Lust or Love

Robert P. Hill
hhill
3
11
2002-11-06T01:19:00Z
2002-12-27T22:37:00Z
1
1780
10151
My Company
84
23
11908
10.3501



BestFit
Clean
Clean
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Lust or Love?   

 

An alternative fanfic created by
Phlie.

A/N: Yojin
is Japanese for smoldering fire  

 

Chapter 12 – Fire

 

It had been a few weeks since
Kagome had been duped and she was still feeling the effects.  It wasn’t so
much that the boy had turned into someone who merely lusted after her, it was
that he had originally acted just as Inu Yasha was acting now.  It was
almost as if the two boys had switched, and that was just too unsettling. 
Inu Yasha had been picking her flowers, bringing her fruit, and had wanted, on
several occasions, to take long walks with her.  On these walks they did
nothing but commune with nature.  He even sometimes held her hand, acting
all the while like he was the shy school girl.  Kagome had wanted someone
to like her for herself and not just her body, but Inu Yasha was acting like he
was her servant, not an equal who would love and respect her.  This had to
stop.

 

They had been wandering the
countryside, trying to find any type of clues as to where shards were.  At
this point they probably would have gone off on a wild goose chase, anything to
get some adventure back in their lives.  They were passing over simi-familiar grounds and Kagome suggested that they take a
break.  She knew that there was a cool spring nearby and she had the need
to be clean and relax.  Usually Inu Yasha would have thrown a fit, telling
her that she was lazy and that they were not stopping.  To everyone’s
surprise, he readily agreed and walked towards the girl, about to reach out his
hand to her.

 

Kagome knew he wanted to go on
another one of those now so pointless walks.  First off they had just
stopped walking.  Secondly, she needed some time to talk to Sango,
alone.  She ignored Inu Yasha’s hand as she brushed past him, grabbing
Sango’s arm and dragging her along towards the spring.  Miroku was almost
as upset as Inu Yasha was; he had been planning on spending some ‘quality’ time
with his lady love again.  Inu Yasha looked over to him and smirked. 
‘Those two have been busier than rabbits lately’, he thought to himself. ‘Can’t wait til Kagome
finally comes around.’

 

* 
*  *  * 

 

“You don’t have to drag me, you
know” griped Sango.  “I need a bath and was going to join you.”

 

“I’m sorry.  I just had to
get away from him.”

 

“Him?  Do you mean Inu Yasha?”

 

“Yes!  Oh, Sango…if I had
known that life could be this horribly boring I would have stayed asleep after
attacking Kikyo.”

 

Sango’s eyes got wide and she suppressed
a giggle.  “Inu Yasha is boring?”  She couldn’t believe what she was
hearing.

 

“Well, he wasn’t at first. 
He started being really, really nice to me and doing nice things for me. 
But the longer this has gone on, the more boring it has become.  I thought
that I wanted someone like that mystery guy, not like Inu Yasha.  The more
I think about it, though, I really wish I could find someone that was more a
healthy combination of the two.”

 

Sango thought about what her
friend was saying.  She knew that Inu Yasha was really what Kagome
wanted.  ‘Inu Yasha the way he used
to be’, she thought.  If only he would quit playing games, he
would have her faster than you could say Shikon shards.  She was gonna
hav tel tell him to stop pulling this shit.  She was about to remind her
friend of how Inu Yasha used to be when they heard a rustling in the bushes.

 

“Oi,
who’s there”, Sango called out as she silently made her way over to the bushes
in question.  It was a good thing they had just made it to the spring instead
of being nearly defenseless in the water. 

 

A tall, dark haired man stepped
out from behind a tree.  He noticed the two girls and smiled slightly
before diving into the bushes in front of him.  There was a loud rustling
of leaves as the man apparently fought for control of whatever was in
there.  Finally triumphant, the man stood and pulled out a startled
kitsune.

 

“Shippo, what were you doing in
the bushes”, cried out Kagome.  The child just shrugged, which looked
really funny since he was upside down.  “Inu Yasha told me to watch out
for you two.  Something about having an uneasy feeling.” 
Shippo looked up at his captor, glaring at him.

 

“You ladies know this youkai”,
the stranger asked.  Sango and Kagome simply nodded.  “In that case I
shall have to release you”, he said as he turned to look at Shippo.  “You
are very lucky to have such beautiful friends,
otherwise I would have destroyed you.”  He set the kitsune down and turning back
to the girls he bowed slightly and then smiled broadly at the pair.  “My
name is Yojin; I am the defeater of youkai and
protector of nature.”

 

Sango rolled her eyes.  She
thought she was gonna get sick from all the lines he was feeding them. 
She turned to look at her friend, expecting to find the same look of disgust on
Kagome’s face.  The girl was sorely disappointed, though.

 

‘Smoldering fire is right’, thought Kagome.  She looked at the
man standing in front of her.  He had dark eyes, so dark that you knew you
could get lost in them.  One step into their depths and you would be
pulled under, locked in an eternal embrace.  His hair was shorter than
hers and was the color of his eyes.  He had a tanned color to his skin, as
if he spent a lot of time outdoors.  ‘Well,
he did say he was the protector of nature’, she thought to
herself.  Her eyes trailed down to his muscular body.  He was wearing
formal attire and it enhanced his figure, unlike Inu Yasha’s clothing.  He
didn’t look as if his body was just hulking, bulging muscles, but he was well
defined. 

 

He noticed that Kagome was
looking him over and he shot her a look of amusement.  He was used to the
reaction he got when telling females his name.  That’s usually when they
realized that his name fit him.  He didn’t think he was being full of himself. 
He took it as a fact that women wanted him.  He was about to say something
terribly clever and seductive to the girl when he felt something hitting him on
the head.  He looked around and spotted the kitsune hiding behind the
other female, the child was throwing rocks at him!  He yelled out and
reached for the fox, managing to knock Sango over in the process.

 

Kagome looked up suddenly. 
It was as if she had been in a daze.  She saw Yojin
running after Shippo, ignoring the fact that he had knocked down her
friend.  She went over to help Sango up.  Both girls ran after them,
trying to keep up.  By the time they did, Inu Yasha and Miroku had saved
the life of their furry little friend.  Inu Yasha was livid.  He
didn’t know who this guy thought he was, but he wasn’t gonna hurt any of his
friends.  It was written all over his face.

 

Seeing the look on the hanyou’s
face actually made Sango feel better.  Maybe now the fool would wise up
and be the man Kagome wanted and needed.  She went over to where Miroku
was and whispered in his ear, “Don’t object if the man wishes to accompany us
in our journey.  We need to make Inu Yasha snap out of this before he
looses Kagome.”  The monk nodded slightly and looked over at Sango. 
She had a sly look on her face and Miroku thought she looked good when she was
plotting.

 

“Inu Yasha, you haven’t gotten to
meet our new friend”, began Sango.  “He rescued us from the ever dangerous
Shippo-chan!”  She couldn’t help it, this guy REALLY got on her last nerves.

 

Inu Yasha backed down and looked
over at a star struck Kagome.  He didn’t like what he saw and resolved to
get rid of this guy as soon as possible.  There was no way he was going to
be able to court Kagome with this goon hanging around.

 

“Oh, Kagome!  I just remembered that we
didn’t take our baths!  I really need to go get cleaned up.”  Sango
turned to head back towards the spring, but Kagome wasn’t following.  She
was just standing there, staring at Yojin.  This
time she was the one dragging a friend to the water

 

* 
*  *  * 

 

When the girls returned from
their bath, they began to heat some water for the ramen that the group would
eat.  Sango needed to talk to Inu Yasha and so asked him to please look
for some herbs with him.  Miroku was at first hurt, but then he remembered
that his love had been scheming and decided this must be part of her plan.

 

Once they got out past the camp,
Inu Yasha and Sango both turned towards each other and in hushed voices began
questioning each other.

 

“What the hell is that guy doing
here”, began Inu Yasha.

 

“He claims he’s a killer of
demons, but I don’t think that he knows the first thing about it.  It took
him long enough to catch Shippo!”  She just knew that Yojin
was lying about that, if not everything else.  He seemed so false. 
“Besides, what you really need to worry about is Kagome.”

 

“Yah, I saw how she was looking
at him.  What’s so wonderful about that creep?”

 

“I don’t think it’s what’s so
wonderful about him, as much as what’s not so ordinary.  She thinks you
only want to be her friend.  You need to ditch the act and be
yourself.  The guy she could argue with and yet at the end of the day
trust enough to watch over her.  She needs balance.  That’s why she hasn’t
responded to the hanyou or human you.  It’s one extreme or another. 
Quit trying to pretend and just be yourself!”  Oh, he was so thick headed!

 

Sango grabbed up a few wild
onions and walked back to the campsite, refusing to answer any more of Inu
Yasha’s questions.  She just hoped like hell that he had listened to her.

 

* 
*  *  * 

 

 

After dinner the group just sat
around the campfire.  No one spoke for the longest time.  Everyone
was looking at Yojin, just waiting to see what he would
do.  He only seemed interested in Kagome.  He flashed his sexiest
smile every time he caught her looking towards him.  She was having a hard
time concentrating on anything after one of his smiles, but one thought that
managed to creep through was the fact that he wasn’t being nice, or even just
friendly, to anyone but her.  She started feeling guilty, though and
looked over towards Inu Yasha.  He was watching her protectively. 
That wasn’t what she had expected.  The way he had been acting lately she
thought he would just lay down and die, letting the other man win her
over.  She looked at Inu Yasha closer and saw a glint in his eyes,
something she had missed for a long time now.  He turned for a moment to
survey Yojin.  The human just sat there, trying
like hell to get Kagome to look at him again, as if she would just by him
willing it.  ‘Yojin may think he’s a hot fire, but he doesn’t
have anything on me’, thought Inu Yasha.

 

He turned back to look at
Kagome.  She saw power in the eyes that looked upon her now and the
thought made her shudder with delight.  It was almost too much to bear,
however and she got up and walked away from the fire.  She hadn’t gone far
before she felt two strong hands grabbing her shoulders to spin her around and she
turned with a smile to greet Inu Yasha, but instead found the boringly perfect Yojin.  He was handsome, but he was dangerous, more
dangerous than Inu Yasha could ever be.  She recalled hearing someone tell
her ‘don’t play with fire, you might get burned’ and she believed it.  He
reached his hands up to caress her throat and even though she didn’t want to be
with him, she had to admit that to finally be touched was marvelous.

 

Inu Yasha had turned to get some
more wood for the fire and when he turned back Kagome and the new guy were
gone. 

 

“Go after her you fool”, hissed
Sango.  “Don’t leave them alone together!”

 

Inu Yasha didn’t need further
prodding.  He ran towards Kagome’s scent and reached her just in time to
see Yojin start to strangle the girl.  Inu Yasha
screamed out and leapt into the air, ready to pounce on the man that dared to
hurt his Kagome.  Just as his claws were about to slice into Yojin, there was a bright light that almost exploded in
front of him.

 

Yojin had burst into his flames, just as
his name had implied he would.  It was at that moment that Naraku
attacked.

 

____