Evanescent
By: HalcyonMoments11
You're my bright blue sky
You're the sun in my eyes.
- Christina Perri (Be My Forever)
It had been a few weeks since Miroku had agreed to train Kagome in that cave. Since then they had periodically continued that training during the evenings when they had stopped to rest and were not too tired from their travels.
As they had trained together—frequently stepping away from their companions to keep a safe distance from their youkai and hanyou friends—Miroku had frequently noticed the observations of the rest of the inu-tachi, subtly at times, blatantly curious at others. He saw their surprise at the intensity with which she could summon her chakra, a stirring of cameo pink, and sometimes a deep sky blue. He saw the uncomfortable fidgeting of Inuyasha, Shippō, and Kirara when the heat of her reiki would diffuse around them after he had taken down his barrier. He recognized the calm that settled around them once the initial sensation settled, a feeling as if the world around them was flushing to life in the serenity her powers.
Sango had joined them at times, encouraging Kagome to practice her archery as well, bringing with it the flush of blue hues that swirled around the tips of her arrows, the same fascinating, almost electric feeling in the air that saturated the clearing around the Hone Kui no Ido whenever she traveled between her time and theirs. He watched Sango watching the young miko in those moments, supportive, proud, fascinated. And he saw that the taijiya—like their hanyou companion—watched him at times, measuring his reactions, his enthusiasm, his wonder at their miko companion. He knew they had witnessed the responses he still could not completely control: his breathlessness, the way her reiki still made him shiver, the way she inexplicably and unintentionally drew him near.
He prayed in those moments that they assumed that his responses stirred because of his proximity, because of the novelty of each experience, because of the anxiety they all felt at the lack of the dangerous encounters they'd had recently, which Miroku suspected was due to the way Kagome's reiki lingered around them since they had begun this training.
Over the past few weeks, the speed with which Kagome was able to summon the ethereal glow of her reiki to her skin increased until it appeared to coat her skin in a single, flawless effort, sometimes, even, without her realizing it. Miroku marveled at her aptitude for this. He had known that she was a powerful spiritual being long before they had begun this training, as was evident in just her instinctual applications, but the speed with which she took to the techniques they'd briefly worked on together astounded him.
Today, it was just the two of them in a small forest clearing not far from their companions, but a comfortable enough distance that Miroku had only put up minimal protections around them.
When Kagome turned her gaze back to him, features glowing a subtle pink, he smiled gently.
"Well done, Kagome-sama. You seem to have truly mastered the ability to call on your reiki, and you've certainly honed your skills at casting it out as well."
Kagome smiled brightly at his praise, allowing her reiki to fade away. The heat of her power lingered around them, emanating like her cheer. "Thank you Miroku-sama!"
Miroku nodded in response and continued. "So, the next skills we will work on are cloaking your aura and using these skills without seeing your reiki corporeally. These techniques will eventually allow you to conceal your reiki when needed, or use them in imperceptible ways when casting out your chakra or using it as a shield."
"Alright! How do we start?" Kagome asked enthusiastically, making Miroku chuckle.
"We'll need to start with learning how to conceal your reiki, which, in essence, will require you to do the exact opposite of what you've learned to do in calling it forth and expelling it."
She tilted her head curiously. "What do you mean, Miroku-sama?"
"Perhaps I can show you." Miroku replied, shifting slightly in his seated position against the tree where he sat across the small clearing from the miko. "Reach out to me with your reiki, Kagome-sama."
The young miko nodded, her skin quickly taking on the glowing ethereal quality before Miroku felt the wave of warmth that crashed into him, striking and inviting, his skin vibrating with the sensation. It was all he could do not to respond in kind, as if waiting for relief with bated breath.
Her brow furrowed in confusion, cobalt blue eyes sought his violet curiously.
He made himself breathe. "What do you feel, Kagome-sama?"
"Ano… nothing. I can't feel you, Miroku-sama."
Was that disappointment lacing her voice?
"Good," he responded.
She pursed her lips in response, almost a pout. The shadows on her face cast by her reiki exaggerated the look, made her blue eyes glisten with impatience.
A small smirk tugged at the corners of his lips in response. "That's the point, Kagome-sama."
"I don't like it," she hummed in response.
'Don't like what?' Not being able to feel his reiki? Not feeling his almost instinctual response to the heat and compassion of her that he had needed to learn to quell in the past few weeks? He felt her reiki wash over him again, more insistent this time. He chuckled again, ignored the way his own chakra roused itself at the feeling.
"It's a useful technique, Kagome-sama," he responded, "particularly when we are facing enemies."
She nodded slowly in response, allowing her reiki to fade. He felt a pang of regret as she did.
"Now, it's your turn," he said gently. "Consider how you feel when you call on your reiki, think about what you do to make it visible, to reach out with it. And when you let it dissipate, what do you do? Try to amplify that action. You are not just letting it go, but tucking your reiki away."
She bit her bottom lip as she thought through his questions and instructions. "How will I know if I've accomplished it?" she asked.
Miroku responded by allowing his reiki to reach out to hers. Her eyes brightened in response. Why did her visible response to his own reiki bring him such pleasure? "When you cloak your reiki, I won't be able to feel you like this." He paused and slowly withdrew his own chakra. Was it disappointment that weighed heavily in his chest? "We'll analyze how you feel in that moment and practice," he continued.
They spent time practicing the act of allowing her reiki to dissipate after she called it forth, talked about how she could imagine the action into being, such as wrapping herself in a blanket or closing a door. As Kagome progressed, Miroku was surprised to feel himself grow more anxious as she drew her powers inward, found himself reaching out to her with his own more frequently. He'd grown used to the feeling of her warmth around them, and so the fluctuation of her presence was odd. He wasn't so much reacting to that loss, but assessing her progress he told himself.
The houshi watched Kagome silently as she made a final attempt before they had to return to camp for dinner. The soft pink glow faded from her skin to darken a face that was soft, serene in her meditations, eyes closed and focused in assessing her own reiki.
Lost in his musings as he watched her, Miroku was startled when he reached out to her with his chakra in that moment and felt nothing. His breath hitched at the feeling of emptiness, an unfamiliar heaviness settling in his chest. Without the presence of her reiki the space around them felt like a void, like someone had closed a door he hadn't realized was the only source of light for a room, like he had witnessed the last felled stone in a cavern that was caving in, enclosing him in darkness. He was alone and he couldn't breathe.
He moved towards her before he registered the action, hands grasping desperately with his reiki. When his hands found hers in her lap, her eyes fluttered open to meet his searching violet gaze. She jumped when she registered his proximity, felt the outpouring of his chakra blazing across her skin. Concentration lost, her reiki responded quickly, rising in a storm to meet his own.
The fierce, dazzling nature of it set him ablaze. His hands were moving of their own accord, trailing up her arms, up into her ebony locks. He left his forehead settle against her own, closed his eyes, breathed in.
"M-Miroku-sama?" Kagome stuttered, hands braced against his chest, curled gently in his robes, concerned.
What was he doing?
He sat back slowly, trying to process the desperate feeling that had brought him so close. He knew she heard the way his breath shuddered when he breathed out. He opened his eyes slowly to meet her gaze.
"You did it, Kagome-sama." When curiosity and confusion pursed her lips, lips that seemed entirely too close, too enticing in the moment, he added "Cloaked your aura." He swallowed hard.
Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, excitement.
"I couldn't feel you."
It had felt like losing the sun.
"Really?!" She pulled away from him slightly to see him more fully. Her question was cheerful, eyes bright and eager, echoing none of the despairing, frantic feelings that had moved him instinctively to cling to her.
He nodded absently in response, considering his fear of the void he had felt when she successfully cloaked her aura now that the bright, warm clarity of her chakra flared and lingered around them again. The feeling had nearly the same breathtaking desolation he pictured when he imagined the kazaana would take him. He suppressed a shiver, unsure of whether it was linked to the skin tingling sensations that her reiki still enticed from him or the cold dread that had settled in the pit of his stomach just moments before.
"Um... Miroku-sama...?"
"Hm?"
"Is everything... alright?"
Azure orbs met his amethyst shyly in the moment, and he realized—with an odd mixture of chagrin and delight—how intimately entangled they remained.
Buddah help him, was he blushing?
"Ah, well, Kagome-sama," he began, thinking quickly about how best to excuse the impulsive actions that had found them in this position. 'How do I explain myself?' He thought back to the moments before his body moved of its own volition, to the miko's meditations, his appraisal of her progress. She had been so preoccupied with her own reiki that she hadn't seemed to notice his movement before he was upon her, tangled up in her. 'Ah... that could work...'
"You were so absorbed in your meditations that this seemed a perfect opportunity to test your resolve," he declared, voice taking on a teasing tone.
He twisted a strand of her soft locks between his fingers while slowly beginning to detangle his hands from her hair. Her gaze turned watchful, almost apprehensive. "To see how easily distracted you may be..." he continued, a small smirk lifting the corners of his lips.
A startled squeak escaped her lips when he gently tugged her forward by the hair still tangled in his fingers. His lips brushed the miko's ear; her breath hitched. "You proved quite easily distracted, Kagome-sama" he whispered, allowing his voice to take a flirtatious edge. "We'll have to work on your concentration. A beautiful woman such as yourself will face many enticing distractions that you must learn to overcome."
"H-hentai!" she exclaimed as her hands pushed hard against his chest. He chuckled as he let her go, falling backwards into the dirt with the force of her movements away from him. The flush that adorned her cheeks as she ranted about his lecherous ways was worth the small scrapes and bruises he was sure he'd earned when she pushed him away. She turned to stomp away from him, fuming all the while.
"You did well, Kagome-sama," he said quietly as he stood, brushing off his kesu and moving to collect his shakujō.
The furious tension in her shoulders relaxed ever so slightly when she'd registered what he'd said. She paused a few steps into the trees and huffed a response that was very reminiscent of their hanyou companion. Amused, he shook his head at her antics and moved to follow her back to towards their camp. He cast a small, tender smile in her direction when he fell into step beside her which she acknowledged with a subtle eye-roll, blue orbs bright despite the shadows of the trees around them.
A/N: Let me know what you think? Please review! - HM11
