Title: Grown Men Don't Cry
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, and yes the title is inspired by Tim McGraw's song.
Summary: Beaten as a child, falsely accused of a crime, banished from the throne, rejected from the demon world Sesshoumaru is forced among the human side of the track. Struggling to understand the people he must live with he makes his only friend, Kagome. A mute woman who through understanding alone shows him the path to redemption.
Chapter Two
I was brought before the throne and place before the king, my father. I forced to my knees like a commoner accused of a crime I didn't commit.
"What has become of you?" Asked my father as he heard my crimes. The people at the ball gasped and awed around me. I said nothing, his mind already made up.
"From this day forth Sesshoumaru is here by disowned from the Inutashio blood line and banished from the Western Lands." My body was ridged with shock. Banished? I had expect death, but banished? To be disowned forever more? This was crueler than I had expected.
"Remove him!" Cried my father. I was hauled to my feet and turn towards the door. I shook the guards off and walked with my head held high, ignoring the crowd.
They lead me past the gate, to the stables where they pulled out my trusty steed. An-Uh. I mounted the two headed dragon and they readied their own clouds. We lifted into the air and they lead me far, far away.
Whenever someone is banished from high court they are lead to the very center of Japan, to give them a fair shot at survival no matter which direction they go. It is also overrun by humans. A punishment all on its own. We arrived outside the human woods and they nodded to me one last time before returning home. I was abandoned.
Slowly I dismounted and lead my steed to a nearby stream to drink. As my dragon rested I sat down under a tree and contemplated my next move.
I could no longer return to the west and since the east was an ally to the west, thanks to my own doing, I could not count on them to help me either. The North would turn me down since their queen had been my late mother. I would head South and hope to find favor with the Southern Court. But first I needed to eat. I stood and headed for the human village hoping to snatch something from a farm on the outskirts of the town. I went from farm to farm till at last I found a decrepit farm house. It looked abandoned so I approached the field with a clear conscience about stealing food. In fact I had been just about to pull up some cabbages when a hoe slammed into the ground before me. Their stood a woman, dressed in filthy rags, an expression of pure anger on her face.
"What was that for wench?!" I said forgetting my hunger and instead to defending my honor. She merely pointed at the food below us and stared at me.
"You're mad because I was trying to take your food?" I asked startled. I thought for sure this place was empty.
She gave one curt nod. "Well it appears you have a problem them. Because I am hungry and you have food." I said picking up the forgotten cabbage. She stomped her foot and pointed to the ground demanding that I put it back. I took a big bite out of it instead.
She fumed and fussed. Pulling out a bit of paper from her pocket she quickly scribbled with a piece of charcoal she produced in front of me. She held up the paper to my face angerly.
'You could have asked first, you big jerk!' She said.
"Would you have given it to me if I had?" I asked taking another bit.
'No.' I smirked at her reply.
'I would have invited you dinner.' She wrote. I suddenly felt very inferior to the small woman before me. I did not like feeling guilty.
"You would? Even for an evil demon like me?" I asked sarcastically, taking another bite to spite her.
'If you had asked, then yes I would have.' She replied picking up her hoe she had thrown down earlier.
Suddenly I realized we weren't talking. She was writing everything. "Why do you write so much?" I asked her, forgetting my cabbage again.
She tapped her throat with her hands and opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
"Oh, you can't speak can you?" She shook her head no. Again I found myself feeling even more like scum.
'Look if you're hungry still I have some hot soup in the house, if not then be on your way.' She wrote, turning in one fluid movement towards the house. The decision was in my hands. I watched her leave and turned back to the woods. I returned to An-Uh's side and mounted to continue on my journey. As I rose in the air above the tree I spotted her house as she shook out the rug before turning and heading in. What an odd woman.
Ha-ha! Enter Kagome. Review please!
Aslan