InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ There I Was ❯ Cursed ( Chapter 26 )

There I Was

Chapter Twenty-six: Cursed

{Disclaimer: I don't own this, so don't even try to drag me into court. I don't do well in closed spaces like that.}

Authors Note: I'm so incredibly sorry for the wait! I had the chapter all ready to post, and then my computer didn't save it right so the file was corrupted! So, here it is now. There are only about three chapters after this one, so I hope to get this done by the time Otakon hits. And yeah, I know toward the end it kinda feels like Sleeping Beauty, but I couldn't help it. Sorry. Review responses are below, ja.

EclipseOfThree: Yes, you were thinking what I was thinking.

StarDust1219: Yes you're absolutely right.

-Flame

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The sun shone through the curtains from the balcony and hit my eyes. I rolled over and buried them in Sessh's side. I did not want to get up yet. Saiya had sent us a message a few weeks after their visit saying we were going to hold the next gathering in honor of my return. I have a deep suspicion that Sessh had something to do with it. After all, it's now been two months since our reunion. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure Saiyako will show up.

I have no intention on meeting up with that woman at the moment. I sighed as the sun continued to hit my face and sat up. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and heard my beloved mate's deep voice beside me.

"Morning mate." I flopped back down and buried my head in his chest once again.

"Must we go?" I asked and placed a hand next to my face, brushing against a nipple. I heard his breath catch in his throat and smirked.

"Yes, we must."

"Why?" I asked, again brushing that part of his body. He hissed and grabbed my wrist in his iron grip. He could easily break that wrist with a simple squeeze, yet he only uses enough pressure to emphasize his point.

"This is Toshi's first gathering. We must attend."

"So? We nearly didn't go to my first one."

"No, we nearly didn't go to the last day. There is a difference."

"I still don't want to go." I crossed my arms over my chest as Sessh let go of my wrist. I felt his arms snake around me and my body lift from the bed.

"You just don't want to face the other ladies."

"They never liked me to begin with, why should that change now?" "They have missed you and realized they're mistake. Just as Saiya said she wanted to patch up her relationship with you, the other ladies want to as well."

"Did I really make that much of a difference?" I looked into his golden gaze as we entered the hot spring. He looked at me and his gaze softened.

"You made a difference to everyone you came in contact with. I have gotten many letters saying how excited they are to be able to see you again." I blushed and nuzzled his chest.

"You're lying. One person can't do all that."

"You should not look down upon the power of one." I looked up at him again as the hot liquid surrounded us. He let me go and I waded over to the oils. Could I have really changed everyone I met here? Have I disrupted the flow of time by doing so? I sighed and quickly bathed with Sessh behind me.

We walked back into your bedroom and started dressing. Sessh wore exactly what he usually wore, but he had me put on something new. He wanted me to look stunning when I returned and the dress was nothing but stunning.

The dress had two parts to it, so I guess it was more like a shirt and skirt combo. The shirt was sleeveless and a light silver color with an azure trim accenting my chest and the end of it. It had a gem in the center of my chest the same color of the trim. The skirt was full-length and darker silver with a slit no more than two inches from my waist. I turned to Sessh and looked at him flatly.

"It shows my scar." I pointed to the scar peeking out of the shirt to cross my shoulder. "I want a jacket of some sort."

"I think it looks perfect."

"I still would like a jacket." Sessh moved me over to the vanity and sat me down on the cushion.

"You look fine. The others will consider the scar a badge of honor and strength." He said and laid a kiss on my cheek. I watched through the mirror as he picked up a brush and began brushing my hair. "It's gotten longer." He commented and gently untangled the knots that had appeared from sleep, as well as a few other things.

"I really didn't have time to cut it." My hair was in fact longer than it was before I left. It was down to my waist now. He pulled it up and tied a blue bow around it on top of my head so my hair fell behind me like a tail. The ends of my hair brushed my shoulders as I moved my head to look at it. "Where did you learn to style hair?" Granted it was only a ponytail, but there aren't many guys that I knew who can do one this well. There were no bubbles on the top of my head or on the sides at all.

"I would watch my mother when I was younger. Sometimes she asked me to hold things for her." He said as he picked up something else from the vanity. I watched as his hands moved around my neck and a coldness touch my skin. He removed his hands and I looked in awe at the choker he had placed around my throat.

It was a dark silver that matched the skirt with the same azure stone in the center. All around the choker was gold that accented the whole ensemble. I blinked at myself in the mirror and shook my head. "I don't look like myself."

"You just haven't been dressed up in so long you've forgotten how stunning you truly are." I blushed and stood from the cushion.

"You sure I can't skip?"

"Positive." He said and took my arm. We walked out of the bedroom together and towards the dining room. It was all set up for the gathering, and I felt very small. We sat at one of the tables where Toshi was waiting for us, and the two men started eating. It was then I felt a very familiar, very unexpected pain in my stomach. I was hungry.

I grabbed one of the servant's sleeves as she walked by and blushed. She looked down at me with her aqua eyes and waited for me to speak. "Ano…I was ah…wondering if I could uh…get some breakfast?" I heard two pairs of hashi hit plates behind me and blushed darker.

"Of course milady." The servant rushed off to the kitchen and I faced the two men.

"Are you alright mom?" I nodded and wished to hide behind my hair, but it was pulled back and it couldn't fall to hide my face. Toshi had every right to ask if I was alright, I mean after the fight I put up to not eat breakfast and then to turn around and eat it, was a bit misleading.

I looked over at Sessh and saw his eyes sparkle with so much pride it was nearly blinding. That got me a bit mad. How could he be so proud that I just became a hypocrite? "What are you so prideful about?" I could keep the anger out of my voice and he smiled.

"Think about it. When was the only other time you ate breakfast?"

"The day we were separated, but I don't see what that had anything to do wi---" I stopped and looked at him. My eyes widened as a thought dawned upon me. I was pregnant then. "You don't think…" He smiled wider and my breakfast was placed in front of me. I picked up my hashi and started eating.

"Think what?" Toshi asked looking between the both of us for answers.

"That day your mother was pregnant with you."

"You mean…" He turned his gaze to me and I blushed as I placed a bite of food in my mouth. "I'm going to have a little brother or sister?"

"That's our theory." I quickly finished my meal and stood up.

"Lets get this over with then!" Sessh smiled and took my arm in his own. Toshi followed behind us and we all made our way to the high balcony. I smiled as I saw Rin in one of her best kimonos with her mate waiting for us there. I hugged her and her mate, much to Sessh's displeasure, and we talked as we waited for the other Lords to arrive.

We did not have to wait long. Not even five minutes after we got there the other Lords entered. I watched as all my old friends came in and bowed to us. I have to say, I was quite relieved to see Saiyako was not with them. As soon as they we all there I ran down the stairs, only pausing to pick up my skirt to make sure I didn't fall.

I ran over to the Lords and their families and gathered them in a large hug. We all started laughing as everyone else came over. Sessh pulled me back against him and I smiled at all my friends before me. "It's so good to see you all again!"

"And you as well Lady Kagome." Goro smiled. "I have greatly missed our conversations."

"It has been rather quiet round here without ya." Kana smiled.

"Yes, yes, we're all glad to see Kagome alive and well." Kouga stepped forward. "But we have some time we have to make up for." I smiled as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of Sessh's grasp and ran off into the crowd. I could hear Sessh growl behind us and laughed.

"He is going to be so angry at you for this." I said as we entered the library to plot.

"Let him be." I smiled and shook my head.

"Okay, so what are we going to do? It has to be something big."

"Yeah…" We all sat and thought about it for a few moments and I brightened.

"I've got it!"

"Oh?"

"We could tie string to each tablecloth and set it up so that when the people pull out the chairs to sit down the cloth rips."

"That's good. Maybe we could also put a fish in the punch."

"Are they still using that same recipe?" Kouga nodded and I grimaced. That recipe was vile. I've had better spiked punch before, and I don't like the taste of alcohol. "Perfect." We smirked and ran toward the seamstress. We passed the group of Lords and their families and I think I heard one of them say they were afraid of what we were plotting.

We quickly grabbed a few bobbins of white thread and ran back to the dining room. We each took a few bobbins and tied ends to the tablecloths and tied them to the chairs so tight the cloth was bound to rip. We ran to table after table until they were all tied and other youkai started filling in.

Kouga and I laughed to ourselves as we ran outside and decided on how to get the fish. "Well…there's a lake about three miles that way." I pointed toward the direction I remembered the lake to be.

"Sounds like a plan to me. I go get a fish, and you stay here. Maru-sama would kill me if I took you."

"I agree." I waved as he jumped the fence and headed back to the others. They were still in the great hall talking and I walked next to Sessh and tried not to be noticed, but to no avail.

"Where is my son?" Kouji asked. I looked at him and froze.

"He's ah…reliving himself!" Yaye! I'm not so bad at thinking up explanations anymore!

"Alright." I let out the breath I had been holding just as a ruckus started towards the door.

"Get out of my way!" I heard a very familiar, very frightening voice yell through the crowd. I stiffened and sucked in a breath. I knew who it was, and apparently so did everyone else. The ladies were narrowing their eyes toward the noise and the lords were growling at it. Sessh held me tighter and I clung to him for dear life. I was not reading to face her yet.

The crowd parted and Saiyako appeared in a dark green kimono. She looked at me in rage and screamed. "You should be dead!" I guess she didn't care if people knew she what she had done to me anymore. "The injuries I gave you should have killed you in the snow storm!"

"Calm yourself Saiyako." A smooth, dark voice spoke from further in the crowd. I knew this voice too, and I tensed up even further. Sessh looked into my wide frightened eyes as the man I had feared for most of my adult life walked next to Saiyako. Sessh growled louder once he saw him.

"I am calm!" She yelled and Naraku placed him hands on her shoulders.

"Unhand my daughter, you fiend!" Kouji yelled.

"Unhand her? I believe not. She is after all my mate. I have every right to handle her." To emphasize his point he moved one of his hands down her chest to cup and massage her breast. Kouji's growl increased at the sight and Saiyako sucked in a breath. "Now truly, you must calm yourself, mate." He licked her ear and let her go. She took a few deep breaths and looked at me menacingly.

"I tried to be reasonable, I tried to be forceful, but neither have worked. You have left me no choice." She narrowed her eyes and threw her hands in the air. "All here listen `round! I here by place a curse upon the Lady of the West!" Sessh growled even louder. I never realized he could growl so loud. I was sure he would have lunged for her to stop her if I had not been holding onto him so tightly. "Her body shall indeed stay at its full beauty, but inside she shall grow old. She shall grow old from the inside until she cannot live any longer. She shall die slowly through the years, so slowly it seams as if nothing is wrong, but it shall be painful." She started cackling as the guards finally made it through the crowd.

Naraku wrapped his arms around his mate and a cloud of miasma started filling the room. Sessh pulled me closer to him and covered my mouth with his chest as he jumped to the high balcony. When the miasma cleared, Saiyako and Naraku were gone. Kouga came running in at that moment with a smile on his face.

"Sorry, did I miss anything." He backed up a step as everyone glared at him and I sighed.

That was all many centuries ago. It's only three years before the day I travel back in time and meet Sessh. Through the years I have learned so many things about my life that never made sense until now.

I know why Kana was always protecting me in the past, when I was younger. He knew who I would become in the future. Not only that, but one of my best friends from high school in America was Inuyasha, even though he went by another name. He was also extremely protective of me. Christine is even Kouga's mate. She's been with me longer than I can remember. I even started writing children's books like I've always wanted, under a pen name of course. It's funny; I was the one who wrote Shippou's favorite children's story. I've told all of these things to Sessh. It all means that I was suppose to return to the past.

The more disturbing things I've found out though I've kept to myself. Our second child, she looks like Sessh's mother. She has blonde hair and sapphire eyes. It was only after she became a woman and we moved to America that I realized why I always felt that I knew her. She was Shippou's foster mother. It makes me wonder what happened to her. Is she unable to bear children? Or will she never find a mate? Those thoughts were soon differed when our third child was born.

He had red hair and emerald eyes like my father. When I held him in my arms for the first time there was no mistaking it. He was Shippou. He was my little trooper. I cried that day, and Sessh couldn't understand why. I refuse to tell him. He is still disturbed about it. That was the day that I realized I was going to die soon.

It's not like I don't want to tell him, it's just I can't. He's paranoid enough about the curse. He can't deny it any longer. He's seen me in pain before. Sometimes I'll get a random attack and start screaming. Sessh holds me and he's told me he is able to feel the weakness in me growing. If I told him I only had a year or two left he'd lock me inside a padded room.

That's why I do all I can to be the best mother to Shippou as I can. I don't write anymore, and I never really told Sessh why. He knows I'm hiding things from him and he tries to get me to tell him ever chance he gets, but I always refuse.

The one thing that bothers me the most is the fact that he dies a year after me. Shippou never told me how his parents died, and with good reason too. The only thing I know is the time. Does he follow his mother's example and die of a broken heart? That's the only logical explanation I can think up, and it's wrong. For sixteen years he thought I was dead, and he lived through all of them.

I suppose as long as this last year or two are memorable it'll be alright. I may even be able to pass on in peace.