InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ What Matters the Most ❯ Collide ( Chapter 34 )

A\N: Well, last night I received an email from someone in response to some of the responses I’ve been making to reviews.

The person kindly explained to me that, when leaving a review, you don’t have to type in .....####..### separately but the #### actually spell out letters.

Now, while I appreciate this help, I’m afraid to say that I already knew that.

I guess I wasn’t very clear in my comments about saying how hard it was to review, but it was supposed to be a joke... guess I’ll have to work on that in the future. *sighs* it’s so hard to make jokes when you can’t add tone to your words.

Lol, anyway, thanks very much for your help, but, once again, I already knew that. ^_^

Lol, okay, well now it’s time to get onto the reviews:

-AnimeRainChildOfLove - Lol, thanks! I really don’t know-- I just write, and whatever blurbs happen to come out, I go with. Not that I have much choice. It’s not as though I am actually in control of anything that’s going on. ^_^ -- Thanks for the help with the names yet again! ^_^

-Crazy-Inuyasha-Girl - KK, will do. ^_^

-fawn of the woods - Lol, well I’m just glad I could impress at all! ^_^ -- Make the pups Sesshy’s? Hm... well, I don’t know...

^_^   ~*~   Collide

‘Kagura!’ Rin called, her voice echoing down the halls as she searched (to little avail) for her sister’s presence in the many rooms of the castle.

She came across Jaken in one of the studies she knew Sesshomaru often frequented and could not help but smirk. The toad almost seemed infatuated in his obsession of sorts for Lord Sesshomaru. Rin would be willing to bet that, had the toad not already been in Naraku’s service (though how that had happened, she would like to know), he would have already pledged himself to the demon Lord long ago.

‘Jaken, do you know where Kagura is?’ She asked, causing the little toad to turn toward her in a rather flustered manner, though his voice took on it’s usual huffy tone when he snapped back his response.

‘How would I knew that, do I look like her keeper?’ He demanded, and Rin cocked an eyebrow.

‘Yes.’ She said. ‘That was the reason out brother sent you on this journey with us, you know.’ She stated, before turning her back and walking out on the gawking demon.

Rin continued her escapade, searching high and low for her sister, before finally returning to their room, conceding defeat for the time being.

‘Maybe if I wait long enough she’ll just show up on her own.’ Rin thought tiredly, gently opening the door. She knew her sister didn’t like to be held back-- she liked to wander and do as she pleased, and did not enjoy answering to anybody. This, of course, made the fact that she was forced to serve under Naraku’s tyranny all the worse.

Rin shook her head slightly, walking forward, before freezing, no more than two feet into the room, her back going rigid and her skin prickling as she sensed the evil aura that filled the room, and immediately her gaze honed onto the source of it: Kana’s mirror.

It was lying on the low table near the wall, it’s surface fogged over as it always was when it was not being held, and resting very much out in the open-- Anyone could have walked in and seen it!

Of course, the fact that it was out in the first place automatically set of warning bells in her mind.

Someone had been using the mirror.

And, for it to be out like that (since spells of secrecy kept it hidden for only her and Kagura to find), meant that Kagura had to have left it out.

Fear shot through Rin as she realised that her sister may very well have been in contact with their brother (or someone else may have for that matter) and she, after taking a moment to tuck the mirror out of sight, spun around and raced out of the room in a flurry, her heart racing madly in her chest as fear continued to race through her.

Now she had to find her sister!

The ningen girl ran about the castle like a thing possessed, searching in any and every place, no matter how odd (like inside one of the dresser drawers for example), desperately trying to locate her sister-- her thoroughness and energy depleting while her fear rose with every room (or whatever else) she looked in and found Kagura not in.

Her mad dash around the castle ended after nearly half the rooms (which was a lot) had been searched when she collided suddenly and painfully with something hard and solid, that felt like metal and leather, but let out a low grunt when she crashed into it.

Rin let out a small yelp of surprise when she went from dashing around like a mad thing, to falling backwards on a path that led her dangerously close to colliding with the ground.

The odd noise was cut short halfway through when a pair of strong hands shot out to steady her, the sudden jolt causing her to bite her tongue in the process, but saving her from getting up close and personal with the floor.

‘You know, I’m really starting to get tired of people doing that-- doesn’t anyone have eyes in this place?’ A rough and familiar voice said, edged with annoyance, but Kouga’s eyes were glittering with a playfulness and amusement that Rin had not seen there before.

‘Oh forgive me, Lord Kouga-- I’m afraid I wasn’t watching where I was going.’ She said, stepping back and offering him a low bow.

‘That much was obvious.’ The wolf prince said, his amusement leaking into his voice now as he stared at her. ‘Well, where ever it was you were heading to must have been fairly important-- you were moving pretty fast. For a human.’ Rin frowned, supposing that was as good a compliment as she could ever hope to get from the arrogant ookami.

She straightened up slightly, brushing off her kimono as Kouga stared at her consideringly. ‘Are you really in such a hurry, or can you stay a little while?’ He asked after a moment, startling the ningen girl.

‘Well, I really should be...’ Rin began, but trailed off when she looked up and found herself gazing and falling into crystalline pools of indigo that gazed back at her, and she was suddenly drowning, and found that she couldn’t remember what the hell it was that she had been so desperate to find before in the first place. ‘I’d love to.’ She said, offering him a warm smile.

She didn’t know why she suddenly felt as if her stomach had turned inside out when he returned her warm smile with one of his own-- one glinting fang poking out over his lip as he linked arms with her and began to lead her off down the hall, toward the doors that would lead them outside.

Rin allowed him to lead her (though occasionally giving a slight pull on their arms in a silent battle for control as to who was in control of where they were going-- causing Kouga to grin and pull back), oblivious of the shifting of shadows in her and Kagura’s darkened chamber as the wind sorceress stepped out from behind one of the heavy curtains, rolling her eyes at her sister’s foolishness for never even noticing she was there.

‘That girl really has no idea what she’s gotten herself into.’ She mutter to the darkened room, one of her hands brushing the curtain aside as she stared at the small beam of light that covered the darkened ground as the two figures emerged from the castle.

It was too dark to see them, so, instead, Kagura lifted her fan, prodding the wind and drawing it up to her, bringing along with it the scent of her sister and whoever she was with before drifting off to find new noses to tell this tale too.

Kagura froze slightly and frowned as she recognised the other scent the wind had brought to her.

Wolf.

Kagura cocked an eyebrow.

This wasn’t the first time she had scented the stench of that ookami ouji on her sister, and she was a little more than certain it wouldn’t be the last.

She smirked.

Could it be that little Rin was developing feelings with the prince of the wolves?

Or maybe it was the other way around.

Maybe it was her sister who had captured the heart of the prince.

Kagura snorted and turned away from the disgusting thought and scene playing out before her.

She didn’t notice how the wind, now free of it’s captivity in her control, moved to seek out and tickle the nose of a certain silver-haired hanyou.

Inuyasha’s eyes snapped open as he breathed in deep the scent of the wind, causing his brother’s hand to stop it’s slow stroking of his hair (though when that had started in the first place was beyond him) as Sesshomaru instantly stiffened slightly, as though expecting Naraku to come leaping out at any moment.

Which, Inuyasha realised a moment later, he probably did.

A small smile played across the hanyou’s lips as he looked up at his mate, a small hint of mischief playing in his eyes.

‘Do you smell that?’ He asked, and Sesshomaru cocked an eyebrow at his brother’s strange behaviour, before obediently taking a sniff of the air.

‘I smell wolves and rain and Rin and...’ He trailed off, taking another sniff to confirm himself, before looking down at Inuyasha, who was still grinning like an idiot.

‘Smells like the wolf Prince has found himself a potential princess at last.’ Inuyasha finished for him.

Sesshomaru frowned almost imperceptibly down at his mate, confusion evident in his eyes, even though it was supremely lacking in his tone as he said ‘And this makes you happy?’ Genuinely curious.

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow, feeling more irritation rise inside of him than he felt the situation called for, and pausing a moment to push it back down before answer. ‘Why wouldn’t it? Rin is...’ He paused, eyeing Sesshomaru cautiously. ‘She’s a good girl, Sesshomaru.’ He said quietly, his fingers unconsciously moving to tangle with the beads around his neck. ‘She’s been through a lot in her lifetime. She deserves to be happy.’

Sesshomaru stared at his brother, not missing the strange flicker of relation in his brother’s eyes (nor the small stab of anger that shot unexpectedly through himself), pondering the wisdom in his brother’s words, before speaking again.

‘Even after all she did to you?’ He asked, his tone taking on a slightly cold quality that had been missing for a rather long time. ‘You still think she deserves happiness?’

Inuyasha frowned, his eyebrows raising and threatening to invade the territory on his forehead that belonged to his bangs as he stared at his brother.

‘Everybody deserves happiness, Sesshomaru.’ He said slowly, carefully, seeming to contemplate the words himself even as they slid off his tongue. ‘And she didn’t do anything to me. Not really.’ He shifted slightly, pulling away to sit up and look out at the sliver of gold that still bordered the edge of the trees across the ravine. ‘I was angry when she and Kouga found me. I would have run into that forest with their help or not. That’s actually where I was heading. Out little... explosion just sort of delayed me.’ He confessed, his eyes dark despite the fading sunlight shining in them.

‘Naraku’s the one who hurt me.’ He said after another moment’s silence. ‘What she did... well...’ and here he turned to look his brother directly in the eyes, his own shining like molten amber at that particular moment, though seeming slightly unsure as they looked into the elder youkai’s own golden orbs. ‘Well, It’s not any worse than anything that you used to do to me.’ He said, his voice taking on a slightly quicker note than before as it dropped several pitches to rest at barely in hearing range, but, for all Sesshomaru cared, it could have been the loudest, ear-splitting scream in the world. It still had the same effect.

He was hurt by his mate’s sudden seeming verbal attack, and they cut at his heart in a way he had not thought they would.

And Inuyasha seemed to sense this, because the next second he felt a warm, gentle hand cupping his face, and even warmer lips pressing in an almost chaste manner against his own, causing his eyes to flutter to half-mast, before Inuyasha pulled back, staring deeply into his eyes as Sesshomaru unconsciously nuzzled into his brother’s palm.

He had been without his mate’s touch like this for far too long.

Not that we was complaining-- it had been his choice to give and not take pleasure, and he would do the same again if faced with that decision.

‘The past is done, Sesshomaru.’ Inuyasha said slowly, softly, still not raising his voice above whispering level. ‘And I was just as bad as you back then.’ He paused, a small cheeky smile reclaiming possession over his lips as he added ‘Even if you did start it.’

Sesshomaru stared at Inuyasha a moment in surprise, watching that smile continue to possess his brother’s lips, before letting out a soft growl and leaning down, his lips colliding fiercely with his brother’s as he reclaimed territory from the arrogant facial expression.

Inuyasha made a small noise of surprise, before melting into the kiss, slipping his tongue out to battle with Sesshomaru’s.

When Naraku had taken him, he had touched him everywhere... except his mouth.

It was the one place that the bastard had left truly untainted, and Inuyasha was grateful for that.

Kisses were deeply emotional and were only expressed if you truly meant them, and if they weren’t, it was usually quite obvious to the receiver. And he was thankful that Naraku had left him free to give and take these without having to worry about being tainted.

Because, out of all the things he and his brother had shared and experienced, he loved their kisses the best.

When Inuyasha returned the kiss, Sesshomaru let out another growl, deepening it further (if that was possible) his arms coming to dig into Inuyasha’s arms, pushing him back to the ground, and one of his fangs scraping lightly against his little brother’s lips.

Inuyasha tensed at the taste of blood and the sudden prone position he was in, his youkai roaring to life within him, and he tightened his hands (which had taken up residence in Sesshomaru’s silver mane) letting out a low growl of his own-- warning his brother to back off.

Sesshomaru paused when he heard the growl-- felt the tenseness enter his mate-- and, understanding that his youkai’s newly awakened maternal side was probably feeling threatened, pulled back and slightly away, breaking the kiss, but still leaning over his mate.

‘I understand, little brother.’ He said softly, reverting back to their earlier conversation-- though the fact that he had remembered what they were taking about was quite the feat in itself, since Inuyasha had all but forgotten, and had to fish around in his mind for several moments before he realised that Sesshomaru was talking about Rin, and not his sudden warning. And Inuyasha stared back into his eyes, a silent understanding passing between the two brother’s that, without the link of their mating, would not have been able to exist at all.

The moment was broken a minute later when Inuyasha suddenly yawned widely, slightly surprising Sesshomaru and causing a strange sense of deja-vu to flood through him, even as he could not help but smile fondly as his little brother’s fangs bared in the jaw-popping yawn, before he closed his mouth and shook himself sleeping.

Inuyasha wasn’t entirely certain why he was so tired all of a sudden, but figured it probably had something to do with the fact that he was pregnant (even though some nagging voice in the back of his mind that sounded strangely like Myouga was telling him it wasn’t that) and he blinked widely up at Sesshomaru, suddenly wanting nothing more than do what he had been trying to do ever since he had woken up: Go back to sleep.

In an instant, Sesshomaru had him in his lap, the elder youkai resting his own back against the rowan as he carefully wrapped his arms around his mate in an entirely protective and comforting manner.

‘Sleep, otouto. I’ll protect you.’ He said quietly.

Inuyasha couldn’t stop the snort that escaped him as he began to absorb the warmth from his brother’s body.

‘My Hero.’ He mumbled sarcastically, but still snuggled closer into his brother’s chest nonetheless, and allowed himself to drift off into sleep, the sun somehow still clinging to life over the forest, but threatening with each and every moment to disappear completely. ~*~  

Glossary

Ningen - Human

Ookami - Wolf

Hanyou - Half-demon

Youkai - Demon

Otouto - Little Brother ~*~  

A\N: Lol, a little bit of a twist in Rin’s plot, and a bit of fun with Inuyasha and Sess. You all know that that means I’m gonna probably have to have a lot of angst in one of the next chapters. Seriously, it’s been far too long-- I’m depraved!

Also, I meantioned that Jaken seemed to almost be “infatuated with Sesshomaru” and I stand by that. What do I base that on? Pretty much everything the little toad has ever done. After all, what were the toad’s first thoughts when he saw Sesshomaru? Something along the lines of “he’s so beautiful.” Then again, I think that that was most people’s thoughts when they first saw him (at least for girls anyway-- but some guys too). ^_~ ~*~

Okay, so, we’re back playing the name game again. I got a couple of votes last chapter, and a couple new suggestions that needed to be added (since I already had two from that same sort of category) so let’s get to it:

(The Ones with stars next to them are Reviewers picks so far-- Number of * equals number of votes)

Tsukiko - Female - means Moon Child - ****************

Inuko - Means Dog-Child, and could be for a boy or a girl - **********

Moriko - Female - Forest child (Picked it out cause Inuyasha’s so fond of trees and all that ^_^) - *********

Akira - Male - Intelligencebrightness - *****

Akiko - Autumn child - This one’s just female (for reasons I do not know). Picked these 2

out because I like autumn. ^_^. It’s a tie between it and spring for best season. - ****

Gina - Silvery (Think I picked this out because Inuyasha and Sesshomaru have silver hair ^_^) Female - ****

Kenaku - Swordsman, obviously a males ****

Suzume - Sparrow - female (again, this one I just liked the sound of) - ****

Hikaru - Light: this is a boys name (I believe) but I suppose it could be used for a girl as well - ***

Hotaru - Firefly - Female - ***

Naomi - Female - Above all beauty (I always liked the name Naomi, so why not?) - ***

Katana - Female - (Yep this is an actual name, not just a word) it means Sword andor

Blade - **

Aki - Autumn andor bright - It’s male and female - **

Yuki - male - snow or luck *

As well as ones given by the reviewers:

-Shinsei - Boy - DivinityPureDignity ****

-Arekusu (boy)- Revered Wild Air Spirit - ***

-Haruko - means spring - girl - ***

-Ryuji - see Ryuko - boy **

-Biri (both)- Beautiful Reason **

-Takara - means treasure - either **

-Keitaro - Boy - blessed **

-Shion (boy)- Graceful Scholar **

-Kyo - boy - large, approval, or ginger *

-Yuri - BoyGirl - Lily - *

-Ryuko - means dragon - girl *

-Riku (boy)- Air Reason *

-Aron (boy)- Wild Theory *!

-Yoshi - boygirl - goodness, luck, free *

-Kiyoko - means pure, girl *

-Bureiku (boy)- Air Dancing Soul *

-Makusu (boy)- Revered True Air *

-Natsuko - Summer Child

-Fuyuko - Winter Child