Disclaimer

Quite obviously, I don't own any rights towards the Inuyasha franchise, and am not making any sort of profit off of all this. This is strictly a work of fan appreciation. I doubt I could even make any money off this if I tried.

Mind you, if I did think I could, I'd totally go for it.

(But I do claim unofficial ownership on any of my original characters.)

Nikanaru

Chapter 1:

Max

I've never met the guy, but based on some of the things I've heard, Satan would NOT be a gentle lover.

According to popular rumor, Midterm week was second only to Finals week in terms of the worst possible hell a student could go through. And when we say "hell", that is to say that the experience was actually like a hole in the ground breaking open right in front of you, Satan himself crawling out and then, with his hooved feet, giving you a swift kick in the balls with such force that left no question that you'd just encountered the Lord of eternal torment.

While it was all metaphorical, Midterm week alone had already left Max feeling as though he'd not only had the living shit kicked out of him by said master of the Damned, but had also been tied down and repeatedly violated by him.

Metaphorically, of course.

Jesus…so what's Finals week going to be like, then? That dreaded though coursed like a rampaging army through the already ragged battlefield that was his mind. Having spent the last week doing nothing but study, study, study, eat, shit and study, Max's brain quite physically felt like an exhausted muscle, groaning in protest every time he'd think of anything more intellectually stimulating than primetime television.

Aw, ya just finished Midterms…c'mon, relax a little. Just think of something else. Putting the nightmare that was this past week behind him, Max tried elevating his somewhat fraggled mood by focusing on the cute little children playing in the park. Not that they were that hard to notice, given that their laughing and playful screams were plenty audible, even with the intense wind rushing past Max's head. It was cute, no question there, but it was also too inane for a mind that had been saturated in scholastic complications such as his had. So instead, he decided to pay unusual attention to the billboards and advertising posters he spotted as he went by. It actually became a challenge to read them all while moving at such blinding speeds.

Let's see, let's see, let's see…Is my breath minty fresh? Am I worth it? Am I Zestfully clean? Are my panty liners absorbent enough? Is my headache an Excedrin headache? Is…oh, Jesus Christ, is it ever! Ow! Speed-reading, however, only reminded him of the intense reading and the long hours spent studying a plethora of subjects given the way his eyes and head throbbed painfully in unison. Squeezing them shut, he at last decided simply to get home and do absolutely dick-all but snooze. He'd earned it, after all.

Oops. Guess again, you jackass. Chastising himself, it hit him that another plethora of tasks he had on his agenda were chores at the shrine, seeing as how he'd been putting them off all week in favor of studying. It would take him the better part of the evening to get them all done. He was inevitably screwed. There was no way he was going to be able to relax until at least tomorrow.

Well, at least it'll be dumbed down, physical stuff. That kind of stuff I can deal with standing on my head. He presumptuously thought. And was promptly corrected when he hit the roof of the building he was leaping onto much sooner than he'd anticipated. Eyes snapped back open, as did his screeching mouth, just in time to see the concrete roof his face was slammed into as his whole body tripped.

Pushing himself back up, Max brushed the dirt off his face, offering himself a self-loathing chuckle. Probably should've taken the bus back. It might be worth dealing with the stench today. Too late for that now, though, so he simply ran to the other side of the roof and sprang off of it, eyes open this time, onto the roof of the adjacent building, and continued in the direction of the Higurashi Shrine.

16 Years ago

"Bus pass?"

"Yep."

"Money?"

"Yes, mom."

"Cell?"

"All here." To prove his claims, Souta opened up the duffel bag to meet his mother's inspection. Hardly sparing the opportunity, Sakura Higurashi saw for herself that her son indeed had everything common sense would suggest he'd need for a safe class trip to Nagano. Though she didn't acknowledge this without some reluctance.

"Okay." She conceded. "We'll leave in fifteen minutes. You should go get something to eat." The boy nodded and went downstairs to the kitchen. In spite of herself, Sakura could only stand still, alone in her son's room, trying to come to terms with the sense of dread she was unable to overcome. In fifteen minutes, she would drive Souta to the bus stop, where, for the first time in two years, one of her children would be sent away from home for an extended period… Out of her reach, out of her supervision, out of her direct ability to see to his safety. She knew the trip was only supposed to be a few days, and that the trip would be chaperoned by several teachers, but no matter how she attempted to rationalize the situation, doubt and fear quaked at the foundations of her very soul.

When a hand rested upon her shoulder, she turned to see her father with a consoling look in his eyes. He knew this wasn't easy for her. Even Souta knew that. In fact, when he'd first told his mother about this overnight trip and had seen the sudden horror in her eyes, he'd tried to act as though he didn't really want to go, just for the sake sparing her the painful memories. For Sakura, the idea of Souta leaving home for something more than just a trip around town, but for a real overnight trip… it was absolutely terrifying. She couldn't handle it if something happened to him…if he left and then somehow never returned…

…her only remaining child.

"I'm okay." She assured her father, although the slightly trembling voice in which those words were spoken betrayed their very meaning. This was torture for her, yet she knew she had to endure it. She couldn't keep Souta locked up for the rest of his life. It wasn't fair to him. She had to try and accept that what had happened before happened under extraordinary circumstances, and she couldn't create an association between that and normal situations like this one.

Besides, Souta was going on a supervised class field trip, not through a time portal to a world full of demons and monsters, where all her contact with him would be completely cut off.

Leaving her father be, and while Souta ate, she took a walk around the shrine yards, as doing so usually brought her some peace. Not this time, though. She was simply unable to shake all the terrible memories this situation was resurfacing. Remembering how she betrayed every motherly instinct she now followed religiously when she had allowed her daughter to travel back and forth through an occult rift in time that had been discovered in her own back yard. In the well.

The Goddamned Bone-Eater's Well.

Everything in their lives had changed so quickly when the time-traveling properties of the well had been discovered…her daughter had disappeared for two days and the only explanation offered was from a seemingly delirious Souta. He'd sworn that a monster had burst out of the Bone-Eater's Well and dragged his sister back down it in a flash of light. Obviously, the child's claims were dismissed as either a result of delusion or shock, but either way, Sakura spent those two days frantically trying to find her missing daughter.

Then, just as suddenly as she had disappeared, Kagome had re-appeared at the bottom of the well.

Kagome's explanation for what had happened to her had been even more unbelievable than Souta's: That she had been sent back in time to feudal Japan, and had been in the company of demons and other unholy beings. However, she had been in such a state that it seemed she herself hardly believed what she was saying. Despite that Sakura's rational mind made it impossible for her to believe such a story either, Sakura just considered herself lucky that her daughter had returned to her safe and unharmed. She believed that the circumstances under which Kagome had disappeared weren't important, so long as she was home and safe.

She should have known better.

Barely hours after her Kagome had come back, he came out of nowhere. The same nowhere where Kagome had reappeared from. And he dragged her right back, while Sakura and the rest of the family was stunned with sheer confusion. Only hours later did she return again, this time with him, and explain the extraordinary circumstances.

Demons. Time travel. War. Sacred jewels. Half of the legends her father had often ranted on about in hopes of selling cheap souvenirs to tourists had turned out to be true. As unbelievable as it all seemed, proof of it was right in her backyard.

That brought Sakura to the single hardest decision she ever had to make in her life; Her daughter was now determined to go back and forth through time to the Feudal era, a notoriously dangerous time, in order to collect fragments of a… powerful jewel before some… evil characters could.

Every motherly instinct in Sakura screamed for her to say "No." Refuse. Forbid it outright. What on earth kind of parent would willingly allow their child to venture somewhere the parent couldn't follow, where few safety measures existed, so the child could risk her life every day? The loss of her daughter was something she'd never be able to handle. Especially after having already suffered the loss of her husband.

But, before Sakura had said anything after her daughter had explained the situation, Sakura had taken a moment to think. She knew her daughter well, and knew that, despite her young age, Kagome had always had a strict sense of justice and fundamental right. Listening to her daughter speak of this "journey" she had to undertake 500 years in the past, Sakura could feel the passion emanating from Kagome's voice.

Kagome fully believed that going into the past and doing this was not only the right thing to do, but absolutely necessary. This jewel, the Jewel of the Four Souls as she called it, was a mystical object that could bestow immense power upon whoever possessed it. Thus, if the wrong person were to get the jewel, they would have the power to inflict immense pain and suffering onto others. Innocent people. And there was no way in hell Kagome was going to sit back and let that happen.

Sakura had known that if she had tried to forbid her daughter from embarking on this quest, Kagome would have gone anyways. If Sakura protested it and tried to stop her, it would only give Kagome a reason to avoid her, and avoid coming back home.

Furthermore, there was the demon…or half-demon, as he had later specified, that Kagome had traveled with: when pressed about it, Inuyasha had sworn to Sakura that he would keep Kagome safe. Despite the boy's gruff demeanor and attitude, (And despite her father's continual warnings that the dog-demon was a no-good, satanic roughneck.) Sakura had sensed a degree of sincerity in him. She knew he was physically strong… physical strength to match the strength of Kagome's willpower. Him being there alongside Kagome had helped reassure Sakura immensely.

Thus, and still with immense hesitation, Sakura had put on a fake smile and told Kagome that she had her support on this quest. Sakura had, of course, set conditions; rather predictable ones about Kagome returning home at least every two or three weeks, and keeping up with her studies while she was back in time.

And despite the lump in her stomach she always had whenever her daughter had been gone, despite her constant worrying, Kagome had always come back. Never hurt. Never scarred. The worst she had ever come back with had been some tattered and worn clothing. And Sakura had always greeted her with a smile, just as she had always sent her off with one, fake as they may have all been.

Despite that everything seemed to be going well, Sakura still never got used to the idea. Although she was perpetually worried for her daughter's safety, each time she came back Kagome seemed to have matured considerably. Hard to believe, but these trips to the feudal era were changing Kagome; building her character. She seemed to come back home a stronger person each time, until eventually, she almost seemed invincible. A fearless woman who was more that ready to take on any challenge life sent her way. Sakura prayed that when this quest was over, God willing very soon, Kagome would apply this same attitude to modern life. She would have gone very far in life had she.

And then there was the budding relationship she seemed to have with that half-demon. It slowly dawned upon Sakura that her daughter was, if not in love, then very close to it. Inuyasha too, from what she could tell, had strong feelings for Kagome. Whenever Kagome had come home in an angry mood, grumbling about the idiot dog-demon (Which happened pretty often.) Inuyasha eventually followed behind her with some attempt to either apologize or cheer her up. However sad, or unintentionally destructive, his attempts may have been. (A bicycle twisted beyond repair, several shattered ancient artifacts, and a few explosions in the back courtyard stood as testament to that.)

That did offer Sakura some measure of relief. To know that Inuyasha truly cared about Kagome meant that she knew he would protect her with his life. Even though Sakura has always known that Kagome wasn't telling her about half of the dangerous things that went on in the feudal era to spare her the worrying, Sakura was able, after two years, to ease up, and have faith that her daughter was in good hands.

She finally allowed herself to believe that her daughter would always come home.

Then, Sakura's worst nightmare happened.

Pausing in her steps, Sakura looked up at the old well-house. Two years ago, in front of that building, she had kissed Kagome on the cheek, given her some bag-lunch specially made for her and her friends on the other side of the well, and wished her well as she watched her daughter disappear through the time portal.

That was the last time she had ever seen her.

Two weeks went by. Sakura was curious, but unworried. Three weeks went by. Worry began to set in.

Two months passed.

Panic.

By that time, Sakura had been repeatedly jumping into the well herself, desperately trying to get it to work for her. Hoping she could somehow go find Kagome, go save her from whatever was preventing her from coming home. But the well denied her every time. Denied her her daughter. Denied her from even knowing what happened. If Kagome was even still alive or dead. Or suffering.

Not knowing was the hardest part by far. The two years since Kagome had gone had been absolute hell, Sakura never knowing for sure whether Kagome had been killed, or was hurt, or anything. Not a day went by where she didn't look at the well house and desperately hope that Kagome would finally appear out of it. Sakura found herself sporadically breaking into tears, crying for something…anything to give her hope that Kagome was even alive. At one point, she even found herself wishing that she could just know if her daughter was dead, so that Sakura could at least deal with it, and not spend everyday praying, hoping in vain, to the point where it physically hurt, that Kagome would come back to her.

And now she found herself in the familiar position she had been in every day for the past two years. After all this time, the hurt had never dulled. No. Today, it was even worse. Knowing that she had to let her only remaining child go off to where she couldn't be with him, assuring his safety, she was forced once again to deal with all the emotional damage that had all but killed her on the inside. And yet knew that she had to be strong and deal with them, for her son's sake, no matter how badly it hurt her.

And it did hurt. She wanted nothing less than to clutch Souta protectively in her arms and never let him go. But that was simply not possible. Her child would grow up, and she couldn't reasonably hold him back because of her insecurities.

And so, all that she was left with was to hug herself as she desperately trying to fight back to tears. She didn't do a terribly good job of it.

Just then, she heard a door open from the house, and quickly silenced herself, covering her face with her hands. She would NOT let Souta see her like this. She wanted to send him off guilt-free. She wanted him to have a normal, enjoyable trip that any other kid his age could enjoy.

However, even though Sakura was no longer crying, she still heard it.

She suddenly stiffened then, listening. Crying. Yes, that was what she was hearing. But from who? She turned around and saw Souta leaving the house with Grandpa, packing Souta's luggage in the car. Neither of them were making any sound. Listening again, hearing the crying, she'd now able to determine that it was neither hers, nor Souta's. This was a baby's crying, judging from the pitch. Turning back around, she realized that it was coming from

The well house.

She froze where she was. In that instant, it felt as if time itself had stopped. She couldn't hear the wind. She couldn't hear the sounds of the city. She couldn't hear her own breathing. All she could hear was the muffled wailing coming from the small building in front of her.

Finally, Sakura was able to move. Feeling like an anthropoid muscle trying to move again, she willed her shaking hands to the latch on the door.

Both Souta and Grandpa looked away from their efforts to pack the car when they heard the creaking shoji to the well house being opened. Immediate concern hit them both when they saw Sakura entering.

"Mom?" Souta called over to her. His mother had never set foot in that building since her last attempt over a year ago to use the well herself. He and his grandfather gave each other worried looks before silently agreeing to follow her. Something had to be very wrong for her to go in there again.

The old house was almost completely devoid of light, save for the invading column of it that leaked through the shoji. Sakura paused a moment to let her eyes adjust to the dark, as the crying only got louder. Now inside, she was able to determine that it was indeed coming from the bottom of the Bone Eater's well. However, it was so pitch dark that she couldn't see the all the way down.

In an almost automatic and robotic manner, she lifted her legs over the side of the well and began climbing down the ladder they had installed there so many years ago.

"Mom!" Souta called again, running up to the well house as he saw his mother descending into the well. For a brief moment, he was worried she had snapped. He feared that him going on this trip had once again made his mother desperate enough to try and use the well herself again. But just as he approached the doors, he heard the crying too.

"What on earth?" Grandpa remarked as he caught up and heard the noise. Both of them approached the well, looking down into its darkness where both Sakura and the sound now where.

"Mom? What is that?" Souta called down. When there was no answer, he was about to climb down himself, when he finally saw his mother coming back up, but climbing with a single hand. As she came up further, he was able to see why…

In her arm, Sakura now carried a crying infant child.

A quite distinctively demon child.

Present

CRUNK!

"Oh, son of a…"

Sakura's attention diverted from the book she was reading to the front door as Max struggled with the rickety, semi-functional slides. Grumbling in annoyance, the boy hefted the entire frame up, loosening it from whatever was blocking it and managed to open it enough to give him the leeway he needed to get into his own house. An equally frustrating struggle ensued when he tried to close it behind him.

Guess that's first thing on my to-do list. He noted to himself after the shoji's successful closing. Turning around, he offered a smile in return to the middle-aged lady smiling at him from the coffee table.

"Hey, Grandma." Giving a quick, two-fingered salute, Max headed off to the stairs leading up to his room.

"Max." Sakura called to him, halting him in his tracks. He once again turned around to face her.

"Yeah?" That question was met with an expectant expression from the woman.

Uh-oh. Something's wrong. He deduced. It couldn't be anything major, given that she still had that ever-present smile on her face.

"Oh!" He exclaimed in presumed realization. "The Midterms went okay." Still she simply smiled at him. "Uh, I'm pretty sure I did well." No change. "And…and I'm going to get started on my chores right away! Don't worry, I'll have 'em done before supper."

Sakura continued to smile at him, slowly stirring up a panic in Max's mind.

What?.? What the hell is it?.!

"For heaven sakes, Max,…" She asked. "You did remember, didn't you?"

Remember? Remember what? Was I supposed to do something? What, is this some special day? Oh, shit, is it mother's day?.! No, no, that in May…or March. Well, one of the "M"s.

"Well, yeah! Of course!" Luckily for Max, one amongst his skills was acting. So the fact that his mind was racing blazingly to try and figure out what occasion it was was in no way reflected on his confident, self-assured facial expression.

Is it mother's day? Father's day? Is it someone's birthday? Damn it, man, THINK!

"So what are you going to do, then?" Another question which only added to the poor young demon's confusion. Deciding that instead of trying to seek the answer in the dank recesses of his own mind, Max should consult the agenda in which he had written all the important dates in at the beginning of the year. It was upstairs, in his room, in a drawer, under a pile of other books… probably. Truth be told, after he had gotten it and written in it all those months ago, he'd placed in somewhere in his room and never looked at it since. Slowly, he began inching towards the staircase while doing some good, old-fashioned stalling.

"Well, y'know, just let me unpack. I mean, what AM I going to do for this special occasion? Can't make a decision like that with all these excess textbooks straining my back like this." That, by any stretch of the imagination, was complete bullshit. The heaviest backpack that any high-schooler could be cursed with could ride on Max's back with absurd ease, given that Max had the physical strength to heave a family-sized minivan. Sakura, having raised him, would know that, and he would know that she would know. But Max had no time to let completely obvious details get in the way…he was oh-so close to the staircase, and a mere few more ramblings away to salvation from this potentially awkward moment!

When suddenly, Souta appeared from the kitchen and merrily shouted:

"Hey! Happy birthday!"

AHA!

"Happy birthday, Grandma!" Max immediately echoed triumphantly, arms outstretched as if to emphasize his exclamation.

Confidence was quickly diminished when the smile left Sakura's face and Souta stared at him as someone would stare at a mental patient.

Fuck! Misfire!

"Uh…" Max stammered, now out of ideas.

"Max?" Souta carefully asked.

"Yeah?" Max carefully responded.

"Max…" Sakura's warm smile graced her lips again, with a hint of humor in its curve. "It's your birthday."

"………………………………"

"…Nyuh?" The boy inquired articulately as he suddenly remembered the month and the day. Not that he was completely oblivious to the fact that it was the 17th, its just that he'd been so wrapped up in schoolwork lately that he'd had only a passing notice of dates. "Oh." Lowering his arms relief washed over him…well, that and a wish that he were limber enough to give himself a swift kick in the ass. Both Souta and Sakura were trying to restrain their chuckles, not that Max would have blamed them in the least for not bothering.

"You actually forgot?" Souta managed to get out as his chuckling died down. "Oh, man, I can remember when you were so excited when your birthday was coming up you couldn't sit still."

"Uh-huh." Max indignantly reminisced, looking over to the wall near the stairs where there was a peculiar discoloration hidden under a strategically placed portrait. The result of a shoddy attempt at spackling and painting the wall back up way back when Max had unintentionally crashed into it from coming down the stairs at too great a velocity. Hey, he had had a right to be excited; he had finally hit the big 1- 0 that morning.

And now, relatively few broken walls later, he had hit the big 1-6.

I think. Max reminded himself, given that they didn't know what his precise date of birth was. Instead, they just went by the date Sakura had found him at the bottom of the well.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Came her warm, grandmotherly assurance as she got up from the table and give him a peck on the cheek. "Kagome used to do he exact same thing. I'm proud that you're taking your studies so seriously."

"Yeah, well..." Max shrugged off the compliment. "Hey, it's no bid deal. I gotta finish all those chores tonight anyways." He moved to head back upstairs, but Souta quickly ran interception.

"Are you kidding?" He asked incredulously. "This is sweet sixteen, squirt!"

When are you going to stop calling me that? I'm taller than you now, you prick.

"Come on, the Shrine's not gonna collapse overnight! Grandpa is gonna be back any second with your cake, and then we can all head out to a movie or something. You wanted to see 'Casual Armageddon', right?"

"Uh…I did, yeah, but…" Max paused to give a quick, indicating glance at Sakura. "I'm not sure that's the kinda movie we should see with the, uh…" Stopping a moment, he scanned his vocabulary for the appropriate word.

"Elderly?" Sakura finished for him.

"You said it. Not me." Max replied innocently.

"Oh, for heaven's sakes, I've more than seen my share of violent movies in my time." She assured him with a pat on the shoulder. "If that's the movie you want to see, then that's the movie we'll see. Simple as that."

"Simple as that." He echoed, smiling with a sigh. It was nice to know that his family was fairly open-minded about things, even if those things happened to involve adrenaline pumped films with grotesque violence and gore.

And hopefully, no nudity. I do NOT want to watch a sex scene with Grandma sitting next to me!

Or course, they'd have to be fairly open minded to adopt him in the first place. Hell, if any other person had found a demon-baby left in the bottom of a well in their backyard, the Vegas money was on them selling the baby to some lab for government experiments. Maybe instead of "Max", he would have been named "Subject X-666", and be turned into some super-soldier who was sent on dangerous missions for freedom and democracy, with the incentive of an explosive chip they had implanted in his head. Maybe they'd clone him and have a whole army of super-soldiers to do their bidding. And, in the spirit on mined Hollywood clichés, those clones would one day snap, turn on their masters and try to take over the world.

Actually, that would be really fucking cool.

But in the end, Max's common sense thanked God that that wasn't the case. Instead, he had a family that had taken considerable risks to keep him, raise him, give him a public identity and give him a chance at leading a happy, relatively normal life. At least by human standards.

Not that he had any idea what the alternative, demonic standard was. What did it mean to be a demon? Max didn't know, and, frankly, didn't care.

Reflection of the life he'd lived up to this point, however, was brutally interrupted when a loud banging occurred just outside the defective shoji. All three turned around to hear the follow-up sounds of crashing and a stream of curses.

Great Grandpa's home!

All three rushed over to the shoji and jarred it open to the sight of Tetsu Higurashi on the ground, with what now appeared to be a box with squished cake inside.

"I can't believe this!" The family elder grumbled with a virility surprising of a man his age. "The cake! Gods, that cake was expensive!" Souta and Sakura moved to help the old man up, while Max regarded said cake, its smell clearly identifying it to Max's highly sensitive nostrils.

Oh my COW. That was a Strawberry-Peanut-Butter-Vanilla-Icing-Double-Decker-Delight! He actually got it right this time!

The smell immediately reminded Max of a perpetual frustration he'd had on his birthdays: He had once fallen in love when he went to his friend Dai's birthday party years ago and had a chance to taste that sweet, heavenly pastry, its aroma firmly burned into his memory. Every birthday of his afterwards, he had specifically requested that cake, only to have someone goof it up and give him something like Chocolate-Jelly-Raspberry-Icing-Quad-Carnal-Euphoria. Of course, Max had always been too polite to complain. He had just plastered on a smile and thanked his family, while weeping softly on the inside.

And now they'd actually gotten the long-lost cake of his dreams, only to have it smashed under the weight of an 84-year-old man.

While the others helped Grandpa inside, Max looked over the squashed box, staring at it like one would mourningly stare at the remains of a beloved family member.

And the aroma…dear God, how he had lovingly remembered that hauntingly delicious aroma. Even though the cake was now pizza, he found the smell even more delightful than he remembered.

Wait a minute…He rationalized, inspecting it closer. Some parts are still good. Maybe if I just get the bits that haven't been squished into the dirt…although that's kinda gross…aw, hell, I didn't wait all these years for nothing!

Souta helped Grandpa sit down, despite the old man's insistence that he was fine.

"For crying out loud, Souta, it's not like I'm anywhere near a state where I have to use a cane or ride around in one of those Rascals!"

"I know, Grandpa. We just wanna make sure that you stay that way."

"Forget me! You should all be outraged about that cake. Do you have any idea how much those things go for these days?.! If it wasn't someone's birthday, I'd have spent the night calling consumer protection over what they're extorting!"

"Oh, just forget about it, dad." Sakura admonished. "This is supposed to be happy day. We can just go out to eat."

"That's not the point! There's been wasted money here, and we're in the middle of a recession! Tourism around the shrine is low this year… we should learn from this and start being extra cautious with the money we got and the expensive things we get."

"Dad…"

"We should stick a notice on that door until we get it fixed so that no one will go crashing into it again. And we need to start making maximum use out of everything around the house. No throwing anything out until the bottle is absolutely dry!"

"Grandpa, any chance we could discuss this tomorrow? I'm sure Max doesn't want to spend his birthday talking abou..." Souta turned around to notice that Max hadn't followed them in. Curiously he and Sakura peered out the door and saw Max with his back to them, crouched on the front steps, holding a box up to his face.

"Max?"

Max turned around to face them. That is, to face them with a face now partially covered in strawberry, peanut butter, vanilla, and whatever else was in the remains to the cake. Sakura and Souta could only stare at him abjectly.

"That's what I'm talking about! Good thinking, Max!" Grandpa congratulated him before sticking a post-it note on the front door and heading into the kitchen. Eventually, the creeping of smiles began to cross the lips of Sakura and her son.

"Um…sorry, did you guys want some?" Max tried, offering the box and all its lumpy contents to them. "It's, uh, still pretty dang good." Both of them shook their heads no, and Max simply went into the kitchen with the box, while still grabbing at chunks of cake and stuffing them in his mouth.

Happy birthday to me…happy birthday to me…

Opening the door to his room, Max took a moment to stretch. Finally, after dealing with school, family, and what had to be the most bitchin', ass-stomping, skull smashing, bullet-riddled Jet Li action flick he'd ever seen, he got to have a few peaceful moments to himself. Not that he didn't mind having a busy life and being surrounded by people…hell, he couldn't stand not having anything to do, nor being alone for too long. He went nuts when he was bored, and tended to "make" his own fun, which was the leading cause of his groundings back when he was a kid. But it was still nice to have a moment to collect his thoughts, change out of the damnable school uniforms secondary students were forced to wear, and put on something more comfortable.

It also helped that he could, for at least a few seconds, take off that illusionary Toku crystal that hung from a string around his neck and give his true form a few seconds to see what little remained of the daylight.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Max regarded how his "demonic" features had grown along with the rest of his body. Given that he really had no knowledge of his own developmental stages, he had always been worried that at some point he might start developing new, weirder features, more difficult to conceal than the ones he already had.

But no. Even now at sixteen, he still had the same things he'd had since he'd been a kid: The fangs, the claws, the alien yellow-gold pupils…

…the pointy, elf-like ears…

…the jagged red stripes covering his face and wrists…

…the big, poofy tail…

…and this weird-ass moon thingy on my forehead.

End Chapter 1

Koday: So, for those of you wondering "Where am I going with this?", I plan on this being a pretty danged long story. How many chapters, I cannot say just yet, but easily in the double digits.

And I've rated this fic MATURE due to the violence and the sexual content I intend to spread generously throughout in said later chapters. (Be advised, it may be kinda warm and cuddly now, but things will start to get down and gritty soon enough.)

I also can't comment on update frequencies, simultaneously because my life is sporadic, and also because I'm an asshole.

Finally, quick note: To my knowledge, Mrs. Higurashi has never officially been given a name. I've seen "Sakura" used in some other fanfics, and it just seems to fit. So I went with it. Anything else, I pretty much make up as I go along.

I've written fan fiction before, but this is my first attempt at a longer, somewhat more serious story. Do me a favor and criticize the hell out of me so that I can maybe turn this into something mildly acceptable, would you?

Cheers.

Koday.