Thursday, November 11, 2004

   inuyasha 24
'Did he mean it? Really mean it? Or is it just everything that's happened?' Kagome cast a furtive glance at where Inuyasha was speaking in low tones with Kaede, Miroku, and Sango. Shippo was sprawled on his back over her lap, purring as she rubbed his stomach much as she did for Buyo at her home. Apparently baby kitsunes enjoyed tummy rubs just as much as fat, lazy cats, she thought with a little smile. That thought brought another to mind: would dog demons enjoy them that much too?

She coughed lightly to cover her mild embarrassment over that thought and forced her mind to move on to what was really dancing around in her head.

Inuyasha had called her koibito... More seriously, he'd said she belonged to him.

And he sounded like he really meant it.

Kagome was still more than a little shocked at that proclamation, but wasn't she allowed to be? It was the last thing she'd expected to hear from him and she wasn't exactly sure what she was feeling now. It's not like it's and everyday thing that you have the guy you're crazy about say something...

Kagome stopped in surprise, her eyes widening and her hand pausing as it rubbed Shippo's stomach at the small revelation her mind has just unexpectedly stumbled upon. She couldn't like him that much, could she? She knew she cared about him a great deal, but did he really mean THAT much to her now? He was rude, violent, insensitive, overbearing, protective, sweet, gorgeous....

She sighed in defeat, shoulders slumping, all right so she WAS absolutely crazy about Inuyasha, but didn't he care about her too? A least a little with how he was acting lately and what he'd said earlier? This wasn't just a one-sided thing, was it?

Shaking her head, she let her eyes trail along his profile affectionately. She'd never dreamed he'd kiss her... 'Well, okay, sure I've daydreamed about it more than once, but daydreams were nothing compared to the reality,' her lips twitched faintly upwards in a shy smile.

She could feel her lips tingling just with the memory of that last burning kiss they'd had, when she'd told him he was what kept her from dying. She just hadn't been able to resist when he'd been acting so upset, and the way he'd been holding her along with that gleam in his amber eyes. Desperate and relieved and terrified all at once, his voice so tight with emotions it had almost made her cry. And then all of that had been poured into her even more completely when he took over. She hadn't wanted that kiss to end...

"Oi, Kagome, you have a funny look on your face, is something wrong?" Shippo chirped up innocently from her lap, narrowing his eyes speculatively up at her. "You aren't straining yourself or anything, are you?"

Embarrassed at being caught fantasizing by the kitsune, she dropped her gaze from Inuyasha's profile and stammered out, "Nothing! I was just...just thinking, Shippo-chan!"

Inuyasha glanced back at her, watching her fidget nervously for a moment and smirking. She'd been watching him steadily for a long time, he had felt it, and now she was refusing to look at him. A soft, pleased chuckle rumbled from his chest as he pondered what could cause that kind of response, 'She'd better still be thinking about that kiss. She started that one, and she didn't push me away.'

"Inuyasha, please, this is serious," Kaede cleared her throat discreetly, drawing his attention back to their conversation. "You were saying that the spell connected you to Kagome? Did this person say anything else that could help us?"

Inuyasha turned his thoughts regretfully away from his more enjoyable thoughts, but she was right, this was important and he could always focus on the kiss later tonight, "From what Kagome has told me, the first voice doesn't really sound dangerous... I don't trust it still, but at least it seems to be giving her information instead of trying to fucking get her killed."

Miroku frowned thoughtfully, absently fingering the sealing beads on his cursed hand as he turned to the distracted girl, "Kagome-sama, you said it told you the spell was distorted. Did this... voice say how?"

Kagome shook her head, fluffing Shippo's hair while the kit basked in the attention delightedly, "It just said that the ink they used in the tattoo was reacting differently than they thought it would. That it was my magic twisting the spell."

"But it didn't know how?" he pressed for clarification.

"No," her gaze slid to Inuyasha again, her eyes guilty and apologetic at the same time. "It just said that staying near Inuyasha would keep me safe. It wasn't until after...um, after I was hurt that it said why it was safe. That when it told me I was balancing with him. If I left it told me I would start absorbing others, but it didn't tell me how or why."

"Balancing with Inuyasha," Kaede murmured, frowning in concern as she thought that over. "That would explain why there were two heartbeats when you were so badly injured. Kagome, do you realize how fortunate it was that you were under this spell when you were hurt?"

Kagome nodded, lifting her hand from Shippo and lightly touching her wrapped shoulder before she answered softly, "I know it."

Inuyasha cleared his throat, not wanting their companions to consider putting Kagome at fault inadvertently, "That's not important right now."

Sango's hands fisted on her thighs as she looked from Kagome to Inuyasha, her brow furrowed at the thought of her being so close to death, "I just can't believe-"

"I said it's not important," Inuyasha shot her a speaking glance, his eyes narrowed sharply. "She's alive, and now we have to figure out this spell so this doesn't happen again," his hand clenched into a fist at his waist.

"I'm all right now, Sango-chan," Kagome interjected, smiling at her friend with warm reassurance when she continued to look uncertain. "Really, Inuyasha wouldn't let anything happen to me. It was my fault it... got so out of control," her gaze turned introspective, shoulders hunching and making her look almost fragile, vulnerable.

"Kagome," Inuyasha shook his head and turned his glare on her. "We've talked about this. It isn't your fault."

Miroku held up a hand to forestall what seemed about to turn into another full blown argument between the two, "Kagome-sama, Inuyasha is right. You can't blame yourself for what has occurred. Had this monk not cast the spell we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place."

"Still-" she started.

"Stop it," Inuyasha all but barked at her, his brows lowering to turn the glare into an all out scowl. "I mean it, Kagome, don't even think like that."

Obediently she didn't say another word, but Inuyasha shook his head and sighed deeply at the guilty look that still graced her expression. It was going to take a lot of work before she stopped thinking this was her fault and he was starting to believe Kagome was even more stubborn about taking blame than he was. That thought didn't sit very well with him.

Inuyasha was rather suddenly distracted from his thoughts, frowning when he felt a familiar and unwelcome shiver run through him, "Damn, not now!"

Kagome looked at him, surprised by the anger in his low grumble, "Inuyasha? What is it?"

The hanyou hopped to his feet and stalked to the window, pulling aside the covering to glare out at the sunset accusingly. When he started swearing beneath his breath, slapping a hand against the wall beside the window, Miroku's eyes lit with understanding. His eyes turned sympathetic as he commented, "Ah, it's the new moon, isn't it, Inuyasha?"

Kagome's mouth opened once and closed while she mentally berated herself for losing track of the days. Normally she was so careful to remember when Inuyasha became human, "Oh."

"Forget it," he muttered in annoyance, dropping the curtain back into place and returning to his previous position with a huff. "It doesn't matter. We have more important things to worry about than the fucking moon."

Shippo frowned when he felt a pulse next to his head, turning to find the source of the gentle beat. When Kagome grunted and reached down to absently rub her hip, an odd twinge shifted into her scent and made his eyes widen, "Um...Kagome?"

"Just a minute, Shippo-chan," she took her hand from her hip to pat his head, frowning at Inuyasha's set expression curiously.

It was strange, but for a moment she could have sworn she actually "felt" the frustration and anger that swamped the hanyou. At the same moment she'd felt the emotions tumble through her head, her hip had started to throb. First just a single, lurching pulse that turned into a steady throbbing, spreading heat slowly through her veins until she felt almost feverish. Her skin was tingling, sweat beading on her forehead and she absently flexed her hands in her lap, flinching when her injuries began to ache as well.

"Perhaps if we can figure out what exactly they were trying to do and how it distorted, we can reverse it and remove the risk to Kagome," Kaede shook her head, rising to her feet and moving back towards the bedrooms of her hut with measured steps. "Kagome, if you hear this voice again, try to find out more of what it was trying to do to you."

Kagome nodded, fighting the urge to grab at her shoulder and side when they cramped painfully, "I will."

Inuyasha's lips twitched briefly, momentary amusement covering his irritation at the moon's cycle, "Do we have to reverse all of it?"

"Sit," Kagome's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, snorting at him when he was instantly flattened. She quickly held up her good hand when he turned his head towards her from his prone position, eyes glittering with promise. "I'm hurt! Don't do it!" she reminded, her own eyes sparkling with amusement at the way his face fell. It was like a little kid being told he couldn't have his way.

Inuyasha scowled at her again and warned, "Don't think I'm forgetting this, Kagome. As soon as your well-"

"You may not forget, but I'll have weeks before you can do anything about it," she smiled softly in delight, letting her hand drop back to her lap when another twinge went through her injuries. That had momentarily taken her attention off the rising heat spreading in her blood, but she frowned again when Inuyasha turned away, pressing her hand hard against her hip at the intensifying sensation.

It was pulsing insistently now, making it impossible for her to focus on the conversation between the others when the throb echoed in her healing wounds uncomfortably. Frustrated, she lifted her hand to her forehead to rub at the ache there, closing her eyes on a wave of dizziness while that bizarre itching grew more intense all along her skin. Her heart was thundering in her ears and abruptly, the sounds in the room rose in volume, making her head ache as her breath came in shorter pants.

Shippo righted himself in a hurry to sit in her lap and tug at her shirt front, "Kagome?"

"What is it, Shippo-chan?" she forced her eyes to open and focus on the concerned face below her.

"What's wrong with you? You smell funny," he shook his head and pressed his ear to her chest before he looked back up at her and whispered. "And your heart feels wrong," he added, his voice uncertain and more than a little scared.

"I-" she broke off with a grunt of pain, her fist clenching over her heart when it lurched painfully in her chest. Okay, enough was enough and she was definitely getting worried, "Inuyasha!?"

Inuyasha's head snapped around at her frightened gasp, his eyes instantly concerned when he saw how pale her face had become, "Kagome?"

"Something's wrong!" she shook her head, her eyes wide. "I feel...I feel so strange-!"

"Fuck, it has to be the moon," he bit out, moving to her side and dropping down in front of her to take her chin in his hand, turning her face from side to side and studying her intently. She was hot to the touch, her skin damp with sweat as she trembled faintly with her breath coming in light pants. He slid his hand from her chin into her hair soothingly, calling back to where Kaede had paused, watching them with a grim expression on her weathered face. "Baba, if the spell has Kagome balancing with me, what will it do to her when I turn human? How will it 'balance' then?" he shot the old miko a look of poorly disguised concern and self-directed anger at failing to consider this sooner.

Kaede frowned at him and shook her head, "I have no idea what the spell will do, Inuyasha. I don't know any more about it than you do, you know that."

"Dammit all," Inuyasha brought his hand back up to Kagome's forehead, scowling when he felt the rise in her temperature just from what it had been a moment ago. Cursing the human blood dulling his senses, he demanded, "What do you feel, Kagome?"

"Hot," she swallowed, leaning into his hand slightly at the cooler feel of his skin. Her eyes closed and she reached up to take his wrist in her hand, "And I'm... I don't know, I just... feel strange."

The sun dipped below the mountains and Inuyasha started swearing blackly when he felt the change come over him. He glared angrily at his hand as his claws shrank down into blunt human nails, growling at the burning feeling sweeping through him with the weakening in his blood. He instantly stopped when he heard Kagome gasp, reaching out to catch her when she doubled over, hissing and clutching a hand to her heart.

"Kagome!" he yelled in alarm even as he pulled her into his lap, forcing her still to keep her from opening her healing wounds. "Kagome, don't move, you'll hurt yourself," he pressed her close, wrapping his arms tightly around her.

"Inuyasha, this...this really hurts..." she whispered into his neck, her body shaking as his hair leeched black and the last of his youkai blood waned.

Miroku was on his feet with Sango in an instant, rushing over to them in an effort to do something to help their friend. Shippo rubbed his hand up and down on her stomach, hoping to bring her some measure of comfort from where he was sandwiched in between the now human hanyou and Kagome. His head was swimming with the confusing scents vibrating in the air between the two, Inuyasha's seemingly stuck in that weird state where he didn't smell like himself, but he didn't quite smell human either.

"Kagome-sama!" Miroku bent down and reached for her, his face solemn.

Inuyasha's response to the monk's attempt was to tuck Kagome more tightly against him, all but swallowing her up in the enveloping sleeves of his kimono and tucking her head under his chin. He twisted away from them, hiding her from view and hissing at them demandingly, "Don't! Don't fucking touch her!"

Miroku's own temper finally snapped at Inuyasha's stubborn refusal to let him help and he yelled out, "Damn you, Inuyasha, let us do SOMETHING!"

Sango was torn between gaping at the monk's outburst and doing some yelling of her own, but she finally shook her head and focused a frustrated look on the glaring human version of the hanyou, "He's right, Inuyasha, you have to let us help Kagome-chan!"

"I can fucking handle this!" he snapped out at both of them defensively.

Shippo's eyes went wide when Kagome shuddered again, letting out a soft, muffled whimper and burrowing deeper in Inuyasha's hold. The scents around the pair had cleared, "Oh SHIT!"

"Please don't!" Kagome whispered out, her hand fisting against his chest. "It's too loud... It hurts!"

The three instantly went silent, staring at the girl hiding her face with mixed expressions. Inuyasha went perfectly still, his eyes widening in alarm as he silently prayed he was wrong about what the spell might have done. Kagome shifted against him, rubbing her head under his chin when she turned to squint up at Miroku and Sango's confused, yet worried expressions.

Inuyasha's eyes slid closed and he dropped his chin over her head, "Oh no... Oh fuck no...."


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