InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Mother For Rin ❯ Seeing Kagome ( Chapter 17 )

 

Inuyasha stood next to the window in Sango's room and watched as the wild creatures awoke to the new day and listened as the birds chirped happily their songs. After he had marked Sango and removed the poison and infection from her blood she had slept for the rest of the day, not even awakening to eat any food. Now he stood in her room waiting for her to awaken and to see to her needs. He was the alpha male of their pack and as far as he was concerned he had let her alone too long as it was. He would stay near Sango until she was completely recovered, she may not be his mate, and he may not see her in that manner, but she was a pack female, and pack females were given the highest form of protection.

 

Inuyasha turned away from the window and made his way to Sango's bedside when he heard her moan and call his name, she sounded frightened. Well maybe not frightened, but guarded at least. Sitting by her hip on the bed he leant over and growled down softly down at her, a sound meant to soothe and comfort her. As the hanyou sat back he saw her eyes flutter and open slowly. Her mocha eyes focused on him and she looked at him in confusion, what was he doing in her room?

 

“Hey Sango,” Inuyasha greeted and smiled softly down at the woman lying in the bed.

 

“Hi,” she greeted cautiously as she sat up slowly in her bed and was alarmed at how weak she felt. “Thanks,” she said when Inuyasha kept her from falling back to the bed and propped her up against he headboard, the pillows gathered behind her.

 

“How are you feeling?” the hanyou asked brushing her bangs aside and Sango was struck by the unusualness of his gentle affection.

 

“Weak,” she admitted after a moment. “I remember being sick, and I remember Kimigra and I having an argument but I don't remember what it was about…You bit me!” she said after a moment, her hand flying to her neck.

 

“Uh…yeah…about that - what do you know about youkai markings?” he asked watching her carefully as her brow furrowed in thought.

 

Her eyes opened wide, “I'm your mate?” she asked alarmed.

 

“No! Kami no! Not that you aren't an eligible female. You'd make a good mate, a strong mate,” he said trying to reassure her.

 

“So…I'm not…your mate, but you intend for me to be?” she asked thinking that it was an intent marking.

 

“No, uh no. Umm, huh…uh what were you taught about matings-markings markings, what were you taught about markings?” he asked the room suddenly feeling smaller.

 

“Only that when a youkai takes a mate that they mark each other,” she said slowly as she studied the nervous hanyou carefully.

 

“That's it?” he asked in disbelief as he raised his brows. “That's all you were taught about youkai, just their mating practices?”

 

“That and how they hunted and what the powers were to specific breeds of youkai.” Sango didn't understand the problem.

 

“Fuck,” he cursed and stood from the bed as he walked back to the window, pacing between the window and the bed. “What do you know about youkai packs?”

 

“You mean a blood pact or a -”

 

“No not a pact,” he said emphasizing the`t', “A pack, like a family.”

 

Sango opened her mouth to say something and then snapped it closed as her brow furrowed in thought and confusion. Finally she simply shook her head. “Nothing, we weren't taught about packs, just mating habits and pregnant females and the fighting and hunting tactics of youkai. That was it,” she said with a shrug.

 

“Damn. They really didn't teach you much of anything then,” he said as he returned to sit by the taijiya's side.

 

“What do you mean?” she asked and blushed when her stomach growled rather loudly.

 

“Inuyasha chuckled and shook his head,” I'll let you get dressed and then tell you about it while you eat ok? You want the food brought in here, or you feel up to walkin' around?”

 

“Definitely out, I've been cooped up too long,” she said as she rose from the bed and it was then as her kimono fell open to the side that she noticed four long silver thin lines on her shoulder. “What are these?” she asked in confusion as she brushed her fingers over the marks.

 

Inuyasha's hand joined hers and a sorrowful whine escaped him bringing Sango's attention to him.

 

“Kimigra gave you the scratches, I healed em.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Cause you were sick that's-”

 

“No, not why did you heal them, why did he scratch me?” she asked.

 

“He wants to mate you,” Inuyasha said with a growl. “Damn youkai scratched you to introduce you to his poison and then was going to mate you once you were well, that's why you got so sick.”

 

“He poisoned me?” she said and couldn't help the shudder of fear that went through her.

 

Inuyasha took Sango into his arms and felt his own anger being matched by hers as he tried to comfort the woman in his arms. “Damn youkai didn't even ask my approval, just went after you anyway.”

 

“What do you mean your approval?” Sango asked as she pulled back and told him to turn around while she changed.

 

“I'm alpha, that means he or any other male for that matter has to ask for my approval before they can take one of my pack females, well you, to mate.”

 

“So than what exactly am I then? Why do they need your approval, not that I want to mate that - grrr,” Sango settled for a growl not finding a word that she wanted to use for Kimigra, “anyway. Why did you bite me?”

 

“I marked you as a pack female,” he said as Sango came around to stand in front of him dressed in a pink and white kimono that looked like wisps of color twined together like clouds. “The marking…it's changed you.”

 

“What do you mean?” she asked as they exited her room and walked down to the dining hall Kirara bounding down the hall to greet them and perch on Sango's shoulder.

 

The fire cat sniffed at Sango and noting the change in her human looked to Inuyasha and mewled. Inuyasha gave a soft growl and the neko nodded and curled up on Sango's shoulder in a tiny ball. Sango disregarded the interaction, having witnessed many such interactions between her feline friend and the hanyou.

 

“”You'll be stronger, gain some of my strength and speed so you'll be faster too,” he said as they continued to walk. “You'll feel different, things may smell stronger or seem louder to you now. You'll be harder to hurt and you'll have my healing abilities.”

 

“I didn't know youkai could do that, share attributes with any other than their mate.”

 

“Youkai, some youkai take humans into their packs. Some come in as friends or mates, sometimes though they'll find orphaned or abandoned human pups and take them in and raise them as their own.”

 

“Like Sesshoumaru did with Rin,” Sango said understanding and looked up to see the girl in question come bounding toward them and lift her arms to Inuyasha.

 

Sango laughed easily as she watched Inuyasha pick up the small girl and sit her on his shoulders, Rin lifting his hair into her arms as he sat her on his shoulders. Rin was happy enough to simply sit there and comb her fingers through his hair, not paying attention to the conversation between the two grown ups.

 

“Exactly like.”

 

“How come I haven't heard of this before?” Sango asked as they made their way to the dining hall doors and stepped inside, Rin ducking just a little bit as they went through the door frame.

 

“It isn't often that a human pup is taken in or that a human is marked as pack. The only youkai that really do this are inu, wolf, horses and neko, and I mean cats not panthers, lions or tigers, just cats. Sometimes bears do but not often and it's rarely done with them.”

 

“Why?” Sango asked as a servant brought her food and drink as she sat down, Inuyasha sitting Rin by his side as Miroku and his brother came in and joined them for the morning meal.

 

“Bear youkai are just like their animal cousins, they hibernate in the inter. Humans don't so that, they can't go months upon months without food. So bear youkai rarely take humans into their packs, but will have friendships or alliances, but it all depends on the youkai themselves.”

 

“So you've marked me as pack. What does that mean?” she asked as Sesshoumaru and Miroku listened in.

 

“It means you're a pack female. You're protected by the males and any male that wants to mate you has to ask for my approval. He has to prove himself worthy of being your mate.”

 

“Oh.” This would take some getting used to Sango thought, especially when she bent the silver metal cup of tea in her hands. Her eyes wide she nearly dropped the cup had it not been for Inuyasha.

 

“It'll take some getting used to,” the hanyou assured in an effort to comfort the girl.

 

 

 

 

“She still hasn't woken up?” Tiynoko asked his father as he came into the common room for breakfast.

 

“No,” Mitsunaro said worriedly as he looked toward the door that held the sleeping girl and her still unconscious pup. “Lord Sesshoumaru and Prince Inuyasha trusted that I would protect them and there they lie in injury unconscious.”

 

“Father you mustn't blame yourself.”

 

“He's right my dear,” Tsukina said as she laid her hand on her mate's arm. “It could have happened at anytime with anyone.”

 

Mitsunaro snorted ruefully, “Tsukina when have I ever taken you with me on a hunt? For that matter when did your father ever take you on a hunt?”

 

 

“Yes, while that may be true, I was daddy's little girl and he only had one.” Tsukina laid her chopsticks down and stood up from the table. “I'm going to go check on them.”

 

Tsukina walked quietly into the room that held Kagome and Shippou and sat at the girl's side. It had been only two days since the incident with the deer and the night of the incident Kagome had laid down and gone to sleep, she hadn't woken since. The demoness brushed Kagome's hair out of her face and smiled sadly down upon her.

 

She pulled her hand away from Kagome's face when the girl in the futon moaned and turned her head away, pained moans coming from her as she called out for her dead mother.

 

“Oh you poor girl,” Tsukina said and leant over kissing Kagome's brow before she got up and moved to the door. “Mitsu, who is it?” she asked when she heard her mate talking to someone male.

 

“It's the Lord and his pack Tsukina; they're here to see Lady Kagome.”

 

 

 

“What happened to her?” Sango asked alarm as she and Tsukina sat beside Kagome, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru standing near the foot of the bed.

 

“She and her pup woke before the rest of us her first morning here, she wanted to provide the meat for breakfast as a way to thank us for our hospitality…” Tsukina said trailing off softly as her son moved to the bed and she moved aside so that he could asses her injuries.

 

“Her pup wanted to make her proud and show her that he could provide for her,” Tiynoko said as he removed a bandage on her shoulder and then asked Sesshoumaru to support Kagome on her side as he rolled her over to see to her back, Inuyasha cursing madly at the extent of the heavy bruising. “Her pup wanted to make her proud and went after prey bigger than he could handle.”

 

“How big?” Inuyasha asked gruffly as he stared at Shippou who lay unmoving on a pillow next to the futon, the kitsune looking nearly dead.

 

“A full grown buck, big enough to give me trouble if I were to try and take it down the way the pup did - using only my fangs and claws.”

 

“Shippou did that?!” Inuyasha growled mad at the pup for putting Kagome in that kind of danger.

 

“”The pup got slammed pretty hard into a tree, he was unconscious by the time I found them, Kagome was thrown into a rather large tree courtesy of the buck's hind hooves. The pup got his head cracked against another one and was only hanging onto the buck by his fangs, the rest of his body was limp from the first blow, he barely missed getting tree slammed a second tie by the deer, would have been if I hadn't heard the commotion.” Tiynoko carefully rolled Kagome back down to lie on the bed. “You should all prepare yourselves; Kagome may wake up and heal just fine. But there's a good chance the pup won't wake up, or even survive at all.”

 

“Damnit you bastard you've got father's sword, use IT!” Inuyasha growled desperately at his brother.

 

“Tenseiga lay still in its sheath Inuyasha. It gives no pulse, I've used the sword once before when it gave no pulse and it did nothing.”

 

“Try it now, maybe it'll work!” Inuyasha said his anger hiding the tears in his heart.

 

“You wish me to use father's fang simply to pacify you, but brother when it does not work, then what will you do?” Sesshoumaru asked as he looked up at his little brother. “You heard the healer, Kagome has a good chance.”

 

“Yeah but Shippou doesn't. Kagome can't loose anyone else, it'll kill her!” Inuyasha said as he looked down upon the girl he loved so much.

 

“What about what you did for me Inuyasha?” Sango asked. “Wouldn't that work for Shippou?” still marveling at the fact that she didn't get winded quite as easily when she would run anymore, having run beside Inuyasha as they came here for a while before taking her place on Kirara's back with Miroku behind her.

 

“Shippou full youkai Sango,” the hanyou said sadly. “It won't make any difference. As a youkai he already heals a bit faster than me.”

 

“What will we do?” she asked looking upon her sister as tears gathered in her eyes.