Day 2

At about one in the morning, with about a dozen or so people crammed into Kyle and Stephanie's room, the party was in full swing. Anime playing on the TV, six or seven boxes of pizza going around to everyone, about a dozen or so gallon bottles of soda sitting on the tables, and one Vash the Stampede getting blitzed off of a two-liter of Barg's. Mostly according to plan, especially having made the big announcement of their status as official cosplay group for InuYasha. Then Paul Dobson had dropped by for a few minutes on his way to a party being thrown by one of the con staff to remind Chris that he was due to show up at said other party before it ended. When he heard the news, he gave the five his congratulations and wished them the best of luck.

Daniel spent a good half an hour in the shower trying to wash off the scent he was giving off. He felt cleaner afterwards, that was for sure, and all the soap and shampoo he'd laid on had certainly done much to cover the smell, but there was still enough that he could barely detect it. It was the best he could do though, and it was be over soon enough. At worst, they could expect some people to be a bit more amorous than normal. They'd blame the sugar highs, end of story.

"Hey, hands off my monk's ass, Feena!"

Sounded like some people were getting frisky out there. Having opted to just wear his shorts, Daniel sighed and folded up the costume. He did not need Lily coming in to help him get it back on only to get hit by his scent. That risked her trying something, and him losing the fight with his libido. Besides, he didn't want to get any food on the kimono. With that, Daniel opened the bathroom door and stepped back into the party in time for a couple of squeals in reaction to his bare top. Very much expected.

"One would think you have a better reign on who puts whose hand on whose ass," he remarked as he walked over and grabbed a slice of pepperoni and shitaki from one of the pizza boxes. Now arming himself with a glass of soda, and he was ready to start chowing down. God, he was hungry. "Hey, where'd Kitsu and Kotsu go?"

"Kit-kun was getting really tired," the remaining kitsune boy replied from over by the TV. "We sent him off to our room, and Onisan went off with some girl dressed like Cutey Honey." He gobbled down his slice of pizza with a sour look on his face. "Wish I got girls like that."

This did not bode well for the kistune lord's oldest son if what his brother insinuated was right. He would be the one dealing with the consequences later though. "Give it time," Daniel remarked as he took a big bite of his slice. There was Lily, now just about nuzzling against him. "Easy," he whispered to her. "I know you're in a really good mood, but-"

"Can't I just snuggle?" she replied while giving him those misty eyes and entrancing smile. As any girl automatically learned by the time she hit puberty, guys were utterly helpless the instant that look hit them.

Okay, this self-control thing was getting really hard now, but he was going to be so dead if he didn't keep it up. Not only would his own parents kill him, but so would Lily's, and Sesshoumaru would undoubtedly be not far behind to finish up the leftovers. Speaking of leftovers, he sucked down the rest of his current slice of pizza and washed it down before making a grab for some more. Distract himself with the need for food, best idea right now. "Awright," he muttered while taking another large bite. "But nothing past that." Swallow, drink soda, munch down pizza. Hm, he had a craving for sushi right now. He'd have to settle for his shitaki mushrooms. Since he'd slurped down his second slice, the whole pepperoni and shitaki box was now in his hand, with his third slice on its way down his throat after he and Lily planted themselves in front of the TV.

"Hey, Chris!" Kyle called to the blonde. "Shouldn't you be heading off to that other party!"

There were groans as the voice actor got up from his corner, root beer in hand, and apologized for having to depart. He did have somewhere to be though, and so, as he went out the door, Chris put out his hand and gave Vash's trademark quote before finally leaving. And five minutes later, things went back to normal.

"I wonder what our first convention we perform at is going to be," Stephanie quipped as she grabbed a slice of extra cheese from the open box. "Not here, we haven't even gotten the paperwork and stuff done yet."

A shrug while Kyle finished off his soda. "Not really sure. There's not much time for any convention in the next few months, but we will probably get NDK. Bandai tends to make that a big one for promotions."

"We might get another con at the same time though," Stephanie replied to remind him of the conflicting schedules. "Unless we're con hopping the whole weekend, in which case, we're not gonn'a have much time for anything."

Grabbing himself some more pizza, Kyle shook his head. "Doubtful," he stated confidently. "The best time to have performances and stuff is during costume and cosplay contests, and those are always Saturday night. We'll being doing one con if there's a conflict in schedule, and I'm gonn'a see if we can make sure we're at NDK that weekend." He paused for a moment, refilled his cup, then munched down on his pizza. "But we'll most likely be starting off with public appearances and photo shoots before we do serious convention hopping." Now he grinned while looking towards the resident hanyou and his girlfriend. "That means you two had best get really cracking on your Japanese!"

"We're working on it!" Lily retorted before resuming her position of snuggling against Daniel.

Shrug. "I foresee myself being our main translator," he remarked as he finished his slice. "It probably won't be too bad, but you guys really need to do as much study as you can to learn the language."

There was a grin from Stephanie, and she took her chance to slap him on the rear. "I've got you for that, houshi-sama," she quipped while proceeding to bat him on the nose. "It's the pup and Lil that need to study." A pause as she thought about something that was along that subject. "Oh god, we're gonn'a be leaving school too for this."

"Taishou-sama is hiring teachers for us," Kyle muttered sourly. "Good thing is, that includes someone for teaching you three Japanese. Bad thing is that we're gonn'a probably be studying three times as hard on everything." A grunt as he imagined what it was going to be like. "We might as well be enrolling at a Japanese high school. There's a thought for you." He grinned now. "Those two going to high school in Japan, complete with uniforms."

The mental image was already planted in her head, and Stephanie was cracking up at the thought. Granted, she and Kyle would be joining them in that scenario, but it was just too funny. Just for the hell of it, she threw in Kaitsu and found the image of a teenage kitsune in a Japanese school uniform just too hilarious for words. "Oh my god, yes!"

That got some attention. "Fhat the hell are you laughing about!" Daniel snapped with a good amount of pizza in his mouth. Okay, hanging out with them had definitely brought down the level of his eating manners, not to mention he'd started to gain something of an attitude. "Mind sharing it with the rest of us?"

Her hand was waving at him, indicating that he really didn't want to know. "You'd kill me if I told you!" she replied just before grabbing some more pizza. "It's just too funny!"

With the pizza crust in his mouth, Daniel just growled and returned his attention to watching anime. That growl was turned into a purr as Lily picked up his pizza box, set it on a nearby table, and curled up into his lap. Ah, the wonders of attention from a pretty girl that could tame any raging beast.

It was another hour or so before Daniel was getting sleepy and decided to head to bed, just so he didn't pass out later on. Lily was already nodding off, with her head on his shoulder, and so, they both went to their room to crash for a few hours. Daniel took about a minute to set his costume on the desk, then crawled under the covers and breathed a sigh of relief. The light of the bathroom clicked off as Lily walked out. Good, he was probably going to be out cold in a few minutes.

Wait, why were the covers moving? She wasn't... "Lily?"

"Hm?"

Yep, she'd just crawled into bed with him. Not good. "Uh, Lily?" he continued, voice choking. "You have your own bed."

"I don't feel like sleeping by myself," came her soft reply as her arm came over to lay across his chest. Oh great, she wasn't wearing anything but her bra and underwear. This was not going to do his libido any good. "Don't worry, I won't grope you. Too tired."

That didn't help. Especially when she started snuggling against him. And that was when Daniel prayed that her hand stayed right where it was and didn't go any lower. He needed sleep, not to pass out from lack of blood to his brain. "Good night," he whispered, kissing her lips and closing his eyes in the hope that he wouldn't wake up to a surprise.


"I can't believe they actually did it! I didn't think either of them had it in them!"

"Steph, don't jump to conclusions. I can see her bra strap on her."

Who the hell was talking and why were they...wait a minute.

"Gah!" he exclaimed as his eyes snapped open and he shot up. Yep, there were Stephanie and Kyle, in costume and looking at him and Lily in the bed. Wait, what was Lily...that's right, she slipped into the bed with him last night. Quick check...yes, his shorts were still on, and her hand was nowhere near being inside them. Good, nothing happened. Hey, that smell was gone. Looked like they'd been right about it. "You have so little faith in us," he hissed to Stephanie while he gently nudged Lily. "Lil, time to get up."

"Hm?" She blearily opened her eyes, then smiled at him. "Hey, sleep well?"

"We've got company."

She blinked in confusion, then suddenly pulled the sheets tightly over her and sat up. "Kyle!" the girl gasped as she saw the boy. "Stephanie, what are you guys doing in here!"

"Ha, I knew it!" the older girl exclaimed while slapping her own boyfriend on the rear. "How was it! Tell me, tell me!"

Where had they gotten that idea? Lily growled and indicated for Kyle to leave the room. "Nothing happened! I swear, I don't know which of you is worse at times!" Another glare so that Kyle got the hint, and as he shut the door behind him, she finally got out of bed, still dressed in her underwear. "If you don't mind, we've gott'a get ready. Hand me my costume, would you?"

"You're not kicking him out?" Stephanie asked as she gestured to Daniel before picking up the shirt and skirt. "I thought you said 'nothing happened'."

Again, Lily growled, walking toward the backroom and changing her underclothes before getting her costume on. "He's my boyfriend," she replied as she walked out and started pulling her socks and shoes on. "And nothing happened, Stephanie, I just decided that I was lonely."

The older girl wasn't convinced, and so, she took the chance to pull the sheets off Daniel before he could react. That proved embarrassing. "Pitched a tent already!" she cackled while he quickly grabbed the sheets back and pulled them over his body. "What a waste, Lily! He was obviously in the mood!"

"Would you get out already!"

Now dodging the flying shoe, Stephanie raced back into her room, where she was no doubt telling Kyle all about it. "Gah, I can't believe her," Lily hissed as she picked up her shoe and sat back down on the bed. "I really don't know who's more of a pervert, Kyle or her." She sighed, then turned to Daniel and saw that he was beet red. "What?" she asked. "What's so embarrassing?" Oh, that. "Daniel, it's not like you've never had that before, especially around me. Now stop acting like a little kid and get out of bed so we can get your costume on."

Well, it's not like she hadn't seen that reaction from him before. Still, it was embarrassing, how Stephanie had purposely pulled the covers off in search of that. Might as well get up and ready. "Sorry," he muttered while walking over and getting the costume. Lily now helping him get it on, Daniel looked out at the window. He really should tell her the truth about what caused those problems last night, but Sesshoumaru had ordered him not to let anyone know. She was his girlfriend though, she deserved to know.

"Lil," he started as she finished tying his pants and pulling out the rosary. "There's something you need to know." Oh great, now she had a curious gleam in her eyes. "Um, about last night..."

Shrug. "It's not your fault, I just was...being weird. Too much hanging around Kyle an Stephanie, I guess."

No, he had to tell her. "Lily," Daniel intoned while pulling her up to meet his eyes. "it was because of me." Now he was blushing profusely. "I asked Shippo about it, and he says that it's some kind of 'heat' I was going through...that's what was making everyone so...well..."

"Horny?" she supplied just before batting him on the nose playfully. "That does explain the really good smell coming from you." Now it was Lily's turn to blush. "And...other things." She glanced at him and noticed the guilty expression on his face. "Hey, don't be blaming yourself, it's not your fault that nature decided to build a 'time to get laid' alarm into you. All that happened was that those two vanished for about forty-five minutes, which they would have done anyway, and I...well..." Blush. "Okay, in regards to what I almost did, that was your fault."

Wait, she was blaming him for what she'd been trying to do! He was the one that stopped her! "Hey, if not for me catching you, your hand would have been down my pants!"

The glare of death. Uh-oh. First rule of laying blame in a relationship; it is always the guy's fault, regardless of whose fault it really is. This had been a rule since courting rituals and relationships first began, long before the advent of written history. And apparently, Lily was quite well planning to enforce that law of dating. "Daniel," she said calmly as she stepped away from him. What was she going to...oh no. "Osuwari."

Beads shine. Face, meet floor. Wham!

"Ow!" He growled as he pried himself off the floor five seconds later and leapt to his feet. "God damnit, you promised you wouldn't do that again!"

"You shouldn't be trying to say it's all my fault!"

Blink. "I didn't say it was all your fault!" he retorted angrily. "You're the one who said it wasn't, then blamed me for something that you were doing!"

There was that glare again. ear god, why were girls so hard to reason with? He could understand his mother better than a girl his own age. "It was your body making that damn smell which got me to do that!" she hissed while grabbing the rosary and pulling on it. "Ergo, Daniel, yes, it was your fault!"

And the door swung open to dump Kyle and Stephanie onto the ground. Had they been listening in the whole time! Not only were they sex-crazed, but they stuck their noses into other people's business as well! "Their first lovers' quarrel!" Kyle said with a grin on his face. Being that Stephanie was on top of him, one would think he was quite used to being in that position. "That is so cute. Oh, don't mind us!"

"And you!" Lily pulled her left shoe off after letting go of the rosary and flung it at the two older teenagers. "If anyone is more to blame than him being in heat, it's you two for being such a bad example!" Thunk! Finally, she'd hit one of them! "Out, now!"

With Kyle rubbing his head and Stephanie sticking her tongue out while they shut the door behind them, Lily grabbed her shoe from the floor and slipped it back on before turning to see that Daniel was sulking on the bed. She'd really hurt his feelings this time, hadn't she? God, she could forget how sensitive he was about this stuff. "Daniel, I'm sorry," she said while walking over to join him. "It's just...call it a knee-jerk reaction. I'm just as scared as you are, but I know that you didn't mean for it to happen, it's just the way you are."

"I'm a freak," he hissed, angry with himself more than anything else. "Mutant or hanyou, I'm still a freak of nature." His eyes started to water over as he buried his face into a pillow, leaving Lily unsure as to what she should do. "I don't deserve friends like you...and you deserve better than me!"

Her hand gently pulled him back up, then took hold of his face and turned him to face her. "Danny," the girl said while wiping the tears from his cheeks. "Don't say that. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, and I can't imagine myself going out with anyone else." There was that giggle again, the one he just could not help but melt at hearing. "And I can't think of anyone else I want to be with."

And as their lips met, Daniel's self-loathing and anger melted away. Why he was such a sucker for this girl, he didn't know, but there seemed to be no point in trying to resist the effect she had on him. Now if only she hadn't started using that damn rosary again. Okay, so he could deal with the pain, but still, it was so embarrassing. Bed, meet back of head. Hanyou turn into goo.

Wait...was someone taking pictures of them! "Kyle!" he roared as he broke off the kiss and saw the older teens holding a camera and snapping photos. "You two are so dead when I get my hands on you!"

"Hey, you were on a roll, lover boy!" Stephanie replied as she and Kyle ducked back into their room and shut the door. Daniel, as a result, was left to resort to pounding while they were laughing and taking a look on the digicam's preview mode. "Holy geeze! Lily, just how good a kisser is he!"

More pounding as Daniel was acting a little too much like a jealous InuYasha. Maybe there was hope for him after all. Then again, she didn't want him becoming too much like his character. Best to keep it limited. "They're not gonn'a stop so long as you react to it," she quipped and walked over to pull him away from the door by a sidelock. "Let's go, we have a convention to get down to."

Hm...make threats to sexpots, or go enjoy the weekend with girlfriend. That one was easy. Picking up Tetsusaiga and handing Lily her bow and arrows, Daniel opened the door to find Kitsu standing there waiting for them. "What brings you here?"

"We're a team, ain't we?" the little kistune boy quipped just before jumping up onto Daniel's shoulder. "So, what are those two laughing so hard about?"

Daniel' face go red, Lily's face go even redder. "Nothing!" they said in unison before making sure they had the room key and heading into the hall. Lily took a moment to pound on the hallway door to Kyle and Stephanie's room. "You two better be out soon, we have a cosplay to sign up for!" More laughs. Those two were no doubt discussing the younger members of the group and their relationship. Knowing Stephanie, there was probably a lot of speculation and assumptions being made that were just plain not true. "Fine," she grumbled, now leading the way to the elevator. "If they aren't there when we sign up, they can join from the audience. We only need an InuYasha, a Kagome, and a Shippo for a decent skit anyway."

"Whoa, harsh," Kitsu intoned while holding on by Daniel's hair. "Remind me never to tick your girlfriend off, Danny."

Like he was going to argue. "No kidding," the boy mumbled while they got into the elevator and headed down to the main floor. "Not like they don't deserve it, though."

And she didn't even have to give him the 'speak in my favor, or you get no love from me tonight' look. "Good boy," Lily quipped while both kistune and hanyou looked to her in confusion. It was so nice to be the cute schoolgirl of the group.


Fortunately for the older two teenagers, they decided to join the rest of their group while Daniel and Lily were still standing in line. Kistu returned a few minutes after with a few bags of snacks for while they waited for the sign up to start.

"So, what do we have?" Daniel finally asked while they sat against the wall. "We still can just enter the costume contest, because I don't think we're gonn'a crank something out before tonight." Plus, any skit for an InuYasha group was just about required to have an osuwari from the Kagome...

That worry wasn't missed by Kyle. "Skit or not, Lil is still givin' you the sit." Oh good, Daniel was flexing his claws now. Well, that was one way to get him into character. "We get fifteen words for a speech on the costume contest, and she only needs one."

"But, but..."

Pull face around, kiss. Hanyou learns to shut his mouth. "I'll make it up to you later," she whispered into his ear. Considering he'd just gotten out of heat, Daniel wasn't so sure that was a good thing. He wasn't still giving off traces of that scent, was he? No, a good sniff tossed that theory out the window. That meant that this was completely Lily talking. Mental note; don't let her go too far.

"We should just enter the costume contest," Kistu quipped as he finally piped up and put in his two cents. "Kyle can...well, just be himself." That got a couple groans from the younger teens, while Kyle just gave Stephanie a devious glance. "Daniel do something that InuYasha would do, like get ready to pound on Kyle, and then..."

"I give the word!" Lily squealed. Judging from how much she was bouncing at that idea, Daniel got the idea she was really stating to enjoy having that damn rosary on his neck too much. "And all Kistu has to do is act like his dad's namesake and be cute!"

Yeah, simple that. At least it wouldn't get drawn out, not to mention he would onlt get the osuwari once instead of possibly multiple times. Oh, good. The line was starting to pile into the room for sign-up. Everyone was cramming in as best they could, and now waiting for the staff to go through all the rules and stuff. Most of it was pretty normal rules from what Daniel had read on the web site; no random street clothes for a 'costume', had to be street legal, fifteen word speech limit for the costume contest, while skits were five minutes.

"Rei, report to Central Dogma immediately."

"And bring a plunger!"

Almost on cue, Chris and Tristan had popped their heads in and started shooting off random joke lines before racing away again. As Kyle then let Daniel know, those two were infamous for how much they'd just hang out in a con and goof off. No wonder Chris was trying so hard to make it to US conventions.

About twenty minutes later, they were signed up for the standard costume contest and had their group number. It was when they were heading out that Kyle was flagged down by a Zelgadis cosplayer. "Hey, it's the Lecherous Priest of Buddha!"

"That's Monk, rock boy!" Kyle gave a laugh as he turned around and high fived the Zelgadis before looking back to see how confused Daniel was. "Oh, you two haven't met! Daniel, this is Eric Sandberg, one of the guys from NDK last year."

Ah, the name he knew. "You wrote Journeys, right?"

A painted blue brow went up while Eric glanced to Kyle and smiled. "You pimped out my manga, did you?"

"Actually, he found issue one in the dealers room for me," Kyle replied as they all headed down the halls in search of things to do. Best bet was to try and find Chris and Tristan. Those two were no doubt causing a riot somewhere. "How are things with you goin'? Still hooked up with your Amelia?"

Judging from that expression on Eric's face, probably not. "We broke things off for now, decided to not risk destroying a friendship with the long distance complications." He shrugged and smiled then. "I got it better than Chris, didn't I?"

And thus Kyle was giving a slashing motion for Eric not to ever bring that up. "As much as he's been enjoying the fangirl attention, he's still not over that. I'd recommend you not bring her up around him while he's here."

With an understanding nod, Eric now noticed the inevitable that was Daniel's ears. "Whoa! Do that again!" he exclaimed after seeing them twitch. "How'd you do that!"

"They're real," he said. It was getting easier to tell people that with how much the anime fans went nuts over him being a real life InuYasha, in the physical department at least. "Speaking of Chris, he went down this way with Tristan, you see them?"

He shook his head. "I came down from back that way," Eric said while indicating the way they'd been coming from. "That bastard told me we'd be able to hang out this weekend, but I haven't seen much of him other than opening ceremonies, the VA panel, and the dance last night."

"He showed the first episode of Zelda no Densetsu yesterday afternoon after he left the VA panel," Kyle stated while the group proceeded to hunt for any sign of the two voice actors. "You didn't go to see that?"

"Couldn't, I had to run Liz out to get something to eat when that was going on."

No luck so far in the hunt, so Kyle and Stephanie just killed the time by chatting with Eric and telling him about their new venture. He was impressed to say the least, and told them that they had best let him know which cons they were going to be at in the future.

About ten minutes later, they found Chris in the dealers room, picking up a few things, like a resin statue of Vampire Hunter D and the Dark Vash statue. Eric was quick to cry out at him, informing Chris that he was a 'dirty whore' for not sending an email to let him and his sister know that the infamous elf-eared root beer lush was going to be at the con.

And as that was going on, Daniel was making sure to keep an eye on the clock so that they made it to the contest on time. It wouldn't help if they were late and got shafted out of going onstage.