Feeling a Little Better

The pretty young Miko was recovering well, despite her darling husband's nattering over her. She had convinced him to leave the house again today, so that he could check up on their friend, the monk, who seemed to be fairing worse than Kagome. His two daughters were finally placed back with their mother, and Miroku only now got the chance to rest. Kagome had instructed Inuyasha on how to make a stew—which he had successfully made for her two nights in a row—and he was going to make one for the holy man as well, so that he would not have to cook over the hot stove. What effect would that have on his fever?

In the meanwhile, Kagome was using her husband's absence as time to get fresh air. The hanyou man meant well, but this past few days he wouldn't so much as let her stand up from the bed. More than once he chastised her for leaving it, when she merely needed to void her bladder.

Kagome watched the screen flap shut behind her husband. She took a deep breath and waited for him to exit from her sensing range—what she knew was a little further than his earshot—and slipped out of bed. She threw on her hakama over her kosode, grabbed a towel, a bucket, and marched down to the river. While all outward symptoms of her illness had vanished in the last day or so, she felt gross. She was covered in dried sweat from the days she had her fever, and Inuyasha had not once allowed her to bathe! She could still feel the dirt from the road on her if she tried hard enough. So gross.

The water was just as cold as it had been in the midst of July—and she imagined it would only be getting colder—she shivered when she stuck her toes in. She made quick work of washing, sitting on a flat stone just out of the shallow water. She scrubbed furiously and dumped one last bucket of cold water over herself before drying and redressing. She ran back into the house to sit beside the fire to warm herself again, this time in her blue and white yukata. She considered crawling back into bed, but the thought of how long she had been in bed the past week drew her away from that option. She eyed the bedding, then looked to the door, where early morning light was still filtering in. She had wanted just a quick bath—just before Inuyasha came back home, but…well, was he really the boss of her?

She nodded with her decision. As soon as her hair was half dry she stripped the bedding and ran it all out to her garden, where the light would be good for airing it out. She piled it over her fence and went back inside for the covers. She decided that since she was washing her kosode, she may as well do the rest of the laundry too. Though as she stepped inside, she realized she couldn't very well bring freshly washed articles into a dirty house. Her husband had made an attempt to clean up the place—very much appreciated—but he missed a few tasks. Not too much, she only spent a few minute tidying up before she ran back out with the laundry.

She made sure to scrub her kosode thoroughly, while wondering where she could get ahold of some soap in this era. She had a tiny bit of bar soap, but she only planned on using that if she ever ended up covered in something particularly smelly. The soap didn't have much of a smell, and Inuyasha said that using it was acceptable. She remembered the incident Inuyasha had come to get her while she was helping her mother clean the bathroom. He had gotten so woozy from the smell of bleach he was actually having trouble breathing, he needed to be dragged outside by gramps and Sota. If there's one way to kill a demon with a sensitive nose, it was cleaning products.

Truth be told, she did remember—vaguely—a recipe for homemade soap. She would have to at least give it a shot if she couldn't find any soap, or if it was too expensive. She started humming at some point as she wrung out her kosode and moved on to the towel she had used to bathe earlier. It felt so nice to be productive again. She would definitely be going back to Kaede's tomorrow, no husband of hers was going to prevent it! And how could he stand just sitting around taking care of her? Sure, he got to visit Miroku for periods of time (always at her insistence) but there was no way he found the whole situation entertaining. At the same time…he was so endearing. He had watched over her in the past when she was ill. She knew he had that gentle caring side to him, but that didn't make it any less sweet that he continued to be that way with her. He would never admit to that caring side of himself, but he would make a wonderful father.

She was so lost in her thoughts and the sound of her humming that she nearly missed the aura of the demonic man stomping through the woods behind her.

"Wha the hell're you doin' outta the house?"

Was he angry? His enunciation always fell to pieces when he was mad…until he got the point where he pronounced everything properly, and that made any man with a brain shake in his sandals. Kagome sighed and turned back to him, a soft smile on her lips. His lips twitched as he huffed through his nose. He sounded like an elderly dog when he did that. Did he know?

"You're sick, you don't need to be out here."

"I'm fine," she returned, "I have been feeling fine since yesterday, Inuyasha."

She turned back to squeeze the water out of the last wash as he argued that he could still smell sickness on her…until he took a good sniff.

"It was probably the bedding you were smelling, Inuyasha. I've left it out in the sun to kill the bacteria. I was sick for a while, so of course the smell sunk in, but—" she stood and gathered all the wet laundry, "I'm much better now."

She turned to him with her laundry basket balanced on one hip. She told him to help her string the laundry as she pushed the basket into his chest. He tried to protest, the laundry or her sickness she couldn't be sure, but she let go of the basket, forcing him to catch it as she sauntered off towards the house. He squinted in annoyance, but reluctantly followed the woman.

He tied the line up and Kagome lifted her arms, only to be met with the brush of a cold wet something-or-other against her neck.

"You are better," he muttered, mostly to himself, drawing his face away from her neck. She gave him an 'Mn-hm,' and reached for the next bit of wet cloth.

"And you bathed? Kagome, that river is freezing, you'd make yourself sick all over again," he admonished, though his words held no real bite to them. He lifted another piece of wet laundry to hang as he quietly accepted her admittance of good health.

Inuyasha patted the bedding down a bit as Kagome got lunch started. The bedding had gotten a little matted down with someone laying on it for the last few days straight. He checked the garden again. Yeah, a few weeds had sprouted, but still nothing to harvest—how long did these damn vegetables need to grow? Miroku said they'd get a few yields before winter, but not at the snail's pace these were growing.

As soon as the food was ready, his nose led him back into the house. He licked his lips as he spied the side dish Kagome had set behind her as she looked over the rest. He rarely admitted it, but Kagome was…she wasn't a half-bad cook…and a hell of a lot better than him, damn. However, as of yesterday he thought what he made was at least decent, though Kagome had instructed him every step of the way. He bypassed the chopsticks on his way to the bowls, drawing Kagome's eye. Quicker than he could expect it, a tiny hand snatched up his wrist and snapped his arm away from the bowls. Inuyasha whipped his head around to face a scowling Miko.

"No," she said firmly. "Your hands are filthy," she flipped his hand over to expose the dirt from the garden, "you know better than that." There was a long pause between the two of them before Kagome blinked. Ah, yes, the balance had shifted back into proper order. Inuyasha was no longer taking care of her like a child. Normality had returned with her scolding the grown hanyou man as if he were a child.

"Keh." Inuyasha chuckled as Kagome bit her lips to resist smiling. It hadn't taken but a few hours to get into the old routine. She released his hand to let him wash up while she finished serving lunch. They talked and relaxed for a few hours while waiting for the clothes to dry. Kagome wanted to return to work and her lessons the following day, and Inuyasha agreed. Kagome told him to go back out if he wanted, to make his rounds and get more fresh air, but he brushed it off. He would join her in the morning getting back to normal, since it felt weird to do start all that in the middle of the day.

Inuyasha helped Kagome take down the laundry and get it all folded. It wasn't particularly hot today, but the sun was shining brightly, and the clothes were warm as Kagome brought them down. She asked Inuyasha to put the laundry away while she took down their bedding, which should have had sufficient time to air out in the sun.

"It's so warm," Kagome commented as she entered the house with the bedding held against her body. She laid the bedding down and sat atop in, rubbing her hand down the still warm surface of it.

"Shouldn't you fold it up and put it away? I mean, unless you plan on using it now," he said with a shrug. It was just common practice to do so. Their hut wasn't tiny, but keeping the bedding up did open a lot of floor space. He watched Kagome rub her hand over the fabric again. If she was a little tired, she could use it if she wanted…

The sun's heat had dissipated from the cloth, but it reminded her that she had not felt the warmth on her husband's side of the bed in a while. He had been sleeping against the wall these past few nights…perhaps they should use it. She bit her bottom lip and rubbed her hand over the fabric a bit more.

"Inuyasha…" the pretty little Miko murmured as she looked over to where he was laying her Miko robes. He glanced up with the mention of his name, giving a slight 'hm?' in question. She looked back to the bedding, rubbing the fabric in circles. She looked back up to her husband, hoping her silent suggestion had reached him. The slight tilt of his head told her it hadn't. She bit her lip again. Pink dappled her cheeks as she glanced back down to the bedding.

"Inuyasha," she repeated, trying to make her voice just suggestive enough.

"What?" Came the confused reply of her husband. She swallowed as her knees squeezed a bit without her permission. Her eyes caught his again before darting about the room.

"Lets…let's use the bed," she suggested.

"I didn't say you can't sleep if you're…" he trailed off, finally catching the meaning to her actions. His mouth nearly spread into a smile before he thought better of it.

"No," he told her bluntly l, before his expression changed into uncertainty. Maybe..."You were just sick yesterday."

Okay, he was not going to pull that one. She slowly rose to her feet, staring at his chin as she did so. She took the few steps towards him, and he obediently stayed in place. She rested her hands on his shoulders and her offered no resistance, like he had expected this the second he closed his mouth after speaking.

"I'm feeling a lot b-better," she started, trying to sound sultry, but stuttering on the last bit as her confidence faltered.

"I sure hope so," he uttered in a breathy whisper, followed by, "we just aired it out, are you sure we should get the bedding all—"

She cut off his last words with a rough kiss.

Inuyasha lay beside his wife as she breathed heavily against his chest. He stroked the skin of her arm and felt the gooseflesh finally smooth down as she started to get her breathing under control. She rolled onto her back and closed her eyes.

"So," he started. Her eyes opened up to the sound of his curious tone. "Does that always happen?"

Kagome blinked and lifted her head up.

"Does what happen?"

He rubbed his hand down her arm.

"You get goosebumps. Why does that happen?"

"Oh," she breathed as she let her head drop back to stare idly at the ceiling.

"Just an involuntary reaction…some people cry, some people's toes go numb…I guess I get goosebumps," she explained, mumbling the last part. She bit her lip at the thought. Indeed she did get goosebumps, and Inuyasha was getting surprisingly good at giving her those goosebumps. Was she a pervert for wanting more? They had only just come down a minute or so ago.

"Have you always gotten goosebumps?"

Kagome giggled at the question. She turned her head to look at her beautiful husband. White hair strewn over his shoulder—sticking to his chest. His eyes looked so innocent in his question, despite the subject matter being anything but innocent. Her eyes strayed from his own in favor of his mouth. His lips healed faster than hers, but they still looked so kissable from her attention earlier. So she acted on the impulse, leaning over to press her lips against his. He reciprocated, but only just; tilting his chin to press against her.

"You would know, I've only had that happen with you," she chuckled when she pulled away from him. She saw his brows lower in confusion, and dropped her own brows with his expression.

"You've never, uh…I meant on your own too, before me."

"On my own..?" Her eyes opened wide in realization. "Oh no, I've never..! Not really, I mean, I—" she stumbled over her words.

A chill ran down his spine. He remembered the first time—well, not the first time, he was twelve and that obviously hadn't had anything to do with Kagome. That fucking breeze felt really nice, but just about anything set him off at that age. After that, and after he had first met Kagome, he didn't either. Then she was gone—he missed her—he felt like such a freak that he was even thinking about her like that. That he had dipped his hand into his hakama. That he was thinking about this girl he cared so much about—who admitted to loving him—whom he may very well never see again, and he was moving his hand to get off to images of her. Images he'd stored in the back of his mind from before he even had any interest in her. Wasn't that sick? He had told himself, that maybe, maybe she was doing the same? She had to be. That was the only way he could deal with it.

"What? N-nev-never?" Came his stuttered interruption.

Kagome squeaked.

"W-well, not 'never' never, but I've never—you know—finished…"

"S-so you could do that but you couldn't, you didn't…how could you not finish?"

Kagome slapped her hands up to her face, shutting her eyes with her embarrassment. Inuyasha's ears flipped backwards at her shrill squeak. This was not what he had intended to happen from his simple question. He laid a hand on her wrist, moving it to the side to look at her face.

"Kagome?"

She opened one eye to look up at his nervous face. She gulped and lowered her hands to cover her chest. Inuyasha was really surprised to hear that she…so she did right? She tried to get there but..? Inuyasha almost—almost—felt relief wash over him.

"Don't make it sound like I'm stupid…I…my room was right next to mama's," she started, speaking embarrassedly and quickly. Sota only knocked about half the time. Grandpa snored so loudly it killed the mood at night. The cat had startled her by jumping onto her belly once. She was in so many extra clubs…to avoid thinking about how much she missed the boy she tried fantasizing about. She barely had time to herself, and when she did, she was studying, or she just thought she had free time, because something would interrupt her.

Inuyasha had tuned out after she mentioned her grandfather, but he got the gist. Living with the family might make things difficult, he realized. His heart was still pounding with the threat of guilt but…he also realized something. Something that further pushed down the guilt. It made him want to smirk and puff out his chest in pride. Her first orgasm had been at his hands…well, mouth, but still.

"The first time that happened was because of me," he muttered, interrupting her. Kagome blinked. She shut her mouth and looked over at her husband.

"You've never felt that except with me," he repeated. He couldn't help the laugh in his tone. Kagome neglected to send her usual glare, forgoing it to gaze back up at the ceiling, swallowed down her embarrassment, and nodded. She wasn't expecting strong arms to wrap around her and draw her tightly against an equally strong chest, but she didn't fight it as her white-haired husband held her. Another guilty thought ran through his mind, making him hold her longer than he planned. He didn't even try to give her 'goosebumps' until their third time going at it. He had his moment in the night and in the morning, (and by her mouth) but there was nothing for her…damn, he was a selfish bastard. He'd try to make it up to her from now on. Now that he realized that. He looked down to her to tell her that, but something caught his eye.

She wondered why he kept holding her so tightly. She was almost starting to feel claustrophobic, and she knew she shouldn't. Since when had he been so lovey-dovey though?

"Inuyasha?" She tried to push away from him then, but his grip held. She repeated his name, and that got him to let go of her. She expected a smile when she looked at him, but instead she got a different look…confusion? Concern?

"How'd you get that bruise? Did I do that?"

When she asked what he was talking about, he directed her attention to her collarbone, near her shoulder. Kagome sighed in relief. There was indeed a reddish bruise. A thin oblong mark marred her skin from where her husband had spent a lot of time kissing and sucking her skin.

'He should have known, of course I'd get a hickey!'

Kagome smiled at him just as he brushed his thumb over her breast. This one was staring to turn a purple color.

"Shit, you've got another one."

"It's just a kiss mark, Inuyasha."

His ears twitched at her words. This ugly thing on her skin was a kiss mark? He'd never actually seen one before, but from their description, he'd thought they'd be…cuter perhaps. It was just a little bruise, and it was quickly changing colors. It looked painful. He asked about it, and she pressed her fingers against her collarbone to confirm that there wasn't a bit of pain.

"Nothin'?" he asked as he brushed his own knuckle over the mark on her breast.

"Nope, and it will heal in a few days, too," she said, ending with a giggle.

"Why're you laughing?"

"It's funny…you know, it's kind of like these marks are to show I'm yours. They'll stay for a while, and anyone who might see it will know I have a husband…who kisses me a lot."

Well, he didn't know about all that. A wife could be bruised in other ways, and he knew some men left terrible marks on their wives. He nearly cringed at the thought. He'd like to beat the shit out of men like that. He drew his eyes back over mark on her collarbone. This mark, however, looked different from most bruises. This was a mark made by someone who loved their partner.

"b-but don't—" Her stuttering drew his attention back to her face, "try not to leave hickeys where anyone can see them. It's still embarrassing, to—to have anyone see."

Inuyasha scoffed.

"I get it. I don't tell the letch nothin' about us, though the guy prods like a sonuva—" he cut off before his mouth got him in trouble. "And I'll try…" he licked his lips, "to keep…" he drew his tongue over her shoulder, "kisses…" he kissed her shoulder, "below the neck."

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and suddenly he was laying on his back. His lovely young wife popped up to straddle his lap, where he had already started—

"I won't," she declared, "I can barely leave any marks on you." Her smile was soft. He leaned up on his elbows, and she leaned down to meet him halfway. She kissed him, and rubbed down his chest. She left a smile on his lips when she broke away to kiss his collarbone. Her kisses were gentle though, not the kind he expected after all this talk of hickeys. Her fingertips brushed down along his belly, tracing the muscles through the skin. They gently pushed through the fine hairs leading down below his navel. Lower, and he took a deep breath. She smiled and caught his eyes when she gripped around him ever-so-gently. His eyes widened marginally as she lowered her body, to kiss his belly, his hip. She held his eyes even as he whispered her name in question. She smiled for his answer.

"O-okay," he muttered, easing his upper body back down and letting his head drop.

...

Hickeys are fun, aren't they? Also this is one of the so far two I've got set up to publish while I'm in my first quarter away from home. I'm trying to get up to chapter 20 written by September 24th (with today being the 11th), but I'm stuck somewhere on chapter 18, so I'm going to try and power my way through.

Also, look at my chapter titles for a clue to the content of each. This is how you know which chapters to aim for, or skip past depending on how you feel about smut.