Modern Love

Sesshoumaru was waiting when InuYasha came home from work. The scene at the hospital had angered him, but not as much as his meeting with Krista’s Grandmother. He’d met her at a coffee shop a few blocks away from the hospital.

InuYasha smiled softly at the elder demon. He sat his jacket and bag down, then walked to the couch to embrace him. The icy look in his eyes made him hesitate momentarily.

“I take it things didn’t go very well with the grandmother?” InuYasha sat down.

“Far from well.” Sesshoumaru’s voice held a tone that could have stilled boiling water. “She was insistent that Krista have no contact with her family. How cold, to toss away your family.”

Sesshoumaru looked InuYasha in the eye, and reached a hand up to pull off the scrub hat. He fiddled with it.

“Brought back bitter memories?” InuYasha asked quietly. “I can understand.”

“You don’t. She had Krista’s mother sign away her rights. That’s why they were here. She was trying to flee her. Krista’s mother was only nineteen. She was fifteen when she gave birth to Krista. Having an illegitimate child in the family, in the grandmother’s eyes, was shameful. Krista’s mother was a secretary with a international firm for a high placed executive. She earned enough money to set Krista for life if anything happened to her. The grandmother coerced her into signing away her rights, and to signing away Krista’s trust fund. If anything was to happen to her, Krista would have money to settle into a decent life once she reached eighteen. The grandmother got all the money due to a loophole in the will. If Krista was adopted by anyone not related to her, all the money went to her grandmother. That’s why she forced the poor girl to sign away her rights.”

“She’s a..bi...” Sesshoumaru put his hand over InuYasha’s mouth.

“That’s not the half of it. I talked to the adoption agency this morning when they finalized the adoption. The police reports say the brakes were tampered with on the car Krista and her mom were in. They didn’t release any of the family’s names due to the request of her grandmother. I am thinking that she knew where she fled, and followed. I got a call from a girl about a week ago saying that if anything happened to her, she’d hand picked us to adopt her child. The adoption agency confirmed that. The girl had been in, and selected us only if something happened to her.”

“So she knew that her mother was out to kill her?”

“I don’t know. The grandmother arrived in Tokyo today. I think it was just a freak accident.”

“So why the stipulation that Krista was ours if something happened to her?”

“The girl was running away from something other than her mother. But none of that matters now. We have Krista, and nothing that we spoke of tonight will ever be spoken in front of her.”

“I don’t want her to know either. I hope we can erase some of her pain.”


Sesshoumaru’s eyes began to soften. InuYasha could tell that after he talked out his anger, he calmed down. Five hundred years had been a long time for Sesshoumaru to learn how to feel emotions. For him to learn that emotions were not a sign of weakness.

“Are you hungry?”

“Just tired. I will eat something, though. I do have someone else to think about.” InuYasha patted his stomach. “After all these years, I’m surprised haven’t learned that I’m never not hungry.”

Sesshoumaru laughed as he stood up. His waistline had already began to show his condition. It wouldn’t be long before they both had to move to Kouga’s country home to await the birth of their babies. In the mean time, they’d try to live life as normally as possible.

“Chicken or shrimp ramen?” Sesshoumaru held up two bowls of pre-packaged ramen noodles.

“Shrimp! I have been craving that.” InuYasha filled the tea kettle as he spoke. He sat it on the fire and turned to look back at Sesshoumaru. “Have you put in for your leave from work?”

“I did, and I talked to the nursing director at the hospital. I explained that I am having a surgery in two months and will need you to take care of me. She was baffled that it was scheduled so far in advance till I explained that it was of personal nature. She quickly agreed to put you on leave.”

“That will put us at five months along. We have to be careful after that time. How are going to explain this to Krista.”

“Ayame has agreed to assist us with Krista when we move out to their home. She will try to minimize her seeing us in normal clothes. If we can wear looser clothing around her, it will make us only look ... fat.”

“How do we explain us not having babies one day, then suddenly having them? We adopted more?”

The tea kettle whistled and Sesshoumaru took it off the stove. He filled the bowls with the water and sat the kettle back on the stove. He silently worked on the food. After securing the paper lids back over the soups, he turned to InuYasha.

“That’s not something I am ready to think about. Either way, she’s going to feel hurt that we have more children than her. At least, I think she might. I remember our kids being. Kitarra, Kichiro and Shiori wouldn’t accept any other child we had when they were young. That’s why I tried to keep us both from..”

“They are grown now, and they are happy to welcome little siblings.”

Sesshoumaru turned back to the food, and opened the bowls. The soup steamed and smelled welcoming. They took the food to the table and ate in silence. Then after cleaning up, they both showered and crawled into bed. InuYasha fell asleep almost instantly, but Sesshoumaru sat thinking for a while.

“Just how do we explain to Krista?”