A/N: A gift for Cstorm86
Beta: Fawn_Eyed_Girl - thank you, dear friend!
Summary: The moon shines. A pair of unlikely companions watches.
Nominated best ficlet and best humor 2 quarter Feudal Connection Award
Waxing Moon
It all ended in a howl.
It all ended in a howl of utter, unbridled despair. A howl of a climbing pain of agony that lasted and lasted, seemingly for eons. It ended in a howl that seemed to spiral up the battered sides of a small valley between high hills. The howl that shook what remained of hazel thickets and patches of dandelions. It seemed to echo off of the sky, coiling and trying to find a way out of a trap, to fade into blessed and unobtainable silence. It was like it was trapped in the waxing moon light as an insect in amber.
Inuyasha and Ayame sat on two moss-covered rocks near the top of one of the hillsides. Near them, Ginta and Hakkaku crouched, along with some of Ayame's wolves, all of them looking ghostly pale, even under fur. Kouga's followers actually clutched at each other for support.
"How come you're here and not there, frothing at the mouth and trying to bite?" Inuyasha asked the woman near him in a calm, casual manner. One ear cocked her way.
It all had started months ago, when Kouga and his wolves had attacked one village too many.
"He approached me about this at the annual meeting to renew the trade treaty between our lands," Ayame shrugged, as if it was a mundane thing. "I saw no reason not to give him my approval, as long as he didn't remove anything vital."
Ginta and Hakkaku looked at her in mute terror when she looked over the broken plants and torn ground at the scene at the bottom of the valley. The howl quieted a bit, dying down to a wail.
"And how come you're here? I thought your relationship with your brother wasn't very... warm," Ayame asked the hanyou.
It had started months ago, when the inu and ookami daiyoukai had signed a new version of a treaty between their lands. During the feast that had followed Sesshomaru had approached Ayame, sulking after returning from meeting with Kouga and his new human 'love interest'.
"Keh, we figured out a truce. He needed something I could provide, and I asked to be a witness of this in return. I guess he found some respect for me when I made that demand," Inuyasha said thoughtfully.
It had started when one day, weeks ago, Sesshomaru had approached Inuyasha, asking how his intended mate kept her legs so smooth. Inuyasha had explained about the future's miracles, and the next time Kagome had gone home, he'd gone with her to make a purchase for his elder brother. They had learned to look past their differences and had seen their similarities.
The wail changed to desperate keening.
"That's nice. Family should stick together," Ayame nodded.
It had started hours ago, when Kouga had approached the joined groups of both inu brothers enjoying an 'almost-got-Naraku-but-he-fled-again' meal. The cocky wolf had taunted the already sour brothers about their failure to defeat the evil spider. Then, he'd tried to get under Inuyasha's skin by demanding Kagome go with him, but for once the miko had been in no mood to indulge him and had told him to shut up. Then the wolf leader had turned to taunt Rin, who had been hiding behind Sesshomaru.
There were things you just didn't do.
The following battle had been something to behold. They had moved away from camp, to make sure the humans remained safe. Inuyasha was pretty sure the howl carried well enough to be heard there.
At first, Kouga had danced around Sesshomaru, mocking him for poor aim and sloppy slices, because all Sesshomaru's claws had cut was Kouga's armor and clothing. In a matter of minutes, the wolf fought nude—not an issue for a proud youkai.
But then Sesshomaru had changed his tactics. Still silent and stone faced, he had started to deliver strong, but not lethal, punches and slaps with his hands to various places on Kouga's body. In a flurry of motion he'd pelted the wolf in paper. That had warranted him more of Kouga's arrogant monologue; the wolf had mistaken the papers for some kind of sealing ofudas.
That misunderstanding had lasted until Sesshomaru's claws had taken hold of a corner of a wax paper and pulled it off of the wolf's back.
"Well, there goes the last of his front rug," Inuyasha commented nonchalantly when the keening subsided a little. Sesshomaru, kneeling over the laying—and no longer fighting—Kouga, flicked the paper aside and moved his hand back over the wolf's body. His motions were elegant and almost serene as he took an edge of a strip of paper in his claws and pulled, slowy.
The howl rose over the tiny valley, haunted and hoarse, and folding in on its own echoes.
"I asked Sesshomaru to do his balls too," Ayame confessed when Inuyasha's ears laid back against his head.
"Gods, I'm glad I never promised you anything," Inuyasha breathed out.