Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha
0-0-0
Cradling a cup of tea beneath her chin, Kagome stared pensively at her little Christmas gift as he slept soundlessly on her futon. If she’d found any other stranger lying in the middle of the street half buried in snow, she would have called an ambulance and left it at that. But this creature was not human, that much was certain, and she hadn’t wanted to relinquish him, however selfish that might be.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t worrying about her unexpected visitor, to the contrary she was knelt beside him, alternatively taking his temperature and checking that he was still breathing. Every now and then, even though she knew she was infringing on his personal space, she found herself stroking his hair back from his brow as she checked for a fever, lingering more than was normal.
Blue eyes widened and his muscled arm twitched beneath the blankets and she leaned forwards, placing her tea cup onto the table. Her hair fell forwards in a dark curtain as she leaned over him. His brow twitched and magenta eyelids fluttered.
Once again, she found herself captured in the enrapturing gaze of his golden eyes, the slitted pupils confirming that he definitely wasn’t human. His gaze flitted around her tiny apartment warily and she felt the need to reassure him.
“You’re safe here,” she murmured, “I promise.”
Eyes narrowed cautiously and she eeped as he grabbed her wrist and brought her down towards him on the futon. Her free hand shot out to prevent her from falling onto the male on the futon and she watched in mute confusion as he inspected her wrist. A shiver shot down her spine as he inhaled along the skin of her wrist and her heart stuttered as he licked teasingly down the veins visible in her wrist.
Normally, if anyone had started to lap at her wrist sleepily like a languid cat with a platter of milk she wouldn’t have been so calm about it, but she couldn’t bring herself to pull away or break eye contact with those intense golden orbs.
And then his rich baritone voice rumbled against the skin of her arm. “I believe you.”
Stunned into absolute stillness, she merely watched as he slumped slowly back into unconsciousness and she quickly grabbed at his broad shoulder.
“Is there anything you need?” she demanded, frazzled nerves getting the best of her.
Lethargically, he examined wide panicked eyes and her overall frazzled demeanour before yawning. “Rest... safety.”
And his eyes slumped shut and he was gone again. Lost once more into the world of sleep.
She stared at his angelic demeanour in the half-light of the biting winter’s day for a long while, watching the rhythmic contractions of his powerful chest as he breathed deeply. Eventually, she fell back onto her bottom on the wooden floor and hugged her knees to her chest. Well, he hadn’t been very informative. But at least she felt less panicked about keeping him in her apartment as opposed to taking him to a hospital.
“But that still leaves the question,” she mused, idly tracing the curve of his crescent moon once again, “Where am I supposed to sleep?”
***
The long shadows of a winter’s evening greeted him as he opened his eyes after his long recuperative sleep. Breathing in deeply through his nose, his tensed muscles relaxing as he let the scent of unthreatening human woman drift over him. She smelt contented too and a little panicked but not scared. That was strange; she’d seen him quite clearly and should have noted the markers that set him apart from her kind. Most humans would be wary; she seemed to have disregarded it completely. He was both miffed and comforted by that fact.
Her scent saturated him intensely, clinging to his clothes and hair and even his skin. It was unpolluted by the usual perfumes human women generally employed. But he found her natural scent was pleasant and he enjoyed it clinging to his skin in such a way. The more primal animalistic part of him reared its head and he sat up woodenly in the futon to look around for the girl.
She was beside him in a low rocking chair with her head slumped back and her neck at a potentially painful angle. He wanted his scent to saturate her skin and hair right now, this clueless human woman was his protector and his to protect and so the instinct raged to claim her as she had him.
The easiest way, the one that he was most partial to, was also one that would save her a painful neck ache in the morning, and that was what he used to rationalise as he crouched next to the rocking chair. Ever so gently, making sure not to jostle the sleeping woman, he lifted her into her arms and carried her back to the futon.
Once there, he curled around her and drew the blanket over them both, revelling in the comfort of close contact as he nuzzled into her hair. She’d saved his life and arranging comfortable sleeping conditions for her seemed like the least that he could do. She might have some questions in the morning, but, as she snuggled into his warmth, he couldn’t find it in him to care.
0-0-0
A/N: Originally posted on 15th January 2011. If you enjoyed drop me a review!