A/N: This is a LONG chapter. Just for the heck of it, and cuz I got carried away, I love Miroku, Sango, Inuyasha, and Kagome's children and developing their characters. Enjoy!
Disc: Nope, not a chance for me…
Last Chap: Rin realized she was pregnant and sent for Sesshomaru using the messenger Daken. Sesshomaru and Ginrei consummated their marriage out of rage, lust, and frustration. Sesshomaru left before dawn the following day. Daken completely missed him with Rin's sending. Rin met her old maid/caretaker, Jijo.
Note: for those of you unfamiliar with my storyline, years (five years in So Much For... and With Our Arms Wide Open to nearly a decade here in Runaway) have passed since the Shard hunters defeated Naraku and took care of the Sacred Jewel. Sango and Miroku were married almost immediately and in my previous story (which is set probably a year or two in the past from the current events happening with Sess/Rin/Ginrei) had three children: Kohimu, Tisoki (their sons), and Kasai, but a fourth was on the way. Inuyasha and Kagome settled down, though Kagome still visits her family frequently, but their children came more slowly because hanyou are hybrids, generally infertile. However, they have managed to have 2 children, son Koinu and daughter Akisame.
Uncle Sesshomaru
The morning was cloudy and overcast. A few lazy snowflakes were falling out of the sky. They took their time because there was no wind.
Inuyasha was perched in the branches of his favorite tree: a gnarled old giant on the backside of his land. When the snowflakes landed on him they melted swiftly, but they were gradually accumulating on the tree branches around him, giving the old tree a distinctly frosted look. He searched over the snowy landscape that was his estate with his golden eyes. He appeared hawk-like, searching for prey…
Sounds reached him from the house, some hundred feet away across a long expanse of grass that Inuyasha insisted they let grow wild and untrimmed in the summer time. Kagome complained—she was good at that—that she couldn't walk through it without coming out of it itchy all over, and covered with a tick or two. Inuyasha ignored her because the "backyard" as she liked to call it, was his domain. She could turn the front into a beautiful garden with bushes and cherry trees and ponds filled with colorful koi if she wanted, but the "backyard" was his playground.
Where else could he teach his son how to survive?
Kagome called this activity "Hide and Go Seek." Inuyasha called it a survival lesson. One day he planned on teaching their daughter the same skills, though Kagome always protested. "There are too many ticks, Inuyasha! You're going to give them Lyme Disease!"
Whatever that was. Once, he'd told her that she shouldn't worry about it—he'd taught Koinu to eat the ticks. That hadn't gone over very well either.
But this was wintertime. Snow covered the tick-infested grass now, leaving his young son Koinu fewer places to hide. Even so Inuyasha felt rising pride—Koinu had learned the tricks of the wind. Inuyasha could not see or scent his son. In nearly two years of playing this "game" Koinu had at last begun to grasp it and excel.
More noise made him lose his concentration on the house for a moment. Laughter, a baby crying. Inuyasha scowled. Normally he didn't play this game in the wintertime, but today the house overwhelmed him, forcing him outside. The trouble was that Miroku and Sango were visiting, as they often did, but unlike in past visits this one came with a pregnant and very irritable Sango. It was a recurring theme within their family for Sango to throw Miroku out in the earlier months of a pregnancy. This time, however, the grouchiness hadn't set in until they'd already been accepted into the household and this time her irritation had been directed mostly at Inuyasha, not Miroku.
He'd gotten himself in trouble this time by dashing her hopes of having another daughter. With his heightened sense of smell it was easy for Inuyasha to predict the gender of unborn babies by the presence or absence of male hormones emanating from the mother. In Sango's latest pregnancy there were plenty of male hormones and he told her as much when he overheard her desire to have another girl.
That hadn't gone over very well either. It was a running trend for the hanyou.
A smaller sound drew Inuyasha's attention. It was a scratching noise, like claws digging. The tree he was perched in shook slightly, carrying vibrations through the wood. Inuyasha's face transformed into a smirk, his ears steadied, refusing to react to the sounds. It seemed that he'd hesitated too long and Koinu had gotten bored. Now he was trying to turn the tables on his old man.
Inuyasha heard his son grunting with effort, felt the tree shaking. He was still too young—and only a quarter youkai—to leap any distance. So he had to actually scale the tree, jump by jump, and that destroyed almost any chance of stealth. To compensate he was trying to climb the tree as fast as possible, but that just left him clumsy.
Chuckling, Inuyasha leaned forward and peered downward. Five feet down on the tree trunk there was a small clawed hand, clutching at the bark. "Nice try."
Jumping from the tree, Inuyasha crashed into the snow, only to whirl and then leap back into it, but at a lower place, opposite the struggling, fair-haired, dog eared child. Koinu squeaked, clawing at the tree bark. His miniature ears turned backward, his face fell even as it continued to twist with the effort and energy it took him to hold onto the tree.
"Daaaad…" he whimpered, pathetically. He was shivering, Inuyasha could hear his voice twittering, wavering like the wind. "You heard me?"
Koinu was about four years old, though his coordination was that of a much older child. His youkai heritage blessed him with a grace that most of Sango and Miroku's children couldn't compete with. In personality Koinu was similar to both of his parents. He could become angry, aloof, sullen or impatient like his father, but just as easily he could turn around and exhibit his mother's gentleness, affection, caring, concern. One thing he had inherited from both parents was determination. He was doggedly persistent and thoroughly loyal to his family—and family within the youngster's mind extended to Sango and Miroku and their children.
He would never tell his father that he was freezing. Like Kagome he would endure silently to please his father. Inuyasha, as a child in the same instance, would've complained bitterly and then insisted to suffer through the task and finish it. Koinu buried his discomfort in favor of whomever he was trying to please.
Reading past his son's outer façade, Inuyasha sighed, accepting the inevitable. It was time to go back into the house and face the women and, undoubtedly, the screaming babies. "C'mon champ—I think it's time we got back inside."
"B-b-but Daaad…" Koinu whimpered. His little ears drooped pathetically, shivering unconsciously with the cold. "I a-a-almost b-beat you."
"Close, but not close enough." Inuyasha maneuvered around the tree truck and snatched Koinu up in one strong, red-clad arm. He pressed his young son against his chest, sheltering him from the chilled air. Koinu was not proud enough yet—or perhaps he wasn't like his father emotionally—to try and fight Inuyasha's grasp. Instead he embraced it, clutching his father's haori, snuggling into it like a blanket.
Inuyasha crossed the snow-covered length between the tree and his home. There was a small, covered porch, lifted from ground level by three small steps. This served as a place to store shoes, sandals, foot wraps, anything that might track dirt into the home. Inuyasha let Koinu down from his arms and gently swatted his son's backsides. "Take off your booties."
"Daaaad…" Koinu whined, frowning. Like Inuyasha he preferred to go without shoes, but the snow bothered him a lot more than it bothered Inuyasha. Kagome fashioned him what she liked to call "booties" for their son, the only shoes he would willingly wear. Inuyasha took advantage of this and teased Koinu about them affectionately.
Koinu fumbled with the straps and ties over his "booties." Inuyasha, meanwhile, used a small pan full of soapy water to wash the dirt, tree bark, and snow from his own feet. They entered the house together, both flattening their ears against the rising scream of infants and toddlers.
The same snow that Inuyasha had observed from his tree, Rin watched in the gardens at Jouka. Wrapped and bundled up tightly, she ignored Jijo's clucking about how unwise it was for Rin to be outside at all. Jijo herself was shaking more than Rin as she struggled to hold the umbrella high for her young mistress, shielding her from the gentle fall of snowflakes.
"I'll draw my lady a warm bath, and fetch all of the latest literature from the library—"
"I've already read it all, Jijo." Rin muttered, sighing. She turned and snatched the umbrella from the old woman. "If you're cold, go inside. I'll manage."
"I would never!" the old woman gasped, though her body was quaking and wracked with shivers.
"It's okay, Jijo." Rin smiled, "You're cold, I can see it. If I get cold I'll come inside, I promise."
Jijo huffed proudly and tried to stop her shivering with new effort. "You shouldn't be out here, Lady Rin. In your condition…"
Rin fingered the narrow, carved edges of the umbrella's handle. Her emotions made the world spin for a moment; the snow was dazzling white, even against the ugly, gray sky. Don't think about that…she repeated to herself. The baby was sure to perish within her, just as all the others had before it.
"Leave me, Jijo. It's what I want." She stuck one hand out beyond the protective circle of the umbrella and waited until a few fat snowflakes landed there, warming against her palm and melting into little teardrops.
"Lord Sesshomaru would skin me alive!" Jijo insisted, and now there was humor within her voice. Rin allowed herself to enjoy that humor. The protection of the inuyoukai, the obsession. It was renowned.
"I wouldn't let him."
Her heart quickened. Rin looked up, squinting through the brightness of the snow. Her human eyes were frail; Jaken and Sesshomaru had told her this many times over. She couldn't see well in the dark, and against the snow detail was muted and swallowed whole. In spite of this, Rin tried anyway. Along the path, through the latest, thin layer of snow, Rin gradually saw movement against the whiteness.
Golden, hawk-like eyes lifted, taking her in.
Rin's heart leapt inside her. The umbrella fell away with a thumping sound into the snow. Jijo gasped and reached for it, startled by Rin's actions. She had just started to scold her when she saw that Rin had disappeared, hurrying down the path.
Sesshomaru was barely visible, but as she drew nearer, Rin saw that he was tired, more worn than she'd seen him in a long time. As she bowed, she thought she saw him look away, as if uninterested or—pained? She dismissed the instinctual interpretation, focusing on the joy erupting inside her. He had returned to her, and even now, already, it was a sure thing he would smell the baby inside her.
"Lord Sesshomaru," she gasped, "This lowly one welcomes you and begs your pardon for asking you to return so soon."
"What are you doing out here?" Sesshomaru asked, sounding almost openly irritated. "You are vulnerable."
"I wanted to see the snow." She insisted, clearing her throat and daring to glance up at him. "It's so beautiful out here." Of course the true beauty was right before her, she thought—and then how unusual it was, to see Sesshomaru in an icy environment. It was as if he'd been made for the cold weather. His hair was so fair it matched the whiteness of the snow falling around them. His kimono was white as well. Snow didn't show up on him, it covered him, masked him. Usually he stood out against all other weather because of his fair hair, his golden eyes.
"Come, Rin. We must go inside." He waited as she rose to her feet, and then they walked together, side by side, back to the warmth of the palace.
The first thing that greeted them was Kasai, the only daughter of Miroku and Sango. She was only about 9 months older than Koinu, but she was somehow fiercer and roughly the same size—albeit she was far less coordinated. The tiny girl was trying to cuddle Akisame—Koinu's little two year old sister. Akisame was squalling and fighting the other, older girl's grasp on her.
Kasai at once let go of Akisame when she saw "Uncle" Inuyasha and Koinu enter the room. "I'm sorry!" she squeaked, nervously, "I didn't do it!"
Kasai was the very image of Miroku, except that she was in female form. She had his bright, violet eyes, as well as his deep, dark black hair. She also seemed to possess his quick tongue and habit of lying—fortunately she wasn't good at it yet.
Inuyasha growled. "Kasai…" he strode forward and stooped to pick up his screaming daughter.
Kasai scrambled backwards, stumbling. Her violet eyes were wide and terrified. "Uncle Inu!" she stammered, starting to cry, "I didn't mean to!"
Koinu was at his father's side, frowning and mimicking Inuyasha's battle ready stance, arms crossed, a scowl covering his little face. "Why did you hurt Aki?" he demanded. Although his body language said he was angry, his blue eyes were saddened, betrayed. While playing, Koinu considered himself loyal to Kasai. He protected her when her older brothers, Kohimu and Tisoki, tried to keep her out of their games. If they excluded her, Koinu would include her. By harming Akisame, Kasai was tearing his loyalties.
"She was trying to get out!" Kasai responded, shrieking helplessly. Her words were beginning to deteriorate into whimpers and blubbering cries. "Aunt 'Gome told me to watch Aki!"
Inuyasha had silenced his daughter, cuddling her against his chest and stroking her black hair gently. Unlike Koinu, who shared Inuyasha's more prominent inuyoukai features—dog ears, and fair hair—Akisame looked like Kagome except for her eyes which were the honey gold of her father's. She hadn't been born with the trademark white dog ears, much to everyone's surprise. Souta had joked that he might've accused Kagome of cheating, except that Akisame had Inuyasha's eyes from birth. Mrs. Higurashi maintained that Souta's joke was anything but funny and she had a lengthier explanation involving "jeans" and "chrome-mo-zomes." Whatever those were…
"Where's mama, Aki?" he asked her, half-purring. The same claws that had torn apart bloodthirsty demons now traced his daughter's human ears, hidden as they were beneath her thick, and slightly curly, black hair.
She squirmed in his arms and turned to point past where Kasai was still trembling, down the hall. Then she clawed at her father's arms, grunting and growling. She might've looked like Kagome, but Akisame possessed more of Inuyasha's spirit than Koinu—at least as a toddler.
"Okay, okay." Inuyasha knelt and set her down. Akisame at once used his leg as a crutch and pushed herself into an upright, bipedal stance. She glared at Kasai with her narrowed, golden eyes. When her father stepped away, moving past Kasai peacefully and down the hallway, Akisame stumbled a little. Koinu moved in and let her lean on him then.
Akisame was only half as tall as her older brother, and still a little wobbly on her feet. But put beside one another, the siblings shared several inuyoukai features. They had fangs, their fingers ended in strong claws, for the most part they despised shoes and socks with a passion, and they were intensely loyal to those they considered family.
"Don't hurt Aki." Koinu growled, throwing a glare of his own now at Kasai.
The other girl shook her head. "I won't, Koinu!"
"Good." Koinu stepped in front of his sister and knelt, allowing her to crawl clumsily onto him in a piggyback position. "C'mon Aki, let's go find mama."
Inuyasha had already found her, and since finding her, had decided it was a mistake. She was in the kitchen, preparing a meal, but when she saw him her attention switched at once to vengeance.
"I want you to apologize to her." Kagome whispered. Her voice was soft and gentle; her grip on his ear was not.
Inuyasha gritted his teeth; his entire face was twisted in a grimace of pain. "Kagome!" he hissed through his teeth, "She's pregnant!" if he approached Sango again within the next few months she would likely thrust her sword through his gut. The early months of pregnancy had never agreed with Sango.
Kagome twisted his ear a fraction harder, making him whimper once and his face flush red with embarrassment. "Then you understand how hard things are for her right now."
Sometimes he wished Kaede were still alive. He could sneak out in the night, while Kagome and the children were sleeping, and beg the old crone for a subduing spell for Sango and Kagome. He entertained this fantasy a lot, especially wondering what his keyword would be.
"Kagome! She'll kill me!"
Koinu ran into them, with Akisame still riding on his back, grinning widely. When she spotted their parents she kicked and whimpered, reaching with one hand toward Inuyasha and Kagome. Koinu stopped, grumbling, and set her down. Akisame toddled forward, catching one leg of either parent and stepped on their feet, bouncing eagerly.
Kagome let go of Inuyasha's ear. The hanyou straightened, rubbing the wounded appendage and glaring at his wife as she knelt and took Akisame into her arms.
"Take Aki, Inuyasha. Sango loves her—she won't kill you while you're holding her."
Inuyasha's mouth fell open as he accepted Akisame. "Kagome…" he stammered.
She sighed and reached out, caressing his cheek. "Please, Inuyasha? Do it for me?"
The hanyou growled and hoisted Akisame higher on his chest. "Fine." He grumbled. When she smiled at him, Inuyasha felt his irritation melting slightly, though he struggled to keep it ignited and burning bright. Akisame whimpered and pawed at her mother, but Inuyasha held her back and took off, moving out of the kitchen and toward the hallway again.
Miroku and Sango shared a guest room while they stayed with Inuyasha and Kagome, which happened frequently. Since marrying, the couple had attempted to restart and rebuild the village of the demon slayers. It was a lot easier said than done, even as other demon slayers and people from the surrounding areas relocated to the village. Sango was haunted by the memories of her old family, her old village before it was sacked by the demons. Kohimu, their first son, had been born in her old house, in the old village. Sango suffered depression after his birth; it was only lifted when she and Miroku visited Inuyasha and Kagome on their estate.
It was sometimes discussed, and sometimes had happened, that Miroku and Sango lived with Inuyasha and Kagome more permanently. They pooled money, resources, everything. All in all, it was a safe bet that Miroku, Sango, and their many children spent at least as much time inside Inuyasha's estate as they did in their "real" home in the old demon slayer's village.
Inuyasha rapped his knuckles against the door to his guest room, scowling grimly. His acute ears told him that just inside, Miroku and Sango were speaking quietly. He caught a few words: "…Tisoki…no discipline…Kagome…"
And then he heard the swish of Miroku's robes. The monk slid the door open and blinked at Inuyasha with surprise. "Inuyasha…?"
"Where's Sango?" he asked, fighting Akisame as she squirmed and grunted, glaring up at her father's chin.
Miroku's lips narrowed into a thin line. "She's—"
"Kagome put you up to this, didn't she Inuyasha?" came Sango's voice from inside. Inuyasha heard their youngest child, their son Masuyo, starting to fuss warningly.
The hanyou snorted, "So what if she did?"
Miroku had closed his eyes, covered his face with the formerly cursed hand. "That was the wrong thing to say, Inuyasha." He whispered.
Sango groaned angrily, and Inuyasha's keen ears caught the squeaks of the floorboards as she moved, apparently coming to exact her revenge. Fortunately for him this irritated Masuyo. He was a fussy baby still, hardly able to walk but otherwise a fat and healthy child, and currently Inuyasha's savior.
"Shh, shh…" Sango's anger evaporated, changing instantaneously to despair. "No…" she moaned.
Miroku abandoned his post at the door to help his wife. "Sango—let me take him, you rest…"
Akisame, hearing Masuyo's crying, began to whimper warningly herself. Inuyasha grunted, trying to control his squirmy daughter, and then quickly tossed out: "Sorry Sango!" he hurried away before the couple could react.
"Something troubles you, my lord?" Rin asked, quietly.
It had been several hours since he'd returned to Jouka and to Rin, much to her relief. They had not yet discussed the reason as to why Rin assumed he'd returned, but she wasn't worried. Sesshomaru's nose would tell him more than words ever could. They were picking over a meal that Jijo and a few of the other servants had prepared. Neither had much of an appetite. Rin understood her own reasons—nausea from the pregnancy—but she had yet to fathom Sesshomaru's.
Sesshomaru sat unmoving and unresponsive. The minutes passed and he failed to answer her.
Rin fingered her chopsticks uncertainly. Her fingers felt thick, cold, and clumsy. Eating roused no appetite, and looking down at the bowl of rice did nothing to settle her stomach. She let the chopsticks fall to her tray and settled back on her haunches, daring to stare at Sesshomaru more openly now.
"Rin wishes to know what's troubling the great Sesshomaru." She murmured, making sure to use her gentle, childish tone.
This drew a reaction, small as it was, but not the one that Rin wanted. The stoic inuyoukai shifted his weight very slightly, away from her. It was an insignificant motion, but to Rin it spoke volumes. Alarm passed through her body like electricity.
"Is it something I've done?" she blurted, leaning forward. Her hands, fingers, her wrists all felt weakened, shaky. If she'd been standing she was certain she'd have fallen forward with weakness. The emotional swings of her pregnancy, the worry over Sesshomaru's behavior…it weighed on her heavily.
This time Sesshomaru glanced at her, blinking once. It was again only a tiny gesture, but Rin read it at once with relief. He was surprised, perhaps even shocked that she would believe she'd committed him some harm. "No, Rin." He murmured slowly, "It is nothing."
She nodded, half-bowing. "Please, my lord, tell me of your latest journey. What is it that has troubled you so?" perhaps it was the war in the Middle Lands, perhaps lives had been lost in a rebellion…but those were annoyances to Sesshomaru, not things that would drag his shoulders down, make his posture less than statuesque.
"It is nothing, Rin." He repeated, and now there was a note of warning in his voice, ordering her without saying it in words, that she should stop pestering him.
Rin bowed again, muttering an apology. Her heart hammered within her, she felt sticky where sweat was beginning to accumulate along her neckline, at the edge of her robes. "Does the great Lord Sesshomaru know why Rin has requested his return?"
Sesshomaru moved insubstantially, but this time the motion brought his attention more keenly toward her, a sign of his interest. "Yes." he answered evenly, "There is something I have not told you."
She sat up, facing him eagerly. "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru?"
He paused, as if uncertain for a moment. There was a flicker in his eyes, a slow narrowing of those golden irises for a split second, and then the emotion was gone, whatever it had been. When he finally spoke it was with ease and confidence. "Kuenai told me of a rumor. It was suggested that you may have been the victim of sabotage."
Rin blinked at him, "Sabotage?"
"Poison." Sesshomaru elaborated with a single word, gently but with a gravity to his voice that was undeniable. He wouldn't say "miscarriage" he would not spell out her misfortune. It was like speaking the names of the dead, inviting further wrath down on Rin if he did. He watched her from the corner of his eyes, though he pretended not to. It was too difficult to face her directly just yet.
She understood his meaning, as he knew she would. Her face twisted with grief momentarily, but she pushed it away, strong as always. Rin had suffered much in her short lifetime. The loss of her parents and brothers to bandits. The death by wolves and her resurrection at Sesshomaru's blade. The babies that washed away in blood were just more splashes of grief in her already full bucket. It was a heavy, painful load, but Rin was calloused—though one might never guess it looking at her—she was hard as stone, a beautiful thing forged by hardship. A diamond, cut out of the earth by Sesshomaru's claw…
"You moved me to Jouka because…" her breathing picked up, she swallowed thickly and abruptly pushed her tray away, dropping into a bow. "Lord Sesshomaru, this lowly one thanks you and asks that tomorrow she be allowed to journey to the nearby village to pray for luck at the shrine."
"No." Sesshomaru answered, without hesitation.
Rin lifted her eyes, baffled. "Lord Sesshomaru?"
"This is not the weather for one in your condition to travel." He responded, curtly. Seeing the way she fought her emotions, he shifted uneasily and added, "Remember my counsel in the past, Rin. You must not hope, it will only magnify your pain."
There was a moment in which it appeared that Rin would fight him, perhaps fiercely. Her face clenched up bitterly, her eyes narrowed…but then the expression faded into one of resignation. She nodded. "You are wise, Lord Sesshomaru…"
Forcing herself to snatch up the chopsticks again, Rin picked through her food and shoveled a bit into her mouth. Sesshomaru was right, in spite of how cruel it felt to her. He remained his usual, detached self. It was true, if she allowed herself to hope, to cherish the possibility that this baby might survive where all the others had failed because she was away from the possibility of sabotage, it would only harm her a thousand fold worse if she was wrong. There was always room for error, always room for death.
She swallowed her rice, closing her eyes and trying to mirror Sesshomaru in his cold, calculating intelligence. The hard mind that could love her and at the same time rule over all of the Western Lands…
Kagome, Koinu, Shippo, Kasai, and "the boys" were waiting in the sitting room when Inuyasha got there. Miroku and Sango's oldest boys, Kohimu and Tisoki, were strongly attached to their "aunt and uncle." From a very young age, they'd known the hanyou and Kagome almost as secondary parents. Kagome acted as babysitter before Koinu had been born, and sometimes still took care of them if something took Miroku and Sango away on business.
When she wasn't pregnant, Sango was still a renowned demon slayer. The fact that she was a woman always startled customers. Miroku accompanied her, sometimes posing as the real demon slayer when there were difficult employers that didn't believe a woman had the strength or conviction to attack and kill demons. Most often, however, he acted as a sort of agent for her, although in the nitty-gritty of a fight he was always at her side, fighting. Shippo accompanied them at times, as did Inuyasha. Lately, however, the talk was that Kohimu would be joining his mother on the battlefield, beginning a long apprenticeship. He was almost nine years old; mature enough to be brought out into the battle.
In the long years since Naraku had been slain, Shippo had sprouted like a weed. He was easily as tall as Kohimu, the oldest of Miroku and Sango's boys, but far stronger. He was wiry, lanky, and his blonde-red hair had grown wild, uncontrollable with the approach of adolescence. His fox tail had grown right with him. It was a monstrous bush now that the kit had trouble controlling. The appendage had a tendency to suddenly tickle those sitting beside him, though Shippo seemed unaware of its actions and often embarrassed by it.
Kagome glanced up at him as he entered the room. "Inuyasha? Did you do it?"
"Yes." he harrumphed and took a seat at her side, still wearing a disgruntled, irritable expression on his face. Akisame scratched at his haori, reaching for Kagome.
"Why doesn't she talk like everyone else?" Tisoki asked, frowning. "Or is she missing that too?"
Tisoki was about seven years old, going swiftly on eight, and already it was glaringly obvious to both families that Tisoki had inherited Miroku's lechery. Inuyasha hadn't believed that such a thing could be passed along within a family in such a way, but Tisoki appeared to prove Miroku's claims correct. He was very young and already obsessed with the differences between girls and boys bodies. The question: "Or is she missing that too?" referred Akisame's lack of a penis.
"She isn't missing anything!" Inuyasha snapped.
"She'll talk when she's ready." Kagome inserted in a gentler voice, reaching for Akisame and taking her into her lap. Kagome stroked her fingers through her daughter's hair, cuddling her close. Akisame fell silent swiftly and started to nod off at once.
"Tea?" Inuyasha asked, raising his eyebrows expectantly.
"There's some left." Kagome motioned with her chin and her shoulder, carefully, trying not to disturb Akisame.
Inuyasha grunted and reached for it, nearly knocking over the other glasses on the table with his long, clumsy haori sleeves. He poured the last of the tea into a cup and downed it in a single swallow thirstily.
Koinu, sitting next to Kasai on the opposite side of the table, was starting to doze off. Kasai was staring at his ears, hatching up a slow plan to reach out and tweak them, like a cat hunting sleepy birds early in the morning. Her brothers were jabbering at her side loudly with Shippo.
Shippo often craved adventure since he'd started to grow rapidly, adventure and mischief. Demons matured slowly, in many ways. Shippo's powers had begun to grow, and sometimes Inuyasha's household couldn't contain him. Once every other month Shippo left the safety he had with Inuyasha, Kagome, and their children, and traveled the province, forcing himself to survive with fox magic and his own survival instincts. Kagome worried over him when he was gone, but so far the young fox demon had evaded true danger and only stretched his legs. The outings served to make him calmer, steadier when he was with Inuyasha and Kagome again. His growth spurts had brought more power and energy to him than he'd had before. In play he might accidentally hurt Kohimu or Tisoki. It was one of his greatest fears, so he abstained from playing with them and instead worked off his excess energy with these extended outings. Currently he was discussing rumors he'd heard on his latest trip around the province. Having returned only a matter of days ago—at the same time that Miroku and Sango showed up for a visit—the kit's stories would be brand new to Kagome and Inuyasha as well as Kohimu, Tisoki, and Kasai.
"There was a huge battle in the Middle Lands." His green eyes were alert and shining. "A war between the inuyoukai lords."
Inuyasha grunted, ears swiveling to focus on Shippo carefully now. "Not those bastards again."
"Inuyasha." Kagome scolded, shaking her head. "Langauge."
The hanyou snorted, "What's the point? Kohimu and Tisoki are old enough, Kasai isn't listening, Koinu and Shippo already know, and Aki's asleep." He threw her a challenging stare, smirking proudly.
Kagome huffed and gave up, looking back to Shippo for the rest of the story. "Go on Shippo, I'd like to hear about them. Do we know any of them?"
"Feh." The hanyou grumbled at her side, crossing his arms. "I hope we don't. If any one of them comes asking me to help them, I swear I'll shove Tetsusaiga so far—"
"Anyway…" Shippo interrupted, frowningly, "Yeah Kagome, there were. You know that guy that came to get the hanyou girl that stayed with us a couple years ago?"
Kagome was no longer staring at Shippo directly. She focused on Akisame, sleeping peacefully in her lap. The event that Shippo spoke of was a traumatic event for her, full of pain and suffering. She'd been taken prisoner, essentially, by the old female ruler of the Middle Lands, Lady Taikokajin, who had originally come under a flag of peace to ask for Inuyasha's help. To ensure it later, Taikokajin had abducted Kagome and kept her as a hostage to force Inuyasha to work for her. It had almost cost Kagome and Koinu—a baby at the time—their lives. She hadn't seen the inuyoukai that Shippo spoke of, but she knew about him vaguely as one of the many inuyoukai visitors their home had seen in that incident.
"I remember." She murmured. Akisame twitched under her mother's touch and then, reflexively, her lips began to make suckling motions.
Inuyasha's ears fell back at her side, the corners of his eyes crinkled with emotion though otherwise he refused to express anything but irritation. In reality he remembered the incident as well, and how close he'd come to losing Kagome and Koinu. "Why are you wasting our time with this Shippo?"
"I wanna hear!" Tisoki protested, leaning forward with Kohimu eagerly.
Shippo threw Inuyasha a smug grin and then plunged into his story again. "So, as I was saying, the guy that came and took the girl from us, him and some other guy, the ruler of the Middle Lands now—his mother was the pink-eyed one…"
Inuyasha's ears perked up then and he also leaned forward, listening with new interest. "Shimo-pup."
All eyes turned toward Inuyasha.
"You know who I'm talking about?" Shippo asked. "His name did start with something like that."
"Just tell the rest of the story." The hanyou grumbled, withdrawing when he felt the weight of the others' eyes. The last thing he wanted to do was retell how he knew Shimofuri.
"Well," Shippo went on, hesitant now with so many interruptions, "The Shimo guy and his uncle, Sasu-something, waged war with old Nishiyori." Shippo took a moment to pause and puff out his chest proudly. "My family used to live there—in the Isei province. I was born there—we used to pay homage to Nishiyori. My parents used to think he was a moron." His voice gave a small, slight sadness away, but for the most part the memories of his parents' death was distant, as was his birth and birthplace.
"Who won? The good guy or the bad guy?" Kasai asked, alert to this tale now because Koinu was no longer nodding off—he'd keep her from playing with his ears while he was awake. At her age stories were all fairytales, filled with simple characters of good and evil.
Kohimu and Tisoki frowned as one at their sister. Kohimu spoke for them. "Stupid—Shippo didn't say one or the other side was bad."
Tisoki blinked at this, abruptly curious himself. He turned and looked back at Shippo, asking timidly, "Was one side bad? Was it that Shimo-guy?"
Shippo shrugged. "I dunno really." Uncertainly he searched Inuyasha and Kagome's faces, trying to gage their opinions. Kagome was still paying more attention to innocent Akisame in her lap than she was to the story and Inuyasha had a mildly sour expression that revealed little. Shippo at last shrugged again and continued on without answering. "The Shimo-guy and the other one Sasu…" he scowled, frustrated with his poor memory, "Whatever his name was. They won. I saw him once, though."
Kohimu and Tisoki gasped and stared with new awe at the kitsune youkai. "Really?"
Shippo nodded proudly. "Yep. Sure did." He neglected to mention that he'd run into a wall trying to escape and screamed for Inuyasha desperately, of course. "I heard that they killed all of Nishiyori's family—but they didn't take over his province. In fact the people there in the Isei told me they're part of the Western Lands now."
The youngsters at the table didn't understand the significance of this news, but Inuyasha and Kagome dropped their uncaring attitudes of moments before and looked toward Shippo with shock. Kagome's fingers had stilled on Akisame, Inuyasha at her side had stiffened and for a moment ceased breathing, waiting.
"The Western Lands? As in Sesshomaru?" Kagome gaped.
Inuyasha tossed his two cents in at that moment. "What the hell? Why would Shimo-pup give anything to that bastard…?" his jaw clenched, his gaze drifted away. Inuyasha dove into his thoughts, into his memory, trying to find any hints or clues buried somewhere within.
Shippo was shaking his head slowly, "No one would say anything why for sure. They told me all sorts of things that didn't make sense. Like Sesshomaru and that Shimo guy were working together because Sesshomaru was going to marry off a secret daughter to him or something. Or that Sesshomaru was holding the Shimo guy's sister hostage." He broke out grinning, "The one I heard the most was the dumbest of them all!"
"What was that?" Koinu asked, at last breaking his own long period of silence. He cocked his little head, listening carefully and with great thought, absorbing in all of this strange, distant politics. "And who is…" he shifted uncomfortably, trying to form the sounds correctly on his first try: "…Sessho-maru?"
Kagome and Inuyasha stared at their son from across the table, taken aback. They turned to one another, questioningly.
"You never told him…?"
"Why the hell would I!"
(A/N: I would like to point out that Sesshomaru appears early-ish in the series, but Kagome learns nothing until she actually meets him. Inuyasha doesn't go around telling people about his "family." So his choice here makes sense to me, he is showing us and Koinu, just how little Sesshomaru means to him.)
Koinu watched their interaction innocently, but with great intelligence. Knowing his parents as he did, he'd surmised from their behavior earlier, when this new name had emerged, that whoever this person was, his parents had known him. He'd grown up with many stories whispered to him on nights like this one: the defeat of the infamous Naraku, the tragic death of a priestess named Kikyo, the death of Kaede a few years before his birth, the moment when his parents had met, of how his father had somehow spent 50 years pinned to a tree with a priestess's arrow through his shoulder…
These stories were watered down for him, sugar-coated. For instance, he didn't know that the priestess Kikyo was the same that had trapped his father to a tree for 50 years. Also, he didn't know that his father had tried to kill Kagome for the Jewel. He didn't know that Inuyasha had spent years chasing Kikyo while Kagome waited. There were many stories he'd heard, but few contained whole truth and every detail. And there were still many, many stories that hadn't been exposed yet, like bones of dinosaurs, buried deep in the skin of the earth.
The story of his great and powerful uncle Sesshomaru was just one that had failed to show. It just so happened that this enemy in his parent's past, this questionable character, happened to be his uncle, a person he'd never met before, but shared many, many strong family traits with.
"Never mind that now!" Shippo interrupted impatiently, "You have to hear this, Inuyasha."
The hanyou rolled his eyes and said to Koinu, "I'll tell you in a minute Koinu."
Shippo hardly waited for him to finish speaking to his son before the kit was telling his story eagerly once more. "The story I heard the most to explain it all was that…" he sat back on his haunches—his fox tail flicked around eagerly of its own accord and whipped at Kohimu, making the boy cringe and push it away—and took on a deep, solemn tone, imitating the men who'd told him this story: "…Lord Sesshomaru took the Isei because he helped Shimo-guy win the war when he otherwise couldn't have managed it. Now the Isei is his because that's where he keeps his wife."
"His wife?" Kagome choked.
Shippo had burst out laughing now and didn't answer her through his thick spasm of laughter.
When Kagome looked toward Inuyasha to seek out his opinion, she found the hanyou strangely blank. "Inuyasha?"
He blinked, as if startled, but quickly covered it up. "Feh. Anything's possible." Turning toward Koinu he announced, dully, "Sesshomaru is my older brother. Your uncle."
Koinu's eyes widened, his ears swiveled to and fro. "Really?" he glanced between his mother and father, astonished. It had never occurred to him that his father might have family. Kagome gave him a great-grandfather, a grandmother, and an uncle that he adored. Inuyasha had never spoken of his family to him. Now he imagined this mysterious Sessho-maru as a dog-eared, silver haired, Souta—and grinned happily.
Inuyasha caught this expression and scowled at once. "He's an asshole."
"Inuyasha." Kagome hissed, warningly. She tried to cover some of the damage, saying, "What your father means, Koinu, is that your uncle Sesshomaru…" she paused, searching for the right words and feeling how strange the words uncle and Sesshomaru felt when they fell in the same sentence. It was the same feeling she'd gotten when she'd first met Sesshomaru and been told that the hanyou and the inuyoukai were siblings. Back then brother had felt bizarre as well.
"He's really mean, Koinu." Shippo added, solemn now. "You wouldn't want to meet him."
"Oh." Koinu's little ears dropped. He took a moment to search his parents' faces again and then looked down on his own hands, at the strands of fair hair that fell around his shoulders. Somehow, he felt a loss that he would never see this uncle, never understand his meanness. No one seemed willing to explain to him, and Koinu couldn't fathom it himself. He stared at Akisame sleeping peacefully in their mother's lap. How could siblings be mean to each other? Akisame shared the same scent, claws, fangs…and she had their father's eyes. He could never hate her, never harm her.
In this fairytale, one that Koinu hadn't been told yet, he could already see this unknown uncle, this Sessho-maru, as the "bad guy." The big bad wolf, sneaking through the night, looking for blood…
A/N: Since writing this piece I keep plotting out a story where Koinu, years later as a teen or an adolescent, runs into his infamous uncle. What would they say to one another? How would they react? How does the lord of the Western Lands view his nephew and his niece? The thoughts spinning in my head about it are fascinating. I could write a whole other spin-off about Inuyasha's children, or Miroku and Sango's for that matter, their adventures, strengths, weaknesses, and of course, their love interests. But one thing at a time my muse, one thing at a time...