Tuesday, September 28, 2004

   inuyasha 11
"Please tell me you're joking," Kagome groaned, covering her eyes with one hand and wrapping the other around her stomach when it started turning flips at Inuyasha's casual suggestion.

"I'll keep my back turned the entire time," Inuyasha responded, folding his arms into the sleeves of his robes, but not moving from where he blocked her attempted exit.

"Absolutely not!" she shook her head, pushing away from the wall and glaring at him in adamant denial.

Miroku had "arranged" lodging for the night for them when they reached the small village, and Kagome had decided to take full advantage of their stop in civilization. However, the moment she'd announced her intentions, Inuyasha had been right there to enforce that ridiculous rule he'd given her about not being out of his sight...for anything.

"I'm not asking, Kagome," he frowned down at her stubbornly. "You're not going anywhere without me, and that includes bathing. Either I go with you, or you don't bathe tonight."

Kagome turned deep red when Miroku made a choking sound of amusement from the other side of the room, the sound barely smothered by his had. Redirecting her anger at an easier opponent, she shot him a freezing glare, her fists clenching at her sides. The priest made a valiant attempt to put on his infamous blank expression, but finally gave up and settled for giving her a sympathetic half-smile and a shrug. Irritated at her distraction, Inuyasha reached out and set a hand on her shoulder to draw her back to the argument at hand.

Sighing heavily, she reluctantly turned her attention back to the hanyou, "I think I'll be fine for twenty minutes. You can hear me if I scream, right?"

Sango quickly yanked on a chunk of the hanyou's hair when he seemed ready to argue. Kagome's voice had gone from annoyed to downright pissed and the last thing they really needed was a screaming match between the two in the village leader's home, "I'll go with her! We'll be fine, Inuyasha, don't worry."

"I promise I'll call for you if something happens," Kagome added, clapping her hands together and giving him wide-eyed look of pleading, silently chanting a plea to whatever higher powers were listening that he give in.

Inuyasha looked down and her, his scowl wavering with his indecision until he finally turned his face aside and snorted, "Keh."

Kagome grinned, grabbing Sango with one hand and her bath bag with the other. Skirting around the hanyou with a speed born of relieved desperation, she yanked the exterminator out of the room, "That means yes, let's go before he changes his mind!"

Sango almost started giggling at the growl that came from Inuyasha when the younger girl all but dragged her down the empty hallway, "I don't know if I should be worried at the thought that you can translate Inuyasha's 'keh' that easily."

"I try not to think about it," Kagome smiled brightly as they made their way to the bath the elder's wife had shown them on the way in. "But I know when to take advantage of him going soft."

"He's just worried about you, Kagome-chan," Sango sighed, shaking her head as she reached down to clasp the younger girl's hand and give it a squeeze. "You should have seen his face when you fainted after that mess with the youkai. He wouldn't let any of us near you," she informed the surprised girl with a nod to show she was being honest.

Kagome swore beneath her breath, a frustrated sound working it way free around the muttered words as they reached the bath. She was scowling as she slid the door open, "I hate it when he does that."

"Does what?" the exterminator frowned in genuine confusion.

"Acts so damn sweet that I can't stay mad at him no matter how big a jerk I think he's being," Kagome made a face. "Just when I think I'm fed up with that damn cocky attitude, he turns it around on me. And then I remember he's not 'always' trying to irritate me, he's just being himself. I can't think of him like a guy from my time."

"Like a human, you mean?" Sango slid the door closed, frowning into the hallway as she checked to see if the hanyou was planning on eavesdropping. "Youkai are a bit different with how they behave towards the females they consider their own, Kagome, I'm sure you're aware of that. Whether you like it or not, Inuyasha is rather...possessive with you. You can't hold him to human standards."

"He's more than a human," Kagome smiled, her finger lightly brushing her lips. "I know he thinks of things differently than a human guy would, I hope he always does. It's just that I'm never sure where exactly I stand with him. And he's protected me for so long... Do you think he cares, Sango-chan? Even a little? He might just think I'm like a pet or something..."

Sango laughed softly at her uncertain tone, "I don't think he's sees you as a pet, Kagome-chan. I'm sure he cares more than a little. And he's been showing it more since this mess started, right? I don't think I've ever seen Inuyasha quite so...ah, openly affectionate."

Kagome briefly leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes, "That confuses me a little."

At Sango's silence, Kagome opened one eye to glance at her friend, blushing at the arched brow and almost taunting question in her eyes.

"Okay, okay, so I'm a lot confused by that," she admitted in a low voice. "I mean, he's always grabbing my hand or pulling me up against him... He's never done that. Especially not in front of people!"

"AND... you were sleeping in his lap!" Sango couldn't help but tease, laughing when the younger girl blushed bright red. "He didn't look like he minded, Kagome-chan. He even pushed Shippo-chan off you to put you there."

Kagome sputtered, dropping her head to hide her face and absently rubbing her hand over her neck, "I...ah, we..."

Sango was laughing even more and the incoherent stuttering, shaking her head as she moved to test the water, "Don't worry about it! I'm sure Inuyasha will explain himself if you asked him."

Kagome's face turned about three different shades of scarlet, "I'm not sure I want to ask..."

Sango sighed and shook her head, "You can't just ignore it, you know."

"I know," her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I'm... I'm just scared of what he'd say. I don't know what answer I want to hear."

Her eyes were sympathetic and with a light sigh, she reached out and took the younger girl's hand, "C'mon, Kagome-chan, the faster we bathe, the less likely Inuyasha is to come down on our heads for being gone to long."

Kagome nodded silently, grateful for the distraction even as she tried to think of the best ways to keep Sango from seeing the dark crimson tattoo. Finally deciding it'd be best to just keep that side facing away from the exterminator, she moved to join her friend in the pleasantly steaming water.

*

Inuyasha returned to the room quietly with a thoughtful look on his face.

The odd behavior had Miroku's brows raising in question, "Did you hear something unpleasant, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha grunted, plopping down against the far wall, folding his arms across his chest and growling out a distracted, "That's none of your fucking business."

His mind was focused more on what he'd just heard from Kagome, puzzling over what the girl could have meant. 'He's more than a human...' Did that mean Kagome thought he was better than any of the idiots he'd heard of in her time? Better than any human man? He ducked his head to hide the smirk on his lips, 'First she calls me the great Inuyasha and now this. Why doesn't she just tell me to my face?'

Then he frowned. She'd been asking Sango if he cared... And the other things she'd said... How could she not realize the she belonged to him? That couldn't be right, though. After all, she'd stayed in his lap even after she woke up and realized where she was, and she'd kissed him all on her own. That had to mean she understood, so then, why had she asked the questions she had? Damn, he was going to have to pull her aside and explain this too.

A little hand tugging hard on his sleeve brought his thoughts back to the present and he turned a scowl down at the kitsune looking up at him in speculation, "What do you want, brat?"

"You're thinking again," Shippo sat back with a frown. "You've been doing that a lot lately and you shouldn't. It's too scary."

Inuyasha growled down at him in annoyance, sending Shippo scrambling for cover. But just as the hanyou had shifted, getting his feet under him to spring an attack at the impertinent little brat, Miroku very effectively turned his attention.

Clearing his throat discreetly, the monk folded his hands in his lap and spoke softly, "Inuyasha, we must discuss what is happening to Kagome-sama."

Sending Shippo a glare that promised future retribution, he turned to the priest and nodded stiffly, "Then you did sense something strange."

Miroku sent the hanyou a rather dry look, "Was it the glowing eyes that gave it away? Or maybe Kagome ripping off that youkai's arms? Or that weird voice?"

Inuyasha growled, leaning back as his posture all at once turned defensive, "I meant something 'besides' that shit, you fucking lech, and you know it!"

Miroku let out a weary sigh, "It was quite disturbing, Inuyasha."

The growling ceased immediately and he perked up, leaning forward on his haunches with his ears twitching towards the nervous priest as he demanded, "What did you feel?"

"Obviously there was a massive level of power around her," he began, turning his gaze to the closed door as though worried someone might come through it at any moment. "But there were three seperate powers mixing together, her own, and two foreign magics that seemed to be pulling off Kagome's energy. As though they were using her to make theirs stronger."

Inuyasha's expression hardened, "Three? So there were two other souls using her? Pulling off her energy?"

"It would seem so," Miroku nodded, absently fingering the sealing beads on his cursed hand. "One of the magics was similar to the one that first surrounded her in the well, but the other I didn't recognize."

"Damn," he sat back, scowling towards the door himself. "I knew there had to be more to that fucking spell."

There was silence for a moment as the two adults sat absorbed in their thoughts with Shippo nervously looking back and forth between them. Scooting closer to the scowling hanyou, he whispered hopefully, "You can fix it, right? Like the last time?"

Inuyasha didn't answer, but he reached out and gave the kit an absent, awkward pat on the head. His jaw clenched as he averted his face and spoke, "Oi, priest..."

Miroku's brows rose in silent encouragement.

"Do you think the spell went wrong?" he grumbled out. "Is it possible that someone else was supposed to gain control of her and she just heard me first?"

"I had thought of that," Miroku conceded gravely. "Or perhaps there was another who took advantage of her...condition that night and used the spellcaster's actions to hide their own. If only Kagome had not been intoxicated we would have had a clearer picture of what happened to her."

Now Inuyasha was growling again, "If only."

Miroku motioned with one hand in an absent gesture of dismissal, "There is no use looking backwards. It will only work against us. We simply must find out what is going on with the information we do have."

"It would help if she wasn't so fucking secretive all the time," Inuyasha muttered, folding his arms over his chest in the perfect picture of masculine arrogance. "Look at how long it took to find out she was drunk."

"She was only concerned with your reaction," the priest tried to soothe the anger he saw flashing in the hanyou's golden eyes.

"Keh, she knew that it wouldn't have happened if she'd just used her head and told me what she was doing," he snorted. "That bitch is turning me into a raving lunatic," Inuyasha sighed wearily, his shoulders slumping as he leaned back against the wall.

Shippo smiled at that, giggling softly, "I think it's too late for that."

"That does it."

*

If Kagome and Sango had left the bath just a moment sooner they would have been flattened by the wailing kitsune bursting from their rooms followed closely by a swearing hanyou. Both girls froze, gaping in amazement after the pair for a moment before they both let out a long suffering sigh and continued into the room.

"I don't think those two will ever change," Sango muttered as she pulled the ribbon from her hair to let the thick mass tumble down around her shoulders.

"It would terrify me if they did," Kagome admitted sheepishly, kneeling by her pack to put her bath bag away. "What set them off this time, Miroku-sama?"

Miroku jumped in alarm, his gaze jumping quickly from lower areas up to Kagome's questioning face, "Ah, ahem-" He quickly slapped a harmless smile on his face, "Shippo was merely commenting on Inuyasha's questionable sanity."

"That would do it," Sango rolled her eyes, settling herself down for her nightly ritual of polishing her Hiraikotsu. She gave the monk a suspicious look when he scooted closer to her and tapped her fingers against the massive boomerang meaningfully.

Miroku pouted, but obediently sat back, turning his gaze towards Kagome as she dug through her pack for dinner. "Would you care for some help, Kagome-sama?" Miroku offered in his most neutral voice.

Her thoughts wandering well away from the dangers of accepting help from the proven lecherous monk, she gave him a distracted smile and nodded, "Would you heat some water for me?"

"Certainly," Miroku rose to his feet and moved about to perform the rather menial task, his eyes continuously straying to Kagome's backside with an appreciative smile.

Sango tossed a rag at his head, giving him a warning glare when he turned in her direction, pulling the rag off with his most innocent look. She shook her head, once again giving her weapon a meaningful shift and Miroku sighed with regret, nodding his head to indicate his understanding. Satisfied with his acquiescence, she held out her hand to indicate she wanted the rag returned, her attention going back to cleaning the boomerang once he had thrown it back.

Miroku intended to leave Kagome alone while he helped her, he really had... And he would have been able to stick to that, had he not turned back to find her bent over, digging through her bag almost directly in front of him. His hand fisted, twitching as his eyes were drawn to the inviting curves not an arm's length away.

Habit took over and his hand moved forward with a will of its own.

Several things happened at once.

Kagome straightened and turned just as his hand reached her, his hand making contact with her hip rather than the curve of her backside like he'd intended; Inuyasha returned, holding Shippo by the tail just in time to see the action; and instead of the expected scream of outrage, Kagome let out a scream of pain and dropped to her knees with her hands clamped over her side.

And all hell broke loose.

Inuyasha had dropped Shippo and was across the room before Miroku had even moved, his clawed hand catching the priest by the throat and slamming him back against the wall with enough force to send a shudder through the structure. Sango shot to her feet, chasing after the two men with her attention divided between saving the priest from the enraged hanyou and doing him serious injury herself for hurting Kagome.

Both Inuyasha and Sango started yelling at the same time, Inuyasha demanding to know what Miroku had done and threatening all sorts of death and dismemberment while Sango was insisting Inuyasha not kill him yet and them bellowing some demands of her own. Trying to get a word in over the two angry voices, Miroku was stubbornly insisting he hadn't done anything while trying to forcefully pry the hand away from his throat before he was strangled to death.

In the midst of the instant chaos, Kagome sat with a stunned expression on her face, her back to the arguing trio as Shippo very slowly made his way to her side. Kagome was shaking, her hands clamped so hard on her side that the knuckles had turned white and her eyes unfocused as she tried to sort out just what had just happened herself.

'What? What the hell was that?' she shook her head in denial, her eyes lowering to her hands in disbelief. 'The moment he touched me...the pain was so... Why did it hurt me? It... it never hurt when...when I touched it...'

Shippo's hand on her knee chased the distant look from her eyes and focused her attention down to the kitsune. Her brows drew together slightly in confusion and she ignored the screaming behind her to deal with the worried kit, "Shippo-chan?"

His eyes were filled with uncertain concern as he calmly asked, "Has that weird bruise not healed up yet, Kagome?"

The room went so silent that Kagome's sharply indrawn gasp seemed to echo off the walls louder than her previous scream.

Kagome felt as though the bottom had just dropped out of her stomach, her eyes going wide with horror and her mouth very slowly falling open as she looked down at Shippo in disbelief. Her muscles went lax with dawning comprehension at just what Shippo's quiet question had done and her eyes drifted closed as she scrambled for something to say. Something, ANYTHING that would save her from discovery and that god-awful feeling of impending doom.

The silence was broken by an emotionless, flat demand filled with undeniable authority, "What?"

Shippo flinched at the coldness in the hanyou's voice, leaning to the side to peer up at him with his eyes wide and frightened, "I saw it before, and Miroku touched her where she had this mmpf-!"

He was cut off when Kagome snatched him up, clapping her hand over the youkai child's mouth and stammered out a hurried, "It's nothing!"

The silence fell again and Kagome hunched over the kitsune, her shoulders shaking as she bit down hard on her lower lip, acutely aware of the three people standing silent and motionless behind her.

Shippo looked up at her in confusion, his hands easing hers off his mouth so he could inquire innocently, "Did I say something wrong?"

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