Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Defensive Interference	By : monophobian Category: InuYasha AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 4843 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own or make money off anything to do with Inuyasha.

Chapter List
- 9
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- 11
“He’s going to kill us.”
“We’ll be fine.”
Two light knocks sounded on the door, both ookami suddenly alert as they waited for noises to come from inside. Maybe a scent. A scent would help, considering it would speak of Kagome’s current mood and possibly tell of Kouga’s potential mood and distract from Hakkaku’s nervous bouncing was already getting on Ginta’s last nerve.
“If you don’t stop jittering right now, I’m going to kill yo—”
The scent hit right before they heard her unlock the door, both men reeling back on their feet for a moment before finally taking a step back.
Oh. Oh. This—this was going to suck.
“He’s going to kill us,” came the final whisper, trembling as the door cracked open and he looked down into the clear blue eyes of his Alpha’s girlfriend. A wave of Kouga’s scent poured from the door, finally covering the tangy copper of her blood.
“Ginta? Hakkaku?” She opened the door wider and he almost uttered out a curse right then. “Can I help you?”
“We uh—” What were they even doing? “We wanted to stop by?”
He could see Hakkaku’s wide gaze staring at him in nervous shock and Ginta knew in that moment if he didn’t hurry up and untie his tongue, they were going to have a confused woman and an angry ookami on their front porch.
Soon.
“We’re sorry for the intrusion,” he hurried. “We just…We wanted to check on you. Yesterday seemed to be tense and the pack had a few concerns and we…thought it would be best to maybe talk about a few things?”
He almost explained why – the spike in anger the pack felt the morning before, the worry and tension that tightened their muscles through the day, the anger and wave of possession that washed over again in the afternoon, but he was absolutely not going to mention the utter satisfaction from last night. Nope. Not at all. Didn’t need to be said. They’d already heard enough from the first-time teasing—
“Oh.” Some understanding flashed in her eyes before a sweet trickle of embarrassment hit his nose. Well. Better than shame? “Would you like to come in?”
He ignored the even larger eyes saying no and stepped in, a thank you leaving his lips before he was hit full force with the scent of Kouga and Kagome and Kagome’s current…state.
They were so dead.
***
The nervous energy from Hakkaku was weird. So incredibly weird. A nervous youkai was an odd one and while she was certain her class in college touched on it, encountering one was completely different. She almost didn’t know what to do.
“Would you like something to drink?” The door clicked shut behind them and she turned toward her kitchen. “Coffee? I might have some tea somewhere. Also water and alcohol and I think there might be some—”
“Coffee’s fine.”
“Okay. Make yourself at home and I’ll be right out.” If she remembered correctly, neither one had added much to their coffees, though she wasn’t quite sure. Better to offer sugar and creamer with the cups than try to guess their preferences. Why they were there in the first place, she had no clue, but that would stop her from being a gracious host.
She was fishing out the open bag of coffee when a nervous shuffling caught her attention.
Both ookami were standing at the entrance to her kitchen, almost too scared to touch anything. Hakkaku seemed to have calmed down some, but Ginta’s shoulders were still stiff as a board. Their eyes were bouncing everywhere and nowhere and she was certain had their tails been showing, they’d be twitching in agitation.
“Are you two okay?”
“Mhm. Just fine,” Hakkaku said with not an ounce of conviction in his tone.
Right. Ignore, ignore, ignore, just make the coffee and maybe spark some kind of conversation. “So how did you find my house?”
For two established youkai, these two didn’t do a great job of keeping their internal thoughts internal.
“Uh…”
Filter, grounds, water, and then she flicked the button, letting them squirm before offering her own guess. “Either Kouga told you or you asked Souta, but I’m really doubting the second one.”
There was a long pause.
“Kouga.”
“So you guys could find him if you needed to?”
“Yeah.” Ginta’s tone was lighter, freer, and Kagome almost smiled to herself. The air shifted, their youki flustered and brushed against her skin, causing small sparks to charge through the room before they reined in back in. “What the—”
“Sorry about that. I’m a miko,” she explained, pulling three mugs down from her cabinet. She added sugar to her cup before offering them the spoon, taking the moment to assess the small ways their stance had loosened. “I wasn’t quite paying attention. You can let it out again, I’ll have more control.”
“You’re a miko?” came a curious question.
“Did Kouga not tell you?” The smell of percolating coffee was starting to fill the kitchen and she took a second to breathe in the scent. Turning to face them, she flashed a smile before sliding into a chair at her breakfast table. “Yeah, registered and everything, but nothing to worry about. Well, I guess if you wished me harm or something, but I don’t see that happening. You guys are safe. And Kouga’s safe. The last thing I want to do is hurt any of you.”
Holy yowza did their nervous energy shift into hers. At this rate, she’d never shut up.
Ginta sat easily, though it seemed Hakkaku was a bit more hesitant. She wondered if it was a youkai thing she wasn’t aware of. “By register,” Ginta drew her attention again, “you mean like the youkai have to register?”
“Yep. It was part of the compromise to ensure there wouldn’t be violence from either side. Since the humans were asking all the youkai to track names in an effort to keep account, they offered the same.”
The coffee maker beeped in completion and Kagome shot out to grab the pot.
“Most shrines register, too. Because so much distrust against youkai is mixed in with the history taught in shrines, they collectively offered to be a part of the registry. It helps make sure no one’s purporting that old way of thinking anymore.” She filled both their cups and served them at the table before returning for her own. “But since I happened to be a miko, I got to register a bit differently.”
“How does miko registration work?” Hakkaku poured in a bit of her creamer before tasting it. “Is it the same as how we have to?”
“A little, I think.” Kagome savored her first sip as she sorted her answer into words. “At least from what I know, but it’s not as involved. More like a family tree if that makes any sense. For instance, if I wasn’t born on a shrine, I would be registered with an imprint of my reiki and then my parents and grandparents would be noted in my file.”
Ginta got up to add a bit of sugar and stirred it in as he sat back down. “Why your grandparents?”
“It seems they’ve been able to connect quite a few people back to the same family lines. It’s just easier to get two branches up from me and see if anything connects with others added.” The coffee really was such a good choice. Just the aroma cleared out her head and helped fight off the headache that was normally present halfway through her period. “Because of the shrine, my entire family is registered and made it a bit easier for me to finish everything.
“What about you?” she asked, forcing the conversation toward them and shutting herself up. “What is the youkai registration like?”
“Seems a bit similar to yours, though much more in depth.” Ginta took another sip. “This coffee is really good.”
“Seriously good. We should try copying your way of making coffee.”
A smile fluttered over Kagome’s face as she warmed at the compliment.
“Each kind has a different registry, so in terms of specifics, I can only speak for the ookami. Others might have different things included that I don’t know of.”
She lifted an eyebrow in confusion, content to wait silently for the information.
“Like, we’re registered by pack. Kouga’s listed as Alpha and then we’re added as the betas and so on and so forth. When we gain a new member or say someone has cubs, they’re added to the registry and their youkai is imprinted, much like your reiki.”
“Or if someone mates,” Hakkaku added. “The register is updated to show the relationship. Humans are added, too, so if you and Ko—” His sentence was ended in a sudden, pained yelp.
Kagome felt her cheeks turn white, then flush immediately red. If you and Kouga mate. The sentence rang through her head and she hid it with another sip from her cup. Mated. So…final. Permanent. Though she had been raised to treat marriage to be just as permanent, it just didn’t feel the same way being mated did. And to think about her being mated to Kouga?
Forever. Basically like living forever, if the rumors were true about mated humans. Plus, the possibility of her own powers conducting his and she could literally be sharing his lifetime. Forever with Kouga. Forever mated to Kouga. Forever in love with Kouga.
In love?! They hadn’t even been dating a month! It was way too soon to be thinking about anything permanent like mating. She needed to meet the rest of his pack and he needed to meet her grandfather and they had to work out whatever was going on with Sesshomaru and it’s not like she was in love with him yet—
Yet?
Hakkaku’s recovery pulled her right out of her thoughts. “It’s not the same for human mates.” The three of them all bought a bit of time through their respective cups. “They’re added into the youkai’s file, but they’re not registered in the same way we are.”
“So, are you a trained miko?” Ginta steered the conversation back into safe territory and Kagome couldn’t have been more grateful.
“Somewhat.” Moving on, moving on, no more thinking about mating Kouga. “They stopped doing ceremonial training in the seventies, so now it’s more about being able to control enough to keep from accidentally purifying anything. I’m not nearly as talented as some of the others I took classes with, but I have a pretty good control over it now.”
“Have you ever purified anything?”
“Once. That’s actually how I met Inuyasha.” She grinned as the memory surfaced. “His family came to visit the shrine and he was in the bushes looking for something. I saw his ears and thought he was a dog, so I went over to pet him. Scared the living daylights out of me when he yelled at me and he ended up with a bit of singed hair.”
At the two horrified looks given her, she rushed to continue on with the story. “Thankfully, that’s all that happened and he was no worse for wear. Scared us more than anything else and I paid closer attention in my classes after that. Haven’t had any accidental issues since, though I have used it to run off a few assholes in college.”
“It’s not a complete purification?”
Seemed miko powers weren’t taught all that well to youkai.
“No, there’s stages. It starts with the youki surrounding you then can travel further if intended. Nowadays, purification is mostly used to cleanse areas of lingering auras.”
Ginta’s brows furrowed a moment. “Can you purify scents?”
Kagome blinked, an idea forming at his very words. “I sure can.”
***
Kouga stared at her closed door, letting the scents from the day unravel and fill his nostrils. Lust hit him first at the scent of Kagome and he relished in the heat sliding underneath his skin. Such an immediate reaction and a good one, too. One to be savored, which he did. Letting it glide through his body, feeling his fur stand on end and the pressure of fangs in his mouth. He took in another breath to let it linger before letting it go. Another time. Right now, he had other things to focus on, like his girlfriend waiting inside and the two idiots he was going to have to talk to.
Not bothering to knock, he opened the door and carefully kept control of his face. Her laughter rang out sharp and clear, followed by the guffaws of his beta and he made his way to the living room.
Kagome was curled up on her large chair while Hakkaku and Ginta were relaxed on her couch and he almost wanted to snarl at the way their scents mingled with hers. He didn’t. Barely. Instead, he ignored the two and headed straight toward the dark-haired beauty that lit up his entire day, nuzzling into her neck before giving her a kiss hello. A pleased satisfaction filled him that the two stiffened right up, their ease cut short at his appearance.
“What are you two doing here?” he asked gruffly while making himself comfortable. Didn’t take much, lifting Kagome into his arms and taking her place on the cushions, then wasting not a single second to wrap her up in his embrace.
His nose found the curve of her neck and one long, deep breath had the stress of the day draining away.
“Uh, you see, we just—”
“They wanted to check on you,” Kagome answered while snuggling back against him.
Good. She belonged there. “In your home?”
She huffed against him and her fingers tugged at his shirt. “What, you expect them to bother you at work and ask what had you worked up into a tiff yesterday?”
“Worked up in a tiff, huh?” He nipped her with his fangs, smiling at her little jolt at the sharp caress. It was easy to ignore the company and soothe the pain with small kisses, but he didn’t ignore them for long.
Kagome seemed to sense it, though. “And then we got to talking and I must have lost track of time.”
Finally, he looked at his betas, both looking a little weary. Kagome wouldn’t realize, but their scents had thoroughly laced with hers in the living room. Not that he could really blame them if they had good conversation and it smelled like it had. But after the shitty day he’d had, he wanted nothing more than to banish the outside world and lose himself in nothing but her soft skin, her beautiful voice, and her perfect scent.
“You two know the way out?”
“Kouga! You can’t just—”
“We know the way. And we better get going, too.” Hakkaku all but leapt out of the room toward the door.
“It was nice talking to you, Kagome.”
“You, too, Ginta. You two are always welcomed over.”
A low growl rumbled from his chest and sent the ookami scurrying after his partner. Kouga didn’t relax until he heard the front door close. He pulled her closer, nuzzling her neck once more. She was quickly becoming a staple in his life and the thought of her not being there felt like a sharp thorn burrowed in his heart.
“What was that about?” she murmured after a stretch of silence.
A few answers flit through his mind before he settled on the truth. “Bad day. Didn’t want to deal with them. Your scent is soothing and they were ruining it. They’ll understand.”
There was a flutter in her scent, bright and cheerful like the first rays of sun after a storm before it mellowed out. “What happened?”
“Two kids got in a fight.” Just remembering the day had his arms tightening around her. “Wouldn’t have been a problem if it hadn’t been a youkai and a human. Only the human ended up being a monk and didn’t know it, so we all found out the hard way.”
“Oh no,” she gasped. “Are they okay?”
“Yeah. Well. They will be.” With a large breath, he finally pulled back and looked at her. “Kid got so angry he made me lose control. Thankfully there was another teacher around who could step in. Kept me from accidentally hurting either one of them.”
“How’s the little youkai?”
“Lucked out. The monk didn’t target, so it was more a burst of energy. Ended up with a few singed hairs and a nasty burn on his arm, but it should heal with no problem.” He rubbed his cheek along hers. She was so damn soft and so damn inviting, just touching her helped him keep calm. “Parents were called, couple announcements were made through the school. We’ll have to be careful next week and make sure none of the administration tries to pass policy that will just hurt the kids. They already tried to keep us from talking about it, but I couldn’t.”
The anger was still fresh at that idiotic decree. Not explain what happened? Not walk through the normal things he lived with day in and day out? Breed ignorance between species in the malleable minds of his students?
“My kids watched it, Kagome. How could I not talk about what happened right in front of them?” Kouga faced her, finding her gaze and almost willing her to believe him. “They’ve never seen my claws or even knew I had a tail and I’m supposed to ignore everything and let them find out wrong information elsewhere?”
“You couldn’t,” she responded and a breath of relief left him. “You did the right thing.”
He nodded, eyes closing and embracing her support. Last thing he wanted to do was talk about this, but his damn tongue wouldn’t cooperate and next thing he knew, he was babbling everything he wanted to say that entire day.
“Not answering questions would have left them open to a whole slew of bullshit. And there’s already enough prejudice out there, I can’t foster it in my own classroom. And then the next class came in and they heard about it, so next thing I know, I’m speaking to dozens and dozens of kids about youkai and humans mixing and why it’s a good thing even at the risk of injury. Only to hear some asshole teacher talking about how youkai should never mingle with monks or mikos and dammit that’s not fucking true.” His words turned to a nasty snarl and he loved her even more when she didn’t bat an eye. “I wanted to rip into them, but you’re my personal life. I’m not ready to share you with my work.”
Kagome was quiet, but he didn’t really expect anything different. Her palm cupped his cheek and her eyebrows furrowed a bit, but she didn’t say a word.
“Fuck.” His frustration left with a huff and he leaned into her hand. “Just the thought of someone trying to take you away from me because of our natures makes me want to lock the damn door and never let anyone in.”
The corner of her lip twitched into a small smile, but he didn’t take too much stock in it. Emotions were running close to the surface, ragged and raw and so potent that he was worried he was going to be too honest and scare her off. But damn if he could convince himself to pull away.
“No one’s going to do that, Kouga,” she soothed. “Accidents happen and people like to talk out their butts when they do, but that doesn’t make them right.” That smile finally blossomed out and his shoulders eased. “You did what you could. You gave your kids something to think about. They’ll take the weekend and be back on Monday with a different outlook and it’ll be okay.”
Her thumb soothed over his eyebrow before she tucked herself underneath his chin. “Just watch. It’ll blow over and you’ll be back to being annoyed at them missing homework in no time. And if it doesn’t, you’ll figure it out.” A thrum of mischief hit his nose and warned him of her next comment. “Face it, babe. You have centuries on them. I’m sure you can manage a few blowhards.”
His answering scoff covered a laugh, but the smile chased away the last of his fear. She was right, just like he knew she’d be, and she made a fair point. He leaned down to kiss her forehead, silently offering his thanks.
It wasn’t over and Kouga knew there would be more to answer for after the weekend ended, but for right now, all he could do was enjoy her company.
“Anything I can do?” she asked.
His smile softened and he settled further into the chair. “Just sit and let me hold you. That’s all I’ll ever need.”
So a lot's happened in the last two years. I got married recently, moved in with my husband, just started a new job last week, have been building my nail business, and well. Trying to live life.
For the longest time, I thought this story was going to end up abandoned. I don't like certain points and when I look back at it now, all I can see is what's wrong. But I have an idea on how to fix it from here going forward and I remembered a few things that were holding me back.
BUT. Two things to point out with this chapter. First, the idea for Kagome purifying scents came from 1CarinoInu on AO3 in a review back on the third chapter. It wasn't something I'd even considered, so thank you for the idea! It's interesting to see how I can use it now, hope that's okay!
Second, a huge reason this chapter was even written is thanks to theladypantera on FFN. While reading through Gambling, they left reviews through various chapters and it just...man. It warmed my heart. Even though I don't know if they got to this story or if they gave up and moved on, a huge thank you to them. Reviews make it. I know authors harp on it all the time, but seriously. Two fucking years of leaving this story behind and eight days after one person commented throughout their read through, I have a chapter to post.
I don't intend for this to be a pity party or a guilt trip, simply an acknowledgement of where the source of my muse is founded. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I cannot express how much it means and I hope this chapter makes up for the wait, even if just a little.
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Defensive Interference