Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

A Sacred Treasure and a Hanyou	By : cukid9 Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > InuYasha/Kagome Views: 18612 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Chapter 5

Almost

Inuyasha knew that if he wanted to he could just wait for her after work. Knew he could follow her just from her scent. Knew he could use his nearly endless resources to find out who she was, where she lived, what she did outside of the club. Could even find out who her parents were, where they lived, and what they did for a living.

But that felt a little stalker-ish, even to him.

Obsessed as he was with the girl, he wanted to find out about her from her. And so, he resisted the urges to find out what car she drove -if she even drove at all- or what bus, train, taxi she took after she left the club.

For the past month, she had been at his side every night she worked, danced for him on the nights that she didn�t perform. Their conversations were sometimes as insightful as their first, sometimes consisted only of acquaintance-like pleasantries. He was just as happy talking to her as he was to sit next to her in silence, breathing in the heady fragrance that was her. And, on the nights she danced just for him, Inuyasha realized that he was never going to be able to get her out of his mind.

Sitting in the small coffee shop just down the street from his office, Inuyasha contemplated the business section of his newspaper without really seeing it. To the outside observer, he was quite intent on the inky print before him. But his mind raced down other avenues besides that of Wall Street. An iced coffee sat before him, untouched and ignored.

The light brown liquid sloshed over the rim, crawling fingers toward the edges of the newspaper as someone bumped into his table. He looked up, nearly growling in irritation at having his thoughts derailed, and found warm, chocolate brown eyes turning toward him in apology.

�Oh, I�m really sorry. I-�

The tall girl with red streaks in her hair cut herself off, staring at Inuyasha. Something flashed in her eyes. Surprised recognition, and then worry, crossed her face, too fast for him to follow. A small, quiet part of his brain told him that he had seen this woman before, knew her from somewhere. She was tall, thin, dressed in tight black pants and a black and red tank top that showed off tanned arms. A backpack was slung over one shoulder and she had her hair up in a ponytail, bangs cut straight across her forehead.

She glanced over her shoulder quickly and then back to him. Shoving napkins at him, she started over. �I really am sorry,� she said again, smiling crookedly at him. �Sometimes they just put these tables too damn close together.�

His eyes narrowed. He could smell her sudden nervousness. It was much stronger than it should have been considering the circumstances.

�It�s fine,� he said. �I wasn�t very interested in the coffee anyway.�

She nodded, looked like she was about to say something else and decided against it. She made her way to a group of people, tugging on the arm of one of the girls.

Inuyasha frowned, watching the group. The brunette with the red streaks was talking animatedly to the other girl, who he couldn�t quite see. Two other girls, both with nearly matching fire red hair, and two guys -one with a mohawk, the other with a dark ponytail- stood at the counter.

The exchange between the two girls suddenly stilled, and they resembled actors in a movie when one presses pause to get a refill. The girl that Inuyasha could not see leaned around her friend, looking at him.

The door to the coffee shop opened, a sharp breeze carrying the sound of the city beyond it to his ears.

And a very familiar and arousing scent to his nose.

*

Kagome hit the door at a near run. Warm afternoon air breezed by her, the sudden brightness making her squint. Blindly waiting for her eyes to adjust, she picked a direction and started running. Pointe shoes -whose ribbons had been tied and slung around her neck- bounced against her chest, her duffel bag a heavy burden over her shoulder as she shoved her way through the congested lunch time crowd. Her eyes adjusted to the light and she found the railing that led down the stairs to the subway. Fumbling in her pocket for her pass, she pushed her way through a throng of people, swiped her card and shoved through the gate.

She heard a shout behind her, saw the train waiting before her and slid through the doors just as they were sliding shut. She squeezed her eyes closed, grabbing onto the cool silver pole, unwilling to turn around and see those amber eyes that were watching her as the train jolted forward.

Kagome wasn�t even really sure which train she had gotten on. When the disembodied voice came over the speakers, she couldn�t make out the static filled, garbled words. After ten minutes or so, the train slowed, came to a stop, and Kagome let herself be carried along with the crowd as they made their way off the train, up the stairs and once again into the blinding midday sun. She shouldered her duffel, hailed a taxi and sighed into the seat, watching the world go by in a blur as she sped home.

As she was walking up the steps to her apartment, her cell phone rang cheerily from her pocket. She looked at the number and flipped it open, stopping in the middle of her ascent.

�Hi, Kouga,� she said.

�Hey, beautiful,� the voice on the other end said. �You okay?�

Kagome licked her lips, leaning her head back against the wall behind her. �Yeah, I think so,� she said, softly.

�So, do you always run away from one hanyou as if a horde of youkai are after you?� His voice wavered slightly in an attempt not to laugh.

Thinking over the situation, Kagome could see how, to anyone else, it would have been funny. She let out a soft, self-deprecating laugh. �If the circumstances would have been different, I don�t think it would have been such a big deal,� she said, finally.

She could almost see Kouga nod on the other end. �Yeah. Sango told us as he was dashing after you. We barely managed to get him before he got onto the train with you,� he told her.

And I would have been trapped, would have had no where to run, if that had happened, Kagome thought to herself, closing her eyes.

�Thanks,� she whispered. �I owe you guys one.�

�Naw, beautiful, you don�t owe us anything. Just make sure that the next time some crazy woman starts chasing after me, you�ll stop her.�

�Oh, like you�d want me too,� Kagome said, opening her eyes and laughing.

�No, I probably wouldn�t-Ow!� Kouga�s voice suddenly became slightly muffled, and Kagome heard a shout in the background. �Ayame�s yelling at me now,� was the explanation.

Kagome giggled, the sound of her friends� antics making her feel a little better. �Well, I think I�m going to get off of here and go soak in a scalding hot bath,� she said.

Kouga�s leer was practically audible. �Need someone to scrub your back?� he asked, and must have received another smack.

Kagome giggled again as he howled. �No, I think I�ll manage. Thanks anyway.�

�Anything for my favorite girl.� There was a pause. �Sango says she�ll be home soon and wants to know if there are any movies you want to watch tonight?�

�Tell her I�ll trust her judgment,� Kagome said, after thinking for a minute.

�Will do. I�ll talk to you later, kid.�

�Bye, Kouga.�

�Oh, and Kagome? You should buy a collar and a leash, so the next time you get chased by dog boy, you have something to control him with.�

The line went dead as laughter bubbled out of Kagome.

*

Steam billowed, covered the mirror with its opaque fingers, moved around the bathroom like sleepy ghosts.

Kagome sighed as she slipped into the hot bath. The entire room smelled like lavender and chamomile, the scent making her relax almost instantly. It reminded her of when she was a child, of when she used to get so wound up over things that she would make herself sick. Her mother would make her a hot bath of lavender, give her a hot cup of chamomile tea, and leave her daughter to calm down.

Now, Kagome felt the familiar anxiety in the way her stomach twisted, in the way her heart raced for no reason. She had immediately pinned her hair up, started the bath, and had found the most comfortable pair of pajamas she owned before slipping into the bath. She was faintly aware of the front door opening and closing, ignored the sound of her roommate walking through the apartment.

A soft knock at the bathroom door made Kagome open one eye and roll it toward the intruding noise.

�Kagome?� came the soft inquiry when there was no answer to the knock.

�Yeah, I�m in here Sango,� Kagome said, sighing. �Could you just give me some time?�

�Sure, hun,� was Sango�s muffled reply. �I�ll start making popcorn and setting up the movies.�

Kagome closed her eyes again, willing away the tension from her shoulders, her back, from the spot right between her eyes.

And, playing along the inside of her eyelids, as if they were the screen for a projector, came the familiar pictures.

Kagome�s grandfather had been a doctor, a priest. He was the last generation of the old ways, from a time when people still believed that the spirits lived in little shrines along the roads, when they left offerings at the shrines and used obnoxious smelling herbs for healing.

Kagome remembered being a small child and sitting in the old shrine with her grandfather as he told her stories that had been passed down through their family. Stories of the god tree beside the shrine, of what the land used to be like in a time so far back that Kagome could not even comprehend it. She remembered the scrolls that hung along the walls of the well house. Scrolls that had been painstakingly painted by a person who had a love for detail.

The one she had always liked was one of a young miko. The woman was dressed in traditional priestess robes, the sleeves of the white top and the legs of the red pants billowing around her as if in a great wind. Slung across the miko�s back was a quiver of finely fletched arrows and she leaned on a great bow that stood nearly as tall as she.

But it was the woman�s face that always sent shivers of delight down young Kagome�s spine. The miko�s hair was pulled back, her bangs cut bluntly across her forehead. Her eyes were a dark color -perhaps black- but, her facial features matched Kagome�s so that they could have been twins.

Or the same person.

Grandpa had told Kagome that the picture was of the great Miko Kikyo, the Keeper of the Sacred Jewel. Grandfather had also noticed the similarities between the great miko and Kagome. He would wink at his granddaughter and smile at her saying that perhaps Kagome was the miko�s reincarnation. Perhaps Kagome could find out where Kikyo had hidden the Sacred Jewel.

As a child, this had fascinated Kagome. Her grandfather had, at some point, started looking at her as if she really were Kikyo�s reincarnation, had started showing her the ways of the miko -at least, to the best of his ability. And, being a child who was always interested in learning new things, Kagome had readily applied herself to her grandfather�s lessons.

But when she grew older, she had become a little more skeptical. At least, that was how it would have seemed to an outside observer. Between herself and her grandfather, Kagome drove herself to learn how to use and control the abilities that had sudden burst forth within her at puberty.

So it was that, when Kagome went off to college -dance school in another country, much to her grandfather�s profound disappointment- she started seeing things, feeling things, that she knew no one else could see and feel. Looked around her with wide eyes at the auras of other people.

Saw, for the first time, a youkai.

It had been Kouga who she had seen first. She had not been exactly sure that Kouga was a demon when she had met him. She had just known that there was something off about him. A blurring at the edges of her vision, an inconsistency in his aura, as if something were being concealed. It was a long time before she ever asked him about it, before he revealed himself to her. What had given it away was his habit of putting his nose up to the air, as if he were sniffing. After meeting in school, after having been friends for over a year, Kagome had giggled at him one night when he had done that.

�You look like a wolf that is trying to find its prey,� she had said one night.

Kouga had looked at her, a little warily, out of the corner of his eyes. �Why would you say that, beautiful?� he had asked.

Kagome had shrugged and peered at him. �I don�t know. It just seems that, if you were an animal, that�s what you would be. A wolf.�

To know about things, to read and look at pictures about something until it is familiar, is completely different than actually seeing it. The irrational mind sometimes just will not accept what logic tells it.

The logical part of Kagome�s mind had told her that she was looking at a very familiar person, her friend, who just happened to have fangs. Who just happened to have pointy ears and claws and a tail. Who just happened to be a wolf demon.

The irrational part of her mind had completely drowned out all reason and logic with shouts to run!

Torn between the rational and irrational, Kagome could not move. She watched as Kouga returned to his familiar self, watched as he placed a gentle hand on her arm, sat her down.

Kagome sank a little further in the tub of hot water as comforting thoughts swam in her head. For a few moments, the thoughts calmed her, made her forget.

Until that great projector in her head flashed the picture of another scroll that hung on the walls of the well house.

This one was almost as intriguing as the one of the Miko Kikyo. It was of a boy, wearing a red haori and red hakama. He had his arms crossed over his chest, his lower body turned away from the viewer, his torso twisted so that he looked over his shoulder with a small scowl on his face. Long, silvery white hair blew around him -obviously caught in the same wind as the miko on the opposite wall. Two, very soft looking dog ears peeked up from the top of his head, marking him as inu-hanyou, half dog demon, half human. He was barefoot, his toenails looked more like talons than anything else, and Kagome was willing to bet that he sported even deadlier claws on his hands.

It was this picture that made Kagome�s stomach twist, that made her heart skip and beat irregularly. Because, the boy in the picture had the same molten amber eyes as Inuyasha Takahashi, looked like a younger version of the businessman.

�Inu-Yasha,� Kagome whispered to herself.

He did have the same fuzziness around him that she had come to associate with demons who hid their true form. And there was something about him, something in the way he had seen her standing in the shadows, had looked directly at her, in the way he would smile when she blushed even though he couldn�t see her face.

Or the way he had bucked his hips slightly when she had found herself getting just as aroused as he. As if he had known.

As if he could smell it.

A sharp rap on the door startled Kagome out of her thoughts.

�Look, I�m all for letting you sit in there all night and think whatever thoughts that are running through that crazy brain of yours,� came Sango�s voice. �But you have to be turning into a prune by now.� Kagome raised her hands out of the water, looking at her fingertips and giggled. The sound was heard and Sango opened the door and poked her head in, smiling. �I knew it. Get out!� she said, her voice playfully stern. �I have a magnificent stack of movies out here. Not to mention popcorn just the way you like it.�

Kagome eyed her friend skeptically. �With lots of butter?� she asked.

�Tons.�

�Give me two minutes,� Kagome said, and jumped out of the tub as Sango laughed and retreated to the living room.

A minute and a half later, Kagome and Sango were curled up on the couch, an enormous bowl of popcorn between them, watching magnificently terrible horror movies.

*

A long, tanned finger touched the back of the waitress�s hand as she took his empty glass.

�I would like to speak to Mistress Kaede,� Inuyasha said, his voice low.

The waitress looked at him with clear blue eyes, nodded her head once, and then walked away.

Inuyasha Takahashi was an impassioned man. One of the things that he felt very passionate about was having things work out to his favor. All the time.

And so, when the lovely Jingi did not show up at his table, when he got no word that she was ready to dance for him, he had asked his waitress about her.

�Oh, she called in sick, Mr. Takahashi,� the little blonde haired, blue-eyed girl had said. Her cute smile had immediately faded when his eyes had narrowed dangerously.

�Sick?� The blonde nodded her head again, and Inuyasha�s jaw clenched so tight he had to force himself to relax for fear of breaking his own teeth. When Mistress Kaede finally sat across from him, Inuyasha had managed to calm down.

Somewhat.

�Where is she?� he growled.

Kaede eyed the half demon before her, looked at his hands and frowned. �Let go of my glass, Inuyasha, before you shatter it,� she said.

Releasing the endangered object, Inuyasha leaned back into the couch. �Where is she?� he asked, again.

�Sick,� Kaede said, simply. �It happens more often than you would think to humans.�

Inuyasha growled menacingly, the sound making the older woman across from him blink. �That�s a lie,� he said. �She�s not sick. I saw her yesterday and she was just fine.�

�Yesterday? She didn�t work yesterday,� Kaede said. �And you weren�t-� Kaede stopped and looked up in surprise into gold eyes that were slightly tinged with red around the edges. �You saw her?� she whispered.

Inuyasha let his breath out of his nose in one sharp, frustrated snort. �Well, I smelled her,� he said, remembering how he could not quite see around the woman who had spilled his coffee. His eyes widened suddenly in surprise. �She was with that other girl who works here.� He paused, straining for the name. �Roxxie?� Kaede nodded and watched as the hanyou�s eyes narrowed almost into slits. �She was with three wolf demons and a firecat demon, as well,� he said, and nearly barked in anger. �I wonder if she knows about her friends,� he said, and then paused, looking up at Kaede. �She ran from me before I could get a good look at her face.� He paused, felt a small smile tug at his lips. �But I�d know that ass anywhere.�

�Inuyasha Takahashi, you may be centuries my senior, but I look like I�m centuries yours,� Kaede said, looking down her nose at him. �Please keep your comments about my girls to yourself.�

An amused smile definitely graced his lips now. �Yes, grandmother,� he said, his voice mockingly meek.

Kaede frowned at him. �Don�t patronize me, boy,� she said. She sighed at his expression and finally allowed herself a small laugh. �What has you so interested in this one, Inuyasha? Out of all the girls you�ve seen go through here the past few years, why this one?� she asked, nodding her thanks to the blonde when the girl set a glass of juice before the older woman.

Inuyasha shrugged, contemplated the contents of his own glass. �There is something familiar about her,� he said, after a few moments of silence. �Something...something I can�t quite place my finger on.�

�I hear you are quite insistent about seeing her face.�

Inuyasha nodded, seeing no reason to lie. �I feel as though that is the missing piece to the puzzle,� he said, and narrowed his eyes in thought. �I would be lying if I said that�s the only reason. There�s more to it than that.� He looked up and grinned at Kaede. �But you don�t want to hear those things about your girls,� he said.

Kaede shook her head and laughed. �Whatever fantasies you have about her, please keep to yourself,� she told him. �She is very special, Inuyasha,� Kaede said, seriously. �This,� and she made a vague gesture around the room, �this is merely a job for her, something that pays the bills. She is bound to move on to greater things.�

�It amazes me how women can say so much and give away so little information,� Inuyasha said, glaring at the old woman.

Kaede laughed. �It comes with working here,� she told him. She paused, looked out over the tables filled with customers. �This place would eventually drain the spirit right out of that girl,� she said. Turning back to face Inuyasha, she sighed. �It goes against my rules to tell you anything about her. I will not break her trust.�

�I�m not asking you to,� Inuyasha said.

�Then what do you want?�

It was his turn to sigh. �I don�t know,� he said. �Her.�

�And what happens when she suddenly isn�t enough anymore? What happens when she grows old and dull? She probably won�t even last that long with you. Will she just be another conquest? Another notch on your bedpost?� Kaede shook her head. �I love you like family, Inuyasha, but I will not do that to her.�

Inuyasha�s hands clenched into fists. He took a deep breath, relaxed, and gave Kaede his most radiantly innocent smile.

�I don�t put notches on my bedpost. I put them on all the furniture that gets used.�
- 4
- 5
- 6
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

A Sacred Treasure and a Hanyou