Once Rin had come to live with him, he'd had no true reason to return to that village, so some years passed before he'd made the trip again.
Rin had been gone for nearly two decades, and he remembered that the only other members of his brother's pack were human as well, and most assuredly long gone.
He found Inuyasha draped over that well again, but this time, guilt mixed thickly with the sadness that drowned his scent.
He sat with his back against the wooden structure, reclining regally with one arm draped over one raised knee.
He sat silently until his brother finally heaved himself back over the edge of the well and plopped heavily down beside him.
"I'm getting old. Being pinned to that tree stopped things for a while, but now... I'm getting old."
"Hn." He could see the maturity that now lines his brother's features. Boyish scowls and puppy ears had chiseled out into the sharper angles of adulthood. He thought old was a generous description. Inuyasha was certainly old-er.
"I was going to wait. I was going to meet up with her again. I don't think I'll live that long, now."
Sesshoumaru felt his brow furrow slightly. 'Wait for her? Wait for who? Ah yes, the miko.'
Kagome had been her name. Rin had spoken of her. She'd been the miko who purified that cursed jewel. He thought he could recall something between she and his brother.
"I never told her ya know? How much she meant to me at the end."
He could suddenly feel his brother's gaze and he met it. He looked so much like their father.
"Will you tell her? You'll make it. You don't look no different now than you did then."
"You're dramatics are unnecessary brother. You are hardly an old man on his deathbed."
"No, not yet. But I've still got nearly 400 years left to get to her. And then there's Kimiko..."
And suddenly he could smell the scent of this other woman. Faint but there. His brother had kept his distance from her somewhat.
"So you wish to take a different mate."
His brother smiled sadly and huffed out a humorless laugh.
"She makes me happy. I haven't been happy since... since Sango finally left to follow that damn monk."
"Take your mate, Inuyasha. I don't remember much about your strange miko, but she was selfless, was she not?"
"She was. She always was. And I'm just a selfish bastard."