Brothers in Arms, Room of Angels,

Yay, tension!

To Make Things Right

A Sudden Farewell

"Oh how cute! They've fortified one side of the village!"

Inuyasha's village was still a small human settlement surrounded by fertile rice-paddies, its modest buildings dominated by the shrine sitting high up on the town hill. The only discernible changes were the fortifications along the eastern side of the hamlet: their main defence was the forest of fallen trees, their trunks cut to spikes and rammed into the ground to provide a prickly barrier against demons. There was also a mystic barrier in place as well, something neither she nor Sesshoumaru tried crossing too quickly.

Kagura didn't ask why Totosai travelled so close to the tiny town with them, but was thankful when the smith abruptly spoke up to say that Tenseiga would take three days to repair, then took his leave and shot off to the north. Mo-Mo didn't fly very far though, and Kagura was actually able to watch the cow descend below the tree-line again into a small highland rise. Hadn't Totosai lived in a volcano? Eh, maybe it had erupted while they were gone.

"We will wait here." She knew he was minding both the wind and his own aura as they approached the village. Sesshoumaru made them approach from down-wind, and landed on the ground a good mile before they were actually within sight of the village. Kagura didn't enjoy making these observations about him, but didn't call him on his strange behaviour as her mate stood on a rise looking down at the human settlement. The orange sun-set bathed the huts with soft light, the reflections off the water tinted gold... rather than watch the light paint the same effect across his features, the dancer simply stood there quietly with her arms folded. Waiting.

"If you go at night, Jaken may think you're just a dream." The toad's exact location was unknown to Kagura, she'd never been close enough to the mouthy little servant at a time to learn much about his aura: she'd just followed Sesshoumaru's. Still, when her husband ignored her attempt at conversation a second time, Kagura let some of her frustration show. She knew what was bothering him, and it irritated her. Maybe even made her a little jealous. "Do I need to leave?"

Sesshoumaru didn't answer, but the Demon Lord turned his head just enough to look at her, finally acknowledging something she'd said. The dusk light played with his hair and cut across his irii, turning the gold different shades of blue and green, but his appearance didn't satisfy her, not right now. The silence just frustrated her even more.

"Well?" She pressed, arms still folded stiffly over her chest. "Do you need me to go fly off for a few hours while you settle your business?" More silence, but not the kind that meant he just wasn't going to answer. He was weighing things in his mind, considering his words, and she hated the hesitation.

"There is nothing to settle." And he looked back down at the village.

"Bullshit." He was just hiding his scent, and his aura, and he was waiting until all the little humans and their Half-breed lord fell asleep. Kagura hoped it was Inuyasha giving him pause, she was praying that it was Sesshoumaru's half-brother... Because if he was so disturbed by the presence of some human girl- human woman: then she'd have to kill something. As his wife Kagura would have to kill Rin.

'He wants to see her, I know he does.' And because he wanted to, he was hesitant to even go near the village. If Sesshoumaru had waited a century for Kagura to awaken, she knew he wouldn't have spent all of those years alone. He would have collected that ugly little human girl and carried her away with him, he would have made the jump from guardian to husband. He would have let himself grow soft towards the kind of creature he hated most, and that level of compromise made Kagura twist and shake trying to control her envy.

The jealousy surprised her because it was so strong. It wasn't a haughty arrogance or a straightening of the spine, it was a killing instinct: retaliatory and wild. How dare she? How dare that stupid, ugly, short-lived little girl do this sort of damage to his composure? How dare she make Kagura's Sesshoumaru hesitate and waffle around trying to hide in the trees? She was picking apart his focus, splitting what precious little attention he had to spare away from his chosen mate to spend on Rin instead.

And Kagura knew he had, in fact, done nothing but avoid making his presence obvious. She knew he had, really, done nothing for Rin or against her. She knew this, she knew, but she still felt that toxic hate spreading through her veins, her strong heart pumping the poison through her body. Maybe there was a little bit of Naraku in her after all: she'd gone and broken up a happy courtship, hadn't she?

"Kagura." Stern face, serious voice; nothing she hadn't dealt with before.

"Figure it out on your own." Plucking one of the feathers out of her hair, Kagura turned away. Her fingertips had brushed the cluster of topaz stones set on the ivory back of her comb, but she didn't disturb the fixture. She was mad at him, not mad at him. "I'll find you later."

"I forbid you to leave." He said the words quickly after hers but without any sense of urgency, and this caused her to glance back at him. Sesshoumaru's gold eyes were watching her closely, but she could clearly see, as expected, that there wasn't anything worthwhile in his gaze. She looked away and released the feather, let it catch an up-draft that sent the downy spine spinning around behind her head and fluttering on the dusk currents.

"Forbid all you want, it doesn't mean I'll obey." Or did he really believe she listened to him because she felt compelled to? Judging by the brief flash that crossed his eyes; yes, he really did think so. Ignorant stray. "Free to stay, free to go. Idiot."

She finished the insult in time to hear the sinuous crunch of her feather splintering between Sesshoumaru's claws, not reaching for the second one yet as he phased directly in front of her. Kagura had her arms folded by the time he dropped the mangled quill, meeting that cold, cold copper gaze with one that she hoped let him know how much of a fool he was being.

"You will stay."

"And watch you deal with your little human girl? Not likely."

"There is nothing to deal with."

"Then why are you still up here? You're hiding!" Dropping her arms and striking him with the accusation, Kagura watched him give her the blank stare that always came when he didn't want to answer a question. "Fine, if it's not Rin then it's Inuyasha you're worried about. You think your little brother might be a threat?" His eyes changed abruptly when she spoke the Half-breed's name; pupils thinning and irii growing round and wide. A deep warning growl climbed out of his chest and Kagura pointed a finger at him accusingly.

"That should be your reaction when I talk about Rin!" The growling stopped, but his face didn't change. Enough, she was done with this. She lifted her hands up between them, palms out like she was going to shove him if he tried stopping her. "Go. Go deal with the girl and collect your servant, then come and find me."

Turning away again, Kagura started walking. She was just reaching up for her second feather when she felt his hand close tightly around her wrist, jerking her around roughly to face him again. He was back to growling, Sesshoumaru always reverted to those throaty animal sounds when he was irritated: he was too good to actually speak to her.

"You will stay." His aura flared to lend the words weight; white, blue and green coming away from his shoulders and chest and wrapping around her, soaking through her clothes and seeking out the marks across her shoulders and chest. It was invasive and burning, not trying to be pleasant as he smothered her. Was that how he wanted to play then? Fine. She could do this his way.

"Over her dead body." Sesshoumaru's energy reached her marks, but Kagura let her own aura concentrate and form a screen of red to get in the way of his advances. She watched surprise creep up in his eyes but didn't stop, red soaking through her skin and attacking his wrist where he was still holding her arm. His marks flared, and the Demon Lord suddenly released her, shocked.

The maroon slashes on his skin were throbbing, she could see it happening. Kagura quickly released her feather so it could grow and whisk her away up into the air. For good measure, she even sent a gust of wind down past him that swept along the hillside towards the village. It wouldn't go all the way to the huts, but it would be enough for anyone looking for a scent to know where he was hiding.

"Deal with them first." He was mad as he stared up after her, but Kagura knew he wouldn't give chase. Sesshoumaru wouldn't let Inuyasha think he had come all the way to the edge of the village, then run away before his brother could appear. She knew his pride better than that.

'I'd love to watch him fight Inuyasha again.' Kagura turned west into the wind and flew steadily after that, gaining enough height that she would be hard to see against the vibrant dusk sky. 'But I won't tolerate seeing him with Rin.'

Not even for a moment, not as a guardian, or a friend, or anything at all.

For several moments, Sesshoumaru was too enraged to even let himself breathe. He watched Kagura vanish and kept his senses closed against her scent, tracking her in his mind as the sorceress faded into the sunset. He forced the coloured marks on his skin to calm and behave, disgusted that they could be so easily manipulated by the woman: she had not marked him, mating did not work that way. She became his, but Kagura did not own him.

"Sesshoumaru?" Putting aside his rage was not a simple task, but it was one he was capable of and performed before turning around to face the sound of his name. He didn't even turn all the way, refusing to give his half-brother that much of his attention.

In appearance, Inuyasha had not changed much in the twelve years since they had last met. The robe of the fire rat was still worn in the same style, the demonic material no worse for the constant wear. Barefoot, long silver hair, and two canine ears resting on top of his head, even his amber eyes, too close in colour to Sesshoumaru's own, looked exactly as they always had. The Half-breed did not age as humans did, so there was nothing in his outward appearance to indicate that any time at all had passed.

What did hint at the passing years was how Tetseiga remained silent at the Half-breed's hip. Inuyasha made no move to draw the sword, and the blade seemed content with his passive choice. He didn't even honour Sesshoumaru's presence by appearing tense or on edge; his spine straight and shoulders lax and back, weight resting firmly on his feet, not antsy or waiting to move. The Half-breed somehow felt confident enough to approach him as an equal, how disgusting.

"Where the hell have you been?" And he remained as profane as ever, even if there was a lack of violent heat in his words. "You don't even smell the same, your aura's different."

"Then your senses grow dull." Turning a bit more now as one of his half-brother's clawed hands moved to hover over Tetseiga's hilt, Inuyasha had grown suspicious by the time Sesshoumaru faced him properly. His stance didn't change, not completely, but the elder brother watched one bare foot slide back a little over the grass. Ignorant fool. "I am the same."

"No, there's too much red." Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes, just a little, at the presumptuous remark. "Your marks, your yoki, even your scent-"

"Enough." So Kagura had changed him then? He found this difficult to believe but refused to argue the point now, least of all with the Half-breed. "Where is Jaken?" Similar gold eyes blinked back at him, confused.

"That's why your here?"

"Why else would I come?" His answer gave Inuyasha pause, the Half-breed's clawed fingers slipping off Tetseiga's hilt. "I have no interest in attacking your pathetic village."

"No, I didn't think you wanted that." Then why rush up here as he had? Sesshoumaru was curious, but refrained from asking the question, remaining still with his arms hanging at ease down his sides. His annoyance with Kagura was almost forgotten until he noticed his half-brother looking around curiously, too obvious in his search for the second scent.

"She left."

"It's familiar..." It had been many years since Inuyasha had last been close enough to Kagura to pick up her scent, but Sesshoumaru refused to help him identify the odour. The longer he watched the Half-breed, the more desperate and confused Inuyasha became. He was clearly disturbed by what his nose was telling him. "You're married?" Despite his issues with Kagura, Sesshoumaru still found it difficult not to smile at the hopeless expression on the Half-breed's face.

"Perhaps I have changed." But enough of this. "Where is Jaken?"

"What about Rin?" The first reaction was for the hairs on the back of his neck to rise quickly, followed shortly by a hot flash over his marks- the memory of Kagura's fierce hate. He had not expected his mate to behave so violently at the thought of Rin, but he resented the weight Inuyasha gave the girl. "You've been gone for so long, it's your right or whatever but what about-"

"Rin is human, it has nothing to do with her." Strength and pride, those where the virtues he called on now. He was not going to knuckle under the weight of a presumed relationship. Kagura had been dead, Rin had been alive, restored to life by his own power and then again by a rare act of charity from his mother. But now Kagura was alive, Kagura was his mate, and Rin was human.

"I'll bring Jaken here to you."

"I will see Un myself." His half-brother gave him a dirty look, and Sesshoumaru refused to acknowledge it.

"So you didn't just come for Jaken."

"Inuyasha..." Resting his right hand over Bakusaiga's white hilt, the lone sword felt eager under his palm. It had never faced the Tetseiga in battle before, there had been no cause for them to fight after Naraku's death: now it sensed a chance. "If you continue to delay I will simply have to find Jaken and Ah-Un myself, my own way." He had not come so far out of his way just to terrorize a meaningless human village, but if threatening the tiny settlement would get his brother to co-operate properly, then Sesshoumaru would oblige him. The conflict was visible on the Half-breed's face: his own mate and children were still down there.

"This way." Good dog. Inuyasha turned and began to walk slowly down the hill he'd charged up a few minutes earlier, and Sesshoumaru set an easy pace for himself as he followed, amused with the intense disappointment exuded by his sword. Bakusaiga was already sick of tasting only fire and ash. "Rin will be there."

They moved down off the slope of the hill and walked along a narrow bridge of land across the rice paddies, the water still reflecting the sun's dying rays as bands of gold. Briefly, the sight reminded the Demon Lord that the gardens and fields of his estate, the ones that had no doubt been annihilated months ago.

"She should tend to her children instead." Rin was... twenty five. If Sesshoumaru cared to remember correctly then Kagome had married at eighteen, so by now Rin would have a human husband and children to tend to.

"Rin isn't married." ...A mistake then. "Kohaku proposed three times, brought her gifts, offered to let her travel with him, but she refused him." Kohaku, the boy who had been rescued from Naraku. Rin had enjoyed his presence as a child, it was unwise of her to reject him.

"Do you expect me to feel guilt over her poor choices, little brother?" Rin's life was not in his hands, he had protected her and allowed the girl to travel with him. He was not her father.

"I figured you'd want to know. You made Kaede her guardian, then took off and left after the old woman died." Mm... It was difficult to remember such a menial conversation from such a bleak time, but yes. The old priestess had died as a result of Eurus's Kamikaze; the hut she had shared with Rin had collapsed and crushed the old woman. The thirteen-year-old Rin had been upset and asked him if the storm had been caused by a demon, he had told her no.

He had not been wrong: the storm had not been the fault of a demon, and Sesshoumaru had punished the minor god for his actions. It was not the sort of tale worth recounting however, Eurus had barely put up a fight.

"How did you break Tenseiga, Sesshoumaru?" Oh? For a moment he was surprised the Half-breed knew about Tenseiga, but then recalled Totosai's very close proximity to the village. The smith had probably told him, or it was simply an assumption based on the sword's absence from his side.

"Does the younger brother now desire the sword of the elder?" Inuyasha made a low sound in his nose, gritting his teeth. Even if Sesshoumaru couldn't see the sour expression he could still sense the change.

"I respect Tenseiga, but the fangs don't just snap." From the rice-paddies now the pair had come to a large slope that signalled where the land and water began to bend and move down through the trees. "How did it break?"

For a moment Sesshoumaru became suspicious that his servants were being housed in Onigumo's cave, but Jaken's scent reached him too soon for the cursed location to be correct. The soil was damp however, the air musty as it grew dark without the sun. It was the sort of musk and that bred mosquitoes and leeches, dark and slimy. Appropriate for the toad perhaps, but distasteful to the Demon Lord: as were the persistent questions.

"It was damaged in battle."

"Tenseiga isn't a fighting sword."

"Married life has made you tedious, little brother, let us hope that I avoid that fate." His quip silenced Inuyasha again, the Half-breed clearly irritated with his presence now, and that suited Sesshoumaru. He did not want to be here and bond with their father's greatest misdeed, he was here for very specific reasons.

"There." They both stopped, but for different reasons as Inuyasha pointed out the hovel where Jaken's scent was concentrated. A small hill had been hollowed out with a few wooden posts supporting the roof and a bit of scaffolding in the front around the entrance. Sesshoumaru didn't doubt that it was dank and wretched inside, but more importantly he could smell two familiar odours; rotted demonic flesh, and Rin. She was in there along with Jaken and the dragon.

"How are you going to deal with her?" Maybe they didn't stop for different reasons, but the Demon Lord put Rin from his immediate concerns when Inuyasha spoke up, unwilling to share thoughts with him. Sesshoumaru simply repeated what he had said to Kagura:

"There is nothing to deal with." Nothing except Rin, Jaken, and Un.

Chapter done!

I really, really should be giving these chapters the extra proof-read they deserve before posting, but I haven't been. After so much revision I'm just sick of the start of this story xD

But you read it, so review it!