It was a beautiful moonless night as Aiko walked through the woods. He was hopelessly lost as he turned this way and that, searching for a way out. Spotting a large tree and realizing it would be dawn soon, Aiko decided it would be best to stop and rest for a while. As he approached the tree he froze in shock and wonder.

There was a demon sealed to the tree. The tree had begun to grow around his red clad body, his long silver hair glinting in the light of the rising sun. To say the least, in Aikos eyes he was beautiful. Approaching the tree once again; Aiko took out some parchment, a paint brush, and some ink. He wanted to capture this moment.

He wanted to capture the way the sunlight shined upon him, how it made his skin glow and his hair shine. "I wonder what color his eyes are" Aiko thought aloud to himself. He had looked so peaceful in this position that for a split second, Aiko thought he was an illusion. What a cruel twist of fate that would be.

Aiko was far from a normal boy. He hated to play with the other kids when he was little. They were all just too rowdy. He liked to stay inside and paint, filling his walls with his creations. He loved painting more than anything. It filled his mind with wonder at how they turned out in the end. His mother said he had a natural talent for it and did not force him to be like others.

When his mother had passed, Aiko left the village he was raised in. He would wander the roads and paint anything he found interesting. He would paint people, demons, animals, bugs, anything that caught his eye. Making himself comfortable on the ground in front of the demon boy, Aiko laid the parchment on the ground and opened the ink container.

He was so focused on painting that he did not notice men from the nearby village pointing their weapons at him until he looked up. With a startled yelp, he fell backwards. "Who are you? What are you doing in the InuYasha forest?" one of the men demanded, waving his spear around. "My name is Aiko. I am a mere traveler with a passion for painting. I had stopped to rest when I noticed the boy and I simply could not resist painting him. Please pay me no mind." Aiko smiled and went back to his painting.

However, the men had other plans. "You will come with us to our village. Lady Kaede will need to hear of this at once." A different man stated, drawing a sigh from Aiko as he finished his painting. "As you wish" he stated as he cleaned up his things and stood, brushing off the dirt and grass that clung to his dark purple kimono. "Let us get on with it." He stared at the men as he placed his bag on his back

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you cold, child?" The woman, Kaede, inquired. "No ma'am, thank you." Aiko replied with a small smile, sipping at his tea. "So, you are just a traveler?" Kaede asked as she sat across from him. "You are not a spy from a neighboring village?" She added as she poured herself a cup of tea. "Just a traveler who loves to paint. I come from a small village in the far east so even if I were a spy it would take years for me to return if I had wanted to." Aiko responded after placing his cup down.

"May I ask some questions, Lady Kaede?" He asked with a troubled look in his eyes, his face neutral. "That boy in the forest, what is his story?" He added as he looked at her, causing a surprised look to cross her face. "You do not know the story of InuYasha?" She asked in her state of shock. "No ma'am. I tended to stay inside as a child. I did not like the other children, nor did they like me." Aiko shook his head.

"Very well then. InuYasha has been pinned to that tree for fifty years now. He was sealed there by my older sister, Kikyo, after he had betrayed and attacked her. He had wounded her, causing her to die shortly after she sealed him with her sacred arrow." Kaede told Aiko, her good eye closed as she proceeded through the story. "I see. So, they were in love then? If so, why would he betray her? It makes no sense at all." Aiko mused as he messed with his shoulder length dark brown hair. "InuYasha was caught red handed with the sacred jewel. That is as much truth as Kikyo needed." Kaede opened her eye and looked at me. "Very well then. However, I do not believe InuYasha is a bad guy, I feel he was simply led astray." Aiko stated with a small smile. "Lady Kaede, would it be alright if I stuck around for a bit? I have a feeling things are about to get more interesting."

Hello there readers!!! Mutant here! So I decided to write out my idea and since I rarely find any male based books. Please let me know what you think. (888 words)