InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale Twice Told ❯ A Man of Few Worries ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of  their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. In other words, I don't own and I make no money from this.

Author Note: This is a collaborative work between me and Marishaten. She is posting it to her fanfiction.net page and I am posting it to my Mediaminer account. I am not plagiarizing it. This is a companion piece to her fic The Thorn Flower, http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8308809/1/The_Thorn_Flower which ended up being mostly from Kagome's point of view. I asked her about seeing more of what Inuyasha was thinking and feeling during the story and this fic was born. I would definitely recommend reading The Thorn Flower to better understand the context of the story, though this one should be able to stand mostly by itself.

-----------------------

Inuyasha Taishou was a man of few worries. A scion of the noble house of Taishou, he had had a happy, if somewhat restrictive childhood – owing to an overprotective stepmother and an authoritative half-brother. His own parents had died in a car crash many years ago.

Later when he had grown up, he had come to know about certain things – his parents had been murdered by his father’s political opponent, his family had been on the brink of insolvency, his stepmother had to face many hardships to bring her sons up. He felt anger towards the person responsible for the tragedies – the person who went by the name of Ryuukossei, but his anger had neither the vehemence nor the intensity that his brother Sesshoumaru harboured in his heart. Inuyasha sometimes felt almost scared of his brother’s obsession with revenge and desire for restoration of the Taishou family honour.

That being the case, he was rather surprised when Lady Taishou had asked him to campaign for the upcoming elections – he always assumed Sesshoumaru to be the obvious choice. But his brother had remained adamant – he would only lend his support from behind the scenes. And so the duty of fulfilling Father’s dreams fell on the inexperienced shoulders of the younger Taishou.

At first he had been petrified of it. But soon he realized he could easily connect with the crowd. His frank and honest statements created as much controversy as they were appreciated by the people. Inuyasha wanted to revive his father’s vision of governance emphasizing fairness and justice for all, and bring the country out of the economic slump it had entered into, thanks to corruption at the highest levels and rampant favouritism.

He had a few plans of his own as well. He wanted to introduce greater maternity benefits, more scholarships for students and more subsidies for research in the field of agriculture. He wanted a country that could weave its own clothes and produce its own rice and wine. A country that-

A discreet cough from Myouga brought him down from his fantasies. Myouga was an old family friend, and Inuyasha’s current mentor.

“Daydreaming again, Inuyasha-sama?” the old man asked.

“Keh!”

“As I was saying – and you were obviously not listening – I think it would be a good idea to join hands with Kouga. He has become something of a spokesperson for the aborigines and his support would mean a lot for us.”

“Alright, ask someone to send me his portfolio. Is tomorrow’s speech ready? I’d like to have a look at it before going to bed. Oh and I’m having this feeling that Ryuukossei has set a spy inside this house-”

Myouga nudged him into silence. Inuyasha looked up to see a woman sitting on the couch opposite to Mother. Oh shit! Sesshoumaru was going to exhibit his girlfriend tonight!

Myouga had already gone ahead to greet her: ““You must be Kagome-sama! The master keeps talking about you all the time.”

Inuyasha snorted. Myouga was so pathetic when it came to lying. Whoever had heard Sesshoumaru talk about anything all the time? He turned his attention to Kagome Higurashi – the girl who had captured his brother’s heart eight years ago. What had he seen in her? She wasn’t exceptionally beautiful…hell, even Kikyou was prettier than her…but where she lacked in physical charm she made up in class and dignity. And if you looked closely she did have a withdrawn, hidden- uh oh!

She had caught him staring at her. Right on cue, Myouga piped in.

“Inuyasha-sama, say hello to your brother’s friend.”

Like he was a three year old who needed to be taught manners.

He came forward and awkwardly jerked his head. She smiled back.

“I don’t know how the boy will survive in politics,” Lady Taishou spoke up, “He can hardly speak to a girl.”

Inuyasha found himself reddening. Really, Mother has the most atrocious sense of humour! Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sesshoumaru giving him a commiserating glance. So he has also been on the receiving end of one of her barbs lately.

He was inwardly glad when Myouga had mentioned dinner.

Leaving room for the love-birds to sit across each other, he took the chair next to Lady Taishou. She was asking him about the elections, and he couldn’t wait to give her the low-down on it. It was quite a successful run so far; he was targeting colleges. He always felt at home among students and people of his own age. In fact, he informed with a hint of pride in his voice, he was becoming something of a youth icon among them.

“Great, let’s give Ryuukossei a few sleepless nights over it.”

The name of the Prime Minister never failed to ruin his mood.

“Keh! He’s a mean old dragon if there ever was one. Rest assured he won’t be sitting quiet. If he could do away with Oyaji at the height of his power-”

The girl dropped her spoon. Three pairs of eyes glared at Inuyasha.

“What?” he could not understand the reason for their secrecy, “She’s going to be family now, isn’t she? What’s the need of further charade?”

Now she had turned pink in embarrassment. Really, did she have a clue about anything that was going on in this house? It was so typical of Sesshoumaru to keep tight-lipped about even such a special announcement. Last night he had distinctly heard Lady Taishou consent to the match. If it was him, by now he’d have shouted out from the rooftops, announcing his engagement to the world. But it’s not your engagement so shut up, a voice said in his head.

“I’m sorry, Kagome dear, that you had to find it out in this way from my outspoken son,” Lady Taishou slapped Inuyasha lightly on his shoulder, “But it is true. We approve you for Sesshoumaru. Tomorrow I shall go and have a talk with your grandfather.”

Talk? What was there to talk about? Just slip on the ring and be done with it. Jeez! What pretension! But at last everything was out in the open.

Inuyasha hated secrets more than he hated Ryuukossei.

The Higurashi girl was smiling with a somewhat idiotic expression on her face. That’s genuine happiness, the persistent voice in his head spoke again. Even Sesshoumaru had a half-hearted glowish sort of thing on his face.

“Way to go, big bro!” Inuyasha teased, “who knew you had it in you to marry a real woman. I mean for the longest time I thought Kagome was your imaginary girlfriend.”

“Pathetic!” Sesshoumaru replied, although he didn’t clarify exactly who was pathetic.

“Looks like we’ll have to cancel our order for the ‘bot, Mother,” Inuyasha snickered, “unless Kagome here is one, in which case she looks surprisingly real.”

“Would you stop your idiocy, Inuyasha?” Sesshoumaru objected, but it was more out of habit than any real annoyance.

“Oi Kagome,” he turned his attention on the poor girl who still looked kind of dazed, “how are you going to tolerate this guy for the rest of your life? As you can see, he’s capable of only two expressions – a glowing simmer and a simmering glow.”

Lady Taishou laughed. Myouga also joined in the merriment. It was a long time since such a happy announcement had been made inside the Taishou mansion. The rest of the dinner went by in a whiz; and then Sesshoumaru went to drop off his newly acquired fiancée and Inuyasha went to his study to finalize his speech. Life was good!

As has been said, Inuyasha Taishou was a man of few worries.