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Spicy Ramen

Summary

Spiciness makes dreams more vivid, right?

Notes

inuyasha pov
tw for bullying


When you're a human, you're weak and frail, but also kind and caring. When you're a demon, you're powerful and strong, but also brave and awesome.

But when you're a half-breed, like me, you're nothing but a monster. A killer. Humans only see the scary and evil side of your demon half, and demons only see the pathetic and naïve side of your human half.

Everything's always your fault. It's always you. Monster. Halfling. Half-breed. Weakling.

I'm tired of it all. I can't trust anyone.

And if a half-demon lets their guard down, they're done for. All they'll see is bloodshed. Constant trauma. All because of how they were made.

If only I was a full demon. Then I'd be normal.

I punch the wall of Kagome's shower. "Dammit! Damn it all!"

I soon hear a faint but comprehensive voice, "Hey! You alright in there?"

"I'm fine," I reply.

"Y'sure? I can get Kagome-."

"I'm fine," I reiterate, cutting off Kagome's brother. Sota can be a real pain in the ass, I can see why Kagome says so.

"Jeez, okay then," he says.

I'm getting tired of the water spraying my body. My hair's drenched, it's making my head heavy. I go to turn off the water. I pull the handle outward, but it doesn't budge. "Actually wait, Sota, how do you turn this damn thing off again?" I won't have Kagome sitting me for breaking her shower.

"Turn it to the right."

Well, no wonder. "Oh." I twist the handle, and sure enough, it works.

Tonight's the night of the new moon. As I step out of the shower, I see my reflection, albeit it's foggy. My sleek, black hair shines more than it's ever shined before in this state. Kagome wanted me to get clean for some reason. It's not like she gave me a choice. She taught me to clean my hair, and Sota taught me to clean everything else. At least with my senses not being as sensitive, I can withstand the hot water. Even so, why's their water so hot?

Eventually, I'm back in Kagome's room. I sit cross-legged and cross-armed on her bed while she's at her desk doing whatever it is she does for school.

"Just so you know, you'll be sleeping on the floor," Kagome tells me.

"Yeah, yeah, like I was gonna steal your bed from you."

She turns around in her chair, "You would!"

"Do you want me to?"

"No," she says. She sighs, but not in an angry or annoyed way. She turns back around. "You know, Inuyasha, I like spending time like this with you, it gives us a chance to know each other better."

"But we already know each other, why would we need to again?"

"Well, in a way, we know each other, but we don't know each other. Like... I still don't know much about your past. I've wondered about it, but I never asked since I know it's a touchy subject for you."

"You know all you need to know. I'm a half-demon, my old man died, he gave me his sword, my brother despises me, my mother was human, she's dead, the whole gist." I scratch my nose. It's not damp like it is when I'm a demon, it's completely dry.

"And how you were picked on as a child." My heart skips a beat.

I hesitate. "And? I'm strong. I'm not going to let some dumbasses push me around, I'm better than that."

Kagome doesn't respond. I lie down on my side with my right palm cupping my cheek and my eyes close.

Kagome glances behind her on her right, at the small table next to her bed. "Oh man, it's midnight already?!" She gets up out of her seat. "I have school in the morning, so I need sleep!" she exclaims, throwing her hands to her hips.

She comes over to me and sits on her bed. I glance at her as she does this, and she sighs quietly.

Kagome turns to look at me. "Hey, if you want a Cup Ramen, you can go to the kitchen and pick one out. I'll help you if you want since I know you're not sleeping right away," she says to me. With my senses being weakened from the new moon, I can finally figure out what the hell is so appealing about spicy food when your tastebuds aren't burnt alive from just one noodle.

"Sure," I say while getting up. "I'll need help with the water since I don't know how those damn stoves of yours work." I hear Kagome reply, but I'm out of the room and heading to the kitchen before I can catch what she says.

Once we're in the kitchen, I get a ramen cup, "spicy chicken flavor," while Kagome sets up the water to boil.

"Are you sure you don't want something that's not capsaicin-filled?" Kagome asks. I stare at her blankly.

"What?"

She blinks. "Never mind, if you wanna burn your tongue off, that's fine by me."

"I'm human right now, I'm not gonna burn my tongue off, at least not as intensely." I go and sit at the table. Kagome turns off the stove that the teapot is on. The squealing that would normally give me an immediate migraine goes down to nothing in a matter of seconds.

"Open the lid but don't take it off," she tells me, and I oblige. She brings it over along with a pair of chopsticks. She pours the water into the cup up to the indented line. "It just smells spicy, are you sure you want it?"

"I told you I'm fine! Now get off my back and let me eat this thing!"


One midnight meal later, and my mouth is on fire. This time, though, it's bearable. Kagome cleaned up the mess for me, which doesn't happen too often, but I'm not complaining.

We're back in Kagome's room. She's not in her school uniform anymore, but she's in a matching set of a pink spotted shirt and a pair of pants.

"So, you liked it?" she asks me.

"Yeah, actually," I respond. I'm leaning against Kagome's bed while on the floor. I glance out the window and see a moonless, starry night sky.

The room light is suddenly off, and I feel the surface that my back is against shift slightly for a few seconds.

"Goodnight, Inuyasha. I hope your dreams are happy since I bet you'll remember them," Kagome says.

"Whaddya mean?" I ask.

"Eating spicy food before sleeping causes vivid dreams."

"Is that so?" I lie down on my side, my right hand cupping my cheek. "Tch, I don't remember my dreams, so don't count on it."

I soon fall unconscious.


I find myself in my village. Other kids are playing ball with one another. I'm walking towards them.

"Hey, can I play?" I ask them.

The kids look at each other for a moment, turn back to me, and then one of them says, "Heh, yeah sure."

"Go stand over there," another one tells me. I go to where they ask me to.

They throw the ball back and forth to each other, as well as talk amongst themselves. They throw the ball many, many times.

One kid hesitates. "Hey, you. Dog boy. Think fast!"

The ball gets lunged at me, but I catch it. I smile. They threw it to me, and I caught it!

Suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my palm, and the ball bursts.

"Ow!" I exclaim while looking at my left hand, not noticing the ball had dropped. My hand is bleeding in the middle.

I hear gasps. I jolt my head, looking towards the other children. They all have shocked, angry, or sad expressions. They're all looking at me.

"You popped the ball!" one of them shouted. He points at me.

What does he mean? I didn't pop the ball. Why'd he say I did?

I look down at the ball. There's a thin stick in the place it pierced both the ball and my hand.

"I didn't!" I glance at the kid who hurled the ball at me. He was the one. "It was him!" I point at him.

"You lie!" one of them says.

"No!"

They all walk towards me, all of them scowling at me. I walk backward.

"How could you?!" I hear before feeling myself getting beaten by the lot of these kids.

I cry for help, I scream, but no one stops them.

No one's coming to help. No one's there.

It's all my fault. I must have popped the ball.

The pain doesn't stop. They won't stop. I'm all alone.

"Inuyasha!"

I'm hyperventilating. My hands are trembling.

"Inuyasha, wake up!" Kagome shouts. I flinch.

"What's going on?" I ask, my voice cracking.

"You were screaming for help in your sleep, I was really worried." Kagome gently places her hand on my shoulder. I flinch again. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I force out.

Kagome gives a sympathetic expression. "Here," she says softly, wiping my cheek with her thumb.

I hadn't realized I was crying. I pull my arm over my nose, partially covering my face.

"Inuyasha..." Kagome's eyes become teary. "I'm right here."

She's crying. She's crying over me. I can't stand the thought of her crying, especially because of me. I throw my arms around her into an embrace.

"Don't cry, Kagome," I say, sniffling subconsciously. "Don't cry because of me, I'm okay."

Kagome returns the embrace. "I can't help it," she wipes her eye with her palm, "I can't bear to see you cry either."

"I'm sorry for making you worry." My voice progressively breaks the more and more I talk. "Damn new moon making me all sappy n' stuff!" I say in between sobs.

"Shhhh, shhh." Kagome rubs my back. "It's okay, it's okay, I'm here." Her voice starts cracking.

I can't stop sobbing into Kagome's shoulder. Her embrace is comforting like a soft cloud wrapping my very soul. My emotions are spilling out all at once, but I can't stop it. I don't bother trying to. Kagome's here, and her scent is calming me down. The feeling of her rubbing my back continues to soothe me.

Eventually, I stop sobbing and all that's left is a red face, puffy eyes, a running nose, and slight hyperventilating. Mine and Kagome's embrace stays for a bit longer, then we let go. I see Kagome's face. it's tinted pink, her eyes sparkling.

"Are you feeling better?" Kagome asks.

I wipe my nose with my sleeve. "Yeah, a little."

Kagome smiles a little. "I'm glad." She looks at her alarm clock on her left, "It's 4:30, I still have a few hours before school. If you want to talk about what happened, I can listen."

Remembering the events of my dream, tears start forming in my eyes and threaten to fall. I hate feeling like this. I refuse to bawl my eyes out again.

I take a deep breath. I gradually proceed to tell Kagome what I had dreamt about. By the end of it, a few tears had shed from both of us. She hugs me, and I return it.

"The whole thing happened when I was a child. My mother died shortly before, so I had no one to go to, no one to help me. This was what caused me to be so distant and distrustful." I look down, away from Kagome. She has this saddened, hurt look on her face and I can't stand to see her like this, even though I'd react the same way if it were her. "It stuck with me, at least the aftermath did."

Kagome hesitates, then says, "Kikyo was the one who you had first put your walls down for, right? No wonder you felt as betrayed as you did when Naraku deceived you and her all those years ago."

I'm surprised Kagome's talking about Kikyo. I can tell that, in a different way from me, she resents Kikyo, even if she doesn't tell me why. "I guess you could say that."

"It's late, I should probably get some sleep," Kagome says as she stands up.

I don't want to sleep, I don't want to relive that or worse again.

"Wait, Kagome."

She looks at me before giving a short hum for a response, as to say, "What?"

My eyes dart around. "D-don't get the wrong idea, but…" I trail off.

"What is it, Inuyasha?"

I exhale the breath I didn't know I was holding and ask, "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

I expected her to say no, to tell me to sit and that I'm a creep.

But instead, she smiles and says, "Yes, you can." I smile back.

We both climb into her bed, I on the wall side, she on the other side.

"Thank you, Kagome."

"You're welcome." Her voice is calm and soothing.

I lie there on my back, covered by her blanket. I'll be forever grateful for Kagome tonight. Maybe being half-demon isn't so bad. On human nights, having the ones I love and care about makes me feel safe. Perhaps I'll stay a half-demon for her. For Kagome.

"I am not eating spicy food again, that caused way too much emotion for my liking."

I hear a faint chuckle, then I feel an arm come across my chest. I look over to see that it's Kagome. I feel my cheeks get warm.

"Goodnight, Inuyasha. This time, I hope you have sweet dreams."

I roll over on my right, wrapping my arms around Kagome. I shut my eyes.

"Goodnight, Kagome."

I fall unconscious.

I find myself dreaming. A dream of a place where it's just Kagome and I, sitting on a hill.

This dream is one I'll cherish forever.


Notes

this is probably soooo out of character for inu lolollll
i hope u enjoyeddd

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Pub: 11 Jan 2024 18:06 UTC
Edit: 16 Jan 2024 15:21 UTC
Views: 162