Author's Note: Mainly a hiccup to try and capture Sesshoumaru's character. I like Inutaisho. I blame him for Sesshoumaru's issues.

Disclaimer: "If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended,

That you did but slumber'd here while these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme is no more yielding then a dream."

Midsummer's Night Dream

"Conquest, huh? Sesshomaru,

is there something you want to protect?
-Something to protect? I have no

need to pursue such an endeavor."

-Inutaisho and Sesshoumaru

The Blue Jay

By: Lady Erised

"Something troubles my Lord General."

Inutaisho blinked, and jerked his head around to pull the ponytail from his eyes. On his shoulder, Myouga shook himself and hung on. Disappointed that the flea did not fly free, Inutaisho grunted. He narrowed his eyes a little at the object of his attention and grunted again. The boy was too much like his mother.

"Concerned, Lord General?"

Inutaisho stiffened. Sometimes he hated how accurate Myouga could get when predicted his moods. "And what would I be concerned about?"

"About the Lord Prince." Myouga whispered. "About Sesshoumaru."

Inutaisho turned back to the display before him with the weight of Myouga's words on his heart.

There was a part of Inutaisho that wanted to immediately defend his only son, but reason and the truth took his voice. Sesshoumaru was too much like his mother to be defended. That is what hurt the most too, Inutaisho realized, that because Sesshoumaru was like his mother, he had no love for his son.

That's what stung the most.

No one could have suspected this at first glance, however, because Sesshoumaru was a son worthy of the Dog General. He was lean and powerful of frame with strong senses and his mother's beauty.

Sesshoumaru was now in his true form (unlike his father who had of late was becoming fonder of a human vestige), and was chasing nothing in particular through the endless grass plains of his father's lands. Like any pup, Sesshoumaru would stop and turn back to find Inutaisho's scent and tromp back to ensure he was ever under his father's watchful eye.

The boy loved his father.

Now the boy was stretching, pushing his front paws out as far as he could, and spiking his back. The sun caught the pup's crescent moon and the sheer of his white fur, making him appear almost comforting. He looked for a moment, like the Guardian of Kings and Emperors, like what Inutaisho, tired of war and death as he was, longed for him to be.

Something caught Sesshoumaru's attention, making his ears perk up. He crouched low to the grass and inched his way towards the object of his attention: that's one thing the boy had, patience.

It was a small blue bird, hardly out of the egg. Something had caused it to fall from its nest and now it fluttered on the ground: half-dead, and panicked, looking for someway to return to safety. Sesshoumaru was amazed. He nudged it at first, his young mind either not comprehending or acknowledging the bird's apprehension, and jumped back as the bird fluttered again, making it a few inches off the ground.

To stop the bird, Sesshoumaru put his paw on the bird's injured wing. It made a sound of terror and pain, causing Inutaisho to grit quietly. Sesshoumaru tilted his head, and opened his mouth a little, tongue panting.

He was smiling; Inutaisho thought to himself, my son is smiling at another's misfortune.

"It is not his fault, Lord General." Myouga began, a futile but well-meaning attempt to sooth his fears. "The child is young, untested in battle."

"The child is hungry for blood." Inutaisho cut him off, as he rose. He flexed his human hands, popping his knuckles as he went. He suddenly felt very old and ill at ease in his blood. He shook his head, trying to dismiss the disgust from his mind and reminding himself he was a youkai too. And he had done far worst things in his long life then torment a doomed bird.

Still, that didn't mean he couldn't regret it or wish better things for his son.

Inutaisho, the great Dog General, stood quietly under the summer sun, his hand over the hilt of his blade, and his face as stony as it was when facing an army, watching his son. And when Sesshoumaru reached down and bit the bird's neck with a snap: this fearsome General flinched in pain.