Suddenly...Parents?
The fire was dying slowly, only bits of glowing embers remaining in the once a-flame pile of hot sticks and twigs. A thin trail of smoke wafted lazily skywards into the dark night.
The unique group of people lay still and silent around the makeshift fire pit, catching some what sleep they could. In the forests of the Sengoku Jidai, it could be hard to find peace with its number of unseen demons prowled within ever corner.
This group of people was well-prepared for any attacks of said demons, however. The young woman with dark, loosely-pulled back hair, despite her kind and gentle appearance, was actually a demon slayer capable of handling a huge and very powerful boomerang known as the Hiraikotsu. The monk was skilled in his spells and incantations, and in addition to that, he had a very powerful kazaana—Wind Tunnel—in the palm of his right hand, kept sealed most of the time by a long chain of rosary, but when loosed, it could wreak the worst of havoc. A teenaged girl with black hair and a more modern outfit lay, the only one in a sleeping bag, cuddled up to a childlike kitsune. Though she seemed like your average high school student, she was actually the reincarnation of a famous and powerful priestess and possessed untamed spiritual abilities that could easily rival the monk's. Not to mention that she wasn't bad with enchanted arrows, either.
The kitsune kit sleeping snuggled in her arms was a demon himself, albeit a young one, as was the two-tailed, creamy kitten with sharp black marking contrasts who acted as the demon slayer's companion.
And of course, the young dog-eared man, who preferred sleeping up in a tree, was a hanyou. Only half demon he may be, but it was a very strong half, enough to give him the advantage on most of the lower-leveled youkai which slithered about the untamed forests.
And as it so happens, it was just that hanyou who was awake, watching the others silently, stilly with his burning golden glare. His long, silver hair cascaded down his deep red robe, hanging slightly off the branch. Strong arms were crossed in a somewhat relaxed manner in front of him, though the occasionally twitched as his ever-sensitive ears picked up new rustles and noises.
His body generally didn't need as much sleep as those of the humans and he often found himself sitting awake at times like this, keeping all his acute senses alert for possible danger. Very few times had anything dangerous actually approached over such a peaceful night, and besides, they weren't all that far from Kaede's village at the moment, but the hanyou considered himself to be the group's protector and would rather not take the chance. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if something were to happen to the group because he had failed to keep watch. Not that he would admit that out loud or anything.
The hanyou sighed and cleared his mind, closing the golden eyes he had found drifting open as his thoughts had intensified.
He thought for a moment about his three human companions and even the kit, who kept up their sleeping pattern. It had been a long time since he'd slept as soundly as they do for as long as an entire night. Taking in another deep inhale, he leaned his back further into the rough bark. Just a few hours, near the village. He should at least try. The night seemed calm enough.
He sat there in silence for a few minutes, his sensitive ears being lulled by the nightly ambience of crickets and other small insects. But just as he was about to shift into a full sleep, a voice broke through that ambience.
The hanyou sat straight immediately. The voice had been quiet and distant, but still a distinctly human voice. Eyes wide, but staring at nothing, he concentrated, trying to make out what it was. Sure enough, the voice continued…no, wait, voices. Two distinct voices and they seemed to be getting closer. He listened hard to catch snippets of the conversation.
"…'s dark and I'm cold! Wanna go home!"
"…trying! …trust…please?"
"…scared! …demons hunt…dark…"
As the voices neared, the hanyou realized with a jolt that these were not the voices of adults; they were children, and both very young, by the sound of it. The first was higher and less stable, speaking with a strong childlike lisp. The second was more developed, almost close to the kit's, but certainly not any age at which a child should be wandering the forest, human or demon.
"We'll…home soon," the second voice was saying, though it seemed to waver nervously as if it wasn't quite sure whether or not it believed itself. The second just softly whined an incoherent response.
The hanyou just sat there in his tree in shock. Two little kids just wandering the forest at night…obviously lost, from the sound of their conversation. What should he do? Ignore them and leave it be? Try to go find them? Wake the others?
"Inuyasha?"
The hanyou was jolted out of his thoughts by a much stronger voice sounding from just beneath his tree. He glanced down to see the black-haired girl sitting up in her night sack, staring up at him.
"I...idiot!" he stammered somewhat quietly. "What're you doing up, Kagome? You're the one always complaining that you're tired!"
Kagome shrugged the comment off, not feeling up to an argument so soon.
"I just woke up. Happens sometimes. Are you ok? You looked a little shell-shocked."
Inuyasha twitched an ear uncomfortably, mind racing for the right thing to say.
"I…erm…ah…it's nothing," he grumbled at last, trying to wave it off.
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Positive?"
"You need me to come out of this tree and prove it to ya?"
"If you must."
The hanyou rolled his amber eyes and leapt down from the tree. He glared down at the girl, opening his mouth to make a snide comment. But before any sound escaped his lips, someone else spoke from behind.
"Otou!"
"Otou!"
Inuyasha barely had time to turn around when a weight had suddenly thrown itself onto his legs, causing his knees to buckle slightly. He looked down to see a small child, surely no older than a toddler, clinging desperately to his hakama.
"Otou, I'm scared," the young child—a girl—whined softly. "Wanna go home…go home…"
Shortly following her, he found a second child—and older boy—also wrapped around him.
"We found you, Otou," he murmured. "We got lost…"
Kagome stared incredulously at the scene, trying to make connections about just what was going on. As for Inuyasha, he simply had no words. He was attempting to process something—anything—about this odd event, now having two terrified little kids crying into his clothes. Finally, he got his vocal chords to function.
"Who…who…who are you kids?" he stammered, feeling more awkward by the moment. At first, there was silence. Then the boy mumbled,
"…not funny, Otou. I just wanna go home. Let's go home…"
"Home?" Inuyasha repeated. "Where is 'home'?! And quit calling me 'Otou', kid, I ain't your father!"
Both children snapped their heads up in shock at that statement, staring at him in confusion and even hurt. Inuyasha noticed the damp tearstains on the girl's face and he shrank back slightly in the awkward hint of guilt. Kagome shot a very confused and somewhat curious glance in the hanyou's diction, gaze drifting from him to the kids to him again, questioning with her eyes what on earth was going on. Inuyasha shot a very, very frustrated and equally confused glare right back at her.
"But…but…yes, you are," said the boy, his voice just barely breaking a whisper in squeaks of voice. "I know you are. You have to be." he clung to his "father's" clothes a little tighter.
"Nooo!" cried the girl, suddenly releasing her grip and running over to Kagome, almost knocking the sitting girl over with the impact as she threw her arms around her neck. "He's not Otou! He's too mean! Demon ate Otou! Demon ate Otou!" The little child sniffled and whined and cried into Kagome's shirt for a second or two before she seemed to realize something. Her body still shuddering with shaky sobs, she slowly lifted her gaze to meet Kagome's eyes. Kagome stared back down at her, still confused, but also concerned and curious.
But no curious thought of hers would have prepared her for the next thing that the child murmured.
"…Demon ate Otou…controlling him! Demon ate him, Okaa…help…go home…"
Kagome blinked in utter shock. She shook her head slightly. Had the child…just called her…mother? Surely she must have heard wrong. She didn't have any kids, after all…she didn't have kids, she couldn't have kids, she'd never…she'd never…well, she didn't have kids!
"N…no, sweetie," she stumbled awkwardly, trying to be polite. "I…I'm not your…" But the little girl didn't seem to hear. She buried her head back into Kagome's chest and just continued to moan.
"Okaa, help…Okaa, home…" she repeated in mumbles.
"What in the world is going on here?"
Kagome whirled around the best she could to see Miroku sitting up, staring at the scene in upmost confusion. She winced inwardly a bit. Of course the commotion was going to wake the others. Sango was stirring, as well, staring with bleary eyes, though to her surprise, Shippo was still sound asleep, despite being right there. He must've been really tired.
"These two crazy kids just came bursting into the campsite whining and crying and calling me their father!" Inuyasha snapped. Miroku stared at him seriously, rather curious.
"Are you?"
"Heck no!"
Kagome could only stare sympathetically as she saw the children flinch with every exclamation the hanyou spat. Poor little things, they'd really believed he was their father, and now they're hearing this out of him. That must hurt, she thought. They probably fell so rejected…
Then another thought struck her. As much as he denied the claim, Inuyasha had a long life, and Kagome hadn't known him for all of it. She didn't know everything about his backstory. Might he have fathered kids at some point that she just didn't know about? And if so…who might their mother be? Couldn't be herself, obviously. She glanced off to the side, slightly sad.
No, no, she tried to reassure herself. No, Inuyasha was pinned to the tree for 50 years before I met him. He certainly can't be the father of two young children…definitely not…
"Ah, well, if you say so," Miroku said simply. "Now, say…seeing as it's still the middle of the night, why don't we invite these young children to stay with us for at least the night and then figure it out in the morning when we're all well-rested and can see better?"
"Sounds good to me," muttered Sango, who'd been in a particularly difficult battle the other day and was still rather worn out. Inuyasha huffed, but said nothing, simply leaping back into his tree.
Kagome watched, a bit numb-minded, as her companions went back to bed. The little girl was still clinging to her shirt, but her sobs were less noticeable and she seemed to be relaxing slightly, ready to fall asleep now that the noise had died down. She decided to leave her there.
The teenage girl then looked up at the boy. He was staring longingly up at the tree where Inuyasha had fallen asleep, looking rather crestfallen and confused.
"…Hey," Kagome said softly. The boy turned.
"Why don't you come join us, if you can squeeze in? The sleeping bag is probably more comfortable than being alone on the forest floor."
The boy studied her for just a fraction of a second, then trotted over. Kagome laid down, the little girl still curled up against her chest, now breathing evenly. The boy crawled in next to them, settling in the rather crowded nest.
"So I might as well know," Kagome stated as gently as she could, "What's your name?" The boy stared at her strangely and for what seemed like the longest time didn't answer. Kagome was beginning to fear that she'd said something wrong when he finally spoke, adverting his eyes and then closing them, head turning away from Kagome.
"Michi," he mumbled.
"And is this your sister, Michi?"
Another awkward pause.
"Izzy is my sister." he confirmed in the same low-spirited mumble.
"Ok," said Kagome softly, "That's nice to know. Now get some sleep. Tomorrow we'll try to find your real parents and get you home."
No response from the boy. Just a sad, sad grimace that Kagome did not see.
They slept until morning.
.oOo.
Author's Note:
October 10, 2012
Well, finally! I've been meaning to revise this fic for quite some time now—wanna get the kid's behavior to be more accurate to their current ages plus up-to-date with their personalities—and wanted most of the official characters to be more IC. Not to mention just a bit less cheese.
Well, it's been great revising. Looking forward to fixing up the second chapter! Keep your eyes peeled!