Prompt used: Fear

Characters: Inuyasha, Moroha

Secret

Inuyasha found Moroha, a mere five-year-old bundle of energy, crouched in one of the highest branches of the Goshinboku. How she had gotten there, considering that she still couldn't jump very high, was a mystery. From her position, the half-demon could hear her sniffle and the noise her hands made as she tried to rub her bare – and certainly cold – arms on that chilly late summer evening.

He had started looking for her when, upon arriving home, Kagome had run worriedly to him, telling him that their daughter had not returned after playing with the twins. It had not taken him long to find her, and he had not even been surprised to hear strange noises coming from the Goshinboku; for some weeks now, the little girl had seemed quite obsessed with that tree.

Looking up, he saw more clearly her little body trembling and her little head of dark hair tucked between her legs. It didn't surprise him much either that she hadn't noticed his presence yet; she was probably too frightened to pay attention to her surroundings. It was actually a problem since demons of all kinds could venture into the forest even though he was its protector, but there had been no tragedy, and he preferred to put the thought aside. At that moment, he was only interested in taking care of his daughter who, judging by the smell of blood in the air, had not even come out of the climb unscathed.

It only took him one leap to reach her and, moving as slowly as possible so as not to frighten her, he reached her beside the trunk of the sacred tree and placed the faithful red robe on her shoulders to protect her from the cold.

Moroha winced and then finally raised her head to turn her frightened gaze towards her father, who was smiling at her despite his worry. "Dad," she shrieked, causing his white ears to flatten over his head. She instinctively leaned towards him, encircling his torso with her slender arms, no longer mindful of the height and the risk of falling down. Inuyasha held her close and let her sob as he tracked the traces of every tiny cut that covered her otherwise pristine skin and cursed himself for not being there when she got them.

Even though he knew how easy it was for children to injure themselves and even though he was aware that Moroha would heal before anyone else thanks to the demon blood she had inherited from him, each tiny scratch always clutched his heart in a vice and he became even more anxious than Kagome.

On the day of her birth, he had promised to defend her from any danger and above all, that in no way would she experience the emotions he had felt as a child. Yet, although she resembled her mother physically, Moroha became more and more like him character-wise – even her ability to get into trouble and not think too much before doing something was the same. Of course, she was still five years old, but if anything, that worried him more.

Every cut that stained her skin reminded him of his mistakes, of every time he had failed to fulfil his promise as a father and every danger that could be waiting for the little one around the corner.

He exhaled a breath as he straightened his slumped shoulders and tried to brace himself for his daughter's sake. To her, Inuyasha was a hero and he didn't want to drop the mask; he would only take it off at night when he would expose his fears to his wife from whom he could no longer hide anything. Long gone were the days of the young and immature Inuyasha, who pushed everyone away and regarded small daily confessions as weakness. And so, true to that reasoning, he urged his daughter to talk to him while he kept caressing her back. "Hey, baby, how did you get up here?"

"I -I... I wanted to find out what the view was like from here." She sniffled again. "Y-you and Mommy come up here all the time; I wanted to know why it's so s-special. But... b-but then when I a-arrived up here-" She stopped, no longer able to finish her sentence. Probably, whatever she was about to say reminded her of her previous fears.

"You got this high and were too scared to look at the view?" The half-demon concluded in the gentle, reassuring tone he reserved for his daughter.

"Nu-uh," Moroha shook her head before returning to hide it in her father's chest. "I fear nothing; I am like you, Dad!"

Inuyasha had the urge to chuckle at the memories that sentence stirred; Moroha was indeed his daughter through and through.

"If I tell you a secret, do you promise to keep it? Then, we can go back home where mom is surely very worried, and I'll medicate these nasty scratches for you myself. What do you say?" he proposed, carefully keeping his hands away from the reddened skin to avoid hurting her.

She widened her eyes at the prospect of sharing something so important with her father and moved her head up and down in assent.

A broad smile lit up the half-demon's face and then he began. "Your dad has some fears, too, more than you might think." Every day he was scared, he said to himself, all the time. "He's always afraid that something will happen to you or mom."

Moroha held her breath, not believing her ears, and then brought her hands to her mouth. "A-are you scared too, daddy?" And involuntarily, she admitted that the whole experience had frightened her, even though she had lied to her father earlier. Not that Inuyasha hadn't already known.

"Of course. It's normal to be afraid and actually, not hiding it makes you even stronger; it helps you overcome it. A very special person taught me that a while ago."

The child's eyes widened even more. "Oh, who?"

Inuyasha winked, bringing a finger to his lips. "One secret at a time, alright?"

Moroha crossed her arms and donned his characteristic pout. At that point, the half-demon couldn't hold back his laughter, and then, hugging her even tighter, he stood up. "It's time to go home; are you still scared?" he asked her, ready to jump down.

She shook her head. "I'm never afraid when I'm with my dad!" she stated with conviction – and of that, there was no doubt.

On the way back, as they gathered some medical herbs that would be used to medicate Moroha, Inuyasha vowed to take her back to the top of Goshinboku another day. He would tell her why the view from up there was so special, a secret of his and her mother's that he would gladly share, and she would learn how, sometimes, it takes little to overcome one's fear, even to admit it.