A/N: I wrote this fluffy drabble ages ago, and forgot to post it on here after I posted it on the InuYasha roleplaying forum I was on. xD So I decided I might as well post it now. Enjoy the fluff, courtesy of Fluffy-sama! 8D
Sesshomaru had no patience for weakness.
Any show of weakness was a dishonor and had to be eliminated. He would not tolerate it in himself, and he felt nothing but contempt for it in others. Half-breed like InuYasha were a disgrace to their kind, the human blood in their veins sullying the power a demon heritage brought.
Humans on the other hand...they were the very personification of weakness. They were spineless, cowardly fools, the lot of them, their only strength in the numbers they congregated in...and even then merely a farce. He could eliminate an entire village of the pathetic mortals without even needing to unsheath Toukijin, if he ever felt so inclined. He would never deign to dirty his claws on something as weak as a human unless one of them was foolish enough to get in his way, but they were weak nonetheless.
He considered the Tenseiga a weak blade. Compared to its sister, the Tetsusaiga, in destructive power, it was--he couldn't use it to kill his enemies...but Sesshomaru had come to learn that it had its own sort of power. It wasn't the sort of power he was interested in, but he at least respected the second of his father's heirlooms as worthy of his name now. It sometimes compelled him to do unusual things...like reviving that human child, Rin.
He still wasn't sure if allowing the child to come along with him had been a show of weakness, but he preferred to think that it wasn't, and rarely dwelt on such trivial matters.
He wouldn't have dwelt on it at all, if it weren't for Rin's...unfortunate tendency to attract hungry demons like moths to a flame. And while these demons were rarely even close to a threat, he spent far too much of his time for his tastes protecting her, often going out of his way to do so.
And honestly, the girl was just so utterly defenseless. If she could just do something other than whimper and cower and cringe, it would give Sesshomaru more time to actually get there.
As was the situation in this last demon attack. Despite all his speed, he'd only barely gotten there in time to shield Rin but not in time to counterattack, and he took a rather harsh blow to the left side. The demon lord's instincts kicked in powerfully, then, and in less than a minute, he had felled the demon that had had the misfortune to have chosen to attack Rin, but when the task was finished, he felt a strange throbbing ache in his side. The scent of his blood was released into the air and a clawed hand moved to cover the wound and stay the bleeding. The demon lord was unused to injury, and he narrowed his eyes from the discomfort.
"Let's go, Rin."
The human child scurried quickly to his side, wide innocent eyes staring up at him worriedly. "Lord Sesshomaru...you're injured."
"This is nothing, Rin."
She did not seem reassured. "Does it hurt, Lord Sesshomaru?"
"No. We're leaving, Rin." He turned to leave, not waiting to see if she would follow, as he knew she always did and would. His tone was cold, yet the look in his eyes had softened just slightly, a bit surprised, yet strangely touched by the child's concern. He was just slightly irritated with himself, however, for showing enough for the child to perceive that he felt any pain at all.
His annoyance only increased as he found breathing through his nose to not be enough, and had to part his lips just slightly so that his lungs would be satisfied with the air coming in. Unacceptable. Utterly unacceptable. This was not honorable for a demon like himself, simpering about in pain like his disgrace of a half-breed brother undoubtedly did whenever wounded--which, the crass way he swung around his father's prized blade, must have been rather often.
Eyes narrowed yet further as he soon found his pace slowing. When had he gotten so weak? He hadn't even faced this so-called demon that had been terrorizing the land, and its mere presence in the relative vicinity had caused this kind of a reaction in him? He could only imagine what a mess InuYasha was, if his own strength and endurance had diminished this much.
He could see Rin was still staring at him, concern contorting her young face. She hadn't said anything more, he assumed for fear of receiving a harsh rebuke from him, but the look was unquestionable. A soft sigh escaped his lips as he continued to walk, and he was surprised to find himself coming to a stop next to a tree and sitting down. Rest...the very thought was disgraceful to him--he was not so weak that he could not walk a little ways further, to where Jaken and Ah-Un awaited their return, but if it set the girl's mind at ease...
Wide brown eyes continued to stare intently into his own golden hues, slightly watery, as if she wished to cry, but was restraining herself. She appeared to be searching him...searching for some sort of assurance that he was all right, that she had no reason to worry and that he wasn't going anywhere...
He felt, strangely, that he ought to give her this assurance--that she deserved that much from him, but he couldn't find the words that would soothe her. He was a man of few words as it was, and sentimentality such as what he was sure the human child in his care desired...was just not in his temperament.
And yet, as he searched for the right words to say to her, something strange began to happen, without his even being aware of it. His arm--his powerful arm with the demon whip and lethal poison claws--began to rise, and gently rested on the human child's head and he began to stroke her hair softly. It was an odd gesture, and something in the back of Sesshomaru's mind derided that he really had gone soft, but something about the girl's bright smile right then prevented him from pulling back. And as they shared this moment together in peaceful silence, he realized that he no longer needed to say anything.
His eyes moved to glance down at Tenseiga, and he could swear that right then, he could see his father smirking at him.
He returned his attention back to Rin, and decided right there for the final time, that no, reviving her had not been a sign of weakness after all.
Because he had someone to protect now.