So I'm on a cruise ship on the Meditterannean Sea right now. No, I'm not kidding. It's my graduation present from my grandma, she's paying for pretty much everything. It's kind of fun, though I'm exhausted from TWO flights... five hours from LA to NYC, and eight hours from NYC to Barcelona, Spain. We left at 9:30 AM in California, and arrived in Barcelona at 9:30 AM the next day (you do the math, time differences are WEIRD)... Then we got on the boat around 12, and weren't allowed to get to our rooms until 1, and I hadn't slept on the plane at all. So I'm exhausted. I'm also lucky that I uploaded these chapters beforehand, since I have to use their computer, not mine, and it's 30 cents a minute. Feel flattered that I'm using it on you guys :P I'd better have reviews when I use my 15 minutes tomorrow!


Inuyasha woke up in chains. The feeling wasn't completely unfamiliar to him, as he had been chained up many times as a child. It stirred up the rage inside of him and he surged forward, pulling against the chains. They burned his skin and he stopped, falling backwards against the stone and wanting to know where he was. He observed his surroundings with a flat, angry stare, and finally came to the conclusion that he didn't know where he was. It was pitch black inside the room and even with demon sight, he couldn't see a damn thing.

"About time you woke up," Kagome said from the door of the dungeon. With more light, he saw that he was in someone's basement. He growled at her. "Don't growl at me, Inuyasha, I'm the only reason that you're still alive," she said calmly. He seemed to think about it for a moment before he stopped growling. "Thank you. I brought you some food. You've been unconscious for a day, so I'm pretty sure that you're hungry, right?" He made a passive grunt. "It's ramen."

That seemed to catch his attention. He sat down on the ground and stared at her expectantly. She knelt in front of him and offered him a spoonful of the ramen. He chewed and swallowed mechanically and opened his mouth again, just watching her. He finished most of the bowl that way.

As she offered him another bite, she asked, "Are you going to speak to me?" She frowned and looked downward at her lap.

His voice came out gravelly, quieter than usual and somehow menacing when he didn't seem to want it to be. "I love you," he said, as if it were some kind of offering.

"Love doesn't seem to matter to you, Inuyasha," she said quietly. "If you knew how much I loved you, you'd know that I don't anymore."

He lashed out against the chains but she seemed to know that he couldn't reach her from where she was sitting. Serenely, she looked up at him and smiled. "You changed, Inuyasha. I loved the hanyou you were, not the demon you are." Inuyasha didn't react. "You destroyed the well." He still didn't react. "You threw me against a tree. Me, Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha cringed as a shadow of his old self showed through. He looked down and away from her in shame. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, and his voice sounded normal.

As she watched him for a moment or two, Kagome cautiously reached out a hand and caressed his cheek, drawing a fingernail gently down each marking with worry. "What have you done to yourself?" she murmured.

His eyes flashed and he turned his head to the side and nuzzled her wrist, his lip curling lightly like a cat's when it took in a scent. He kissed her wrist and the palm of her hand and took one of her fingers gently between his teeth. His tongue flicked the pad of her finger and he gave her a heavy, meaningful look coupled with a low, quiet growl.

Kagome didn't know why she let him out of the chains that held him. She didn't know why she let him take her again. She didn't know why she had let herself fall asleep in the comfort of his arms. She didn't know why she didn't wake up when he left.


Nine months later...

"This isn't right," Miroku repeated.

Sango growled at him, if it were possible for a human to growl. "Shut up and help me, Miroku!" she snapped. Kagome screamed again in pain, holding her swollen belly.

He glanced back with a look of painful disappointment. "This isn't right. He should be here. His instincts would have told him that it was now. He should be here."

Again, Sango yelled, "Miroku!"

"He's not coming," Kagome snapped. "I've waited for nine months for him to come back, and he's not coming!"

Miroku stared at the poor girl. Her heart was breaking as she gave birth to the baby. He wondered if she would take it out on her, or if she would shower her with all of the rest that was left. He dropped the mat in the doorway and turned to help the two women.


It was five years before she saw either taiyoukai brother again. With the well broken, Kagome couldn't go back home. As Inuyasha left her pregnant, Kagome couldn't continue being much of a priestess. Her child was proof that she was tainted by a demon, proof that she was no longer completely pure. Atsuko became her life. The child was born as a hanyou, which proved that her father had gotten her pregnant on purpose, according to Miroku. She always stubbornly held out hope that he might return, but she never heard of or from him. It was disheartening, but at least the child looked mostly like her. Black hair and blue eyes, but her hair only made the silver ears on the top of her head more obvious.

While the little girl matched her appearance, she would sometimes look at her mother in such a disgruntled, mischievous way that it reminded her incredibly of Inuyasha. She sighed and hugged her knees. Kouga had come by a few times in the five years, firstly to congratulate the entire group on defeating Naraku at last. By then, her pregnancy hadn't been showing, but it didn't matter. He could smell it. He took pity on her and sent gifts often, and came to visit whenever he had the convenient time. A few times, he brought his son with him, and he would play carefully with Atsuko in the yard while their parents talked on the porch. As Kagome and Kouga had both matured, he had realized that pining after Kagome was useless and had settled into a comfortable friendship with her instead. He had his own mate now.

Kaede died and Kagome took over as the priestess of the village. The villagers loved her, regardless of her tainted power, and didn't complain about the change. They mourned the loss of the gentle Kaede, but passionate Kagome was somewhat refreshing. Miroku and Sango both stayed in the village and raised their own family, but Sango didn't understand Kagome anymore, and they grew apart. Miroku understood Kagome's hurt more than Sango did, and he visited as often as Kouga did. The more vicious and gossiping young people in the village thought that perhaps Kagome was offering services other than that of a miko, which was incredibly untrue.

Atsuko was four when she came sprinting back to the hut at the edge of the village. Kagome was sorting through herbs; tying them into bundles and laying them out to dry in the afternoon sun. Atsuko ran into her from the side, knocking her off-balance. She had gained a lot of agility with her age, and she caught herself with a hand immediately set to her side on the porch floor. "Atsuko, what's wrong?" The little girl babbled on for a moment before Kagome grabbed her by the chin. She was crying and scared, and had come from the forest. Picking up the girl and taking her inside, Kagome retrieved her bow and quiver and told Atsuko to stay in her room until she was called.

"Mama," she called before Kagome shut the door. Kagome looked back at her expectantly. "He looks like Daddy." Shippo had grown into somewhat of an artist and had made a portrait of Inuyasha from memory for Kagome. She kept it tucked underneath her futon for the sad days when she longed for him, and to show Atsuko when she asked.

Taking only a moment to make a decision about what she would do with this information, Kagome nodded her head and then added as an afterthought, "Don't call him that." She shut the door behind her daughter and left the hut, moving towards the trees with bow and arrow in hand.

Rin burst from the trees first, swinging a necklace of flowers from one hand. Kagome stopped dead in her tracks, unsure of the last time that she had seen the girl. Naraku's death, come to think of it. Her eyes narrowed. She lowered her arrow, convinced that the... fourteen? Fifteen?-year-old Rin wouldn't hurt her, or even try. Indeed, the girl instead dropped the flowers and ran at Kagome, arms wide in demand of a hug. Kagome looked past the girl to see Sesshomaru coming tranquilly through the trees, with no Jaken or Ah-Un. It was odd to see them alone, and somehow wrong now that Rin was older and her body had begun to mature.

She hugged the girl all the same, and smiled and asked how she was. Sesshomaru caught up and Kagome's face darkened slightly. His eyes were on the hut. She touched the end of the bow behind her to reassure herself. She wouldn't even need it, if he went after the girl. She'd seen her own incredible speed when it came to Atsuko's safety. "Why are you here?" she asked, finally breaking the silence. Even Rin hadn't been speaking, as if sensing some dire need of quiet.

"Rin is of marrying age," Sesshomaru said shortly. "I can no longer keep her, as she only serves as a distraction." He glanced at Rin, and the bright smile on her face told Kagome that he had told the girl a very different reason.

Kagome folded her arms. "So you expect me to take her?" she asked curiously.

He seemed to shrug. "It would be convenient." She stared hard at him, matching his blank look with a very flat stare. He looked away first, proving that he was either bored or intimidated, neither of which he wanted to admit. "Where is my brother?"

Sesshomaru seemed to feel Kagome's aura flare angrily at his mention. "I don't know and I don't care, but if you see him, tell him to stay the fuck away from me," she said viciously. Rin had covered her ears, staring at Kagome with wide eyes.

One perfectly-shaped eyebrow raised in amusement or surprise. She couldn't tell which. He gave Rin a soft nudge towards the hut, and she took the hint and skipped away. "I take it that he left you alone with the pup?" he asked softly, sounding more sensitive than she had ever imagined him before.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously and looked at his arm to make sure that Inuyasha wasn't posing as his brother. She shook her head at the ridiculous idea, and she replied to Sesshomaru, "Yeah, the very same night. I think he did it on purpose."

"You hate him," he said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement of what he found to be true. She just shrugged. He frowned and turned toward the hut. "I would appreciate it if you could house Rin and perhaps find her a husband of some sort... She deserves a normal life. I would accommodate you financially, of course, and give any other support you believe you would need." Kagome looked at Rin and thought about it. Extra money sounded good, as did the help around the house, and companionship that wasn't through a four-year-old.

She nodded her head. "Alright, but on one condition," she said, pointing a finger at him.

Nodding, he replied, "Name it."

Kagome stepped closer to him, and she felt his youki flare in slight alarm. She only quieted her voice and told him, "You've become like a father to Rin. You have to promise that you'll come and visit, at least once every season. She'll be happier for it." Her eyes narrowed at him, threatening if he decided against the arrangement.

"That sounds fair," he agreed. He looked at her curiously for a moment, and then said, "I would very much like to meet my niece."

She decided that it didn't sound too horrible. "Alright, but she is a halfbreed. If you lay a hand on her, you will be dead. Am I understood?" She looked at him, and nothing about her countenance except for her voice was threatening.

Quietly, Sesshomaru admitted, "You are the only human whose threat I will take seriously." He nodded at her, and followed her to the hut, where Rin sat, waiting on the porch. Kagome could hear Atsuko crying again.

Sighing, she told Sesshomaru, "I'll calm her down before I bring her outside." For some reason, she didn't want Sesshomaru inside her home. It would seem too natural, too close, too... normal. She went into Atsuko's room and stroked her daughter's hair, talking to her quietly and intently. "Atsuko, it's not Inuyasha, it's his brother. He wants to meet you, and he's brought you a sister to play with."

Atsuko looked at her with round eyes and asked, "Didn't Daddy's brother hate him for being a hanyou?" she asked. Kagome made a mental note to kill Miroku for telling her daughter her father's life story.

"Yes, but he won't hurt you," she said firmly. "I won't let him." She nuzzled her daughter's hair and she gave her a little squeeze. Finally, the little girl agreed and allowed her mother to lead her out of the room, but only if she held her hand. Kagome put her hands on the girl's shoulders and told Sesshomaru, "This is your niece, Atsuko. Atsuko, this is your uncle Sesshomaru."

As she had been taught, Atsuko extended one small hand towards Sesshomaru and said politely, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Uncle Sesshomaru." Her manners and the fact that she didn't appear afraid of the demon made Kagome smile proudly.

Sesshomaru surprised Kagome by crouching to Atsuko's level and studying her face as he shook her tiny hand, knowing very well that he could cripple her for life if he squeezed hard enough. "The pleasure is mine, little one," he said, and Kagome could have sworn that there was a warm note in his voice. Had Sesshomaru grown a soft spot for children? He straightened, gazing around at the hut and then looked Kagome in the eyes. "This is unacceptable for a woman of your status and one with taiyoukai blood," he said decisively. "You will come with me to live in the Western Lands, to live as you should."


Why Kagome is a ball-busting bitch: Because she's not 15 anymore. She's 24, she's a mother, and she's been betrayed by the only man she's ever loved. That'd make anyone a bitch.

Why Sesshomaru is being nice: Because he's spent time around Rin, a child, and has learned to appreciate the little things because of her. He's learned to regret his past mistakes and is now trying to make up for them. Perhaps his father had a hand in it as well, but that's something for later.