Ok, sense I've gotten so much more Shippo love than I expected, I decided to update early to tell you this.
Shippo appears later.
There. Not much, but there you go. I plan to update every Friday until I run out of chapters, because I only have, like...half of this pre-written and I need to finish it, and god I'm halfway through and Sesshoumeru hasn't even appeared yet. I've spent the whole time expanding on Entreri's character.
Enjoy.
He had no claws.
He had no claws or fangs, scales or fur, markings or scares. No extra appendages, or missing appendages. He did not transform. He did not grow too quickly or too slowly. He did not hiss or growl or bark, and he did not eat human flesh or something equally detestable.
Truly, he was the perfect wolf amongst the sheep.
Pale, perfect artist's fingers lathered a scentless shampoo into his hair, his knee length black hair, in a modern, expensive looking shower. Muscles tightly trained into submission coiled and moved under the skin of his back and arms, flexing, relaxing. Deadly and smooth. When he stepped out of the shower he was wreathed in steam.
Towel wrapped securely around his waist, he stepped out into a large, roomy apartment. The penthouse. His penthouse. Golden hues of sunrise shone brilliantly through a glass wall, highlighting the colorless pastels and pale whites used in the room. It was all very neat. Very organized.
Very cold.
Three servants waited for him, and without a word, they set to work on their routine. One woman pulled back his hair as he sat down, and got to work straightening and drying and brushing the long, ebony locks into ruler straight submission. Another grabbed a bowel of rosewater and got to work on his immaculate fingernails, while the third cared for his delicately extended foot. He relaxed into their care with the ease of a man who had been treated so a hundred times before, and expected to be a hundred times again.
His carefully blank facade was allowed to slip into a predatory expression of contentment for a few moments before his assistants finished and he rose to stalk with smooth grace to his dressing room. His movements were swift and sure as the silks and fine materials of his clothes were graced with the honor or adorning him that day. Those clever pianist fingers buttoned his shirt up smoothly, leaving the top two undone to tease the imagination with a peak at a finely sculptured chest.
He selected a matching black overcoat and tied the thing together with a two thousand dollar Rolex watch. He was pleased when he exited to find the servants had all ready scampered off to see to his Lady Mother. He heard pleasant conversation and smelled fresh coffee from two stories below. He paused and cracked a rare smile as her laughter echoed up to his slightly pointed ears, the only physical evidence that hinted at inhuman ansestory.
In a blur too fast to see, he was down two flights of stairs and in his Lady Mother's morning room, where a table had been set up with a delicate, porcelain tea set steaming with his Mother's morning drink. He smelled milk and cream and sugar to lessen the bitterness, along with some of Mother's customary lilac perfume. He appeared just as her beautiful laughter began to fade to a smile. Two of the servants stood at her side, one holding the morning newspaper, the other a pitcher of coffee. Their accompanying smiles died at his sudden appearance, but they didn't flinch. They were used to their Lord's inhuman accomplishments, if not entirely comfortable with them.
Entreri put two hands on his Mother's shoulders and placed a delicate kiss on her pale cheek before seating himself beside her and motioning for the maid to pour him a cup. Her smile brightened as pale, faded eyes tracked him, giving the impression of not quite looking at what they were seeing.
"Good morning, dear. Finally decided to accept my invitation sip some coffee with me?" She asked with a good humored smile, sipping at her drink.
"I take coffee with you every morning, remember Mother?" His smile was slightly strained. "How are you today? You seem better. Have you been taking the medication that doctor prescribed?" He not-so-studly changed the topic.
She sighed. "Of course not. Fowl stuff, that is." She took a sip of her drink.
Entreri sighed and put his china cup down. "Mother...you should really-"
"Please, Entreri. No more. They make me too tired to enjoy the day." Her faded blue eyes didn't meet his intense, yellow orbs. She placed her drink on the table. "I want my...time left to be happy."
His eyes were pained. "Mother, the medicine will give you more time. That is all I need. Just a little more time and you will be well again."
Her eyes were sad when she looked at him. "Everyone dies, son." She looked away again, out the window. The china cup was back in her hand, and she sipped without seeming to taste it. "Besides, I had a good life. There's not much more I can ask for."
A sudden shudder ran down her back. Slowly, so slowly, she placed the china cup down on the table cloth and went still. Her eyes stared fixedly at nothing, and she somehow gave the impression of being relaxed and tensioned at the same time.
His face was suddenly a mask. "Not you." He whispered. "You deserve better than this."
Her eyes stayed firmly fixed on something no one else could see, and then she shook her head and finally focused on him. She smiled. "Good morning, dear. Finally decided to accept my invitation to sip some coffee with me?"
His voice was neutral and his eyes in shadow. "Not today, Mother. I have to go to work." He stood up. "Be sure to take your medication." He turned and left, too fast to see that same good humored smile, but that accursed hearing still caught her words on the elevator ride down.
"No way. Fowl stuff, that is."
A towering, heavily muscled man in a black suit sporting a cleanly shaven, military style cut was waiting for him when he stepped off the elevator, falling into step behind him as he walked to the lobby doors.
"You found it, then?" Entreri asked. The bellhop jumped to open the door for the two men, bowing deeply.
"It was not an easy thing, but it was done." The man handed Entreri a leather briefcase and touched a hand to a wire earpiece briefly. "Si. Si, pilotar el coche."
He turned to Entreri. "The driver is coming around."
Entreri inclined his head briefly. "Thank you, Hendricks."
A sleek, black limo pulled to the curb in front of them and sat idling as they climbed in, Entreri first and the man, Hendricks, last. He stood with the attentiveness of a bodyguard and the look of a wolf with the sent. After they were seated, Entreri pressed a button and the screen separating them from the driver rolled down. "My Grandmother's house, if you please."
"Yes, Lord." The driver pulled away from the curb and into the traffic of early morning Tokyo. Entreri didn't glance out the tinted, bullet proof glass, but instead pulled the briefcase onto his lap and opened the latches with simultaneous clicks. The broken shards of a mirror glinted out at him from velvet beds, but did not reflect anything around them. The surface rolled with mist.
"So it was destroyed." Entreri's face was impassive, but his voice held the barest traces of disappointment.
"The Lady Kagome said it had been shattered."
"I know. But it is damaged worse than I thought it would be." He touched one finger tip to the surface of a shard, and ripples spread from point of contact through the greyness of the mirror. "I shall be greatly disappointed if we acquired this for nothing."
"I tested it." Hendricks replied. "The shards still work independently."
Cold, golden eyes flickered to the bodyguard's face. A single eyebrow was raised. "That is no small thing, for a human." The man took the complement with a noncommunicable grunt. Those sharp, golden eyes didn't waiver. "And considering you had no guarantee they would work... it could have been dangerous, too. Almost...foolish." Not responding, Hendricks pulled an expensive pair of sunglasses out of a pocket and flipped them on without a care.
Those eyes went back to the shards as he examined them. "Make sure it does not happen again. Foolishness is not tolerated in this organization."
The body guard's expression was stern, but behind the glasses his eyes glinted with amusement. His boss had a particular way of showing he cared.
An hour or so later, they were rolling through country, and then the suburbs. Twenty minuets after that, they pulled out in front of a nondescript house in a nondescript neighborhood. Hendricks got out first and opened the car door for Entreri, who ghosted out and waited for Hendricks as he stuck his head into the window. "Leave." He said. The driver complied with only too much joy.
Entreri started off without looking back, and Hendricks once again fell into step behind him. He knocked on the front door, and after a moment was greeted by a smiling older man in his late twenty's or early thirty's. Entreri formally placed a hand over his heart and bowed. "Greetings, most esteemed Uncle." Hendricks remained silent, a dark form in the background.
The man smiled and clapped Entreri on the shoulder. "I told you to call me Sota, none of this 'most esteemed Uncle' nonsense." Sota stepped back and gestured inside. "Come in, come in."
He hesitated when his nephew stepped in and the mountain of a man behind him was revealed. After a moment, he nodded. "Hendricks." He acknowledged.
Hendricks nodded back as he stepped in. "Master Sota."
Sota eyed him as he stepped inside, but seemed to decide to ignore his presence and turned away. "Mom!" He shouted. "Entreri's here!"
Entreri heard the sound of water being turned off and hands being dried on and old wash cloth. "Entreri?" A withered old voice called from the kitchen. "Entreri! Come say hello to your grandma!"
Entreri walked into the kitchen and was assaulted by the smell of cooking food and a peppermint scented candle. He walked up to his grandmother and grabbed her hands and gave her a quick peck on each cheek. Grey streaked her hair, and there were shadows under her eyes, but she smiled at him.
"Don't you even start with, 'most honorable Grandmother', again." She rolled her eyes. "You say, 'Hello grandma, I missed you so much, can I have a cookie now?'"
Entreri cracked a smile and swept his Grandmother into a hug. "I am sorry, Grandma. I missed you so much! May I have a cookie now?"
She blushed fiercely. "Well, I sapose you can have one, but don't spoil your appetite for dinner."
Entreri smiled and grabbed a cookie from the batch on the counter. "I'm sorry, Grandmother. I am not staying for long."
She froze. "That's it, then. Your going, aren't you? Your going down the well."
Entreri looked at her. Didn't answer.
"I knew you'd come. After you sent that brute down a few days ago to do god only knows what, I knew it would only be a matter of time." She nodded at Hendricks as she said this, who shrugged unabashed. "What do want from there?"
Entreri didn't answer.
"Who do you want from there?" She corrected herself.
Entreri didn't answer. Her eyes glittered. "Him." The word dripped like poison off her lips.
He sighed. "Not for the reason you think."
She turned back to the dishes and began scrubbing with a vigor. "It would make me happy if you would not go."
Entreri sighed and sat down, putting his cookie on the counter. "I have to."
"What could he possibly do for you?" She demanded, frustrated. "He will not care about you."
"I care even less about him." Entreri said stiffly. "There is something I need from him. I'm not even going to tell him who I am."
She slammed the dish rag and plate into the soapy water with a snort. "That place brings nothing but sorrow and pain!"
His face held a careful blankness not normally presented to his family. "I came of that place. If not for the well, I would not have been born." Golden eyes were on her stiff back. "Do you really regret my birth that much, Most Honorable Grandmother?"
He heard her sniff and wipe her nose, and he smelled her tears. She turned around and whipped her hands on the front of her cloths and smiled a tired smile. She held out her hands for a hug. "I'm sorry, Entreri. You know I didn't mean that. Please, forgive me."
Entreri coolly held her gaze for a moment, then nodded, ignoring her outstretched arms. "You are forgiven."
The light left her eyes and her arms dropped. She wrong her hands nervously as he stood up and walked to the sliding door. "I apologize for not staying longer, Most Honorable Grandmother, but I must be going." His hand rested on the door knob.
"Wait!" She cried, reached for him, stopped herself. "I-I wish I could pack a lunch for you, but I know you don't eat much..."
"Hn."
She burst into motion suddenly. "So I will make something for Hendricks." She said determinedly. The bodyguard glanced up in surprise. "You might be superman, but Hendricks is only human."
Entreri lifted an eyebrow, glanced at the manservant, hesitated. "This...is perfectly acceptable." He nodded.
The woman was a whirlwind of motion, packing this and that and everything you could think of. "I'm giving you a first aid kid, too, just in case. And an umbrella for if rains. I know Entreri doesn't get sick, but do make him use it, Hendricks. I'll get so worried. And here, take some sunscreen. Entreri isn't effected, but I can't imagine the hell you'll have with without any hair. And I have some ramen for your Uncle, Entreri, and tea, I know you drink tea. And...Oh! You'll need something to carry this all around in. Where is that old backpack?"
She looked around and spotted a faded yellow backpack hanging from a hook near the door, just waiting to go on another adventure again after all it's years of neglect. Sota, standing off to the side, unhooked it and handed it to her with a smile. Somehow, she managed to fit everything inside, which was a magic even the half-daemon hadn't mastered yet. Hendricks looked on in some amusement and a little bit of uncertainty. He glanced at Entreri, but his boss was impassively waiting at the door, giving no cue to the large manservant.
The aged human sighed, gazing at the building backpack, eyes distant. "Doesn't this just bring back memories?" She asked, and Sota looked at his mother with a pained expression, then looked at Entreri, who didn't return his gaze. Entreri's Grandmother sighed, then heaved the bag up with two hands and gave it to the manservant, who held the thing away from his body with a strained expression. It looked tiny in his massive hands. He looked at Entreri, looked at the old woman, back to his boss, gave a little shrug, then bowed.
"Thank you, Lady Higurashi. You have no need to worry, for I have all ready gone ahead and transported everything we will require for our venture, but we will most certainly make use of the Lady's most generous gifts."
The old woman blushed. "Oh, I'm no Lady."
"You are the Most Honorable Grandmother of our Lord, Entreri. " Hendricks placed his hand over his heart in a gesture surprisingly similar to the hanyou's, and bowed. "Therefore, you are our Lady Higurashi."
She turned away and sniffed. "Go on already, then. Don't let me waste your time."
A small smile cracked his stiff demeanor, and he straightened up and walked to stand behind Entreri. The half-daemon looked up at him and gave a slight nod of approval before turning and striding out the door. Hendricks followed not far behind.
They entered the well house and looked down the steps to the old well, still standing after all this time. Shadows and darkness cluttered to old room, and creaks could be heard from every old piece of wood.
Gold eyes glittered dangerously from the shadow blocking the light streaming through the open doorway.
"It has been fifteen years." He said, voice toneless. "I will not make the same mistakes as last time."
And with that, he took one inhumanly graceful leap, black hair trailing behind him, a predatory gleam in his eyes, and disappeared into a flash of blue light. Hendricks followed at a more leisurely, human pace, and simply swung both legs over the side of the the well before disappearing after his Lord.
One lonely old woman watched quietly from the doorway as she was left behind again.
You know, I really hate those stories where something terrible happens to Kagome, like rape or suicide or torture, and then people write her mom all like 'oh, my poor baby' and then ten minuets later shes all 'yeah, sure, you can go back down the well, because I know you have to.' or some other reason for her to approve Kagome's return.
No mom is that understanding. Unless they hate their children.
Read and Review.