Keerento

Summary: The half-breed Keerento discovers a small girl in the forest and rescues her only to lose her after months of care. Dreaming of each other for years, the child he lost grows into the woman of his dreams...literally. What happens when the woman he thought was a figment of his imagination finds her way back to him?

A/N Okay, this is my first original fic here...bear with me! I so want to finish this story, and I will be honest and admit that I am using this as a way to motivate me. If I know people like it and are waiting for more, I feel guilty and I write on it, simple as that. I have a feeling this sucker will go through more revision during the writing of it than anything else I've written. As a result, the warnings will be updated as things progress, and I'll post the most recent 'edit' date next to the chapter.

And for those who followed me over from the Inuyasha board. Yes, here you will see why Inuyasha appealed to me in the first place: grumpy boys, claws and ears and tails, and the half-breeds/misfits of society, in whatever form they take.


Prologue - 4/12/07

He couldn’t stop staring, although he wasn’t certain the last time he had stared in quite this manner. It wasn’t an attempt to intimidate a larger, more idiotic cretin. It certainly wasn’t an overt sign of aggression, nor the also familiar task of tracking his enemies moves to prevent the constant, unrelenting attempts to end his life in whichever spectacular, dumbass way was the asshole special of the week. It was simply…

…surprise.

How bizarre.

He couldn’t recall the last time he’d been so surprised that he literally couldn’t think of what to do. What, had he been 8 at the time? Stupid idiocy had almost gotten him killed that time, and frankly if 300 years didn’t prevent him freezing like a deer then maybe he deserved to be killed this time as well. But looking down at the small human in front of him who was sobbing well into hiccup-and-snot stage – hanging off his damn leg like he was Mother Hen – he honestly didn’t know what to do.

No one hung onto his leg without his permission, which they would never get because it was ridiculous to even consider something as asinine as wanting someone to hang off his leg. Never mind the morons in the east who looked for fawning and worship-- dramatic, self-aggrandizing bastards. He had no desire for anyone or anything to come anywhere near him unless he needed a good fuck, and even he wasn’t so far gone that he’d use a child fro something like that. There were some things that a man just shouldn’t do, no matter how fucked up the world got.

“Hey, kid, get off.” He growled, putting every ounce of menace and soul-eating, terror inducing intimidation he could produce after a few centuries of practice.
Unfortunately, it had about as much effect this time as it had the previous three tries, which was precisely dick. What the fuck was he supposed to do now? The Great Forest was not a place of mercy and compassion, and he had taken every lesson the Forest had dished out at an extremely young age. Still…hurting a little kid was pretty low. Especially this little of a kid. He couldn’t imagine how in all the hells something this tiny and helpless had made it this far into the Forest without being killed, eaten, or sold off. Actually, looking at her closely, the sold off part seemed most likely unless one of the really sick fucks like Ausphen got hold of her. He had never seen coloring like that in his life on a human: eyes like the sky just before dusk and hair the color of a fox’s coat. He still couldn’t stop himself from inhaling deeply periodically to recheck what his nose was telling him. She smelled completely, entirely human. Human and in need of changing, actually, he realized with a snort of disgust. Why the hell people put cloths on a baby that were designed to keep shit on the kid was beyond him. How disgusting could you get? Ugh.

The sobbing wasn’t letting up and he thought, possibly, that the toddler’s arms were actually tighter on his leg than before. Shit. Inhaling again to recheck her parentage, he cursed at the other scents coming their way. There was a storm coming in. Looked like a real mother, actually. He cursed, looking down at the crying leech attached to him. Did he know anywhere he could dump her once he got her off? There was no way he was taking care of a child, no reason to do so. If you couldn’t take care of yourself, you didn’t deserve to live, anyway. Her parents or whatever the hell she had should have kept an eye on her and she might have made it to adulthood, but right now, she was screwed as soon as he got free.

And why the hell should he even care? He didn’t go out of his way to facilitate the deaths of those who were, frankly, too stupid or weak to live. But he didn’t put himself out to save their sorry asses either. The child looked up at him at that moment, sobs softer now, and stared into his eyes. She was, honestly, the cutest thing he’d seen in years. Chubby cheeks, huge thickly lashed eyes, hell, even her little rosy lips were chubby. Not that he had anything against cute. He was actually rather fond of cute.

Cute usually meant the damn thing was easier to catch and eat, or was a hell of a lot less likely to try and eat him. Looking at something this cute that wasn’t a food source and was, still, attached to his person, was rapidly spoiling his whole enjoyment of that particular trait, however.

“Fucking let go of my leg, dammit!” She blinked, sobs now down to just the residual hiccups, and finally, finally, let go…and stood there with her hands up in the air, reaching for him. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” He shook his head at the utter weird idiocy of children when she yelled at him.

Yelled.

At him. At least the kid isn’t short on guts, he thought.

“UP!”

And seems to know what she wants, even if there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that she was going to get it. “Hell, no.” he said, turning to leave her there. He took one step before her arms wrapped around his leg again. Son of a bitch.

“Get off!” He shook his leg slightly, hoping she’d simply fall off like a growth or something.

“UP!” This time she’d obviously figured out that he was going to leave her so she didn’t even bother to let go before yelling. He felt his lips twitch just slightly. She might not be smart enough to realize she was courting death to even come near him, a mistake no human or Kuren over the age of 10 would make in the Forest, but she knew enough to figure out how to keep him from leaving. Clever little brat.

He inhaled again, realized the storm would be on them pretty damn soon, and looked down into her blue, blue eyes again. He froze for a moment as the last time he’d seen blue eyes raced through his brain. Pale skin laying on bloodstained earth as crystal blue eyes stared sightlessly while he huddled in fear, completely useless. Blinking, he looked again at the small face with her own set of blue eyes. They were darker, certainly not the neon blue of memory, but the sudden image of them staring with death’s glaze as she froze to death in the upcoming storm, hit him in the gut.

“Dammit…had to have blue eyes, didn’t ya.” He growled to himself. “I could’ve left your sorry ass here without a problem, but no, you have to have those damn eyes. Fine, just until the storm’s gone, got it?” She stared up at him, uncomprehending and he sighed.

“Up, all right? Let go of my damn legs, I’ll pick you up, you tenacious little brat.” She released his leg, reaching up again as he gingerly picked her up. He held her out in front of him and stared at her. What the hell was he doing? Was he finally losing his mind?

And she smiled.

He stared. There wasn’t any attempt to cajole him, to placate, she was honestly just…happy. When the hell had he seen someone who was that happy just to be picked up? He carefully tucked her against his chest with one arm and she snuggled close, putting her chubby hand against his chest as she rested her head against him. Shaking his head, he tried to ignore the bit of warmth coming from her. Could he even remember what it was like to trust that easily? How the hell didn’t she think he wasn’t going to eat her or beat her or one of a hundred nasty things he could do to her out here? Instead, she was simply resting against him as though he was the answer to everything that she was worrying over.

She obviously didn’t know him very well, but who had she known before, that she would be this way? Had to be the worst family in existence, if they hadn’t beat this sort of trust out of her already. You couldn’t survive in this world with that type of ebullient joy clouding your view of things. The squirt was going to die before she turned 5, obviously. She craned her head up to look into his eyes a moment, and he sighed.

Okay, so she wasn’t going to die today, but only because he was obviously having a moment of complete nostalgia induced insanity.

“…which isn’t gonna last, kid, so don’t get comfortable. The storm passes and you’re on your own, got it?” She smiled up at him again and nodded seriously, pulling at his shirt and sucking on it slightly. “Crap.” He turned and started for home, gaining speed until the trees sped by in a blur, lulling his personal tormentor to sleep in moments.