InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dubious Relations ❯ Sode Story 2: Family ( Chapter 20 )

Read Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended as I’m only borrowing the characters in order to amuse myself. So, in simple terms, Rumiko Takahashi owns the characters and I make no money off this.
Warning: Incest, swearing, violence, mpreg, angst, yaoi, AU, OCs. All spelling/grammatical errors are my own. If you spot some mention them and I will fix them.

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Dubious Relations

Side Story Two: Family

The air is heavy with the stench of sweat and sex. Their soft breath blows away complete silence as they hold each other. A stream of light bursts through the crack between the window and the strewn together wooden veil that covers it like a bandage over a wound. They hardly notice that they’re practically boiling in their own skin with the heat of the day, the warmth of their embrace and the scraps of blanket strewn over them in an attempt to grant them some modesty.

They don’t know when Kagome will bring Etsu back, and they prefer having their little girl’s eyes be saved from their nude bodies. She isn’t old enough to know of adult activities yet, her wondering where her parents’ clothes are would lead to questions neither Kazuo or Izanami wish to answer just yet.

Kazuo holds his mate close, his cheek nestled against her bare, right breast; his hands gentle as he strokes her swollen tummy and sides tenderly, smoothing the moisture into her soft, pale skin. He's extremely comfortable, almost asleep, his eyes half shut as he tunes all his senses into his mate's presence.

Her breath toys with oily strands of light blue hair, causing them to fly and flutter in a way that tickles his scalp and soothes him further. She shifts to peck the top of his head tenderly.

In return, he nuzzles his nose into her soft flesh, and breathes deeply, relishing the smell of her pregnancy and almost choking on the lingering arousal clinging to her.

Izanami seems like a rare dish to him, something he savours with great delight everytime she's within reach. He’s missed her over the past few days. He’s missed them both; the excitement surrounding Lord Sesshomaru’s health and his family has kept him from his practically blind mate and his hyperactive little girl. Kazuo savours these moments, commits them to memory, so he can revel in them when he lies alone whilst on duty.

She holds his heart, her hand a claw that squeezes and rubs at it as though she is its sole owner and he is her puppet. He supposes that that's true enough; Izanami has always been able to make him dust the top corners of their cosy home on more than one occasion with barely a threat.

His father had explained that it would be like this when he'd first mated Izanami. The older man having laughed boisterously, straight from his belly when he'd finished. Kazuo still isn't sure if it was because of his expression after the five minute lecture, or because the nutty man had imagined Kazuo suffering from withdrawals. It's too late to ask now, but Kazuo prefers the first option; it's far more comforting.

His hand swoops down Izanami's tummy, cupping the underside of the swell lovingly. That's his little boy inside there. That's his son kicking at his hand. That's the second tiny being Izanami's helped him bring into the world.

Now if only Sesshomaru would appreciate his own bub as much as Kazuo loved his own.

His thoughts are halted rudely when Izanami slaps at his head. He groans playfully, and lifts it, chuckling despite himself as he does so and allows her to shift. This pregnancy has made her fidgety (when she'd been pregnant with Etsu - Kazuo recalled with a larger grin that almost split his face in two - the demoness seemed to have spent all her time sleeping). Kazuo’s amazed Izanami’s lasted as long as she has without moving.

The demoness sighs slightly as his tanned hands guide her, until she’s comfortable enough to lie still again: she’s turned more towards him, has wrapped a long, thin leg around his waist and enfolded him in a huge hug, as though he'll sink through the bed and into the Earth should she let go. She grins at him, her black eyes squinting up at him as she attempts to read his expression and resist the urge to close her eyes because of the blinding strands of sunlight.

He covers them, his wrist gaining a warm, bracelet of flesh and blood a mere nanosecond later. Izanami squawks at him irritably.

"You shouldn't open those eyes of yours until nightfall, Nami," He admonishes gently, with a smile, "You know light blinds you, and it's fairly bright outside."

She huffs, but releases his wrist.

Kazuo can't resist her petulant pout. He presses infinitely, intimately closer, until there isn’t a breath of air between them and holds her as though she'll crumble beneath his hands. Her smooth shoulder is beneath his chin, her dark hair dishevelled - perhaps more so than his own shorter locks - the swell of her abdomen held snugly against his own flat tummy.

They kiss. It's loud and slippery.

He tingles and presses closer and gasps as her softer body melds to his own and rubs against him far too pleasantly. His hands clasp at her back and wide, curvy hips.

Izanami's smaller, delicate hands are in his hair. They're tangling and tugging, as her legs wrap around him.

When they're panting against each other a few moments later, their faces flushed, their lips swollen, she's sitting on his hips, then laying on top of him, as though he is her personal futon. His arms wrap around her.

He sighs. Content.

A soft voice slinks into his ears a brief moment later, "Is something bothering you, Kazuo?"

His eyes slide open, dark with weariness, "Hm?"

"Well," Izanami rearanges her limbs and slides against him until she is half hanging off Kazuo, "Lord Sesshomaru's health isn't really all that secret. We may not know what exactly ails him, but all the women in the village know that it is big and important. I heard from one of the maids that he has a mate now and that his mate has had to sleep beside him-"

Kazuo listens half heartedly as his mate updates him on the latest gossip. He hears it as though he were listening to it through a foot-thick wall of cotton. He doesn't want to worry for nothing, he doesn't wish to hear the warped beliefs of his fellow demons and their mates.

He had checked in on his Lord briefly, before he'd come home that morning. Chiyo hadn't been very specific (there'd been a few servants lingering by the door), but he'd gained the impression that Seshsomaru was alive and kicking (in fact, if he'd understood the undertones to Chiyo's words, it seemed as though his Lord was near beating Lord Inuyasha around the head every day).

He's rudely knocked out of his musing as a loud slap and a stinging pain that ripples from his abdomen right down to his toes and the ends of his hair. He glares at Izanami, his lips pulled down into a frown.

"Yes?" He asks with a hiss.

"You weren't listening." She answered with an unattractive frown of her own, "I was just explaining how Lady Satori - you know, Lord Sesshomaru's supposedly deceased mother? - has returned!"

The news causes Kazuo's mind to stop and go black. He raises a pale eyebrow, "Excuse me?" He asks in complete and utter bewilderment.

He'd been a witness to Lady Satori's execution (via the crushing of her heart) when he was much, much younger, a mere child that was barely trained. He'd attended beacuse of an order his grandfather had given.

Even now, he can recall the memory in vivid detail; he couldn't forget the Lady's expression as Lord Inutaisho imbedded his hand in her chest, of the anger and absolute hatred that had consumed Lady Satori as her and Inutaisho traded soft words.

He had - and still does - deluded himself. He likes to think they were trading words of love and a sad, sincere apology. He'd liked to think he'd imagine the way Lady Satori's face - as beautiful as Sesshomaru's own was - crinkled and she snarled, her lips pulled into an ugly frown. She'd wanted revenge, such was the way of Lady dog demon of the Western Lands.

The Meidouseki stone's disappearance suddenly makes a lot of sense as Kazuo continues to ponder, his mind racing at speeds rivalling his Lord's in battle. The realisation that Lady Satori more than likely is in possession of the stone only causes his heart to clench tighter.

His Lord is in grave danger...

"Does Lord Sesshomaru know?" He asks hurriedly, "He does, doesn't he? About her punishment and her identity?"

Izanami frowns, her closed eyes crinkling as the lids are pulled down tighter, "It'd be foolish to believe that he didn't know who she was. However, I don't think he knows of her fate. I talked briefly with Lady Chiyo after Etsu's lessons, and it seems as though Lady Satori has warped the events surrounding her supposed death."

She lies her head on Kazuo's tanned chest, "You know him better than anyone, Kazuo. Is there a chance he'd cling to anything the Lady tells him? Chiyo said she hasn't had the chance to talk to him in length about her. Perhaps you could do so for her?"

Kazuo wipes his brow with a dark hand, his oceanic eyes having raised themselves to the roof a while back. He doens't like this turn of events.

Revenge is what Lady Satori was aiming for, and he didn't doubt that Lady Chiyo knew that. But...

"Our Lord is smart. He thinks things through, he tests and examines and - I doubt our Lady would have expected him to be so thorough. He was raised by Lord Inutaisho, afterall. And we all know how she viewed him.

"She'd have to go to great lengths in order for Sesshomaru to believe her and even further in order for her to grasp any hold of him and his thoughts at all."

He sighed sadly, and smooths the rumpled strands of black hair atop his mate's head, "However... I do worry with the circumstances being as they are."

Kazuo shoots himself into a sitting position, careful to cradle his pregnant mate against his chest as he cross his bare legs and rests her on them. Her shoulder digs into his left breast.

"You mustn't tell anyone of this, Nami." He says solemnly, "It cannot be confirmed by anyone until either Lady Chiyo or Lord Sesshomaru will it."

She nods as her right arm curls around him. He's finds comfort in her stroking of his hidden wings; now shown as twin lumps perched atop his shoulder blades.

"Of course." She utters quietly.

A tense silence falls over them as Kazuo decides how much he will tell his mate. It's an easy decision; she won't reveal anything he tells her under confidence. She can be a quiet chatter box when it counts.

"Lord Sesshomaru is pregnant." He says finally and holds her tighter, "The pup is Lord Inuyasha's."

"Our Lord's brother?"

"Hn. I don't know the full story, but it seems they had an agreement of some sort. You know that Lord Sesshomaru's heat was supposed to wreak havoc amongst us all a few months back."

Izanami nods again and taps her chin with a thin finger, "I wonder why we demoness never thought of pregnancy as a cause for all this drama. It isn't like we find it all that easy to ignore our Lord's heats."

She turns to face Kazuo. Despite her eyes being closed, Kazuo gets the feeling he's being glared at.

"Oh?" He answers lamely with a sheepish smile.

She pokes his chest with a slender finger, her voice having been woven with an accusing tone, "Oh's right! Do you remember our Lord's last heat? I had you in bed for very near every waking moment you spent within the village and let's not get started on your drooling all over Lord Sesshomaru's scent whenever you had to visit the castle! The stars in your eyes were laughable! Having a Lord that attracts male demons is hard for all of us demonesses and it doesn't help that he's very near more attractive than all of us combined! We have to keep all you men locked up during those heats of his, lest we lose our mates to his wiles!"

"That's nice, Nami, but please, don't sound so angry. You know I can't help it. I was the same when you were in heat."

And it's the reason he is going to make sure Etsu's mated before she has her first heat; he cannot stand the thought of her being overwhelmed with the wills of many horny and heat-drunken demon males. He doesn't wish to have to explain to his Lord why he'd killed off all the younger, stupid ones and he most certainly will not have her being locked away for a week.

The demoness snorts, "Yes, but you're mated to me now. And do you remember what you said at our mating ceremony?"

Kazuo bestows a hard glare on the wall as he attempts to remember, "Erm," He starts, "That I would only ever be mated to you and you alone?" It's been well over a hundred years since he'd recited his mating vows. He hopes he remembered the right words, and wasn't simply borrowing them from a fellow soldier's own set (though it wouldn't be the first time he's done that, should he have).

Gratefully, Izanami nods, "That's right. But enough on our Lord's heats, what were you saying about his being pregnant?"

"Well, you know that Lord Inuyasha's half human. It seems our Lord has had a rather distressing reaction to the infant's own human blood. It caused him to become very ill.

"That's the reason I was ordered to collect Lord Inuyasha. His presence has aided Lord Sesshomaru, he's now walking around according to Chiyo, though he seems to become winded easily-"

"Kazuo, if you continue to tell me all these juicy details, I will not be able to help myself and may let it slip that I know some inside information," Izanami flicks his nose, causing it to crinkle and his eyes to squint, "So can you skip to the part about why you're worried about Lady Satori and her knowing about Sesshomaru's condition?"

"Don't do that," Kazuo whines as he rubs his nose.

"Get on with the explaining!"

"Wait a minute, woman! It feels like I want to sneeze."

"Kazuo..."

The threatening tone makes the itch in his nose flee hurriedly.

"Lord Sesshomaru doesn't wish to keep the pup. He wants it dead. His mating with Inuyasha was a mistake on both their parts, Sesshomaru's because he assumed too much and took a risk that shouldn't be taken and Inuyasha's because he didn't know of demon mating.

"Lady Satori can empathise with this, as you know, because she hadn't wanted Sesshomaru either. She may use this empathy in order to worm her way into Sesshomaru's mind. All she needs to do is claim to know how to kill the pup and how to unmate our Lord from Inuyasha and I doubt he'll be able to help himself. She'll manipulate him."

"And we know how Chiyo is when it comes to sharing information about mating and pregnancy," Izanami agrees, "Satori might know more now, but Sesshomaru's very likely to be in the dark about a lot of important information."

The bat demon shifted until both him and his mate were laying down, cuddled together as they mused to themselves.

Sesshomaru needs to be informed. Kazuo realises hurriedly. He needs to sit down and have a long discussion. It wouldn't hurt if someone could talk to Inuyasha as well...

Kazuo nodded, "I think I might talk to Sesshomaru about all this very soon. I'll seek clearance from Lady Chiyo first though. I don't want her wrath falling upon me."

His mate kissed his neck, "You'll be endangering yourself, should Lady Satori realise what you're up to."

No.

Kazuo refuses to believe that. His physical well-being will be safe. It is his family he worries about.

Lady Satori's character doesn't allow her to grant a person the mercy of death. She prefers to tear a person down, column by metaphorical column, until there is nothing holding their being up but the main one, rotten and eaten away by the termites of sadness and despair she would have carefully planted.

Should she realise he is a threat, he is sure she will harm Izanami and Etsu before she rids the world of him.

He will not let that happen.

"Perhaps I should talk to the monk instead." He muses out loud, "I'm sure you've heard of Inuyasha's friends."

He feels his mate's hands flicking the skin of his hidden wings absently.

"Yes," She answered, "Miss Kagome spoke at great length about them this morning."

"If I ask the monk to fill Lord Inuyasha in, perhaps I won't need to talk to Sesshomaru at all. Perhaps Lord Inuyasha will order Lady Chiyo to inform our Lord of all the things he needs to know."

"Perhaps you're simply being cowardly."

No. Kazuo's mind stubbornly states, he is doing this to protect his family. It isn't cowardice, simply a precaution. There was no point in getting into a mess he most definitely wouldn't be able to get himself out of.

His eyes travel around the room. As he slowly realises that it is nearly sunset and Etsu will definitely be returning shortly.

There's a cool breeze blowing through the covered window now too, one that - now that he's paying attention - makes him break out into goosebumps. He delights in the appearance of Izanami's childish giggle as she starts to rub them away.

"Would you like something to eat, Nami? I'll make dinner." He asks as he nuzzles her neck.

"Mm... Yes. But make sure Miss Kagome will eat it." His mate mumbles, "I'm just going to take a nap."

They kiss briefly, lips lingering as they untangle themselves from each other. Kazuo decks himself in a simple, brown yukata, before he braves the air of the rest of the house. It's terribly quiet without his little girl there.

The kitchen isn't much bigger than his and Izanami's bedroom, though it's open to the world outside. The setting sun is blocked by a long row of hut-like houses just like his outside the window and before them, a piece of rope strung with dried fish having been hooked on either side of the window like a necklace.

The walls are clearly made of wood, the centre of the room having been paved with cheaper stone, so as not to easily set the house alight. The remaining ashes of a long since dead fire inhabit the area.

The thick pieces of wood clap dully together as he sets up a small, crackling fire. He grabs eight, and clambers about the room in search of the smaller, thinner and stained black sticks his mate uses in as skewers.

He decides to talk to the monk tomorrow, and to seek out and talk to Lady Satori herself as he enters the small, open kitchen The protection of his family comes first, above even his Lord Sesshomaru's well being. He hopes he will never have to choose between the two.

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Woffy: My apologies for taking so long, and for giving you all a side story instead of an actual chapter. In all honesty, my brain has been pretty much dead when it comes to any story that isn't Illuded Delusions (it has yet to be posted, though it will be when I either finish this or it or when I feel it's alright to share it; I'm rather prickly towards the entire thing). So don’t expect updates on time until I find some way to make writing easier (Writer’s block kills).

But anyway… The next chapter is definitely a chapter.

Many thanks to those that reviewed: ladytokyo, BethB56 and

OrlandosLover09: Don’t take this as me biting your head off, ‘cause I don’t mean it to be taken that way. But there is no way in hell I’d ever pair Kagome with anyone (especially Sesshomaru) willingly. I’d prefer my eyes be gouged from their sockets with rusty spoons first. It’s pretty obvious who Inuyasha will end up with though, in my own opinion…

vampress: Thank you, I’ve worked hard on this and am stubbornly refusing to go flying through it. ‘Side with Inu’ ay? We’ll see, we’ll see. You know, it’s reviews like yours that make me glad I’m not 16 anymore. Seriously… I’d act much like Kagome in her situation (except without the sitting; of course, I’d most likely throw stuff instead). And I don’t think she’s dense. I think she’s in love. But that’s the same thing, isn’t it? I mean, how many times has she had to save Inuyasha because he couldn’t kill a fake Kikyo? Anyway… Thank you for the other reviews too! They made me smile; I’ll send you a PM with an answer to your question later today. :D

Review please!