((LEGAL STUFF: Inuyasha and Co. are property of the sole ownership of the wise, witty, and wonderful Rumiko Takahashi! I am not making any profit whatsoever except my own enjoyment in writing this. I do not own nor claim any rights to her characters and concepts. However, the original characters in this story belong to me, so please do not copy them or use them without my express permission.))
The White Dog
by Becky Tailweaver
Chapter 4: Mother's Gift
It was late evening, the sun just touching the horizon and bathing everything in an orange-red glow. Most of the people of the Miko Kaede's village were grateful for the sunset; it signaled an end to work for the day, the evening meal, and a little time to spend with their families in the warmth of their own homes.
But to Inuyasha, this particular sunset brought nothing but misery and fear.
The young hanyou reclined against a tree trunk, perched on a branch about twenty feet in the air. Feet dangling, his arms were crossed and his expression was set to full-pout as he grumbled silently to himself about his problematic half-breed life. His ears were jaunted in different directions, testimony to his annoyance with his whole situation as he stared into space, his thoughts dark and clouded.
"Hey, Inuyasha!"
Against his will, his ears perked and his expression shifted at the sound of Kagome's voice. He would rather have stayed in his funk to let the whole world know how displeased he was, but her presence would not allow him to remain depressed; instead, he just felt guilty for what had happened in the dark caves.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome trotted out of the foliage, toward the base of his tree. She was up and about, looking much perkier than she had hours ago, apparently recovered from the chaos in Hitai Mountain's caves. "There you are."
"What do you want?" he grumbled, leaning forward to gaze down at her, glaring like a treed panther. He really didn't want to face her so soon--not after what had happened, and how he still felt about it. She might have forgiven him, but he had not yet forgiven himself.
"You know what day it is, don't you?" she asked, her voice--to his ears--annoyingly cheerful. "It's getting late. Why don't you come down from there before you can't jump down?"
Inuyasha snorted, but did not deny her irrefutable logic. It would do him no good to get stuck in a tree--like last time.
Last time--the time he thought he'd die of embarrassment, having needed Kagome to coax him out of a big tree while the Shippo and Miroku looked on. They'd had to help him shimmy down the sheer trunk on a rope they'd managed to get to him via Shippo, so he wouldn't break his neck from trying to jump. All because he'd had a fight with Kagome, gone off to sulk, and forgotten what time it was, he reminded himself--so it was all her fault.
Maybe he could really convince himself of that.
Sullenly, Inuyasha rolled off the branch, landing easily, silently on all fours before rising to face her. "What do you want?" he demanded again.
Kagome smiled at him, pleased at his sudden cooperative attitude. "Well, it is your time of the month," she responded brightly, "and we can't do any Shikon shard hunting when you're like this. I don't think you want Sesshomaru or anybody else to catch you tonight, and I'd rather not see you hurt. So...why don't you come spend the night with me?"
"Urk!" Inuyasha's eyes became huge golden searchlights as he stared at her in sudden shock. Spend...the night...with Kagome...? "You--you're not--suggesting--?"
"I've already asked my mother," Kagome continued, politely ignoring his stuttering fit. "We can put down a futon for you in Sota's room. Mama was perfectly agreeable to the idea--and she'd love to see what you look like when you're human."
"You...you..." he growled at her, scandalized. "You told her?"
"Why not? She's my mother, she lives in my time, and it's not like she can do anything to you. It's the creeps here that we have to worry about."
He almost flailed his arms in outrage. "And just who else are you going to think it's safe to tell, huh? Kouga? Sesshomaru? Naraku?"
"Would you quit having such a persecution complex?" Kagome retorted, exhasperated. "I'm not running around looking for ways to get you killed, you know. That's why I'm inviting you to come stay someplace safe."
"What about that old man who talks too much? And what about the kid? Kids have loose lips!"
Kagome put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "They were perfectly serious when I told them it's a secret. Don't insult my family, dog-boy!"
Inuyasha clamped his fangs shut when he realized what he'd said. It was one thing to argue with and insult Kagome herself, but she wouldn't stand for him picking on her family. Not a bit--she'd sit him so hard his face would go flat.
Kagome hoisted her pack. "Well, I'm going home now. You can come or you can stay; it's up to you. I'm not trying to make you."
"Wait, you're not leaving!" He grabbed her arm.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Reflex, Inuyasha? Why would I stay for shards we can't get?"
Flushing a little, he snatched his hand off her arm and grumbled.
Kagome smiled coyly at him. "If you wanted to spend more time with me, you could have just said so."
He spluttered with sudden outrage once again, unable to form a coherent sentence.
"Look, you can come with me tonight, you know. If you miss me that much..."
The hanyou didn't realize how far open his mouth was hanging, nor how red his face was.
"Oh, get a grip!" Kagome suddenly laughed at him. Taking advantage of his stupor, she ruffled his hair, making his ears twitch away from her hand. He jerked away from her, trying to calm the color of his face, as she giggled at him some more. "I'm not trying to seduce you or anything. Jeeze, I know how much you absolutely loathe me. Can't you take a joke?"
Inuyasha clicked his jaw shut, grumbling and grousing, trying not to show how embarrassed he was at how utterly stupefied he had been. "Fine. Fine," he growled, snatching the pack off her shoulder and striding toward the well. "I'll come with you--just this once."
Kagome stared after him, amused, then trotted along behind him. They reached the well, and underwent the customary in-and-out, Kagome riding on Inuyasha's back.
Now it was Inuyasha's turn to follow, and he went after her into the house, feeling almost furtive. He was a guest in Kagome's home, now; she'd brought him here, wanted him here. He hadn't felt like this all those times he'd come to demand Kagome's return; then, he'd just been an intruder--better to get in, grab the girl, and get back out before her family protested.
Now that he was actually invited, he felt like he had to...behave.
"Mama! I'm back, and Inuyasha's with me!"
"Hello, dear!" called Higurashi-san from the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in a moment. Have Sota show Inuyasha where he'll sleep."
"Inu-no-niichan! Cool!" Sota bounded in from the stairway. "I can't believe you're actually gonna spend the night with me! This is so awesome! It'll be like having a real big brother!"
Bemused, Inuyasha dropped the pack near the door and turned questioning eyes to Kagome. And she could only shrug with a helpless smile and mouth, "Humor him."
The inu-hanyou rolled his eyes, but allowed the little boy to grab his clawed hand and lead him upstairs, babbling a mile a minute.
Kagome giggled to herself, watching them go. Poor Inuyasha...
Her mother emerged from the kitchen with a pot of rice. "My, my...for being such a gruff young man, he's certainly very good with Sota," Higurashi-san commented.
"Yeah...he likes to act tough, but he's really very sweet sometimes," Kagome said, almost wistfully. "Don't let him hear you say things like that, though."
Grandfather Higurashi limped in from the shrine, yawning and mumbling about the wonderful smell of home-cooked food and the lovely ladies who waited to serve it to him. Kagome sighed and giggled; it was good to be home.
Sota's babbling voice could be heard in the hallway as the two boys came back downstairs. "...really awesome, and I wish I could have cool ears like yours!"
"No, you don't," Inuyasha growled in reply, still letting himself be led about by the little boy. "How do you think everyone else'd treat you if you had ears like mine?"
Sota didn't miss a beat, grinning widely. "All my friends in class would think I was so neat! I'd be the most popular boy in the whole school!"
Inuyasha plopped down to sit on the floor in his customary position, and Sota took up an Indian-style squat next to him. "Trust me, kid, it's better to stay as you are. I've been treated like sh--shmuck--" He quickly amended himself at a motherly stare from Higurashi-san. "--all my life 'cause I don't fit in. If you fit in, be happy. And don't you ever shut up?"
Sota finally quit talking.
"Ah, the sound of silence!" Kagome giggled. "Really, Sota, it's not like you never see him."
"But he's always in such a hurry whenever he comes!" the little boy protested, sounding remarkably like Shippo in whine-mode. "But this time, he's coming just to play with you, Neechan! Isn't that so cool?"
Inuyasha snorted; Kagome gulped and drew back in surprise. "He's not here to play with me, Sota. He's here to protect himself from youkai in his time that want to kill him when he's human."
"Human? I know you said he was gonna be, but how can you tell?" Sota asked curiously.
Inuyasha sat up. "This," he grumped sullenly, grabbing a lock of his hair and holding it up before Sota's face.
Sota stared in surprise; the lock was dark. Startled, he looked up at Inuyasha--whose formerly pure white hair was becoming streaked with inky black before his very eyes.
"Whoa!" breathed Sota.
"Fascinating!" said Ojiichan.
"Oh, my!" gasped Higurashi-san.
"The sun must be going down right now," Kagome observed softly, glancing at the shadows on the door. She turned to look back at the transforming inu-hanyou and was surprised to see him staring at the floor, his teeth gritted and his fists clenched.
Was it his customary embarrassment and disgust with the change that made him look so uncomfortable or--as she'd never had time to consider before--was the change actually...a bit painful?
The last shadows vanished as the sun slipped completely beneath the horizon--and the transformation was complete. Inuyasha looked up at the gathering and frowned, his violet eyes flashing annoyance and insecurity. "What are you staring at?" he demanded, flushing--his voice smoother, softer, lacking the canine roughness it usually had.
Kagome nudged her mother. "C'mon, Mama, give the guy a break. Let's eat!"
That brought everyone out of their stupor; Kagome's family blinked once, seemed to shrug universally at just another strange thing happening under their roof, and dived for the dinner table. There was a sudden rush of happy voices, clinking plates, and steaming food. Amidst the din, Kagome sat down next to Inuyasha, who was busy fending off Sota's jabbering questions about how he did that and how often it happened.
"Your otouto's a blabbermouth," Inuyasha reminded her in a whisper between bites of food. "He goes on even worse than the jijii."
"Yeah, but you like him anyway, don't you?" Kagome teased, keeping her own rate of eating to a ladylike level.
"Keh!" Watching her, Inuyasha realized he was eating rather messily and attempted to improve his manners--drawing on near-forgotten etiquette his mother had taught him, years ago. He was a guest now, after all. "You're the one that made me stay here."
"I made you--?"
And so it went, throughout the meal; little bickering arguments--though they kept the volume down. Inuyasha refrained from using any nasty threats or foul language in the presence of Kagome's family; Kagome refrained from embarrassing him by sitting him in front of everyone. All in all, a workable truce for the evening.
After dinner, Sota invited Inuyasha to play video games with him, but the former inu-hanyou never quite got the hang of the controller and resigned himself to watching Sota kick monster ass all over the screen. He was privately proud of how he'd handled his frustration over the button-covered little device, not getting angry--or breaking anything, by accident or by design.
Maybe, he admitted to himself, having only human strength was good for when you didn't want to crack something with an irate grip. It sure did wonders for keeping his temper in check, too--lacking the youkai impulses that usually surged in him when he grew furious.
When the hour became late, Higurashi-san and Jiichan went to bed, reminding the kids to behave during their little sleepover. Kagome's mother sternly informed Inuyasha that, as the oldest, he would have to take responsibility for the other children's welfare if they were going to stay up late and play, and that it was his job to look after them while the adults were asleep.
It was startling that the woman would choose to entrust Inuyasha with such a charge. While Kagome was somewhere between mortified and laughing herself to death, Inuyasha only snorted a little at this, and surprised everyone with his gruff reply.
"Don't worry, Higurashi-san, I'll keep 'em safe."
Kagome gazed at him for quite a while after that, something unreadable in her eyes.
When Sota was tired of blowing things up, he and his sister invited Inuyasha to pick out a movie. At first confused, when the concept of "video" was explained to him, he cautiously picked out a medieval action film--on a little of Kagome's suggestion, since she'd mentioned that a more futuristic movie might only confuse him. They all sat together on the couch to watch it, the Higurashi siblings on either side of Inuyasha's red-clad form.
Inuyasha was watching the movie, but couldn't concentrate on it--not with Kagome so close to him, her leg alongside his and her shoulder brushing his own. Was it his imagination, or did she actually lean closer to him when she sniffled during a sad part?
He felt rather cocky, sitting next to her doing what all modern boys of her time did for fun. I'm just as "cool" as any of them! Just let any of those human yarou come try and take Kagome away from me now!
Now where the hell did that come from?
The brief bout of posessiveness confused him; usually such things were at their strongest when his youkai blood was present, and it felt his "territory" was being infringed upon. They were animalistic impulses he usually squelched as useless, pointless; being human might free him from the constant urges of base instinct for one night--but he didn't like to think that similar things might crop up in his human form.
He knew little more about humans than he knew of youkai; did ningen even have instinct? Could human males get as jealously protective as youkai did?
He was somewhat lost in thought despite the continued interest in the movie; thankfully, the show distracted the others from noticing the pensive thoughtfulness on his face. He just managed to snap himself out of it when the movie was finally over--when the siblings next to him yawned and stretched and commented about the show, asking him what he thought.
Then Sota decided to be playful, and laughingly smacked Kagome with a couch pillow.
Inuyasha jumped at him defensively, apalled that he'd struck her; that was an impulse he couldn't control, hanyou or not. He'd been furious enough at himself for biting her, and would allow no other to harm her--not even her little brother.
But he was taken by complete surprise when Kagome snatched up a second pillow and batted him upside the head with it. He stared at her in shock for a handful of seconds, as she giggled and stuck out her tongue at him before taking off after Sota.
Inuyasha stood gaping for a moment--before registering this activity as the one Kagome described as a "pillow fight."
Well, who could stand between the great Inuyasha-sama and a good fight? He grabbed the last remaining pillow and leaped after Kagome. Rueing the innate clumsiness of his human body, he chased the brother-sister pillow team upstairs, then down again, surprised to find himself laughing with them as they swatted at each other with the cushions and tried to muffle their giggles so as not to wake up the adults.
It was like they were just a bunch of kids--ordinary kids without a care in the world.
After dodging Sota a third time, Inuyasha pounced at Kagome. But in the midst of all the fun he had forgotten, and misjudged the leap over the low table; instead of clearing it easily in a single hanyou hop-step, his shins slammed painfully into the hard edge.
He went down with a terrific crash, rolling across the table and to the floor where he tumbled to a stop, suddenly hurting, hissing out a stream of half-muffled profanity--which he immediately regretted issuing, seeing the shocked look on Sota's face. He amended his vocabulary but continued gritting his teeth and clutching his throbbing legs.
"Oh--! Inuyasha, are you alright?" Kagome asked, startled and concerned, kneeling beside him.
He was trying not to curse horribly in front of the little boy, but it was either growl dire imprecations to himself or let slip the heated moisture in the corners of his eyes at the sharp sting in his shins. Pain hurt a hell of a lot more in this form. "...stupid weak goddamn rickety human body..."
"Um, I'm sorry," Sota mumbled miserably, contrite. "I know I'm not s'posed to start pillow fights in the house..."
Kagome smiled gently at her little brother. "Why don't you go to bed now, Sota? I think we've had enough fun for one evening. We'll see you in the morning."
"But..."
"I promise I won't let Inuyasha leave until he says goodbye to you," Kagome consoled, patting his shoulder.
"Okay...g'night..." Only marginally reassured, the boy got up and headed morosely for his room.
They remained in silence for several minutes, Inuyasha grumbling to himself and trying to rub away the sting of what was sure to be a fair-sized set of bruises on his legs for the rest of the evening--to say nothing of his back and shoulder, where he'd hit the tabletop and the floor.
"Are you okay?" Kagome asked softly, after a few moments of watching him.
"I hate this stupid body!" he exploded angrily, hissing it out to keep from yelling. "If I were still hanyou this wouldn't have happened!"
"If you were still hanyou, we wouldn't have had this nice evening," she retorted, sympathetic but firm. "Even you can't deny you enjoyed it."
He stood with a huff, favoring his bruised legs. "Fine. It was kinda fun," he admitted reluctantly. "But that doesn't mean I enjoy being stuck like this."
Kagome stood with him, pinning him with her strong sapphire gaze. "I've been wanting to ask you...why do you hate being human so much?"
"Because it makes me weak!" he growled--much less impressive without his doglike attributes and canine roughness. "It's not fair! I hate it because I'm stuck in a powerless, deaf, half-blind, thin-skinned body with no sense of smell--that any yarou can kill easily. And bastards like Sesshomaru go through their whole lives without anything as bad as this!"
"And what is so bad about being human?" Kagome asked again, somewhat perturbed that he looked down on ningen weaknesses so. "I'm human, and it doesn't inconvenience me."
"You're used to it. You live this way. I can't stand it! I can't hear you--I can't even smell you the way I need to and it makes me feel blind--" He broke off, stumbling over his words, trying to say it the right way--but it was hard to explain his dependence on the senses that told him about the world around him in a way that she, being only human all the time, might understand. "Everything's shut off to me--all dark and quiet and empty! This stupid change--it makes me weak, pathetic, and useless! I can't do anything, and it's easy to get killed--!"
"You are not useless! You've saved--" Kagome asserted, breaking in without an instant's hesitation. Then she paused, thinking for a moment--studying him, before deciding to try another tactic. "You love your mother, don't you?"
"Of course I did! But what does she have to do with anything? She's dead--" His voice broke on the last word.
"Don't be like that. You still love her even now, don't you?" Kagome demanded, her face scrunched up with sadness and anger. "Then why do you hate her memory so much?"
"What--?"
She grabbed him by the hand--startling him--and dragged him after her down the hall, into the bathroom. Surprised at her words and actions, and without his youkai strength, he didn't quite have it all together enough to stop her.
When they stopped, she shoved him up to the mirror and practically shouted at him. "Look! Look in this mirror and think! Look at what your mother gave you!"
Struck by her words, he stared at her--and for a flicker of a moment, just in the corner of his eye, the person in the mirror was his mother. He turned abruptly, caught, and saw himself--for the first time completely and clearly--as a human. He could only stare.
"Back then, when we met Mu'onna the Nothing-Woman, I saw the image of your mother," Kagome told him softly, watching his reactions. "And I've never forgotten. All the other times you've been human, something terrible happened and I never had a chance to tell you...when you're like this, you really look...a lot like her."
His gaze turned to her in suprise, but she nudged him to turn him back to the mirror.
"Look," she whispered.
For the first time, Inuyasha realized that his rarely-seen human appearance was truly a gift, in memory of his beloved, long-dead, greatly-missed mother. He could see her in the face in the mirror--her long, glossy, night-black hair that had been so soft when he touched it as a child; her large, soft, deep violet eyes that had gazed at him with such love...the familiar lines of nose and jaw that made up a face that haunted his sweetest dreams of childhood...
"I've never...seen myself like this," he admitted, his voice rough. "Not really. I-I never knew..."
There were elements of masculinity and differences in dimension and expression that distinguished Inuyasha's face from that of his mother, but the resemblance was striking and unmistakable to those who knew what both looked like. It had always been there--but with his youkai features in place, it was so much harder to see. Tonight, with his father's inheritance vanished from him, he was presented quite plainly with his mother's.
My human heart...all from her...
"See? This is the gift she gave you," Kagome continued, quiet and solemn but filled with a faint promise of happiness. "She gave you so much, having you and raising you--but because of your father she couldn't give you any of herself, except for one night. She lives in you, Inuyasha, and she has this one night to remind you how much she loves you--only the night of the new moon, when she can come to ask you never to forget her."
"How could I forget her?" Inuyasha retorted earnestly, barely able to keep up his customary facade. It was hard; without his youkai half in place he simply could not be as gruff, and now his mind was too filled with wonder.
Once a month, on the night of the new moon, he could look into the mirror and see her face shining out of his own. With such a breathtaking, newly-discovered opportunity, maybe turning human once a month wasn't so bad. After all, it was the gift his mother had given him--and he missed her so much, even now; maybe he could appreciate the opportunity to see her shadow in his own face once in a while...
Kagome still held his hand, her warm fingers curled about his own--but right now, somehow, he didn't mind at all.
Finally, Inuyasha couldn't suppress a yawn; his human body signaled him with a need for sleep that he could not so easily ignore. He let Kagome continue to hold his hand as she led him upstairs; he was grateful to her for bringing him this thoughtful revelation, and with his dulled human senses, her touch comforted him when her scent could not.
He stopped at her bedroom and opened the door for her, feeling oddly relaxed in her presence. Maybe it was his tiredness; maybe it was the emotional moment he had experienced, thanks to her. Maybe it was because with his youkai blood gone, he no longer felt the inexhorable instincts of predator and prey, hunter and hunted--and here in Kagome's house, he was safe; he was not looking for eyes watching him, enemies stalking him, or claws and teeth coming in his direction. He didn't feel alert, on-edge; all he was paying attention to was her.
Kagome squeezed his hand and released him, smiling gently. There was a calmness in his violet eyes that she'd never seen in his human form before; perhaps being here in her home, away from his own tumultous era, had given him a little peace for the night. Perhaps her little suggestion had given him some relief for the new moon--something else for him to think about, rather than the terror of being hunted.
He looked so serene; she fought the urge to touch him again, perhaps to hug him. "Good night, Inuyasha. Sweet dreams."
He stared at her for such a long moment that her heart began to beat faster. Was he going to--? No; it was Inuyasha she was looking at. He loathed physical contact--especially with her. She was still amazed he'd let her hold his hand so long.
Her heart fluttered and her knees went shaky when he actually touched her cheek--tracing her face from temple to jaw with the lightest fingertips, contact that he had never dared when his hands posessed deadly sharp claws.
"Good night, Kagome. And...thank you." His whispered words were quiet, and his smooth human voice was so soft, so husky, so impossibly gentle...
She managed a breathless, blushing smile--and he gave her a small, rakish grin, just enough to remind her that he was still Inuyasha, fangs or no fangs. As he turned and headed for Sota's room, she shut her door, leaning against it with a sigh as she stared dreamily into nothing, remembering the softness of his touch...
Then she snapped out of it--remembering that he was Inuyasha--and began to get dressed for bed.
In Sota's room, Inuyasha could tell by his soft breathing that the little boy was still awake. "G'night, kid," he whispered, slipping out of his haori and pulling back the covers of the futon laid out for him.
"I'm sorry I started a pillow fight and you got hurt," Sota blurted quietly, still facing the wall.
Inuyasha had to muffle his laughter. "Hurt? That was nothing, kid. Hell--heck, I've been poisoned, slashed, crushed, swallowed, stabbed, dropped off cliffs, and almost anything else you can think of, all while I'm human. And I'm still here after all that, aren't I? Just banging my shins on some table isn't gonna kill me."
"I'm still sorry."
"Feh..." Inuyasha pulled up the covers and laid back, thinking; the kid still felt bad about causing the minor fracas that resulted in his bruises. Fair enough, but it was really just an accident--how could he blame a little boy for his own clumsiness during a moment of fun? "It's nothing, Sota. Look...how about next time I spend the night, I'll let you teach me all about that Nin-ten-do machine-thing. Then you and I can play together, and I'll kick your a--uh, tail on that combat game." And what made me think there's gonna be a next time?
Sota rolled over to face him. "Promise?"
"I just said I would, didn't I?"
"Yeah, but...you really, really promise?"
"I promise, kid," Inuyasha sighed, exhasperated but amused. I guess I just decided there is gonna be a next time. I'll have to make sure of it.
"All right! You're really gonna play with me next time? Wow, it'll be so cool! I can't wait--!"
"Hush, brat--there's people trying to sleep, y'know," Inuyasha grumbled gruffly--slightly embarrassed at his moment of soft-heartedness--but his expression remained good-natured in the dark as he closed his eyes.
Sota quit jabbering, but still wriggled with excitement, smiling endearingly at Inuyasha. "Thank you, Inu-no-niichan!" he whispered eagerly. "You're the bestest big brother I could ever have!"
Inuyasha's eyes popped open, but Sota was already rolling over to try and sleep. The former hanyou gazed at the little boy's back for a time, his features settling into an appreciative smile as he made himself comfortable for the night.
He had to admit that this had been a most enjoyable evening. No hungry youkai chasing him, no shards to worry about, no evil bastard Naraku lurking around, no annoying half-brother--just a warm, friendly family, a delicious meal, and time spent with Kagome.
And he owed it all to his human transformation. The time he'd spent having simple fun with Kagome and her family was all the result of her concern for his welfare during his weaker human phase. The fact that Kagome cared that much about him made him feel...warm inside, appreciated--liked, even wanted. A family of people who--aside from the old jijii's occasional spats of eccentricity--invited him in, fed him, and cared about him just the way he was, youkai or ningen.
And Kagome was happy beside him tonight--as if that whole frightening, confusing, terrible mess in the tunnel trap had never happened. As if she was not afraid of him, or angry with him.
Maybe since Kagome's left it behind...I can, too. Maybe she's...forgiven me; I didn't mean to do that--didn't want to hurt her. Maybe...things can be normal again...
It would be back to the ususal danger and shard-hunting tomorrow, so he might as well enjoy a warm house and a soft bed while he had it.
It's been...so long since I felt so safe...feels like home...
He smiled as he nodded off, sending a thought of deep gratitude heavenward--thanking Ofukuro for her precious gift, which she had given of herself. It was her gift--her blood--that had given him his human heart, and with it, the ability to feel, to love, and to appreciate this one special night.