InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Prophecy ❯ Finding a Mate... ( Chapter 5 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: mshutts 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Psychological / Hentai | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 12.21.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 2.5K | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Psychological / Hentai | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 12.21.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 2.5K | Status: Work In Progress
The Prophecy
By: mshutts
WARNING: incest
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any other characters here-in
* * * * *
Chapter 5: Finding a Mate is Very Stressful Work
As he continued on his path towards his half-brother, he reflected on how many years he had spent looking for his mate to no avail. The over 250 years had passed, at times quickly and other times too slowly to consider. He had noticed that the time around mating season always seemed to slow to a crawl with the inexplicable urge to take a mate rising and falling like the tides.
Having seen what these urges had done to other, older and more powerful demons than him, Sesshoumaru was actually rather proud of himself for having remained so in control over the past 250 years. It was a rather draining task, but he felt it should be beneath him to give in under the strain.
He wondered how his younger brother was able to handle the strain, but he supposed being half-human probably helped to lessen the desires. Of course, thinking of being in control of his urges during mating season and his little brother in the same thought led him to remember that one night, one night in 250 long years, when he had not been able to stay in perfect control. That one night haunted him to this day as a terrible mistake.
As with all great mistakes, it had appeared to be a good idea at first glance. It was a little over 100 years ago and Sesshoumaru had just come back from meeting the fourth new demoness in the past month, the 20th in the past year and the 2000th or so in the last 100 years. He knew what was expected of him.
It was his job to bring a mate back to the palace and have the demoness bear an heir for him. It was his duty as the Lord of the Western Lands. While others had the freedom to choose any mate they desired, Sesshoumaru knew that was not the case with him. He was required to produce an heir suitable to inherit the title of Lord of the Western Lands. Any mate unable to do so would be unacceptable. Sesshoumaru was not generally prone to bouts of any type of emotion, but right at that moment, he was feeling the great stress that accompanied having yet to find a mate.
He readily blamed it on the approaching mating season, but that did nothing to make the feeling go away. If anything, that thought only heightened the sensation. He had not, as of yet given any of his internal struggle away visually, but he was beginning to feel the strain. There was also the deep-seated fear that all this stress might start affecting his actions. He had heard of things like that happening before and knew he could not allow it to happen to him.
That afternoon, Sesshoumaru had come to a decision. He needed to rid himself of this feeling entirely. Recalling a conversation he had overheard between two of his advisors, Sesshoumaru decided to see if their method for relieving stress held any merit. He had already tried reading, writing, soaking in a hot spring, fighting, eating, even an ill-gotten attempt at painting, but nothing was reducing his stress levels in the slightest. If anything, these supposed methods to relieve his stress were just stressing him even more.
In the conversation he had overheard, one advisor was telling another that he was feeling overworked and rather stressed. Normally, Sesshoumaru would have completely ignored the statement and continued on his way. However, this time, for whatever reason, he found himself waiting to hear the response. The other advisor had then told the first that a drink would relax him right away. The first joked back that it may take more than one drink to do that. They had then left, laughing.
Sesshoumaru had put this conversation in the back of his mind with some confusion. The only times he had seen other youkai lords drinking, they had gotten drunk and made fools of themselves. He had often wondered why they were willing to do such things when out in public but disregarded the incidents as being acts of pure stupidity on the parts of the participating youkai.
However, in his current state of frustration, he was finding himself willing to try almost anything to get his mind off his stress and on the very important job he had of keeping his lands safe. If one night of drinking could allow him to release the stress and return to normal, he considered it worth the price of participating in this rather unsavory behavior.
The only real problem with drinking to release stress that Sesshoumaru had foreseen was the possibility of him acting in a fashion unbecoming of his station. He had seen drunken lords making fools of themselves in front of others and they had become laughing stocks of the nobility.
Sesshoumaru had only just recently stopped hearing whispers about how young he was when he entered a room. He could not afford to do anything that might make the other nobility consider him childish. They might mistakenly come to the conclusion that he was not as deadly of a threat as he had spent these long years cultivating himself to be. No, he could not afford to get drunk around the palace where he might be seen or heard doing something untoward.
In addition to the danger of possibly losing the fear and respect he had worked so hard to gain, there was always the chance that a spy was somewhere among his servants and would take the opportunity to kill him while he was at less than his peak. In fact, this apprehension was what had originally given root to the idea that he needed to relieve his stress in some way.
With all the serious deliberation of designing a complex battle strategy, Sesshoumaru planned his stress-relieving sojourn. He made a mental list of what he would need. First and foremost, he needed to be away from the castle and any other higher level youkai that might be about. Secondly, he needed to make sure that no one knew he was not in the palace any longer. Thirdly, he needed to somehow get his hands on enough sake to suit his purpose.
To this end, Sesshoumaru made sure that there were no meetings requiring his attendance. Seeing that there were indeed none, he called Jaken in. He informed Jaken that he was not to be disturbed and was turning in for the night. Jaken whined about how early it was and whether he should get the healer but Sesshoumaru just brushed his ranting off.
Knowing that Jaken would follow his instructions, Sesshoumaru set about the most difficult part of this operation of his. He now had to get hold of the sake. Having knowledge of the movements of his kitchen servants would have been preferable, but he could not suddenly show an interest, it would seem suspicious. However, he had lived in this castle most of his life. He knew all the entrances and exits throughout the grounds.
Silently opening his window, Sesshoumaru dropped to the ground and stealthily made his way to a back entrance to the kitchen. Using his superior senses, he determined that there was no one in the hallway. His plan was flawless so far. He walked swiftly down the hallway towards the room he knew held the sake. He knew that no one would question him, but he would rather not even risk it.
Entering the room containing the sake, he pulled out a bag that was resting to the side of the entrance and filled it quickly and silently with bottles of sake. Once it was full, he stood with the bag and used his senses to once again feel out the hallway. Sensing no one, he quickly exited the way he came and made his way to a wall behind the gardens.
He quickly jumped the wall. If anyone noticed him, they would think that he was going out to hunt. The bag over his shoulder did slightly resemble the bag he sometimes took when he went to hunt so the blood of his kill would not stain his clothing.
After he had left the palace grounds, Sesshoumaru allowed himself to wander without any real thought. He had forgotten that he tended to wander towards his brother in his preoccupation with getting away from the many eyes of the youkai court. After having covered several ri and being unable to sense any strong demons in the area, Sesshoumaru found a small clearing and decided it was as good a place as any to attempt this newest form of ‘de-stressing’.
By his line of reasoning, the sooner he could get himself drunk, the sooner he could be back to normal and feel unstressed. It would also be better to take care of this problem now for it would undoubtedly become greater during mating season and he could not afford for that to happen. Besides, he was well outside of the view of the youkai nobility at the moment.
To this end, he promptly sat and opened a bottle. He drank it down swiftly and, feeling no effect, he opened and drank down another bottle as well. On the fourth bottle, he was beginning to wonder if he was impervious to this type of stress relief as well when he suddenly felt himself begin to relax a little. ‘Perhaps it only takes a while for it to work,’ he mused.
As he was finishing off his fifth bottle and moving on to his sixth, he felt the tension in his shoulders that he had not even been aware of suddenly release. He found himself feeling slightly warm and lethargic. It was working even better than he had hoped.
He could feel his troubled thoughts just floating away into the warmth. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, relishing the utter silence in his head for the moment. While his eyes were closed, the wind shifted and brought to him a delicious scent.
He could not place it’s origins in his slightly drunken mind and opened his eyes to find the source of this wonderful smell. Looking across the clearing, he saw silver and red standing out against the green and brown background. After a few moments pondering, he realized that he knew this figure. It was his baby brother, Inuyasha.
Wondering at how he had never noticed that his little brother smelled so good, Sesshoumaru called him over to sit next to him. As he watched Inuyasha hesitate, he began to get irritated. All he had wanted was for this delicious smelling creature to come closer so he could smell him better. To this end, Sesshoumaru ordered his little brother to sit next to him and drink with him.
He watched in satisfaction as his order was promptly obeyed. Now that the nice smell was right next to him, Sesshoumaru could feel himself relaxing even more. Why had asking his brother to come join him in drinking never occurred to him before? Inuyasha was obviously very good for helping his older brother relieve stress.
With a shock, Sesshoumaru realized that his little brother was moving away from him. He had no idea why that would be and briefly wondered in his slightly muddled head what could possibly be making Inuyasha so jumpy. He was sure it could not have been anything he was doing. Sesshoumaru thought he was being rather unfrightening at the moment.
It was then that it occurred to the elder brother that maybe his little brother was just as stressed as he was. That would explain the jumpiness perfectly. He, himself, had been feeling slightly jumpy earlier, but, given that he was older and a full-youkai, he did not show it as readily as his younger brother.
Sesshoumaru noted that the bottle in his brother’s hand was almost untouched and briefly wondered if Inuyasha had never heard of the stress relieving properties of sake. Not wanting to leave his little brother stressed while Sesshoumaru himself was feeling so relaxed, Sesshoumaru convinced him to continue drinking the only way he knew how, by taunting the hanyou.
Satisfied that his taunting had yielded the intended result after watching Inuyasha chug one bottle and start on another, Sesshoumaru leaned back and closed his eyes, taking in the wonderful smell and the warm feel of the sake going down his throat. This was the best idea he had ever had.
Sesshoumaru’s memories got blurry after that point. Trying to remember what else happened, even the next day, was an impossible task. All he could remember was the aftermath in the morning although he had never intended to go to sleep.
Sesshoumaru had been having a wonderful dream. He had finally found his mate and she was asleep in his arms. He could feel the warmth of her bare skin on his chest and it felt unbelievable. Burying his nose into her neck, he took a deep breath. She smelled divine. He was the most content he had ever been. All was right with the world.
Suddenly, his magnificent dream world began to shift. His mate was trying to get away. Unwilling to allow that to happen, Sesshoumaru adjusted the hold he had on her and growled softly to show his displeasure at her attempting to leave him. After so long searching, he was not about to let his mate get away so easily.
When he felt his mate trying to remove his hands from her body, he got understandably upset and nipped the back of her neck in reprimand to remind her who was in charge. It was also supposed to tell her that she was right where she was supposed to be, safe in her mate’s arms, and should stop moving immediately. It did not have the intended effect.
Suddenly, Sesshoumaru heard a most definitely male voice screaming at him. Before he had even placed the voice, he was awake and on the other side of the clearing. To his utter horror, his bare chested little brother was lying on the ground right where he had just been.
Completely at a loss, Sesshoumaru did what he normally did when confronted with the rather confusing feelings he often associated with his baby brother, he offered some harsh words and threats and fled. He wasn’t proud of it, but he also wasn’t sure if he would have been able to stand against anyone, even the little hanyou in a fight at the moment.
Besides, how was one supposed to seriously confront the person they had just nipped as one would a mate? No, Sesshoumaru decided it was much better to play the coward today and fight this battle when his mask was firmly back in place. It wasn’t really fleeing anyway, it was a strategic retreat.
He was so caught up in rationalizing why he had just walked away from an encounter with his little brother who obviously stood no chance against him that he did not even realize he was bare chested himself until halfway back to the palace. Not only that, he had left the carrying bag behind as well.
As he turned around to retrieve the items, Sesshoumaru mentally berated himself. What was he thinking last night? How could he have drunk so much that he could barely recall what happened? What could have possibly possessed him to allow his little brother to accompany him? It was becoming obvious to Sesshoumaru that using sake to relieve stress was quite possibly the stupidest idea he had ever had.
What if it had been someone besides Inuyasha? At least he knew that the half breed would keep his mouth shut. If anyone else had happened upon the scene, what would they have thought? The Lord of the Western Lands holding a hanyou in his arms? Oh, the shame. Everything he had worked so hard for would have been for naught.
He could hear them already, “He’s just like his father.” “Half breed lover.” “We really should have seen this coming, just look at his parentage.” “His mother must be rolling over in her grave.” Or the worst, “He’s not fit to rule.” If it was ever discovered, this one mistake could possibly spark a full scale revolt in the western lands. His father had only been gone a mere 100 years. He, himself, was only a child by most youkai nobility’s reckoning.
There had already been attempts at revolts over the past 100 years because of his age. Not that any of them had been even remotely successful or that he had not squashed all of them and killed the perpetrators as soon as they were brought to light, but they were such nuisances and what good was a ruler who had no one to rule? But while his young age was something he could not change, he didn’t want any more revolts to start over misconceptions about how he felt toward humans or hanyous.
He decided then and there that he would just have to try harder. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake now, not after all he had worked so hard for. No one would ever see him drunk ever again. No one would ever see him associating with that half breed brother of his for anything other than fighting ever again. None of this listening to what he had to say before attacking him business. It would have to be a fight from the start.
Sesshoumaru once again reached the clearing that he had spent the previous night in. Using his senses, he made note that his little brother had since vacated the premises. He decided that that was a good thing. He had no idea what he would have done had the hanyou still been present when he had come to retrieve his belongings.
Putting the rest of his clothing back on and slinging the bag over his shoulder, Sesshoumaru flew back to the palace at a much faster pace than before. With any luck, no one at the palace would have even noticed he was gone.
As he flew off, he did not notice that he had actually accomplished what he had set out to do. He no longer felt stressed by his lack of mate and he had also had one of the best night’s sleep he had ever had last night. It never even occurred to him to wonder just why he had been having a dream about having found his mate while his little brother was lying in his arms.
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You would not believe how hard this was to write. I knew how I wanted it to happen, but Sesshoumaru kept having ‘Inuyasha moments’ on me. I had to go over the entire chapter and correct it three times just to get rid of all of them. I hope I succeeded in making it sound like Sesshoumaru and giving a plausible reason for the drinking binge. (Keep in mind that this Sesshoumaru is 100 years younger than the one we all know and love. A lot can happen to a person in 100 years.)
As always, thanks for reading and leaving reviews. I really appreciate the feedback.
By: mshutts
WARNING: incest
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any other characters here-in
* * * * *
Chapter 5: Finding a Mate is Very Stressful Work
As he continued on his path towards his half-brother, he reflected on how many years he had spent looking for his mate to no avail. The over 250 years had passed, at times quickly and other times too slowly to consider. He had noticed that the time around mating season always seemed to slow to a crawl with the inexplicable urge to take a mate rising and falling like the tides.
Having seen what these urges had done to other, older and more powerful demons than him, Sesshoumaru was actually rather proud of himself for having remained so in control over the past 250 years. It was a rather draining task, but he felt it should be beneath him to give in under the strain.
He wondered how his younger brother was able to handle the strain, but he supposed being half-human probably helped to lessen the desires. Of course, thinking of being in control of his urges during mating season and his little brother in the same thought led him to remember that one night, one night in 250 long years, when he had not been able to stay in perfect control. That one night haunted him to this day as a terrible mistake.
As with all great mistakes, it had appeared to be a good idea at first glance. It was a little over 100 years ago and Sesshoumaru had just come back from meeting the fourth new demoness in the past month, the 20th in the past year and the 2000th or so in the last 100 years. He knew what was expected of him.
It was his job to bring a mate back to the palace and have the demoness bear an heir for him. It was his duty as the Lord of the Western Lands. While others had the freedom to choose any mate they desired, Sesshoumaru knew that was not the case with him. He was required to produce an heir suitable to inherit the title of Lord of the Western Lands. Any mate unable to do so would be unacceptable. Sesshoumaru was not generally prone to bouts of any type of emotion, but right at that moment, he was feeling the great stress that accompanied having yet to find a mate.
He readily blamed it on the approaching mating season, but that did nothing to make the feeling go away. If anything, that thought only heightened the sensation. He had not, as of yet given any of his internal struggle away visually, but he was beginning to feel the strain. There was also the deep-seated fear that all this stress might start affecting his actions. He had heard of things like that happening before and knew he could not allow it to happen to him.
That afternoon, Sesshoumaru had come to a decision. He needed to rid himself of this feeling entirely. Recalling a conversation he had overheard between two of his advisors, Sesshoumaru decided to see if their method for relieving stress held any merit. He had already tried reading, writing, soaking in a hot spring, fighting, eating, even an ill-gotten attempt at painting, but nothing was reducing his stress levels in the slightest. If anything, these supposed methods to relieve his stress were just stressing him even more.
In the conversation he had overheard, one advisor was telling another that he was feeling overworked and rather stressed. Normally, Sesshoumaru would have completely ignored the statement and continued on his way. However, this time, for whatever reason, he found himself waiting to hear the response. The other advisor had then told the first that a drink would relax him right away. The first joked back that it may take more than one drink to do that. They had then left, laughing.
Sesshoumaru had put this conversation in the back of his mind with some confusion. The only times he had seen other youkai lords drinking, they had gotten drunk and made fools of themselves. He had often wondered why they were willing to do such things when out in public but disregarded the incidents as being acts of pure stupidity on the parts of the participating youkai.
However, in his current state of frustration, he was finding himself willing to try almost anything to get his mind off his stress and on the very important job he had of keeping his lands safe. If one night of drinking could allow him to release the stress and return to normal, he considered it worth the price of participating in this rather unsavory behavior.
The only real problem with drinking to release stress that Sesshoumaru had foreseen was the possibility of him acting in a fashion unbecoming of his station. He had seen drunken lords making fools of themselves in front of others and they had become laughing stocks of the nobility.
Sesshoumaru had only just recently stopped hearing whispers about how young he was when he entered a room. He could not afford to do anything that might make the other nobility consider him childish. They might mistakenly come to the conclusion that he was not as deadly of a threat as he had spent these long years cultivating himself to be. No, he could not afford to get drunk around the palace where he might be seen or heard doing something untoward.
In addition to the danger of possibly losing the fear and respect he had worked so hard to gain, there was always the chance that a spy was somewhere among his servants and would take the opportunity to kill him while he was at less than his peak. In fact, this apprehension was what had originally given root to the idea that he needed to relieve his stress in some way.
With all the serious deliberation of designing a complex battle strategy, Sesshoumaru planned his stress-relieving sojourn. He made a mental list of what he would need. First and foremost, he needed to be away from the castle and any other higher level youkai that might be about. Secondly, he needed to make sure that no one knew he was not in the palace any longer. Thirdly, he needed to somehow get his hands on enough sake to suit his purpose.
To this end, Sesshoumaru made sure that there were no meetings requiring his attendance. Seeing that there were indeed none, he called Jaken in. He informed Jaken that he was not to be disturbed and was turning in for the night. Jaken whined about how early it was and whether he should get the healer but Sesshoumaru just brushed his ranting off.
Knowing that Jaken would follow his instructions, Sesshoumaru set about the most difficult part of this operation of his. He now had to get hold of the sake. Having knowledge of the movements of his kitchen servants would have been preferable, but he could not suddenly show an interest, it would seem suspicious. However, he had lived in this castle most of his life. He knew all the entrances and exits throughout the grounds.
Silently opening his window, Sesshoumaru dropped to the ground and stealthily made his way to a back entrance to the kitchen. Using his superior senses, he determined that there was no one in the hallway. His plan was flawless so far. He walked swiftly down the hallway towards the room he knew held the sake. He knew that no one would question him, but he would rather not even risk it.
Entering the room containing the sake, he pulled out a bag that was resting to the side of the entrance and filled it quickly and silently with bottles of sake. Once it was full, he stood with the bag and used his senses to once again feel out the hallway. Sensing no one, he quickly exited the way he came and made his way to a wall behind the gardens.
He quickly jumped the wall. If anyone noticed him, they would think that he was going out to hunt. The bag over his shoulder did slightly resemble the bag he sometimes took when he went to hunt so the blood of his kill would not stain his clothing.
After he had left the palace grounds, Sesshoumaru allowed himself to wander without any real thought. He had forgotten that he tended to wander towards his brother in his preoccupation with getting away from the many eyes of the youkai court. After having covered several ri and being unable to sense any strong demons in the area, Sesshoumaru found a small clearing and decided it was as good a place as any to attempt this newest form of ‘de-stressing’.
By his line of reasoning, the sooner he could get himself drunk, the sooner he could be back to normal and feel unstressed. It would also be better to take care of this problem now for it would undoubtedly become greater during mating season and he could not afford for that to happen. Besides, he was well outside of the view of the youkai nobility at the moment.
To this end, he promptly sat and opened a bottle. He drank it down swiftly and, feeling no effect, he opened and drank down another bottle as well. On the fourth bottle, he was beginning to wonder if he was impervious to this type of stress relief as well when he suddenly felt himself begin to relax a little. ‘Perhaps it only takes a while for it to work,’ he mused.
As he was finishing off his fifth bottle and moving on to his sixth, he felt the tension in his shoulders that he had not even been aware of suddenly release. He found himself feeling slightly warm and lethargic. It was working even better than he had hoped.
He could feel his troubled thoughts just floating away into the warmth. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, relishing the utter silence in his head for the moment. While his eyes were closed, the wind shifted and brought to him a delicious scent.
He could not place it’s origins in his slightly drunken mind and opened his eyes to find the source of this wonderful smell. Looking across the clearing, he saw silver and red standing out against the green and brown background. After a few moments pondering, he realized that he knew this figure. It was his baby brother, Inuyasha.
Wondering at how he had never noticed that his little brother smelled so good, Sesshoumaru called him over to sit next to him. As he watched Inuyasha hesitate, he began to get irritated. All he had wanted was for this delicious smelling creature to come closer so he could smell him better. To this end, Sesshoumaru ordered his little brother to sit next to him and drink with him.
He watched in satisfaction as his order was promptly obeyed. Now that the nice smell was right next to him, Sesshoumaru could feel himself relaxing even more. Why had asking his brother to come join him in drinking never occurred to him before? Inuyasha was obviously very good for helping his older brother relieve stress.
With a shock, Sesshoumaru realized that his little brother was moving away from him. He had no idea why that would be and briefly wondered in his slightly muddled head what could possibly be making Inuyasha so jumpy. He was sure it could not have been anything he was doing. Sesshoumaru thought he was being rather unfrightening at the moment.
It was then that it occurred to the elder brother that maybe his little brother was just as stressed as he was. That would explain the jumpiness perfectly. He, himself, had been feeling slightly jumpy earlier, but, given that he was older and a full-youkai, he did not show it as readily as his younger brother.
Sesshoumaru noted that the bottle in his brother’s hand was almost untouched and briefly wondered if Inuyasha had never heard of the stress relieving properties of sake. Not wanting to leave his little brother stressed while Sesshoumaru himself was feeling so relaxed, Sesshoumaru convinced him to continue drinking the only way he knew how, by taunting the hanyou.
Satisfied that his taunting had yielded the intended result after watching Inuyasha chug one bottle and start on another, Sesshoumaru leaned back and closed his eyes, taking in the wonderful smell and the warm feel of the sake going down his throat. This was the best idea he had ever had.
Sesshoumaru’s memories got blurry after that point. Trying to remember what else happened, even the next day, was an impossible task. All he could remember was the aftermath in the morning although he had never intended to go to sleep.
Sesshoumaru had been having a wonderful dream. He had finally found his mate and she was asleep in his arms. He could feel the warmth of her bare skin on his chest and it felt unbelievable. Burying his nose into her neck, he took a deep breath. She smelled divine. He was the most content he had ever been. All was right with the world.
Suddenly, his magnificent dream world began to shift. His mate was trying to get away. Unwilling to allow that to happen, Sesshoumaru adjusted the hold he had on her and growled softly to show his displeasure at her attempting to leave him. After so long searching, he was not about to let his mate get away so easily.
When he felt his mate trying to remove his hands from her body, he got understandably upset and nipped the back of her neck in reprimand to remind her who was in charge. It was also supposed to tell her that she was right where she was supposed to be, safe in her mate’s arms, and should stop moving immediately. It did not have the intended effect.
Suddenly, Sesshoumaru heard a most definitely male voice screaming at him. Before he had even placed the voice, he was awake and on the other side of the clearing. To his utter horror, his bare chested little brother was lying on the ground right where he had just been.
Completely at a loss, Sesshoumaru did what he normally did when confronted with the rather confusing feelings he often associated with his baby brother, he offered some harsh words and threats and fled. He wasn’t proud of it, but he also wasn’t sure if he would have been able to stand against anyone, even the little hanyou in a fight at the moment.
Besides, how was one supposed to seriously confront the person they had just nipped as one would a mate? No, Sesshoumaru decided it was much better to play the coward today and fight this battle when his mask was firmly back in place. It wasn’t really fleeing anyway, it was a strategic retreat.
He was so caught up in rationalizing why he had just walked away from an encounter with his little brother who obviously stood no chance against him that he did not even realize he was bare chested himself until halfway back to the palace. Not only that, he had left the carrying bag behind as well.
As he turned around to retrieve the items, Sesshoumaru mentally berated himself. What was he thinking last night? How could he have drunk so much that he could barely recall what happened? What could have possibly possessed him to allow his little brother to accompany him? It was becoming obvious to Sesshoumaru that using sake to relieve stress was quite possibly the stupidest idea he had ever had.
What if it had been someone besides Inuyasha? At least he knew that the half breed would keep his mouth shut. If anyone else had happened upon the scene, what would they have thought? The Lord of the Western Lands holding a hanyou in his arms? Oh, the shame. Everything he had worked so hard for would have been for naught.
He could hear them already, “He’s just like his father.” “Half breed lover.” “We really should have seen this coming, just look at his parentage.” “His mother must be rolling over in her grave.” Or the worst, “He’s not fit to rule.” If it was ever discovered, this one mistake could possibly spark a full scale revolt in the western lands. His father had only been gone a mere 100 years. He, himself, was only a child by most youkai nobility’s reckoning.
There had already been attempts at revolts over the past 100 years because of his age. Not that any of them had been even remotely successful or that he had not squashed all of them and killed the perpetrators as soon as they were brought to light, but they were such nuisances and what good was a ruler who had no one to rule? But while his young age was something he could not change, he didn’t want any more revolts to start over misconceptions about how he felt toward humans or hanyous.
He decided then and there that he would just have to try harder. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake now, not after all he had worked so hard for. No one would ever see him drunk ever again. No one would ever see him associating with that half breed brother of his for anything other than fighting ever again. None of this listening to what he had to say before attacking him business. It would have to be a fight from the start.
Sesshoumaru once again reached the clearing that he had spent the previous night in. Using his senses, he made note that his little brother had since vacated the premises. He decided that that was a good thing. He had no idea what he would have done had the hanyou still been present when he had come to retrieve his belongings.
Putting the rest of his clothing back on and slinging the bag over his shoulder, Sesshoumaru flew back to the palace at a much faster pace than before. With any luck, no one at the palace would have even noticed he was gone.
As he flew off, he did not notice that he had actually accomplished what he had set out to do. He no longer felt stressed by his lack of mate and he had also had one of the best night’s sleep he had ever had last night. It never even occurred to him to wonder just why he had been having a dream about having found his mate while his little brother was lying in his arms.
* * * * *
You would not believe how hard this was to write. I knew how I wanted it to happen, but Sesshoumaru kept having ‘Inuyasha moments’ on me. I had to go over the entire chapter and correct it three times just to get rid of all of them. I hope I succeeded in making it sound like Sesshoumaru and giving a plausible reason for the drinking binge. (Keep in mind that this Sesshoumaru is 100 years younger than the one we all know and love. A lot can happen to a person in 100 years.)
As always, thanks for reading and leaving reviews. I really appreciate the feedback.