talonsage:

They walked away from the monastery and European brothers. They did not run. Once Brother Miroku had broken the wards keeping him there they simply left. He couldn’t believe it as he walked past invisible barriers that had been there since he could remember.


Mushin-sama had given Brother Miroku coin, he said, “For clothing the child, not for lining your belly with sake, you lecherous lump of flesh!!” When he asked Brother Miroku what lecherous meant, Brother Miroku told him that Mushin-san was a very old man with a wandering mind, and that he should be kind to people like that.


At first, he couldn’t walk nearly so long, nor so far as Brother Miroku did. His little legs got tired, and his feet got sore. When that happened, the monk scooped him up and put him on his shoulders to ride, or carried him on his back or hip. They did not go to the village near the abbey…they went west instead. At night, Brother Miroku held him close, keeping him warm and safe. In the day, he fed Inuyasha first before himself. And always there was kissing.


In the first village they entered they went to a small shop, but were not welcomed there, even as Brother Miroku showed coin with which to pay for goods. They didn’t serve youkai kind there. Brother Miroku said, “Blessings then,” and they left. A stop at a cobbler went better. The gnarly old man examined the pup’s feet, then declared they’d do better saving coin by giving the boy a good meal, as he did not need shoes. When pressed to explain, the cobbler showed the differences between human feet and youkai feet. When told that Inuyasha was a hanyou, he did not change his mind. It was the first time Brother Miroku called him his son, when he asked where he might then find clothing for his child. The old man smiled, he knew the other shops in the village were bad, and instead, he took them into see his wife, who immediately fed them, and while they were eating, altered some clothes to fit his small self.


They were so soft, his new pants and robe…and pretty, with pink flowers all over. Sakura blossoms, Brother Miroku said. The old couple would only take the most meager coin, relating to them that their son had fallen in love with a demoness, and they had two hanyou grand children they did not get to see as often as they liked. Their son and his wife took good care of them though. That is how they came to know so much about youkai and hanyou.


It was a good beginning.