The Demon Bride

By Crystal Arrow

Chapter 5: Big Brother

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the other characters from that story; they belong to someone else who actually has talent.

(Note: this is not starting out in Michera's point of view, it's starting from Sesshoumaru's point of view, just so you know.)

From within the great inutaiyokai's palace, I paced. Behind me, my annoying little brother imitated me, trying to look serious and strong. No matter how very much I picked on him and called him names, he still followed me around like a puppy,…wait a second, he is a puppy…. I hate my life. At present time, my father is off securing the boundaries of our territory, leaving me with his human wife and her half breed son, which happened to be following me around non-stop.

Now, before you get confused, my mother's dead, the woman my father wants me to look to as my new mother is a weak, pathetic human princess. That means the little brat following me around is only half my brother… oh well, he could be cute, on very rare occasions. At the moment, I'm demon of the house, at fifteen years old. The little runt is four, and who knows or cares how old his mother is.

While pacing, I stepped aside just before the wall, too quickly for my little brother to see, resulting in him running straight into the wall. He bounced back and fell on his tailless bottom, pouting…now that's cute. "Set-chan!!" he complained, looking up at me. I winced, I hate that nickname.

"Inuyasha, please don't call me that, or else I will have to torture you." I said calmly.

"Okay, Set-chan!" with a sigh, I just gave up before I really did torture him. Inuyasha ran up behind me and clung to my tail. With another sigh, I ignored him as he bounced happily behind me as I headed towards his mother's chambers. As he bounced, his fire-rat fur kimono sagged and bounced with him, being too big for him, yet he always wore it because it made his mother smile, she made if you know. His little dog ears twitched in his happiness, that was another thing cute about him, those ears made it really hard to take Inuyasha seriously.

With a very small grin, I walked into his mother's chambers. His mother sat on the window sill, cradling her large stomach and humming a song. I leaned against the wall by the entrance as Inuyasha released my tail and ran to his mother. He cried out to her happily and clung to her skirt. She smiled down at him, then smiled at me, "How are my boys doing?" she asked kindly.

My smile disappeared, "I'm not your boy." Her smile vanished as well, as her eyes welled up with tears. Inuyasha growled defensively.

Rolling my eyes, I left the room to take a stroll in the gardens so I may have my thoughts to myself. I walked down many flights of stairs through dank hall ways lit only by torches from the interior of the palace. After a few minutes, I came to a hallway with windows. Out side, I could see the gardens, bright and colorful. I reached a gate in the hallway, and from their, exited into the garden. In the garden, I was met by the pleasing and relaxing scent of the various rare flowers that decorated it. With a deep breath, I relaxed my body and dropped the mask I always wore before others.

I smiled as I walked, stopping sometimes to inspect some flowers and leaves I passed. Life is so stressful. Father is off, he often does try to leave me alone with his new wife. As if that would get us to bond. He thinks I hate my new family… I don't, I just…I just… I miss my mother. How could he remarry so soon after her death? I don't want to bond with a new family…I liked my old one. But now I have a little brother, and his mother going bear another soon, most likely another annoying little half breed with no tail and dog ears. I sigh.

Continuing on my walk, I come across what was my mother's favorite part of the garden. After her death, it was neglected, but this year, I ordered for the gardeners to take care of it. Now, the roses are back to their former glory. It's funny, my mother always had me play here when I was small, but my new mother never let's Inuyasha play around the roses for fear that he would hurt himself on the thorns. Wait……did I just call her my mother? I'm so confused. I care about her, but I don't want her to replace my mother. Why me?

With a hopeless sigh, I stop before the fountain in the center of the rose garden. Rose vines covered the whole thing, a truly beautiful sight, all the different colored roses in bloom over this ugly piece of stone meant to reflect beauty. I looked down into the still water of the inactivated fountain at my reflection. People always said I was the spitting image of my mother, and I am. My mother was extremely beautiful and graceful. I have her traits in height, grace and beauty, which often gets me mistaken for a woman by the pathetic fools who don't know me to be the heir to the western lands. It's actually sort of funny. I was basically all of my mother, in my father. Like my father, I had golden eyes, silver hair, the sign of the moon. However, Inuyasha was the spitting image of my father with dog ears and lack of tail. That was probably why father gave him his namesake of dog. That's another thing, I'm often mistaken as a cat demon, now that is sad.

I laugh, because life is funny that way. Suddenly, I hear giggling. I turn, once again replacing my mask to face Inuyasha's mother. She was giggling at me. I was about to frown at her when she embraced me in a hug. Shocked, I forgot to frown. " Sesshoumaru," she said to me, "I know you don't want to accept me, but please understand, I don't want to replace your mother in your heart, or in your father's. I just want a place there, as a friend."

She released me from the awkward hug. She smiled at me. " Where's Inuyasha?" I asked.

"What, are you worried about him?" When I looked at her skeptically, she laughed again. "I put him down for his nap. He was getting to be an armful, wasn't he?"

"You think?" I replied sarcastically.

She only smiled at me. "That's why I like you Sesshoumaru. You're not afraid to speak your mind."

"Humph." I snorted.

Giggling again, she hooked her arm in mine and asked, " Will you accompany me to greet your father at the gate?"

"How long have you known he was coming?" I asked, having sensed him long ago back when Inuyasha was following me around in the study.

"Since I saw him as I came to see you at the gardens… your mother's roses truly are beautiful. If I let Inuyasha play there, not only would he scratch himself up, but he would ruin the roses, and that would be a shame."

My eyes widened, She cared about my mother's roses?………I may never accept her as my mother, but that was not what she was asking, she was asking for my approval. I smiled up at her, since I still had a bit to grow at my age, which was still young for a demon. I turned to my mother's roses. Looking over them, I found one. It was a very rare breed of rose. Most of these color of roses ended up small a bloomed differently, not quite as prettily as the others. However, this rose had been my favorite as a pup, and still was. It was a large white rose in full bloom. I used my claws and cut the thorns from the stem, hiding what I was doing from my stepmother. I then cut the thorn less rose from the bush and turned back to her.

Upon handing her the rose, her eyes welled up with tears. She hugged me, something I welcomed, now that she was a part of my family, even if she was a human. Taking her arm in mine, I escorted her out of the garden to greet my father at the gates where he smiled proudly at me, for finally letting go and loving again.

Gathered around the fire, the group wiped tears from their eyes. "That is just so sweet!" Kagome cried.

Sesshoumaru frowned. Why me? "Lord Sesshoumaru!" Rin called to him from his side, "That is so nice!"

Michera smiled as her older brother got into a more and more sour mood. "Michera," Shippo asked. "Why are you telling your story from Sesshoumaru's point of view?"

"Because that makes it clearest." She answered.

Beside her, Inuyasha pouted, "Why not from my point of view? I'm barely in the story!" Kagome pat his shoulder comfortingly.

"Because you were so young then that you don't have this etched into your memory very well." came her response.

"Excuse me, Lady Michera." Miroku asked, "But how do you know it from his point of view?"

"Because he told me, now if all of you would just shut up and listen, I could get on with it. All of you are so jumpy… Inuyasha, don't start, you were too young to do anything of great importance so just shut up." Michera said. Inuyasha, who had just opened his mouth to complain as to why she didn't ask him his point of view, shut it again with a pout.

"Milady, would you please continue?" asked Myouga politely.

"Certainly, so Sesshoumaru and his stepmother met his father at the gate. His father was proud, but he had bad news, a fortune teller foretold a curse upon the family, which would cost a high price… life."

Author's note:

Okay, okay, so I didn't get it out last week. I just wrote this all today while the site was down. I'm sorry, but the site being down just plain annoys me. Well, perhaps it was good for me, instead of reading, I started a new story, which I beg for you to read and review, "Lone Wolf", wrote my first songfic, "Wonderful" and wrote this chapter! I guess it was good for, which is why I didn't like it.

~Crystal Arrow