My apologies for the delay. I've been ill.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

x.

The morning light was dim and greyish.

Inuyasha stood up with a groan, feeling his scratched back and arms shaking a little. The old man really did a number on me, he thought with a grimace. No one, not even Sesshomaru, had hit him that hard. And as a full-blooded demon, no less...

He watched morosely as Kagome doused the dying fire, and the others packed up what little they carried with them. The Dog-Lord was crouching near the cave mouth, staring off into the distance. His golden eyes were staring grimly into the distance -- he had been brooding ever since he woke up.

Inuyasha looked away. He hated seeing his father looking like that -- it made him look almost exactly like Sesshomaru. Same lack of expression, same staring eyes, same grim attitude. Kagome was wrong -- there wasn't a resemblance beyond their hair and eyes. If anyone was the image of the Dog-Lord, it was his full-demon son.

The young half-demon grimaced. He had never felt that he needed a father. He'd done just fine without one. But at the same time... he remembered his mother, but didn't remember his father. Not his voice, his face, not a single moment his father had spent with him. And he hated it when people compared him to his father -- someone so powerful and legendary that Sesshomaru didn't even start to measure up.

I already know I ain't as good as him, he thought fiercely. Maybe that was why he hadn't thought much about his father, except when it came to the Tetsusaiga. After all, he could take care of himself. He had, since he was little.

But if he didn't need a father... why did he feel so empty when the old man scowled at him?

He stood up with a groan and limped over to Kagome. The Dog-Lord seemed to have taken a fancy to her, so maybe he wouldn't say anything too harsh if she was listening.

Kagome dumped the rest of the water on the fire. "Are your cuts hurting, Inuyasha?"

"Nah, they don't hurt," Inuyasha lied. She had spent too much time patching him up already.

"You don't look very comfortable," Kagome said.

Inuyasha hunched over, wishing that he could crawl into a hole and just sleep his injuries away. "It ain't the cuts," he said gruffly.

An uncomfortable silence fell. "Inuyasha, I'm sure your dad isn't mad at you," Kagome said quietly.

"And just HOW do you know that?" Inuyasha retorted, bristling.

"Because he's a lot like you!"

"And just what does that mean?"

"It means that if you're mad, then everybody knows it!" Kagome said loudly. "You're IMPOSSIBLE to ignore when you're angry at someone, and you let them know it every other minute. Maybe he doesn't get as loud as you do, but I bet if he were mad at you everybody for miles around could tell."

"No they wouldn't."

"I could tell before. And so could everyone else." Kagome paused. "Inuyasha, even if you got him mad, he was worried when he saw that you'd transformed. I mean, he was worried about YOU. So why don't you go talk to him?"

"'Cause I don't want to. I'll talk to him when I feel like it."

"For somebody whose dad just came back from the dead, you aren't acting like it means anything! Don't you think Sango or Miroku would just JUMP at the chance you have?" Kagome grabbed his sleeve.

Inuyasha stayed silent. He didn't want to chance it -- talking to his father, and being pushed away. You don't understand, Kagome, he thought. She had a family that she'd grown up with. She didn't have to wonder if they cared -- she already knew. Same with Sango and Shippo. But he... didn't know. And he didn't want to be put in the position of finding out...

Suddenly the Dog-Lord stood up. "Do you smell that?" he said in a low voice.

Inuyasha straightened and sniffed the air. He grimaced slightly. He knew that scent -- it was faint, far-off. But he could recognize it in his sleep.

Sesshomaru.

TO BE CONTINUED