InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Of Gods and Monsters ❯ Chapter 48B: Parable and Past, CONT ( Chapter 49 )

Chapter 48B: Parable and Past, continued

Inside the apartment, the floor's other occupant stood in the massive kitchen, peering through the refrigerator and various cabinets looking for something more appetizing than what his own kitchen held. However, when the sound of the door opening met Inuyasha's ears, they swiveled as he swore silently; they were back early. When he heard Sesshoumaru and Teles speaking in low tones, he looked around for a moment, looking briefly for a hiding spot before stopping and rolling his eyes. Who the hell am I kidding?

In the foyer, Sesshoumaru was likewise aware of the situation. Sighing silently, he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Then again, I suppose I should be amazed we've gotten away with it for as long as we have. He slid the charm from his finger and pocketed it, shivering slightly as his features reverted back to their normal appearance. When he looked at his mate, he saw that she was watching him, a smile at her lips.

"Much improved," she said.

He brought his hands to her shoulders, sliding the coat away from her body. "I admit, while I have successfully adapted to modern clothes, I still dislike having to mask my true appearance."

"I find I prefer this appearance," Teles replied, pulling the scarf from her neck and tugging the gloves from her hands.

Sesshoumaru took these as well, putting them away in a small closet in the entryway. It appeared there was a choice laid before the inuyoukai -- he could reveal the ruse, or continue it. Unfortunately, either option required speaking with Inuyasha first. "Are you hungry?"

Unbeknownst to him, two silver ears swiveled sharply at those words.

Smiling, Teles laughed softly. "It seems as if I am awake, then I am hungry. And sometimes even when I'm not awake."

Guiding Teles into the living room and pressing a kiss against her brow, he murmured, "Perhaps... ice cream?" If my gluttonous brother hasn't eaten it all, that is.

"Is that the surprise?" When he nodded, she smiled broadly. "You did say it was a sweet, and I rather feel as if I should suggest something a bit more... well... something with meat in it. But I'm far too curious, and the pup's appetites have left nearly no room for sweets, it seems."

Chuckling, he helped her settle onto the couch. "Well, if you have some ice cream now, you may have something more substantial in another hour, when you're hungry again."

Her smile grew and she ran a hand over her swollen abdomen with affection that made his heart ache keenly. "Hear that, my little warrior? Your father has suggested a compromise."

With iron resolution, he pushed the sorrow away and allowed himself to revel in his mate -- his living mate -- for the moment. "I view compromise as merely another type of weapon." He turned and walked to the kitchen, opening and closing the door silently. It was no surprise at all when he found Inuyasha leaning against the counter, arms folded across his chest.

"What the hell are you doing home so early?" he asked in a hissing whisper loud enough for inuyoukai ears.

"She wished to come home," Sesshoumaru replied, just as quietly. At this, Inuyasha looked even more exasperated -- a feat the youkai wouldn't have thought possible.

"Could've given me a little warning!"

How anyone could manage to yell in a whisper, Sesshoumaru did not know. "...How, exactly?" he asked, careful to keep his voice down.

" You're the 'great youkai lord," he replied acerbically. "You think of something! I'm just your CFO."

Rolling his eyes, the youkai replied in a dry whisper, "You're assuming I knew you were going to be here. And if I had known, I would have called, except she's noticed that I have no real social life, so calling someone would certainly arouse her suspicions."

Amber eyes blinked once. "Business call?" he whispered.

Sesshoumaru did not respond. In fact, his silence lasted just long enough to reveal the fact that this tactic had not occurred to him. Huffing in exasperation, Inuyasha rolled his eyes, hard. "That's it. I'm CEO from now on."

"The hell you are."

"Fuck that -- you couldn't even think of a viable cover story."

Shaking his head, the youkai lord crossed the room. "I am not in the habit of thinking up 'cover stories.'"

The hanyou's lips twitched into a sarcastic grin. "Which is exactly why I should be the CEO."

"I cannot be the CFO," Sesshoumaru replied reasonably, leaning against the island in the center of the room.

"No, not with degrees in history and classics you can't be."

Sesshoumaru nodded once. This was not a new argument, not by any stretch of the imagination, and it always came around to the same conclusion. "Then things will remain as they are, for I am certainly not withdrawing from the company altogether, and I've no interest to match you degree for degree."

"Yeah. But then, finance, management science, statistics... it's not for everyone, I guess." Inuyasha shrugged once. "I know -- you can be the COO!"

A perfect beat of silence passed.

"Yes, of course -- with my astonishing personal relations skills. An excellent idea."

His brother waved a hand dismissively. "Chief Operating Officer -- kinda like a den mother. You'll be great."

Rolling his eyes, Sesshoumaru pushed away from the countertop and headed for the freezer. He opened the door and began rooting around inside. This was meant to signify the end of the discussion, but Inuyasha was having none of it. Even speaking in such low tones, Inuyasha had a very difficult time letting a debate rest. In truth, Sesshoumaru was faintly surprised that his brother was keeping his voice down at all.

"...I still don't get why you get to be CEO."

His voice was muffled, coming from the freezer. "Because I was always more willing to kill the competition."

"Keh. You haven't killed anyone in decades."

Sesshoumaru paused long enough to lean back and give his half brother a very pointed look. "An oversight. One I can correct."

Inuyasha appeared to mull this over for a few minutes before shaking his head. "I think you just like having the bigger office."

"And what would you do with the bigger office?"

"What do YOU do with the bigger office?" he countered. "You... bask. I'd bask too."

At this point, Sesshoumaru emerged with a pint of ice cream he'd hidden in the depths of the freezer, behind a variety of foodstuffs he was quite confident Inuyasha would ignore -- vegetables, mostly.

Inuyasha's eyes went wide, the sight of the frozen confection enough to make him forget they were trying to keep their voices down. "Hey!"

However, at this point it wouldn't have mattered if they had kept their voices down. The kitchen door slid open without warning, revealing the scene within to the former goddess.

"Sesshoumaru?" she asked, stepping into the room. "What's taking you so long? Is everything all...." she trailed off, staring at Inuyasha in disbelief. She could do nothing more than blink at him, as if trying to clear an illusion from her vision.

"Damn it," Sesshoumaru muttered under his breath.

Inuyasha sighed once. "...Shit."

But Teles simply stared at him for another moment or two before taking a step closer. "I-Inu..." her voice failed her. "Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha's arms tightened a bit over his chest as he looked down in an attempt to avoid Teles' shocked gaze. He cleared his throat. "... Yeah."

Wide green eyes went to Sesshoumaru. "...You never told me he..."

Setting the carton down on the counter, Sesshoumaru sighed, closing the freezer door. "No."

After a moment, Inuyasha lifted his gaze. "We... we thought it was better if you... didn't know." He let out a long breath. "Or, at least, we thought it was better you didn't know yet. It's a lot to get used to, you know."

"Yes," Teles agreed faintly. "Of course."

Moving quietly, Sesshoumaru withdrew a spoon from a nearby drawer and handed both the spoon and the carton to the pregnant woman. She took them as if in a daze, starting slightly when her hand closed around the pint.

"That's cold!"

Sesshoumaru suppressed the smile. "Yes. Ice cream."

Inuyasha blinked once. "...You haven't had ice cream yet?"

"Ah... no."

The hanyou's gaze darted to his brother. "She's been here for nine days, and hasn't ice cream yet? What the hell's the matter with you?"

"First of all, I was concerned that modern cuisine would prove too rich for her. Second, she is having ice cream NOW, thanks to you not liking vegetables," Sesshoumaru riposted dryly.

But Inuyasha only snorted, rolling his eyes. "I like vegetables plenty. But I'm not about to come HERE looking for them. And who do you think you're trying to kid, anyway, Mister I-Don't-Eat-Human-Food?"

Sesshoumaru tilted an eyebrow at his brother. "Mister I-Don't-Like-To-Eat-Anything-That-Isn't-Prepared-With-Boiling-Water-In-A-Pa per-Cup."

"Hey! I know how to cook!"

"Oh really?" Sesshoumaru regarded Inuyasha with dry amusement. "So tell me, what did you have for lunch?"

Inuyasha opened his mouth, and then snapped it shut. "...Take out," he muttered. When Sesshoumaru nodded once, smugly, he made an annoyed sound. "...It was tempura," he said, as if that made a world of difference. "Because I was working."

"At your job as CFO?"

Amber eyes narrowed. "I'm gonna bring new meaning to the words 'hostile takeover' if you keep that up."

Sesshoumaru's eyebrows lifted and arched. "That's a fine way to talk to someone who helped you write all those history papers."

"Yeah, and who was it who carried your dead weight all the way through statistics?"

The youkai was quiet for a moment. "...A point, I grant you."

Inuyasha began to say more, but was interrupted by a peal of laughter. Both brothers started slightly at the noise -- they'd forgotten Teles was there and, more to the point, that she was listening. But her laughter resonated through the room as she leaned against a countertop, laughing so hard that she could barely catch her breath. What neither of them realized was that she was laughing as much in relief as she was in amusement; all of this time she'd been worried that Sesshoumaru had been irrevocably alone. To find out that this had not been the case comforted her more than words could express.

Blinking in bemusement, he shot a wry smile in Inuyasha's direction. "Apparently we have a future in comedy."

One dark eyebrow cocked and disappeared under the fall of white bangs. "I'll remember that when the business collapses down around us in a fiery blaze as a result of your lame-ass skills."

"The only way that will happen is if you insist on supplanting me as CEO," Sesshoumaru countered, once again folding his arms over his chest. "Leaving me to oversee the finances."

The very prospect of this caused Inuyasha to shudder dramatically, indicating that he knew something Teles didn't regarding the youkai lord's mathematical skills. "No. No -- I already told you. COO."

But Sesshoumaru was already shaking his head. "We would lose all of our employees in a matter of months." When his half-brother gave a heavy sigh, he shrugged. "If you must have the bigger office for a while, we could trade, I suppose."

Inuyasha's gesture indicated that he didn't seem to care either way. "Leave it to you to study all those years for a few useless degrees."

Squaring his shoulders, Sesshoumaru inclined his head. "They are not 'useless.'"

"Useless. Mine, on the other hand..." There was a smug gleam in his eye as he spoke.

"You studied mathematics from Kagome's texts for four hundred and fifty years!" the youkai replied, throwing his hands up. "Of courseyou aced the entrance exams!"

"You're just jealous that there's something I'm better at than you are!"

There was a brief pause. "There are several things you are better at, one of them being mathematics."

Inuyasha blinked. "...Several things? And you're admitting that?" He sent Teles a quick glance. "In mixed company?"

Red-lidded amber eyes narrowed. "Do not force me to revise that downwards."

But Inuyasha was clearly enjoying himself, and did not give in to his brother's apparent pique. Waving his hand grandly, a lazy smile at his lips, he shook his head. "Oh, no, no. I'd love to hear them." He looked at Teles, who was still trying not to laugh too terribly hard, and lifted his eyebrows in a perfect parody of guileless curiosity. "Wouldn't you? I bet you would."

Sesshoumaru set his jaw and sent his brother a warning look. Clearing his throat, he said, quite calmly, "You are better with people." At Teles' muffled snort, his head swiveled. His mate was standing next to him, a hand covering her mouth and nose, her shoulders twitching with mirth. He shot her a wry look, which only made her twitches more marked.

Grinning, Inuyasha nodded at his brother's mate. "Yeah -- five centuries of practice on that one. Of course, saying that I'm better with people than Sesshoumaru doesn't really say much, does it?"

"Very funny," the youkai muttered, but the hanyou spoke as if nothing had been said.

"Go on, go on -- what else?"

Sesshoumaru's mouth twitched. "You are better at pretending to be human." But Inuyasha only rolled his eyes. Sesshoumaru's next statement, on the other hand, caused the sarcasm in Inuyasha's expression to fade completely.

"You are much better with children." When Inuyasha did nothing but glance away, amber eyes trained on an invisible spot, Sesshoumaru looked at Teles. "We had... well, a gathering of those who work for our company last summer. Somehow Inuyasha ended up covered in children."

Teles, smiling, turned to her mate's brother, who now had his arms akimbo, and a familiar scowl was etched across his features. "Not by choice."

"There were pictures," Sesshoumaru added pointedly.

"You told me you burned those!"

"I was not the only one taking them," remarked the youkai, calmly. "And while I could have smashed each camera there quite easily..."

Sighing, Inuyasha brought a hand up and pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly. "Yeah, yeah. Conspicuous."

"To put it mildly." Sesshoumaru's shoulders lifted in a graceful shrug. "Besides, it made an attractive HR selling point."

"Oh, shut up." But the words held little heat, and it looked as if Inuyasha's mind was somewhere else entirely. After a moment or two, he appeared to come back to himself. "Anyway." He blew out a short breath. "Maybe we should've told you."

Teles looked between the two brothers for a moment, green eyes thoughtful. "I... I suppose I understand why you did not."

Inuyasha gave a small half-smile, and in only a moment, the feel of the room changed slightly. The brothers' banter had charged the room with electricity, but now, somehow, that had abated to something mellower, though the former goddess could not ignore the solemnity that now seemed to surround the brothers.

After a few seconds, Sesshoumaru cleared his throat. "...Beloved?"

"Yes?"

He nodded at the carton she still held in her hands. "Your ice cream is melting."

Teles looked down, her brows knitting. "...Oh." Her fingers twitched, and when the side of the carton gave slightly, her brows shot up. "Oh!"

Chuckling, Inuyasha pushed away from the counter. "Yeah, I'll let you get back to that. Enjoy it."

Smiling, Teles pulled the lid from the pint. "I have a feeling I will." But when she looked down at it, her puzzlement returned at the sight of the white, plastic film covering the frozen confection.

Inuyasha's mouth quirked at the former goddess' confusion. "You'll need to peel that off first." When she nodded and began tugging at it, he took a step towards the door before hesitating briefly. He looked at Teles for a long moment. "...Though, while I'm here... I was ... wondering something. Before you... you know, get too involved with that." He jerked his chin at the pint of ice cream, studiously keeping his gaze away from Sesshoumaru. But out of the corner of his eye, the hanyou saw his brother turn to the cupboards and begin making himself some tea.

"Yes?" Teles asked, once she had pulled the plastic film away from the carton. "What is it?"

He nodded once at her rounded abdomen. "Could I... feel him?"

Her smile was instant, followed by an amused chuckle as she set the ice cream down. "Of course -- a silly question, Inuyasha."

A beat of silence passed before Inuyasha met her smile with one of his own, though it was perhaps a bit forced, returning her laugh with a shaky chuckle. In his peripheral vision, the hanyou saw his brother grow still, bowing his head over the teacup he held in his hands.

Swallowing hard, he approached his brother's mate, resting both hands against her stomach. Inuyasha stood like that for several seconds, eyes closed. When the child within shifted slightly, a small smile curved his mouth.

"Ah, there you are."

With that, he crouched down, pressing one silver ear against her abdomen, closing his eyes and listening. Several moments passed in this fashion, and when he had seemed to have enough, Inuyasha stood, clearing his throat. "Thanks."

Her eyes clouded with bemusement, she nodded. "You're welcome."

Inuyasha nodded again at nothing in particular before he turned for the door once more.

"Inuyasha." Sesshoumaru's low voice cut through the heavy silence that had descended on the room.

The hanyou's steps stopped, but he did not turn around. "Yeah?"

"There is no reason for you to hide in your apartment if she knows you are here."

He shrugged once, but still did not turn around, and when he spoke, his voice sounded a little bit too disinterested. "It's all right. I've got some work to do."

The youkai hesitated a moment before nodding once. "...Very well."

Here, Inuyasha looked over his shoulder at his half-brother. "Hostile takeovers take time, you know." He tried to smile, but it was forced, tight.

A small smile formed at the youkai's lips, nearly unnoticeable except in its sadness. "I'll let you plot, then. That should take you the next fifty years or so."

"I'm hoping it'll only take twenty-five."

"Working nights, then?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"And weekends."

Pursing his lips in thought, the youkai lord gave a brief nod. "Don't overdo it," he said quietly. But Inuyasha replied only with a shrug before nodding once at Teles before leaving the room, and soon the apartment, closing the door quietly behind him.

Silence settled over the kitchen like a thick shroud, the only sounds coming as Sesshoumaru prepared a small pot of tea.

"She... she's gone, isn't she?" Teles asked quietly.

Her mate gave a slow nod. "She has been. For... almost four and a half centuries." Neither of them spoke for several seconds. "I think..." he frowned then, pausing as he measured out tea leaves. "Well. That is only speculation on my part."

"What is it?" she prodded gently.

Sesshoumaru hesitated, sealing the tea tin and returning it to its spot in the cabinet. "I don't wish to make you feel guilty, beloved."

Teles gnawed lightly on her bottom lip, worrying it between her teeth. "...I - I would like to know, Sesshoumaru."

Blowing out a long sigh, he looked up from the teapot after filling it with steaming water. A muted clink followed as he placed the lid on the pot. "We agreed to... not tell you everything at once. But... I think..." Dark brows drew together in thought. "I have had the consolation, these long years, of knowing I would see you again. Inuyasha..." he trailed off, shaking his head. "Inuyasha had no such consolation. He's caught glimpses over the years, but... that's all he allows himself."

Closing her eyes, Teles winced. "Oh, gods."

The youkai took one step towards her. "What's the matter?"

"When they were here the other night -- Kagome asked me... if anyone lived across the hall. He... if he was in there, he must have seen her..." At Sesshoumaru's small, saddened smile, she blew out a long, tired breath and regarded the softening carton. "Beloved, if it's all the same to you, I believe I might have this... later."

He took the pint of ice cream into his hands and returned it to the freezer. "I believe that is a good idea."

***

Inuyasha let himself into his apartment with a weary sigh. He hadn't expected it to affect him as strongly as it had. The flutter against his hands barely counted as a movement at all. It was a tiny nudge -- a knee, perhaps, or maybe an elbow -- but it nearly knocked the air out of his lungs. He could almost feel Katsuro in his arms, curled snugly against his chest -- he could almost smell that unnamable baby-scent as tufts of feather-soft hair tickled his chin.

The hanyou no longer questioned his brother's choice to go through with this insane scheme; he no longer tried to wrap his head around the whys and wherefores of temporal mechanics; he no longer wondered about the wisdom of changing the past. Now, much like it had five centuries before, the shifts and movements of his unborn nephew against his palms left him speechless, and not a little stunned. But now -- now the sensation spawned memories instead of speculation.

Accompanying that gentle nudge was a swift kick of guilt at his earlier selfishness. Yes, more than anything he wished for more time -- another life entirely -- with Kagome. But this -- this life, this being was being given a chance it hadn't had before. Inuyasha could not in good conscience want another life with his mate when his nephew hadn't had the luxury of living even one life.

***

Knowing the truth and hoping it can't happen is one of those things that cause a storm of conflict inside the soul. Inuyasha had known the truth immediately, though he never uttered a word of it to Kagome; Katsuro was small, born early, and perhaps if he'd had his mother to nurture and feed him, he would have had a fighting chance. Hanyou children were stronger than human, it was true, but a premature whelp without its mother's milk had little chance of survival, even under the best circumstances.

But Kagome's hope and optimism were addictive, and he saw similar reactions in both Miroku and Sango. They knew the truth; they heard it every time a spasm of coughing wracked the infant's body, every time he uttered a pathetic, sickly howl; they saw it in the unnatural flush at Katsuro's cheeks and the faint film of sweat across his brow that glistened in the light from Kaede's firepit. They felt the truth in the heat that radiated from the tiny body. They all knew the truth, but all chose to cling to Kagome's hope.

Their options for medicines were alarmingly scarce -- and from the beginning it had seemed that there were nothing but obstacles before them. They could not bring the child to healers in Kagome's time -- there was no way to know how the treatments of her world would affect a hanyou physiology. It wasn't as if child's appearance wasn't an overwhelming worry; Aphrodite had charmed the child immediately after the birth, hiding the silver hair, silken canine ears, and facial markings from the doctors' eyes. But Katsuro's initial checkup had revealed aberrations in his vitals and bloodwork, arousing curiosity in the doctors. Aphrodite had helped spirit the child out of the hospital, and his mother out of the morgue, before that curiosity could blossom into anything more intrusive.

Without modern medicine as an option, the group's concern resided in the fact that they were all more afraid of making the situation worse. However, when the situation showed no signs of improving, Kagome brought some medicines through with her, but either Katsuro was too ill, or else his hanyou system was simply too different from that of a human child for those medicines to work effectively.

The worst of it, though, was the revelation that, while Aphrodite could change the child's physical appearance temporarily, she could not intervene with more powerful magic to save her grandchild's life. The realization shocked and angered them that three beings, Fates or not, were cruel enough to let an innocent child suffer.

"We cannot interfere," they'd said in toneless unison, ignoring the shock and outrage that had radiated from the hanyou whelp's patchwork family. "This is the path forged by the parents' foolishness. What will happen, will."

They were on their own.

Inherited stubbornness (though none of them were exactly sure from which parent he'd inherited it) kept Katsuro clinging to life. The fever fluctuated; when it went down, they breathed a sigh of relief. That relief, however, was short lived; the fever inevitably spiked again.

As days turned into weeks, Inuyasha grew increasingly quiet and tense. While the others had been concentrating on making it through each day, he'd been looking ahead to what was coming. He'd never expected them to consider it; they weren't hanyou, after all. Every night passed the same way -- Inuyasha held the infant, snug and warm against him inside his haori. Katsuro was still swaddled in the sheet from Teles' bed; the scent seemed to calm him for all that he was miserable with fever.

From the beginning, they all took turns, feeding him at regular intervals. Despite the villagers' high opinion of Inuyasha, there was no mother in the village willing to let a half-youkai child suckle at her breast, and so Kagome continued to use the formula she had brought from her time. Inuyasha could still remember the foul scent of the stuff and how Katsuro had seemed to dislike it instantly. He ate, but it was not, in Inuyasha's opinion, enough to keep up the child's strength.

It was Inuyasha who had the greatest success feeding the baby hanyou during his late night vigils; he balanced the child, supporting the tiny head and neck against the crook of his arm, murmuring to his nephew in tones too soft to awaken his friends, though he doubted they ever slept for very long. He encouraged Katsuro to eat instead of struggle, to rest instead of cry, so that he might grow strong and make his mother proud. The elder hanyou remained judiciously silent on the matter of the pup's father. Kagome had seemed convinced at a change in Sesshoumaru, but she had been the only one present when he'd arrived to collect Teles' body; she was the only one who had seen the youkai's reaction to the sight of his infant son. Inuyasha was skeptical, of course, but Kagome was convinced, and given the circumstances, he had no wish to argue the matter with her.

With every night that passed, Katsuro's condition did not change. He was small and sickly, clinging to life out of sheer stubbornness and will -- a human child would never have survived so long. Unfortunately, every hanyou has one night without the protection youkai blood affords them. Katsuro's night came before long and Inuyasha noted that the moon hanging in the sky was the complete mirror image of the dark blue crescent that had faded away from his forehead as the sun dipped behind the horizon. Silver hair darkened to the color of wood, and his eyes, which had been blue-grey before eventually lightening to amber, deepened until they were the color of polished jade.

Inuyasha held his nephew through this night as well, remembering vividly the last human night the child had had, in his mother's womb. Had only a month passed between that night and this one?

Oddly, Katsuro found the formula more palatable on this night; he fed instead of struggling. He slept instead of crying. And so, on this night, like so many others, Inuyasha held his nephew. He knew, of course, that if Katsuro managed to survive this night, his chances for survival were greatly improved. He told the child this as he slept, blissfully unaware of the claws combing gently through the downy brown hair, of the fingertips slowly stroking the soft, feverish forehead. At one point during the night, Katsuro stretched and woke, blinking solemn green eyes up at his uncle before fisting a yawn and sliding back into slumber. He never woke again.

Inuyasha had been forced to listen to his nephew's heartbeat grow slower and more sluggish as he slumbered in his uncle's arms. Helplessness swamped the elder hanyou with every soft, labored breath. There was nothing he could do but wait, hoping in vain that the sun might hurry up, the pink rays of dawn infusing the dying child with the strength that would help him survive.

But when the soft, thready heartbeat stopped entirely, Inuyasha felt the tiny flame of hope flicker out. He sat in the dancing amber glow of the firepit, cradling the infant in a futile attempt to keep the warmth in his limbs.

He had promised Teles the child would be safe. He'd promised to help him grow, to learn what it meant to be a hanyou. He'd promised her.

Bowing his head over the tiny, still bundle in his arms, he closed his eyes. The others would be waking soon, and when they did, then -- then he would explain it to them. But for now, he simply held his nephew.

"I'm sorry," he breathed. "I'm so sorry."