Title: A Part of Me, Apart.

Author: Sun

Prompt: Tessaiga

Characters: Inuyasha, Kagome, Sesshomaru, InuPapa, Izayoi, Sango, Miroku

Song: "Your Own Disaster" by Taking Back Sunday

Rating: Mature themes.

Genre: Canon, Song!fic, Drama, Angst, Romance

Summary: Parents normally plan for their child's life to work out perfectly, for nothing bad or tainted or corrupt to ever touch him. Rarely does that actually become the case.

Just think of this and me
as just a few of the many things
to lie around
to clutter up your shelves
And I wish you weren't worth the wait
because there's some thing's
I'd like to say to you...

The former hime smiled gently down at her rounded belly, and she watched in rapt attention as her full-youkai mate's expression softened drastically. The Inu no Taisho slid closer to his human beauty, and he sighed, breathing in her natural scent of pine and water.

"He will be beautiful, won't he?" Izayoi asked in a small, content voice as she snuggled closer to her mate. The great Dog General chuckled at her uncharacteristic timidity, and he turned her face gently with his hand. His lips found hers as easily as they had every time in the past, and he took a few moments to just lay with her in her bed, lips caressing lips and fingers lightly touching soft, supple skin.

"He will be as beautiful as you, my love," he whispered, his mouth tantalizingly close to her gorgeous collarbone. She smirked coyly and released a light giggle as he pulled her below him.

The next day, the Inu no Taisho called a meeting between himself and his most trusted vassal, the flea Myoga.

"Myoga-san," the Taisho began as he paced somewhat across the smooth, clean floor of his study in his castle. The flea perched upon his shoulder, his full attention focused completely on his lord. He listened particularly closely as the Taisho described exactly what he had planned for the boy growing within his human lover's womb.

"He will be magnificent," the Taisho whispered as he looked over the papers strewn across his desk. They were drawings and plans and blueprints, and there was a single page in particular that his eyes just seemed to be drawn to.

"Of course he will be, my lord," the flea replied. "He will be your son."

A single thought struck the General right then, and his good mood suddenly turned sour. "But he will be half human," the Taisho mumbled, and Myoga knew instantly where the conversation was headed.

"Sire, your demon blood may be too strong for Izayoi-hime's human blood," the flea told his master, "and it may break free from time to time."

The Taisho nodded in agreement. "And if that happens, it will be primarily his inner beast, a mindless, bloodthirsty fiend." He shook his head, self-fury and fear pooling in his gut. "How could I have been so blind, Myoga-san? So reckless? I have endangered my Izayoi and our child – our son." His smoldering, amber eyes ran over the sketches of a fierce-looking broadsword once again, and realization hit him suddenly. A dazzling smile broke out across his lips, and Myoga chuckled. I know that look, the flea thought, and then he and the Taisho began planning the "adjustments" that Totousai would be making to the fang already in construction for the Taisho's unborn son.

The Tessaiga would be the boy's salvation from himself.

And I don't think that
you know what
you've been missing
'Cause I don't think that
you know what
you've been missing

"Inuyasha!"

The small, silver-haired boy turned to gaze at his mother as she opened her arms to him. He grinned widely as he stalked to her slowly, dropping the large, red ball and allowing it to roll away, flattening the grass as it went. He inhaled deeply his lady mother wrapped her arms comfortingly around him, lifting him up off the ground and holding him close to her firm body.

Izayoi chuckled at him, much the same way she once laughed at his father. He smiled up at her as she smoothed his long, thick hair away from his face. You're so much like him, my wonder, she thought, trailing light kisses along his puffy cheek. Pulling back from him, surprised, she asked, "Oh, baby. Inuyasha, have you been upset, my aiji?"

He looked away from her, but the pink blush spreading across his cheeks was hard for Izayoi to ignore. Her violet eyes softened sadly as she watched him, and she sighed, her thoughts returning to a subject her beloved Inu no Taisho had broached with her shortly before Inuyasha's birth and her lover's untimely death:

"Someday, my lovely Izayoi, our son will be born into this world. This world, which lacks understanding and warmth for him to grow in. He will be hanyou, a half-demon, and he will be despised by youkai and feared by humans.

"Even now, with his birth a few short months away, I fear for his well-being as a child, and possibly as an adult.

"I have commissioned a sword of sorts, forged from a fang from my own mouth. I have asked a dear, old friend of mine, a true swordsmith of old, to make a few… adjustments to this broadsword for our little Inuyasha. Hopefully, it will be a great defense against wars that he may or may not fight against the world… and against himself."

Izayoi sighed as she carried her boy inside the small hut with her. She knew that the other children had tormented him once more that afternoon, throwing rocks at him, not allowing him into their games, and calling him a filthy halfbreed.

Why can't all children have parents like the Taisho? she had to wonder as she laid Inuyasha down on the only mat in their small shack. Izayoi tenderly brushed her son's thick hair away from his face, allowing the sleeping boy to breathe more easily. Even though her inuyoukai mate had been a powerful warlord and demon, he still did not despise any of the human race – he revered human life as it was in any form.

The former princess hoped that her precious son would never need the Tessaiga his father had had made for him – but she doubted that would be the case.

And I dare you to forget
the marks you left
across my neck
from those nights when we were both
found at our best
Now I could make this obvious,
and you, you could deny me
all in one breath
you could shrug me off
your shoulders..

It was a dark night; the only light Inuyasha and Kikyo had to see by was the silver brilliancy of the quarter-moon. As they came closer to the river, the light seemed to become brighter and brighter, mostly reflecting off the wavering surface of the water not far below them.

Kikyo stopped at the riverbank. She turned her head just a little, looking over her shoulder at her silver-haired, amber-eyed companion. "Inuyasha," she murmured, her voice barely audible over the busy sounds of nightfall. Crickets chirped, frogs sang, and the wind and the water sounded like twins with their light, airy noises.

He watched her, knowing exactly how dangerous they both were to one another. With his bare claws, he could rip her to shreds so easily… With a single flick of her wrist and the tiniest amount of power, the Miko could decimate the devil within him.

Why she refused to, Inuyasha didn't want to guess.

As she continued to stand there, he released a small, questioning grunt, his hands hidden in the wide sleeves of his fire-rat haori.

Kikyo smiled at his characteristic gruffness. "Would you like to take a boat ride with me?" she asked him.

Inuyasha stared at her for just a moment before turning his head, his arms crossing nearly automatically over his chest. "Keh," he mumbled in a low tone. "Why the hell d'you wanna sit in a boat at nighttime?"

Kikyo smiled and laughed lightheartedly. Something about the hanyou's very nature just gave her a warm feeling.

He had a good heart, she knew.

If only you were human, Inuyasha, she thought. Then you would be the perfect husband.

Slowly, still smiling, she stepped into the boat, closely followed by a gruff hanyou clad in red.

And I don't think that
you know what
you've been missing
'Cause I don't think that
you know what
you've been missing

As Inuyasha sat right across the room from the girls and Shippo and close to Miroku, he looked over the rusted old katana that was Tessaiga's normal form. He sighed, leaning his head back to look up at the ceiling. All this time, he thought, I kept telling myself that my old man wasn't good for anything. That he enjoyed my mother and had me just for kicks, and he didn't want to deal with the consequences. But, in a way, he tried to make sure the consequences were dealt with before he died and left us hangin'.

The hanyou shook his head silently, blinking away the burning tears that threatened to spill over. Damn human sensitivity; why do I have to deal with it all the time? he wondered.

Right then, his amber eyes fell on Tessaiga, snug in its scabbard, and he realized that it was the sword that helped make him this way.

My old man designed this thing just for me, he contemplated, watching Kagome stir a little in her sleep. He knew I'd need its help. He knew I'd need it to help keep me from becoming a total monster-

Kagome rolled over in her sleeping bag, her face resting against the hard, wooden floor of the simple room. He sighed, smirking at the goofy wench, before standing quietly to his feet and crossing the large room. He stooped down, his clawed hands more than gentle as they scooped up her fragile head and moved it so that she was still laying on the giant yellow bag she used for a pillow.

As Inuyasha returned to his spot across the room, closest to the door, he took one last look at Tessaiga before holding it close to him, closing his eyes and beckoning sleep.

He must'a known I'd meet you, Kagome.

As Inuyasha drifted off to sleep, Miroku could barely contain the conceited smile forming on his lips at the scene he had just witnessed.

And I don't think that you know
I said I don't think you know
I said I don't think you know what your missing

As he stared down into the deep darkness of the well, Inuyasha wasn't sure if he should allow himself to believe his own eyesight. As Kagome climbed out of the well by herself for the first time in three years, he swallowed hard, suddenly losing quite a bit of his nerve as he just stood there and watched her face coming closer and closer to his own.

Suddenly, he was snapped out of his thoughts as the sound of her bare, gentle palm slapped against the wooden edge of the well, and Kagome grunted. "Hey," she murmured softly, her quiet voice drifting slowly up to his ears.

Blinking, Inuyasha stooped down, bracing himself against the foundation of the Bone Eater's Well, and he grasped Kagome's small hand in his own, pulling her easily out of the darkness that had enveloped her on so many journeys to the past and future before.

But not anymore, they both knew as their fingers linked, and the duo set out for the village, Kagome ready to see her friends again and Inuyasha ready to start a life with the woman he'd come to cherish more than his own life.

He walked around the village, following the wench closely as she visited. She and Sango hugged for what felt, to him, like forever, and then she and Miroku shared a "brief" hug – he made sure it was brief, anyway. Inuyasha had learned in the past three years that, no matter how much she tried, Sango just couldn't curb her husband's perverted ways.

They sat with their friends in their quaint home, the twin girls running 'round wildly, the monk and taijiya's small son practically clinging to his mother's leg, watching Kagome with wide, violet eyes the entire time. Kaede made it to their home with just a little of Inuyasha's help, and Kagome couldn't help but smile at way he seemed just a tiny bit more tame than the last time she saw him.

The hanyou relished the smile that graced the long-missing Miko's face when he showed her the house he had built for them to live in when she finally returned to him. He chuckled as he watched her gasp and, eyes shining with joyful tears, run toward it, losing a modern-era penny loafer in the tall grass. Inuyasha smirked as he picked it up with his claws and flew across the field after her. Before Kagome could reach the front steps of the small porch he'd built onto the front of the small house, the hanyou had scooped his Miko up in his arms and proceeded to carry her across the threshold.

"Inuyasha!"

"What?"

"Why're you doing that?"

He blinked at her, silent for just a moment. "You told me once that this is what they do in your time. It's a neat tradition, you said."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "It's a Western tradition," she corrected him, and his ears fell a little, his expression becoming crestfallen. She smiled at him, and he seemed to perk back up a little. "And it's supposed to only be married couples."

He gave her a wolfish grin. "Oh, I'll marry you, all right," he told her, closely the door behind them and walking across the bedroom. Laying her on the bed gently, he took her lips with his own, igniting a passionate fire between them.

"I could marry you all night, every night, Kagome…"

Hey, lush, have fun
It's the weekend
Hey, lush, have fun

The wind rustled the thin, bamboo shutters Kagome had made as it blew through their small house. It brought with it a nice, cool draft, the first real sign that winter was on its way. The fall season had just begun the month before, and Kagome and Inuyasha both had been pitching in to help, the two new parents alternating between picking weeds and herbs and chasing their tiny, human runt around the fields.

Ari was a small thing, petite like her mother. Inuyasha loved his nearly human daughter more than he would have ever thought possible, and he absolutely loved chasing her around the fields and through the village.

She giggled sharply as she spun on her well-used heel to meet her father, her dark blue yukata flapping slightly in the wind. He laughed as he dove, barely missing the child despite his advantage of speed, and she ran, giggling, outside, into the wide expanse of the forest.

Not far away in the kitchen, Kagome sighed. "Inuyasha," she called down the hallway. "Will you please chase after her before she gets too far? There are still demons out there that would gladly eat her, you know."

He smirked at her as he headed for the back door of the home. "Yea, right," he shot back. "What lowlife demon would wanna have our sassy runt for breakfast?"

Kagome just gave him a look, and he was gone in a quick flash of red.

Hey, lush, have fun
It's the weekend
Hey, lush, have fun

Inuyasha had been looking through the forest for hours, but there was no sign of his sweet girl.

"Ari!" he called out, his voice growing louder and more worried with each passing moment. "Ari-chan, come on! This isn't funny!" He searched the wind and the air and the ground for any trace of her flowery, honey-flavored scent.

It was as if she'd never been there.

Maybe the kiddo already gave up on me and went home, he thought hopefully, turning back and flying through the forest toward their home. His pace became quicker and more frantic as the scent of blood – lots of it – reached his sensitive nose. Pure, cold, unrelenting terror filled his entire body when he reached the back door to his home, swinging open in the wind.

"Kagome!" he called, leaning inside. His eyes widened in horror when he spotted her limp form lying on the floor just inside the hallway, the hardwood floor and walls spattered mercilessly with her dark blood. It scented old, and he fell to his knees beside her lifeless body, crying out amid his harsh, wracked sobs. "Kagome…" he whimpered hopelessly as he cupped her pretty, pale face in his hands; her expression was peaceful, as though she were only sleeping.

Inuyasha knew that she would never reawaken.

He shoved himself to his feet suddenly, releasing his wife and mate. He stormed down the hallway, arriving at the smaller bedroom at the front of the house. Ari's scent bathed her bedroom, but there was no sign of the child. He followed her scent around the other side of the home; it brought him to the oak door to his own bedroom, and, slowly and nervously, he pushed it open.

The bed was soaked with so much blood that Inuyasha had a hard time believing that it all came from so small a girl. Her limp, torn body had been flung halfway over the side of the bed, her arms hanging off the side; the child was lying facedown, sparing Inuyasha the sight of her dead, dark brown eyes, her pale face, her frightened, agonized expression.

The hanyou sank to his knees in the doorway and yelled, yelled at the top of his lungs, wishing for death itself.

I don't think that
you know what
you've been missing
I don't think that
you know what
you've been missing

Inuyasha sat up in bed and moved off to the side, swinging his legs over and sighing when the soles of his feet met the cool, hardwood flooring that encompassed their entire home. He held his head in his hands, smoothing back his long, thick mane of silver hair before looking to his left. He suppressed a shudder as a scene from his nightmare flashed before his eyes once more – Ari's lifeless body hanging over the side of his bed, covered in her own blood.

Kagome stirred behind him before he felt her hand against the sweaty small of his back. "Inuyasha?" she asked gently. He barely turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. She sighed. "Did you have that nightmare again?" she asked him.

He nodded.

Kagome sat up as her husband pulled himself back into bed beside her. She pointed to the Tessaiga, which sat in the corner of their bedroom, leaning against the wall. "Take that up again tomorrow," she whispered, giving him a concerned look. "If you teach her to fight and defend herself, then you will stop having these nightmares."

Inuyasha sighed, knowing that she was right. He nodded in agreement before they both turned over and returned to sleep.

The following morning, the father handed the heirloom over to his fifteen-year-old daughter. The blade responded to her hand, and he began to teach her to wield it, thankful that he was still there to do it.

After all, it was a father's duty to protect those he loved – even in death.

Just forget me
it's that simple
Just forget me
it's that simple