InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ His Brother's Girl ❯ Because a girl's gotta eat... ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5 - Because a girl's gotta eat…

"You're right. That's it. Go back to the cave!"

"But Rin-chan is huuuuuuuungry!" she whined, throwing her arms up and down at her sides in agitation, flopping the long sleeves of his haori into the mud.

"I KNOW! Go take a nap or something, I'll get some food."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. What were you planning to do anyway, besides chatter too much scare away the prey?"

Shooting him a withering glare, Rin stuck her tongue out at him and walked away. She returned to the cave to sit just inside the entrance, watching the rain fall as she tried to wait as patiently as she could. Good to his word, Inuyasha returned before less than an hour had passed. He ran in out of the rain, dropping down onto all fours and shaking himself brusquely, casting droplets of rainwater off in all directions. Rin frantically ducked beneath the haori, trying not to laugh, as he did look very much like a puppy when he did that, and not at all like the threatening monster he claimed to be. When he was finished, she eagerly peeked out from underneath the coat to see what he had brought for her. It wasn't until he stood up again that she spotted the fat rabbit dangling limply by it's legs from his left hand, it's head and neck jutting out from it's body at an impossible angle.

"Oh nooooo!" Rin cried, "Why did you have to go and kill a fluffy little rabbit?"

"What? I thought you said you wanted to eat!" Inuyasha growled, his chattering teeth making the low rumble sound even choppier than it already was.

"Rin-chan can't eat a bunny!" she wailed in protest, turning her head from the pitiful sight of the rabbit's snapped neck.

"Not only can you, but you will! I worked my ass off chasing this goddamn thing around in the rain, and now we're gonna eat it! And you'd better hurry up and get used to the idea cause there won't be anything else!"

"Well…how?" the girl asked, her hunger slowly bringing her around. "Rin-chan can not eat it raw, Inuyasha no baka. We have no fire! And Rin-chan knows this for a fact, because she is still freezing cold!"

"What the hell do you want from me?!" he roared, his eyes flashing crimson for the briefest of instances at her accusatory tone. "I can't do everything at once, you know! I was kind of busy chasing your dinner through a thorn bush!"

"G-gomen, Inuyasha-sama…" the child nervously gulped, backing down contritely. Then, in the smallest, meekest voice she could manage, she asked "Is there anything that Rin-chan can do to help?"

"Yeah…" the hanyou sighed heavily, letting his anger escape with the breath and dissolve out into the atmosphere. "Go look toward the back of the cave and see if you can find any dry brush from an old nest or something like that. Someone or something must have used this place as a home at some point. Dried out bat droppings work well, too."

"That's disgusting, Inuyasha no baka." Rin wrinkled up her nose.

"Maybe, but that stuff catches fire like nothing else, so if you can find any, bring it here."

"But how are you going to light it? Jaken-sama always uses the staff of heads to light our cooking fire."

"Hmph. Don't worry. Kagome, that girl I'm traveling with? She doesn't like to eat her meat raw any more than you do, and she also seems to be under the impression that I'm incapable of starting a fire on my own. I keep finding books of matches tucked into the folds of my yukata whenever I come back from a bath. Personally, I don't get it. Meat tastes better when it's raw, and cooking it takes out all the healthy stuff that makes whelps like you strong…but what are you gonna do? You ningen are strange."

"Matches?" Rin asked, puzzling over the strange word that held no place in her limited experience.

"You'll see…Now get going. You're right, it is cold in here."

Without looking to see if she would do as she was told, Inuyasha dropped back down into a crouch and began to clean the rabbit, tearing the flesh from the hide with his long claws. Unable to watch the brutalization of what had been, up until about an hour ago, an adorable woodland creature, Rin did as she was bade and went off to the back of the cave in search of dry kindling.

"Look, Inuyasha-san! You were right!" she called happily a few minutes later, returning with her little arms full. "Rin-chan found an old dry nest, all full of twigs and straw at the back of the cave, just like you said!"

"Did you find any bat droppings?" he asked, looking up from his bloody task.

"umm… nope. There weren't any…" Rin mumbled, shaking her head and averting her eyes from him.

"Liar." Inuyasha quickly looked back down at the newly fleshed rabbit in his hands before she could see the subtle smile of amusement playing at his lips. Placing the meat aside on a nearby rock, he went about the task of digging out a pit for the fire. As he labored in the dirt, hunched over, Rin noticed for the first time that his back looked funny. She discreetly inched her way forward until she was able to see clearly for herself what was wrong.

"Does that hurt?" she asked quietly, not wishing to antagonize him any further.

"Does what hurt?" he muttered over his shoulder, refusing to break his stride.

"Your back. It's full of thorns."

"Oh that. No, not really."

"It's all bloody."

"Well that's what happens when you run through a thorn bush without your shirt. Let that be a lesson to you, kid."

"Rin-chan would never go running around without her shirt on, Inuyasha no baka."

"No, I'm sure you wouldn't, ningen girls don't tend to do that…" he said, thinking of Kagome. 'Maybe if they did, I'd be a lot less frustrated all the time… or maybe more frustrated…damn.' His digging and his thoughts were interrupted by the feathery touch of her tiny hands on his back.

"Hey, no touching the monster…" he scolded ineffectually.

"Rin-chan is pulling out the thorns…hold still."

"I'll do it later. Those little hands of yours are cold."

"You wouldn't be able to reach them all. Besides, you couldn't possibly feel Rin-chan's cold little hands, Inuyasha no baka. Your body is just as cold."

"Mm. Someone stole my coat. And then to top it all off, I went running around in the rain like an idiot without a kimono. I'm not exactly sure how I could let something like that happen…" he said sarcastically, "usually I'm a lot more sensible."

"Inuyasha-san…" Rin said softly, placing the palms of both hands flat on his back.

"Are you finished back there?"

"Oh." she startled, pulling her hands away. "hai…"

"Then go get my kimono." She ran back to the front of the cave to get it, almost tripping over the long sleeves of Inuyasha's haori in the process.

"This isn't very heavy, Inuyasha-san. It's not going to keep you very warm, even if it is dry." She said, bringing the robe back to him.

"Maybe not," he said, "but these will help." From within the layers of white fabric, Inuyasha pulled out a small square packet, the color of his yukata.

"Oh…is this matches?"

"Hai. Watch this." Grabbing a handful from the pile of brush that Rin had left near his feet, Inuyasha placed a small, loose bundle of straw in the center of the pit. He then opened up the packet in his other hand, revealing rows upon rows of tiny paper sticks with bright red tips. He pulled one away from the rest and closed the packet again, then turned it over to reveal a long black strip on the back, running the entire length of the bottom. Grasping the paper stick between his finger and thumb, he ran the red tip of it across the strip in one fast, fluid motion. Suddenly, to her great surprise, there was a smell of sulfur in the air and the tiny paper stick had ignited.

"AH!" Rin cried happily, clapping her hands together. "Inuyasha-san, it's magic!"

"Hai! Hand me those sticks, quick now!" Inuyasha bent down, holding the match to the kindling and blowing on the tiny flame gently, encouraging it to grow. A few wispy tendrils of smoke floated up to tickle the inside of his nose, and with another gentle puff from his lungs, the pile of straw finally caught. He then tented the larger sticks loosely around the small flame, and sat back on his heels to watch his own handiwork play itself out properly before him.

"See? Nothing to it." He said as he pulled the light kimono over his shoulders and tucked it into the waist of his hakama. His tone may have been a little smug, but he felt that he had earned the right to gloat a little. It was the first time all day that he could remember feeling anywhere near happy or satisfied.

"Now we can get warm and eat something. How do you like that, Rin? Rin?"

She was standing beside him, and their heads were level with one another, crouched down as he was. She was nibbling on her bottom lip again, and her eyes were shimmering with some unspoken emotion. He was almost afraid to ask.

"What is it now?"

"Arigatou, Inuyasha-san! Rin-chan is very sorry that she was mean to you and said that you smelled."

"Hmph…anno… you also called me an idiot." he muttered softly, shifting uncomfortably on the balls of his feet.

"Rin-chan is sorry for that to!" she wailed, suddenly letting go with another fit of tears and throwing her arms around the startled hanyou's neck. He let her indulge in her weepiness for a few minutes, but he soon tired of it and disentangled himself from her embrace.

"I think we should stick to the original plan, kid. Sesshoumaru's not going to be very happy if you come back smelling like me."