Saturday, June 25, 2005

   Chapter 60: Only Skin Deep...
“Hiraikotsu!”

Shippou cringed, hiding behind Miroku’s shoulder as they watched Sango rip through the nest of giant centipede youkai. He curled his hands in the monk’s robes, peeking out every now and then to see the exterminator slice another of the massive creatures in half, “Maybe we should have let Sango hunt by herself this time.”

Miroku snorted, safe to drop his usual “holy” attitude with Sango’s attention fully focused some distance ahead of their position. His hand nervously fingered the rosary beads, alert to any sneak attacks that might come at the exterminator from other angles, “When she is still so damn concerned about Kagome and Inuyasha’s absence? If we weren’t with her, I don’t doubt that she’d be tracking them already and I don’t intend to be the focus of Inuyasha’s displeasure with that kind of fucking interruption.”

Shippou pictured the look the hanyou would likely have on his face in just such an event… especially considering what his reaction had been back before they’d mated and he’d accidentally interrupted. He tried not to wince and shuddered, “Point taken.”

“Especially if we happened to walk in on a delicate situation,” Miroku pointed out, setting his jaw in annoyance. “How do you think Inuyasha would appreciate our presence if he was actually mating with Kagome when we arrived?”

Shippou blanched, shaking his head in an effort to banish the image, “Hell, give me nightmares for the rest of my life, why don’t you?”

Miroku rolled his eyes and heaved a deep sigh. Inuyasha and Kagome had been gone longer than the week the hanyou had indicated, and that meant the hanyou had spent almost two weeks doing exactly what he had been trying to do for years. So why did Inuyasha have all the luck with getting a mate when he still had nothing?

Life just wasn’t fair sometimes.

The brash, arrogant hanyou had managed- despite all his years of less than perfect behavior, to have Kagome fall in love with him, no matter how rude and nasty he’d been to her. Granted even he had seen the moments that Inuyasha had been kind, even affectionate… and he WAS damned protective of the young miko, but still!

He was just as attractive as Inuyasha, more so in his own humble opinion, and he was much more polite when the women were close enough to hear him. So why was the hanyou mating with Kagome when he still had yet to convince Sango- or any other girl lately for that matter, to so much as kiss him properly? At this rate the hanyou was going to have an heir before he had even found a steady bedmate. Especially with his every attempt to get close to Sango still resulting in his rather painful acquaintance with the Hiraikotsu and Kagome quite effectively removed from his list of backup possibilities. It would be rude to ask her now -not to mention possibly detrimental to his own health, now that Inuyasha had staked a real claim.

Miroku let out a heavy, heartfelt sigh, shaking his head, “Fate is truly a cruel thing.”

Shippou looked at him in confusion, “What the hell are you talking about? Sango really must have hit you too hard the last time she brought that thing down on your head.”

“I am beginning to see why Inuyasha makes a habit of throwing you into trees, Shippou,” he gave the kit a dry glare before returning his gaze to Sango and admiring the perfect execution behind her rather violent attack.

“I’ll tell Okaa-san you’re being mean to me and now that she’s a youkai she can slam your ass into the ground just like she does to Inuyasha,” he turned his nose up arrogantly. “And you know you can’t do anything back to her or Inuyasha will take your head off.”

“Maybe I should tell Inuyasha you said he wasn’t strong enough for Kagome,” Miroku returned in a disturbingly calm tone of voice. “I wonder what he would do if he heard that?”

Shippou paled, his fists clenching convulsively in the monks robes as his tail bristled in agitation, “You wouldn’t!!”

“Try me, brat,” he glanced at Sango, making certain she wouldn’t see before he turned to smirk tauntingly at the terrified kitsune. “I’m not feeling forgiving at the moment under the circumstances.”

“But you’re a monk!” Shippou squealed in agitation. “Monks aren’t supposed to try and get kids killed on purpose!”

Miroku restored his perfectly stoic expression as he again turned his gaze away from the kit, “On purpose? Why, Shippou, I’m shocked at your accusation! I would merely repeat what I have heard to voice my concerns to Inuyasha.”

“Liar! I’m going to bit your ears off when you’re sleeping, you- AH!!” Shippou cut off, shrieking and disappearing down the back of the monk’s robes when a large portion of one youkai came crashing to a halt directly in front of them.

Miroku’s expression didn’t change in the slightest as the dust settled around them, but he waited patiently until it completely cleared before he started walking towards the panting taijiya. By the time he reached her side, Kirara was de-transformed and perching on the woman’s shoulder while Sango straightened and casually slung the Hiraikotsu around to her back, “I’m really starting to hate insect youkai.”

“We could have passed by this nest if there are more pressing matters you have to attend to, Sango,” Miroku pointed out, absently spearing a wriggling portion of one of the youkai and ignoring the hiss of purifying energy that spread through it. “There were no rumors of shards in this direction,” he reminded her.

“We couldn’t leave that village to be terrorized,” she made a face, reaching up to absently stroke Kirara as she lowered her mask to hang around her neck. “And this is still in the direction that Inuyasha and Kagome were traveling in when he left.”

Shippou peeked his head back out over Miroku’s shoulder and let out a sound of exasperation, “We really should be waiting. What if we interrupt and piss him off like Miroku said?”

Sango gave the monk a suspicious look, “Like Miroku said?”

Miroku managed to look perfectly innocent, “I was merely speculating on what state Inuyasha and Kagome could possibly be in if we catch them by surprise.”

“Pervert,” she rolled her eyes and muttered in annoyance, brushing past them on her way back to the main path.

“Well he has a point this time,” Shippou made the jump from monk to exterminator and chewed on his lip as he tried to look thoughtful. “I mean, Inuyasha has seemed really happy the other times he and Okaa-san went off alone. Won’t he be pretty pissed off if we cut that short?”

“He said a week,” Sango muttered in annoyance, shaking her head to deny her own misgivings at hunting out the absent pair. “I was not about to sit and wait in that village until he decided it was convenient to come back and tell us everything was all right.”

“Nothing will happen to Kagome-sama with Inuyasha,” Miroku chided gently as he trailed along behind her, his gaze tilted down to the interesting sway of her hips in the clinging taijiya uniform.

“I’m more concerned with what will happen to Kagome-chan with Inuyasha,” she snorted and glared back over her shoulder meaningfully.

Miroku held up a hand in an innocent gesture until she turned her gaze forward again, letting out a silent sigh of relief that he’d escaped her unpredictable temper without injury, “He won’t hurt her, Sango, you know that.”

“Houshi-sama, she has been acting so… so unlike herself in the last month,” Sango’s hands fisted hard at her sides until Kirara mewled and stroked the girl’s face in an effort to soothe her.

“Kagome-sama has undergone some major transformations in a short period of time,” he shrugged, lifting a hand to stroke his chin absently. “I’m sure things will settle back to normal, or rather, as normal as things can possibly be for us,” he clenched his sealed hand.

“You don’t honestly think that Kagome-chan can accept being changed into a strange cross that’s more youkai than human?” she stopped and turned to frown back at the monk, her jaw set and eyes filled with subdued concern. “That she’s suddenly mated to THE most arrogant and strongest hanyou I think any of us have ever seen. And to top it off, he’s put a barrier on her like a collar? How stupid do you think I am, houshi-sama? Kagome-chan is not going to be pleased when her head clears again.”

Miroku reached up and set his hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze, “You’re forgetting that Kagome-sama does not seem overly concerned with changing into a youkai, and that she happens to be ridiculously in love with that arrogant hanyou. Anyone can see that.”

Sango averted her face, a faint grunt of frustration working free, “Inuyasha takes advantage of that.” She allowed her eyes to fill with concern, ‘And Kagome-chan lets him... Is it really possible to be that much in love? Or is that just part of Kagome-chan’s personality to love so completely?’

Her brows lowered sharply when she felt the hand on her shoulder make the inevitable path down her spine and turn to squeeze when it reached her backside. She sighed heavily, bringing her elbow back hard into his stomach, “Is it too difficult to have a conversation without finding your hand groping where it shouldn’t, you perverted houshi?”

Miroku blinked in surprise at her calm, annoyed tone as he rubbed the new soreness on his stomach, “You really are worried about this.”

Shippou nodded, “No kidding, you didn’t even slap him.” He made a face and sighed miserably, “You guys are all getting boring and calm lately. How am I supposed to get my entertainment?”

Both adults turned annoyed expressions to the little kitsune, making his fidget nervously before he hopped down to the ground and started to trot on ahead, “Ah… I think I’ll… check the trail…”

Sango huffed in agitation, folding her arms over her chest, “Entertainment.”

“Honestly,” Miroku tightened his fingers around his staff, the rings jingling melodically as he tapped it impatiently against the packed earth. “Inuyasha is far more entertaining than you or I could ever be.”

She reached over to smack him upside the head, “I believe you missed the point completely, houshi-sama.”

He gave her a hurt look, rubbing his head, “But it is true. You have laughed at Inuyasha just as much as the rest of us, Sango.”

“But he was always there to hear it,” she pointed out, turning to start after Shippou to hide the faint blush on her cheeks. “It’s very rude to say things like that when Inuyasha isn’t present to defend himself.”

“You mean when Inuyasha isn’t present to puff up and get frustrated enough to snap at us until Kagome-sama sits him?” he challenged in a deceptively mild voice, lips twitching with surpressed amusement.

Sango lifted a hand to hide her own traitorous smile, feeling guilty about finding amusement while her friends’ situation was still so unclear, “That has nothing to do with it, houshi-sama.”

Miroku nodded in the distracted way of someone who could easily see right through what the other person was saying, “Of course not.”

She gave him a sideways look, eyes narrowed and searching on his calm expression, “You’re thinking something perverted, aren’t you?”

He blinked in genuine surprise, turning to look at her, “Why would you say such a thing, Sango? I was merely pondering on our attempt to locate Inuyasha.” He straighted his posture with a slightly regal air, lifting his nose in affront, “Besides, I am a monk, as you all seem to forget.”

Sango had opened her mouth to respond when Shippou let out a shriek from in front of them, racing back down the path and launching himself up and over Miroku to cling to the monk’s robes. He peeked up, pointing to the path ahead, “It’s right behind me! It must have been from the nest!”

“I guess I missed one,” Sango shook her head in frustrated annoyance when the youkai emerged from the foliage ahead. Lifting her mask back to her face as Kirara hopped off her shoulder and moved to the side, she muttered, “Move back, houshi-sama, this shouldn’t take more than a moment.”

Miroku nodded and stepped back, poised in a defensive position as she dragged the Hiraikotsu forward. He sighed again with feeling when he watched her bring the massive weapon up and around with a wordless shout, sending it ripping through the trees in front of them when the centipede youkai reared up to attack, ‘Miroku, you are some sort of twisted masochist to be so hung up on the single woman who makes a habit of trying to crack your skull every time you show affection.’

Sango smirked slightly as the boomerang sliced the youkai in half, holding up her hand to catch it effortlessly on the return trip. Compared to their usual battles lately, these little youkai almost seemed like nothing more complex than target practice. And while it was still a little frustrating to get distracted from her main objective, the release of tension still felt good. “Now if we could only find Kagome-chan and Inuyasha so we can make the hunting worthwhile,” she set one fist on her hip. “We can’t even look for shards without her to see them for us.”

Miroku nodded, relaxing his stance, “There is no greater way to appreciate her unique skills than to try and hunt without them, ne? It’s quite difficult to find something you cannot see.”

Shippou’s hands tightened in Miroku’s robes again and he hissed out as he looked past Sango to where the centipede twitched and started to shift restlessly, “Um… guys… I think one just found us.”

Sango spun around just as Miroku looped an arm around her waist and yanked her backwards when the centipede slammed down where they had been standing a moment ago. Swearing in agitation, she slid out of his hold and flung the boomerang again, “I’m really REALLY starting to hate insect youkai!”

The tail end lashed around in a violent arch, and Miroku grunted under the effort of deflecting the attack with his staff, “It MUST have a shard to be so resiliant to our attacks, Sango.” He stayed poised to defend as he set his jaw and searched for some sign of where the piece could possibly be located.

“I know, houshi-sama, I know!” she caught the handle of her Hiraikotsu, the force behind her previous throw dragging her backwards slightly. “But without Kagome-chan we have to do this the old fashioned way. Kirara!”

Miroku winced and muttered under his breath in annoyance even as the cat youkai scampered to Sango’s side and transformed, “Wonderful, a little fucking piece at a time.”

Shippou smacked him on the back of the head and hissed urgently, “You’re the laziest monk I’ve ever seen!”

Sango leapt astride her pet, but no sooner had she settled into place when the youkai split abruptly, violently down the middle. While the trio stared in confused shock, both halves when crashing to the ground with a resounding shudder that kicked up a wealth of dust and debris.

“Oi! I thought I told you to wait for us in the village,” Inuyasha voice carried through the dust before it settled enough to reveal the hanyou standing with one foot braced against one twitching half. He let out a faintly annoyed tsking sound, carefully easing Kagome down off his back with one arm, “So you win that one, koi. They did try to track me.”

Kagome coughed into her hand, frowning at him in annoyance as she walked to the glowing portion of flesh a short distance away and knelt to find the shard, “Well you said you told them we’d be back a week ago.”

“They can take care of themselves for an extra week. Hell, Kagome, they’re adults,” he tilted his nose up and snorted, but then made a face and looked pointedly at Miroku. “Sango’s an adult anyway.”

“Leave Sango-chan and Miroku-sama alone, baka. They don’t need to suffer from your weird mood too,” she scolded, rising to her feet and slipping the shard into the makeshift pouch Inuyasha had made until she could get a new vial.

Inuyasha smirked arrogantly, trailing along behind her for a moment before giving her a light swat on the backside that had her yelping and swatting at his hand. He chuckled and offered in an almost disturbingly cheerful voice, “You’re still pink.”

She turned to face him this time and smacked him on the shoulder, the pink in her cheeks turning into a full blown blush, “I said I’m sorry, okay?!”

Miroku recovered, clearing his throat when he saw a glint in the hanyou’s eyes that could only spell more trouble for the obviously embarrassed girl, “Ah… welcome back, Kagome-sama.”

Kagome gave Inuyasha one more frown, wrinkling her nose as she folded her arms across her chest and turned her attention to the others, “Arigatou, Miroku-sama.”

Sango looked impossibly confused as she slid off Kirara, her mind working in an effort to readjust from the battle mindset to the return of the two people she’d been searching for in the first place. Kagome looked different, not the blush, but she looked calmer. She was back to that almost human form, dressed in the washed and apparantly magically repaired kimono and hakama she’d been wearing when they found her with Naraku. But it was the look in her eyes really that had the taijiya, the most confused… She looked… happy?

She frowned and looked back and forth between the miko and the hanyou as Inuyasha moved to her side and slid his arm around her waist in a blatantly possessive motion, ‘That’s impossible… She was so upset two weeks ago!’ And why was she apologizing just for Inuyasha saying she was pink?

At least that answer shouldn’t be too confusing, she thought with mild annoyance, and inquiring almost hesitantly, “Sorry for what, Kagome-chan?”

Kagome’s reaction to that innocent question was completely unexpected, both monk and exterminator reflexively dropping into defensives stances when the younger girl spun around. Inuyasha ducked the hand she swept out towards his mouth, laughing delightedly when he met the panic-stricken eyes and closed his hands in his haori and the kimono beneath.

“Don’t-! Inuyasha-!!!” Kagome made another grab for him, hissing in frustration when he sidestepped her attempt and yanked both wide open over his chest.

Sango let out a startled gasp, stumbling back against Kirara and barely registering Miroku’s own exclamation as she turned wide, disbelieving eyes to Kagome’s averted, darkly flushed cheeks, “Kagome-chan! You… you did THAT?!”

“And these!” Inuyasha swept his hair back over his shoulder to show off four more long, healing gashes down and across the right side of his neck. “You should see my back.”

Kagome clamped her hand over his mouth, blushing even worse than she had before and growling at him, “Don’t you fucking dare!”

“What?” he asked with perfectly feigned innocence, but the twitching at the corners of her lips gave away the wicked amusement dancing below the surface even more than the dark glitter in his eyes.

Shippou tugged at Miroku’s robe and whispered in confusion, “Why is Inuyasha so happy that Okaa-san clawed his chest?”

At Kagome’s warning look, Miroku had to bite his lip to contain his own amusement, especially considering the pattern of marks down his chest would be most consistent with her fingertips raking down. He could only imagine what the hanyou had been doing to “encourage” her to make so many.

Inuyasha’s shoulders were obviously shaking with laughter as he nipped at her fingers and set about retying his robes, “All right, all right. I won’t show them the other ones.”

Kagome smacked him upside the head, giving an impressive growl for her almost human form and stalking over to where Shippou had grinned and reached out for her, “You shouldn’t have shown them THOSE ones.”

Inuyasha was still smirking, calmly walking to reach up and pat Kirara on the head, perfectly oblivious to Sango’s continued shock, “If you think I’m ever forgetting the look on your face when you finally sweated that heat out of your system and saw what you’d done, you’re mistaken, little girl.”

“Could we talk about this later?” Kagome gritted her teeth, gesturing to Sango’s rising blush of understanding and Miroku’s “coughing” fit.

“Of course!” he grinned easily, folding his arms over his chest.

She rolled her eyes, looking down at Shippou when she felt his little hands pat on her stomach lightly, “So what trouble did you get into while I was gone?”

Shippou made a face, “I just had to listen to Miroku bitching about getting hit on the head every time he groped Sango. And even that wasn’t that often.” He pressed a bit harder on her stomach, frowning when he felt the muscles contract, “It was way beyond boring.”

Inuyasha growled, reaching out and plucking the kit up and off her by the tail, “Kagome’s not quite healed, brat. No poking.”

“Be nice,” Kagome instructed absently, already moving away from the growling pair, her attention centered on Sango.

The hanyou paused in his growling to frown at Kagome scoldingly, “Oi! You agreed to stay close after you tripped this morning.”

She rolled her eyes, “Different circumstances, koishii, THEN my legs were tangled up in your haori. I’m not going to fall.”

Shippou looked up at the concerned indecision on the hanyou’s face when Kagome turned her back and reached out to take Sango’s hands. His eyes narrowed and he smirked wickedly as he whispered, “Ahhh….. so THAT’S what’s different.”

“You say one word, brat, and you aren’t going to live long enough to find out if you’re right,” Inuyasha snarled back at him.

“So I’m right AND she doesn’t know,” Shippou nodded sagely and looked supremely proud of himself. “This is even better than having the claw thing that got me my chocolate last time!”

Inuyasha bared his fangs, shooting a quick look up to where Miroku was reaching up to feel Kagome’s forehead. The monk’s lips were quirked in a taunt that had the girl blushing and swatting his hands away while Sango brought her boomerang down over his head and gave Kagome an apologetic smile.

Certain all three of them were distracted, he hoisted the kitsune up higher, “You were never in any danger of getting your ass beat if you spilled ‘the claw thing.’ You let this slip before I tell her and you’re going to be trying to find your way back for weeks from where I throw you.”

“So what did you do wrong?” Shippou folded his arms and tried to look superior from the undignified position.

His eyes narrowed, “What makes you think I did something wrong?”

“C’mon, I’m not as dense as you are,” the kitsune snorted in annoyance. “You don’t want Okaa-san to know, so you must have done something wrong.”

Inuyasha fought the urge to shake him, well aware that it would attract attention he didn’t want or need even as his cheeks tinted slightly, “I didn’t do anything wrong, you little shit! I just don’t want Kagome to know yet. I’ll find the right time to tell her, but it’s not now.”

Shippou rolled his eyes, “Oh this is gonna be good.”

“Don’t make me hurt you, Shippou,” he growled menacingly.

He just shook his head and somehow managed to look amazingly put out by the whole situation, “One condition.”

“I ought to rip your tail out.”

“You don’t stop me from laying on her stomach so I can listen,” he finished as though the threat had never been spoken.

Inuyasha blinked down at him in mild surprise, his head tilting to one side as his ears flicked in confusion, “That’s it? You just want to listen?”

“What the hell did you think it would be?” Shippou looked up at him in annoyance. “I’ll even help you take care of them until you tell her. You think I want something to happen to my new brother or sister or whatever she has?”

He huffed, frowning slightly and giving the kit a glare of speculation, “You can keep your mouth shut?”

“Promise,” Shippou held up his hand and gave the hanyou his most solemn expression.

Inuyasha set his jaw, clenching and unclenching his free hand before he nodded stiffly and set the kitsune on his shoulder, “All right. You can listen, but you tell me the fucking second you hear something that doesn’t sound right.”

He grinned and gave him a mock salute he’d seen Kagome give once or twice, “Hai!”

Kagome glanced up at the delighted chirp and let out a heartfelt groan, “I’d be willing to bet every shard I have that I’ve just picked up a babysitter.”

Sango blinked and looked past her to see Inuyasha looking particularly arrogant, his arms folded over his chest and Shippou trying to mimic the stance from the hanyou’s shoulder, “That is a most terrifying sight, Kagome-chan.”

“At least it’s not coming from your mate and son,” she rubbed the ache starting at her temples. “Gods, I just calmed down too,” she wrinkled her nose. “Although Inuyasha assured me I was just that bad a bitch because of how close I was to heat when things started to get nasty. And I thought PMS was bad…”

Sango kept her relief to herself at that, but was silently praising whatever gods had apparantly restored Kagome’s calm disposition, “Then… you feel normal?”

Kagome nodded, still distracted by the nearly identical looks on Inuyasha and Shippou’s faces, “Hn. I’m going to be spending a long LONG time apologizing for being such a brat though. I wanted to crawl under a rock when everything settle out and I stopped feeling like I was ripping apart from the inside.”

“It wasn’t that bad, Kagome-chan,” Sango took her hand and squeezed, giving her an encouraging smile.

“Tell that to Inuyasha’s back,” she blushed and found a point off in the woods very interesting for a moment. She finally looked back at her mate, frowning and rubbing at her head again, “Mou… What could they possible be plotting?”

“Look on the bright side, Kagome-sama, at least they’re not fighting,” Miroku offered, rubbing his own head but for a totally different reason.

“Oi, we’re wasting time,” Inuyasha cut into their muttered observations and turned his gaze up to the late afternoon sky. “In case you haven’t been keeping track of the days, the moon’s going to change soon. If we want to make it back to the village before Kagome and I swap for a night and see if that makes a mess, we need to get moving.”

Kagome nodded, rolling her eyes when Inuyasha turned his back to her and made a sound of impatience, “I can walk, Inuyasha.”

“You can ride just as easily,” he returned in that annoyingly calm, authoratative voice he’d started to use more frequently in the last month.

“This really isn’t worth the argument,” she shook her head, giving him a faint growl to display her reluctant compliance.

Miroku smiled behind his hand, “Perhaps things will finally be calm this way, Kagome-sama. If even Inuyasha and Shippou are getting along, we should have a bit more peace and quiet, ne?”

Kagome glanced at Miroku and reminded him in a whisper meant to reach only him and the taijiya as she started forward, “With Inuyasha and Shippou, that’s not exactly a sign of peace. That’s when it’s time to really worry.”

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