Tuesday, April 26, 2005

   Chapter 58: All In How You Say It...
For a very long moment there was only the thick sound of disbelieving silence, four sets of eyes looking at Inuyasha as though at some point in time between fighting Sesshoumaru and the present moment, he’d completely lost his mind.

Sango slowly set down the Hiraikotsu, shaking her head and folding her arms across her chest. ‘For every time I think Inuyasha is more intelligent than any of us ever suspected, he opens his mouth and says something like that,’ she rolled her eyes and just stood quietly, waiting for the imminent explosion from Kagome over that little gem of wisdom from the hanyou. There was absolutely nothing she could do that would be worse -or more entertaining, she admitted to herself with a hidden smile, than watching what Inuyasha was about to bring down on his head.

Miroku coughed into his hand to hide a misplaced laugh while Shippou slowly inched away from the pair, his eyes riveted to the subtle changes in the look on Kagome’s face. She’d been beyond pissed already and he could see the exact moment Inuyasha’s words really clicked in her mind. Her pupils contracted and faded completely, the pale lines of her scars darkening to scarlet and that weird gray tint smudging her skin around her eyes. Whatever she was about to do to the hanyou, it was going to be big.

Kagome slowly straightened her posture, sucking in long, deep breath as she obdurately schooled her expression into what she hoped was a bland enough look. Her hand came out, tangling in the front of his haori as she dragged more of his physical strength into herself and lifted him up as high as she could manage before demanding in a flat whisper, “You what?”

Inuyasha did his best to look unconcerned from the rather undignified position, and in the face of what he could sense humming off her aura, grabbing hold of her wrist and shifting his weight back to bring his feet back to the ground. He still had the advantage of strength and weight despite her ability to draw off him, and he used both to his benefit, “Until you prove to me that you’ve got ALL your youkai emotions under control, my way is safer. This way I don’t have to keep my eye on you constantly and worry about you fucking running off at every little thing.”

“I’m going to ask you once, Inuyasha,” Kagome shook off his hand, slapping her palm against his sternum and getting a grunt of surprise from him as he took a step back. “What EXACTLY did you just do?” she couldn’t completely keep the growl from her voice as her hand lifted self-consciously to the line of red around her neck.

Inuyasha smiled slightly, impressed by the change in her controlled reaction from only having the spell for a short time. Before she would have been off and running by now, making him chase after her to calm her down, but now she was standing in front of him and asking questions. Granted she HAD taken off, and had only come running back for an answer, but it was still better than what she’d done before, “The only times we had serious problems were when you went out of range. It’s an old spell… a youkai spell. I don’t even remember where I learned it, but it’s designed to keep unwilling or disobedient females close beside the male who claims them.”

“How close?” she gritted out, clenching and unclenching her hands spasmodically.

“I had Shippou make the circle just inside the edge of my spirit range,” Inuyasha rubbed his chest, his lips twitching in a smirk at the way her brows had steadily lowered. Kagome bristled badly enough under the constraint of the subduing spell, and now her youkai instincts were going into overdrive at hearing he’d tightened that restriction into this “leash.” He had to fight against the urge to chuckle, his amusement at her resentment directly linked to his own need to prove his dominance to his half-wild mate.

Kagome’s eyes had nearly gone black, “And when I get close to that ‘edge?’”

He held out his wrist, drawing her gaze the dark lines around his wrist, “I feel it twinge, you feel it heat, and you hit the barrier. You can’t go farther than that, koi, no matter how hard you push. And if you push too much, the circle gets smaller.”

“WHAT?!” she grabbed him again, yanking him forward in a physical display of just how deep her emotions were running beneath the hard won calm. “What the hell do you mean it gets smaller?” she demanded, almost nose to nose him.

Inuyasha’s shoulders shook slightly as his delight grew, “If you fight it, you’ll trigger part of the magic into thinking you’re being taken away from me. When that happens it drags you closer to make it easier for me to protect you from that threat.”

“Even if it’s just me trying to get away from you and not a ‘threat?’” Kagome bit down on her lip to keep from screaming at him the way she was dying to.

“Even then, Kagome,” he nodded. “Your miko power and youki; my youki; Miroku’s magic; and even Shippou’s kitsune-bi. You put yourself into that willingly and that made the barrier too strong for anyone to break, even you,” his voice lowered, one brow arched in almost playful teasing.

“You tricked me,” she bared her fangs, backing up when he reached for her. “This didn’t have anything to do with being disconnected, you just wanted to make sure I couldn’t go anywhere.”

“I did what I had to do to shut out those goddamn voices making you lose control,” his eyes narrowed fractionally at the wordless defiance. “What any mate would have done in my place if their bitch was behaving like you’ve been,” Inuyasha bared his fangs right back at her.

“Behaving like what?” Kagome’s hair fluffed out like an angry cat, increasing the feral look in her appearance.

“Behaving like a pup run wild,” he folded his arms over his chest and gave her an arrogant glare that only served to increase the family resemblance with Sesshoumaru. “You want to learn control, little girl, I’m going to teach it to you whether you like it or not. But you’re going to learn how I want you to.”

Kagome just barely resisted the urge to snarl, instead letting out a disgusted snort, “Why bother pretending the magic is there to protect me then, hn? Why not just say you fenced me in because you think I’m disobedient? You’re trying to punish me.”

“You are disobedient,” Inuyasha nodded in agreement, giving her a pointed glare when she hissed at him. “And it’s my responsibility to discipline you for that.”

“Is he trying to get Kagome to rip his ears off?” Shippou scaled Miroku’s robes to perch on the monk’s shoulder and whisper in disbelief. He watched tensely as Kagome’s growl deepened and dipped her head just enough to change her look from defensive to openly aggressive, “Casting that kind of spell? And being proud of it so openly?”

Miroku shook his head, gripping his staff tightly as he tried to move unobtrusively out of what he was certain was about to be a nasty fight. Sango came to his side, muttering darkly under her breath as she slung his arm over her shoulders and dragged him to the tree line, “If Kagome-chan doesn’t kill him, I’ll do it for her the moment I know she’s safe. He tricked us, houshi-sama!”

He slumped back against the tree she dropped him against, pressing his hand to the trunk to steady himself as he looked back at the two growling at each other across the clearing, “Inuyasha is trying to protect her. His methods may be extreme… but I… think he’s right.”

“Kagome-chan is human! He’s imposing a youkai punishment on her!” Sango protested, glaring at the monk and trying not to show her concern at how pale his face had become.

Shippou blinked at the exterminator and nervously reminded her, “Um, Sango? She IS a youkai now, and Miroku’s right. I just think he should have been… less excited about explaining it.”

Sango looked at them in alarm, “Are you both insane? This is Kagome-chan we’re talking about!”

Miroku turned to put his back to the tree, motioning to the pair, “You’re correct, Sango. This is Kagome-sama…”

Shippou fisted his hands in Miroku’s robe, restraining his own urge to run to Kagome’s defense, “He’s her mate and she’s been wild. If Kagome doesn’t learn to stop running off she really could get hurt. And she already HAS been hurt really badly when she ran before, but Inuyasha didn’t punish her those times…”

“Shippou is quite right,” a new, almost forgotten voice added matter-of-factly. “Inuyasha-sama’s behavior is perfectly acceptable as Kagome-sama’s mate.”

Three sets of eyes turned down to the tiny youkai in amazement while Miroku dryly inquired, “Myouga-jiji… just where have you been through all of this?”

Myouga bounced up and down in agitation, his face red with defensive embarrassment, “Why do you all have so little faith in me? There have been many rumors I felt obligated to research for Inuyasha-sama that kept me occupied elsewhere!”

Momentarily forgetting the tense scene unfolding in front of them, Shippou muttered over his shoulder to the monk, “He was probably scared of everything happening and ran away.”

Miroku nodded while the flea looked decidedly ill at ease, “Indeed. No doubt he sensed what occurred with Kagome-sama’s transformation. It has been dangerous, more dangerous than normal since she fell under this spell.”

“But Myouga-jiji is here now! Does that mean it’s safe again?” Sango frowned suddenly in surprise, her gaze darting to the nearly silent stalemate between Inuyasha and Kagome.

Myouga folded his arms across his torso, tilting his head down to convey an image of deep thought, “It’s true that Kagome-sama’s aura has been remarkably unstable lately, but Inuyasha-sama has… taken control of her. The worst of the fluctuations has been closed off, tamed in a sense. The aura around her is settling.”

Miroku frowned down at the youkai, "Is this because of the spell he just cast on her? This binding spell?"

Myouga nodded, "Kagome-sama’s youki became much more volatile whenever she went beyond a certain distance and now that she is no longer capable of doing so, there is not such a feeling of being drained when one is close to her. A small youkai such as myself would have been destroyed venturing too near were Inuyasha-sama not controlling her emotions."

Shippou frowned thoughtfully, "So that's why you stayed away. Okaa-san would have killed you when she was absorbing- wait… If it’s dangerous for small youkai, why didn't I ever get hurt? She’s been holding me when she was at her worst!"

"Youkai females are very protective of their young, Shippou," the flea scolded lightly, cracking one eye open to peer at the fox. "Kagome-sama obviously feels your aura as she would one of her own offspring and that protects you from her even at her most wild. Not all of us have such a luxury."

Shippou puffed up proudly at that, turning adoring eyes to Kagome while his tail twitched back and forth with the speed of his silent musing, 'Her own offspring... She thinks of me as her own pup? Kagome really DOES love me!'

"Myouga-jiji," Sango knelt down to frown at the youkai. "How exactly do you know all this if you have been hiding?"

"I haven't been hiding!" Myouga flushed and began hopping up and down in agitation again. "I was merely observing from a safe distance and trying to discover what had happened to Kagome-sama! It is a very complex transformation for a human girl to make in becoming a youkai, especially one so young, and I thought Inuyasha-sama could use more information!"

“Then what did you learn?” Miroku inquired, honestly curious about what the flea demon could have to offer.

Myouga wasn’t given a chance to answer, jumping up to hide on Shippou’s shoulder when Kagome broke the silent clash of wills. She let out a shriek of fury as the tenuous hold she had on her temper snapped, leaping across the clearing to slam her shoulder into Inuyasha’s chest and send them crashing backwards, “You sonofabitch!”

Shippou winced when they hit the ground, a rolling tangle of limbs as they wrestled and snarled at each other, both fighting for the dominant position. The kitsune let out a regretful sigh that was echoed almost simultaneously by the flea demon, “She really shouldn’t have done that.”

Inuyasha twisted, bringing his feet up and flipping her up over his head as he rolled to a crouch, eyes narrowing on her in sharp disapproval, “Kagome, behave..."

Kagome hopped to her feet, shaking her head to clear it as she turned to face Inuyasha again, “Behave, my ass. I’m on a leash, Inuyasha! You put me on a fucking leash like a pet! Like a DOG!”

“Bitch, you ARE a dog!” he snapped back at her, eyes carefully trained to watch the telltale twitching of muscles in her legs and shoulders. She would spring at him again soon… His ears swiveled forward and back, mind racing to plot out just how he wanted to handle her as he spoke, “Calm down, Kagome. If you really want so badly to fight, I’ll fight, but you know just as well as I do that you’re worn out. Do you want to knock yourself unconscious like you have before when you finally admit I’m right?”

She huffed defensively, trying to deny that bit of truth even as a blush tinted her cheeks. She was just as aware of what would happen when she stopped pulling his energy as he was, after all, she’d been purposefully ignoring the pulse of her own exhaustion underneath the borrowed youki since her fight with Sesshoumaru.

She bared her fangs, pushing that thought to the back of her mind and reaching up to press her fingertips to the warm line around her neck, “How do I get this thing off?”

“You don’t,” he growled at her again. “I’m keeping you close, koi, so you don’t get your goddamn impulsive ass killed!”

Kagome’s eyes narrowed and she flexed her claws, “I’ll show you impulsive.”

Inuyasha was ready when she raced at him again, ducking to catch his arm around her waist and use her momentum to spin her around away from him. Kagome blinked in surprise, trying to maintain her balance when his arm came around her again, dragging her back hard against his chest. She’d opened her mouth to snarl at him when she felt his teeth sink into the back of her neck, her eyes going wide when he removed his arm and gave her a firm shake with just his mouth before dropping her to the ground.

Kagome blinked wide eyes, trying to process what had occurred as she sat dazed where he’d unceremoniously dumped her. She managed to get her vision back into focus and look up as he leaned over her, pressing a clawed hand to her forehead, “You act like a pup and I’ll treat you like a pup, Kagome. You wasted all of your own strength on Sesshoumaru, and if you just relax, you’ll see how tired you really are.”

“I’m not too tired to fight with you, Inuyasha,” she twisted, bringing her heel against his ankle and sweeping his feet out from under him. The moment he was down, she pounced on him, grabbing his wrists and holding him, “Tell me how to break it! Now!”

Inuyasha rolled, bringing one leg up to wrap around her torso and slam her to the ground underneath him, “You won’t like how this ends if you don’t calm down.”

She managed to throw him off again, coming to her knees as she studied the set expression on his face, “It’ll end when I smash your head into the ground and you tell me how to take this off, you baka.”

Myouga grunted when they clashed again, nodding in approval when Inuyasha again managed to twist Kagome around and throw her with just a bite at the nape of her neck, “Inuyasha-sama will see to it that she recognizes her boundaries before he is finished. It will not be so dangerous to be near her after she knows what is appropriate.”

Shippou’s brows drew together while he winced sympathetically, “He really is fighting her like she’s just a pup; he’s hardly using his hands at all.”

Sango watched tensely, but her gaze still held a glint of curiosity as she watched Inuyasha repeatedly knock Kagome to the ground like Shippou had observed, like a dog batting at its pup. As much as she struggled to watch as a friend, a lifetime of taijiya training couldn’t be suppressed, and she studied the “fight” with a critical eye, “I’ve never seen inu youkai behavior like this so close before…”

Miroku folded his hand into his sleeves and sighed tiredly, shaking his head at the whiplash of youki filling the air every time they wrestled together, “This would be much easier if Kagome-sama would calm down and let her youkai blood settle.”

Myouga hopped back down to Shippou’s shoulder, satisfied the fight was going to stay well away from his perch, “Kagome-sama does not have the advantage of growing up as a youkai, having her pack to teach her what is acceptable and what isn’t. And Inuyasha-sama is not always the most calm example…”

Shippou snorted in disgust, “What a nice way of saying he’s usually just as wild as she is.”

Kagome came crashing to the ground a short distance in front of them, interrupting their observations and growling as she righted herself to a kneel with more effort than she had had to use previously, ‘Damn… he’s blocking it from me this time, keeping me from absorbing… but I need more! I’m not done yet!’

Inuyasha folded his arms over his chest, looking down at her with almost regal arrogance, “You’re running yourself into the ground, Kagome. Stop trying to pull off me and calm down.”

She pressed her palm hard against her throbbing chest, each heartbeat bringing a dull, intensifying ache from the healing flesh. The wounds she’d received from Sesshoumaru had yet to completely mend, and without pulling in more energy to sustain her rapidly waning strength, she was finally unable to ignore the feel of them.

Her eyes fluttered closed when her vision swam momentarily, her jaw clenching before she blinked and tenaciously focused on Inuyasha’s face, “I’m fine.”

“You are the most stubborn bitch I have ever known, koi,” Inuyasha walked forward and calmly crouched down on his haunches in front of her. She was swaying slightly, bracing herself up and gulping in long, deep breaths to stave off the swimming blackness he could feel dancing just below the surface. “Quit growling, Kagome, it’s not going to change anything,” he scolded lightly.

“I’m not finished,” she insisted, arms shaking as she tried to rise to her feet, but only succeeded in stumbling back to her knees.

“You are,” he shook his head, reaching out to lightly rub one of her ears, coaxing it from it’s flattened state to a more natural position. “You were exhausted during your fight with my asshole brother, and if Miroku’s so tired he can barely hold himself up, then I know the spell wiped out more than enough to wear you out on its own.” He gestured around the campsite expansively, “Do you want me to add what we’ve been doing now and just admit you should already have passed out cold an hour ago?”

“Get out of my head, Inuyasha, I know what I’m feeling,” she bristled in agitation, but completely ruined the image by leaning into his touch.

“If you’re going to ignore your body until you send yourself into a coma, then it’s my responsibility to sta- to BE in your head and make sure you don’t hurt yourself,” Inuyasha corrected himself when she tensed at the aborted word, sliding his hand down from her ear to her cheek. He frowned when he felt how hot her skin was against his palm, “You could burn out what’s left of your human blood if you aren’t careful, Kagome.”

“It’s my body,” Kagome reached up and wrapped her hand around his wrist, not nearly as concerned as she thought she would have been at the thought of her human blood disappearing.

Inuyasha looked down at her hand, his brows drawing together when he felt how weak her grip had become. He rocked forward on the balls of his feet, sliding one arm around her back and the other beneath her knees to pull her up into his lap. He ignored the token squirming, nipping her ear and settling her down as he sat back, tucking her protectively to his chest, “I told you before, it’s no fun fighting when you can’t fight me back.”

She grumbled under her breath, supremely irritated with herself at the way the tension was steadily melting away with every soothing stroke or wordless rumble vibrating from Inuyasha’s chest, “You’re a real jerk sometimes, Inuyasha.”

“And you’re a brat,” he returned easily. “This is the way it has to be, Kagome. This is the only way to keep you from running away and putting yourself in danger. Or would you rather have Naraku getting into your head because you get too far away from me?”

Kagome ducked her head, not meeting his gaze as she actually took a moment to process that. Inuyasha, whether or not she wanted to admit it, was right about that. If she couldn’t go out of Inuyasha’s range of spirit in the first place, according to the voices and even her own experience, she wouldn’t be vulnerable to outside influences.

“Well?” his hand came to her chin, tilting her face up to catch her eyes.

Her ears flattened back and she focused stubbornly on a point behind his head, “Why do I have to be tied to you like this?”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, reaching up again to rub her ears and smirking in satisfaction when her eyes drifted closed, “Because this is the only way I can make sure you stay in range.” Her body was slowly slumping against his, urging him to tuck her even closer, “That’s it. Just relax and calm down so you can rest.”

“No,” she mumbled into his chest, hands already lifting to tangle in his haori as she rubbed her cheek against the comforting beat of his heart. She was just so tired, and Inuyasha was so warm…

Of course it didn’t help her any when he leaned forward and rested his chin on the top of her head, surrounding her even more with his soothing presence, “Aa. I can feel it, koishii, your body wants to sleep. Don’t you trust me to take care of you?”

“Cheater,” Kagome managed to tilt her face up, barely lifting one eyelid to look up at him, her gaze glassy from pain, exhaustion, and even fever. “You can’t say things like that,” she yawned hugely, closing her eye again and pressing against him, trying to curl up in his lap as small as she could.

“Why not?” Inuyasha’s lips twitched at the way she still tried to act angry even as she burrowed down in his arms.

Kagome could feel his ribs expand and contract in time with the warm breath fanning over her cheek, joined by the gentle, steady thump of his heart. No matter how hard she tried to push away her exhaustion and the void of unconsciousness pressing in on her, Inuyasha had managed to block off her attempts to pull in more energy, and he was right… She really had used all her energy, actually more than her own, when she’d been fighting with Sesshoumaru, but she hadn’t noticed with the massive amounts she had been absorbing from him. Then helping Inuyasha had eradicated the last of her borrowed strength from the youkai lord and even what she had pulled from Inuyasha afterwards, but she had ignored that fact to try and fight for removal of the spell.

Saying her body wanted to sleep was an understatement, and being tucked up in his lap, surrounded so possessively by his arms and his familiar scent was sapping away at her resistance. Unfortunately for her, losing that was sinking her deeper into groggy blackness even as she tried to mumble her answer before she completely lost consciousness, “It’s not fair when you already know how I feel. You’re… being sneaky… baka.”

Inuyasha did chuckle then, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead just as he felt her completely relax in his arms. He sighed in relief himself when her ears twitched, her back arching slightly as they slid to the sides of her head and shrunk back down into her slightly pointed human ears, “Fuck, it’s about time.”

Shippou perched on Inuyasha’s head, rolling his weight forward to get a better look at Kagome’s sleeping face, “She’s okay? She’s back to normal again?”

Inuyasha tilted his head, trying to shake the kitsune at least down to his shoulder as he felt his own transformation start to fade, “Better than she’s been the other times she pushed herself this far.”

Sango frowned when he rose to his feet, still holding Kagome protectively to his chest, “What were you thinking, Inuyasha? You used all of us to trap Kagome-chan.”

“She’s not trapped, Sango,” Inuyasha rolled his eyes, turning to face the troubled exterminator as the stripes faded from his face while the scarlet and blue reverted to his natural white and amber. “The barrier is mobile. I’m her central point, so if I move, it moves. She isn’t trapped in any one place.”

“Still-!” Sango started, shaking her head in protest.

“Inuyasha-sama has not done anything cruel or improper, Sango,” Myouga made his way to hop on Kirara’s head, urging the feline youki up to Sango’s shoulder. “Given the nature of Kagome-sama’s enchantment, I am surprised he did not secure her to his aura after they first mated.”

“I’ll deal with you later for making yourself scarce when I could have fucking used your advice for once,” Inuyasha glared pointedly at the flea.

Miroku was the only one who picked up the undertone in the hanyou’s voice, frowning as he leaned more of his weight on his staff and inquired, “Where are you going? Kagome-sama quite obviously needs to recover from her injuries.”

Shippou dug his claws into Inuyasha’s shoulder, his eyes widening in panic as he squeaked out his disjointed thoughts as rapidly as they came to him, “Go?! You can’t go! I’m coming with you!”

For once, rather than looking irritated with the kitsune, Inuyasha looked highly amused, “You can’t come with us, runt.”

Sango opened her mouth to speak, but stopped and frowned as a thought occurred to her, “Inuyasha… are you-?”

“Kagome and I should be back in a week,” one corner of his mouth kicked up in smug smirk. He lifted Kagome higher in his arms, rubbing his cheek against her own once before he almost casually licked at the abrasions on her face, “Head back to Kaede-baba’s and we’ll catch up.”

“But-!” Shippou protested sharply, squealing in startled fright when Inuyasha shook his head hard and knocked him loose. “Jerk!” he rubbed his head, scampering up onto Miroku’s head to glare up at Inuyasha.

“Will Kagome-sama be all right?” Miroku asked softly, his expression slightly concerned as he looked at the unnatural paleness of her face, and the shallow rise and fall of her chest.

“She’ll be just fine,” Inuyasha nodded easily, turning and testing the wind for direction. “All that fighting pushed her into heat… so it’s actually a good thing she’s so worn out. It’ll make it easier for me to hide her until she’s clear of it.”

Shippou’s eyes had rounded, the little growling dying abruptly as his mouth dropped open and he let out a startled, “Oh.”

“Tell Kaede-baba that we’re going to sit down and figure out what the fuck is going on when Kagome and I get back,” Inuyasha turned his back, tightening his arms securely around her lax form.

“Inuyasha, wait!” Sango took a step forward, holding out a hand as her face filled with a determined sort of uncertainty.

He glanced back over his shoulder with a frown, “Kagome’s my mate, Sango, and taking care of her is more important than arguing with you over whether or not she’s ‘trapped’ now.”

A faint blush touched her cheeks and she shook her head, “That wasn’t what I was going to say.”

One brow lifted curiously and he half turned, “Then what were you going to say?”

She looked off to one side, biting her lip and murmuring softly, “If… what they taught us about youkai females is true… Be careful.”

Inuyasha blinked in mild surprise and then grinned, nodding to the exterminator, “I’ll take care of her.”


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