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Izayoi looked down at the glowing red light of the the thermometer. 102 again? she thought to herself, looking away from the little screen to the boy curled up in no less than seven blankets, five pillows, fifty-two stuffed animals, and one wooden samari doll. There was more stuff than son in the bed, but she couldn't blame Inuyasha for looking for comfort anywhere he could try and get it. After three days of waking up every few hours for more and more medicine, she was as sleepy and miserable as her kid, and yet the fever refused to break.
She patted his arm and stood, crossing the little two-bed-one-bath house in only a dozen steps to where the Tylenol lived, the dingy carpet crunching slightly under her house slippers. She really needed to move them out of this small, dark, drafty house. The bleak surroundings couldn't be helping either of their health. Inuyasha always said he loved their little rooms because it always smelled like her, but she knew better.
She came back with the medicine and water.
"Mom, tell me a story," asked Inuyasha as he sipped on the water to remove the terrible purple taste from his mouth.
"Which one?"
"The one with the dog and the pretty lady."
She smiled softly at him and settled down next to him to tell him the story for the thousandth time.
__ —
Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a warrior who loved a princess. The warrior had a terrible reputation; people called him a dog, but the only thing dog like about him was his loyalty…and possibly his habit of biting.
"Mom."
Right. Anyway. The princess was said to be too soft and delicate for this world. She was a dancer and people thought she was more graceful than a swan. So her family hid her away until they could have her suitably married, as her bride price would save them from financial ruin. When, one day, the dog general saw the swan dancing in her garden and he fell in love with her. They met in secret, every night. When the princess was engaged to be married to a horrible and possessive man, they decided to run away together.
But — Izayoi paused for dramtic effect— the lovers were betrayed. Having heard this story a thousand times, Inuyasha didn't pretend to be surprised. His mother shrugged and continued.
The evil man discovered their plan. Enraged, he cast a spell: the princess was transformed into a beautiful bird every night and locked her away to separate her from her lover. Every morning when she became human again he would ask her the same thing - will you marry me today, before sundown? He thought the princess would do anything to undo the spell, but every morning she refused. The warrior didn't care what shape she took: he loved her, truely, and she wouldn't leave him except in death.
The evil fiancé was as good a sorcerer as he was a man —
"So, terrible?"
"Exactly."
— and since he only knew one spell he cursed the warrior lover with it, too. As the sun rose, and the princess again refused his proposal, the sorcerer cursed the warrior became a huge, white dog. The sorcerer thought the woman would fear the beast, but how could she be afraid of someone she loved so much? The evil man just didn't understand, no curse could take away their love. Tragically, now the lovers could only truly see each other for the mere moments when dusk became dark and dawn became morning. Still they ran, farther and farther from the evil sorcerer, determined to make a life together no matter what.
They traveled together like that for two years, never able to share more than three words at dawn and dusk: 'I love you'. While traveling they hoped to find someone who could understand and help them break there terrible curse. One day, they met a magician and his wife living in a ruined castle at the seaside. The couple offered them sanctuary, and together they came up with a plan to break into the sorcerer's castle, steal the evil spell book, and have the magician undo the curse.
Their plan was cunning, their hearts courageous. Yet the evil sorcerer caught them and in a blind rage, shot the bird.
Thinking his love was dead, the man, with all the strength of a wild dog, killed the sorcerer. He cradled the little bird in his hands and begged any god who would listen to please bring her back. 'I would stay a dog the rest of my life if she could be alive for even one more night,' he swore. His wept, and as each tear fell the wound in the bird's chest closed and her heart began to beat again. The princess awoke with the sun and found herself a woman once more; curled protectively around her was the huge dog. The sorcerer was dead, and though their curse had not been broken, she shed no tears, because she was alive and warm in her lover's embrace.
The sun began to set, as it always does. Hearing the familiar hum of magic the princess prepared for a long night as a bird. Just as he had for seven hundred and thirty nights, the dog became human again, but instead of transforming too, the princess found herself human under the moon. The warrior's sacrifice had saved her, even at the cost of his own life in the daylight. For the first time in two years the lovers were together under the stars, their fingers intertwined.
They stayed together talking until morning, when the man again became the large, protective dog, and only then did they leave the terrible castle to begin the journey of the rest of their lives. And they lived happily ever after.
__ —
"That's a sad ending," said Inuyasha, still not convinced his mother's version of the fairy tale was the right one even after years of hearing it.
"Why?" asked Izayoi, adjusting his blanket and taking the empty water cup from him to place it on the bedside table.
"Because they aren't together in the end- he's still a dog."
"So? You don't think they're happy?" asked Izayoi.
"I just think the guy would be happier if he wasn't a dog all the time."
"Maybe," Izayoi conceded, "but he is certainly happier being a dog and them together than human and one of them dead. He sacrificed a lot to bring her back, because her life was worth more than his physical shape. And," she emphasized, "she still gets to hold him at night which is more than she could for a long time. And certainly more than she would be able to if she was still dead."
Inuyasha shrugged in a way that said he accepted his mother's answer but didn't quite believe her.
That's ok though, she thought. Izayoi knew a lot of people felt like Inuyasha; that a half live was worse than nothing. But she had tasted nothing, a terrible bitter taste she was glad her son had no knowledge of, and accepted that his answer was born of an ignorance she was some days deeply jealous of. He'd understand the story when he was older, and hopefully, if she'd done her job as a mother right, he'd agree with her then. She held his hand in silence as he slipped off to sleep, the medicine finally taking effect and offering him a little relief.
Careful not to put too much weight on the bed she carefully pushed herself up from the floor and creeped across the room. Slowly, she closed the door, holding the knob turned sharply to the right to keep the latch from clicking. Through the living room window she could see the sun was just about to set, the last edges of red and pink settling below the horizon. She practically flew to opened the back door and dashed down the worn path in the grass to stand and wait at the back gate.
It was hard to find a place to live that was this close to the woods while still offering Izayoi an income, Inuyasha an education, and neighbors who knew better than to ask about the tall man-shaped shadows they could see through the kitchen curtains after dark. Finally, as the sun set and the first chill of night swirled the little flurries of snow through the trees, Izayoi felt the familiar hum of magic. If she listened hard enough, she could hear the sound of four paws running on the frozen leaves shift to two large feet, and the hearty breath of a large, white dog transform into the hearty laugh of her husband as he came barreling naked as the day he was born out of the tree line and towards their home.
"Touga!" she squealed in surprize, "what on Earth are you doing!? Someone will see you! All of you," she added in a frantic giggle.
"I'm sorry little bird," he said, not looking sorry in the least, "but the clothes you left me were hardly seasonable. I didn't expect the frost."
"Nudity is hardly warmer," she said.
"Then why are your cheeks so red?" he teased, quite pleased with his own joke.
Izayoi quickly swallowed the laugh she wanted to bark out, instead herding her husband through the backdoor and into the warmth of the kitchen.
"Inuyasha will be sad he missed you," she said, digging through the dryer for a sweater and trousers.
Touga frowned, "Perhaps I'll be lucky and he'll wake up before sunrise." He accepted the clothes offered. "Real winter will be here soon, I can't wait for the long nights again."
He paused, looking at his wife's back as she busied herself starting their dinner. "Maybe this year we could explain to him why dad is always at work during daylight."
He couldn't see Izayoi face, but her 'Maybe!' was so forced that he knew she wasn't happy to say it.
"You tried telling him the princess story again didn't you?"
She turned and hugged him, speaking into his warm, fuzzy chest. "He still says he doesn't like the ending. I swear I'm not gonna let him watch Beauty and the Beast ever again."
Touga chuckled, his wife's indignant rage at screenwriting just one of the thousands of the things he loved so much about her.
"I don't care what anyone else thinks," she huffed, "this is my happy ending."
He hugged her back, careful not to hold too tight. He was always too careful with her, knowing she was small, fragile, and so precious. "Mine too, my darling, mine too."