AN: This was a SessRin Secret Santa gift for purpletsubaki on AO3. Now that anonymity is lifted, I am posting it here. Merry Christmas!
Cravings
By LuvinAniManga
Chapter 1: Cravings
Sesshoumaru sensed them before they arrived. No scent of blood. Normal gaits. Strong auras.
He relaxed.
They were safe.
"We're back," Setsuna announced as she pushed aside the bamboo reed flap to Rin's hut and strode in.
"And we brought ramen noodles!" Towa exclaimed right on her heels. "Can you believe it? Our latest voyage with Riku took us all the way to China, and when I saw the noodles drying in the market over there, I just had to buy some!"
"Oh, that's wonderful dear," Rin replied with a smile as she hugged her daughters. "What's a noodle?"
Sesshoumaru remained seated in the corner of the hut as his daughter showed off a leaf-wrapped package of dried, hair-like dough and explained in excessive detail how it should be prepared and how ramen wouldn't be brought to Japan for a few hundred more years.
"But I've been craving it ever since I came back here, and Moroha mentioned how Uncle Inuyasha still dreamed of it, so we couldn't resist getting some. What do you think—can we make it tonight? It's getting colder, and there's nothing like a soup dish to warm you up!"
"Well, all this talk of food is making me hungry, so I don't see why not," Rin replied.
"Well, that certainly doesn't take much nowadays," Jaken muttered from his corner of the hut.
"And how is our little sibling?" Setsuna asked, looking at Rin's slightly swollen belly. At five months, she wasn't extremely visible beneath her kimono—unless you knew to look for it.
"Getting more and more active each day," Rin answered, placing a hand over her bump.
"Well, you can rest tonight. Setsuna, Jaken, and I will take care of the cooking!" Towa announced.
"We will?" her two cohorts asked.
"I wouldn't know the first thing to do to make this human food," Jaken protested.
Nevertheless, Towa roped her sister and the imp into making this "ramen," and soon the heady aroma of meaty broth—coupled with bland, boiled wheat and the eye-watering sharpness of chopped scallions—filled the small hut. After the soup had cooked for some time, Towa ladled some into a bowl and slurped up the noodles with her chopsticks. Sesshoumaru found the action rather undignified. But then, he supposed tearing into the body of a demon and letting the blood drip down his maw wasn't very dignified either, so to each his own.
Towa swallowed and nodded her head from side to side. "It's not exactly how it is back home, since we don't have all the spices here, but…I'd say it's still good enough to hit the spot!" She served some to her mother and sister. Sesshoumaru was not offended at being left out. After months of getting to know one another, his daughters now understood that he did not eat the same way they did.
Setsuna took a cautious bite of her noodles and chewed them thoughtfully. "They're an interesting texture…but not bad."
Rin slurped up some of the broth. "It's very delicious, Towa—thank you." A second later, she jumped with an, "Oh!" and looked down at her belly. She grinned. "It seems the baby likes it too!"
Between Rin's increased hunger and Towa's nostalgia, the three of them polished off the remainder of ramen in little time. As Towa stared at the last noodles clutched between her chopsticks, she sniffed in what must have been an exaggerated fashion, for Sesshoumaru smelled no actual tears in her eyes. "Goodbye, ramen. Until we meet again, however long that may be."
A faint pucker appeared between Rin's brows in that way it did whenever she was concerned about something. "Is something bothering you, Towa?"
Towa shrugged, swallowing the last of her noodles. "I'm just feeling a little homesick, I guess. I've been here a while, but I still haven't gotten over the culture shock. Which is weird, because this is literally the same country, and while the language and religion and clothing is all familiar, the way we live day-to-day and what we eat isn't." She looked down at her empty bowl with a forlorn gaze. "Sometimes I get a craving for my favorite foods, but they don't exist yet. I guess I never realized how much we imported and how much Japanese cuisine evolved in just the last couple of hundred years."
The sight of Towa's sad puppy face lodged in Sesshoumaru's heart like sword. It was unsettling to see his normally cheerful daughter this way.
He didn't like it, but he didn't know what to do about it.
Rin stared at their daughter, her eyes assessing. "Is that all?"
"What do you mean, Mother?"
Rin drummed her fingers along the summit of her belly. "Some of my clearest memories revolve around food. I remember my mother made the best soy sauce. I wish I had been able to learn the recipe from her. I recall the charred taste of the first fish I ever caught and cooked on my own after my family died. It tasted so bad, but I was so hungry and so proud of myself for catching that fish that I didn't care." Then she smiled. "Of course, there are happier memories too. Picking sweet berries with Master Jaken when we traveled with Lord Sesshoumaru. Granny Kaede's ginger tea. Lady Kagome's attempts to make some sort of red bean desserts."
Towa smiled. "Yeah, Gammy made the best daifuku. Ah, that's a rice cake stuffed with red bean paste. I wonder if that's what Aunt Kagome was trying to replicate." She sighed. "I really miss her. And Grandpa, and Papa Souta, Mama Moe, and Mei."
As soon as Sesshoumaru scented the saline, he stiffened. Towa's eyes welled up with tears, and the way she bit her lip, she obviously tried to keep them at bay. "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to…to…." She sniffed, wiping her eyes.
Unlike him, Rin knew how to handle such displays and rushed to their daughter's side, pulling Towa into her arms. Towa turned into her shoulder and held her tightly, letting out a few, shuddering sobs. Rin stroked Towa's back and hummed the soft tune she had sung to them when they were in her womb. Setsuna reached over and grabbed her sister's hand, holding it. Towa squeezed it back. Jaken sat stiffly, glancing at Sesshoumaru as if for directions on what to do. But he had none.
"There, there," Rin soothed. "You don't have to feel bad about missing your other family, Towa. Your father and I will always be grateful to them for raising you when we could not. I just wish there was something we could do for you, sweetheart. I hate to see you so unhappy here."
Towa pulled away, shaking her head in protest. "I'm not unhappy here, Mother—I promise! I love getting to live with you and Father and Setsuna."
Setsuna tapped her chin in thought. Suddenly she asked, "What are some of the other foods you miss? Perhaps we can recreate them and make new memories."
"Yes!" Rin exclaimed, clapping her hands. "Lady Kagome has tried to do that for many years. She should have some insight."
Towa wiped her eyes, then crossed her arms in thought. "I don't know. Funny how things that are staples of this land in my time—like ramen and sushi—aren't now."
"What's sushi?" Setsuna asked.
"It's raw fish wrapped in rice and seaweed."
"Well, that should be easy enough," Rin said. "We can catch all sorts of fish in the river."
Towa thought about it. "Maybe…. When was the last time we caught salmon?"
"A few months ago," Jaken inserted. "They're returned to the sea by now."
"Does it have to be salmon specifically?" Rin asked.
"No, but…it's usually some sort of seafood. Chefs make all sorts of different specialties with crab, tuna, eel and roe…."
Setsuna's eyes flashed in interest. It was no wonder, Sesshoumaru thought. His daughter was half dog-demon. She would be inclined towards raw flesh. "That sounds doable. Any other foods?"
"Ugh, everything here's so salty that somedays, I just want something sweet. Like strawberries!" Towa exclaimed. "I'm pretty sure we have at least one native variety here, but…oh, wait. They're probably out of season." She sighed. "That's something else I miss: getting to eat whatever food I want to, even when it's not in season. Obviously, strawberries are more refreshing to eat when you pluck them straight from the fields in the heat of summer, but we always get a strawberry Christmas cake this time of year."
"Straw-ber-ry Christ-mas cake?" Setsuna echoed, teasing out the foreign words.
"We can't make a cake, obviously. We'd need milk and eggs and sugar—"
"Milk?" Rin asked, aghast. "Like from a cow?"
"Yes. You wouldn't believe all the delicious things you can make with milk! Cake and ice cream and ugh, now I'm getting hungry again."
"It sounds like there were so many different things to eat in your world, sweetheart," Rin said.
"You don't know the half of it! I haven't even mentioned pizza, because while I might be able to figure out making pizza dough, we don't have tomatoes…or cheese…or sausage…."
Rin pressed a hand to her belly, presumably where their child was pushing against it. Finally, she nodded her head in resolution. Then she crawled over to Sesshoumaru, a determined look on her face.
Sesshoumaru glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. What scheme has my little minx devised this time?
"Lord Sesshoumaru, all this talk of food has made the baby quite demanding. It's especially intrigued by this 'sushi.'"
"Ah, Mother, you really shouldn't eat raw fish in your condition," Towa said, but Rin waved away her concern.
Sesshoumaru cocked an eyebrow at his wife. "The baby wants this?"
Rin nodded. "As soon as Towa said it was raw fish, it was all I could think about, and the baby's been dancing ever since," she said, taking his hand and placing it against her belly as if to prove it. He did not need to touch her to know she spoke the truth, for he could hear their child bouncing against the walls of its temporary home, but when the little foot kicked his hand, a tingle of warmth unfurled in his chest.
He had not gotten to hold Towa and Setsuna nearly as much as he should have when they were pups. He looked forward to holding this one.
"Don't you remember how, when I was pregnant with the girls, I liked to eat undercooked meat?" Rin asked. "I've been starting to crave that again."
"What would you have me do, Rin?" Did she wish for him to fly to the sea and bring back a catch? Such menial tasks were beneath him, but he would do it—for her. For the baby. And for Towa.
"I want you to take us to the ocean."
Sesshoumaru cocked a brow and looked around the hut. "All of you?"
"Yes."
Towa and Setsuna looked at each other. "You want us all to take a trip? …Together?" Towa asked.
"Yes," Rin repeated, looking a little confused.
"You want Father to come…fishing with us?" Setsuna parsed out.
Now Rin's brows furrowed. "Of course! Your father loves traveling."
Sesshoumaru could read the hesitation on his daughters' faces, and a little thorn pierced his heart. But he didn't let it show.
"Mother, it's a little cold to be fishing now," Setsuna protested. "And should you really be going anywhere in your—"
"I will be just fine in my condition," Rin stressed, her growing annoyance twisting her lips as she threw their daughter a sharp look.
Sesshoumaru leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, his mind already made up. "The southern islands are warmer. We will depart for them in the morning."
Rin clasped his hand, and he cracked open an eye just in time to be blinded by her smile of triumph. "Thank you, my lord!"
The girls still looked doubtful, though he didn't understand why. Rin was doing this for Towa, after all. Should she not be more appreciative? Besides, if Rin wanted to expend this much effort to make their daughter feel more at home, he would not stop her. But in his bones, he felt sure there was something more at play here.
What exactly is she planning?
