Chapter 24: Thunder Storms
The thunderstorm. One of every hanyou's worst nightmares.
Bright flashes of natural light coupled with insanely loud crashes that were inescapable. You couldn't hide under your bed to get away from the noise.
You couldn't cover your ears deaden the sound, especially if you just happened to be equipped with dog-ears. Least of all, you couldn't just sleep through it, at least not without waking up with a splitting headache.
Almost like Hell on Earth.
Inu-Yasha lay face down on his bed, his pillow squished down over his sensitive ears, his eyes clamped shut. He whimpered into the blankets as a huge clap of thunder rumbled through his room.
To be completely honest, he didn't know why he wasn't deaf yet as well as blind.
He shuddered.
Being deaf, AND blind? He'd go insane.
It was at least 11oclock, and the hanyou had been suffering through the noise since late afternoon. The inside of his ears were throbbing painfully, as if affected by an extremely loud, headache-inducing subwoofer.
He pressed his pillow down tighter over his head and sighed. He desperately wanted to join Kagome in her room. At least he would have company...
At least, with Kagome, he could put his mind at ease.
Being near her calmed him greatly, but he didn't suppose she'd let him sleep on her floor, would she?
He sighed.
"Damn thunder..." he grumbled into his sheets, "Damn storms..."
Inu-Yasha despised thunderstorms for more than just the noise however; many of the most traumatic events of his life had occurred during large thunderstorms.
-
Traumatic Event #1:
The Sengoku-Jidai, when Inu-Yasha was still just a two-year-old pup. He sat in his small, comfortable room, happily rolling his wooden ball around the floor. Both of his parents were out; only Sessho-Maru remained in their large home to watch over him, though the older youkai was extremely reluctant to do so.
Unknown to Inu-Yasha's naïve mind, his brother was told that he would be left with an annoying flea for the rest of his life if he didn't.
Inu-Yasha merely thought that his Nii-san liked him.
The young hanyou played by himself contentedly, that is, until a large crash from the sky outside sent him scurrying into a corner of his room, his ball clutched tightly in his tiny, clawed fingers.
Another crash.
It hurt his ears, and he whimpered in pain. Forgetting the ball, he clapped both hands down over the sensitive appendages and cringed. The noise was loud, and it frightened him.
Was it a youkai?
No, it didn't matter if it was. Nii-san would protect him from any youkai. Nii-san was strong.
Encouraged by this thought, Inu-Yasha smiled a little, but another crash from outside caused him to curl tightly in his corner.
Suddenly, the noise of wood scraping wood. Inu-Yasha opened one eye. To his dismay, there was a strange, human samurai, dripping with water, that had somehow climbed into his room through his window.
He blinked in shock, but forced himself to not be afraid. He was a human. He wouldn't hurt him, would he? But why had he come into their home?
"H-Hello," he said softly, forcing a smile, "Um... Are you lost? Are you trying to get out of the rain?"
He tilted his head at the man's silence.
"Are you scared of the loud crashes too?" the young hanyou asked innocently.
Still saying nothing, the samurai drew his sword. Inu-Yasha's eyes widened with horror.
-
Meanwhile, Sessho-Maru was staring out at the dark sky, watching the rain pour.
Gods, he was bored...
He cringed as thunder boomed in the sky. Surely, the whelp would come running to him any second.
Suddenly, a shriek of terror from Inu-Yasha's room…
Right on schedule, or so he thought.
"SESSHO-MARU!" he screeched, "SESSHO-MARU, HELP ME!"
Sessho-Maru sighed.
"It's just thunder whelp; it can't hurt you!" he called back, "Go to sleep!"
"NO, SESSHO-MARU, YOU DON'T GET IT! AH! HELP ME NII-SAN! HE'S GONNA KILL MEEEEE!"
He could hear the panicked scampering of his brother's feet. And the slash of a sword.
Sessho-Maru's eyes flickered with annoyance and he stood from his spot and walked to Inu-Yasha's room. He threw back the door and glowered at the room's contents.
Inu-Yasha was pinned to a wall; tears of fright streaming down his face, the sword of a samurai assassin held up to his small throat.
"Nii-san..." he choked, "P-Please... Help me..."
The cold blade pressed against his skin and he whimpered.
Sessho-Maru's eyes traced between the two and he sighed.
"Bakas..." he whispered.
"Don't move," the samurai warned, "I have sutras. I'll kill the child."
Inu-Yasha bit on his lip and squeezed his eyes shut. Sessho-Maru merely rolled his eyes.
"You threaten me?" he asked.
With a flick of his finger, and his whip-like energy, the man was dead on Inu-Yasha's floor, his head sent rolling across the floor, not unlike Inu-Yasha's wooden ball, and the tiny hanyou, choking back tears, raced to his brother, seeking comfort.
"Nii-san..." he whined, "A-Arigato..."
He grasped onto Sessho-Maru's leg and sniffled into the cloth. The older youkai sighed and scooped the whimpering whelp into his arms.
"Stop sniveling," he said, "You're fine. Just scared."
Inu-Yasha nodded and brushed his eyes on the back of his sleeve.
"I... I'll try Nii-san," he said, "I'll be brave like you."
Sessho-Maru resisted the urge to roll his eyes skyward again.
"Right," he said.
Inu-Yasha gave a weak smile, but then thunder boomed through the air, and he yelped and covered his ears.
"Nii-san... I'm scared..." he whispered, "C-Can I... sleep with you tonight?"
"With me?" Sessho-Maru asked, hiding his surprise, "But..."
The pup gave him a pathetic, pleading glance, and Sessho-Maru sighed.
He could imagine what the look on his father's face would be if he left the whelp as he was. Slowly, he nodded reluctantly.
"Only because Father will have my head if I don't let you," he muttered.
"Thanks Nii-san," he said, perking up immediately, "Thank you so much."
He nuzzled into the fur of his brother's tail, which he carried across his shoulder.
Sessho-Maru sighed and lightly patted the back of Inu-Yasha's head. The boy yelped happily and leaned into the fur, closing his eyes.
"I love you Nii-san," he said softly.
Sessho-Maru raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"…What? You do?" he asked.
Inu-Yasha nodded and smiled.
"Do you love me too Nii-san?" he asked.
Sessho-Maru gave a soft grunt as a reply to not give a certain answer, though Inu-Yasha took it as a yes and gave another contented yelp, and was soon asleep.
Sessho-Maru sighed.
"Crazy whelp..." he muttered.
-
Traumatic Event #2:
Inu-Yasha was three. Over a year previously, he and Sessho-Maru had been transported into the future. They now had a large mansion in the woods; Sessho-Maru was the kind of person who could easily gain money and power, and keep it too, even in a completely different society.
Inu-Yasha had figured out that it was either he had lots of charisma... or was intimidating... or a combination of the two.
Over the months, Inu-Yasha felt that his Nii-san had changed. Deep inside, he had known that Sessho-Maru hadn't been very fond of him to start off with, but to him, it was still a little bit of a puzzle as to why.
Ever since their little "excursion" to the future, however, the older youkai seemed to have warmed up to him.
He had played with him, got him toys, had even bought him his own pet rat, whom he doted upon often. He didn't know what had changed his big brother, but he knew that he liked it.
Inu-Yasha was garbed in his baggy red pajamas and was in his room playing with his much-loved plush puppy that his Nii-san had got for him.
It was late, and he probably should have been in bed. Inu-Yasha knew this, but couldn't bring himself to sleep. He had been feeling strange all day, but hadn't mentioned it to Sessho-Maru.
Plus, it was thundering outside.
Inu-Yasha hated thunder. It scared him and hurt his ears. It reminded him of bad things.
Very bad things.
The small hanyou pup yawned widely and stood, clutching his plush dog to his chest.
His ears felt weird...
The thunder, to him, didn't seem nearly as loud as it did most nights. He breathed in, and was suddenly alarmed to find that he could hardly smell.
With a yelp of fright, Inu-Yasha leapt onto his bed, cradling his dog in his lap.
What was happening to him?
Then, his nails and fangs itching. Inu-Yasha raised his hands to look at them, and was horrified to see his claws shrinking. With a yelp, he toppled backwards on his bed, and banged the top of his head.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, clapping his arms over his injured cranium.
Then, to make matters worse, he couldn't feel his ears.
Stiffening in horror, Inu-Yasha felt through his hair frantically with his clawless fingers.
No ears.
"M-My e-ears!" he stammered fearfully, "Where'd m-my ears g-go?"
His fingers fell down the sides of his head, fiddling with small, fleshy ovals. He felt them over carefully, and then realized what they were.
Human ears.
Then, Inu-Yasha's normally acute night vision dimmed to leave him in the dark.
He did the first thing that came to his panicked mind.
He screamed.
-
Sessho-Maru sat in his room, just a few doors down from his little brother's. He flicked through the channels to the news on his "television".
The youkai smirked.
Television.
What a strange invention.
A box that could display moving images and sound primarily for human entertainment.
Strange.
Then, what in this human world wasn't strange? No youkai. Spiritual powers barely existed or lay dormant.
Any special human abilities, such as being able to speak to animals or perhaps use telepathy, also lay dormant, with most people denying their existence all together. Then again, most people denied the existence of his own race as well.
Humans had become so narrow-minded…
He and Inu-Yasha had lived in this odd, future-world for over a year, but most things still secretly amazed him.
Suddenly, from Inu-Yasha's room, he heard a horrified scream. And then another.
Perking immediately, Sessho-Maru turned off his T.V. and stood from his bed.
What was wrong with that hanyou? The thunder was quiet tonight, even to his ears. It most certainly wasn't enough to make the boy scream, was it?
Puzzled, Sessho-Maru took in his brother's scent. To his surprise, it was different. It was human.
"Oh hell," Sessho-Maru breathed.
Quickly, he left his room and walked down the hall to Inu-Yasha's. He opened the door slowly and poked his head in.
"Inu-Yasha? Whelp?" he inquired quietly.
He could see a small, quivering, sniveling lump under Inu-Yasha's blankets, and he sighed and sat on the bed.
"Inu-Yasha, are you all right?" he inquired.
The lump trembled.
"D-Don't come near me Nii-san... I think I'm sick," he whimpered, "I think I'm dying."
"Inu-Yasha..." Sessho-Maru sighed, rubbing his brow, "You're fine. Come out of there."
"B-But..."
Inu-Yasha's voice was shaking, and Sessho-Maru could smell his fear. It stunk up the whole room.
With a sigh, the older youkai pulled the blankets back from around Inu-Yasha.
Violet, instead of amber, eyes blinked at him tearfully. Inu-Yasha sat in his blankets, fully human. His fangs and claws had gone, and his hair had changed from silver to black.
He shivered under his Nii-san's gaze.
Sessho-Maru sighed.
"Don't worry whelp, you're fine," he said.
"Fine?" he demanded, and gestured to himself, his voice shrill, "You call this fine? I'm dying!"
"Inu-Yasha..." Sessho-Maru muttered, rubbing his brow, "This is normal for hanyous."
"What, to randomly start dying?"
"You're not dying!" Sessho-Maru snapped, and then sighed and lowered his voice, "You're not dying at all. You've become a human."
"A human?"
Inu-Yasha trembled, and then thunder boomed outside. He cringed and whimpered.
"But Sessho-Maru, I don't wanna be a human... I wanna be half again..." he whined.
"You'll change back at sunrise," Sessho-Maru informed him.
"But-"
"Just listen to me!" Sessho-Maru instructed sternly.
Inu-Yasha clamped his mouth shut, though his lip was quivering.
"Listen..." Sessho-Maru said quietly.
He picked Inu-Yasha up and sat him in his lap.
"Once a hanyou turns three," Sessho-Maru said, "They start having transformations from hanyou to human and back."
"But-" Inu-Yasha started, but his brother gently but firmly put his hand over his mouth.
"Just listen to me whelp," he said, "For you, the time of month seems to be the new moon. So every new moon from now on, you'll become a human. All right?"
Inu-Yasha nodded shakily and tried to pry his brother's hand from his mouth, but was unable to.
"You're just as strong as a human three-year-old now," Sessho-Maru said, "Just be glad that your intelligence and speaking capabilities aren't reduced as well."
Then, Sessho-Maru removed his hand and Inu-Yasha sighed in relief.
"Thanks Nii-san," he whispered.
He turned in Sessho-Maru's lap and hugged him around the waist.
"I'm glad... I have you Nii-san," he said.
Sessho-Maru was unable to stop a small smile and he put one arm around the whelp.
I've gone so soft that it's not funny anymore, he thought, and then sighed.
"Nii-san? C-Can I... sleep with you tonight?" he asked.
Sessho-Maru sighed.
"Sure, if it'll make you feel better," he said.
"Arigato," Inu-Yasha said with a sigh of gratitude.
He snuggled against Sessho-Maru's chest and closed his eyes, becoming limp in the older youkai's grasp. Sessho-Maru shifted so that he was leaning his back against the headboard.
He sighed and regarded the sleeping human in his lap.
"Poor kid," he muttered.
He turned his head to look out the window as lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the distance. He cringed, while Inu-Yasha jolted and whimpered softly.
It must be hard to be a hanyou, he thought, But... I'm glad... that he's proud of it.
He recalled Inu-Yasha saying, "I wanna be half again."
Sessho-Maru let out another sigh. Thunderstorms really did bring out bad situations for his little brother.
-
Traumatic Event #3:
"Thunder… Oh, not again!" A six-year old Inu-Yasha groaned.
It had been almost constant for three days, and the young hanyou boy hadn't been able to sleep at all. Every so often, it seemed as if the weather would play a trick on him; its thunder would stop for an hour or so, but then, as soon as he was comfortable, come back again, stronger than before.
Inu-Yasha was sitting in their living room on the ground floor, on a large, comfortable blue couch. The walls in this room were a pale blue, and were meant to be calming, but at the moment, it was anything but.
Blue meant water.
Water meant rain.
Rain meant thunder.
Inu-Yasha grabbed a nearby cushion and buried his head under it, trying to block out the noise that threatened to deafen him.
He growled irritably, forcibly flattened his ears against his skull, and squeezed his eyes shut.
"I hate it, I hate it, It hate it!" he exclaimed.
He curled up against the arm of the couch, growling and muttering curses under his breath.
"Inu-Yasha, what did I tell you about swearing?"
Inu-Yasha looked up and blinked at his older brother, who stood in the doorway in his nightwear with a cup of coffee in his hands.
"Um… Not to do it?" Inu-Yasha suggested.
"Right," Sessho-Maru replied, "It's 11oclock; why the hell aren't you in bed?"
"Can't sleep. Thunder," Inu-Yasha growled out, "I hate it."
"Get earplugs," Sessho-Maru suggested.
"Um, hello? I have dog-ears," Inu-Yasha said, jabbing his fingers at his furry ears.
"No, really Inu-Yasha? I hadn't noticed," Sessho-Maru said, rolling his eyes.
Inu-Yasha frowned at his brother and buried his head under a pillow once more before flopping facedown onto the couch.
"You don't have to be so damn sarcastic," he muttered.
Sessho-Maru eyed his pillow-covered younger sibling and rolled his eyes again. He entered the room and lightly sat down beside him. He reached under the pillow and ruffled his hair.
"Urm… Get offa me," he growled, trying to bat Sessho-Maru's hand away.
Sessho-Maru merely smirked and began to gently tweak Inu-Yasha's furry ears, just because he knew it annoyed him.
The hanyou pup let a deep growl rumble up from the back of his throat, but it merely caused Sessho-Maru to begin to laugh.
"Oh, I'm scared whelp. I'm really scared," he said.
"Feh…" Inu-Yasha muttered.
He looked up at Sessho-Maru and raised one eyebrow.
"Coffee again? How the heck can you drink that stuff?" he asked.
"Want some?" Sessho-Maru offered, sticking the cup under Inu-Yasha's nose.
The hanyou's face contorted in revulsion at the scent and he turned his head away.
"Ew, no," he said, "That's just nasty."
Sessho-Maru smirked and cut his eyes at Inu-Yasha.
"Well, I'm going to bed," he said, "I'm tired. You stay up. I'm in my room if you want me."
"Yeah, whatever, I know," Inu-Yasha said, waving his hand at Sessho-Maru, "You are dismissed."
Sessho-Maru lightly cuffed the back of Inu-Yasha's head before standing and proceeding up the stairs.
-
Inu-Yasha grunted and clapped his hand to the back of his head.
"Bah…" he grumbled, and then hugged his pillow to his chest and yawned behind it.
Man, was he ever tired!
But he couldn't sleep; he didn't dare to. He was starting to get an ominous feeling about this night.
Bad things kept happening to him on nights contaminated by thunderstorms, and his list merely continued to grow longer.
He had almost had his head chopped off, a horrible nightmare about his mother dying, his first new moon, falling down the stairs and breaking his ankle, and his rat getting run over by one of Sessho-Maru's agents when he was outside playing with her.
He sighed and blinked back a sudden moistness in his eyes at the thought of his rat.
"Poor Ōnezumi… She never stood a chance…" he muttered.
He sniffed again and wiped the moistness from his eyes with the back of his hand, and buried his face in his pillow again.
Then, thunder. It crashed through the house, though was so sudden that it caused Inu-Yasha to yelp and jump approximately three feet in the air.
Nervously, his eyes wide, he crawled into the space between the sofa cushion and the arm and quaked fearfully.
Damn it, how he hated thunder!
-
The small hanyou sat through a few more minutes of ear-abuse before deciding that he was scared, and needed Sessho-Maru with him. He crawled from his spot on the sofa and quietly clambered up the stairs.
He didn't even need Sessho-Maru to wake up; he merely needed his presence. At the top of the stairs, Inu-Yasha's sensitive ears picked up the sound of breaking glass. His ears automatically rotated to catch the noise, and he began to shake fearfully.
The noise had come from Sessho-Maru's room.
Suddenly, a new scent. Pungent, metallic, bitter; it made him want to vomit. Blood.
"Sessho?" he asked, but his voice had dropped to a fearful whisper.
He carefully approached Sessho-Maru's door and laid his shaking hand on the knob.
He didn't know what to think, and was horrified to find what lay beyond the door, but curiosity drove him forward.
Slowly, his small fist clenched around the doorknob and he turned it and pulled back. He peeked his head into the room, and he nearly gagged.
Blood.
Dog blood.
There was red goop smeared all over the wall near Sessho-Maru's window. The glass was smashed and littered the floor and Sessho-Maru's disturbed bed sheets.
They too, were drenched with the red.
Inu-Yasha looked around the room from the door, his mouth agape.
The scent of men also lingered, just outside the widow, but was barely tangible above the scent of the blood.
Men…
Inu-Yasha only knew of one group of people that would do this: the humans who had been chasing them since they had arrived from 15th century Japan.
Inu-Yasha's throat was tight, his nose clogged. He fell to his knees and took another look at the hellish mess around him.
Tears burned down his cheeks. There was only one explanation that was clear to his young mind.
His big brother was dead.
Caught between fear and an unbearable loss, Inu-Yasha howled out his misery in a combination between a sob and a scream.
-
He didn't stop until he was suddenly grabbed from behind and a hand was tightly clamped down over his mouth. He whimpered and struggled feverishly until he was whipped around and pulled against someone's chest.
"Whelp. Quiet, don't look at it," Sessho-Maru's voice told him.
The muted Inu-Yasha looked up slowly to find his brother's hardened face above him.
He squeaked in shock behind the hand and blinked, shivering fearfully.
"Are you going to stop screaming?" Sessho-Maru asked.
Inu-Yasha nodded shakily, and the hand was removed. He blinked up at his brother and licked his suddenly parched lips.
"Sessho… How… What… I thought you were dead!" he exclaimed.
Sessho-Maru nodded slowly and patted Inu-Yasha's back.
"I thought the same of you little brother," he said quietly.
Inu-Yasha blinked at Sessho-Maru in shock and sniffed back whatever tears were still coursing down his cheeks.
"B-But… Your room… The dog blood…" Inu-Yasha whimpered, "What happened?"
Sessho-Maru shrugged one shoulder and shook his head.
He stood cautiously and crept around the side of his bed, motioning with his hand for Inu-Yasha to keep still.
Inu-Yasha nervously fiddled with the hem of his shirt as Sessho-Maru stepped carefully over the broken glass and peered around the other side of the bed. He saw him cringe and bite his lip, rubbing his brow.
"What is it Nii-san?" Inu-Yasha inquired quietly.
"It's… um…"
Sessho-Maru didn't know what to tell the whelp, so he sighed, briefly gestured to whatever lay on the floor, and then shook his head.
"A girl…" was all he managed to say.
Inu-Yasha's eyes widened, and before Sessho-Maru could stop him, he was on top of the bed, looking down.
It was indeed a girl.
An inu youkai to be exact.
She was curled limply on her side, cuts from the window's glass marring her body. Her arms were badly torn by a knife's blade and there were bullet wounds to her left shoulder and knee.
Her silver hair and tail fur was dyed copper and brown in some places by blood and dirt. A small trickle of blood oozed from her lower lip. Along with that, her body was being drenched in rain from the broken window.
Inu-Yasha bit back a scream, though his look of fear was replaced by one of pity.
"What's she… doing here?" he whispered.
Sessho-Maru could only shake his head. Thunder clapped outside and the two brothers jolted. The girl on the ground groaned and shifted one leg and her tail.
"She's still alive," Inu-Yasha gasped out.
Sessho-Maru, for once, didn't stop to remark that Inu-Yasha was pointing out the obvious. He knelt to the youkai and hefted her broken form into his arms.
"Get me some bandages, water… uh, and blankets Inu-Yasha," he said swiftly, "And Tensaiga as well."
Inu-Yasha nodded quickly and scurried out of the room, wetting some rags from the washroom, taking some long stretches of bandages from a first-aid kit, and snatching the blankets off his own bed.
He hurried, almost tripping, down the stairs with the things, to where Sessho-Maru was waiting He too was becoming drenched in the girl's blood.
"Hurry Yasha; Tensaiga's under my mattress. There's a spell on it to make it heavy. Just say "watakushi no inu wa, pudoro desu" and it'll come off."
Inu-Yasha tilted his head.
"I'm supposed to say "My dog is a poodle"?" he asked, "I never thought I'd hear you saying that."
"Exactly," Sessho-Maru said, "I had to make it something no one would guess; now go!"
Inu-Yasha nodded swiftly as Sessho-Maru spread the blanket on the downstairs couch and lay the girl down on it before wiping his brow and sighing again.
Inu-Yasha jogged up the stairs back to his brother's ruined room.
He squatted beside the bed and fished his arm under the mattress until his fingers hit a sword's sheath, though when he tried to grab it, he was unable to move it at all.
"Watakushi no inu wa, pudoro desu," Inu-Yasha said, and the sword came free.
-
With Tensaiga clutched in his hands, he slid down the banister to get back to Sessho-Maru, as he was tired of running up and down the stairs so many times. Sessho-Maru was lightly dabbing at the girl's arms and face with the wet rag.
Inu-Yasha ran up beside him and sat down, holding the sword in his lap. He looked on as Sessho-Maru tended to the girl's wounds, biting his lip slightly.
"Do you think she's gonna be okay?" Inu-Yasha asked quietly.
"No clue," Sessho-Maru replied.
At the moment, he was internally thanking his father for leaving him that sword. It had come in particularly useful when Inu-Yasha's fish had died.
A pity he couldn't do anything about the rat though; as nasty as it was to think about, all they had been able to recover was her leg.
He was also incredibly thankful that they had been able to find their father's tomb, enclosed in Inu-Yasha's left pupil (lord knows how).
That's where both he and Inu-Yasha had gotten their heirlooms from their father, as well as the money to start themselves off with.
Back to the present however, at another clap of thunder, Sessho-Maru winced and Inu-Yasha whimpered and grasped to his older brothers tail.
The youkai girl groaned and shifted slightly before opening he eyes a crack. Inu-Yasha gasped in shock while Sessho-Maru's face turned hard once more.
The girl blinked clouded amber eyes at them and licked her lips slightly, and her face contorted in pain and disgust as she obviously tasted the blood in her mouth.
"Calm down," Sessho-Maru told her.
His voice was strong and calm, and was meant to be reassuring, but as he lowered his hand to feel her brow, she bared her fangs in a snarl and raised one of her clawed hands swiftly, raking through the air.
"Get away," she rasped out, "Stay away from me."
Sessho-Maru's eyes widened a tiny bit, but he gently took a hold on her wrist and forced her arm down again.
"It's all right; we're friends," Sessho-Maru assured her.
She frowned at them and snorted.
"We? Who's we?" she growled, "Where are you?"
"What d'you mean?" Inu-Yasha piped up, and before Sessho-Maru could stop him, he had cupped her face and was staring into her eyes, "My name's Inu-Yasha. I'm right here; can't you see me?"
Slowly, she shook her head no and blinked up at him.
"You… You're a child," she said.
"I'm six," Inu-Yasha confirmed, "I'm an inu hanyou."
She nodded slowly.
"And… The other…?"
"He's my big brother Sessho-Maru," Inu-Yasha said, unable to hide a little bit of pride from his voice, "He's inu youkai. So are you, right?"
She nodded again, but then turned her head to the side and began to cough violently, blood spewing from her throat.
Inu-Yasha gasped in horror and drew back a little.
"Sessho… What do I do?" he asked hurriedly, his voice squeaking with panic.
"Stay back," he ordered, and he moved onto the sofa, resting the girl's head in his lap.
Then, to Inu-Yasha's horror, Sessho-Maru tightly covered her mouth.
She writhed and gagged under his hand.
"Sessho, you're gonna kill her!" Inu-Yasha exclaimed.
Sessho-Maru shook his head and began to whisper soft words to the girl, telling her to calm down and swallow.
Inu-Yasha was panicking. That looked like the opposite of what you were supposed to do!
But he supposed his big brother knew what he was doing.
Slowly, he could see the girl swallowing back the blood and relaxing against Sessho-Maru's hand.
"That's a good girl," he said, "Now relax. It's all going to be fine…"
Cautiously, he lowered his claws towards her throat, and then stabbed them swiftly into her jugular.
She breathed out and her head slumped. Inu-Yasha stared at the scene in shock and then stumbled backwards in terror.
Had Sessho-Maru lost his mind? He had just killed her!
Sessho-Maru glanced at his terrified sibling and jerked his head towards the Tensaiga.
"Inu-Yasha, it was either that or she'd slowly bleed to death," he said quietly, "Which is better?"
Inu-Yasha gulped.
"Your way…" he squeaked out, and then handed his brother his sword.
Sessho-Maru nodded his thanks and then drew the blade from its sheath.
Concentrating, he could see the spirits… little gremlins of death, if you will, dancing on the dead youkai's body.
With a quick stab and a thrust forward with the sword, he destroyed the sprites, and life surged back into the girl's body.
The healing component of her system automatically kicked into overdrive, and the wounds on her body closed up at a seemingly impossible rate.
Inu-Yasha watched with a horrified fascination as the girl took her fist breath and began to breathe again, no longer bleeding from anywhere.
Sessho-Maru smirked triumphantly and sheathed his sword, placing it down on the ground.
"See?" he said, "Everything's fine now."
Inu-Yasha stared from his brother to the youkai girl and rubbed his forehead.
"No amount of therapy will ever make this moment okay…" he muttered, "Oh hell…"
"I'm sorry whelp; are you traumatized?" Sessho-Maru asked kindly.
"Well, frankly, yes," Inu-Yasha said, bobbing his head up and down in a nod, "And… I'm covered in blood… Ew…"
He rubbed at his nose to get the scent of the vulgar bile out of it, but he merely smeared some on his face and he groaned and grabbed for an unused wet cloth to cleanse his face with.
Then, to make matters worse, thunder boomed through the storm again. Inu-Yasha yelped and fell backwards, banging his head on the coffee table and then the floor.
"I HATE THUNDER!" he yowled in pain and frustration, "WHY ME?"
He whimpered and sat up, grabbing Sessho-Maru's tail.
"I need it," he explained, and then wrapped himself tightly in the fur and buried his face in it.
Sessho-Maru rolled his eyes, but looked down at the girl on his lap. Her eyelids fluttered slightly, and after a moment, her eyes opened to a squint.
"What happened?" she asked at a whisper, "I can… I can see again."
"You died," Sessho-Maru said simply.
The girl's squinted eyes grew wide and she blinked up at Sessho-Maru in shock.
"I… what…?" she asked.
-
With that, Sessho-Maru sighed, and carefully explained to the girl about Tensaiga. He went into a longwinded explanation of what happened, one which Inu-Yasha didn't much care to listen to, and was half-asleep, wrapped in his brother's tail by the time he finished.
Then, the girl, whose name was Otori, explained that she had been chased and shot by some men from the government. Her only escape had been to jump through their window.
For some reason, the government had seemed both resentful and scared of the place.
Afterwards, Otori had helped Sessho-Maru clean up his room, and then had left in the guise of a small, white dog.
Inu-Yasha, on the other hand, became paranoid of thunder (more so) and the government agents, and didn't sleep for another week.
-
Traumatic Event #4:
This, for Inu-Yasha, had to, most definitely, be the worst thunder-oriented event he had experienced in his life to date.
He was outside. The dark grey (near black, really) sky hung above his head like an ominous, dreadful curtain, waiting to fall on him… waiting to suffocate him.
The August air was so hot and humid; even the rain drenching through his clothes and body burned him.
His head bowed, the sixteen-year-old watched as blood from an excruciatingly painful wound on his chest dribbled to the ground to intermingle with the mud his bare feet were squelching in.
Thunder smashed above him, and he cringed, though he could not move his hands to cover the sensitive appendages.
In truth, he wrists were held firm to a metal post in the middle of a courtyard by strong restraints that he was too weak to break through.
He had come into consciousness two hours earlier, without a clue of why he was hurting so badly, or where he was.
He hadn't bothered to scream, or to shout for help; his nose told him that there was no one to hear him anyway.
He blinked through the water dripping slowly from his bangs and let out a sigh that shook his body.
Where am I? What's going on?
Then, the scent of humans. He slowly lifted his head and regarded a door on the wall of the facility that was surrounding him.
It opened and our walked five men; one in what seemed to be a lab coat, the others armed to the teeth and carrying long-barrelled guns in their hands.
Inu-Yasha blinked in puzzlement, his eyebrow raised. Somehow, he recognized one of the scents, but was to dazed to place it.
"So, hanyou, you're awake?" the man in the lab coat asked and he trudged through the mud towards him, "I'm surprised that you're alive, actually."
Inu-Yasha laughed quietly, though it came out more like a rasping cough and he smirked at the man.
"Well… You know," he said with a slight shrug of one shoulder.
"You got guts kid; I'll give you that," the man said, folding his arms, "But I don't think you realize what you're in for."
"Whatever," Inu-Yasha growled, turning his head away.
He was getting some of his old fighting spark back; he had been tired before, but the cocky and feigned polite tone of this man was pissing him off.
The man wagged his finger at him and made as clucking noise.
"Tsk tsk, boy," he said, "Don't be rude. We just want to talk"
"Don't be rude?" Inu-Yasha demanded, "At least I ain't so pussy that I'd chain a guy to a poll just to talk!"
The man smirked slightly.
"You're such a potty-mouth. Oh well, we'll fix that, now won't we? But not now… I have a proposition for you."
"For me?" Inu-Yasha asked, "Why me? I'm nobody special. I don't have any special powers or strengths. Go get someone else."
He growled and pulled forward on his wrist bonds, but they refused to give. The man chuckled at his futile struggle.
"Ah, but you are special; you just haven't figured it out yet," he said, "Listen, if you-"
"Work for you, you'll let me go? "Inu-Yasha finished, blowing his wet bangs out of his eyes, "I heard it all before, you God damned bastard. Gangs at school ,you know. "Beat this guy up for us and we'll let you go." D'you think I've ever listened to them? I ain't a pushover, pussy."
"Oh, I know you're not," the man said calmly, "But we need to do something about that attitude."
"Yeah?" Inu-Yasha scoffed, "What? Use some sort of youkai brain-control on me? Make me go kill other youkai so you ass-wipes don't get your hands dirty? Then kill me when you're done with me? I know where I am now, just by your scents. I know what you do to my kind."
He hocked a large gob of spit on the lab coat man's mud covered shoes.
"I'd rather die," he snarled.
"I'm sure you would," the man chuckled as he used mud to get rid of the hanyou's spit, "After what happened between you and your little girlfriend Kikyo."
Inu-Yasha's eyes widened and he bared his fangs.
"How do you know about her?" he hissed, "How do you know what she did to me?"
"Well, my dear boy, she's the one who called us."
Inu-Yasha jolted with shock and he bit his lip.
Could it be true?
Did… she really want him to die now, now that she knew?
Was it really that big of a deal to her?
"She did?"
The words passed his lips so softly that he himself almost didn't hear them. The lab coat man laughed and nodded.
"Surprised?" he asked.
Slowly, Inu-Yasha shook his head and he smiled sadly.
"No… Not really," he whispered, "She… She really does hate me…"
"Are you surprised?" the man asked.
His tone of feigned politeness was dropping now to one of disgust and resent.
"Did you honestly think she could love a creature like you?"
Inu-Yasha sighed.
"I wished…" he muttered, "I thought she wasn't as shallow as you people… I guess I was wrong."
The man laughed. The sound was cruel and mocking now.
"And it'll cost you, half-breed. It'll cost you big time."
The man drew closer and took Inu-Yasha's face roughly in one hand, so that they were less than three inches away. A flash of lightning and thunder above illuminated the man's enraged features, and Inu-Yasha's eyes widened in horror and shock.
"You…" he gasped out, before he was soundly hit on the back of the head.
"I'll make you pay for what you did to my daughter, Taishio Inu-Yasha," the man hissed, and then straightened, pointing to him as if he were a dead, unloved creature, perhaps road kill, "Take him away."
oOoOoOoO
Inu-Yasha shivered and quaked fearfully as his mind reminisced, tracing back to the night of his first capture. Of all his "thunder incidents", that one was most definitely the worst.
He sat up slowly and bundled himself in his thick blanket, pulling it carefully up over his head in an attempt to block out the outside noises.
The arrow wound to his chest started to pulse and throb with pain once more. Cringing, his slid his hand under his shirt to lie overtop of it.
At times when the wretched thing pained him like this, he sometimes couldn't believe that the wound had been inflicted on him years ago.
Sometimes, he even half-expected to find blood on his fingers when he put his hand in front of his face.
It was his curse; the wound would begin to hurt if he thought about his captivity, or about Kikyo.
Kikyo… Curse that name…
He knew where his curse came from; Kikyo had pierced his chest with an arrow. He had no idea why she hadn't just used a gun if she wanted to kill him.
Maybe she wanted to be more traditional about it; in ancient times, youkai were often killed by arrows.
Though, he was surprised that the one that had hit him hadn't killed him, for Kikyo had infused it with spiritual powers.
Like Kagome, Kikyo had been in training to be a miko at a shrine, though the girl had had real spiritual powers, which should have destroyed him with one shot.
Instead, it left him with a seemingly permanent, cursed scar over his heart.
He wondered if she even knew that he was still alive, wondered if she cared.
If she knew… would she try to kill him again?
Apparently, he had broken her heart by being what he was, so she had retaliated by sticking an arrow through his.
Inu-Yasha sighed and bowed his head.
"I don't want to die," he whispered, "Not now… Not now that I have Kagome…"
What did I ever do to have a price on my head? He wondered, puzzlement etching his face.
He was eighteen… er, seventeen, and he still hadn't been able to figure it out. At least, he hadn't been able to figure out a rational reason.
He hoped to find out one day, but keeping himself, and now Kagome as well, alive, was all that concerned him at the moment.
The hanyou clenched his fists tightly and breathed out another long sigh. There was a loud crash from outside, and Inu-Yasha jumped and whimpered into his blanket.
"I hate thunder…" he growled quietly.
He could feel his mattress rocking slightly underneath him, and frowned, puzzled as to why, until he realized it was the shaking of his own body that was quaking the bed.
He let out another sigh and folded his arms, pulling his knees up to his chest and shivered, bundling himself into a blanket cocoon.
He desperately wanted company, from Kagome, if possible. Even Buyo would do, but the cat, most likely, wouldn't exactly appreciate being woken up by a paranoid half-demon at this hour of night.
"Kag's gonna think I'm a coward…" he mumbled.
I should just say here…
-
Thunder crashed again outside, and Inu-Yasha finally decided that he couldn't stand it anymore. He needed Kagome.
He unravelled himself from his blankets, struggling to free his arms from the cloth and toppling onto his side.
He snorted and shook his head, righting himself swiftly, and then reaching onto his beside table for a bandana. He tied it down over his ears, grabbed his two pillows and shoved them under his arm, and then slid out of bed.
He yanked his comforter off the bed as well and then carefully exited his room.
He headed quietly down the dark hall to Kagome's room, his shoulder pressed to the wall. Another clap of thunder made Inu-Yasha jump so high that he hit his head on the ceiling, and then the hanyou quickly darted to Kagome's door.
He knocked quietly with his knuckles and pushed it open with his shoulder.
"Kag? C-Can I come in?" he asked shakily.
Kagome was sitting on her bed reading Magna book "Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles", and she looked up from her book and smiled at him. She placed it on her bedside table.
"Sure Inu, c'mon in," she said.
He smiled gratefully and slunk into the room, leaning back into the door to close it, trying not to tip over the long blanket in his arms. Thunder boomed, and the hanyou lost all the restraint one with dog-ears and super-enhanced hearing can have during a thunderstorm.
Dropping his things, he yelped and threw himself at Kagome, clinging to her fearfully and trying to cover his ears at the same time.
"Inu-Yasha?" she asked in surprise.
As the thunder faded, he sighed in relief and looked up at the puzzled girl embarrassedly.
"Sorry Kagome, I-" he started, but another boom outside sent him shivering against her chest again.
"Are you okay?" Kagome asked worriedly, putting one arm around him and patting his back, "Inu-Yasha?"
"Th-Thunder…" he stammered, "I… can't stand-"
As if only to mock the poor hanyou, an extremely loud clap of thunder shook through the house. Inu-Yasha yelped again and curled his body into a ball, grasping to Kagome and trying to almost hide himself against her.
"Inu-Yasha, you're scared of thunderstorms?" Kagome asked softly once the horrendous noise had died down.
Inu-Yasha nodded and sighed shakily, looking up from where he had buried his face against her shoulder.
"S-Sorry," he said quietly, "I…"
Thunder again, and his grip on her turned into a frightened embrace, and he hid his face against the side of her neck, trying not to whimper.
"Inu-Yasha," she sighed, rubbing circles on his back, "Cut it out for a second, okay? Let me close the door. It'll be quieter."
Inu-Yasha nodded and slowly released her, allowing her a little bit of breathing room. She stood and closed the door, and then walked back to the bed.
She sat beside him and regarded him worriedly.
"You all right?" she asked.
"K-Kinda," Inu-Yasha said, his whole body quivering, "I c-can't st-stand thunder…"
At the mention of it, more thunder boomed outside. Inu-Yasha flung himself facedown in the covers and held his arms over his head, shielding his ears.
Kagome tilted her head and sighed sympathetically. She lay on her stomach beside him and stroked circles on his back.
The hanyou sighed thankfully and shifted slightly, tilting his face upwards again.
"Thanks," he said.
"No problem," Kagome said, "Jeez. I've never seen you so jumpy. And you can be pretty damn jumpy."
Inu-Yasha chuckled quietly, stiffened apprehensively, worried that the thunder would come back just to spite him, and then smirked.
"Yeah, I was debating being a man and sitting through it… and then I thought "What the hell.""
Kagome laughed and patted his shoulder.
"Crazy…" she muttered.
Inu-Yasha smiled at her and then yawned behind his hand.
"So you just wanted company then?" Kagome asked.
"Yeah, pretty much," Inu-Yasha replied, "That and find a place the thunder wasn't so loud. "
"Well, it'll be better in here," she assured him, "My room is partially soundproof because I used to play a lot of electric guitar. You can crash in here if you want."
"Really?" Inu-Yasha asked hopefully, sitting up quickly.
"Yeah," Kagome said, pushing herself upright with her elbows.
"Oh, thanks so much!" Inu-Yasha exclaimed, grabbing her in a rib-crushing embrace.
"You're… welcome," she choked as he accidentally squished the air out of her lungs.
Quickly, he felt around the floor for his comforter, picked it and his pillows up, and then curled up on Kagome's carpet underneath the thick blanket.
Kagome blinked at him in surprise and then shook her head.
"Oh no you don't; get up here," she instructed.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because when I wake up I'll step on your face if you sleep there," she explained, "This bed is a queen-sized whatever. You can use the other half."
"Really?" he asked, "Ooh, yay, a mattress!"
He grinned, rolled out from under his blankets and sat up in, for him, a natural, dog-like squat. He tilted his head, giving Kagome a slight, puzzled frown.
"You'd… really trust me to sleep in the same bed as you?" he asked.
"Why the hell not?" Kagome asked, yawning, "I trust you a lot Yasha. Just you use your blanket, I'll use mine."
"Okay," Inu-Yasha agreed.
He once again picked up his pillows and comforter, and he dragged them onto Kagome's bed. He placed his pillows down and wrapped himself in his blanket, curling up next to the wall.
Kagome smirked at him, turned out the light, and then lay down as well.
She knew that it probably should've felt at least a little awkward, having Inu-Yasha there, but for some reason it didn't. Having him there was almost a comfort; his warmth beside her was a welcome change in her cold room.
She yawned and snuggled into her blankets as Inu-Yasha shifted beside her and sighed.
"This is comfy," he said quietly.
"Uh-huh," Kagome agreed.
"Warm too," he said.
"Yep," she replied sleepily.
"Maybe… we could do this again sometime?" he asked tentatively.
Kagome smiled.
"I'm game," she said.
Inu-Yasha's ears perked happily under his bandana.
"Cool," he said quietly, "Good night."
"Yeah, g'night," Kagome replied, but then rolled over to look him in the face.
She poked him in the arm gently.
"Um… Yasha… Why do you think I can talk to animals?" she asked.
"Why me?" he replied, tilting his head.
"Well… You seem to know more about it than I do. And all that hawk said was "You were chosen by the Gods." I mean, that's nice and all, but it doesn't explain anything," she said.
Inu-Yasha nodded understandingly, curled himself tighter in his blanket and blinked sleepily, holding back a yawn.
"Well… uh… You probably inherited it from someone," he said.
Kagome blinked at him in puzzlement.
"I did?" she asked a bit dumbly, "But who? No one in my family can talk to animals."
"Maybe someone way, way back," Inu-Yasha suggested with a shrug, "I heard somewhere that stuff like that skips quite a few generations."
"Then why can't Sota?" she asked quietly.
Inu-Yasha merely shrugged and closed his eyes.
"Don't ask me; that's about all I know," he said, and then added, "Sorry."
"Oh… That's okay," Kagome said, and then yawned behind her hand.
She flipped over to her original position and closed her eyes, drawing up her blankets to her chin.
"Night…" she muttered.
She heard Inu-Yasha give a small grunt of agreement and felt him roll himself tighter in his own blanket, pressing himself against the wall.
"Yasha?" Kagome asked quietly.
"Hrm?"
He grunted out a quiet, affirmative response to show that he had heard her.
"Um…" Kagome started, but was cut off by a clap of thunder.
Inu-Yasha yelped and buried his head under his blanket, squeezing his sightless eyes shut and quaking with fright.
Kagome rolled over to look at the trembling mass of cloth that was her friend and subdued an amused smile.
"Wow… are you really that scared of thunder?" she asked.
She saw the bundle move up and down in a shaky nod and then collapse onto the mattress as the contents blew out a deep sigh.
"Aw," Kagome said, smiling sympathetically.
She patted his shoulder and he untangled himself from his blanket and gave her a weak, embarrassed smile.
"I owe you," he said, "I owe you big."
Kagome smirked and gave a slight shrug before curling up comfortably again.
"Whatever. Good night."
-
Kagome was asleep in a matter of minutes, though Inu-Yasha was still having problems. He lay on his stomach, blinking sightlessly at Kagome's wall in front of him.
He wondered what colour it was. He wondered if Kagome kept any pictures on her walls, and what colour her carpet was as well.
Hell, how he missed being able to see.
He sighed deeply and turned his head towards Kagome, blinking at her.
I wonder what she looks like, he mused, Bet she looks nicer than she gives herself credit for.
Tentatively, he reached out a clawed hand and cupped her face, and then, blushing slightly, he gently felt over her sleeping features to get an idea of what she looked like.
He discovered that he liked what he found, and then pulled his hand back, his face heating up slowly. He couldn't help a small, timid smile, and he closed his eyes as he comfortably positioned himself on his pillow.
"Go to sleep you dolt," he whispered at himself, "It'll do you good…"
oOoOoOoO
Meanwhile, unknown to the hanyou, he wasn't the only one being affected by the thunder.
In the third bedroom of the house, Sota and Buyo were both juddering underneath the bed, the cat baring his fangs and the boy bundling himself tightly in a sheet.
Sota was scared of thunder because he believed the dinosaurs from "Jurassic Park" were going to come and eat his face.
Buyo, on the other hand, was like Inu-Yasha in the sense that he had super-sensitive ears. He mewed grumpily in discontent and batted a chubby paw in the air.
"I want Kaggy…" he grumbled, "I'm gonna go see Kaggy. Her room's nicer than this one."
Pinning his ears flat to his skull, he stood and yawned widely, but as he turned to leave, the boy beside him yelped with fright and grabbed him to his chest.
"No, Buyo, you can't… You c-can't leave!" he bleated, "Buyo!"
"Let me go you dimwitted pile of toad feces!" Buyo exclaimed, trying to writhe from
Sota's panicked grasp, but in his desperation, the boy ended up squeezing the breath out of him.
Buyo struggled and kicked out his back legs, his tail waving back and forth as he tried to free himself.
"Damn it Sota, you horrid, tiny, muffin-faced gremlin! Let me go! I wanna see Kaggy!" Buyo cried, pawing at his captors hands, "Don't make me damn well scratch you!"
"Buyo, cut it out," Sota pleaded, "C'mon, I need you! I'm scared!"
"Then come with me, baka," Buyo growled.
He gave Sota's hand a gentle nip, and the boy yelped and dropped him onto the floor.
"What was that for?" he asked.
Buyo sniffed in distain and sauntered out from under the bed, and Sota looked at him, blinking with puzzlement.
"Hey, where're you going?" he inquired quietly.
Buyo looked back over his shoulder and gave a loud, disgruntled meow.
Sota blinked, confused, and Buyo blew out a long sigh.
"Why can't you understand me too? It's frustrating…" he grumbled, "Well, I'm off."
Calmly, the chubby cat ambled towards the door, looking back over his shoulder for Sota, but then ran face first into the wall as he look forwards again.
Growling out swearwords under his breath, he looked upwards at the closed door and pawed at it, thinking about how God damned much he wanted God damned thumbs and a God damned bigger body.
"Oh, you want out, is that it?" Sota asked innocently.
He pulled himself along the carpet and out from under the bed with his arms and stood, brushing off his legs.
"Okay kitty, I'll let you out," Sota said with a smile, but then shuddered, "But I don't like the dark… D'you think Kagome would let me sleep in her room?"
Buyo gave a shrug and pawed at the door again.
"Whatever kid, just let me out. I wanna see Kaggy too," he said.
Sota, thinking that perhaps Buyo had to use his litter box, opened the door, and the cat sighed in relief and padded swiftly down the hall, only to find Kagome's door was closed as well, and Inu-Yasha's scent was all over it.
Buyo let a smug, kitty grin play on his face before giving in to a sigh of frustration and scratching gently at the door again.
"Kaggy? You awake? Let me in," he called, but he doubted that the girl was still up.
"You wanna go see Kagome?" Sota inquired, and Buyo looked up over his shoulder and nodded.
Sota jolted and rubbed his forehead, thinking that he was going insane, but then gave a small smile.
"All right, but if she gets mad, it's your fault," he said, "I'm telling her it was your idea."
"That's okay; it was," he pointed out.
-
Sota slowly opened his older sister's door and peeked in, squinting through the darkness of the room, and Buyo eagerly darted in around his ankles.
"No, Buyo!" he hissed, but it was too late.
The calico cat had already darted across Kagome carpet and had jumped onto her bed, gently licking her face. Sota cringed, ready to reap Kagome's whirlwind, but then he noticed something strange about Kagome's bed.
There were two lumps, instead of one, suggesting that either Kagome had a very swollen limb, or that someone else was in her bed with her.
Sota gulped nervously.
But the only other person here is… Inu-Yasha… he thought apprehensively, Oh no! He and Kagome are sleeping together; what do I do?
Slowly, he crept up to the side of the bed, trying not to wake the two teens and leaned over them. What would he do if they were –gulp- naked?
He watched his sister flinch and try to brush Buyo off her face with the back of her hand.
"Kitty… stop it…" she muttered sleepily, "I wanna… sleep…"
"But Kaggy…" he said in a whiney voice, pouting slightly, "I wanna sleep with you. And Yasha."
Kagome opened one eye and wiped the cat spit off her face to see Buyo's yellow gleaming eyes shining down at her and her brother, whose face was slightly pale, off to her right.
"Yo Sota… What's up?" she asked groggily, "You both wanna sleep in here too? …Good lord, is there anyone in this house besides me who isn't scared of thunder?"
Sota blinked at his sister in puzzlement and gulped slightly.
"So… Wait… Why're you sleeping with Inu-Yasha?" he asked nervously.
The hanyou grunted and shifted at the sound of his name, but didn't wake. Kagome smirked and sat halfway upright, supporting herself on her elbow.
"I'm not sleeping with him, we're sharing a mattress," she said, and then couldn't help a fond smile as she looked at his sleeping face, "Poor thing. He's terrified of thunder for some reason."
"And you actually let him sleep in the same bed as you?" Sota squeaked in disbelief, "What if he just wants to get laid?"
"He's not like that," Kagome said quietly, and then yawned, "Well, I'd say you could share the bed too, but it's kind of full."
Buyo mewled his agreement, sprawling out on the comforter that lay between Kagome and Inu-Yasha. Kagome turned her head to look at him, brushing her hair out of her face, and then smiled.
She reached her hand back to gently scratch his head, and he smiled and stood, curling up in her arms, close to her chest.
"So um… Sota, you can sleep on the floor if you like," she said, "Or, the foot of the bed, I guess."
"Um, I'll go with the floor," he said, darting to the door, "Thanks a lot Kagome."
"You're welcome," she replied, and then yawned into Buyo's fur.
Sota left the room to get his blanket and pillow while Buyo smiled at Kagome and licked her cheek.
"Thanks so much Kaggy, I was really scared," he said, snuggling up to the crook of her neck.
"Bah… You weirdo," Kagome chuckled.
She gave the cat a kiss in between his ears and lay back onto her pillow, closing her eyes again.
Once more, Inu-Yasha shifted in his sleep, and he let out a tiny whimper.
-
Before long, Sota was back in the room. He dragged his long blanket into the room, and then darted out again, retrieving his pillows. Kagome listened as her younger brother set himself up comfortably on the floor and then soon drifted off to sleep.
She smiled, and was soon asleep as well.
The only one who was still awake was a certain, calico kitty.
He opened his eye and blinked at the sleeping face of his Kaggy, and then to Inu-Yasha.
They'll make such a cute couple one day, he thought, I know that they like each other. Even if they don't know it yet.
He grinned and purred against Kagome's throat.
I just gotta get them to tell each other, that's all.
Soon, the cat too was asleep, impervious to the thunder outside.
Kagome's presence somehow comforted them all; especially a certain hanyou, who had begun to shiver again, and slowly crept closer to Kagome, seeking comfort from the nightmares that had began to wrack his brain once more.