Sanctuary

It was a bright day, and like usual, a normal day. Inuyasha and the group sauntered through the thick forests, dew laden moss and all, hearing rumors that Naraku had fled towards the marshes. It seemed that the group were lost in the middle of the deep green glade. Kagome was certainly bothered by Mirouku's yawning and Inuyasha's ignorance.

"Where are we now, smarty-pants?" Kagome questioned Inuyasha, obviously irritated by his behavior. Inuyasha turned around and stared Kagome in the face with his sleepy, dreamy eyes while Sango snickered profusely. "He must've kept his eyes all open last night, looking like that!" said Sango. "But why Inuyasha and Mirouku at the same time…"

Mirouku opened his small mouth, followed by an undulcet groan. "We…had…a…tea…drinking…competition…last…night…," uttered Mirouku sleepily. "We sorta drank too much and we couldn't shut our eyes," he continued, followed by a big yawn. Sango wasn't really paying attention to what Mirouku was talking about, as she was watching Kirara catching and deliberately pouncing on grasshoppers in a nearby bush.

Kagome started to feel sympathetic towards the half-conscious Inuyasha, as he was already dosing away, STANDING. "How about this, we'll rest here for some time, while you both sit down…," KAPOOF. Inuyasha's face landed directly on a pile of dirt. Surprisingly, he didn't say "damn you", or even stood up. Sango and Kagome heard Inuyasha miraculously snoring away with his face flat on the ground. Suddenly, a loud thud was heard, sourcing from Kagome's back.

Kagome was terribly alarmed by the indecent sound and glanced back. Mirouku too had his face flat on a green tuffet of grass, and it really seemed that he was forced to go to slumber land. Birds started to chirp profusely. Sango laughed while sitting down cross-legged. Kagome looked at Inuyasha with sweet, calm eyes, accompanied with a small grin. She turned Inuyasha back into an upright position and brushed the dirt away from his face.

"Oh my," Sango gasped. "Looks like we'll rest here for the day, Kagome-chan," she remarked as she skipped away into the lush trees, on her journey to a nearby stream. Meanwhile, Mirouku and Inuyasha snored, sleeping in a position as if they were shot and laid as still as dead corpses.

Kagome too felt tired for the afternoon. She laid down for shut-eye but then awakened by Inuyasha's sleep talking. "Damn you, Kagome," he muttered. He did say "damn you" after all! Kagome giggled and went back to her nap, for the day's still young.

Not long after that, Kagome fell asleep. As she closed her eyes, Inuyasha opened his. It seemed the tea effect had worn out because the minute he awoke, he felt all energized. He opened his eyes calmly to find himself looking at the solitary blue sky. He sat and touched his "abnormally" slimy forehead. He wiped off the "slime" using his hand to find … bird POOP. "Darn those birds!" he shouted as he shook his fists towards the sky. "I'll fry you for dinner later!" Inuyasha was surprised to find Kagome and Mirouku sleeping. "Keh, sleepyheads. It's a good thing I'm not like you two," he muttered to himself.

Inuyasha trotted off from the bird infested glade for some water. As he walked barefooted away from Kagome, he felt somewhat familiar with the place. He rolled his translucent eyes to collect every small detail. Nothing wrong. He continued his journey but then stopped to see a quaint house. He lifted his left eyebrow sarcastically. It seemed that the cottage was once cherished by a family, but now left abandoned all alone in leafy area.

He stepped closer and winced his eyes to get a better look.

Everything was familiar after all. The house, the trees the ground had a special place in his heart. Inuyasha laid his fingers upon the wooden wall. A susurrus blew the blooming sakura trees, sending the newly born flowers air borne. It was certainly a calming sight.

Inuyasha smiled coldly.

His eyes glimmered, but he didn't cry. "Baka," he said as he closed his eyes. "How could I forget my own house?" he said with a strange and awful grin. The wind whispered once more. Inuyasha twisted the rusted doorknob, opened the creaky house door and went in.

The air was terribly dusty and the furniture did look slightly old. Everything still seemed right at their place, practically left untouched throughout the years. Inuyasha widened his eyes and looked curiously at a small dinner table. Old memories came fretting back…

Sesshomaru and Inuyasha were still young children back then. Not long after Sesshomaru's mother passed away, his father married a human and had Inuyasha. Sesshomaru was only seven years old when Inu-kun was born. Sesshomaru used to be a cheerful and happy person; pretty much opposite from what is present.

Both of them were close, despite their relationship as step-brothers. Sesshomaru would take Inuyasha for walks, watching his every petty step. Their father would laugh and himself felt very prosperous watching both of his sons playing together.

When both of them were older, they would snatch and fight for food. One day, their father had to leave for a battle. He assured his sons that he would be back by a few days, but in the end, he never did. Not long after his demise, Inuyasha's mother fell ill and passed away.

Sesshomaru could not withstand the pressure he had to receive at such a young age. He couldn't take the great pain of losing his mother, him father and his stepmother which guided beneath their wings. He blamed their untimely fate on young Inuyasha, proving a mortal peril towards his life. Despite the hatred that was slowly eating his heart; he didn't have the heart to kill his own brother. Thus one night, he ran out of the house and disappeared beneath the neon moonlight, leaving Inuyasha there on his own. The trauma turned Sesshomaru into a cold-blooded, expressionless killer, constantly having slain blood smeared on his hands.

It was in the later years he knew the death of his parents. Against all odds, he managed to learn how to take care of himself despite his down-trodden background, a hanyou.

His thoughts were then suddenly disrupted by the howling breeze that swept his hair. He blinked his eyes a few times, to find himself still in the house.

Inuyasha spotted something glimmering at one corner of the room. He ran to it, picked it up gently, and to his surprise, he found a small pendant. Not only just a pendant, a pendant that his mom gave him for his 2nd birthday.

He clasped the pendant in his palm and huffed. He knew all his memories had made the place their sanctuary, a place where they could be stored and preserved forever.

Suddenly, Inuyasha heard galloping noises from outside the house. The door was slammed open, revealing Kagome, gasping and puffing. Mirouku stood behind her, with a light film of sweat on his brows. "Where have you been?" Kagome shouted.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. Then he burst out into a rage of laughter. Both Mirouku and Kagome were covered in bird droppings, and neither both of them know it. "We'd better get going, Sango is waiting for us," she said. Inuyasha made his exit.

As he stared at Kagome, he remembered something he said to Kikyou, "When we get married one day lets come back here shall we?" He just might say the same thing to Kagome some day.

While he took his last glance at his house, Kagome suddenly blurted out, "I'm tired of all this running… Let's sit down for a while…" Kapoof! Inuyasha ate dirt again.

"Damn you, Kagome," he mumbled.

4th May 2004