XVI

Dulce, Utile

Kagome is the one who is panting by the time Kouga returns to his more human shape. He has a satisfied look on his face, and also a great deal of blood, but the first thing he does – besides grin at her – is walk to the stream and bend to wash the blood from his face and hands. Human, that sight, though she knows he isn't; reassuring, because his bloody face grows more disturbing the longer she looks at it. He was a wolf when he killed the Oni; she can accept the beast within him, but he has the heartbreaking face of a beautiful man now. That juxtaposition is too much for her all at once.

There's an outbreak of growling – some of the wolves are tearing at the Oni's body now, and at the flesh of the fallen youkai. Kouga comes back to Kagome wiping his face on his headband, and she snickers at the sight of him – without the headband his bangs fall completely over his eyes. He ties it back and scowls at her, but the expression falls apart into a smile almost at once, and he wades through wolves to her side, reaches down and lifts her up into his arms again.

He has a compulsion to check her for new injuries though he knows there is no way she could've been hurt – he holds back only because there are other problems, and he doesn't have time to be distracted. He takes woman and bag and leaps up lightly to the den entrance; wolves crowd around them, black and brown, gray and white, many of them the size of normal wolves or a little larger, perhaps, but none the size of Kouga's enormous shape.

Kagome sees a few in human shapes like Kouga's; they're all dressed in fur, and many have odd patterns and striations in her hair that remind her of the soft bristling patterns in a wolf's coat. Kouga greets some of them in a low voice, but his attention is ahead, at the edge of a ledge looking out across the bubbling pool beneath the waterfall.

The littlest of wolves is laying still there, unmoving. Three human-shaped wolves are hovering over the little one – a black wolf howls in the background, and butts at the female's legs with the top of his head. The female looks up when Kouga stops beside her, and though her eyes linger on Kagome, she is quick to speak to him, her eyes pleading.

"Kouga – Kouga it's Sho, it's Sho – is there something -"

Kouga shakes his head slowly, and the female's shoulder's collapse. The two males behind her approach together, and in their palm of their hands hold out a twin set of pouches. Kagome's eyes are rather wide in contemplation of the tall white mohawk one of them is sporting.

"Those are the shards, Ginta?"

The wolf on the left nods, and Kagome looks at him – Ginta, the one who knows about humans.

"Hakkaku, I'm sorry about Sho -"

"He might – he might be all right. We'll just have to wait – he just looks so broken -"

Kouga looks down at Kagome and addresses her seriously.

"Can you stand? Will it hurt you to walk?"

She shakes her head, and Kouga puts her down on her feet. There's a twinge of pain she isn't expecting, and she isn't very steady at first but it only takes a moment. She stands with her hand pressed against her side and then feels suddenly very much the outsider.

Wolves rush forward from every corner to greet Kouga – wolf shaped and human, many of them to press near him, to rub their heads under his hands, to lick at his fingers, to butt his legs, to rub cheek against cheek. She smiles, and wanders away a bit. It is harder than she thought it would be – walking – and she stops, wincing, at the edge of the cavern where the view looks down over the water.

"Be careful, human woman!"

There are tears in the sharp female voice that upbraids Kagome, and she looks down and sees that she is only a few feet away from the wolf pup that is in so much distress. Carefully, very carefully, Kagome eases herself down onto her knees and then looks up at the female across from her. The pup's mother, she thinks, and reaches out gentle fingers to stroke his white forehead.

"Is there something I can do to help?"

"Can you save him, woman? What do you know of youkai!"

The female's hackles are raised – this stranger is touching her pup – only the fact that Kagome bears the scent of Kouga like a cloak protects her. Yet Kagome feels only compassion, only pain when she looks at the little body, whens he thinks about the terrible things that have befallen him, and so young – Sho, the female said his name was.

"I'm sorry. I don't know anything – I just would like to help him, if I could -"

"Help him to his grave, miko? I can smell the power in you -"

"No! No – a baby like him? Such a baby – he should live. He should live – I'm sorry – I'm sorry – I wish I could help him – I wish – I wish -"

Pink light.

Soft.

Flowing.

It leaches brightness from her fingertips and spreads it across the pup's pale fur – over his muzzle, the faint rise and fall of his little chest – nose to tail-tip, it covers him.

"Kouga?"

Kagome's voice is very nearly an interrupting squeak and not a word – but he doesn't need the word to know something is happening. The scent of power – the scent that is Kagome and shikon no tama is everywhere, and he turns just in time to see the growing glow become a flood of light.

He sees fear on her face, white panic. He wonders for a single instant exactly how much she doesn't know, and then light slaps him like a wave of water, leaves him dizzy with fragrance, with softness, with desire and longing and promise.

All around him wolves are falling lightheaded to their knees; he sees Shiori flat on her back through a crystal haze of lavender light, and Sho and Kagome at the center of it. Where she touches the pup the light is so bright as to be blinding, and Kouga closes watering eyes, and turns away -

Through his eyelids he senses when the light is gone, and he hears a wonderful sound at the same instant. It is Sho's bark, impatient and playful, and Kouga opens his eyes and sees the pup lapping at his mother's face, and Shiori just coming round.

He looks for Kagome and sees her sprawled on the ground. Her hair is dark as midnight now, all the lavender gleam faded from it as if sucked out by the light. He doesn't care – he holds her against his body and lets out a sigh of relief when her eyes flicker open and look up at him.

A/N: And just in the nick of time because at least where I am, today is almost over! Today's title, "Dulce, Utile" translates to "Sweet and Useful" - which Kagome certainly was, this chapter. But I think enough clues have been given that the careful reader can begin to pick out the great revelation of why, exactly, Kagome was able to heal this wee wolfie...and fear not, if you haven't a clue, all shall be revealed in time!

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