Wasted
Interlude One: First Meeting


Harry sighed deeply as he walked down the worn paths of his adopted village. Dusk had fallen, and the shadows grew longer and longer with every step. Soon it would be dark, but the moon was full tonight, and it shone so brightly on some nights that it almost seemed like daytime. Harry rarely travelled after the sun had set, but he'd spent a long time in the forest surrounding the village today.

He'd stumbled across this village, Kao, when he'd first arrived in this strange place. He'd been surprised at how rustic everything was, and had surmised that he must've travelled back in time, as well as across worlds. This world, however, was very similar to his own. He'd been surprised at how similar they were.

When he'd first come to the village, all of the people there had been speaking a language he hadn't been able to understand. He'd stayed away from the village until he managed to find a translation charm. It was a charm that had been developed by a seventeenth century wizard who had travelled a lot and hadn't wanted to learn a new language from scratch every time he went somewhere new. Harry was immensely grateful for it – as the weeks went on, he started to gain a little understanding of his own of the Japanese language, but trying to learn it all on his own would have taken years.

He'd found work as a carpenter in the village. They were hit by storms often enough to keep him in business – the winds were enough to cause damage, and sometimes a bolt of lightning would hit a house and destroy the area around it as well. That had happened during the last storm, to everyone's surprise – most of the times, the lightning hit the trees in the forest surrounding them, not the village itself. It was the reason Harry had been out so late. The family whose house had been destroyed wanted it fixed as soon as possible, and Harry worked alone, which meant just that much work for him.

Still, it was a good job. It didn't require a lot of finesse, as the houses themselves were pretty crude, and it paid enough to get by. It didn't stop Harry from wondering if he this was all he'd do with the new life he'd been given. Did he want to spend all of his time in this new world in a small village? He'd considered travelling farther, but a part of him always shrunk from the idea. He'd had enough of adventure to last a lifetime. This simple life was something he'd longed for during the years of Voldemort's reign of terror. But now that he was away from the adventure, a part of him longed for it.

Harry sighed. Why couldn't he just be content where he was? He had a job, he'd made some friends, and there was peace here. Why couldn't he just be happy with that?

"Hey, Hari!"

Harry turned and scowled when he saw who was behind him. They were the village thugs; Lao and Mui. He supposed the only people he could compare them to was Crabbe and Goyle, although, to their credit, Lao and Mui were much smarter than those particular thugs. Harry didn't think it was an improvement – a cruel thug was still a thug, in the end.

"What can I do for you boys?" he asked wearily. He just wanted to go home.

Lao was smirking. He wasn't a good-looking boy – his face was too wide and his nose was too broad and blunt for that. "We just wanted to have a talk with you," he said casually, stepping forward.

Harry frowned. There was something in Lao's voice that sent his hackles rising. "Oh?" he asked, adopting Lao's casual tone, even as he prepared himself for a fight. "What about?"

"You know, Hari," Mui said, stepping forward as well. He was slimmer than Lao, and taller, but just as ugly. "It's not nice to try and steal someone's girl."

Harry blinked in surprise, caught completely off-guard. "What're you talking about?" he asked in confusion.

Lao smiled coldly. "We saw you and Sakura yesterday."

Harry racked his brain, trying to remember a Sakura. He suddenly remembered – Sakura was the daughter of the family whose house had been damaged. She was an insipid little thing who fluttered her eyelashes too much. And Harry remembered overhearing gossip that Lao liked her. Harry groaned inwardly and rolled his eyes.

Lao caught the eye-roll, even in the dark. "Oh, you think it's funny, do you?" he snarled, his pretense at being good-humored melting away. "Trying to steal my girl away and you think it's funny?"

"I wasn't aware she was yours," Harry said with annoyance. "But that's beside the point – I wasn't trying to steal her away from you. I don't want her."

"It didn't look like it," Lao said, stepping forward again, with Mui at his shoulder. "It looked like you were flirting with her." Lao stepped forward again, until he was in Harry's space. Harry tensed. He didn't like people in his space. "Just because you're a fucking pretty boy doesn't mean you get to flirt with my woman, understand?"

"Get away from me," Harry said, soft and deadly. This boy was getting on his last nerve.

Lao had the audacity to smirk at him and poke him in the chest with one of his fingers. "Why should I?" he asked.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "I don't have a problem with you, Lao," he said clearly. "But if you don't get away from me, you'll find yourself in a world of pain."

"Mui, do you think I should move?" Lao asked, still smirking.

"Of course not," Mui said, his expression mirroring his friend's.

"Well, if Mui says it's alright, then it must be," Lao said, and sent a fist into Harry's gut.

Harry grunted as it hit him – Lao was too close and Harry hadn't actually expected him to be bold enough to punch Harry, so he hadn't tried to get out of the way fast enough. Before he could recover, Lao was punching him again, harder, and Mui was moving in as well. Harry was forced to his knees from the blows. Even if they were cruel little creeps, they had strong arms and they knew how to fight.

"Do you really expect her to go after a filthy little pretty boy like you?" Lao shouted as he rained blows and kicks on Harry's body. "She likes real men, Hari, and the sooner you figure that out, the better!"

Harry wanted to tell him that if being a real man meant beating someone else up, then he felt that Lao was doing it wrong, but then he got a kick to the stomach that sent all of the breath rushing out of his body. He felt humiliation rise up in him. He was better than they were at fighting, and yet they still were managing to beat him up.

"Hey!" Harry's humiliation spiked. Great, he thought. Someone to witness me getting beat up by a pair of goons. Just perfect. "Leave him alone!"

Harry let out a sigh of relief as Lao was pulled off of him. Wincing, he managed to get to his feet in time to see Lao getting punched in the face. The stranger turned to Mui to do the same thing, but Mui was already running away. Harry snorted. So much for loyalty.

The stranger turned to him and Harry was surprised to see golden eyes staring at him. The stranger's hair was white, and there were slashes across his cheeks that spoke of his youkai heritage. Harry froze.

"Let me help you," the stranger said, hurrying to Harry's side, trying to help him up.

Harry shrugged him off. "I don't need your help," he snapped, humiliation and fear making him sharper than normal. "Thank you for getting them away from me, but you can just leave me alone now."

He turned sharply on his heel and limped away from the stranger, hoping that he hadn't had enough time to smell hanyou on Harry.


The next day, Hari was in the middle of working when he heard a yell go through the village. He paused in the middle of getting the roof fixed and straightened, wiping sweat off of his brow, to see what was causing all of the hubbub. He squinted, but the sun was in his eyes and all he could see was a group of people walking through the village. He caught sight of white hair and curiosity rose. He didn't know anyone in the village with white hair. Carefully he jumped off the roof of the building he was repairing, landing next to one of the villages elders, Mizuki. She was watching the crowd gathering on the main (and only) road of Kao with a fond smile.

"What's going on?" Hari asked curiously. Mizuki turned to him.

"The Western Lord is coming through our village," she said brightly. "He is doing his yearly border check. It is a great honor for our village!"

Hari blinked. He'd heard of the Western Lord, but only briefly – the most any one had told him was that he was a youkai and ruled over the land that Hari had chosen to live in. Beyond that, Hari hadn't needed to know much about him. Still, he couldn't help but be curious. He plodded up to the side of the road, watching closely as the procession started down the main road. He heard calls and yells, mostly of well-wishes and blessings, as the Lord and his company progressed through the village at a stately pace.

When they were finally close enough to see, Hari froze. The Western Lord – he was the man from last night, the man who had saved him from him humiliating mugging and who might know that he was a hanyou and not a normal human. Shite, Harry thought, trying to move through the crowd. He had to get away, before the Lord saw him.

Harry had kept his glamours up since he arrived at Kao and learned that humans regarded hanyous as disgusting mistakes of nature. Harry had had enough of being an outcast, and he hadn't wanted to move on so quickly, so he'd kept his nature quiet. He supposed that the view on hanyous must be the same on the youkai side, and that if the Lord knew that Harry was one, he'd be ordered into a prison or executed or something. He'd heard horror stories from some of the young men about what happened to hanyous who weren't ashamed of their freakishness.

Harry had nearly gotten away when he heard, "Stop!"

He froze halfway through his flight and turned to meet golden eyes. The crowd around him grew quiet and Harry felt his neck prickle as dozens of eyes came to rest on him.

"Will you please come with me?" the Lord asked, politer than Harry would've given him credit for. "We need to speak to one another."

Harry could feel a flush burning his face, just as he could feel the surprise from the humans around him. Unable to say no to a Lord in front of dozens of people, and sure that he would be tracked down anyways, he hesitantly came up to the group. He saw that several of his companions were giving the Lord wary looks as well.

As soon as Harry was by his side, the Lord turned to the nearest house and entered it, not even stopping to ask if he could use it. Harry frowned. Apparently he wasn't quite that polite. Quietly, Harry followed him inside.

The Lord looked too big for the small, crude house. "How are you feeling?" he asked, looking sincerely concerned. "I worried that you may be more seriously injured than you let on last night."

"I'm fine," Harry said gruffly. "Although why you had to call me out in the middle of the street just to make sure of that seems a little odd to me."

The Lord smiled. "I'll admit, it's more than that," he said. Harry looked up. The Lord's eyes were very deep and very gold. "You're hanyou."

Harry tensed. "Yes," he said tersely.

"Where are your features?" The Lord asked, sounding more curious than judgmental.

Harry shrugged. "I found a way to hide them," he said. He lifted his chin. "What're you going to do to me now?" he demanded to know.

The Lord sighed. "I know that there is a general prejudice against hanyous, but I don't make it a habit to kill them," he said. "In fact, I was wondering if you would like to join me."

Harry blinked in surprise. "Join you?" he asked, nonplussed. "But why?"

The Lord shrugged. "I can't imagine you want to hide who you are for the rest of your life here," he said. "And, to be honest, I need a tutor for my son when I return home."

Harry eyed him like he was crazy. "You don't even know if I can read or write or do any other . . . tutor-like things," he said suspiciously.

The Lord smiled. "Those are important too," he said. "But I want Sesshoumaru to learn the importance of trusting people due to who they are, not what their blood is. Having a hanyou tutor will help with that." The Lord paused, then added, "Can you read and write? And do tutor-like things?" There was a twinkle in his eye.

Harry sniffed. "Well, yes—"

"Perfect! You're hired."

Harry eyed the Lord suspiciously. "You're a strange man," he said finally. A tingle was starting to work its way through his body. This was something that a part of him had been longing for – an adventure!

The Lord inclined his head. "I am," he said, smiling. "But I don't believe this investment will be a waste, or that you'll let me down." The Lord looked up again, meeting Harry's eyes. "I most often called Inu no taisho," he said, "but my given name is Kamin. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Harry watched him for a moment, then bowed. "I don't have a title," he said dryly, "so really, the only name you can call me is Hari."

Kamin laughed. "I think we'll get on just fine, Hari."

"We'll see," Harry muttered, turning to go back out and start this new chapter of his life.


Author's Note: There won't be many of these interludes, but I figured I might as well put one at the start so you all can see how Kamin and Harry meet. Next chapter will be in the present. Please leave a review!