A/N: Necessary interlude, I'm afraid, as we work to bring our separate players back together.
This chapter was entirely brought forth due to motivation from reviews. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this as much as I enjoy writing it.
"Oh look at how cute they are," Jinenji's mother cooed at the children. "Yes you are. Yes you are. I could just lick you both."
Sango's and Miroku's twins looked panicked as they turned to look up at their mother with huge, wide eyes. Sango's and Miroku's son, however, still a toddler, just babbled back at Jinenji's mother.
"What handsome babies you made," Jinenji's mother continued, waggling her brows as Sango flushed. "Oh ho but you're expecting too, aren't you? A woman can always tell. What cute babies you'll have."
Jinenji's mother beamed at Rin, who, InuYasha thought proudly, didn't bother to show anything she felt on her face. "I am," Rin said, probably because there wasn't much good in hiding it. The demons around them could already scent or sense the changes Rin's body was undergoing. InuYasha had noticed first, due to the mating bond, but Kilala had picked up on it before they'd even left the village several days before.
Jinenji turned her grin on her son and Kohaku, both of whom took a step back. "It's up to you two now." She grinned toothily at them. "Don't forget my little present, hmm? It's time you made your honorable mother an honorable grandmother, Jinenji. Has it been so long you've forgotten how?"
Kohaku, despite the fact that he was now a yokai slayer in his own right, hid behind his sister.
Jinenji just covered his face with his hand and moaned.
"Well, we have to head out to make sure we arrive at Koga-kun's in time," Sango said tactfully, taking each daughter by the shoulder and gently stepping back with them to signal their departure.
"Keh." For once, InuYasha was in complete agreement.
"Oh. Oooooh." Jinenji's mother moaned sorrowfully. "Of course you have to go. None of my guests ever stay for dinner. No one ever stays to keep a poor old woman company these days except her silent, willful son. Oooh if only I had a daughter-in-law and grandchildren to keep me company. Oooh oooooh I shall die alone. How horrible. How tragic. If only my son was more filial."
Jinenji flushed as he looked at the ground.
InuYasha privately thought the woman's actions were beyond melodramatic but he held his tongue when Rin gently wrapped her arm through his.
"Well, ah..." Sango trailed off as her children gripped her kimono tightly in their fists. "I-I'm afraid it's not in the schedule... We're, ah, behind as it is..."
"If only your father were here," Jinenji's mother wailed pitifully. "I could have had more children. Filial, loving children who gave me grandchildren and great-grandchildren. At this rate, I'll join your father on the other side before I have another baby in my arms. Ooooh my life is a tragedy." She dragged out the end of the word as though it was torn from her trembling lips.
Miroku held out his palms and attempted to be diplomatic. "My dear, ah, lady," he hesitated for only a moment, "your son is joining us at a yokai gathering. I'm sure there are plenty of young single female yokai for him to meet." When Jinenji still wouldn't meet anyone's eyes, Miroku hastily continued, "Or male yokai. Perhaps he can, ah, always adopt—"
Jinenji's mother suddenly began cackling loudly until she wheezed and doubled over. "T-the look on your f-face." She choked on another laugh. "Oh my son, how precious you are."
They all looked to see Jinenji had gone bright red as he tried to bury and hide his face in his hands.
Rin lifted her free hand to gently pat Jinenji's back as reassuringly as she could.
Jinenji's mother suddenly straightened. "Ahhh, that was perfect." She clapped her hands together. "Well, off with you! I'm ready to enjoy my first holiday in years."
Bemused and more than a little lost, they walked out of the hut.
"I-is she right in the head, do you think?" Sango whispered to Miroku as they made their way back to the main dirt road.
"Perhaps she's been possessed," Miroku whispered back. "We can always turn around. I can perform an exorcism at once."
"Keh. That would be your first thought," InuYasha scoffed.
Rin shrugged. "I think she's just lonely. She probably just didn't want to admit that she'll miss her son while he's gone."
InuYasha disagreed but he had enough sense not to contradict his mate outright. Rin certainly lacked Kagome's legendary temper and though InuYasha didn't have the beads any longer around his neck, he'd learned through observing Sango and Miroku that upsetting one's mate had far worse consequences than a mere sitting.
Keh. He'd take one of Kagome's legendary sitting spells any day over Rin's outright refusal to sleep with him.
Instead, he tucked his hands into his sleeves and kept his thoughts to himself that Jinenji's mother was just insane, plain and simple.
Jinenji likewise kept his thoughts to himself, but Kohaku wasn't so willing.
"She's terrifying," he blurted. Sango's twin daughters bobbed their head in fervent agreement. They were five years old and more than a little precocious, likely because they had Miroku as a father and despite how loving he was to his wife and daughters, he'd never learned the finer art of censorship.
Sango turned her head back to the hut as it began to disappear from view. "I've heard rumors that the mating bond can drive a mate mad if they lose their partner," she whispered but it was loud enough for all of them to hear.
Miroku grinned at his wife as he put a hand to his heart. "Oh my dearest wife, I too would die with a broken heart without you. Without you, I'd have no purpose, no meaning, no love left in my heart."
InuYasha noticed the monk's free hand was quickly inching its way to her derrière.
Sango noticed, too, and she smacked his hand. "Lecherous monk," she hissed, but her look was affectionate. She scooped up one of her daughters and deposited her in her husband's arms to prevent further distractions.
InuYasha looked down when Rin tugged his arm.
"Is it true?" Rin asked quietly.
"Keh," InuYasha said. "Never heard of it happenin' before."
"It's more common amongst the monogamous yokai," Kohaku suddenly spoke up, twirling his blade in his hand. He suddenly looked much older than he was. "Father used to say it was common with crane yokai, but he mentioned that it was known to happen with other yokai, too."
"Keh." InuYasha didn't believe it. His old man hadn't died of one and he'd never heard of a yokai who had. It was just an old slayer tale. "Wouldn't ever happen with one of us."
Rin didn't seem reassured, however. "InuYasha... What if it could? I don't want our baby to be left alone."
InuYasha looked down at his mate as his expression softened. "There's nothin' on this earth that would keep me from your side."
And there was no way on earth he'd let any child of his grow up alone as he had, but that went without saying. Rin, in her own special way, understood.
Rin beamed at his words but InuYasha flushed when Miroku clapped his hands.
"Well done, my friend." Miroku put his hand on InuYasha's shoulders. "Now you sound like a real man."
Sango just rolled her eyes.
But despite the teasing from their friends, InuYasha didn't regret a thing. He'd had a hard time expressing himself in the past, first with Kikyo and then with Kagome. It had cost him both women he'd loved.
But Rin was different. Perhaps it was—and InuYasha hated to admit it, even to himself—Sesshomaru's influence, but though Rin enjoyed hearing him speak his feelings, she seemed to understand how he felt even if he kept his thoughts to himself.
She didn't jump to conclusions, and it was almost as if she carefully evaluated everything he said or did. Rin herself wasn't as talkative as Kagome nor was she as thoughtful as Kikyo had been in life, but she had a quiet way of bringing joy and comfort to him, no matter what as going on.
Rin gently intertwined their fingers.
"I'm glad," Rin said for his ears alone. "You'll always be first in my heart."
InuYasha quietly echoed the words as Jinenji pulled out a seaweed wrapped bundle full of what he called his homemade sweet treat and offered to a piece to everyone.
He glanced up at the sky, more content than he could ever recall being.
If you're out there, Kikyo, I hope you found your happiness, too.
.
Ayame panted as she doubled over. Their son was tucked into a fur wrap that had been bundled on her back, and her mate slowed next to her.
"How?" she demanded, forcing her knees to straighten even as they wanted to quake.
Koga pressed his lips together. "I don't know," he answered, anger flashing in his eyes. "But we have to keep moving. We have to get deeper into the mountains. The packs'll meet up there and we can regroup."
Ayame nodded as she fought to regain her breath.
"I can carry him." Koga's offer was more forceful than a true offer, but she knew it was only because he was concerned about her well-being. She had, after all, recently given birth, and yokai or not, her body required healing.
She nodded. She'd been feeding their son when disaster had struck and they hadn't had time to hand their son to her mate before they'd fled.
"How'd they find us?" she asked as she gently undid the straps that tied their son to her back.
Koga took their son and with more gentleness that she'd ever seen him display before, tied his son to his back. "I don't know." He clicked his tongue. "Only yokai know we den in caves in this area, and outside of our packs, only the yokai we invited to the naming ceremony knew where our caves were."
Ayame's eyes widened at the realization. "Someone betrayed us."
Koga scoffed. "Probably that mangy mutt."
It was a poor joke to lighten the mood because they both knew better, but the entire too situation was too depressing to laugh. Though they'd all fled the moment the monks had appeared, Ayame doubted everyone had gotten away. The young, the old, both would have struggled without help, and it had been Ayame's own grandfather they'd targeted first.
Ayame's grandfather had demanded they take their son and run. Koga hadn't let Ayame try and stay and fight as she knew she would have. She loved her grandfather more than anyone in the world, except perhaps for the two people now with her.
And she would be damned before she'd allow human priests to kill her grandfather simply because he was yokai.
"He's fine," Koga was quick to read her feelings and hastened to reassure her. "The old man's too stubborn to die."
Another poor joke, given the fact that Koga and her grandfather had their fair share of disagreements, especially since Grandfather had struggled with turning over all of the authority to his new grandson-in-law.
Ayame tried not to think of everyone they'd left behind. As the alpha pair, it was their duty to protect everyone, but they hadn't been able to. There were too many monks to take on their own, and if they'd all fled together, they'd be much easier to track down. She understood, but she still couldn't shake her guilt from abandoning her own people to try and survive on their own.
The monks had come out of an eerie, dense fog that had descended midmorning. It had seemed odd, but no one had expected an attack to have been launched from it, and by human monks no less. The monks, carrying fiery torches, had set fire to the vegetation around the cave to block off their escape and had then immediately circled the first powerful yokai they'd found: Ayame's grandfather. Immediately, they'd shouted that the evil would fall that day and had begun chanting as they attempted to purify Ayame's grandfather. But Ayame's grandfather had both the strength and authority and he'd ordered the packs to disperse as other monks began selecting additional targets.
But how many had been able to flee...?
"We have to do something, Koga." Her words were filled with anger. "If we lose even one wolf, I'll tear their heads right off their shoulders."
Koga grinned. "That's my woman," he said proudly. "As soon as we fall back to our beta location and regroup, that's exactly what we'll do. They'll pay for this day, mate, I promise you that. In blood, and in pain."
Ayame could only hope everyone in their pack made it safely to the beta location.
Koga could only hope the two fluffy bastards and the rests of their guests did, too. If the monks were looking for a fight, they were going to have one, but he wasn't stupid enough to turn down help. He had the feeling he'd need every bit of help they could get.