𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘰𝘯 犬夜叉 ♡ ; 𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚔𝚞 𝚡 𝚘𝚌

river

"Mei!" Kagome breathed in both exhaustion and mild frustration that a mother may have for their ill-behaved child. "What happened? Are you okay? Miroku and Sango said you walked away upset and-"

Mei held up her hand in protest to stop her rambling as a winded Miroku and concerned Sango trailed behind her - the dog stayed behind at camp no doubt. "I'm fine, I-" she bit her lip as she could still feel his firm hands around her waist. She dismissed the blush with a cough in her hand "I just wanted to go back to the lake, the moon was just so high tonight I wanted a clear view before the sun came up." she replied in a nervous laugh. "But, I'm good to come back to camp now, thanks." Sango and Miroku looked at each other before Miroku quizzingly pointed his clothed hand over to Mei's right forearm "Are you sure? That mark.." His voice trailed off before concluding his sentence as Kagome walked closer and grasped her forearm gently, turning it around closer to the light.

Mei couldn't really understand what the emphasis was until she also looked down and gasped! It was a flesh-colored mark of a large spider that wrapped around her forearm and extended up to her elbow. She looked up at the group, pushed her sleeve down to her wrist and held the material close to her skin to block any lingering views "I don't know how that got there, I swear I didn't. Kagome," Mei's nervous glance focused over to her in worry "We just bathed together and you saw no markings whatsoever, I-, I-" she bit her lip, averting her eyes down to her feet as her vision burned from tears begging to escape to the surface of her face - how was she to expect to be trusted when Naraku purposely put her in an awkward situation each and every moment. How!

Kagome, with a determined look in her rosy cheeks, held Mei's wrist not with a firm hold but with a reassuring grip, gently rubbing the bone that jutted out of her small wrists. "Hey," she whispered "Whatever's happened to you there, it doesn't matter right now," she reassured her. "What matters now is you getting back to camp, its late and if its okay we'll just lay everything out on the table when we're all up and rested." she looked over to Sango and Miroku, nodding to them to walk ahead, and stood next to Mei as she rubbed her eyes a few times to clear her vision from its cloudy state.

"Okay," she sniffed "T- that's fine, I'd like that, thanks." Kagome smiled silently and guided her back to the camp, her hand still softly wrapped around her wrist and her lantern held high above her head to guide them back.

♡ the morning ♡

The atmosphere at camp wasn't one of eerieness, but it was deadly quiet. The birds were still asleep and even the winds took a break from rustling the trees and everything.. stood still.

The girls all slept on one side of camp, Shippo being the only exception since Kilala would have a fit, and the men slept on the opposite side with only the--now dim-- forest fire logs being the only median to separate them.

Mei was the first to awake from her slumber, she was accustomed to Kagura waking her and she felt a little off to be sleeping in still. With a groan, she opened her eyes slowly to see Inuyasha sitting up with his arms crossed staring directly at her. Inside, she was a little weary and concerned but on the outside, she had to keep her composure. But she could tell in his eyes he wasn't going to warm up to her for a good while and he just plain didn't trust her.