InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Royal Birth: Sequel to His Little Girl ❯ (untitled) ( Chapter 10 )

 

 

Toga lay upon his son's bed holding Kagome in his arms as she slept, Inuyasha asleep behind her. The youkai sighed as he stared up at the ceiling. He could feel something coming, something big and dangerous but he didn't know what it was and that bothered him to no end. He stroked Kagome's hair and kissed her brow as he felt her begin to stir against him and thought her to be waking.

 

Moments later when Kagome had not awakened and Toga had thought her returned to sleep, he heard her moan pitifully in his arms and looked down at her in concern. She sounded afraid, terribly afraid and he could smell the scent of fear beginning to grow and intensify on her as her brow furrowed and her head rocked against his shoulder.

 

“Kagome,” he called softly hoping to wake her from the nightmare.

 

Kagome didn't respond to his voice and only whimpered more as she began to move in his arms. He felt one arm still against his chest, the hand forming a fist as her opposite arm moved back against him. Looking more closely as her arms stilled he realized that she had drawn her bow in her sleep and was steadying her aim. What was she firing at?

 

“Kagome, little one wake up,” he said again and Inuyasha stirred on the bed.

 

Inuyasha woke to the sound of his father's voice and the scent of Kagome's fear and the sound of her nightmare induced whimpers and moans. The hanyou moved against Kagome's back and propped himself up on his elbow as he looked from her face to his father's. He too could see that she was aiming her arrow in her sleep.

 

“How long has she been like this?” Inuyasha asked referring to her nightmare cries.

 

“Just a moment or two, she was sleeping peacefully before or so I thought.”

 

The tenseness in her arms slackened, the hand that held her dream arrow flicking open quickly as she released the arrow. Both father and son could see a slight pink glow surrounding her and it was apparent that whatever occurred in her dreams that the arrow she had fired had been meant to purify.

 

Kagome's whimpering ceased and she grew still in Toga's arms as she once again returned to a quiet slumber. Inuyasha and Toga both looked over the girl in wonder and concern, what could she have been dreaming about? Who could she have been meaning to purify? And most importantly, why didn't her miko energy harm or even affect either of them?

 

Both decided silently to themselves that those questions best left for later and Inuyasha rose from the bed as he left to go check on his mate. Maika was pregnant and though most of the time he couldn't stand to be away from her, his instincts telling him to protect the breeding female, he often found himself guarding Kagome just as he would when they would be out in the forests on their shard hunts.

 

As nice as it was to be inside the castle and to have permanent place of rest and someplace to call home, he greatly missed the wilderness. The trees and bushes and wild had become his home. He had grown up in the wild and as dangerous as it could be, that wilderness was his home. He missed sleeping in he trees, he missed running through the grass and leaping through the trees. He missed carrying Kagome on his back and jumping as high as he could just to hear her laugh with joy.

 

Part of the hanyou was afraid that he loved Kagome more than his own mate and if he truly sat down and thought about it, he would realize that his fear was true. Kagome was his heart, his soul, she was the only one - the first one - he had ever learned to trust. She was the one that called his youkai blood. When he was angry or unsettled, just a whiff of her scent was all it took to calm him.

 

As Inuyasha stepped into Maika's and his room and found his mate sleeping, he again began to wonder. He sat in the chair by the window as he looked out over the snow covered ground below. What he had told Maika was true, he did love her, he did need her, but he also knew that in times of stress she wouldn't be the one he would turn to for comfort.

 

His gaze turned away from the window and he looked upon his mate. Her belly grew larger everyday with the pup inside of it. It would only be a month or two until she gave birth to it. He would love her and the pup; he would be faithful to them that in itself wasn't even a question in his mind. He had to wonder though, just how long would it be before Maika would realize the truth.

 

He loved her yes, but Kagome, she was his heart. His mother had died when he was too young to help in things like this and he felt he couldn't talk to his father. Yes Toga had taken two mates, but not at the same time. Sesshoumaru's mother had been dead nearly a century before his father had found Izayoi. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly as a thought occurred to him, maybe he could talk to Kashu.

 

The woman that was Kagome's mother had become like a second mother to him. Maybe she'd be able to help him, be able to help him answer the questions and help calm the fears and doubts that lay inside his heart and mind. Moving from the chair he stood beside Maika's sleeping form and bent down to kiss her brow. The inuyoukai woman stirred at the touch and looked up at her mate with a questioning glance in her violet blue eyes.

 

“I'll be back my mate, you rest ok?” he said in barely a whisper and she nodded to him sleepily before closing her eyes and returning to slumber.

 

Inuyasha left their room and made his way down the hall. Kashu's scent was everywhere due to her inhabitance inside the castle, but her scent was faint and old. He sniffed the air as he tried to locate her and soon found himself winding down the halls blindly as he followed his nose to a room in a hall he had not before ever explored.

 

As he came to the door that held her scent he knocked lightly, hoping her to be awake within. After a moment he was beckoned inside and found her with Shinta and her daughter as she lay back against a futon on the floor. His brow furrowed in confusion as he looked at her, she was laying with her legs spread apart, her knees bent and she looked to be in pain.

 

He moved closer and was still curious as to what was going on. Kashu looked up and saw his confusion and beckoned him closer to her with an outstretched hand. Inuyasha came to her and took her soft delicate hand in his own. The human woman began to sit up with some difficulty and he settled himself on the floor behind her as he helped her sit up and propped her back against his chest.

 

“What's going on?” he finally asked and the three women all looked at him as though he should know. “Mind giving me a clue here?”

 

“She's in labor Lord Inuyasha,” Shinta's daughter said politely to the hanyou.

 

“Don't Lord me ok kid, I'm not really one for titles or formalities,” he said gently so as not to frighten her. “But I don't smell the birth water,” he said in confusion to the girl's statement.

 

“That happened last night Inuyasha,” Kashu said as she reached up and scratched his left ear. “I was sleeping at the time, but now it seems that this little one wants to come out.”

 

“Why's it taking so long?” he asked in confusion. “Kagome's births seemed pretty fast.”

 

Kashu and Shinta chuckled lightly at the hanyou. If he only knew. Kashu sucked in air her breath hissing as she clenched her jaw. It had been a long time since she had last experienced the pains of labor but it was easier to handle this time around. She braced her hands on Inuyasha's thighs and grunted as she sat up a bit more as she pushed.

 

Kashu fell back after a long moment of pushing and felt Inuyasha's arms come around her in a soft and gentle hug as she rested after the push.

 

“The head's out Kashu,” Shinta said as she looked between the birthing woman's legs. “Here come the shoulders, one more big push should do it.”

 

Kashu again braced her hands on Inuyasha's thighs as she braced herself for the next contraction and the push that would come with it. The hanyou behind her steadied her against his back and placed his hands on either side of her trembling stomach as she pushed. His hands on her abdomen helped to ease the child out of her womb and once it was out and handed off to Shinta's daughter to be cleaned he looked up at Shinta in surprise.

 

“Something's moving in there,” he said in astonishment and the woman in his arms groaned as she felt another child moved into the birth canal.

 

It was another hour before the second child was out, though the fluttering that he had felt against his hand was still there and he told Shinta such. The rabbit youkai woman laughed heartily and looked at Kashu in amusement.

 

“Too old for this huh Kashu? I don't think your pups agree.”

 

Kashu growled as the next child made its entrance into the world with a loud cry and she groaned in thanks as the next thing to come out of her was the after birth. Kashu sat tiredly against Inuyasha as Shinta's daughter cleaned her up and helped her into a new kimono.

 

“That's it,” Kashu said sleepily as she held her newborn triplets in her arms, “I'm not doing that again.”

 

“What, birth?” Shinta asked in amusement.

 

“No. Tiyeko can make friends with his hand because I am not going to do anything that will lead to that again.”

 

Shinta laughed heartily as her daughter left to inform the father of his newborn pups.

 

“Once they're a bit older and your passion returns I doubt you'll keep to that.”

 

“You just watch me,” Kashu said with a giggle and gasped softly as Inuyasha lifted her into his arms and stood.

 

The hanyou was disappointed that his chance to talk with her had been thwarted but he was happy to see the new pups. Triplets. He shook his head as he carried her toward her mate and followed the kitsune youkai down to their room. Once inside the room, he laid the new mother gently on her bed and turned to leave.

 

“Inuyasha,” Kashu said softly and the hanyou she had come to think of as her son turned around and looked at her with a question in his eyes. “Stay.”

 

Inuyasha nodded and moved silently to the chair that sat by the window. He moved it closer to the bed and looked upon the three tiny pups. Each had tiny little fox ears on top of their heads, the tiny red triangles flat against their heads. Their ears would rise soon enough, possibly that night or the next morning. Each had their father's coloring, copper red hair and bright green eyes. All male as well and each looked exactly the same. He chuckled softly as he thought about how the woman would have her hands full.

 

Inuyoukai pups got into enough trouble as it was, but kitsune pups, with their natural propensity toward tricks and playfulness would be much worse. He still remembered all the trouble that they had gone through with Shippou when Kagome had first adopted him and demanded that they take him along with them. That little fox could be such a trying mischievous little devil, but Inuyasha had to admit that he wouldn't have Shippou any other way.

 

“You obviously came to see me for a reason Inuyasha,” Kashu said softly breaking the hanyou out of his thoughts as she tucked her now shoulder length hair behind her ear.

 

Inuyasha sighed and nodded. It was so much easier when he had been walking down the hall earlier before he had found her. It had been so very much easier to simply think about what he had wanted to say, what he had wanted to ask but now that he was here and had the opportunity to ask the questions, all the words seemed lost to him.

 

“Tiyeko,” Kashu said softly and her mate moved to her side from his place at the foot of their bed.

 

“Could you take them for a few minutes and let me talk to Inuyasha alone please.”

 

Her mate nodded and took the pups in his arms with a mile. “I think I'll go show them off,” he said with a devious grin and Kashu had no doubt that he meant to Sesshoumaru and Toga.

 

The woman giggled softly as she watched her mate leave. Toga was such a wonderful man - youkai. She wasn't at all upset that her daughter had found a new father in Toga and not in her mate. She knew that Tiyeko and Kagome had been friends before and although she would often go to the kitsune for advice on Shippou and how to help him adjust to the miko powers he now had, she knew that Kagome didn't see Tiyeko with a fatherly light.

 

“Come Inuyasha,” Kashu said softly and patted her hand on the bed beside her. “Sit next to me.”

 

The hanyou did as he was requested and Kashu wrapped her arm around his shoulders and pulled him against her side, letting his head fall to her shoulder as she simply held him for a silent moment. She remembered all the times that she had held this precious boy in such a manner. She had taken it upon herself to be a mother to him when her daughter had told her that he had lost his at a very young age.

 

Over the years that he and Kagome had traveled together through the well, there were times that when Kagome would be at school, he would come through the well just to sit and talk with her. She remembered clearly the day that it had been the anniversary of his mother's death and he had simply come through the well to be at her side. Inuyasha had been so silent and sad that Kashu had wanted to keep him at her side and had taken him with her down to the riding stables that she had loved to go to as a young girl.

 

That day she had gotten a horse for both of them and had ridden with Inuyasha sitting behind her as she took the horse down through a meadow and into the edge of a wildlife sanctuary that stood a good distance behind the stables pathways. She had sat with the hanyou and eaten lunch with him as they watched a family of wild rabbits and raccoons play off in the field beyond the fence.

 

She had held the boy to her chest as he cried and had finally told her the significance of the day. Turning her head, Kashu kissed the boy's cheek and looked into his golden eyes.

 

“What troubles you sweetie?” she asked softly to the hanyou sitting next to her on the bed.

 

“I'm scared,” he finally said after a long moment, his voice whisper soft.

 

“Scared of what?”

 

“I don't know what to do.”

 

“About what?” she asked and pulled him further into her embrace as he rested his head against her shoulder and scooted down on the bed to lay against her, wrapping his arms around her middle that was no longer heavy with child.

 

“I love Maika…she's my mate…but…”

 

“But what sweetheart?” she asked and stroked the hair between his puppy ears, the motion calming and relaxing him.

 

“But I don't lover as I should.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I…I love her…She's nice and sweet and a good strong youkai, she'll make a good mother…but…but I think that I…I love Kagome more.”

 

“How so?” she asked carefully.

 

“Kagome was the first one that I saw, the first one I met when I woke up from being pinned to the tree by Kikyou's arrow.” Kashu nodded for him to continue when he looked up at her. “She was the first one that I've ever trusted, the first one - the only one who taught me what trust was really about. She didn't want me to change, didn't want me to become human for her. She told me once that if I did become either human or full youkai that she would miss my puppy ears,” he laughed softly at that. “She understands my need to be out in the wild, she likes to be out there too. When I'm upset or mad or scared, her scent, it calms me. I can talk to Kagome about anything, tell her anything and she won't laugh at me or yell at me or anything like that.”

 

“And what about Maika?” Kashu asked when he remained silent.

 

“That's just it…it's exactly the opposite with Maika. I love her yes but, but she loves living here in the castle. She doesn't get the same closed in and trapped feeling that I do by having all these walls around me…She doesn't…her scent doesn't calm me the same way Kagome's does. I can't talk to her like I can talk to Kagome. Maika doesn't hold the same interest in my ears that Kagome does, and she always stares at me when I change on my human night. I mean I know it's a new thing to her and all, but after the first time Kagome saw my change she didn't make a big deal about it the next time. She understood that it made me uncomfortable for someone to watch it happen and would just sit beside me once I was human. Her presence calms me in my human form and Maika's doesn't…Am I a bad mate? I don't want to loose her and I don't want to turn her away, but…I don't know what to do.”

 

The hanyou boy in her arms sounded so lost and Kashu knew that she would do anything just to comfort him. But she didn't know how to answer his questions. She sat quietly, just holding Inuyasha in her arms as she stroked his hair and rested her cheek against his temple.

 

“I don't know what to tell you sweetheart,” she said after a long moment of silence. “Have you talked to anyone else about this?” she asked gently and he shook his head against her shoulder.

 

Kashu pressed her lips together in a fine line and thought about what the hanyou had said. She didn't know what advice to give him, having never come across a problem like this before. She decided to start out with something simple that hopefully would help her know what advice to give him.

 

“Tell me what attracted you to Maika in the first place? What made you want to mate her?” she asked and felt Inuyasha take a deep breath as his arms tightened around her a bit.

 

Kashu wrapped her arms more tightly around the boy in her arms as she waited for him to answer. When he finally spoke, his words surprised her.

 

“When I first met Maika, I didn't know who she was. Sesshoumaru and I had just brought Kagome back here after Hojou had attacked her the first time and Sesshoumaru had told me what had happened to Rin. I was enraged at the time that I met her and my youkai had control…I came into Kagome's room and there was Maika sitting in a chair at the end of the bed, Rin and Kagome holding each other as they slept…I gave a warning growl at her when she stood and she backed off. I can remember going and laying down behind Kagome and holding her in my arms. It's the first time I've been alert when in youkai form, that time and when Maito made his challenge…I remember looking at Maika and smelling her heat scent and thinking that she'd be a strong mate and strong mother for any pups she would have. I've smelled Kagome's heat scent before but it hasn't aroused me as much as Maika's did…My youkai blood was and is aroused by her whereas Kagome's scent calms my youkai blood. Her scent - Kagome's scent - it still my youkai blood, soothes it, calms it, almost makes my blood itself purr.”

 

“And Maika's scent? What does it do to your youkai blood?”

 

“Her scent arouses it.”

 

“Is that the only thing it does?”

 

“…yeah…”

 

Kashu let her eyes fall closed sadly. That poor girl, and Inuyasha as well. His youkai was the one that had wanted Maika and in a way she guessed that that made Inuyasha think that his human side wanted her as well. Lust was a powerful thing, it could make you strong or it could prove to be your downfall. And she was afraid that for Inuyasha it would be the later.

 

“I don't know what to tell you sweetie,” she said softly as she kissed his head between his puppy ears. “Ow!” she said sharply and pulled back slapping her neck as Inuyasha sat straight and pulled away enough to look at her.

 

As her hand pulled away from her neck, there sat Myoga in her palm. Inuyasha snarled and gripped the flea youkai in between his claws like pincers and lifted him enough to look into his eyes. He wasn't so much as angered that the flea had over heard their conversation as he was that the flea had bit Kashu.

 

“Myoga,” he growled low and narrowed his golden eyes on the flea. “Do not do that to her ever again.”

 

“M-Master Inuyasha.”

 

“Same rules as for mother.”

 

“I understand Master Inuyasha,” the flea said having remembered clearly the boundaries that Toga had set for him concerning his feeding habits and the human hime.

 

Inuyasha snorted and let the flea youkai fall to rest on his bent knee. “What do you want?”

 

“It seems that there is a problem,” Myoga began hesitantly.

 

“Oh so you want to give me advice now?” he asked with a raised brow.

 

“No Master Inuyasha, I speak not concerning what you two have discussed. I'm here about the taijiya and the monk.”

 

“Sango and Miroku?” Kashu asked and Myoga turned to her for a moment.

 

“Yes mother. You have recently given birth, it is in your blood,” he stated as though it were plain as day.

 

“What about them Myoga?” Inuyasha asked his patience beginning to fade away.

 

“While on the quest for a shard they were attacked by one of Naraku's puppets after collecting the shard.”

 

“Are they hurt?” he demanded from the flea as he again lifted him in his claws.

 

“That's the strange thing Master Inuyasha,” he began his voice heavy with his own confusion. “I was there with them, I had been on Kirara. We barely made it out of there and wouldn't have if not for the purifying arrow that came out of seemingly thin air. They are injured and returning.”

 

“Wait, what arrow?” the hanyou asked as something began to tickle his mind.

 

“A purifying arrow, much like Lady Kagome's appeared out of nowhere and slew the puppet. Master Inuyasha?” the flea asked at the hanyou's furrowed brow, it looked as though he was remembering something.

 

“This morning, Kagome appeared to be in the throes of a nightmare. At one point it looked as though she were aiming and then firing an arrow. There was a pink glow around her as her miko energies intensified, but…she can't purify something in her sleep can she?” he asked the flea.

 

“Anything is possible Master Inuyasha. We should speak to Lady Kagome. It has been a while since I've tasted her blood - eep!”

 

“No feeding off her either or my mate. Kagome and Maika have the same rules as mother and Kashu do, ya got that?” Myoga nodded as much as he could while being held in Inuyasha's claws. “Good. Now let's go see father.”

 

“What do you mean by that Master Inuyasha?” Myoga asked as Inuyasha carried him out of the room and waved a good bye to Kashu as he left.

 

“Father has returned. Did return about a month ago.”

 

“How so?”

 

“Apparently, by way of Kagome.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toga smiled softly down at the girl in his arms as she moaned and yawned as she stretched against him as she awoke. He watched as her blue grey eyes fluttered open like butterfly wings and kissed her brow after she greeted him with a smile.

 

“Good evening little one,” he said softly and Kagome frowned and looked out the window seeing that it was indeed nighttime already.

 

“Good evening Pappa,” she said and the smile he gave her warmed her heart.

 

“So you are awake,” a voice sounded from the door and Kagome turned to greet her mate.

 

The woman on the bed turned toward her mate and simply lay on the bed as she held her arms out to Sesshoumaru. The inuyoukai grinned and gave a soft chuckle as he went to the bed and knelt on it. Crawling over to her, he settled himself on top of her for a hug and sat up, his arms wrapped around her, bringing her with him.

 

“Hel-lo,” Kagome said upon another waking yawn and blushed softly at her mate's and her pappa's smiles.

 

“Hello,” her mate returned. “Your pups, all four of them actually have been wanting to see their mother all day. Shippou and Rin are caring for the pups while I came to fetch you.”

 

“Fetch me?” she asked with a lopsided smile. “What am I a twig?”

 

“Barely,” he said and looked over her form.

 

Kagome blushed much to the taiyoukai's delight. He loved it when she blushed, the soft pink tinting her cheeks a testament to her modest nature. Even after so much time spent together in their bed and out of it she still blushed when he would look at her like that.

 

Kagome stuck her tongue out at her mate and he quirked a brow before closing in quickly for a kiss. Kagome moaned into his mouth and Toga chuckled at the pair. Kagome pulled away from her mate when she heard the chuckle and looked at Toga with a blush. The elder youkai smiled at her and kissed her head before getting up from the bed and donning his boots.

 

“I'll go see to the children as you two play,” he said and winked before closing the bedroom door behind him.

 

Kagome blushed darker and Sesshoumaru chuckled as she moved to sit against the headboard. He moved onto his hands and knees and stalked toward her, his long silver hair falling around his face and shoulders like a silken waterfall, giving him a dangerous and highly sexual air. The look in his golden eyes spoke of undeniable pleasures that he would induce in her as she shivered and bit her lower lip.

 

Sesshoumaru came closer until his knees were on either side of her hips and his hands blocking her escape on either side of her shoulders. Kagome gasped as he moved closer still and pressed his lips against hers. Sesshoumaru took advantage of the opening she gave and swept his tongue into her mouth to play with hers. By the time he pulled back from the kiss her eyes were closed, she was panting and blushing deeply in passion. It had been too long since he had tasted her, far too long.

 

Gripping her waist in his hands, Sesshoumaru lifted her from the bed and fell back so that he was lying on his back on the bed and moved her so that she was straddling his waist. Kagome looked down at her mate below her and worried her bottom lip between her teeth. It had been three months since she and her mate had done anything sexual and she had to admit that she was nervous.

 

A kiss on her palm brought Kagome out of her thoughts and her eyes regained their focus on the inuyoukai lying beneath her on the bed. She looked into his golden eyes and smiled as she leaned slowly down and met his lips with hers in a slow explorative kiss. Even as she kissed his lips she was nervous, it had been so long and she felt like it was her first time again.

 

Kagome felt the butterflies stirring in her stomach and felt the familiar vertigo she felt whenever near Sesshoumaru. He was beautiful and passionate and loving. She frowned slightly into the kiss when he hadn't done anything more than move his lips over hers. Usually he would flick his tongue against her lips begging for entrance and it suddenly occurred to her that he was going to make her take the lead in their love making this time, even in their kissing.

 

Kagome pulled back, breaking the kiss and sat up as she looked down at her mate, her bottom lip once again between her teeth. Sesshoumaru released a long slow breath and brought his hand up to cup her cheek and let the tips of his fingers tangle in her hair. His golden eyes watched hers taking note of the nervousness and uncertainty in her eyes, lust was there also but seemed outweighed by the other two emotions.

 

“We don't have to do anything if you don't want to,” he said softly to his mate as he watched her storm blue eyes darken and lighten with her changing emotions as she sat above him.

 

“I want to…I'm just…nervous,” she said as she hid her eyes behind her thick bangs.

 

Sesshoumaru reached up a hand and brushed her bangs aside and let the hand trail across her cheek until it settled behind her neck. He gently pulled her down to him and kissed her lips. At first the kiss was slow and nothing more than a massage of lips upon lips. Slowly though it grew more passionate, a wholly consuming embrace of fire and passion.

 

Soft breathy moans came from Kagome's throat, oh how she missed this, missed his kisses. She settled her upper body on his as she slowly took control of the kiss, her tongue begging for entrance to her mate's mouth. Sesshoumaru opened his lips to her, only too happy to comply with her unspoken request. He groaned deeply when her tongue swept through his hot mouth and rubbed along the length of his fangs. He deftly undid the tie of her kimono and undressed her as they kissed.

 

When Kagome broke the kiss it was to trail her lips across his cheek and along the length of his strong chiseled jaw. Her mouth came to rest on the underside of his jaw where it met his neck and her teeth and lips and tongue worried the small spot driving her mate insane with desire. She was being so slow in her love making and he was already so damn hard!

 

Sesshoumaru growled softly as he began to purr from her ministrations, he had half a mind to flip them over and take control but resolved not to. He had promised himself that he would let her guide them this time. He would let Kagome take the lead, and oh how it was killing him to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey old man,” Inuyasha said softly as he slipped into the library. “Can I talk to you?” he asked when his father looked up from the tiny pups in his arms.

 

Toga nodded once and Inuyasha made his way over to the window near where his father sat. The hanyou stood in front of the window as he looked out upon the snow covered ground. Toga watched his youngest son with a watchful eye. He knew that Inuyasha was not that good with speak his mind and saying clearly what it was he wanted to say, and in knowing so he also knew that whatever it was his son had come to speak with him about was damn important.

 

“I don't know what to do,” Inuyasha finally said after nearly fifteen minutes of silence.

 

“About what?” Toga asked softly when his hanyou son didn't elaborate.

 

“I think I've fucked everything up,” he said after a long moment and Toga stood and placed the sleeping three month old infants on the large pillow he'd been sitting on.

 

“How so?” he asked as he came to stand beside his son and looked into his troubled face. “Inuyasha?” he asked when his son failed to respond verbally and he noticed the wetness in the hanyou's golden eyes. “Inuyasha what is it?”

 

“I-” Inuyasha shook his head as he tried to form words around the growing lump in his throat.

 

Everything felt so wrong and so very out of place. He'd tried to ignore it for so long but with every day that passed his feelings of uneasiness grew stronger. He wasn't supposed to be here. He didn't really even remember being here when he was a pup. Every year he spent the winter in a hole in the snow like a sled dog. He'd dig a good sized hole in the snow and the earth below and curl up in a ball to sleep and wake up with the new snow covering him. That's how it was. Being here, in a castle in a room with a fireplace and servants and indoor hot springs and prepared meals everyday, meals that he didn't have to hunt for or cook himself - all of this just felt so wrong.

 

Then there was his problem concerning Maika and Kagome. How had this all happened? How had it all gotten so confusing, so difficult? Inuyasha's breathing grew harsh and his eyes widened. The feeling of panic he'd had a few times before set in again, it felt like the walls were closing in around him. He couldn't breathe.

 

Toga grew alarmed and what seemed to be a sudden change in his son. What could be wrong? Before he had a chance to catch him, Inuyasha had fallen onto the floor, lying on his side as he tried to calm his breathing and regain his equilibrium. Toga sat down and pulled his son into his arms as he did his best to comfort and calm his distraught pup.

 

Inuyasha began to struggle weakly in his father's arms as his vision grew blurry and the panic he felt became more and more pronounced. The claws of his hands and feet scratched at the floor as he finally drew himself up to all fours and bounded as quickly as he could out of library his breathing ragged as his father followed behind after getting a servant to watch over the sleeping pups, Rin and Shippou in their room playing with their kitsune kits and Rin bunny.

 

Toga finally found his son outside of the castle walls, the hanyou lying on his side in the snow his heavy breathing beginning to calm. In that moment, as Toga stood looking upon his son, he realized something that he had never even considered before. Walls, any enclosure really, seemed to make his son terribly distressed. The question was though, why?

 

Sitting down in the snow, Toga dragged his panting son into his arms and held him in his lap. Turning his son, he tucked Inuyasha into the curve of his arm, his snowy white hair and ears tucked into the crook of his shoulder. He looked down upon his drowsy son and shook his head sadly, what had happened to make his son so afraid of being indoors? Certainly it couldn't simply be that he had grown up in the wilderness, could it?

 

Slowly, his voice soft and somewhat frightened, Inuyasha related to his father all that he had spoken with Kashu about. Toga listened with a calm heart and an open mind. His poor son was so confused, so lost and scared. At a loss for anything else to do, Toga hugged his son tightly to his chest and rocked him gently.

 

“It's late my son,” Toga said looking up into the darkening sky. “We should go back inside.”

 

“I-I can't,” Inuyasha said softly as he looked at the castle fearfully. “I just can't, not tonight.”

 

“Where will you go then?” Toga asked as he stood with his son at his side.

 

“Here.”

 

“You'll stay out here? In the cold?” surely he couldn't leave his son out in the cold.

 

“Why not?” Inuyasha asked as he began walking around looking for a good place to make his snow nest. “It's what I'm used to. In there,” he said waving offhandedly to the castle behind him, “I'm trapped. It doesn't feel right to be in there.”

 

“It is your home Inuyasha,” Toga said as he watched his son stalk in a medium sized circle behind the east garden.

 

“Maybe by birth it is, but it's never really been my home.”

 

Toga looked on in silence as Inuyasha crouched down on his haunches and began to dig out the snow within the circle of footprints he'd made. Soon the snow was cleared away and he began to dig up the earth below until there was a shallow bowl shaped indentation in the ground only a foot or two deep.

 

“What are you doing?” Toga finally asked his son, his eyes fixed on the bowl shaped whole his son had created.

 

“Makin' my bed,” the hanyou said with a shrug.

 

“Inuyasha surely you can't just…” he trailed off and waved at the bed in the ground.

 

“Can't what?” Inuyasha said as he looked up at his father.

 

Inuyasha walked into the earth nest he'd made and walked around in the circle packing the dirt down before he crouched down on all fours and turned around as he settled down into his nest. Toga watched on his brow furrowed in sadness and moved to sit at his son's side outside of the circle.

 

Is this how you spent all your winters my son? Is this how you survived for so long? Toga stroked his son's hair as the hanyou drifted off to sleep and watched his sleeping son as the gently falling snow landed on the hanyou and began to coat his body in a light dusting. Toga knew that come morning he would be covered completely but for some reason being covered and sleeping in snow was more of a comfort to the hanyou than a warm bed and a gentle fire.

 

Toga was caught between the desire to stay outside and keep guard over his son and return inside to his other son and his grandchildren. Hearing soft growls behind him he turned to face to wolf youkai bitches. The canines looked up at him, one coming close enough to lick his face while the other settled down behind the hanyou in his nest as the other one left Toga's side and settled down in front of Inuyasha, the hanyou wrapping an arm around the wolf in a purely sleep induced manner.

 

“You must be Kagome's wolves.”

 

The one in front of Inuyasha nodded before setting her head down between her paws.

 

“Take care of my son.”

 

 

 

 

 

“I can't believe they're growing so quickly,” Kagome said upon a yawn as she placed her fed and changed infants in their cradle.

 

“They shall grow quickly until they are as big as Shippou,” Sesshoumaru said as he wrapped his arms around his mate from behind and set his chin on her shoulder. “When they reach that size they shall slow in their growth quite a bit.”

 

“”How long will it take for them to be Shippou's size?” she asked as he led her back to their bed.

 

“Two, perhaps three years.”

 

“So nearly the same as a human child?” she asked as he wrapped his arms around her after pulling the blankets up to cover them.

 

“Yes, but they will also have the same level of mental awareness and maturity that Shippou held when you met him, or a bit behind him.”

 

“How old is Shippou?” she wondered sleepily.

 

“You do not know?” he asked surprised.

 

“I never asked I guess. I asked when his birthday was but not his age.”

 

“He is close to fifteen years.”

 

“Fifteen?!” she said her tiredness slipping away in her alarm though a yawn did escape her.

 

“Yes. For a youkai fifteen years is equal in age maturation to a humans five years. At three years of age his physical growth stopped and became at a snail's crawl as will our pups'. When our pups reach three years, they will be larger in size and greater in dexterity yes, but they will only be at a child's mentality until they reach ten years.”

 

“I think my head hurts,” she said sleepily as she gave a big yawn against his shoulder.

 

Sesshoumaru chuckled softly and wrapped her tighter in his arms, petting her hair until she was sound asleep.

 

“Sleep well my sweet,” he whispered to her and was soon asleep as well.