InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Void ❯ Small Talk ( Chapter 8 )

A/N: Okay, so this is a slightly longer chapter.

A bit more interatcion with Sesshomaru and Inuyasha that didn’t turn out at all like I planned... Guess I’ll have to explain Sess’s behaviour later on, neh? ^_^

Anyway, hope you all enjoy it, I’m off, got more stories to update now! ^_^   ~*~   Small Talk

Inuyasha’s ears twitched.

That was the only sign he gave to show that he was awake.

That was the only sign he would give.

He had been held prisoner a couple of times before (all of which ended unsuccessfully) and he knew that, the less aware of what was happening your enemy thought you were, the better off you’d be.

And every once in a while it would save him from the mornings he woke to his father lying beside him, or his mother sitting and just... watching him.

Early one, he had enjoyed mornings when he saw his mother-- enjoyed sitting and talking with her-- but soon, as her powers began to fade under Naraku’s reign, and she had sunk deeper into her depression, he had realised that there was no point.

All that happened was she became more upset, and he began to more seriously entertain thoughts of suicide.

Right now though... it felt almost like it had at the beginning... he was warm, wrapped up in kami knows how many blankets, and the air around him did not reek entirely of miasma... or really at all. And he could feel eyes on him... watching him...

But there was no lust or malcontent to be felt in that gaze, no darkness or sadness...

He twitched his ears again and caught the faint sound of humming.

Inuyasha froze up.

Humming?

He hadn’t heard someone hum in... kami only knows how long it had been.

The hanyou mentally frowned while forcing his breathing to remain deep and even.

Who the hell was humming?

Last time he had checked, he was in a dungeon, and prisoner of “this” Sesshomaru guy... so, unless the dog-demon was humming to him...

No.

Even if the dog-lord were the sort to hum to his prisoners, this voice was most definitely female.

Deciding that there was no point to keep his eyes closed any longer, Inuyasha was about to allow them to slit open and view whoever else was in the room, when something happened to make him go still again.

The humming, which had already been fairly quiet, faded slightly-- not enough to disappear entirely, but dropping to a volume so low it was incredibly hard to hear, as long, cool fingers brushed against his forehead, gently stroking the bangs away.

Big mistake.

Huge fucking mistake.

Not taking into consideration that this was the first act of kindness that had been directed toward him in years, Inuyasha shot up, his hand flying from where it had been hidden beneath the sheets before to grab hold of the small wrist in a bone-crushing embrace as his other shot forward toward the sound of a gasp to poise at the smooth flesh of the woman’s throat as a low growl issued forth from his own throat-- all this happening before he had even fully opened his eyes.

Taking half a second to adjust them to the light, Inuyasha narrowed his eyes dangerously, and turned them slowly to stare at the audacious woman who had been fool enough to touch him in his “sleep,” silently revelling in the look of shock that had painted itself across her face.

The female-- Inuyoukai by her scent-- was sitting next to him, perched on the edge of the bed, her mouth slightly open in her surprise, making no move to pull away from him or really do much of anything (which was probably very smart of her considering he still had five deadly claws scraping the skin of her jugular) as his eyes raked over her in a very disapproving manner, as though he was incredibly unimpressed with, not only her appearance, but just her presence in general.

Inuyasha stared coldly at her, locking eyes with her a moment, silently daring her to move, before taking in the rest of her.

The woman had dark hair-- black in colour, like a ningens, only with faint bluish and silver highlights that would shine brightly whenever the light reflected off of them in just the right manner.

Her eyes were wide and bright-- the pale silver colour he would imagine stardust to be, and a single cobalt stripe adorned each of her eyelids and cheeks. Upon her forehead was a crescent moon of that same colour-- one that Inuyasha remembered seeing in a similar manner on Sesshomaru’s own.

He deduced fairly quickly that there was clearly some sort of relation between the two dogs.

After eyeing her for a moment more, he also noticed that she had no weapon, save her claws and her fangs, and really, what good would that do? He already had her at quite the disadvantage. Not that that mattered.

In masses he had slaughtered many villages and kingdoms and other things like that, but alone... he had always had trouble slaughtering women.

He had never been entirely certain why, but it was just something he did not enjoy doing.

Not that he enjoyed doing any of it, but if the men were foolish enough to rush into battle against him, then the world was better off without them there anyway.

Taking this into account, Inuyasha stared at her for another minute or so-- just for good measure-- before, much to her surprise, releasing his hold on both her wrist and neck, and then flopping back onto the futon he had woken up on and letting his eyes slide closed again.

Her forehead creasing slightly in confusion and concern, Izayoi cautiously leaned forward toward the silver-haired boy, not entirely certain if he would make another attempt on her life or not.

‘Hanyou?’ She said softly, quietly.

‘Yasha.’ The boy returned after a moment, his tone deadpan and his expression one of extreme disinterest, clearly stating that he would rather be anywhere else in the world than here.

Izayoi frowned.

It was obvious the boy had absolutely no respect for her, and had no qualms about showing as much.

And in some clans, that could be enough to get you killed.

Not that they were one of those clans, but it was still not necessarily a good thing if expressed in the presences of the wrong people.

And her mind was beginning to wonder if maybe this wasn’t such a good idea...

‘Do you have a name?’ She asked slowly, still keeping her voice low as though by doing so she could prevent him from getting upset or going haywire on her.

He didn’t answer.

Izayoi looked around the room as though hoping to find what she wanted to say next lying somewhere around there.

And it seemed she did, but, judging from the reaction she got, it seemed like silence really would have been better.

‘Sesshomaru told us that you were Naraku’s son.’

Inuyasha sighed loudly and in an over-dramatized manner as he threw a look over at the woman. ‘Is this your idea of small-talk, yasha?’ He demanded of her. ‘Cause if it is, then you really gotta get some better material.’

Izayoi fell silent, still uncertain how to react to such open and blatant disrespect as Inuyasha gave her another once-over.

He propped himself up on his elbows and sniffed slowly and deeply at her, then exhaled sharply through his nose, jerking his head slightly in disgust.

‘You smell just like him.’ He said, his tone one of revulsion and his face twisted slightly into severe displeasure. ‘You’re that mutt’s mother, aren’t you?’ He demanded, peering suspiciously up at her again.

Izayoi’s eyes widened comically.

Out of all the things she had ever heard her son be called before, “mutt” was most certainly not one of them.

Bastard, arrogant, foolish, cold, headstrong... all those and many more had been shot at her son, but... never mutt...

‘If by “mutt” you are speaking of Sesshomaru, then yes.’ She offered him a small, and fairly forced smile. ‘I am his mother.’

Inuyasha snorted.

‘You sound almost proud of that fact.’ He muttered, his eyes cold and harsh and somewhat amused, then added, louder ‘And here I thought “this” Sesshomaru was a by-product of a block of ice and a jackass.’ He stated, sensing her shock growing even stronger. And dammit all, if this wasn’t the most fun he’d had in a long time... and how sad was that, really?

His thoughts were interrupted as another voice, cold and harsh as ice and vaguely familiar, cut through the room.

‘I see your etiquette has not improved in any manner since last we met.’

Inuyasha stiffened slightly and felt his hackles instinctively trying to rise as he raised an eyebrow at the demon’s comment. ‘Well they don’t teach an awful lot of etiquette down in the dungeons, believe it or not.’ He said, turning slowly to look at the demon. ‘So you’ll have to excuse me Lord Sesshomaru. Next time I’ll be certain to show more respect to my captors and their idiot mother’s.’

Inuyasha expected to get his tongue ripped out for that last comment.

Instead, Sesshomaru merely arched his own eyebrow at him, his eyes growing even colder (if that were possible).

‘Be certain not to strain yourself, half-breed. Competence can be a hard goal for your kind to achieve. And I will not waste the skills of a healer on you if you should hurt yourself.’

Inuyasha felt his anger flare slightly.

Oh this was good!

It’d been far too long since he’d actually had the chance to exchange words with an opponent who was, perhaps, a little more than worthy and up to the task.

‘Oh heaven forbid!’ Inuyasha shot back, not really caring that he was currently outmatched in strength, numbers and familiarity should the demon decide to make this physical. He was having far too much fun to care anymore. ‘I wouldn’t want to put “this” Sesshomaru at an inconvenience.’ He smirked and flopped back on the futon again, letting his arms fly out to either side of him, his hair fluttering down to spill over the edges of the bed and trail on the floor. ‘Face it, Sesshomaru. You brought me back here. Now you have to live with me until you finally get over whatever insanity has driven you to keep me alive and kill me. Until then I guess you’ll just have to put up with my horrid hybrid presence.’

Sesshomaru’s face remained an empty mask throughout the entirety of the hanyou’s rant, silently waiting for the boy to fall silent.

When he finally did, it took quite a bit of the full youkai’s training not to openly scoff at the audacious hanyou.

‘You presume much to think you have any such freedom while you are here, half-breed.’ He said, causing Inuyasha to crack open an eye. ‘You are only here because of my mother’s graces.’

Inuyasha snorted.

‘So she’s the nutjob who thought it would be a good idea to bring me back here alive?’ He questioned, then snorted again. ‘Not that it really matters either way. You want something from me, Sesshomaru. Or someone here does. And I think I’m fairly safe in the presumption that you’re not going to let me die until you get it. And until then, there’s not really all that much you can do to me, now is there?’

Sesshomaru stared down at him a moment, his eyes flickering for a second, and his face hardening even further.

‘We shall see.’ Was all he said, before turning and, after offering his mother a small bow, departing from the room, sliding the door shut behind him as Inuyasha let out another low snort.

‘Idiotic prick.’ He muttered, not caring that the “prick’s” mother was still present in the room.

No one was forcing her to stay after all, and if she was going to then she was going to have to put up with his presence as well.

Izayoi, after getting over the initial shock and disappointment of the scene that had just played out before her, turned to stare after her son and let out a small sigh.

Why did things always have to turn out this way?

Why couldn’t things ever be easy?

Giving a small shake of her head, she turned to look back at the hanyou, and was slightly surprised that he had not yet opened his eyes.

Or moved.

In fact, the longer Izayoi stared at him, the more she began to believe that he had actually fallen asleep again.

So she was slightly surprised when his lips started moving, and his voice reached her ears, causing them to twitch slightly at the sides of her head.

‘You know, your entire family seems awfully interested in me.’ He stated, matter-of-factly, cracking open an eye. ‘And it doesn’t make any sense. Any other demon would’ve just killed me. But you... you had your son bring me back here. And then you took me from the prison and put me in this room’ He gestured around said room ‘Which is nicer than the one I have at home. And I want to know why.’ He fixed his one open eye upon her in a hard stare. ‘You had your chance to interrogate me. Now I want you to tell me.’

He propped himself up on his elbows again and locked eyes with here, and she’d be damned if she could break the gaze he had fixed her with as his eyes narrowed and his ears titled back and away from her. ‘Tell me why.’ ~*~  

Glossary

Kami - God

Hanyou - Half-Demon

Inuyoukai - Dog-Demon

Ningen - Human

Yasha - Female Demon

Youkai - Demon