InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lessons of the Father ❯ New life ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: see chapter 1

 

 

Chapter 2: A New Life

 

Fully prepared to leave now that he found someone to help the miko, Sesshoumaru turned to leave. Alas, once again his plans were thwarted.

 

“Little girl come, I will need you to help me with your mother. And you must stay outside; it is bad luck for the father to be present in the birthing chamber.” Sesshoumaru made to protest but the girl's scream silenced him and he left as he had intended too. Unfortunately he couldn't go too far because the wretched woman was now enlisting Rin's help.

 

“Oh, she's not my…” Rin tried to correct before a bucket was shoved in her hands.

 

“Quickly child, gather water from the well outside.” The woman cut her off and went to work with no acknowledgment to Rin's words.

 

Sesshoumaru waited patiently outside. Occationally Rin would pop her head out to tell him something or another that he wasn't really listening to.

 

The sounds of the girl's screaming were a little disturbing. Normally he enjoyed hearing people cry out in pain, pain that he inflicted, but somehow this was less satisfying. Maybe it was the fact that this was a normal part of life that most women went through that was bothering him. Someday Rin would be in a hut, screaming in pain, while she gave birth. Maybe it was different for demonesses, but he imagined his mother in the same position as well.

 

The sounds were bad enough, but the smell was driving him near insanity. His mind was working over time to categorize and memorize them all, but half of them he didn't even know what they were. There was blood, and other body fluids, and god knows what else. A morbid part of him wished he could see so that he could put place an image to the haunting scents.

 

He wanted nothing more than to distance himself from the hut. He thought about doing just that, but his retreat would be a sign of weakness, that he could not handle something as trivial as a few screams and some discussing smells. No, Sesshoumaru would never take the time to explain that he left because he didn't feel like being there any longer, that would be explaining himself and he did not need too. Sesshoumaru did what he pleased when it pleased him and how it pleased him. After the first hour it became more of an internal test of strength to remain, as if by him staying there he was proving something to himself.

 

And so he remained outside the hut, a silent guardian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside…

 

 

Rin watched horrified, as Kagome began to push.

 

“When you feel like you need to push, do it. Push as hard as you can ok. Just listen to your body.” The woman coached her.

 

Push what? Rin wondered. This was all going way over her head. This woman kept telling Kagome to do things and Kagome seemed to be in so much pain. Rin was sure that she was dying, but the woman seemed to think that all she needed to do was push. Rin, in her 11 years, had seen pregnant woman before, but she had no idea what this was all about.

 

Kagome was screaming and the woman was telling her to push again. This time Rin saw something, and it was…

 

Rin's eyes widened, this was not the stork youkai that Master Jaken told her babies come from. No, there were definitely no storks here.

 

Kagome gritted her teeth and pushed until she felt like all of the blood vessels in her face were going to explode. She fell back on the pallet panting. Only a second went by before she felt the need to push again.

 

“I am never, never having sex again!” She yelled to no one in particular, as she tried to catch her breath in between pushes.

 

“Me neither.” Rin muttered in agreement. If sex was what got you into the position, well then Rin decided that she would die a virgin.

 

“Your doing great, just a couple more and it will be out. Girl, bring me the rags.” The woman ordered as Kagome started pushing again.

 

This last push did it, and all of a sudden Kagome felt like a thorn the size of Russia was just pulled out of her foot. Her body relaxed and she felt like she could breathe for the first time in hours. Falling back on the pallet she smiled when she heard her baby start crying. Who knew such an awful sound could be the most beautiful thing you ever heard.

 

“Congratulations he's beautiful. He has his father's hair.” The woman brought the baby to Kagome's side so that she could examine him. He did have his father's hair and two little flattened puppy ears too. Kagome agreed with the woman, he was beautiful. Before she had time to really take hold of him the woman and him were gone.

 

Kagome panicked for a moment. What if this woman was attempting to kill him as the others did? The thought that Sesshoumaru was around somewhere calmed her a little. She had never expected Sesshoumaru's presence to offer comfort.

 

The woman returned as suddenly as she left. “Don't worry he is with his father, we aren't done yet.”

 

“Oh, he's not…”

 

“Ok, you need to push again; we have to deliver the after birth.”

 

“After birth?” Rin gulped.

 

 

Outside, in the main room of the hut, Sesshoumaru was having his own complications. The woman came out form the birthing chamber and announced that HE was the FATHER of a beautiful baby boy. When he attempted to tell her that he was not the father she ignored him and returned to the room. Now he was trapped, holding a new born pup, naked and still covered in blood and fluids, and had no idea what to do.

 

He held the baby way from him, as to not get his clothing dirty, with both hands under his arm pits. He seemed to be having some difficulty holding his own head up, how utterly weak, probably because he was only a half-demon, so with his middle fingers he lent the head some support from behind. Then there was the crying, wailing actually, it was loud and so high pitch that Sesshoumaru's ears were ringing.

 

“Be quiet!” He told the baby through clenched teeth. The baby didn't listen, instead he cried louder.

 

“You will obey This Sesshoumaru!” He tried again, and again… nothing.

 

Luckily, just as he was about to give up and leave the baby on the floor, Rin emerged from the room looking disheveled and completely disoriented.

 

“Master Jaken and I are going to have to have a long talk about where babies come from.” She shook her head in an attempt to order all of her stray thoughts when she noticed Sesshoumaru and the trouble he seemed to be having.

 

Grabbing the blanket that the woman brought out for Sesshoumaru to wrap the baby in, Rin took the baby and wrapped him as well as she could and cradled him in her arms. “See Lord Sesshoumaru, this is how.”

 

He was about to tell Rin to leave the baby with it's mother so that they could leave when the woman joined them in the living room with a bowl in her arms and various bloody towels draped over her shoulders.

 

“Come along little girl, we need to wash up and leave these two alone with their new baby.” Sesshoumaru was seriously considering killing the woman at this point. No matter how many times he attempted to protest the woman just didn't seem to want to listen. This time he didn't even try.

 

“Youkai-sama, your wife lost a lot of blood and is asleep now. The baby can go awhile without feeding, but I'd suggest you help him with it sooner or later. Come girl, lets go.” Once again Sesshoumaru found himself alone with the baby in his arms, this time in the proper position, as the woman shooed Rin out of the room.

 

Weighing his options, Sesshoumaru decided his best course of action was to take the baby into the room with the miko and leave it by her bed, and then he could wait for Rin to get clean and go.

 

Inside the room the miko was fast asleep. Taking in her pale complexion, Sesshoumaru realized that she must have lost a lot of blood as the woman had said. He wasn't sure if she was simply asleep or rendered completely unconscious because of the strain and blood loss. However, if the fact that her baby was crying and she was completely unresponsive was any indication he would have to assume that she, was indeed, unconscious. She looked drained and exhausted. There were dark circles under her eyes and her face and hair were covered with a thin sheen of sweat.

 

The thought of the young woman sleeping peacefully while he was saddled with her infant sent a low growl rumbling through the demon lord's chest. And the baby stopped crying. As soon the growl ended so did the silence and the baby wailed his discomfort once more. Again Sesshoumaru growled and was shocked to find that the sound, which was meant to intimidate foes and had sent many running for their lives, had a comforting effect on the infant. Resigning himself to his fate, at least until the miko woke up, Sesshoumaru took a seat against the wall farthest from the girl and began growling, a low and steady rumble, until the pup nodded off to join his mother in the land of dreams.

 

Now that the pup was asleep, and with nothing better to do, Sesshoumaru took his time to examine his brothers first born. The pup was the first born of the next generation of his father's clan, and was a half demon. The disgrace against his father's line seemed to never end.

 

He was intrigued though, that the boy was a half demon rather than some kind of quarter demon hybrid. When he had previously thought about the outcome of Inuyasha mating he was curious to see what the result would be. Imuyasha's blood was unstable, as he had proved many times by turning into a full demon and becoming a mindless beast with an insatiable blood lust. The miko had mentioned that Inuyasha was having trouble controlling his demon blood so Sesshoumaru surmised that the pup must have been conceived while he was in full demonic form, making it a half demon.

 

The pup had the same ears as Inuyasha marring his head like a beacon declaring to the world that his blood was tainted. He had the same hair was well, not quite white but not quite silver either. There was no way that anyone could ever deny that this was Inuyasha's son, and in the same respect the grandchild of the great dog demon. Like Inuyasha the pup strongly favored their father's clan. Sesshoumarus father's clan was known for their brute strength and over abundance of sheer power, where as his mother's was known for the agility and cunning as well as their poison abilities.

 

Unable to stop himself, Sesshoumaru ran a clawed finger along the pup's cheek bone tracing the faint jagged line that ran from his cheek to his ear. The markings were so faint that they were barely visible, but Sesshoumaru knew that as the boy aged they would get darker. He imagined that they would be the same shade of blueish-purple as his fathers were.

 

A longing to see his father once again shot through him for the first time in over a century. He forgot what it felt like to miss his father. He had been so angry for so long that his father had died. Only recently, with the acquisition of the Bakusaiga, did Sesshoumaru begin to feel that his father's death was not a personal transgression against him.

 

Angry with himself for allowing his feelings to get so out of hand, Sesshoumaru looked down at the pup with cold disregard. This baby, this pup, was nothing more than a useless ball of flesh. He was so vulnerable, so utterly weak. Lifting one of the pup's hands, Sesshoumaru examined his tiny claws. They were so small and weak that he doubted that they could cut through a butterfly's wings. He couldn't even support his own head with our breaking his neck.

 

Sesshoumaru wondered if this was how all babies were when they were born. This was the first real contact he had with someone this young. Never really having given much thought to the idea of having children he had no need of knowledge about them. He planned on having an heir someday, in the distant future, but he would go about it in the same way that his father did and his father before him. He would acquire a female of good breeding, impregnate her, and when the pup, if male, was old enough to hold a sword he would be given to him to train. He would never have to old another newborn again, making this his first and his last.

 

He could not deny, no matter how hard he tried, that the boys scent was oddly refreshing. Under the blood and mystery fluids, the pup's natural scent was beautiful. He smelt like new snow, like nothing at all. Fresh, clean, pure, untouched by the cruelty of the world. Sesshoumaru knew that that smell would eventually fade away with time and exposure, but for now he wanted to take it in and commit it to memory, because he was sure that nothing else in the world would ever smell this new.

 

AN I fought with my self about ending the chapter here, but decided to go ahead and do it. Sorry it's a tad short …. Is over 2000 words short? I think so. Anywho …

 

LadyDeath31178: Congrats on your third. Sorry bed rest sucks. But its only a few more months … hang in there!

 

Man I had some other reviewer replies I meant to do but I'll catch up next chapter.