With a groan, a slender girl opened her chocolate eyes. Ouch, thought Kagome. The thing in front of her was fuzzy, for a moment, then she recoiled when she realized that it was a guy, staring directly into her face. When he noted her open eyes, he grunted and sat back. In an indignant voice, he delcared, "Well, it's about time you woke up." She blinked at him and he continued. "I mean, really. Just because your plane almost crashed is no reason to be out of it for four and a half hours."
Again, she blinked. " . . . Do I know you?" He looked taken aback, but she was in no state to particularly care. "And where am I?"
The guy grinned nastily. He leaned forward until their noses almost touched, and then murmured huskily, "You're in the hospital."
His voice was a rough tenor, and it sent shivers down her spine. His half-lidded eyes were golden, she realized, hazy with proximity. His hair was white, yet he seemed very young, and his smile was . . . fanged?
With a gasp, Kagome lurched forward, cracking the sides of their heads together. She moaned as he shouted, but just as quickly she turned, glaring, and slapped the man at her bedside. He looked surprised, but it was obvious that he knew why she had slapped him.
Meanwhile, the white-haired man was railing at her for crushing his ear. "OWWW! Goddammit, woman, you idiot! What the hell was that for? Augh! God-damn-it!"
She turned back to him. He sat on her bed, head cradled in his arms, and shoulders shaking with pain. Kagome gently pried his hands away from his scalp, brushing the uninjured ear and yelping. It was a dog ear! Shaking her head at his folly, she muttered, "It's your own damn fault. You knew they were there and I didn't. You shouldn't have leaned so close."
He shot a venomous glare up at her and spat, "Well, I wasn't exactly planning on getting myself nailed in the ear by a pretty patient, was I?!"
She blushed at the compliment, but resumed tugging his hands from his wounded appendage. He sat glowering at her, shoulders hunched as though to ward off another headbutt from the insane, pretty patient. Leaning forward again, Kagome brushed her hand along the furry ear that stuck out of his hair. He flinched a little, but once she began to stroke it in earnest he relaxed. As she lengthened her strokes, he began to purr, eyes closing almost all the way and shoulders slumping.
She knew she'd get herself in trouble if she kept doing that -- it was so relaxing, she might just do something really stupid. So she hesitantly pulled her hand back and asked shakily, "Better?"
Sleepy golden eyes slowly opened to gaze at her in a stupor. He seemed like he was going to nod, but instead his eyes narrowed and he turned his nose up at her, huffing, "Well, it was the least you could do."
Kagome rolled her eyes and cradled her hand, remembering the softness of his ear. Then she stopped moving, still upright. Her eyes were unfocused, pointed off to the side. She was trying to remember why she had been brought here. The young guy had said something about a plane--
That's right. Kagome shuddered, the feel of a rickety plane beneath her still fresh in her mind. There had been scared voices, both loud and quiet, and a thick tension stiff with fear. The plane was in a nosedive, losing altitude rapidly, when Kagome had blacked out from the change in air pressure. She vaguely recalled being handed into a heli and then, another pair of golden eyes--
The door to her room opened, and the man beside Kagome, forgotten, proclaimed, "Ah, Sango! You just missed an awesome display of prowess on InuYasha's part; you see, he headbutted his roomate and then somehow coerced her into petting his ears--"
The guy called InuYasha growled, "Stuff it, Miroku. Save it for your standup-pickup routine."
Kagome flinched. Ouch. That seemed a little harsh. But Miroku wasn't fazed at all. He smiled magnanimously and placed an arm around the bored nurse named Sango, newly arrived but long-acquainted. "Now, InuYasha, you know that's not true--"
Sango's eyes widened and she whipped around, having her hand make a very profound statement right onto her coworker's face. "PERVERT!"
Kagome grinned, delighted at this display of camaraderie. She knew pefectly well what Miroku had just done -- it was the reason she had accidentally headbutted InuYasha.
Sango turned, ruffling her feathers, as she looked at Kagome. "Miss Higurashi, I presume?"
Kagome grinned harder. "Oh, call me Kagome, please." She looked around. "All of you."
Sango smiled, InuYasha grunted, and Miroku looked outright pleased. Sango forestalled his impending comment by declaring, "InuYasha, you know you shouldn't be out of bed. Get back in there. Miroku, why, oh why did you have to feel Kagome up? Why?"
The man sighed dramatically. "Sango, my dear, you know my predicament--"
Her eyes softened and she murmured, "I know. Now, enough." She turned to Kagome, quickly blinking away tears as she sat on the side of the bed. "All right, Kagome, now I suppose I'll need to fill you in."
Kagome collected her thoughts, wondering at the tears in Sango's eyes, and smiled wryly. "Well, it would be nice."
Sango nodded and began. "Around four hours and forty-five minutes ago, your flight was listed as down over the bay. The reason for this is still not known -- it was some unusual energy fluctuation. It came out of nowhere, and authorites are mystified. However, the only reason you are sitting here now is because of a young girl. Her own energy was, for some reason, saved from her previous life. As soon as she found out that the plane was in a nosedive and that the pilots had blacked out, she hyperventilated and her energy was transformed into an immense battle aura that stopped the plane in midair. It hovered over the water for as long as it took to evacuate all of the passengers, then sank. The odd thing is that the girl blacked out in the middle of the power transaction. Nobody knows where she is -- a tall, muscular man with shite hair and golden eyes flew out to the emergency area and demanded custody of her, claiming he was her guardian. The sailor responsible for handing her over was courtmartialed and the girl's seatmate, who seemed to be oddly protective of her, having just met her, was compensated for damages sustained by aforementioned sailor."
InuYasha's attention was rapt. "The man who claimed custody -- nobody but you-know-who sounds like that."
Miroku grimaced. "InuYasha, your--" At the warning look, Miroku changed what he was going to say, continuing, "That man is a rare pain in the ass. Why do you want to get involved?"
InuYasha glowered. "Well, the girl saved Kagome. Isn't that reason enough to find her?"
Kagome was surprised. "Why, Inuyasha! Thank you. That's really sweet."
His eyes widened, and he hastily proclaimed, "I mean, Kagome must want to thank her! Of course. Her life was in the balance, why wouldn't she want to thank her?"
Sango and Miroku rolled their eyes while Kagome blushed. InuYasha just simmered. Then he said, "Well, in any case, I need to go find him. He owes me big for this, and anyway--"
Kagome blurted out, "Who is this 'pain in the ass' you all keep talking about?"
Miroku answered before InuYasha could. "We're talking about Sesshomaru, InuYasha's older brother. You see, InuYasha here is a hanyou -- a half-demon." That explains the ears, though Kagome. "His brother, however, is a full-blooded demon. That has caused some serious fights between the two, because InuYasha resents being half-human and Sesshomaru just can't seem to keep himself from rubbing his brother's nose in it."
Kagome nodded, now only half-confused. "So, why does he owe InuYasha big?"
Miroku opened his mouth, but InuYasha interrupted him. Sulkily, he muttered, "I saved his pathetic hide. There have been innumerable attempts on his life, and this last one I caught. However, the attackers were really stupid -- they forgot to figure in the demon blood." His eyes shone with a mixture of pride, envy and sadness.
Kagome nodded, a silent 'Oh' forming on her lips. That would explain a lot. They were silent for a while, mulling over the day's events. "So, what now?"
Sango spoke. "Well, I for one want to know why on earth he saved that girl's life."
Miroku, InuYasha and Kagome nodded. The hanyou said, "Well, how's about a trip to his place?"
Miroku eyed him reproachfully. "You do remember the reason you're in here, right?"
He snorted. "Yeah. I'm fine." At the dubious look he received, he growled. "Dammit, Miroku, you know me. You know how tough I am! Gimme a break and let's go!"
Kagome felt her heart sinking. What about me? She didn't want to be left alone.
Sango noticed her expression, and said, "Well, we can't just leave Kagome here, and she seemed well enough to defend herself from Miroku," here the man received a glare and simply smiled innocently, "so we might as well just bring her along. After all, wasn't it you, InuYasha, who wanted to find the girl for Kagome's sake?"
The hanyou turned red and scoffed, then scooted off the bed and grabbed Kagome's coat for her. He held it as she slipped into it, and glared at the others' raised eyebrows and knowing smiles. He opened the door for her, but let it fall closed in Sango's face. She turned to Miroku and they burst out laughing. Quickly reining in their emotions, they opened the door and hurried after them, snickering.