InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 40

I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi

Chapter 40

After dinner, and dishes, InuYasha poured Kagome’s bath water, and bit by bit, watching his wife pull up her hair and pin it to her head with a stick and then drop her clothes and slip into the warm water, his moodiness dropped away, and a playfulness emerged.

“You’re sure you don’t want me to pour some water over your head?” he asked as he squatted next to where she crouched in the tub.  He found himself staring at the back of her neck.  It had a lovely shape to it, and with her hair worn down, he almost never got to see it.  At that particular moment, he found it more interesting than the rest of her nakedness, and lifting up his hand, he gently ran a finger from the base of her neck to her hairline.  

Kagome shivered a little and jerked away.  “That tickles,” she said, turning toward him. “You could pour some water down my back if you need something to do.  I just don’t want to have wet hair.  We still have to do that touch practice, remember?”

“I forgot,” InuYasha said, turning to pour some hot water warming on the fire into a partially filled bucket.  Testing it for temperature with a finger, he added a little more hot water, then poured it over her back, and across her shoulders.  He liked watching how it cascaded down her curves.

“Feels nice,” she said, closing her eyes.  “Hot water after a long day feels so good.”

He leaned close enough that she could feel his breath. “Not as nice as something else I could think of.”

This made her laugh, but with a little splash she shoed him away.  “First things first,” she said.  

After soaking for a little while, she reluctantly got up before the water got too cool.  InuYasha, who had stripped after she chased him off,  handed her a towel before stepping in the water himself.  Carefully, he edged his long hair over the edge of the tub and settled down.  

“You want some hot water?” she asked, pulling on her white under kosode.

“No, it’s fine,” he said.  He scooped up some water and let it fall across his chest.

Kagome picked up the clothes she had been wearing earlier,  folded her wrap skirt and outer kosode and put them away to wear again, but looking in the drawer in her clothes cabinet, she pulled out a clean head scarf.  Standing there looking at it, she said, “I guess there’s no more excuses to put off practicing what Kaede wanted me to.”

“Keh,” InuYasha said, tilting his head back on the edge of the tub and closing his eyes.  “Homework.  Could be worse.  You could have a test to study for, instead of just practice.”


“You’re right,” Kagome said as she looked around the room, thinking.  “Maybe we should roll out the futon and sit on it do to this.  It’d be easiest.”  She got their bedding out, and unfolded it, smoothing the cover over it.  

Putting the scarf down on the blue fabric, she turned around to looked at InuYasha, who was still sitting in the washtub, his knees close to his chest, the tub far too small for him to stretch out in. For some reason, seeing him squeezed into the tub, looking at her with solemn eyes as she got things ready amused her. His ear twitched. Trying not to let him see her fighting off a giggle, she picked up his hakama and jacket, and lay them on the chest next to the clothing cabinet, but walked back to him with a towel and his white kosode.

“Not going to get out of helping you do this, am I?” he asked.

“Nope,” Kagome replied, smiling, giving one of his ears at gentle scratch.

“So what am I supposed to do,” he said, freeing his ear from her hand and standing up.

Kagome smiled, and let her finger trace the path of a water trail that ran down his chest. “After you get dried off and take the tub outside, you have the easy part,” she said, handing him the towel.  “All you have to do is sit there.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” he said, taking the towel and stepping out of the tub.

He dried off to her approving looks, but quickly got  back into his kosode before they got sidetracked. From her scent he could smell her nervousness and something under it that beckoned to him.  He could tell if he wasn’t careful, he would let that other smell interfere with what she was supposed to be doing.

“Maybe Daitaro was right about the mushrooms,” he muttered, picking up the tub and heading for the door as Kagome bent down to wipe up the water they spilled getting in and out.

A few minutes later, the floor dried, the tub emptied, the door secured and his composure regained, he sat on the futon in front of her.

“So now what, woman?” InuYasha asked, not sure if he were quite comfortable with the little smirk forming at the corner of her lips.

“Kaede suggested that you blindfold me, so I can practice seeing with my hands.  Once you’ve done that, sit back in front of me, and I will see how much I can tell just by touching you.” She was trying to look at him with calm, serious eyes, but the novelty of it all was putting her on the verge of a giggle.  “If you feel my aura flaring up, you tell me.  I’m not really supposed to be using my reiki to do this.”

“You’re sure this’ll help you be a better healer?” he said, his voice doubtful.

Kagome  nodded.  “Kaede said you learn a lot about a person’s health by how their skin feels, what their pulse is like, and how the muscles and abdomen feel under your touch. She wants me to become really aware of things like that.  After I learn that, then she’ll teach me more about reading people’s auras for what it says about their problems.”

“If the babaa says so. It’s out of my league,” he said with a little shrug.  “I know more about fighting than healing.” He took the cloth she held up and scooted behind her to fasten the scarf around her eyes, gently moving her black hair to keep it from getting pinned to the knot.

“Can you see?” he asked.

“No.  That’s good.”  She ran her hands across the fabric.

“Now what?” InuYasha leaned forward, breathing in her ear. Her excited scent was still teasing him, and he couldn’t resist letting his left hand brush  the top of her thigh lightly.

Kagome’s head and shoulder jerked a little at the sensation, and she lifted his hand away. “That tickles!” she said. “No fair. Come sit in front of me.”

He shifted back around, sitting cross-legged in front of her, his kosode riding up almost to his hips. “All right, I’m in front of you.”

Reaching her hand out gingerly, Kagome lightly touched one of his knees.  She pulled back a moment, and chewed her bottom lip. “I better not start there,” she said, smiling and holding her left hand out. “Give me one of your hands.”

InuYasha, not saying anything, but a little glad she couldn’t see the grin on his face, lay his right hand gently on hers, covering it totally.

Kagome softly took her right hand and cupped his between the two. She turned his hand sideways and raised it between her two.  For a moment, he could feel her reiki flare up a little, enough to tingle, and then as she concentrated, it calmed down until it was only the normal touch of her hands on his.

“Kaede said I should start with your hand, and try to see what it tells me,” she said as she smoothed her palms and fingertips along both sides of his larger hand. Turning his hand palm up, she rested the back of his hand over her left and began tracing her right index finger along the lines of his palm.

“You're not going to try any of that Miroku palmistry stuff, are you?” InuYasha said, watching how her fingers brushed along the callouses just below his fingers, danced along the long line circling his thumb.

That got a giggle out of her. “I see a beautiful miko in your future, who’s traveled a long, long way to meet you,” she said, mocking Miroku’s fortune telling spiel, then she gave a true laugh, a light, sweet sound. “No, I don't think I’ll be doing that.” She ran her finger up the length of his first finger, and then more carefully along the length of its claw tip, then back down to the palm. “I wouldn’t even know how to begin.”  She concentrated for a moment, sucking on her lip, and then wrapped her right hand across his palm.  “Your hands are so much larger than mine.”

“No, your hands are so much smaller than mine, fine and delicate, like my mother’s.”  He dropped his voice into a soft murmur. “Maybe too fine for a hand like mine to hold.”

“Don't say that.” Kagome frowned at her husband. “I love your hands. Yours are so strong,” she said. “I can feel their strength, just touching them.” She danced her fingers across his palm once again. “They make me feel safe and protected.” She closed his fingers over his palm. “I feel the callouses from your sword and the claws on your fingertips, and how the skin over your knuckles is thick from use. These are the hands of someone who will never give in.”

Once again, she let one hand trace his fingertips.  “But they are sensitive, too.  You know when to strike, and when to caress.” Her words were soft and warm and sincere, and as she spoke, she brought the hand to her mouth, and kissed the tip of his first finger, lightly.

InuYasha swallowed, feeling a shiver go through him that had nothing to do with her reiki. Smiling at him, as if she could sense his reaction, she said, “These are the hands that keep me safe and happy.”

Next, Kagome leaned forward, taking both of his hands, then letting her own hands move up his arms, sliding into the sleeves of his kosode past his elbows. “I can feel the strength in your arms, how the muscles move under the skin.  So strong. How many times have you lifted me out of trouble?”

His arms clasped around Kagome and pulled her into his lap.  “You can touch better if you’re closer,” he said.

Giving him another smile, Kagome freed her hands from his sleeves, and swept across his  upper arms and shoulders, trailing her fingers to the dip of his collarbone, where she let them rest as he supported her arms in his hands. “I love the set of your shoulders,” she said. “So determined, ready to take on whatever needs to be done, when other people might give up.”  

Next her hands went up to his face.  She ran her fingers along his jaw line, sweeping across his cheekbones, exploring his forehead, then down his nose and across his lips.  

His hands clasped her hand, and offered her fingers a small kiss. “I love your hands,” he said. “These are the hands that brought me back to life.” He kissed them once again. “The hands that taught me I was worth something. That touched me in spite of me being a rude baka.”

“InuYasha,” Kagome said. She leaned against him, exploring a little more, her hands cupping the sides of his face where his ears would be if he were human. “Different yet so right,” she said, slipping her fingers through the silk of his hair, making her way to his ears, where she gently scratched their bases. “Even your ears. Before you woke up, when you were still pinned to the tree, I had to touch your ears.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke, but the air grew charged.  InuYasha’s youki flared just a bit, and her reiki shimmered just a little in response.  A light glinted in his eyes, feral and hungry.  She almost pulled away, sensing the change, but before she could,  he turned her around in his lap, so her back was against his chest. “You know, Kagome, you can feel with more than just your hands.” He nibbled at her ear lobe, and her shoulders came up as she laughed.

“Your left ear feels just fine,” he said. Still holding her around her middle with one arm, he pushed the hem of  the kosode with the other, revealing the white skin of her upper legs.  “I bet your thigh understands touch, too.” He grazed the bare skin ever so lightly with his claws, watching the goose bumps rise on her skin, and smelling the growing touches of excitement in her scent.

She moved to pull away. “Stop that, InuYasha!” she said, wiggling in his hold, between giggles.  “I’m supposed to be practicing.”  

Her laughter and the feeling of her wiggling in his lap made sure he didn’t let go. “Uh-uh. I can’t let go. I'm supposed to help you learn more about touch. Kaede-babaa said so.” He ran his nose along the side of her neck, breathing deeply of her special perfume and what his touch was doing to her.

“Not this way!” she said leaning forward, but was unable to budge his hold on her. Something warm and wet snaked over her neck, followed by gentle light kisses.

“I’d say your neck feels just fine as well.” He breathed over the skin he had just tasted, just to see how she would react, then ran his tongue over the outer edge of her other ear.  “Isn’t this a more fun way to practice?” She began to melt against him and a soft gasp left her lips. “Right ear works as good as the left one, too. Wonder what else you have that can feel as good as your hands do?”

Kagome gave up and relaxed into his arms when she felt him fumble for the knot of her obi. “Do I get to take off the blindfold?”

“Nope,” he said as he pulled the obi loose from her waist and parted the fabric of her kosode. “But you were smart to lay out the futon.”

“Maybe I knew something like this might happen,” she said as she stretched out a hand and clasped his thigh, and began making little patterns on his skin with a fingertip.

“Keh,” he said. He ran his lips lightly over her shoulder as he nudged the kosode down and his hand slipped under the fabric to feel the weight of her breast.  “Don’t know.  But we’re going to keep up your touch lesson until I’m sure you’ve learned it.  I want you to feel.”

Feeling the warm wetness of his tongue follow the fall of her robe, she sighed, giving into the sensation. “I thought I was the one supposed to be touching,” she murmured.

“You’re touching my hand just fine,” he said, sliding it down to her hip.

Somehow, as she felt InuYasha lower her to the futon and his hand slide between her thighs, and then felt him crawl across her body, taking her mouth in a deep, hungry kiss that she returned just as enthusiastically, she suspected this was not what Kaede had in mind. But as her hanyou intensified his demonstration of touch, nudging her to wrap  her legs around his hips, she really didn't care.