Note: This story contains incest between half brothers, intersex characters, and an author who is terrible at updating regularly so if that isn't your thing you might want to leave now.


Chapter One

The pup's wails struck the otherwise silent room like thunder. The healers swept in and out with eyes downcast and white hoods drawn up and over their faces. A death wail. Sesshomaru had heard this sound only once before, the first time one of his pup's had been born into the world. The mother of the pup had died an hour into labor and miraculously a child was still born alive with the help of nameless spells and magic unknown to all but the most powerful. Used by only the desperate and the evil. Her corpse had been been forced into action as her soulless eyes stared blearily into gold. Morbid gasping and groaning of a dead woman who no longer felt pain or needed air.

They needed her to push out the pup. They couldn't cut into her and risk the precious bond of a mothers aura to be cut too soon.

The stench of dark magic wouldn't air out for days afterward.

It had been disgusting.

Nothing much unsettled Sesshomaru but her face still watched him in his sleep.

As did the overarching failure.

She hadn't needed to be defiled. The pup lasted until sun up. Soft crying had fallen into soundless gasping.

Kuromaru had died in Sesshomaru's arms. As the sun rose in the sky he'd sat by the the window his face nuzzled into the chest of his dead son. It was the only time Sesshomaru had ever shed tears.

After the death of the princess and his heir Sesshomaru had removed himself from courting. And when he was drawn back in because of the elders and the claims on his land his matings gave him two dead partners, three stillborn pups and a multitude of miscarriages.

The wail of the inu pup (only half shiro inu, as he'd run through the available females) tugged at his heart.

The black inu, daughter to a noble in a neighboring country lay still as death. She didn't appear dead, with red still blushing her cheeks. If he reached toward her she would still be warm under his fingertips.

She had only died just moments after his son was born.

"M-my Lord. What should we do with the infant?" The young cat demon has curly brown hair and bright green eyes. She held the screeching bundle o her chest tightly and spoke softly. She was clearly afraid and grief stricken. He wondered if the elder birth maids had singled her out with this duty.

Sesshomaru ached to snatch the son out of the young maiden's arms. Instead he said, "See if he will feed."

It was cruel, of course, to lay these orders of her shoulders. The babe wouldn't feed.

Newly born demons needed their parent's milk. They'd reject other's until starvation. It wasn't even the milk they craved but the demonic aura encased within. Their freshly made bodies could not stomach any other.

She was so pale. Tears clung to her eyelids and Sesshomaru could feel nothing.

His child would die, was already considered dead to everyone in the room.

But he could not accept it, even as he held himself distant and cold. He hadn't held his son, named him, or taken a closer look at his face. He wouldn't attached himself because he knew the truth.

But as his pup belted out into the room, strong and powerful he hoped.

The mother had held out long enough that her aura resided in the air still and his son would last maybe two days.

He wanted to swallow against the pressure in his throat.

His pup would starve, suffer and weaken gradually.

Would plead desperately.

Would die inevitably.

He should end it. A quick surplus of his poison concentrated into one prick to the back of the neck. His small body would be overwhelmed almost instantly.

Sesshomaru clenched his fist and swept out of the room.


The nagging in the back of Inuyasha's mind had been there since he was startled awake in the early hours of the morning when it would be dark for several hours yet.

Everyone was still asleep, safe and content.

No demons hovered nearby.

But yet a sense of overwhelming unease settled at the back of his senses.

As he strode in front of his group he couldn't focus. His body ached. It had for months now. He tried to resolutely ignore it. The throbbing ache in his chest only pushed his alarm.

He waned to itch and scratch at his skin until he bleed all over the forest ground.

He wanted to bite into his cheek.

To roll on the ground and attack something.

He pace increased and even as his pack's incessant whining grew louder and more pronounced Inuyasha could not slow his pace.

He had no objective.

Normally he'd follow alongside Kagome until she sensed a jewel shard and then race with her on his back.

He only ever rushed ahead when he sensed danger.

He couldn't sense anything.

He couldn't focus long enough to sense anything.

"Inuyasha! Why are you going so fast! Wait for us," Kagome demanded from somewhere far behind him.

A pulse wracked his body and his eyesight reddened.

He carved his claws into the soil and pounced up into the trees.

He sped through the forest and felt the binding necklace tighten in warning before loosening as he outran the curse.

He couldn't contemplate his speed, something he hadn't had before this day, or his reasoning for such overwhelming desperation.

His yokai swept over and took control.


It had been a day. All nursing demonesses had entered and fled his nursery. Glass, toys and furniture lay broken all around him.

He didn't worry that he would scare his pup in his destruction. The pup lived but was no longer conscious. Sesshomaru hovered over the crib. His pup had a tuff of white hair and his eyes wouldn't ever rid themselves of the baby blue they were to show him if he pressed them open now. He'd never know if they took after his gold or her purple. The pup was small and could be cradled easily in his two palms. The pup let out a soft yip before curling farther into the blankets with a harsh frown.

Sesshomaru longed to hold him.

Longed to name him and sit alongside the open window naming the stars with his pup in his arms. He wanted to feel the strength of his pup's fingers as they curled around his own. He wanted to hear him giggle for the first time.

The harsh desperation nearly forced him forward. Instead Sesshomaru turned his back and walked to the window. From here he could see the ever-blooming sakura tree and the many small tombstones beneath it.

He wondered if he doomed them all to this fate when he decided to bury Kuromaru under that tree, a tree he could see from this nursery. An omen to every child that would grace this space, though it had only been two.

Sesshomaru turned and looked at the crib.

He could feel his pup grow weaker still.

He knew what he had to do.

Sesshomaru walked toward his pup, his silent steps resounding like explosions in his ears and in his heart. He had put it off. He had hoped against hope. Not out of any actual belief but instead because of the creeping cowardice that wouldn't leave him. He couldn't kill his own kin. Not a half breed disgrace on his bloodline, not a dying pup.

Sesshomaru lowered his hand into the crib, carefully curled his poisonous claws out of the way as he stroked his pups cheek. It snuffled. Nuzzled against him. Sesshomaru felt his heart, withered and blackened as it was, fall and break into a million pieces.

He strode out of the room and didn't look at the nurse standing just outside as he said, "Alert me when he passes."


Inuyasha couldn't begin to explain where he was or what he was doing when he "woke" at what appeared to be a servants entrance in a huge porcelain castle that smelled too much so of Sesshomaru. In all his life he'd never set eyes upon the Shiro Inu castle. He had never wanted to. After all Sesshomaru hadn't ever hid his dislike of him. Inuyasha had never received an invitation and he wasn't stupid enough to show up where he clearly wasn't wanted. Or so he'd assumed.

He told his idiot body to get out of Sesshomaru's territory before his scent made its way inside. He couldn't make himself move though and his eyes were drawn up toward a little window. He could easily jump up onto the window sill and smash his way in.

Why would he want to do that?

He couldn't fathom an answer.

A quiet gasp and crash drew his gaze to a little fox demon cowering on the soil alongside a basket of bread strewn on the ground.

She was older than Shippo but was still obviously a child.

He tilted his head at the overwhelming scent of fear.

To be scared of him? Unimaginable.

"Don't make any noise and I won't kill you," Inuyasha said, cringing internally at the gruff sound of his voice. His yokai hadn't been entirely encased then.

She nodded fiercely and Inuyasha walked past her and into a door he hadn't seen before. Fox magic? Hmm. he supposed it made sense to use the strengths of other tribes seeing as his own species was nearly extinct.

It would be a quieter way inside at least.

Once inside Inuyasha could tell he had been right, this was the servants wing. But there was a path connecting to the inner most castle where… where he needed to go. He scented the air but smelt nothing but a mixture of lower demons.

None were Inu, except that of Sesshomaru that permeated the entirety of the castle of course. It was a good thing Inuyasha wasn't looking for that bastard, he'd be searching for hours or until Sesshomaru hunted him down himself.

He flicked an ear toward the right hallway and looked to the one that branched to his left. Instinct it was.

Inuyasha dashed off to his left. He blew past servants and knew his time was limited. There were no guards in this sector but a servant would undoubtedly sound the alarm. His scent may have been that of an Inu but he was a stranger here and evidently dangerously looking (showcased by the screaming and how they dramatically threw themselves out of his way).

The faster he ran the more he felt his yokai press in all around him, clouding his vision. It wanted to take control. It knew where to go, it urged at Inuyasha wordlessly. But Inuyasha couldn't help but remember the blackouts that ended up with him waking up to corpses and the taste of blood at the back of his throat.

He couldn't trust it. Not for this.

He heard the soft calling of far away shouts and the clang of metal.

They were finally coming for him.

That was alright though he was faster and he could feel how close he was.

Inuyasha ran through hallway after hallway. A maze that could not stop him. And then they broke way to a large corridor severed by a line of guards. They stood tense and ready to strike. Inuyasha almost snorted at the lack of strength. He never thought of how strong Sesshomaru's men might be. He had just assumed that they'd have to be strong in order to protect that Godly strong Daiyokai.

They were pathetic.

Inuyasha didn't draw his sword, he didn't even ready his claws. He jumped right over their rushing war cry. He couldn't help but teasingly pinch the cheek of the obvious leader as he flipped over him.

There was no need to kill them though Sesshomaru just might once he found out how useless they were to stop a puny hanyou.

The internal castle, home to the guest wing and higher servants was indeed much better and more guarded (though anything was a clear victory over what he'd just seen) but still they couldn't even get him to hesitate.

Inuyasha never stopped to compare himself to demons. He fought the ones that attacked him in the past and won. But of course he'd won, it was that or death. The only higher level demon Inuyasha had ever faced was Sesshomaru (and Kouga, but Kouga was a mangy wolf) so maybe his view of the high class had been greatly skewed. Because what he faced now? It was laughable.

As Inuyasha drew further within the castle he stopped noticing the guards and focused on a soft scent that barely seemed to exist. It was intricately woven in with Sesshomaru's scent but was… lighter somehow.

As he broke past another cluster of guards he felt his yokai merge into his vision. His chest ached and with a burst of power that left the demons around his thrown into either side of the room Inuyasha was lost again.


"-ord! My Lord!"

The gasping vision of the little nursemaid fell into Sesshomaru's vision. He felt a pang in his chest. It hadn't been an hour, surely his pup hadn't passed yet?

"There's an intruder in the nursery!"

Sesshomaru was a speck of light as he ripped past her.

His pup, his pup would die anyway. And yet they dared…

Sesshomaru tore down the short hallway separating him from his pup, he wrenched the door open and-

Inuyasha was there. Curled against the far corner of the room. His yokai had broken through and taken over. Markings slashed his face and a tail, reminiscent of mokomoko, slashed fiercely through the air. Inuyasha's eyes were blood red and when he saw Sesshomaru he snarled and curled defensively over…

His pup.

The one that had been dying in his crib only moments ago was pressed into Inuyasha's chest. His firerat robe hung loose over his shoulder and the pup guzzled desperately.

His pup was feeding.

From Inuysha.