Chapter 6- Hojo's Gift
The sunlight glittered in the morning sky brightly, the raindrops from the storm the previous night sliding off the petals of the early buds of spring. It was beautiful and clear, perfect and calm. Untouched by evil.
Inuyasha breathed the air deeply, but grimaced as the scent of carbon monoxide entered his sensory along with the soft, sweet smells of roses and lavender and rainwater. The crisply cold air bit at his nose and lessened the effect of the poisoned heavens, but it was still almost as bad as the taijiya poisons, just not quite as overpowering.
He took notice, as Kenshin climbed out on the windowsill next to him, that the child was still in that ragged kimono from his village. He needed to get the boy some armor. It was too dangerous for him not to have any. His mussed golden mane fell in all sorts of awkward directions, and for some reason, the way it laid was irritating the heck out of Inuyasha. The boy cocked his ears in a curious manner when he noticed the older half-dog staring at him. He was quite surprised when the boy started messing with his hair, combing it with his fingers. He hit a painful knot, but worked it out gently. When he was finished doing what little he could, he ran a bare, teasing touch over one of the golden-child's ears, sending it into a violent fit of twitching. Kenshin laughed merrily, and rubbed his ear to make the sensation that the boy had left stop.
"Don't do that! It tickles!"
"That's the idea!" he said, a smirk playing across his face for the first time in days. He playfully goosed the boy, and Kenshin squirmed to get away, laughing hard. He started to run down the roof, but Inuyasha caught him around the waist, dragging the pup into his lap and tickling him even harder. Kenshin was quite helpless as he hooted and hollered and squirmed, his laughter overriding his every sense, completely handicapping him and leaving him to the mercy of the Tickle Monster.
Kagome poked her head out the window, trying to see what all the commotion was as she pulled her hair back into a red ribbon. A pleasant surprise met her when she saw the two playing like a father and son would. She let a smile slide across her features at the thought. The two would make a great pair. She hadn't seen Inuyasha smile like that in such a long time… usually the closest he ever came was a self-satisfied smirk. She couldn't help but let a giggle out at the young boy's roaring, and helpless, laughter.
Inuyasha's sharp ears caught the sound, and he stopped long enough to look up at the giggling Kagome who was leaning against the windowpane. His first reaction was that he felt so much like they were mates and that this was their son that it was unreal; the second, was that she had, for some strange reason, pulled her hair back like Kikyou's this morning. It wasn't the most pleasant thing to notice, but the smile that donned her features quickly made sure that he would not mistake the two. Kenshin looked up into his face, and cocked his ears playfully, still overly hyper from the tickle fight.
"Inuyasha? Why are you looking at Kagome-kā-san like that?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow at him teasingly. Inuyasha looked down at him, surprised that such a child would speak like that. Not only because he had suggested that he was interested in Kagome, but because he had also called her his mother! Kagome looked surprised, too. Actually, slightly more embarrassed than surprised. A scarlet blush hovered over her features at the comment. We can safely say that Inuyasha's self-satisfied smirk had just migrated to the child's face. The reversal of roles would've been comical had the two adults not been so astonished at his words. With a final giggle, Kenshin jumped up from his seat in the silver-haired teen's lap and dashed through the window and down the hall before either one of the two could shake themselves out of their stupor.
Kagome and Inuyasha continued to stare at each other. They could hardly rip their eyes apart. The child had just implied that the two of them were a couple, and then ran off. Kagome faintly heard Souta call breakfast from downstairs. With a moment more, she finally managed to pull herself away from the shocked amber eyes of the haninu, and she adjusted the white shirt that she had donned. It was… the priestess outfit that she had worn home from the feudal era, when she had fallen down the well after meeting Yura of the demon-hair. She knew it might make Inuyasha angry, but… she had always thought that she needed some armor; this would accomplish that role until she could find something more fitting. Something that didn't make her look even more like Kikyou.
"Hey, Kagome! That Hojo guy is here to see you again," Souta told her, peeking through the doorway as Inuyasha climbed through the window to stand behind the girl. She looked surprised for a moment before she spoke.
"Find Kenshin and get him upstairs, ok? Inuyasha? Wait with Kenshin in his room; I don't know how long this is going to take," she said quickly. She combed her fingers through her bangs one more time before turning to her little brother once again. "You remember the story that you're supposed to agree with, right?"
He answered her with an affirmative, and she dashed out the door a moment later, bounding down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she was surprised to find the boy talking amicably with her grandfather, but she quickly dismissed it as being the result of him getting used to reacting with the old man.
"Hey, Hojo, what're you doing here?" she asked, donning what she hoped was an excited smile. He looked up, but when he noticed what she was wearing, his smile dropped.
"Kagome? Aren't you going to school today?"
"Nope! Today I'm going to the feudal era! Sango and Miroku are probably waiting on me, and Shippou's probably wondering where the heck Inuyasha and I got off to, and pretty soon Miroku will end up thinking perverted thoughts, even though he probably already is, knowing that lech…"
She rambled on for several minutes, and the boy just stared at her.
This is sheer lunacy! What is wrong with her? Feudal monks and demon slayers? Kitsunes? What is going on? She must be hallucinating! he thought, staring at the once perfect teenager. Her mind must've been affected by all those diseases! It's a good thing Eri warned me…
"Umm… Kagome? I brought you something," he said, gently handing her a small package. She looked at it curiously for a moment. He didn't quite understand her thought process, but then, he didn't realize the size of the box he just handed her. If he proposes to me despite this, he might be worth it! "Go ahead. Open it!"
Inside was a small bottle, a label on the front showing her for what exactly. They were pills to… ahem… calm the over-active imagination. Her eyes widened.
"Hojo…" she drug out, sickly sweet. He looked at her in a rather embarrassed manner.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM?! A LUNATIC?!"
Inuyasha had watched the whole thing with great amusement from the window. Had it not been that Hojo had longer legs than Kagome, she might've beaten the poor guy to a bloody pulp. Gin had gotten out there quickly enough, and made it sound like she was sending Kagome to the place for crazies as soon as she could find one with an opening, and then Kagome pretended to get indignant. Souta came out and acted like a sweet, but tactless, little kid, and appeared to make things worse. To Hojo, she ran off into the woods, and Inuyasha caught some comment from Gin about calling the 'BMC', whatever that was. (A/N: BMC- Bureau of Missing Children. About the mother's name, read the note of chapter 3 of 'A Miko's Secret Heart')
Kagome came through the back door quietly a few minutes later and called him to breakfast. He and Kenshin were still trying to get their laughing fits under control, but she was in all reality very indignant at what Hojo had done. She had expected it to be bad, but not that bad!
"Kagome-kā-san, just ignore him. It doesn't matter anyway since you're coming back to the feudal era with us!" Kenshin told her soothingly. She calmed somewhat, but she was still ticked. Why shouldn't she be? A guy that had been asking her out every chance he got had just tried to give her pills that a doctor would give to a loony!
"Kenshin, I'm just upset that he would go that far. It's an insult to my intelligence!" she replied, a heavy sigh escaping her lips as she picked at the food on her plate in disinterest. "I know this is how I chose to leave, but I didn't think their reactions would hurt this much."
It hurt worse when you called me a half-breed, Inuyasha thought, gazing at her from across the table. He felt a slight twinge of guilt, but he pushed it aside.
AN: Yay! The new chapter of SoaM is officially out! Would've been out earlier, but I kept procrastinating editing it. Really, I just couldn't seem to make myself do it, but here it is!
REQUEST: If anyone reading this likes Matantei Loki Ragnarok, would someone PLEASE consider writing me a MayuLoki fanfiction? Maybe a blanket fic... or something with some good old-fashioned citrus. XP PLEASE! (I'll try to do a request of yours if you do!)
Next Time: The Difference
"I don't know why I even try. He doesn't trust me anymore. It is final that you are his only love because whatever chance I had, I myself have destroyed," she murmured, hidden tears falling from beneath her heavy lashes. "I'll tell you my only guess Kikyou. So many times people talk about getting the warm fuzzies when they fall in love, and they describe hatred as a cold feeling. Your half of our soul in fueled by hatred, whereas my half is fueled by love. So… do me a favor, would you? Take it back."
"Take what back?" the woman asked, confusion capturing her features. Kagome turned her head to glance back at her, a doleful expression on her face.
"My half of our soul," she stated simply, a sad, half-hearted smile escaping to play across her countenance. "Under one condition, I will allow you to completely take it back."