Blue moon and Red Fire

Chapter 3: Protective

It was an internal clock within him that awoke Souta up this time, an inane mechanism that formed after a set routine of waking up at a certain time every morning.

A small, inaudible yawn forced it’s way from Sota’s mouth, causing him to open his eyes after 5 minutes of denying conscious in favor of more sleep. Well, he was not one to oversleep...wait, what was he oversleeping for?

Souta opened his eyes, finding himself still laying on Inuyasha’s chest just as he had been last night, and if at all possible he was more comfortable now then before, possibly because the heat had subsided.

Still reluctant to move, Souta decided now was the perfect time to think about whatever he felt he was forgetting. Oversleeping, oversleeping would mean he would have to be late for something, what could he be late for? What possible reason could he have for forcing himself to get up and leave this comfort...It was a weekday, so that had to mean one thing... ‘School...’

With a sigh Souta lifted himself off of Inuyasha’s chest, his sleepy head drifting over to the clock on the wall. It was 7:30 in the morning, and it looked as much outside. The snowfall had broken enough to let a sunrise through, basking the room in the bright oranges and reds that came along with. ‘I wonder if it’s still snowing where my mother is...’ Souta thought, noticing with a small bit of relief that no one had returned.

With another yawn and a few blinks, Souta climbed on made his way on to the ground, at least able to find his boxers among his scatted clothing. The first thing he did was make his way over to the window, squinting his eyes in an attempt to peer through the orange glare shining through the sunrise breaking over the horizon. He spent a moment trying to see how much snow had gathered on the ground, it looked about 12 or 13 inches high...Souta knew from past experinces that it took more then that to constitute a snow day. “Aw man...”

Inuyasha shifted lightly, noticing the lack of weight that had been on him previously, and his ears raised off his head lightly at the sound of a voice. “...ahhh?” With a light groan Inuyasha awakened, cooler then he had been the previous day either from the ice cream or the fact that he had gotten the constant need to mate temporally out of his mind. After a moment of staring at the ceiling until his vision cleared, Inuyasha sat up, turning his head toward the direction he smelled Souta’s sent coming from. “What are you doing over there?”

Souta glanced back, “Oh, did I wake you up? Sorry about that.”

“What is it? See something?”

“No, I just have to go to...” Souta’s eyes widened and he nearly jumped with realization “Oh man! I gotta get to school, I’m gonna be late!”

“Huh?”

Souta hastily dashed upstairs, leaving behind a confused Inuyasha. School? He couldn’t be serious...could he? No way, it’s too cold, there’s too much snow...right? Right?

Now that he wasn’t overly hot Inuyasha realized how cold this room was, so he first reclaimed his shirt and jacket before making his way upstairs to follow Souta. He found the boy in his room, looking around frantically through his drawers for a particular pair of clothing. “School? Your going to School?” Inuyasha sat down on Souta’s bed, watching with slight amusement, he didn’t really think Souta was actually going to go...right?

With evident unwiliness, Souta confirmed it. “I have too.” Rapidly tossing anything clothing his way over his shoulder before he found what he was looking for in the third drawer from the top. For a moment he actually thought he lost it. It was his school uniform, a pair of black pants and a shirt with a high collar, how could he possibly misplace it? “Found it.”

“What? No way!” Inuyasha declined, he wasn’t willing to part with the boy, not yet at least. “You can’t go.”

“I have too.” Souta repeated, glancing at his clock, 7:42am, and quickly heading to the bathroom across the hall.

Inuyasha followed, standing in the doorway while Souta reach for his toothbrush “Come on, do you really have to go?” He wanted Souta to stay, he wanted the boy all to himself, Souta wouldn’t go....right? He couldn’t go could he, how could he leave his mate in heat? Damn, Why did Souta have to come along when he did?

“Un huh.” Souta said something else, but it was incoherent since he had the toothbrush moving around frantically in his mouth.

Inuyasha groaned in frustration. “No one’s making you go.”

Souta, still moving hastily, lifted a glass to his lips to rise away any remaining toothpaste and wiped his mouth. “I still have to go.”

“It’s too cold outside.” Inuyasha said, trying to think of an excuse that might talk the boy in to staying.

Souta ran back to his room, sitting down on his bed and reaching for his pants. “I still have to go...Oh man, I’m gonna be late!” Moving even faster, Souta pulled on his shirt, dashing out of his room and down the stairs while buttoning the article of clothing.

Inuyasha of course followed, musing on how needy he must have looked at the moment. “What’s missing one day?”

Souta dashed into the kitchen so fast he had to slide to a stop. “I already missed yesterday, I’ll get behind if I miss two days in a row.” He sighed, looking through the refrigerator for anything that didn’t require cooking. “I can’t stay...” As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t, he couldn’t allow himself to get that far behind, since he wasn’t completely ahead in the first place.

But the offer to stay was tempting, very tempting...Oh man he really didn’t want to leave.

“If you don’t want to leave then don’t.”

Souta looked up from the refrigerator, rubbing his head nervously “Did I say that out loud?” He didn’t wait for an answer, he was going to be late! “Oh man...” Deciding he didn’t have time to keep looking, Souta headed for the door, putting on his shoes and picking up his bag which he placed near the door just so he wouldn’t lose it, and headed out the door.

As soon as he got to the other side and wound up in snow just short of his shins, he remembered that he hadn’t grabbed his coat. “...” So he turned around, and returned to the house where Inuyasha was waiting at the door. “I still have to go Inuyasha.”

Inuyasha knelt down next to him, wrapping his arms around the boy and lowed his head to Souta’s neck. “Stay!” Souta couldn’t leave. No, Inuyasha could convince him to stay, maybe he could give a little persuasion--No! He had to stop thinking like that, it’s what got him in to this in the first place.

Souta took a deep breath, the scent wasn‘t as strong as it had been before, which made him want to get closer and--. “I’m sorry, I can’t...”

Inuyasha backed away, deciding to resist instinct and stop being so needy. He sat on the ground in front of the door and folding his arms with an angry growl, watching Souta pick up his coat from where he’d left it on a chair before he closed his eyes. “Fine, whatever.”

Souta took one last look at the clock before he headed back toward the door, with some reluctance. “Inuyasha.” Souta stood over Inuyasha, who was annoyed that he had to leave, and leaned over his shoulder. “Can you walk with me?”

After a few idle seconds Inuyasha shrugged, reasoning he had nothing else to do anyway. “Fine.”

! - ! - !

Souta folded his arms across his chest and held his head down, if at all possible it was even colder now then it had been yesterday. He took high steps through the unshoveled sidewalks, shivering from the frozen wind that blew opposed to him. He kept his eyes fixed on the horizon that tented everything with orange and red, watching the sun continue to lift upward.

Inuyasha looked down at the boy, then ahead. The cold air was starting to make his ears twitch and his eyes water, it was becoming annoying. “Damnit.” He growled impatiently, this was taking so long. “Aren't you cold?”

Souta lifted his head when he heard Inuyasha speaking to him, “Yeah.”

“This is taking too long.” Inuyasha stopped, knelling down in front of Souta. “Get on my back, I’ll carry you there. It’s that way right?”

Souta was silent for a moment, looking down a rather ominously long road still covered in snow. He nodded “Um, yeah, it’s that way.”

“What are you waiting for? Get on.”

With out another moment of hesitation mild anticipation, Souta wrapped his arms around Inuyasha’s neck and held on tightly as the Hanyou stood up and bolted off with his usual speed, the snow didn’t seem to slow him down one bit. “Whoa!” Souta’s mouth widened in to a smile, his eyes lighting up and his whole expression lifted in excitement. Inuyasha was going so fast, it was amazing! “Inuyasha, your really fast!”

Inuyasha looked back at Souta, “I know, but your choking me.”

Souta smiled, a bit of embarrassment underlining it. “Sorry.” Despite his apologies his arm’s grew subconsciously tighter when Inuyasha moved faster.

So Inuyasha stopped, reaching back to lift the questioning Souta on to his shoulders since that was the only way he‘d be able to breath. “Huh?” Then with a strong hold on the boy’s leg he continued running, Souta laughing with amazement and astonishment. “You are so cool!” Souta shouted, his hands tightly latched on to Inuyasha’s forehead tight enough to effectively ruffle his hair.

A hold still too tight to be comfortable. “You know, you can let go.”

Souta looked down at him “Huh?”

“You can let go, I got you.” Inuyasha re-emphasized his hold on the boy’s leg, which was pretty tight.

“Uh...” Souta looked ahead again, with clear reluctance. They were going pretty fast, Souta could easily lose his balance, and he didn’t look forward to falling at this speed. It was too risky, better safe then sorry right?

“Souta, do you trust me?”

“Yeah.”

“Then listen to me.” Inuyasha prompted firmly. Souta was his work in progress after all, and this was another thing he needed to work on. “Let go, you don’t have to worry, your not going to fall.”

Souta trusted Inuyasha, but he didn‘t trust his own balance, sure Inuyasha was holding him but he could still... Souta spoke anxiously this time, he wanted to stay the way he was, he was already enjoying this. Why change it? “...Are you sure?”

“Come on, Be a man. You can’t always be afraid of stuff, you’ll never have any fun.” Inuyasha smirked, tempted to reach up and pry the boy’s hands off just to show him his point. But he couldn’t do that, if he did then he wouldn’t have made any progress. “So just let go.”

Souta nodded, slowly but surely his hands loosened and loosened, until they had released Inuyasha completely. He wasn’t as off balance as he expected to be, he wasn’t wobbling or sliding backwards, the only thing he had to do was hold himself up and he was fine. And the fact that he was so afraid, and still afraid of falling made it that much more fun.

“See, what did I tell you?” Inuyasha loved being right, he noticed every once and awhile that Souta couldn’t help but grab on to his head or his ears from fear of falling even when he wasn’t even close to doing so. Inuyasha decided that he could settle for that for now, it was better the nothing. “Now which way?”

Well what was the harm in being a little late? “That way!”

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

It took a while before they finally made it, Souta, half frozen from all the cold air, climbed off of Inuyasha’s back. Shouting back a “Thank you.” as he dashed hastily into the font door of the familiar building as he had done a million times before.

Souta ran as fast as he could through the maze of memorized hallways and nearly crashing into the closed door of his classroom. Trying to come up with a plausible explanation as to why he was late, the story about his being sick yesterday, even though he really wasn’t, seemed to provide him with a decent bases. Even though he nervously rambled through it and tripped over his own stories, he managed to barely do a passable job of convincing.

With a sigh of relief he walked through the rows of his classmates to take his seat near the center of the room.

! - ! - !

What the hell was he supposed to do now?

Inuyasha stood in front of the building, staring at the spot where Souta had gone as if he would come back. Maybe he would......No, he wouldn’t.

Being separated with from his new mate started to arouse a very protective instinct that he never knew existed. Damn heat. Damn Souta. Why did he have to insist on going to school? Leave him alone like this? What did he expect him to do? Probably to go back down the well, something like that. He couldn’t do that, just leave Souta alone like that, he didn’t want to, he didn’t, he couldn‘t. Damn Instincts.

At lest he could remain close.

“I’m sure he won’t mind if I just watch.” Inuyasha reasoned “For a little while, make sure nothing happens to him.” A lot of things could happen at School right? A lot of things could happen to Souta...right.

! - ! - !
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Inuyasha stretched out over the branch of a tree, his back against the trunk, his hands resting behind his head with one leg drawn up. After a few hours of sitting there he had gotten pretty cold, cold enough to make him wish for the heat of the previous day. But he had the perfect view of Souta.

Souta was sitting in the same desk, staring at a piece of paper forlornly, that was until the bell rang, and he left in a sea of other students.

Inuyasha stood with a light stretch, jumping down to the ground and following Souta through the window...That was until he lost him. “Huh? Where did the kid--” Inuyasha’s ears perked and his nose flared, that scent... Inuyasha turned around. “Souta?”

The boy immediately wrapped his arms around Inuyasha’s leg and hugged him tightly. “Inuyasha.”

“Took you long enough.” Inuyasha snorted. “How long dose school need to take.”

“Your really cold.” Souta wrapped his arms around the Hanyou tighter, laying his head on his stomach. “How long have you been out here?”

He looked away particularly discardingly, “Not that long.” He lied, denying how protective he had felt, protective enough to watch him the whole day. And for some unknown reason to him, Souta laughed. “What’s so funny?”

“I saw you in the window.” Souta told him gratefully. He didn’t know why he found it hard enough to stay away from Inuyasha, he was inanely drawn to him. Why was that? What brought on this change? Hmm... Anyway he was glad Inuyasha had been so close, he didn’t look up since he knew if Inuyasha knew he knew he was watching than he probably would have gotten embarrassed and left. Speaking of that, Inuyasha was starting to get embarrassed right now.

“Yeah well--”

“Can you carry me home?” Souta asked anticipatingly, looking up at Inuyasha with a hopeful look that just couldn’t be resisted.

Inuyasha knelt down allowing Souta to climb on to his back, this time the boy took a loser grip on his shoulders instead of the tight, slightly fearful one he had the first time around his neck. The only problem Souta could find when Inuyasha started moving was that it was cold, this would have just been perfect if it was warm, if it was spring...But he could endure the cold air, besides, Inuyasha was warming up with each movement.

He peered over Inuyasha’s shoulder, looking up at the dull white, bright gray skies that showed light hints of on coming snow, the powdered white ground and snow covered bare branches of surrounding trees panting a truly winter scene. Souta wasn’t sure what alternative path Inuyasha was taking, since he knew he didn’t usually go through an area this wooded on the way home, he didn’t care, he didn’t care if they got lost.

Souta wrapped his arms around Inuyasha’s chest, laying his head against Inuyasha’s back and closed his eyes. It was warm, contrast to himself, and he could hear soft breaths being taken along a slightly elevated heart beat that formed a hypnotic rhythm, all of them blended together in a soothing manner...

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

“Hey! Wake up!”

Souta was sudden dumped into snow, making his eyes shoot open and his body tense from the sudden cold.

He’d fallen asleep, he’d fallen asleep and he didn’t even realize it, that was until Inuyasha dropped him. “Huh? Oh, I fell asleep.” Souta placed his hands behind him and pushed himself up, shaking the snow out of his hair. Home already, that was fast. He was sure he couldn’t have been sleeping that long... he heard a light howl in the wind sweeping over them and felt thick snow flakes falling on his nose, it was snowing again.

Souta climbed on to his feet and went inside the house, removing the wet shoes and snow covered jacket at the door... “?” Souta paused and looked back at Inuyasha. “Man, I’m really hungry...Inuyasha?” and Inuyasha that wasn’t there, maybe still outside.

He wasn’t worried about it though, he was too hungry to care since he hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. Naturally he was drawn to the kitchen, digging through the refrigerator, it was filled with plenty of food, none of which he knew how to make. It was like being in the middle of a desert, dieing of thirst and seeing an oasis that you couldn’t quite reach.

“Inuyasha.” Souta knew it was him without ever looking, who else would it be? “Do you know how to cook?”

“No.” Inuyasha stood behind him, looking questingly over his shoulder.

The sound of his stomach growling overpowered any thought other then his hunger. He slumped to the ground in front of the stove, why didn’t he ever pay attention to his mother when she cooked? ’Mom, why did you have to be out of town! Why now?’ “What am I going to do?”

Inuyasha slumped down next to him, starting to feel a little hungry himself. “The hell if I know.”

“Awww....Food!” Souta rested his hands on his stomach.

He only had two choices, wait until someone who knew anything about cooking came along, or try and make something himself. How could he make something? He could barely see over the top of the stove. Still....determined not to starve to death, Souta climbed to his feet and walked with a strait face to the refrigerator.

Inuyasha sat and watched Souta remove various items and set them on the table. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to cook something.”

“I thought you didn’t know how to cook.”

Souta sighed “I can try.”

“...” This couldn’t turn out good, and with just as much experience with this as Souta had, Inuyasha just sat and watched.

! - ! - !

I don’t think your suppose to put that in whole...

Is it suppose to be that color?

That smell’s horrible...Is that smoke?

That is smoke! No, turn it off!

Oh man that’s horrible!

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

Inuyasha burst out of the house with his sleeve covering his mouth in noise, followed by Souta and a cloud of back smoke that flowed along the ceiling and out the front door. “Damnit!” Inuyasha coughed profusely and nearly uncontrollably.

Souta, thankfully being shorter, only had to brush the soot from his hair since the smoke had mostly rose over his head. “I should have just waited.”

“I can’t breath!”

Souta laughed nervously, “Sorry.”

“First you try to poison me, then you try to suffocate me!” Inuyasha shouted angrily, dropping to his knees and sticking his tongue out while he held his neck, mainly to get the taste of that horrible concoction Souta had tried to and succeeded in making him test it out. “No more!”

Souta held his head down and played with his fingers “It wasn’t that bad. Was it?”

Inuyasha nearly and would have laughed if he wasn’t still coughing.

Ok, Cooking was out. After a half hour of fruitless labor Souta’s stomach was still audibly growling it’s need for food, and he wouldn’t be going back inside any time soon... his coat was in there.... “Great.”

“Wh--”

“Inuyasha?” Mind setting aside coldness and hunger, Souta lifted his head, a confused expression coming on to his face. “What’s that?”

Inuyasha stopped complaining for the moment, suppressing any farther coughing that threatened to come forth. “What’s what?” He looked around, not seeing anything out of the ordinary that would warrant a reaction.

“You don’t hear that sound?”

That was odd, Inuyasha would have heard any sound long before Souta would have, and he didn’t hear it. “Your just imaging things.” Inuyasha said discardingly.

“No I’m not.” Souta shook his head, there was no way he was imagining this. “It’s too loud....”Souta clamped his hands over his ears and cringed. “My ears are hurting.....!”

“Huh?” Now Inuyasha was worried. He knelt beside the boy, laying his hands on to his shoulders. “What’s with you?---!!”

Inuyasha drew backwards abruptly with out Souta ever having realized it, his head tilted back enough to lift his noise into the air... His noise flared and immediately he bared his fangs with a loud, inhuman growl. That sent, that offending scent, It couldn’t be, not here... “Demon.”

Souta rubbed his left ear and opened eyes to a half lidded status, “Inuyasha?” He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he saw that Inuyasha was growling and his usually golden eyes had shifted hue to a bright crimson, and knew it wasn’t a good thing. “What’s happening?” Everything was all happening at a dizzy pace, with that ringing blaring in his ear, and an oddly familiar vibe like feeling pausing through him. He saw Inuyasha running towards him...He felt this before, it was just like before, and the only time he felt this before was back when--

“Ahhaaaa!” Something tightly wrapped around Souta’s neck, a rope or something like it, and pulled him back sharply, hard enough to draw a strangled gasp from him.

He was being dragged back through the snow, his first reaction was to lift his hands and pull at whatever was choking him. It was squishy and wet, it even stretched like rubber when he pulled at it, only imprinting his fingernails when he clawed at it but he couldn’t seem to pry it off, or speak, or breath! ‘Inuyasha! Inuyasha!’

Inuyasha growled furiously, running after Souta and it seemed he would catch up until he met opposition. Tentacles, a soft, fleshy pink in color and rubbery in texture, came streaming at Inuyasha in amazing numbers, that effectively halted his progress.

He was sure Inuyasha would save him, hopefully before he suffocated to death, but he was sure Inuyasha would get to him. He usually would have been at least, if his mind wasn’t frantically racing with anxiety and fear that made him struggle futilely. “!!” It was the well! That’s where all of these things were coming from! That’s where he was being pulled too ‘...’

Unfortunately as soon as he realized it his body was thrown through the wall of the small house by the tentacle around his neck and slammed against the edge of the well, knocked unconscious nearly instantaneously, lifelessly being draw head first down.

“SOUTA!!!”

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