Inuyasha; A Feudal Fairy Tale – The Sesshoumaru Blues

Chapter Three – O Diaper Where Art Thou

"Thank you for coming." Lady Izayoi said to the bowing Zayane. Zayane dare not raise her head. "I have to travel into town today for personal things and items for Inuyasha. As you are aware he cannot come into town." Lady Izayoi said. "I really hope I didn't pry you away from anything." Indeed she had, but that was part of Zayane's job. She treated Izayoi and young Lord Inuyasha the best any servant could; perhaps that is why Zayane was always called upon. "Please take care of Inuyasha. What am I saying, I know you will." Lady Izayoi parted from the tatami room, leaving Zayane and the baby Inuyasha.

Inuyasha was eight months old and wrapped in his new blanket—the haori made from the fire rat. He was on the floor lying on soft pillows that made his crib. Zayane picked up the semi conscious Inuyasha. He was trying to go to sleep but he was fighting it off. It pained Zayane to look at Inuyasha. How much he looked like his father. Zayane began to pace, rocking Inuyasha.

Inuyasha had fallen asleep in her arms, and she was leaning against a wall while sitting on the floor. Zayane was drifting in and out of sleep as well, careful not to drop Inuyasha from her lazy arms. Her eyes seemed to play tricks on her. She thought she was hallucinating when she saw a figure in white starting to approach her. Every time Zayane blinked, it got closer and closer until those yellow eyes were in her face. Sesshoumaru had stopped by.

"What are you doing, slacking on the job?" Sesshoumaru teased.

"What are you doing here? This is a first. I thought you hated Inuyasha." Zayane said keeping her voice quiet. Sesshoumaru plopped down beside her, removing the Tenseiga to give him comfort.

"Of course I hate Inuyasha. But that human pulled you away from me when we were about to…"

"Shhh! The children!" Zayane gave an excuse for Sesshoumaru to shut his face. Sesshoumaru looked at Zayane's eye patch.

"Are you ever going to show me what is behind that patch?" Sesshoumaru asked looking at Inuyasha's sleeping face.

"No, Sesshoumaru." Their speech had become casual the past months. They seemed more and more like friends. "You tried to get it off me earlier and it's not going to work."

"It's a fair trade! A kiss for a glance at your eye."

"You have cooties." Zayane glared.

"I had cooties, remember? You washed them out my hair a week ago." Sesshoumaru corrected.

"Those aren't the cooties I'm talking about, Sesshoumaru."

"What other cooties could there be, human?" Sesshoumaru moved his face towards Zayane's. She used her forearm to support Inuyasha, and used the other to cover Sesshoumaru's face and push him away.

"Would you quit it? Why don't you go experiment on some demons!" Zayane said trying to keep her voice down.

"But I don't know them, they might have coooooties…." Sesshoumaru whined.

"You said you didn't know what cooties are!"

"I never said that!"

She huffed. "You implied it!"

"I didn't know you were talking about those cooties." Sesshoumaru smiled. He enjoyed torturing Zayane. He loved watching her nose scrunch up in anger.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, I am your servant—not your sex slave." Zayane slowly started to rock Inuyasha. His tiny eyebrows were starting to borrow into his eyes in frustration.

"You're supposed to do what I say, anyhow." Sesshoumaru reminded.

"I'm passed that naïve stage, Sesshoumaru. I was a little stressed from being moved from one place to the other. As well as trying to serve your stubborn self."

"Don't count on being brought back to life." Sesshoumaru joked again. Zayane had a fire in her eyes.

"Don't you have some where to be?"

"Some battle I was hired for at some castle…" Sesshoumaru's words drifted.

"Don't you think you should be there?" Zayane asked, standing up. Inuyasha was looking at her with big eyes. Inuyasha was groggy, but cooed with happiness.

"I guess…" Sesshoumaru sounded reluctant. "But I thought I'd come visit today to throw Inuyasha over a cliff." He added once he heard Inuyasha's voice.

Zayane turned and showed Sesshoumaru Inuyasha. Inuyasha looked at Sesshoumaru with his tiny balled fist. Inuyasha broke out in to baby-song, crying a storm. Inuyasha was frightened by Sesshoumaru's presence. "He's not dumb, Sesshoumaru."

"He's a half demon, he might as well be mentally stunted."

"Lord Sesshoumaru! That is not funny!" Inuyasha cried louder. Zayane took her index finger and put it into Inuyasha's mouth. Inuyasha grabbed her finger with both of his tiny hands, pleased to have something to chew on. He giggled.

"How do you do that?" Sesshoumaru stuck a finger in his ear, trying to rub his eardrum. "He's a little monster." Zayane frowned at Sesshoumaru.

"Really, I wished I never asked you to talk more." Inuyasha cooed again with laughter. He began waving Zayane's finger, talking to in baby gibberish. "You're so cute!" Zayane eyes seemed to glitter with delight. She moved her finger to Inuyasha's doggy ears. "Soooo cute."

"You're making me sick!" Sesshoumaru covered his mouth.

"Then leave!"

"Not until we make the exchange—oh wait." Sesshoumaru sniffed the air. "Never mind, I'm leaving." Sesshoumaru stormed out the room, sliding the shoji and closing it abruptly.

Zayane was stunned. "I wonder what his problem was—AGAAHH! Demon child!" Zayane held Inuyasha away from her body. "Good GAWD!" It made sense that Sesshoumaru would leave. Inuyasha had left Zayane a stinky present.

But the stench itself was like a valley of corpses rotting from being taken by the plague. Zayane had trouble standing on her feet; the smell nearly caused her to pass out. She looked at Inuyasha's blank face, a trail of drool running down his chin. He smiled at her, laughing suddenly. Zayane's jaw dropped. The demon seed. The shoji opened again.

"I'm sorry about abandoning you." Sesshoumaru lied. He smelled the stench resonating from the castle. He wanted to see how Zayane would handle it. Zayane turned her head—almost in a complete 180.

"Sesshou---maru…" Zayane squeaked. "Could you find a diaper cloth?"

"No problem." Sesshoumaru said, being to turn the room upside down. Zayane unwrapped Inuyasha from the fire rat haori. She could see his makeshift diaper was put on in a hurry, probably by a different servant to Lady Izayoi. Zayane didn't blame them, but now she had a reason not to trust the people at Lady Izayoi's castle. Sesshoumaru came over with his kimono sleeve drawn up to his face.

"Well?"

"I got some good news and some bad news. Which one do you want first?" Sesshoumaru said, a smile hidden behind his sleeve.

"The good news."

"The good news is I just saved a whole bunch of money on my nimbus-cloud insurance by switching to Gekko State."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Zayane narrowed her eyes.

"Nothing, nothing. The bad news is, I can't find any diapers." Sesshoumaru's eyes darted back and forth.

"You what? OH NO! Is that what Lady Izayoi meant when she said items for Inuyasha?" Zayane had a crayon film strip over her head with pictures to describe each scene—all poorly drawn. "Lady Izayoi went into town, leaving me with her stinky child, to let me handle the problem, while she is out enjoying herself?" Zayane glared at Inuyasha. "You….!"

"Wow. Now you see it my way." Sesshoumaru smirked. Zayane glared at Sesshoumaru, too.

"Damn you both." Zayane mumbled. She headed for the door.

BLUES

Inuyasha was stark naked, sitting on the bank of a lake. He was all cleaned up as Zayane watched him pull at blades as grass. Zayane was sitting under a tree while Sesshoumaru stood beside her. Zayane had an expression on her face that was priceless to Sesshoumaru. She was dazed from what she had to do.

"Was the poop mushy between your fingers?" Sesshoumaru taunted.

"What the hell is with this family and making me touch their tushies?" Zayane gazed at the sky.

"I don't know."

"It wasn't Inuyasha's fault. It was Lady Izayoi's. Seriously, she treats me like a servant." Zayane said.

"Umm… That's because you are." Sesshoumaru said.

"I know. But don't I get some special treatment for being the servant of a great dog demon? She probably did this because I got to see your father more often than she did." Zayane said in spite. Sesshoumaru liked her harsh words toward the human that cost his father his life. His eyes looked at Inuyasha, who was trying to crawl but failing miserably. Zayane was right though, about it not being Inuyasha's fault. But none the less, Inuyasha was still a half demon. A product that commemorates a union that is looked down upon.

"That's probably the reason." Sesshoumaru sat down beside Zayane.

"…Why do you want to see my eye so bad?"

"Because…" He had no answer. Zayane sighed. Zayane was feeling nervous. Her heart went pitter patter against her chest. Sesshoumaru could hear it. "What's wrong? Your heart is beating irregularly. Are you going to show me?" If Sesshoumaru had a tail, it would be wagging with joy. Zayane looked over to Inuyasha, double checking on him. He was on a slow crawl towards Zayane.

"What I am about to show you will creep you out." Zayane grabbed Sesshoumaru's hand and held it tightly. Sesshoumaru started to blush. She had never held his hand before.

"Wh-why should I be creep'd out? You're not going to show me your bosom—are you?" Sesshoumaru gulped ready for a face full.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, get your mind out of the gutter! Just… Watch." Zayane instructed. She lifted her bangs that touched her nose. She slowly lifted her eye patch and there was a vertical scar going over her eye. Zayane's right eye was closed tight. Zayane's maroon eye watched Sesshoumaru.

"Is that it? I don't know what your fuss was about…" Sesshoumaru seemed disappointed. Zayane cracked her right eye and a tint of aqua blue was visible. Sesshoumaru looked around him, as the small groove of trees, the lake, and Inuyasha were starting to lose their color. For every moment Zayane opened her right eye, things were fading into black in white. When her eye was fully waxed, everything was in black in white—unmoving. The only things in color were Sesshoumaru and Zayane.

"Please don't stress me out, or I won't be able to sustain it…" Zayane said.

"What's going on…?" Sesshoumaru stared her in the eyes. He was feeling like he was being drawn into her eye, and his was. His face was moving towards Zayane's face. She put her hand up—just like before—and pushed Sesshoumaru's face away. "Sorry. I didn't realize I was doing that."

"That eye does that…" Zayane wanted to let go of Sesshoumaru's hand, but if she did, he'd be stuck in time like Inuyasha. "We're kind of in a state of suspended animation."

"Everything around us is frozen…" Sesshoumaru pointed out.

"Not quite. Everything around is moving at a very slow rate. I haven't been able to get a proper measurement because I would be moving. It's something like for every hour I'm in this state, the outside world moves one minute." She explained.

"Moving…?" Sesshoumaru was puzzled.

"It helps me get to point A to point B a lot faster. It also allows me to slumber in time. It's my eternal life… I don't age in this state…" Zayane gripped Sesshoumaru's hand tighter. It was by accident.

"Is there something bothering you…?" Sesshoumaru was sincerely concerned.

"I've watched you—sleep…" Zayane said.

"Stalker!" Sesshoumaru accused jokingly. Everything burst into color. Zayane, and Inuyasha were gone.

BLUES

Zayane shook a toy at Inuyasha, he giggled. They were back at Lady Izayoi's castle. Inuyasha was wrapped in the haori again. Zayane would just have to clean it if Inuyasha decided to have another incident. The shoji slid open.

"Who do you think you are, human?" Sesshoumaru stormed into the room. Zayane paid him no attention. She was focused on little Inuyasha. "What else are you hiding from me?" Sesshoumaru was engulfed in rage. Zayane had been bluffing her true powers. She was a witch, but he didn't know she was a Mistress of Time, one of the most powerful witches there is. And yet she stayed a servant to the humans.

"I have no business with you, Lord Sesshoumaru." Zayane put her finger next to Inuyasha's mouth again. He grabbed it, looking at it like her finger was going to attack him.

"You'll pay attention when I'm taking to you, human!" Zayane shook her head no and went back to ignoring him. Sesshoumaru boiled over. He had forgotten all about how kind Zayane was to him in the past and just saw her as human. "Insolent human! Poison Claw!" Zayane was caught off guard. Zayane pulled up the sleeve of the haori, to over Inuyasha's face. Sesshoumaru ran her right shoulder through. The blood flew into the air like a backwards waterfall. Even though Zayane's right eye was closed and covered, time seemed to stop between them. Sesshoumaru had let his pint up rage with humans get the better of him, and Zayane just let him get her.

The blood spattered on the walls and shoji, droplets landed on the haori. Zayane hit the floor with a thud. A pool of blood started to form. Sesshoumaru backed up, afraid of what had happened. He turned his back but…

BLUES

Zayane was standing front of him with a bloodied kimono. Her wound was gone. Zayane's maroon eye glared slowly. Sesshoumaru was shocked. He thought for sure he killed her. Sesshoumaru looked over his shoulder and saw an elaborate casting circle that Zayane had made with her own blood. The pentacircle would be what had saved her. She cased a healing spell on herself, while using her ability to delay time

"You tried to kill me—again."

"It was an accident." Sesshoumaru said. "I was angry… I lost control." Zayane stepped forward, the glaze in her eyes disappearing. Her pupils faded away as well. Zayane was a zombie to her dormant powers.

"An accident? Like this…?" Zayane snatched Sesshoumaru's face in her hand. She threw him through three rooms, demolishing shoji in the way. The shoji crumbled before her might like ice in the desert. Sesshoumaru smashed against a wall.

"Holy shit…" Sesshoumaru murmured. Zayane had gone nuts. Zayane was taking her sweet time.

"Do you know what an accident really is?" Zayane grabbed Sesshoumaru by his hair. He was frozen with fear. Sesshoumaru had called her human all the time and she was demonstrating relentless power. "An accident is trying to be truthful with some one you care about and he calls you a stalker!" She threw him again, this time she flung Sesshoumaru outwards. He blew through more shoji, landing in the garden. Sesshoumaru slid through the Zen garden, ruining the formation.

"It was a joke!" Sesshoumaru stood up with a hobble. He thought he broke his leg from Zayane advancing. Sesshoumaru couldn't take a direct hit. Zayane appeared in the shadows within the room, watching Sesshoumaru. Inuyasha's distant cries didn't snap her out of it.

"You tried to kill me!" Zayane reminded. "You tired to kill me…"

Sesshoumaru hobbled over to her. "It was an accident. You know how I feel about humans."

"Wh-why don't you ever call me by my name…?" Zayane started to wipe her eyes.

"I didn't know it mattered to you." Sesshoumaru said. "Inuyasha is crying, you should tend to him." Zayane back tracked to little Inuyasha, and picked him up; the blood from her kimono rubbing on the haori.

"There, there, Inuyasha. It's alright." Zayane seemed normal once Sesshoumaru that her servant duties needed to be handled.

"She's acting like she owns me." Sesshoumaru had her emotion confused. He didn't understand human emotions. Sesshoumaru didn't even comprehend that he hurt hers by calling her a name. He didn't even know what placing faith in some one was—which Zayane had done and he was apathetic about it enough to make jokes. Sesshoumaru watched her. But now he was even more curious as to why some one—or some thing so powerful would be subservient to the humans.

BLUES

When Lady Izayoi returned, she was curious as to what had happened to Zayane and Inuyasha's crib room. Zayane was standing in the middle of the room holding Inuyasha in her arms. She was afraid a demon had made an attempt to take Inuyasha's life. Zayane just looked at Lady Izayoi and Lady Izayoi could tell that Zayane was stressed.

"Don't worry, Lady Izayoi… This is all my own blood." Zayane sighed.

Lady Izayoi's eyes went to the casting circle on the floor. She made the connection.

"I'm not going to ask what happened… But I will offer you my help." She said in a knowing way. Zayane was shocked about how accepting Lady Izayoi was about a wing of her castle being destroyed. It must have been motherhood that enlightened her. But Lady Izayoi was sure she had that same stressed look on her face when she met Inuyasha's father…

つづく(Tsuzuku)

Author's notes/Translation notes:

Er… Sesshoumaru is a bit crazy but so is Zayane. They are both very confused people when it comes to feelings. Please endure!