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Inuyasha should have known that when Kagome yelled "Shut up and sit" that it had been more of a reflex than her actually being angry with him. Didn't mean he liked hitting the rocky ground though. But… he couldn't get mad at her for this one. He'd scared her with his stunt, even if it was saving her life.
He hadn't been expecting her to still be crying even as she started to pry him up off the ground.
"You can be such a jerk sometimes," she sniffled. "I thought you were dead, Inuyasha."
"Ain't I said before that my body can take more than a human's?"
"That doesn't mean throw yourself off a cliff!"
A throat clearing interjected, cutting the hanyou off from retorting. Both turned to see Miroku and Shippo watching from a safer distance. "Now that things are – more or less – back to normal, we should really be going. Sango will be waiting for us at her village, and I believe that the sooner we get away from this place, the better." Without waiting for a response, they turned and left the squabbling pair.
But just because their friends left didn't mean the argument ended.
"You were human, Inuyasha! You could have died!"
Kagome made to stomp her foot, as if that would somehow get her point across better, when she stepped down hard on a rock that jutted out at a bad angle. In seconds Inuyasha was kneeling in front of her, lifting her foot up to check for damage, and on reflex, Kagome had braced her hands on his shoulders. Then she remembered she wasn't wearing panties and let out a shrill noise.
"What's your problem?" he asked, ears pinned back. "I was trying to make sure your foot was okay!"
"I'm naked!" she hissed. "I don't have anything on under your fire rat, remember!"
Yes he remembered.
Yes he was trying to block out the image of her standing in that sake bath.
Yes he was trying to block out that her naked form was covering his robe in her scent.
No he was failing on all accounts.
And she just had to make all of those thoughts converge front and center.
It took a few attempts to get his brain to think of words that didn't involve him coming off sounding like a pervert, but he managed to determine that her foot was unharmed before saying that he knew where her clothes were. Or, he thought he did. The structure was a labyrinth essentially in design.
He hadn't located Kagome right off. He'd thrown himself into four other rooms before he found her and….shit don't think of that.
So when he kept getting turned around, he wasn't the least bit surprised. It was hard to track her scent amid the mildew, the sake, and everything else. The woman next to him, with her scent hovering under his nose, wasn't helping either. And she was still going on about how reckless he had been!
"Do you have any idea how scared I was? How worried we all were? Inuyasha, sometimes you act like we aren't even there and –"
"And what?" He stopped suddenly, whirling on her.
Kagome hadn't been expecting the sudden stop and would've walked into his chest if he hadn't gripped her by the shoulders. "I…it…scares me that you don't think much of us, is all," she mumbled. "We're your friends, and you don't seem to care about that."
"Feh. Shows what you know." She really believed that he'd toss himself over a cliff on his human night if he didn't give a damn about her or the rest of them? If he was suicidal he'd have done taken care of that longago, and wouldn't have waited for his human night to do it either. He was a fighter through and through; if growing up in the world alone hadn't broken him, he wasn't about to take his own life without good reason. To him, Kagome was a good reason.
She didn't seem to get that though. No, she was missing the point.
"Why are you scared of loving?" she blurted out. She hadn't meant for it to come out that way, but…the point still stood! May as well dig that hole deeper. "And 'shows what I know'? Really, Inuyasha. You can't just dismiss your friends like that! You really can be such a jerk sometimes, you –!"
The strong hands on her shoulders pulled her forward without warning, and she felt his lips crash against hers, cutting off her attempts at a rant. Inuyasha tried not to let the kiss go beyond that, but her scent was flooding his senses. The way she gripped his kosode as she returned the kiss, how she pressed against him as she stood on her toes… if he didn't stop he'd be in trouble.
Fuck he already was.
When he pulled away, the sight of Kagome's parted lips and dazed expression made him want to kiss her again. Both a good and bad idea. He settled for keeping his arms around her, pulled against him. They were alone. He could get away with that.
"Who said I was scared?" he whispered, looking into her eyes. "Just because I can't say some things directly doesn't mean I don't feel them, Kagome. I find other ways of showing what I can't say."
He knew it finally clicked when her expression changed. Her eyes widened in surprise, a faint blush rose up in her cheeks, and her scent…okay not focusing on that other than it was a good reaction. She was too close to really think on how good of a reaction it was, cause he didn't want to scare her. But then, she'd kissed him back so maybe it wouldn't…
Too. Early.
Kagome's hands let go of the kosode and slipped around his middle, pulling herself closer. "I understand, Inuyasha," she replied. "Sorry I yelled at you."
"You didn't know." The feel of her laying her head on his chest was nice, even if he was certain she could feel how fast his heart was pounding. She really hadn't realized, and he'd bit back at her accusations in the same manner. No, he couldn't say outright that he cared about her, or that he loved her even the smallest amount, but he could show her. He could show it when he hunted food, found good places to camp, sought out the good hotsprings. He could show it when he threw himself in front of her in a fight, or when he stood up for her honor. He showed it when he gave her his fire rat to cover herself with. "Come on," he coaxed, turning them toward the stairs. "I think we're close to where your clothes are."
Both kept an arm around the other as they walked. It was slow and could've been faster if they hadn't, but it was their time. They knew they wouldn't get another chance at being alone for a while once they met up with Miroku and Shippo again.
"Something confuses me."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. You said that Tokajin had thrown my uniform into a pile on the floor in the room that held you with the vines. When you got loose, why didn't you grab them?"
Shit. Why hadn't he?
"I…uh…" Dammit he was blushing. "It's not what you think, Kagome!"
Her laughter echoing around them on the stairwell should've annoyed him. It made his embarrassment lessen, because she knew he hadn't been thinking. He'd been so scared at the thought of her having been killed that all he could think of was getting to her. He needed to know that Tokajin's words were lies. So he'd forgotten about the discarded clothes in the heat of the moment. Hadn't thought to consider that she'd be naked until he barreled through the cellar door and seen her standing there.
She had been a vision though.
Inuyasha let Kagome laugh, but he couldn't tell her that aside from just forgetting, he didn't know if he could bring himself to pick up her panties. There were just some things he didn't feel like he had a right to touch, and that was one of them.
For now.