InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Mother's Love ❯ A Mother's Love ( Chapter 1 )

I sighed. It was sunrise, I realized, and we had been camping out for nearly a full month now. Kagome hadn’t gone home to see her family in that long (and she wouldn’t get a chance for a very long time, if InuYasha had anything to say about it) and I’d been getting fatter on the only ninja food Kagome had left in her pack- pocky.

The early morning was tinted orange. It gave me a strange feeling. I, after watching my parents die, had joined with Kagome and InuYasha. I loved Kagome. And I knew that the stupid dog-face had loved her, too.

“Shippou-chan…?” Her soft voice, laced with sleep, caught me and drew me from my reverie. “You’re up early.”

Her smile made me smile up at her. “I’m a youkai! I don’t need sleep, remember?!”

My statement might have been a tad more believable if I hadn’t yawned at the end. Kagome giggled.

“I’ll start breakfast, Shippou-chan.” She patted the top of my head. “Try not to make too much noise, though. InuYasha’s just changing back, and he’ll be grumpy all day if you wake him up.”

I scowled. “InuYasha’s always grumpy,” I complained.

Kagome smiled and started taking things from her bag.

I sighed again. “I’m going to get some water for you, okay?”

She nodded in response. “Try not to sigh so much.” She giggled at the look on my face. “You’ll get old faster.”

It was Kagome’s innate ability to know exactly what he was thinking that had me adoring her so much. I hadn’t allowed myself to ever tell anyone, but having Kagome around me for nearly three years now had helped me heal the scar the Thunder Brothers had placed along my heart so long ago.

I always hated when she went home. I hated InuYasha for sending her home so often with his cruel words, yet I couldn’t deny the place that the inuhanyou had in my heart.

I made sure to “accidentally” kick the said hanyou as I walked away from the, now, started fire.

~*~

We hadn’t been able to travel too far. The weather was cold all day long, the winter chill nipped at the group as the cold white snow blanketed the Earth. I had been more than happy to oblige when Kagome offered me a ride in her arms. I figured she was equally as glad to have the extra warmth.

InuYasha, who had begun sneezing almost as soon as Miroku found them an inn, was now sleeping. Not too often would the hanyou sleep, and the members of the group had all been content to allow him to continue.

I had quickly gotten bored. Kagome was busing herself with supper, Miroku was around in the village asking about Shikon no Tama rumors, and Sango was in the forest behind the inn. It had seemed a few renegade youkai had been making nuisances of themselves.

Night fell and Kagome handed me a bowl of rice and a large piece of fish. She rubbed me on top of my head and I beamed up at her. “Thank you, Kagome!”

She shushed me with a smile and an explaination that the irate hanyou was asleep, and she wanted to keep it that way.

It was only later that I figured out why, exactly, he needed to stay asleep.

Above the inn, Shinidaimochou floated in lazy circles, crying out to InuYasha. They were there to bring him to their mistress.

That, also, was something I knew couldn’t be helped. I’d told InuYasha on more than one occasion that going to see the dead priestess was way passed pointless. I was blunt to a fault, and Inuyasha never responded well to that.

Kagome was walking from the inn when I realized that InuYasha was stirring. I rolled my eyes.

I jumped unto the hanyou’s chest and gave him a dull look. InuYasha glared back. “Oi, if you go outside, I won’t ever forgive you.”

“Keh,” was the only response the inuhanyou offered. I sighed heavily and jumped back to his spot next to the warm hearth.

I noticed when InuYasha left, but said nothing. Soon afterwards, Kagome returned. She mirrored my sigh and opened her arms to me. It was only when I smiled and leapt into her proffered arms and settled myself did I notice Kagome’s trembling. I patted her arm.

“You know, when I’m bigger I can be your husband! I wouldn’t hurt you like that stupid jerk does, either.” She buried her face in his fiery hair.

Despite her tears she still managed to speak to me in that warm comforting voice she always reserved especially for me. I knew I had been ridiculous to offer her such a thing, and yet I had never been more serious about anything in my entire life. “Shippou-chan…” She paused. “One day, you’ll meet a beautiful woman that you’ll fall in love with. Then, you’ll marry her and have lots of baby kitsunes.”

She turned me around in her arms. I opened my mouth to protest, but she cut me to the quick.

“I promise you she’ll be beautiful, just like you deserve.”

I must have smiled, because she gave me that smile of hers. The one were her whole being would just light up and I would swear she was some sort of goddess and the other side of the well was heaven. Not the kind of heaven Miroku had described (a place where good Buddhist men drink sake and have tons of beautiful girls surrounding them), but a heaven that was composed of the creatures Kagome had described as angels. Kagome had shown me a picture of an angel before, and I was convinced that she had to have been one of them.

Miroku and Sango entered the inn and their outer clothes immediately were hung by the fire. Idle chatter was started between the women and I settled next to the monk.

“You look troubled, Shippou.” I looked up at him.

“Why is Inu-kuro such a prick?” Sango’s laugh was cut short and Kagome’s story went unnaturally quiet.

She shushed me a little. “Shippou-chan! Who taught you those words?”

I almost laughed at her face. Her jaw was slack, and Sango was behind her stifling her giggles into sighs and coughs. “Who else? Kouga,” I answered honestly.

Miroku, who was still beside me, doubled over in laughter. Sango also let loose a loud snort. “S-Shippou-chan,” Miroku started.

Sango tried to finish for him, “You shouldn’t… l-listen to h-him!”

Kagome was just scowling. I couldn’t tell what, exactly, she was thinking, but I knew that she must have been very upset with something.

I tugged on her sleeve. I guess it must not have dawned on me that Kouga wasn’t the best role model for myself, but I still agreed with the wolf-demon on one thing. InuYasha was a damn mut.

She turned to me, with that marked scowl still in place. Her voice still, though, held that warmth that she always radiated. “Hai, Shippou-chan?”

The room had suddenly gone still, and she never got the chance to answer me. The fire seemed to have dimmed in those moments as InuYasha pushed aside the shoji screen aside and stepped inside the room.

In an instant Kagome was on her feet and running from the room which had, rather suddenly, gotten very uncomfortable. She didn’t even take her shoes…

~*~

Later that night, when Kagome returned, I was still lying awake. Sango and Miroku had retired to their own room in the small inn, and InuYasha sat in the corner, his breathing quite uneven and strained.

Something nagged at me about him. Something had happened between my Kagome and that jerk, I just knew it.

She came to her bedroll (which I was warming) and lay down beside me. I sighed contentedly and whispered to her. “You okay, ‘Gome?”

Her body was shaking from the cold as she nodded. I turned towards her to snuggle. “Hai…”

It hit me then. She was devoid of that warmth. “Ma…ma?” My eyes nearly teared up when her body went rigid.

“Iie, Shippou-chan.” She hugged me tighter to herself. “Gomen nasai, Shippou-chan, gomen.”

Her slight frame was once again shaking in sobs that she tried so desperately to hide from me. I hung on tighter. “Hai!” I wasn’t even bothering to whisper anymore. Screw that damn hanyou! “You are my mama!”

Her tears slowed. “Shippou-chan… I love you. No matter what happens to me or you, I’m still going to love you just like a mama should.”

I nodded and tears threatened my eyes with a tingle. She was perfect. InuYasha was sitting across from us, and I was sure he must have heard the entire conversation, yet he was still. He said nothing, and I was grateful.

Maybe she felt like she shouldn’t be in this time, as if she didn’t have a place with us, but she was the one who made sure our group stayed together. When we had problems, Kagome was there to help us. She was there with her sympathy.

Any “Thank you,” would never, ever have been enough.

And now that she was gone, and I was grown-up, I realize how much pain she must have been in staying with InuYasha like she did. I watched Sango and Miroku marry and have pups of their own. I watched them grow old and eventually pass, just as I watched over all of their future generations.

I lived in Kyoto as the revolutionists killed us. Every youkai they could find, they slaughtered. Sesshoumaru saved me from that fate and moved us to the west. I wonder what year it is in Kagome’s time. I wonder what she’s doing this moment.

But most importantly, I wonder what things would be like if InuYasha had decided to remain hanyou. Kagome had loved him all those moons ago. I wonder what she felt now…

~*~


Author’s Note: This idea has been somersaulting in my head for a long time now, so I put WSME and Suki Kizu on hold to write it. Isn’t that sad?

I. Love. Devil’s Dance. She is positively amazing.

As for the ending, it’s supposed to be open-ended. Think what you want, but if you read my other fictions, you might have a decent idea which one I would suppose he chooses.