{ Damned Deed}
.•°.Chapter 49: Unhappy Ending. °•.

...•¤°•.•°¤•...

When he woke up he moved his hands away from the futon to feel that it was cold and empty. Instantly he opened his eyes and sat up to verify that there was no one in bed with him. Which brought up a good question, where had his wife gone? So he quickly got up, got dressed, and left the room. For a fleeting moment he worried that the day before was just a dream but as soon as he was out their room he could smell breakfast and see his wife was finishing cooking.

Kagome flashed him a smile when she saw him, he gave one back, before he sat down next to Kado. At first the boy just gave him a sideway glance before he looked to his mother.

"Today, I'm going to take Keiko out so you two are going to have to manage for yourselves until we get home tonight, you think you can do that?" Kagome questioned as she looked over to her two boys. Inuyasha seemed surprised by the declaration, he wouldn't have thought she would leave Kado so soon after arrival - even if it was just for a day. Apparently, Kado had the same thought since his gaze quickly turned to a glare.

After breakfast Inuyasha made a point to pull his wife to the side to ask, "why are you doing this? Why go out on a day trip with Keiko the day after you get home?"

"I've been away from her for months, we need to spend some time together," she replied before she leaned forward to kiss him upon the lips lightly. "Besides, you and Kado need to spend some time alone together."

"I don't think that he'll enjoy that," Inuyasha mumbled back as his golden gaze shifted to the boy in question who was talking to his eager little sister who was asking him everything possible.

"You are his father, he just needs time to adjust, that's all," Kagome assured him as she patted him on the shoulder and kissed him on the cheek before going over to kiss Kado on the head then take Keiko's hand to guide her to leave the house which left the boys all alone in silence.

"So," Inuyasha started, "Kado… what do you like to do?"

He just shrugged his shoulders as he sat down in the living room.

"So you want to lie around the house all day, doing nothing?"

"Sure," Kado replied with another shrug.

"I can't stand doing that," Inuyasha asserted, he really did hate to stay inside all day, especially when there was such a nice summer day to enjoy. "Come on, I'll show you around our village and around our forest."

Kado looked up to his dad curiously before nodding then standing up to let Inuyasha lead him out of the house.

"You don't talk much, huh?" Inuyasha just had to ask, Kado just shrugged his shoulder at that so he knelt down. "Get on my back, I can show you around the forest better that way."

"I can walk myself. I'm not a baby."

"You'll like this better, trust me."

Kado hardly trusted him… he trusted his mother, Kagome, but it was apparent that she trusted her husband so he cautiously walked up to get on his back. What came next was amazing in his opinion, how his dad could just jump and it seemed like they could fly through the air.

For the first time in a long time, Kado found himself laughing. He knew then that he'd like his time there. He'd probably even learn to love his sister and father, just like he loved his mother.

...•¤°•.•°¤•...

Months shifted by to allow the family to adjust to the new addition, and the new addition to adjust to the other pieces. Gradually, Kado came to like having a little sister, albeit a clingy one that always wanted to play with her big brother. Her whole world shifted from playing with her parents and neighbors to hanging out with her big brother.

It only took a week or so for him to become comfortable being around his father, some more time to like having him there and allowed an exchange of 'I love you's. He was still an obvious mama's boy but that made her ever so happy because Keiko was still daddy's little girl. There was finally a balance in their family.

The hard part was figuring out what to tell people... where had she been all that time? Who was Kado? What was going on? Inuyasha had never openly said she was missing to anyone but Miroku, Sango, the Higurashis, and Kaede. Otherwise people just assumed she ran off, so she told them she went to her homeland to help out with some problems. Which was the truth.

There she met Kado and brought him home with them, also the truth, so that he could be a part of their family. Sure there was suspicions that Kado was biologically Inuyasha's, the two looked so alike, but neither of them cared. All that mattered was that they were a whole family again… for then, at least.

"I like having an extended family," Kado decided after he took his mother's hand as they walked away from the Higurashi's household after one of the many dinners they had. Even though, technically, Mrs. Higurashi wasn't related to Kagome she still allowed Keiko and Kado to call her grandma and Souta, uncle.

"I'm glad to hear that," Kagome replied with a smile while she glanced over to Inuyasha who was holding Keiko since she fell asleep after dinner was finished.

"Great grandpa is funny," he added, "his stories are strange but amusing."

"Yes, he does have a lot of stories."

"You're from the other side, like me," Kado began, "so they aren't really related to us, right?"

"But they are the Higurashis from this side, and I'm from the Higurashi family of the other side, so they are pretty much like family," Kagome answered, "they love you like family."

To that he just nodded, it made sense to him, he supposed. As much sense as any of it made. Really… everything was so different, so confusing, but in a good way. Unlike before, he had a family that loved him. He had a mother that doted over him, a sister that clung to him, and a father that he liked well enough. He would do fun stuff, they could run around together and spend a lot of time together.

The world was a lot different than the one he was used to. The world of his and his mother was more advanced, ahead of the world that he was now in but that was fine. He didn't care. What mattered was that… well, he mattered for real reasons here. He was loved by his family.

He had a family, and for that he was grateful. For that he was happy.

"I'm exhausted," Kagome declared, softly, when they got home. Once they were inside she held out her arms to take hold of Keiko to take her to her bed and make sure she was comfortable.

"I'm not tired," Kado decided as he looked up to his father, "are you tired?"

He shook his head before saying, "no, not really."

"Do I have to go to sleep just because Keiko and mom are?"

"I guess not," he replied with a shrug as he turned, "we could stay up together, if you want."

"Ok, but what are we going to do?"

That stumped Inuyasha. He still wasn't sure how to spend time with Kado, what the kid liked, or even how to act like a normal father for him. But he was working on it and he would continue to try his hardest.

"What do you want to do?" Inuyasha inquired back.

"Play a game," he decided, "the board game that mom got Keiko and me last week. I'll teach you how to play, alright?"

"Sounds good," Inuyasha responded with a smile and a nod.

"You're leaving tomorrow, right?" Kado questioned, "because of work with Miroku-sama?"

"Right, I'll be gone for a couple of days. I'll be back in like three days."

"Demon slaying is cool, do you ever have to do it here?"

He shook his head lightly at that, "no, not really. It's a very safe village, demons usually aren't stupid enough to attack here."

"Because they are scared of you?" Kado asked with a smile.

"Not just me," he assured him as he patted his head lightly, "go get the game, Kado."

...•¤°•.•°¤•...

For three days Kagome had to manage working with herbal remedies and tending to her two children. She had thought that it would be more difficult, generally, Keiko was a handful when her father wasn't around. She supposed that was her way of acting out to show her displeasure wither daddy being gone but this time it was different.

It was easier.

Because Kado was there in order to play with Keiko and keep her entertained. That way she had family to spend time with while Kagome and her dad were working. At night Keiko even slept in her room because that meant she could sleep next to her big brother.

It was very sweet how close the two had become in what was really a rather short period of time. Two months, that's all it took for them to start to feel like an actual family for the first time. It was fulfilling to have her family. All the sadness she had to deal with, all the loss, all the misfortune was worth it finally. She had her husband, her daughter, and her son.

Life was perfect, and that scared her a little. It had never been this good which meant that something bad would happen, right? That was why she was worried more so than ever before when Inuyasha was away. What if something happened to him? What if he actually got hurt or worse…?

There had always been anxiety eating away at her when he was working but this time it was twisting and turning and driving her mad. Until… finally he came home. Late one night, when everyone was already in bed. She awoke to the sound of someone entering their house and at first felt mild panic until she realized she knew the aura. It was Inuyasha.

So she smiled as he entered the bedroom. When she felt him crawl under the sheets with her and then wrapped his arms around her she was happy. He was home safely so obviously… she was over thinking things. Her life was just like normal peoples, they had a happy family, they would be fine.

Surely, they would be fine. Wouldn't they? They deserved that. Didn't they?

...•¤°•.•°¤•...

"I like going for walks here," Kado declared as he looked over his shoulder to see his dad following close behind. It was probably one of his favorite things to do. He could only play in the forest when his dad went with him, otherwise it was too dangerous. How it was dangerous he had no idea. He had yet to find something actually worth fearing in the forest.

It was also an activity that he only ever did with his father, he liked that about it, too. At first he had been weary of accepting Inuyasha as his actual father but… now he was glad. He had a mom and a dad, just like everyone else. He even had a little sister, who could be very annoying most of the time but loving otherwise.

"I'm glad," Inuyasha replied. "I've always liked it out here, too."

But Keiko never liked playing in the forest, she didn't like to climb over or under the tree roots like Kado did. She preferred to play in open fields were she could find flowers. Kagome had been turned off to the forest for all the incidents that had happened so Kado was really the only one he could take there. Still, he'd never let Kado go there alone.

They could spend hours in there sometimes. The kid always had a lot of energy to burn, just like him, so he was perfectly fine with spending as much time as Kado wanted there.

"Kado, not too deep into the forest," Inuyasha ordered which caught his attention.

"Why?"

"Because, it's dangerous."

"Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous," Kado mocked, "always dangerous. I never found anything dangerous here."

"Kado, come here," Inuyasha demanded as he waved him closer, which got his son to roll his eyes.

"What now?" he grumbled.

"I said come here," Inuyasha repeated firmer. That got Kado to finally stop his trek, turn around, and walk up to his father. Highly bored and slightly annoyed look on his face. "Stay close."

"Why?"

"Do as I say," Inuyasha stated. He could smell a demon nearby, that didn't necessarily mean that something bad was about to happen but this was different. The demon smelled like blood - human blood. Shortly after the smell hit him he could see something ruffling about the leaves of a bush. "Kado, if something bad happens, I need you to get out of here and go back to your mother, got it?"

"What? What are you talking about?" he asked but the answer was shown to him shortly.

A demon did appear, it did seem them, and seemed to think that it was a good idea to attack them, too. It happened, sometimes, in the forest. Demons attacking people for food, for whatever precious items they had on them. Inuyasha took out his sword then to start the clash while he motioned for Kado to make a run for it.

Which he did, he rushed all the way home to tell his mother what was going on. At first she didn't think much of it, of course she was concerned but it was just one demon and Inuyasha had killed so many. He even killed Naraku. There was no way that anyone was as strong as that man. So, obviously, Inuyasha would come home.

She got some herbal remedies ready just in case he was injured. Yet… an hour ticked by and no sign. Then more hours. Then the night came and then… the morning. The morning was when Miroku decided he had to go look for him. Of course Miroku would find him but then he didn't.

He came home at the end of the day with only tattered pieces of Inuyasha's robe, blood stained. She had been worrying but that was when she started to really worry. A bad, bad, bad feeling festered within her as another day went by without her husband's return. Without a trace of him.


A/N: There is one more chapter and then this story is over. It's weird. It's almost been two years since I started it and it's almost over... I'm kind of glad. I hate to have unfinished stories. After I'm done with this one I'm going to turn my focus to finishing Toyfriend and Diary of the Damned. Toyfriend should be finished within a month but Diary of the Damned is still in it's early stages.

Anyway thank you for all the reviews.