Freak Attraction, Chapter Four

Freak Attraction

Chapter 4: The long-way round
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His senses that morning were telling him very strange things.

For one, he was cold. So, so cold. Perhaps his mother had gotten up to start breakfast and forgotten to cover him back up with the blanket. When he tried to sniff out what the morning’s meal would be, he choked on the stench of blood and sweat. The sweat emanated from countless different sources… as if dozens of people were surrounding him.

Was it… the villagers? Had they finally had enough of a half-demon living among them and had come to throw him out? No… there was something much more vile than a human in that stench.

The blood was mostly his own, but there was the faintest scent of another’s…. Mother!

His eyes snapped open and immediately squeezed shut again as the glow of gas fires burned behind his eyelids. Tiny claws dug into the floor underneath him – but they did not sink into the cloth of their bed as they should have. Instead, he felt wood splinter.

His head throbbed, the pain intensifying at the onslaught of light and scent and the sudden sound of crowing laughter that was ringing in his skull. He sat still, his little white dog ears plastered against his head to keep out the world and just let him think….

He was no longer at home, but when had he left? He couldn’t remember… he wracked his brain, trying to recall the previous day.

Mother had been with him… they had been playing in the grass outside the hut, when he had heard a thundering along the road. The invaders arrived just as he found his voice, and he remembered seeing his mother’s eyes wide with fear. Dozens of horses stormed through the village, armored riders brandishing spears and muskets from atop the animals.

The little boy cowering behind his mother’s yukata caught sight of their clan emblems: two curved branches and three circles; the same as the crest on the coat that mother always kept hidden.

Mother had crowded him to hide behind the outside wall of the hut as the men on horseback approached, all the while shielding him with her body.

There was no one to shield her though.

She fell backwards, almost on top of him, the deafening crack of a gun being fired his only warning. He shook her unresponsive form, tugging at her arm to get her further behind the building and out of sight, but she would not move. Only her eyes held onto life as the gunfire wound oozed blood down her chest, turning her lilac yukata a deep burgundy, as she gazed down into his panicked eyes.

Her voice was no more than a strained whisper, and he struggled to hear it over the din of horses and guns and screaming villagers. “Run Inu… run! Get far away from here; be safe my little love.”
And then her eyes grew glassy, unseeing, and he… he had fled.

Damn him - he ran away as she died.

As he ran he heard the roars of triumph from the horsemen.

“The traitor is dead!”

“Demon’s whore!”

“Good riddance, filthy wench!”

… And then… his mind went fuzzy. He couldn’t remember what had happened after he ran like a coward… he found he didn’t care to know as shame swept over him. He had abandoned her. He had done nothing to save her… to protect her.

He had failed her.

But what had happened to him? How had he ended up here? The little boy dared to open his eyes again, and found the light of gas-lanterns obscured by lines… no, they were bars.

He was in a cage.

With a jerk he moved to stand, but yelped as his neck was pulled roughly back to the ground. His grasping hands tried to remove whatever had him bound, but his arms could not reach. Looking down, he blinked away the drops of blood catching in his lashes and saw thick metal rings holding his wrists down by chains. Another longer chain connected to the restraint around his neck. Stretching his leg, he tried to kick at the object, but his small foot made contact with solid metal which he could not break. He rattled the chains and pulled against them until his wrists were slick with blood and his neck stung.

The little boy’s breathing became erratic. He was scared. He was trapped. His mother was dead, and he was all alone.

Well… not all alone.

Soon other shapes were slipping between him and the light of the fires – large, smelly creatures who laughed at him in throaty voices. He could feel their evil auras and knew these were demons. He did not need to see the malice in their eyes to know they weren’t there to help him.

Hearing their sneers and smelling the foul odor of their breath, he inched backwards as far as he could, crouching low and growling defensively.

“Haha! Listen to the little puppy try to act tough!”

“Heh, and here I thought it was dead!”

“Yeah, it looks like a chewed up piece of meat!”

“Mmm, I bet it’d taste good too! Fresh, bloody dog-meat!”

The roars of the crowd around him rang in his ears, and he suppressed a whimper at the overload to his already delicate senses. He wished they would just eat him already and be done with it.

His mother was dead… why wasn’t he dead too?

Death… death sounded so nice… so freeing.

He could be with Mother again.

Mother….

Mother….

“Mother….”

Inuyasha’s head snapped up at the sound.

He had had that dream before. It was always the same – the same memory. But he had never spoken aloud in a dream; the voice that spoke belonged to someone else.

Looking down, Inuyasha watched as Kagome’s face scrunched slightly, as if in pain, and the whisper of ‘mother’ once again passed her lips. The sorrow in that single word dug at his heart, as he realized the mess this young girl had gotten herself into, all for his sake.

He couldn’t understand why she did it. He wished he could tell her he wasn’t worth it… he knew he wasn’t. And yet… he couldn’t bring himself to stop her from helping him. There was something in him that wanted to be cared for, that needed to know someone would notice if he lived or died.

Because no one had cared since Mother.

But now….

He watched as her brows furrowed once more, before her expression settled and she unconsciously snuggled deeper into his warmth. Inuyasha smiled as she got comfortable once more. There was still a good half hour before the sun crested the hills, so he decided to let her rest some more. He tried to tell himself it was just so she wouldn’t drag her feet once they started travelling again, but deep down he just wanted to give her a little longer to be at peace, without thoughts of demons or spirits or argumentative boys with dog ears.

She didn’t deserve to have been thrown into all this, but… he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t grateful.
He couldn’t show his gratitude when she was awake; for now, all he could do was let her dream.
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“Thank you for everything, Lady Kaede!”

Kaede accepted the young girl’s enthusiastic hug with a chuckle, her eyes crinkled in amusement. “Think nothing of it child. I was glad for the company! I wish you all the best on your journey home.”

Kagome smiled warmly, shouldering the bag of food Kaede had insisted they take, before looking expectantly up at Inuyasha standing beside her. He caught her gaze, and she nodded none too subtly at the elderly woman before them. He thought his glare would be enough for her to get the hint he wasn’t the type for sentiment, but her smile just grew wider (more crazed looking in his opinion) and she stared at him more pointedly, until with an exaggerated roll of his eyes he spat out “Your food wasn’t bad, Old Hag. Try not to die while we’re gone.”

Kaede laughed quietly as the young girl threw up her arms and marched out the door and down the lane with a huff, as her dog-eared companion followed with an exasperated “Well what were you expecting?!”

She waved them off as they headed down the lane into the early morning fog, but her hand froze and smile fell as a sudden feeling of disquiet washed over her.

Lady Kikyo’s presence was fading.

But it wasn’t the same as before; this time… this time it felt as if her soul was leaving of its own volition. Kaede shivered at the loss, the comfort she usually felt in the village failing her as the presence of the dead priestess vanished completely from the shrine.

Casting one last glance at the pair disappearing down the mist-shrouded path, Kaede sighed wearily, hoping the unease she felt was not the bad omen she thought it was.

“So, where to now?”

Inuyasha glanced at the sparse tree canopy above them, his arms folding as he walked, and said “Well, it’s early enough that we could get pretty far by nightfall, even if we just walked, but it’s no use hurrying. Those circus monkeys won’t have given up just yet, and it’d be best not to retrace our steps. We’ll go west for a while more, then down south before heading east again.”

Kagome stared at him expectantly, but his continued silence prompted her to ask “So… just how long do you think a trip like that is going to take?”

“… A month.”

“A month?!”

“……. Maybe a couple months.”

“MONTHS?!” Kagome ran ahead of him to stand in his path, her angry face glaring up into his suddenly nervous one. “What do you mean this could take ‘months’? I have SCHOOL! My whole family is probably worried sick! I can’t just disappear off the face of the Earth for over a month! Imagine what people would do if I was gone that long with no excuse?”

He still looked nervous, but Inuyasha’s frown was firm as he responded hotly “And you just imagine what would happen if you disappeared forever because you were eaten by a demon!”

Kagome swallowed hard, some of her anger fading as his words sunk in. If they were really in such danger….

“But… a month is so long! W-wouldn’t they give up after a few weeks? I mean, they can’t need us there that badly… there are other acts….”

Inuyasha just scoffed, crossing his arms again to say “You obviously don’t know demons very well. It’s not just that we’re interesting acts who will bring in money. That’s not what they care about. We’re not just amusement for them, we’re like… prey. Live, trapped prey they can fantasize about killing. And we only made it worse by running. There’s no demon alive that can resist the thrill of a chase.”

A violent shiver ran through Kagome and her gaze dropped, staring down at the twigs and leaves beneath her feet, trying to focus on their bright autumn colors even as her vision blurred.

“Which is why,” Inuyasha began in a slightly panicked voice, as his hands rose to grasp her shoulders “I’m trying to keep us as far as possible from there for as long as I can! There’s not really anything we can do but bide our time and hope that they find something better to hunt.”

What he said made a lot of sense, but Kagome felt it would take her a while before she was okay with the idea of being away from home for so long. Lifting a hand to rub the moisture from her eyes, she sighed and moved softly from his grip, stepping to the side and saying “Alright. Lead the way.”

He watched her for a moment with anxious eyes, but then sighed himself and trudged forward into the trees again.

The first step was the hardest to take, but as her black heel dug into the forest dirt, followed by the toe and then the next foot as she managed to lift her leg to take a step, she found herself falling into a rhythm, and she relaxed.

There was no helping it – they couldn’t risk going back too early, or getting too close to the area. She would just have to make this journey worth all that time spent.

They walked in silence for a while, the quiet broken occasionally by the chirping of morning birds and the scampering of squirrel feet against the trunks surrounding them. The farther they walked, the thicker the forest grew, and fainter was the sorrow clouding Kagome’s mind. Looking about at the canopy full of oranges and yellows and golds, smelling the heady tree-sap and tasting the crispness of the mountain air, Kagome allowed a smile to turn her lips as her steps became a little lighter.

There were still woods in Tokyo, but… they were nothing like this wild, free world she was walking through now. It all seemed so beautiful and yet… so unreal.

It reminded her of someone – someone just as untamed, just as ethereal as this forest.

Her eyes turned back to the man in front of her. She watched his silver hair swaying with his strong and steady gate, and noticed that his swinging hands were clenched into fists.

She wondered if something was bothering him, or if he always walked so tensed.

Looking down, she noticed that his feet were still bare. ‘He must prefer that’ she thought, ‘seeing as he didn’t steal any shoes.’ She chided herself for that thought – ‘steal’ was such a strong, unpleasant word. A memory from just that morning played in her mind, and she smiled.
Kagome had awoken to once again find Inuyasha no longer beside her, but the sound of quiet conversation told her he had not left her alone. Blinking her eyes open from her place on the floor, Kagome peeked over the edge of her blanket to see Inuyasha sitting with Kaede and holding a small cloth pouch in his hand.

“It was left in the house; by all rights, it’s yours.”

He stared at the bag with an annoyed look, weighing it in his hand before tossing it over to the other. Kagome heard the distinct clattering of metal coins. ‘It’s money!’

“What am I supposed to use this for?”

Kaede sighed in exasperation, saying tiredly “If you won’t use it for yourself, at least use it for Kagome.”

“What am I gonna do, buy her a new kimono? We don’t need this much!”

“It is yours Inuyasha.”

“Well I don’t want it. Give it to someone in the village. Give it to the tailor.”

Kagome watched as Kaede gave the young man a knowing look, at which he colored and folded his arms, glaring as he said through clenched teeth “Just do it.”

Kaede’s voice was softer, less annoyed as she responded “He will not need this much.”

Inuyasha growled, shoving the cloth purse into her weathered hands and all but shouted “Then figure out how much he does need. I guess if you refuse to do anything else with it, I’ll take the rest. But only for Kagome.”

At that Kagome had promptly shut her eyes again, burrowing as covertly back into her blanket as she could to hide her warming cheeks.

She was impressed to find that the rough boy had been so… selfless about the money, and that he really had wanted to pay for the clothes, but that wasn’t the reason why her cheeks were burning and she had to hide a smile.

He said her name.

Thinking back, she was certain it was the first time he had actually said her name.
She knew he had remembered it, he just always chose to call her by something else, like ‘you’ or ‘idiot’ or ‘lazy-butt’. He still had yet to say it to her face to face, but… it was a start.

Breaking from her memory, Kagome smiled as her half-demon companion continued along their unmarked path, steadily getting farther and farther from her on his long legs, and she jogged a bit to catch up, finally falling into step beside him instead of behind.

He glanced down at her, one eyebrow raised in confusion, and she smiled back sunnily. She thought she saw a hint of pink on his tan cheeks before he turned abruptly away.

They continued in silence, but Kagome’s mood was visibly brighter than it had been. Sure they were on the run, and it would be so long before she got to see her mother again, but….

‘At least I’m not alone.’
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Miroku sat still as a statue of Buddha, legs crossed, eyes closed in concentration. His prayer beads were wrapped around his hand, his muttered chanting helping center his mind.

He had never been the beacon of virtue his fellow monks strove to be, but even a free-wheeling spirit such as himself savored the opportunity to sit and meditate, finding inner peace and opening his mind for enlightenment. It was ironic that the only place available to him for such a sacred activity was in a little tent in the midst of a demon circus. Not that he was given any particular freedom to practice Buddhism here: they just didn’t care what he did, so long as he entertained guests and did their bidding like a trained monkey.

Being at the beck and call of anyone had never sat well with him, but as circumstances stood, he was living the lesser of two evils. Well, perhaps not lesser, but at least here he knew what the stakes were. Here he was mocked for his beliefs, but at least they needed him alive. Out there he would be openly persecuted for following Buddhist teachings, imprisoned, and could possibly even be killed.

Not to mention the powerful curse he carried in his hand would be difficult to explain to anyone in normal city settings.

The curse was a gift from the Ringmaster himself – a little collateral, as he called it, to make sure the monk used his powers to do just as he wished. Why the ringmaster wanted access to his sacred powers Miroku wasn’t sure – there wasn’t much room for asking questions in this place. The fact remained that the hole in his right hand could draw in anything in its path, but each time he used it could very well be his last.

Once he might have tried using his curse to escape despite the risk to himself, but now he had more than just his own life to think about.

His attention shifted slightly at the sound of his lovely companion sharpening her weapon; the dull scrape of a rock against bone. Her strokes were long and thorough, and he knew her concentration was elsewhere.

Another shrill scream rent the air, and Miroku scrunched his eyes shut tighter, trying to get back to that place of peace where he could pretend there wasn’t a massacre occurring all around him. A deep, male bellow was cut short too abruptly, and the accompanying hysteric cries of a woman made Miroku wince. There would be no more meditation tonight.

He offered a silent prayer to reinforce the barrier he had set up with sutras.

He turned weary eyes to Sango, who sat with her boomerang across her lap, though her sharpening stone had stilled as her gaze focused on the demon cat by the door. He too looked across the space of the tent towards the transformed feline, whose defensive posture set him on edge. Kirara was not usually so tense on Feeding Nights.

The circus was about to skip town again; Feeding Night always marked the last night of the show. The usual cloaking enchantments would be dropped from the advertising posters and any human who walked by one would be able to see it, and would be led to “The Spider’s Web”, where they would be treated to a show like no other before becoming the treat themselves.

And then, as soon as the guests were done eating and had left feeling satisfied, the circus would depart, all posters and signs and evidence that anything had ever existed in that place disappearing without a trace.

It was the grand finale, a real show-stopper, and demons flocked to the event like moths to a candle; even the workers got in on the fun.

They never even left the bones behind.

The wailing woman had long since been silenced, and the yells of victims had slipped back into an unintelligible cacophony. With a sigh, Miroku opened his mouth, deciding that sitting in silence and listening to the feeding frenzy was not helping anyone. “Sango, I know it may be difficult, but you should try to rest. I’ll wake you once everyone starts packing up.”

Her eyebrows knit in anger, but it was not directed at him. “Miroku, you know I can’t ever sleep through this.” She slumped forward, her head falling into her hands as she breathed deeply, no doubt trying to calm herself. She had not seen as many of these nights as he had, but no matter how long one had experienced it, there was no getting used to it.

The sudden keening cry of a small child drifted into the fray, close to their tent. Miroku froze. Although his first instinct was to rush out and save the child, he now knew better. He had long since learned to read that specific trap.

Sango buried her head into her arms, her silence undermined by the shaking of her shoulders as she tried to hold in tears of frustration. She had discovered first-hand the dangers of compassion in this place. Her first Feeding Night, she had rushed out of the tent to the rescue of a crying child, only to be ambushed by five large demons who had been expecting just such an act. Only the brute strength of Kirara and a hastily erected barrier by the monk had saved her from dismemberment.

She would not fall for that trick again, even though every cry tore at her very soul.

Kirara bristled and growled, and Miroku had to wonder whether it was to scare away any demons outside their spirit-shielded tent, or if the cat was mercifully trying to drown out the crying.

With a growl of her own, Sango stood abruptly. Miroku made to grab at her arm, worried she had snapped and had decided to face the demons despite inevitable death, but she brushed him off and headed to a small trunk, wrenching it open and stuffing it with her belongings.

Miroku relaxed – somewhat – as she said “It’s no use waiting to pack. If I can’t do anything else of value, I might as well get ready to leave this cursed place. Don’t worry – you keep up the barrier. I’ll pack your things too.”

A sad smile flitted across Miroku’s face. Usually on these nights, he was doing his best to be strong for her as she worried over her little brother being kept somewhere on the circus grounds. If only they were allowed to be together, if only she knew where he was kept between acts, she would have broken out long ago, hungry demons or no.

But Ringmaster Naraku was crafty, and Sango knew that any rash action on her part would spell death for her little brother.

Usually her brother being away would only make her anxiousness worse, but Miroku had noticed something different in her mood tonight – a new kind of determination, and Miroku realized… now she was trying to be strong for him.

She worried about him – he knew it – and he delighted in her attentions, despite not understanding how he had earned them.

Yet somehow during their forced acquaintance he had, and somewhere along the way he had stopped caring so much about his own fate, and instead put all his effort into trying to meet her needs.
So he let her pack his things, throwing his belongings without ceremony into another trunk, and he let her pretend to be strong tonight, because as long as her mind was focused elsewhere, perhaps she would keep letting him protect her.
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“Either find something else to sing, or shut up.”

Kagome almost stopped walking, her attention switching from the bundle of wild herbs in her hand to the half-demon with a twitching eyebrow. “… What?”

“You keep humming the same tune over and over again, and it’s tickin’ me off!”

Kagome’s wide eyes continued to stare at him, her hand almost dropping the plants as all her focus turned to Inuyasha. “… I do?”

He slowed down to look at her with annoyance, a sarcastic remark on the tip of his tongue until he saw the sincere confusion behind her gaze. “You mean you didn’t realize it?”

She shook her head, bewildered, before asking self-consciously “What… what exactly was I humming?”

Scoffing, he answered simply “The hell if I know. Probably somethin’ you made up.”

She wasn’t going to let it go though. They had been walking in silence for too long, and she was more than ready for some conversation. “Well, what did it sound like?”

He looked over at her with an unreadable expression, finally responding “How the heck am I supposed to answer that?”

“Hum it back for me.”

The sudden look of horror that crossed his face caught her completely by surprise, her own eyes widening as she realized ‘he’s afraid to!’ She quickly schooled her features to hide the smile itching at her lips; there was just something endearing about this big, tough fighter being shy about singing.

And now that she had this knowledge, she wasn’t about to let it go.

“Oh c’mon, you remember how it goes, don’t you? You said yourself that I was singing it over and over – I’m sure with your sharp mind you remember every note!”

Her mouth quirked slightly, and he couldn’t have missed the teasing lilt in her tone. He voiced a ‘humph’ and turned his face away to hide the blossoming red on his cheeks. Of course he remembered the tune; it was simple and she had been humming it for over an hour.

That wasn’t the issue.

“I don’t feel like it.”

Kagome smiled softly at him, deciding that perhaps honey would be a better lure in this situation to catch her prize. “Please? I’m really curious, now that you brought it up.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“NO.”

“Well, could you at least whistle it?”

“I don’t whistle.”

Kagome was getting annoyed, despite her best efforts to maintain the jovial side of the conversation. “Well then why won’t you at least hum it? You can’t sound that bad.”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, saying harshly “As if I care what my voice sounds like. That’s not the problem.”

“Ah-hah! So there is a problem! What, don’t know how to sing or something?”

She had meant it as a joke. She really had. She had expected nothing less than an arrogant scoff or an offended ‘of course I do’. What she hadn’t been expecting was a heavy blush and a defensive curl of his shoulders as his scowling eyebrows tried to hide his discomfort.

“You… are you serious? You really… don’t know how to sing? At all?”

He tried to be angry at her; he was annoyed that she had managed to pull such a secret from him, but he couldn’t muster up any more than that. It wasn’t really that big a deal to him; he meant what he said about not caring what he sounded like. But it wasn’t about appearances. It was just another thing he didn’t know how to do – another tell-tale sign that he was less than human; that he was a freak.

And she just had to be the one to witness it.

He huffed and said angrily “not like I ever had a reason to” as his whole body tensed, waiting for the impending judgmental response.

“Open your mouth and say ‘aaah’.”

He almost stopped walking. Looking down at her, Inuyasha saw her watching him with bright, expectant eyes. There was no laughter. No judgement. Just determination.

“What?”

“Like this!” Kagome parted her lips slightly and voiced a single, clear note.

He almost laughed at how silly she looked, staring at him happily with her mouth agape, before he realized she was waiting for him to do it too.

“No way.”

“Oh c’mon Inuyasha! You’re just making it harder on yourself by resisting so much! Just try it!”

He was so caught off guard by hearing his strange, hated, very personal name being spoken by such a melodic voice, that he didn’t even realize when he responded smartly “Uhhhh….”

It hadn’t been his intent, but apparently whatever noise he had uttered had been close enough to hers that she counted it as participation. She clapped her hands brightly and smiled even more, saying “There you go! Now try a different pitch. Go a little higher!”

Swallowing slightly and hoping she didn’t notice his nervousness, he tried to follow her directions, happy they were only attempting single notes  – he figured he couldn’t mess up a single note too badly. Her joy as he opened his mouth and voiced a soft note was so palpable she was practically skipping as she walked, and Inuyasha couldn’t help but want to keep making those sounds simply so she would keep wearing that smile.

The sun rose behind them, sat above them for a while, and finally began its descent before them on the path, and all the while Kagome taught Inuyasha to sing.

She would hum a note and have him copy it, before humming a few notes in succession, all of which he reproduced in his own deeper octave. Kagome was overjoyed by her pupil’s fast progress, and Inuyasha was stunned at how easy this was. Why had he been so worried?

Finally she had him humming a short tune alongside her, and Kagome couldn’t remember the last time she’d smiled so wide and so sincere. His voice wasn’t spectacular, but he was on key, and his natural tenor blended nicely with her alto.

She hoped they could do this often.

Her harmonizing faltered as she was abruptly reminded of what had started the impromptu singing lessons, and she grinned broadly as she said “Now that you’ve got that down, why don’t you hum back that tune I was singing earlier. Remember? The one that was annoying you so much?”

Inuyasha was almost upset at her interruption. He would never openly admit it, but singing with her, even just humming together was… nice. It made him feel like he was a part of something; like he was needed. And Kagome’s smile as their voices blended was something he never wanted to stop seeing.

But her questions brought the late morning’s conversation back to mind, and suddenly he could hear the slightly somber tune as clearly as if she were humming it now.

“Uh… I guess.” He cleared his throat and haltingly hummed a couple disconnected notes, not used to voicing a melody she hadn’t just modeled. But as he concentrated on the memory of her voice, he found himself able to recreate the tune exactly.

He was so caught up in his humming that it took him a moment to realize she was no longer beside him. Startled, Inuyasha turned and looked behind him, and his eyes widened at the sight of shock on Kagome’s face. She almost looked… afraid.

Something tightened in his chest, and he tried not to run back to where she was on the path. “Wh-what’s wrong with you?”

Kagome’s wide and unfocused eyes stared right through him as he crouched slightly before her. She blinked, and seemed to be aware of him, and the fear withdrew slightly as her eyes met his. “I’m just… are you sure I was singing that?”

He nodded slowly, still very unsure about what had spooked her so.

She licked her suddenly dry lips before saying with painfully fake cheer “Oh! That’s…surprising! It’s just… it’s just that I hate that song, you know? Can you believe it, me singing such a stupid song as that… I must still be tired or something! Yeah, that must be it… I was probably still half asleep….” With a forced laugh she walked ahead of him, and he watched her with narrowed eyes. There was something she wasn’t telling him, and for some reason he was bothered by it. He scoffed and folded his arms in annoyance, though he was more annoyed at himself than anything for caring so much about the strange moods of his frustratingly human companion.

As Inuyasha fell into step beside her once more, Kagome found herself wishing she could take back her questions. She wanted to hear his gentle humming again, but the mood was broken, and she couldn’t make a note if she tried.

She couldn’t dare risk her voice betraying her again.

It was true that she hated that song – ever since she was little it had been used to mock and tease her. But it wasn’t the memory of a chanting circle of children that scared her so; it was the insistent voice of an unknown woman, the voice she had heard the night before, singing bitterly over and over “Kagome Kagome, you are no more than a bird in a cage.”
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Kagura glared at the paper wards set up around the perimeter of the outcast village. Apparently they were expecting company.

Clicking her teeth disdainfully, Kagura turned away from the village, her fan snapping shut as she said to her silent companion “Come along Kohaku. They’re not here.”

The boy didn’t spare her a glance as he turned as well and began walking into the woods again. Kagura pursed her lips in annoyance – it was necessary to have the boy under a trance to ensure his cooperation, but did he have to be so unresponsive?

It was like traveling with a walking corpse.

Her eyes narrowed as she thought of their reason for traveling together, and of Master Naraku’s instructions: follow the trail of the dog and the little priestess, but stay at least a day’s worth of travel behind them. His reason was so that the mutt wouldn’t catch her scent, but Kagura would have preferred a confrontation to this game of cat and mouse.

The dog was probably still weak; back when he was an attraction they made sure to keep his strength at its lowest – just enough to keep him alive, but nothing to give him real power. He should never have been able to break out.

Of course, it had mainly been because of that girl that he was even given the chance.

Naraku had to have something up his sleeve for them; something he wasn’t sharing with Kagura. She scoffed – she used to be second in command. Naraku had used some of his own demonic power to strengthen her, to make her more than just a rudimentary spirit. She was no longer powered simply by the wind – she was a demon to be feared.

But overtime she had come to realize he had her trapped – kept in a box with her wings clipped. She kicked at the dirt beneath her bare feet, wishing she were aloft instead of bound to the earth. She had flown away once. It wasn’t even in an attempt to leave. She just wanted to feel the wind in her hair. The show had ended, the guests had left, and she magicked a feather to fly her aloft on the current.

It was exhilarating, freeing… addicting.

Naraku met her as she came back down.

She had not flown since.

He teased her by letting her perform all of the aerial feats in the ring: jumping off high platforms, swinging from rope to rope across the ceiling, standing balanced to perfection at the top of a tower of performers, but he never let her use her powers outside of the arena. And lately, he’d been cutting her acts altogether.

She cursed him in her mind. He knew her obsession with the wind and the sky. It was her element. It was where she belonged.

And he enjoyed keeping her from it.

Kagura followed sullenly behind Kohaku, envious of the blank look in his eyes and the magic that kept him severed from reality. She wished she had such an escape. Naraku would never give her such an easy out.

Suddenly a thought struck her: she was away from Naraku at present, with no one but the bewitched human boy to chaperone her actions. The board had been set against her, but perhaps… perhaps out here she could rearrange the pieces.

She could do it – she could change her circumstances.

She could outsmart Naraku.

She would be free of him.

Reaching out with her aura to read the signs on the wind, Kagura smiled as she sensed the faint traces of spiritual power and demon energy which belonged to their quarry. Her smile darkened and her pace quickened as a plan began to form in her mind.

She would be the wind once again, and Naraku would rot in hell.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a yelp Kagome landed face-first in the dirt again, hands only slightly breaking the impact of her fall. Inuyasha was at her side in an instant, but his kind gesture of helping her up was undermined by his muttering “klutz” at her as she got up and brushed herself off.

“I can’t see when it’s this dark! Don’t you think we should set up camp for the night?”

The half-demon growled slightly, clearly indicating what he thought of her idea to stop, but even he could see that it would be pointless for them to keep going if Kagome couldn’t even walk straight. “Fine. There’s a stream nearby – I’ll go get us some fish.”

And just like that he was off, leaving Kagome to sigh heavily as she searched out a clear patch of earth, squinting in the dark to find a suitable space to build a fire. The night air was full of noises, and although the hooting owls and screeching foxes might once have spooked her, she was glad now for the noises which helped drown out the haunting melody that had plagued her since the previous night.

She had tried to distract herself from remembering the tune by engaging Inuyasha in conversation, but the half-demon was a man of few words, and Kagome couldn’t think of enough trivial topics to keep the exchange going longer than a half hour. She had tried counting her steps, but after the first couple hundred she was ready to tear her hair out. She tried gathering more herbs, but the useful ones were getting fewer and farther between, and eventually it was just too dark to find them at all.

It was lucky Inuyasha had agreed to stop when they did, because she was all out of ideas.

Setting up camp offered a welcome outlet for all the frustration she’d built up during the day, but her experience with the outdoors was sorely lacking. By the time Inuyasha returned carrying two fair-sized fish, Kagome was growling over the circle of stones and pile of twigs as she struck the flint and steel violently, though the only sparks to be seen were coming from her heated glare. Inuyasha rescued the abused fire-starters and made quick work of creating a nice blaze with only minimal commentary on her complete lack of survival skills, while Kagome cleaned and gutted the fish with more pomp than was necessary just to prove him wrong.

The addition to the fish of a few flavorful herbs she had gathered along the trip mollified her half-demon companion enough to where he almost complimented her cooking. Almost.

Inuyasha polished off his dinner in no time, dumping the bones into the fire and then sitting crouched beside it, staring into the flames with a look of deep concentration. Nibbling at the last bits of meat on her own fish, Kagome found her concentration drawn too, but not by the fire.

She was mesmerized by the play of colors off the dog-man’s silver hair, and she couldn’t help but notice how bright and glassy his eyes looked in the firelight… almost like they really were made of amber.

Under the full moon overhead and the glow of the campfire, he truly was a sight to behold.

A sudden twitching motion from the top of his head broke her reverie, and she noticed him grimace as his ear began to flick sporadically, his head tilting to the side as his eyes scrunched closed. The next thing she knew, Inuyasha had his leg stretched back farther than humanly possible and was kicking furiously at his ear, scratching it with his foot. He sat scratching for a few minutes before lowering his leg and shaking his head a bit, then staring back into the fire.

It was mere seconds before his back went rigid and he turned slowly, his wide, panicked eyes meeting the equally wide gaze of the girl next to him, her hands still holding the remains of her fish to her gaping mouth.

The fire crackled noisily in the silence stretching between them, and Inuyasha flinched, his face flushing in anger or embarrassment or both as he all but shouted “What’re you looking at?!”

She blinked but didn’t break eye contact with him, and her lips twitched a little but no sound came out.

Inuyasha’s face burned with the blood-rush, and inside him his heart was burning up with self-hate.

So he was a freak, so what? She didn’t have to stare at him like that… like… like he was just a circus attraction… like he was an animal in a cage. He had never really cared what the demons and humans thought who came to stare at him. They came and went, and if he was lucky he never had to see their vile faces again.

But with Kagome… well, things were just different. She was different.

And no matter how strange he was, despite what she might think of him, he couldn’t stand to think of her coming and leaving like the others.

He was kind of hoping she would… stay.

With another wave of anger he cursed himself for forgetting himself in front of her, for being such a freak, and for letting her opinion matter to him so damn much.

“S-sorry, I just…”

Inuyasha steeled himself against whatever she was planning to say. He wouldn’t let her words get to him – he wouldn’t be that weak.

“That was just… you’re so cute.”

The world around him went blank as he processed what his dog-ears had just heard.… Could they be wrong? They’d never failed him before, but… she couldn’t have said what he thought she had, could she?

Just to be sure, he voiced a tentative “Excuse me?”

Now it was Kagome looking embarrassed as she sputtered out “L-look, I just wasn’t expecting it, alright? I mean you’re this big strong guy and you talk so tough and you look so… but then sometimes you do things like that, or the singing earlier, and it’s… I, uh….”

She was blushing and fidgeting and nearly fuming in frustration at her inability to form the right words, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her.

“You’re so weird.”

Well that stopped her fidgeting. It also gave her presence of mind to chuck a half-burned log at him (which he easily dodged) but he didn’t take his words back. He couldn’t.

Because it was true.

And he wouldn’t have wished her to be any other way.

Apparently deciding she had her fill of him for the day, she dumped what was left of the fish into the fire and stomped off towards an old tree with gnarled roots at the edge of their camp and laid down to sleep. Inuyasha watched her with blatant amusement as she squirmed against the roots, tossing and turning and huffing as she tried in vain to find a comfortable spot. With the most unintimidating snarl he had ever heard, she ripped off her outer kimono and balled it up under her head, but as the night wind brushed her skin she whimpered and slammed her face into the bundled shirt and let out a muffled yell.

Despite the petty part of his brain yelling 'that’s your own fault, stubborn idiot!' his human heart wasn’t about to ignore her shivering.Holding open an arm in what was becoming a familiar invitation, he said as indifferently as he could “Just get over here already.”

Her eyes were narrowed scathingly, but he saw the faint dusty rose on her cheeks. “I’m not in the habit of throwing myself at a man you know.”

“N-no one’s saying you are, stupid!” Inuyasha’s angry outburst and red cheeks let Kagome know that even if he hadn’t meant it that way he was surely thinking now about her ‘throwing herself at him’, and her face erupted into a blush to rival his.

“I just mean – just because the other two nights I – I wasn’t trying to be forward – I’m not that type of girl! So… so don’t go thinking I am!"

Inuyasha’s head was starting to ache from all the blood, and he didn’t think he could stand much more of this conversation before something burst. The thought alone that a girl like her would get flustered over him instead of disgusted was enough to have him reeling for days.

“Dammit Kagome, just shut up and get over here or you’re gonna freeze to death, and the last thing I want is your vengeful ghost comin’ after me!”

Something in the combination of his tone, the mention of ghosts, and the fact that he had just said her name again (this time to her face) had her grabbing her kimono and walking briskly to sit beside him before the fire. With surprising gentleness Inuyasha took her kimono from her and draped it over her shoulders, and after a slight pause undid his mother’s coat and draped it over her as well.

Kagome gasped as the red cloth was placed over her shoulders and said with some worry “Won’t you get cold though?”

He scoffed lightly, responding “I don’t get cold like you weak humans. I’ll be fine.”

She was about to remind him that he was half-human as well, but she was coming to realize that his words were often just a shield. For some reason he didn’t seem to like acknowledging when he was nice.

She smiled as his arm went around her, tucking her into his side without a word, and soon their previous embarrassment was washed away in the comfort they felt in each other’s presence. Kagome leaned into the soft, warm leather of his shirt, gripping the cloth of her shirt and his around her tighter as she unknowingly let out a happy, contented sigh.

And even though she didn’t seem to notice making a sound, he had, and the thought of that sigh kept him up well into the early morning hours.