Blood Of The Heart
A/N: ('-,-') Go to the fic! I'm too bored to speak to you right now!
Disclaimer: I do not own, in any way possible, Inuyasha and his friends, enemies, and anyone else. I rightly respect Rumiko for her wonderful work and refuse to be laugh-out-loud hilarious on this anymore. Ho-hum, ne?
Chapter 7: Rin And The Widower
When dawn came, for the first time free of clouds all together, Inuyasha was the last person to go to sleep. Miroku had drifted off not too much past three in the morning, Sango around four. But when the sun rose at six, Inuyasha saw it, hazily in his lack of sleep. Why do I stay awake, he thought, when all around me sleep? Why am I the last to rest? The answers to these redundant questions eluded his tired mind. So, in his absolute lack of brain waves, he slept.
Kagome awoke when the sun rose, after her night of tossing and turning. But despite being a little more tired than usual, along with a little cold from her stupid idea of opening her window, she was fine. "Why did I open it again?"
Going down the hall, draped in a throw blanket, she knocked on Inuyasha's bedroom door. "Inuyasha, you vampire you, can I borrow a robe?" She waited for an answer, expecting a 'Go away, bitch! I'm tired!' Nothing answered her.
"Inuyasha?" She waited a little longer, knocked again, and tapped her foot to keep it warm. "Fine then, don't give me a robe! But you'll be late getting up!" Still no answer. So, defeated and grouchy, she went back to her room, muttering vehemently about stupid inconsiderate men and their refusal to help a girl out.
"It's only chivalrous! I know knights who are nicer than him, and they can be very haughty! When he wakes up, I'll throttle him…" And so she entertained herself until she was fully dressed- in an ugly brown cloak she had packed only because Inuyasha made her- and ready to face the world. He's made me do a lot of things that have helped me, she thought. He calms me down, clothes me, and cares for me. He is a great friend. But is he just a friend?
She pondered this as she walked down the stairs, expecting to hear Sango bustling around the kitchen, baking bread in the bread oven, making oatmeal. But the house was silent. "Sango?" Nothing. "Miroku?" Silence. "Inuyasha?" Dust on wood.
"I can hear the war going on in France," she muttered. Idly she went into the parlor, where she discovered the sleeping forms of her friends, Inuyasha in a chair in front of the long-extinct fire, Miroku in another chair with Sango curled around him.
"They must have been up all night," Kagome said to herself. "But why?"
She sighed, gazing at the entwined forms of her married friends, and then looked at Inuyasha, alone in his chair. She then got an idea. Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt, she thought. So, she went to Inuyasha, carefully slid in his lap, and rested her head on his shoulder, entwining his hands with hers. And so she sat, staring up into Inuyasha's sleeping face, wondering about how she felt about him and vice versa, until a loud knock on the door interrupted her. She carefully slid off of Inuyasha, intent to give him as much sleep as possible.
Tip-toeing towards the great front doors, she looked back to make sure that all three of her friends were deep asleep. As far as she could tell, they were. She reached the door, straightened herself up, and opened it.
"Hello? Can I help you?" She looked around the wide portico. No one was there. "Well, that was point-" She was interrupted by a large snowball, hitting her square in the face. "Pppghht!" She spat out snow mixed with dirt and leaves.
"Hello Auntie Kagome!" burst an excited little girl as she jumped from behind a column. She was in yellow and orange clothes, a great brown coat draped over her. On her brown-haired head sat a bright orange-and-yellow patchwork hat that draped down over her ears. She was laughing maniacally. "You look like you fell in one of Jaken's yucky pies!"
"Who says that they're yucky?" came a high- pitched voice from down the road. Then, around the low wall that surrounded the house, Jaken, in all of his toad-like glory, stepped forth, panting. "You are getting to be such a nuisance to everyone. Can't you behave and make life easier for me?"
"But you're life is easy, Jaken," Rin stated, batting her eyes innocently. "All you have to do is make sure I don't follow Lord Sesshomaru around."
"Lord Sesshomaru?" Kagome asked, looking at Rin like the little girl was nuts, which might not be far from the truth. "What happened to 'daddy?'"
"Lord Sesshomaru makes him sound stronger," Rin said in a stage whisper. "He wants me to call him 'daddy,' but I like 'Lord Sesshomaru' better."
"Lo and behold, Rin, he's right behind you!" Kagome said and pointed. Rin whirled around.
"Really? Where? He's not there, Kagome. You're such a bad girl, lying all the time! Like how you told the boy from the Wolf's Den that you were engaged to Inuyasha when you really aren't! We had to correct him and say 'Lady Kagome is engaged? No my fine young man, she's quite single! Don't take too big a piece of the pie! Go after her nice and easy.'"
"YOU SAID WHAT!!!" Kagome stared at the girl. "'Too big a piece of the pie?' You're even nuttier and more unbelievable than I am!" Just then Kagome remembered her sleeping friends. She quickly went inside to check on them, leaving Rin standing in front of the open door with Jaken coming up beside her. Inuyasha had rolled on his side a little, and Sango buried her head deeper into Miroku's side. Kagome came back to the door.
"What took you so long?" It was an icy voice, cold as the night, but belonging to a human. In his bitter glory, Sesshomaru stood before Kagome, wrapped in a rich black cloak. Kagome stood and stared at the cold-faced man with the long silver hair, holding in his arms the bouncing, brightly dressed little girl. Jaken was at his side, swathed in green, black and brown, looking like a piece of crap fresh off the pile, only with eyes.
"May we come in?" The icy voice went on. Kagome nodded, and stood to the side, letting the visitors into the much warmer entrance hall, where they proceeded to take off all of their layers of cloaks. Kagome wondered at why Rin was so brightly dressed. In Heinrich, nothing was bright except the garden Sango tended.
"We had a long trip in," Sesshomaru said. "We were originally going to take a boat, but the Mir is frozen now. So, we came in by carriage. Got here just at morning light. We passed a wrecked carriage covered in snow, which was, no doubt, piloted by Myoga. Am I right?"
"Err… yes… You're right," Kagome admitted, somewhat embarrassed. "It was quite stupid of him, really. It hurt, too. I have a hand-shaped burn now, and Inuyasha nearly got a concussion. Speaking of Myoga, I haven't seen his blood-sucking ass for two days now. Did you see him anywhere on your way into town?"
"No, but we met a fascinating young man who lives above the Wolf's Den. Apparently he thought you were engaged to Inuyasha. But that's not true, of course. It's not like it could be true, anyway. He doesn't have the guts to propose!" Sesshomaru smiled a little at this. "Ah, that makes me laugh. Pardon me for sounding like a bitter old man, but I haven't laughed like that since I lost Kagura."
Kagome just stared at him, thinking 'was that a laugh? It was hardly a grimace! Man is he pathetic!' "I'm sorry for your loss," Kagome said softly. "I'll help you find her, though."
"Oh! Did you hear that, Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin said excitedly. "She knows where Mommy is! She'll help us look!"
"You told her about something like that?" Kagome shot a look at Sesshomaru. Even if she only knew him through Inuyasha, she still had sense enough to be able to judge his actions. Even if everyone thought she was a ditz.
"Why not? Every child needs to know to a certain degree."
"Yeah, Auntie Kagome! Even I know! I'm so much smarter than you'll ever be!" She laughed again in her bubbly way. "Daddy- I mean Lord Sesshomaru- agreed. He told me, in fact!"
"I can't believe I have yearning to strangle, throttle, beat, and win a knowledge battle against the same girl. At the same time!"
"He he…! I'm…umm… going to go find a room now, Lord Fluffy!"
"I'm not fluffy!" Sesshomaru glared at Rin's back as she went up the stairs as fast as her mini-legs would carry her.
"Don't eat me, Fluffy!" Rin cried, honestly scared, running up the stairs and down the hallway.
"Speaking of eating, I am very hungry. Do you got anything?" Sesshomaru said without emotion.
"Y-yes. Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha went to the market yesterday without me. Inuyasha thought I was sick and wouldn't let me go."
"Why? You seem perfectly fine. Maybe a little more sunlight though. Heinrich isn't being good to you is it? Jaken!"
"Yes, my lord Sesshomaru?" answered the lowly toad-like man.
"Fetch the luggage and bring it upstairs to our rooms. Once there, you are to help Rin unpack and load her clothes into the dressers."
"Y-yes, my lord." Jaken, being only about three feet tall and lacking muscle, could only stare up the stairway and loathe his bad luck; the stairs must have seemed a mile long to him. After all, not may people have second floors those days. Miroku and Sango were very wealthy. Kagome, revolted by Jaken's very sight, led Sesshomaru into the kitchen.
"I'm sorry that I can't get Sango to cook for you. She's asleep right now. I think Miroku, Inuyasha, and her were staying up all night. I find that silly. So, you'll just have to sit down and enjoy some of Kagome Higurashi's home cooking." With that, she proceeded to find her way around the kitchen, knocking over pots and pans, looking like an absolute idiot.
"Focus more, Kagome!" ordered Sesshomaru lightly. "You'll wake them." He gestured toward the direction of the parlor.
"Quit barkin' orders at me, alright?" Kagome whined. "I'm not that good at performing under pressure!"
"You'll learn if you want a husband," he said coldly. "No man these days will take a wife who can't cook."
"I can so cook!" Kagome glared angrily. "I just don't know my way around Sango's kitchen…." Sesshomaru smirked, a wicked smile and a haughty laugh.
"You are very jumpy, Kagome!" he pointed out loudly. "Calm down and focus!" He sat back comfortably watching her leap around the kitchen like a maniac.
"I can't! You're making me panic!" Plates and pots rained down on the floor. A great kettle fell on her foot. "Yow! Sango needs to keep the kettle over the fire and not over my reach! My poor foot! Ouch…"
"Poor indeed." He narrowed his eyes. He looked very dangerous, and very scary to Kagome. "Pull yourself together and get organized. Kagura was so much better-"
"While we're on the subject!" Kagome declared loudly. "I have a feeling that she's at Schloss Nachtigall!"
"The castle?" Sesshomaru sat up. His eyes were anxious for the first time since Kagome saw him that day.
"Yes," Kagome said, breath slowing down, calmness entering her. "The last few nights I saw a light in the tallest tower. It kept went out right before I fell asleep twice! She had a father there who died, right? She must have gone to the castle."
"Impossible," Sesshomaru said softly. "She would never go back there. Kagura told me she grew up there, with her violent father, a lunatic who rose from the dead. If he died, she would not go back. She knows he would come back again. Heinrich is so cursed to be ruled by that bastard over and over and over again, for all of eternity, at least until the Empire breaks. You and I will be dead long before that, though."
"Maybe, maybe not," Kagome answered.
"I'm pretty sure."
"I'm not."
"Shut up and cook me something you klutz."
"Go screw a tree and toss yourself off the bell tower of Notre Dame, you French butt-face."
"What's a butt-face?" The two just realized Rin standing in the doorway.
"Your father," Kagome said stiffly, and left the room.
"But I'm still hungry," Sesshomaru said.
"Go hunting, you lazy moron."
"With what, my hands?" He glared at her angrily.
"Treat your women right, Sesshomaru. I barely know you and already I want to leave Austria!" That must have shut him up, because when Kagome went into the gardens to think, she couldn't hear him anymore. She wandered among the mazes of flowers and shrubbery, all draped lightly in snow, yet still in full bloom. She wandered to the heart of the garden, where a fountain bubbled lightly in the middle of a small courtyard-like area surrounded by tall isolating maze hedges decorated with stone pillars topped with beautiful statues of nymphs and naiads. She sat on a bench and stared at the fountain, not seeing it, but seeing her thoughts.
I can't believe Inuyasha is related such an ass! That man should be suspended by his pointed ears from a tree or something! But his daughter is so sweet, even f she is annoying. I am just so ticked though. If Sesshomaru is like that, will Inuyasha be like that if we ever got married? Wait a minute. Why am I thinking about this? Marriage? To Inuyasha? It must have been that dream I had. It must be. The one with that man…Naraku…I remember him now…
"Kagome…" It was he; she knew it before she raised her head to look.
"Naraku… You're… real!" She saw him there, sitting on another bench, swathed in purple and black robes with amethyst patterns. "I thought I only dreamt about you… But you are real!"
"Kagome, I am not really here," he said softly, gazing at her mysteriously. "What form you see before you is only an illusion, conjured by my power and sent her to speak to you."
"So, you are like, a message… sent by the real Naraku?" She looked at him, wondering.
"No Kagome… I am a Golem… I was made by Naraku, and am manipulated by him. I am a creature of ash and dirt, given the illusion of humanity. Are you satisfied?"
"Yes," she answered, settling down.
"Remember what I told you? In your dream when I saved you?"
"You said… that I should open the window, mark with a red cloth, and let you inside. (That's why I opened the window!) Then we would talk about Inuyasha." She looked at him questioningly. "Why?"
"I came the night you opened the window, but you weren't awake to invite me inside… I won't come in unless you invite me."
"Why?" Kagome watched him, wondering what was going through the Golem's mind, what was going through Naraku's mind.
The Golem smiled, a kind smile, an ironic smile. "Chivalry won't let me," he said. Kagome giggled a little.
"You are too funny! You know much, Naraku… You see much… You enter my dreams and save me from nightmares I can't wake up from. I wonder often about you, Naraku… Do you know that? I wonder who and what you really are, where you are, and how I can visit you. Why are you so infatuated with me, though?"
"Why?" He seemed taken aback by this question. "What do you mean, 'Why am I so infatuated with you?'"
"Well, you seem to have so much power… You're good-looking…you are chivalrous. You could have anyone you wanted. But you seem to be preoccupied with me. Don't get me wrong, it is flattering, but I just wonder sometimes."
"Kagome, do you realize it yet? Are you aware of the problem?"
"Realize what? Aware of what problem?"
"Kagome!" Rin's voice rang out, calling from somewhere beyond the hedge. "Kagome, Inuyasha wants you! Really bad!"
"I do not!" Came Inuyasha's voice. "Kagome, come out from wherever you are right now! Sango is cooking something up that smells great. Sesshomaru woke us up, the bastard!"
Kagome glanced at where Naraku had been sitting. There was nothing there. The Golem was gone.
"Coming!" She left the hedge courtyard, walked down a path lined blooming magnolias and silver bells, and met up with them by the rotunda with the crucifix inside.
"Kagome!" Rin exclaimed. "I saw Jesus in there. He was a stone statue with lots of flowers!"
"I though it was creepy," Inuyasha said, his voice tired. "There is no way that Sango can keep all those dead flowers in there."
"I saw it a few days ago," Kagome said quietly. "I thought it was nice of Sango to do that, go through her garden and put the dead flowers in there. It's like... I don't know… special…"
"I still thought it was creepy," Inuyasha said.
"Like your asshole of a brother?" Kagome smiled hopefully, grinning at Inuyasha happily.
"Like my asshole of a brother," he answered with a grin, watching as she made an 'I knew it' expression.
"What's an asshole?" Rin asked innocently, batting her eyes and looking from Kagome to Inuyasha and back again.
"Err… your father…. All right then. Let's go inside."
End Of Chapter 7
A/N: Hello! This is the start of a much more enticing climactic plot! I'm getting a little sibling! Yippee! I told all my friends already. Happy joy joy! My little sister will be its big sister! I'm so happy! Reviews please! I accept anonymous ones too! Before, my program wouldn't let me, and I got sad because I had so little. Then I realized I wasn't accepting anonymous ones. Wacky, huh? Anyhow, let's see if I can come up with more trivia? Who has the saddest story out of the Inuyasha group (who's got the best sob-story)?
A) Kagome- Competing with Kikyo for Inuyasha's attention? I dunno… Not much to say, really.
B) Inuyasha- Betrayed by his lover and stuck between her and her reincarnation…love triangles stink... And then there's the mysterious baboon…
C) Sango- her whole history brutally stolen away, along with bribery of a brother… She gets most of the torment Naraku dishes out
D) Miroku- he has a hellhole in his hand and is tormented by thought of a short life and a cataclysmic end. No wonder he wants to get laid so badly!