Silver Demons
by SkyFire

Hugs and virtual cookies go out to: CNome, Saphira1204, Shi-koi, Katreal, Basia Orci, KitsuneToy, PleiadesWolfe, and SilentTears07! Thank you so much for your reviews! \^-^/

Doing the post-and-run today, guys. Sorry I didn't have time to post this yesterday or earlier today; RL's been kicking my butt the last two days... X_x

Warnings: Eventual Sess/Seph (shonen-ai or yaoi, I haven't decided. We'll see when we get there. ^-^)
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII or InuYasha and no money is being made.

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Chapter 21

It was raining.

While Sesshoumaru didn't mind the rain in itself - he actually found the sound of it on the roof rather soothing - he didn't care for the way that his workload tended to increase due to others' stupidity when it did. For instance, the report he was currently reading. Some of the guards had to be reassigned thanks to two who, not wanting to get wetter than they had to, had decided to run back to the barracks and encountered a patch of mud. The mud apparently won their argument and the two would be off-duty for a few days so that their sprains and broken bones could mend. It was the same thing every time it rained.

Other than rain-specific injuries, the papers and reports he had to deal with were more of the same thing he - and now Sephiroth - had to deal with every day.

Speaking of Sephiroth, where was the man? Usually, he would follow Sesshoumaru back to his study after the morning meal and they would work through everything that had accumulated since the day before. He might not say it outright but he was glad to have such capable assistance, and the fact that Sephiroth was unafraid to give his own thoughts on things - may they be the incidents themselves or Sesshoumaru's handling of them - was something he valued. Not that he would act on all the other man's recommendations - he might be strangely intelligent for a human, but he was still only human and these were demon affairs - but he would listen and consider those thoughts when he made his own decisions.

None of which made it any easier to push aside the memory of what he had done - what they had done - a week before.

All week, he had done something he hadn't done since he was a pup and his great and terrible father had chided him for it: Ignored the problem and hoped it went away.

But even with both he and Sephiroth apparently hoping the same thing, that one simple fact stubbornly refused to undo itself, hanging unspoken between them in glittering, sharp-edged splendor.

The dreams that had haunted him since then, a strange mix of what actually had happened and what could have happened, and could still be happening were they both to accept instead of fighting it, didn't help either.

Where was Sephiroth?

He had to admit that since he had pulled the other man from his downward spiral of depression and unfocused anger, Sephiroth had apparently adjusted surprisingly well to his new circumstances. He wasn't sure that he would be able to say the same should he find himself in what seemed to be completely unknown lands, especially with the differences Sephiroth had tried to explain to him once. While he was more than half certain that some of what he'd been told was exaggerated somewhat - was he to believe that they could actually cook without fire? Really, now - it only served to point out how different there must be from here.

Where was Sephi-

Oh. There he was.

Sesshoumaru looked up at the sudden angry - no, it wasn't angry. It was well beyond angry and into blood-rage - flare in that now-familiar aura. His mokomoko became even puffier as the raging aura scraped at his senses, making his hair stand on end. Something had apparently pushed Sephiroth a bit too far.

The daiyoukai was surprised to feel a flash of almost guilt as he realized that somehow, some way, Sephiroth must have just found out exactly what had happened between them.

The feeling surprised him. Granted, he hadn't planned any of it - and never would have either - but what was done was done and his demon would never have bound him to someone completely unsuitable.

Except that Sephiroth was, wasn't he?

Yes, he had all the qualities that Sesshoumaru would like in a mate: strength, skill, intelligence, honesty, and a hefty dose of political sense, among other things. But there were two points that negated all of that and made him unsuitable. One, he was human. Two, he was male.

The first - his human state - could, possibly, be ignored. His father had done it, after all, and Sephiroth's almost demonic speed and power could almost compensate for it.

The second, however, was as solid and immutable as the mountains themselves, and as likely to change. It wasn't that all-male pairings were frowned on in demonic cultures as they were in the human; while they weren't common, they were accepted when they occurred. But Sesshoumaru wasn't just any demon. He was Lord of the Western Lands and as such, it was his duty to keep those lands safe and to ensure their safety in the future with the creation of an heir. Something that Sephiroth, being male, could not give him.

So why, when he was so clearly not a possibility, had his demon taken the opportunity to mark him as his mate? He'd been trying to figure it out all week with no success. Then again, maybe he had been overthinking it. He had been looking at it from a logical, rational standpoint, but his demon was anything but; a creature of feral power and instinct.

All right, look at it from that perspective. What had happened that day?

They had been fighting - challenged! - and coming up almost equal. That would impress the demon, set Sephiroth apart from the rest. Blood - his own and Sephiroth's odd sour-sweet - had scented the air, sending his demon into a deeper frenzy. Then Sephiroth had pinned him to the ground.

Pinned him, a clear demonstration of aggression and dominance and further challenge.

He'd gotten free and pinned Sephiroth in turn, reasserting his position as lord, as alpha, as dominant. His demon had been happy with that, he'd been happy with that, and while he'd still had the power of battle-born lust running through him, he was too much in control to give in to it, even when Sephiroth had bared first one side of his throat, then the other. He was only human, after all; he couldn't know what he was offering with that gesture.

Then Sephiroth had arched his back and showed more throat than the daiyoukai had ever been offered before in a blatant sign of absolute submission that stunned him enough to let his demon surge back into control and the next thing he knew he was feeling the slow ebb of euphoria from a completed rut and mated.

All right, when he looked at it that way it was almost embarrassing that he hadn't figured it out before.

None of which was helping him now.

Sephiroth had submitted to him and his demon had accepted. Now that he thought about it, it was Sephiroth's action that had spurred his demon into action. If he hadn't bared his throat like that, they wouldn't be mated now. Wasn't that convenient for the man? One moment he had nothing but the clothing he'd arrived in, the next he was mated to the Lord of the Western Lands, his own status and prestige boosted because of it.

Had that been his plan all along?

Had he, Sesshoumaru, been played?

Golden eyes narrowed, reddening slightly at the thought.

He would find out. He would find out if Sephiroth's submission had been real, or if it was part of someone's scheme to take over his lands. The other lords had been offering their daughters in such hopes long enough that it wouldn't surprise him if one decided to offer men instead. Humans didn't take long to raise; was Sephiroth's resemblance to him, had everything about him that first sparked Sesshoumaru's curiosity, had it all been planned? Had the man been raised to fulfil that one task? To seduce the daiyoukai of the West?

He would find out who or what Sephiroth really was, which lord he was working for, and then he would show him a beta's place and where his loyalties should lie.

Decided, Sesshoumaru put aside his paperwork, stood, and went to stand facing the door.

Then he waited for that angry, spiky aura to come to him like a good beta should.

One tiny, logical part of his mind wondered why Sephiroth would be angry at all if it had been part of some plan all along, but it was drowned under the sea of Sesshoumaru's surging anger.

He stood, watched the door, and waited.

-

TBC...

*headdesk* Oi, the misunderstandings that are going to collide next chapter! See, folks, this is what happens when two dominant and uncommunicative personalities clash. *sigh* All that anger could be avoided if they would just talk to each other, but noooOoooo- *headdesk*

Next chappie: Sesshy and Sephy clash, and is that Naraku? O_o