Open Your Eyes by Miki
Old Gods
Sooo. I have a beta now. She's super awesome, I'm a happy spider. Thank you Mia! :D Figured I would upload the chaps that are fixed,since holidays are over and my crazy family is finally going hooome. Lol. Onwards, people..
.x1x.
As the sun began to set and the city streets became cold and dangerous, they came out; the old gods of a former life, the rulers of all the lands now claimed by humans. The beings who were now, through no fault of their own, forced into assuming the shape of their domestic counter-parts. They either lived in the shadows as the homeless, looked down upon by the majority of the cruel society they lived in, or died. The once proud beings, such as Sesshomaru, were now reduced to almost mentally incapable creatures. They lived on discarded food and didn't trust the humans who ran even the smallest soup kitchens....
In a dark alley, a short while after midnight, Kouga was caught up in thought of his former life as a leader and the many changes that came about since that time so long ago. Over five hundred years had passed him by, and as he watched the once proud Western Lord scrounge through a foul-smelling and dirty garbage can, in a desperate search for anything resembling food, he began to wonder just where this shift in power had occurred. Was it because his kind had underestimated the humans and their growing knowledge of weaponry? Or perhaps they had just overlooked all that the weaker species had accomplished and merely passed it off as something that could never touch them.
He twirled a dirt brown dreadlock between a no longer clawed thumb and forefinger and glanced at the former Lord of the West once again. His once silver hair, stained a dirty blonde from years of street living, was dragging through mud that was the product of rainwater and dirt. He sighed in defeat when Sesshomaru made a rasping yip in victory and brought him half a piece of, what seemed to have once been, bread. He stared at it for a moment before breaking it in half again in order to share it with his two canine companions. He sighed again. Ginta and Hakkaku, oh how he wished they had just gone off on their own instead of taking this path; when the choice had come down to leaving their beloved leader and brother, or turning into mere animals and following him still, they had chosen the latter. Kouga's chest clenched painfully at the thought, and he found himself wishing quite often that there was more he could do for his now miss-matched pack, but changing times had not allowed for it.
The human’s technology had advanced so fast and so far that the youkai of the world couldn't catch up with it. To top it all off, the further the technology advanced the further into the shadows his kind were pushed, swept under the rug, and considered myth. With this less than pleasant development came a related complication; the less the humans believed in them, the weaker they grew. Kouga’s tail had vanished years ago, as had his claws. He assumed Sesshomaru’s pointed ears and poison claws went much the same way. And now...here they were, present day, sharing moldy bread, while wearing rags and various bits of trash. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.
The only hope still held by the ookami was the slim chance of the new shelter being ran by someone who understood, someone who wouldn't try to "send their poor tired souls to a better place". He couldn't count how many times he'd been poisoned or beat, along with Ginta and Hakakku, at various shelters. The only thing he was really thankful for - while he still had it - was his seemingly demonic metabolism. It was the only thing that had kept him alive to this point. From what he could gather from the few and far between conversations with Sesshomaru, the same was true for him.
Kouga bit into the moldy crust of bread the former daiyoukai had handed him and did his best impersonation of a growl. It made him sick to think that he was this low on the food chain. He really did get physically ill when he was reunited with the once proud Lord of the Western Lands, who had been travelled with his half-brother, Inu-Yasha, at the time. He mentally sighed. Inu-Yasha, you mutt faced bastard, why did you have to go and leave us? He ran his fingers through his dreadlocks as he thought of the hanyou. He had died last winter, froze to death it seemed, though Kouga honestly thought that perhaps Inu-Yasha had finally just given up and allowed the cold embrace of death to take him away. He was just like the rest of them, no home, no blankets, no food, and unfortunately, no will to keep himself alive.
Kouga grunted as his hand got tangled in his hair. He'd lost himself so thoroughly in thought he hadn't noticed his fingers get stuck. However, Sesshomaru made Kouga’s trapped fingers seem less important as his wheezing cough began to echo through the alley. He only had the cough a week, but it was getting worse by the day. It seemed that the once stoic ice prince had finally lost his famed will. In a last desperate attempt to distract himself from his thoughts, Kouga finally freed his fingers from the unruly mass of dreads and looked across the street. There it was, Shirayuri Shelter, an old building, and his last spark of hope.
.X.
At five thirty in the morning, a young woman pulled her old car up to the building that would house the Shirayuri Shelter and began to unload boxes of food, clothing, and blankets. They were the final few boxes for the moment, as it was less than a week before the shelter would open, and she would finally be able to begin relaxing, knowing she was doing good in the world once again. After Kagome had taken the last box upstairs, she closed the trunk of her car. She leaned against it and scanning the area she was in. That's when her eyes fell upon the alley across the street and the men sleeping in it. Now, Kagome wasn't stupid, she knew it was dangerous to approach strange men. She knew it from first-hand experience, gained from her own desperation. However when she saw these two, she felt an odd twinge of emotion deep within, almost like something long forgotten prodding at her mind, wanting her to remember. That is how Kagome knew she had to help them. Right now, days before the shelter opened.
Kagome took a deep breath and worked her nerves up, taking another glance across the street before crossing. As she got closer, she could see details of the men. She wanted to cry as she saw one man lying on the ground asleep, huddled close to a couple of mixed wolf dogs. His long brown hair was dreadlocked and he looked nearly starved, she could clearly see his ribs. He wasn't wearing a shirt, only a thin patched up pair of what used to be jeans that were held to his emaciated frame by some sort of rope or twine. His companion was using his dreadlocks as a pillow, his own hair dirty blonde and so long it looked like it had never been cut. He was wearing a trash bag and a pair of dirty shorts that hung loose on, what she could tell, was a tall frame, even though he was lying down.
A memory flashed through her mind briefly, but she shook her head and ignored it. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment as she looked back to the building that had taken her years to acquire. Kagome had written essays, saved every penny she earned or found, applied for grant after grant, and had even gained financial backing from a small corporation here in japan, to finally get this building. It was her one last dream in life. She smiled and returned to the task at hand.
She wasn’t officially open for another five days, but...these two needed her help, and she'd never turned away from someone in need. As she looked back to the alley she could see the two sleeping figures were the only ones there. She only hoped they wouldn't assume she was like most of the others in this city. People just didn't want believe that there were really any good honest beings left in the world. Which, she thought at times, that maybe they were right.
Sighing she pulled her black hair into a pony tail and walked the rest of the way to the men slowly, watching curiously as the dogs woke up and began yipping and wagging their tails as they sniffed the air around them, before running towards her. At the sound of his wolves yipping excitedly, Kouga awoke and nudged Sesshomaru while sitting up, wondering what was going on. He hadn’t heard Ginta and Hakakku sound that happy in years. He looked in the direction they had run and there, a few feet from him, stood a woman with long black hair and a smile he would never forget.
He was pretty sure his heart had stopped beating when he saw her. The only breath he took was the one that whispered her name before he rubbed his eyes and looked to Sesshomaru, as if he could give him the answer to what was going on. The Western Lord merely shrugged and looked on in confusion. He hadn’t noticed anything about the girl yet.
Kouga had expected many things upon waking, maybe an angry business owner telling him to move along or people kicking him and telling him to get a job. Hell, he would have expected Santa and the Easter Bunny to come and wake them both, offering free teeth cleaning, before he would even consider this a possibility. But here they were, and there she was. He wondered for a moment if it was really her, and if she would recognize them. But that question answered itself as she got closer and began to speak.
"Uhm...Excuse me, guys? I'm in charge of opening the shelter across the street and even though it's not quite open yet i was wondering if…" Her breath caught in her throat at that moment, and her next word was replaced by a gasp as the man with dirty blonde hair turned towards her; his dull, pain filled, amber eyes nowhere near what she remembered, but the face the same. "..Se..Sess...Sesshomaru?!?!"She was blinking back tears, wondering what kind of cruel joke fate was playing on her this time, when she heard the raspy ghost of a voice she knew from long ago.
He only said one word, but that was all she needed. "Miko." His tone sounded hopeful almost.
She launched herself at him without thinking, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace, before pulling back suddenly, remembering his condition, and that he would probably kill her when he regained his strength. But she didn't feel the poison claws rip through her skin, and his eyes didn't show hate. Instead he just looked slightly disappointed that she had let him go.
During this odd show, Kouga’s heart was doing an odd little dance in his chest. He wanted nothing but to grab her, hug her tight and never let her go, however, he didn't want her to see him like this. He wanted her to remember the strong, cocky wolf prince that had longed for her attention some 500 years ago, not this broken down… thing that he was today.
He was contemplating sneaking out of the alley, but a shrill cry of "KOUGA!" and a hug followed by sobs had stopped his plans cold in their tracks. He clenched his eyes closed as she looked at his face.
Then a trembling voice asked him for one thing. "Kouga...Open your eyes."
He slowly relaxed his eyes and opened them, revealing the now pale blue color they were, but they seemed to get slightly brighter as she looked at him. There was a small spark of hope left in his gaze. A smile spread across Kagome’s face as the tears continued to roll down her cheeks. He suddenly felt like begging her for forgiveness, for letting himself get to the level he was at, but he wasn't quite sure why. A dam seemed to break in him, and he embraced her tightly, his own sobs tearing through him as he finally let loose so many years’ worth of emotion. He cried out of sadness, out of helplessness, out of fear. When she stood, he thought he was going to die; the thought that she, his last hope, was going to walk away from him clawed at his insides, but instead she offered him a hand, which he gladly accepted. When he was standing on his own feet she moved to Sesshomaru and smiled before offering a hand to him, which he eagerly held onto as she helped him up.
Her next few words were the beginning of things starting to look-up for them, and the small spark of hope began to burn in even Sesshomaru’s eyes as Kagome spoke. "Let's get you guys some food and clothes, maybe a shower. Then we can figure out where to put you and figure something out for living arrangements."
Kouga grinned so wide it seemed to hurt his face. Sesshomaru smiled weakly and nodded, following the miko his brother at one time had dragged throughout feudal japan. Maybe he would survive this time period after all.
.X.