Disclaimer: I do not own either Ranma or Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi has that honour. I'm just borrowing them for a little while.
Ranma's eyes scrunched tightly as consciousness returned to him. He could feel the warmth of the sun on his face and without opening his eyes realised that he was laying on something soft, a thick blanket covering him.
"I understand what you're saying but . . . are you absolutely sure?" He heard a feminine voice ask softly. It wasn't a voice he recognised, having heard the females in the Tendo house for so long he would be able to pick them out without any trouble.
"Come on, Kagome, have you ever known my nose to be wrong?" A male voice answered her, sounding confident over something. There was a short silence before a small snort sounded. "You can't blame me for that. I'd just woken up if you remember correctly. And I quickly figured out the truth."
"But she's a girl."
"I know," he heard the male sigh gently. "That's what's confusing me. She may be female but her scent is most definitely male and-"
"And what?"
"And she's waking up." He heard two sets of footsteps moving towards him, slowly opening his eyes.
He didn't recognise the room he was in, the walls a pale green and white curtains blowing gently in the breeze coming in from the slightly open window. He turned his head, looking around the room, seeing an older couple, looking in their mid-twenties enter the room. These must be the two he'd heard before.
He sat up slowly as the woman walked over to him, kneeling beside the futon he was on. "How are you feeling?" She asked, giving him a warm smile.
"Umm . . . I'm okay." He looked between the two of them again, seeing the guy giving him a slightly suspicious look. He couldn't help but think he looked familiar even though he couldn't place where he had seen him before. He looked back to the woman in front of him, seeing nothing but warmth in her deep brown eyes. "But how did I get here?"
"You were down by the canal," she explained softly, "Inuyasha-kun found you and brought you here." She gestured towards the man standing in the doorway. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Taisho Kagome and this is my husband, Taisho Inuyasha."
"Saotome Ranma," he supplied with a small nod in lieu of a more formal bow, not noticing the look exchanged between the couple at his name. "I was down by the canal?"
"Yeah, got no idea how you got there but when I found ya, you were unconscious." He stepped into the room, stopping behind his wife and looking down at the teenager in front of him. "Any idea how you got there?"
He thought for a moment before realising that Akane must have hit him harder with her mallet than he'd thought. He relayed what had happened and the two of them looked completely appalled at his story.
"I'm sorry," Inuyasha shook his head, having heard some things in his long life but never someone being hit so hard with a mallet that they had flown for miles. "She hit you with a mallet? And you ended up by the canal?" Ranma nodded and the two of them looked at each other again.
"I know we've been through some weird stuff but never thought about hitting you with a mallet." Kagome quipped with a small giggle and Inuyasha rolled his eyes.
"You didn't need it." He grumbled crossing his arms as Kagome laughed.
"Where am I exactly?" Ranma asked watching the two of them. He couldn't help but notice how comfortable the two of them were together. Being husband and wife you would expect it. Sighing softly to himself he didn't think he'd ever feel like that with his proclaimed fiancée's.
"You're at the Higurashi Shrine." Kagome supplied and he thought about where the shrine was in comparison to the dojo. "You've been unconscious since Inuyasha found you last night. I'm sure there are people that are very worried about you." Ranma snorted mentally, wondering if that were true. The only one he could see expressing genuine concern for his well-being might be Kasumi. "I think we should at least let your family know you're alright."
He nodded and gave her the phone number for the Tendo Dojo and she walked out of the room, leaving Ranma and Inuyasha alone together. The older man was still giving Ranma a slightly curious look as if trying to figure him out. If Ranma had to admit, there was something about the man standing in front of him that made him slightly uncomfortable. Sure he had taken care of him when he needed help but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something not quite right about his saviour. Even without trying, Ranma could tell that he had a powerful aura and it was completely different to anything he'd felt before.
"So, I got a question," Inuyasha looked Ranma square in the eye as he broke the lingering silence, his gaze not wavering as he watched the teenager. "How does a female smell completely like a male?"
"Huh?" Ranma looked down, noticing for the first time that he was in his cursed form. He swallowed as he looked back up at Inuyasha who had his deep brown eyes fixed on Ranma.
"You heard me. How do you smell like a male when you are clearly female?" He repeated his question and Ranma took a deep breath.
"Inuyasha," Kagome walked back into the room, a slight reprimand in her tone. She also carried a tea tray with her. It carried three cups, a kettle and a small pouch. She kneeled down in front of Ranma, placing the tray in front of her. "Apologies, Saotome-chan, he can get a little impatient."
"Ranma, please." He looked at both of them, indicating that they should both use his given name. "Don't worry about it. I know the feeling." He shrugged, giving the two of them a small smile.
"I've called your family. They were extremely happy to know that you're alright," Kagome gave him a comforting smile. "They were really worried about you." Ranma nodded absently at her words, thinking about those at the Tendo dojo. He had a feeling that the only one who would be genuinely worried was Kasumi. Since he had arrived, she had been the only one that hadn't expected anything of him or pushed him to do anything. Tendo-san and his pop would only worry because if he didn't come back then their dreams of a cushy retirement while he and Akane ran the dojo would be out the window. Nabiki probably hadn't even noticed he wasn't there, busying herself with whatever scam or blackmail scheme she was running. Ever the mercenary. And Akane. She would probably just blame anything on him as she always did.
He didn't know how much more of that he could take.
Mentally shaking himself, clearing his mind of those thoughts, he watched as Inuyasha walked to sit on the other side of the tea tray, lowering himself with a fluidity Ranma hadn't seen before, even though his long training journey, seating himself next to the futon Ranma was on as Kagome poured the water into the cups. Two of them coloured immediately with tea but the other stayed just as water. She picked up the pouch and opened it, Inuyasha's nose wrinkling immediately at the scent.
"That's not the same stuff Kaede-baba used to use, is it?" He asked, leaning away as she mixed the herbs in with the water she had poured. Ranma didn't understand his reaction to the mixture. Yes, he could smell it and it didn't smell all too good but it didn't warrant that reaction, did it? Kagome nodded, moving the cup away from Inuyasha slightly as she waited for it to brew before handing it to Ranma.
"Here," she said softly as he took it from her. "It may not taste great but this will help you get your strength back."
"Hey, it works but that stuff is nasty," Inuyasha shuddered and Kagome rolled her eyes, a small teasing smile on her face. "It's best to just drink it all in one go."
"I think I'll let it cool down a bit first." Ranma laughed, gesturing towards the steam and Kagome nodded. "Umm . . ."
"Is everything okay, Ranma-kun?" Kagome asked as she sipped her own tea.
"It's about Taisho-sama's question," he bit his lip nervous. He hadn't willingly told anyone about his curse before. "About my scent."
"Call me Inuyasha," he waved off the title. "We're not very formal around here." Kagome nodded, giggling lightly.
Ranma nodded, looking to the kettle. He took a deep breath. "Is there any water left in the kettle?"
"Yeah," Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at the young girl on the futon in front of him, curious as to why she wanted the kettle water when her tea was still steaming. "But it's hot."
"I know." She looked down at the cup in her hand, placing it on the floor to the side of the futon and gesturing for the kettle.
Kagome looked puzzled as she handed the young red head the kettle while Inuyasha looked concerned, his eyes narrowing even further wanting to be wrong about the young girl in front of him. Kagome's eyes widened as the girl poured the hot contents of the kettle over her head, the change immediate.
Ranma felt the instant physical change that happened whenever he went from his cursed form to his true form or vice versa. He kept his eyes closed as he waited for them to take in what they'd seen. No one really reacted well to seeing his curse, especially not the first time.
"Jusenkyo," his eyes flew open at the almost canine growl that came from Inuyasha. He saw the man's eyes filled with a mixture of anger and sadness.
"Um yeah." He said rather pointlessly as Inuyasha at least seemed to know exactly what had happened. He had to wonder just how as most people didn't believe it until they saw it happen a couple of times. Unless your name was Kuno and had seen it more times than you could count and still didn't believe it.
"Damn it!" Ranma had to admit he jumped as Inuyasha's fist found its way through wood of the floor.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome scolded, her eyes narrowing at the sight of her husband's hand wrist deep in the floor. He sighed, pulling his hand out and Ranma blinked, seeing that there was not a scratch on his hand. Plough through walls and such he might but not even he managed to get away without at least one scratch. "Mama's not going to be happy that we have to fix the floor. Again!"
"I told Sesshomaru that we needed to get rid of those damn springs!" Inuyasha growled, folding his arms across his chest as he tried to calm down.
"But Yasha, they're in China." Kagome shifted towards him, placing a hand on his tense shoulder. "Even if you could have got there, there wouldn't have been much you could do. The Western Lands don't stretch that far."
"There's no telling how many have fallen in," he muttered, levelling his deep brown eyes at Ranma. "Are there any others that you know of?"
"Um . . ." Ranma hesitated, wondering if it was his place to tell others of the rest of the Jusenkyo cursed. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at the boy and Ranma reasoned that the couple already knew of the springs and apparently the man in front of him knew what they could do. "Well, my pop was also cursed the same day I was. He turns into a panda."
"Excuse me? Did you say a panda?" Kagome's eyes widened at the thought before letting out a small giggle. "I'm sorry."
Ranma waved her off. "There's also a boy I know who turns into a duck, a girl who turns into a cat," he couldn't repress the shudder at the thought of Shampoo's cursed form, "and another boy who turns into a pig."
"Huh," Inuyasha sat there for a moment, before giving a small smirk. "Well, at least you remain human."
"Yeah," Ranma responded glumly, hating it every time he transformed into a girl.
"So . . . a girl, a panda, a pig, a duck and a cat." Kagome let out a small, amused breath. "And I thought we were a rag-tag bunch."
"We were," Inuyasha countered. "How many groups like ours do you think there were wandering around?" Kagome shrugged, picking up her tea and taking a long sip.
Ranma picked up the tea as Inuyasha wrinkled his nose, his distaste clear. "Like I said, drink it down in one go. It works like nothing else but man, it's nasty." Kagome nodded, a sympathetic expression on her face. Ranma looked at the drink in front of him, wrinkling his nose and swallowing the herbal mixture in several large swallows. He coughed at the rancid taste, gratefully taking the glass of water Kagome offered him. "Told ya. But hey, like I said, it works."
"Definitely did for you." Inuyasha shrugged at Kagome's words.
Ranma shook his head as he tried to get the aftertaste out of his mouth, coughing once more, seeming to glare at the cup that had held the tea. "Damn, that was gross."
Inuyasha chuckled as Kagome gathered up the now empty tea cups and placing them on the tray. "You should start to feel much better soon." She stood gracefully and Ranma noticed that Inuyasha kept an eye on her, protective even when in their own home. "I know your family is getting worried about you so once you're up to it, Inuyasha can walk you home."
"You don't have to do that. I'll be fine getting home." Ranma protested and Inuyasha snorted as Kagome shook her head.
"Not after a bump like that," she told him sternly, as a mother would her child. "I don't care how often you get whacked in the head, it's not safe for you to be by yourself after being unconscious for so long. Besides, I told the young lady that answered the phone that my husband would be making sure you got home safely."
"Kid," Inuyasha tilted his head at the teenager, clearly amused, "best not to argue. She always gets her way in the end. Besides, I don't mind making sure you get home alright."
Looking between the amused smirk on Inuyasha's face and the stern 'no arguments' look from Kagome, Ranma knew he wasn't going to win against the older couple. It was strange how he had no problem arguing with Tendo-san or his own father but when two practical strangers insisted on something, he felt he had to comply.
Maybe it was because they'd gone out of their way to help him when they could have just taken him to the hospital and been done with it.
Or left him there like many of his so called friends would have done.
Had done before.
He was surprised to notice that after drinking the rancid concoction, he did feel better. Though he now understood Inuyasha's reaction to it.
"Come on, let's get ya home before it gets dark." Inuyasha stood, waiting for Ranma to follow before heading down the hallway.
"Inuyasha, Mama had to run out to get something for dinner but she said she won't be too long," Kagome met them down in front of the front door. He nodded as he slipped into his shoes, waiting for Ranma to do the same. Kagome gave her husband a quick kiss on the cheek as they left, telling Ranma not to hesitate if he needed anything.
Watching the two of them head down the shrine steps, Kagome quietly closed the door, immediately sensing the yokai behind her.
"So," she didn't turn at the sound of the smooth, cold as ice voice behind her, "you've found him."
"We have, oniisan, we have."