Disclaimer: So what have we learned?
:Police: Um… you don't own Inuyasha?
No! I have the ownership papers right here! Look!
:Police: Um… they're in black crayon…
-Scowls- Your point?
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to all my reviewers! I so love you all! I couldn't write this (piece of crap) without you! Even though I think this fic is the worst thing in the world, your kind words always get me through and make me wanna write it—just for you! :)
AGE:
InuYasha: 19
Kagome: 18
Kouga: 19
Naraku: 19
Miroku: 19
Sango: 18
Kaede: 65
A Dark Past
Chapter Thirty-One: The Morning After
00000000
But the whole night, Inuyasha didn't once let her go - and wouldn't sit up.
00000000
Kagome sighed as she rolled over to face Inuyasha. "Sun-up's soon," she murmured.
He merely nodded.
"Today's the last day if your punishment." She smiled. "After this, you're free."
"Keh," Inuyasha huffed quietly. "You act like I've actually committed a crime."
Kagome grinned. "Aw, but you did. You. . .you questioned me," she said, acting like she was hurt, pouting.
Inuyasha wasn't impressed with her show and rolled his eyes to tell her so.
Kagome stuck her tongue out at him. Inuyasha stared at it and growled. "Kagome, I swear, if you don't put that away, and keep it away, I'll be forced to do something."
Kagome blinked, swallowing, as she convinced herself he was still playing. "Like what?" she demanded, her voice quivering a little.
"Like this." Without warning Inuyasha rolled over and arranged his legs - one on either side of Kagome - so that he was straddling her. Then he dipped his head down, hovering just inches above hers, and slowly grew closer.
Kagome mentally gasped, surprised at the sudden change in mood. Her heart rate accelerated and she tried to calm it - to no avail, however. She could she Inuyasha drawing closer, and panicked. The only thing that scared her more than Inuyasha at that moment was that she didn't want to push away.
She felt something warm on her back before she saw it. The long rays lengthened to cover part of the room in thin strips. Kagome realized that it was the sun.
So did Inuyasha.
He pulled away, squinting out his window against the sun. And suddenly, he was changing again.
Kagome's eyes widened as the boy who was lying besides her starting to pulsate. His long, dark hair turned back to its usual silver color, his fingernails lengthened into claws, and his teeth grew longer and sharper - fangs.
His arms tightened around her as his eyes snapped open, greeting her with his shockingly amber orbs.
"Inuyasha. . ."
He blinked at her, realizing their position, and rolled off of her quickly.
'Damn. . . One thing I hate about the new moon: I can't control my human emotions as well.'
"Um. . . sorry," he apologized, his cheeks exploding in a burst of color.
Kagome felt her heart sink and she couldn't figure out why. "Oh, um, it's. . . fine." Why would you do something like that and then just apologize?' Kagome couldn't help but think, confusion and hurt laced in her thoughts.
Inuyasha grumbled something inaudible, cheeks still pink.
'Heh, this is better than before,' a highly-amused voice almost purred.
'So you decide to join me?' Inuyasha dryly commented.
'Mm-hmm.'
'Where were you last night?' he asked suspiciously.
'Here.'
'Why weren't you jabbering away like usual, then?'
'. . . Oh, I don't know.'
'Is that sarcasm I smell?'
'How can you smell it, baka, it's not tangible.'
'Shut-up.'
His answer was an amused, 'Hn.'
Kagome cleared her throat, bringing him back to the present. "I'm- - -" her voice was scratchy, so she cleared her throat again and tried once more. "I'm- - -" This time it was a squeak, and Kagome put a hand to her face and cleared her throat again before grumbling incoherent things.
Inuyasha couldn't help but grin at the show. "Poor Kaggy," he teased.
Her eyes narrowed in an icy glare. "Shut-up," she mumbled, her voice reverting back to normal.
Yawning, Inuyasha wrinkled his nose. "There's nothing you can do to stop me," he pointed out.
"Oh, really?" Kagome challenged.
"Hell, yeah."
"I could just. . . accidentally forget to bring you breakfast," Kagome murmured in a voice that suggested she was talking to herself.
Inuyasha didn't buy her act. "And what will Kaede say when I tell her you starved me?"
"Give me a break!" Kagome retorted. "It's one meal!"
"But it's one meal that I wouldn't get!"
Kagome rolled her eyes. "Be that way, pretty boy; I've got to go and get your breakfast."
He nodded. "Yep, that's right; time for my maid to fetch me some grub."
Kagome's eyebrow rose. "I am not your maid. And for your information, I might now completely skip the task of fetching your. . . 'grub' and instead go on with my schedule for your smart comment."
Inuyasha could tell she was only half serious - if that - by the teasing glint in her eyes. So he wasn't worried. "I'd prefer if you would just go on with your job and bring me my breakfast."
Kagome smiled so that she appeared thoughtful. "I do believe that I said I wasn't going to bring you breakfast. Does your mind fail you?"
Inuyasha shrugged. "Maybe you said that, but you'd never leave a poor, innocent, hungry, adorable hanyou to starve for your own evil purposes. You can't be that cruel."
"Hmmm," Kagome hummed, appearing to mull his words over. "What hanyou are we talking about here? The only one I see happens to be butt-ugly."
"Oh," Inuyasha scowled, "now that was low."
Kagome laughed. "I couldn't resist - you totally walked into that one."
Inuyasha's scowl darkened as he reluctantly realized that she was right. "I'm hungry," he stated, bringing the topic back to his breakfast.
Kagome rolled her eyes before rolling off of his bed. "I suppose I better. . . uh. . ." Looking down at herself, Kagome saw the state she was in. Wrinkling her nose in disgust, Kagome raked her fingers through her only-slightly messed hair. She nearly sighed in frustration when she realized that did nothing to help her.
"Ya look fine, so just go already," Inuyasha grumbled, his stomach growling and seconding his words.
Kagome turned narrowed eyes in his direction. "Just shut-up for a second, okay?" she told him before turning her attention back to her rumpled clothes. She grabbed the hem of her shirt and tugged it down in an attempt to straighten out the slightly-rumpled garment. Seeing that it did nothing to help its appearance, she sighed before flipping a loose lock of hair over her shoulder, Kagome sighed again. She looked over her shoulder at Inuyasha - who made sure to rotate his hand in a circle, signaling her to hurry - before turning back to the door and unlocking it.
"Wench," Inuyasha growled when her hands was barely a millimeter away from the door. And then he was there beside her, his hand firmly grasping the handle to open the door. "I open the doors, remember?" he finished in a tone that told her she had better agree.
Kagome came close to rolling her eyes but resisted, instead saying, "Why, Inuyasha, I never knew you were so sweet!" before she could stop to think about it.
Inuyasha's right brow rose. "Don't mention it," he replied evenly, not letting the way-too-sarcastically sweet tone bug him as the nurse slipped out of the door, which closed firmly behind her.
"And it had better be a good breakfast, too," Inuyasha muttered, apparently to the nurse who was no longer within ear shot or in his room as he turned and made his way back to his bed.
"Like ramen."
00000000
"What is that?" Inuyasha demanded the moment he opened his door for the returning nurse a while later.
"Breakfast," was her smooth reply.
"No, it's not," the hanyou retorted.
Kagome came close to snorting as Inuyasha seemed to prod at his tray with his eyes.
"You've never heard of turkey on waffles?"
Inuyasha pinned her with slit golden eyes. "It's a waffle with- - -" his eyes wandered back to his breakfast as he thought of the right word, "- - -unidentified things on top of it. I prefer syrup, if anything."
Kagome put his tray on his stand with a 'clack.' She then picked up the fork that was next to the waffles and prodded at the pieces of meat. "Actually, it looks like a turkey neck. . . and maybe some gizzards here or there for flavoring. . ."
"Gizzards?" Inuyasha nearly sputtered.
Kagome waved a hand at him as she smiled. "I was kidding; I was kidding, I swear."
Inuyasha, however, didn't care. The benefit of the doubt had been placed. The one time he actually wanted to eat and he couldn't. "I'm not going near it," he stated before plopping down on his bed.
Kagome sighed. "Then you're going to starve."
Inuyasha frowned as his brow creased. Feeling a small pang of hunger, he looked over at the tray. Upon seeing what was there, he wrinkled his nose and looked away. "That's fine so long as you get that thing away from me."
"No," was her simple reply.
Narrowing his eyes at her, he demanded, "Why?"
"I need to ask you my question before I take that back."
Sighing in feigned defeat, Inuyasha limply flopped backwards on his bed to stare at the ceiling. "Shoot," he told her.
"How many people know about your human night?"
Inuyasha messed up his face. That was an unexpected question. . .
"Four people," he answered, not even bothering to sit up as he crossed his arms across his chest. "My mother, my father, my brother, and Miroku."
"Miroku knew?"
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Yeah," he told her in an isn't-it-obvious tone.
"Well, excu-u-use me. I didn't mean to offend," Kagome answered sarcastically.
"Oh, I'm so offended," he retorted, finally sitting up.
"I was being sarcastic," she snapped, her patience thinning.
Inuyasha blinked at her innocently. "I couldn't tell."
Kagome resisted the urge to thwack him. "Just shut up," she growled.
"I don't wanna," he informed her with a shrug.
Kagome groaned. "Dang it! I miss the Inuyasha I used to know that I couldn't get a word out of from when I first got here," she complained.
Inuyasha opened his mouth to retort when he stopped, a little taken aback. "Keh," he finally said, "I was never 'hard to get a word out of'."
Kagome gave him a look that clearly suggested she was seeing an extra head starting to grow on him somewhere.
"It's true!" he defended.
'You sure about that?'
Inuyasha mentally huffed at the annoying voice of his youkai. 'Yes! I am, actually!'
There was a second pause. 'Well, in any case, you're much more lax around her, answering her questions with more ease – you're even answering comments more frequently now – and you're really enjoying her presence. Dare I say it – you're starting to rely on her being here.'
Inuyasha was about to snap at how stupid saying that was when Kagome cut in. "I'm sure you weren't," she commented dryly. "But you do know that our little One Question game has really made a difference in your social skills? You don't snap at me twenty-four-seven."
Inuyasha wasn't enlightened when he realized that was true. "Oi!" he grumbled since it was all he could think of to reply. "Not true."
"Hey, Inuyasha?"
"What now, wench?"
"You're blushing."
"I am not, wench."
"Of course you're not."
Huffing, Inuyasha's slightly pink face darkened. "Keh."
"Inuyasha?"
"Now what?"
"As much as I'm enjoying seeing you act all sissy with that blushing problem of yours, you have an appointment with Mr. Dai."
Inuyasha sighed and leaned back on the palms of his hands. "I know," he replied softly. "I always have an appointment with him. . . I'm just a crazy teen, after all. . ."
"What was that?" Kagome asked him over her shoulder as she slid her I.D. card through the reader.
"Keh! Nothing, wench. Let's go, already. It's going to be lunch before you do anything!" He then opened the door and they headed towards the psychiatrist's office.
00000000
There was a long pause. "Excuse me?"
Mr. Dai nearly sighed in exasperation. "You heard me. How do you feel when in love?"
Regaining his composure, Inuyasha huffed. "How the hell should I know?"
The psychiatrist gave him a look. "I know you've loved at least one person in your life, Inuyasha."
The hanyou shrugged in reply. "I'm afraid I haven't."
"Do you have parents?"
Golden eyes narrowed as he realized where this was going. "Yes," he answered slowly.
"Did you ever love- - -"
"Nope," Inuyasha interjected in a harsh tone.
Mr. Dai's brow furrowed. "Touchy subject?" he guessed.
"Now why would you say that?" the hanyou remarked sarcastically.
"Sine you and your parent don't seem to get along and noting your behavior towards your family, I take it you and your brother had. . . issues?"
The hanyou almost snorted at the lightly used word 'issues.' 'Issues' came nowhere close to explaining the tension between Sesshoumaru and himself. "You could say we're. . . competitive."
Mr. Dai smiled - Inuyasha noted that he looked slightly different when he did that. "Aren't all siblings that way? I used to outdo my older brother."
Inuyasha nearly rolled his eyes. The stupid psychiatrist and his brother probably fought over who could throw a ball farther or who was more popular with girls. Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru however fought over who was better at everything: who was more famous with the paparazzi, which had more fans, who was the strongest fighter - since their father had insisted on training them in the ways of their youkai ancestor - who had their mother's favor, who had their father's favor. 'Hell, we even fought over who our dog liked best,' Inuyasha told himself, remembering the incident a few years ago where their dog had almost been shredded over the two siblings fighting over it.
"I don't think your rivalry was much like ours," the hanyou finally told Mr. Dai.
"And why not?" The question wasn't defensive, more like curious.
"I don't think you tried to kill each other - quite literally - over who your mother and father favored."
Mr. Dai's eyebrows rose. "Your parents played favorites?"
Inuyasha shrugged. "My father liked Sesshoumaru better because he was full youkai. So my mother took me under her wing and she watched out for me; protected me. I liked her hell of a lot more than I did my father."
"You had to have loved her," Mr. Dai told him, returning to the earlier topic.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?" came the skeptical tone of the psychiatrist.
"What love feels like," Inuyasha clarified, a little annoyed at the look in Mr. Dai's eyes that seemed to ask are you stupid or what?
"It. . ." Mr. Dai let off, thinking about that for a few seconds before continuing, "It's a feeling you get. When in love, it seems that you can see stars shining in the day, see roses bloom right before your eyes, and even defy gravity. Your heart always flutters around that person - especially when you realize you love them - and every time you touch, your skin tingles."
Inuyasha's right eye brow rose in question.
"Um, yeah, I sound really girly, but I'm engaged, so can you blame me?" he asked a little sheepishly, his cheeks turning a little red in embarrassment, at sounding 'girly.'
Inuyasha wanted to groan at the psychiatrist.
00000000
"Have fun?"
"Keh! I have to say, you're unbelievable, wench," Inuyasha grumbled as he flopped into a sitting position on his bed.
"But did you?"
A dark glare was her answer.
"Okay. D'ya. . . learn anything?" Kagome asked, a little desperate to keep a conversation going on his sessions and progress with the psychiatrist.
"It's a feeling you get. When in love, it seems that you can see stars shining in the day, see roses bloom right before your eyes, and even defy gravity."
Inuyasha blinked in surprise at the voice of Mr. Dai that somehow found its way into his head.
"Nope," Inuyasha finally answered realizing Kagome was still waiting for an answer.
'Shoot,' Inuyasha grumbled, thinking about what the stupid psychiatrist had said. 'That's kinda how I feel around Kagome. . .'
00000000
(E/N: I'm sorry I made you endure her grammar, that is getting better, for so long. I finally got around to editing this lovely story. I would like to tell you all that my Spring Break is one day away!! Also, the zombie is doing fine. He has recently learned how to bake MUFFINS!! Alright well I want all of you to review and maybe that will make Sayo124 write faster.)
Irk. It took me nearly a month to update… and this chapter along with several others have been written for a long time. –slaps forehead- I just get so caught up in reading Fics that I forget to update mine… -winces- Forgive me?
Review, one and all!!
Ja ne!