Blue moon and Red Fire

Chapter 8-We Wait

Kouga slowly walked into Souta's bed room, moving with quiet steps from the door way to the bed. The boy was still asleep, still in the exact same position that he'd been in when he left. The same position he' d been in when he'd finally stopped shaking at some odd hour early this morning that had only been altered when the wolf had gotten out of bed just short of an hour ago.

Now Kouga was really worried.

'Souta...' He laid his hand on the boy's forehead, noticing with a terrifying notion how deathly peaceful he looked. Despite how pale he was and how cold he looked with the thick cover over his body, Souta was burning up, if anything he was even worse. “Damn kid, what's wrong with you...”

His ears perked when he heard the door opening and Houjo's slow, easy steps enter into the room. Almost with nervous reluctance he stood side by side with Kouga, looking down with concern on Souta's sleeping form. “He must be really hot.”

Kouga looked back at him, Souta didn't look at all hot to him, how could Houjo tell by just looking? “Huh? How can you tell?”

“Look at him, he's breathing really hard.” Houjo said, he gently reached down and pulled the covers off of Souta, knowing it wouldn't be much of a difference. “We're gonna have to cool him down some, until that medicine comes.” Kouga had told him earlier that he was waiting on it.

“Hn.” Kouga didn't know much about dealing with someone who was sick, but Houjo seemed to, so he figured he'd listen to him. Simply enough, he walked to the other side of the bed and opened the window.

It was as cold as ever, the wind happened to be blowing this way causing heavy snow flakes to float in. But only a few seconds after feeling the room's internal heat they melted away. “That would cool anyone down.”

Houjo shuttered at the chill, holding his arms. “I'll bet.”

Kouga looked back at him with an uncharacteristic obedience, he seemed eager to do anything that would help. “What else?”

“That's all for the moment, at least until the soup is done.” Houjo said disappointedly, as much as he wanted to stay and watch over Souta a little longer, it was really getting cold in this room. Houjo turned with one last glance at the sleeping boy before leaving the room to go back downstairs, he couldn't do anything else.

“...” Kouga sighed, watching Houjo's retreating form until it completely disappeared. He softly closed the door so that the cooling process would move without obstruction from outside heat, hoping that it would help his fever. “Oh man.” Kouga sat down on the edge of Souta's bed and folded his arms with closed eyes, contemplating to himself.

“Where the hell is Inuyasha? You can't depend on him for anything!” Kouga managed to keep his angry ramblings to a low voice so as not to disturb. He opened one eye and looked back at Souta since he just couldn't seem to resist doing so, he'd never felt so worried in his life. “I promised... I promised he'd be back as soon as possible, as soon as he could. I'm sure he's trying right? ...Great, If he doesn't make it back in time, it's gonna be my fault.”

Kouga laid back, resting his hands behind his head which fell just short of touching Souta's chest above him. His eyes wandered upward and stared at the boy's eerily calm face, “Why did I let him go? I should have done it myself!” Right now he started to feel particularly angry at himself for his assumed mistake, a strong guilt that all of it would be on him if Inuyasha was too late and Souta...

“Damnit! What is he doing,” His voice slowly started trail off as he spoke, holding more thought in them.”-...why isn't he here.”

He snorted at the thought of Inuyasha, letting him actually do something as important as this. “Why does he have to be so slow!” Kouga didn't doubt that Inuyasha was trying, as much as he wanted to so that some type of justification could come to his anger. But he knew indisputably that the half-breed was doing his best. And he hated that he knew it, he knew just how persistent and stubborn Inuyasha could be, so why wasn't he here yet? “He doesn't deserve a mate like you.”

Speaking of mate, he figured he better be getting back to his own. Kouga knew the unignorable and inanely strong urge to be with a new mate well, to keep them close, to want to stay with them. This had to be one of the strongest heats he'd ever experienced, maybe it was because this was the only heat he'd actually mated with someone.

There was a very strong difference between mating with someone during heat and taking a mate during heat. As much as he didn't want to admit it he'd never done either, so he had just as much experience at it as Inuyasha did. He still knew more about it then Inuyasha, but still...

! - ! - !

Kouga finally came downstairs with heavy steps and a small yawn, he found Houjo in the kitchen just as he thought he would. The boy was leaning over the pot of boiling soup, humming contently as he always did subconsciously when he was happy. With out him even realizing it Kouga crept up on him with his speed and practice, Houjo didn't notice it until he felt two strong arms wrapping around his waist and an armored chest pressing against his back.

“How's it coming along?”

Houjo flinched at the unexpected embrace and voice, nearly hitting Kouga with his head in the process. “Kouga, you scared me.”

Kouga had to admit, he loved the expression on Houjo's face when he surprised him.”I know.” He said with his usual confidence.

Houjo just smiled and slipped out of his hold, “Alright, I guess it's gonna be a little longer though.” He opened the refrigerator and looked around for some missing ingredient while Kouga leaned forward and looked into the pot.

It smelt good, especially since he hadn't had the chance to eat anything yesterday. He couldn't help but dip his finger into the mixture and lift it curiously to his mouth. Just as expected it tasted delicious, completely balanced, perfect. So what was Houjo looking for? “It taste pretty good to me, what else do you need to put in it?”

Houjo lifted his head from the refrigerator, pausing for a moment with out speaking. He thought about it, and after drawing a complete blank he closed the door. “Nothing... I don't know, I guess I feel like I need to do something with myself.” He shrugged, feeling with unfounded impatience ”I guess I'm just worried about Souta.”

Kouga turned around with his arms folded, leaning against the stove. “Yeah I guess.”
... He paused, he smelt something... it smelt like... like... something was burning. “Do you smell that?”

'!!' Houjo nearly flinched when he saw it, how could Kouga be so calm?! And oblivious? “Ahh! Kouga!” Houjo pointed over Kouga's shoulder promptingly.

'Huh?' Kouga looked back... “!!” Something was burning, his tail. “Damnit!!!!” Kouga pushed himself off of the stove frantically, waving the inflamed tip of the appendage as hard as he could as he ran forward. It happened so fast, by the time Houjo could catch up with him Kouga was sitting on the living room floor, blowing the tip of his smoldering tail soothingly.

“...” And Houjo couldn't help but laugh at it all. “Kouga, are you alright?” He could barely speak past his own laughter.

“This is not funny!!” Kouga growled angrily, kneading his tail protectively like an injured child.

“I'm sorry Kouga but-” Houjo laughed harder when he saw that innocent, hurt child like expression on Kouga's face. He couldn't even finish his sentence.

With in a second Kouga was on his feet, still holding his tail, standing next to Houjo overbearingly. “Not funny!!!”

Click.

“Huh?” Both of their voices rang out at the same time in questioning as the lights unexpectedly went out and the room was left in mild darkness.

Kouga looked around questioningly at the unexpected darkness. “What happened?”

“Hmm...The power must have-” For the second time he was interrupted, this time by the lights flickering once and coming back on. “Oh, never mind.”

Kouga looked up at the source of light that he'd never took notice of before, staring at the light bulb mounted on the ceiling with a young curiosity. “What's that thing?”

“You really don't know?” Houjo watched as Kouga shook his head, wondering now more then ever where he'd come from. Who didn't know what this was? “It's a light bulb, if you supply electricity to it then it lights up.”

“Really?” He blinked and looked away when the bright light became too much for his eyes. “Then why did it stop lighting up?”

“Because the power must have gone out.” Houjo walked past Kouga and crossed the room to the window. Everything was an indistinguishable white blur because of the snow storm outside, it had stopped last night and was dormant this morning but started up again with it's same force just as the days before it. “I don't think it's ever snowed this hard. It's really bad out here.” He sighed, of course it was the storm's fault that the power had gone out.

Click. The lights went out again, then came on. Then began flickering in rapid succession.

“Huh?” Houjo looked over his shoulder, Kouga had apparently found the light switch, he was standing next to it, flipping it on and off curiously.

“Wow...”

'Oh man, he's serious.' Houjo rubbed his head nervously, “You've never seen one of those?”

“No.” Kouga looked back at the light bulb while he continued to pull the small switch up and down.

It was fascinating to watch him play with the device, Kouga looked as if he was amazed by everything around him. 'Where is he from?' It wasn't like he hadn't asked that question contentiously, along with another set of questions Kouga only seemed to be annoyed by. He figured he'd just give up on it for now, with an indifferent shrug Houjo turned around and looked out of the window, wondering how much longer it would snow like this. “I've never seen the snow get so high.”

Finally losing interest in the device, Kouga leaned over Houjo's shoulder, wondering what he was looking at. “Do you see something?” He asked hopefully.

Kouga seemed to be waiting for something. “No.”Houjo shook his head.

'...Damn Inuyasha.' “Oh, then what are you looking at?”

“Nothing really, I was just thinking about all of this snow.” Houjo rested his head on his hands and stared outward longingly, letting his mind wonder in the white blur.

“Yeah.”

“You sound happy, your not bothered by this snow storm?”

“No, why would I be?” Kouga smirked to himself at the thoughts that came to mind, of all the things he didn't like, Snow wasn't one of them. “I like snow, why, you don't?”

“I do, I guess.”

Kouga really liked snow, maybe it was because he was a wolf demon but he wasn't bothered by cold. He loved running in the snow, he'd learned how to do it effectively by some manner of instinct or other wise but snow didn't slow him down one bit. In fact he seemed to do better in winter in general, winter was the time when every member of his pack could see just what he was made of and he could see what they were made of. If there was anything he hated, it was being really hot.

Houjo glanced back over his shoulder again.“Are you looking for something?”

“Huh?” Kouga looked away from the window for a moment, by the time he'd stopped thinking five minutes had passed and he didn't even realize it. 'Yeah, Inuyasha.' “Not really.” He narrowed his eyes angrily at his current thought.

He was really worried now.

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

An indefinite amount of time had passed by before he his mind returned to consciousness, at lest a partial consciousness. He lay stretched out on the couch, Houjo sleeping on his chest with his head gently pressed beneath Kouga's chin, Houjo's arms wrapped around him in a tight embrace.

Even from here he could hear it, Kouga's ears twitched and perked at the sound that they seemed to tune into naturally. That odd heartbeat, completely irregular, pulsing calmly, barely with a beat to it at all. Kouga smirked in his last moments of sleep, bearing the tips of his fangs through barely parted lips. It was so soothing for some reason unknown to him, it made him immediately think of his new mate even when asleep. All of it was so pleasantly accenting, everything right now was perfect.

That's why he was getting so frustrated.

'Damnit.' Kouga opened his eyes, the last bit of red draining from his dazed pupils caused by what he was dreaming of as his vision sharpened. This was so annoying, the worst part about being in heat. The actual heat. Kouga was sweating heavily, the furs he wore were completely wet, and the head band he was wearing barely did it's job of keeping the salty liquid out of his eyes. He felt like he was on fire, annoyance may have been making him exaggerate but it was close enough for him. 'So...hot....'

Kouga looked down at Houjo, he looked so peaceful, so calm, so content laying where he was. That's why it was so hard for Kouga to force himself to move. 'Sorry Houjo.' He lid a gentle kiss on the boy's forehead before slipping out from underneath him with sharp but delicate movements, each of which gave him so many ideas. By the time Kouga managed to release himself from Houjo's grasp it had taken so much that he'd fallen on the floor, luckily, Houjo was so tired that he only rolled over and continued sleeping. Only not as peaceful, calm or content as he once was.

Kouga sigh to himself as he stood to his feet, when he looked upon Houjo's face he brushed a stray strand of hair from over his eyes almost remorsefully. 'Damnit, why does it have to be so hot!' Kouga growled to himself as he pulled off the armor he wore on his torso and tossed it aside discardingly with a loud thump.

...

'Huh?'

He would have continued to strip away his clothing had not he heard something... something undefined coming from upstairs. 'Souta!!' With speed and haste Kouga bolted up the stairs.

! - ! - !

He came hastily through the door of Souta's room and shut it behind him, looking around frantically. The first thing he noticed was that it was fairly cold in the room, he could see his breath in small white clouds before his face as well as a build up of snow on the open window still. Souta was still laying in the bed just as he'd left him, small, barely visible white puffs of breath coming from his slightly open mouth.

Kouga laid his hand on Souta's forehead for the second time today, he was cooler at lest, the burning fever that griped him seemed to have reduced. “What was that?”

Just as he asked a sound came from beyond the window, making him tense uneasily... There it was again... but this time Kouga could see the source. A clump of snow from the build up fell to the ground with an audible thud, something that would have caused a very faint noise on the floor below... “Oh.”

Relieved and disappointed at the same time, Kouga sat down on the edge of the bed next to Souta, looking over the sleeping boy. “Souta... Souta.” Kouga gently shook him by his shoulder, a moment or so of this ensued, but nothing happened. He got no response at all from Souta. “To think, I couldn't get you to sleep a few hours ago.” He smiled with a sort of black humor, feeling more solemn then before. “Now I can't get you to wake up.”

“It's probably nothing.”Kouga said, trying to reassure Souta, if he could at all hear him, as well as himself. “It's nothing right, just a cold, humans get sick all the time.” He nodded to himself. “They always get better, that's what humans do.”

Kouga brushed away a drop of clear liquid streaming down Souta's face, condensing water. “I wonder... I wonder how you feel right now... I'm sure your feel better, your stronger then you look, you can handle this.” He was just talking to himself now, trying to convince himself that Souta was fine, that he would be fine. That he was alright, that he would be alright.

But he wasn't, and Kouga knew it. Souta had been in so much pain that he was shaking, he couldn't stop from crying. And now he wasn't moving at all, he was barely breathing. Kouga couldn't even lie to himself about it. 'Damnit... if I ever see that thing again...”...Kouga dropped his head, no, anger was no use to him right now, for once in his life he couldn't even be angry.

“Damnit Inuyasha.” His voice didn't hold the anger it usually did when he said that, just a defeated sigh, “Where the hell are you? It doesn't take this long, just get back here, Gods I'm begging you, just get back here.” Kouga immediately snorted after words, folding his arms and closing his eyes. “Why didn't I go myself? Unreliable.”

! - ! - !

Did he just hear what he thought he heard? Did Kouga just say 'I'm begging you' and actually mean it? Even if he hadn't been there?

Inuyasha paused outside of Souta's window, holding his arm over his face to shield himself from the snow filled winds that made visibility low. He held a tied sack over his shoulder,out of shape with assorted objects held inside. 'Hmm...' He just closed his eyes and thought it as a simple mistake, though decided that he wouldn't say anything. Since it was just a mistake.

With little breath left in him after a very tiring string of hours, Inuyasha crossed the small outlying section of the roof and climbed into the open window.

“Inuyasha!?” Kouga looked up unexpectedly, immediately filled with a sense of relief. “Did you you get them?” Kouga's question was immediately met with a balled up piece of paper throw in his face, it was the same one he'd written down all of the ingredients on before.

“Of course I got them.” Inuyasha growled angrily, pulling tied sack of ingredients over his shoulder. “What the hell do you think I was doing?”

Kouga growled back at him, peering over Inuyasha fiercely. “What the hell WERE you doing! It shouldn't take THAT long you slow mutt!” He shouted. By the time he finished speaking his eyes were glowing a crimson red and his fangs were bared offensively.

Inuyasha had never seen him so mad, he was only most sure that Kouga was about to try and hit him. “Just take it.” He abruptly shoved the sack into Kouga's hands before pushing him out of the way. “Wanna know what I was doing? I had to deal with that damn demon again! It was trying to get to the well.”

“What?”

“It was going after Souta again no doubt.” Inuyasha climbed on to the bed, looking over Souta as best as he could. “I can't believe it's this bad...” Just that quickly his anger at Kouga had faded when he saw the boy's condition, Inuyasha wasn't very good with this type of thing, but Souta looked... like he was dead while he was still alive. “Kouga-”

“I'm already on it.”

! - ! - !

Before Inuyasha even left the room, Kouga was down in the kitchen, and with a good sense of how the important things he'd need worked he'd found a sizable pot that would be enough for his needs. 'Let's see how good you did Inuyasha.' Kouga set down the sack on the table and opened up.

An array of different things fell out, from special mushrooms to a rare grass root, all in perfect condition and looked as if they'd all been collected with great care. Kouga let out second sigh of relief, saying nothing when Inuyasha enter the room. 'At lest it's all here..'

“Do you really know what your doing?” Inuyasha asked, he was sure to stand back out of the way or else he was sure he'd be run over by an extremely fast paced Kouga.

“Of course I do!” His current state of unbearable heat ignored, Kouga moved in a complete blur. He chopped things while peeling others and giving special perpetrations for certain things all at the same time. It was frightening to watch.

'Hmm...' “Kouga, who the hell is that?” It had taken a moment since Inuyasha hadn't really been paying attention, but someone else was here, he could smell their sent. He could smell them all over Kouga.

“Finally noticed huh?” Kouga came to a stop in front of Inuyasha, just as he was forced to wait for the water in the pot he'd filled somewhere in the middle of the blur to come to a boil. “A little slow on the draw are we Inuyasha, but I'm not surprised, considering it is you.” He smiled proudly.

“Just tell me!”

“You really could lose the attitude...” Kouga rolled his eyes and smiled again, “If you really want to know he's my mate.”

“Huh? What?” Inuyasha rubbed his slightly bruised and scratched creek, he'd taken some damaged in the fight what that demon on the way back. “You-”

“Yeah I really like him, somebody worthy of me.”

“So you can finally leave Souta alone.” Inuyasha was happy for a completely different reason, which made Kouga shoot him a hard look.

“You don't deserve someone like Souta.” Kouga verbally jabbed, “He wouldn't even be sick if it wasn't for you.”

“What!? You should watch your mouth you idiot!” Inuyasha shot back.

Kouga only folded his arms and looked away. “I'm only telling the truth, but I suppose it can't be helped if Souta picked a third rate mongrel.”

“Keep talking Kouga, I'll show you who's the third rate.”

“Whatever.” Kouga snorted discardingly, he ignored Inuyasha again when he heard the sound of water bubbling. One by one he began pouring the ingredients into the the pot, some chopped, some grounded, all of it went in at once. When he was finished it looked as if there wasn't enough water for everything.

...

“Huh...” Inuyasha abruptly turned around, just in time to come face to face with Houjo who was staring at him as if he was seeing something completely amazing. “What the-”

“Wow! Those ears!” Houjo looked on with a glimmer in his eyes as he reached out and touched Inuyasha's ears in a soft grip.

“Gyhaaaa!!! Let um go! Let um go!!”

A very excited Houjo regained his rarely lost composure and let go of Inuyasha, who quickly steeped back. “Oh...uh.”

Kouga was too amused to do anything but laugh at Inuyasha's response and Houjo's guilty expression.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Inuyasha backed away, holding his hears protectively. “Who are you!”

Houjo rubbed his head nervously, “Sorry about that, I guess I got a little carried away. My name is Houjo.”

Inuyasha could tell by the scent that this was the person he'd smelled only a few moments earlier. He could smell Kouga's scent all over him, as well as see the bite mark on Houjo's open shirt. “Let me guess, this is him.”

“Yeah.” Kouga wrapped an arm around Houjo's neck and smirked in his usual way. “Don't worry about him, he's just a mutt.”

“Why you-”

“Hey! Stop!” Houjo had to quickly come in between them before Inuyasha and Kouga actually reached each other. “Who are you?”

“He's Inuyasha.” Kouga snorted with distaste.

“Is he the person you've been waiting on?” Houjo asked in mild disbelief, 'Those ears, they're real... what's with these two?'

Kouga nodded. “Yeah, unfortunately.”

Houjo looked over him more closely, as if he didn't believe it. “He doesn't look anything like he said you looked like.”

“Oh really?” Inuyasha raised and eyebrow, speaking with a fake politeness. “And what exactly did he say I looked like?”

“Uh...” Houjo looked between the two nervously, he could easily tell that repeating it wouldn't be the best thing for the situation. “Nothing important.”

Inuyasha leaned forward, only to be pushed back by Houjo.“Oh, I think it is.”

“Stop this! You'll wake up Souta.”

They both seemed to calm down when Houjo mentioned his name, after giving their own angry glares, Kouga grunted and turned back towards the stove while Inuyasha just walked away. “Uh...” 'Inuyasha... is this the Inuyasha Kouga mentioned. He never told me...' “What's with you two, I-”

“Houjo.” Kouga called him over from the stove.

“Why are you guys....Hmm.” Houjo took one last look back at the fleeting Inuyasha who was heading upstairs to Souta, before slowly coming to Kouga's side. “What is this?! Is it suppose to smell like this?!” Houjo had to take a step back when he smelled the oddly colored, doughy green liquid bubbling bellow him.

“Don't worry, it'll get better.” Kouga had made this potion thousands of times, especially since there where so many different venomous demons and plenty of men in the pack to take care of. At lest, before... This brought back to many memories. “Just stir this until it's not so...uh-”

“Thick?”

“Yeah.” The truth was that he couldn't take the heat, he was burning up as it was, cooking would just...

“What is this for?”

“Souta.”

“Huh?”

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

'...' Inuyasha sat worriedly beside Souta, wondering... Souta had been so...so... 'Souta...' Protective instinct didn't seem to be a strong enough word, just thinking about that demon that did this in the first place made his eyes glow a burning red and a deep growl force it's way from his throat.

He couldn't wait until he saw it again, which at this rate he was sure he would.

Kouga waked into the room with hasty steps, Houjo following carefully behind with bowl cradled in his hands. “Kouga...” Houjo looked up unsurely.

Kouga seemed to know what he was thinking. “Don't worry about it, this is just what he needs.”

Inuyasha looked up with hopeful eyes when he saw Kouga walk in, noticing whatever Kouga had been making smelt more like tea now instead of that offending odder it had at first. Maybe he did know what he was doing. “Is that it?”

“Yeah.” Kouga knelt down beside the bed and stopped unsurely... this should have been so simple, so why was he hesitating? “Uh..”

“Why aren't you giving it to him them?” Inuyasha demanded.

Kouga sighed disappointedly. “He has to swallow it...”

“He can't swallow it, he's unconscious.” Inuyasha shot back impatiently.

“He wouldn't be if someone didn't take so long!” Kouga growled.

“Stop!” Again Houjo had to come between them, seeing this was getting nowhere, Houjo moved passed Inuyasha and leaned over the bed. “I'll give it to him, all you have to do is give it to him slowly.”

With a silent Kouga and Inuyasha looked on, watching carefully while Houjo slowly opened Souta's mouth with his thumb and lifted the bowl to his lips. Carefully he poured the liquid down his throat in small doses, so small it didn't seem like he was doing anything at all. It seemed to be going fine, so that's why it was strange that Houjo looked so much like something was wrong.

Kouga seemed to be the only one who noticed it. “What's with you?”

Souta coughed and Houjo pulled the bowl back with a look of relief crossing his face. Inuyasha and Kouga tensed uneasily but Houjo quickly reassured them. “No, no, that's good. It would be really bad if he didn't.” Houjo brought the bowl back again and Souta coughed a second time, slowly but surely, he started to swallow on his own.

“Wow, your really good at this.” Kouga said admiringly.

Kouga did this skillfully, not spilling a drop despite how hard it was to do so, he looked as if he had experience with this type of thing. “I just hope this stuff works... how much am I suppose to give him.”

By then half of the bowl had been emptied. A small amount of steam still rose, easily visible in the cold room. Kouga promoted him that it was enough and Houjo climbed off of the bed...

“What now?” Inuyasha asked.

“We wait.”