InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Royal Birth: Sequel to His Little Girl ❯ Pappa ( Chapter 9 )

 

Toga held Inuyasha tightly to him as they sat high in the tree deep in the forest of the Western Lands. It had taken a long time for Inuyasha to finally expel all of his grief. His precious puppy had been so young when he had lost everything. First his father, but then his home and mother as well. It had hurt to know what his son had had to do just to survive. Eating bugs, hiding in hollowed out trees, even so much as having to one tome sleep in a field of decaying bodies to mask his scent when a group of youkai came after him to kill him.

 

It stung greater than any sword blow to discover that his son didn't remember much of his life before he and his mother had gone to live in the cave. Inuyasha had spent his childhood believing himself to be a mistake and in believing so, the animosity he held for his brother had grown. To discover how close his sons had come at one time or another to ending each other, Toga shook himself of those dark thoughts and looked down upon his drowsy son that was nestled deep in his embrace.

 

Inuyasha wasn't asleep, not yet at least, but he could tell that the hanyou was nearing it. Inuyasha shifted in his father's arms and laid his cheek against the youkai's shoulder as he looked up into a pair of golden eyes. The hanyou was sitting in his father's lap, his legs draped over one leg as Toga leaned back against the trunk of the old tree, his son against his chest, tucked into one arm as the other arm stroked his hair away from his face. As Toga looked down upon his son a part of his mind kept turning the man his son had grown into back into the way he looked as a tiny pup.

 

He remembered when his son was first born, how frightened Izayoi had been when she gave birth after carrying her son for only six months. He mentally laughed at himself for not thinking to tell her. He wondered if Kagome had been told, or if she had been as frightened as his human mate had been.

 

Toga's eyes softened incredibly as he watched his son's fisted hand come up to rub at his eye tiredly. Inuyasha curled into his father's arms a little more and he buried his nose in his father's haori. Toga bent his head down and kissed Inuyasha's brow, he hugged his son closer before loosening his arms enough for the hold to be both comfortable and secure.

 

Snow or not, Toga decided, that he would remain with his son in the tree and not simply carry the boy home. Even through all the talking and emotional turmoil, he had seen his son truly relaxed out here in the wild as he had not seen him be so in the castle. He understood now why it was that his son acted the way he did between his mate and Kagome. Toga finally understood.

 

Maika had been raised in the castle, the castle was her home and he doubted that she would be happy to leave it, plus the fact that she was a seasoned and highly respected and validated warrior in her own right; the inuyoukai had earned her right to call the castle home. Kagome, however, was far different. Kagome had been with Inuyasha since the beginning of the jewel quest. She had been the one to free him from the tree that Kikyou had bound him to. Kagome had happily slept on the ground with him and seemed to enjoy just being out in the wild as much as Inuyasha did. In a way, Kagome was his soul mate, but Maika was his youkai's mate.

 

As Toga thought more about it, he had to wonder if his son truly loved the youkai he was mated to, or if it was simply the pull of his youkai blood that had driven him to mate the woman. If it was the later, then Inuyasha would have to learn to love her, and if he couldn't then their mating may end up killing them both. It was as clear as the daylight to see his affection for his elder son's mate. The question was though, how far did that attraction extend?

 

“…nhh…pappa?” Inuyasha moaned as he tried to keep from falling asleep.

 

Toga looked into his son's exhausted muted golden eyes and stroked his hair and bangs back from his face.

 

“Yes my son.”

 

“Pappa we should get back,” his voice barely a whisper as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

 

“Shhh. Go to sleep my son. We'll spend the night here.”

 

Inuyasha curled more into his father's arms, the warmth and comfort they provided soothing his tear induced headache. The hanyou whined low as a simple turn of his head aggravated his already pounding head. Toga moved on the wide thick branch so that he was lying flat and pulled his son's body on top of his, hoping the new position would help. He buried his hands in son's hair and massaged Inuyasha's scalp, his gentle ministrations soothing away the pounding pulsing ache until it was simply a dull throb, sleep would clear away the rest he hoped.

 

Toga felt his Inuyasha's breathing and heartbeat change as his young son fell asleep in his arms. He smiled upon his son and drifted off to sleep himself.

 

The sleeping father was woken by the sun shinning down upon him through the canopy of the trees. Toga smiled as he found that both he and his son were covered in a light blanket of fluffy snow, his son still lay asleep in his arms. Toga tipped his head and kissed Inuyasha between his white puppy ears, the hanyou barely stirring at all.

 

Toga chuckled softly and shifted as gently and carefully as he could until he was sitting up against the trunk of the tree with Inuyasha nestled against his chest. Toga smiled softly as he brushed the snow from his son's hair and clothing, holding his precious son to him. Part of him felt cheated, he had been there to see Sesshoumaru grow into a young man but had not been able to save his youngest son from the torments that he would face in the young years of his life.

 

The inuyoukai lifted his son into his arms and stood on the branch. Clutching his son tightly to his chest, Toga hopped from branch to branch and tree to tree until he had reached the edge of the forest and then hopped to the ground. He stood in the ankle deep snow with Inuyasha in his arms, the hanyou slowly awakening. Toga stood still as he held his waking son and smiled upon him as his son's golden eyes fluttered open, his thick dusty lashes fluttering like butterfly wings as he woke.

 

“Pappa,” Inuyasha moaned as he awoke his voice nearly a whisper as he blinked his golden eyes up at his father.

 

Toga lifted his son a little and kissed his forehead. “Good morning my son.”

 

“We're not in the tree,” Inuyasha said, his sleepy mind waking slowly, the hanyou couldn't remember ever having slept so deeply.

 

“Nope. We're nearing the castle,” Toga said as he began walking again, his son still in his arms.

 

“I can walk,” he said as he fully woke, his voice regaining the gruff quality.

 

“Humor me.”

 

Inuyasha snorted and snuggled in his father's arms, though his eyes dared his father to say just one thing about it. Toga's lips twitched as he tried not to smile at his son's behavior. He found it a blessing to be alive again. He would be able to get to know his youngest son as the man he was and get to hold him again.

 

Inuyasha settled himself against his father as he was carried like a pup back to the castle, though he was relieved that instead of going inside the castle his father took him into the eastern gardens. Toga sat on a stone bench beneath an old walnut tree. He held Inuyasha on his lap, wrapped in his arms as he simply stared out over the garden.

 

“I used to bring you out here everyday that I was able to. Sometimes,” Toga smiled upon his son and looked up into the barren tree. “Sometimes I would bring you out here before you woke up in the morning or after your nap, and I'd sit in the tree with you. You loved to teeth on the hard walnut shells, cracking them and then digging out the nut inside. I remember how happily you would chomp on the walnut; your mother would get so mad at me. Telling me that I couldn't let you do things like that. She was convinced that I couldn't give you solid food until you were completely weaned from her breast.”

 

Toga chuckled as he pulled a lonely walnut off the tree, “It seems that one didn't fall off before the snow.”

 

Toga handed it to his son who took it into his hand and looked at it before putting an edge of it into his mouth and nibbling until the hard shell cracked and broke. Inuyasha didn't think at all about what he was doing as he nibbled on the nut shell, once a good portion of the shell was broken off he brought the open part up to his face and peered inside. Using his claws like pincers, he began to pull out the nutmeat.

 

Toga looked upon Inuyasha and saw the tiny pup he had once been as he nibbled on the shell and dug out the nutmeat from within. For a moment it was as though not time had passed, but once he blinked, the image was gone and it was his grown son that sat in his arms. Part of Toga wanted to scream to the kami or whoever would listen that it wasn't fair. How could it have been fair for his son to go through what he had gone through?

 

I survived…I'm strong. Those words that his son had said so passionately the night before ran through his mind. How many times had his son had to prove that to himself or to others? How many times had people youkai and human alike tried to kill him?

 

Inuyasha looked up at his father in confusion as he suddenly found himself crushed against his father's chest, his father looking as though it was taking a great amount of will not to cry or scream or have some sort of emotional outburst. His golden eyes studied his father in confusion, what was wrong?

 

“Pappa?” Inuyasha asked.

 

`Old man' had been on the tip of his tongue, but for some reason the term had just felt wrong and out of place in the setting they were in. Toga didn't answer his son, instead he squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in his son's neck, almost afraid that he would disappear if he didn't hold him close. Inuyasha felt a youkai enter the garden and looked over to see his brother standing next to them.

 

“What's wrong with father?” Sesshoumaru asked softly and was met with a lost look from Inuyasha.

 

“I don't know. We talked over some stuff last night…he seemed ok this morning, but then we sat here and he talked about this tree and me as a pup…” Inuyasha trailed off as he felt warm tears against his neck and felt his father's body shudder as he held him.

 

The brothers had kept their voices soft as whispers when they spoke. When Inuyasha felt his father's tears against his neck and let out a low whine as his ears folded back against his head. His arms were trapped against his sides by his father's arms making it nearly impossible for him to move. The desperate hold his father had on him made Inuyasha nervous and worried. What could be wrong?

 

“What did you talk about last night?” Sesshoumaru asked softly as he knelt in front of his father and brother.

 

“Me after mamma died,” Inuyasha said, his ears still folded back against his head, his eyes worried and lost.

 

Sesshoumaru reached up and ran his hand through his Inuyasha's hair as he tried to soothe his distraught brother. The silvery white strands slipped easily from between his brother's haori and his father's silk clad arm. Soon all of his brother's thick mane was laying over his father's arm as Sesshoumaru continued to stroke through the thick and knotted mass.

 

“That's it,” Sesshoumaru said softly with a teasing twinkle in his golden eyes. “When we get inside I'm giving Kagome a brush and letting her have her way with your hair.”

 

“Oi! Ain't nothin' wrong with my hair!” he growled as he narrowed his eyes and his brows furrowed in annoyance.

 

“There most certainly is, I think a few rats have nested in it.”

 

Inuyasha growled at Sesshoumaru and both brothers heard Toga laugh and Inuyasha felt his father's hold soften. Toga wiped the tears from his face and stroked his son's hair, his fingers often getting caught by the various knots and tangles in the thick mane.

 

“I agree with your brother, Kagome is brushing that mane.”

 

Inuyasha huffed a growl and was let loose of his father's hold to stand and stretch. The hanyou looked at both males and was about to leap away when they both caught either arm.

 

“Oh come on! It's not that bad!”

 

“Inuyasha have you ever brushed your hair?” Toga asked his grumbling son.

 

“No…Kagome's mom did once though.”

 

“Yes well now my mate will brush it again,” Sesshoumaru said as father and brother `helped' him to Sesshoumaru's chambers and took him inside.

 

Kagome was standing up and burping her daughter when they came in. She gave a bemused smile as they led Inuyasha to the bed and had him sit down on the plush surface. Sesshoumaru took his infant daughter from his mate and bid her to take up her brush and tame his brother's wild locks. Kagome giggled and did as told, settling herself behind Inuyasha on the bed and began working his hair from the very ends slowly up to his roots.

 

At one point in her brushing, Kagome came upon a particularly difficult knot and set the brush aside, using her fingers to untangle the knot, her gentleness matched only by her mother's. Inuyasha was fairly purring by the end when she was simply stroking the brush through his silken hair, the locks tamed.

 

Inuyasha's hair shined much like his brother's and although it was still thick, some of it's girth was lost when its tangles came loose. Kagome set the brush aside and simply ran her fingers through his silken locks, the strands slipping through her fingers like liquid silk, a waterfall of silver hair. His eyes had been closed since Kagome had worked that knot with her fingers so none of them in the room had noticed when Inuyasha had fallen asleep until he fell backward into Kagome's arms.

 

The girl giggled as her friend's sleeping form fell back into her arms and she held him against her in a backward hug as she rested her chin on his shoulder. Kagome kissed his cheek and looked at her mate and father in law.

 

“He's really such a sweet boy,” she said with a soft smile. “He's just afraid to show it.”

 

“You care greatly for both my sons,” Toga said with a thoughtful smile.

 

Kagome smiled brightly. “I met Inuyasha first. He was pinned to the Goshinkobu by Kikyou's arrow. He slept for fifty years pinned there until I came and released him. When I first saw him,” her eyes took on a faraway look as she smiled softly in remembrance. “He looked so sweet sleeping there, I almost thought him a dream. When I climbed up on the tree I saw his puppy ears,” she smiled down upon the boy in her arms and one hand moved to rub his left ear. “I just couldn't resist, I had to touch them.” She giggled as she smiled up at Toga. “They're so soft, like velvet or rabbit fur almost. His little puppy ears…We've traveled so long together. At first it was just us and then later we came upon Shippou. He wanted the shards we'd collected so he could fight the Thunder Brother's to avenge his father's death and take back his father's fur that Manten was wearing as a belt. We helped the little trickster fight them - well technically Inuyasha fought them. We took Shippou with us then. I wasn't willing to leave him alone and as gruff as Inuyasha was, I think he saw himself in Shippou, saw the little pup who'd lost his family…shortly after that we met Miroku and then later Sango and Kirara. For a long time it was just us. Sesshoumaru and I,” she smiled at her mate, “after he'd found Rin, she changed him. Softened his heart. That little girl is very much a daddy's girl, she still comes into our bed when she has a nightmare, even though Shippou's there with her, nothing beats her father's arms. I remember how that felt,” she said as her voice and eyes saddened.

 

“Kagome?” Toga asked wondering what she meant. I remembered how that felt, those were her words.

 

“Daddy died when we were young. Souta doesn't really remember him, but I do.” Kagome studied Inuyasha's puppy ears as she spoke, the final memories of her father painful for her. “…I remember him before, when he was happy and we talk and he would hold me and tell me stories. I remember…I remember him getting sick,” her voice caught as the memories assaulted her. “He was so sick. He went the hospital for treatments they called it. The treatments only made daddy worse. He couldn't keep food down,” her voice began to tremble as her eyes watered. “He would shake and cry because it hurt so much. By the time daddy died he was in so much pain. He didn't even know me anymore, he didn't recognize me.” Her tears slipped down her face and fell into Inuyasha's hair. “I remember him laying in the hospital bed, his eyes, they scared me. His eyes, they weren't his anymore. I couldn't see him in his eyes and there was this…this…this dark cloud this emptiness around him, surrounding him and taking him away from me. Mamma couldn't see it, but I could, and it scared me.”

 

Kagome felt Inuyasha taken from her arms and laid aside as she was wrapped in Toga's strong arms. Toga lifted Kagome and sat down on the bed holding her on his lap and wrapped in his arms. He stroked her glossy black hair as the silent tears slipped down her face and she turned and buried her face in his shoulder. Toga cupped the back of her head in his hand as she nestled her face against his shoulder and let the tears fall. Her eyes were closed but the last image she held of her father still haunted her like a frozen picture in her mind, burned into her memories.

 

“Daddy,” she sobbed brokenly against Toga's shoulder as her arms clutched him around his chest. “Why didn't…why didn't daddy know me?” she cried her voice choking on the words.

 

“I don't know little one,” Toga said softly to the distraught girl in his arms.

 

He held her close thinking how lucky he was to have her as part of his family and how glad he was that he was given the chance to know her. He held her close, stroking her hair and rubbing her back as she cried her grief to him. This girl in his arms, he would protect her as a father should, he'd hold her close and offer her a sanctuary in his arms whenever he could.

 

“Why did daddy have to leave me? Why did he get sick?” she asked through her tears, her voice muffled by his dampening haori.

 

“I don't know sweetheart,” Toga whispered to her as he held her sobbing form tightly to his chest. He turned his head and kissed her cheek. “Did your mother help you understand why?”

 

“Mommy couldn't function after daddy died,” she cried her voice making her sound years younger than what she was, making her sound like a child again. “I took care of mommy and Souta after daddy died. Grandpa was gone; he was in Okinawa with the rest of our family trying to help them. So I had to take care of mommy and Souta till he got back.”

 

Toga's eyes saddened as he held her in his arms. This precious little girl in his arms had never gotten to grieve for the father she lost. Not until now. He'd do everything he could now to protect her, to protect his sons. If she'd let him, he'd be a father to her.

 

“T-Toga,” she hiccupped and cried in his arms.

 

“Yes sweetheart.”

 

“C-Can I call you…can I call you pappa? I know you can't replace my daddy but…could I?”

 

Toga crushed the girl to him and kissed her shoulder. “You can call me pappa anytime you want.”

 

Her arms held him tighter and he stroked her hair, the others in the room forgotten. Toga felt her give a shuddering yawn against his shoulder and turned to lay her on the bed next to Inuyasha. As he moved to get up her hand fisted in the sleeve of his haori, her storm blue eyes pleading with him.

 

“Please don't leave me,” she begged and he gave a soft smile a nodded.

 

Toga toed off his boots and moved to lie beside her, enfolding the girl in his arms. He silently thanked her dead father for giving him this gift. Kagome was Toga's little girl now and he'd do everything in his power to protect her. Kagome turned onto her side and buried herself in his arms and draped her arm over his stomach as he let her head fall to his shoulder.

 

Sesshoumaru knelt on the bed and bent over his mate, kissing her temple before leaving her and his brother to sleep with his father to look over them. Toga smiled up at his eldest son and ran his hand through his son's hair as he held Sesshoumaru's striped cheek in his hand.

 

“You've done well my son. I'm proud of you.”

 

Sesshoumaru's eyes softened and misted as he smiled and nodded at his father, not trusting his voice enough for a verbal reply. He moved to the crib and covered his sleeping two month old infants with a soft rabbit skin blanket. He kissed both their brows and stepped away from their crib, looking one last time upon the three in his bed before leaving the room.

 

The taiyoukai walked down to his study and sat down heavily at his desk. He propped his elbows up on the desk and let his head fall into his hands. It had been nearly six weeks since his uncle's threat. He'd not appeared since and not a sound from him or any youkai that could signal an ally of his since then.

 

“Daddy?” a soft voice from the door called to him.

 

“Rin,” he greeted with a soft smile and turned to her, opening his arms as the girl padded across the floor toward him.

 

Sesshoumaru lifted Rin into his arms as sat her on his knee. He hugged her and kissed her head, her puppy ears slightly folding back as she looked at him. He smelled of sadness and worry.

 

“Daddy what's wrong?” she asked as she studied him, a low whine slipping from her unnoticed by the girl.

 

Sesshoumaru let loose a low soft growl, comforting the girl in his arms and soothing her into a lull.

 

“I'm alright Rin.”

 

“Promise?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Rin smiled softly at him as she turned and hugged him. Sesshoumaru smiled down at her and kissed her head once more before setting her on the floor. Rin ran out of the room only to return moments later with her baby bunny and her favorite book from the library.

 

Sesshoumaru smiled as the girl dropped her book on the pillow across the room and dragged it with one hand over to rest at the side of her father's desk opposite the door. He smiled softly as he watched her settle herself on the pillow, her unnamed bunny in her lap as she opened her book to read to it.

 

“Rin,” he asked softly and the girl's ears swiveled as she looked up at him. “What of your young fox kits?”

 

“Shippou's been taking care of them. He says he likes to talk to them.”

 

Sesshoumaru nodded to her and she returned to her book, reading softly to her `baby' as she stroked her fur. Rin read to them for a good twenty minutes and four chapters before yawning and setting the book aside. The young girl turned and laid down on her side, pulling the tiny bunny into her arms as she fell asleep for an afternoon nap on the pillow.

 

Sesshoumaru smiled down upon the picture she made and quickly left his study. He soon found the artist, an eagle youkai, who had painted all of the family portraits from his father on to him and Inuyasha and bid the youkai to follow him. Motioning for the male to be silent he led him into his study and motioned to Rin who slept peacefully on the pillow, her new baby in her arms.

 

“Can you do it?” Sesshoumaru asked softly, his face impassive.

 

“Not a problem,” the eagle youkai said and smiled as the scene.

 

His best and most prized possession was his photographic memory. He only had to see something once and could recreate it perfectly in paint on canvas years later. He had done many of the royal family portraits, but found this commission to be one of the most heartwarming and as of now was by far his favorite. This picture would be a pleasure to make. He couldn't wait to get his talons on his brushes and paints.