Again, thanks SO much for your reviews! Can’t tell you how much
they encourage me. ^______^ Oh, but there was one reviewer
who asked “Why didn’t Kaede just zap the rosary back onto Inuyasha like
she did the first time?” O.o Ummm…my response is…I dunno.
^^; I never even thought about it. I think when I started writing
this story, or even just plotting the idea, I hadn’t really watched a lot
of Inuyasha yet. When I watched episode one on Cartoon Network, I
actually only saw the second half of it because I’d had to work and my
shift ended at 11 at the time, which was when IY started. So, I knew
that Kaede was the one who put the rosary around Inuyasha’s neck, but I
didn’t realize exactly how she’d done it. Since then, of course,
I bought the DVD so now I’ve seen the entire episode, but I just never
thought about fitting that part in. So…for the sake of me not having
to go back and rewrite the ENTIRE story to fix this little, insignificant
error, you’re all going to humor me and pretend that it never happened
that way, okay? Okay. *smiles sweetly*
When Kagome returned awhile later (having given herself enough time to clean up a bit and also to cool her temper), she saw that Inuyasha was crouched beside the fire, his head bent in concentration as he busily mashed plant leaves together between two rocks, forming a thick, rather lumpy poultice. He sniffed at it, his nose wrinkling as he snorted in distaste, then picked up another leafy plant, which Kagome recognized from her lessons with Kaede as a medicinal herb. He began to shred its leaves with his claws, mixing it into the mash and again pounding away.
She watched for a little while, more than a little curious, before he finally stopped in his task and studied the contents, which now had the consistency of thick, pale-green paste. He appeared to be satisfied with the results, picking up a small cup that he’d dug out of Kagome’s pack to carefully scrape the mash into it. Kagome’s knee throbbed as she lowered herself carefully onto her sleeping bag, trying not to alert the hanyou of her presence as he didn’t appear to be aware that she was back. Having had time to think it over, she was again regretting yelling at him, even though she knew very well that he deserved every word of it. But she was alone with him and they had a long trip back, what with her bike out of commission not to mention her leg. He’d probably have to carry her the entire way which, given their current situation, probably didn’t please him very much.
She sighed softly; one of these days, she was going to learn to put a reign on her temper when she was around him. No matter how mad he made her, yelling at him certainly wasn’t helping to repair anything. Still, she had pride enough that she wasn’t going to go groveling at his feet begging forgiveness, either. It was just as much his fault as hers that they were fighting, if not more so, she thought stubbornly. She wasn’t about to apologize for anything she said to him until he apologized for his horrible behavior towards her!
And, considering how bull-headed the hanyou could be, that might not happen for a very long time.
Inuyasha stood abruptly and turned, still holding the cup as he made his way silently over to her. She blinked in surprise, realizing belatedly that he’d known she was back the entire time. Well of course he did, moron, she berated herself. Demon senses, remember? She gulped when he abruptly seated himself cross-legged in front of her, meeting her gaze with a serious, guarded expression.
“Let me see your leg,” he commanded quietly, almost…kindly, as he gestured at her swollen knee.
She blinked at him, now stunned beyond all reason. First, he was yelling at her and accusing her of being treacherous and a liar and now…and now this? Sometimes she wondered if she’d ever understand the way his mind worked. Slowly, somewhat painfully, she straightened her damaged leg, and nearly yelped in surprise when he abruptly caught hold of it—handling it as though it was a piece of fragile china—and draped it across his lap. A fierce blush rose to cover her face at finding herself in such a situation, and she reached to hastily tug down the skirt that had ridden up her thighs.
Inuyasha didn’t appear to notice as he carefully poked around her knee, feeling her twitch every time he hit a sore spot. He frowned, his brows furrowing in concentration. “Looks like you pulled some tendons,” he stated gruffly. “Don’t go walkin’ on it or it’ll get worse. Guess I’ll have to carry you back to the old woman.”
She bit her lip. “Um…in case you forgot, there’s a shard still missing,” she stated quietly. “We can’t leave until it’s found.” She hesitated, then drew a deep breath. “Besides,” she added, even more hesitantly, “haven’t you noticed that the viper hasn’t vanished?”
“What?” He looked at her, startled.
“What I mean is…as soon as we got the shards from the other youkai, they crumbled into dust. But…there’re still pieces of the viper around here,” she said carefully, trying to gauge his reaction. “I-if there’s still a shard embedded in its flesh, it’ll eventually pull itself back together, won’t it? Like that crow did?”
He swore softly. “I hadn’t thought of it,” he admitted gruffly, picking up the cup of plant-mash and dipping his fingers into the mixture. “This might feel a little weird, but it’ll help ease the swelling,” he added, before smearing the concoction onto Kagome’s knee. She jumped when the medicine touched her skin; she hadn’t expected it to be so cold! Cold enough to burn, in fact, and she winced as her knee began to tingle uncomfortably. It smelled very much like the joint medicine her grandfather used to ease his arthritis when it acted up, and she imagined that it probably worked about the same way, too. But…was her skin supposed to burn like that? She frowned a little as she eyed the concoction suspiciously.
“If it burns, then you know it’s doing its job,” Inuyasha stated matter-of-factly as he continued gently massaging the medicine into her skin, apparently having noticed the uncomfortable expression on her face.
Kagome looked at him with something akin to wonder in her eyes, and he found himself resisting the urge to blush. “What?” he asked, somewhat defensively. “What’re you looking at?”
She blinked and looked away. “I was…um…it’s just…I didn’t realize you knew so much about…stuff like this,” she stammered, plucking at her skirt with nervous fingers. “I just…never took you for a doctor type, that’s all. Wh-where did you learn how to do this?”
He smirked. “Idiot. How often has Kaede shown you stuff like this?” he asked arrogantly. “I can pay attention, too, ya know.” He finished with his task and sat back, setting the cup aside and lifting Kagome’s leg from his lap carefully. “You got a bandage in that bag of yours?” he asked. “I should wrap your knee so the medicine has better effect and won’t wear off.”
“It’s in the first aide kit,” she replied, handing him the small box. He opened it and pulled out the ace wrap, unrolling it to wrap it around her knee, careful not to make it too tight and cut off her circulation, and secured the end with the metal tabs. “There. Just take it easy. In a couple of days you’ll be good as new,” he stated briskly, tossing the first aide kit back into the pack. “Get to sleep now. I’ll be waking you up nice and early to look for that shard.”
“What about the viper?” Kagome asked nervously, eyeing the still-unmoving chunks of flesh that littered the area.
“As big as that thing is and as many pieces as it’s in, it’ll take awhile to pull itself back together,” he snorted. “Besides, I’ll notice if anything happens long before it does. All we gotta do then is look for the biggest chunk of snake and get the shard from it.”
“You seem pretty confident,” she muttered, unzipping her bag to crawl stiffly inside of it; her entire body was screaming at her for sleep. Her head felt strangely heavy, and her ears felt like someone had stuffed them full of cotton. No doubt she had one mother of a cold coming on after all this.
“At least one of us is,” Inuyasha was snorting, turning his back on her to lean comfortably against the felled tree. “Now go to sleep and quit talking.”
She obediently lay down in her bag, pillowing her head on her arms as she allowed her body to relax. Her eyes studied Inuyasha silently; he appeared to be deeply asleep, sitting with legs and arms crossed and his eyes tightly closed, but she knew better. His ears twitching restlessly on top of his head gave away the fact that he was still alert, if not fully awake. She sighed and smiled wistfully, realizing that her anger at him had faded…at least a little. He always seemed to do that to her, to act like such an ass one moment and then in the next go and do a one-eighty to completely disarm her and make her forget why she was mad in the first place. He’d never give her a real apology, but she’d come to realize that his actions usually spoke much louder than his words, anyway. The fact that he’d taken care of her…meant a lot to her. It gave her hope that maybe, just maybe, he didn’t hate her so much, after all.
“Inuyasha?” she called softly, and one ear twitched toward her in acknowledgement as he grunted a response. “Thank you,” she whispered, watching as his eyes opened and he turned his head to look at her. “For taking care of me,” she added, giving him a small, hesitant smile. “I…um…you didn’t have to do that for me and…I…appreciate it,” she added. “I-I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“Keh,”
he muttered with a scowl, turning away again and shutting his eyes, but
not before she saw the slight smile twitch at his lips, allowing a fang
to poke through. She smiled again and closed her own eyes, suddenly
feeling much more relaxed as she allowed sleep to claim her again.
As promised, as soon as the sun was high enough to see by, Inuyasha was up and already searching for the missing shard. Several more snake chunks were missing; a sure sign that the shard was doing its job in helping the youkai repair itself, and the hanyou was becoming a bit worried. It shouldn’t have been this hard to find a half-formed youkai, especially one bearing the scent of the jewel, and yet it continued to elude him. The only thing he could think of was that the shard had been blown so far outside the immediate area that even his senses couldn’t pick it up. He sighed. It looked like he needed Kagome’s help, after all.
He turned to the sleeping girl reluctantly, padding silently over to her huddled form in the padded bag and crouching beside her. He really hated to wake her up; she looked horrible, completely exhausted, and he could smell the change in her scent which suggested that she had come down with some form of illness or other. Not that he blamed her; running around in this godforsaken weather wasn’t exactly the healthiest thing for a person to do, especially if that person was a weak human like her. He sighed and almost absentmindedly reached out to gently push her bangs away from her overheated forehead. He wrinkled his nose; as pleasant as the girl normally smelled, right now she was in dire need of a bath, smelling of sweat and damp air and sickness. He sighed again. Well, the sooner they found that thrice-cursed shard, the sooner he could get her back to the village and let Kaede take care of her. He was no good at things like this, anyway.
“Hey,” he said softly, stroking his thumb along the girl’s cheek in a surprising display of tenderness. “Kagome, wake up.”
She stirred slightly under his touch, her brow furrowing. “In…yasha,” she murmured, her expression becoming fearful. “D-don’t…”
“Don’t what?” he asked, blinking down at her in puzzlement.
She tossed a little and raised a hand into the air beseechingly. “Need t’go…home…” she mumbled, looking distressed. Inuyasha froze, his eyes widening slightly. “Grandfather,” Kagome whimpered, like a lost puppy. “Where are you? Mama, don’ cry. Don’cry…Souta, I’m ’ere…” She tossed again, her hand flying out to strike Inuyasha lightly in the chest. Then she released a noise that sounded suspiciously like a little sob, and the hanyou’s eyes widened in alarm. Suddenly, her eyes flew open and she stared right into his startled face, her expression panicked as she sat up to grip his gi in fisted hands. “Where is it?” she demanded, her voice filled with dread. Tears sparkled on her lashes and illuminated her glazed eyes. “Where is it? I can’t…find it…an’more. He hid…In’yasha…hid it fr’me…” Her voice trailed away and she slumped against him, her head falling against his shoulder. She trembled slightly, and he unconsciously wrapped his arms around her to keep her from falling over, realizing that she was still asleep, and dreaming.
“What’re you dreaming about?” he whispered, although the sick feeling in his stomach suggested that he knew very well what she was dreaming. He closed his eyes and inhaled her scent, grimacing at the strangeness of it. “Wake up, Kagome,” he commanded, although his voice was too soft to really be called commanding. “You’re having a nightmare. C’mon, wake up now.”
She stirred in his arms as his soft tone slowly coaxed her into consciousness, her eyes fluttering open as she looked around, her expression dazed. She suddenly stiffened when she realized that she was being held by him, and her gaze flew up to meet his own, filled with confusion. She realized, to her trepidation, that she had one hand fisted tightly in his clothes, and forced her stiff fingers to release the soft fur. She opened her mouth to speak, but her throat was so dry she could hardly force words past her throat. “Wh-what’s going on?” she finally managed to croak out.
“Do you feel well enough to stand up?” he asked in return, completely ignoring her question. “We need to find that shard.”
“Oh. Right. The shard,” she murmured, allowing him to help her to her feet. She stood swaying for a moment, one hand gripping his arm for support, before she got her bearings enough to stand on her own. Her knee gave a twinge of protest and she winced. Surprisingly, though, it didn’t feel half as bad as she thought it could have felt. That medicine, whatever it was, was pretty powerful stuff.
Inuyasha was holding her plastic water bottle to her lips, as though sensing her need for a drink, and she took it and gulped greedily, wetting her parched throat. She would have continued drinking if he hadn’t firmly pulled the bottle away from her and closed it. “You’ll get sicker if you drink like that,” he told her firmly.
“I’m not a horse. Give it,” she protested, but he ignored her in favor of returning the half-empty bottle to her bag.
“I’ve been looking for the shard, but I can’t get wind of it anywhere. It’s definitely around here and it’s working to pull that viper back together, but I can’t detect it,” he explained calmly.
She sighed in defeat. “Okay, let me try,” she murmured, closing her eyes and focusing her concentration on the shard. It was hard to focus; her head was muzzy and her senses irritatingly dull, but after a long while she felt the faint tingle of magic touch her from the left, as though from a great distance. “Go in that direction,” she murmured, pointing into the forest. “Should be out there somewhere…a couple of miles, maybe? I can’t tell.”
“It’s good enough for me,” Inuyasha muttered as he began scattering the remains of the fire and tossing stuff back into Kagome’s large pack.
“Might as well leave the bike; it isn’t any good,” Kagome said, looking at the ruined contraption sadly.
“It could be fixed,” Inuyasha replied.
“Nobody in this time would know how to properly fix a bike, and as you don’t appear inclined to let me go home ever again, there’s no point in keeping a useless thing like that around,” she replied, a bit more snappishly than she’d intended.
To her surprise, instead of yelling back, he merely grunted and hauled her pack over his shoulder before crouching down, an indication that he wanted her to climb onto his back. She hesitated. “I…I don’t know if I can hang on. I don’t feel well and I might get dizzy and fall off,” she muttered sulkily, hating to admit her weakness, but she wasn’t dumb enough to risk her life over her pride.
He sighed. “I won’t let you fall off. I don’t want you walking on that leg any more than can be helped. It might feel better but it isn’t healed yet, and you’ll only make it worse in the end. Besides, it would take too long to walk, anyway. There isn’t much time left before that youkai pulls itself back together and then we’ll have another fight on our hands. You’re out of arrows, remember, and Tetsusaiga didn’t even make a dent against those scales.”
“Yeah, but there are two less shards in it this time,” she argued. “So it shouldn’t be quite that strong, right?”
“I’m not about to risk either of our lives to find that out, idiot!” Inuyasha barked, losing patience entirely. “Now climb on unless you want me to just sling you over my shoulder like a sack of grain or something! Either way, I’m carrying you. End of discussion!”
She blinked at him, then scowled and reluctantly climbed onto his back. He hooked his arms under her knees to pull her more securely around him, but froze when she gave a yelp of protest. “Watch the knee, idiot!” she snapped, cuffing him lightly on the head as punishment. She was clearly in no mood to be polite, and he bit his tongue against the urge to yell back. Instead, he muttered a short “sorry” (which surprised her as much as anything), and eased his hold on her left leg. He gave her knee an apologetic caress—which in turn nearly made her fall off again in shock—before tensing to leap into the trees and take off after the shard.
Kagome did her best to hang on to the hanyou’s neck, pressed against his strong back and burying her face in his soft hair to ease the sickness she felt. She could tell that he was taking it easy for her sake, and was secretly grateful for that much consideration. She only hoped she could pay him back by not throwing up in his hair before they reached their target. “Do you sense anything?” Inuyasha asked after a short while, glancing back at her over his shoulder as he paused in his flight atop a high tree branch. She groggily lifted her head from his shoulder and peered down at the forest. The tingle of magic touched her in a strong pulse, and she pointed to the right.
“I can see the shard’s light. It should be right down there,” she muttered. He nodded and leaped to the forest floor, easing her off his back and settling her against a tree.
“Stay here,” he commanded. “This shouldn’t take long.” He unsheathed Tetsusaiga, which immediately transformed.
“W-wait!” she protested weakly, struggling to her feet again. “I’m coming, too. Who knows how strong that youkai’s gotten again. You might need…”
“You’re in no condition to fight a battle. Even if you had any arrows left, you’re probably too dizzy to aim right. You’ll only get in the way,” he stated bluntly. There was no maliciousness in his tone, just honest-to-goodness truth, and her shoulders slumped, knowing that he was right.
“Fine,” she muttered sulkily, sinking back down to the ground. He may have been right, but she didn’t have to like it. “I’ll wait here. Just as useless as ever…” she added under her breath, knowing the hanyou would hear her. Instead of disagreeing with her, however, as she’d secretly hoped he would, he merely grunted and turned to crash into the underbrush in search of the youkai. She sighed heavily and sat back against the rough tree trunk.
As he’d promised, it didn’t take long. In no time at all, she heard a loud, screeching hiss, followed Inuyasha’s furious battle cry. Then came the sounds of two enraged youkai engaged in deadly combat, causing the trees, the ground, the very air to shiver with the violence of the fight. After several long, tense moments, there was a final loud screech, a resounding crack as of a tree splitting in half, and then complete and utter silence.
Kagome held her breath, staring wide-eyed into the shadowed forest around her, waiting for Inuyasha to come bursting through with his usual smirk and the shard in hand. She waited…and waited, and when he didn’t come, she began to panic and rose shakily to her feet. “I-Inuyasha?” she called unsteadily, already fearing the worst as she took several steps forward. Had they miscalculated? What if the youkai had managed to grow stronger faster than they’d expected? With as much trouble as they’d had killing it the first time…what if, even with two less shards to empower it, it had still proven to be too powerful for the hanyou? What if he was…?
“Inuyasha!” Kagome screamed, clenching her fists even as her heart clenched painfully in her chest.
“What’re you yelling for, idiot?! I’m right here!” came the unexpected, disgruntled response. Kagome shrieked in surprise and stumbled back, losing her balance and landing painfully on her tailbone. She glared up at the hanyou, who was blinking innocently down at her from the tree just above her head.
“What’re you trying to do, give me a heart attack?!” she yelled. “I thought you were dead!”
He snorted. “Keh. You’re such an idiot,” he sniffed, hopping nimbly from his perch to land beside her. “There was nothing too it.” He held up a rather large fragment of the jewel between two claws. “Here, put this away.”
She snatched it from his hand angrily. “Well, what was all that screeching about, huh?” she retorted, her voice filled with accusation. “It sure sounded like a life-and-death battle to me! And then you didn’t come back right away and everything was so quiet and…and…” She broke off with a pitiful sniffle, horrified to find that her eyes were now burning with unshed tears, and turned to face away from him. In doing this, she missed the softening of his expression as he realized how scared for him she’d been.
“I had to extract the jewel, but it’d migrated from its eye for some reason so it took me awhile to find it,” he explained.
“You could’ve come and gotten me. I’d have found it easily,” she sulked.
He smiled a little at her expression. “We got what we came for. Let’s go back to the village so you can get some sleep,” he replied quietly. “Come on, climb up.” He picked up her pack and knelt before her, patiently helping her to adjust herself when she slowly climbed onto his back and slumped forward. He could feel her trembling slightly, hiding a wince of concern when he realized how warm she was. Hopefully she wouldn’t become seriously ill from this trip; he wouldn’t be able to handle the guilt of having made her sick on top of the guilt he already felt for making her so miserable the past few days. He sighed and stood, gripping her arms tightly around his neck to keep her from sliding off; he doubted she had enough strength left to hang onto him by herself.
“Let’s go home,” he stated quietly, hearing her murmur slightly in response,
before starting off at a careful pace back to the village.
Blech. This was just a little too cliché for my liking (*sniffles* am I losing my touch?), but I actually added some waff into this chapter! Well…kinda. ^^ R&R? It’s the ambrosia of the…fanfic writers. Or whatever. ^^;
Quickening
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