January 24

I was at Kaede's house today sorting out some herbs with her. Rin was there as well. She seemed to be bursting with excitement and she kept looking out the window every few minutes.

"Calm down, child," Kaede said with a laugh. "He's not going to come any faster if you keep looking out the window every five minutes."

"Is Sesshomaru coming?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm so excited!" Rin exclaimed. "He's taking me on a day trip. It should be so much fun. We haven't gone on a trip together in weeks."

"That's really awesome, Rin," I said, still giggling at how excited she was. It's cute that she gets so happy to spend time with Sesshomaru.

Sure enough, a few minutes later Sesshomaru had arrived. Rin immediately jumped into his arms. "Lord Sesshomaru, I've missed you so much!"

He hugged her back and there was a small smile on his face. "I've missed you too, Rin."

"Hi, big brother!" I said.

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes at me, but then said "Hello, Kagome." I guess he'd gotten used to the idea but he still wouldn't call me little sister.

"Wouldn't it be really cool if we all had dinner together or something?" Rin said. "Me and Sesshomaru and you and Inuyasha."

"I think that would be really cool!" I said with excitement.

"Kagome's cooking is so good, Lord Sesshomaru," Rin said to him. "Wouldn't you want to do that?"

"Well…"

"We can certainly do it whenever you want to," I said. "I think it would be a lot of fun."

"What if we come over tonight when we're back from our trip?" Rin said eagerly.

"That works for me," I said. "What do you say, Sesshomaru?"

"Please say yes, my lord," Rin said. "It'll be lots of fun."

Sesshomaru looked less than thrilled but finally, he sighed. He could never say no to Rin. "Fine."

"Yay!" Rin gave him a big hug. "We'll have such a good time. And you'll get to meet their new cat as well. He's so adorable!"

"I'll see you two this evening," I said as they started to leave.

"Bye, Kagome! See you later!" Rin said.

"She's certainly an excitable little girl," Kaede said as we got back to our herbs.

"It's refreshing. I think Sesshomaru needs that."

"You are very right about that. Are you sure dinner would be a good idea though, considering how those brothers are?"

She had a good point. This could either go very well or end with a massive fight and Sesshomaru losing another arm. "Well...this could be a good thing, Kaede. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru have been getting along a lot better lately. I think this would be a good way to bring them together even more."

I spent some more time at Kaede's house and then I figured it would be a good time to head home and start getting ready for Sesshomaru and Rin to come over. When I got inside, I found Inuyasha sleeping on the couch.

"Inuyasha?" I said as I bent down next to him.

His eyes fluttered open and he yawned. "Hey Kagome. How was Kaede's?"

He sat up and I sat on the couch next to him.

"It was a lot of fun. Sesshomaru came by to pick up Rin. They're going to come over for dinner when they get back."

"Wait, what?! Did I hear that correctly? Sesshomaru is coming over for dinner?!"

I guess it was wishful thinking to actually believe he would react calmly to this. "Rin and I thought it would be fun."

Inuyasha sighed. "You girls and your ridiculous ideas of fun."

I held his hand. "You're overreacting. This will be a good time. Besides, we're family after all. Families get together and have dinner sometimes."

"Yeah, I guess so," Inuyasha grumbled.

"Just promise me you'll be nice to Sesshomaru? This is supposed to be a good time, we don't need any fighting."

Inuyasha crossed his arms. "Fine, I'll be nice. But I doubt he'll be."

I kissed him. "I think he will. Do you want to help me with dinner?"

"Sure."

We got to work making dinner and verything was finished just as Rin and Sesshomaru arrived.

"Hi you guys!" I said when I went to get the door.

"Mmm, it smells delicious in here, Kagome!" Rin said.

"I can't take all the credit. Inuyasha helped."

"I promise I didn't poison it," Inuyasha said in a deadpan voice.

"If I die, at least I'll know it was you," Sesshomaru replied. There was an equal amount of malice in his voice.

"How about we have dinner?" I said, trying to dispel the tension.

We all sat around the table with Inuyasha and Sesshomaru sitting across from each other. It reminded me of a time way back when we were still on the search for Naraku. We were having dinner at a village and I explained to Inuyasha what a family reunion is. He and Sesshomaru's relationship was really bad back then and just the thought of having some kind of reunion with his brother made him nearly break his chopsticks in anger.

Back then the two of them would fight at the slightest provocation and were very seriously trying to murder each other. While they still glared at each other now, I was fairly certain they were past the whole killing each other phase. I considered it great progress that they were able to be under the same roof now and not draw their swords.

"Where did you two go today?" I asked.

"We went to the mountains. It was so much fun. I could have sworn we could see the village from there," Rin replied.

"Close enough anyway," Sesshomaru said.

"You should have pushed him off, Rin," Inuyasha said. "I would have."

"I'd like to see you try," Sesshomaru replied just as snarkily.

"Sesshomaru can fly though," Rin pointed out.

"Of course you'd be on his side, Rin."

"Why must you be so childish about everything?" Sesshomaru said to Inuyasha.

"Because you can't take a joke. You're such a pompous asshole."

"I'm surprised you know big words like that."

"You're such a fucking…"

"Ahem," I said, trying to calm them down. It's unbelievable how easily these two can be set off. "We had another snowball fight last week, Sesshomaru. I wish you'd have been there."

"Lord Sesshomaru, did you play in the snow a lot when you were a kid?" Rin asked.

"All the time," Sesshomaru said with a nod.

"Did you, Inuyasha?"

"I did when my mother was alive," Inuyasha replied.

"Did you ever play together?"

Sesshomaru and Inuyasha avoided eye contact with each other. They hadn't had much interaction with each other when they were younger and when they did it wasn't good. Sesshomaru had even tried to kill Inuyasha after his mother died.

"No, we didn't," Inuyasha replied. "It's probably for the best anyway."

"Well...maybe I could have been a little more understanding back then," Sesshomaru admitted.

"A little?"

"A lot. Things would have been a lot different. You wouldn't have been alone."

Inuyasha was surprised that Sesshomaru of all people would say this. "It was in the past, it doesn't matter now."

"Things may have been tough between you two back then but at least now is different," I said positively.

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru actually exchanged a smile.

"Yeah, it is," Sesshomaru said.

After dinner, Rin and I sat on the floor talking amongst ourselves. Sesshomaru was on the couch watching us and Inuyasha was putting more wood in the fire.

"You know, Inuyasha, I never thought you would be the type to settle down like this," Sesshomaru said. "A house in a small village and a wife. It just never struck me as something you wanted very much."

"After all the shit with Naraku and, well, damn near everything else in my life, I welcome the peace and quiet." He sat on the couch as well. "Now you? I'm sure you could use some of it too."

Sesshomaru scoffed. "I'm much too busy for all of that. I'm…"

"The great dog demon lord of the west." Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "I've heard it all before."

"What I was going to say is that I'm fine with the bachelor life. I don't need to be concerned with chasing after a woman."

Inuyasha elbowed him. "Asshole."

Sesshomaru elbowed him back. "Dumbass."

It secretly smiled at their little interaction. I was delighted that these two were getting along so well, even if it was in their own way.

"Rin, it's late. Are you ready to go home?" Sesshomaru said.

"Yes, my lord," Rin said. "Dinner was really good, you guys."

"You know you're welcome any time, Rin," Inuyasha said to her. After a moment he added, "You are too, Sesshomaru."

"I'll keep that in mind."

I went to the door with them and then I thought of something. I turned to Inuyasha. "I'll be right back."

I stepped out with them. "So Inuyasha's birthday party is tomorrow," I said softly hoping he wouldn't hear.

"I know! It's going to be so much fun," Rin said.

"Sesshomaru, will you be there? We're doing it at Miroku and Sango's house."

"I will be there."

"Great!" I said, delighted that he was coming. "I'll see you two tomorrow." I gave them both hugs and then went inside. I sat down next to him and there was a smile on my face as I thought of how well tonight went.

"What?" Inuyasha said suspiciously.

"What?"

"What's with the smile?"

"Oh, I was just thinking of how far you and Sesshomaru have come since that fight at your father's grave over the tetsusaiga."

"Keh, it doesn't matter," he said. Of course, he was going to be stubborn about it. "No use fighting over it for the rest of our lives."

"Well, I'm glad you're friends now."

"I wouldn't say that."

"You seemed pretty friendly tonight."

"Don't get used to it."

Despite what my husband says, I think he and Sesshomaru will continue to be friends. I think this is the start of a great new relationship between them.

I just have to say that this is one of my absolute favorite chapters so far. I just love the parts where Inuyasha and Sesshomaru are being brother's and this is I think the first time so far in the story where they've had a real, civil conversation and actually talked about their feelings towards each other. I promise there will be much more Inuyasha and Sesshomaru bromance in the future.