Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Legend:

'……' thoughts

"……" speech

Enter the Wolf's Den

By: wolf demoness

Chapter Eleven: A Wealth of Meaning is Found in the Smallest Touch

Four days after the hanyou woke up Yuuka left with a small company of wolves for the southern border. Koga hoped that they would return soon, he was very nervous about sending his pack's only healer out into the wild for an indeterminate amount of time. He and Ginta were fairly competent in basic first aid, but if anything more serious were to occur, Koga didn't even want to think about it. After Yuuka returned he decided he would order her to take an apprentice. The pack couldn't go on with only one healer, Koga saw that now. He'd never thought about it before, but too much was riding on Yuuka. Koga couldn't personally imagine the pack without the demoness as its healer, but it could happen and for the safety of the pack Yuuka had to share her skills.

The Council upon hearing of Kagome's banishment and the implied disavowal of intentions on Koga's part, decided to suspend all but the most necessary of deliberations for a period of seven days to give Koga some time to cope with the situation. Koga for his part was very upset though he didn't show it. He had been infatuated with the dark haired Miko for so long that it was hard to forget her. Also he got the feeling that the Council wouldn't wait very long before demanding that he find a new woman. The mini-vacation they'd given him was as far as they were willing to go to accommodate their lovesick leader.

However, there was a sense of relief that came with giving up on Kagome. The Alpha couldn't imagine being bound for all eternity to a woman so hard hearted. And though Kagome was powerful and she would have made the pack much stronger, the children they had together would age and die, perhaps even before Koga himself died. He knew that had he mated with her he would have lost her in a mere handful of decades. It would be inordinately painful to live without his mate. Many wolves wasted away and died when their mates departed this earth, those that lived were never the same afterward. Yuuka was a prime example, her slightly bipolar behavior and mood swings started as a direct result of her mate's death. At first the pack wondered if she would fall into complete insanity, but as a testament to her great personal strength she only became mildly unstable. She would jump up and down happily then start to cry because she was so happy without knowing why and do funny things like that. She wasn't dangerous to herself or to anyone else and she was an enormously skilled healer and negotiator so when the pack saw that her symptoms didn't affect her work they let her be. Koga had a strong will and he knew that he could live on after his mate had died, but he didn't think he would cope well with his cubs dying. Especially if he had to watch them waste away with age, weaken, and eventually die while he remained young and strong.

Yuuka left on her trip on the fifth day of the Council's recess and so Koga cared for the hanyou for the first two days after that. On the third day he checked on the hanyou early in the morning then went to the Council chamber. He would come home when the Council broke for the midday meal and lunch with the hanyou until he needed to return. Then he would join the young warriors on the training field until the Council reconvened in the evening. After that they discussed new business until just after nightfall. Koga hated the winter. There was nothing for him to do so his Councilors took up all his time with discussions. Koga was very much a person of action. He hated sitting still all-day and going over unimportant minutia again and again and again. Koga actually began to look forward to the quiet of his home.

Inuyasha was unusually subdued. He didn't talk very much, only answered questions when spoken to or thanked the wolf for a meal or his help. He didn't fight with Koga when the wolf dictated his day to him. Eventually Koga became sure that the root of the half demon's listlessness lie with Kagome. Koga himself was depressed and quiet. Seeing his symptoms mirrored and intensified in the hanyou he could imagine the feelings of betrayal that the half demon was dealing with. He wondered if he would act the way Inuyasha was if the woman that he'd loved had left him to die. He decided to give the demon time and as he sat with the quiet young half demon and took his meals or prepared medicines to help the hanyou heal he felt the animosity he had toward the other slowly dissolving. In all the time he'd been in his home Inuyasha was a polite and courteous guest. He didn't want to be a burden on the wolf demon and when he told Koga so, Koga couldn't believe his ears. The hanyou was a very different person and Koga was sure that that wasn't a good thing.

After much thought Koga came to the conclusion that the hanyou was much too passive and he wouldn't stand for that. He'd admired the hot headed half demon that'd refused to ever give up no matter how wounded he was or how ill advised the fight. He did not like this shell he had in his home. So Koga set out to deliberately irritate the hanyou until he got a response. He rationalized his interest in the demon's well being as a way to alleviate the unceasing boredom the winter months imposed on him. First he tried referring to the demon by the old titles he'd used, "mutt," "half-dog," and others. It became apparent though that name-calling didn't work. Inuyasha would ignore it or, startlingly enough, ask him why he was calling him that. He never asked him to stop or reciprocated in kind. Koga really couldn't restrict the hanyou's freedoms as Inuyasha was already confined to a bed by his wounds. However, the wolf tried various other methods of irritating the hanyou to get a response, leaving his food just out of reach, being unnecessarily rough when changing his bandages and such. He didn't do anything that would set back the half demon's progress though; after all he was trying to help him. Nothing worked. Finally he tried an unusual tactic. He completely stopped talking to the half demon, he didn't insult him or respond to questions and he refused to be engaged in any sort of conversation. Inuyasha was surprised, but let it go for several days. Eventually Koga noted that Inuyasha would turn toward him as if he were about to speak then change his mind and stay silent.

One day Koga was really angry. Yuuka had sent a message saying that she was going to be gone for another month at the least and the Council members had gone so far as to present Koga with a list of names of unmated young women. It was insulting. They gave him a list of names to pick his life mate and the mother of his children from as if he were signing a treaty or ordering goods from a distant distributor. It was so impersonal and cold-blooded that Koga had gotten up and left the room so that he'd calm down before he hurt them all. Eventually Ginta had come outside and pulled him on a walk through the inner territories to calm him down. When Koga had come home he was irritated with everything, especially the quiet hanyou. Inuyasha was sitting up in bed looking out the window when Koga walked into the room. One of the first things he'd done after he woke up was demand the return of his clothes. So the half demon was decent when the wolf walked into the room. Koga dropped a plate of food on the ground next to the Inuyoukai then roughly began to pull medicines and bandages out of a sack in the room's corner. Koga wasn't conscious of it, but he was lowly growling.

Inuyasha heard the deep growl coming from the wolf demon and at first chose to ignore it. But it was very irritating! The wolf was being a complete bastard and Inuyasha was starting to get pissed off at the demon. Finally he just couldn't take it anymore. "What the hell is your problem, Koga?" he snapped, barring his fangs at the Alpha.

Koga looked up; "Well it's about damned time!"

"What are you talking about wolf-boy?"

"You've been sulking around for long enough! You need to get over it."

"Get over what?" Inuyasha growled dangerously, his ears lying flat against his head.

"Whatever is making you act like a shadow. Get over it. Deal with it. And quit it because it's pissing me off!"

"Deal with it like you're dealing with whatever's making you act like a compete jackass right now?!" the hanyou snarled.

"Don't compare your problems to mine." Koga ground out.

"And what, is this horrific problem?" the hanyou asked sarcastically.

Koga began to stuff the extra bandages into the satchel with excessive force. "They gave me a list of names to pick my mate from today."

"I though you were going to mate with Kagome?" The half demon asked puzzled.

"What?" Koga asked in surprise, puzzled for a moment before he realized that no one had told the hanyou what was happening yet. "I mean, yes, I was." Koga glared at the demon. "I thought you wanted Kagome."

Inuyasha crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head to the side. "Feh. I didn't say I thought you were ever gonna get her just that you thought you were. I'm glad you finally came to your senses and gave up 'cause you were never gonna win her over."

"And I suppose that you had a better chance than I did, puppy?" Koga spat.

"Right, Koga," the hanyou said with sarcasm dripping from his voice. "That was gonna happen." Inuyasha turned back toward the puzzled wolf demon and elaborated, "She's seeing some human back 'home.' You never had a chance wolf-boy," Inuyasha smirked at the Alpha.

Koga clenched and unclenched his fists in anger at the thought of his woman seeing another man while his claim was on her. "Did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Have a chance with her."

"Oh get real, Koga. No one wants a hanyou so stop rubbing it in." Inuyasha glared at the wolf, growling low in his throat, until the Alpha stood and left the room.

Outside, standing alone in the hallway, Koga leaned up against the wall and thought, 'Kagome, what did you do?'

******

"Koga, please!" Inuyasha begged.

"Absolutely not!"

"But I'm soooo bored. Just five minutes."

"Yuuka's going to kill me for this," the wolf moaned before he walked over to the bed and helped the hanyou up. "Five minutes and then we're coming back inside."

"Five minutes, I swear." Inuyasha promised. Leaning heavily on the wolf demon Inuyasha walked out of the house and into the open air for the first time in over a month. When the two got to the house's perimeter Koga sat Inuyasha down on a tree stump and kept him company while the hanyou enjoyed the afternoon sunlight. Inuyasha was very glad to be outside. He'd never had to wait so long to heal from anything ever and this slow recovery was torture to the hanyou. Although, by all rights, he should have died from the demon's venom so he supposed that he didn't really have a right to complain, that didn't meant he wouldn't though. His damned human blood was slowing his demon blood from fighting the boar's poison. It made him feel weak and nauseous and because of that he wasn't eating enough. And because he wasn't eating enough his body was healing slower than it should. If he transformed into his full demon form he'd probably heal in no time, but then he'd go on an insane rampage and start killing the wolves in the den. He'd keep killing until they killed him or there was no one left alive, of course in that case he'd just travel down into the valley and continue his murderous rampage until something killed him or he died of exhaustion. So obviously that option was out.

The half demon directed his gaze to the wolf standing a few paces from him. Koga was staring off to the cliffs bordering the den, the midday guard change was happening and the demon was monitoring his men as they went about their duties. Koga was confusing. Inuyasha couldn't figure him out. Whenever they'd met before the demon had seemed arrogant and hostile in a way that grated the hanyou's nerves. It hadn't helped that the wolf had started harping on his human heritage almost the moment they'd met. Inuyasha was sensitive about his hybrid status. It was, after all, the main reason for the majority of the suffering he'd endured in his life, which was by no means in short supply. The wolf reminded him of his brother, in some ways. Sesshomaru, his only family in all the world, who didn't think he was worth the air that he breathed simply because he had a human mother. That wasn't his fault! He'd had nothing to do with that. Did he deserve to be punished because he'd been the result of a liaison between his father and the youngest daughter of a human lord? It didn't seem right. It didn't seem fair! And Inuyasha hated that the whole world seemed to be in agreement with his estranged brother. Humans everywhere treated him like a lower demon and as a child, after his mother had passed, he been the subject of more than one hunt to rid the world of the abomination he represented. Demons wanted to kill him, if not for the simple pleasure of it, then to purify his father's bloodline. Inuyasha didn't think he could endure being exterminated for any of these reasons. There were demons waiting in the rafters, figuratively speaking, to swoop down and kill him in a moment of weakness if they could just get their hands on him. That was the reason he guarded his secrets, the weaknesses that his human blood imbued him with, so well. Inuyasha had always assumed that Koga was a member of that group. The only comfort he derived from the thought of dying by the wolf's hand was that Koga would not kill him because he was a half demon. No, the wolf would end his life, and claim Kagome as his prize. There was no shame in that sort of death and to be allowed to die with dignity, as the demon that he was, was a privilege not usually given to hanyous. But Koga had not tried to kill him, though he'd repetitively had the opportunity and the means to do so.

Inuyasha observed Koga. The wolf was in a better humor than yesterday. He wondered what had made the demon so angry to begin with. Not that he cared about the wolf's feelings, he reminded himself. He was just curious and had nothing better to do. "Koga?" the silver haired demon called. When he got no response from the wolf he tried again, "Koga? Hey, Koga?" Inuyasha reached forward and tugged on the wolf demon's tail to get his attention.

Koga violently jumped away from the half demon with a shout and whirled around to face him attracting the attention of several wolves who'd been passing by. "What'd you do that for!?"

"Oh my god! It's real!" Inuyasha began to laugh hysterically clutching his sides and panting for breath through paroxysms of laughter.

"Of course it's real! What did you think it was?!" Koga yelled at the hanyou cradling his abused tail in his hands.

"I thought…I thought it was part of your costume," Inuyasha said gasping for breath with tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Why would you think that?" Koga asked scathingly while trying to groom his fur back into the right direction.

Inuyasha gasped for air as he slowly stopped laughing. "None of the other wolf demon's have them."

"I'm a first generation wolf demon."

"Pardon?"

"My parents were wolves, I'm a wolf demon."

"So you have a tail?"

"What's wrong with my tail?" Koga asked defensively. He liked his tail; it wasn't too long or too short, it was a nice color, and he always kept his fur neatly groomed and tidy.

"Nothing. It's sorta cute actually," the demon looked up eyes wide and a light blush staining his cheeks. He couldn't believe he'd just said that. "If you're into that sort of thing that is," Inuyasha turned his head to the side and studied a tree growing near the front door.

Koga blinked in surprise. He scratched the back of his head in confusion and cast about awkwardly. "Right. Let's go back inside." Koga got no complaint from the silver haired man as he led him back to his sick bed.

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A/N:

1) I'm sorry I couldn't resist that last part! I know Inuyasha was way too O.C. but Koga's tail fascinates me and I just had to have someone tug on it. ^_~

2) By the way in the last week I've gotten two reviewers asking me if this was a shouen ai/yaoi story; if anyone else has such questions I'm going to refer you to my Disclaimer and Warnings section at the very top of chapter one, specifically the fourth sentence. If you have any other questions feel free to contact me and I'll be delighted to address them.