January 2010 Week 4
Title:How It Could Have Been; ch 63 Will He, Won't He
Author:petalears
Universe:AU
Rating:PG
Summary: Will Inuyasha go back to school or not?
Quote:An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
-Mahatma Gandhi
Will He, Won’t He
During the course of the next week, Inuyasha received more letters; this time from his schoolmates and all wanted to say that they were sorry. Some were longer messages than others, but all were hand written by the pupil. Inuyasha was touched in his heart and as he was a very forgiving child, it was only to be expected that he answered all the letters personally; although he gave no intimation as to when he would see them again.
At the end of the week, Kouga returned to the Palace and his own guest suite; Inuyasha knew that he had arrived, but made no attempt to see the wolf cub. Of course by now Inuyasha knew of the wolf exonerating him, by confirming Inu no Taishou’s questions; and Kouga had already apologised in the hanyou’s absence to his father, but the two boys hadn’t met. The wolf did look for opportunities to see Inuyasha but to no avail, however instead of getting frustrated, Kouga this time worked out for himself why the hanyou seemed to be in hiding.
Kouga knew that Inuyasha was around; he could scent and hear him nearby and sometimes his senses could feel that he was being watched. For once Kouga tried putting himself in someone else’s shoes and to see things from another point of view and the answer soon came to him. Inuyasha was nervous obviously, he hadn’t yet met any of his peers since running out of class nearly a month ago and he didn’t know how to make the first move. Therefore Kouga took it upon his own shoulders to go and hunt his strangely bashful friend.
Kouga didn’t know what Inuyasha was playing at, he had not heard of the human game, hide and seek or Inuyasha’s spying variation of it. Although very small youkai children liked to hide as well as their human counterparts, their sense of smell was usually so acute, they outgrew the game as soon as they realised they all had an unfair advantage. It was a game now only used as a teaching aid and Inuyasha was past that.
But there was no doubt in Kouga’s mind that Inuyasha was hiding from him after the first day, and decided that enough was enough. So using his natural speed, Kouga ran through the Palace leaving his scent trail and then hid himself in the gardens to lure Inuyasha out. It was not too long before the ruse worked and Kouga stood hidden from sight while watching for the smaller hanyou. Soon Inuyasha popped out from behind a bush and went into the room Kouga had vacated and the wolf could see the boy’s nose working out where Kouga had gone next.
Inuyasha’s ears were perked right up, but they twitched incessantly, telling Kouga that the pup was listening hard as well as scenting for him. Soon the tracker became the tracked, as the wolf found he was having a great time watching and following Inuyasha and working out where he could pounce safely, and stop the foolish timid behaviour. Kouga was too young to realise that his predatory instincts were being aroused and that his own scent proclaimed he was on a hunt.
However, all of this was duly noted by Inuyasha’s guard, who reported to Inu no Taishou immediately. The general came to see for himself, but he didn’t stop Kouga; Inuyasha was far too complacent still, if he didn’t realise that he was now prey. The boy would learn a good lesson if Kouga startled him, but the guard was to remain on hand, just in case the hunter got carried away. Inuyasha’s senses however were on high alert, just focused in the wrong direction; so that by the time he had followed Kouga to the gardens, he was so intent on following, that he didn’t hear the wolf come silently up behind him.
As Kouga leapt toward Inuyasha ready to pin him to the ground, Inu no Taishou grabbed a crimson eyed Sesshoumaru by the scruff before he hunted Kouga. The older brother had noticed the predatory instincts of the wolf as well, and was incensed by the young alpha trying to intimidate his little beta brother. Inu no Taishou got a badly clawed arm as his eldest son turned his talons on his father in an effort to get away from the threat, but the father merely raised his youki to quell his son and growled reassuringly. Sesshoumaru backed down and when his full senses returned he felt ashamed at the scent of his father’s blood that he could smell on his claws.
Inu no Taishou was not worried however at his pup’s instinctive behaviour, but explained to him what Kouga was doing and that Inuyasha was well guarded. Sesshoumaru watched too as Kouga made his move. A yell of triumph was heard simultaneously by a screech of anger as Kouga found he had bitten off more than he could chew. Inuyasha made his brother and father proud when he twisted round under the Wolfling and scratched his claws down Kouga’s neck, before kicking the older boy away.
"Damnit Kouga, Wha’d’ya do that for? You made my heart beats go all over the place." Inuyasha fumed as he gained his breath and tried to calm down. Inu no Taishou briefly wondered where his son had learned the bad language, but supposed that with adult siblings at the farm, he had probably heard it there. Feeling smug and conveniently forgetting that the word was a favourite of his own, the General was pleased with Inuyasha’s quick recovery and waited to see what would develop from here.
"I wanted to see you and you kept away; how else was I s’posed to talk to you and apologise for what happened?" Kouga said; his tone quite exasperated as he held his hand to his neck waiting for the claw marks to heal.
"You don’t have to..."
"Yes I do. Your Papa told me that it was not the way a Prince should behave and he was right. I didn’t listen properly and got carried away by what was commonly believed. Truthfully I didn’t really take much notice of what was happening, I just thought it was you kids mucking about and getting silly, like little cubs do all the time and then when it got out of hand...I am ashamed Inuyasha, I know you wouldn’t have done all of those things really."
Once again, Inuyasha could hear the sincerity and knew Kouga meant every word, so he gave a little smile even if his next words were scathing.
"You ain’t much older than me Kouga; you are sounding as pomp ass as Shu does sometimes. But I accept your apology." Inuyasha then turned to walk away, leaving Kouga puzzled; so he tried another tack.
"When does school start again Inuyasha?"
"Next week I think, Hiroto will know."
"Well, why don’t you know...don’t you have to get ready?"
"I ain’t going back to school Kouga."
"Don’t be stupid, of course you are."
"I’m not and I don’t have ’ta."
"Why not...why Inuyasha..? Everyone is sorry for what happened; it won’t happen again."
"I know they’re sorry, but they all hate me."
"What are you on about?"
"I ain’t going to school where a load of kids don’t like me."
"Everyone likes you Inuyasha...I don’t understand."
"If you all liked me, you would have known me and know I couldn’t do anything like was said. But no one stood up for me at all, not even Hiroto, not even you. Look, I know you are all sorry cos you were wrong, but it don’t mean you all like me now." Inuyasha wouldn’t even look at Kouga, who stared at him recognising only now just how betrayed the hanyou felt. He tried to do as a good leader would do and understand, but he was youkai and for the first time knew that Inuyasha felt things slightly differently.
A youkai would fight for his rights to be recognized, exonerated and reinstated, whereas the human hearted Inuyasha had been badly hurt in his feelings. But he was carrying it a bit too far Kouga realised.
"Listen Inuyasha, I do like you and so do the others; you know everyone makes mistakes, it’s just that this time everyone made the same mistake at the same time. You got to give them another chance...you’d want another chance wouldn’t you?"
"I dunno Kouga...no one cared about me then...I was all alone...why would it be different just cos they know now."
"It was all a shock to us Inuyasha...we didn’t know what to think then. But your Papa made us all see the truth...give us another chance that’s all." Kouga watched as a stubborn expression started to settle on the pup’s face; Inuyasha thought how it was so easy for Kouga; the wolf hadn’t had to live through the desolate feeling of ostracism. It had left Inuyasha so empty and afraid when his whole world of friends shunned him. Kouga could sense the aura of sadness coming over the boy again and his own face set in a determined expression.
"I didn’t take you for a coward Inuyasha." He said softly.
"You take that back, I am not a coward...take it back Kouga." Inuyasha whirled on Kouga, his eyes blazing with anger. At least the despondency had gone, the wolf cub thought.
"You are too cowardly to go back to school."
"I’m not, what is it to you anyway? You don’t like school."
"No. I don’t much, but I know it is privileges...not all get the chance to have real learning you know. I don’t want to be ignorant."
"I’m not ignorant."
"I never said you were, so prove you are not a coward either; if you go back to school, I’ll take it back." There was no reply to this, but Kouga knew he had won his argument and so to lighten the mood, he pushed Inuyasha over, making the pup chase after him. They played all afternoon and eventually Inuyasha felt better than he had in days, at least one of his friends still wanted to be with him.
That evening Inuyasha solemnly told Inu no Taishou that he would go back to school and try it out, but that he would leave again if there were problems. His father nodded gravely, said he was very pleased with Inuyasha’s decision and didn’t smile at the very serious manner of his little son until Inuyasha had left the study. He also called Kouga to him and praised the young cub for his ‘skills’ in getting Inuyasha to see sense and told him that he was well on his way to becoming a good ruler.
The next morning Inuyasha had informed Izayoi and Makoto that he would be going back to school, he told them how Kouga had ‘persuaded’ him and they gave him their full support. Kaoru also made him some honey cakes, because she and Yori were proud of him. Later on he went to the small shrine for the panda hanyou to sit and think. He’d been sitting for over an hour when he felt the aura of a strange youkai approach him. Inuyasha was not concerned, his guard was close by and this youkai had come from the direction of the house.
Soon Inuyasha heard his name as he was hailed by a strong pleasant looking youkai with a genial face. After indicating that the male could approach and that he had noticed the guard, Inuyasha could tell the man was sad and feeling awkward. There was a vague familiarity about him, but it took Inuyasha a few seconds to recognise Cheung, the panda father of Xing-fu. When he did do, the panda was aware of apprehension tingeing Inuyasha’s scent and for this too, he was saddened; but it brought him to the point of his visit. Inuyasha stood respectfully as his elder came over to him and Cheung smiled as he spoke;
"I wanted to apologise personally for my son’s behaviour to you Inuyasha; I understand that he upset you on a couple of occasions. He has been punished and I have a favour now to ask of you."
"O.K. what do you want from me?"
"I would deem it an honour if Xing-fu could return to school; I know you probably will say no, but..."
"I won’t say no, why should I? It’s not my school it’s Papa’s. If he says he can, then that’s alright. As long as Xing doesn’t say any more lies about me."
"He will not; he has learned his lesson. You are a lucky boy Inuyasha and you deserve to be; you have many who love you. I have decided that a lot of my son’s attitude is my fault, we Panda are solitary creatures and Xing-fu has only ever really had his mother for company. He has missed out on the sort of family you have and the awful mistake we made years ago would not happen again. I know you know of my hanyou son; seeing you, makes me greatly regret his unhappy life. I want you to know that I wish that I could turn back the clock.
"Xing-fu could have done with a brother, but as it is, I have spoken with my mate and we have hopes to make a united family with him...I will stay away no more. I say this to you in hope that it might mitigate his actions somewhat; I mean, help you to understand him. I love my son, but he is spoilt and yet, there is good in him and I thank you that you are willing to let him try again." Cheung finished speaking and waited for Inuyasha; his regrets about his own hanyou son were genuine; and seeing this boy made Cheung realise what treasure he’d had cast out to die.
"I made him a shrine...I bring rice balls and honey cakes...I drew a picture and put it in a box..." Inuyasha whispered and tears rose in Cheung’s eyes.
"You truly are a remarkable pup Inuyasha, your father must be proud to call you Son. I would like to make a promise in front of the shrine, if you don’t mind." Cheung said and Inuyasha nodded. "I make a promise to my younger son; to make sure he didn’t live and die in vain, and that I will be a proper father to my living son from now on." Cheung bowed his head and then smiled at Inuyasha before taking his leave and walking back to the farm where Izayoi had made him welcome earlier. He paid his respects and then left as Inuyasha walked in through the door.
Returning to school was more daunting than anything else for Inuyasha, only the fact that Kouga was to be made to take back his word of coward helped the boy enter the classroom where everyone else was already. He walked in behind the enormous presence of Sesshoumaru, who had insisted on escorting him and who had a face like thunder ready to defend his little brother from anyone. Thankfully, knowing that this time would be awkward for all the boys, The Tiger had ordered in special treats for a welcome back to school party.
It worked a treat, food was always a good ice-breaker and it didn’t take too long before everyone was chatting. All of the boys made a point to speak with and re-establish ties with Inuyasha who was happy that it seemed to be going well; it would take time for normalcy to be completely restored, but The Tiger could see that his class’s harmony was well on its way again. Kouga was laughing and joking which made all the boys relax, especially when he said that Inuyasha was no coward for turning up that day and everyone cheered.
All that is, except for one boy, who kept well away in a corner and didn’t join in with the others; Xing-fu felt afraid, his father had told him that he was to go back to school. He had pleaded with Cheung to send him somewhere else, or get him a tutor, but his father had said no, Xing-fu must face the consequences of his actions. Inuyasha could see that the cub was totally alone, no one was speaking to him and the young hanyou knew how bad that felt. He imagined it was worse though for the cub, because Xing-fu was the one at fault and youkai memories were long.
But Inuyasha was a kindly pup and after breathing deeply for a few seconds, he took a plate of food and went over to the unhappy panda. He ignored the scowl and the sneer, somehow recognising that Xing-fu wanted to save face, and he offered the boy the food. Inuyasha also ignored the snarl and the revealed fangs, because he could see fear deep in the panda’s eyes.
"Eat something Xing-fu; I’m sure you like party food."
"You know nothing about me...hanyou." Xing-fu replied bitterly.
"Why are you still being rude to me?"
"’Cos I hate you."
"I’ve done nothing to you." Inuyasha asserted, but that was the catalyst to Xing-fu’s current grievance.
"You made my Papa beat me, and now he doesn’t love me anymore. He’s never beaten me before; I hardly ever see him and...It doesn’t matter. I just hate you and I hate him for making me come back."
"You’re an idiot Xing; your Papa doesn’t hate you, he wouldn’t have punished you if he didn’t love you, he wouldn’t have bothered. He sent you back cos he wants you to grow up with friends and not all alone."
"I haven’t got any friends here."
"You could have if you want to start again."
"I don’t understand; why don’t you leave me without anyone, like you were? Why are you being nice, is it a trick?"
"No...but I know it’s not nice having nobody talk to you; and if I did the same thing to you now, it’d be worse than what you did to me and everyone would feel bad and I’m better than that. So there’s no point in not talking or being friends with one another, so you can come and be friends now if you like." Inuyasha finished what he was saying and without further ado pulled Xing-fu by the sleeve and brought him up to everyone. The panda cub cringed when he saw the disdain on his fellow’s faces, but Inuyasha’s natural disposition was sunny and he introduced Xing-fu.
"This is Xing-fu; we are pretending he has just started school and wants to make friends; I said that he was welcome."
"Thank you Inuyasha; I am sure that we will all be pleased to make a new friend." The Tiger caught on quickly and was very impressed with Inuyasha, the boy showed the qualities of a natural diplomat. He’d made it seem very natural to integrate the whole class again and as Xing-fu took some food and smiled at Inuyasha through watery eyes, The Tiger knew the boys would become friends properly over time. To cap it all, Kouga took his place as class leader and made sure to include everyone in the fun and games of the afternoon.
Author:petalears
Universe:AU
Rating:PG
Summary: Will Inuyasha go back to school or not?
Quote:An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
-Mahatma Gandhi
Will He, Won’t He
During the course of the next week, Inuyasha received more letters; this time from his schoolmates and all wanted to say that they were sorry. Some were longer messages than others, but all were hand written by the pupil. Inuyasha was touched in his heart and as he was a very forgiving child, it was only to be expected that he answered all the letters personally; although he gave no intimation as to when he would see them again.
At the end of the week, Kouga returned to the Palace and his own guest suite; Inuyasha knew that he had arrived, but made no attempt to see the wolf cub. Of course by now Inuyasha knew of the wolf exonerating him, by confirming Inu no Taishou’s questions; and Kouga had already apologised in the hanyou’s absence to his father, but the two boys hadn’t met. The wolf did look for opportunities to see Inuyasha but to no avail, however instead of getting frustrated, Kouga this time worked out for himself why the hanyou seemed to be in hiding.
Kouga knew that Inuyasha was around; he could scent and hear him nearby and sometimes his senses could feel that he was being watched. For once Kouga tried putting himself in someone else’s shoes and to see things from another point of view and the answer soon came to him. Inuyasha was nervous obviously, he hadn’t yet met any of his peers since running out of class nearly a month ago and he didn’t know how to make the first move. Therefore Kouga took it upon his own shoulders to go and hunt his strangely bashful friend.
Kouga didn’t know what Inuyasha was playing at, he had not heard of the human game, hide and seek or Inuyasha’s spying variation of it. Although very small youkai children liked to hide as well as their human counterparts, their sense of smell was usually so acute, they outgrew the game as soon as they realised they all had an unfair advantage. It was a game now only used as a teaching aid and Inuyasha was past that.
But there was no doubt in Kouga’s mind that Inuyasha was hiding from him after the first day, and decided that enough was enough. So using his natural speed, Kouga ran through the Palace leaving his scent trail and then hid himself in the gardens to lure Inuyasha out. It was not too long before the ruse worked and Kouga stood hidden from sight while watching for the smaller hanyou. Soon Inuyasha popped out from behind a bush and went into the room Kouga had vacated and the wolf could see the boy’s nose working out where Kouga had gone next.
Inuyasha’s ears were perked right up, but they twitched incessantly, telling Kouga that the pup was listening hard as well as scenting for him. Soon the tracker became the tracked, as the wolf found he was having a great time watching and following Inuyasha and working out where he could pounce safely, and stop the foolish timid behaviour. Kouga was too young to realise that his predatory instincts were being aroused and that his own scent proclaimed he was on a hunt.
However, all of this was duly noted by Inuyasha’s guard, who reported to Inu no Taishou immediately. The general came to see for himself, but he didn’t stop Kouga; Inuyasha was far too complacent still, if he didn’t realise that he was now prey. The boy would learn a good lesson if Kouga startled him, but the guard was to remain on hand, just in case the hunter got carried away. Inuyasha’s senses however were on high alert, just focused in the wrong direction; so that by the time he had followed Kouga to the gardens, he was so intent on following, that he didn’t hear the wolf come silently up behind him.
As Kouga leapt toward Inuyasha ready to pin him to the ground, Inu no Taishou grabbed a crimson eyed Sesshoumaru by the scruff before he hunted Kouga. The older brother had noticed the predatory instincts of the wolf as well, and was incensed by the young alpha trying to intimidate his little beta brother. Inu no Taishou got a badly clawed arm as his eldest son turned his talons on his father in an effort to get away from the threat, but the father merely raised his youki to quell his son and growled reassuringly. Sesshoumaru backed down and when his full senses returned he felt ashamed at the scent of his father’s blood that he could smell on his claws.
Inu no Taishou was not worried however at his pup’s instinctive behaviour, but explained to him what Kouga was doing and that Inuyasha was well guarded. Sesshoumaru watched too as Kouga made his move. A yell of triumph was heard simultaneously by a screech of anger as Kouga found he had bitten off more than he could chew. Inuyasha made his brother and father proud when he twisted round under the Wolfling and scratched his claws down Kouga’s neck, before kicking the older boy away.
"Damnit Kouga, Wha’d’ya do that for? You made my heart beats go all over the place." Inuyasha fumed as he gained his breath and tried to calm down. Inu no Taishou briefly wondered where his son had learned the bad language, but supposed that with adult siblings at the farm, he had probably heard it there. Feeling smug and conveniently forgetting that the word was a favourite of his own, the General was pleased with Inuyasha’s quick recovery and waited to see what would develop from here.
"I wanted to see you and you kept away; how else was I s’posed to talk to you and apologise for what happened?" Kouga said; his tone quite exasperated as he held his hand to his neck waiting for the claw marks to heal.
"You don’t have to..."
"Yes I do. Your Papa told me that it was not the way a Prince should behave and he was right. I didn’t listen properly and got carried away by what was commonly believed. Truthfully I didn’t really take much notice of what was happening, I just thought it was you kids mucking about and getting silly, like little cubs do all the time and then when it got out of hand...I am ashamed Inuyasha, I know you wouldn’t have done all of those things really."
Once again, Inuyasha could hear the sincerity and knew Kouga meant every word, so he gave a little smile even if his next words were scathing.
"You ain’t much older than me Kouga; you are sounding as pomp ass as Shu does sometimes. But I accept your apology." Inuyasha then turned to walk away, leaving Kouga puzzled; so he tried another tack.
"When does school start again Inuyasha?"
"Next week I think, Hiroto will know."
"Well, why don’t you know...don’t you have to get ready?"
"I ain’t going back to school Kouga."
"Don’t be stupid, of course you are."
"I’m not and I don’t have ’ta."
"Why not...why Inuyasha..? Everyone is sorry for what happened; it won’t happen again."
"I know they’re sorry, but they all hate me."
"What are you on about?"
"I ain’t going to school where a load of kids don’t like me."
"Everyone likes you Inuyasha...I don’t understand."
"If you all liked me, you would have known me and know I couldn’t do anything like was said. But no one stood up for me at all, not even Hiroto, not even you. Look, I know you are all sorry cos you were wrong, but it don’t mean you all like me now." Inuyasha wouldn’t even look at Kouga, who stared at him recognising only now just how betrayed the hanyou felt. He tried to do as a good leader would do and understand, but he was youkai and for the first time knew that Inuyasha felt things slightly differently.
A youkai would fight for his rights to be recognized, exonerated and reinstated, whereas the human hearted Inuyasha had been badly hurt in his feelings. But he was carrying it a bit too far Kouga realised.
"Listen Inuyasha, I do like you and so do the others; you know everyone makes mistakes, it’s just that this time everyone made the same mistake at the same time. You got to give them another chance...you’d want another chance wouldn’t you?"
"I dunno Kouga...no one cared about me then...I was all alone...why would it be different just cos they know now."
"It was all a shock to us Inuyasha...we didn’t know what to think then. But your Papa made us all see the truth...give us another chance that’s all." Kouga watched as a stubborn expression started to settle on the pup’s face; Inuyasha thought how it was so easy for Kouga; the wolf hadn’t had to live through the desolate feeling of ostracism. It had left Inuyasha so empty and afraid when his whole world of friends shunned him. Kouga could sense the aura of sadness coming over the boy again and his own face set in a determined expression.
"I didn’t take you for a coward Inuyasha." He said softly.
"You take that back, I am not a coward...take it back Kouga." Inuyasha whirled on Kouga, his eyes blazing with anger. At least the despondency had gone, the wolf cub thought.
"You are too cowardly to go back to school."
"I’m not, what is it to you anyway? You don’t like school."
"No. I don’t much, but I know it is privileges...not all get the chance to have real learning you know. I don’t want to be ignorant."
"I’m not ignorant."
"I never said you were, so prove you are not a coward either; if you go back to school, I’ll take it back." There was no reply to this, but Kouga knew he had won his argument and so to lighten the mood, he pushed Inuyasha over, making the pup chase after him. They played all afternoon and eventually Inuyasha felt better than he had in days, at least one of his friends still wanted to be with him.
That evening Inuyasha solemnly told Inu no Taishou that he would go back to school and try it out, but that he would leave again if there were problems. His father nodded gravely, said he was very pleased with Inuyasha’s decision and didn’t smile at the very serious manner of his little son until Inuyasha had left the study. He also called Kouga to him and praised the young cub for his ‘skills’ in getting Inuyasha to see sense and told him that he was well on his way to becoming a good ruler.
The next morning Inuyasha had informed Izayoi and Makoto that he would be going back to school, he told them how Kouga had ‘persuaded’ him and they gave him their full support. Kaoru also made him some honey cakes, because she and Yori were proud of him. Later on he went to the small shrine for the panda hanyou to sit and think. He’d been sitting for over an hour when he felt the aura of a strange youkai approach him. Inuyasha was not concerned, his guard was close by and this youkai had come from the direction of the house.
Soon Inuyasha heard his name as he was hailed by a strong pleasant looking youkai with a genial face. After indicating that the male could approach and that he had noticed the guard, Inuyasha could tell the man was sad and feeling awkward. There was a vague familiarity about him, but it took Inuyasha a few seconds to recognise Cheung, the panda father of Xing-fu. When he did do, the panda was aware of apprehension tingeing Inuyasha’s scent and for this too, he was saddened; but it brought him to the point of his visit. Inuyasha stood respectfully as his elder came over to him and Cheung smiled as he spoke;
"I wanted to apologise personally for my son’s behaviour to you Inuyasha; I understand that he upset you on a couple of occasions. He has been punished and I have a favour now to ask of you."
"O.K. what do you want from me?"
"I would deem it an honour if Xing-fu could return to school; I know you probably will say no, but..."
"I won’t say no, why should I? It’s not my school it’s Papa’s. If he says he can, then that’s alright. As long as Xing doesn’t say any more lies about me."
"He will not; he has learned his lesson. You are a lucky boy Inuyasha and you deserve to be; you have many who love you. I have decided that a lot of my son’s attitude is my fault, we Panda are solitary creatures and Xing-fu has only ever really had his mother for company. He has missed out on the sort of family you have and the awful mistake we made years ago would not happen again. I know you know of my hanyou son; seeing you, makes me greatly regret his unhappy life. I want you to know that I wish that I could turn back the clock.
"Xing-fu could have done with a brother, but as it is, I have spoken with my mate and we have hopes to make a united family with him...I will stay away no more. I say this to you in hope that it might mitigate his actions somewhat; I mean, help you to understand him. I love my son, but he is spoilt and yet, there is good in him and I thank you that you are willing to let him try again." Cheung finished speaking and waited for Inuyasha; his regrets about his own hanyou son were genuine; and seeing this boy made Cheung realise what treasure he’d had cast out to die.
"I made him a shrine...I bring rice balls and honey cakes...I drew a picture and put it in a box..." Inuyasha whispered and tears rose in Cheung’s eyes.
"You truly are a remarkable pup Inuyasha, your father must be proud to call you Son. I would like to make a promise in front of the shrine, if you don’t mind." Cheung said and Inuyasha nodded. "I make a promise to my younger son; to make sure he didn’t live and die in vain, and that I will be a proper father to my living son from now on." Cheung bowed his head and then smiled at Inuyasha before taking his leave and walking back to the farm where Izayoi had made him welcome earlier. He paid his respects and then left as Inuyasha walked in through the door.
Returning to school was more daunting than anything else for Inuyasha, only the fact that Kouga was to be made to take back his word of coward helped the boy enter the classroom where everyone else was already. He walked in behind the enormous presence of Sesshoumaru, who had insisted on escorting him and who had a face like thunder ready to defend his little brother from anyone. Thankfully, knowing that this time would be awkward for all the boys, The Tiger had ordered in special treats for a welcome back to school party.
It worked a treat, food was always a good ice-breaker and it didn’t take too long before everyone was chatting. All of the boys made a point to speak with and re-establish ties with Inuyasha who was happy that it seemed to be going well; it would take time for normalcy to be completely restored, but The Tiger could see that his class’s harmony was well on its way again. Kouga was laughing and joking which made all the boys relax, especially when he said that Inuyasha was no coward for turning up that day and everyone cheered.
All that is, except for one boy, who kept well away in a corner and didn’t join in with the others; Xing-fu felt afraid, his father had told him that he was to go back to school. He had pleaded with Cheung to send him somewhere else, or get him a tutor, but his father had said no, Xing-fu must face the consequences of his actions. Inuyasha could see that the cub was totally alone, no one was speaking to him and the young hanyou knew how bad that felt. He imagined it was worse though for the cub, because Xing-fu was the one at fault and youkai memories were long.
But Inuyasha was a kindly pup and after breathing deeply for a few seconds, he took a plate of food and went over to the unhappy panda. He ignored the scowl and the sneer, somehow recognising that Xing-fu wanted to save face, and he offered the boy the food. Inuyasha also ignored the snarl and the revealed fangs, because he could see fear deep in the panda’s eyes.
"Eat something Xing-fu; I’m sure you like party food."
"You know nothing about me...hanyou." Xing-fu replied bitterly.
"Why are you still being rude to me?"
"’Cos I hate you."
"I’ve done nothing to you." Inuyasha asserted, but that was the catalyst to Xing-fu’s current grievance.
"You made my Papa beat me, and now he doesn’t love me anymore. He’s never beaten me before; I hardly ever see him and...It doesn’t matter. I just hate you and I hate him for making me come back."
"You’re an idiot Xing; your Papa doesn’t hate you, he wouldn’t have punished you if he didn’t love you, he wouldn’t have bothered. He sent you back cos he wants you to grow up with friends and not all alone."
"I haven’t got any friends here."
"You could have if you want to start again."
"I don’t understand; why don’t you leave me without anyone, like you were? Why are you being nice, is it a trick?"
"No...but I know it’s not nice having nobody talk to you; and if I did the same thing to you now, it’d be worse than what you did to me and everyone would feel bad and I’m better than that. So there’s no point in not talking or being friends with one another, so you can come and be friends now if you like." Inuyasha finished what he was saying and without further ado pulled Xing-fu by the sleeve and brought him up to everyone. The panda cub cringed when he saw the disdain on his fellow’s faces, but Inuyasha’s natural disposition was sunny and he introduced Xing-fu.
"This is Xing-fu; we are pretending he has just started school and wants to make friends; I said that he was welcome."
"Thank you Inuyasha; I am sure that we will all be pleased to make a new friend." The Tiger caught on quickly and was very impressed with Inuyasha, the boy showed the qualities of a natural diplomat. He’d made it seem very natural to integrate the whole class again and as Xing-fu took some food and smiled at Inuyasha through watery eyes, The Tiger knew the boys would become friends properly over time. To cap it all, Kouga took his place as class leader and made sure to include everyone in the fun and games of the afternoon.