AN: Confused? I hope this chapter explains some things (or a lot of things), but if it doesn't, then there's a general summary at the end. Thanks to those who left comments, esp. the longer ones. Helpful, indeed. ^^ (Don't forget that I'm borrowing werewolf stuff from Laurell K. Hamilton and Kelley Armstrong here.) And I think I have an idea as to when the 'cross-dressing nymphomaniac' is going to show up. Deargodrunaway. O.o
Chapter Four: Drift
"Hello. My name is Inuyasha. I'm your average citizen werewolf, and people say they enjoy my company, except most of them are usually too scared to even breathe when they're around me. Oh yeah, and I eat defenseless human girls as a full-time hobby."—Inuyasha
:::=:::=:::
Kagome hated swimming.
There was a first time for everything, and her first time had started out pleasant enough. She and her family—joking, laughing, excited—excited to escape from the mainland valley of their home to the sun-swept beaches of Japan. The taste of chocolate ice cream that day had been new and thrilling in her mouth; the gulls with their funny stick-legs and their dust-gray wings had called to her with the uncontained joy of the free; and the heat of the midday sun had been like an overly enthusiastic bonfire, hot and leaping and primitive. Maybe the tide had been unusually high, and the ocean current strangely strong, but little Kagome didn't noticed, nor did she particularly care. And it was so fun, at first, to splash around in the sea-glass water and taste the salty air on her tongue and shriek in laughter as wave upon wave swirled around her ankles.
the birds had wings
But then one pulled her down further, harder, faster than any other had, a raging sea goddess—and she'd been sucked under the raging riptide, gone in a trembling heartbeat, disappeared to thrash in suffocating desperation as the ocean tossed her and turned her and even let her break the surface before shoving her back down again, like some sadistic monster who had had nothing else to do but play cruel cat-and-mouse games with helpless children.
I've always wanted wingsThey had pulled her out, dripping, shivering, coughing up salt water and seaweed. How long had she gone under? How long did she stay in that silent, airless vacuum, unable to swim, unable to breathe, unable to even panic?
Too long.
Just like now.
Under too long...
Whoever said that coming back to consciousness was like attempting to swim with ten-pound weights tied to all four limbs had no idea how right they were.
She groaned, tried to breathe, then realized that she was lying facedown on some soft surface. And that there was a pillow in her face. And that the anchorwoman on VTV was elaborating on some somber news, because that trademark perky voice of hers had taken on a properly depressed note.
"Coming up on the late-night news: In a disturbing similar murder scene to that of Kalen Mirdloy two days earlier, twenty-four year old Jasmi Coral was found dead at the old abandoned mine-shaft near Lakewood. Police refused to reveal anything beyond the victim's name and age..."She groaned again, pushed at her pillow. Her joints ached like she had a severe case of arthritis. Not that she actually knew how arthritis felt like...
But that's how grandma went out. Too much time weighing heavy on her old bones. At least, that's what she told me...
Then the next day we held her funeral.
"Kagome! Are you better?" Sango's voice came from above, soft and concerned. It was hard to tell that she was a werewolf. Unlike Inuyasha. Inuyasha had shoved that particular bit of knowledge into her face—literally.
It hurt to breathe. So she just laid there, eyes closed and hands ceasing their frantic scrabbling. The pillow smelled of raspberries.
Sango sounds like a raspberry type of person.
Her head ached. A lot.
How could a woman who smells like raspberries possibly be a howl-at-the-moon, fur-growing, flesh-chomping werewolf? The thought passed through the haze of her mind, totally irrelevant, yet somehow so nagging in its importance that she couldn't help but puzzle on it.Am I that scared to wake up?
The answer came from her inner child, honest and unashamed. Yes.
Kagome propped her head sideways, tried to blink the drowsiness out of her eyes. Someone had dressed her while she had been sleeping—sleeping? more like fainted-dead-away—and she silently thanked them. Probably Sango. As long as it wasn't Inuyasha she was grateful.
"Kagome...?" She rolled her eyes up, trying to catch a brief glimpse of her face. "...Are you going to eat me?" There was a stunned silence from Sango, then a burst of laughter when she realized that Kagome had made a joke. "No, no. Don't worry. Werewolves are more civilized than that." A frown trickled into her voice. "Although that probably isn't what Inuyasha would have you believe..." "Inuyasha?" Kagome jolted up, and Sango took a surprised step back. She had the face of someone who would've been stunning if she only tried—high cheekbones, full mouth, doe eyes—the timeless, classic appeal of the truly beautiful. As it was, Kagome could only guess at what kind of primitive shampoo the woman used. That was, if she used any shampoo at all. "Where is he?" "Out hunting." Kagome swallowed. Hard. "'Hunting'?" "Actually, he's just trying to work off some anger." "He's hunting. Where are we if Inuyasha can actually go out the door and hunt?" She jumped up, ignoring Sango's protests that she should rest, she mustn't strain herself, and darted to the window. Pastel moonlight touched the dark room with a gentle glow as she threw aside floral print curtains; midnight greeted her, a wide, quiet meadow of wild grasses and late-summer blooms. "The forests are a ten-minute walk from here." Sango had come up from behind her, voice quiet, even a little wary. "Faster still for a werewolf..." Kagome stiffened. "Tell me we're still in Virginia." Sango laughed. "You're not in some distant third world country named Kikwana, if that's what you're worried about." Is that actually a place? she wanted to ask, but thought better of it. "Then where are we?" "Virginia, but a few hours drive from the city," Sango said. "Still faster for a werewolf..." Kagome leaned against the cold glass, let the quiet seep into her for a moment. "Inuyasha brought me here?" "Yes." Sango sighed. "First time I see him in two years and he comes bearing a wolf-pup—" She froze. "...He's told you, hasn't he?" "Just before. But not everything." There were some sounds of shuffling behind her, of footsteps all but muffled on carpet. When Sango spoke again it came from farther away. "I'm sorry." And she did sound sorry. Kagome leaned her forehead against the window, staring out into the overgrown wilderness. An invisible breeze trembled through wild stems, and slender stalks of grass danced to its luring song. The shadows had yet to take on threatening shapes, but maybe, if she stared long enough.... "It's okay," she whispered, even though it wasn't. She knew it would never be okay, not anymore. I'm a survivor, right? That's what grandma always told me... But no one had ever said anything about surviving lycanthropy. Sango cursed, and it sounded too strange, too bitter, to be coming from that mellifluous voice. "Inuyasha was careless. It's going to get him killed one of these days." Something strained at her memory. "His brother...Sesshoumaru...he said that if I wasn't human, I would be dead already—" Kagome turned around, slowly. The T.V. emitted enough of an alien blue glow for her to see the pained look on Sango's face. "What did he mean?" She sighed. "He meant exactly what he said." "If she was human, she would already be dead. Brother."
"But everyone says that lycanthropy can be passed down from wolf to human safely..."
"Ah." She tsked. "That's where humans are wrong."
"What—"
"Lycanthropy is like a disease." Sango frowned in the darkness. "No, that's not right. It's not a negative thing—but it's not a gift, either. It's just something we have to live with, like loving chocolate, or being gay, or being Christian." She tucked down the hem of her knee-length skirt and sat, ladylike and straight-backed. "We were legalized five years ago, but some people still see us as circus freaks."
Guilt stung. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Sango shook her head. "We were hunted, you know, before the politicians up in Washington decided to take the morally right turn. Bounty hunters could shoot us on sight, the common people feared us, everyone thought we were monsters—" She looked at Kagome, hands tight in her lap and the glimmer of honey brown eyes barely visible in the darkness of the room. "—Don't you remember? You are surely old enough?"
Kagome nodded, half in fear, the other half in fascination. "I am," she said, quietly.
Sango gave a tired effort of a smile. "'Addison vs. Clark'. A powerful senator's daughter was bitten by a vampire, and he wasn't going to sit around and let those barbaric vampire hunters go after his baby. No, of course not. So he took it to court. And it was no surprise that he won.
"So that was when everything supernatural was legalized. The Supreme Court, the White House, they acknowledged us as people, gave us human rights and the protection of their laws. Vampires, shape-shifters, witches, faeries..."
"Me and my brother thought it was super cool, back then." Kagome smiled a little, remembering their excitement. Hey mom, does this mean that we can go around and actually make friends with the werewolves who live next door? Huh? Huh?
"But they're still scared of us. The humans, I mean." Sango directed a piercing glance her way. "Even you were—and still are, a little."
She nodded, not even trying to deny it.
"You're right when you say that everyone believes lycanthropy can be passed down from a wolf to a human without any lethal consequences. Part of that is true. A wolf can pass down his heritage..." Sango's voice was so soft that the quiet murmurs of the T.V. nearly drowned her out. "But..."
She's only telling me this because I'm like...her, now. Kagome shivered, and she knew Sango had noticed. But she didn't say anything, only continued on in her explanation.
"You heard what Sesshoumaru said. Inuyasha scratched you, in his wolf form. He was cocky, wanted to scare you a little." She shook her head. "So he deliberately shifted, claws only. Then he accidentally...marked you. And now..." Sango took a deep breath, exhaled loudly. "...Here you are."
"A werewolf."
It's not so hard to say aloud.
"Most humans can't take the transformation. They're scratched by one of us, and their blood rejects the wolf change, and then they just..." Sango made a motion with her hands. "Fizzle out. Like fireworks."
Another shudder crept down her shoulders. "That's not what the media says!" Kagome's voice came out steady, even a little indignant. Good for me.
"They don't know. Only shapeshifters do." Sango was still looking steadily at her, gaze unblinking. "Most of us are careful; we don't go around marking humans, and we're only contagious in wolf form. That's why we've never told humans, because if we did they would undo the laws the Supreme Court case established five years ago. We don't want to go back to living like terrorists, not when we can have our relative peace."
"So you keep it all a big, bad secret," Kagome finished for her.
"Yes." Sango absently dug fingers through the white lace spread draped over the arm of her sofa. "Being a werewolf is usually hereditary, unlike what we've lead humans to believe. It's only when we break skin of people like you that the change-over from another race is possible."
"And humans aren't one of those races." Funny how accepting and calm she was being here, especially since she, technically, wasn't even a human to begin with.
"Right. In your case..." Sango frowned. "Inuyasha said something about mikos?"
"Yeah." Kagome collapsed onto the couch herself, trying not to feel the way Sango's gaze pinned her from across the coffee table. She changed the subject, not wanting to talk about it. "Won't it get out, then? I mean, not all weres can be so careful. What if they scratched a human and the human died? Then wouldn't everything be...?"
Sango lowered her head in the darkness. "It doesn't happen often, but when it does, the pack...takes care of it."
"Then—"
"Shhh!" Sango had whipped her head around to the television, and was now watching the glowing screen intently.
"Now to our top news item of the hour. In a grisly crime scene just discovered today, twenty-four-year-old law student Jasmi Coral was found dead at the old abandoned mine shaft near Lakewood. Police think this case might be related to the murder of Kalen Mirdloy, also found in his cabin at Lakewood. The possible relation between the two?"
"...Oh, no," Sango whispered.
"Coral and Mirdloy were both lycanthropes, or werewolves. This was previously unknown knowledge, but in a statement today, the head of police expressed their lack of information involving the two cases. Apparently the killer, or killers, left no evidence upon leaving the scene of the crime for both shapeshifters..."
"...Sango?"
"The question that remains unanswered: what persons could've killed two lycanthropes like Coral and Mirdloy with not a hint of any apparent struggle—?"
The air stirred in the room, only a curl of breeze that left her hair unruffled and the curtains undisturbed. Sango stabbed at the remote with a stiff finger, snapping off the T.V and plunging the room into pitch black. And yet—
She could still see—the tired frown on Sango's face, the mushroom print of the lamp cover, the faint discoloration of old, eggshell-white walls, a small smudge of cherry on the ceiling that had faded to a dull crimson, the ancient brick chimney that looked like it hadn't been used in centuries—
Hell, she could always blame it on the carrots and the diet plan Akina had been so insistent at putting her through...
Sango slid to her feet, began pacing around the living room with a muffled anger that prickled along Kagome's arms like electricity. She shivered unconsciously.
"The last thing the pack needs right now..." Sango nearly growled, and it sounded strange, coming from that gentle voice. For the first time, Kagome caught a brief glimpse of werewolf underneath that calm exterior.
"...Werewolves...killed...?"
"Yes." She stopped pacing, but even standing still her aura exuded restless energy. "The first one was two days ago. Kalen...I didn't really like him..." Sighing, Sango turned to the collection of bronze picture frames that decorated the walls. "But he was pack."
"I'm sorry," Kagome said, feeling horribly inadequate. If only I could do something about it...
Oh ye gods. Here I've been turned into a lycanthrope and instead of throwing hysterics I'm comforting some woman I've barely known for an hour about her murdered furry friends.
It was shock, and stupidity, and superstition. The naïve part of her liked to think, maybe if she didn't dwell on it, maybe if she forced all thoughts of it away, it would truly leave her alone; leave her normal, human, and un-furry the next time the moon reached its zenith in the sky.
It was a foolish notion. But it was one that was working, or at least keeping her calm, and non-hysterical. One thing she had learned long ago was to never mess with something if it was working.
"And Jasmi...she was pack too." She touched a picture with a bitten nail, tracing the contours of a girl's face, pretty and young and shining. "And a friend."
Kagome sank back into the couch, trying to keep her head from spinning away into a confused infinity. "Why would anyone want to kill werewolves?" But the answer to the question occurred to her as soon as the words left her mouth.
"Human hate groups. Radical bounty hunters. People who still see us as unnatural oddities of nature." Sango sighed. "Sesshoumaru is not going to be pleased."
Kagome looked down at her hands. Human hands.
Maybe if I pray they'll stay that way for the rest of my life.
Of course, it wasn't that simple. Nothing ever was. But the little girl in her wanted to believe in happy, fairy-tale endings so badly...
Sango froze, a complete stilling of motion, before stepping around the chintz end table to the doorway. When she opened it a warm wind streamed in, tousling her hair out into long, raven ribbons. "Inuyasha is coming back," she said, quietly.
The room was silent. Kagome sat glued to the edge of the couch and silently congratulated herself on not screaming and running the hell away the moment the name Inuyasha had left Sango's mouth.
He came in so quietly that at first she didn't notice. But then all of a sudden there were two shadows in the doorway, instead of one. Her breath caught on a strangest combination of both fear and anger.
I'm not afraid, she stubbornly told herself. But she was. Damn.
"Feeling better, Inuyasha?" The way Sango said it rang half-mocking and half-concerned. A light flicked on, soft and luminescent, and it was all Kagome needed to see the regret in Inuyasha's eyes before it was gone in a flash of gold and black.
"Hello," Kagome said quietly.
He acknowledged her with a jerk of his head, then looked away quickly.
"Sit," Sango ordered.
He sat, much to Kagome's surprise.
"Now—" Sango cut off in mid-sentence, whirled around to the nearby hallway that lead to the bedrooms. Or at least that was what Kagome presumed. One of the bedrooms where I—she severed the train of thought. Don't mess with what's working, don't mess with what's working.
"Who is it?" Inuyasha didn't bother trying to keep the note of curiosity out of his voice. "You living with someone, Sango?"
"Yes," she replied, words only a little testy. "It's not what you think. Especially not after Miroku—" She shook her head violently before turning back to the hallway. "You're still supposed to be sleeping, you know." Her voice had gone gentle, and soothing, like a gurgling stream. It was, in fact, as un-werewolf as anything Kagome had ever heard. "It's past your bed time."
Someone stepped out into the warm pool of light.
A dwarf. Jesus god, what else does Sango have living under her roof—
Then she realized it wasn't a dwarf. All dwarves were short, like this one, and some (though not many) were sinfully cute, but dwarves simply did not possess any kind of bushy-tail-gene. Or tiny feet that looked like a cross between human feet and fox paws. Or flaming red hair that was tied up into an untidy knot at the top of a little head.
Kagome's nose twitched before she caught herself. Am I smelling him?
The little werefox landed a saucer-shaped gaze on Kagome. Evidently he decided she looked safe, because he started forward, head down but peering at her shyly through auburn lashes. "Hi. My name is Shippou—" at which point he caught sight of Inuyasha. His eyes widened until they showed white all around, and he darted behind Sango, clutching at her skirt and making small, high-pitched sounds of distress.
How do I know what a werefox smells like?
This is crazy.
A psycho werewolf, a lady werewolf, a midget werefox, a human-slash-witch-slash-werewolf-freak, and a partridge-in-a-pear-tree.
Someone wake me up right now before I go crazy myself.
Inuyasha laughed, smile flashing white in the lamplight. Kagome stared, suddenly riveted by the play of light on his sharp teeth. "Little bugger afraid of me, eh?"
"Who—who's he?" Shippou squeaked out from around Sango's calves.
"No one." Sango placed a placating hand on top of the little red head and glared at Inuyasha. "Just a friend."
"No one's ever called me a 'no one' before, Sango," he growled, but there was a playful edge to it, like he was just poking fun at her.
Sango's smile faded. "You're right," she said, quietly. "I'm sorry."
"Eh—?"
"I'm going to make some coffee," she said softly. "Shippou, why don't you help me?" She glanced towards them, eyes shadowed. "And Inuyasha. It's about time we told Kagome here about us werewolves, yes?" Then she left to the kitchen, closing the door gently behind her.
"Feh," he snarled, still not looking at her.
She let a beat of silence go by. "...So?"
"What?"
"Aren't you going to tell me...whatever?" Kagome sighed, and propped up her head with her hand. "Even though I'm looking forward to it about as much as you are..." she muttered.
"I heard that!"
"I know, and I don't care!" she snapped right back, then bit down on her tongue in surprise. Taking a few breaths, she said, at a well-meaning attempt at peace, "I'm sorry. It's just that things haven't been all that peachy since..." she gestured with her hand. "Now let's just try to deal with each other without killing anyone in the process."
He glared suspiciously, but gave a reluctant, "Fine."
"Okay."
"Okay."
"..."
"..."
She heaved a breath. "Well, go on."
"Feh." He scowled. "What's there to tell?" He picked at his nails, eyeing her from his indolent position on the couch, then leaned forward, baring teeth that were sharper than they had been a minute ago. "Hello. My name is Inuyasha. I'm your average citizen werewolf, and people say they enjoy my company, except most of them are usually too scared to even breathe when they're around me." Claws snicked out. "Oh yeah, and I eat defenseless human girls as a full-time hobby."
The admission hurt, but she forced it out anyway. "I'm not human, remember?"
"Damn. I forgot." But he smiled. "Did I mention every once in a while I clean my teeth on wolf pups?"
"Inuyasha, be nice," Sango's voice warned from the kitchen.
She cocked her head in a mock-curious way. "I didn't know wolves practiced cannibalism."
"Only me." His eyes sparked in challenge.
"Inuyasha! Stop it!" Sango yelled, and the sound came loud and clear even through the kitchen door.
"Stop what? I'm only doing what you told me to do!"
"She's one of us now. You marked her. You bring her over. She's your responsibility. Responsibility does not mean trying to scare the living daylights out of her. Understood?"
"I'm not scared," Kagome said flatly.
"Whatever." Inuyasha leaned back, frustration flaring in the air around him. He was leaking his aura—that stifling, supernatural power that all shapeshifters possessed. Kagome could feel it, like heat from a furnace. But all furnaces eventually burned out, and this furnace was as likely to do so as she had of living out the normal, boring life of someone who was not terminally furry ever again.
"Inuyasha!"
"Yeah, yeah, mom," he muttered.
Sango gave a muffled sigh, her own anger deflating like a balloon with no air. "Now please. Have a little kindness on Kagome and tell her about our glorious werewolf society, no?" Her voice was honey sweet—only she made the word glorious sound like something far, far worse. Kagome swallowed nervously.
Inuyasha stared at her through a glass vase of violets. She stared right back.
"This is stupid," he muttered under his breath.
"I agree," she muttered along with him. "But tell me anyway."
He heaved a disgruntled sigh, then pointed at himself. "Powerful—werewolf," he said, annunciating each syllable separately, as if talking to a two-year-old child.
She narrowed her eyes, then pointed at herself. "Not—stupid."
"Powerful—werewolf—who—can—kick—your—"
"Inuyasha!" Sango again.
He scowled some more. "Fine, fine. Jesus, she's no fun."
I can't believe this is the guy that—
Kagome regarded him with frustration clouding her vision. "If you're not going to be helpful, then please, take me back to my college dorm." I even said 'please'. That can't hurt, right? "Then you won't ever have to deal with me again. Fair deal?"
Then she realized something with a sort of concerned shiver.
Akina is going to be worried...
"Feh!" he spat out. "You think being a were is that easy?"
"No, but—"
He leaned towards her, hands spread out on the coffee table. They were human again, not clawed. "Sorry kiddo, but you're gonna have to stay with me for a long, long time."
"Fool. You are honor bound to her now."
She stifled the sudden urge to yell. "What? That's it? Not even a 'sorry, but I've just changed the course of your life by accidentally scratching you while in my contagious wolf-form'? Just 'you're gonna have to stay with me'?" He had fired her anger again, and it roiled around in the back of her mind like a violent storm. "I'm a shape-shifter, and it's all because of you, and that's all you have to say!?"
"Trust me, I want this about as much as you do," he said, but she saw him turn away with shadowed eyes.
"But this is already your life." Her anger died out so abruptly it was like someone had taken a hose to the fire of her rage. "You're a werewolf, always have been. You're not a struggling college student who's living three thousand miles away from home..." Her voice had gone soft, lost, like a wanderer with no place to call her own. When she looked up, Inuyasha was watching her with that same hard golden gaze, but his mouth had lost its arrogant curl.
"If I could take it back, I would." He offered the words to her, and she knew that they were the closest thing that she would ever receive as an apology from this strange, silver haired werewolf with his bitter laugh and his jaded eyes. "But there's nothing we can do to change shit."
"...I know."
"Then we can get to other things." The words were brusque, but the way he said it was almost gentle. "Do you remember what Sesshoumaru said?"
"He said a lot of things."
He shook his head, and the mane of silver hair swayed with him. "About being honor-bound."
She laughed, and it sounded strange, forced, even to her. "I was a little busy growing fur, you know."
He gave a semi-amused growl. She marveled. I made him laugh. Big wow. "Might as well start with pack law."
I want to go home. "What's that?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. It's what forced me to take you with me when I marked you—the ancient system of honor that governs everything that's werewolf: how we eat, how we kill, how we mate, how we live." He shook his head. "How we fight." His voice took on a razor edge. "Especially the fighting. Wolves are pack creatures. Pack means there has to be some order to things, a hierarchy."
"You mean...king and queen and...princess?" Kagome's voice cracked on the last word. Princess of the wolves. How appropriate. Her little brother's interest in B-movies had never failed to amuse his sister. Except this is as far away from some cheap horror flick as you can get.
And I'm stuck in the middle of it.
He frowned at her, not understanding her slightly hysterical laughter. "What's so funny?" But he didn't give her a chance to answer. "Anyway. The hierarchy. Wolves fight by challenging one another in one-on-one combat. The loser acknowledges the winner as dominant, and the wolf everyone acknowledges as dominant becomes leader—"
"'Dominant'?" she interrupted.
"Stronger. More powerful. Higher up in the pack hierarchy. Simple?"
She sat back. "Yes."
Fighting.
But I don't want to fight.
"We are werewolves, lycanthropes. Shapeshifters. Those are the names humans know us by." His voice went quiet, respectful, as if he were about to say something important. "But among our own people, we are lukoi."
"'Lukoi'," she repeated, and the word rolled off her tongue so smoothly, like butterscotch candy. Lukoi.
"The king, or the leader, is Ulfric. His mate is Lupa. There's more, but I think that'll do for now. These are our words." He cut his eyes towards her. "Now they're yours, too."
Lukoi. Pack.
"We're just one big happy family." The look on his face was sardonic, only a cut away from the intensity that had been there a second before. "Welcome, Kagome Higurashi."
Family?
"What about you?" she asked, "What are you in the pack?"
He stiffened, face closing off. "Alpha. That's all."
"Huh?" God, she felt stupid.
"I'm an alpha werewolf. A master werewolf?" When the look on her face remained the same—confused, dumbfounded, completely lost—he sighed. "Powerful—werewolf," he said, once against pointing to himself and annunciating carefully. "Powerful—werewolf—who—can—do—things—that—most—normal—wolves—can't."
"Don't waste your breath," she said.
He growled. "I'm dominant to most. I can control the change. I can call the beast in others. I can kick anyone's ass if I tried hard enough."
Jesus, just a little more conceited... "Then why aren't you Ulfric?"
He smiled, and she saw that his teeth had lengthened again. "That's going to change very, very soon."
"You were stronger—once. But that was a long time ago. You left your pack behind, ran away with your tail tucked between your legs. You should be happy that I am willing to help you at all!" Sango's voice ran through her head like an angry freight train, but the questions she raised were ones Kagome didn't ask—not yet, at least. She wasn't stupid, and with the mood Inuyasha was in right now...
How long does it take Sango to make a pot of coffee, anyway?
"Sango wants to give a master werewolf and his new pup some privacy time together," he said.
She gave a startled jerk. "How—?"
He laughed. "You're easy to read, Kagome. Your scent changes to match what you're thinking, your eyes go over to the kitchen." An amused growl trickled out of his throat. "Looks like I'm going to have to teach my wolf pup some new tricks."
"Wait a minute! Your pup? I'm yours?"
"Yeah." He eyed her, mouth twitching. "Got a problem with that?"
"The hell I am—"
Laughing. The bastard was laughing. "Sorry. I marked you. So now you're classified as one of my wolves."
"This is complete—"
"Don't take it personally. All wolves belong to one alpha or another. It's standard werewolf procedure for one to lay claim to the newbies."
She groaned, then flopped back onto the pillows. This is not my life. This is not my life. Some scary werewolf freak did not just tell me I am one of 'his wolves' like I'm sort of inanimate object—
"Are you done whining yet?"
She whipped her head up, glared at him. "I am not whining," she said dangerously. "I didn't even say anything."
He snorted. "You don't need to. Your scent is annoying enough."
This was getting way too invasive. "You can tell what I'm thinking just by the way I smell?"
"No, not thoughts, but general emotions, yes. There are advantages to being a were, you know."
"Well, then. Please do refrain from trying to read my feelings from now on. My privacy is something I treasure dearly."
He sighed. "Okay."
"...That's it? No argument, no insults, no nothing?"
"Watch it, wench. I can be just as agreeable as the next one if I want to be."
"Fine." She huffed out a breath, letting her head fall back onto the sofa.
"Don't fall asleep on me now."
She spoke without looking at him, too tired to keep her eyes open. "Why not?"
"Night is the best time for hunting."
"Hunting?" She nearly jumped out of her skin. "You want me to go hunting?"
"The faster the better. We need to present a united front at the reception. I can't have some wolf pup losing control of herself on me." There was a frown in his voice. "Especially not in front of Sesshoumaru."
"'Reception'? 'Control'? 'We'?" And she had thought her head couldn't spin any faster.
"Let's go."
"No!" If she was whining, she couldn't bring herself to care. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?"
"Why are you so tired? You didn't even shift to full-wolf form—"
"That's because you hit me!"
"There was nothing else I could do!"
"Oh yeah?" She folded her arms across her chest, tried to ignore the unpleasant buzzing of her left leg, which had long since fallen asleep. "I thought you were alpha? Something about controlling the change?"
"Irritating wench! I said I could control the change for myself!"
She nearly threw up her hands in frustration. "Tell me one thing. Why don't I remember when I first...shifted? And what in heaven happened when I did?"
He averted his eyes. "Wolf pups aren't in full control of themselves when they first shift. But that's only during the first change or two," he added quickly, seeing the alarmed look on her face. "Strong emotion—and blood. They encourage the change in new pups, but more experienced wolves can leash their beast."
"Their beast?" Her inner child shrunk at the word. Scary.
"The wolf we all become," he said, and his eyes were distant. "There's only one thing no one can resist, and that's the full moon. Even the most powerful are turned." He was quiet for a moment, and when his next words came they were hushed. "It's a holy time for us."
"So I can't remember because my...beast," she swallowed, "took over me, completely?"
He nodded. "You changed back after you hunted. And then you blacked out. Shapeshifting is exhausting for everyone, except some alphas." Like myself. He left it unspoken. Big surprise, that Inuyasha didn't take the opportunity to brag some more.
"But you'll control your beast eventually." He spoke again, confident. "This is just the learning curve."
"Oh." She kept that one word completely neutral. No doubt, no fear, no nothing. He was the only person she could trust, after all.
Now that's a scary thought.
"In fact, you should be fine the next time you change."
"So if I don't shift if I'm experiencing strong emotion or I'm near blood, I'm okay?" She sounded skittish. She hated it when she sounded skittish.
"Yeah. And then the next time you do shift, you'll be a wolf, but your mind will still be human. You'll remember everything."
"But all that won't count unless I stay human near blood, right?" The thought of blood made her queasy. She hated feeling queasy, too.
He nodded. It occurred to her that they hadn't snapped at each other once in the last ten minutes. I'm getting better at communicating with werewolves, yes I am—
Her head flopped back onto the neck-rest of the sofa. "Are you going to let me sleep now?"
"No. Now let's go."
She huffed. She whined. She pleaded. All without a second thought to her dignity. But in the end, he was the one that won out.
Well, if it's any comfort—
—at least I've finally found someone who can be as bull-headed as me.
Somehow that didn't seem like a good thing, no matter how she looked at it. But she dragged herself off of the comfortable, snug resting place that was the sofa and followed Inuyasha out into the velvety black night.
:::=:::=:::
AN: Eek. Slow chapter with virtually no action and a long-winded Q&A session—but still, you gotta love it when those two bicker. And to answer a question...I don't know what pairing this will end up as! Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru are both so equally glompable! How could I ever choose?! *goes off to cry in dark corner*
Anyhow, here's the general summary so far. There's not much to it. Really. :D
Kagome meets up with Inuyasha at a bar. Sesshoumaru and a pack of wolves attack him, and Inuyasha is about to leave her when he accidentally 'marks' her. This 'scratch' is enough to infect her with lycanthropy (or the condition of being a werewolf), so Inuyasha is honor-bound to take her with him. Honor-bound, as in he made her a wolf, so she's his responsibility. I mean, he can't just leave her. That would be a dastardly thing to do (don't you just /love/ that word?), even for Inuyasha. She blacks out. Chapter two focuses mainly on Sesshoumaru, and the state that the pack is in. Inuyasha fled two years ago for unknown reasons (though you can bet it has something to do with a certain undead miko), but now he's come back, much to his brother's anger. We also learn Sesshoumaru has no lupa, or mate, and that the pack wants him to choose right now. What an unexpected coincidence! (*coughcough* *hackhack*) Sorry, something in my throat. :D Chapter three: Kagome wakes up at Sango's house, with Inuyasha standing bedside vigil. After some talking, Inuyasha uses his power as a werewolf to sort of...transfer to Kagome his memories of what happened after they fled the bar. She learns that she's gone terminally furry, then loses control of her beast due to shock-overload (dude, wouldn't you feel the same if you suddenly learned you would grow fur and fangs every time the moon was full?). And that's where this chapter started off...
Hope that helped! Also, can someone tell me if they think the formatting is too spaced out? Thanks! ^^ (And don't forget to leave a review!)