InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 2: Defiance ❯ The Reunion ( Chapter 39 )

~~Chapter 39~~

~The Reunion~

 

Sierra stared at the small house with a distinctly nervous twinge in her stomach. `Toga's in there.'

 

She was tired, she was rumpled, she was emotionally drained . . . . Sesshoumaru hadn't offered to take her to a hotel. He hadn't said anything since the plane touched down, actually. It didn't matter. The weird sense that something was inexorably wrong was growing worse by the moment, and with every passing second, Sierra couldn't help but feel like Toga was somehow slipping further and further away from her.

 

The door opened with a resounding crash, and Sierra jumped back as one of Toga's twin cousins stormed out of the house. She stumbled as her foot slipped off the step. Sesshoumaru steadied her and quickly dropped his hands from her shoulders. “Sierra?” the cousin said, surprise evident in his expression. “You came?”

 

Sierra nodded. “Where's Toga?”

 

The cousin snorted. “Feh! Where the fuck do you think he is? He's in his kami-ridden bed waiting to---”

 

“That's enough, Ryomaru,” Sesshoumaru interrupted coldly.

 

Sierra glanced back from one to the other. Ryomaru still looked angry as he flexed his knuckles, popping them with an obscenely loud sound. If she didn't know better she'd swear he was considering attacking his uncle. Sesshoumaru, on the other hand, looked a little bored. What kind of family was this?

 

“Go on. I trust you have much to say to my son,” Sesshoumaru rumbled without taking his eyes off his errant nephew.

 

Against her better judgment, Sierra hurried past Ryomaru into the house, absently hoping that she wouldn't regret leaving those two alone as she headed down the hallway that had to lead to the bedroom. Following her instincts, she knew he was close. She could feel Toga calling to her, even if she wasn't sure where she was going.

 

Stopping before a heavy oak door, Sierra slowly reached for the handle. Her hand was shaking. Badly. A cold chill swept over her, and she knew in her heart that whatever Toga's condition, it wasn't good.

 

`If he were to be separated from the one he has chosen, the consequences . . . the consequences are . . . eternal.'

 

She swallowed hard as her fingers closed over the handle. `Eternal? But . . . but that would mean . . . . That can't mean . . . .'

 

Closing her eyes as she gathered her courage to a sticking point, Sierra pushed down on the handle. The door swung open without a sound. Opening her eyes, she gasped softly, staring in complete disbelief at the defeated form on the bed. He didn't even look like the Toga she knew . . . .

 

Forcing her feet to carry her forward, she edged closer to the bed, winced at the rent flesh on his right shoulder, the angry wounds that marred his chest. She uttered a soft gasp and tried to look away. The wounds hurt her, maybe more than they hurt him. His breathing was shallow and labored, and as she drew closer, she could hear the faint rattling below the sound of his ragged breaths. “Toga,” she whispered as her cold fingers touched his even colder cheek. The feel was startling as pain exploded inside her, as she slowly sank onto the edge of the bed beside him. “Wake up, Toga . . . what have you done?”

 

 

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

 

 

He was cold.

 

Wandering through the darkness, Toga looked around, searching for something to guide him, searching for a reason---

 

`A reason? A reason for what?'

 

It didn't hurt here. The pain that seemed to be so close was far away. It didn't hurt.

 

`Live, baka . . . don't you want to?'

 

Toga frowned as he wandered further and further in the dark. To live . . . but he was alive, wasn't he? And the pain he knew . . . it was because of that, wasn't it? Because he lived and breathed . . . but why did it hurt?

 

“Toga! Come down from there before you fall!”

 

Toga glanced down and blinked in surprise. Nestled high in the branches of a very old tree, he didn't remember climbing up there. Hadn't he just been walking? He shook his head. That didn't make sense. If he had been walking, he would still be on the ground, right?

 

He hopped out of the tree and ran to his mother. Kagura knelt down with a bright smile. “Come, Toga. Your father will be home soon.”

 

Toga frowned. Why was his mother speaking to him as if he were still a pup? He glanced down again and scowled. `Because . . . I am a pup . . . ?'

 

The blackness suddenly faded, and he was standing in Sesshoumaru's study. It was too familiar, the scene, and yet he shouldn't have been more than four years old. He'd been waiting impatiently. Waiting . . . .

 

“So is he here yet?”

 

“It is not yet time Toga, now get down and behave.”

 

“But I can't!” The little boy replied with a bit of a pout. “Just I heard so many stories, from Shippou, and . . . .”

 

“Like what kind of stories?” Sesshoumaru asked in a rather bored tone.

 

“All kinds . . . like when Uncle Yasha cut off your arm . . . .”

 

“Really, how could he have known that?”

 

“He said it was a story of his from when this other lady was there . . . she told it to him.”

 

“I see.”

 

“Is it true? Did he cut off your arm, Papa?”

 

“Yes it's true . . . .”

 

“But you got both arms though?”

 

“Yes . . . .”

 

“How?”

 

“Long story son . . . .”

 

Toga grinned happily and hopped up and down with his small hands resting on his father's arm. “Okay . . . so how?”

 

“I will tell you later.”

 

“Can I see the scar?”

 

“No . . . there is no scar . . . .”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes . . . .”

 

“Can I see?”

 

“No.”

 

“Papa . . . please?”

 

“I said no, now go play . . . .”

 

“When I grow up I want to be just like Uncle Yasha!”

 

The study faded away, and Toga was suddenly beside Uncle Yasha with his hands clamped over his ears as they hurried through the forest. Aiko was in Uncle Yasha's arms shrieking her head off, and Toga just couldn't take it anymore. “Make her stop!”

 

InuYasha's face looked grim, determined. “I'm trying! Move faster!”

 

And Aunt Gome was suddenly there, holding Aiko while Uncle Yasha and Dammit the dog chased Toga in a game of Tag. Toga liked Aunt Gome, even from the first time he met her. She smelled nice, and she smiled at him.

 

“You're a human,” Toga stated flatly. “I am youkai.”

 

“You have pretty markings on your cheeks. What's your name?”

 

“I am Inutaisho Toga, son of Sesshoumaru. Father says that my crests are inherited from my grandfather. His were blue, too. InuYasha is my uncle, but he's hanyou.” He sat down by Kagome's feet. “What's your name?”

 

“Kagome,” she supplied. “Should you be telling me that you're a youkai?”

 

Toga shrugged. “Father says that you're a powerful miko. Father said you battled Naraku and defeated him. Father says---”

 

“Your father apparently talks way too much,” InuYasha growled as he flopped down on Kagome's other side.

 

Kagome laughed. “A miko? I'm not a miko!”

 

The warning look that InuYasha sent the boy's way staved back whatever commentary the lad had begun to form. Toga looked duly befuddled, but let the subject drop. His golden eyes rose to lock with Kagome's after a moment, and InuYasha narrowed his gaze.

 

“She's sleeping. Aiko won't go to sleep for anyone but Mama.” Toga dug the heel of his shoe into the dirt in a nervous gesture. “Could you put her down? You could play with us! Can't she, Uncle Yasha? I know she's a girl, but . . . .”

 

InuYasha grinned. “I guess,” he allowed, making a show of his feigned reticence. Kagome made a face as she gently shifted Aiko to lay her down.

 

After checking the girl to make sure that she was still asleep, Kagome hooked her arms around her raised knees and scrunched up her shoulders. “What are we playing?”

 

Toga hopped up, arms waving wildly in excitement. At the last moment he remembered not to yell, but he smiled brightly when he said, “Can we play hide and seek?”

 

But the forest faded away, and this time, Toga was standing in one of the darkened rooms of the Inutaisho mansion where the family portraits were displayed. “I need to know one thing,” he said as he gazed into Lily's eyes.

 

“What . . . is it . . . you need to know?” she asked, her breathing heavy. Toga shook a little as he cornered her against the wall. He became uncomfortable. What was this? He was nervous? Inutaisho Toga was nervous around this girl? Suddenly she leaned forward and kissed him.

 

Toga froze. No woman had ever been so bold to kiss him first. His eyes widened. And he looked at her face. He knew it! She was a youkai. Why else would she be to be so courageous? He kissed her back, ecstatic that he finally found someone. They stood there for a long time, bodies and lips together. Finally Lily broke the kiss. She looked at him, a smile on her face. Toga smiled back. “Finally another youkai; someone I can be with,” he whispered.

 

Lily took a step back. “Another what?” she asked in confusion. It was obvious that she hadn't ever heard the word before. Toga blushed and sniffed the air. Mixed in with her intoxicating scent of flowers was another scent, a little vague, but it was definitely human. In his eagerness for her to be the one, he had assumed she was youkai.

 

“I . . . well . . . it's just that . . .” Toga stammered, searching for the right words to say. The gods must have hated him, for none came. He looked at her eyes. Those bright violet eyes were questioning him. `Those violet eyes . . .' he thought.

 

“Why are your eyes violet?” Toga blurted out.

 

“Contacts, but what does that have to do with anything?” She straightened up quickly, obviously annoyed.

 

“Lily…” Toga was still trying to figure out how to tell her. Most humans would run away, would she run too? She seemed different from those other girls.

 

“Lily, do you see these paintings?” Lily looked around.

 

“Family pets?” she asked. “Man your family must really love their dogs. I had a retriever named Gumbo when I was younger, but we had to get rid of it when . . . .”

 

Toga interrupted lightly. “Not pets---family.” Lily stared blankly at him. She did not understand.

 

“Yeah, Gumbo was like a little brother. I cried for days when daddy w---” Toga gently pressed his finger to her lips, silencing her, then he continued.

 

“I am a youkai, Lily. I am not human.” He watched her, trying to read her emotions. “I thought with your eyes, and pale hair that you were perhaps a youkai too,” he sighed. Now she was going to leave for sure.

 

“Go ahead and leave,” he said as he let go of her. “I know you do not want me anymore.”

 

Lily stayed. She still seemed confused, but there was something else there, too, something in her that didn't want to leave. Youkai or not, she grabbed his hand, pulled him in again and kissed him. “You are lucky I do not know what a youkai is.”

 

But Lily faded away, and Toga was alone in the blackness again. The cloying sense of being stifled was overwhelming; the feeling that he couldn't breathe was harder to bear. He couldn't sense anything in the darkness, couldn't smell or see, couldn't hear or speak. Memories came faster now, flashes of familiar faces that he couldn't quite place. Flitting through his head too fast to discern more than a blur of shapes and colors, Toga struggled to make out someone---anyone.

 

“Toga . . . .”

 

He knew that voice. Turning slowly as he tried to find her face, Toga opened his mouth to call her name but the blackness choked him. Drowning in the darkness, he was a child again but this time there was no Uncle Yasha to save him, no Aunt Kagome holding her arms out for him. Fighting to clear his mind as the charcoal obscurity closed over his head, seeped into his skin, he couldn't remember if he was a child or an adult because the monsters that lurked in the shadows were more terrifying than the memories of a childhood accident.

 

“Toga!”

 

Bright green flashed before his vision, eyes that stared at him came into focus. Wavering like a dream or a fantasy, the eyes he knew were full of concern, of worry, of tears. He knew her. Clad in a black silk dress, the solitary figure appeared before him. She smiled at him, her strawberry blonde hair curling in brilliant tendrils around her, bathing her in a golden light as she slowly extended her hand to him. "Come on, Toga . . . you can't give up now, can you? You love me? Fight for me . . . ."

 

'Fight for . . . her?'

 

His arm didn't want to cooperate as he tried to reach for her, too. Weighed down by an invisible force, he grimaced as he fought to touch her. If he could take her hand, everything would be all right, wouldn't it? If he could feel the warmth of her fingers, he'd be safe. If he could just remember her name . . . .

 

“You know me, Toga. You know me, and you love me . . . .”

 

He grimaced as he stretched his fingers, strained to reach her. `I do know her. She is---'

 

Her smile widened as her voice whispered to him. “I am . . . .”

 

`My . . . mate?'

 

“You promised, Toga . . . . You said you would protect me . . . .”

 

Fighting against the force that tried to hold him back, Toga's body shook as he battled the invisible thing, the lure of the darkness and the beckoning oblivion. `S-S-Sie . . . ?'

 

“That's it, Toga . . . remember . . . .”

 

He blinked in surprise as he stared at the water fountain. Lit up and glowing, bathed in a soft light, she was beside him, and when she looked up at him and smiled, he knew that he had been there before. The fountain faded away, and he was standing at the base of a tree. She was up in the branches, and again she smiled at him, her eyes catching the light as the scent of apple blossoms assailed him. He knew her, absolutely. He knew her heart, her mind . . . her body.

 

“Of course you do . . . you know me, and I . . . come on, Toga . . . say my name, and you'll wake up . . . .”

 

He frowned, his hand pausing as he continued to try to reach her. A strange sense of fear washed over him, as though there was something he had forgotten, something about her. `If I do wake up . . . she won't be here . . . because . . . .'

 

Because . . . ?

 

`Because . . . because she doesn't want to be . . . because I . . . .'

 

Jerking his hand back, Toga watched in horrified fascination as another woman pulled him close, leaned toward him, kissed him. `Kami, I . . . .'

 

“But you didn't, Toga! And I know you didn't! Wake up, please . . . you've got to wake up!”

 

She stretched out her fingers, waved her hand slightly, like she thought the motion would bring him closer. “You said you wouldn't leave me, Toga! You promised, so remember . . . remember us!”

 

`Us? Is there an `us'? Didn't I . . . didn't you . . . didn't we . . . ?'

 

“Do you remember? Mistletoe and Christmas . . . the walks in the park? You showed me your true form . . . and I wasn't afraid anymore . . . . Toga . . . .”

 

`Sie . . . .'

 

“That's right.”

 

He reached for her again, his fingers mere breaths from hers. He had to touch her, had to feel her. If she slipped away again, he would be lost. If he could touch her, he'd remember her . . . .

 

Leaning toward her, straining against the strength of will that held him back, he could feel every part of him calling for her, begging her to reach for him, too. She did. Her fingertips brushed over his, and he gasped softly, the current of her touch bringing back bittersweet waves of memory, tides of emotion that had been dulled. Her name crashed over him and spilled from him with an urgency that was borne of the desire to live, to breathe, to escape the stagnant dream water.

 

“Sierra . . . .”

 

“Oh, God, Toga . . . .”

 

He opened his eyes slowly, fighting back the blurriness that tinged the edges of his vision. Those jewel-like eyes of hers were bright with unshed tears, and for a moment, he couldn't believe that she was there. “Sierra? What are you---?”

 

Choking back a sob as two fat tears slid down her cheeks, Sierra smashed a hand over her mouth as she gently smoothed his hair back with the other one. “Why? What happened?”

 

He didn't answer right away, selfishly letting himself be lost in her touch, in the brush of her fingers on his cheek. “My blood chose you,” he finally admitted, his voice little more than a whisper in the stillness of the room. “I didn't have a choice.”

 

 

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A/N:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENTAI BETA #2 AKA PISCESANELA007!

The Sesshoumaru/Toga excerpt was taken from “An Inquisitive Nature” by Rinicat.

The InuYasha/Toga excerpt was taken from Purity, Chapter 20: Toga and Aiko.

The Toga/Lily excerpt was taken from “Crushed” by Chichiwvu.

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Reviewers

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Akihana (MMorg) :
Wow, I haven't reviewed in a long time. Let's see. Excellent, as always. It must get a little tiring to constantly hear people saying how good it is. Um, if Toga didn't mate Sierra, how can she still feel his emotions and hear him and stuff? Or did I just miss a chapter? Also, if Huntington's disease is genetic, wouldn't it have been on Sierra's adoption papers? If it's a dominant gene, her mother would have known it was in the line, so there was a chance it would be passed on to Sierra. I don't think it would have been so surprising. Well, just me being nit picky. Great chapter, as always.

 

The reason that Sierra can sense Toga and vice versa is because they're already bonded as mates, even if they haven't made it official. You'd be surprised what is NOT on adoption forms. In any case, Sierra's mother didn't know she had Huntington's till AFTER they'd given her up. (Ch. 31, Loneliness). Huntington's isn't easy to detect, especially in early stages. It is entirely possible that Sierra's biological mother didn't know, if her mother died before she exhibited signs of the defective gene.

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blzzrd53(MMorg) :
Wow, Fluffy asking a human for help. There's something I thought I'd never see. I don't care how necessary or good it was, somebody has to rub that in. The next chapter is going to be very interesting. About your writing, does knowing how a chapter is going to make you feel ever cause you to not want to write it? For that matter, what do you enjoy about writing so much that you can't stay away from your stories?

 

I don't ever really feel that I don't want to write something … It's just that some things take more concentration to write, more emotion to convey what I'm trying to say. Metamorphosis was the only story I've done that it got to the point of just nastiness, and that was only because of flaming reviewers than anything in the chapters, themselves. I tend to vent my emotions on paper rather than in life, I think. I love to write because I love to dream. It's my way of doing both.

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MMorg

Zatanna ------ fruitcake ------ notzathros ------ Washuu Ogami ------ DarklessVasion ------ Aitu ------ WoodShop2300 ------ LadyOrion

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FFnet

Myeerah ------ Flames101 ------ WiccanMethuselah ------ Ryguy5387 ------ Eleature (… That was SO NOT a flame… if you were trying for one… try harder… LoL!!!) ------ ILOVEINUS (Well, he's a little mad at Toga for nearly dying…) ------ Drake Clawfang ------ grand admiral chelli ------ SkaQueen ------ Toya's Gurl ------ Star-unreal ------ SilverStarWing ------ Rinicat

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

moon_girl ------ obsesed_wit_fluffy ------ Midnight_Sparrow ------ akdreamer ------ snowfall ------ Sess_2005 ------ Lila Elensar ------ Shiga ------ Mel ------ moon_girl

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Final Thought from Toga:

… She's here … ?

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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~