Ever Us — A Slice of Life
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. I don't make any money from this.
Title: Chap 33
Ryuu's Veterinary stories by Suzy Takahashi
Genre: Animal stories/Slice of Life
Pairing: Ryuu/Suzy. Inuyasha/Sesshomaru
Remarks: Suzy, the romance writer and Ryuu, the veterinarian are mated and traveling the world. In their first year of mating, Suzy is introduced to Ryuu's world of caring for magical, supernatural animals. She is inthralled and writes of their adventures through emails to their parents.
Date 2300 March (four months after Kohaku saved the world from aliens. See Ever Us — Forever Us.)
Locations: Inu parents are at the Canadian house, Suzy and Ryuu are at the hidden animal sanctuaries around the world,
Inuyasha walked into their joint office in search of Sesshomaru. He had finally got Kagome down for her nap and was in need of some adult time with his mate. Unfortunately Sesshomaru was not in the office. Inuyasha rubbed his mating mark. 'Where are you?'
Before Sesshomaru could respond, the email dinged.
Inuyasha had turned on notifications only for family. He walked to his computer and tapped the console. A hologram of Suzy's curly headshot popped into middle of his transparent screen. Inuyasha touched the image. A lengthy email opened.
"Hi Daddy! Hello Father!"
Inuyasha looked around. Sesshomaru had just walked into the office.
"We just got an email from Suzy."
"Excellent!" The patriarch smiled. "Let's hear it."
"We're doing great. Ryuu's introducing me to all his friends. What an adventure! I'm going to try and capture some of his interesting stories. If they are good enough maybe I can make a book out of them."
"Although health personal information protection association doesn't cross over into veterinarian medicine, Ryuu and I will protect the identity of our clients."
"Good girl," Sesshomaru smiled. "Everyone should have privacy when it comes to medical issues."
Inuyasha nodded. They had practiced medicine for over 500 years. Privacy was a foundation of their practice.
"Ryuu arrived at his clinic and sent out a bark to let his clients know he's in. We spent a few minutes cleaning. Some of the locations attract dust! The first patients usually arrive soon after. Some are there for routine preventive health. Others have conditions that need routine follow up. I met a lizard demon that had thyroid problems. He had been losing his scales for years and no one could help him. "My brilliant mate figured it out almost immediately. He drew a thyroid test and diagnosed hypothyroidism. Mister Lizard didn't believe it could be that simple but Ryuu asked him to try just half a pill for a month. Mr Lizard took a bit more convincing but after he made Ryuu make a bet he chuckled and walked out with the pill bottle. A month later, Mr Lizard had a new coat of scales that were shiny. He reluctantly passed a piece of gold to Ryuu.
"Ryuu accepted the piece of gold only as payment for a lifetime of thyroid medicine. Since that time Mr. Lizard has been sending all his friends with scale problems to Ryuu. He's been a great advertisement."
"After the first week Ryuu taught me the routine questions to ask all the patients when we check them in. I wrote them down. If I know the animal's language I can ask but otherwise I stand by and take notes for him. He says I'm becoming an excellent vet tech. Perhaps I can add that certification next time we're near a tech school. Although they would probably laugh about the magical animal part. Their loss."
"The improvements in the climate are helping but there are still many animals who aren't eating right. Decreased calcium intake is causing weak bones, brittle claws, and soft bones. If I haven't said so lately, THANK YOU for feeding us properly and taking such good care of us all these years. I've seen a number of mothers who are starving just to feed their young. It's so sad, Daddy, Father."
Inuyasha reached out and held Sesshomaru's hand.
"I'm grateful too, my love. We have had many blessings. Perhaps we can free up some funds to help Ryuu's underprivileged patients. We've helped many of ours through the years.
Sesshomaru nodded.
"I'll just transfer some funds in a minute. Let's hear the rest of her email."
"My favorite treatment Ryuu prescribed was to play in the water. A number of new snake demons were having shedding trouble. He told their mother to let them play in the water. They needed moisture to help with their shedding issues. You should have seen the eyes of those snakelets. You would have thought Ryuu had given them the best present ever."
"After we left that sanctuary we headed to Tibet to the dragon sanctuary. Woo! We were super busy there. Ryuu has a big dragon community to take care of. I met the young dragon who I thought he was engaged to. She apologized profusely. She's such a sweet heart. We're best buds now. She thinks I'm an awesome writer too."
Suzy's parents laughed. "She is an awesome writer," Inuyasha nodded, "but some of her stuff is so grown up—-my!"
Sesshomaru laughed harder. "She is a grown mated woman, Koi. Not your baby girl anymore."
Inuyasha started. "She will always be my baby girl. They all will be."
"Yes dear," the wise husband nodded. He turned back to the email and continued reading.
"The first dragon in clinic today had a upper respiratory infection. His chief complaint was that he couldn't get a good stream going. Ryuu was asking him all sorts of questions about peeing when the dragon shook his head. "Not that stream, this one," and he tried to breath fire. It was a good thing he was sick or we would have had another hole in the wall of the clinic. After they both laughed, Ryuu asked him to go flying with us. So all three of us took to the clouds. My hair was super curly when we landed but it helped Mr. Dragon. Ryuu told him to fly in the clouds three times a day to get enough humidity. They talked about avoiding planes and the migration routes of normal birds."
"Ryuu offered Mr. Dragon the option for cough syrup but the dragon thought it would take too many bottles so he opted to graze peppermint leaves. "Helps with my breath," Mr Dragon told Ryuu."
"True," said the two patriarchs at the same time.
"Next Ryuu had a consultation at a dragon's home/cave. Mr. Red was complaining for a stomach and his wife asked Ryuu to see him. "What have you been eating lately, Mr Red?"
Mr Red hedged a bit.
"Be honest with him," his wife nagged.
"I hoarded some gold," Mr Red sighed.
"Some? Ha!" Barked his wife. "A lot more than some. And what happens every time you do that?"
Mr. Red's tail curled around his body. "I get a tummy ache."
"Ah, I see," Ryuu rubbed his chin wisely. "Gold binds you up. Let me check one other thing. Do you eat your roughage when you imbibe in gold?"
"No Doctor," Mr Red's frame seemed to shrink even further.
"No need to be embarrassed Mr Red. I have a good fix. Do you like pumpkin?"
"I love pumpkin!" The red dragon responded
"Good! You need to eat roughage, like pumpkin or greens. Pumpkins are full of fiber. Remember next time you eat gold, eat pumpkin with it. Can you do that? As for this instance, can you pass gas or do we need to give you a suppository?"
"Oh Doctor, He is plenty gassy," the misses waved her napkin and covered her nose.
"Very well, take care of your bowels and eat your pumpkin and we'll check on you in two days unless you are worse."
"That wasn't the last time Ryuu prescribed pumpkin that week either. Pumpkin works on night vision too. I always thought that was a carrot thing but Ryuu says carrots and pumpkins both have carotenoids."
"That evening we were having a romantic dinner under the stars when a dragon came searching for Ryuu. He was making a racket trying to find us. Ryuu barked and the dragon flew to our rock"
"Dr. Ryuu, we need your help. It's an emergency! They are going to kill him! Please help us!"
"Tell us on the way," Ryuu said and we were off chasing after the dragon.
"Turned out a fire Dragon had developed a cough which caused him to burn things down by accident. He had been on the outskirts of the village but had had a coughing attack. Due to the climate change problems the land around the village was dry and the entire village burnt by accident."
"The remaining villagers turned on the fire dragon and tried to kill him. There had been peace between the villagers and the dragons for centuries. It was the one of the only human places in Ryuu's sanctuary network."
Ryuu landed between the dragon and the villagers.
"Good people, we have had peace for way to long. There must be an explanation for this. Are you all alive?"
The villagers looked around. Finally one spoke up. "I know of no one that has died."
"Good, then allow me to check friend dragon. This is not normal for him."
"So Ryuu spoke to the fire dragon, asking him a litany of questions
—when's the last time you smoked or vaped?
—allergies to something new?
—ventilation irritants
—how long has this been going on?
Then he listened to the dragon's chest and heard his complaints. Turned out the dragon had bronchitis from irritants from the recent volcanic eruption. He had been flying over the volcano to check on his nest when the volcano back puffed and he inhaled a lung full of ash.
"Ryuu helped the villagers and the dragons re-establish the village —this time with fire resistant materials. It took another couple of weeks until the fire dragon's cough calmed. It would have taken more if the village hadn't helped make the medicine for him.
The final case in Tibet was a pregnant dragon. It was her first pregnancy. Fortunately she had her mother nearby to help her. Early on in her pregnancy the young dragoness had some lameness. It was followed by a swollen abdomen which her mother didn't seem worried about. It was when dyspnea, balance issues, and tail wagging or bobbing set in that the young mother's mother brought her to Ryuu.
Ryuu assessed the situation.
"It's called cephalopelvic disproportion in humans. Birds and dragons call it egg bound. There's only one treatment. Medical lube. I need to show you how it's done. She may need more than one treatment but she only has 24 hours at this point. She can die if this isn't taken care of quickly.
Ryuu explained that lubricating the cloaca and vent, or egg exit was key. He encouraged a dark damp cave and calm. Limit the food but encourage the water. She needed to get settled and then he would check her status.
"I've never seen such a large tube of anything, Dad, Father. It was as big around as me, albeit half the height. Ryuu used every bit of it too. The next day when we went to check on them, the new mother was sitting on her egg nest. Seemed the egg just slipped out in the night. Grandma dragon, a very proud mother, was near and caught the egg before it rolled too far. She dried off all the lube and nestled it up to her as she slept. "She took to nesting it so naturally," Grandma dragon bragged. "My daughter will be such a wonderful mother."
Ryuu smiled and told her we would be back in a couple of months to see the baby. I can't wait to see it.
"We took a few days to visit A-Un and Jinenji at the Castle. We ran into Kenichi and Uncle Jaken. They were deep in discussions about staffing and finances. Ryuu and I said hello and then left. I bet they didn't even know we were there.
From Castletown Ryuu had us fly north to the arctic sanctuary. Nothing was going on so we watched the aurora borealis. Two of Ryuu's electric dragon friends were there performing. They hide in the aurora from human eyes but when its just mundane animals and other demons they put on the most wonderful show. So romantic too! After that we headed over the North Pole to England.
We got to the English Sanctuary just as a Pegasus with a broken wing limped in. It had been trying to get to the safe haven but had to jump instead of fly. It had taken two weeks to get there so the fracture had already started to heal in the wrong position. Ryuu explained the situation to her. He would have to refracture the bone and then reset it. He suggested doing the procedure under anesthesia and then asked me to help. I was so tense, Daddy. I was afraid I would do something wrong. But Ryuu reassured me that it was simple. It wasn't simple but I did it. My poison is less dilute than Father's. Ryuu didn't realize that initially but once we figured it out, Mrs. Pegasus was asleep.
Ryuu is so strong. He broke the bone and reset it using a external plate and pins. It looked like a carpentry set. We watched over her overnight and by the next morning she was ready to walk about the clinic. Three days later she spread her wings, lifted off the ground, and took off. Ryuu says it's okay. The plate and pins will fall out when she's healed. Ms Pegasus was so magnificent looking. You should have seen the majestic way she lifted off the ground. As her big wings moved up and down creating lift I was in awe. I can see why Ryuu enjoys his job so much.
A day later a unicorn wandered into the clinic. It's horn had been damaged. Ryuu was very wary near it and always kept me behind him. He said there's nothing more dangerous than an injured animal. It took him a while to find the right dialect before they could communicate properly. The unicorn lived in England but was from France so it spoke both English and French Unicorn. Ryuu laughed later. The accent was what had confused him.
The unicorn's horn got caught in an electric fence. It was grazing next to the fence where the grass was really tall and somehow got the horn tangled in the fence. It tried to tear its way out of the fence but the horn got cut by the wires. Some of the magic leaked on the area. There's a semicircle of four-leaf clovers there now. Human researchers have gone crazy trying to figure it out. The unicorn thought that was funny. Humor—it's an individual thing I guess.
It was a beautiful animal, Father, Dad, but I felt like I needed to stay away from it. Ryuu said unicorns traditionally hang out with young maidens not married women. What a weird feeling it was to me and even harder to describe it. Ryuu said unicorns are always standoffish to men. It's because of centuries of deceit and mistrust. So tragic. I don't think Steven could even cure that mental issue, even if he is the world's best psychiatrist. I think its mystifying how something so beautiful can be so unnerving.
Next he saw a phoenix who was concerned about a section of his feathers that were molting. It was a just a diet issue that Ryuu fixed quickly. After the Phoenix left I asked him why it mattered since the phoenix was preparing for its rebirth next month. Ryuu says they like to have everything perfect before they turn to ashes and come back to life. He says they all have a little obsessive compulsive trait especially about their feathers.
Ryuu and I stopped by Kyo and Yuki's place for a week break. They took us to some crazy hopping dance joints. We stayed out all night and had breakfast watching the sunrise. We even stopped by the magic rock Es Vedra. Ryuu checked on his magnetic eel friends. The Ibizians say the rock is the third most magnetic place in the world, but they can never prove it. I now know the secret. The magnet eels live under the rock in the caves. One of them is on look out and if people are doing testing they all turn off their electric current for a few moments. They have been fooling folks for centuries. It's even a right of passage from youth to adulthood.
One of the mornings Yuki took me shopping. I got the cutest little straw hat with cheerful colored ribbons. I'll send a picture. I picked one up for Rin too. It's her style. When we lived here as kids I had no idea the island had such nightlife! Did you?
Sesshomaru shook his head no.
"You know she can't see you, right?" Inuyasha teased.
"No, love, that was for you. Did you know it had nightlife?"
"Well, yeh," the inuhanyou blushed. "I had read up on it before we went the first time. Even back then it was called a bohemian hedonistic haven. But Kyo was so reserved I figured there must be more to the island than nightlight and such.
"I'd gladly take you nightclubbing, my hot sizzling mate," Sesshomaru murmured in Inuyasha's ear.
Inuyasha's laugh was a short barking sound.
"I'll have to take a rain check on that. I'm still nursing Kagome." Inuyasha considered the comment and then added. "We could have a little lap dancing in the privacy of our room though."
Sesshomaru's eyebrows rose.
Inuyasha smirked. "Let's finish the email first."
Sesshomaru grabbed Inuyasha and sat him on his lap.
"After that Ryuu told everyone he wanted to visit Lernaean Hydra and introduce her to me. Yuki wanted to go to and thank her again for saving her life. So, all four of us jetted off to Greece. When we got to the furthest southern tip of Greece, Ryuu barked. We had to wait a bit but Lernaean showed up. Ryuu translated for all of us. It was exciting meeting her again. She's so much bigger now and she has a second head. She looked at me and asked if I was the pup from 200 plus years ago.
"Guilty," I smiled.
She smiled knowingly. "Love," she purred.
"I have always loved him," I told her. Ryuu stared in disbelief.
"My mate was so cute, Dad. I don't think he realized how long I had been crushing on him. There has never been anyone else. But you knew that."
Inuyasha nodded this time, but Sesshomaru just kept his mouth shut.
After that we went to the African sanctuary. A big cat had just lost it's mate and was dying of a broken heart. Ryuu pulled me to his arms and held me tight. There wasn't anything we could do for it but to hold its paw until it left the mortal plain. Ryuu explained that was the same thing that happened to Kyo but he could be saved because he was in a medical center and you were with him. Plus Yuki didn't die. Daddy, if Yuki died would Kyo…. I hesitate to finish that sentence. I can't imagine losing any of you. I'm going to hug Ryuu when I finish this. Every minute of life is precious.
Sesshomaru held tight to Inuyasha's waist. Inuyasha turned slightly and hugged Sesshomaru's neck.
"She's maturing nicely to understand that now," Inuyasha murmured. "Life is precious."
"That was a sad day at the African clinic, but some meerkats dropped by and entertained us for awhile. A giraffe with kidney stones was our next patient. He was too busy to drink properly and wanted to know if Ryuu could fix it. Ryuu put in two large bore IVs and forced fluids for a day. Eventually the stone passed. Ryuu spent some time explaining the importance of drinking water to the giraffe. He didn't seem to understand. I guess we'll see him again.
Our last client at the African clinic was a chimera toddler. The mom said her baby was doing fine until about two years of age when she started rolling her head and not listening. She had some hyperactivity and attention deficit behavior too. The mom thought maybe Ryuu could give her some guidance for mental health. Ryuu took one look at the toddler and asked what the kid ate and asked if we could see where they lived.
Momma chimera showed us their hide out. It was in an old lead mine. Ryuu knew exactly what had happened then.
"Madam, is your little one eating dirt?"
"Yes," she said. "They all go through that stage."
Ryuu nodded. "But this is the first child you've had here, right?"
"Yes," she nodded. "How did you know?"
"Madam, I suspect your child had lead poisoning from the mine. Let's try a chelation treatment."
She agreed and that took care of it that fast. The child was normal the next day. Such a miracle."
"Daddy, Father, I'm so happy I've been able to join Ryuu and see his world. It's so fantastic. We should be making our North American rounds sometime next month. Hope we can see you then."
"We love you."
Suzy and Ryuu
The email closed and the hologram of Suzy disappeared. Inuyasha smiled. He turned to look at Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru appeared distracted.
"What's wrong, Koi?" Inuyasha asked.
Sesshomaru sighed, "Kagome is awake and about ready to—"
"WAAAAH!"
Inuyasha stood up and started walking out the door to the nursery. At the door he turned.
"Lap dance—thirty minutes—our room. You're dancing!" And with that he disappeared from site.
Sesshomaru looked after him.
"Hnnn," he pondered. "I guess I'd better look up techniques for how to lap dance. I don't believe I've ever done that before. Could be entertaining."
Lap Dance continues in Ever Us — Sex scenes on AO3.
