Title: Love Me Love Me Not
Chapter: Prognosis and Inuyasha's Secret
Date: December 22, 2010
As soon as Inuyasha began to feel the early signs of pregnancy, he stopped drinking his tea and he also began to subtly refuse his mate when it came to being intimate. It was not that he had not come to enjoy the encounters once his mate had shown him that it could be done without pain, but Inuyasha was trying to distance himself from them again. At least if there was distance, he would leave with the least amount of nuisance on his family as possible. Inuyasha had absolutely no doubt that he would succeed this time. The amount of damage done to his body from his 'special' tea, the strain of healing, and the strain of supporting the pup in him would be too much for his body to handle. Inuyasha knew that he would not make it through the birth and he doubted that he would make it to full term, but the child would survive as long as he survived until the eighth month.
InuTaisho was confused. Inuyasha was pregnant again and with the way things had been going between them beside the one set back the night they first made love, he had thought that Inuyasha would be thrilled with what was basically a second chance at raising his children. However, the pup had become withdrawn again as he had done after waking from his fifty year sleep and the jump off the one of the tallest roofs. It was giving the DaiYoukai a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and he knew that he had to confront the pup to figure out how to get the little one back. He and the pups could not take another scare from Inuyasha trying to kill himself. He knew had this situation happened fifty years ago, he would not have cared, but Inuyasha was slowly becoming more than what his label had branded him as.
InuTaisho tried everything he could think of to get his little mate to open up to him, but nothing worked. In fact, it seemed to push Inuyasha even further from him. It was beginning to affect the children as well because they were once again clinging to Inuyasha like he would leave any day. They were also giving him glares that made him proud, though a bit angry, as though it was his fault. He knew that he had not done anything this time. All he had tried to do was to right the wrongs he had done to his mate. He would have never been a father to Inuyasha, but he should have been a mate that Inuyasha could respect and not fear.
Inuyasha just wanted to be left alone. He had thought that things were finally looking up, that someone would love him or at least care for him, but it had been lies, lies so that he would bear the Great InuTaisho's next child. He did not understand why it was so important for the demon to want another child. As it stood, they had had more children than any other royal Shiro Inu family in over 40 inheritances of the title. Inuyasha did not understand why it was so important to continue to want to impregnate him when InuTaisho already had his heir and even had princes to serve as high advisors or generals to their brother. However, Inuyasha was so betrayed in this last act, that he did not even have the emotional energy to feel anything but apathy for those around him. He could not even be bothered to muster a false smile for Pancho who had always been there for him. Worse still, Inuyasha could not bond with his child. When he thought about the child or experienced symptoms, he was did not feel happiness or anger or resentment. He was detached from the life growing inside him and draining him of what little strength his tea had not.
Inuyasha was correct in his predictions about the length of time it would take before the pregnancy became too much on his body. At three months, he was napping and eating almost constantly as his body tried to gather the energy it needed to maintain his youki levels that had gone into double duty with healing Inuyasha from the poison and supporting the pup within. By mid-fourth month, Inuyasha had to be put on bed rest and could not get up to do anything except the bathroom, and even then someone had to carry him to and from because his body was so week. In his fifth month, Inuyasha wrote a letter to his unborn child as he could feel his end drawing nearer and even if nothing changed after he was gone, he wanted the little one to at least know who he was. In the seventh month, Inuyasha finally slipped into a coma as his body was beginning to give out from the stress.
InuTaisho, Sesshoumaru, Akkiko, Tess, Healer Pancho, and Mother Nature could do nothing to stop, prevent, or reverse the death that they all smelled ( in Mother's case she sensed his slowly returning presence) on the hanyou. Sesshoumaru, Akkiko, and Tess were a mess as they were losing the mother that they had never really gotten to know because they had pulled away and when they had the chance to try and make it up it had become too late. Healer Pancho had thought of Inuyasha as his own and felt the pain of losing a child. Mother Nature, for the first time since the union of the worlds of demons and humans, felt guilty about and regretful of the life that she had put Inuyasha through. She had just been so happy about her prediction of change, that she may have rushed things before their due time. She had heard of other sentient beings doing such a thing, but she had scoffed at their foolery before becoming one of those fools herself.
Bokusenou awoke as he felt the draining life of Inuyasha in the palace beyond the forest that he called home through the connection that he and the pup had forged when Inuyasha had sought solace with him. It was a terrible thing to see such a beautiful, pure soul being extinguished by the unholy darkness that surrounded it in the form of the hanyou's broken spirit. For the first time since the birth of InuTaisho, sired by the Gaken and birthed by Saku, Bokusenou uprooted his large and ancient self to begin the arduous task of replanting himself in the private gardens closest to Inuyasha's dying soul. The pup had seen horrors that and been punished for that of which he had no control over and it had touched the ancient tree about how Inuyasha had survived through it for almost sixty years before trying to drop out of the race, so to speak. Even after that, Inuyasha had never allowed himself to be poisoned by hate and revenge against those who wronged him. Other, 'better,' demons had fallen into the abyss for far less than just a fraction of what Inuyasha had faced. It was truly a shame to be losing such an influential and cunning young hanyou for such petty reasons as pride, jealousy, and social conformity.
InuTaisho, Healer Pancho, Mother Nature, and the children were confused as they felt the rumble of the ground moving in staccato intervals. The only thing that tipped them off was the smell (and Mother Nature just recognized the signature). Bokusenou had uprooted himself. InuTaisho and Healer Pancho were in shock, awe, and surprise while the children did not necessarily understand. Tree demons did not move because it was a laborious task and when they did move, it was only to fit with their non-sentient brethren or in case of emergencies. For Bokusenou to have moved, Inuyasha must have truly made an impression on one of the most ancient of trees. The large tree planted himself as close to the royal suites as possible without causing damage to the palace walls or injury to himself. His face only appeared for a moment to command those within the room, except his Mistress, to update him on the progress of Inuyasha every evening, but for the moment to remain quiet as both he and Inuyasha needed all the rest they could muster.
Inuyasha was locked away in the world of unconsciousness, but it touched a small broken part of him that the great and ancient tree who had rumor of caring for no one had come to be by his side as he slowly and painlessly slipped away. His passing was everything he had hoped for; it was peaceful. Whenever his children, mate, father figure, or mother figure were in the room, Inuyasha closed his senses. He did not want to hear the horrors of what they would have to say about him now that they knew that he could not do anything (as if he had done anything when he was able to have that choice). He only had to last just a little bit longer and the child would survive. It would be the last thing that Inuyasha gave to the cruel life that his life had been placed in.
A/N: Hey, sorry about the long wait, but my Mom wanted me to spend Christmas with her, but I did manage to sneak peeks at the reviews. I want to thank you all for you devotion and remind that within the next 2-3 chapters I will be ending the story. Please continue to review and let me know what you think. Also you have one more week to cast your vote on my profile about a sequel to Forsaken. REVIEW PLEASE!
Cheers!
Nama