I do not own Inuyasha. Not mine. Not even a little bit. Not even a skidgen. But skidgen is my word. Only mine. Can't use it. Well, you can. It isn't like I can sue you if you do. So use it if you want. Skidgen. Noun. Not quite a smidgen but less than a skinch. Skinch is also my word. Skinch. Noun. Larger than a smidgen. Yay, things that don't make sense.

The Surest Pledge of a Deathless Name

("Daylight and Moonlight")

In broad daylight, and at noon,

Yesterday I saw the moon

Sailing high, but faint and white,

As a school-boy's paper kite.

In broad daylight, yesterday,

I read a Poet's mystic lay;

And it seemed to me at most

As a phantom, or a ghost.

But at length the feverish day

Like a passion died away,

And the night, serene and still,

Fell on village, vale, and hill.

Then the moon, in all her pride,

Like a spirit glorified,

Filled and overflowed the night

With revelations of her light.

And the Poet's song again

Passed like music through my brain;

Night interpreted to me

All its grace and mystery.

Longfellow

In the field, two warriors fought blade to blade. Both with long hair made of the blackest midnight. But even the darkest night holds some blue if enough light is shown into it and so as they spun and their hair flew in the noonday sun, the glossy strands seemed haloed in the same shade of her eyes.

"I feel as if it is my fault." Her voice is musical. It carries a beauty that couldn't ever be learned. Her voice was in constant harmony with the woman she sat beside. Her eyes shimmered like hematite and her face was framed with the same midnight hair as the men who sparred only a short distance away. "Do you think they will find a way to forgive me?"

"They love you, Miyoko. They wanted me to save you and I did. In their minds and hearts, there is nothing to forgive." Kagome smiled as the girl leaned her head on her shoulder. She took her sister's hand and squeezed. "They wanted you to live more than they wanted power. That is what love is. The willingness to give yourself up for another without regret."

"I remember dreaming of you… Of the future, but every time I try to focus on the visions, can't bring them into view. I feel like… Like everything has been directed to this moment and will continue to be directed."

"Don't think on it too much." She murmured with a wistful smile. Across the field, the brothers had crossed their swords. They were laughing. They pulled away and nodded to each other. Nearby Satori was holding her grandson up as he toddled and tried to find his balance. His long, fine black hair was pulled away from his face. He looked so much like his father. Except for his eyes. They were her eyes. Nearby Sango was curled against Miroku who was holding her as she slept. Her belly was getting bigger and Kagome mused that she had never seen her sister and brother so happy. She prayed they could keep their happiness forever.

Perched in a branch, Kouga sat looking wistfully to the sky. His heart was broken. Would always be broken, but he had found his peace in the walls of Sesshomaru's palace protecting those he called his pack. Kagome wished more for him, but was glad he had found some stillness and joy, no matter how faded it was. In the distance she could see Shippo walking with Rin. Somewhere near was Kohaku, watching them. He always was. Kagome could sense him through his waning light. It broke the miko's heart. She had retained her divine power and so she could still sense the life forces of those around her to which she was connected but could not affect them as she had before. She couldn't save Kohaku and she knew, within a decade perhaps, he would be gone and leave heartache and pain in his wake. Rin would have to make a choice… The love of Shippo who could stand beside her for a lifetime or a brief moment with someone who would leave her alone long before her end was meant to come. In either case she could be left wondering what might have been. Kagome didn't want that for her, but she was still so young. There was time. Precious little, but there was time to make the choice that would bring her the most joy. She wouldn't be alone either.

Kagome's gaze fell onto her son again and felt her heart leap as he took his first steps toward his father. Sesshomaru's eyes widened as he knelt and put his hands out for their son. When the tiny boy began to fall, his hands scooped him up and spun him, issuing squeals of delight from the boy. She stood and approached her beloved slowly, feeling the smiling gaze of Miyoko on her as she left her side.

"Did you see him, Love?" Her mate's voice was full of pride.

She nodded and stood on tiptoe to kiss the little boy gently. He cooed and gripped a hand of her ebony hair gently before releasing it. "Silly little tease. And so grown up. You'll be driving us all insane running around and causing mischief in no time."

"He is your son."

She raised her eyes to his. They were the same hematite shade as his sister's. Black, but shimmering and almost metallic silver. She missed the amber, but still could see the beauty of his soul in the black-silver depths. His beautiful soul. "Only my son now?"

"Only when he causes mischief." He chuckled and leaned to kiss her deeply. She sighed and smiled as his arm slipped around her waist. When the jewel had vanished, the well had closed. She had mourned the loss of her family, but she had said her goodbyes. They knew she was happy and she had the family that she had made in the time that had become her home. On her finger still rested the ruby ring her mother had given her and around her lover's neck was the astrolabe. It was enough. It was all enough. Everything else that was to come was a mystery, but she wasn't afraid and neither was he. They had each other and in the end, that was all they had ever needed to be whole, healed and happy.

He sighed and looked up from the thick, glossy braid he held so reverently in his hand. His father had taken such good care of it over the years. It still smelled of her. Sesshomaru felt his lips curl in a genuine smile as his eyes twinkled with mischief. She really was beautiful that young and innocent. She was always beautiful, but there was something in her then. A vulnerability that time had slowly stripped away.

He walked to his bed and removed the antiquated robes he'd been wearing when he'd transferred his consciousness back to the time before his birth. His mother's hair had helped him pin point the time more easily and so his father had allowed him to borrow it. He slipped into a pair of ripped, faded jeans and combat boots that came up to his knees then a beat-up tee-shirt and a jersey sweater before pulling back his hair in a braid. He smirked and mused that he needed to have it cut again to his shoulder blades. He didn't like it too short, but at its current length it caught more attention that he liked. He slipped the braid in his pocket and walked out of his room up toward the main house where he knew his parents were.

He found his mother and infant sister in the living room. He crouched and reached out to tickle the tiny girl, grinning when she giggled. She was his greatest joy of late. He hadn't ever found anyone to fall in love with. His father said he was still young when his mother worried for him. She didn't want him to be alone and he didn't blame her. When two people found such a lasting love like his parents had, it was normal for them to want their children to find the same.

Kagome looked up and smiled warmly to her son. "Thank you, baby."

"Mom…"

"Until you find yourself a mate, you're my baby."

He looked at her and met her still youthful gaze. She hadn't aged a day and still there was so much experience and knowledge in her gaze now. Lifetimes hidden in their deep azure pools. "She was so innocent…"

"Vulnerable. She didn't know her true strength like I do now."

He nodded and smiled faintly before he stood. "Is the old man outside?"

"With your uncle talking about some nonsense Jaken reported to them having to do with the European branch or some such. You know I hate business talk."

Sesshomaru smirked and nodded. "Whatever Mom. I'll be back in a while to take over babysitting duties."

"Take your time."

He walked out into the garden and saw his father and uncle sitting at the patio table poring over papers. Inuyasha had aged significantly in the several centuries since Kagome's wish to save Miyoko. He now looked closer to thirty and, when in business meetings, was referred to as the elder Taisho brother while his father, Sesshomaru, had not aged a day. Neither had they cut their hair.

He sat across the table from his father and put his feet up on the pristine papers earning two growls from the older men.

"Do you always have to be so disrespectful?" His father asked as he pushed his son's feet of his paperwork before gathering it up into files again. "I tolerate your playing at being a rock star, I do not have to tolerate your muddy footprints all over our documents."

He chuckled and tossed his father the glossy ebony braid. The Taiyoukai caught his beloved's hair and slipped it into the folds of his suit. "It went well, Dad. Don't worry."

"We're all still here. You couldn't have failed." He replied with a quirk of his brow.

"You're too hard on the kid." His brother said, earning a dirty look from Sesshomaru.

"Your influence is why he insists on being so…" He waved his hand in dismissal. "I am no less proud of him, but I have said before that he is his mother's son. Entirely his own person."

"Thank you." He chuckled and met his father's gaze, noting the Taiyoukai fighting a smile of pride. "So where's my aunts?"

Inuyasha stretched and loosened his tie before removing it completely and unbuttoning the top two buttons. "My wife is out with Miyoko. Bankrupting us again."

"Wedding crap again?"

"Don't say that in front of Miyoko. She would murder you and I don't know what I would tell your mother then."

Sesshomaru scowled at the mirth in his father's voice. "They've been planning for a year now. What's the big deal? You and Mom never got married."

"And your Grandmother Higurashi does not know that particular fact, so you will keep your mouth shut, young man. I have never feared a mortal woman as much as I fear Kagome's mother." He met his son's eyes with a meaningful gaze. "Do we have an understanding?"

He sighed and nodded, smirking as he put his feet up on the table again, aiming precisely for the stacked files. "Completely."

His father growled and lost the battle with his smile. "What on earth did I do to deserve such a son?"

"As I recall, you fell in love with Kagome." Inuyasha said softly and chuckled when his brother scowled.

"Yes, that was it exactly." His eyes flitted up as he saw his mate approaching with their daughter in her arms. He smiled softly the smile meant only for her. He completely missed his son rolling his eyes and his brother chuckling.

"What was it exactly?" Her voice was soft and musical. Her eyes, unchanging and pure, were still the deep azure that he had fallen in love with and always took a moment every day to lose him self in.

He stood and embraced his beloved and kissed her, then his daughter before handing the baby girl to her brother.

The younger Sesshomaru stood and bounced the tiny girl on his hip and winked at Inuyasha who was walking toward the house. "Come on kid. Things are getting mushy out here. Soon we won't be able to escape."

Kagome's laughter was caught up short when her lips were captured by her lover's. She sighed and clung to him, trembling. "He is your son." She heard Sesshomaru say, causing her to laugh softly and revel in the rumble of his laughter.

She looked up and traced where the lines had once fallen on his cheeks. They still had eternity, only not as they had expected. She could think of no one better to spend forever with. They knew each other so well, had endured so much and had only fallen deeper in love. "Are you ready?"

"Yes. Where is this new restaurant again?" He ran his fingers through her long hair, smiling down at her as the ebony silk slipped through his hand.

"Just downtown. It's French."

He scowled faintly. "Kagome…"

"You said you were willing to try anything."

"Why are we commemorating this day with snails?"

She sighed and kissed his cheek gently. "Because last year you got to choose."

He sighed, defeated, and took her hand. "You win."

"I always win." She replied with laughter in her voice. Her mind drifted back several centuries and, for a moment, she thought she could still see him pinned to a tree with his eyes opened half way staring at her as if he were ready to kill her. In fact he had. How much had changed from that moment. How much had happened. None of it she would have changed or given up. It all led them to the place they were and the happiness they knew. That made everything else worth it.

Fin.

So this is the last chapter, folks. I hope you all enjoyed. I love you guys. Peace. Ivy.