For the Nights we Remember
It was a shitty night; that much she could remember. It had been raining heavily against the hut she and her mate shared, such an annoying noise that once calmed her. It had been so loud that she couldn't sleep, much unlike the man sleeping next to her. Long, midnight black hair cascaded down her shoulder and back as she flipped onto her side. Honestly, being pregnant was the most uncomfortable experience for someone who was so used to sleeping on their stomach. Her mate, sleeping next to her soundly, didn't stir as she sat up from their futon and walked to the front room. Grabbing her bow and arrow set, growled softly and stepped out into the rain, knowing if her mate woke he would be furious she left his protection while she was so round. She waddled out to the Sacred Tree, the first place she met the brash young man that she called her own. There, she was met by another woman much like herself. The resemblance between the two was uncanny, except for the demonic mark shaped in a crescent moon on her cheek that marked the first as the mate of a youkai, and that she was heavily pregnant where as the doppelganger was as flat as the day the two had first met. A miko, one sworn to never know the touch of a man nor the joy of carrying one's child stood at the base of the old tree, running her hand down the trunk right where a dent had been placed and an arrow hole were placed. She turned to the youkai-looking woman before her, a hidden sadness in her stoic face as she dropped her own bow and arrow set to show she had meant no harm.
"You are with child?" It was a simple question, yet it held so much beneath it, much like the second's face. With a smile, the woman rubbed her engorged stomach gently.
"Hai. She is to be due in a couple weeks. He's ecstatic, you know?" The colder woman's face cracked, depression seeping through the hard expression she had been trained to maintain. The pregnant one's smile faded, knowing it was wrong to gloat in this case. "He wishes it was not with me though. You know it was you he had wanted. He had wanted you to have his child."
"I couldn't. He knew this. That's why I told him to go to you. He loves you, and you would be more than willing to bear his children," An ironic smile crept its way onto the young woman's face. "Even if it had been me he truly wanted, I could never give him the things that you could. I could never give him life… that is why I turned to my miko training; studied so hard, trying to find a reason as to why the Kami's wouldn't bless me with the gift of life, giving the man I had loved more than anything… all I had wanted was to make him happy." She cast her glance to the floor now. "I'm happy, because he is happy. His first child is to be due in a couple of weeks. All he had ever wanted is coming true. A mate, a child, a family… a place to belong, he has all of that now," Looking up at the once miko, the woman continued," and I have you to thank." A smile met both women's faces. "I am happy for the both of you. I should hope this young one will be as beautiful as her mother and as strong and brave as her father."
"Thank-you, for your blessing; for everything." With a nod, the miko turned to leave, but not before the pregnant village woman got in one last word. "He still loves you, you know." The miko turned her head slightly, just enough for the woman to see a tear cascade down her face.
"I know; which is why I must depart, lest he realize I was here. He is on his way, and I do not want him to know I still remain whilst he has a child and mate. It would crush more than one person." With that she left, two shinigami stepping out from behind a tree to follow her. One had long black curls trailing down her back and piercing amber eyes, much like the woman envisioned her own child to appear like. The other had pure silver hair that was just as long as his twin's and golden-brown eyes that shone brightly. Both possessed matching koinu ears on top of their heads and dressed in pure white kimonos, signifying them as shinigami. The miko disappeared into the foliage with the two children, not leaving any trace of her being there at all.
The pregnant woman sighed and turned around to see amber eyes looking at her furiously. She took a step back and smiled softly. "I merely wished to get some air, Inuyasha. You know I am fully capable of protecting myself. Besides, in this forest I am most safest; no youkai dare enter the forest you protect."
"Keh! I've told you a million times to wake me if you wanted to get some air or piss or whatever! Youkai may not come in, but ningen are just as dangerous! And you can't protect yourself against them!" he pulled her into his embrace and whispered fiercely, "I won't lose you and the pup. I won't even risk it. I won't lose you like I did her." With a nod from the pregnant woman, she began to walk back to the hut she and Inuyasha shared. When she realized he was not following immediately, she turned to see him staring at the base of the tree, right below where he had been pinned for 50 years. There, lay a small grave, in which was carved the name of his true love. He sniffed gingerly as tears pricked at his eyes. Even after five years, sorrow still filled his heart at the mere sight of the gravestone. The pregnant woman came back to her husband and placed a hand on his back.
"Inuyasha?" It wasn't until she saw a tear trail down his cheek that she realized how wrong her doppelganger had been. He wasn't even content, not as long as she wasn't in his life.
"She was so depressed when she found out she couldn't carry a child. She thought that was all I ever wanted… didn't she know I loved her regardless of whether or not she could bear me a child? Why'd she have to go and jump? Why?" He held his mate so tightly to him as he cried into her shoulder; a very un-Inuyasha thing to do.
"You… you never really did say goodbye. Maybe it would be best to have a few moments alone to get it all out?" With a nod in her shoulder and sorrow in her heart, she left the area, leaving her mate to finally say goodbye to his true love. She would not betray the miko's wish that he not know, because quite frankly, she was selfish. She finally was happy, even at the cost of her love's happiness. She had brought the miko back to life on the Shikon no Tama, because she did not wish that such a pure soul be put to waste. She and the miko had agreed on Inuyasha not knowing, for he would surely pursue her and seek to claim her as his mate instead of the way fate had intended it.
Inuyasha knelt in front of his love's grave, and spoke for the first time. "Hey… long time no see. I know I don't come here that often… but it's all too painful, ya know?" he sighed as rivers continued to spill from his eyes. "I didn't care. I didn't care about having a baby. I was just happy to be lucky enough to have a wonderful woman like you who was willing to be with me as a hanyou. The memories are too painful to bear koishii." Silence met his ears as everything began to disappear from his view except for the grave. "I miss you, and I think she realizes it. It's just not the same. Nothing compares to the happiness I felt when I was with you. The sense of being complete, one with the rest of my soul, it's all gone now. But I guess, I gotta move on, gotta stop living in the past with you. I got a baby on the way, and a mate whose way too stubborn for her own good, always saying she can do things without me, just like you used to, back when the pups were still in you." In a quiet voice he added,"I'll name her after you cause when I'll look at her, it'll be you I'm thinking of, cause she should have been yours. " With a sigh Inuyasha finally said those words he hadn't dares utter to the gravestone, nor her pyre when they burned her remains. "So I guess this…this is goodbye." He picked himself up and turned to leave. As he left the clearing, he caught the faint scent of vanilla and sakura blow in the winds and the sound of children laughing met his ears. His eyes opened wide in shock as a whisper escaped his lips. There, not even 50 yards away were two pups, both who looked like the stillborns that his beloved Kagome had birthed before finding out she was unable to carry a child.
"It can't be…"
Deep inside their shared hut, the Kikyo began crying as the pain in her heart became overwhelming. In the beginning she had always come first when it came to matters of the heart, but now, she was just as her doppelganger had been. It was then, in that moment of realization, that a different kind of pain swept through her being and water leaked a trail down her legs. With a cry to her mate, one loud enough she was sure the whole village had heard, the woman went into labor just as the sun rose. When her baby finally arrived, the sun was well over everyone's heads and the father was no where to be found and she was left with the tiny, baby boy. Silver hair barely covering his scalp as two silver koinu ears sat limply on the top of his head. When his eyes opened, beautiful bright brown eyes met her cold dark ones. Everyone had been so sure she was going to have a girl… She stared in wonder as the child cooed and whined, making weird faces as the onslaught of new scents hit his tiny nose. She would have this treasure, her little boy, as her last memory of her hanyou mate; she knew he would not return. She had made sure to uncover Kagome's scent before she left. He would search for her. She had her happiness, now they both deserved theirs.
Back in the clearing, many hours later, Sango found a stunned Inuyasha watching two younger hanyou playing, and a miko watching over them. She had long, wavy black hair, rosy, healthy skin full of life, and eyes that shone brighter than the sun. Her kimono was not that of an average miko; a light green village kimono with a purple obi. The sun was smiling with them, as Kagome and Inuyasha were finally reunited.
A/N
Yay! My first one-shot in over a year! It was really hard to write this without giving Kikyo and Kagome away.
Ja!
Shuro-chan