Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Castaways	By : SplendentGoddess Category: InuYasha AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 8564 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi or VIZ Productions, and I do not gain financially from my fanfic in any way.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Chapter 2 - Stranded
It only took them a couple of minutes to cover a distance that would've definitely taken her at least two hours to walk, and suddenly dropping down from the treetops, Kagome found herself deposited in a shaded seclusion next to one of the ponds of water Inuyasha had mentioned. The canopy overhead was thick and would most likely prevent anyone in a plane or helicopter from spotting them, which he had clearly taken into consideration. Even though one would assume that now that they were on the island they could just pretend to have been stranded there after their boat sank, instead, tracking the modern world's paper trail would definitely reveal the fact that the two of them had been booked on that plane. Considering how far away the island actually was from the site of the crash, that would almost assuredly complicate things even further than the simple fact that they had survived. Inuyasha was right, they needed to avoid humans and get rescued by the youkai. Kagome was a little nervous about how her presence would be received, assuming it wasn't his brother personally that came for them but instead some kind of official rescue party sent by his brother, but she figured that regardless of what anybody's thoughts might actually be on the matter, the situation would be handled professionally and diplomatically. Especially considering just who Inuyasha was. Not all youkai were automatically born rich and part of powerful corporations, after all, and even though she had chosen not to associate with the spiritual sect, meaning she had never heard of Sesshoumaru by name and had no idea he was also the head of one of the oldest, most powerful youkai clans in all of Japan, it didn't take a genius to figure out that guys as old and rich as Inuyasha and his brother were people of great importance in the youkai world.
Apparently, they were people of great importance in the human world, too, not that she'd let that thought intimidate her any.
Prepared to let him have it now that she was safely on the ground, Kagome inhaled to start her barrage but deflated just as quickly, not from a fear of offending somebody so rich and powerful, but just from figuring that she probably shouldn't say or do anything to piss him off when she owed the man her life. He was a little annoying. Okay, more than a little. But he was just being an idiot, and it wasn't like she wasn't already used to dealing with idiots on a daily basis, working her present job as a customer service rep. for a large department store. If there was one thing she had learned how to do, it was bite her tongue and stay polite regardless of how desperately she wanted to curse someone out.
"Okay..." she said more to herself in that moment, clapping her hands in motivation to get moving and not just stand there like an idiot herself.
Inuyasha observed, amused by her diligence, as Kagome immediately went about finding a flat surface on a nearby rock to empty out the contents of her purse a second time, laying out the opened pieces of their cell phones and his wallet along with all of her own personal effects. Besides her keys and clutch, she had a lot of the usual things you would expect to find in a girl's purse, like a small comb, hair tie and chapstick, a tiny bottle of lotion and of course that tiny bottle of Aspirin, a couple of tampons, some foundation and a pocket mirror...but she also had a lot of moderately exotic items that had him quirking his brow. He was especially caught off guard by her Bic lighter, not having picked up even the faintest hint of cigarettes on her breath or clothing, and as she finished emptying her purse he quickly took note that a pack of cigarettes was in fact not among her possessions.
"You don't smoke." he stated rather than asked, fairly certain he was correct.
"Nope," she confirmed, adding, "But I always like to be prepared. Okaa-san calls it my emergency kit. You never know when you might need fire." She sighed. "Under normal circumstances I always have a couple of different Swiss Army knives on me, too, but of course those had to get packed in my suitcase." she lamented, setting aside a mini first-aid box and a hotel-esque sewing kit.
Inuyasha had to admit, Kagome definitely wasn't what he'd expected, though he admittedly didn't know anything about the girl other than the fact that she'd grown up in an ancient shrine in downtown Tokyo, she'd had training at some point in time regarding the use of her powers, and she'd rejected the idea of directly aiding the spiritual sect in Japan in favor of moving to Los Angeles.
As he saw her sigh a second time while going through the rest of her belongings, his heart suddenly panged a bit in his chest. As trivial as some people might have thought it sounded, he could actually sympathize with her loss, as she mourned losing her favorite knives on top of however many outfits and other possessions she'd lost in her luggage, and in that moment Inuyasha was eternally thankful that he had decided in the face of taking a public airline to just leave Tetsusaiga at home.
"I'll buy you new knives once we get back." he told her softly, questioning himself as to why he would bother offering such a thing even as the words were leaving his mouth.
Kagome laughed lightly at his offer, but not in a rude way, shaking her head with a bemused expression as she assured him, "You've already done more for me than I can ever hope to repay. I owe you my life, and not in a figurative manner."
"Keh," he scoffed. "You don't owe me nothin'."
Quickly deciding to lighten the mood, he lowered his voice an octave and added with a seductive purr, "Although, if you really want to repay me..."
He deliberately let his words trail off, waggling his eyebrows up and down when Kagome glanced his way incredulously. As soon as her eyes started to narrow he laughed, letting her know he was only kidding. He then gestured to her 'emergency kit' sprawled out on the large rock, and pointed out how she was missing the most important supply of all.
Rolling her eyes, Kagome guessed, "And what would that be? A condom?"
Laughing even harder, he teased, "My my, somebody's got a dirty mind."
"Yeah," she snorted, "And it's rubbing off on me."
"If you don't want me getting any on you, I could rub one off elsewhere."
Her left eye twitched. She would not be bested by his smug-ass commentary!
"No need to inconvenience yourself, since I doubt I'd notice anyway."
Suddenly, he was in her face.
"Oh...you'd notice, all right." he cooed seductively, suddenly making her feel very uncomfortable.
Flustered, Kagome turned back to her items laid out on the rock, picking up and examining her lighter.
He chuckled. Kagome 1, Inuyasha 1...
"Well...the stupid thing doesn't work any more, but the fuel tank seems intact. Water didn't get into it. If we could break into it we could use the fluid to help us start a fire."
Deciding to stop teasing the poor girl for the time being, Inuyasha nodded, suddenly in serious thought.
"Normally, I'd be able to start a fire on my own using the drilling method, but the problem is there's probably not very much dry brush anywhere. The whole island smells wet and musky."
Kagome wanted to make another crack, that what he was smelling was just his own personality, but if he was going to be serious for the time being then she'd let it go.
"There might be dry underbrush in the bushes." she commented, making her way over to a large shrubbery and crouching down to examine the content of dead twigs and leaves piled underneath and within it. There wasn't a huge amount of debris, but what was there was fairly dry.
"Hey, smart thinking." he complemented seriously. "You really are prepared."
Shrugging, she replied, "I used to go camping for a few days at a time with some friends when I was a teenager."
Nodding his understanding, Inuyasha added that bit of information into the very slowly developing file in his mind that was things he knew about Kagome. She wasn't some spoiled city girl, despite living in the concrete jungle. She might be a little out of practice, but she still knew the ways of the land, and that was impressive. She also hadn't once complained about her hair being a mess, or her clothes and other belongings getting ruined. If either one of them was truly spoiled it would be him, he knew, though to be honest he'd never much cared for life in the lap of luxury. Growing up in his father's castle during the opening decades of the Edo period, he had always felt like an outsider, and had spent much of his time in the wilds surrounding their estate, especially after his mother's passing. His mother had been a simple village girl, a passing fancy turned heated love affair, and even though she had been whisked away to live in the castle as his father's most cherished concubine once it'd been discovered she was pregnant, she had never forgotten her humble, modest values, and despite being surrounded by servants and gold and silk, she had taught those values to her son. Inuyasha knew how to read nature because he was half youkai, it was imbedded in him to have a connection to the earth that a normal human would not possess, but it was thanks to his human mother that he knew how to properly mend fabric, treat sickness and injuries, or scale and gut a fish.
Speaking of which...
Rummaging around in a few more of the nearby bushes revealed a decent amount of usable kindling, though to really get a nice fire going, and keep it going, they would need much thicker branches. Kagome would undoubtedly need to eat soon, and while there was edible fruit on the island, he was sure protein would be better for the girl than fruit alone. Catching a few fish wouldn't be a problem for him, but he was fairly certain she would probably want them cooked, which meant the fire had to come first.
"I'm going to go see if I can find any old dead trees still standing that I can take apart for firewood. Anything on the ground will be too saturated, but if it's still up in the air it shouldn't be too wet."
"Okay." she acknowledged as he took off once again, though that time he didn't go as far away since even though she could no longer see or hear him she could still faintly feel his aura brushing up against her own. Surprisingly, she found comfort in the sensation.
Making her way over to the pond, Kagome scooped up a handful of water and gave it an experimental taste. It wasn't all nasty and green, going along with their belief that it had rained fairly recently, meaning the water was still pretty fresh, despite being standing water. Ideally, she knew it would be best to boil it first just to be on the safe side, since there could have certainly been older and nastier water already in the pond that had now been mixed together with the fresh rain, but considering she didn't have a pot to boil it in, she'd take her chances. She could always get checked out once she got rescued to make sure she hadn't gotten a parasite of some kind. She definitely preferred having questionable water as opposed to no water at all, so counting her blessings she silently thanked the kami and took few more sips.
Thirst temporarily quenched, she decided to get a head start on building their fire pit. Grabbing her hair tie from her rock/table, she tied back the tangled, frizzy mess that was her hair and got to work. Most of the dirt all around was still fairly wet and muddy, but there were also a lot of little rocks around pebble size scattered all about, so digging out a circular pit with her hands about an inch deep or so and around the diameter of a large pizza, she went about lining the bottom with pebbles until it was completely filled in. Circling around the outside of the pit with larger rocks all around the size of a baseball or so, she smiled at a job well done as she took some of their collected kindling from the bolder she'd piled it all on to keep it dry and added it to the fire pit. All that was missing now was the actual firewood, which, if that loud battle cry and crash she'd just heard faintly in the distance was any indication, would be on its way in the next few minutes.
Inuyasha returned to their campsite dragging a giant dead tree behind him that one person should never have been able to move. Kagome watched in open amazement as he made quick work of reducing the tree to a collection of logs and sticks with nothing more than his bare hands, a few lightning fast swipes of his claws completing in a few seconds what would have taken her over an hour to accomplish with an axe. Not that she had an axe. No...without Inuyasha she would have been screwed, again.
No sense in telling him that, though, since I'm sure he already knows... she decided after a moment, hoping to avoid expanding his ego any more than necessary.
As he went about stacking the first group of wood into the fire pit, though, rather than tooting his own horn Inuyasha was actually feeling impressed by Kagome again, taking note of how the girl had kept herself busy during his absence by preparing for his return with the wood. With her raven tresses tied back in a messy ponytail, she had dirt on her knees and underneath her fingernails, and he couldn't have been happier at the sight. She definitely wasn't a spoiled city girl, which was a good thing because for the last century all of his ex-girlfriends had only be interested in him for his money, and if there was one thing he was really getting sick of it was needy, whiny little bitches who were incapable of lifting a finger to take care of their own damn selves. If Kagome weren't a miko he would've been tempted to exchange phone numbers with the girl and see if she'd like to go out on a real date sometime after rejoining civilization, but youkai and miko don't mix so he'd just count his lucky stars that she was being civil with him while stranded as they currently were. True, he wasn't really stranded, but there was no way he was going to abandon her to fend for herself for who knew how long if he left to try and contact his brother. Just because he didn't like babying women who couldn't take care of themselves financially didn't mean he was a heartless bastard when it came to somebody who actually did need his help. Even though he couldn't decide if the feeling had originally come from his imbedded instincts as an inu to protect those closest to him, or his human side as a normal man whose heart had gone out to the frightened woman, his intense desire to protect Kagome was still going strong regardless, and if there was one thing he had learned from his father before the elder youkai's passing, it was to never ignore his instincts. Perhaps it was his human half that had enabled him to relate to Kagome initially, but now that that connection had been made, his youkai side had since acknowledged her as someone to protect. His two halves were in complete agreement; no matter what, he would keep Kagome safe.
Of course, that wasn't to say that he couldn't have a little fun with the girl, he thought with a smirk. It was refreshing tossing barbs back and forth with somebody who could actually hold her own, who had her own comebacks and didn't just clam up and shout hentai while slapping him, or turn into a total skank, ready to spread her legs at the slightest sexual remark. He got the distinct impression that dating Kagome would be fun as hell, if not quite the learning experience. One thing was for sure, he wouldn't be bored; it was just too bad the woman was a miko, because lack of racism aside, there was no way in hell she'd be interested in him that way. Even his billions of dollars probably wouldn't change her mind, though of course if it did then he wouldn't be interested in her anyway. He was pretty much ready to give up dating gold diggers all together. That was no way to find true love.
Starting their fire with the old fashioned drilling method, it was a task that was much less tedious and time consuming when one was gifted with youkai speed and accuracy. Getting the first few embers to ignite in a matter of minutes, he then carefully laid his fire egg down into the nest of kindling, and taking Kagome's suggestion since the brush was drier than the surrounding growth but not bone dry, he carefully broke into her lighter by separating the top assembly from the plastic casing and used some of the fluid within to help give their campfire a little oomph. Flame whooshed to life in a matter of seconds, which he quickly built up with the driest of the wood he had salvaged from the dread tree. Wanting to preserve the rest of her lighter fluid in case the fire should go out, he carefully put the top back on and pushed it down standing upright, lowered about halfway into the dirt against the base of a tree so that it wouldn't fall over and leak.

After a few more minutes of fiddling, they had a fully established campfire merrily crackling and popping before them, and Inuyasha caught himself staring at just how beautiful Kagome looked in the dancing firelight as she knelt in front of the flame for warmth, her hands held up before her palms out.
"What?" she finally asked after a moment, pulling him from his thoughts as he shook his head.
"K-keh. Nothin'..." he spoke up, slightly flustered at the way she quirked an eyebrow at him. Then thinking fast, he smirked and added, "I was just rememberin' the way you looked all wet." as he gestured to her now dry and no longer see-through blouse.
Rolling her eyes, Kagome grumbled, "Well I hope you've got a good memory, 'cause that was the only glimpse you're ever gonna get."
Chuckling lightly, the look in his eyes seemed to say we'll see about that, but holding her own, Kagome merely met his amused gaze with her own determined one, assuring him she wasn't playing around.
What could have escalated into a more serious staring contest was quickly robbed of its seriousness when the sound of Kagome's stomach growling had Inuyasha laughing even harder, while the girl looked away with a light dusting of pink on her nose.
"Guess that's my cue." the hanyou said, rising to his feet and dusting his legs off a bit as he prepared to head back to the ocean. "You ain't allergic to seafood are ya?"
"No, but...please don't trouble yourself over me. I'm okay, really..." Kagome began in a quiet voice, catching him by surprise as he turned to meet her eyes as she glanced up at him from her position still kneeling by the fire. "I've noticed a few fruit trees around. You don't have to go hunting on top of everything else you've already done for me. I won't starve to death."
With a twinkle in his eye and obvious touch of humor in his voice, he asked, "What's the matter? Can't stand the thought of owing so much to a hanyou?"
"What?! No!" Kagome spoke up in shock before realizing he was only kidding, although he was admittedly relieved by how quickly she'd rejected his insinuation of race having anything to do with it. Her scent was honest, that wasn't her reason at all. "I just...I'm just not used to feeling so helpless. I haven't had to depend on anyone for a long time. I guess I just feel guilty that I'm so useless in this situation."
His eyes softened.
"And because you feel that way, I don't mind helping you out with whatever you need." he answered sincerely, adding, "Besides, you might be able to go without meat for a while, but I'm a dog, and I sure as hell ain't plannin' on living on fruit for the next few days. So if I'm gonna do it anyway then I may as well catch enough for the both of us."
Chuckling a bit despite herself, Kagome bowed her head while mumbling a quiet thanks, and nodding in turn, he bound off towards the shoreline.
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Breakfast/lunch was better than Kagome had been expecting. She wasn't a seafood chef, so she had absolutely no idea what type of fish those were that Inuyasha had managed to catch, but the important thing was that they had tasted okay and gave her a nice 'full' feeling in her belly. Even though she felt a little guilty about it, since he'd done all the work, a larger part of her was definitely glad she wouldn't have to worry about going hungry while stranded out there for however long it took their knight in shining youki to arrive.
The rest of the afternoon passed by rather slowly, but to keep herself occupied Kagome spent the time figuring out just exactly where she was going to sleep, and how to go about fashioning her bedding. The temperature was fairly mild, for the time being, but she suspected it might get quite a bit colder at night. Making a 'nest', as Inuyasha had jokingly called it, out of palm leaves on the ground near the base of a sturdy tree, she piled them on top of each other until she was fairly certain that none of the moisture in the soil would seep up into her clothing during the night. She didn't give a damn about stains, but it was bad enough that she was only wearing a thin blouse and short skirt; she'd rather only be cold than cold and wet.
At least bugs wouldn't be a problem since Inuyasha's youki seemed to be keeping all of the natural little critters of the world at bay, even the ants sensing and fearing the predator in their midst. It made her wonder how he could hunt, supposing his prey would sense him coming and get spooked, but she imagined that being a hanyou must not hinder his ability to flare and retract his aura at will like stronger full-youkai could do, meaning he was presently letting his youki buzz at full strength. Silently, she was grateful, since it was keeping the bugs away.
With her makeshift futon taken care of, Kagome quickly went about fashioning a blanket out of yet more leaves, finding a few different varieties that were large and smooth, meaning they would cover her and also wouldn't scratch. Using the thread from her sewing kit sparingly, she stitched several of the large leaves together, several layers thick, until she was satisfied that it was probably the best she'd be able to do given what she had to work with. Fortunately, Inuyasha had since found and demolished a second dead tree, meaning they had plenty of firewood for the time being. Keeping the fire going during the night had been a definite concern of hers, but Inuyasha had already assured her that he didn't need nearly as much sleep as she did, and that he could get up every couple of hours to put more wood on the fire.
Watching her work from his spot perched up above on a sturdy branch of the tree her bedding had been placed against, Inuyasha was slowly becoming mesmerized, and a part of him actually felt torn between wanting Sesshoumaru to hurry up and rescues their asses, and the daiyoukai taking his sweet time so that he could get to know Kagome a little better. A part of him would actually like to get to know Kagome a lot better, but snorting to himself, he seriously doubted the miko would be up for that sort of 'getting to know' each other. Still, as he continued to watch her work, sewing a bunch of freakin' leaves together like she'd fallen straight out of a Swiss Family Robinson adventure, he couldn't deny the fact that he was fascinated by her. Which was really odd considering the fact that he had spent most of his life diligently trying to avoid miko and houshi. He would make one exception, in her case; he definitely wanted to see her again after they left the island. Maybe they could even become friends.
He was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of Kagome quietly singing to herself in English, a smirk slowly forming on his lips as he wondered whether or not she even realized she was doing it.
"Have you ever fed a lover with just your hands? Closed your eyes and trusted, just trusted?" she began, her voice soft and airy but easily reaching the man with demonic hearing perched several feet above her. "Have you ever thrown a fist full of glitter in the air? Have you ever looked fear in the face and said 'I just don't care'?"
Yes, yes I have... Inuyasha thought with an amused grin. Well...not the glitter in the air part, but he'd done all of the other things at some point in time or another. He was surprised by Kagome's unexpectedly beautiful voice as she gained a bit more volume for the first chorus.
"It's only half past the point of no return, the tip of the iceberg, the sun before the burn, the thunder before the lightening, and the breath before the phrase... Have you ever felt this way?"
"It's not possible to have thunder before lightening." Inuyasha interrupted comically, biting his tongue to keep from laughing outright at the way she jumped and nearly poked herself with her needle.
Furrowing her brow, Kagome didn't even notice at first how he'd made his comment in English, the two of them having spoken Japanese up to that point. Scowling for a moment, Kagome thought about what he'd said before smiling a bit, glancing overhead to retort with, "It is if the thunder is from a previous bolt of lightning, and when you're in your house and a storm is approaching in the distance, which do you usually notice first?"
"Fine, fine..." he relented easily enough, not having truly wanted to start an argument over something as trivial as Pink lyrics. That was actually a really pretty song.
"I didn't know you spoke English." Kagome commented then as it finally dawned on her, still speaking the American language herself with only the slightest hint of an accent. She immediately felt stupid for saying it right after the words left her lips, considering he owned his own branch of the 'family business' in Los Angeles. Of course the guy would speak English.
"Keh." he scoffed then, deciding not to pick on her for the oversight as he informed her, "I'm over four hundred years old, I speak several languages."
She was pleased he'd let her slipup go. "I can see how that'd come in handy."
"Ya know what else comes in handy?"
"Let me guess...you?"
Laughing outright, Inuyasha had to admit, he really liked her spitfire personality.
"Well, yes, on occasion, but that wasn't what I was going to say." he replied with a smirk she didn't see as she diligently got back to her sewing, cursing mildly under her breath at how little thread she had left and how many leaves she still had to sew.

"Seriously, though..." he continued then, still chuckling a little, "Here," he offered, jumping down and handing her what looked like long strands of silver thread, until she quickly realized it was a few strands of his own hair.
"Inuyasha?"
He just shrugged.

"It's strong, you can't break it unless you use your powers, and there ain't no way you've got enough thread left to sew all that properly. It'd fall apart on you with the slightest tug. This way, you can relax and do it right, layering it up however you need to. You need more just ask, 'cause I got plenty where that came from."
"Thank you...again." she answered with a suspicious looking shimmer gathering in her eyes. He quickly turned away.
"Keh, whatever. You're welcome I guess." he answered casually. "Not like I wanna let you freeze to death." Waggling his brows, he added, "'Course, I could always hold you all night to keep you warn."
"Uh...no thanks. The hair/thread will be just fine."
He just laughed again before jumping back up onto his perch.
As the late afternoon rolled around into evening and evening into night, Inuyasha went back out into the ocean to collect two more fish for dinner. He was glad their campsite was a couple of miles inland, meaning he didn't have to worry about Kagome following him, since to keep from getting his clothes wet again he'd stripped naked prior to jumping into the water. He was sure she'd probably figured that part out though she had been polite enough to let it go without mention. She had gotten enough of an eyeful already, so unless the two of them ended up in a mutual state of undress he had no desire to repeat his earlier peepshow. He could also shake himself dry like a dog, which was why his hair had only been a little damp instead of dripping when he'd returned with their first meal earlier in the day. Coming back with dinner now, preparation of the fish was pretty much a repeat of earlier, too, with Kagome stating that she would gladly do the work of scaling and gutting the fish since he had caught them, to share the load, until he once again refused her offer and proceeded to do all of the work himself. He did at least let Kagome monitor their cooking once spitted and over the fire, since he didn't really give a damn and would eat his own fish raw if he didn't fear it might gross her out. Daintily prepared strips of sashimi were one thing, but eating a whole raw fish was something else entirely, and these guys were not sushi grade specimens.
After dinner, Inuyasha mused to himself that the miko's emergency kit really did include everything, as Kagome picked up a small, travel size toothbrush and tube of toothpaste, proceeding to brush her teeth. She didn't have a roll of dental floss, though, instead having only a couple of those individual floss/toothpick things, which she'd grumbled about earlier because regular floss certainly could have come in handy to help tie bunches of leaves together to make a more solid canopy in the branches overhead on the off chance that it might rain again, but she'd make do with what she had. If it got cloudy she'd see if she could use some more of his hair as thread to tie some leaves together to help build up their shelter. In fact, it would probably be a good idea to go ahead and construct a canopy anyway, just in case. There, now she had what she'd do with herself tomorrow figured out, since she'd need to do something to pass the time.
Fiddling around a little more as she got ready for bed, Inuyasha watched in silence as she disappeared for a minute behind the trees to relieve herself before reemerging and unbuckling her shoes. Rubbing her toes for a minute, he then observed, contemplative, as Kagome approached their campfire barefoot and carefully took out a medium sized stick from the flame, using the chard end of it to draw a single line down along the side of one of the nearby mini-boulders that littered the surrounding area.
"Marking days?" he asked from his spot up in the tree.
Shrugging, she tossed the stick back into the fire and replied with, "Might as well."
Jumping down, he said, "If it does rains again then that'll wash off, here..." as he proceeded to use his index claw to gouge out a thin line in the trunk of the tree he had been perched in. He actually could have carved a line into the rock, but after the revolution and what most older youkai liked to refer to as 'the great forgettening' where after only a few generations the normal humans of the world suddenly stopped believing in their kind, it had been ingrained in all of them to always watch what they did and to not do anything that shouldn't be possible, and while a human could accomplish carving into the tree with a knife, the bolder...eh, not so much.
"Thanks." Kagome replied for the...she'd lost count of how many times she'd thanked him since this whole ordeal had begun. She would have to make sure to keep in touch with him after getting rescued so she could do...well, there wasn't anything she could really do for him that would properly repay the man for everything he'd done for her, but she couldn't just walk away as if they'd never met. Not that she imagined somebody with his kind of money would care, but she could definitely give him her employee discount at the store she worked at, if that could even possibly equal one preliminary drop in the bucket that was her debt to him.
Settling down into her 'nest', Kagome was grateful for the hairs he had given her that had allowed her to do a much more thorough sewing job on her leaf blanket. The night had indeed dropped in temperature quite a bit, and while it wasn't super cold since they were on a tropical island, she was definitely feeling the chill in her limited state of dress. Piling her surprisingly heavy blanket on top of her, Kagome signed in contentment as it immediately shielded her from the light breeze that had begun about an hour prior. With the nearby fire heating up the leaves nearest to it, it almost felt like she had a partial electric blanket, which was certainly nice, and even though the nest was nowhere near as comfortable as her mattress it wasn't as if she'd never slept on the ground before, so she was definitely confident that she'd be able to get a decent amount of sleep. At least she didn't have to worry about insects buzzing around her face, since even though she could hear the chirping of some crickets in the bushes beyond their camp, her companion's aura was still functioning like a giant 'Off' candle when it came to anything that would normally be attracted by the light of their fire.
"Good night, Inuyasha." she murmured quietly, a triangular ear twitching ten feet above.
"Night, Kagome."
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"Ahhhhhh!"
"Kagome!"
Startled out of his light doze, Inuyasha immediately jumped down next to the screaming miko. Kagome was sitting upright, wide frightened eyes frantically searching in the dark.
"Inuyasha...?" she questioned hesitantly, rubbing her eyes as she glanced his way.
"Kagome, are you okay?" he questioned, concerned by the way she kept on blinking at him and shaking her head a bit, as if her eyes couldn't quite focus.
"Damn...I must really be out of it, your glamour keeps popping back up and it's making me dizzy." she muttered, closing her eyes and pinching her nose.
"Oh, here..." he said, reaching into his shirt and pulling off the beaded necklace he'd had on underneath. "I don't need to wear this thing right now, I forgot that you guys actually had to use a bit of your power in order to see through it properly without that weird double-image effect. That'd probably make me dizzy, too."
As soon as he removed the necklace the overlay of his human guise disappeared completely, revealing the hanyou man she'd spent the last day with. Tucking the rosary into his pocket, Inuyasha crouched down in front of the miko and looked her in the eye.
"You all right?"
"Yeah..." she replied sheepishly, turning away with an embarrassed tint to her cheeks. "Just had a nightmare."
"Understandable."
"I'm okay though, really." she assured him, looking him in the eye. "It's not like I did anything to cause those people's deaths, and I know I shouldn't feel guilty that I survived. The kami must have wanted to save me because it wasn't my time yet, which is why you ended up going through the hell you went through with your private jet ordeal. If it hadn't been for you being forced to take that public flight, I would've died."
She's right... he thought in that moment, wondering if it really had been divine intervention.
"Well..." he started after a moment, unsure of what to say. "I guess, if I was a pawn of the gods 'cause somebody had to be there to save you...then I'm glad I did my duty." he finally settled upon.
"Me too." she replied with a grin that quickly turned into a yawn, which promptly had him laughing a bit as he instructed her to go back to bed.
"Night..." she muttered sleepily.
"Night." he repeated, putting a little more wood on the fire before jumping back up to his chosen branch.
The following morning, Kagome was awoken by the sound of cheerful birdsong, which promptly had her grumbling to herself about how the stupid birds were way too happy for their own good. Laughter trickled down to her on the breeze.
"Not much of a morning person, are we?"
"Shut up."
Sighing overdramatically, Inuyasha lamented aloud, "Looks like the honeymoon's over."
"Nnng..." Kagome moaned inaudibly as she rolled onto her back and forced herself into a sitting position with a groan of protesting muscles and popping joints.
"You're really not much of a morning person." he mused, jumping down from his branch to put more wood on the fire.
"I work the late shift at my job." she confirmed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
He smirked. "Which is what? Exotic dancer?"
Dropping her hand from her face to shoot him a hard glare, she then smirked in turn and said, "Escort service."
He chuckled, knowing she was pulling his leg.
"What do you want for breakfast? More fish or...more fish?"
She laughed a bit. "Fish will be just fine, unless you think you can catch one of those blasted birds. That'd shut 'em up."
"Didn't know you hated birds so much, priestess." he said with a wink.
She crinkled her nose. "Don't call me priestess, and I don't hate 'em, although I am surprised they got used to your youki so fast. You're not masking your aura at all so I'd think it'd scare 'em all off. I guess there's a reason why we have the expression 'bird brain'."
He quirked a brow. "And what makes you think I can even mask my aura?"
"It'd spook the fish."
Smiling, he tapped the side of his head with his index finger, indicating she was using her brain, as he nodded her way appreciatively. Demonstrating, he concentrated and retracted his youki within himself, like spiritually wrapping his arms tightly around his body. His aura was still there, and she could definitely still feel it, but it was like muting a full-throated shouted into the quietest of whispers.
"That takes concentration, sorta like you seeing through my concealment charm. If I don't focus on it, then my youki naturally hums at full strength." he explained, relaxing his hold and allowing his aura to widen. Curious, he tilted his head and asked, "Can you mask your reiki?"
"I...don't know. I've never tried." Blushing, Kagome admitted, "I didn't really receive full training. Even though I grew up on a shrine, my parents and grandfather don't really have that much spiritual power, so I didn't have 24/7 training like most next generations of spiritual families get. They were definitely in the know, still considered spiritualists though they're weaker than most, and so when I started talking about what I saw as a small child it was immediately explained to me. I grew up knowing what I was and what youkai are, but what my parents could teach me about my powers themselves was fairly limited. My grandfather found a nice old miko named Kaede that helped me hone some of my powers over the years, like a tutor that would come to the house a few times a week, so that was good, but even what she knew and could teach me was limited compared to the lessons I would have received had I gone to the sect's secret school for the 'gifted'. But seeing the way my parents had always lived fairly normal lives without more direct involvement with the sect, I didn't want to get further involved with them, either. When the higher ups came by to talk to me, I told 'em straight out that that wasn't the life for me, learning to fight, becoming a soldier. They told me that as a citizen of Japan it was my duty to my people, that people with powers as strong as mine were becoming rarer and I was given the gift by the kami for that specific purpose, and that even if I remained a civilian, should war theoretically break out I would be honor bound to help mankind as one of the kami's chosen warriors."
"So you moved to America?"
She crinkled her nose again. "Well if you say it that way then it does sound like I ran away, but the truth is I'd actually wanted to go to school in America since I was a kid. I just hadn't let the sect ruin my plans, is all. I'm still a citizen of Japan...though I'm an American citizen too, now. I didn't want them to be able to deport me, but if the shit really hit the fan I'm sure I'd probably go running back. I'd want to protect my family, at the very least."
He nodded his understanding. "So what are you going to school for?"
"Pediatrician."
"Like kids, huh?"
"I love children. What about you?"
"Can't stand the bastards."
She laughed despite herself. "Glad to see we have so much in common."
"Why? Hoping we'd be eHarmony matches?" he teased.
"Compatibility is overrated," she waved off. "The old saying was always 'Opposites attract', you know."
He snorted. "Can't get much more opposite than us. So are you saying you're interested?"
She snorted. "I don't know where my head's at. I must be delirious from hunger."
Chuckling a bit he said, "All right, all right. Sheesh."
He smiled to himself as the sound of her gentle laughter drifted behind him as he made his way to the shoreline.
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"What are you doing?" he laughed, staring the miko up and down as she knelt on the ground with a mango brutally ripped open in her hands, juice running down her arms.
Having gone for a walk shortly after breakfast to both stretch her legs and avoid going stir crazy, she'd made note of the various fruit trees that were around them. A little while later Inuyasha had decided to go scout out where more dead trees were located, not that they needed more firewood just yet, but it was definitely better to be prepared by knowing in advance where more usable wood could be found. Telling him to have fun and promising that she wouldn't get herself lost in his absence, she'd kept her word to stay near the vicinity of their campsite, collecting more leaves that she planned on tying together to create another 'blanket' they could lay up in the branches like a tarp to shield them from possible rain. Having worked up a bit of an appetite and remembering where the nearest mango tree was located, Kagome had decided to give herself a quick lunch break, and that was how Inuyasha had found her upon his return.
She shot him a glare for his laughter.
"I'm eating a mango. What does it look like?"
"Like you're finger painting with it." he snorted. "I didn't know you were such a messy eater when it came to fruit."
Smirking herself, Kagome questioned, "Do you know what's worse than finding a bug when you bite into a piece of fruit?"
He quirked his brow.
"Finding half a bug when you bite into a piece of fruit."
Laughing, Inuyasha said, "Okay, I'll give ya that one."
Walking up to the mango tree, he proceeded to pluck and sniff at the ripe fruits. "Clean, clean, bugs..." he tossed that one to the ground, "...clean, clean, bugs, bugs, bugs, clean..."
Handing Kagome a collection of bug-free mango, she quickly rose to her feet and held up the bottom edge of her blouse to cradle the fruits like a basket as she followed him back to camp. Setting down all but one of the mango, Kagome then proceeded to plop down by their fire, tossing in some more wood before ripping off a large section of peal of the mango she'd kept with her and taking a big bite out of it, instead of ripping out little pieces with her fingertips as she had previously been doing. It was a simple gesture, and one that Inuyasha wondered on whether or not the true significance of it had even dawned on her. Theoretically, he could have been lying, although those types of practical jokes had never been his style. But the fact that she so openly trusted him, even over something so trivial, really meant a lot to him.
With midday rolling around into afternoon, a few fluffy clouds rolling by with it, Kagome quickly got to work with fashioning their leaf awning. Using more of Inuyasha's hair to tie together several more of the large, 'elephant ear' type leaves that were growing all around, Kagome smiled to herself at a job well done when, with the hanyou's assistance, the finished tarp was securely fashioned overhead in the tree they had both chosen to call home for the remainder of their stay. Inuyasha didn't much relish in the idea of getting rained on, either, so he attached the awning to a few branches that were above the one he'd been using as a perch, with Kagome's bedding having already been placed close enough to the trunk on the ground down below that she would be out of the rain as well. A few more clouds drifted by throughout the remainder of the day, though Inuyasha didn't yet detect the scent of approaching rain on the breeze, but it was definitely better to be safe than sorry, so with the tarp's construction it was one less thing for them to worry about.
With that project taken care of, the rest of the evening was rather boring, so they quickly decided to fill the silence with a few random stories about their lives. Inuyasha couldn't help laughing as Kagome shared with him some early childhood memories of she and her brother, and when it was his turn, he shared with her some of the troubles he'd gotten himself into when he always used to run off into the forest as a kid, and how many times he'd come face to face with death before his brother had swooped in to reluctantly save him.
"I'm sure your brother doesn't hate you as much as you think he does."
Inuyasha snorted. "Trust me, he despises the fact that 'his' father sired a half-human mongrel." Sighing, he couldn't stop a small half-smile from forming on his lips as he added, "Although I do tease the bastard that the reason he never killed me back when he'd had the chance was 'cause he secretly loves me." Laughing a bit, the hanyou relented, "He says he 'tolerates' my existence, and coming from him that practically is a confession of brotherly love."
Kagome would've been inclined to feel sympathetic towards him if it weren't for the way he was laughing and brushing it off, indicating that for him it was all water under the bridge. She supposed she could understand, considering how she knew most humans felt about hanyou...or at least the humans who knew about youkai. She supposed Inuyasha's brother probably hadn't appreciated it very much when their father had up and gotten a human woman pregnant, but that could hardly be blamed on Inuyasha himself. It wasn't anybody's fault that they were born; he wasn't to blame for being a hanyou and suddenly, Kagome found herself sympathizing with him anyway, despite his casual demeanor regarding the whole thing.
As their second day on the island came to a close, Kagome didn't catch the way Inuyasha glanced up into the late evening sky, frowning at the thin sliver of a crescent moon poking through the treetops. Relieving herself behind some bushes, Kagome grumbled to herself about their lack of certain supplies as she took her shoes back off before settling herself into her bedding for the night. It was still kind of early, but she figured she might as well go to sleep since there wasn't anything else to do. Besides, not having slept as well as she'd thought she would the night before meant that she was actually kind of tired. She was pretty sure she'd be able to fall asleep pretty fast
Following suit, Inuyasha made sure that their fire was nice and large before carving a second notch in the trunk of their tree, jumping up onto his branch afterwards with a softly murmured "Goodnight." that his companion returned.
Tomorrow night was the new moon. His meeting at the company wasn't until the day after tomorrow, so supposing Sesshoumaru wasn't going to find out about his absence until he missed his appointment, then that meant they definitely weren't going to get rescued tomorrow...which meant they'd still be stuck together on the island come tomorrow night.
Ah, crap... he thought, sighing. Oh well, nothin' I can do about it...
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