Disclaimer- I do not own Inuyasha.
A/N- Sesshoumaru is equivalent to a human 6-year old by the end of the fic. He is equivalent to a human 4-year old in the beginning.
Stoic
It was reasonably easy to forget that Sesshoumaru had a childhood. In the way he presented himself, it was as if he had been born an adult. Nearly everyone, even Sesshoumaru himself, put it in the back of their minds that he had once had a mother too.
She was a beautiful specimen. His mother had been very cold and very distant, the very opposite of his father, whom was prone to show emotion and affection. Mother and son contrasted in features; she had rich dark brown hair and green eyes, while he inherited his look from his father with the long silver hair and golden eyes. They, however, shared the same crescent moon in the middle of their foreheads and the same smooth, alabaster skin.
He also couldn't help it if some of her personality had rubbed off on him. The heir of the Western Lands spent more time with his mother than his father, after all.
It was his mother that had taught him the importance of closing one's self off to the rest of the world. She always walked around; tall, proud, and straight-backed with the coldest look of indifference fixed on her face. Sesshoumaru didn't remember if he ever saw her smile or not. Emotions made you weak, and displaying them to the world made you even weaker.
She would grow colder every time Inutaisho showed any affection towards his mate and son. After spending the day with his father learning lessons and he would return home to her, she would grab him hard around his arm and drag him to a private area.
"Do not leap at your lord like a low-life imbecile…like a human," she would speak icily, "It is most unbecoming."
The next time his father came for him, months later, he held his arms open with a smile at his face. When the only greeting Sesshoumaru gave his father was a proper bow and a hollow, "Good evening, my Lord," his father's smile had faded. The older demon straightened back into a stand and his golden orbs glanced behind his son.
"So you have broken my child, Mizuki?" he asked her, ice lacing his tone.
"I have done no such thing, my Lord," she answered just as coldly, but with less emotion in her voice.
"Leave us, my son," Inutaisho ordered, but making sure that Sesshoumaru was no mere subject of his by calling him "my son."
Sesshoumaru turned and left, but he only gone so far as to get out of their sight, but not our of hearing distance from him.
"He did not even call me 'Father'—"
"And why should he, Inutaisho-sama?" Mizuki interrupted. "He is less weak because of it. Displaying such emotion will get him killed."
"He's just a young child! Mold him into your cold-hearted little pawn when he is older."
The conversation was over, and Inutaisho spent the rest of the day trying to break through Sesshoumaru's unusual stoic barriers, with only slight success.
"Good-bye, Father," Sesshoumaru said, not responding as Inutaisho folded him in his arms into a hug.
He only caught glimpses of his father in the next two years. He always came back looking slightly wearing and covered in his own and others' blood. The great dog demon lord was busy taking over villages in his conquering of the Western Lands. Sesshoumaru missed learning how to hunt and survive in the wild with his father, but he quickly suppressed such thoughts.
It was his mother that taught him his manners. She tutored him in the ways of the world, and taught him to hunt and fight when his much stronger father could not be there to do so. It was also she that taught him how to release the poison that resided in his claws. Poison that he inherited from his maternal side.
It was one afternoon when Sesshoumaru wandered into the field outside of the woods on his own. He had done so many times before, and his parents had allowed it, seeing that no danger would become of him. It felt good to just stand there, face against the light breeze. The wind always felt good to him.
There was a loud shuffle in the grass and a snort behind him and he turned around, eyes widening slightly as a boar demon raised his spear towards him to penetrate his chest. Training he had taken under his father had kicked in, and he ducked under the spear and reached up and sliced into the rotund creature's belly, letting the poisonous green venom from his claws seep in. The boar let out a shriek, before he exploded up into a cloud of smoke green miasma and flies.
He felt strangely good. It was the first time he had ever killed a demon bigger than himself, and also the first time he had used his poisonous claws out of practice.
His triumph was fleeting, however, when five more boar demons with scimitars and spears appeared from the trees. They pointed and grunted at him, and charged for the attack. They were within feet of him when he belatedly put his hands up in defense, but something jumped into his view.
It was Mizuki, tall and clad in her armor with her long, straight brown hair swinging behind her as she killed two of the ugly beasts. She twirled on her feet to go for the third when one of the stray boars slipped past her defenses and swung his scimitar towards Sesshoumaru's head.
Blood splattered on his face and in his vision, and at first he thought that it was his own. It was warm, and the smell was overwhelming as he blinked it out of his eyes and tried to rub it off his face with his hands, only spreading it more. He gasped.
Mizuki was bleeding heavily as she struggled to kill the boar demon. Its scimitar was cleaved right through her side, where there was no armor protecting her vulnerability. The other boar demon raised its spear and dug it into the skin under her right armpit as if her flesh was mere butter. She gritted her teeth, and released the arm of the demon with the scimitar, causing the weapon to dig deeper into her waist. She lashed out with both hands at the other demon, sinking her claws in and seeping the poison into its body. It burst into a cloud of miasma and flies, just as the other three have.
Cold green eyes bored into beady black ones, and something like fear flickered into the green as she glanced to the side at her son. With a growl and with the last vestige of her remaining strength, she pushed the away from her and slashing him across his chest, but in doing so the scimitar was pulled out in an upwards direction. As the boar burst, Mizuki howled in pain and fell to her knees. She yanked out the spear and then hugged her more serious injuries, before she fell on her side without a sound.
Hesitant, Sesshoumaru took a few steps closer to her.
"Mother?" his voice was soft and quaking slightly. Her eyes were closed, but the corner of her mouth twitched; whether it was in a smile or a grimace, he didn't know.
"Go to your father, little one," she said faintly, "He will keep you safe."
It was then that Sesshoumaru's nostrils caught the scent of death emanating from the bloody body of his mother. This was new and strange to him, and he was scared. He took a few more steps closer, until his light shoes were soaked in the blood that was coating the ground. He kneeled, the knees of his pants becoming warm and staining crimson, and finally he laid down up against her front.
It was strange and surreal and he felt…empty.
The blood soaked entirely into his clothes and his hair, and his sensitive sense of smell caused him to pass out from the immense odor that wafted from it.
It was evening when Inutaisho found them.
Personally, I don't think this is the best oneshot I've ever written. But this is the first time writing these particular characters (well, it's not, but I haven't posted that story yet and I think the other is loads better) but it's not easy. Any constructive criticism you offer me is completely welcome. I might even take your suggestions and revamp this someday.