Title: Once in a Blue Moon

Author: landofthekwt

Rating: PG-13

Prompt: Blue Moon (Inuyasha Themes #19)

Word Count: 2000

Garden of Memories Universe

Warning: None

Summary: Inuyasha has some strange visitations as he remembers previous blue moons.

Inuyasha stared at the moon. The moon filled the horizon with that eerie blue shade. In the two hundred thirty years that he had been alive he had only seen only seen it five times before. It was ominous sight which always boded a change in the atmosphere.

The first time he had seen it was the night his mother died. Her illness had lingered for some time. He could smell death upon her, but he did not know at the time what it was. The cold and snow had clouded his senses. He had begged her to stay, but in the morning had found her already gone. They had never even said goodbye. He had been forced to move on without little boy had lost his humanity that day. His mother had been the thread to her people which was cut the day she died.

The second time was the night before he was going to use the Jewel to become human. He had pondered his decision into the night. Did he love Kikyou enough to give up a part of himself for her? If anyone, but Kikyou had asked him to become human, he would have refused him. With her there was the promise of love, the promise of family, promise of being together as husband and wife. The long night of endless fighting and loneliness would finally come to end.

The blue moon had forecast the disaster which followed. Both he and Kikyou were caught in a web of betrayal which the spider had spun so craftily. Everything they did that day had been orchestrated by Naraku. Only Kikyou had broken the spell by burning the Jewel with her body instead of wishing for life. Her act had doomed her, but allowed a second chance for all of them because her lingering affection for him had insinuated itself into the Jewel.

He remembered seeing this moon as he sat on the lake pondering his dream of that night. The dream which Naraku had induced with his spider webs brought back all fears and insecurities which his relationship with Kikyou engendered. The two of them were forever bonded by their deaths. Yet little did he know that in a day Kikyou would be gone forever. He should have known that the dream and the moon were prophetic of what was to come.

He had not seen the moon in such a dramatic phase again until the night before the battle with Naraku. It had been on this very hillside that he sat and waited for Kagome to return from her middle school graduation. He had just assumed that everything would turn out fine. Kagome would return, they would kill Naraku and everyone would live happily ever after. He should have known by now that fairy tales did not come true and happily ever after took a little longer.

The battle and its ending bore no resemblance to the fantasies he had spun as he waited on that hillside three years before. He had given in to the power of Jewel and harmed Kagome. It was only the smell of her blood that brought him back from the despair that he felt when he thought he had killed her. Then just when he thought they had won, Naraku had snatched Kagome and victory away with his dying wish.

He had not hesitated to go after her. He had been willing to go to Hell with Kikyou, jumping into the meidou for Kagome was an easy decision. At this point he knew what he wanted it was just a matter of going after it. When he told the youkai that he and Kagome were born to be with each other, he truly believed. Never would he have envisioned the separation which they suffered from the last three years. He had always been impatient. The waiting made it worse.

What did the blue moon portend this time? His mother was gone, Kikyou was gone, Kagome was gone. What else could it take from him? His own life had no meaning without her. He could pretend to live, but his heart was with Kagome. Miroku might drag him around on exorcisms, but he just went through the motions of fighting demons with him. His jumps into the well had become ritual. Something to keep hope alive that Kagome might come for him.

Somewhere in the night the hanyou nodded off to sleep.A shining woman watched over him. Once she had hoped that he would be hers. Now she knew that her place was to watch over him and ensure his safety. She longed to hold him in her arms, but that place was reserved for another. Kagome would be coming soon. The kami had shown her. She took comfort in the fact that her reincarnation would make her beloved happy in a way that she never could. It would her place to watch over them and their must live vicariously through them. Their happiness would be her happiness. Their children would be her children. Envy belonged to the asura. It had no place among the guardian had ascended. Yet she was still tied to this earth by her affection for Inuyasha. It was her burden and her blessing to watch over him, his wife and their children. She had been obsessed by duty in her life. Now she must find a joy in a guardian role that she had never had as guardian of the jewel.

As she watched, a ball of light approached her beloved Inuyasha. Gradually it became a beautiful pale woman wrapped in fur with a blue moon on her forehead. She braced to intervene as she felt the strong pulse of a daiyoukai emanate from the woman. It surprised her how gentle the demoness. seemed to be as she cloaked the sleeping hanyou in her boa and stroked his hair as if he were her child. She could see that she need not fear any harm to Inuyasha from this woman.

The demoness started as if she suddenly became aware of the otherworldly presence. She hovered over Inuyasha snarling menacingly as if protecting him from her. Kikyou could laugh now at such a show. As if she would ever harm Inuyasha. She raised her hand to indicate that she meant no harm. It seemed only to infuriate the woman.

"You. What are you doing here? You are one who killed the little one."

"Yes, I did. Since I ascended, my duty has been to watch over Inuyasha That is my burden and my penance for what I did. I must watch tomorrow as his true love returns and they will become husband and wife and raise a family."

" I will never forgive you for what you did. The little one has always been precious to me. Having to see him on that tree was more than I could bear."

" It hurt me too. I had to kill the man I loved to protect a Jewel. Now I must watch over him to protect and his loved ones from harm. Even though it means that I must watch him love another and raise a family with another, I must do my duty. It is the will of the kami."

The demoness regarded her gravely. It was a punishment worthy of the kami. She knew the pain she had suffered watching her mate in the arms of Izayoi. Her own punishment for allowing Izayoi to die was to be haunted by her. It was only by bringing her son to her grave every year that she had assuaged the angry ghost. The benefit was that she had become a foster mother to Inuyasha and now looked upon him as her own.

Without warning a specter flew from the meidou seki. It circled the sleeping boy warily as it regarded the demon and the guardian spirit with suspicion. Kikyou looked to the demoness as if wondering what kind of threat the ghost posed to Inuyasha. Finally, the ghost took on the shadowy form of a woman dressed in the garb of a noble woman of 14th century Japan.

" What are you doing near my Inuyasha, spirit?"

"Izayoi, I afraid you have not been introduced this is the woman formerly known as Kikyou. The woman who killed your son. Kikyou maybe I should introduce you to Inuyasha's mother. Someone else who does not appreciate what you did."

Kikyou blanched. She was now faced with a demon and an angry ghost. Inuyasha's mother and foster mother. Both of whom had reason to be angry with her for what she had done to their Inuyasha. She needed to defuse the situation before it escalated. They could not harm her, but her concern was with her sleeping she was required to protect.

"Forgive me, Honored Mother. I did kill your son. Now I am charged with watching over him and his beloved as they raise a family together. I am reliably informed that they will live long happy lives and give both of you many grandchildren."

The last remark seemed to settle both demon and ghost down as they hovered over their beloved Inuyasha. They spent the better part of the night telling tales about the boy. Izayoi about the Lady of the West about the teenager who had survived in the wilderness. Kikyou about the man she loved and had hoped to marry. By the end of the night the women all realized that they had a common bond. They all loved Inuyasha and would do anything to protect him.

The blue moon was setting on the horizon when Kaede came up the hill bearing a bowl of was a little worried. Inuyasha had not been seen all day. She had spent the better part of the day taking care of Sango and their new son. Although she was bone realized when she reached her hut that she had not seen Inuyasha all least she knew where she would probably find him. He was always at top of the hill which overlooked the village watching and waiting for Kagome's return. They had spent many long hours in the last three years together. She knew that he had not eaten anything. Surely he would appreciate some hot stew as well as the news about Mirkou and Sango's boy.

The demon, ghost and spirt noticed the approach of the miko and hurriedly retreated from the hillside. The miko noticed the auras and wondered what in the world could be going she reached Inuyasha, she found nothing amiss. She placed the bowl of stew down and gently touched his shoulder.

"Inuyasha. What happened here? I came looking for you when I had not seen you all day. Sango had a boy. You will have to be sure and look in on her. She and the boy are doing fine. I brought you a bowl of stew since you probably have not eaten today."

Inuyasha looked up at her groggily through sleep laden eyes. Why was Kaede here at this time of night? The air was full of so many familiar scents that he had not smelled him in some time. As his head cleared he could distinguish the Lady's scent, Kikyou's scent and a scent that he not smelled in more than two hundred years. A smile came over his face as he remembered his mother's scent.

Whatever the other blue moons had brought, the day was looking up. He had just awoken and already he could smell the scents of four women that he loved. The only thing that could make this day better was if Kagome came back to him today. He eagerly devoured the stew. Somehow he knew that this was the start of the best days of his life and he was not about to miss a minute of it.