InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Decisions ❯ Never Say Goodbye ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11: Never Say Goodbye.

The large people carrier lay parked haphazardly alongside the river embankment obscuring the lesser travelled path that led through the thick foliage and down to the deceptively clean looking water of the river. The sun was bidding her goodbyes to the earth as she disappeared behind the horizon basking the scene in a gentle pink glow.

Kikyo stood around four metres away from the edge of the lake with a sombre expression on her pretty features. Kyo was in her arms eyes alert and wondering, he sensed that the mood was somehow more sedate than usual and did not fuss inside his mothers embrace. Inuyasha stood just behind Kikyo with an arm around her waist and his usual leather jacket covering his upper body.

Kagome stood closer to the lake than they did with her arms folded across her chest to stave off the coming chill that approached with the ending of the suns reign. A lonely tear made its way from the corner of her eye and rolled off her chin as she watched her son kneel at the water's edge.

Ranmaru's eyes were more shadowed than was usual for the calm but happy child. He did not cry but he knew Kagome did. He had one finger in the heavily polluted water that looked so pure upon a passing glance.

“I miss you” he breathed to the water and everyone who was old enough to remember smiled forlornly.

***

It was midday and three teenagers could be seen making their way down from the small village to the lake they frequented every year of their holidays. The two girls were scantily clad in shorts and bikini tops and the Hanyou that followed them carrying their supplied had naught but a pair of shorts on.

“Hurry up Inuyasha” the blue eyed teen called back to the Hanyou “I thought you were supposed to be stronger than us `weak' humans and here you are slowing us down”

“Keh, shut up Kagome” he muttered picking up his pace and cursing for not tying his long silver hair back off his face.

“You should have tied your hair back” Kikyo the girl with brown eyes told her boyfriend as she dropped speed so she was behind him. She pulled a fasten from her wrist and tied her boyfriends hair back from his neck.

“You're too soft on him” Kagome called back as she gazed carefully at the thick thicket of branches to find the lesser travelled path that led to their favourite river. She found the path and gleefully skipped down it to skid to a halt beside the river. She frowned slightly as she saw a huge factory on the opposite side of the large river that hadn't been there last time they had come to the lake.

Inuyasha was the next to breach the surrounding woods and his nose wrinkled up in disgust.

“Ugh, it smells like smog” he muttered

“Ah” Kikyo looked up at the huge factory “That must be the new cosmetics company, there was something about it in the newspaper, the village people were against it for spoiling the scenery”

“Keh, stupid humans worrying about scenery” Inuyasha scoffed “they should be more worried about this stinking dirty air and that” he pointed at a pipe that ran from the huge factory and into the water.

“They're dumping in the river?” Kagome was distraught “I'm not swimming in there now”

Inuyasha inhaled deeply and winced “This river smells like death” he said “everything that lived in it is either dead or dying”

“Shit!” Kagome and Inuyasha chorused as suddenly without warning a barrage of bubble broke the surface of the middle of the river. Kikyo jumped as well but her surprise was less verbal and she merely clung onto Inuyasha's shoulder and Kagome's hand.

They all nearly had a heart attack when a head emerged slowly from the centre of the river followed by slim female shoulders and a quivering body. She was completely dry and yet she was stood on the surface of the water. She was wearing a black traditional kimono and holding a bundle in her arms. At one time you could have called her beautiful but now she was merely ill. Her ebony hair hung lankly on her shoulders, her eyes gaunt and haunted, the bags beneath them clearly pronounced on her skin. Her pointed elfin ears were dry and flaky, a sure sign of aliment for a water demon such as she. The skin that was once pale ivory was now sickly green and looked clammy to the touch and her skin hung on the bones of her face making her look hollow. The kimono she was wearing was obviously too big for her, but it had once probably been skin fitting. Now she was so skeletal it hung off her.

She extended the matchstick arms that were holding the bundle out and they feared the weakened arms might break with the exertion.

“A Kelpie” Kikyo breathed

“Onegai” she rasped her voice as dry and painful as nails on a chalk board “help my baby”

Kagome kicked off her sandals within that instant and stepped into the water in the next holding out her arms for the injured Kelpie and her child. She waded to the middle of the lake just as the female Kelpie's legs gave out from under her and she fell to her knees on the surface of the water.

She ignored the arm that was obviously meant to help her and instead shoved the child almost abruptly into Kagome's chest.

“It's too late for me now” she whispered “I must go and join my mate”

“Nani?” Kagome asked her arms unconsciously tightening around the small bundle in her arms.

“Look after my Ranmaru young Miko” the Kelpie smiled softly

“Wait!” Kagome yelped but the Kelpie ignored her.

The kelpie closed her eyes with such finality that it held true to the image of the final nail on a coffin. As her eyes closed her breathing hitched and faltered and Inuyasha heard her heart splutter once before giving out. He silently concluded she had waited until her child had died before giving into the inescapable pull of her own demise.

Her body fell backwards limply and as she hit into the surface of the water she exploded into a splash of water that cascaded in a small tidal wave over Kagome and the babe.

As the wave cleared her eyes opened again to survey the spot where her body should have lain.

“When a Kelpie dies their body returns to the water from which they were born” Kikyo explained her voice emotionless but her eyes holding tears, Inuyasha placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Kagome turned slowly and trudged from the river before collapsing onto the bank with the pup cradled in her arms.

“You okay?” Inuyasha asked

“Yeah, I guess” she whispered and then she pulled back to look at the bundle she held. She uncovered Ranmaru's head and two huge deepest black orbs stared back at her with the intensity of a much older child. He breathed in deeply and coughed twice.

“We need to get him to some fresh water and fast” said Inuyasha suddenly

For the next three months Kagome looked after her new son and nursed him back to health. That was the easy part, the young Yokai only needed a weekly trip to a body of pure water and then to be looked after as if he were a human child. The hard thing was the fact that if he wasn't in the water, feeding or sleeping he was bawling his eyes out.

Inuyasha explained that the child was feeling abandoned, whilst he was too young to identify his parents by sight he knew their scent and had abruptly grasped that they were nowhere near him. He had no idea where they were and did the only thing he could to get them to come back; he cried.

A less patient person would not have been able to withstand the constant crying, but Kagome persevered. She kept the child with her every second of the day and eventually after a few months he stopped crying for his parents.

He no longer felt abandoned as he realised the scent of Kagome never left him. It was not the same but it was enough to console the child. He became Kagome's son...

***

“Let's go” Inuyasha's gruff voice cut into the memory and they all turned to look at the Hanyou.

“Hai” Ranmaru said softly “let's go home Okasan” he took Kagome's hand and towed her away with him and she sniffled and wiped the tears that had fallen away with her hand.

He walked back to the others and Inuyasha ruffled his hair Kikyo squeezed his shoulder.

“Let's go get ice-cream” Kikyo proposed, same as she did every year

“Let's” said Ranmaru smiling softly

***

Sesshoumaru was busy tip tapping on his computer key board. The constant tittering of the keys clicking harmonising beautifully with the harsh rain as it hit upon the apartment.

It was early in the morning and Sesshoumaru was attempting to work but there was something bugging him. He glanced up from the screen and looked at Rin.

She was stretched out across the carpet in the front room wearing a pale white sun dress despite the horrible weather outside and flipping through his calendar as if looking for something.

He frowned as he surveyed the dress she was wearing. It was not the fact that she was wearing something hideously ill-suited to the current weather conditions, it was that the dress was obviously too small for her... and it was white.

He knew she couldn't have grown out of the clothes he had bought her that fast, she was human not Yokai and he also knew he had not purchased her anything in white. Which led to the assumption that she had purposely gone to the stored away too small clothes that lived in the bottom of her closet. The question was, why?

The dress was obviously too tight across her chest and too short on her legs, the sleeves were too small for her upper arms and seemed to be biting viciously into her flesh.

She seemed to have found the correct page in his calendar and was circling a date in the calendar with one small finger.

“Rin” he called to catch her attention

She looked up at him without the usual light in her eyes, which disturbed him to no end. “Nani?”

“Why are you wearing a dress that no longer fits you?” he asked in his usual calm and stoic voice

She gave him a hurt look, as if he'd just kicked her puppy, stood abruptly and raced from the room before slamming her bedroom door after her when she reached it. The sound of sobbing followed soon after and the Inu Yokai sat there at a loss, he had no idea what he had done and why she was so upset.

He got out of his chair and bent to pick up the calendar to see that she had been looking at and frowned as he read the date; June 19th.

The anniversary of her parents deaths.

He winced and ran a hand over his face; he just had to upset her when the anniversary was so close.

***

Kagome tied her hair back out of her face as she helped Shippo tidy the yard of the plastic toys left over at the end of the day.

“Did you notice?” Kagome asked

“What?” Shippo asked in surprise

“There's something wrong with Rin-chan” Kagome clarified she gestured through the window into the classroom where Rin and Ranmaru sat each drawing as they waited for their respective parents. Rin's head was down on the table and she wasn't talking a mile a minute or humming to herself, Kagome was right something was amiss.

“Maybe you should talk to her” Shippo suggested

Kagome nodded thoughtfully and glanced back through the window at the now diminutive figure of the once irrepressible Rin.

***

Kagome sat on the tiny chair opposite Rin and next to Ranmaru. She leant her head in one hand and smiled at the young girl.

“I like your bracelet Rin-chan” she commented. She had not seen the child wear jewellery before and was curious as to its origins, it did not look like the kind of bracelet a child should be in possession of; indeed it was three sizes too big for her wrist and she had to keep pushing it back up to her elbow every now and then. The bracelet itself looked to be made of white gold and hung from it were a variety of charms.

“It was my Okasan's” she whispered fingering the delicate chain

Bingo. Kagome suddenly realised what was wrong with Rin. Kagome remembered her parents from before they had died and if she was not mistaken it was nearly a year from their death. Poor Rin, poor Sesshoumaru.

Ranmaru too had caught the melancholy edge to her voice and the depressed edge to her scent. “On the weekend we went to visit my parents” he offered

Rin glanced up and frowned in confusion “I thought Higurashi-sensei was your Okasan”

“Iie, my blood parents died when I was a baby” he said smiling sadly “it's probably worse for you though, because you can remember your parents”

At this Rin promptly burst out crying and Ranmaru jumped a mile in shock before glancing to Kagome for help who shrugged helplessly. She stood and walked round the table to Rin before kneeling beside her and opening her arms wide to the little girl who practically threw herself into her arms. She held her close to her chest and stroked her hair softly, making cooing noises and trying not to wince at the level of noise her crying was releasing... directly in Kagome's ear.

It wasn't quiet sobbing, oh no, it was full blown shoulder heaving lung burning heart wracking sobs. And Kagome could do nothing but wait quietly for them to pass and for Rin to calm down.

Eventually the sobs quietened into deep shuddery hiccup laden breaths and Kagome deemed it excusable to talk to her now.

“What's wrong Rin-chan?” she asked softly

“I'm afraid”-sob- “that”- sob- “I'll”- shaky breath-“forget”- hiccup- “my Okasan” she wailed

Kagome smiled softly and hugged her again and Ranmaru stood and petted her head softly.

“I think I have an idea” Kagome offered and smiled reassuringly as Rin brought her face up to look at her, like a tortoise emerging from its shell.

***

Sesshoumaru balked as he opened the door into the classroom Rin usually waited for him in as he was bombarded by the scent of his young ward's tears. Abruptly he panicked and then after a moment of inhaling deeply he came to the conclusion that they were old tears, not recently shed.

He stepped fully into the classroom to spy Kagome, Ranmaru and Rin all sat around the low slung desk which was currently covered with all kinds of arts and crafts materials. Kagome had just finished fastening some sticky laminate over what appeared to be a photograph that sealed it back to a colourful piece of paper that was attached to a string. It was, he realised, a portable photo frame.

“It's my Okasan and my Otosan!” she enthused as she inspected Kagome's handiwork

“So now they'll always be with you” Ranmaru enthused “It was a good idea Okasan”

“Arigato Ran-chan” she smiled at her son and without glancing over at Sesshoumaru “come join us Sesshoumaru”

“Hn” he walked over to them and Rin propelled herself up and into his arms

“Look!” she shoved the photo frame on a ribbon under his nose, so close to his face that he had to cross his eyes to look at it causing Rin to giggle.

“Your parents” he said in a low monotone. He was confused as to why he felt... jealous? He wasn't sure why he should be feeling that way at all. He wasn't jealous that Kagome had helped Rin to cheer up, though that was the most obvious reason that popped into his mind. He was jealous because Rin had become depressed over her parents.

He knew it was wrong to be jealous of them, after all they were dead, but it didn't stop the sense of betrayal he felt that she had forgotten about him for a week while she was being depressed about her parents. He had never admitted it to anyone but he did love the small ningen girl and he couldn't help but want her to be happy with him.

Kagome smiled slightly at the turmoil in Sesshoumaru's eyes and wondered if she had it right when she guessed what was wrong.

***

They had relocated to the park a little ways away from the school, Kagome was sat on the railings and Sesshoumaru was stood by her side. Ranmaru was pushing Rin on the swings and you could tell that the older child was serrupticiously trying to be kinder to the young girl.

“I know how you feel” she said sweeping her hair back from her face

“This Sesshoumaru doubts it” he said frigidly

“Take the stick out of your ass and listen would you?” she rolled her eyes and he debated whether pushing her off the railings was too cruel.

“Hn”

She took that for a `I'll listen' and began “Losing a parent is hard for a child” she said “they never really get over it but they do move on and live their lives, most of the time they can be happy but there is always something that reminds them of what they lost and when that happens they return to their memories and cling to the nostalgia of the way things used to be. In my case I used to go and climb inside my dad's wardrobe because his clothes still smelt like him, Souta was too young to ever really remember dad, kind of like Ran-chan was too young to remember his parents. I'm not sure which is worse, but for both my brother and Ran they were only left with their imagination. In Ran's case he had no one to even explain what his parents were like and nothing to remember them by.”

Sesshoumaru nodded, he understood what it was like to lose a parent, but he doubted losing a parent as a young child was the same as losing a parent when you were in your mid twenties. His mothers passing had been by no means easy, but at least he knew what death was. Something that had only just been explained to Rin before her parents died. He could distinctly remember the first few weeks after she started to live with him, where she would sit on a chair in front of the window that overlooked the street and wait for her Otosan to come and get her.

“Hn”

What a great conversationalist “When we lose someone who was the main focus of our lives for so long we become afraid. First we are afraid that the pain will never let up, that it will cripple us. But then for me I became afraid that I would forget my father, forget what he looked like or what his voice sounded like or forget the really stupid jokes he would always tell at Christmas or forget how every Sunday morning he was make pancakes for us or forget what it sounded like when he played the piano for my mother” she smiled sadly and Sesshoumaru wondered what the hell he was supposed to do if she started crying on him or something. Lucky he was saved from the dilemma when she carried on.

“But you need to be their support, they may not seem as if they appreciate it sometimes” she smiled “especially if you tell them they aren't allowed to eat chocolate ice cream on the beige carpets” she was obviously reminiscing “but the point is they need you just as surely as you need them. Rin will never replace her parents with you, that is not what happens, rather she has carved out a new part of her heart just for you”

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow at this and she smiled.

“You are her family now, don't forget it” she told him

“Hn”

She sighed “I'm trying to help you!” she bit out “the least you could do is answer or something”

“Arigato” he said softly and she nearly fell off the railing in shock. She never thought she'd hear Sesshoumaru say thank you but then she realised when it came to the small girl who was seemingly flying in the swings with her son, Sesshoumaru was softer.

She had thawed the ice prince out, only slightly, but there was a definite softness.

Kagome smiled and wondered if she could help melt him a little more.

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha and I make no profit from my ramblings. Anyway there's another chapter for you guys and it's kind of depressing but I just wanted to write it I guess. I hope you learned a little more about Ran-chan!

Sakura, thank you for reviewing and I know I've made some irritating mistakes but I really have a limited time to proof read and my life is so busy right now I'm just writing and forgoing all mistakes.

Also yes I do live in Europe; in fact I live in Wales, that little country next to England. Home of the sheep!

So to those lovely people who reviewed on Fanfiction dot net thank you: Kouga'sGirl4eva, sakura-chan2222, SilentQuil23, llebreknit, vixenia, mmmyeah4, Jiru-Rynn and kyekye!

And on Media Miner dot org thanks to Animegirl1 and mariposa_miko. Animegirl1 I agree festivals are fun! Mariposa_miko I have to say that you would be taking your life into your hand if you actually tried to wind up Sesshoumaru...

Anyway thanks for reading and REVIEW!