Momiji now slept after Sugoi applied an ointment to his bitten shoulder and allowed him to sleep in her mat. Her sore body wanted to sleep as well, but she didn't. She wanted to be out in the night, surveying her hideaway or sharpening the weapons. But she could do none of that, so instead she sought out Sesshomaru. She wished that the matter could have been left like it was that Momiji would now live with her but it wasn't that easy. Rubbing her injured shoulder, she slid open the dark room's door. She knew he wasn't asleep, but just resting on his mat.
"I had thought for completely that you would ignore me for good now," Sesshomaru said quietly.
"Me too," she replied in his same tone, "but I also understand that he is your child as much as he is mines. And as parents, we need to decide what would be best for him."
"You decide for him," he said, "I am done deciding for him. My every decision for him simply makes him more angry towards me."
"That's because you don't know him," Sugoi said walking towards him.
"He is my son, he has lived with me for four years, of course I would know my own son!"
"Do you really?" Sugoi asked while sitting beside him on the mat with a small groan of pain. "When have you ever stopped for a minute and asked him how his day went? Or stopped for working for a day and spend some with him? Because you and Shinku gave him so little attention, he now thinks he is free. So he does what he likes and when he is finally told to do something, he believes he has the freedom to disobey that command."
Sesshomaru stayed quiet for a while, and then replied, "You haven't even lived with him for three days and you still know him better than I do."
"But you still have time Sesshomaru. He is still a child and you can still be a true father to him. It simply involves spending more time with him."
"I don't think so," he replied, "he is far too angry at me already for lying to him. Those times that you came to see him, I should not have turned you away. But I was so angry..."
Sugoi blinked as her sight was getting clearer in the darkness and she turned to look at him, "What were you so angry about?"
He turned to look at her as well, but he saw her perfectly in the darkness, "That you refused to be my mate, even refused to at least raise him with me, together. And when you left, you didn't only leave him behind. You left me as well."
Kuda smiled and ripped her eyes away from him and looked down into her hands. "Sesshomaru, Lord Sesshomaru. The Great Dog Demon, cold, fearless and stoic. You are now nothing of that. Here you are, pleading at a woman's worthless feet to be your mate. What has happened to the Great Dog Demon?"
Kuda heard Sesshomaru sigh and say, "I have fallen in love, with you. I will no longer deny it."
"But I will," Kuda said with a grin, "I never admit to anything because I find it makes me more interesting."
"Will you be my mate, then?"
"Not in this lifetime," she replied.
Sesshomaru growled quietly, "I never admit my feelings to anyone, let alone myself. I have finally shone you how I feel about you, and you still turn me away! Is there something special I must have so you will mate with me?"
"It's that there is this little problem!"
"And what problem would that be?"
"That you have a small pride!"
Not tolerating her little joke anymore, he almost yelled angrily as he pounced on her and made her laugh.
Momiji stretched as he woke up and rubbed his eyes. Stumbling out of bed, he bathed and dressed. Once done, he went in search for his boots. For some reason, no matter what age he was, he would always loose his boots. He was even starting to think that fairies were misplacing his boots now. But once he found them under the slik covers of the mat, he sat himself on the floor and shoved the boots on his feet. And while he was doing so, he remembered that Shinku's birthday would be in two days. And even if she wasn't his mother, he still owed her something for raising him. But of course, he thought, no one said the gift has to be a nice gift, right? No, he would sing her a song, and he will make sure that this song would be so special that she or anyone would never ever forget it for a while. Smiling at his brilliant idea, he couldn't help but praise himself. After both his boots were on his feet he walked out of the room. He wondered where his mother could be since she had not awoken beside him. How strange, he thought as he walked outside, to know that Lady Sugoi is actually my mother... He grunted as he stumbled and fell to the ground. "What the hell!" Momiji shouted as he bolted up to his feet.
"I didn't see you there and don't you know any better than walking in front of a wagon loaded with wooden posts?" It was the same guard who Momiji had kicked and chased him down.
"You," Momiji roared as he walked around the wagon and stubbed finger into the guard's broad chest, "better watch yourself because I am the son of Lady Sugoi-sama and Lord Sesshomaru, the son of two great beings on Earth!"
Momiji screamed as the guard had the nerve again to grab him by his hair. The guard angrily ripped his hold upwards, forcing Momiji to look as face. "You are nothing but a pest! One parent is a supreme being, I'll give you that, but the other is not. Your father is just as full of pride like you, making both of you annoying pests on Earth. Do me a favor and stay out of my sight." Finished, the guard threw him away from him and continued his trip with the wagon of posts. But Momiji didn't lay off his back so easy.
"Well too bad for you because I will be staying to live with my mother!" Momiji announced as he walked beside the guard, and then gained the lead a little, "And you're going to have to get used to seeing this butt all day long because you mister, have just earned yourself first place on my list to annoy people to death!"
And once more Momiji stumbled to the ground as a wooden post got him right on his side. "So, I have earned first place on your list? That is just fine for it gives me more opportunities to beat some sense into you."
Momiji groaned as he stood rubbing his side. "You're as brute as the sun on a hot summer day. Do you have any kids? Do you treat them the same way you treat me?"
The guard snorted and turned the wagon again onto the road. "I have one little girl and she does nothing out of the good to deserve a beating from me. You on the other hand, are the worst misbehaved child I have ever known in my lifetime."
Momiji rubbed his nose momentarily and then ripped a loud sneeze. After wiggling his nose a couple of times, he looked to the guard and said, "Where is your girl?"
And for the first time, Momiji saw sadness in the guard's usually hard eyes. The guard sighed and pushed the wagon, "She is with her mother. I had to leave her behind to come serve in Lady Sugoi's army.
"If you didn't want to leave her behind, then you should've told my mother! I'm sure you didn't have to come serve in my mother's army if you didn't want to."
The guard smiled softly and nodded his head, "Yes, I didn't have to come if I didn't want too. But, I still wanted to help the Southern lands free itself from the hands of Takemisho. So therefore, I have left my family behind and fought so hard everyday not to die."
The wagon wheel passed over a rock, making the whole wagon shudder. A wooden post became loose and rolled of the wagon. Quickly seeing this, Momiji launched forward and caught the wooden post in his arms in a flash. Turning his head to the guard, he smiled widely as he boasted, "Look at me, now I'm a ninja demon! Did you see how fast I caught it?"
Amazed, the guard stuttered, "Y-yes, and more amazing that it takes three guards to carry one post alone! Here, put it back before you hurt yourself."
Shrugging, Momiji did as he was told. He flung the post back on top of the other posts on the wagon, and the throw was so hard that the post landed with a great force on the wagon and broke the wagon in half. All of the posts rolled off and away, some running over the guard and Momiji screeching as he jumped up from one post to another rolling under his feet. Some guards who had the misfortunate of being near ran off screaming. And once everything had calmed down, Momiji shuffled over to the guard who was laying on the floor with one great post over his chest. Struggling, the guard yelled at Momiji for help.
"I'll only take it off if you promise not kill me," Momiji replied to his cry of help.
The guard was so red-faced, that Momiji thought that his head would explode any second. "How about I won't kill you slowly if you remove this thing!" Momiji considered in his mind for a little while, but the guard's scream of help knocked him out his thoughts and removed the post with only one hand.
Momiji and guard now rested in a hut where they served drinks. Momiji had ordered sake for himself but upon hearing his request, the guard changed the boy's request of sake to water. Momiji gloomed about the order and rested his head on one hand. "So what's your name mister guard?"
The guard grumbled his reply, "Botan..."
"And your daughter name?
"Mey..." his response was grumbled once more.
"And your wife's?"
This time Botan glared at the boy for a moment before answering, "Rin. Now stop asking me personal questions."
"How old is your daughter? How old is your wife? How old are you? Do you plan to have anymore children? Do you know I'm just asking you these things to annoy you?" Momiji finished with a grin.
The man couldn't help but chuckle at the boy in front of him. "Mey is only four years old. My wife is also young, perhaps at the end of her twentieth years. I am nearing thirty-three springs next spring."
"Hey, I'm also four years old!" Botan stared at Momiji confused and Momiji clarified, "When I'm four years old, I look like ten. When I'm eight, I'll like twenty and hopefully stop aging so fast by then."
"Mm," Botan said as he thought, "an interesting fact about demons."
Then there drinks were brought by a lady and left there on the table. Momiji quickly swapped his cup of water fro Botan's cup of sake, but Botan was quick to make his cup of sake take another trip around the table and stop in front of him. Momiji growled at Botan and splashed his cup of water in Botan's face. "I hate water," Momiji mumbled as he stood, "I'm going to go find mother."
And instead of going to find his mother, he turned to go to his room, smirking as Shinku's gift idea had popped into his head. And crossing his father's room, he couldn't help but peek in through the door that was slightly left open. He looked, blinked, gasped, and froze. He was seeing something he thought he would never see in his life. There laid his mother and father naked, tangled in each other's arms and for the first time in his life seeing his father sleep. Momiji shook himself out of his daze, but still continued his walk to his room half shocked and half amused.
