That Night At the Inn

Orders

"Done." Totosai announced.

From outside his skeletal home, InuYasha and Myouga turned and walked back in. The smell of cooking, living flesh had gotten so overpowering that InuYasha had to step out in order to keep from vomiting.

To keep from thinking about what the elder demon was doing inside, InuYasha had turned his thoughts inward. He thought about his daughter. Names, faces, scenarios all ran rampant in his mind.

As he got closer to the elder, he saw his blackened, crisped arms and flinched but didn't remark on them.

"There you are." Totosai nodded his head toward his workbench where he placed the jewelry.

"Are you alright?" InuYasha asked as Myouga hopped off his shoulder and went to check on Totosai.

"Of course." the old man said, proud. "This is nothing. Tessaiga was harder to reforge than that."

InuYasha turned to the jewel and smiled a bit as he reached for it.

It wasn't heavy, which surprised him. In fact, considering what it was made of, it was extremely light. It was a solid silver band with the shining piece of adamant taking pride of place in the center. The two pieces of amethyst were on either side of it. The gleaming silver showed no sign of the blood rubies but InuYasha wasn't surprised. They were probably what sealed the demon blood; they were needed more for their magical properties than the fact that they were rubies. The silver was gleaming, a bit brighter than what he was used to in silver. It almost resembled the fang of his Tessaiga, but silver.

"It's beautiful, Totosai." InuYasha praised him honestly.

"Of course it is!" the old man griped. "Now get out. Leave me to heal in peace."

InuYasha nodded in thanks again and turned to leave the skeleton house.

Before he could leap away, he felt a tiny weight settle on his shoulder.

"Myouga?" InuYasha looked surprised. "You're coming?"

Myouga nodded as he sat comfortably on his master's shoulder. "I advised your father when he first became a parent, and I shall advise you in turn."

InuYasha hesitated. "Myouga, exactly how many generations of my family have you served?"

"A great many, master." Myouga smiled at the memories. "First, I shall tell you about what to expect from a pregnancy with a human woman."

InuYasha paid attention as he jumped out of the volcanic center of the mountain.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Kagura and Seitekina have left." Kanna told Naraku as he looked outside a window of his mansion.

"She's going after Kagome first." Naraku said to himself. His charming smile was no longer in place. "But she doesn't know InuYasha as I do. He has an annoying habit of showing up just in time to ruin everything."

Kanna said nothing as he pondered it over in his head.

"Kanna." he decided. "Send some demons to keep him distracted."

"How many?" Kanna asked softly.

"As many as I have left." he frowned. That the half demon required such measures was extremely annoying. But then life wouldn't be fun if everything came easy. "Tell them not to hold back. Attack to kill. And one more thing. Go find me the demons Chimei and Tekina. Tell them I have a deal to offer them."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Kouga!"

"Wait up!"

Hakaku and Ginta cried as they panted and jogged after their leader.

"You guys are so slow." Kouga complained, not for the first time. He had only paused to wait for them because he was afraid he might lose them.

That and he caught the scent of mutt face but not the scent of his beloved Kagome. He was busy sniffing for it and so decided to wait for his slow comrades at the same time.

"T-thanks...for...waiting." Hakaku panted as they rested for a moment

"One would think with all this running, you two would get faster." Kouga remarked without heat.

"We...are..." Ginta panted.

"...you're...just...too fast." Hakaku finished.

"Do you smell that?" Kouga changed the subject suddenly.

"Smell...what?" Ginta asked. Neither of them bothered to smell the air. They wanted to catch their breaths first.

"I smell dog breath." Kouga looked around as if hoping to catch a glimpse of that flashy red outfit he wore.

"Inu...Yasha?" Hakaku asked as they stood up straight.

"Where is he?" Ginta asked as their pants calmed down.

"I can't tell." Kouga admitted. "The trail is old. Days old I'd say. I can barely smell it."

"Do you want to go meet up with him?" Hakaku wondered if Kouga would ponder this long enough to let them sit and rest.

Kouga scoffed. "Why would I?"

"Maybe Kagome is with him." Ginta suggested.

"No." Kouga shook his head. "I can't smell her." His face lit up. "Maybe she left him. Oh, that would be great. Now I have to go see him and rub it in his face."

Excited with the thought that Kagome had finally got tired of InuYasha, Kouga took of running, kicking up a whirlwind as he did so.

"Hey, maybe if Kagome starts traveling with us," Hakaku said as they immediately gave chase, "he'll have to take more breaks and not run so fast."

"Oh, that would be great." Ginta mimicked Kouga making both of them laugh a bit.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kagome, as promised, was sitting on the rim of the well. She had one hand rubbing her belly lovingly as the other held up her sonogram photo to admire.

That was her baby. Her beautiful, beautiful baby.

Life still wasn't perfect, there were still so many problems left in their lives, but this sure was a step towards her ultimate happiness.

"I see by the look on your face that I smelled correctly."

Kagome looked up and was surprised to see Sesshomaru come out of the tree line and into the clearing.

"Kagome." Rin, behind him on their dragon, smiled at seeing her again.

"Hello, Sesshomaru." Kagome said cautiously. She adjusted herself so she could fall into the well with ease if she had to. It was hard to tell what Sesshomaru was actually thinking. "Smelled what correctly?"

"Your pregnancy." he looked at her belly.

Kagome blinked in surprise. "You can smell it? Even InuYasha can't smell it."

Predictably, Sesshomaru looked insulted at being compared to his brother. "My nose is considerably stronger than his."

"Of course." Kagome smiled a bit. "So, what did you want?"

"To see if you were actually moronic enough to let my brother mount you." he said immediately.

Kagome felt her eyebrow rise but didn't remark on his comment. Sesshomaru wasn't the most polite of people. "That hardly matters. What matters is that I am pregnant."

Sesshomaru said nothing but continued to observe her like she was an interesting TV show. She would give almost anything for a glimpse into his mind just to figure out what he was thinking.

Then again, what was keeping her from just asking?

"So, what are you going to do about it?" she did just that.

Clearly not expecting such a direct question, Sesshomaru gave no immediate answer.

It was true he hated his brother. His entire being was offending to Sesshomaru. But, thinking about the child that grew in the human woman's womb, he could muster up no such hatred.

It was embarrassing to admit, but Sesshomaru had a bit of a weakness where children were concerned. Human, demon, or a combination of both, it didn't matter. Young were always a certain kind of soft spot with him.

And the pup that grew within her was certainly no threat to him. He would acknowledge its presence but have nothing to with it, he decided.

But, before he could tell the woman that, a new smell wafted to him on the breeze.

He turned his head towards the scent.

"What is it?" Kagome followed his gaze as well.

They watched as Seitekina stepped out of the tree line, about thirty paces from where Sesshomaru stood.

"You!" Kagome jumped to her feet without thinking. "You're alive!"

"I couldn't die knowing you two lived." Seitekina glared at her.

A gentle breeze blew through the clearing, moving Sesshomaru's hair.

Her eye's caught the flash of silver and Seitekina turned to him. "Oh. I thought you were that half demon. Leave demon, I have no business with you."

Kagome was frozen, like a deer in headlights, as Seitekina turned back to her.

She knew she should jump back in the well; she cursed herself for not doing so immediately. But she was afraid that any sudden movement would set the succubus off.

"Don't worry." she snarled at Kagome. "It will be quick. I desire that half breed's suffering."

"Did you just order me to leave?" Sesshomaru asked. His voice dangerously soft.

Seitekina turned back to him. "Yes. Now go. It'll spare your life." As she spoke, she reached into her kimono and pulled out the pulsing green orb.

Kagome squeaked in fear, recognizing the thing as Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed.

"I, Sesshomaru, obey no one." he growled.

Seitekina rolled her eyes. "Fine. Then you can die with her!"

She pulled back her arm to throw the orb.

XXXXXXXXXX

"I don't believe that for a second." InuYasha argued with Myouga. "There's just no way."

"Oh, I assure you." Myouga nodded his head wisely. "Humans and dog demons are very similar in that respect."

InuYasha thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. Flat out refusing to believe it. "Nope. Sorry. I just can't imagine that."

"But it's true!" Myouga assured him. "Think about it. Even before you met Lady Kagome, did you ever hurt one child?"

"No." InuYasha said immediately. "But Sesshomaru is a completely different being than me."

"Then how about that girl that always travels with him?" Myouga asked and InuYasha had no comeback for that. "Children are precious to both humans and dog demons. I guarantee that Sesshomaru would never think to hurt your child."

InuYasha thought it over some more. "No. Not even a little bit can I believe that. Sesshomaru hates me. I can't even begin to believe he wouldn't hate my daughter too."

Because they were talking and so focused on their conversation, neither of them noticed the demon that lay in waiting for them as he ran across the forest tree tops. It was completely unnoticed until it flew out of the trees and sank it's jaws into InuYasha's side causing him to cry out in pain.

XXXXXXXXXX

"How did you...?" Seitekina looked up at Sesshomaru in shock.

One moment, she was about to throw the orb, the next Sesshomaru was there grabbing her wrist, keeping the orb from flying.

"No one orders me to do anything." he growled at her.

Kagome was frozen, watching the scene in shock. The well was behind her, but she just couldn't get her legs to move. She was staring, transfixed, at the orb. She knew the power it had and she had no such protection as she had last time.

Seitekina glared at Sesshomaru. Then her face calmed. "Fine. I don't really need to live through this. As long as that half demon suffers. I don't care what happens."

"Rin! Run!" Kagome screamed at the girl.

"Wha-" the little girl looked surprised.

Ah-Uhn, on the other hand, took her advice immediately and jumped straight into the air, carrying Rin and Jaken with him.

Seitekina squeezed the orb in her fist.

Uh-Oh what happened? Hmmm. Tune in for the next chapter to find out!