Disclaimer: The characters of Inuyasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, but this story belongs to me.

A Simple Sonnet

Assignment # 23:

Write a 14-line sonnet consisting of three quatrains of abab cdcd efef followed by a couplet, gg. Shakespearean sonnets generally use iambic pentameter. (10 syllables). Any subject.

"Oh no!" groaned Inuyasha. "Not that Shakespeare guy again."

Kagome looked up from her copy of 'Much Ado About Nothing' and looked guilty.

"What's the assignment this time?" he asked snarkily, "More people killing themselves for no good reason?"

"Romeo and Juliet was a Tragedy, this one is a Comedy. And this one," she blushed as she set it down, "I was reading just for fun, this other book is the one I'm supposed to be reading." She picked up a much thinner book, but it, too, was written by Shakespeare.

Inuyasha was aghast. "Why in the world are you reading a book you don't HAVE to?"

Kagome scowled at him. "Because it was interesting and fun to read. Books aren't just for school work, you know. They are full of adventure..."

"We have adventures."

"...humor..."

"That's what we keep the monk around for."

"...danger..."

"Kagome, we're in danger every day."

"...romance..."

"And it is fun. Though," she admitted with a shrug, "Reading Shakespeare can be a little tricky. Sometimes I just have to use my best guess on what a certain word means."

"There's romance in your books?" Inuyasha looked at her book suspiciously.

"Not to mention that reading for fun improves your vocabulary and comprehension skills."

"Are you sure your mother knows you are reading those books?"

"And your ability to focus... Inuyasha, are you even paying attention to me?"

He looked at her accusingly, "You've been spending too much time with Miroku. Give me that book!" He made a grab for her copy of the book in her hands. She let him take it. He opened it up and frowned at the pages. "The words look funny."

"It is a book of sonnets. Poems. And that," she said with an unhappy sigh, "...that is my next assignment. I have to write a sonnet."

Inuyasha tossed the book over her backpack and watched as it landed with a thud in the dirt. He hated these assignments... most of the time. Sometimes they were surprisingly interesting. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to know if a sonnet was another one of those depressing poems, or if it would be something happier, like those limericks. It got harder to fight against her assignments when they often told him so much about her. Not that he would admit that he had actually started paying attention. When she wrote, she seemed more likely to let little things slip. Things about how she felt about him. They gave him so much hope.

But the tears.... even that little bit of hope wasn't worth her tears. Her heartbreak. He would be glad when she was finished with school for good.

"What... what exactly is a sonnet about?" he asked warily, crouching down in front of her. His protective instincts were kicking in.

He was glad that the others had gone into town, he would have surely been teased for his curiosity. Kagome had said she was too tired for shopping and said she was just going to stay put and rest, but Inuyasha knew the truth. His kind wasn't welcome there. A demon was not welcome. Shippo got away with it by simply poofing away his tail with one of his spells. But... she did look a little tired. It wasn't that long ago since she had been ill. He looked at her in concern, then on instinct took her temperature. She smiled at him.

"I'm fine, Inuyasha. Just a little tired."

"Feh." He crossed his arms in front of him as he plopped down in front of her and sat.

She smiled at him again, then seemed to remember his question. "Oh. A sonnet. It doesn't have to be about any particular topic. It just has to follow a rhyme scheme. The teacher wanted us to read some sonnets so we'd know what they were like. Some of them are quite depressing." Inuyasha frowned at her. "And," she said with a grin, "Some are quite romantic!" His frown deepened. "Want me to read you some?"

He wasn't sure if he wanted to hear them or not. He didn't want to hear depressing. And he wasn't sure what he'd do with romantic. He blushed at the thought. It was... uncomfortable. At least Miroku wasn't hear to tease. Kagome began reading.

She smiled at him as she read him a poem by that Shakespeare guy called "Those lips that love's own hand did make". Just the title alone made him uncomfortable. The second line ended with the words "I hate". And he remembered the time he heard those words from Kagome's lips too. He remembered how badly it hurt. The pain. The despair. The feelings of having his soul ripped from his body. He listened to Kagome read. That Shakespeare guy didn't have an inkling of the pain it felt hearing those words. The poem didn't begin to describe the indescribable. There was no pain like it... Not even having a sword thrust through your belly. But that last line... that one sounded about right. Where she saved his life by saying she didn't hate him. He didn't know what he'd do if Kagome hated him. The thought of it... well, it was unthinkable.

Inuyasha looked at Kagome. She had a silly grin. She didn't even know the anguish she put him through that day. And hearing the poem caused the pain to be keenly remembered. He wanted to ask her if she really ever did actually have any feelings of hate towards him. But he wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

"Oh, here's another one," she said before he could muster up the courage to ask her about if she ever hated him. "My Mistress's Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun."

Inuyasha listened as the writer said that her eyes weren't like the sun or her cheeks like roses. All the flowery compliments that he often heard Miroku use were there, except they weren't compliments. The man was saying that she wasn't anything like all those beautiful things that men compare beauty too. Inuyasha had to agree with him. Kagome's eyes weren't like the sun. Sure they sparkled and would shine, but they were more like twinkling stars. Unless she was really mad, then they were like the firey sun. And no, her lips weren't the color of roses. He had never seen a flower the shade of her lips before. Not that, you know, he ever really studied them. And they sure weren't the color of red roses. He'd seen females put things on their lips to make them red like that, but not Kagome. Her cheeks weren't like roses either. Sometimes she would blush, but that wasn't the color of roses either. He couldn't really name a color for that.

Then the Shakespeare guy said the girls breath wasn't like perfume and her voice didn't sound like music. He wondered if this guy had any better luck with girls than Miroku. But Kagome's breath wasn't like perfume either. Perfumes were too strong and hurt his nose. Kagome's breath usually smelled like mint and cinnamon. Bathing wasn't her only hygiene habit. She was always brushing her teeth. Her voice wasn't like music either. Though he'd rather listen to it than music any day. Most music wasn't worth listening to. Not that he knew a lot about it. He was rarely around when a human played music. Its not like he was ever invited to listen to them play.

"I thought he loved her," Inuyasha said.

Kagome put down the book and picked up her pad of paper and pencil. "He does."

"But... I thought that... I mean Miroku always says that women... That they like the stuff with saying they are like roses and perfumed stuff."

Kagome laughed and reached forward to tweak his ear playfully. "Inuyasha, do me a favor. Never EVER listen to Miroku about women. And yes, compliments are sometimes very nice. But the point of this poem was that he saw her for exactly what she was and loved her anyhow. That all those silly comparisons are false, and his love for her was more than that. It is rare. And real. He loves her just the way she is."

Inuyasha picked up the book and looked at it. "So he doesn't need all those love words to make her like him?"

"Of course not."

All those things had always seemed too fake anyhow.

"He doesn't have to compare her eyes to suns or say she's a goddess who's feet don't touch the ground."

"Right. To him she's not just someone up on a pedestal. She's with him. And real. Not just some ideal woman that he has made himself believe was more than she really was." Kagome's mouth snapped shut, and she tapped her pencil on the paper. "I mean... he just is realistic about her."

Inuyasha thought about that. Kagome was real. And he wasn't a fool. Maybe once he thought Kikyo to be more than she was. But being with Kagome has changed that. He was more able to see her for who she was. The more he was with Kagome, the more he was able to see Kikyo more clearly. She was still someone he cared for. And he would still help her when he could. But he knew that he didn't love her. That he perhaps never loved her. He had just needed someone to care about him. Kagome made him see that. Because Kagome did care. She really did care about him. And his feelings towards here were so different, so strong. He knew that there really was no comparison. But he didn't have the words to tell that to Kagome. He never was too good with words.

"What are you gonna write about?" he asked instead. "You going to write about love?"

Kagome bit her lip. Pencil still tapping nervously. "Do..." She looked down at the paper, concentrating on it. "Do you want to help me write it?"

Inuyasha didn't answer right away. The word 'no' was on his lips before he could think about it. It was a reflex. But he didn't say the word. Of course, he didn't say 'yes' either though. Kagome took his silence as a yes and smiled at him. After the requisite 'feh' he sat beside her.

"Okay, we only have to write fourteen lines. It has to follow a abab cdcd efef followed by a gg."

He cocked his head to the side. "Wha?"

"The first line and third line have to rhyme with each other. And the second line and fourth line have to rhyme together. It follows that same pattern three times, then there are two lines at the end that rhyme. And we're trying to keep it to ten syllables."

Inuyasha nodded, though he wasn't entirely certain he understood completely.

"So... um.... what should it be about?"

"Fighting," he answered. He wasn't about to write a love poem with Kagome. No way. It would be too weird. He'd mess it up for sure. Then she'd leave forever. Or laugh at him. Or laugh and then leave!

"No gory stuff," she said, waving her pencil at him.

"Surrounded by demons on a field of blood." Inuyasha began counting. "No. That's too many. Demons surround us on a field of blood." He counted the syllables again and nodded to himself.

"I thought I said no gory stuff."

"It ain't gory yet."

Kagome sighed. He never liked it when she sighed. "It's the 'yet' that worries me." But she wrote the line down anyhow. "You'll have to to be able to rhyme with blood you know."

"Mud. Flood. Cud."

"Cud?" Kagome smiled. Then she brightened as she thought of a second line. Inuyasha's heart warmed. "How about this? Demons surround us on a field of blood. We stand together to fight, back to back. They descend upon us as if a flood."

"That's pretty good." Inuyasha watched closely as she wrote. "You need something to rhyme with 'back' now, right?"

She smiled at him again. "Right."

He mumbled to himself, trying to find a word to rhyme. Back. Sack. Rack. Tack. Smack. Lack. Hack. Knack. Pack. "Together we will protect our pack."

There was silence. He looked over to see Kagome looking down at her paper with pinkened cheeks. "Um... Not quite enough words," she said. Then she scribbled in a short little word in front of his sentence. "Fixed."

Together they huddled over the paper, laughing over what word may rhyme with matter. Arguing over the best way to end the second stanza. Kagome fighting to keep it clean. Inuyasha fighting to keep it vivid. But then they arrived at the last two lines. Their poem had been about fighting together. Fighting until the battle was done. But what would they do when their own battles were done? What would the do when Naraku was defeated? Kagome whispered the first of the two ending lines. Then Inuyasha heard their friends returning. He looked around, slightly panicked, then he got ready to jump into the tree and feign sleep. But before he did, he told Kagome the last line. His reward was a shy smile that caused his chest to expand.

"We brought dinner!" called Sango as she waved from the distance.

Kagome waved back, then looked up at the hanyou. Quickly she read the poem aloud one time before the others came too close to hear.

Demons surround us on a field of blood
We stand together to fight, back to back.
The descend upon us as if a flood.
And together we will protect our pack.

In darkness or light, it doesn't matter.
Back to back we stand against every one
Though the sun burns or wind will batter.
We will not give in til the battle's done.

Our bond will see us through another day

From the highest mountain or deepest hole.

Never ending, we keep evil at bay

Protecting each other, body and soul.

The day is over and alone we stand
We look to face the next day, hand in hand

And the next day. And the next day.... Inuyasha promised her silently.

Author’s Notes: Sorry it has taken so long to update. I didn't forget about it, I swear!

Author’s Notes part 2: Um, sorta goofed on the sonnet there the first time. It didn’t have enough lines. I added the stanza and hopefully it should be all fixed now. Thanks for the head’s up! (this is why beta readers are a good idea…)