For SESSKAG week day 5: Horror (disaster)
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It was raining. Of course, it had to be raining. The grey skies and stormy treatment lent the scenery an extra air of gloom that wasn’t really required. Maybe that was why she was there.
She had been a terrible widow. It had been days since the battle that had taken him from her, days since she had buried him, yet it was the first time she had been able to visit his grave site since then.
No one had survived, accept her. Accept him. And whether by way of exhaustion or distress or something else entirely, she felt no surprise when he helped her to bury him.
The endless onslaught from above made the dirt muddy and soft. Easier to dig, perhaps, but messier. His claws made quick work of it. That was the last time it had rained. Maybe that’s why he was there now too.
She had just started digging; didn’t bother asking him to heal his brother with his sword. She knew it was pointless, as he had already returned his life once before. He couldn’t help him now, but he could help her. Without a word, he forced her from where she hacked at the earth with her meager dagger, and in a matter of minutes, his sullied claws were once again pristine. With the hanyou six feet deep, his bloodline was as well, though he knew not for long.
His death would have pleased him once. His satisfaction perhaps only tainted by the fact that it was not he who dealt the whelp his killing blow, as he had considered his right... if not his duty. But throughout the years and the bloodshed, the fighting and the name-calling, Sesshoumaru had changed.
Creeping so slowly and silently from his opposing end of the battlefield that none of them seemed to notice when he had taken up his new place beside them. She wondered if even he had realized it, until it was too late.
Too late...
No matter what amazing feats the brothers had overcome, it was all too late for it now.
“You should be proud. There is no end nobler than to die a warrior’s death.”
She didn’t acknowledge when he approached to stand at her side, or even when he knelt to lay a single tulip on the disturbed dirt beneath Goshinboku. He had once slept here for 50 years, and now he would forever.
But she couldn’t ignore her brother-in-law's attempt to soothe her spirit. His words only enhanced her guilt, and her sorrow.
“He died protecting me,” she lamented, her solemn strength betrayed by obvious regret. “If only my aim had been truer.”
All those years, practicing... improving... succeeding...
Only to miss her mark when everything was on the line. At least Sesshoumaru was there, to do what she could not. But though fast enough to vanquish their common enemy, he was not quick enough to protect her heart. That, however, wasn’t his responsibility.
“Had only my strike been swifter.”
She knew he regretted it; not being there in time. Replaying the events over and again in her head, she wondered if it was his faith in her abilities that delayed his interference. Then again, Sesshoumaru was never one to take chances. Though certain he would never admit it, he might have just acted too slowly.
“I guess both of us are to blame.”
Her humorless smirk drew his focus from the dirt. He could hear it on her lips, and for some reason he couldn’t name, it bred a small albeit earnest one of his own.
“Or neither.”
She supposed he was right. The land of ‘what ifs’ and ‘could haves’ was not one the demon lord dwelled within. Still, his attempt to comfort her – strange enough as it was – was not one she was ready to accept.
“His legacy will live on, with your assistance. And mine, should you allow it.”
“What?”
She sought his gaze then; tearing her eyes and her self-destructive thoughts from her husband’s resting place, only to find the golden depths that looked so much like Inuyasha’s focused on her newly protruding stomach.
Thinking was hard. But words and meaning began to right themselves into some semblance of understanding. And it was either his recognition of this or lack thereof which saw him elaborate before she could respond.
“This One vowed to protect you both, should he fall. I rely on you to see that I keep my word.”
A man of few words, and he didn’t waste a one. Precise, and clever as he was; it allowed for his reputation to flourish as a demon who never begs. She wondered if any other than her would have recognized the plea.
He had only just begun to repay what was certain to be a lengthy debt. A lifetime of denouncement and vitriol couldn’t be made up in just a few simple gestures, after all.
But the untimely death of his brother did not spell the end of his chance for retribution. There was still opportunity to make his amends. His honor could be restored, even if Inuyasha could not.
“I shall open my home to you. I will stand in my brother’s place.”
An offer not made lightly, but given so easily. He had been fool enough to hope – a distant, unexamined thing – that the many years ahead would not only see his sins forgiven. Unbeknownst to him, he had hoped that with time, through practice and penance, that he would reclaim what he’d once rejected. What he’d once despised. What now, for reasons not entirely clear to him, he longed for.
Family.
And through his vow to his half-blooded kin, he had ensured that though his brother was dead, his own aspirations were not.
“You’re proposing to me now? Here, standing over his grave?”
She would be indignant. He’d expect nothing less.
Though she had earned more than just the barest hints of respect from him through her determination and skill, it was her devotion to those she held dear which made her worthy to stand by his side. Her loyalty had allowed him to call her an ally, and she to do the same. But she misunderstood.
As strong as she was, she needed protection. As strong as her child would be, it needed a father.
He did not require a wife, nor all the spoils one would afford him. But he would not allow the blood of the great Inu no Taisho to grow up without. Not again.
“Nothing of the sort,” he assured her. But the hint of amusement in his tone ensured her ire didn’t temper. That was good, he considered. He was pleased to distract from her distress, if only for a moment. “I will bring the child up and offer my protection. You will want for nothing. Need nothing. Have you any more suitable options?”
They both knew the answer to that. And as such, they both knew the answer she would give him.
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TBC... stay tuned for days 6 and 7 (and probably more lol)