WARNING: POSSIBLE TRIGGERS AHEAD. This chapter was a little hard for me to write. Though some of you may not even think I needed to add the warning, I sure felt as if I did. Abuse is never okay, and never easy to write, or read. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter despite the terrible situation our boy is presented with.

Twenty One

Things were good. Toshiro had a warm bed to sleep in every night, and a partner with whom he shared that bed, and a brother to bicker and play with, and food to fill his belly until he could hardly move. He had a taijia to teach him how to hold a dagger, and a monk who painted with him whenever he wished, and an old miko who helped him meditate to focus his youki well past training time.

He had parents. Ones who cared for him, who read him stories, and reprimanded him for drawing when he should be writing his alphabet. Who kissed his cheeks and ruffled his hair, but never tweaked his ears because they knew he was still uncomfortable with them being touched.

And things were good.

It'd been a few days since he was human, and still he was shaking off the sluggish unease he felt on those half moon nights. When his youki had pulsed in warning Toshiro's brother had given him a look, one of understanding and question before the hanyou nodded and the two had sped off into the forest, Moeru quiet of grumbling for once as he followed at their heels.

The pack now knew he turned from hanyou to human being on the first half moon of the month, knew what to expect, and did not shout or worry when he ran from the village when the sun began to set. They understood that Toshiro's human night was something he was not yet ready to share with everyone, a vulnerable time he only really felt comfortable sharing with his chosen brother, and now his partner. Inuyasha and Kagome didn't question the boys; they respected that Toshiro needed Shippou and Moeru alone, gave them the space to support one another, and trusted them not to stray too far in case of an emergency.

The trio'd found another small cave just into Inuyasha's Forest and once the moon was high in the sky, the left half of its face dark, the hanyou felt the drain of his youkai leaving him for the second time since he'd found his family.

He was instinctively shot through with panic as his fangs retracted into his gums, as his eyesight clouded and the din of the forest turned to a dull thrum around him. But looking at the blurred shapes of Shippou and Moeru's backs at the mouth of the cave had calmed him, had allowed him to breathe through the anxiety that drowned him each time he transformed. When it was over he'd sagged in exhaustion, struggled to keep his dark blue eyes open as the onslaught of the day's training took its toll on his human body. He'd dragged his feet to plop against his younger brother as they had that first half moon night, Moeru slinking over to curl against his side protectively, his red eyes watchful and awake as the boy fell unconscious with a hand holding onto his mutilated human ear.

It was dusk now, the sky shot through with purple veins as the sun began to set and the boy shook off the memory.

Toshiro and his partner were hunting. Not for food, they had plenty, but for practice, and in the hopes of expelling the nervous energy that'd plagued the hanyou since his parents left the day before.

The duo had decided to venture a little deeper than they usually would to hunt even with the knowledge that it was dangerous with Inuyasha away in Kagome's time, and that the moon was soon to rise above the trees, and that they technically weren't supposed to be out in the forest at all. Maybe he was being a little reckless with his adoptive parents away until tomorrow morning, but the animals in the forest near their home knew the scents of the hanyou and saber kitten by now, knew to hide or run long before the two got the chance to track them down. And even without having Shippou to watch his back they were fully capable of going a little farther out on their own. The kitsune was busy helping out at Kaede's, where Toshiro and his partner were admittedly supposed to be themselves.

Where is that stupid cat? He thought as he stomped through the looming trees.

They'd split up to corral a flock of wild fowl, but his companion's scent went in the opposite direction than the one the birds had taken. Which was strange. Moeru usually wasn't one to deter from a plan or set of rules; He growled when Toshiro tried to sleep in when it was time to train, he nipped the hanyou when he noticed his partner's mind starting to wander during reading or writing lessons, and Toshiro had had to beg the youkai to come out hunting with him when he'd told the old miko they were only going for a walk through the village.

Toshiro sighed through his nose, pushing his disobedience to the back of his mind and straining to hear the saber's light footsteps through Inuyasha's Forest.

The pup knew that calling out for his partner would be unwise, it would not only scare their prey away, but tell the more nefarious things of the night his location. So Toshiro took a deep inhale to scent his partner instead... and froze at what he smelled on the cold wind.

His body immediately locked in instinctive fear, sweat beading on his neck. He--he knew that smell in the breeze, but it was in no way the feline's. Knew the scent as clearly as he knew his own but there--there was no way... No way.

The chirps and croaks and rustles of the forest suddenly quieted when a strong, violent blast of youki shot through the wood.

Toshiro felt a gasp catch in his throat and tried to will his body to retreat, to run, but it wouldn't. Not as he watched Orochi stroll through a break in the trees as if he owned the ground he walked on, not as he saw those wicked green eyes glint in silent promise. Not as the figure of his very nightmares smiled at him as if they were long lost friends.

The pup took in that familiar golden armor, those claws that had caused so many of the scars on his body, that snake like smile, and whimpered.

The inu youkai halted his stalk mere inches away, so close that the hanyou pup could scent the clinging smells of the Southern Land's sand and brine from his clothes, could feel the malice pouring off of the male's body in waves.

Toshiro's own body felt rooted to the ground, as if all of the fire in his blood had turned to leaden ice.

Orochi smirked at him for a few silent moments, his pine green eyes assessing the clean clothes, the rounded cheeks, before he casually said, "You've changed."

Toshiro winced at the sound his voice, averting his honey eyes as years of torture and humiliation and submission came crashing into him. How had he been found? Was Katsumi here? Why had he gone out of the village? How could he have been so stupid?

Orochi circled him, faint amusement lighting his tone.

"You look strong, and healthy. You've grown taller, and cut your hair. Such drastic changes wrought in just a few months..." The youkai mused before squatting down, reaching out to grip the stunned boy by the face. Toshiro swallowed a yelp as the male gave him a terrifying grin. "Your aunt was rather distraught at your disappearance. And I've heard the most interesting stories of you on my quest to bring you home. I wonder what Katsumi will think of her Maggot when I deliver him to her."

Silent tears began to flow freely down Toshiro's cheeks as those horrifyingly familiar claws pressed into his golden skin. Panic and terror wrapped tight around his chest, keeping him from speaking, from thinking, from breathing.

"Not even a hello?" Orochi shook the pup a little, his canines flashing. "I've come such a long way, and this is the greeting I get?"

The pup only swallowed and cried harder, squeezing his eyes shut.

Inuyasha, Kagome... please.

He didn't realize he'd whispered their names aloud until, like lightning striking, Orochi backhanded Toshiro across the face. The boy's head whipped to the side violently, his cheek instantly swelling and his bangs falling to cover his eyes. He heard the youkai stand, and didn't fight when the male hit him a second time across the same cheek, the force of it knocking the hanyou to his knees.

"Who?" Orochi sneered hatefully. "Calling out for help, Maggot? Have you forgotten all that we've taught you?"

Another strike across the face, the other side this time. The inu youkai's claws nicked Toshiro's swollen cheek, the pup's tears stinging as they continued down his bruised face and into the open wound.

"You do not trust." Smack. "You do not beg." Smack. "You do not feel." Smack. SMACK.

Toshiro knew that he should be defending himself. Knew that by now all of his defensive training should have kicked in, knew that his youki should have been raging and roaring, but he felt nothing but numbing terror. In his head he heard a voice that sounded like Inuyasha's growling at him to get up, to fight, to run, to do something. But he couldn't find the will to do so. Not as years and years and years of feeling inferior and useless snuffed out the fire in his blood like a candle, not as a steel toed boot dealt him a crushing blow to his middle, causing him to double over with a soundless cry. Not as Orochi grasped onto his damaged ear with just his claws and squeezed.

Not as he retreated to that corner in his mind that he hadn't had to live in for a long while, where he could not feel pain, could not hear the slurs and insults Orochi spit at him, could do nothing but wait until the torture stopped.

He deserved this for thinking he could be happy.

He deserved this for thinking he could ever escape.

"Did you think you could escape?" He heard Orochi chuckle distantly, saw him flick blood from his claws with his spotted vision. "Did you think these disgusting things I smell on you would care whether you live or die? They do not. You have always been, and will always be, nothing more than a maggot."

Maggot. Maggot. Maggot. The word rang through his head in a loathsome knell, a word he'd thought was his own name for the first years of his life, a word that he'd almost forgotten in his stolen happiness. Orochi snatched up Toshiro by the neck, the pup letting his body dangle limply and his eyes go blank and unseeing. Maggot. Let him be beaten into a bloody pulp, let him be dragged back to the Southern Castle to spend out the days of his worthless life. Maggot. It was were he belonged all along; squirming at Katsumi's feet. Maggot.

He was a fool for thinking otherwise.

With his blurred vision he saw Orochi raise a fist, and did not brace himself for the blow to come. But it didn't, for the silence of the forest was broken by a furious yowl. Toshiro dropped heavily to the forest floor as he was released, Orochi screeching as a bright light slammed into him. The pup found the strength to drag his foggy head up and saw that a black tuft of flame had launched itself at the inu youkai, wrapping itself around the male's raised hand and sinking razor sharp fangs in deep. Toshiro looked on in hazy shock as Orochi bellowed in pain, and saw that it was Moeru who had latched onto the youkai's hand, three times larger than the kitten that burrowed in his hair at night, tails and paws aflame, his red eyes nearly glowing with rage.

Orochi collected himself enough to snatch the transformed cat by his ruff, his skin ripping as Moeru's fangs dragged through flesh and tendon. Toshiro could do nothing but watch as the inu hanyou growled in fury and flug the feline away, Moeru flying through the air to smack against a gnarled tree.

Toshiro heard the crunch of bone from where he'd dragged himself back into a kneel.

The grotesque sound was like a gong in his head, beating back the waves of pain and fear that threatened to choke him. He needed to do something, he had to do something. His could see out of only one eye, and his head spun with dizziness, and his lip was split, but still he felt that fire again spark low in his gut as Moeru's own flames winked out. As his partner's red eyes sparked in agony before they closed.

Himself being beaten into oblivion was one thing, he cared little for his own life. But Moeru… Moeru was his partner, his pack. He had been by his side since the day they'd met, had seen him for what he was and had not thought less of him for being a hanyou, a maggot. Had claimed him as his own despite Toshiro's temper, and moodiness, and distance. Deserved better than to die defending someone as useless as him.

The inu youkai male was stomping over to Toshiro's fallen friend, raising a booted foot to stomp down when the pup felt his youki snap to attention.

No.

"Leave him alone." His voice as was broken and raw, his knees and arms shook, but still he forced himself to stand.

He glared at Orochi with his black and blue and swollen face, with everything he had, as the male turned to him with a look of disbelief, foot still poised to crush Moeru's ribs.

"Excuse me?"

Toshiro's hands trembled as he balled them into fists, his youki anxious and afraid, but demanding he protect the youkai he'd claimed as his own. His own.

Mine.

"I--I said leave him alone." The hanyou managed to shift his feet apart despite the forest's spinning, managed to speak though it felt like swallowing glass. "Your fight is with me."

Orochi blinked once at his defensive stance before he burst into boisterous laughter, the sound making the hanyou's head pound. But the male moved his foot from above the unconscious saber, that was all Toshiro cared about.

"Fight? Is that so?" He sniggered, running his shredded hand through his hair, not noticing or caring about the blood he tracked through it. "What have these stupid village people been teaching you? Don't fret, Maggot I think I killed it already."

Orochi sucked on a tooth, shoving Moeru none to gently with the toe of his boot. The kitten didn't make a sound, as if he were indeed dead. Toshiro growled deep in his chest, felt his youki whip out in warning to Orochi, felt his youkai markings burn onto his discolored cheeks as his temper flared.

The male turned with a smirk.

"The famous flames I've heard so much about?" Orochi cooed. "I should be so honored."

"Don't." Toshiro growled, more beast than boy.

It was all he could get out as anxiety and fury and fear swirled into a dangerous mix in his veins. He felt his youki free from the confines of his body, flames begin to burn along his skin, in his hair, and let them come unbidden from his core. He heard the crackling as his clothes and the grass beneath him were set aflame, as the trees around them began to smoke. His youkai pounded in his blood like a heartbeat, drowning out his pain, and fear, and self loathing.

Moeru. Moeru. Moeru.

Orochi cackled in surprise, Toshiro's fire highlighting the bit of madness in his eyes. He rested a hand on the honed sword at his hip, his brown hair quickly beginning to stick to his brow with the heat coming from the hanyou pup.

"Don't." He snarled again. Even as his blood sang in his veins; The youkai hurt pack. The youkai hurt you. Hurt him. Kill him!

The inu youkai's voice was soft, taunting, despite being surrounded by raging fire. "How you've changed, Toshiro."

The remaining rational part of the hanyou's brain cringed at his name on the youkai's lips, somehow sounding worse than the derogatory nickname he'd been given at his birth.

Orochi drew his sword slowly, eyes on every move and shift the flaming hanyou made. When that long, dangerous golden blade was pointed at him, Toshiro felt himself do something he'd never dared in his life. He grinned at Orochi, bared his teeth at the older male in challenge. The bright red and green of his transformed eyes begged the other to strike as the hanyou's youkai raged in his head.

Orochi's armor flickered in the firelight, his fangs set in a snarl before he lunged, and Toshiro exploded in a ball of rage and anguish and despair and fire.

:0:0:0:0:0

"Toshiro!"

He was burning. Not his skin or hair, but his mind. He was lost in a haze of agony, and bloodlust, and worry. A single eye flickered open long enough to see the forest around him engulfed in flame, to see the snow and grass melted away, branches and leaves burning and falling around where he lay, the sky thick and suffocating with smoke and embers. He knew immediately that he'd caused the forest fire, felt his youki raging and lashing about the burning trees. But he didn't care.

Moeru. Where is Moeru?

"Toshiro!"

That voice, he knew that voice. A hammer beat mercilessly inside his head as his good eye cut to the source of that voice, as he saw Miroku maneuvering his way through the hellish blaze to get to him, his face covered in soot and his eyes bright with dread. Moeru was dangling comatose and small again in his arms.

Something flashed in the flames behind the human.

Miroku... Behind you...

But the man was too busy fighting to get to him to see the twin sparks of green that flashed in a billow of smoke, smoldering in disbelieving fury. Toshiro did not have the voice to warn the monk as he burned and burned. But Orochi did not attack. The youkai only bared his teeth at the prone hanyou pup in promise, eyes made all the more hateful by the burns and blisters covering half of the warrior's face.

And then he was gone, a green flash in a sea of red and gold and black.

And slowly, so slowly, Toshiro's youki began to return to him, the fire withdrawing to spool into his skin and burrowing deep in his bones as it sensed the threat's disappearance.

Toshiro barreled into unconsciousness just as Miroku crashed to his knees before him.

:0:0:0:0:0

They'd been gone less than two days, two, and the moment they emerged from the well and into the cold morning Kagome had stiffened. The glowing warmth that'd adorned her face from visiting her family had vanished, only to be replaced by a fear and wrath so intense that the Inuyasha's hair had stood up on end.

He jumped them out of the well, only to stop when he smelled what the miko must have sensed. Fire. And fear. And pain. All laced through the forest he'd called his home for years, all intertwined with the scent of the hanyou pup that he'd claimed as his own.

He snatched up the still frozen Kagome and gunned it for the village, his mind moving a mile a minute, his eyes trained on the smoking trees in the distance. He willed his chest to move, made himself breathe through the panic that threatened to suffocate him.

You better be okay, pest, or I'm gonna kill ya.

They rushed through the village, through the men and women pointing and whispering at the smoke billowing from the forest as if they weren't there. Kaede's. The pups were at Kaede's, they were told to stay at Kaede's until he and Kagome returned. They were told to stay in the village.

What the hell happened?

He got his answer when he skidded to a stop in the old healer's doorway. Sango begun weeping the moment she saw them, the monk holding her covered in burns along his hands and neck, his robes scorched and tattered enough to see the taijia suit he wore underneath. Kaede was in the corner, mixing healing contents in a bowl, her wrinkled face lined with worry and exhaustion. Shippou and Kirara were standing protectively in front of two huddled figures, the kit's eyes lined with tears and his teeth bared at the door. He let out a shuddering breath when he saw it was his parents before he sagged to his knees, silent tears rushing down his cheeks that Kirara licked away.

Kagome shoved herself out of Inuyasha's arms without a second thought and rushed to kneel by the crumpled, bandaged creatures in the middle of the room. Kirara moved with her to curl around the smaller of the two, Moeru, who was bandaged from head to tails, a splint encasing one of his hind legs, the black fur above his left eye shaved away to treat a wicked gash that would no doubt scar.

And Toshiro.

His pup... his son.

Was beaten beyond recognition. His face was disfigured, mottled and swollen, bruised so dark it seemed black in some places. Several lumps along his cheeks had split open, the blood dried and caked with soot. His right eye was swollen completely shut, red stained bandages wrapped tight around his forehead. The usually shiny pink edge of his damaged ear was a mangled mess. Around his throat wrapped deep red marks; fingerprints.

Inuyasha turned away, couldn't stand to look at the boy he'd grown to love so broken, couldn't watch his miko pull their pup into her lap and cry so hard she barely breathed.

He felt his heart fissure at the same time he felt his youkai rake savage claws down his spine.

WHO?

Miroku saw the question boiling in his eyes, saw his hands curl at his sides and his youkai markings flash on his skin.

The monk moved to settle in front of Kaede and her medicines, met his best friend's red stare with a wince. Shame and pain and grime lined his face. He cleared his throat none too gently, his voice still grave and raw when he spoke.

"When Kaede told me that he and Moeru had yet to return I went searching for them through the village. I looked--I looked everywhere; the lake, marketplace, all to no avail. None of the village children claimed to had seen them. I--I'd just made it to your hut when I saw the smoke rising from the forest, and so I ran. I ran Inuyasha, into the forest, right into the fire, and found him burning as bright as a star in the middle of it."

But that still didn't tell him why Toshiro was beaten so badly, didn't tell him-

"Who did this to him?" It was Kagome, her aura crackling dangerously and her son cradled to her chest. She ghosted a trembling hand over the ugly bruises on Toshiro's neck, too busy assessing the unconscious pup to see Miroku turn his violet eyes on her.

"There was... a male amongst the flames. Trying to push through the blaze to get to Toshiro. Through the smoke I saw him grinning, a blade bright red and melting to the ground by his side. I did not see his face fully, but I saw the swirling green of inu youkai markings upon his cheek… " Miroku swallowed. "And I heard him call Toshiro… that word."

The hut was so quiet Inuyasha could hear Toshiro's low, labored breaths.

They all knew the word with which the the monk meant. Shippou had recounted the events of the hyena den for Inuyasha and the others in those days after the rescue, when Toshiro had been unconscious and recuperating. The clever fox had pretended to faint in Tadao's arms when he'd been snatched, and spent his time at Leiko's feet listening to their every word. The word 'maggot', the kit had said, had triggered his brother's transformation with Tadao, had snapped the constant control the young hanyou had over himself and turned him into something bloodthirsty and merciless.

Shippou padded over to his miko now, eyes wide with fear as he climbed carefully onto Kagome's lap beside his sleeping brother.

This male… Someone from the pup's past who had no doubt come for him. Come from a past that Inuyasha admittedly had no clue about. He should have pushed the pest to talk about it more, should have known more about where Toshiro came from and how he'd ended up on that hill those months ago. He should have been there to protect him.

Inuyasha had been a father for no less than a week, and already he'd failed.

He forced back the sound of his youkai roaring in his ears, made himself unclench his teeth to ask, "And this male got away?"

The monk nodded, flinching a bit when Kaede smeared a thick salve onto his blistering throat.

"Young Toshiro has been in a deep sleep since Miroku found him." The old miko said calmly, though the wrinkles around her eye pinched with upset. "He expended a large amount of his youki, and sustained a fractured rib in the altercation."

A fractured rib. This male… this youkai broke his son's rib.

Inuyasha was going to kill that motherfu-

"I'm going to kill him."

It was Kagome. Her hold on the battered pup tightened as every eye in the room turned to her, as every being held their breath. Pink miko's aura flicked dangerously behind her brown eyes, those of which were not clouded with grief and fear, but clear with promise, with death. She did not reach to wipe away the tears that cut down her cheeks like knives.

"He won't get away with this, Kagome." Sango said, her voice like tempered steel despite her sniffling. "He will be dealt with, whoever he is."

But the miko had eyes only for Inuyasha, for the man who didn't balk or shiver in wary at the murderous anger in her eyes; he was sure his own burned with it.

"Find you brother, Inuyasha. He can tell us what he knows of this youkai, maybe even where to find him." She said, her voice devoid of emotion even as she ran a hand through Shippou's hair. "And when we do... He will regret laying a finger on our son."

Inuyasha's youkai howled vicious agreement.