"Your skills continue to impress, little brother."

Considering the fact that he was currently lying spread-eagled and knocked flat on his ass in less than five minutes of their spar starting, Inuyasha felt confident that his brother's rather cutting sarcasm was once again, making an appearance. At one point in his life, he was sure that his ice-cube of a stepbrother had no feelings except belief in his own superiority and rage towards his half-human brother. However, over the years since they had… made-up (and he used the term very loosely), and Inuyasha had had the pleasure of finding out that Sesshoumaru had actually not just developed a very tiny, though morbid sense of humour, but also a very healthy sarcastic streak. Both of which his youkai sibling seemed to cultivate by practicing on Inuyasha. He growled.

"Must you be such an insufferable prick all day, every day?" Inuyasha batted bakusaiga aside as he scrambled back up.

"Perhaps if sparring with you served to actually decrease my irritation, hanyou, as you had proclaimed earlier, instead of doing otherwise."

"Why would you be getting irritated when I'm the one getting my ass whipped?"

Sesshoumaru continued to stare at him narrowly. "Two centuries, brother, and still your stance is wide open. There are so many holes in your defenses-"

Inuyasha groaned. "That again? Look, you entitled asshole, just because you had a load of skilled youkai bowing and scraping and teaching you since you were a tiny little puppy, doesn't mean the rest of us had those kind of chances, alright?"

Inuyasha was aware his tone was sharper than he intended. He had resigned himself to never letting go of some of his resentment against his brother, even though he and Sesshoumaru had mended their bridges… somewhat. His childhood (such as it was) was still something he hadn't fully forgiven the other for. And if he was honest with himself, the twinge of jealousy that ran through him at the thought of Sesshoumaru's childhood, which must've been so different from his own, had never really faded.

Sesshoumaru tilted his head slightly. "Load of skilled youkai?" There was an air of bemusement around him.

Inuyasha frowned thunderously. "Whoever was around in your damn castle to teach the heir to the damned lord, whatever. The hell am I supposed to know who?"

Sesshoumaru blinked. "Castle?"

Inuyasha glared. Sesshoumaru was just being deliberately obtuse, now. "Don't tell me you don't go back to your fucking home, you jerkwad, no matter how often you go gallivanting off to wherever and ignoring your duties!"

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes. "…Duties?" he asked reluctantly, like he was afraid of whatever was gonna come out of Inuyasha's mouth next.

"What're you looking at me like that for, asshole," Inuyasha grumbled. "I ain't the one playin' hooky."

There was a pause where Sesshoumaru stared at him like Inuyasha had taken leave of his senses. "I can understand all the words coming out of your mouth, but somehow, none of them seem to make sense," he finally murmured. His expression was still perplexed.

"I ain't the one spouting nonsense!" Inuyasha retorted hotly. "You're the one with the high and mighty title!"

Sesshoumaru raised a brow. "…And you think I live in a castle?"

"Of course you do!"

Sesshoumaru kept staring. The way he always did when he couldn't believe Inuyasha's stupidity. Inuyasha spared a moment to wonder when the hell he'd managed to translate so many of Sesshoumaru's non-expressions so well. But hang on, this meant-

"Wait… you... don't?" Inuyasha was caught flat-footed.

"If there was any one dwelling this Sesshoumaru preferred to use, a castle would have been the very last," Sesshoumaru replied derisively. "Why you imagined me ever living in one is beyond me."

Inuyasha gaped. Sesshoumaru's nose was pointed up, like he was too good to—what? Have a giant home to show off? Because that sounded exactly like him, in Inuyasha's humble opinion. "But you're the Lord of the Western Lands!"

"What does that have to do with having a castle?" Sesshoumaru seemed confused at the very idea.

Inuyasha breathed deeply. "Lords are supposed to have big homes, right?"

Sesshoumaru raised a brow. "If you think so, of course it must be true."

"But-"

"I suppose this is why you think I must be abandoning… duties?" Sesshoumaru asked dryly, gracefully lowering himself to sit beside a gaping Inuyasha. "Which is why I had not even considered a dwelling in the physical realm."

Inuyasha blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Sesshoumaru slid a narrow gaze back and – did his oh-so-perfect daiyoukai brother just shudder? "Castles mean people living in them."

Inuyasha thought about that for a little and snorted. When put that way… "It's just you being an antisocial ass then? Or did Father not have a castle either?" Inuyasha couldn't deny he was curious. And Sesshoumaru seemed in a remarkably expansive mood, so he could afford to ignore the spoken (and unspoken) insults to his intelligence.

"I believe he used one long before my birth, but for the most part, he was much like me. The only castle I have been in is my mother's."

Inuyasha cocked his head. "So where's that, then? You don't stay there?"

Sesshoumaru stared up into the blue skies. "I may like the freedom of flight, but living in the air does not appeal."

"Huh?"

"Her home is in somewhat of an alternate dimension that- well, you could say it floats about the atmosphere." Sesshoumaru frowned. "Even disregarding that, I have no urge to stay in any dwelling made almost entirely of another's youki, even if she is my mother."

"Is?" Inuyasha goggled at him. "You mean she's still alive?"

Sesshoumaru did not dignify that with an answer. Inuyasha wondered whether his brain would ever get used to breaking in the presence of his brother, or if it would sometime just get used to it.

"Okay. Okay." Inuyasha took a deep breath. "You visit her, right?"

Sesshoumaru glanced at him but didn't speak.

"I mean," Inuyasha continued doggedly. "She's your mother, right? You don't know when—I mean, if… I mean…" Inuyasha stuttered incomprehensibly to a stop. Sesshoumaru's eyes didn't stray from his own. Inuyasha glanced away uneasily.

"Our visits are few and far between," Sesshoumaru said at last. "Much like me, she values her privacy."

"But-"

"We have an understanding it would be best to keep in place." Sesshoumaru's eyes turned to the horizon. "We are far too alike to remain close for too long."

Inuyasha imagined a female Sesshoumaru – double the cold, supercilious looks, double the insults, and that goddamned poison… he shuddered.

Wait. Actually there was a thought.

"So your poison's from her then?" Inuyasha asked interestedly. "You said before that father didn't have it, right?"

"Yes," Sesshoumaru nodded. "As is -"

"So she was the one who trained you for the poison?"

Sesshoumaru glanced at him. "My mother taught me the basics of controlling my poison, yes, and the basics of handling steel."

Inuyasha blinked. "Father didn't?"

"Father was in the midst of many wars during my childhood. I could not afford to be by his side unless I was skilled enough to not hold him back."

Inuyasha was taken aback. "So you were with your mother the whole time?"

Sesshoumaru glared at him. "Did you think this Sesshoumaru would be content to hide behind my mother-"

"Geez, no, no, you know I didn't mean anything like that, you oversensitive asshole-"

"I do believe that is the pot calling the kettle black, little brother."

Inuyasha scowled. "Anyway!" he said loudly, "When did you leave your mom then?"

"A similar age as when you had to fend for yourself."

Inuyasha gaped. Sesshoumaru looked serenely back at him.

"You're kidding," Inuyasha said, still staring. "Tell me you're kidding."

Sesshoumaru huffed. "And what reason would I need to lie to you, hanyou?"

"I don't believe this," he muttered. "So you're saying, letting kids go off alone, even if both parents are alive and kicking, is okay? That it's fucking normal?"

Sesshoumaru blinked. "How else will they grow stronger?"

"But it's fucking WRONG!" Inuyasha didn't realize when he had started yelling. Or when he'd stood up. "Kids aren't supposed to-"

"Inuyasha."

Sesshoumaru's icy voice was a whip cutting clear through his whirl of fury, making the storm of angry words jam in his throat.

"We are youkai, no matter how young," Sesshoumaru's voice was almost quiet, if not for the danger laced into every syllable. "As inuyoukai, we have ears and sight and our noses, not to mention our innate senses, if we wish to hone our defense. We have claws and fangs and steel, for offense. And endless potential that will ever slumber unless there is opportunity for it to be unleashed."

Inuyasha stood, frozen.

"Potential that we may never master unless we open our minds to the world." Sesshoumaru finally looked away. Inuyasha detachedly noted that the direction his brother was gazing at was towards the village.

Towards Rin.

"And how would it be a kindness to keep your child from realizing their own potential?"

Inuyasha couldn't speak. He couldn't even think. If this was what Sesshoumaru thought was a childhood, then… then…

Sesshoumaru was scrutinising him, seeing more than Inuyasha ever intended. "Inuyasha," he said at last, and this time his voice was almost soft. "Through chance, and by choice, your companions have been human. However their ways, do not make the mistake of assuming that ours follow."

Sesshoumaru stood gracefully, not taking his eyes off his own. "Not when you are who you are, Inuyasha. "

Inuyasha could see the blurring of his brother's form that meant he was preparing to shoot off as a light orb.

"Not when you are who you have built yourself to be."

A/N – This is more like plotless drabbling, unbetaed, just putting to paper some of my headcanons. It may jump timelines and futures, and idek lol. Some of the scenes may continue into chapters, others might not.

I have always felt that a lot of IY fics tend to follow human royal customs, and while I've enjoyed some great fics, I always thought it was a shame to ignore the starkness of the youkai world. So this is kind of my attempt to explore that. Please forgive any canon inconsistencies, it's been awhile...

It might go vaguely Inucest in the future, but well. The ship wouldn't be the romancey mate kind of thing and... more like a side-effect than the point. Anyway, that may not be for a while yet.

Share your thoughts? :)