What is this feeling? Why am I keep thinking about that Crazy Human? There's nobody more important to me than Kikyo but--
InuYasha lingered at the edge of the field, far enough away to pretend he wasn't watching, close enough to catch every laugh and teasing shout. His companions were bunched together, entertaining each other like they didn't have a care in the world—and somehow, without him noticing when it happened, they'd slipped past the walls he kept locked around his heart. And right in the middle of it all was Kagome, the human girl who somehow mattered to him most, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. Still, his mind kept snagging on something else: one fleeting, ridiculous moment with a hopeless girl named Heavenly-Autumn. She had been bold—too bold—planting a kiss on him without warning. Soft lips, a sweet strawberry taste, and then the two of them tumbling into the water midair as he hauled her out of danger. It should've been nothing—just an accident, a mistake, a split-second surprise—but it refused to stay small in his memory. "Did you not feel our hearts collide?" he remembered her saying, shameless as ever. He should've scoffed. He should've barked at her to shut up. Instead, for some odd reason, his heart hammered in his chest like someone was beating a drum half to death, loud enough that he was sure the whole field could hear it.
It's not like I'm going see her again! She's probably already dead, what's the point of thinking about the dead anyways.
InuYasha tried to shove the memory away, but the night clung to him like burrs in his hair. Heavenly-Autumn—too lively for someone with a fated sickness hanging over her—had looked him dead in the eyes as if she had all the time in the world. He could still hear the lilt of her voice, that reckless, sunshine kind of confidence that didn't belong in the middle of danger. And what she'd said when she left… it wouldn't stop replaying, no matter how hard he told himself it was stupid. " Don't worry—next time we meet, I'll craft an even better bracelet for you. When you see me, be ready for something special—marriage might be just in the air. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, after all, and I can't wait to prove it. I promise to keep my chastity just for you to take. Okay? Lord InuYasha." The words were absurd. Embarrassing. Infuriating. And yet, they lodged in his chest like a splinter he couldn't dig out.
His gaze dropped, almost against his will, to the straw bracelet hiding beneath the cuff of his red sleeve. It was rough, a little crooked, and it scratched at his skin every time he moved his wrist—annoying enough that he should've ripped it off and tossed it into the dirt. His fingers even twitched like they were ready to do it. Instead, InuYasha only scowled harder, huffing through his nose as if the air itself had offended him, and yanked his sleeve down a fraction more. He'd leave it. For now. That didn't mean anything.
" InuYasha, are you okay?" Shippo asked, craning his head up at him with wide, worried eyes.
" Would ya get off me? I'm fine. Quit starin'." InuYasha snapped, the heat in his face immediately making him angrier.
" But Master InuYasha, why is your face so red?" Myoga chimed in, hopping closer like this was the most delicious mystery he'd ever sniffed out. "And you seem deep in thought! No matter how many times I called your name, you didn't respond."
" I said I'm fine!" InuYasha barked, too fast, too loud. He turned away sharply, as if the angle of his shoulders could hide the obvious. "Drop it already."
Shippo's ears perked with sudden suspicion. " Are you having naughty thoughts like Miroku?" he demanded, sounding both curious and personally betrayed.
" Oh, Shippo!" Miroku gasped, placing a hand to his chest like a wounded saint. " Don't hold me in such high regard."
" How disgusting," Sango said flatly, not even bothering to look impressed or surprised.
Kagome's eyes narrowed, sharp as arrows. " You were probably thinking about Kikyo, weren't you?" she said, the sweetness in her tone completely fake and the jealousy underneath it anything but quiet. Then she lifted her chin, voice ringing out. "Sit, boy!"
The white and purple beads around InuYasha's neck flared with magic, and his body betrayed him instantly—slamming face-first into the ground with a solid thud that made dirt jump. "Gah—Kagome!" he sputtered, muffled by the earth. He lifted his head just enough to glare, cheeks burning for entirely different reasons than before. "You're wrong! Why does this only happen to me?!" He groaned dramatically, half in pain, half in outrage, as the others looked on—some amused, some annoyed, and Kagome entirely unrepentant.
"Why's it always Kikyo rattlin' around in that thick skull o' yours, hmm?" the elder priestess said, folding her arms as though she'd been waitin' her whole life to scold him. Her eyes shone with a sharp, knowing glint. "If ye truly care for her, then stop broodin' and start swingin'—defeat Naraku, and let that poor girl's soul finally rest in peace." She jerked her chin toward him, voice rising like a bell over the chatter. "And enough o' yer silly gaggin' and carryin' on with the lot of ye! Go on—do what needs doin'. I'll be right here when ye come back again, so don't ye dare go dyin' on me."