Disclaimer: Characters mentioned in following story are in no way my own. References and name belong to creators of these wonderful stories. Original concept is my own. Please do not take to use as your own.

Thanks go to Camigwen for being my wonderful friend and beta reader. She has encouraged me so much, and has helped me to improve my writing and broaden my horizons. I am eternally grateful that I have such a wonderful friend.

This story is dedicated to her, being as she poked me and went…."hm this would be interesting" …to which I replied with the infamous, "I have an idea…"
(this is a re-enactment…..not the actual order of events…lol ;) )

Child of the Lost
By Lacey Beans

"She is dying."

The words chased themselves, over and under, back and forth, inside his head. There was nothing he could do, nothing any of his servants could do. 'She is dying,' he told himself.

For years he had watched over her, protected her, cared for her, and in the end came to love her. He followed his father's path, but came to realize he did so with no resentment. This human, this fragile creature, was his world, his heart, his strength, and he cared not for the petty words of others.

He was not weak. She was not a whore. Those who said or thought otherwise were dealt with quickly and harshly. He never tolerated anything other than truth. Those who said such blasphemies were ripped apart by claw or sword or poison.

He killed for her, protected her from everything, even usurped the laws of nature and returned her to the land of the living when long ago she should have passed on.

Years. He'd invested years in her, in their relationship, and love. They were happy, in so far as he could ever be, and a feeling of lost contentment was found again with her.

But in the here and now, no sword or magic would be able to save her. Tensaiga would not pull her soul back again. Not from this.

"Sesshoumaru…"

His name breathed upon her lips wrenched at his soul. That sound. It had been music to his ears in the dark of night since the first time he took her. The honeyed whisper of his name was both a balm to his soul and a torture of sweet hell at those times. This time, it killed him, a knife more jagged than any he had felt before.

"I am here," he spoke gently, moving closer to her small frame as a cry wrung itself harshly from her beautiful lips. A tiny hand sought his, nearly catching itself on his deadly claws. He moved to accommodate her, carefully slipping his hand into hers as she struggled to breath.

Struggled to breath, struggled to live, but mostly struggled to bring forth a new life. His child, his heir, was being born on this frigid winter night, and with the child's life came the mother's death. Another hanyou in the world to be despised and hated and scorned.

And yet, it mattered little to him what his child was. This was his flesh and blood combined with hers. This child was perfect in his eyes. 'Was this what father felt? Is this the way Inuyasha was seen in father's eyes, a perfect blend of he and his mate?'

"Sessho…ah!" her gentle voice was mutated, twisted in pure pain, an agony he could not stop or fight off. It was killing her, but torturing him to insanity.

With her last cry of pain, another cry soon followed, alive, healthy, and with lungs that would make any parent either cringe or beam. A shock of soft, reddish hair sat atop the babe's head as it was swaddled in a cloth the testament to Sesshoumaru's mother's lineage. 'My great, great grandsire, if I am not mistaken.'

The pup was cleaned as she labored for breath, clutching his hand desperately as if it were her lifeline.

"You must love him, care for him for as long as you are able. You must not turn him out, for me you must do these things."

"This Sesshoumaru shall never turn from that which belongs to him. The child is my heir," he spoke to her softly, reassuring her, and lowered his head to privately whisper in her ear, "and, because he is from you, he is a gift highly cherished and greatly loved."

Servants removed themselves from the room quickly when the master's pup was gently laid in his waiting arms. He moved beside his beloved wife, sitting on the bed as he breathing became more shallow and the smell of death clung to her more heavily than when she was a child and he first saved her.

"What shall his name be, my lord?" her voice rasped out.

"This Sesshou…," he started and then sighed. She was his, as he was hers. Pleasantries in conversation were wasting the precious seconds left of her life, "I do not wish to name him."

Eyes widened in fear, as she turned her head weakly towards him, "You will not name him?"

"No Rin," he gently lowered the pup onto her laboring chest, "I give this to you."

Her breathing eased for just a second as the words, "I shall love you forever," slipped from her lips. Her eyes lowered and her heart stopped, the gentle rhythm he always followed with his sensitive hearing gone from his life.

With her last breath she bestowed her child with a name.

It was a weak name. He knew that. A name to be ridiculed, heard and repeated in pure spite. But it was lovely to the ear, her ear, and that was all that mattered in that moment. No one would be fool enough to protest. It was the dying wish of his wife, his mate….dying wish….

It would be honored. This child would know both the silent way of his father, and learn of the gentle kindness of his mother. He would be both of them in one. Cold, efficient killer and loving, beautiful person. He would have a hard life, but Sesshoumaru would do everything in his power to make this child understand that he was loved, that his mother was a special person, and that sometimes….

That sometimes, when your heart is dying inside of you, and yet beating anew in your arms, it is acceptable to have a moment of weakness. To let a single tear slip.

The child would grow to be a constant reminder of that which he lost. He understood that for every smile he gleaned from that false peace found in a babe, his heart would beat one bit slower, would break into one more sliver to add to the growing pile of broken shards.

He leaned over, pressing one last kiss to still lips and gently nuzzling her bangs back into their proper place. Standing with an infant tucked against his chest, he left the accursed room without a single look back. She would not have wanted him to.

And so, Sesshoumaru, son of an Inu no Taisho, and ruler of his father's lands, did as his mate's heart requested and left, keeping the pup close by his side, until the day he died a few short years later, leaving the child to learn of the world on his own.

Thus began the story of a boy-child with shock-red hair, who looked human, but had the speed, grace, and ability of his unknown ancestors. He never knew of his father's lands, or how he drank his sake in the way his mother did, but he knew he was loved by them, and yet feared and hated by many others. The lost story of his parents' tragedy was to be his own. No one in life truly lives a unique story, and so was his fate.

"Shinta," Rin had said, and just as gently as she did everything else in her life, she left his.

"Shinta," he had repeated as gently as she.

Author's note:

Okay, as promised I shall reveal the crossover to those of you who did not catch it in the last two lines.

The crossover is with Rurouni Kenshin, or Samurai X if it pleases you.

'Shinta' was Kenshin's original name from his parents. It was later changed by the sword master who trained him to 'Kenshin', which means something like 'sword heart'….please correct me if I'm wrong.

I hope that you enjoyed! Review are always appreciated but aren't required lol! Happy reading!