Disclaimer: This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied.
Hearing in a Newer Age
Inuyasha fretted and fumed. Five days she'd wanted? Instead of three? What was that wench thinking of? They needed to be hunting shards, not "taking tests"—whatever that meant! And two more days, that meant by the time she came back, it'd be that—
Never mind.
It was very late, when Inuyasha decided that enough was enough. He would go through the well, and as soon as Kagome woke up, he'd drag her back to his time, whether she wanted it or not.
Making up his mind, he loped to the well, jumped in, and as soon as his feet touched down, jumped up and over the lip of the now sheltered well.
At least, that was his intention.
His final jump lifted him less than half his height, before landing him back on his feet with a solid thump.
What the—
Belatedly, he realized that the bottom of the well was darker than dark, quieter than quiet, and practically odorless, save for a vague suggestion of mildew.
What? He couldn't be! New moon was two nights away!
But he felt along the tips of his fingers, and pulled forward a lank of hair that was a barely perceptible darker blackness against the dark.
He was human!
What the—!
Groping, he found the ladder that Kagome used when she was alone, and carefully climbed it. He stubbed his toes against the side of the first step, trying to find the way up. The faint crack of light indicated where the doors were, and he opened them to step outside to a dim light that gave him some tiny bit of visibility. Stumbling occasionally, reminding himself that there were no harmful youkai in this time, he made his way to that well-known spot under Kagome's window.
Then could have kicked himself, for not remembering, that there was no way his human legs were going to propel him up to the second floor. Grumbling, he stalked towards the main entrance, tripping and falling over another one of those 'bicycles' on the way, much to the dismay of shins and knees.
The entrance was unlocked, but he tripped again over the ledge of the main floor. Keeping quiet by major force of will, Inuyasha huffed to himself for several minutes. He was tempted to curl up where he was, but, no: he'd come to rouse Kagome bright and early, and he was going to get up to her room, and do just that!
And he wasn't going to crawl, either!
Though he did the next thing to it, inching along, testing every step, arms sweeping around in front and to the sides, searching for obstacles. Bangs clinging damply to his forehead, he reached the intermediate goal of Kagome's door. Pausing long enough to fix his best memory of the layout of her room, he eased open the door and crept inside. Remembering a certain overweight feline who liked to frequent the room, Inuyasha moved even more warily.
Finally, success! Inuyasha found the bed, and could make out the silhouette of Kagome sleeping on her side. He could even hear her breathing. Content for the moment, he sat down next to the bed, pulling up his knees and settling his chin on his forearm. Yawning once, Inuyasha rubbed his eyes, then opened his eyes wide, staring at the opposite wall, and began to plan what would happen in the morning. Kagome was going to pay him back in the morning. It was her fault, after all, that he was going to have to suffer through two human nights in a single month! She should have warned him, that the moon cycle didn't match between times! She was going to be nice to him, and make him lots of ramen, and promise not to 'oswari' him, and … and…
His inner voice, reminding him that there weren't any big, bad monsters, was maybe too successful. He didn't think he slept, but he was blissfully drifting when the first spear of sunlight stabbed into the room.
Sleepy thoughts happily greeted the light, and the first pulse of returning youki. The shifting skin and muscle and cartilage was uncomfortable, but it was of returning scents was a thick, warm blanket that he'd always been able to seize upon, the preoccupation with smell taking his focus away from the physical change. To catch the first hint of the full spectrum of Kagome's smell was a joy. She always smelled so good—
RIIINNNGG!
Inuyasha let out a howl of pain, clamping his hands over his triangular ears, as his enhanced hearing returned just as Kagome's alarm clock went off. The return of his hearing was always a jagged, aural cascade, of sounds that doubled and quadrupled in volume, of spikes of harmonics scaling well into the ultrasonic. His nose could cope with the sudden return, but his ears, taken unaware, could not.
"Inuyasha? What are you doing here?"
"Turn it off, wench!" he yelped, as the maddening alarm continued to hammer high-frequency pulses into his brain. "And stop yelling!"
"I'm not—" The ringing went silent. "I'm not yelling," she whispered. "But, why are you holding your ears?"
Inuyasha eased his hands gingerly away from his ears. The roar of sound was still too much, too much information, but with the worse offender silent, his mind was starting to cope. "You didn't warn me that your time has the new moon two nights before mine," he grumbled.
"It does? You mean you just changed back—oh, wow, I'm sorry!"
He perked up, carefully lowering his hands. "You are? I know how you can make up for it."
"Huh?"
"You come back with me today, no arguing."
"No way! You jerk! Baka!"
The rest of the family piled into the room about that time, drawn by his yell. One argument and one oversized breakfast later, and Inuyasha let himself be persuaded to go back to the past. He tensed a little as he jumped, apprehensive that time might play tricks again, then sighed in relief as nothing worse than birdsong and crickets assaulted his hearing, along with the subdued susurration of the noise cloud from the village.
Back to normal.
Author's Note: A shortened version of this piece was written for the LiveJournal community i-b-4-y for the prompt "too much information." It was originally posted on July 20, 2011. (10/18/2011)
