InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Once Upon a Time ❯ Happy Returns ( Chapter 41 )

Disclaimer: They’re still not mine, but I refuse to give up hope.

41. Happy Returns  

She stood in the middle of an infinite whiteness, a blank landscape without boundaries that reminded her of the snowy forest in which….

Although she had no memory of how she had come to be there, she found that she didn’t really mind. It was quiet here, and peaceful, and there was no pain. She frowned slightly. All of that was true enough, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing--something important.

A soft, warm voice surrounded her. “Why have you come here, child?”

She turned to see a tall figure robed in gleaming white standing before her. “I don’t know. I’m not even sure how I got here--or even where ‘here’ is.” She narrowed her eyes slightly against the brilliance of her surroundings. “Do I know you?”

“We’ve never met, if that’s what you’re asking, but I know you. I’ve been watching you ever since you came from your own world.”

“Why?” she asked. “What’s so special about me?”

He laughed softly. “Don’t you know? You have a very special destiny.”

She looked at him again, noting the molten gold of his eyes, the flowing silver-white hair, and the markings on his face. “You remind me of somebody--you look a lot like Sesshoumaru.”

The Inu no Taisho laughed again, a warm, rich sound that made her smile in response. “I’m not at all surprised. He is, after all, the true son of my body. You also remind me of someone.”

“Who’s that?”

He nodded to the empty space at his side and an image began to form of a very beautiful, aristocratic woman. “My second wife. She was also a healer…and the only woman I ever really loved.”

“I’ve seen her face before, in an illusion.”

The woman’s image vanished, and the youkai lord turned back to her. “I know, when that brat Sesshoumaru was trying to find my grave. I told you, I’ve been watching.”

By now, she was starting to think a little more clearly. “What is this place?”

The youkai folded his legs and rested on the white nothingness that passed for ground in this place. “It’s a sort of crossroads, where the world of the living meets the world of the dead.”

“Am I dead, then?”

“No. Do you remember what happened?”

“No.” She paused, thinking hard. “Yes. I mean, I think I do. There were men….”

“That’s how you came to be here. To escape form your pain, you used your miko powers to separate yourself from your body. Now you must decide whether to go back to your body or to enter the world of the dead.”

“How can I ever go back?” she asked, tears running down her face. “I couldn’t fight them off--I didn’t even try.”

His expression was compassionate. “Why didn’t you fight?”

The self-pity rapidly turned to anger. “They threatened to destroy my child. I couldn’t let that happen, no matter what they did to me.”

“Then how can you blame yourself if you sacrificed your welfare for that of another?” When she didn’t answer, he asked, “Do you know what is happening to your body right now?”

She shook her head silently, and he retrieved a small mirror from within his robes. “Watch. Maybe you will find a reason to want to live.”

She stared into the mirror, not really very surprised that it showed an image of her lying in her own bed. Her injuries, she decided, didn’t really look all that bad--the bruises were starting to fade. She watched as a familiar figure entered the room, shaking the snow from his long silver hair. Placing the roses he carried in a bowl of water at her bedside, he removed his outer garment and tucked it around her still body.

She was surprised to note that the hanyou looked worse than she herself did. He looked painfully thin, as though he hadn’t spared the time for food. His features were haggard, his hair unkempt, and she realized that he probably hadn’t slept in days. He lifted a cup of what looked like some kind of broth to her lips. She could hear a hoarse whisper through whatever kind of spell activated the mirror. “I’m sorry, koi,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “This was my fault. I swore to protect you, but wasn’t there when you needed me. After all you did for me, all you taught me about living and loving, I failed you. I won’t blame you if you never wanted to see me again, if you’ll only come back--if not for me, then for the sake of the pup.”

She turned to the youkai beside her. “How long?”

“More than a week,” he said. “You won’t be able to stay in this waiting area much longer. You have to make a decision very soon.”

She smiled weakly. “There’s no decision to be made. I can’t let him take the blame for something he had no hand in. It was really just an accident.”

“He’ll blame himself because he loves you and lives only to protect you. You see, even though Sesshoumaru may be the true son of my body, Inuyasha has always been the son of my heart.”

“How can I help him?”

“How have you healed him of all the scars of his past? Just care for him as you always have.”

“I think I’m ready to go home now.”

“Then go, daughter, and remember--I’ll always be watching over you all.”

She reached up to wipe at the tickling of a drop of water that had landed on her face. Her dark eyes opened and she spoke, her voice faint. “You need looking after, love.”

“K--Kagome?”

She reached up again, this time wiping away the tears that had been running down her mate’s face. “I had to come back, in spite of the pain. He showed me what you were going through, and I had to come home.”

“Who? Who showed you?”

“Your father. He said he’s been watching over us. He said that you were the son of his heart and that only I could come back and heal you. You,” she said, curling into his arms and sobbing, “Have nothing to feel guilty about.”

He shook his head. “I wasn’t there to protect you. I could smell what happened--there’s no way you could have been prepared for that kind of attack.” Stroking her hair, he realized that her sobs were beginning to subside. “We can get through this. Let me help.”

She clung to him, finally understanding why he had always thought of his affection for her as a weakness. “I didn’t fight them. I couldn’t even try--they said they’d destroy the pup if I did. Now I know why you tried to hard not to love me.”

His arms went around her: he couldn’t let her believe that love made her vulnerable. “I was wrong, Kagome. I used to think that love was a weakness because an enemy could use the ones you love as a weapon against you. I was wrong about that. Love is what makes us strong--it makes me fight better when you’re near me, it let you endure the horror they visited on you and return to me for the sake of our pup. Don’t ever believe that love makes you weak--it’s always been the source of your strength. It’s why none of them could ever defeat you.”

“You’re still wrong about something. I didn’t come back to you for the sake of the pup--at least, not only for the sake of the pup. I couldn’t stand to watch what you were doing to yourself worrying about me. Don’t you understand? I love you more than life itself--I’ll always find a way to come back to you, even from the deepest pits of hell itself.”

He smiled for the first time in more than a week. “Somehow, I don’t think that hell is the destination waiting for us.” He lifted her carefully, as though she were made of precious crystal. “Do you think you’re up to a soak in the hot spring?”

She winced slightly at the pain in the healing ribs of her left side. “I’m still pretty sore. It could probably help a little. Why don’t you put me down? I’m pretty sure I can walk that far.”

“Maybe you could,” he said, “But I’m not taking any chances. I almost lost you once. I don’t think I could stand to go through that again.”

As was often the case in the midafternoon, Sango stopped by the bedchamber to bring a new jug of water to the hanyou, as he refused to leave his mate’s side for anything but the briefest periods to attend to his physical needs. When there was no answer to her knock, she entered the room, surprised to find it empty. Placing the water jug on the bedside table, she went back to where Miroku was sitting on the wide porch enjoying the faint winter sun. “Have you seen Inuyasha?”

The young monk shook his head. “I brought him today’s roses about an hour ago. The last I saw of him was when he took them from me and headed back into their room.”

“That’s the strange thing. You know that he hasn’t let anybody in there in more than a week, not since Kagome-chan was hurt. I went to take him some water, and there was nobody there.”

“You think he’s taken her somewhere?”

The youkai taijiya shook her head. “I don’t know what to think. I do know that nobody could have gotten in there--even the most trusted members of the household haven’t been allowed in. The only other thing I can say for sure is that there was nobody there when I went inside only a few minutes ago.”

The two lapsed into an uneasy silence as they considered the possibilities. Although there were a number of possible scenarios that suggested themselves--all of them thoroughly unpalatable--none of them included the soft voices they could hear from around the corner of the building. After exchanging a shocked glance, the pair rushed around to the rear of the house. From the porch, they could just make out the furry, triangular ears on the top of the hanyou’s head.

Standing there in silence, the two could just barely distinguish the voices coming form the hot spring behind the house. Smiling broadly for the first time in days, the two crept silently back to the front of the structure, eager to be the ones to spread the good news to the rest of the strange extended family.

Noticing that his mate seemed more comfortable once the heat had penetrated to her damaged ribs, the hanyou helped her from the water. As they dried each other off with the thick towels, he couldn’t help but feel the first faint stirrings of the desire that he had been denying throughout the long days. Enough of that, he thought--that was the last thing she needed right now.

Helping her into the thick winter robe, he decided that he would allow her to make the attempt at walking back to their bedchamber as long as he kept his arm firmly in place around her waist. Although she made the trip without incident, he could feel her trembling with fatigue by the time they arrived at their destination. Over her objections, he put her back to bed, explaining that she had only just gotten up for the first time in more than a week.

He turned to leave so that she could get a little real rest, but she reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his robe. “Stay with me?”

Dropping his robe on the floor, he slipped into the bed next to her. Wrapping his arms around her, he felt her rest her head on his chest. For right now, at least, he was more than content to simply hold his mate while she slept beside him.