A brush with Sesshoumaru.
Disclaimer: If I wrote Inuyasha, I would have just written this into the series somehow, not added it to a fan fiction site.
Anjin shoved her brush into the floor. Scrish scrish scrish plunk thattertatata thunk scrish scrish scrish. It made an odd sort of music to her ears. Not quite a melody maybe, but it had certain.. rhythm about it. She concentrated on the thick stones that she was scrubbing. It was an honor to work here. It was. Truly. Maybe she could convince herself of that one day when she was not scrubbing her knuckles raw cleaning fine silk while she wore flimsy cotton. Or scrubbing these damnadable floors. So many many miles of floor to be cleaned.
She sighed and leaned back onto her heels brushing the hair back away from her face and behind her cat-like ears. She was lucky. She closed her eyes and rubbed her sore neck. It could be worse. It could definitely be worse. She had food to eat, and clothing to wear. She was able to live mostly undisturbed by the ones who wished her harm. She was alive. For now anyway. She looked down at the brush sitting in a puddle of water. She knew she would have to finish her job, for if she didn't there would be neither food nor shelter come tomorrow. She reached down and began to hurry, employing her hanyou strength to help her speed up so she could just.. finish this job. She was lucky. A bitter smile filled her face. Sure.
She was halfway down the long hall when she heard the footstep behind her. A footstep where she had just finished scrubbing, and would now have to scrub again. Forgetting herself she whirled around she let out an involuntary growl. "What exactly do you think you are doing?" She yelled looking only at the muddy footprints on the floor she had just finished. "I just finished there you-" she cut off, fear blooming in her face as she saw those cold golden eyes. She threw herself down on the floor "forgive me my lord please. I did not know it was you. Please accept my humblest apologies as you lowly servant not even worthy of being on the same earth as your majesty." She said anything she could think of in the hopes that she would be spared, expecting a sword piercing her body at any moment. She continued her prostrations for a long time.
Eventually, she gathered enough courage to look up. She was alone. The only sign the great lord had ever been there were two muddy footprints on the otherwise clean floor. She let out an enormous breath and giggled a bit hysterically, completely overcome with relief. She smiled a genuine smile. She was lucky.
She looked back at the floor she was scrubbing. Well, it wasn't going to do itself. She smiled a bit more and even hummed a little to herself as she quickly went back to her job. There was so much to do! After this, she was sure that cook would want some help with dinner. She always needed help. Then maybe she would help clean the hall after the feast. If she was lucky she might even get a few of the leftovers from the fine feast that the lords and ladies were sure to enjoy. She worked a little harder. She felt pretty darn lucky right now.
An: ok, so I got this story back in 8th grade originally. I was completely obsessed with Sesshoumaru in every way, including everyone's apparent fear of him. It has been quite a long time since I originally wrote this story. I had totally forgotten about it actually. But I was reading through an old journal and I found it. I loved the idea of a servant meeting such a great lord and acting completely stupid, yet somehow coming away with their lives. It was always a quite mercy thing, no big deal, he could have easily killed her without a thought, but he didn't. This appealed to me. Originally when I wrote this story it was actually a grand total of 4 sentences long. So, yeah, I changed it a bit. But I like this version better.
Oh yeah, one more thing, she is a hanyou because I didn't want her to be a full demon but there is no way that Sesshoumaru would allow a human in his castle even as a servant. So I'm working on the base that he doesn't mind hanyous that 'know their place' as he might think of it, as servants and such. He hates Inuyasha because Inuyasha stains his name, and most assuredly does NOT know his place.
Wow, that was a longer note than I thought it would be.. anyway, please review! I would really appreciate it. And I love criticism in all forms so don't be afraid to do that either if you like. ^-^