Chapter 4: It might go better the second time
Sluuuuurp
"… need to search for Shippou first and then we should–" No, it's better to take a break at this part, because it's a new moon right after finding Shippou. "We should take a break at my place, I need to–"
Slur – sluuuuuuuuuuuurrrp
"– study too." She doesn't, really – since she's already learned all of that and has taken all those tests – but it's a good excuse, though.
Sluuuuuuurrp!
"All riiiight!", she explodes, pausing her back-and-forth pacing. "I'm not giving you noodles ever again!"
"No fair! I'm just hungry!"
"I know! After fifty years without eating of course you'd be! And that's why I bought ten cups only for you!" Kagome points at the growing pile of empty Cup Noodles cups.
"But –"
"BUT! Now you're eating my share, too! For the whole week!"
"It's because it's too good!" Sluuurp. "You cook really good!"
Kagome gapes at him. Why is he being nice? He isn't supposed to be nice to her like this until his first new moon with her, praising her scent. And more, even after being best friends, Inuyasha never talked good about her cooking skills, always preferring instant noodles to her home-made food.
Should she tell him the truth about the mysteries of adding hot water and waiting three minutes?
Nah. "Thank you, Inuyasha.", she beams to him.
And just like every time she does, he looks away and murmurs "Keh!". Desperately wanting to change the subject, the hanyou tosses the empty cup in her trash bag – when he tosses garbage on the ground that midget uses to get really angry – and stands from his seat. "So… Let's search for the bastard.", he says.
"What?! – Did you listen to anything I was saying?"
"No."
Oh, the nerve…! "I said," Kagome growls. "We must stay here in the village for now."
The hanyou holds back a smirk at her attempt of growling. "Why?"
Kagome blinks, surprised by the lack of screams and curses from him, but doesn't show it. Usually Inuyasha doesn't ask why, either he says no or he grumpily gives up trying to say no. And in the beginning it was even worse, because he always said no. Why is he different this time?
Realizing she has yet to give him an answer, Kagome quickly puts these thoughts aside for later. "Ah, well, uh… I already told you. Someone is looking for you."
"Who?"
"The flea," she reveals. "Myouga."
Inuyasha's face becomes less relaxed and he takes a few steps towards her to stare closely in her eyes. "You know too much for a stranger, you know."
"Well, maybe…" Kagome discreetly gulps. "Maybe that's because I'm… not a stranger?"
Inuyasha narrows his eyes and quirks his brow. "What do you mean, wench?"
"I mean exactly what I said." she starts, taking a step back for the sake of breathing easily. "I'm not a stranger."
Inuyasha almost thinks that she's definitely out of her mind, but before he can begin to mentally snicker at her craziness her scent fills his nose and he goes quiet again. Not even a little spark of a lie or uncertainty. He can trust her if based on his instincts, but if based on his past experiences, Inuyasha should definitely kill her right in the spot.
"I know it's all confusing to you and sounds doubtful, but please, bear with it a little longer – I'll tell you everything as soon as you're ready."
The hanyou pierces her with gold a second longer than normal and finally says "Whatever. But one strange move and I'll kill you, got that?", he threatened.
Kagome feels body shiver. It's been so long since she last heard Inuyasha's low killer voice, since she last needed to worry while in his presence. It feels so strange her head spins.
"When is he going to get here?", Inuyasha suddenly asks.
And she's caught off guard. "Uhh…" First was that garasu bird who possessed that corpse, then came Yura and the next morning Myouga showed up to break the news and at night – her heart skips a beat – came Sesshoumaru. "The day after tomorrow, I think."
"What?!", he barks. "You want to sit and do nothing for two whole days?!"
"Well, we wo–"
"No way in hell!"
"Listen to me!" Kagome shrieks as she reaches her limits. She's not used to this Inuyasha anymore. "We won't do nothing, don't be silly!"
"Oh, yeah? What will we do, then?", he dares.
Kagome picks up her towel, bikini and soap, and then smiles. "Bath?"
x-•°•°•-x
"You've got to be kidding me."
"Why do you say that?"
"Are you seriously asking me to bath in the same spring as you?"
"I guess?"
"Stop joking around!"
"I'm not! I really don't get why you're making such a big deal about it." Actually, she does. He thinks since he's hanyou she should be disgusted by him. But the fact is that she wasn't, is not and never will be. "You stop being ridiculous and get in already!"
Inuyasha breathed hard, having problems believing a girl is willing to share a bath in a spring with another man. Bah, scratch that. With a hanyou. 'I knew it, she's a whore.', he can tell by her calmness while showing her body like that. He could see her belly, for God's sake! "It's improper in so many ways..." His mother always told him.
The woman turns to smirk at him. "Since when do you care?"
Good point.
Strange how the bitch seems to know him…
Shrugging the worries away, he starts stripping. Kagome knows by experience that Inuyasha wouldn't agree to wear the pair of shorts she bought for him a long time ago – or a long time later? –, so since it can't be helped (and since she still hasn't bought the shorts yet), Kagome looks away and waits for the sound of moving water.
"So… where were you trained?", she hears him ask.
Tilting her head to the side, she hums. "I wasn't."
Inuyasha raises an eyebrow. "You lie."
"I don't.", she giggles. "I really wasn't."
"It's impossible to turn a yokai to ashes without any training. It takes years to do that!", he argues.
"Well… You can say that I took years to learn that." It's been nearly five years since she started her journey, after all. "It's just that I had to train during fights.", she explained. "No one really taught me."
Inuyasha tilts his head to the side. "No one ever taught you?"
The girl shrugs. "Some tips here and there, but no real training. – Why so surprised?" When she finally looks at him, Kagome mentally jumps. Why was he making such a face? Biting his bottom lip and eyes the size of saucers. Is he pitying her? No, she concludes. Because he never had someone to teach him things either he's being compassionate to her… "Hey, now, don't you dare fee–– AHH!"
A large bird closes its claws around her shoulders and flies away in a blink. "Oi! Give her back!" she hears Inuyasha shouting in the distance. She can try to fry the damn thing just like she did the centipede, but she's so high up in the air and Inuyasha is so far to catch her that it's not a good idea. She'll have to wait–
Gravity suddenly greets her again and she is falling. The trees are coming up fast to meet her and Kagome can't say what she dreads most: the impact with the ground…
Or the déjà vu of falling endlessly after being ripped from him.
Well, she'll find out soon.
x-•°•°•-x
Was that girl bathed in gold when she was born by any chance? It's ridiculous! Why do yokais want her so much?
Inuyasha runs as fast as his legs can take him. He can't lose her, can't let her die. That girl has answers to his questions and boy, she's gonna answer them. He'll make sure of that. Besides…
'We're friends.'
'You have me.'
Apparently, she thinks he's her friend. He unconsciously speeds up.
Smelling the air, tracking her scent, Inuyasha turns left to follow the faint trace of the woman's aroma and sees a hut surrounded by tons of trees. 'Found ya.'
Inuyasha doesn't bother using the door, choosing to burst into the shack through the wall to find that damn chicken beaking and tearing the unconscious woman's skin. "Bastard!", he barks, running for the bird and with only two of his claws the chicken is gone. Really… As easy as it's disappointing.
Inuyasha crouches next to the girl and twists his nose at the awkward – and surely uncomfortable – position her right leg and arm are curved. Broken, he decides. And not to mention her nudity state. The barely-there thing she's wearing left so absurdly little for him to imagine already, and now the top is completely shredded, exposing her breasts. "Stupid wench.", he doesn't know why the hell she hasn't already killed the thing since it's weaker than the centipede, but he can ask her later.
He catches her bride-style and thinks of taking her back to the spring to clean her wounds; they are deep, but there aren't many, not enough to make her lose her consciousness, then why is she out? Why hasn't she killed the bird in the first place? He thought she was strong! Her show back at the Goshinboku left him speechless, his body hair standing on end – where's all that strength now? Just because of some beaks? Is she that weak?
But the answers for these questions come crashing down on his head the moment he notices the worryingly large puddle of blood that pools right where her head was lying seconds ago. Slightly gulping, Inuyasha looks up only to find a huge hole in the ceiling. "Fuck."
'The fucking bird dropped her. She fell – she fucking fell!', he curses as he runs for her life towards the spring.
Inuyasha jumps high above the trees and dashed forwards in light speed, only stopping when he's right above the spring to finally let himself fall with the girl into the water.
He washes all the blood away from her head and body and lays her on her stomach on the ground outside the spring. Dripping wet, he stands on all fours above the unconscious, semi-naked miko, takes a deep breath, pushes her hair aside and licks the injury, letting his saliva do the work of healing her wounds. The taste of her blood has his eyes drifting close, his pulse quickening and head spinning. It's not the first time tasting blood, but the first tasting human blood. Tastes better than it smells, he purrs mentally, losing himself and unintentionally taking his time in healing her.
Inuyasha licks it for minutes that feel like hours and when he judges the work done he reluctantly stops and carefully turns her on her back; golden eyes scanning the feminine face for some sign of consciousness, but nothing. He presses his ear to her chest – just to be sure – and sighs when her heartbeat is heard before adjusting himself to lick the other injuries through her body, determined to not lose it and concentrate in thinking of a good shelter for the night. He might have saved her, but now that she's drenched and soon it'd be dark and cold he'd better build up a fire in a warm place.
Can't have his 'friend' dying on him.
x-•°•°•-x
She buries her hands in his stupidly long hair as she kisses him harder, trying to convey all her feelings and how crazily she's missed him through that kiss. And the proof of her success comes when he growls and tightens his grip on her tights, pulling her closer and breaking the kiss for a moment just to lay her down on his bed, and Kagome takes the chance to admire his face, to drink in his beauty. She's missed him so much that a single tear rolled down. "I missed you…", she whispers, her words heavy with emotion. "I love you."
"What…?", he murmurs, his voice uncharacteristically filled with shock.
She giggles then repeats "I love you."
"No, you don't!" His tone was strange; his manner terribly uncharacteristic.
Her brows furrow in confusion. "Of course I do."
"Now, wake up."
"Wha–"
"Wake up!"
Inuyasha's voice booms in the cave and thunders in her head like mountain-sized bells. She tries moving her hands so she can grasp her head, but her muscles pulse in pain and she gives up the idea with a painful groan. "Wher – are we?", she croaks.
"In a cave." Inuyasha shoots, his voice agitated. "The damn bird beaked you all over and some bites got infected. Now you're burning up."
Oh… "Where are Miroku and Sango?", Kagome asks. She's taught them how to treat infections, they could help him.
"Who?" Is she delirious yet?
"Our… f-friends.", she wheezes.
"Get a hold of ya'self.", he warns in a clipped tone. "Already told you that I have no friends. – Now stop talking." He doesn't like the way her breathing is getting faster.
"I-I…", she pants. "I'm your friend, Inuyasha… You know I'll never leave you…", the girl mumbles to him, suddenly getting calmer by the second. "How could I?"
Inuyasha tries to resist that useless talk – she's completely out of it, after all. He fails, though. Watching her toss and turn and sweat and moan is making him nervous and he decides it's better if he keep her awake. "The same way you did fifty years ago.", he answers; eyes fixed on her closed ones.
Her brows furrow. "I didn- no, I didn't … please, I'm… not her."
He knows that. "Whatever, just shut up and sleep, will ya? You'll probably be better in the morning and won't remember a thing.", he hopes.
"I'm not her.", Kagome breaths. "I never lied…"
Inuyasha sighs. "I said whate–"
"I promised you I'll stay by your side…"
"No, you didn't – Are you cr–"
"I… love you."
…
… This word. This hateful word is the key to everything that is worst in him; to unlock all his rage. And unlock all his rage it does. His face goes all blank at once as the recently cracked rock that covers his heart surrounds it again as its beats pulse harder and bitter. He hates that word the most; no matter who says it, it's an ugly lie. The person is a lie, everything around that word is a cruel lie.
And now, Kagome is a lie too.
