InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Aiji: A Blanket Fic ❯ Necessity ( Chapter 5 )

*Author's note* - Hibachi are ancient Japanese heating devices, made of ceramic, wood or metal, in which ashes are laid in and a charcoal fire is kindled, warming the room.

Part 5

Inuyasha poked his head out of the hole in the ceiling that they had first come crashing through, looking rather like a large burrowing animal as he blinked the snowflakes from his eyes, peering across the barren, blindingly white expanses of land that lay out in either direction. With his left hand, he scooped up large fistfuls of virgin snow, packing them firmly into the iron kettle that weighed heavily in his right. He had been asked to boil water, and that was what he intended to do. While the necessity for said water escaped him entirely, he did not question it. All that he needed to know was Kagome had asked him to do it, and that it was something tangible he could do; so much the better than sitting by helplessly, watching her suffer as he struggled with himself to keep from breaking in fear and frustration.

His celebrated strength and power had amounted to nothing. He'd fought countless battles to protect her, used the Tetsusaiga to send hundreds of nameless enemies to their graves, and now he found himself completely and utterly powerless. He couldn't protect her from the agonizing pain inflicted upon her by their own child. There was nothing he could do to stop it, and nothing he could kill in retaliation. He was terrified.

Things had taken a dark turn over the last few hours. Kagome had started running a low-grade fever. It's arrival had been heralded by complaints of a slight, all-over chill in her body, so he'd taken little notice of it at first. How could he have known? He was freezing himself; the pervasive cold had become an accepted element of their present situation. It would have been more startling to him if she'd suddenly proclaimed that she wasn't freezing. Even so, he'd stoked the fire, crouching next to it much longer than necessary so as to absorb as much of the heat into his bare skin as he could.

"Here you go," he'd quipped, joining her beneath the blanket, "One hanyou hibachi for my…"

What had followed were a few horrible moments in which their naked bodies touched and he realized that, even though she was shivering violently, her skin was unnaturally warm.

"Kagome, are you feeling alright?" It was a ridiculous question, considering the circumstances, but he hadn't known what else to say.

"I don't know… Inuyasha? I-I'm so c--c-cold!" she had whimpered.

"I think you have a little fever, Kagome." Little, he'd assured her. There'd been no sense in alarming her, even if his own heart had clenched as each syllable had dropped from his dry, wind-burned lips.

"What should I do?" he'd asked.

"Do?" She'd begun to moan nonsensically, shifting about in her discomfort, burrowing deeper within the folds of the blanket to escape the aching cold.

"Didn't you ever read about anything like this in the books?" he'd persisted, prodding her gently with the pads of his fingers. She'd let out a short, sharp bark of laughter, the harshness of which had startled him.

"Not exactly! I think this is beyond their definition of 'worst case scenario,' Inuyasha!" He remembered wincing at the remark, but his own bruised ego was laid aside as she began to shiver violently, the staccato tapping of her teeth filling the small room.

"Kagome," he'd pleaded, "What can I do?"

"Just sit here with me."

" I can't! I can't just sit here! Isn't there anything-"

"Boil some water."

Which was how he found himself where he was now, barely clad, packing freezing handfuls of snow into an old kettle until his fingers were pink and raw from it.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome called weakly from somewhere behind him in the den. Ducking back inside, he quickly answered her call.

"What's wrong?"

"You were taking so long…" she said in a weak, airy sigh. "Please don't leave me like that again."

"I had to get water, Kagome." he said softly, placing the pot inside the hearth. "Well, snow. So I can boil it, remember?"

"I know…" she whispered, "I just really need you here." Inuyasha rubbed his hands together briskly holding them low to the fire. He wasn't going to touch her tortured flesh with frozen hands.

"I don't see why." he muttered bitterly, mostly to himself. "I'm not helping at all."

"You are." she said, her tone of voice suddenly firm and unflinching. He was surprised; he hadn't meant for her to hear.

"It doesn't feel like it." he answered, turning away from the fire to cast his eyes on his mate. His own voice felt hollow in comparison. Kagome nodded, regarding him seriously despite the shaking of her limbs.

"More than you know." Leaning over, Inuyasha reached out his warmed hands and placed them on either side of her face.

"Does that feel alright?"

"Yes…" she sighed, closing her eyes.

"When did you have the pains last?" he asked, rubbing the flat of one palm up her cheek and over her forehead, surreptitiously feeling the heat of her skin to see if it had lessened or increased since he'd left her, and found that he couldn't really tell.

"A few minutes ago…" she said softly, "While you were gone." It wasn't in any way a reproach, but her words had the same effected on him.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your-" Kagome began, but he halted her mouth with a brush of his thumb.

"Yes it is." he said hoarsely, his eyes shimmering with intensity in the flickering firelight. "That's just it, Kagome. This whole thing is."