Forgiveness Was a Lesson He Cursed You To Learn
More fic to the silent masses.
Or the bots.
Probably the bots. :D
Also, "Sleeping at Last" is all beautiful music. Just needed to share.
Summary: After the well closes forever, InuYasha must take the slow path back to the woman from the future from whom he’s been separated. Along the way, he discovers that some of the greatest acts of bravery may appear on the surface to be acts of cowardice.
But there’s one person InuYasha will be a coward for: her.
Spoilers through the last chapter of the manga. This fic assumes that the last chapter did not happen.
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. I just play in the sandbox when the two page drabble (now in chapter five) burgeons into sixty-seven pages with ideas that won’t leave me alone.
Beta'd by the wonderful Earl of Birkenhead. :)
Cowardice
sciathan file
II. Patterns
InuYasha set out to make sure of two things: Firstly, that he’d actually be alive to see her again and secondly, that he wouldn’t embarrass himself when he did.
The first step was to keep busy. He needed to have work and friends.
Distraction was necessary. Appropriately, other youkai provided him with it.
With Tessaiga in his hands and Miroku’s dubious bargaining power, the power of habit took over. With the monk’s practiced deception and overly expensive ofuda, and with his own sword swinging at some weak demon and with more payment than any of the previous actions deserved, a new pattern was slowly engraved over the old one.
(While he did not miss jewel shards, digging graves, or fighting Naraku: he did miss the feel of her riding on his back…her smell…how her eyes blazed when she got angry and Osuwari’d him.)
The new pattern always ended at Kaede’s village. The village he had somehow become protector of…along with his forest, the perverted monk, the demon slayer, the old hag, and the cooking fire.
And sometimes Shippou. But he was off on his own journey now, learning magic with his own kind.
Sometimes even Rin and his bastard brother.
(But never her.)
Eventually, the faces around the fire multiplied thanks to the happy culmination of a certain lecher’s life-long quest (whose lechery InuYasha sincerely hoped was not passed on to the next generation). First, came the two twins who didn’t understand that his ears-his hanyou ears-were neither meant as toys nor handles. Then came their son. With each runt, a new pattern began: Sango’s stew, babies wailing too loudly and at too high pitched for his ears, and meeting with helpless men and women who couldn’t handle minor demons.
Nights above Sango and Miroku’s hut just watchin’ out…in case…Nights in Goshinboku….Nights as a human surrounded by noise and children and the glow of the cooking fire and his friends.
(Nights where he never admitted, not to anyone, at least in words, that he missed her.)
Time went on. The faces of his companions changed. Sango’s eyes crinkled where her skin bunched up whenever she laughed. Miroku walked with a limp from an unfortunate encounter with a boar demon on the night of a new moon. Sango was forced to fill in for him for a few months to do the bargaining, seeing as no one wanted to bargain with a hanyou for their exterminations.
Then, Kaede vanished from the habitual mix. She passed quietly in her sleep. They placed her ashes next to Kikyou’s and a new stranger came to heal the sick and keep the shrine. He was on nodding terms with the new miko and, like the rest of the villagers, she tolerated and respected him as the protector of the village.
Sometimes the pattern varied slightly. Sometimes the demons were larger and only vaguely weak. Their claws would come down, Miroku parried with his Shakujo, and occasionally Sango might even lob Haraikotsu. Then, sometimes fighting with some scratches and wounds (he tried to avoid holes in his gut…he mostly succeeded), the Wind Scar would rip through the demon and they would all head back for fish or boar or the occasional stew over a fire.
The lecher and the demon slayer added another daughter. Thinking it had been long enough (InuYasha didn’t know that it would ever be long enough), they named her Kagome for a friend they had given up as lost. When she was old enough, he took her for a ride on his back to the branches of the Goshinboku and told her a story he told no one else.
Another son came-their last child.
The children grew up. He and the monk taught them to fight. The youngest once attempted to purify him with an ofuda on a dare from the oldest (not that he admitted it, but it had, at least, hurt). Sango had thumped them both and threatened them with her dusty Hiraikotsu.
Watching them, InuYasha could only chuckle.
Her brood was giving her grey hairs.
His time was spent. The predictable pattern made it seem kinder.
***
A/N: I wrote this as sort of a rebuttal to a certain plot that I often see. InuYasha, when he has to survive 500 years to see his lady love, often goes out and fights big battles and becomes all buddy buddy with his brother,and woos all the women. Then he becomes a corporate big shot with oodles of money and societal influence.
That is, obviously, not how it goes in my head. But you'll see...
Or the bots.
Probably the bots. :D
Also, "Sleeping at Last" is all beautiful music. Just needed to share.
Summary: After the well closes forever, InuYasha must take the slow path back to the woman from the future from whom he’s been separated. Along the way, he discovers that some of the greatest acts of bravery may appear on the surface to be acts of cowardice.
But there’s one person InuYasha will be a coward for: her.
Spoilers through the last chapter of the manga. This fic assumes that the last chapter did not happen.
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. I just play in the sandbox when the two page drabble (now in chapter five) burgeons into sixty-seven pages with ideas that won’t leave me alone.
Beta'd by the wonderful Earl of Birkenhead. :)
Cowardice
sciathan file
II. Patterns
InuYasha set out to make sure of two things: Firstly, that he’d actually be alive to see her again and secondly, that he wouldn’t embarrass himself when he did.
The first step was to keep busy. He needed to have work and friends.
Distraction was necessary. Appropriately, other youkai provided him with it.
With Tessaiga in his hands and Miroku’s dubious bargaining power, the power of habit took over. With the monk’s practiced deception and overly expensive ofuda, and with his own sword swinging at some weak demon and with more payment than any of the previous actions deserved, a new pattern was slowly engraved over the old one.
(While he did not miss jewel shards, digging graves, or fighting Naraku: he did miss the feel of her riding on his back…her smell…how her eyes blazed when she got angry and Osuwari’d him.)
The new pattern always ended at Kaede’s village. The village he had somehow become protector of…along with his forest, the perverted monk, the demon slayer, the old hag, and the cooking fire.
And sometimes Shippou. But he was off on his own journey now, learning magic with his own kind.
Sometimes even Rin and his bastard brother.
(But never her.)
Eventually, the faces around the fire multiplied thanks to the happy culmination of a certain lecher’s life-long quest (whose lechery InuYasha sincerely hoped was not passed on to the next generation). First, came the two twins who didn’t understand that his ears-his hanyou ears-were neither meant as toys nor handles. Then came their son. With each runt, a new pattern began: Sango’s stew, babies wailing too loudly and at too high pitched for his ears, and meeting with helpless men and women who couldn’t handle minor demons.
Nights above Sango and Miroku’s hut just watchin’ out…in case…Nights in Goshinboku….Nights as a human surrounded by noise and children and the glow of the cooking fire and his friends.
(Nights where he never admitted, not to anyone, at least in words, that he missed her.)
Time went on. The faces of his companions changed. Sango’s eyes crinkled where her skin bunched up whenever she laughed. Miroku walked with a limp from an unfortunate encounter with a boar demon on the night of a new moon. Sango was forced to fill in for him for a few months to do the bargaining, seeing as no one wanted to bargain with a hanyou for their exterminations.
Then, Kaede vanished from the habitual mix. She passed quietly in her sleep. They placed her ashes next to Kikyou’s and a new stranger came to heal the sick and keep the shrine. He was on nodding terms with the new miko and, like the rest of the villagers, she tolerated and respected him as the protector of the village.
Sometimes the pattern varied slightly. Sometimes the demons were larger and only vaguely weak. Their claws would come down, Miroku parried with his Shakujo, and occasionally Sango might even lob Haraikotsu. Then, sometimes fighting with some scratches and wounds (he tried to avoid holes in his gut…he mostly succeeded), the Wind Scar would rip through the demon and they would all head back for fish or boar or the occasional stew over a fire.
The lecher and the demon slayer added another daughter. Thinking it had been long enough (InuYasha didn’t know that it would ever be long enough), they named her Kagome for a friend they had given up as lost. When she was old enough, he took her for a ride on his back to the branches of the Goshinboku and told her a story he told no one else.
Another son came-their last child.
The children grew up. He and the monk taught them to fight. The youngest once attempted to purify him with an ofuda on a dare from the oldest (not that he admitted it, but it had, at least, hurt). Sango had thumped them both and threatened them with her dusty Hiraikotsu.
Watching them, InuYasha could only chuckle.
Her brood was giving her grey hairs.
His time was spent. The predictable pattern made it seem kinder.
***
A/N: I wrote this as sort of a rebuttal to a certain plot that I often see. InuYasha, when he has to survive 500 years to see his lady love, often goes out and fights big battles and becomes all buddy buddy with his brother,and woos all the women. Then he becomes a corporate big shot with oodles of money and societal influence.
That is, obviously, not how it goes in my head. But you'll see...