Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Legend:

'……' thoughts

"……" speech

Enter the Wolf's Den

By: wolf demoness

Chapter Ten: The Awakening

The next time Inuyasha woke up he had only a vague recollection of speaking with Koga. He didn't recognize the room he was in. There was a window above his bed through which light filtered into the room. His back and muscles hurt, he tried to stretch in the bed to relieve the kinks in his back, but a sharp pain in his abdomen reminded him of that night in the forest. "Where am I?" he whispered.

"You're in the den of the wolf demons. More specifically you're a guest in Koga's home." A woman sitting on a cushion by the door said. "Oh, and my name's Yuuka in case you were wondering." The woman went back to sipping her tea calmly ignoring the hanyou.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Inuyasha said defensively sitting up in the bed wincing and clutching at his belly.

The demoness stood and walked over to the hanyou's bed. "Like I said my name's Yuuka and I'd appreciate it if you didn't ruin all the work I put into you by ripping those wounds open in your first five minutes of consciousness." Yuuka pressed a finger to Inuyasha's chest, using the applied pressure to prompt the hanyou to lay down.

"The work you put into me?"

Yuuka directed a slow wink down at the hanyou; "I'm the pack healer." She then gathered some pillows that were stowed in a nearby basket. "Here, if you feel well enough to sit up at least do it with these." The green eyed demoness brandished the pillows at the silver haired demon and began to prop him up in a sitting position by piling the pillows behind his back.

"Uh, thanks." Inuyasha said to the strange woman. "Um, can you tell me why I'm here?"

"Only if you promise to eat something," the demoness said sternly looking down at the hanyou with a disapproving look on her face. Inuyasha nodded his consent, completely at a loss for what this woman was up to. One moment she was flirting and the next she looked ready to throttle the hanyou. "Oh, goody!" the demoness jumped up and happily clapped her hands together before running out of the room giving Inuyasha a view of the hallway made completely of polished wood. He heard footsteps pounding down the hall and the demoness returned plopping a steaming bowl of soup down in his lap. "I'm so glad you're hungry. I was afraid that with the poison still in your blood you wouldn't want to eat. But, you do! And you're getting better and damn I do good work!" Inuyasha stared up at the perky demoness as she babbled away happily. When he caught her eye she blushed and looked down at the ground. "Sorry, I'm not usually like this, but I really didn't think that you were going to pull through." The wolf gave a crooked smile displaying her fangs; "I haven't had such a challenge in a long time."

"Okay, you were going to tell me why I'm here?" Inuyasha prompted.

"Are you eating, yet?" Inuyasha looked at the woman in disbelief and, deciding that arguing with such an obviously unbalanced person was futile, he picked up the spoon and began to eat his soup. After a few spoonfuls he looked at the woman hopefully, when she shook her head the half demon continued eating until he was very sure that his stomach couldn't hold another bite. Which was strange, considering that only half of the soup was gone. He made to put the bowl down on the floor. "It's not empty," the demoness pointed out.

"I'm full," Inuyasha replied.

Yuuka frowned, "I'd really feel better if you finished it all."

"Look, Lady," the half demon said with just a hint of irritation in his voice. "You don't understand. I can't eat anymore."

The demoness sighed, "I was afraid of that. Okay, we'll wait a little while then try again." Inuyasha looked at her pointedly. Yuuka sighed then launched into her story, "Koga brought you here, injured and more than half dead. I've been taking care of you ever since. Which has been for about nineteen days now."

"I've been sleeping for nineteen days?" the half demon asked in surprise his ears perking up and his pupils dilating in surprise.

"No." Yuuka came forward and placed a hand on Inuyasha's forehead to check for any sign of fever. "You'd been asleep for nearly two days when Koga came running up to my hut in a panic." Inuyasha sighed heavily in surprise. "It's a bit to take in, I know, but be glad he got you here as fast as he did. You wouldn't have lasted much longer without medical help. He ran for a day and a half to bring you here."

"He did that for me? Why?"

"Because you were hurt and needed help! Why else would he have brought you here?" Yuuka rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"But, I thought…he hated me." Inuyasha whispered in confusion.

"Listen to me, sweetie," the demoness placed a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder and said sociably. "I've known Koga for a long time. There are very few people in this world he hates and right now I don't think that you're even in his top ten. If he has ten that is." The last part she mused to herself quietly before shaking her head and starting to pull the covers off of the hanyou.

"What do you think you're doing!" the hanyou shouted when he realized that he wasn't wearing anything under the blankets.

"It's time to check you're bandages." The half demon blushed and clutched the covers closer to his body. "I've been doing this daily you know. It's your own fault for getting injured there in the first place." When she got no response from the hanyou Yuuka asked, "Would you rather I wait until you fall asleep?"

"Okay, fine." The hanyou lay back and let the healer work. "Damn, this is embarrassing."

"Cry baby. It's nothing I haven't seen before. I am a healer after all," she said as she tenderly examined the swollen edges of flesh around the gaping wounds in the hanyou's belly and leg. The wounds hadn't been healing well because the half demon was giving everything he had to fighting off the poison. The wound on his belly had mostly closed, but the tear that went over his thigh and across his hip was still open on top of his thigh and where the boar's horn had struck the bone of Inuyasha's hip. Hopefully, now that the poison was almost entirely gone, they'd start to close a little farther than they already had before any sort of infection set in. The silver haired demon tried not to pay attention to what the healer was doing out of embarrassment, but after a particularly painful prod to his thigh he looked down and blanched when he saw the extent of his injuries. Yuuka tried to reassure the hanyou by lightening the mood; "Oh, it's not that bad. I'll be done soon then you can go back to being all modest again." Yuuka looked up at the hanyou mischievously. "Besides from where I sit you've got nothing to be ashamed about." Inuyasha yelped and blushed harder.

******

When Koga came home that night he first peered into Yuuka's room, looking for the demoness. Seeing that she wasn't there it wasn't difficult to guess where she was. Koga continued into the hall and stopped at Inuyasha's door for a moment, hearing two voices conversing inside the room, he opened the door. Yuuka was bundling up some used bandages and the hanyou was blushing and muttering to himself under his breath. Something about, "Perverted women." Koga looked at Yuuka questioningly. The demoness in question winked then waggled her eyebrows at Koga before leaving the two in the room together.

"Yuuka, I'd like to talk to you," Koga called.

"Later," she called impudently from down the hall. Koga watched the woman walk away from him marveling at her disobedience, especially in front of an outsider.

"I owe you," Inuyasha said.

"Hmmm," Koga muttered noncommittally.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"I thought we went over this," Koga sighed and dropped down to sit cross-legged on the floor. Inuyasha looked at Koga puzzled. "After you pulled your little hair color changing trick."

The hanyou paled, "My what?"

"Your hair turned black, you turned into a human, and kept Yuuka and I up half the night because you couldn't fight off the poison in that body. Ring any bells?" The hanyou opened his mouth to speak then shut it and gaped at the other demon, eyes wide. Guessing the direction of the half demon's thoughts, he tried to reassure him of his safety if nothing else. "Only Yuuka and I know and I ordered her not to say anything," Inuyasha just looked up at him. "I won't say anything either."

"Why?"

In Koga's opinion the demon was just being dense. "Do you have any idea what easy prey you are like that?" The hanyou nodded mutely. Koga sighed; the other demon was acting strangely. For one thing he hadn't insulted Koga since he came into the room and for another he was unusually subdued. It might have been from the long illness the hanyou had suffered, but Koga had encountered Inuyasha when he was wounded before and didn't believe that the half demon would act so restrained even under these circumstances. There was something else going on. "It's happened before?" there was no answer. "Often?"

"Every month," came the quiet reply. Now Koga knew that something was wrong. No one would give that kind of information away. Weaknesses were strictly guarded even amongst good friends. Koga crawled over to look the half demon in the eyes. "What?"

"You're acting funny."

"I don't feel well," the hanyou sighed and laid back down on the futon, purposely toppling the mountain of pillows that'd been holding him up.

"I'll get Yuuka then," Koga said rising.

"No!" Inuyasha sat up in the bed his hand shooting up to grasp Koga's shirt preventing him from leaving the room. Koga began to blush when he saw that Inuyasha's sudden movement had caused the blankets to settle low on the demons hips. Koga noted that lying immobile in a bed all that time hadn't done any noticeable damage to the half demon's washboard abs. Inuyasha wrapped an arm around his stomach obstructing Koga's view. "Oww."

"You shouldn't do that. Yuuka will have my head if I let you reopen those wounds."

"I thought you were in charge around here," Inuyasha panted through the pain as Koga helped him lay back on the bed and covered him with the blanket.

"Trust me you don't want to deal with Yuuka when she's pissed off."

The half demon gave a weak laugh. "She's nutty I'll give you that."

Koga smiled back at the demon, thinking of his friend's antics. Either Inuyasha was unusually observant or Yuuka must have been in one of her moods when the half demon awoke. "Get some rest," Koga patted the silver haired demon's shoulder.

"Koga?" Inuyasha said.

The wolf looked down at the Inuyoukai laying on the futon. His hair was fanned out across the pillow he was laying on and it shone silver in the torchlight far brighter than his human hair had. His golden yellow eyes reflected the light and he held his lips slightly parted allowing just the barest glimpse of pearly white fangs. Yet another blush stained Koga's cheeks as he tried to reign in his slightly less that pure thoughts. "Yes?"

"Thank you."

The wolf rose from his position next to the hanyou and turned to the door. Before he shut the door behind him though he looked down into the half demon's shining gold eyes. "Not necessary."

******

Koga silently padded down the hall to his room. As the Alpha Koga was given the old leader's hut and a ridiculously over sized bedroom. Koga who grew up sleeping on the ground curled up against his parent's fur still had trouble adjusting to the disturbing softness of the raised futon in his room. When he first became Alpha, Hakkaku used to tease him for sleeping on the ground next to the bed rather than in it. One time he made the mistake of complaining that the bed was too soft to sleep on so that night while he was asleep, on the ground, Ginta and Hakkaku covered his bed with rocks and moved Koga on top of them. Koga woke up feeling like he'd gone ten rounds with Makoto and lost. He still missed sleeping in the caves. Most of the wolves had homes, but the pack members would often sleep inside the caves in a pile of bodies. The only time Koga got to do that was when the winters got so fierce that he could claim the cold as a reason to sleep with his pack.

Eventually Koga had grown used to the "fluffy" furniture in his home. As he sat down on the bed he heard Yuuka walking over to him. "You wanted to see me."

"I need you to talk to a group of Kitsune near the southern border."

"When?"

"Whenever you think you can leave Inuyasha."

"It's pretty much just changing bandages and training his stomach to eat again at this point. You can do that, provided he doesn't do anything stupid to reopen those wounds." Yuuka stretched and lay back on the bed letting her legs dangle over the side. Koga looked down at her then laid on his back next to her.

"You're sure that it's safe to leave him so soon?" Koga wrapped his arms around the woman and snuggled up against her.

Yuuka stroked the Alpha's head as she replied. "I'll wait a few days to make sure that he's on the mend. I'll leave you some instructions on how to care for him, but I won't leave unless you or Ginta takes over for me. No one else here has any sort of medical training."

"I'll do it." Koga closed his eyes and rested his head on Yuuka's chest.

"Don't get too attached, Koga." Koga blinked his eyes open and looked up at Yuuka questioningly. "I just worry about you. You know that." Koga dropped his head back down and listened to Yuuka's heartbeat. "Why do you need me to talk to them?"

"They're encroaching on our borders. Ask them to leave or tell them that the human village we host will allow them to live with them."

"How did you manage that?"

The Alpha snorted in amusement, "I was surprised myself, but the human men were especially excited about the idea."

Yuuka laughed to herself, "Figures. Why me though?"

"I don't want anyone unattached on the mission. I'd send Hakkaku, but he's still in the mountains visiting his brother, I don't want to cut his vacation short. Other than that Ginta isn't mated and I don't trust any of the others not to start a battle over territory." Koga started to fall to sleep.

"Good point. Most of them are rather hot headed," Yuuka said beginning to run her fingers through Koga's hair.

"Yuuka."

"Yes?"

"Stay here tonight?" Koga asked.

"And sleep on this monstrously squishy thing?" Yuuka feigned outrage at the idea.

Koga started to laugh which sounded like a deep chuckle in his chest, almost a growl. "Please?"

"Oh, alright! You big puppy you."

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A/N:

1) I just want to make it clear that the relationship between Koga and Yuuka is in no way sexual. Yuuka has lost her mate and therefore will not mate or engage in any type of sexual relationship ever again. If you must compare their relationship to a human one think of it on the level of good friends or little brother and big sister.

2) Some people have asked me when the relationship between Koga and Inuyasha is going to heat up and I just wanted to say that I'm taking things slow for a reason. According to my timetable Inuyasha and Koga were at each other's throats a few months ago and have only recently lost the object of their affections. Before they begin their relationship they need to get comfortable with each other. I don't want either demon to seem like the 'rebound guy' for the other, but don't worry you won't have to wait too much longer for the interesting stuff to start. :-)

3) My apologies to anyone who looked for updates over the weekend last weekend, I just finished taking my first two midterms and so I updated twice last week (once Sunday, I think, and once on a Wednesday) instead of over the weekend. Sorry to anyone who was waiting for a new chapter last weekend I know how aggravating that is, I'll try to give you some warning in the future.