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Stray	By : 3phemeral Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > Kouga/InuYasha Views: 10827 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor the characters from it. I make no money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter 3: Heel

As dusk settled, Kouga and the group approached the den. Despite the failed negotiations in the human village, he stood tall, chest out. Inuyasha walked behind his right flank, and Hakkaku and the hobbled Ginta kept up behind him.

-------

The waterfall of the den was still far off, but the sound of it underscored the song of the cicadas and crickets starting in the forest as the sun grew slightly lower in the sky. Kouga, Inuyasha, Ginta, and Hakkaku huddled around and spoke softly to each other.

"Well," Inuyasha began. “What’s your plan?”

Kouga took a clearing breath. "Okay. Obviously, each of us are physically outmatched, so we'll have to outwit him..."

+++++++

The guards standing outside the waterfall entrance already looked somewhat nervous, but after recognizing who was coming they hung their heads low, averting their eyes and apologizing.

"Stand aside!" Kouga ordered, with a wave of his hand.

They parted and the four passed into the darkness of the cave.

-------

"Right!" Ginta said quickly. He paused as his mind tried piecing things together. "...How will we do that?"

"We'll need to do some scouting first," Kouga said.

"No we won't," Inuyasha countered. "This is all posturing. Your reign, your society - all of it! We'll be able to tell a lot from the lay of the land as we approach."

"How so?" Kouga asked.

"We just have to read everyone's faces when they see you. If they smirk and laugh at you, then you know you're in trouble," Inuyasha answered matter-of-factly.

"Oh, that helps," Kouga scoffed sarcastically. "I'm expecting my own people to be laughing at me."

Inuyasha shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh. "Or you could actually HAVE a little confidence and expect them to be sorry. Ashamed. If that happens, we've got a much better chance."

+++++++

Kouga's confident stride gave him the opening move as his eyes adjusted to the torchlight inside and looked around. Inuyasha scouted the situation as well. A quiet whisper rose from the other wolf demons gathered in small groups scattered about the various levels chamber. Their murmurs mingled with the roar of the falls as all eyes fell on the return of their leader. Ginta and Hakkaku hobbled off to the side and disappeared into the crowd. Ayame sat on her calves up on the dais, silent except for the victorious smirk on her face.

“Kanta!" Kouga yelled. "Show yourself and face me!"

“I’m right here!” the other wolf’s voice boomed from the high dais as he sat up from reclining and rolled into a crouch, bulging muscles tensed. He jumped down and landed in front of Kouga with a low cloud of dirt, then stood over the shorter wolf with his fists balled on his hips. Being the reigning female’s mate, he wore clothing above the usual other male getup. While Ginta and Hakkaku wore no headband or fur on their arms – instead wearing armored bracers – Kanta was entitled to both, the former supporting the hair that came to a point up and forward from his scalp and the latter consisting of two of the smaller wristbands. His dou – the torso armor - was fastened over his left shoulder with the usual fur sode attached to the strap covering it, and with the way the upper edge of the dou curved across and around his chest, his right shoulder and chest remained exposed. “While you were away playing your little sissy games with the humans, I figured I’d take charge and actually get something done!”

“What I was doing wasn’t getting something done?” Kouga growled, clenched his fist, and held his stance as he glared up into Kanta’s eyes, watching for a flicker to indicate the larger wolf choosing which part of him to target.

“It was too little too late. You didn’t attack them head-on at the beginning,” Kanta said with a dismissive quick upturn of his nose.

Kouga laughed.

-------

“Okay, so if they aren’t ashamed and are against me, I’m done for anyway. If they are ashamed and I get in, what then?” Kouga asked in the huddle.

“First of all, it means you still have the people’s support. He’ll be acting on his own. So what kind of guy is he? I mean, I know he’s big, but what else?” Inuyasha asked in return.

Kouga pondered this. “Well… he’s pretty charismatic.”

“So are you,” Inuyasha pointed out.

“He’s also impulsive. And stupid,” Kouga finished. “He’ll say and do things without thinking them through.”

Inuyasha grinned. “He’ll make his own mistakes, then. There’s no doubt about that. You just have to wait for them, jump on them, and turn them against him. Let him make your case for you. The throne isn’t yours to win back, it’s yours to lose. But…” Inuyasha trailed off.

“But what?” Kouga asked.

+++++++

“And you will attack them head-on? You waited until I was gone to challenge me!” Kouga grinned, satisfied. A couple wolves in the chamber gasped, while some others chuckled softly.

Kanta turned his head and glared down at Kouga. He folded his arms across his chest. “It’s still a challenge.”

“You think everyone is just going to listen to you if you win?” Kouga asked. “Do you think all you have to do to be the leader is have the title?”

“Do you think they’ll have a choice when they see what I do to you?” The whispers of the crowd briefly turned to worried gasps, then silence as Kanta stood chest-to-face with Kouga, the smaller of the two maintaining his confident façade.

Kouga gulped.

“I told you,” Kanta said, “I’m not one to stand around and talk!” Kouga caught the shift in Kanta’s eyes and started to crouch just as the larger wolf pushed him back, sending the challenged ruler sliding back across the cave floor. Inuyasha backed up and stood against the wall at the cave mouth. The battle had officially begun, and the other tribesmen shifted, muttering and restless.

Kouga steadied himself on his haunches and coiled his legs to pounce. Kanta lowered into a ready posture himself and lunged. Kouga leapt back and quickly sprang forward, bringing his leg around to kick at Kanta’s face. The challenger crossed in front of his face to block the punch, his feet barely sliding on the dirt as he absorbed the blow. He swiped back, but Kouga had landed a safe distance away. He bounded up to the smaller wolf and threw a jab at his face with his right arm, but Kouga dodged to the side and spun low to sweep Kanta’s legs. Kanta saw the counter coming and rocked back on his front foot, letting the shifting momentum help him swing his off-hand down and back in the way of Kouga’s leg. He caught the sweeping ankle and wrenched it hard, sending Kouga sprawling on his stomach. He leaned over to better grapple the leader with his punching hand, but Kouga kept his own momentum going, turned his body the rest of the way around, pulled up his other knee, and caught Kanta firmly in the chest with a kick from his free leg.

The force was enough to get Kanta to let him go, but as Kouga rose to his feet, he was met with a fist to his cheek. It spun him around but he landed in a crouch and jumped backward again toward the entrance, putting some distance between himself and Kanta.

-------

“You might have to take a couple punches.” Inuyasha said.

“A couple punches I can take,” Kouga said. “But much more than that from Kanta, I can’t be sure.”

“Nah, a couple should be all we need. That’s where I come in.”

+++++++

Inuyasha stepped forward in front of Kouga and drew Tetsusaiga, the tattered old blade made long, thick, and sharp. “Alright, that’s plenty enough of that,” the hanyou declared. “If you want to get to Kouga again, you’ve got to go through me first.”

“Get out of the way, mutt!” Kanta yelled, cracking his knuckles as he closed the distance between himself and Kouga, “This is not your fight!”

“Actually, I think it is,” Inuyasha said, raising Tetsusaiga’s point and putting it on line with Kanta’s throat. The demons murmured louder.

“No, it’s not!” Kanta insisted.

“Says who?” Inuyasha asked.

“Says everyone!” the challenger hissed, swinging his hand in a sweeping gesture at their surroundings. “It’s the way of our people, and there’s nothing an outsider like you can do about that! You can’t interfere with an official challenge!”

“’Says everyone,’ huh?” He glanced around to make sure the tide of the crowd had not turned. “You know, you’re the only one to have a problem with Kouga. No one else here has challenged him. Ever.”

Kanta laughed, a hubristic grin playing across his lips. “No one else here is as strong as I am.”

“No one else here is as stupid as you either,” Inuyasha snapped. More snickering rose from the surrounding wolves. He knew he had to finish this fast, or things could get truly ugly. Mixing the increasingly volatile crowd with an even more volatile Kanta was a recipe for disaster.

-------

“You can’t do that,” Kouga said. “It’s a challenge. That’s against the rules.”

Inuyasha grinned. “What rules?”

Kouga raised an eyebrow. “The rules of succession…”

“Written by?”

“Wolves everywhere. For centuries.”

“But those rules weren’t the demons’ rules,” Inuyasha pointed out. “You’re all wolf plus something else. You’ve got reason, too. Meeting humans changed you all, and I’m sure you’ll see it on the guards’ faces.”

+++++++

“You think your strength will give you the power you want," Inuyasha began. "I’ve met so many people in my life who believe that. Oh, they had it for a time, but before long everyone that knew them grew to dislike them. You know what happened next?”

“I don’t care,” Kanta replied with a shrug. Good thing it wasn’t Kanta he was trying to convince, at least not yet.

“Well, I’ll tell you anyway,” Inuyasha continued. “The people band together and overthrow them. Every time. The humans are doing it every few years now. Their shoguns are overthrown by a new, stronger alliance. You can’t do it alone anymore. Not for long. Not forever.”

The rumbling of the wolves in the den grew louder. Kanta growled.

“If you kill Kouga, I swear to you I’ll raise up the army myself to take you down.” Inuyasha

“Me too!” a voice broke through the crowd: Ginta’s.

“Me too!” Hakkaku sounded from the other side of the cave.

Kouga stood and grimaced at Inuyasha as everyone else in the cave echoed the lovers’ sentiment. Inuyasha gave a slight shrug.

-------

“Fine,” Kouga assented. “So you’ll step in, and then?”

“Just leave the talking to me,” Inuyasha answered. “You can join in when you feel like it. You’ll know when.”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Hakkaku chimed in. “What can we do?”

“Yeah!” said Ginta.

Kouga spoke up. “If this is about keeping the crowd with us… You should do the same. Wait for a good opening and join in with Inuyasha.”

“With any luck, this’ll be over without any blood being shed,” Inuyasha said.

“So we have our plan?” Kouga asked. “Is that it?”

Inuyasha nodded. “We have our plan.”

Kouga straightened and stretched his chest, pushing his shoulders back. He was going to have to get used to this pose, but he knew it’d feel natural before too long. “Then let’s get going.”

The huddle broke and the group resumed their trek back to the den.

+++++++

Inuyasha and Kouga were hoping for a better interjection than that - each and every wolf raising their own army against Kanta wasn’t actually going to happen - but the point should have been clear enough. Kouga stepped forward, and Inuyasha lowered Tetsusaiga but still kept the blade ready.

“Do you hear that?” Kouga asked rhetorically, passing Inuyasha. “I bet I could get every single wolf in this cave to rise up against you.” A chorus of howls filled the den. “Look around, Kanta. Nobody likes you. Sit down or get out. If you choose to leave, good luck with the coming winter.”

Kanta growled and huffed, looking around at the crowd. He glared back at Kouga. “You don’t deserve this tribe, you mangy coward.”

“Neither do you,” Kouga quipped as his challenger took to the nearest tunnel and left the main chamber. The other wolves in the cave were whooping and hollering for Kouga.

“And that’s it?” Inuyasha asked Kouga, sheathing Tetsusaiga.

Kouga nodded. “Yep. “

“You’re not going to kick him out?”

“Nah. It’ll be more embarrassing for him this way.”

“You still have to live near him, you know.” Inuyasha advised, eyeing the other. It seemed obvious that this was a bad idea, but Kouga sounded sure.

“Well, court life is complicated.” Kouga turned his gaze back to the dais and glared at Ayame, who stared icy daggers back down at him before retreating herself.

Inuyasha sighed. “As you’ve said before.”

Kouga turned to address the assembled demons. “My tribesmen!” A cheer went up in the cave. “From this day forward, we will be proud. We will not budge. We will not back down from our land.” Another cheer. “I admit to you, today the negotiations were not successful-“ a murmur again- “but we will not be pushed around by these humans!” They cheered again.

-------

And so Kouga’s speech continued, the pack tighter than ever, their dedication to Kouga strengthened with the help of the half-dog visitor.

Winter quickly set in, and with it Inuyasha began to acclimate to the lifestyle of the wolves. How far, he made it, however, was another story. The hunt was difficult to follow. He kept tripping over the legs of his pants when they caught on the dense undergrowth or snow with all the tight maneuvering that needed to be done, and the bright red always alerted the prey too soon, allowing it to escape.

Even once he was able to prove competent at cutting off the prey’s next-to-last escape route (It had to run eventually, and that was when the wolves would go all-out for the kill), the business of claiming his own meat was difficult, and the rest of the pack ridiculed him for taking it back to the den to prepare it over a fire. This included Kouga to a lesser degree, but the wolf also grew to understand the virtue of adding some of the forest’s herbs to enhance the flavor of the flesh, as well as learning how to store the meat for later – even for days! This didn’t stop the ribbing from the tribe leader, but it helped Inuyasha understand that maybe sometimes it was all in good fun and not always meant to demean.

The taste for seasoned meat aided them when a scout discovered another human village at the edge of another hunting zone. Inuyasha encouraged Kouga to arrive with a prepared meal, including dishes featuring the plants of the forest. Despite the humans’ initial misgivings, their stomachs won out and persuaded their hearts. With the wolf den adequately supplied, they were able to offer the humans protection and a share of their hunt in exchange for a share of the human crop and the humans agreeing to leave the prey population alone.

Things were never better for the wolves, and things were never more infuriating for Kanta. He would be vindicated for losing his challenge, taking his rightful seat on the throne beside his mate. He scrutinized every move Kouga made and pestered Ayame for more details when she had none to give.

The hot springs deep in the network of tunnels constituting the den was a soothing reprieve from the winter’s cold after a long hunt. Kouga and Inuyasha usually waited a bit, however, to oversee the preservation of the remainder of the day’s haul for storage. After the vast majority of the wolves had cleared out, they made their way down and soaked the cold ache out of their muscles.

Kouga unfastened his dou and set the armor on the ground, then untied the thin tanned hide strap that held up his pelt loincloth. He folded it carefully and set it on top of the dou, then coiled the strap and set it atop the pelt. He watched his step very closely as he slid himself into the water, trying carefully not to watch Inuyasha until his inevitable reaction would be disguised by its low steam and reflective surface. Only then did he allow himself to peek at the disrobing hanyou as he slid the white kosode off his shoulders, his red hakama and matching jacket already heaped on the stone floor.

“You’re getting better,” Kouga said, averting his gaze as Inuyasha untied and discarded his fundoshi. The hanyou turned and strode, nude, to the edge of the pool. The warmth of the water also made the color in Kouga’s cheeks seem a bit more natural. “You’re really starting to be like one of us.”

Inuyasha scoffed as he sat at the edge and slid into the water a few feet from Kouga. The wolf demon glanced over as his arms muscles tensed, lowering his lithe body into the spring. “Feh. All I’m good for lately is bringing up the rear.”

There was more important business to attend to than Kouga’s own impulses. “Well, everyone has to do what they can, and that’s exactly what you do. Besides, our meat trade would never have gotten off the ground without you.”

“True.” Inuyasha leaned against the edge of the pool and rested his head on the rocky edge, his shoulders dipping under the water.

“You really don’t have to go on the hunts, you know. If you oversee the trading with the human village, you can make sure you get some.”

Inuyasha sighed deeply. “Nah, I’d really like to contribute more. I should be able to do this, right? How are they really going to accept me anyway?”

Kouga laughed. “They accept you if I do.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Inuyasha turned his head to face the wolf. Light glinted off Kouga’s wet shoulders and chest.

“If you’re really keen on the hunt, you could alter your outfit a little.”

Inuyasha turned his head back toward the ceiling and furrowed his brow. “How do you mean?”

“Well, it’s pretty easily done. Your clothes are very… cumbersome. They prevent you from moving as freely and quickly as the rest of us do. They’re too flowy.” There was something else he had to bring up, too. “Also, as my advisor… if you’re hoping to become a real member of the tribe, you’ll need to start wearing some of the traditional things to denote your status.”

“You guys have those?”

“Yeah! My armbands, the guards’ bracers… You never noticed?” Kouga pointed a thumb toward his discarded clothing.

“Feh, of course I’ve seen ‘em! But how was I supposed to know that unless you told me?”

Kouga bit his lip. “I guess you’re right…”

“So I gotta start wearing those things?”

Kouga scratched his chin and shifted his gaze to the ceiling. “Well, yeah. It’ll help you fit in anyway. Keep everyone settled.”

Inuyasha let out a little growl. “Okay. But what about the rest of my ‘flowy’ clothes? Can I wear the bracers under my jacket?”

“For a time. I don’t know what you want to do with the rest of your wardrobe, but think it over. I’d eventually like to see you in more traditional garments, but there’s no real hurry.”

Inuyasha scoffed again. “Is that an order?”

“Oh, no!” Kouga waved off the implication. “Just… if you wanted to stay, is all. It’d be a nice gesture back. You don’t have to.”

“But you’d like me to.”

“I’m not saying get rid of the whole thing,” Kouga said, “but the bracers are a must and the fur leggings are standard for everyone. You can’t very well wear those underneath your hakama.”

“Hm.” Inuyasha crossed his arms and silently turned the idea over in his head. If he was going to truly fit in here, it was the least he could do. It might take some getting used to, but Kouga was so sure it would come with a positive response. It would feel nice to be accepted. Wasn’t that what he came here for in the first place?

His thoughts were interrupted by Kouga standing and climbing out of the spring. The wolf shook his tail dry, padded over to his clothes, and wrapped his loincloth around him, tying it off. “Like I said, you don’t have to. Don’t worry about it.” He gathered his dou and leggings in his arms.

Inuyasha scrambled for words. “No, Kouga, it’s…” But he was gone.

Kouga returned to his chambers, sat the rest of his clothing by the entryway, and flopped back onto his bed of pillows. Why was he so upset about this? Why was he so preoccupied with bringing Inuyasha fully into the pack? He was letting his feelings get the better of him. He had no idea why – he’d never been this way with anyone else before, but then again there’d never been a visitor trying to enter the pack before. Maybe that was it, the excitement of growing the pack. But he’d sired pups for other packs before, and even if he wasn’t there to raise them it was still nice to know that he’d done them some good. No, even that didn’t quite match the anticipation he felt. This kind of thrill had to come from his feelings for Inuyasha alone. He must just be growing really attached to him. No… he knew he was. More than Kagome, more than Ayame, more than mere usefulness – this was what he’d been waiting for.

The thought of the hanyou disrobing and dipping into the bath played over and over in his mind, and his body reacted. No matter what he did, he couldn’t get it to stop. Even if he tried, they were replaced by thoughts of him tripping in the snow, the flares of his attitude, his smile, his laugh, his brow furrowed in thought. They made his heart swell in kind, and then he noticed something else.

He bit his lip. Winter was ending. The signs had been all around. Kouga should have seen it coming, but he was too distracted with everything else going on and now it was too late. He sniffed at the air, and it confirmed his suspicion. No wonder he was so off.

It was still just a hint, but there was no mistaking it - the scent of females was in the air.

It was mating season.
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