InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed ❯ This is it... ( Chapter 4 )

So, here's my issue; I like Sesshomaru's mother, I really do, I mean, she's the reason we have fluffy! but she just doesn't have much of a place in this story. I don't know why but it was just really hard for me to come up with anything with her in it so eventually I just gave up. Believe me it's better this way. We just weren't meant to be : (

Also, thank you sooo much for all the reviews! They made me so happy! And no, you may not have little baby Sesshy... he's mine : P

my goal, at this point is to update at least once a month. I would prefer if it were twice a month, but I don't really see that happening very often. This was just a really good couple of weeks. : )

Disclaimer: I do not own any Inuyasha characters or what have you. They all belong to Rumiko Takahashi

“speaking”

'thoughts'


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chapter 4: This is it...

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An eight year old Sesshomaru sat under his mothers favorite tree. She had planted it herself with his father hundreds of years ago. Back then it had been little more then a twig in the ground but now, the large willow tree towered over Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru loved that tree, but couldn't look at it any more; he turned back over onto his side and quietly looked at the grave not one foot from himself. It had only been dug the day before and he hadn't left it since. He just couldn't. He felt like that would be him... abandoning her. He couldn't. After all, he was the reason she was dead.

'If I hadn't been there when Ryuukotsusei attacked the palace then she wouldn't have stayed to protect me. She would still be alive... why didn't I just go with Cho when he asked me over?'

He felt the tears begin to fall from his eyes once more as the guilt churned in his stomach. Sesshomaru could barely take it; the overwhelming pain in his chest was just too much.




InuTaisho looked up at his son still laying next to Katt's grave. He sighed as he rubbed his tired eyes. He hadn't slept last night and he had a feeling his son hadn't either. InuTaisho wearily began walking up to Sesshomaru, the boy had been out there all night and it was time he came inside and got some sleep.

The elder demon calmly walked up the hill to his mates grave, sitting opposite his son. It was hard enough keeping in the tears that seemed to constantly be at the corners of his eyes, but now, seeing and hearing his child's' sobs, it tore him up.

“Sesshomaru...” he spoke in the softest whisper. Sesshomaru wouldn't look at him. “Sesshomaru, look at me.” the young Inu demon rolled onto his stomach and covered his face with his forearms.

InuTaisho sighed again. He knew what the problem was; Sesshomaru blamed himself. He'd said so two days earlier, the day his mother had been killed. Sesshomaru had come to his father in tears telling him that it was all his fault, that he had killed his own mother. InuTaisho knew this wasn't true – Sesshomaru cried when he had accidentally stepped on a mouse while running through the palace last summer – but he had absolutely no idea how he could convince his young son that he hadn't done anything wrong.

It had been one of the rare days that he had no work and he had planned on spending it with his family. They had all been in the garden on the far side of the palace, just beside the trees lining the forest behind their mansion. It was a beautiful day; sunny but still cool. Katt had been playing a game of tag with Sesshomaru while InuTaisho was sitting under his favorite tree, just enjoying their company. But he had gotten called away when news of a small band of demons attacking the town surrounding his palace was delivered by his advisor, Myouga.

It had all been a set up. While InuTaisho was distracted in the village, Ryuukotsusei snuck up on his unsuspecting mate and son. He came from the forest and took them both by surprise. With InuTaisho and all the guards at the village gates protecting every one else, Katt and Sesshomaru were left defenseless.

If her death was anybodies fault, it was his own. He had never thought anyone would be so underhanded as to sneak up on an unsuspecting mother and child. By the time InuTaisho had realized his mistake, it was too late. Katt had taken a particularly nasty attack to the chest in order to save her son. She died just seconds after InuTaisho arrived. What was worse was that he couldn't revive her with Tenseiga. She had knowingly given up her life to save some one else; Tenseiga couldn't bring anyone back from that.

InuTaisho brought himself back from his memories and quietly reached over to Sesshomaru, scooped him up into his arms and gently placed the younger demon in his lap. The boy instantly curled up into a ball and buried his head in his fathers' chest.

“Sesshomaru, your mother stayed with you because she wanted to protect you. You did not force her to stay and you certainly did not force her to fight. Do you understand?” InuTaisho placed a gentle hand on Sesshomaru's head, but still, the boy refused to look his father in the eye. Finally, InuTaisho took his sons face between his hands and forced him to look up. He spoke in a clear, calm voice, being absolutely sure that Sesshomaru heard him. “This. Was. Not. Your. Fault.”

Sesshomaru finally broke down. His arms shot up to wrap around his chichiue's neck as he sobbed. InuTaisho held him tight to his chest, rubbing his back and whispering quiet words of comfort for both Sesshomaru and himself. He slowly began to get to his feet with a crying Sesshomaru still held tight in his arms. InuTaisho carried his son back into their palace so the both of them could finally get some much needed sleep.




Kagome and Sango couldn't stop a few of their own tears from falling when they saw the young Sesshomaru crying over his mother's death. As they watched the demon lord carry his son away, Miroku stepped up to the grave stone, a large smooth rock placed at the top of the freshly upturned dirt. Engraved in the stone were the words:

Beloved mother

My beautiful mate
We will love you forever

Miroku got to one knee and said a prayer for the woman they had all seen a few minutes earlier. They never knew her, but they had just seen this woman giving her child a hug, holding those flowers he had picked for her. She cared for Sesshomaru and InuTaisho very much and it was obviously they loved her so very much in return.

All three of them knew first hand how much it hurt to lose a parent; Miroku watched his father get sucked into his own wind tunnel, Kagome was with her father in the hospital when his cancer finally got the better of him, and Sangos entire village was killed by Naraku while he was controling her brother. To say, “it hurts” just doesn't do it justice.

The girls wiped the tears from their eyes and said a prayer for the woman as well. All three of them got to their feet and looked over at the palace to their right. It was beautiful. On the far side, they noticed some damage though. A small portion of the palace looked as if it had been crushed and burned.

'That must have been where it happened...' All three of them thought simultaneously.

Their moment of silence was cut short as suddenly, Sango, Miroku and Kagome all began to feel that same pulling sensation they had felt before. The sun again began speeding through the sky, rising and setting in rapid succession. This time, they were being pulled through the walls of the palace, making sharp turns through the halls until, finally they came to a stop out side of a door.

The group took some time to calm their stomachs once again.

“So,” Kagome and Sango looked to Miroku, all of them still clutching their bellies. “When do you think we are now?”

“I don't know. Something must have gone wrong with the spell.” said Kagome as she rubbed her aching stomach.

“I agree. Maybe Inuyasha got the words mixed up. It almost seems like we're going through all of Sesshomaru's memories.”

Just as Miroku finished his sentence, the young lord Sesshomaru slowly opened the door they were facing, stepped out, and closed it behind himself. He paused for a second before bowing his head and, looking at the floor, began slowly walking down the wide hall way.

The trio glanced in between one another for a second before quickly running to catch up with him. They might not have any idea what was going or what went wrong with the spell, but they sure as hell were not planning on missing a damn thing. Despite themselves, they were all increasingly interested in finding out about the Inu brothers' past. Inuyasha would never tell them anything and it was probably more likely that they would see pigs fly then have the great demon Lord Sesshomaru willingly open up about his past.

Sango and Miroku kept pace beside the demon child while Kagome ran in front of him and bent down a little while walking backwards to get a better look at his face.

“Well, he looks like he's about thirteen or fourteen years old...”

“He's not.” Kagome slowed and went to walk next to her friends, waiting for Sango to explain. “Demon slayers are trained to know a lot about demons and one thing we learned was each one ages in a unique way. Like, Shippo ages slowly; ten years from now, he'll most likely still look the same as he does now. That's just how it is for fox demons. Inu demons, however, are almost the exact opposite. Inu demons age really fast during the beginning of their lives. That's why when we saw him before, he was only three but he looked like he was almost six.” Sango paused to take a breath and to gauge the reactions of her friends. When she was sure they understood she continued. “Right now, I would guess this one,” She pointed a finger to the silver haired boy in front of them. “He's probably about nine or ten.”

They all walked in silence for a while, just observing the boy in front of them. They could all tell he was deep in thought. His forehead was furrowed at the bridge of his nose and his eyes would not leave the floor. He was even doing the same thing they had seen Inuyasha do almost every day; he had his hands in the sleeves of his white haori. For a second they thought maybe their friend had picked up the habit from Sesshomaru when he was younger...





A ten year old Sesshomaru walked casually through the halls of his fathers large palace. It had been two years since his mothers death... two, brutal, agonizing years.

At first it was hard because she was gone. The idea of somebody being there one day and being gone the next still plagued his mind. No matter how hard he tried he could not wrap his head around something like that. It was more then he could understand and he knew it would always pain him deeply to think about it.

Sesshomaru had thought that he would have been able to lean on his father for support. He thought that if there was anybody body who he could talk to about his pain or if there were one person who would understand what he was feeling it should have been his own father. But, instead of staying together and comforting each other during such a terrible time, InuTaisho kept pulling away.

At first they were together all the time, trying to stay close; it was almost as if they became each others security blanket. As the weeks went by, the demon lord seemed to be pulling further and further away. Sesshomaru had thought that maybe his work was just pilling up and he needed time to get back on track and then they could spend more time together... but it didn't stop.

Inu demons were pack demons; it wasn't uncommon for them to be very “touchy” with one another and surround themselves with family and friends constantly. Sesshomaru could remember, when he was little, going to sleep in his parents' room almost every night. Within a year of his mothers death, he knew better then to try to go sleep in his fathers room, it would only land him sulking back to his own.

Most nights, he couldn't sleep at all; he was lonely and cold and he still wanted someone to hold him and make the monsters go away or chase away the bad dreams. But his mother was gone and his father was, essentially, avoiding him. It was as if Sesshomaru had fallen asleep two years ago and landed right in a nightmare that he couldn't wake up from where every night was the same; cold and lonely. And he knew his chichiue had to be feeling the same thing; it was just unnatural for an Inu demon to be left alone for so long. That was why he was so confused as the why his father kept pushing him away... at first.

Just that morning, Sesshomaru had been looking at himself in the large mirror on the wall of his bedroom and he realized something he never noticed before: he looked almost exactly like his mother. Down to the waning moon on his forehead and the smooth, pointed stripes on his cheeks. Yes, he had been told many times in his life that he looked like her but it never really hit him until that morning exactly how much. It was almost haunting. That was when he'd figured it out.

His father wasn't avoiding him, he was avoiding Katt, his mate, Sesshomaru's mother. Sesshomaru had it all figured out: InuTaisho couldn't stand the sight of his own son because it reminded him too much of his dead mate. Looking at Sesshomaru was just too painful for him.

For the first time, as Sesshomaru walked aimlessly through the halls of his fathers palace, he couldn't find it in him to be mad at his father for avoiding him. 'I can't even stand to look at myself any more.'

Sesshomaru finally looked up after walking for more then ten minutes. Without even noticing, his feet led him to be standing right out side their family room. The name seemed to fit; he remembered this as just about the only room in the whole palace, other then the dinning room, where he and his parents use to be together. This use to be his favorite room.

He sighed. He could smell his father on the other side of the door. Sesshomaru hadn't seen his father in more then two days. A few weeks earlier the demon lord had stopped coming to the dinning room altogether, leaving Sesshomaru to eat by himself every night. The last time he saw InuTaisho was two days ago in the halls. The bigger demon hadn't even said hi to the boy, he just kept walking and talking with his advisor, Myouga.

Sesshomaru steeled himself, and cautiously slid open the door of the family room to see his father sitting on one of the large pillows adorning the floor. He was bent over the table, reading some papers. Sesshomaru closed the door behind him and quietly walked over to the bigger man.

He waited patiently for his father to acknowledge his presence.

….
….
….

InuTaisho wouldn't look up. Sesshomaru felt his stomach do flip flops. He had to talk to his father. Now that he knew what was wrong, maybe they could both come up with a way to fix it. “Chichiue?” He whispered the word, almost afraid of being to loud. InuTaisho still wouldn't acknowledge him; he just went along with his work. Sesshomaru continued, swallowing the lump in his throat, much more nervous now. “Father... I was wondering... if... maybe... maybe we could tal-”

“Sesshomaru, if Myouga returns, please tell him I went for a walk in the forest and will return shortly.”

With out a word and with out even looking at Sesshomaru even once, the demon lord got to his feet and rushed from the room. Sesshomaru's heart fell. He looked to the ground as he felt the lump in his throat grow bigger and his eyes started to itch with tears. Quietly, he answered, “Yes sir.” the words seemed to echo through out the empty room.






*AN: I put this next scene in here because it kept buzzing around in my head and I couldn't get it to leave me alone. It doesn't actually have any effect on the story, really... so feel free to skip it if you want, wont make much of a difference although I, personally, feel as though it makes for a better transition for some parts in the next chapter.





InuTaisho found himself wandering through the forest yet again. He'd been doing that a lot lately.

He looked back on the last few hours and couldn't stop the horrible feeling of guilt well up inside him. Sesshomaru had wanted to talk. Sesshomaru, his youngest son, had come to him, wanting to simply talk with him, and he had run away. It wasn't like the boy was asking for the world, just a few minutes of his fathers time, that was all! It wasn't such an outrageous request, was it? Myouga had been chastising him daily about neglecting his son for more then a year now.

He had been avoiding Sesshomaru for far too long and he knew it. He also knew it was causing the both of them great mental, and physical, torment. His heart was telling him to turn around, run back to his son and give him biggest hug he could, and beg him to forgive his foolish father... but he couldn't.

It was just too painful. Sesshomaru was a constant reminder. All he thought of when he looked at his son was the lifeless body of his mate when he had found her. It was the last time he saw her and for some reason, it was all he could see when he looked at Sesshomaru. The two looked so alike already and... it was just too painful.

But it wasn't as if he was ignoring Sesshomaru. He noticed. InuTaisho noticed the times that Sesshomaru would avoid playing with his friends in favor of getting a head in his studies. He noticed when Sesshomaru would spend his nights in the dojo, trying to perfect every move move his trainers had showed him that day. Sesshomaru, at the age of ten, was where InuTaisho was when he was fifteen, both in his studies and in his training.

InuTaisho had never been more proud of his son then the day the boys instructors had told him the news. At the same time, it saddened him greatly. InuTaisho knew the only reason Sesshomaru was trying so hard was because he was trying, desperately, to get his fathers attention.'And I keep refusing to give him any... why? Because it's too painful for me? What kind a father does that to his own child?'

InuTaisho let himself get lost in thought as he wondered aimlessly through the forest outside his palace. He didn't know how long he'd been walking or even how far but at a certain point he came upon a small pond. He walked across a grass covered clearing and over to the edge of the water, looking at his own reflection.

“Lord InuTaisho?” At the sound of his name, InuTaisho turned to the side, for the first time realizing that he wasn't alone. He was surprised he hadn't noticed another person in the clearing but there she was, not ten feet away. A dark haired girl in a casual purple kimono sat up from her laying position and looked him right in the eyes as he looked back. For a second, one could almost say he was... mesmerized.

“I thought it was you.” he looked at her, confused. She smiled softly in return, having expected that sort of reaction. “You don't remember me, do you?”

He could hear the smirk in her voice and he knew the tone she was using with it. It was that “I know something you don't know” tone of voice. He usually hated that tone but that was mostly because he only really ever heard it when the lord of the east was trying to goad him into a fight. (that old bat would just love to have a reason to have InuTaisho replaced). But with her, it just made him want to smile.

“Unfortunately no, I don't remember you. Where is it I know you from?” He knew he had met this girl before. Something was pulling at the back of his mind he just couldn't place it. 'where do I know this girl?'

This time he could, not only hear it, but see the smirk creep on to her lips. “I'll give you a little hint; I got lost and I can't find my mom.” for the last part, she clasped her hands together under her chin and raised her voice to mimic that of a small child.

All of a sudden, it was like a light flicked on in InuTaisho's head. “Princess Izayoi!” he suddenly remembered that one day in the forest so long ago and grinned down at the girl he hadn't seen in years.

This was probably the most interesting human child he had ever met. Where any other human - man, woman, boy or girl, it didn't matter - every other human he had ever taken up to fly on his cloud had always done something like scream, yell, whimper, try to get as close to him as they possibly could fearing they might fall. This girl, she had asked if they could go higher and faster. Where anyone else would've tried to stay as far from the edge as possible, she tried to get closer. In a way, she fascinated him at the time.

She leaned back on the palms of her hands. “Please, non of that 'princess' stuff. Just call me Izayoi, okay?” He simply nodded and spared her a grin as she continued. “So, what are you doing out so late walking through the forest? Or, really, what are you doing out here. Your place is pretty far from here, isn't it?”

InuTaisho simply chuckled. She was probably right. To be perfectly honest, he did actually know where he was at the moment. The demon Lord had a tendency to let his feet take him away while his mind stayed behind. He was probably a good few miles from the palace by now.

“Probably.” he answered. “I was just walking and I guess I lost track of time. I could ask you the same thing though.” He walked closer and looked at her suspiciously. “shouldn't you be in your home at this hour...” he looked to the sky to see the full moon shining bright, looking back down at him, “or at least accompanied by a few guards?”

Izayoi looked back to the sky as well. She just shrugged and layed herself back down to continue her stargazing from moments earlier. “Yeeaaahhhh. See, that's why I didn't tell anyone that I left. As far as they're concerned, I'm sleeping comfortably in my big fluffy bed.”

It was easy to tell how pleased she was with herself; the smugness was almost radiating from her smile. Izayoi looked to her side at the tall demon lord. She patted the grassy space next to herself, silently asking him sit with her.

For a moment, he considered turning her down and heading back but... there was something... there was just something about her that made walk over and lay down beside her, almost against his will.

They sat in a comfortable silence for the next few minutes.

“You never answered my question.”

The demon lord looked to his side. “What question?”

Izayoi turned her head to look at him as well. “What are you doing out here so far away from home and so late at night?”

InuTaisho furrowed his brow in confusion. “Yes I did.”

“No, you gave me an excuse, not an answer. There's a difference.” she told him in a very matter-of-fact tone of voice.

“Well, you never gave me an answer either. If you recall I asked you the same thing.” he pointed out while giving her the same 'I know everything' look she was currently giving him.

“Nuh-uh. No you didn't. You said you could ask me the same thing. You never actually did.”

“… well, you got me there.” he turned his attention back to the stars. He had to admit, she did have excellent hearing.

“But...” InuTaisho looked back again. “If you really want to know,” she paused for any objections before turning to look at the sky. “I was celebrating with a couple of my girlfriends. We snuck out after dark, had a good time and a few laughs.” she giggled to herself, remembering how drunk one of her friends was. “But they had to go home cause it was late. I decided to stay behind and look at the stars for a while.” She turned back to the beautiful demon by her side. “So, that's my story. Your turn.” she gave him a pointed stare.

He didn't really know why he was having this conversation. Why was he laying there and talking to this girl? What ever it was, he decided it didn't really matter. He hadn't talked to any one about anything that wasn't business related in a long time and this girl, in a way, seemed to be about as fresh as the air could get. But, still, that didn't mean he was about to go baring his soul.

“What were you celebrating?” InuTaisho lazily grinned to himself as Izayoi burst out laughing.

“Ooohhh! I see how it's gonna be! Well fine. I can play “evasion” with you all night!” she brought her hands up from her sides and reached to the sky, stretching as if she were preparing for a big fight. Finally, after cracking her knuckles and shaking out the kinks, she cupped her hands behind her head and relaxed. With a big smile on her face she said, “I was celebrating the death of my husband.”

InuTaisho's grin instantly fell. He slowly turned his head to look at the girl by his side, shock and maybe a little anger evident on his face at the pleased sound in her voice. “You... were celebrating... your husbands death?”

She spared him a sidelong glance. “Oh, don't even look at me like that; you did not know my husband.” She suddenly got very serious. “Last year, on my fifteenth birthday, my parents decided that I was old enough to be married. I disagreed, they didn't care. So, they set me up with this guy who, I think, was the son of some lord who lives in the south... I'm really not to sure; I wasn't actually paying attention when my parents told me.” she said nonchalantly. “Anyway, we got married and for about the first month or so we just kind of avoided each other because neither of us really wanted to be in that situation anyway. But then,” she paused, taking a breath to calm herself. “Then, he started getting really pushy, and very very demanding.” she paused again, glancing to the side to see if see her companions reaction. “I told him I didn't want to, but he really didn't care and so when he tried to force it, I kicked him in the nads, broke his nose and ran for my life.”

At this, InuTaisho got a little bit of his grin back. 'This girl is not one to be messed with... I like that.'

The small, satisfied smirk she had acquired when recalling the look on the mans face when she punched him suddenly vanished. It was replaced with a somber expression as her eyes seemed to cloud over with her memories. “When he couldn't get what he wanted from me,” she paused, this time trying to get the courage to actually say what she needed to say. InuTaisho waited patiently as she sighed. “When he couldn't get what he wanted from me, he raped one of my best friends... on our marriage bed.” at the last statement, she let a small wry laugh escape her lips. “The son-of-a-bitch didn't even stop when he saw me standing there...” Izayoi shook her head in anger. She released a shaky breath as she continued. “We tried telling people what happened but no body believed us.”

InuTaisho didn't know what to say. How was one supposed to react to something like that? He couldn't even imagine what it must have been like to have told people about that and not have them believe it.

Izayoi took a deep breath, and let it out with a happy grin. “About two days ago, he got his head bitten off by a coyote demon.” she laughed to herself as she looked over to the demon Lord. “Not just the one on his head either!”

Izayoi giggled to herself as InuTaisho smiled a little. “I guess he never considered the fact that luck is a lady, karmas a bitch and god, for all we know, might be a woman.” Izayoi's grin grew at the mans statement and instantly started cracking up, her infectious laughter eventually causing InuTaisho to do the same.

He was laughing. He was actually laughing! He wasn't even faking it like he normally had to, this time it was real. It was baffling and confusing and for the first time in two long years, he was starting to feel a little better.

The two of them talked for hours, telling stories and giggling. InuTaisho probably hadn't talked that much on the last two years combined. That made him feel guilty; here he was, having a good time with this girl he had really only just met while his mate was...

This was what he was his distraught mind was thinking of while he walked back to his palace in the early hours of the morning. How could he have possibly allowed himself to have a good time with another girl? It wasn't like he was considering being with her or anything. She was just a child for kamis sake! But still, he almost felt like, in a way, he had betrayed his mate by having a good time. The thought alone was ridiculous, he knew. Katt had always been the one to say that making friends was more important then making enemies. He had just made a new friend. That was all. This world could stand to be just a bit more friendly towards one another.

He sighed.

Maybe... just maybe.... he would consider visiting that same pond again sometime.





Inuyasha beamed. Okay, so it wasn't really like Sesshomaru had a choice in the matter, the man was basically frozen in place, but it was still a good feeling, knowing that the man at least didn't mind what Inuyasha had done. The half demon knew his brother would recognize the spell. Sesshomaru was the one he had learned it from in the first place!

It was pretty simple; he just needed Keade to make the potion to put the candle in - the spell called for some spiritual power and he really didn't have any – then it was just a matter of the bigger the candle, the longer they're asleep. Simple. Unfortunately, what goes along with “the bigger the candle” rule, comes his friends seeing a lot more then he feels comfortable with. If it had just been Sesshomaru, like it was supposed to be, then he might not have been so worried, but his life was an entirely different story. There are a lot of things about his life that he really would rather not have them know about...

But he didn't want to be thinking about that now. There was plenty of time to be thinking about that later! Right now he had a once in a life time opportunity and his brother was actually going along with it! Unfortunately, they had been sitting there, quietly, for quite a while now and Inuyasha figured it might be best if one of them started talking... 'Guess that has to me then, huh?'

“Um...”

At the small sound his eyes shot up meet his brothers'. Sesshomaru had been waiting patiently for his little brother to speak for the last five or so minutes. He could understand though. Sesshomaru could smell the nervousness coming off his otoutou in waves and he knew first hand, when Inuyasha got nervous his tongue got tied.

“... I didn't really think this far ahead... heh...” Sesshomaru only wished he could smile as Inuyasha grinned and rubbed the back of his head. “See, every plan I ever came up with, something always goes wrong and I just thought this would be the same except... it's really weird... everything worked out... except for a few minor issues, but still...” Inuyasha had calmed down a little by now and was starting to find his words again. “I just really didn't think I would get this far... ya know?”

Sesshomaru could appreciate that. Inuyasha sighed and dropped his head, casting a shadow over his eyes as Sesshomaru waited, knowing this was only the beginning of what promised to be a very long night.

“There's a lot of stuff that I wanted to say to you. I been thinkin' 'bout this... about having this chance for a long time now. I thought about all the things I wanted to say to you and all the questions I wanted to ask. Ya know, I got so say Sessh, I didn't really think this would be one of them...” Inuyasha raised his head and furrowed his brow as he looked down at his brother and the bandages almost completely covering his chest and torso. “Are you okay?”

If Sesshomaru had the ability to move his face, Inuyasha would've seen his shock. That was probably the last thing he expected to come out of his baby brothers mouth. All he could do was:

Blink.

Inuyasha heaved a bit of a sigh. “Good.” He let the word hang in the air for a while, trying to organize his thoughts. “... you scared me...” he looked at Sesshomaru through his bangs. “I was actually a little surprised; I honestly thought that if I saw you get hurt I would be happy... but... when I saw you on the ground and when I was taking you back here... I don't think I've ever been that scared... you almost died ya know.”

He did know. Sesshomaru had come across that particular herb only once before, when he was much younger and once was definitely too much. The healer at his fathers palace had let him know exactly how close a call that really was. He could only imagine this time was worse. Sesshomaru only wished there was some way he could reach out and comfort his brother, let him know there was nothing to worry about and that he really was alright.

Blink.

Inuyasha sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. “I said I had a lot of things I wanted to tell you, so that's what I'm gonna do.” Inuyasha strengthened his resolve, starting to feel a little more confident. “Ever since I was six, I've had no body I could really talk to. Everyone I ever got close to either left me or died... so... do you mind if we just... talk?”

No, he didn't mind. He had missed talking with Inuyasha, it was one of the things he really loved about his brother. When they were younger Inuyasha would confide in Sesshomaru all of his deepest secrets and the older demon desperately wanted that trust back.

Blink, blink.

Inuyasha blew out a cautious breath. He was nervous. No. He was absolutely terrified about what he was about to do. He wanted to tell his brother everything, but he couldn't do with this cover still over him. Inuyasha reached his shaky hands down and pulled up the hem of his hakama covering his right leg.

Sesshomaru knew what he was doing as he saw the small, black, braided anklet normally hidden from view.

Inuyasha untied the charmed item and, for the first time in months, felt the spell concealing his real appearance drop.

'This is it...'




Inuyasha IS NOT A GIRL!!! just wanted to get that out there. Personally, I don't like it when people take Inuyasha and turn him into a “she”. It annoys me so I wont ever be doing that.

I don't think I'm ever going to be happy with this chapter. I read it over a thousand times and I still feel like I didn't write it very well.

And people, I have to say, I never really got it when authors would keep asking for reviews to their stories. It never really clicked with me before but now I totally get it! It is soooo much more fun to write things when you think people actually enjoy reading it! Please review!!