Prince Of Shadows: (Sending Akira a reproachful glare) That hurt.
Akira: What're you on about now?
Prince Of Shadows: You bit me!
Akira: So? Not like I haven't done it before.
Prince Of Shadows: IT HURT!
Akira: Hey, if anyone should complain, it's me. You know how hard it is to get jean stuff out of your teeth!
Prince Of Shadows: Oh whatever. Here's the story already….
(By the way, there has to be a bunch of time skips in this story. Otherwise the main character will never have a coherent thought. Also, Akira was actually a smart baby. Who know?)
Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha Kikyou would've stayed dead, Sesshoumaru would have a girlfriend, Inuyasha would have tail and Jaken would be straight.
Inutaisho glanced down the hallway as a loud scuffling sound reached his ears. It wasn't hard to guess what it was. With a resigned sigh, he stepped sideways and leaned against the stone wall, arms crossed. Mere moments later a tiny grey blur whipped past him, followed a few seconds later by a larger white one. Soon they were out of sight, but it was evident that somewhere along the line, something was going to b broken.
From Sesshoumaru 's accounts, his first meeting with Akira had involved a rather sore finger and a hoarse throat. Instead of getting angry and trying to have her throw out, as Inutaisho had expected his son to do, the little prince had made it his mission to force the pup into liking him. Ever since he had gone to visit as often as he was allowed, often bringing his own toys and finery to share with her. Though she continued to chomp on him with her four little teeth (each of which just happened to be her canines), Sesshoumaru remained determined. It was almost cute how he practically revolved around the pup, like an older brother.
But just almost.
Akira was an oddly fast learner. She was just four months old and was able to run (rather quickly) on all fours. Even Kenta (of whom had rather forgotten about Sesshoumaru) was only up to crawling. Being so fast seemed to cause her immense joy. Akira could spend hours running all around the castle, Sesshoumaru at her heels, some possession of his firmly in her mouth. She'd send him mischievous little looks, in her own way making it absolutely clear that there was no way he would be getting it back.
She wouldn't talk, and had yet to stand, but Inutaisho was sure that she would be ready to start learning real things within the next few months. But for now, as long as she wasn't crying, he was happy.
"LET GO!" came a sharp yell from the direction of the stairs. Inutaisho rolled his eyes, walking towards it to break up yet another argument. Really, if he wanted to win over a babe so badly, it would probably be best to give in to her a bit more often.
He came to the landing and quickly spotted the pair at the other end, teetering dangerously close to the steps. Sesshoumaru was holding the middle of his boa-like tail, pulling with all his might, whereas Akira had the end of it in a vice-grip, refusing to let go. It didn't matter that Sesshoumaru was so much stronger than her. She didn't have to be strong. All Akira had to do was hold on while Sesshoumaru tuckered himself out.
"Sesshoumaru." he said, startling the young boy. "What's going on?"
"Father, she has my tail!" he whined. "Make her let go!"
"You can't blame her for being curious." he stated, standing off to the side but making no attempt to help him. "After all, Akira doesn't have one."
He pouted, sending her a fierce glare. "Let her play with yours, then! Really, I bring down half my toys and tell her all my good stories and the only thing she likes about me is my tail!"
Inutaisho quirked an eyebrow. "Well then I suggest that you take it in stride. There is usually at least one thing everyone likes about everyone else, and as it seems she likes your fur."
He pouted, finally relinquishing the fuzzy appendage and watching as she wrapped her arms around it. It's not like it felt bad, but honestly. His tail? Didn't Mazuki have two of the things?
He looked down as Akira gave a cute little half-sigh, half-whimper. "If I'm going to let you play with that…" he said, slowly to make certain she understood him. "… I expect you to start talking."
Akira opened her silver orbs, looking fiercely at him, before returning to cuddling his tail. "Gruff!" she barked, looking rather smug for a child that hadn't even been on the planet for a year.
He narrowed his eyes, ignoring the obvious look of amusement on his fathers face. "Sesshoumaru." he instructed as clearly as possible. " Say Ses-shou-maru. Sesshoumaru."
Unsurprisingly she didn't answer. His pointed ears twitched in annoyance. "Sesshoumaru. It's not that hard!"
Inutaisho chuckled. "Actually, that is quite a big name to be a first word, Sesshoumaru. Try something simple, like Brother, or Prince, or shall we say….Fluffy?"
Sesshoumaru growled at him. "Father! She will not call me by that name!" he turned back to the contented looking baby. "Come on, Akira. Say Sesshoumaru. Ses-shou-maru. Please?"
Akira shook her head, and Sesshoumaru pulled his tail from her grasp, against her protests. "No Sesshoumaru, no tail. Got it?"
Akira glared at him, latching onto the tail determinedly. "Sessy." she murmured, nodding her head as if to say that that name would do. Sesshoumaru stared down at her in absolute shock, and Inutaisho burst into laughter. He turned on his heel, leaving the rather miserable-looking boy to deal with the monster he had created.
X
Akira rubbed her eyes as she was put into the soft bed. Mazuki had long since put her and Kenta into seperate cribs, and Akira was all the happier for it. The boy was growing a tad fast, and she didn't seem to be able to keep up. When she was asleep she was often woken by him rolling over on her, smacking her with his fist while in the midst of an aparently exciting dream, or worst of all brushing his coarse tail over her face. Akira didn't like it when that happened. It was so hard and scratchy, it almost always scared her. Like some sort of monster was brushing against her, about to eat her.
Akira shivered at the prospect of evil, hungry monsters, coming to eat her in the night. Kenta wasn't such bad company himself, but he was so covered in fur that it was always frightening to accidently bump into him. Sessy was, admittably, a lot less scary. He was always, always talking, usually about things she didn't understand at all. Sometimes he brought things, toys and such, that were simply too boring for her to pay attention to. Like the top. It was interesting when he used it, but all she could do was make it fall over, and what was the fun in that? But his tail, now that was interesting. All soft and furry, like a big blanket. She could listen to any amount of long boring stories to get in a few hugs with that. Who wouldn't?
As she snuggled her head into her pillow, she was roughly torn from her thoughts as a loud boom shook the room. She bolted upright, looking fearfully from side to side. What was that? Was the castle falling apart! Did a monster get in!
Another loud boom had her out of bed, as usual on all fours, eyes darting from side to side. Yes. It had to be a monster. What else could possibly be so loud and scary? She looked to Kenta. He was still asleep., and probably would be for a while. He, like Mazuki, could sleep through anything. 'I should wake him up.' she thought. No need letting the monsters eat him. Another boom sent her scrambling for the door. 'Kenta will be fine.' she thought. Monsters probably wouldn't want to choke on his fur. They probably didn't like furballs anymore than the cats that hung around the kitchens did.
Akira peered around the door, sniffing slightly. Mazuki was there, but she was sleeping too. There was no way that a sleeping person, no matter how nice and safe feeling, could protect her from such a big, scary monster. Her little mind whirled through the possibilities. Who else was there? The nice man that came to see her sometimes, maybe. What was his name? Minisho? Ingataisho? "N'taiso." she whispered confidntly. Yes, that was his name. He would probably fight off the monster when it came. After all, he was so big, how could the monsters hurt him? He could probably step on them.
Finally confident in her destination, Akira rushed cross the floor, sneaking through the door and into the hallway. She managed to get to the bottom off the first flight of steps before another monstous roar sent her scurrying upwards. She had reached the the second floor before she regained her wits and looked around. She wasn't entirely sure where she was. It was yet another dark, cold hall with lots of creepy pictures on the wall and cups that broke when you touched them. Just like all the others. It scared her to realize she was lost. What if she had walked right into the monsters trap? Surely it would find her and eat her up!
She was torn from her thoughts as something warm settled onto the top of her head. She shrieked in fear, attermpting to escape from the monster's hold, only to get tangled up in her own feet. She crashed uncerimoniously to the floor, yelling incoherently all the while. She vaguely registered a familiar voice talking loudly from somewhere close, but she wasn't able to pay attention as she struggled from the vice-like grip. She wouldn't stop, not ever! Nothing in the whole wide world could make her calm down now! She would on fighting until- - -!
Something soft brushed against her cheek and she tensed, opening her eyes to a sea of fluffy whiteness. Blinking away her confusion, she reached out her stubby little arms, wrapping them into what felt like a cloud, before sighing and nuzzling her tiny little nose into it. A similiar, relieved sounding sigh issued from somewhere in front of her, but she paid no attention. The Cloud Of Perfectness deserved every bit of of her attention. "Thank goodness." said the owner of the sigh. "I was worried you would scream until the whole castle woke up."
She made an agreeable soundling noise, somewhere between purr and a gurgle. Even she wasn't sure whatit meant, but it would likely sound good enough to him.
The Fluffy shifted a little, and she glanced up briefly to see Sessy looking down at her with a mixture between concern and aggravation."What's the chance you'll give me my tail back?" she hugged her Fluffy tighter. "Thought so." he sighed, wondering how old you had to be to get a headache. "What're you doing in the halls so late at night?"
"Mrglfnin Fuffy." she said confidently. Or, in English, doesn't matter. Just stop moving my Fluffy.
Sessy looked at her. He hadn't expected her to say anything at all, so the baby-nonsense was a surprise. He had nearly forgotten how little she still was. And did she... Did she say Fluffy? "Were you afraid of the storm, Akira? Is that why you left? Mazuki's probably worried sick about you."
"Nergleflemp." she said, before another noise reverbrated through the castle. Sesshoumaru's question was answered as she launched herself at him, trying to bury herself as far into his previosly well-kempt tail as possible. "Sessy!" she whimpered, hiding her face.
"Don't worry." he said confidently, putting his hand on her head. "It's only thunder. It's just noise. Noise can't hurt you. Well... except maybe banshees and some types of demons. Siren songs make you hurt yourself, though, so I guess..."
Obviously, his brief lesson didn't calm her fears, and she started to cry. 'Great.' he thought.'Not only did it Not help, but I scared her as well. What can I do to ger her to stop?'
"Erm... where were you going, Akira?" he asked, hoping to distract her.
"Sniffle...hic...N'taiso..."she murmered from his fur. Sesshoumaru silentlly agreed with her. If he had been afraid of thunder, which he wasn't, his father would be the best person to go to.
"Alright then." he nodded to himself. "We'll wait out the storm in Father's room. His bed is plenty big enough, so he can't very well object."
Akira nodded mutely. Father. That was N'taiso too, right? Yes, that was what Sessy called him. Someone should really tell him he was saying his name wrong. He sure would be embarrased when he found out!
Sesshoumaru started down the hall, but was stopped as he felt a sharp tug on his tail. He looked back, seeing that she was making absolutely no attempts at following, and wouldn't be letting go of him any time soon. Rolling his sun-colored eyes, he went back and kneeled before her, facing away. "Get on." she eyed him warily, silver orbs distrustful. "If you wont walk on your own how else am I supposed to get you to Father's? " When she again made no move towards him, he let his tail snake out and wrap around her waist. She squeeled in a mixture between anger and joy, kicking her feet in the air. He pulled her onto his back where she wrapped her arms round his throat, nuzzling her face into his neck. He made sure that his tail extremely large tail was sevurely around her waist before jogging towards his Father's bedroom.
X
Prince Of Shadows: Tada! Chapter something-or-other is up! I got four new reviews for the last one and with caffeine-induced insomnia, stayed up to write more. Unfortunatly I passed out before I could put it up, so here it is.
Akira: I want the next chapter! More Fluffy, more Sessy, MORE ME!
Prince Of Shadows:(rolls eyes) Whatever, brat. Please review.By the way, Akira will get to a more advanced thought process soon, so just hold out with me, okay?