Note: Bolded words are spoken in Chinese

Chapter 8: Ever wonder…

Ever wonder what it felt like to be cast out of one's own body? Ever wonder how it felt to watch a cinematic film of oneself doing things that one would never ever attempt doing in real life? Ever wonder how it felt like to have no control over one's own actions?

Unfortunately for InuYasha, he – or at least, his body – was doing things that made him wish for a hole to bury himself in. One moment he was on the wagon back to the house, and the next moment he opened his eyes to find himself floating in a room, watching in horror as the other him make-out with Kagome. They were embracing each other ardently with him slinging his arms around her shoulder and her leaning onto his shoulder. All of a sudden, the other him leaned down towards Kagome and gave her a long kiss. InuYasha knew for one that he was just dreaming, but what he didn't know was how to stop the dream from progressing further.

The next afternoon yielded a very distraught young man who was struggling to escape sleep.

"InuYasha…" Sango started to drawl out, eyeing her friend warily. When he did not respond to her, she decided to beat around the bush and commented "You have eye bags."

"Tell me about it." He grunted in a bored voice, his mind obviously elsewhere.

"Are you still thinking about what I said yesterday?" Immediately, InuYasha's head whipped up at the comment and he glared at Sango in a silent challenge, as if daring her to make fun of him. Sango ignored his glare and placated gently, "Look, I'm not trying to mock you. But I thought you might want to talk about it."

"It's none of your business," InuYasha muttered angrily, more to himself than to Sango. His pride would not allow him to show how disturbed he is, less his friends labeled him as weak.

"It's my business when you decide to squash the peas and ruin our dinner," Sango stated dryly.

Only then did InuYasha notice the sticky green goo on his fingers and the amount of peas that he had decided to vent his frustration upon. He was supposed to peel the pods, not crush the peas! Kaede was probably going to give him a lengthy lecture about his anger management problem. Well, now that Sango already knew about most details, he might as well get this over with… "Hey Sango," Said girl jumped slightly at his serious tone, "ever wonder what dreams meant?"

Sango mused over the question for awhile before answering him, "that depends on the contents of the dream. I have heard of dreams that predict the future, dreams that uncover the subconscious desires of the individual, repressed memories coming back in the forms of dreams, the idea of the silver thread, and of course, dreams of our worst phobias (ones that we refer to as nightmares). Why do you ask?" She didn't noticed that while she was listing off the possible significance of dreams, InuYasha's expression took on very interesting contortions. Future predicting? Subconscious desires? However, he did perk up when Sango mentioned how dreams represented phobias too. Hah! That must be it! The dream he had was nothing more than a phobia!

"Nothing, I think I better get going. You can continue with the shelling!" InuYasha was suddenly enlightened and in a cheery mood. He waved to Sango, who was starting to protest at his exeunt, and jogged off back to the hut. Now time for some well-deserved sleep…

On the other side of the hut, Kagome was debating to herself whether or not she should confide in Kaede and her mother. After all, they were her superiors and knew more about those types of stuff. It had taken her all her courage to call InuYasha a pervert yesterday and now she felt her bravado slipping away into nothingness.

'Oh god, how would her mother and Kaede respond to the truth? Would they blame me for being careless and allowing a man to catch me naked?'Purity was something that was highly treasured amongst the womanhood in her community, and people responded negatively to those who uncover themselves to a man before their marriage. 'But it was only an accident! Who could blame you when a man decided to intrude into your bathing space without your consent?' Kagome tried reasoning to herself. 'I can do it! I will talk to mother and lady Kaede right now and ask for their advice!'

With her mind set, Kagome approached the two older women cautiously and coughed politely. "Mother, lady Kaede, I wish to talk about something with you."

The two women exchanged glances with each other before Mama Higurashi smiled warmly to her daughter. "It's about time, don't you think? Something has obviously been bothering you these past few days, and we were waiting for you to open up first."

Kagome was surprised that they were already expecting her. Was she that easy to read? "Before I tell you everything, do you promise to keep it a secret?" She implored her elders, her eyes wide and begging.

"Only what needs to be kept quiet, child," Kaede answered, "However, I warn you in advance, I think I have a pretty good idea of what your trouble was, and it is a rather hard secret to keep."

Kagome only nodded her head silently, wondering how Kaede knew already. She hoped that since the older woman didn't react that much, perhaps her mother would be sympathetic towards her situation too. She jumbled around her mind for a suitable place to start and took a deep breath, talking after awhile, "Mother, do you remember the rules you used to talk about when I was young?" She didn't wait for a response before continuing on in her nervousness, "I am afraid that I have already broken one of them." She held out her hand when her mother started to open her mouth, "Before you ask anything of me, I need to also justify that this is on no account my fault. It was purely accidental…"

She stopped and watched the women's reactions. Her mother was frowning slightly, as if it was hard to believe that her Kagome would break any rules; on the other hand, Kaede looked more than calm, as if she was confirming her theories. She only hoped that they would remain as calm as they were now when she was finished with her talk. "I was bathing a few days ago by the river. I checked beforehand to make sure that no one else was around the vicinity before stripping. However," she trailed off and gulped, "One of the guests happened to stumble close by and I was not prepared. I…don't have a shirt on at that time."

Mama Higurashi was frowning harder now, trying to piece two and two together. "Kagome, was the guest…San Hu?" She opted to pronounce Sango's name in Chinese rather than using the Japanese pronunciation. Kagome shook her head.

"Mi Le?" Kagome still shook her head. Then, that leaves… "Quan Ye Cha?" At this, Kagome's flinched visibly and she nodded her head slowly. "Oh my…"

"Mother, I can explain! It – it was all an accident, he said so himself! I didn't know he was behind me until it was too late!" Kagome stuttered as she saw her mother's face turn blank. This was worse than she imagined, her elders didn't take well at all with the notion of her being 'defiled' by a man. She was on the verge of tears when her mother suddenly burst out:

"This is fantastic! Do you know what this meant? I am going to be a grandmother soon! And then all my grandchildren will have long silky hairs with violet eyes! Oh Kagome, why didn't you tell me earlier?" Mama Higurashi managed to say everything in one breath as she smiled happily. Kaede only nodded more to affirm her suspicions.

Meanwhile, Kagome was opening and closing her mouth in rapid successions, imitating that of a goldfish's expression. "But…the rule…we can't be seen by a man before our marriage unless…"

"Unless you are going to marry him," Mama Higurashi finished with a gush. "You know the rule is law here. And since you were seen by him, you have to marry him. Oh, this is so good. Why hadn't he proposed yet? Do you think it's because he's too shy?" She continued on regardless of Kagome's horrified look.

The poor young woman was at a loss of words, so Kaede came in to her help. "Child, go help Souta and your grandfather. I think I can hear them calling." Kagome took the hint and gave a nod of gratitude in Kaede's direction before running off.

Later in the day, Kaede caught InuYasha tossing and turning on his bed, still unable to sleep. "Has sleep not visited you yet, child?"

InuYasha turned and gave a half-hearted glare at the old woman. "Shut up, you aren't supposed to be here in a men's room." Truth be told, he had no idea why he was not sleeping either.

Instead of leaving, Kaede chose to sit on Miroku's bed, which was beside InuYasha's. "You should watch your tongue young man, or else you may be in deep trouble in the future. Not that you are not in a deep trouble now already." She added the last sentence as an afterthought. "You do know what sort of trouble you are in right now, do you not?"

"I'm not marrying," the young man retorted whilst covering his eyes with his hand. "Who made up those stupid rules anyways? Besides, it was an accident."

"Do not insult the ancient customs of this land, child. Whether it is an accident or not, you have to bear the full responsibility."

InuYasha sat upright on his bed and glared harder at the old woman. "For your information – and I'll not repeat it again – It. Was. An. Accident." He grinded out menacingly. "Heck, I didn't know that she was down by the river then. It's not like she flashed a big 'I'm bathing' sign for people to stay away! So stop blaming it all on me!"

Kaede willed herself to be patient with him, "I understand that, child, and if there were any other choices, I would not have tried to force this on you. However, I need you to understand that your decision, while it might not have affected you in any ways considering that you will be leaving in two months, will impact Kagome's life. If words got out that she was seen by you before her marriage, she would be stigmatized for life and no one will marry her, which leaves her unable to provide for herself when she grows older. Do you want to live with the knowledge that you have managed to ruin a girl's life just because of an accident?"

"So you guys are trying to push me down the guilty road trip now?" InuYasha snorted. "Has anyone considered how innocent I am or the fact that my life would be ruined too if I married her?"

"Aye child, but you are a well-off young man. On the other hand, Kagome cannot fend for herself if she does not marry."

"What about her younger brother? Her mother? And that old guy! I'm sure they can help in providing for her!"

Kaede only shook her head. She could see so much of InuTaishou in InuYasha; both of them were definitely stubborn when they had set their minds to it. "I had expected you to be much brighter than that, child, but I am sorely disappointed. Her mother and grandfather are already elders; they cannot work for much longer. Souta had yet to marry, and if he did, he had the burden of not only providing for his newly formed family, but also his sister and elders? That would be beyond the boy's capabilities. Now if you enter the picture and decide to take in his sister, you could provide a stable financial support for the family and alleviate Souta's burden. In fact, it wouldn't cost much (considering your family's income) for you to support all of them."

"To hell with that! Why am I stuck with a bi-" InuYasha caught himself in time when he noticed Kaede's raised brows. "- girl that I don't even know?"

"And that is why I am not trying to force you into a marriage right away. We all know that a marriage not based off love is bound to be unhappy. You have the two months to slowly get to know her, and I can assure you that Kagome is a very nice and sweet child. I can only hope that you liked her enough by then to accept her into your family." Kaede smiled.

"And if I still don't like her by then?" InuYasha asked hopefully, he might yet still escape from his responsibility.

"Then I'll have to force you to," was Kaede's all-too-cheerful response. The young man's mood took a deep plunge when he knew that he had no way out of this problem. What had he done to end up in such a tangle?

A/N:

Not particularly happy with this chapter, but ah well, the fun starts later :)

* Silver thread: I read somewhere before that when people sleep, their soul will leave their body and travel around to other places. The only connection between the soul and the body was through a silver thread, and so whatever the soul happened to be doing outside the body become dreams in the person's memory.

*Sango's name is 'San Hu' if you read it in Chinese, Miroku's 'Mi Le' and InuYasha's 'Quan Ye Cha' since they all have kanji letters for their names.

Pokahydee - Nekoyasha: Thanks, glad you liked the story so far! :)

CaseClosed621: Haha, at least Kagome revealed what happen now to her mother and Kaede. But whether or not InuYasha marry her remains to be known ;p