#she starts off “normal” but girl is not afraid to be tasting blood and thicker stuff--

[fstbmp-a]

She would rip your throat out with her teeth thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[dawnrider]

Since most of the votes were for the Modern AU, I bring to you, the spicy part so far of a college AU I’ve been writing off and on for a long time. I promise there’s more plot and emotional development before this... but I’m guessing y’all don’t care about that right now. XD Had to split it into 2 parts since it was long.

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Spitfire:

I'm not sure what woke me, exactly, but I was suddenly wide awake.  Judging by the darkness, it was the middle of the night.  My hands shifted restlessly under my pillow for a moment before I realized that I could feel someone watching me.  Not the best feeling to wake up to in the middle of the night in your apartment alone...  A soft noise, maybe a rustle of clothing, drew my attention and I nearly screamed.  Standing near the window, the moon not quite reaching him, was Yash.

I had never seen him look so intimidating before.  While nothing about him was outwardly antagonistic or aggressive, he loomed over me in a way he'd never done.  “Yash?” I whispered.  “What are you doing here?”  I pulled the blanket in my hands closer, somehow feeling like it was protecting me from him.  Despite the fact that he was hanging back in the shadows, I could easily see that it was him.  No one else filled a room the way he did. No one made me fight a constant quiver in my knees the way he did.  I wasn't even standing and I could feel my patellas twitching.  He still hadn't responded to my question and it was making me even more nervous than I was already.  How the hell had he gotten into my apartment?  "Yash?" I tried again.

"I... had to see you," he murmured.  There was a growling tone to his voice I was unfamiliar with.  Was he sick?  He stepped into the light from the window and I felt my head tilt in confusion of its own volition.  He looked different somehow.  The phrase “animal attraction” quickly came to mind and I found myself lowering the blanket and slipping from the bed.  The wood floor was chilly under my toes, sending a shiver up through the soles of my feet.  But as he drew closer, I realized the chill wasn't causing the shiver at all.

His eyes, usually a pale brown, absolutely glowed golden in the moonlight.  His hair, which I had always considered blond was clearly a platinum silver.  Most startling was the way his eye teeth seemed longer than was normal... or even slightly abnormal for a human being.  I mean, mine were a little lengthy. I had repeatedly discovered this the hard way when I used to bite the inside of my lip in the same place consistently.  Yash's were nearly deadly looking.  He seemed to be breathing through his mouth deliberately and I couldn't tell why until he took a deep breath through his nose and winced.  "Geez, do I smell bad?" I half-joked in a weak whisper.  He barely reacted at first, closing his eyes.  I didn't have time to react myself when he suddenly grabbed my arms, pulling me against his chest.  "Are you alright?" I questioned him, when I really felt the question should have been going the other direction.

"I have never smelled something so delicious in my entire life."  I froze at his words.  Was he serious?  Was he seriously playing some kind of prank on me?  The whole sneaking into my apartment in the dead of night thing, the looming in the darkness and barely speaking, looking at me like he wanted to devour me...  Was this supposed to be some sort of Halloween, vampire, scare the crap out of Kagome thing?  If it was, it wasn't funny anymore.

"That's sweet, I suppose.  You still haven't told me what you're doing here... in my room... in the middle of the night.

"Don't you feel it?"  I gave him a blank look.  "I'm drawn to you, Kagome.  I know you're drawn to me."  I couldn't deny that and he seemed to know what I wasn't saying.  "You're it," he growled.  I flinched and I heard what sounded like a whimper in response.  "Don't be afraid of me, Kagome.  I would never hurt you."

"I-I know that," I whispered uncertainly.  I did know it, but I wasn't sure why he felt like he needed to tell me that.  The reason came in the form of a rough kiss I most definitely hadn't expected.  Despite the way I had felt about him for several years, never in a million years did I think he would ever return my feelings.  But again, maybe he didn't and this was some strange prank.  The way he was kissing me certainly didn't imply that he was joking.  His lips were firm and insistent, urging me into kissing him back with equal enthusiasm.  When his kiss changed from a firm but relatively chaste one to fierce and open-mouthed, I followed right along without a thought.  His tongue traced mine carefully at first, then with more confidence when I didn't pull away.

I found myself reciprocating until I brushed one of those deadly looking incisors with my tongue and felt a sting of pain.  So not just "deadly looking," actually dangerous.  Yash flinched himself, clearly stunned by the taste of my blood in his mouth.  It took him several moments to pull away, his tongue tracing his own teeth and then his lips.  He seemed more focused than before, his eyes really taking me in.  “Kagome?  Shit, I'm sorry,” he growled, stepping back and switching on the floor lamp I had next to the armchair in the corner.  The light made him look normal again, the same Yash I had known for years.  I stood frozen, watching him, as he went to my bed, pulling the blanket I had been gripping earlier up and around my shoulders.  “I shouldn't be here,” he told me.  I started to protest but stopped when he spoke again.  “But I can't leave now.  I... I need to explain.”

“I should think so.  How the hell did you get into my apartment?” I asked again.  He looked sheepish before pointing to the window.  I raised an eyebrow.  “I live on the third floor Yash,” I said in a tone that attempted to remind him I was expecting a truthful explanation.

“It's a brick building.  These help,” he muttered, slowly presenting me with fingers clad in blunt but very tough looking nails.  Looking from his hands to his face, I frowned, taking one hand in my own to study it.  The tips were not sharp, but certainly could do damage if applied properly.  I'd always admired how strong his hands looked.  Hands that could fix things, solve problems, protect things.  The nails were real.  It took me several moments to realize that they in fact grew like any normal fingernail, just thicker and tougher.  I looked into his face again and saw the nervousness in his eyes.  Why was he afraid of me?  He was the one with the claws.  As I stared, the way I had seen him in the moonlight seemed to become clearer, the way I usually saw him fading as I distinguished the features I normally didn't notice.  The fangs were back and his eyes looked more like molten gold than light brown.  Why had it never occurred to me that his eye color wasn't really normal?  His hair, almost platinum blonde in my previous opinion, was clearly silver.  The last thing I noticed was the pair of animal ears twitching in agitation on top of his head.  I felt the stretch of shock on my face.

Yash's fingers gently curled around my wrist as my hands went numb and almost dropped from where they had been holding his.  “Yash...” I whispered, completely baffled.

“Don't be afraid, Kagome.  I won't hurt you,” he repeated.  He seemed so sure that I was going to be afraid of him, that I was going to start screaming at any moment.  Alright, maybe letting out a little scream had entered my mind for a moment, but it wasn't there now.  I felt the shock slowly wear off to be replaced with faint wonder.  “You needed to know the truth,” he murmured, stepping closer.  His steps were light and as non-threatening as he could manage.

“Shippo too?” I whispered.  A tiny smile quirked the corner of his mouth.

“Not exactly.  He's... He's a full-blood.  A fox.”  I frowned for a moment before tilting my head in confusion.  “Youkai.  The English word Demon doesn't quite fit, but it's the best translation.”  Nodding slowly, I started to sit, squeaking when Yash caught my elbows.  He steered me back a few more feet so I actually landed on the bed.  He knelt in front of me, staring up into my face plaintively.  “My mother was human, my father an inuyoukai.  A dog demon.  My given name is Inuyasha.”

I fought the quirk of a smile.  Not completely unfamiliar with my parents' native language, I guessed the translation of his name.  “Dog forest spirit?  A bit literal.”  A tiny hopeful smile twitched his lips.  “Then how is...”

“I saved Shippo from a couple of weather youkai a long time ago.  He was too young to protect himself and they had just killed his father.  Runt's been following me around ever since.”  The fact that he had taken my best friend under his protection made me smile, my heart warming even more to him.  My head was spinning a little but his warm hands on my arm and knee kept me grounded somehow.

“Why... why share this with me?” I wondered aloud.

His eyes dropped a moment before looking back at me with the quiet determination of a man with a goal in mind.  “I know you think I've never paid you much attention, that I didn't notice you.”  I froze, my eyes widening in embarrassment.  “I've always been very aware of you.  I noticed you even before you became friends with Shippo.”  Trying not to panic, I held my breath.  “Kagome, you don't have to be afraid.  Your interest has always been welcome,” he whispered, leaning closer and toying with the blanket that draped across my arm.  Was he reading my mind?  “I wanted Shippo to become friends with you to make sure you were safe and...  You seemed so alone then.”  His voice had remained a soft comforting murmur, almost hypnotic in its tone.  “Then you were all he could talk about, the best friend he could ask for.”

He was referring to when I'd first arrived at school.  I hadn't known anyone, my family lived nearly five hundred miles away and my roommate at the time was an antisocial, angry girl who eventually tried to kill an ex-boyfriend at home over a school vacation.  Needless to say I hadn't been upset she didn't come back to school after Fall Break.  Shippo had bumped into me shortly before Thanksgiving, a surprising and welcome friendly face.  He was a little younger than me, but he'd been accelerated through school since he was so brilliant.

“The letters and emails from you when you were in Brazil...  They weren't for Ship, were they?” I asked suddenly, putting things together.  There was no reason Shippo would have needed to hear from his older brother so often and certainly not for him to have read every single one to me unless they were for me to hear what was going on.  He gave a small sheepish smirk, but nodded to affirm my assumption.  “Why didn't you... approach me?”

His eyes glowed faintly in the bright light of the nearly full moon and I saw some strange emotion in them.  “I'm not a risk-taker.”  I knew he didn't mean that he wasn't a thrill seeker.  The man had bungee jumped, sky dived, base jumped, cave dived and swam with sharks.  He wasn't afraid of anything.  Except me apparently.  “Shippo never told you about my ex, did he?” he said quietly.  No he hadn't and I was a little afraid to hear it now.  I shook my head and bit my lip.  I had assumed he'd dated a lot.  He was intelligent and extremely good looking and I'd seen at least a few girls throw themselves in his path in hopes of getting his attention.  “It was a long time ago.  Long story short, we met at a time when things were really rough between humans and youkai.  There were a lot more youkai then than there are now, at least out in the open.”  Stretching up to his full height, I felt my awe of him return for a brief moment.  He was tall, broad and almost otherworldly in his appearance.  I found that my feelings for him hadn't changed at all.

He looked to me for permission before sitting next to me on the bed.  I curled my legs under me, tucking the blanket more tightly around my shoulders.  “Go on.”

~~~~~~

“Holy types, priestesses and monks, tended to destroy first, ask questions later.  Which, considering the way youkai were then, was a completely fair way to handle themselves.”  Her eyes widened slightly at my easy acceptance of such brutality.  “More than once I almost got my ass fried until I learned the hard way that getting purified didn't mean I was dust like a normal youkai.”

“You become human...”  I nodded, a grim smile on my mouth, pleased that Kagome was so quick to understand.  “But your...”

“Youki.  My youkai blood...” I supplied.

“Youki then.  It comes back obviously.”  Again I nodded.  “Well that's lucky.”

My face must have displayed open shock at her easy words.  “Lucky?”  I choked out, staring for a few moments.  “I... I guess I never thought of it that way.”

Kagome let out a small laugh.  “Why not?  A full-blooded youkai would be purified and die whereas you can survive a purification attack.  That's pretty neat.”

“Neat?”  My head tilted in surprise at the word.  That definitely wouldn't have been the description I would have chosen.  What I would like to choose in that moment was to kiss Kagome again.  The soft, playful smile on her lips made me hunger to capture them with my own all over again.  Of course, I knew I wanted a lot more than just a kiss.  I wanted a lot more than just a moment too.  “Kagome,” I purred, tugging her against me and pressing my lips to hers.  She accepted my kiss without complaint, her soft mouth moving against mine in a way that left no room for doubt that she wanted me too.  It was almost more than my beast could handle, forcing me to pull away to calm myself.  I had been explaining something to her, something important.  Damn if I could remember what it was.

“You were telling me about mikos and youkai,” she reminded me gently, her voice reflecting her slightly aroused state.  It was a continuous struggle, but I managed not to go in for another kiss.

“Right.  The first time I was purified, it was a miko named Kikyo.”

“Wait, Kikyo of Shikon no Tama fame?”  I jumped.  Kagome knew of her?  Obviously the stories were written in history books but I had never anticipated that Kagome would remember those stories.  I nodded.  “Wow.  I mean... wow!  You're the half demon they talk about.  My family comes from the Sunset Shrine in Tokyo, the same Shinto shrine that was built to replace the one from the warring states period.”  She chuckled softly.  “Small world.”

Having read the stories enough times myself to know them by heart, I knew what they said about me.  What I was curious to know was what Kagome's interpretation was.  “Pretty conniving and diabolical.”

Kagome scoffed.  “I don't know which stories you've been reading, but the way my grandfather has always told it, Kikyo lost her life and the love of her life the day the jewel disappeared.”  I couldn't miss the moment her face changed as she realized more completely that the person she was talking about was right in front of her.  “I'm sorry, I...”  I shook my head.

“It was, obviously, a very long time ago.”

“More than five hundred years a long time ago.”  Her mouth twisted in a motion that told me she wanted to ask something.  “The hanyou in the story... he was pinned to a tree in the forest forever.  Obviously you disappeared and they just had to end the story.”

If only that were the truth.  “No, I was pinned for almost five hundred years.”  Kagome's mouth dropped open.  I smiled a little.  “I didn't know what woke me until a few years ago.  I was in the woods somewhere, woods surrounded by buildings that were so obviously not of my time.”

Kagome's face became sympathetic.  “That must have been very disconcerting.”

“More than a little.  I stayed in those woods as long as I could stand and then started prowling the city at night, listening to what I could, watching humans live their lives.  Eventually I knew I would have to find a way to blend in.”  I shook my head.  “An old man found me in the woods that very night.  He was obviously as surprised to find me there as I was to see him.  But not for the reason I expected.  He said he had never expected me to wake up and that his family had been guarding the land around where I was imprisoned for hundreds of years.”  I looked Kagome over.  “He told me that he knew of a miko who could help me hide my features, and brought me to her to learn the illusion you normally see.”

“He... he was never frightened of you?”

I laughed.  “No, which confused me more than anything.  I asked him why he wasn't.”  I took a deep breath.  “He told me that he knew that my life had been stolen from me by a trick and he smiled at me strangely.  'I believe your new life was born only two months ago.  Wait for her, she will find you.'  It was the oddest thing anyone had ever said to me, and I didn't understand what he meant until a few years ago.”  Nothing I could do or say would make the next part of my story less weird or creepy sounding, so I plunged on.  “He helped me get acclimated in the city before leaving me on my own in the forest.  He never told me his name, or how he knew what had happened, but I had a feeling I would see him again eventually.”

“When did you find Shippo?”

“A couple years later.  I guess it would have been... 1987?  I ventured into the woods a lot to clear my head.  I would go further out from the city to find quiet and one day I found the Thunder Brothers, as they liked to call themselves, about to kill a fox youkai kit.  He was only... three or four.”

Kagome gaped at me.  “Shippo is only a few years older than me?  When you were talking about finding him, I thought for sure he was...  Wow.  So them accelerating him through school isn't completely off.”

“He's just puny, so it's easier to explain him as younger than he really is.”  Kagome pushed my arm playfully.  “He'll hit his next growth spurt soon and then there'll be no living with him.”

Kagome mused over what I had told her so far.  “So you learned all about the modern world in a few years, put yourself through school and what?  How did you end up here?”

That's where it got creepy.   “The man who helped me told me that the city was taking my forest and making it a public park, so I couldn't live there anymore.  His family was moving, he said, across the ocean.  His son had died and his daughter-in-law had gotten a job offer in California to teach Japanese to high school kids.”

“Huh, my mom teaches Japanese at the University of...”  Kagome's face widened again in shock as she slowly turned to face me more fully.  “My grandfather helped you.  He knew that you were there the whole time.”  I could only nod.  “What year did you wake up, Inuyasha?” she whispered.  “What month?”

“September of 1985.”  

Kagome simply blinked at me for a long moment.  “That's... that's when I was born.”

“I know.”

TBC

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