InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Feni's Snippets ❯ Choices ( Chapter 20 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha; Rumiko Takahashi does. He's always returned in (fairly) good condition when I've finished tormenting him!

 

A/N: Written for LiveJournal's `FirstTweak' community and its `More' challenge prompt. Set post-`Illusionary Death' arc.

 

Warnings: Coarse language

 

Thanks to SilverOnTheRose for the beta, and to T Wrecks for supplying the Human!Inu bunny.

 

First posted to Live Journal on October 9, 2009.

 

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Choices

 

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“Hang in there, Inuyasha… I'm almost finished!” Kagome exclaimed, willing her shaking fingers to work properly and snugly tie off the bandage wrapped around the hanyou's chest. He shifted, and she glanced up in time to see his pained grimace, but he said nothing. Outside the hut, the pitched battle against the persistent youkai continued; through the cracks in the sagging walls, Kagome spotted a burst of foxfire.

 

“Fucking crappy time to be human,” the hanyou winced.

 

“You can't help it,” she soothed, reaching over his shoulders to make sure she hadn't accidentally bound any of his long black hair into the bandages. “Since you won't lie down, at least lean against the wall and see if it helps.”

 

“Only one thing'll help.”

 

The teenage girl's heart hitched at the despair in the now-human hanyou's voice. “Dawn will come… don't worry.” Helping her patient to ease backwards until he was propped against the flaking boards, she watched with dismay as an irregular, bright red blotch began spreading across the white bandages. “Darn it! I wish the sun would rise right now!” she blurted out.

 

“I can't fucking win,” Inuyasha grumped. “When I was hanyou, Kikyo wanted me to be human. Now I'm a human, and you want me to be hanyou.”

 

Kagome's mouth dropped open. “Wh-what? That's not what I want! Kikyo's the one who wanted you to change!”

 

“Keh.”

 

She grasped after her composure, the battle outside momentarily forgotten. “I said that because I wish you had your youkai healing ability!” His stony expression flustered her even further, and she added, “I also want you to have a choice… and I want you to be happy with it.”

 

“Even if my choice is to follow Kikyo into hell?” he harshly demanded.

 

Her shoulders sagged as she stared at him in shock, then she ducked her head. Wringing her hands so hard that her knuckles whitened, she took a long time to answer, and even then, her voice shook from the effort she put into controlling it. “If that will make you happy, then… yes,” Kagome whispered, tears flowing.

 

The hanyou sighed, ignoring the warning twinge from his chest wound, and reached for her tightly-clasped hands. Rubbing his clawless thumbs across her dampened skin, he muttered, “Stupid girl.”

 

Kagome inhaled sharply at the insult, but his gentle tone gave her pause. “A-am I s-stupid for c-caring about you?” she stammered, ineffectually trying to pull free while avoiding his gaze.

 

Transferring both of her hands into one of his, Inuyasha brought up the other to gently wipe away her tears. “You don't trust me, not even a little, where Kikyo's concerned.”

 

Letting her hands go limp, she growled, “You're the one who said he `thought about her every single day' and then kissed her… not to mention forgave her for stealing our chunk of the Jewel. Look, can we not talk about this right now?” Squinting over his shoulder as another flash of foxfire lit up the spaces between the ramshackle boards, she mumbled, “I should go help….”

 

Inuyasha ignored her, continuing to softly caress her cheek. “I do think about her every day, `cause she's hella strong, but Naraku's even stronger now, and I'm afraid of what'll happen if he finds her and I'm not there.” Kagome squirmed restlessly, wishing heartily that she was somewhere else. The hanyou twisted her hair around his fingers to keep her in place as he continued, “Even though I think about her, I choose to be at your side.”

 

She spluttered, “Then why…?” but shut up when his thumb brushed over her lips, the intimacy of the gesture catching her completely off guard.

 

Unsmiling, he tugged her towards him. “C'mere.”

 

“B-but… your wound…” she protested faintly.

 

“Then be careful.” The hanyou was insistent, and there was no getting out of it without a struggle, so Kagome allowed him to draw her into a loose embrace. As his arms wrapped around her shoulders, a nervous giggle rose in her throat. “What?” he asked, carefully settling back against the wall.

 

“You were bleeding the last time you hugged me, too.”

 

“Keh.”

 

Utterly confused by his actions, Kagome cautiously considered his words. Relaxing by increments, she rested her cheek against his bare chest, just above the bandaging. Not sure what to do with her hands, she finally settled on applying pressure to his injury with one and bracing the other on the floor next to his hip. They sat in silence for several moments, the sounds from the battle outside muted by his heartbeat under her ear.

 

“When Kikyo tried to pull me down to hell, it was your voice that saved me,” Inuyasha finally said. “When her illusion nearly killed me in Naraku's nightmare forest, I thought of you and broke the spell. Don't you get it? We're bound together, you and me.”

 

“But…!” she began again, before biting her tongue.

 

“I go to her because I need to know that she's okay.” When Kagome stiffened in his arms, he added, “I ain't kissin' her or anything… all we do is talk, but you don't believe me, an' that pisses me off. I've never lied to you.”

 

“I've never lied to you, either,” Kagome muttered. Okay, maybe not told you the entire truth about her trying to kill me for the shard in Naraku's forest. She attempted to pull away, but he tightened his grip.

 

“Don't bother, girl. We're havin' this out now.”

 

“This is not a good time,” she protested, catching the whistle of Hiraikotsu's flight. “I'm supposed to be helping our friends!”

 

“Keh. They can cope.”

 

She scowled lightly at the glistening patch of bandage. “I'm jealous… there, I've admitted it. Happy now?”

 

“Ya gotta wonder why I would bother with someone who craters me just because I talk to my ex-lover once in a while,” he mused.

 

“You bother with me because I'm the shard detector,” she petulantly retorted, surprised by the edge to her voice.

 

Inuyasha huffed, “You honestly think that's the only reason why I protect you? You really are stupid sometimes.” Indicating the bloodied bandage, he demanded, “D'you think I'd take a hit like this for someone who was `just' a shard detector?”

 

“Um… maybe?”

 

“Give your head a shake, girl.” The hanyou slanted the young woman a sharp look and she had the grace to look sheepish. Sifting his fingers through her hair, he began stroking the glossy mass in a proprietary manner. “I'm with you, aren't I? You gotta stop bein' a bitch about Kikyo.”

 

Kagome felt very much like her world had tilted sideways. “I'll try,” she mumbled.

 

“Prove it.”

 

“Er… how?”

 

“More of this,” Inuyasha murmured, his embrace tightening, “… and a helluva lot less `sitting'.”

 

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