Alright! Round two! This Story used to be known as In Close Quarters. The chapter titles are the same, the story title changed (obviously), and for the first few chapters, not much is different. The major changes revolve around my character appearing later. I can't give anything up besides that so I don't spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the old version. Anyway, I am planning on adding one or two more chapters, and I have big plans for a sequal! I'd love to get some of my old reviewers opinions comparing this story to my last version. Anyway, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha! So don't sue me!
Chapter 1: A "Tight" Situation
Inuyasha tugged irritably at the second string of beads around his neck. What had he gotten himself into?
He let out another growl, dropping the band. Feeling its weight against his chest made him even angrier than before. That combined with the pressure of a body against his back made his bad mood escalate even further past its already high level.
"Shove over!" He spat angrily at the girl next to him.
Kagome glared angrily back before turning with a loud huff.
"I'm already on the edge of the log, so stop complaining! You got us into this mess! Haven't you ever heard of personal space? This is all your fault!"
Her voice grew higher in pitch with every word. Inuyasha couldn't help but curse himself for opening his big mouth. Even with that thought in mind, he couldn't stop his equally enraged retort.
"My fault! My fault? If you weren't always makin' me eat dirt I wouldn't have made the stupid comment in the first place! And it's not my fault that Kaede was so keen on the idea! And for another thing-"
"For cryin' out loud! Are you two at it again? Give it a rest already! You've only been stuck together for two hours!" Shippou had emerged from the bushes carrying a small load of kindling, which he set sloppily next to the makeshift fire-pit Miroku had constructed earlier. Sango pushed her way into the small clearing after him, carrying more wood, with Kirara at her heels.
"I must agree." Miroku added, entering from the opposite side of the camp, followed closely by Kaede. Prior to setting up camp, Sango had insisted that she not be paired with the lecherous monk, making an off hand comment after he'd left that she would someday chop off his 'wandering hand.' "You two will have to deal with the situation, unless Kaede releases the spell, those beads will not come off until you two come to an understanding."
Inuyasha muttered a nasty comment under his breath. Leaning forward and crossing his arms across his chest. Not considering what he was doing, he realized too late that the strand that bound Kagome and himself was still present. He briefly wondered what the sputtering noise he heard was before he found the beads pressed tightly to his neck.
Kagome leaned back, wide-eyed, choking as the necklace pressed into her throat. Her fingers fought for a grasp on the beads until Inuyasha relented and straightened back up.
Kaede, after quietly watching their exchange and hearing the hanyou's poorly stifled remark, cleared her throat to gain the half-demon's attention.
"What was that Inuyasha? Something about an 'old hag?' Surely you are not speaking of me. Even you would know better. Because it is only I who has the ability to release you. Being that you two certainly cannot come to any sort of an agreement." Kaede gave a quiet laugh. "After all, it was you who made the suggestion in the first place."
Inuyasha growled as his previous mistake was brought to pass once again.
FLASHBACK
"Inuyasha! SIT!"
Inuyasha plunged face first into the ground.
"OW! What the hell was that for?" Pulling himself out of the considerably deep, hanyou-shaped crater, he got to his feet and stomped over to Kagome, intent on giving her a piece of his mind. Before she could even open her mouth to defend herself, he pointed an accusing finger at her and let his anger get the best of him.
"You know what I think? I think you use my beads as a weapon against me! You're nothing but a power-hungry, selfish..." he was so angry he couldn't form the words in his mind before spitting them out at her. "If you had a stupid necklace around your throat that gave someone the power to slam you into the floor at their will, you wouldn't blame me for being angry! If you knew for one second what it was like..."
END FLASHBACK
Inuyasha cringed inwardly at the memory. He had walked right into a trap. Kaede had made a band similar to his own, but large enough to bind two people. She'd put a spell on it so whenever either one of them said the 's' word, they'd both go plummeting to the floor. Kagome had gone along without complaint, and he was sure she had done it to spite him.
"Look at it this way, Inuyasha." Shippou, with an evil grin, hopped just out of arms reach of the half demon, "What better way to get your mind off of Kikyou than to be stuck to another pretty girl?"
Inuyasha turned a brilliant shade of red, whether out of anger or embarrassment, no one could tell. Though a moment later, anyone would have guessed that the former was the case.
"C'mere you little twerp! I'm going to kill you!" He made a lunge for the little fox, not expecting the huge resistance from the beads around his neck. He'd given Kagome a painful yank, and growled again as Shippou stopped to taunt him, seeing him unable to give chase.
"What's the matter Inuyasha? A little kitsune too much for the big strong half demon?" He teased him louder as Kagome started to rant about Inuyasha being more careful.
"Like hell it is!" Inuyasha raged. Turning, he grabbed Kagome and heaved her unceremoniously, and with a squeal of protest, over his shoulder. He then lunged after Shippou, who let out a cry of fear and fled into the bushes.
Sango, Miroku, and Kaede, who had watched this little incident play out, sat in silence, no one really sure of what to say. Listening as Shippou's cries faded into the distance, there was a collective flinch as a rather loud crash and an even more frantic shriek from Kagome echoed through the trees.
Sango sighed, moving to sit down on the rock that their two friends had vacated. Beckoning Kirara into her lap, she was the first to speak.
"I don't think that Kagome really took the health risks into consideration before agreeing to this." Kirara gave a short, agreeable mewling noise as Sango stroked her ears.
Miroku nodded silently and knelt to start a fire.
"I just hope that we can all survive this little ordeal." He paused, leaning on one knee to turn and grin at her. "Well, whatever happens, it is sure to be good for a laugh later on."
After returning a short while later, Kagome busied herself with preparing the ramen she'd brought back from her own time. Inuyasha followed grudgingly as he was dragged from the fire, to her bag of belongings, back to the fire, and then around to each member of their party as Kagome distributed their dinner. Picking up the last of the bowls she allowed Inuyasha to take a seat on the ground next to Miroku, and, not that she had much of a choice, sat beside him.
"Dig in everyone. But be careful, it may be hot." She cast a sickened glance at Inuyasha as he began messily shoveling noodles into his mouth. Then, managing to keep her comments to herself, she turned to her own bowl. She poked absently at her meal, having lost her appetite. As she stared into her noodles, her thoughts wandered to earlier that day, when Inuyasha had chased Shippou through the forest with her over his shoulder. Inuyasha had been all but gentle, but he had been careful. He'd made sure she wasn't getting scratched or hit by low branches or thorns. She blushed as she remembered how he even turned to ask her if she was doing all right. She pressed her hand to her cheek as heat rushed to her face.
"Oh no! I'm blushing!" She thought frantically. She was fanning at herself, trying to suppress the redness in her cheeks, when she noticed Inuyasha watching her from the corner of her eye. Expecting an embarrassing question, Kagome was startled at what he asked.
"Are you gonna finish that?" He asked gruffly.
"What?" She blinked in confusion and he gestured to her bowl. "Oh! No! Here, you can have it." She held the bowl out to him smiling faintly.
He raised an eyebrow at her, taking the proffered bowl and looking quickly at it. Raising his eyes to hers with a questioning look, he thrust it back towards her.
"But it's still full. You haven't eaten anything. Aren't you hungry?"
Kagome shook her head 'no'.
"All right then." He turned, but then did a double take and looked at her. "You know your face is all red. You don't have a fever or somethin' do you?" He stuffed a large portion of ramen into his mouth, not taking his eyes off of her.
Kagome covered her face in her hands, and shook her head again.
"N-no! I'm fine, really." She giggled in embarrassment.
He gave her what would have been a stern look, if not for the bulge in his cheeks from the food still in his mouth. "Right." He muttered around his mouthful. He turned and quickly downed the rest of his broth, dropping the second bowl on top of his first, and wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve.
"Well, I think it's time that we all got some much-needed sleep. We need to get an early start tomorrow." Miroku got to his feet and stretched.
Inuyasha frowned up at him. "Early start to where? We haven't got any clue as to where Naraku is!" He trailed off as Miroku shrugged slightly, an absent look on his face.
"Here Kagome, let me help you clean up." Sango stood and moved about, picking up the empty ramen containers. Reaching Miroku, she bent over to retrieve his bowl.
Kagome looked on as Miroku eyed Sango appreciatively, his fingers twitching ominously. She felt indignation on Sango's part well up inside of her and did the first thing that came to her mind. A growl much similar to one Inuyasha would make emitted from her throat. But as Miroku extended a hand toward Sango, that growl turned into an enraged 'SIT!' that sent Inuyasha and herself crashing to the ground. A fall that ended with her lying half on top of an angrily shaking hanyou.
Sango shot upright as Miroku withdrew his hand, grinning sheepishly as Sango stared suspiciously at him.
With a quiet groan, Kagome carefully removed herself from Inuyasha. She rubbed at her shoulder, which had connected with the ground painfully hard.
"What the hell was that for?" Inuyasha was beside himself with anger.
Kagome winced at the harshness of his voice.
"Sorry, it was a reflex." She glared pointedly at Miroku before turning to Inuyasha. "I'm sorry Inuyasha, I didn't mean to." She turned away, still massaging her shoulder.
Inuyasha growled in reply. His anger was quickly ebbing as he watched her continue to nurse her injury. Normally she would have barked right back at him. It may have served her right for always 'sitting' him, but she was only human, not part demon like him. If she wasn't careful, she could be seriously hurt. He stood and, maybe a bit too roughly, helped Kagome to her feet.
Kaede rose from her place across the fire and cleared her throat to disguise a laugh, and when they all turned to look at her she regarded them with a placid expression.
"Ahem. I am going to bed. If you are going to be up much longer, do not make so much of a racket. I need my rest." She turned to walk towards her bed.
Inuyasha snorted.
"Yeah, like an old hag like you needs her beauty sleep." He muttered under his breath.
Kagome turned to look at him, opening her mouth to speak. But Inuyasha returned her gaze with an 'are-you-sure-you-really-want-to-do-that?' expression, crossing his arms over his chest. She frowned and closed her mouth.
Inuyasha smirked, before faking a yawn and stretching.
"Well, I'm gonna hit the hay." He crouched down, ready to spring into the trees above him, when fingers clutched at his shoulder. He sighed in annoyance and faced Kagome. "What now?"
"Just where do you think you're going?" She asked, releasing his shoulder and putting a hand on her hip. "I hope you don't think I'm going to sleep up in a tree!"
"Well I don't want to sleep on the ground!" He shouted back.
Kagome crossed her arms.
"Well, if you make me sleep up there I'll just use the 's' word and we'll both be on the ground again." She smiled triumphantly.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes, not doubting for a moment that she really would.
"Gimme a break. Fine, we'll sleep on the floor." He stomped over to a tree, Kagome hurrying awkwardly after him, and slumped down against its trunk.
Kagome situated herself on her side against the tree, not looking really comfortable, but she kept quiet. She'd been relatively careful about 'sitting' them all day, and they'd still had a fair share of incidents. Concentrating on that had been harder than she'd thought. Right now all she wanted to do was sleep. As she slowly let her eyes fall closed, one thought came to her mind.
'Where was Shippou?'
And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed it enough to leave a review! Hehehe
