Two hours later, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha were pulled out of their dungeon and chained up.
"You'll be blindfolded this time," a demon grinned. "It's all the more fun that way."
"Bastard," Inuyasha snarled as the blindfold was put on. Sesshoumaru stifled an angry growl as he was blindfolded as well, and they were led up to the hallway once more. The place was eerily quiet as they walked down the hallway, their footsteps echoing along the walls.
"They're here, Lord Satsujin," the guard said as the brothers were stopped.
"Good, good," Satsujin said. "You can take off thier blindfolds now," he instructed.
Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru didn't know what to expect, and as soon as the blindfolds came off...
"SURPRISE!" the crowd yelled happily, cheering the two brothers. The guards unlocked their shackles as the two stunned dogs looked around in confusion.
"Uh...what?" Inuyasha blinked, dumbfounded.
"Lord Sesshoumaru, turn around!" Rin called happily.
"Rin?" Sesshoumaru gaped, staring at the girl. Rin giggled and pointed behind him, and both brothers turned around.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" everyone shouted merrily as the astounded brothers looked at the decorated banner that hung along the far wall, high above their heads.
"To the Best...est..." Sesshoumaru paused. "To the Bestest Dog Demons in the World," he read off the first banner, trying to ignore the bad grammar.
"Happy Birthday Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha," Inuyasha read the second banner in disbelief.
"Alright everyone, follow my lead!" Kagome shouted cheerfully. "Happy birthday to you..."
"Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear brothers...Happy birthday to you!" everyone joined in, having rehearsed before and deciding that saying the actual names would be difficult.
"And many more to come!" Shippou added when everyone was finished, getting many cheers of agreement from the gathering.
"I must be hallucinating," Inuyasha gaped.
"Inuyasha, hit me. I need to wake up," Sesshoumaru said.
"Do you want it to hurt?" Inuyasha asked.
"As much as possible," Sesshoumaru agreed.
Inuyasha ran his claw along Sesshoumaru's arm for a second, then clenched his fist and hit him.
"Ahhhh..." Sesshoumaru winced and breathed in sharply. "I'm still not awake."
"Here, hit me. Maybe I'm the one who's sleeping," Inuyasha said. Sesshoumaru whacked Inuyasha.
"Ow! Okay, no, I didn't wake up either..." Inuyasha held his arm. "That hurt," he whined.
"Shut up already," Sesshoumaru grumbled, holding his own arm.
"Silly guys," Kagome said as she walked over. "You're not dreaming! It's your birthday party! We had to surprise you, and we thought that this would be a good way to do it. Once we figured out that you two had the same birthday, we just had to throw a big party!"
"You mean that everything that the demons did to overthrow me was just set up so you could throw a birthday party?" Sesshoumaru asked, his eyebrow twitching.
"Uh..." Kagome grinned nervously and looked around. "Well, I have to go...check on something..."
Sesshoumaru closed his eyes and began to crack his knuckles, infuriated. Inuyasha was right there as well, ready to slice somebody in half.
"Oh no, they're mad," Shippou whispered to Rin. "Now it's your turn."
"Uh-huh," Rin nodded. She went over to the brothers, gulping down her fear.
"Lord Sesshoumaru, Lord Inuyasha, look! It's a pretty flower!" she said eagerly, holding up a tiger lily. Both of them stopped and looked at her, then at each other.
Sesshoumaru sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "It's over with now. I suppose that hurting someone would get us nowhere."
"Eh, oh well," Inuyasha agreed. "Truce for the party, until everything is over with?"
"Alright," Sesshoumaru agreed. "Rin, you can stop placating us now."
"Yes, My Lord!" Rin said happily, running off to join the other children that had been brought along to the party.
"What now?" Sesshoumaru asked warily, looking around.
"We can always try to enjoy the party," Inuyasha said.
"How?" Sesshoumaru scoffed.
"Dammit, come on!" Inuyasha said impatiently, grabbing his brother by the wrist and dragging him over to Kagome. "Kagome, tell him how to have fun!" he said, frustrated.
"Let's do karaoke," Kagome said suddenly. "I brought my karaoke machine!"
"You should like this thing," Inuyasha said. "Miroku thought it was fun. I never tried."
"What the hell is she going to do to me?" Sesshoumaru growled.
"Nothing. You do it all yourself," Inuyasha smiled as he pushed on his brother's shoulder.
The night wore on in that fashion, and the next day everyone woke up, most of them not realizing when they had fallen asleep. Inuyasha left as soon as everyone was awake, complaining later about how he was set up and that his friends had been evil. Everything returned to normal.
Two days later, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha encountered each other along the path, and instead of fighting as they usually did, they conferred with each other to see if either knew where Naraku was. Although neither of them had a clue, both of them knew the other wasn't lying.
They were brothers, after all.