InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ What Matters the Most ❯ Shattering Minds ( Chapter 20 )

A\N: Hey Everyone!

Sorry it took me so long to update, been pretty busy lately-- got three days to read a book and write a report on it. ^_^

-Crazy-Inuyasha-Girl - Lol, thanks, I’ll try to!

-AnimeRainChildOfLove - Well, actually, Naraku’s mistress who ties him to the bed and rides him till he bleeds doesn’t want to kill him. (And yes, that actually is someone’s penname ^_^)-- Lol, I’m glad I can add a tone of reality to it, but I think you’re in for a big shocker with this chapter. Believe me, most people haven’t been expecting this... which is exactly why I did it! ^_^

-AnimeRainChildOfLove - Sorry, answering your reviews seperately-- The last chapter made you think? Yeesh, I’ll have to work on that! ^_^ lol-- I’m sorry if it made you sad. And itt was supposed to be such a happy, optimistic, world-through-rose-coloured-glasses chapter too! ^_~ Okay, okay, gomen, I just couldn’t resist! ^_^ -- and don’t worry, I’m sure I say awesome just as many times as you. Dominic Monaghan is right though-- that word really is overused, but it’s so fitting sometimes... ^_^

VERY IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER - I do not own Inuyasha or any of those characters (but it’s nice to pretend) but, apparently (I had forgotten about one) three of them belong to me (aka - Katashi, Takehiko and Yuko) as well as the story. However, I make no money off of any of these things, so please do not sue me.   ~*~   Shattering Minds

Inuyasha slipped seamlessly from sleep to wakefulness.

There was no evidence of the transition, no traces of the limbo that should have existed between the two ever being, just him, fast and peacefully asleep at one moment, then wide awake the next, confused and strangely warm.

He couldn’t remember anything of what had happened since he had ran from Sesshomaru, only that, at some point, the two of them must have made up, because he recognised his brother’s scent (it was all around and over him) and the feel of Sesshomaru’s wrapped tightly and protectively around him.

Smiling slightly, he pressed closer against Sesshomaru’s chest, frowning at the faint pain that shot through his abdomen and lower back, then sighed as he realised that Sesshomaru had probably taken him again last night.

‘Damn bastard, he could have been a little more gentle about it!’ Inuyasha thought as another bolt of pain shot up his spine.

Closing his eyes and resting his head on Sesshomaru’s chest, he smiled when he felt his still-unconscious brother’s hand come up to wrap more tightly around him, then frowned, his ears going back as a long, shrill whistling noise filled the air, and the smell of steam and herbs reached his nose.

He gave a soft, defiant growl, trying to ignore the sound, but it was really starting to hurt his ears, and they were beginning to ring slightly from the high-pitched, insistently annoying whistle. Opening his eyes, he offered the kettle a dark look, a small snarl pulling free from his throat that and angrily boiling kettle, of all things, had the audacity to interrupt him and his mate, while wondering how the hell he was going to get out of Sesshomaru’s possessive grasp without waking his brother up.

He needn’t have worried, for, no sooner had the snarl left his lips, than Sesshomaru was awake, eyes red and a low snarl of his own tearing out to answer Inuyasha’s as his claws clenched reflexively, accidentally digging painfully into Inuyasha’s back, making his mate cry out in pain and surprise.

Sesshomaru blinked, his eyes clearly slightly, and looked down, confused, at the angry hanyou in his arms, the smell of blood and their co-mingling scents and anger surging through the air, but no signs of the intruder Sesshomaru had been certain was there, trying to harm his mate.

‘Okay, you’re awake, now dammit to hell, Sesshomaru, let me go! You’re tearing a fucking hole in my back!’ Inuyasha said, his voice barely registering with Sesshomaru, who was now peering suspiciously around the room-- just to make sure that his senses weren’t attempting to deceive him.

However, there were no traces of fear or despair in Inuyasha’s eyes, only anger and confusion at the claws still embedded painfully in his back, and Sesshomaru, realising this fact, quickly moved to remove them, causing Inuyasha’s face to scrunch up in discomfort, and hiss slightly in pain.

As soon as his flesh was claw-free, however, Inuyasha pulled away from Sesshomaru, slipping off of the futon and nearly falling over as he realised exactly how sore his body really was.

He grumbled and pulled the heavy robe tighter around him (though why the hell he was wearing a robe (or really anything at all) was beyond him). However, this did little to heat his body from the seemingly too-cold to survive against air in the room, and Inuyasha reached over and grabbed the fur that covered his brother, pulling it tightly around his body and off of Sesshomaru without a second glance, before turning toward the kettle.

He took a step toward it, and then stumbled, nearly falling yet again, though this time over something on the floor, not his own body, and he turned a savage glare on whatever it was only to find himself staring down at that fluffy whatever-the-hell-it-was that Sesshomaru always wore with him, and his blinked in surprise.

He knew the fur was of great importance to his brother-- that it probably came from some incredibly hard to defeat demon or something along those lines-- and he had never before seen him so carelessly discard it on the floor. His eyes travelled further around the room and came to rest on the yoroi his brother wore, and-- even more strange-- Tokijin-- the sword Sesshomaru had gotten from the fang of a demon that had been bent on killing Inuyasha and that his brother treasured so much because it’s desire to kill his brother was almost as great as Sesshomaru’s own had been-- lying on the floor a few inches away from the edge of Sesshomaru’s futon, looking as though it had been tossed there with no more care than the armour.

Casting his brother a curios look, his attention was again brought back to the fire-place, where the kettle was now shrilling so loudly it was nearly enough to break Inuyasha’s ear drums and, casting a venomous glare that, had the kettle been alive, should have been enough to silence it, he untangled his feet from the fur and stormed over to the object that had been the cause of this whole catastrophe in the first place.

He carefully removed the kettle from the fire, bringing it close to his face and sniffing deeply. The scent of mint and steam and some other herbs Inuyasha could not put a name to reached his nose in an unfamiliar, but not entirely unpleasant scent, and he cast another curios gaze at his brother as he moved to slowly set the kettle down on the low table beside the fireplace.

‘What are you cooking in here, anyway?’ He asked, taking in the single cup that rested on the table next to a just-as-lonely bowl, and he frowned, glancing around the room in search of another cup.

Receiving no answer from Sesshomaru, he went with his assumption that it was a tea of some kind, and he decided that a drink of the alluring liquid was definitely called for to help his dry and strangely raw-feeling throat. However, he still could not find another cup.

He frowned and glared down at the single offending cup, then smirked as a sudden idea came to him and, taking the kettle, he poured a fair amount of liquid into both the cup and the bowl, before picking them up and making his way back over to the futon and his mate as Sesshomaru’s uncharacteristically soft voice reached his ears as his brother said ‘It is a tea of healing-- Lady Takehiko, the healer, made it for you.’

Inuyasha frowned, carefully climbing into the bed, letting the fur he had somehow managed to keep secure around him slide down onto the mattress, wincing as more bolts of pain shot through him. ‘Gods, Sesshomaru, how hard did you fuck me?’ He asked, shoving the bowl into the astonished Sesshomaru’s hands.

Inuyasha took a sip of his tea, then frowned when he noticed that, not only had Sesshomaru failed to notice the jibe to his ego, but he was now staring at Inuyasha with a furrowed brow and looking as confused as you ever saw Sesshomaru.

‘Inuyasha...’ he said slowly, wondering what Inuyasha’s reaction would be ‘I did not take you.’

Inuyasha’s reaction was to very nearly loose his eyebrows in his hairline, and then offer him a sceptical snort.

‘Yeah, alright asshole, then why does it feel like someone fucked my ass into Kingdom Come?’ Inuyasha asked, and was terribly surprised when an almost pained look crossed his brother’s face. His confusion and concern only grew as Sesshomaru then asked him, gently, in a way Sesshomaru had never asked him anything before, ‘You do not remember?’

Inuyasha’s brow furrowed as he stared at Sesshomaru, wondering exactly what seemingly very important part of this conversation he had missed that had his brother so upset and worried. ‘Remember what?’ He asked quietly as he distantly felt two aches growing inside of him. One from his mate, an ache that suggested what he had just said baffled his brother as well as broke him slightly inside, and another from himself-- a warning ache, telling him that he did not want to know the answer to that question.

But he needed to know.

He had to know what had his mate so upset that Sesshomaru would actually go so far as to show facial expression.

Sesshomaru was just as perplexed and concerned as Inuyasha-- his brother didn’t remember the rape? The violation? Did he remember anything that had happened in the past week? No, he must have, otherwise he would have been startled and angry when he woke in Sesshomaru’s bed, in his arms. So how much did Inuyasha remember? What exactly did Inuyasha think had happened to him? More importantly, what had caused his mate to forget?

  ~*~

Glossary

Hanyou - Half-demon

Yoroi - I am fairly certain this means armour, but I don’t know for sure. There were some other words I found that were supposed to mean armour, so maybe one of them is right-- kikou, gusoku, koutetsu, bugu.

Tokijin - Sesshomaru’s sword, formed from Goshinki’s (Sesshomaru’s third “offspring”) fang. I am unsure of what it’s meaning is, though.

(Any Corrections for the glossary please let me know)