Jade's on the rampage!  No, not really, but you see, she made me this video and I told her if I liked it, I would write her more Scarlet, but not if it sucked.  And then she sent it to me, and after the one hour it took to get here, it wouldn't play because of a rendering error and a mysterious audio codec.  So.  I'll still write some Scarlet because I know she's really broken up about the fact that she made it just for me and I can't see it.  Also, I think that she needs to know that Agent Marmalade is totally ingenious, and now Yusho and I have matching winter-wear.  Also, my hat is superior to all other hats as it sports a Black Mage pin on the brim.  Oh baby, yeah.  So on with the story.

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Scarlet

Part 6

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"Do you want some tea or anything?" Kagura was acting…strangely.  She was saying the right words, the same words she always said after we had finished, but she didn't seem like she wanted any tea.  She was instead doing something to my ear that was causing me to break out in a light sweat.  Again.  Not that I was really complaining, but wasn't she tired?  We had just finished making love, and already she seemed like she was barely keeping herself from just jumping on top of me like we hadn't seen each other in weeks.  Ever since things had changed between us, about two weeks ago when I had finally confessed my feelings, she had been completely insatiable.  It was like she didn't need food or water or sleep, just me.  Whenever I left, the disappointment on her face was so heart-rending that I could never stay away for more than a day.  And when I returned, she'd leap at me as soon as I entered the cave, dropping whatever she had at hand to be with me as soon as possible, like every second away from me hurt.

"If you keep doing that…I'm not gonna let you get any tea." I chuckled slightly, deciding to just take advantage of her newly discovered sexual appetite while I could.  I let an arm move over, draping across her and tracing a light line along her side and then down, up again, toward her breasts.  "What's with you lately?"

Okay, I have advice for everyone.  If the person you are madly in love with is trying to have sex with you and you aren't opposed, do not ask them any stupid questions.  That was a stupid question, in case you were hoping for a frame of reference.  Kagura froze, and my ear was suddenly forgotten as she shifted her position to look at me more clearly.  Apparently, horny youkai woman take extreme offense to being questioned.  At all.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she was completely defensive when she spoke, like I had attacked her personal integrity or something.  All I was asking about was her sexual drive.  I wasn't complaining, that was for sure.

"Nothing." I tried to keep my voice light and as aloof as I wanted her to think I was about the whole thing.  But seriously, it was just a little odd.  I know that I'm a guy, and more sex should be a good thing, but I couldn't help wondering if something was up.  "You've just been so…affectionate lately.  More than ever, I mean."

"We're in love, aren't we?" That didn't sound very loving.  It sounded more like she was looking for something to throw at my head.  "Isn't this how people in love act?"

"Must be." I smiled then, and it seemed to break through whatever mood she had fallen into.  "Cause I love you, Kagura.  Really.  I just was wondering, because you never seemed so…excited about sex before.  And now…"

"Yeah…I know." She flushed, getting up and putting her yukata on swiftly, but not harshly.  "It's just…I've never…no one's ever told me they love me before you.  I just…don't want you to change your mind or anything."

"Why would I change my mind?" I was flabbergasted.  "You're it for me, Kagura.  Don't you get that?  I was supposed to bond Ayame, but you're all I care about, all I can think about.  You're the only one in my heart.  I'd never be able to change that, even if I wanted to."

"Do you really think that?" Kagura looked up from where she had been setting her pot on the coals of her fire.  "I mean…what if I died tomorrow?"

"That's not funny." I told her flatly.

"I wasn't trying to joke around." She shook her head swiftly.  "I really want to know.  If I died tomorrow, what would you do?"

What would I do?  That was a damn good question, and I didn't really have the answer.  But then, I had to admit to myself that the whole business was silly.  I'd only told Kagura I loved her two weeks ago.  In a youkai's lifetime, two weeks is nothing.  And already we seemed to be on the really philosophical questions.  How had this happened?

"Well." I began, trying to say whatever came to mind.  "I'm not sure what I'd do.  Maybe I'd kick Ginta out of the tribe."

"What?" Kagura seemed totally confused by that one.  Not surprising, as she had not been there when I learned the hard way that just because a guy was your friend didn't mean they weren't sneaking into your den to be with your mate as soon as you left.  Yeah, I know.  My life was good.

"He's sleeping with Ayame." I explained, moving to sit up as the light linen cover cloth she liked so much slipped down my chest and pooled in my lap.  "He told me."

"He just told you that?" Kagura looked extremely perturbed by this turn of events.  I didn't see why it bothered her so much.  It was my mate he was sleeping with.  "He said, hey Kouga, how was your day?  By the way, I'm sleeping with your mate.  Just like that?"

"Not quite like that." I snorted, wondering if she was trying to be funny or not.  It didn't pay to laugh at Kagura when she was serious.  "But yeah, he is.  He wants me to leave the tribe."

"But you're the leader." Her face went blank, as though she couldn't understand what I was saying.  "Get him to leave."

"He knows about you." I waited on that one, and I managed to say it exactly when she was sipping her tea.  She spit it out and was coughing for some time before she recovered enough to speak again.

"How?" she asked finally.

"I don't know." I answered her.  "But he does.  Must have been following me or something.  You haven't seen him around here, have you?"

"No, I don't think so." She went back to her tea.  "But if I do see him, don't worry.  I'll kill him."

"Don't go around killing random wolves!" I held out a hand as though I thought she might go searching any second for him.  "You don't even know what he looks like."

"Sure I do.  That one with the little black tuft in front, right?" she asked me, her voice seething with anger that she was obviously eager to unleash.  "Little bastard will think twice before he betrays you again, trust me on that."

"How…do you even know?" I asked her, and she froze, dropping her cup, which broke on the ground and splashed a dark stain on her yukata.

"Shit!" she leapt to her feet.  "Forget how hot it is until it falls in your lap!  Dammit, that was my favorite cup!" she cursed as she cleaned up, waving frantically at her lap the whole time.

"Did you get hurt?" I stood, but she waved me back to the bed.

"Never mind it, just a little burn, after all." She grumbled, using more force than necessary to toss out the shards of her ruined cup, which shattered like bits of glass on the rocky hillside.  "It was stupid of me to slip like that, but I suppose that's what happens when you don't pay attention."

"Kagura?" I began, but then she whipped her yukata off and tossed it aside, moving toward me with that predatory glint in her eyes.  Somehow, I couldn't quite remember what I was going to ask her.  She smiled at me as she kneeled, straddling me over the cover sheet, and reaching to pull my hand toward her slightly reddened leg.

"See?" her voice was like sinking into the deepest sea of delicious warmth, drowning, and loving every second of it.  It was sinfully decadent, and it had to be the sexiest noise in the world.  "Feels fine, doesn't it?"

"Little…warm."  I answered, but she was moving my hand up, slowly, and it was all too clear where she was directing me.

"Like this?  This is pretty warm, too, don't you think?" she moved my fingers where she wanted them, her free hand going to my shoulder to brace her as she ground against my hand, her eyes still warm as liquid pools of freshly spilled blood.  "And this…doesn't hurt."  She made a little noise, like a cross between a mewl and a sigh, and her fingernails bit into my skin briefly before her hand slithered down, over my chest, and then under the linen.  The few thoughts that had been floating aimlessly through my mind promptly disappeared, and my whole world was focused on her eyes, her warmth, and her movements.  That was all that mattered.  That was all that had ever mattered.  "Does that hurt?" it was a purr, and I shook my head vigorously.

"N…no." I told her.

"But it's definitely warm." She had dropped her hand from mine, but I realized that I was still touching her, moving my fingers like I had learned how to after a period of trial and error that had marked the beginning of my time with Kagura.  We did things together I had never even thought of doing with Ayame.  "Mmm, I wonder which…is warmer." I didn't notice she had used her now free hand to move the sheet aside until she edged ever closer to where I wanted her, and where I could tell she wanted me.  She was poised over me, just brushing over me lightly as she leaned in for a kiss.  And after that, I didn't care about Ginta or Ayame or any of that.

Kagura was everything to me, and I liked it that way.

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"Kouga?" her voice had never bothered me too much before, except for when she refused to stop talking.  But right then, I thought that Ayame's voice was possibly the most irritating noise ever known.  But then, I was trying to get to sleep, and for the past ten minutes, she had been keeping me up with her inane prattle.  I did not like her prattle, because it only reminded me that I had to at least pretend to listen, since she was my mate.  And then I would remember that she was sleeping with Ginta.  And then I would notice that she was looking at me the same way she always had, like I was the only person in the universe, and it really pissed me off to know it was all a big lie.  I didn't like being tricked.  It reminded me of Naraku.  Which reminded me of Kagura.  Which would have been good, except Ayame was not Kagura, and for that, I was pretty angry with her.

So yeah, I was angry.

"What?" I flipped over to face her.  She still slept beside me, cuddling up really close like she thought I didn't know all about what she did.  Had Ginta forgotten to tell her that little tidbit?  That was annoying of him.  I didn't like this whole façade of mated bliss, and I didn't understand why she insisted on making me suffer through it.

"You seem so distant lately." She reached over to touch my face and I brushed her hand away.

"Stop it, I'm trying to sleep." I told her.  "And I'm not distant.  We're in the same damn bed!  It doesn't get much closer than that."

"I mean, you haven't been…why don't you kiss me?" she wanted to know.

Count to ten, Kouga.  Slowly.  One…two…three…

"It's like you just aren't attracted to me at all anymore." She whimpered.  "Is it…because of the baby?"

What number came after three?  For some reason, I couldn't think of numbers.  Only of shaking her silly and asking her what the hell she thought she was talking about, like she didn't know how totally fucked our relationship was.  Wait…no, four…that's right.  Five…six…seven….I was starting to feel calm.

"What does the baby have to do with me kissing you?" I was incredulous.

"Maybe you think I'm fat." She explained.  I blinked at her.  Was she serious?  Apparently so.

Just breathe, Kouga.

"You're two months pregnant.  You don't even show yet.  How could I think you're fat?" I wanted to know.  I thought that she would see how silly she was being and apologize, maybe let me get some damn sleep.  I thought wrong.

"Then…you think I was already this fat!?" she began crying then, and I suddenly had the crazy thought that if I pretended to fall asleep, she'd shut up and leave me alone.  I only believed it would work for about three seconds, though.  Damn my sense of realism.  "Kouga!"

"Ayame, please." I was trying my absolute hardest to maintain my patience with her, but it was straining.  Very straining.  "I am not trying to say you're fat.  I'm saying that you are not fat, and even when you are, I won't care."

"What?!" Apparently, that was not the way to calm her down.  "You think I'm getting fat?!"

"You're fucking pregnant, Ayame!" I explained, my patience very thin, and my head starting to ache.  "That's all I meant.  When you're nine months, I'm not gonna give a shit."

"About the baby?!" she was in hysterics, and everything I said was making it worse.

"No!  Dammit, listen to me when I talk!" I tried, but she wouldn't shut up.  So I got up and stormed out of the cave for a walk.  I wasn't planning on going to Kagura's.  I just wanted to get out of there until she was tired enough to let me sleep.  However, I ran straight into Ginta.

"Where are you going at this time of night?" he wanted to know.

"What, you're my mother now?" I had been very irate with him and Ayame ever since I found out what they were doing together.  "Ayame's bitching and I'm fucking exhausted.  I'm gonna stay out of there until she shuts up so I can sleep."

"Don't you know anything?" Ginta hissed, grabbing my arm like he was threatening me.  Like he could possibly threaten me.  "She's pregnant!  Of course she's moody.  Just deal with it.  Don't make it worse like this.  It hurts her every time you just give up on her like that."

"Why don't you go deal with her?" I asked, angry and too tired to deal with his accusations and questions.  "Since you're so hot on her, you go put up with it."

"Don't talk about her like…like she's just…" Ginta shook his head, and turned away, releasing my arm.  "Never mind.  I shouldn't expect you to care about her.  I knew you wouldn't, even if she tried her hardest, even if she can never forget you.  You just don't appreciate…just go to her, then."

"Ayame?" I was not really enthusiastic about that idea.

"Kagura." His voice was a whisper, but I still had a sudden fear that someone would hear.  "Go to your whore."

"She's not—" I cut myself off as I saw a late night patrol wolf approaching, probably headed for bed after being relieved.  "I'll be back in the morning.  Maybe later."

"I'll tell her not to wait up." Ginta answered after me as I raced off into the hills.  At least Kagura would let me get some sleep if she could repress her urges long enough for that.  My head hurt, and it wouldn't get any better until I got some rest, I knew.

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The End (Of Part 6, That Is)