Chapter 53

"I'll be in and out so quick, you won't even know I was gone!"

As she spoke, Kagome rubbed his upper arm in a series of short up and downs, then gave his shoulder little squeeze. It was soothing gesture humans did to each other. Something mundane he hadn't been privy to since his mother passed. Inuyasha hated that his concern was so apparent to Kagome, but secretly revelled in the attention.

Then again, something about the two of them being sequestered together day in and day out had brought them to an even closer degree of comfort physically with each other. It was appalling if he dwelled on it but there was no doubt he'd grown accustomed to her.

Just then, something—someone—yanked on his forelocks. Light, without intent to harm, but annoying. Wasn't gonna get used to this.

"Hey!" Kagome stared up at him, her grey eyes slightly narrowed. "Stop frowning, you dummy."

"I ain't!" He growled back, dislodging her fingers from his hair. "I get it! Just get goin' already."

He drew his arms across his chest in good measure, pointedly trying to ignore Kagome's gaze still trained intently on him. Like he was some damn bug she was trying to puzzle out.

Finally, she sighed and stepped back, hands fidgeting with the knot of the carry cloth around her shoulders.

"Okay. Don't worry, Inuyasha." She chirped a good bye. "I'll be fine!"

He tried not to visibly wince at the higher pitched tone of her voice. It was the one she used when she was trying to sound more cheerful than she was.

Damn. What the hell did his face look like to make her worry so. Fuckin' emotions.

Inuyasha stayed where he was, watching the silhouette of Kagome's back disappear beyond the crest of the hill before launching himself upwards. Finding a suitably sized bough with ample leaf coverage, the hanyou settled in for a wait.

In short, he lasted maybe ten breaths before his foot started tapping listlessly on the branch.

Oh, he knew alright, what the hell was wrong. Kagome was out of range of all his senses and it made his youki freak the fuck out. The difference between now and when they're apart up in the mountains, was that she was very clearly walking straight into human territory—hostile territory where his demon instincts was concerned.

This degree of dependancy on Kagome's constant presence was reaching levels of dangerous. Back in the village, he was still able to brush it aside, ignore it, telling himself he only saw her sometimes. But now, in the past weeks, he'd woken every day to the proximity of her scent, and closed his eyes at each day's end to the sound of her restful breathing. The intimacy was slowly fucking with his brain in ways he couldn't even hope to understand or reverse.

Inuyasha groaned, throwing his head none too gently back against the trunk, trying to knock some sense into it.

Trouble was, he couldn't lie to himself. The terrible, self-serving side of him enjoyed the last weeks of keeping Kagome to himself. He didn't know if it was some underlying thread of possessiveness from his youkai side or he was just a shitty person, plain and simple.

Though Kikyou's village was already infinitely better than the handful of human dwellings he'd lived near— as sad as that was—he still wasn't exactly welcomed. Just tolerated like a stray dog. It was for Kagome and Kaede's—to a lesser degree—benefit that he'd ignored them, but he was well aware of the dirty looks cast his way whenever he passed through the village with the girls.

Away from all that, it felt so much lighter. He didn't have to guess, didn't have to be on his best behaviour, and Kagome never made him feel like he had to. She never had. Not from the moment he fished her out of the dry well.

And out in the wilderness, he was free to just be himself in Kagome's company and she, bafflingly, seem to prefer him like that. Rude, scrappy, socially-awkward and all.

At the thought of the priestess, Inuyasha's mood darkened further. He hadn't let himself dwell on it too much, because well, there was shit he had to do and priorities. Frankly, he'd been more disappointed that Kikyou had proven him right than the actual betrayal itself.

Maybe it was his fault for not having tried harder to show her who he was, make more time for her to get to know him beyond the stereotype of 'hanyou, unsociable and prone to violence. Kikyou had been right, he really did stop making an effort of meeting her once Kagome came into his life.

He winced.

It is what it is though. He could never truly talk down his instincts to drop his guard around her—her spiritual energy keeping his youki on edge. Something about the way that she always did keep her distance from him, like literally walked farther apart. As if she couldn't bear to be near immediate range of a swipe of his claws.

Inuyasha rubbed his face harshly, weary of this sudden barrage of negative emotion.

He thought he'd already made peace with that fact that while he'd been a bit of a clueless asshole in this department, the way he felt about Kagome was wildly different from what he thought he felt about Kikyou.

With that, his thoughts came full circle back to the original subject of his brooding. He glared the cluster of rooftops just barely visible in the distance.

It was just a human town. A big one, sure but she was also a human. And it wasn't so unreasonable to assume she would fare ok. Right?

He groaned out loud.

Inuyasha could admit to himself that he had a possessive streak. Of course, he would feel so much better if he could just keep Kagome safely sequestered away from anything he thought would cause her harm. But then he would really be treating her like some possession, hoarding her and preventing her from living her full life.

What kind of bastard would he be then?

Kagome wasn't like him. She thrived around people, and in turn, people who spent time with her became brighter, better versions of themselves.

She liked company of other people. She liked chattering. And while she was probably ok right now, Inuyasha knew that she wouldn't be in the long term.

She'd grow tired of him and resentful of his bastard heritage keeping him, and her, from normal social interaction. And one day, she'd decided she'd had enough of him. Especially if he kept trying to keep her to himself.

That was why he'd let her go. At least an afternoon away from him, to get some human interaction.

Maybe it was ok to keep her for a season, but then Inuyasha knew he'd have to let her go.

Then his mind wandered, to what it would be like if she were to settle elsewhere. Treacherously, his brain showed him images of other men, vying for her attention. He wasn't stupid, he'd noticed how human males eyed her in every village.

Fuck! Maybe that's exactly what's happening now.

How stupid was he? She's a female, alone.

Before he was fully conscious of his actions, his body had already launched out of the trees and into a brisk run towards the village, careful to keep into the shadows whenever possible.

Imagined worse-case scenarios flashed in his mind. Kagome could get mugged, or prepositioned or worse... in some dark alley somewhere because she wasn't thinking and wandered off.

Approaching the outskirts of town, he pulled the hood of his cloak up, hastily tucking the mass ostentatious, silver hair into the collar.

It really was a very busy market, which made it easy for him to slip into the throng slowly moving into the town centre. People were too busy gawking at the wares to really pay him much attention.

Shitty part of it was that the smells and overlapping noise bombarding his senses. It was nauseatingly overpowering, and Inuyasha had to make a concerted effort to orient himself.

It was near impossible to track Kagome in this mess.

He felt like a skittish doe, flinching at every small prick of his senses. Being overly sensitized as it was, it didn't help there were actually youkai around. They were all low level, mostly ones that were animal like.

Still, it surprised him. How many lived amongst the humans, some working like domestic animals. He couldn't detect any charmed bindings that might suggest they were held against their will. But why, what could be in it for youkai, no matter how wimpy, to cooperate with humans?

But he wasn't here to rescue any youkai, he was here for Kagome.

Trying not to growl in frustration, Inuyasha pulled the hood further down—not suspicious at all, given the mild weather. Any moment, he was waiting for someone to scream bloody murder, point out his non-human status and then it would be some sort of violent mob situation again.

Then, a whiff of something passed his nose. His senses sharpened, and he snapped around, scanning the blur of humans for her face.

He could've sworn he smelle—

The sensation of trampling a foot, immediately followed by him plowing bodily into someone. The unexpected impact jolted him and sent the other party sideways into a covered cart.

Inuyasha was impressed the human was still standing. He was scrawny and shorter than him with stringy hair that hung limply down the sides of his face. The flash of dark, beady eyes was surprisingly filled with anger.

The man probably assumed he was human.

"Sorry," he muttered quickly, brushing past. "Wasn't pay attention. Sorry."

Pulling hood down even more, Inuyasha dropped his gaze, averting his face. Murmuring a few more apologies in what he thought would be a placating tone, he turned to go before the human could see any more of his features.

He hurried away and thank the kami, the human let it go. There were no grabs at his arm, no angry shouts from behind him.

Getting his shit together, Inuyasha walked all the way to the end of the street, then around to another row of vendors before looping back.

This time he was careful to watch where the hell he was going and sniffed discreetly.

At long last he caught another whiff of Kagome's scent, bright and warm.

Relief flooded him instantly and his body loosened, shoulders he wasn't aware he was hunching up relaxed a fraction.

Inuyasha turned and started tracking.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. However, this plot, the exact sequence of words and any original characters described therein, I reserve all rights to.