From his place at his sister's still sleeping side, Souta stared tight lipped at Inuyasha's red clad form just outside the room.
Yellow light poured from wide rectangle skylights in the ceiling, casting an ugly malaise pastiness over her fleshy cheeks.
Weak. That's how she looked beneath the thin blue sheet. With too many machines to count plugged into her frail body. With needles and sticky pads. The machines whirred and buzzed as they kept track of her vitals, assuring everyone she'd be fine in the end.
She didn't look fine with sweat trickling along her brow and her naturally plump lips clenched in a thin line.
Quickly he wiped the sweat away with a damp cloth. His eyes darted to her ear, half expecting blood to begin dripping along the smooth angle of her neck, branching out like a growing crimson tree as it had when he found her crumpled in the bowels of the well.
As he peered grimly down at the side of her pale face, she looked alive, hot, sweaty, and tired, but alive and healing. A breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding exploded from his chest. Relief washed through his veins and he let his eyes close for a moment.
Inuyasha said her miko energy would keep her alive.
The doctors called her an oddity, she'd cracked her skull, and in any normal circumstance that would mean likely death and definite surgery, but Kagome was anything but normal.
They explained that her body was healing quite quickly, and she would be well enough to go home in a few days. Despite her unmoving form breathing lightly in the hospital bed, she was not in a coma, but more like a sort of hibernating sleep using all her energy to heal her broken crown.
His hand hovered over hers until he gave in to his need for comfort, and gripped his fingers tightly around her still palm.
Her hand twitched in his grasp, so he held tighter, trying to will his strength into her.
Since he was just a baby, His big sister was always strong, safe, smart…his protector. If he needed help with anything, as soon as she found out, she'd jump all over it, doing whatever it took to make everything better.
That's the type of person Kagome was, and he knew it. She'd never let anyone suffer.
Like glee incarnate, she lit up the world. The saddest person on Earth stood no match for his sister. But lying there amidst the humming machines, unmoving, and quieter than she'd ever been... with her closed eyes tilted in pain.
She had never looked so frail in his eyes. He refused to leave her side.
Sometimes he'd sit in the large stiff pink chair next to the bed, but often he'd just stand over her, like a guard, refusing to leave even when the nurses threatened to call security as visiting hours were over.
Souta would not let his sister wake alone.
He would do whatever it took to make her safe and happy, he would stay by her side until she woke. The well reopened, he wanted to be the one to tell her, Inuyasha be damned, he wanted her first smile to be seen by him, her little brother.
It was his turn to be the one to make everything better if only for a moment. His turn to be her protector.
Out in the hall in hushed tones, the Hanyou and the rest of the family spoke of the Bone Eater's Well, the well that caused so much trouble in their lives. "I'm not sure I understand Inuyasha, why wouldn't the well let Kagome through, you got through fine…"
Inuyasha cut her off with a slight snarl to his tone, making his voice gravelly, not that he was mad at anyone but himself, "The others seem to think it had something to do with her using it too soon after travelling to the Feudal Era," shame bit at him, filling him up like a water skin, he failed her, he let her get hurt. "…it needed to recharge…or something like that. I'm not an expert on time travel!" His voice grew rougher with each word.
He was tired of explaining the same thing over and over again.
Tired of being in the stupid chemical filled hospital.
Tired of the emotions wreaking havoc in his chest.
Miroku would have been charming, explaining all the thoughts and ideas on the matter. He would have taken the time and energy to clarify, but Inuyasha, he knew he wasn't charming.
He was not going to try and win over Kagome's mother with ideas they weren't even sure about, and he was not going to try and be suave to do it.
The pungent smells throughout the building burned his sensitive nose, and barely covered the stench of blood and death.
His head ached with unwanted emotions and smells.
"Kagome…" He whispered so lightly that only he could hear her name on his lips.
Fear and worry…guilt…he didn't deal with those emotions well as they crashed through his gut.
Everything in his being told him it was his fault that Kagome cracked her skull, if he had been there…
Clenching his jaw, he let loose a growl.
His claws fisted at his sides.
Pain clearly etched itself in his face, and he cursed himself for not possessing the resolve that his full blooded Inuyoukai brother kept so easily in place no matter the situation.
Not wanting to be anywhere near the family until he could restrain the sadness threatening his tough exterior, he bolted out an open window at the end of the hall.
Her mother shot his retreating form a small sad smile before walking wordlessly back into the hospital room.
Jii-san groaned, shaking his head and rubbing the bridge of his nose, wondering why his granddaughter had ever been smitten with such a numbskull.
Following the Lord, InuMaigo lifted his nose into the air, taking in as much as his little lungs could hold.
His brother glided pretentiously five feet ahead of him with his long silver tresses dancing like a star lit waterfall trickling to his boot clad heels.
A gross looking toady imp demon thing kept squawking next to him about how awesome he was, like he needed more of a big head...
InuMaigo rolled his eyes and decidedly ignored the two ahead of him. He was far more interested in the world around him than his haughty brother and his weird friend.
Crisp pure unpolluted air wisped around the small child as he sucked in yet another deep succulent breath.
Pine, the scent ebbed and flowed as they walked through the forest, it reminded him of his father, fresh and clean, yet demanding.
The air was so rich, filled with the smooth scents of plum blossoms and hinoki trees, fresh mosses and young grass, dirt…oh the wonderful smell of dirt there were so many levels to the scent it produced.
Mineral rich, freshly turned, muddy, sandy, bug infested…Oh how he wanted to roll around in it, all of it, even in his human form, naked…
That's when he saw it, the largest puddle of mud he'd ever seen, and he bolted, unable to resist.
Crunch…crack…snap…It was worse than Jaken's high pitched squawking. With each sound, Sesshomaru had to fight the incessant twitch in his claws, begging to rip through the flesh of the whelp five paces behind him.
The pup had been taught absolutely nothing about stealth, and the sounds his heavy feet produced were driving the youkai to the edge of sanity.
Just when he found himself ready to tear the brat to pieces, the heavy crunchy sounds trailed away.
"Jaken, find the whelp." His green beak opened to begin a spew of babble Sesshomaru had no want for hearing, "Do not speak, just go."
The tone of his voice left no room to argument and promised severe pain if ignored.