Sighs...my football dreams have been crushed. Dallas...lost...cries

A/N: Thank you all for reviewing!! So now we're almost here. Only one more chapter to go before Naima decides. But what was Rashid's last message to his middle child?...


Boy. It sure does seem like time just flies by when you know that you have to do something very important that you dread doing. Before I knew it, the final week of Spring Semester had arrived. That meant that it was time to give Naraku and Sesshoumaru my answer. I was so stressed and so reluctant to make this life changing decision and I was so very confused and scared out of my mind. I never, ever thought that I would be so worried simply by knowing that I had to make a decision. I wanted to make sure that which ever man I chose was truly the man who I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with.

It was now Friday evening and my sophomore year in college had ended earlier that day. The only bright point in any of this was the fact that I had earned all of my hours and passed all of my exams. I knew that I would have to face both Sesshoumaru and Naraku the next day, so I only had a few hours left to make my decision. I decided to get away from everyone for a while and I drove out to a very quite place in The Bronx that was near Kagura's mom's house. I sat in Katsu's Charger and just spent the night thinking. Just thinking and feeling. I shut the world off for a while and only listened to what my heart had to say. I listened intensely as my heart began to spill out its opinions on Sesshoumaru and Naraku. I listened as it told me all of their strong points and all of their weak points. I listened as it told me about how much those men have been there for me...and I also listened when it made me remember the times when they had fallen short. After several hours of conversation with my heart...one man began to get an edge and little by little, that slight edge began to grow. And then it grew somemore and somemore until I had finally reached a decision. I had finally decided that he was the one who I wanted to be with. He was the one who I needed. He was the one.

By the time I got back to my house in south Brooklyn, I was confident in my choice and very sure that we could have a wonderful life together...but at the same time, I felt bad for the other man. I felt bad that I had to break his heart after he had been so good to me and if there was anything I could do to ease the pain I would cause him, I would sure as hell do it. But...I knew that I couldn't...and I didn't really have a choice in the matter.

After stripping of my clothes and climbing into bed, I began to drift off to sleep confident that I made the right decision. But little did I know that the dream I would have that night would cause me to see things in a whole new perspective. Little did I know, that in my dreams, the memory of the last night that I shared with my father would come into consciousness. Little did I know, that his final message to me would be the answer to my dilema.


I was sitting on my bed playing a game on my Gameboy Advance. It was Thursday evening, one week before Thanksgiving. It was around eleven thirty at night and I could hear my father's deep voice down the hallway talking to my little sister. Tarei was whining to stay up and my father was telling her to be quiet and go to sleep. After a couple more moments of debate, Tarei finally gave up and I saw the light down the hallway click off. I could hear my father's footsteps as he walked down the hallway towards his own bedroom. My bedroom was on the way, so my father decided to stop to check up on me too. "Naima? Shouldn't you be in bed?" he asked in his distinct, bass voice. I looked up from my gave and smiled at him.

"I can't sleep." My father sighed and smiled.

"Well of course you can't when you're not under the covers." He walked over to my bed and pulled my sheets and comforter back. I giggled as I got in between them.

"Daddy, I'm too old to be tucked in." He chuckled softly.

"But you're my baby."

"I thought that Tarei was the baby."

"All three of you are my babies."

"Daddy, I'm fifteen years old."

"I know, but no matter how old you get, you'll always be my baby." I smiled as I laid back on my pillows and allowed him to cover me back up. Still, I refused to go to sleep.

"Daddy, I don't want to sleep," I protested.

"Well too bad Baby Girl. You have school in the morning so you need to go to bed."

"I don't wanna go to school. Can't I stay home? I've only missed one day this year." My dad then began to laugh out loud.

"Oh come on. You really don't want to go to school?" I shook my head no. "Why, I would have thought that you would want to see that friend of yours. What was his name? Sessmaru or Shomaru?"

"Sesshoumaru."

"Yeah." I rolled my eyes.

"I don't like Sesshoumaru. He's a jerk." My father chuckled as he sat down on my bed.

"Well I like the guy. He seems smart and disciplined. Although he could use some personality steriods, but I like him. Especially since I know where he comes from. I used to hoops at Jewel University with the Inu no Taisho before he transferred to Tama College. Inuyasha isn't a bad dude either. I could accept any of Taisho's boys as my son-in-law." I rolled my eyes again.

"Gag me. Inuyasha is cool, but I would NEVER date Sesshoumaru. Besides Daddy, I thought that your favorite was Naraku."

"Naraku is my boy, but unfortunately he's not here right now." I nodded my head and sighed. It had been a little over a year since Naraku had left and I missed my best friend very much. "When is the little knucklehead coming back?"

"He said when he found the jewel."

"When's the last you heard from him?"

"Mmm...about five weeks ago."

"Well, the next time you talk to that boy, tell him that Rashid-san misses him so much that I am going to whoop his ass when he comes home." I giggled at my father.

"Daddy, that's mean."

"I can't help it. I'm just passionate like that. I told Li the same thing yesterday. Oh yeah, your sister will be home early tomorrow moring...so I think that I will let you skip a day." My face lit up.

"Yaaay! Thank you Daddy!" I squealed as I pulled my father down for a hug. My dad chuckled and hugged me back. "I miss Li."

"I miss her too Baby Girl. Boy, I wish Felicia could see her eldest daughter. Our baby is going to be a biochemist and almost had a full scholarship too. Your mama would be so proud. I know I am."

"Would mama be proud of me?"

"Of course she would Baby Girl. A 3.8 GPA and the top scorer on the girl's track team. Plus you grew up sweet, beautiful, and respectful. Felicia would swoon over you." I giggled again. We then both became quiet for a few minutes. I knew that he was thinking about mama and I was too. My mother died from cancer when I was about ten months old, so I never really got a chance to meet her so I could remember her. I've always wondered what she was like.

"Daddy...what was mama like?" I asked my father as I fidgeted with the covers on my chest. My father closed his eyes and smiled. He then moved on my bed so he could lay down beside me.

"What was Felicia like?" he said to himself as he gazed at the ceiling, "well...first of all, she was absolutely beautiful. In fact, Li looks a whole lot like her. Your mama had very beautiful red eyes, gorgeous curly black hair that stopped at her waist, very light brown skin, lovely and full lips, she was tall like you, and she had a figure that made me thank Kami everytime she would walk past me. But what stood out the most was her smile. Felicia had the most beautiful smile in the world. Her fangs were so white and lovely." I closed my eyes and smiled as I remembered how beautiful I thought mom was in her pictures. "Felicia was really smart and really sweet. She was so sweet that she made Snow White look like the witch. But your mama also had a slight temper and a mean right hook. I remember that I messed up one time and saw that right hook first hand. Woooo, could your mama swing!" I laughed as I saw my father's face twist into an expression of horror. "Your mama was a beautiful singer too. She used to sing you and Li to sleep when you were babies. And oh, OH could your mama NOT cook!" I laughed again.

"Really?"

"Ohhhh no. Felicia could not cook a damn thing at all. She was so bad that she could burn water."

"Oh my."

"I kid you not. I lived on McDonalds our whole relationship."

"So how did you and mom get together?"

"We got together in high school, back when we used to live in Harlem. I was the center on the basketball team and your mom was a JV cheerleader. From the very first day I met her in eleventh grade, I knew that she had to be mine, but Felicia felt otherwise. Your mom and I were complete opposites. I was a little punk and your mama was so good and so innocent. Felicia always turned down my advances toward her and repeatedly made me look like a complete fool. But I refused to give up.

When we became seniors, I knew that that year would be my last chance to win that woman's heart. I knew that before the prom happened, our school always threw a big block party to help raise money for it. I planned on getting Felicia by the block party. So every night from the first day of school on, I would have your Uncle Reggie drive me to Felicia's house and I would stand outside of her window and play a random love song for her. And every night when she came to her bedroom window, I would greet her with the same message. I would say, "Hey flyy, foxy mama..."

"Flyy, foxy mama?!"

"I graduated high school in 1980. We didn't use the terms 'Shawty' and 'Dyme Piece' back then. So anyways, I would always say, "Hey flyy, foxy mama. You know you want to chill with a don like me. I'm more smooth than Shaft and got more style than Supafly and I'm always cooler than the cat I'm sittin' with. So check it out Brickhouse, why don't we go to the Harlem Yokai High School Block Party together and shake a tailfeather. Can ya dig it?" ." I nearly fell out of bed from laughing so hard at how ridiculous my father sounded. My dad laughed too. "Oh shut up girl, I grew up in the 70s. At least that was better than my poems. Wanna hear one?"

"Oh Kami."

"Ahem. Oh Rashid, Rashid; Its Felicia he needs; The very flyy Felicia; Whose cooler than my Chevy Caprice-a; Oh my Felicia; Can't you see how bad I need ya?" I couldn't control my laughter anymore after hearing such a whack ass rhyme.

"Daddy...you suck," I told him with a big grin.

"What you talkin back girl? That was some Langston Hughes or Edgar Allen Poe quality right there." We both laughed again. "So I would do that every night without fail. I would play Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass, Marivn Gaye, Frankie Beverley and Maze, The Isley Brothers. I played every slow jam you can think of and none of them worked. Until, I played "Can't Hide Love" by Earth Wind and Fire. I didn't know it at the time, but that was your mama's favorite song. And that was the song that got her. She came down from her room and out into the backyard and finally agreed to go to the dance with me. A few years later, I married your mom and that same song ended up being our wedding song." I was smiling from ear to ear by the time my dad finished his story. It sounded like a fairy tale with a New York spin on it.

"I hope that a boy will do that to me one day." My father chuckled as he stroked my hair as I laid on his shoulder.

"I have no doubt in my mind that you will find a man to love you and marry you."

"Did you love my mama?"

"Mmm...no." I turned to my father and widened my eyes at him.

"You didn't?!"

"No. I didn't."

"Why?!"
"Because I was in love with her." I gave him a confused look.

"You didn't love her because you were in love with her? What do you mean?"

"Believe it or not, but there is a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone. I believe that being in love with someone is a lot stronger than loving someone. When you love someone, you want to be with them. When you're in love, you need to be with them. When you love someone, you live for them. When you're in love with someone, you can't live without them. Naima...I see it like this. In life a person likes many, loves a few, but can be in love with only one. Being in love is a whole other connection than simply loving them...and if you get the two confused, that's where you mess up."

"How will I know that I'm in love?"

"You remember Ecstacy's rap in Whodini's 'Keep Running Back'?" I nodded my head. "Well, its kind of like that. 'It makes me mad when I think about the fun we had; How stupidly I went from good to bad; But now I sit around and my heart aches; I guess its true when they say that you learn from your mistakes; And these are the breaks like Kurtis Blow; 'Till its gone, what you got, man you never ever know; The way you used to do me, truly, nobody else had go it like that; That's why I keep running back'. Like he said, sometimes you have to learn from your mistakes that its true love. Sometimes you just know. But you always find yourself running back. That's the best way I can explain it Baby Girl."

"Are you still in love with mama?"

"...Yes. Yes I am. That's why I couldn't ever make things work between Tarei's mom and I. Because I never stopped loving Felicia. They say until death do you part...but...I'm still in love with your mom even to this day. Don't get me wrong, I did love Ayumi very much...but my heart belonged to Felicia and it always will."

"I'm sure mama was in love with you too." My dad chuckled as he climbed off of my bed and gave me kiss on the forehead.

"I know that she was in love with me...because she left me two beautiful gifts to remember her by and I wish that she would have been the one to have left me the third one too." I smiled as I settled myself into bed. "Now get some rest."

"Okay." My father smiled as he turned off my light. "I love you Daddy."

"I love you too Naima."


I woke up very late in the night with chills running down my spine. Of all times for that memory to come back...it was like my father knew that I would need that lesson. So very ironic that that was his last message to me before he died. Love vs In Love. He was right. He was right! Although I did love both men...I was in love with only one of them and I knew EXACTLY who it was. And it wasn't the man who I decided to choose earlier that night. At that point, I was one hundred percent sure who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I knew who I was in love with. I wanted one, but I needed the other. I lived for one, but I couldn't live without the other. And even when we split...I found myself running back. I loved him. I was in love with him. And tomorrow, I would choose to spend the rest of my life with him.


A/N: So who do you think it is?

Sesshoumaru: Me of course. Who else could it be?

Naraku: Its me. Naturally

Well...if you want to find out, you better review. Five reviews is the goal. No post on Saturday until I get five...MWAHHAHAHA!!

Sesshoumaru and Naraku fan girls: throws rocks

Me: hides behind mountain of college textbooks