The Source of Solace

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its other characters. Rumiko Takahashi has that singular privilege. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

THE SOURCE OF SOLACE

WARNING! Dark imagery and adult situations, foul language and hentai houshi.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“You can’t be serious.”

It should have been Sango who burst out with that remark, but it was Kagome, although she more than spoke for the rather startled taijiya.

Inuyasha was no help, just sitting there, grinning like an idiot. He, at least, had finally let her go and Kagome jumped up out of his lap so he didn’t get any more ideas about shutting her up. She had quite a few things to say to that crazy wolfling…though for some reason she couldn’t really think of anything right now because Sango had stepped in to say them for her.

“Kouga…I don’t understand. What do you mean---“ Sango leaned away from the glint-eyed youkai, who still held her in his strong arms.

“What’s not to understand?” Kouga asked, shrugging with the same infuriatingly male arrogance Inuyasha often displayed. “You are my woman. I claim you.”

“But…”

Blue eyes lightening, the ookami would have drawn Sango in for another kiss to stop her weak protest, but the taijiya had recovered more than just her memory when she awoke this morning. With an almost dancer’s like twist that was beyond Kagome’s untrained eye, the girl slithered free and now stood some few feet away from him, one hand held up to stop Kouga’s immediate step towards her.

“Kouga, I can’t think when you grab me like that.” Sango seemed suddenly honest to a fault, but her words had both youkai and hanyou grinning toothily.

Kagome blinked.

It couldn’t be. If Sango was serious…than there may be more to her feelings than the taijiya could admit to right now, having just this morning regained her lost memories and once again having to deal with the harrowing revelation of them. Kouga’s timing couldn’t have been more off. Leave it to a man…er…youkai…to muck things up.

“What’s to think about? You are my woman.” Kouga was certainly single-minded about that fact.

“But I am a taijiya.” Sango shook her head so that the long black tail of her hair swayed from side to side as the obdurate ookami tried to step closer again.

“I already told you---your past means nothing to me.” Kouga finally halted, crossing his arms over his chest. His blue eyes were intense as he stared at the beautiful girl, who could not hold his penetrating gaze with her own for long.

Kagome heaved a sigh of exasperation. Was she the only one with brains enough to see what was going on here? She wasn’t averse to the idea of Kouga claiming Sango…she rather liked the notion, they might just prove good for one another, and certainly Sango needed someone who could love her so determinedly. But the ookami would shoot his own foot if he pressed his suit now. Impatient with the stubborn clod, she spoke bluntly. “Kouga, you’re going too fast.”

Sango shot her a grateful look, which turned to chagrin as she really absorbed Kagome’s words. Frowning, the taijiya replied earnestly, “Kagome, he should not go there at all.”

“See?” Ignoring Sango for the moment, Kagome went over to stare up into the ookami’s blue eyes, laying on the puppy-eyed-plea a little too thick. But would anything less work with the stubborn wolfling?

Kouga cocked his head to one side, thoughtfully regarding Sango’s stiff form of dissent. “Perhaps I can be patient in claiming her.”

Kagome sighed; thinking her words might have gotten through to him.

“Still, it changes nothing. She’s still my woman.”

Kagome wanted to hit him. She settled for seething, and giving him a murderous glare. Deciding that the wolf lord was too ornery to deal with right now, she settled for ignoring him. Turning her back, she went to hug her poor friend, who might be more amenable to taking her comfort and advice right now than she had been before. Sango shivered when Kagome first touched her, but Kagome deliberately misinterpreted it.

“Come, Sango-chan. You must be cold. Let’s get you a thermal.” Deliberately ignoring the girl’s withdrawal, Kagome all but shoved Sango forward, past the cross-armed ookami and her grinning idiot of a hanyou husband.

“You don’t…despise me? For…” Sango whispered, her body stiff and brown eyes so wondering it made Kagome’s heart clench with the pity of it.

Kagome knew Sango was asking about the revelations of her past, but Kagome chose to misconstrue her question. “Of course not! How can I? Inuyasha’s only a half-demon, but he’s still more youkai than human. There’s nothing wrong in loving a youkai…”

“Kagome, I meant---” Sango earnestly tried to explain, but Kagome just smiled serenely.

“That too.” She gave the young taijiya a firm hug of hard reassurance, and then filched a folded blanket from beside the dying fire. Their abandoned breakfast was scattered around the ashes, but nobody would be interested in finishing it now. She’d leave it up to Inuyasha to see if he wanted to pack up the leftovers…

“Then you don’t…” Sango still needed reassurance. What had the poor girl’s childhood been like to have such need of it?

“Of course not, silly. Like Kouga said, your past means nothing to us. It’s in the past.” Kagome distinctly emphasized the last word.

Sango bit her lip, accepting the thermal blanket Kagome placed over her shoulders with almost automatic acquiesce. She shivered again, and spoke to her drawn up knees. “Thank you, Kagome-chan.”

Kagome frowned. “I’m not about to have any of that nonsense, Sango. Don’t you go thinking you should be grateful for us liking you just the way you are, past and present. Got that?”

Brown eyes fierce, she even shook the silent taijiya’s shoulders before giving her another hard hug. Sango managed a shy smile, which Kagome returned brightly.

“Now that that’s taken care of, we should see about getting home.”

“Home…” Sango’s eyes lightened. Kagome was amazed anew at how many colors were mixed in the deep brown depths. Cinnamon and chocolate, chestnut and hazel. Amazing how much emotion was now present in the girl’s opened gaze…

*~*~*~*~*

The two males had been busy while the girls had been diverted. Kouga had neatly packed everything up while the wolves made a meal of their abandoned scraps. Kagome turned to see Inuyasha sprinkling dirt over their spent fire. He gave her a smirking wink, and said blandly. “Are you ready then? The skimmer’s back at the cabin.”

“Piggy-back?” Kagome’s eyes danced while Sango’s brow furrowed in confusion.

Inuyasha scowled. He hated when she said it that way. He wasn’t a damn pig.

“Hanyou-back, then.” Kagome’s brown eyes twinkled, and she sashayed over to give her irritated hanyou a quick kiss of apology. A roaming hand, claws held carefully away from scratching the delicate skin, caressed one arm lightly. Kagome shivered with pure longing, and said impishly, “Once we get home, I’ll need a bath.”

“You’ll need company for that bath.” Inuyasha’s words were almost trite, but Kagome responded to the invitation in his golden-amber eyes with a hungry promise of her own.

Sango blushed to see them so blatant, though she should have been used to it by now. Inuyasha and Kagome had never hidden the fact that they loved each other passionately.

“Ready?” Kouga was suddenly in front of her, extending a clawed hand to help her up. Sango again felt overwhelmed by his presence…he was so earthy, so youkai. He was wearing some type of fur and armor she had never seen him in before, and it made him seem all the more….male. The brief pelt he wore swathed around his hips left most of his legs bare, and Sango found her eyes fastened on the hard muscles of thigh revealed. She flushed with embarrassment, shying away from the riot of emotions he caused within her.

Ignoring his helpful gesture, she lightly sprang to her feet. Something flickered in the deep blue eyes, but the wolf lord seemed more amused by her contumacy than angry. “I like independence in my woman.” His heated breath whispered across the back of her neck, and Sango stiffened as he sauntered past, his look one of pure innocence.

“I am not…” She started, but gave it up. The ookami was stubborn, but she knew when she was right. Kouga was just feeling sorry for her, a reaction caused by the recitation of her scarred past. His pity would erode in time, and he would come to his senses.

Or so she told herself.

With a hullooing farewell, the pack of wolves departed, streaming out of the cavern in a mix of furry gray and brown bodies. The caves seemed suddenly larger, the cleared space echoing and empty. Kouga strolled after them, Inuyasha following with the ookami’s carry-sack. Kagome, her black hair tangling around her face, gave Sango a reassuring squeeze of her fingers. “Come on, Sango-chan.”

Sango followed the other girl outside, blinking as the sunlight blossomed before eyes used to the dimmer shadows of the abandoned cave. It took her a minute to blink the glare away, and when she had, she felt her mouth fall open as she saw Kagome scrambling onto Inuyasha’s bent back. The hanyou hitched his mate up higher on his hips, and Kagome giggled as she tightened her long legs around his narrow waist. Arms hugged over his shoulders, she whispered something in a white ear that had his amber eyes glowing. Knees bent, the hanyou paused before taking off for Kagome to smile back at her friend, “Come on Sango! It’s the quickest way to get home!”

Inuyasha took off, his first leap taking them high up into the surrounding trees.

Sango’s eyes were inevitably drawn to Kouga, who grinned toothily.

“I can walk.” She heard herself saying even as her cheeks flamed.

Kouga smirked.

“I like walking.” Sango insisted, making good her declaration by stepping forward. But Kouga had other ideas, and before she knew it, he had swept her up in his arms, cradling her slight form to his chest like a small child. Sango clutched convulsively at the strong shoulders as she felt herself being hefted up, the air current pressing down against her so that her long hair whipped behind Kouga’s shoulder as the earth fell far away beneath them.

He laughed at her reaction, and his claws tightened on her side and knees, where he held her firmly anchored against him. He arced down, measuring the distance to the next buoyant treetop. He preferred running along the ground, but wasn’t averse to using the treetops as Inuyasha did.

“I can walk!” Sango reminded him mulishly, not liking how helpless she felt in his strong arms. One clawed hand curved along her back, the claw-tips almost touching the side of her breast. She could feel the hard, armored plate he used as chain mail, and sensed the rugged maleness that exuded from his being like a constant youkai aura of reminder.

Kouga sprang off of the tree and was back up in the air like a shot.

“I can free myself!” Sango glared, loosening her convulsive hold from around his shoulders to touch his curled claws with her slender fingers.

Kouga flashed her a grin, his blue eyes glinting. His own black tail fanned in the breeze of his passage as he easily replied, “You fall now, you fall a long way.”

Sango, of course, chose just that moment to look down.

And down.

And down.

The earth was a patchwork of differing colors beneath them, the interlacing trees looking like mere field brush. There were even some wispy clouds misting between them and the earth far, far below.

Sango’s stomach knotted, and she convulsively tightened her arms around Kouga’s neck as he hit the top of his ranging arc and started falling fast to the ground below. Sango buried her head in one broad shoulder, thinking the forest was coming rather too quickly up to meet them. But Kouga only laughed, charmed by how she was nearly strangling him, and took off from the rustling tree as it dipped and swayed beneath his momentary weight.

“You’re my woman, Sango. I would never let anything ever happen to you!” He growled in her ear, his arms tightening as he sprang free.

Sango was going to have nothing more to do with the crazy demon, and she would tell him so…once they had safely reached the ground again!

*~*~*~*~*

“Mr. Genuine?”

A dark brow rose in sardonic surprise. He had not used that name in some time. It sounded like some type of nudie dancer’s cheesy title, and although Miroku wasn’t averse to having the ladies think he MIGHT be a professional male prostitute, it wasn’t entirely sophisticated enough for his tastes.

Dark blue eyes measured the small, dour man who bowed before him, a serving tray with various glasses held out a little too aggressively for true discretion. Either the man was an idiot, and wanted him to take a hand-written note from the tray, or he was using the glasses and the tray as an over-obvious prop for a rather mundane disguise.

The tray wobbled slightly as the man’s attention wavered. He grasped at something stuck in his boot as he swept back up from his grandiose bow.

Not a message, then. Or---perhaps it was. Though the messenger was far too clumsy a tool for them to have used…

Miroku rolled out of the way as the small blast gun held in the dour man’s hand fired a silent shot at the cushioned couch he had just been sitting on. His dinner companion, a breathy blonde of rather lascivious tastes but dubious intelligence, just sat and screamed, her carefully manicured hands waving futilely in front of her face at the shock of the sudden, silent explosion of rich velvet padding around her. She stared in horror at the ragged hole that appeared in the cushioned back of the couch beside her, where her handsome male companion had sat just seconds before.

Miroku, under the table that the curving couch surrounded, looked up at the long, tanned legs in front of him and grinned. The naughty blonde had deliberately forgotten to wear any underwear, and he paused to kiss the back of one knee in silent regret. It would have been a pleasurable experience to have spent the rest of the night finding what else she had forgotten to wear under that satiny gown…

The blonde’s screech hit a new height in hysteria as she tried to kick out at him, not knowing who or what was attacking her from below. The dour man swore in disgust as her continued screams brought startled attention their way. His target was not the blonde, however, and he merely slapped her sharply as he scrambled over the table, having caught sight of Miroku disappearing under the next. Snarling out a curse, he fired wildly as the blonde beat him back, trying to push him off of her with surprising force.

“Police! Help! Police!” Someone was shouting, and others took up the call as another woman screamed.

Miroku hid a grin as he rolled under another table, easily avoiding a third shot as the dour man scrambled away from the blonde’s manicured claws which were now grasping for his throat. Damn, but the blonde could scream. It would have been nice to have heard those cries singing out his name in the throes of passion, but what was a poor monk to do? Regrettably, the blonde would probably never give him a second chance. The dour man had seen to that.

Sigh.

The fourth shot was a bit too close for comfort and the frightened diners whose table under which he hid abruptly decided to get rid of his cover by knocking the table over in their haste to get away. With another long-suffering sigh, Miroku swept to his feet in a single, lithe movement; his hands unsheathing the small poniards he always carried in boot and thigh. Palming the first dagger, he let it fly at his assailant even as he slid to one side, avoiding another sweeping blast aimed in his direction. There was a sharp cry behind him and a dull thud as the body hit the floor.

Damn. He hated when things got messy. That’s what happened when you employed fools and bunglers to do the job of an expert…

He was about to let his second knife fly when he heard the muted thump of another body hitting the floor. Ignoring the rising screams and muffled shouts behind him, Miroku stopped and stared in surprise. The dour man, small gun flung aside, had sprawled over backwards, the hilt of Miroku’s flung dagger glittering in the overheads, right in the middle of the man’s throat.

An expert throw, and he hadn’t even been trying.

Miroku grinned, neatly sliding his second poniard back into his boot. Stepping over the shattered china cutlery from the overturned tables, he bent over the man long enough to retrieve his first.

~Waste not, want not.~

The muffled shouts were getting closer, and he could hear the shrieking peal of the gendarme’s siren. Time to make himself scarce. The last thing he wanted was the authorities down on him, sticking their long noses into his private business and mucking up his plans with their inept questions and bungling investigations. They might uncover more than they would care to know…

Dodging for the nearest exit, Miroku made good his escape. He had a few questions of his own…like who had hired that fool and how had they found him? The only people who might want him dead were the Brotherhood of Iynisin, and they had given up on him some time ago. He was Gen-One, after all, one of the first of their specially trained, specially bred human cannon fodder. He had been too smart to stick around, preferring to keep his skin in one piece to sacrificing it for the good of the clan. He smirked, remembering how nauseatingly insipid that tripe had been going down. He hadn’t bought any of that crap from the time he had been sent on his first mission, his Trial of testing, and had used the chance to escape their officious grasp.

Why would the Brotherhood be hunting him now? It made no sense, unless…

He paused for a moment, deep blue eyes growing thoughtful. He would have to start asking a few of his own questions, perhaps make a few cautious inquiries into places where discretion was the better part of valor. Consumed with idle speculations, he carelessly crossed the street, away from the screaming chaos behind him. The siren blast of the incoming gendarme squealed over the hoarse shouts and sobbing bewilderment beyond. He saw no sign of the breathy blonde, and that was his only true regret.

The evening wasn’t a total loss, however, for he spied a petite little redhead, drawn by the noise and her own naïve curiosity, give him a shy little smile as he passed by her. Blue eyes lighting, Miroku stopped long enough to get her name and access number. The next few days might prove too busy for him to pursue much of anything other than the information he needed, but he was always willing to take time out for the ladies…

*~*~*~*~*

Kouga landed lightly on the balls of his feet. Arrogantly assessing his distance from the cave-mouth, he thought he had made good time. He had landed neatly just two lengths from the cabin’s front steps, but Inuyasha had already beaten him inside.

He grinned down at the girl who still clutched at him tightly. He waited for her to realize that they were safely on the ground, and she didn’t disappoint him. Wide brown eyes blinked once as she slowly lifted her head from where it had nestled into his shoulder. With a muffled oath that had him grinning because it was so unexpected from the almost unnaturally reserved girl he knew, she twisted out of his hold.

Damn, his woman was worthy.

He wasn’t as keen on letting her go, but he had heard Kagome’s words and absorbed them. Sango would take some careful handling, some damn hard patience, and quite a bit of coaxing to come around to his way of thinking. He trusted it wouldn’t take too long, though. The girl had feelings for him---he could scent them. She was drawn to him; she just wasn’t ready to admit it to herself just yet.

He liked his woman’s stubbornness. It certainly made a nice change from the usual women who just threw their selves at him as if he were some kind of prize. Maybe he was…he was a Taiyoukai after all, and there weren’t THAT many of them around. Still, Sango was a refreshing change. And an ookami didn’t mind the hunt or the chase. In fact, they relished it. She would provide him some sport, and once he caught her, it would be worth every effort to make the stubborn onna his own woman in truth. She would come to see things his way…eventually.

He wasn’t too worried over the reaction of his clan, either. His choice of mate was his choice, after all. The old battle-axes and stagnating traditionalists might snarl about it, but they would growl under their breath and out of his sight, lest they rouse his wrath. The younger ookami had no quarrel with his rather progressive ideas about ningen and youkai being of equal caste. Many of them shared his views. The old traditions should have been overturned centuries ago. They were built on archaic reasoning, and their waning support was crumbling around the edges. Sango as his Lady would do the stuffed-up youkai nobility good, and as for any children they might have…

He grinned at the thought. Inuyasha had never shown any particular weakness by being a hanyou. Kouga would be proud to have a son as strong as the inu half-breed.

Sango made good her flight, disappearing into the house. Following the girl leisurely, Kouga sauntered up the steps. He was abruptly halted at the front door as Kagome thrust a small bucket of water into his belly. Kouga sucked in his breath as water sloshed over the side at Kagome’s ungracious impact.

“Feet.” She ordered, handing over the bucket and a scrap of soap. Raising a thick black brow at the onna’s temerity, Kouga looked down. He wore his usual hunting garb and armor, and both he and Inuyasha had gone their preferred way---without shoes. His furred leg braces were held to the arch of his narrow feet by simple straps, leaving the callused toe and heel free for easier purchase.

Kagome smiled cheekily. Sighing, Kouga sat down on the rough-hewn bench nestled against the cabin’s wall and proceeded to wash the dirt off with single-minded thoroughness. Leaving his leg-braces to dry in the crisp autumn sun, he hefted bucket and soap back inside with him.

Kagome cast a pointed look at his toes and he wiggled them for her inspection. Giggling, the girl handed him a towel even as she took the used bucket from his grasp. “Shower.” She ordered, pointing him down the stunted hall.

“I know the way.” Kouga growled, slightly annoyed by the girl’s despotism. His attention was caught, however, as Sango made a dash from the bathing room to her own, her towel slipping slightly to show a healthy glimpse of both thigh and cleavage. Kouga’s light blue eyes darkened in appreciation as the long-legged taijiya disappeared behind her door.

Kagome poked him in the side. She leveled a glare his way, reminding him, “Shower.”

“What is this? An assembly line?” Kouga growled, stalking toward the only sanitary unit available in the small cabin.

“Me and Inuyasha still have to bathe, you know.” Kagome groused. “And we might be in there for awhile.”

Kouga quirked a brow at her as he slid open the resinwood door. “That’s the way of it, eh?”

Kagome blushed, but threw the scrap of soap at him. Catching it, he gave her a smug look before sliding the door closed. He was as quick about his absolutions as he could be. Using the towel Kagome gave him to dry the ends of his wet black hair; he scowled at the steamed mirror above the washbasin. One curse about having long hair was that it took forever to dry. Idly combing his fingers through the heavy length, he wondered if he had thought to pack a comb among the things in his hastily assembled carry-sack. Inuyasha had hauled it back to the cabin for him, and Kouga wasn’t sure where it was.

Leaving his armor off, Kouga donned his furred kilt and draped the damp towel over his shoulders as he left the san-unit. He hauled the hard chest-plate with him and dumped it on the couch as he emerged into the main sitting area. Inuyasha thumped down the steps from his room above with an impatient growl, disappearing into the bathroom with nary a glance in his direction. Kouga smirked to see his friend’s haste, and looked down at Kagome, who paused beside him.

The onna eyed him appraisingly. Kouga frowned at her, the tanned muscles in his hard chest rippling as he crossed his arms to glare down at her.

Kagome tweaked a long black tress that hung loose and damp down his chest. “You have pretty hair. You should leave it down more often.”

Kouga gave her a sour look.

“There’s some meat left in the storage unit. Help yourself.” Kagome smiled back.

“Kagome!” Inuyasha barked from the back room.

Kagome rolled her eyes, and only paused long enough to add with a worried frown. “About Sango, Kouga---go slow.”

“Slow, huh?” The smile that quirked the ookami’s lips could only be called wolfishly lusty.

It was Kagome’s turn to look sour. “I don’t mean in that way, you oaf.”

“KAGOME!” Inuyasha was all but howling now.

Kagome blushed. “Oops. Gotta go. See you later!”

She scooted, and the bathroom door slid closed behind her with a decided slam.

Kouga grinned at the hanyou’s choler, and as his belly was reminding him that breakfast had been interrupted and quite a long time ago, he helped himself to the dried jerky in the refrigerated storage unit. Still hungry, he pilfered a few meat-rolls and helped himself to one of Inuyasha’s rare Golshteinen beers. The hanyou jealously guarded his stash, but he was a little too busy at the moment to know what wouldn’t hurt him. Kouga would order in some more, though the cost of the heavy brew was far more than its worth, in his opinion.

By the time he had finished his meal, his hair had dried somewhat. Kouga idly searched for his carry-sack and could not find it. Cursing the distracted hanyou under his breath, he then searched for a comb, to no avail. A sudden thought had him grinning, and before he could think twice about it, he was at Sango’s door, tapping lightly.

There was a muffled inquiry within, and Kouga took that as permission. Sliding back the light resinwood, he stepped into the shadowy chamber. Sango, who had been lying back on her now-coverless bed, sat up with blushing surprise.

Kouga liked the fact that his woman could blush so easily, and he could scent out the sudden rise in her emotions, as she became aware of his half-naked state. Blinking brown eyes, she tried to stare anywhere but at him, and only succeeded in blushing harder.

Kouga took his time looking her over, comparing her now to when first he had met her. She had filled out over he past few months, and the hinting promise of beauty that her narrowed frame implied had blossomed into fact. Her skin, so pale before, was now healthy and tanned where her normal attire left it bare. She wore little more than a sleeveless top at the moment, and her skin was more creamy than pale where cloth typically hid it from the sun. Her hair, long and thick and slightly curling, hung free down her back and shoulders, the faint hint of brown in the ebon tresses adding a reddened tint to the dark color in the setting sun’s light. There were shadows under her eyes, probably from the exacting rigor of the past few hours, but the hollowness of her cheeks had fleshed out into firm lines. The bounty of curves beneath her sleeping top had Kouga rubbing the side of his jaw absently as he stared, light blue eyes darkening.

Sango fidgeted under his telling gaze, and that broke the spell. Kouga shook himself slightly, and leaned back against the door, adopting a carelessly negligent attitude he did not at all feel.

“So…” He growled. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.” Her voice was a mere scrap of a whisper. With his sensitive youkai ears, he could more than hear her, but it was too good an opportunity to let pass by.

“What was that?” He stalked closer, pretending to lean in to better understand her.

“Er…I’m fine.” Sango said, slightly louder. She blinked as she realized how much closer he had come to the wide bed. She surreptitiously edged to the side furthest from him.

Kouga didn’t like how she tried to put distance between them. Damn, but she was skittish. Well, he could hardly blame her. She had experienced more than enough shit at youkai hands to make her nervous. Still, the easiest way to get her used to him was for him to make damn certain she had few opportunities NOT to.

And where his woman was concerned, Kouga could be quite determined.

So he deliberately sat on the bed. Sango started scooting for the other side like no man’s business, but Kouga easily stopped that by pulling on the thin sheet wrapped around her. He pretended to merely pluck at the thin surface, though he used his youkai strength to haul her back several inches with each ‘pluck’. He managed a thoughtful frown, though the gleam couldn’t be kept from his blue eyes. “This the only blanket you have? It gets chilly at night around here.”

“It’s okay…oof!” Sango managed as she was nearly turned halfway over by his last pluck and pull.

Kouga snorted. Sango blinked up at him, the dark line of the scarlet tattoo above her eyes making her lashes appear that much fuller. “There should be another covering in the chest, you know.”

Sango frowned at his jovial tone.

~Don’t overdo it, wolf!~ Kouga chided himself as he quickly crossed the room to open the chest. Fishing the heavy blanket from the bottom, his sensitive nose wrinkled at the smell of it. Who in all the seven starred hells had put mulberries between the folds? The damn things had been a favorite of one of his nurse’s; it seemed as if Sango liked them as well. Man, but the remembered stench hadn’t improved over time. He would just have to suck it up, though he put serious thought into opening the window to allow some fresh air in to waft out the stink of dried mulberry.

Upon consideration, it wasn’t such a bad idea. Sango had never seemed bothered by the fresh air, and if it got downright chilly as the night descended, it did his cause no harm. Fighting back a grin, Kouga paused to release the window’s catch and snick it back.

“What are you…?” Sango watched him from a knees-drawn up position in the middle of the bed. She had unrolled herself from the sheet---probably in reaction to his hauling her over with it---and Kouga got a good view of her long, nicely muscled legs that way.

His toothy grin was purely ookami.

Thinking better of it, she pulled the sheet back up.

Pretending not to notice, Kouga unrolled his prize, fluttering it out across the wide mattress. Lifting an edge to slide beneath, he caught Sango’s startled shock and thought better of it.

~Damn.~

Expression wry, he settled gingerly on top of the blanket, which made Sango relax minutely. Not that she still wasn’t holding herself with stiff tension, but she didn’t seem as ready to bolt.

Man, this was going to be hard.

“What are you…” Sango broke off as he relaxed back against the headboard. Crossing his arms over his chest and his legs at the ankle seemed to make the jumpy girl relax even more. He could sense how exhausted she was, and if he were just a little more patient, she would soon fall asleep. Then he might be able to snuggle under the covers with her, if he were careful not to rouse her to waking.

Satisfied with that plan, Kouga decided to hurry it on a bit. “I want to make sure you get to sleep.”

He waited.

She stared at him, brown eyes opaque in the growing shadows as the twilight slowly encroached. The wind stirred restlessly outside the window, making a whispering descant in the background. Sango continued to study him, to the point where Kouga wanted to twitch under that unflinching, shadowed gaze.

~Go slow.~ He reminded himself with a grimace.

“You look different with your hair down.” Sango murmured sleepily.

Kouga frowned. Hadn’t Kagome said something like that? Damn, onna were confusing creatures. It was the last thing he would have expected Sango to say.

“So do you.” He replied, for lack of anything else to answer. Though it was true. He liked the way her black hair fanned out around her on the pillow as she nestled under the covers. He thought how it might be to run his claws through it, to see if the texture was as silky as he remembered…

“You confuse me, Kouga.” She muttered more to herself as her eyes slowly closed and a deep sigh whispered from her still frame as she sunk into sleep.

Kouga’s blue eyes glinted. He could say the same, though he was more than willing to find out why she played such havoc with his senses. He waited with almost unnatural patience until the taijiya’s breaths had slowed into deeper slumber. Trained as she was, he had no doubt that she could wake at the slightest movement in her room that she felt somewhere deep in her subconscious did not belong. He was counting on the fact, though, that while SHE might be in denial about accepting him, her deeper subconscious was not. Her scent could not lie to him, and her body had already accepted him, if her self had not.

Taking care, Kouga slid under the covers, almost predatory in how slow he kept his advance. With ookami stealth, he inched himself toward her, and was delightfully surprised when she instinctively rolled toward him in her sleep. With growing confidence, he snaked one arm around her shoulders to drag her closer. He froze when she muttered in her sleep, but then relaxed as she nestled herself against the hollow of his shoulder. As the clouds slowly withdrew, admitting the rising first moon’s light to creep into the shadowed room, Sango slowly sprawled herself across his chest, one hand splaying against his right pectoral as she lay her cheek against the other. Her silky hair fanned out behind her, and Kouga slowly drew his arms down to gently hold her to him. Sleep inched across his mind, and he nuzzled the top of her bent head, breathing in her own unique scent and the cursed stench of mulberries that tickled along his nose. The day had been a long, harrowing one, and the next would not be much better, as he strove to discover just what the youkai Kagura’s warning to him might bring.

But that was for tomorrow, and right now he was content to be exactly where he was. Man, but it felt good to hold his woman in his arms this way…


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AUTHOR’S NOTE: Not much in the way of plot development, but a sweet interlude that I could not keep out. Much gratitude to the people who take time to post a review, I myself am pretty bad about writing them. Thank you very much! A few side notes: Fairia, I have missed you lady! And you may be knee-deep in weeds, but you have Inuyasha on the nose. I’m looking forward to reading more of “A Ripple in Still Waters” and when the fart are you going to do that sequel to “Stronger”? BlackSand, I have not read Huxley’s “Brave New World”, but it sounds really interesting. I will have to check him out. Iris, you hit the nail on the head, though I will explain more of Sesshoumaru’s involvement and the Brotherhood’s duplicity in later chapters. Thank you, Coiled Iris, for wondering when Miroku would make an appearance. I was not going to write him in this story, even after reading your review, but he decided to surprise me, the devious devil, and I have suddenly seen the light on some incredible new plot twists. (Does the twisty dance) Thank you plot bunnies!

Fate