Author's Notes: I really don't know how many chapters this story has …I'm just writing on and on and on until I finish. I already know how I would end this though, but you'll hate me if I tell you. Good news is I've added some light parts but of course there are still some angst. ^_^
In Memory of You A Son and Two Fathers
The first one to come out of the well was Inuyasha. He hastily clambered up the opening of the well after he had kicked the boy down. But before the hanyou could completely descend to the ground, Chiwaii had pulled his hair.
" I had enough of this!!" Inuyasha bared his teeth in frustration.
Suddenly he was reeling back at the surprise punch given by the boy," You will have more of this until you go back to where you belong!"
The two fought again and soon enough they were rolling on the ground and grappling each other's throats not noticing that someone was waiting for them to come and was now watching at them with a mixture of shock and amusement.
" I wonder if both of you were fighting either because you don't know each other yet or you already recognize the other, which you would very much want to kill."
Two pairs of amber eyes snapped in attention to the source of the voice. Sitting on the stairs was Sota who was wearing traditional shrine attire and sporting a black eye. From the looks of it Sota had been camping in the place for quite a time as indicated by packs of leftover sushi, a pack of beer cans, a sleeping bag and a thermos.
" I didn't know you would be coming so soon," Sota poured himself a cup of green tea from the thermos." As you can see, I was intending to stay here a bit longer."
" Uncle Sota!!" Chiwaii threw aside the still surprised hanyou aside and stood forward between them.
"Get away from this place while you still can!! I'll hold him off for you!"
Sota paused as he was drinking the hot tea then he looked strangely at Chiwaii. " I have waited years for Inuyasha to come and when he finally does, you're telling me to stay away from him. Honestly, Chiwaii, don't overreact to the situation. He isn't as dangerous as he appears to be."
The last line was absurd in reference to the current situation. Chiwaii could only stare at his uncle as if he had grown two heads. He was standing in front of him, despite his previous neck wound was healed, the bloodstains was more than visible on his chest. And what was all this talk of overreacting? As far as he was concerned he was acting as sanely as possible given this situation that could drive an ordinary man to emotional and psychological trauma. He was just an obedient boy doing what elders taught him to do. Now how in the world did he screw up this time?
" I am not the one who was overreacting, Uncle." Chiwaii carefully enunciated every word with signs of straining patience." As you can see, he was not the one who has scars."
Sota carefully looked over Chiwaii and turned to Inuyasha who has an inexplicable expression on his face.
"You do know he's your son, right?"
Inuyasha could only stare back at him stupidly. Sota? The name clicked over and over in the hanyou's mind. The image of Kagome's younger brother flitted in to his vision as he took a good look at the man sitting in front of him. This implied a lot of things: Kagome might actually be gone and the boy whom he had hurt before was actually his son.
But though the boy resembled him, their personalities are very different.
" Don't talk to him, Uncle. He's plain dim-witted."
Or maybe not.
Chiwaii turned away to Inuyasha and spoke to Sota." Uncle, where is father?"
"He's resting on the couch. He has been sleepless ever since you disappeared. For a soft-spoken man, Hojo could really throw a punch."
"Serves you right." Chiwaii muttered as he ascended on the staircase leaving Sota with Inuyasha.
For a moment, Sota caught the hanyou looking at Chiwaii with a mixture of pain and longing on his face then Inuyasha suddenly looked away embarrassed as he realized that Sota was watching him.
Sota broke the awkward silence as he stood up and brushed the imaginary dirt on his hakama.
" Come I will lead you to her."
Inuyasha's knees turned weak but he slowly rose from where he sat and quietly followed Sota.
---
The walk was short but the trip seemed to last inevitably. Both of them walked side-by-side yet neither of them addressed the other despite that time after time one would steal a glance from the other and wonder.
Finally they stopped on the gates of a cemetery, Sota audibly sighed and pretended not to hear Inuyasha choking a sob. He then marched onward, moving slightly ahead of the hanyou.
From the time when his sister was laid to rest, Sota always wondered of Inuyasha. When Kagome was alive, he would always pester her but she would not say anything about him. Asking about him only hurt her so he stopped, but in his mind he would repeat the questions over and over again. Whenever he would walk the same path, either with his mother, Chiwaii or with Hojo-kun, his desire to learn the truth both frustrated and tormented him. Regardless of what mother or the others would say, deep in his heart he believed that Inuyasha did not betray them.
Closing his eyes, Sota viewed his hero in light of his childhood remembrance. The tall red clad half-demon, with his snow-white hair flowing on dawn's breeze and amber gold eyes, smiling smugly as if daring the world to challenge him and his Tetsusaiga.
Out of compassion and maybe embarrassment, he didn't turn around as Inuyasha finally broke down and bitterly wept as they arrived at Kagome's grave.
Sota knew he would have to leave but he could not help himself as he finally spoke what had nagged him for so many years.
" Something happened right?" his voice was soft but it was audible even with Inuyasha's guttural cries.
" Please tell me that you didn't betray my sister and that you never really intended to leave her."
He had at last said it and even if it would be forever, he would stay here until he would hear the truth.
" I'm so sorry…"
The hanyou's words formed tremulously amidst the mourning and Sota closed his eyes and felt the sky come down on him.
It took time for Sota to fight his own demons that were mocking him of ever daring to hope. He swallowed the bile that had come up to his throat and prepared to leave.
" Inuyasha, don't ever show your face to mother. She hates you."
---
Quietly slipping inside the house, Chiwaii went inside the bathroom in order to bathe and wash away the blood that had bled from his wounds. Now wearing fresh clean clothes, he came down and looked for his father.
He found him lying on the couch still asleep. Chiwaii felt a twinge of guilt at he could see his the dark circles under his father's eyes and the expression of anxiety that never left even in deep sleep.
He sighed and searched for a blanket in the house. Sometimes his father worried too much. Time and again Chiwaii would show his father that he was safe and capable of handling things. It often tempted him to demonstrate that he was more than healthy but his otou-san would just have that petrified look and run towards him and catch him before he could jump from the roof or fight against a rabid dog and his father even shoved him out of the way from a falling cabinet (which he had thrown up by the way). The last one sent his father to a hospital and earned him an inexhaustible sermon from his uncle and grandmother not to mention 3 months of being grounded.
Chiwaii understood that his father's anxiety comes from the fear of losing him and thus he was being less risky and rambunctious around his father.
Having found a blanket, he returned again to his father's side and spread the blanket over him. He looked at his father and observed the premature creases on his brows and realized how vulnerable and precious his father was to him. If maybe love was fear, Chiwaii was more afraid for his father than he would ever show or even admit to himself.
A sound of deep sorrow trespassed Chiwaii's acute hearing. He didn't have to think hard to know the source of that misery. Although he expected to feel a sense of justified satisfaction, he instead felt a little sadness for the half-demon that had sired him. A part of Chiwaii considered that a sense of injustice had been done against the hanyou, who probably had good intentions. But that small voice that had roused empathy was desperately crushed by the boy as he tried to block the incessant wail from his mind.
The hanyou had gotten what he deserved and that was that.
He refused to go beyond the simple statement because his life was complicated enough.
Lost in his contemplation, Chiwaii didn't notice his father wake up until he felt himself engulfed in a warm and frantic embrace.
Hojo had again dreamt that his son was dead, thus he couldn't help but weep as he saw his son when he woke up. He clung desperately as if affirming to himself that this was more than an apparition. Chiwaii on the other hand felt bad enough when Inuyasha was mourning, now he didn't know if he could handle another father weeping.
When Hojo let go, he chuckled and wiped away some stray tears, a little shameful of his dramatic actions.
"So have you eaten yet? I've prepared some sushi and some Chinese rice dumplings that I know you like so much."
" But aren't those expensive?" Chiwaii remarked in surprise.
"Well, this return calls for a celebration, does it not?"
Hojo smiled in gratitude for his mother-in-law's advice to quit ruminating for Chiwaii's loss and to prepare a feast. A woman's intuition was incomprehensibly amazing.
" We'll eat a little and wait for the others to come. For the meantime, I think you have plenty of things to tell me about."
And so Chiwaii had told his father everything that had happened to him as they were eating ( though he had left out some parts such as Inuyasha strangling him and knocking him against the wall) and Hojo sat calmly waiting for all these new things to sink unto him.
" Your Uncle told the truth about you, your mother and your real father the night you were missing."
" Was it the first time you have hit someone?" Chiwaii directed his gaze on the bandaged right thumb of his father.
" Oh,yes" Hojo smiled sheepishly," I really didn't know that one was supposed to keep the thumb out of the clenched fingers. So when I punched your Uncle, my thumb broke from the impact and we both wind up in the hospital."
" I feel proud for you though. Uncle said that he didn't expect someone like you could hit so hard."
" Really.." Hojo glowed from his son and brother-in-law's compliments." But understand though, I felt really duped at that time. All these years, I've believed that Kagome was extremely sick and that you were also sick. I assumed that you've somehow inherited it from her. Now he tells me that your mother has been time traveling on a magical well and that you had come from a powerful half-demon of a dog. If you're dear old grandmother was not there, I would have really strangled that Uncle of yours."
Chiwaii could not help but snicker at his father's rantings. It was very rare of him to see his father at this light.
" But of course still" Hojo noticed his son's amusement." I personally do not like to hit people much less a relative…If only he hadn't said it in the moment of my hysteria, I might have been more reasonable.
" I remembered when I was young, Uncle used to tell me about my true father. He said that the person who had sired me was actually a half-demon samurai dog who had a really big sword for a weapon." Chiwaii's eyes glinted in amusement." That itself was pretty hard to believe that time."
" Nani?" Hojo raised his eyes in exaggerated disbelief " What is this? My brother in law tells my son the truth and he could not even say an honest word to me about the past!"
He shook his head in hopelessness." I swear, your Uncle had pretty much taken after your great grandfather."
" Ah, but I think Uncle Sota tells taller tales." Chiwaii added.
They chuckled for some time and then fell silent as if the reprimanding spirit of Jii-chan had momentarily hovered over them.
Hojo was the one to break the silence." So where is Inuyasha now?"
" He's at mother's resting place." Chiwaii stood up to fix the plates and put them into the sink. Looking through the window, he could see that it was already dark outside. Picking up the faint iron scent of rain, his thoughts brought him to his other father who would soon be soaking under a heavy downpour.
Sensing his son's uneasiness, Hojo said." Should we bring an umbrella and go to him?"
"No" Chiwaii turned on the water's faucet and proceeded to wash the dishes." Uncle Sota would be there with him. I know he practically idolizes Inuyasha."