Wolf
Part Fifteen: "Fantasy"
by Vega
"What's this?" Kouga smiled roguishly as he handed me one last wrapped present.
The Kekkon Hiroen, or Wedding Reception, as the Americanized term would have it - although it was far more colourful and festive than an American one - was long over and my husband and I sat alone on the polished wooden floor of our new little house.
We were exhausted, both from the festivities, and from the chore of opening all our gifts afterwards. Not to mean that I didn't appreciate everything everyone did for us (Uncle Sess even paid for our honeymoon!), but I was tired and our flight out to Ireland left early in the morning.
Kouga wanted to see if Celtic Wolf Youkai were any different from the Japanese ones, as he had read so many myths about them in the past few years, and he had never travelled to Ireland before. I had readily agreed, forcing him to promise to take me to Lock Ness to see if the Monster was really a youkai.
So to be fair, Kouga and I had opened everything that night, after the reception was over. It felt strange to be opening the Shugi-bukuru envelopes with the Oshugi inside - that is, a monetary gift from those who attended the elaborate and very formal reception. I had grown up accustomed to the idea that friends showed up to party with you, maybe paid for their drinks, and gave you a new set of drinking glasses for the home you were to set up together.
In Japan, it seemed, the idea was that you were to try to get the happy couple on their feet financially, which was nice too. And with all those old and powerful relatives, we ended up counting out more money than I'd ever know what to do with in my whole life.
What was nice was that we were able to afford a really lovely yellow embroidered haoiri-hakama for Kouga to wear (yellow being the traditional colour of royalty), and the three wonderful traditional kimono I wore as well. For the ceremony I wore the pearle and silver embroidered white shiromuku, symbol of purity, and for the reception I wore the complete obi-bound red kimono of happiness. For the third, which I changed into before Kouga and I slipped into his car and drove home, was a delicate powdery blue that complimented his haori-hakama, bound with a golden obi and shot through with pink and a pattern of a Sakura Tree bending low and dipping their branches into the river that was my sleeves.
We were also able to cover the costs for the Hikidemono, expensive gifts of clocks, sugar, and the like to those who had come to visit us. It really confused my American friends when I handed them each a little sack of pure white sugar and bowed low to them, thanking them formally for attending my reception (as only family is invited to the ceremony). I had to explain to them that sugar was a symbol of prosperity and happiness and they promised to turn it in to very happy-educing sugar shots after I had left.
I was very happy to have my American friends come overseas to attend. It made my Mom happy to have other English-speakers there, and I caught more than one of my various Youkai and Hanyou cousins with their brilliant eyes following the loud western girls in their bright prom dresses spin across the dance floor.
Mom was still having some trouble adjusting to the fact that I had chosen to spend the rest of my life with a Demon, but the more conversations she had with Uncle Sess and Great-Grandmother, the more comfortable around them she seemed.
I hoped that one day she would accept our family entirely, but I knew I shouldn't hold my breath. At least she was civil at the ceremony, and for once no one mentioned the wolf-torn corpse of Amphitrion that had been found in an alley a few blocks away from the hospital.
It really pained Kouga that he had lost his friend, and worse still, that it had been his own teeth and hands that had torn the man apart, despite the fact that it had been Naraku in control. He had vomited for days when he realized that he had actually consumed some of his friend's flesh, and I had not left his side.
But we had more joyous things to contemplate now.
I had even kept one other Hikidemono to give to Kagome, whom I had noticed hovering around the entrance to the reception hall and trying to look like she blended in. I had kissed Kouga briefly, then slipped through the crowd to where I had sensed her (yay for the Shikon no Tama and all the cool powers that came with it). She looked at me, surprised, when I smiled, bowed and handed her the gift.
"Thank you for coming, Miko-sama," I said, and she bowed low and accepted the little bundle from me.
"I got the invitation, but I had no clue who it was from," she admitted. Then her eyes widened. "You have the Shikon no Tama! I can feel it!"
I nodded slowly and placed a hand over my middle. "I inherited it from you, Miko-sama."
She looked slightly bemused. "So you are my ... my great-granddaughter?"
"Well," I laughed, "There are a lot more 'greats' before it, but yes, I am."
"Oh," she said, and smiled slightly. "I wonder who I married, then."
"Inu Yasha," I said firmly, "and not Kouga. In fact, when you go back there, I forbid you from even looking sideways at Kouga, or I'll come back and knock you senseless."
She blinked in confusion. "Eh? Why's that?"
I pulled her arm gently and maneuvered her around the dancing crowd to the side wall where she could get a look at my bridegroom. She sputtered and choked for a moment before finally hissing out, "Kouga-kun!?"
"Righto," I smiled, "and he's mine."
Her own face split into a smile, and she embraced me without warning. The wounds from a year earlier were all long healed, but I was still tender none the less. "Congratulations!"
I laughed and dragged her over to meet my husband, and we spent a happy hour chatting about the Feudal Era before she had to go home - she was leaving early in the morning to go see Inu Yasha. I made her promise not to tell anyone about any of this until they safely had grandkids of their own, and she agreed.
Shortly after that, Kouga and I also excused ourselves and headed home to unwrap presents and count our monetary gifts.
With the left over money from the gifts, Kouga talked about renovating his old den, giving it hardwood floors and a little Peter-Pan-esque chimney and selling the tiny home he held in the city. He missed the mountains terribly and I had to agree that they had some charm. And, with the cars we had now, it was only an hour or so's drive to a metropolis!
Looking at the pile of things spread all around us, I was sure we had gone through all of the presents, the crock pots and new dishes, towels and bedclothes, silver candlesticks and brasiers, tatami mats and lovely china and pottery sake sets, and all sorts of other strange occultish items from the Other part of the family. And yet, here was another, clearly bearing my name and only my name on the wrapper.
I narrowed my eyes at my mate, and he merely waggled his eyebrows at me. I took it gingerly. It was slim, probably onto a few fingers high, but it was wide. Kouga scooched forward until he was right up next to me, his bare legs pressed against mine as he pilled me into the little 'v' of his legs, his arms wrapping around my waist and his nose snuffling in my hair.
"What are you doing?" I giggled slightly at the ticklish sensations of air whiffing in and out on my head and he bent down and licked my cheek playfully. Behind him I could see his tail wagging back and forth slowly.
"Open it," he breathed.
"Someone's suddenly gotten a second wind," I teased, and he just mm-hmmed and tugged at my shirt collar with his teeth. I set down the present and he sort of whimpered, his tail thudding once against the floor. "Oh, all right, you big baby."
I unwrapped the gift, being slow on purpose, as he did his best to give me the world's biggest wolf-hickey. When I finally got all the rice paper off, it was a black shiny clothing box.
"A box, how lovely!" I set this down, and he started to growl this time, his teeth clamping down on that tender little spot just underneath my ear. "Ouch! Okay, okay!" I picked up the box, slit the tape holding it closed with my thumbnail and flipped back the lid.
"Oooh!" I breathed and he stopped nibbling long enough to rest his chin on my shoulder and watch me with amused, glittering eyes. I couldn't tell what it was, but it was made out of blood red velvet - I dared to touch it and realized that it was REAL velvet. "Oh, KOUGA!"
I pulled the thing out of the tissue paper protecting it and stood up abruptly, trying to shake it out so I could get a better look at what it was. Kouga nearly went face-first into the floor when I stood up so fast, and recovered by trying to make it look like he had just been stooping to pick up the now-empty box and set it aside.
I managed to get the cloth all turned around the wrong way and Kouga sighed, stood, and took it from me. He swung it over my shoulders and around, clasping over my left breast with a sparkling wolf's head silver broach. The eyes were made from a dazzling blue stone that I knew were probably real sapphires.
I took a step away from him and looked down at myself.
It was a cloak!
I did a little twirl, seeing that it flared out beautifully. The edges were embroidered with silver piping to match the brooch and it was lined with silver satin. It fell to just behind my knees and it even had a hood!
I pulled this up to cover my head, and realized that it was a little deep, because I could no longer see for all the fabric in the way. I heard Kouga's footsteps as he came over and I grinned at him, knowing he could at least see my mouth.
That mouth was startled with a quick kiss that nipped my bottom lip, before his hands slid around my hips to grasp my bottom and hold me close. I blushed as one hand slid up my spine and he pushed back the hood. He was humming something under his breath, and I couldn't tell what it was.
"Thank you," I whispered, "it's lovely. You didn't have to get this for me, but I love it."
"Oh, I didn't buy that for you," he smiled back, teeth moving up to nip my nose, my cheek, an eyebrow.
"You didn't?"
His humming got louder as he shook his head 'no'. "This is entirely for me..."
"I don't get it," I said, and his hands started wandering again. I writhed happily.
It was then that I could make out what song it was he was muttering under his breath:
"Little Red Riding Hood... you sure are lookin' good... you're everythan' that a Big Bad Wolf can want..."
~~~
Author's Note:
Okay, I'll admit it. That scene was TOTALLY inspired by the Red Riding Hood picture by Vale on this website: http://home.earthlink.net/~latinoco/Thunk/Misc.htm#anchor
And ever since I started writing this series, I can't get that song out of my head!
Part Fifteen: "Fantasy"
by Vega
"What's this?" Kouga smiled roguishly as he handed me one last wrapped present.
The Kekkon Hiroen, or Wedding Reception, as the Americanized term would have it - although it was far more colourful and festive than an American one - was long over and my husband and I sat alone on the polished wooden floor of our new little house.
We were exhausted, both from the festivities, and from the chore of opening all our gifts afterwards. Not to mean that I didn't appreciate everything everyone did for us (Uncle Sess even paid for our honeymoon!), but I was tired and our flight out to Ireland left early in the morning.
Kouga wanted to see if Celtic Wolf Youkai were any different from the Japanese ones, as he had read so many myths about them in the past few years, and he had never travelled to Ireland before. I had readily agreed, forcing him to promise to take me to Lock Ness to see if the Monster was really a youkai.
So to be fair, Kouga and I had opened everything that night, after the reception was over. It felt strange to be opening the Shugi-bukuru envelopes with the Oshugi inside - that is, a monetary gift from those who attended the elaborate and very formal reception. I had grown up accustomed to the idea that friends showed up to party with you, maybe paid for their drinks, and gave you a new set of drinking glasses for the home you were to set up together.
In Japan, it seemed, the idea was that you were to try to get the happy couple on their feet financially, which was nice too. And with all those old and powerful relatives, we ended up counting out more money than I'd ever know what to do with in my whole life.
What was nice was that we were able to afford a really lovely yellow embroidered haoiri-hakama for Kouga to wear (yellow being the traditional colour of royalty), and the three wonderful traditional kimono I wore as well. For the ceremony I wore the pearle and silver embroidered white shiromuku, symbol of purity, and for the reception I wore the complete obi-bound red kimono of happiness. For the third, which I changed into before Kouga and I slipped into his car and drove home, was a delicate powdery blue that complimented his haori-hakama, bound with a golden obi and shot through with pink and a pattern of a Sakura Tree bending low and dipping their branches into the river that was my sleeves.
We were also able to cover the costs for the Hikidemono, expensive gifts of clocks, sugar, and the like to those who had come to visit us. It really confused my American friends when I handed them each a little sack of pure white sugar and bowed low to them, thanking them formally for attending my reception (as only family is invited to the ceremony). I had to explain to them that sugar was a symbol of prosperity and happiness and they promised to turn it in to very happy-educing sugar shots after I had left.
I was very happy to have my American friends come overseas to attend. It made my Mom happy to have other English-speakers there, and I caught more than one of my various Youkai and Hanyou cousins with their brilliant eyes following the loud western girls in their bright prom dresses spin across the dance floor.
Mom was still having some trouble adjusting to the fact that I had chosen to spend the rest of my life with a Demon, but the more conversations she had with Uncle Sess and Great-Grandmother, the more comfortable around them she seemed.
I hoped that one day she would accept our family entirely, but I knew I shouldn't hold my breath. At least she was civil at the ceremony, and for once no one mentioned the wolf-torn corpse of Amphitrion that had been found in an alley a few blocks away from the hospital.
It really pained Kouga that he had lost his friend, and worse still, that it had been his own teeth and hands that had torn the man apart, despite the fact that it had been Naraku in control. He had vomited for days when he realized that he had actually consumed some of his friend's flesh, and I had not left his side.
But we had more joyous things to contemplate now.
I had even kept one other Hikidemono to give to Kagome, whom I had noticed hovering around the entrance to the reception hall and trying to look like she blended in. I had kissed Kouga briefly, then slipped through the crowd to where I had sensed her (yay for the Shikon no Tama and all the cool powers that came with it). She looked at me, surprised, when I smiled, bowed and handed her the gift.
"Thank you for coming, Miko-sama," I said, and she bowed low and accepted the little bundle from me.
"I got the invitation, but I had no clue who it was from," she admitted. Then her eyes widened. "You have the Shikon no Tama! I can feel it!"
I nodded slowly and placed a hand over my middle. "I inherited it from you, Miko-sama."
She looked slightly bemused. "So you are my ... my great-granddaughter?"
"Well," I laughed, "There are a lot more 'greats' before it, but yes, I am."
"Oh," she said, and smiled slightly. "I wonder who I married, then."
"Inu Yasha," I said firmly, "and not Kouga. In fact, when you go back there, I forbid you from even looking sideways at Kouga, or I'll come back and knock you senseless."
She blinked in confusion. "Eh? Why's that?"
I pulled her arm gently and maneuvered her around the dancing crowd to the side wall where she could get a look at my bridegroom. She sputtered and choked for a moment before finally hissing out, "Kouga-kun!?"
"Righto," I smiled, "and he's mine."
Her own face split into a smile, and she embraced me without warning. The wounds from a year earlier were all long healed, but I was still tender none the less. "Congratulations!"
I laughed and dragged her over to meet my husband, and we spent a happy hour chatting about the Feudal Era before she had to go home - she was leaving early in the morning to go see Inu Yasha. I made her promise not to tell anyone about any of this until they safely had grandkids of their own, and she agreed.
Shortly after that, Kouga and I also excused ourselves and headed home to unwrap presents and count our monetary gifts.
With the left over money from the gifts, Kouga talked about renovating his old den, giving it hardwood floors and a little Peter-Pan-esque chimney and selling the tiny home he held in the city. He missed the mountains terribly and I had to agree that they had some charm. And, with the cars we had now, it was only an hour or so's drive to a metropolis!
Looking at the pile of things spread all around us, I was sure we had gone through all of the presents, the crock pots and new dishes, towels and bedclothes, silver candlesticks and brasiers, tatami mats and lovely china and pottery sake sets, and all sorts of other strange occultish items from the Other part of the family. And yet, here was another, clearly bearing my name and only my name on the wrapper.
I narrowed my eyes at my mate, and he merely waggled his eyebrows at me. I took it gingerly. It was slim, probably onto a few fingers high, but it was wide. Kouga scooched forward until he was right up next to me, his bare legs pressed against mine as he pilled me into the little 'v' of his legs, his arms wrapping around my waist and his nose snuffling in my hair.
"What are you doing?" I giggled slightly at the ticklish sensations of air whiffing in and out on my head and he bent down and licked my cheek playfully. Behind him I could see his tail wagging back and forth slowly.
"Open it," he breathed.
"Someone's suddenly gotten a second wind," I teased, and he just mm-hmmed and tugged at my shirt collar with his teeth. I set down the present and he sort of whimpered, his tail thudding once against the floor. "Oh, all right, you big baby."
I unwrapped the gift, being slow on purpose, as he did his best to give me the world's biggest wolf-hickey. When I finally got all the rice paper off, it was a black shiny clothing box.
"A box, how lovely!" I set this down, and he started to growl this time, his teeth clamping down on that tender little spot just underneath my ear. "Ouch! Okay, okay!" I picked up the box, slit the tape holding it closed with my thumbnail and flipped back the lid.
"Oooh!" I breathed and he stopped nibbling long enough to rest his chin on my shoulder and watch me with amused, glittering eyes. I couldn't tell what it was, but it was made out of blood red velvet - I dared to touch it and realized that it was REAL velvet. "Oh, KOUGA!"
I pulled the thing out of the tissue paper protecting it and stood up abruptly, trying to shake it out so I could get a better look at what it was. Kouga nearly went face-first into the floor when I stood up so fast, and recovered by trying to make it look like he had just been stooping to pick up the now-empty box and set it aside.
I managed to get the cloth all turned around the wrong way and Kouga sighed, stood, and took it from me. He swung it over my shoulders and around, clasping over my left breast with a sparkling wolf's head silver broach. The eyes were made from a dazzling blue stone that I knew were probably real sapphires.
I took a step away from him and looked down at myself.
It was a cloak!
I did a little twirl, seeing that it flared out beautifully. The edges were embroidered with silver piping to match the brooch and it was lined with silver satin. It fell to just behind my knees and it even had a hood!
I pulled this up to cover my head, and realized that it was a little deep, because I could no longer see for all the fabric in the way. I heard Kouga's footsteps as he came over and I grinned at him, knowing he could at least see my mouth.
That mouth was startled with a quick kiss that nipped my bottom lip, before his hands slid around my hips to grasp my bottom and hold me close. I blushed as one hand slid up my spine and he pushed back the hood. He was humming something under his breath, and I couldn't tell what it was.
"Thank you," I whispered, "it's lovely. You didn't have to get this for me, but I love it."
"Oh, I didn't buy that for you," he smiled back, teeth moving up to nip my nose, my cheek, an eyebrow.
"You didn't?"
His humming got louder as he shook his head 'no'. "This is entirely for me..."
"I don't get it," I said, and his hands started wandering again. I writhed happily.
It was then that I could make out what song it was he was muttering under his breath:
"Little Red Riding Hood... you sure are lookin' good... you're everythan' that a Big Bad Wolf can want..."
~~~
Author's Note:
Okay, I'll admit it. That scene was TOTALLY inspired by the Red Riding Hood picture by Vale on this website: http://home.earthlink.net/~latinoco/Thunk/Misc.htm#anchor
And ever since I started writing this series, I can't get that song out of my head!