InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Demon Should Act Like A Demon ❯ Sesshoumaru's First Love and First Hate ( Chapter 10 )

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and friends were created and lovingly brought to life by Rumiko Takahashi.

A/N: The glossary and responses to reviews immediately follow the story. Text in '__' are thought expressions. _^,,^_ I've added a teaser for the next chapter. Please let me know what you think of this chapter. Arigatou!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A Demon Should Act Like A Demon

By Ericedwyn

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter Ten: Sesshoumaru's First Love and First Hate

~* At Sesshoumaru's Fortress *~

His fingers grazed the side of Kagome's face before Sesshoumaru stood from where he sat on the bed. He gazed down at the young woman's angelic sleeping face wearing the same facial markings that were uniquely his own. This is just one of the many enigmas that have caused him many sleepless nights, ever since his deceased half-brother had made that wish.

A youkai's markings were as unique as their scent. Yet as he gazed down at Kagome, he questioned whether there was more to the wish than what Inuyasha had told him. But the markings that previously disturbed him, in the beginning, have now become a constant thrill to him each time he looked at her. They were now something they shared.

He turned and crossed to the nearest window in Kagome's bedchamber and gazed at the sky becoming reddish orange with the setting sun. 'Will they share something more?'

The door slid open abruptly and the kitsune cub bounded in, followed by Rin, who shut the door behind her. Shippou grinned at him, barely stopping to greet him, before he scampered onto the bed. The kit patted Kagome's left cheek with a small hand and was about to place his cheek against hers, but stopped when he caught a scent that lingered there. He blinked.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" Rin squealed upon seeing him and ran towards him with outstretched arms. She hugged his legs tight as adoring eyes met his, which had warmed slightly in response. He was rewarded with the bright smile she always reserved for him alone.

The Demon Lord patted her head in greeting. "Rin, did you behave?"

"Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama! Rin behaved. Rin helped with Kagome-oneechan too!" Rin responded excitedly.

"Good."

Rin's smile grew brighter still before letting go of his legs. She ran towards the bed, climbed it, and hugged Kagome's arm in both of hers, before snuggling next to her supine body.

Sesshoumaru watched his little charge's display of affection towards Kagome, then caught a grinning Shippou's stare. He glowered at the cub. "What?"

The cub grinned widely but innocently replied an "Um, nothing." He turned his back to Sesshoumaru as he finally laid his cheek against Kagome's. He thought he heard the sound of a faint growl by the window.

The kit wondered if Sesshoumaru even knew he just growled at him. 'This is almost as fun as with Inuyasha!' He couldn't resist turning his head to place a kiss on his adoptive mother's cheek to see if the Taiyoukai would growl again.

Sesshoumaru couldn't stop the growl that escaped him. He mentally berated himself for the brief loss of control. 'Does he still sleep with Kagome?' It irked him even more to admit that he was jealous of the child youkai.

He eyed the cub suspiciously. He knew he was a bright child, but he wondered just how clever and intuitive he was. Nonetheless, Sesshoumaru brushed away the thought that the kit was trying to test him, as he watched the domestic scene before him. Something about Kagome snuggled between the two children tugged at his heart, and for one brief moment, he wanted the scene to include him too.

The soft rapping on the door outside interrupted his reverie, for which he was most grateful. The door slid open and Tsumi bowed after crossing the threshold. "Sesshoumaru-sama," she said before sliding the door closed behind her.

"Tsumi-san, have you rested?" He searched the older woman's face for the signs of fatigue he had seen when he first arrived.

"Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama. Arigatou. I have come to relieve you." Tsumi-san smiled warmly. "I have arranged for heated rocks to be brought to your bathing room, My Lord. I did not know when you would like to bathe. I brought your meal to your bedchamber as well."

"Arigatou, Tsumi-san." Sesshoumaru nodded as he escaped from the room through the door the Hanyou entered from, before entering his own room next door. He wondered why he didn't just leave through the connecting room, but the image of a grinning kitsune cub came unbidden into his mind. 'Damn that kit. Allowing him to join us was a big mistake.'

He sighed in frustration in the privacy of his room, and crossed to where his meal was laid out. He sat cross-legged in front of it as he began his meal in silence. His meals alone were much more to his liking than when he ate with the others. It was more of a youkai fare, fresh and bloody.

After dabbing the edges of his lips with a napkin, he rose gracefully to his feet with the intention to bathe away the headache that had unfortunately settled on his poor head. He began shedding his clothing with a deft hand as soon as he entered the bathing room, tossing them on the floor beside the door.

He walked to one corner of the room where a small pit was roasting a few volcanic rocks. With metal tongs, he took a small one and walked to the other side to drop it into a tall jug of water in the stall. He watched the water steam as he placed the tongs on a nearby shelf. He entered the stall before dousing his silver-white hair and his body with newly warmed water.

He took the salve made from sandalwood and sage from a pot on a nearly shelf and massaged it through his hair with his hand. He inhaled the scent, focusing on it to calm himself and clear his thoughts. He took more of the mixture before applying it over his neck and shoulders. He spent some time as he massaged the knots out of those areas. This headache began to leave.

His hand traveled to the stump that used to be his left arm, and as he coated it with the mixture he was surprised that it had grown a quarter of an inch more than a week ago. He suspected it was the presence of the Miko that was altering the speed of the regeneration of the limb. At this rate, he wouldn't be surprised if his arm is completely restored after the end of two more seasons, rather than a decade more.

He stopped to dip his fingers into the pot for more of the mixture to coat his tail, before continuing its application over the rest of his body. What he could not reach with one arm, his tail more than accommodated for. Lastly, he applied it over his face and ears.

He clenched his hand on the handle of the hand pail and dipped it into the jug to load it with water. He proceeded to rinse himself until all the mixture was removed from his person.

He reached for the bucket next to the pot of cleansing salve and rinsed his hair with the light green tea based hair rinse. After waiting for a few minutes, he rinsed his hair with more warm water.

He dripped water all over the floor as he stepped out of the stall towards the pit again. With tongs in hand, he took the volcanic rocks, one by one, to drop them into the furo. Steam filled the room as the water hissed as each fiery rock was swallowed by the bath.

He tossed the tong near the pit and lowered himself into the furo. He rested his head on the edge of the bath and closed his eyes, savoring the heated caress of the water all around his body. He let his thoughts wander until Tsumi's words replayed in his mind. His thoughts flittered towards his late mother, his very first love.

His mother had been the one who taught him the power of love. He smiled as his mother's image came to his mind. A tall and regal woman with long silver hair that fell down to her ankles in a silver kimono stood like a goddess. She had eyes the color of melted gold. She also had a bright red full moon marking on her forehead. She often wore her white fluffy tail wound first around the waist then over her right shoulder. As a child, Sesshoumaru had always loved the feel of her tail. It was warm and comforting as the woman she had been.

She had been his father's third cousin, and while their marriage was arranged at her birth, he remembered how his father would always take him in his strong arms in a grand hug as a pup as he would tell him and his mother how happy he was and how much he loved them. He told the child Sesshoumaru how he wished he would be lucky enough when he is older to find the kind of love that he and his mother shared. It was an all encompassing love, his father had said. The kind of love that lasted forever... a Life Bond.

Sesshoumaru laughed without humor, as the image of his Lady Mother faded to be replaced by a memory of his parents yelling in his mother's bedchamber two years later. He had tried to cover his ears with his small hands as he cried on his pillow. But he heard his mother accused his father of betraying her and her love.

After 600 years of being mates, his father had started taking concubines to his bed and had stopped going to his mother. He remembered incidents when he had accompanied his mother to Court when he heard whispers behind her back. Love between youkai were rare and more so in arranged marriages. Many had believed that Shina and InuTaisho had shared one soul because their love had been so strong. Many couples in Court had even aspired to have the kind of love they shared, only to scoff at it when they watched the great love fail.

Lady Shina began to withdraw from the youkai society soon after. Sesshoumaru was nearing the age of puberty at that time and he began his training as the heir to the Western Lands. The very little time he had with his mother was full of pain as he remembered it. His mother who had been vivacious, warm, and happy had been replaced by a shell of her former life.

He remembered how her eyes had looked faded and how the brief smiles she gave to him no longer held warmth, because she no longer had it in herself. She had tried to kill herself a couple of times before she succeeded. The last time she combined seppuku with poison. It still wasn't enough to kill her right away as she had intended. Shina suffered for two days, as Tsumi and little Sesshoumaru tried to heal her. In the end she died whispering her love for InuTaisho.

Sesshoumaru remembered running into his father's room as he was about to couple with one of his concubines. With tears falling down his face and anger in his eyes and heart, he had blamed his father for killing his mother. Then he ran away from home.

His father found and fetched him within an hour. He had kneeled in front of his son as he swept him in an anguished hug. He told his son he was sorry and that he didn't mean what happened. He was going to change. But Sesshoumaru had already lost faith in his father and after remembering his mother's last words of love for his father, his face and heart turned cold. The child youkai believed that his father did not deserve his mother's love, and so did not deserve his son's love either.

For many years, InuTaisho tried to make up for his past mistakes by cleaning out his fortress of all concubines. He concentrated on teaching Sesshoumaru all he knew about the art of war and leadership. But soon his loneliness brought him to seek consolation in the arms of new concubines.

Sesshoumaru turned away from him again. He thought his father weak for his lack of control. Sesshoumaru vowed then that he will always be in control. He would not make the same mistakes as his father.

Then one day, InuTaisho found a woman to replace his Mate and his Life Bond. It had shocked and disdained the youkai society when the Great Dog Demon of the Western Lands had taken a ningen to mate.

Sesshoumaru had been the most shocked. Not only had his father sullied his mother's memory by replacing her, but instead choosing a youkai mate, he had taken a human one. His father, who hated humans, who taught Sesshoumaru as a pup to hate them for their weaknesses, had brought one of them into the family. Young Sesshoumaru didn't think he could lose even more respect for his father until that fateful day.

He didn't fault his human stepmother, Lady Takara, for being his father's mate or for being human. She had been kind and nice to him. He even grew to respect her for not trying to replace his mother in his eyes. She had even treated him like an adult at his young age. Nonetheless, he stayed away from her as much as possible, keeping busy with his training and duties.

When Inuyasha was born, he had been there to welcome him to the family. It was the first time he had smiled in long time. His brother had been small with cute little ears on top of his head. He wondered if he was ever that small.

He remembered the first time his golden eyes met his little brother's innocent ones. He hoped he would never lose that innocence and come to know the pain he learned as a child. He vowed in his heart that he would protect his little brother. He would be a good brother to him.

As soon as he was ready, Sesshoumaru left the fortress to make a name for himself. His father had been proud of him and often told him so whenever he would come home with his victories, but he had stopped giving his father much time and attention, although he did not fail to notice how much he had doted on his toddler son.

Sesshoumaru, just passed puberty, remembered the past again and of how his father had doted on him. He felt a little jealous, but things were no longer the same, and he didn't want to go back to the past.

One day, the young heir had chosen to come home to heal from his last adventure during a very bad time. InuTaisho's human wife had been killed protecting her son when the fortress was attacked. InuTaisho, griefstricken, had lashed out at his eldest son for not being home to protect his mate and Inuyasha. Sesshoumaru didn't bother replying as he looked coldly at his father before leaving the fortress to lick his wounds elsewhere. That day, Sesshoumaru learned how to hate… His own father, his first hate…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Glossary: (For new Japanese terms only. Please see the previous chapters for other terms used in this chapter. Arigatou!).

Shina - The name I gave to Sesshoumaru's mother means "virtuous."

Takara - The name I gave to Inuyasha's mother means "treasure" or "precious object."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Next chapter summary teaser: Sesshoumaru take matters into his own hands to force life back into Kagome's eyes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Responses to Reviews: Arigatou gozaimazu, minna-san! I appreciate each and every one of you for taking the time to review my work. _^,,^_ For those who have read the one-shot song fic, "Wherever You Will Go", a big THANK YOU to you!

FF.net reviews:

Kat: Arigatou for your review and wonderful words. I do hope to write my stories and get them published one day. I'm using this time to practice and get my creative juices flowing again. I hope you continue to enjoy the rest of the story!

Nankinmai: The italics are the lyrics of the song "Wherever You Will Go." I had issues with formatting in both sites and ended up uploading an .html version of the last chapter. ::sighs:: Oh well. Thank you for reviewing again, and I hope you read this chapter, even if it is about Sess! :)

Nikki-Yugowashi: What can I say? Well, I have some new fics I am working on and one will have an Inuyasha and Kagome pairing. Would that work instead? ::hopes::

Kawaiikitsune: Thank you for reviewing! I've pretty much finished most of the set up of the story with this chapter. You will begin to see some more Sesshoumaru/Kagome action starting with the next one. Stay tuned!

Shichan: Thank you. I hope you continue to enjoy my story! _^,,^_

Lady Yami: Thank you AJ and Lady Yami! I hope I didn't keep you waiting long!

Me..: The song fic chapter I kept short so that I could keep its essence untouched. It was a chapter for Inuyasha and I didn't want anything to detract from the power of the chapter by adding to it. But here's the next chapter! Hope you liked it.

NightChild0101: Thank you for your wonderful review. I truly appreciate it. It is truly my goal to write stories that can touch the reader's soul, so hopefully I'm getting there.

MM.org Reviews:

Chick: Arigatou! The action will begin soon with the next chapter. Hope you continue to enjoy my story!

TaY: Arigatou for your review and rating. You may be right about the outcome. ::grins:: I hope to add more twists and turns, since I am crazy like that, though.