InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Suppression ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4

 

The young inu was playing in the bathing room in the large castle. He was having a good time happily splashing away in the wooden tub until he noticed a large, dark shape unflatten itself from the outside wall. The boy was curious and got out of the tub to press his face close to the slits in the wall and look out. The monster stood there; he was grinning. The child scooted back,his heart pounding in his chest andgrabbed a towel to cover his naked body. How had he not known that the monster was here?The young boy never went to the bathroom if he knew that the monster was around. The monster was always watching, waiting for a chance to gobble up the boy.

 

“Sesshoumaru, wake up,” Inuyasha yelled, shaking his brother.

 

The taiyoukai bolted upright, still half asleep and in the grip of the nightmare. He slashed out with his claws, ripping into his brother's shoulder. The hanyou yelped as the poison burned deep into his flesh.

 

“Damn it, Sesshoumaru. That fucking hurts.” Inuyasha held his bleeding shoulder as his brother groggily came back to the land of reality.

 

Sesshoumaru took one look at his sibling in surprise. I thought he left, why is he here? “Let me see it,” he stated as he pulled the cloth away from the wound. The demon lord was so busy with assessing the damage that the odd sensation of being locked in that nightmare quickly vanished.

 

“It is not as bad as it looks,” he informed the hanyou thinking that Inuyasha would soon heal on his own.

 

Inuyasha began to feel a bit like he was drunk. His head began to swim and things began to lose focus. “I don feel s-s-sho good,” he slurred before he passed out into his brother's lap.

 

Sesshoumaru stiffened at the contact of another body against his own, panic beginning to creep out from beneath his tightly controlled emotions. He realized that he needed to keep himself together if he was going to help his sibling, feeling surprised that he did want to help him and not just let the poison take his life. The taiyoukai bit into his arm and let the blood from his body pour over the wounds on his brother's shoulder.

 

Soon the wound began to heal and after a few minutes it closed completely. Inuyasha blinked his eyes open. He was still lying in his older brother's lap. “Ungh, what happened?” he asked feeling a bit odd, his skin was feeling hot and prickly.

 

“You will be fine in a few moments,” Sesshoumaru answered him, pushing his brother away from him into a sitting position, grateful that the uncomfortable feeling of having another touch him was leaving. “I did not realize that your human blood would interfere so much in your healing ability.”

 

Inuyasha frowned but then realized that Sesshoumaru had not been trying to insult him. He really hadn't known. “You fixed me?” he asked in surprise.

 

“The attack was unintentional; the proper thing would be to aid you.” Sesshoumaru returned calmly. “Why are you here?”

 

“Look, I know there's something wrong, and damn it, I'm not going to leave you alone. Why won't you just let me help you,” Inuyasha grumbled.

 

“I do not need anyone's help, least of all yours. Now leave.” Sesshoumaru began to growl out a warning. His brother was just pushing too hard and the taiyoukai was about to put him in his place if he didn't stop pestering him.

 

“You're a cold bastard I'll give you that. Doesn't it matter to you that I care what happens to you?” Inuyasha hadn't quite meant to blurt that out, but he was so damned frustrated with the coldness of his sibling. Any time he had looked at the demon lord, his eyes were utterly devoid of human emotion. The hanyou knew that his brother could kill without a second thought, but sometimes he looked as if the loss of his own life would concern him even less. In the taiyoukai's whole attitude there was not a shred of humanity.

 

“It is not in my nature to care about anything or anyone, having no scruples, morals or other impediments,” Sesshoumaru answered him, his voice laced with disdain.

 

“That's total bullshit,” Inuyasha fired back at him. “What about Rin?”

 

Sesshoumaru frowned. He did care for the child, a great deal. “I have no intention of explaining myself to you,” he growled back, not wanting to admit that the hanyou was right on this account. “Why do you even care? I have done nothing to warrant any kindness from you. I have tried to kill you; you have cut off my arm. Why now? What do you want from me?” Sesshoumaru's voice had risen in volume as he had spoken and he had all but shouted the last question.

 

Inuyasha was shocked by the intensity of emotion he could sense behind that question. If his brother's eyes had bothered him before because of their lack of any emotion, the ones looking at him now bothered him even more because of their lack of hope. They were empty, as if the life had been drained out of them. But behind those empty eyes lay both the desire for love and the death of all expectation for it.

 

“Sesshoumaru,” the inu teen whispered. “What the hell has happened to you?”

 

The taiyoukai quickly shoved his emotions back down and calmed himself. He was disturbed that he couldn't seem to contain his feelings as well as he had before all this business of the dreams had started. What are they trying to tell me? he wondered.

 

Sesshoumaru was torn between pushing his brother away and allowing him to stay. Perhaps the hanyou could in some way help him figure out what was going on. Trying on his own was getting him nowhere. In fact, it was making him crazy. A small part, deep inside himself wanted the hanyou around - had always wanted to have the half-demon accept him. This part, unbeknownst even to the demon lord, took the opportunity to help decide the matter.

 

“If you are so determined to help me as you say, then you may stay, but I will not be your caretaker. You will hunt on your own and you will be expected to keep up with me. I will not wait for you nor give you breaks if you are tired.”

 

“I can keep up, don't worry about me,” Inuyasha replied indignantly.

 

“And you will not eat in my presence,” Sesshoumaru ordered. There were some things that had always bothered the demon lord and he had never questioned them: sitting in chairs, having the bed clothes near his face and being touched in any manner. But the worst was the sound of anyone slobbering. Masticating and chewing noises held the power to disturb his subconscious mind greatly enough to cause overt eruptions of anger. He would not even allow Rin to eat with him.

 

Inuyasha looked at his brother angrily. What a pompous ass. “Yes, your lordship,” he answered sarcastically instead.

 

“You will give me the proper respect or you can leave right now,” Sesshoumaru ground out, grabbing his brother by the front of his haori.

 

Inuyasha thought about doing just that. I don't need this shit from him, let him deal with his problems on his own if that's the way he wants to be. His brother released him and began to walk away. Sesshoumaru didn't look back to see if Inuyasha was coming or not, figuring that more than likely he would just head back to his friends. He felt surprise and some relief when he heard the padding of bare feet behind him.

 

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Sesshoumaru was floating above a field of tall grass that was vaguely familiar to him. He knew he was dreaming, but the dream, so far, was not unpleasant. The sun was bright and warm and he somehow knew that the grass still had some of the morning dew clinging to it, making it pleasantly damp.

 

The demon lord could see a small boy running through the grass. That's me, he thought lazily from his vantage point high above. The inu boy seemed to be playing a game, hide and seek perhaps. It was in that moment that Sesshoumaru realized that the child wasn't playing. He really was trying to find a place to hide. Something was chasing him through the tall vegetation.

 

Sesshoumaru couldn't see what it was but he could see the grass moving and parting behind the pup. The demon lord continued to watch as his younger self ran panting and gasping through the field. Up above in his position of safety he felt immune, impervious, deadened; totally removed from it all.

 

The young demon looked ahead and saw a large wagon, used to bring in the hay when it was cut. The grass covered it half-way up its side and if he could crawl under there, the monster wouldn't see him. The older demon watched as the pup made a beeline for the hay wagon. Not there, Sesshoumaru thought, beginning to feel fear creeping into his cocoon of indifference. Don't go there.

 

Inuyasha watched helplessly as his sibling thrashed on the ground, gripped in the nightmare he was having. The hanyou didn't want to get too close. He could see the venom dripping off his brother's hand, melting holes into the ground where ever he touched it. He did not relish getting slashed by those claws again.

 

“Sesshoumaru, wake up!” he yelled, hoping to get though. Getting no response he picked up a moderately sized rock and chucked it at his brother, hitting him square on the shoulder.

 

Sesshoumaru jumped to his feet, panting and gasping. His head snapped around in circles as if he was looking for someone. Inuyasha was shocked at the terror that was evident in his brother's features.

 

“Sesshoumaru, it's okay. You were just dreaming,” Inuyasha called out from a safe distance. His own heart had picked up speed in sympathy with the anxiety he could feel emanating off his brother. What in the hell could cause him to be so afraid. I thought nothing could scare him. And he was so caught up in that dream I couldn't get him to wake up. This is just too damned weird.

 

Sesshoumaru sat down; closing his eyes he took in a few deep breaths. Just a dream, it wasn't real, he repeated over and over in his mind.

 

Inuyasha came and sat down beside him when he knew Sesshoumaru had calmed down. “You okay?”

 

“Yes,” Sesshoumaru answered, back in control once again.

 

“What did you mean when you said, `don't go there'. You were calling that out over and over.”

 

Sesshoumaru was still uncomfortable at the thought of telling his younger brother his dream. He actually remembered this one for a change. He sat silently looking out into the forest as the sun rose and brightened the day.

 

“I can't help if you don't tell me,” Inuyasha informed his brother matter of factly. “Tell me what you remember.”

 

Sesshoumaru haltingly told his brother about the dream. He never once looked Inuyasha in the eye and the hanyou stayed silent and respectful until his brother had finished, understanding that this was hard for the demon lord to say.

 

“That sounds like a normal nightmare. Kids always think there's a monster chasing after them. I've had dreams like that myself,” Inuyasha told his brother.

 

“Inuyasha, I am no longer a child. Why would I have such a dream now?”

 

Inuyasha frowned. “I don't know. Are you sure it was just a dream?”

 

Sesshoumaru looked at his brother out of the corner of his eyes as if he had gone daft. “There are no such things as monsters. How could that have been real?”

 

Even as the taiyoukai denied his monster, he had the sinking feeling that it had been more than a dream, that it was something that had really happened to him long ago. That field was one he recognized. It was the field just outside the castle grounds that the villagers kept for his father. He remembered playing there many times.

 

But what had actually happened? All he knew was that he had had a sense of foreboding when he saw his younger self run to hide under that wagon. Something had happened under it but he had been awoken before he had gotten that far in the dream. Sighing, he felt a great sense of relief that his brother had rescued him from that nightmare. He had the feeling he wasn't ready to deal with anymore revelations at the moment.