There was one reviewed the last chapter and I did give up hope, but you know maybe I just need to offer a bit more so here I am with another chapter. Please if you do read it and if you thought it was okay, or you hated every bit, so much that you couldn't even finish it, please let me know. Okay enough said, now my disclaimer: If I owned InuYasha there is no way I would be begging for reviews now would I?
Miroku brought his fist up as if in slow motion and rapped his knuckles on the hard wood door a few times. InuYasha was wringing his hands as he rocked on the balls of his feet. When no one came to the door right away InuYasha made to turn around.
"Well it looks like no one's home, too bad for you. Hey maybe next time!" But Miroku knew that something was up, he didn't know what was wrong with him, sure InuYasha wasn't trusting of people but he never wanted to run away like this before. Miroku grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back.
"Oh no you don't, you are going to go in and let them thank you properly." But InuYasha was still acting like a little child who didn't want to go to see his grandma. He squirmed and twisted to get out of the monks' grasp. As they continued to argue with each other the door opened reviling the old man who's hair was neatly tied back and his mustache going in the same direction. He only opened the door enough to show half of his face and then enough to show his head. His small beady eyes peered at the two as they were going to try to stab him in the back and steal whatever he had.
"What do you two want? We are trying to prepare a meal for the lovely woman who is letting us stay at her house and is helping our friend out." InuYasha stopped trying to run as he stared at the man.
"There is no way that you could be talking about Kaede. She is so old, it's just amazing that she can get out of bed without help."
"You watch yourself, you young wiper snappers have no respect for the elderly even after all they've done for you." He had opened the door all the way so he could get a good look at them. Miroku still stood there with a smug look on his face and InuYasha had hide behind Miroku again readjusting his hat out of habit.
"There is no need to get upset, we are only here to see how your friends is doing."
"Are you going to try to force your religion on us monk, I can tell, you are here to tell us the errors of the way of the gypsy!" The old man had a harsh look on his face as he yelled to Miroku who's facade never faded.
"I assure you sir that I have no desire to do that, only to see the well being of the people staying in this house."
"Gramps, what are you doing?" A silky voice asked from the top of the stairs and all in unison, like flies to honey, turned to see Kagome at the top of the stairs. She was no longer dressed in the blooded stained clothes that clad her earlier, but now she was in a earth brown skirt that was simple and flew down her legs, stopping at her ankles that had three gold anklets on the left. Her hair was now flat and free of the dust that it had earlier, it was much shinier and from under it two huge gold hoop earrings poked out. Her blouse was a simple white one with oversized sleeves and over her shoulders she wore a deep forest green shawl that had fringes dangling down. She stood sideways and glanced at them all. Her eyes were looking more mysterious as if asking what was going on. It seemed she never need to speak in order for anyone to tell what mood was going through her, it all flashed in her eyes. As she brushed over them with her eyes she saw InuYasha behind InuYasha and locked eyes with him. She didn't change the look in her eyes but she slowly started to descend the stairs, as if one wrong step would cause her to fall through into an unknown abyss. Yet she never looked down she only spoke to InuYasha's eyes.
"What brings you here? Surly there are more important things then spend your time here." She spoke with her words carefully, almost sounding fearful, as if when she reached the bottom of the stairs they would stuff her in a bag, take her somewhere and kill her.
All InuYasha could do was meet her gaze, it was as if she had put a spell on him, as if he were to break the gaze he would be meet with mass amounts of pain.
Meanwhile Miroku's eyes danced and sparkled, there was no telling what was going through his head, but then again, it was best not to know.
Kagome walked slowly down the stairs, placing her foot down lightly as if she were to take any other kind of step she would fall into an unknown abyss.
"We have come to see how your friend is fairing, we only have her well being in mind." Miroku said in the same lacy voice that he used when flirting with the town girls. That monk was completely hopeless, he would die alone if he couldn't stick to one girl.
"Oh, well she is sleeping at the moment. She needs to regain as much strength as she can while she sleeps. Her recover will be a long and hard one." At the last step she hopped off and stepped next to the old man.
"Gramps why don't you go help mom and Sota finish up with dinner?"
He was about to open his mouth in protest but Kagome lightly placed her hand on his shoulder and the older man just nodded in response. He looked at the two standing in the doorway and gave them a glare that dared them to try anything. Then he turned and left leaving them alone.
"Sorry about that, Gramps doesn't trust anyone that's not a gypsy, he thinks that everyone else is trying to convert us or something."
"It's not a problem at all miss…" Miroku asked trying to recover her gaze from his friend cowering behind him.
"My name is Kagome, please use it freely. I don't like the miss, it's formal and I find that I shouldn't have to be formal with the earth and all that lives on it." She then gave something, only something gypsies would do, it was a like a bow, but this was showing equality, not ranking. She placed one foot far in front of the other and pulled her skirt out to the right and forward. She bent her knees as well as her torso, touching the end of her earthy skirt to her forehead as her other arm went to her hip. As she stood up she let the skirt drop and slide her front foot across next to the other causing her to take a step back.
"Kagome, what a lovely name, it fits you perfectly. My name is Miroku, I am a monk in training that learns, as well as respects the ways of others. This here is my friend InuYasha…" Kagome had turned her look from Miroku to InuYasha. The way her faced changed so quickly at the sound of his name almost frightened InuYasha. Her eyes narrowed, and her head tilted downwards. The suddenness was enough to make even Miroku stop talking and stare questionably at her.
"Yes, I have meet your friend before, please if you would just follow me I'll take you to our friend, but please do remember that she is asleep and you will need to be extra quiet." She turned around and ran up the stairs silently and quickly. Her hair and clothes swished behind her and the anklets softly chimed together.
Miroku threw a look over his shoulder at InuYasha who in turn shrugged at Miroku. He had no idea why she had changed her reaction so quickly. If Kagome wasn't under InuYasha's skin before she was now, what in the world would cause her to be hateful towards him if he hadn't done anything? Miroku returned his gesture and followed Kagome up the stairs, trying to match the soft pitter-patter she had used while rushing up. InuYasha followed the monk after softly closing the door to block out the day's sunrays that were starting to sink.
At the top of the stairs Kagome was leaning against the wall as if for support, and when she saw that the monk and InuYasha had caught up with her she stood straight. Kagome nodded her head and turned her back walking to one of the doors that lined the hallway. She slowly touched the handle as if she was afraid to be electrocuted, but when her fingers touched the sliver she grasped it firmly but turned it gently. She opened the door so softly that it didn't even squeak in protest and InuYasha was well aware that these doors creaked all the time due to the warm and suddenly cold weather.
When the door open Kagome stood back to let the two following her in. As InuYasha passed her he felt her hostility, that she all of the sudden hated him just because she found out his name. He stopped to steal a look at her as she watched Miroku enter the room, now it was as if she was avoiding his eyes. InuYasha paused in the doorway and while he looked away he wondered. It's not like his name was a bad name or anything, it was just a name like Lynn or Roy, or what ever- to him a name was just something that you were called by, so why was she making such a big deal out of it?
Upon entering the room it was dark, the only light that entered the room was the few rays that were able to enter through the thick deep red curtains. The few strands of the weak light fell upon the girl lying on the bed. Miroku walked up to her to examine her body a bit closer but he kept his distance. InuYasha raised an eyebrow on that seeing how he normally didn't have morals when it came to pretty girls. Now it was as if he was too afraid to get any closer to her, and from what InuYasha could tell, this girl wasn't ugly, even though she was in pretty bad shape.
Her chest rose slowly and fell drastically, it seemed that it pained her to just draw a breath. InuYasha stepped out of the doorway and into the room, he put his sleeve up to cover his nose, the smell of blood was caked every where. Even though he knew that it was cleaned up that didn't mean that the smell wasn't there. It was obvious that the reason it stunk so badly was because the windows were tightly shut and the dried blood that covered the girls' body. Her face was calm one moment and the next it was twisted and distorted in pain. As the wave passed her face calmed once more but this time the beads of sweat laced her face.
InuYasha continued to look at the surroundings, he wasn't one to enjoy others pain, well… at least not anymore. There were bottles of half-filled medicine bottles stacked up on a side table dresser that was a dark worn down brown from continuous use. Scattered throughout the room there were candelabrums filled with worn down candles, some almost to the point where the wick met its end. There were also a great number of bandages, both fresh, clean and crisp, as well as bloodied used ones soaking in a bowl of a foul smelling liquid.
InuYasha looked at Miroku and Miroku looked at him, they didn't want to say anything out of fear of waking the girl that laid in the bed in so much obvious pain. Miroku nodded his head and InuYasha his, it was almost as if the were sending each other telepathic waves and they had both agreed on something.
Kagome watched the two with mild interest, there were others things on her mind as she studied the backside of InuYasha, if this was him… well then she would have a lot to worry about. As the two looked at each other she tilted her head to the side, they seemed to know what each other was thinking seeing how they had nodded at the same time. Kagome watched as they turned around and headed back out of the door. She stood back and waited for them to pass, noticing that the monk had looked back and paused before moving once again. They headed down the stairs in a much solemn matter than the one they used walking up the stairs.
The only thing InuYasha wanted to do at that moment was to ripe the door open and run out of the house but when he looked at Kagome before turning the door handle leaving the house was forgotten. The look on her face confused him, it was as if she hated him, but only because she had to. It was as if she had a dark secret that was stopping her from liking him, and then it hit him, 'why should I care?' A voice in the back of his head asked. InuYasha never had a problem with people liking him or not, everyone he knew hated him just for being born. There weren't even half a hand full of people who liked him in the least. So now why was it bothering him that this girl didn't like him?
Miroku could see the tension between the two of them, ever since he introduced InuYasha properly he had seen the way she tensed and the light, breezy air in the house seemed to change to one of tension that couldn't have been cut with the strongest weapon, only words. Miroku knew that they would have to talk about it, but now was not the time, he could tell that it was getting dark and if he was not home by the time the sun set he would receive quite a bashing from Mushin, that is, if he wasn't drunk again.
Miroku came out of his thought and saw the stare down between InuYasha and Kagome, he needed to get out of here before he choked on the bad karma.
"Thank you very much for letting us see your friend Kagome, I'll be sure to visit you soon." He bowed his head and she once again did the bow of a gypsy, but this time it seemed to be more forced out of her normally good natured self, it was as if she had to keep herself from ripping InuYasha's throat out with her bare hands.
"Please do come again and visit at your will, it was lovely having you and I'm sure when the girl wakes up she will be glade to know that she is surrounded by such kind people."
"Are you telling me that you don't know the name of this girl that you have in your care?" Miroku asked his eyes widening a bit. Kagome shook her head and linked her fingers together in front of her.
"We do not, when we came across her she was unconscious, there was no one else left besides her."
"What do you mean." Miroku had tilted his head in wonder, but it was only slightly. InuYasha watched her hands when she lowered her face and her knuckles had gone white since she was wringing them so hard.
"There was a massacre, there was a whole band of gypsies, a very large and powerful group a that, and she was the only one that survived." Her voice was like the angle of her head, low and turned down. InuYasha could just barely make out that her lips were pressed tight and her eyebrow was twitching. She was having a hard time containing herself.
"I see…" Miroku was about to press on the subject, seeing how he was unable to read Kagome's body language but InuYasha stopped him. He placed his hand on Miroku's shoulder and when his friend looked back at him he shook his head no. Miroku raised an eyebrow but nodded in reply.
"We're leaving now, thanks for not kicking us out just because of who we are." InuYasha said loudly and open the door leaping out with a confused Miroku standing in the same place. He bowed again to Kagome and ran out of the house.
When Kagome heard InuYasha's words she had gasped. She had looked up to see what his eyes could tell her but they were gone before she knew it. She raced out on to the small porch but when she looked around all she could see was the small children rushing back into their houses as their mothers and fathers called them in. The sun was slowly fading and then, just as the two had suddenly left, as if following by example, so was the sun.
Well another chapter and I would like to thank my one review, I had to read it more than once to figure out that I wasn't dreaming.