KAWAAKARI

"The river that glows amidst the darkness"

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Part I

Chapter VII

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The air was cold. Kagome could feel it on her shoulders, on the part of her back that wasn't covered by her curls, and on her neck. The night sky was clear, despite the abundant rains that had been falling but until that very morning; it was due to them that the temperature had dropped considerably… yet that wasn't what was capturing Kagome's attention right now. There was something about the shadow casting over Mr. Taisho's, InuYasha's figure, that made her restless, like an ill foreboding feeling she couldn't quite define. He was there, still, unmoving, a few steps away, and Kagome didn't need to ask to know he was waiting for her. That knowledge made a shiver run down her spine, which was evident on her skin, and almost made her tremble.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Sango voiced, by her side. Only then was Kagome called back to the moment she was living with her friend, her gaze leaving InuYasha to try and focus again on her companion.

"You can tell me now," she tried to appear receptive; Kagome could feel, in a way, the emotions of others. It was one of her secret features, one of those she had gotten used to never sharing.

Sango's gaze met hers then, and she could see how she was holding back her surging, crystalline tears with an iron will. Kagome rested her hand on her forearm, and nodded, to make sure she knew she was listening intently.

"My father wants this engagement. My father." Her pain went beyond the arrangement, Kagome knew, for her friend admired her father to great extent. "He had never mentioned anything before; Kyōfū's family simply came for dinner to our home with the decision already taken."

"That is not fair," Kagome's reaction was a deeply instinctive one; there was no justice in these kinds of designs, and even less when in such unions, love wasn't primordial.

Sango shook her head, then looked into the distance. Kagome could feel her contained anger, knowing her friend would not like to give others something to talk about, during that gathering.

"Is Kyōfū Hakudoshi kind to you, at least?" She sought to know, fearing the answer she may receive. Sango looked at her, a laconic smile curling her lips; so much, it felt as it may never have been there.

"You could say he has not been unpleasant, or not directly at least." Her friend's gaze sought a high point again, trying to keep her will stronger than her emotions.

"Tomorrow; I will come tomorrow, so we can talk about this with more calm," Kagome offered, understanding how hard it was for Sango to remain stoic.

Her friend gave her a rueful smile.

"Tomorrow my father wants Lady Kyōfū and her brothers to come share lunch with us," Sango explained.

"Oh," was all that Kagome could say. Both houses were acting so close, so familiar, one could say it was almost rash.

"Oh… yes," Sango conceded.

Their gazes met for an instant, the words flowing in their minds, speaking of anger, vulnerability, a dream's death. Of tradition. But there was hope, as well, spoken from the love they shared.

"We should head inside; I don't want my fiancé to miss me," Sango ironized.

Kagome agreed, and only then did she look again in InuYasha's direction, only to find out he wasn't there anymore.

Both friends started towards the main room, where the thick of the gathering was, and Sango parted there from Kagome, wearing a smile as sweet as she was capable of, to join the Kyōfū and their group. They were three siblings, who Kagome barely knew anything about, except that they lived on the other side of the city. She also noted how Mr. Taijiya seemed particularly cheerful around the eldest sister of the Kyōfū family. She thought about Yuka next; if there was someone who may know more about that family, it would surely be her.

Her gaze wandered then, looking for her friends, Hojō included, and soon found them on the middle of the hall, dancing with their respective partners. In that moment, Kagome wondered if it was the last dance, a doubt fueled further when she caught her friend Sango stepping into the dance floor, led by Kyōfū Hakudoshi.

InuYasha observed it all, a certain distance away, far from the thickest group of humans who were fouling the air with their banal conversations. His attention, was elsewhere; all of his senses captured by the woman of curled and dark, night-like hair. He looked at her, yearned for her, feeling it in the tingling all over his body, and his tensed muscles, as his mind couldn't help wonder if the softness of her skin, exposed around her neck and shoulders, was just like he had imagined it. He could feel his throat on the verge of a growl; he was holding it back, the beast that was bent on surging, on catching Kagome to drag her away from the world she knew, and into the darkness he had come from. He wanted to rend the dress she was wearing, tear it apart to then run the edge of his claws over her raw skin until it reddened under his touch; he understood then, that he didn't want to see her bleeding, like many of his past preys.

He took a deep breath, taking in Kagome's scent through the stench of the other humans, yet his senses also caught the smell of his kind… or similar.

His gaze wandered then, in pursue of them, until he identified a youkai he knew; Kagura. Her crimson eyes stopped on him as well. None of them would do anything, however; such was the custom of their kind when amidst humans.

That didn't deter him from wondering, however; what was she doing here, in this city? Did Sesshomaru know of this movement of hers and her own?

Youkai clans were quite territorial, such had been the lesson he had learnt at a young age, pursued as he had been for not really belonging to any clan. It wasn't like that now; for better or worse, he was a member of the dog general's clan, Inu no Taisho, his father.

His gaze returned to Kagome, as he pondered the idea of leaving; if he did, surely he wouldn't have a better chance to seduce that woman. Kagura would not throw aside her human act, hence he should be able to go ahead with his initial plan. His mouth watered, then, before the idea of tasting Kagome's blood, then the rest of her, and he had to press his own claws against the palm of his hands, without tearing the skin as to not show the violence of his emotions. Finally, he approached her, slowly, not expecting, in the slightest, how she began to turn in his direction, almost as if sensing him.

Kagome felt her back tensing, before a force in the air behind her. She thought about turning around, yet before doing she sought to fill her lungs in a deep breath; her keen perception spoke to her of who she was going to find there. Her movements were steady, soft, her head turning a few centimeters first as she noted one of her curls resting on her shoulder, then falling to her back. The action was followed by her body, yet she didn't lift her gaze immediately; much like the first time she had him this close, her eyes stopped at the gold-like embroidery of Mr. Taisho, InuYasha's jacket. The strands of his silvery hair fell on his shoulders, then forward, and Kagome had the inkling that they would be particularly soft to the touch. He closed her hands into fists, holding back that new desire of touching his hair. Then, he spoke to her.

"Is this the last dance?" Was his question. Kagome perceived the sound of his voice as if InuYasha could get inside her mind, her hair standing on end. It was hard, for her, to assimilate the many sensations she experienced every time she was in company of that man. In that moment, she looked into his eyes.

"I think so, yes." She nodded, softly, hoping that her own restlessness, remained veiled.

"And I see that you have reserved it for me, am I right to assume that?" InuYasha's tone of voice was just as intense, although slightly lower, as if he were speaking of a secret.

A secret, Kagome thought then. That is what he was in her life, really, something she hadn't told anyone about. The realization brought a subtle smile to her lips, as she sought a safe space in her mind where she could regain her composure.

"I thought you would not come," she said, wanting to stay at the helm of the conversation. InuYasha acted complacent, and leaned against her ever so slightly, yet enough for Kagome to feel the energy he was emanating.

"I had to take care of some business first," was his explanation, and her gaze ran to the couples at the center of the hall, enveloped by the music that so rhythmically swayed them.

"It is a shame; you have missed all the dances," she voiced, as she returned to the eyes of her companion.

"I am afraid so." InuYasha's gaze intensified so much, Kagome had to muster all of her willpower to hold it for a few seconds longer. He had beautiful golden eyes, a hue that wouldn't leave her thoughts since he met him at the shop, and just like that time, the cold circling around him was grim, and one could even say sinister.

InuYasha was feeling once again captured by a desire he couldn't quite define. What he wanted from that woman, was all that he had gotten from the others before her; yet she possessed an added allure he couldn't quite put his finger on. He didn't know if it was that constant scent coming from her, one he just wasn't able to ignore, much like how he couldn't miss the way Kagome's skin seemed to bristle slightly as he spoke to her, or the way her cheeks would redden, conferring her appearance a touch that he could only word as mystic. It wasn't unknown to him the signs of a woman's arousal, yet in her it was as delicate as the first ray of sunlight as it bathes the water of a spring. That analogy took him to recall a time long past, back when he could still see the beauty of this world.

In that moment, he felt threatened by the warmth that thinking about Kagome brought him; to be with her, made all things and those around them, as fake as a stage prop.

"That means, you owe me a dance," she expressed, and InuYasha saw himself dragged back from his thoughts, to the conversation again.

"I believe so," he conceded, before that unexpected verbal dance between them. He needed to take her away from there, from the noise and stench of the humans, from Kagura's gaze, who was surely observing them, from anything and everything that didn't help him make her his, "We could replace it for a stroll, if you are willing, Ms. Higurashi?"

InuYasha became witness then, and once again, to the myriad of pink hues that her cheeks irradiated, a warm color he soon began to want to see all over her body. He parted his lips, seeking a deeper breath before the urge he was feeling in his every muscle. It took an instant, for his mind to conjure an image of her naked body, rosy as he explored her with his fingers and tongue, until his sex stirred her inside.

He dropped his gaze, waiting for that thought to find a corner in his mind, far away where it wouldn't be so noisy. He wasn't about to admit the restlessness such a fervent desire was making feel, for a human woman at that. He wouldn't do it in this life, nor in the next.

"I'm willing," she mentioned, and InuYasha's eyes were drawn back to hers.

In that manner, they started away from the main hall, falling into step beside each other at a steady pace, and in silence. It seemed neither of them wanted to draw the attention of those around. Once they were outside, Kagome trembled slightly, almost imperceptibly, but InuYasha noticed it; the night was cold for her, he realized, and his mind raced in search of a reason as to why he needed her to be alright. It didn't matter, however, and despite his own doubts, he invited her with a gesture to stand by one of the small fires they kept outside to shelter the space from the cold.

"Tell me, Ms. Higurashi; how have you liked the gathering?" InuYasha brought forth a new topic to speak about, as his gaze analyzed Kagome's neck, and her shoulders of light skin, only to stop at that exact point where he wanted to sink his fangs in; just by the main vein, through which her blood would run frenetic before the intrusion, and he would be able to feel it on his lips.

"It is being quite agreeable; the Taijiya household has taken care of every detail to make it so," Kagome replied, and he had to advert his eyes from the skin of her neck, to find her eyes, now observing him, "and what are your thoughts about it?"

InuYasha hid the sardonic smile threatening to curl his lips. He couldn't care less about the gathering, or that colossal effort some families in the Japanese society would put into looking like the people they hadn't met yet. Even so, he felt a desire for the woman by his side; a desire edging on obsession. He leaned towards her some more, only to see how her skin would redden just as much.

"I do not think I have been nearly enough here, to have an opinion," he replied honestly, whispering, so that it would remain just between the two of them.

Kagome noted her heart beginning to race. He had gotten closer, she was sure of it; she wanted him even closer, wanted him to touch her and that the brush of his hands were as intense as they were in her dreams. She parted her lips, drinking the air with some urge, knowing in her the need for something to anchor her, to help her with that fluttering in her stomach. She noted then, how those golden eyes she so admired stopped on her mouth, and she moistened her lips, not thinking too much about the gesture. She was split, between taking a step closer to him or not; she wanted to touch him, to feel his warmth and lose herself in the sensations she was ignorant of, yet that she so yearned for nonetheless. Her eyes followed InuYasha's hand then, as he reached towards hers until his fingers grazed her own, still beneath her gloves, and Kagome only could hold her breath.

"I would like to see you more often," InuYasha declared, and when she was about to accept his request, she heard her name.

Kagome?

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To be continued.

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A/N

I really like this story, despite the many turns it makes in my head. Sometimes, I'd wish for thoughts to flow easier into words, yet to write is a passion I LOVE, no matter how much effort it may mean.

To those who support me through the many platforms, thank you.

Lots of kisses!

Anyara

This text is possible thanks to the translation of: Dezart