InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ His Little Girl ❯ Brother to brother ( Chapter 9 )

 

Morning light was just breaking over the concrete jungle as Inuyasha emerged from the well house, and unlike the world he left, it hadn't rained in days here. The land was dry, but not parched and morning dew still clung to the blades of grass as he walked over the damp green hair that covered the earth beneath his clawed feet.

 

Leaping into the God tree the hanyou silently climbed in through the window and closed it again once he was in the miko's bedroom. Seeing that the four on the bed were still sleeping, he settled down into his usual position when he was there. His back leaning against the side of the bed and his sword held in his arms. Figuring they would be asleep for a few more moments he closed his eyes and gave into a few moments of slumber.

 

The hanyou was awakened some time later by a hand gently shaking his shoulder. Golden eyes met golden eyes and he instinctively clutched his sword tighter. His brother smirked quite amused by his unconscious action.

 

“Worry not for your sword Inuyasha,” Sesshoumaru spoke softly not wanting to wake the others. “It is your sword after all. Come brother, follow me,” he said as he stood from where he had been crouching in front of Inuyasha.

 

He walked over to the window and opened it, leaping into the tree, his hanyou brother following behind. After Inuyasha had closed the window so their words wouldn't awaken anyone within, he turned to his brother and settled on a branch near him.

 

“Inuyasha, why are you here?” the taiyoukai began when it was obvious that Inuyasha wouldn't.

 

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said after a moment. Looking at his brother, a frown on his face he asked, “Why are you here?”

 

Looking at the sakura blossoms in the tree and picking one he studied the white flower in his hand for a moment before answering, when he did his voice wasn't as cold as it had been before. “Rin was poisoned. I didn't know what to do, how to help her, all I knew was that she was sick…horribly sick. I brought her to your village and apparently your miko had just come through the well, she was the first to see me. The first to see Rin…Kagome asked me to trust her and she brought Rin and I here, across the well.” He took a moment and somehow knew that he wouldn't regret admitting what he was about to, to his brother. “I went looking for her after she had fed and taken her dish to wash in the stream, she hadn't returned and I was worried…I found her lying face down near the water, her skin was damp and burning with fever although she shook with chills. I couldn't wake her up and in that moment I felt fear as I've never felt it before. All I knew was that my pup was sick and something had to be done…I brought her to Kagome and Kagome led us here and to a hos-pi-tahl,” the word still felt strange on his tongue. “I nearly lost it when the doctor took her from me and wouldn't allow me to see her. If not for Kagome and Kashu - her mother's name is Kashu,” he said when Inuyasha gave him a blank look at the new name. “If not for them I may have slaughtered all in that building. The pudding Rin had eaten was undercooked and there were berries in it that are poisonous to humans. Jaken had purchased it for her from a nearby village…he hasn't actively tried to harm Rin before so I'm inclined to think this pudding incident an accident.”

 

Both brothers were quiet for a few moments, but it would be Inuyasha to break the easy silence with a truth of his own.

 

Turning his head to look at his brother, the hanyou began. “You remember that day when you healed Shippou? When Kagome gave you back your arm?” Sesshoumaru nodded, his cool exterior in place, though his eyes were soft and no longer as cold as stone. “That day I felt my heart stop…You see I had taught Shippou how to hunt a week before that when we were traveling and we needed fresh meat. We had gotten back to Kaede's the night before you came upon us, and we were all tired. The next morning Kaede voiced a desire for rabbit stew…Shippou wanted to make me proud, prove that he could provide for the pack. He wanted to prove that he was a good pup, a worthy pup. I think part of him was still a bit afraid that I might leave him somewhere if he didn't prove worthy to the pack. I know I used to say it to him before, when he was first with Kagome and I, but I don't think I could part with him now. He's my pup, he's pack.” He said that as though it were the final answer and it was, pack was everything to inuyoukai. “He went off to hunt, and I followed a little behind, not enough so he would see me, but enough so that I could keep him safe if he got into trouble…or so I'd hoped. As we were headed off, a villager stopped me. He needed help, he and friend of his had been working on a hut and his friend had gotten trapped beneath a fallen wall. I had just lifted it off the man and helped him up when I heard Shippou scream…I'll never forget that sound, it makes my blood cold just thinking about it.” The dog-eared boy took a calming breath and continued his eyes haunted. “It seemed that while Shippou was hunting a rabbit…a panther, not a youkai panther, but just a wild beast, was hunting him. The panther caught him from behind and when Shippou tried to fight the big cat off, he got slashed at with claws and torn by the fangs…When I got to him he was already unconscious. I don't really remember what happened after I found him…Kagome said that when I came running with Shippou I was full youkai…I don't remember what I do when I'm full youkai…I could've hugged you myself that day when you showed up and used Tenseiga on him, but Kag did it for me and gave you back your arm to boot. I never thanked you for that, but I am - thankful.”

 

“Little brother, do you remember what I told you that day when you were young and another of the youkai pups had hurt you?”

 

“You promised to always protect me,” he said slowly.

 

“That includes your pack, brother…I never forgot my promise to you.”

 

“What about all those battles we had? And when we got father's fangs?”

 

“You hated me then. The only way I had of protecting you was teaching you to fight by sparing with you, though are battles were far more intense then most sparring sessions are.”

 

“…I know it wasn't you who killed her…I was just scared.” He was speaking of his mother then and old wounds opened as freshly painful as if they had just been made.

 

 

“Mamma!” a young Inuyasha screamed out as he came upon his dead mother in the cave they lived in. She lay dead at his brother's feet, blood on the older youkai's claws.

 

 

“I saw the youkai boar outside; it just didn't really register then. Seeing her…her blood…it was all I could see.”

 

Sesshoumaru had moved to sit beside his brother on the wide branch and now sat behind him. Hearing a soft whimper he looked up sharply at the boy.

 

“I miss her so much,” he whimpered as his mind held the image of his dead and bloody mother as though she were lying in front of him now. “It hurts,” he whimpered softly and Sesshoumaru enfolded his brother in his arms, petting his long silver hair and rubbing the area between the two snowy white puppy ears. “I miss otou-san too…I can't remember him,” he suddenly sobbed. “How can I be a good father to Shippou if I can't even remember my own?”

 

Sesshoumaru hugged his brother tightly as he soothed him with soft purrs and words.

 

“You'll learn...everything come with practice and learning it on your own, carving your own path. You'll love as your mother did, as Kagome taught you too. You'll fight and guard your pack as father did. I see him in you every time I see you fight, be it with his fang or by your own claws. You look more like him than I do, I carry my mother's features while you carry our father's.”

 

The two sat in silence for awhile as they embraced each other. Moments later as a breeze blew past and ruffled both brothers' hair, Inuyasha pulled slightly away from the embrace, and looked up. His face held the same innocent curiosity as it had when he was a pup, and Sesshoumaru felt a deep longing to reclaim those lost days.

 

“How come you have a crescent moon and I don't? Is it because you're full youkai and I'm only a hanyou?”

 

“No.” Sesshoumaru said with a small smile as he brushed his brother's bangs out of his eyes. “It's the mark of our father's house. I, as the first heir - the first born, bear the mark of our house. If such a time should come that I die you will know instantly for this mark,” he touched his fingers to his brow and then to his brother's, “will appear on your brow.”

 

“As much as we fought, I don't want the mark if it means you'll be dead.” He frowned sadly. In an odd show of emotion, Sesshoumaru leaned forward enough to kiss his brother's brow.

 

“Not to worry dear brother, I have no plans to die anytime soon. I have a pup to raise.” He smiled.

 

“We both do,” Inuyasha smiled as well. “Brother…why couldn't I come back and live with you after mamma died? Why did I have to be alone?” Inuyasha looked oddly young as he asked the questions, and one could see the heartbroken pup that he had once been alive in his eyes.

 

“After our father died it wasn't safe, that's why your mother took you and left. A war started as the bat taiyoukai warred for our father's lands. Had you been there he would have killed you first just for having a human mother. There were many in the castle who may have tried to end you themselves, you were a hanyou, are a hanyou, and to some that was seen as an insult.”

 

“And to you.”

 

“No. You were and have always been my little brother. Hanyou or not I never cared. You have to understand Inu-chan years of loneliness and the isolation that comes with being hunted down and never fully accepted had made you bitter and suspicious. I didn't know how to reach you anymore, I didn't know how to talk to you anymore, I didn't know You anymore…so I did what I could. I taught you how to fight by forcing it upon you, by making you defend yourself against me. And then later after we found our father's tomb and gathered his fangs, I came back to `take the sword' but I never wanted it. It was yours, I just wanted you to wield it as well and as proudly as our father did when he was alive. I never wanted you to survive,” Inuyasha's head snapped up and a scowl appeared on his face. “I wanted you to live and live proudly. I wanted you to hold your head high and walk proudly. I hated seeing you crouch and dart away like a frightened animal. So many times I wanted to hold as I am now, to give you comfort on those dark nights when you turned human. I always guarded over you on those nights, every time a youkai or oni would come near I'd kill it if I couldn't scare it off.”

 

Inuyasha laid his head back against his brother's breast and wrapped his arms loosely around the older youkai's waist. “Hm.”

 

“I never liked Kikyou,” Sesshoumaru said after a moment. “From the first time I laid eyes upon her I knew she would break your heart. And she did, she shattered it with her betrayal-”

 

“You mean Naraku's,” Inuyasha cut in.

 

“No,” he said as he lightly flicked one of Inuyasha's ears and watched as the appendage twitched back and forth. “I mean Kikyou's. If doubt hadn't already been in her heart she would have been able to resist the spell as Kagome did with the dark miko.”

 

“You know about that?” he peered up at his brother through his bangs.

 

“We talk. Now listen. Answer me this little brother, when did she ever touch you while you were hanyou? She never did, did she?” Inuyasha shook his head sadly. “Do you know what Kagome told me once? I asked her what it was that made her want to be near you when she first met you. What it was that held her interest. Do you know what she told me?” Sesshoumaru smiled and chuckled lightly as he scratched at the base of his brother's ears and watched as they folded back and his brother purred at the sensation. “She told me that she loved your, and I quote, fuzzy little ears. She loved it that you trusted her enough to let her touch them and pet them.” Inuyasha gave a low whine and leaned his head to the side, turning one ear more toward his brother and Sesshoumaru smiled as he paid more attention to the presented white fuzzy triangle. “She always calls you her puppy…Brother?”

 

“Hm?” Inuyasha's eyes were closed.

 

“Do you love Kagome?”

 

Inuyasha stilled and quieted at the question as he thought it over. “Yea,” he finally said. “I do. But I don't love her like a mate. I love her as pack, and I know when I'm scared that she makes me feel safer which is funny considering I'm always having to save her butt. She'll hold me sometimes on my human night and that makes me feel safe, like somehow youkai can't get to me because she's there. I love her for always standing up for me against bigoted villagers but…I don't love her like a mate. I don't love Kikyou like a mate either, it's just…she's…familiar in that respect and I made a promise to her.”

 

“The Kikyou you knew is long since dead brother, and after we defeat Naraku your promise will be fulfilled, her death avenged.”

 

“How do you..?”

 

“Like I said, we talk.”

 

“Do you love Kagome?” Inuyasha asked after a moment.

 

“I don't know…but I'd like to have the chance to find out. I know I feel something, I know I want to hold her and protect her. My heart calls to her, but I don't know the strength or truth of the love.”

 

“All I ask is that you don't hurt her like I have. I know she's cried over me, don't make her cry over you.”

 

“Why little brother are you giving me your blessing.”

 

“Hey shuddup! You're gonna ruin my reputation if you say that too loud!”

 

“Your reputation? What about mine?”

 

“Wait you have one?”

 

With that Inuyasha leapt out of the tree and into the yard below, his brother following close behind. Soon the two were wrestling on the ground, and both were growling and laughing at the same time and Sesshoumaru took the edge of one of his brother's ears in his moth, being sure to cover his fangs with his lips as he did so. And that was how Mama Higurashi found them.

 

“I swear you too remind me of Kagome and Souta wrestling around like that.” The woman laughed and bid them to come inside for breakfast.

 

All was finally once again peaceful between the brothers of the western lands.