No, you are not imagining things! I took down this chapter to change a few things, then reposted it. It's now about a page and a half longer.
A/N: Yay! I'm managing life! Can you tell when things get easier? I update faster! Consider this an early Christmas present, because I don't think there will be another one before the big day.
Just a heads up, though—I've been working on my original stuff, too, lately, so bear in mind that I'm juggling two stories. (Yes, I know I swore I never would, but we all know how that works:rolls eyes:)
I'm not entirely happy with how this chapter turned out, but I'll deal with it. It reads like a filler, even though it brings up a few important things that need to be discussed. Oh well. Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but I do have a big black doggy who I sometimes call Inu-kun when no one's watching… how pathetic is that?
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Previously, on The Piper's Well:
He turned away and hopped back into the tree, closing his eyes. Kagome silently watched him for a moment, guilt gnawing at her insides. He took me at my word, she thought miserably. Darn it. All right. No funny business tonight, but he never said anything about any other nights.
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"OI!"
An awful bellow sounded in her ear and she jerked awake, eyes flying open as she gasped and flailed madly. "Get away from me!" she shrieked, smacking the offender. "Help! Inuyasha!"
Inuyasha caught her wrist as she went in for a second attack and gave her a dry look.
She blinked owlishly. "Oh. It's just you." She yawned and lay back down, her eyes sliding shut.
"What? Hey!" he protested. "Come on, get up! We've got a jewel to find, and the sun's already up!"
She pulled the blanket over her head. "Ask me if I care."
Indignant spluttering was all that registered before she smiled, relishing in the warmth under the wool blanket. Mmm… so nice…
She groaned as if in pain when it was ripped away from her. Without opening her eyes, she reached down and fumbled for the missing warmth. Snickering alerted her fuzzy brain to where it must have gone, and she pouted. "Mou. Inuyasha, you jerk, give it back," she mumbled.
"Ask me if I care," he repeated in a prim voice, and she opened her eyes to raise a confused brow at him.
"What kind of comeback was that?"
He scowled at her. "Shut up and get moving."
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The girl and half demon packed up camp and walked for several uneventful hours while trying to keep the bickering to a minimum. Sometime before lunch they exited the actual forest and walked on a well-worn, dirt trail instead. It was large enough for an oxen-drawn wagon to travel on it, albeit a little uncomfortably.
"This is all your fault," Inuyasha growled.
Kagome's eyes narrowed and she glared at him. "What's all my fault?"
"We would have made it to the next village by now if you hadn't tried to escape," he accused. "But now we have to go to the next one so we don't attract as much attention. The death of that hair bitch—"
"Yura?"
"Yes, Yura! Her death is going to excite the villagers, and we don't need to draw any more attention than we're already going to get."
"What! That's not my fault!"
Inuyasha continued as if he hadn't heard her. "And don't say we should stop anyway, because we've already passed it."
"We've already passed it? But my letter—you promised!"
He waved her off. "Yeah, yeah. You'll get to send your damn letter sooner or later. Now hurry up, at the rate we're going it's going to take us a week to get to the next one."
Kagome, after lengthy deliberation, decided that out of mercy for the poor guy she wouldn't rip his ears off. "Why do we have into go to a village if it will attract undo attention, anyway?"
"Supplies," he grunted, "Rumors as to where the jewel might be. And you have to send your stupid letter."
"It's not a stupid letter," she countered primly. "It's a ransom note."
"No it's not, stupid! I don't care how much they offer, you're not going home 'till we find the jewel."
Kagome fell silent after that, brooding. Inuyasha snuck a couple of glances at her but stopped after she caught him. She smiled wryly and he scowled, fighting a blush, and looked away.
"Why do you need me to find the jewel?" she asked abruptly after another ten or so minutes of silent hiking. "Why not somebody else?"
Inuyasha was quiet for a moment before he answered. "You've got spiritual powers on a level that nobody else has had for a long time."
Kagome looked at him, confused. His expression was drawn and unreadable. "No I don't."
"Yes you do."
"No I don't!"
"Don't argue with me on this, wench. You do."
"But I've never been able to do anything that children with spiritual powers can do," she protested. "I've never demonstrated the smallest bit of spiritual powers. Kaede was going to have to find someone else to take her place as the village priestess."
"They're dormant," he replied. "Most people wouldn't be able to detect them."
"Then how did you know?" Kagome asked.
He looked up at the sky thoughtfully. "Not telling."
"What? No way! Tell me!" she demanded.
Inuyasha shook his head. "No."
"Why not?"
"Ignorance is bliss, wench." She glared at him and he smirked, unaffected. "You don't need to know yet, and as my prisoner, you're on a need-to-know basis."
"But I need to know now!"
"Zip it already!"
Kagome tried to get him to tell her, but he refused to say a word more. So she fumed and refused to say anything else to him for the rest of the day.
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"We'll stay here for the night," Inuyasha told her. "There's a stream not to far from here."
Kagome put her pack down—the pack he'd stolen right out of her closet, she reminded herself sullenly-- and pulled out the towel, now dry, and the other bathing supplies. Stupid jerk. Ignorance is bliss—HAH! Don't make me laugh. You just don't want to tell me.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes as she began pulling things out of her pack while pointedly ignoring him. So she still refused to speak to him, eh? Well, that was fine by him. It was far more peaceful without her blathering. He hopped into a nearby tree and called, "Stream's over that way. And remember your promise, no funny business."
"Idiotic jerk," Kagome muttered as she turned in the direction of the stream.
"I heard that!"
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Kagome shivered and dunked her head under the water. She came up spluttering and shivering like there was no tomorrow, covered in goosebumps from head to toe. Gods, that water was cold!
She'd been tempted to take longer than half an hour, just to spite that stupid half-demon. After all, it wasn't like he'd really come racing after her—how did he know he wouldn't run in on her when she wasn't dressed? He didn't, and therefore wouldn't. So technically, unless he really was some perverted weirdo—which she really hoped he wasn't! — he wouldn't dare follow her when she said she was going to take a bath.
Hm. There's option number one for escape attempt number two. Kagome finished washing herself and got out, rubbing herself dry as quickly as she could. She could easily get a half hour's head start on him if she went off to "take a bath." But she'd need a faster mode of transportation. She wasn't nearly fast enough to outrun him, so maybe a horse? Or she could stow away on a ship… but that wouldn't do her any good when her destination was home. She cringed. But could I really steal a horse? I guess I could always return it after all is said and done, but still…
"I'll wait until there are other people around," she mused aloud to herself, "Because then I've got help when he comes after me. Maybe I should join a merchant caravan. Then there'd always be someone nearby."
She sighed and pulled on her undergarments, then her outer clothes. "This is ridiculous," she muttered, "Stupid Inuyasha. Stupid Yura. Stupid jewel. Stupid 'dormant spiritual powers.' Stupid cold water. Stupid—argh! It's all stupid!"
Kagome flopped down on her back, fully dressed, and sighed again. The cold began to recede from her body and her eyes fluttered shut. "How would he know if I had spiritual powers? How could he know and I not? They're mine, after all. They're in me. Well, until they come out… but I would have noticed that." She frowned and sat up so she was resting on her elbows. "Unless…"
Kagome took another step forward, anger fueling her recklessness. Really, challenging a demon—even if it was only verbally—probably wasn't the smartest move. She didn't notice the pinkish glow her skin had acquired.
She opened her mouth to let that one-armed idiot have it. "You stupid little--"
She stopped short when she felt a restraining hand on her arm. She looked back, startled to see Inuyasha frowning at the demoness. Then he grinned. "I bet you wish she was on your side, don't you?"
"She will be, soon enough," Yura hissed, pulling out her comb.
He smirked. "Not if I kill you first."
"Stop bluffing," She scoffed, "You're a mere half-demon who can't even see my individual hairs, let alone my collection."
"But I can!" Kagome butted in furiously, taking another step forward. Inuyasha tugged her back. "And you can be sure I'll help him!"
"You don't need to," Inuyasha told her, smirking. "I can see her 'collection.'"
Her jaw dropped and she scrambled to her feet. "Holy gods above," she muttered in disbelief. "I didn't notice!"
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"Inuyasha!" she yelled as she stumbled into camp. "Inuyasha, get down here right now!"
A lazy golden eye opened and scowled down at her. He hadn't moved from his perch since she'd left. "You got my hopes up, wench," he drawled, "I was starting to think you'd drowned."
"Why didn't you tell me I'd used spiritual powers?" Kagome demanded, hands planted on her hips. "I thought you just said I had them!"
His other eye shot open as he sat up and looked down at her warily. "What are you talking about, bitch?"
"It's Kagome!" she snapped, "And I'm talking about when we were fighting Yura! You couldn't see her hair at first, remember?" When she paused for breath but didn't get a reply, she pushed forward. "And then I got mad at her, and you tugged me back and could suddenly see her hair." She pushed her bangs back and glared up at him.
Inuyasha scowled back at her. "You think too highly of yourself," he informed her, "How do you know I didn't pull a trick of my own?"
Kagome made an exasperated noise. "Because I just know!"
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, real convincing, wench. I totally believe you now."
"You don't have to believe me," she snapped, "I don't know how I know, but I do. I transferred some of my powers to you, didn't I?"
He studied her warily through narrowed eyes for a long moment, then snorted in disbelief and leaned back against the trunk of his tree. "You're deluding yourself, wench. Go to bed."
"No! Answer me!" Kagome yelled.
"I thought you said you were going to take a bath."
She frowned in confusion. "What? I did."
"Fat lot of good that did you. There's a leaf in your hair."
"Argh! You stupid, idiotic jerk!" Kagome fumed and picked up a nearby rock the size of her fist. She chucked it at him with all her strength.
It hit him in the shoulder and bounced off, rolling a little when it hit the ground. "Go to sleep, Kagome," Inuyasha said.
Whatever Kagome heard in those words, it worked. The fight went out of her and her shoulders slumped as she crawled beneath her blankets.
"I hope you're happy," she growled softly, but he heard. "You have completely turned my life inside out." Then she turned over and closed her eyes with a defeated sigh. I just want to go home.
When her breathing had finally evened out, Inuyasha hopped off his perch and silently padded over to his sleeping prisoner. He tugged her blankets up to cover her shoulders and muttered ruefully, "If only you knew, wench."
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The duo was up and moving in the wee hours of morning with a relatively small amount of violence.
"Relatively small" being slightly less than usual.
Kagome, with a wicked gleam in her sleepy eyes, wandered over to the side of the road and lay down to go back to sleep, just to see what her kidnapper would do.
He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Oof! Inuyasha, put me down!"
"No can do, wench. You've lost your walking privileges."
Kagome gaped at his audacity and began wiggling ferociously. "Don't treat me like a child, you jerk! Put me down!"
Inuyasha merely shifted his grip on her so she couldn't escape. "Stop wiggling, bitch."
"Inuyasha!"
"If you don't want me to treat you like a child, then you shouldn't act like one." He smirked as she 'hmphed.' "That's what I thought."
"You thought?" Kagome gasped dramatically. "That's a first!"
Inuyasha growled. "Why don't you just shut up while you're ahead, wench? At least then I wouldn't have to listen to your incessant chatter."
Kagome ignored him. If it's chatter he wants, it's chatter he'll get, she thought viciously, Though I suppose it'd be too much to hope for that I'll talk so much he'll get sick of me and let me go home.
"You didn't bring soap," she announced.
"What?" Inuyasha glanced up at her, then blushed and quickly glanced back down. A perfect view of her rear end was not what he'd been looking for, even if it was nicer than most.
"You didn't bring soap," she repeated, "You stole my bag right out of my closet but you didn't bring soap. How is that even possible? I could have sworn there was still soap in there from the last time I used it."
"Which was when? Were you four?"
"No! I was ten."
"Fooled me. That thing smelled worse than dead bodies left out in the sun."
"And you would know that how?" Kagome demanded, twisting so she could see his face.
He rolled his eyes. "Take a wild guess, wench."
She was silent for about a full half minute before saying, "That still doesn't explain why you didn't bring soap."
Inuyasha shrugged, and she 'eep'ed in protest as her stomach bounced uncomfortably on his shoulder. "I tossed it out."
"You tossed it out?" she echoed, mouth agape.
"Yeah. It smelled bad."
"It smelled bad?"
He rolled his eyes. "Stop repeating everything I say, bitch. I tossed it out because it smelled nasty. You might have liked how it smelled, but I've got a better nose than you humans do."
"Inuyasha—" Kagome whined, "It was pink, wasn't it?"
"Yeah…"
"That was my favorite soap, you jerk!"
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Two days after Inuyasha slung Kagome over his shoulders, they topped a hill an hour or two after lunch and Kagome let out a breathless whoop. "Civilization!"
Inuyasha grunted. "Who says we're stopping here? There's another village about three days from here."
Kagome let out a strangled cry. "What! Inuyasha, please! One night in an inn! Please!" He quirked an eyebrow at her. "And besides, you still have to let me send a letter to Kaede! You promised!"
He grumbled but relented—but not before laying down the law. "You're not leaving my sight, you hear me, wench? Not for five seconds. I don't want to have to go runnin' after you again."
When Kagome didn't say anything, he continued.
"And this stickin' letter of yours—no telling the old hag where you're going, what you're doing, who you've seen, who I am, what I look like, where you are, or what we're looking for." Kagome made a strangled noise in the back of her throat and he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. "Got a problem with that?"
"Uh, let me think about that—yeah, I've got a problem with that! If I can't tell her all that, what in the world can I tell her?"
Inuyasha shrugged. "Just tell her the truth—you're unharmed, aren't you?"
Kagome stopped walking, hands clenched at her sides. "That's it? I've been kidnapped, missing for—what, four days now? Five? And all you're going to let me tell my grandmother is that I'm unharmed? What about when I'm going to be home?"
A few paces ahead, Inuyasha paused as well and turned back to scowl at her. "I don't know when I'm letting you go, wench," he growled, "But it sure as hell ain't gonna be before we find the jewel. A few months, at the very least."
Her eyes clouded over as a sense of foreboding violently struck, making her nerves tingle and putting her on edge. "A month, you mean. That's what you said earlier."
He growled softly and turned away to glare at the town sprawled out before them. Her sense of foreboding increased.
One ear was still trained on her. The other flicked this way and that, taking in the sounds from the thinning forest around them. "I lied," he finally ground out, "We could be doing this for years without any luck."
The bottom of Kagome's stomach dropped—or maybe that was her heart falling to the ground? —and a chill washed over her.
Years.
"Oh," was all she could say.
Years before she saw Kaede again.
Years before she saw Sango, or Kohaku, or Miroku.
Years before she saw Ayumi, Yuka, or Yuki again.
A lifetime before she might return home.
Never is a very… long… time.
Minutes passed, and his words slowly sunk in and she tried to push them back out. I might have to spend the rest of my life like this. Traveling through the woods with him, searching for some blasted Shikon no Tama while everyone at home grows up and grows old, every now and then wondering what happened to that Kagome girl.
Vaguely, she realized both of Inuyasha's ears were trained on her, and she slowly took a breath. The first she'd taken since he'd last spoken. Years. A lifetime.
She felt detached from herself, as if she was watching a play. If she were part of the audience, she'd lean over to Sango and whisper, 'That poor girl. Just think about what she must be going through right now, realizing that she'll never see her family, friends or home again.' And Sango would whisper, 'She'll escape from that horrible man, just watch.' Then Kaede would lean over and hush us…
"I think it's time you told me exactly what you've gotten me into," she told him.
He finally turned to face her, only nearly wince with something that was uncomfortably close to guilt. Shock, sorrow and resentment flitted across her face as if dancing.
She was a nice girl. Despite all he'd done, she still respected him. She didn't treat him differently because he was a half demon; when she did treat him differently it was because he'd done something to piss her off. It doesn't matter, he reminded himself. Once I'm a full demon, I'll have the respect I deserve, and it won't matter
He was ruining her life.
Even so, he shrugged in what he hoped was an indifferent manner. "Whatever. You'll have to find out sooner or later. Come on. We'll grab a room at a nice inn and I'll tell you." He glanced back at her face, but her eyes caught and held him. She was lost, floundering somewhere between hatred and despair even as her eyes slowly filled and blurred her vision.
"I'll never see them again, will I?" Her voice may have been near-silent, but it didn't wobble or crack when she spoke. Thank the gods for that small blessing.
Inuyasha looked like he was trying not to feel guilty. Good. Served him right! His guilt was nothing, not when he could set things straight and send her home.
He frowned slightly, almost determinedly. "Yes you will."
Liar.
"Promise?"
He met her eyes again, and she wanted to hate him. Gods, she wanted to hate him.
"I promise."
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Reviewer Replies:
Moonlit Showers aka InuKag Fan Thanks for the support! I hope you liked their "interactions" in this chapter. Lol They're not going to be fighting quite a loudly in the next chapter, just because it would draw too much attention in a town.
Kikyo'sExterminator A new reviewer:glomps: I'm so glad you liked it!
CrimsonBirdHouse: Thank you! I like the analogy, even if the "brother and sister" part makes me just a liiiiitle nervous, just because of where their relationship is headed. ;;
A/N: Expect the next chapter to be out on or around January 8! They'll be heading in to town so Inuyasha can explain himself, and there will be a storyteller performing at the inn...