Unexpected

An Inu Yasha Fan Fiction by Caitlin M.

Moogleheadgirl@cs.com

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha or anything associated with it. So don't sic any lawyers on me.

Chapter 6: Restoration

"Ka…go…me?" Sango breathed. She had a little bunch of flowers in her hand, and had been kneeling by the well wall. But now she stood and grinned, tossing the flowers aside. She moved as if to help me out the well, but then stopped and stepped back.

For a moment, I faltered. I had hoped Sango would be the most understanding of the group. I thought she would realize the importance of sacrifice…or whatever it is I had done. Catching my distressed expression, she smiled warmly.

"I'm not really supposed to strain myself," she said, by way of explanation. I realized her belly had a slight bulge to it, not entirely unlike the one mine had had a few years ago. I forgot, for a moment, the certain doom that I was convinced awaited me, and felt my face split into a delighted grin.

Following the direction of my gaze, Sango gave me a secretive, knowing look. "The monk and I reached an understanding."

I clambered out, laughing. "Why do I get the feeling, Sango-chan, that you were the one doing all the understanding?"

"You wouldn't be entirely wrong, but as Miroku has so often insisted, 'nobody's perfect.'"

I gasped theatrically and covered my mouth with my hand. "First name basis? If I didn't know better, I'd say you were serious."

She laughed. "Let's not go crazy. I simply agreed to bear his child and help him raise it. Nothing too binding."

"Well, I know you can handle it. The question is, can he?" I felt some relief, falling back into our habit of bantering back and forth. I could almost believe I had never left. And was surprised to find I liked the idea. I had never realized how much the feudal era meant to me, or how much I missed it. Just being back made me want to cry. From happiness, though. I had been doing too much of the other kind recently.

"He swears to me he will be honorable and responsible. And if he is not, Inu Yasha has promised swift and painful retribution on my behalf."

Inu Yasha. Hearing his name on this side of the well made my chest tighten. He could be picking up my scent at any moment, racing into the clearing for some retribution of his own. Again Sango correctly interpreted my expression. She laid a hand on my arm.

"You didn't plan on returning here, did you? Don't worry. You know he would never hurt you. And he's learned some patience since last you saw him."

I stared.

"Fatherhood will do that." Hearing that word in connection with that name was quite possibly the most surreal experience of my life. Although I was aware that Inu Yasha had the child, and would be doing his best to raise it, for some reason it had never occurred to me that he would be fathering it.

At the moment, the idea was too bizarre to dwell on. Switching subjects seemed a better choice.

"What were you doing here with those flowers?" I asked, indicating the forgotten heap of stems and petals some feet behind her. She looked back.

"Oh. I used to come here and pray for you to come back. Those were…an offering, I guess. It seems a little silly, but it made me feel better. It had never seemed an injustice that only you and Inu Yasha could use the well until I wanted to go through and find you. I felt useless just standing around waiting for something to happen, so I started praying. If nothing else, it made me feel better. But this time it worked. Oh, I can't wait to see the monk's face when I bring you back. He used to tease me so much…"

For Sango, this was quite a speech, and once she was done, she simply took my hand and started towards the village. I felt blinding panic surge into my head, leaned against her with all my weight. No! I can't do it. Not now. Not him. NO.

She seemed quite determined, however, and it was either her resolve or what integrity I had left that prevented me from dropping her hand and making a break for the well. We made our way back to the village, and I tried not to drag on her arm. But it was hard to handle the idea of seeing him after so long, and after the way we left each other. What was I going to say? "Sorry about the fuss, I was feeling a bit pissy?" Throw myself to the ground and beg forgiveness? Maybe I could feign composure? No, I was going to fall apart the moment I saw him. I just knew it.

Sango fairly kicked down the door to Kaede's hut once we reached it. The part of me that wasn't half-mindless with panic wondered why, after all these years, they still hadn't managed to arrange for a home of their own?

"Bouzu!" she yelled through the door (an "affectionate" nickname no doubt picked up from Inu Yasha). I realized that she had changed a bit over the years I had been gone. I was delighted at her newfound playfulness, but I couldn't help but wonder if she picked a few bad habits, too. Then again, look who was talking.

"Yes, my dulcet darling?" he called back in a flowery, over-the-top voice. It occurred to me that their relation was probably one of profuse sarcasm, cynicism, and loving verbal abuse. The thought of what their average day must be like brought a smile to my lips.

"I think you might want to say hello to our visitor," she smiled, pushing me through the doorway and into the hut, where I would be out of the sun's glare and more visible to whoever might be inside. I heard a shout that may have been my name, and suddenly found myself crushed in an enthusiastic bearhug. That it came from Miroku, who had always called me "Lady" and was usually the picture of composure (sort of) was surprising enough, but more of a shock was that his hands stayed just where they landed: squarely around my shoulders.

Well, I had changed, and Sango had changed, and I realized that it was ridiculous for me to expect something to remain constant even if I had not witness the alterations. I was hit by a sudden urge to explore everything, to see what I had missed. How had Shippo grown up? Was Kaede still as cagey as ever or had she mellowed a bit? Perhaps she had only gotten worse…

For that matter, what had he gotten up to? I expected him to be in the same state he was in over four years ago.

A lot could have happened in that time.

So maybe I wasn't as afraid. At least, I was slightly less convinced that he would attack me as soon as he saw me. I considered it an improvement.

Sango and Miroku kept me busy for a while, sitting me down and feeding me and filling me in on whatever happened between them. It was like a 180 in their relationship. I cannot begin to describe how odd it was to see them in the same room, sitting within two feet of each other, and yet Miroku managing not to be beaten over the head every five minutes. Although they were being very nice, and of course I was glad to spend time with them after so long, it felt like they were stalling. Every moment I sat on Kaede's floor I expected him to come crashing in. Only the crash never came.

Perhaps they weren't stalling. Maybe they only wanted to share their good news with me. It was still very obvious that they were avoiding any mention of both Inu Yasha and my child. I found it unsettling, as if my closest friends were hiding something monumentally important from me.

I noticed that Miroku was flexing his cursed hand, as it was stiff. I interrupted Sango's recount of some misadventure or another to ask him if it was bothering him. He smiled sheepishly at the question.

"I tore it again a few days ago. It was an accident, of course, but Sango was livid."

"To put it lightly," she snapped. "If it weren't for the fact that he nearly died, I would have killed him."

This sounded like an old argument, and sure enough, Miroku and Sango were already assuming their respective battle stations. I listened to them bicker back and forth for a moment, wondering how on earth they managed to get their relationship this far. Then I remembered that most of the "quality time" Inu Yasha and I ever had with each other was spent in shouting matches. Considering how I had found my way back (well, very near, anyway), maybe they were getting along better that it would seem.

Eventually, their argument wound down, and it basically boiled down to the fact that Miroku wouldn't even have gotten hurt if he hadn't been doing something incredibly stupid at the time (read as: showing off).

Although it had been maybe an hour and a half since Sango had helped me out of the well, I felt like I had been here forever and had managed to get absolutely nothing done.

"Are you alright? I mean, how big must the hole be now?" I asked, trying to get my mind off of my own miseries. Although, admittedly, all I was doing this by comparing them to someone else's.

"You must remember that it will have grown over the years. And the cut only made it wider. Not much, but still, it mean's I'm that much closer to…well, you know the story."

And suddenly, it was as if they didn't want to talk about themselves anymore. I could understand why. Everything they had together was rather disheartening. Even the baby on its way, which should be a happy thing, was overshadowed by the fact that its purpose was to inherit Miroku's curse and continue the family bloodline once the wind tunnel in his hand consumed him. It was a lot harder to blame Miroku for anything that he did when you remembered that.

There was a quiet moment, and then Sango stood up. "Well, it's about time we start walking. He'll come back for us if we take much longer."

Miroku helped me up. "Inu Yasha wanted to check out a shard rumor. We have to really chase after them now; there's so few left, we don't want any to slip through our fingers. We've got quite the collection nowadays."

That, of course, did not explain why they were in the village when he, apparently, was not. I said as much to Miroku.

"Oh, he was letting us rest here for a while. He took off early this morning with--- um… with the others, and told us he'd walk slowly so we can catch up eventually. We've just been procrastinating."

Sango sniffed indignantly. "Maybe you have." Then the three of us burst out laughing, though whether it was from Sango's feigned hypocrisy or collective nervous energy, I don't know.

We hit the road soon after. We were all laughing and chatting as before, but none of us knew what would happen when Inu Yasha and I had our "reunion," and eventually we were lagging so much we were practically walking backwards. In late afternoon, Sango suggested we eat (I had noticed that she looked tired, but Miroku had whispered to me that at this point she would not tolerate any implication that she couldn't keep up, so I didn't say anything). I took my food with me, and told them I would just wander around for a while. They only let me go when I promised to stay close enough for them to hear any screams, and vice versa (those were Miroku's words, not mine)

I picked a random direction and wandered to my heart's content, nibbling as I went. I had thought I wanted to be alone with my thoughts, but they didn't feel like being bothered at the moment, and then I just didn't want to be alone.

So when I heard a little voice singing, I decided to investigate.

The source of the singing proved to be a little girl playing in a tiny clearing in the woods by the road. She seemed to be having a very good time playing with her doll by a patch of mud, getting both the toy and her kimono very filthy in the process.

I was happy just to watch her playing for a while.

Her kimono, though clean (getting dirtier by the moment, though) and well cared for, was obviously old and was likely a hand-me-down. Her doll was of the rag variety, and judging by the look of it, she had made it herself. She couldn't have been older than five years old. I wondered what she was doing out her on her own. Well, if she was lost, she didn't seem the least bit distressed.

Finally, I got tired of watching and decided to join her. I made sure to make a lot of noise while I was still far away, so she'd know I was coming. When she heard my approach, she jumped up and looked at me, but she was anything but afraid. She just gave me a huge grin and shouted, "Hi!"

I was caught off-guard, not only by her enthusiastic greeting but also by her hair. I had thought it was black, but when it caught the fading sunlight, it looked very dark grey. How unusual.

I wasn't given time to study her, however, as she invited me to join her immediately and without question. She produced another doll from her kimono, handed it to me, and began detailing the complexities of the dolls' world. Although her explanation was very long and involved in five-year-old speak, in plain Japanese, it boiled down to dipping them in mud. It was quite fun.

I don't know how long we played. I was a prince rescuing a princess, a magic frog, and a sorceress. I forgot all about Sango and Miroku as my little playmate and I had countless adventures.

While we played, she told me about her family. I had never met anyone who talked so much (well, who talked a lot and wasn't irritating), or so enthusiastically. A favorite topic was her father. The way she described the man, he was a regular super hero. But I guess all little kids feel that way about their parents. She also had an older brother she apparently idolized. She obviously loved her family, and in the setting sun, her eyes glowed with affection.

It almost looked as if her eyes really were glowing for a moment, and for some reason I felt uneasy. Then she turned her head to look into the woods behind her, her eyes hidden behind her mane of hair, and the feeling passed. She stood abruptly.

"I have to go back now. It's almost nighttime, and that means I have to eat dinner." She cocked her head, considering me. "You can come with. You can eat dinner and meet my daddy. You'll like him."

She took my unresisting hand and pulled me into the woods. I felt a prickle on my skin and realized she had accidentally scratched me with her almost-too-long nails. "Sorry," she said. "But you'll like my daddy. He gets a little grumpy sometimes, but he's a nice guy. Just make sure you finish all your food before you ask to be excused." I bit back a laugh. "Of course, if you're really full but still have food left, you can sneak it to Shippo. He'll eat anything."

The uneasy feeling came back with a vengence. "Shippo?" I whispered. She turned her head a bit, and I saw under her hair that her ears were slightly pointed.

"He's my big brother. Well, he's not really my big brother, but Daddy says he acted like my mommy was his, too, and he hasn't been able to get rid of him. That's what Daddy says. But I think he like Shippo more than he says he does."

Shit. Shit shit shit shitshitshitshitshitSHIT.

Of all the small children on this side of the well, of course my own daughter would be the one I found.

To Be Continued…

Author's note:

I really do feel awful about how long it's taken me to get this much done. I had this great idea all set up in my head, but as soon as I sat in front of the computer, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I'm INSANELY sorry. With the time I took, I wish I had more than 4 ½ pages for you. I promise I'll get right to work on the next one. Right now. Honest.

Well, thanks for putting up with me this long. Until we meet again!