Disclaimer: I don't own Sesshomaru or anything else from the anime Inuyasha. Haruki, however, is MINE.
The sun was high above, surveying the earth at an arm's length. Neither would draw closer for their own reasons. The blue and green planet feared the intense heat of the massive star. On the other hand the sun was jealous of the small planet, capable of amazing environments and the ability to create and sustain life. No soul danced among the sun's flames… once upon a time maybe, but no longer did it feel the love of its occupant. They keep far away, but because of the need to be warmed by the sun and the need to learn from the earth they tolerate each other.
With the sun blazing down, four figures traveled across a wide field of grass that had been singed into a soft golden. One stopped and, though unspoken, ordered the others to stay there. It continued towards the gaping mouth of a cave, set in the side of the mountain. There was a flash of red as a thin fabric wafted by. The figure's eyes narrowed angrily as it neared, slashing out a clawed hand to repel it. The fabric simply drifted away, no ends showing as the loop retreated into the dark of the cave. The figure followed.
Sesshomaru didn't register the feeling of being trapped as the sun's light left his skin or as he was suddenly walking down a thin hall dressed in red ribbons that seemed to disappear and reappear. There were no ends and no beginnings, all the red tassels apart of one great network. The dark-colored stone of the walls was engulfed in the subtly shifting red, making it resemble a throat. Whenever a breeze drifted in or out of the hall it seemed as if the mountain itself was breathing through this cave. The dog demon snorted at the thought, dissatisfied with letting his mind wander so. Soon enough though the hall ended, widening suddenly into a massive cavern. The entire room was crisscrossed with the same red ribbons, still no ends in sight. Near the back wall, suspended above the cave's floor by a foot or two, was a barely seen (due to the two bazillion sections of ribbons currently obstructing his vision) figure. As the demon maneuvered through the maze of red the figure became easier to distinguish. It was a male, around the age of twenty one in appearance, with striking white hair that stood out among the red ribbons and black, stone walls. He was suspended by the ribbons that seemed to be clustered much thicker around him than the outer areas of the cave. They wrapped tightest around his wrists, ankles, and throat. The clothing he wore beneath was odd, foreign, and mostly covered up by his bindings.
During his studying Sesshomaru had brushed a ribbon with his sleeve. Instantly the figure's head snapped up, eyes narrowed at whomever had awoken him. The dark pupils were rimmed with amazing irises, they seemed to contain a raging fire. The vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds within his eyes shifted wildly as he, in turn, studied Sesshomaru. Despite the segments of the ribbons disappearing down his throat on each side of his mouth and the obvious tightness of the ribbons around his throat the bound male was able to speak. "It's been a while… most in the nearby villages gave up long ago…" The dog demon's eyes narrowed at this. He'd heard the rumors from Rin who'd been visiting a village while he was interrogating a few demons about Naraku. She'd said that the villagers worshipped the sun for good harvests and that the god of the sun was bound in a cave to the west of their village. They said that anyone who was able to free the being would become his master, thus gaining the infinite power of the sun… however, no one had succeeded. "Hmph, bunch of old geezers yapping about the all-powerful god strung up in the cave? Tell you the trials they faced? The tasks they had to perform? The fights they had to win and the beasts they had to tame? Well, they lied to you. If you can find where the two ends tie and untie them, bam. You win. Got it? Good. I'd appreciate you being silent though so I can go back to sleep. No one's freed me and it's been… two hundred years or so? Well, luck to you Yokai." Sesshomaru had been tempted to cut him off mid-rant, but had been increasingly distracted by those wild-fire eyes. When he finished barking his complaints Sesshomaru couldn't help but smirk at his irritated look.
Sesshomaru turned slightly, eyes skimming over every ribbon's path, tracing them in an attempt to either find an end or simply work his way through them till he reached a definite end. After about hour and a half he was ready to loose it, fighting back the red clawing at his pupils from the now infuriating ribbons. Not only were they shifted when a breeze fluttered by, but there were so many twists and turns and around-the-bends that he was beginning to get dizzy. With a silent snarl he resorted to taking the ribbon in his hand and walking its path, always keeping a hand on the ribbon as he traced it. While he was working with this new method he decided to answer a nagging question. "Are you really a god?" He could hear the obvious grin in the captive figure's voice when he spoke, "No." "What are you then?" "A demon." "… You don't smell like one." "And you reek of human, but that doesn't mean you are one. I don't smell like one because my powers are bound and I don't tend act like a demon anyway." "Don't act like one?" "I'm not evil. That's why the humans call me a god, I'm benevolent to them therefore they do not think I could possibly be a demon… Idiots."
He paused, looking over his shoulder slightly, long hair shifting smoothly across his back. "Who bound you?" The bound demon laughed at that, snorting in disgust after the almost sarcastic laugh. "If you think a human did this then you should best as leave now. I refuse to even give a .99997% chance of being my 'master' to an idiot. An old student of mine got cocky. Tricked me, bound me, strung me up in here and waltzed out, boasting 'bout something like 'thanks for the sword.' Which I assume means that this ribbon binds my power and gives it to him." Sesshomaru gave a single chuckle before turning to fully face the demon. "I heard it was your lover who betrayed you. Tricked you with a kiss." The other let out a feral snarl, face contorting dangerously. "Whatever. Same difference." He looked away, eyes glaring holes in the wall (AZ: I REALLY hate it when people say 'same difference' xD Drives me nuts.). Sesshomaru suddenly stiffened, eyes widening slightly. Tricked with a kiss? Maybe… it couldn't be that simple though, could it?
The dog demon strided over to the strung-up demon who was looking more and more like a beaten piñata. He clutched the other's chin, jerking his face to his own to study the ribbons disappearing into either side of his mouth. The other's eyes were as wide as the sun they resembled before narrowing venomously. If he wasn't immune to poisons Sesshomaru would have been worried. "So that was it? Tricked with a kiss, how cliché." "The hell are you talking abou-" His rant was cut off abruptly as Sesshomaru's lips covered his own, tongue slipping lithely inside and past his own. Before he could even get over the shock the pressure was gone and a smirking demon stood before him, tongue curled around the knot where the ends of the ribbon tied. Sesshomaru grabbed the knot nimbly between two claws, pulling it from his mouth till it was at eye-level with the bound demon. With a flick of his thumb the knot was untied. The formerly in-awe expression was replaced by a very pleased, and very demonic one. The two ends of the ribbon were suddenly smoldering, spreading along the ribbon's course and leaving only embers behind.
It wasn't until the lack of light that Sesshomaru noticed that the ribbon had been emitting a soft glow that lit the cavern well enough that even humans could see in the gloom. Apparently the other didn't mind the sudden change from light to total dark… nor did he mind the change from total dark to blinding light (seeing as he caused it). A column of fire had suddenly surrounded the formerly-bound demon and shot upwards till it collided with the roof of the cave. In a deafening collision the spinning column of flames drilled through the cave's ceiling and through whatever mass of rock there was above it. The fire had sheared through the mountain's stones and now the cavern was lit with sunlight that had never before viewed the dark abyss. As the fire faded Sesshomaru looked at the demon.
Whatever clothes he'd been wearing before were now replaced by even stranger, but far more magnificent garb. He wore no shirt, but a thin cloth laid across his collar bone and neck, both ends falling over his shoulders till they hung mid-way down his back. The cloth was a smooth white, similar to his hair, and was embroidered with bright red, orange, and yellow threads that matched his fiery eyes. The threads created the illusion that flames were dancing across the fabric whenever the cloth was shifted by either a breeze or the demon's movements. Similar to his own choice of pants, the other demon's pants billowed out around his ankles and a bit above, giving them both a very similar "ballooning" effect. The fabric of his pants was the same white as the sash and his hair, and the bottoms of the pants had the same flame-like embroidery. Around his waist was a cloth similar to an obi, but it was obvious that the fabric around those narrow hips was all that remained of the fire-red ribbon that had bound him in the cave for so long. The demon turned his upturned face from the sunshine to look curiously at Sesshomaru.
"I'm Haruki." "… Sesshomaru." "Nice to meet you Sesshomaru-sama."
Author's Note: Has anyone noticed that almost all CharacterxOC relationships are heterosexual? Maybe I just have bad luck, but every story I see involving OCs have the opposite sex relationships goin' on. As a yaoi fan that makes me die a little inside, but that's alright. I'll live. Onto the comments that matter. If you've yet to notice Haruki's got a bit of a Fenris/Fenrir thing going on with the whole 'bound by a ribbon and locked away to rot in a cave' thing from Norse mythology. So yeah… HA! Sesshomaru's his master now. And half my friends all immediately say "kinky." Gotta love the gutter minds we've developed. Fanfiction . net doesn't help either. It's an endless supply of yaoi, if anything it makes it worse.
I really hope Sesshomaru doesn't seem OOC in this. If he does please tell me and I'll try to fix that in the next chapter. Just as a side note about Haruki, his name means "radiant sunshine." It matches his abilities very well as you will come to see in the next chapters.
Hopefully you guys are enjoying this plot I've scraped off the bottom of my shoe(along with a few pieces of chewed gum). If you do like it please review, suggestions are always welcome so feel free to email me! In the next few chapters these two and the rest of Fluffy's entourage will probably run into Inuyasha and the gang as well as Naraku, and of course Haruki's former-lover. So if you've got any ideas for encounters, adventures, or appearances them email or review. I'll owe you life, and shall repay all your hard work with more lemon-flavored chapters of "Ignition."