InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Feudal Fairy Tales ❯ To get a Hug! ( One-Shot )

To Get a Hug...

(Rosefire: No pun intended... :-)

Another short story by Chris-san

*~*~*~*~*

Inuyasha sat on a hill, letting the fading sunshine and wind blow through his hair, making his ears twitch and wiggle at random in the strong breeze. He let a sigh of relief wash over him. Finally, he was out again, and maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to avoid ever going back to that place for the rest of his unnaturally long life, or at least another sixty years

It was bad enough when he'd learned that there was a demon with a shard terrorizing the village that had once been next to his mother's castle. As he'd thought, everything had been changed. The place didn't smell, didn't sound, didn't look anything like the setting in which some of his happiest memories had taken place, and that hurt a bit. They'd passed his mother's castle to find it nothing more than a large foundation covered in moss vines and weeds, and that hurt a bit more. That castle should have been his, and now it was way beyond hopeless. Somewhere in that mess he knew, was the grave of his mother. He should have taken care of her, the one who gave him life, who loved him unconditionally, and now he couldn't even return the favor. Painful, yes. It was painful all over again.

And yet, the most painful thing of all, came not from a landmark, not from a memory, but from two children he had seen playing by the river.

"I'm tired of being the dog demon. I wanna be Kuromaru-sama now!"

"Awe, but you got to be him all day yesterday! Please, just one more time?"

"Oh, alright. But this is the last one."

"Okay, but you gotta be an extra mean, ugly dog demon, and when I chase you around, you've gotta look really, really scared!"

The second kid sighed, "Okay. But then I wanna play the hero!"

Inuyasha winced. Three guesses who the "dog demon" in the kids' game was. Not that he minded that part, really. It was the fact that they had made HIM into a hero. Kuromaru, the biggest, fuckingest jackass to ever walk the earth. The guy had been a pathetic bumbling idiot of a samurai, that had become infatuated with his mother at a very young age. He'd gone away, proclaiming he would "become worthy of her love," only to come back and find that she had already married Inuyasha's father, and that they had a son between them. Enraged, more out of jealousy at losing his woman to a demon than anything else, he set out to pursue her, and free her from the "evil demon's seduction spell."

After Inuyasha's father had died, he had become even more relentless, filling the grieving widow's every waking hour with disgusting love ballads and flowers that always smelled bad no matter how fresh they were. He dragged exorcists and spiritualists to their door night and day, insisting that this one could remove the spell on her, this one was no phony. The stupid man didn't realize that the reason he couldn't find a cure was because there was nothing wrong with her to begin with. She had loved her husband, and now she was grieving for his death. Idiot samurai man figured that she was grieving because she was still under that same spell, which was now being cast by none other than a little six year old named Inuyasha.

Kuromaru no baka! When his mother had died, Inuyasha hadn't even been old enough to grasp fully the concept of death. In his little innocent mind, he thought that she was just sleeping, like a very long nap, and that eventually, she'd wake up and they would go play ball in the garden like they always did. Nobody had bothered to tell him then that he was wrong. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with an orphaned hanyou. They all left the castle, he was alone. And then one night, HE had shown up.

Inuyasha remembered waking up in the empty castle to the sound of some otherworldly wailing. Telling himself to be brave, he followed the noise, which was suddenly coming in his direction, fast. Soon, he was greeted with the tear stained, snarling face of that insane samurai, yelling "Demon spawn! You killed her! You killed her! DIE!!!"

The end result was a very confused, very frightened Inuyasha, running away from the castle at top speed, one hand fisting to smear away his tears, another clutching the newly acquired wound where the crazy samurai's sword had given him his first taste of being impaled. Luckily, swords are thin, unlike certain people's claws, so he was able to heal up within a day or so, but he was still confused and scared, alone...and did we mention that he was six?

For all that, they'd made the fucking bastard into a hero, and that hurt a lot. They'd believed him because he was human, and Inuyasha wasn't. That hurt too. This whole place seemed to be made just to twist at his insides and make him miserable. So, the second they'd obtained the shard, Inuyasha had hightailed it out of the village dragging the others along with him. He hadn't stopped, hadn't paused, hadn't spoken a word until it was time to make camp. They'd chosen a spot in a little valley nearby, with that accursed village just a visible spec on the horizon from his lonely little hill.

Inuyasha sat down on the grass Indian style and scowled at his feet. The rest of the group, of course, had no idea why he had been so up tight lately. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about it with them. Then they'd all end up feeling sorry for "poor Inuyasha" and he'd turn into one big charity case. He hated charity. He'd survived without it for all of his life, so why should he get any now? Bunch of fucking hypocrites, humans. Screw them all...

"Inuyasha?"

He jumped. Not visibly, of course, just his insides kind of leapt up to plaster against his ribs before falling back into place. Damn, he'd been so wrapped up in his thoughts, he hadn't even heard her coming. "What is it, wench?"

To his annoyance, she said nothing, just came over and sat down beside him. He said nothing, did nothing, just continued to ignore her, maybe she'd get the message and leave him alone...

...no such luck. Minutes passed by like the wind as it played with her hair. Damned she was cute. The setting sun was giving her a rosy glow. For a moment, Inuyasha wasn't thinking about the village, the kids, or anything that had happened during the last few days. He just sat there, watching Kagome and the small smile that was upon her face...

Suddenly, she turned to him and gently broke the comfortable silence.

"Inuyasha, did you know, that if you want to get a hug, all you have to do is give one?"

Inuyasha blinked at her, what was this all of a sudden? Some kind of code?...To get a hug you have to-

"See, I'll show you."

Before he could object Kagome was already on her feet, urging him to get to his. He got up slowly, unsure of what the wench might be planning. It seemed like the real Kagome... maybe she was sick and delusional?

"If I lean forward, and put my arms around you like this..."

And then it hit. Kagome was hugging him! The sly witch had conned him into letting her give him a hug...

...and he liked it. The warm arms around him held him close, but not too tight. And she was so close to him, so completely around him in fact, that he felt that, for once, if he were to let himself go, he wouldn't hit the ground. Experimentally, he leaned into her, just to see if his theory was correct. Automatically, his arms drifted up to wrap around her, returning the embrace.

Kagome also leaned into him, and for a while, they just stood there, supporting each other as the wind picked up and the sun finally vanished below the horizon. Still he felt warm, like something inside him had been lit, and was now filling his chest with light and happiness. Almost afraid he might burst at the sensation of being whole, he tightened his grasp on her, and allowed his head to slump down beside hers, his cheek brushing her ear. He sighed, contented.

"I won't ask you what's wrong Inuyasha," said a soft voice, "but whenever you feel you need a hug, all you have to do is give one."

Inuyasha smiled lightly beside her, tricky girl, and lifted his head just enough to whisper in her ear.

"Arigato, Kagome... Arigato."

*~*~*~*~*