InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Don't know what you've got 'til it's gone ❯ Strange Behavior ( Chapter 2 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: RhiannonoftheMoon 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Hentai | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 05.23.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.9K | Visits: 5.5K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Hentai | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 05.23.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.9K | Visits: 5.5K | Status: Completed
2 – Strange Behavior
Shafts of sunlight broke through the trees and turned Kagome’s world red. She groaned and rolled over, trying to escape the light and almost smothering Shippo in the process. His squirming, coupled with the inescapable sounds of her friends going about their morning routines, convinced her that she was not going to get any more sleep this morning. Really, their clanging and banging would attract unwanted attention. Since when had they gotten so noisy?
The smell of roasting fish broke her train of thought and she blushed when her stomached growled. She was starving. She hopped out of her bedroll, shook a still sleepy kit from it, and quickly stowed it with her stuff. Sango, Miroku, and Inuyasha were already munching on their fish; she helped herself to one of the remaining skewers and took an enormous bite.
“Hungry, Kagome?” Sango asked her with a raised eyebrow.
“Mm hmm,” she replied around a mouthful of fish. She did not remember barbecued fish tasting so good! Three quarters of the way through her fish, she realized that the one fish would not be enough. ‘I have ramen in my bag that I brought back for Inuyasha… I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I ate just one.’ Licking the grease from her fingers, she pulled one of the containers from her bag and filled it with hot water left over from the morning’s tea. It wasn’t until she was almost done eating the ramen that she felt her friends’ stares.
“What?”
“Are you OK, Kagome?” Miroku asked her.
“Never better!” which was true, oddly enough. She felt energized, almost giddy.
“Then why are you stuffing your face?” came the rude question from an equally rude hanyou, whose own mouth was full of food. “And why are you eating my ramen?”
“I’m hungry! Jeez! And I carry it, so I can eat it!”
“Well, I carry you, and if you don’t stop eating like a pig, I’ll drop you.”
“I’ll walk, thank you.” He was more irritating than usual, this morning.
“Like hell you will, you’ll just slow us down.”
Sango jumped into the argument before it got too heated. “We were just concerned, Kagome. If you’re fine, then that’s good enough for us. Right Inuyasha?” She shot a pointed look to the hanyou, who turned his head and tucked his arms into the sleeves of his red haori.
“Keh.”
Sango offered her an apologetic smile. Eyeing the irate hanyou’s unfinished breakfast, Kagome slurped up the last of the ramen. She was still peckish but she’d be damned before she asked for the rest of his fish.
~~~
It was midmorning and already the day had become stiflingly hot. Sweat was dripping down the back of her legs, down her face and soaking her shirt. Kagome glanced at her friends and was gratified that they, too, felt the heat. Probably more so, considering the heavier cloths they wore. Only Inuyasha seemed impervious as he walked at the head of the company. A shift in the wind brought the heavy smell of human and youkai perspiration to her nose and she barely suppressed a grimace. ‘Ugh, baths for all tonight’.
Since the smells were inescapable, she started picking through and memorizing the different components. ‘Incense… that must be Miroku… leather and cut grass… Sango and Kirara… dandelions… Shippo?… cedar and wet dog … definitely Inuyasha.’ She smirked as an image came to mind of him shaking his head to dry his hair. As if he could read her thoughts, he looked back at her and glared. She glared back. No one had mentioned his disappearance last night, but she had yet to forgive him.
By noon, tempers were short and bodies were exhausted. Shippo finally flopped down under a tree and refused to get up. The humans weren’t inclined to try to make him. Even Inuyasha felt wilted and joined the group under the tree after some grumbling about ‘weak humans’. As hot and sticky as she was, Kagome felt restless and eager to move. Recognizing her friends’ discomfort, she chose to not say anything. The last thing she needed was more stares and questions about her health.
“Where are we going, Inuyasha?” Miroku asked after taking a long drink from his water skin.
The hanyou scowled at him from under damp bangs. “To look for Naraku, you dumb monk. Where the hell do you think?”
Miroku sighed. Inuyasha was a trial of one’s patience. “I meant, where are we going, exactly? Do you have any leads?”
Before Inuyasha could answer, Kagome spoke up. “We need to find a safe place to spend the
night. Tonight is the new moon.”
Miroku’s eyes widened in understanding. “Right, tonight Inuyasha becomes human.”
“There’s a lake not too far from here. Maybe we’ll find a spot there. I don’t think we can go much further in this heat, anyway.” Kagome said as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
“How do you know?” Miroku asked curiously.
“She’s right,” Inuyasha fixed her with a sharp, golden stare. “How do you know?”
Finding herself under the scrutiny of five pairs of eyes, Kagome faltered. “Uhh…” She suddenly didn’t want her friends to know that she could smell the water. She stretched her arms down and twisted her fingers together. “I must have been there before…” Why could she smell it?
“The hell you have. I haven’t been there and you haven’t been anywhere without me.” Eyes narrowed in suspicion, Inuyasha approached her and took a long whiff.
“Don’t sniff me, dog-boy.” What normally would have been a teasing comment came out as a
growl. She could feel anger uncurling in the pit of her stomach. Sango shot Miroku a worried look.
“Don’t lie to me, wench.” His approach became that of predator stalking his prey.
“Back off, baka!” She snarled, showing teeth. Her hands had balled into fists, nails biting into her palms.
“Bitch!”
“Osu-“
& #8220;That’s enough, you two!” Sango exclaimed as she jumped between them and put a hand on each of their chests. She was surprised to feel the amount of tension that had stiffened Kagome’s body. She had her temper tantrums, granted, but nothing like this. “Let’s find that lake. I think we all need a break.”
Just as suddenly as it had come, the anger drained away, leaving a limp and sheepish Kagome. Inuyasha gave her a speaking glare from around Sango’s head. This wasn’t over, just put on hold. Kagome found an interesting patch of ground to examine. Sensing that the trouble was finished for the moment, Sango relaxed her stance. Inuyasha growled quietly, having to have the last word, but turned away and stomped in the direction of the lake. Without a word, the rest of the group got up and followed the hanyou’s lead.
The lake was a fifteen minutes walk from the road through thick underbrush and closely growing trees. By the time they reached it, they were covered in scratches that stung from their sweat. Finally breaking through the edge forest, they found themselves on a narrow sandbar at the edge of the water. The walk was worth the discomfort – the water was glassy smooth and crystal clear, reflecting the dense forest that surrounded it. To their left, the sand bar widened and sloped gently into the still water. Kagome and Sango sighed in pleasure simultaneously, both anticipating a cool dip after the hot morning. They glanced at each other and smiled happily.
An enormous tree with far-reaching boughs grew at the edge of the sandbar, and it was under this tree that the group deposited their packs. Kagome took care to steer clear of Inuyasha, who was pointedly ignoring her anyway. Shippo, who had regained his normal exuberance, was more than enough distraction as he waded into the shallows of the lake, splashing around and grabbing at fish. Miroku and Sango wandered off together down the sandbar, around a bend, and behind a screen of trees. Kagome gazed wistfully after them from her seat on the sandbar.
An especially large splash called her attention back to Shippo, who had slipped and fallen backward into the water. Not an especially good swimmer and still very young, he started to panic when his feet no longer touched ground.
“Help! Help! Kagome!”
“I’m coming Shippo! You’re OK, see?” she said as she helped him right himself and put his feet back on the lake bottom. “I really need to teach you to swim.”
“I can swim” he pouted.
“Sure you can, when you’ve got an inflatable ring. Try to be more careful.” She waded back out of the lake and tried to shake the sand out of her school uniform. ‘Well, this needed to be washed anyway.’ She fished her bathing suit from her big yellow backpack and as an afterthought, grabbed a bag of potato chips. Finding a private spot where she was certain no one could see her, she struggled out of her uniform and into her bathing suit. She tore open the bag of chips as she headed back down to the water’s edge, absently shoving handfuls of chips into her mouth and scanning around their campsite for a good place to do her laundry. The boulder peaking up from the water about three feet from the shore would do nicely, she though, as she finished the chips and crumpled the bag in her hand. A faint birdcall echoed across the water and she squinted in its direction, shading her eyes from the sun. ‘A youkai crane?’ She glanced at Shippo for his reaction. He was still splashing happily. ‘Must not be worth worrying about.’ Absorbed in her self-appointed tasks, she did not notice the hanyou’s eyes following her from the lower branches of the tree.
The sun had set and dinner had been cleaned up when a now human Inuyasha decided to confront Kagome about her strange behavior. Her enhanced hearing, sense of smell, not to
mention the fact that she had been eating her body weight, had him concerned. Her temper had gotten nasty, too; she had almost growled at him at dinner over the last bit of waterfowl. All of these changes had developed overnight. He was positive that she had been normal yesterday. As a human, he lost his keen youkai senses and would not be able to sniff out any physical problems, but whatever it was, she was going to tell him tonight.
His moment fell into his lap when Kagome left the light of the fire and wandered off along the edge of the lake. He waited until she had gone around a bend was hidden behind a stand of trees, then got to his feet and followed her.Converting /tmp/phpkNYgEz to /dev/stdout
Shafts of sunlight broke through the trees and turned Kagome’s world red. She groaned and rolled over, trying to escape the light and almost smothering Shippo in the process. His squirming, coupled with the inescapable sounds of her friends going about their morning routines, convinced her that she was not going to get any more sleep this morning. Really, their clanging and banging would attract unwanted attention. Since when had they gotten so noisy?
The smell of roasting fish broke her train of thought and she blushed when her stomached growled. She was starving. She hopped out of her bedroll, shook a still sleepy kit from it, and quickly stowed it with her stuff. Sango, Miroku, and Inuyasha were already munching on their fish; she helped herself to one of the remaining skewers and took an enormous bite.
“Hungry, Kagome?” Sango asked her with a raised eyebrow.
“Mm hmm,” she replied around a mouthful of fish. She did not remember barbecued fish tasting so good! Three quarters of the way through her fish, she realized that the one fish would not be enough. ‘I have ramen in my bag that I brought back for Inuyasha… I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I ate just one.’ Licking the grease from her fingers, she pulled one of the containers from her bag and filled it with hot water left over from the morning’s tea. It wasn’t until she was almost done eating the ramen that she felt her friends’ stares.
“What?”
“Are you OK, Kagome?” Miroku asked her.
“Never better!” which was true, oddly enough. She felt energized, almost giddy.
“Then why are you stuffing your face?” came the rude question from an equally rude hanyou, whose own mouth was full of food. “And why are you eating my ramen?”
“I’m hungry! Jeez! And I carry it, so I can eat it!”
“Well, I carry you, and if you don’t stop eating like a pig, I’ll drop you.”
“I’ll walk, thank you.” He was more irritating than usual, this morning.
“Like hell you will, you’ll just slow us down.”
Sango jumped into the argument before it got too heated. “We were just concerned, Kagome. If you’re fine, then that’s good enough for us. Right Inuyasha?” She shot a pointed look to the hanyou, who turned his head and tucked his arms into the sleeves of his red haori.
“Keh.”
Sango offered her an apologetic smile. Eyeing the irate hanyou’s unfinished breakfast, Kagome slurped up the last of the ramen. She was still peckish but she’d be damned before she asked for the rest of his fish.
~~~
It was midmorning and already the day had become stiflingly hot. Sweat was dripping down the back of her legs, down her face and soaking her shirt. Kagome glanced at her friends and was gratified that they, too, felt the heat. Probably more so, considering the heavier cloths they wore. Only Inuyasha seemed impervious as he walked at the head of the company. A shift in the wind brought the heavy smell of human and youkai perspiration to her nose and she barely suppressed a grimace. ‘Ugh, baths for all tonight’.
Since the smells were inescapable, she started picking through and memorizing the different components. ‘Incense… that must be Miroku… leather and cut grass… Sango and Kirara… dandelions… Shippo?… cedar and wet dog … definitely Inuyasha.’ She smirked as an image came to mind of him shaking his head to dry his hair. As if he could read her thoughts, he looked back at her and glared. She glared back. No one had mentioned his disappearance last night, but she had yet to forgive him.
By noon, tempers were short and bodies were exhausted. Shippo finally flopped down under a tree and refused to get up. The humans weren’t inclined to try to make him. Even Inuyasha felt wilted and joined the group under the tree after some grumbling about ‘weak humans’. As hot and sticky as she was, Kagome felt restless and eager to move. Recognizing her friends’ discomfort, she chose to not say anything. The last thing she needed was more stares and questions about her health.
“Where are we going, Inuyasha?” Miroku asked after taking a long drink from his water skin.
The hanyou scowled at him from under damp bangs. “To look for Naraku, you dumb monk. Where the hell do you think?”
Miroku sighed. Inuyasha was a trial of one’s patience. “I meant, where are we going, exactly? Do you have any leads?”
Before Inuyasha could answer, Kagome spoke up. “We need to find a safe place to spend the
night. Tonight is the new moon.”
Miroku’s eyes widened in understanding. “Right, tonight Inuyasha becomes human.”
“There’s a lake not too far from here. Maybe we’ll find a spot there. I don’t think we can go much further in this heat, anyway.” Kagome said as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
“How do you know?” Miroku asked curiously.
“She’s right,” Inuyasha fixed her with a sharp, golden stare. “How do you know?”
Finding herself under the scrutiny of five pairs of eyes, Kagome faltered. “Uhh…” She suddenly didn’t want her friends to know that she could smell the water. She stretched her arms down and twisted her fingers together. “I must have been there before…” Why could she smell it?
“The hell you have. I haven’t been there and you haven’t been anywhere without me.” Eyes narrowed in suspicion, Inuyasha approached her and took a long whiff.
“Don’t sniff me, dog-boy.” What normally would have been a teasing comment came out as a
growl. She could feel anger uncurling in the pit of her stomach. Sango shot Miroku a worried look.
“Don’t lie to me, wench.” His approach became that of predator stalking his prey.
“Back off, baka!” She snarled, showing teeth. Her hands had balled into fists, nails biting into her palms.
“Bitch!”
“Osu-“
& #8220;That’s enough, you two!” Sango exclaimed as she jumped between them and put a hand on each of their chests. She was surprised to feel the amount of tension that had stiffened Kagome’s body. She had her temper tantrums, granted, but nothing like this. “Let’s find that lake. I think we all need a break.”
Just as suddenly as it had come, the anger drained away, leaving a limp and sheepish Kagome. Inuyasha gave her a speaking glare from around Sango’s head. This wasn’t over, just put on hold. Kagome found an interesting patch of ground to examine. Sensing that the trouble was finished for the moment, Sango relaxed her stance. Inuyasha growled quietly, having to have the last word, but turned away and stomped in the direction of the lake. Without a word, the rest of the group got up and followed the hanyou’s lead.
The lake was a fifteen minutes walk from the road through thick underbrush and closely growing trees. By the time they reached it, they were covered in scratches that stung from their sweat. Finally breaking through the edge forest, they found themselves on a narrow sandbar at the edge of the water. The walk was worth the discomfort – the water was glassy smooth and crystal clear, reflecting the dense forest that surrounded it. To their left, the sand bar widened and sloped gently into the still water. Kagome and Sango sighed in pleasure simultaneously, both anticipating a cool dip after the hot morning. They glanced at each other and smiled happily.
An enormous tree with far-reaching boughs grew at the edge of the sandbar, and it was under this tree that the group deposited their packs. Kagome took care to steer clear of Inuyasha, who was pointedly ignoring her anyway. Shippo, who had regained his normal exuberance, was more than enough distraction as he waded into the shallows of the lake, splashing around and grabbing at fish. Miroku and Sango wandered off together down the sandbar, around a bend, and behind a screen of trees. Kagome gazed wistfully after them from her seat on the sandbar.
An especially large splash called her attention back to Shippo, who had slipped and fallen backward into the water. Not an especially good swimmer and still very young, he started to panic when his feet no longer touched ground.
“Help! Help! Kagome!”
“I’m coming Shippo! You’re OK, see?” she said as she helped him right himself and put his feet back on the lake bottom. “I really need to teach you to swim.”
“I can swim” he pouted.
“Sure you can, when you’ve got an inflatable ring. Try to be more careful.” She waded back out of the lake and tried to shake the sand out of her school uniform. ‘Well, this needed to be washed anyway.’ She fished her bathing suit from her big yellow backpack and as an afterthought, grabbed a bag of potato chips. Finding a private spot where she was certain no one could see her, she struggled out of her uniform and into her bathing suit. She tore open the bag of chips as she headed back down to the water’s edge, absently shoving handfuls of chips into her mouth and scanning around their campsite for a good place to do her laundry. The boulder peaking up from the water about three feet from the shore would do nicely, she though, as she finished the chips and crumpled the bag in her hand. A faint birdcall echoed across the water and she squinted in its direction, shading her eyes from the sun. ‘A youkai crane?’ She glanced at Shippo for his reaction. He was still splashing happily. ‘Must not be worth worrying about.’ Absorbed in her self-appointed tasks, she did not notice the hanyou’s eyes following her from the lower branches of the tree.
The sun had set and dinner had been cleaned up when a now human Inuyasha decided to confront Kagome about her strange behavior. Her enhanced hearing, sense of smell, not to
mention the fact that she had been eating her body weight, had him concerned. Her temper had gotten nasty, too; she had almost growled at him at dinner over the last bit of waterfowl. All of these changes had developed overnight. He was positive that she had been normal yesterday. As a human, he lost his keen youkai senses and would not be able to sniff out any physical problems, but whatever it was, she was going to tell him tonight.
His moment fell into his lap when Kagome left the light of the fire and wandered off along the edge of the lake. He waited until she had gone around a bend was hidden behind a stand of trees, then got to his feet and followed her.Converting /tmp/phpkNYgEz to /dev/stdout