My Signs Misread
By Imperfectly-Yours
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. I just use the characters to fulfill my own sinister desires.
Summary: Kagome always thought Inuyasha was the one boy that would make her life complete. Turns out he wasn't.
Neglected Author's Notes: Please enjoy. Reviews can make a writer's day – why not make mine? :)
This chapter is on the short side but for a reason.
Chapter Three
Her face was met with the sprinkles of rain.
Kagome closed her eyes, not expecting this in the least. She stood at the bottom of the well, and tried to look up towards the sky. It was gray and solemn and cried to her.
She placed her hand on the first step of the ladder climbing upward to the lip of the wood. It was slippery and so she adjusted her backpack tighter and wiped her wet hands off on the front of her shirt. She would have to be careful.
She reached to the second bar and pulled herself up. Her feet dangled for a moment and then reached the step, but didn't slip. So she continued, almost rhythmically, pulling herself up from step to step, her mind turning around and around with thoughts like static.
It was of course, only Kagome's fair luck that landed her in the start of a feudal era storm. She, despite the somewhat hostile glimpses from her mother as she packed her bags, decided to return to the old times. She had not said goodbye to her friends, nor gotten the next weeks assignment for her already failed classes. She was returning and completely returning, because she had a job, she had a calling, and this could not go to waste.
Though, she still tried to convince herself it wasn't just to come see a certain dog demon.
She landed the final step to the ladder, seeing the tips of trees beyond the clearing. She lifted her arm from the bar and grasped the edge of well. She then lifted her leg, and then the other-
Her back foot slipped on the bar and her whole body sagged downward towards the end of a long fall. Kagome gasped and she tried to pull herself up but found it too wet and slippery and cold to do any good. She reached with her legs the ladder but could not get a firm landing. Where was Inuyasha? Where was Miroku? Why weren't they waiting for her by the well like always? Her foot slipped again. She would have to do this herself.
With all the might she had, she pulled herself up onto the wooden ledge and rolled off of it into the grass. The wetness pierced into her clothes and she lay there shivering. She unstrapped herself of the heavy backpack and pushed it off of her, then sitting up. Her white shirt was soaked through and her legs were exposed and white with chill.
She leaned her head back, her knobby elbows dug into the wet earth. The rain continued to fall, not letting up. She decided she would have to find Inuyasha before she caught pneumonia.
Kagome pushed her wet bangs from her face and with much effort stood up. Her pack now made noises at every motion, which meant it was no longer organized and Kagome could only grumble at this.
"Stupid gravity." She mumbled to herself, bending to pick up the large bag. "And stupid rain." She lifted herself back up again and straightened her skirt which hung heavily against her form.
Kagome looked up. Thin sheets of rain fell before her and padded the ground softly and the trees and grass and sky beyond were blurs of green and gray like watercolor streaks. She turned to her right to leave and lifted a foot that didn't land.
There he was before her, a beacon of white, a shroud of cold.
Sesshomaru.
Her hair snaked down her shoulders, raven silk dripping. Her garments hugged her form and dirt clung to her knees and elbows and she looked quite awkward and yet so beautiful but she didn't know this. She stood shivering and cold and looked at him with eyes of surprise.
He looked untouched by the rain. Pristine, almost glowing.
She put her foot back on to the ground and they looked at each other for a moment's time. His eyes were unforgiving and she felt a cold spread through her that had nothing to do with the rain.
Kagome cleared her throat and sniffed miserably. The fact that he was there before her, standing only in his cloth garment, had made her terribly scared.
He had waited for her.
But to what? To kill her? To deliver a message from Inuyasha that told her to never come back? To give news of Naraku? No, definitely not, and not at all. She felt silly and stupid. She waited.
Her eyes darted to his only hand and she gasped. He grasped her bow and arrows.
Perhaps he had come to give her what she had forgotten? But were his intentions truly that innocent…? They continued to look at one another.
And then she spoke, her voice little and faint. "Sesshomaru, what are you doing here?"
He said nothing and his face remained withdrawn, lifeless.
She repeated herself, this time louder. "What do you want?"
The wind shrilled high against their ears and battling against it was his cold and quick response. "I want nothing from the likes of you, miko."
She couldn't help but roll her eyes. It was only expected from him.
"Okay, then why are you standing there with my bow and arrows?" Her voice was almost taunting and he did not like it in the least. Even in the downpour she could see his eyes flash.
"To return what is yours." He was brusque with her but she paid no attention.
"Oh."
Drops of water fell from her chin across her cheeks like makeshift tears. In the distance a far cry of thunder rumbled across the hills and the rain continued. Yet, it seemed the whole world was quite still and quite quiet and never ending.
She looked at him with subtle sorrow but he could sense it.
"You waited all this time for me, just to give me back my things?"
Suddenly, he dropped the bow and arrows to the ground, and turned. There were no other words, nor gestures. He was like silence itself. She watched him fade into the shower and then disappear.
His form still burned into her vision.
He walked away from her, slowly, his eyes cold and unmoving and tracing the lands before him. That was the only purpose of waiting for her, to return her belongings. He did not wish to stay, he should not stay. No, he could not stay.
His companions were waiting for him.
But who?
He had things to do.
But what?
His bare feet touched the dew streaked grass and left them ridden of their chill.
She was so delicate, so naked, so untouched.
But was she?
Somewhere, in the cold forlorn walls of his heart, might strike a spark of warmth.
Somewhere.
She stood drenched in the rain shivering with cold, and yet did not move.
The wind laced with the wet and the rain and pierced her trembling body, pale and porcelain like.
And so, the third set of signs had been set into place.
Ta-da! My holiday present to you. I finished the third chapter and now on to the third chapter of Love Like Dark and then to the fourth and oh it never ends! Oh wells, that's what's so fun about it for us writers, right? Heh…
Anyways hope you enjoy and a lovely holiday present to me from you all would be reviews! Lots and lots of reviews!
I have a feeling all I'll be getting is coal this year…
Cheers!