UnBound Memories

A/N: nette, thanks so much for the review.

Chapter 21

Tenseiga's way

Sesshomaru woke up, finding Miroku curled up, half on top of him, half on the bed. It was just before dawn, the sun not yet risen in the sky. The room was dim, not that it mattered to Sesshomaru’s superior senses. He looked down at the head of darh head resting at his chest, the hair half pulled out of the ponytail at the back of Miroku’s head. He trailed a hand through the black strands, still wondering what exactly Tenseiga had done to his mate. There was something different. He could sense the change in his little human, but the reason continued to evade him.

Miroku hummed a bit as the arm that was around Sesshomaru’s ribs tightened, the leg draped over Sesshomaru’s drawing upward. Much as he tried, the demon couldn’t help but smile at how content the former monk was like this, how content he was like this. He traced his hand over the creamy arm around him, then moved his other hand down between the muscular shoulders.

Light from the sun began to illuminate the room and the city, and Sesshomaru suddenly felt a strange power in the room, a power emanating from his mate. He watched in marveling wonder as it looked like an unseen wind was blowing over Miroku, sending his hair flying. The violet eyes opened in shock and fear as he was lifted from the bed by this unknown force.

“Miroku!”

“What’s happening?”

Sesshomaru grabbed hold of his mate’s arms, while Miroku did the same. Sesshomaru could feel the arms growing more muscular beneath his grip and sharp scratching at the man’s hands. His eyes glanced away from the former monk’s for just a moment to look and confirm that the man had indeed grown claws. He felt as tiny gold rings fell to his legs and he looked up to find the transformation on his mate’s face. The eyes were more intensely violet than ever before, the mouth now held a set of bright white fangs, and perched atop the black hair was a pair of black triangular ears.

A hanyou. Tenseiga had turned Mirkou into a hanyou.

Miroku fell back on top of the taiyoukai, the new ears plastered to the top of his head.

“Wha-What was that?” Miroku asked, slowly lifting his head from the demon’s chest.

“That was how you survived the mating.” Sesshomaru couldn’t resist it; he brought his hands up to the top of the new hanyou’s head and tweaked his ears.

“What did you just do?” Miroku asked as his own hands found his hair. Brushing Sesshomaru’s hands aside, he reached up to the strange items on his head. “I have ears.”

“You have always had ears, Miroku,” Sesshomaru said with a lightness in his voice.

“No need to be sarcastic, Sesshomaru. You know what I mean.”

Miroku leapt from the bed, moving the small mirror to examine his new appearance. When Sesshomaru noticed the rather large mark on the former monk’s bare back, he stepped up behind his mate. “You can see it all better in the bathing room.”

Miroku allowed himself to be led, guided forward by the demon’s clawed hand at the small of his back. Together, they walked into the bathroom, with Sesshomaru turning on the lights, which practically blinded the new hanyou. He felt as though he was going into sensory overload. Was it always like this for InuYasha and Sesshomaru? How could they stand being around any light or smell, gods the smells were overpowering. Looking down at his own sweaty, filthy body, he suddenly regretted not having bathed after their mating the night before. He was a mess, and he reeked.

“I look like someone dunked InuYasha in ink,” he muttered, not so much to Sesshomaru, but to himself. He touched his black hair, noting the texture of had changed. It was soft and almost fluffy. Then there were the ears that seemed to move with a personality of their own, twitching and pressing against his head. And, kami, were they sensitive. When Sesshomaru grabbed them, gentle as he had been, the feeling was somewhere between being incredibly aroused and being in pain. He felt a definite empathy for InuYasha at the moment.

The muscles that had developed all over his body, they weren’t so bad, nor was the added bit in height. He felt less intimidated in the presence of his lover, both now bearing tight, rippling muscles over their bodies and he could finally come up at least as high as the demon’s eyes. The claws, he worried might be a problem all their own, and he didn’t like the thought of having to use the bathroom until he’d gotten used to them. And, so far, he’d nearly bitten his tongue with the ridiculous fangs about three times in the brief amount of time he'd been awake.

“But I was human last night.”

“Apparently, I will have to offer you added protection on the night of the full moon,” Sesshomaru said, running his claws through the soft black hair around the ears.

“I suppose I will no longer be able to use my ofuda.”

“It made you a half demon, not a full one,” Sesshomaru said, standing behind the former monk, leaning down to nip at his neck, finding that though Miroku’s taste had changed, it wasn’t an unpleasant difference. “It isn’t impossible for a hanyou to be a spiritual being. It is simply a rare occurrence.”

Miroku moaned as Sesshomaru slid his tongue over the skin covering his jugular. It was nice to know that even though his mate was a hanyou, Sesshomaru still had the same effect on him.

“Would you care to see our mating marks?” Sesshomaru asked after Miroku had stared at himself for some time.

“What? The moon or the bites?”

Sesshomaru forced Miroku to stand away from the mirror, then pulled a relatively large round mirror from the sink top, holding it to show Miroku his back, managing to avoid showing his own with the long silver hair that hung to his knees.

Miroku gasped in shock at the sight. On his back from bottom to top was a demon mating mark unlike any he’d ever seen. He’d always heard that betas’ marks extended from neck to the small of the back, but betas were not usually allowed to display that much of their flesh for him to know for sure.

Between Miroku’s shoulder blades, there was a crescent moon, wrapped by sacred beads which extended down Miroku’s spine and twining itself around Miroku’s staff and the Tenseiga, which met at an X at his lower back. Never did the former monk think he’d feel this way, but the mark truly was a work of art.

“It represents both of us. A sign that we are true mates,” Sesshomaru said, tracing a clawed finger down Miroku’s back over the trail of the prayer beads.

“And what of yours?” Miroku asked. He knew that Sesshomaru’s mark would be smaller, as the alpha it always was, but he was still curious.

“You still do not understand,” Sesshomaru said, shaking his head. Moving his long white hair over his shoulder, Sesshomaru handed Miroku the mirror as he turned, showing the former monk his back. “I told you were equals.”

Miroku felt quite dumbfounded, seeing that Sesshomaru’s mark was identical in every possible way, though possibly larger because the canvas was bigger. The new hanyou couldn’t help but trace his hand over each perfectly shaded mark and symbol on the long back that bordered somewhere between broad and lean build.

“Satisfied?” Sesshomaru said turning back around. He grabbed Miroku’s newly clawed hands, holding them in his own, then leaned down for a gentle kiss.

“I am,” Miroku said as their lips parted. “But we stink.”

“Yes we do, as does my sleeping chamber.”

“Perhaps a shower, then we clean the room together?”

“And I suppose the shower would also be together?”

“You do not call me a hentai for no reason.” Miroku said, a fanged half-smirk on his face. “Then, I want to go back to bed.” Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow. “To sleep! I had a very long, tiring night.”

Miroku ran his fingers down the demon’s sides, once again brushing over those marks, lingering a little too long.

“They trouble you, my marks from InuYasha,” Sesshomaru thought.

“Only because last night, I realized he would be your only child, and we would have to adopt. But I do not suppose that is true now, as a hanyou, I can…” Kami, he could. Hanyous could bear children. It was one thing to accept that as a male he couldn’t give birth, but to accept that now he could was another story all together. “Sango would laugh herself simple to hear that.

********

When InuYasha and Kagome walked up to the front entrance of Sesshomaru and Miroku’s apartment, InuYasha couldn’t help but feel nervous approaching the glass door. They’d left the two of them alone, and InuYasha quite honestly feared the sight they’d come upon today. Stepping into the elevator, with Shippo on his shoulder, Kagome holding Rin’s hand, he took her empty hand, squeezing it tightly. He would do whatever it took to avoid mating with Kagome, to avoid exchanging any blood with her.

He couldn’t imagine losing her.

Walking through the hall, InuYasha sought any sign of blood, sign of death. He didn’t detect it, though his nose curled up at the distinct scent of sex.

“InuYasha?” Kagome asked. “Is this bad?”

“I don’t know yet, but I’m thinking I should go ahead.” Not that InuYasha particularly wanted to walk in on either the sight of possible death or post-sex, he figured he was the leader of his group, and the oldest. If someone had to be scarred for life, it had better be him.

InuYasha stuck a key in the lock, turning it, and opening the door. He held his arm in front of his nose, blocking the overpowering stench. Damn those two, hadn’t they even thought about the smell?

“Miroku? Chichi-ue?”

He proceeded into the apartment, large by Japanese standards and made his way to the source of the smell. He knocked on the door to Sesshomaru’s bedroom. “Chichi-ue? Miroku?” He could smell he was getting close to his father, but Miroku’s scent was faint. He stuck his head inside, finding his father on his side on the bed nearest InuYasha. He was wearing a pair of pajama pants, his back exposed to InuYasha.

“Chichi-ue?” InuYasha asked, stepping inside, trying not to gasp in shock that the mark on the demon lord’s back covered it entirely. His father was a beta? How was that possible?

Sesshomaru rolled over and faced him, a contented smile on his face, obvious that he’d had sex the night before even if InuYasha hadn’t smelled it.

“InuYasha?” Sesshomaru asked, leaning up on his elbow enough that his son could see the man laying on the other side of the bed. His back bore the same mark as Sesshomaru, even in size it was the same. “Is it midday already?”

“Then, Miroku is…”

“Right here, InuYasha.” When the man rose up InuYasha immediately spotted the ears identical to his own.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“This was Tenseiga’s way of solving our mating problem.”

“You’re a hanyou.”

“InuYasha?” A voice called from the hallway. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, they’re fine.”

At that Rin must have released Kagome’s hand and ran into the bedroom. “Chichi-ue!” She ran inside, tears running down her face out of the sheer relief that Sesshomaru was alive. The girl ran over onto the bed and threw her arms around the taiyoukai’s neck. “Chichi-ue, you’re alive, and so is houshi-sama.”

“Of course we are, Rin,” Sesshomaru said, wrapping an arm around her back. Looking up at InuYasha and Shippo with a sharp glare. “Where would you get such an idea, little one?”

“InuYasha and Shippo said that if you and houshi-sama became mates, it would kill houshi-sama and that you would want to die with him. Rin was scared.”

Miroku leaned against Sesshomaru, placing a clawed hand on the girl’s head. “I am right here, Rin.”

Now, even a set of intensely violet eyes were shooting daggers at the inu and kit.

“Miroku, your ears!” Kagome said.

The new hanyou explained while continuing to help Sesshomaru comfort their adopted daughter. No sooner was he done than Rin looked up at him with teary brown eyes. “Houshi-sama, may Rin please…”

Wincing, Miroku dipped his head down so that the girl could play with the new ears. Almost directly behind her were Kagome and Shippo. InuYasha merely leaned against the wall, chuckling as Miroku looked up at him desperately.

“Sucks, don’t it?”

“Is houshi-sama now Rin’s parent, too?” the girl asked.

“He is my mate, which means if you would like him to be--”

“Yes,” Rin said excitedly. “Does Rin call him okasan?”

Once again, InuYasha was chuckling at Miroku’s expense. “Why not Papa?” Sesshomaru suggested.

“Papa?” Rin asked, looking up at the former monk.

“That sounds fine to me.”

“Well, don’t be insulted if I stick with Miroku,” InuYasha said from his place at the wall.

He was acting smug and confident, but quite honestly, the inu wanted to go over and hug his father and best friend, well, step-father. His father, as he’d gotten to know him since Naraku’s defeat, deserved this kind of happiness, and he truly looked happy. Even the monk, after the hell he’d gone through thanks to that hanyou bastard Naraku finally looked genuinely happy, without that lingering hurt in his eyes.

InuYasha was not generally emotional, but at the moment, he was feeling almost overcome. He had a full family after years of thinking he only had a brother who hated him. His best friend was officially family, he had a father, the person he’d thought was his brother, who loved and cared for him, wanting only for InuYasha’s happiness. He had just over a week before he was joined to Kagome though a human ceremony. He had a fox that all but considered him his father and a little girl who had begun calling him onii-san. He was now overwhelmed with family.

Thankfully, Kagome came and placed an arm around him, as though sensing that her fiancé needed a little additional comfort without it looking like he did.

He squeezed her waist in return, silently letting her know he loved her.