Chapter XXV

Twenty fifth session

The background sound of the place they were at was a piano, from which soft and warm notes came, inviting everyone to a relaxed conversation. The people inside that place were communicating in a low tone, respecting other's space, in the way it normally happened inside bars of its kind. Kagome was seating in front of InuYasha, at a small table they chose near the window. The intense pink neon light coming from a store right in front reflected against her dark hair, tracing her left cheek and playing with the curves of her lips. InuYasha couldn't stop thinking about it as Kagome talked, and although he was paying attention to her words, his interest was completely caught by how much he wished to kiss that mouth to exhaustion.

"... and that's it, the work method is simple, and once the initial corrections are made and you actually catch the soul of the story, we ask an illustrator to draw something representative." Kagome had decided to tell him about her job. It seemed like a neutral enough topic for starting a trivial chat.

"And, do you like it?" He tried to show care for what she was talking about.

She just shrugged, trying not to meet his eyes for longer than two seconds, because she'd lose her focus and end up thinking about their marvelous color and the way in which they'd turn slightly almond towards those thick eyebrows that intensified his gaze, a gaze that could almost read her thoughts.

"I do." She accepted, "I guess like in every job, routine consumes the passion a bit, but I do like what I do. "She saw him nod, and look at the almost empty end of the glass of beer they've served him. "And you? Do you like what you do?

InuYasha lifted his gaze and met those chestnut brown eyes which seemed particularly transparent today. They still held that veil of secretism he'd discovered in them; yet that veil was a bit see-through now.

"Cooking?" He mentioned the obvious, "I think I like the sensation of knowing what ingredient goes with what and the nutrients and flavor it brings to the food. I feel calm in the middle of its preparations."

"Despite how much you run? When I went with you that day, it seemed like you do some crazy amount of work." Kagome didn't want to hide her surprise.

InuYasha smiled visibly, and she felt how her heart missed a beat. She parted her lips, and took a long, deep breath to help her search of that fugitive beat.

"I get that it may seem stressful, and in some way it is, yet it helps me to spend energy and keep my mind focused." He explained, checking his empty glass again. "By the way, want another?" He asked, moving the glass to pass on his meaning.

"That reminds me, you haven't told me who you went drinking with." Kagome took advantage of the moment.

InuYasha smiled at her again, entertained, and she begged in her mind for him to stop doing that, because she liked it so much her heart would make a run for it every time.

"Don't dodge it again." It was her turn to smile, pointing at him with a finger as if accusing him.

"You are intrigued." He felt like stating.

"Not at all. Just slightly curious." She answered, trying to appear haughty, as she lifted her glass and drank the last sip of its amber liquid.

"I'll keep the intrigue a bit more." He mentioned, taking her glass and his own, to take them to the bar and ask for a couple more. "The same?" He asked.

"Yes, and I'm not intrigued." She smiled.

"Then I don't need to tell you anything." He sentenced then, turning towards the bar.

InuYasha heard some high-pitched monosyllable from her, which wasn't but a weak sound of attention coming from a smiley voice. He couldn't deny that laid a warmth sensation in his chest, which joined the others he felt throughout the time they'd spent in that place. When seeing her, back that the therapy, he had already decided to act distant all the time, and even considered the idea of going back to his apartment without uttering a word, so that Kagome may feel the force that not existing for someone else, could have; the same way she had acted with him the previous days. However, having her close enough to discover her inquisitive gazes, had softened him. Before Kibou's question, he took the pleasure of mentioning how he went out for a drink as a way to provoke her, despite not really wanting to say anything else about it.

He left the glasses at the bar, and addressed the girl behind with the gentleness that was proper of him, he more than anyone knew what working towards the public was like. As he waited to being served, his gaze observed Kagome who was seated at the table with her phone in her hands. She had one leg crossed on top of the other, and the light coming in through the window illuminated her hair falling from one of her shoulders. That squared dress she wore, her legs and dark high-boots, were also being touched by that pink neon light, creating a stamp beautifully aesthetic. InuYasha couldn't help the feeling of wanting to capture that image for himself, and brought his phone out of his pocket, opened the lent, chose the camera, and when he was about to touch the screen to take the picture Kagome lifted her gaze, as if feeling it, showing an expression quite akin to innocence.

When he came back to the table, her phone left her hands, screen down.

"What? Could it be your friend wants to join the moment?" He couldn't help the ironic mocking. He still couldn't quite clean that unpleasant sensation he had when his mind linked the call Kagome made with her being with another man.

"Not really. I'd say he isn't a threesome enjoyer." She smiled at him with all the shamelessness she could muster, or so it seemed to InuYasha at least.

"I could call someone, maybe he is a foursome guy." He didn't want to stay behind the back-and-forth, nor the shamelessness.

Kagome's smile turned enigmatic, so much InuYasha had to try and elucidate if she was annoyed or content with the proposal. He saw her pull her glass closer and take long sip, as if needing to cool her body.

Could she be into group sex? The question remained there, wandering through his head, it wasn't like he'd done it nor did he have an opinion about it. In fact, he once stood in front of a place where they practiced that kind of thing, to which a casual conquest had brought him, giving him a card with the address on the reverse side. Once inside, he decided it wasn't yet the moment to have that kind of experience.

"Talking about calling someone... "Kagome said then, "will you tell me who you went drinking with the last weekend?"

Contrary to what she'd been doing until then since they joined, Kagome met his gaze and didn't evade it. InuYasha had the sensation she was discerning how honest his answer would be. He smiled and looked through the window.

"I didn't think it mattered that much to you." Then, he met her eyes once again, challenging her to discover his emotions. "You've been ignoring my messages for days, after all."

There wasn't a question, nor an answer in his sentence, yet it still managed to corner her with quite little, something that made her restless. Kagome could feel that raw honesty InuYasha always manifested, without preambles nor barriers. She found herself wishing to uncover some dark secret of him, something to make him feel less distant, more like her. Among sinners, it was much easier to find a path.

However, she didn't want to circle that thought too much, she had the premonition that looking into herself that deeply could break something in there. She extended her hand then, and touched the back of his with the tip of her fingers.

"I didn't think we were at that point." Kagome mentioned, making clear nothing really tied them to each other.

"And we aren't, and I understand it. That's why I say it." InuYasha extended his own hand and touched her knuckles with the tip of his fingers.

Both of their gazes became locked in that last gesture. The brush was delicate in a way close to sublime, as if the movement surrounding them, the voices, and even their own thoughts and time, had stopped just so that he could touch her.

Kagome felt overwhelmed by the sea of emotions circling her heart, and she wondered if that prevailing wish of having InuYasha close to her skin had something to do with love. The answer took its time to appear, meanwhile her hand turned around to meet his palm and a slight tremble ran through her back, managing to contain it by pure force of will. The answer to her question lacked a conclusion, weak and incapable to bring her out of her uncertainty: no, that couldn't be love.

"Let's get out of here." She asked, needing to put all of that emotivity some place, and sex could be a good cheater to confuse the heart. With that she would finally remember the kind of relationship they had.

InuYasha was still charmed by the intimate graze of their hands. He met her eyes and could see the decision and yearning dancing in them. Kagome seemed to be offering him the honeys of the body and if he had the ability to associate a color to desire, he'd be able to see her irradiating it right now. However, he found himself wishing for more than just sex. He didn't know if he'd be able to, nor if it was proper to wish for it, but his chest was being held by a pressure he could recognize, and albeit such pressure had taken him, once, through a desolate path, and the fear of traversing it was still there, he though himself capable of getting slightly closer to it, and see if he could tolerate it.

Standing up, the same hand that before caressed hers was extended as an invitation. Kagome looked at the gesture, pondering for a long instant if to answer it. InuYasha felt that first hint of fear his recent idea gifted him, however such fear retreated when Kagome's hand laid on his.

They began to walk, leaving the bar behind. Between them, silence rested despite the many thoughts buzzing inside their heads. They were going towards Kagome's apartment, although they hadn't agreed to anything previously. She glanced sideways at her companion, who through his paused stride, came as proud and beautiful. They were a few steps away from the street where the door to the building was, and her mind recalled the picture he had taken of her at the bar. She smiled before the memory, leaving a fugitive emotion escape, warming her chest.

"You own me a picture." She told him, as a way of compensation for the one he took.

"That so?" InuYasha feinted a gesture of looking at her, albeit he didn't stop walking.

"Yes." she assured, and had an idea. "I'll take one from you in bed."

InuYasha smiled a bit more, yet lacked the same mischief.

"Today I'm only accompanying you to the portal." He pointed with his head, they had just arrived at the street where Kagome's building was. "Tomorrow I have to wake up early. I've slept little this week."

She remained silent through the steps separating them from the portal. Kagome's traitorous mind immediately made her question the why of those sleepless nights.

Why did she feel so tiny in front of her own doubts?

"Here we are." He mentioned, keeping during the whole way his hands in his pockets as an act of unrestricted formality.

Kagome looked at him, and wanted to find the strength to let him go with a seductive smile that could make him question his decision; however, she felt like an unconfident teenager. She dropped her gaze, and extended a hand until her fingers held the edge of InuYasha's jacket, pulling at it, although contrary to that gesture, she was the one who got closer.

"Who have you been seeing?" She said, almost unaware of how raw had she freed that thought.

InuYasha brought a hand to the one Kagome had placed on his jacket, and cupped her in a caress which managed to make her let go. Next, he brought that hand to his own neck to feel embraced and she understood it and obeyed, almost sweet. Their gazes met again, and the lack of words was replaced by the intensity with which their emotions were expressed through their whole bodies. InuYasha took her waist, not letting go of the hand on his shoulder. He held himself against Kagome, and pulled her just like that into a dance. He slipped her sleeve back, unclothing her arm to leave on her wrist a worshipping kiss, yet not chaste. The lips pressed the skin for a long instant through which Kagome held her breath, to start letting it out only when InuYasha looked at her with the intention of taking it to her lips, without asking, without being rejected.

The mouths met gently, much softer than what the bodies demanded, and Kagome heard herself sighing with her lips parted, receiving InuYasha's hot breath in her mouth. She closed her hand, holding herself from that red sweater he wore beneath the black jacket, and felt the way which his embrace became tighter in the moment their kiss turned moist and demanding. She closed her eyes, becoming aware of the way in which the desire grew in the most intimate part of her body, to spread throughout it with every heartbeat.

The cold of the night suddenly stopped mattering, ceased to exists even. Their clothes became a barrier the hands wished to dissolve. Kagome could feel the heat coming from InuYasha's palms on her waist, and then her ribs, ascending until both his thumbs brushed her chest.

"Let's go up." She asked in a plea he answered with just an ambiguous sore moan.

She noticed how he rose slightly from the ground, until he stood just on the tip of his feet. Kagome let out the air in the middle of the kiss, feeling dizzy from the excitement and from the contrast between the cold outside and the raging heat her body experienced when feeling her companion's pressure.

"InuYasha." She pleaded again.

The kiss was halted, and he rested his forehead against hers, his breathing agitated, his body stimulated.

"What are you doing tomorrow night?" The question came through a darkened whisper InuYasha didn't take the effort of clarifying.

"As I'm feeling right now, whatever you want." She confessed, seeking his lips again.

InuYasha took a deep breath in a hiss, and lifted her again in the middle of the kiss and the embrace so that Kagome noticed just how excited he was. He pondered the idea of staying and losing some hours of sleep; it wouldn't be the first time. However, his denial had a reason he considered more important.

He freed her from the kiss and looked at her, discovering under the dim light surrounding them, that the tone of her cheeks was a shade redder. Kagome was beautiful, in the way those who have something to give are, even if she wasn't aware of it yet. He pulled himself away from her body, and noticed the way in which she sought him once again, closing that distance.

InuYasha smiled before talking.

"Tomorrow." He muttered, as a surprise, separating himself.

Kagome took in a breath, and sighed, not hiding her frustration, nor her understanding.

"Alright." She took half a step back, not letting go of his clothes completely, while he took that hand in his and replaced that touch. "But you bring dinner."

InuYasha smiled a bit more, dropping his gaze once before meeting hers again.

"Alright, I'll bring you a good dinner." He mentioned.

He increased the distance, taking half a step back, forcing their arms to hang in the air, joined by the touch of their hands in a link they tried to prolong as much as possible. Kagome observed the way in which the light, a few meters away from him, illuminated his features and hair with a warm color which reminded her of that light InuYasha had been setting in his apartment lately.

They let go of each other's hand in silence, and he turned around to leave, not walking away yet.

In that moment Kagome had a thought which made her act without pondering it too much. She brought her phone out from her jacket and lifted it towards InuYasha, calling his attention. He looked at her, standing sideways, and he had just put his hands in the pockets of his pants. His golden eyes were streaked by a ray of light in the exact same instant they met hers, and then, Kagome captured a beautiful moment.

"And that?" InuYasha asked.

Kagome smiled and answered:

"You owed me a picture."

To be continued.

A/N

As with all stories I write of them, this one began with an idea, then another to continue and finish something that would last just a few chapters. However, InuYasha and Kagome break my ideas, and live in the words; in between and in them.

Thank you for reading, commenting, and keeping me company in this adventure.

Anyara.

This text is possible thanks to the translation of: Dezart