(A/N): Not abandoned, just lacking motivation. Hoping to start the New Year off better haha.
Sorry for the weight and I understand the shortness of the chapter will be disappointing. I surely am.
Thank you for staying with me so far!
~Yasha's Sis
Chapter 30:
Farewell Habits
In which new habits are created...
Sesshomaru carded tired eyes over the written reports Natsuki crafted for the next month's rotations of rations and manpower. This night would be the seventh he's spent reading reports instead of patrolling the camp. With the majority of their operations requiring either discretion or shows of force, Sesshomaru found himself often redirected to the war tent.
You are needed elsewhere, My Lord. Our current missions do not require your presence. We divert all but the most urgent to lesser kin so that your focus can be on greater tasks, Sesshomaru-sama.
After the fifth day of heavy handed hints to occupy himself with the management of the camp, Sesshmaru declared the bones of his next advisor would act as paperweights in a very near, very painful future should they continue such… suggestions.
Yanabi barred him from tomorrow's patrol as punishment for terrorizing his minions but the prince enjoyed the subsequent silence.
He settled for destroying a corner of the forest East of their camp until Tsuki dragged him off to hunt.
Sesshomaru huffed as he re read the same line for the third time.
Thinking of Tsuki, it has been longer than the usual three days since their last interaction and the young Inu itched for distraction.
The sheaf of numbers grew more unappealing as the pull to move nipped at him. Never had Sesshomaru thought he would personally have to oversee restocking the entire camp and ensure available, sustainable game would remain in the lands they hold as a forward staging base. Additionally, his soldiers held responsibility for guarding what villages remained on the border.
The last task proved harder than Sesshomaru thought possible. They could not isolate the plague sweeping through gathered sapient species. Whatever it was bled its victims dry and dragged off the corpses. The scents left behind were supposedly unsettling. Rotten meat blended with fresh blood. That the animals remained unscathed was perhaps the most puzzling of facts. It agitated his younger troops while the older Inu, those who survived the clan wars, returned from the ravaged camps with hunted eyes. What was happening?
The teams scouting the area were competent, Sesshomaru knew. He also knew going on his own was unacceptable in his father's eye, but he wanted to see for himself. He wanted to do something, anything else.
Managing war was… Tedious.
Voicing such an opinion would only amuse Yanabi and Sesshomaru would refuse her the satisfaction of complaining.
He could voice his dissent in the privacy of his mind.
That Tsuki would be sent off on the morrow for an entire lunar cycle only worsened Sesshomaru's mood. There were only so many administrative duties he could complete in a week, let alone an entire cycle, without having someone to distract him.
Tsuki, especially after learning of this less than desirable task, was growing scarily capable of detracting him for the insanity of watching his people battle without him.
The Western Prince turned from the handful of documents tainting his desk and stood. If left to her own devices, Tsuki would depart without a word in farewell. Her youki has been sour with upset if he could pick it out at all these past weeks.
Her sudden and harsh displeasure at the task she was bid surprised him. Tsuki had always done her duty, even when it pained her, with little complaint barring Saisei. Why now would she resent the West for the task set her to?
Sesshomaru was curious, and he was never one to deny himself in such things.
A maroon striped wrist rapped firmly on the hybrid's holding less than ten minutes later.
Tsuki's section housed in one of the larger dwellings they crafted in the early days of their hunt. It was fairly separated from the bulk of camp and sat near the center by the supplies. Few ventured near the hybrid's dwelling, more for a desire to see themselves whole than any disinterest in the half-breed that ran the scouting division with terrifying efficiency.
The halfbreed did not abide others encroaching on her personal space.
She's had so few place to hold a sanctuary after all.
A rustle behind the door preceded a voice which snapped out, harsh as a bladed whip. "What?"
Sesshomaru blinked at her greeting, muffled by the barrier between them but no less noticeably antagonized. "Tsuki." He returned with little inflection.
Swearing answered him. Thankfully the hostility he briefly felt in the air snuffed out to be replaced by something warier. He allowed his youki to flicker with amusement as the door flung open, his volatile adviser appearing in the doorway.
Or at least that was what he was expecting.
The demoness who opened the door is decidedly Inu.
Silver hair, pale enough to look like snow against tan skin, lay in soft curls around a face that is identical to the girl who scowled near as much as she laughed. Her pupils are strangely circular, surrounded by a sapphire iris so dark it's nearly indistinguishable from the pitch at the center of her eyes. She's taller, Sesshomaru noted curiously, shoulders narrower and neck slightly longer.
As Tsuki stalked back into her rooms at Sesshomaru's gawking, a distant corner of his mind documents her tail's absence and the hair nearly sweeping the ground in this form.
The shift was unsettlingly fascinating.
But, it's her smell that caused the most consternation. The freshly turned earth scent was gone. He recognized the undertone of wood polish that had always been present, though it's twisted with blends of wheat at the moment.
This Tsuki, this Inu, smelled of fall. Smelled of rotting leaves and harvest fields.
It's so jarringly off from what Sesshomaru expected, he hardly realized he was approaching her, nose twitching, until she stabbed her finger into his chest.
"Don't start. My team already looks at me like I've grown a second head."
A growl rumbled in the base of his throat at the offending appendage until he registered her voice. That, at least, has not changed and the Prince inhaled deeply to press this scent into his mind. This is Tsuki, yet another part, and she more than likely expected rejection from them for the shift.
Expected hatred for something she could not control and would have hidden if able. Sesshoamru knew he would more than likely have gone decades without this revelation had Oba-sama not forced her hand. Sesshomaru can sense it in the careful stillness to her youki. Can see it in the way her eyes flit about, not resting on his face for more than a moment, as if in fear of dwelling on his reaction.
Oba-sama chose Tsuki because of this.
"Hn. Tea." He said, because she wasn't looking at him and orders always drew her attention in sharp contrast.
True to form, Tsuki's sapphire gaze snapped back to him and her lip curled. "Needy thing, aren't you? Don't you have papers to read and sycophants to direct?"
He brushed past her, deliberately letting their fingers touch, and smiled at the jolt in her youki. "I prefer your company at the moment."
Sesshomaru sat across from the cooking pit Tsuki insisted on retaining and arched a brow at her continued stillness.
She didn't say anything for a long moment, sapphire gaze blank. Then, the air to the room eased and Tsuki clicked her tongue. "You know you'll have to make your own tea when I leave, don't you?"
He shrugged one shoulder. "All the better to have it now."
Amber eyes tracking her as she moved about the room, tugging pouches of leaves and a well used tea pot from the wall. "War not to your liking?"
She meant it spitefully so Sesshomaru does not give her the satisfaction of knowing she struck a nerve. "Tedious." He acknowledged instead and smirked at her bristling and obvious discomfort. Tsuki's spoiled for a fight.
Sesshomaru would oblige her if it wasn't the eve of her departure.
She spun back, fangs bared and if it weren't for the teapot in hand, Sesshomaru would not be surprised if she leapt at him to brawl.
Steady amber eyes hold her gaze and the prince keeps his face still as her own twisted in something briefly resembling grief.
A sigh rattled out her body before she stiffly hung the pot above the glowing coals and stomped over to his side.
The prince blinked as Tsuki dropped into seiza beside him. "Will you not give me this?" She whispered hoarsely once the silence stretched.
He slanted his gaze to the right. "No." Squabbling before a departure was terrible habit. Sesshomaru resented the popularity amongst his warriors. He did not see the benefit of community being broken into "well meaning" spats on the wings of a departure.
Tsuki's eyes closed, disappointment humming in her scent strong enough to make Sesshomaru snort. His claws tangled in her moonspun hair unwillingly and Sesshomaru marveled at the color. There was one clan he knew of that sported this particular shade of white. They were extinct as far as he was aware, the last perishing in the clan wars that preceded his father's reign. Nose twitching, Sesshomaru considered, briefly, holding this information. Tsuki would not appreciate the reminder of her heritage.
"Your mother was of the Ferus Clan."
The comment hung in the air for a long breath and Sesshomaru lamented the increasing propensity of his mouth to say things in Tsuki's presence without his full consent. The Halfbreed was staring at him, jeweled gaze disbelieving as if to question his sanity. The prince refused to flinch.
Instead, his fingers curled tighter and he sniffed at the crown of her head before continuing. "My grandfather sought to destroy them in the clan wars. Father killed him, believing the entire race extinct, but your coloring suggests at least one fled the genocide."
Tsuki looked as if she can't decide whether to indulge in Sesshomaru's attempt to distract her or to punch him for the subject of his distraction.
"My mother was Inu." Tsuki acknowledged apparently leaning towards the former. "Whatever clan she bore from I couldn't say. Her existence was an open secret though I can't fathom Raiza looking to protect a single demoness from the West." She hesitated and then draped herself against Sesshomaru's side, chin hooked on his shoulder and back to the fire. "Tell me of the clan?"
Sesshomaru dipped his head slightly, eyes watching the pot for the first hint of steam and voice rolling quietly through the house to tell the tale of the destroyed Ferus Clan.
The evening managed to be exactly what he needs and perhaps it could be the new normal for departures.
Next Chapter: InuTaisho gets the fang he forged and Tsuki's Espionage bears fruit.
Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
~Yasha's Sis