What Clothing Reveals

     A/N:  It's been a while since I added something to this collection and this silly little piece has been tumbling around in my head ever since TheDeadliestSin community posted the prompt "What are you wearing?"


                                     What Clothing Reveals


     "Hurry it up!  We've wasted enough time already, having to track down those bandits to save your ass!"  Inuyasha yelled.

     Again.  Hiei understood the hanyou's irritation was linked to his earlier worry, but he wished he would just shut up.  He was the one who had lost the girl in the first place, while Hiei and the other Spirit Detectives were reporting to Koenma on their progress in the search for the shards of the Shikon no tama.  For some ridiculous reason, the hanyou kept letting the girl go off to bathe without sufficient guard--the demon slayer might be tough, but a naked woman in a lake isn't much help when a group of bandits decide to grab another woman who is in the process of undressing.

     "Shut up, Inuyasha!  It's not her fault she got kidnapped," Shippou told him.

     Again.  This made the third time since they had joined this group of misfits seven months ago on Koenma's orders.  The next time they went to report in, they were taking the blasted girl with them.  And it was her fault.  They might try to chalk the incidents up to the shards she wore around her neck, but he knew better.  It was because of that damn little, green skirt she wore.

     They hadn't been traveling together for more than a few days when he had seen the danger in it.  As if it wasn't bad enough that she stuck out like a sore thumb in this era, drawing everyone's attention everywhere they went with those long, bare legs of hers, she also proved to be a distraction for their own little group.  Every time a strong gust of wind blew, every male eye in the group, except the young kitsune's, was drawn to the miko's backside, where they were treated to the sight of her colorful undergarments.  Pink, blue, purple, green.  She even had a pair of lacy red ones.  Hiei hadn't even been fully aware that he had stopped traveling through the trees most days and was instead walking along behind her with the rest of the perverts until the day the pale peach panties were revealed.  The damn things were practically the same color as her skin and he had stumbled at the first flash of them.  The monk had chuckled and winked at him, whispering that they had that effect on him, too, and were his favorites.  That was when Hiei realized he was in trouble--which didn't explain why he hadn't said anything about it until today.  The truth was he had been enjoying the show as much as the other perverts, even if he hadn't joined in on the daily bets concerning which color she was wearing.

     But today, when they had returned only to find the others desperately chasing after a group of bandits who were fleeing on horseback with a half-nude miko who didn't belong to them, Hiei had reached the limits of his endurance and determined it was time to put a stop to this nonsense.  He was not one bit sorry that skirt had been ruined beyond repair when she had struggled with the men who grabbed her, although his rage at their daring to do such a thing had been formidable.  And he certainly wasn't going to apologize for the loss of all of her other clothing when he had torched everything around the bandits, including her yellow backpack.  Nothing else she ever brought with her was decent, either.  She was safe and sound and it was high past time they do something about her clothing situation.  Since she had to borrow something to wear from the demon slayer, the problem should be solved.

     "Um ... I don't think this is going to work," she told them, peering hesitantly around a tree.  "I'm afraid it doesn't fit very well."

     "Will you just come on?" Inuyasha grouched.  "Sango said she'd help you roll up the sleeves and bottoms.  We just need to get going--we've lost a lot of ground."

     "The problem isn't the height difference," Kagome confessed, her cheeks flushing.  "It ... doesn't look right, and it's really uncomfortable.  I'm sorry, Sango."

     Inuyasha stomped over and grabbed her arm, pulling her out from behind the tree.  "We don't care what it looks like.  Let's go!"  It only took a few seconds for him to regret his words.

     "What the hell are you wearing, onna?!!?"

     Hiei had thought her skirt was a problem, but this--this was far worse.  The slayer had given her that damn skintight outfit she wore for fighting.  What the hell was she thinking?!!?  While it showed the other woman's physique off to advantage, it was practically obscene on Kagome.  The slayer was taller and slimmer, and while she certainly had curves of her own, they were not as bountiful.  The material was stretched tight around the younger girl's full, rounded hips, which probably would have been cause for comment if anyone were to look down that far.  But all eyes were focused on her chest,  where the outfit lifted, separated, and emphasized the fullness of her breasts to mind-boggling effect.  Her skin was covered from neck to ankle and it was as bad as if she were standing there naked before them.

     "What are you trying to do--smuggle out a couple of melons from that farm up the road?  Here, I'll carry them for ya," Yusuke said with an evil grin, then stumbled forward as Kuwabara smacked him on the back of the head.

     "Cut it out, Urameshi," he said, keeping his eyes pinned to the ground as he avoided looking in Kagome's direction.

     "Uh, Kagome," Sango walked over to her and whispered, "you should have bound them with that cloth I gave you."

     Looking like she was going to cry, Kagome told her, "I did!  But this was so tight it wouldn't go over the cloth.  I'm not even going to mention what it's doing in other areas.  I'm just not in good enough shape to wear something like this."

     Hiei nearly choked when he heard that.  Striding forward, he thrust his cloak in her face.  "Take that damn thing off!"

     "Yes, do, Kagome-sama," Miroku agreed.  "But feel free to turn around first."

     "Bouzo!"  Inuyasha yelled, leaping toward him and grabbing him by the front of his kesa.  "One more word out of you--out of any of you--and you're going to find yourself waking up with Jakotsu."

     After glaring at Miroku, Sango turned back to Kagome and started to walk back into the woods with her.  "We'll trade what we're wearing until you can go home and get some more clothing."

     "Maybe it would be better if Kirara could go ahead and take me back to the well and I could catch up with you all.  It wouldn't take more than a couple of days."

     Oh, hell no!  There was no way Hiei was going to let her go back to prancing around in those indecent skirts!

     "Oh, hell no!"  Inuyasha yelled.  "We have wasted far too much time as it is.  You promised you were staying until the next moon."

     "Will you stop whining about time?  It's time for someone to point out a few relevant facts to our oblivious miko," Hiei snapped.  "You will not be bringing any more of your clothing here.  You make it impossible for us to travel without drawing unwanted attention to our group.  Not only do you make yourself a target for every horny bandit and youkai we come across with those indecent skirts of yours, but you also make it very difficult for us to stay in any village or purchase any supplies.  We get turned away from 2 out of every 3 inns because they don't want prostitutes there."

     "What?!!?"  Shock, followed by dismay, drained all the color out of Kagome's face.  She turned to Miroku and Inuyasha who were looking down at the ground uncomfortably.  "But ... I thought you said we get turned away a lot because we have a hanyou and youkai in our group?"

     "Aw, hell, Kagome.  We didn't want to say anything to make you feel bad," Inuyasha confessed, glaring harshly at Hiei.

     "And because of your ridiculous attempts to spare her feelings, she keeps getting kidnapped!"

     "She keeps getting kidnapped because she's carrying the shards."

     "No one is betting on what color the shards are," Hiei pointed out.  "They're always pink, unlike her undergarments."

     "WHAT?!!?  You guys have been betting on the color of my ..."  Kagome couldn't believe what they were saying.  She was so mortified she wanted to sink into the ground.  Had she really caused so much trouble with her choice of clothing?  She had never given it much thought.  Her school uniform was simply very wearable and durable and she had several of them.  And these perverts had been looking up her skirt all this time?  "What am I going to do?"

     Sango patted her shoulder comfortingly.  "You can have these to wear whenever you're here.  I can make do with my fighting clothes."

     Hiei looked at what the slayer was wearing.  It was decent, but he really didn't want to see Kagome in those hideous colors.  The magenta and pink reminded him of that nasty ningen medicine Yusuke had tricked him into drinking once, and he had had more than enough of seeing her in something green.  No, those colors didn't suit her and they didn't suit him.  "No.  Just take that off and wait," he ordered before disappearing in a blur, leaving Kagome staring after him with a confused look on her face.

     "What?"  Inuyasha sputtered.  "Who the hell does he think he is and where the hell is he going?"

     Miroku looked over at Hiei's teammates with an amused expression.  "It appears that he has taken a proprietary interest in our fair miko."

     "Yeah, he likes her!"  Shippou said

     Kurama winked at the little kitsune.  "I daresay he has gone to choose something he deems acceptable for her."

     "What do you mean 'he has gone to choose something he deems acceptable for her?'  It's not up to him to decide what's acceptable for her!"

     "Calm down, Inuyasha.  I think we can all agree that Kagome-sama is in need of some clothing, and unless you want her to take Kirara and head for her home wearing his cloak, which would cause a delay of some days instead of a few hours, I suggest you let him get something for her.  Besides, he was the one who accidentally burned her other things," Miroku pointed out, "so, he may feel obliged to replace them."

     "Accidentally, my ass," Inuyasha grumbled.  "From the way he was talking about her clothes, I'm starting to think he did it on purpose."  But he couldn't deny the little fire apparition had been in a rage when they had caught up to the bandits.  At the time, he had been in complete agreement with him, but now he was getting an uncomfortable feeling about it.  It was starting to look like the brat was right and the runt was interested in Kagome.  He frowned at the thought.  Then he relaxed.  They had been traveling together for two seasons now and the smaller youkai had never made a move to fix Kagome's interest.  With a wry smile, he shook his head slightly.  He didn't have to worry about that one sweeping her off her feet with declarations of undying love and devotion, and Kagome sure wasn't going to look kindly at someone who said she looked like a prostitute.  

     When Hiei returned, he tossed a cloth sack to Kagome, who was sitting under a tree with Sango and Shippou.  From the distance the others were keeping from them, he imagined both Inuyasha and Sango had read them the riot act, which was a good thing because she was entirely too appealing sitting there in his cloak.  He would be glad when she was finally covered in something decent.

     Kagome was smiling when she came back from changing.  "These are very pretty!  Thank you, Hiei.  I'll pay you back for them when I go home--I have some money saved up."

     The apparition frowned at her.  "No need."

     "Keh!  He probably stole them anyway."

     "Oh!  You didn't steal them, did you?" Kagome asked, concern creasing her brow.  "Clothing isn't easy to come by for ordinary people in these times."

     "I did not steal them," Hiei said coldly.  "And you can keep your money.  I have plenty."

     "He does, you know," Kurama said.  "Hiei has quite a treasure trove in the Makai.  Of course," he grinned, "he stole it all."

     "Shut up, fox."

     Kagome smothered a laugh.  "Well, thank you anyway, Hiei.  This really is quite lovely and will do nicely for our travels here, I think."

     He looked at her carefully for a minute, then scowled.  He had messed up.  He had tried to find her an outfit that would be considered normal and ordinary here, though he had to admit to choosing one of slightly better quality than the slayer's.  And while it did cover her legs, he wished it did more to disguise her figure.  The thin obi that he knew was under the skirt did not hide the way her waist tapered in from her shapely hips.  The darn thing was too low below her breasts, too, to detract from their fullness.

     "It needs a wider obi."

     He was regretting his choice of a short-sleeved kosode like Sango's, too.  The tekkou which covered her forearms were close-fitting and drew attention to her delicate hands and fingers.

     "And gloves."

     She had the smoky gray furoshiki he had bought to match her skirt tied around her shoulders and it made her hair look darker by contrast and enticingly glossy.

     "You should tie your hair back like hers," he pointed to Sango.

     Kagome blinked, but obligingly retrieved the white ribbon that had been among all the other pieces.  Sango glanced at Hiei speculatively out of the corner of her eye, but helped Kagome tie back her hair.

     "Can we go now?"  Inuyasha asked impatiently.

     "No."

     This would not work at all.  With her hair pulled back, her long, graceful neck was exposed.  All they needed was to run into some damn vampiric youkai and he'd be running off with her to sink his teeth into it.

     "Hey!  What do you think you're doing?"  Inuyasha demanded as Hiei stepped forward and grabbed the carrying cloth from Kagome's shoulders and covered her hair with it before tying it in front of her neck.

     "Yes, Hiei, what are you doing?" Kurama asked with a small smile.

     Now the cloth drew attention to the line of her jaw and the curve of her cheek.  And her lips!  Why didn't the damn females in this country wear veils?  Yes, that was the answer.

     "You need a veil."

     "A what?"  Kagome asked in confusion.

     Eyes lit with amusement, Miroku walked over and held out a small black cloth.  "Like this?"  He draped it across the bottom half of Kagome's face and tucked the ends into the cloth around her head.

     "Is he fixing her some kind of disguise?"  Shippou asked.  But no one answered as they watched to see what happened next.

     That should have fixed it, but it didn't.  Hiei had specifically chosen the sapphire blue kosode because he knew it would bring out the blue in her blue-gray eyes.  And that was where he had made his mistake.  It did bring out the blue in her eyes.  

     "Yusuke, give me your sunglasses."

     Almost choking on his laughter, the toushin handed them over, while Kuwabara just stood there with his mouth open.

     When Hiei stepped back again to examine his handiwork, Kurama slowly applauded.  "I have to hand it to you, Hiei.  I don't believe I have ever witnessed a man pay such thorough homage to a woman's beauty, and thereby declare her complete appeal to him, without uttering a single compliment before."

     "Are you sure you're done?" Yusuke asked, snickering.  "I mean, you got her sandals without any tabi socks.  Aren't you afraid someone will see her toes and be so overcome by lust that he runs off with her?"

     Hiei narrowed his eyes at him.  "It takes a uniquely degenerate mind to suggest something so perverted."  Then he looked down at her feet and damn if he wasn't struck with a vision of her toes wiggling enticingly in his lap.

     At the look on his face, Yusuke howled with laughter.  "Oh, man!  Her toes?  Seriously?"

     Taking off the glasses, the "veil," and the furoshiki, Kagome reached out and touched Hiei's arm.  "Hiei?  Is Kurama right?  Do you ... like me?"

     Shit!  She did not just ask that little bastard that!  Inuyasha quickly sized up his rival, then relaxed again.  There was no way the youkai was going to admit to having feelings for her.  He was more likely to tell her he was covering her up so he wouldn't have to look at her.

     Hiei stared at her.  She did not just ask him that.  He knew the girl was smart, so how was it possible for her to be so damn oblivious?  And his feelings were beside the point, damn it!  They had a serious problem that needed to be dealt with before they took another step on this blasted journey.  But there she stood, looking at him with those big, beautiful eyes and waiting for him to say something.  This was ridiculous!

     Grabbing her arms, Hiei yanked her against his chest and kissed her with far more passion and fervor than finesse.

     "Hey!"  Inuyasha leaped forward, but Yusuke tackled him.

     "Sit on him, Kuwabara!  This is too good to miss!"

     Breaking the kiss, Hiei didn't loosen his hold on her as he looked around at the others.  "Now can we concentrate on solving this problem?"

     "I'll solve your damn problem--I'll rip your fucking head off!"

     "Hush, Inuyasha!" Kuwabara said, digging his knee into his back.  "I want to know what problem hamster-legs has now.  Looks to me like everything's been taken care of."

     "Nothing has been 'taken care of,' you idiot.  We are in the same situation we were before:  she is still much too tempting for all these youkai and bandits to ignore, and I, for one, do not intend to spend all my time rescuing her from would-be kidnappers."

     When the others, except for Inuyasha, just grinned at him like a bunch of idiots, Hiei turned back to Kagome.  She seemed a bit dazed as she lifted a hand and touched her slightly swollen and bruised lips with her fingertips.  Fine.  If no one else was going to offer any possible solutions, he would take care of it himself.  Picking her up, he said, "We'll join you in a month."

     "WHAT?!!?  What do you mean you'll join us in a month?  Where the hell do you think you're going?"  Inuyasha yelled.

     "To solve the problem.  Youkai and bandits won't bother kidnapping a pregnant woman."

     Shippou clapped his hands in glee.  "It will be a lot of fun having a baby around."

     "What?!!?  You can't be serious!" Kagome said, blinking at him.  "You just kissed me for the first time--I hope you don't think we're going to ... to ... you know right away!"

     "Then we'll join you in two months," he told the others before dashing off.

     Throwing Kuwabara and Yusuke off, Inuyasha took off after them.  "Come back here, you little bastard!"

     "Houshi-sama, should we go after them?"  Sango asked.

     "Don't worry, Sango.  He isn't serious," Miroku assured her.  Then he turned to Kurama.  "He isn't, is he?"

     "Of course not," the avatar said with a slight shake of his head.  "Hiei would never allow his pregnant wife to participate in a quest like this.  They won't be back in two months."

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