A/N I do not own Inuyasha

Chapter 8

Yash was still holding her body close to himself, he felt like his body was moving in slow motion compared to his mind. After watching her remove every piece of ice and every drop of water with what seemed like ease. He was definitely impressed. Not that he'd ever tell her that. He stared at her soft, pale face surrounded by snakes drifting off to sleep. How had she been powerful enough to create such ferocity? He laid her down on the bed and was surprised by how warm it is even though it had been covered with ice not a few moments ago. Then he remembered her heating the water from the living room and realized she must have used her powers to make sure it wouldn't be cold. He tried to tuck her in, but her hand began gripping him tightly. After a few attempts to loosen her grip her eyes burst open.

"Yash? Is that you?" Her voice was soft and weak, her snakes hadn't woken and she carefully raised the hand not clutching to him like a lifeline to the side of his face. Her skin felt softer than silk, and so warm he couldn't help nuzzling closer to her palm.

"Yeah, you're safe. Just get some sleep, okay? I'll be in the living room standing guard for you."

The terror that flashed in her eyes was unmistakable, but she seemed to get it under control quite quickly.

"Yash, can you just stay in here? I mean… I don't really want to be alone right now, if that's ok. I mean…" Her head sunk so that her face was partially mashed into the pillow and she pulled her hand away. "Nevermind. I'm sorry." Her hand that was gripping his shirt released too, and she wrapped her arms around herself.

Everything in him was screaming to comfort her, but he had no idea how to even begin. It seemed like it took him ages to catch onto her words and actually decipher them. "If you need me to stay I will." He stood up and sat on the floor against the wall, back straight and eyes on her. "You can rest, you'll be safe."

She followed the sound of his movements and still looked directly at him, though she couldn't see anything. "You won't be comfortable there, you can come lay here. I mean- nevermind. You can go, you don't have to stay." She shook her head as if dispelling her own thoughts and laid her head on the pillow. "Goodnight, Yash. Thank you for everything."

He couldn't figure her out for fucking anything. Then he heard his phone buzzing in his pocket. Fuck, he had hung up on his brother. He stepped out of the room but kept the door in sight and open.

"Hey, I'm sorry. She's having a bad fucking day."

"Was your bitch somehow responsible for the torrential downpour and storm?!"

Of course, he was smart enough to put things together quickly. "She's not my bitch! But, yeah. But she stopped it as soon as she woke up. She was having a nightmare. I imagine it's from the fucking traumatic event of almost being raped and kidnapped." His voice was becoming more of a growl every second he thought about the occurrence.

Sesshomaru's words stopped him dead in his tracks, "If you transform now then you will only traumatize your intended mate more, Little Brother. Perhaps you need to get her to safety and away from you. At least until we can get you tessaiga and strengthen the spell. I can send a car to your location, and it will have tessaiga in it."

"No, I'm ok." He had barely begun speaking, before Sesshomaru cut him off.

"You are still so foolish, I can barely understand you over your fangs due to you beginning to transform. If she is in need, then you need to provide. I am offering to help you to protect your Mate. Do you truly wish to leave her in danger?"

His eyes were drawn to the creature lying in her bed, she was safe and seemed to be asleep. Her breathing was slow and steady, he stepped closer into her room and her scent calmed his demon to a point.

"In the morning. I'll text you the address in a couple hours. I don't want to wake her again. She needs to sleep."

"Hn, and will she sleep if your demon decides that he is not willing to wait?"

"He won't. He knows she's injured and too tired. Her body couldn't handle it. Thanks, Sesh. I'll see you in the morning. Please have them send tessaiga. You know where it is."

"I will see you in a few hours, Little brother. Send me the address and I will be there at 7, with tessaiga. Will you need anything else? A change of clothes perhaps?"

"Keh, yeah. Thanks again, Sesh. I'll see you in a few hours. Sorry, I woke you."

"You know better than I do, that I can run on even less sleep than you. This is but a minor inconvenience. And after you assisted in helping me to acquire my Mate almost 500 years ago, I have no problem assisting with yours. Go. Keep her safe from all manner of beasts, including your own."

He slid his phone into his pocket after the click on the other end signified Sesh had hung up on him, then took a deep breath trying to keep his demon in check. She shifted in her sleep and moaned a little and though he didn't remember moving, he was at her side in an instant. Her face was pinched, and he gently lay his hand against her cheek. She flinched away for a second then calmed and leaned into his touch. How did this small creature have such a hold on his heart already?

Sesshomaru was snuggled next to his Mate and sleeping contentedly when his phone rang. He grumbled for a moment, then extricated himself from his Mate's arms to answer the damned device. He was less than thrilled to see Inuyasha's name across the screen below the time of 3:48 am.

"Do you have any idea what time it is, Little Brother? You had better be dying in a ditch somewhere." His voice was grumbled and irritated.

"Sesh, I'm sorry for calling so late but shit has happened, and I needed to talk to you. I don't have anyone else."

With those words out, Sesshomaru stopped growling. "This sounds serious. Do I need to come collect you?" Then he felt himself sigh, resigned to help his stupid little brother. "Do I need to post bail?"

"No, but I'm glad you offered. Sesh, I almost lost control of my demon today. It's been centuries since you helped me learn to control it, but today it made it abundantly clear it wants something. I don't know if I can deny it."

It was damn near 4 in the morning. Was he really going to try to draw this out? "Inuyasha, what does it want?"

"It thinks I've found my mate."

He could hear the shame in his brother's voice and didn't understand. Even when he had found his Mate five centuries ago he wasn't ashamed. He was irritated that he had to wait until the child grew up, but it was worth the wait. He glanced over to the small figure snuggled beneath the blankets and smiled. He was very fortunate to have found her.

"Inuyasha, does she have feelings for you? If so, I do not see what the problem is."

"There's a lot to tell you, but I don't know where to start."

He was getting frazzled now. If there was so much to tell him, why did he call him at 4 in the morning when it was a bad time to talk? "The beginning is usually the best place, but it is almost four in the morning, so perhaps you can come over before work and we can discuss this over coffee?"

"I don't think I can come into work today. She was attacked last night. I have to make sure she's okay."

"Do you know who the attacker was, Inuyasha? Do I need to put out an alert through the chain to be wary of someone attacking demons?" He made a mental note to contact all of his underlings in the morning and figure out who was attacked on the subway, and get the security footage so he could get the identity and ensure the safety of his domain.

"She's not quite a demon, but she's not a human either. That is something we'll talk about in the morning. I just need to know how to keep my demon under control."

He debated on what to respond. His Little Brother was obviously very distraught in this whole situation, but all the tools he had available were exactly that, already available. "Inuyasha, you and I both know that the only thing keeping you under control was the disguise spell, and the tessaiga. I can bring that to you, if I need to. I know you do not carry it around anymore."

"No, I'll get it later today. We might need to see about strengthening the disguise spell then. Just something to make sure I don't end up taking her against her will. But we'll talk about that later too. There is someone doing some attacking. I will find the fucker. He was in the subway."

"Hn, I do not understand why you insist on taking that disgusting mode of transportation. It smells like an unwashed gym shower stall. We have more than enough money to buy a car, you can be staying in a much nicer neighborhood as well, yet you still prefer to live in that hovel. You could bring her here, if you wish. No one would dare harm your bitch in my home."

"She's not a-" A scream echoed in the background then the phone clicked off. Sesshomaru looks outside and sees a storm has appeared as if summoned. Inuyasha has a great deal to explain, he'd better go to his apartment and get Tessaiga. He dressed silently, making sure not to wake his Mate, and left the room. He brewed a pot of coffee and watched out the floor to ceiling windows as a huge storm system was moving in from the sea. It seems his Brother's Bitch was going to need to be controlled and if Inuyasha was not capable, then they would have to put her somewhere so she couldn't destroy the entire island. The storm disappeared as swiftly as it formed and he knew he had to get everything ready.

He went to his car and though he normally had a driver so he could continue working while on his commute, he could drive adequately enough. He first went to Inuyasha's apartment, he had a key for emergencies of course, and collected clean clothes and he pulled the Tessaiga from its hiding place, then went to get something for breakfast. He knew if she was exerting enough energy to both create and dissipate a hurricane she was no mere mortal, but still that had to take a decent amount of energy. He sent several messages to his staff to prep one of his small side houses for visitors. He needed them to be somewhere safe, and then he would figure out if he needed to make somewhere to keep everyone else safe from her.

He received a message from his brother then and proceeded to punch the address into the GPS. He arrived earlier than he had anticipated, but he told his brother he was there all the same.

Kagome woke up and stretched slightly, her muscles still sore from overusing her powers. The sun wasn't up but she could hear voices. She stood and dressed for the day, sneaking a glance at her phone. 6:13 am. She needed to get ready for work. She found a towel in her laundry hamper and slightly wrapped it around her head so she could get to the bathroom unnoticed.

Unfortunately, she didn't get very far.

"Kagome, sorry did we wake you?" Yash was at her side before she was halfway to the bathroom.

"Yash, I'll be back in a minute. Ya know?" She cocked her head to the bathroom, and he seemed to get the idea quickly enough and stepped away until she went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She grabbed the ring and placed it onto the snake closest to her right ear and her snakes turned into black waves that cascaded down her back. Her eyes became blue and clear and her scars faded from view. She rinsed her face with warm water and finished getting ready to go to work. She had to go, she was running late as it was.

She stepped out of the bathroom and went directly to the hall closet, grabbing her coat and stepping into her shoes and heading towards the door. She was trying so hard to not garner the attention of the two men in her living room and knew she was failing miserably. Maybe they would just let her leave? She really had to get to work, and she couldn't stop and explain to them why. She closed the door behind her and headed past the elevator and ran down the stairs as quickly as she could. She heard her door closing behind her, but she needed to get away from him. He had seen enough of her weakness and vulnerability. She would figure out where she was moving to after work and get her things packed by the end of the week.

She had plenty of money saved up and could easily get access to more if it was needed. She would have to arrange for another identity. Fuck, she really liked it here too.

"Kagome, where are you going?! STOP!"

She barrelled down the stairs, trying to escape him. He seemed to materialize in front of her and she bumped straight into his chest. His arms wrapped around her forearms to prevent her from falling backwards.

"You crazy woman! Where the hell are you going? Come on, we've gotta talk."

She was so distraught; she had to go. She knew she had to go., "Yash, I have to go to work. Just lock the door, I have a key. Just- just go. I'm going to be late for class."

She tried to sneak past him, tried to get away again, but his arms gripped her tighter.

"Did your brain freeze overnight or something? Now get the fuck back inside for a minute!" He pulled her against him and took one leap and landed back on her floor, pulling her back to her door. She couldn't pull away from him. She needed to escape before they hurt each other, but she couldn't convince her traitorous body to pull away from him.