The Strong One by LadySafire

Chapter 1

I do not own InuYasha or any of its characters.......

She sat on the floor, a tumbler of the alcohol she favored this week dangling from trembling fingers. Her tears ran freely down her face as pain burned away in her heart.

 She felt alone, abandoned by her mother’s death. Everyone expected her to be there for them now as they dealt with their grief, to listen to their tears and pain.

 When would it be her turn? When would they listen to her and dry HER tears? Lifting the glass she took another deep sip and coughed slightly as the whiskey burned its way across her tongue and down her throat to pool hotly in her empty stomach.

 She set her glass aside and reached for the photo of her mother, a single finger tip tracing the image of her mother’s face as she remembered her mother’s last words.

 “You have to be strong for the rest, sweetheart. You are the strong one of the family and you will be the one they all will turn to.”

The dark haired woman gave a watery laugh as she set the picture aside. ‘How disappointed you must be in me, Mama. I’m not strong. I can’t be the person you wanted. I’ve sunken into a dark pit that I can’t escape from.’

She grabbed the glass and quickly drained it once again coughing at the burn. Sobs once again escaped her as she filled her glass.

 He watched through the window as the woman inside the house wept and sipped the alcohol. She was still clothed in her pajamas and from the looks of things had been in them for several days. Hadn’t her family noticed her decent into mental turmoil? He had become worried when she hadn’t answered her house or cell phone in days and had flown home to hear that her mother had passed.

 He shook his head and made for the front door, noticing that several days worth of mail had accumulated in the box. Sighing angrily, he reached out and gathered it all into his hands. Surprise flashed in his eyes when he turned the knob and found the front door unlocked. She had always been so careful about locking it late at night.

 Laying the small bundle of mail in a basket near the door, he continued forward to stand unnoticed in her doorway. The stench of the spirits she had been drowning her pain with permeated the room, making him twitch his nose in disgust. She had fallen further than he first thought.

Soft sobs made her lips tremble as she grieved. He moved silently to sit in the armchair across from her.

 “Kagome?”

 She looked up at him, her blue eyes red rimed and awash with a deep sadness. With a cry she flung herself against his chest and burst into deep body wracking sobs.

 “ I can’t be the strong one, Sesshomaru! I can’t be that one who takes over from Mama! I can’t…I just can’t!” she wept as her hands convulsively clenched in his shirt.

“It it all right to be weak, Kagome.” He whispered into her hair. “I’ll be the strong one for you right now. Lean on me, borrow my strength until you can use your own.”

 He pulled her into his lap and cradled her body until she dozed off, emotionally and physically exhausted.

 He would let her sleep for a while and then he would bundle her off to his own home. When morning came, he would help her seek treatment for her grief and stand by her side when she needed him.

 He would be the strong one for her.

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With love,

LadySafire