love is blind // inuyasha
rare ship week day 1 - mythology au
ship - kagkik
‘The gods have failed you.’
'The gods fail everyone eventually,’ she says, shrugging one shoulder. The grey sky overhead shivers angrily, and she raises an eye to the heavens.
'He won’t have liked that,’ says Kagome, and smiles. Kikyo smiles back, small and sharp. Her mouth is a shard of red glass. 'He can’t touch me anymore.’
//
He was tall and pale, and his hands looked like spiders. That’s what she remembers after, when she’s lying on the floor of her goddess’ temple. His disgusting, cold hands. That’s what she remembers later, when her goddess appears in front of her, resplendent in her scorching anger.
//
'Who are you?’ She left fear a long time ago. Nothing can stand against her anymore, so she watches the newcomer with a sense of resignation and curiosity. Did they come to kill her, or to be killed by her? (the latter is a rarer occurrence, but it happens. She never thought someone would beg her to look at them, but they did, kneeling before her no less. She never felt so dirty) She waits for an introduction, but it doesn’t come. The person before her smiles, their eyes closed. 'You have a beautiful voice,’ they say.
//
It hurt like nothing else ever had or ever would. //
'What?’ Her voice almost shakes. Nothing about her had been called beautiful for a very long time. 'Your voice. it’s wonderful.’ The person, the girl, steps forward and Kikyo instinctually moves away from her. 'Come no closer.’ The girl ignores her. 'So this is the infamous gorgons lair.’ She runs a hand over the rough stone walls. 'It’s not how I imagined.’ She pauses. 'Of course, neither are you.’
'What did you expect exactly?’ Kikyo’s voice is icy.
'From the way Athena described you, something that was barely human.’ Kikyo turns at that. She can feel the familiar ache in her chest, an ache that was born with her new body. 'And what will you tell her?’ Kikyo asks. 'That she was wrong.’ //
The first man who tries is quite young. Perhaps even her own age. He grips his sword handle in a self-assured way that suggests he has no idea what she can do. In a few moments he is made fully aware. (after it’s done she uses his sword to hack the hands off his statue and throws them into the ocean) //
'Kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me…’ Kikyo reaches out to the shaking body before her but it flinches away. She has no energy to remind them that it’s only her stare that is deadly. She says, 'If that is what you wish.’
//
'Who are you?’ Kikyo asks again. The mysterious girl puts a finger to her chin.
‘Who do you think I am?’
‘Someone very foolish.’
The girl’s smile widens. ‘You are afraid of hurting me.’
Kikyo says nothing.
‘I have many different names. The blooming. Venus. The goddess rising out of the sea. Common to all the people. Aphrodite. But I would ask you to call me another name.’
The girl opens her mouth. Each syllable falls before Kikyo as though a precious gem. ‘Ka-go-me.’
//
‘Why are you here?’
Kagome reaches over to touch Kikyo’s face, and it is Kikyo’s turn to recoil, but only out of habit.
‘I am here because I want to be.’
//
‘Why are you here?’
Kagome, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, smiles again, and it hurts. She is beautiful – just as they said she would be – but in an open way. A gentle way. Kikyo is repulsed by her.
‘Am I the object of your sympathy?’ she asks, almost snarling. She wishes for a moment that Kagome would open her eyes and look at her, truly. The goddess of love and beauty would surely succumb to her gaze, as so many others had. But Kagome does not, and the moment passes, leaving Kikyo empty and tired and brittle.
‘I have come,’ says Kagome, simply, ‘for you. I heard what my sister did to you, and why. She was wrong to do so, but too proud to admit it. Also…’ A flicker of something that looks like uncertainty appears on Kagome’s face, and then vanishes. ‘I thought you might enjoy some company.’
Kikyo stares at her. ‘I’ll kill you,’ she says bluntly.
‘No,’ says Kagome. ‘You won’t.’ And she opens her eyes.
//
Kikyo has only been kissed once before in her life, and it was rough. It left her lips sore and her body trembling and she wanted to wash herself for a thousand years until she could get the feel of him off her, off everywhere.
When Kagome leans in and kisses her it feels like the sun.
//
She is blind.
Kikyo can feel a heaviness on her chest. Her face is inexplicably wet with tears.
She whispers, ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone.’ Kagome takes her in her arms, and Kikyo melts.
Kagome wipes the pad of her thumb across Kikyo’s cheek, and her finger blisters.
‘Be careful!’ Kikyo snatches herself away. ‘They are venomous.’
‘I will heal,’ says Kagome.
//
When he comes, she is sleeping.
//
‘Ï don’t want to hurt you.’
‘You won’t.’
‘You don’t know that.’
Kagome places both hands on either side of Kikyo’s face. ‘May I?’
Kikyo nods.
//
A mirror. She had one with her the night she changed, and after it happened she threw it away, afraid of what she would see. Afraid of what she would do.
He used a mirror. Very clever.
//
Kagome is warm and firm and real under Kikyo’s fingers. She is kissed over and over, on her mouth and her cheeks and her eyelids, and each place that Kagome’s lips touch Kikyo feels that the curse is briefly lifted.
//
‘One, two! And through and through. The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!’
//
Kikyo lies beside Kagome. Kagome’s dark hair spills across the ground, and Kikyo’s glistening locks coil lazily. It is soft and dark in the room, and Kikyo pulls Kagome closer to her, burying her face into the crook of her neck. Kagome sighs quietly, bringing her arms to circle Kikyo’s waist.
‘How do you feel?' she murmurs.
‘Beautiful,’ whispers Kikyo.
//
He uses her curse for good. Something about saving the one he loves and defeating a kraken. Either way it’s alright, because the moment she died was a peaceful one. She was dreaming, far away, of sweet smelling skin and hands – wonderful warm hands – entwined with her own.
