Disclaimer: I do not own either Ranma or Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi has that honour. I'm just borrowing them for a little while.

Inuyasha's forehead hit the table the moment after the words came out of Kagome's mouth. Of all the ways to put it, there had to have been something more subtle than that. A lead up as it were. But nope.

Kagome always went the direct route.

Ranma looked between the two of them, Kagome with a smile on her face and Inuyasha's forehead still against the table, having narrowly missed his tea cup, unable to decide whether the woman was being serious. Maybe he had misjudged the two of them and they were actually batshit crazy.

Maybe they were just good at hiding it.

"So basically . . ." he started, unsure of how to word . . . anything at this point, "you're saying demons . . . are real?" Kagome nodded, her smile turning into a serious look as he spoke. "And you're saying you're married to a demon."

"Well, half-demon really. More commonly known as hanyou." She sounded so serious, so sane in her reasoning. Hell, the only experience he really had of someone clearly not being all there was Kodachi and he didn't think there was any way to help her. Maybe if she found someone that could mellow her out. But then again, she had Kuno for a brother so he didn't see much hope for her there.

"I don't believe this," Ranma muttered before standing up, letting out a snort. "For some reason, I thought that coming here would be a good idea. That I would be able to actually talk to someone here without being judged or have any expectations. I didn't expect to be made fun of. Thanks for your help." He turned and started to walk out of the room.

"Hey, kid!" He stopped as Inuyasha spoke, his tone slightly harsh. Harsher than he'd heard from the man before. Even when he had confronted Happosai, he had been calm and his voice steady. Nothing like the bark he had just emitted. "Turn around."

Ranma turned to see that Inuyasha had stood up, facing him, he was currently pulling out the braid his hair was tied back in, allowing it to fall about his shoulders as he shook his head. He pulled his hands in front of him, his eyes never leaving Ranma as he watched him. He slowly pulled a ring off of his right index finger, gripping it in his left hand as he stared at the teen.

Ranma gasped as the man in front of him changed. He had seen the Jusenkyo curses plenty of times, hell he went through it every time he got hit with cold water but this was completely different.

He couldn't help but stare as the pitch black hair turned into a long, shimmering waterfall of silver, as deep brown eyes bled to amber. He glanced down to his hands as they flexed, seeing the nails had elongated into sharp claws before looking back up at his face. His eyes widened even more as he noticed the purple stripes that slashed across the man's cheekbones, standing out against the pale skin. He also noticed that they ran down his arms, the same shade a few tendrils breaking off on his bicep and forearm before curling around his wrist.

"No one's making fun of ya, kid." Ranma looked back up at his face before noticing the top of Inuyasha's head. Buried in the silver of his hair, he noticed what looked like dog-ears, twitching continuously, shifting and swiveling atop his head.

"What . . .?"

"Like I said, Inuyasha is a hanyou, or half-demon." Kagome seemed completely at ease with the transformation her husband had just undertaken, smiling at him as he sat down. "Why don't you sit down and we'll explain." Ranma glanced nervously at the now silver-haired man sitting by Kagome. "Don't worry, he might bark pretty loud but he doesn't bite." She gave a small giggle, reaching up and rubbing one of his ears gently before he snorted gently, pulling away. "Well, not people he likes anyway." Inuyasha gave a small grin, displaying a set of fangs that made Ranma gulp slightly. While he had seen Ryoga's own fang like teeth on a regular basis they didn't freak him out as much as they might have done but he had the distinct feeling that the fangs in front of him could do a hell of a lot of damage.

"Don't worry, kid." Inuyasha chuckled, motioning for him to sit down.

Ranma sat down in the seat he had been before, unable to tear his eyes away from Inuyasha. Though he could see it, he couldn't quite believe that the one sat in front of him and the human man he had seen before and was getting to know were the same person.

"Maybe if you put the ring back on," Kagome suggested quietly and Ranma snapped out of his daze.

"No!" the two looked to him, Inuyasha's ears twitching slightly at the volume. "I mean, no, it's okay. I guess it's just . . . I don't know."

"Takes some getting used to, I know." Kagome looked at her husband again and Ranma could see nothing but love in her eyes as she looked at him. "But while he may look different, he's still the same Inuyasha you've been talking to. He's still the same one who found you by the canal. If it weren't for his sense of smell, he might not have found you."

"What do you mean?" His sense of smell?

"Inuyasha has an incredible sense of smell," Kagome explained, picking up her tea cup. "He once managed to track me half way across the city following a few drops of blood." Ranma glanced at Inuyasha, who nodded. "There were a couple of times that it was a bit of a drawback but most of the time it came in handy."

"Like that damned painter," Inuyasha grumbled, shaking his head, "or Sango's scent beads. Man, I hated those things."

"I know you did." Kagome giggled before turning to look at Ranma again. "You see, Inuyasha's nose is so sensitive, extremely strong scents can overpower him. Not that it happened often but there were one or two times." He huffed in response and Ranma couldn't help but give the couple a small smile.

"Wait, the tea," Ranma flashed back to Inuyasha's reaction to that healing tea Kagome had given him.

"Huh?"

"After I woke up, Kagome-san, you gave me some tea that Inuyasha-san didn't like the smell of," he reminded them and Inuyasha nodded, his nose wrinkling at the thought of that tea.

"Ah yes, Inuyasha's never liked that tea."

"Told ya it was nasty." Inuyasha huffed and Kagome giggled. "Was nasty even when Kaede-baba used to make it."

"You can't still be sore about when she made you drink it," Kagome rolled her eyes and shook her head. "One thing you can say about Inu's; they know how to hold a grudge."

"Inu's?" Ranma asked, wondering if she just meant Inuyasha considering the first part of his name.

"Oh, sorry," she took another sip of her tea, placing the cup in front of her, "Inuyasha, as you can probably tell by his name, is an Inu. A dog demon. If you couldn't tell by the ears." She grinned, causing said ears to crease back slightly as their owner shot his wife an unimpressed look. "Oh you can't blame me."

Ranma shook his head, trying to make sense of what was happening in front of him. Apparently, the male of the couple that he had started to get to know and like was actually a half dog demon whose real appearance was hidden by a ring he wore.

"I think I'm going insane." He muttered to himself and Inuyasha chuckled slightly.

"Nah, kid, you're absolutely fine," he responded and Kagome gave him a small smile.

"The ears aren't just cute," Inuyasha gave another snort and Kagome reached up again, this time rubbing the base of his ear, a spot she had learned could quickly calm him down if needs be. Even though he didn't need it at the moment, she had learned there were very few instances where her mate would refuse a good ear rub. "They're really sensitive, he can pick up different sounds from miles around. And they're also a good indicator of what kind of mood he's in. When he's not wearing the concealment ring, that is." Ranma looked back at Inuyasha, who had his eyes closed and had not pulled away from Kagome's hand as he had before. "See, he's a big softie really. A nice ear rub and he's no worse than a puppy." There was amusement in her tone and Ranma couldn't help but grin as a low rumble sounded from deep in Inuyasha's throat.

"Are there many of them?" Ranma asked and Kagome turned away from watching her husband to face Ranma.

"Youkai?" Ranma shot her a confused look. "Demons? They prefer the term youkai." Ranma nodded as though that made complete sense. "And yes, there are a lot of them around, actually. Like Inuyasha, they use concealment spells to hide their true forms. In this time, humans wouldn't really be able to handle the knowledge that youkai were roaming around."

"I can understand that," Ranma nodded, knowing that if there were more that looked like Inuyasha did now wandering around, people would go nuts.

"If you meant are there any other Inu's around, there are others around but they're a little further to the north of Japan. They've lived in the west for millenia. Inuyasha's the only one that lives in Tokyo but there's one other that comes to Tokyo on a regular basis. Incidentally, he's Inuyasha's older brother." Ranma blinked, looking at the hanyou who, apparently was still enjoying the ear rub he was receiving. Somehow the thought that Inuyasha had an older brother seemed strange. To think that there was another man like him roaming around Tokyo.

"Does he look like Inuyasha-san?" He asked, wondering if there was any way he would recognise a youkai if he saw one. If they all wore concealment spells that were as effective as Inuyasha's then he doubted it. "He's enjoying that."

Kagome gave another small giggle, nodding. "He'll let me know when he's had enough." Ranma wondered how she could be so at ease around him. But then again, she was his wife and if Ranma was honest with himself, he didn't feel threatened by Inuyasha. And not only because he was currently receiving an ear rub that any regular dog would be jealous over. Note to self, do not compare Inuyasha to regular dog out loud. Ranma presumed that would go down like a lead balloon. "If you're referring to the ears, no, those are specific to Inuyasha. His brother, Sesshomaru-san is a full youkai. They're only half-brothers through their father. Inuyasha's mother was human while Sesshomaru-san's was a youkai as well. Other than the ears, they do look pretty similar. Sesshomaru also has silver hair and amber eyes. He has similar markings to Inuyasha but his are magenta rather than Inuyasha's purple. And he also has a crescent moon on his forehead that Inuyasha doesn't have." Ranma looked up towards Inuyasha's ear as it started to flick violently in Kagome's hand and he snorted, pulling away. "Told you he'd let me know. Back with us now?" She laughed as Inuyasha shook his head.

"What are you talking about my brother for?"

"Ranma-kun was curious to know if there were any other Inu's wandering around Tokyo," Kagome shrugged, "so I told him about oniisan."

"I wonder when the Lord will grace us with his presence again," Inuyasha mused looking over to Kagome who rolled her eyes at the statement. "He's been hanging around a lot lately."

"Who knows with your brother." She shrugged and smiled at Ranma's confused look. "Sesshomaru-san is the Lord of the West."

"Lord of the West?"

"Doesn't mean much to humans anymore but it used to." Inuyasha folded his arms across his chest as he spoke. "The House of the West used to be something that everyone in the Western Lands looked to for guidance and leadership. Since the humans started to develop technology and become more scientific in their belief systems, the belief in youkai has dwindled. Which is one of the reasons we have to hide our true forms now. The youkai around still know the power of the West but it's fallen out of human knowledge."

Ranma sat there for a moment, trying to absorb everything he had just learned and sort it all out into nice little compartments so he could deal with everything in his own time. But they wouldn't go.

He shook his head, seeing Inuyasha giving him an amused look, probably seeing his mental overload.

"So . . . how did you end up marrying a . . . hanyou?" The word came out as more of a question than anything else, wondering if he'd remembered it correctly. Inuyasha nodded indicating he had, turning to look at his wife, clearly wondering how she was going to answer that one. The kid looked like he had enough to digest what with the way his eyes would drift to Inuyasha every few seconds. He couldn't say he wasn't used to it. Over the centuries, people who had learned of his hanyou status had often given him the same look. While he was no longer scorned and insulted the way he used to (he owed Sesshomaru's eventual acceptance of him for that), the majority of humans couldn't get to grips with the ears perched on top of his head.

That always seemed to be the thing they focused on.

Not the claws and fangs that could rip them apart faster than they would be able to scream, not the silver hair that clearly showed him as something different from a distance (although nowadays what with all the strange hair colours humans seemed to give themselves, that wouldn't stand out too much) or the markings that adorned his face and body.

The ears.

Inuyasha had realised that it was most likely because everything else could be explained somewhat. His silver hair could be dyed, his amber eyes could be contacts, his markings could be tattoos. But how do you explain dog ears?

Thank the Kami for concealment spells, that's all he could say.

"I think that might be a story for another time," Kagome swiftly derailed that line of questioning. "It's a long story and I think we've probably given you more than enough to think about."

Ranma sat back, feeling a little disappointed but knowing she was right. There was little doubt that he would be able to think about anything else for a while, which he knew was going to get him in trouble. Whether it be yelled at for not listening or ending up in the Tendo's pond for not focusing on his father.

"I should be getting home," he said softly, glancing at the clock. He knew that Kasumi would have dinner ready soon and if he didn't get home before it was served, there wouldn't be any, courtesy of his father. The three of them stood up, Inuyasha sliding the concealment ring back on his finger, his appearance instantly transforming to that of the human he had come to know.

"In case there are any late visitors to the shrine." He explained and Ranma nodded, part of his mind wanting to enforce that the silver haired man with the dog ears he had seen was not real and it had been a figment of Ranma's imagination.

Nah! His imagination wasn't that good.

The couple walked him out, watching as he crossed the courtyard and walked down the steps.

"We have to tell him soon," Kagome whispered, resting her head on Inuyasha's chest. He let out a low rumble in agreement, the vibrations from his chest running through her. "I don't know how much longer I can keep it from him."

"He needs time," Inuyasha wrapped his arms around his mate, pulling her close to him. "We gave him a lot to think about today. He now knows that there is another world out there. A youkai underworld as it were. One he'd never thought of. He's gonna need to process that."

"I know," she sighed, wrapping her arms around his waist. "It's just hard."

He rested his cheek on the top of her head, letting out another low rumble of agreement as he steered them back into the house.

~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~

Kagome had been right, Ranma mused as he sat on the roof of the Tendo house. Dinner had been the usual mayhem, Genma trying to steal his food when he wasn't watching and Happosai attempting to drench him at every turn. The diminutive man had questioned where the couple that had been at dinner the other night had come from, where they knew them from and he had been regaled with the story of how Taisho Inuyasha and Kagome had come into Ranma's life.

Of course he had listened to the story with glee. He had often found Ranma to be a little punk who didn't know his place. Hearing that Akane had managed to best him as she had like she hadn't been able to do before made Happosai grin.

But along with that, there was a niggling worry in the back of the grandmaster's mind. Ranma was supposed to be his heir, the one to take over the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts when Happosai deemed him ready to do so. He was the strongest practitioner of the Anything Goes style and although they may all know it, Genma, Soun and Akane wouldn't admit it. If there was something interfering with the boy's strength enough to allow Akane's mallet to overpower him enough to knock him out for nearly a day, Happosai wanted to know about it.

Ranma hadn't stuck around after dinner, heading out into the dojo to meditate. His mind was too busy to do anything else really. He had been followed shortly after by Akane who stopped at seeing him sitting in front of the small shrine they kept in there. He wasn't in the upside down meditation position he could often be found in and Akane couldn't help but worry a little as she saw him sitting there, completely still – which in itself was a rare sight as Ranma was usually consistently moving – his head slightly bowed as his hands met in his lap, eyes closed and a serious expression on his face.

Not wanting to disturb him, Akane left the dojo, foregoing her practice for the night.

The meditation hadn't really helped him to sort out what was rumbling through his mind.

Demons – or youkai, apparently was the proper term – were real.

They were hidden in plain sight in normal society. If Inuyasha hadn't taken off the ring that held the concealment spell, he would never have guessed that there was anything different about the young man.

Other than the way he had grabbed Happosai when the letch had launched himself at Kagome.

Although it would explain how he was able to do that.

So, there were two options.

One: Youkai were real and they were wandering around, just like humans, blending in and hiding. If Inuyasha and Kagome were to be believed, they had been feared many years ago. They had said that Inuyasha's brother was called the Lord of the West and that though the title had been forgotten by humans, he was still feared by youkai. If they were to be believed then anyone that he ran into on the street, talked to, possibly even kids at school, could be one. And he would have no idea.

Two: Ranma had taken one too many whacks to the head and his brain was misfiring. Maybe he was still unconscious and his mind was cooking all of this up while he lay there.

While the second option seemed more feasible, he knew he wasn't that imaginative.

"Ranma-kun?" He turned to the small trapdoor in the roof, the one he sometimes used to get up here. Majority of the time, he would just jump out of the window of the room he and his father shared. He saw Akane, her head and shoulders outside while the rest of her was still safely ensconced in the house.

Hopefully she was in an amicable mood. He couldn't deal with anything else right now.

She slowly climber through the rest of the hole, settling herself not far from him on the roof. "Are you okay?" Her voice was quiet, barely more than a whisper and Ranma blinked at her, wondering if he had heard correctly. "I mean, you were really quiet at dinner. Normally you would have been arguing with your father or Happosai but it seemed like you were somewhere else."

He let out a sigh, leaning back on his hands as he looked out towards the lights highlighted the buildings that made up the Nerima ward. Honestly, he hadn't really expected anyone to notice. "Yeah," his voice too was soft, not wanting to disturb the relative peace in the air. It wasn't often that the Tendo dojo was quiet and he found himself reluctant to change that. "Just got a lot on my mind is all." Like if I'm going insane, he thought to himself. It was becoming the only real explanation he had for that afternoon.

"Anything I can help with?" She asked and he blinked again, wondering who the girl sat next to him was and what she had done with Akane. "Don't look at me like that." She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and sticking her nose in the air. "I just thought that maybe . . ." she trailed off.

"Thanks for the offer but this is something I gotta deal with on my own." Ranma sighed and she nodded, giving him a small smile. "Actually, there is one thing."

"What?" She perked up a little but he knew she wasn't going to like what he said.

"Stop getting so angry," she froze and he held up a hand, stopping her as she opened her mouth to say something. "What I mean is, actually listen to me when I say something. Like the whole thing the other week. Nabiki mentions Shampoo and you automatically assume that I've done something. You didn't listen to what I had to say. You never do." He looked to her, seeing her sitting there with a shocked look on her face. It seemed that Ranma's words may actually have some effect.

She sat there for a few moments, not really looking at anything, simply staring in front of her, processing Ranma's words. "I'm sorry," she whispered so quietly Ranma almost missed it. "I don't know why I do but . . . I'll try to be better. I promise I'll hear you out before coming to any conclusions."

Ranma nodded. It was a start. He liked Akane. Even though he constantly called her un-cute, a tom boy and whatever insult he could think of at that moment in time, he did like her. He was kind of afraid to admit that to anyone, even himself in a way, because he knew that his father and Tendo-san would immediately start to push the two of them to get married.

He didn't know about Akane but he wasn't ready for that.

She gave him another small smile before she headed back down into the house. He sighed, looking back out over the rooftops and he couldn't help but wonder how many of the houses in front of him had non-human inhabitants.

He was broken out of his thoughts a moment later by squealing coming from the house below him. Both human and non. He rolled his eyes as he heard Akane calling to her 'P-Chan' claiming that she'd missed him.

Damn he hated that pig!

~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~

Ranma was jolted awake as he impacted head first with the Tendo's pond, immediately feeling the shift to his female body. He pulled himself out of the water, fuming at his father and at himself. It had been weeks since he had pulled that stunt and Ranma knew that he should have been on the lookout for it. Though there was only so much you could look out for while asleep.

He didn't pay his father any mind as he stormed upstairs, ignoring Akane as she yelled into the house about meeting some friends before school. He had taken to walking to school on his own lately, finding it gave him time to think. It also meant that he could avoid Kuno as the idiot always thought that he would be with Akane. True they may have arrived together at school at the same time but they had their own friends and barely interacted through the day.

Not unless they could help it, that is.

"Ranma-kun," he turned as he walked towards the door, having taken a hot bath and changed back into his male form and making his way towards the door to head out, "I meant to ask Akane but she left so quickly this morning. Would you mind heading to the market after school and picking up a few things for dinner?"

"Sure," he took the list she handed him, stuffing it into his bookbag and giving her a wave. He quickly slipped his shoes on before taking off as he usually did, leaping onto the first fence he came to. He had finally figured out how to avoid the ladle-lady and he'd managed to do so for the second morning in a row. He had no doubt she'd get him at some point soon but for the moment, he was revelling in the small victory.

He stopped as he spotted a familiar yellow tunic on a body that seemed to be turning in every which way. He rolled his eyes at the lost boy, jumping down off the fence to see if he could figure out where he was supposed to be going.

"Hey, Ryoga!" The boy turned at the sound of his voice and Ryoga immediately got into a fighting stance. Seemed to be his usual pose around Ranma. "I haven't got time to fight you today but you look lost."

"I'm fine," he ground out and Ranma raised an eyebrow. Along with being unable to find his own front door, Ryoga was not a good liar. It still amazed him that Akane didn't know that he was P-Chan. Ranma felt bad about her not knowing but he had sworn not to tell. Even though it had been to a dog at the time, he still felt the words.

Ranma couldn't help but eye the boy's teeth, seeing the unusually long canines protruding from his mouth. His mind flicked back to the other set of canines that he had seen lately, reasoning that Inuyasha's were definitely more deadly than Ryoga's.

It didn't matter that the body they were attached to could apparently be quickly mollified with a good ear rub.

Not that anyone other than Kagome would even try to get close enough.

"Look, like I said, you look lost so I thought I'd try to help," Ranma repeated, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Like I need your help," Ryoga spat back as Ranma had been expecting. Though he didn't like it, people were right when they said that he and Ryoga were similar. Neither one of them liked the thought that they might need help sometimes. He still felt embarrassed about what had transpired with Inuyasha and Kagome. He had felt uneasy since he had found out just how long he'd been out. Akane hitting him hard enough with a mallet to go flying wasn't an unusual occurrence. It knocking him out like that, however, was.

"Fine," Ranma turned around, waving over his shoulder at the boy. "Just trying to help, is all."

Great, now I'm going to be late. He grumbled mentally as he took off down the street towards the school. His teacher hadn't been impressed and as usual, he had been made to stand in the hall and hold buckets.

At least something was normal.

~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~I~R~

"So how come you were late today?" Ranma looked up from his lunch to see Akane standing in front of him. He had sat in his usual spot under a tree when it had come to lunch. Hiroshi and Daisuke had gotten in trouble in their last class – and for once he hadn't been involved - and had been held back by the teacher so he had come out to lunch alone. She sat down next to him, pulling out her own lunch.

"I saw Ryoga and he looked lost," Ranma shrugged and Akane glanced at him, her chopsticks stilling momentarily as he spoke. She had to be honest, her mind had automatically flicked to the two of them getting into another fight and could feel the reprimanding words on the tip of her tongue. She stopped as she remembered the promise she had made to Ranma only a few nights before, so she bit back the words and continued on with her lunch. "Asked if he wanted help but he threw that back in my face." He shrugged again as though he hadn't expected much else.

"Why did you stop?" She asked and he looked at her, chopsticks in his mouth, looking confused. "Surely you knew that he wasn't going to accept any offer of help. So why did you stop?"

"Eh, felt like the right thing to do," Ranma finished his lunch, putting the box on the ground next to him. "Feel kinda sorry for the guy. I'd hate to be lost all the time."

Akane nodded, agreeing completely. She'd hate to be wandering around all the time, never knowing if she was going to end up where she wanted to go. Hell, Ryoga had been four days late to a fight between him and Ranma that was supposed to take place behind his own house, for crying out loud! She'd probably never leave the house if that was her.

They sat in silence for a little while, while Akane finished her lunch.

"Hey, Ranma," he made a small noise in response, "did you ever find out how Inuyasha-san managed to grab Happosai like that?" She thought she sensed him tense slightly, just for a split second before he forced himself to relax. "I mean, that was awesome. Imagine if he could teach us how to do that, we wouldn't have any problems with the old pervert anymore."

"You right about that," Ranma chuckled, leaning his head back against the tree. "Um . . . no, I haven't thought to ask." Akane narrowed her eyes at him even though he couldn't see her. While there may be many things she didn't know about Ranma, she knew when he was lying.

And he was lying.

"Uh-huh," she knew that her tone belied the fact that she didn't believe him but she said nothing. "Well, maybe you could ask when you see him again. It would be cool to learn."

"I will," his response was non-committal and she could see the muscles in his arms had tensed again. Just what was he hiding?

They'd been through a lot together and while they hadn't always gotten along, there was some kind of truce between them. She liked Ranma, she did but she didn't risk saying anything because of her father and Saotome-san. And whenever she and Ranma had a moment to try and sort anything out between the two of them – especially revolving around the engagement – something happened. Either one of Ranma's other fiancée's appeared or one of her many admirers.

Life was getting too chaotic and had been for a while now – since Ranma and his father had shown up, if she was honest – and she wanted off the ride.

But she didn't want to leave Ranma.

I'll be honest, the ear rub bit wasn't planned. That just kind of wrote itself.