Disclaimer: The characters of InuYasha by Rumiko Takahashi are in no way the property of myself.

WarningThis story may also seem slightly OOC and is meant for present day and not the feudal era.

He had watched her carefully from the window to his bedroom. He had watched her when his half-brother wasn't watching him. He had watched her since the day that she had first met his half-brother and himself. At first, she was an enigma to both his and her kinds. She was a miko and yet she befriended anyone she came across and was unlike the other humans; she didn't smell of the death, illness, and decay but like a rainy summer night. His half-brother, her and their friends all hung out at his house often and he acted like he was indifferent, but he secretly enjoyed the moments where she tried to get him to join them. Those moments were his little treasures until his father passed away. The whole empire that his father ran then fell to him and he was removed from his previous home life. The times that he watched her were few but special to him. There were dinners and the times she slept over at his home when her grandfather fell ill. He had few moments where she had quickly embraced him before leaving with his younger half-brother to go see this festival and that movie. He watched her study her school books when she was in high school and college.

There were all these occasions in which he could bring up the memory of her beauty and kindness. But only one trumped the others. It was that time in which his younger half-brother had gone away for school and left her behind for a mere semester. She occasionally had come to see him and kept him company thinking he was lonely without his half-brother. However, he knew that she was the one that was truly lonely. She had sat out in the garden drinking tea while he finished up some of his papers. The sun was setting once he had finished and he found her sitting beneath his favorite cherry tree. The sun shone off of her raven black hair and tinged her skin the warm tan that it would be by the end of summer. She had not heard him approach and sat watching the birds play in the other part of the garden. She reminded him of a goddess caught on one of her travels through the human world. And in that moment, he could no longer ignore his buried feelings and he understood how much he wanted her as his own.

He had sat down with her that day and after some simple talk, he reached out to her and kissed those soft lips that he had for so long only imagined to have touched. Her skin was warm and soft beneath his hands and she had surrendered to him and his kiss. The stress and tension in his neck and shoulders seemed to vanish under her wandering hands. A soft moan and a look at the tender blush of her cheeks and lips nearly undid him. He beckoned her to come with him and she easily followed. The trip from the garden to his main bedroom was strewn with soon forgotten garments and he was glad that he had sent the servants away for the evening. That evening he took her roughly at first but then more gently as the night went on. His ears were pleasantly filled with her mewls of pleasure and the whispers of his name like silk across his tightened senses. The beast within him howled with relief but he refused to fulfill the need to create in her a piece of them until she really could be just his. She stayed with him for the weekend until she had to return to school and him to work. But work eluded him as his mind was filled with her tender flesh and bright blue eyes that swirled with mystery.

He was not able to hear from her for a week or so but had left messages for her in multiple ways. When she finally replied and agreed to be with him again, he had news of his half-brother's return. He arranged a fancy dinner and hotel so as to be away from his brother and told him that he was going to be out on business. She agreed to come with him but called to say she would have to meet him at the hotel. He was wound with lust and an urgency to see this woman he wanted as his own. He cancelled the dinner and planned a candlelight one in the hotel room. He dressed and tried to rush there but was caught up by traffic. He told his driver to go home and raced the rest of the way there with the speed he was born with. He opened the door to the hotel to find the balcony to the beach front opened. He found a crumpled blue dress lying near the floor illuminated only by the moon and the candles. He dropped everything that was at the forefront of his mind and found her lying on the bed in a silken robe. It was like in his dreams to see her there waiting for him and wanting him.

He made love to her like never before. After their shared release, he led her to the dinner table and tried to keep himself from taking her there too. He looked upon her face once he was sitting and found his surprise at the sadness held in her eyes. He was taken aback.

"What is wrong?" he mumbled while grasping her shaky hand. He could tell that she was trying to hold back the tears. "Was I not good to you as I promised?"

"That isn't it." She managed to mutter out. She kept a hold on his hand but looked away out the window. He could only think back to that best day. No, it was his best weekend of his long life.

"Then what is it?" He got out of his chair and kneeled at her side. He ran his hand down her jaw, caressing away the tears with his thumb.

"I don't love you…no, I can't love you…because I love your brother." She whispered. The shock and pain was like a slap to his face and he found his hand slipping away from her cheek. "He asked me to go away with him. The opportunity that you set up for him in Europe really worked out for him. He wants me there with him and I told him yes."

"Then why did you tell me yes?" he asked although he was unsure if he really wanted to know the answer.

"I had to be sure. After our… time together… I was scared of what was happening. I needed time to think and I finally decided that I had to be sure. I had to be with you tonight so that I could understand who I needed. And I need him. I'm sorry…" she seemed to swallow up her sadness to try and show a brave face while she shattered what remained of his already broken heart. He found his mind coming up with cruel things to say to try to protect himself from this slip of a creature she was; just a mar on the artwork that was the world. "I think I needed a diversion from the loss of him and you filled that spot well. I'm sorry."

"Leave me, wench." He growled beneath his breath. His hands were tightly gripping the legs of the chair so that he would not touch her with the anger that was roiling inside of him. His face was shadowed by the curtain of his hair for which he was thankful that she could not see the change that she was causing in him. She quickly slipped from the chair and put the dress back on. She rested her hand on the door knob for a moment and he could sense her looking back on his still form. And then she was gone.

He lurched forward to the balcony without a care to his nakedness while his body fought against his mind and won with a despaired howl to the silent sea. He hoped she heard and that she felt guilt and self-loathing for what she had done. He immediately returned inside and called his half-brother to keep him from being around while he was home. But he found out that it wasn't a problem at all because his half-brother was going to stay with her. She was gone and out of his hands and she was slipping further and further out of his heart as well.

That memory was the one that always followed the best weekend of his life for it was the nearly the worst moment in his life. He had buried away the insignificant piece of jewelry that had rested on the dinner table and he had replaced his mattress and hidden the sheets they had shared. When the invitation came for their matrimony, he denied it and refused to visit claiming that he was busy with work. But really, he had drowned himself in the pitiful accompaniment of dark haired youkai women and then found someone he could truly take care of. The uncanny resemblance to his miko just seemed to be a plus because they truly did look alike and were only separated by a number of years between their births. He was often sent letters by his half-brother's wife and he had rarely ever read them especially after the birth announcement that came shortly after their marriage. Try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to forget her or even hate her for the hurt she caused him. It was with those thoughts that he continued on and buried himself in work.

"Papa?" a girlish whisper came from his study door and he looked up to find the girl he had adopted as his own that so reminded him of the subject of his recent thoughts.

"What is it?" he asked while looking at her over the pile of papers stacked on his desk.

She slipped in the door and shut it softly behind her. She then came around to his side of the desk and pulled him aside so that she could sit comfortably in his lap. "Uncle has been murdered. His widow is on her way back to Japan. I sent her an invitation to stay here until she can find a place of her own. I hope that is okay? I told her that we would help her with the funeral arrangements."

He growled to himself in frustration and quickly tried to think of a way to escape. "Very well. While I wish I had had more warning, it is unavoidable. When is she to arrive?"

"Today. She should actually be here in an hour…I would have told you much sooner but you have been immersing yourself in your work. I had your butler set up a room for her already and I will help her with the arrangements, I promise."

"What?" he burst out and nearly caused his daughter to go tumbling to the floor. He got up quickly and picked up the papers that had fluttered to the floor in disarray from his outburst. "It is fine… I will just need to run by the office for a bit. You can have the cooks make some tea and your favorite dinner but no need to wait on me. He shoved some papers into a briefcase and ignored her saddened expression. He felt lame for doing this to her but he needed to get away and think before his miko got there and sent his world tumbling down again. So to work he managed to escape.

It was several hours later in the evening when he finally returned home. The scent of a summer rain was laced around his home and he followed it like a bee to honey until he was standing in front of the bedroom door that he knew she lay just beyond. It was way late and he knew that she would be asleep but he listened for the even breaths before he pushed the door open and came to her bedside again like he did when they were younger. She slept with half the covers on and was on her back but stretched across just like she used to do. She wore something simple and soft and it took a lot of control for him to not reach out and touch her. She was still beautiful and even more so since motherhood had graced her. He sat down on the edge of the bed with his back to her and froze when she placed her hand on his back.

"I was worried." She mumbled through her sleepy haze.

He turned his head ever so slightly to watch her from his peripheral. "What were you worried about?"

"I was worried I wouldn't ever get to see you again even though we would be so close. I know you've been ignoring me, and it has hurt a lot." She had sat up and was leaning her forehead against his shoulder. Her hair shone from the moonlight coming through the window and he resisted the urge to reach and touch it.

He allowed the moment to pass before speaking again, "you had hurt me before you left. Then even more so while you were gone and eloping with that half-wit."

"I have had a lot of time to think and there has been a lot that has gone on since we left Japan. I was pregnant that first year we were gone and we quickly got married so that it wouldn't be bad. However, as time went on, we found ourselves falling into a hole…" She reached up and brushed a hand through the hair at the nape of his neck which she had found out he liked when they had been together. He suppressed the purr that wanted to come out but after a while of her not relenting, he surrendered and gave her what she wanted.

"You were quick to forget me then with a child so soon." He mumbled.

"That is not the case. I thought of you for every single day of every year that we were gone. I hate myself for what I did to you and I regret it because as time went on, I had found myself truly in love with you." She quieted and did not move to even breathe like she waited for what he would do. As much as he wanted to turn her away, he could not deal with the aftermath of bearing with himself for that cruelty.

"And what of my half-brother?" he asked instead.

She pulled back a bit and moved to the side of the bed where he sat. She swung her legs off the side and said, "He really did love me and I felt bad for not being able to return the feeling. There was a time that we were together and he caught me saying your name instead of his own. After that, he basically shunned me. He moved to the other side of the home and had affairs. He got into bad business and that is what ultimately killed him."

He sat there staring at their feet; his so big next to her own. Her bare legs captured his attention because in their entirety, they captured him. He had a thing for her legs being wrapped around him. After another moment of silence, she fell into his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her. He was shocked at the feel of wetness pattering on his thigh and sniffed to smell her tears. He reached over and caressed her cheek with his thumb and wiped away the tears.

"So what does his child think of all this?" He had to ask her. He had to know about the thing that came from the both of them.

"She was saddened when we first separated but she accepts the knowledge that I gave her. After all, he is not her father but instead her 'uncle' is her father," she admitted.

"Me?" he asked flabbergasted.

"Yes, she is yours from our last night together. I tried to hide it from your brother but he figured it out anyway which was another reason why we split up." She wrapped her arms around him then and he pressed her face to his chest. "You loved me so tenderly and I felt so afraid when we were together. For so long, I had thought that I might love your brother; but then when we were together, it changed everything and I felt so afraid that I wanted to stick with something safe. I had always thought you rather indifferent towards me. But that day opened my eyes to something new and wonderful. I want to be with you. I know and understand that and I only hope that you can accept me once again."

He thought for a long while on what he wanted to do. He knew that if he turned her away now, that she might never return to him again. The relief from her admitting her feelings for him overwhelmed him and his beast told him to accept her. Plus, he thought, it would be more ideal for him to take his child under his wing and that came as a joint deal. He watched the moon cross the sky and recognized that she had fallen asleep leaning against him. What should he do? He wondered that for a good couple of hours before taking her into his arms, carefully enough to not rouse her from her sleep. He left the room with her against him and took her back into his bed and slept next to her.

The next morning was wrought with as much anxiety as the night before as he anticipated the meeting with the girl that was said to be his. He had showered quickly before his miko had awoken. He sat and watched her until her eyes opened wearily. He felt badly for having kept her awake so late but it had given him the chance to watch her sleep in a new found peace. She crawled over to him and rested her head on his shoulder while deeply inhaling the smell of his cologne like she had done before.

"Thank you." She sighed.

"For what?" he asked as she pulled away and searched for the suitcase that was still in the other room.

"For forgiving me and taking me back into your heart." She replied. She settled her eyes back on him once she decided that it was simply not here.

He stood up from the bedside and went to the bedroom door waiting for her to follow, "you still have some mending to do." She laughed lightly and followed him to her old room where he waited outside the door for her to dress. He mulled it over in his mind time and time again that this time he would do things right by courting his miko as to allow her to know his intentions. Once she was done, he escorted her to the small garden table under a gazebo which had been the breakfast table ever since his adopted daughter had arrived. The garden around them had sprung to life a few weeks before and it smelled delightful. His miko delighted in serving the tea and in taking her surroundings in until his adopted daughter arrived with their daughter.

He took in the girl quickly while she shyly took him in as well. She was petite like her mother but beautiful with shimmering silver hair like his. Her eyes were the same blue as her mother's and they shimmered like the sea which was reflected in her scent from living by the ocean for her life to this point. The same pointed ears as what had adorned his half-brother's head were twitching back and forth on her head.

"My love, I present to you your father. And as such, your daughter." His miko introduced. The two children sat at the table with his adopted one next to him and the other across from him. They continued to eye each other over before she finally spoke.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you." She muttered softly. He nodded in reply and then his miko and adopted daughter took over in discussion about the funeral arrangements while he inputted some details as to the location and such of his half-brother's body.

"Where are we going to stay, mother?" their daughter asked.

"You shall stay here in my home as is only proper for my brother's widow and child." He began. His miko frowned gently towards him but he kept speaking. "Then I would like to ask your permissions to court your mother."

"I give my permission," she said. "However, I do not think courting is really needed."

"We should just get married as soon as possible after the funeral is over with." His miko stated. So the conversation turned to talks of marriage and the like of their living the rest of their lives together. And when later he took her to bed, he found himself truly satisfied in finding yet another wonderful day of his life.

EPILOGUE

They all sat there together around the bedroom table whilst remembering and sharing tales of their lives together. He still seemed as young as ever but all of their children had grown into adults. His adopted daughter had come home from her new home with husband in southern Japan. They were celebrating now but the occasion that brought them together was not truly joyous. He had watched her for so many years as she grew older. His miko now lie on her death bed nearby listening in to the tales of their glory days. He shared for the first time the story of their first time truly together and it brought a smile to each child's face to hear their father talking so lovingly of their mother. They had had a brood of six including the two they had before they were married. Everyone was trying to keep the conversation light but he could see the somber look haunting their eyes.

It had not been meant to happen. His miko should have stayed as young as she was when they consummated their marriage. However, some false string of fate had caused her to age each year. He could recall the last time he was able to make love to her before he was too afraid to break her body. His thoughts were going as dark as the sky outside and he turned his children out of the room and to their own for the evening. He walked slowly over to her bedside and grasped her frail hand in his own. Over time, she had gotten more and more depressed as her skin began to wrinkle and sag despite his continued admirations and admissions that he loved her as much as he did before. But it wasn't true because if anything, he loved her even more than he had before as she got closer and closer to the end. He could feel the tears slipping from his eyes but knew she would be too tired to comfort and wipe them away as she had for their children every time they fell or were hurt.

"My love, please do not cry for me." His miko whispered out to him.

He lay next to her and pressed her cold hand to his cheek, "I am afraid that I can no longer hold it in, my heart." It was the nickname that he had given to her after their marriage because that is what she had become. "I knew this day would come and I cannot bear it any more than I could before."

"Everything will be all right. My love?" she looked up to him with her blue eyes as lively as that first night.

"Yes?"

"Can you please hold me closer? Despite all these sheets, I find myself longing for your warmth." And he did pull her into his embrace allowing her head to rest against his collarbone. She shut her eyes and he listened close to her heartbeat to make sure that she stayed with him. Every night he had stayed awake to listen to her heartbeat in fear that if he stopped for one moment, it would cease to exist.

"How can I go on without you?" he asked.

She smiled softly but did not open her eyes, "it is truly simple. You have all of our children to look after and you will always have me with you. I will just simply be waiting for you on the other side while still trying to inhabit your heart. Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes?"

"Do youkai ever sleep?" she asked while looking up to him this time.

"Yes, we do sleep. Sometimes we sleep for a very long time like a bear hibernating in the woods." He answered.

She nodded and shut her eyes again. "I just wanted to ask. It always seemed like I would fall asleep first and you would wake up before me. I always just wanted to watch you sleep but I began to wonder if you ever even did."

"I do not need as much sleep as you do, my heart. Which I think you should probably do now. Rest so that in the morning your children will not worry." He shut his eyes too and rested his hand on her back to feel her heart beating.

"Our children," she scolded him.

"Yes, our children. Trust me that I have not and will never forget. Just like I will never forget you for however many more days that I can bear to live once you are gone." He rumbled out some soothing purrs for her knowing how much she liked it.

"Thank you, my love, for so many best days of my life." She whispered as she drifted off to sleep.

"Thank you, my heart, for so many best days of our lives." He replied. He lay there in silence listening to her heart slow down until it finally stopped. Even though he could call for so many best days…the one true best day was this that he held her so close and he knew that he would never forget as he too fell to slumber.

Author's Note: This is the first thing I have written that I have considered putting on here. It was just an idea that came to me and once I started writing, I just could not stop. Comments are more than welcome. Thanks for reading!

The way in which I mentioned no names was intentional.