InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bishies Without Shirts ❯ Promises from the Past ( Chapter 42 )

Chapter 42: Promises from the Past

"NOOOOO!" Kagome screamed at the top of her lungs, dashing past Sesshoumaru and out of the room to sprint down the hall, completely ignoring the youkai's plea for his sword in her haste. An instant later, the sounds of her gut-wrenching cries shattered the sleeping silence of the household. There was some noise and commotion as the other members of the family were jarred from their sleep, and he could hear the soft sound of confused voices, accompanied by shuffling and the clicks of lamps being switched on as the others rose from their beds to investigate. Unlike them, Sesshoumaru knew why the girl was keening, and he had made it his singular desire to put a stop to that heart breaking noise. Leaving Souta's room and turning left down the hall, he went in search of the one person who could aid him in this hour of desperation. Fortunately for him, she had been roused by her daughter's wailing and had just stepped out of her bedroom.

"Kagome! What's wrong?!" she cried, throwing her arms into the sleeves of her robe as she started down the hallway towards the girl's bedroom. Sesshoumaru quickly stepped out in front of her, blocking her way.

"Higurashi-san, I need my sword."

"Not now, Sessho-kun! What's going on?! Why is my daughter screaming?!"

"Higurashi-san," he repeated, "I need Tensaiga."

"No! I am not giving you any weapons! I'm through debating this with you! It's Inuyasha, isn't it?" she asked suddenly, her face going pale with dread. "Get out of my way, Sesshoumaru, I'm calling an ambulance!"

"Higurashi-san, my sword…"

"No!" she screamed hysterically, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. "You are not going to kill him! Do you understand me?! He's going to be alright, I just have to call an ambulance!"

"Higurashi-san," he said softly, "my brother is dead." The ningen woman stared at him in grievous disbelief, her hand flying up to her mouth as she made small choking noises in the back of her throat.

"Dead…how?" she whimpered.

"He bled to death."

"How can this be…? He used to come over for dinner, and boast about how he'd killed dragons…this can't be happening…"

"Higurashi-san, if you'll just please tell me-"

"Oh Sessho-kun!" she gasped out, throwing her arms around the startled youkai in a loving embrace that he was totally unprepared for, the ferocity of which shook him to the very marrow of his bones. "…I'm so sorry…" she whispered into his shoulder. "…I know he, … I know you, …but… I am so SORRY!" As she broke down, the door behind them opened, and a very troubled looking old man and his grandson stepped into the hallway.

"What has happened?" he asked, placing a gentle but firm hand on the boy's shoulder to keep him from running down the hall to see what all the fuss was about. The youkai ignored him. The old man could tell him nothing.

"Higurashi-san," Sesshoumaru whispered, pushing gently away from the sobbing woman, "where is my sword?" She stared up at him, eyes shimmering with newly fallen tears, her face a mask of sorrow and confusion.

"Why? What good will it do?"

"Higurashi-san, please!" The intensity of this last appeal seemed to finally get through to the woman. Sniffling, she gave him his long-awaited answer.

"They're in my room, in the bottom drawer of the dresser, all three, along with some things I found in your brother's yukata while I was washing it… I suppose you'll be taking them all, now that…" the rest of her sentence was lost to him, both because she had started to choke up and because he hadn't waited around to hear the rest of it. He had his answer, and there was no time to be sensitive or polite about things.

With the tall youkai no longer blocking their path, the Higurashi family made their way down the hall to their beloved Kagome's bedroom.

Sesshoumaru, meanwhile, was rifling through the bottom drawer of Higurashi-san's dresser, pulling out soft white cotton sleeping garments and throwing them carelessly over his shoulder as he searched for the katanas. Beneath the seemingly endless layers of fabric, he found a thick, gray, woolen blanket, rolled up tightly lengthwise. It could be nothing else. Grabbing an end, he jerked it up roughly and the blanket unrolled, spilling it's contents onto the floor with metallic clang.

There they were, Tetsusaiga and Tensaiga, his father's fangs, laid out before him like an offering, the demonic sword Toukijin laying between them, almost as if it were acting as a bodily symbol of he and Inuyasha's blood-stained past. It was all there. Everything he'd longed for over the past seventy years of his life was now within his grasp, and the one man who had stood between him and his purpose was now nothing more than an empty shell, a broken body absorbing the tears and saliva of his newly widowed sister-in-law. There was nothing to stop him from simply taking what he desired, from rolling the blanket back up and disappearing with it into the night, perhaps finding his own way back, perhaps taking his dead brother's wench with him to ensure his safe return… No, there was nothing holding him back…nothing, that is, except a promise that he had made to a young ningen girl, who had foolishly trusted the word of a youkai, simply because she had started to consider him as a friend… No, he admitted to himself. It was more than that… The way that she had been treating him over the last few days was more akin to family…

He shook his head violently, trying to clear his head of such thoughts and their confusing emotional responses. It should have been so simple, he knew what he wanted! It was what he'd been wanting all along, striving for all these years… Revenge! Revenge against his enemies, revenge for Tsukikage, for Haha-ue, for Chichi-ue… revenge against Chichi-ue for choosing to bequeath his greatest treasure to a bastard hanyou instead of his rightful, legitimate heir, and greatest of all, revenge against the accursed hanyou, for taking the sword, for taking his arm, and for taking his place in their father's fickle heart…

The hanyou had made it so easy for him, so convenient…he hadn't even had to kill him, the whelp had died on his own…died… Shit! A sudden realization stabbed him through the back like a hot knife, like the knife that had caused the festering wound that had ended his only brother's life. Inuyasha was dead, and he had made a promise to the whelp's mate. He had been so wrapped up in his lust for vengeance, that he had nearly forgotten his original purpose in seeking the fangs. As he stared down at the twin katanas, two swords intended for two sons, fashioned from a pair of fangs that had also been brothers as they had been plucked from the same mouth, it was becoming painfully clear to him that he was going to have to make a choice. He'd made many choices in his life, some met with fair results, and some with bad, but nothing that came before or after had been or ever would be as difficult as the decision that was laid out before him on Higurashi-san's bedroom floor.

If he chose Tensaiga, then he was throwing away three quarters of his life, spent in pursuit of the one ideal that had kept him searching long after he had wished for his an end to his own miserable existence. Could he really give that away? The sum of his lifetime? On the other hand, if he chose Tetsusaiga…

As if to serve as a gentle reminder of what the consequences of that decision would be, he heard the soft wail of Kagome's voice through the half-open door.

"I'm so sorry, Inuyasha, it's all my fault! Oh koishii…what am I going to do?"

"What am I going to do…" Sesshoumaru echoed softly, staring down at the swords, his hand floating a few inches above their hilts as he tried to come to a decision.

It was at that moment he noticed that the fangs had not been the only occupants of the woolen blanket. Resting slightly to the left of where the katanas had landed, was a crudely made leather pouch, about the size of his fist. This must have been the 'something' that Higurashi-san had found inside of his brother's yukata… His curiosity getting the better of him, Sesshoumaru tugged open the drawstring at the top, using his fingers and his teeth, then poured the scant contents of the bag out onto the floor. An assortment of small things came tumbling out, and Sesshoumaru realized that these worthless trinkets must have been Inuyasha's 'treasures'.

The first thing he spotted was a tiny yellow glass ball, shot through the middle with a thin, twisted strip of black. Though nothing of this sort existed in their own world, Sesshoumaru recognized it instantly for what it was. He had seen a large jar full of these little glass balls on top of Souta's desk, in a myriad of different colors. They were called marbles, the boy had explained. Souta must have presented his brother with that particular marble on one of his many visits to the shrine...and the reason why was obvious. It looked almost exactly like a miniature version of one his brother's, or indeed, one of his own, golden eyes. Rolling the marble with his fingertip back into the bag that now lay open on the floor beside him, he inspected the tiny pile once more. This time he noticed two tiny white fangs…Inuyasha's milk teeth. He wondered at what point in the hanyou's life they had fallen out, to be quickly replaced with the large, saber-like teeth of an adult youkai. It must have occurred sometime after he had left in search of the Tetsusaiga… He wondered if the whelp had been scared, if he had thought that all of his teeth were going to fall out… Is that why he had kept them? With a ragged sigh, he realized that he would probably never know. They went back into the bag, joining the marble. A blue jay feather…why, he had no idea. A tiny piece of rose quartz…again, no answers. A very small, dog-eared snapshot of the wegome in her school uniform; it was fairly obvious where he had gotten that… A few dried flowers and seeds… The head, all that seemed to remain, of a tiny wooden toy samurai that looked oddly familiar, though he couldn't quite place it… Soon, all that was left out in front of him where two small pieces of paper, folded into tiny squares. He unfolded the first very carefully, and was shocked to discover that it was the very painting of Inuyasha's ofukuro that the hanyou had crumpled and thrown at him last night…gods, was it only last night? But he had been fairly certain that he had returned that painting to the box, along with all the others… Sesshoumaru chuckled softly under his breath. That hanyou could be downright sneaky, when he wanted to be… Or perhaps Higurashi-san had had the foresight to realize that before too long, Inuyasha would have come to regret his hasty actions, and had added this little memento on her own. Either way, it belonged in the bag.

Which left him with the final square of paper, this one much smaller that the painting had been. This unfolded to reveal nothing more than a few words, written in the kanji, in the sloppy, yet painstaking manner that could only be attributed to the very young or the very illiterate. "Inu Yasha" was all it said. Sesshoumaru was amazed. Despite his poor circumstances, his brother had somehow found the time and a willing teacher to learn how to make the letters that formed his own name. The page itself looked very old, and the letters were mostly faded away… so it must have been that miko, he reasoned. Little wonder that had he never gotten any further than his own name… With a heavy sigh, he refolded the scrap of paper and added it to the bag that was once again full of it's treasures.

"So what happens now?" he asked his father's fangs out loud. "Do I add this to my box of memories, and let the hanyou become just one more among the many…" his hand paused, inches above the Tetsusaiga. "Or do I return these things to their rightful owner?" he asked as his fingers inched away from his brother's blade and back toward his own. "Help me, oyaji, I'm lost in the dark…"

In the end, it was the women who finally decided for him. Of late, he had berated his brother for being foolish and weak when it came to the fairer sex, promising them one thing, and then doing another… Stringing along the ningen girl who loved him whole heartedly, while dallying with the undead miko…, or to look at it conversely, giving his heart to another woman, when he had already promised it to the miko… But as he searched his conscience, Sesshoumaru soon found that he himself had made his fair share of promises to women, and thus far, he had done a poor job of keeping them.

Tsukikage, the long-dead love of his lifetime…

"Promise me that if anything happens to me, you will always be there for Inuyasha…to look after him and protect him…"

"Hush, koishii, don't speak of such things…"

"Promise me, Maru-chan."

"Very well. For you, I promise this."

Kagome, the little ningen wench, the miko who had freed his brother, both body and soul…

"Sesshoumaru...if we get him home so he can rest...do you think he'll be alright?"

"Wegome...know this; If anything happens to him...I promise you I will revive him…"

The wise and insightful Higurashi-san, who, in all the time that he'd been there, through all the grief he'd caused her, had never once looked upon him with fear or doubt, had never seen him as most ningens would have, as a monster invading her home…

"Are you going to?"

"Kill him? Probably. Someday. If Inuyasha is going to die, then it will be by my hand, and no one else's."

"I don't believe that for one second. The young man I've gotten to know over the past few days is not capable of killing his baby brother."

"Woman, you have no idea what I am capable of!"

And finally, there was his Rin…

"Sesshoumaru-samaaaaaaaaaaa…."

"Rin, I will be back shortly."

"But I'm so itchy! And I will miss you!"

"I won't be long… and I'll return with some medicines to help you."

"Sesshoumaru-sama, you're so good..."

He felt torn in half,

"Go to bed!"

"No!"

"BED!"

"No, I want to sleep wiff you, Muuchn!"

"Damn you, Inuyasha…you make it very hard at times to hate you…"

conflicted by the memory of the two men that he used to be,

"You pathetic piece of shit…"

"Worthless, stupid, selfish! All these things and more I've been hearing from you since the day I our father died and you were free to tell the whole world what you really thought of Chichi-ue's hanyou bastard!"

uncertain of who he was now, or what he may become…

"What reason could you possibly have for helping me? You hate me."

"Perhaps…but first and last, you are my brother, Inuyasha."

There was no simple answer to this conundrum. Either way, he would lose. So when it came time to choose his weapon, he closed his eyes, and it seemed that those same women placed their hands over his own. Trusting in their love for him, he allowed himself to be guided to the correct choice.

~

He had to push through a small crowd just to get back into the room. It was dark inside, as if no one wished to witness what had occurred under the harsh, unnatural glow of the ceiling lamp. It wasn't until he had stepped past the old man that he saw the pitiful sight that they all stood transfixed by. It wasn't something he hadn't seen before, on the battlefields, even in his father's palace… but it was something he had never expected to see in the wegome's soft pink bedroom, where he'd come to spend many a comfortable nap. This house had seemed so safe, so immune to tragedy, and yet he could not deny the bloody truth of his own eyes. The girl was laying in the bed that had served as both her bridal bed and her lover's deathbed, all in the span of a few short days. Her arms were wrapped protectively around the body of his younger brother, her face buried in the his neck as she softly repeated, over and over, "I'm sorry koishii, I'm so sorry…"

"Inunii-chan…" Souta whimpered suddenly, starting to rush forward, but Sesshoumaru caught him with his forearm and pushed him back into his mother's waiting arms. Kneeling down beside the bed, Sesshoumaru laid Tensaiga on the floor beside him, then reached his hand up to gently pull the Kagome out of her cold lover's embrace.

"Kagome…" he whispered softly. She turned, startling at his touch and the sound of his voice, as if he were the last person on earth she'd been expecting to see.

"You…you didn't leave!" she gasped. Her face was red and swollen from her grief, and it made him frown to see her usually pleasant face 'Pretty' , he finally admitted to himself, 'yes, she is in fact rather pretty, not strange at all, he was right about that…'

…to see her pretty face so abused by her own anguish. Worse still was the look of complete and utter shock in her eyes at his presence by her side. It spoke volumes about how she felt about his dependability, and it hurt him to admit that he'd earned every bit of that look.

"I made a promise… Actually, I've made several, and it seems that the fates have decided that the time has come for me to honor them."

"You brought Tensaiga?" she sniffed, her voice pitching up hopefully.

"Hai, it's here."

"Oh nii-san!" she cried, rolling over to crush him to her body, sobbing loudly into his ear as she had on the night that Inuyasha had been locked out of the house. This time, however, he didn't push her away and call her a moron. "How can I ever repay you?! I…he…there aren't enough words!" she cried out, turning her head to smother his face in tiny, joyful kisses.

"Kagome, I still need to revive him…" he reminded her gently but firmly. "Please release me."

"Of course!" she cried happily, squeezing him tightly one last time. "Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"You need to get out of the bed."

"Oh…right!" the girl laughed nervously, pulling herself away from the youkai and going over to stand by her family. Once she was out of his hair, he reached down for the Tensaiga, and, stepping on the bottom of the sheath for stability, he pulled the katana from it's resting place. The Tensaiga pulsed in his hand, it's keen edge glowing the same cold blue-silver of his hair in the moonlight.

Sesshoumaru stood above Inuyasha's body, his sword drawn, seeing what no one else in the room could, the loathsome gaki, the diminutive hell spawn who had wound their chains tightly around his brothers neck and chest.

"What's he gonna do?" Souta whispered in alarm, tugging at the sleeve of his mother's robe.

"Shhh…" she soothed, "I think it will be alright, dear. Your sister seems to know what's going on, and we have to trust her. You trust your onee-chan, don't you?" she asked. "And Sessho-kun?"

"Hai, mama!" he said, all traces of fear and doubt absent from his voice. He trusted them. Higurashi-san smiled down at her son, all the while thinking to herself 'Oh, if it were only that simple…' , as she watched the youkai raise the sword high and to his right. 'Please, gods, please don't let my family be witness to some bizarre, violent youkai mourning ritual…Please, Kami, not these boys…' She didn't have long to wonder, however, because within an instant, Sesshoumaru had brought his arm down in an impossibly fast, sweeping arch over his brother's body.

There was a faint hissing noise, and bright light seemed to slice through Inuyasha's prostrate form, before it disappeared a few seconds later, with a sizzle and a snap, washing the room in darkness again. As the ningen family's eyes re-adjusted to the change in the light, the youkai and the miko watched and waited, holding their breath.

"Is he…?" Kagome asked after what seemed like a silent eternity.

"Shh!" Sesshoumaru frowned, tilting his head slightly to one side. "I'm listening…"

"Well, what if it didn't work?" This time, he favored her with a full-blown scowl.

"It always works. Be quiet, wench, I'm trying to listen!" The hanyou was still, very still….that wasn't a good sign. But what he had said to the wegome had been the truth, he had no reason to doubt in Tensaiga's abilities. So why wasn't it… Aaaah! There it was! Faint, yes, almost undetectable, yet there it was…

"He's alive." Sesshoumaru said simply, and an instant later, the weak sound of Inuyasha's heartbeat was joined by a thick, rushing liquid noise as his blood began to flow through his veins again. When the rushing had died down, he heard the heartbeat again, and this time, it was strong. Of course, no one else in the room heard any of this, so they were a bit baffled by Sesshoumaru's claim. But all eyes snapped onto the hanyou an instant later, when they heard the sharp, wheezing sound of his lungs filling with air again for the first time.

"Amazing!" Jii-chan exclaimed softly. "Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would live to witness something as remarkable as this. Gods be praised! This is going to become a legend, my dear boy, passed down from generation to generation of Higurashi shrine families for-"

"…..mmnnnnnn…. oi, Jiijii, why do you always have to run your mouth when I'm trying to sleep?" came the irritable whine from Kagome's bed. As if one cue, everyone turned around at the same time to gape at the hanyou who had just sat up and was rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. When he realized that everyone was staring at him, he froze, his hand dropping slowly onto his knee. Looking up at all the somber faces, he frowned.

"Where's the funeral?"

Kagome burst into another batch of fresh tears, and threw her arms around his neck. Inuyasha was very confused, but he put his arms around her anyway, returning the embrace.

"Are you alright, Kagome?"

"Am I alright?!" she laughed out loud, pulling away from him to look at his sweet, concerned face before planting a huge kiss on his lips. "Oh, koishii, you are priceless…" she sighed, burying her face back in his neck, which was warm again. Now more confused than ever, Inuyasha peeked over Kagome's shoulder to look at the rest of her family. His eyes wandered from face to smiling face, before ultimately stopping to rest on Sesshoumaru. His brother was still dressed in the not-so-white-now-more-like-blood-stained t-shirt and black jeans from earlier that day, and he was holding a katana. But what was really odd about him was that his eyes were smiling. Not his mouth, of course, but his eyes. It was unnerving…

"What are you so ha-" he bit off the rest of his sentence when he finally noticed that the katana Sesshoumaru was holding in his hand was not just any old sword. It was Tensaiga. That's when it dawned on him.

"I was…dead." he stated flatly.

"Yes." Kagome snuffled into his neck. "I felt your chest, there was no heartbeat. And you were so cold…"

"I was dead." he repeated, letting the meaning of these words sink in. "And Sesshoumaru, you used Tensaiga to resurrect me."

"Hai, oto-chan." For one brief moment, their gazes locked, and Sesshoumaru saw in his younger brother's eyes immense confusion and sadness, coupled with relief and immeasurable gratitude. Then Inuyasha disentangled himself from Kagome and flopped back down onto the bed, rolling onto his side so that his back was facing all of them.

"Keh!" he grumbled accusingly. "Show off."

~

"Are you certain that he's ready to travel yet?" Higurashi-san asked as she helped the youkai to attach the heavy breastplate across his chest. "I mean, look what happened the last time."

"Hai." Sesshoumaru replied, nodding. "The Tensaiga not only has the ability to restore life, but it is also a healing sword as well. All traces of his former wounds seem to have vanished."

"Well, that's a mercy!" Higurashi-san said happily as she lowered the spiked steel epaulettes onto his shoulders. "Good lord, Sessho-kun, how do you carry all this weight around?"

"Practice. If you'll just help me with the katanas, we're almost done here."

"That'll be a mercy, too! This was a lot easier to take off." she laughed, attaching Tensaiga and Toukijin at his waist. "How do you bathe?"

"Sadly, far too infrequently."

"I'm sorry to hear that." she said, clucking her tongue.

"Yes, I must admit that I am really going to miss that mechanical bath, if nothing else."

"If nothing else, indeed!" she said, smiling up at him. "Sessho-kun, there's still one thing I don't quite understand."

"Are you going to ask me why I chose to save his life?" he said softly.

"Good heavens no!" she laughed, then laughed even harder at the expression on his face. "That part was very easy to understand, dear! What I don't understand is how what seemed to be such an insignificant little wound nearly ended your brother's life! From the way Kagome describes it, he's been run through and had fewer complications!"

"Ah, that. Well, I don't really know, Higurashi-san. I'm not a hanyou. Maybe it was many different factors, all working together at once…"

"Sounds like fate, to me, Sessho-kun. I think that you two were brought here by some unseen hand, so that you could work through your differences, and everything that happened here was just another way of helping you two come together in the end. After all, you're brothers, and as I've said before, it was about time that you started acting like it."

"That's very amusing, Higurashi-san. Ludicrous, but amusing nonetheless. Now let's not speak of this again."

~

"aaaaaahhhhh…" Inuyasha sighed, breathing her in. "I can't wait to get you alone in the forest…"

"Well you're going to have to wait, koiishi." she said matter-of-factly as she tossed a pair of balled socks into her backpack. "At least three more weeks, until the pills start working."

"Oh come on, Kagome, that's not funny! Forget about those stupid things… I'll be careful, I promise."

"You? Careful? That is funny! Not get off me, I have to finish packing before your brother starts getting impatient." She tried her best to stifle a giggle as he growled playfully and bit her on the back of the neck.

"Don't think I don't know exactly what that means, Inuyasha!" she said brusquely, trying to shake him off. "You said that I needed to learn, and I've been doing my homework. And the answer, by the way, is still no."

"Yeah?" he smiled, releasing her neck. "Well then tell me, what does this mean?"

"Animal!" she gasped.

~

"You two had better be behaving yourselves up there!" Higurashi-san called up the stairs. "Remember what I said!"

"No puppy-eared grandchildren!" they called back down to her together.

"Hurry up you Kagome, Sessho-kun is anxious to leave."

"Keh!" Inuyasha laughed, bounding down the stairs with her daughter on his back, "You're just anxious for us to leave your house!"

"Yes, dear, you've caught on, I'm afraid." she laughed. "With the way you eat, Inuyasha, it was either send you home or sell the shrine. When will you be back, Kagome dear?"

"Oi, Higurashi-baba, we haven't even left yet!"

"That wasn't even cute the first time, Inu-kun."

"…gomen…"

"Give us a week or so, Mama. I'll try to make it back as soon as I can."

"Well, don't come back alone. If Inuyasha is to be the father of my future puppy-eared grandchildren, then I think that he should probably be spending some more time around here as well. Just try to give me some advanced warning so that I can stock the fridge first…"

"Hai, Mama. One week. We'll try to be back by next Sunday, won't we 'Inu-kun'?" she teased, tugging on the tips of his ears. In response, he dumped her unceremoniously onto her keister.

"Owww!" she cried out, rubbing her tailbone as she rose to her feet. Inuyasha flicked his ears at her.

"If you two whelps are finished playing, do you think we might leave now?" a cold, disinterested voice called from the kitchen.

"Ah, Mama, I see that along with helping him into his armor, you also helped him back into his superior attitude…" Kagome grumbled beneath her breath.

"Hold your tongue, little bitch. I am the alpha male of your clan, and I will be treated as such." Then, turning to Inuyasha he said, "Brother, all I can say is that you had better teach her quickly."

"Oh gods, not you too!" Kagome moaned.

"Nii-san," Inuyasha said, actually smiling at the youkai. "I couldn't agree with you more. Come on bitch!" he said, smacking her bottom playfully, "Let's head back."

~

"Gods, did we have to have this huge send off?" Inuyasha grumbled, looking back over his shoulder at the three humans who were following a few feet behind them as they made their way to the well house. "It's not like we won't be back in a week."

"Sesshoumaru won't." Kagome whispered, elbowing him in the ribs.

"Thank goodness…" he mumbled back, which earned him another sharply prodding elbow.

"Stop saying things like that! He saved your life! You could at least show a little gratitude…"

"I thanked him!" Inuyasha said defensively, rubbing his bruised side.

"Yeah? When? I never heard anything like that."

"I did! You just weren't paying attention!"

"Well, if that's true, then it won't be a big deal if you do it again, right?"

"But I already-!"

"Don't make me say it…in front of Mama, Jii-chan and Souta…" she said in a sing-song voice.

"Fine! Damn you're a violent bitch!"

"Well, I am your bitch, so it only stands to reason…" Picking up speed, Inuyasha soon caught up with his brother, who had been walking out alone in front.

"Oi." he said loudly, so that Kagome could hear.

"Nani?"

Inuyasha scowled, his cheeks coloring slightly as he cast his eyes downward.

"woof." he barked reluctantly, causing Kagome's eyebrows to disappear behind her bangs in surprise.

"grrrr…ruff." Sesshoumaru responded in kind.

"I know I already said it!" Inuyasha yelled back, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Well then stop bothering me about it!" Sesshoumaru growled. "I already regret it enough without the constant reminders!"

As they reached the door to the musty old well house, Kagome turned around to hug her family goodbye.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," she promised, "Most likely Sunday, if nothing out of the ordinary happens."

"Darling, what exactly would be out of the ordinary at this point?" her mother laughed.

"Good point. We'll see you Sunday."

"Next Friday it is…" Higurashi-san sighed. "Goodbye, dear." she said, turning to look up a the hanyou. "Take care of yourself, and take extra-special care of my little girl."

"Heh! That's a good one. She can take care of herself, don't worry." he said, bending down slightly so that his mother-in-law wouldn't have to stand on tip-toe to kiss his cheek. "Bye brat." he said, mussing up Souta's hair. "Bye geezer! Don't fall down those stairs and break a hip!"

"Bye Souta, Bye Jii-chan!" Kagome said, giving them both quick hugs. "Don't listen to Inuyasha, he's just happy to be going back."

"Come on, Kagome, the day's not getting any younger!" The hanyou called over his shoulder as he stepped into the well house.

"Alright, Alright!" she called after him, giving her mother a quick kiss before following him. Sesshoumaru stayed behind for a moment, so that he could say his final goodbyes in private. He was well aware of the fact that he would never return to this place, nor see these people again.

"Jii-san, it was very nice to meet you." he said politely, bowing to the old man.

"May you live a long life." Jii-chan said formally, bowing to the youkai, who tried not to smirk at this suggestion.

"Souta, I had fun." he said simply.

"Hey Sessho-kun, if you ever come back, I'll show you how to play a video game. Think about it! That's what you call incentive, right Mama?"

"Hai."

"Anyway," the boy continued, "It was really cool while you were here, and next time I see Inunii-chan, I'll tell him to say 'Hi' to you for me."

"Of course." Sesshoumaru agreed easily, not wanting to dash the boy's hopes by telling him that the likelihood of he and Inuyasha spending any appreciable amount of time together, or even being inclined to exchange pleasantries at all, was very slim.

"And I want you to have this to remember me by, in case you don't come back." The boy said, reaching his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulling out a yellow and black cat's eye marble, an exact match to the one that Sesshoumaru had seen in his brother's leather pouch.

"Ah!" Sesshoumaru said softly, honestly pleased. "Arigatou, Souta. I will not forget." He bowed his head slightly to the boy, who ignored his manners completely and flung himself at the demon, hugging him around the waist. Sesshoumaru patted the child on the back, feeling a little uncomfortable, but what was there to do? When the hug had ended, he found himself facing the first woman he'd been able to hold a meaningful conversation with in a very long time.

"Higurashi-san…" he said slowly. He wished to express a million different thoughts and sentiments, but none of them seemed even remotely adequate, so he simply said "Thank you." The ningen woman smiled at him, understanding him all too well.

"You're welcome, Sesshoumaru."

"I almost wish…" he said thoughtfully, before changing his mind and saying simply, "Goodbye, Higurashi-san."

"Goodbye, Sesshoumaru." Then she added quietly, a second later, "Don't kill your little brother."

"We shall see." he replied, then turned and followed Inuyasha and his wench into the well house, where the young couple had been waiting for him patiently.

Well, Kagome had been waiting patiently. Inuyasha, on the other hand, already had one foot up on the lip of the well, and it appeared that he and the wench were arguing again. It seemed that Inuyasha had grown tired of waiting, and Kagome had been trying desperately to keep him from taking off without Sesshoumaru.

"Inuyasha, be reasonable! We can't leave without him, there's no telling if he'll be able to make it back on his own! Besides, we are not leaving him here with my family!"

"Why not? They seem to like him!"

"Now, now, there's no cause for bickering, whelps! I'm finished saying my goodbyes, we can go now."

"There you are!" Inuyasha barked testily. "Finally! You know, for someone who's been riding my ass all week about getting back home, you sure are taking your sweet time!"

"At what point did you become in a hurry?" Sesshoumaru asked, assuming his usual impassive tone. Inuyasha grumbled something uncouth which his companions ignored completely.

"Alright, how does one do this?" Sesshoumaru asked, staring down into the murky depths of the well.

"There's nothing simpler! You just jump in." Kagome chirped happily, trying to lighten the mood. Ever since they'd decided that today was the day to go home, things had become tense between the brothers once more, as if all that had happened in the past week hadn't changed a thing. She found this prospect very depressing. She'd been harboring a naïve hope that after all they'd been through together, that they might actually start acting like family. Or at least acquaintances who were capable of tolerating one another…

"Alright, Inuyasha grumbled. Let's get this over with already! I want to go home."

"As do I." Sesshoumaru said evenly.

"Ok boys, let's go!" Kagome said, trying to keep up her chipper façade. Neither brother moved. "What's the matter now?" she sighed.

"Nothing." they replied in unison.

"You two are hopeless…" Kagome sighed, stepping up onto the edge of the well. "Here, Sesshoumaru, give me your hand. We came through the first time together, so it's only fitting that we go back together."

"Hey!"

"Hey what?! Do you want to hold his hand and I'll follow?" The only response that she received for her troubles was a scowl. "I didn't think so!" she huffed. "Ok, Sesshoumaru, one, two, three...go!" Inuyasha watched as they disappeared together, then jumped in after them, right on their heels. Only moments later, all three had climbed out the other side and were standing on the edge of Inuyasha's forest, trying to decide what happened next.

"So…?" Kagome said lamely, tapping her hands on her legs.

"This is were we part ways, little ningen." Sesshoumaru said coolly. "I believe I have until the count of…what was that number again, oto-chan? Oh yes, I have until the count of five, wasn't that it? Well, I'd better not waste any time then. Good day, Wegome." he said, bowing his head slightly, before he turned on his heels and headed toward the sun.

"Well, I guess we'd better be getting back to the village." Kagome said sadly. "What a waste…" she sighed to herself. She had taken maybe ten or twelve steps before she realized that Inuyasha was not following. Turning around, she saw that he was still standing where they had parted ways with Sesshoumaru. As far as she could tell, he hadn't moved an inch.

"Inuyasha?" she called to him, uncertainly. He didn't respond, but merely continued to stare at the retreating form of his older brother. Then, after what must have been two or three minutes, he suddenly broke into a run.

"Inuyasha?!" Kagome cried, her voice full of alarm, "What are you going to do?!" It took her a minute to realize that he wasn't preparing to attack, but was calling to the youkai.

"Oi, Sesshoumaru, wait! Wait!" The demon paused in his tracks, obviously confused.

"What is it, Inuyasha?"

"There's one more thing…I wasn't going to tell you, and you'll probably think I'm crazy or make some nasty comment about me not getting enough oxygen to my brain or something-"

"Inuyasha, I'm in a hurry. What is it that you wanted to tell me? It must be important, or you wouldn't have run all the way out here like your ass was on fire."

"When I was…when you… I mean…" the hanyou stammered uncomfortably under his older brother's scrutiny.

"Inuyasha, please," Sesshoumaru sighed wearily. "Just spit it out."

"Uh, look, there was someone who wanted me to give you a message." Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow.

"Yes? Whom? I'm listening."

"I don't know who, it was just a voice inside my head, but she said-"

"She?!"

"Yes, I think so…, anyway, she said to tell you not to worry so much about it. You did the best that anyone could do, and uh…'"

"And?! What else did she say?!"

"uh…"

"Damn it, Inuyasha, what the hell did she say?!!"

"Well don't yell at me asshole, or I'll never remember!"

"I'm sorry… please, oto-chan, what else?" Sesshoumaru asked softly.

"She said…oh yeah…" Inuyasha said suddenly, his eyes lighting up. "She said to thank you for keeping your promise, and that she'd be keeping her eye on us. That was it." Sesshoumaru was silent for a moment, considering what he had just been told.

"And this happened when?"

"I'm not really sure. Sometime after the subway, and sometime before I woke up with an audience. It was probably just a dream caused by the infection, that's why I didn't want to say anything…but just now, I figured I'd better, just in case. I wouldn't have wanted that on my conscience. You know, not telling you, I mean."

"All right. Your mate is waiting for you, Inuyasha. You shouldn't leave her alone like that, you never know what could happen for that one instant while your back is turned."

"Hai. I'm going. I just had to tell you that… I wouldn't want to piss off a voice from inside my head."

"Oto-chan," Sesshoumaru laughed softly, "you'd better go now before I say something that we'll both regret. I swear sometimes you set yourself up on purpose…" Inuyasha shook his head in mock disbelief.

"This is the thanks I get for bringing you messages from beyond the grave, nii-chan? You really are an asshole!" With a small smile playing just at the corners of his lips, Sesshoumaru turned his back on the hanyou and started walking again.

"Runt." he called over his shoulder.

"Geezer!"

"Ningen."

"Inbred!"

"Hentai."

"Bitch!" < p>"Fluffy."

"Nani? ME?!"

THE END