Author's Note: Inuvember "Inu Family" prompt. FYI: This was written BEFORE Hanyo no Yashahime's announcement, so no Moroha here.

Originally posted on Tumbr: Nov. 11, 2018

Posted here: Sept. 17, 2020

Setting: Post-canon

Characters: Inuyasha and his little family

Words: 1,415

Rated: K

Genre: Family & Hurt/Comfort


Izayoi

Inuyasha watched his eldest child teach her brothers and sisters how to weave flowers into a crown, as a surprise for their grandmother when they next visit her in the future. He was sitting on a high perch, his usual lookout spot, where he could observe his children unnoticed (or at least, where they could easily ignore his presence). He smiled at his children's laughter and chatter, but couldn't help watching his eldest the most.

Izayoi was almost eleven years old, with wavy black hair and black dog ears that had the same shape of her father's, and blue-silvery eyes that shone excitedly whenever she saw a cute animal. (Though of course, "cute" was a relative term, as anything from a giant demon to a creepy crawling bug was deemed "cute" in Izayoi's eyes, to her parents' chagrin and horror.)

Even with five children, Inuyasha never admitted to anyone that Izayoi held a special place in his heart above the rest. Maybe it was because she was the first miracle, the first physical manifestation of his love with Kagome. Maybe it was because she was the perfect combination of her parents: black hair like Kagome, dog ears like Inuyasha, a kind heart like her mother, a tendency to get embarrassed like her father.

Or maybe it was her name.

Inuyasha's eyes softened, watching Izayoi, his little Izayoi, and remembered not for the first time, that her namesake never saw him grow up so big. Her namesake never met Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and the others. Her namesake never met... her grandchildren.

Mother...

He was not even a decade old when his mother left this world. He was eight years old, terrified, ostracized, cold and hungry, when he learned the hard way that the world despised him as much as his mother loved him. He was too young to get to know his mother. He never had a chance to hear stories of her childhood, never heard funny little anecdotes of her romance with his father. He never knew anything, except that she was the princess of a castle, shamed and all but disowned by her family for giving birth to a "half-breed." Even if she was grudgingly allowed to remain a member of the household, she was treated as a burden, a skeleton in the family's proverbial closet.

All of that was clear, if only in hindsight. But who she was, what made Izayoi herself, Inuyasha had no clue. Myouga only praised her beauty and kindness, and talked of her deep love for Inu no Taisho, but nothing more than that. Inuyasha never asked for more, but he desperately craved for details.

Did his mother love all animals?

Did his mother blush when she received compliments but also was quick to say kind words to others without feeling embarrassed?

Did his mother make flower crowns?

"Daddy!" Izayoi's sweet voice jolted Inuyasha out of his reverie. "I know you're up there. Come down and see what we did!"

He leaped down, and waited patiently as four of his children swarmed around him. He crouched down, allowing his two youngest, Souta and Yuki, to clamber onto his shoulders. Then, he stood, prompting the twins, Sora and Sayori, to grab his hands and pull him toward their oldest sibling. Izayoi was kneeling in the grass, beaming with pride, holding five pretty flower crowns in her lap.

"Do you think Grandmama will like them?" Izayoi asked, her eyes shining with anticipation, awaiting her father's approval.

Inuyasha winced as Souta pulled hard on his ear. "Oi, brat, cut it out!" he barked, resulting in giggles to break out among the five little ones. He wrinkled his nose in annoyance; Kagome made him too soft. His own offspring didn't take him seriously! (But of course, he secretly didn't mind.)

"You did a good job, kiddo," he added to Izayoi, smiling inwardly as the sun rose in her face. Just like her mother, he thought tenderly.

And like Mother? another voice whispered hopefully.

He didn't realize he was frowning, until one of the twins said timidly, "Daddy? What's wrong?"

Inuyasha shook himself, scolding himself for showing a moment of vulnerability to his children, and forced a smirk. "Can't a guy think once in a while?" he said gruffly, and rolled his shoulders, a sign for Souta and Yuki to, albeit reluctantly, slide down his back. "Come on, your mother's waiting for us." He scooted his children together and herded them back down the hill, toward their house.

Izayoi, taking her role as the oldest sibling very seriously, promptly took over and shooed her brothers and sisters inside the house. But then, she paused at the door, looked back at her father, with a confused frown.

"Dad, what are you not telling us?"

Inuyasha froze in his tracks, standing next to her, vaguely horrified by how tall she was now. The little miracle he held in his arms when he and Kagome decided on her name, the tyke who caused her mother to have multiple heart attacks as she brought worms and various bugs into their home, the child who knew nothing of the darkness of the world... she was growing up right in front of his eyes.

And he could do nothing to stop it.

"Are you upset with me?" she asked softly, her black ears lowering guiltily.

"N-no!" Inuyasha said hurriedly. "I was just remembering... my mother."

"Your mother? That's who I'm named after, right?" Izayoi's ears perked up curiously.

"Yeah. I was just thinking that... that..." Inuyasha's throat closed up. Why, in all the gods' names, why did he still have a hard time expressing himself, in front of his own family?!

Family...

"You're lucky, you know," he said hoarsely.

"I am?"

"Yes. You have a mother and a father, and we'll both always be here for you, I swear it," Inuyasha added with a subtle growl, instinctively grasping Tetsusaiga's sheath at his side. He took a deep breath and plunged on. "You have siblings who don't hate you, and you're... safe. And I bet, no, I know, that M-Mother would approve of you."

He said that last part mostly to reassure himself, but it did the trick. Izayoi's eyes widened. Her father never spoke so frankly about his mother, other than visits to her grave every year, in which he kept a vigil silence while kneeling in the dirt, while his children and wife sat around him in respectful silence as well. Only Kagome and Myouga told Izayoi anything about her namesake, but they kept it vague, believing any other details deserved to be passed on by Inuyasha himself.

"How old were you, Dad, when she died?" Izayoi asked now, desperate for answers while her father seemed in a talkative mood.

"... Eight."

"Oh, wow! That's almost three years younger than me! That's the same age as the twins!"

"Yeah."

"Didn't you have any other siblings, besides Uncle Sesshomaru?"

"Nope. Trust me on that."

"Hmmm... Do you miss her?"

Inuyasha inhaled sharply. Sometimes he admired children's bluntness. Even Kagome never asked him; she just understood. But he shouldn't expect an almost-eleven-year-old, who still has both of her parents, to be so perceptive. Blinking hard to keep the growing moisture from his eyes, he nodded silently.

"Ohhh." Izayoi slipped a hand into her father's. "I'm sorry, Daddy."

Dammit, she sounds way too much like Kagome! "Nothing to be sorry for, kid. She died a long time ago."

"But my name-"

"You are you, and no one else! Got it?" Inuyasha crossed his arms, releasing his daughter's grip, and glared down at her. "Don't you go feeling all guilty over something you can't control! I swear, you're worse than your mother..."

"What was that, Inuyasha?" Kagome's voice rang out, as she stuck her head out from the doorway. She winked at her flustered husband, then smiled down at her eldest daughter. "Izayoi-chan, can you stir the stew for a couple of minutes?"

Izayoi opened her mouth to protest, but one look from her mother stopped her. She pouted a bit, but then gave her father a swift hug, before darting inside.

Inuyasha, who still was gaping like a fish, barely registered his daughter's hug until after she went inside. "I-I, er, I just … umm," he stammered, looking at Kagome for help.

Kagome smiled and pulled him down for a kiss.

"One step at a time, my love," she whispered. "You finally said something about your mother to her. That's a start."

"K-keh!"