One Strange Man
Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or its characters. Say hello to the very talented Rumiko Takahashi who owns him and the entire cast. Hello Rumiko Takahashi. Hehehe!
By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) (aka.) crescentmoon (at mediaminer) And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt and Dokuga.
Grandpa Higurashi was always praising his granddaughter to others. Sometimes he's outright lie to prove she was the best young woman in the world. He'd tell one friend that the girl was a miko, true. He'd tell another that she was a fabulous cook, almost true. He'd tell that one that she danced like an angel, white lie. He'd tell this one that she could cure any disease, lie. He'd tell more that she could banish demons, outright lie.
So when a stranger in town and he had to have a competition as to whose granddaughter is the greatest it shouldn't surprise anyone when he lied outrageously. Unfortunately the stranger couldn't tell he was lying and he didn't know the other man's reputation.
So him telling another is no surprise either. This other he told happened to be Kouga, the leader of the local wolf-demon pack and his granddaughter's 'meant to be'.
Kouga decided that if this human girl really could do this remarkable thing that she would be a better wife than Ayame.
This led to him tracking Kagome down and kidnapping her. He brought her to a specially made offering stone and told her to draw a jewel shard to her by morning or he'd kill her and set his wolves on her family.
Sitting on the offering stone Kagome began to cry. She doesn't know how to draw jewel shards to herself. So she wailed s quietly as she could, so the wolves wouldn't come back.
Flying above her on a cloud of demonic energy a dog-demon heard her. For some reason he decided to check on her. “Why are you crying, human? You are not hurt.”
Kagome looked up at the man. He looked strange to her, with his long, long, silvery-white hair shimmering in the moonlight. With his flame colored eyes glinting in predatorial light. With a blue crescent moon on his forehead and magenta slashes on his cheeks and eyelids. With his dangerous claws at the tip of each finger. He looked quite strange to her, strange yet beautiful.
She told the tall strange man about her grandfather's lie and how it got her in an impossible situation.
“I can do it.”
“Really? Would you?” she asked excitedly.
“Hmn. What will you give me if I do?”
“I don't have anything of value.”
“I see.” He suspended his talking. “If you become the wolf-demon's sister and they have a feast, you must give me the heart of the biggest animal they bring to their den.”
“Deal.” she readily agreed.
So the strange man jumped into a tree and began humming. After an hour of this the girl fell asleep and the demon jumped down. He ran off so quickly that if Kagome had been awake she wouldn't have seen him go.
Soon he returned and dropped a jewel shard in her hand. The man was fascinated by the fact that as soon as the piece of gem touched her it went from dark purple to light pink. Then the strange demon left her alone.
The next day Kouga made Kagome an honorary pack mate, a sister in the pack. He gave a big feast in recognition of the new sister and the shiny new shard.
Remembering her promise Kagome secured the heart to give to the odd man.
When the moon rode Kagome again was deposited on the stone with her family's lives hanging on whether she could make another jewel shard appear.
Kagome had no hope that the strange miracle man would return to help her again. So she again sat down and wept over the future.
This time the strange man was in the area on purpose. He knew that wolf demons were gluttonous creatures. This 'Kouga' wouldn't stop at just one shard. He would want more. After having helped the human his honor dictated that he would just have to assist her again.
So he appeared to the young woman again. She turned joyous at the sight of him.
“What will you give me if I assist you again?” he asked after collecting his heart. He'd eat it later.
“Um... I don't know what you'd wish.”
“Young miko, do you have anything that can... subdue a half-demon?”
“Not on me, but I do know how to make something like that.”
“Could you make it tonight?”
“If I had the supplies I need.”
“I will fetch them.”
She rattled off her list and the man was gone in a flash. He returned sooner than she expected and startled her.
As Kagome sat making a necklace and then placing a spell on it the strange demon stood in the tree as before, humming all the while. When the necklace was done Kagome set it aside. She laid down to rest. Kagome didn't mean to but she drifted into dreamland.
When she was deep asleep the demon dropped from his perch and placed a jewel shard he had collected that morning in her hand. It too shifted color at her touch.
He took the necklace made of beads and claws. He was gone long before morning.
Kouga came and got Kagome the next morning, he was please she had attracted another shard for his collection.
That night Kagome was again placed on the offering stone. The wolves left her all alone. The night she watched the sky worriedly. She had hope the odd man would come again.
He did. “What will you give me if I give you a jewel shard this night?'
“I don't know. What would you want in exchange?” She wondered if she would be able to fulfill the bargain this time.
The man had thought about it all day, he already knew what he wanted. “Give me your first born child.”
Kagome looked at him in shock. “You want what?”
“Give me your first born child and I will attract the jewel shard you need.”
Kagome stared at him, sized him up and then agreed to his terms. She would give him her first born child.
Kagome wasn't stupid she figured out that the strange man would only give her a shard after she was asleep. So she pretended to sleep. Not an hour later the strange man landed beside her and placed the third jewel shard in her hand. So hypnotized by the color changing phenomenon that he didn't notice her eyes opening.
He got up to leave, his job done for the night, when she grabbed his hand. “Take me with you. How can I give you a child if you leave me?”
His eyes shifted towards the wolf den.
“I must insist you marry me first though.”
Shooting back to the human woman his eyes widened, barely.
Kagome smiled in amused understanding. “How can I give you a child, unless I am your wife?”
The man didn't speak as he considered this new way of interpreting his words. A way he hadn't foreseen.
He looked the human girl over. Then he nodded. “Very well.”
She left the shard and trailed after the strange man.
It took him two days to find a monk who would marry him to Kagome. Never mind the fact that it was under the threat of losing his life.
Four months later Kagome felt she could say that her strange husband, if not entirely proud of it, was happy with his decision to keep her to himself. He would measure her still fairly small midsection everyday with his arms. Then he would sit very still for a few minutes, at least three, listening to her slowly expanding stomach. Whether he hear just one heartbeat or two she didn't know. But she did know he'd know the moment there were two or the moment it had happened.
When this daily occurrence occurred Kagome would pat his silver-white hair and try to pretend she wasn't embarrassed by his routine.
After the months of waiting the baby pup was born. A little boy with tuffs of pink tinted silver-white hair and golden-yellow eyes, just like his strange father's. He only had one of his father's facial markings, the blue moon, but it was misplaced. The moon was over at the edge of what would become the little one's hairline.
A few months before he was born Kagome's odd husband had brought her an even stranger little man, an imp with greenish skin, a beak-like mouth and a staff with both a young woman and an old man carved at the top. Said top was well over the little imp's head. This imp complained but helped her very much both before and after her little half demon came to be.
One day as she was cooing happily over her little boy, Jaken, the little imp, told her that she shouldn't spoil her baby so much when she wouldn't be able to continue spoiling him. She would die before he would truly be a child.
“What?” Turning to her husband, who was reclining on a tree. “Is that true?”
“Hmn.” He briefly nodded.
Her husband left her and her baby with Jaken about midday the next day.
Kagome was upset for days before her husband returned and told her that he could make it so she could watch her pup grow p. But he would only make it so if she could name his name in three days. Yet no matter the outcome she had to stop being so upset.
Latching onto this hope she started naming every name she could think of. Her husband seemed annoyed when she gave up on boy names and started calling out girl names as well. She probably named some twice.
Eventually she ran out of names and laid awake all night trying to think of more.
The next day she named anything and everything that came to mind as a possibility of his name. By the end of that day she still didn't know his name.
That night even with all the worry and stress Kagome couldn't stay awake. She kicked here and rolled there in her sleep yet sleep she did.
When she awoke the next day her husband was gone. Jaken was still there, watching over her baby while both mother and pup slept.
“Jaken-san.” said Kagome. “What is your lord's name?”
“Hah! I would not tell you, you lowly human! If my lord wanted you to know he would have told you himself!” he squawked triumphantly. The baby woke up because of his outburst. He picked it up and tried to soothe it.
“Isn't there anyway you'd tell me?” Kagome began to cry as well.
“No.” he answered firmly.
“Please Jaken-san!” she pleaded.
“No!”
“Jaken-san, he's my son!” cried Kagome.
“I can't!” He yelled over the crying of both the pup and it's mother. He deposited the bawling baby in Kagome's arms and stomped to the nearby river's edge.
Kagome gave her son a comfort suck and he returned to sleep. Then she went over and sat sadly beside the imp. “Jaken-san, what if I give you a week off from doing anything for me or my son?”
The imp's already large eyes widened. “Alright.” he agreed. Then he whispered his lordship's name to her.
Kagome smiled and thanked him. Then she left the little man on the bank alone.
There was a change in the way Kagome guessed names today. She seemed to be teasing her tall demon husband. He raised a brow. Kagome got closer to him with each horrible guess. Finally she was kneeling before him. She leaned in and his eyes shut. Kagome's cheek brushed against his. “Tell me, what way did you want this to end, Sesshoumaru-sama?” she whispered against her strange husband's ear.
His eyes flew open. They were slightly broader as they watched her pull away.
Jaken, who had been watching the scene intently, jerked to face the other way when Sesshoumaru stopped her retreat as she was about to arise. He tugged her until she was a hair's breath away from his face. Then the young demon lord murmured something lowly.
Kagome let out a small joyful squeak and launched herself the rest of the way to his lips. Arms gladly flung themselves around his neck. The kiss was only a peck. She followed it by nearly a hundred, spread around his face. He allowed her to kiss his face for a while then growled quietly and placed her lips back on his own for a proper kiss.
By now Jaken's ears were burning as he sat facing the other way.
Sesshoumaru languidly released her, hands sliding slowly from her hair as he relaxed back against his tree. Only after he deemed the kiss satisfactory.
Kagome breathed in as deeply as her shivering body could handle. It came back out unsteadily. Then the tip of her tongue wiped over the middle of her top lip, then the middle of the bottom in one swift move.
After witnessing that Sesshoumaru closed his eyes. To Kagome he looked almost smug.
His little wife got to her feet and rushed to her pup with a huge smile. Gathering him up to her heart she hurried back to her husband. Kagome sat beside him and snuggled into his side.
The curious Jaken whipped the other way. He was turning red again.
“What shall we name him my husband?”
Sesshoumaru's eyes opened slowly. Sliding his gold gaze over his black haired wife to the pup with curled dog ears in her arms. “Have you already named him?”
Kagome shook her head. “I thought the son should not have something his father lacks, Sesshoumaru-sama.” she whispered his name.
“My sons will have many things I lack, because you are their mother, Kagome.” he returned the favor, whispering her name in return. Eyes burning into her face. When a blush surfaced he turned his gaze to the little stranger in her arms, his son. “Ichirou.”
Kagome's blush intensified. Sesshoumaru once again shut his eyes. Kagome looked down at her pup in shyness. “Yes, Ichirou is a good name for him, Sesshoumaru.
No one saw the satisfied twitch of Sesshoumaru's lips.
Jaken was glad when two days later Sesshoumaru's life mate made good on her promise and sent him on vacation.
The End
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This turned out somewhat different than I expected. It came to me where most all great ideas do. You should all know where that is.
I don't remember why it came to be, I think it was something about wanting to make Sesshoumaru Rumpelstiltskin. But I do remember thinking what if when Rumpelstiltskin didn't specify whose child he wanted when he asked for the girl's first born child. And she took it as him wanting to make her with child and so runs off with him instead of marrying the king/prince. After all the king/prince was forcing her to spin straw into gold with her life at stake if she failed. Not exactly endearing if you ask me.
I hope you all enjoyed my story! Please let me know what you think. Reviews are manna from heaven! Thank you!