InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Ever After ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Authors Note: Ah, It seems I got this done before Christmas after all.  Let me know if you guys catch any typos.  I try to be careful and reread things several times, but we all make mistakes.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!!

0000

'If I had anywhere else to bring her, I would have...' Sesshomaru thought disdainfully as he watched the young miko stare slack-jawed at him; her eyes bulging to near-Jaken proportions.

Higurashi Kagome had been having a very nice, stress-free morning before this point.  She awoke to the warm presence of her four-year-old daughter nestled beside her.  Mouth agape and arms curled under head, she reminded Kagome of a silver-haired guppy.  Inuyasha's side of the bed was a rumpled mess.  A testament to the fact that he woke earlier, most likely taking her eight-year-old son, Dachi, to hunt for breakfast.  She gazed down fondly at the curled up ball of silver hair and tangled limbs that was her little Kia and, feeling suddenly sixteen again, gently tweaked one fuzzy triangle.

'Cute!' Kagome thought giddily.  

It pleased her to no end that her children so resembled their father.  If she were able to take them to see her mother, she had no doubt that their grandmother would feel the same way.  However, the well was closed, and she was stuck here since the destruction of the Jewel.  Kagome clucked softly to herself, the unbidden thought leaving a bad taste on her subconscious.

'No sense dwelling over bad thoughts,' Kagome berated, sighing mentally.  

She had a wonderful, loving, if not foul-mouthed, husband that looked after her, two brilliant children and a flourishing career as the village miko.  A few years into her training, she was asked to assume Kaede's responsibilities, since old age had finally snuck up and stolen much of the old priestess's former strength.  All in all, things were good for her here.  Sango and Miroku had settled in the village after their marriage, and were rearing a small army of girls a short walk away.  Kagome was able to see them often, and Kia had plenty of 'cousins' to play with.  Dachi was a little put out by all the female company, but he and his father were nearly inseparable, and Shippo visited often, since he made a home in Inuyasha's Forest.  

'Yes,' Kagome thought her smile tinted with melancholy, 'a good life.'

In the main room, she could smell Kaede starting breakfast, and could hear the quiet mulling about of Inuyasha and Dachi, as they attempted not to wake 'the girls.'  Kagome smirked to herself, stretching leisurely, and decided not to delay what was shaping up to be a fine day.  Only a few elderly residents of the village needed some medicine delivered.  
Luckily, nothing worse than the common cold had sprung up since the onset of winter.  Her first winter in the Sengou Jedi was met with an onslaught of influenza.  Kagome had never really thought about the wonders of penicillin and lotion soft tissues until she was faced with a feudal era epidemic.  That had been a hard winter.
  
She was going to show Dachi some archery techniques, upon his request. As much as he resembled his father, Kagome was glad that he had her patience and eagerness to learn.  When she had suggested that Dachi take up the bow, she didn't expect the zeal that he would exhibit, and he was fast approaching her in skill.  

Later, perhaps, they could go over Miroku and Sango's for dinner, Sango had just invited her last night.  No doubt her long-time friend longed for company outside her perverted husband and young brood of girls.  Sango hadn't given up her former profession, far from it.  Yokai extermination had become a fair income for the couple.  Between Sango's slaying and Miroku's (sometimes valid) exorcisms, the two had been able to provide a comfortable life for their offspring.  Already her oldest girls, Mizuki and Akemi, were shaping into fine warriors.  

And if she recalled correctly, Sango mentioned that Shippo might be there as well.  Dachi would enjoy another boy near his own age to play with.  The kit divided his time between Kagome and Inuyasha's hut and Sango and Miroku's, with a fair share of time spent in the wilds of Inuyasha's forest.  He was growing fast and learning a great deal from his hanyou friend in terms of fighting...and, unfortunately, language.

Yes, Kagome was quite pleased with the way things had come together after the defeat of Naraku, and she couldn't have asked for a happier ending.  Pushing the bad thoughts of broken wells to the back of her mind, Kagome dressed and joined her family for a quiet, comfortable morning meal.

So imagine her surprise when, mid breakfast, Inuyasha suddenly dropped his bowl and sniffed the air.

"Shit," he hissed.

"Inuyasha!" she admonished, "Not in front of the children!" Kagome's building wrath quickly died.  The hanyou's back was stiff as a board, all muscles tensed and seemingly ready to spring at the slightest movement.  Kagome hadn't seen him this upset in years. "Inuyasha...What is it?"

And in one breath, Kagome's very fine day turned into a not so pleasant looking day.

"Sesshomaru."

"Sesshomaru?"

"Yeah."< br>
"Here?"

"Yeah," Inuyasha rumbled.  He rose from the floor, grabbing Tesseiga as he barreled through the front door.

"Shit!" Kagome squeaked.  Dachi and Kia gasped in unison.  Their eyes wide with shock at their mother's suddenly colorful language.  

"Stay here," Kagome told them, nodding at Kaede, "stay with them Grandmother Kaede, we don't know what he's here for."

"Of course, child," Kaede replied, her features grave.  With that, Kagome gathered up her bow and quiver, and followed Inuyasha outside.  She could not have been prepared, no matter how hard she tried, for the sight that awaited her.

Standing twenty feet from their front door was Sesshomaru.  In the newly fallen snow, he looked like an apparition derived from a Dickens' novel.  If it weren't for those cold, otherworldly eyes, Kagome might even have considered such a sight beautiful, in the way one might find a mountain or the vast ocean horizon beautiful.  Mighty and untouchable, with an air of danger to it.  

His green vassal held the dragon's reigns.  The imp was suspiciously quiet, and sporting a mean looking lump on his left temple.  Rin sat atop Ah Un, obscured by the beast's massive heads and the dour looking yokai that had recently set up residence on their property.

Sesshomaru's face was characteristically blank, as if the universe itself conspired to bore him.  His youki, however, was disturbingly turbulent.  Kagome watched as dark waves rolled off of him in droves.  She was surprised he hadn't melted the snow beneath him into a puddle.

"What the hell," Inuyasha ground out, "are you doing in my front yard, you bastard fuck?"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome hissed.

'Some things will never change,' she thought, with no small measure of exasperation.

Sesshomaru spared his brother a brief, withering glare before turning his attention towards Kagome.

'Eep!' Her brain screeched, 'What does he want with me!'

Sesshomaru creeped Kagome out in a very real, very creepy kind of way.  He was eerily quiet, horrifyingly cruel, and viciously cunning.  Not to mention the fact that he tried to eviscerate Inuyasha on more than one occasion.  The recent lack of disemboweling, while a relief, was still highly suspect.  No matter how often he had fought alongside them, whether intentionally or not, he was still their most ambiguous ally.  

"Miko," his baritone voice boomed, "Rin requires your assistance."

'Rin?' Kagome thought absently.

The last time they saw Sesshomaru was two years ago, when Rin required certain...educating that he couldn't provide.  He dropped her off for a week so Kagome could recite the birds and the bees to a very inquisitive fourteen-year-old girl.  Rin was a pleasant enough young woman.  A bit strange, but that could be easily attributed to her equally strange yokai guardians.  She was always more content to sit alone than with a group of village girls her own age.   While she nearly talked Kagome's ear off half the time, when some of the young women in the village had come to call on her, she became quiet and sullen not sparing a glance in their direction.  When Sesshomaru returned for her, she nearly jumped for joy in her excitement.  Still, she was well mannered and polite, of generally good spirits.  Kagome just felt she was a little maladjusted to living among other humans.

'Maybe she's sick,' Kagome thought anxiously.  'He really would have nowhere else to bring her.'

"It's alright, Inuyasha," Kagome assured her husband with a raised hand, her concern washed over her features, "Let me see what she needs."

Inuyasha's hand twitched towards Tesseiga, but he made no move to draw the fang as Kagome approached Sesshomaru.  Holding her bow in a white knuckled grip Kagome made her way towards the stoic demon, wary of any sudden movement on his part; she was kind-hearted, not stupid.  As she drew up alongside him, she got her first good look at Rin.

The young woman was clutching a very large, very pregnant belly.  Her lips were drawn in a line as she fought to hold back her cries of pain, and her face was damp, ashen in the weak winter sun.

"Kagome-san" she croaked, her voice scarce above a whisper, "I need somewhere to have my baby."

Then her features contorted in a grimace as she let out a thin, quivering whine.  She was obviously in a great deal of pain, and Kagome's heart went out to the girl. Then, Sesshomaru turned abruptly on his heel, nearly sending Kagome into cardiac arrest, and walked briskly to her side.  He bent forward, allowing Rin to slip her slender arms around his neck.  Straitening, he wrapped his good arm beneath her. He tuned to Kagome with expectation, but the reality of the situation had just barely registered in her mind.

'She's pregnant,' Kagome thought astounded, and then as the gears slowly started clicking forward in her mind, 'Oh my God, it's his.'

"Miko!" Sesshomaru barked impatiently, interrupting her train of thought.  Rin clutched his outer kimono in a vice grip, her face buried in the crook of his neck.

"Oh...ah...right!  Follow me," she managed to stutter.  Turning, she saw Inuyasha sporting a mirror image of her earlier expression.

"Inuyasha," she called to him, "take the children to Sango and Miroku.  Tell Sango I'll need her help."

Inuyasha blinked rapidly.

"Sure thing Kagome," he said absentmindedly, his eyes not leaving the couple behind her until he turned to enter the hut.

Sesshomaru followed her silently, the only noise coming from Rin as she whimpered into his throat.  Kagome held the bamboo covering open as Sesshomaru stooped to enter the hut, unable to stop the rolling knot that formed in her stomach.

'Sesshomaru is in my house,' she bemoaned, 'could this day get any worse? Or stranger?'  

Kia and Dachi stood saucer-eyed next to their father, until Inuyasha herded them out, skirting his brother on the way to the door.  Kaede had the presence of mind to pull out an old futon that Kagome kept packed away in case of guests, while Kagome gathered all of the spare linen she could find.

"Just set her on the futon," Kagome said, motioning to the moth-worn mattress Kaede had just finished setting out.  Sesshomaru complied, wrinkling his deceptively delicate nose, though still silent since his prior outburst.  Rin moaned loudly as he set her down, and immediately rose to a kneeling position, curling over her abdomen and clutching it like a protective mother hen.  Sesshomaru knelt beside her, rubbing small circles on her lower back.  He actually seemed at a loss for what to do.

"Rin-chan?" he murmured quietly.  She looked up at him with glassy eyes and leaned into his shoulder.

"Ughn," she grunted intelligibly in response, "hurts."

"Hn," he replied, still rubbing her back, "these women will help you."

Kagome took in the scene with mild shock.  'Rin-chan?  Since when did he call her that?'

"Sesshomaru," Kagome said sweetly, kneeling to their level, "I need to examine Rin now.  It may be better if you left. This is women's business."  Kagome attempted her stern mother face, but only succeeded in earning a scowl from the dog.

"No," Rin cried, clutching his empty sleeve, "don't leave me here alone, Sesshomaru!"

As he stared at the young woman clinging to his kimono as though he were her only link to this world, something passed across Sesshomaru's eyes that Kagome had never witnessed on his countenance before.  She dared not examine it, lest she redefine everything she had previously thought about this yokai.

"I will be just outside," he assured the girl in a soft voice, raising his hand to stroke her cheek with his claw, "I will only be in the way here, but I will be close if you need me."

Something passed quietly between them in that moment, and Rin nodded her assent.  Sesshomaru rose, turning towards the door as Kagome prepared to examine Rin.  Halfway through the threshold, he turned to fix glare on Kagome and Kaede that caused both mikos to cease all action.

"If anything happens to her," he stated, his tone chill as ice, "your lives are forfeit."

And with that, he exited.  For a brief moment, the two mikos were stunned motionless.

"Don't take him too seriously," Rin said with a breathy, exhausted laugh, "He always overreacts when he's worried."

Kagome turned to Rin, somewhat perturbed by her nonchalance.

'Overreact?' She thought as her fear and the rolling knot in her belly joined forces to create an unholy union of indignation and mild hysteria, 'Let's hope he doesn't 'overreact' and flatten the village!'

Higurashi Kagome felt her eye twitch.

00000

As Inuyasha drew further away from the disquieting scenario behind him, a cold anger began to form in his chest.

'That good for nothing, hypocritical son-of-a-bitch,' Inuyasha thought darkly, as he led his son and daughter through the thin layer of packed ice and snow.  'After all the goddamn shit he gave me all these years, he went and sired a hanyou on his human bitch, of all the fucking nerve!'

"Who was that, dad?" his son piped up from behind him.  His ears were pinned flat to his skull, while his sister stared at their father with round, golden eyes.  She clung to her brother's hand as their feet crunch crunched, and remained silent, too young and unsure to understand the events that had just unfolded.

"Your uncle...and aunt, apparently" Inuyasha replied, unable to contain the growl from creeping into his response.

"Oh," Dachi half whispered.  He vaguely remembered the woman.  He recognized her scent more than her appearance.  She had stayed briefly with them a few years ago.  He never met his uncle before, but remembered stories of his grandfather's tomb, a dark hanyou and a sword that could not cut.

"Why is he here now?" the boy wheedled, curious as to why his estranged uncle would show up after all this time.

"The girl is going to have a baby," Inuyasha replied, the anger dissipating as he furthered himself from Sesshomaru's aura.

00000

The sun had reached its zenith as the cozy hut of Miroku and Sango came into view.  They had built their home near the edge of the forest, only a quarter mile from Inuyasha and Kagome; it was better situated to protect the village against troublesome yokai.  Their brood had grown considerably in the past six years of their marriage.   Inuyasha often had trouble remembering all of their daughters' names, but there would be plenty of company for Dachi and Kia here, and he could spend the night watching the children with Miroku while Sango helped Kagome and Kaede-baba with Rin.  Anything would be preferable to Sesshomaru's presence, even babysitting.   

Inuyasha rapped twice on the sturdy doorframe before pushing back the bamboo covering and ducking inside.  Seven pairs of eyes immediately alighted on him.

"Uncle Inuyasha!" chorused Miroku's five daughters as they clamored for purchase around his legs.  Sango greeted him with a gentle smile.

"What brings you by, Inuyasha?" she inquired, while Miroku snickered at his hanyou friend's exasperation over the assault on his person.

"Oi, Sango.  Kagome needs you," he replied as he pried a pair of small hands from his ears.

"Kagome?" she inquired, "Is something wrong?  Does someone in the village need help?"

Inuyasha's face contorted into a dark scowl.

"My brother is there."

"Sesshomaru," Miroku replied skeptically, "What is he doing here, and why aren't you there with her?"  It was not like Inuyasha to abandon Kagome to an enemy, least of all his dubious half-brother.

"It's nothing like that," he said, turning to his children, "Dachi, Kia, go play with you cousins, eh?" He then turned his attention back on Sango's worried face, "Rin is with him.  She's in labor, and Kagome needs your help with the birth"

Shock registered on Sango's face for only a moment, "Of course!  I'll go right now...Kiara, come!"   

The small fire cat bounded from her warm den of blankets, bristling at the sudden intrusion upon her afternoon nap, and followed her mistress outside.  Miroku and Inuyasha watched from the doorway as Kiara transformed, so she would be able to bear Sango quickly to Inuyasha and Kagome's hut.  Miroku watched her fly off with a quiet expression, his gaze shifting to Inuyasha when she became a speck against the grey winter sky.

"Is it his," he queried.

"Sure as hell smelled like it was his," Inuyasha spat, his ire returning, "I just can't believe it, you know?  Fucking bullshit."

Miroku nodded sagely, "Indeed, but Kagome always said that your brother had a soft spot for the girl.  Remember when he brought her here for that week a few years ago?  He agreed to all the terms you set for her staying here.  He left the village and didn't return for a week, but he still returned for her."

"Yea, I remember," Inuyasha muttered glumly, "he skulked around my forest the whole time, driving me crazy by staying just outside my senses.  I damn well near walked in there and blasted his fucking head off.  If I didn't know that it would piss Kagome off something awful, I would've."

"Da-ad," Dachi interrupted with a scowl that could match his father, "I'm bored, and the girls don't want to do anything but play with each other's hair."  He puffed his cheeks and crossed his eyes, as if that expression were his only means to properly describe his level of distaste with the situation.

Inuyasha smiled cheekily at his eldest, ruffling his silver bangs.

"Aw, don't worry about it kid," he laughed, "Why don't ya' sit with me and your Uncle Miroku, eh? Shippo should be here later on."

"Yeah?" the boy's mood immediately improved as he thought of all the neat tricks his friend Shippo would show him, and then, of all the neat tricks they could play on the girls.

00000

Sesshomaru could count, on his one good hand, the number of times that the swirling knot of fear had settled in his gut.  

The first time, he had visited Bokusenou after his father's battle with Ryuukotsusei, and subsequent battle with the human Takenmaru.  As he saw the Sword hanging from the boughs of the old demon tree, he knew.  His father was dead, the enemies of his father would be coming for him now, and all he was left, as the fear and grief swiftly rushed from his chest to be replaced with outright fury, was Tenseiga, a healing sword.  That memory alone was enough to send him into a howling rage.

The second time was two centuries later, when he first confronted his half brother's demon form.  It was after he sought council from Bokusenou on the matter, that he realized why his father divided the swords as he did.  The Inu No Taisho had faith in the burgeoning abilities of his eldest, and left him a sword that would ensure his survival into adulthood.  While Inuyasha, though powerful for a half-demon, would need a sword to both protect him from more powerful enemies and seal his strong demon blood.  It took the final battle with Naraku, and the maturation of his own sword's abilities, before he came to terms with this epiphany.  He never again coveted his brother's sword, gaining a new respect for his own katana.

The third and final time, was this day, as Rin lay several yards away in a stinking human hovel, moaning and crying out in agony.  Every piercing shriek sent a fine, involuntary tremor through his body, the realization dawning on him that he would not be able to save her again.  Tenseiga's abilities could only be called upon once, and should he lose her, she would be lost to him forever.  He would never see her again, never hear her musical laughter, never see that smiling face, not even if he were to join her in death.  Where she would go in the next life, he could not follow.

'Youkai and humans are simply different from one another,' he thought darkly, the weight of the moment finally settling in, a thread of guilt winding around his heart and tightening painfully.  

'I should have left her to her own people.'  

However, he knew in his heart she would never be happy among humans.  She had feared them since the slaughter of her family and her ill treatment by the villagers afterwards.  She claimed that she never wanted to return to them.

"I have only ever felt at peace among you, Master Jaken and Ah Un," she admitted to him once, "I could never live among humans again.  They will despise me because they fear your kind, and they will know that I have been raised by a yokai.  Please, don't make me go, Sesshomaru-sama!"

Her russet eyes sparkled with tears, her face pleading.  It had only been a suggestion.  He was worried for her state of mind, for her future...and his own...but he could never deny her.  Not his Rin.

"Do as you wish," he had told her.

And so she did as she wished, and he did as he wished, and then they did as they wished and ARG, if the imp didn't stop that incessant pacing soon, he was going to strangle him!

"Jaken!" Sesshomaru snapped, "Go tend Ah Un."

Jaken halted mid-step in his well-worn snow burrow to stare bug-eyed at his master.  Sesshomaru's dispassionate expression barely masked his agitation.

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru!" he exhaled, rushing over to the twain-headed dragon and leading him away.  Jaken had no desire to be caught in the Great Yokai's budding wrath.

With Jaken gone, Sesshomaru closed his eyes and did his best to block out the sounds and smells of the small hut across the clearing.  He concentrated on the creaking skeletal boughs of the old oak he sat under, but found it far too annoying.  Turning his attention northward, he heard the distant cawing of carrion birds, but decided that was probably the last image he wished to meditate upon.  With a mental sigh, he chose to do something that he, in his long life, never thought he would do.  He prayed: to every ancestor, every Kami, every major and minor deity that he thought would listen.  

'Just let them be well,' he cried out in his mind. 'Just let this child be healthy,' he added as the disturbing image of his cousin floated to the forefront of his consciousness.

As the sun crept towards the horizon, Sesshomaru gradually became aware of the silence that descended upon the little hut.  Rin's cries had subsided, and all he could hear within was the quiet shuffling of the women inside.  Something in his chest clenched painfully as the seconds ticked by and the bamboo flap remained motionless.

Standing from his vigil beneath the oak, Sesshomaru prepared himself to enter the hut, and greet whatever vision awaited him.  However, before he could take a step forward, the door covering rustled and the young miko emerged, flanked by her tajiya friend.  The girls' faces were drawn, exhausted, and serious.  Disturbingly serious.  Nothing about this situation put Sesshomaru at ease.

His eyes never left the miko.  She approached him with a downcast, apprehensive expression, her sight fixed to the bundle she carried.  Sesshomaru's nose twitched, and he could faintly make out the fresh, clean scent of a newborn.  Every fiber in his being trembled with uncharacteristic anxiety.  He could detect no sickness, no distress from the pup, but it was far too still.  As the miko finally came to stand before him, her gaze met his.  Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears.

'No,' he thought distantly.

"Rin?" he queried, almost afraid to ask.

"She is well," Kagome replied, "She lost a lot of blood, but she will pull through with bed rest.  However, the child..."

Sesshomaru's eyes were immediately drawn to the blanket in her arms.

"I-I'm sorry, Sesshomaru." the young woman stuttered, "He didn't make it."

Sesshomaru blinked several times, unable to put his thoughts in a comprehensible order.

"It's probably better this way," the tajiya interjected, "He was...quite deformed"

Sesshomaru immediately fixed her with a hard glare, and then returned his attention to the bundle in Kagome's possession.  He lifted a shaking hand and drew back the blankets, unsure of what he would have to look upon as his offspring.  The sight that greeted him was not the horror that he had witnessed in Hotaru.  What he found beneath the soft wool was his own visage, in his True Form.  A downy, white puppy, the mark of the crescent moon a fuzzy violet patch on his forehead.  As he laid a gentle claw against his newborn son's muzzle, his gaze softened.  He traced the soft pink stripe below the boy's closed eyes with a tenderness he never knew he possessed.

'His youki must be very strong,' Sesshomaru thought with no small amount of pride, 'for none of his human features to show through.  I can barely detect the human blood in him.'

"He is perfect," Sesshomaru muttered hoarsely, almost below Kagome's hearing.  She could feel Sango stiffen behind her.  

"Why is he dead?  I detect no sickness in him."  The look on Sesshomaru's face in that moment nearly broke Kagome's heart, but his accusatory tone filled her with an awful sense of dread.

"The umbilical cord was wrapped around his throat." she tried to explain, hoping that Sesshomaru would understand the complications and not place undue blame upon her, Sango or Kaede, "He was strangled.  It was all we could do to see Rin through the labor."

'Strangled in the womb.'  Sesshomaru thought fiercely, 'No son of mine will meet such a fate!'

His face hardened, a vicious look passed over him as he set his attention back on Kagome.

"Put him down," he ordered, dropping his hand from the infant's face.  Kagome hesitated, doubting Sesshomaru had any form of good intention in mind, and wished, not for the first time since his brother alighted on their property, that Inuyasha had decided to stick around.

"Put Him Down," Sesshomaru bellowed, his tone brooking no argument.  Kagome swallowed hard, and placed the pup at his feet, stumbling gracelessly back several paces.  She could sense Sango behind her, preparing to strike, no matter how futile such an action may be.

Sesshomaru's attention remained on his son as he reached for his sword.  Tenseiga pulsed with its master's intent.  As his grip tightened on the Fang of Heaven, Sesshomaru's eyes went hazy, clouding over to pierce the veil between worlds.  It was only moments before they appeared, the gnarled messengers of the underworld.

Do you think you are a god, or something? His mother's taunting tenor reverberated in his soul.

'No,' he replied to her, 'I have someone to protect.'

With a grim determination and one firm stroke, the messengers were destroyed, reduced to snarling ash.  

Kagome watched Sesshomaru sheath Tenseiga with a loud click.  She knew he cut at something, even if it did appear that he simply passed his sword through thin air.  Then there was a soft whine from the bundle at his feet, and a wet, pink nose wormed its way towards Sesshomaru's boot. The pup whimpered softly, protesting his position on the cold ground.

The young miko could not contain a soft gasp.  Kagome heard the loud crunch of snow as Sango collapsed to her knees, her relief palpable.

Sesshomaru paid them no mind.  He stooped down to retrieve his newborn son from the ground, nestling him in the crook of his right arm.  Turning his attention to a stunned pair of women, he grunted noncommittally, his expression regaining its former apathy.

Then, without indication that he had just defied the strings of fate, his voice broke the uneasy silence.

"Take me to Rin."