They had been traveling for a few hours that day until the sky completely opened up on them. They rushed to find shelter in a nearby hut, all of them squeezing in and quickly starting up a fire. The girls literally rung their hair out as they walked in, water dripping onto the wood floor.
The group had all been disappointed that their journey had been cut short as they had a pretty good lead on Naraku, but they couldn’t continue traveling in the current weather conditions. The rain came down in curtains, making it hard to see and the wind blew so hard that it caused everyone to quickly become drenched.
They had all discarded their outer most garments to dry as they all sat by the fire. Miroku and Sango were huddled to one side with Kirara lying behind them in her larger form to help keep them warm (having shaken off most of the water when they got in). Shippo was nestled in the fire cat’s fur, snoring lightly as he had just inhaled a cup of ramen.
Kagome sat across from the couple, holding her hands up to the fire as she desperately sought it’s warmth. She had taken off her shoes and socks seeing as they had gotten soaked (causing each step she took to be squishy and uncomfortable), but remained in her wet (and cold) uniform. She cursed herself for forgetting her sleeping bag at Lady Kaede’s, but how was she to know that they were going to have to run through a storm.
The school girl glanced over at the couple, a bit jealous of the two able to openly share their warmth with one another. Of course Kagome was more than happy for her best friend. The monk had finally gotten his head out of his ass and they were now engaged. That wasn’t the problem.
The problem was that she was freezing.
She fought the shivers that rode up her body, visibly shaking. Sneaking a glance to her right, she saw the half demon sitting a few feet away from her. He was in his usual pose with his normal scowl on his face (likely annoyed due to the hindrance in their journey). She noticed that one of his ears were trained on her and a light blush bloomed across her cheeks as she quickly diverted her attention back to the fire as if staring at the flames would cause her to absorb it’s heat faster.
Moving a bit in her seat, she rubbed her arms through her wet top and frowned at the sensation. She brought her hands back up to the flames, slowly flexing her fingers to stimulate the blood flow.
Bringing her line of sight slightly above the flames again, she realized that both Sango and Miroku had fallen asleep as they lie against Kirara. Miroku had one of his arms wrapped around the demon slayer’s waist.
Suddenly, she felt a light weight fall across her shoulders and glanced up. She saw Inuyasha standing there with his arms crossed and looking away from her with a blush across his cheeks. Glancing back down, she saw the familiar red of the fire rat around her and she softly fingered the now dry material. She smiled to herself and hugged it close to her.
She didn’t expect any words from him and she knew he would return to his seat. However, when he sat down next to her with his shoulder lightly touching hers she had to fight the urge to jump.
She glanced at him from her peripheral and noticed he wasn’t looking at her.
He was looking into the flames, but he seemed relaxed. Or well, his posture did. He didn’t seem as tense like he had been. The thought alone made her smile. She was glad he didn’t mind sitting beside her and it brought her even more joy knowing that she was a presence he could relax around.
Releasing a sigh, she scooted into the half demon as she craved the body heat. And to her surprise, he didn’t jerk away from her. Feeling daring, she leaned her head on his shoulder as she watched the dancing of the flames before her.
She felt him stiffen and she feared she had pushed her luck, thinking she may need to pull away. However, before she could she felt him move to wrap his arm around her.
Her heart sped in her chest, thumping against her ribcage. However, she didn’t move. In fact, she relaxed as she got used to the thumping of her heart (which she was sure he could hear).
She released another sigh and this time she let her eyes drift shut.
