Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Flickering Flame ❯ Chapter 2: Comfort ( Chapter 2 )

A/n: I wonder, is anybody even reading this? Hopefully someone is. Enjoy.

“Well has it been said that there is no grief like the grief which does not speak.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

*Flickering Flame*

By: Kage Otome

Chapter 2: Comfort

They’d left the Northern palace just before dawn arriving at the western palace just before sunset that same day. Inutashio, Lord of the Western Lands, felt them incoming a while back and was at the front gate to greet them. However the handsome taiyoukai wasn’t prepared for Kagome barreling into him, knocking him onto his rump. Looking down at her normally perfect appearance which was now marred by disheveled hair, eyes red and puffy from crying. She looked a wreck. Tears swam down her face dropping to the ground as priceless gems.

Someone had hurt the precious Koorime-Kaze Youkai that was Kagome. Someone had hurt what he considered his. They would pay. Holding her close to him he purred softly to comfort her. Someone had hurt her very badly, Kagome was a very strong woman, she had to be. After all that’s happened but for this. For her to be so vulnerable, hurt. Inutashio shook his head it was almost unimaginable. Brushing a soft kiss against the crown of her head, he looked up at his eldest son, a question in his eyes.

No emotion except a quiet deadly rage floated in his eldest son’s eyes. A deadly rage that would only be satiated with death. Someone would pay with their life. Sesshoumaru could be ruthless, merciless, even cruel at times, but it was only when he went into a concealed, controlled rage that he was most dangerous. Torture could and probably would be used on whomever was his target. Inutashio could find not one part of him, though that pitied them. For if they were the one that hurt Kagome, Lord Inutashio would gladly join in on the bloodbath.

Making soft soothing sounds, Inutashio simply cradled her to his chest, rocking her back and forth offering what little comfort he could. His poor little Kagome. What had she done to deserve this?

No answer came to him.

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Father and son watched, silent. Kagome sat in the gardens stroking the petal of a Marigold and yellow carnation. Briefly she remembered a conversation with one of the healers who she spent much time with during her fathers time of illness. Remembering a conversation between the healer and herself she let one tear fall down her face. The perfect angles, cheeks, nose, eyes stayed cool, composed. Never changing through it all. How long had it been since Hiei had so ruthlessly destroyed their love.

Flashback

“What awe dese?” A younger Kagome asked curiosity brightening blue-violet orbs.

The old woman chuckled softly, brown eye glittering.

“Dianthus caryophyllus and Calendula.”

“Wha?” Kagome asked confused.

“Those are Yellow Carnations and Marigolds.”

“Yeyow Canatins and Marigols?” Kaede chuckled. The young three year old was absolutely precious.

“Yes.”

“What do dey mean?”

“Yellow carnations represent rejection, disappointment and Marigolds represent cruelty, grief, and jealousy.” Kaede stated seriously.

“Most don’t know of the meaning of flowers, but every flower has it’s own meaning, if you care to look, to see.”

Looking up with oddly serious eyes she said, “That’s sad.”

“Yes, it is.”

End Flashback

It had been three months since they arrived at the western citadel. Three long drawn out months. Kagome was never the same, she’d closed off into herself, not even letting Bankotsu, Shizen or Kashaku draw her out of her pain. To lost in her own grief, she didn’t even see how it was affecting everyone else around her.

“It isn’t enough for your heart to break because everybody’s heart is broken now.”

Her father had read her this quote when she was but five years old, when he was dying. Know one would ever know how hard she took her papa’s death. No one. He was her best friend, confident and her papa. She had no mother as far as she knew. She’d been left at the gates in a blanket and little else to protect her from the harsh elements. And it had been winter. Of course she was a child of the ice, so it wasn’t so much the chill that bothered her.

Now that she looked back on it, the only thing that bothered her was that her mother didn’t care enough to even leave her, her name. Or even a reason. A reason as to why she abandon her. The only reason Kagome hadn’t been killed was because her father Lord Kaiten of the Northern Lands found her first. Her scent, her blood did not lie, she may have been born a ‘bastard’ but she was still the heir to the lands, and she’d proved herself to be a good one. A strong one.

‘What am I doing? I need to get back to my lands, take care of things. I can’t keep depending on Inutashio-sama. I won’t be weak and frail. I’ll go back and continue my rule, as a good ruler should.’

Rising from her spot on the stone bench she turned around and whispered to the dark cold night that was her only sanctuary, her only comfort, her solitude.

“It’s time I return to my lands.”

‘This time, I will let no one get the best of me.’