He had been quiet for far too long.
Sesshoumaru was used to his noises, the harsh breathing, the breaking of things, the whimpers, the shouting. They combined to become a constant background music to his life, at least when he was at home.
But he had been quiet for far too long.
He walked noiselessly down the hallway; noiselessly because it was natural, not consciously intended to tiptoe or be silent. In fact, everything about him was naturally covert. He lingered at the closed door, tsking under his breath. He'd told him not to shut the door for anything.
A pale hand reached out from a loose black shirt and grasped the doorknob. It was unlocked. The bottom of the mahogany door slid across pale cream carpet, and he gazed in.
Clothes were strewn here and there on the floor, hanging off of shelves and a desk and chair. Papers, both flat and crumpled, were scattered about. Nothing seemed to be broken, including the lamp near the desk. The youth in question was laying face-down on his bed, his covers hanging off onto the floor and tangled around his naked legs. Black hair, waist-length, flowed across his pillows, cascading down the side of the bed, not yet touching the floor.
His eyes were closed in sleep, a faint, very faint, smile on his features.
Sesshoumaru let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding, and still didn't know that he released.
He was asleep, no trace of nightmares invading his mind, trying to take control of him again. Inuyasha was at peace. At least for the moment.
He went over to the open window and closed it, shutting out the night heat and the sound of crying cicadas. He left everything else as it was but left the bedroom door open when he walked out.
Sesshoumaru made his way back to his own room, which was immaculately kept. The copious amount of books needed for his studies were shelved and catagorized with great precision. Each pen had its place in the drawer of his desk, which had no scratches.
He placed a pair of reading glasses on his nose and sat down at his desk. A previously opened volume was spread across the wood, two thousand pages of incredibly tiny print. He became lost in the text almost immediately.
Two hours later a scream broke his concentration. It started as a shriek and then became an almost-perfect wolf-like howl. There was the sound of breaking glass and a distant shout of pain.
Sesshoumaru stumbled out of his chair, flying down the hallway in his haste to Inuyasha's room. Black curtains fluttered in a swift breeze. He stepped barefoot over the window glass on the carpet and looked down.
His brother had landed on the storage shed beneath his window and he sat there still, apparently having hurt himself.
"Get back up here," Sesshoumaru commanded, his voice raised a little higher than usual to accomodate the distance between them, at least fifteen feet of house and wind.
Inuyasha whipped his head around to look at his older brother, his eyes glinting gold in the yellow streetlight. He was clutching his ankle.
"Get back up here," Sesshoumaru repeated.
Their eyes locked, Inuyasha was the first to turn away, whimpering softly. His half-naked form stood up shakily and went to the edge of the shed's roof and slid down the remaining three feet. It was a small shed, built more for aesthetics' sake than for actually holding anything larger than a shovel. He limped around the side of the house and Sesshoumaru followed him.
He unlocked the side door and let his half-brother into the kitchen. Inuyasha's cobalt orbs flickered over to the drawers near the sink before looking up at Sesshoumaru, who was watching him. They both were exhausted, dark circles under their eyes, but they were both used to getting very little sleep. One was tired from mind games. The other from containing those mind games.
"Go back to bed," Sesshoumaru said, and Inuyasha limped up the stairs to his room. "In the Other Room," his older brother amended, and he heard the footsteps stop, then squeak in another direction.
Sesshoumaru went over to the sink and tried the drawers, all of which were locked tight. Seemingly satisfied, he opened the freezer and got an ice pack and went back upstairs to Inuyasha's room. He mentally sighed at the state of the window before picking up a slate of wood made just for that occasion, and many occasions before, and fitted it over the hole his brother had left, blocking out the wind and bugs. He then closed the door and locked it.
He passed the Other Room, showing Inuyasha having had a temper tantrum with the pillows, which were strewn across the floor, and having bored himself with the activity had fallen facefirst onto the mattress. This room had no windows. Nor a lamp, or anything breakable, including a bedframe and headboard. It was just a mattress without even any sheets, and three pillows.
Inuyasha grumbled into the mattress, slamming a fist into it, which made a dull thud. He jumped up when two small thuds answered him from the bed. A rolled-up Ace bandage and the aforementioned ice pack were nestled near his stomach where Sesshoumaru had tossed them. Inuyasha watched the back of his brother leave, his own eyes flashing gold in the hallway light that snuck its way into the room.
Sessoumaru sighed as he sat down at his desk once again.
This was his night. Study, investigate, study, investigate, repeat, repeat, try and get an hour's sleep in between everything else.
He was used to this. At first it had been abhorrent. At first it had been aggravating. Now it was drilled into his body, second nature, and all he could do was go with the flow.
His half-brother was a recovering long-term drug addict. Sometimes his mind went into lapses where he lost all control over his reason, because of the withdrawals. And despite having been off of the needle for a solid two months, the lapses were not getting fewer and farther between. If anything, they were getting more frequent, albeit less violent, but overall overwhelming in the pain that they inflicted on Inuyasha.
Sesshoumaru was just trying to get through college without strangling someone because of their stupidity. The last thing he had needed was to take care of his outcast kid brother with his obnoxious problems.
And yet here he was, living with him and studying through all of this, the unofficial guardian while their official guardian was out gallivanting the world looking for rare metals.
Why did he stay?
Perhaps he felt guilty. Just a little bit.