Moyuhi Mt.

Don't own Inuyasha!!!

It was late evening, the sun just touching the horizon and bathing everything in an orangey-red glow. Most of the people of Kaede's village were grateful for the sunset; it signaled an end to work for the day, the evening meal, and time to spend with family in the warmth of their own homes. However, to Inuyasha, this particular sunset brought nothing but misery.
The young half-demon reclined against a tree trunk on a branch twenty five feet in the air, feet dangling, grumbling silently to himself about his miserable life. His arms were crossed and his expression could almost be described as "pouty." His ears were jaunted in different directions, testimony to his annoyance with his whole situation. He stared off into space, his thoughts dark and clouded.
"Hey, Inuyasha!"
Unwillingly, his ears perked and his expression shifted at the sound of Kagome's voice. He would rather have stayed in his funk, but her presence would not allow him to remain depressed. Now he just felt guilty.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome trotted out of the foliage to the base of his tree. "There you are, I was looking for you." She was up and about, apparently; she looked much perkier than she had hours ago, recovered from the chaos in Mountain's caves.
"What do you want wench?" he grumbled, leaning forward to gaze down at her, glaring like a treed panther. He really didn't want to face her right then, especially not after what had happened and how he still felt about it. She might have forgiven him, but he hadn't forgiven himself.
"You know what day it is, don't you?" she asked, her voice annoyingly--to him--cheerful. "It's getting late. Why don't you come on down from there before you can't jump down?"
Inuyasha snorted, but couldn't deny her irrefutable logic. It would do him no good to get stuck in a tree--like last time. Last time...the time he thought he'd die of embarassment, needing Kagome to coax him out of a big tree with Sango, Miroku, and Shippo watching. They'd had to help him shimmy down the sheer trunk on a rope they'd managed to get to him via Shippo, so he wouldn't break his neck. All because he'd had a fight with Kagome, gone off to sulk, and forgotten what time it was. It was all her fault.
Sullenly, Inuyasha rolled off the branch, landing easily on all fours before rising to face her. Kagome smiled at him, seemingly pleased at his sudden cooperative attitude. "Whadd'ya want wench?" he demanded again.
"Well, it is your time of the month," Kagome responded pleasantly, "and we can't do any Jewel hunting when you're like this. I don't think you want Sesshomaru to catch you tonight, and I'd rather not see you hurt. So...why don't you come spend the night with me?"
"Urk!" Inuyasha's eyes became big golden searchlights as he stared at her in sudden shock. Spend...the night...with Kagome...? "You--you're not--suggesting--?"
"I've already okayed it with my mom," Kagome continued, politely ignoring his stuttering fit. "We can put down a futon for you in Sota's room. Mom was perfectly amenable to the idea--and she'd love to see what you look like when you're human."
"You...you..." Inuyasha growled at her, scandalized. "You told her?!"
"Why not? She's my mother, she lives in my time, and it's not like she can do anything to you. It's the creeps here that we have to worry about."
"And just who else are you going to think is safe enough to tell? Kouga? Sesshomaru? Naraku?"
"Would you quit having such a persecution complex?" Kagome retorted, exhasperated. "I'm not out to get you killed, you know. That's why I'm inviting you to come stay someplace safe."
"What about that old man who talks too much? And what about that kid? Kids have loose lips!"
Kagome put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "They were perfectly serious when I told them it's a secret. Don't insult my family, dog-boy!"
Inuyasha clamped his fangs shut when he realized what he'd said. It was one thing to argue with and insult Kagome directly, but she wouldn't stand for him picking on anyone else--especially her family. She'd sit him so hard his face would go flat.
Kagome hoisted her pack. "Well, I'm going home now. You can come or you can stay; it's up to you."
"Wait, you're not leaving!" Inuyasha grabbed her arm.
Kagome sighed and rolled her eyes. "And why would I stay for shards we can't get? Wasn't that just reflex, Inuyasha?"
He snatched his hand off her arm and grumbled.
Kagome smiled coyly at him. "If you want to spend more time with me, you could just say so."
Inuyasha spluttered with sudden outrage, unable to form a coherent sentence.
"Look, you can come with me tonight, you know. If you miss me that much..."
The half-demon didn't realize how far open his mouth was hanging, nor how red his face was.
Kagome suddenly laughed at him. "Oh, get a grip, you poor puppy dog!" Taking advantage of his stupor, she ruffled his hair, making his ears twitch away from her hand. He jerked away from her, and she giggled at him some more. "I'm not trying to seduce you or anything. Jeeze, I know how much you absolutely loathe me. Can't you take a joke?"
Inuyasha clicked his jaw shut, grumbling and grousing, trying not to show how embarrassed he was at how utterly stupefied he had been. "Fine, fine," he growled, snatching the pack off her shoulder and striding in the direction of the well. "I'll come with you--just this once."
Kagome stared after him, bemused, then trotted along behind him. They reached the well, and underwent the customary in-and-out, Kagome riding on Inuyasha's back. Now it was Inuyasha's turn to follow, and he went after her into the house, feeling almost furtive. He was a guest in Kagome's house, now. He hadn't felt like this all the times he'd come to demand Kagome's return; now that he was actually invited he felt like he had to...behave.
"Mom! I'm back, and Inuyasha's with me!"
"Hello, dear!" called Mrs. Higurashi from the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in a moment. Have Sota show Inuyasha where he'll sleep."
"Inuyasha! Cool!" Sota bounded in from the stairway. "I can't believe you're actually gonna spend the night with me! This is so awesome! It'll be like having a super big brother!"
Inuyasha dropped the pack near the door and turned questioning eyes to Kagome. She shrugged with a helpless smile and mouthed, "Humor him." The dog-demon rolled his eyes but allowed the little boy to grab his clawed hand and lead him upstairs, babbling a mile a minute.
Kagome giggled, and her mother emerged from the kitchen with a pot of rice. "My, for being such a gruff young man, he certainly is good with Sota," Mrs. Higurashi commented.
"Yeah, he likes to be tough, but he's really very sweet sometimes," Kagome said, almost wistfully. "Don't let him hear you say things like that, though."
Grandfather Higurashi limped in from the shrine, yawning and mumbling about the wonderful smell of home-cooked food and the lovely ladies who waited to serve it to him. Kagome sighed and giggled; it was good to be home.
Sota's babbling voice could be heard in the hallway as the two boys came back downstairs. "...and I so wish I could have cool ears like yours!"
"No, you don't," Inuyasha growled in reply. "How do you think everyone else'd treat you if you had ears like mine?"
Sota didn't miss a beat. "All my friends in school would think I was neat! I'd be the most popular kid!"
Inuyasha plopped down to sit on the floor in his customary position, and Sota took up an Indian-style squat next to him. "Trust me, kid, it's better to stay as you are. I've been treated like sh--shmuck--" He quickly amended himself at a glare from Mrs. Higurashi. "--all my life 'cause I don't fit in. If you fit in, be happy. And don't you ever shut up?"
Sota quit talking.
"Ah, the sound of silence!" Kagome giggled. "Really, Sota, it's not like you never see him."
"But he's always in such a hurry whenever he comes!" the little boy protested. "But this time, he's coming just to play with you, Kagome! Isn't that so cool?"
Inuyasha snorted, and Kagome gulped and drew back in surprise. "He's not here to play with me, Sota. He's here to protect himself from demons in his time that want to kill him when he's human."
"How can you tell when he's human?" Sota asked curiously.
Inuyasha sat up. "This," he grumped sullenly, grabbing a lock of his hair and holding it up before Sota's face. Sota stared in surprise--the lock was black. He looked up at Inuyasha, whose formerly pure white hair was becoming streaked with inky black before his very eyes.
"Whoa, Do it again!" breathed Sota.
"Fascinating, I have never seen nothing like that in all my life!" said Grandpa.
"Oh, my....!" gasped Mrs. Higurashi.
Kagome glanced at the shadows on the door. "The sun must be going down right about now," she observed softly. She turned to look back at the transforming dog-demon and was surprised to see him staring at the floor, his teeth gritted and his fists clenched. Was it his customary embarassment about the change that made him look so uncomfortable or--something she'd never had time to consider before--was the change actually...a bit painful?
The last shadows vanished as the sun slipped completely beneath the horizon; the transformation was complete. Inuyasha looked back up at the gathering and frowned, his violet eyes flashing annoyance and insecurity. "What are you all staring at?" he demanded, his voice smoother and softer, lacking the canine roughness it usually had.
Kagome nudged her mother. "C'mon, Mom, give the guy a break. Let's eat!"
That brought everyone out of their stupor and diving for the table, a sudden rush of happy voices and clinking plates and steaming food. Kagome sat next to Inuyasha, who was busy fending off Sota's jabbering questions about how did he do that and how often did it happen?
"Your kid brother's a blabbermouth," Inuyasha reminded her in a whisper between bites of food.
"Yeah, and you like him anyway, don't you?" Kagome teased, keeping her own rate of eating to a ladylike level.
"Hmph!" Inuyasha realized he was eating rather messily and attempted to improve his manners--he was a guest now, after all. "You're the one that made me stay here."
"I made you--?"
And so it went, throughout the meal; little bickering arguments--though they kept the volume down. Inuyasha refrained from using any nasty threats or bad words in the presence of Kagome's family, and Kagome refrained from embarassing him by sitting him in front of everyone. All in all, a workable truce for the evening.
After dinner, Sota invited Inuyasha to play video games with him, but the former dog-demon never quite got the hang of the controller and resigned himself to watching Sota kick monster butt all over the screen. He was privately proud of how he'd handled his frustration over the button-covered little devices, not getting too angry and not breaking anything. When it grew late, Mrs. Higurashi and Grandpa went to bed, reminding the kids to be good during their little "sleep-over." She sternly told Inuyasha that, as the oldest, he would have to take responsibility for the other children's welfare if they were going to stay up late and play. While Kagome was somewhere between mortified and dying laughing, Inuyasha only snorted a little at this, and surprised everyone with his gruff reply.
"Don't worry, ma'am, I'll keep 'em safe."
Kagome gazed at him for a while, something unreadable in her eyes.
When Sota was tired of blowing things up, Kagome invited Inuyasha to pick a movie. At first confused, when the concept of "video" was explained to him he readily picked out a medieval action film. Something about the last dragon in the world sharing his heart with a prince to save his life and that prince grew up to be an evil king and the hero had to kill the nice dragon to kill the king. Was it his imagination or did Kagome lean closer to him when she cried during the sad part? He felt rather cocky sitting next to her doing what all modern boys of her time did for fun. I'm just as "cool" as any of them! Just let that Hobo guy come try and take Kagome away from me now!
Now where the hell did that thought come from?
The movie over, Sota felt playful and laughingly smacked Kagome with a couch pillow. Inuyasha jumped at him defensively, apalled that he'd struck her; he'd been furious enough at himself for biting her and now would allow no other to harm her. He was taken by surprise when Kagome snatched up a second pillow and batted him upside the head with it. He stared at her in shock as she giggled at him before taking off after Sota.
Inuyasha stood gaping for a moment before registering this activity as the one Kagome described as a "pillow fight." Well, who could stand between the great Inuyasha and a good fight? He grabbed the last remaining pillow and leaped after Kagome. Rueing the innate clumsiness of his human body, he chased the brother-sister pillow team upstairs, then down again, surprised to find himself laughing with them. After dodging Sota a third time, he jumped at Kagome but--wham!--ended up barking his shin quite painfully on the low table. He collapsed to the floor, clutching his smarting leg, letting out a stream of half-muffled curses that he immediately regretted issuing, seeing the shocked look on Sota's face. He amended his vocabulary but continued gritting his teeth and clutching his throbbing shin.
"Inuyasha, are you alright?" Kagome asked, kneeling beside him.
"...stupid weak god-darn rickety human body..."
"Um, I'm sorry," Sota said miserably. "I know I'm not s'posed to start pillow fights in the house..."
Kagome smiled gently at her little brother. "Why don't you go to bed now, Sota? I'll see you in the morning."
"But..."
"I promise I won't let Inuyasha leave until he says goodbye to you," Kagome said, patting his shoulder. The little boy got up and headed morosely for his room.
They remained in silence for several minutes. "Are you okay?" Kagome asked softly.
"I hate this stupid body!" he hissed angrily, still trying to rub the sting from his leg. "If I were still me this wouldn't have happened!"
"If you were still 'you' we wouldn't have had this nice evening," Kagome retorted. "Even you can't deny you enjoyed it."
Inuyasha stood with a huff, favoring his bruised leg. "Okay, I had fun," he admitted reluctantly. "But that doesn't mean I enjoy being stuck like this."
Kagome stood with him, pinning him with her strong sapphire gaze. "Why do you hate being human so much?"
"Because it makes me weak god..da..grr.!" Inuyasha growled, much less impressively without his doglike attributes. "I hate it because I'm stuck in a powerless, half-blind, senseless body that any idiot can kill easily while jerks like Sesshomaru go through their lives without a hitch like this!"
"And what is so bad about being human?" Kagome asked again, perturbed. "I'm human, and it doesn't inconvenience me."
"You're used to it!" Inuyasha retorted. "This stupid change--it just makes me weak and ugly!"
"You are not ugly Inuyasha!" Kagome asserted without a second's hesitation. Then she paused and thought for a moment, studying him, deciding to try another tactic. "You love your mother, don't you?"
"Yes, I do! But what does she have to do with anything?"
"If you love her, then why do you hate her memory so much?" Kagome demanded, her face scrunched up with anger.
"What--?"
She grabbed him by the hand and dragged him after her down the hall and into the bathroom. Surprised at her words and actions, and without his demonic strength, he didn't quite have it all together enough to stop her. She shoved him up to the mirror and practically shouted at him. "Look! Look in this mirror and think! Look at what your mother gave you!"
Struck by her words, he stared at her, and for a flicker of a moment, in the corner of his eye, the person in the mirror was his mother. He turned abruptly, his attention caught, and saw himself--for the first time completely and clearly--as a human. He could only stare.
"I saw the image of your mother the Nothing-Woman made," Kagome said softly. "All the other times you've been human, something terrible has happened and I've never gotten a chance to think about it. Tonight it occurred to me: When you're like this, you look just like her." His gaze turned to her in suprise, but she nudged him to turn him back to the mirror. "Look."
For the first time, Inuyasha realized that his rarely-seen human appearance was truly a gift, in memory of his beloved, long-dead, greatly-missed mother. He could see her in the face in the mirror: Her long, glossy, night-black hair that had been so soft when he touched it as a child; her large, soft, deep violet eyes that had gazed at him with such love; the familiar lines of nose and jaw that made up a face that haunted his sweetest dreams of childhood.
"I've never...seen myself like this," he confided softly. "Not really. I never knew..." There were elements of masculinity and differences in dimension and expression that distinguished the face of human Inuyasha from that of his mother, but the resemblance was striking and unmistakable to those who knew what both looked like. My human heart...all from her...
"See? This is the gift she gave you," Kagome continued. "She gave you so much, having you and raising you and all that, but because of your father she couldn't give you any of herself--except for one night. She has one night to remind you how much she loves you. She still lives inside you, Inuyasha. She only comes out once every month on the night of the new moon, so you don't forget her."
"I'd never forget her," Inuyasha asserted earnestly, barely able to keep up his customary facade. It was hard; his mind was too filled with wonder. Once a month, on the night of the new moon, he could look into the mirror and see her face shining out of his own. With such a breathtaking, newly-discovered opportunity, maybe turning human wasn't so bad. After all, it was the gift his mother had given him. Kagome still held his hand, but right now, somehow, he didn't mind.
Finally, Inuyasha couldn't suppress a yawn; his human body signalled him with the need for sleep. He let Kagome continue to hold his hand as she led him upstairs; he was grateful to her for bringing him this thoughtful revelation, and in the midst of his emotion and confusion, with his dulled human senses, her touch comforted him when her scent could not. He stopped at her bedroom and opened the door for her, feeling oddly relaxed in her presence.
Kagome squeezed his hand and released him, smiling gently. There was a calmness in his violet eyes that she'd never seen in his human form before; perhaps her little idea had found him some peace of mind for the new moon nights. She fought the urge to touch him again, perhaps to hug him, and only said simply, "Good night, Inuyasha. Sweet dreams and don't let the bed bugs bite."
He stared at her for such a long moment that her heart beat faster. Was he going to--? No; it was Inuyasha she was looking at. He loathed physical contact--especially with her. Wonder of wonders he'd let her hold his hand so long.
Her heart fluttered and her knees went shaky when he actually touched her cheek with the lightest feather of a fingertip. "Good night, Kagome. And...thank you." His whispered words were quiet, and his smooth human voice was so soft, so husky, so...almost...gentle.
She managed a breathless, blushing smile, and he gave her a small, rakish grin--just enough to remind her that he was Inuyasha and not her Dream Guy. As he turned and headed for Sota's room, she shut her door, leaning against it with a sigh. Then she snapped out of it, remembering that he was Inuyasha, and got dressed for bed.
In Sota's room, Inuyasha could sense that the little boy was still awake. "G'night, kid," he whispered, stripping out of his kimono and pulling back the covers of the futon laid out for him.
"I'm sorry I started a pillow fight and you got hurt," Sota said quietly, facing the wall.
Inuyasha had to muffle his laughter. "Hurt? That was nothing. Heck, I've been poisoned, stabbed, sliced, and almost anything else you can think of while I'm human. Just banging my shin on some table isn't gonna kill me."
"I'm still sorry and I fell bad about it."
"Okay." The kid still felt bad about it. Inuyasha pulled up the covers and laid back, thinking. "Look, how about next time I spend the night, I'll let you teach me all about that Nin-ten-due machine thingy. Then you and I can play together." And what made me think there's gonna be a next time?
Sota rolled over to face him. "Promise?"
"I promise." I guess I just decided there is gonna be a next time. I'll make sure of it.
"Yeah! You're really gonna play with me next time? Wow, it'll be so cool! I can't wait--!"
"Hush your voice, brat, there's people trying to sleep, y'know," Inuyasha growled gruffly, but his expression was good-natured as he closed his eyes.
Sota quit jabbering but still wriggled with excitement, smiling endearingly at Inuyasha. "Thank you, Inuyasha! You're the best big brother I could ever have!" he whispered before turning back over and trying to sleep.
Inuyasha's eyes popped open and he gazed at the little boy's back for a time. Then, with a comfortable smile, he rolled over himself and settled in for the night. This had been a most enjoyable evening, he had to admit. No evil demons, no annoying half-brother; just a warm, friendly family, a delicious meal, and time to spend with Kagome. And he owed it all to his human transformation. This wonderful time he'd spent having simple fun with Kagome was all the result of her concern for his welfare during his weaker human phase. The fact that Kagome cared that much about him made him feel...a lot more appreciated, to say the least. As if that whole frightening, confusing, terrible mess in the tunnel trap had never happened. Maybe since Kagome's left it behind...I can, too. Maybe things can be normal again for me.
It would be back to the ususal bickering rat race tomorrow, so he might as well enjoy a warm house and a soft bed while he had it. He smiled as he nodded off, sending a thought of deep gratitude heavenwards, thanking Mother for her precious gift; that which she had given of herself. It was her gift--her blood--that had given him, besides his human heart, this one special night. Somethinig reminded him of what Kagome said something about bed bugs...

I hope you all like it.please review.