Chapter 10: Nightmare Walking

Sango waited downstairs with Miroku and Shippo until Inuyasha rejoined them. She was tense the entire time, not knowing whether or not Sesshoumaru would be okay. Feeling Miroku's hand on her arm she jerked away and glared at him. He blushed briefly.

"You're bleeding, Sango."

"I'm fine." She snapped quickly and went back to curling up around herself.

Two youkai, one male and one female, came into the room quietly. Both were dressed in the same oddly shifting robes that Daiya and Hisashi had been wearing and their hair/feathers were the same beautiful golden brown. The male was carrying a tray of cut fruits, cheeses, and breads. The female was carrying healing supplies. They bowed calmly.

"My name is Harumi and this is my brother, Katsumi. Hisashi-sama said that you might be injured and no doubt tired from the fight. We will be your hosts in lieu of Hisashi-sama and Daiya-sama as they tend to Sesshoumaru-sama."

Sango and Miroku blinked while Shippo eyed the food carefully. Kagome smiled and nodded to them.

"Will Sesshoumaru be all right?" Sango whispered.

"Daiya says so." Inuyasha said as he came in. Harumi and Katsumi bowed to him as well.

"Let us show you to the baths."

Harumi led the girls to the women's baths and Katsumi headed off with Inuyasha and Miroku. Sitting in the hot water Sango drew her knees up to her chest while Harumi tended to the long slash on her arm. Kagome moved over to sit next to her.

"Are you all right, Sango?"

Sango sighed. "I just have a bad feeling."

"You don't need to worry about anything." Harumi said softly. "This is the safest place you could possibly be. The Hikari no Hime is one of the most powerful daiyoukai. She thinks of the inuyoukai brothers as her own children as well."

Sango's gaze saddened. "Is it true Hisashi and Sesshoumaru are mates?"

Kagome raised an eyebrow and Harumi stopped in her binding.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Hisashi said so when he and Torandemon came to help us."

Harumi chuckled and finished wrapping Sango's arm.

"Sesshoumaru will be upset with him then. No, Sango-san, much to Hisashi's annoyance, they are not mates. Sesshoumaru and Hisashi have been close since Sesshoumaru was a child. I believe Hisashi saved his life after the first battle with the ryuu clan."

"Wasn't their father killed by Ryuukotsusei?" Kagome asked.

Harumi sat back and started folding towels. "The battle no doubt contributed to the Inu no Taishou's death. Still, the entire war, however short it was, was started when Shujitsusei attacked Sesshoumaru."

"Sesshoumaru couldn't handle him?"

Harumi smiled, gazing down warmly at the towel. "Shujitsusei was a couple centuries old. Sesshoumaru was only about forty. He was still a child by youkai standards."

She looked up at the girls.

"I'll tell you this. One thing you don't do is attack a youkai child. Even Inuyasha-sama, though he thinks he grew up alone, was always under the protection of the youkai. If he had been injured, or threatened, the inuyoukai clan would have descended on his oppressors like a plague. It was only after he reached his centurion that the protection started to fade though I don't think Sesshoumaru ever left him alone, truly alone, until Kikyo entered his life. Also, I don't think Sesshoumaru ever forgave the priestess for what she caused…and is causing."

Kagome's eyes widened. "Sesshoumaru doesn't like Kikyo?"

Harumi grinned as she held out towels for them both.

"I think Inuyasha is the only thing keeping Sesshoumaru from sending the clay priestess back to hell."

Kagome and Sango both smiled.

They met back with the boys, who were now also dressed in the white shifting robes of the Hikari no Hime, in a large room with a crackling fire in the marble fireplace. Daiya and Hisashi were there, sitting calmly at the small table. Inuyasha rushed over with Sango only a moment behind him.

"How's Sesshoumaru?" Sango snapped.

Hisashi waved his hand. "Please sit. You must be tired."

"Sesshoumaru." Sango repeated and Inuyasha nodded firmly.

Daiya reached across her son and touched Sango's arm. Sango felt a calm warmth spread over her and stared at the beautiful youkai woman.

"He's resting again. It'll probably be about a week before he's fully healed but he is in the safest place possible. Please sit, Sango. He would want you to be taken care of."

Sango blinked in surprise then took the seat across from Hisashi, the pillow beneath her knees so comfortable she hardly felt like she was sitting. After a moment, Harumi and Katsumi led a procession of servants who covered the table in every food and drink any of them could imagine.

"Wow..." Shippo said softly. Inuyasha's eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"It's about time you were treated like the prince you are, Inuyasha." Daiya said sweetly.

"Are you the Hikari no Hime?" Miroku asked softly since Inuyasha and Shippo were now currently engrossed in filling their plates. Sango and Kagome gravitated towards the food a bit more ladylike but still quickly.

Daiya smiled and folded her arms in front of her, watching them quietly. Hisashi laughed out loud.

"What was your first clue? The fact that she glows?"

Daiya popped her son's arm lightly before brushing one golden strand behind her ear.

"Yes, I am the Hikari no Hime. My people have been allied with the inuyoukai clan for several centuries now."

Inuyasha raised his head, a single ramen noodle hanging from the corner of his mouth. Then his brow furrowed and the noodle disappeared.

"Then I have a question for you. You say it's about time I was treated like a prince. If you like me so much, then why did I spend my childhood scrounging for an existence in the woods and trash heaps of the world."

Daiya's gaze grew sad and she spoke one word, her voice so hard it could cut diamond.

"Tradition." She spat. Inuyasha stared briefly before she continued in a softer voice.

"It is customary for a youkai child to spend the time between his fifth and fiftieth birthday alone and completely on his own with minimal assistance from his or her parents. In fact, Sesshoumaru's sojourn was only cut short because of the war between the ryuuyoukai clan and the inuyoukai clan."

Daiya raised her head and met Inuyasha's gaze.

"I can promise you, love, that you were never truly alone."

Inuyasha huffed and Hisashi almost growled at his disrespect before Daiya shot him a glare. It was nearly unnoticeable, the speed at which she glared at her son before returning to Inuyasha, but it was enough to still him into silence.

"All those times I nearly died..." Inuyasha snarled.

The Hikari no Hime, however, she smiled. "But you didn't...did you?"

Inuyasha paused, his mouth half open. Kagome was in the process of reaching across to him when he smiled sheepishly and lowered his head. He though of all the times he'd been in impossible situations that had somehow come through for him.

Tomorrow would make it two weeks, two weeks since he'd eaten anything decent, and the human guards had the nearby village locked down. He couldn't get in. He'd tried and now was nursing several near-misses on his arm and back.

Whimpering, he curled up into a ball and tried to think about nothing.

A whisper of wind and a faint trace of a scent he knew but couldn't name, the sound of a light footstep on forest moss. Inuyasha sat up but no one was there. The scent had no yet faded but he was more entranced by the mound of fruit and grilled fish that had appeared.

"You were watching over me."

Daiya smiled. "I was, Hisashi was, and Sesshoumaru was."

Inuyasha's head shot up. "Sesshoumaru!?"

Hisashi grinned as he finally reached forward for a piece of fish.

"Sesshoumaru hardly ever left your side for long and only if he knew who else was watching over you."

Sango was watching Inuyasha more closely now, half expecting him to suddenly leap up and declare the whole thing an untruth...but he seemed to be actually considering it.

Inuyasha's gaze had narrowed and going through his mind was what he had seen as a sudden change of heart on behalf of his brother. What if Sesshoumaru was, instead, finally showing his true colors? The question that had plagued him earlier raised its head again.

Did Sesshoumaru actually care about him?

The next time I woke it was nearly midday from the scents in the air. Another deep breath told me I was on the third floor of the Hikari no Hime's palace, there were three servants just outside the door, waiting nervously, and Inuyasha, Sango, and the others of our estranged group were on the ground floor with Daiya and Hisashi.

Ah-Un was in the second courtyard garden with Jaken. Rin was asleep on the second floor, third guestroom on the right.

I almost smiled at the thought that at least my sense of smell had not suffered in the battle...and then a scent came to me that I was completely unprepared for, a scent that had me pushing myself out of bed to struggled into a robe and out the door of my room. I could barely walk but still I pushed myself down the stairs towards where I could smell Daiya.

If I was going to be facing her...I wanted to be by Daiya's side. I wanted her unwavering protection.

With that last coherent thought, I descended into panic.

I had protected the humans too fiercely against Mumeiro. I had tried too hard. It was enough to warrant punishment. It was enough. Gods save me. Gods above protect those I loved.

I stopped on the second floor, too weak to go any further. How had I been reduced to this?

"Daiya...please...protect them."

Then she was there, by my side.

"Oh, see what these disgusting birds have done to my precious son."

I groaned.