Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any characters involved in the anime.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys! It means a lot to me! The more reviews, the more likely people will read the story, and that makes me happy :
GLADIATOR
Chapter 6
The birds were singing outside and the sunlight had already completed its journey into the depths of the cave when Inuyasha woke up.
Still a bit groggy, he took in his surroundings. He must have slept way past noon at least…
He was about to let himself drift off again until…
Where was Kagome?!
His eyes snapped open, oh, he was wide awake now. He desperately searched every corner of the cave, all that was left was the crumpled wedding gown.
He sniffed around, and found her scent to be old, that meant she had been gone for a while now…
His heart was doing back flips and his mind was racing, trying to come up with some sensible reason as to why Kagome was gone. Taking one last look around, he turned around to dash out of the cave in search of the raven haired woman.
"Oof! Inuyasha! What's the big idea?!" he smashed into the object of his search.
He must have been so preoccupied with worrying about her, that he didn't catch her scent coming up from behind him…
As he shook his head to clear the effects of the collision, he noticed all of the fruit that had made its way onto the floor of the cave.
Without another word she bent down and started to pick up the mess.
"Where the hell were you?!!" he practically roared.
She flinched a little bit at the volume of his shout, "I just went to gather some food for you since you did so for me last night! Is that so bad?!!!"
"If you need food, then just tell me, and I'll get you some, otherwise, STAY PUT! I still don't see what took you so long…" he grumbled out, letting his annoyance cover up the relief swelling through his chest at the moment.
"Well, you see…there was a fruit in this one tree that I wanted to get for you, since you seemed to eat that one more than the others last night…I figured it was your favorite out of the bunch, and I really wanted you to have it, but it was out of my reach…."
He cocked his eyebrow at this.
She stood there looking down at the ground shyly, tracing imaginary circles in the ground with her right foot. "I tried to climb the tree to get you the good ones…and I fell a few times, but I eventually got some…here!" she whipped out the fruit she was referring to and offered it to him.
"T-thanks…you didn't have to…" he stuttered, very surprised she would go to those lengths to get him something that she thought he would like…
He took the offering, assuring her that next time he would gather food, "It's my duty to you, the female, to provide you with things like that…"
"Oh? And why is that?"
"Keh, because, females are too weak to do things like that on their own, the fact that you fell down gathering some fruit tells me so too. So no arguments."
She was about to say something but she shut her mouth and made her way over to her crumpled dress, biting into a fruit as she went.
Inuyasha had begun eating his food, but paused when he heard the ripping of fabric. He turned to find her pulling the pearls off of the hems of her dress.
She noticed him staring, "I'm taking off all of the pearls, and then I'll work on the sapphires in the tiara, but I think I will need your help with that... We can get some money for these, and then instead of sleeping in a cave, we can stay at an inn somewhere, far away from the castle, where no one has seen me." She looked down at herself, "and also, so I can get some new clothes, I'm sure you want your haori back..."
He grunted his acknowledgement, so she continued with her task at hand.
After a few hours of pulling, picking, and ripping, she had managed to get nearly 5 handfuls of pearls and a handful of rather large sapphire gems. "These should definitely fetch a lot of money…probably enough to live off of for years!"
She ripped some more fabric, and with a little bit of effort, managed to create a makeshift sack to put the pearls and sapphires in.
He didn't say it out loud, but, he had to admit to himself that she was pretty resourceful for a young lady of her status.
"I'm ready to go when your ready Inuyasha…do you think we can stop by a nearby village? I'm sure the word hasn't gotten this far yet of what happened…"
"Of course it hasn't yet, it would take at least three days on horseback to get here from the castle, I could outrun those idiots anytime, no problem at all." He bragged, "So yeah, we'll go to a village nearby, I saw fires coming from over there while I was in the trees getting some fruit last night."
He motioned with his head for her to follow him out of the cave.
As he got down on one knee, she looked at him in confusion, waiting for him to get up.
"Come on! We ain't got all day! Get on my back!" he ordered.
"Oh, I thought you wanted to walk-" she was cut off as he practically threw her onto his back, and after checking to see if she was carrying her bag of jewels, bounded out of the cave quicker than the speed of light.
She squealed initially out of fright, but those soon turned into that of joy, wrapping her arms more contentedly around his thick upper body.
This of course, didn't go unnoticed.
The hanyou smirked his silent satisfaction and bounded along, going a little bit slower than his usual…hmm…wonder why? -wink-
When they finally reached the village, her hair was a complete mess, adding to her already scruffy appearance.
"I really, really, really, need to bathe…Sir," she called out to a nearby villager, "Do you know where I could get fresh clothes and a bath?"
Even if word had gotten out this far about her "kidnapping", no one would recognize her in this state anyhow…
He looked her up and down as she asked this, oh yes, she DID need a bath and some new clothes….his thoughts stopped there as he visibly jumped upon seeing Inuyasha.
Gulping, he nodded and guided her to the village market square, what surprised him were the jewels she pulled out to pay for her new garments of silk.
Inuyasha looked on rather boringly as she ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the rich, silky texture of the kimonos. When she was finished, she had only used one sapphire, one of the bigger ones, but still, just one altogether.
She purchased two blue and one coral colored kimonos, all of which were very intricate and stunning to the eye of the beholder, as well as a bag she could use to carry her belongings in. She asked Inuyasha if he wanted anything but he just kept refusing the entire time.
Grinning from ear to ear, they left the market place and she followed the directions the old villager had given her while she was shopping to a nearby hot spring. "Now to have a nice, hot, bath…" she sighed in pleasure at the thought of bathing herself.
She came to the edge of a quaint forest, and continued her journey inside to her destination. When she reached the hot spring she looked around to find that there was no one else there, and began to strip herself of the haori.
That is, until she remembered Inuyasha was with her.
And there he was, with his hands behind his head, staring at her as if her getting naked before him was absolutely the most natural thing in the world.
She turned and narrowed her eyes at him, "Inuyasha…."
Rolling his eyes upwards he leapt up into the canopy of trees and out of sight, "Keh! Stupid girl…"
She peered up into the branches, but could find no trace of him. Shrugging her shoulders, she decided if she couldn't see him, then more than likely he couldn't see her, so she finished undressing, folding the haori neatly beside the edge of the spring, and slowly lowered herself in.
Reveling in the way the water scorched her skin, she let herself sink until the water reach her chin, and began blowing some bubbles into the water.
Wow…here she was, kami knows where…with a hanyou, running away from her fiancé…how awkward is this going to get?...
Her brows knitted together in concentration.
She had to get to her family before Naraku does, just in case he tries to pull something sleezy, and she had to find a way to contact her friend Sango…
She was so focused on her inner thoughts that she didn't notice the silver hair hanging from one of the branches above the spring.
He smiled to himself as he looked down on her form, her own natural scent wafted up towards him, being carried along with the rising steam of the spring. It was as If it was drugging him, he thought, as he hung there slothfully.
She hadn't noticed him up there, thank kami, so for now, he would enjoy the view.
Besides, she looked kinda cute when she made that face…
He had stealthily made his way over her when she wasn't paying attention, more to watch out for her safety, but hey, he wouldn't deny to himself that in the back of his mind he wanted to see more of her…
So, there he was, his limbs and hair dangling visibly above, but unknowingly to her, as she continued to try and formulate some sort of plan.
Reality hit him like a ton of bricks as she began to wash her hair, slightly moaning as she did so.
His mouth slightly hung open as the top of her derriere revealed itself to him, as well as the smooth skin of her back, glistening from the heat of the spring, while she was bent over running her fingers through her inky black hair.
Gulping, he tried to get a hold of himself and told himself he should leave right about now, but almost lost his control when she stood and began to wash herself down there…
The little mews coming from the back of her throat put a halt to anymore thoughts of moving away from the spring.
He almost let out a low growl in response, but caught himself before it could be released. Blushing like a madman, he forced himself away from the scene.
She had just finished washing her womanhood when a few leaves fell into the spring from above.
Blue eyes examined the trees above, but found nothing. Shrugging, she made her way out of the spring and slipped into one of her new azure kimonos, picking up the top of Inuyasha's haori as she went.
"Inuyasha? Hey! I'm sure you can hear me…where'd you go?" she called out to him, but got no reply.
She turned around only to crash into a tree.
Rubbing her nose she looked up to realize that the "tree" was Inuyasha's chest…
"Oww…what did you do that for?" she murmured, still rubbing her nose. The poor thing felt as if it had cracked for the second time that day…
He cocked one of his eyebrows as he looked down at her in what she thought was a very dominant sort of way.
"You were looking for me, and here I am, so what are you complaining about?" he bent down to grab his top that had fallen with her to the ground, and pulled it over his head, shrugging it back into place.
Every time he looked at her, the memories of her in the spring kept flooding his vision.
He began to growl softly, which made her snap her head up towards him. She noticed he looked a little spaced out, and tugged on his pants a bit, snapping him back to reality.
He looked down at her once more and held out his hand, lifting her off the ground, and abruptly started trekking back out of the forest.
She followed after him, a bit confused at his behavior, but decided to keep quiet about it.
It was well into the evening when they made it back to the village, so she decided to rent out a place to stay, a room with a nice fireplace. She noticed all of the villagers staring rather openly at Inuyasha, and gave him a rather large leeway to walk through.
Some of them even had the gall to glare at him.
What did he ever do to them?
They had no right to stare at him like that….
Poor Inuyasha…
When they got to a decent inn, the innkeeper kept glaring at Inuyasha as she spoke with Kagome about the prices.
All Kagome had to do was flash a few pearls and the woman quickly consented. "You can have the biggest room available, but that thing," she jerked her chin towards Inuyasha, "cannot stay here."
He half expected Kagome to agree and be on her merry way, he didn't mind sleeping in trees that much anyways…
"Umm, excuse me for asking, but why not?" Kagome questioned rather heatedly, catching Inuyasha's attention.
The innkeeper scoffed, "Dear child, he will scare off all of my other customers, and I can't have that now can I? I'm sure you understand."
Kagome just nodded and placed her pearls back into her satchel, "I see, well, then I'm sure you can understand that I don't plan to do business with you any longer."
The innkeeper began to splutter out something but stopped as she reached out for Kagome's shoulder, she couldn't afford to lose such a fine customer… "On second thought, he can stay, as long as he is with you at all times, I'll even have an extra futon placed in your room for him…" she pleaded.
Smiling, Kagome turned back around and took the pearls out once again, placing them into the woman's hands, who in turn began guiding her towards their room for the night.
"These are the finest pearls I have ever laid eyes on…" the innkeeper murmured to herself.
Kagome just smirked as the woman bowed down and opened the sliding door to their room for them. They made their way past her, into the room, Inuyasha still amazed at how Kagome had stood up for him back there…
She told them that she would have the finest dinner delivered to their room shortly, and bid them goodnight as she slid the door closed once more.
Inuyasha stood there, trying to replay what just happened in his mind, but was thrown off when he heard Kagome burst into a fit of giggles.
"Did you see the look on that woman's face? How rude of her to imply that you would scare everyone off." She scoffed, but still smiling, "You couldn't scare a fly!"
"Oi! I could too scare a fly…I'm a vicious demon remember?" he pouted.
"Oh come now Inuyasha, I'm just kidding. I must admit, you did look rather intimidating when I first saw you, but now I have to say that I'm not afraid of you at all." She giggled.
"Oh really now? Not even if I do….THIS?!!" he yelled as he pounced on her, knocking her to the floor as laughter filled the room.
They rolled around, wrestling a little bit, until there came a knock on the door.
Straightening her hair back into place with her fingers, Kagome sat up and cleared her throat. "Yes?"
"Mistress, I have your supper for this evening if you wish to partake in it now…"
"Please do come in, and thank you." She called back out to the maid.
The door slid open, and as promised, trays and trays of food were brought in before them.
Once the doors were closed again and the servants had left, Inuyasha wasted no time and began inhaling his food.
As they were eating, Kagome proposed the idea of locating her friend Sango tomorrow. He refused for a little while, but eventually caved in at her persistence.
After they were finished, they set the trays outside of their door against the wall in the hallway, and immediately collapsed onto their individual futons, absolutely content as can be.
"Inuyasha?"
His usual grunt let her know he heard her.
"Is this the first time you got to do something like this?" she bit her lip, wondering if she was treading too deeply…
"What do you mean?" he sighed as he closed his eyes.
"I mean uhh…like…being carefree like this?" she offered.
"No…not that I can remember, maybe I did once when I was a little kid and my mother was still alive, but…other than that, no…" he spoke in hushed tones.
She was about to delve into the subject of his mother a bit more when she saw him reach over towards her.
She let out a surprised squeak when he tugged her futon next to his, to the point where if she were to roll over she would practically be against his chest.
"I-Inuyasha..? What did you do that for?..." she audibly gulped, trying to force down the blush that began creeping its way onto her cheeks.
His eyes were closed as he rested his arm in the space between them. Shrugging he answered, "I don't know…I never really slept with someone close by me like this since I've been captured by that bastard, and, I have to admit that it feels kinda nice…" he murmured.
He must have been half asleep, because there was no way he could have been awake when he said "You know…you smell …really nice…" He inhaled her scent as he pulled her into him, wrapping an arm around her rather possessively.
She went rigid with shock as she felt his even breathing tickling the tiny hairs on the back of her neck.
She stared at the wall opposite to her for what seemed an eternity, before she gave into the warmth that was pressing into her back and fell into a deep slumber…
Tomorrow they would go find Sango, and from there, get her family to safety…and hopefully, when everything was said and done, Inuyasha would stay with her and her family…
A/N: There, how'd you like that? Some fluffy scenes, yes, I know. I figured I owed it to those of you out there getting anxious over the way Inuyasha treats Kagome. Well, please read and review, I'm wanting to reach at least 55 reviews before the next chapter. This time, please let me know if there is anything you'd like to see in the storyline, and who knows, maybe I'll work it in. : like…whether or not kouga should make an appearance.?? Let me know what you guys want!
Until next time,
-Jinju-