InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One Step Forward, Two Steps Back ❯ Step 5: Can I take a bath with you? ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but perhaps I soon will. Like Naraku's evil powers grow every time he adds a jewel shard to his collection, my evil powers grow every time I add another chapter to this story, lol...

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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Chapter Five

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'You are such an idiot.'

"Shut up." Inuyasha grumbled under his breath.

The small voice in Inuyasha's head was back with a vengeance as the hanyou followed Kagome after exiting the well, but this time it wasn't encouraging him in perverted pursuits like it usually was. Instead, it was making him feel like a complete and utter fool, or at least more of one than he already did.

'You just HAD to go and lie about something like that to her mother of all people! Not her friends, or Sango and Miroku, or even other members of her family, but her MOTHER. What kind of moron are you, anyway?'

"I said shut up!" He muttered a little more loudly that before, but still low enough that Kagome couldn't hear him arguing with himself. "And I didn't lie! Well, not exactly...I just told her that we'd be quieter next time. I never said WHAT we'd be doing quieter."

'Okay, so maybe you didn't exactly lie. But you didn't tell the truth, either! You intentionally misled Kagome's mother about something that you knew would upset Kagome.'

"Yeah, and?" His face became a defensive mask, reflecting his internal battle and making it even more obvious that he knew he'd screwed up big time. He always got defensive when he wrong about something, but refused to actually admit it.

'Maybe you thought it was the right thing to do at the time, but remember the look on Kagome's face after you said it? You're lucky to be alive!'

This gave Inuyasha a pause, and a cold chill skated down his spine at the memory of Kagome's face the day before when he'd finally found the guts to look up from the surface of the table.

At first her dumbfounded expression reflected her shock at his answer. It was obviously the last thing she'd ever expected him to say in such an embarrassing and compromising situation. But after the initial surprise wore off, her face took on such a large range of emotions in such a short span of time that it would have done any PMSing woman proud. First a mixture of shyness and embarrassment with a glimmer of hope, and then horror when she realized her mother was nodding in satisfaction that someone had finally admitted the truth to her. Finally, her eyes started burning with the fires of hell, and Inuyasha knew without a doubt that he'd never seen anyone so angry before.

Not even Kikyo had looked that angry with him after being revived.

But what made him frightened above all else was that after her initial 'I'm-going-to-chop-you-into-tiny-pieces-and-gift-wrap-them-for-Naraku' expression, she just turned and walked away without saying a single word to him, and still hadn't. Not even to use the subduing spell.

That was something that puzzled (and worried) him to no end.

As strange as it felt to actually want to get sat, he knew he'd probably feel better if she'd just flatten him a few dozen times and get it over with. Anything would be better than the cold shoulder and her refusing to speak to him!

The only thing that gave him even a slight hope of ever being able to make things right again were the expressions he recalled seeing on her face before she'd gotten angry. There had been that small glimmer of hope, almost as if she'd finally seen the chance to have something that she'd considered out of her reach. Something that she longed to have.

He knew that Kagome had some feelings for him, and the fact that someone like her could care about someone like him never ceased to amaze Inuyasha. But the knowledge of her feelings obviously hadn't made the hanyou any less clueless where his own for her were concerned. He just couldn't understand why she acted like she didn't know how he felt. But how could she not? He'd certainly done enough to show her!

"Damn women." He grumbled. "Why do they have to make everything to complicated?"

He was still muttering rude things about females in general when the pair finally reached Kaede's small hut near the village shrine.

"Kagome-chan!" A familiar, welcoming voice called out.

For the first time in what felt like years, the school girl smiled at the sight of her friends sitting in the shade of the little wooden shack. Sango was sitting with Kirara in her lap and Shippo leaning against her leg, obviously taking an afternoon nap while they waited for their missing companions to arrive. Beside Sango, Miroku was calmly sitting as if in meditation, though he opening his eyes when he heard Kagome's name called.

As the girl and hanyou got closer, they both noticed that there didn't seem to be any sign of bruises, bumps, handprints, or any other kinds of injuries on the monk, which was strange when one considered how closely he was sitting to Sango. It seemed that Miroku was more serious about his vow than any of his companions had originally suspected.

Kagome still wasn't sure whether she should be happy or worried about that fact.

The sight of all her feudal age friends (even Miroku) was a welcome one to the future girl, but out of them all, she had to admit that she was happiest to see Sango. Especially because she really needed another girl to talk to at the moment, and preferably one that would maim Inuyasha for her if given the right incentive.

"Sango-chan!" After sufficiently greeting everyone and handing the still half asleep Shippo a treat, Kagome turned on the other girl and gave her the most pathetic puppy dog eyes she could muster. "Let's go to the river and take a bath, please?"

"A bath?" Shippo cried. "But Kagome, you just got here! Didn't you take one at your home like you usually do?"

Sighing, Sango ignored the tiny kitsune's outburst and nodded her head in agreement before rising to gather her bathing supplies. "Wait here, Kagome-chan. I'll be back in a moment."

When it was clear that the younger girl would wait for her, Sango walked off towards Kaede's hut with a thoughtful expression. Any idiot could tell that there was something wrong with the recently returned pair, the way Kagome was determinedly ignoring Inuyasha, and the way the hanyou was sulking and attempting to hide the guilty look on his face just screamed it. And whatever the problem was, Sango was sure that Kagome would want to talk about it. The demon slayer knew the other girl like the back of her hand, and Kagome ALWAYS wanted to take a bath when she needed to talk privately.

"Hey, Kagome?" Shippo tugged on the edge of his favorite group member's skirt after Sango had walked away. "Can I please go, too? I don't wanna stay here with HIM!" Turning, Shippo made a face at Inuyasha, which showed that even he'd picked up on the fact that Inuyasha had done something to really tick Kagome off.

In response to his request, the school girl leaned over and patted the little kitsune on the head. "I'm sorry, Shippo-chan, but not this time. I really need to talk to Sango-chan, okay? I promise that you can come next time!"

Unable to help himself, Inuyasha let out a rude snort to show his opinion of the impending conversation as well as to hide his nervousness. He knew very well that Kagome was about to tell Sango what he'd done, and an angry Sango could be ten times worse than an angry Kagome.

He'd be lucky if he lived to see the night fall.

From his spot under the tree, Miroku was able to watch everything that occurred with silent interest, including Inuyasha's reaction. Like everyone else, the monk couldn't help but wonder what might have happened between the two. But instead of choosing to eavesdrop on Sango and Kagome's conversation, he decided to try getting the juicy details out of Inuyasha after the girls left. He eyed the hanyou speculatively as he waited for the opportunity to talk.

'What the hell is that look for?' Inuyasha chanced a glance at the monk and felt another chill race down his spine when his eyes met Miroku's. Unfortunately, he'd been getting a lot of those lately where the other male was concerned. 'I swear, if that idiot even THINKS of coming near me, I'll...'

'You'll what, hit him?' Inuyasha could almost swear the little voice in the back of his head was laughing at him. 'Haven't you learned anything by now? That pervert LIKES to get knocked around. You've seen the way he acts we he gets beat on by Sango!'

The grumpy half-demon hated to admit it, but the voice had another good point. He'd never really thought of it before, but Miroku practically seemed to invite women to hit him! Why else would he go around antagonizing a woman as strong as Sango?

'Damn.' Inuyasha's face took on a deep scowl. 'If I can't hit him, how else am I supposed to defend myself? The girls would kill me if I used my claws or my sword...'

Just then, Sango returned to the group and gave Kagome a questioning look. "Ready to go to the river?"

An enthusiastic nod was her response.

When the two girls started to walk off down the path leading to their destination, alarms went off in Inuyasha's head at the realization that he would left alone with Miroku. Shippo had already wondered with Kirara to look for Kaede since she was much better company than either of the men, and now his last line of defense was headed off to take a bath.

To make things worse, Miroku was giving him that 'look again, the one that made his skin crawl.

"Inuyasha-" The monk waited until the women were out of sight before he attempted to talk to the rather panicked looking hanyou. "Why don't you sit down? I want to ask about you and Kagome-sama." He patted the ground Sango had vacated earlier in hopes that Inuyasha would satisfy his curiosity.

Of course, Inuyasha didn't budge. He just continued to stand there like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck. A very BIG truck...

"Inuyasha? Is something wrong?" Miroku almost smirked, so amused was he at the other man's expression. He guessed that Inuyasha must have done something REALLY bad to earn Kagome's wrath if he was that afraid of talking about it, and that made his need to know stronger than ever. "Come and sit down, I promise I won't bite." He joked.

In the time it took Miroku to blink, Inuyasha vanished.

"Now what was that all about?" He wondered, looking around the area in puzzlement. "Was it something I said?"

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Inuyasha shuddered as he ran, unable to get the terrible mental images from his head that Miroku's little statement had caused. Why'd he have to go and say something like THAT, anyway? Weren't his hands more than enough to worry about without adding other body parts into the mix?

Life would have been so much simpler, had Miroku remained a womanizing pervert.

Well, for him, anyway.

It had always frustrated and annoyed the hanyou to no end when Miroku would grope or hit on Kagome. The only thing that kept Inuyasha from killing the idiot was the fact that Kagome showed absolutely no interest in the priest or in bearing his child. In fact, she really seemed to hate it when he touched her or made any unwanted advances.

Now, as for Kouga...

Growling under his breath at the thought, he continued to run blindly in a random direction before vaguely noting that at the speed he was going, it wouldn't be long before he reached the river...

Wait, the river?!?

The hanyou just barely managed to screech to a halt before crashing into the unsuspecting girls in front of him on the path, though it wasn't his most graceful move to date. Actually, it was probably one of his least graceful since his face ended up planted in the dirt right next to Kagome's feet, with her staring down at his (now dirty) white hair in shock.

Had she said his subduing word without realizing it? She couldn't help but wonder...

"Inuyasha?" Kagome kneeled down in concern, momentarily forgetting her anger as she touched the back of his head. "Are you okay?"

At first her inquiry was met with silence, before his head finally lifted to reveal his dirt-covered face. After spitting out a few leaves and a bit of tree bark, he growled. "Dammit, I'm fine!"

The anger in his voice wasn't lost on the two girls, but they couldn't figure out for the life of them what his problem was, or how he'd ended up there in that situation in the first place. Had he been following them for some reason? It didn't seem very likely. Normally Miroku was the one to do things like that when he knew that they would be taking a bath, not Inuyasha. He had always given them the impression that he'd rather let Sesshoumaru cut out both his eyes than sneak a peek at them while they were naked.

But then, he HAD been acting rather strange, lately...

Once the hanyou was sitting up and had regained a small amount of his dignity, Sango decided to question him. "Did you need something, Inuyasha?"

His ears flattened. How the heck was he going to explain this? No way was he gonna sink so low as to tell them that he'd been running away from Miroku like a coward!

"Well?" Kagome had joined in the 'let's make Inuyasha squirm' game.

He looked from one girl to the other, frantically trying to come up with a good reason as to why he'd been following them. Not that he really had been following them, but it isn't like they would believe that, would they? Inuyasha flinched when Kagome started tapping her foot and glaring at him impatiently.

"I, uh..." He put on what he hoped was his most intimidating expression. "I just wanted a bath, too! You gotta problem with that?"

He didn't realize that he'd said something so stupid until Kagome and Sango's eyes both widened in shock, then narrowed in anger.

"What were you planning to do, take a bath with us?"

"I never knew you were such a pervert, Inuyasha!"

"You're worse than Miroku!"

"Way worse! The way you've been acting lately, you're starting to make Miroku look like a perfect angel!"

He flinched, not knowing how to respond to their angry accusations. The ones about him being worse than Miroku especially hurt since he'd always prided himself on being above the monk's depraved ways. It's not like he'd meant for any of those things to happen! They just DID! Why did he always have to get blamed for his bad luck?

"Inuyasha..."

Perhaps if he just stayed quiet, Kagome would sit him a few times and leave it at that. Then they could forget it ever happened.

"..."

He waited for the inevitable pain.

"What's wrong with you?"

The hanyou blinked stupidly. He couldn't have heard her right. Had he gotten dirt in his ears from the fall?

Kagome was kneeling down again in front of Inuyasha, a worried expression on her face as she reached out to touch his shoulder. "You've been acting so odd lately that I can't help but worry about you! Are you sick? Has something happened that you aren't telling us?" She moved her hand from his shoulder and up to his face, causing Inuyasha's breathing to become short and raspy. The effect of her touch escaped Kagome's notice. "You know you can tell us anything, right? We're your friends..."

He licked his dry lips, his breathing becoming even shallower than before. She was so close to him that if he moved forward just a little bit-

"So this is where you got to, Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha cursed under his breath and Miroku's ill-timed arrival. The dark-haired man had just come up the path behind Inuyasha, but due to his 'distraction' he had failed to notice. Her voice, her scent, her expression...everything about her had filled his senses so completely that he'd even forgotten about Sango's presence for several moments. It was unlike him to let himself get so completely distracted that he'd failed to monitor his surroundings for danger, and Miroku was definitely a danger in his mind.

Why the hell had he lost his senses like that?

Kagome watched a wide range of expressions cross the face of the man in front of her. They ranged from surprised, angry, worried, and even something she couldn't quite identify. But whatever it was, it had been intense before Miroku had arrived. It almost reminded her of that expression he'd worn once not long after they'd first met. The one he'd had when he'd almost kissed her while thinking about Kikyo.

Kikyo...was THAT what he had been thinking about before Miroku arrived? She couldn't stop herself from glaring at him.

'Dammit, why the hell does she look mad all of the sudden? Did she realize I was about to-' He felt a stab of pain somewhere deep in his chest. Is that why she was upset? Because she didn't want him to kiss her? Of course, he'd made her so angry the day before that she probably wouldn't want him near her ever again, especially like that.

Abruptly, Inuyasha jumped to his feet and without a single word to anyone, ran back in the direction of the village.

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Hehe, a little more silliness and even some angst for your enjoyment! I know this story has got to be one of the more insane, pointless Inuyasha fictions in existence, but it is a fun break from my other stories! Be sure to leave me a review and let me know if I managed to make any dull days a little more fun. And hey, even if I didn't, you could always just review and tell me how many times you rolled your eyes, lol...