InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Windows on the West ❯ Comfort is Not Earned ( Chapter 17 )

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

Disclaimer:  I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.

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Kagome grabbed her bag from where it had fallen while on the run; while everyone else had managed to stay injury free in the latest skirmish with Naraku's forces, Shippo had been hurt trying to get out of the way.

Kneeling at his side, she threw open her bag and took out her first-aid kit, popping the top open, she quickly had Shippo's clawed abdomen cleansed and bandaged, and even numbed with novocaine ointment she kept on hand.

Helping him back into his clothes, she asked,  “Is there anything else that hurts, Shippo-chan?”

Shippo smiled up at her and shook his head slightly.  “No... I'm okay, K'gome.  Are you?”

She fluttered her hands at him.  “Oh, no, I'm fine, Shippo-chan.  Are you sure you're okay?”  she asked again.

He sighed a little, slumping wearily.  “Well, it does hurt a bit, but not as bad as before.  And I feel kinda tired now.”

Grabbing her bag and throwing it over her shoulder, she nodded decisively, and gently picked the kit up, holding him carefully so as not to aggravate his injury.  Looking over her shoulder, she met Sesshoumaru's eyes, and said,  “We're going to find a decent clearing, and then we'll stop for the night.  Shippo-chan needs to rest.”

Eyes slightly narrowed, Sesshoumaru looked up at the sky, then back down at her.  “The day is hardly advanced yet, miko, we can continue on.”  Ignoring the sudden chill coming from her, he turned, then paused.  “Comfort is earned, miko, and the kit did not do so.  He got in the way and he is paying the price, it is as simple as that.”

Kagome stared at him, aghast.  “What do you mean, earned?  That's horrible!  Comfort shouldn't have to be earned – who taught you something like that?”  she demanded irately, choosing to ignore Inuyasha's muttered “No one had to teach him that, he's just an ass and came up with it on his own.”  No one just came up with something like that – someone had told him that.

Sesshoumaru's eyes went far away, then, and his mind flashed back centuries to a time when he was little more than a few years old.

“Mother, it hurts,” he remembered fussing, wanting nothing more than to be held.  Her response was not one he'd been expecting, but it was one he never forgot.

“You will stop whining, Sesshoumaru.  It does not suit a greater youkai.  As for your desire for comfort – you must earn that right, and you have not.  It is your own fault you were injured.  Comfort yourself.”  And she had turned away from him, eyes and voice as cold as they'd always been – his pain had not affected her at all.

A mother, she was not.  She has barely one caring bone in her body, and any care for me has not grown in all the centuries since.  She would barely note me over a stranger, save for my power. That is all she respects.  Of course, most youkai women are the same...

He was pulled from his introspection by a stomped foot, and the sounds of temper coming from a small miko, who, it was apparent, was very different from his mother.

“Alright, Sesshoumaru-sama, I don't care who taught you something so horrible – but I'm not about to teach my kit the same horrible thing, so you can keep going if you want... but I'm not.”  And with that, she turned and made her way through the trees to another clearing, and then sat down, getting the rest of the group to set a fire and fetch water for the night, while she prepared her bedding and settled the kit into it.

Not once did she look back to see if he had followed, and he listened with raised brows to the sounds coming from the clearing, before he turned to look at Rin, who sat atop Ah-Uhn, staring up at him dubiously.

“Sesshoumaru-sama, do you really believe what you said?  Rin thinks that was a sad thing to say,”  the little girl said hesitantly.  

“It is what my own mother told me, Rin.  Is it not so for ningen?”  he asked, genuinely curious.

The dark head shook.  “No... well, maybe some people act like that.  But... Kagome-sama wouldn't.  She's a good mother.  I want to be like her someday.”  She blinked, then looked in the direction the others had gone.  “Are we going to stay here, or go join Kagome-sama and the others?”

He didn't acknowledge her words beyond beckoning her to follow as he strode into the clearing the others were all in, nor did he say anything further to anyone the rest of the day, or night.  But he did watch Kagome most closely as she mothered not only Shippo, but Rin, as well, and he had to admit...

She was nothing like his own cold-natured mother.  Given the choice, he would have chosen a mother like Kagome, instead.

Perhaps youkai aren't better than ningen in all things, he thought to himself.

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A/N:   No disrespect to Sessmom, but... I think I'd rather have someone like Kagome as a mother.  She has a softer heart – more open.

Amber







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