Waves breaking against the shore woke Kagome. The sound so alien that it confused her for a moment, scared her. Her eyes shot open, her wickedly curved blades were in her hands before she jerked up to her knees.
Inuyasha sat slouched over. She could hear his heart's rapid beating over his labored breaths. But, it was the other sounds that drove Kagome to her feet, her own heart thundering in her chest. There was just so much noise…
A screeching from above had Kagome dropping her weapons and slapping her hands over her ears.
"Kagome, it's alright," Inuyasha said.
"Birds," Kagome said in wonderment. She hadn't seen a bird in… God, she couldn't remember how long it had been. Before the boat had been damaged and they had to shield it, seagulls would fly around them. Land on the boat to rest. But once Inuyasha and Akinlana's shields went up, they had been too afraid to fly anywhere near them. By the time it was her turn to shield, they'd been too far out to sea for birds to be flying around.
"Yeah, it seems so weird, don' it?" Inuyasha smiled.
"A-A little," Kagome said.
"Take a deep breath. Focus on bringing how much you hear down a notch, and relax," Inuyasha said.
If Inuyasha had said it in another tone other than that of a drill sergeant, Kagome probably would have gotten pissed. She knew what she had to do. But, her friend knew her well. Taking a deep, shaky breath, Kagome did as he ordered. It took longer than it annoyingly should have, but she did it. Her hands trembled as she hesitantly lowered them to her sides.
"We need to find a den where we can recuperate," Inuyasha said, but the dog continued to sit there with the ores clenched in his fists.
Still a bit shaken, Kagome bent down and retrieved her blades, slipping them into the hidden holsters behind her back. Akinlana sat at the front of the boat, still shielding.
"You overdid it." Kagome frowned. "I'll scout—"
"Do nothing unless I've ordered you to," Inuyasha all but snarled.
Kagome's eyes narrowed. "You can't even stand, and you expect me to listen to you?"
Inuyasha growled and, to Kagome's amusement, stood without falling over. However, she refrained from commenting on how he used the ores as crutches to keep upright. There was only so far she could push his leadership before he truly got pissed.
"You will stay with the pack, that's an order, Kagome," Inuyasha growled. "If you leave, Akinlana and I will be unprotected. We're too drained to defend ourselves from an attack."
There was no arguing that bit of truth, so Kagome trampled her need to run on solid ground. And yet… "This isn't because you'll think I'll kill someone, is it?" Kagome asked.
"Yes and no," Inuyasha wearily replied. "I'm fucking tired, Kagome. I need a full fucking day's rest—all of us do. If you go off and some shit happens, because you have to mess some assholes up, I'm not gonna have the power or the strength to stop you if you go psycho."
She hated when he was right, because it had happened before. Her going 'psycho'. "Do you know whose territory we are in?"
"No. All I can fucking smell is salt and fish," he said as Kagome watched him make his way to Akinlana's side. Inuyasha tenderly kissed his mate's lips, calling her name.
Kagome looked away. If it hadn't been because of her, they would have had a better life.
"Do not think foolish thoughts, Kagome."
Kagome lifted her gaze to meet Akinlana's. "I'm not—"
"Of course you are." Akinlana grinned. "You cannot get away from us. You are mine, remember?"
"She's not yours!" Inuyasha growled, jerking away from his mate.
"Yes, she is!" Akinlana growled back.
"Don't fuck with me on this again, Akinlana. She's mine!"
Nose-to-nose, the couple growled. Their lover-like touches turning into aggressive pushing and shoving.
"I'm both of yours. Just like the both of you are mine," Kagome said, too excited about being back in Japan to enjoy what could be an enjoyable fight if she left them alone. "Now can we get out of this boat?"
Not waiting for their response, Kagome crouched low and with a small leap cleared the shoreline and landed silently on the balls of her feet at the edge of the forest…then promptly fell over, and continued to fall over every time she tried to stand back up.
"Wha…?"
"Get up slowly, Kagome," Akinlana called out.
"Getting up is not the problem. Staying up is," Kagome mumbled. She knew they'd been out at sea for a long time, but to have this much difficulty walking on land again…
"Fuck. I didn't think it would be this bad," Inuyasha said, appearing unsteadily at her side.
"At least you're still on your feet," Kagome said, happy to see Akinlana on her butt behind Inuyasha. And behind her, all of their meager belongings and provisions. Kagome really didn't want to look at another fish for the rest of her life. Now that they were on land, they could hunt for fresh meat. Her mouth watered just thinking about it.
However, Kagome's face heated at the same time with embarrassment. In her haste to get out of the damn boat, she'd made Akinlana and Inuyasha bring their bags. As the one that had just woken up, thus making her the strongest at the moment, it should have been her that took up that burden.
"Shit," Inuyasha hissed. "Looks like we'll need to add on time to get our land-legs back. We find a cave—anything, really—that'll serve as an acceptable den. We bunk down and not come out until we're in peak condition. And absolutely no"—Inuyasha glared at Kagome— "splitting up once we're rested. We stick together."
"What about food?" Akinlana asked. "I do not want to continue eating fish. We need red meat. What kind of animals do you have on this strange land?"
Kagome voiced her agreement, but Inuyasha shot them both down quickly.
"We finish what we got, and drink what we got," Inuyasha said, using a nearby tree to keep from falling. "Once it's all gone, then we'll decide what to do next."
It took a few minutes before Akinlana and she could stand, but, like a well-oiled machine, they located an abandoned fox den, dug it out to make it bigger and less crowded. Without Akinlana's shield, the boat literally fell apart and sank, having been pushed back out to sea when they'd leapt from it.
With the last bit of yoki she had left, Akinlana removed all of their clumsy tracks from the forest floor while Kagome purified the air, removing all traces of their scent in the area. Crawling into the den, Kagome heaved a tired sigh as she curled up into a ball, lying her head on Akinlana's stomach. Inuyasha curled around the both of them.
Closing her eyes, Kagome dreamed of clouds and the beautiful female that lived within them.