Courage Chapter 4: To Fly, an inuyasha fanfic

Courage

Chapter Four: To Fly

And Inuyasha's chapter is up, up, up! It's so funny: when I was trying to think up a name for his type of courage and came up with "to fly", I immediately say him with these huge white wings like Eternal Sailor Moon's (if there are any SM fans reading this, you know what I mean). These big, pretty, feathery wings flapping madly to hold up a snarling half-demon dressed in all red and swinging around a big-ass sword, snarling out curse words at Koga for laughing at his big, pretty, masculine (snort) wings…

Geez, my mind works in really weird ways.

Japanese Words of the Day: kakeru- to fly and tsubasa- wings.

Disclaimer: With all the disturbing things I put these characters through (particularly in BTBL), I don't think it would be a very good idea to grant me ownership of Inuyasha (although it would be SO much fun!).

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Silence. Save for Kagome's soft breathing and the distant hum of a busy village at work, the hut was filled with absolute silence.

Inuyasha kept his breathing as soft as he could manage, staring intently at Kagome's pale, sweaty face. About time those idiots out there shut up, he thought vindictively. Fool woman needs to rest. That obnoxious blacksmith, those two gossipy women, all three had spoken right outside of the priestess's hut in voices loud enough to wake the dead, let alone a stupid teenage girl.

"She needs to sleep," Inuyasha had told Sango self-righteously after she had given him a scolding look for shooing them off. And it was true! How else would the stupid wench, unselfish as she always was, get the rest that she needed to recover from using up all of that energy?

…well, the snarling and roaring and baring of fangs may have been a bit much…

But humans need a good shock to their systems to get anything to stick! Inuyasha excused himself mentally. Not my fault they were stupid enough to gossip right outside of our hut.

Kagome suddenly whimpered softly, and all justification fled from his mind. Instead, he flew to her head, plopping himself down in a cross-legged position and leaning (but not anxiously!) over her. Although her eyes didn't open, the changes in her heartbeat and breathing rhythm signaled that she had finally woken up. "Inuyasha?" she questioned hoarsely.

Suddenly at a loss for what to do, Inuyasha lunged for the clean rag laying near her bed and dabbed at her forehead and neck. "How…how are you feeling?" Annoyed when the question came out unsure and a tad squeaky, he quickly added, "When are you going to learn to look after your own stupid ass on the battlefield, idiot?"

She laughed in an odd raspy way and answered, "I hardly had a choice; you were all busy."

Inuyasha swallowed his retort at the sound of her voice and stood. Moving as casually as he could, yet still fast enough to almost trip, he crossed the hut and scooped some water from the bucket of drinking water the priestess had provided. Gods only knew where that wench was right now. The half-demon quickly returned to Kagome's side and knelt. He slid his free hand under her head, careful to keep his claws away from her scalp, and held the iron ladle to her lips. "You humans are all so weak," he grumbled, silently wondering why she hadn't opened her eyes yet.

The water in the ladle slowly disappeared until Kagome cleared her throat and said less croakily, "Well, with a big, strong half-demon like you around to protect us, do we really have to be strong?"

Something closely akin to fear stabbed at him, and he set the ladle down with a loud clank, spilling the remaining drops of water on his knees. "And what if I'm not around to protect you someday, stupid?"

Suddenly her eyes snapped open, and Inuyasha shrank away. Her soft gray eyes, normally so gentle and kind, were so angry, so sad, so resentful…

The room changed. Where there had been walls, there were burning huts, a darkening horizon, screaming humans running to the safety of the trees. Kagome stood before him, bleeding badly from the shoulder, screaming his name, drawing his gaze to the arrow directed straight at his heart, her eyes so hurt, so heartbreaking, flashing with a fire that put the blazing village to shame. "Die, Inuyasha!"

And just as suddenly, Inuyasha was back in the hut. Kagome was unhurt, lying down, no longer angry, just tired, staring at him with those strange, familiar ashen eyes as he tried to catch his breath. Kikyo…

Unaware of his thoughts, Kagome drowsily moved her hand to touch his. "Even if one day, you aren't with me," she whispered, "I will always be with you."

Her melancholy smile reminded Inuyasha yet again of Kikyo, not alive yet not dead, his lover yet his enemy, protecting his life yet claiming it. He snorted, although he didn't move his hand, and replied, "Good luck keeping up with me."

In response, Kagome squeezed his index finger, obviously too tired to take his whole hand, and closed her eyes again. "Can I have some more water?" she murmured.

"There isn't any left," Inuyasha replied. "Damn priestess didn't get us enough."

"Oh…all right."

Inuyasha took her hand in his and placed it back at her side, unable to keep himself from treating it like glass. It wasn't his fault she looked so damn fragile! "I guess I'll get some more," he groaned. "The things I do for you weak humans."

"I can assure you that the weak humans are grateful," Kagome guaranteed.

"Keh. Who needs gratitude?" he grumbled, standing and tucking his hands into his sleeves. A quick twinge in his shoulders reminded him the already-healing but still gaping holes in both joints. He grabbed the bucket and made his way to the door of the hut.

Pausing, he looked back for no particular reason at all. Kagome really did look weak, lying there with her pale face covered in sweat. Some strange urge to take her with him and keep her with him pummeled at him somewhere in his chest before he squashed it a brisk shake of his head. "How's she going to rest if I'm carrying her around with me?" he muttered in defense against the urge's shrill protests.

Inuyasha let the curtain door fall on her almost still form and stormed away from the hut, suddenly in a very foul mood. Sango and Miroku's voices floated from the priestess's storehouse, making him unconsciously breathe a sigh of relief.

"Water…" he muttered to himself, scenting the air for the nearest fresh spring or stream.

A stone suddenly struck Inuyasha in the back. Whipping around, his hand automatically reaching for Tessaiga's hilt, he found himself facing a crowd of young boys, ranging from ages five through thirteen. Their clothes were in varying stages of disrepair, but their expressions were all the same: arrogant contempt.

The one who looked the oldest stepped forward, staring up at Inuyasha as if the half-demon were a rather large bug that needed squishing. "What do you want here, you filthy half-breed? Dirtying up our priestess's hut, poisoning the very air of our village…you shouldn't be here! Leave, and take those vassals of yours with you!"

Suppressing the urge to snarl and give his knuckles a threatening crack, Inuyasha simply folded his arms, letting the bucket dangle casually from one clawed hand. "What 'vassals' are you talking about, brats?"

"That impostor monk, the false demon slayer, that creepy little fox demon, and especially that strangely dressed girl! They're all traitors to the human race, bowing to an abomination!" The boy spat his words out with astonishing venom, although the only sign of Inuyasha's surprise was the scrape of one claw against the bucket's iron side.

"Trust me, kid, I am one of the last people they would ever bow to. They aren't my petty little servants; they're friends, and—" Inuyasha launched himself forward and brought himself to a halt a mere inch from the brat's face. "—they are not be insulted by the likes of you," he hissed.

The boy whimpered and staggered backward, while the others, who had been nodding and mumbling in agreement, fell silent and simultaneously took a step back. "You…" When his adolescent voice cracked, the ringleader gave himself a quick shake and rallied. "What, you dare to threaten me? I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything else. After all, with that demon blood tainting your human side, what could you be but violent?"

The others laughed nervously, and one boy who looked about ten spoke up, "Don't forget stupid, Aiiro!"

This brought more laughter, more confident since Inuyasha hadn't moved. In fact, he hadn't even removed his eyes from Aiiro's face, which somewhat dampened the boy's amusement.

"Where do you learn this stuff?" he finally asked, momentarily forgetting his anger. "Your parents? Your parents are raising you like this?"

Puffed up with courage borrowed from his friends, Aiiro snapped back, "So what if they are? They're right, aren't they?"

The fury returned, and Inuyasha suddenly hooked his hand under the boy's collar and drew both him and himself up to his full height. "Listen to me, and listen well, runt! I am tired of dealing with this kind of shit from people like you and your parents! You're lucky that I'm soft enough to never kill a human…but one day, you're going to insult the wrong half-demon…and he won't be so kind." That said, he let Aiiro fall, limp-legged, to the ground, and whipped himself back around, heading toward the scent of fresh water. A thrill of indignant satisfaction tickled at him when the boy sprawled backwards to avoid the swinging iron bucket.

But as he turned and disappeared behind a hut, Inuyasha could still hear the crowd of boys as they scrabbled to their leader and lifted him up, dusting him off, bad-mouthing the half-breed, threatening to tell their parents and have him thrown out…

His silver hair slapped against his cheeks as Inuyasha shook his head in disgust. Humans were even stupider than he had given them credit for, if a shock like the one he had given to those brats hadn't been enough to at least shut them up. So, so stupid, such bigots, such ignorance…

Suddenly, his legs itched to run, his face longed to feel the wind stinging at his eyes, his very heart yearned to be pounding from the exertion of a full-out sprint. His feet pushed harder against the ground, trying to drive him into that run that would leave everything behind, all the stupidity, all the cruelty, everything that had so tortured him his whole life falling far away, too far behind to ever catch up.

And yet, somehow, it always did. He would run away, far away, and when he stopped, there it would be, waiting for him. Judgment. Spite. Reality. For a few precious moments, he would be free, he would have forgotten, but when he stopped, he felt not only failure, but the sheer pointlessness of struggling for freedom. And yet every time, he ran again, feeling that that flash of liberty was worth the sense of utter defeat.

Unbeknownst to him, he had leaned forward, had quickened his pace, had walked straight into the woods, parallel to the stream he had been seeking. To run, to be free, one more time. To forget, to disappear into that absence of thought…

To disappear…

Something closely akin to fear stabbed at him, and he set the ladle down with a loud clank, spilling the remaining drops of water on his knees. "And what if I'm not around to protect you someday, stupid?"

Suddenly her eyes snapped open, and Inuyasha shrank away. Her soft gray eyes, normally so gentle and kind, were so angry, so sad, so resentful…

And just as suddenly, Inuyasha was back in the hut. Kagome was unhurt, lying down, no longer angry, just tired, staring at him with those strange, familiar ashen eyes as he tried to catch his breath. Kikyo…

Unaware of his thoughts, Kagome drowsily moved her hand to touch his. "Even if one day, you aren't with me," she whispered, "I will always be with you."

She'll never be able to keep up, Inuyasha thought in frustration, forcing his will upon his disobedient legs, weighting them, slowing them, turning them until he had pushed through the undergrowth and reached the stream. I can't run off on Kagome because she can't keep up.

Yet wasn't it odd that he didn't resent this fact at all? Was it at all strange that when they were together, he no longer felt that itch, that urge to escape? What did it mean, that simply being with Kagome suddenly cut short any desire to forget? He no longer needed to flee…

…because he had already escaped.

Inuyasha fell to his knees next the stream, only alerted to that fact when the bucket, still tightly clamped in one fist, fell into the water and soaked his sleeve. Was that it? Did he no longer desire to run because Kagome had been the one he had been running to?

Unsure of why that thought had so weakened him with shock, the half-demon slowly filled the bucket and stood again. Back to the village. Back to those foul brats. Back to that web of suspicious, arrogant words. Back to a world of bigotry and fear.

Gritting his teeth and about to begin the return trip, Inuyasha heard not one, but many piercing shrieks that drove into his sensitive ears like knives. He flattened them with a growl and surveyed his surroundings with his nose instead. The air was suddenly thick with the scent of shock and fear. The reason soon became apparent when the scent of demon, human, and human blood came twisting from the general direction of the village, but already moving away from that throng of screaming voices.

He sighed in disgust, knowing exactly what would happen if he neglected to at least attempt to rescue this demon's victim. Kagome was indeed bedridden, but she held more power in a single word than he held in his whole body (literally), and he didn't enjoy it when she reminded of that fact.

The bucket fell to the ground, spilling its contents over the ground and turning the soil into a patch of quickly parched mud. Inuyasha pushed himself into a run, not that run, but a run all the same, and felt for a blissful moment the accelerated pumping of his heart.

But the moment passed when the demon came into view. It was a hideous thing, resembling nothing more than a huge worm with a single human eye where its head should have been and a mouth like a festering wound on the belly, just under the head. To make matters worse, it had clamped its jaws (if they could be called that) around the struggling, bleeding body of a human boy.

Of all those images, only the sight of the helpless kid immediately registered. Somewhere in that part of his mind that had been specially conditioned for combat, Inuyasha noted that the demon was weak; he could have easily torn it apart with his bare claws when he was eight, let alone now.

His assessment proved to be right: a single, no-nonsense slash of the claws slit the worm-like demon into six putrid sections, freeing the child in the process. Inuyasha landed expertly, almost absentmindedly punching away a chunk of flesh that would have plastered itself across his side had there been no interference.

The boy, however, wasn't so elegant. Splattered with demon innards, he landed and bounced once on his bottom, clutching at his bleeding arm and clenching his teeth against a pained scream. Yet his eyes were proud, and he glared up at Inuyasha as he approached, and he spat, "Going to kill me now, are you?"

A growl slipped past Inuyasha's lips when he recognized Aiiro, that impudent little ringleader. "If I wanted you dead, it would have taken much less energy to just let that demon get away with you. In fact, if I wanted you dead, I would have enjoyed watching that beast devour you alive."

The words sent a perceptible chill up Aiiro's spine, and Inuyasha felt an unexpected pang of regret. "Look, brat, I'm not going to kill you, no matter how much you and other people like you piss me off. I don't have the energy to waste on getting back at you all."

And so, Inuyasha firmly, but not roughly, reached down and hauled Aiiro to his feet. "On my back," he ordered tersely. When the boy hesitated, he snapped, "Unless you want to walk back on your own? I don't have the time to waste, runt!"

With eyes flashing indignantly, the human finally relented and awkwardly climbed onto Inuyasha's back, doing his best to keep from jostling the cut on his arm. When Inuyasha was satisfied that Aiiro was firmly in place, he set off at a more relaxed run, returning to the stream. "Th-the village is that way," Aiiro pointed out, suddenly very nervous.

"Keh, you think I don't know that? My 'filthy demon blood' is pure enough to let me smell you damn humans a mile away." He came to a stop and bent to pick up the abandoned bucket, still rocking slightly on the empty stream bank. He returned to the water and once more filled the container. "Now, you stupid kid, we're going back."

Aiiro hesitated, not snapping back at the bait Inuyasha had tossed in his face, and instead asked softly, "Who's the water for?"

"My friend," he answered shortly, again pushing himself into a run, now careful to hold the bucket steady, heading back toward the village. Back to the insulting crowds, the prejudiced minds, the utter stupidity of mankind. Back to the panicked villagers who would likely blame him instead of the demon for Aiiro's wounds. Back to that place where acceptance was only a dream, a dream so painful that he longed to run away and forget it all. A place where all he wanted was a shelter, a haven to run to.

A haven that was likely thirsty and irritated as hell.

Back to Kagome.

(end)

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And that ends Inuyasha's chapter! This is easily the longest so far, maybe because I already had the first two pages out longhand. I dunno. Either way, not much to say here, just wanna clarify for you all that Inuyasha's brand of courage enables him to rise above what others expect, however rudely and grudgingly he may do so. Next is Kagome, the penultimate chapter!