Sesshomaru flexed his claws, the urge to rip into something was irritatingly strong; especially if that 'something' has silver hair and canine ears. All he wanted was to be left alone. Why the hell couldn't his dumbass little brother understand that he didn't want to talk about her? He forced his tense muscles to relax enough so he could sit down; it didn't stop the ticking in his jaw as he grinded his teeth.
'You're trying to forget her.'
He grimaced as he recalled those words, his chest tightening to an uncomfortable degree. That wasn't true... right? Just because he didn't want to speak of his mate didn't mean-...
'Does your memory of her mean that fucking little to you that your willing to shove it all to the side to be forgotten?'
He leaned forward, tasting bile rise up his throat as he threaded his claws into his hair. He felt his beast's disgust paired along with his own. The mere thought of it was so far from the truth that it made his stomach churn into multiple knots. His memories of her was all he fucking had left; so, yes, he did shove it all to the side, but not to be forgotten. He didn't think he could forget, even if he wanted to; which wasn't, nor would it ever, be the case.
Replaying memories only ripped at the already tender hole in his chest; he decided a long time ago that he was going to have to stop before he did something that was permanent and just as equally foolish. He could not leave his father's lands behind, no matter what; nothing else mattered anymore as long as he could keep Inutaisho's lands safe and relatively intact.
He didn't know how long he set there, before someone started knocking on the thin flimsy door of the hut. Honestly, he didn't hear it, too busy sinking deep into his guilt to bother take in his surroundings. His body tensed, feeling something grab a hold of his shoulder. Anger filled him before he even looked up at the person, not aimed at them personally, but more towards himself for allowing anyone to sneak up on him, to touch him. This was why the memories needed to stay in the back of his mind, why he didn't look at the paper tucked in his armor everyday; it distracted him too much. He had to be functioning at a hundred percent being Lord of his lands; any margin for error was unacceptable because this allowed the opportunity of defeat.
Kagome frowned at the reaction as she removed her hand from the demons tense shoulder. Miroku had explained to her the situation that he walked in on nearly half an hour prior; however, even he didn't know the full details, only that the two brothers had gotten to an nasty argument that ended in a pissed off Lord and a bruised Hanyou. It spoke volumes though, when she found out that the bruises were from Sesshomaru choking Inuyasha, not punching or using his beloved swords. What had happened that had caused the demon Lord to lose his tightly bound stoic composure that he was so infamous for? What had Inuyasha said? She loved the silvered hair hanyou, truly; but it didn't blind her to his mannerisms and, more than often, loose tongue.
"Hey, you alright?" She wanted to ask what her idiotic hanyou did, but it was probably best to tip-toe around the situation, given the older man's current disposition. It was like those words were magical as she watched the demon straighten up his spine to a painful degree and his hands eased down into his lap. She winced, he put a whole new meaning to perfect posture. Now that she thought about it, she doesn't think she has ever seen him truly relaxed.
"This Sesshomaru is not-" Whatever he was going to say was cut off as Rin ran into the hut with a thin flower crown held carefully in her palms. She didn't pay Kagome any mind as she stopped in front of the demon lord and, without pause, stretched to drop the crown on top of the man's head. The crown itself held bright purple bellflowers with twigs of baby's breath, the yellows of the poppies standing out sharply against his silver hair.
Kagome tried not to smile as she watched Sesshomaru's tension seemed to drop away as he looked at Rin who had a large smile on her face. She loved watching the demon interact with the little girl because it showed a whole new side of the lord that people tended to look over due to how well he hide it. The miko had to admit that the colors the little girl had picked out went beautifully with each other, but it really made Sesshomaru's eyes stand out from his pale skin and accented his demonic markings... He could really pull off the floral crown. She would have never thought the word flowers and Sesshomaru would ever fit together in any sentence properly; learn something new everyday.
"Rin made a crown so you don't have to be sad." Rin held the other crown she had made beside her, suddenly feeling self conscious about her idea. While she was making Sesshomaru-sama's she thought that it was only right to make the pretty blonde a crown as well. She knew that the lady wouldn't be able to wear hers, but she thought Sesshomaru could place it on the girls grave or something along those lines. She had used the blue tiger lilys that she decided to not use on Sesshomaru's because she couldn't see him wearing blue. The handful of red flowers she had wasn't in the best conditions, and only the best could be used for crowns; so she couldn't put them in the lady's crown. She could have picked more flowers from the field they were settled in, but she wanted the two crowns to be unique in their own ways; so she couldn't use the same colors that were in Lord Sesshomaru's. She had explained this to Shippo, who hadn't hesitated to search a little further for different colored flowers. It had only been a few minutes before he returned with several little flowers cupped carefully within his palms. They were unlike any of the flowers she had ever seen as the petals were a soft yellow towards the center that transitioned into a pretty pale orange on the outer edges. The flowers had more orange than yellow on them, so Rin didn't worry about them matching to closely with the yellow poppies of Sesshomaru's; besides the orange flowers didn't physically look anything like the other flowers. She had only added the tiny white flowers that Kagome called 'babys breath' as well so that she could have at least three flowers in the crown like Sesshomarus.
What if giving him the lady's crown made him sad again? She didn't want him upset anymore than he already was. Rin tightened her grip on the crown as she tried to gently ease it behind her out of her Lord's sight. She made the demon Lord a crown so he would be happy, she wouldn't ruin it by making him sad with another crown.
The subtle movement of the little girl's hand caught Kagome's eye almost immediately, "What do you have there, sweetheart?"
Rin froze, her dark brown eyes shooting to a pair that were darker than her own. Why did Miss Kagome have to ask? It was obivous it was another crown, one that she had been attempting to hide. Rin glanced over at Sesshomaru whose golden eyes were already locked on her own. Well, there was really no way around it now; unless she wanted to lie about who it went to, but she didn't want to lie to him. Lying was bad. She swallowed thickly, feeling her face grow slightly warm as she held out the crown in her hands quickly, her gaze casted downwards.
"R-Rin made the pretty blonde lady a crown too." Her voice seemed tiny even in her own ears. She tried her best to not squirm around the longer she held her hands out, knowing that Sesshomaru didn't like it when she did. "I didn't want to leave her out too, even though she can't wear hers. But it wouldn't be fair to leave her out just because of that... Sesshomaru-sama can put them on her grave if thats okay.. Or Rin can just give them to someone else..." She mumbled feeling the urge to explain herself.
Kagome watched as Sesshomaru gently took the little girls hands that still held the crown. It suddenly felt like she was intruding on what was suppose to be a private moment making her turn on her heel to walk outside. She would come back in a few minutes so the dog demon and little girl could have their moment to speak.
Sesshomaru swallowed around the knot in his throat as he took in the beautifully made crown. Rin had always had a talent in making floral accessories, but the colors on this one... It was scarily accurate. For a little girl who had only glimpsed at a blurry photo of a person she had never met... Surely, it had to just be a coincidence.
"...Orange, Rin?"
The little girl cast her gaze downwards towards the crown with little orange flowers. Was orange a bad color? Did it mean something bad? She knew she shouldn't have given it to him. Now he was probably not only upset but mad as well. Why couldn't she do anything right? She furrowed her eyebrows in frustration at herself.
"Rin's sorry! I didn't know it meant something bad! I picked it 'cause it was so pretty and different-..." She trailed off when Sesshomaru lifted the crown from her hands carefully before placing it down in his lap. Something in his gold eyes shined as he carefully pulled Rin towards him in a loose hug.
The words didn't need to be said, Rin felt the gratitude all the same as she carefully hugged him back. So orange didn't mean something bad? She hoped not. She wanted to ask but it seemed Lord Sesshomaru was done with that conversation. She nearly giggled as his silver hair brushed across her face, but she knew that would have made him pull away from hugging her; so she tightened her lips. It was rare he showed any physical affection or praise, she liked it because it made him show more emotion than what he usually did. Now if she could just get him to be more open around the rest of the group; that was the goal she had set herself. Because if she didn't try to help him, no one else was going to attempt it.
Sesshomaru closed his eyes as his nose picked up the scent of dirt, sweat, flowers, and... He tensed as he took a noticeable sniff once more... that scent. He knew his mind wasn't playing tricks on him, it couldn't be. Where did she pick up that scent?
"You ran into someone in the woods, Rin?" It came out more as a statement because he knew that scent was nowhere within the village. Demon's were rare around villages for the past few months, he knew this for certain because he had made it mandatory that all yokai were to keep their distances from human villages until he could get the mess that Naraku had left behind cleaned up and the humans in a calmer state of mind about demons. It would do no good for the villages to get violent against every demon that neared their area, only for said demons to react just as violently, if not more so. While it was few villages that would react so poorly, he didn't want to take any risks; he just stretched the order so any yokai, that didn't already have a permeant residence in a village, must stay away.
Naraku had caused a lot of damage for the peace between demons and humans; it was up to Sesshomaru to repair it. Luckily, it was already getting better due to some humans recognizing the fact that it was a hanyou and a few other demons (including himself) that had went up against Naraku. His brother and the miko had called him overly paranoid with his consistent patrols around his lands, attempting to get him to 'settle down' and 'chill'. There was the guards at his mothers palace that could do the patrols, but they considered the task too 'mundane' for their taste; idiots, the lot of them. However, by patrolling his own lands, he felt better prepared should an attack occur and confident that there wouldn't be a new 'Naraku' on his hands. Honestly, if he hadn't been so one tracked minded on getting the Tessaiga, he would have took notice of Naraku way before he got a speckle of the amount of power he had. It was pathetic of him to allow that spider hanyou to even think that he could slide by with his shit. The fact that his mother didn't attempt to help better his father's lands made him angrier, because she heard of most situations before Sesshomaru did, but never lifted a finger. All she did was sit on the throne and question his every move.
Rin pulled away with a fast nod, letting her hands fall from around his neck. She had forgotten to tell him about the stranger that wanted to see him; was that who he was asking about? Maybe Lord Sesshomaru was expecting someone to visit? "Shippo said to come here and give Sesshomaru-sama his crown before-"
The last of the girls response was lost as Sesshomaru felt a demonic presence enter the border of the village that was closest to the hut. He scowled as he placed the crown in his lap on Rin's head before standing up. "Stay." She blinked as she watched him move quickly outside of the hut, intent on finding the idiotic yokai that thought it would be a good idea to enter a human village against orders. Rin figured he must already know the stranger, or else he wouldn't have interrupted her reply. But, the person said to not tell Sesshomaru who they were... something about a surprise. Did Sesshomaru-sama already know about the surprise?
It was obvious, in Kagome's mind, that he would be here. There wasn't many places near the village Inuyasha escaped to; especially when he was upset over something. From where she was standing on the ground, she could see his tensed form perched up high in his tree, his back facing her. It amused her that the hanyou and his older brother 'marked' their own trees as their own. She doubted either one of them would notice this similarity, unless she pointed it out. Using the small notches cut into the tree for easier climbing, she made her way slowly up the tree. She still wasn't confident enough in herself that she wouldn't fall at any second and break her neck; that would be a pathetic way to die after everything she had been through. Carefully setting herself down beside the hanyou, she noticed he still hadn't taken notice of her presence. It seemed he still hadn't calmed down from whatever happened earlier between him and his brother. His fists were clenched tightly by his sides, his facial expression hard as his ears laid flat against his head. Well, Inuyasha was a known hot-head; she didn't honestly expect him to be calmed down by now. Seeing the dark purple bruises spread across his neck, she slid her hand over the top of his in silent comfort; not expecting his fingers to quickly turn to intertwine with hers like it was programed to happen somewhere in his brain automatically.
"I heard there was a disagreement between you and Sesshomaru..." Might as well go straight through the bush instead of beating around it, kind of. Maybe he would explain his side of the story without much prodding. Inuyasha scoffed, and Kagome could tell that if she wasn't holding his hand, he would have crossed his arms as he usually did.
"Yeah, you could say that..." His tone was harsh and his hand tightened around hers slightly. Okay then, try a different tactic...
"I just seen your brother, you know..." Could she guilt him into it? Most likely not, but it would probably help for him to know how Sesshomaru was when she walked in. "Never thought I would see the day that the 'great' Lord Sesshomaru folded over on himself and holding his head like that could keep him anchored." That was.. a little much, but it wasn't exactly incorrect.
"Serves the bastard right."
"Inuyasha!" She flicked his ear in reprimand. "He's the only family you have left, you can't say things like that."
"Him being my brother gives me every right to say whatever the hell I want about him, can't help it if its the truth." Kagome opened her mouth to scold him once more but Inuyasha was already speaking. "The girl in the photo..." His grip on her hand tightened as she furrowed her eyebrows. What did that have to do with this conver-.. oh. "He hasn't been mourning the loss of her, Kagome. He has been trying to forget her. That's like me saying I don't want any memories of my mother just because she died and isn't by my side. How fucked up is that? What's worse? Sesshomaru is probably the only person that poor girl has left to remember her by. If that doesn't show you how much of a bastard my brother is, I don't know what will."
Without much thought, she started petting behind the young man's ears. The way he looked at it, it did sounded pretty bad. But based off what she knew, there was an issue with his small rant. Sesshomaru was a man of very few words and rather enjoyed his privacy... in nearly all aspects of his life; that being said, she was certain Inuyasha had made assumptions based off a poorly worded sentence that most likely was very vague. Both of them had terribly poor comminucation skills, anyway. Now that she knew what the argument was based off of, she had room to put some form of her opinion in.
"It hurt a lot when your mom passed away, didn't it?" She didn't wait for a response because the answer was obvious on its own. Now to break this down so Inuyasha could understand what she was trying to get across. "You had your own way of coping with losing her; I don't know what that coping mechanism may have been but still..." She paused briefly to get her thoughts together. Now how was she suppose to get her thoughts across in her words without the meaning getting lost? "Sesshomaru is a very private kind of guy, doesn't like sharing his thoughts or really talking to anyone; you know how reserved he is. Despite all that, he managed to open up to the blonde and create, from what I can tell, a very close bond; only to lose her not long after. I don't think Sesshomaru was trying to forget her; maybe it hurt him too much to think about her. Honestly, I don't believe he has figured out a proper way to cope with the loss, so he is attempting to shove it all to the side. You remember how you explained the bond of mates? I don't know how deep those bonds run, but she may have been his mate, Yasha." She never thought about that but she added it as an after thought, anyway. "And then your father being killed most likely doubled the grief he has had to struggle through."
There wasn't an immediate response, but that was okay because that was a lot to get sorted through. She leaned against his shoulder. Maybe she simply over analyzed Sesshomaru's situation but she tried to put herself in his 'shoes' as she put puzzle piece by puzzle piece together. Sesshomaru was a complicated demon, one she would never completely understand but she wanted to try at the very least. She could see the compassion he attempted to keep locked up that managed to shine through the little actions he did around Rin, sometimes even Inuyasha. He had too many layers to his person that no one cared to dig through, but she wanted to help him be more open with his emotions, even if it was just around one or two people of his choosing. She blinked when she felt an arm wrap around her waist, squeezing her against the hanyou's side tightly.
"Seems like you've gotten my brother all figured out." He leaned his head against her own as he released a long sigh. "By kami, I hope that she wasn't his mate."
As cruel as it sounded, Kagome silently hoped the same. It wasn't long before Inuyasha stiffened against her before sitting up straighter. She heard him take a deep breath in before he was scooping her over his shoulder and making his way down the tree. "Inuyasha! What are you doing?!"
Shippo casted a weary glance behind him at the demon that had interrupted his and Rin's time in the field. He had Rin go ahead to the hut, not to warn Sesshomaru but more along the lines to know that the girl would be safer by the lord's side than by his own.
"So you know Sesshomaru?" He didn't like the silence, because who ever this demon was, made it highly uncomfortable. He couldn't really see the person's face, the hood they wore over shadowed most of their features and the body build could have been that of a man's or woman's. Typically, Shippo would have used his nose in a situation like this, but he couldn't even catch the scent of the demon; it made him nervous.
"I knew him a century or two ago. Due to... unfortunate circumstances, I haven't seen the Inuyokai since."
Shippo kept silent the rest of the walk to the village. The demon's presence seemed to be burning a hole into his back the whole trip making him antsy. Why didn't he just say Sesshomaru was on a journey or at his mother's palace? It would have avoided him having to bring the mysterious stranger behind him along. It seemed like it was all too soon that he could see the border of the village itself. The trip had seemed so much longer when he had walked it with Rin a few hours earlier. The boy winced as he saw Sesshomaru fast approaching with Inuyasha carrying Kagome over his shoulder coming from the left; only stopping a few yards away. Shippo shuffled his feet nervously when Inuyasha's angered gaze dropped down to his own. He couldn't really blame the hanyou for his anger either, because he did bring a pretty shady demon right into the village... a demon that he didn't even know the name of. Well, it was too late to change his mind on the matter now but not to say oops.
"Shippo! What the hell?! We are suppose to keep demons out of the village, not bring them in like strays, you dumbass!" Inuyasha bared his teeth in annoyance causing Shippo to take a step back. It was rather insulting that Inuyasha thought he was so stupid, but it wasn't like he had told the demon that he would take them to Sesshomaru... they kinda just followed along. Inuyasha couldn't judge him anyways; the idiot hanyou did stuff that was dumb too!
"Mah, Mah..." Shippo glanced behind him at the sound. He couldn't quite tell which way they were looking due to the hood but he knew it wasn't at himself. "If it isn't Princess Sesshy. I'm dying to know, where's your prince? Or have you not kissed enough frogs?"
There was a period of dead silence for all of a minute before any anger Inuyasha seem to be experiencing vanished as he started all out laughing, even Kagome cracked a smile. Shippo blinked as he looked back over at the royal Inuyokai to see the flower crown Rin had made sitting perfectly on top of his head. Shippo had never really seen the man actually wear any of Rin's gifts while he walked around, and certainly not when he went to confront anybody. The two must really be friends if the stranger had enough guts to joke around with Sesshomaru of all people, but the blank look on the said Inuyokai's face spoke quite differently.
"State your business, or leave."
Shippo took this moment to walk quickly over to Kagome. He did not want to be in between two demons, especially with Sesshomaru being one of them. The look that Sesshomaru was sending the stranger could melt metal and Shippo did not want to be anywhere near the receiving end. Besides, Kagome always made him feel safe in these type of situations. Well, at least Sesshomaru gave the demon two options; that's more than he usually did. Shippo wrapped himself around the miko's leg just in time to see the demon place a hand over their chest almost playfully.
"Do you not recognize me, Princess? I'm hurt." The mocking tone was now more evident. "Believe it."
Out of all the things Shippo thought that Inuyasha's older brother would be angered out of this situation, this was the last on the list... barely even on it, in fact. It couldn't have been the fact that the demon called him 'princess' again, because it hadn't bothered him previously. What did bother the Inuyokai then? Shippo didn't really give any more thought because the way Sesshomaru's face twisted made chills crawl across his skin and his ears definitely didn't miss the low growl.
Kagome caught Inuyasha's arm before he move towards his brother or make a snide comment. This seemed like a more personally confrontation between the two yokai, there was no sense in adding any more... problems to the situation at hand. With Sesshomaru being within the village, it would not abode well for him to fight; the least she do to help was to have Inuyasha and Shippo help protect the villagers from getting in the crossfire. Although, Inuyasha would want to be in the middle of the battle, it was best that he stuck to the sidelines until this all blew over. Hopefully, this could end with no violence, but with the way Sesshomaru was glaring at the demon, it didn't seem very likely at all.
"Don't, Yasha." She muttered as she saw his grip tight on his sword when the demon suddenly moved to remove the hood back, chuckling. It had immediately changed the tone that the demon had set with his joking demeanor.
"Don't start with me, mutt. You sure did like it when my Kit would say it." Shippo's ears perked up at the word as he took in the demon's features. Unlike his own hair that was auburn, this man (because he definitely couldn't mistake the guy's gender when he saw his eyes) had dark red crimson spiked hair that, had it not been tucked beneath his cloak, looked to rather long like Sesshomaru's. He was relatively tanned with three whisker-like markings on either cheek and intense wine colored eyes that made Shippo shrink behind Kagome even further. A kyuubi no youko; Sesshomaru was standing against a nine-tailed demon fox! Shippo swallowed thickly as recalled all the stories his parents had told him about with rare nine-tailed foxes. It was the highest level a power a kitsune could reach, and there was a reason why it was so seldom that a nine-tailed was seen.
"Kuram-" Sesshomaru started to speak but the Kyuubi interrupted him harshly.
"If I remember correctly, the only person I gave permission to say my name died."