Chapter 73
Ubi mel, ibi apes
"Where there is honey, there are bees"
"The people say that the two
seemed to be removed from human experience;
that they had gone through pain
and had come out on the other side;
that there was almost a magical protection about them."
—The Pearl
Inuyasha wasn't sure of many things in his life. But he was sure of a handful of things.
One: He loved Kagome.
Two: Being a hanyou was not an ideal situation.
Three: Sesshomaru was an impotent asshole.
Four: Naraku was a little bitch.
Five: If he ever saw that wolf again, he would eviscerate him.
And now, freshly added to the list: something was up with Kagome.
She'd been fidgety in her sleep last night, and he was pretty sure that she'd woken up at some point, but he couldn't really tell, and he didn't want to wake her in the course of trying to determine if she was awake or not.
He'd promised Kagome that they'd go out today, and if he knew her, she wasn't about to forget or let him go back out on his word.
Slowly running his fingers through her hair, he mulled over Sango and Miroku's newfound discovery last night.
They'd gone around the tracks again, but this time, there had been sounds, noises in the trees, and they'd tracked them all night before finding another longer path that led deeper into the woods.
He stared at the glowing coals in the fire pit.
The creature had disappeared before they could even see what it was exactly, which made him uneasy.
Something that big just disappearing the moment they got close?
Too easy.
Too convenient.
And when nothing in his life had ever been easy or simple or convenient before, whenever something showed up like that, he was suspicious and with good reason.
Convenient meant traps.
Food left out in the winter?
Every single time: trap.
Someone trying to lure him in and slaughter him for food or for fun, but slaughter either way.
He looked down at Kagome, who was now—confirmed—sleeping, hands fisted in his haori and his hakama.
Fucking adorable.
He looked back at the fire, scowling.
Fuck, feelings were going to wind up being the death of him.
He had it so bad.
Sighing heavily through his nostrils, he slumped back against the wall, glaring at the fire pit.
Kagome stirred a bit, and he quickly resumed carding his fingers through her hair, and she stilled again.
Nightmares? Still?
His ears lowered into his hair, as he watched her nose scrunch up for a moment before she relaxed, shifting around in her sleep. Her cheek rubbed against his leg, and he paused in his movements. He waited for her to settle again. Letting her still, and let his thumb run across her cheek.
She look a long deep inhale before her body relaxed, and his relaxed along with hers.
He really was proud of her.
So proud.
She'd been through so much. So much.
He'd been through some shit in his decades of existing, but it didn't seem that bad. Just like he'd had a shit life for a while, and now it wasn't so shitty anymore.
Kagome hadn't let it change her though. She hadn't let it make her hard and bitter.
She was stronger than he was.
And he was okay with that.
Really.
She was strong as hell, and that both intrigued and infuriated him. Because this little spitfire knew exactly how to piss everyone off and didn't know when to back down from a fight.
That was the infuriating part.
But she also wasn't afraid of him, his fangs, his claws, his strength. She liked what made him different, and for a little bit, it made him feel like he was supposed to be that way.
She made him feel normal, and he wanted to return the favor for once.
"What're you smiling at so early?" Miroku asked barely above a whisper, startling him and making him jump reflexively.
Kagome made a small noise in the back of her throat, shifting, wiggling a little in her sleeping bag.
He shot a glare at the monk, who merely grinned, holding up his hands in submission.
"Sorry," he whispered back, pushing his blankets to the side and rising to his feet.
"I will—you know—the fire," Miroku whispered, motioning vaguely to the smoldering fire.
Inuyasha's glower didn't diminish as he glared at Miroku as he walked quietly across the room, eased the door open, and gathered an armful of wood before going back to the fire to restart it.
He worked quietly shuffling the coals as he situated the logs. It took a few minutes for the logs to ignite but he could hear the soft crackling as they caught on the coals.
Miroku went back to his blankets, folding them up carefully.
"I can feel you glaring, you know," he whispered, back still turned towards him.
Inuyasha wasn't even going to dignify him with a response.
Asshole didn't deserve it.
Miroku set his blankets aside and then carefully lifted his staff and went out onto the porch to meditate like he did almost every morning.
He claimed that it helped him keep his thoughts clear, but Inuyasha wasn't so sure that it was actually helping.
Monk was still perverted as shit.
He looked back down at Kagome, feeling the corner of his mouth twitch upwards a bit.
Kagome stirred awake as Miroku came back into the room. Sango had risen a little earlier, taking care of her own needs before Kagome was awake.
She buried her face into his thigh with a guttural groan, pushing herself up gingerly.
"Morning," she mumbled, wiping her face with her hands.
"Morning," he answered, watching her stretch her one good shoulder, and then feeling the creeping guilt because of why she only had one good shoulder.
"You wanna go out in the woods?" He asked, watched a blush spread over her cheeks as she nodded.
"Please?"
With a curt nod, he picked her up off the ground carefully, stepping through the doorway where Sango was sitting watching Shippo and Kirara play.
"C'mon," he said, hearing Sango huff, but jog up quickly after him.
"A please every now and then would be nice, you know," she grumbled. "Did you sleep okay?" She asked Kagome.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"
Inuyasha shot a quick side-eyed glare at Sango, who seemed to be back-pedaling on her own.
"No reason, just making conversation."
Kagome gave a quick shrug.
They marched out into the trees, and he lowered Kagome's feet—well, foot—to the ground, keeping his hands on her hips until he was sure she was steady. He may have been overcompensating for that and making sure that she was indeed steady before letting go and moving off into the trees.
Because the woman had an obsession with no one hearing her piss.
It was fucking pissing.
Not like he didn't do it himself.
It was just a hell of a lot easier for him to do it on one leg.
She'd probably be appalled to know how close he actually was, but like shit was he going to tell her. And with the whatever-the-fuck-it-is wandering around here, he wasn't going to take any chances.
Speaking of which, what the fuck was he going to do?
He'd promised her that they'd go out today, and she'd want to investigate the new trails. Because of course she would.
"Inu—!"
He was already moving at the first sound of her voice. He darted through the trees, stopping in front of her.
"How close were you?" Kagome asked, raising an arm and an eyebrow. He slipped under her arm, swooping another under her knees.
"Miroku should have breakfast there by the time we get back."
"You're avoiding the question," Sango pointed out, walking a few steps ahead of them.
Well, someone definitely put on her bitch boots today, and she was making it his problem.
Kagome took a deep breath, still staring at him and clearly waiting for a response.
"Not as close as she's implying," he said, and that was probably the truth.
At least he was right, Miroku did have breakfast delivered right as they were walking through the doorway.
Sango was helping Kagome change into clothes that were more appropriate to traipsing around the woods.
"Monk," Inuyasha said, taking a seat on the edge of the veranda.
"Inuyasha," Miroku returned in the same tone. "What appears to be the problem now?"
"Kagome still wants to go out," he pointed out. He didn't need to explain more, because the problem should've been obvious.
"And you want to tell her no?" Miroku asked him, raising an eyebrow at the question.
"What?" He nearly shouted, and then flattened his ears against his head at his own volume. "No, of course not! Why would you think that?"
"My apologies, friend," Miroku said, clearing his throat. "I'm afraid that I don't quite follow."
"The new thing you found," he kept his voice low so that neither of the women would hear.
"Still not quite following," Miroku said, brow furrowing.
"Are you an idiot or something?"
Perhaps he should really reconsider letting Miroku handle anything in regards to the group.
He took a deep breath willing his anger to tamp back down.
"What about 'the new thing we found'?"
"We don't know what it is," he continued, searching for the words.
"Right. You are correct. It is new, and we don't know what's over there, since Sango and I don't have good eyesight in the dark."
Inuyasha glowered at him.
Miroku let out a soft sigh.
"Are you worried about taking Kagome there?"
He glanced in the direction of the door and gave a quick nod.
"Ah, okay," he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I think I'm getting the general picture now."
"Fucking finally!" He grumbled.
"You can't keep her hidden away forever, Inuyasha."
He continued to glare at the monk, because how dare he!
Sango slid the door open, leaning out in her slayer outfit.
"We're ready to go!"
"You're sure?" Inuyasha asked as he squatted down next to her.
"Of course!" She answered quickly, way too quickly for that to be sure. But he didn't want to question her too terribly on that front.
"You don't have to," he pointed out, and she shook her head.
"No, I want to go," she insisted. "I do!"
"You ain't gotta convince me," he told her, watching her face.
She looked down at her lap, and he watched her fingers gently rub along the tips of her fingernails.
Not picking, but she was clearly feeling for something along the ridges.
His hand slid over hers, stilling her movements.
Taking a slow, deep breath, she let it out, giving him a nod.
"I do want to go with you guys." She looked up at him. "But I don't want to slow you down either."
He rolled his eyes at her statement.
Idiot.
"You ain't slowing us down."
"I just don't want you to worry."
Didn't she know that he always worried?
"You wanna ride Kirara? Then she can get you up and outta danger, and you can't 'slow me down,'" he added the finger ticking things he'd seen her use before, "either."
She opened her mouth, and then closed it after a moment.
"Yeah," she said, and he began to move to pick her up, but she quickly grabbed onto his sleeve, making him pause. "You'll be right there though? The whole time?"
"Dummy," he said, and she gave him a pout. "'Course I will."
She flashed him a smile, and he moved to pick her up.
He tucked her against him as he carried her outside into the sunlight.
Kirara had already transformed into her full size, and he stopped beside her.
"Sango, can I borrow Kirara?" She asked.
"Of course! Kirara is always happy to help, aren't you?" Sango cooed, scratching the fire cat's forehead.
Sango wore her slayer outfit and carried Hiraikotsu on her back.
"Just in case," she claimed.
Kirara lowered herself to her belly, and Inuyasha gently moved her so that she could straddle her back.
"That's not bothering your ankle?" He asked her, as she shifted slightly.
"No, I think I'm okay," she said after a moment.
"You'll make sure to say something if it starts hurting?" Sango asked, and Kagome gave her a firm nod.
"Yeah," she said, as Shippo quickly bounded up his back and leapt onto Kirara's shoulders before situating himself on Kirara's head, sitting right between her ears.
"Are we ready to go?" Miroku asked, leaning against his staff.
Kirara rose steadily to her feet, a slow easy rise, and Inuyasha kept a hand to her back to make sure that she stayed steady and didn't fall or tilt into dangerous territory.
She took a deep breath and remained steady on Kirara's back.
"I'm okay," she said to him, giving him a smile, and then looking at Miroku, who flashed his own smile and then turned around to lead the way.
Miroku led the way through the village, and he could tell that it made her nervous, and it made him remember a time before this when she was in a similar situation.
He uncrossed his arms, sneaking a hand up to gently rub her calf through her pant leg, reminding her that this time, he was right beside her, where he would be always. She looked down at him, and she reached over, tweaking an ear with a gentle rub of her fingers.
"We're safe, right?" One of the women asked, and he darted his eyes over to her direction. "Those things aren't going to lunge at us, right?"
"They claim to be tamed," and this time he recognized the voice. He caught the healer's gaze, drawing his hand away from Kagome's leg as she spoke behind her hand, even though he could hear every word anyway, "but don't let them fool you. They're just as feral as ever. That dog especially."
He took a deep breath. They were almost outside the village.
This wasn't uncommon.
He'd never acted this way outside of Kaede's village.
This was normal, he reminded himself. This was what life was like for someone like him.
This was all he had to offer Kagome.
This was the only life he could give her.
It would be selfish to make her live this sort of life. Under constant scrutiny and being outcasted just for merely existing.
She'd be treated like his mother, and that had broken her—after a good long while, but it still broke her in the end. She was always sad, the smiles for him becoming fewer and far in between the others.
He shouldn't want her to live this sort of life.
He shouldn't force this sort of existence on her. He should let her go.
He just—
He just didn't want to.
He didn't want to let her go.
They'd left the village, and all the quiet whispers dissipated into the noise of the trees and woods.
"So what was this something that you guys found last night?" Kagome asked quite suddenly, and he felt his spine go ramrod straight.
So she had been awake!
"Ah, well, Sango and I discovered a small little trail of something that went off into the woods a little farther than the others, so we thought we might see where that leads." Miroku looked over his shoulder at the both of them. "Is that alright?"
"Yeah, it's just no one has talked about it," she said, voice slowly growing quiet as she spoke.
"Well, there wasn't that much to say. We found a trail, and now we're exploring it," Miroku said with a wave of his hand towards the path in front of him.
"If we think that it's going to become dangerous, then Kirara will get you out of here and to safety, right?" Sango scratched the cat's forehead with a grin.
Kagome looked over at him, and this time he gave in and let himself hold onto her calf again.
He could hear her exhale shakily, giving him a weak smile.
She was nervous. He was surprised that Kirara wasn't complaining about how tightly she was gripping her fur.
He let go of her leg, reaching up slightly to rest his hand on hers. Her fingers relaxed, trembling at holding their grip for so long. She took another deep breath, grabbing onto his hand tightly.
"I'm okay," she whispered to herself, probably not thinking that he could hear her whispering to herself. "I'm okay."
She was—in fact—not okay, but he wasn't about to say anything and burst her bubble. He would just remind her that he was here with her every step of the way.
There was a small noise just ahead, and his head snapped to the front, pulling away from her, and going for his sword. He jogged up ahead in front of Miroku, who took the cue for what it was.
He sniffed the air.
Trace smells of a bug, but nothing that seemed too alarming. This should be easy enough.
"Miroku, guard Kagome," Inuyasha hissed over his shoulder. He watched Miroku slink back to Kirara's side before moving forward.
"I'll protect you, Kagome," Shippo whispered to her. "Don't worry."
"Thanks, Shippo," she whispered back.
Sango came up beside him.
"What do you sense?" She asked, eyes watching the edges of the trees.
"Heard something. Up ahead. Sounds big."
She shifted her grip on Hiraikotsu as he drew Tetsusaiga.
"Ready?" She asked, and he gave a short nod before stalking off towards the spot where he'd heard the noise with Sango following him just a step behind.
"Any ideas on what it is?" She asked.
"Yeah, something you should kill before it kills you," he snapped back. What sort of dumbass question was that?
Sango snorted at that.
"How about a challenge?" She asked, and he pushed the brush aside with his arm, letting it fall back just behind him to whack Sango in the face. "Okay, I'm going to kill this thing before you get a chance to."
"You didn't even know it was here!"
There was a rustle just above them, and Inuyasha only barely managed to throw them both to the ground to avoid the sudden swing of something as it landed just where they were standing.
They rolled back into the pathway, and Kagome shouted at them, as they both dove to the opposite sides to avoid another strike. Inuyasha was already on his feet as Sango climbed to hers.
It was some sort of beetle. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for its sheer size.
Another stab of it's leg where he'd been standing a second ago, but a stab that was easily avoidable.
It moved quick. Almost too quickly.
"Kagome! Do you sense a shard?" He shouted, darting as there was another swing, and he took one of his own, but the creature reared up, avoiding the crucial blow.
Another swing of the bug's head sent Sango sailing into the brush, disappearing from view.
"Fuck!" Inuyasha shouted.
Kirara tackled it, knocking it onto its side where he could make the finishing blow and slice into its midsection.
"The fuck are you doing here! Where's Kagome?"
He glanced over his shoulder at where she'd been and where she should be, but there was no one there.
"Where the fuck is Miroku?!"
With a snarl, he cut the creature in two—not using the Wind Scar, because—you know—Sango and shit.
He darted back to where Kirara had been, following the trail.
"Inuyasha!" Miroku shouted as he came into view, but he already had the trail, following it as the monk paused.
This is the last time he trusted him with anything important!
He ran past, following her trail, fresh and recent.
This wasn't going to be like last time.
It wasn't.
He was going to find her and slaughter the fucker that tried to take what was his.
But there were other familiar scents, and his brain was in panic-induced overload trying to sort through everything, because she had to be safe. She had to be.
If there was one thing that he couldn't live without, it was her.
His eyes caught her, sitting on the ground facing someone, and he slid in front of her, sword drawn.
And suddenly all the smells made sense.
"Kikyo?" He asked, staring at the familiar red and white robes worn by the very familiar face of the woman he'd promised to marry, turn human for, and been betrayed by.
She didn't say a word, and he let his sword drop down to his side, letting it return to its original form.
She didn't look like herself. She still looked like Kikyo, but there was something off putting about it all.
"What're you doing here?"
Her hand snapped out throwing a fistful of dust into his face as he inhaled to speak again. He choked on it, the burn settling in over his skin and all the way down his throat. He hacked, stumbling back a step. His feet caught and tripped as his ears rang, drowning out all sound.
His vision blurred, fading away into black as he tried to focus, even as he fell back against something hard and uncomfortable.
His body wasn't listening. Nothing was working as it should, and he tried to see Kagome, make sure she was okay before the others came. Because the others couldn't be that far behind.
But then it was all quiet and black, and he knew nothing else of the world.
A/N: So I'll just leave this here . . .
