Disclaimer: Inuyasha is sooo not mine! The Yamadera brothers and the other OCs in this story ARE mine, so no using them without permission from me. Kthxbai.
Chapter 14
Hiro woke up early, checked on Akira and then went off to Kagome's house in search of Kagome. It came as no surprise to find that she had already left, but Hiro still felt incredibly disappointed. Feeling a little put out, he found a comfortable spot on her front porch and sat there for a long time. The sun was shining high in the sky when a familiar figure came walking towards him. Hiro straightened.
"Hiro? Hey! I thought that was you." Souta came walking up the short path to the front porch where Hiro was and sat down beside the elf. "How have you been?"
"Pretty good," Hiro replied with a smile. He put an arm around Kagome's brother's shoulders and gave him a short squeeze. "I hope you and your family are doing alright as well."
Souta shrugged. "Oh, we are. I just wish Kagome was back for good. We miss her a lot."
"I know the feeling." Hiro glanced at his young companion. "Uh, Souta? I was wondering. Do you by any chance know where did she got assigned?" he asked casually.
Again, Souta shrugged. "Somewhere in England, I think. Hornershire? Hornsham? Something like that. I don't remember, but my mom would know. You want me to ask her?" He got up to go, but Hiro grabbed his wrist and shook his head.
"No, there's no need to do that, Souta. I was just curious. Here, sit back down and tell me how school is going."
Souta rambled on for nearly half an hour when in the midst of informing Hiro about a girl he had just started dating, the teenager burst out, "Oh! I remember now! The name of the village is Horningsham. I looked it up once out of curiosity. It's this really tiny village in the county of Wiltshire and it's not that far from London. It's like, a two hour drive." He smiled guilelessly at Hiro then continued to extol the virtues of the lovely Haruka.
ooooo
Hiro couldn't get home fast enough. As soon as he stepped inside, he headed straight for the computer and went to his web browser. He looked up Horningsham and found that it was indeed located in Wiltshire, just as Souta had said. Next, he searched the web to see if Horningsham had an online newspaper. Luckily, it did.
A half an hour later, Hiro sat back and closed his eyes. From what he could gather, Kagome had been sent to this village to act as some kind of drill sergeant in a place where youkai roamed the countryside nightly. The worst recruits from boot camp were sent to Horningsham for a six month stint in order to have the famous Higurashi Kagome turn them into respectable slayers. As expected, she had succeeded with the two groups she had been sent thus far. Hiro felt that something was very odd about this Horningsham place and he wondered why he'd never heard of it. If it did indeed have a youkai infestation as the Horningsham Daily reported, every slayer in the world would have known about it. Was there something that the Corp wanted to cover up? The infestation had been going on for a few years now...
"What are you doing, aniue?" It was Akira, who came into the room and sat down beside Hiro. His sudden appearance startled Hiro, who wasn't able to get to the mouse in time to close the windows. "Kagome? You found her?" Akira asked his brother, his green eyes fairly glowing with hope.
Hiro nodded. "Yes, I found her. She was sent to England, to a tiny village in Wiltshire." He eyed his brother with trepidation, for he knew that Akira would want to go to that little country hamlet to find Kagome.
Akira's eyes grew even brighter. "Let's go!" he whispered excitedly. "I have to see her, Hiro!"
"Akira--"
"Please, aniue? It's been so long since I've laid eyes on her! I want to see her because now I've finally gathered the courage to tell her how I feel. This is important to me, Hiro." Akira stared solemnly at his brother, his joyfulnes dissipating. "Please?"
How could he tell his little brother no? How could he resist those sad green eyes? Heaving a heavy sigh, Hiro spoke. "Very well, Akira. But there are a couple of things that you need to know first."
ooooo
Yuki came downstairs yawning and stretching. He staggered into the kitchen, his hands searching blindly for the pot of coffe that Hiro always had ready and waiting for him. But when he lifted it, he noticed that it felt way too light in his hand. Cracking his sleep-heavy eyes open, he saw with horror that it was empty.
"Hiro!" he wailed unhappily, feeling as though his entire day had just been shot to hell. "Coffee!" He stumbled and fell to his knees in a state of shock.
"Yes, I know," came Hiro's voice from the direction of the breakfast table. "Sorry about that."
"Sorry? You're not sorry!" Yuki began crawling his way across the kitchen towards the man who was trying to murder him by denying him his morning java. "Sorry won't save your ass when I come over there to kick it!" Half way to his destination, he began to sob. "My coffee! My beautiful coffee! I neeeed my coffeeee!" At last he made it to the table where Hiro sat and pulled himself up with the table edge. "I'm dying," moaned the blond elf miserably, "and it's all your doing. Oh my god, I'm going through withdrawal."
"I highly doubt that," Hiro returned unsympathetically.
"Why, you cold-blooded bastard! First you deny me my sustaining life force and now you're treating me callously in this, my darkest hour! How dare you--" Yuki paused and glanced across the table at another figure who was sitting there, his youthful face contorted with fury. "Oh, shit," he whispered.
Akira's green eyes were as hard as steel as he stared back at his eldest brother. "Oh shit, indeed," he said coldly. "Hiro told me what you did, Yuki. How could you?"
"What did I do?" Yuki blurted out, his eyes blinking rapidly out of confustion.
Hiro snorted. "Please get up off the floor. It's degrading to watch. He's talking about the emails, you idiot. Oh, and the whole marriage proposal thing. Our little brother is not very happy with you right now."
"Look, I can explain--"
The youngest Yamadera jumped to his feet and brought his fists down hard on the table. "Don't fucking bother, Yuki! Hiro told me everything already. I... I can't believe you! You knew I loved her--!"
Forgetting for the moment about his 'weakened condition', Yuki scrambled to his own feet and sent a blistering stare back at Akira. "I didn't find out about you loving her until Gil told us that he was--" He broke off suddenly and looked at Hiro. Hiro was having a leisurely smoke, nodded at Yuki, indicating that the topic was a safe one. Yuki continued, "-- until he told us he was getting married to Kagome. I had no idea you wanted her too. Honestly I didn't, Akira."
"What else have you been keeping from me?" Akira demanded.
But by now, Yuki had managed to pull himself together. He eyed his baby brother angrily. "Don't you dare take that tone with me, elfling! What you need to realize that you're not the only male in her world, you know. You may not like it very much, but I have every right to love her too. What makes you so special anyway?"
Akira tried very hard not to send Yuki flying across the kitchen. "I know know what makes you special, aniue. Our mother thinks that the sun rises and sets in your eyes--"
"Oh gods, don't start that shit!" snarled Yuki. "Hiro, help me out here."
Hiro shrugged and took a drag before stubbing it out in the ashtray. "Hey, don't look at me, fool. This is your fight."
"It's true, damn it and you know it!" Akira shouted. His face had turned a bright, angry red. "Only one woman has ever dared to love me and treat me as if..." His voice trembled with emotion as two large tears streaked down his cheeks. "As if I was a normal person. Our mother loves you best. Women always want you. But no one wants me. No one! There was one who did and you tried to take her from me! What kind of shit is that, Yuki? You're so unbelievably selfish!"
The building aggravation left Yuki's countenance when faced with his baby brother's tearful accusations. "Akira," he said, considerably humbled, "I'm... sorry. I never even thought that you would see it like that."
"Then let me have her," begged Akira fretfully. "Please? Let me have this one thing, Yuki. You can have any woman in the world, but please don't take Kagome from me."
It was hard for Yuki to look into his little brother's beseeching emerald eyes. "I understand your feelings, but I can't help my own feelings towards Kagome," he said afte a brief pause. "She's unlike any woman I've ever met before."
"Yeah, well, I feel the same damn way!" Akira cried out forcefully.
"Enough!" Hiro slammed his palm down on the table. "As much as I appreciate your feelings towards Kagome, neither of you has stopped to consider her feelings in this matter." His brothers opened their mouths to speak, but Hiro threw up his hands to silence them. "Before you two decide to make tracks for England, both of you need to take into consideration a few things. One, Yuki had a one-sided screaming match at her before he stomped out of her hospital room like a petulant little brat. Two, Yuki informed Colonel Watanabe that we didn't want to work with her anymore. Thirdly, thanks to Yuki's meddling in my email account, Kagome believes that we don't care about her anymore. And fourth, because of this eighteen month separation, Kagome has been given time to move on and find someone else, which she did. But even though her engagement to Gil has ended, that doesn't prevent her from finding another male to share her life and quite possibly, her bed."
Yuki, whose face had turned a beet red, flinched at the accusatory look in Akira's eyes. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?" he said shrilly. "I wasn't thinking straight."
"Obviously," Hiro and Akira said together, their tone equally biting.
"Okay, fine. How should we fix this then? Any ideas?"
But Hiro only glared severely up at him and lit another cigarette. "Fix this? We? What's with this we you're talking about?" He threw his head back and laughed harshly. "I can't believe that you have the audacity to include us in this mess. We didn't do anything wrong." He pointed angrily at Yuki's chest. "But you... you created this mess and by all that's holy, you should be the one to fix it. As it is, I seriously doubt that the relationship we once had with Kagome can ever go back to the way it was. You have single-handedly destroyed our friendship with her."
"Oh, wow, thanks, Hiro. I feel so much better," Yuki bit out sarcastically.
"You're quite welcome." Hiro leaned back in his chair and blew out a puff of smoke. "I must say, your comeuppance was a very long time in coming. But you know, now that it's here, I'm thoroughly enjoying it."
"Yeah, well, you go right ahead and do that. Don't worry about a thing, guys. I am determined to put this to rights. We'll be back in Kagome's good graces in no time at all," Yuki informed his brothers confidantly.
As Yuki went to make some coffee, Akira and Hiro locked gazes and shook their heads. No matter what Yuki said, they both knew that Kagome would not accept them back into her life so easily.
ooooooooo
The drive back to Horningsham was quiet... too quiet and too full of sexual tension. Both passengers wanted to say something, anything, to dispel the heavy silence in the car. Eventually, it was Kouga who took that first step.
"Kagome." His voice was low but it thrummed with an undercurrent of passion.
"Kagome jumped at the sound of her name. "Yes?" she asked in a tightly controlled voice.
He cleared his throat. "I just wanted to tell you..." He trailed off.
Her head jerked around to face him. "Yes?" she prompted, almost shrilly.
For his answer, Kouga steered the car over to the side of the road and put the car in park. He reached over, grabbed Kagome and held her to him while he rained kisses wherever his lips came in contact with her skin. She straddled his thighs and gasped with pleasure as he kissed and licked her face and neck.
"Damn it, I want to take you right here!" he barked against her throat. He gripped at her body when he felt his fangs begin to lengthen. Kouga felt that the part of him that was sane was slipping away. His youkai would soon be in control.
She tried to pull away from him, but ceased her movements immediately when a sound rumbled low in his throat. Kagome came to the conclusion that it was actually a growl she'd just heard. It was low and menacing, animalistic and possessive; it was a sound she had never heard from him before. As ominous as it sounded, however, it did not frighten her. On the contrary, it excited and aroused her.
"Then why don't you?" she breathed in his ear.
Another growl emanated from him, but instead of ripping her clothes off like he desperately wanted to do, with great effort he pushed her away and set her back down on the passenger seat. "No. Not here. Not like this," he informed her roughly.
"I won't break, Kouga," she told him as the car surged forward. She was surprised at the smoothness of the car's movements for all the strain he was obviously under. He turned to her and glared at her with unnerving, blood-filled eyes. Kouga was no longer Kouga, she thought somewhat nervously, for he was no longer in control. His youkai was.
"We will wait," was his guttural reply.
Not wanting to exacerbate his anger, for she had never dealt with his youkai before, Kagome sat back against her seat and turned her face away from him. A few minutes had passed when she felt Kouga's large, warm hand cover hers. The long fingers interlocked with hers and he pulled her hand to rest together with his on his thigh.
"I love you," he murmured softly. "I hope I didn't scare you."
"No," Kagome admitted, relieved that Kouga was back at the helm. "But I wasn't expecting your youkai to take over. I shold have known better, I guess." She laughed a little self-consciously.
His hand squeezed hers reassuringly. "Or perhaps you forgot that I'm youkai," he offered with a hint of amusement. "But that's one of the things I love about you, darling. It's something that people love about you in general, you know. You tend to forget that people are this or that; you see only the person underneath. We're not human, elf, or youkai to your eyes. We're just people."
Kagome looked over at her beloved to find that he was staring back at her, a warm smile on his lips. She returned his smile and let her gaze return to stare out through her passenger side window.
ooo
The next evening, Kagome took a stroll through the gardens of her rented house. It was a lovely, overcast, early spring evening, cool and fragrant with the scent of rain. It had been raining on and off all day, so her feet made hardly any noise on the soggy ground except for stepping on the occasional twig. A light drizzle began falling from the heavens as she walked and with a contented sigh, Kagome lifted her face upwards. The raindrops were soft and wispy, like angel kisses, as her mother called them.
As she stood there with her head tilted backwards, a muted footstep came from behind her. Alarmed, Kagome whirled around and found herself in Kouga's arms. She giggled nervously at her momentary fright. "Kouga, you scared me!" she chided him with a laugh, giving him a playful tap on the arm.
She nearly shrieked when he grabbed her arm by the wrist and brought it up to his nose. He sniffed her arm up to the elbow and then pressed her palm against the side of his head, whimpering softly.
Fascinated, Kagome watched as Kouga's youkai sniffed his way up her arm to her neck. When he began snuffling around her right ear, she burst into laughter. "Hey, stop that! Oh my gosh, that tickles!" she cried and pulled away from him.
But Kouga's youkai did not like that she had tried to pull away from him. He bared his sharp, white fangs at her and grabbed her hard by the neck, after which he shoved his nose up against her throat. Kagome could feel the panic crawl up her spine as he brushed the tips of his fangs along her flesh.
That very morning, Kouga had warned her not to struggle if she found herself at the mercy of his youkai. "The worst thing you can do is to try to fight him off. My youkai and I want you, Kagome. When my youkai blood boils, the time for playing around is over. Do nothing to provoke his anger."
Keeping her fear and desire to run from him was more difficult than she realized, and she shut her eyes, forcing herself to breathe evenly. The last thing she wanted was to be torn to shreds by Kouga's own hands. If something that calamitous occurred, she reminded herself, he would have to live with what he had done for the rest of his life. He would never be able to forgive himself.
But she could no longer keep her fear from making her body shake. With a trembling voice, she whispered, "I'm scared, Kouga. Please forgive me, but this is making me nervous."
His nose ceased sniffing her and he pulled his head away. Those blue eyes she loved so much studied her face; she figured he was trying to see if she had spoken the truth. The fear coursed through her again and he must seen it-- and most likely smelled it-- because he backed off slightly.
Relief quickly took the place of fear and Kagome relaxed. "Thank you, Kouga," she said, smiling up at him, and she brought her guard down.
That was a mistake. Kouga, seeing her her body relax, surged forward and crushed her body to his before she could react. In a swift motion, his head came down and his fangs sunk easily into the soft, yielding flesh of her shoulder.
Nothing Kouga could have told her would have prepared her for the excruciating agony she was now experiencing. Her head was thrown back, her mouth opened wide in a silent scream. This time she did push at him, but it was purely out of reflex. For a split second she wondered how he would react to her rejection, but the pain over-shadowed any worry on that score. In reality, it shouldn't have worried her in the least. The shove she gave him was so weak that all it did was force him to hold her more securely, but unfortunately, he clamped down harder on her to keep in her place.
After what seemed to her an eternity, Kagome's knees buckled and she slipped into oblivion.
ooo
The sound of rain was the first thing Kagome heard when she came to. The wind blew through the trees and Kagome was gently showered with cold drops of rain that shook free from the tree leaves above her.
It took a few more moments before Kagome realized that the ground she was sitting on was hard and lumpy. She cracked her eyes open and found that she was propped up against a tree trunk. As she tried to sit up, another sensation assaulted her. Her shoulder was sore and quite stiff and it felt as though it was on fire.
Hazy memories swam slowly through her brain and by the time she struggled to her feet, she remembered what had happened. Kouga, or rather his youkai, had marked her.
In the pouring rain, she made the grueling trek back to her house in the growing dark. Many times along the way her feet faltered and she stumbled; she fell a total of three times. The second time she fell, she managed to cut her leg badly on a large rock, but she barely noticed it through the pain of her wounded shoulder.
When she took a tumble for the third time, something alien stirred within her. As she pulled herself to her feet, a howl pierced the air. Kagome's head jerked back to look over her shoulder from the direction of the forest, the way she had come from. Her frightened gaze swept over the dark line of trees at the edge of the property.
That was Kouga, she thought, her heart racing with fright. Rounding up her courage, she made a dash for the french doors in the back of the house just as another howl rent the night air. This howl sounded much closer. Although the very sound of it sent a ripple of terror through her, she knew instinctively that he was calling to her.
Even as a part of her brain reminded her that he was now her mate, that he wouldn't hurt her, with trembling hands she locked the french doors and staggered upstairs to her bedroom. The fear was making her delirious. At the moment, all she could think of was protecting herself.
Protect herself? From Kouga? Her mind tried to reason with her but it was a futile effort. With her hands still shaking, she grabbed her swords that were propped up by her nightstand and hid in the bathroom, locking the door behind her.
Downstairs, Kagome could hear the sound of glass shattering, followed by the cracking of wood. Another howl, angry this time, filled the entire house. Kagome retreated into the bathtub and crouched there. Couldn't he tell she was frightened of him? He had all of his powerful senses, and he still couldn't he tell? With a whimper, she hugged her precious blades to her chest and hoped that he would go away.
But he didn't go away. Of course he wouldn't. Kouga was hunting for his mate and Kagome knew that he would find her. Wolf youkai were among the best and deadliest of hunters in the world. Their senses of sight, hearing, taste and smell were incredibly sharp, far more so than regular youkai.
'Wonderful. Just wonderful. Now you've gone and pissed one off,' Kagome told herself reproachfully and rested her head on the wall behind her. There was a loud thud on the staircase and she jumped, bumping the back of her head on the wall. Her grip on her blades tightened as a heavy footstep tread upon the stairs. 'Not good. He's normally quiet as a panther. The fact that he's allowing me to hear him must mean he wants me to know he's coming.' She went to rub the back of her head and winced. The pain in her shoulder was quite intense.
Briefly, she looked up at the window over her head. An escape route! She just might be able to climb out...
Kagome shook her head. That was a ridiculous idea! All she could possibly accomplish in her current state would be to break her neck on the cobblestone path below. Besides, even if she was so fortunate as to make it to ground level in one piece, she was still injured. To try to outrun one of the stealthiest predators on the planet would be sheer suicide... and reckless. No, she would not be reckless at a time like this.
The footsteps were now in the hallway. Kagome shrank back against the tiled wall as tears streamed down her cheeks. Why was he taking so long in finding her? He knew exactly where she was. No doubt she'd left a nice little blood scent to mark the way. Oh gods, was he playing with her? Teaching her a lesson? What the hell had she gotten herself into?
With hands that shook as though wracked with palsy, Kagome drew one of her swords from its sheath. It was the sword that Kagome had received from Sango.
The door to her bedroom opened. Her breath quickened. She fervently wished that her heart would go back down into her chest where it belonged instead of lingering painfully in her throat.
His footsteps stopped outside the bathroom door. Kagome's throat constricted as the door knob turned. Finding it locked, Kouga simply punched a hole through the door, slipped his arm through and unlocked the door from the inside. The door opened and Kouga stepped into the room. By now, the rain began to pour steadily and a flash of lightning lit up the bathroom. He put out a hand and flipped on the light switch.
The bathroom flooded with light, giving her the opportunity to take in his dishevelled appearance. His satiny black hair was plastered to his skull; his damp clothes clung to his powerful frame. Odd. He looked like the Kouga she knew, loved and trusted. But it was his eyes, those wild and frightening orbs, that kept her from running to him. At that moment, she could have sworn that it was Akira standing there, with his hideous mask of fury and those terrifying green eyes that burned like emerald hellfire in his face.
Kouga remained where he was, just inside the doorway, his eyes watching her warily. From time to time, his gaze dropped down to the sword she had pointed straight at him. After several minutes, Kagome could no longer stay silent. As tears coursed down her face she panted, "I'm sorry, Kouga. Please understand. You... you're scaring me."
Thankfully, Kouga did appear to understand, for he bowed his head, dropped down to crouch in the doorway and contented himself to watch her intently.
ooo
Nearly two hours had passed when Kagome felt sleep creep over her. The pain, which had been sharp earlier, seemed to have lessened somewhat. Her body had become accustomed to the pain but she was now feeling another discomforting feeling: an unbearable warmth all over her body. A quick assessment told her that she had a fever.
It did not take long for her eyes to grow heavy and for the first time in a long time, she dropped her guard. Her grip weakened on her sword, which then clattered over the side of the tub and onto the bathroom floor.
Unable to help herself, Kagome succumbed to weakness and fell into a semi-conscious state, her body slumping to rest on her side on the bottom of the tub. Through her partially closed eyelids, she saw Kouga approach her. When he reached the tub he bent down, scooped her limp form out and carried her to her bed. With tender hands he carefully removed all of her clothes.
"Wha- what are you doing?" she moaned weakly.
He said nothing but instead, pulled something that looked like leaves out of his pocket and shoved them into his mouth. Kouga chewed for a moment, but didn't swallow. He leaned down and began licking her wounds.
Puzzled and a little alarmed at his actions, Kagome reached up to push him away from her, but stopped and cried out in pain. "It stings!" she sobbed. "Stop it!"
But he refused to stop. He grabbed her wrists and secured them so she couldn't push at him or try to removed the salve he was applying to her. When Kagome thought the burning sensation couldn't get any worse, it ceased. All at once, her pain began to lessen and she realized that whatever he done to her was meant to ease her pain.
He alternated between her leg wound and his own puncture marks on her shoulder, cleaning them thoroughly. So gentle was he in his ministrations, so tender and soothing was his warm tongue, that Kagome dozed off into a pain-free sleep.
oooo
When Kagome woke, the rain was still pouring, the lightning was still flashing and Kouga was laying beside her, watching her with unblinking blue eyes.
She smiled sleepily up at him. He did not return her smile but instead gently bumped his head against hers and lapped lazily at her mating mark. The mark did not hurt at all, much to her surprise, although it did tingle rather pleasantly.
"Kouga," she began a little sheepishly, "I never should have run from you the way I did. I'm sorry. I'm afraid I panicked."
His only answer was to mount her and complete the mating ritual. When it was over, he collapsed on top of her. Kagome smiled against his sweat-slicked left shoulder, her arms slipping around his torso. To her surprise and relief, Kouga muttered, "Oh gods, you were amazing."
She laughed and squeezed him hard. "You're back! I'm so glad! Why didn't you mark me, instead of that beast you keep trapped inside of you?"
Kouga rolled off to the side, but remained facing her and let his hand drift lazily up and down the front of her body. "I could have, but honestly I didn't have the heart to put you through so much pain. My youkai has no problem with it; it does what it has to do. But I couldn't hurt you like that." He leaned forward and kissed her for a long time. "I'm so excited, my love. You're finally mine."
Kagome stared mistily up at her mate and curled up like a child in his arms. She loved this man more than anything in the world.
But she couldn't shake the feeling of doom that was approaching.
ooooooooooooooooo
Two days later, after Kagome and Kouga returned home from work, they saw a strange car parked in the drive. As they drew closer, they saw that it was a rental car.
"Who's come to visit, I wonder," Kagome murmured curiously.
"I couldn't tell you, honey," Kouga replied as he drove past the strange car and parked a short ways away. "I wonder where they went."
When they entered the house through a side door near the kitchen, they found their part-time housekeeper and cook, Daisy, putting together a tea tray.
"Hello, dears," she greeted them with her usual cheerful smile. Her plump cheeks were pink with pleasure. "You have visitors and I put them in the parlor if that's alright. I must say that are all so charming. That blond one is a rather wicked little boy! He gives me such saucy looks and I'm old enough to be his mother!" Daisy giggled again and went out of the kitchen with the laden tray.
"Blond one?" Kouga asked, confused.
But Kagome was far from being confused. "Yes, the blond one." She stormed out of the kitchen with the still-puzzled Kouga at her heels. Kagome and Kouga headed for the parlor and found that their visitors had already made themselves quite at home. But despite the festive atmosphere in the parlor, Kagome backed away quickly and shooting a pleading look at her mate, ran away upstairs.
Kouga frowned and went to the parlor door. No wonder Kagome had refused to go in! All three Yamadera brothers sat in there, laughing and talking with the effervescent Daisy. Four pairs of eyes turned to him as he stepped into the room. "I'm afraid," he said in a solemn voice, "that Kagome does not wish to see any of you right now. I hope you will understand."
"She isn't ill, is she?" Daisy cried in dismay. "Now that I think of it, she did seem a bit quiet when I saw her a few moments ago. My poor little lamb! Please excuse me," she addressed the Yamaderas, "but I'm going to check on the young lady."
The brothers protested as Daisy exited the room. Kouga merely stepped to the side as she rushed past him.
"Kouga, what's going on?" Hiro asked quietly. "Is she alright?"
"She's fine," was Kouga's firm reply. "She just does not want to see you at present. I think we all know why." His gaze rested on Yuki, whose face turned a vivid scarlet.
"But he's here to apologize and to explain why he behaved the way he did." Hiro joined Kouga by the parlor door. "At least let me see her, Kouga. Just me. She may not want to see Yuki ever again, or Akira, but she'd give me at least ten minutes of her time," he whispered to the wolf youkai.
Kouga was about to reject Hiro's proposal when Daisy came down the stairs with a puzzled look on her face. "She says that doesn't want any visitors right now, but she's willing to see Hiro for a bit."
Hiro and Kouga looked at each other. Kouga bowed to Hiro as the elf ascended the stairs after Daisy, who was to show him the way to Kagome's room.
The elf found Kagome curled up on a window seat, staring out through the glass on this gloomy morning. Without turning around, she said in a toneless voice, "So you found me."
"Yes."
"How?" she asked abruptly.
Suppressing the need to go to her, Hiro replied, "Please don't be angry, Kagome. I asked your brother and he innocently imparted to me your location. It wasn't his fault; it was mine, so please go easy on him."
"I'm not angry at him." She sighed and leaned forward, pressing her forehead against the glass. "Why are you here, Hiroshi?"
"I am here to see you, Kagome. What do you think?" He stared hard at his friend's back with worried eyes. She never called him by his full name unless she was upset at him. But of course she would be upset at him.
Kagome was silent for a moment. "Now that you've seen me, please take your brothers and go."
"Kagome--"
"What? What more do you want from me, Hiro?" she demanded, exploding into anger. She turned from the window to face him. Her cheeks were wet with her tears. "You wanted nothing to do with me, remember? So just go away, alright? I've kept up my end of the bargain. Why don't you keep yours?"
"What bargain? If you must know, Akira and I never agreed not to work with you anymore. That was all Yuki's doing. The damned fool tried to force us to sever ties with you without telling us and it backfired in his face. He came to realize that he loves you far too much to be completely separated from you."
From where she sat, Kagome regarded Hiro suspiciously. "Do you actually believe that your little speech is going to induce me to run back to the three of you with open arms? Give me credit for possessing some sense, please! You pushed me away and then completely ignored me..." Kagome stopped and turned her face away from him. "But I guess I should have known you would do that. After all, why else would you say that you wanted nothing more to do with me professionally, if not socially as well."
"That's not true!" Hiro cried.
"The least you could have done was write me a farewell letter, Hiro. I would not expect it from your brothers, but from you I would. If you had told me where I stood with you, I would have been spared the humiliation of sending you those stupid, emotional emails and hoping you still gave a damn about me."
This time, Hiro strode over to her and grabbed her by the arms. "Will you listen to me, damn it?! When Gil told us that you and he were getting married, we found out why none of your emails reached me. Yuki wanted to separate us and he did that by logging into my email account. He blocked you and deleted all your emails from my account so that whenever I logged on, I would never find a message from you waiting for me." Hiro's brown eyes softened and he cupped her face in his hands. "I wanted to write you, but I know that you prefer to begin a dialogue when you're upset. I waited and waited, but I never received one letter. Akira and I were worried about you, Kagome. We really wanted to see you."
"You actually expect me to believe that? When have you three ever not stuck together?"
Hiro waved away her words with an impatient hand. "It's different this time, I swear! Akira and I are not above pointing the finger of blame at Yuki! This was all his damned fault at any rate. He must be punished!"
She did not reply immediately and instead, regarded him suspiciously. After a long moment, and much to Hiro's surprise, Kagome pulled him down towards her and flung her arms around him. "I missed you so much, Hiro," she whispered tearfully against his neck.
Grinning like an idiot, Hiro returned her embrace in spades. "Not nearly as much as I've missed you, little girl." As he pulled away from her, Hiro noticed two tiny red marks that marred her skin. "Uh, Kagome? What's this?" He brushed his fingertips lightly over the marks. She did not answer right away and he shifted his gaze to her face. "What did you do?" he asked her abruptly.
"Nothing." She blinked up at him. "Why are you getting upset with me?"
Hiro glanced at the marks then back at Kagome's face. "These look like mating marks." Kagome blushed suddenly and everything seemed so clear to Hiro. "They belong to Kouga, don't they."
A defensive light lit up Kagome's brown eyes. "And what's so wrong about that? I love him and he loves me. When he marked me, there were no impediments to my becoming his mate. Why should it matter anyway?"
The elf look suddenly uncomfortable. "We didn't only come all this way to visit you and to explain things. Akira... Akira came to tell you that he loves you and that he wants you to be his mate."
"Well, I'm sorry, Hiro. It's too late for him. I hope you all realized that naturally, after nearly two years, things would be different for me."
"You will need to tell him. I don't think Yuki or I could manage to do that task. The sad part is, I had to bring up that subject before we left for England. Akira promised not to destroy anything or hurt anybody and Yuki promised not to murder the guy you're sleeping with."
Kagome's eyebrow twitched. "Yes, well, I suppose I should explain things to Akira, although it's not really my place to do so anymore." She paused then added a bit uncomfortably, "This kind of news should be given to him by someone close to him. That's not me."
Hiro shook his head. "No, it should be relayed to him by someone he loves. If it came from me, Akira would be devastated, not only because of the content, but also because he would feel as if you wanted nothing to do with him. If you explain your situation to him directly, it would be better for him."
As soon as Kagome entered the parlor, the men in the room got to their feet. It was hard to look away from them after she hadn't seen them in so long. After forcing a small smile onto her lips, she looked at both Yuki and Akira. She took a breath.
"It's good to see all three of you, but I must admit that you caught me unawares. Truth is, I never expected to see any of you again and rearranged my life accordingly. Yuki, what's done is done. We both made mistakes and I, for one, apologize for my behavior. I never thought that my actions had such an adverse effect on you guys. It's very clear that I was not cut out to be squad leader. As for you, Akira, there is something I want to tell you, but I think you would prefer it if we spoke of it in private." She held out her hand to him. He took it without hesitation and the two of them went outside.
"What is she going to tell him, I wonder," Yuki murmured, his gaze following the two as they strolled a short ways from the house.
"Yes, I wonder," Hiro said, casting a dark look at Kouga.
ooo
As they walked outside, Kagome felt near to tears. She didn't have the heart to tear his tender heart to pieces, but she could not allow him to think he still had a chance with her. Oh, how different their lives could have been if Yuki had not pushed her away! Then again, she was glad that things had turned out the way the had. To be caught in a tug-of-war between two of the Yamadera brothers was not her idea of fun.
She was about to speak when Akira caught her in his arms and kissed her. His lips landed clumsily on hers and Kagome felt a sharp stab of pity for him. He was clearly unpracticed at the art of kissing. At the same time, however, fear shot down her spine and she sensed an angry blue gaze on them. If she turned around, Kagome knew that she would see Kouga watching them from the house. Quickly, she extricated herself from the young elf's arms. "Please don't. That isn't a good idea." Kagome looked up at Akira and instantly regretted it.
He stared down at her with hurt in his big green eyes. "Why not?" His voice trembled and to Kagome's dismay, he sounded like a little boy who was just denied something he desired. He almost looked like a child, the way his brown hair fell over his clear brow and into his eyes behind his spectacles. But there was nothing childish about his feelings, which were now out in the open, plain for anyone to see.
In that moment, Kagome was harshly reminded that Akira loved her. During the time she had been away from the Yamadera brothers, she had completely forgotten about that. Indeed, she had forgotten quite a few things about the elves in order to move on. To tell him that she had found someone else was one thing. To tell him that she belonged to another man was quite another.
Kagome took his hands in hers and held them to her chest. "This is very difficult for me to say, but it needs to be said. But before I tell you, I want you to know that I don't blame you for what your brother did. No matter what Akira, I love you. Okay? I love you and you are special to me. You always will be." She attempted to smile at him, but it vanished as her tears began to trickle down her face. "I... am not free, Akira. There is... another..." Her voice broke and trailed off into a hoarse whisper.
Dark lashes slid down over suddenly angry green eyes. "Who?" Akira's body tensed. He could feel an indescribable rage sweep through him.
"Akira." Kagome spoke sternly at him and he opened his eyes to look at her. "You will calm down right now. Do you understand? Don't you dare get angry at me."
Akira blinked at her then frowned. "I'm not angry at you. I'm angry at the one who took you from me. I want to kill him and no, I don't regret saying that."
Fear for her mate's life coursed through Kagome. Akira, she well knew, would carry out his threat without compunction. "If you harm him," she said, backing slowly away, "I would never forgive you, Akira. Never. Understand this: If you kill him, I will kill myself. You had better be prepared for that eventuality because I would rather die than be pursued by someone who murdered the man I love."
Before she could turn and walk away from Akira, Thanos' face flashed, unbidden, before her eyes and she turned her head away. That vision was followed by the murdered corpse of the unfortunate Timeus. Suddenly, she had no desire to continue this conversation.
"Now that you know all that you need to know, let's go back to the house. I need to... to lie down." A wave of dizziness swept over her and she stumbled. The horrid stench of blood filled her nostrils, which then sent her to her knees, forcing her to retch violently.
Timeus' bloody face was before her eyes, his dead blue eyes staring blankly up at her.
"Timeus! Oh gods no, please no!" she screamed helplessly at the ground.
Akira was at her side the moment she landed on all fours. "Kagome! What's wrong?" He pulled her into his arms and held her as she writhed and screamed.
Kouga, Yuki and Hiro ran up to them, the look on their faces betraying their worry. The wolf youkai snatched his mate out of the elf's arms and held her tightly. He nuzzled her neck and bit her shoulder. Kagome calmed down instantly.
Before Kouga took Kagome back to the house, a hateful look passed between him and Akira.
"What happened?" Hiro panted. "We saw her fall and we came running."
"I don't know. She just turned really pale and said that she didn't want to talk anymore, that she needed to lie down." Akira glared at Kouga's retreating back. "So he's the one," he muttered bitterly. "I should have known."
Yuki clapped Akira on the back. "Hey, forget about him, okay? Man, I wonder what she screaming about."
Akira shrugged and pushed Yuki's hand away. "Hell if I know. Just something about some guy named Timeus and 'oh gods no'. Other than that, I don't remember. I was too busy trying to calm her down."
"Eh?" Hiro glanced sharply at his little brother. "Akira, how did you know what she was saying?"
The youngest Yamadera looked at Hiro confusedly. "Uh... because I heard her say it, that's how. I may be an abnormal freak but my hearing is perfectly fine."
"That's not what I meant, Akira." Hiro paused and peered cautiously at Akira's face. "I asked you how you knew what she was saying... because it wasn't in any language I am familiar with." Beside him, Yuki nodded in agreement.
Akira frowned. "That's crazy. I know as many languages as you, Hiro. You must have not heard her right. She was screaming, after all."
Yuki sighed and shook his head. "That's not it, little bro. She was speaking in a language that none of us has ever learned. I didn't know what she said at all. Why don't you repeat what you heard?"
"Yes, tell us what you heard her say," agreed Hiro.
After rolling his eyes, Akira shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, whatever. She said, 'Timeus. Oh gods no, please no.'" He screwed his face up and contemplated the dark mid-morning skies in an attempt to recall what he'd heard. "She said something else like, 'Why did you have to kill him, you monster. Why.' I don't remember any more than that, guys, really." He glanced back at his brothers, who were staring at him as though he had grown another head. "What?"
Yuki shook his head and Hiro said solemnly, "You weren't speaking in English or Japanese or any other language we know. Hell, I don't think even Kagome is familiar with that tongue." Hiro thought a moment then added, "I think -- but don't quote me on this -- that it may be Greek. We've been to Athens before, remember? We had a lay-over there for a several hours before flying to Rome. We ended up taking a cab and browsing a local marketplace."
"Yeah, I remember that." Akira stared back at them with utter surprise. "But I don't understand. How am I supposed to know Greek when I have never learned Greek?"
The brothers were silent for a few minutes, then they headed back to the house where they were met by a considerably subdued Daisy.
"Come in, my dears," she told them and led them back to the parlor. "Kagome says for you all to stay here for now and asked me to make up three of the guest rooms." She smiled at them. "You all look so tired. Here, I've made more tea. I'm going upstairs to make up your rooms. See you in a bit," she told them with a wink and left the room.
Once she had gone, they descended on the tea and helped themselves. While Yuki and Akira worked on their second cups, Hiro excused himself and went upstairs to Kagome's room. He knew that Kouga may get nasty with him for disturbing Kagome, but he did not care. He had to speak to her.
Sure enough, Kouga snarled at him when he let himself into their bedroom. "Look, I just need to ask Kagome some things. Please don't look at me like that, Kouga. You know I'm not interested in her that way." He went to Kagome's bed, where she lay, quite pale and still with one arm flung over her face. "Kagome? I need to speak to you."
Her arm moved slightly. "About what?"
"Timeus."
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A/N: Hey guys, sorry this chapter took so long and is so much shorter than I would like. I hope you enjoyed it anyway.
Much Peace!
RSB