InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sesshoumaru's Mate: A Valentine's Story - ON HOLD ❯ Part 2 - The Content of Two Minds ( Chapter 2 )

Sesshoumaru's Mate - A Valentine's Story

 

Disclaimer: The ownership and general brilliance that is the original Feudal Fairy Tale remains the property of its honored and rightfully revered creator Rumiko Takahashi without whose brilliance ,we would not have fodder.

 

Title: Sesshoumaru's Mate - A Valentine's Story
Author ElegantPaws

Genre: AU

Rating: Mature - Sexual Content Where Applicable
Edited by: Meara

Summary: Power is always held in the smallest of things. Something a Taiyoukai would soon come to realize on Valentine's Day.

 

 

Go Terms

 

Goban - The board played on, usually made of wood.

Goishi - Stones, black (slate) and white (clam shell)

Goke - Bowl that keeps your stones before and after play. Its lid used to keep the captured stones of your opponent.

 

Part 2 - The Content of Two Minds

 

Inuyasha watched through the floor to ceiling windows of the Sesshoumaru's study as the snow danced on the wind, falling gently to the ground beneath, muffling the playful cries of their respective young.

 

Tsuki had the upper hand at the moment as she sat atop Yoshiro, feeding him a snowball. The garden's trees and shrubbery were made uniform in color with the pristine blanket of white, but for the gentle meandering flow of the stream.

 

The hanyou's chiseled features, enhanced by the winter sun light, struck Sesshoumaru, not for the first time, as noble; reminiscent of their father. Inuyasha, despite himself, had acquired some semblance of dignity and refinement with age. Not of body per say but in demeanor. No longer easily riled by the slightest perceived inequity; time, family and belonging had done its work.

 

“There is no question, she is yours,” Sesshoumaru said bluntly, giving his brother a sidelong glare as he came into the study and slide the shoji closed. “Shall we begin?”

 

“He'll eventually learn to fight back, don't worry. He is calmer than Satori was at that age. She'd have had Tsuki in a headlock by now.” Inuyasha chuckled. “Yoshiro is more like `Gome in nature, thank the Kami. Narcissistic bastard that you are, he even looks like you spit him out yourself. Still, he's a good kid and ya gotta admire those fine ears of his. They're almost as cute as mine,” Inuyasha said while twitching his to emphasize the point.

 

The sound of silken garments rustling behind, telling Inuyasha, his brother had seated himself on his side of the goban in preparation for the games continuation. Inuyasha felt the pleasurable spike of his brother's jyaki and secretively smiled.

 

He, too, looked forward to the end of their work out, because it meant for several hours they would be at peace in each others presence, while they dueled in this way.

 

Who knew a simple gift from Kagome's belated grandfather would stand the test of time and forge this bond in polar opposites.

 

I

 

Both males gazed at the board meditatively, studying the stones already in play.

 

Amused, warm amber turning to look into narrowed, pale citrine which continued to feign boredom, though the Taiyoukai's aura said otherwise.

 

“Are we playing or not?” Sesshoumaru asked with contrived indifference. Something else the Western Lord would never admit, he enjoyed the conversation of the hand in the play of the stones.

 

To the Taiyoukai's complete surprise, over time, Inuyasha had become a worthy opponent and currently had him in false seki, an unexpected turn of events that pleased him immeasurably.

 

“You're getting old and impatient, big brother. I nearly had you in the dojo this morning,” Inuyasha responded as he settled into position on the tatami. He folded his long legs gracefully and reached for his Goke; its cherry wood lid already filling with slate goishi forsaken in their play the previous week.

 

Just to be irritating, the hanyou shook the lid, bringing Sesshoumaru's eyes to its contents, then snorted as he noted the studied bland expression on his elder sibling's face. The only evidence of Sesshoumaru's displeasure at being forced into a literal corner on the board, a minor tick below his right eye as he poured sake into each drinking bowl.

 

“Juvenile,” murmured the Western Lord, returning his eyes to the goban and the shared liberties left to both players. If he played either point, Inuyasha would capture his stones but there was the other option.

 

“My point exactly. You're old, not quite as swift. In the old days, you would have seen what I intended to do. Or was something else on your mind last week?” Inuyasha said, without looking up. Kagome had asked him to broach the subject of Satori's potential mate.

 

 

Bowing, he took his own bowl and downed the sake, furtively looking over the bowl's rim at the handsome, ever expressionless, features in front of him.

 

Sesshoumaru had paled visibly at his intuitive observation, his lips thinning.

 

 

“Satori might have chosen a Mate, as you well know. Kagome sees no issue with him. I, on the other hand, do. We know nothing of him.”

 

Inuyasha shook his head and studied his brother with a half smile. Where he always acted on instinct, Sesshoumaru continued to require minute details before making any decision. This included giving tacit approval to his eldest child's choice of Mate.

 

“Shippou was damn lucky you liked him or you would have gotten your drawers in a knot there too, with Rin. Is it because he's Western, or the human factor?”

 

“Neither. It would be my preference she followed the path of her ancestry, yes, but he is without history, without family. There are no tangible means of checking his background and true nature.”

 

“Have him come to Sango's party. He'll be surrounded and I'll sniff him out some more. It's not like they are getting hitched anytime soon. We'll sort it.”

 

“Hn.”

 

Contemplative silence followed as they both turned their attention to the game.

 

I

 

Inuyasha saw it, finally.

 

There was actually a means of escape on the goban for Sesshoumaru. The hanyou was the one actually in true seki all along. The Taiyoukai had sacrificed the precious stones for this one move. He might have known. His brother had always understood his weaknesses and instant gratification was one of them. The joy of capturing the obvious had cost him the game.

 

The subtle quirk of Sesshoumaru's upper lip as he looked across into his brother's large, amber eyes said it all as he made his move, barely resisting the urge to shake his bowl's lid in conquest.

 

“The game, Inuyasha is not always to the swift, but to he who endures.”

 

“Feh….you do realize you're paraphrasing their bible and it happens to be Western?” said the Hanyou, folding his arms within his haori, smugly.

 

`The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.' “You'd do well to remember the rest of that phrase you just butchered, Lord Know-It-All.

 

 

Sesshoumaru inclined his head, smiling in thought. Yes, Inuyasha had acquired some semblance of grace, under Ayame's careful, loving tutelage, despite himself.

 

“Shall we join the ladies and the pups? I believe it is time for the noon meal?”

 

“Whatever. I'll get ya next time.”

 

“This Sesshoumaru looks forward to this eventuality…in the distant future.”

 

“Asshole.”

 

“Hanyou.”

 

There would be other Sundays, other opportunities to continue the play of two minds in the guise of a game.

 

Author's Note

 

May peace find you this Sunday, have a wonderful week.

 

EP