All's Fair in Love and War

Chapter Thirteen

The Moonflower

'Hear the bells! Silver Bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle, All the heavens, seem to twinkle, With a crystalline delight...'

The Bells E.A. Poe

Dinner had been delicious. Kagome's mother, though a tad lacking in common sense, was an excellent chef. There had been sushi, teriyaki chicken, miso, oden, and any other food that Inu Yasha had always dreamed about having but never had the chance to taste. Conversation had been nice. He sat next to Kagome, and across from her mother, who seemed quite taken with the half breed boy. After a delicious dinner, Inu Yasha sat on the futon at the table, literally stuffed to his seams. "Would you like any more Inu Yasha?"

"Uh, no thank you, I don't think I could take another bite." he said.

"Hm, yes I suppose three servings is enough to fill anybody." she said while nodding. "Why don't the two of you go play in the garden while I clean up in the kitchen?"

"You have a garden?" Inu Yasha asked excitedly.

"Why yes, have Kagome show you to it." she said and walked off to the kitchen carrying a small stack of dishes.

Kagome and him faced each other and soon found themselves both sporting bright smiles. She grabbed his hand and led him out of the shrine in an instant. She took him through a maze of hallways and doors until she got to one and opened it, revealing to Inu Yasha the most beautiful garden he had ever seen.

All around were lovely flowers, and thick lush grass. Tall shrubs and huge trees stuck out everywhere, and small crystalline wind chimes sung with the wind that blew them to and fro. From the trees, charms and crystals hung, and they reflected the moonlight to form lovely irridescent prisms across the garden. He stepped out of the shrine slowly, and almost thought that he was dreaming. He half way felt like asking Kagome to pinch him to see if he was really awake.

"This garden..." he said, almost speechless for a word to describe it. "Its amazing! Its better anything that I've ever seen before!" She stood behind him, smiling in delight of his happiness. He stood completely still, unmoving from bewilderment. Everything here seemed so perfect, so beautiful. He wanted to stay and live in this garden for the rest of his life. It was everything he had dreamed of, everything he wanted.

He stepped forward, walking down the pebble set path and stopped in the middle. He looked ahead of him and saw a large fountain. It had a couple lilly pads and pink and purple flowers that rested upon the waters surface. On the waters surface the moons reflection shone brightly. He gazed around at the overtaking beauty of the area around him.

"Its beautiful, isn't it?" the soft voice asked.

"Amazing..." he said simply.

"I would always come here as a child." she said "It was my favorite place. Whenever I was sad, I would come here and it would make me feel better. I came here a lot."

"Oh." he said, but upon further thinking he added, "Didn't you move here from America"

"Yes, I had only been in America for a year before this. When I was little I lived here but my mom moved away after my dad died." A frown blotted out her smile. She paused, unsure of whether or not to continue. "She got very sad after he died, and couldn't take living here any longer, so she took me and moved to America without the rest of my family knowing. They got very upset, because she managed the family shrine with me."

"Because she managed the shrine?" he asked.

"Yup." she said.

"As in, they didn't care about her well fair?" he asked.

"Nope." she said. "They just didn't want to bear the responsibility of managing this land." She sighed. "People can be so mean."

"Wh-why?"

"It is ... difficult to explain." She contemplated silently. "I don't suppose you could say our family is as tightly knit as one would assume. We kind of have a 'special' family. Nobody really cares about anyone. Its about power, and strength. That's all they want, not me or my mom, aside from the fact that we take care of the inherited family land."

"That sucks. I never even met any family aside from my mom and ... dad." he said, grunting out the last part. Come to think of it, the only other person he even knew about was his half brother, but he was dead. "Um, I had a brother." he said.

"You have a brother? I never knew." she said, giving a little grin.

"'Had' a brother", he corrected.

"O-oh." she said, her eyes widening a little.

Something soon caught Inu Yasha's eyes. As he looked around his shoulder, he saw, in the moonlight, a tall flower that had many buds sprouting from its thick stem. He was soon quite intrigued with the thing. He walked up to it, as if in a daze, and touched its petals.

"Its a moon flower." came a voice from behind him.

He came startled from his daze. "A what?" he asked.

"A moon flower." she stated. " It is an extremely rare plant that grows hardly anywhere in the world. It is quite spectacular in the fact that it only blooms by moonlight, and dies as soon as the sun comes up. A new seed is produced when it dies, and the old plant acts as a fertilizer." She nodded her head. "A miracle of nature indeed." she stated wisely.

He kneeled down beside it, too lost in thought of the flower to process anything Kagome had said. "Its amazing." he said after a while. Something he noticed about it, however was that it had a slight sparkle that gleamed from its petals and shone in the colors of the moon. But when he reached out to touch the star bathed petals the twinkle disappeared and he pulled his hand back to his side, only to retry moments later. Something about it was so hypnotizing."

She kneeled beside him. "Its pointless." she told him. "The thing that gives it its magnificent sparkle is the starlight. Brought to life by the moon, given beauty by the stars, quite amazing, huh?" She looked up at the stars shining brightly in the sky. He looked up from the flower and sat down next to it and her, with his hands cupped together inbetween his legs which stretched out in a V-shape in front of him.

"I think it's pretty, Kagome." he said, and again prodded the petal, in a failed attempt to feel the glittery surface.

"I love the moon flower." she said smiling. "I like to visit it every night. Though sometimes I feel slightly bad for it, knowing that it will die in a couple hours. It kind of makes me sad, thinking such a pretty plant only lives for one night. Though I envy it at the same time. Every moment it is alive, it is beautiful, careless, happy. It doesn't have to worry about thing that we have to worry about, because it only lives one night. But, despite its short life span, it doesn't have to be a miserable plant. It is so short lived, but so perfect while alive." She thought for a moment. "Oh dear, I'm sure I sound absurd, rambling on and on about how a plant feels." She laughed softly.

He smiled at her nicely, though he had to admit he didn't really understand what she was saying either. "But if you want to see something even more amazing," she reached into her shirt as if searching for something. "Then you should look at this." She pulled out, from her pocket something that held tightly in her clamped hand. "Watch." she told him and his eyes followed her as she walked out near the fountain and sat on its ledge.

She opened her palm and on it sat a small crystal. Soon later, a show of lights illuminated the garden. The iridescent display of light shone from the small crystal, and all around, shooting lights, like shooting stars flew about her.

She smiled and hummed happily. The sound was strange and familiar at the sam time. He recognized it from somewhere. In fact, he found himself humming along to the melody.

She stopped humming and held the crystal to her chest,andher eyes fell half lidded as she looked down. And soon, the lights around them dissipated into the air, evanescing, without even leaving a trace that they were there in the first place. Inu Yasha saw one fading light swirl in front of him and leant over to touch it, watching it vanish before his fingers reached the lovely irridescent swirl.

Kagome stepped down from the rim of the fountain gracefully and glided over to Inu Yasha. "You like?" she asked.

"That was... awesome! What was...HOW did you do that" he was frantic, practically flailing his arms about.

"Well, I can share with you this secret, at least." She took him by the hand and led him to the awning that covered a small walkway by the building. She then unfolded her palm and showed the stone that sat in it, but now it was just like an ordinary rock.

"I don't get it." he said.

"Its a secret, so you can't tell anyone." she said waving her finger in front of his face. He nodded and waited for her to continue. "This is a special crystal, handed down by our family for generations. It carries sentimental value of sorts. My dad gave it to my mother when they got engaged."

"Then why doesn't your mother have it?" He asked.

"I loved him too." She looked down sadly, seemingly hurt. He sent her a sorry gaze and reached out to her, but she spoke. "She gave it to me. I think it was a way of letting herself move on." She paused. "But she'll never forget him. She used to cry a lot." Inu Yasha found a quick conversation changer.

"But how come it isn't glowing like before?" he asked her, puzzled, wondering why the beautiful display of lights could not be seen now.

"For several reasons." she stated. "One being, it only glows when under moonlight. I suppose you could call it a disco ball of sorts. But the lights can not be seen under regular light."

"And the singing?" he asked.

"Oh, I just love that song. Its so pretty isn't it" She said. "And I think it glows brighter when I sing it. I don't know why."

"Hm, it is." He agreed. "Where did you learn it?"

"My mom taught me it." She said. "I learned it a long time ago though."

"It sounds so familiar. I think I heard it before." he said.

She looked shaken for a moment before her gaze settled to the regular, half lidded, non chalant look. "Ehh, maybe." Silence. They both stared up at the star laced sky.

"Isn't it pretty out Kagome" he said, breaking the momentary silence that had settled between them. "The sky never seemed as dark as tonight, the moon never seemed so full and bright. The stars never looked so radiant." He looked up into the twilight. "I like it like this. Space is such a nice thing to look at. Though, so empty."

She laughed softly, cupping her hands over her mouth. "What?" he asked,

She looked up at him, smiling warmly. "You're the only person that I know that would ever notice something like that." she laughed more to herself. "You talk weird Inu Yasha."

"And is that a bad thing" he asked innocently, and put his finger to his lips, pouting and raising his eyebrows teasingly.

"No." she reached out and with her soft, long fingers she rubbed the soft fur on his ears listening as he purred softly, with a purr a little more intense than that of a cat, yet deeper, and softer. "I like the way you purr Inu Yasha." she told him, but he wasn't listening.

Inu Yasha trudged through the dark night in the thick mud that now caked the streets, runoff from the rainfall he assumed. His sneakers were covered thick with mud, and his untied shoe laces slapped against the back of his legs, leaving muddy streaks where they hit him. Yet he could find himself grinning softly. Ms, Higurashi had come to the garden and woken him up. He had gathered his things, and left, saying goodbye to the nice family that had sheltered him, saying goodbye twice to Kagome.

Ms, Higurashi had kindly put the clothes she gave him into a bag, as he requested and he asked to leave that clothing at her house, knowing his father would rip it to shreds if he saw it.

He reached his street and walked through the mud that glopped about his heels. As soon as it came into sight, he lost the lovely transcendently happy smile and his face gained a more serious, more sad tone to it. He walked up to the door and shook at the doorknob.

It wouldn't open.

He shook harder. Still not working. 'Its probably just stuck or something.' He decided. He rammed his body against the door and still nothing. He put his dog ear against the knob and jingled the handle. 'Fuck! He locked it! The bastard went and locked it' he thought angrily and stomped his feet. 'I'll just go through the window.' He decided. He went up to the window and tried opening it. Locked again. Resorting to desperation, knowing well the consequences of his actions, he threw his fist at the glass, feeling his it bounce off the surface.

'Shatterproof glass? No one ever told me we had shatterproof glass.' He uttered profanities and went off to every window in his house, trying to open them, but finding the same difficulty with each one. Finally, when he was so tired that he felt like he could collapse right where he stood, he lay down at the doorstep of his house and curled into a ball. Sitting in the dirt and grime of the world, he rolled uncomfortably, covering himself, more and more, in filth.

It was that night he realized what Kagome had meant when she talked about the moon flower, its short beautiful life that synchronized so perfectly with his happiness. That the perfection its short lived beauty could far out do its tragic, yet numerous deaths. And the thought of knowing that there will come a time that your perfect happiness will die is a sad thought, but that is exactly why you must treasure its life.

And here he lay, wet and dirty, cast aside to the street, sleeping in mud and grime, yet, remembering his lovely night, he couldn't help but feel a faint hint of a smile growing on his face...

Author Notes

I really like this one. Because it has metaphors of course! I find it quite lovely that, though he is sitting in his stoop, covered in shit, he can stiLl smile because he remembers his happiness he had before with Kagome. Kind of romantic. And it's kind of hard to tell whether this chapter is a sad or happy one. I mean, on one hand he had a beautiful evening and yet he came home to shit. I mean for god sakes, he ended up sleeping in a pile of mud! Which leads me to my question for this chappy.

Do you think that Inu Yasha could truly be considered happy? And if so then what reasons does he have to be happy? I mean his life is pretty tragic.

And do you think that his suffering could be made up by his time with Kagome? Um, like, even if he suffered so much before, that that wouldn't matter as long as he got to have some kind of comfort and happiness somewhere along the line.

I'm not exactly sure I worded it right, but that's basically the gist of it. So, any ways, my story has become quite popular. I mean, I have so many reviews! I never dreamed any of this possible! Thank you guys, I can die happy now. I love you guys! sniff I think I have around like 30-40 people rereviewing this story. Which is a lot. To me.

PLEASE REVIEW!

Next chapter: Marionette Man

Review!