Year 3: Longing Part 2
By the time Inu no Taisho regained consciousness, Kagome had calmed down long enough to hear out Izayoi and why they had come to her in the middle of the night. Reluctantly, she allowed the Taisho's into her house. Currently sitting across from them and wearing a robe, she watched the great lord rub his still aching chest, considerably burnt from Kagome's conjured blast. "What do you want?" she wasn't really in the mood for beating around the bush and bullshitted light conversation. The demoness growled lightly when Taisho shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Good, he should be.
"Kagome...I'm here on my son's behalf, I brought Izayoi with me because I had a feeling I would not be welcomed alone." grasping the hand of his second mate, Taisho nodded to her lightly in a silent assurance that he was okay.
"Izayoi said something is wrong with Anu...Sesshomaru-sama's mind. What?"
"Kagome-san," she responded lightly, "He moved out of the manor a few months ago, claiming he wanted some space from his family and while we haven't been in constant contact like before, the times we have seen him, he hasn't...been behaving like himself."
"Okay? What is this out of place behavior he's doing?"
"Kagome, ever since you left my son has been a train wreck." Inu no Taisho suddenly started, ignoring Izayoi who gasped scandalized at his bluntness, "Shortly after you fled, he began to drink heavily, often to the point of blacking out, and thanks to his newfound ability he would transform while intoxicated and more than once ended up on a rampage in whatever area he was present in at the time. The first time it happened, he was visiting the ancestral home of his former fiancee…"
"Former fiancee? I heard about that…" she replied softly, "but the tabloids only said he accidentally destroyed a large part of the home and after paying for the damages called it off until he could learn to control himself better."
"That is what we told the media," Taisho confirmed, "but the reality is their engagement was terminated not postponed, there is no plan to marry them and I have refused all other offers on the grounds that he just isn't ready."
"Oh, so another cover up?" she replied sarcastically, huffing in joy, when in all truth, all it did was make her feel bad for being so happy at someone else's misery.
"Yes," he ignored her mocking tone, "and after a particularly bad rampage, I finally sent him to a well-known therapist to help him through his feelings. He was diagnosed with severe depression and was given heavy sedatives to keep him from going overboard again."
"He...takes antidepressants?"
"They aren't as strong as when he first started them, they are still being required for his mental health."
"Sesshomaru…." tears began to appear at the corners of her eyes, but Kagome fought back with everything she had, she wasn't going to cry in front of these people. "What else happened?" she croaked out, the guilt of having left him already eating at her heart.
"Well Kagome-san, in recent months he's been exhibiting signs of...schiz...schzo…"
"Schizophrenia," Inu no Taisho finished for his wife.
"What?"
"Recently he confided in his therapist that he has been seeing and hearing things that truly aren't around. Though we haven't caught him talking to them or being affected to a point he can't function normally, the fact that he is seeing these things is a sign his mind is slowly beginning to get away from him."
"Well if he's seeing and hearing them and not doing as they say like a Schizophrenic would do, why is there a problem?"
"Besides him having severe insomnia now along with random mood swings?"
"He's a businessman for a multi-billion dollar corporation, big deal." Though even as she shrugged off his symptoms a horrible feeling was now appearing in the pit of Kagome's stomach. What was going on with him?
"Because, out of all the things he claims to keep seeing, the person that keeps appearing to him the most….is you."
"Nubis!" Inuyasha pounced on his brother, startling the man awake. Rising up with the half demon on his chest, Sesshomaru arched an eyebrow and glanced at the clock. Seven in the morning.
"Do you understand the term sleep in?"
"Nubis! Food now?" Rubbing his little stomach, Inuyasha gave his brother his best puppy eyes, his honey gold orbs gleaming with clear crocodile tears.
"Hn. I only got two hours of sleep," sighing he fell back against the bed, ignoring the half-bred on his stomach who was using it as a trampoline.
"Up! Nubis! Up!" raising his arms wide in a matching gesture the little boy insisted, "I want food!"
"Sesshomaru get off your ass already, can't you see he's hungry?" Glancing over to the other side of the bed, with glazed over eyes the demon stared into the cerulean eyes of Kagome, her blue-black hair tussled and the sheets wrapped immaculately around her like a robe.
"Hn." he replied mentally, "Maybe if it was worth my while I would…."
"Oh?" Smiling coyly Kagome scooted over to his side, placing her mouth just above his ear. "How about if you get up and feed your brother, later on, I'll…." whispering something filthy in his ear, Sesshomaru had to remind himself that Inuyasha was in the room, preventing him from getting an erection.
"Deal."
Setting his brother on the kitchen counter, Sesshomaru bent down and opened the bottom of the refrigerator, examining the food within the freezer compartment. Sighing when he saw that it was almost completely empty except for a few frozen pizzas and a package of cabbage rolls. He barely cooked for himself, preferring to eat at restaurants or come home with take out. The refrigerator was no better, only containing a carton of orange juice and leftover lo mein.
"Inuyasha…" he said lightly, his back still to the toddler who was enthusiastically crawling around the countertop, babbling to himself cheerfully. "What are we supposed to eat…."
"Lasagna!" the half-breed called out happily.
"I don't have lasagna little one."
"Chicken!"
"No."
"Uh…." Inuyasha looked confused for a moment. Crossing his little arms, the half demon childishly pondered on his brother's words, "Food!" he finally decided, throwing his hands up in the air in a show of surrender.
"Hn." Leaning against the cooler Sesshomaru pinched the bridge of his nose, silently cursing himself out for forgetting to procure food for his brother's extended stay. "Wait." Remembering something he went to the cabinet above Inuyasha and after fishing around for a moment, pulled out a single bowl of instant ramen noodles. "Hold this." handing the dried pasta to the boy, he quickly found a pot and after picking up his brother to keep him away from the stove, turned it on and put water on to boil. While they waited, he silently teased the three-year-old to keep his mind off his stomach, holding the styrofoam cup high above his head, only to drop it within the boy's line of sight, and pulling it back just as his tiny clawed fingers grazed the outside of the bowl. In no time at all, the water was ready, and after letting it cool for a few minutes longer, Sesshomaru watched in triumph while his brother ate for the first time what would soon become his favorite food in the world.
"What do you mean he's seeing me in his mind?"
"Just like it sounds. Sesshomaru told Miroku that he is randomly seeing his grandfather, you, and oddly enough the founding member of our family and my father's grandfather Honorable Junichi."
"Okay?"
Inu no Taisho elaborated, "It is not so much the fact that is seeing these things, it's that they are detailed, they have the same personalities, qualities and sayings that you do and they did."
"So he's crazy?" Kagome summarized. An involuntary shiver went down her spine. Sesshomaru had also seemed so strong, how could this have happened to him?
"My son is not crazy!" there was a hard edge in Taisho's voice that made Kagome immediately growl again in caution.
"I didn't mean it like that." she amended, "If he is exhibiting signs of a serious mental disorder, then you should be talking to his therapist, not me! I've suffered depression and anxiety bad enough to require therapy and medication as well, but this is ridiculous, there is nothing I can possibly do to help him if he's seeing things that aren't around."
"On the contrary," Izayoi suddenly voiced her opinion, "We think if he's seeing you in his mind, and if you're the only one that he sees that is still alive, it may be his way of telling us he needs you…"
"No." Kagome suddenly said, making Izayoi jump and her husband narrow his eyes.
"No?" Inu no Taisho repeated.
"No." she confirmed, "I nearly ruined his life last time remember? If I'm in his world at all it will only be in his mind."
"Kagome…"
"Kagome-san…"
"I don't want to hear it." though she was speaking calmly, the demoness's voice was cracking, her body shaking with tension. "I can feel it. This wouldn't have even happened to him if it wasn't for me. Every time I get near him I ruin everything. I appreciate you coming here to tell me just how much I fucked up your son's life, but you don't have to worry about me going near him again. So cheer up, you won."
Inu no Taisho growled at being dismissed so rudely, "Girl have you been listening to anything we've been saying?"
"I've been listening to every word." she replied, "and like I just said, this is all my fault and the best thing I can do for him or anyone is to stay away from it. Your his father and whatever psychological problems he has because of me, you can take them away."
"Kagome, nothing I do will have any effect, only you can restore his mind and heart, believe me when I say I have tried everything to help him and after all of this, my father's words have run true."
"Shin'ichi-dono had something to say about this?"
"Yes, his final words to me in fact."
"What?"
"Kagome is literally the other half of Sesshomaru. You had no place to remove her from his life."
"Other half?"
"The book," reaching into his jacket, Inu no Taisho pulled out the codex that had awakened their bestial natures and enabled them to transform into their true forms. "This codex was meant to work on couples, not individuals…" Opening it to the page which contained the Chinese zodiac, he held it up so that Kagome could see it.
Mesmerized, the demoness stared at the picture of the giant golden dog, her eyes dancing over its figure and the multiple page numbers that were stamped throughout its eye and fur. They still hadn't figured out just where this book had come from or what it was meant to do.
"You see? Written here…." he pointed in the corner and Kagome gasped at seeing the small golden yin yang symbol. One could not exist without the other.
"Perfect balance…"
"Exactly, I made….an error in judgment, and before it's too late….."
"I...I can't…"
"Do you not see what's happening here?! Kagome you must…"
"No!" covering her ears, Kagome began to recite a quote she had memorized as a kid at a rapid pace. "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones" she repeated the mantra of Shakespeare over and over, tears beginning to leak from her eyes as the faces of Shin'ichi and Teruo-san began to fly through her mind. "I can't do it again!" she suddenly cried out. Shocked she opened her eyes as she felt arms surrounding her, the smell of lilacs filling her nose. Izayoi had grabbed her in an embrace, rather than friendly, it was motherly and soothing to the upset woman. "Izayoi…."
"Shh….It's okay Kagome…." she whispered. Humming softly to the girl she shook her head no at Taisho who had stood and backed up into a corner upon seeing Kagome freak out the way she did.
"Girl….I am asking you…."
Izayoi interrupted her husband's words, "Taisho, after everything you've done, you knew it was a mistake as well as I did to come here like this."
"Izayoi, Sesshomaru"
"We will find another way," she insisted, "right now you need to leave, I will come back to the hotel later."
Seeing the determination in his second mate's eyes, he silently relented, bowing to the weeping girl before turning on his heel and walking out the door.
Hearing the door close, Izayoi continued to rock Kagome gently, assuring her over and over, "He's gone now, I promise he won't make you do anything…"
"I keep hurting him…" she sobbed out in reply.
"No Kagome, all this has just gotten to be too much for everyone,"
"No...If it wasn't for me he never would have…."
"If it wasn't for you, he never would have found a power loss to your kind for centuries." she said.
"But I…"
"You never hurt him intentionally did you?" she asked the girl abruptly.
"No, but…"
"Then that's the end of it." Izayoi stated matter of factly, "Sesshomaru never once blamed you for anything that he's been through. You are not at fault for his problems, but just like he was for you, you are his solution."
"Izayoi, I can't…"
"We won't make you do anything you don't want to." she reiterated. "If you feel both of you are better off apart then together so be it. We will find another way to help our son."
"Our son?"
"Yes, Sesshomaru is my son just as much as Inuyasha." she gave her an honest smile as she said it, making Kagome's heart melt.
"He's lucky to have you….." she muttered out.
"Which he are you referring to?"
"Both"
A/N: Izayoi is cool.