Chapter Twenty-One

Sesshomaru landed the cloud at the edge of the village where Inuyasha's friends waited. "May I wait here?"

"Yes." Inuyasha took Sesshomaru's face in his hands and gave him a gentle kiss. "Behave yourself. Hide in the trees if you don't want to be seen. I'll send my power to tell you when we're ready to leave."

"Thank you." Sesshomaru turned his face and kissed the palm of Inuyasha's hand. "Don't leave me alone for too long."

"I'll try not to. Why don't you go hunt? Try to find a boar or a deer."

"Alright."

Inuyasha kissed his mate again before turning and making his way to the village.

Sesshomaru watched Inuyasha go. He didn't like the feeling that filled him as he was left alone. He moved into the trees and went in search of something to kill.

Inuyasha found Sango in Kaede's hut, sharpening her weapon. "Hey. Where is everyone?"

Sango looked up and her eyes widened. "What happened to you?"

Inuyasha frowned. "What?" He looked down at himself. "The clothes? I'm Lord now, I need to look the part." He ran a hand lovingly over the plate on one of his shoulders. "The armor was my fathers. Sesshomaru said he wanted me to have it."

"I meant your face, Inuyasha."

Realization. "Ah. The markings. That will take a while to explain. So I'd rather tell everyone at once. Where is everyone?"

"Miroku is across the village doing a blessing on a new house. Kagome just returned through the well this morning. She's with Kaede attending a birth. Shippo is playing with the children of the woman giving birth to keep them distracted."

"Ah. So they will be a while?"

"I suppose. Depends on how long the woman labors. They have been with her for several hours. They should be back soon."

"I'm gonna walk around the village, see if anyone needs help with anything. Come find me when everyone's back." Inuyasha spend the next few hours talking to the villagers. They were all shocked at his new appearance. But they knew him well enough to know that he wasn't dangerous. He spent time talking to the people, learning that they were in need of new milk animals, cows or goats. They also needed some lumber. A few of the young men were ready to leave their family homes and build their own. But with the fields needing to be tended, they didn't really have anyone to spare to cut wood. Inuyasha promised to have lumber and some livestock sent to them soon. The villagers had been good to him. He would pay them back for their kindness. Shippo came to find him while he was speaking with a young man who was expecting his first child. He was making a mental note to be sure that the village had plenty of goats. Cows were large and took more feed. He would send a few cows, but he would send enough goats to ensure that every family with small children had one.

Kagome covered his mouth with her hands when Inuyasha entered Kaede's hut. "What happened to you?"

"It's a long story, sort of." He sat against the wall and took his shoulder plates off, setting them beside him. They were hard to relax in. While his friends stared at him, he explained about gaining control over his demon power. About how he was becoming one with it a piece at a time and how having more of his power under control, he was physically changing. "So it's normal. I've reached the age where I learn to tame my power. I have a good teacher. With his help I've been learning fast. I've got a quarter of my power fully released and tamed now."

"So that's why you have your markings?" Kagome looked pained. "The last time I saw those, you were struggling for control."

"Right. That doesn't happen anymore. Even if I let out all of my power, I'm able to hold onto it now and have decent control over it."

"It sounds like you're doing well, Inuyasha." Kaede stirred a large pot of soup. "So why is your mate waiting in the woods? He should be wanting to stay by your side."

"He does. But he doesn't really like being around humans. He asked to wait there. But I can feel him starting to panic. I might need to go fetch him soon." Inuyasha send out a tendril of his power. He found Sesshomaru huddled under a tree at the roadside, behind a bush, a dead boar at his side. He touched Sesshomaru's cheek and a tear slid down it. "I need to go get him. I'll be right back." Inuyasha was by Sesshomaru side in seconds, being able to run faster now. He wrapped Sesshomaru in his arms and sat with him in his lap. "Calm yourself."

"Don't leave me alone. Please. I don't want to be alone."

"Alright. I won't leave you alone. But that means you need to come with me. So calm yourself. Come with me and sit beside me. I'll tell the humans to ignore you. We'll cook the boar and have dinner."

"I don't want to talk to them."

"You don't have to talk to them. Just don't be an asshole. Ignore them. Don't make rude noises. Just sit silently."

"I can do that."

"Okay." Inuyasha stepped back, lifted the boar by its back legs with one hand, and took Sesshomaru trembling one in his other. "Calm yourself, please."

"I'm trying. I feel better now you're with me. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Riko said it's because you don't have a child yet. Until you do, you won't leave my side. And you'll get scared when left alone."

"I didn't know that." Sesshomaru calmed a little while they walked down the road.

Inuyasha walked into the hurt first, pulling Sesshomaru in behind him, leading him to a corner near the door and pushing him down to sit. "Ignore him. He's just going to sit here." Inuyasha turned and help up the boar. "He got us some meat. It's been bled." He plopped the carcass on the old woman's table and moved to sit by his mate. He wasn't surprised when Sesshomaru scooted over slightly so their legs were touching.

"Thank you for the boar, Lord Sesshomaru." Kaede went about butchering the boar. She had quick, deft hands.

Sesshomaru gave her a stiff nod and leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes. He leaned to the side slightly so he was leaning against his mate.

Inuyasha watched the others, they were all staring at Sesshomaru. "Seriously, guys. Ignore him. Don't talk to him. Stop staring at him. Pretend he isn't here." He could feel Sesshomaru's discomfort. He reached his power out and wrapped it like a blanket around his mate. He also pulled one of the blankets out of his bag and threw it over him.

Sesshomaru pulled the blanket up to his chin and relaxed his body, leaning against Inuyasha, and let his head fall to his shoulder.

"So. What did your scouts come back with?" Miroku had been sitting and patiently listening to Inuyasha. He choose to listen to him and ignore Sesshomaru.

"One of them seemed a simple nuisance demon. I sent out one of the castle assassins to take care of that one. But there's a pretty serious one that the scout sensed a jewel shard on. It's on the coast. A Shark demon that Sesshomaru says has lived in that location for quite a while and has been peaceful. He has now killed several livestock and kidnapped two of the village children. The scout doesn't know whether the children are still alive. But the demon lives in a cave on the coast. Sesshomaru has also asked that we try to take the jewel without killing the demon. It seems is was a good, peaceful being before finding this shard. We've seen demons revert to being their normal, peaceful self when a jewel shard had been removed from them."

"We can't guarantee anything. If the demon has harmed the children, the village will want justice." Miroku glanced curiously at the demon. He was asleep. His breathing deep, his mouth slightly open.

"He knows that. I don't want to kill him if we don't have to. If he returns to his peaceful self, I would like to relocate him. I don't want to kill a peaceful demon. We all know the effects the jewel shards have sometimes. He likely isn't going any of this knowingly. If he doesn't remember what he's done, he doesn't deserve to be punished."

"Wow. What happened to the old Inuyasha?" Sango was staring at the hanyo with a strange look on her face. "You usually go in determined to kill everything and get the shards."

"Yeh, well. I've changed. I've also read petitions written by people who have had damage done to their homes or farms because of us. There are two demons in employment of the castle who have lost a family member to the jewel shards. Because I killed them. One of them, I killed her father. She told me about how good of a man he had been before he found that shard. He was a peaceful being. He even gave aide to the nearby village. He was their guardian and kept the people safe. And we killed him because the shard had turned him violent." Inuyasha shook his head. "I don't want to see another good person hurt. If we can save them, I want them saved."

"And if we can't?" Kagome crossed her arms. She didn't like seeing Sesshomaru cuddled up against Inuyasha the way he was. It made her really uncomfortable.

"Then we can't. All we can do is try." Sesshomaru made a soft noise and jerked awake. Fear flashed through him and Inuyasha put a hand on his thigh. "Relax."

Sesshomaru remembered where he was and calmed some. He had had a nightmare. One that often came to him if he slept surrounded by the stink of humans. It was really a memory. One of his earliest memories. When he had been 4 years old, he had snuck out of the castle and somehow gotten past the wall. He had found himself in the village. The humans had surrounded him. They knew who he was and simply wanted to say hello. But Sesshomaru had never seen humans before. He had been very frightened. He had started to cry and scream for his father. One of the village women, wanting to help him, tried to pick him so she could carry him to the castle gates and turn him over to a guard. Sesshomaru had screamed as loud as he could when the woman had touched her and lashed out. He had raked the woman's face with his claws. Someone had been wise enough to go run for a castle guard then. Sesshomaru had still been screaming when his father had ran up, scooped him into his arms, apologized to the villagers and thanked them for finding him, and ran back to the castle. It had taken a very long time for Sesshomaru to calm down. And it had taken years before he was willing to leave the castle and interact with the humans. But he was still very uncomfortable around them.

Inuyasha turned back to his friends. "It will take about four days to get to the coastal village. We can leave in the morning."

The group talked about random things while their dinner cooked. Inuyasha woke Sesshomaru so he could eat. After eating, Sesshomaru turned to face the wall and laid on his side with his head in Inuyasha's lap. Inuyasha gently stroked his hair while he talked with Miroku about the lessons he had been having in learning control of his power. When they decided to turn in for the night, Inuyasha woke Sesshomaru and they went to sleep in the forest.

Inuyasha spread a blanket on the ground and used the other two to cover them when Sesshomaru curled up beside him. "I don't like being surrounded by humans."

"I know. But they're my friends and I'm going to spend time with them. Until you have our child, you'll have to put up with it. After we have a child, you'll be able to stay home."

"They stink. Especially the women." Sesshomaru put his nose to Inuyasha's neck. He wanted to fill his nose with his mate's scent and get rid of the stick of the humans.

"Yeh. They smell like that when they're menstruating. You learn to ignore it. Apparently, the humans can't smell it."

"Something good about their dull noses. What is menstruating?" Inuyasha explained and he felt sick. "That is truly disgusting."

"Yeh, well. All human females do it." Inuyasha closed his eyes. "Sleep."

Sesshomaru knew he was going to have nightmares about human women bleeding.