InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 4: Justification ❯ Indecision ( Chapter 53 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Gin peeked around Cain's arm to see what was in the box he brought in after he'd checked the mail.  Recognizing Bellaniece's handwriting on the label, Gin was more than a little interested.  The stamp on the airmail box said 'perishable' which probably accounted for the overnight delivery that had to have cost an exorbitant amount of money.  "What'd she send?"

He pulled out a festively wrapped package and handed it to Gin.  She turned it over and read the tag, written in Kichiro's hideous doctor's scrawl:  'Happy birthday, baby girl.  Sorry I missed it.  Kich.'

Gin opened the package and giggled at the shirts inside: 'Baby Girl' was written across the chest of the light pink baby-T.  The other two were plain white t-shirts that proclaimed: 'I Love New York' with a heart instead of the word, 'love'.  "This one must be for you," Gin remarked as she held up the extra-extra large version.

Cain wrinkled his nose.  "I don't think so."

"It could be fun," Gin remarked.  "We could be twins."

He snorted.  "Pfft.  No."

She rolled her eyes.  "Bellaniece will be awfully sad that you don't like her gift . . ."

"Bellaniece probably thought they were perfectly hideous, too."

Gin giggled and dropped the shirt onto the counter and pulled out the pink shirt.

"Baby girl, huh?"

Gin giggled again and held up the shirt for Cain's perusal.  "Cute, isn't it?"

He shook his head but chuckled.  "Yep . . . You don't mind them calling you 'baby girl'?"

"No, and you do it, too, you know."

"I know.  You are."

She set the box of shirts aside and leaned around Cain to get a better view.  "What's all that?"

Cain's grin widened.  "Proof that there is a God and that He created peanut butter."

Gin shrugged.  "We have peanut butter."

He snorted.  "You have peanut pasty stuff.  This is peanut butter.  Huge difference . . . white bread . . . wow . . . I adore my daughter."

Gin frowned at the slightly squashed loaf of bread that Cain pulled out of the box and set on the counter before digging in again.  Reaching around to grab the plastic jar of peanut butter, Gin unscrewed the lid and sniffed it cautiously.

"Here," Cain told her, taking the jar and ripping off the protective seal.  "Get a spoon and taste it."

Gin sniffed the jar again.  It smelled good.  It smelled a little sweet.  Ambling over to retrieve a spoon from the drawer beside the sink, she scooped a tiny bit out and flicked out her tongue to taste it.  "Oh, this is good," she told Cain as she dug into the jar for a bigger taste.

"Uh huh . . . It's mine, so no funny ideas."

Gin made a face and held out the peanut butter covered spoon to the tai-youkai.  He jerked away when the spoon appeared under his nose but let her stick it into his mouth to feed him a bite.  "Here," he said, holding out his hand for the jar of peanut butter.  Gin growled as her ears flattened back, and she cradled the jar against her chest, turning to the side to shelter it from Cain's outstretched hand.  He rolled his eyes and reached around her, plucking the jar out of her grasp as she growled again in protest.  "You'll love this.  Hold on, and don't touch the jar."  

Gin scowled as Cain set the jar aside and grabbed what looked to be a candy bar.  She tried to grab the jar.  He slapped her hands back.  "Ah-ah.  Back off, baby girl.  Be patient, can't you?"

"The note in the box said that the stuff was for both of us," Gin pointed out.

"Yeah, well, before you eat all the peanut butter and make yourself sick, let me show you something."

Gin crossed her arms over her chest and waited, tapping her foot as she eyed the jar of peanut butter.

Cain snapped what looked to be a bar of chocolate into pieces and smeared peanut butter on one chunk before holding out his peanut butter covered fingers to Gin.  "Try this."

It took a moment for Gin to make up her mind, whether to refuse on principle or not.  The idea of chocolate and peanut butter together, though, was far too intriguing, and in the end, she opened her mouth for the foreign treat.  "Oh, that's even better!" she insisted as she slowly chewed and swallowed.  "You're brilliant, did you know?"

He chuckled.  "I would have been, had I been the one to come up with that idea.  You want another piece?"

Gin nodded, hopping onto the counter despite Cain's gentle swat for the effort.  "You really need to learn to stay off the counters," he told her.  "Are you sure you're not cat-hanyou?"

She wrinkled her nose.  "Nope.  Anyway—hey!" she exclaimed in righteous indignation as Cain popped the next bit of chocolate and peanut butter into his mouth.

He held up a finger meant to tell her to wait.  Gin grabbed a piece of chocolate and stuck it into the jar of peanut butter.  Cain shook his head.

The telephone interrupted the rising disagreement.  Gin made use of the lapse while Cain answered the call to grab the rest of the chocolate bar along with the peanut butter.

"Zelig," he answered.

The chocolate bar was scored for easier dividing.  Gin snapped off a row of three blocks and giggled as she dipped the chocolate only to come up with peanut-butter covered fingers.

Intercepting Cain's scowl as he listened to whoever was on the other end of the phone call, she smiled at him.  He didn't smile back.

"What makes you think they'd do that?" Cain demanded, crossing his arms over his chest as he hooked the phone between his shoulder and ear and started pacing.  "Really . . ."

Gin set the jar aside and slowly sucked the peanut butter off her fingers as she frowned at Cain's rapidly rising irritation.  Thickening in the air like a rising storm cloud, his emotions were as palpable to Gin as they would have been had she been the one experiencing them, herself.

Cain sighed.  "All right.  I'll be there.  Just give me a few days to arrange it."

He hung up the phone and dragged his hands over his face.  "Damn it."

"Cain?"

Wheeling around to face her, he looked like he might have forgotten that Gin was there at all.  Casting her an apologetic smile that seemed more like a grimace, he shrugged and stuffed his hands into his pockets as he wandered back toward her.  "I've got to go," he said slowly.

Gin swallowed hard as her fingers dropped away from her lips.  "Oh . . ."

He shook his head.  "There're a few things that need my attention, and I can't take care of it from here . . . I've got to go to Chicago . . ."

Staring at her hands in her lap, Gin tried to sound neutral.  "I see."

"I've been away longer than I thought I would, and stuff's come up . . ."

"You don't have to explain it to me," she assured him.

"No, I do.  Guess the timing's good, though.  At least the university is on a break . . ."

"Cain, it's okay."

He was silent a few moments then cleared his throat.  "You . . . You wouldn't . . . You don't want to come with me, do you?"

Gin peeked over at him.  Still standing with his hands jammed into his pockets and a thoughtful scowl on his face, Cain was staring at the box, and Gin smiled when she saw the hint of pink creeping into his features.  "You want me to go with you?  To Chicago?"

He shrugged.  "If you want . . . Do you think your papa will let you?"

She grimaced.  She hadn't thought of that.  "I don't know . . ."

"There are a lot of art galleries and museums in Chicago . . . I guess you could always tell him it's like a . . . field trip . . . or something."

"Are you saying I should lie to my papa?"

He shook his head.  "Nope.  I'm saying you could tell him that, if you think he'd like that any better."

She sighed as much from the irritated scowl on Cain's face as from her own lingering doubts that InuYasha would agree to the trip.  "Well, if I told him that—that I wanted to go as your student—then I'd have to go to those places . . ."

Cain tried for an air of nonchalance that failed miserably.  "Look, Gin, I don't want you to go as my student, okay?  I don't have a problem taking you to those places, but . . . just not as my student."

Gin smiled.  "Really?"

He shrugged and stepped over to her, grabbing her by the back of her knees and drawing her legs apart as he pulled her toward him.  "If you think that you're just a student to me, I swear to God I'll beat you."

Gin swallowed hard and started to lean back.  She didn't doubt for a second that Cain never really would make good on that threat, but he was close—too close.  His arms wrapped around her, holding her still as the fierceness in his gaze startled her.

"O-Okay."


Bellaniece checked her watch and sighed softly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she stood up and wandered toward the patio doors.  After waiting at the hospital for the better part of the afternoon, she'd taken a taxi to the mall and then came home.

Shopping always relaxed her.

It didn't work this time.

Despite Kichiro's reassurances that the surgery should go just fine, Bellaniece couldn't help but worry.  Sure, he was a fantastic surgeon.  Of course, he came highly recommended.  Kelly was as healthy as she could be, and she was youkai, too.  Still she couldn't help but worry, and when all was said and done, she just couldn't bear to go back to the hospital to wait.

He'd told her that the surgery could take all day.  It was hard to say before he got in there and really saw what he could do.  There was a chance that all the grafts he planned wouldn't be able to be done in this surgery, and that would affect the length, but he was optimistic, and Bellaniece couldn't help but draw a modicum of comfort from his reassurances.

Of course, when he got home and found out what she'd done in her spare time today, there was a good chance that he'd be yelling at her instead of trying to reassure her . . .

With that thought, Bellaniece carefully pulled up the hem of her 'princess' baby-T, gingerly touching the newly-acquired belly button ring that Kichiro was likely to yell over.  It didn't hurt anymore, which was a welcome relief.  She'd wondered about her decision shortly afterward when her belly button was aching so badly that she thought she was going to scream.

She told herself that she was hanyou so she'd heal faster, after all.  It didn't alleviate the awful pain.  Lying on the sofa to take a nap had helped.  When she woke up, the pain was gone, much to her relief, and the sun was starting to set.

'Yelling is the least of your concern, Belle . . . You know that, right?'

Bellaniece made a face as she slipped the patio door open and stepped outside.  'Kichiro won't care . . . well, not for long . . .'

'You've got to be kidding!  That man makes it his mission to know every single thing you do, when you do it, and why, and you think that the belly button piercing won't be a big deal to him?'

'You make it sound like he's overbearing and all that.  He's not, you know.  He's just protecting me.'

'Protecting you?  Maybe . . . I think he's just horny as hell, if you want my honest opinion.'

Bellaniece grinned as she sat down on the top step.  'There's that, too . . .' She stifled a sigh and tried to feel a little guiltier for her next thought.  'I suppose he'll be really tired when he gets here . . . Too tired for that, anyway . . .'

'Oh, my God, you're as bad as he is!'

Bellaniece laughed at her disgusted youkai and tilted her head back to stare at the sky.  'Don't be such a prude!  It's not bad that we enjoy each other.'

'Not bad, no . . . but you know, Belle, you swore you didn't want a mate, didn't you?'

'Maybe I changed my mind,' she answered, 'and if I have to have a mate, I might as well have one who worships me.'

'. . . Worships, indeed . . .'

'He can worship me all he likes . . . I'll make him the head priest of my temple, any day . . .'

'Oh, for the love of . . . If your father heard you, he'd wash your mind out with soap.'

'He wouldn't.  He's had sex before.  If he's playing his cards right, he'll have it again, too . . .'

'Good Lord, what has that hanyou done to you?  You're thoroughly perverted!'

Bellaniece laughed again.  'I don't see the problem, you know.  You've been barking at me forever, to be serious about finding a mate.  Well, I found him . . . and I'm not complaining.  He's . . .' Bellaniece's smile faltered as a softer luminance entered her gaze.  Basking in the glow of feeling completely content, she refused to allow darker thoughts to enter her mind.  'He's my Prince Charming.'

'Your Prince Charming, huh?  Replaced your father that quickly?'

Bellaniece winced and shook her head, her contentment bursting like an over-inflated balloon.  'No, of course not!  I still need him . . . He's my daddy . . .'

It was difficult enough to reconcile her feelings about Kichiro Izayoi with the things she knew were true.  Kichiro was someone she could count on, someone she adored.  Trying to imagine her life without him was impossible.  Somehow he'd infiltrated her world and made it better.  Almost as though he could see into her mind, he just knew what she needed, what she wanted, and maybe he wasn't perfect.  Maybe he was grouchy in the mornings until he'd had at least a pot of coffee or two.  Maybe he wasn't the most eloquent or the best at expressing his feelings, but really, who was?

But he did hold her, and he comforted her.  He could make her forget the things that she feared.  He brought her dreams to life, and all the things he thought were weaknesses in his own personality, she saw as strengths.  Bellaniece shook her head, shrugged her shoulders as she gazed at the lavender-streaked sky.  Thoughtful, evocative, Kichiro was refined, cultured.  She didn't doubt that he could hold his own in a fight if he had to, but she loved the idea that he always tried to find another solution.  No, his 'weakness', if he really had one, was the inferiority he seemed to suffer.  It didn't make sense to her.  As smart as he was, as multi-faceted as he was, there wasn't any real good reason for it.

'I'll make sure he knows,' she thought.  'He's as good as anyone . . . or better.'

Drawing a deep breath as she strengthened her resolve, Bellaniece sat up a little straighter, lifted her chin a little more proudly.  Kichiro needed to feel like he was every bit as good if not better than everyone else, and she was going to make sure he did.


"Izayoi."

Gin gripped the telephone receiver and licked her lips suddenly-dry.  "Mama, how are you feeling?"

"Good, good . . . surprisingly good.  No morning sickness this week."

"Aw, Mama . . . How's Papa taking it?"

Kagome sighed.  "You know your father.  He's over at your uncle's house, practicing with Tetsusaiga right now."

"Oh . . ."

"Is something wrong?"

As if on cue, Cain wrapped his arms around Gin's waist, leaning down to nuzzle her cheek with his.  It bolstered her courage, and Gin took a deep breath.  "We're on holiday from school right now, you know," she said in what she hoped was a casual tone.  "I wondered . . . Zelig-sensei has to go to Chicago to take care of some business, and, well, I'd like to go, too.  He says the museums are really spectacular and knows some people at the local art galleries . . . It'd be . . . sort of . . . um . . ."

"Like an extended field trip?" Kagome asked helpfully.

Gin winced.  Cain's arms tightened in a wholly protective manner.  "Uh . . . yeah . . ."

"I don't see any problem . . . Zelig-sensei would watch out for you, right?"  

"O-Of course," Gin blurted.  "He'd be right there—well, not right there, but he'd be there . . ."

"Oh, wait, your father's home . . . Let me ask him.  Hold on."

Gin sighed and glanced over at Cain.  "No verdict?"

She shook her head.  "Mama's going to ask Papa now."  Grimacing as she heard InuYasha's raised voice interrupting Kagome's dulcet tone; Gin felt her optimism slowly waning.

"You wanna go where with who and why?"

Gin winced as InuYasha's loud snarl crackled through the telephone connection.  "Hello, Papa . . . I have an opportunity to go to Chicago to see the museums and art galleries with Zelig-sensei . . ."

"Yeah, your mother said that.  What I want to know is why that old bastard thinks you should go with him."

"He's not old, Papa . . ." Gin trailed off, smacking Cain's chest with the back of her hand as the tai-youkai erupted in a menacing, albeit low, growl.

"Yeah, he's older than me.  That makes him as old as dirt."

" Sesshoumaru-oji-san is older . . ."

"Guess that makes him older than dirt, then."

"Papa . . ."

InuYasha sighed, covering the receiver with his hand as he spoke to Kagome.  Gin could make out the words.   "Oi, wench!  Hands off!"

"InuYasha, just listen to her, will you?"

"All right, all right!  Damn!"  He uncovered the phone.  "Museums and art galleries?  Sounds fucking boring to me."

"I like museums and art galleries," Gin ventured, sensing that maybe her father wasn't completely against the idea, after all.

"Is anyone else going with you?  Other classmates?  Anyone?"

"Well, no . . . He has business he has to take care of, and he thought I'd like the museums and stuff."

InuYasha paused for a moment.  Gin had a feeling he was staring rather incredulously at the telephone.  "Is he there?"

She flinched.  "Yes, Papa."

". . . Let me talk to him."

Gin turned around and held out the receiver.  "He'd like to talk to you."

Cain didn't look like he wanted to take the call.  In the end, he sighed and held out his hand.  "Zelig."

Gin shifted from one foot to the other as she wrung her hands and tried to hope for the best.  Unsure if InuYasha's desire to speak with Cain was a good sign or not, studied Cain's face for any hint of what her father might be saying to him.

"I can do that," Cain rumbled, his voice almost hostile.  Gin winced.  "She'd be my guest, of course.  I have a house there—a large one with several guest rooms."

She tugged on Cain's sleeve.  He held up a hand, his scowl darkening as he narrowed his gaze and clenched his teeth together so hard his jaw ticked.  "I assure you, it was not my intention to take your daughter to Chicago for her to find a date."

Gin sighed and sank into the closest chair.  Given Cain's responses, she figured she might as well give up on the idea of going to Chicago with him.  It irritated her enough that she stopped really listening to Cain's monologue as she snatched a magazine off the coffee table and let it fall open in her hands.

He wasn't on the telephone much longer.  Dropping the receiver with a disgusted snort, Cain strode around the sofa and flopped down, bringing his feet up as he glowered at the ceiling.  "What are you doing, Gin?" he finally asked when she didn't bother looking up from the magazine.

"Reading."

"You're not going to pack?"

It took a moment for Cain's question to sink in.  Tamping down the cautious hope that swelled inside her again, Gin shook her head and lowered the magazine to stare at Cain.  "What?"

Cain snorted again.  "Pfft!  Apparently I'm 'an old bastard' but since I'm tai-youkai then your father figures it's safe enough to let you accompany me to Chicago, provided I don't let you 'fucking date'."  He snorted for the third time, cracking his knuckles as he flexed his claws.  Gin tried not to think about what he was imagining doing with those claws . . . "And he says that I'm supposed to tell you to take a book or something so you don't get bored out of your mind."

"He said . . . I can go?"

Cain finally sighed.  "Yeah, he did."

"Really?  But that . . . Why don't you seem happier?"

"Old as dirt, am I?" he grumbled.

Gin giggled and hopped up, perching on the edge of the sofa beside him.  "I don't think you're as old as dirt."

That didn't seem to appease him.

"I can't believe I get to go with you!"

Cain grinned a little distantly as Gin grasped his hands in hers.  "You'd better go pack."

"When are we leaving?"

Cain shrugged.  "As soon as your uncle's plane's ready.  Apparently, your father has something against commercial flights."

" Sesshoumaru-oji-san has specially pressurized planes," Gin remarked.  "That's probably what he meant."  She stood up and whirled around to head for the door.  "This is great!  I can't wait to go!"

He watched her leave and heaved a sigh.  Gin wanted to go.  She didn't see anything wrong with it, did she?  Of course not.  Gin was too sweet, too innocent to see the trouble of the situation.  Why did he want to take her with him?  Why was it so important that he would demean himself to accepting her father's insults, just to assure that she went with him?

'That's not even the half of it, and you know it, Cain, you liar.'

Cain stood up and shook a cigarette out of the rumpled pack in his pocket.  He never smoked when Gin was around—she hated it.  He always carried them around, though, just in case . . .

'I don't know what you're talking about,' he maintained as he lit the cigarette with a match out of a wrinkled book of matches.

'Don't you?  You know why you can't stand the idea of being separated from Gin for more than a few hours, and even that burns your ass.'

'Maybe.'

'You hate the idea of sneaking around to see her, don't you?  It makes what you and Gin have seem cheap and ugly, but you know, if you wanted to change it, you could.'

He winced, staring out over the city.  'Yeah.'

Taking a long drag off the cigarette, Cain exhaled slowly, watched the smoke rise from his lips only to dissipate as it lifted.

He could do that, couldn't he?  He could change the clandestine nature of his relationship with Gin.  To do that, though, he'd have to break his promise, and breaking his promise . . .

That was something he just couldn't do.


Kichiro shut off the car's engine and heaved a tired sigh as he fumbled for the door latch and got out of the automobile.

Bellaniece had left the porch light on for him.

Smiling wearily as he walked toward the wide stone porch, Kichiro rolled his head from right to left and back again.  It had taken nearly fifteen hours of surgery, but Kelly was sleeping peacefully, and he was exhausted.

That Bellaniece had gone home hadn't really surprised him.  When he'd asked a nurse to tell her to do that, the nurse had come back with the message that Bellaniece had already left.  The surgery had gone well—so well, in fact, that he'd been able to do more of the skin grafts than he'd originally thought.  With a little luck, Kelly would only need one more surgery to replace the damaged skin tissue.

All in all, he was a little exultant as he opened the door and stepped inside.  The flickering light of the fireplace drew Kichiro toward the living room.  His tiny smile widened slowly as he leaned in the doorway.  Bellaniece was curled up on the sofa with a thick fleece blanket tucked under her chin.  Tawny skin glowing in the warm glow of the dancing flames with her hair spilling around her, she sighed and almost smiled, but didn't stir.

Kichiro ambled over to her, scooped her up as he tried not to wake her. She nestled closer as he moved toward the stairs with her in his arms.

Bellaniece whimpered softly as he laid her on the frilly pink bed.  Turning his back on her long enough to kick off his shoes and socks, he stretched out beside her and gathered her close, closing his eyes as the fragrance of her surrounded him.

She breathed softly as he stroked her hair.  Her pulse pounded through her with a quiet strength, a gentle ebb.  It should have frightened him, how perfect she felt in his arms.  In the end it left him with a feeling of completeness—one he'd never felt the likes of before.

'If you would have just said you were sorry to her earlier, we could have avoided all this crap, Kich.'

He scowled at the chiding of his youkai voice.  'How was I supposed to know that was all she wanted?  Most women want flowers and gifts . . . they want to know your bank account's sorry, even if you really aren't.'

'And since when has Belle been like most women?'

'True as that may be, I happen to know that Belle had a great time in New York.'

'Yeah, just don't blow it again.  We're much happier with Belle in our bed than with her trying to gouge your eyes out.'

Kichiro had to agree with that.  The last twenty-four hours would have been amazing, if he had been here to enjoy it.  At least Kelly's surgery was done.  If all went well, they could go back to Tokyo next week.  Now to convince Bellaniece that she really did want to be his mate, and the sooner, the better . . . Bellaniece didn't need to go back to that cramped little apartment.  He didn't want to skulk around and hide, and he didn't want to pretend that she wasn't his just to appease her father.  If it were up to him, he'd march right up to Cain Zelig and rub the tai-youkai's nose in it.  Unfortunately Bellaniece wouldn't like that; not at all . . .

It wasn't so much that he didn't want to go home.  He just loathed the idea of returning to his empty house when he knew in his soul that Bellaniece belonged there, too.  As much as he missed the comforts and perceived civilization of home, he wasn't quite sure how he'd adjust to going back to living apart from Bellaniece.  He'd gotten a little too used to having her around.

'I'll figure it out tomorrow,' he thought with a wide yawn as his eyes drifted closed.  For tonight, he'd just content himself with holding Bellaniece against his heart.  He was just too damn tired to think the rest of it through.

The sound of Bellaniece's breathing was the last thing he heard before he fell asleep.