Tuesday, November 16, 2004

   inuyasha 26
"Well, sorry, it always looks so easy when you do it," Kagome shot the swearing hanyou-gone-human an apologetic look while trying hard not to laugh at the whole mess she'd just caused.

"You make a fucking clumsy hanyou, Kagome," Inuyasha grumbled, rubbing his aching head as he pushed himself off the ground and glaring at her.

"You shouldn't have squirmed around so much," she put her nose in the air and rolled up to her feet with borrowed grace. "And you go jumping off so often I wanted to see if it was any fun," she shrugged, holding out a hand to help him rise.

Kagome had wanted to see if she could run the way Inuyasha always did, and to her delight, she'd found herself effortlessly moving so fast that the landscape around her blurred. Inuyasha was not only a lot taller than she was, though, but much bigger, and even with his strength it had been awkward to hold him over her shoulder. So with Inuyasha twisting and swearing, demanding to be put down but afraid to use the subduing spell for fear of hurting them both, she tried to land.

Unfortunately, that part had turned out to be a lot more difficult than Inuyasha made it look and they had ending up crashing rather hard in a tangle of arms and legs. To Kagome, the rough landing had been mildly uncomfortable, but from the way Inuyasha was swearing, it had to have been a bit painful. Especially when she recalled what it felt like to her whenever she'd ended up taking an impromptu dive to the ground.

Inuyasha glared at the offered hand, propping elbow against the ground to rest his head on his palm. Grunting in irritation, he ignored her attempted assistance and kicked her lightly behind the knees. The unexpected motion swept her legs out from under her, dropping her with a thump to the ground next to him while he sighed arrogantly, "See? Clumsy."

"Dammit, Inuyasha, I apologized!" she snarled out angrily, rubbing her tailbone as she glared at him. "What did you do that for?"

He shook his head and chuckled softly, reaching out to give her hair a tug, "I think you make a good me."

"That does it," Kagome pounced at him.

Inuyasha let out a shout of surprise when she crashed into him again, knocking the breath from his lungs and likely giving him a new bruise or two. Recovering, he let out a sound that was as close to a growl as he could manage in his human form and just barely managed to wrestle her to the side and rise to his knees. Kagome caught his arm as she tumbled and yanked him with her, losing her already precarious balance when Inuyasha gave her a nudge with his shoulder to regain the advantage.

When she managed to reverse them yet again, her legs clamped around his sides and making his ribs groan, he yelled out, "Oi, bitch, knock it off! You're stronger than you think this way."

"Even better! This is just like wrestling with Souta," she pinned him down, flashing his own smirk into his annoyed face before her ears perked up and she completely lost interest in the boy beneath her. Kagome lifted her head, her ears twitching like crazy as she started turning to follow the directions of the sounds reaching her highly enhanced hearing.

"Keh," Inuyasha's brows drew together in confusion at her actions and he mentally cursed the moon for keeping him from hearing what distracted her. He pushed that aside even as he took advantage of her inattention to reverse their positions before she accidentally cracked a rib or worse. His head cocked to one side to regard her almost painfully curious expression as she continued to look off into the woods, "What's gotten into you, Kagome? Are you all right?"

"I... I can hear... all sorts of things," Kagome's eyes were bright as she glanced up at him before turning her gaze back to their surroundings. "It's so weird," she whispered, a look of concentration coming over her face as she tried to focus on the individual noises.

He smiled gently, reaching down to rub the base of the nearest ear and laughing again when she instinctively tilted her head into the touch. He doubted she even realized she was doing it, she was so engrossed in listening to everything around her.

What would it be like for a human to suddenly have senses like his? He focused on his senses now, as a human, comparing it to what he was accustomed to in an effort to empathize with her enthrallment. The brought a thoughtful look to his face as he watched Kagome's eye dart around as though she'd never seen a forest in her life. As a human, his senses were so dulled that he felt helpless, weak... He relied so heavily on his youkai blood that he'd never stopped to about it from the human point of view. No wonder she'd been cringing when everyone was yelling in the hut. He was at least used to dealing with the heightened levels.

"I think I know why you miss this," Kagome was murmuring softly, snapping his thoughts from their deep introspection. "Even if it's a little overwhelming, it's... it's just amazing."

Inuyasha blinked in surprise, "Y-yeah. I guess it is."

A shiver went through Kagome when he lightly scratched her ear and a soft rumble worked vibrated in her throat, making her blush while Inuyasha grinned hugely, "Ahh, so it doesn't tickle?"

Kagome slapped a hand against his chest, her eyes widening in surprise when he went flying into a nearby tree trunk. Blinking in amazement, she sat up on her haunches and gave him a rueful smile, "Oops?"

"Bitch!" he picked himself up again, glaring at her. "Hanyou, Kagome, HANYOU! That means you have my fucking strength!"

"I've never had it before, give me a break!" she snapped right back at him, feeling her blood heat. Was this just part of having youkai blood? Everything in her screaming to challenge Inuyasha's yell, to dominate.

"O-oi, don't get angry!" Inuyasha held up his hands when she started to growl, she wouldn't have any idea how to control herself if she had all his instincts and unfortunately, he knew he was hitting all the triggers. The last thing he needed to deal with was Kagome possibly getting possessed while he was human and unable to help her without risking serious injury to them both.

"Then don't fucking yell at me!" Kagome demanded, folding her arms over his chest.

She was instantly contrite, sneaking a look at Inuyasha's concerned expression despite the bruises that were darkening on his face from his less than gentle landings. He really was trying to help, in his way... and all she could think about doing was taking his head off. Swearing beneath her breath, she smacked herself on the side of the head before muttering in disgust, "What's gotten into me?"

"You're usually human," he pointed out, shrugging as though it should have been obvious to her.

"YOU don't act like this," she made a face, but then stopped herself and snorted. "What am I saying, yes you do."

"Oi!"

Kagome giggled, turning her back on him as she turned her attention back to the woods around her and closed her eyes. This really was amazing, all the little things she could smell and feel in the night, her ears flicking back and forth in an effort to pick up and distinguish the little sounds in the woods around her. There were rustling branches, animal sounds, Inuyasha breathing and his heartbeat, the shifting in his clothes and the faint click of beads....

Wait... beads?

"Inuyasha!" Kagome swung around, her eyes wide when she saw him grinning, the prayer beads lifted to eye level. "Sit!"

Kagome hit the ground hard, yelping in alarm and unexpected pain.

Inuyasha blinked in surprise then burst out laughing as what happened clicked in his mind. Losing his hold on the rosary in favor of clutching his stomach as he dropped to the ground, rolling on his back.

"What the hell?!" Kagome pried her upper body off the ground and reaching down to grab her hip.

"My blood... your body," he managed, laughing so hard tears streamed down his cheeks. "You...you subdued...yourself!"

"Oh, I'm so going to hurt you," she shot forward the second it wore off, grabbing his wrists and flattening him to the ground.

Inuyasha used her own momentum to roll them over, once again crouching above her and breaking her hold on his wrists before smirking, "I told you, Kagome, I'm a better fighter."

"Yeah? But right now I'm stronger," she grinned back, bringing her knees up against his back to pitch him off her. She giggled as he groaned and rose to his feet, "This is fun!"

"This really isn't getting us anywhere, you know," he grumbled at her. "All we're doing is knocking each other down."

"I guess you're right," Kagome sighed in regret, reaching up to tug lightly on her ear. "I mean, I don't want to actually hurt you or anything..."

"Keh, you? Hurt me?" Inuyasha snapped into the perfect image of wounded male pride. "Not a chance, little girl."

She made a face at him, "Hey, you have my strength and I have yours. Are you saying that you wouldn't stand a chance against a human?"

He gave her a sour look, "That's not what I meant."

Kagome turned her back on him again, her ears swiveling forward and back as she stretched lazily. It was more than a little disturbing to have these thoughts going through her head, the enjoyment she derived from irritating the human Inuyasha. Who would have thought it was this complicated to be a hanyou?

"Inuyasha?"

"What?" he folded his arms over his chest, nose in the air.

"What if we don't change back in the morning?" Kagome sat down where she stood, ears flattening back at the sudden change in her thoughts.

Inuyasha sighed softly, his annoyance draining away as he walked to her side and sat down as well, close, but not touching, "We'll figure something out."

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, "It's your power. I mean, this is really... unbelievable..."

He snorted, reaching out to loop his arm around her waist and pull her close, "How about if we don't change, I take off the beads?"

"You really want me to kill you, don't you," Kagome glared at him, smacking him on the head and knocking him back.

He was still chuckling as he sat up, reaching for her again despite her growling. If it was his blood, it was all for show, he thought with a widening grin when she rubbed her head under his chin. 'Definitely all for show,' his hand was back at her ear, rubbing lightly to get her to lean into him again. 'Maybe it put more of me in her head than I thought.'

"You look cute with my ears," Inuyasha smiled when he felt her pulse jump under his hand.

Kagome blushed, "I...like them better on you."

He grinned hugely, moving his hands down to her waist and urging her to her feet. She was surprised, and definitely confused, but she followed as he led her to a large tree and sat down. Leaning back against the trunk, he tugged lightly to bring her down into his lap again.

Kagome stared at the claws on her hands as she felt Inuyasha reach up to stroke her ears again, "How much longer?"

Inuyasha looked up at the sky, frowning as he tried to calculate how much time had passed since sunset. "Probably another hour or so, considering you wasted most of the night with that idiotic running around," he shrugged and guessed.

"Was it really that long?" she twisted to look up at him in surprise. "It didn't feel like it."

He gave her a dry look, "Maybe not to YOU."

Kagome made a face at him, "You carry me like that."

"I'm a man!" he emphasized angrily. "It's completely different."

She rolled her eyes, "Ookay."

"You'll understand eventually," Inuyasha promised in the way only a self-assured male could.

Kagome laughed lightly, reaching up to touch his cheek, "I'm sorry about your face."

"They'll go away when you give me back my blood," he shrugged, unconcerned.

They fell into a companionable silence, Inuyasha rubbing her ears and marveling at how relaxing it was to sit here and listen to Kagome's light growling purr. He smiled, leaning back against the tree and grunting lightly when he felt how sore his back was. Hoping his demon healing would be back soon enough to heal the bruises gained from Kagome's unconscious use of his strength, he slid his arm under her legs to turn her to one side.

Kagome looked up at him curiously, but he was leaning back, eyes closed with a peaceful expression on his face. She couldn't help but smile at that, the hand on his cheek stroking lightly before her eyes drifted down to his mouth. 'He keeps kissing me. Every time we do it gets even more...intense. It's... I really love kissing him...'

Inuyasha felt her gaze, one eye opening to see her staring at his mouth. He smiled, watching her blush as her gaze flew up to his, "Thinking about something?"

"Baka," her eyes showed her embarrassment as she started to tuck down and hide her face against him.

He caught her chin and kept her from looking down, "You know, Kagome. I've never kissed anyone when I was human."

Funny how a person could still blush after being naked with someone, the thought repeated in Kagome's head even as she was mesmerized by the warmth in Inuyasha's eyes. Then she wasn't thinking at all as he closed that little gap between them and yet again her mouth was being consumed in the warmth of his own. A helpless whimper escaped her throat as his hands tilted her head up before one moved up to rub her ear.

Had she thought it was hot before? It was nothing compared to what she was feeling now, her hand sliding into his hair absently. She was vaguely aware of his other hand sliding down her back and turning her to face him, but that seemed so meaningless with all the feelings rushing through her now. It only got worse when his hand slid under her shirt to stroke up her spine while he leisurely explored her mouth.

Inuyasha felt the odd tingle first, the shiver that went through him from head to foot and had him lifting his head to look at the sky in surprise, 'Already? We've been kissing that long?'

Kagome was looking up at him, her eyes glazed and heavy-lidded when he turned his attention back to her, lightly stroking her cheek. He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and whispered, "Sunrise."

She blinked, trying to make the connection between what he said and what they were doing, "Hn?"

He chuckled richly, taking a deep breath as his heart lurched and began to race even more than it had been previously when they were kissing. It was the strangest thing to stare at her as he felt his youkai blood returning, the ears on her head sliding down even as he felt his own elongate. The amber of her right eyes darkened steadily and a shudder rippled through her as his hair began to lighten.

Kagome sucked in a gasp, rising her hand to heart while Inuyasha brought both hands up to her face again. There was a brief heartbeat of time when Inuyasha could feel their blood balance perfectly; halfway between his transformation back to a hanyou and Kagome's back to a human. It was the most intimate moment he'd ever experienced and he had the most insane desire to find some way to freeze them in that feeling.

He could hear her heart in his head and feel the heat swamping through her blood even as he leaned down to catch her mouth for another drugging kiss.

Inuyasha knew.

In that instant he was well aware of every one of Kagome's thoughts, her feelings as he kissed her. It made him almost euphoric even as the last of his youkai blood seeped back into him and he lost that light connection. Stubbornly, it was a long moment before he actually released her mouth, breathing in the comforting scent before he broke away and tucked her tightly against him. Not yet...

"Inuyasha?" Kagome whispered, looking up at him with a sense of wonder on her face. He looked down at her, his eyes searching hers for the answer he hoped he would find there.

Soon.


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