InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 2: Defiance ❯ Foolish Misconceptions ( Chapter 37 )

~~Chapter 37~~

~Foolish Misconceptions~

 

Kagura leaned in the doorway staring at her mate with a pensive frown as he pushed his glasses up and stared at the paperwork in his other hand. She was beginning to think that Sesshoumaru didn't notice her arrival when he dropped the document onto the desk and sat back with a sigh. “It isn't like you to hesitate, Kagura. Is something on your mind?”

 

Pushing herself out of the doorway, Kagura strolled into the study with a heavy sigh. “She apparently changed her phone number.”

 

“Who?”

 

Narrowing her magenta gaze on her mate, Kagura tried to figure out if he was being obtuse on purpose or if he really didn't know of whom she spoke. Sesshoumaru's expression seemed innocent enough, and Kagura rubbed her throbbing forehead with a tired hand. “Sierra.”

 

Sesshoumaru stood up and jammed his hands into his pockets as he turned to stare out the window. “And Toga knows this?”

 

Kagura's hand stopped rubbing as she quirked an eyebrow at Sesshoumaru's back. “Who do you think told me?”

 

Sesshoumaru glanced back over his shoulder before turning his attention back out the window once more. “What isn't your son telling you?”

 

“What makes you think he isn't telling me something?”

 

He shrugged. “Because the girl seemed pleased enough with your son at Aiko's wedding. Something must have happened to change her opinion of him, if she's willing to such lengths to avoid him now.”

 

“My son?” Kagura echoed incredulously. “My son? So he's stopped being your son because his blood chose a human? You arrogant---”

 

Sesshoumaru turned his head far enough to stare at Kagura out of the corner of his eye. “He is your son when he is fool enough to let the girl get away with her unacceptable behavior,” he countered. “My son would make her listen.”

 

Kagura rolled her eyes. “It isn't as though he doesn't want to go make her listen,” she argued. “His body isn't healing like it should.”

 

“His injuries weren't that severe,” Sesshoumaru remarked as he finally pivoted to face his mate again.

 

“That's what I'm trying to tell you! His body is already breaking down. He can't go after her. He can barely get out of bed.”

 

Satisfied that Sesshoumaru was finally listening to what she had to say, Kagura nodded toward the phone. “I'm going to talk to her. Someone has to make her listen.”

 

She reached for the telephone on the desk. Sesshoumaru's hand stopped her. Prepared to argue with him if she had to, Kagura lifted her gaze to lock with his. What she saw in his eyes tore at her. Despite the blank features, there was a very real concern in his stare. Amber gaze darkened by worry and even a trace of fear, Sesshoumaru shook his head slowly as she pulled her hand away from the phone.

 

“Toga will not speak to me about this,” Sesshoumaru admitted quietly as he lifted the receiver and hesitated. “You stay with him. I'll make her listen.”

 

“Are you sure that's a good idea?” she asked pointedly.

 

Sesshoumaru's gaze darkened. “Yes, I am,” he insisted.

 

Kagura wrinkled her nose. “Hmm, well, make sure you apologize for being an ass to her,” she advised. “Otherwise she won't---not that I'd blame her.”

 

Sesshoumaru sighed and had the grace to wince slightly. “I'll make her listen,” he repeated.

 

Kagura leaned across the desk to rub her knuckles over Sesshoumaru's cheek. With a tiny but warm smile, she kissed her fingertips and brushed them over his lips as he put in the call to their private pilot before hurrying from the room to pack his suitcase.

 

She only hoped that the American girl would listen.

 

 

-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-

 

 

Kagome wrung out the cloth and gently wiped Toga's face. She heard InuYasha, felt his presence as he slipped quietly into the room.

 

“No change?”

 

Kagome sighed as she carefully folded the cloth and set it on the nightstand. “He woke up a little while ago. He . . . he was asking for her again.” InuYasha stepped up behind Kagome and squeezed her shoulder as she slumped against the chair's high back. Kagome leaned her head back, stared into her mate's concerned eyes with confusion, sadness in the depths of her gaze. “What's happening to him?”

 

“I don't know. The youkai weren't poisonous. The pup wasn't that badly injured.”

 

“Then why isn't he healing? He's got a fever . . . his wounds aren't closing . . .” she challenged as she gestured at Toga's shoulder.

 

InuYasha pulled the cloth aside that Kagome had used to cover the wound. He clenched his jaw tight. The skin that should have been healed within a day or two was still covered with deep gashes leeched grayish-white and puckered over muscle tissue that should have at least been pink but seemed covered with the pallor of dying flesh.

 

“Kichiro wouldn't stitch it,” Kagome said quietly, her voice husky and close to breaking. “He said he couldn't sew a youkai. He said . . . he said it won't work.” She barked out a hollow laugh that lacked any real humor. “Why are we even sending him to medical school if he can't do anything now?”

 

InuYasha dropped the cloth back over Toga's bare shoulder and turned around then glared over Kagome's head. “What the hell are you doing here?”

 

Kagome sat up and turned then stood as Sesshoumaru strode into the room. “I've come to see my son,” Sesshoumaru said quietly.

 

InuYasha started to argue. Kagome hurriedly grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the door. Kagura nodded her thanks as she waited for them to pass before stepping into the room, lingering in the doorway.

 

“It took a long time for me to understand,” Sesshoumaru spoke quietly without taking his eyes off his son's face, “why my father did not follow my mother in death.”

 

Kagura quietly crossed the room and took up the cloth that Kagome had left on the nightstand. “Why didn't he?”

 

“Many reasons,” Sesshoumaru mused as Kagura dipped the cloth and twisted it. “Easiest to say that it was because I was young. He needed to see that I survived.”

 

Something in Sesshoumaru's tone stilled her hands as she turned her face to stare at him. “But you don't really think that's the reason, do you?”

 

Sesshoumaru shook his head as he pulled the cloth from Kagura's hands and sat down on the edge of the bed to wipe his son's forehead. “I think my father took my mother as his mate because it was expected . . . because he needed an heir.”

 

Kagura rubbed Sesshoumaru's shoulder. “You know as well as I do, Kagura. Inu-youkai choose only one mate of the blood. Perhaps Toga is more like my father than I will ever be.”

 

“Toga is more like his father than you give him credit for,” Kagura said softly.

 

Sesshoumaru didn't answer right away. Sparing another minute to gaze at his son, the tai-youkai finally stood up and faced his wife. “I will bring her back.”

 

Kagura managed a small smile as she quickly squeezed Sesshoumaru's hands before pulling the cloth away. “Make sure you do, Sesshoumaru.”

 

He nodded once and kissed Kagura's forehead. She watched him stride out of the room but didn't miss his hesitation in the doorway, the last look he paused to cast his son.

 

She smoothed Toga's hair out of his face, tried to push back the rising fear at the growing shadows of purplish half-moons under her son's eyes. `Hurry, Sesshoumaru . . . before it's too late.'

 

 

-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-

 

 

Sierra pulled her coat closed tighter against the bitter wind that whipped through the city as Kirara whined sadly. “We're not going back inside until you do your thing,” she told the dog. “You'd better hurry before you become a pup-scicle.”

 

Kirara whined again.

 

Sierra looped the leash over her wrist so she could tie her scarf a little more snuggly around her throat. The news had said that they could expect a warm-up in the weather. `So much for that warm-up,' Sierra thought as she made a face. `Rotten liars.'

 

The trill of her cell phone drew a little yelp out of her as she dug into her pocket for the device and wrinkled her nose at her jittery nerves. “Hello?” she answered, sounding a little more irritated than she should have since her heart was still hammering against her ribcage.

 

“Ouch . . . did someone bite you?”

 

Sierra rolled her eyes at the disgruntlement in her brother's voice. “No, the phone surprised me.”

 

“Yeah, well, you know, I had to call Mom to get your new phone numbers,” Brent complained. In the background, Sierra could hear Missy as she finished up dinner. The absolute normalcy of her brother's life made Sierra wince inwardly. That had been the kind of life she'd wanted, too, wasn't it?

 

`Stop it, Sie,' she told herself sternly. “Sorry,” she grumbled as Kirara plodded along beside her.

 

“Why did you change your numbers?” Brent went on, missing the hint of sadness in Sierra's tone.

 

“No reason,” she lied.

 

“Ri-i-i-ight,” Brent agreed. “What's the real reason?”

 

“Toga,” she mumbled, half-hoping that Brent didn't hear her and frowned when Kirara's head snapped up at the mere mention of Toga's name.

 

“Toga? I thought you hadn't heard from him since he left.”

 

“He . . . he called a few days ago,” she admitted.”

 

“What'd he want?”

 

“I don't know,” she lied. “It was a bad connection.”

 

`Feh. Bad connection, my ass, Sierra . . . you hung up on me.'

 

She grimaced. `Not now, Toga . . . get out of my mind, will you?'

 

Brent sighed. “Listen, Sierra, about that afternoon . . . you do know, right? Toga didn't---”

 

A car in dire need of a new muffler rumbled by on the street and stopped at a red light beside her, making both talking and hearing impossible. She smashed her hand over her ear and sighed. “I can't hear you, Brent. I'll call you later,” she told him, raising her voice to be heard.

 

Brent mumbled something unintelligible, and Sierra hung up.

 

`Toga didn't? Didn't what?' Sierra shook her head as she pushed the pedestrian crossing button a few times and waited for the light to turn. `It doesn't even matter, does it? It doesn't really change anything . . . .'

 

`Because you don't want it to, do you? So you'll just make us both miserable?' Toga's voice whispered. `I thought you were different, Sierra . . . I thought . . . .'

 

The light changed, and Sierra jerked on Kirara's leash, hurrying the dog across the busy intersection. Of course she didn't want him to be miserable. He wouldn't be miserable, not long. Did it matter if the woman was Kari or someone else as long as she made Toga happy?

 

`Right, Sie. Tell yourself that a few more times. While you're at it, why don't you tell yourself not to breathe?'

 

Sierra stopped and grabbed a newspaper and dropped money onto the stack of magazines on the vendor's table, staring at the headlines with no real interest at all.

 

“Sierra?”

 

She stiffened at the sound of that voice and slowly lowered the paper to stare at the one person she really didn't want to see. “Kari,” she greeted stiffly.

 

Kari bit her bottom lip as she held the neck of her coat with one hand and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear with the other. “I, uh . . . I just wanted to apologize . . . .”

 

“For what?” Sierra asked, amazed at how calm her voice sounded.

 

Kari's cheeks reddened as she quickly looked away. “I . . . I kissed him. I know you were broken up, and I thought . . . . Anyway, Toga wasn't interested in me.”

 

Seconds ticked away as Sierra's brain slowed to a crawl. Trying to make sense of what Kari was saying seemed just beyond Sierra's grasp, as though a part of her didn't want to understand, didn't want to believe her. As though . . . . `If . . . if Toga didn't want her . . . .'

 

Dropping the newspaper onto the vendor's table and ignoring the man's irritated grumbles, Sierra glanced down at Kirara and tugged on the leash, prattling some flimsy excuse as to why she had to hurry along. She couldn't even make sense of what she had said, she realized as she hastened her step along the sidewalk. She didn't stop. She didn't look back. She didn't dare.

 

Toga didn't want Kari. He never had. The haunting pain in those amber eyes she knew so well had told her the truth of it the night he'd left for Tokyo. She was the one who hadn't wanted to hear it, wanted to believe that he'd moved on because . . . .

 

Because otherwise she had to accept the truth, didn't she? That it really was all her fault, all her choice, and that all the ache she felt inside, the anguish and the torment when she thought about how many thousands of miles there were between them . . . it was all her own doing; all hers. At least before she could unload some of her guilt on him. Now that had been taken away, too.

 

Her eyes burned hot and dry, fevered as she fumbled with the key in the door to the apartment building. Maybe they'd changed the locks in the hour she'd been out. Maybe someone switched her keys when she wasn't looking. The key was too large, too thick, too clumsy.

 

Her fingers shook as she jabbed the key against the hole a few more times. “D . . . dang it,” she muttered, temper flaring with her inability to unlock the door. Kirara whined softly. Sierra gripped the key so tightly that her fingertips leeched white, stabbing the key into the thick steel door hard enough to leave little dents, scratching away paint as she missed time and again.

 

With a soft gasp, the key slipped from her fingers, clattering on the stoop under her feet with an alarmingly loud clank. The key bounced off the bricks with a tinny reverberation and fell once more, the muted ring cut off as it slid and stopped. “D-d-damn,” she muttered, cheeks growing hot at her perceived clumsiness. She bent down to retrieve the key, noticing with a frown that her fingers were shaking worse than ever.

 

Kirara's whine erupted in a happy yip. The puppy rolled over onto her back and tucked her tail demurely between her legs over her rounded belly.

 

Sierra paid no attention as she reached for the key but she jerked her hand back as black leather-covered fingers beat her to it, nimbly retrieving the key and picking it up between the index and middle finger. The hand flipped over, palm up, other fingers curling, extending the tiny bit of metal as Sierra slowly stood up.

 

“Thank you,” she murmured as the key dropped from the long fingers into her open hand. She finally glanced up at the Good Samaritan and stepped back as a smothered cry welled up inside her, as her chest constricted painfully, as the air rushed out of her body and the blood in her veins ran cold.

 

“I need to speak with you,” he said, his voice rich and smooth. “It's about my son.”

 

Sierra stepped back in retreat, her foot slipping off the top step. She winced when her knee jammed painfully but didn't take her eyes off Sesshoumaru Inutaisho's stoic countenance.

 

“We . . . we aren't together,” she whispered.

 

Sesshoumaru tilted his head to the side, eyebrows drawing together just the slightest bit over the same eyes that she already knew far too well. “I'm aware of that, Miss Crawford. That is why I am here.”

 

 

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A/N:

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Reviewers

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MMorg

cj flutterbye ------ WoodShop2300 ------ blzzrd53 ------ DarklessVasion ------ Iggy Lovechild ------ DawnIllusion ------ fallenangel7583 ------ LadyOrion ------ notzathros (Toga isn't weak, per se. It was more of the idea that he had nothing to fight for. Also, that was his first real battle. I don't think he did badly at all, considering his heart remains in Chicago with Sierra … )

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FFnet

xSilverShadowsx ------ myeerah ------ WiccanMethuselah (LoL, that would bring the story to an abrupt halt… muahahahahahaha) ------ Drake Clawfang ------ Fairia13 ------ TheFanaticInTraining ------ kestral-tudorica ------ Toya's Gurl ------ Flames101

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AFFnet ------ AScom ------ ATnet

Wing_Goddess ------ Sess_2005 (these are just random youkai, they're deviant, they just happen to be cats) ------ catt ------ Deep Serenity ------ Fruitcake ------ Shiga ------ Snowfall ------ Shadow Master of the Divine ------ obsessed_wit_fluffy ------ inugrl15 ------ akdreamer ------ Mel

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Final Thought from Sierra:

… Why would Toga say he kissed Kari … ?

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Defiance): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

 

~Sue~