Sheesh. So many people are asking for more that I just have to oblige. I'm wrapping it up in the next couple of chapters, okay?
Of course I don't own Inuyasha. (sigh)
Me: What went so wrong? O.o Um… that's next chapter, k?
Moonmagicks: I'm glad you like it so much. I'm hard pressed to write faster/more because this is fanfic #6 that I'm working on, and fanfic #4 that is being posted on the site so far.
Laughingstockstables: More chapters it is, then. They're cute when chibi-fied.
AnimeFreakSlayer: Your fics are good as well! n.n I love cute pet names for Sesshy-sama!
"That was so sweet!" Kagome sighed. "Will you tell another one?"
Inuyasha crossed his arms and pulled his legs into his chest. "Nope."
"Please please please?" Shippou begged. "Please tell another?"
Miroku and Sango added their pleas. Inuyasha's ears twitched as the noise assailed them. He "feh"ed, then noticed "the look" of Kagome's face. He hid behind Miroku.
"Fine! One more. But that's it!"
Inuyasha found his brother deeply engrossed in a book, sitting under a cherry tree in the gardens.
"Hi, Maru!" he said happily. Sesshoumaru glanced up, blinked in acknowledgment, and looked back down.
"I can't play right now," he said flatly. "I'm reading."
Inuyasha plodded down next to him. "But I'm bored!" he complained. "I don't have anything to do!"
"I do. Go away."
"Pleeeeeeeeeease play with me?"
Sesshoumaru sighed audibly, looking up at the blossoms above.
"All right," he said. "I'll play."
"Yes!" Inuyasha crowed, jumping up. "What're we going to play?"
"Tell you what," Sesshoumaru said, closing his book and standing up. "We'll play hide-and-seek. I'll hide and you try to find me. Then we'll switch."
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "I get it," he said. "You just want to read your book so you'll find the hardest hiding place in the world and sit there reading."
"Exactly," Sesshoumaru said evenly. "Count to thirty against the tree. No peeking."
The older brother bounded off with the natural jumping ability of a full-blooded demon. Inuyasha leaned against the tree.
"One… two… three…"
Although he was sorely tempted to peek and see which way Sesshoumaru was going, Inuyasha didn't want to cheat. He continued all the way up to forty-two before he realized what he was doing. With a laugh, he walked away from the tree and looked around.
"Now if I were Maru, where would I hide?" he wondered aloud. His brother wanted somewhere to read, so he needed light. That didn't rule out very much, seeing as it was the middle of the day. Inuyasha decided to search in the forest. He used his keen smell to track Sesshoumaru's scent into the trees, where it mingled with that of the forest creatures. Confident that he could tell his own brother's smell from the others, he forged ahead, doing his best to separate the scents and guess their respective owners.
After what seemed like hours he stopped to look around, and began to get a little worried. He wasn't very familiar with this section of the woods. He worried that he had mistaken his brother's scent for another's and gotten himself lost.
"Maru?" he called tremulously. There was no reply. Well, of course not, the more logical side of him argued. You're playing hide and seek. He won't give away his location. Inuyasha shrugged the thought aside and sniffed the air again. He was quite sure that that smell leading to the left was Sesshoumaru's. Trusting to his nose, he followed the smell.
The forest appeared to be getting darker. Even the most innocent noises were starting to sound menacing. Every rustle in the bushes had to be a poisonous snake, not a harmless squirrel. The shadows flitting through the trees were giant insects, not birds. Inuyasha stopped again and looked around. Had he been fooled? Tricked? Bamboozled?
"Maru?" he called again. "Are you there?"
Again, all he heard was his own voice fading into the still air. He fidgeted nervously, glancing around the clearing. His dog ears alerted him to a rustling in the nearby bushes. He took a tentative step in that direction. Something exploded out of the shrubbery so suddenly that Inuyasha was bowled over onto his back. He covered his face with his hands, waiting for a bite or a strike or something, but nothing happened. His ears picked up a new sound. Laughter? Familiar laughter, at that, and something you didn't hear every day.
Outraged, Inuyasha scrambled up to see Sesshoumaru, doubled up and shaking with laughter.
"Maru!" the half-demon bellowed. "What was that for!"
"S… sorry!" Sesshoumaru gasped, between huge bursts of mirth. "You… you should have seen the look… on your face!"
Inuyasha didn't know whether to hug or hit him. "I'm never playing hide-and-seek with you again!" he cried, beginning to chuckle himself. Soon the entire forest was ringing with laughter, frightening birds from their trees.
Okay, that one was really REALLY short. I'm sorry! I'll try to do better next time! Hey! Where are you going? Oh, you're going to review. That's okay then.