Kitsunehime: Yeah! Vacation! XD

Sesshoumaru: . . . So?

Kitsunehime: It means more sleep and more time to write/type/whatever, that's what! Yay!

Sakuya: That's nice. So get typing!

Kitsunehime: I am! *nyeh* Inuyasha and the Black Jewels Trilogy do not belong to me, I only wreck havoc with their characters and plot, heheh . . .







To Rule the Darkness

ch. 31, Variation One: And He's Back!



First thing in the morning at breakfast, Rin pounced on Inuyasha and Kagome. "Tell meeeeee!!!"

"All right, all right! Just get off!" Inuyasha shouted, having had his face smushed into a bowl of miso. "You or me? Kagome?"

She blushed. "Uhh . . . you can."

With a grin, Inuyasha stated, "Kagome and I are getting married."

The whole table gaped.

"Run that by me again?" Inutaishou queried.

"They're getting married," Sakuya answered acidly.

"I know that!"

"Then what are you asking for?!"

Ignoring the two arguing dead people, Rin ran up and hugged both Kagome and Inuyasha at the same time. "Congratulations! When's the wedding going to be? Can I be a part of it? Please?"

Miyu chuckled. "Rin, you're the Queen. Of course you get a part."

Rin grinned sheepishly. "Whoops, forgot."

"So that means you'll get to share a room with Kagome, hmm?" Miroku nudged Inuyasha with a perverted smile on his face.

"Miroku!" Sango looked steaming mad.

"Ack! Sorry Sango, didn't mean, I swear!"

She eyed him suspiciously. "Prove it." Miroku was at a loss for words.

"Just let it go," Fahleing said to Sango. "Quit raining on the parade."

"What parade?" Shippou asked. "Hey, Kagome? Does that mean I have to be nice to Inuyasha now?

" . . . Shouldn't you be nice to him anyways?"

"Aww, man . . . "


~ ~ ~ ~ ~



(This now jumps ahead a bit more than a year)

Inuyasha sighed in frustration and slammed the service fair lists onto the table. He stepped away, stretching, and left the building, musing over the fact that all the other Warlords were too wary of him to ask him to move aside in all the long time he had stood there. Just as well, for only a scant few – a very scant few – lived through a tangle with an Ebon-gray Warlord Prince with a reputable temper, a powerful family, and who served perhaps the strongest court in Blood history.

Having looked over the fair the day before, Inuyasha knew that anyone worth hiring had already signed contracts for service in other courts. Still, that was no major disappointment for him, since he was only there for one purpose. To keep watch for Sesshoumaru.

And for another reason, actually. He also wanted to find out what happened to Fahleing's family – his aunt, uncle, and other cousins – seeing as Fahleing herself wouldn't say a word about them.

Disappointed that Sesshoumaru's name wasn't on the lists, and Fahleing's family wasn't either, Inuyasha grumbled at this waste of time.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


"Milord, you should really consider those offers . . . "

Sesshoumaru shut out the little toad-man's voice and started to walk away.

"Milord! Wait!"

In less than a heartbeat, Jaken was dangling in the air, held by an invisible hand around the throat.

"I'll consider what I wish to, and I have no intention of serving those . . . Queens." Dropping Jaken, Sesshoumaru began to wander around the service fair.

"Hey, Bastard!"

At the voice, Sesshoumaru whipped around, and none to happily at that. When he saw it was Inuyasha, he decided not to kill him.

"What do you want, Inuyasha?"

"You weren't on the damned lists," Inuyasha muttered. "What the hell is with that?"

"To cause you inconvenience."

" . . . Was that a joke?"

Sesshoumaru had his usual expression on his face – which was none. "It could not have been a joke. I have no sense of humor."

"Yeah right. Let's go."

"Go where? Let go of me. I have contracts to debate over."

Inuyasha sighed and turned around. "You're not considering anything, because you are signing a contract with the Warlord Prince of Ebon Rih."

Sesshoumaru gave him an exasperated look. "Shouldn't you discuss it with the man first? And since when do you have the right to tell me what to do?"

"Since I am the Warlord Prince of Ebon Rih."

" . . . "

Taking his silence for acceptance, Inuyasha managed to drag Sesshoumaru over to one of the tables. The clerk there looked at him questioningly.

"Here for a contract?"

"Yes," Inuyasha said, letting go of his brother.

"To whom?"

"The Warlord Prince of Ebon Rih, Inuyasha."

"Very well then." Turning to Sesshoumaru, the clerk asked, "Name?"

" . . ." When he didn't answer, Inuyasha glared at him. "Sesshoumaru."

"Caste?"

"Warlord Prince."

"Jewel rank?"

"The Black."

The clerks eyebrows went up, but he made no comment. "Will that be all?" he asked Inuyasha.

"One moment. Where's Kanoe?"

"Resting," Sesshoumaru replied frigidly.

Thinking fast, Inuyasha could only find one way to bring her along without too much trouble. He turned back to the clerk.

"There's one more. Sesshoumaru's servant, Kanoe. A broken Green Black Widow."

The clerk wrote it down and handed one copy of the contract to Inuyasha. The other would end up going to the Dark Council.

Once out of earshot, Sesshoumaru hissed at Inuyasha. "Why did you say Kanoe was my servant?"

"How else was I going to bring her along? Going to get her and bringing her back to the table would have caused a fuss. Where is she?"

"Why would I tell you?"

Inuyasha growled with impatience. "Because we're leaving now. I didn't think I'd actually run into anybody here, so I don't have a Coach. We'll have to shield Kanoe and ride the Winds."

Once in Kanoe's room, Sesshoumaru turned to Inuyasha one more time. "There is a Queen at Ebon Askavi." It was not a question, but it definitely wasn't a statement either.

"There is," Inuyasha replied quietly, careful not to wake Kanoe, not yet.

"You serve the Queen."

"Yes."

"You serve Witch."

Inuyasha's patience was wearing thin. "Yes, dammit! After a few years, the first thing you do is question me!"

Though they never were very close, the only people they had to depend on during their years of slavery were each other. No matter how much they thought they hated each other, they really wanted to forget it all and just be brothers.

And so, the moment after Inuyasha said that, Sesshoumaru instinctively gave his brother an apologetic hug.

"I didn't mean it."

Grinning slightly, Inuyasha clapped Sesshoumaru on the back. "We can forget it then. Pack up."


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Once back at the Hall, Inuyasha immediately plunked Sesshoumaru down in Inutaishou's study, and let Sakuya find a place for Kanoe. Then he sat right down to enjoy the show.

Inutaishou stopped his pacing and sat down behind the large desk and smiled evilly.

"So," he began conversationally. "What the Hell took you this many years, Sesshoumaru?"

It was no use pulling the old stiff-as-a-poker trick on Inutaishou, as Sesshoumaru already knew. After all, Inutaishou was the original 'Mr. Inscrutable,' the Prince of the Darkness.

"Well?"

"It was rather . . . hard to find Kanoe."

From Inutaishou's none-too-happy expression, Inuyasha could tell that Sesshoumaru was in for a lecture. 'Better him than me,' he thought with a grin.







Heheh . . . . The OOC-ness! Bwahahaha! XD

A quick note: This part of the chapter

-- " . . . Was that a joke?"

Sesshoumaru had his usual expression on his face – which was none. "It could not have been a joke. I have no sense of humor."--

Was borrowed from another book, Exile's Honor by Mercedes Lackey. It's great, isn't it? ^_^ Yay Alberich! XD

Alia: Sesshoumaru wasn't with Rin because, in this version of events, he's not back yet. The chapter or two that he was there, that was a different version. ^_^

Ja!