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Looking at him, no one would think patience was a virtue he had much of.
To an extent, they were right. He wasn't going to sit and act like walking slower than a fuckin' snail was a party, and he wasn't about to go collect no damn itty bitty Jewel shards one by one across the entire country, especially not with some girl he couldn't understand for the life of him.
Yet here he was, doing just that, and it pissed him off.
Patience is not a good thing, not really. All he's ever done is wait, and he sure as hell didn't like it.
Waiting for Okaa-san to work herself to death, waiting for food, waiting for shelter, waiting for whatever it was his bastard kid-self needed at the time, waiting for Kikyo, waiting to be unpinned from a tree, waiting to finally become a full demon, waiting and more fuckin' waiting.
But damn it, if there's one thing he's learned from all that, it's that he can catch a nice fish.
It's an art form at this point. There's no more of that awkward hand dunking he used to do as a kid, splashing around like a clueless idiot. Okaa-san had been his protector as an infant, but her death was the precursor for a lot of realizations and lessons in his life, and not all of them had been pleasant.
Now he sits, quiet and alert, stiller than you could ever get him nowadays, having had his fill of sleep for the last 50 years. It's an act he'd actually enjoyed from time to time, and though the memories of starvation he associates with such a skill are no longer at the forefront of his mind, it makes his thoughts wander into uncomfortable territory.
Currently, his brows scrunch in concentration rather than general irritability. He knows that humans eat often, but not as much as he does. He had figured fish for lunch wouldn't scare her off and made the detour to the river if only to spare himself the inevitable sound of her stomach roiling.
A deer would get her, maybe a boar. He almost cackles at the thought of dropping the large carcass at her feet, watching her scream and fuss. Funny, yes, but a waste of meat.
There's movement at the edge of his vision and he swipes, claws catching on slimy flesh. Yep, still got it. He does it thrice over, and in the end, there's four sizable Shishamo tails in his fist. He ends their suffering with a strategic slice to the gill and leaps over the rocks and onto the soft loam of the river bank.
When he lands, the urge to wiggle one in her face dissipates. She's already watching, eyes wide and lips slightly parted. It annoys him that she looks pretty. He glowers.
"What?" he spits, never the one to welcome looks of any kind, for they almost always meant bad news. Why the fuck is she staring at him like that? Common sense tells him it's 'cause he's fishing with his bare hands like a savage. What does he expect from a human? A Miko no less. Literally the upper echelon of mortal society.
She beams, then claps her hands together, a naked wonder in her eyes that nearly topples him. "Did you catch all those?" she's smiling, leaning in from her rock perch to get a better glimpse of the dripping catch "Four! And you were gone for only like a second!"
She sounds impressed. His face heats up a storm and he's blubbering like a moron before he can deliver an appropriate manly grunt.
"K-keh! It's just some stupid fish!" is what he ends up saying. The way she shakes her head dumbfounds him even more, and if it couldn't get any worse, she stands, hands clasped together as if in prayer.
"Nuh-uh! That's seriously the coolest ever!" The coolest ever? Seriously? She does a little jog towards a shallow area, sandals she calls lo-fers grazing the steady stream, water splashing at her ankles. She hikes up her sleeves, already squatting, knees pressed together. She's whispering to herself, finger flush against her lip in thought. "Say, how'd you do it? I don't see any. " she throws a grin over her shoulder.
"Teach me?"
He just stares, suspicious, and she just stares back, waiting for his response. This girl is not normal. Not in any sense of the word. Nope. He's been around, and if you told him some human would be smiling at him and asking to teach her how to catch fish, he woulda told you to take an extremely long hike. Fresh air did wonders for delusion.
"What for wench?" is what he manages after a solid 10 seconds, still staring. He swears she's rubbed off on him, always making him look at her. Weird. She's weird. It's not him. It's her.
"So I can catch my own? Duh ya silly." he’s starting to get that she means no insult, though he can never really tell with her. She's been throwing him for a loop in the little time he’s known her for and he's not entirely sure how to respond to half the shit she says.
She hums "I was a girl scout for a bit ya know. They never got around to teaching us." her hands shoot out, gesticulating towards him wildly "And look at you! 4 fish in less than a minute! Without a rod no less!"
What the hell is a girl scout? He huffs, voice noticeably softer, which of course he doesn't mean for it to be "I already got some for ya right here." he shakes his fist, fish heads squelching in his grip. "Nothin' wrong with 'em." She blinks, surprised.
"Inuyasha... " she quiets, looking at him again with her weird dumb nice face. "For me?" he quirks a brow and steels himself for a polite rejection. The girl is respectful, sometimes , but having her food touched by a hanyou is surely-
"Thank you."
Her grin is sly, and her eyes sparkle with something he can't really figure out, which doesn’t surprise him. What does, however, is the sudden tightening of his chest. His lungs twist into knots and he resorts to an audible hack. He looks away, attention settling on some beat up driftwood.
"Tch, yeah." Thank you , heh, whatever. It's fish. Big fuckin' deal. Weird.
The miko thinks for a moment, chewing at her lip, before she stands and holds her hand out.
"I can clean them! I think I have a knife somewhere…" trailing off, she's now hand's deep in her comically large pack "We can have some ramen too… how nice- ow fooey!" she curses, huffing fierce. "I forgot it at home! Ugh, I should've done a checklist-"
He slaps the fish onto the large communal rock with a loud thwack , now brandishing a claw. He doesn't admit the small amount of satisfaction he feels when she gapes, her rant stilling. He makes quick work of the scales, leaving them scattered in the sparse grass. She makes no effort to hide her intense study. She’s so open, unguarded. Weird weird weird. He knows he's showing off at this point, but he's already started and he can't take it back .
He darts into the brush and breaks off the necessary amount of sticks, he also swipes up a swathe of rocks along the way. Not long after, there's a fire pit in the middle of their makeshift spot.
She claps like a little kid. He’s half expecting her to cheer, and when she actually does, he thinks he might implode.
“Woo! Encore!” What the hell is going on? It’s kinda funny, now that he’s pretty sure the last time anyone’s ever remotely cheered him on is when his mother taught him how to walk. The expression on his face must be fucking hilarious, ‘cause she laughs.
“I need to get me some of those!” she flexes a hand, faux slashing at the air. “You could make a killing on fish alone! Actually, I heard the price of squid’s gone up recently.” she sighs, chin now resting in her open palm there's a beat of thoughtful silence before she continues, voice soft “It’s kind of amazing ya know?”
“What is?” he finds himself asking a little too fast. He’s engrossed now, curious at the appeal she finds in such a minute part of everyday life. Humans fish. They hunt too. Hell, they grow entire fields of grain and livestock! They got huts and even larger huts near the emperor’s seat in Kyo . So what’s got her so psyched?
“You never really get to do stuff like this anymore in the cities. It’s- it’s different .” she sounds wistful, though she waves it away “I mean- thank god for supermarkets! But it’s refreshing, I guess? I don’t know.” She’s shaking her head, eyes closed for a long moment. He takes that time to look, real close. She looks like Kikyo, a dead-ringer if he had to give his two-cents about it, but at the same time, she’s nothing like her. Her eyes are brighter, her skin is warm and by the looks of it, soft, and the egg-shells he’d always stepped on around the now dead Priestess were noticeably absent.
Weird.
“ I jus’ think it’s real neat, that’s all.” she hums, hands in her lap, fidgeting in his silence “How’d you get so good?”
He snaps back to reality with a snort, tossing a stone up in the air. “Needed ta’ eat somehow.” he catches it, and with a raised arm, he strikes it against another. The resulting spark causes the girl to jump, his lip quirks.
She smiles at him as he blows on the foraged peat, smoke filling up his nose and making his mouth water in anticipation. She doesn’t reply.
After a while, when the sun has fallen, the fish is well on its way to edibility, and the Hanyou is sitting cross legged, eyes fixating on the flames of their meal, there is a small cough.
“So, will you?” she asks, heel rubbing circles into the dirt. He notices she has two bright red things in her hands- not completely unlike the fire rat- one of which she starts to peel open. Her future shit he has yet to get used to. Most of the time he just waits for her to explain instead of asking. The former is infinitely less humiliating. The rip of paper makes his ears twitch.
“Will I?” he repeats, a singular claw raising to scratch at his cheek. “Will I what?”
“Teach me?” her eyes are solely on the cups now, her hands picking and arranging its contents, as if she was embarrassed. She’s embarrassed? Earlier she was acting like a lunatic. He sighs, rolling on to his feet.
“Nah.”
She looks incredulous. Serves her right for making me confused all the damn time. “N-No?” She sputters, heated. There’s a fire in her eyes, further complimented by the way she shoves her hands on her hips. "Think I can't do it or something mister?"
He does. It's not the most difficult thing on earth. A few years in the wild would beat her into shape no problem. Yet, the image of her spending entire afternoons waiting for a catch, skin caked in grime, hollow eyed and starving- it looks wrong.
"Keh, a human like you? I wouldn't bet on it." Is his reply. It's stupid, and he's definitely asking for a fight, but he pushes anyway.
“Keh, knowing you, you’d drown or somethin!" he continues, eyes now closed. "Sides', The jewel ain't gonna be whole any time soon if we spend the whole time fuckin' around."
Instead of a shout, she groans, eyes rolling. "Jerk, I'm not asking to be Rambo . Just lay some tips on me or whatever." She’s- pouting? God help me. “ What If I get lost? Hm? Bet you’ll be kicking yourself when I die from lack of Omega-3.” she rises to her feet, a metal pot she’s suddenly materialized now in hand.
“Besides, I’ll bet you’ll give me whatever I want when you taste this!”
He watches her pad to the river, fill up the pot, return, and pull out some wired mesh on stilts? He watches her ministrations, wholly unfamiliar, and kinda complicated now that he's paying attention. There's Little bags of stuff everywhere, all in characters he doesn't even try to read. She starts to sing under her breath. He's not surprised she can carry a tune, she looks like the type.
By the time the pot's over the fire, the fish are done. He plucks the sticks out from their home in the soil, and blows. He prods it a bit, and once he's satisfied it's not gonna burn anyone's lips off, he stabs two in the ground in front of her. " Here ." he grumbles, then digs in.
He misses the long look she sends his way, rather engrossed in making sure bones don't slide down his throat. When he does look up, it’s only because a whispered " Itadakimasu !" breaks the quiet, followed by another thanks that has him staring at that goddamn driftwood again.
She tears into it with a vigor, looking all too determined. He notes the way she nods after the first bite, a satisfied grin on her face.
A swallow, "Hey, if I finish this first, you gotta teach me- deal?" the fact is that he knows she won’t stop bugging if he says otherwise, so he nods and tooths a fang, telling himself it’s to save his own sanity.
She wiggles her fingers and nods back, brandishing the fish like a sword, tip pointing at him in mock battle. "Ready, set, go!"
She doesn't win, and it's funny how she spends a good chunk of the night entirely bitter. He gloats.
Eventually, she asks again, and he says he'll think about it.
In the end, he never does, 'cause afterall, she's got him to do it for her.