Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Deliverance	By : inufan625 Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > InuYasha/Kagome Views: 14104 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha and will make no money from this work of fiction. This will apply to all chapters contained within.

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A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy! This one has 12 chapters posted at ED so there is still quite a bit more to come.

Kagome looked at the clock for the tenth time in as many minutes. He’d been gone four hours and seventeen minutes. She knew it was far too early to get worried, but it was hard not to be when she’d gotten used to expecting the worst. After all, anything could have happened. Her rational mind to her that for all she knew the delay was nothing more than there being a long line at the store, but the part of her that was still clinging to the horrible things that had happened wouldn’t listen. She knew she was going to drive herself crazy if she just sat there staring at the clock and she had already cleaned the whole house from top to bottom, so she decided to go for a walk to hopefully kill some time and clear her head.

She got up and put on the coat and hat InuYasha had set out and found that the arms were so long that she didn’t need the gloves to cover her hands. Next she slipped on her tennis shoes and went outside. She looked up into the tree tops and then all around. It really was a beautiful spot, secluded and unspoiled. Even his house seemed to blend into nature since it was all wood and stone.

She walked, making sure not to lose sight of the house and just let herself enjoy the quiet and clean fresh smells in the air. If she had to hide at least it was in a place like this. She felt better than she had in so long and she allowed herself a moment of fury at the man who was torturing her, but only one. He might have taken her life in the city, but she would not give him this place, InuYasha’s place.

When she had gone as far as could she went back towards the house. She noticed the large pile of wood and grabbed several logs, frowning as she realized just how weak she had gotten when carrying only three was such a struggle. She was definitely going to have to do something about that. She set two logs in the fireplace and one in the small rack and then grabbed a few items from the tinder basket and a long match.

She had just finished stoking the fire when she got chill. She forced herself not to panic. Just because he was two hours late and just because she caught a chill didn’t mean that anything was wrong. Her head jerked as she thought she heard something at the window, but she didn’t see anything.

“Calm down, Kagome,” she said to herself. “You’re safe here.”

She rubbed her arms as goosebumps rose on her skin. She didn’t want to run and hide. It would be too embarrassing to be sitting in a dark locked closet when InuYasha came back, when it was most likely nothing out there but her imagination running wild.. She had told him that she was tougher than she seemed but right now she didn’t feel that way. Outside a wolf howled and inspite of herself she bolted.

She slammed his bedroom door and locked it and then went into the closet. Her hands were shaking as she grabbed the flashlight and then locked the door and turned out the light. She closed her eyes in the darkness and took slow breaths. It smelled like him and it helped calm her racing heart. More wolves were howling now and she put her arms over her head to try and block them out. The wolves went silent and she finally turned on the flashlight. She nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard a door slam. Someone knocked on the closet door and she held her breath.

“It’s me, Kagome,” he said through the door.

She stood up willing her legs to stop shaking and unlocked the door for him. Chewing on her lower lip she was trying her best not to burst into tears for being so stupid and letting a bunch of wolves scare her. They were just animals. Not even he could control wild animals.

“I’m am going to kill that bastard,” he said as he wrapped an arm around her. “You’ll feel better after you let the tension out and since I doubt you want to punch a tree, go ahead and cry.” He held her as she sobbed for several tortuous minutes before she got herself under control. “You done?”

She stepped back and nodded.

“First, I’m sorry I was later than I told you,” he said. “I had to go to the next town over since the jiji that runs the closest store is sick or something and it was closed.”

She shook her head. “It’s okay. I know I was being stupid that it was too soon to be worried, but then those wolves started howling and I… I don’t know what I was worried about.”

“You weren’t stupid,” he said. “You did exactly the right thing. I may not have any neighbors but there is a bastard of a wolf youkai that likes to test my fucking patience by running his pack through my territory. He probably saw you and sent them here to fuck with you. They wouldn’t have dared to come in my house and he knows better than to actually hurt a human, but it was still safer for you in here. Fucking idiot, I was sure after the last time I kicked his ass he would have learned his lesson.”

Kagome didn’t know whether to feel better that she hadn’t been hiding from nothing, or to be worried about this wolf youkai.

InuYasha studied her face. “Still it’s probably better you don’t go out alone until I track his ass down and warn him to stay the fuck away if he values his life. I may not have my dispensation but I have the right to defend my territory and he knows it. Now, come help me carry everything inside.”

She followed him out to the car and wasn’t really surprised to find it completely filled with boxes. After all not only had be bought a months worth of supplies for two people this time instead of one but he’d also had to get the extra stuff she needed too. She pushed up the sleeves of his jacket enough to uncover her hands and then grabbed a box, irritated with herself when the first one she chose was too heavy.

He snorted. “Try the ones in the front seat. Those are lighter than what’s back here.”

She blushed a little. “Sorry. I used to be stronger.”

“Keh, seems to me like you might have traded one kind of strength for another through all this shit,” he said casually. “But ain’t nothing stopping you from trying to get it back.”

He walked towards the house with his burden without looking back and she smiled. While she might not know InuYasha very well just yet, she knew without a doubt that he was a good man, one she could count on. What he had said to her wasn’t a compliment or an attempt to make her feel better, but a simple statement of fact as he saw it and was exactly what she needed to hear. That was twice now that he’d reminded her that she had reason to hope and she didn’t know how she was ever going to repay him for that.

She went around to the front of the small truck and found that he’d been right. These boxes weren’t too much even for her to carry so she grabbed the one on top and carried it inside, still smiling. It was well past time that she started reclaiming as much as her life as she could, starting with finding a way to see the best in her situation which in the past had been easy for her, and she vowed would be again. She had never been one to focus on the negative and knew that wasn’t who she wanted to be, even now when everything was so hard.

Once everything was inside they worked together to put away the food and other items. If she didn’t know where something went she asked him and he either told her or put it up himself. It didn’t take as long as she had feared it would based on the sheer amount of stuff he had purchased.

She opened the second to last box and inside was a pair of hiking boots and a pair of snow boots, both in her size. She put the snow boots in the closet for the time being and the hiking boots in the genkan. The last box had several pairs of heavy blue jeans, a pair of flannel pants, and her feminine hygiene products as well as some other useful items that she hadn’t thought to ask for such as razors and deodorant and shampoo and conditioner in light but decidedly feminine fragrances.

“InuYasha, I’ll find a way to pay you back for all of this, I swear,” she said.

He just snorted. “Does it look like I’m worried about that? So, what sounds good for dinner. I’m fucking starving. I mean provided you don’t want instant ramen because that’s what I’d be having if you weren’t here.”

She scrunched up her nose a little. While okay in an emergency she definitely wouldn’t have chosen that for dinner, ever, not when he had a fully stocked fridge and pantry. Even if there wasn’t much fresh produce he had plenty of frozen which was almost as good. Suddenly she smiled. Already she was being presented with a chance to look on the bright side. If he didn’t like to cook then that could be one of the ways she started to repay him, and it was something she enjoyed doing as well.

“I don’t mind cooking,” she told him. “Do you have any preferences or things you really don’t like? I mean I doubt you would have bought foods you just hate but maybe there certain dishes you don’t really enjoy.”

“Keh, I’m easy,” he told her. “Just nothing spicy or vegetarian and we are good.”

Kagome nodded and set about fixing dinner. After helping put everything away she had a really good idea of what she had to work with. She decided something quick and simple would be best for tonight and tomorrow maybe she would even make oden. It certainly was the right weather for it and just thinking about it warmed her, almost as if her mother was giving her a big hug. She blinked back her tears at the thought. Yes, she would definitely make her favorite comfort dish for them very soon.

It wasn't long before she had a very traditional meal of miso, rice, pickled vegetables and grilled fish laid out on the table. She watched as InuYasha came over and sniffed everything before digging in. He didn’t say anything but he ate with gusto so she assumed that meant he found it a passable meal.

“I know it’s nothing fancy, but since you said you were hungry I wanted to make something quick,” she offered. “I was thinking oden for tomorrow if that’s okay with you. I can get an early start on it that way.”

“Keh, it’s fine,” he told her. “Oden’s fine too, even better if you make enough so that there are leftovers and even less of a chance that I have to cook anything.”

She laughed a little. “Well, it does taste better the second day anyway, so I’ll see what I can do.”

~ * ~

Over the next several days they ate meals together, almost all of which she prepared. They played a lot of Go, which InuYasha was disgustingly good at and Mahjong which she actually managed to win occasionally. He was also more than willing to take her on walks in his forest whenever she wanted to get out of the house. He knew a surprising amount about the wild herbs and other flora and he clearly loved being out among nature.

She supposed it only made sense considering both his name and what he was. When they were out walking she wondered why a man who she truly believed was essentially good would choose to be a killer for a living. She didn’t doubt him or that he was capable of great and terrible violence, but his youki while powerful beyond any she had ever felt didn’t feel violent in and of itself. In fact it felt quite the opposite, making her feel warm and safe, protected.

“Can I ask you something?” she said as they walked side by side. “It’s probably really personal.”

He stopped and looked at her. “You can ask, don’t mean I’ll answer.”

She nodded. “Um, I was just wondering, I mean you seem so at peace out here, happy, I guess. I don’t get the impression that you are the kind of person who takes pleasure in killing for the sake of killing. That said why did you decide to do what you did?”

“That is a personal question,” he said quietly as he started walking again.

She followed along a few steps behind him and cursed herself for asking things that were none of her business. She hoped he wasn’t too upset with her, and decided that she should probably apologize, but just as she was about to he stopped again.

“When I was thirteen my mother was murdered,” he said without looking at her. “The bastard who did it thought he was untouchable. Sesshomaru could have taken him out but didn’t. He said she was my mother and honor demanded that I be the one to avenge her, but to do that I had to get older and stronger and earn my place in his Guard, so I did. I was good at it, the best and my first order was against that piece of shit that killed her. I was going to quit but Sesshomaru gave me a second order, a youkai who liked raping little human girls but had thus far eluded capture.

“Every time I would swear I was going to quit and every time Sesshomaru would have another order, an impossible one, and every time I sent those rapist and murders to hell when no one else could. In the three years I worked as head of the Guard I killed more people and youkai than all the others combined. I never fucked up, never lost sight of my duty, never dragged it out to make them suffer. I was always quick and clean. The perfect weapon.”

“What happened?” she asked and then slapped her hand over her mouth.

He glanced at her and to her relief he seemed amused rather than irritated. “I came home early once and found some asshole raping my fiance, or so I thought. She only just stopped me from beating him to death.”

“So you thought,” Kagome whispered reaching out and touching his arm lightly.

“Turns out she’d been cheating on me for over a year,” he said. “The baby she was carrying was his not mine and the only reason I only lost my position in the Guard and dispensation instead of going to prison is because there was evidence that they had been plotting to kill me. She had holy powers too so they might have had a shot at pulling it off.”

Kagome sniffled, her heart aching for him. At least she hadn’t been in love with the man who was trying to kill her or possess her. She couldn’t even imagine how much it must hurt to find yourself betrayed in such a way. The cheating was bad enough but to find out that the woman you loved was conspiring to murder you, how did you ever get over something like that? InuYasha turned to her and wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb.

“Oh, InuYasha, I’m so sorry,” she said.

“Keh, what are you sorry for?” he asked. “That was three years ago and you didn’t have anything to do with that lying, cheating whore who ruined me for all women.”

She bit the insides of her cheeks to fight down the urge to start crying again. Ruined him for all women. Poor InuYasha. She hoped that he didn’t really feel that way. She shrugged. “I’m just sorry is all.”

He turned his back to her. “Thanks.” He held out his hand to the side. “Come on, it’ll be dark soon and we should head back.”

She slipped her hand into his and they walked back to the house together. Dinner was a silent affair and they didn’t play Go or Mahjong or anything else. She mostly just watched InuYasha as he stared into the fire one foot on the sofa, knee drawn upwards with an unreadable expression and while she was glad to know more about him and that he trusted her enough to share something so sad and personal with her, a part of her regretted having asked and for stirring up such bad memories.

She got up and the only sign he gave that he noticed was when one of his ears flicked in her direction. She approached him carefully. “Can I sit by you?”

His ear flicked her way again. “Do what you want.”

She swallowed hard and sat down beside him on the sofa and curled her legs up under her. She wanted so badly to comfort him, but wasn’t sure it would be welcome. Gathering her courage she leaned towards him resting her head on the side of his shoulder and putting her hand over the one that was on his knee. He stiffened but only for a moment and then turned his hand over letting her lace her fingers through his.

“Tell me what you're thinking,” she said quietly.

“That I wish I’d met you first,” he replied.

She blinked away the tears that sprang into her eyes. “Me too.”
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Deliverance