Once Upon a Time Chapter 6

Aisuru says: Of course I don't own Inuyasha or any of his friends, enemies, rivals, or family members... I'm just twisting them for my own purposes. I apologize for waiting so long to write and post this chapter, but I have no real excuses to give you except for my new interest in Kenshin. I guess I just have a thing for guys with violent, possessive alter egos! Thank you for all the reviews, and please send more. :)

I have been made aware of several aspects of my story that are totally untrue when compared to the show, the most blatant being that Inuyasha CAN speak in his crazy red-eyed form. I managed to forget all about that when I started this story, so please just pretend for the sake of my story that he can't. Bashful grin

Did you know that a baby fox could be called either a kit or a pup? I just looked it up...

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Inuyasha allowed himself a grunt of pleasure at Kouga's departure from the cave dwelling. Now all was right in his world. Kagome was cradled in his lap, her legs pinned down by his, the naked skin of her thigh warm against his fingertips, her backside pressed firmly against his pelvis in a manner that made clear to Kagome her status in his unusual pack. Inuyasha's scent was the only one to be found on Kagome, and her hair was almost completely dry...

If Kagome had known the purpose behind Inuyasha's diligent attention to her hair, she would have gone into a full panic. She would have used her full miko power and energy-blasted some sense into him, or subdued him a dozen times, even if it meant him slamming both of them forcefully into the ground, dangerously close to the fire. She just might have done anything to bring her cocky, loud-mouthed, rude inu-hanyou back if she had any idea what his more-youkai counterpart was thinking at the moment. Unfortunately, she hadn't a clue, so she remained nestled in his lap, trying not to fidget while hoping not to relax too much at the calming feeling of having him finger-comb her hair.

Instead she attributed the feel of his, well, evidence of having reached male sexual maturity, to the fact that he had seen her naked in the rain. He was a male, after all, and even though she wasn't sure exactly how these things worked - not with human males and certainly not with hanyou ales under the control of their youkai blood - she knew she was young and not unpleasant to look at. Either that, or his awakening, if it was proper to think of it like that - if it was proper to think of it al all - was the result of friction. After all, his hand on her leg - her naked inner thigh - was pushing her right into him, and she was wiggling, wasn't she?

She found an unwelcome memory of an overheard conversation flitter into her mind, the remembrance coupled with sudden understanding as Inuyasha shifted her in his lap so she felt his substantial maleness pressed into the underside of her right thigh.

Boy #1: How's it hanging? Boy #2: A little to the right.

Kagome was thankful that Inuyasha's unexplainable interest in her hair had pushed the mass over her face so that her sudden blush was hidden from view. She wondered how naïve she had been in the past, to entirely miss the sexual undertones to what she had seen as a nonsensical response to a perfectly civil greeting. She wondered what other innuendoes she had discounted as innocent when they were anything but. Kagome shifted, unpleased with the idea.

Inuyasha adjusted her in his lap again, pressing himself against her with more obvious intent.

Kagome made the decision to sit very, very still.

She also made the decision to try to distract herself, and Inuyasha if at all possible, from their intimate position. 'I mean, is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?' she wondered. 'What I wouldn't do right now for a bucket of cold water!'

Cold water... that was it!

"I have another story to tell you!" Kagome announced, proud that an idea for a distraction had occurred to her. Her voice was a little muffled by the hair hanging over her face, still being finger-combed by Inuyasha.

"Another story, Kagome-sama?" Miroku questioned. When Kouga had left like that, in such a sudden hurry, and Kagome had grown so suddenly quiet, he had been sure he wasn't going to be hearing from Kagome again this night.

"Yes, another story. It is a Japanese story; actually it is an anime, a story told on television by animation." She paused to address Inuyasha directly. "You remember anime, don't you, Inuyasha?"

His hand clenched against her thigh and she felt him smile against the back of her neck at the sound of her saying his name, but he gave no other response.

"Um, yeah," Kagome muttered before redirecting her words to an audience that would actually listen. "It is about a boy named Ranma that was a student of martial arts. His father took him to China..."

"Why would his father take him to China, of all places?" Sango demanded.

'I forgot that China and Japan are big enemies in this time,' Kagome thought. "Well, in my time the world is much more united," she finally said. "We trade with China and just about everybody else in the world. There would be nothing too unusual about going to China to train."

"Hmph, if you say so," Sango grumbled. "But my family has been fighting youkai for generations, and we never had to rely on any Chinese techniques!"

Kagome didn't miss the underlying pride in Sango's voice, or the sadness as she remembered her village, which had been entirely destroyed by Naraku's trickery. Rather then offering condolences, which Sango, with her constant need to be strong, wouldn't appreciate, Kagome continued with her story. "So his father took him to China to train. Unfortunately for Ranma, his father took him to train at the cursed springs. It was a region filled with springs, and Ranma and his father were fighting around and over the springs, as their style of martial arts involved a lot of high jumping. The springs were cursed, though, as I said, so that anyone falling into one of the springs would turn into whatever had drowned there hundreds of years before. They would only stay in that form until they were doused with hot water, but getting wet with cold water, including rain water, would turn them back into their alternate form."

"That isn't such a bad curse," Miroku commented. Kagome could hear the prayer beads that sealed his cursed hand clinking together as he flexed his fingers. "At least these people don't have to worry about being sucked into a black hole one day!"

"You might think that now, Miroku, but Ranma did fall into one of the cursed springs, and that is when all of his troubles began."

"What sort of troubles? So he has to avoid getting wet in front of people. So what?"

"Well, Miroku, it just so happens that Ranma fell into a spring that a voluptuous red-headed girl had drowned in, so when Ranma gets wet..."

"He becomes a she?" Sango interrupted with a laugh.

"With breasts and everything!" Kagome replied with a giggle of her own.

Miroku gasped in horror, and Kagome heard a rustling of fabric as he scooted away from the girls. "How can you find humor in such a, a, a demasculization?" he accused.

"What?" Sango teased, her thoughts distracted from sad memories of her family. "It is funny! What about Ranma's father? How did he take it?"

"Well, Ranma's father had two problems. The first problem is that, when he took Ranma on this trip, he promised Ranma's mother that he would bring their son back as a real man..."

"And now he is only half a man!" Sango choked out through her laughter.

"And," Kagome continued, "the second problem is that he also fell into a spring. Now, whenever he gets wet, he turns into a panda bear."

"Oh. Well, being a panda isn't such a bad curse," Miroku said, secure in the thought that at least the father's curse wasn't as bad as his. As for Ranma, though... Miroku could only shudder at the thought.

"Not really. He actually uses it to get out of doing things. He just turns himself into a panda and plays games all day. He can't talk, though, so he has to hold up signs."

"What?" Shippou asked, apparently awake. "I understand not being able to talk, since my parents couldn't talk in words when they were in their full kitsune forms, but my parents couldn't exactly write in that form either."

"It's just a cartoon, Shippou," was Kagome's reply.

"What's that?" Shippou wanted to know.

"Well, in a cartoon, also called animation, an artist draws lots of pictures, and they are flashed in front of you very quickly, with slight changes to each picture, so it looks like the drawings are moving. We can watch Ranma and his dad and all the other characters doing things, but they are just drawings. They aren't real."

"Kagome," Sango said after a pause. "That makes absolutely no sense at all. Are you delusional or something?"

"Oh, I sure hope so!" Miroku exclaimed. "Please, Kagome, tell me you've caught a fever or something from being out in the rain. That whole thing about a man turning into a girl," he choked as he said these words, "just sounds too crazy to be real."

"But it isn't real!" Kagome exclaimed. "It is animation! A story told with moving pictures."

"Kagome, pictures can't move," Shippou said, speaking very slowly as if she were an idiot. "What did that stupid hanyou do to you?"

"Guys, I'm not sick!" she exclaimed, realizing that she was actually quite warm cuddled up as she was in Inuyasha's lap. "Inuyasha's fire-rat jacket is warm, the fire is warm, and I'm not even wet anymore!"

"Lucky you," Sango muttered, her clothes still uncomfortably damp. She didn't have time to say anything else before Inuyasha was coming to his feet, pulling Kagome up with him, one hand still on her leg and the other wrapped across her chest under her breasts.

"Wh- What?" Kagome asked, confused by the sudden motion. "Hey, Inuyasha, put me down! You aren't going to put me out in the rain again, are you?" While Kagome was busy panicking, Sango was clamping her hand over Miroku's eyes. Kagome was very close to the fire, and when Inuyasha pulled her up he was inadvertently exposing Kagome's long legs (and Inuyasha's hold on her inner thigh) to the only source of light in the cave.