Disclaimer: I don’t own InuYahsha or its characters. They belong to their creator Rumiko Takahashi. Enjoy my insanity it isn’t worth anything more than that.
Destination
Sesshoumaru locked his gaze on his unfortunate target, his golden eyes narrowing down to deadly slits as he drew back his hand. Fingers flexed, muscles tensed, his whole focused on the downfall of his prey. With deadly precision, he struck.
The pyramid of milk bottles went down in a pathetic heap. “We have a winner!” bellowed the carnival barker. “Pick your prize.”
A small, excited hand tugged on his sleeve, the small girl at his hip hopping in her excitement. “The doggy, Daddy! The big fluffy white one! Please Daddy!”
With a calm gesture, Sesshoumaru nodded to the child and made a nonchalant gesture towards the pillow-sized mass of fluff which held the girl’s heart for the moment. “I will take the white stuffed canine.”
The worker handed over the hard won prize as Rin squealed in pure, unadulterated joy. “THANK YOU DADDY! It’s the best!” A single silvery eyebrow rose. “The best,” he mused. He had thought the pink balloon he had bought for her was the best, or was it the kite with a two headed dragon painted on it, or perhaps it had been the stuffed frog he had won her only two stalls ago. No, from the way she clung to his newest offering she certainly loved it best of all.
He watched as she disappeared behind the mass of white fluff, the stuffed animal almost as big as his daughter. Snorting he shook his head as her small hand reached out to once more clutch at his pinky finger. Ten dollars to win a three dollar stuffed animal, a knock-off of one of his own company’s designs. The potential mortification was worth it.
But Sesshoumaru no longer cared for his own pride. He had let go of that monster three long years ago. That night, that dark rainy night, had taught him how fallible he was. How the powerful business man, the feared Sesshoumaru Taisho, was just another man in the hands of fate. On that night he had learned the value of a simple life, and the bitter cost of a pointless death.
Failure had not been a word in his vocabulary. A colossus of enterprise, a master of industry, he had never known defeat. His life had been a series of deals and maneuvers, acquisitions and negotiations. A single nod of his head could lead to the success or downfall of entire corporations. There was nothing outside his sphere of influence. No element was out of his control.
It was amazing how the “Western Lord” could be laid low by something as simple as a nail in the road.
“Oh look daddy! Fishies!” The mass of white tugged on his arm as Rin tried to drag him towards a goldfish scooping stall. “Can we get one? Please Daddy?”
The shadow of a smile tugged at the corners of his lips before he gave her a curt nod. “Yes.”
For weeks he would lay up late into the night trying to trace the path from the butterfly wings that had caused the accident. Past the rain slicked road, past the sharp turn, past the narrow shoulder, past the missing spare, past the flat tire… the nail. It always bled down to the nail.
A man can’t blame a nail. It had to rest somewhere, though, and so it always came back to him. From nail, to journey, to destination: the swollen banks of the river.
“Look how cute they are Daddy!” Rin held up the bag of water so he could admire the two fat goldfish inside. “I gunna name ‘em after you. I’m gunna call this one ‘Sesshy’ and the small one ‘Maru’.”
Tilting his head Sesshoumaru met the dull gaze of ‘Sesshy’ with a critical frown. “Hn.”
The nail. That’s why he had been walking down that road. The night had been dark. The asphalt had been wet. The driver barley saw him and swerved. Sesshoumaru never thought a car could sink so fast.
“Oh daddy! Daddy look! Kakigōri! Can we have some? “ A sudden tug and he almost stumbled over the small child still hidden in a sea of fake white fur. “Oh I love kakigōri, my favorite is…”
“Strawberry.” He ordered from the man at the stall. “Two.”
The vendor pressed two cups of cool, shaved ice into his hands.
The water had been like ice, the cold stealing his breath and sapping the strength from his limbs. But he dove again. Deeper, he struggled downwards, his lungs burning. His fists beat against impenetrable glass, fingers tearing at unyielding metal till the unmovable moved. Bloody hands reached out, searching in the darkness, desperate yet hopeless. Until tiny fingers grasped his pinky and wouldn’t let go.
“Oh look! A magic act! Can we see it Daddy?” Sesshoumaru didn’t resist as he was once more dragged off at the whim of the tiny child clutching at his pinkie finger.
“Daddy. I can’t see. Pick me up!” He looked down into her upturned face her eyes glowing with excitement. Her tiny arms reached up to him as she stood on tip toes. He didn’t doubt that she would start to climb him if he didn’t acquiesce to her request soon. Sighing in defeat, he lifted her up into his arms.
Her body was cold and limp in his arms as he staggered from the icy grip of the river. Such a small thing. Light and fragile in his strong arms. She was as pale as a porcelain doll, and just as still. He pressed his ear to her blue lips holding, back his own desperate pants, listening, waiting. He was rewarded only with silence.
“A pony! Can I ride the pony Daddy?!” She tugged hard on his hand her tiny fingers squeezing his pinky till it went numb.
Sesshoumaru inspected the unsavory looking beast, unsure if it was worthy of carrying such a precious burden. “It smells.”
“Yeah! It smells like a pony!” The girl reached up to pet the velvety nose giggling in delight when the pony lipped at her fingertips.
“Is that what that … odor... is.”
He drew in ragged desperate breaths, cursing each one as his lungs filled with precious air, worth more in this moment than all his amassed wealth. He willed the child to stir, to breathe, he pleaded with her, begged her to give him just one whisper of a breath, just one sigh of life. But she remained still.
Tilting her head back he closed his mouth around her pale lips. If she were too weak, he would be her strength. He would breathe for her.
Sesshoumaru sighed as he shifted his weight from one foot to the next. He straightened as the door opened. An old blue-haired woman gave him a knowing smile and walked past. Frowning he leaned against the wall and waited. And waited. And waited.
“All done daddy! Look I remembered to wash my hands like you told me!”
The doctors said they had done all they could. The nurses told him to go home. The social worker said she was now all alone in the world. So he sat and waited.
All night long he stayed at her side. He listened to the monitor beep out her fragile pulse. He watched her small chest rise and fall with every weak breath. The next morning he discovered how brown her eyes were.
Her mouth opened in another large yawn and she snuggled deeper into his arms. She was getting heavier but he would continue to carry her for as long as he could. For as long as she would let him.
“It’s getting late. It’s time to go home.”
“But I’m not sleepy daaaa…dy” she yawned out, rubbing at her dropping eyes.
“Of course not. But daddy needs his nap.”
He had used all his power and influence for this one act of redemption. This once chance to make something good of that night. She would never be alone again. He would ensure it.
“Mommy!” the pitiful cry of pain tore through the crowd, shaking him from his memories. Rin’s hand held tighter to his as she looked over at a small boy clinging to his leg, a ruined ice cream cone laying in the dirt beside him.
Strangers passed by, barely casting the sobbing child a second glance as they made their way to the exit. The boy drew a stuttering breath and let out another desperate wail.
Sesshoumaru wavered for a moment before a woman pushed past him shoving her way through the crowd. She fell to her knees beside the boy gathering him into her arms. Her fingers combed soothingly through his shock of red hair as she crooned to him.
“I’m here sweetie. Mommy’s here.”
The boy’s sobs quickly shifted to sniffles as he clung to the woman holding fistfuls of her long black hair. “I got lost. And I fell down. And I hurt my knee. And I dropped my ice cream.” The boy’s bottom lip thrust out as he recounted his woes. “And I cried like a baby.”
The woman laughed softly, removing a butterfly hair pin from her dark tresses and pinning it to the boy’s shirt. “There. Now a part of me will always be with you so I can find you if you ever get lost again.” She leaned in to place a playful peck on the tip of the boy’s freckled nose.
“Do you know what the best cure for tears is, Shippo?”
The boy gave his mother a shy smile. “Tickles?”
The woman grinned before pulling the boy into her lap. His giggles of delight ringing even above the noise of the crowd.
Glancing down at Rin, Sesshoumaru flinched at the look of fierce longing in Rin’s eyes. “Daddy…. Can we have one of those?”
Sesshoumaru turned his gaze back to the woman and her child. His deep golden eyes reflecting the little girls wish.
“Yes.”
~fin~
A/N: Thanks be to my lovely beta Eric.