A/N: OMG! I'm soooo sorry! I won't even blabber, I swear!
WARNING: UN-BETA'D - so if you see any mistakes please point them out!
I do the replying thing but I don't think you all want to be delayed. Thanks to all who reviewed!
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Cursed Gift
Chapter Two: Human
Kouga blinked as he looked around the stream. The mist that had gathered around the stream due to the waterfall enveloped him making warm drops of dew form on his skin and clothes. All in all, the moist and humid atmosphere was making him feel heavier than normal and all he wanted to do was lie down and rest.
Just as the ookami was about to sit on the slippery water covered rocks he heard a sound emit from behind the waterfall. Tired yet curious he walked over the ground making awkward rubbery sounds in contrast to the waterfalls sound of gushing water.
Peering behind the running water using a small gap between the wall of rock and the rushing water, Kouga made a noise of shock and stumbled backwards. Not again! Kouga yelled in his head from his place on the damp grass, thoroughly wetting his hip-wrap.
There behind the waterfall was his father and the deceased Lord of the Western Lands; naked as the day they were born.
Kouga covered his face with his clammy hands effectively cooling his flaming face. Of all the things he didn't want to see, his naked father with another naked man was definitely somewhere by the top of the list. Sitting there waiting for the dream to end the raven-haired demon tried to drown out the sounds his father and his friend were making by listening only to the sound of rushing water and his own ragged breathing.
It wasn't until he heard a sob did Kouga get up and walk back over to the waterfall. Looking through once again and was faced with another shock. Instead of his father and the lord the image had been replaced with the current lord and himself. And he was crying.
And Sesshoumaru was comforting him.
Sesshoumaru was comforting him.
Before he do much more than stare the image flickered again and was replaced with Genrou and Inutaishou's once again. And it went back and forth after that. Genrou's expression of guilt turning into Kouga's expression melancholy and vice versa, while Inutaishou and Sesshoumaru's remained the same; caring.
Getting dizzy Kouga fell back to the ground unsure of what to do. Sitting for a while the youkai felt a rough and dry hand land on his smooth and wet shoulder. Looking up, he found himself staring at the handsome face of his father. His dead father.
Kouga could feel his eyes misting like everything else in the dream. "Dad!" the boy exclaimed and jumped up hug his father.
Genrou grinned and returned the hug, stroking his son's hair. "Kouga, it's been a while, eh?"
Kouga pulled back and nodded before looking at his father curiously. "Dad… what?" He looked back that cave behind the waterfall.
Genrou's face saddened and Kouga could how stressed and worried his father really was. "So you know."
Kouga figured he should be angry with his father for cheating on his mother with a man but I how could he be mad at his dead father? Instead, he settled for feeling disappointed. "Why did you cheat on mom? Didn't you love her?" Kouga asked gently not wanting his father to leave.
Genrou sighed and pulled away, "I should have known you were going to ask that."
Kouga stared at his father; really stared at him. Looking at the lines of his face, the way his nose, mouth and eyes were shaped. How his fiery hair fell over his shoulder because he, unlike Kouga, did not keep it in a ponytail. He took in the way no matter how he looked at you his eyes always stared at you from under thick black lashes. Kouga shifted uncomfortably, he supposed his father was an attractive man but it was never something he really thought about. He always knew his father was good looking but that was always a fact not an opinion. Kouga never be attracted to his father (Kouga shivered at the thought.) but thought his father was attractive.
Kouga shook his head. This was far too complicated. Kouga always prided himself in having a very eye-catching father but never thought anymore of it. He also thought Sesshoumaru and his father were attractive but he was sure he wasn't attracted to them. Kouga furrowed his brows he was going off-track now. Frowning went back to the situation at hand and noticed his father was looking at him oddly.
"Dad?" Kouga asked hesitantly.
Genrou managed a weak smile. "Kouga, I… I'd never intentionally hurt your mother. Never doubt that."
The younger wolf stared. "But then why… this?" The raven-haired demon on gestured to the cave with an exaggerated sweep of his arms.
"I don't know…" the deceased youkai said shaking is head in confusion. "It just sort of happened."
"Dad…" Kouga looked at his father sceptically. "These type of things never 'just sort of happen'."
"I want to you to know that though I would never hurt Akina… when she was pregnant we hadn't mated." The amber-eyed man spoke softly his head lowered in shame.
Theboy stared at his father. "What do you mean? Are you saying that I was an accident!"
Genrou looked up quickly. "No! Never! You were the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to us! And your brother would have been too…"
Kouga sighed. "Okay, but you still have to explain what it was that you were doing with Lord Inutaishou!"
His father looked at him slyly. "My, Kouga, I never thought I'd have this talk with you… again."
The ookami's blushed a bright red. "DAD! You know that's not what I mean!"
The fiery-haired youkai giggled and stuck out his tongue playfully. "I know, I know. I'm just trying to lighten the mood!" His expression became serious. "Me and Inutaishou… that is a complicated matter, you see when I had been declared the leader of the pack along side your mother I tried very hard to fall in love with her. And I got very close too!
"But when I met Inutaishou… well he was much more forward than any woman. I suppose it gave me a trill of excitement. A sort of rush at being dominated. It was like fighting but so much more pleasurable. Anyway, I thought it was a one time thing and tried to forget about it, though it was so difficult to look your mother in the eye. Either way, apparently Inutaishou wanted more and, well, I wasn't about to stop him. It continued and Gods!" Genrou paused to look at Kouga imploringly. "She knew! Dear Lady, you mother knew! And yet…
…she still loved me." Genrou looked down at the end of this statement.
Kouga shook his head. "Aw, dad-"
"Will just wake up already?"
Kouga blinked as suddenly everything went black. And it was then that he realized that he was awake and laying in bed. There was also a figure that was shaking his neck, squishing his jugular vein in the process.
"Quit it!" he moaned his voice raspy with sleep.
"Not until you get up!" With another powerful shove Kouga found himself staring dazedly at the ceiling. Sitting up from the cool marble floor,he winced at the minor headache he received from getting up too fast. Noticing a pair of feet in front of him the youkai looked up and blinked owlishly at the handsome face that was glaring down at him.
He's a human. Kouga thought dazedly before talking. "Who are you?" the raven-haired boy asked wondering what a human was doing in Sesshoumaru's palace.
The human boy rolled his dark blue eyes and looked at him distastefully. "It doesn't matter. What does matter is that Lord Sesshoumaru sent me up here to wake you up like a fucking maid, twenty minutes ago! Damn you youkai bastards can't even listen to anyone else enough to even get up!"
Kouga had raised himself up during the boy's rant and was waiting for him to stop. Oncethe boyhad he began to talk, "That's really horrible. I'm up now so you can go and… do whatever."
The boy with braided hair glared at him darkly. "Don't order me around ookami." But, nonetheless, the boy spun around on his heel (a feat made possible by the smoothness of the floor) and left. That is, not without slamming the door.
Kouga just shook his head and began to dress himself properly.
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Kouga walked down the stairs somewhat uncomfortably. From the top of the staircase he had spied that his wolves, Sesshoumaru, the boy that had woken him earlierand some other… things were already at the table. He was unused to being the last awake and therefore felt slightly awkward.
Kouga was no slacker and certainly woke up early, which meant that today he woke up even earlier. In fact he was sure of it. His point was only proved by the fact that even Kaida looked sleepy. Granted she wasn't yawning repeatedly like Ginta and Hakkaku but nonetheless she looked she'd rather be in bed.
What was scary though was the fact that Sesshoumaru and the six humans (at least they smelled like humans) were wide awake and alert, with the exception on the effeminate man that sat beside the braided boy, and who was yawning in boredom. And most of all… Why were they all staring at him like that?
Sesshoumaru opened his mouth to speak, but it was the young human boy who spoke. "Glad to see you made your way down without breaking any bones, ookami," the boy with the purple cross on his forehead sneered.
Kouga narrowed his eyes. What was this boy's problem? "Yeah, I'm," he paused dramatically. "So shocked."
Before he could say anything else Sesshoumaru cut in. "Take your seat Kouga, we will talk later."
Kouga muttered a quick, "who wants to talk to you?" before sitting down in between Ginta and Kaida.
The wolf quickly surveyed the others at the table. They all had to be human as they were eating human food. But the question was why were they so important? Sure most of them didn't look like humans but he was sure they were. Perhaps that was why Sesshoumaru was going to all this trouble for them. Or at least Kouga thought it was a lot of trouble. Besides as far as Kouga knew, the silver-haired lord absolutely despised humans. He'd have to ask Kaida about it later.
"Oo-aniki! Look! Isn't he handsome?" The man dressed in womens' clothing poked the dark-skinned boy's shoulder.
The other male sighed in response. "Jakotsu, how many times do I have to tell you that I'm not interested in your taste in men?" Jakotsu pouted but stayed in his seat. The boy turned back to Sesshoumaru. "Alright, Lord Sesshoumaru me and my men will work for you as long as you can keep paying us."
Sesshoumaru was about to reply but was interrupted once again. "Ooh! Is Inuyasha coming by? I can't wait to see my cutie!"
Kouga stared at Jakotsu in shock. The man was obviously gay! To the point where it was absurd. Such a stereotypical man he was. They must really be something, Kouga thought as he looked back at the pale demon lord, for Sesshoumaru to keep someone like that around. Then again, Kouga smirked. Sesshoumaru himself is quite questionable in that area.
"Jakotsu…" the younger boywarned causing the other to pout once more.
"Bankotsu, I feel I should tell you that a demon lord such as myself has never had any use for human money and therefore I have none," Sesshoumaru said slowly.
"Really?" Bankotsu blinked. Kouga sweat-dropped, this boy was genuinely surprised! What an idiot!
"Yes, and since I have no money so to speak, perhaps you can find something else to bargain with?" Sesshoumaru offered, looking at the boy coolly.
Bankotsu furrowed his brows. "We're mercenaries we fight for money and if not…" He trailed off and looked at 'his men'. "Do any of you have any ideas?"
Jakotsu's hand shot into the air with an enthusiastic "oh!". Bankotsu sighed. "No, Jakotsu, there will be no sex." This time Jakotsu simply turned around and away from his leader. The long haired boy continued. "Renkotsu? Anything?"
The bald man shrugged. "Nothing that I can think of oo-aniki."
After a bit of thinking Bankotsu slammed his fist into his palm. "That's it! Sesshoumaru," It seemed that he forgot the title 'lord' in his excitement. "We, the Shichinin-tai, demand to stay in your home while we are in your service!"
Everyone was quiet. Kouga sweat-dropped even more. This guy was a real first-class moron! The saddest thing was it appeared that the boy was serious.
Renkotsu sputtered a bit before he could talk. "Oo-aniki that's-that certainly is not a fair deal!"
"No?" Bankotsu asked. "But there is nothing else…"
"And," Sesshoumaru commented, "If you refuse to fight for me, I will kill you."
Bankotsu glared at him. But his attention was diverted when he felt Jakotsu tugging on his arm. He turned to see his comrade looking at him urgently. Finally succumbing to his closest friend's wish he demanded, "Inuyasha will also stay with us!"
Sesshoumaru's eyebrow twitched at the mention of staying with his younger half brother. "I do not know of Inuyasha's whereabouts."
"Then you will find him!" the teenager declared standing up, glad to have a little bit of control over the demon lord. "I am going outside to give my Banryuu some exercise."
Sesshoumaru smirked. "I was right. You are loud everywhere not just," he lowered his voice, "in certain places."
The Shichinin-tai leader glared at him as everyone else kept quiet. When he had left the room the others began to file out as well.
Kouga was about to get up and walk back to his room where he planned on getting some extra sleep. That is until Sesshoumaru stopped him. "Kouga I need you find Inuyasha for me. Bring him back here at all costs."
"How should I know where he is?" Kouga retorted, not wanting to deal with the hot-tempered hanyou.
The inu looked at him from over his shoulder as he walked out. "You are well acquainted with my half-breed brother." Nothing more was said.
Lord Sesshoumaru had left the building.