A/N: Thanks to all the lovely readers and reviewers of this story. Your kind words help me drag myself through summer.
It is so much fun to see you enjoying the story and sharing your thoughts on stuff.
Beta; Cstorm86


10.


Kagome gasped when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her, pulling her snugly against a hard, warm body. The man's warm breath tickled her ear, and she inhaled the scent of wind and forest that seemed to linger on his robe. A part of her mind wondered how it could be, with him being sealed away for so long.

Her name sounded like a spell when he spoke it.

"Kami!" Souta breathed out. He sounded normal. So, she realized in relief, he was free of the enchantment.

But what was she supposed to do now? The fae's embrace was comfy, but he was the first male to hold her so close since her dad's passing. And he was awfully attractive. And a fae. And his arms wrapped around her waist felt so right, so new, so appealing. And she couldn't just enjoy it all, because at the same time she knew it was wrong, improper, and dangerous probably.

She tried to push away from him, but he only chuckled. She huffed, annoyed.

"Let go of her!" Souta cried and Kagome turned her head just in time to see her brother bravely whacking the fae between his ears with his own discarded flute.

"Ow, fuck!" the fae yelped and whistled a short, sharp tune. Souta gasped when the flute glowed and fell from his fingers in a cloud of leaves no different from those on the floor.

"Inuyasha..." Kagome started hoping to placate the man before he cursed Souta or anything. The fae reached up a hand to rub his abused head.

"I don't like him, he's violent," said the creature with fangs and claws.

"Let me up, please." she tried again.

"And if I don't feel like it? Keh, you will braid all of my hair?"

That was an option, but it clearly wasn't as big a punishment to him.

Kagome stared at the man, trying to find a way to get free and somehow to straighten the situation. A big relief to her was the fact that Inuyasha didn't seem to be annoyed that his charm on Souta was broken by her. A part of her wondered if maybe he had done it not to force Souta into releasing him, but to cause havoc.

"Why did you charm Souta?"she asked, trying to sound firm, despite being splayed on top of the painfully handsome man.

"Keh, it telt fun," he shrugged, "If you want to, you have my permission to try and charm my brother. She blinked at the outlandish idea. How could a human charm a fae?

"Wait! You know each other?" Souta cried out, probably totally confused at this point. He looked incredulously first at Kagome, then at Inuyasha, who smirked and cocked an ear. Kagome tried to get free again, but it was no use, his grip on her waist was unflinching.

"You didn't tell your brother about me?" Innyasha pouted and she winced at the sound of amusement in his voice. "I forgive you, I wouldn't tell mine about you either."

"Souta, I can explain it all... I just..." Kagome struggled some more. It was so embarrassing! And so nice too, which was totally not right and she shouldn't like the feel of the rough fabric of his robe against her skin, the warmth of his body. Her cheeks were burning as she put her hands on his shoulders, pushing futilely against the man. His smile was lazy as he looked at her, scratching behind an ear lazily as his other hand rested across her waist like an iron bar. That smile, it was so breathtaking, so wonderful, and yet so annoying!

She could feel Souta's gaze upon her and it wasn't helping any. She had to be calm and collected - and not laying upon Inuyasha - to explain everything to her little brother. Inuyasha snickered.

"What's there to explain?" he gestured with the hand that didn't hold her towards the whole room and the bed. "A sealed yasha, a nosy wench, poor life choices."

"Uh..." Souta clearly wasn't prepared for that.

"Inuyasha, let me go now," Kagome tugged at a braid, her hand brushing against the arrow.

A shadow of pain pressed over his face

"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. He no longer smiled, a scowl on his face.

"Keh. Whatever."

"I have a gift for you, she remembered, trying to direct his attention to something else. Golden eyes glinted. "As a thank you for the flower," she added, carefully reached her hand up again and touched the flower in her ribbon. His eyes lifted from her face to the silky petals. His own hand touched the blossom. "Can I give it to you?"

His iron grip around her waist loosened, and she finally rose, awkwardly standing up from the bed and brushing off the crumbled leaves from her skirt.

She looked at the men. The fae gazed at her with an expression that was between hope and suspicion. Souta wos just confused. She offered them a weak smile.

"I'll be right back," she said and glanced at Inuyasha. "Behave."

She didn't wait for the fae's assurance he was going to be as good as a pup. She ran out of the hidden room, just to come back with the bag she had dropped near the door to her own room. Inuyasha looked at the bag. This time it was him who was confused, while Souta gave her a suspicious look.

"Here, hope you like it," the girl ignored her brother for the time being, reaching into her bag to produce out of it a small rag mascot she'd won in a wreath tossing competition.

"A puppy, really?" Inuyasha cocked his head like one. The mascot was rather crude, since it was made by children from the orphanage that was going to profit from the charity picnic. The thing, not much bigger than her hand, was a creature made out of sewn together pieces of white and brown fabric, giving it a look of a spotted mutt with floppy ears.

"Isn't it cute?" Kagome asked and placed the gift on the edge of the bed, near Inuyasha's hand. He eyed it carefully, not reaching for it.

"It's not some kind of a spell, right, Kagome?" he asked, one eyebrow raised as he glanced up at her.

"What? No, of course not! I won it myself, for you, since it reminded me of you," she explained. The dog's stitched face was dopey, but held little resemblance to Inuyasha's.

"I don't know if I should be offended or not," he muttered. She didn't have a chance to scold him, because his head lolled to the side. The room darkened when the last rays of sunlight faded away.

"Is he... dead?" Souta breathed out, blinking owlishly at the fae.

"No, he's very much alive, just asleep," she straightened her back and turned to face her brother, who had been quiet for the whole exchange. "Souta, this is Inuyasha, or at least he told me to call him that. He was sealed by one of our ancestors, by a mistake. He sleeps all day and wakes only for a few minutes during sunset. I want to release him when I can make him promise to behave."

"I can't believe it!" Souta stared at her this time.

"Uh, I can assure you he tried more than once to make me free him..." she started.

"No, not that! You knew we had a real deal fae in our shrine and you didn't tell me!" he pointed a finger at her.

"I... I'm sorry," Kagome glanced downwards to where her fingers gripped at the bag she still held. "I wanted to tell you after I got his true name and could be sure he wouldn't harm any of us."

"So that's why you wanted to know how to keep a fae from doing something," the boy glanced back at Inuyasha, who contributed to the discussion by snoring. "And you always get annoyed if you couldn't go to your room before supper. I always thought you had some kind of meditation ritual or something."

"I learned about this room and Inuyasha just recently," she explained, reaching a hand to touch Souta's shoulder. "Don't be annoyed with me not telling you sooner. I wanted to make sure he couldn't charm you... Which he did today anyway, luring you here."

Souta lifted his brown eyes, so similar to hers, to look into her face, a small frown on his brow as he thought. Kagome bit her bottom lip.

"I forgive you, but only if you let me come in here with you when I want to see him awake," he declared. "I get that it's a secret and that I have to be careful, but... Kagome, a real fae!"

Kagome gave a nod, accepting his demand. It was reasonable, and she hoped that between the two, Inuyasha couldn't use his music magic tricks to make them release him before promising to be good. Souta glanced to the sleeping man.

"What kind of fae is he?" excitement leaked into his voice and Kagome smiled widely. Souta hated the dry and boring part of his priestly studies, but seeing the supernatural and practicing actual actions seemed to be more to his liking. And, she guessed, he was just too curious about Inuyasha, the feeling she shared with him.

"I'm not sure yet. I tried to go through the shrine annals and books on fae, but all I've got is that there are two types of dog fae and his hair indicates that he's one of the cŵn kind. They..."

"Guard a special fae forest," Souta nodded. "Grandpa made me read up on many kinds of fae from an encyclopedia. I'm on 'F' now. Do you know that cŵn's bark is getting silent as they approach you? They are said to attack in total silence."

"That wasn't in the book I've read!" Kagome pouted and saw Souta smirk.

"It looks like you have a lot to learn about your secret fae, miss I-Will-Tell-Souta-later."

Their joined laughter filled the darkening forest, and it made the weight on her heart and tension in her muscles dissipate.

.

The following days taught Kagome that having Souta as her ally was a great thing. Thanks to his help, she didn't miss meeting with Inuyasha for two days in a row. She and Souta used the notebook to write questions to Inuyasha, just in case they'd miss his awake time, but since they were doing a good job sneaking out to see him, the questions waited unanswered as of yet. They were random things, like inquiries about fae food and life in general.

They always asked for his true name, but he never told them.

"You may call me the one with the best hearing in the pack," he introduced himself the second day. Kagome and Souta sat on their chairs at the foot of the bed. "Or you may call me Inuyasha."

"Okay, Inuyasha, so you are a cŵn or not?" asked Souta, bluntly and eagerly.

"A cŵn?" The fae tilted his head like a confused puppy. "I'm a shiro inu," he shook his head when he saw their blank stares. "Listen, I don't know nor care about your human names for our kind. I'm the youngest son of Inu no Taisho, the alpha of the white dog pack that guards Yasha no Mori."

That left them with even more questions than before. But, before they could ask what an 'alpha', 'Yasha no Mori' or anything else meant, Inuyasha looked between them and smirked.

"So, will you release me? I didn't usually spend so much time in the human lands when I was free. I bet my parents are hella worried about me."

Kagome felt a pang of sympathy for him. Were his parents even alive, after so many years? She'd feel awful, being separated from her mother and Souta for a long time. What did Inuyasha feel?

She looked at Souta, who had the same feelings written across his face.

"Will you promise on your true name, if you don't want us to know and use your kotodama?" the boy asked. They had learned the previous day that a fae could still be bound by an oath, even if it wasn't sworn with their true name. Actually, Inuyasha had already made such a vow, swearing not to charm Kagome with her name. So, they figured that if they made Inuyasha give a solemn promise on his true name, it would be as good as one reinforced with his kotodama. After all, it'd show his willingness to keep to his word, without them forcing him to do what they said.

"Depends what you want me to promise," Inuyasha's eyes narrowed at Souta, who froze, obviously not adjusted to his sudden changes of mood.

"Promise to be good, to not attack humans, to not seek vengeance for what our ancestor did," Kagome jumped in. She'd wasted many hours trying to figure out how to word the promise. "Promise to not get others to do that in your stead."

"No promising I won't come to visit? No promise to grant you weird wishes or give you magic shit?" Inuyasha cocked his ear.

"Um... I mean... If you want to visit us, that'd be nice," Kagome blushed and dropped her previously steadfast gaze to her lap.

"Yeah, it'd be neat to still be friends," Souta grinned. "Just don't wreak too much havoc and we're fine."

The fae watched the duo sitting close by, his golden eyes moving from Souta's open, excited face to Kagome's rosy cheeks. He lifted his hand.

"I..." he started...

… And then sighed, his hand falling to the bed limply.

The sunset was over.

A/N: The next update will be hopefully the next Sunday. If not - the next next Sunday