FicWad

(bows to Nassau)

You are back for the contest winner's cameo!

KURAMA: Surely you do not think I would endure your presence for that.

Here are your socks.

KURAMA: Thank you. Why are there pictures of me on foxy-bish.net?

I put them there.

KURAMA: I warned you not to sell my likeness on the internet.

That's why I traded it.

KURAMA: Geeeaah!

.
.
.


"What are you doing, Miroku?"

Kouga's eyebrow shot up. What did it look like the two of them were doing? We're trying to get drunk enough to not care that you're trying to seduce my woman, the wolf demon glowered down at the cup in front of him. And it's not working.

"Nothing of importance," the robed human gave his answer. "Won't you join-" the monk gave a choked twitch. "Why are you here?"

The boy from Kagome's village bit his lip. "I've been trying to think..."

"You hurt yourself?" muttered Kouga.

He half-expected the monk to shoot a glare in the whelp's defense. Stupid humans. It had to be these huts they built to sleep in, Kouga realized. A pack could tolerate a sniveling dung-breath in their midst if no one had to share his den at night. People who had to spend all winter in one lair together tended to send guys like Hojo out into the snow. Kouga shook his head. He'd had his fill of the boy after half a night. This one's mother should have taken the hint before the midwives packed up and left.

"About what, Hojo?" the monk managed a level tone.

"I was wondering about the little guy," the human's eyes shifted, as if expecting something to jump out at him. "I was trying to understand..." he shook his head. "I still don't buy it, Miroku; I'm still sure he's-"

The whelp cut off as if struck. Kouga found his eyes drawn toward the priest, his mind condensing around the truth. No one had hit Hojo; Miroku was staring him down. Sure, there was no growling and the human didn't have any fangs worth baring, but other than that it was the same move that Kouga himself had used that time when Hakkaku'd "accidentally" kicked a wasps' nest at Ginta.

And the boy had never - done it - again.

"Um!"

"Perhaps you should get to the point, Hojo," the monk insisted.

Kouga shook his head, feeling almost disappointed. This isn't the fool-ass boldness that me and dog breath saw in the woods.

"I was trying to think about what you said about the lit-" Hojo caught Miroku's eyes, "-about Shippo," he answered. "And about Inuyasha, Kirara, and," Hojo nodded toward the wolf prince, "him."

"What about us?" Kouga demanded. The boy had managed to pique his curiosity. Inu-koro probably wasn't ready for another round, and this human drink wasn't doing anything for him, and he had to pass the time somehow.

"Well, they're here, aren't they?"

"Indeed..." answered the priest.

/Where is he going with this? /Kouga's thoughts creased.

"Well," Hojo spread his hands, "where Higurashi and I are from, there aren't any!" Kouga's attention spiked, "I mean... she said that she and Inuyasha went up against a cursed mask, but it had been hiding out in a storage bin for a couple hundred years. Where'd they all go?"

"Fool," Kouga snorted into the tabletop. "If you think there are no youkai in your homeland, then
you must be as blind as you are stupid." The wolf packs had always been, and would remain long after all Hojo's sniveling kind were gone. "Who do you think feasts on your bandits and wanderers? What do you think hunts in the woods and wastes between your settlements?"

"That's just it. We don't have those anymore."

Kouga snorted, trying to imagine the world as one long stretch of farms and villages from one seashore to the next. Impossible. "Liar," he answered.

Hojo's face darkened. "What did you just call me?" he demanded.

He felt the hint of a grin peel back from his fangs. Hojo had found his backbone again. Maybe he would get to fight some more tonight...

This was going to feel so good.

"I said you're a-"

"And what are you up to?" his eyes jerked up. The human female, the one with the bodysuit and that giant boomerang that she used with such impunity... Kouga smothered a grimace. That stupid fox cub was perched on her shoulder.

"Nothing that important, Miss Sango."

"Kagome went looking for Inuyasha," the monk chimed. He pulled a bowl from somewhere and slid it across the table. "We saved you these," he offered flatly and took another swig of swamp water.

Kouga frowned at the last two dumplings perched innocently on a hunk of rice. How had he missed those? He blinked down at his own mug. Maybe this stuff was stronger that he'd thought...

"Thank you, Houshi-sama," the woman answered.

Kouga took a surreptitious sniff. The human's scent hadn't changed, much, and he supposed the tint in the monk's skin could have come from the local swill, but... ...then there was the way Miroku's eyes followed her graceful hands as she lifted the eating sticks and brought the food to her lips.

The wolf prince smothered a grin. At least there was one human around here who knew better than to make eyes at his woman.

Hojo's loud sigh interrupted his thoughts, "Aren't you going to ask her to sit down?"

Miroku didn't up from his drink. The female looked from Hojo to Miroku and back with the hint of a frown.

Humans and their petty rules. "What do you mean ask her to sit down?" Kouga took the matter to himself. "She's got legs, hasn't she?" he caught the a flash of mischief break the dullness on Miroku's face, "She doesn't need us to tell her when they're tired," he grumbled. Kagome is more valuable than I thought if the rest of human women are THAT helpless.

The taijiya shrugged and sat down an arm's length away from Miroku. Hojo shook his head, making a small and useless noise.

"Tell me, Kouga," the monk cut off whatever Hojo had been about to say, "what exactly brings you to cross our path?"

Sango nodded, "As fond as you are of Kagome, something tells me that this wasn't a social call."

Kouga shrugged. No harm in telling it now, "I heard a rumor of serpent demons with shards of the Shikon Jewel. They're primitive things." Memories of building rock-traps as a cub floated to the front of his mind and the wolf prince enjoyed a feral grin, "little better than beasts. Even if the jewel could boost their speed and power, they're still stupid enough for me to kill on my own."

"Is something wrong, Miss Sango?"

Kouga turned to see the tufty-headed boy staring sincerely at the human woman. A tiny redness rose on her scrubbed face. The wolf prince flicked his eyes from the male to the female and back.

...and then to the crackling stormcloud hovering over the monk.

Even the warrior? This fool IS dangerous!

Kouga gave a cough and broke the silence with his story, "I found their den, ripped to shreds and reeking so badly that I couldn't even pick dog breath's scent out of the mix. I feared that Naraku had taken the jewels until I caught up with him in the forest." He gave a low chuckle, "Inu-koro finally gave me a decent fight, so I suppose the day isn't a total loss."

"How do you mean?" asked the monk.

"He finally started fighting like a demon," Kouga shrugged. "He must have pleased some higher power, 'cause no other way was he landing a blow on me."

A gasp from the human woman rippled through his enhanced hearing.

"Kouga, what did you say?"

Someplace inside himself, the same place that told him when to hang back and when to lunge, he knew that this was important.

"I said Inu-koro isn't smart enough to guess my moves without help!"

The next thing he knew, the human had grabbed the monk by one billowing sleeve and pulled him to his feet. Miroku swore lightly as his cup overturned.

"Something wrong, Miss Sango?" asked Hojo.

"We need to find Inuyasha and Kagome," Sango slapped her bowl down on the table. "Now."

.
.
.

"That wasn't what I came up here to talk to you about anyway," Kagome wrung her hands against the green pleats in her lap. She could still feel the warmth of his ear on her fingers, and the hint his claws against her wrist from when he'd pushed her away.

She pulled in a breath. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha."

"Well you should be!" he shot back. "About what?"

"Inuyasha! I'm trying to be serious!"

The dog demon mumbled a "Keh!" as Kagome finished simmering. This wasn't the time to get angry, at least not at Inuyasha.

"I mean about Hojo."

He shot her a hard look over his shoulder. He took a step closer, jaw set as he fixed her with yellow eyes like agates. "You were right," she went on. "We should have left him with Kaede."

The dog demon's brow furrowed by a hair.

"He should have done what you told him to, Inuyasha. During the battle."

Something rippled in the shadows along his jaw. "You figured it out?"

Kagome watched her fingers curl in against her skirt. "It wasn't that hard." And she sounded so small...

Inuyasha took an audible breath and shifted closer. "What do you want me to do about it?" his voice was oddly intent.

Kagome looked up. "Do?" she repeated. "Inuyasha, that snake demon almost bit his head off. I think Hojo learned that he shouldn't play at being a hero any more." Something about the dog demon went perfectly still.

The moment passed and Inuyasha pressed one hand against his eyes, "You mean you-" he gave a short laugh.

What was he upset about? She was trying to have a real talk and all he could thing about was ... Oooooooh!

"Don't worry," she hissed between her teeth, "I won't go back on my end of the deal. If Hojo gets home in one piece, I wont use Kaede's spell on you for ten days." Even if Inuyasha didn't care if an innocent boy lived or died, she still owed it to him to keep her promises.

He was shaking his head and murmuring into the dark, "Kagome, how can you be so..."

She leaned closer, "What?"

"...good?" he demanded.

"Um..."

"Oh never mind," Inuyasha pulled his hand away from his face, "So what you care about," he let his shaggy bangs fall in front of his eyes, "is still getting Hojo home safely?"

"Not just Hojo," she protested. "He almost got Shippo killed. Just because he didn't mean it doesn't make it okay."

"Yeah..." Inuyasha muttered, looking up. "Shippo. Where'd you leave him, anyway?"

Kagome blinked, "What?"

"Where'd - you leave - the brat?" he pieced out, "Don't tell me you dropped him by himself."

"Inuyasha..." she tried wrap her mind around the sternness in his gaze. "We've always let Shippo look after himself once we reached a village. He's not a baby." Inuyasha huffed inexplicably. Kagome ran her teeth across her bottom lip. Since when did he care, anyway? "There's nothing that could hurt him here."

Kagome was totally unprepared for the lash against the grass. Inuyasha growled out the beginnings of a word.

"I left him by Sango!" the words were out of her before she knew she'd drawn breath.

"In the village?"

Kagome nodded, stricken. She let out a gasp as Inuyasha grabbed her arm. "Come on," he growled, and started down the slope.

"What's gotten into you?" she half-tripped trying to keep up.

"I thought you figured it out, Kagome."

His grip on her arm was getting painful, "Figured what out?"

"Never mind," he hissed. "So Shippo's in the village." Inuyasha shook his head. "I wouldn't need to ask if my nose was working right," he grumbled. "It's those fucking snake demons! If it were any worse I'd have to take a bath."

"Well, Inuyasha, that's not such a bad-" she choked on the words as he stopped short halfway down the slope.

Kagome's eyes widened in the dim as she searched his face. Both ears were flicking back and forth. His nose crinkled... A low, violent growl started from nothing in his throat.

"Someone's here."

.
.
.

KURAMA: Kuwabara was doing a school project on foxes.

What did he think of my work?

KURAMA: He had many choice opinions. His gets his stitches removed on Wednesday.

(A cab drives up.)

She is here! She is here!

KURAMA: Another contest winner to torment me?

You want to meet her.

KURAMA: No I don't. And tell me, for what did you trade my image?

ALMASETI: (Exits cab) Hi!

Here is a $50 gift certificate to foxy-bish.net.