"I should smack you in the face!" fumed the red-headed god, fists clenched as he glowed the same color as his hair. The only female in the vicinity seemed to be ignoring both males, her back turned to them, whereas the despondent male to whom this threat was directed could only stare at the ground. "What the hell is wrong with you, Inuyasha?!"
"There is nothing wrong with me. Is it my fault that she's taken by another?" He said sadly, then turned a slightly desperate gaze onto Kikyou's back. "Kikyou, have you nothing to say?" She remained silent, the tension in the air as thick as molasses.
"Forget her!" Shippou yelled, grabbing Inuyasha's head and turning him back to face him. "Listen to me! You kill that amorous centaur, make her yours, and get your hindquarters up there and slaughter Kouga!"
"I will not kill the centaur." Inuyasha said firmly, fixing Shippou with a look that dared him to dispute the declaration. The younger god remained defiantly mute, glaring back at Inuyasha. "If I am to reclaim my place in the skies, I shall do it cleanly and without bloodshed."
"But you--"
"If this were your battle, Shippou, you would proceed as you saw fit, correct? Then allow me to do the same. I promise you, my methods will not fail."
"They better not, pretty boy, or the next thing you know, the whole of civilization's gonna come tumbling down upon your head!"
"It shall do so regardless." Kikyou said quietly, and the two males looked over at her.
"Oh, boy, here comes the black cloud." Shippou scowled, crossing his arms and glaring at her now. "You haven't said anything since we found out about this nymph, and now that you've finally opened your mouth, it's to say something completely dispiriting. Is it your job to bring us down, Kikyou?"
"If it were, it would be impossible to succeed," she snapped back, ire burning in her eyes, "what with how low we've fallen! Honestly, Inuyasha, a mortal girl?!"
"Ah-ha! And now we come to the root of the problem!" Shippou tapped his foot. "You're jealous!" Kikyou narrowed her eyes at him.
"Listen, you red dwarf star, I've absolutely no reason for jealousy. I'm in this for the same reasons you both are. I have no desire to be with Inuyasha. If he wants to choose a human, more's the pity." Shippou snarled in annoyance. He hated being called small.
"Are you both forgetting that I'm right here?" Inuyasha said loudly, drawing their attention back to him. He rarely, if ever, raised his voice, so on the off chance that he did, it was important to listen up. "Your bickering certainly won't solve the problem, so why waste my time and yours by doing it? I have been thinking while you were arguing, and I decided that I will persist in making the nymph my own." Kikyou's deepened frown did not go unnoticed. "If either of you have a problem with that, I suggest you put your foot in your mouth to prevent it from flying out."
"I have no problem." Kikyou replied in a clipped tone.
"Neither do I." Shippou grumbled.
"Good. Then this impromptu meeting is adjourned." Inuyasha stood, and Shippou was the first to leave, still grumbling his rancor at Kikyou's insults. Inuyasha and Kikyou stared each other down. "Kikyou." His voice had returned to its normal softness. "Are you truly jealous?"
"I'm simply lamenting the weakness of our supposed ruler. She seems a veritable chit of a girl." The way she emphasized "girl" made Inuyasha quirk an eyebrow.
"You've obviously yet to see her. She is no girl."
"Did you have to say all of the things you said? You were to compliment her simply, not overdo it."
"Nothing was overdone, Kikyou. I told her all truth." Kikyou sighed, moving closer to him and taking his hands in hers.
"Have you yet forgotten what I said to you, Inuyasha?" She murmured quietly, in case Shippou was around listening. Chances were, he wasn't.
"I haven't. But that doesn't mean I'll consider it."
"The moon has been joined to the night since the beginning of time. Time has yet to stop...why break tradition?"
"That isn't the way the fates have drawn our future, Kikyou." Inuyasha said, a bit curtly. A flash of emotion passed across Kikyou's typically impassive face, but it left as quickly as it came. Inuyasha noticed it all the same. She dropped his hands and turned her back to him again. "You won't betray me, will you, Kikyou? I don't mean to spurn you. I just need you to understand that we aren't supposed to be together."
"You tie yourself too tightly within destiny, Inuyasha." She walked away from him before he could say anything more.
In the days after their experience together, Bankoutsu had a tendency to follow Kagome around like a stray puppy, something she might have previously found annoying, but now that their bond had been deepened, she thought it was cute. Her nighttime talks to Inuyasha had diminished to nothing in no time flat, what with Bankoutsu's lasciviousness demanding a lot of her free time. He seemed to respect her disinclination to actually have intercourse, and made it his mission to find other ways to please her.
The happiness didn't last long.
A mere week afterward, their relationship hit a snag when Bankoutsu caught the jealousy bug. He noticed how Inuyasha looked at Kagome sometimes—with smiles, the scoundrel—and he didn't like it, at all. Bankoutsu wasn't the brightest star in the sky, but he wasn't so dumb as not to know when someone was after his woman. Kagome's kindness to him didn't help matters either, but he knew that Kagome was just naturally kind to people. She couldn't help that, and Bankoutsu understood. But Inuyasha could help leering at Bankoutsu's woman, or Bankoutsu would have to help it for him. Perhaps a punch to the eye would do nicely.
Outside, when Inuyasha was throwing out the dishwater, he was confronted by an angry semi-stallion. He raised an undaunted eyebrow at Bankoutsu.
"Is there a problem?"
"You're damn right there is. I don't care if you're Ainu or not—you better leave Kagome alone, or I'll put both of your eyes out."
"I don't think I know you."
"That's far from the point. The next time you even talk to her, you're going to have a face full of fist. You've been warned." Satisfied that his threat had been made, Bankoutsu clip-clopped away.
But Inuyasha didn't care about what he perceived as idle threats. That night, when Bankoutsu had yet to come to Kagome's room, Inuyasha caught her before she could leave.
"Inuyasha!" She blinked, surprised. They hadn't talked to each other in what seemed like ages.
"I must have really scared you away that night, huh?" He smiled, and Kagome pinked, remembering.
"Well...you know." She mumbled, a wave of guilt washing over her.
"I'm sorry. Sometimes I get carried away."
"No, it's okay...I think I might have overreacted." Kagome tried to smile back, but she was nervous. "To not have spoken to you in so long...that's pretty bad, huh?"
"It's not so bad. You could always make up for it tonight."
"..." Kagome bit her lip.
"Or would I be intruding upon a previous engagement?"
"Uh...no...no, I guess I could talk for a little while." Kagome finally relented, and they sat down in the hallway.
"You know," Inuyasha began, seeming to be thinking about his words even as he said them, "I think that cook is a very pretty woman." Kagome laughed, not because she thought Sango was ugly, but because it was such an random thing to say.
"Have you tried to talk to her?"
"No, I'm far too shy. Besides, she would never like me."
"What makes you think that?"
"I don't know." Inuyasha shrugged, looking at his feet.
"Inuyasha, it would be hard for Sango not to like you. You're such a nice person and you're handsome; plus, you're Ainu, so what more could she want?" He didn't say anything, so Kagome sighed and took his hand in hers in a reassuring gesture. "Trust me, Inuyasha—she would like you." In all honesty, if I didn't already have Bankoutsu, I certainly would... She admitted to herself, remembering the beautiful things he'd said to her and wishing Bankoutsu would say them as well. But she knew he was too "masculine" to say such mushy gunk, and she sighed again. Inuyasha looked at her, noticing her slight sadness.
"Kagome, what's wrong?" He asked, concerned.
"I...Inuyasha...don't tell anyone, but...I kind of have a lover. And he's a really good childhood friend of mine. But...he doesn't always appeal to my sensitive side. Physically, he's everything I need...but sometimes I just wish he would say some of what you said to me." By the time she was done speaking, her face was hot enough to boil a pot of water.
"That's certainly a lamentable plight." Inuyasha agreed. "You at least deserve a man who's not only proven his virility, but his sensitivity as well. For example...he should tell you that you're like the reflection of the moon off of the dark ocean—bright even against a world of darkness." Kagome smiled at him, enraptured by his poetry.
"Tell me more, Inuyasha..." She leaned on his shoulder and he put his arms around her, caressing her bare arms.
"Your skin," he breathed right near her pointed ear, "is as soft and beautiful as the fleece of a black sheep." He kissed her on the neck, stirring the familiar feeling of desire within her. "Your voice is the lyrical strum of not a harsh harp, but a dulcet dulciana. Would that I could play carnally upon the delicate strings of your tender flesh, I would be the happiest man in all this world..." He continued to kiss her skin, and if someone had asked her who Bankoutsu was, she would have no answer.
Black Ice: Okay, so. I realize we're going on a bit of a Body She Couldn't Control railroad track with this one. But remember: Kagome is a nymph. By nymph, I mean technically, not the kind that goes around having sex with everybody and knows it's their nature. The nymph we've developed in this story is more of an...unwitting nymph. She's following the desires of her heart and her body, but she doesn't realize that it's her nature to do so.
Blood Rain: (yawns)
Black Ice: (glares) Would you shut up already?
Blood Rain: I'll try if you do.