InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Quadrangle ❯ Broken Chain ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: It's amazing what one can accomplish when one doesn't have to go to work! Questions about pairings, whether or not they'll get their bodies back… will be answered in the story… you'll just have to keep reading! Ha Ha!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

 

Chapter 4 - Broken Chain

 

“Watch this!” Shippo exclaimed, flourishing a small green leaf then turning into a gigantic pink sphere with googly eyes and spindly limbs.

 

Rin squealed in delight and clapped her hands. “Shippo is amazing!” The balloon blushed a darker pink and popped back into an embarrassed but pleased fox child.

 

“Show her the horse,” Kagome suggested, earning her a gratified grin from the kit. Fishing a small wooden horse out of his vest as he walked side by side with Rin, he proudly displayed it to her, then transformed into a larger replica of it. He reared back on his haunches, kicking his stubby forelegs in the air and whinnying before he took off down the path. Rin laughed happily and raced after him, waving her tiny hands in the air.

 

“This is stupid,” Inuyasha grouched to Kagome.

 

“It is not! How long has it been since either of them have had a chance to play with someone their own age?” Kagome admonished him.

 

“Keh. Shippo ain't her age and he's just showin' off.”

 

Kagome rolled her eyes and fell silent, not willing to continue the argument. Just another day before they reached the base of the mountains, then maybe two more day's climb to the monastery and they could return Inuyasha to his more pleasant hanyou self. She still had no idea why he was so relentlessly cranky, but if this is how he would behave as a full demon, then maybe it was just as well that he didn't get that wish.

 

Shippo and Rin came tearing back down the path, Shippo still in his horse form and Rin bouncing on his back and laughing. “Faster, Shippo, faster!” The poor horse was already panting heavily, but he obliged her, arching his neck and plowing forward with all the might his four stubby legs could muster.

 

“Shippo, watch out!” Kagome called to him, dodging out of the way of his frantic charge. The people behind her were not so lucky: Sango and Miroku walked side-by-side, Sango smiling behind her hand and the monk almost whispering in her ear. Sango noticed the danger first, grabbing the Miroku's arm to pull him out of harm's way and crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

 

Goaded on by the girl on his back who shrieked for more speed as she clung to his mane and squeezed her eyes shut, Shippo skidded around a sandaled foot, kicking up a small dust cloud under his chubby hooves. Ah-Un's nostrils flared as he reared back, pawing the air with his clawed feet and tossing the reins that were wrapped around Sesshomaru hand. Yanking on the reins to control the dragon, his hanyou strength was simply not enough for the task and the dragon did not really recognize him as his master. Ah-Un broke free and lunged at the children, intent on saving his young mistress from the strange horse-beast.

 

“OSUWARI!” Kagome screamed and Sesshomaru slammed into the ground, narrowly missing being clobbered by the dragon as he launched over his head but receiving a heavy foot in the small of his back. Ah-Un snatched up Rin in his teeth by the back of her kimono and Shippo unceremoniously popped back into his fox form, sliding to a halt mere inches from a very angry pair of golden eyes.

 

All movement stopped for a moment, except for Rin who swung from Ah-Un's jaws.

 

“Hentai!” Sango reached around and slapped the monk, blushing furiously when the hand on her bottom only squeezed again.

 

“Lady Sango, you fell on me,” Miroku explained as the taijiya scrambled off of him. “And you weren't complaining the other-“ Hiraikotsu slammed into his skull, cutting off the remark as the monk fell backward, unconscious.

 

“Oh, Shippo,” Kagome hurried toward the kitsune and inu-hanyou, face-to-face in the dirt. Ah-Un gently lowered Rin to the ground and she quickly followed. Both girls kneeled in the dirt to survey the damage.

 

Sesshomaru couldn't help the growl that leaked between his lips. Besides the fact that he had been `sat', his back was on fire, throbbing fingers of pain radiating from where the dragon had stepped on him and into his limbs. He wanted to throttle the little kit, who quaked in fear, but his arms weren't obeying him. Only his fingers would clench in the dirt, digging up rivulets of soil in his excruciating frustration.

 

A short, bark erupted in front of him and rumbled into a long, low laugh. Kagome twisted on her knees to glare at Inuyasha, her brown eyes snapping in indignation. “Inuyasha, it's not funny!”

 

“It's fucking poetic justice if you ask me!” Inuyasha gasped out between laughs.

 

“Inuyasha no baka, osu-“

 

“Miko,” Sesshomaru warned darkly and with a great effort, wrapped his claws around her ankle.

 

Kagome's attention snapped back to the demon lord, who was still on the ground even though the subduing spell had worn off. “Sesshomaru-sama, are you hurt?”

 

Sesshomaru wanted to deny it, especially in the face of his brother who was shamelessly laughing at him, but just stopping the human from subduing him had been a Herculean effort. He settled for growling, which ended in a moan as the miko's hands brushed the small of his back, a pitiful sound even in his ears.

 

“My lord, Rin is sorry!” The little girl's eyes shimmered with tears as she balled her fists in front of her mouth.

 

Patting her on the back, Kagome shushed her. “It's not your fault Rin, don't cry. Why don't you help Sango get some water boiling? I think it's time for a break, anyway.”

 

XxxxxxxxX

 

“Oh, come on. It's nothing I haven't seen before,” Kagome fussed with his outer haori, pushing it off of his shoulders and down around his hips, then tugging the inner haori loose as well. Sesshomaru laid stomach-down on her unrolled sleeping bag, snarling at each touch and generally being a very bad sport.

 

Thankfully, his brother had stopped laughing when Kagome had asked the monk to help her carry Sesshomaru off the path and to a secluded copse, where she'd pulled out her medical kit and sleeping bag. Inuyasha had been furious and had demanded to `help', but she had chased him off with several barbed comments. For being a human, the girl had gumption.

 

Sesshomaru hissed as she placed a cold, damp cloth on the enormous bruise on his back. An ugly shade of purple, it was rapidly spreading across his back and down his sides. From his inability to move, Kagome was afraid that the dragon may have done damage to his spine, but the flesh was so swollen that she couldn't see anything. She let the cloth stay until it had warmed, and then spoke softly to the demon, “Now, Sesshomaru-sama, this is going to hurt a bit.”

 

Walking her fingers down the ridge of his spine, she prodded ever so gently to make sure the bones were still aligned. As she approached the bruise, her touches became more insistent, less tender, trying to feel his spine through the inflamed flesh. His body jerked as her fingers danced over the connections and she harrumphed to herself.

 

“Well,” she said as she rinsed the rag in the cold spring water next to her knees and laid it over the swelling on his back, “nothing's out of place and you can still feel everything, but you've got some major muscles knots and probably some tearing.” Sesshomaru wondered vaguely how she knew this and was about to ask when she continued. “Once the swelling has gone down, I'll try to work out some of those knots, but in the meantime, we'll keep cold compresses on it. Drink this,” she directed, poking a small tube into his mouth.

 

He didn't have the wherewithal to fight and sucked the warm liquid into his mouth, surprised that it didn't taste all that bad. Sweet, really, like her soda had been, but with a strange, bitter aftertaste. Sighing as the tension and pain eased out of his body, he let his eyes drift closed on the fog that was enveloping his brain.

 

A new pain dragged him out of the pleasant haze that he'd been wandering through, grinding and stretching the muscles of his back through his skin. He groaned heavily, blinking and squinting against the harsh light of a fire and an acrid, medicinal scent.

 

“Why d'ya have to touch him like that?” Inuyasha griped from past the fire, obviously irritated about something.

 

Kagome's soft voice sounded overhead, strained slightly as if she were performing some difficult task. “I've got to work out these muscle knots; he'll heal faster.” Of all the schooling she'd done, her correspondence first aid and physical therapy classes were, by far, the most useful. After high school graduation, she signed up for the class on a whim and found that not only did she have a natural aptitude for it, she got a lot of studying done just cleaning up her friends after battles.

 

“Let him suffer,” he grumbled back.

 

Something soft tickled Sesshomaru's nose and he brushed it away with his hand. At Kagome's happy gasp, he glanced groggily over his shoulder, somewhat startled to know that she was sitting on his butt.

 

“My lord, we were so worried! You slept for hours…” Rin sat next to him, Shippo dozing in her lap. His red tail flicked in his sleep, swishing across Sesshomaru's nose and making his eyes water.

 

“That's because you guys made the tea so strong,” Kagome pointed out as she kneaded another muscle knot with her thumbs. Seeing Rin's eyes widen, Kagome quickly finished, “and that's okay because he needed the rest to get better.”

 

Sesshomaru felt a warm, sticky substance hit his back, followed by Kagome's deft fingers, rubbing the stuff in and pushing into his sore muscles. Painful, yes, but pleasurable in an aching sort of way. He exhaled deeply as she slid a strong thumb up his spine, his breath returning in a rush with a heady lungful of Kagome's scent.

 

`Not bad, for a human, not bad at all,' he thought as he drifted through the sea of scents and sounds, the rhythm of her hands on his back the only thing grounding him to his body. To what he had been referring, her scent or her touch, even he didn't know. His eyelids drooped heavily before he could decide, sending him sinking back into oblivion.

 

XxxxxxxxX

 

Kagome tensed, fiddling with her bow and arrow as the wind bent the sunburnt grasses and blew her hair into her face. With an impatient hand, she brushed it out of her eyes, scanning for the jewel shards and evil hanyou that she knew lurked out of view.

 

Stalks of grass quivered as something passes through it, slithering quietly, stealthily toward her. She knew it was coming; she'd been here before, but all she could do was stand still, staring at an empty field. Sighing in relief when she spotted the glowing shards, she let her arrow fly, calling out to her friends to join the battle.

 

One of Naraku's fleshy tentacles whacked it away, exploding with pulpy splash of sludge and releasing noxious miasma. As if on cue, more tentacles twisted toward her, moving impossibly fast and twining around her ankles and wrists. Numb fingers dropped her bow as she was yanked off balance. She fell back; the wind knocked out of her and stars shooting across the backs of her eyelids. Bid of rock and sharp blades of grass bit into her skin as she was dragged over the rough ground.

 

“Inuyasha!” she had no breath left in her body, so she screamed in her mind. The tentacles bunched and stretched, slipping further up her legs as the tips caressed her skin like a lover's fingers.

 

She thrashed wildly, finally finding her voice. “Inuyasha!” she sobbed, arching her back to search for the hanyou. He was running into the woods, oblivious to her predicament. Maybe he didn't care?

 

Suckers attached to the flesh of her inner thigh, stinging the sensitive skin, and she shrieked, straining against the bonds on her limbs. Spiny black legs uncurled from the hub of tentacles, reaching high into the sky before slamming into the dirt. She could hear laughter, dark, mocking, and quite close.

 

“Kagome, Kagome!” Shippo patted her cheeks with his tiny paws, frantic to wake her. He sat back on her chest in relief when her eyes flew open, wide and glazed with panic. “You were dreaming again!”

 

“Oh, Shippo!” she gasped, holding onto the kit as if he were her anchor to sanity. “It was so real.” Instinctively, her eyes searched for her protector. “Where's Inuyasha?”

 

“Uhhh… he's uhhh…” Shippo stammered, not knowing what to tell her. His sharp youkai nose had picked up Kikyou's scent hours ago and had hoped that the idiot hanyou would at least try to hide his liaison, but he didn't want to lie to his adopted mother.

 

“I understand,” she bit out, kicking out of her sleeping bag and making a grab for her backpack.

 

“Where are you going?” Shippo asked, worry shining in his emerald eyes.

 

“I…I need a bath,” Kagome said, shuddering at the feeling of those horrid tentacles touching her so intimately. She felt dirty, had to wash the memory from her skin. She hurried away from camp, not waiting for Shippo's hesitant reply.

 

She stumbled blindly up the path, vision blurred with unshed tears. She'd driven him away and into Kikyou's arms. How could she have been so stupid? Sesshomaru was healing quickly from his back injury; she probably could have stopped the massage therapy yesterday, but the book said to continue until even after the pain was gone. It wasn't as if she liked it or something… well… it was kinda nice to have a patient that didn't gripe and complain at her all the time. Since that time Sesshomaru had woken up under the effects of the painkiller, it was almost as if he liked it. In fact, it sounded like he'd been purring the other night…

 

`I'm so stupid,' Kagome's breath hitched in her chest as hot tears spilled over her cheeks. `He's jealous. Why didn't I realize that before?' Her hands balled into fists, elbows straightening at her sides. `He could have just said something.' She scowled at the ground, yelling her thoughts into the forest, “I'm not a mind reader!”

 

“There is no need to shout, human.”

 

Kagome's head snapped up, her tears drying on her skin as she stared at the hanyou before her: bare-chested, white hair darkened to a deep silver by the water that saturated it. With two strong hands, he squeezed the water out of his long mane, and then flung it over his shoulder.

 

“Wh-what are you doing here?” she asked, stumbling over her words as her eyes roved his body.

 

Sesshomaru blinked slowly. “You're ointment has left me smelling… pungent.”

 

Kagome blushed furiously and looked anywhere but him. She hadn't realized that she'd reached the spring; lucky for her that he had finished bathing. This was silly! She'd seen that chest hundreds of times! Sneaking a peak at him under her lashes, she wondered what it was about him that was so different. Was it his posture, his regal bearing, the cool confidence that shown from his yellow eyes? She flushed darker, repeating a mantra she'd heard on television, “Think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts.” Her brain refused to cooperate; instead, it showed her what could be under the hakama, though strangely enough, it included two magenta stripes at each hip. For kami's sake, she was nearly twenty and still a virgin. She had friends who had done everything under the sun (and relished describing it in every lurid detail) and her experience was limited to high school biology! The image in her mind stretched luxuriously, lean, hard muscles flexing under pale skin. `Think unsexy thoughts!'

 

Sesshomaru watched her reaction with veiled amusement. She had seen him with out his haori many times, had touched him like no other human had touched him, but now she blushes? He didn't know if it was the cursed human blood in his veins, the memory of her hands on his skin, the scent of her desire that curled through the air, or maybe a combination of all that prompted him to play with his brother's human.

 

Stalking slowly forward, he caught her gaze and held it, resisting the urge to smirk as she froze like a doe confronted by a wolf. She was an autumn leaf trembling on its stalk, as if his breath would break her free from the earth to tumble away in the wind. `Does she look at Inuyasha this way? Is she seeing Inuyasha? How could he have not taken her yet?' he mussed, stopping less than an arm's length from her.

 

The scent of stale tears hit him a moment before he saw the silvery tracks on her cheeks and he cursed the odiferous medicine that had handicapped his nose. He eased his stance, releasing her from her trance. Blinking rapidly, she came back to herself with a quick shake of her head.

 

“Miko, why are you here?”

 

“Why am I-“ her eyes widened, shining briefly with horror, the memory of those tentacles branding her skin, the desperation and panic of being alone and left to her fate by her beloved sliding cold needles through her heart. Without thought, she collapsed against his chest, the sudden need for comfort overwhelming her discernment of where that comfort should come. All she knew was that she was scared and he was there.

 

This was not what he'd intended with his little game. Not even Rin dared to be so informal with his person. And now he had tears scalding his chest as a slip of a mortal girl sobbed silently against him. Her arms were curling into herself like a dying spider; her shaking not so tantalizing as it was pathetic. He should push her away, remind her of her place, but he didn't, the same compassion that had ferreted its way past his barriers with the coming of Rin was now urging him to place an arm loosely around her back. He obliged reluctantly, knowing that it should be a different chest she cried against, or at least a different soul. That wasn't possible, was it, his brother had gone to visit the undead creature and this poor thing probably knew.

 

She pulled away abruptly, wiping at her face, and he let his arm fall to his side, his impassive mask carefully in place. “I'm sorry, Sesshomaru-sama, I didn't mean to… Please forgive me.”

 

He nodded once, but the motion was lost on the girl who stared at the ground, abashed and ashamed by her behavior. Where was the tough markswoman who stood up to demons and curses and kami-knew-what? Crying her eyes out over a bad dream on a man who could care less, that's where. She didn't look up until his youki faded into the forest and she was sure she was alone.

 

`Suck it up, Kagome, you big baby,' she scolded herself, quickly stripping and sinking into the warm water. A faint purple glow lit the water between her breasts, almost faint enough to be a trick played by the moonlight, and she rubbed her eyes, trying to clear the blur from her vision. Even as she watched, the glow was fading and she pulled the source from the water by its silver chain. The jewel: not quite as empty as it should be, a dying ember of sickly purple light vanishing from its core as she watched.

 

She dropped the thing back into the water, her stomach sinking and twisting with dread. `This can't be good,' she thought as she hoisted herself out of the water. As much as she wanted a nice, long soak, she had to get back to the others and tell them about this.

 

She was completely dressed and wrapping her hair in a fluffy yellow towel when occurred to her that Inuyasha would be able to smell Sesshomaru all over her. Not just her hands; her face, her chest, her hair, her back…

 

“Oh, kami-sama!” Kagome groaned and tore open her backpack, pulling out the floral body wash her mother had given her. There was nothing to be done about her clothes, so she scrubbed at her face and arms frenetically, knowing that the jealous hanyou would assume the worst and not understand. Her heart leapt two feet from her body when Inuyasha spoke above her.

 

“What's wrong with you?” he asked, suspicion lighting his eyes when she jumped and leaned away from him.

 

“N-nothing,” she stammered, hoping against hope that she'd washed away all traces of Sesshomaru's scent. It was a fool's errand; the full demon had a keener nose than the hanyou ever did. Sure enough, he sniffed at her, eyes widening as he rushed forward. Kagome fell backward, cowering a little in his shadow. This Inuyasha frightened her; so much more than he had when she'd first met him, more than when his brother had inhabited the body before her.

 

“You smell like someone else…” he sniffed her face, ran fingers through her black hair and sniffed the strands. The smell was faint and familiar but he couldn't place it. He knew he was wrong before he said it, but asked it any way, “Kouga?”

 

“No!”

 

“Then who?” He was beginning to see red, his full youkai blood screaming at him that someone had touched what was his.

 

“Inuyasha, I…”

 

“I always wondered what happened between you two,” he goaded, trying to trick it out of her since she obviously didn't want to say.

 

“Nothing ever happened between Kouga and I!”

 

The scent of the other male still clung to her skin and he inhaled deeply, letting his youkai instincts unravel the mystery for him. He knew this scent, had smelled it combined with her scent before, just not to this degree… The answer hit in the chest and he bared his fangs and growled, leaning into her so that their faces were inches apart. “But you'll throw yourself at my brother?”

 

“It wasn't like that!”

 

“I can fucking smell what it was like!”

 

Kagome just stared at him, her mouth open. Tears spilled over her cheeks unchecked and her breath hitched in her throat. “I'm s-so s-sorry,” she gasped.

 

The salt of her tears cut through the anger and stung the wound in his heart that the scent had left. “But why my brother, Kagome? Why?” Sesshomaru's voice pleaded with her, the moon crest dangerously close.

 

“Because I was scared. And he comforted me. You weren't there…” Golden eyes glittered inches from her face, but not the right eyes. She almost swayed as vertigo hit her. Was this the man she loved? Who was she even talking to? “I'm so confused,” she admitted, dropping her head and hiding her eyes with her bangs.

 

Inuyasha's clawed hand caught her chin, forcing her to face him. She squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking between her sooty lashes and mingling with the spring water. Slowly, his hand slipped down her throat, leaving tiny red lines where his claws grazed against her skin. Shaking, she held still under his touch and he could sense her tumultuous emotions: remorse, self-loathing, uncertainty. Her heart thundered in his ears, her scent an aphrodisiac that calmed yet inflamed his youkai. Leaning forward, he inhaled deeply, his lips almost touching the blue vein that pulsed beneath her skin. His tongue snaked out, tasting the flesh that enticed him.

 

Moaning quietly, Kagome was wracked with a violent shiver, forcing the tips of his claws to pierce her skin. The aroma of her blood snapped Inuyasha out of the trance he'd fallen into, his eyes falling to the dormant jewel that hung around her neck.

 

Didn't she know that she belonged to him? Had she let Sesshomaru touch her because he looked him? That must be it… he had no choice, he had to take the jewel so that Kikyou could return him to his body. The monks were still two days away, thanks to his hated brother's injury, and were an doubtful ally. There was no time to loose.

 

With a flick of his wrist, he grasped the jewel and snapped it's fine silver chain. Kagome gasped and reared back, her hand coming up to cover what was no longer there.

 

Inuyasha stood, silver hair sweeping over her with a whisper. “He won't protect you,” he said quietly, the ice in his voice sending a tremor through her spine. He turned his back and walked into the woods without a backward glance.

 

“Neither will you,” she whispered after him, rubbing her throat where the chain had bit into her skin. An echo stirred in her body, a faint crack that mimicked breaking ice or the links of a chain being sundered. Just a small fracture that starred her heart then spidered over the surface, it shattered the tender muscle as surely as her arrow had splintered the jewel. Kagome's hand clutched her chest as the strength was leached from her bones, turning them to numb jelly. Wheezing and gasping, Kagome fell on her shoulder on the bank of the spring, not noticing that her hand and the side of her face had fallen in the water. Her throat constricted with the force of tears that threatened to flood her but only backed up behind her eyes.

 

He left you, the trees sighed as the wind danced through their branches. He chose her, an owl hooted as it glided overhead. Gone, gone, gone, the water lamented as it lapped against rocks, her cheek, tangling her hair.

 

`You knew he would choose her, and yet you stayed,' she reminded herself, her inner voice hollow and mocking. `You gave him your heart knowing that his had already been claimed. In the end, he got what he wanted: the jewel and Kikyou. Fool.'

 

So much suffering for such a small bauble… and Kagome knew what it was to suffer.