The Sins of the Father

~Tokyo, 2012~

The morning was an awkward one, at the very least.

Kagome was still reeling from the confrontation with Yuki, and was pretty much going about her business on autopilot as she moved Kenshin’s clothes from the washer to the dryer, and then proceeded to prepare a simple breakfast for herself and her guests.

Yuki had already left for school, leaving three open boxes of cereal on the table along with what remained of the carton of milk Kagome purchased the other day. There was not a cup or bowl in evidence, so once again Yuki drank straight from the carton and ate from the boxes. Kagome was pretty sure she did it purposely to annoy her, as Yuki also had slammed every door in the house on her way out. Maybe she should have stopped her for another talk, but a temperamental teenager was the very last thing she wanted to deal with. If it made her a bad mother, so be it. She never claimed to be a good one, at any rate. Certainly a ‘good’ mother considers the fact that she has a child to care for, and doesn’t make life altering decisions on a whim.

A ‘good’ mother doesn’t let a complete stranger fuck her into the mattress of her own bed, with her daughter just outside the house.

Kagome bit her lower lip and sat at the kitchen table. Shippo would be back inside soon, and with him, Kenshin.

She could only guess at what Shippo was telling him. Certainly, the blood bond will come up, and then...

‘Kami, what have I done?’

She was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of the door opening. Shippo came in first, and took a seat across from her. Kenshin followed him, but did not meet her eyes as he slid in next to Shippo.

Kagome couldn’t tear her eyes from Shippo. His eyes were filled with compassion and understanding, and she wanted nothing more than to launch her self into his arms and have a good cry.

She cleared her throat and set the table, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Kenshin was watching her intensely. She could almost feel the blush as it made its way up her neck and finally colored her cheeks. Why couldn’t he look at something else?

Kagome served them some scrambled eggs, white rice, and orange wedges. Thankfully, Kenshin tore his eyes away from her as he attacked his plate as if he hadn’t seen food for several days. Shippo was also attacking his plate with quite a bit of enthusiasm.

Finally free from being scrutinized, Kagome started the coffee maker with shaking hands. Even though she no longer felt like a bug on a slab of glass under a microscope, the tension in the room was still quite high, and she didn’t really know what to do with herself.

‘Calm down Kagome, just calm down.’

“What, no candy? C’mon Kagome, I travel over a hundred years into the future to see you – the least you can do is get me some Pocky. I really missed the stuff. It’s been several hundred years since I last had it after all.”

And just like that, the tension was cut. Kagome offered a small smile to Shippo, who beamed at her in return. It was almost surreal, how Shippo knew exactly what to say to help her relax, if not to put her completely at ease. Since when was her little kit so knowledgeable in the ways of human women?

But he’d always been a comfort to her. How many nights had he spent by her side, cuddled against her while she lay awake, knowing that her hanyou was once again visiting the dead?

Far too many to count.

“Daijabou, Kagome?”

“Huh? Oh… I’m fine… just thinking. Would either of you like some coffee?”

Both Shippo’s and Kenshin’s eyes went wide at this, and Kagome was once again reminded of the span of time that stood between them. For them, coffee was a foreign delicacy, known only to the very rich. For her, coffee was a necessity; right up there with the oxygen she breathed.

“That would be great, Kagome,” Shippo finally said, while Kenshin merely nodded.

They finished the rest of their breakfast peacefully. Their discussion revolved around Kagome’s modern appliances, and the changes wrought over the past century and a half. Dangerous topics – like the past few days – were thankfully avoided, although Kagome did not kid herself into believing that they wouldn’t come up at all. She was sure by the way Kenshin was looking at her that he desired a talk with her, and soon. That was something she was most definitely NOT looking forward to.

Afterwards, she was a little surprised when both Shippo and Kenshin offered to help her with the clean up. She smiled, and declined their help – as far as she was concerned, it would be easier for her just to do it than to teach them how to load up the dishwasher – and so she led them back into the sitting room where she turned on her flat panel HDTV and changed the channel to the local news.

“Fascinating,” Shippo commented, with eyes wide.

Kenshin on the other hand jumped backwards a few feet and turned quite pale.

“Where did those tiny people come from?”

At this, she laughed her first heartfelt laugh since they arrived, and it earned the attention of both of her visitors. She briefly explained the television, and they nodded, still obviously clueless.

Of the two of them, Shippo seemed to take everything in stride. Kagome couldn’t help but comment about it.

“Not impressed with 22nd century innovations, Shippo?”

He smirked at her.

“I’ve lived an awful long time Kagome, remember? I’ve seen ningens invent some incredible things. Very little surprises me anymore.”

“You’re no fun.”

“Perhaps. But – hey, I can think of something that we both need, badly. What’s your modern equivalent of a bathhouse?”

And so Kagome gave them each a brief lesson on modern plumbing as she showed them how to use the shower. Shippo went first, leaving her alone with Kenshin, who silently followed her back into the kitchen where she loaded the rest of the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher before she started it.

She waited for him to say something – anything – but he did not. Instead, he merely stood to the side and studied her, as if he could find out exactly what made her tick just by watching her.

It was really beginning to piss her off. Still, she surmised that he probably had no better idea how to act around her than she did he, and she cursed herself once again for getting so very involved with someone she knew absolutely nothing about.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Why are you staring at me?”

“I am trying to understand you,” he answered flatly.

She looked at him and for the first time noticed that his eyes were gold now instead of violet, and she wondered for a moment what that meant. Certainly, he was now more direct and less polite than he was earlier.

She couldn’t bear the weight of his gaze and turned from him, placing her hands against the counter top.

“What is it you want to understand?” she asked quietly, fearing the answer.

“I want to understand exactly why you would bind yourself to someone in such a way without knowing a single thing about them. I could have easily killed you, and you know it.”

“I could have killed you just as easily, if things got out of control.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Perhaps I don’t want to.”

Kagome clenched the counter tight in her hands, as she felt him sliding in behind her. He was too close. She could almost feel the heat from his body, he was so close. Damn him. Damn Shippo. Damn Inuyasha for dying in the first place.

“Kagome.”

Kami, how she just wanted him to back off and get out of her personal space. He was playing dirty and he knew it. She couldn’t even think correctly with him so close.

“I don’t know,” she finally answered, hoping he’d just accept it and go away. But he didn’t. He didn’t even move. Instead, he changed tactics, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Kagome. Why?”

His breath was hot against her ear, and she shivered. Damn him!

“Damn you!” she said, as she broke away, breathing hard.

Kenshin didn’t move. Instead, he followed her with his eyes, eyes that were now more violet than gold.

Questioning eyes.

Calculating eyes.

“BECAUSE I HAD TO! Because you would die if I did not. Because someone I loved very much once died because I refused to take action – because I stood by and watched and did nothing until it was too late, even though I was the only one who COULD do something. Because I made a promise to protect Shippo when he was only a kit, and I broke that promise. Because I failed at everything I’ve ever done, and thought that perhaps if I could save you it would be my redemption. Just… because.”

And the tears started to fall, and she wasn’t even fully aware of the arms that suddenly encompassed her and carried her out of the kitchen into the other room. Nor was she completely aware of the soft hand that wiped her tears as her hair was pushed away from her face, nor the lips that trailed butterfly kisses across her forehead.

Kagome was letting go of thirteen years worth of grief in the arms of Shippo’s son, and she didn’t care.

She finally calmed down and realized that she was cradled against Kenshin’s chest. She pulled back, embarrassed, and he let her go, somewhat reluctantly.

“Gomen nasai. I... I don’t know what came over me,” she sniffled.

“It is I who should be apologizing, Kagome-dono. Sessha should not have pushed you,” he responded softly.

Kagome turned to him confused. He was being all polite again, and his eyes were fully violet. His mood swings were almost as violent as hers, and it troubled her. It was almost as if there were at least two distinct personalities inside the red-haired kitsune hanyou.

He was smiling at her now – a completely disarming, totally ridiculous little smile that seemed almost completely fake. Kagome frowned, and prepared to call him on it when Shippo entered the room, wearing a large towel and not much else.

“Wow, Kagome. That was just great. No wonder why you used to be so obsessed with staying clean. If I lived here, I doubt I’d ever leave the – what did you call it? Oh, yeah – shower. Kenshin, your up. C’mon, I’ve figured it out – let me show you how it works.”

As they left the room together, Kenshin gave her a concerned look, and she offered a weak smile in return.

It wasn’t long before she heard the sound of running water once more, and then Shippo returned, dressed, and considerably more subdued then he was a minute ago.

“Dajaibou, Kagome?”

”Hai, Shippo.”

“Don’t lie… I can smell your tears. Did Kenshin do this? Make you cry? He may be my kit, but so help me if he hurts you –“

“Iie Shippo, it is not his fault. He asked some difficult questions, but they were questions that he had every right to ask.”

Shippo nodded his head in understanding.

“Oh Kagome, I’m so sorry to bring you into all of this… but there was no other way.”

Kagome shot him a piercing look before she continued.

“Perhaps you should tell me now exactly what is going on, ne? I think I deserve to know, considering…”

Shippo nodded, and took a deep breath before he began.

“I was out with my infant son collecting some root vegetables for my mate, Rin….”

“Rin? The little girl who used to travel with Sesshoumaru?” Kagome asked, feeling a little queasy.

“Hai.”

She paled a bit as it sunk in. That meant that Kenshin… oh Kami… but wait a minute, wasn’t Rin human? She couldn’t have lived that long, no possible way.

“How? I mean, I thought you said that Kenshin was born in the 1800’s.”

This was followed by an explanation of the Tenseiga extending her life span that Kagome only half listened to. She was still stuck on the fact that Rin was the other parent of her now ‘mate’. It was more than a little disconcerting, considering that she remembered taking care of the young girl for Sesshoumaru a couple of times.

She couldn’t even imagine her as an adult and a mother. To Kagome, she would always be the little girl with a perpetual smile and flowers in her hair.

“Anyway, when we returned… I… found… she was…”

It was painful for him to speak of her death, and Kagome pulled him into her arms to comfort him.

This seemed to help, and Shippo quietly told her of his quest to find Rin’s murderer, and all he had learned about him over the years.

~~~

By the time Kenshin returned from the shower, Kagome was reeling from all she had learned. Most of the youkai she knew of were either missing or dead, and Naraku had used Kohaku as a vessel for his youki, turning Sango’s little brother into some sort of monster.

They had failed. She had failed. Had she stayed, she would have been able to purify the youki from Kohaku, and undo at least some of the damage that Naraku had done.

Kami, they had thought him dead.

Naraku was really one sick fuck.

Oh gods, Sango. She would have been devastated.

Not for the first time, Kagome felt as if she should have stayed.

Shippo looked at her pleadingly.

“Kagome. I have come here primarily for your help with my son, but… we could really use your help against Naraku’s spawn. He’s become so powerful that I fear that only a strong miko can bring him down. Will you come with us?”

And there it was… the question she knew was coming since the moment they showed up on her doorstep.

How could she refuse? She was partially to blame, after all.

~~~~

A/N: I know, this chapter is mostly filler – but it’s important filler. I wanted to a) explore Kagome’s feelings a bit more, and remove some of the awkwardness between her and Kenshin – hopefully I’ve done that, and b) give Shippo an opportunity to bring Kagome up to date.

BTW: Thank you Diane for pointing the discrepancies in chapter 2 – it has been modified so that they are traveling across Tokyo. I had made that change early on in this fic, but somehow during editing I uploaded an older version of chapter 2. I’m so glad you pointed it out, because I never would have caught it.

Japanese Words:

Kami – gods
Daijabou – are you okay
ningens – humans
gomen nasai – I’m sorry
sessha – I, who is unworthy or this unworthy one; polite and self depreciating
-dono – miss, i.e. Kagome-dono is Miss Kagome; polite
Hai – yes
Iie – no
Kitsune – fox
Hanyou – half demon
Youkai – demon
Youki – demonic energy