Disclaimer: As much as I hate to say it, I don't own Inu Yasha. Mleh.
Please read and review. Hope you like it!…
Minor changes to this chapter. A big shout out to all those who reviewed! I kinda don't have Internet right now so I can't look and see who reviewed but I love you all!
• • •
Still deep in sleep, Inuyasha's teeth ground together. One of his fangs found his lip and cut it, and he bolted upright, whacking his head on the tree branch above. Stifling a yelp, he rubbed his head and glared at the tree. He settled back and looked at the fire, scowling. It had sunk to a few dying embers, and the snores of the others were lost in the darkness. His eyes were stinging, and he savored the blood from his lip to help shove the pestering thoughts away, cursing at it to make himself feel better. He held his claws up to the flickering light. Long nails, yes…strange leaping motion, yes. Demon powers, yes. Ears, eyes, hair, teeth…they all gave him away, shining beacons of otherness…
He tugged an ear, then sighed. His mother had often held him close, her heart beating fast, tears wetting his hair. He knew now–he had been so confused about her fears when he was just a youngling– that she had worried over him. She had taken away his haori of cotton and replaced it with the fire rat one she had labored over many hours in the new village they had fled to after…after that happened.
"What is it?"
"The fur of a fire-rat, Inuyasha Now, when you run into trouble, you will be protected. Your mother made this, Inuyasha. My love for you lies in it. And you can always wear my protection."
The memories were vague, sometimes. Only in dreams were they really clear, but he forgot them as soon as he woke up.
He glanced at Kagome's firelit face, then back to the stars. If only I could tell someone, he thought, the weight of that long-ago grief heavy on him. He could still faintly remember the jeers of the boys, the stinging powder and names they had thrown at him. Hanyou. He sneered. He could still recall his first taste of blood under his claws! The sneer died. It had been the beginning of a bloody road…His eyes closed, and he found himself in the middle of his early years once again. But this time, it was night.
Inuyasha ran desperately into the forest, the trees whacking him and he foraged blindly through the dense growth. Oka-san! OKA-SAN! His mind screamed.
Of all the times he'd been on verge of tears in the past, this was the closest he'd come. The tears wobbled on his eyelashes but refused to spill. The salt and bitterness stung his throat and eyes, blurring the world in front of him.
He was alone.
Truly alone, for the first time.
His mother was gone; and of course, his father was long dead. No shadow of hope in his own blood, his own family. Only a mention of a brother from oka-san, and where he was, only Kami knew. There was no hope…
A hole in his mind, his heart, his being, a hole where a lady in a pink kimono had sat, wept and sewed fire-rat haoris, sang him songs and held him close, a lady who smelled of tears and love and sandalwood and soap and starlight…
The sight of his mother's dead face came sharply at him. He threw himself to the leaf-covered ground, eyes squinched shut. Don't think of it. It's behind. Don't think… he forced his thoughts into nothingness. Loss and grief was impressed all over him, and it weighed him down, smothering his thoughts, crushing his ribs over his heart. It was too easy to lose himself into endless night within his mind.
His eyes snapped open.
A crackling sound, from behind him…in the darkness of the trees…
He leapt up and whirled about, gasping as he saw…
A horrible monster! Three scaly heads with six eyes each, connected by stubby necks to a rooster's body!
"Ahh!" he gasped. His sensitive nose quivered at the foul stench of death rolling from the creature's scaly hide.
"Heh…a miserable hanyou. Feh. I was hoping for a real Youkai." Muttered one head.
"Hey, hey! At least we found him." Rebuked the middle head.
"Who found him! The hanyou belongs to me," snapped the last head.
"In any case, we've no choice. Eat him."
"Right," said all three.
Inuyasha stood still. "You're a youkai?" Had he ever seen a youkai this closely before? Youkai. Youkai, like his father? His mind reeled.
"The brat wishes to talk!" laughed the demon. "Well-ll-ll, brothers, shall we indulge? A lowly hanyou!"
Inuyasha's heart was pumping fast. In-held tears still blurred his sight, but he scrubbed at his eyes impatiently. "H-hey…"
"We needn't waste our breath!" snarled the middle head. "Eat it!"
The monster darted forward so unexpectedly that Inuyasha leapt to the side only just in time. His haori gave a horrible snip sound, and the rooster-monster stopped, the middle head licking from its hooked beak a trace of Inuyasha's blood.
"Why!" it said maliciously. "The blood…"
"Yes!" laughed the middle head. "The related blood of that mortal woman! What do you know…hanyou, we've had the pleasure of meeting your mother…or should I say eating her! Care to join–"
The middle head was suddenly gone in a wash of blood and bone.
Inuyasha grasped the dying head in his hands, and crushed it. His teeth were bared, eyes narrowed, a snarl on his lips.
"Nooooooo!" cried the two outer heads, shocked. "Midoru-san!"
"You will pay, worthless Halfling!" roared the two remaining heads at once. Their eyes glowed deep red, and horrible spines forced themselves out from under the skin. The middle head's stump swayed and crumpled onto the monster's spiny back. Inuyasha stumbled backward, but his fists were up. The monster reared for an attack.
"So."
It was a cold, casual voice, deep and utterly smooth.
"I find you here, ill-gotten offspring that you are."
The half-demon spun about, and the two Youkai heads whipped around to look. Standing between two tall trees, against a background of shadow, was a young man with silver hair and in a white cloak, illuminated by the full moon's light. His lips curled below a finely pointed nose and a pair of emotionless tawny eyes. A crescent moon was somehow etched onto his forehead, half-covered by silver bangs. Inuyasha stared. And yet…was this a man? His ears were pointed, and jagged stripes were on his cheeks.
Inuyasha's eyes darted to the man's hand, which lay resting on his furry boa, draped elegantly over a shoulder. Claws!
His eyes opened wide, shining with joy; his mouth opened in excited surprise. "Sesshomaru-sama, elder brother!"
The eyes narrowed in anger. "So you know of me then? I would have you know that we are but half-brothers, hanyou. I would never have anything to do with a lowly mortal woman like your mother."
Something deflated inside Inuyasha…his dreams, his imaginings of his older brother crushed as he struggled against that word…hanyou…and the condescending tone in the man –no, the demon– 's voice. "Yes, my oka-san told me of you…" he said, unsure. Years of dreams for his reunion with his half-brother were still clinging to him.
"My sire has wasted his precious demon life on your bitch-dam, little fool!" snarled Sesshomaru, and for the first time, a catch in his voice appeared. "Thanks to you and she, this Sesshomaru's father has gone to hell where my mother is, and yours will soon be!"
"And I hope the same for you too!" Inuyasha snapped, temper rising despite his fear. Immediately the look in the elder demon's eyes became a fury tempered with a calculating glare.
The rooster monster, quite forgotten and eagerly following the dialogue, realized who this young demon-man must be. With a whimper of fright it tried to slip away.
Sesshomaru's glitteringly cold eyes snapped to it at once. "Useless beast, begone!" he said haughtily, and with a wave of his long-fingered hand, a glowing twist of light appeared. As Inuyasha gazed in awe, the whip of light gave a crack, and the rooster flew into two pieces. Blood sizzled on the bark of a nearby tree.
"Wow," said Inuyasha, eyes fixed on his elder brother's face and a look of respect and some confusion on his own face. "Thank y–"
"Consorting with low demons, are we?" Sesshomaru commented in a low voice, staring at the rooster-youkai's remains. "Imagine, that low-class youkai able to feel superior to a relation of mine. Disgusting. You shame your father's name. Well, that's one pitifully-low demon down. Now it's your turn."
• • •
Well that's another chapter down. Some clarifications in there in brief insertions. Aren't you proud of me? I made them brief! beams with pride