Author's Note: For Babbitt. Love you. Now edited to fix a name
Chapter Two: Nom de Guerre
"Why haven't you claimed the Tessaiga?"
"It hasn't been for lack of effort, Tama."
"I think it is." Tama returned, circling around Sesshoumaru as he walked. "Why haven't you taken the sword from the parasite of a brother?"
"My brother and mine's recent history have some wonderfully explicit battles in which I have not emerged the victor." Sesshoumaru threw his hair from one side to the other, to draw attention to his missing limb. "In case you haven't realized this."
"Had you been the man I remembered, you would have crushed Inuyasha's head against a wall when he was a child. You did not."
"For my father's sake."
"Your father's or Izayoi's?" Tama cocked his head. "Were you in love with her?"
"Are you drunk?"
"I need to be." Tama touched his hands to his forehead. "I mean explain to me what's happening to you, Sesshoumaru? When did you just give up and those bastards beat you? What caused your surrender? You were once…so alive, so powerful. You were everything, everything you could have ever imagined to want. Why on earth did you throw it away to travel the lands like some vagrant with a human whelp as company?" He was speaking through gritted teeth in a heavy voice, as he if had been wounded by deep scar he could not express. He took a step closer to Sesshoumaru and reached his hand out, pleading. "Who blinded you?"
Sesshoumaru realized he had been retreating from Tama's words. Suddenly, he found himself looking to the exits but pride and self-loathing stayed him. His mind was ringing with Tama's words, surprised by the passion and struck by the truth behind them. It had not been love for his brother's mother, or even-if he was truthful- love for his father that had kept him from harming the child that would grow to disarm him. However, he could not name the compulsion even if he tried.
Unaware he was doing so; Sesshoumaru turned his head away from Tama, and put his hand on the hilt of Tensaiga. He was comforted by its presence.
Tama inhaled suddenly, "Ah, and now I see."
"See what?" Sesshoumaru drawled tiredly, pulling his hand back and straightening up again. He was beginning to feel like a child again, being chewed out by Inutaisho. He was getting annoyed.
"It's has poisoned you." Tama motioned.
Sesshoumaru almost laughed. "It's a sword."
"It's your father's sword." Tama's eye glinting in anger; focusing all his hate towards the Heavenly Fang. "It's what has turned you."
"You think to know me." Sesshoumaru began, turning away from Tama. He couldn't bear to meet his friend's gaze right now. "A lot has changed."
"Yes, I can see that now." Tama replied. "Inutaisho has finally broken his son."
"I am not broken!" Sesshoumaru hissed. Tama had known the weakness in Sesshoumaru's armor, and now taken the offensive. The old Fox smiled a deep scarred smile. "Then prove it, Western Lord."
Sesshoumaru saw Tama's childish smile, and felt it catching. "Oh and how do you think to prove it?"
Tama's smile became a laugh, coarse and chewed like armor. "Tell me, Sesshoumaru Lord; is your fang still sharp?"
It had been an old dare, made to one old friend by another. A childish game to prove bravery and courage and skill. Sesshoumaru turned again to stare at the door. He felt like he should attend to Rin; this would be a wholly unfamiliar land to her.
But it had been far too long since he hadn't been trapped in his human form. He missed his true power. Rin had weathered years alone, she could last one moment more.
Sesshoumaru met Tama's eyes and smiled. It was the sort of smile Jaken warned about, deep and foreboding. He spoke no word, but never flinched from Tama's gaze as he had moments before; instead he wordlessly began to withdraw Tokijin and Tensaiga from his belt before following with his armor. Rules of the game: enter unarmed. Sesshoumaru would have grinned. He never meant to take it literally. Now he did.
He paused and waited. "Try to keep up."
"Lead and I will follow." Promised Tama as he unsheathed the last of his hidden weapons. "Now and always."
There was a laughter that followed an explosion of green light and then nothing.
In the village, Rin had been often left alone by her peers. This hadn't been out of malice, she knew that, but out of fear. For children the concept of death had been something entirely different then it was to grown ups. For kids, death was being "out" when playing War. You could run around, fighting with pretend monsters and evil Samurai, but if they caught you and "killed" you, then you had to sit out the rest of the game.
They couldn't understand then the concept of true death, the idea that Rin's parents and her brother Jomei (who always played a Youkai when they fought their wars, so he never really died.) would never return. The game would never reset.
Rin's family would forever be out.
And Rin became quiet. She seemed to understand the deeper meanings of death, and it made her quiet. She wouldn't play the war games anymore. She wouldn't pretend to be the Youkai's sister. She wouldn't play. So they left her alone, to her walks into the forests and silence.
And now, in her place beside Lord Sesshoumaru and Master Jaken, Rin rarely came across children and was never around them long enough to interact.
It made the citadel something new and exciting. She walked around the compound, mouth agape, tugging on Jaken's sleeve and showing peoples and things to him that she had never seen before. He would nod idly at her, rebuke her and secretly return to being astonished as well. Tama's palace reminded him of Sesshoumaru's abandoned Court, and Jaken longed for home.
Rin saw the little boy who implored her to play with him. He was squatting down, tossing the dirt over his blue arms and rubbing it against his skin. Because of the thin curtain of water that clung to his skin, the dirt became mud, caking his skin in a thin veneer of brown. It looked almost human. He stopped his painting when he heard Rin approach. Nervously, he stood and met her eyes.
Rin stopped. She was not afraid of him, but she had never known any demon her age before, much less approached one to play.
Thankfully the boy took the first move, "Hello."
Rin inhaled. She smiled a little. "Hello. I'm Rin. What's your name?"
"Zen." The little boy dropped his hands to his side. "Where is your Lord?"
"Master Jaken is over there." Rin pointed to the Fire Demons who were tending to the Staff of the Two Heads. Every so often Jaken would stop harassing the Smithy to glance at Rin, making sure she was still alive. She smiled and waved to him. "Lord Sesshoumaru is with Lord Tama." She leaned over, making her voice deep and serious, like Tama's. "Talking."
Zen smiled. "Tama was very surprised to see Lord Sesshoumaru with you. Iva said he was in a rage."
"Iva?"
"Iva." Zen pointed to the elder water demon, the girl who had first spoken to them when they entered the Compound. "Iva is Tama's chambermaid. I am her servant." Zen had stood and was walking away from her. Rin followed him, ignoring the fact distance was being put between her and her custodian Jaken. Zen paused for half a beat to let Rin stroll beside him. "She frowned upon you." He saw her look. "Oh don't worry. She doesn't have any way to hurt you like Sesshoumaru and Tama."
Rin paused and glared a little. "Lord Sesshoumaru doesn't mistreat me."
"For a slave…"
"I'm not his slave!" She had said a little louder then she meant. It made others turn and throw looks at them. Zen blinked and put his hands on her shoulders, shushing her. His hands were clammy.
"Quiet." Zen eased, nervously. He motioned to another of his kind, the girl who had first beckoned to her. "Quiet. Iva is looking for a reason to hurt you. They all are."
"Are you?"
Zen blinked. "I was once human." Was the only response he gave her, expecting it to be enough and for now it was. He laughed a little as he tasted the words again.
"Were you one of Tama's slaves?"
Zen shook his head. "Iva found me. She brought me to the palace so I wouldn't alone."
"She sounds..." Rin had once heard never to speak ill of strangers. "interesting."
"She is." Zen turned, and took her hand for a second. Rin smiled and squeezed it a little, to assure him. He blushed a little. "You'll meet her soon. Tama has asked her to preparing entertainment for your Lord's honor."
Rin felt her smile grow. "Lord Sesshoumaru will like that." Granted, she wasn't quite certain her Sesshoumaru would; she had never seen him give himself to festivals and ceremony but she knew she would enjoy it. She had never been to one.
"Maybe you can come too." Zen offered.
Rin frowned. She never had thought she wouldn't be able to go. Sesshoumaru only left her behind when things were dangerous. He wouldn't deny her a party.
Zen seemed to catch her confusion. "It's just you're human, Rin. Tama and your Lord despise your kind."
"He doesn't hate me."
"Oh?" Zen said, amused. He had stopped and turned to face her. "Are you so sure?"
Rin paused, frowning. Admittedly, she had never asked Sesshoumaru about his feelings for her, but he had saved from the Wolves, and the darkness that had followed that night of the attack. He had come to save her from Naraku, from Kohaku. He had to care for her…didn't he? She swallowed down something troubling. "He would never hurt me."
"A full Youkai Lord?" Zen prodded, "With no real love and one famous for his bloodlust."
"I have to find Master Jaken…" Rin whispered, pulling away. She didn't like the words Zen was whispering in her ear.
Zen's hand caught her wrist. "Please." Zen murmured. "Don't go. I'm…just concerned." His eyes were soft and sincere. It reminded Rin of Jomei, her brother. Sesshoumaru never looked at her like that. "You don't even know him, do you? The Butcher of Four Creeks?"
"Four Creeks?" Rin whispered. She didn't even want to say the name. She was afraid of what it would mean. She wanted Jaken to come suddenly, wanted to return to Sesshoumaru's rooms and wait for him. She would always wait for him. "I should go."
"A few moments longer." Zen pleaded. "Let me show you your Master."
