One Can Only Wander For So Long

Revisions! This may as well be a completely new chapter. I rewrote the entire thing from start to finish, following the original chapter six LOOSELY to stay ‘on topic’. Added a new scene.


Disclaimer - Of course, I don't own the Inuyasha characters.


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One Can Only Wander for So Long
By Alesyira

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Chapter Six - Behind Closed Doors


Inuyasha followed Kagome around the corner and into a small bathroom. The tub looked shiny and perfectly clean, and he felt a twinge of regret, knowing the dirt and dried blood – and copious amounts of shed fur – would soon mar the pristine white surface. He watched as she leaned over the tub, twisting knobs and checking the temperature as the water level slowly rose. Once she seemed satisfied with the water, she turned to rummage in a nearby cabinet for soaps.


She had a small selection of shampoos to choose from, and she looked thoughtfully down at the bottles, touching her chin as she considered the options. He looked up at her as she glanced in his direction. ‘Just make up your damned mind, woman, and get on with it!’ he wanted to say, getting antsy to prowl the border of her residence. The longer she kept him indoors with her silly concerns for his comfort, the larger the possibility danger could strike them both unawares. She seemed to be unsure of what would be a good choice, so he huffed and nudged her out of the way of the cabinet. He sniffed carefully along the line of bottles, and upon finding one he liked, nosed it until it fell over. He sat back on his haunches and looked up at her expectantly, hoping she would get the point.


Her mouth quirked in amusement as she reached over to retrieve the bottle he’d ‘selected’, motioning him to get into the bath as she unscrewed the lid. The tub was halfway full, so in a sudden motion of playfulness, he hopped into the tub in a strange angle meant to splash the girl as she poured soap into the palm of her hand. She coughed and sputtered at the sudden deluge of warm water, wiping the liquid from her eyes and face with her soap-free hand. Water dripped from the loose tendrils of her hair as she frowned down at her new friend, but her face softened when she saw the amusement dancing in his expression. She chuckled and tweaked one of his ears in affection before lathering the soap into his fur.


Inuyasha was unsure why he felt so at ease in her presence, regardless of the danger he knowingly brought her by remaining at her side. He looked up into her bright blue eyes as she gingerly ran her soapy fingers through his thick mane. The sensation of her hands rubbing his fur clean was extremely pleasant, and he had a hard time focusing on anything but the soothing rhythm. The water was deliciously warm, drowning his worries in a sea of hazy contentment. His thoughts of patrolling the boundaries of his newest territory faded; his unease at Kagome’s impending doom dissolved into sparkly memories of her happy face as she had rubbed his ears earlier that evening.


The moment of drowsy pleasure faded as she rinsed his soapy fur clean of all traces of blood and grime. She withdrew a few towels from a small cabinet nearby and toweled him dry, gently patting the fur around his face and ears. His necklace clinked softly as she moved around him, jerking him from his carefree thoughts with the reminder of curses and looming threats of violence. He watched as she moved around the bathroom, cleaning the traces of his bath from the floor and tub basin. The sheer amount of fur he’d shed from her thorough scrubbing was cringe-worthy.


His eyes followed the graceful curve of her neck and back as she bent over with the towel, and he marveled at the thought he’d be spending a length of time with such a woman. She wasn’t overly beautiful, but she had a strange strength hidden in the fragile shell of her humanity. Her kindness seemed to have no limits, as she’d demonstrated when she took him trustingly under her wing to shelter and tend to his wounds. Her strength of will and steadfast courage, even in the face of most certain death, was definitely admirable. He knew that, regardless of the trials they would face in the upcoming days, he’d be happy to be by her side – if only to learn more about this girl.


She continued to carefully clean up the mess they’d left in the bathroom as he turned his attention to exploring the rest of her home. He stepped from the bathroom and looked across the foyer to the living room, which was where he had found himself when he’d woken earlier that day. It was filled with shelves of books and had tall glass windows, allowing plenty of sunshine during the daylight hours. He turned and walked down the hallway to his right, finding himself shortly in a spotless kitchen. The scents from prior meals clung lightly to the room, probably noticeable to only someone who had a sensitive nose like his own. The smooth surfaces of the kitchen gleamed brightly in the waning light of the afternoon.


Inuyasha could see a glass-paned door to his right leading from the kitchen to the outside, as well as more large glass windows to his left, in what seemed to be the dining room. ‘There are too many glass entrances in this home,’ Inuyasha thought with a frown. He caught the sight of something moving in his peripheral vision, and as he turned his head, he saw it again: a rustle of tree leaves in the windless afternoon that seemed out of place. He turned in the direction of the disturbance, his eyes narrowing in annoyance.


‘So soon?’ he sighed. He stalked to the kitchen door, examining the handle and lock carefully. It was a simple curved handle, easily manipulated even without his hands. He reached a paw up and pressed the handle down, making silent thanks to whomever designed her doors as the lock bolt turned with his action, saving him many minutes of frustration trying to unlock it with his teeth. He slipped through the kitchen door and stepped carefully around the house, hugging the white walls in a measure of camouflage. The rustling came again from the woods surrounding Kagome’s home, this time accompanied by unnatural sounds he’d been unable to hear through the glass and walls. The barest push of a breeze through the woods brought with it the faint scent of a few insect youkai.


His current bodily limitations had brought him a measure of self-restraint before leaping into battle, and so he waited for a moment to see if the creatures would reveal their intentions or their number and strength. The clicking of sharp mandibles and short bursts of hissing gave him a rough estimate of three, perhaps four of the creatures lingering just out of sight beyond the tree line, but they weren’t coming any closer, yet. He thought about his options for a moment, considering the faint light in the sky that signified that evening drew near.


He didn’t want to wait for the creatures to surround the house after darkness fell, so he leapt quickly into the trees near to where the youkai seemed to wait. They seemed surprised by the sudden flash of white that signified his presence, and he tore through the first stick-like youkai in his path like a hot knife through butter.


Spindly legs flew through tree branches as Inuyasha ripped through the side of the youkai, and the other two creatures that stood nearby turned to face their adversary with a sudden burst of bright yellow fumes. Inuyasha blinked once in confusion at the strange color and odorless property of the air about them and refrained from taking another breath beyond what he’d just sucked in mere moments prior, wary of whatever toxins might be present in the vapors. The first youkai fell apart almost too easily as Inuyasha used his strength and speed, claws and teeth to attack the beasts that had carefully made it past whatever walls Kagome had surrounding her property. He growled in anger at their trespassing, turning on the second beast as quickly as he had the first, and it was soon rendered into a messy pile of branch-like limbs and body parts.


The creatures expelled even more of the yellow gas upon death, and Inuyasha’s lungs screamed for some kind of release as he turned on the third creature. His intake of oxygen during battles was normally fast-paced to keep up with the demands of his smaller body - and he was sure that the slight dizziness that swept over him in waves was a warning that he wasn’t going to be able to continue on like this for long. He made a desperate decision and leapt high above the tree branches, using as much power as he dared consume to get above the dangerous, scentless vapors that the insect-youkai had released. He took in a quick lungful of air before crashing back into the youkai below him, landing in a confused tangle of broken youkai-limbs.


In comparison to the creature they had been attacked with earlier, it seemed that this variety of youkai was far more fragile and vulnerable to his powerful attacks than the sturdy bear had been. The three insects were finally dispatched, and Inuyasha loped away from the site, taking in the fresh air around him in great gasps. The dizziness he’d experienced earlier lingered and grew slightly. He had a strong feeling that the youkai were of a poisonous variety, more likely to have seriously harmed Kagome than they did him, especially if they had tried to launch a stealthy attack after nightfall. He huffed in annoyance and decided to do his patrol now, while there was a moment of peace.


~~~


Kagome finished her task of cleaning the bathroom of all the shed fur and traces of blood, leaving the bathroom with an armload of dirtied towels. She decided the best idea would be to hang them outside to air out in an attempt to keep the deposit of fur to a minimum in her washing machine. She walked down the hallway, humming to herself as she thought back over the events of the day, allowing herself to slip into a calm mindset. She let her senses sweep out like she had earlier, flowing from her freely as she tasted the area around her home to see if she could sense where the white dog had gone. She had a suspicion that the foreign energy she’d touched before the attack by the bear was related to the trace of youkai blood in the canine’s veins.


And there it was: the moment her senses brushed against the wild energy, she recognized it easily from that morning and knew it to be her canine companion. It was pulsing strongly, as though it was being actively tapped into, and she broke into a run as she felt the faint signatures of abrasive youki nearby. She had made out the back door in time to hear a loud crash in the woods just out of her sight, but she had barely enough time to blink before she could see shining white fur emerging from the tree line. She sighed her relief when she saw him coming away from whatever it was unharmed and seemingly unconcerned, so she smiled happily and waved at him before turning to hang the towels over a nearby clothesline.


~~~


He caught sight of her wave and smiled in satisfaction, knowing he’d been able to do some good while he was in her presence. He shook his head, trying to clear the slight daze from his senses before he leapt into the woods. It took little time to locate the perimeter of her yard, and he spent some time running close to the ground, leaving obvious trails of his scent to mark out the boundaries of the land he’d be protecting. The walls that surrounded the yard were nestled amongst heavy foliage, hiding them from view. Inuyasha knew this could prove to be difficult to monitor, as possible intruders could simply use the trees for concealment as they tried to approach the house.


He leapt back to the door he’d exited from, finding Kagome hanging the last of the towels she’d used on a sturdy line. She looked up as he approached, smiling and waving him into the house in front of her. He loped indoors, intent on discovering more secrets of her home. He heard her close and lock the door as he stepped out of the kitchen, into the last room on the lower floor he had yet to see. The dining room had many ceiling high windows loosely veiled in diaphanous curtains. He frowned in concern at the strange mixed sensation that her home brought – a closed, constricted feeling of being shut away from the world, yet so open and unsheltered from whatever might be lurking beyond the senses.


He wasn’t sure why he’d developed an apprehension toward being indoors, but he supposed it had something to do with the fact that he’d lived in the open for so long that he’d grown accustomed to the idea that he could usually hear and smell enemies coming. Living indoors would mean that his sense of smell would be limited by how many windows were open - if any were at all – and his sense of hearing would only be useful if the fiends approaching were humongous beasts with no comprehension of stealth.


He ceased staring blankly out the window as she passed behind him, stepping into the living room towards the dirty plates and food that had been left on the short table. She stacked the dishes carefully as he allowed his gaze to sweep along her body. Her long black hair that had been swept into a tight ponytail earlier in the day was now hanging loosely at the nape of her neck. She shifted slightly, allowing a profile view of her face as she folded the box-lid of a container, and he could see a few wavy strands had escaped to trail against her jawbone. He sighed in annoyance, flexing his paws in the soft carpeting. His lack of fingers meant there would be no endearing moment of tucking a stray tendril behind her ear.


She rose with the dishes and boxed containers, and his gaze was caught by the twitch and flex of her lean legs as she balanced everything precariously in her arms. She seemed intent on making it in one trip, and he followed her in humor, wanting to see if she’d drop anything in the short walk to the kitchen. Her hips swayed slightly as she stepped carefully around the corner, drawing his gaze. He could see that he’d stumbled onto a lovely woman, and with luck, she’d be around for a while longer. He knew that eventually, he’d find someone worth risking his life for, and he was ‘keeping his fingers crossed’ that she would be the one.


His mind wandered as she moved around the kitchen, storing leftovers and washing dishes. ‘The only explanation for the fight with the bear-youkai this morning has to be that I lost control, but why?’ Inuyasha knew his instincts were strong; especially when it came to life-threatening situations, his youkai blood could take over and direct his strength and actions in an effort to prevent his death. But his life had not been under any threat that morning. He could have easily walked away from the youkai that had thought to make a meal of the slim woman who was, at the moment, reaching high into a cabinet to retrieve something out of sight.


But for some reason, his darker side had stepped in to preserve her life, possibly at the expense of his own. With such a slight canine body and without his usual hands and arms, battling effectively was very difficult, as most of his training in combat had been when he was a hanyou. He’d had plenty of time to learn how to stay alive as a dog, but with that experience came the knowledge that some enemies could prove too difficult for him to overcome with his current limitations.


Running away had become a smart move when it came to the larger adversaries that occasionally crossed his path – especially humongous ones like that bear had been. Inuyasha found himself mulling over what had possessed him to come to the girl’s aid when she stepped past his line of sight, walking through the hallway towards the front of the house. He snapped his thoughts back to the present and loped after her.


“I think I’m going to draw a bath for myself, boy. You can sleep anywhere in the house that you’d like,” she said, turning her head to look back over her shoulder at him. He followed her up the wide staircase to the second floor, taking a moment to glance into her large upstairs bathroom as she twisted the knobs at the foot of the tub. The plush rug beneath her feet looked soft and inviting, and he shook the urge to just go to sleep there. He realized that he wasn’t normally this enthusiastic about sleep, reasoning that he must still be suffering from the lingering effects of the yellowish youkai-expelled fumes.


He stepped back and looked side-to-side from the bathroom, noting a few closed doors that lined the second-floor banister. He moved to his left, pawing the curved handle downwards until the door swung silently open. There was nothing of major interest in this room, just a bed and set of drawers, with a heavy curtain hanging over the window. He stepped back out of the room and moved onto the next, which – if he remembered correctly – was right above the living room. He manipulated the door handle the same as before, poking his head into the room to glance around. Even though most of the house had grown dark with the onset of night, the enhanced sight that came with his hanyou blood helped him easily picked out the smallest details. His gaze was caught by a multitude of framed images hanging along the walls, and slipped through the narrow opening of the door to take a closer look.


~~~


Kagome had just turned off the running water before she’d noticed that her canine companion had slipped off. She stood, wiping her hand on her shorts to go see what he was doing. From how intelligent he’d acted earlier in the day, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t catch him gnawing on her painting supplies, but her curiosity was too strong to just ignore whatever it was that he might be up to.


She moved quietly toward the two doors that had been left ajar, glancing beyond the first to ensure it was empty before pulling the door shut. She reached the second door and wrapped her fingers around the edge of the wood, pushing it open a bit farther and allowing a narrow shaft of light to spill in around her. She caught the sight of him staring up at one of her paintings. His expression was definitely not one of a common canine, and while she understood that he had some inherent intelligence, she hadn’t thought he’d show such thought about a wall decoration.


The guestroom he stood in had Kagome’s favorite paintings hung along the walls. She’d chosen the location because it shared the same patterns of sunlight as the library on the lower floor, where she did most of her painting. The way the light spilled through the windows in these two rooms had the effect of making all of her landscape pieces come shimmering to life, and it was the way she preferred to see her work. He sat nearby, carefully looking over every detail of a simple tropical landscape she’d worked on earlier that summer. There was no bored stare that she’d expect from any regular pet; instead, she watched, strangely transfixed by the way he squinted at something, or how his brows rose and fell in contemplation of something.


‘Maybe... I hit my head harder than I thought?’ she wondered to herself, rubbing her head as she frowned down at his almost human-like behavior. Maybe it was her desire for a little bit of normalcy, but she didn’t dare believe what her eyes were telling her. ‘I’m reading too much into this, I think I need that bath now.’ She turned around slowly and walked back in the direction of her bathroom, intent on making full use of the relaxation of her Jacuzzi.


Inuyasha turned to catch the sight of her rubbing her head, and his brow furrowed in concern. ‘Is she still in pain? Fragile human, I’d better make extra sure she’s kept from harm, if she’s broken so easily.’ He quietly followed her as she walked back into her bathroom and saw, from the corner of his eye, the sight of her stripping her t-shirt off.


He half-paused, intent on seeing more of her creamy skin... until the realization that his curse and his very obvious physical limitations would make his stay that much more uncomfortable. ‘If I actually know what I’m missing, it’ll make it so... frustrating...’ He growled to himself as he continued along the hallway, stopping in front of a single door. He was sure that behind this door would lay Kagome’s room, since it seemed to be the last place in the house that he had yet to explore. The effects of the yellowish gas seemed to still linger as he pushed open the door, for as Kagome’s comforting scent washed over him, he felt that drowse from earlier in the evening sinking into him heavily. He stumbled across her floor, barely making it to the foot of the bed before he curled into a fluffy white lump on the floor.


He took a deep, relaxing breath, letting his worries and fears melt away as his lips curled into a satisfied half-grin. His head swam in mild euphoria, and he would have been surprised with his reaction if this were any normal day. Kagome seemed to give him many things he’d come to miss in his solitude – peace, comfort, kindness and companionship. He had found nothing about her to dislike, except for her human frailty, perhaps... But that could almost be overlooked, as long as he was careful in his self-imposed duty to protect her from his curse.


He found the sad and lonely memories of the last half-century fading into an unimportant blur and came to a sleepy conclusion: having her around (and maybe her undivided attention!) for as long as he could keep her safe, even in the face of certain peril and eventual doom, would be infinitely better than ever being alone again.