Shippou's foxfire cast sepulchral shadows across Kagome's face. The energy swirled around his hands, lighting the lobby with an uneven, flickering green light. The air smelled faintly of ozone from the magical fire; Buffy had overheard Shippou mutter something about the foxfire keeping the corrupted scent of the miasma at bay.
Kagome sat hunched on a chair in the lobby, keeping watch on the downstairs lobby entrance. Her posture was exhausted, and she cradled a mug of hot coffee in her hands as if she was cold as well as tired. Shippou had brewed the coffee, using his foxfire to heat the water. It was cowboy coffee, with the grounds dumped into the water, but it was good enough if you were desperate for caffeine. Buffy was on her fifth cup, herself.
"You two doing okay?" Buffy asked, from the stairs behind them.
Both of them looked back at her -- the kitsune was seated cross-legged at Kagome's feet, just a couple inches from her knees.
"Inuyasha's still out of it." Kagome shook her head. "He won't be able to wield Tessaiga for quite awhile."
"Shock." Shippou said. "It takes a lot to put Inuyasha for the count, but that ward your warlock put on the doorway more than did the job. He's powerful."
"Who, Andrew?" Buffy supposed he was. She wrinkled her nose. "He's Andrew."
It didn't escape her that neither of them had answered the question with a response about their own health. Instead. they'd automatically answered with a report on their fallen friend's welfare. She'd been leading people long enough to recognize that meant the three of them were a very tight group. Scratch one, and the other two would react like it was their own blood that was being shed.
She had assumed that Kagome and Inuyasha had that sort of relationship. Apparently, Shippou was more than just a mere "friend" -- he was something like kin.
Buffy repeated, "How are you doing?"
Kagome shrugged. "We'll be okay."
Darkly, Shippou added, "Unless we get killed in the next five minutes or something. You know the bad guys have to have some sort of evil plan here that likely involves lots of evil minions. With sharp, pointy objects and possibly nasty spells. And tentacles. There will be more tentacles. I just know it."
"They could just be planning on letting us starve to death." Kagome sipped her coffee.
"You two are pretty calm." Buffy was not surprised by this, actually. They'd already established that Kagome knew her business.
"Been there, done that." It was Shippou's turn to shrug. "More or less."
"Same old same old." Kagome agreed. "I agree with Shippou, however. I could do without the tentacles."
"What's with you and tentacles?" Buffy wrinkled her nose. "Other than the obvious eww factor."
"We're ..." Shippou started.
"... Japanese," Kagome finished. They looked at each other and Kagome giggled. The giggle made her sound years younger than her actual age of twenty. She added, "More seriously, we fought a bad guy with a whole lot of 'eww factor' and way too many tentacles. I've not liked ikayaki since."
Buffy had no clue what she was talking about, but Shippou apparently found it funny, because he laughed. "Me, I've found it curiously satisfying to eat octopus ever since."
"Ewww!" Buffy made a face. "Again with the tentacles."
Kagome grinned behind her hand and Shippou smirked.
"Hey. You better not be laughing about me." That was Inuyasha, and despite their prediction that he had a lot of healing left to do, he was on his feet and descending the stairs. Buffy turned to regard him warily, and then with an inevitable double-take of, Wow, uber-hot demon guy.
Because he was. He was wearing only the remains of his jeans, now cut off at the knee, and a sling for his arm, and his sword on his belt, with his ass-length white hair swinging long and loose, and a dark glower on his face. The guy had a perfect six-pack and pecs, and he moved with a lean, predatory, powerful grace that promised all sorts of deadly speed even when he was just descending stairs. If he wasn't totally taken, and totally an asshole, and responsible for the deaths of nine Slayers, and if she wasn't totally taken as well, she might find him damn interesting.
Oh, hell. Who was she fooling? Inuyasha was all sorts of Yum, particularly when he had that dark, pissed look on his face. The dog ears and the amber of his eyes and his wicked claws only added to the sense of exotic, and thereby to his sex appeal. And he damn well knew it.
He looked at her. And smirked. And she remembered that he had a "nearly psychic" sense of smell and could probably pick up her surging hormones at fifty feet away. Dog demon, and all that implied.
She flushed, knowing he knew how she'd reacted to his appearance. And worse, he was simply amused. She prayed he wouldn't say anything; Slayers, as a rule, had jealous streaks -- it was all part of living hard, fast, and intensely -- and she didn't need trouble with Kagome.
And his amusement at her expense was just plain irritating. She was 100 sure that her gut-level reaction of interest was not reciprocated; the man had eyes only for his fiancé.
After favoring her with one lifted eyebrow that said, Yes, I know I'm hot, he sauntered past and sat down at Kagome's feet, beside the kitsune. And then he said conversationally, to Kagome, "I'm going to make you pay for that stunt with the codeine."
Kagome ruffled his ears. He ducked his head away from her hands in irritation, and sulked wordlessly.
She leaned over and caught his chin in her fingers and tipped his head up to look at her, when his impulse was clearly to glower a hole in the floor. And then she kissed him on the forehead. She said something in snarky-sounding Japanese that made Inuyasha blush and mumble and completely loose his angry, sexy, hot look, and Shippou howl with laughter.
Shippou translated, for Buffy's benefit, "She said he can make her pay in bed. Gods, Kagome, you're way more fun as a grownup than you ever were as a little girl."
"Shippou!" Kagome smacked him on the arm. But she was grinning.
The kitsune, snickering, fell over sideways.
Buffy smiled politely. Kagome cleared her throat and said, "How's the hand?"
"Fine."
It wasn't fine; Buffy could tell by the way he had it clamped to his chest that it was hurting. However, he also wiggled his fingers when he said that, which astonished her -- she'd seen bone and charred meat when his brother had carried him up the stairs. Kagome had said that Inuyasha healed quick, but that was truly impressive.
"Let me see." Kagome reached for it.
"It's fine."
"Okay, then you won't mind me seeing."
Reluctantly, Inuyasha let her look. "No more codeine."
"You're coherent, so no, no more pills. If they decide to attack us, I need you sober now that you're able to defend yourself." Kagome unwrapped the gauze that was wound around his fingers. Buffy, despite herself, moved closer. "That was as much to make you sleep it off as it was about the pain, and you know it, dog-boy. You were in absolutely no shape to fight and you heal much quicker if you sleep."
Apparently, Kagome was right about his rate of healing. His palm was covered in shiny pink flesh. Inuyasha cautiously flexed his fingers, and didn't wince, but Kagome frowned at him. "You're going to lose your claws on that hand."
"They'll grow back."
"Yeah, but if you need to fight, don't forget they might come loose. They won't grow back overnight." Kagome turned his hand over and inspected the back.
"I know that, wench." He yanked his fingers away from her and put his arm back in the sling.
"Yeah, well, you know I also worry about you." She didn't seem surprised or offended by his reaction. Buffy thought if Spike had called her wench, she would have bloodied his nose.
"Where's my fucking brother, anyway?" Inuyasha stood back up.
"Haven't a clue." Kagome shrugged, seemingly unoffended by the obscenity.
"He's in the library with Angel, Spike and Kavin," Buffy said, helpfully. Inuyasha's brother gave her even more wiggins than Inuyasha. She'd seen Willow's research on the man. Inuyasha was more-or-less a white hat; Sesshoumaru was, while not precisely evil, not one of the good guys.
And Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru apparently took sibling rivalry to a whole new level. Sesshoumaru was missing an arm due to a fight with Inuyasha. Inuyasha had lived the last four hundred and fifty years in Europe and America due to Sesshoumaru literally kicking him off the island.
They really ought to go on Jerry Springer,
she thought."I need to go talk to him."
"Upstairs, to the right." She gestured.
"Thanks." Inuyasha headed off to find him.
Buffy stared after him. "Umm. Should we ..."
Shippou sighed. "I stopped trying to get between Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha a couple centuries ago. They won't actually kill each other."
"Probably." Kagome agreed with this, with a roll of her eyes.
"The pissing match can be entertaining to watch, too." Shippou smiled, as if at fond memories.
The two of them were on guard duty for the front door; they'd assigned everyone to various posts around the hotel to, hopefully, repel any bad guys. Or at least provide advance warning by virtue of screaming loudly. Kagome and Shippou were, after Willow and the regrettably wounded Inuyasha, probably the heaviest hitters they had. The front door was the most likely point of invasion, and so, they'd been assigned to watch it since Willow was currently doing something with Andrew and magic that Buffy wasn't sure she wanted to know the details on. "Kagome, I'll take over here, if you want to go check on Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha."
Kagome's eyes flashed with a bit of sudden irritation. "Inuyasha will be fine, Buffy. He's not going to bite anyone."
"Yeah." Shippou agreed. "I'd worry lots more if we weren't in the middle of a siege by enemy forces. Then they might beat on each other just for fun."
Well, that sounded like she was going to be the one responsible for Inuyasha-watching. She sighed and went after him.
--
Spike looked up as Inuyasha entered. He could smell blood and charred flesh wafting from the hanyou, and Inuyasha definitely wasn't at full strength: he could hear the man's heart beating at twice the rate it should, and he was even paler than normal.
Still, he looked alert, and steady on his feet. Spike was impressed; he would have been down for the count for days after injuries like Inuyasha's.
Sesshoumaru nodded briefly at his brother, but said nothing. Kavan, however, favored him with a brief grin, "Hey, Inu-sama."
That earned Kavan a dark look from Inuyasha, no reaction from Sesshoumaru, and a snort from Angel -- who spoke at least the basics of Japanese and was apparently amused by anyone calling Inuyasha sama. Well, Angel had heard stories of the hanyou; some from Buffy, and more humorous ones from Spike. None of them exactly presented him in a respectable light.
Spike asked, "Feeling better?"
Inuyasha grunted. "I can fight it I have to. What do we know about the situation now?"
Angel steepled his fingers and regarded the half-demon for a long moment before answering. Spike wondered if Angel was deciding if he could trust Inuyasha, or if he was just unhappy with the news he was about to divulge. Or, possibly, given his expression, he was just constipated. "We were just discussing it. Willow's been trying to break the barrier, but it reflects all magic she throws at it back at her. She says it's not so much a barrier as a fold in space. We could escape by burrowing underneath it -- or leaving via the storm sewers -- but the Unseelie are massing beneath us."
"They're after Buffy." Spike voiced his deepest concerns. "Well, Buffy and the rest of the command, but if they take Buffy out, Slayer Central's effectively crippled."
Buffy was an effective leader -- and Spike didn't think anyone below her had what it would take to pick up the reins and manage the army of Slayers. Most likely, the Slayers would degenerate into a squabbling mess of bickering politics, and the bad guys would defeat them while they were still deciding who got to lead. Slayers were leaders, not
And that was aside from the fact that the thought of Buffy, dead, broke his heart. He'd always loved her ... but now, after all they'd been through, both together and apart, it was different. He had a very hard time imagining his world without Buffy in it. He loved her. He always had.
But he hadn't believed, until recently, that she loved him back. And being truly loved back ... that changed everything.
As he was thinking dark thoughts about their attackers' goals, Buffy stepped into the room behind Inuyasha. Inuyasha glanced at her and she met the hanyou's gaze and quickly averted her eyes. Spike caught a whiff of attraction between the both of them that made him simply want to laugh out loud. Hormones at work, there; nothing would ever come of it, because Inuyasha was about as devoted to Kagome as a man could be to any woman. And he was confident that Buffy loved him.
Inuyasha was doing a lot better at concealing it than Buffy. There was nothing on the half-demon's face but a dark glower. Then again, Kagome would kick his ass into next week -- or possibly just sit him into a small crater -- if Inuyasha gave any clue of attraction towards another woman. He had a lot more incentive to keep a poker face than Buffy did.
"Kavan," Buffy said, "You've dealt with the Unseelie more than we have. Do you have any suggestions?"
"Run like hell?" The Sidhe prince suggested, with a faint smile.
"Do you think our speculations about this being a fold in space are right?" Buffy asked him, a direct question. Kavan didn't say much; he reminded Spike a bit of Oz, only taller, and with long hair.
Kavan shrugged. "Perhaps. The sidhe -- both Seelie and Unseelie courts -- are masters of dimensional travel. It could well be a rift, a fold not just in space, but time as well."
"And us without a phone booth." That was Inuyasha. He frowned. "Time?"
"Time passes differently when dimensional rifts are involved. Have you never heard of people lost inside hollow hills, who emerge centuries later no older than when they disappeared? Or conversely, people who lose decades of their life when only moments have passed above the hill ... this is due to dimensional rifts created by my people."
Kavan fell silent.
Sesshoumaru, to Spike's surprise, showed more than a little alarm at this pronouncement. Though his expression didn't change, his heart started racing, and a fine sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead. He said, shortly, "This is unacceptable."
"Oye." Spike didn't like Sesshoumaru's reaction; the demon was hiding something. "What's got your panties in a twist? You're nearly immortal."
Sesshoumaru said simply, "I have obligations and responsibilities in the current time."
"You're not the only one," Spike rolled his eyes. "We have over a thousand little girls who need us, and a world besides. And you?"
Sesshoumaru hesitated a long, long moment. However, it was Kavin who spoke, earning himself a silent and thin-lipped glare from the yukai lord. "Rumor has it on the streets that Sesshoumaru has a daughter, so I'd warrant his responsibilities in the real world consist of one little girl. And possibly her mother."
"Her mother's dead," Sesshoumaru said, quietly. And clearly unwillingly. "Where did you hear this? I have told no one of her. Jaken is the only one who knows, besides myself."
Kavin shrugged.
"You're a daddy?" Inuyasha hooted, suddenly, sounding vastly amused. The hanyou laughed, slapping his good hand against his thigh. "I would so love to see you change diapers, Fluffy."
"Hence, the jeans." Sesshoumaru said, a tight smile on his lips. Spike had seen Sesshoumaru in his full demon-lord regalia before and tended to agree that jeans were far more practical for dealing with spitup, snot, and poopy diapers. Baby vomit would be very hard to get out of the fur boa. And if Sesshoumaru said nobody else knew about the baby, then that meant he -- and his toady -- were the ones raising her.
The mind boggled.
As Spike had suspected, Sesshoumaru confirmed, "Jaken is with her."
"Oh, there's an appropriate nursemaid for a sprog!" Inuyasha was cackling with glee.
"He is very loyal." A slightly more genuine smile touched Sesshoumaru's lips. "And Anna is very fond of him."
"Anna?" Inuyasha cocked his head. "That sounds like a human name, Sesshoumaru."
Sesshoumaru went motionless, with no expression on his face. Spike couldn't read what he was thinking, but Inuyasha apparently knew his brother a lot better. The half-demon snarled, "You didn't. After you kicked me out of Japan because you were ashamed I was half-human, you made a hanyou all your precious own. Fuck me running, Sesshoumaru, you always were a god damned hypocrite ..."
Inuyasha's fists were balled, and his eyes narrowed in rage.
"And yet still, you do not understand my motives." Sesshoumaru said, quietly.
"I understand you're an asshole ..." Inuyasha crouched, clearly planning to spring on his brother. In two seconds, there would be one hell of a fight in the middle of the hotel's library.
Sesshoumaru straightened up, cool as a cucumber, waiting for that attack.
The fight never came. Inuyasha spat, suddenly, and put his back to his brother, and said, "This is not the place for a fight. I'll kick your butt all the way back to Japan later, you ass ..."
At that moment, a rumble shook the building, and glass broke. Inuyasha's sword seemed to spring of its own volition into his hand. Without skipping a beat, he said, "... but I'm going to kill some Unseelie, first."