Black Ice: Damn, dude, when's the last time this was worked on?
Blood Rain: Uh...I think something to the tune of...last year.
Black Ice: (winces) Wonderful.
Blood Rain: On le bright side, we got accepted to USC. For safety reasons, we shan't reveal exact details, but there's a lot of sun...that could mean anything, stalkers! (blows raspberry)
Black Ice: Both of us. (leans in to whisper) If you ask me, Rain's acceptance wasn't entirely coincidental. She just can't bear to stay away from me for long periods of time.
Blood Rain: (dryly) Yes. Then who else would I mercilessly abuse?
Black Ice: (beams) So I'm irreplaceable!
Blood Rain: If it makes you feel better, champ. Anyway, enjoy this...extremely late update. No apologies this time. We been swamped, get it?
Quote of the Day! (guaranteed funniness): "It's said that your body is a temple. So I guess masturbating would be like drawing on the walls: it's fun at first, but it leaves a hell of a mess for you to clean up, especially if you get caught..."
--The Ever Perverted Blood Rain ;D
Gritting his teeth, Inuyasha put his hand on the doorknob and turned it, electric shocks tearing him apart, until the door was finally open. He staggered out, trying to recompose himself, and looked around. Several doors were lined along a long hallway, and they all looked exactly alike. His was the only dark red.
"Fuck. This won't be entirely easy." He mumbled, and began to put his ear to each door, listening for anything that might aid him in his search for Kagome. At the fifth door to the left, he faintly heard frantic voices, and threw the door open, bounding up the stairs in front of him. Inuyasha came to a room stocked with a bunch of security screens and monitoring machinery, but that wasn't what caught his attention. The trail of blood on the floor did that.
He got to his knees and sniffed, knowing he recognized the scent from somewhere. Thankfully, it wasn't Kagome's, but if not hers, then whose was it? He followed the trail through another door and down a flight of stairs, finally arriving at what seemed like the entrance room to this building. Kanna sat on the floor, dumbstruck, while a bleeding Houjou lay unconscious in her lap.
"What the hell's going on here?!" Inuyasha demanded. "Where's Kagome?!"
"She's..." Kanna swallowed nervously. "She just ran out of here, snarling like a beast! She attacked Houjou out of nowhere, and she almost got me, too, but then she doubled over in what seemed like pain and left me alone!" Inuyasha swore violently, dashing out through the front door, while Kanna screamed after him, "This is what happens when you fuck half-breeds, Inuyasha!!"
Inuyasha sniffed the air frenetically, trying to pick up his half-crazed mate's scent; the pungent stench of blood was too thick in the air for him to find her by scent, but he knew he had to at least try. So he dashed all over the place, searching with his eyes and calling to her through his mind. Faintly, he heard her say his name in his head, her voice weak and hoarse. Inuyasha followed the path blindly, much like a bat using sonar. When he found her, she was laying beneath the tree from before, sleeping like a sticky, blood-coated angel. He sighed wearily, thanking the gods she wasn't dead.
"Kagome." He whispered gratefully, kneeling beside her and licking the blood from her body while she slept. When he got to her slightly inflated stomach, the heat of Phaidron's steadily growing body was still there, but feeble. He must have been tired from all that nourishment, Inuyasha surmised, and after kissing her belly, left her to sleep. He sat motionlessly with her, thinking.
Houjou had lied. But he shouldn't've been surprised, though. He'd obviously never fed Kagome, and had told him so only to appease Kanna's wishes. Fool. Merely speeding along his own death...though ironically enough, it would have to wait until Phaidron's birth, when Kagome was safe, at least from being mauled by her own child. She couldn't—or at least, shouldn't—be fighting whilst pregnant without possibly harming the boy, so it was best that they find somewhere to shelter her until things blew over. Sure, she'd most likely protest, but it couldn't be helped, and she knew it. The problem was, where? Certainly not at Nanako's house—forgiving though she may have been when Inuyasha impregnated Kagome, he severely doubted she would stand for two dangerous criminals attempting to kill her daughter.
"Do you love her, brother?" Sesshoumaru's quiet voice from the other side of the tree did not surprise him. He had a knack of coming out of nowhere on the strangest occasions.
"We are incapable of love, remember?" Inuyasha smiled slightly, and Sesshoumaru gave an almost inaudible chuckle.
"I at one point thought as much. But I watch you and I see that your child was made with love, not the product of an accidental rut. I commend you for swaying my opinion, brother." He replied smoothly. "It's true that your bond was inadvertent, but there had to be something to forge it, otherwise it would have failed. That something was influenced by the bond, and expanded into what it is now."
"Deducive, aren't you?" Inuyasha smirked. "Well, you're right. I care a great deal about this girl, and I fully plan to make that bastard and his conniving bitch pay by the boatload."
"I would expect no less from my brother. I suspect their blood shall stain the streets?" Sesshoumaru sounded amused.
"As well as run the rivers red. But my nyoubou is my first priority. She needs to be somewhere Houjou and Kanna can't touch her, or try to hurt our son."
"Adapting the fatherly role already, Inuyasha? How mature."
"I've always been mature. It's just taken a mate and a child for you to realize it." Inuyasha said smugly.
"Very well, Inuyasha. I acknowledge that. Now let us leave. Kanna is an idiot, but she would surely take advantage of such close proximity." Inuyasha nodded in agreement, cradled Kagome in his arms, and they left the area. He had been prepared to run, but he was somewhat surprised when Sesshoumaru ambled along, as though he hadn't a care in the world.
"How come you're going so slow?" Inuyasha questioned, curious.
"Would you have me run? I see no reason to rush. You surprise me, brother—I thought you would have wanted to take as much time as possible to deliver this news to Nanako."
"Well...I mean, she's an understanding woman, right...?" Inuyasha mumbled. "And I was just asking. You're the one who's always...dashing all over the place like some kind of blue hedgehog." Sesshoumaru quirked his eyebrow at him, and he sighed. "Another of Gingitsune's aphorisms...I guess it just stuck with me." He stared at the woman in his arms, a dull pain emerging in his heart. "Fuck, I miss her." He admitted, no longer caring if Sesshoumaru was disappointed in him. "But it's not like I can help it, okay? I've tried, and tried, and yet, she still worms her way into my fucking mind. I can't help thinking about her. I can't help worrying about her. I can't help l—" Sesshoumaru watched him patiently as he, quite literally, bit his tongue before the words could escape.
"Continue." Sesshoumaru said.
"There's...no more to be said." Inuyasha mumbled, mortified at what he'd almost said. Sure, he was aware of it, but that didn't mean Sesshoumaru had to be, too. But naturally, in that cryptic way of his, he already was.
"Do you love her, Inuyasha?"
"No!" Inuyasha snapped. It was more than enough proof for Sesshoumaru, who merely continued walking. "...I can't love a doomed woman."
"And why ever not? Your brother did, even with the knowledge that she was doomed. And she died, or rather, was killed, and I moved on."
"What will it take for me to move on?" Inuyasha sighed, feeling anguished.
"Her death, it would seem."
"I don't want her to die." It panged his heart just to think of it: Gingitsune dead, the spawn of a devourer squalling from between her legs, the very cause of the death pallor coating her once lively face...
"Then you must see her once more. Does she know of her fate?"
"If she did, she'd either off herself, or—and this is more likely, 'cause she likes kids and hates death—stick it out till the very end." Inuyasha gave a small smile, thinking about his old friend's resilience.
"You owe it to her to tell her. It was your acquaintance that led her to this destiny."
"What?! My acquaintance?! You jackass, how dare you?!" Inuyasha spluttered, indignant.
"If you hadn't befriended her, neither Kanna nor Houjou would know anything about her, and thus would never have had to include her in their twisted plans."
"Why the fuck do you never blame the people whose fault things really are when stuff gets fucked up?! You're always blaming me!"
"And you're always whining when I do. Be a man—take some responsibility, whelp."
"I'll show you how fucking--" Inuyasha caught the amused glint in his brother's otherwise emotionless eyes, then smirked. "Oh, you crafty fucker. You're always riling me up, dude."
"Your rants entertain me."
"Heh...if I didn't have Kagome in my arms, I'd probably throttle you."
"And you would be dead before you procured the chance."
As was expected, Nanako took things relatively well. She frowned through most of the explanation, but these words made Inuyasha feel loads better: "Well...if there had to be anyone at my daughter's side whilst she was in grave peril, then I suppose I'm somewhat relieved it's you two...even though neither of you have ever proved particularly capable of much in the past. Except fornication, of course...but then, that's to be expected as well."
So now, while Sesshoumaru sipped tea in the safety and comfort of Nanako's apartment, here he was, at Gingitsune's house, unsure of how to proceed. He'd yet to knock on the door, and Gingitsune's mother's car was in the driveway, so someone was home. Taking a deep breath, he only hoped her family had forgotten that she didn't want him let in the house.
Inuyasha knocked tentatively upon the wooden door, feeling that ringing the doorbell would be too alarming. Her younger brother, Noriyuki, came to the door, looking sour.
"Uh...hey, kid. Gingitsune home?"
"Yeah, but she's real sick. That asshole Houjou hasn't even come back to see her, and it's his fucking kid she's pregnant with!" That didn't surprise Inuyasha, but the normally quiet Noriyuki's ire did. He must really care for Gingitsune, more than Inuyasha ever could. Steeling himself, he went in and stared up the stairs that led to her room. Based on what he knew about vampire/demon pregnancies, Gingitsune could be coughing blood...or was it pissing blood? Oh, yeah—he'd forgotten.
He didn't know much about vampire/demon pregnancies.
But he went up those stairs anyway. He knocked on the door, in case her mother or someone was in there with her, and he didn't want to be considered terribly forward...even though he couldn't help but feel a little smug that he wasn't the "asshole who'd knocked her up". If he had succeeded in getting Gingitsune in his bed, he'd certainly be a much better father than Houjou could ever dream of being...
But he had to stop that train of thought. It was blocking out Gingitsune's faint voice, whispering, "Come in..." Inuyasha did so, leaving the door cracked open behind him, and he sat on the floor, looking at her with the utmost pity. Her face was gaunt and haggard, her belly more swollen than he recalled, and her eyes closed. He would've thought her dead if he didn't detect her weak pulse and the blood moving slowly through her veins, emptying into her broken heart.
"Inuyasha? I hope it's you. I've gotten tired of waiting for Houjou..."
"Y...Yeah. It's me." Inuyasha murmured, staring down at the fibers in Gingitsune's red shag carpeting.
"I'm glad." Her small smile made him feel as though his arms were about to be amputated. "How's Kagome doing?" Inuyasha flinched to hear his nyoubou's name.
"Uh...out for blood. The kid's taken a serious toll on her. But I guess yours is doing that to you, too." He added quickly, not wanting to seem insensitive.
"You sound surprised that I asked."
"I, uh...thought you hated Kagome."
"So did I...but...I realized something. I don't have it in me to hate anyone. Kagome's never done anything to me...I was just jealous, when I had no right to be."
"Yeah...so was she. But she didn't have that right either, you know."
"She does now. She's your nyoubou."
"..." I wish you were. The words, unspoken, drifted into the air above them, and it was as though Gingitsune could see them.
"I don't think we were ever meant to be, Inuyasha." She sighed. "I hate to get all dramatic and soap opera on you, but it's true. I have only been pregnant for two weeks. Two weeks. Already, I feel a head-splitting hell awaiting me when it all cumulates. So I know what you've been trying to tell me. I'm not going to survive this birth."
"You could!" Inuyasha retorted, and again, Gingitsune smiled.
"I like your enthusiasm, but...we both know I won't. So I've got a few last wishes for you."
"Shut up! Stop fucking saying that!"
"Something of a last will and testament, if you will." Gingitsune went on, either oblivious to his denial or ignoring it. "Number one: I do not want to be buried. That's first off. I don't want a bunch of people I've always hated crowded around me acting like they like me. I've been through that way too long. I'd appreciate a nice cremation, in a preferably white urn. That way I'll be brightening up the room just like when I was alive." By this time, Inuyasha was ferally growling his denials.
"Numero two. This really should have been number one, but I feel that a little tradition couldn't hurt. Kill Houjou. That would really make my afterlife."
"Sure. But you'll forgive me if it takes a small while."
"I really don't want this to have to happen again. It's quite tiresome, don't you think?"
"He's already done something like this before." Inuyasha grumbled curtly. "To my brother."
"Oh, my. That baby must have been a real bitch to have." Inuyasha's laugh was somewhat bitter, but he was a little glad Gingitsune seemed back to normal, even if only slightly.
"I'm talking about this girl he used to like. But he didn't go so far as to get her pregnant. He just killed her."
"Lucky."
"Stop saying that."
"Not until you accept it, which I suspect you already have, but you're just attempting to look all big and bad just for my benefit. Now—number three. Tell Kagome I never hated her. I don't want there to be people satisfied that I died."
"She's not that kind of person."
"I know." Gingitsune smiled infallibly. "Four...forgive me."
"Of course I do." Inuyasha said, never hesitating.
"I really shouldn't've even brought it up, huh?" She rolled her eyes, then coughed a little. Inuyasha was immediately at her side with a napkin from the dresser. "I'm fine, I'm fine! Jeez, don't mollycoddle me! You know I hate that."
"Sorry. Is your testament thing done?"
"Nopes. I think there's about one or two left. Number five is as follows: take especially good care of Kagome and your child. You have to forget about me—not completely, but enough not to let it interfere with your relationship with her. I would absolutely hate having my spirit anchored onto earth just because your stupid ass won't forget about me."
"...I'll...try."
"Good. Six: make sure my child is raised right. I don't care if you and Kagome have to raise her yourselves, just give her a good upbringing."
"You already know its' gender?"
"Not an idiot, Inuyasha. Not an idiot." Gingitsune grinned, and Inuyasha was thrilled to see some of that old light in her eyes. "Now, here's something you will never again hear for as long as you live: a bit of humility. I may not be an idiot now, but I was an idiot. I mean, I was being an idiot. I should've listened to your doubts about Houjou, biased though they were. You were doing the right thing for the wrong reasons."
"That's the worst kind of doing." Inuyasha nodded solemnly.
"Exactamundo. So..." Gingitsune stretched her limbs again, and Inuyasha vaguely registered the lack of the old lust that usually arose whenever she was in such a compromising position. "Now, I know things can't go completely back to normal, but I want things to be as congenial as possible. I want you and me and Kagome to all be friends. I'm a dying woman now, Inuyasha—I have no wish to whisk you away from your woman anymore."
"You've always wanted to say that." Inuyasha chuckled.
"What, "I'm a dying woman", or "whisk you away"?"
"Take your pick."
"Yeah, you're right. I'm so happy you came by, Inuyasha. I've been depressed for quite some time now, and you were just what I needed to make me feel better."
"You know what would make you feel even better? Some sunlight."
"How ironic coming from you, Dracula." Gingitsune laughed lightly. It wasn't the laugh Inuyasha knew so well—this one sounded more like a broken accordion—but it would do.
For now.
Black Ice: Yeah, I wanted things to progress on at least a moderately happy note. I didn't like all the dismal feelings I was picking up.
Blood Rain: Hey, whore, I wrote those feelings.
Black Ice: Yeah, yeah.
Blood Rain: So you got your happy ending, so what are you gonna do with it?
Black Ice: It's not an ending. God! Do you know nothing of stories?!
Blood Rain: Apparently I don't.
Black Ice: (ignoring her) Oh, things will be so happy! Oh, everyone will be friends!
Blood Rain: Until, of course, Gingitsune dies.
Black Ice: (good mood comes crashing down) Aw, c'mon, Rain, can't we change that?
Blood Rain: No! Now damn it, you got your stupid fucking happiness! Get the hell off my back!
Black Ice: Jeez! What are you, menstruating?! You're so bitchy today!
Blood Rain: And you're so fuckin' peppy!
Black Ice: I think we've been going through fanfic withdrawal.
Blood Rain: ...Yeah, me too. This was a pretty long rant.
Black Ice: Now that we're getting closer to ending this, maybe we should work on Strangetown...
Blood Rain: Why bother?
Black Ice: ...Well, I'll have to get back to you on that one. --;