Chapter 24: Life
Inuyasha sat in the branches of a tree, his thoughts on Kagome and his brother. His hand pained him constantly, serving as a reminder of what his brother had done to him and Kagome. It was scarred horribly and was useless like he has been to Kagome. He felt like the monster that his brother was for failing to free Kagome and rid her of Sesshomaru’s children.
It had to be hell to be forced to give birth to children that she wouldn’t have wanted. To be forced to have someone that she must have hated between her legs, impregnating her with his bastards. Inuyasha’s claws dug into his palm at the thought, his good hand bleed for it and yet he didn’t notice it.
He had to save her, he had to kill the reminders of her brother and help her heal from all the pain of it. She would help him heal too, she return and love him again. They would heal each other and make a family out of love instead of bastards forced on her. He would see that their end was not a painful one after all, Sesshomaru’s bastards were still babies…just babies that shouldn’t have ever been born in the first place.
It would be merciful to end their lives awhile they were still innocent.
“Inuyasha?” He glanced down to see that it was Sango and the twins that were calling for him. But he ignored them, instead staring out into space as his thoughts turned dark. He would kill his brother and the children that he had sired on Kagome.
oOo
She truly was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. There in candle light, lying naked on the futon and laboring to bring their children, Sesshomaru resisted the deep urge to kiss her. He loved watching her body and sex work to free the children within her, though he wished that Kagome didn’t have to endure such pain during such a beautiful moment in their lives.
Watching as her contraction end for the moment, Sesshomaru moved from between her legs to return to her head. Taking her hair in hand, he began to braid it just as she had asked before the contraction had begun.
“It’s different this time…it didn’t come so fast with Mizuki.” Kagome muttered as she caught her breath.
“You’re having more than one, Kagome. Your body is working harder to bring all our children into the world safely.” He informed her as he finished his task with her hair. He felt her eyes on him and knew that she didn’t like his answer. But then she seemed to be scared about how many that they were having in this birth, he didn’t understand why she would. He would make sure that their demon children survived…though he could do nothing about the half demon children within her. Where their children that were full demon would survive with ease, their half demon children would be far too undeveloped to survive long.
Looking at her, seeing her work so hard for the unborn children that they loved had made Sesshomaru realize what he had to do.
Moving to the large jugs of water, he planned to clean her of the sweat that was forming on her lovely skin. Putting water in a bowl and grabbing a clean cloth before returning to Kagome’s side to clean her up. The gasp from her was sweet music as he started cleaning her of sweat, but the moan of pain that followed informed that she was having another contraction. He moved to be between her legs and watched her sex with endless interest.
“S…Sesshomaru.” She whispered, calling his attention away from the blooming flower that was her sex to look at her face. “Take…my hand p…please!”
Staring at the fear in her eyes, he did it without a second thought. He wished that she didn’t have to fear what was happening and that he could do it in her place, he didn’t know the name of what he was feeling but he would gladly die for the safety of the woman before him. He didn’t know when but she had become the sweet water that would sate his thirst. Her scent was the air that he needed to live and yet she knew nothing of that.
But then he didn’t even know if she would have cared.
He wished that things hadn’t began as they had. Sesshomaru couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if he had taken Kagome at some point in her journey with his brother. Would she had grown to depend on him, seek his company instead of his brother? Would she had looked at him the same way that she had gazed at Inuyasha? How he tired of the anger and wary fear in her ocean blue eyes when she looked at him for it never seemed to go away.
He had wondered if it was too much to hope that Kagome would feel affection for him like he felt for her. They had been working on their problems but it as if Kagome was only going through the motions of it all.
Sesshomaru had found himself question himself as well as what he needed so that they continued to recover their apparently damaged relationship.
“I’m scared.” Kagome told him suddenly as the contraction ended. He looked up to look into her eyes and all he wanted was to take the fear in her eyes away so that she could find joy in bring their children into the world.
“I know…but think of how you’ll soon be holding our children for the first time. I have found myself hoping for some of them to inherit more of your appearance as of late.”
oOo
Kagome couldn’t help but laugh at Sesshomaru’s words. He had always been so serious and stoic that she had found it hard to understand him since he rarely talked about himself or his thoughts. That he hoped that some of their children would inherit more her looks had not been something that she had been expecting since he was the better looking of them. Yet she suddenly found herself thinking of Kiyomi and the little boys that she had seen in that dream. It felt so long ago and yet, she could remember every detail of each child.
“If we have another girl…I think Kiyomi would be a good name.” She muttered as she brought their entwined hands to rest on her pregnant belly. They were so still that it scared her to not feel them moving inside her as they did all day and night.
“You like the name Kiyomi? Did you wish to have named Mizuki Kiyomi?” Sesshomaru questioned her just before another contraction gripped her. The pain was all consuming, like her muscles were being pulled apart from within her. Tears came to her eyes as she tried to breathe through the pain, it felt so much worse than the last time she had given birth but then she had been allowed more time to recover between contractions where this time it felt as if it was coming every other minute.
The world seemed to disappear into the pain that filled her, she wanted it to stop or turn numb to it and to the memories of all that happened to her up to this moment.
“Kagome…You’re doing well.” Sesshomaru told her, drawing her back from her mind’s attempt to flee the pain. Their hands were still entwined and used that to ground as the pain threatened to overcome her. It gave her hope that this birth would go much fast than her last.
oOo
Nori sat outside the doors to Kagome’s music room with the midwives and servants aplenty waiting with her. She stared at the doors, worry eating at her from within as she held her slumbering granddaughter in her arms. Her mind wandered to when she had been giving birth to Sesshomaru. It had been so painful, more than when she had giving birth to her stillborn children. It had made her so afraid that the baby she had been carrying would die within her once more just as all the others had.
The servant handed her the little bundle with gentle care. Nori took it without question, still shocked that she had given birth to a living child at long last, she breathed in the wonderful scent of her son. Gently moving the blanket wrapped around her little one‘s face, Nori couldn’t believe the heartbeat that she heard coming from his little body.
He was perfection from the first moment her son had opened his eyes and looked at her with such innocence that he had become her entire world. He had all her love and devotion, she would do everything within her power to see that all his wishes in life were granted and that any threat to his health, and happiness were destroyed mercilessly .
“Nori? Is it true?” Her mate had appeared at the doors to the formal birthing chambers, moving to her with excitement in his step. They had both despaired at the possibility that they would never produce a living child but she held a living baby born from her own womb within her arms. He fell to his knees at her side and stared at the sleeping face of their son. Then suddenly her mate was kissing her hard and fiercely with loving devotion.
It was so wonderful! The most prefect moment of her life until her mate pulled away and tried to take their son from her arms.
Terror griped her and snarled at him, shielding their child away from his touch. She was shocked at her behaviour and her mate was as well since she had always allowed him to hold their stillborn children in the past. But that had been the past and she was holding their future in her arms, something that she never wanted to let go to anyone…not even the demon that she loved with all her being.
“So the concubine is giving birth? I would be greatly pleased to watch her labor then.” The voice was ice water poured down Nori’s back and had her turning to glare at Lord Takashi as he walked towards them, barely dressed and smelling of sex. The bastard knew that Sesshomaru would be attending the birth alone and that to ask to watch the birth was an insult to Sesshomaru and their lands. Though social protocol demanded that this request be allowed, there was no way that Nori would allow it. Her son was attending to the birth of his children and seeing to the task that his breeding female would survive it.
“I’m serenely sorry Lord Takashi but you cannot attend the birth this time.” She informed demon before her in a mocking tone of regret. She gave her slumbering Moonflower into the waiting arms of one of her handmaidens before standing up.
“You would insult me in such a way?” Takashi growled at her, but she could careless for the threat he posed to her. She was old and lived well without regrets, her son was still young and deserving of the joys he would experience in the years to come. Nori would never allow this weak demon to threaten that.
“You may take it that way if you so desire to, Lord Takashi but we both know you issued insult first by asking this request. The concubine Kagome has a right to give birth with no one but her master in attendance after giving birth to her master’s first child and heir before all the first time. This is meant to be time of bonding and new life, I will not allow you to ruin it.” She challenged, looking him in the eye as she stood her ground. Nori didn’t even flinch when Takashi rushed at her and griped her throat tightly within his hand.
“I will not take this insult lightly. I am already displeased with your son for not being allow to see my sister as I have demanded and now you tell me that I can’t even see the birth of his children and that he has named a concubine’s child his heir over my own sister’s?”
“Your sister has not even conceived a child in all the years that she has been mated to my son. She is clearly barren and you likely knew this when you arranged the mating with Sesshomaru.” Nori snarled at him, poison beginning to drip from her claws when she felt the bite of his claws digging into her smooth, polished skin.
“You dare-”
“You will release my mother this instant or else, you shall not like the consequences of your actions.” Sesshomaru threatened. He stood in the doorway, naked and allowing Kagome’s cries of pains to be heard by all. All in attendance saw the blood red eyes that replaced Sesshomaru’s golden eyes and all but Nori was afraid of her son in that moment…Even Takashi.
But the demon lord was a fool. “Your mother has insulted-”
“You offered the same by asking to witness the birth of my children while I am attending their mother…give me a reason why I should Not. Separate. Your. Head. From. Your. Body?!” Sesshomaru roared at the threat that gripped her neck…Nori had never been prouder of her son as she was in that moment.
He was proving to be a truly wonderful father and lover.
“Sesshomaru!” Kagome cried out in pain but Sesshomaru didn’t move to answer the cry of his lover as her son stared down the threat.
Growling, Takashi released her and Nori was quick to go to Mizuki as her mother’s cries and her father’s enraged voice had awakened the slumbering child. Taking her granddaughter into her arms, Nori watched the two alpha males. Though her son was naked where Takashi was dressed…it only seemed to her son seem all the more powerful of the two.
“I demand a female for the insult offered to me!” Takashi suddenly demanded, shocking all but Sesshomaru at the request.
Nori held her crying granddaughter all the tight to her breast. Sesshomaru only had three females within his household at the moment that was worthy of a lord’s attention. Though Sesshomaru could give any unmated female of his palace to a male as a gift, only those of his house…his family would ever be given to a Lord of equal standing as himself.
Those females would be Kagome, Mizuki and herself as well as any Kagome may give birth to that night. Sesshomaru would be required to give into the demand or all the other Lords would go to war against the West to make sure that the demand was met.
What would it mean for their family? Sesshomaru was not ready for a war against the other lords yet, despite already making plans to so in a few years time.
Her son said nothing, only nodding to the other lord before retreating back into the room and to Kagome’s side. Nori glanced at Takashi and saw the smug smile upon his face.
She longed to claw it and his face off.
oOo
Sesshomaru glared at the door that separated him from Takashi…he wanted to torture the fool to death for all that he had done. Kagome had not even given birth to the first child yet and the night had become all the more complicated then it needed to be. But he pushed those thoughts aside and returned to Kagome’s side.
Tears flowed down from her and her cries of pain wounded him so. It almost made him lost all desire to breed Kagome again in the future but the thought of the children that they would make pushed the thought from his mind. He would never let her go and would allow no one to have another of his children. Only Kagome would ever hold the title of mother of his children since he would kill any female that thought to touch him again and that he would likely die at the lost of the laboring female before him.
She truly looked her best when she was heavily pregnant with his child. He longed to keep her so beautiful but knew that they would have to work through their problems before that would be their reality.
“I really wish I could cut your dick into little pieces and force feed them to you right now.” Kagome growled through her contraction and showed Sesshomaru that they had a lot of problems to work through…including one that involved making Kagome feel great affection for his manhood instead of desiring to remove it from his body and force him to eat his severed manhood.
Saying nothing about her horrid desire, he moved between her legs to see that it was time for her to start pushing.
Excitement bubbled within despite all the trouble that was caving in around them. He was about to see his children leave the fertile womb that he had seeded so long ago, he regretted never being the only one present at Mizuki’s birth…to be the first to touch his child. But that would not be the case with these little ones. He would never have that regret, he would hold all of them and whisper to them how they were his whole world and his greatest treasure…maybe even greater than their own mother.
“Have you thought of another name you want to name any of our future children, Kagome?” He asked, wondering upon the half demon children she may be carrying and what to name them. Though it was not likely for them to survive the birth and to spare Kagome pain, he would take away any and all the half demons that she gave birth to…he still wanted to name them.
They were still his children and that meant they were as much a treasure to him as the others would be. It was slowly killing him that he would never see them grow up though he would do everything within his power to help them live because he was their father and cared for them deeply.
Sesshomaru found himself once again thinking of his father as he told Kagome to push.
Had his father longed for this? To be the one to help bring his sons into the world? He had often wondered why his mother had kept him away from his father and why his father had allowed the distance to begin? He could never endure that like his father had…maybe that had been why his father had turn to his human princess because the distance had become too much for his father.
His father had truly been a strong demon, but now Sesshomaru couldn’t help but wonder if his father had been weak as well.
“I like…my mother’s name for a girl and my grandfather’s name too.” She gritted through her teeth as she pushed.
“What were their names?” Sesshomaru asked, wondering if they would be good names.
“Hajime was…my grandfather’s name…and my mother’s was…Yumi.” Sesshomaru stared at her for a moment, surprised by the name she had given and suddenly found himself thinking of the boy he had dreamed of when Kagome had been pregnant with Mizuki. There was no doubt in his mind that it was fate, the happy future in the dream was going to be theirs. He just needed to convince Kagome of the same.
He watched in wonder as he saw the head crowding, Kagome was suddenly screaming so load that it hurt his ears but he barely noticed the pain as he chanted for her to push.
Then it happened.
Sesshomaru stared at their wriggling, red faced baby wailing in misery was in his hands and he felt overwhelmed by emotion. Seeing the baby was a son, Sesshomaru held his son for a moment before moving to show Kagome their baby.
Tears were still flowing down her cheeks but the happy watery smile on her face as she touched their son’s cheek gently. That had to be the most prefect moment of his life.