Oden Shop by Murasaki K

Parents

Parents

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Rumiko-sama does.

'A small restaurant, that would be nice, something to start over with, something to put effort on, to cook for strangers and then to come home and cook for your family, something simple, not what I'd normally cook at the restaurant. Starting with gyoza (fried dumplings) and then ebi fry (deep fried shrimp), as side dish maybe a little salad, although I'd probably be the only one who'd eat it, Shippou would most likely demand his two portion of purin (Japanese Pudding) after the dinner, but I'd almost certainly oppose it, "not until you finish your rice." He'd probably pout at me, but continue to finish his dinner, I'd pat him on the head and give him his favorite dessert, and then we all would watch TV, and I would ask what they would like to have for their bento (lunch box) tomorrow and Inuyasha----'

A figure crumbled to the floor, breaking, whimpering.

'Inuyasha would- he would- say "anything, as long as we're having tonkatsu ramen (noodle with pork based soup) for dinner tomorrow." And I would say, "stupid dog, we're not going to have ramen every second night!" And he'd say, "why not?! I like your ramen!" I would then smile and comply.'

The figure laughed and cried at the same time.

'I'm loosing it; he's making me loosing it.'

~*~

It was five years ago when Kagome found herself on the other side of the well, not the other side she yearned, but the other side she had said her goodbye to.

When the wish was made, she had never once thought, that there might be a chance she would be materialized back to her own time, because she was so sure that her world was there, where the Kaede's village was, where a boy with long raven black hair and blue eyes, with scarlet; stronger than poor armor, woven from fire rat's fur, clothes lived.

It was where a little demon child with green eyes and orange hair was waiting for his reward, sweets, that she kept rationed only for him.

It was where she thought she had built a new family to spend her time for the rest of her life with.

It was where she was whole.

~*~

Had she made a terrible mistake in her past life to deserve this? Why was her karma so dire? She had not been vengeful, she was even generous, and she had even shared, hadn't she? But she was not made to be happy, only to be stranded, forlorn and desolate.

~*~

She remembered it was in a starry night like this, their mission was finally accomplished, after one and a half year traveling like Bedouins, fighting and suffering, all mistakes were fixed and forgiven. The old case of torn feelings was explained and she was won over, by him, not as if she hadn't worked for his affection, but she liked the romantic cliché that the male would always fight for the girl's affection.

Well, the main thing is, Kikyou went alone to hell and Inuyasha loved her, Kagome, and Kagome was not Kikyou's reincarnation, Kagome was Kagome, and Inuyasha loved her because she was Kagome.

When two lovers found each other, well, when one was a human and the other was a half demon, what would they do next? Rethink.

How much time did they have together? She didn't want him watching her grow old, that wouldn't be a problem, he said, once they were mated, her life span would naturally be extended, she would live as long as him. The kindness of nature, she sighed.

But something bothered them, was it actually good to live that long? They would outlive their friends and watch them die, and that would be terrible. Of course out of their selfishness, they did not think of Shippou, that they might have the responsibilities to watch over him, they had appointed themselves as Shippou's parent after all, actually she as his mother and he as her mate-to-be would logically be his father. (At this point he was actually a bit uncomfortable and he hmphed a bit)

But they were children, and children acted first then think, so he wanted to make his wish, and she granted him the jewel. (The jewel was won over Naraku, Naraku was demolished and his spawns were liberated, Kohaku was miraculously revived –with a little help from a sword named Tensaiga-, Miroku's kazaana was lifted, Sango was content, Kirara purred beside her, only one victim was gone forever, Kaede.)

Inuyasha declared that he would become a human, live his life as a normal human would, and marry his Kagome. (She blushed.)

"Oh yeah?! That's what you think, mutt face! I'm going to make the wish to become a human and marry Kagome!!"

A familiar voice, even though they were a bit annoyed, they were glad anyway that he lived. (Well, not all actually.)

"After you made the wish, I'll kill you and marry Kagome." Inuyasha countered back in –yes, you read correctly, Inuyasha countered back, in words, no fists, no kicks, no curses, no wind scar, words, as in talking- calm tone.

So it was confirmed, Kouga was in good health, even though he lost the shards on his legs, he wasn't hurt and his youki was still enough to make him faster than any other demon.

"Then after you make your wish, I'll kill you and take Kagome away, dog breath!"

Everybody sighed, there was no ending to this, they might as well fight each other right now, and the winner got to mate the girl.

"Kouga-kun, come here a sec, and you'll stay right there, Inuyasha." Kagome said in her sweetest syrupy voice, indicating that something bad was going to happen, bad, bad things.

After that all they could hear was Kouga whining and Kagome, though incoherent, was admonishing him sternly, sometimes they heard a little slap, and then more whine, finally she came alone.

"So, where were we?"

~*~

Did she ever regret that she gave him the jewel? A big YES.

She never even stopped to think about the consequences, now after five years; she thought about all of them she had left behind, she thought about Inuyasha a lot, but most of all she thought about Shippou.

How could she do this to him? Once again the little orphaned demon child was loosing a family member, how could she not stop, rethink and concentrate on her priorities?

She realized now that Shippou might be unhappy too. Back then, when they were making the wish, she never gave a thought that even though she and Inuyasha would die together, the little Shippou would have to watch them die, in his teenager years too, and he would be left alone.

But the wish was backfired, everything went wrong and she never even had a chance to say goodbye or apologize.

Everyday she lived her life imagining how it should have been, and how it should never have happened.

Sometimes a thought crossed her mind, what if her little Shippou was still alive? Through all the centuries, searching for her, awaiting the chance they would find each other again, anticipating, forgiving and lonely, lonely... the thought hit her hard, she had condemned him to loneliness. The moment she gave Inuyasha the jewel, she had decided his fate, to witness the death of his friends, who meant so much to him.

The fault of being a parent, but not to admit responsibilities as one.

~*~

She was seventeen when she was back to her future life; she had a lot to catch up with and missing school for half a year wasn't actually a supporting record either, even though she studied hard, took many tutorial aids, working herself to mortal exhaustion, she knew she would never really catch up with everything, she had willed this backwardness, satisfied herself with average results.

After school, she didn't know what to do next, she just filled her times taking courses and doing part time jobs. Until she remembered how Shippou loved her cooking, well Inuyasha would never express his appreciation noticeably over her food preparation, but he always grunted when he found her food likeable, and that was enough for her.

She decided, she would become a cook, it was only too logical to figure out why, it was the thing she did best, she had the taste, the knowledge of herbs and spice, the instinct for the apt seasoning, and she was the happiest when she cooked, it was as simple as that.

She took three years schooling, and half a year ago she was lucky to get a chef job in a reputable elegant restaurant in the city.

The restaurant served many international dishes, not actually specializing in authenticity, but focusing on the fusion of international and regional tastes. But some dishes were meant to be prepared as they originally were, especially Chinese cuisine, so she tried to benefit from the technique of preparing the ingredients, instead of ruining the ingredients by fusing the spices.

She knew that many people didn't actually trust fusion restaurants, and their customer circle was a bit diminutive at first, but they were gaining trust by creating first class, heavenly tasted, fused dishes after another, and the customer circle was increasing rapidly. Where once there was peace and joy of cooking, now there was additively stress and exhaustion, but the joy was still there anyway.

But still after weeks of pleading she was finally granted a new contract by her boss, she got to work from Wednesday to Saturday. Four days work's schedule was the best thing that ever happened to her, she loved her job, but still she wanted a life along too.

~*~

Sesshoumaru was not happy, he did not need to humor his business representative, he was after all the boss, wasn't he? But being constantly around human for over three hundred years had taught him things, like patience and goodwill, that would certainly earn trust, and he had had enough from distrust, it was tiring to live alone, so he went along as long as it did not irritate him, yet.

So there he was, on the fifth day of the week, in an overbooked restaurant, terribly irritated, his nose was in the verge of falling off, he groaned, 'the stenches in this distance,' he looked at his worker, sizing him, 'if I wrench his flesh out of his skin, would the cook prepare it de sauté for me?'

His employee was looking at him nervously, he repeatedly mentioned that he should try the fish rolls with dill butter, it was the best in the fish category, Sesshoumaru simply lifted his brow and countered that he would prefer meat. And the conversation was ceased.

Over the entrée and the oyster vichyssoise (leek cream soup with oyster), Sesshoumaru couldn't help to notice two things, one: the cuisine was great, two: it was strangely, frighteningly familiar, something about the aroma and aura of it, the hand that had prepared it, was- was- damn! He couldn't put his claw on it.

Maybe he had tasted that person cooking from another place, and then he noticed as his dinner company began to shift uncomfortably, 'what's wrong with this pup?' he wondered, 'yes, the entire time he had behaved like a pup.'

He knew that his worker always behaved like a progeny around him; maybe it was because he had financed his education, provided his needs, but then he was always soft towards orphans, like when he took the little kitsune in his care. His worker was a human, one of few who knew his secret as being the oldest youkai alive, and he did sometimes act like a patron toward him, but that was because he was proud that he was able to mold something out of him, to make him the best in his division. However tonight, the pup was ruining his image, as well as his.

After the veal medallions with mustard and prosciutto was served and painstakingly neat consumed, the waiter offered them the dessert card, Sesshoumaru refused politely and settled for doppio espresso instead, while his worker leafed through the menu, seemed uneager to leave.

When he had finally finished his dessert, he turned to the head waiter and requested the chef's presence to express his satisfaction over the cuisine.

It was then that Sesshoumaru realized that he was referring to a future female mate, and he was asking his consent because he was peculiarly in some strange angle his father.

He almost laughed out loud, the whole charade for something like this, some human father might find this very touching, but he found it very tiring and degenerating. But he played along anyway, somewhere along patience and goodwill his instinct told him to stay.

And as they waited, Sesshoumaru recognized disgustedly the building scent of arousal on his adopted son, 'yuck, among all these food.' But he was intrigued, what kind of rare species was this girl to be able to stir a male being into something putty in her hand?

He caught a whiff of a distinctive scent, his mind whirled.

~*~

Five hundreds years ago he was betrayed of his legacy, a girl that used to accompany his half brother had broken his pride the moment she was able to pull the rusty sword from the stone, he could not even touch it. He wasn't the chosen one in his father's eyes.

He lashed his toxic claw towards her. The girl had smelled like jasmine and spring rain.

The second time he attacked her, he realized that she was indeed strong.

The last battle against Naraku, the smell of jasmine and spring rain seemed to wash over the battle arena, the girl was still pure.

He saw his half brother for the last time but couldn't detect the scent of the girl who used to accompany him. The girl had left him, and his half brother was broken.

He saw the kitsune crying his eyes out over the girl, lonely, left alone but still hoped to meet her. He wondered about the girl, how could one person be so loved?

The hanyou that became human, the kitsune, the monk, the demon exterminator had separated and never found their happiness.

~*~

Kagome straightened the sleeve of her uniform, something was making her nervous, and she chided herself, why should she be? She had done this hundred times before, and it was only Shiki.

She walked down the hall, greeting some guests and inspecting their orders, contemplating the choices some made; she'd left almost none unattended and continued to walk straight into the bright, shining, anticipating puppy eyes of her friend.

"Shiki-dono, do you have any complains to spare?"

"Hai, Kagome-dono, I'm referring to your houkouonchi, it almost took you half an hour to get here." He huffed.