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The White Dog
by Becky Tailweaver
Chapter 15: Let's Go Home
Since Shippo was completely zonked when Inuyasha and Kagome came back, Kagome passed up dinner in favor of changing and getting out her sleeping bag. The riverbank was as nice a place as any to set up camp, so she spread her bag beneath a large tree a ways from the water, a place she knew Inuyasha would favor because it allowed him to sleep directly above her and keep watch. Once she was sitting comfortably in her sleeping bag, she looked up to find Inuyasha crouched a few feet away, watching her.
"What?"
The dog-demon looked down. "Nothing."
Kagome frowned; he was being oddly quiet and his face was free of its usual grumbly look. "Did you need something?"
"No."
"Okay, then," Kagome said, lying down and turning over. "See you in the morning."
"Mm."
For a few minutes, there was silence. Then Kagome rolled over and looked at him. "Aren't you going to bed?" she asked.
Inuyasha blinked. "Oh. Uh, yeah." Almost hesitantly, he moved past her, laid his claws into the trunk, and pulled himself up the tree. Instead of parking twenty feet up, like usual, he settled on the first large, low branch just a couple yards off the ground.
Kagome lay there watching him out of the corner of her eye, unnerved by his unblinking golden gaze. He was staring at her, the strangest non-expression on his face. Finally, she turned her head to face him. "Look, I can't sleep if you're going to stare at me all night."
"Sorry." He turned his head away and closed his eyes.
With a sigh, Kagome lay back down and contemplated his strange behavior. He was being so weird! What was the matter with him? He was treating her like she was a different person. Had something gone wrong when he'd come to find her? Had her argument with him and her words earlier gone too far? She shivered, a little afraid. Usually, he was grumbling his way up into the high branches of the tree, reminding her of how early he wanted to get started in the morning, and that would be it. Now he was quiet, broody, distant--not himself at all.
With a troubled heart and a worried mind, she fell asleep at last.
Kagome awoke to the dappled sun shining brightly into her face and a firm warmth pressed against her back. The sun she recognized, and blinked blearily to clear her eyes. Jeeze, how late is it? Inuyasha didn't wake me up!
The second thing that woke her was whatever it was she was lying against. Yawning, she sat up, and found a red-coated bundle snuggled against the middle of her sleeping bag. She nearly gasped aloud, recognizing Inuyasha next to her. How he managed to fold his mostly-humanoid body up like that was a mystery to her--but there he was, curled up against her sleeping bag like a lonely puppy.
He was also sound asleep.
The sheer oddity of it struck her dumb for a while. She almost never saw him sleep--and certainly not this close to her. His head rested against her sleeping bag, chin pillowed on one arm, while his back had been against hers. Seeing his slightly pensive sleeping face and faintly twitching ears, she had a sudden urge to stroke his head, as though he were a pet needing comfort. She fought the urge, as it would probably anger him, so she settled for touching his shoulder in hopes of waking him. "Inuyasha?"
At the sound of her voice, his ears went up and his golden eyes slid open. For just a moment, there was nothing but sleepy contentment in them, and it made her heart warm to see it. Then his eyes switched to surprise, then embarassment as his cheeks flushed red and he sat up quickly.
Inuyasha was startled to realize that it was quite late in the morning--almost noon. He'd never slept in like that before. He'd hoped to simply stay the night near Kagome and then wake at dawn like usual and get away before she knew, but she had awakened before him! His mouth worked, but he had no excuse to give.
"You didn't wake me up this morning," she accused, half-joking.
"I...uh, I wasn't...I mean I didn't..."
"Oh, for crying out loud, you're pathetic!" said a very loud young voice.
Both teens turned their heads to see Shippo sitting atop Kagome's pack shaking his head. "Whatever happened to good morning kisses?" he asked with a sigh.
"You--fox--!" the dog-demon spluttered. "Keep your snotty thoughts to yourself! Whatever gave you the idea--?"
"Inuyasha spent the whole night right beside you, Kagome," Shippo went on matter-of-factly, interrupting the dog-demon's tirade. "Actually, he came down the minute you were asleep. He thought he was being sneaky."
"You were awake?" Inuyasha demanded, face red.
"I was awake when you guys came back," the kitsune said. "I thought you'd either be fighting or making up. I could see you'd made up, so I thought you guys would be getting friendlier." The kitsune had half-grinning look about him.
"Shippo, don't start thinking like Miroku," Kagome said defensively.
While the attention was off of him, Inuyasha took the opportunity to back away from Kagome far enough that he could stand up. He decided to rise above Shippo's baiting in favor of keeping Kagome in a good humor. Once he felt sure of himself, he announced that he was going to get the ramen on the stove.
"Can you handle that?" Kagome asked curiously, worried that he'd lose his temper with the little camp stove and trash it.
"I've seen you do it enough," he replied simply, fetching it out and setting everything up. Kagome watched in astonishment as he mimicked her actions; setting up the stand, turning on the gas, priming and lighting the burner, and setting a pot of canteen water on the top.
"That was very good," she praised him, still astonished. "I'm surprised you figured it all out."
Inuyasha shrugged and crouched back to wait for the water to boil. "I don't know exactly how it works, but I know how to make it hot."
Well, there was no end to the surprises, Kagome thought to herself. First Inuyasha wasn't at all like himself, then he's sleeping right next to her--touching her, even--and making breakfast for her. Okay, so he'd done that yesterday, too, but the last few days had seen a lot of weird changes in her half-demon companion.
Their brunch progressed rapidly, and Kagome was packed and ready by the time the ramen was finished. They all ate quickly, then washed the utensils in the river and put up the camp stove. Kagome was ready to hoist her pack, but Inuyasha plucked it from her fingers.
"No you don't," he said gruffly. "We've got a long way to go."
"Where?"
The dog-demon shrugged. "North."
Kagome frowned, prepared to express something that had been on her mind for a while. "Inuyasha...we're not really going after a shard, are we?"
Inuyasha froze, looked as though he were about to fib, then deflated. "No," he admitted.
"You really don't know where one is?"
"I know there's some rumors...but they lead to the south."
"So this is all a wild goose chase?" Kagome looked disbelieving. "Why aren't we going after some real shards?"
"I...I didn't want you to get hurt again. Especially so soon after...after Kikyo," the dog-demon said--and the way he said it was not like him, either. Instead of angry and yelling, he was growly, but hesitant.
Kagome stared at him. "Inuyasha..." She had the same quiet, annoyed tone she usually used when she was about to sit him.
He cringed at the mention of his own name, scuffing his feet in the grass. "I just didn't want to go fight demons when you're not feeling well," he said, his voice half-unconcerned, but it gave the impression he was speaking roughly to hide his real feelings. "And I didn't want to say so and end up with you mad at me again."
The schoolgirl was now certain that someone had either cast a spell on him, or switched dog-demons on her. This was Inuyasha? The person speaking almost nicely to her, hesitating to go after more Shikon shards, and worrying about her well-being? Impossible! Where was his temper? Where was his touchy pride, his surly snarls, his arrogant attitude and rough speech? What on Earth had happened to him?
"What's the matter with you?" she demanded suddenly.
He stared at her, his golden eyes unusually large in his face. "Huh?"
"What happened?" she asked him, concerned. "Yesterday you were your usual self all through our fight. Then last night and this morning you're all weird!"
"W-weird?" he stuttered.
"You've...changed," she said carefully. "You're being...nice...kind of. And you're not yelling at me."
Inuyasha gulped. Sure, he was trying to behave as though everything were perfectly normal. But he couldn't muster the surly dislike nor the cruel inflection neccesary to snarl at her nor be rude when he spoke. Not any more. He just couldn't bring himself to be mean to her...not after he found out that...
Not after he found out that she loved him. Really loved him--not like Ginnezu's overblown infatuation. He wanted to keep things the way they were--he didn't want love to cut her down like it had Kikyo--but knowing that she cared about him that way made him want to be closer to her, to treat her with kindness, and to protect her all the more. He simply couldn't growl nastily at her. "I didn't want to make you upset again like yesterday."
"Oh." She sighed; so that was it. He was simply trying to avert her wrath. "Okay. Thank you," she said with a sweet smile. "Then can we go home?"
"Huh?"
"Well, I've got three more days after today to stay here," she said cheerfully. "And if we're not hunting shards I'd rather not be traipsing around the countryside. I don't have good shoes for traveling."
"Oh..." Inuyasha looked down, chewing his lip.
"Jeeze, something really did happen to him," Shippo voiced loudly. "He's acting like a geek."
"What did you say?" Inuyasha snarled, pouncing towards the fox-demon. "Who are you calling a geek, fox?"
Kagome laughed while Shippo cowered. "I guess he's still the same Inuyasha," she giggled. "You had me worried for a while, there. I thought Kikyo had sucked out your brain or something."
"What?" The dog-demon looked at her askance. "Why would she do that?"
"Never mind." Kagome started off towards the south. "Just don't get all weird on me. Are we going?"
Inuyasha swung on her pack. Coming alongside her, he touched her shoulder to stop her. "Kagome, if you come with me, I think we can get home by sundown."
Kagome stared at him for a minute, struck once again by the niceness of his voice. It still held that canine roughness that he could never shed save in his human phase, but it was a soft roughness now, not his usual hot, barking tones.
"Okay." She smiled, and waited for him to crouch before climbing up and clinging to him over the backpack. "Are you sure you can carry all this?" she asked softly.
He snorted, sounding a bit more like his usual self. "I'm not a weakling. I'll be fine." He flicked a glance towards the kitsune. "Better keep up, fox!"
Kagome held on tight through the initial tense and spring of his muscles as he leaped into his customary ground-eating lope. A glance behind her revealed Shippo scurrying along. It was one of the rare times she actually saw him in his true form, that of a young red fox with cute black paws and blue eyes instead of amber.
Riding Inuyasha was not like the rocking-chair feeling of a galloping horse. Rather, it was more like a boat over small waves; smooth, yet with a rise-and-fall sensation as his forelimbs hit the ground and his hindlimbs reached just behind them to push off again. It was quite pleasant, not jolting at all. He wasn't sprinting full-out, in which case his hindlimbs would reach ahead of his forelimbs to spring off and his body would flex and bow to push a longer stride. He was simply cantering, covering a lot of ground rapidly with the easy lope and famous endurance of the canine race.
Shippo kept pace well for quite some time. A couple of hours passed as they made their way back over ground they'd traveled before, and only then did Shippo transform back to his humanlike appearance to hitch a ride and take a breather. Some time after that, Inuyasha began to pant, his tongue lolling and his breaths puffing in time to his strides. He certainly wasn't as dead worn as he was the day he'd run himself into the ground, but he was beginning to feel fatigued. He was carrying the extra weight of Kagome's large backpack, besides Kagome and Shippo themselves.
Late afternoonish, Kagome insisted he stop for a rest. When he was finally persuaded to halt, he dropped the pack and flopped in the shade to doze for a few minutes before gulping some water and taking off again. Kagome didn't understand why he was driving himself so hard--especially when it was for her sake alone, not a shard. Shippo alternated between running and riding, trying to avoid being a constant deadweight.
The sun had set and the last rays of light were peeking over the horizon by the time the village in Musashi's Domain came into sight. Kagome breathed a sigh of relief--mostly that she could get off of Inuyasha and let the poor dog-demon have a break. She still had a hard time believing that two days' walk for her was just an afternoon run for him. He'd never carried her so far or so long before. He still held on to her pack, though, as the trio walked across the fields to the village proper.
The villagers spotted them coming from a distance, and almost immediately, a very relieved Miroku, Kaede, Sango, and Shirokiba appeared to greet them. Sango and Kaede hugged Kagome, Miroku gave a respectful hello, and Shirokiba growled and cuffed Inuyasha affectionately in greeting. All four of them were quite frazzled after having to babysit Ginnezu for so long.
And speaking of Ginnezu...
The silver dog-demon appeared out of nowhere, launching herself at Inuyasha and knocking him over backwards. Hugging him tight, she wailed tearfully for all the world to hear.
"Oh, darling, I was so lonely! I'm so glad to see you--it's been terribly dull here! Why did you leave me behind?"
"Ginnezu!" Blushing, Inuyasha shoved her away, mostly to keep her nose and lips away from his sensitive throat, where she was nuzzling him. He didn't know why his face was red, but what she did had unnerved him. "Ginnezu, knock it off! Get off me!"
"But, darling--!"
"Get off!" With a quick shove and a backwards jump, he managed to extricate himself from the clingy dog-demon. He handed Kagome's pack off to Sango, who swung it over her shoulder and followed Kagome. Kagome herself was looking very sleepy, so he brushed past Ginnezu to go to her. "Hey, don't fall over," he cautioned. His voice was scolding, but he put an arm around her shoulders and guided her towards Kaede's hut. Kagome was too surprised to resist.
The others' eyes bugged at his kind gesture towards the schoolgirl. They were all left standing in awe and didn't see Ginnezu's shocked stare that quickly changed to a Glare of Death towards the retreating couple. Despite her efforts to make them hate each other, they'd come back closer than ever--or so it seemed. With a rumbling growl, she turned and darted off towards the forest. Shirokiba was the only one who saw her, but decided not to follow.
Inside Kaede's hut, Inuyasha sat Kagome near the fireplace and retrieved her pack from Sango, who was headed for her own sleeping quarters. Kagome watched the dog-demon in some amazement, rather puzzled as to why he was being so kind to her. She noticed him walking gingerly when he brought her pack to her, so she gave a short intake of breath and caught his hand before he could leave. "Are you hurt?"
He pulled back. "No...no, I'm not. Why?" He was gruff again, his short voice trying to keep her from prying further.
"You're limping," she said, concerned. Struck by a sudden thought, she turned over the hand she held and was surprised to see blood. "Inuyasha!"
He jerked his hand away. "It's nothing," he growled.
"I told you not to run so much!" she scolded, taking his wrist again and pulling him down beside her. "Now you stay here and don't leave."
Inuyasha snorted, but folded his limbs and stared into the fire. Kagome went over to one of Kaede's chests and fished through it, bringing out a jar of something sealed with wax and a few clean cloths. "This will make you feel better," she said softly, breaking the seal and opening the container. The smell of herb ointment wafted through the room while she dampened the cloths in Kaede's water pot.
"I don't need medicine," Inuyasha grumped. "I'll be healed by tomorrow."
"So you deserve to suffer tonight?" Kagome asked him, a touch sharply. "Let me see."
With a low grumble, he held out his hands. Choosing one, Kagome began to gently swab away grit and splinters and blood. Looking closely at his hands, she realized that he did have padlike callouses from the way he ran. She made him put out his feet so she could do the same there, and was able to satisfy her previous curiosity about them. He had thicker, calloused skin on his feet as well, as though his body were trying to imitate the pads of a dog's paws. He twitched when she washed between his toes; she hid a smile at the thought of him being ticklish.
As she dabbed on the ointment, she noted with some interest the patterns of the cuts, blisters, and wear on his limbs. The injuries stopped at the balls of his feet, not extending through the arch and heel. On his hands, only his fingers and the base joints were blistered, not his palms or his thumbs. She realized that when traveling on all fours, he really did move like a dog, walking up on the "toes" of each limb. Amazingly, that would require his fingers to be able to bend backwards at greater than a ninety-degree angle.
Inuyasha could admit to himself that the ointment was cool and soothing, not to mention that Kagome's soft hands smoothing it into his injuries was pleasant, too. She seemed a bit captivated in inspecting his hands and feet, so he withdrew them from her perusal with a touch of embarassment that he quickly hid. He knew she was just curious, but it still made him nervous when people stared and poked at him. "You should get some sleep," he said gruffly, breaking the quiet. When he made as if to rise, she caught his arm.
"You can't leave," she said quickly. "If you go walking around, you'll wear off the ointment and get dirt stuck all over your feet."
"Kagome...!" he growled. "Why didn't you say something about it before?"
"I forgot." She blushed and twiddled with her fingers, wiping ointment off on one of the cloths. "Sorry."
Inuyasha rolled his eyes and grumbled. "Fine, I'll stay. But you better not scream at me for being here tomorrow, because this is all your fault."
"Okay, I promise I won't," Kagome said.
Inuyasha scowled over in the corner while she changed and got into bed. When she was done, he looked over at her, golden eyes meeting crystal blue. "Good night," he offered, not quite so harsh.
"G'night..." she yawned.
Inuyasha crouched in the corner, waiting for her breaths to slow down. When her rhythms indicated she was asleep, he hesitantly crept over to her and curled up by her side with a sigh. He fell asleep very quickly with the sound of her heartbeat in his ears.
When morning came, Ginnezu was once again perched on Kaede's roof, completely unconcerned. Sango and Kirara were walking around enjoying the warm morning, while Shirokiba and Miroku were parked on Kaede's porch. Shirokiba was teaching Miroku an old demon gambling game, "Stones and Bones," in which painted stones and carved animal teeth are used like complicated dice. The human was only just getting the hang of it, even after a couple of hours of play. It was a strange combination of poker, Yahtzee, and jacks.
They didn't have to wait long before Kagome emerged from the hut, looking bright and chipper as she greeted them all cheerfully. Shippo was just about to ask her if she'd seen Inuyasha when the half-demon himself walked out behind Kagome with a toothy yawn and his arms stretching over his head.
The group gaped at them, and Ginnezu nearly fell off the roof. Miroku dropped his stones in surprise. "Kagome! You and Inuyasha weren't--?"
Inuyasha reddened and sputtered, while Kagome suddenly blushed at all the staring faces aroud her. "What? No way! You guys, get your minds out of the gutter!" she yelled.
Kaede emerged from her home at her usual stately pace, sighing at the confusion outside. "You foolish children," she said, exhasperated. "Kagome merely treated his blisters."
"Yeah, that's all!" Inuyasha was quick to confirm.
"Nothing happened!" Kagome said firmly, then headed after Kaede to get breakfast. Inuyasha glared at the curious audience, growled, and trotted off after her.
Shippo and Miroku put their heads together. "Do you think they're really...?" Miroku asked.
"Definitely. He was all snuggly with her yesterday morning," Shippo replied.
"So there's romance in the air," the monk said with a sly smile. "This should be interesting."
"I have absolutely no comment," Shirokiba said, staying out of it entirely.
"Knock it off, you two," Sango ordered. "Discussing Kagome and Inuyasha's love life like it's common gossip! That's so rude!"
"They don't have a love life," Miroku said. "At least not yet."
"And how do you know that?" Shippo asked. "I wasn't with them the whole time."
"So it's true?" Miroku asked.
"Shippo, just what are you suggesting?" Sango demanded.
The little fox-demon shrugged. "I'm just saying I didn't see everything, so how do we know they aren't--?"
Ginnezu, who was listening above, was growing more and more insensed with every word they spoke. Finally, with Shippo's comment, her temper snapped, and she leaped down from the roof. "You morons!" she snarled. "You're stupid if you think the Mashiro-Inu will fall for a weakling human wench!" While everyone stared at her and Shirokiba rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance, she growled, then dashed off towards the woods again.
"Is she jealous?" Miroku asked of Shirokiba.
"You have no idea," the demon muttered in reply.
Life proceeded normally--or as close to normal as it got--for a while. Ginnezu had vanished. Shirokiba took her place dozing on Kaede's roof. Sango and Kirara went out to make some money exorcising demons. Miroku hung out with a few female groupies from the village who thought he was cute--not very pretty girls, but it was female attention, nonetheless. Shippo annoyed Inuyasha, who was following Kagome around like a lost puppy. Kagome was generally enjoying some fresh air and pleasant conversation with Kaede, all the while puzzling over the dog-demon following her about with a somewhat forlorn expression on his face.
Later in the afternoon, when the day reached its hottest, Kagome announced that she was off to take a dip in the river that ran near the village. Miroku tried not to act interested, while Shippo bounced up and down at the prospect of trying out his new swim trunks again. Kagome went to change in Kaede's hut and left the menfolk to their own decisions.
Inuyasha decided to tag along with Kagome and wait for her to emerge. Shippo and Miroku opted to head straight for the water.
On the way to the river, Shippo spotted Ginnezu in the tree above Kaede's hut, obviously listening to what was going on. He jumped on Miroku's shoulder and yanked the monk's hair for attention. "Hey, look," he whispered.
Miroku also noticed the Silver dog-demon. "What do you suppose she's up to?" he wondered softly.
"I betcha she's spying on Inuyasha 'cause she's jealous, like Shirokiba said," Shippo replied. "Do you think she's gonna bother Kagome?"
Before they could wonder further, Ginnezu slunk off, heading for the woods in the direction of the river.
"Whoops! There she goes!" Miroku said. "We'd better follow her and keep her out of trouble."
They moved out. It wasn't long before Ginnezu realized she was being followed, and they noticed she altered her course away from the river. "She's not going to let us know where she's going," Shippo commented as they crept along. "She'll lead us around in circles and try to lose us. I was right--she wants to get to Inuyasha alone, and since he's where Kagome is..."
"She'll try something, like Shirokiba told us. Well, just as long as she's leading us and not bothering Kagome, we'll keep this up," Miroku sighed, then continued to hike after the crafty dog-demon.
"I hope we don't lose her," Shippo murmured. As long as they followed her, she wouldn't be able to enact whatever plan she had.
So they stuck to her like...well, like fleas on a dog.
To be continued...