InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Waiting For Kagome ❯ Just Once ( Chapter 12 )
While in a rage, Inuyasha is intercepted by his half-brother.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 11.16.2009 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 557 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: This piece is based on 'Inuyasha', owned by Rumiko Takahashi. No copyright infringement intended or implied.
Just Once
Rage ran through the woods.
Inuyasha jumped through the trees, slashing away any branch that threatened to block his path. His mind boiled with chaotic anger. He could not have said why it had erupted, when Myoga had asked about Kagome, only that it had.
He ran, trying to lose himself, trying to outpace the rage, the hate. He hated everyone and everything at that moment. He hated Myoga and his stings and his self-importance and his cowardliness! He hated Miroku and his efforts to care for him and shield him. And he hated his half-brother! Curse Sesshomaru, curse him for daring make him act like a pack beast, carrying that wood, for flaunting his strength: the strength that could move that entire load without even needing a deep breath! Of course, Kaede deserved a new hut! Hell, she deserved a small palace, if he knew how to build one and knew she would accept it! But that sanctimonious, supercilious, vain, arrogant, asshole just had to go and rub his nose in the fact of his inattention, his thoughtlessness, his weakness--!
He ran out of trees, dropping down into the middle of a brightly lit meadow. Snarling, Inuyasha slammed his fists repeatedly into the ground, struggling to control what he knew was unreasonable rage. He wanted to fight, wanted to hit back at something--anything! She was gone--Kagome was gone! Thought flickered through the rage, and he longed for a foe to attack. An oni--strong, fast--one he could use his claws and his fists on, something he could beat up, kill one little piece at a time!
Something shifted. Inuyasha was on his feet, his sword out and blazing gold was he whirled. It crashed against a slender blade of palest silver, and only then did his thoughts catch up with his deeds, as he stared up at a pair of golden eyes.
Sesshomaru! The rage he had struggled to control surged, dissolving his thoughts. Sesshomaru, the bane of his existence ever since Inuyasha had been born two hundred years ago; the author of his worst miseries, the being who could have been like a parent to him, when he was orphaned: the person who could have given him protection, could have given him training and eduction, who instead refused even to be a brother to him, who had threatened time and again to kill him--
Inuyasha screamed and attacked.
Sesshomaru fended off his half-brother's attacks without effort, taking care only to not send power down Baikusaiga's length. His sword, he was certain, was quite capable of shattering Tessaiga, but he had no reason to destroy Inuyasha's sole means of keeping his youkai blood in check. He had no idea why Inuyasha was attacking him, but if the hanyo was seeking a form of suicide, he was un-inclined to cooperate.
Still, he was beginning to get annoyed. He had stayed within sensing distance--though outside Inuyasha's range--to make sure the hanyo took the lumber to the village. Not having any particular destination in mind for the day, he had been contemplating the interplay of shadows across a trio of early flowers when he had sensed the abrupt shift in Inuyasha's aura. Simply out of curiosity, he had deigned to investigate. He had not expected to become the target of a raging--though untransformed--hanyo.
He had no desire to wait for Inuyasha to exhaust himself, before learning what had set the foolish hanyo off. So, with a blindingly swift move, which Inuyasha had no hope of countering, he bound their blades, and then sent Tessaiga flying. Before the boy could react to losing his sword, Sesshomaru followed up with a precisely-calculated punch, which sent the hanyo flying after his sword, landing at the edge of the meadow, on top of the now un-powered and rusty blade. The hanyo twitched, and tried to rise, before crumpling. Sesshomaru gave an unvoiced sigh and sheathed his blade, deciding that he could manage to sacrifice some time being bored, waiting for Inuyasha to wake up.
Inuyasha's revival was quick, partly because he never completely lost consciousness. Ears ringing, dizzy, face throbbing, and the rage--at least for the moment--knocked out of him, Inuyasha could only stare blearily at the spring grass in front of his eyes for long moments, until Tessaiga pulsed. Feeling the energy spark the entire length of his body, Inuyasha realized that he was lying on his sword. He rolled off it, grabbing the hilt and trying to continue the roll to gain his feet. The latter move failed ignominiously, ending with him on all fours, Tessaiga barely within his grasp.
"Is that move intended to threaten me, or entertain me?"
Inuyasha scrabbled around to face the speaker, ears going flat. "Sesshomaru!" he spat. Plunging Tessaiga's tip into the ground, he used the sword as a brace to stagger to his feet. "Bastard!" he added, trying not to sway. With his free hand, he swiped at the blood trickling out of his mouth.
"If you wish to contest with swords, Inuyasha," said his half-brother--with no readable emotion on his face--"Then attack with at least a fragment of thought. You are not worth fighting, when in a rage. You are boring."
Inuyasha growled, feeling the frisson of his rage. He quelled it, though Sesshomaru's words galled him, and he wanted badly to charge his half-brother and beat him into a whimpering pulp with Tessaiga. Which, he knew he couldn't, even if he weren't still seeing two images of his half-brother. Forcing his legs to stop trembling, he pulled Tessaiga up and sheathed it. "And you're still the same old arrogant bastard you've always been!"
"Indeed." The tall, perfectly calm, perfectly neat, perfect taiyoukai, turned and started to walk away.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?"
His brother paused, but did not look around. "Do you still require something to bang Tessaiga against, Inuyasha? Otherwise, I see no further need for me to tarry in your vicinity." He began to walk again, a breeze teasing the end of his long hair, leaving Inuyasha behind.
No further need.
No need?
He was alone, the one person, since his mother, who had ever, unreservedly, accepted him for himself, the woman he loved more than anything, lost on the other side of five hundred years. He had friends. They tried to help him, tried to stay at his side, tried to keep him from being alone. They could not heal the hole in his heart, but at least they were trying. And they were there, for him.
But, his brother wouldn't even try. His brother scorned him, attacked him, denigrated him. A brother whom, he had thought, had at least come to grudgingly respecting him, as they had fought together to defeat Naraku in the final battle. But had he? He was willing enough to cross blades with him, willing enough to use him when it suited him.
But care about him? Show even a single sign of compassion or understanding? Give even a single thought to what he needed or wanted?
Sesshomaru had taken more care and effort in providing for that little girl's shelter, in a day, than he had in Inuyasha's entire life--
"Why?" He leaped forward.
Sesshomaru expected no further interruption of his path that day: Inuyasha had sought him out, they had exchanged blows and words, which the hanyo, as usual, had lost. Which was only expected and proper.
Startled by the fresh scream of 'why?', Sesshomaru started to turn. He did not expect to be spun and body-slammed into a nearby tree. Offended, he glared down at his brother's silver head, starting to arch his fingers. Inuyasha dared get his hot, sweaty, stinking body right next to his?
"Why can't you be a brother to me? Just once! Why, Sesshomaru, why?"
Sesshomaru blinked. "This Sesshomaru does not understand the question," he replied after a long moment. "The relationship has never been denied."
Clenched into the edges of his armor, the hands gave him another shove, as Inuyasha glared up at him. "You think that's all being a brother is? You don't even use the words! You always hurt me worse, if I dared use the words!"
His sense of annoyance faded, which puzzled Sesshomaru. Inuyasha had offered him insult, by grabbing and shoving him, by placing his reek so close to Sesshomaru's nose. By now, he should have sent the hanyo to the ground for the sheer temerity.
"This Sesshomaru does not understand," he repeated. "What do you want of this one, Inuyasha?"
Surprise, and then uncertainty flickered in the golden eyes. Inuyasha opened his mouth, and then closed it. His grip eased, and he leaned his head against Sesshomaru's chest.
"I want..." he said, after a lengthy pause. "I guess ... I want to know you--care--about me. Like you care about Rin. Like you cared about Kagura."
Sesshomaru stiffened. Kagura! During the three days when Inuyasha's friends had been waiting for him to return from the meidou, he had spent considerable time thinking about Kagura. Thinking about how her death had affected him, and how his feelings had changed his future, leading--however indirectly--to his realization of his full strength as a taiyoukai.
Tenseiga shivered on his hip. Faintly, he sensed a response from Tessaiga. Tenseiga. The sword he had loathed. The sword he had scorned as beneath him, despised as unusable. But, when he had found a new emotion possible to him--compassion--the sword had been reforged into a weapon. Save that it hadn't been meant as a gift, but only another lesson, bitterly taught. He had been furious, to realize that the Meidou Zagentsuha had been given to him only to perfect, and then to pass on to Inuyasha's Tessaiga. But, if he hadn't deliberately broken Tensaiga against Tessaiga; hadn't relinquished the pride and satisfaction in perfecting and using that devastating attack, to thinking that the attack was his, he might never have realized the true core of his own strength.
"Whatever happens--don't abandon me, Sesshomaru. Don't leave me alone."
Sesshomaru stared down at Inuyasha's bowed head, beginning to understand. The hanyo was grieving the loss of his miko--if it wasn't love he truly felt, Sesshomaru wouldn't know what else to call it. He was trying to reach out to the one person who had been around even before his sealing and resurrection. The person who was related to him by blood.
Brother.
Half-brother.
Hanyo. Dirty blood. Inferior. Disgusting. The living reminder of his father's shameful lust for a mere human woman.
The familiar litany ran through Sesshomaru's mind: a litany carved deep from decades of repetition. The familiar surge of disgust and abhorrence started to rise--and then it faded. He stared at the half-flattened ears that were the most visible part of Inuyasha's mixed blood, and felt ... regret? Sadness? Confusion?
He refused to put a name to what he felt.
But, after a very long moment, he lifted his hand, and gave a single, un-venomed scratch to one silver-furred ear.
"Otouto."
What followed would be a memory Inuyasha treasured for a lifetime. After that single touch and single word, Sesshomaru pulled away from the astonished hanyo, beckoning him to follow. He returned to the fallen trunk where he had earlier been seated, and indicated that Inuyasha should sit beside him.
Do as you wish, he said.
Inuyasha hesitated a long moment, then curled up on the ground next to Sesshomaru's legs. Neither spoke. When, eventually, the hanyo leaned against him, Sesshomaru did not object, only reaching out to scratch an ear once more.
It became a new pattern between them, repeated less often than each moon cycle, more often than an anniversary. Patrolling the forest, Inuyasha would turn to find Sesshomaru watching him. The taiyoukai would nod, turn away, and Inuyasha would follow. They might simply walk together for a time, or seat themselves, most often with Inuyasha curled next to his elder brother's legs, leaving his vulnerable ears within easy distance of the youkai's claws. The hanyo would talk, at times, but silence was most often between them.
Save for pair of words they would exchange when they parted.
Otouto.
Ani-ue.
That was all they needed.
They were brothers, after all.
Author's Note: This was written for the Inuyasha FanFiction Contest (iy_contest) community on LiveJournal, in response to the prompt "20 words." (The prompt was a list of 20 words to be used in the story.) It was originally published on October 27, 2009. It placed third.