In Need of Kagome

[Aiko]

This had better be the right place…

Koga had had enough of consulting humans, having to get advice from the filthy little, sniveling… Okay, relax. He was just here to see Kagome, and this was what his latest lead had told him. If he was to believe the word of a human, this was where the “strange-clad girl” could be found. Of course, that’s what they’d been saying for the past places he’d gone searching for her, and he was running out of time, precious time that couldn’t be wasted. Merodi needed help now.

Speaking of which, how was that faint-hearted deer demon companion of his? He still carried her on his back [if Sesshomaru is okay with that], and those wounds that the damn oni had given her were pretty nasty. He couldn’t run too fast, for fear of her flying off backwards and hurting herself even more. It would be just their luck for something stupid like that to happen. They’d been having rather rotten fortune practically since the wolf demon had met the crazy little youkai. The gods must have collaborated against them or something…

Feeling suddenly afraid for her, Koga muttered, “Just a little longer, alright? We’re gonna get you some help soon.” We’d better… he thought, a wolf’s aggression mingling with his anxiety.

Cautious, he stepped slowly into the all-too-human village, just on the outskirts of some of the houses, and cast a furtive blue gaze around. He was a demon, and these were humans. They were like oil and water; generally, they just don’t mix. Of course, he had to admit that there were some humans around that weren’t so bad, like Kagome and her gang (Koga refused to think of it as Inuyasha’s gang). But, for the most part, a human sees a demon and either runs away screaming bloody murder or tries, usually in vain, to kill it. You have to understand the wolf demon’s watchfulness in entering a completely human village.

Kagome, Kagome, where the hell are you? he thought, looking around. Then he shook his head fiercely. Koga, you’re a wolf demon! Stop acting like this timid little deer you’ve got slung on your back! Act like a WOLF! For your own sake, as well as Merodi’s. Boldly now, the wolf demon walked into the village, slightly hunched over to hold his wounded companion, but head held as high and proud as he could manage.

“KAGOME!” he roared, too impatient to wander around looking for the miko.

[kym]

Kagome walked out from Kaede's hut. She was just visiting for a few before going after InuYasha and the gang once again. She held her hand above her eyes to keep the sun from getting into them, and took a hold of her bike's handle. She drove it out far enough away from the hut to ride and grabbed her backpack from the ground beside her. She slung the yellow pack onto her back and swung her leg over the bike and sat down. She kicked up the kick stand and waved goodbye to Kaede.

She placed on foot on a pedal and took off. Not a minute later, she heard a familiar voice calling her name. 'Was that...' "Koga?" she shook her head. "No, it couldn't be,. Could it?" she wondered. She slowed down on her bike until she was at a stop and turned around to the source of the voice and began to pedal towards it.

Her long black hair blew behind her as she rode past the towns people. On her way, however, she'd knocked down part of someone's fruit stand and had to help pick it up. She apologized to them and continued towards the direction she had heard Koga's voice from.

In the distance, she seen a figure, it was hunched over and had something on it's back. She couldn't quite make out who it was, but after she got a bit closer she made out that it was indeed Koga, but who was that on his back? A deer demon? That was weird, a deer and a wolf? Weren't they suppose to be enemies or something? After Kagome was close enough she parked her bike and lied it onto the ground.

"Hey, Koga. What brings you here? And who's this you're with?" she asked. Kagome examined the deer a tad closer and realized it was injured. "Oh, wow! What happened to them?" she asked instantly. She looked up at Koga in worry for the deer. Wait, was this why he wanted her? To use her futuristic 'first aid' on it? She figured so, but she still waited for him to answer her first.

[Lord Sesshomaru]

The rest of the travel was spent with Merodi sleeping. Though she woke up every once in a while to a new voice, as Koga tried to find directions to where a certain miko was. She remembered him saying something about a miko before, when she had first cut her arm. Kagome...was it? Is that where Koga was taking her? Probably. It was only common sense to come to such a conclusion when he was asking where she might be from different people. Of course, every time she had awoken she had continued to act asleep. Taking in Koga's scent before drifting back to sleep once they were off again.

Merodi was shocked on how much trouble he was going through for her wounds. He did have a bad wound on his arm that should be tended to. Compared to her back, it was nothing, but in her mind anything that happened to her was nothing but a bother to Koga and his precious time in finding Naraku, the evil demon Koga had wanted her to help him find. The thing that had brought them together in the first place.

For the fourth time she had awoken, but to none other then Koga's voice, he was yelling the miko's name and she tried her best not to wince as his voice made her ears sting. Her ears were now pounding with the vibrations of his voice. She had almost drifted back to sleep when another's voice came to her.

It was a woman's voice, someone that knew Koga by the way she spoke to him. She was done acting asleep. But of course, even when she did it didn't matter if she kept her eyes open or not because Koga could not see her from behind him. And so, this time she kept her eyes a little open to see the village she was in. As much of the area she could see in her position. Merodi felt herself becoming nervous, and maybe a little frightened as the miko came around to look at her.

Merodi didn't like being examined as she just been. And she wished for the comfort she had not recieved while laying in her own blood scared as hell when she couldn't see. Now she took her chance, her arms wrapping around Koga from behind, her excuse was to make sure she didn't fall off. That was the best she knew she was going to get. This hug, that Koga would only refer to as Merodi trying to keep herself from falling.

Well, he knew now that she was awake. The shika yokai glanced toward the miko, a shy and scared look coming across her face before she hid that same face against Koga's back. Her fear was of everything that she didn't know. More of this was just being wary. But she tried to keep in mind, that this human knew Koga. That Koga had sought this girl out. This must be the miko Kagome.

[Aiko]

We wanted to ask you on a picnic. Koga thought the reason for their coming to get the miko’s help was pretty obvious; what other reason could she possibly imagine for dragging a wounded deer demon practically through all four lands, and then for heaving her up to this village filled with humans that could just have well have been attacking him now, and screaming Kagome’s name in a voice that was probably loud enough to wake his unconscious companion? Did she imagine he was just strolling by and decided to drop in?

It was just his worry and impatience that made him so peevish; he tired to force himself to relax. Kagome was here now, they could get some of her illustrious healing supplies, and all would be well with the world.

And it seemed that all of the racket, either Koga’s shouting or the greeting of the one he had been shouting for or a combination of both, had indeed awakened Merodi, and the wolf demon felt her arms tighten around him. Whether out of nervousness around Kagome or just repositioning herself, he didn’t really care. He was just glad she wasn’t going nuts because some crazy wolf demon had carried her off. At least her little traumatic experience hadn’t completely destroyed her sense.

Then again, she was holding onto him. Maybe she really was sick…

“She needs your help. Will you give her some of your healing supplies?” he asked, his voice sounding haggard after all of his yelling and growling, and with his growing exhaustion and exasperation. His tone was bereft of the usual playful affection that he usual used when addressing Kagome. Koga was too tired for all of his usual playful banter, and too worried about Merodi. That, and, for some reason, his heart just wouldn’t have been into it, though that could have been his exhaustion too.

Tired and beginning to feel desperate, what with the knowledge that the deer demon probably wouldn’t be able to stay awake for very long or even if she was completely conscious (she may have just been holding on by sheer instinct), Koga’s eyes began to lose their aggression, which was the usual expression he wore. Instead, he just looked weary. Turning those tired blue eyes to Kagome, he murmured, voice losing its more angry overtones, he murmured, “Please help her. She really needs it.”

She wasn’t the only one who needed help, but Koga’s urgency for her outweighed his concern for his own arm wound. With all of his running around, the long gashes hadn’t had a chance to do any healing of their own, and numbness was beginning to spread up and down his arm. He could just sense that he was holding onto Merodi’s leg, but other than that, it was just stiff.

But Koga didn’t care. His arm could fall off for all it mattered to him at the moment. Right now, Merodi was his only concern, so, as though sharpened by some instinct, he turned the injured portion of his arm away from Kagome, hiding it so that she wouldn’t waste any of her precious supplies on him.

[kym]

Kagome listened to Koga as he spoke and nodded. 'Koga must care for her a lot if he came all this way to just to help her..' she thought to herself. She took off her backpack and set it on the ground next to her.

"Alright, I'll see if I can help." she said. She reached into her bag and pulled out a few things necessary for cleaning and bandaging wounds. She grabbed some cotton balls and dipped it in a bottle.

"Set her down here, Koga, so I can clean up her wound." she said, pointing to a spot of grass next to Kagome. She hadn't seen Koga's arm wound yet,, but she had a feeling he'd have one too. She looked up at him and asked,

"Are you injured, Koga?" She wanted to be sure he was okay before she relaxed more.

[Lord Sesshomaru]

Merodi closed her eyes for a moment, pretending that Kagome wasn't there. She had nothing against the girl, but she was still a bit nervous of her. She didn't know the miko, so she couldn't trust her. But she trusted Koga, and if he came to her for help, and placed his trust in the miko, then she would have to as well. After all, he was putting her well-being in the miko's hands to do as she wished. Such a scared thought. Even if the miko Kagome seemed to be nice and caring, there was no say in what she truly could do. In fact, maybe she hated deer and would act like she was healing Merodi and in fact was making the wounds worse.

Of course, she felt guilty for even thinking such a thought. Koga knew this girl on a personal lever, so he must know that she wouldn't do anything of the sort. Merodi needed to put more faith in Koga. She trusted him, so she would trust Kagome. But even so, it did not stop her from being nervous, and a little frightened.

Merodi held onto Koga, listening to him speak to the miko. She was surprised. Koga-sama never seemed like the type to say please. For some reason she felt that this was something he didn't normally do. That he wouldn't have gone through this trouble for anyone else and such a thought made her all warm inside.

Merodi watched Kagome from over Koga's shoulder, watching her as she spoke and took out her medicine. She was curious to the items she had, something she had never seen before. Those small fluff balls that looked that rabbit tails. Such odd things....that made Merodi even more nervous. With the miko's command of setting her down, the shika yokai tightened her grip on Koga for a moment, not wanting him to let her down. Not wanting him to place her so close to the miko. So close to someone she didn't know.

Finally, she came to realize that she was nothing but extra weight on Koga's back. Such a burden was she, having him carry her around, and plead to the miko to heal her. She slowly loosened her grip so that he would be able to place her down, instead of her being a permanint leech on his back.

[Aiko]

A small sigh escaped Koga, a relieved sound. He should have known… Kagome would be too nice to say she wouldn’t help the injured deer demon. The wolf demon took a step towards the miko, but stopped his approach as he felt Merodi’s grip tightened. Was she afraid? …again? That would be just too typical. But then the human priestess was asking him if he had any wounds, and he found himself torn between the wills of the two. Females… he thought, his inner voice was exasperated. They were always in need of something or other…

Trying to hide his wound as he started to pry Merodi off his back, he began to say “N-” but suddenly the deer demon’s death grip on him relaxed and he found himself using more force than necessary to remove her. As he felt himself losing his grip on her, his word became an “Argh! Koga leaned forward slightly, trying to reposition the deer demon one-handed, as his wounded arm was feeling rather numb at the moment from his efforts to lift the demon away. Nargh. What an intelligent way of answering the human’s question.

Fixing his grip, and forcing himself to use his injured arm if just for the purpose of not arousing Kagome’s suspicion, Koga gently backed over to where the miko was waiting, crouched, and tried to let Merodi slip from his back onto the ground as gently as he could. As he did so, he unintentionally used his wounded arm yet again and, flinching, practically dropped the deer demon. Well. Merodi might as well have been a boulder for all the care and gentleness he showed her. “Sorry,” he muttered, a word for the deer demon’s ears only. Enough of showing his soft spot, no matter how slight, for this demon to Kagome.

Rising, Koga once again brushed his arm against his side. “Nngh!” he grunted, wincing. The day just kept getting better and better, didn’t it? Wow. He was about as graceful as a limping elephant. Instinctively, he grabbed his arm with his other hand, feeling the pain lancing up his arm again, overruling the numbness that had previously gripped it.

His skin felt warm and wet beneath his palm, and the wolf demon could smell the reek of his own blood. “Damn it,” he muttered, tightening his grip on his worsening injury. He cast a furtive glance back at the girls, hoping that his antics had gone unnoticed. Just in case… Koga made his best attempt at giving a quick, reassuring grin, but it came off as a really fake, cheesy smile.

Now that Merodi was being taken care of, he was noticing his injuries more and more… And, holy crap, they hurt!

[kym]

Kagome looked at Koga with a concerned look, she figured he did, but was hiding it. She looked back to the girl, "This'll probably hurt a bit, okay?"She took the cotton balls and gently touched the deer demon's back, cleaning the wounds. She went to grab another cotton swab, but questioned the deer first, "What happed?" she couldn't help but to asked. It was only general curiosity, after all.


((sorry, my muse with Kagome is seriously slipping away D:))

[Lord Sesshomaru]

Merodi felt his grip on her loosen, and she held onto him as tight as she could so she wouldn't fall, helping him with repositioning herself so that wouldn't happen. All because she hadn't been willing to let go of him. She gulped nervously as he crouched down for her to get off. She was slowly releasing her hold when he just suddenly dropped her. She landed on her rump with a loud thud. That could have broke her tail bone!! She looked up at him, confused on why he had dropped her like that. The shika gave him a small smile with his apology, to show that she accepted it.

Of course, he had gone through all this trouble, that small thing of dropping her seemed like nothing compared to the positive things he had done for her. As he stood, she frowned, her nervousness coming back to her after the slight distraction of landing on her butt. The warmth and comfort of Koga was gone, and now she was at the mercy of the miko. Merodi didn't dare bring her eyes to look at the young woman. Instead she kept her nervous and scared gaze at her hands that her resting in her lap.

Merodi brought her gaze from off the ground, and looked up at Koga. He was in pain. She knew it. She just knew it. After all, he was wounded, and that arm hadn't looked too good. And yet all his concern had been on her. She bit her lip, keeping back the words she wished to say. She wanted to have the miko heal him first. Not her. But something told her that Koga would argue against it. And if he was going to hide his wound from the miko then there was nothing she could do.

Merodi barely heard Kagome's words before a quick jab of pain ran down her spine. She stiffened, biting her lip even harder to keep a whimper from escaping. It didn't hurt that bad, but it was something she wasn't expecting and it made things worse. What was she doing? Kagome was doing things to her back, and she could see it! She was starting to get scared again. What more would this human miko do when torturing the poor shika?

Merodi was distracted for a moment, the scent of blood entering her nostrils. She glanced up at Koga, staring up at him with concern and worry, and even guilt. His smile did nothing to reassure her. Finally, she looked toward Kagome with her question. What happened? What should Merodi say? Did she even really want to know, or was it just to make Merodi feel better. Should she go into detail, or make a small summary?

Should she even answer?

Merodi was uncertain, and looked up at Koga, as if the answer would just suddenly show itself on the top of his head. And, surprisingly, she had found a slight answer. Maybe it was because she still had no courage to speaking to strangers. She didn't know this person. But Koga did. The shika was a little bit more courageous with Koga there. It was as if by his presence that he was backing her up, but just being there she could say things much more comfortably.

Of course, she still didn't like talking to the woman who was giving her pain. "I was attacked by a demon." simple enough. Her voice was low, and quiet, and her shyness could be heard in her voice. She hoped that the miko could hurry, so that they could tend to Koga's wounds.

[Aiko]

Apparently, neither of the girls had realized that Koga was in pain. Turning his head away, the wolf demon grinned, though the look was pained, by way of congratulating himself. Clever him, not letting onto his wounds like that! Of course, Merodi knew about the wounds, but she probably thought he was healed by now. And Kagome was completely oblivious. Therefore, the wolf demon was a sheer genius! In his mind, he was still persuading himself that, despite the pain, he didn’t need healing.

But, holy crap, they hurt right now!

So busy was he with congratulating himself with his brilliance that he didn’t notice the pause between Kagome’s question and the wounded deer demon’s answer. He did, however, end up hearing the shika yokai’s reply in the end.

“It wasn’t me,” Koga added, glancing over his shoulder at Merodi and Kagome. Sure, he was hotheaded, but when it came to the deer demon, he was just full of empty threats, on those occasions when he actually did threaten her. There was no way he would have slashed open her back like that, but with her just saying “a demon,” who knew what the miko would assume? With women, it was hard to guess what they might think or say to anything. And, even though the wolf demon wasn’t feeling particularly affectionate towards the human, he still didn’t want her to think he was a sadistic freak.

But as he glanced around at the pair of females, he realized that Merodi was looking nervous again, though not nearly as bad as the time he had jumped out at her, the time they first met. At least she wasn’t fainting, but she certainly did look… uncomfortable… at being around this new person. What is she so terrified of? Koga thought, exasperated. Kagome wouldn’t hurt ya, she’s healing you! Stop acting stupid! The wolf demon realized that he was looking annoyed again, and that he was probably going to scare the deer demon again. He blinked, and did his best to look apologetic.

At least with his antics, he was forgetting about the pain in his arm. Though it wouldn’t take much to remind him…

[OOC: Blah… My post is suckish...]

[kym]

Kagome continued to clean the deer's wounds with the cotton balls until she had gotten up most of the blood. She listened to her response, "I see." she said as she reached into her bag again. This time, however, she retrieved a long, rolled up bandage.

Her eyes looked up at Koga as he mumbled that it wasn't him, she sighed. She looked back at the deer and gave a slight, hopefully reassuring, smile. "I'm going to need you off the ground to put the bandage on, alright?" she said softly as to not frighten her.

The last thing Kagome wanted to do was to scare her, after all, she was already scared enough, she could tell. Not to mention any sudden jerks, like a flinch or anything, would certainly hurt her and possibly start the bleeding again.

[Lord Sesshomaru]

Little by little Merodi was becoming a little more comfortable around Kagome. Though it was only so deep. She kept her gaze on Koga, or more, on his feet. She was starting to feel a little sick. The stinging on her back, and the scent of his blood made her stomach nausious. For a moment, she was distracted when Koga's muttering entered her ears. She couldn't help but smile at his statement, finding it silly that he would even need to say such a thing. Of course it wasn't him. But to think he would suddenly seem to get defensive of it. Such an answer seemed to be for the miko's sake. She didn't understand why he needed to say something like that for Kagome.

If Kagome knew him so well, wouldn't she have known that it hadn't been him. People just don't wound another and carry them on their back searching for a certain miko. Kagome's voice intruded on her thoughts and she turned her head to look at the miko, and the odd bandages she held. Hesitantly, she did as she was told, getting off the ground so that the miko could bandage her wounds.

As this was being done, she glanced back up at Koga. "Koga needs healing too." she finally got the courage enough to say it. She turned her head so she could look at the miko from the corner of her eyes since that was who she was speaking to, before she glanced up at Koga, a frowned crossing her features as the sudden thought that maybe he didn't want to be healed entered her thoughts.

So what if he didn't want to be healed! He needed it. She felt guilty about everything that had happened. He was wounded because of her, he was stuck with that wound longer then he should because of her. Her thoughts showed on her face, as the sadness and guilt showed in her frown and her brown doe-like eyes as she stared up at Koga. Merodi would have said sorry again. She would have apologized twenty more times but now wasn't the time.

[Aiko]

Trying his best to make his face say something other than “I’m irritated,” Koga continued to watch the two females as his deer demon companion was healed. For once, he wasn’t so concerned with what Kagome was up to as whether or not she was helping Merodi more than harming her. He would know that the strange stuff the miko had in that bottle of hers stung like crazy for a while, and he suspected that the timid, innocent shika would be pretty sensitive to the prickle of those mystic juices. His eyes kept roving from his companion’s back to her face, to be sure she wasn’t hurting too terribly.

He didn’t think it was right, or chivalrous, to watch a woman in pain and not do anything about it.

Thankfully, it seemed as though she was coping well, and she was rising to the occasion, literally. There she was, getting up as Kagome had asked her. Apparently, she would be able to deal with the little pains that were just for a greater good. Satisfied with this at least, Koga turned around, scanning the village with a wary look in his fierce eyes. This place, packed with humans as it was, could be pretty unnerving to a demon like him, one who really hadn’t spent a long time around humans. He was just waiting for someone to jump out of one of the houses, brandishing a katana and screaming bloody murder.

But then Merodi spoke those dreaded words, which were the reminder that Koga far from needed to remember his wounds. Oh yeah… I do… he realized, and as if to accentuate that, the pain that throbbed in his arm, which he was finally getting used to, seemed to pulse through his limb until it spread into his body. It became one with his heartbeat, a steady throb throughout his body. Groaning, the wolf demon grabbed his arm just above the wounds, trying to suppress the pain.

He whipped around, having it in his mind to tell Merodi off for being so stupid when A) he was just beginning to forget about it, and B) she needed Kagome’s attention much more than he did, when he caught the look on the deer demon’s face. Anguish rippled across her features, and Koga could tell, naïve about feelings as he could be, that she was deeply upset about something. Realizing that he’d had his mouth open to snap, he quickly shut his trap, and stared at the deer demon, baffled. What the hell is she so upset about?

“It’s nothing,” the wolf demon said quickly, glancing at the miko quickly to address her, then turning his eyes back to look at the deer demon, his puzzlement clear as day on his face. Don’t look at me like that! he demanded in his mind. As an afterthought, as though the deer demon could actually hear his thoughts, he added, Please.

[kym]

Kagome waited for the deer demon to sit up before unraveling the bandages. Slowly, she wrapped her wounds trying hard not to hurt the girl worse. She looked over at Koga as she spoke, "Oh does he now?" she said, as she finished with her wounds. Kagome stood up as and smiled at the girl,

"All done now, how does it feel?" she asked. She wanted to be sure that it wasn't too tight or anything before she moved to Koga, who had just spoken. She looked over at Koga, trying to spot where his would was. It was difficult to find, however she managed to see a spot Koga was holding with his spare hand, which seemed to have a bit of blood trickling down his arm. She wondered how those two had met, after all, it wasn't everyday you see a deer and a wolf helping each other out. Then again this time was a lot different form hers and she could be wrong.

[Lord Sesshomaru]

Merodi didn't say anything more on his wound. Including when he stated that it was nothing. Even when she knew that was not the case at all. It wasn't a simple scratch, it was still bleeding. Or, maybe it had stopped bleeding and had opened up again. She didn't know. But she knew at that moment that it was, the scent of the wolf's blood made her nose twitch. Ugh, blood. How she hated the smell. How it brought back so many painful memories.

Merodi stared up at Koga, who had an odd look on his face. Confused, or puzzled maybe. The look on her face hadn't changed, but she did take her gaze elsewhere, the frown deepening as she bowed her head. She was sorry...she was so sorry. This was all her fault. The pain he felt from his wound, it was her fault. He shouldn't feel such pain. If she hadn't been so stupid....

Merodi distracted herself by listening to Kagome, who was speaking to the shika. How does it feel...? The look of guilt was replaced with a more thoughtful look as she tried to turn her head to look at her wound. She gave up and looked down at her chest and stomach where the bandages wrapped around her torso to get to the wounds on her back. "It stings....a little." she finally commented.

What really bothered her was that she needed a new dress. Hers now had huge gashes in the back where the demon had slashed through the fabric and through her flesh as well. Slowly she got to her feet, and turned to face Kagome. She lowered her head in a somewhat bow since she was scared to bend her back, afraid that it would reopen the wounds. "Thank you."