InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Once Upon a Time ❯ Wedding Bell Blues ( Chapter 39 )

Disclaimer: Inu belongs to Kagome, and they all belong to Takahashi-san. I can dream, can’t I?

39. Wedding Bell Blues  

The hanyou stepped out of the well house in which he had waited while the guests arrived and took their seats. Even though this was what he wanted more than anything else in either world, he was a little apprehensive. Although he did not know many of the people filling the chairs that had been set up in the shrines’ courtyard, he could feel the good will like a physical thing. It was an unfamiliar sensation.

As always when he was in his human form, he was a little edgy as he took his place under the spreading branches of the Goshinboku. Then, Souta and Rin appeared, followed closely by Sango and the adult, human-looking Shippou. As he looked to the rear of the crowd that had come together to witness this event, music began to play and his breath caught in his throat as Kagome appeared, escorted by her mother, uncle, and grandfather.

He suddenly remembered to breathe, realizing that he had been entirely wrong about the effect she would have on him wearing the garment he had chosen from the magazine. His nervousness evaporated as he was aware only of her walking slowly toward him, the ivory satin complementing her skin tone. Her thick black hair hung loose about her shoulders, and the wreath of rosemary and red and white rosebuds she wore instead of the more typical headpiece and veil made her look even more like some goddess from an old legend. As he had expected, the firelight from the torches he had chosen to illuminate the shrine brought an enticing sparkle to the beadwork decorating the satin she wore, although it came nowhere near the shine of her glowing eyes.

As she stood next to him with her family, the monk began to speak. “My friends, we are gathered here tonight to witness the joining of this man and this woman in marriage. Although this courtship has been a short one, I can say with all honesty that this couple has seen more difficulty and adversity than most families encounter in a lifetime. Instead of tearing them apart, however, this adversity has served to cement the bonds of love and devotion between them, making them strong beyond measure. Who,” he asked, looking around at the assembled group, “Offers this woman in marriage?”

Kagome’s grandfather, who had originally begun by opposing the match, said, “On behalf of the family, I do.” At that point, the three family members stepped back to take the seats reserved for them in the first row of chairs.

The monk smiled at the pair before him. “I spoke earlier of the bonds of love. Exactly what kind of bonds are they, though? They do not bind one to the other without regard for individual needs or desires. Rather than restricting the people bound by them, these bonds offer the limitless freedom of unconditional acceptance.” He turned to the hanyou who was grinning like an idiot. “Do you take this woman to be your wife, to love her, cherish her, and honor her until death takes you?”

Although his voice cracked with emotion, he only had eyes for the woman next to him. “I do.”

Miroku turned to the woman. “Do you take this man to be your husband, to love him, cherish him, and honor him until death takes you?”  

It seemed that her eyes shone even more brightly as she said, “I do.”

At a gesture from the monk Shippou, still in his adult form, took the rings from the pillow Souta held. Handing them to Miroku, he stepped back into place next to the hanyou. The young monk handed the rings to the pair, and they placed them on each others’ fingers.

Miroku smiled brilliantly as he raised his hands and said, “By the power vested in my by this assemblage, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may,” he said with something suspiciously like a smirk, “Kiss the bride.”

The human Inuyasha needed no further urging. The hours of enforced separation from his mate had created in him a sense of desperation more intense than any he had previously experienced. His hands took her by both shoulders as he bent his head to press his lips to hers. She shivered a bit at the heat of his hands on her skin.

After a timeless, eternal moment the two separated and turned to face the group assembled to bear witness to their union.

While they spent the next hour or so surrounded by family and friends wishing them well, staff from the restaurant that was catering the dinner cleared away the chairs and set up small tables around the courtyard. A slightly larger table was set up for the participants in the ceremony itself, and a table immediately adjacent to this was reserved for the immediate families of the participants. Low bowls containing red roses and white lilies were placed in the center of each table, and candles were lit to supplement the light from the torches. A large area nearest to the shrine’s holy tree was left unoccupied, and a long table that would soon be laden with a variety of foods was placed along one side of the courtyard.

As the guests started to find their seats, Sesshoumaru approached the couple. Although he was typically expressionless, something about his movements and posture told Kagome’s mother to expect trouble. He glared coldly at his brother for a few moments. “I really expected better of you, brother.”

The hanyou looked around in complete confusion. “Nani?”

“I never thought that even you would stoop so low as to enter into a phony mating.”

Suddenly Inuyasha understood what the difficulty was. He glared at the youkai, his voice tight with a barely-restrained rage. “It’s not like that, Sesshoumaru. We are mated--by both her custom and ours.”

The youkai’s voice was disdainful. “If that is so, then where’s her mark?” At the silence that greeted the question, he continued, “I thought you said you cared for this human bitch of yours, yet you see fit to saddle her with a pup without the simple decency of marking her as your mate? That’s worse than what Chichi-ue did when he took a human mate.”

He turned to leave, but was stopped by Kagome. “Wait!” As he turned to face her, she asked, “Exactly what are you talking about? What kind of mark?”

“You really don’t know. The mark I’m talking about is a scar left by the youkai mate’s

teeth or claws during mating. It can usually be found on the shoulder or back--with what you’re wearing, it’s obvious that no mark exists.”

Inuyasha was nearly shaking with fury now. “Look at her, you bastard! How could I leave a mark on her? Besides, she’s human--she doesn’t need to be marked like some youkai bitch.”

Sesshoumaru chose that moment to play his trump card. “It was good enough for your mother.”

Kagome thought that it was time to step in before the conflict escalated out of hand. “In that case,” she said, “We’ll have to attend to this at the very first opportunity. Will that satisfy you?”

“Indeed it will,” he said. “In that case, I’ll be returning to my place--I don’t want to deprive Rin of the entertainment to come.”

She turned back to her mate, tears starting to gather in her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

He shook his head miserably. “I told you I never wanted to hurt you. How could I scar you with my own teeth and claws after that?”

She placed a hand under his chin so that she could see directly into his eyes. “I want you to do it. If it will legitimize our union to the youkai community, then it’s important. Besides,” she continued, “I know that you’ll be as gentle as possible.”

“Don’t you get it? I don’t care about the youkai custom.”

“It might make things easier for our kids someday.”

“Kagome--” She turned in surprise, having completely forgotten that her mother had been standing there throughout the entire conversation. “What was he talking about? What… pup?”

She hung her head, face burning, while the hanyou stood behind her, holding her by both shoulders. “It’s true. Remember when I ran back home that day? It took me a while to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it, but he wouldn’t touch me. I had to practically force myself on him so that I could stop the seizures. He told me about the pup less than a week later--he said he could smell the changes in me.”

The woman was torn between disappointment that her daughter would become a mother so young and joy that she would be seeing her first grandchild within the year. “I won’t say that I’m sorry about it--I think you’ve been putting yourself through enough hell about that since you found out. I’m very much looking forward to seeing your…pup. I’m sure he’ll be beautiful. You’ll be coming here for the delivery, won’t you?”

She considered the matter briefly, then shook her head. “I don’t think so, Mama. Think about who his father is--I don’t want my son or daughter labeled as having ‘birth defects’ or ‘deformities.’ I want him to grow as thinking of whatever he looks like as normal for him.”

The older woman looked at the human boy standing behind her daughter and smiled. “You take care of her. If there’s any trouble--if her life or the life of the little one are in danger--bring her back here: we can do a lot more with medicine here than they can where you live.”

He simply nodded, wondering why his mate had been so worried about telling anyone about the pup in the first place.

The evening passed in a blur. Later, he would not remember what the food tasted like or the music sounded like. All he was conscious of was the light in her eyes, the feel of her skin under his hands, and the gentle pressure of her body against his as they swayed to the music.

For her part, Kagome was surprised at how well the guests from the feudal past--youkai, hanyou, and human--mixed with the guests from the present day. For her, one of the high points of the evening came when Yuriko, the hanyou woman who had helped her to tend Inuyasha’s injuries when they had come to her world after being attacked by the youkai near the well, introduced herself to Sesshoumaru and Rin. Although the youkai lord was obviously intensely curious about the origins of the woman, he refused to speculate openly about them. He did, however, spend much of the rest of the night watching the young girl in his care extremely closely.

Only one incident marred the otherwise perfect evening. She had explained to her mate that she was required by custom to dance with a variety of partners during the course of the festivities. Although he wasn’t happy about it, he understood that she viewed it as an obligation rather than a pleasure. After watching the way she held herself carefully apart from her other partners--nothing at all like the way she leaned against him when they danced together--he relaxed fractionally. Shortly after five in the morning, Kagome found herself on the dance floor with a very different Houjou than she had ever seen before. He had obviously stated drinking before ever coming to the ceremony and was by now extremely drunk. They were not so much dancing as she was holding him up, when he wrapped his arms around her waist, buried his face in the large amount of cleavage exposed above the top of her dress, and sobbed his disappointment that he had lost her forever.

She glanced around, hoping that Inuyasha hadn’t seen the incident, and was relieved to find that he had been cornered by Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka, her three best friends from school. She was even more relieved when Miroku appeared, grabbed Houjou by the back of the collar, and peeled him away from the young miko. With a cheery wave, the monk took him off to a dark corner of the courtyard so that he could begin to sober up without causing any further disruption in the party.

It was nearly daylight when the guests began to leave. As Kagome had expected, her three friends from school were among the last to remain. She thought nothing of it until she was dancing with her new husband and felt the characteristic energy surging through his lean body that signaled the return of his normal hanyou form. Looking around in a panic, she noticed that the sun had risen. The amber eyes that stared into her own were calmer than she expected, given the situation. “It’s all right,” he whispered. “They can’t do anything to us now.”

At that moment, she realized why the often irritating girls from school were her friends. If they had thought that Inuyasha was cute as a human, they absolutely adored him in his natural state. “So this is what you’ve been hiding all this time!”

She led the three over to a vacant table. “I’m sorry about this, but I’ve been lying to you all for months. I haven’t been sick at all--no diabetes, rheumatism, leprosy--not even the flu. I’ve been spending much of my time five hundred years in the past. According to one of the old legends of the shrine, a miko with no past that anybody ever managed to discover appeared one day to recover the shards of a mystical jewel called the Shikon no Tama. Once the task was accomplished, she married and began a family that eventually became the Higurashi. What I never understood about the legend was that I was the miko in the story. My husband is the reason why so many of my ancestors were part youkai. If you noticed, a lot of the guests here tonight have been a little…unusual. Some were youkai. Others were humans we met in the past. A couple were even hanyous, although one of them lives in the present time. In fact,” she added, looking around, “A couple of the youkai guests are still here.”

She gestured to the two youkai standing talking with the old miko from her village. As the three approached, she introduced them to her school friends. “Kouga and Ayamae are the leaders of the wolf youkai living in the mountains to the north of here. I don’t know if any of them still live there in this time. Kaede-baachan is the miko in the village that eventually becomes Tokyo. She’s been teaching me healing as well as helping to protect both the village and our home from dangerous youkai.”

Yuka was delighted. “It’s like something out of an adventure movie!”

In spite of the explanations, Ayumi was still a little confused. “You mean, you haven’t been staying with your uncle in Arizona?”

Kagome shook her head slowly. “I’m afraid not. I didn’t want to lie to you, but I just couldn’t keep up the double life forever. He couldn’t come here to live--it would have been just horrible for him. My mother worked out this whole plan with my Uncle Nori to make it look like I was living with him while I went back to the feudal age to live.”

Eri still didn’t understand. “But why would you want to live way back there? Is it just because of that prophecy in the shrine legends?”

This time she just laughed, hoping that her friends would someday love somebody enough to understand what she was talking about. “No. In fact, when I first learned about the family legends I thought they meant that we would be apart, that he would choose somebody else. I was so miserable for a while I almost wished I did have some of those exotic diseases Jiichan was always claiming I had. The truth of the matter is that I like it there. The air and water are clean, there are no big cities, and the people are willing to accept me the way I am, without thinking I’m strange because of some of the things I can do now. Besides,” she said, entwining her fingers with those of the hanyou sitting next to her, “It’s where my mate’s home is--that’s really all I have to know.”

At this point Miroku arrived, half-supporting Houjou, who was looking rather the worse for wear. “Would it be possible for you ladies to make certain that he reaches his home safely? I fear that he’s had a little more celebrating than is good for him.”

The three girls just looked at the monk, giggling. Although they agreed to do as he asked, they all wondered why it was that Kagome always got to meet the cutest guys.

Finally, the last of the guests had left for home, leaving the exhausted family to pick up the pieces. Kagome’s mother left instructions for the young couple and the rest of the participants to leave their clothing to be either cleaned or--in the case of the men--returned to the formalwear store before returning home. They would, she decided, deal with the fallout from the party after getting a little well-earned rest.

With a promise to return in a few days’ time, Kagome and her mate leaped into the well to return to their own home and the privacy they would need for what was to come next.

It was with a certain measure of surprise that the pair emerged from the well to meet Jinenji and Mizuno. “What on earth are you doing here?”

The large hanyou gestured at the well. “We wanted to attend the ceremony, but as you can see, I wouldn’t fit through the well very easily.”

Kagome looked up at them in surprise. “You’ve been waiting here all this time?”

The small river hanyou shook her head. “No. We’ve been waiting at your home. When some of the others returned a short time ago they told us that you would be following soon.” She looked up at the much larger figure next to her with a certain affection.

Inuyasha had totally forgotten that they would be waiting by the well for their return. “Will you be staying for a while?”

Jinenji shook his head. “We have to be getting back home--my mother will be worried. I just wanted to leave this with you.” He handed them a pouch of dried leaves. “It’s a special tea that will help when the time comes to have a family--it helps labor go faster and more easily.”

Kagome looked up at him with wide eyes. “How did you know?”

The large hanyou smiled, something they had seen seldom. “I didn’t--not until you came through the well just now. But we talked about it: we’d seen you together, and realized that it would only be a matter of time before it was needed.”

After a brief time spent in conversation, the hanyou couple took their leave, heading back to the farm where they felt most comfortable. As the others watched them go, the young woman stifled a yawn. “I think,” her mate said, “That sleep has just become a priority.”

She smiled, and he remembered when he had first seen her approaching at the ceremony the previous night. “I think,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck, “That there’s some unfinished business between us that we need to take care of--it’s been nearly forty-eight hours since we’ve been able to be…together, and I don’t think I could sleep right now if my life depended on it.”

He looked at her suspiciously. “This isn’t about that crap with Sesshoumaru, is it?”

She shook her head, taking him by the hand and leading him back to the house. “No, it’s not,” she said, “But I’m sure you can find a way to work it all out.”

To his surprise, they only paused briefly at the house, just long enough to gather some of the thick towels she had brought from her world over the months. While she carried the towels out to the hot spring near the rear of the house, he followed with their robes. Dropping their burdens by the side of the pool, he took her into his arms in a fierce embrace before helping her to undress.

As they eased into the warm water, he pulled her closer, rubbing the accumulated tensions of the past two days from her back and shoulders. She sighed and relaxed, leaning against him as his arms went around her.

Once he could feel that she was completely relaxed and receptive, he helped her from the water and into her robe. As they returned to their bedchamber he was working out the details of how he would accomplish what he had finally realized needed to be done. After dropping their robes to the floor, he just stared at her for a few moments--he never got tired of looking at her. As he had done when he had discovered that she was carrying their pup, he proceeded slowly and with great care, standing behind her and wrapping his arms around her to keep her from speeding up the pace while he dropped his head to the back of her neck, leaving a trail of kisses down her neck and across her shoulders. She shivered in anticipation, moaning softly as the sensations overtook her and she gave herself over to the feelings that only he could create in her. She grabbed his arms where they crossed in front of her, silently urging him to hurry. As she began to lose control of her reactions, he bent down and quickly sank his fangs into her right shoulder.

She stiffened in his grasp, moaning at the sensations flowing through her, as he licked the blood from the wounds, knowing that this would help to speed the healing process. The taste of her blood on his tongue took from him his last vestige of control, and they fell to the bed as his knees collapsed from under him.

When they were once again aware of their surroundings, she leaned across him, stroking the side of his face with her left hand. “That wasn’t so bad--it didn’t really hurt at all.”

His amber eyes were still glazed over as he turned her away from her so that he could examine the damage he had done to her pristine skin. “They’re pretty small, but you’ll definitely have scars from it.” He looked at her with a measure of regret. “I didn’t want it to be so fast.”

She smiled up at him. “That’s what happens when we’re not together for a while. We could always try it again if you feel up to it.”

In reply he ran the claws of his right hand lightly down her side, watching her tremble as her desire reawakened at his touch. It was, he decided, going to be a very long day.