A.N.: Inspired by a post on tumblr by love you-x3000 speculating what it might be like if both of Inuyasha's parents had died the night he was born, and he was adopted and raised by Sesshomaru's mom. This will be a probably short, probably leisurely updated little set of stories exploring that idea, but I'm really excited about it! First chapter will be more her history with Touga, and then we'll really get into the AU next chapter. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter One
She'd heard of him, of course she had, he was not a stranger to her when he approached. She tilted her chin haughtily at him, golden eyes gleaming as they narrowed on his smug grin.
His own eyes, as gold as hers, remained open and wide, shining with a forced innocence that did nothing to endear him to her.
She sniffed and then looked down to readjust the fur pelt around her shoulders.
"How curious for one such as you to seek me out and make such a request. Your reputation precedes you Dog General; I find it hard to believe you could not find someone to fulfill this need amongst the throngs always at your feet."
His brow twitched once, the only external sign of the annoyance threading through his yoki.
"My Lady, your pedigree precedes you. I have met none so worthy as you to be the mother of my future heir."
Her painted lips twitched up in amusement and she pushed her silver hair, also so reminiscent of his own, over her shoulder before turning away from him to sit at a nearby table and signal for some tea.
After several heavy moments of silence, her guest huffed in agitation and swept over, plopping down across from her with an inpatient scowl.
She avoided his gaze and busied herself with arranging her tea cups and utensils, utterly unbothered by him.
"This is a great honor, any other would have already agreed."
"And yet you've asked me, instead of one of them. Perhaps it is you who should consider the potential honor of my answer."
She met his eyes then, placidly staring back in the face of his mounting frustration. The servant brought the tea and she thanked him quietly. She took a sip and savored the warmth of it as it seeped through her body, and then she once again considered her impertinent guest, sizing him up.
He was beautiful to be sure, with strong shoulders and a sharp jaw. A smooth talker who charmed all in his path; a heartbreaker who had any woman he desired.
She was not so easily swayed by him, refused to be. She didn't need his favor, didn't want his attention, his regard for her power and prestige would not be enough to convince her.
"And should I choose to agree to your offer, what will I receive in return?"
His brows lifted in shock and she nearly sighed.
"Surely you didn't expect me to accept on promise of connection to your name alone. What exactly would that get me? A string of women from your heartbroken harem to darken the peaceful shadows of my home with their scorn? My name has more than enough of its own honor, Touga, I'm afraid you'll have to offer me something much better than yours."
A slow, satisfied smile stretched across his handsome face and then he sat back with a satisfied glow that she found she didn't appreciate.
"And there you have it, the reason I came to you over any other. Anyone else would have agreed immediately. A chance to be the mother of the Lord's heir? My heir? None would have passed it up. But you? Standing on the prestige of your own name and using it to bargain- these are values I want passed down to my son. You are the only one that has them."
He leaned forward again, ready to make his real offer. She didn't appreciate being tested in her own home, but since he was here, she would hear him out.
"I don't want you to be the mother of my heir. I want you to be my Lady in full. Marry me. Rule with me. Greater palaces and riches than this will be yours."
She narrowed her eyes and sipped her tea, never looking away from him, letting his proposition roll around in her head.
It would certainly make life more complicated than it currently was, but she'd have a great deal more influence and respect.
And money.
She glanced around the room, one she'd been looking at and hosting guests in for too many years to count. Maybe life had been a little stale of late.
"Very well." She replied finally, when she could feel him growing steadily stiffer with annoyance. She'd had the upper hand for the whole exchange. He wasn't used to not controlling everyone around him.
He was in for a surprise if he thought he would control her, as well.
"I accept your proposal. My servants will see you out."
She stood elegantly, floating from the room without a backward glance, dismissing him and their entire exchange as if it meant little.
Because it didn't.
She was right to worry about the women who loved him. The minute their marriage was announced, they came out of the woodwork to target her. They were no match for her, of course, but she grew tired of their constant harassment, and made plans for a home that would float above them all, out of sight and out of reach.
He still did what he wished with whoever he wished it, so the times she was forced to mingle were filled with smug looks and glances from various lovers who felt they had the upper hand.
But theirs was not a love match. She felt no jealousy toward these females, and could only wonder what exactly they all thought they were doing vying for the attentions of a male who clearly preferred tossing scraps of himself to forming real attachments.
As far as she could tell, there was nothing in particular about her husband that was so extraordinary compared to any other demon male. He was more powerful to be sure, a little more approachable, but what else he had that endeared him so to such an array of females, she could not say.
What she could say was the completion of her floating castle came right on time.
Her things were moved in and her staff was settled when she learned of her pregnancy.
The heir was conceived, and Touga rewarded her lavishly.
"You speak far too soon, foolish dog. You are not promised an heir simply for want of one."
"Its an heir." he would reply with that arrogant, self assured grin, nuzzling into her abdomen as he knelt to heat the pup's heartbeat in a way that made her hair stand on end- and not in a good way.
"Do not fool yourself into thinking that I am no longer a being capable of clawing your face off, Touga. I still value my personal space."
He chuckled and backed away, the cocky twinkle in his eye incensing her though she kept her outward expression cool and serene.
"Well, I must be off. You have everything you need, yes?"
"Yes." She answered, clipped and short, ready for him to be gone.
She sighed in relief when she was alone again, and went to her baths to soak the evenings stresses away.
He was a proud father, once their son was born, preening about how strong he was, how he'd produced an heir with no equal, his fortune and luck were never in question, his virility a forgone conclusion.
Kimi stood by, holding the baby, taking it in stride while inside she longed to retreat back to her solitude. She hated the throngs of people she had to help entertain, celebrations for the Lord's sake at the birth of an unrivaled heir.
It was as if she'd done nothing at all to contribute to this pup's existence.
She glanced down at him and the edges of her lips fluttered upwards, imperceptible to anyone save her or those who knew her best, which included no one on the guest list this night.
Sesshomaru was a gift to the lands for certain, but a gift to her for entirely different reasons. His youkai ebbed and flowed around him, pure strength and majesty, and he looked so much like her from the color of the twin stripes on his soft, rounded cheeks to the moon on his brow that, despite herself, her heart twisted and warmed every time she looked at him.
Being a mother was not what she expected, was not how her mother had made it seem. She was still trying to understand her feelings.
So far the clearest one, the most important one, was protection.
She would protect him, at all costs.
Her little something to protect.
She watched as little Sesshomaru stood silent and disappointed as his father walked away, out of the Cloud Castle, and flew back down to the world below.
"Father said he'd take me with him this time. Why did he not?"
Kimi stared at the back of her child, too rigid, to straight, too perfect for one so young, and did not know what to say.
"Your father is very busy. Ruling the West must come before all else."
This had been a constant source of his heartbreak, wanting more time with his father, wanting his approval and acceptance, but Touga insisted that the mantle of Heir of the West was one that did not allow coddling. Sesshomaru had to be strong. He had to be controlled. He had to be perfect.
The Killing Perfection.
He'd chided her as well. For being too soft, too doting, too motherly when she should have been training their son to have the poise and control that she had. But her instincts, she was still surprised to find, were to nurture and protect. There was something there in her son, something a little softer, a little more compassionate, she could see it. It should have disgusted her, as a youkai there was no need for that.
Instead it intrigued her.
She wanted to foster it, at least a little.
A ruler could use the ability to understand his subjects.
But the tutors and trainers and even nannies that came at Touga's command did not agree.
So she watched her son become cooler, more distant, more desperate to train and outdo his teachers and finally, finally, make his father proud.
Every time Touga came around and left without so much as a pat on the head for the son he'd so longed for, she watched more of that spark of something in Sesshomaru's soul die.
She grit her teeth, but kept her composure. Always the one with the control, the grace, the long suffering mate of the untamed Lord of the West.
Time marched. Things changed. Sesshomaru grew and, since he was shaping up to be everything Touga had hoped for in an heir, no more children came, and consequently, so did no more threats from her husband's paramours.
Life was peaceful enough, though repetitive, and she tried to find contentment despite the predictability of every day that passed. Things were stale again.
Sesshomaru stopped talking about anything consequential, adopting a quiet thoughtfulness he thought more suited to someone of his station. He stopped waiting for his father to show him the world, and went to go see it on his own.
Touga visited less often as their duties to each other had been more than fulfilled and she did not appreciate the company he kept and dragged with him to stink up the quiet halls of her home.
She'd been granted the solitude she'd always thought she wanted, the peace, the freedom from people and their expectations.
It was not as ideal as she imagined, and made the oncoming centuries seem daunting, looming, a featureless void of Nothing Special that she kept as busy as possible to ignore, though there was only so much to do in an isolated palace in the sky.
And then her husband fell in love.
Why he thought she would want to hear him wax so poetic about his new lover was well beyond her abilities to reason but Touga started showing up at her door more often just for someone to talk to.
A nobleman's daughter, dainty and lovely and poised, soft spoken and more gentle and beautiful than a sunset.
"I did not know you were capable of such….. eloquence." She sniffed, and his golden eyes shifted her way, glowing with mischief.
"Jealous?"
She stared flatly at him, lifting her claws and letting them glow green with the poison that bubbled through her blood.
"Okay okay! I'm only teasing." He held up his hands and laughed, though she hardly got the point of the joke.
"I do not enjoy teasing."
"I know." He sighed, staring out of a window before glancing back over at her. Though she didn't show it, the sudden vulnerability in his gaze, the reluctance, the seeming presence of something secret trying to emerge startled her.
"Is there, perhaps, something else you feel the need to share?"
He stared at her for a moment more and then with a blink the moment was gone.
"No. Nothing. I should be going anyway."
It was Sesshomaru who revealed the mortal heritage of his father's new mistress.
The rage he'd worn as he swept through her palace was more passion and emotion than she'd seen on him in a century, and she couldn't have hid her own surprise if she'd wanted to.
"A human! He forsakes his duties to his lands to lower himself for a human!"
"You know how he is, Sesshomaru, how he's always been. He will tire of her as he has all the others. She is a passing fancy."
"No!" He roared, eyes bleeding red in his rage thoigh she could smell his confusion and distress. "He is different with her, I have observed them. He says he loves her. She is…. She is pregnant."
Kimi blinked, eyes widening marginally in shock.
"She carries his child?"
"Yes. He has sired a hanyo."
She had never met a hanyo, though she had heard of them. They were rare indeed and not well received by either their human or demon families. Seemed a lot of fuss for something that was just as easily ignored, in her opinion, but she was about to have one much closer to home than she'd ever expected.
She wondered if Touga understood the implications of his actions, how much trouble he'd gotten his little human woman into, how cursed the life of this new child would be. How complicated how own life and the life of his first son was about to become.
'Impulsive, impetuous, hasty, rash, impossible dog.'
"Why are you not more angry?! He is shaming you with this behavior! You are his Lady!"
Shuttering her expression from all of her thoughts, she waved her hand in dismissal of her son's concerns.
"When I accepted your father's proposal I accepted the presence of whatever little flights of fancy he chose to spend his time on. We were never a love match, and I care not what he does with his personal time. My concern is that he has not thought through all the possible consequences. To love this woman, sire a child on her, is to curse her. Whatever he's hoping to have with her will never be allowed if she and their child are ever discovered."
Sesshomaru reared back, all the red draining from his eyes until they were simply gold and flat with bewilderment.
"That is your concern? Worry for this human wretch and her unborn abomination?"
"Do not speak to me thus, Sesshomaru. I am still your mother. Your father's actions have put us all in danger. Those thus far held back from challenging for his seat of power will work their way out of the shadows, viewing this as a mark of weakness to exploit. You must not make a fuss."
He breathed harshly through his nose, hands clenching and unclenching, struggling to keep his emotions in check. In his eyes she could see the sad pup he'd always been, wondering where his father was, desperate for approval, the mantle of his birthright was so heavy.
He turned, walking slowly toward the entrance of her home, and her mother's heart constricted.
"Sesshomaru."
He paused, though he did not turn."
"No child chooses their heritage. It is a blessing or a curse handed out at random by the twisted hand of fate."
A comfort. A warning. A word of reason. A call to compassion to stay his angry, vengeful hand before things got worse.
Without another word or backward's glance he left, and Kimi retreated deeper into her castle to await the conclusion of their current drama.
There was nothing else to do.