A/N – Another short piece. Writing small drabbles/one shots is much easier – and often more fun – than writing chaptered epics.

Disclaimer – I don't own Inuyasha or Sesshoumaru. As much as I'd like Sesshoumaru, I don't know that I'm equipped to handle the Canon version…

Eccentricities VI – Discipline

Inuyasha was hot-tempered.

Sesshoumaru had known from their very first meeting that the whelp disguised his fear and grief with anger, used it to bolster his courage and bravado, but he had thought it a defensive ploy. Unfortunately, he had been traveling with his younger brother long enough to know the truth, now –

Inuyasha was extremely hot-tempered, impatient, and infuriatingly stubborn.

There were times when it tried even Sesshoumaru's patience – and Sesshoumaru, contrary to his reputation, was capable of a great deal of patience.

Unfortunately for Inuyasha, the main problem with his temper was not that he might pick a fight with someone stronger, or rush into a situation without properly assessing it, or even that he might lash out without thinking, doing something he would regret later. No, Inuyasha's problem lay in his mixed blood, and in the demonic power that came when he was pushed beyond reason into blind, basic instinct.

Ordinary hanyou, children of petty forest spirits or water sprites, often developed monstrously in the womb, their parents' blood simply too different to combine properly. The children of taiyoukai, those powerful enough to assume a human shape, were born with only minimal differences – save, of course, for the latent power that lay, waiting to emerge…

It had taken Sesshoumaru years before he had sufficient control of his nature to turn from his true shape into the human one. What would happen when Inuyasha, trapped in his human state from birth, tapped into his fundamental nature? When the constraints of the world fell away and he was nothing but spirit lightly clothed in flesh, when reason gave way to joyous instinct, and he was everything he had always been supposed to be?

Inuyasha's transformation lay in his anger. And Inuyasha was angry all the time…

"Again," Sesshoumaru said implacably.

Inuyasha picked himself up off the ground, wiping the blood from his mouth and glaring furiously at his elder brother. "You bastard," he snarled. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

A slight warming of Sesshoumaru's golden eyes was all the indication he gave of his amusement, but it wasn't lost on Inuyasha. He growled, his knuckles white on the hilt of his sword. "What do you want from me, Sesshoumaru?"

"I want you to think before you act, Inuyasha. I want you to weigh the consequences before you go charging in, waving your sword. I want you, brother, to learn discipline…"

"Keh!" Inuyasha swore. "You want me to be a tight-assed prig like you! Well, I'll tell you now –"

Sesshoumaru turned on his heel and walked away.

"Hey!" Inuyasha shouted after him. "Come back, you coward, I'm not finished with you yet! You can't just walk away!"

But still Sesshoumaru walked away, with that slow, measured grace that had begun to infuriate Inuyasha in the last year or so. The stuck-up bastard thought himself so much better than everyone around him, especially his hanyou half-brother…

"Sesshoumaru!" he spat, seriously considering charging Sesshomaru's back and trying to cut him in half. But the last time he'd tried that, his beautiful, seemingly delicate brother had left him with a broken jaw, a dislocated shoulder and three broken ribs. Sesshoumaru was stronger, faster, and he had a great dislike of anyone attacking him from behind – Inuyasha had learned that much, at least.

"When you have learned to control your temper, Inuyasha, we will begin again," spoke that flat, utterly indifferent deep voice.

Inuyasha growled deep in his throat, his blood boiling with defiance, anger, hot resentment and any number of adolescent hormones. He watched as Sesshoumaru paced slowly into the trees, not a hair out of place, his white clothes immaculate and unstained. In comparison, his own bright red clothes were ripped, stained and bloody, his hair was full of leaves and dirt, and he had cuts and bruises all over his body. For a moment, he wavered on the edge of something huge –

Sesshoumaru, all his senses tuned to the hanyou's internal struggle, felt the trembling changes to his scent and body chemistry and tensed, preparing to turn back and knock the fool boy out of it –

Then Inuyasha's rarely used common sense kicked in, and he reminded himself that he never, ever got anywhere attacking Sesshoumaru in anger. Slowly, very slowly, he forced the huge, alien feeling down, and deliberately banished the anger, the resentment, and the defiance. When he looked up again, his eyes were as calm as he could make them, and his grip on his sword was firm, sure, and certain.

"Sesshoumaru," he called out, this time in a very different tone. "I'm ready."

His brother turned. "Are you?" he asked.

Inuyasha ran forward, sword angled to show him. Sesshoumaru defeated him easily, of course, disarming him in three moves, but this time, as he placed the razor sharp sword at Inuyasha's throat, there was a minute trace of approval in his eyes.

"Again," he said.

A/N – Yes, I've skipped ahead a few years, and Inuyasha is now about fourteen, fifteen, and almost at the point where Sesshoumaru can kick him out. However, I'm not finished with brotherly almost-WAFF just yet, there will be more, you can be certain.

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