InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lies, Letters, and Calloused Fingertips. ❯ Letters in the Attic. ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: ok, ouch from some of those flames… I'm still putting out the fires, lol. What is WITH people expecting absolute perfection? I'm a fucking photographer and mother of two. Sheesh, if you want grammatical and… plot-ical perfection, pick up a damned book. This is MY idea, deal with it. Like I tell Noah all the time… “GROW UP.”

 

Btw… DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I own the song (“One-Eighty By Summer” by Taking Back Sunday), nor do I make any money from this pointless writing and posting, writing and posting…

 

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Lies, Letters, and Calloused Fingertips.

 

Chapter Four: Letters in the Attic.

 

It was Kagome's dream house; he was absolutely sure of it. `The damn place is colossal,' he thought as the realtor showed him around. Lots of space, tons of windows… The kitchen could hold several people, and the dining room was enormous enough for one of the huge tables from Sesshomaru's Western Palace. The living room was gigantic, and the carpet in it was a light tan color. The countertops were real marble, and the cabinets and island counter were made of a darkly stained wood, as were the barstools. The place had five rather large bedrooms, a three-car garage with an extra room above it (that Inuyasha planned to use of his office/practice room), and four roomy bathrooms. The place was big; there was plenty of room for a large family - and Inuyasha knew that he couldn't speak for Kagome, but he knew that he wanted a large family.

 

As he was signing the paperwork with the realtor, he remembered living with Sesshomaru and Rin all those years. He stood to the side for centuries, watching them make babies, raise them, and just plain ole enjoy a huge family. Their oldest daughter, Aiko, was the spitting image of her sire, but she had the rambunctious personality of her ningen mother. Their next two, a pair of twin sons named Tenmaru and Ataru, looked just like Rin, but they were both very cold like their father. It had always creeped Inuyasha out, the way the two always finished each other's sentences in such a serious manner. There were the next twins, Kaoru and Kaori. The girls were identical little copies of Rin, but they had Sesshomaru's coloring and serious disposition. Kaoru had always had the better sense of humor, though; Inuyasha had always treasured each of his nieces and nephews, but everyone had always known that he was closest to little Kaoru. She had always reminded him so much of Kagome, they knew - especially the way her golden eyes had always sparkled when her sire caught them both red-handed trying to play a prank on him.

 

Fluffy had never said a word to Inuyasha regarding his feeling for his immediate family, but the hanyou had always known that his older brother just loved being a mate and sire. Even after the second set of twins had left Rin pretty much barren, Sesshomaru still showed her the same amount of love he always had - well, other than that one time, of course.

 

But Inuyasha hated to dwell on that. His family had pulled themselves back together after that whole debacle, and now he had Kagome back with him.

 

He knew he wanted an even bigger family than Fluffy had now.

 

While the movers were getting all of Kagome's things set up in this new, huge home - not to mention some new things - Inuyasha, couldn't say that he was totally shocked to see his sister-in-law and her three daughters enter the foyer. Kaoru immediately squealed in delight at seeing her favorite - and only - uncle once again. Rin laughed at her daughter as the pup jumped at her half-human uncle, shrieking, “Uncle Yash! Uncle Yash!” Kaori sneered in disgust at her twin's demeaning actions, and Aiko, the proud heir to the Western Lands, stood by and smirked. As soon as the strange secret handshake known only to Inuyasha and his youngest niece had been performed, Aiko came forward, striding smoothly across the foyer and hugging her uncle warmly. She and Inuyasha had also been very close during her childhood and adolescence; her sire may love all his children, but they were half human, like their uncle. When Aiko had been having a hard time as a teenager and blossoming “Lady” in the court's judging eyes, Uncle Yash had been the only one who could help her sort through her feelings of loneliness and shame.

 

That had just about killed her poor sire, Aiko knew. She loved her sire deeply, and nothing could ever match the bond she had with him; she was his firstborn, his treasure, the first person he had ever loved just by laying eyes on her. She knew that it had crushed him that she turned to Inuyasha in that time of distress. Aiko was his firstborn, his eldest pup, and quite possibly his favorite.

 

However, because she had gone to Uncle Yash for advice with her strange, hanyou nature, she knew that she had turned out much better for it, and all of her younger siblings had come to her for the same advice. In Aiko's eyes, she had saved her sire from a great deal more heartache in the long run, and that was good enough for her.

 

Inuyasha knew better than to expect any sort of warmth in Kaori's greeting. The girl was just very cold, very formal, much like her sire. Inuyasha knew that Kaoru had been the louder, more spontaneous twin, leaving Kaori, who had always been somewhat of a shy, quiet child, in the shadows. Sesshomaru had been naturally prone to show those of his children who were more like their bright ningen mother more of his affection, while the older twins and Kaori, who had his straightforward, much more reserved demeanor, grew up severely lacking when it came to their sire's attention.

 

Inuyasha gave Rin a brief bear hug; five hundred years may have passed since Sesshomaru had taken the young human woman as his mate, but she was still very small compared to her half-inu brother-in-law.

 

“Rin!” Inuyasha cried out enthusiastically. He had always enjoyed her presence, whether she was a small, adorable girl or a grown, strong-willed, magnificent woman. He also knew that Kagome and Rin would quickly become wonderful friends as soon as they managed to seize some quality “girl time” together.

 

Suddenly, images and memories flashed right before his mind's eye, and Inuyasha sighed silently as he wished them away.

 

Sango and Miroku had married soon after Kagome's disappearance, and their short human lives were filled with laughter and happiness. Inuyasha had sat outside their hut for years as he looked in, watching for nearly half a decade as Miroku suffered through years of child-rearing and seven of Sango's deadly pregnancies. The demon slayer had four single births and three sets of twins. She didn't survive the birth of the youngest twins, Yume and Ayumu. Miroku was beside himself after her death, but he pulled himself together enough to continue caring for his children - all ten of them. The oldest twins, Hana and Kasumi, were spitting images of their mother, and they were only nine at the time of her death. Sango had made damn sure that her girls knew how to protect themselves; they became a feared demon slaying duo upon reaching adulthood, never venturing too far from the other's comforting company. They ended up living in the same village, marrying and having their own families while guarding the village from demon attacks and doing work for other villages.

 

Sango and Miroku's oldest son, Kohaku, named for Sango's younger brother, was not born with the Wind Tunnel that Miroku had been cursed with, and he led a very normal childhood. Sango trained him in combat as well, but he grew up to be more interested in religion and… ahem, anatomy, much to his mother's chagrin. He was only eight years old when his headstrong mother passed away.

 

Then there was Sanya, their next child; she had Miroku's violet eyes, but her pretty face and wild temperament no doubt came from her mother. Being only seven years old at Sango's death, she had always worshipped the woman she called hahaoya, and she became the embodiment of what the child of a monk and demon slayer should be: a very spiritual young dealer of death. Hana and Kasumi both had the same patient and forgiving nature of their monk father, but Sanya turned out uncontrollable, frenzied even; she died in battle at only twenty-two summers.

 

The next set of twins were fraternal, a boy named Ryou and a girl named Migoto. They were only six at the time Miroku became a single father, so they had a pretty good memory of what their mother had been like; the two, from what Inuyasha remembered, were inseparable, and both were very well-mannered and quiet like their father, but they both fought with a rare grace and sense of honor that Inuyasha was sure Sango had taught to them. They ended up living in the same village as well, side by side as neighbors, even; Ryou was Migoto's rock, and likewise, even when they both married and had their own, separate families.

 

Ayana had barely turned five by the time her mother died; she had absolutely idolized her “Okaa-chan.” Much to Inuyasha's surprise, Ayana asked her eldest sisters for lessons in combat for self-defense only, and she became a healer of unimaginable proportions. Apparently, Sango's family wasn't just made up of demon slayers and warriors, because her youngest daughter had been born an exceptionally strong Miko… like Kikyo.

 

Like Kagome.

 

That realization had made Inuyasha's heart hurt.

 

Then there was Ichigo, their third-youngest son. He was only two when his younger brothers were brought into the world and his mother was taken away from it. He had no real memory of Sango, only the idea that Miroku taught him and Yume and Ayumu. They grew up knowing that she was a beautiful, willful, strong fighter, and that she stood up for good.

 

And that she didn't particularly enjoy her buttocks being caressed in public.

 

The last three took care of Miroku when they were grown and he was aged. Soon after the youngest twins reached adulthood, marrying nice girls from the village, they buried their honored father alongside their honored mother in the village plot.

 

Inuyasha and Miroku had remained close friends until the day of the monk's death; the hanyou had even helped him care for the children as they grew into the good, honorable adults that had probably helped to populate half of the islands he still lived on. He knew that Hana and Kasumi both had at least four children, and he had seen all of the other kiddos grow up to have at least six progenies apiece… well, all except Sanya, who had only birthed three of her own before her honorable death.

 

Inuyasha wondered briefly why Kagome had yet to ask about Sango and Miroku. `She probably doesn't want to know just yet,' he reasoned, sitting down on the living room sofa beside his sister-in-law. Aiko, Kaori, and Kaoru were off in the depths of the huge home, giving their uncle's grand new abode the official look-around.

 

“Well,” Rin started to say as she smiled and looked around. “I must say, Inuyasha, that this is very nice…” Her sparkling hazel eyes landed on her brother, and her amused smirk seemed to bore right through him. “But it doesn't seem like you.”

 

He chuckled, shifting somewhat in his seat. “You're right,” he told her. “It's more for Kagome than it is for me. She and I both like space - lots of space.” He smiled very brightly at her. Rin was happy to see it. For centuries, he'd been so depressed. She'd tried to include him their family the entire time she and Sesshomaru had been mated. When she was going into labor with Aiko, she was only twenty years old; Sesshomaru had claimed her as his mate barely two years before she gave birth to his eldest pup. He was away at war with a neighboring territory, and she knew that he had commissioned Inuyasha to stay at the Western Palace and keep an eye on her. When the Palace was attacked suddenly by the usagi youkai, Inuyasha and Jaken had barely managed to help Rin out of the chaos, and, somehow, the two males had helped her through the labor pains to give birth to the heir to the Killing Perfection.

 

Sesshomaru returned from battle to find Rin nursing his new daughter; after hearing the stirring tale from both Rin and Jaken, he embraced Inuyasha like the brother he was. It had warmed Rin's heart greatly to see the feud between them ended finally, and they had begun to create a new, very close relationship.

 

Rin was continually glad to see that their relationship was just as close and brotherly as it had been for the past few centuries.

 

Now Inuyasha had Kagome back. Rin barely remembered the young Miko, and she was surprised to see the woman still alive in this era. When she had gone missing, her brother-in-law had finally divulged the great secret of the Bone-Eater's Well and the story of Lady Kagome's origins in the future. Sesshomaru's black expression never changed, but Rin had been positively riveted by his story. They in the Western Palace had all believed the beautiful, powerful young Miko priestess called Lady Kagome to be long dead; finding out that she had actually been trapped in the future had been a colossal shock to the entire Western family.

 

But even as Rin sat on the sofa with Inuyasha, chatting and admiring the new home he had purchased to share with his new wife and longtime mate, she was almost in disbelief at the turn of events.

 

“Oh… my… GOD!”

 

Rin turned in her seat, surprised by the outburst. She and Inuyasha saw Kagome standing in the foyer, her eyes wide. She gawked, open-mouthed, before turning to the two sitting on the living room sofa. The young woman who had been talking with her husband stood and approached her.

 

“Lady Kagome?” she questioned timidly. “Do you remember me?”

 

Kagome's face scrunched a bit as she struggled to remember this woman. Faces flashed through her mind as she racked her brain for the answer, and those bright, sparkling hazel eyes shone right through the haze. The face she remembered, though, was that of a pretty, preteen human girl in the Warring States era.

 

She blinked. “Rin?” she asked in a slightly shaking voice. “Is that you?”

 

The human ward of Sesshomaru had grown into a mature and very beautiful young woman. Kagome wondered briefly how she could still be alive and young and so exquisite-looking five centuries later, but the realization that the Lord of the West had made her his lifemate struck her before she could open her mouth and ask a very stupid, very personal, and probably very unnecessary question. She looked over at Inuyasha instead, and he understood her unspoken question.

 

“When a youkai claims a human as a mate, that human is granted the youkai's lifespan and some of his or her strength and healing abilities,” he explained goodnaturedly. “Think of it as a sort of physical dowry.” Rin giggled to her left. Kagome's eyes widened some at his mellow, mature words, and she looked back at Rin, who was smiling knowingly.

 

“Because Sesshomaru and Inuyasha belong to the ruling inuyoukai pack of the West,” Rin began, putting her hand to Kagome's lower back and leading the stunned priestess further into the mansion, “they have above-average strength and are immune to pretty much all poisons and toxins. Because we are mated to them, we're stronger than normal humans, we heal faster than normal humans, and we simply don't age. Also, so far, I've only fallen ill to one type of toxin in the past five hundred years, and you really don't see that many kumo around here anymore…”

 

Kagome blinked in surprise as all three of them sat down together. “Wow.” She looked around at her absolutely elegant surroundings. “I have to say, Rin, that this is an amazing home you've got here. You've got to have the best taste that I have ever seen!”

 

Rin chuckled, her pretty hazel eyes darting over to Inuyasha, who had since slouched back in his recliner, a cocky smirk glued to his face as he anticipated his mate's reaction to their next words: “Oh, thanks, honey, but this isn't my house.”

 

Kagome instantly looked confused. “It's not?”

 

“No, silly wench!” Inuyasha laughed wholeheartedly. “Rin, Sesshomaru, and their entire brood still live in the Western Palace, away from ningen eyes. Besides, the security there is way tight.”

 

Her chocolate eyes, still glowing with puzzlement, centered on her mate. “Then whose…”

 

Her eyes widened as, once again, realization hit her like a semi.

 

“WHAT?!”

 

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It took less than a week for the couple to get everything moved into their new home. All of the rooms were filled to the brim with elegant, gorgeous furniture. Inuyasha had his practice room stacked with sheet music, a beautiful, black grand piano, and his three electric guitars. Kagome recognized the deep blue Fender from the night she found him performing at the university lounge; he usually kept it hanging on the wall.

 

Kagome herself rarely went into his practice room other than to let him know that his ramen was done; she normally kept to herself during his practice times, pouring over her history books. She spent loads of time in her own study, sitting at her desk, writing countless research papers and theses, the majority of which were on the Sengoku Jidai.

 

Inuyasha smirked as his bandmates entered his private practice room and sat down at their individual instruments. Chiyo sat down at the drums; she had her bright red hair up in a high, spiked-out ponytail, and she wore a loose, earthy green camisole, ripped-at-the-knee indigo jeans, and black flip flops. Inuyasha had found her playing in her rather straight-laced parents' garage on the outskirts of Edo; she was amazing, and he offered to pay her way so that she could to Tokyo U and fine tune her skills. He also did it because he would recognize those violet eyes and violent disposition anywhere; hell, the girl was even a raging pervert like her ancestor! He often wondered which of the ten kiddos she had descended from.

 

Osami came in next, violin in hand. He was a very shy, very quiet boy, and Inuyasha had somehow managed to persuade him into transferring from Juliard in the States to Tokyo U. The boy was a damned prodigy as far as Inuyasha was concerned, and he would have a long, fulfilling career as a classical musician if the hanyou had anything to do with it.

 

Then Keisuke entered the room and plopped down in one of the various recliners, his Yamasaki bass in one hand and a microphone in the other. He smirked and tossed the mic to Inuyasha. “You left that at the lounge a few weeks ago, when you ran off with your bitch.” He snickered a little at his older bandmate. Inuyasha just gave the kid a slightly reproachful look; this kid was about as reckless and audacious as he once was, back in the Warring States era.

 

As he looked over his friends, all three of the people who, he realized right then, were more than 450 years younger than he was at that moment, Inuyasha licked his lips and flipped on the mic, grabbing up his solid orange Fender and setting the microphone into the notch in the stand. Keisuke hopped enthusiastically to his feet, plugging the cord from the amp into his Yamasaki. Osami rose a bit more slowly, positioning the bottom of the violin against the underside of his chin. Chiyo, who sat at her black and red drumset a few feet back, grinned like the wild, punk pervert that she was and twirled her drumsticks in her hands.

 

“Showoff,” Keisuke growled.

 

Starting them off, she stuck her tongue out at the bassist and struck the sticks together four times, counting loudly with each strike: “One, two, three, four!”

 

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Kagome could hear the music from all the way across the large house. After a few moments of drums and bass, the guitar strums became louder, and her mate's pretty baritone floated through the otherwise soundless evening:

 

“Go on just say it.

“Sincerely and sure.

“You need me like a bad habit.

“One that leave you -

“Defenseless.

“Dependant.

“And alone.”

 

Kagome sighed, leaning back in her very comfy black swivel chair and wrung her hands. She glowered a little at the giant textbook sitting, open, on her desk. She glanced at her computer screen and stood to look around the room at the stacks of books lying around on the floor.

 

“Cliché like your name

“My voice and the center

“`I've been trying to forget ya.'

“But I only sleep beneath you.

“And nothing's that important

“Not anymore…”

 

Kagome stopped sifting through her many, many textbooks to stand stock still and listen to the lyrics for a minute or two. The music emanating from his practice room sounded to melancholy, so despondent.

 

“Are you ashamed to say what you want to?

“Well, are you?

“Tell me you want to.

“Say it.

“Go on, just say it.

“I hold my tongue

“Use it to assess

“The damage from way back when it mattered

“Feel around.

“Get cozy.

“Go crazy.

“Get comfortable.”

 

`He's seemed so happy these past few months since the wedding,' she mused as she threw her hands up in the air, exasperated. This was the whole reason she wasn't too keen on leaving the apartment that they'd shared for the past several months; at least there she knew where everything was. Kagome left the room and started down the hall. She couldn't find the textbook that she was looking for in the piles of books in her study. `It has to be in some of the leftover boxes in the attic,' she resolved as she walked.

 

“We're just protecting ourselves

“So forfeit yourself

“Give me up. Give me up.

“And make something more to your liking.

“A poet

“Oh, prince!

“I don't think I'll ever come back down…”

 

She climbed the stairs quickly, using the balls of her feet to hop upward from one stair to the next. Finally, Kagome was at the top, and she opened the oak door and stepped inside, immersing herself in dust and darkness.

 

“Are you ashamed to say what you want to?

“Even after all we taught you

“Still.

“It just seems pointless

“With all the obvious lines out of focus

“Still…”

 

Kagome flicked on the light and stepped forward slowly, scanning the dimly lit room for the box that she was looking for. She found herself all the way in the back of the attic, and she still hadn't found the right box… when something else caught her eye.

 

It was a very old, wooden chest; the wood was made of a reddish, cherry-colored wood. It was a decent size, and it was somewhat rectangular in shape with a rounded, arched lid, reminding Kagome of a pirate's treasure chest. The latch connecting the lid with the outside part of the trunk was made of a fine quality leather, and it had a dark crescent moon burned into the top of the latch.

 

Kagome blinked. `Rin told me once that the crescent moon became the symbol of the Western house because of Sesshomaru and Inuyasha's father,' she thought. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she undid the latch.

 

“You sing you sing you sing

“Why can't you just be happy?

“Why can't you just be happy?

“I don't think I'll ever come back down…

“I don't think I'll ever come back down…

“And I don't think I'll ever come back…”

 

The trunk popped open, and Kagome slowly pushed the lid up, opening the wooden chest further. Dust flew everywhere, and Kagome got the immediate impression that this particular chest hadn't been opened in quite some time.

 

As soon as the dust was cleared, Kagome took a closer look at the trunk's contents. She squinted as a familiar hint of red sticking out from the bottom of the trunk, and she reached for it. As soon as her finger sank into the cloth, it hit her what she had found. `Inuyasha's fire-rat,' she thought with a startled gasp, her eyes widening just a fraction.

 

“Just say it…

“Go on just say it…

“Well, I'll just say it…

“I need you defenseless,

“Dependant,

“And alone.

“Live up to you first impression

“Well my best side was your worst invention.

“`Can't you live without the attention?'

“`Why can't you live without the attention?'”

 

Kagome released the torn haori and started looking at the trunk's other contents. She found the broken Tetsusaiga sheath, countless journals and scrolls and likenesses and photographs.

 

Then she came across another piece of clothing, but this was very different from the fire-rat. This was long and made of pure, fine silk; Kagome was amazed at the beautiful feel of it against her fingertips. Lifting it out of the trunk to get a better look at it, she realized that it was a very old, very nice, very traditional, and very expensive white kimono with red sakura blossoms painted across the bodice. As she unraveled the cloth, Kagome scrunched her face, puzzled; something was wrapped in it.

 

She didn't notice as the music downstairs began to build up drastically as she held the kimono's secret contents in her hands. They were old, yellowed envelopes, a whole stack of them, all addressed to Inuyasha. The kanji was soft and feminine; `Whoever wrote these had positively beautiful handwriting,' Kagome mused as she read the return address, from a “Tanaka Keiko.” It was an address in Tokyo that Kagome didn't recognize. She delicately slid one of the letters out of its envelope and began to read.

 

“Defenseless…

“Can't you live without the attention?

“Dependant…

“Can't you live without the attention?”

 

Kagome's brow furrowed as she read onward, and she didn't even notice the music abruptly stop and start up again at a much faster pace, obviously another song from Inuyasha's setlist.

 

Swallowing audibly, Kagome looked up from the ancient letter, completely mortified. “While I was gone…” she murmured in disbelief to no one in particular, “Inuyasha fell in love with a geisha?!?”

 

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A/N: Wow. Seriously, folks, who saw that coming?

 

Next time:

 

Chapter Five: I Think I'll Break Your Heart…