Oh! I'm so tired! I worked the last 6 days straight, but it's all good. This weekend I have 3 days off-in a row! That's like never happened! Ah sweet joy... And I'll probably study the whole time. Oh well.
There seemed to be some confusion as to why Aki would be having breathing problems in the last chapter. Well, think of it as a rather unique form of asthma. Aki's Miko powers, which always has a tendency to burn her skin when she uses them, are constantly working to purify the air she breathes. Part of this is done externally of course, but just like everyone else, Aki's powers use several defensive positions to clean and purify the air. Most of our (normal human) air filters are internal, located in the nose and upper respiratory tract, i.e. right before the air enters the air sacs of the lungs. Now image Aki's body using miko energies in this very important and somewhat sensitive internal area. Talk about inflammation, irritated by exertion or stress. Seriously, I thought about this. And I did try to explain it in the fic in more general terms by way of Loki and Kaoru about 2 or 3 chapters ago. Throw in that Aki is constantly exhausted and she's a complete medical nightmare. Even demons have their problems, Aki just has more of them apparently. I told you I'm evil! (Please note, I am not an anatomy student nor a biology major or anything like that. I just pick this stuff up and remember it!)
I'd like to take this oppurtunity to mention my one and only wonderfuly faithful reviewer, who (I've learned) has done a little bit of advertising for this fic on the side. You so ROCK! I hope this explanation is a bit more informative than the last one I sent you... I was kind of trying to do two things at once, sorry. (Happens when you have two little brothers that do things like scouts 'n stuff. Humph their noisy too!) I'm glad you finally found this fic, heheh. I was pretty surprised when this fic went months without a review but my other fic snagged 5 on the first day it was posted... Weird!
But at least Rumiko TAkahashi is a fan... or she would be until she realized just what kinds of torture I put her characters through. Seriously, I'm glad she's too busy to check up on them since I leased them...
We see more of that contension between Loki and Sesshoumaru, get used to it. Loki's set himself up as Aki's main protector on this side of the well and You just gotta know that's going to conflict with Sesshoumaru's view of things. Heeheehee! Oh so evil!
Oh and Sesshoumaru gets nekkid in this chapter! Woo!
Shocking Reality
In less time than one might think, Aki managed to get her breathing back to normal. Of course having such an attack in the open doorway to you apartment wasn't normal, even for Aki.
"Okay, so what brought this on?" Loki asked quite concerned. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love having damsels in distress fall right into my arms as soon as they see me, but it's unusual for you to have one of these fits this early in your visit."
Aki sighted, "I know, I know. It probably wouldn't have happened if Kagome didn't have school today."
Loki lowered his eyebrows in confusion as he managed to lift both himself and Aki off the ground without dropping her. He carried her beyond the door and caught his first glimpse of what lie in wait beyond it. "Ah!" was his vocalization of enlightenment. There sat glaring at him, the inu brothers. "Well that does explain it."
"I thought it might," Aki replied, pointedly ignoring the demons of her living room
Loki chuckled as he shut the door with his foot. "I'll do my best to remain part of the solution and not the problem," he smiled wryly. "But first, lets get you cleaned up."
Aki nodded dully, it wasn't like she could have done anything against it if she wanted to. She was still shaking so hard she couldn't have propelled herself under her own power had she wanted to.
"I take it you've been teaching them the rules of time out?" Loki asked with amusement.
"More like teaching them not to press me when I'm on my own turf," she sighed tiredly. "I really hate when people disrespect me by damaging or threatening to damage my stuff without a thought."
"Must be a girl thing," the gang leader commented while placing her on the counter next to the kitchen sink.
Aki half-smiled at him and nodded slowly. "That's probably true."
"So tell me, what are the boys in trouble for and what are the terms of their time out?" Loki handed her a damp rag to wash her bleeding and raw lip.
Aki winced as the rough rag rubbed against the sensitive flesh she'd bitten during her fit earlier. "Well, at the moment they're both supposed to be sitting down and not making any noise." She said sensing the inu brothers weren't exactly following her orders right then. "I'm trying to prevent their overly volatile fraternal relationship from damaging my apartment. They can't seem to remember they're in time out for more than five minutes."
Loki almost laughed when her intuition was able to pick up on the brothers' lapse in behavior. "I see. Well then, to keep you from throwing yourself into another unhealthy episode, I promise to help maintain the lord and his younger brother-"
"HALF brother!" came from the living room.
Aki sighed and gave Loki a speaking look.
He chuckled and squeezed her hand. "Relax, I don't think they'll give us too much trouble after your collapse in the doorway." He brushed her hair from her face. "Like it or not, you worry them. The one will be overly protective of you for the rest of his life and the other will protect you for the rest of yours."
"Ah, but which one is which and to what purpose?" Aki grumbled rubbing her temple. "Loki I have a favor to ask." He raised an eyebrow at her, encouraging her to continue. "Could you take those two and show them how to use the shower?"
Loki grinned teasingly at her, "What? Are you too embarrassed to do it yourself?"
Aki snorted, "No, in fact I already tried once. I didn't get past turning the water on before Sesshoumaru had me across the room worried something was going to burst through the walls and get me," she rolled her eyes.
He chuckled at the thought, "I told you those pipes need some work."
Aki shook her head, "I like them the way they are. They don't leak, aren't clogged and don't fill the water full of rust and dirt. If it ain't broke, Loki, don't fix it."
It was his turn to roll his eyes before letting the subject drop. "All right then. So where's this bleeding wound I keep hearing about?"
"Under my shirt," she answered with a shrug.
Loki blinked, "Which means I don't get to take a look at it." There came a couple angry growls from the living room.
"I would say that's a fairly wise assessment," Aki nodded congenially. She slid off the counter, absently licking the dried blood from her lip.
"Okay fine, how about those bruises?"
Aki blinked at him and then looked down to where he was pointing. Each of her arms was sporting five brilliantly purple claw and finger shaped bruises. She closed her eyes and imagined her back was pretty colorful too. "Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," she sighed. Aki smiled ruefully, "I think I'm looking forward to seeing Mouse today."
"Only because she'll take him to task for every mark he caused," Loki frowned.
"Yep!"
"You do remember she's not as gentle when she's fuming and ready to chew people out, right?"
"Loki."
"What?"
"Stop worrying. She's not going to hurt me, and since I can't get him for it myself while I'm here, I'm going to enjoy watching her do it." Aki smirked sadistically.
"I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it, I'm saying you don't," Loki refused to let it drop.
"It's a necessary evil. Besides, I've lived through worse than bruises, scratches and poisoning if either of the two in my living room cared to remember," Aki raised her voice slightly to ensure they heard her.
"What'd I miss?" Loki demanded.
Aki shook her head, "Tell you later. First, they could really use a shower, Loki."
"I'm on it," Loki sighed and marched into the living room. "Alright boys, I, your trustworthy sensei, Loki have been given the task of instructing one Sesshoumaru and one Inuyasha in the proper grooming practices expected of modern day society."
Inuyasha snorted, "What could you possibly be able to teach us? How to look like a pansy?"
Sesshoumaru just awarded Loki his best "you are not worthy of my time" look.
"Fine if you're going to be rude, then I'm going to be rude. You guys stink! You could both do with a good scrubbing. Or rather you both seriously need a shower if you're going to follow Aki around all day. In case neither of you noticed, both Kagome and Aki are sticklers for being clean."
Sesshoumaru blinked, the boy did have a point. Damn. And now that he thought about it, he'd brought this on himself. He could have had the happy pleasure of Aki instructing him in this particular matter, but he'd overreacted and refused to let go. That and Inuyasha had shown up. He felt like rubbing his temple to soothe the headache building behind it. "All right, teach," the demon lord grit his teeth unhappily.
Inuyasha's mouth hung open mid-protest.
Loki grinned triumphantly and retrieved the bags from the hall out side the apartment. "Follow me then," the gang leader paused as he remembered something. "Oh and Aki?"
"Yeah," she called from the kitchen.
"Kaoru's stopping by in a few. She wanted to buy you breakfast in apology for last night," he informed her.
"She didn't have to do that," Aki came grumbling into view.
Both brothers looked surprised to see Aki looking and acting so normal so soon after her collapse. All evidence of the heart-stopping event had been washed away completely with the only reminder being her sorely abused lip.
"Aki, you okay?" Inuyasha asked with concern.
She smiled at him carefully, "I'm fine."
"Actually Kaoru's going all out on breakfast, partly because she wants to and partly because I told her she needed to apologize," Loki enlightened her.
"Geez, Loki. Way to take the sincerity out of it." She scoffed. "And really, if anyone should apologize it should be me. I said a few things I shouldn't have."
"You did nothing unwarranted," Sesshoumaru said firmly. "You had informed her previously to cease her actions towards 'setting you up.' She chose not to listen."
"I still shouldn't have said what I did!" Aki retorted. "Two wrongs do not make a right!"
"If you really feel the need, you can apologize when she gets here with breakfast," Loki sighed, completely ignoring the confused looks on the inu brothers' faces after Aki's last words.
"She has nothing to apologize for," Sesshoumaru insisted.
"How can I just apologize when she's going to all the trouble of buying breakfast?" Aki asked, not bothering with the taiyoukai's words.
"You know the whole female system of reciprocity and blame-share never made a lot of sense to me. Besides, she's got a lot more to apologize for," Loki shrugged. "And anyways, it's not like she's doing this completely on her own, Tuck's coming with her."
"Oh, well that's okay then," Aki smiled and winced in pain as the action tugged on her sore lip painfully. "Going to have to remember not to smile much today," she licked her lip absently.
Sesshoumaru reached out and cupped her chin in his hand, studiously peering down into her face. He brushed a gentle thumb over her bloodied lip. In that moment the great taiyoukai wanted nothing more than to sweep his legendary control over her and whisk her away to the safe quiet interior of his home in the past. He'd best control the urge before Aki noticed it. Especially that rather lusty idea of leaning forward and attempting to heal it
"Don't even think about it!" Aki growled softly. Apparently he hadn't hidden the idea forming in his mind quick enough. "One little bitty split lip is hardly life threatening. Now go get cleaned up!"
"Right-o guys, to the bathroom!" and Loki lead the charge down the hall followed sulkily by Inuyasha.
"Well? What are you still standing there for?" Aki raised an eyebrow questioningly at the sole occupant of the space just outside her kitchen.
"What will you be doing?" Sesshoumaru demanded.
Aki blinked, "You know, you're more paranoid about my whereabouts than my dad ever was. And he had me when I really couldn't take care of myself."
Still the inu youkai waited for his answer.
"Fine. I'll most likely be looking over the papers Loki left me in the kitchen until Kaoru and Tuck arrive. Then they'll probably have me move to the living room while breakfast is getting setup," she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I can't think of a reason for me to leave the apartment." Aki looked up at Sesshoumaru and pursed her lips, "Is that good enough for you?"
He looked down at her pouting up at him and was again amazed that the fragile looking creature that was Aki on this side of the well was the same exotically confusing female that could combat full-blooded youkai on his side of the same well. Magnetically he leaned down to kiss her.
"Don't even think about it!" Aki commanded firmly. Sesshoumaru whined just loud enough for her to hear. She rolled her eyes, "Sorry puppy, but there just happens to be blood on my lip and you already told me what happens when you taste blood."
He growled softly in protest.
She smiled mischievously up at him. "My previous protestations aside, I really don't think you want your little brother stumbling across us like that."
"Quite," he answered softly.
"Good thing you got me around to say no," her eyes twinkled up at him.
"Actually at this moment I could care less who happened across us," Sesshoumaru declared.
"Then it's even better that I won't allow it to happen," she growled back.
Sesshoumaru sighed.
"I think you have something to do," she looked at him pointedly.
He grimaced angrily, baring his teeth in distaste.
"Don't give Loki a hard time or I'll send Kaoru back as soon as she gets here. Maybe you'll get lucky and she'll try to set you up with someone," she teased.
The dog demon growled and pinned her to the wall. "There is only one I want!" His grip was firm yet more gentle than the last time he'd held her against a wall. "You are mine! No one else is allowed to touch you!"
"Pfftt! I belong to no one, nor do I necessarily need or want anyone to 'touch me', stupid!" she defied him.
"Oh?" he raised a delicately arched eyebrow as he slid the hand he didn't need to pin her down over the thin cotton shirt covering her skin. He watched as her eyes widened in alarm as that same hand slipped beneath the shirt to caress the flesh underneath. This time he coldly studied her reaction to him. Her own hands moved to grip his offending arm and push it away, succeeding only in sliding his clawed hand under the waistband of her jeans. She froze upon realizing what she'd done. "Perhaps you do not require the touch of another," he purred softly to her. "And maybe sometimes you do not want it," he allowed his hand to slip a little further south. "But when it happens, you seem to enjoy it." He leaned in to lick her ear while his hand continued to inch along the path to ecstasy.
Her grip on his arm had lost its strength sometime after he'd purred in her ear. Her brain had dissolved in the exhausted white fuzz produced by his demanding touch. "Sesshoumaru stop," she pleaded, her voice breathy and weak. He growled sending vibrations through her body from the path he 'd kissed down to where his mark used to be.
Suddenly the softness of his lip was replaced by the hard firmness of his fang. Aki's eyes widened in panic. Giving up her grip on his arm, she placed both hands on his chest to push him away.
He didn't budge. She didn't have the strength to push him away.
"Sesshoumaru, stop it! Please!" frantic tears slid down her face. He was holding her down with both hands now, the one on her shoulder the other against her abdomen under the cloth of her jeans. It hurt. "Sesshoumaru I can't breathe!" she gasped out.
Then suddenly the pressure was gone and she was free. Not waiting to find out why, Aki flew around the corner into the kitchen to escape.
Loki dragged one angry youkai lord down the hall by the ear. It disgusted him. How anyone could pressure and force a female to give up that which was most sacred was beyond him. He had thought that with Sesshoumaru being a great lord and all he wouldn't have to worry about leaving Aki alone with the male. Guess he'd been wrong.
Inuyasha eyed the pair as they entered Aki's bedroom. Something was going on. "What happened?" he demanded.
"I found our demon lord here trying to take advantage of Aki in the hallway," Loki growled. "He had her pressed against the wall so she couldn't get away. She couldn't breathe you bastard!" He yelled angrily. "I don't care if you kill me for it, I'm not going to allow you or anyone else to take advantage of Aki. Not on my watch you jerk!"
"She couldn't breathe?" Inuyasha growled. No one hurt his sister like that, especially not right after she'd already demonstrated a distinct problem with breathing regularly on her own.
"She was begging for him to let go and gasping for breath," Loki continued finally releasing the demon lord's sensitive ear as he shoved him away.
Inuyasha promptly latched onto Sesshoumaru's other ear and dug his claws in, not caring if he left holes in the skin or not. "What the hell did you think you were doing?"
"She is mine! I can do what I like," Sesshoumaru growled irrationally with rage.
Inuyasha squeezed his ear and the taiyoukai yelped in pain. "Listen to me and you listen good. Aki is not a piece of property, nor does she belong to you," he squeezed again to cut off the inevitable protest. "I don't know what you thought you were doing and I don't want to know, but the next time she asks you to let go or that she can't breathe, you damn well better let go or I will seriously kick your ass. And when I'm done, I'm going to do it again. Do you understand? You may want to reclaim her as your mate, but there are ways to go about it and ways not to. Whether you are successful or not I will protect Aki as I would my own sister!"
Loki hmphed, "I personally want to skin you alive for what you've done to her so far. Aki deserves respect and you obviously don't respect her." Loki closed his eyes and exhaled slowly counting to ten. "All right you two, we've got a job to do, lets get it done before I decide to drown the Neanderthal," he glared at Sesshoumaru.
Inuyasha dragged his older sibling into the smaller room by the ear. He kept his firm grip until Loki had shut the sturdy door behind him.
"Lesson one," Loki clapped, "this is the bathroom. This," he motioned to the large basin behind the plastic curtain, "is the bathtub. You bathe in it one of two ways. You can either take a bath or a shower. In our case you guys will be taking a shower." Loki droned in his detached teacher voice. "This turns on the hot water, this turns on the cold and this turns on the shower. There's the soap and the stuff for your hair. Always keep the curtain closed while the water is running and here are a couple towels. Who's first?" he asked over the groan of the pipes as they came sluggishly to life.
Inuyasha, still a little angry with his elder brother, threw the taiyoukai into the water still wearing the pants he'd slept in.
"Actually," Loki said dryly, "You're supposed to remove your clothes first. We have a different way to wash our clothes."
One sopping wet partially dressed Sesshoumaru growled angrily. He hooked his claws in Inuyasha's haori and yanked the hanyou into the water fully dressed.
Loki stood flabbergasted as the two brothers proceeded to fight in the tub. Shaking his head, he simply waited for the inevitable conclusion to any "horse play" ever held in a bathtub. One of them slipped on the slick surface of the bottom of the tub taking out the other so that both wound up entangled in a big angry, slightly stunned heap.
"Now, if you've had quite enough can we please just get this over with," Loki grumbled loudly.
"What the hell are you guys doing in there?" a muffled voice asked from the other side of the door as it was slowly opened. There stood Kaoru in all her commanding and nosy glory. Once she got a good look inside she burst out laughing. "Oh my goodness! I feel like I've just walked in on some poor parent trying to bathe his two kids in the tub!"
"You know, you're not helping anything," Loki gave a long-suffering sigh.
Kaoru blinked and promptly stepped into that militant, motherly role that had worked so well the night before. "All right you two, strip!" she ordered firmly. The two wet dogs blinked at her in surprise. "You heard me! Strip! Or did you want me to do it for you? Place your wet clothes in the sink over there so you don't get Aki's floor all wet."
Inuyasha blushed all the colours of the embarrassed rainbow but didn't move to strip down at all.
Kaoru lifted a devilish pink eyebrow and briskly moved to make good on her threat to disrobe the brothers.
"He-Hey! Back off wench!" Inuyasha's eyes widened in alarm, accidentally landing on Sesshoumaru's spleen as he slipped again in his haste to evade the advancing female.
"Are you going to get undressed on your own now?" the pink haired businesswoman inquired blandly.
"Not with you watching!"
"Oh how adorable, he's shy," Kaoru smiled darkly. "What about you?" her red eyes swung to the demon lord, "Are you shy too?"
Sesshoumaru glared at her menacingly. Carefully he stood up and quickly removed his wet pants, revealing that the Great Demon Lord of the Western Lands was wearing nothing else.
Kaoru's eyes went wide in shock before she turned her back to cover the most amazing shade of red that was staining her face.
Loki glared at the very naked dog demon before shoving him behind the opaque shower curtain. So much for not getting the floor all wet. Loki rolled his eyes as Inuyasha beat a hasty retreat out of the shower still fully clothed.
"So Kaoru, what did you come back here for?" Loki asked softly.
She turned slightly to blink at him for a minute before answering. "When tuck and I got here, nobody answered the door, so I just walked in knowing you were already here. We found Aki in the kitchen," Kaoru paused hesitantly. "She was having one of her breathing fits, you know? She was leaning against the wall on the floor and fighting for breath."
"Damn!" Loki swore softly.
"Tuck was helping her through it because I'm no good at it, so I came to see why no one was with her to help her," Kaoru looked at him significantly.
"How often does she normally have these fits?" Inuyasha asked with worry.
"Usually they don't start up until late on the second day. Then they begin to occur on shorter and shorter intervals. They can also be triggered by stress and fatigue," Loki replied absently.
"So her having a second attack this soon after the other one and this early in the day is unusual?" Inuyasha asked for clarification, this wasn't sounding good.
"What do you mean second attack? Has she already had one this morning?" Kaoru demanded sharply.
"The first was just after I got here," Loki answered her. "Damn she really does need to see Mouse today."
"Who's Mouse?" the hanyou demanded, really not liking how everything in this conversation seemed like part of a code.
"Mouse is Aki's doctor, her healer," Kaoru told him. "She's actually the only youkai healer in the city and most probably the best in the world. We make a point of getting Aki over to her place at least once every visit for a check up."
"The first time we took Aki there, was right after her grandmother's spell was disrupted. It was the only place in the city for a youkai of Aki's caliber to learn everything children are taught before they're too old to practice in the family living room. Aki was too big," Loki explained.
"She was also too powerful for her to practice here before she developed some finesse. The neighbors would notice and the youkai community can't risk that," Kaoru finished for him.
Suddenly everybody's favorite naked demon stepped out of the shower to drip on the bathroom floor. Kaoru fled the room with the excuse to check on Aki and breakfast before she went blind.
"There is a reason people don't run around naked, you arrogant prick, besides there being a law against it," Loki grumbled.
"What? Afraid she might want me instead of you?" Sesshoumaru asked icily.
Loki snorted, "You ain't nothing special. There are hundred's out there with your unique brand of superiority. They're called assholes." The gang leader turned to lead the demon lord into Aki's much dryer bedroom. "Most women try to avoid them like the plague," he commented dryly as he threw a pair of jeans at the dog demon. "Put these on. Wait," he threw a pair of boxers at Sesshoumaru, "put these on first."
The taiyoukai raised a condescending eyebrow at the colorful smiley faces printed on the material. "Do assholes generally wear such…colorful undergarments?" he inquired to cover his immense distaste for being ordered around. Sesshoumaru had to remind himself that he was in a strange place with strange customs and he had sort of given this whelp the right to give him orders within a certain limit.
Loki smirked, "I wouldn't know, I've never been tempted to find out, and I also don't know anybody that has ever been drunk enough to so badly impair their judgment that they would find out either."
"Then why?"
"I didn't really know you were an asshole before, did I? Besides I thought if Aki was ever tempted to find out, she might find them…interesting." She might find them outright hilarious.
The dog demon looked at him slightly suspicious. "Why should I wear these? Are you wearing something similar?"
Loki chuckled mischievously, "Why Sesshoumaru, I didn't know you were into guys that way. If you wanted to see my underwear all you had to do was ask," he teased the inu youkai. "And here I thought it was Aki's body you wanted."
Sesshoumaru growled in disgust while Loki had a laugh at his expense. "In all seriousness, you want to wear them under the jeans. Denim and zippers can be very uncomfortable against some of the more sensitive parts of male anatomy." Sesshoumaru raised his glare from the garment in question to the youth still laughing at him. "Just hurry up and put it on. I have to go make sure dog boy doesn't drown in the tub." And with that, Loki left Sesshoumaru to get dressed.