There was an odd atmosphere when Sesshomaru arrived at the hanyo's village where he'd left Rin.
Even Jaken noticed it, which meant that it was more than a little blatant.
Unfortunately for the toad, it had also resulted in a large lump on his head for the decibel he'd used to demand rather loudly that the humans return his lord's ward from the horrible village.
Sesshomaru decided against finding Rin right away. He wanted to determine what was going on in InuYasha's village and see if it was prudent to allow Rin to continue to reside there.
The villagers may have grown used to his visits over the years, but they had enough intelligence to give him a wide berth whenever he visited—especially if Rin was not around to stay his hand.
He would not kill the humans who resided with Rin unless she came to harm in their care... but that did not mean he wasn't tempted.
He investigated casually, walking around as though he had no interest in anything. The villagers did their best to ignore him but showed no unusual fear or direct source of unease and so he slowly eliminated them as the cause of tension.
The older priestess where Rin resided was next but though her age seemed to be weighing more heavily on her body, he saw no signs of the tension that was rampant throughout the village.
He found InuYasha's friends and their small children but they, too, did not seem uneasy enough to be the source. There was a minor sense of frustration between the mated couple, but it wasn't enough to cause the rest of the village to be so uneasy and tense.
He then sought out his infernal half-brother. If the rest of the village was absolved of any guilt, that meant his idiot half-brother was responsible.
Sesshomaru flexed his claws as they flowed a faint green gleam. It had been awhile since his last decent fight—and loath as he was to admit it but the hanyo had become a decent enough of a sparring partner over the years. Not that he'd utter the words aloud and prop up the hanyo's already overinflated ego.
He stopped when he heard the conversation inside and felt the friction of his half-brother's priestess's reiki rushing against his.
Her irritation rubbed against him the wrong way, like a cat being pet in the wrong direction, and it prevented him from moving as his lip curled.
The pause was enough for him to pick up on the conversation taking place inside.
"Keh! Then leave! See if I care!"
He heard the hanyo stomp around the hut.
"InuYasha! That's not what I meant and you know it." The priestess sounded exasperated but also tired, giving him the impression that they had been discussing this topic for some time.
InuYasha huffed as Sesshomaru moved closer to the door in curiosity.
"You're still my friend," he heard the priestess say quietly. "I still care about you."
"But it's not enough, isn't it?" InuYasha asked quietly, and from Sesshomaru's new, closer vantage point he could see the hanyo by the front entryway, hands tucked into his sleeve as he kicked the ground. "Don't you see how hard I've been working to make this right, Kagome? I... I know it was hard on you with Kikyo and all—"
Sesshomaru couldn't see the priestess but her reiki seemed to pause in its fluctuations.
"I know," she replied, her voice cracking. "I know, InuYasha. I don't know what to say. I don't even know when things changed. I just know that they did."
"I would do anything for you, Kagome. I know that ain't always been good to you, but I'm working hard now. Think about that." The hanyo's tone had become pleading and Sesshomau's lip curled at the idea of his father's exalted blood begging a human not to throw him away.
To think our line has stooped so low. He ran a hand through his hair to quell his irritation.
"You have tried," the priestess's voice pleaded with her companion to understand. "I'm really sorry. I don't want to hurt you. I'll go visit Shippo for awhile, give us both some space to think—"
"Do what you want, wench. You always did." The hanyo stomped out the door. "But don't expect me to be sitting here waiting for you when you come crawling back!" he turned to shout before he stalked off.
Sesshomaru narrowly managed to avoid dodge his half-brother.
"Get out of my way, ya bastard. Rin ain't even here tonight," InuYasha snapped as he walked past.
"Perhaps you should avoid priestesses," Sesshomaru commented lightly, a little impressed at how his half-brother was able to keep rein in his yoki and his temper when he sensed both were wanting to explode with rage. "It seems your fate runs short with them."
"Fuck off," InuYasha snarled. "Or I'll give you the fight you're begging me for."
Sesshomaru raised a brow. If he let the hanyo continue on in his current mood, the boy was wont to attack anything that irritated him, given enough reason.
Rin was in the direction the hanyo was headed and for that reason alone, he decided to indulge in a sparring match with InuYasha.
"Very well." Sesshomaru pulled Tenseiga from its sheath. It wouldn't damage the hanyo more than bruising from force, but it would be more than enough to deal with InuYasha. "At the very least you shall provide some entertainment."
That set the hanyo off, as he'd known it would. InuYasha charged, claws flexing, but he swiped at the air where Sesshomaru had been.
He charged at Sesshomaru again, swiping, and again Sesshomaru dodged, enjoying the little game of cat and mouse as his half-brother growled.
On and on they went, InuYasha too slow to do more than catch his elder brother's wind, but Sesshomaru was impressed at the hanyo's control. So far, he had not given into his yokai blood.
But would the hanyo continue to act this if Sesshomaru attacked?
Testing the idea, the next time he dodged he hit InuYasha squarely across the back with his blade with enough force to cause the hanyo to stagger.
"Keh! Is that the best you got?!" InuYasha snarled.
Sesshomaru raised a brow as he launched another attack and again, despite the heavy blow to the hanyo's side, the hanyo remained in control.
If the fight continued on like this, it would never end, and Sesshomaru had better things to do than babysit the hanyo until his priestess changed her mind.
"You aren't giving it your all," he observed, watching his half-brother move slower than normal on his next swipe. "No wonder the priestess left you."
That triggered InuYasha's rage but instead of charging at his half-brother, his ears flattened as he charged at his own home instead.
The fool.
Resigned, he moved to save the priestess from the shower of wood that would no doubt follow. Rin would never forgive him if he did not.
He dragged her out, ignoring her protests and the way she squirmed against him.
Moments later, the hut was destroyed by InuYasha's claws.
"You destroyed our house?!" she demanded, glaring at the hanyo. "And you let him?" she added, turning to glower at him.
"I was under no obligation to stop him," Sesshomaru pointed out as he released the priestess from his hold, wondering why he even bothered to defend himself in the first place.
The hanyo at least looked contrite as his temper faded. "Keh. We'll just sleep with Sango and Miroku until we rebuild it."
"InuYasha it's almost winter!" She threw her hand out. "We don't have time to rebuild!"
Sesshomaru was fascinated by the faint blush on his half-brother's face. Who would have thought that the hanyo was capable of humility?
"InuYasha, if you're trying to convince me of your maturity for a relationship, this right here, right now is not helping your case." She folded her arms across her chest as InuYasha's ears flattened. "And don't think I don't know how you goaded him, Sesshomaru. He would have tried to walk it off if you hadn't interfered."
Sesshomaru had to admit she had a logical argument, though he maintained his belief that InuYasha would have gone off on someone else if he hadn't interfered.
"I am not going to bother Sango and Miroku all winter and I'm not going to be homeless." She glowered at them both as if daring them to disagree and Sesshomaru himself impressed by the alpha she saw herself as. "This is your fault and the two of you are going to fix it. Either you're building me a new home, now, or you better find me one, even if that means living with you, Sesshomaru."
Sesshomaru refused to show any outside sign of how alarmed her statement made him but his half-brother didn't bother. The hanyo actually blanched.
"I'm afraid that is not possible, priestess," Sesshomaru replied before InuYasha could open his mouth and make things worse.
"And why is that?" she demanded raising a brow in what he suspected was a mimicry of his own actions.
"This one does not currently have what humans would consider a home and instead travels in winter and seeks shelter only when necessary."
When she looked ready to argue, he added, "Rebuilding your home before the first snow would likewise be impossible; this one can smell the snow on the air even now."
"Then find me a place," she said through clenched teeth.
"Keh. Don't bother with the bastard." InuYasha snorted. "Like he knows of any places humans could live. That's why he dumped Rin here in the first place."
If only to prove the hanyo wrong, Sesshomaru said, "That is not entirely correct, InuYasha. This one does, in fact, know of a place where the priestess could winter in relative comfort."
When both the priestess and his half-brother gaped at him, he shrugged one shoulder. "His honorable father's shiro is still standing, last he heard. It would be suitable for the priestess."
Sesshomaru should have been bothered by the idea of the priestess in his father's abandoned shiro, but he wasn't. Perhaps it was because he himself had grown up there before his father had tried to bring another human to live there: InuYasha's own mother.
Later, he had left the human woman and her half-breed son there because it kept them away from him, but he'd always resented their taint.
Yet he oddly found that he did not mind her presence. He decided not to question it for now; it was always something he could reflect on later.
"Well, it's a home and right now I'm not picky so if it's available, we're going," the priestess replied firmly to the unspoken invitation. "We might as well take Rin with us, too."
That Sesshomaru had no issue with so he simply nodded.
InuYasha began protesting the moment she agreed but Kagome threatened to get the beads back from Kaede and sit him until he reached the United States of America if he didn't stop.
And in the end, that was how he ended up returning to his father's shiro after more than fifty years—and with humans to boot.
Oh, how his father must be laughing at the irony now.