InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Prophecy ❯ Sleeping Beauty ( Chapter 19 )
[ 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: 01.24.2006 | Updated On: 12.21.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.5K | Visits: 2.0K | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Psychological / Hentai | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 01.24.2006 | Updated On: 12.21.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.5K | Visits: 2.0K | Status: Work In Progress
The Prophecy
By: mshutts
WARNING: incest
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any other characters here-in, except Sturaki
* * * * *
Chapter 19: Sleeping Beauty
He came closer to where his little brother’s scent was coming from and once again found him up in a tree, asleep. Silently shaking his head, he watched his baby brother sleep. The moon filtering down through the leaves gave the silver halo around the hanyou’s head an ethereal appearance.
Sesshoumaru rarely took the time to contemplate the hanyou’s appearance. True, he did not have much of chance normally due to his brother’s heightened senses, but now that he had, for the second time today, come across his brother in a peaceful state, he had to admit, his baby brother was beautiful.
The lithe limbs stretched out effortlessly on the branch in blatant defiance of gravity. The silver hair swayed slightly in the barely-there night wind. The two ears, like antenna on the top of his head, swiveled and twitched at odd intervals as he picked up on this sound or that sound, keeping a silent watch in his sleep.
He wondered at his younger brother not taking note of his presence for the second time today. As was evidenced by his ears and the occasional twitch of his nose, Inuyasha was keeping watch even though he was asleep. He should have already awoken. Perhaps his younger brother no longer saw him as the threat that he had once seen him as. It made him wonder what that tree had told him after Sesshoumaru had left.
As he was looking at this beautiful being that his youki was insisting was his chosen mate, Sesshoumaru felt the sudden urge to slam him against the tree and claim him immediately. He forcibly pushed that thought down. He had agreed to uphold his promise by looking into whether or not his baby brother was his true mate. He refused to go any further with him until he was absolutely certain.
The longer he stood there watching his brother, the more his youki tried to fight its way out of the iron grip he had on it. His youki was crying out for his brother. He knew he had to find some way to determine if his little brother was actually his intended mate or not before his youki completely took over and claimed him without his consent.
Thinking on this, he observed the gentle rise and fall of the hanyou’s chest. It was almost hypnotic in quality and he unconsciously stepped closer to the being. Before he knew it, he was within meters of the tree his baby brother was lying in and abruptly stopped himself from moving any closer.
The scent was overpowering. It took all of his willpower not to jump up to the branch his brother was in, but his youki refused to let him walk away again. As a compromise, Sesshoumaru went to the base of the tree and sat down.
Considering it was the middle of the night now, he decided that waking Inuyasha at the moment was probably not a good idea. With all the changes his body was currently undergoing, he most likely needed all the sleep he could get. Besides, it gave him time to try and come up with a plan without having to worry about his younger brother interfering.
He couldn’t go back and ask Bokusenou. He had a feeling that that meddlesome tree would only tell him to take his little brother as a mate. He couldn’t ask anyone associated with the youkai nobility, it would not do for them to see him as anything less than completely sure in whatever his decision eventually came to be.
If he eventually decided to take his younger brother as his mate, the youkai nobility would see his initial reservations as a way to drive a wedge between the two of them. He would have a hard enough time trying to convince them all he had changed his stance on hanyous as it was.
However, if he decided not to take his baby brother as his mate, he would most likely have to put up with demons trying to use his brother against him. They would mistake his initial interest for actually caring about the hanyou. It might be easy enough to ignore these would-be traitors, but they could get to be very annoying.
Besides, if it ever got back to Inuyasha about why he was suddenly being buffeted by all these high-level youkai assassins, and he had no doubt that it would, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to see what his younger brother’s idea of retaliation would be. Not that he wouldn’t be able to handle it, but it was still something he thought he was better off not knowing.
Looking up from the ground to where his brother was sleeping in the tree, he became lost in the scent again. It was incredibly tempting to him. His unclaimed, intended mate was just sitting there above him. So close, yet so far away.
He shook his head and forcibly dragged his thoughts away from his baby brother and claiming him. He reminded himself that he still needed to find out if he was actually his intended. An idea suddenly occurred to him. Sturaki. He was unsure if she would still be alive, but it was worth a shot. She was the one who had seen who his mate was destined to be, after all. Not only that, she had no connection to the youkai nobility, that being one of the main reasons he was brought to her all those years ago.
Now having a plan of action, Sesshoumaru took note of the moon’s position. It would soon be daybreak and he would wake his younger brother. They would need to start out to Sturaki’s dwelling as soon as possible.
Remembering what his brother had said about the stomach aches and rabbits, he decided to go catch one now before waking Inuyasha, telling himself that he was only doing it so that they could get moving faster. The desire to assist his intended mate in any way possible while he was in a weakened state had nothing to do with it.
Easily catching scent of a pair of rabbits, he caught them and knocked them unconscious effortlessly, unsure if his brother ate them alive or dead. He felt his youki pull him back towards Inuyasha unerringly. Feeling himself becoming slightly uneasy about having been away even for that short period of time, he forced himself to stop short of returning to the hanyou.
This would not do. He could not travel with his younger brother if he could not even be away from him for short periods of time. He would just have to learn to live with the unease now, before it became even more of an issue.
Ruthlessly smashing down his youki that was screaming inside at him for leaving his unclaimed, intended mate alone while in such a vulnerable state, he attempted to rationalize himself out of this mental torture. He had made it through countless mating seasons without being right next to his brother. He was also sure that his sibling had made it through many mating seasons without him as well. It was not as if the boy was still only a child, at his age, his parents had already introduced Sesshoumaru to half the available demonesses in the area.
The very thought that his younger brother was now unable to take care of himself was ludicrous. He had not been claimed by anyone else in any previous mating season, why would he have been in danger of being claimed now? However, his youki was still incredibly uneasy at the idea and he found himself moving very slowly back to where Inuyasha was against his will.
Sesshoumaru sighed internally. He had spent literally hundreds of years training his body out of following the whims of his youki. Then a situation like this would arise, and all that training disappeared as if it were never there in the first place. Thankfully, no one was around to see this complete breakdown in Sesshoumaru’s hard-won mask.
When he returned to where his baby brother was, he decided that it was close enough to dawn to awaken the hanyou. Besides, if he was going to be suffering, his brother should have to suffer as well, especially because it was all his fault that he was having these problems in the first place.
With this thought in mind, he called up to his sibling, “Inuyasha.” He was expecting something similar to what he had heard yesterday morning. What he was not expecting was no response whatsoever from the hanyou in the tree. The ears on top of his head did not even twitch at the sound. Annoyed, he raised his voice, “Half-breed, you will answer when I call.”
When this still did not garner any response from the hanyou, Sesshoumaru became a little concerned despite himself. Had something else happened while he was away thinking? His youki was almost raving mad behind his mental barriers, carrying on about how he had endangered his intended mate.
He tried to hold it back, but it managed to burst through his shields and, the next thing he knew, he was up in the tree, perched on the branch, right in front of his baby brother. There was still no response from the hanyou and his youki was now beyond concerned.
Reaching a hand forward, he touched his little brother’s forehead. It felt unbelievably hot. Wondering if this was part of the process that the tree demon had referred to, Sesshoumaru sat on the branch to watch and wait. His youki refused to allow him to leave Inuyasha, but he knew of nothing else to do in this situation.
Nothing like this had happened in well over 1000 years, and even then it had been a freak occurrence. Besides, even though they were both canine, wolves had a different physiology than dogs did. There was no guarantee that the way the change had affected the wolves was the way it would affect a dog demon as well. Not only that, but his little brother was not even a full dog demon.
He considered the very real possibility that attempting to gain the ability to produce pups could actually be killing his little brother. His youki cried out, beside itself in concern. It demanded he do something even though it did not know what.
When he heard a soft whimper issue from his sibling’s lips, it was the last straw. Any remaining vestiges of being a stoic, emotionless youkai lord were cast aside in favor of comforting his intended mate. Pulling the smaller body to his own, he cradled the younger male with his arm.
He watched in morbid fascination while his baby brother unconsciously cuddled closer to him. Now he knew that something was terribly wrong with the hanyou. Inuyasha would never dream of turning to him for comfort, yet here he was, trying to burrow himself further into his elder brother.
Keeping a gentle hold on the small body in his lap, he unconsciously nuzzled the hair on top of his brother’s head. The scent and feel of his younger sibling was doing much on the way towards calming his youki. He may still not be entirely sure what was wrong with the half-demon, but at least now his youki felt as if it were doing something to help and was being less adamant about being in control.
As such, he now found his mind clearer than it had been since he had first met up with his brother. Was it only yesterday? It seemed like a much longer period of time had passed.
For the youkai who was so used to being in complete control of everything around him, this past day had been a nightmare. He had never been humiliated this much in a single day in his entire life. He appeared to be losing complete control of youki where his younger brother was concerned and, worse yet, there were witnesses to this weakness.
He knew that, in the interests of protecting the hard-won respect he had gathered from the youkai community, he needed to leave his little brother immediately. To get as far away from him as possible, so far that his youki would no longer feel the pull of his sibling’s youki.
However, he also knew he would not. Even if it were not for that accursed promise he had made to his parents, he was unsure his youki would allow him to do such a thing, especially when his little brother was in such a state. It reminded him of when he had felt the need to care for his baby brother all those years ago. True, the boy was no longer a little pup, but he had no doubt that that would make little difference to his youki.
For some reason, his youki had come to the conclusion that it was his job to take care of and even protect his little brother. Under normal circumstances, Sesshoumaru was able to tamp down on this feeling with reminders that Inuyasha was actually quite capable of taking care of himself. The continued fighting with his baby brother was just another way to prove this to his youki.
But now, with his lying here helplessly, in a fever, whimpering pitifully, he knew he would stand no chance of convincing his youki that the boy would be fine. Acknowledging temporary defeat to his youki, he was nothing if not realistic, after all, he repositioned both himself and his brother so that he was leaning against the trunk of the tree and closed his eyes. It did not appear as if they would be leaving any time soon.
* * * * *
I know, more angst. What can I say? I like angst. I’m quite good at writing it, too, if I do say so myself. As always, thanks for reading and/or reviewing. I appreciate them both tremendously.
By: mshutts
WARNING: incest
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any other characters here-in, except Sturaki
* * * * *
Chapter 19: Sleeping Beauty
He came closer to where his little brother’s scent was coming from and once again found him up in a tree, asleep. Silently shaking his head, he watched his baby brother sleep. The moon filtering down through the leaves gave the silver halo around the hanyou’s head an ethereal appearance.
Sesshoumaru rarely took the time to contemplate the hanyou’s appearance. True, he did not have much of chance normally due to his brother’s heightened senses, but now that he had, for the second time today, come across his brother in a peaceful state, he had to admit, his baby brother was beautiful.
The lithe limbs stretched out effortlessly on the branch in blatant defiance of gravity. The silver hair swayed slightly in the barely-there night wind. The two ears, like antenna on the top of his head, swiveled and twitched at odd intervals as he picked up on this sound or that sound, keeping a silent watch in his sleep.
He wondered at his younger brother not taking note of his presence for the second time today. As was evidenced by his ears and the occasional twitch of his nose, Inuyasha was keeping watch even though he was asleep. He should have already awoken. Perhaps his younger brother no longer saw him as the threat that he had once seen him as. It made him wonder what that tree had told him after Sesshoumaru had left.
As he was looking at this beautiful being that his youki was insisting was his chosen mate, Sesshoumaru felt the sudden urge to slam him against the tree and claim him immediately. He forcibly pushed that thought down. He had agreed to uphold his promise by looking into whether or not his baby brother was his true mate. He refused to go any further with him until he was absolutely certain.
The longer he stood there watching his brother, the more his youki tried to fight its way out of the iron grip he had on it. His youki was crying out for his brother. He knew he had to find some way to determine if his little brother was actually his intended mate or not before his youki completely took over and claimed him without his consent.
Thinking on this, he observed the gentle rise and fall of the hanyou’s chest. It was almost hypnotic in quality and he unconsciously stepped closer to the being. Before he knew it, he was within meters of the tree his baby brother was lying in and abruptly stopped himself from moving any closer.
The scent was overpowering. It took all of his willpower not to jump up to the branch his brother was in, but his youki refused to let him walk away again. As a compromise, Sesshoumaru went to the base of the tree and sat down.
Considering it was the middle of the night now, he decided that waking Inuyasha at the moment was probably not a good idea. With all the changes his body was currently undergoing, he most likely needed all the sleep he could get. Besides, it gave him time to try and come up with a plan without having to worry about his younger brother interfering.
He couldn’t go back and ask Bokusenou. He had a feeling that that meddlesome tree would only tell him to take his little brother as a mate. He couldn’t ask anyone associated with the youkai nobility, it would not do for them to see him as anything less than completely sure in whatever his decision eventually came to be.
If he eventually decided to take his younger brother as his mate, the youkai nobility would see his initial reservations as a way to drive a wedge between the two of them. He would have a hard enough time trying to convince them all he had changed his stance on hanyous as it was.
However, if he decided not to take his baby brother as his mate, he would most likely have to put up with demons trying to use his brother against him. They would mistake his initial interest for actually caring about the hanyou. It might be easy enough to ignore these would-be traitors, but they could get to be very annoying.
Besides, if it ever got back to Inuyasha about why he was suddenly being buffeted by all these high-level youkai assassins, and he had no doubt that it would, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to see what his younger brother’s idea of retaliation would be. Not that he wouldn’t be able to handle it, but it was still something he thought he was better off not knowing.
Looking up from the ground to where his brother was sleeping in the tree, he became lost in the scent again. It was incredibly tempting to him. His unclaimed, intended mate was just sitting there above him. So close, yet so far away.
He shook his head and forcibly dragged his thoughts away from his baby brother and claiming him. He reminded himself that he still needed to find out if he was actually his intended. An idea suddenly occurred to him. Sturaki. He was unsure if she would still be alive, but it was worth a shot. She was the one who had seen who his mate was destined to be, after all. Not only that, she had no connection to the youkai nobility, that being one of the main reasons he was brought to her all those years ago.
Now having a plan of action, Sesshoumaru took note of the moon’s position. It would soon be daybreak and he would wake his younger brother. They would need to start out to Sturaki’s dwelling as soon as possible.
Remembering what his brother had said about the stomach aches and rabbits, he decided to go catch one now before waking Inuyasha, telling himself that he was only doing it so that they could get moving faster. The desire to assist his intended mate in any way possible while he was in a weakened state had nothing to do with it.
Easily catching scent of a pair of rabbits, he caught them and knocked them unconscious effortlessly, unsure if his brother ate them alive or dead. He felt his youki pull him back towards Inuyasha unerringly. Feeling himself becoming slightly uneasy about having been away even for that short period of time, he forced himself to stop short of returning to the hanyou.
This would not do. He could not travel with his younger brother if he could not even be away from him for short periods of time. He would just have to learn to live with the unease now, before it became even more of an issue.
Ruthlessly smashing down his youki that was screaming inside at him for leaving his unclaimed, intended mate alone while in such a vulnerable state, he attempted to rationalize himself out of this mental torture. He had made it through countless mating seasons without being right next to his brother. He was also sure that his sibling had made it through many mating seasons without him as well. It was not as if the boy was still only a child, at his age, his parents had already introduced Sesshoumaru to half the available demonesses in the area.
The very thought that his younger brother was now unable to take care of himself was ludicrous. He had not been claimed by anyone else in any previous mating season, why would he have been in danger of being claimed now? However, his youki was still incredibly uneasy at the idea and he found himself moving very slowly back to where Inuyasha was against his will.
Sesshoumaru sighed internally. He had spent literally hundreds of years training his body out of following the whims of his youki. Then a situation like this would arise, and all that training disappeared as if it were never there in the first place. Thankfully, no one was around to see this complete breakdown in Sesshoumaru’s hard-won mask.
When he returned to where his baby brother was, he decided that it was close enough to dawn to awaken the hanyou. Besides, if he was going to be suffering, his brother should have to suffer as well, especially because it was all his fault that he was having these problems in the first place.
With this thought in mind, he called up to his sibling, “Inuyasha.” He was expecting something similar to what he had heard yesterday morning. What he was not expecting was no response whatsoever from the hanyou in the tree. The ears on top of his head did not even twitch at the sound. Annoyed, he raised his voice, “Half-breed, you will answer when I call.”
When this still did not garner any response from the hanyou, Sesshoumaru became a little concerned despite himself. Had something else happened while he was away thinking? His youki was almost raving mad behind his mental barriers, carrying on about how he had endangered his intended mate.
He tried to hold it back, but it managed to burst through his shields and, the next thing he knew, he was up in the tree, perched on the branch, right in front of his baby brother. There was still no response from the hanyou and his youki was now beyond concerned.
Reaching a hand forward, he touched his little brother’s forehead. It felt unbelievably hot. Wondering if this was part of the process that the tree demon had referred to, Sesshoumaru sat on the branch to watch and wait. His youki refused to allow him to leave Inuyasha, but he knew of nothing else to do in this situation.
Nothing like this had happened in well over 1000 years, and even then it had been a freak occurrence. Besides, even though they were both canine, wolves had a different physiology than dogs did. There was no guarantee that the way the change had affected the wolves was the way it would affect a dog demon as well. Not only that, but his little brother was not even a full dog demon.
He considered the very real possibility that attempting to gain the ability to produce pups could actually be killing his little brother. His youki cried out, beside itself in concern. It demanded he do something even though it did not know what.
When he heard a soft whimper issue from his sibling’s lips, it was the last straw. Any remaining vestiges of being a stoic, emotionless youkai lord were cast aside in favor of comforting his intended mate. Pulling the smaller body to his own, he cradled the younger male with his arm.
He watched in morbid fascination while his baby brother unconsciously cuddled closer to him. Now he knew that something was terribly wrong with the hanyou. Inuyasha would never dream of turning to him for comfort, yet here he was, trying to burrow himself further into his elder brother.
Keeping a gentle hold on the small body in his lap, he unconsciously nuzzled the hair on top of his brother’s head. The scent and feel of his younger sibling was doing much on the way towards calming his youki. He may still not be entirely sure what was wrong with the half-demon, but at least now his youki felt as if it were doing something to help and was being less adamant about being in control.
As such, he now found his mind clearer than it had been since he had first met up with his brother. Was it only yesterday? It seemed like a much longer period of time had passed.
For the youkai who was so used to being in complete control of everything around him, this past day had been a nightmare. He had never been humiliated this much in a single day in his entire life. He appeared to be losing complete control of youki where his younger brother was concerned and, worse yet, there were witnesses to this weakness.
He knew that, in the interests of protecting the hard-won respect he had gathered from the youkai community, he needed to leave his little brother immediately. To get as far away from him as possible, so far that his youki would no longer feel the pull of his sibling’s youki.
However, he also knew he would not. Even if it were not for that accursed promise he had made to his parents, he was unsure his youki would allow him to do such a thing, especially when his little brother was in such a state. It reminded him of when he had felt the need to care for his baby brother all those years ago. True, the boy was no longer a little pup, but he had no doubt that that would make little difference to his youki.
For some reason, his youki had come to the conclusion that it was his job to take care of and even protect his little brother. Under normal circumstances, Sesshoumaru was able to tamp down on this feeling with reminders that Inuyasha was actually quite capable of taking care of himself. The continued fighting with his baby brother was just another way to prove this to his youki.
But now, with his lying here helplessly, in a fever, whimpering pitifully, he knew he would stand no chance of convincing his youki that the boy would be fine. Acknowledging temporary defeat to his youki, he was nothing if not realistic, after all, he repositioned both himself and his brother so that he was leaning against the trunk of the tree and closed his eyes. It did not appear as if they would be leaving any time soon.
* * * * *
I know, more angst. What can I say? I like angst. I’m quite good at writing it, too, if I do say so myself. As always, thanks for reading and/or reviewing. I appreciate them both tremendously.