In Need of Kagome

[Aiko]

“Alright, can you walk?”

Koga’s words were abrupt, interrupting the exchange between the two girls. The damn wound was stinging again, but he’d dealt with much worse, and he was convincing himself that in a day or two (seeing as he didn’t go gallivanting about right then) it would be completely better, with nothing more than the memory to remind him of that pesky oni. After all, that fat cretin was dead now, kept alive only by the wounds he had inflicted and in the minds of two demons who encountered him. Remembering all the pain he’d gone through just because of that blockhead and its blundering, he tightened his grip above his arm.

Or maybe it was just because by applying the pressure he was able to make the wounds stop oozing sluggish blood and therefore further convince himself that he was getting better by the second. Either way…

Either way, Koga felt no reason to hang around. It’s not as though he had a particular reason, other than escape treatment from a certain miko. But then he wondered, Why not stick around? It’s not as though that piece of shit InuYasha is around to bother us. Why not let Merodi get to know Kagome, and maybe spend a little time with her myself? But for some reason, it just didn’t seem like he’d have his usual grand old time flirting with the human, but he didn’t really stop to wonder why. He just didn’t feel in the mood today, he supposed. Maybe it was that damn collection of wounds he had on his arm…

But now he was just being indecisive, which was completely unlike him. For once, he wondered if Merodi wanted to hang around with Kagome. He probably could ask her if there was anything else she wanted, but she was bandaged, and would be on the road to recovery in no time, and he couldn’t imagine what else she could possibly need. Unless she wanted to stand around and gossip like some girls liked to do. Then again, he couldn’t really imagine what this timid deer demon would want, wandering around with <i>humans</i>.

Then again, as he thought about it, the one that had hurt her long ago had been a human. She was doing remarkably well, allowing Kagome to heal her.

Feeling strangely proud of Merodi, as though she was one of his tribesmen and had single-handedly defeated a powerful enemy, Koga suddenly grinned. As usual, he had that kind of half-smirk, half-smile look on his face, but there was also that sense of delight coming off of him, that radiating emotion of “look at that, that is awesome, and don’t you dare say it isn’t because I’ll smash your face in if you try” in his beaming grin. It was a strange, sort of random look which really didn’t have anything to do with the situation at hand, and when either of the girls saw it they’d probably think he’d gone nuts. But in the wolf demon’s mind, his satisfaction made perfect sense, and he would relish “correcting” someone who disagreed.

Shifting thought processes yet again, going back to the first one of being ready to leave, Koga asked, “You ready?” Of course, he hardly remembered that he had basically asked the same thing already.

[kym]

Kagome smiled and nodded. "Not a problem! I hope your wounds heal up soon." she said. She looked over at Koga, who seemed rather pleased about something. Maybe he was happy that the deer was okay, though she wasn't really sure what to think about anymore, she'd always thought deer and wolves were pray and predator. Perhaps not with these two, but she couldn't bring herself to believe that he was happy she was okay, maybe it was something else, something she didn't know about.

No matter. She stopped wondering as she heard Koga ask the deer if she was ready to go, but she noticed Koga was still holding his arm, and rather tightly too. That wasn't going to help the wound at all, in fact it would probably make it worse. "Oh, no you don't, Koga. You're next." She said, walking over to him. "Just because you've pressured it to stop the bleeding doesn't mean it doesn't need treated. Now let me see it." she said, rather demanding. She wasn't going to let him get off that easily.

[Lord Sesshomaru]

Merodi smiled in gratitude at Kagome. She was nice. The young shika would never have allowed a human so close to her at any other time. But Koga's trust for the human made it okay. Now she was going to be okay. Her wounds were bandaged up, and when she healed, she would make sure to be less of a burden like she knew she was being now. Yes, with such a wound she was nothing but a burden in which she didn't want to be. Not at all to the one she admired the most, Koga-sama.

Merodi glanced up at Koga as he spoke. Walk...? Could she walk? She didn't know. Nor did she want to find out. There was one reason she wanted to not find out, and just say no. One reason....she liked being carried. Knowing that she did made her ashamed of herself that she was be so deceitful as to lie just so that she could be carried by Koga. But she knew that having him carry her around everywhere would make her more of a bother then she wished to be. Embarrassed, and ashamed as she was that she would say that she couldn't walk just to be close to him like that. What had she come to?!

Slowly Merodi took a few steps away from Koga and Kagome, her hands in the air to help balance herself as she wobbled here and there, almost as if she was on a tightrope. She sighed in disapointment, but hid it well as she turned to look back at Koga. "Hai, I can." she smiled. "Though I do not think I will be able to run." she said this only because when they traveled, he ran instead of walked like most people do. Just a day with traveling with him, and she would be completely exhausted. Well, with such wounds she wouldn't be running for a while.

Merodi didn't know why he was grinning like that. Why he seemed so happy. Maybe it was because she said she could walk. Or maybe it was because she was healed. Ah, well, it didn't matter. He was happy, and if he was happy, then if made Merodi feel all the better. With his next question she couldn't help but frown in thought. Wait...but what about his arm? He still needed to have it bandaged up didn't he? Had he forgotten?

The shika opened her mouth, as if to say something on the matter when Kagome spoke up. Wow. Kagome was demanding, wasn't she? Did Koga allow the miko to tell him what to do? She would have never thought so. After all, he was a wolf, the leader of his pack too. Although, it seemed that Kagome, a human, would care of the ways of the wolfs, or deer for that matter. Ah well, she was just happy that Koga would get some treatment instead of traveling with that horrible wound on his arm.

[Aiko]

Oh, come on! Koga had thoroughly convinced himself that his wound was nothing serious, Merodi could walk, and now they should be heading off! Not that the wolf demon could think of anywhere pressing they had to go, but he was positively, absolutely sure that everything would soon be operating at 100%, and they could go gallivanting off into the sunset and do whatever happened to strike their fancy! After all, Naraku-hunting could wait, he supposed… The deer demon really needed some more time before she was fully healed, and in the meantime maybe they could just… he didn’t know, enjoy themselves?

Koga was ready to tell Kagome just how he felt about his need for treatment, or lack thereof, in the manner he was best at (in other words, he’d struggle to argue his way out of it). “Sure it’s better!” he argued. “See?” With that, the wolf demon lifted the hand that had been gripping his arm, not to mention cutting off the circulation. His arm felt strangely… numb. Again. But it was better than being in a lot of pain, right? “So I don’t need any treatment!” the wolf demon finished, a note of finality, as though that settled the matter, in his voice.

And, as Murphy’s Law would dictate, his arm then began to ooze blood… again.

As soon as Koga felt something warm and wet on his arm, cutting through the numbness, he glanced down, stupefied. Wha--? It was supposed to be better! “Stop bleeding!” he ordered his arm in an authoritative undertone. But did the wounds listen? Of course not! And the pain was slowly starting to radiate from the half-numbed area, spiraling up the rest of his arm in a sort of web, crawling up every nerve. Sure, it wasn’t the kind of pain that would have him rolling around on the ground screaming bloody murder, but seeing as the wounds still weren’t closing up…

Much as Koga hated proving himself wrong, sometimes these kinds of things just happened. Muttering to himself, something about the unfairness of life, he held out his tattered arm to the human who intended to heal it.

“Just make this quick,” he growled, his embarrassment at the way things were turning out painfully, blatantly clear on his face, by the way he was looking extremely irritated while his face was turning red.

As if blowing off this embarrassment, he gave a dramatic sigh.

[OOC: Blegh… no muse…]

[kym]

Kagome smiled back at the deer, happy appreciated the healing she had done for her. She listened as she answered Koga, though she didn't really seem like she wanted to walk. She thought, 'Well, I wouldn't really be all that into walking with that injury on my back ether.' What gave her the idea that she didn't want to walk was the fact that she'd added she couldn't run to her previous words. Koga didn't really seem to like to walk any where, he was too impatient. She sighed mentally so no one could hear her and looked over at Koga again.

She listened as Koga spoke, but wasn't very pleased with his answer. She knew he wasn't going to give up without an argument, but it still made her mad. She glared at Koga, as he let go of his arm. It wasn't bleeding, but just because it hadn't yet, didn't mean she was just going to let him go on off just like that. No, she knew that if they wait just few seconds more the bleeding would most likely start back up again. As if to prove Kagome right, his arm began to drip with blood again. She frowned in disappointment at Koga. "You see? It's still bleeding!" she said, rather loudly.

Koga extended his wounded arm to Kagome and she smiled to herself triumphantly and reached down for her backpack. She pulled out some more cotton balls, dipped them in the same medicine she had used for the deer, and blotted his arm, just to get the majority of it off the top of the wound to decrease the likely hood of getting an infection. Once she finished, she took out some more of the bandages and wrapped it around his arm. "You see, that wasn't so bad, now was it?" she asked him, a bit more kindly.

[Lord Sesshomaru]

Merodi was truly concerned about Koga's wounds. And the whole point that it was her fault never left her. It taunted her, jabbed her where it hurt the most. All my fault... The young shika turned her head, acting as if the surroundings were so much more interesting then they really were. She wanted to hide her guilt as much as she could. It would only make her more of a bother to Koga to be stuck with such an emotion. She barely payed attention to their conversation. She didn't understand why Koga-sama was so unwilling to be healed.

When she had gotten that cut on her arm, he had been excited about going to see Kagome. But now it looked like he couldn't wait to leave. Was there something she was missing? Why did he want to leave so badly. Sure, he always seemed to be in a rush, but there was no where they were going. Merodi turned her head back to the two, watching as Koga finally gave in and the miko bandaged his arm.

Letting out a deep, tiring breath she plopped onto the ground, sitting on her lower legs and just staring at the two. She kept her back straight, still afraid to reopen the wounds. It had been tiring to continue to stand! Maybe she could walk, but something told her that she couldn't walk for long. Closing her eyes for a moment, she let out a yawn/sigh that left her exhausted afterwords. Slowly, using her arm as leverage, she lowered the rest of her body to the ground to lay on her side.

"I'm sorry Koga..." she muttered, looking up at Koga from her position on the ground. He looked like a giant from her line of vision. "I am too tired to walk more then a mile." she smiled in apology, hoping that he wouldn't be too angry at her. Here she was, slowing him down again. It made her so upset to think about it. Even now it showed on her face, and she turned her head to hide the look on her face against the ground.

[Aiko]

As Kagome began to blot the stinging liquid onto the wounds that laced his arm, Koga’s gaze roved to his deer demon companion. Not that he would have been wincing at all anyway, watching her gazing around with ostensible faint interest at the surroundings took his mind off the wounds. What’s she so interested in, anyway? he wondered, trying to figure out exactly what she was looking at. But a moment later, she turned back, apparently going to watch him get his arm wrapped up, and he quickly averted his gaze, looking instead back down as the human began to wrap his arm in the lengths of odd white cloth she used for bandages.

“Yes,” he muttered in stubborn reply to Kagome’s question, and, as he saw Merodi shifting position out of the corner of his eye, he left it at that, and turned instead to give the deer demon a curious look. Tired? How was she tired? As if he hadn’t carried her halfway across the world in search of the strangely elusive miko! Okay, so he was exaggerating, but Koga was used to the boundless energy of his wolf demon companions (he hardly realized how often they had gotten tired trying to keep up with his racing around the countryside).

But apparently, by some strange twist of fate, she was tired, and she said so herself. But in her words Koga found something else to be annoyed with. A mile? he thought, exasperated, and lifting his eyes to the heavens as if it would reveal the reason why he was traveling with her. That’s hardly out of the village! We might as well just stay here! He stared at those fluffy clouds trundling across the sky, seeming not to care about the predicament he was in. “Bah!” he muttered to himself. “Stupid clouds…”

But then, as the wolf demon glanced back down at his gentle companion, he caught a look of anguish on her face in a brief heartbeat before she hid her face against the ground.

With anyone else, Koga probably would have just thought something to the effect of “Doesn’t that hurt your nose?” However, this was Merodi. Therefore, he started to feel guilty about his exasperation. Of course she was tired! Why else would she spend the entire time on his back napping? She wasn’t exactly the Energizer Bunny (not that this was the exact thought that came to mind). She didn’t just go on and on. And now look, he’d probably gone and made her upset with his all-too-blatant exasperation.

Good job, Koga, he thought to himself, sarcastic.

“That’s alright,” he found himself saying, his voice quieter and, sadly for him, gentler than he’d intended. Casting a “discrete” glance at Kagome, he tried to add a little more of his usual commanding bark to his voice. “Alright, so we’ll go as far as you can,” he said loudly, sounding authoritative once more. “No rush, right?”