InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Ever After ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

AN: Ah, so this is done. Constructive Criticism appreciated.

 

Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Takahashi

 

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Chapter 5- Familial

 

The atmosphere was oppressive, humid, hot, and every breath seemed to consist of more moisture than air. Rin drew her sleeve across her brow with a weary exhale as Ah Un lumbered beneath her. Even the dragon, normally jubilant for warm weather, seemed putout by the temperature today. Zatoichi, now five years old, was a furry heap in her lap, his pink tongue lolling as he panted heavily, his legs draped lazily over the sides of Ah Un. He really was getting a little too big to be traveling this way. Sesshomaru walked steadily ahead of them, seemingly unaffected by the sun. Rin hoped that Jaken, sent ahead to find a source of water, would return shortly with good news. The whole season had been uncommonly dry and hot, and many of the small streams that were plentiful on their travels had become muddy rivulets, undrinkable, warm and hardly a source of relief.

 

Rin drew a gentle hand through her son's rumpled fur, quietly marveling at how he had grown in the past five seasons. He was nearly eighty pounds, the size of a common Akita-Inu, and it seemed that he was not done growing by a long shot. Eyeing his thick coat, Rin could not imagine his discomfort. She, at least, was able to change into a light, cotton yukata, but he was saddled with a thick layer of white fur. Zatoichi raised two, weary golden eyes towards his mother and whimpered quietly. He was grievously unhappy.

 

To say that Zatoichi was not a common child would have been the understatement of the century. Any daydreams Rin may have had about her firstborn were vastly different than what she was faced with. For all appearances, Zatoichi was a dog. He was the very image of Sesshomaru in his True Form. However, despite some instinctual responses to the stimuli around him, Zatoichi did posses human intelligence. While he was not able to speak, save for nights of the new moon, when his demon blood would recede and he would become human, he did communicate with his small family. He was especially expressive towards his father, who could understand the grunts and growls that his son made, and determine the boy's mood and wants by them. While the “dog language” he spoke was generally basic, and did not lend itself towards abstract expression, Zatoichi was able to understand human speech, and could speak quite well when he reverted to his human form once a month. Sesshomaru predicted that the boy would be quite strong when he was grown, and that was all that Rin could hope for. While Zatoichi would face all manner of obstacles because he was a hanyou, Rin was consoled by the fact that he would be able to protect himself. Overall, after dealing with the strangeness of a canine son, Rin was quite proud of Zatoichi. She loved him more deeply than she thought that she could ever love anything.

 

Rin laid her hand across her swelling stomach, and hoped that her second child would be as lucky as her first. Even now they traveled to the small, secluded cottage that she had stayed at during her prior pregnancy, and for sometime after Zatoichi's birth. It was located deep within an old forest, and the inhabitants there were mostly peaceable kitsune and tanuki, so Rin had little to fear in the way of dangerous yokai. In fact, a kind old fox acted as Zatoichi's nursemaid for some time, relinquishing the position when Rin had fully healed from the birth, and was able to care for her son without help, though the fox did visit often. Zatoichi referred to the fox fondly as “nana” on his human nights, and she seemed to adopt an equal affection for the child in her care.

 

The old fox's twinkling onyx eyes and furry face popped into Rin's mind, and she hoped that Nana was still living in the burrow under the small hill nearby her home. It had been nearly three years since Rin had returned to the cottage. A tiny part of her hoped that Nana had made good on her promise those winters prior, and was tending to things there. Though, in truth, Rin would never expect such a thing from the elderly fox, even if the kitsune did swear allegiance to Sesshomaru and his small household.

 

Sesshomaru came to an abrupt halt, and Ah Un jostled its cargo as it followed suit. Rin ceased her musing to stare at the stiffened back of her husband. Sesshomaru's head tilted slightly, and Rin realized he was testing the air.

 

“Is something wrong, Sesshomaru?” she asked. Zatoichi's head came up, his nostrils flaring slightly. Sesshomaru turned his head towards her, and his eyes suggested that her silence might be prudent. Though it ruffled her, Rin tended to obey him under circumstances such as these. Normally, he had her best interests at heart, even if he could tend to be overprotective of her when she was pregnant.

 

There was a loud, unearthly braying from the road ahead, and Rin worried her lower lip between her teeth. Zatoichi squirmed in her lap, but Rin kept a firm hand between his shoulder blades, pinning him down. She did not want her overzealous son attacking an enemy beyond his strength, and whatever was approaching sounded like something Sesshomaru should deal with. Soon the ground was shaking, Zatoichi whined and growled, twisting under his mother's grip. It was all Rin could do to hold him down, one hand on his back and the other twisted into the ruff of his neck.

 

“Quiet, Zatoichi,” Sesshomaru ordered in a tone that brooked no argument. Zatoichi immediately silenced and stilled, though his ears were pinned back, his lips curled into a snarl.

 

With a tumultuous roar, a great beast, at least twice as large as Sesshomaru in his current form, crested the hill in front of them with a single leap. The creature thrashed his massive head, topped with the curving horns of a bull, from side to side, huffing fire from his hideous snout. His eyes were small and red, set deep into his skull. His body was manlike, but rippled with thick muscle and sinew. His hoofed legs were as thick as Rin's body.

 

“Ha!” the creature spat, “So this is the `Great Lord Sesshomaru'?” The beast sorted then, a mixture between a laugh and a grunt. Little flames erupted from its nostrils.

 

Sesshomaru remained where he stood, and said nothing.

 

“I am the mighty Meiunoushi,” roared the bull, “and I have come to challenge you, Weak Dog, for control of the West. No yokai that lays with a human is worthy of such a title.”

 

Sesshomaru was silent.

 

“I will strip your meat from your bones and devour your tiny wife and ill-bred offspring,” the Meiunoushi continued, obviously growing more vexed by his opponent's reticence. Still Sesshomaru did not move or speak. The bull grunted in irritation and growled low in his throat.

 

“You have nothing to say?” Meiunoushi said, “Are you resigned to your pitiful fate?”

 

“Are you finished?” Sesshomaru answered lazily as he curled his hand into a fist. His knuckles emitted a loud crack. Meiunoushi's mouth fell open only briefly, and then he sneered.

 

“Overconfident dog! I will crush you!”

 

Over the years, Rin had grown used to Sesshomaru's way of fighting. He expunged as little energy as possible on his opponents, and much of his technique was lent to psychological manipulation. As the bull howled with rage and pitched his massive body forward in a relentless charge, Rin could almost feel sorry for him. A creature so dim truly had no chance against Sesshomaru.

 

With a practiced twist and flick of his wrist, Sesshomaru released his whip upon the unsuspecting creature, neatly slicing him in twain down the center. Meiunoushi had less than a breath for a strangled, gurgling bellow before the halves fell apart from one another with a sickening squelch and resounding crash into the underbrush.

 

Rin looked on calmly as she released Zatoichi from the death grip she had developed on his ruff. He bounded from her lap, the heat forgotten, and trotted off to sniff at his father's kill. Sesshomaru calmly kept walking, and passed between the halved creature as he trekked onward. Zatoichi watched Ah Un move forward, lifted his leg on the carcass.

 

“Zatoichi,” Rin scolded, “don't do that!” The boy whined and ran to catch up to the group, passing by his mother and Ah Un to trot along next to his father, wagging his tail and growling softly. Sesshomaru patted his head absentmindedly.

 

In truth, Sesshomaru had wondered why it had taken so long to be challenged. He was unsure whether the lack of yokai opposition was a compliment or an insult. Though, the sad excuse that had just attempted to usurp him was definitely an insult. Perhaps his marriage had gone unchallenged because the yokai community did not see him as a threat. This seemed unlikely, especially considering his lineage and the part he played in destroying Naraku. No, the more likely answer was that he was greatly feared, and only brash, young upstarts had the foolish bravado to face him. Or, his enemies could be plotting behind his back while he was blissfully unaware. He would have to make a note to send Jaken eavesdropping when the imp returned.

 

`It would do no good to be caught unprepared,' Sesshomaru reasoned. He vaguely heard Rin scold their son, and the boy's subsequent protest. Zatoichi trotted up next to him, growling praise for a swift victory. Sesshomaru glanced askew at his young son, and reached down to pat his head affectionately.

 

`No, that would not do at all,' he thought and tested the wind. Rin's altered scent, deeper and warmer filled his nose, `especially now.'

 

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They were only a few days from the cottage, and Rin decided that she had best procure a few larger kimonos for later in her pregnancy. With Zatoichi she had to send Jaken to fetch extra cloth to make a few new ones, but that had been in the dead of winter, and her new child would be born in autumn. Meanwhile, she would have to struggle through the rest of, what looked like, a hot summer. Rin always had trouble sewing lighter, thinner fabric. It, all too often, fell out of place, or her stitching was crooked, and with the addition of a playful, bouncing puppy, she doubted she presently had the time for such endeavors.

 

So, tilting her head and appropriating what she considered her most demure, little-wife voice, she asked Sesshomaru if they could stop in a village along the way.

 

“No,” he replied.

 

Rin reigned in her anger, took a deep breath, and asked, “Why not?” tilting her head slightly to the side and batting her eyes in the way that suggested that she was very sweet, and how dare he deny her anything.

 

“No,” he said, and fixed her with a look that suggested with equal strength that she was not nearly as sweet as she thought, and what he says goes.

 

Jaken, knowing all too well where this was most likely going, turned to a confused Zatoichi. Ruffling the boy's fur, he drew the pup's attention from the brewing argument towards some butterflies that begged for the excitable five year old to smash them good. To Jaken's relief, Zatoichi took the bait and bounded into the lush field, the imp breathed a silent sigh of relief and followed in the boy's destructive wake.

 

“I am going to need a new kimono, Sesshomaru,” she said with the voice she reserved for scolding Zatoichi. Sesshomaru did not like that one bit.

 

“Then make one as you did when you were pregnant with Zatoichi,” he said turning away.

 

“And where,” she said, clutching at his empty sleeve so he could not dismiss her completely, “am I supposed to find the time to do that when I have a five year old to look after?”

 

“Jaken can watch him,” Sesshomaru replied calmly.

 

“Like he used to watch me?” She had him there.

 

“What do you suggest, Rin?” Sesshomaru sighed. He was in no mood for her emotional outbursts. “Any village you enter large enough to have a seamstress will also have a monk or miko guarding it. Do believe that anyone with spiritual powers will not sense the yokai blood in the child you carry?”

 

Rin set her mouth in a determined line. She hated when he used that calculating logic against her.

 

“I'll take the risk,” she said resolutely, straitening her spine and lifting her chin insubordinately. Sesshomaru turned towards her fully then.

 

“You'll take the risk?” Sesshomaru snapped, “Stubborn woman, do you want to get yourself killed?”

 

“Sesshomaru,” Rin said, more shrilly than she would have liked, “I am hot and I am tired and I do not want to have to run between Zatoichi and Jaken every five seconds while stitching together a kimono. This one barely fits me now! Please, Sesshomaru, afford me some small comfort!”

 

“Some small comfort?” Sesshomaru said in a dangerously low voice, “Do I not make every concession for you? Even now we go to remain in that stifling house for the next few years until you are ready to travel again.”

 

“As we should,” Rin said with equal heat, “it is your child I carry. And don't act as if you are always there! How often did you drop me and Zatoichi off with Inuyasha so you could gallivant around the countryside”

 

“I was protecting my territory,” Sesshomaru bellowed, “If I did not it would fall into ruin, overrun with scavenging yokai. Or shall I leave those mindless beasts to populate uncontrolled, destroying your precious human villages as they go?”

 

“They're not my precious anything. Damn it, Sesshomaru! All I want is a new kimono!” Rin sniffed, suddenly miserable, “if I knew how much you regretted all this,” she said, motioning towards herself, “I wouldn't have said anything.” Her shoulders drooped as she succumbed to silent sobs.

 

Sesshomaru cursed his loose tongue. Only Rin could rile him thus.

 

Sesshomaru took her in his embrace, and bowed his head towards her ear, “I didn't mean it like that,” he whispered, regaining a large measure of his former calm.

 

“Then what did you mean it like?” she murmured into moko-moko, attempting to calm her hiccupping.

 

“Rin…sometimes…” stupid words, “sometimes, I have regret, but not for what we have together. I…I worry…for you and our son, and this child to come. I regret that fear.” Rin was quiet; her breath came in light puffs against Sesshomaru's stole.

 

“I know you do, “ she said, “I'm sorry to cause you so much trouble.”

 

Sesshomaru growled low and nuzzled her crown, “Don't say stupid things.” Rin laughed and kissed his cheek.

 

“You're forgiven,” she said cheerfully, and Sesshomaru scowled. He had lost that altercation somehow; he knew it. From their feet came a low whine. The pair looked down into the golden eyes of their son, seated at their feet. His tail had stilled and he looked between them apprehensively.

 

“We aren't fighting,” Rin said reassuringly as she scratched his ear lightly. Zatoichi leaned into her touch, but kept his gaze on the two of them, suggesting that he was not so sure of that.

 

“So…“ Rin started, glancing askew at her husband as she scratched her son's ear, “a new kimono?” Sesshomaru looked at the woman in his arms with no small measure of exasperation and determined, not for the first time, that fate had played a cruel, cruel joke on him.

 

“We will have to go several days out of our way,” he sighed, releasing her and starting in a new direction.

 

“But,” she argued, “there is a village along the way!”

 

“No,” he replied, still walking, “if there is trouble, then that place is too close to our home. The last thing I need is an army of humans marching through my forest.” He paused and turned towards his wife. “Do you want a new kimono or not?” he said, and continued forward.

 

Rin grumbled and slid on to Ah Un's saddle. Zatoichi bounded after his father's shadow. Jaken, half buried by his canine charge, pushed out from under the mound that Zatoichi had put him under and raced after the three.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru, “ he panted, “wait for me-e-e!”

 

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The village was nestled comfortably in the hollow of several large hilltops. It looked innocuous enough in the mist of early dawn, but Sesshomaru knew, if there trouble arose, he would be afforded a better vantage point from higher ground. He would not follow Rin into the village. He could detect no strong spiritual power, so that would be unnecessary. Besides, his presence would cause unnecessary panic, and Rin would not acquire a new kimono if he were forced to destroy the place.

 

“Thank you, Sesshomaru!” Rin said happily as she gazed longingly at the little hamlet. Maybe she could pick up a few other necessities while she was there, like new water skeins or a few new blankets for the winter or even a toy for Zatoichi. It had been months since she was in a human village, not since Kagome had verified her latest pregnancy, and she rarely had time to go shopping, since Sesshomaru was usually quite eager to be out of his brother's territory. Now she was allowed to do just that, and Sesshomaru had deemed this place safe enough, so she would use this opportunity for all it was worth. Zatoichi seemed equally excited about this new place, with all of its new smells, and his lower half wagged with his tail.

 

“You are not going,” Sesshomaru informed his son. Zatoichi stared at his father, then longingly at the village, then at his father again with his most accomplished, watery “puppy dog eyes” possible. Sesshomaru would have none of that.

 

“Your mother made me immune to those long ago,” he told the boy. Rin scowled at her husband.

 

“Oh, let him come along, Sesshomaru,” she argued, “If you hide his markings, no one will be the wiser.” Rin was feeling uncommonly excitable. “Besides,” she continued, patting her son on the back, “ he would be good protection. No mere mortal could harm our son.” Zatoichi yipped in agreement.

 

“Conspirators,” Sesshomaru groused. He stepped forward and touched Zatoichi's forehead. The boy's crescent moon and magenta stripes shimmered and winked out. To any untrained eye, he looked like an ordinary, white dog. “Be quick,” he ordered them. Rin and Zatoichi bobbed their heads in unison.

 

As his human wife and hanyou son descended into the sleepy village, Sesshomaru wondered when he had gone so soft.