InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Teo Torriate ❯ Teo Torriate ( One-Shot )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
A/N: First, I'd like to thank the inspirations responsible for certain elements in the story: Queen for putting out so many great songs/albums that folks like Kira and I could get inspired to do a series of challenges based on their work, Kira herself for the idea of AU older versions of the characters and the bedroom dash (not to mention for giving me permission to go 43 words over the 1000 word limit :3) and GuardianoftheSword for the art that inspired the ending. This is challenge #5 of the Queen Challenge, A Day At The Races. My song was, as titled, Teo Torriate and my lyric to work in was, There's no one else could warm my heart as much as you. In this, Rin is the biological daughter of a long-married Sesshoumaru and Kagura. Hope it's enjoyable!
P.S. Oh yeah, and the Beatles.
Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together)
Kagura shut the door with more than a little reluctance and a sigh. Sad red eyes met calm golden ones as she turned in the foyer. Sesshoumaru tucked her beneath his arm and walked with her into the living room, where his wife plopped down on the sofa, loosing another dramatic exhalation.
“It isn't as though she won't be back,” he offered, sitting next to her.
“I know… I just hate to see her go,” Kagura moaned, mushing her face into her hand.
“You can't do this to yourself every time.” He wrapped his arm around her once again, his hand pumping up and down her arm in a warming motion. “She's not a baby anymore; you have to let go a little.”
The fire cracked and sizzled from the hearth, flickers of orange dancing over their quiet figures in the sunset-darkened room. Kagura dropped her hand from her face and dangled it between her knees, leaning forward over her lap, and let her eyes wander over the dim images hanging on the walls. A little silver frame on the end table next to the sofa displayed her in a hospital bed, exhausted but smiling with baby Rin in her arms, Sesshoumaru leaning in from a chair beside the bed in which their family was completed—where their daughter was brought into the world via a very difficult birth. It was well worth it.
`Always my baby,' she thought, the beautiful moment captured blurring through burgeoning tears.
“Hey.” Sesshoumaru squeezed her. “Don't.”
Kagura turned toward him, blinking away her tears. “Remember how scared we were that day?”
The silver-haired man paused, tight lips parting silently at first. “I almost lost you.”
“Yeah, but I pulled through just fine. It was almost scarier once I was okay.” An ironic laugh leapt from her throat. “As much as we wanted her, as hard as we tried, I didn't know what to do with a baby. There aren't enough books in the world to take away that helpless feeling of what do I do?”
“I think we did a wonderful job. She grew up to be a fine woman.”
“Woman. God, she's a woman.” Kagura dropped her head, catching her face in her palm. “When did we get so old?”
Sesshoumaru smiled his stiff half-smile. “Somewhere between Rin getting her driver's license and us helping her move into her dorm at university.”
“Yeah.” She played with the salt and pepper strands loose from her bun. “At least you are growing old gracefully. You can't tell where or even if you are gray. It's not fair; men just look more distinguished with age and, women… well, we just get old.”
The years had certainly been kinder to Sesshoumaru than they had to Kagura; barely a wrinkle in his fair skin, his body fit and hair full as ever. She was always a little jealous. At her prime, when they first met, she had been svelte with large, perky breasts and gorgeous thick, dark hair. But, after having Rin, she was never quite able to shake the baby weight, the breastfeeding deflating her bosom a little. And now she had gray hair and crow's feet to boot.
Sesshoumaru's smile broadened slightly, still closed-lipped. “No more beautiful sight to me than you growing old by my side.” He gathered her to his chest. “No sweeter comfort to me than knowing my two best girls are well and that my wife has the opportunity she came so close to losing once.”
Kagura released the tendril of graying hair in favor of holding onto her husband. “There's no one else could warm my heart as much as you. You know that, right?”
He kissed the top of her head. “I know. The feeling is mutual.”
Her self-consciousness increasingly moot, she lifted her face to his, curling her body close with a winsome smirk. “Shall we adjourn to our quarters and see if the same still works with our bodies?”
Sesshoumaru touched his forehead to hers tenderly. “I assure you, it does.” He gave her bottom a little slap and she giggled. Kagura snapped to her feet, taking her husband's hand and drawing him to his feet before her. She dashed upstairs, laughing her way to the bedroom they shared. He chased her, more ardently than when they were twenty, more than accommodating of the pounce he received upon entering the room. Husband and wife tumbled kissing to the bed, each peeling the other's winter sweaters from their bodies. Kagura tittered beneath her dearest's roving lips, grabbing his face with both hands and pulling it up over her own.
“What is it?” he asked, hands still wandering over her curves.
“Nothing, I was just thinking of that old Beatles song.”
“What old Beatles song?” He wrenched himself free from her grasp and continued trailing his kisses down the parts of her that embarrassed her the most; her sagging breasts and her little baby-weight belly. “They're all old.”
“Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?” she sang, trying hard to not cringe out of discomfiture.
Sesshoumaru paused his ministrations, lifting his head.
Kagura curtailed her giggles and brushed her fingers through the silver fringe that veiled her love's forehead. “Well, will you?”
He took one of her hands into his, kissing her fingers. “Shall I quote another old song from another British band?”
“Only if you sing it,” she grinned.
Without singing, he made his point. “Let us cling together as the years go by, oh my love, my love. In the quiet of the night, let our candle always burn. Let us never lose the lessons we have learned.”
Kagura's shit-eating grin softened into something sweeter, a different kind of tears welling in her eyes this time. “Quoting Queen. Now that's love.” She bent forward, pressing her lips to his.
His kiss pushed her back to her pillow, his hips taking up residence between her parted legs. He opened her jeans and slid them down, eager hands pulling at his own trousers. Her insecurities disappeared with every touch, old bones feeling young as the long ago photo staring from the bedside table; Sesshoumaru, Kagura and little Rin all bundled up on a snowy day, ageless. Timeless.