I'm pretty sure this has been done before, but I really liked the idea and wanted to do something with it. And if you have any ideas for a better title, I'd sure love to hear it!
"We will allow you to keep that infernal instrument, half-breed," the cold words twisted through his mind. "Do not say we never showed you any kindness."
Inuyasha sat back against the termite-scarred wall, shivering in the bitter chill. The soil of his father's grave had barely settled before his stepmother revealed her true nature, she and her son doing everything they could to make his life a living hell. They had all but ripped the fine clothes from his body, forcing him to stay in a tiny storage hut with nothing but a filthy straw mat to protect him from the dirt floor. He huddled deeper into the corner, trying to draw every scrap of warmth he could from his short, tattered kimono.
He held the erhu tightly to his chest, a gift from his father to his mother after one of his long journeys to the continent. She had excelled at playing, filling the halls of their vast manor with music. Her gift for such things was one of few traits he had inherited from her, along with her kind and quiet disposition. His long hair was silver as moonlight and soft as a fresh winter's snow, his golden eyes reflecting a shrewd intelligence. Those traits were his father's, the man's demon blood mixing with her human in their son's veins.
Half-breed.
He clenched his jaw, his fangs glinting in the faint glow of a small candle. It was his only source of light and warmth, the wind whistling through the cracks in the walls, blowing aside the threadbare cloth strung across the crude window he'd cut in the summer, an act he now regretted. That was the sole reason Shimatte* and Sesshomaru despised him, why they treated him even worse than their human servants. He was a disgrace to the Inu lineage, a creature that, to them, had no right to exist.
Their hatred for humans was why his father had fled from them, what led him to take the lady Izayoi for his new bride. But their idillic life had soon come to an end, as she had passed on during childbirth. He remembered hearing his father's anguished cries, the sounds mixing with those of his newborn sister. Hana hadn't lived much longer, a strange sickness taking her in the dead of night. Several years had passed before his father returned to the western lands, bringing back with him his first wife and son. At first, they had ignored Inuyasha, avoiding him as much as they could.
But now his father was also gone, stolen by the scourge of battle. Now he was no more than a lowly slave, starved and beaten, detested and demeaned. He ran his claws over the erhu's slender neck, the swirls of red ink his mother had traced over the glossy wood. Tears pooled in his eyes, his soul aching for his lost family. He longed to join them, for illness, wound or poison to steal his breath and stop his heart, but he knew Shimatte and Sesshomaru would never grant him such a privilege. They enjoyed his pain far too much.
His shaking fingers reached for the bow of their own accord, running it lightly along the strings. The faint notes had always consoled him, reminding him that kindness still existed in the world, rare though it may be. He wondered why he had been allowed to keep the treasure, when everything else left by his parents had been stolen away. Was it possible they actually enjoyed the music that flowed from it? No, it was more likely just another way they meant to torment him, as the instrument was a constant reminder of what he had lost. He cared little for that, though, taking joy from the smiles his fellow servants wore on those sparse occasions he was able to play. The fact he brought them happiness helped ease the pain; he wondered, would others feel the same?
I'll go to town tomorrow, he decided. And let everyone hear it.
That thought in his mind, he set the erhu aside, crawling to his thin mat and slipping beneath it; the moldy straw helped little, but it was enough to lull him to sleep, a small smile on his lips.
*-I don't think Sesshomaru's mother has an official name, so I did what I usually do: type some words into Google translate that describe the character and see what I like. The whole word is actually "shimatte iru" and it literally translates to "closed", and going from her appearance in The Final Act, I'd say it's a good fit.