InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 103

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

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


Chapter 102

As they passed the gate that opened onto the main street, Kagome looked up at InuYasha.

“I’m glad that’s over,” she said. “I hope we don’t have another morning like that for a while.”

“Yeah,” the hanyou replied. He grabbed her and pulled her to the side when two boys chasing a dog came running up from behind them. “Hey, watch it!”

The older of the two boys turned around. “Sorry, sorry,” he said, then turned around and continued his chase.

“Well, at least not everybody’s looking at us like we’re special,” Kagome said as InuYasha let her go “That’s worth something.”

InuYasha let her go, and then shrugged. “I guess.”

Something in InuYasha’s voice made Kagome look up at him. He didn’t meet her eyes. His face wasn’t drawn into quite a scowl, but it was getting close.  

“Let’s just go home,” the young miko said. “I was going to go to Sango’s after we got done, but I think I just want a quiet afternoon with just us.”

“Not going to argue with that one,” the hanyou said.

They began walking.

It was a quiet walk. A few people waved at them while they passed, a couple of farmers heading back out into the field, and a boy coming back from the river with a fish for him family, but nobody stopped long enough to try to talk to them. It might have been because it was midday,  and many people were in their homes eating lunch or hurrying to get there. But it might have been the sternness in InuYasha’s eyes and the flaring of his youki that kept them away.

Kagome felt it as well. The quiet began to weigh on her. By the time they neared Kaede’s house, she couldn’t take it any longer, and had to say something.

“It was nice for Hisa to send some of her stew home with us.” The sound almost echoed in her ears. It wasn’t controversial, but it still seemed too sharp to her, and she looked up at InuYasha to see his reaction.


InuYasha muttered something she didn’t quite make out. Shifting the pot she was carrying from one hand to the other, she sighed. “I know Rin will probably be glad to be able to go home. Kaede thought it would be better if she went to Sango’s until Haname went home.”

His ear flicked, and he nodded. “She goes there a lot, anyway. She likes the twins. Besides, it lets Sango get stuff done when Miroku’s out.”

“Ah,” Kagome said, nodding. “That makes sense.”

Kaede stepped out of her house, basket in hand, almost at the same time they passed by it. “InuYasha, Kagome. Heading home?” she asked.

“Everything’s done,” Kagome said, nodding. “It’s been a...tiring morning.”

“Not surprised to hear that,” the old miko said, looking at both of them with her calm, but discerning eye. “Tsuneo stopped by a little while ago and took his wife home. It looks like you two had more trouble getting away from Tameo and Hisa than he did.”

“Keh,” InuYasha said, stuffing his hands in his sleeves. He let his eyes drift to the road ahead. “You’d think they’d want to get rid of us after all this crap.”

Kagome gave her husband a look, but Kaede smiled. “That’s what happens when Hisa has decided you are part of her family. It’s not a bad thing, InuYasha.”

He nodded, but it didn’t change the look on his face.

“So, where are you going, Kaede-baachan?” Kagome asked, switching the pot to her other hand.

“Ah, I’m off to make sure Daisuke has taken his medicine today. His daughter found him in bed with the backache again.” Kaede shifted her basket on her hip. “I’ll probably stop by and see how Sayo-chan is doing as well. There’s always someone who needs some help.”

“I could come back this afternoon if you need me to,” Kagome said. InuYasha’s ear flicked at that.

“No, no, child. You two go home. You both have had a trying time.” She turned her eye towards InuYasha, who was standing there stiffly, trying to hide his impatience. “And stay home tomorrow if you need it. There’s nothing that won’t last another day.”

“You’re sure?” the younger woman asked.

Kaede nodded. “Now go home, you two.” Turning, the old miko walked down the road.

“Huh,” InuYasha said.

Kagome turned a moment to watch the miko walk down the street. “Somehow, I feel like a child who’s just been told to go to her room.”

 
They walked on.

By the time they passed the crossroads which led to Miroku’s house, InuYasha was still withdrawn. Kagome sighed, and shifted the pot she was carrying to the other hand again.  

This time, InuYasha noticed. “If it’s heavy, let me carry it for you,” he said, taking the pot away from her.

“Thanks,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s heavy or the handle just gets hard to hold.”

“Yeah.” InuYasha looked down at her. “You could have said something earlier.”

“I didn’t think of it,” Kagome said. “The stew really smelled good when it was cooking. If you like it, I’ll ask Hisa for the recipe.”

InuYasha nodded then started to move off, but she didn’t follow. He turned and looked at her, frowning.

“What?” His tone was harsher than he meant, and his ear flicked as he realized it. Kagome flinched at the sound, and looked up at him with sad eyes, chewing on her bottom lip.“Sorry. I didn’t mean for it to sound like that.”

“All the way home, you’ve been shutting me out,” she said.

He didn’t say anything, but took a long breath.  

“It’s all right. You can talk about it, you know,” Kagome said. She moved up to stand next to him and rested a hand on his chest, looking up at him. Her eyes shimmered, not quite filled with tears, but threatening. “I won’t think anything bad about you.”

“Kagome...” His voice was guarded, a bit confused.

She broke eye contact, and instead looked at her hand resting on the red fabric of his jacket. “Today and yesterday - so much has happened. I’m still trying to deal with it, too, you know.”

“Yeah,” he said. He covered her hand with his. “I...Sorry.”

She looked back up at him. “What is it then?” Her eyes searched his.

He sighed and his own look softened as he watched her - not yet ready to smile, but losing that stony mask he would wear when facing emotional challenges. He gave her hand a small squeeze.

“It’s hard to explain,” he said.

Kagome tilted her head a little and lifted her free hand up to brush his cheek. “You’re not mad at me or the others, are you?”

He shook his head. ”I’m just trying to figure stuff out. All of a sudden, it’s like I’m a real person.”

“Of course you are,” she replied, the corners of her lip turning up, just slightly.  “It’s not like I imagined you or something. You are really here.” A bird flew by, spotted them, and veered off to the right. “See? That bird saw you.”

InuYasha looked up, and watched it fly away.  

“No, that’s not what I meant,” he said, looking back at her.  Lifting her hand up, he laced his fingers in it. “I mean, I know I’m a real person,” he replied. “But when a lot of people see me, they don’t see a person, they see a monster, something that scares them, an inugami at best.”  

He put the soup pot down on the ground, and wrapped both arms around her. “To them, I’m not a person, not someone who belongs around other people. That’s what they called me when I went to Kagemura - an inugami. Miroku got extra respect because they thought he was controlling me.”

“They didn’t!” Kagome said, her eyes flashing a little at the idea.

“Yes they did. It’s not the first time that’s happened.” He slipped a finger under her chin and tilted her head up. “But here...even with everything that happened in the past, they look at me like I’m a man, not a monster - and it’s just not you and Miroku and Sango. It’s not fake, like in most places where they give me respect to my face because I’m stronger than they are, and they don’t want me to hurt them.” He let his fingers slide into her hair. “I’ve heard’em whisper too often about me behind my back.” He sighed, and let her go. “I don’t know how to explain it. It just feels weird.”

Kagome leaned her head against his chest, and his arms wrapped back around her without thinking. “Don’t you like it - being accepted?”

He pulled back to look at her again, and gave her a tiny, bittersweet lift to his lips. “I do. It’s not that. I always...I mean, I was always being pushed away. It really hurt a lot when I was little, when my mother’s family rejected me, and Sesshoumaru...Then I got to where it was like a scar, or a wall, maybe. I always wanted to belong somewhere, but I learned...” His voice trailed off, and he looked off in the distance. “It’s not something I know how to believe in.”

“You believe in us. I know that. You belong with me,” Kagome said.

This time he gave her a real, if small smile. “Yeah.” He pulled her close again. “That’s the one thing I know I can believe in. And you belong with me.” He kissed her forehead quickly, then loosened his hold. “But I never belonged to a village before. It’s different. Nothing like how it was in my grandfather’s household. I don’t know what to do. And part of me keeps expecting everything to fall apart.”

“I think,” Kagome said, taking his hand again, “that they were accepting you all along, and you just didn’t see it.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Tameo was. But Tsuneo?”

“Maybe it was actually getting to be around you and discovering you weren’t nearly the monster that Morio guy was,” Kagome suggested.

“Hell if I know,” he said. “I’m still...It’s hard getting used to people wanting me to live near them. It feels...” He looked down on her, and shrugged. But then, something clicked in his head. The change was almost instantaneous as a thought hit him, and he gave her a quirky smirk, the type that let Kagome know he was through with the deep thinking for the moment. “But I know one thing.”

“What’s that?” Kagome asked, returning his smirk with a curious smile.

“I’m hungry.” He picked Emi’s soup pot back up. “And if we don’t get home soon, this pot of soup’s not going to make it home. It smells really good.”

Kagome laughed and they headed for the house.