Come Home Puppy
Confrontations
Sango and Miroku looked up as the sound of a door sliding open reached their human ears. Sesshoumaru stepped through the door followed by Rin, Shippou and Kirara. The two humans looked disappointed for a moment as the lord of the Western Palace escorted the little group to the opposite door and handing them off to Jaken, whom had been leading their escorts on the way to this room. Sesshoumaru made his way back to the door he had exited from and disappeared behind the cover of the walls. Moments later the royal dog demon appeared and so did Inuyasha, only the younger inu was held within the elder's arms. Miroku could see and feel the weakness that surrounded Inuyasha's slowly healing frame. He had to say that Sesshoumaru's assessment of Inuyasha's health had been a vast understatement. Sango looked at the state of their, hopefully, friend in shock and guilt.
Sesshoumaru put Inuyasha down on one of the chairs that seemed to be a bit overstuffed for the usual taste of the Lord of the Western Lands. Inuyasha took a moment to shift slightly multiple times before finding a position that was most comfortable for the long talk that he knew was coming. Sesshoumaru took a stand behind Inuyasha's chair to offer support that was emotional as well as physical.
"I'm so sorry," Miroku blurted, unable to take the uncomfortable silence any longer. His guilt was too much to bear while sitting in front of the one to whom he had caused so much pain.
"For...?" Inuyasha asked softly, he wasn't trying to be mean, but he wanted to make sure that if he was to forgive, he wasn't forgiving something that he had no relativity to what he wanted to talk about.
"As your friend, I should have known better than to automatically assume that you would have had anything to do with Lady Kaede's death. In fact, it should have been the furthest thing from my mind and with someone accusing you, should have been hard to convince me that you committing such an act was possible. As a monk, I should have been able to tell that you were not lying to us when you told us that you didn't and couldn't ever hurt her. I'm sorry Inuyasha and I know there is nothing that I can do to make things right or to take them back, but I hope that we could get back some part of our friendship and trust."
"I forgive you Miroku, I had a long time ago. Trust is a hard thing to gain, as you would know, but it is even harder to get back once it has been broken." Miroku nodded his head sagely, feeling giddy now that the weight of what he had done was lightened with Inuyasha's forgiveness. He only had to forgive himself before the burden would be completely lifted.
Sango was quiet for quite a few moments before she tried to start her own apology for her actions towards Inuyasha. Everytime she went to say something, however, the words caught in her throat. She just couldn't get the words from her brain to leave out her mouth. Inuyasha was staring expectantly at the taijiya that sat opening and closing her mouth, amusingly looking like a fish while doing so. Sesshoumaru's eyes were narrowing with suspicion and contempt at what he perceived to be a seemingly reluctant apology trying to force its way past the ningen female's lips. Finally, Sango was able to get out what she wanted to say to Inuyasha.
"I was wrong Inuyasha. I of all of us should know that you wouldn't have done that and that you would not lie about something of that magnitude. The only thing you have ever lied to us about was the state of your health and even then you weren't very good at it." Inuyasha looked at her with wary and reluctant acceptance. She wasn't doing a very good job of apologizing, more like she was trying to give apologies to herself after giving her own conscious a good chastising. Inuyasha looked to Miroku whom still smelled like guilt to him, but at the moment Sesshoumaru would be a far more accurate source to talk with about it. He then looked at Sango, whom seemed not to be apologizing, but at least she was addressing her mistake, even if she refused to say sorry for it, genuinely.
"Miroku? Would you like to have lunch with us tomorrow?" Inuyasha asked the houshi. Miroku looked surprised that Inuyasha would be wanting to see him so soon. He thought that, and knew that he would deserve, Inuyasha would leave him to 'stew' for awhile before finally mending bridges. That chip on his shoulder again became lighter. The houshi smiled before nodding his consent to the idea. Sango looked afronted that she had not been invited as well, but then again she and Inuyasha have had certain walls between them because of the fact that they were opposite extremes of the radar. She killed demons, even half-demons and demons, half-demons killed humans like her. This could definitely cause problems in her regaining his trust and friendship. She misses his grouchy behavior and snappy comebacks.
"Sesshoumaru? Get Shippou for me, I need to talk to him now." Inuyasha whispered below the hearing range of the ningen sitting in front of him. Sesshoumaru gave a single, curt nod and proceeded to herd the houshi and taijiya out of his otouto's suites, but not without kissing the fragile inu-hanyou on the forehead affectionately. Inuyasha just smiled a dopey, purely happy grin and got a far away look about him, not caring if the humans saw his reaction or not. Sesshoumaru wouldn't be able to get rid of smile for days, of that he was sure.
Shippou watched Inuyasha with unbridled curiosity and Inuyasha returned the gaze, except instead of curiosity it was a completely serious expression with a bit of confusion. Inuyasha was struggling for the right words to say and with as little misunderstanding as possible for both sides.
"Shippou, you know that I care for you and would do anything to help you should you ever need it?" The kit nodded, strangely quiet.
"I remember you calling me papa," Shippou gasped and looked into his lap. "- if you want me to be, I can formalize the adoption. You wouldn't be an heir because you are not of inu blood, but you would still have a home here. Also, Sesshoumaru would be standing as your father. I know he may seem hard and uncaring, but he does have a heart buried under those stoic layers. Is this what you want?" Shippou looked up at Inuyasha with an admiring gaze before lowering his sights as he thought about it, as much as a fifty year old kit (equivalent to five human years) could seriously think about such a proposition. It took only moments, but to Inuyasha it seemed to take eternity for the little kit he had thought of as a younger sibling to answer.
Inuyasha had been startled to know that Shippou thought of him as a parental-figure, but it had overjoyed him as well. He didn't think he was ready to fulfill the role and neither did Sesshoumaru, so this became the compromise. Shippou would be adopted into the inu family only if Sesshoumaru was adopting him as well, though there had been some disagreement as to whom should be the dominant parent. Surprisingly after only a few minutes of debate, Inuyasha had caved. Sesshoumaru thought that to be too easy, and decided to think about the meaning of that later. The youngest inu shook himself of his reverie of the compromise for adopting Shippou and saw that the kit's big green eyes were staring at him before Shippou opened his mouth to reply.