What a (Human) Girl Wants
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha ~ and that's a real shame, too.
~oOo~
"... not your woman!" Inuyasha practically screamed at the hard-headed wolf that had been chasing Kagome for months, while the rest of the tachi watched, their heads going back and forth as fast as the banter was. Kagome, on the other hand, had her teeth gritted and a hand over her face as she fought to control her temper, her pretty blue eyes sparking with growing anger.
"Of course she is, you fuck'n dolt!" Kouga screamed right back. "First off, you don't even love her! You're always chasing that dead bitch! And what can you offer her anyway, stupid – sleeping on the ground and foraging for food and scraps in the mud and filth for the rest of her life?"
"Guys... hey, guys," Kagome said, trying to get their attention. It didn't work, both ignoring her completely to scream at each other some more.
"Oh, and you can do better?" Inuyasha snarled, blatantly ignoring the dig about Kikyou. He wasn't ready to just come out and let Kagome know... let her know... well, anyway... "What, sleeping in a dirty cave with a bunch of smelly wolves that eat their food raw and bloody and act like pigs while doin' it is supposed to be better?"
"Hey, you two," she said a little louder, getting angrier, but still, both ignored her and continued the screaming match.
"Oh, fuck you, dog turd! She'd be the alpha female, waited on hand and foot by the lesser females! She'd never have to leave the den for anything – and she'd always be protected! I'm a strong alpha male that's able to take care of an entire clan and a mate, and give her lots of cubs, effortlessly. Again, all you can give her is fleas and a broken heart!" he shouted.
"Okay, that's it!" she finally screamed, her voice so loud that all the birds in the trees surrounding them took off in startled fear, and her friends all stepped back out of the danger zone. It finally got through to the two idiots arguing over her like she was some kind of piece of meat, too, as both their jaws snapped shut and Kouga's tail went between his legs, while Inuyasha's ears snapped tight to his head and he shrank back, just knowing what was coming and furious about it, too.
"Sit!" she shouted, watching as Inuyasha hit the dirt. "You! You will be quiet while I talk, is that clear, Inuyasha?" she ground out, glaring at him.
He glared right back, pissed as hell, but unable to do anything about it.
When he didn't say anything, she turned to a snickering and rather satisfied Kouga, who had decided that she was about to defend him, and so his tail had drifted out from between his legs as he watched the hanyou eat dirt.
He wasn't about to get what he thought, however.
"And you!" she growled. "You need to stop coming in here and antagonizing Inuyasha!"
"B-but, Kagome, you're my woman, and he won't get that through his thick skull! Of course I'm going to fight him when he won't back down," the wolf began, trying to get his point of view across.
Eyes narrowing, Kagome pointed at a spot on the ground. "Sit down, Kouga. I'm tired of this whole argument, and I'm going to lay down the law right now, and it's the way it's going to be from now on." She waited for him to do as told, a confused look on his face, and a suddenly narrow-eyed one on Inuyasha's. She ignored both male's expressions and sat down as well, facing Kouga with Inuyasha laid out at her side.
"Now, listen up, Kouga, because I'm never going to say this again. I am not your woman. I am not your woman now, and I will never be your woman later." She paused, and Kouga took the opportunity to speak.
"But Kagome, didn't you listen to what I've been saying? It's the truth! What does Inuyasha have to give you? He doesn't even love you – I do! And I can give you so much more than he could. You would never have to lift a finger again – you would be the queen of the clan, and everyone would do your slightest bidding!"
Kagome sighed, ignoring Inuyasha's mumbling and grumbling. "Kouga... that's not what I want. I want only two things from the one I choose," she emphasized choose, "to be with. And that's love, and that that person values my opinions and doesn't try to lock me up like some kind of prisoner. I want to be free, not stuck in some cave with people waiting on me hand and foot – I'm perfectly capable of doing things for myself. I don't want to be a queen. I'd be perfectly happy to live in a tree, as long as the one I was with loved me, and I loved them in return."
Kouga had listened to her with incredulity. He couldn't understand her. Didn't all females want to be taken care of? "I don't get it. I thought all females wanted to be waited on and taken care of like that. And be a queen," he said, scratching his head.
Kagome shook her head. "Kouga... I'm not youkai. I'm human. And humans are a little different. Most of the time, anyway. This human girl certainly is, and what this human girl wants is completely different than what you're offering. Sure, you'll find some that want to be lazy like that and would take your offer. But I don't. You don't really even know me, Kouga, and it's not possible to love someone you don't know. You need to stop chasing me, and go find someone that wants what you have to give. For some woman, it'd probably sound great – but not for me. If I was forced to live like you think I should, I'd be completely miserable and definitely unhappy."
"Well, then, you certainly can't want to be with the dog turd, since he doesn't love you!" he snarled, pissed at the sight of Inuyasha's smug face. The hanyou had sat up as soon as the spell released, and was now sitting quite close to Kagome, which, along with her refusal of everything he could offer her, was making him very angry.
"I know, Kouga," Kagome said quietly, her eyes falling to the ground, now truly upset. "I've always known that. You didn't have to rub my face in it."
Some say third times the charm, and perhaps they were right, because that was the third time Kouga had said that, and it seemed to enrage the hanyou more than Kouga'd ever seen. Or maybe it was the look on Kagome's face, or what she'd just said, or her scent, which was drenched with hurt, but either way... He jumped up and drew Tessaiga, just about ready to windscar Kouga's ass into the ground.
"How the fuck do you know who I love or don't love, you fucking bastard!" he shouted. "What, you can read minds now, or somethin? I don't fuckin' think so, you bakayarou, so just go fuckin' drop off a cliff and put me out of your misery! Kagome's mine to love, not yours, and she's gonna stay that way, got it?"
There was a profound silence at that statement, as everyone in the group turned their heads from Kouga, to stare at him with dropped jaws and wide eyes. Kouga's expression was even more comical, but Kagome's expression...
It was then that the hanyou realized just what he'd given away, and he started to sputter, "I.. I mean, I... well, uh... I meant..." but after stumbling over a couple words, his whole body, from the ears on down, just drooped, and he sheathed Tessaiga, before slumping to the ground with a whimper. His life as he knew it was over. Miroku and Shippo would never, ever let him live this down. His face pretty much disappeared into the red of his fire rat as he blushed twenty shades of red, even his ears blushing, and he sighed dejectedly.
"Feh," he said weakly, refusing to meet Kagome's eyes. "So, anyway, wolf shit, get going and get the hell outta here. You ain't wanted." Embarrassed to kingdom come or not, he wasn't about to miss the chance to kick the stinkin' bastard out of their lives.
Kouga, looking at the faces surrounding him, and especially Kagome's, slumped, as well, and even more dejected looking than the hanyou, stood up and wandered off without another word. There was little point, after all – she'd already denied everything he'd tried to offer her, and yet, at the hanyou mutt's few words, she'd looked like the world had just been handed to her.
Inuyasha, beginning to get nervous at Kagome's continued silence, took a peek at her, and his eyes widened at the look on her face – she looked like she'd just been given the one thing she wanted more than anything else.
And she had. Kagome'd always wanted him, always loved him. She'd been resigned since the moment she'd realized her feelings for him to lose him to Kikyou and hell, and she'd spent most of her time trying to hide her hurt and fear from him.
"Ah, Kagome-sama," started Miroku, a lecherous smile on his face, "it appears that you have been claimed!" He turned to Inuyasha and asked, "So, Inuyasha, when are you going to take our beloved miko off and do all the lovely things that a male and his claimed female can do-urk!" he broke off, choking, as a red-faced Sango grabbed the neck of his robes and tightened her fist around the fabric, putting a stop to any more lecherous words coming from his rather filthy mouth.
A disapproving glare on her face, one hand full of monk, and the other of struggling kitsune, who'd just been about to open his mouth and start needling the hanyou, Sango stalked off followed by a rather smug Kirara. "We'll just wait over here for you two to finish talking," she called over her shoulder.
The silence left behind after the others had been forcibly removed by an irritated Sango was quite awkward, as both Inuyasha and Kagome were bright red. But after a few minutes, Kagome sighed, and peeking over towards him, said, "I... if you didn't... you know, really mean it, and just said it because Kouga was annoying you... I'll understand. I know... you love Kikyou and promised to go to hell... with her," she finished, and now it was her turn to slump dejectedly.
Inuyasha growled at her for that. "Keh!" he said, folding his hands into his sleeves so he wouldn't give in to his suddenly lecherous mind and follow Miroku's advice to run off with her to learn about all those lovely things mates could do together. "I meant what I said," he growled out gruffly, still not meeting her suddenly hopeful eyes. "I never promised Kikyou to go to hell with her – I told her sister that I would if that were our fates. But it ain't."
The hanyou suddenly had a lap full of Kagome, and anxiously pulled his hands from his sleeves to steady her off-kilter form so she wouldn't fall over. Gods forbid she get a scratch, or anything. He hated it when she got hurt.
"I'm so glad, Inuyasha," she said, eyes tearing up with happiness. "I was so scared always when I would think of not being by your side."
"W-well, you ain't gotta worry 'bout that any more, so calm down, woman," he said, still pink-cheeked but getting more comfortable with the fact that he'd finally told her how he felt – sorta. He still wasn't comfortable with having told everyone else how he felt, though, especially Miroku, but there was nothing for it, since his big mouth had just flapped open and told everybody already.
With a big sigh, he plopped the miko back on her feet and off his lap, which was getting rather lumpy, and then stood up and led her off towards Sango and the others, blatantly holding her hand. And once they reached the rest of the group, they all continued on down the road as they had been before the advent of the wolf into their midst.
But things would never be the same, and as Miroku's knowing voice crawled up Inuyasha's spine insinuatingly, he tightened his grip on a blushing Kagome's hand, and kept the other on Tessaiga – so he wouldn't reach out and choke the monk. He still might be useful against Naraku, after all.
Inuyasha decided that Miroku's mouth had just outweighed any potential usefulness about the time he began commenting on Kagome's derriere, and letting go his girl's hand, he took off after the giggling monk with a vengeance.
Shippo and the girls laughed their rears off as he proceeded to pound the monk into the ground, and just like that, things were back to semi-normal in the group.
Oh, things would never be the same as they had been before this day, but as Inuyasha watched a smiling and very happy Kagome that night over the fire in their camp, he decided that it was most definitely worth it.
Next time I see the fuck'n' wolf, I'm gonna thank him for being a loud-mouthed, aggravating bastard. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be as happy as I am now... and neither would Kagome.
And that's totally worth all the aggravation that idiot's given me since I met him.
Owari
~oOo~
A/N: This just kinda popped into my head as I was reading Bond of Blood by The Mouse.
Amber