Saturday, November 27, 2004

   inuyasha 29
In retrospect, it wasn't one of Kagome's better reactions.

While she HAD to admit that it was rather satisfying to see Inuyasha flat on the ground after casually tossing out a comment like that, it wasn't until he was actually down that she recalled his new-found control and restored confidence. Her reaction would be like declaring war on the proud hanyou, and not only that...

"Fuck, I think I broke my hand," Kagome winced and murmured before she really thought about what was actually coming out of her mouth, massaging her right hand with her left in an effort to work out the ache.

Inuyasha was still for a long moment before his hands lifted with measured care to press flat at his sides and push himself up, staring at her with a perfectly blank expression. Nervous at the uncharacteristic silence, she backed away a step as he rose to his feet with that same slow precision. His eyes never blinked or left hers as he lifted his hand to touch his jaw lightly, a thoughtful expression coming over his face.

"Ah....Inu-Inuyasha?" Kagome leaned back, shooting a glance up to her home as though gauging the distance when she already knew the probability of her outrunning Inuyasha was about the same as her declaring her love for Sesshoumaru.

"Stay," he was already directly in front of her, dipping his shoulder to catch her in the stomach when her legs buckled and hoisting her up over his shoulder. She sucked in a breath to yell at him over the undignified, yet newly frequent position when he took a single leap, clearing the stairs and stalking towards her front door. The landing rather effectively snapped her mouth shut and had her grabbing onto his shirt instinctively, as it hadn't been his smoothest one to date.

Inuyasha remained silent as he entered the shrine, carelessly kicking off the sneakers he hated so much, but they insisted he wear with the confining "jeans" and "T-shirts." His ears twitched uncomfortably, prompting him to tear the dark cap off his head without breaking his stride on his way to Kagome's bedroom. Before she could even take a breath to question him again, he was up the stairs, down the hall, and slamming the door closed behind them.

Getting more than a little annoyed herself at his behavior, she set her jaw and smacked her fist lightly against his back, "Inuyasha, put me down right now or I'll say it!"

"Go ahead," he shrugged, completely unconcerned with her demand or her warning. "You keep forgetting that it's not the threat it used to be."

Tensing at the subtle amusement in his voice, she barked out, "Sit!"

Kagome let out a shriek of surprised outraged when Inuyasha kept his hold on her waist, taking her down with him. Their positions when she'd said it had the lower half of her body pinned beneath his torso and Inuyasha let out a grunt of discomfort when her knees were jammed against his ribcage. The sudden impact pulled her flat on her back, the breath punched from her lungs as she stared up at her ceiling in bemusement.

Inuyasha let out a frustrated sigh, propping elbow on the floor and resting his chin in his hand so he could look down at her dazed face, "I would have thought you realized just how pointless the spells have gotten now that we both have them."

Kagome glared at him, "How the hell did you expect me to act when you say something like that?"

"YOU said it!" he tapped a finger against her sternum for emphasis.

"I said we were engaged, not mating, dammit!" she blushed fiercely, looking away from his intense gaze. Her heart was still pounding, stomach tied up in knots over the chaotic thoughts tumbling around in her head after what he'd said.

Inuyasha blinked in surprise and frowned, reaching out to tug on her hair lightly and turn her face back, "So what's engaged? It's a human thing, right?"

She cleared her throat and answered, "Right, a human thing. It's...it's saying you're promised to be married." When he just arched one brow in obvious inquiry for clarification, she let out a sigh and tried it with his wording, "To be...mated. I did NOT tell them that we we're...we're sleeping together!"

"But we are," he shrugged calmly, sliding himself up her body so he could look directly down into her face. He couldn't deny he was a little...okay, maybe a lot disappointed to hear that she hadn't told her humans friends they were mating, but she'd told them more or less that they would be soon, right? A promise to be mated, she'd said.

"Not like that!!" she denied fiercely, her cheeks even brighter than ever.

Inuyasha was more confused than ever and it brought a sharp frown to his face, "But you said-"

Kagome clapped her hand over his mouth, leaning up so they were nose to nose, "Inuyasha, dammit, will you please PLEASE try to understand this?"

He tilted his head to one side, an amused smile spreading behind her hand at how flustered she was with the conversation. He had to bite back a laugh, knowing it would only make her more angry, as he nodded.

Kagome felt that smile and her eyes narrowed, "Okay, stay with me. Engaged for humans is like telling everyone that you're saving yourself for your...um, mate. That you have someone and aren't looking for anyone else."

No reason to complicate matters by telling him all the details, or that engaged couples DID sometimes sleep together the way he was thinking. She'd just said it to get Hojo to stop accidentally setting off Inuyasha and get rid of her friends! It wasn't like it was real or anything, and wait... He thanked her? He was happy at the thought of them... of him and her...?

'Mou, I can't even finish the thought!' Kagome shook her head, her heartbeat lurching at the images rising unbidden in her mind.

Inuyasha felt the jump in her pulse and the smile behind her hand turned smug. His eyes filled slowly with speculation and deciding to test out what her heartbeat was telling him, he ran his tongue lightly along her palm. Kagome's eyes snapped to his, a startled gasp catching in her throat as she yanked her hand away as though he'd burned her.

"Don't do that!" she pressed her hands flat to the floor and tried to scoot herself out from under him.

"Why not?" he leaned more of his body weight onto to hold her still, his eyes bright with the success of that little experiment. The engaged thing might not have meant exactly what he thought it was, but it was a promise that would keep the human men away from her. Even more importantly, she had promised she would mate with 'him,' not someone else.

'Great, couldn't you have asked it any other way?' Kagome absently reached her left hand up to rub his ear and tried to think of a good excuse. "Ah, Souta's here," her eyes lit up and she grinned. That was at least true!

Inuyasha leaned his head into her hand, giving voice to a deep-throated growl even as he argued, "He's downstairs, but what does that have to do with me licking your hand?"

"Have I told you how disturbing it is to know you've gotten so conniving?" she gritted her teeth and grumbled out.

"I'm not conniving," he denied with a frown. "I just want to know why you think your brother being here means I have to stop."

Kagome's hand stilled on his ear, "Stop? Stop what? We aren't doing anything."

"You promised to mate with me to your friends," Inuyasha pointed out when he noticed the stunned look on her face.

"I punched you too," she reminded, hoping that would distract the hanyou from that warm gleam in his eyes. If he kissed her while he was looking at her like that she was done for. It was hard enough keeping her head under normal circumstances, let alone lying on the floor, with him on top of her, in an almost empty house. Would she even want to say no?

"So you owe me for that," he taunted, lifting one of his hands to again rub his jaw. "Consider this revenge."

"Like hell, you deserved it," she folded her arms over her chest and gave him a defiant expression that was totally at odds with the way her heart was pounding at the teasing not in his voice. "I'd do it again."

Inuyasha couldn't help but laugh at that, reaching down to take her hand and lift it in front of his face. He smiled warmly and used his hand to curl hers into a proper fist, "Next time, Kagome, keep your hand like this. You won't hurt your hand so much."

She looked from her closed fist to his face and had to bite back a smile, "You're planning on getting punched again?"

"With your temper lately? Fuck, I'll be lucky if you're not taking a swing at least once a week," he ducked when she tried to hit him from her prone position. Laughing even harder, he caught her wrists and pinned her hands down, "See?"

"Inu-mphf!" Kagome had barely started to growl when his mouth was over hers again, the hanyou settling himself over her comfortably as he slid his tongue deep into her mouth.

Inuyasha growled, his hands flexing briefly on her wrists before he pulled her arms around his neck and freed up his own hands. She'd said it herself, they were promised, so he was willing to let that punch to the jaw slide since the look on her face right before he'd been kissing ground had been positively shocked. It he'd taken her that much by surprise, he supposed he could be generous...

Of course that generous feeling had nothing to do with the fact that at the moment, he was lying on top of her on her bedroom floor, she was kissing him back, and he was sliding his hands down her sides without getting kicked or subdued.

He'd forgotten how much he liked how she looked in these school uniforms, he thought distractedly, his hand sliding under the waistband of her skirt to cover the tattoo on her hip and feel the steady, warm pulse against his palm. Kagome sucked in a breath, her hands tightening around his neck as her eyes slid closed and she leaned up into him, responding just the way he wanted her to. Delighted with the silent encouragement, Inuyasha slid one hand into her hair, the other inching up beneath her shirt.

"That's gross, I'm telling Mom, Nee-chan!" Souta's whine had Inuyasha pulling his hand out from under her shirt and jumping off Kagome so fast he got light-headed, his cheeks suspiciously pink as he growled violently at the cause of the interruption.

Souta was making disgusted faces in the doorway to her room, arms folded over his chest as he watched Kagome yank her clothes back in order, "Souta! You could knock!"

He shrugged, the look turning sly with eerie similarity to the look she'd gotten from Shippo just yesterday, "Why? Oh, because you're up here making out with Inuyasha nii-chan, ne?"

"It's not-!" she started, but Souta just grinned hugely. He had her and he knew it. "Oh this is just fucking perfect," she muttered under her breath, making Inuyasha cough to hide a laugh before she was glaring at her brother and demanding, "what do you want?"

Souta rubbed his chin in a purely villainous way looking back and forth between Inuyasha's amused, averted face and Kagome's murderous one, "Hmm, that's a good question."

"Souta," Kagome's voice lowered in warning.

"Well, his hand WAS up your shirt," he smothered a giggle behind his hand when Kagome's jaw tightened and her face flamed. "That's got to be worth something good," Souta responded matter-of-factly.

Determined to soothe Kagome, Inuyasha reached out as he sat up, pulling her into his lap and setting his chin on her shoulder even as he arched a brow inquiringly at the smug boy, "Spit it out, brat. What do you want?"

Souta's eyes gleamed brightly, "How about you take me for a ride like you do Nee-chan? On your back."

Kagome slumped back against Inuyasha in relief, it almost seemed too easy, "That's it? You just want Inuyasha to take you on a run?"

"Oi, Kagome, I'm not a pack horse," Inuyasha grumbled.

She gave him a sideways glance and hissed back, "You want him telling Mom what he THINKS he saw?"

He grunted in defeat, eyeing the boy grinning at him before he whispered to Kagome, "You owe me for this too."

Souta smacked his hands together in excitement, "Yes! Could you change back into your normal clothes? You look kinda funny in jeans."

"Keh, hear that, Kagome? Your brother agrees with me," Inuyasha couldn't resist smirking at her as he collected his kimono from where he'd left it on her bed that morning. "I look stupid like this."

"Ah..." Kagome opened her mouth but closed it again, her hand covering her still tingling lips to keep herself from blurting out her opinion even as her eyes moved over him admiringly.

He turned to glance at her curiously at the lack of response and smirked at what was definitely appreciation in her deep blue eyes. Chuckling softly, he nudged Souta with his foot, "Out. I'll come down in a minute."

Souta shrugged and nodded, but turned back, "No more of that gross stuff either!"

Inuyasha growled in annoyance, slamming the door closed, "Damn, if he wasn't your brother I'd beat the shit out of him."

"I'm thinking about it," Kagome huffed, accepting his hand for help standing. "Go on. I'll pack while you're gone and we can go back tonight."

"Home," he leaned over to give her a quick kiss. "Say we're going home tonight."

She made a face at him, "You're gotten pretty damn demanding since all this started, Inuyasha."

"Only since you got so damn violent. Someone's got to keep you under control," Inuyasha taunted lightly, grabbing the hem of the plain black shirt and pulling it over his head just to watch Kagome's attention snap around to stare at him in open mouthed surprise. She was frozen in place for a long moment before her eyes flew up to his and she let out a little squeak, running out of the room with the sound of his laughter trailing loudly behind her.

Resolutely, she glared back at her bedroom door, "Sit!"

"Dammit!"

"Don't say it! I'm on the stairs!" Kagome yelled back before he could respond in kind, grinning to herself when she heard the renewed cursing from behind the closed door. Hopefully Inuyasha would forget about her subduing him after his run with Souta.

Wincing, she made her way to the kitchen to check how much chocolate she'd need to buy before they went back, grumbling sourly to herself, "First Shippo-chan and now Souta. How am I getting myself into these things?"

**

"Chocolate!!!" Shippo cheered, vanishing into the oversized pack before Inuyasha had even cleared the top of the well.

Kagome let out a sigh, looking up at the fluffy tail sticking out the opening flap, "You'll make yourself sick if you eat it all at once, Shippo-chan."

He poked his head out to look down at her, a candy bar half-in and half-out of his mouth, "Youkai don't get sick."

"You liar," Inuyasha huffed, swinging the bag around to make a grab for the kit.

Shippo let out a squeak and vanished into the pack, catching the flap and tucking it in behind him, "Kagomeee!"

Kagome caught Inuyasha's hand and shook her head, rolling her eyes, "Let him be, Inuyasha. He'll probably fall asleep before he eats too much."

"But it'll still all be here when I wake up," Shippo's voice was slightly muffled from being tucked inside the pack, but the wiggling lump gave away his location in his search for his pay-off.

Kagome couldn't help but smile as she looked at the lump, sliding her gaze to find Inuyasha shaking his head as he laced his fingers with hers and tugged her off towards the village. Shippo poked his head back out, his vest lumpy from all the individual pieces he'd tucked away, "Oi, how come it took you so long to come back?"

Inuyasha finally smiled, squeezing her hand, "I had to bribe Kagome's brother."

Shippo turned to look at Kagome, giggling brightly, "What did you do?"

Kagome stumbled, glaring at the kitsune, "Nothing."

"Reeeally?"

"Do you want me to protect you from Inuyasha or not?" she returned, ignoring the laughter she could hear the hanyou trying to smother.

Shippo gave her a haughty look, spreading his claws meaningfully and drawing them across his stomach. When she blushed and looked away, he was again smiling smugly, "That's what I thought."

"What's what you thought?" Inuyasha craned his neck curiously back to look at the kit.

"I'm too cute for Kagome to be mean to me," he chirped happily. "She loves me best," he stuck out his tongue at Inuyasha.

"When she's not contemplating throwing him in a lake," she grumbled.

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he looked from Kagome's averted face to Shippo's delighted grin and the candy all over the little kit. He'd never known Kagome to spoil the baby youkai this much, and the frustration in her voice now was almost identical to what it had been with Souta.

Suspicious, he turned his attention to the kitsune. Shippo had known about the tattoo before all of them, so was there something new she didn't want to tell him? Something that Shippo had found out again and was doing the same thing that Souta had done?

Inuyasha tugged Kagome closer to him, his arm possessive as an instinctive rumble escaped his throat. He'd have to nab the kit when Kagome fell asleep and get this latest little secret out of him.

Kagome better not be hiding anything else.


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