Sesshomaru x Kagome

chapter 31: Sacrifice for family

He couldn't stay here anymore.

Inuyasha poked at the stump where his arm had once been and regretted it the moment that he did. The pain was so intense that he puke up everything in his stomach until he was left dry-heaving on the floor of the hut.

He was so pathetic for being so weak to pain. He needed to be strong.

He needed to be stronger. Stronger than Sesshomaru, Stronger than anyone else alive or dead. But the pain was holding him back. The pain was always holding him back, if only he hadn't allowed Miroku to convince him to leave the village for a few days then he would have been there when Kagome had returned.

But as Sesshomaru had always called him, he had been weak. The disappointment clawed at him from the inside at finding the well was still closed, keeping him from returning to the future to be with her or her to return to the past to be with him. He had left, needed to be away and he had lost her. It was worse than when he would see Kikyo's soul collectors and go off to see her, knowing that Kagome would be there when he returned.

He knew that he had been hurting Kagome but had been unable to resist the song of her past life. This time was so much worse because he had left his self imposed watch on the well to be free from the pain of knowing that she wasn't coming back for just a time.

He had ruined everything just like he always did.

Standing, Inuyasha left the hut and went into the darkness of the night, needing to find her, and be stronger for her than he ever had been.

oOo

Standing there, Nori was unsure if she was ready for what was about to happen. It had been a few days since she had talked with Rie and that had been the longer that they hadn't talk together since they had been children.

But this was not about who had stolen who's doll...even if Rie had stolen it. This was about her actions towards her new granddaughter and even if she still could not find fault in her actions towards the newborn, her best friend and son did. She was a mother and tried to see her actions through the eyes of a parent but when she thought of that child; she did not see family.

She saw a threat to her family.

That wasn't what she wanted though. She had never seen Goro or any other half demon as a threat, yet with her own granddaughter all she saw was a threat. It should have felt wrong to see the child in that light but when she thought about it...she found the baby looked too much like another child that she knew.

A child that had wounded her beyond repair from the moment of that he had been conceived.

"You should just come in already, Nori. We aren't mating yet so get in here before we do!" Hotaka demanded as he always did.

It had always been something that Nori had disliked about the male. He only ever had real patience for mating and battle, everything else was just too slow for him. She could see why Rie had been reluctant to mate with him all those centuries ago, after all a male without patience was just a child in the end.

But he was a good male just like hers had been.

Her handmaidens opened the doors and she entered to find Rie and Hotaka sitting there, waiting for her. Both were in a state of undress but then it was nothing new with Hotaka. Rie was rarely able to keep her clothes on when left alone in a room with her mate.

Rie would not look at her though.

Rie found the floor to be of more interest that in her oldest and best friend to which Nori could not blame her. How Nori wished that she knew how to make her friend forgive her but there was no answer. There was no words or action that could undo what she had done and she would not want something to undo her actions.