InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Inutaisho Legacy ❯ chapter six ( Chapter 6 )

The move has gone well. Even better than I expected! I think I lost my brain in the last part of the evening though. I could barely answer questions right. See what stress will do to you (lol). Apartment is basically unpacked, so yeah! I'm very happy and as you can see the dsl line is up and running. I wanted to post this story at least before Thanksgiving as I will be taking a `busienss' trip the day after and will return by Sunday. I hope this tides you over another week or so!

 

InuSkye gets full thanks for supplying the basic plot. I just etch in the details. You rock, tomodachi. Must shareth the sake.

 

Honored Place for reviewers

 

Fanfiction.net:

Room for Improvement, I am a little sad your email is not included in your bio, as I wanted to email you in the past! You've been a kind voice in urging me to continue and I wanted to thank you. So I'll take the time and honor you here. Thanks again.

Silvery Magick one, glad you liked once more! Sorry this one is not up on the lemons, but I hope you enjoy ^__^

Andrea Moon Dog, and she comes out of the shadows. Good to see you again.

Angeldreamer21, WOW. I can only say I hope you find this story inspiring or helpful as the other one.

Lady Kcassandra, Inuyashas only miko, Inuyasha's chick, NOX916, and Chibi Magik, thanks for cheering me with your words! ^_^ You have no idea how you continue to move this inu.

Simonkal of Inuy, WOW! I'm pleased you liked the sexual situations (laugh) I admit my Inuyasha stories are rife with them. It constantly amazes me that people like these stories, but I'm thrilled you read them all in some giant sittings at once :P Are they really marathon worthy? Thanks for making my day!

 

Rachael the Senior Babe :P Thanks for being my number one fan! You get a double space of honor here too.

 

Adult Ff.net:

Sapphire Blade, I'm glad to see you on the list again! Here's to cheering you up.

Syko, thanks for the well wishes! ^_^ The new place is going fine.

Hanyou Swimmer, I enjoy seeing your name on the list. Thank you for reviewing as always! ^_^ You're the best.

 

Inugrrl gets a double space of honor. God DAMN girl way to get me laughing on the floor, yet turn red with embarrassment :P You're a scream! And as always, I love seeing your infamous reviews. Let's see another one, please! I put the Shippou scene in, just for YOU ^_~

 

Clover4dm, I must honor you here. I truly am trying to develop my (or A) writing style further and I am pleased you enjoyed my stories. I hope to continue to see you on the list and to hear from you. I'm not a fanfic author who shies from literary advice!

 

Nina, who loves penpaninu? Aw! Thanks for making me blush once more. Hope you grin and laugh even more at this and annoy your sisters some more! ^_~ ^_~ ^_~

 

Urgazhi, oh always a method for the madness ^_~ I hope to convey I know what I'm doing through this apparent chaos. Thanks for reading!

 

Oh, and I'm taking the time to set up a mini soap box and try to be a dick by stating, please send constructive reviews. Not one word or one sentences hinting at heavy sarcasm. If you have something to say, say it. I will laugh or delete your review as I see fit. You know who you are.

 

That does not bode for everyone above ^_^;; you're all great!

 

Disclaimer: Penpaninu does not claim to own Inuyasha in any way shape or form, but does claim to be Inu. If I owned this series, I'd be having a formal tea ceremony on my own private island and invite everyone I know.

 

“The Inutaisho Legacy” chapter six

 

 

The grandson of the great Inu lord Inutaisho sat playing five hundred years in the future, clothed in a pajama set with a dancing baby chick embroidered on the front. A catch phrase that annoyed his father was printed across the chest but Inutaro merely rolled and sat in the grass outside, fisting handfuls of the vegetation. He flung them up into the air, laughing as he played in the shadow of the God Tree. His father was barely ten feet away, fixing a tile in the shrine courtyard. The tall white-haired man who looked in over his crib with those shining golden eyes registered as Peep in the baby's mind, even though both of his parents were trying to get him to say something called `Papa.'

 

Peep was hissing under his breathe, funny sharp words that made Inutaro giggle because the large warm body that smelled like outside would get other funny words from his mother and a few sharp swats from her hands. He knew those hands as gentle and they smelled like her but his Peep would often yelp like Inutaro himself when he wanted to be changed.

 

“Baaaaaaa,” Inutaro murmured, rolling on his back on the grass, taking the blanket Peep set him on with him. He fidgeted, tangled in the offending article of linen, struggling. “Aaah!” he cried out sharply to get his father's attention.

 

“DAMN…stupid…effing…. Wait, I'm coming, Inutaro!” Inuyasha stood up from his haunches and strode over to free his baby from the mess he'd gotten into. “Hey, hey, is that better? Whoa, you shouldn't eat the grass, pup. Yer mama would have my head on a pike.”

 

“Heh!” Inutaro laughed up at his father, his dark eyes shining. He recognized the `M' word Peep had used and looked around for the dark-haired woman with the warm gentle hands and soft chest. He pouted when he didn't see her right away but brightened when Peep pulled him up into his arms.

“Brrrrm,” Inutaro babbled, tucking his white head against his father's chest, and chewing on a handful of his loose t-shirt. Inuyasha chuckled to himself and patted his pup's back.

 

“There, I think I can let myself get away with a break with you hanging on me, ne, pup?” Inuyasha said, sitting cross-legged on the tiles and cradling Inutaro in the crook of one arm.

Inutaro wriggled happily, and Inuyasha splayed his fingers under his son's scalp to hold him better along his arm. Using his free hand, Inuyasha smoothed his hair, and arranged his son's pajama set. It touched his heart to see his son wriggle trustingly in one of his hands, looking up at him with large loving eyes.

 

Inuyasha looked around to make sure no elderly woman was nearby to notice, and leaned his head down to nuzzle his son's tummy. The large squeal invoked from his boy made several birds in the God Tree rebuke the two partial inu with sharp trills and caws. Inuyasha laughed a sharp bark of amusement and leaned against the ancient tree, the gentle firmness of the anchor to his past assuring yet slightly alarming all at once. If he leaned against the tree too long, he could faintly feel the brief level of purification that almost ended his life and pinned him with sharp piercing metal and wood….

 

“Ah!” Inutaro crowed, wriggling hard and Inuyasha gulped, bringing his son against his chest with both arms quickly. His pup pressed against him happily, chewing and nibbling on his fingers when he smoothed them against his round cheeks. Inuyasha smiled beatifically, and the sunlight shone through his white hair. Inutaro stared up at his shining father and babbled in awe.

Inuyasha smiled and nuzzled Inutaro's face. He needn't fear the past. He had said goodbye to Kikyo and any ties to her after he had mated Kagome. After the last battle with Naraku…. he was told by Miroku the young men in Kaede's village had found what was left of her red and white miko robes. There was no body, no bones, merely traces of ash residue. Everything of her had been swept away to the afterlife where she belonged.

 

The God Tree was not his tomb any longer. It was a reminder of the life he had chosen to walk.

“Hey, think that's yer Mama now,” Inuyasha murmured, looking up across the courtyard and squinting. Inutaro went wild, hearing the special word and craned his small head to try and catch sight of her.

 

Kagome came to the top step, with Souta in tow. “Can I wash Inutaro tonight, Sis? Huh, come on. I haven't gotten to do it for a week!” the young boy was saying when Kagome spotted Inuyasha slumped against the God Tree.

 

Her heart rate sped up and her mind panicked, remembering a snowy day at this same spot catching a glimpse of her beloved slumped in injury against the same tree. He hadn't been pierced and preserved by a single holy arrow, but he had still been in so much pain….

 

“Sis? Are you okay?” Souta asked, tugging at Kagome's arm. “You're spacing out again!” For the past few weeks his older sister had been thoughtful to the point of absent-minded. There had to be some serious cobwebs in her brain to make her trail off into thought like that, and something had to be causing it.

“What? Oh!” Kagome started, blinking hard and the scene shifted to the present. Inuyasha was slumped in a similar position, but it was spring and his arms were full with their child. She shouldn't have worried. But Souta just couldn't know her stress over the situation with Inuyasha's half brother and his mate.

 

“I'm okay, Souta. But…what were you saying?” Kagome blinked hard and shook her head. Souta sighed and threw his hands into the air.

“I'll ask you later, Sis! Hope you'll listen then,” Souta said, but winked to show Kagome he wasn't that upset. He knew his sister had her plate full with a family already.

 

“Hey! Kagomeeeee!” Inuyasha hailed his mate, cradling Inutaro to his shoulder and waving with the other hand. Inutaro squealed, turning his head to look for his mother. Kagome smiled, her heart full to bursting and jogged the last few feet to kneel next to her family.

“How was he today?” Kagome asked, kissing her son's fuzzy head, then leaning to give a longer one to Inuyasha. Her mate graciously accepted her lips against his, and stroked his tongue against her mouth playfully.

 

“Hmm! He was fine, he got to play in the grass a little,” Inuyasha grinned. Kagome smiled and pressed small kisses around her son's puppy ears. Inutaro greatly enjoyed the tickling sensations and cried out happily.

 

“I think we should put his hat back on before Jii-chan notices,” Kagome said, looking around. Inuyasha shrugged and stood.

“He passed out doing his papers in the shrine office. Let's just bring him in the house like this!”

Kagome giggled and the small family made their way inside.

 

* * * *

 

Inuyasha was snuggling Kagome in bed late at night a few days later. He was drowsy, rubbing his mate's back and content with the shared warmth she radiated. Kagome snuggled against his chest and sighed in her sleep, weary from another long day of learning. Inuyasha was half-tempted to tell her to quit the learning if it kept wiping her out, but he knew to hold his tongue about his opinion of the matter. He got that studying was what this world had to do to make a social standing. And Kagome was good at it, so he would continue to work for her family and care for their son.

He just wished he could erase the lines of exhaustion from his woman's eyes and love her stress away.

 

Inuyasha was nuzzling his nose sleepily along Kagome's shoulder when an ear-piercing wail came from the baby monitor. The object of technological marvel was arranged just above the headboard of Kagome's bed so both parents heard it instantly, sprang up, and cracked heads together.

 

“Owwwww!” Kagome wailed, holding her head. Inuyasha in a similar state of pain, merely hissed whiningly.

 

“What's wrong with him? He can't want another feeding already!” Kagome winced, swiping with one hand to lower the volume on the monitor. She failed several times miserably. Inuyasha growled and hit the monitor, knocking it to the floor and jarring the batteries out of the back. The echoing wail of their child vanished so they could merely hear him down the hallway in his bedroom.

 

“Inuyasha, we have to see what's wrong!” Kagome said, sliding out of bed in a hurry. Inuyasha sprang up and hitched at his loose shorts, opting to wear nothing else while he slept with his wife.

“I'll go get him! You go to sleep, you have learning!” Inuyasha suggested and jogged out of her room, his ears laid flat against his head from his son's auditory attack. Mama and Souta sleepily poked their heads out of their bedroom to assist and/or complain to the situation, but shut up when they saw the hanyou disappear into the nursery.

 

“Sssh, ssssh, pup, you have to be quiet,” Inuyasha murmured, blinking wearily as he leaned in over the crib and slid his hands under his wriggling son. Inutaro looked up unhappily at his father and sniffled hard. He was content that Peep had come so soon to his distress, but flailed miserably yet.

 

“Aaaaaahh!….” he commented to his father, snuggling close and sniffling. Inuyasha kissed the top of his head and paced back and forth with him.

 

“What is it? What's wrong? Well, yer dry and yer not hungry, pup…. Did you wanna see yer old man? Huh? I bet you did, disturbing me from sleeping with yer mama,” Inuyasha commented aloud to soothe his child. Inutaro sniffled hard but quieted momentarily hearing the special word.

 

“Okay, so you're calming down, so that's good, ne?” Inuyasha murmured, humming roughly as he laid Inutaro back in his crib. Just as he drew up the covers and turned out the light once more, he thought all was well. The instant his foot touched the mats in the hallway, his son screeched his displeasure.

 

“Shit!….” Inuyasha hissed, and darted back inside. Souta poked his head out of his bedroom again, yawning.

 

“Nii-chan! What's going on?” he asked drowsily. Inuyasha poked his head outside, cradling his flailing son with both arms.

 

“It's okay, Souta! Go to sleep! Ah okay, pup okay….” Inuyasha gasped when Inutaro started pounding lightly against his chest.

 

The night passed in this way and Mama rose a few hours later to lend help when it became apparent that Inutaro had to be ill or merely restless. Perhaps a change in arms and hands would calm him down. Mama wound a bathrobe around her nightgown and peeked into the nursery.

 

The first rays of the morning sunlight began to gleam through the window's curtains showing an exhausted hanyou rocking his offspring wearily.

 

“Sleep…sleep…..see, you wanna sleep don't you?” Inuyasha whispered with a hoarse voice as he rocked his son up and down the floor. Inutaro merely wailed tiredly, his voice ragged from hours of complaining.

 

“Do you need any help, Inuyasha?” Mama asked, coming inside. Inuyasha's blood-shot eyes regarded her and he gave a tired `keh.'

“Only if you want, Mom,” he commented, settling back in the nursery's rocking chair. Inutaro wriggled impatiently and wailed lightly.

“I just dun know what's wrong with him,” Inuyasha sighed. His eyes closed but he kept rocking.

 

“It could be he's colicky… babies do go through this you know,” Mama suggested. Inuyasha's eyes opened sleepily.

“Colicky….huh?” he mumbled. Mama giggled and reached down to take her grandson.

 

“It means babies get restless sometimes. It just happens,” Mama suggested and pressed Inutaro close to her. The partial inu sniffled and rubbed his nose against her shoulder.

“It stops though, right? Please say it does,” Inuyasha begged and stretched out, the muscles in his bare chest flexing. Mama gave a small tsk and arranged Inuyasha's long hair into some semblance of order over one of his bare shoulders.

 

“Well it does. Then their teeth start growing in,” Mama warned. Inuyasha buried his face in his hands and groaned.

 

“Why oh why couldn't I stop rutting her?” he moaned jokingly. Mama raised an eyebrow and Inuyasha sweat-dropped.

“I mean…. hell I love my pup, Mom! You know I do,” Inuyasha went on. Mama laughed and stroked her grandson's hair.

 

“It's alright to wonder such things, Inuyasha, just hold what you love close to you,” Mom said lightly. She stood to take Inutaro to the kitchen with her. Inutaro babbled tiredly and yawned, pressing close for a nap on the way down.

 

Inuyasha watched her leave and settled the rocking chair to a stop. “I always do, Mom. I had it all taken away from me once before…” He went to check on Kagome and Souta for their learning, and joined his son in the kitchen.

Mama giggled when she found her son-in-law sprawled with his head and arms on the kitchen table, one hand on his boy's foot. Inutaro lay in his baby carrier on the table, deeply asleep also.

 

Kagome ate a quiet breakfast standing up, and snapped a picture of the scene before she headed out the door to school.

 

* * * *

 

Rin stood at the base of the sand garden and watched the intimate swirls and circles quietly. Her breathing rose and fall dramatically as she traced the standing stones standing erect in the drawn lines in the sand, the obvious rising from sensual waves creating passionate hues in the young Lady's mind.

 

Her lord Sesshomaru was off `persuading' the senior monks of this local monastery to let her use the garden for her own purposes. Rin's mind taking in the swirls and circles did not see an opportunity for meditation and flushed, wondering if Sesshomaru-sama himself had thought to use the heavy religious standing for intimate purposes.

 

Rin sat at the edge of the perfectly swept sand brushed her fingertips over the loose soil. She wore a light robe tucked beneath her calves neatly and she waited for her lord to return. All too soon she felt her lords' blood quicken, and heard his short inhales and exhales of breath as he approached her.

 

Rin smiled prettily as her lord towered over her, resplendent in a single pure white kimono that matched his hair and flesh. “Did the negotiations go well?” she asked.

 

Sesshomaru gestured shortly with his hand. “They went well enough with the right persuasion,” he answered. Rin noticed his claws were speckled with human blood and she worriedly took his hand in hers.

 

“My lord, you shouldn't have to do this,” she gently chided. She washed his hand carefully with her robe's sleeve and Sessomaru watched her small breasts flex against the robes' fabric.

 

“I will do what deemed necessary for you and for me,” he said grandly. Rin was instantly gladdened to the intense emotion that poured through their link at this admonition and she pressed kisses across his now clean hand and looked up at Sesshomaru-sama with trusting eyes. Sesshomaru watched her impassionately though his eyes were as hot as coals on a fresh fire.

 

“My lady,” he intoned, taking her hand in his. Rin curtsied in her peasant's bare robe and rose in his arm, twining around his form within his embrace.

Sesshomaru smiled when Rin angled up to kiss him sweetly, small sweet womanly kisses along his jaw and cheeks, and across his lips. He held her with his hand and thrust his tongue into her sweet mouth, feeling her small whimpers of passion as she clung to his neck.

 

Sesshomaru watches his mate with half-lidded eyes as she strode backwards, stirring up the sands' path with her bare feet and the edges of her robe. “My lady?” he rumbled, as she pulled him out with her.

 

Rin blushed, but was resolute to take him out with her. She felt her lord's youki charge up and spike out against the religious serenity of the rock garden, snaps of energy swirling around the form she loved so much. “My lord?” she asked quietly. Sesshomaru merely stretched his lips in the small smile Rin knew so well and followed her out.

 

It pleased him greatly that while he himself was a great youkai lord, that he could take these monks' garden for his own pleasure. The baser parts of his pleasure grinned at this, but soon lost it's vindictive streak when Rin pulled him against a rock and pressed fully against him. Her body's sweet curves pressed against his and even the great Sesshomaru-sama was unable to utter a word as drowsy pleasure overtook his body. His youki was strong and he could endure the monk's prayers over this garden as he scuffed up the sacred sand with his bare feet, claws digging into the wet soil.

 

He and his Rin fell to the sand together, gently so as not to crush her. Rin gasped softly and moved to press small healing kisses across his armless shoulder. Sesshomaru watched her with slit eyes, wondering why she would care for something that was no longer part of him. Rin only longed to heal her lord as much as she was able and hugged his stump tightly. Sesshomaru touched her cheek and made her look at him.

`Forget what has happened,' his warm eyes seemed to tell her so Rin was resigned to fall into her lord's one arm and take pleasure with him in the heady sacred space.

 

Rin grasped the sand with one hand as she clung to her lord with the other. Her robe was open down the middle, exposing herself to him and all that he owned. Sesshomaru's eyes opened and met his mate's, resolute and matched with her own conviction. They thrust evenly and moved together to one swift orgasm that left both shaking and trembling with the sacred implications involved thereafter. Rin clung to her large lord, holding onto his back and arm passionately. Sesshomaru leaned against her in the sand, embedded deeply in her willing flesh. Rin held his neck and leaned back on the sand, content with the vibrations of the aftermath of their passionate joining.

 

While he was deeply not comfortable with the thought of being far vulnerable in a human's religious setting, he was happy to be this far lost with his Rin. Sesshomaru purred deeply, content with the sensation of his mate and the touches she bestowed upon his wide bare back.

 

“My lord…. have I mispleased you here?” Rin asked softly. Sesshomaru flicked his ears and let his lady handle him with sure and steady hands.

“Rin, why would you say that?” Sesshomaru asked deeply. Rin kissed him softly.

 

The monks peeked out of the main office windows, seething yet afraid to stop the great youkai lord of the region from using their rock garden.

 

“He is a demon and he defiles our sacred garden!” a junior monk seethed, grasping the windowpane with white knuckles. His brothers pulled him from the window, lest he glimpse snatches of bare flesh from a woman, and that demon.

 

“Yes, he defiles our garden…but he has taken the right,” the senior monk bowed his head, his eyes swollen with bruised eyes. The youkai had damaged him greatly with just one hand and it bruised the senior monk's feelings that he could not stop the demon from mishandling his position among his monks.

 

The fellow brothers bowed to their senior's words and winced at each cry of passion from the sacred area in the sand below. It would take years to erect another sacred space.

 

* * * *

 

Shippou tapped his yari across his shoulder and watched the perimeter of the human village, his pointed ears flicking. He had shot up leaps and bounds in the past five years in the feudal era and now he was as tall as Kyoko's shoulders, something he was rather proud at. While his relationship with the young farmer's daughter was progressing far better than he could hope for, he could only thank Kagome for involuntarily caring for him in their travels. Her strength had guided him and Inuyasha's death forced him to step up in his responsibilities.

Shippou visited Sango and Miroku's family often but lived in a hut on the outskirts of Kyoko's village. He was making a life for himself without relying on them, but he would never forget the strength they had instilled into him. He was a cub no longer and the thought made Shippou's lips curl upward.

 

“Shippou-kun…Shippou!” his beloved's voice rang out and the tall kitsune man turned to almost walk straight into Kyoko's breasts. Shippou thought again how convenient his new height was and grinned despite himself.

 

“Kyoko-donno,” he said happily, his brows drawing back. Kyoko smiled sweetly and touched his strong jaw line.

“Are you daydreaming again, Shippou-kun? Papa wanted you to eat the noon meal with us,” Kyoko said, brushing her long hair over her shoulder. Shippou nodded and used the yari's end as a staff, taking her hand.

 

“I was thinking of asking your father for….wah!” Shippou gasped when Kyoko pulled him behind a nearby hut along the way and pressed him against the wall. Shippou stared down at their close proximity and up into her eyes, liking her small but soft curves pressing into his shoulders.

“I guess you had the same idea in mind,” he said, raising an eyebrow. Kyoko held Shippou's face in her hands and leaned down to kiss him.

 

“I did have the same idea, Shippou….” Kyoko began and Shippou gave a soft groan at the lack of suffix indicating a far intimate relationship. “And I would love to be yours, completely….”

 

Shippou's overactive adolescent body jumpstarted at her words, and the two pressed as close as they could, touching and kissing. When Kyoko's father came to look for them, they had worked down to the ground, spread across nature's bed in their eagerness.

Shippou lifted his head from Kyoko's open yukata front, face bright red in passion. Kyoko stroked his face and back, liking his hands on her breasts and thighs, the hard way he pressed into her and the way his tail coiled around her knee to hold her legs open to his narrow hips.

 

“I'm in no state to ask your father now,” Shippou groaned and laughed, darting up. Kyoko gathered her yukata together, watching her kitsune boyfriend's waistline. She blushed prettily noticing the obvious bulge and she felt momentarily proud.

 

“I'll tell him you were making one more sweep around the village,” she suggested. Shippou laughed and waddled away as fast as he could, grabbing up his yari at the last moment.

“This gives me time to soak in the river…” he thought and barely made it away as Kyoko's father rounded the corner.

 

“Kyoko!” the bear of a farmer thundered, large hands clenched into fists. “I thought you were bringing Shippou-kun to eat with us. Your mother and sisters have been waiting!”

Kyoko stood and bowed at the waist demurely. “I looked, Papa! But I think maybe he was uhm, scouting the forest's edge. I couldn't find him.” Kyoko hoped with every wish to the kami that her father wouldn't notice how grass-stained and wrinkled her yukata was in that short-lived stretch in the dirt.

 

Kyoko's father sighed and gruffly batted his daughter's shoulder. “Come along then, I'm sure he can eat with us this evening.”

 

Kyoko walked with her father and looked over her shoulder, catching sight of two bright green eyes peeping from a roadside statue. Her boyfriend was rather crafty when he put his mind to it. But she could still see his tail waving back and forth from the statue's end. He really should watch all of himself when he used his tricks.

 

* * * *

 

“Come along, Kaede-obaa-chan, just a little further,” Kagome coaxed, taking one of the priestess' arms in hers. Kaede leaned heavily upon the young woman and moaned softly.

 

“Will the well admit this old soul? I pray that it does,” Kaede murmured as she made her way through Inuyasha's Forest to the Bone Eater's Well. Inuyasha held Inutaro in his sling and held her other arm, helping her along. He wore the old priestess' belongings in a pouch tied across his shoulder. Inutaro found the long expanse of clothing fascinating to play with and Inuyasha had to keep brushing his hands away.

 

“I'm sure it'll be okay,” Inuyasha grit his teeth as he lifted Kaede carefully over a nasty spring of tangled roots. Kagome carefully stepped across and retook Kaede's arm, guiding her.

“We won't know until we try,” Kagome suggested. All too soon the four were at the small wooden well. Inuyasha and Kagome looked at each other with mild apprehension while Kaede regarded the ancient well curiously and with a large amount of hope. Inutaro merely reached to grab hold of nearby butterflies, wailing slightly in frustration when they did not come when called.

 

“Sssh, it's okay, pup, I'll get you something to chew on at home,” Inuyasha murmured, bouncing his son in his sling. Inutaro pouted and stuck his lower lip out.

 

“I must say, this old soul is extremely afraid and I have faced legions of youkai,” Kaede murmured. Kagome squeezed her large dry hand and lent her courage.

 

“It will be all right, Kaede-obaa-chan! If it doesn't let you through, you'll just land at the bottom of the well….” Kagome's words trailed off. Inuyasha coughed.

 

“But I `m sure it'll let you through,” the hanyou commented dryly and Kaede set her face in a gruff frown.

 

“Well, then! Let's make the attempt,” she suggested grandly and Inuyasha smirked, taking her arm once more.

 

“And one…and two….and…pup, stop eating my ear!” Inuyasha yelped. Kagome yanked on Kaede's arm and tumbled all of them down into the well in one smooth leap.

 

Kaede half-expected to hit the dirt and leaves at the bottom of the well, while her comrades were pulled away into Kagome's world. She was mildly surprised yet shocked when her feet and legs remained weightless, as she fell through time and space clinging to Kagome's hand and yanking on Inuyasha's arm.

 

Inutaro's squeal of pleasure rushed past the old woman's ears and she smiled before her feet touched down hard on packed dirt. As she looked up, she could not see the sky but a roof over the top of the ancient well.

 

“Have we made it?” she asked in a wavery voice. Inuyasha grinned over at Kagome and nodded.

“We sure did! Come on, I'll help you out,” Inuyasha urged, slinging an arm around the old miko's ample waist and leaping out with her.

 

“Uhm, guys, I'm still down here!” Kagome called from the well's bottom. Inutaro squealed, looking for his mother. Inuyasha sighed and handed Inutaro to Kaede.

 

“Coming, coming!” the hanyou groused as he collected his mate and leaped out.

“Not on command,” Kagome ordered. Inuyasha flushed and set her down.

 

“Is it really all right with your family that I stay on here awhile?” Kaede asked, her eyes gleaming. When the well house's doors were pushed open, Kagome saw that her old friend looked years younger yet exhausted all at the same time.

 

“It really is,” Kagome assured her. She squeezed Kaede's hand and helped her out to the shrine courtyard.

 

The old priestess of an ancient past was received well into the Higurashi household. Souta asked several questions that Kaede was all too glad to elaborate on while Inuyasha paced and groused. Mama found several points of interest to converse on with the old priestess and made her feel as comfortable as she wanted.

 

It was when Jii-chan came into the kitchen that things starting getting interesting, or so Inuyasha thought. The old priest came in as cranky as per usual and in the middle of spouting a lecture, stopped mid-sentence catching the sparkling eye of Kaede.

 

“Wuh…wuh…Daughter! Kagome, explain?” he stammered, his hands fluttering before his chest.

 

Kaede felt deeply flattered that in her extreme old age, she would be considered attractive, albeit to an equally old man. But though Kagome's grandsire was not slim or athletic, his form held a stolid foundation she knew the family shrine rested upon. His eyes sparkled with undisguised energy and his stern, lined mouth was surrounded by a short neat beard and mustache she found herself lingering over. He was obviously a traditionalist. He even wore his hair up in a small topknot!

 

“This is my friend from the feudal age, Kaede-obaa-chan,” Kagome smiled. “She is priestess of the village Inuyasha watched over, and knew him when she was my age.”

 

Mama and Kaede liked how elegantly Kagome introduced the old priestess without being overly obvious about her age, and Inuyasha far liked it that Kagome did not mention Kikyo at all. Now that was a whole `nother can of worms that didn't need to be examined by anyone else, considering she had already departed as ashes upon the wind. All ancient history, as Souta would say.

 

“O-obaa-chan?” Jii-chan stammered, his eyebrows quirking. Kaede giggled as the old man puffed his chest out in retaliation. “Why this fair lady is hardly the type to be called `obaa', Kagome! Granddaughter, where are your manners??”

 

Souta sighed and shrugged to Inuyasha. “Here we go again…”

“I think yer Jii-chan has a crush,” Inuyasha whispered and laughed, juggling Inutaro in his arms. His son panted softly, a wide smile on his face. Inuyasha was glad they had taken old Kaede here anyhow, for Jii-chan hadn't noticed Inutaro's open ears in the kitchen once since he had walked in and seen the `fair lady.'

 

“Ryosuke-san,” Kaede stood and bowed slightly. Jii-chan gasped and bowed far lower to her. “It is a supreme honor to finally meet you. Kagome-chan has told me much about you.”

 

“She has?? Thank you, Kagome!” Jii-chan yelped, blushing five shades of red. Kaede laughed softly.

 

* * * *

 

Sesshomaru rolled from the wide bed he shared with his mate. Rin sprawled across it, and watched his pale form stand naked before her and giggled. Sesshomaru trailed a single claw down his mate's back, watching her arch and sigh languidly in response.

 

“Why must you laugh at this Sesshomaru?” Sesshomaru asked. Rin gazed up and down at him, cheeks flushed.

 

“I would never laugh at my lord. Your Rin is merely so happy,” Rin sighed. Sesshomaru leaned down and nipped her neck over his mark, making his mate shudder once more. He garbed himself in a light sleeping robe and strode out onto the balcony to watch the sunrise.

Over the next few weeks when his mate did not smell any more fertile than she could, Sesshomaru began to have lingering concerns. Oh they still mated and often and with genuine passion, but the underlying fear and suspicion made both Lord and Lady stiff to revealing their hearts fully as they had once done.

 

One night after a round of different positions, Sesshomaru trailed his mouth down his tired mate, licking lines down her perfect darker flesh with his tongue and scraping her sweat as he went. Once he was positioned between her legs, aside from tasting, something Rin was wild he do often, Sesshomaru inhaled as deeply as he could. While the scent of his mate's musks and passion drove him almost to see red and take her once more, he focused intently on the fertility of his seeds. He had just planted them so they should be warm and invited.

 

This Sesshomaru could not sense any taking root. Sesshomaru looked up, his face impassionate. Rin rose on her elbows unsteadily, gasping.

 

“M-my lord? Why have you stopped?” she asked, a wondrous smile across her face. Sesshomaru knelt and took her cheek in his hand, bringing her forward so he could caress her brow with his lips.

 

“My lord,” Rin sighed, closing her eyes to his attentions. Sesshomaru lathed her neck and shoulders with his tongue and kisses, and stood from the bed.

 

“This Sesshomaru wishes to reflect. Be well, Rin,” Sesshomaru commanded, selecting a fine white kimono traced in royal purple to be his garment. Rin watched him, confused to his abrupt decision to go for a walk, but burrowed gently in the large covers. She would get well-deserved rest while he was out and about.

 

“I will, my lord Sesshomaru,” Rin whispered. She yawned and watched the pale vision, that was her mate, depart the royal bedchambers.

 

Sesshomaru was deep in thought. Of all the things that could happen in his long life, he was sure his ancestors and Father were laughing at him. Always he had strived to be the strongest, to be the best, to be the ruler of the royal Inu of the Western Lands. And now that he had stopped being strong to take a mate that he genuinely felt adoration to, a human no less, and completing what his father had started, he had in the end, lost.

 

Rin was not taking his seed to root. She could not conceive what he had sown in her thus far. While Sesshomaru was certain it was just a human mechanism, that she would learn, or grow the ability to bear his heir, he was also certain while perfectly shaped his Rin was and how well she received his size, she could not have children.

 

Sesshomaru wanted to rage. He wanted to decimate whole mountains, he wanted to finish the work Naraku had done on his half-brother, he wanted to find that Woman Kagome and slap her into submission, and most of all he wanted to track his enemies deep into the night for daring to go against his autocracy. He wanted to wail and roar his displeasure.

But more disturbingly, Sesshomaru knew he wanted to sit and weep. He had admitted Rin into his cold heart, but they could not have issue to continue their inheritance.

 

“Father, is this what you were trying to tell me? Is this what you had in mind for me?” Sesshomaru murmured lightly to the moon. It was waxing full and his youkai blood surged and boiled, wanting a release to his intense range of emotions. He could feel the mountainside murmur as if to chuckle in response and he snarled, his face a mask of displeasure.

 

“My lord Sesshomaru,” a feminine voice rang out and Sesshomaru did not deign to answer or turn his head as three youkai woman of the court bowed and walked out onto the balcony. He would not ask how they had gotten into his living quarters of the palace, but he let them have their say.

 

It was best to let a foe think he had the upper hand and blather on with his useless words before one's claws gouged out their throats….

 

“Speak,” he commanded. The three women bowed, then took up position around him. Sesshomaru's chest muscles stood hard in anticipation of movement, his anger seething through his cold eyes. These women DARED touch this Sesshomaru? Who did they think they were, and did they remember who he was?

 

“My lord, you are not well. At last you walk from that human's side.” One of the women crooned, her hand slipping into the front of Sesshomaru's kimono. Sesshomaru watched that hand and idly thought that she would lose that appendage when he decided to strike.

 

“This Sesshomaru has no desire to reveal his thoughts to those such as you,” he stated smoothly, intending his words to be biting and callous. Delivered with his cold baritone, it hurt more than if he screamed them. Giving the impression you just didn't give a damn tended to anger a reciprocate.

 

“But our lord is tired of silly human girls! Perhaps he wants someone more experienced? And full youkai?” A second of the woman suggested, rubbing his thighs. Sesshomaru idly wondered how many hands he had to sever this late evening before he could return to his reflections and eventually Rin.

 

“And when has this Sesshomaru ever expressed this wish?” Sesshomaru let a hint of a growl pour into his smooth words. The women, foolish sluts of the youkai court as they were, merely saw this as a hint to rising passions and pressed closer, crooning and giggling their high pitched laughs. Sesshomaru's ears flicked, the only sign to his irritation.

 

“When everyone knows that human girl hasn't conceived for our lord yet,” the third woman giggled and Sesshomaru knew she must lose her head for daring speak those words. “She cannot give you the heir you need, our lord Sesshomaru. Perhaps one of us can be instrumental to?…”

 

Sesshomaru tensed and struck. One swipe with his extracted venomous claws, and the third youkai woman's head rolled on the floor, cleanly severed from the neck with one strike. Her eyes were still full of mirth, her lips curved in a smile frozen in death. The other two youkai stared at Sesshomaru as he rose to his full glory, and towered over them.

 

“This Sesshomaru is never in the position to be yours to rule,” he growled lowly. The woman trembled against each other and bowed prostrate to the boards.

 

“We're sorry, our lord Sesshomaru!” they cried out as one. Sesshomaru chuckled.

“Hold your hands out.”

 

“M-my lord?”

“Sesshomaru-sama, surely you cannot mean…”

 

“Must this Sesshomaru repeat himself?” Sesshomaru murmured lowly. His eyes promised a swift death if his order was not complied. The two women held their hands out and fresh blood streamed across the floorboards as four clawed hands rolled down, severed cleanly from the wrists.

Sesshomaru left the woman screaming in pain and clutching bloodied stumps as he strode to his gardens to continue his thoughts in peace. And far from the piercing shrieks of agony.

 

* * * *

 

Sesshomaru knew he had to visit his painful past to help his future along. Through his hours of methodical thinking, he was certain his answers lay in Kagome Woman, how tempting to challenge Inuyasha again it was he was sure.

 

He visited his lady the morning after and comforted her. They shared the morning meal and taking Jaken, Sesshomaru flew to the exterminator's village in apparent serenity. Jaken squawked at the low speed his lord used, but clung to his fluttering pelt strongly and braved the winds.

 

Sesshomaru landed, shook Jaken off and strode to the gate.

 

“Allow this Sesshomaru to see the Lady Kagome,” Sesshomaru commanded. It was held as a partial question. Moments later, the gate was pulled open by the young hunters and Sesshomaru was escorted to the village gardens where Kagome was kneeling with her son.

 

Inutaro regarded Sesshomaru seriously, but grinned a baby grin all the same. Kagome clutched her heir close and shot cautious daggers at the Inu lord.

 

“Why have you come? If Inuyasha sees you, he'll battle you,” she commanded. Sesshomaru reflected tiredly how imperious she was. What a lady Kagome Woman would have made….

 

“I have come to speak of my mate.” Sesshomaru intoned, his eyes sweeping down to meet the quarter inu's eyes once more. Inutaro wriggled and laughed happily.

 

“Rin? What is it?” Kagome's heart beat fast, for she already knew the answer.

 

“She cannot hold my child. Lend her your aide, great Lady,” Sesshomaru intoned. Kagome stared at him in surprise. For just an instant, she could have sworn his cold eyes held a trace of grave sadness and grief.

 

End for now

 

 

Whew sorry for the delay. After moving my mind has sort of been a pile of mush. Much thanks to Inuskye for pushing me to continue the plot, and to reviewers for telling me this story is good. At least to you people.

I have no idea what Jii-chan's name is, but I'm just giving him one! I thought Ryosuke sounded abit older and more distinguished.

 

Like it? Have a question? Please review! Reviews are an author's best friend and supply of involuntary literary crack.

 

Most sincerely yours, penpaninu 11/21/05