InuYasha Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mors Mortis Miko ❯ To Strike a Chord ( Chapter 17 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: ForestGuardian 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Fantasy / Drama / Adventure / Action / Angst / Supernatural | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 07.15.2011 | Pages: 8 | Words: 10.5K | Visits: 371 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Fantasy / Drama / Adventure / Action / Angst / Supernatural | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 07.15.2011 | Pages: 8 | Words: 10.5K | Visits: 371 | Status: Work In Progress
A/N:
From the get-go, I wanted to throw her into the superhero universe. But which one? Should I throw her in with the forever cool and slightly whorish, Batman, or the super strong yet wuss in tights Superman, or maybe the alcoholic and lovelorn Hancock? I had even considered the Super Friends or Justice League, whichever one you want to call it. Lobo, the Main Man, was going to be a big part of the Super/Justice League. Two crazies, one story, it was going to explode the Internet.For those of you who don't know, this is the X-men universe. Now, my association with X-men varies greatly. X-men have comics, cartoons, and movies. Moreover, the comics have so many different universes within themselves. And I've never read any of the comics, my first introduction to X-men was that old school cartoon where Rogue wasn't as broody, was actually flirty, and could fly, where Gambit was part of the team, and Jubilee was a main character. Since then I've seen other versions of the cartoons and movies. So I can't decipher what went with what and who. So I apologize now to any hardcore comic fans, because what I write will probably blend them together so that it works in my favor.
Chp. 17 To Strike a Chord
She was sure the man was a super villain. She was damn sure of it. You couldn't have a widow's peak that severe without a master plan to destroy the universe or at least a plot to rule the world. She had known the man for seven months and every time they would meet up, she would become more and more convinced that he was a villain. He treated his subordinates like shit, he was conceited, and his soul smelled cold and dark. He was exceptionally beautiful, with long flowing locks of the blackest of blacks. His eyes, though not as demented looking as hers, were an unusual shade that made them look amethyst in most lights. He was tall, graceful, and seemed to make lights dim with his very being. It took her a while to realize that the man was Sesshomaru's opposite in color, and his double in attitude and presence.
Yet there were certain aspects of the man that made her doubt his villain hood. For one, his name was Gena, with a hard 'G', and he was the CEO of one of the top modeling companies in the industry. For another, the man, had a sweet tooth to rival any child's, and would often be seen munching on chocolate or anything containing sugar. He was polite to a 'T" and besides being a former model himself, he was a classically trained ballet and contemporary dancer. She had known the man for seven months, and each meeting would both hinder and promote her thoughts about his role in life.
Her manager, Mr. Piss his Pants himself, and Gena's ass kisser, had set up their current date, in order to obtain her more exposure. She found she didn't really care for their meeting, or the thought of increasing her modeling career. She was bored with modeling, but if she were to abandon this, then she would have time to think, more time to spend with Logan, and more time to hunt down Shippo. So she would continue to go through the motions, continue to be bored, and besides, Gena was interesting.
They made quite a trio. Gena with his tall, dark, and mysterious aura radiating throughout the room, Kagome with her exotic looks and her barely contained electrifying personality, her manger, Myron, with his shaved head, and dazzling smile that had ladies swooning all over, and to top it all off, they were all inappropriately wearing sunglasses indoors.
She found herself staring dispassionately at the salad Myron had ordered for her. Though she still qualified as a petite model, she wasn't up to the standard of model thin, and Myron refused to let her gain anymore weight. She had wanted to tell him that she was stasis in her current biological state, but she didn't want to scare him. She may get filthy and haggard, but she wouldn't change. She remembered in her crazier state, that she would go without food or water for a countless amount of time, yet she wouldn't get any thinner. She recalled a time, in a fit of rage and anguish, which she had hacked off all her hair with a sharp rock, yet it grew back to its current length and would grow no further. When practically naked in the desert, her skin would not tan. She was unchanging, frozen in time, like a living doll.
"I wouldn't meditate if I was you?”
Like sands through the hour glass, Gena's voice broke into her concentration. Looking up from her meal, she found her boss looking at her with a blank face. She thought it blank; the glasses could have been hiding anything. Myron sat in an anxious silence, not sure where the conversation was headed.
"Why shouldn't I meditate?" She asked him, also curious as to the direction of the conversation.
"Certain people with a psychosis really shouldn't look inward. It could exasperate the condition."
She leaned forward on the table and propped her head in her hands while she smiled at him. "What makes you think I have a psychosis?"
"Well, who's up for some dessert?" Myron interrupted, trying to divert everyone's attention.
Gena and Kagome ignored him and regarded each other with a silent intensity that bordered on creepy, because everyone watching knew that neither blinked behind their glasses.
"Check please." Myron called out, looking around for their waiter. With him nowhere to be found, he looked around and saw him hurriedly working multiple tables away from them. He assumed it was shift change and took pity on the young man and told him to hurry up. He had no time for waiters, now waitresses on the other hand…
Thankfully, another waiter appeared from the back with a tray of food, effectively freeing the boy up to deliver them the bill. Knowing his companions were too busy involved with each other, and wanting to gain favor with the boss man, he laid his own money on the table.
"I apologize. Perhaps I was mistaken." He heard Gena say, bringing his attention back to the two.
"Perhaps you were, sir." Kagome responded with a nod of her head.
"Good, now that that's settled, I want for you and the other girls to go shopping at the Barbele Mall tomorrow from 11:00 to 6:00."
"The mall?"
"Yes. I have already spoken with the other girls; the limo should pick you up at 10:00." Without further discussion, Gena stood and began to walk out.
"Wait!" Kagome called out, pushing at Myron so she could hurry and run after Gena.
Catching up with him outside, Kagome caught hold of his arm and stopped him a couple of feet from his awaiting car and driver. Once she touched him, Gena merely turned to her with a raised eyebrow.
"I'd rather not go shopping."
"I've already set it up."
"But I'm bored…with all of this."
Gena was silent a moment as he considered her. "Perhaps you…" but whatever he was going to say was drowned out by an explosion down the street.
By this time, Myron had joined them, and as a group, they looked to see the glass littered ground be trampled by terrified people. Many had been around the shop when it exploded, but a few were seen escaping the shop itself. The only other things to be seen leaving the obliterated shop, were bits and pieces of their fellow man.
"There's no fire." Myron said quietly, and was right. There was neither fire nor smoke seen from the wreckage.
"Then what caused the explosion?" Gena added dramatically, and Kagome thought she heard a light sprinkling of humor in his voice.
'Kagome.' she heard giddily whispered in her head, bringing her attention away from the moral consciousness of her boss and back to the situation at hand.
"Oh."
Another explosion sounded, sending more screams into the air, and followed by the howls and snarls of a vicious animal. The growls became louder and what looked to be a mini tornado sprang forth from the rubble and onto the street.
The dwarf twister, with its peculiar sounding wind, idled in the middle of the street for a brief second, seeming as if it contemplated on which course to take before it began heading in their direction. They would have retreated into the restaurant; if they hadn't witnessed the twister, snapping people up into its vortex and not depositing them back out.
"Is it, eating people?" Myron asked them stoically.
As he said it, a dismembered arm fell before them with an obvious bite mark at its torn edge.
"Yes." Kagome answered for him.
By now, the man-eating cyclone loomed over them, and the vicious snarling and roaring now had an undertone of undecipherable blabbering. They watched transfixed as the wind died down to reveal the beast within. It was about the size of a small bear, with thick brown fur and curled ears. It stood upright with its forepaws brandishing strong muscles and seldom used claws. With its large eyes, little, black, button nose, and overly large eyes, it would almost seem cute. If for when it opened its mouth, there wasn't a large tongue and gleaming white teeth coated in the blood of its victims.
As it growled at them, they took a step back and it grinned. The vicious, snarling, and blabbering continued lowly, as if it was psyching itself up for a big event.
Sensing that Miroku was near, Kagome gave herself a mental shake. What the hell was she doing backing away from this monster? On a bad day, she would be the monster. She smiled at this and flexed her knuckles. Just as she felt the tension build to the point of breaking, it was shattered by the arrival of the policia.
The loud noise, the sudden lights, and the renewed screaming of the survivors, brought the monsters attention away from their tender flesh and to the unnamed cops that die before the real heroes cops show up. The ones that didn't play by anybodies rules but their own. The ones that usually got beaten and blown up but would never bear any scars later. The ones who always had trouble at home that usually got solved towards the end of the case. You know the ones. The ones that kill helicopters with cars.
As the monster began tearing through the uniformed cops like butter, and their cars too, Kagome relaxed.
"That thing looked oddly familiar." Myron spoke up, and as he said it, Kagome looked to find that though they both looked startled, they didn't look frightened. In fact, they looked ready. Seeing as how they stood tensed, Myron with his hand in his well tailored jacket and Gena with a hand at his back pocket.
Seeing her making observations, and with the danger quickly disappearing around the corner in a mass of destruction and screaming, and explosions, the two men relaxed.
"You know how this town is." Myron answered her unspoken inquiries. "There's always something strange going on, cartoon villains pop up like daises, and then they're all those mutants. You've got to be prepared."
Kagome was confused. She hadn't noticed any of those things while living in the city. Strange goings on, villains that weren't her boss, mutants? None of it rang a bell and she had been relatively active for months. Was she self-centered? Did nothing happen in her general vicinity? Maybe those other souls she smelled on the wind were the mutants. Or maybe they were the villains. Whatever, they had smelled good.
"I'm assuming that was enough excitement for you, so the limo will pick you up at 10:00 as planned."
If she was going to argue, it was lost on Gena, because the man had already closed the door and was pulling off, but he did wave them goodbye.
~_____~
The next day greeted Kagome with news of the attack, saying that the monster that had killed a total of 15 people and wounded up to 43 was an escaped zoo animal that had lived in the sewers for months and fed on toxic waste that had mutated it beyond recognition. What made her laugh was how quickly people accepted it. As if strange things like this childhood figure come to life was an everyday occurrence. Maybe it was and she had just been too focused on herself to notice.
She shrugged it off and turned to face Miroku. Cold, stoic, Miroku. The Miroku whom she was forcing to show himself while she waited for her ride. The Miroku who had confirmed all the activities she had missed. Yes, the town was prone to many attacks of the unusual nature, and it was filled with people of extraordinary powers. People she had smelled on the wind.
"You want to have sex when I come back?" she asked him offhandedly.
Though she wasn't expecting anything overtly lecherous or like the old Miroku, she did get a reaction. His head snapped to face her, his brow slightly furrowed, but said nothing.
She grunted in response and turned back to face the busy street. Though she wasn't dressed in any top fashion attire, wearing only jeans, Tee, and heels, cars were still honking and hooting at her. She had on glasses, yet she was still being recognized.
"Miroku, I think I'm famous." She told him to no response. Again, she wasn't expecting one. Though she continued to be disappointed, she had asked Miroku to be with her until her ride arrived in hopes of enticing the former sordid monk with the tantalizing flesh and beauty of her model acquaintances.
Upon arrival, they either hung out the door, or stood out of the sunroof to greet her. Smiling at them, Kagome entered the limo and looked back at Miroku, to find him not reacting at all. He wasn't even looking at them, just being aware of their presence. Not quite pouting, she waved goodbye, followed by a chorus of goodbyes from her co-workers, and was off.
She came to find out, that not only had Gena given them a list of stores to visit, but he had also set up a meet and greet in between their shopping. The forcing of shopping and where to shop, annoyed her slightly, but at least Gena had saddled her up with four models that she could tolerate. They were a mix bag of nuts, all of different ethnicities and temperaments. Though they didn't blatantly isolate her, they still weren't over the unease she provoked. Yet, they tried to involve her in their chatter and she would attempt to keep her responses rational.
Overall, the day wasn't that bad, and she had even converted to a time when she normally did this. Shopping with friends, talking, laughing, and goofing around, she found she was actually enjoying herself, and seeing her opening up, the other girls interacted with her more often.
When they entered the mall, she had seen the table and decorations set up for their meet and greet later that day. She could already see people getting excited about it and those on the creepier mindset stalking around in the vicinity. She pointed them out to the other girls and they all shook instantaneously at the thought of a stalker. Some of them had had experience. But the M&G wouldn't be for a while and they had a schedule to keep.
And so the day went, filled with walking, talking, and a gaggle of men, young boys, and a few women, leering and ogling them, the girls shopped, shopped, and shopped.
"Does this skirt make me look fat?"
"I miss eating food."
"You know I hate this job, they feed, dress, and talk to me like a baby."
"I wanted to be an astrophysicist, but my mom made me become a model."
"I wish they didn't make us wear heels everywhere we go."
"I think that old man in the bathrobe is following us."
"Can your back shrink?"
"My boyfriend likes for me to put him in a headlock during sex."
"I hate the color yellow."
"I didn't know you were missing toes."
"So whose turn is it to try to get Gena drunk and in bed?"
"Why is it called chubby chasing?"
"Gena scares me. I think he stole my manager's soul."
"Hey that rhymed!"
"I really think that guy is following us."
"Bring your fat ass back here."
By the time of the M&G Kagome had become bored and disinterested, and scary to the other girls, again. At the M&G she did as Gena wanted, she smiled, she signed autographs, and she refused to take off her glasses. She wasn't there to freak people out or draw attention. Yet she was, and very successfully.
Most who came to their table were young ladies wanting to know how to get into the business, some were young boys being unabashed about getting photos and just talking to pretty ladies, and just a few were there to bash models and those were taken away by security.
Kagome had just gotten finish making a young man pass out, when a scent of a soul hit her nose. With the picture taken, and the young man smothered and blissful in her chest, Kagome stepped away and dropped him to the floor. Inhaling again, she smiled. There were two distinct souls and they were getting closer. A fire and ice combo, and they were distinct to the ones she smelled on the wind. Maybe it was time to start paying attention.
She turned on her heel to seek them out, but before she could cast her eyes around to search, she found her personal space invaded by a bouncy little brunette. She would have excused herself away, but with the sudden appearance of the brunette also came the scent of the interesting soul. This was the ice she had smelled.
"Hello." she greeted with a smile.
"Hi, oh my God, Hi! I'm Kitty, and I'm like your biggest fan!"
"A fan of mine? I don't really do anything." As she said this, she heard a derisive snort sound out behind Kitty. Looking over her head, Kagome saw what could only be described as your typical angst filled teenager with socializing issues.
"Hello to you too, my sunshine."
"Oh, don't mind her, she's just cranky because she hasn't eaten yet."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here." As she spoke, Kagome saw that the young lady had a thick southern accent. She also smelled that she was the other soul she had smelled. The fire to Kitty's ice.
"You don't like models…?"
"Her name's Rogue and she don't like much of anything."
"I can speak for myself." Rogue snapped at her, but Kitty was either used to the surly attitude or else her perky disposition was impenetrable. "It's not that I don't like models, it's just that I don't care."
Kagome's smile widened. "You want a hug?"
"What? No!"
"What's it like being a model?" Kitty interrupted.
"It was glamorous, fun, and full of interesting people doing interesting things in interesting places." Kagome recited for her.
"How did you get into the business?"
"My manager ran me over in the middle of traffic."
"What? Why? How did that workout?" Kitty looked shocked and confused.
Rogue just looked amused. "What, so he made you a model so you wouldn't sue?"
"No, it was my fault. I was running through traffic when he hit me, and I guess he just saw something in me."
"Why were you running through traffic?" Kitty asked with the affirmative commenting of her companion.
"I don't remember." she answered truthfully. "I probably just thought it might be fun."
The answer put the girls in a slight stupor. They glanced at each other and Rogue shook her head.
"Um, okay. What about your signature look? Your eyes. How do you get them to do that? It's so cool."
"Is it cool?" she shrugged. "It's a natural condition. I wasn't born with it, but I developed it over time. A constant look that causes horror, fear, and revulsion with just a glance. Do you want to see?"
"Can we?" Kitty asked, her voice low in anticipation as both she and Rogue stepped closer.
With her smile gone, Kagome shrugged off her glasses. She hesitated only a moment before looking up at the girls. Just as she thought, on first contact, they stepped back and made little gasps of fears and shock. With them silenced again, Kagome placed the glasses back over her face and smiled sadly.
Disappointment was the key today. Disappointed that she couldn't get a response from Miroku, and disappointment that there still wasn't a person who could look her in the eye without flinching. Even Logan reacted to it. During sex, if they made eye contact, he would growl fiercely and just go at it harder. When they weren't intimate, he just learned how to look at her without connecting. She realized then, that the lack of closeness made her sad.
"The photos dull the effect quite a bit. Much more horrible in person. Don't you agree?"
Despite the horror of her eyes, the unpleasantness of Rogue, and the bottomless fountain of perkiness that was Kitty, Kagome felt that she had found a bond and she was going to milk their encounter for all it was worth. She talked to the girls for the rest of the M&G and then invited them along for the rest of the shopping trip with promises of buying them anything they wanted. She enjoyed the shopping more with her little entourage and had even made Rogue smile, if only momentarily. It came that towards the end of the shopping function that she had to bid her new friends farewell to which she deposited everything she had bought into their overloaded arms.
The other models commented on her charity work and voiced their desires to have done the same. She merely shook her head and rode in silence. She just wished to be home and spend an aggravating night with Logan. She did smile in anticipation at the thought of his angered growl.
But her night would have to wait until later, because as of right now, they were stuck in traffic.
"Do you think if I cover myself in strawberry jelly, Gena would lick it off?"
The question came out of nowhere, and Kagome found herself laughing along with the others.
"I was serious." The girl said after a moment, her voice sounding highly offended.
They only laughed harder at her before giving other ideas at how to get Gena to sleep with you.
"Have a trail of M&Ms leading to your bed."
"Put syrup in your pants and walk past him."
"Hide Hershey's inside your clothes, drop one down your shirt when you're with him, and don't get. It'll bother him so much he'll snatch your shirt off to get at it."
"Drug his chocolate turtles."
"Wear an outfit made from fruit roll ups."
"Grab his crotch and give him a candy bar."
'Kagome.'
"Oh." Sitting back, Kagome ignored the others and listened. She listened hard, she threw out her senses, but she couldn't hear anything over the sound of the women's laughter and the honking of the horns from the rode. But if she sat and went slack, she did feel vibrations through the limo that weren't just from the engine. Now that she thought about it, the car did seem to be swaying slightly.
Seeing that the others didn't notice it, Kagome rolled down the window and stuck her head out. With the window down, she could now hear screaming along with the horn, but she couldn't see anything but the bridge that they waited upon and an endless string of cries. Well that and people running towards her.
“Curious.” She mumbled as she pulled her head back in. By now, the others girls had noticed and grown quiet. Two had decided to stick their head out the sunroof, and from their gasps, she assumed they saw something more interesting that she had. As the others looked at each other in confusion, Kagome stood and joined the others at the sunroof. What she saw made her smile, despite the circumstances. Stuck in the wires of the bridge, and trying to free himself, was a big, red puppy. He was making whining noises as he struggled, and his movements were making the bridge sway.
"I think we should get off the bridge." One of the girls standing with her voiced aloud before she ducked back inside to inform the driver.
“We’re going to be late getting back.” The other one commented as she too ducked back inside.
Despite their casualness, Kagome only got a start as she mentioned their late arrival. Logan was supposed to be coming over tonight, and she had wanted to prepare. But as the puppy whined loudly and tried to scramble free again, she smiled. Let him wait. By now, she was joined by two other girls wanting to see what was going on.
Though the puppy’s hind legs were still in the water, his forepaws were on the bridge and blocking lanes. Most of the people, she saw, were running in fear of the big, red, puppy, but a few were still in their cars and honking at the beast to get out of their way.
“Hey! I know that dog!” One of the new girls exclaimed loudly with a delighted smile on her face, but before she could utter another word, the wires trapping the canine had snapped, and as the bridge began to lean dangerously low to one side, the puppy fully climbed onto the bridge and began to shake the water from his crimson fur.
As he shook, and they were pelted with heavy, dog smelling rain, the bridge quaked violently and cars began sliding towards and off the broken edge. Thankfully, most of the cars had been abandoned, and only the few stragglers, the stubborn, fell into the depths below.
By now, the driver had gotten the message and their limo shot backwards recklessly, but their retreat was cut short as they hit the abandoned cars behind them. The collision had girls colliding with the back of Kagome’s knees, and after hitting her chin on the roof of the car, she slunk down and on top of the other fallen girls. She wasn’t down long before she was heading for the door.
“Come on!” Kagome yelled as she finally got out and confirmed what she thought she had seen before falling inside, the puppy was happily playing with traffic by running through it and vigorously shaking any cars he found with people inside. It wasn’t until the screaming inside died that he went on to the next one, and he was getting closer.
“Ladies.” The driver greeted them as he began to help them out. “Do you have the flare? I feel we may be in need of them.”
The girls looked at him in confusion, including Kagome, and seeing their faces he sighed. “I shall handle it then.” He told them as he headed towards the trunk. “Please start heading back off the bridge and I will join you momentarily.
After a small goodbye, the girls all began to make their way off the bridge. Though they didn’t run, they hurried with a wobbly gait and realized that swaying bridges and heels didn’t mix.
“This reminds me,” one of the girls commented shakily as they scurried away, “of the time we had a snake outbreak on our plane.”
“Sounds tiring!” Kagome replied, but before she could hear a response, they were distracted by a muffled explosion. As the sound was heard it was muted in comparison to the sudden display of lights that soared into the sky. It started as a single missile of light that soared above their heads. It exploded once into a blossom of light that produced two more missiles that soared off into opposite directions to bloom into blossoms of their own.
“Does the smoke smell like peppermint to anyone else?”
“Get a move on it ladies.” The driver shouted as he placed the flare gun, bazooka, back into the trunk. “Your ride should be arriving…”
The girls blanked out whatever else the driver said because at that exact moment, a red, furry, and adorable beast loomed up from behind him like a horrible sunrise of the last day on earth.
As the driver caught on to the cliché behind him, the girls did not wait to see the inevitable outcome as he turned around to face his doom. They tried their hardest to ignore the wet, gurgling sounds behind them, yet this became easier as the police, and what appeared to be the national guards and mercenaries in tanks, arrived and bypassed them to intercept the canine menace. From the sounds of it, the reinforcements weren’t doing too good, and if the amount of debris, and appendages, that soared above, ahead, and around them was anything to go on, they were in fact losing.
‘Kagome.’
Despite herself, Kagome turned around to find herself staring at an utterly adorable scene of a big red puppy chewing on a tank, and for one brief moment, she made eye contact with the largest pair of doe eyes in existence and her mind went cute stupid.
“Awe!” she murmured, forgetting that although she had turned around, she hadn’t stopped moving and tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground in a heap.
With a bark like a cannon blasting, the big, red beast let the cannon it was shaking loose with uncanny accuracy. Watching it fly, Kagome gave a shout of warning to the retreating girls, but by then it was too late and a great shadow had fallen over them.
~____~
“Oi, Kouga!”
Climbing out of the well with an expertise skill she had cultivated over the years, Kagome Higurashi found out that she could not completely crawl out and onto land. Stuck at the lip, she found her way blocked by the sleeping figure of the man she had agreed to mate.
Though they had not had sex yet, they slept on the same mat in a secluded area of the cave together. He understood her unease and reluctance, so she didn’t fear him taking advantage of her. Not as much, anymore. But she would lie awake at night and wait until his breathing pattern changed into that of deep sleep. She would then just look at him. Actually study him. During the day, and whenever he was awake, Kouga’s face was always…happy. He smiled, he snarled, and he frowned, but she always got the feeling that he was a happy being. He was too confident and cocky to not be happy. Even when being serious, acting as leader of his pack and diplomat; what he exuded was a contented soul.
She wasn't use to it. She was accustomed to doom and gloom Inuyasha. The scowling, bad tempered, giant chip on his shoulder dog demon. But when he slept, the angry scowl lines would dissipate and he would be at peace. She could see the goodness that she knew was in his heart then. Yet Kouga was different. There was no change from his wakeful face to his sleeping one. Yes, his face softened, but he just went from devilish rogue, to a slightly less devilish, sleeping scoundrel. It made her feel like sleeping next to him was dangerous. Which in fact, it probably was. Kouga didn’t hide his intentions for her. She blushed at the feeling of all his attention he gave her. He was always doting on her. Touching her, complimenting her, and devoting himself to her happiness. He was unabashed in his flirting, almost to the point where it was no longer flirting but sexual harassment. Kouga was an ego booster, and it was this newly inflated ego that had her sometimes thinking that the sense of triumph and content that Kouga exuded was because of her. She made him happy just by being with him? She couldn’t understand it.
She was awakened from her reflection by a pressure on her lips. Realizing that the sudden pressure was generated by a quick peck from a now awakened Kouga, she jolted in surprise and fell back into the well
“Oh no you don’t.” Kouga barked as he caught her by the scruff of her top and hoisted her safely from the well. “You’re not disappearing on me again.”
As he set her back down on the ground, he busied himself by adjusting her clothes and grooming her of any dirt or flaw. “I’ve spent hours jumping in and out of this well, and nothing. How do you do that?”
“I don’t know.” She answered as she brushed his preening hands away. “Guess it has something to do with the jewel and me being a miko or something. I don’t really know, because Inuyasha can get through too.”
Kouga’s face went dark at the mention of his rival, as was usual when she mentioned the hanyou. “What the hell makes him so special?” he asked, speaking mainly to himself.
Familiar with this situation, Kagome placed an hand on his arm. “I think its because of his rosary.”
“Rosary?”
“Yes. He has a rosary around his neck, and its connected to me, somehow. I never really asked Kaede about how it works.”
“Since you’re my woman now, I think maybe I should get one of these…special rosaries.”
Kagome giggled at the thought and missed the flinch it caused him. “I don’t think you want one of these. With it, I can subdue Inuyasha whenever I want. I know I abuse it sometimes too, and, and it looks really painful when I do.”
He shrugged. “I figure a little pain is worth it, if it means we can be connected like that.”
Quieted by this, Kagome turned red with embarrassment. “Um, if you still want to meet my family, I suggest we get going. I set it up with mama already, she’s taking everyone out for a bit while I get us settled.”
“Right.” He declared as he jumped onto the lip of the well. “Now how does the work again? Are you ground dwellers?”
“I told you.” She said with a huff as she joined him on the lip. “I’m from the future.”
“I got it, future ground dwelling humans.”
“No!” she ground out with a stomp of her foot as she swatted his arm. “We jump in and travel to the future, where we then climb out and onto above ground. I live at a shrine.”
“Got it. Future, above ground, shrine. In the future.”
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Well I didn’t, until you disappeared in a blinding light at the bottom of a dried up well.”
“If you didn’t believe me, then why did you come this far?”
“You’re my woman.” He replied as an answer.
“So how are we going to do this?” he asked her after a moment of silence.
“Well usually,” she began. “I drop my things in and jump in after them, but I don’t know if that’ll work. So I was thinking we just jump in together.”
“Jump in…into the future…through the well.”
“You just can’t accept that can you?”
“Just wrapping my mind around it. I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a little stubborn.”
“Really?” she couldn’t keep the smile out of her voice and when he looked at her he grinned.
Clasping her hand in his, he brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it. “To our future, eh?”
“Right.” She replied back, a blush on her face, and not knowing what else to say, she jumped into the well. Bringing a fiancée to meet the in-laws.
To our future.
~____~
“That’s why there are no demons here!” Kouga yelled over the sound of the shower. “The humans enslaved them into their homes! My poor brethren, too stupid and weak to fight back!”
“Shut up!” she yelled back, tired of Kouga’s ever lasting energy/complaints. Why does the air stink? Why are there so many humans? I smell no demons nor many animals. What did you do with them all? Witchcraft! Why is the summer outside, but winter inside this palace? This is nice, I wish the cave had indoor winter for the summer. What is this plant? Its dead but still vibrant! What sort of animal skin is this on the floor? I’ve never encountered any such as this. Where is this water coming from? It’s everywhere.
“That’s what it is, right?” Kouga asked, stepping out of the shower wet and naked.
Kagome, who had been leaning on the outside of the door, was taken aback as the naked Kouga entered the hallway and began to shake the water off like a dog, or wolf.
“Stop it you animal.” She shrieked as she rushed inside the bathroom to turn off the running water and grab a towel. But as she exited it, she was shocked, not, to find him not where she left him, but down the hall and about to urinate in one of the only living houseplace.
“No.” She yelled, racing to stop him. “Don’t do that there.”
“Then where is the outhouse? I know you humans sometime have them.”
“We don’t have one.” She told him as she grabbed him by the arm and drug him back to the bathroom, all the while keeping her eyes up and away from interesting parts. “We do it here.”
“Here?” he asked speculatively, looking at the porcelain bowl. “In the house, Kagome? That’s filthy. And where does the shit go, in the eating area?”
“No.” She spat back defensively. “Its all done in here. You do your business, then you push this button.”
As she demonstrated the miracle of indoor plumbing, in alarm at the sudden noise, Kouga kicked out and cracked the bowl, chipping it in the process.
“What the hell is that? This monster eats the mess?”
“No. Its not a monster.” Kagome sighed at the situation. “Its just a noisy machine. We have water accessed to the house that lets us clean, and use at our own discretion. And water provided to this bowl, helps us get rid of the mess. Takes it away, so we can live in a sanitary environment.”
“Where does it go?” He asked, still confused and alarmed.
“Pipes leading from the houses lead underground to a place called the sewer where all the mess goes.”
“So that’s why you don’t live underground! Its full of shit!”
“Yes, kind of.” She answered unsurely. “ But it doesn’t stay there. There are bigger pipes, tunnels? I guess, I’m not too sure, that lead to a place that people work at…to, clean and…separate? The mess from…the, um, water. And then the water is purified…and sent back to the homes for use again.”
“So what happens to the mess?”
“Why are you so interested?” she demanded, getting frustrated because she didn’t know the answer.
“Its bothering me! Is there a place with piles of shit everywhere? Shit and piss, just piled up and dry, because the water was taken from it. What happens?”
“Its turned into fertilizer.” She finally shouted, as she thrust the towel in his face.
“Oh.” Kouga said calmly as he relaxed. “That’s resourceful then. I guess the future isn’t so barbaric.”
“Right. We’re barbaric. Do what you need to do, dry off, and come find me.” Exasperated, and trying not to look, Kagome headed for her room.
“Wait.” She added as an afterthought. Stepping back into the bathroom, she lifted the seat. “When boys…pee, they lift the seat.”
“Why?” he asked again, his stance making her uncomfortable.
“Because when girls have to pee, they hate sitting on old ,sprinkled pee from others. Boys lift seat to pee, girls lower seat to pee. And would you stop moving that thing.”
“Well if this bothers you, how are you going to act when I actually use it?”
Face reddened to the point where she could feel the heat, Kagome exited the bathroom and her wiggling man.
~______~
“Why do I have to wear this?”
Kagome visibly held in a sigh. “Because this is what we wear in the future.” She told him slowly as she struggled to comb the tangles out of his freshly cleaned hair. “This is what men wear, here.”
“Don’t they know I’m a demon? A demon from the past apparently. Why I got to dress like I’m from here?” Kouga asked as he picked at the slacks and t-shirt Kagome had gotten for him. She had considered buying him shoes too, but she figured that might have been pushing it.
“For the same reason you told me; to help you fit in. That’s why I wear those furs.”
He mumbled something under his breath and Kagome stopped mid comb.
“What was that?”
“I said; I mainly did it just to see you flounce around in them.”
“You’re a jerk.” She growled as she swatted on the head.
He hissed at the sudden pain, but it didn’t stop him from grinning wildly. “Still worth seeing you in them, though.”
“Sometimes I wonder,” she muttered as she continued to comb his hair, “you might be just as lecherous as Miroku.”
“Hey, its not lechery if you’re mated..” He laughed before leaning his head back against her as she combed more smoothly now.
“For humans it’s called marriage.” She reminded him.
“I like this. It feels right.” His eyes closed in pleasure at her touch. “Did you know that petting and grooming is a big part of the courting routine for us wolves?”
Kagome falted in her task, but continued on regardless. She didn’t want to court Kouga. She didn’t want to be in a relationship with him. But she had been hurting so much, and he had seemed like a way out. That way out turned out to be an exit to a closed off alley. She was stuck in it. She would marry Kouga and live amongst wolves for the rest of her days.. While the love of her life lived happily ever after with another woman who looked exactly like her. A woman who actually was her with a different attitude. It was enough to make anybody run off with a turn-around villain who lived in a cave with no underwear.
~_____~
Soon, her family returned and the introductions were made. After ambushing her mother, calling her mama, declaring where Kagome got her beauty from, tossing Souta into the air like a football, trapping him in a bear hug, that was inside a random tornado, and making him vomit violently on the ground; Kouga had officially won the two over.
“I like him.”
Looking up from the food she was helping to prepare, Kagome turned a small smile to her mother.
“That’s because he called you beautiful.” She teased.
Her mother smiled at her broadly. “Well that didn’t hurt.”
Sharing a laugh together, they continued to prepare the celebratory meal, while Kouga, Souta, and Grandpa sat in the dining room and looked at each other. Ever so often, she would hear her grandpa interrogate the wolf prince, whom was taking it all in stride.
“So you’re a demon?” she heard him ask.
“That’s right, gramps. I’m a full fledged wolf demon. Leader of the Eastern wolf tribe.”
“What does the leader of a wolf pack do?”
“To be the leader, you have to be dominant!” Kouga declared fiercely. “The strongest, most skilled, and the most determined become leaders to protect, provide, and…you know, lead.”
“How many….individuals, do you lead?”
Kouga’s face went slack for a moment as he tried to come up with a number. He had never really counted them, nor had he ever really looked at them as individuals. To him they were a unit. One whole pack.
“Around 50 total.” Kagome called out from the kitchen. “Including the wolves who aren’t demonic.”
“That’s right.” Kouga agreed with a fangy grin as he looked back at her.
“I think he loves you.” Her mother said after Kouga’s attention was once again on grandpa. “I think he loves you, very much.”
“I think he does too.” She replied, not bothering to look up. “I use to feel like he only pursued me back then was because of his rivalry with Inuyasha.”
“But now what makes you think he loves you?”
“What makes you think he loves me?”
“Oh, it was just the little things.” Her mother answered, with a little smile on her face. “His light touches, the way he looks at you when you’re not looking, and the fact that he agreed to come meet your family. I don’t think he would have come if he didn’t love you.”
“Actually,” Kagome began, “this was all his idea.”
~_____~
“Have you ever eaten humans?”
“Souta!”
“Not at the dinner table.”
“I feel like that’s a good question.”
“Grandpa!”
“Only if Kouga doesn’t find it inappropriate.”
“Of course its inappropriate.”
Kagome looked aghast at her family. Why would they bring this up? And at the dinner table no less. She wanted them to get along with him, he wanted them to like him, so why bring up a topic that would solidify his status as a demon. With Inuyasha, he had been a strange looking boy with a high metabolism. Though while Kouga looked closer to human, he was the furthest from it.
“Well we use to.” Kouga finally answered without a shrug.
The table grew silent.
“Yeah. I had a pack to feed, and humans were a quick and easy prey. Besides, they’re so many of them, you breed like rabbits.”
“Should I be offended?” Souta wondered aloud to the silent apocalypse.
Finally becoming aware of the awkwardness, Kouga paused with the bowl to his mouth and looked around. Setting his meal down, and wiping his mouth with his hand he grinned. The grin did not help the situation.
“But after meeting Kagome, I weaned them off of it.” He bumped shoulders with her. “I can’t have my woman feeling uncomfortable, or having the pack look at their new alpha like chow.”
“What…what does human taste like?” her mother seemed hesitant to know.
“Potatoes.” He answered without hesitation.
“Potatoes?” Kagome asked, curious despite herself.
“Yeah. If those potatoes were filled with hot, dripping, sticky blood.” He emptied his bowl with a noise of satisfaction. “I never knew vegetables could taste good. We’re mostly meat eaters, you know. And potatoes of course.”
“Oh my. Well, uh, Kouga…I’ll, go get you some more.” Grabbing his bowl, Kagome’s mother scurried off into the kitchen. “Wouldn’t want to keep you hungry.”
“Potatoes?” Souta voiced aloud again.
“You called my granddaughter an alpha. What does that entitle?”
“Since I am the alpha male in my pack, she will inherit the title of alpha female. It means that when I am away, Kagome here will be in charge.”
Kagome felt her stomach drop. “I didn’t know all that.”
“Don’t worry.” He told her, as he threw an arm around her shoulder. “You’ll be acting leader when I’m away and no one outranks you.”
He leaned in close to her then and growled low in his chest. “But I won’t be pulling rank on you…not unless you want me too.”
Any nervousness was cut off then as she cut her eyes at him. “Really? In front of my grandpa and little brother?”
“Tell me where you want it then?”
“Should I be offended now?” Souta asked. “Because I feel that I should be offended.”
“You should.” Kagome answered but was ignored. “Because I am.”
“Here you go Kouga.” Arriving back with more food for her, not really hungry but he will stay full when visiting this house, future son-in-law, Kagome’s mother placed the food on the table and smiled sweetly. “Now the important question is, what are your intentions with my daughter?”
At this question, a sound erupted from Kouga that was more chuckle than laugh, more scary than sweet, and obviously more dirty than anything else. A quick elbow to the ribs cut the sound off, but the look remained.
“I’m defiantly offended. I’m going to go find a gun.”
As Souta left, he didn’t get to hear anything Kouga said.
“Mama Higurashi, my intentions toward your daughter is simple. I plan to keep her fat, happy, and pregnant.”
“Well I couldn’t ask for more.” She replied with a broad smile at her daughter’s good fortune.
~_____~
“I should have loved him more.”
After the bridge fiasco with the big, red dog, and almost being crushed to death by a tank, Kagome and the girls had been miraculously saved by nothing less than superheroes. Real life superheroes.
They arrived in a jet, and jumped immediately into action. The tank had been stopped, mere feet from killing them, by a giant metal man. He stood far over 6’ feet tall and was a shiny, metallic mini-god. With the tank nestled comfortably on his shoulders, he looked down at them and nodded in greeting. The girls who remained standing swooned at the sight of him.
Though being tall, imposing, and impossibly strong, the scent Kagome got off of him was of pure innocence. This living statue, this Hercules on steroids, was so good, so in peace and in sync with himself that his soul seemed to sing out to her and made her smile. She had felt tears prick her eyes, but before they could fall, a blue furred demon had materialized before them.
The girls screamed, and Kagome found her nose invaded by the scent of brimstone.
“Don’t be alarmed ladies.” The blue man told them in a German accent as he grinned cheekily at them.
Kagome glanced around with a smile at all the interesting people she sensed around her. ‘What the hell was going on?’
“I’ll take it from here, Colossus.” Blue demon told their beautiful statue as he circled his arm, and tail she saw with delight, around the stunned and silent girls. Kagome willingly hugged him back, and with a pop and disoriented moment, they found themselves safely on land and away from the destruction.
After the blue man left, the girls only waited a short while before Gena appeared, with a helicopter, and hoisted them away and to their respected abodes.
“What’d you say?”
Snapping back to reality, Kagome sagged into Logan’s embrace as he threw a wet arm around her naked torso. Tilting her head back, she landed a kiss on his neck. “I would complain about you using all my hot water, but all your hair is keeping me warm.”
“It wouldn’t have been cold if you hadn’t have zoned out for 10 minutes.” He tossed back at her as he turned her around so that the shower now sprayed on her back. “What was that all about?”
“Talking about how you’re going to clog up my pipes.”
Even wet, his reflexes were quick and sure. His hands were at her waist and she suddenly found herself plastered to the shower wall, her legs around his waist in surprise, the traitors, and their noses touching in close proximity. “You damn right I am.” He growled, the rumbles reverberating in her own chest, before he kissed her roughly.
She was breathless by the time he let up, and he was breathing harder than she. “Did you set it out?”
Climbing down off of him, she winked as she exited the shower. “Guess you’ll have to get out to see.”
As he turned the water off and hopped out after her, she tossed the towel she was using to dry off into his face and raced out of the bathroom with a giggle as he growled at her.
He caught up with her in the bedroom before she knew it and had scooped her up from behind and flipped over and onto the bed. She giggled and he laughed, they tickled and they nibbled. He acted like a young man in love, and she behaved as if she wasn’t a demented, tortured widow. She felt happy and carefree, tousling around the room like a little girl playing tag. Well, maybe not a little girl, that would be creepy considering the game, but a younger, lighter soul.
“That’s enough of that.” Logan finally spoke up as he sat down on the edge of the bed and paused their game. Seeing that their clothes had fallen to the floor, he grabbed his boxers and tossed her garments to her. “Here, put them on. Then take them off again…slowly.”
The lingerie was black and lacy. A corset piece with garter belt and stockings. She had gotten it from the last photo shoot and had decided to surprise Logan with it.
But due to the action on the bridge, and Gena’s escort service, she hadn’t had the time to get everything ready. Yet, because Logan had also been late, for some reason she hadn’t asked, and tired, she didn’t mind too much.
Due to the late hour of their meeting, their date consisted of riding around on his bike, and eating from street vendors. Later on, way after mid night, they returned to her apartment and to the shower.
With the lingerie on, she smiled coyly as he tossed a pair of black heels at her. “I like a man who knows what he wants.”
“Then go out there and dance for me.” He constructed her, nodding toward the balcony doors with a cigar in his mouth.
Getting up from the bed to get a better seat, he slapped her on the behind as she passed by, causing her to yelp. Grabbing a chair he planted it in front of the doors and smoked his cigar in the gloom as Kagome closed the doors. Though the curtains remained drawn, they were thin and her silhouette was clearly visible.
On the other side of the door, Kagome stood and waited. Waited until he told her when to start, until he got annoyed, and just waited until he told her what to do.
It was working. Of course it was working. Kagome loved to irritate him, and he secretly loved all the aggravation. It made the sex primal and aggressive. Despite her size, Kagome was a resoundingly supple girl, and could take his roughness in stride, along with delivering her own rugged play. If he had to describe relationship with Kagome in one word, it would be spicy. Weird, but spicy. She made him feel young. Young and normal, and sometimes a little dirty, but that was wonderful too.
When he had followed Sabertooth onto that photo shoot that day, he hadn’t expected him to use a model as a diversion, he hadn’t expected to cop a feel on said model, and he hadn’t expected to have that model stalk him down to the very slums of the city. He had seen images of the woman before; TV, magazines, hell, he saw her on a billboard almost everyday. He’d seen models before, they were everywhere, but she had been distinguishable. It was her eyes. Her eyes made him flinch. They struck him like a nail to the head, and would invoke his fight-or-flight responses. Then finally one night, those eyes stared at him uninvited from the opposite side of a table.
At first, he had assumed she had tracked him down to thank him. That turned out not to be the case after the subject of his scent popped into the picture and her demanding that he better be just as good. The bitch had seduced him, but he wasn’t complaining. Not then anyway.
“What the hell is taking so long? I said dance!” he added a growl at the end of his command. He knew she liked it when he did so, and who was he to deprive her?
To his pleasure, he saw her begin to move. He smiled as she thrust herself towards the glass, but that smile soon depleted as she thrust herself at the glass so hard she was thrown through it, across the room, and slammed into his chair.
He yelled in surprise as he was knocked over with the force of her impact. She lay stunned on the floor, bits of glass littered around her as the scent of blood invaded his nose. Crouching over her, he called her name to get her to come to. Though her eyes were open, she didn’t look his way. Her stare was fixated on the balcony door, now broken and allowing the nighttime air and noises to intrude. Yet, that wasn’t the only thing to be let in.
“Who are you?” a voiced yelled angrily from the broken doorway. “And why are you making my Kagome do gross things?”
In the door, staring violently at him, was a man. Tall, with long dark hair pulled into a ponytail, and fierce green eyes.
‘Great.’ Logan thought furiously, as he rose to confront the man. ‘She has a crazed stalker.’
“I’ll kill you before I let you ruin her!” the man growled.
Flexing his muscles, and wishing he had on more than boxers, Logan prepared to wipe the floor with the lunatic, but as he took a step closer, the lunatic disappeared, but he hadn’t gone far.
Converting /tmp/phphtug5g to /dev/stdout
From the get-go, I wanted to throw her into the superhero universe. But which one? Should I throw her in with the forever cool and slightly whorish, Batman, or the super strong yet wuss in tights Superman, or maybe the alcoholic and lovelorn Hancock? I had even considered the Super Friends or Justice League, whichever one you want to call it. Lobo, the Main Man, was going to be a big part of the Super/Justice League. Two crazies, one story, it was going to explode the Internet.For those of you who don't know, this is the X-men universe. Now, my association with X-men varies greatly. X-men have comics, cartoons, and movies. Moreover, the comics have so many different universes within themselves. And I've never read any of the comics, my first introduction to X-men was that old school cartoon where Rogue wasn't as broody, was actually flirty, and could fly, where Gambit was part of the team, and Jubilee was a main character. Since then I've seen other versions of the cartoons and movies. So I can't decipher what went with what and who. So I apologize now to any hardcore comic fans, because what I write will probably blend them together so that it works in my favor.
Chp. 17 To Strike a Chord
She was sure the man was a super villain. She was damn sure of it. You couldn't have a widow's peak that severe without a master plan to destroy the universe or at least a plot to rule the world. She had known the man for seven months and every time they would meet up, she would become more and more convinced that he was a villain. He treated his subordinates like shit, he was conceited, and his soul smelled cold and dark. He was exceptionally beautiful, with long flowing locks of the blackest of blacks. His eyes, though not as demented looking as hers, were an unusual shade that made them look amethyst in most lights. He was tall, graceful, and seemed to make lights dim with his very being. It took her a while to realize that the man was Sesshomaru's opposite in color, and his double in attitude and presence.
Yet there were certain aspects of the man that made her doubt his villain hood. For one, his name was Gena, with a hard 'G', and he was the CEO of one of the top modeling companies in the industry. For another, the man, had a sweet tooth to rival any child's, and would often be seen munching on chocolate or anything containing sugar. He was polite to a 'T" and besides being a former model himself, he was a classically trained ballet and contemporary dancer. She had known the man for seven months, and each meeting would both hinder and promote her thoughts about his role in life.
Her manager, Mr. Piss his Pants himself, and Gena's ass kisser, had set up their current date, in order to obtain her more exposure. She found she didn't really care for their meeting, or the thought of increasing her modeling career. She was bored with modeling, but if she were to abandon this, then she would have time to think, more time to spend with Logan, and more time to hunt down Shippo. So she would continue to go through the motions, continue to be bored, and besides, Gena was interesting.
They made quite a trio. Gena with his tall, dark, and mysterious aura radiating throughout the room, Kagome with her exotic looks and her barely contained electrifying personality, her manger, Myron, with his shaved head, and dazzling smile that had ladies swooning all over, and to top it all off, they were all inappropriately wearing sunglasses indoors.
She found herself staring dispassionately at the salad Myron had ordered for her. Though she still qualified as a petite model, she wasn't up to the standard of model thin, and Myron refused to let her gain anymore weight. She had wanted to tell him that she was stasis in her current biological state, but she didn't want to scare him. She may get filthy and haggard, but she wouldn't change. She remembered in her crazier state, that she would go without food or water for a countless amount of time, yet she wouldn't get any thinner. She recalled a time, in a fit of rage and anguish, which she had hacked off all her hair with a sharp rock, yet it grew back to its current length and would grow no further. When practically naked in the desert, her skin would not tan. She was unchanging, frozen in time, like a living doll.
"I wouldn't meditate if I was you?”
Like sands through the hour glass, Gena's voice broke into her concentration. Looking up from her meal, she found her boss looking at her with a blank face. She thought it blank; the glasses could have been hiding anything. Myron sat in an anxious silence, not sure where the conversation was headed.
"Why shouldn't I meditate?" She asked him, also curious as to the direction of the conversation.
"Certain people with a psychosis really shouldn't look inward. It could exasperate the condition."
She leaned forward on the table and propped her head in her hands while she smiled at him. "What makes you think I have a psychosis?"
"Well, who's up for some dessert?" Myron interrupted, trying to divert everyone's attention.
Gena and Kagome ignored him and regarded each other with a silent intensity that bordered on creepy, because everyone watching knew that neither blinked behind their glasses.
"Check please." Myron called out, looking around for their waiter. With him nowhere to be found, he looked around and saw him hurriedly working multiple tables away from them. He assumed it was shift change and took pity on the young man and told him to hurry up. He had no time for waiters, now waitresses on the other hand…
Thankfully, another waiter appeared from the back with a tray of food, effectively freeing the boy up to deliver them the bill. Knowing his companions were too busy involved with each other, and wanting to gain favor with the boss man, he laid his own money on the table.
"I apologize. Perhaps I was mistaken." He heard Gena say, bringing his attention back to the two.
"Perhaps you were, sir." Kagome responded with a nod of her head.
"Good, now that that's settled, I want for you and the other girls to go shopping at the Barbele Mall tomorrow from 11:00 to 6:00."
"The mall?"
"Yes. I have already spoken with the other girls; the limo should pick you up at 10:00." Without further discussion, Gena stood and began to walk out.
"Wait!" Kagome called out, pushing at Myron so she could hurry and run after Gena.
Catching up with him outside, Kagome caught hold of his arm and stopped him a couple of feet from his awaiting car and driver. Once she touched him, Gena merely turned to her with a raised eyebrow.
"I'd rather not go shopping."
"I've already set it up."
"But I'm bored…with all of this."
Gena was silent a moment as he considered her. "Perhaps you…" but whatever he was going to say was drowned out by an explosion down the street.
By this time, Myron had joined them, and as a group, they looked to see the glass littered ground be trampled by terrified people. Many had been around the shop when it exploded, but a few were seen escaping the shop itself. The only other things to be seen leaving the obliterated shop, were bits and pieces of their fellow man.
"There's no fire." Myron said quietly, and was right. There was neither fire nor smoke seen from the wreckage.
"Then what caused the explosion?" Gena added dramatically, and Kagome thought she heard a light sprinkling of humor in his voice.
'Kagome.' she heard giddily whispered in her head, bringing her attention away from the moral consciousness of her boss and back to the situation at hand.
"Oh."
Another explosion sounded, sending more screams into the air, and followed by the howls and snarls of a vicious animal. The growls became louder and what looked to be a mini tornado sprang forth from the rubble and onto the street.
The dwarf twister, with its peculiar sounding wind, idled in the middle of the street for a brief second, seeming as if it contemplated on which course to take before it began heading in their direction. They would have retreated into the restaurant; if they hadn't witnessed the twister, snapping people up into its vortex and not depositing them back out.
"Is it, eating people?" Myron asked them stoically.
As he said it, a dismembered arm fell before them with an obvious bite mark at its torn edge.
"Yes." Kagome answered for him.
By now, the man-eating cyclone loomed over them, and the vicious snarling and roaring now had an undertone of undecipherable blabbering. They watched transfixed as the wind died down to reveal the beast within. It was about the size of a small bear, with thick brown fur and curled ears. It stood upright with its forepaws brandishing strong muscles and seldom used claws. With its large eyes, little, black, button nose, and overly large eyes, it would almost seem cute. If for when it opened its mouth, there wasn't a large tongue and gleaming white teeth coated in the blood of its victims.
As it growled at them, they took a step back and it grinned. The vicious, snarling, and blabbering continued lowly, as if it was psyching itself up for a big event.
Sensing that Miroku was near, Kagome gave herself a mental shake. What the hell was she doing backing away from this monster? On a bad day, she would be the monster. She smiled at this and flexed her knuckles. Just as she felt the tension build to the point of breaking, it was shattered by the arrival of the policia.
The loud noise, the sudden lights, and the renewed screaming of the survivors, brought the monsters attention away from their tender flesh and to the unnamed cops that die before the real heroes cops show up. The ones that didn't play by anybodies rules but their own. The ones that usually got beaten and blown up but would never bear any scars later. The ones who always had trouble at home that usually got solved towards the end of the case. You know the ones. The ones that kill helicopters with cars.
As the monster began tearing through the uniformed cops like butter, and their cars too, Kagome relaxed.
"That thing looked oddly familiar." Myron spoke up, and as he said it, Kagome looked to find that though they both looked startled, they didn't look frightened. In fact, they looked ready. Seeing as how they stood tensed, Myron with his hand in his well tailored jacket and Gena with a hand at his back pocket.
Seeing her making observations, and with the danger quickly disappearing around the corner in a mass of destruction and screaming, and explosions, the two men relaxed.
"You know how this town is." Myron answered her unspoken inquiries. "There's always something strange going on, cartoon villains pop up like daises, and then they're all those mutants. You've got to be prepared."
Kagome was confused. She hadn't noticed any of those things while living in the city. Strange goings on, villains that weren't her boss, mutants? None of it rang a bell and she had been relatively active for months. Was she self-centered? Did nothing happen in her general vicinity? Maybe those other souls she smelled on the wind were the mutants. Or maybe they were the villains. Whatever, they had smelled good.
"I'm assuming that was enough excitement for you, so the limo will pick you up at 10:00 as planned."
If she was going to argue, it was lost on Gena, because the man had already closed the door and was pulling off, but he did wave them goodbye.
~_____~
The next day greeted Kagome with news of the attack, saying that the monster that had killed a total of 15 people and wounded up to 43 was an escaped zoo animal that had lived in the sewers for months and fed on toxic waste that had mutated it beyond recognition. What made her laugh was how quickly people accepted it. As if strange things like this childhood figure come to life was an everyday occurrence. Maybe it was and she had just been too focused on herself to notice.
She shrugged it off and turned to face Miroku. Cold, stoic, Miroku. The Miroku whom she was forcing to show himself while she waited for her ride. The Miroku who had confirmed all the activities she had missed. Yes, the town was prone to many attacks of the unusual nature, and it was filled with people of extraordinary powers. People she had smelled on the wind.
"You want to have sex when I come back?" she asked him offhandedly.
Though she wasn't expecting anything overtly lecherous or like the old Miroku, she did get a reaction. His head snapped to face her, his brow slightly furrowed, but said nothing.
She grunted in response and turned back to face the busy street. Though she wasn't dressed in any top fashion attire, wearing only jeans, Tee, and heels, cars were still honking and hooting at her. She had on glasses, yet she was still being recognized.
"Miroku, I think I'm famous." She told him to no response. Again, she wasn't expecting one. Though she continued to be disappointed, she had asked Miroku to be with her until her ride arrived in hopes of enticing the former sordid monk with the tantalizing flesh and beauty of her model acquaintances.
Upon arrival, they either hung out the door, or stood out of the sunroof to greet her. Smiling at them, Kagome entered the limo and looked back at Miroku, to find him not reacting at all. He wasn't even looking at them, just being aware of their presence. Not quite pouting, she waved goodbye, followed by a chorus of goodbyes from her co-workers, and was off.
She came to find out, that not only had Gena given them a list of stores to visit, but he had also set up a meet and greet in between their shopping. The forcing of shopping and where to shop, annoyed her slightly, but at least Gena had saddled her up with four models that she could tolerate. They were a mix bag of nuts, all of different ethnicities and temperaments. Though they didn't blatantly isolate her, they still weren't over the unease she provoked. Yet, they tried to involve her in their chatter and she would attempt to keep her responses rational.
Overall, the day wasn't that bad, and she had even converted to a time when she normally did this. Shopping with friends, talking, laughing, and goofing around, she found she was actually enjoying herself, and seeing her opening up, the other girls interacted with her more often.
When they entered the mall, she had seen the table and decorations set up for their meet and greet later that day. She could already see people getting excited about it and those on the creepier mindset stalking around in the vicinity. She pointed them out to the other girls and they all shook instantaneously at the thought of a stalker. Some of them had had experience. But the M&G wouldn't be for a while and they had a schedule to keep.
And so the day went, filled with walking, talking, and a gaggle of men, young boys, and a few women, leering and ogling them, the girls shopped, shopped, and shopped.
"Does this skirt make me look fat?"
"I miss eating food."
"You know I hate this job, they feed, dress, and talk to me like a baby."
"I wanted to be an astrophysicist, but my mom made me become a model."
"I wish they didn't make us wear heels everywhere we go."
"I think that old man in the bathrobe is following us."
"Can your back shrink?"
"My boyfriend likes for me to put him in a headlock during sex."
"I hate the color yellow."
"I didn't know you were missing toes."
"So whose turn is it to try to get Gena drunk and in bed?"
"Why is it called chubby chasing?"
"Gena scares me. I think he stole my manager's soul."
"Hey that rhymed!"
"I really think that guy is following us."
"Bring your fat ass back here."
By the time of the M&G Kagome had become bored and disinterested, and scary to the other girls, again. At the M&G she did as Gena wanted, she smiled, she signed autographs, and she refused to take off her glasses. She wasn't there to freak people out or draw attention. Yet she was, and very successfully.
Most who came to their table were young ladies wanting to know how to get into the business, some were young boys being unabashed about getting photos and just talking to pretty ladies, and just a few were there to bash models and those were taken away by security.
Kagome had just gotten finish making a young man pass out, when a scent of a soul hit her nose. With the picture taken, and the young man smothered and blissful in her chest, Kagome stepped away and dropped him to the floor. Inhaling again, she smiled. There were two distinct souls and they were getting closer. A fire and ice combo, and they were distinct to the ones she smelled on the wind. Maybe it was time to start paying attention.
She turned on her heel to seek them out, but before she could cast her eyes around to search, she found her personal space invaded by a bouncy little brunette. She would have excused herself away, but with the sudden appearance of the brunette also came the scent of the interesting soul. This was the ice she had smelled.
"Hello." she greeted with a smile.
"Hi, oh my God, Hi! I'm Kitty, and I'm like your biggest fan!"
"A fan of mine? I don't really do anything." As she said this, she heard a derisive snort sound out behind Kitty. Looking over her head, Kagome saw what could only be described as your typical angst filled teenager with socializing issues.
"Hello to you too, my sunshine."
"Oh, don't mind her, she's just cranky because she hasn't eaten yet."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here." As she spoke, Kagome saw that the young lady had a thick southern accent. She also smelled that she was the other soul she had smelled. The fire to Kitty's ice.
"You don't like models…?"
"Her name's Rogue and she don't like much of anything."
"I can speak for myself." Rogue snapped at her, but Kitty was either used to the surly attitude or else her perky disposition was impenetrable. "It's not that I don't like models, it's just that I don't care."
Kagome's smile widened. "You want a hug?"
"What? No!"
"What's it like being a model?" Kitty interrupted.
"It was glamorous, fun, and full of interesting people doing interesting things in interesting places." Kagome recited for her.
"How did you get into the business?"
"My manager ran me over in the middle of traffic."
"What? Why? How did that workout?" Kitty looked shocked and confused.
Rogue just looked amused. "What, so he made you a model so you wouldn't sue?"
"No, it was my fault. I was running through traffic when he hit me, and I guess he just saw something in me."
"Why were you running through traffic?" Kitty asked with the affirmative commenting of her companion.
"I don't remember." she answered truthfully. "I probably just thought it might be fun."
The answer put the girls in a slight stupor. They glanced at each other and Rogue shook her head.
"Um, okay. What about your signature look? Your eyes. How do you get them to do that? It's so cool."
"Is it cool?" she shrugged. "It's a natural condition. I wasn't born with it, but I developed it over time. A constant look that causes horror, fear, and revulsion with just a glance. Do you want to see?"
"Can we?" Kitty asked, her voice low in anticipation as both she and Rogue stepped closer.
With her smile gone, Kagome shrugged off her glasses. She hesitated only a moment before looking up at the girls. Just as she thought, on first contact, they stepped back and made little gasps of fears and shock. With them silenced again, Kagome placed the glasses back over her face and smiled sadly.
Disappointment was the key today. Disappointed that she couldn't get a response from Miroku, and disappointment that there still wasn't a person who could look her in the eye without flinching. Even Logan reacted to it. During sex, if they made eye contact, he would growl fiercely and just go at it harder. When they weren't intimate, he just learned how to look at her without connecting. She realized then, that the lack of closeness made her sad.
"The photos dull the effect quite a bit. Much more horrible in person. Don't you agree?"
Despite the horror of her eyes, the unpleasantness of Rogue, and the bottomless fountain of perkiness that was Kitty, Kagome felt that she had found a bond and she was going to milk their encounter for all it was worth. She talked to the girls for the rest of the M&G and then invited them along for the rest of the shopping trip with promises of buying them anything they wanted. She enjoyed the shopping more with her little entourage and had even made Rogue smile, if only momentarily. It came that towards the end of the shopping function that she had to bid her new friends farewell to which she deposited everything she had bought into their overloaded arms.
The other models commented on her charity work and voiced their desires to have done the same. She merely shook her head and rode in silence. She just wished to be home and spend an aggravating night with Logan. She did smile in anticipation at the thought of his angered growl.
But her night would have to wait until later, because as of right now, they were stuck in traffic.
"Do you think if I cover myself in strawberry jelly, Gena would lick it off?"
The question came out of nowhere, and Kagome found herself laughing along with the others.
"I was serious." The girl said after a moment, her voice sounding highly offended.
They only laughed harder at her before giving other ideas at how to get Gena to sleep with you.
"Have a trail of M&Ms leading to your bed."
"Put syrup in your pants and walk past him."
"Hide Hershey's inside your clothes, drop one down your shirt when you're with him, and don't get. It'll bother him so much he'll snatch your shirt off to get at it."
"Drug his chocolate turtles."
"Wear an outfit made from fruit roll ups."
"Grab his crotch and give him a candy bar."
'Kagome.'
"Oh." Sitting back, Kagome ignored the others and listened. She listened hard, she threw out her senses, but she couldn't hear anything over the sound of the women's laughter and the honking of the horns from the rode. But if she sat and went slack, she did feel vibrations through the limo that weren't just from the engine. Now that she thought about it, the car did seem to be swaying slightly.
Seeing that the others didn't notice it, Kagome rolled down the window and stuck her head out. With the window down, she could now hear screaming along with the horn, but she couldn't see anything but the bridge that they waited upon and an endless string of cries. Well that and people running towards her.
“Curious.” She mumbled as she pulled her head back in. By now, the others girls had noticed and grown quiet. Two had decided to stick their head out the sunroof, and from their gasps, she assumed they saw something more interesting that she had. As the others looked at each other in confusion, Kagome stood and joined the others at the sunroof. What she saw made her smile, despite the circumstances. Stuck in the wires of the bridge, and trying to free himself, was a big, red puppy. He was making whining noises as he struggled, and his movements were making the bridge sway.
"I think we should get off the bridge." One of the girls standing with her voiced aloud before she ducked back inside to inform the driver.
“We’re going to be late getting back.” The other one commented as she too ducked back inside.
Despite their casualness, Kagome only got a start as she mentioned their late arrival. Logan was supposed to be coming over tonight, and she had wanted to prepare. But as the puppy whined loudly and tried to scramble free again, she smiled. Let him wait. By now, she was joined by two other girls wanting to see what was going on.
Though the puppy’s hind legs were still in the water, his forepaws were on the bridge and blocking lanes. Most of the people, she saw, were running in fear of the big, red, puppy, but a few were still in their cars and honking at the beast to get out of their way.
“Hey! I know that dog!” One of the new girls exclaimed loudly with a delighted smile on her face, but before she could utter another word, the wires trapping the canine had snapped, and as the bridge began to lean dangerously low to one side, the puppy fully climbed onto the bridge and began to shake the water from his crimson fur.
As he shook, and they were pelted with heavy, dog smelling rain, the bridge quaked violently and cars began sliding towards and off the broken edge. Thankfully, most of the cars had been abandoned, and only the few stragglers, the stubborn, fell into the depths below.
By now, the driver had gotten the message and their limo shot backwards recklessly, but their retreat was cut short as they hit the abandoned cars behind them. The collision had girls colliding with the back of Kagome’s knees, and after hitting her chin on the roof of the car, she slunk down and on top of the other fallen girls. She wasn’t down long before she was heading for the door.
“Come on!” Kagome yelled as she finally got out and confirmed what she thought she had seen before falling inside, the puppy was happily playing with traffic by running through it and vigorously shaking any cars he found with people inside. It wasn’t until the screaming inside died that he went on to the next one, and he was getting closer.
“Ladies.” The driver greeted them as he began to help them out. “Do you have the flare? I feel we may be in need of them.”
The girls looked at him in confusion, including Kagome, and seeing their faces he sighed. “I shall handle it then.” He told them as he headed towards the trunk. “Please start heading back off the bridge and I will join you momentarily.
After a small goodbye, the girls all began to make their way off the bridge. Though they didn’t run, they hurried with a wobbly gait and realized that swaying bridges and heels didn’t mix.
“This reminds me,” one of the girls commented shakily as they scurried away, “of the time we had a snake outbreak on our plane.”
“Sounds tiring!” Kagome replied, but before she could hear a response, they were distracted by a muffled explosion. As the sound was heard it was muted in comparison to the sudden display of lights that soared into the sky. It started as a single missile of light that soared above their heads. It exploded once into a blossom of light that produced two more missiles that soared off into opposite directions to bloom into blossoms of their own.
“Does the smoke smell like peppermint to anyone else?”
“Get a move on it ladies.” The driver shouted as he placed the flare gun, bazooka, back into the trunk. “Your ride should be arriving…”
The girls blanked out whatever else the driver said because at that exact moment, a red, furry, and adorable beast loomed up from behind him like a horrible sunrise of the last day on earth.
As the driver caught on to the cliché behind him, the girls did not wait to see the inevitable outcome as he turned around to face his doom. They tried their hardest to ignore the wet, gurgling sounds behind them, yet this became easier as the police, and what appeared to be the national guards and mercenaries in tanks, arrived and bypassed them to intercept the canine menace. From the sounds of it, the reinforcements weren’t doing too good, and if the amount of debris, and appendages, that soared above, ahead, and around them was anything to go on, they were in fact losing.
‘Kagome.’
Despite herself, Kagome turned around to find herself staring at an utterly adorable scene of a big red puppy chewing on a tank, and for one brief moment, she made eye contact with the largest pair of doe eyes in existence and her mind went cute stupid.
“Awe!” she murmured, forgetting that although she had turned around, she hadn’t stopped moving and tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground in a heap.
With a bark like a cannon blasting, the big, red beast let the cannon it was shaking loose with uncanny accuracy. Watching it fly, Kagome gave a shout of warning to the retreating girls, but by then it was too late and a great shadow had fallen over them.
~____~
“Oi, Kouga!”
Climbing out of the well with an expertise skill she had cultivated over the years, Kagome Higurashi found out that she could not completely crawl out and onto land. Stuck at the lip, she found her way blocked by the sleeping figure of the man she had agreed to mate.
Though they had not had sex yet, they slept on the same mat in a secluded area of the cave together. He understood her unease and reluctance, so she didn’t fear him taking advantage of her. Not as much, anymore. But she would lie awake at night and wait until his breathing pattern changed into that of deep sleep. She would then just look at him. Actually study him. During the day, and whenever he was awake, Kouga’s face was always…happy. He smiled, he snarled, and he frowned, but she always got the feeling that he was a happy being. He was too confident and cocky to not be happy. Even when being serious, acting as leader of his pack and diplomat; what he exuded was a contented soul.
She wasn't use to it. She was accustomed to doom and gloom Inuyasha. The scowling, bad tempered, giant chip on his shoulder dog demon. But when he slept, the angry scowl lines would dissipate and he would be at peace. She could see the goodness that she knew was in his heart then. Yet Kouga was different. There was no change from his wakeful face to his sleeping one. Yes, his face softened, but he just went from devilish rogue, to a slightly less devilish, sleeping scoundrel. It made her feel like sleeping next to him was dangerous. Which in fact, it probably was. Kouga didn’t hide his intentions for her. She blushed at the feeling of all his attention he gave her. He was always doting on her. Touching her, complimenting her, and devoting himself to her happiness. He was unabashed in his flirting, almost to the point where it was no longer flirting but sexual harassment. Kouga was an ego booster, and it was this newly inflated ego that had her sometimes thinking that the sense of triumph and content that Kouga exuded was because of her. She made him happy just by being with him? She couldn’t understand it.
She was awakened from her reflection by a pressure on her lips. Realizing that the sudden pressure was generated by a quick peck from a now awakened Kouga, she jolted in surprise and fell back into the well
“Oh no you don’t.” Kouga barked as he caught her by the scruff of her top and hoisted her safely from the well. “You’re not disappearing on me again.”
As he set her back down on the ground, he busied himself by adjusting her clothes and grooming her of any dirt or flaw. “I’ve spent hours jumping in and out of this well, and nothing. How do you do that?”
“I don’t know.” She answered as she brushed his preening hands away. “Guess it has something to do with the jewel and me being a miko or something. I don’t really know, because Inuyasha can get through too.”
Kouga’s face went dark at the mention of his rival, as was usual when she mentioned the hanyou. “What the hell makes him so special?” he asked, speaking mainly to himself.
Familiar with this situation, Kagome placed an hand on his arm. “I think its because of his rosary.”
“Rosary?”
“Yes. He has a rosary around his neck, and its connected to me, somehow. I never really asked Kaede about how it works.”
“Since you’re my woman now, I think maybe I should get one of these…special rosaries.”
Kagome giggled at the thought and missed the flinch it caused him. “I don’t think you want one of these. With it, I can subdue Inuyasha whenever I want. I know I abuse it sometimes too, and, and it looks really painful when I do.”
He shrugged. “I figure a little pain is worth it, if it means we can be connected like that.”
Quieted by this, Kagome turned red with embarrassment. “Um, if you still want to meet my family, I suggest we get going. I set it up with mama already, she’s taking everyone out for a bit while I get us settled.”
“Right.” He declared as he jumped onto the lip of the well. “Now how does the work again? Are you ground dwellers?”
“I told you.” She said with a huff as she joined him on the lip. “I’m from the future.”
“I got it, future ground dwelling humans.”
“No!” she ground out with a stomp of her foot as she swatted his arm. “We jump in and travel to the future, where we then climb out and onto above ground. I live at a shrine.”
“Got it. Future, above ground, shrine. In the future.”
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Well I didn’t, until you disappeared in a blinding light at the bottom of a dried up well.”
“If you didn’t believe me, then why did you come this far?”
“You’re my woman.” He replied as an answer.
“So how are we going to do this?” he asked her after a moment of silence.
“Well usually,” she began. “I drop my things in and jump in after them, but I don’t know if that’ll work. So I was thinking we just jump in together.”
“Jump in…into the future…through the well.”
“You just can’t accept that can you?”
“Just wrapping my mind around it. I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a little stubborn.”
“Really?” she couldn’t keep the smile out of her voice and when he looked at her he grinned.
Clasping her hand in his, he brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it. “To our future, eh?”
“Right.” She replied back, a blush on her face, and not knowing what else to say, she jumped into the well. Bringing a fiancée to meet the in-laws.
To our future.
~____~
“That’s why there are no demons here!” Kouga yelled over the sound of the shower. “The humans enslaved them into their homes! My poor brethren, too stupid and weak to fight back!”
“Shut up!” she yelled back, tired of Kouga’s ever lasting energy/complaints. Why does the air stink? Why are there so many humans? I smell no demons nor many animals. What did you do with them all? Witchcraft! Why is the summer outside, but winter inside this palace? This is nice, I wish the cave had indoor winter for the summer. What is this plant? Its dead but still vibrant! What sort of animal skin is this on the floor? I’ve never encountered any such as this. Where is this water coming from? It’s everywhere.
“That’s what it is, right?” Kouga asked, stepping out of the shower wet and naked.
Kagome, who had been leaning on the outside of the door, was taken aback as the naked Kouga entered the hallway and began to shake the water off like a dog, or wolf.
“Stop it you animal.” She shrieked as she rushed inside the bathroom to turn off the running water and grab a towel. But as she exited it, she was shocked, not, to find him not where she left him, but down the hall and about to urinate in one of the only living houseplace.
“No.” She yelled, racing to stop him. “Don’t do that there.”
“Then where is the outhouse? I know you humans sometime have them.”
“We don’t have one.” She told him as she grabbed him by the arm and drug him back to the bathroom, all the while keeping her eyes up and away from interesting parts. “We do it here.”
“Here?” he asked speculatively, looking at the porcelain bowl. “In the house, Kagome? That’s filthy. And where does the shit go, in the eating area?”
“No.” She spat back defensively. “Its all done in here. You do your business, then you push this button.”
As she demonstrated the miracle of indoor plumbing, in alarm at the sudden noise, Kouga kicked out and cracked the bowl, chipping it in the process.
“What the hell is that? This monster eats the mess?”
“No. Its not a monster.” Kagome sighed at the situation. “Its just a noisy machine. We have water accessed to the house that lets us clean, and use at our own discretion. And water provided to this bowl, helps us get rid of the mess. Takes it away, so we can live in a sanitary environment.”
“Where does it go?” He asked, still confused and alarmed.
“Pipes leading from the houses lead underground to a place called the sewer where all the mess goes.”
“So that’s why you don’t live underground! Its full of shit!”
“Yes, kind of.” She answered unsurely. “ But it doesn’t stay there. There are bigger pipes, tunnels? I guess, I’m not too sure, that lead to a place that people work at…to, clean and…separate? The mess from…the, um, water. And then the water is purified…and sent back to the homes for use again.”
“So what happens to the mess?”
“Why are you so interested?” she demanded, getting frustrated because she didn’t know the answer.
“Its bothering me! Is there a place with piles of shit everywhere? Shit and piss, just piled up and dry, because the water was taken from it. What happens?”
“Its turned into fertilizer.” She finally shouted, as she thrust the towel in his face.
“Oh.” Kouga said calmly as he relaxed. “That’s resourceful then. I guess the future isn’t so barbaric.”
“Right. We’re barbaric. Do what you need to do, dry off, and come find me.” Exasperated, and trying not to look, Kagome headed for her room.
“Wait.” She added as an afterthought. Stepping back into the bathroom, she lifted the seat. “When boys…pee, they lift the seat.”
“Why?” he asked again, his stance making her uncomfortable.
“Because when girls have to pee, they hate sitting on old ,sprinkled pee from others. Boys lift seat to pee, girls lower seat to pee. And would you stop moving that thing.”
“Well if this bothers you, how are you going to act when I actually use it?”
Face reddened to the point where she could feel the heat, Kagome exited the bathroom and her wiggling man.
~______~
“Why do I have to wear this?”
Kagome visibly held in a sigh. “Because this is what we wear in the future.” She told him slowly as she struggled to comb the tangles out of his freshly cleaned hair. “This is what men wear, here.”
“Don’t they know I’m a demon? A demon from the past apparently. Why I got to dress like I’m from here?” Kouga asked as he picked at the slacks and t-shirt Kagome had gotten for him. She had considered buying him shoes too, but she figured that might have been pushing it.
“For the same reason you told me; to help you fit in. That’s why I wear those furs.”
He mumbled something under his breath and Kagome stopped mid comb.
“What was that?”
“I said; I mainly did it just to see you flounce around in them.”
“You’re a jerk.” She growled as she swatted on the head.
He hissed at the sudden pain, but it didn’t stop him from grinning wildly. “Still worth seeing you in them, though.”
“Sometimes I wonder,” she muttered as she continued to comb his hair, “you might be just as lecherous as Miroku.”
“Hey, its not lechery if you’re mated..” He laughed before leaning his head back against her as she combed more smoothly now.
“For humans it’s called marriage.” She reminded him.
“I like this. It feels right.” His eyes closed in pleasure at her touch. “Did you know that petting and grooming is a big part of the courting routine for us wolves?”
Kagome falted in her task, but continued on regardless. She didn’t want to court Kouga. She didn’t want to be in a relationship with him. But she had been hurting so much, and he had seemed like a way out. That way out turned out to be an exit to a closed off alley. She was stuck in it. She would marry Kouga and live amongst wolves for the rest of her days.. While the love of her life lived happily ever after with another woman who looked exactly like her. A woman who actually was her with a different attitude. It was enough to make anybody run off with a turn-around villain who lived in a cave with no underwear.
~_____~
Soon, her family returned and the introductions were made. After ambushing her mother, calling her mama, declaring where Kagome got her beauty from, tossing Souta into the air like a football, trapping him in a bear hug, that was inside a random tornado, and making him vomit violently on the ground; Kouga had officially won the two over.
“I like him.”
Looking up from the food she was helping to prepare, Kagome turned a small smile to her mother.
“That’s because he called you beautiful.” She teased.
Her mother smiled at her broadly. “Well that didn’t hurt.”
Sharing a laugh together, they continued to prepare the celebratory meal, while Kouga, Souta, and Grandpa sat in the dining room and looked at each other. Ever so often, she would hear her grandpa interrogate the wolf prince, whom was taking it all in stride.
“So you’re a demon?” she heard him ask.
“That’s right, gramps. I’m a full fledged wolf demon. Leader of the Eastern wolf tribe.”
“What does the leader of a wolf pack do?”
“To be the leader, you have to be dominant!” Kouga declared fiercely. “The strongest, most skilled, and the most determined become leaders to protect, provide, and…you know, lead.”
“How many….individuals, do you lead?”
Kouga’s face went slack for a moment as he tried to come up with a number. He had never really counted them, nor had he ever really looked at them as individuals. To him they were a unit. One whole pack.
“Around 50 total.” Kagome called out from the kitchen. “Including the wolves who aren’t demonic.”
“That’s right.” Kouga agreed with a fangy grin as he looked back at her.
“I think he loves you.” Her mother said after Kouga’s attention was once again on grandpa. “I think he loves you, very much.”
“I think he does too.” She replied, not bothering to look up. “I use to feel like he only pursued me back then was because of his rivalry with Inuyasha.”
“But now what makes you think he loves you?”
“What makes you think he loves me?”
“Oh, it was just the little things.” Her mother answered, with a little smile on her face. “His light touches, the way he looks at you when you’re not looking, and the fact that he agreed to come meet your family. I don’t think he would have come if he didn’t love you.”
“Actually,” Kagome began, “this was all his idea.”
~_____~
“Have you ever eaten humans?”
“Souta!”
“Not at the dinner table.”
“I feel like that’s a good question.”
“Grandpa!”
“Only if Kouga doesn’t find it inappropriate.”
“Of course its inappropriate.”
Kagome looked aghast at her family. Why would they bring this up? And at the dinner table no less. She wanted them to get along with him, he wanted them to like him, so why bring up a topic that would solidify his status as a demon. With Inuyasha, he had been a strange looking boy with a high metabolism. Though while Kouga looked closer to human, he was the furthest from it.
“Well we use to.” Kouga finally answered without a shrug.
The table grew silent.
“Yeah. I had a pack to feed, and humans were a quick and easy prey. Besides, they’re so many of them, you breed like rabbits.”
“Should I be offended?” Souta wondered aloud to the silent apocalypse.
Finally becoming aware of the awkwardness, Kouga paused with the bowl to his mouth and looked around. Setting his meal down, and wiping his mouth with his hand he grinned. The grin did not help the situation.
“But after meeting Kagome, I weaned them off of it.” He bumped shoulders with her. “I can’t have my woman feeling uncomfortable, or having the pack look at their new alpha like chow.”
“What…what does human taste like?” her mother seemed hesitant to know.
“Potatoes.” He answered without hesitation.
“Potatoes?” Kagome asked, curious despite herself.
“Yeah. If those potatoes were filled with hot, dripping, sticky blood.” He emptied his bowl with a noise of satisfaction. “I never knew vegetables could taste good. We’re mostly meat eaters, you know. And potatoes of course.”
“Oh my. Well, uh, Kouga…I’ll, go get you some more.” Grabbing his bowl, Kagome’s mother scurried off into the kitchen. “Wouldn’t want to keep you hungry.”
“Potatoes?” Souta voiced aloud again.
“You called my granddaughter an alpha. What does that entitle?”
“Since I am the alpha male in my pack, she will inherit the title of alpha female. It means that when I am away, Kagome here will be in charge.”
Kagome felt her stomach drop. “I didn’t know all that.”
“Don’t worry.” He told her, as he threw an arm around her shoulder. “You’ll be acting leader when I’m away and no one outranks you.”
He leaned in close to her then and growled low in his chest. “But I won’t be pulling rank on you…not unless you want me too.”
Any nervousness was cut off then as she cut her eyes at him. “Really? In front of my grandpa and little brother?”
“Tell me where you want it then?”
“Should I be offended now?” Souta asked. “Because I feel that I should be offended.”
“You should.” Kagome answered but was ignored. “Because I am.”
“Here you go Kouga.” Arriving back with more food for her, not really hungry but he will stay full when visiting this house, future son-in-law, Kagome’s mother placed the food on the table and smiled sweetly. “Now the important question is, what are your intentions with my daughter?”
At this question, a sound erupted from Kouga that was more chuckle than laugh, more scary than sweet, and obviously more dirty than anything else. A quick elbow to the ribs cut the sound off, but the look remained.
“I’m defiantly offended. I’m going to go find a gun.”
As Souta left, he didn’t get to hear anything Kouga said.
“Mama Higurashi, my intentions toward your daughter is simple. I plan to keep her fat, happy, and pregnant.”
“Well I couldn’t ask for more.” She replied with a broad smile at her daughter’s good fortune.
~_____~
“I should have loved him more.”
After the bridge fiasco with the big, red dog, and almost being crushed to death by a tank, Kagome and the girls had been miraculously saved by nothing less than superheroes. Real life superheroes.
They arrived in a jet, and jumped immediately into action. The tank had been stopped, mere feet from killing them, by a giant metal man. He stood far over 6’ feet tall and was a shiny, metallic mini-god. With the tank nestled comfortably on his shoulders, he looked down at them and nodded in greeting. The girls who remained standing swooned at the sight of him.
Though being tall, imposing, and impossibly strong, the scent Kagome got off of him was of pure innocence. This living statue, this Hercules on steroids, was so good, so in peace and in sync with himself that his soul seemed to sing out to her and made her smile. She had felt tears prick her eyes, but before they could fall, a blue furred demon had materialized before them.
The girls screamed, and Kagome found her nose invaded by the scent of brimstone.
“Don’t be alarmed ladies.” The blue man told them in a German accent as he grinned cheekily at them.
Kagome glanced around with a smile at all the interesting people she sensed around her. ‘What the hell was going on?’
“I’ll take it from here, Colossus.” Blue demon told their beautiful statue as he circled his arm, and tail she saw with delight, around the stunned and silent girls. Kagome willingly hugged him back, and with a pop and disoriented moment, they found themselves safely on land and away from the destruction.
After the blue man left, the girls only waited a short while before Gena appeared, with a helicopter, and hoisted them away and to their respected abodes.
“What’d you say?”
Snapping back to reality, Kagome sagged into Logan’s embrace as he threw a wet arm around her naked torso. Tilting her head back, she landed a kiss on his neck. “I would complain about you using all my hot water, but all your hair is keeping me warm.”
“It wouldn’t have been cold if you hadn’t have zoned out for 10 minutes.” He tossed back at her as he turned her around so that the shower now sprayed on her back. “What was that all about?”
“Talking about how you’re going to clog up my pipes.”
Even wet, his reflexes were quick and sure. His hands were at her waist and she suddenly found herself plastered to the shower wall, her legs around his waist in surprise, the traitors, and their noses touching in close proximity. “You damn right I am.” He growled, the rumbles reverberating in her own chest, before he kissed her roughly.
She was breathless by the time he let up, and he was breathing harder than she. “Did you set it out?”
Climbing down off of him, she winked as she exited the shower. “Guess you’ll have to get out to see.”
As he turned the water off and hopped out after her, she tossed the towel she was using to dry off into his face and raced out of the bathroom with a giggle as he growled at her.
He caught up with her in the bedroom before she knew it and had scooped her up from behind and flipped over and onto the bed. She giggled and he laughed, they tickled and they nibbled. He acted like a young man in love, and she behaved as if she wasn’t a demented, tortured widow. She felt happy and carefree, tousling around the room like a little girl playing tag. Well, maybe not a little girl, that would be creepy considering the game, but a younger, lighter soul.
“That’s enough of that.” Logan finally spoke up as he sat down on the edge of the bed and paused their game. Seeing that their clothes had fallen to the floor, he grabbed his boxers and tossed her garments to her. “Here, put them on. Then take them off again…slowly.”
The lingerie was black and lacy. A corset piece with garter belt and stockings. She had gotten it from the last photo shoot and had decided to surprise Logan with it.
But due to the action on the bridge, and Gena’s escort service, she hadn’t had the time to get everything ready. Yet, because Logan had also been late, for some reason she hadn’t asked, and tired, she didn’t mind too much.
Due to the late hour of their meeting, their date consisted of riding around on his bike, and eating from street vendors. Later on, way after mid night, they returned to her apartment and to the shower.
With the lingerie on, she smiled coyly as he tossed a pair of black heels at her. “I like a man who knows what he wants.”
“Then go out there and dance for me.” He constructed her, nodding toward the balcony doors with a cigar in his mouth.
Getting up from the bed to get a better seat, he slapped her on the behind as she passed by, causing her to yelp. Grabbing a chair he planted it in front of the doors and smoked his cigar in the gloom as Kagome closed the doors. Though the curtains remained drawn, they were thin and her silhouette was clearly visible.
On the other side of the door, Kagome stood and waited. Waited until he told her when to start, until he got annoyed, and just waited until he told her what to do.
It was working. Of course it was working. Kagome loved to irritate him, and he secretly loved all the aggravation. It made the sex primal and aggressive. Despite her size, Kagome was a resoundingly supple girl, and could take his roughness in stride, along with delivering her own rugged play. If he had to describe relationship with Kagome in one word, it would be spicy. Weird, but spicy. She made him feel young. Young and normal, and sometimes a little dirty, but that was wonderful too.
When he had followed Sabertooth onto that photo shoot that day, he hadn’t expected him to use a model as a diversion, he hadn’t expected to cop a feel on said model, and he hadn’t expected to have that model stalk him down to the very slums of the city. He had seen images of the woman before; TV, magazines, hell, he saw her on a billboard almost everyday. He’d seen models before, they were everywhere, but she had been distinguishable. It was her eyes. Her eyes made him flinch. They struck him like a nail to the head, and would invoke his fight-or-flight responses. Then finally one night, those eyes stared at him uninvited from the opposite side of a table.
At first, he had assumed she had tracked him down to thank him. That turned out not to be the case after the subject of his scent popped into the picture and her demanding that he better be just as good. The bitch had seduced him, but he wasn’t complaining. Not then anyway.
“What the hell is taking so long? I said dance!” he added a growl at the end of his command. He knew she liked it when he did so, and who was he to deprive her?
To his pleasure, he saw her begin to move. He smiled as she thrust herself towards the glass, but that smile soon depleted as she thrust herself at the glass so hard she was thrown through it, across the room, and slammed into his chair.
He yelled in surprise as he was knocked over with the force of her impact. She lay stunned on the floor, bits of glass littered around her as the scent of blood invaded his nose. Crouching over her, he called her name to get her to come to. Though her eyes were open, she didn’t look his way. Her stare was fixated on the balcony door, now broken and allowing the nighttime air and noises to intrude. Yet, that wasn’t the only thing to be let in.
“Who are you?” a voiced yelled angrily from the broken doorway. “And why are you making my Kagome do gross things?”
In the door, staring violently at him, was a man. Tall, with long dark hair pulled into a ponytail, and fierce green eyes.
‘Great.’ Logan thought furiously, as he rose to confront the man. ‘She has a crazed stalker.’
“I’ll kill you before I let you ruin her!” the man growled.
Flexing his muscles, and wishing he had on more than boxers, Logan prepared to wipe the floor with the lunatic, but as he took a step closer, the lunatic disappeared, but he hadn’t gone far.
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