Like Father, Like Son by Leloi “Sesshoumaru-sama!”  A young woman entered the room and sat down beside her lord with unrepressed familiarity.  Sesshoumaru’s eyes followed her with interest.  Over the course of years her shape had changed into that of a woman.  Breasts swelled under her tight fitting kimono.  Her slender hips filled out, making her appear voluptuous.  “Rin.” Rin snuggled against his side, despite the angry looks she was receiving from her lord’s retainer, Jaken.  “Sesshoumaru-sama…” The old demon began.  “Silence, Jaken… leave us.” Pouting, the little green minion left the room. Rin stared up at her lord with wide brown eyes.  They still held her innocence despite her age and all she had seen living with a demon.  “Sesshoumaru-sama… tell me a story.” “I’m not one for telling stories.”  Sesshoumaru answered, allowing her to lay her head on his thigh.  Silently he watched her fingers play with the fabric of his hakema.  Since when had he become so lenient to her little advances… her innocent flirtations?  Ever since she came to live with him, he allowed her free run of his palace.  It was only recently that he allowed her to touch him constantly.  They were all innocent little touches, but he knew someday they would be far more than that.  The lord KNEW how to touch a woman, he only bide his time before touching Rin.  In many ways she was still a child.  The first woman he had ever touched… ^.~ Sesshoumaru slunk in the shadows watching his father’s body contort with ecstasy as he claimed his new mate.  The woman was human and a warlord’s daughter, coming to the palace after his father had whisked her away for a night of passion.  Of course father wouldn’t be satisfied with some peasant girl to service his needs.  With a grunt of satisfaction the old youkai pulled away, leaving her open and vulnerable on his bed.  The younger demon watched for several minutes, waiting for his father to return.  But most likely the old demon had gone off to let the woman recover.  How so very like his father to take into consideration the female’s need to breathe.  His eyes studied her pale form.  It lay in the same position the old youkai had left her in, with her legs open to the cool room.  Sesshoumaru slowly approached, drinking in all the details.  Her chest rose and fell with each breath and her hair was unbound, partially over her face.  From her thighs and the swollen red lips of her sex glistened his father’s seed.  “My lord?”  Her hand pushed back her hair and stared in the direction Sesshoumaru was.  The young demon cursed, knowing he had been careless by approaching so close.  Thankfully it was dark enough that she couldn’t see his features.  “My lord.”  Her arms reached out for him.  Silently Sesshoumaru approached.  It was late night when he had heard the sounds of his father’s mating.  Coming to investigate, he had left his clothes behind.  “Will you take me again?”  Her voice was soft and hesitant as if asking for such things was still rather new to her. Casting hungry eyes up and down her pretty little body, he could see why his father had taken her.  His fingertips reached out to gently caress her lower lips, surprised to hear her gasp of pleasure.  At the beginning of the night the woman had been a virgin… and yet now she was hungry for her lord to satiate her.  Glancing around the room as if he expected to see his father looming in the darkness, Sesshoumaru waited a moment to see if he would appear before crawling on top of her body.  The woman moaned and wrapped her arms around his shoulders as her hips slowly rubbed at his.  “My lord…” Cautiously the younger demon leaned down to take in her scent.  His father’s scent covered her, but she still retained her own.  Emboldened, he reached down to position himself against her, feeling her impale her body on his almost instantly.  It was like… nirvana.  A tight fitting heat surrounded him and it was all he could do not to give in to the basic instincts and thrust away at her like the sex-starved whelp he was.  Instead, he reveled in the texture of her skin against his.  The woman grunted and wrapped her legs around him, squeezing him as she tried to start their rhythm.  After exploring her neck with his fingertips he finally gave in, thrusting with all the lust and desire borne to him after many years mateless.  Her body accepted his, moved with his.  Roughly he filled her over and over again until he felt his body throb and spasm.  Holding her close, he trembled, feeling his seed join his father’s within her.  Only then did he realize the extent of what he had done.  This was his father’s mate… and he had just taken her in his father’s bed.  Of course the older youkai would find out.  Hastily he got up and backed away from her.  Already she seemed satisfied with his performance… and yet needed more.  Shaking his head, he stepped back into the shadows and felt a sharp stab at his shoulder.  His body was dragged out of the room and down the hallway.  “What have you DONE?”  The older youkai demanded, slamming his son against the wall. “I… I…” Sesshoumaru replied, feeling his father’s claws at his throat.  “Father, I…” “If you ever breathe a word of this to her or make her doubt in any way… I will kill you.”  As if to emphasis, his fingers squeezed a bit more.  “Understand, Sesshoumaru?” “Yes…”  The older demon let go and dropped his son to the floor.  Silently he walked away, back to his room and his waiting mate. ^.~ “Sesshoumaru-sama?”  Rin’s voice pierced his thoughts. His face clouded over with confusion for only a second before looking back down at her where she rested on his thigh.  “Rin…”  Lazily she rolled over onto her back, still resting on his thigh.  If she noticed that the kimono had pulled a bit open and he could see the side of her breast, she didn’t seem to care.  “Don’t you know any stories at all?” “None.”  His eyes studied hers.  Before he had tried a human woman’s flesh, he had never dreamed of taking one as a mate of his own.  Now… Sitting up suddenly, Rin stared up at him with her big brown eyes.  “Why do you keep me around?” “What?” “I can understand when I was a child… maybe you took pity on me that I was alone.  But why keep me now?  You must know that I’ve started my cycles a couple of years ago.  I’m no longer a little girl.” “You never asked to leave.” “I don’t really want to…”  Rin looked away and bit her lip.  “But if you know I’m old enough to be on my own, why haven’t you sent me away?”  Her body suddenly moved into his lap as she had done many times as a child.  The only difference was now she was a woman… and a woman uncaring that her kimono falling off at that.  “What is it you want from me, Sesshoumaru-sama?” “Want from you?” “You haven’t sent me away… there must be something you want… something you have yet to ask me for.” ^.~  His father pulled the newborn from his mother’s breast after he finished nursing.  The little one gave a small cry but settled in the old youkai’s arms as his mother lay back on the cushions and closed her eyes.  Leaving the room, the old youkai passed the newborn to his son.  Sesshoumaru stared down in shock and then wonder, studying the gold eyes that looked back into his own.  The child snuggled against him, falling asleep.  There was no mistaking the feeling of warmth and connection he felt with the little one in his arms.  “This child… is mine.” “Yours?  His mother is MY mate.  The child I claim as my own, even if the seed that brought him into the world isn’t.”  The older youkai watched the two carefully. “You would take him from me?”  Sesshoumaru felt hurt and threatened by his father’s intervention, but didn’t want to show it to his father.  “And what would you do?  Tell his mother what you had done, gone to her and pretended to be me because you wanted to feel female flesh for the first time?  That would kill her sense of honor, Sesshoumaru.  I claim the child as my own.  No one but you and I will ever know the truth.  He will be raised as your brother.  That should be enough.”  “But… it isn’t.”  Sesshoumaru answered.  His father took away the child, holding him gently against his chest.  “What is it to you?  You’ve always been disgusted in my choice of human women.  Why would one half breed change how you feel?” The young demon frowned, flustered at his father’s pointing out his hypocrisies.  “I… it doesn’t.” “You don’t even know how to be compassionate towards humans… how can you love this child you’ve created?  You won’t.  I know you.  You still have a lot to learn… a lot to accept about what it is in your nature to do.  You are a wild dog demon that has yet to be tamed.  Until you do that, until you’re tamed… what sort of father will you be to this child?” Sesshoumaru glared at the floor, feeling his father’s truthful accusations ringing in his ears, making him feel humiliated. “Sesshoumaru… you are my heir.  I only do this because I want you to be the best you can be.  You aren’t ready yet.  Once you’ve accepted what you are… and what your relationship with humans is… then…” “Why did you even show me the truth about him?  Why?” “I must show you there are consequences to your actions, my son… consequences that go beyond you and your desires.  You would have found out eventually… and then how would you feel… knowing you had a son and that no one dared to tell you?” His guilt and humiliation weighed him down heavily.  “I hate you…  You and all your stupid human women.”  Turning, he stomped away.  ^.~ “There is something I want of you…”  Sesshoumaru began softly, almost tenderly.  A hundred years had passed since the night his father had shown him the child and taken him away.  A hundred years… many of which had been spent, feeling bitter by his father’s tough love.  A love, he realized now, that had been intended to ready him for his adulthood.  A hundred years ago he had only physically been an adult… now mentally he was one as well.  That came with time and watching and waiting until one human female had made him understand it all.  Now he could accept that his father had been right… about everything… about loving the child he helped create.  Inuyasha… Sesshoumaru chuckled.  The idiot had grown up without any fatherly influence.   Only recently had the demon noticed any redeeming qualities in his child.  Perhaps they had always been there, but Sesshoumaru had been too caught up in himself to notice.  Not that he would ever admit out loud that he had any growing fondness for the little bastard.  But secretly he was proud of the man Inuyasha was becoming… enough to help nudge him along the way.  “What is it, Sesshoumaru-sama?”  Rin asked, looking up at him. “A child.  I want a child.” “An heir?”  Rin perked up, hugging her lord. “No, Rin… just a child.”  His heir had long since grown up and was now off somewhere with his own mate… the miko that had tamed his wild heart. Rin didn’t seem to notice.  “When should we start?  Should we start soon?  How many children do you want?” “Woman…”  Sesshoumaru whispered.  “Be patient.  I’ll give you as many as you wish when you’re ready.”  His lips touched her forehead.  “Now go… put on a nicer kimono, it’s almost time for dinner.” Excitedly Rin obeyed, running out the door without any formalities.  “Father… why must you always be right?”  Sesshoumaru stood and left the room. Epilogue Sesshoumaru stood, staring out at the field for a long time as Rin ran all over, seeking out wild flowers.  “Sesshoumaru-sama!  Sesshoumaru-sama, look here!”  Her words were full of joy and innocence.  Not long ago he had told her that he wanted children from her… and now she seemed no more than a child, excited by the world.  A miko approached them soundlessly.  “Sesshoumaru, what do you want?”  The figure dressed in white and red demanded.  “You best leave before Inuyasha finds you here.” “Inuyasha is not here.  That is why I’ve come.”  The dog demon replied.  “You who are his woman… there is something I must tell you about that bastard.” Rin gaily ran here and there, weaving together her flowers. “I will take that young woman soon… as my woman.  She believes she will bear me an heir… but that is not so.  My heir was sired a long time before she was even born.”  Sesshoumaru’s words were soft so no one but the miko could hear.  “I don’t understand…” “HE is to be the next lord of the Western Lands… should I die.  His children will inherit the same right from him and so on.”  Sesshoumaru’s eyes seemed to go distant.  “As the woman who will bring forth his heirs…” “But… Inuyasha is your brother, right?   You both have the same father, different mothers?” “The seed that sired Inuyasha did not come from my father.”  Sesshoumaru turned to regard her.  “His mother did not know that two demons laid with her that night.  One demon was my father… and the other…”  The demon stopped, watching Rin come towards him.  “Sesshoumaru-sama!  Look what…”  The young woman stopped and stared at the miko, unsure how to react.  “Rin… let me speak to the miko alone.”  Silently his young companion obeyed, keeping a wary eye on the two. “You are Inuyasha’s father.”  The miko whispered.  “When he slips into his youkai mind the markings on his face… his red eyes… match yours.” “I daresay that came as a surprise.  My father never had those marks.” “And all the times you could have killed him…” “I can hate him with all my soul for being my mistake… but I won’t kill him.”  With an airy sigh, the dog demon stepped away from the miko, confident she would not harm him when his back was to her.  “His blood is directly from my line.  Should he know that, would he be pleased?”  Gracefully his body turned as his head cast a gaze over his shoulder. “I… don’t know.”  The miko answered truthfully.  “Sesshoumaru… do you still hate him?” For a long time the demon lord didn’t answer.  But it seemed for a moment his pride wavered.  Slowly he turned and made his way back to Inuyasha’s woman.  “Outwardly, yes.  The circumstances that brought him into this world were… regrettable.  The loss of self-control is not excusable.  Had he been born to my father… I would no doubt loathe his existence for his entire lifetime.  But fate works in strange ways.  It was my… lack of experience that brought him here.  But his flesh is of my own.  I accept that now.”  A strangely wistful look crossed the dog demon’s face.  “I held him in my arms once.  After he was born and still helpless… I wanted him.  I knew I would kill anyone who would try and destroy him.  But I wasn’t old enough to keep him… or appreciate him.  So he was taken away.”  A scowl crossed his features and he looked away with distaste, obviously disturbed at what he had just confessed.  “Don’t cloud my thoughts, woman.  I’ve only come to tell you what you should know about the bastard you let into your bed… of the children he will one day fill you with.  Whether I hate him or not is for me to know… not you… and not him.” “Thank you for sharing that with me, Sesshoumaru.” His golden eyes scowled at her.  “I told you.  I didn’t do it for you.  Rin.” The young woman came running at his call, taking her place at her lord’s side.  “Make sure… he lives.  At least for now.”  The demon lord whispered, pulling his companion away. Kagome smiled, watching them leave.  “You do care about your son, don’t you?”  Her words were for her own benefit.  Satisfied they were gone, she turned and returned to the small hut built near the well. --End Back to the Gallery