Brothers
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and related characters.
It was snowing when their swords met in a clash that made the falling snow swirl all around. It was snowing when the sword lowered, still snowing when the body fell, cold, numb, to the accumulating white at their feet, fallen amidst the swirls of white and grey.
Eyelids fluttered quietly over dimming golden eyes, sliding open closed open closed as though drowsy, the cold flakes painting him white, faded in with the landscape as he sat there, just waiting silently, awaiting the inevitable feel of steel—as cold as the air, this long harsh winter—splitting through his flesh to release his warm blood. At least then he would be warm, at least then he would finally be free of the cold that surrounded him—inside and out.
Outside and inside. The same either way.
His death bringer was a looming shadow over him, all brilliance in the death of everything else, apathetic eyes he could feel digging through him staring him down, straight down into his bowed head. He dared not look up, he dared not move; he dared not even breathe. His arm was broken at his side, twisted at an awkward angle. Defenseless, cold, prepared for death; was there a point in even trying to lift his head?
"You are a fool."
Over the years he had heard that so much, over the years that phrase had haunted him, spewed from so many lips that he could no longer consider it an insult at all.
How could an insult be true?
He had no voice left, his vocal chords as used as his body from weeks of despair. The little rasping sounds that were so pitiful dissolved as soon as they met the frigid air, vanishing into a thousand different flakes of white.
And yet still he could hear that repeated in his mind, echoing as endlessly as winter.
I know…
Wind blew into his face like a slap, stinging his cheeks, burning already dead eyes. He could not will himself to tell the other to just hurry up and kill him, he could not just demand that he die. He was not even sure if he deserved death after what he had done…
"Tell me, half breed, why are you so keen on dying?"
A single ripple that set off thousands. Frozen lips lifting into a snarl for only himself.
"How could you do this…?! I thought that—"
It should have never of been this way—both of them knew this. So what made him kneel before the other now? What made him tremble for death?
"You said that you would never hurt me, and I believed you…"
"S-Stop…" A weak protest for his own mind, already lost to despair. "I never meant for this… I tried to control it—"
Another sharp breeze, another ghost trailing icy fingers across his skin, killing him a little more with just frost, just this cold icy world he was unable to absolve himself from.
"Does that make me a fool…?"
"Why did you do it?" his death bringer asked, frigid voice cutting through the frosty lace of the snowy land. A knife through the chest, a needle through the skin. "Tell me half breed."
It was an order, and chapped lips and a bleeding heart were forced to reply even as the words stuck like ice blocks in his throat only to repeat the question.
Repeat, rewind, restart. Die, pause, gasp, cry, smile.
"Y-You know that…I…loved you…right? You knew…all along…"
Repeat.
The laughter was a cry in his heart as it tried to tumble from his raw throat and slowly, ever so slowly, broken eyes rose to meet hard, merciless ones. And softly, like the snow that fell, so fragile and cold, he smiled at his soon to be killer, and his voice was ice cracking.
"You know, I'm happy that it's you who found me. I'm happy…that it will be you…I'm happy…"
"I didn't mean… Kagome…? Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kilala… What have I…? I didn't mean it…"
"Oh god no, I didn't mean it...I didn't mean to—"
It was impossible to believe that the tears could still fall but still they did, freezing to his cheeks as miniscule droplets that he could not rub away. Evidence, there was evidence all around in the bloodstained snow, in the emptiness in his heart. All alone again, left to sleep, this time perhaps eternally. To be touched by that blade…
"It's funny, isn't it?" his voice was still weak, and a part of him that was so far removed did not even know that he was talking, that he even had a voice left at all. All he could hear was the pulsation of his aching heart against his ribcage, and strived to stop it.
"It's so funny. You're the last person I expected to come to me when I was in this state. You're the last person that I thought would end my suffering…"
Dim golden eyes flickered as identical ones—mirrors of emptiness—stared right back.
"Why? Why you, of all people? Why…my brother…?"
"I can't believe you would do such a thing! I don't….understand. Don't you…love me back? Why would you do this Inuyasha?!"
The demon before him shifted, the icy blade liberating against his throat as it ran across the exposed flesh, just barely scraping it. Lips peeled back over fangs as Sesshomaru parted his lips, and Inuyasha was convinced that it would be the last thing he ever heard.
"You were never my brother. Never."
Never anything, never to fit in, never to find love, never to appreciate those he had loved and lost. I'll join you, he whispered in his thoughts, Kagome I'll find you again, and I'll make up for what I did. I'll save us both next time…
"Be free Inuyasha."
Blood pouring free, a sharp pain before it all began to dull, red coloring the white like a child's drawing, red scribbles that spelt out all his wrongs.
Inuyasha's dimming eyes stared up at his brother as Sesshomaru sheathed his blood soaked sword, and lifeless golden eyes could only watch as the full demon, through a veil of white, whispered a requiem.
"Rest in peace little brother; we shall meet again."
A Inuyasha's lifeless body was left to slowly be covered by the perfect white flakes that would soon cover all evidence, that would bind him to the comrades he had let die in an eternity of white.
And the requiem of the savior would always echo.
Rest in peace…
Oh, tragedy, tragedy, tragedy, it's been too long since I've played around with you! Well not even I thought it would be this sad!