July 2010 Week 2
Title:How It Could Have Been; ch 56, A New Sister
Author:petalears
Universe:AU
Rating:PG
Summary:A new member of the human family.
Quote:Age considers; youth ventures.
-Rabindranath Tagore
A New Sister
There was an air of excitement from the children, when Yori and Kaoru were spotted down the road; he had left earlier, to accompany his betrothed and to have some time alone to walk with her. Inuyasha though, was reminded of when they had all waited happily for Toshi and how that had turned out and now he was a little bit apprehensive about meeting a new human. However Kaoru waited patiently for Yori to introduce his older brother, not smiling at the seeming discrepancy; she had been well prepared for this meeting.
Kaoru got down to her knees in front of Inuyasha without any fear clouding her scent and the small hanyou noticed that he was now taller than her and looking down into her face. She was not overly pretty, in fact in comparison to his mother, she was positively plain, but her expression was friendly and good humoured. She did have a lovely smile though, that lit her features; and a pretty gentle laugh that didn’t grate on his ears. Inuyasha had no fear either when she opened her arms to him, waiting for him to make the first move that would allow her to hug him.
Kaoru smelled fresh and clean and Inuyasha smiled at her and was happy to call her sister, for Yori. She even asked politely if she could pet his ears and didn’t just assume to do it and when he let her, she was kind and didn’t pull or scratch; she even managed to earn a growling purr of satisfaction which made him blush. And to top it all, she held his clawed hand as they all walked the final distance to the farmhouse. Kaoru’s scent didn’t lie to him, she was not pretending to like him for her betrothed’s sake; she did like him for himself.
As Izayoi watched her children come up to the house from the gateway she sighed in relief to see Inuyasha hand in hand with Kaoru. Perhaps there would be some continuity for her small son when she had gone, if Kaoru was able to ease the pain of Izayoi’s passing for the hanyou, who would still be so young. A pang of jealousy grew in her heart as over the following week it became obvious that Inuyasha had developed an infantile crush on his soon to be sister-in-law. He followed her around and sat at her feet while she played with his hair and ears; in fact, she could not escape her small devotee.
Izayoi of course saw the affection for what it was and soon her jealousy dissipated in her laughing at herself, especially when Yori too made jokes to Kaoru wondering if she was now considering that she was promised to the wrong brother. The jokes were not made within Inuyasha’s hearing as the boy would probably take them the wrong way, misunderstanding the humour and no child likes to be laughed at. But by the end of the week with only one week to go before the wedding, Kaoru was firmly entrenched as family according to Inuyasha’s heart.
Kaoru wasn’t a new interest to the rest of the family, her own were neighbours in the local village and she had often played with the children when growing up, but Inuyasha rarely ventured into the human province. His experience of human playtimes were on the farm where his cousins were the only ones he knew, outside of his immediate family. That meant that Kaoru had the advantage of Inuyasha when it came to them knowing about the other, she had grown up with hearing about him, from his siblings and the rest of village gossip.
But she was an open-minded girl, and sensible for her fifteen years; she was very well aware that gossip rarely indicated truth and besides, she was in love with Yori and wanted to come to know his older, little brother for herself. As the wedding plans were simple enough, and had been made mainly by the two mothers, most of Kaoru’s time was her own to spend and Yori had approved her idea to befriend his brother. To this end she made herself available to Inuyasha to answer his questions and ask a few of her own.
Being only young, Inuyasha had not yet learned to dissemble and he trusted Kaoru, telling her everything about his life and the people he loved; she in turn was truly interested and Inuyasha found talking to her was easy. That was until he came to speaking of the one thing that so far had a tenacious grip on his mind and was colouring his life. Although he didn’t speak of it much, because he knew that it worried his parents that he was so concerned, the panda hanyou and his pathetic fate was never far from his thoughts.
That was until Kaoru came and sat by him while he was painting pictures on a wet day. Inuyasha had depicted a small boy with white and black hair and ears on top of his head, playing ball with another boy with long white hair, who also had ears on top of his head. He was engrossed in the activity and didn’t realise he had an audience. Kaoru of course knew the story but not from Inuyasha and she asked him to tell her which he did, giving the bare bones only as it was difficult for him to describe just why he was so involved. Kaoru asked if she could adjust the picture and she rounded the ears on top of the panda’s head, explaining that the boy would probably have had ears like that, just as Inuyasha had ears like an Inu.
She told Inuyasha that she had seen a picture of the animal panda in a travelling artist’s show; the man went from village to village to sell his paintings at the big houses in the area. Meanwhile Inuyasha was waiting for his picture to dry before he put it and a soft ball into a small lacquer box he had been given. Afterwards he went out to play with the rest of the family, any solemnity of the morning gone in the carefree play of the afternoon. But later that evening, and when he was assumed to be asleep in bed, Inuyasha crept out of his window with the box.
At the back of the house was a grassy area that was hardly used and here Inuyasha dug a hole and buried the box. Then he placed a tiny marker and an offering of a rice ball saved from his dinner, making a tiny shrine to the panda hanyou. He sat on his knees in the still warm grass with his head bowed and his eyes closed, beside the shrine for a while, talking to the panda in his head, hoping that the unnamed boy wouldn’t be offended at his actions.
As Inuyasha spoke to the panda hanyou, he imagined that they would have been friends and between getting lost in his thoughts and the smell of the sweet grass, he fell asleep. He was not left for long, soon he was lifted into the strong arms of his guard who carried him back to his room, then jumped through the window and placed Inuyasha back in his futon. In the morning Inuyasha awoke refreshed and lighter in heart than he’d felt for a while; it seemed that he had put the panda hanyou to rest in more ways than one during the night.
Of course what he had done was not unknown by his father or brother, the guard informed Their Royal Highnesses everything pertaining to Inuyasha, and Sesshoumaru had been to see just what his small brother had buried. But there was no need to interfere with Inuyasha’s personal shrine and over the next few days leading up to the wedding, the shrine gained a small fence surround, courtesy of Yori and was visited by all of the family with the promise from Makoto that it would never be removed.
The wedding day was bright and cheerful, and when he saw his brother and sister-in-law as they turned to the assembled crowd as man and wife, Inuyasha was in awe. They looked so very grown up to him that he was suddenly very shy; which was made worse by the fact that the twins too, looked much older than he did, in all of their finery. But the fact that Inuyasha looked more like a doll dressed in his new kimono, worked to his advantage at the village fete after the wedding. Everyone knew of the hanyou, but few had seen him and rumours were rife and suspicions high.
Kaoru’s family had been warned of the dangers of her alliance with Yori, purely because of his brother, and many old and bad stories of youkai had been remembered and aired amongst the older villagers. There was no overt threat made to the boy or his family at the wedding feast because of the general fear of retribution by his youkai relatives; but there were many snide looks at the boy which made him nervous. Kaoru though paid no heed and even danced with Inuyasha keeping his profile high and she hugged him frequently to make her point that he was welcome in her presence.
Her example was like a breath of fresh air and by the end of the evening, Inuyasha and many of the other younger people including children, were playing and dancing all together. In the shadows Sesshoumaru watched as Inuyasha enjoyed the evening and was finally carried, sound asleep, back to the farm by Makoto. The older brother was pleased that the younger had been accepted by some of the villagers and that he was not required to sweep in to rescue the boy, but he felt a sense of loss that he had not been needed.
The youkai family had of course been invited to attend the wedding, but it had been thought better by the elder members to keep away so as not to inhibit the villagers. They had however been more than generous in wedding gifts for the new couple; a piece of land not far from the farm had been procured, with a house to go with it, a gift given from Inu no Taishou, a few pairs of breeding farm animals from the youkai siblings, and soft furnishings for the house from the Lady. Yori and Kaoru would want for nothing in setting up their new life together.
The following week after the wedding, Inu no Taishou decided it was time for Inuyasha to return to the Western Palace; Sesshoumaru was stressed from the forced separation once again and in any case, Inuyasha would have to get over the difficulty and learn. All people and attitudes change over time, Inuyasha would learn that he too would do so himself. The boy had now had some experience in prejudiced behaviour towards him and could no longer be as sheltered as they had all tried to keep him.
However it still saddened the father when he saw for himself that Inuyasha had grown in such understanding. When he saw the ears twitch downwards slightly as the boy was greeted enthusiastically by both Michiko and Hiroto who called him ‘Puppy Brother’ as they ran to greet him; the father’s heart nearly broke. His second pup’s ‘tell’ that he was unsure was always so easy to notice, the ears were such a give-away. But there was nothing to be gained by drawing attention to him as Inuyasha was happy to see his younger siblings and the ears were soon perked right up again.
But as the summer holidays wore on there was a noticeable change in Inuyasha, to all those who loved him; it was only subtle and hard to put into words, but their innocent pup had a more knowing look now in his wide golden eyes. Once a week, when he was at the farm, he refreshed the offerings at the small shrine and tidied the grass, but he never spoke of his thoughts to anyone and went back to play with the twins, or visit Yori and Kaoru who always kept some of his favourite toys and pastimes at their home.
Inevitably soon it seemed it was time for school to start once more and Inuyasha along with the other children grouped together to exchange news of their holidays; as had become the custom. Again there were tales of glittering occasions where the children had been introduced to dignitaries before being sent to bed or the nursery; some had even been allowed to stay up later and watch for a little while. Inuyasha listened to his fellows, and wondered why he had not yet been present for any of his father’s social evenings.
But he found to his surprise that it was his own experience that captured his listeners’ attention when it was his turn to speak. He told of the wedding and dancing and feasting; his audience was amazed that he had been allowed to mingle and join in until way after their normal bedtimes. Inuyasha had been outside, there had been a real bonfire and fireworks and he’d mixed with humans...a rare event indeed for his full youkai friends. That was far more interesting than watching boring adults talking and Inuyasha had many questions to answer about humans and what they’d eaten and done.
A sneered comment from Xing-fu that Inuyasha should know what humans were like because he was half one himself, backfired spectacularly. For the first time many of the pupils realised that Inuyasha was a hanyou and not just a mix of youkai, but half human, and that piqued their interest as well. They were mainly still too young to have become biased and parents were careful not to speak ill of the son of their benefactor. But that made him exotic to the untaught minds of his companions and once again, the modest and unassuming Inuyasha, was the centre of attention.
Author:petalears
Universe:AU
Rating:PG
Summary:A new member of the human family.
Quote:Age considers; youth ventures.
-Rabindranath Tagore
A New Sister
There was an air of excitement from the children, when Yori and Kaoru were spotted down the road; he had left earlier, to accompany his betrothed and to have some time alone to walk with her. Inuyasha though, was reminded of when they had all waited happily for Toshi and how that had turned out and now he was a little bit apprehensive about meeting a new human. However Kaoru waited patiently for Yori to introduce his older brother, not smiling at the seeming discrepancy; she had been well prepared for this meeting.
Kaoru got down to her knees in front of Inuyasha without any fear clouding her scent and the small hanyou noticed that he was now taller than her and looking down into her face. She was not overly pretty, in fact in comparison to his mother, she was positively plain, but her expression was friendly and good humoured. She did have a lovely smile though, that lit her features; and a pretty gentle laugh that didn’t grate on his ears. Inuyasha had no fear either when she opened her arms to him, waiting for him to make the first move that would allow her to hug him.
Kaoru smelled fresh and clean and Inuyasha smiled at her and was happy to call her sister, for Yori. She even asked politely if she could pet his ears and didn’t just assume to do it and when he let her, she was kind and didn’t pull or scratch; she even managed to earn a growling purr of satisfaction which made him blush. And to top it all, she held his clawed hand as they all walked the final distance to the farmhouse. Kaoru’s scent didn’t lie to him, she was not pretending to like him for her betrothed’s sake; she did like him for himself.
As Izayoi watched her children come up to the house from the gateway she sighed in relief to see Inuyasha hand in hand with Kaoru. Perhaps there would be some continuity for her small son when she had gone, if Kaoru was able to ease the pain of Izayoi’s passing for the hanyou, who would still be so young. A pang of jealousy grew in her heart as over the following week it became obvious that Inuyasha had developed an infantile crush on his soon to be sister-in-law. He followed her around and sat at her feet while she played with his hair and ears; in fact, she could not escape her small devotee.
Izayoi of course saw the affection for what it was and soon her jealousy dissipated in her laughing at herself, especially when Yori too made jokes to Kaoru wondering if she was now considering that she was promised to the wrong brother. The jokes were not made within Inuyasha’s hearing as the boy would probably take them the wrong way, misunderstanding the humour and no child likes to be laughed at. But by the end of the week with only one week to go before the wedding, Kaoru was firmly entrenched as family according to Inuyasha’s heart.
Kaoru wasn’t a new interest to the rest of the family, her own were neighbours in the local village and she had often played with the children when growing up, but Inuyasha rarely ventured into the human province. His experience of human playtimes were on the farm where his cousins were the only ones he knew, outside of his immediate family. That meant that Kaoru had the advantage of Inuyasha when it came to them knowing about the other, she had grown up with hearing about him, from his siblings and the rest of village gossip.
But she was an open-minded girl, and sensible for her fifteen years; she was very well aware that gossip rarely indicated truth and besides, she was in love with Yori and wanted to come to know his older, little brother for herself. As the wedding plans were simple enough, and had been made mainly by the two mothers, most of Kaoru’s time was her own to spend and Yori had approved her idea to befriend his brother. To this end she made herself available to Inuyasha to answer his questions and ask a few of her own.
Being only young, Inuyasha had not yet learned to dissemble and he trusted Kaoru, telling her everything about his life and the people he loved; she in turn was truly interested and Inuyasha found talking to her was easy. That was until he came to speaking of the one thing that so far had a tenacious grip on his mind and was colouring his life. Although he didn’t speak of it much, because he knew that it worried his parents that he was so concerned, the panda hanyou and his pathetic fate was never far from his thoughts.
That was until Kaoru came and sat by him while he was painting pictures on a wet day. Inuyasha had depicted a small boy with white and black hair and ears on top of his head, playing ball with another boy with long white hair, who also had ears on top of his head. He was engrossed in the activity and didn’t realise he had an audience. Kaoru of course knew the story but not from Inuyasha and she asked him to tell her which he did, giving the bare bones only as it was difficult for him to describe just why he was so involved. Kaoru asked if she could adjust the picture and she rounded the ears on top of the panda’s head, explaining that the boy would probably have had ears like that, just as Inuyasha had ears like an Inu.
She told Inuyasha that she had seen a picture of the animal panda in a travelling artist’s show; the man went from village to village to sell his paintings at the big houses in the area. Meanwhile Inuyasha was waiting for his picture to dry before he put it and a soft ball into a small lacquer box he had been given. Afterwards he went out to play with the rest of the family, any solemnity of the morning gone in the carefree play of the afternoon. But later that evening, and when he was assumed to be asleep in bed, Inuyasha crept out of his window with the box.
At the back of the house was a grassy area that was hardly used and here Inuyasha dug a hole and buried the box. Then he placed a tiny marker and an offering of a rice ball saved from his dinner, making a tiny shrine to the panda hanyou. He sat on his knees in the still warm grass with his head bowed and his eyes closed, beside the shrine for a while, talking to the panda in his head, hoping that the unnamed boy wouldn’t be offended at his actions.
As Inuyasha spoke to the panda hanyou, he imagined that they would have been friends and between getting lost in his thoughts and the smell of the sweet grass, he fell asleep. He was not left for long, soon he was lifted into the strong arms of his guard who carried him back to his room, then jumped through the window and placed Inuyasha back in his futon. In the morning Inuyasha awoke refreshed and lighter in heart than he’d felt for a while; it seemed that he had put the panda hanyou to rest in more ways than one during the night.
Of course what he had done was not unknown by his father or brother, the guard informed Their Royal Highnesses everything pertaining to Inuyasha, and Sesshoumaru had been to see just what his small brother had buried. But there was no need to interfere with Inuyasha’s personal shrine and over the next few days leading up to the wedding, the shrine gained a small fence surround, courtesy of Yori and was visited by all of the family with the promise from Makoto that it would never be removed.
The wedding day was bright and cheerful, and when he saw his brother and sister-in-law as they turned to the assembled crowd as man and wife, Inuyasha was in awe. They looked so very grown up to him that he was suddenly very shy; which was made worse by the fact that the twins too, looked much older than he did, in all of their finery. But the fact that Inuyasha looked more like a doll dressed in his new kimono, worked to his advantage at the village fete after the wedding. Everyone knew of the hanyou, but few had seen him and rumours were rife and suspicions high.
Kaoru’s family had been warned of the dangers of her alliance with Yori, purely because of his brother, and many old and bad stories of youkai had been remembered and aired amongst the older villagers. There was no overt threat made to the boy or his family at the wedding feast because of the general fear of retribution by his youkai relatives; but there were many snide looks at the boy which made him nervous. Kaoru though paid no heed and even danced with Inuyasha keeping his profile high and she hugged him frequently to make her point that he was welcome in her presence.
Her example was like a breath of fresh air and by the end of the evening, Inuyasha and many of the other younger people including children, were playing and dancing all together. In the shadows Sesshoumaru watched as Inuyasha enjoyed the evening and was finally carried, sound asleep, back to the farm by Makoto. The older brother was pleased that the younger had been accepted by some of the villagers and that he was not required to sweep in to rescue the boy, but he felt a sense of loss that he had not been needed.
The youkai family had of course been invited to attend the wedding, but it had been thought better by the elder members to keep away so as not to inhibit the villagers. They had however been more than generous in wedding gifts for the new couple; a piece of land not far from the farm had been procured, with a house to go with it, a gift given from Inu no Taishou, a few pairs of breeding farm animals from the youkai siblings, and soft furnishings for the house from the Lady. Yori and Kaoru would want for nothing in setting up their new life together.
The following week after the wedding, Inu no Taishou decided it was time for Inuyasha to return to the Western Palace; Sesshoumaru was stressed from the forced separation once again and in any case, Inuyasha would have to get over the difficulty and learn. All people and attitudes change over time, Inuyasha would learn that he too would do so himself. The boy had now had some experience in prejudiced behaviour towards him and could no longer be as sheltered as they had all tried to keep him.
However it still saddened the father when he saw for himself that Inuyasha had grown in such understanding. When he saw the ears twitch downwards slightly as the boy was greeted enthusiastically by both Michiko and Hiroto who called him ‘Puppy Brother’ as they ran to greet him; the father’s heart nearly broke. His second pup’s ‘tell’ that he was unsure was always so easy to notice, the ears were such a give-away. But there was nothing to be gained by drawing attention to him as Inuyasha was happy to see his younger siblings and the ears were soon perked right up again.
But as the summer holidays wore on there was a noticeable change in Inuyasha, to all those who loved him; it was only subtle and hard to put into words, but their innocent pup had a more knowing look now in his wide golden eyes. Once a week, when he was at the farm, he refreshed the offerings at the small shrine and tidied the grass, but he never spoke of his thoughts to anyone and went back to play with the twins, or visit Yori and Kaoru who always kept some of his favourite toys and pastimes at their home.
Inevitably soon it seemed it was time for school to start once more and Inuyasha along with the other children grouped together to exchange news of their holidays; as had become the custom. Again there were tales of glittering occasions where the children had been introduced to dignitaries before being sent to bed or the nursery; some had even been allowed to stay up later and watch for a little while. Inuyasha listened to his fellows, and wondered why he had not yet been present for any of his father’s social evenings.
But he found to his surprise that it was his own experience that captured his listeners’ attention when it was his turn to speak. He told of the wedding and dancing and feasting; his audience was amazed that he had been allowed to mingle and join in until way after their normal bedtimes. Inuyasha had been outside, there had been a real bonfire and fireworks and he’d mixed with humans...a rare event indeed for his full youkai friends. That was far more interesting than watching boring adults talking and Inuyasha had many questions to answer about humans and what they’d eaten and done.
A sneered comment from Xing-fu that Inuyasha should know what humans were like because he was half one himself, backfired spectacularly. For the first time many of the pupils realised that Inuyasha was a hanyou and not just a mix of youkai, but half human, and that piqued their interest as well. They were mainly still too young to have become biased and parents were careful not to speak ill of the son of their benefactor. But that made him exotic to the untaught minds of his companions and once again, the modest and unassuming Inuyasha, was the centre of attention.