A Little Insecurity
by vexatively
Sesshoumaru slowly paced in front of his office window, the computer print out clutched tightly in his hand. He could hardly believe what was printed there.
Now he had to decide what to do about the information: should he follow up on it and pursue it or forget about it entirely?
Growling in frustration, he reached for the phone.
"Akari, cancel all my appointments and reschedule for a later time. I have had something important come up that I need to attend to. If any calls come in I'm unavailable to everyone for the rest of the day."
Hanging up he went to a secret wall panel and withdrew two long objects. With any sort of luck he wouldn't have to use them this day to save a life.
He would use them to end one.
Preferably that waste of space he was forced to call his kin. And his sister-in-law.
Really, they suit each other perfectly. They're both stubborn enough.
The taiyoukai could already feel a migraine coming on.
"Shhh-omaru?" slurred Inuyasha, looking up from his – fourth? sixth? fifth? – bottle of… Actually, he wasn't sure what exactly it was, only that it numbed his mind and warmed his toes.
"Your mate's pregnant."
"I know that," he said, his tone as crossed as his eyes. "Ssho?"
"You are holed up in a random hotel room, drinking yourself stupid." He paused thoughtfully. "Stupider than usual, at least," he amended.
"Why'd yo… hic… you care?" He tried to swat drunkenly at Sesshoumaru, but ended up letting go of his anchor to reality, the table.
"Honestly, Otouto…" Despite his mate's (wife, he corrected himself, annoyed at the glaringly ningen terms) protests, he still refused to acknowledge Inuyasha using any other term.
Sesshoumaru glanced at the object precariously clutched in his half-brother's hands with disgust. He could smell the acrid tang of whiskey from afar, his nose wrinkling slightly. "You could have at least gotten better quality liquor."
"No good," he mumbled as an explanation, hiccupping. His face was on the floor, limbs sprawled haphazardly. "Ish… hic… last bottle."
"You would be acceptable."
"Eh?" He tried to scowl, but managed a sort of inebriated, clueless expression instead.
"As a father. For… someone of your tendencies and upbringing." His gaze hardened. "You will be acceptable. Because there is no other option, not when it comes to a future lord of the Western Lands."
Inuyasha squinted through one golden eye. "How'dya… hic…"
It took all of Sesshoumaru's willpower not to simply roll his eyes. "Get up or I will be inclined to use more… forceful methods to ensure that you do not drink yourself to death. You will get sober, talk to your mate about this and, possibly, think up of names for your pup. Then, and only then, will this Sesshoumaru allow you to drink yourself stupid for that reason."
"Sessshh?" He winced at the unintentional nickname. But, he didn't sever a vital part of Inuyasha with Bakusaiga for the blunder. At least, not while he was going to be facing his brother's violent mate in a little while. "Thankss…"
"Kagome will be here soon, so I suggest you clean up," Sesshoumaru commented in response, stoic mask firmly back in place. It wouldn't do if rumors were spread that he was actually decent to someone other than his mate and pups. Even if that someone was his brother.
As he left the room, he couldn't quell the growing anxiety that grew at the pit of his stomach. His sister-in-law was definitely tougher to handle, maybe because she was sober.
Or maybe it was because the former demon slayer was in a homicidal mood… and nothing short of Armageddon itself was going to stop her.
It's times like these, Sesshoumaru mused quietly, that he wondered whether it was really… better for the world that there were no low-level demonic creatures left to battle. Because there were no monsters left to unleash her fury on, Sango was forced to channel her aggression somewhere… else.
"Can you please move?" she asked pointedly, looking at the spot underneath Sesshoumaru's feet. It has been vacuumed at least three times, but that still made it two times less than the expanse of floor surrounding it.
He took a step to the side warily. She could be scary when something got in the way of her housecleaning, even if their house was already spotless. "Congratulations," he offered. Cautiously, because in her current state, an 'I love you' was as threatening as a blade.
"Well, he doesn't think so," she hissed, applying a little more pressure on the glass she was polishing. She was now using a cleaning rag scrounged up from the same nonexistent plane that she stashed her vacuum cleaner in. The delicate vase broke under her hands and she swore, vehemently and repeatedly, jumping back as the fragments of glass fell to the floor. "Shitshitshitshitshit…"
"Let me get it." He hated being chivalrous because it required moving and that completely ruined the ominous effect he wanted to have on his sister-in-law. "You are pregnant, slayer."
She snarled at that, starting to rise from her seat on the floor. "But I'm not completely helpless." But then her attitude changed completely and she sank back down, the picture of despair. "I don't want to be pregnant."
He wondered if she had multiple personalities, and reasoned that if she did, it would explain a lot of things about Sango.
"You will make a fine mother."
"Eh… hic…?" She was hiccupping, too. He had the sudden, irrational urge to visit rip up the gods that loved to fuck his life over.
"I'm… I'm not a woman," Sango whispered, laying out her heart, and past insecurities. "I… Kagome-chan's such a natural. And… I'm… Inuyasha'll get disappointed and… I'm so worried for the baby. What if I screw his life up just because I'm his mother?"
"You will do fine. And this Sesshoumaru is never wrong."
Her eyes looked into his searchingly, desperately. "Thank you, Sesshoumaru."
"Your mate is at the hotel nearest to the office building. Here are the keys." He dropped them into her awaiting hand and hastened to get out of there as soon as possible. Some things just weren't worth it.
Sesshoumaru glanced at the sheet of paper. It was a scan, probably done by his mate in a hurry on one of the little breaks the hospital let her have.
He was really going to have to discuss with the hospital something about that soon, he reminded himself. Probably with Bakusaiga, Tensaiga left in the vault.
It was a photocopy of Sango's recent visit to the doctor, the word 'pregnancy' circled in green. I'm busy this morning, she had written apologetically in the same emerald ink. Can you deal with Inuyasha and Sango? I'll stop by Inuyasha's later to make sure he doesn't kill himself. He hasn't so far, but you know how dense he can be.
He knew all too well. He whipped out his cell phone and pressed the first button on speed dial.
"Moshi moshi?"
She was always first, whether in speed dial or in his affections.
"Are you at Inuyasha's?"
"Yes… he's getting sober. I have to admit… that extra-fast alcohol breakdown comes in handy."
"Not when you get a hangover a couple of shots in."
"Well, there's that. Thank you so much for taking care of Sango for me."
"The slayer was convinced that my hair needed to be washed." He didn't know what was more insulting, the insinuation that his hair was dirty, or the threats and tackles she employed in order to clean his locks. "It took me at least twenty minutes to persuade her otherwise."
"I'm sorry… I forgot how Sango-chan can be."
"They have had precisely eighty-seven children over the course of five hundred years, Kagome. And this happens. Every. Single. Time."
"You know you like it though, when they're hopeless and completely dependant on you."
He couldn't disagree.
After all, without him, they were pathetically inept.
"Don't worry, though… I'll make it up to you." Really, it was a win-win situation.
He fought to keep the smirk from his tone. "I'll hold you to it."
Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim Inuyasha. The rights of claiming this little slice of genius goes to Rumiko Takahashi-sama alone. But, I do enjoy playing with the odd character to satisfy my possums.
E/N: Originally posted for feudal(underscore)tale's challenge on April 2, 2008. Guest star was Sesshoumaru.