It was the middle of the night when he heard his door click closed. Soft footsteps and even softer sniffles crept closer, "Maru." He could only make out the glow of the cell phone, but her voice trembled when she spoke, "can we sleep with you?"
He assumed that the 'we' was her and Phone-Kohaku.
Part of him wondered what their entire family had against him. If it wasn't Sango screaming at him at five in the morning, it was Kohaku… dying in the Devil's hour. The audacity.
He grabbed his glasses from his bedside table, rubbing his eyes as Sango climbed into his bed, "it's not like it's the middle of the night." His words were stretched across a yawn as she propped the phone upon a pillow.
"We're sorry to wake you," she said softly, "but he needs someone to talk to." He didn't know where he came in and that must have shown plainly on his face, because she hit mute and flipped the phone onto its face, "if you've got a problem with my being here speak now. You're not going to make him feel like an inconvenience, because I took liberties-."
She talked so much.
He shoved her face into his sheets, crushing her beneath his weight as he returned to Kohaku. The kid was fiddling with the tube of oxygen, "does your sister make a habit of barging into people's rooms at three in the morning and making demands?"
"Yeah. She's super bossy."
He felt her shoving against his chest, her legs bouncing off the mattress as she squirmed and wriggled.
"Well, you'll have to excuse my lack of instant enthusiasm. I'm slow to wake." He dug his finger in Sango's side as she pulled her torso from beneath his.
If Kohaku hadn't been there he didn't doubt that her sharp tongue would have long since sliced him to ribbons
"It's alright! You're staying up with me and that's more than enough." Sesshomaru dropped his head in the cradle of his arms, "so I guess I should fill you in on the basics?" That would be nice. Sango had been entirely unwilling to disclose anything of any real use regarding Kohaku and his illness.
"I've got a whole host of tumors in my lungs," his voice held none of the confidence that he attempted to throw behind his words, "Dad had to take me to the hospital a few weeks ago to get the fluid drained, but it already feels like I'm drowning again."
Sesshomaru lifted his head again, gazing at the boy who looked away from the camera when he spoke.
It was dark where he was sitting, but there was no hiding from the tears that tracked his sallow cheeks. To drown on dry land was a horror in and of itself. There was no way to escape the burning and the panic, no fantasy to entertain as you slid beneath the proverbial waves.
The very thought was enough to make Sesshomaru's chest feel tight. To think a fourteen year old boy was hiding in some tiny, dark area- quiet and considerate as he waited to drown…
Sesshomaru realized, suddenly, the full extent of Sango's dilemma. She could stay home and she could watch him drown. She could be by his side until his very last, gurgling breath.
But then what? What did she do when he was gone and she was left behind? Did she sacrifice her future or did she kick herself everyday -for the rest of the life Kohaku didn't get to live- for choosing herself?
He threaded his fingers in her hair, massaging her scalp as he realized, for the very first time, just how much all of this must hurt.
"Ever since dad stopped paying for our health insurance everything has gotten a bit worse. We've switched to some kind of radiation therapy because that is cheaper, apparently." He shrugged, as if none of it mattered, "but it hurts a heck of a lot more."
Sesshomaru found that Sango's head leaned against his shoulder and her fingers were laced with those upon his spare hand, as if he harnessed a power strong enough for her to draw from it.
Yet, he seemed to be hindering the kid more than anything. Everything seemed to be locked down tight, as if he were too afraid to show that pain to a near stranger.
"Kohaku, if my being here is harder than you thought it'd be, then I will gladly plug my ears and continue to act as emotional support for Sango. Venting isn't helpful if you're censoring yourself."
The kid looked between them and then shook his head adamantly, "it's just… if I cry then Sango cries and she's really ugly when she cries."
"Yeah, because you're the picture of beauty."
"So you have to not judge her too much for looking all weird," he sniffled, "you have to promise, because -ugly or not- she's my sister and a brother protects his sister."
Sesshomaru couldn't find her ugly if she took razors to her eyebrows.
"I promise. Do all the ugly crying you want, it can't change my opinion of you."
She scowled at him, "are you calling me ugly?"
"He wouldn't be wrong." Kohaku's chuckle was weak and watery, but it reached his eyes so what else mattered? Sango's fingers slid between them and she captured the skin of his ass in a vicious hold, twisting until he yelped.
"Am," twist, "I," twist, "ugly?"
The little peals of laughter coming from the cellphone were doubling, "no! You're the most radiant woman on this side of Japan."
"This side?"
"Have you seen Rina Fukushi?"
Kohaku choked a bit, taking a wheezing breath as he watched Sesshomaru cower under his sister's playful glare, "nee-san is super jealous. That's why Inuyasha nii san says she's never going to get a date."
The twisting intensified, "with that being said, I'll ask again. This side?"
He was quick to concede, "you're the most awe-inspiring person in the galaxy and anywhere beyond, so please end this torment." Kohaku's choking got worse, shaking his frail body with every racking exhalation.
She let him go.
"Doing alright?" She asked. Her hands came to steady the phone and the longing that vibrated along her skin wasn't hard to read.
She thought she was making the wrong choice. Grief was as good an excuse as any to tug her into his space, tucking her beneath his arm as if he were a large bird shielding her from the elements.
Kohaku wiped something on his pants leg, but he hadn't managed to hide the bright red smear that painted his chin, "I'm fine. Don't worry about me." His hand went through his hair, coming back coated in brittle, mahogany strands.
And then suddenly there was nothing funny.
They watched the hair fall in clumps, tears spilling along Kohaku's cheeks as steadily as rain drops.
"Papa always said we had such pretty hair." That heartbroken smile stretched across his thin skin and his little shoulders shook as he tried to bite back the building sobs, "I'm not even gonna be pretty anymore."
They were both powerless against the sudden crumbling of the boy on the other end of the screen, "nee chan, I-," whatever he was saying was drowned out as his whimpering turned to wailing.
"Kohaku, it'll be alright." Sango said with a shaking conviction, "I know right now everything hurts, but dad is going to fix this."
"How?" His shaking voice was getting shrill as panic set into his bones, "they won't even consider the surgery until he puts down something substantial and there's no guarantee that I'm even healthy enough anymore!" He sank into his hands, his pale fingers quaking and blue about the tips.
"I don't know, but you can't just give up." She was brushing furiously at her cheeks.
"And why can't I?" He pulled the tube from his nose, launching it at the ground, "there's nowhere to go but down, I'm sorry-," his wheezing seemed to worsen in moments, "but I can't keep doing this. These tumors have taken every-," another hitching wheeze, "thing from us."
110 what's your emergency?
Sesshomaru snatched the phone with the dying boy on its screen off of the bed, "kid, this isn't the way you're going out. You can't kill yourself in front of your sister at three in the morning."
"You're there to comfort her." He murmured, "she's going to keep coming back to me and feeling guilty if I'm alive."
"I don't think she minds the extra effort." Sango was panicked in her instruction to the ambulance, she begged them to save him.
"But she's always going to need your money if I'm alive. She'll always feel like she's using you."
Sesshomaru could pull his hair from his head, "you stupid little shit, put your goddamn nubbins back in! I don't care if she needs my money, it's nothing but paper. It holds no value!"
He was lying down now, propping the phone against something nearby, "this hurts more than I thought it would." Sango was digging her fingers into the flesh of his shoulder, hot tears drenching his skin as she watched the feeble rise and fall of his chest.
"I swear, I will beat the tumors out through your face if you don't stop this."
He made a little wheezing noise. Like he was laughing at him.
"I'm sorry nee-chan. I didn't want to die alone."
The thankful sound of sirens in the background were edging closer.
"Please, Kohaku. I don't care what I have to do-," she took the phone into her hands, passing off the emergency call to him.
The residents are unresponsive. Meaning? A sheet of metal was nothing in the face of that stupid little bastard's life. Besides. He owed him a vicious beating.
"Break the door down then," Sesshomaru commanded. He could hear the drills from Kohaku's end, the problem- however- was that he no longer heard Kohaku.
Heavy footfalls filled the corridor of the small home.
"Is he alright? Please, please tell me he's okay."
Sesshomaru was waiting anxiously on his end, holding on to Sango as she held her breath, waiting for the verdict.
"He's in our custody, unconscious, but if we move quickly he should pull through."
They heaved a collective sigh of relief. That stupid boy.
Whatever band that had been keeping Sango steady snapped with the click of the lines. She dissolved in his grip, her ear splitting cries only muffled by so much when she buried herself into the cotton of his shirt.
Just as he thought that she'd wake the dead his door came flying open. Miroku and InuYasha stood in the entrance in their underwear, InuYasha squinting all the while, "what the fuck is going on in here? It's three am!"
They took stock of the phone in her hand and the panic in his expression and then clambered onto the bed with her, "is Kohaku…?" Miroku was blessed with tact as he ran his hands along her back.
"No. He … tried to cross the rainbow bridge on his own terms." That didn't help her hysteria. She was curled into him, clutching his shirt in her shaking fists.
InuYasha winced, letting his hand follow a similar path as Miroku's, "there has to be something you can do." He insisted, "dad's the richest man on this side of the world. Some kid's surgery ain't gonna make a difference!"
Father did nothing for free.
"That won't work. Father isn't rich because he's generous and he's done his charity for the year."
"You can't just let Kohaku die!" That clay doll persona that made Miroku so unnerving shattered as he was possessed with a sudden compassion.
Sesshomaru ran his hand along her hair, her shuddering never losing its intensity as she was swarmed by grief.
"We have nothing to offer him." He insisted, "without something to barter father won't even bother to send us an email rejecting the request." To Touga they were still children.
"So there's nothing you can do?" Sango's expression dimmed, but her arms tightened about his middle. Even in the face of his uselessness it was him that she chose to comfort her.
How could he give in with that knowledge? Did he like bothering his grandmother? No. She was only getting older and traveling was becoming impossible for her. Her own health issues were starting to rear their ugly heads.
And yet, he was willing to risk it.
The crushing weight of his reality seemed to stagger him. People who he treated with nothing but haughty contempt seemed to trust him so completely. If he told them that he could do nothing, then they would believe it.
"No. That's stupid. I'll call my grandmother." She would know what to do and have the funds to manage it. He only hoped the strain wouldn't be too much. The last time he'd seen her she'd been spending more and more time in a wheelchair, "please understand, nothing is free. She'll likely have conditions and I don't know what she'll ask."
Their words of blind affirmation were worrying, but their dedication to their friend was heartwarming. He would try and keep them as safe as he could.
"First things first. Who all plans to come to Beppu. I warn you that my grandmother will likely make an appearance."
That changed nothing.
What good friends she had.
oOo
Sesshomaru worked tirelessly on the plane, finishing up as much as he could as they approached Oita Airport. Taking a break on such short notice was throwing his schedule into chaos. His sessions with Rin would likely need to be cancelled in their entirety -which was going to royally piss her off. They'd planned to watch Lion King and practice some of the recipes for their impending bake sale. His replacement would likely do none of those things.
The stand-in never knew how to handle Rin or Shippo, always barking down at them instead of treating them like the little people they were.
Hana Tsukimi's rotten little assistant had gotten back to Sango as promptly as ever, claiming that their sudden absence was unprofessional and indicated just how seriously they took their education.
He'd had all of ten hours of sleep over the past four days and he was on the verge of ripping his laptop in half by the time they'd landed.
Sweet plans of vengeance and justice, however, saved his laptop from bearing the brunt of his explosive rage. He'd been so caught up in his own plotting that he'd yelped when a brilliant bundle of silver wrapped him in her arms.
"Plotting evil this early in the morning?"
"The lesser should watch their tongues," he'd grunted, but he wouldn't allow that worthless clump of flesh to occupy his thoughts for a moment longer. "I'm sorry to have called you and grandmother so late in the night, however the situation reached a tipping point. I could think of no one more suited to help me than my own family."
He could be charming when he wished to.
"Grammy wasn't feeling well so she left the moment the plane touched down. She'll be sleeping it off in the hotel until we're finished at the hospital." She gave him a disapproving glance, following his eyes until she was watching the idiots that had tagged along with him, "so which one did you deem worth the risk of your own grandmother's life?"
"I asked grandmother to send you to scout everything out," he reminded her feebly, "there was never a time in which I told her I needed her nearby."
Mother sucked her teeth at him, "you sounded terrified. She'd have beaten me over the head if I'd even tried to keep her away from her grandson." Then she nudged him, "so? Who has caught your attention so completely?"
"No one has caught my attention. However, it's the girl in the jeans that is sister to the boy I want to help."
"She's pretty."
He could think of a million words that could describe a girl like Sango, but he felt that pretty wasn't one that could do her justice. Radiant. Brilliant. Luminescent. She was the glow of the heavens and the warmth of the sun, but his mother was already suspicious.
She was watching him watch Sango and so, in an attempt at nonchalance, he shrugged and muttered, "yeah, I guess. Let's just get out of here."
oOo
A.N./ Guest. My love. When you said 'six months of mud butt'? I almost choked to death. There's water in my lungs. Thank you and good night.
Also. I'd love to hear from the silent readers. Plis. Lol