She Shines


     He remembered quite clearly the first time she really caught his attention.   They had only been traveling to the Sengoku Jidai for a couple of weeks, accompanying the modern-day miko with ancient power and her ragtag band of friends on their journey to recover the shards of a powerful jewel.  They were all holed up in a cave while thunder echoed all around them and lightning lit up the sky.  And as the heavens raged, Kagome sat with the little kitsune in her lap, telling him a story to help soothe him so he could go to sleep.  Her voice was quiet and calming, yet full of animation designed to entertain and Hiei found himself leaning closer to listen.  Up to that point, Hiei had barely spared her a glance, much less a thought.  He had dismissed her normally cheerful tones as naive, foolish, and frivolous, and had sneered at her loud shouts, thinking her stubborn when she and the hanyou argued.  But listening to her now, he realized her words and the way she spoke gave the others courage and hope.

     He remembered the first time he looked at her--really looked at her.  The weather had been oppressively hot and humid  and she had tied back her sleeves and put a knot in the bottom of her shirt, exposing an expanse of skin on her midriff.  Yusuke had called his attention to her with some catcalls that made her cheeks flush before she turned her back on him.  They hadn't traveled much father before becoming engaged in a fight with a band of neko youkai, which produced two more shards.  When it was over, they were all dirty, hot, and tired.  Then, as if conjured by their wishes, a light rain began to fall.  The sound of Kagome's laughter drew all eyes to her and they watched as she twirled around with her arms outspread.  "This is a good day!  We have almost half of the jewel now and the kami are rewarding us with this cooling rain," she declared.  

     Shippou joined her in her celebratory dance, and with smiles on their faces, Miroku, Yusuke, and Kuwabara soon joined in.  It took a little coaxing for Sango and Inuyasha, but soon the demon exterminator was laughing and holding hands with the monk while the hanyou tilted his head back and gave a triumphant shout.  But Hiei couldn't take his eyes off of Kagome.  It didn't take long before her clothes were plastered to her body and he wondered how he had not noticed how very beautiful she was before.  He would never forget how that revelation hit him because that was also the first time she touched him.  She had grabbed Kurama's hand to get him to join in with the others and then she had simply reached out and took his hand, too, as she skipped past him--as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.  And he had let her.

     He remembered the day he had realized he was obsessed with her.  It was a windy day and they were all trudging along a dusty path after another false lead on a jewel shard had taken them on a 5 day journey to a small-brained, big-mouthed oni's lair.  The battle had been brief, and so, he discovered, were Kagome's undergarments.  He had blinked at the sight of the wispy, pale pink panties when the wind had lifted the edge of her skirt and blown it up on one side.  They hadn't been walking for long before all of the males started lagging behind, letting her, Sango, and Shippou lead the way.  He had blinked again when she turned around to ask Inuyasha a question and another gust of wind revealed "Hello Kitty" on the front of them.  

     He had also realized he didn't like everyone else seeing them and had marched forward and wrapped his cloak around her.  When she had looked at him questioningly, he had not been able to stop himself from reaching out and moving the strands of hair that were blowing across her face and tucking them behind one of her ears.  She had smiled at him then and he knew nothing would ever be the same again.

     While the others had complained bitterly about the cold weather come winter, Hiei had not minded.  Whether consciously or not, he noticed Kagome always edged closer to him as they sat and ate their meals.  He couldn't keep the smirk from his face when Kurama raised a brow at him after watching her slowly inch her way over until her knee was up against his.  Oh, he knew it was the extra heat he could produce that was drawing her close to him, but he wasn't averse to taking advantage of it.

     The moon had shone down on them when he had first tried to make his feelings known to her.  She had sat beside him quietly as he had started and stopped again and again.  Then she had shushed him by putting a finger to his lips.  "Me, too."  He would never forget the way her skin glowed in the soft moonlight, making her seem ethereal and otherworldly, while the patches of dark shadows added to her earthly allure.  The feel and taste of her skin were everything he had imagined these last months, and more.  And he treasured the all-too-short moments of the night when the world condensed to just the two of them.

     But as the sky lightened and the first rays of sunlight fell across them, he looked at her and remembered how he came to be here.  Just as his heat had drawn her close to him during winter's cold, so had her warmth drawn him to her.  When she slowly began to rouse from her sleep, he saw the endless sky when she opened her eyes, and when she smiled, he saw the sun.  He knew then he would gladly worship the sun and bask in her light long after this journey was over.  And the next ... and the next ... and the next ...