InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Book Of One Shots ❯ A Mother's Tears ( Chapter 3 )

A Mother's Tears

ChristieLea54

Kagome is crying. Again. Doesn't she understand that I hate that? That it hurts to see her cry? It makes me remember. It makes me remember my mother.

I was five years old, when we were living in a home on my mother's father's estate. My grandpa. I don't remember him much. He had short gray hair, and was always dressed nicely, being the head of his village. I only saw glimpses of him every now and then, as he pretty much ignored me. He forbid the villagers to hurt us, but then pretended like we didn't exist.

And that suited me fine, but it made mother sad. I could tell. Myoga later told me that she had been her father's favorite, before she had left for the Demon Lands. But I didn't know this back then, and I could never figure out what was making her feel so bad. I guess going from being a village's pride and joy, to becoming their dark secret can do that to a person.

If I could describe her in one word, it would be serene. And that's how I'll always remember her: beautiful, loving, and terribly sad.

One day I asked her about it. She gathered me up, her extremely long straight black hair falling around us both, and she told me a story. A story about a brave warrior with long white hair and eyes the color of melted gold. At the end of the story, she told me I would grow up to be just like him, because he was my father. I asked her why him being my father made her sad. She said it was because he had died protecting us, and I would never know him. She said she was afraid of how the world would treat me without my dad there. I didn't understand that until much later, when I realized that I was the cause of her distress.

I told her not to worry, that I'd be as brave as the white haired warrior in the story.

It was two years later, when my so-called grandfather died. He hadn't had any sons, only daughters, and the young man in the village who took over as chief didn't like me much. He said the village was wrong to have let the wife of a demon and her half-breed child stay with them. He gathered support, and a mob came after us one night with torches.

That night happened to be the night of the new moon.

Mother saw them coming, and quickly made me up a bag of food and supplies. She told me, with tears streaming down her face, to hide in the woods until morning. No matter what. I didn't know what was wrong, so I did as I was told. She told me that she loved me, and tearfully shooed me out the backdoor.

I think her tears are what scared me the most. As sad as she always was, she had never lost her calmness before, her composure.

I slept in a tree for the first time that night.

When I came back in the morning, there wasn't anything left to come back to. Our small home had been burnt to the ground, and the only thing left of my mother was a lock of her long black hair, snagged on a nearby bush, and blowing in the wind.

That's why it hurts so much, whenever I see a girl with long black hair start to cry.

I trudge over to the God Tree, surprised that Kagome hasn't taken the well home yet. I sit down next to her. There's silence for a few moments as I take in being next to her and gaze up at the stars. Somehow, sitting with her, and watching the sky, takes the hurt away.

She means so much. Doesn't she understand that either? Feh. Stupid girl.

"Kagome?" I say, still not looking at her.

"Hmm?"

"When all this is over, I don't want you to leave."

Stunned silence.

"But I have a family over there Inuyasha, and school," she says softly with a nod to the well.

"Did I say permanently wench?!" I growled at her. "I just don't want you… to be gone forever."

I can practically feel her smile. I look over. Yup, she's smiling. And not the cheerful 'Hi I'm Kagome' smile, or the worried 'I'm sure everything will be okay' smile either. This was her smile of pure happiness.

Mother never smiled like that. Hell, Kikyo never even smiled like that. This was Kagome's smile.

It was right then that I vowed to myself that I'd never let Kagome become as sad as my mother always was. Because to take that smile away from Kagome, was like taking the stars away from the sky.