To cave in to love (Hekomu Horeru)

By: Reincarnation of Kagome

Chapter 3: Demon's Soul Calmed

When Kagome saw Inuyasha walking towards, the first thing she noticed was he didn't have Tetsusaiga. Had he lost it while fighting? "Inuyasha… it's me, Kagome. Just stay calm until I can find Tetsusaiga for you." She didn't even care she was more or less half naked.

Kagome started to rise but Inuyasha was over her, and lust shown in his eyes. Kagome knew the danger she was in. Not moments ago Raodon have threaten to take her, for she was in heat. She had learned over the years Inuyasha have always been able to control himself. She had confronted many demons in the past, but never one that lusted after her.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome tried to say, but Inuyasha cut her off, by kissing her hard and hungrily.

Kagome hate to do it, but she used a small bit of her priestess powers to get Inuyasha off her. Inuyasha yelped in pain and backed away. "Sorry, but I had to. You understand. Now where is…" Kagome stood, but Inuyasha grabbed Kagome and forced her into a tree.

Kagome fell to the ground in a heap. She looked up soon enough to see Inuyasha run straight at her. "Osuwari!" Inuyasha's face was now in the snow. Then she saw it, Tetsusaiga. It was two meters from the cliff. She ran to it and picked it up, she then looked over at Inuyasha but he wasn't there.

The spell had worn off. He was now up and moving about somewhere. She yelled, "OSUWARI!" at the top of her lungs. And with great delight, she heard a crash nearby.

She ran towards Inuyasha, and when she reached him, she forced Tetsusaiga in his hand. And she collapsed beside him.

As Inuyasha regained control, the first thing he saw was Kagome covered in blood and her clothes torn. Did I do that? Did I hurt Kagome?

Kagome could see the questions and worry in his eyes. "Inuyasha, you didn't do this, Kikyo did. You pushed me but that was it."

Inuyasha took his fire-rat haori and handed it to Kagome. "You might want to use this." Kagome nodded, and Inuyasha turned his back on her.

Kagome took off all her clothes or what remanded, and put the haori on. "We need to find shelter, its getting late and cold."

Inuyasha turn back toward Kagome and the muscles in his jaw flexed. "There is a cave not far from here. It isn't much better-"

"It will do" She started to rise and Inuyasha rushed in to support her. She felt the vibration of muscles under his skin as he tried to lift her. "I can walk," she insisted. "Just take me to the cave, Inuyasha."

He withdrew instantly, and she realized he believed that she didn't want him to touch her. The thought sickened her, but she swallowed her protest and let him move ahead, forging through the snow at a pace too rapid for a weakened man to sustain. He glanced back at her every few steps to make sure she followed, and she was if the snow was nothing.

They hadn't far to go. His path led through the trees and to a granite escarpment that formed a stair step of ledges up the hill, ending in an overhang crusted with icicles. Beneath was the dark mouth of a cave. Inuyasha entered, moved around inside, and emerged a few minutes later.

"It's safe," he said, addressing the air over her head. Refusing to look at her body or into her eyes. For Kagome accidentally loosened her grip on Inuyasha's fire-rat haori, to reveal more then Kagome would have liked. "A bear denned here once, but not for a long time."

She nodded and stepped over the lip of the entrance. Inuyasha pressed himself against a rock so that she would not touch him by accident. Her feet shuffled among dried leaves and pine needles, scent of several former inhabitants. It was a soft, warm, and comforting scent, like that a well-worn nursery blanket. The roof of the cave just cleared the top of her head.

She knelt on the mat of leaves and waited for Inuyasha, then he entered, hesitate, and settled against the curved stonewall near the entrance. When he had come in she had seen him carry in his fire-rat hakama (pants) and he had draped it over his lower half when he sat. It would be soaked through. "I can make a fire," he offered.

I'm not cold, she almost said, and realized her mistake. She needed to draw him close, but he was staying as far away as he could.

Was his self-contempt so powerful? Was it that he didn't trust himself with her? Did he no longer want her?

No. Not unless his body acted independently of his mind. She knew what she saw, what he tried to hide. He thinks you don't want him. Maybe he hasn't enough strength. Maybe this is wrong.

Wrong, yes, by rules that governed people in her time and the past humans and demon should never mate. But also wrong by the rules of time it-self, one of past, one of future. But not wrong for them. This was not only right but also necessary.

All the questions were silenced. She stood and walked toward him, each step taken with great care. He looked up and flinched as if she confronted him with a loaded rifle and death in her eyes.

She dropped to her knees before he could move. "Inuyasha," she said, and touched his arm. "I don't hate you. I could never hate you."

He didn't respond. She brushed his face with her fingertips. Every muscle in his body tightened. Unknown to her the fire-rat coat Inuyasha had given her had open to reveal more than he knew she would want.

"Whatever happened out there today it wasn't your fault. So you lost control of your demon side, Kikyo made you drop Tetsuaiga, but it's not you. I know you. Did you think I would stand as your judge, like Kikyo, and condemn you?"

His laugh was bared like the new wire fences being strung across the prairie. "The saintly Lady Kagome, always so generous to the wretched."

The insult had no power to wound. She understood its source.

"Would a saint do this?" she whispered. She took his face between her hands and kissed him. His lips firm and set, resisted for the space of a second. Then he groaned deep in his chest and pulled her into his arms.