A/N: Thank you all for loving this story.
Beta; Cstorm86


11.


Waking up was always weird, no matter how many times it happened. It was a bit like wading through a swamp . that seemed to encircle the forest of his dreams. It was annoying. After running and leaping through trees, he had to slowly move through the thick fog. His feet seemed to sink and drag through muddy water.

He hated getting wet, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it. And on the other side of the fog were the few minutes of wakefulness. The empty room that could drive any lesser being insane.

But he was no lesser being, despite his mother being a hellhound that had once been human. He was stubborn and fierce. To keep himself occupied and not drowning in insanity, he painted the forest of his dreams with magic. Hiding the restricting walls of the room. He charmed the mice that lived in the attic to drag in dry leaves after chewing a hole in one corner. It took time and patience. He wasn't exactly patient, but he was bored.

Besides, this way he trained his power - or rather the tiny bit of it that he could use. This way, when the time came he could use what he had to his benefit and freedom.

And recently the hope that had been dwindling was restored.

And by a human, from all beings that inhabited the Isle. The descendant of the bed-hoarder that was the cause of his predicament.

Kagome came to fill his time, first as the creator of noise that he could hear from the outside of his prison, then in flesh, when she turned the key he had carved out of a piece of wood somewhere during the second decade of his prolonged and not foreseen stay. She was so much fun and nothing like humans from the stories. She was a terrible liar, unable to hide what was on her mind and expecting others to speak truth as well. She didn't try to trick him, to use him, to take advantage of a chained dog that she found in a hidden room. She never tormented him with words or tortured him with any of the torture devices humans always had at their disposal in the stories. She even wanted to set him free, even if her initial price for freedom was too high. It was getting harder and harder to keep his guard up and keep his secrets to himself when she looked at him with these big brown eyes full of curiosity and goodwill. A part of him, a traitorous part, often wondered how his kotodama would sound in her mouth. Would she treasure his name just like she did the gifts from her human friends from her old house?

It was so new and somewhat nice to wake up to her shy smile and brown eyes. She had a fiery twinkle in her eye every time he said something to annoy her. She had a laugh that didn't have this melodious cadence he was used to among his kin, but it always made his heart flutter and a smile to appear on his own face. She was far from being perfect, but she was perfect at being herself, at least around him. From what he'd heard during his waking time when she was away with other people in and around the house, she acted mellow and proper around most of them. With him, he gathered, she wasn't acting, just as she wasn't putting on a mask while interacting with her little brother. He wanted to grab that mask and break it to pieces, so the whole world could see the stubborn, mouthy girl she really was.

And just recently her little brother joined them for their secret meeting. Inuyasha was quite pleased with all the luring and what it brought - he got a wonderful distraction from the lovely girl and with Souta present Inuyasha knew he would be keeping his guard up no matter what. The added surprise of having his arms full of a girl he was rapidly growing to like, made him see the plot as his best decision ever. Feeling the shiver that ran through her body when he spoke her name... If not for the arrow, he would have whisked her away for a night of dancing, hunting and watching stars roll overhead.

Good thing the kid had whacked him out of that funk before he had had a chance to make an idiot of himself and do something like kissing these rosy cheeks.

Souta was alright, not only as a distraction from Kagome, but as a person. He was more blunt than Kagome, asking questions and not letting Inuyasha direct the talk the other way, if he didn't want to answer. Kagome was more impulsive and hotheaded. He didn't know them long, but neither smelled of deceit or ill will. There was no hate lingering around them, no fear strong enough to push them to do something drastic. No, there was curiosity in them, kindness and honesty. That was why, when they told him that they would release him upon his solemn promise to not harm anyone and cause trouble, he believed them.

And they seemed to want to keep seeing him after his release, stay friends. That was so much unlike all he knew of humans.

There was no doubt in his heart that he was going to keep coming back to see the siblings, even if only to make Kagome's cheeks flush and teach Souta to curse properly. The boy was almost an adult and was sorely lacking in that department.

There were rare stories of humans with an affinity for his kind, humans who would not take what wasn't given freely, who respected and wanted to understand all that lived, his kind included. For decades he had thought these stories to be fables only, but now he suspected that at least Kagome had such a rare spirit within her heart. He wondered if that was why he felt so drawn to her, but decided it didn't matter.

The wench was precious, and he was going to hunt down and maim any who said otherwise.

He awoke slowly, feeling his hands tingle as his consciousness left the fog. He blinked a few times and twitched his ears. He was in the bloody room, but there was no one else there. He mumbled a curse. Was it one of the damned days when he was forced to hear Kagome's muffled voice from somewhere downstairs while she should be here, keeping him company or freeing him?

He could hear her, the tone of her voice lacking the usual spark. She was in the kitchen, along with two other females. He wanted to will her to bring her ass back upstairs and talk to him, but all he got from life was a different visitor.

Souta entered the room, moving like a skittish foal, stepping carefully across the floor.

"Hey, Inuyasha," he greeted awkwardly and sat down on his chair. "Kagome can't come, mom decided it's the right time to teach her how to pickle vegetables."

"Keh, it's okay," Inuyasha said as if he wasn't cursing in his mind all the pickled vegetables of the world for keeping Kagome away from him. "We're going to have man time."

Souta shifted in his seat, still anxious. His hand drifted to a pocket in his pants and he pulled out of it a crumpled piece of paper.

"Kagome said that if you promise solemnly on your name what she wrote here, I can release you," he said, handing Inuyasha the paper. His hand trembled just a little when the tips of Inuyasha's claws touched his skin. "I'm studying to be a priest and have some reiki, so I should be able to undo the seal."

Inuyasha's eyes scanned the rows of what Kagome considered neat writing.

"No."

"No?" Souta repeated, staring at him, the smell of nervousness rising around him. "Why not? It's basically what we told you yesterday, and you seemed to be okay with it."

"I will promise all that," Inuyasha fanned the air with the paper. "But you ain't releasing me, kid."

"Why?" Souta asked after a second, his eyes wide and voice stunned.

"Between you and your sister... Sorry, kid, but if I can get to be unsealed by a pretty girl instead of a boy, I will go with the girl," Inuyasha said cheekily.

Souta was speechless for a while, and Inuyasha found a lot of enjoyment in his round eyes and slightly open mouth.

"Uh, I guess I get you... But we don't want you to suffer this unjust punishment for a misunderstanding any day longer than you have to, Inuyasha."

"Misunderstanding?" Inuyasha's eyes narrowed at the boy. Had Kagome told him how Inuyasha had gotten himself sealed? or maybe he was mistaking some facts? There had been no misunderstanding between him and that priest... right?

Souta's face turning red and his gaze moving to the floor made Inuyasha pause. The boy reached to scratch the back of his head.

"Uh... Um... Kagome told me how you got sealed," he uttered hesitantly. "And... uh... erm... She said that you thought that the first night's law is about sleeping in a new house the first night..."

A horrible suspicion rose in Inuyasha's heart.

"And it isn't?" Souta was able to only shake his head no. "So, what does it mean exactly?"

"Uh... I'm not old enough to know much about this kind of stuff, but I did some reading... And, uh... It's not that."

"What is it then?" Inuyasha's voice rose just a bit, sharp and demanding an answer. Souta jumped, probably shocked to hear the command. He blinked owlishly at him a couple of times and Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.

"Um... It's not proper to discuss such things, really..." Souta said but stopped talking when Inuyasha growled at him. It took almost a whole minute of intensive staring on Inuyasha's part, to finally crack the shell of embarrassment that held the boy from sharing the secret. "The law is about a lord forcing his subjects to sleep with a bride at the night of her wedding!"

The words rung pretty loud in the room. Inuyasha blinked once before the red of his clothing seeped up his whole face. His ears stood perfectly still as he stared at Souta, who was also motionless, mortified with what he had said.

Inuyasha didn't know what to say. Heck, no thought went through his mind, his feelings a jumbled mess of embarrassment, shock and anger. He spent kami how long stuck to a bed because some idiot thought he wanted to go and sleep with his wife! He lost decades of running through woods because some moron thought a yasha would want to actually... uh, do that with a human woman!

That traitorous part of his mind supplied that there was a girl that he potentially would like to maybe... but it didn't have time to verbalize that to the rest of his brain, swept away by the torrent of curses cast upon the long-deceased man and humble thanks to the heavens that Kagome wasn't there to hear this or to actually explain it to him.

Which reminded him how she had reacted when he had told her the story.

"Oh, crap." he breathed out.

Without the engagement of his brain, his eyes glanced to the door where he caught a sudden motion.

Kagome stood there, one hand on the knob, the other covering her mouth. Her face color matched Souta and Inuyasha's pretty well, her wide eyes looking at them with the same mortification bordering on terror.

Well, there was only one thing Inuyasha could do to save at least some of his dignity.

With a sharp motion, he lowered his head to his chest and snored, pretending to be asleep.

The sunset that came not long after, was for the first time since his entrapment, a blessing.