Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / XXXHolic Fan Fiction ❯ Of little girls, spirits, and tails? ❯ Akanbou ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Akanbou



Wa tanuki stood in the kitchen, fuming. In his basic white apron, with a handkerchief to hold his hair out of his face. The twins, Maru and Moro were in the other room, dancing about, singing about something or other, and there was no sign of Yuuko or Mokona.



Watanuki had shown up to find Yuuko lounging on the sofa, a bottle of half empty sake in her hand, dressed in the same clothes she'd worn when he'd left the evening before. It was as if she didn't even have the energy to dress herself! She'd given him a bunch of chores to do, and then told him she wanted this elaborate meal, and after he'd gotten back from getting the ingredients, and a list of odd items she'd asked for, what did he find? She'd gone out! That damned woman had left!



So, as he stood there, chopping vegetables, and preparing the meat, he couldn't help but to feel furious about it. It didn't help that Mugetsu was sitting not far away, watching, as usual. His tails swishing back and forth on the floor. Luckily, the Kudakitsune was more careful then he had been on various occasions in the past, and didn't hit anything, and even more lucky, was the fact that Watanuki kept the kitchen so clean, no worries about dust getting kicked up.



"Yuuko!" Came the joined calls of Maru and Moro, and the sound of their feet pounding against the floor, as they made their way to where the front of the shop was.



"It's about time." Watanuki fumed to himself, turning and brushing his hands off on his apron. He had his mouth open, ready to yell at her, but ended up jumping when he spotted her just mere feet away from him.



Standing just in front of him, looking all the world like the cat that caught the canary, "Is dinner almost done?"



"Where have you been?!" He asked, his voice loud, and upset, he pointed at her, "You sent me out with a list of the strangest ingredients to buy, and told me to make dinner when I got back, where did you go!?"



She didn't reply, instead, she thrust a bundle of pink into his arms, and moved passed him to the fridge, "I'm dying of thirst!" She stated, opening the door and moving things about in her search.



He blinked, watching her for a moment, before he looked down at the bundle. Shock crashed down on him like a wave on rocks, and he went stock still. Lifting a corner of the blanket, he found himself looking at something he had never expected to see come from Yuuko... A baby. A baby girl!



He found himself staring down at the tiny pale thing in the pink blanket. It looked up at him with huge eyes the color of polished onyx. "You stole someone's baby?!" He shrieked.



Yuuko wasn't even looking at him, instead, she'd moved away from the refrigerator, and was currently riffling through the liquor cabinet. "Where's the sake?"



"Where did this baby come from!?" Watanuki asked, his voice took on a harsh tone, and he was quickly loosing what little control he had over his temper.



"Ooo! The good kind!" She squealed, pulling a bottle of sake out, and smiled, looking at him through the corner of her eye, "I suppose, her mother?"



"Yuuko!" Watanuki shouted, and the baby squirmed, and let out a small sniffle.



"Hm?" She was pulling cups down, a smug little smile on her face, as she poured herself a cup of sake, proof that she was finding his reaction funny. "So, what's when will dinner be done?"



"D-dinner?" Watanuki shouted, startling the baby, who began to squirm and cry. Immediately he began to rock it while Yuuko 'tsk'ed him. "You stole someone's baby and all you're worried about is dinner!?"



The baby wailed, eyes closed tight, tears forming. Soon the cries turned into cough, and Yuuko took the small thing from Watanuki's arms, "I stole nothing. I was given a child, as compensation for a wish that was granted," She informed him smoothly, while she pressed her middle finger to the coughing baby's forehead, "Shh..."



"Compensation...." He repeated numbly, wondering what could possibly be worth the life of a new born infant. He leaned closer, and stared down at the child, "Isn't it pale? Babies are supposed to be pink, aren't they?"



Yuuko handed the now calm baby back to him, and took a swing from the sake bottle, clearly no longer interested in the cup, "She's no normal baby."



"What? You mean she's a spirit?"



"Perhaps."



Watanuki stared down at baby, trying to get a feel of anything unnatural from it, but found nothing.



"She's a preemie, about a month old now." Yuuko stated, and in the doorway, where Moro and Maru now stood listening with goofy grins on their faces, they repeated the last word like a song. "It's actually quite amazing that she can even breathe on her own," She glanced over at him and the baby, "So small..."



"What!?" Watanuki's eyes got large, his mouth falling open a bit.



"Hm?" Yuuko blinked, "Something wrong?"



"What if she dies!?" Watanuki fretted, his arms shaking a bit, as he looked down at the child, looking for any signs of illness.



"She won't." Yuuko cooed.



"How can you possibly know that!?" Watanuki asked, worry and fright written all over his features, as he held the pink bundle closer, almost like he believed this would double the child's chances.



"Because, she's a fighter, like her ancestors." Yuuko stated nonchalantly, setting the bottle of sake down on the table.



Everything was silent for a few long moments, then Moro and Maru rushed forward in the pause to see the baby up close.



"Baby!" Maru squealed.



"Baby!" Moro giggled.



"It's a baby!" They both sang together.



"Watanuki's baby?" Moro questioned, smiling.



"Watanuki's baby!" Maru agreed, and both spun around the kitchen giggling.



"What!?" Watanuki shouted in shock, looking at the two, "It's not mine!"



"It's mine." Yuuko's voice was cool and quiet suddenly. Moro and Maru stopped mid-spin to look at their master, and Watanuki froze, feeling suddenly a bit frightened by the serious look on the woman's face. "I haven't decided what to do with her yet, of course."



"What..." Watanuki blinked, and the baby squirmed in his arms, staring up at him again, what looked like it could possibly be a smile on it's face.



"There's a special blend of herbs in the cabinet," Yuuko pointed, "You'll have to mix it with it's formula, hm?" With that, she turned to leave the room. "Hurry up with dinner won't you? I'm positively famished."



"Famished!" Moro and Maru repeated, following Yuuko out of the room.



Watanuki stared down at the baby, suddenly unsure what to do with it. The baby blinked up at him and let out a small coo. "They're nuts." He told it. It gave a small sound that might have been a giggle if it had been older.




Owari