Disclaimer: This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied.
Task
The broom moved over the pavement, sweeping tattered leaves and flower buds before it. Inuyasha watched his gnarled hands grip the bamboo pole, bemused. A few weeks-and five hundred years-ago, he would never have imagined himself doing such a task. Wasn't sweeping meant for servants or other lowly beings? He'd never understood why Kagome's grandfather-a priest, despite his powerless sutras-spent so much time and effort on sweeping the shrine's grounds.
But, when a fierce storm had shredded leaves and flowers, leaving the other old man frantic with worry, having a morning appointment he couldn't cancel, and a long-planned gathering in the afternoon, Inuyasha found himself volunteering to clean up. The old priest had initially bristled at the offer, though whether from the thought of a hanyo performing his chore, or memories of certain-incidents, Inuyasha didn't know. But, Mama had smoothed matters over, and so Inuyasha found himself with the broom in his hand.
It was not as irksome as he had thought it would be. He'd volunteered, because he had been feeling restless, beginning to feel uncomfortable at being asked for nothing but stories, in return for all the care (and food) Mrs. Higurashi was lavishing on him. But the slow, repetitive motion was oddly soothing, and the gradual transformation of littered ground to clean, was pleasing.
Inuyasha paused to adjust the long scarf that not only hid, but protected his aged, cold-sensitive ears from the unseasonably frigid breeze. Then, smiling, he continued to sweep.
Author's Note: Oops. This piece was written over a year ago for LiveJournal, but never found its way here. And did that only because I wrote it's prequel, and was searching for this, so I could reference it! At any rate, it was actually posted back in 2009, well before I started this collection. It was written for the prompt "Sweep", for the LiveJournal community Issekiwa, and originally posted on December 10th, 2009. One advantage of the being temporarily lost, is that it gets to take its proper position chronologically, with respect to the previous chapter. (10/1/2011)