In Time, Death

By Alesyira

Summary: Kagome introduces Shippo to her mother, only to discover they're already well acquainted and Mama's pretty mad about something...

Photographs

They walked together in silence up the stairs to the shrine. Kagome glanced at Shippo and murmured very quietly, "Is everything okay? You've been pretty tense since we left the restaurant. I can't sense anything nearby, and you're making me nervous."

He nodded a bit stiffly. "Just something on my mind."

She grinned mischievously. "You worried about meeting Mama? I promise I won't tell her you've been sleeping with me."

Shippo barked a sudden laugh and turned pink. "Kami, she'd really murder me, then," he muttered, looking away at the shadows between the trees lining the worn stone steps.

They found her mother and brother standing near the Goshinboku, bent over a half-assembled wooden stall they used to sell trinkets during festivals.

"Mama, Souta, I'd like you to meet Shippo, one of my oldest friends."

Souta leaned closer and pointed a thumb behind him in the general direction of the shuttered well before asking, "Like oldest oldest?"

Kagome smiled and nodded.

Shippo surprised them all when he took her mother's hand between his own and bowed. "Aiko-chan, I'm so very sorry for your loss."

Kagome and her mother stared at Shippo in confusion, but then her mother reached out to tilt Shippo's face up. She looked it over carefully as a furrow formed between her eyebrows. "Shin?" she whispered. Both of her hands clapped over her mouth as she gasped.

Shippo stood straight, looking down at her with an expression of regret. He didn't even flinch as she slapped him square on the cheek, the sharp sound ringing across the dead silent shrine grounds. Her lip trembled as they stared at each other. He only glanced away when Kagome reached out for his sleeve, hundreds of questions in her eyes. He knelt at her mother's feet and pressed his forehead to the first hand he could grab. "I couldn't stay, Aiko-chan. I couldn't."

Aiko had dealt with a lot of nonsense over the years of raising her children as a single parent. She collected herself quickly and swallowed back her angry words as she stared down at the head bowed over her shaking fingers. She'd known this man—or at least she thought she did—for years. He'd been a solid fixture in her life for as long as she'd known her husband. She had trusted him to be there, their laughing sunshine, the trickster that knew the most ridiculous stories to make them laugh until they cried, the only one who could keep Toshi's father from driving them all insane.

He could cook, loved to clean, and rarely seemed to sleep. She'd trusted him with her young daughter more times than she could count. And then when Toshi had died… when they'd needed him the most…

Her silence pressed on, weighing heavily in the air, and she saw his shoulders hunch and tremble. Her free hand lifted slowly and dropped on top of his shining red hair.

"Kami, you're such an idiot." She yanked him up by his collar and dragged him into a hug before bursting into tears.

Kagome and Souta exchanged a worried glance as Shippo held their mother and patted her on the back. He tried to give Kagome an apologetic smile, but she was shocked to see his eyes wet with tears. Aiko pulled back after a moment, wiping at her face with a shaking hand. She swallowed thickly and stared at him in disbelief. She sighed and glanced briefly at her daughter, understanding slowing creeping in. "I wish you'd said something. Anything. You just…" she trailed off, unsure what to say.

He watched her with shimmering eyes, knowing how much she'd suffered in his absence. He may have disappeared from her life, but he'd never gone far. He'd known Toshi wouldn't live to see the day his daughter fell down the well, but he hadn't realized how soon it would come to pass. The trio of friends had been too close, and he was terrified he'd make a mistake in their shared grief. "I was selfish and afraid of hurting you more. I couldn't stay."

He'd fled like a coward.

"You betrayed our family and my trust." His head bowed at her truth. "I was angry. I still am." She took a deep breath. "But, I have room in my heart for forgiveness, if you can find enough braincells to explain yourself better than that." He peeked up at her as Aiko sighed and held him at arm's length, looking him over. "You haven't aged a day." She briefly fingered his red bangs. "Is this your true hair color? I always thought the brown looked so out of place."

Shippo shrugged. "There's more." He glanced at Kagome, who nodded that the coast was clear. He dropped his illusions, allowing his tails to unfurl as the markings on his hands and face shimmered into view. Souta whistled in appreciation as Shippo cautiously smirked, flashing a set of fangs.

Aiko stood straight and turned her gaze to the sky as she took a deep breath, sounding more composed as her expression cleared. "Goodness, look at the lot of us." She sniffled one last time before putting an arm around her daughter's shoulders with a weak but genuine smile. "Let's go inside and have some tea. There's much to discuss."

Shippo dared to look hopeful. "Chamomile?"

Kagome's mother pulled her children toward the house and beamed back at the trailing kitsune. "I keep a box for you in the cabinet, just in case you ever came home."

Kagome turned to briefly meet Shippo's eyes before allowing her mother to tug her inside. He swallowed nervously. He couldn't remember the last time she'd looked quite so pissed. Especially at him. He'd have a lot of explaining to do.

"Shin," Aiko began, then looked at him with a puzzled frown. "Shippo, I mean, was your father's best friend. We were all friends, for years."

His tails hidden once more for the sake of them crowding around the family table, Shippo curled his hands around a steaming cup of chamomile tea and slumped in bliss.

In the center of the table, she opened an old photo album that they'd seen dozens of times. "This is your father, here with just me," she tapped the edge of a photo of the two of them sitting close beneath the Goshinboku. Next to it was another that seemed to be from the same day, showing her father with his arm around a male with brown hair. "And here he is again with Shin." Kagome peered down at the yellowed photograph.

The teenage boys were roughly the same height, and her father had darker hair and a bit of a scowl on his handsome face. She looked closer at the teenager standing with him and recognized features in his face. "Oh Kami, that really is you. What in the world were you doing?"

"Well…" he started. "I was originally just checking in every so often to make sure things were going alright. I didn't know what year I was waiting for. I had some guesses as time passed. The coloring sticks you'd bring me, or the candies and snacks." He laughed at an old memory. "I got a few funny looks the first time I ripped open a box of colors in the middle of a store to stick my nose in its contents."

Kagome bit her lip to stifle the giggles as she turned through more pages in the photo album, looking through the old images of her father and his friends.

"The human realm with its little trinkets and comfort snacks started to feel familiar. But then I met your dad one day and felt like sticking around. It was just a nice way to pass the time until the day we met Aiko. Then I knew I couldn't leave, because the jewel and all the trouble it invited didn't just manifest on the day you turned fifteen."

Kagome nodded. "I know I was born with it, but…"

"Before then. I knew the day you were on your way because Aiko started glowing."

"No way."

Shippo smiled mirthlessly. "I was incredibly thankful for that barrier keeping most of the magical creatures out of the realm, otherwise we'd have had troubles."

He reached out for the photo album and carefully flipped forward a page, staring down at the images with a nostalgic grin. He laughed a little. "I ended up spending more of my life with Toshi than I did with you, Kagome. Our adventures weren't half as dangerous, though." He stopped at a picture of Aiko, beaming and round with her first pregnancy. He pointed down at the hand over her belly, where the smudge of a line indicated she wore something around her wrist.

"That bracelet was the key to keeping you all safe."

Aiko smiled at the memory. "Was it from you?"

Shippo shook his head. "Sesshoumaru's idea. I just passed it along to Toshi with a believable story."

"Does Mama know Sesshoumaru, too?"

Shippo smirked. "He made great efforts to remain anonymous."

"Toshi sounded crazy when he gave it to me before we even knew we were going to have you. He asked me to wear it until after our first child was born, something about it being a good luck charm. I knew how excited he was about being a dad, so I humored him, and wore it through both pregnancies. It was thankfully a cute bracelet. I think I might have been harder to convince if it had been something weird."

The next few images were of Aiko in the hospital: walking carefully down an empty hall lined with windows, grimacing in a birthing room, then finally her tear-stained face staring down at a tiny, wrinkled human with a tuft of dark hair tucked into her arms.

Shippo laughed as he looked down at the old memories. "I was there on the day you were born. There was a minor commotion when the doctor pulled you out of your mom. An earthquake they claimed, but it was just one of those 'first cry from a magical creature' kinds of things. I know a few people that would have killed to be present in the room that day to collect some of that energy." They all stared at him as he waved his hands in defense. "It sounds weird but there's a lot of random that goes on with magical folk. Anyways, I'd warded the room when the time grew close, and had a tiny spell ready to save you from fifteen years of trouble."

Aiko turned another page in the photo album and tapped on a heavily wrinkled picture taken from a strange angle. "This was Shin's boyfriend that he brought with him for some visits."

Shippo blushed. "Uh, yeah. Berke." He shook his head with a short laugh. "I remember the struggle to hold on to this photo when I showed him the set. He was really insistent on keeping it." He looked at Aiko with a small smile. "He asks about you often. I'll be sure to send him this way again. Now that Kagome's back, it should be safe enough."

Kagome laughed. "You had a boyfriend?"

"Well, he's been a good friend for a few hundred years, and he's a boy, and stuff. I suppose that counts for something. He was also my cover story for why I wouldn't date anyone they kept trying to hook me up with." He nodded at Aiko with a sheepish grin. "He's pretty handy with plants and helped build the little garden out back where you guys have your herbs."

Kagome narrowed her eyes. "I knew it. There was no way those plants should have survived what we put them through unless magic had been involved."

On another page, she was struck by the strangeness of seeing Shippo holding her as a toddler with a look of tenderness on his face. She laughed and pointed to the image. "I have one like this upstairs with you as a little kit."

He seemed embarrassed. "I didn't mean to get so involved, but I couldn't help myself to have more time with you before things got tough."

Her mother took their empty cups to the sink as Souta flipped to the next set of pictures. Kagome stared down at a strangely familiar image of herself at a birthday party. Her mother and father were there, and she was making a scrunched face at her disguised friend kneeling beside her as he pretended to blow out the candles on her cake. Odd little memories like this one were at the edge of her mind, hovering just out of reach.

Her mother frowned as she returned to the table. "The last time I saw Shin was just before Toshi's funeral."

Shippo grimaced. "I knew I'd have to leave before Kagome got much older. It would have been dangerous if she could remember me, but then Toshi…" he choked off the sentence with a swallow. "It hurt too much. I knew you were in pain, but it was too great of a risk to stay and ease our hearts together if I'd need to leave so soon. I didn't want to break your heart all over again."

"I could never understand why Kagome didn't cry over your disappearance."

"She was still very young, and I have a lot of kitsune magic tricks," he muttered. "Sesshoumaru-sama loved to remind me that I'd eventually have to pay for my behavior."

Kagome still stared down at the photo of the birthday party. It had been a week before her father had died in the car wreck. She whispered, "I fell out of a tree."

Aiko looked at her daughter in concern. "When?"

"A little bit before…" Kagome stopped herself from saying it. "Ah, a little bit after this photo was taken, I think. I fell out of a tree and broke my arm."

Her mother seemed confused. "You never broke any bones when you were young, Kagome."

"I did, though." She turned and looked at Shippo, wondering how much of her memory was real or imagined.

"Oh," he muttered, drumming his fingers on the table. "I didn't think you'd remember that."

Her birthday had been just days prior. Toshi and Aiko had taken the day for themselves, leaving Kagome in his care while they did adult stuff. Shippo had rolled his eyes, but reveled in any opportunity to whisk Kagome away from the house to hang out and watch her grow. Every moment of her childhood that he'd witnessed had gone into his tiny books as notes, stories, and sketches about his favorite person's formative years. He'd add them to the archives soon enough, but for now, he observed, laughed, played, and relaxed.

…Until she fell from that branch with a tiny shout of surprise and an unpleasant crunch.

They both stared down at the oddly bent injury in shock.

Shippo silently cursed. It had been his idea to climb the low-hanging limbs, and she'd been having so much fun he hadn't thought of the danger. Reckless.

"Kiss it better?" Kagome held out her arm.

Shippo blinked at her wide-eyed expression as tears began to prick at the corners of her lashes. He glanced around to ensure no one was in view. He'd done this for little scrapes and bumps, harmless fixes with a tweak of his magic.

This one was not quite as small.

Not quite as harmless.

"Only because you're my favorite," he muttered, cradling her little limb in his hands.

"I'm your only," she reminded him.

"Same thing," he shrugged, pressing his lips gently to the skin above the break. His magic swelled forth and slipped into her arm, and he paused, breathless as he hovered over the injury to watch the magic bounce between the torn flesh and broken bones, pulling things back into order as it soaked into her limb. She giggled and sighed in relief as he released her arm, good as new.

He shook his head in disbelief. "Please do not tell your mama you fell out of a tree. She will break my arm for sure!"

And then Toshi had died just a few days later, and her big fall from the tree became a tiny shadow beneath the wall of grief.

He stared at her, wondering if he should have—or could have—made different choices.

The sound of quiet murmuring and uncertain footsteps in the hallway drew everyone's attention. The healer stepped into view with a triumphant smile at the two following behind: her assistant tucked under the arm of a slowly shuffling Grandpa.

Aiko stood with her hands over her mouth, tears springing to her eyes again.

Kagome cheered as Souta jumped up with a huge grin. "You're walking!"

The healer pulled Kagome and her mother aside with a list of instructions they should follow to help him recover his strength. Kagome could not adequately express her thanks. "Child, you have done enough for the realms to deserve this a few times over. Try to not get yourself killed in the line of duty, alright?" A wrinkled hand settled on her hair with a gentle pat.

Kagome and her mother watched as Grandpa shuffled toward the kitchen table, squinting in disbelief at Shippo. "Huh. You aren't dead?" A knobby, wrinkled finger wobbled forth and poked Shippo in the chest, probably checking to see if he were truly sitting there or only an apparition. He hummed in thought, looking him over with a critical gaze. "I could have sworn..."

Aiko exchanged a wary glance with the healer before looking at him in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Grandpa eased himself into a chair. "The shrine collections. I thought this one must have died right around the time Toshi passed, because some poltergeist kept shelving all the books and scrolls I left out, and I've only ever had one such reliable assistant." He turned an accusing stare at the others in the room. "Well, it's good to see you alive, m'boy. Everything is probably a dusty mess with all the time I had to spend in that blasted bed."

Shippo blushed. "Ah, actually, I've had spare time. It's already done."

Grandpa nodded, completely unsurprised. "See? Reliable."

AN: This chapter was rough. I'm sure it needs further contemplations, but not this year. :)

PS: Grandpa loves his "assistant" Shin too much to ever throw sutras at him. Probably.