InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Drifting ❯ Second Chances ( Chapter 19 )

Second Chances

 

Sango rubbed her back and muttered to herself as she walked down the path to her hut, lugging Hiraikotsu. Two of her students had actually managed to get a hit on her, one of which was developing a vicious bruise down her back. “Stupid, stupid, stupid. I really am out of practice.”

 

“Out of practice with what?” Miroku asked, putting his hand on her back and letting it slide down. Sango gasped and slapped him before his hand could even reach its desired destination. Miroku looked at her in puzzlement as she took a deep breath and muttered some more under breath. The only words he was able to pick out were “insufferable men.”

 

“Sango, darling?”

 

“Bruises, Miroku, bruises!” she growled at him.

 

“Bruises? Let me look at them,” he said, reaching for her kimono. Sango slapped his hand away. “Come on, Sango, don't be shy. I'll be entirely professional, I swear!”

 

Sango snorted and shied away as Miroku reached for her kimono again. “A professional what?” she asked him, keeping just out of reach.

 

Miroku paused at this and rubbed his chin. “Well, I'm still a monk until we make things official.”

 

Sango raised an eyebrow. She was planning a reply when movement inside her hut caught her eye. She shrugged Hiraikotsu off of her shoulder but paused when she realized the trespasser was human.

 

“Who's there?” she called out. A slight girl came out of the hut with surprise on her face. Sango noted that she had been lurking around the lessons and was just about to call her on it when the girl bolted.

 

Miroku had a very serious expression on his face as Sango turned to ask him, “Who was she?”

 

“Her name is Chiyo,” he answered, “She is an orphan.”

 

“Recently?”

 

Miroku nodded. “We should see if anything is missing.”

 

After a perusal of the hut the only thing that appeared to be missing was a little food.

 

“Who is she staying with?” Sango asked Miroku, cleaning up some rice the girl had knocked over in her urgency to leave.

 

“I'm not really sure at the moment. She seems to drift between families. Most people can't afford to feed another mouth right now.”

 

Sango nodded absently. “Come on, I'll make us some dinner.”

 

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Kagome poked at her noodles, and set the cup down. She leaned against InuYasha. He had not let go of her for more than a couple minutes since they left the graveyard. She had thought of resisting, but now all she wanted was the comfort he was providing. She closed her eyes and let her thoughts pour out.

 

“I was… wrong. Everything I was doing was wrong, and I knew it. I just… I didn't care. I didn't want to care anymore. At first I just wanted to do something, so that I could just be doing something. But it wasn't helping. And I thought, if I could just disappear into my aura, I could be nothing. But I couldn't just disappear, because it just doesn't work that way. And I was so angry that this one thing couldn't help me… it doesn't even make any sense. I wanted to use it, and I wanted to purify them… but it's not even pure, is it? If my thoughts were so impure, how could I purify them?”

 

InuYasha held her more tightly, but didn't say anything. He had been uncharacteristically quiet since he rescued her.

 

“I was ready to kill him. It seemed so easy. He didn't look even remotely human, so it should have been so easy. But standing there in the graveyard, knowing that he understood everything, it didn't matter if he had killed them, I just couldn't. And I saw you there, in his place…”

 

The tears started flowing again as Kagome saw the images again in her mind. She couldn't shake it, the feeling that she had almost killed InuYasha somehow. Being held in his arms was more comfort to her than he could ever know, and she subconsciously pressed herself closer to him and dropped her head back against his chest. When she opened her eyes, InuYasha was staring straight into hers, his expression completely unreadable. Kagome felt herself stop breathing, though she could still feel the slow rises and falls of InuYasha's chest as he inhaled deeply.

 

Slowly, painfully slowly, InuYasha leaned his head toward Kagome, barely breathing, until their lips were brushing each other. Kagome felt a slow burn build up in her that burst into a full out flame, the same flames that had ravaged her body time and time again. As he deepened the kiss, fear engulfed her, the fear of losing herself again, crashing into an overwhelming need to just feel him under fingers, to touch his body and know that he was there. The battle inside of her escalated as InuYasha ran his hands along her and set her on the ground, poising himself over her, his body pressed against her.

 

“Kagome,” he said, quietly, deeply. All of her fear vanished as he said her name, and she smiled at him, drinking in everything that was InuYasha.

 

He reached out and touched her face, trailing his claws along her jaw and across her lips. He leaned in to kiss her again, and she closed her eyes, anticipating him. She opened her eyes when realized that he had stopped. InuYasha was still gazing down on her, a strange expression winding across his face. After a moment of eternity, he pulled away from her and looked away.

 

Kagome stared at him, feeling all the old fears slam back into her body. She stood up, visibly trembling. She felt like she was drowning in his blatant rejection. InuYasha turned to look at her, a mournful look in his eyes, and tried to say something, but Kagome cut him off.

 

“I know you, InuYasha. I know you, and you know me. But… you don't want me.”

 

InuYasha flinched at the hurt in her voice, in her stance, in her body. He wanted to say something, but no words would come. He couldn't explain his hesitation to her, not yet, and he couldn't make it better.

 

Kagome turned away from him, not knowing what to say. When she felt InuYasha's arms around her, she didn't pull away.

 

They stood together in silence as the stars faded away into oblivion.

 

 

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Chiyo: thousand years; eternal

 

Futekioosha: I believe the word used was mischievous. Evil came out of your own evil head. :P You think I would let these guys get off so easily? They have more in store for them…

 

Kamackie: I haven't read any of your fics… where can I find them?

 

DarklessVasion: Yes, IY was just waiting for the most dramatic moment, it seems. Wonder what took him so long…

 

Lavender Valentine: * thinks * Well, I expected them. LOL.

 

Okazin: Thanks for the review. Of course, you must think of Torio's situation from both sides. Yeah, he can never go home, but he also killed a kid.

 

Sueric: The taka are living paradoxes. We might get to see a little more of them later.

 

 AN: Man do I hate comma splices. * mutters *

AN: I do not own the rights to InuYasha.