The grass is way to dry everywhere else." He shrugged. "And you know what a pain the butt it is to clear away tall grass."
Kagome sank even lower into the water, up to just above her mouth, and took a tentative stroke towards InuYasha.
"Lighten up." He commanded. "I'm not gonna look at you. I just wanna give you this stuff." There was a light pull as the shampoo and soap were yanked from his hands.
"Leave the clothes on the rock." Kagome said, very timidly.
InuYasha nodded, and placed the clothes neatly on the stone. "Hurry up." He commanded, "I wanna eat soon." With that, he wandered off back into the night.
Kagome blew a sigh of relief, and quickly went to scrubbing her hair, all thoughts of Kikyo and love momentarily forgotten.