The Moon and the Sun
Disclaimer- I do not own Inuyasha. I only own the sun-inuyokai's, got it?
What is with all these weird Chapter Titles? I'm so psycho.
Chapter 5 – The Anatomy of a Flower
Hotaru was very alert as they worked their way west, taking in every new smell, sight, and sound as she got used to her new body and abilities. Maybe it was the fact that Sesshomaru walked around with sword or that she was riding a two-headed dragon, but she also had a hunch that she had not only traveled to a different country and gone though a dramatic change in appearance, but also back in time, and that knowledge excited her all the more.
Hotaru was not a Mary-Sue. In fact, she had had a very good life compared to a lot of other people. Her family may not have been rich, but they had a decent sized, comfortable house and always enough money to keep the bills paid. She and her parents never fought or argued, the only people she ever had fought with were her younger brother and sister. She wasn't an A+ student, but she had good enough grades to get her from class to class and she worked for her parents as their accountant.
Truly, she had had a pretty good life, and yet, somehow, she had been somewhat sad. Perhaps it was because of the lack of excitement in her life that other people experienced day to day and how she couldn't help but be polite no matter what or maybe it was even hereditary. Whatever the reason, it had completely vaporized now. Never before had she felt so content and unburdened.
She had taken her sketch pad out of her book bag and was drawing on it with a piece of charcoal that she carried with her as she and Rin rode on Ah-Un. She sketched a number of things that was she was seeing before her eyes, including all four (or was it five? She wondered) of her new companions.
Rin peeked over the young woman's shoulder at the sketches. "Wow, you're really good at making drawings." She said.
"Thank you."
"Hey, that's me!" She realized, pointing.
Hotaru smiled. "Yep."
"Can I see some of your other drawings?"
"Sure." She handed the child the sketch booklet, turning it back to the first page. "But only look at the ones with the green tabs on the side, okay? The red ones might be a little, ah… mature for you."
"Okay." She was silent for several minutes as she flipped through the pages. Jaken tried to glimpse too, trying and failing to remain subtle about it and hide his curiosity. "Wow, these are really good." Rin commented. "Is this really how you see things?"
" No, I see the world the same way you do, I just… feel it differently, and I draw what I feel."
Finally, she came across a picture that puzzled her. "Hey, what's this one?" She asked, holding the notebook out.
Hotaru took the notebook and glimpsed at the picture. "Ah, yes, I remember this one. It was an illustration for an essay I wrote. The tall, lithe creatures are Dryads, the spirits of the trees. They take forms similar to us, but they are far more graceful and beautiful and tall. Here, I have them growing special plants that people like you and me grow out of. It's not based on real things, mind you; this picture is all imaginary. I was trying to show how that most people think that plants live and grow to serve them, but the way I see it is that the people are actually slaves for the plants instead."
"That's preposterous!" Jaken exclaimed, butting into the conversation. "Plants can't have people as slaves, it just doesn't work. Plants don't have minds or thoughts and they can't own property. Such an idea is completely ridiculous!"
Hotaru laid an inquiring eye on him. "Is that so? Some people spend their entire lives toiling, working, and striving to grow things like rice and soy. They break their spines making sure that the plants stay alive, healthy, and produce the most amount of food possible. They weed out the sickly or messed up ones, making sure that only the finest live on to produce new plants and sometimes people do so far as to breed the best of the best together themselves. And even when the people are long gone, the plants remain. Sounds like the life of a slave to me."
Jaken stared and stammered. "Well… but…yes, but… I mean… it's… it's not… plant's can't breed!" He managed to stammer out.
"Oh, no?" Hotaru asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No! They don't have, erm," he glanced over at Rin, choosing his words carefully, "Well, male or female body parts. And they certainly cannot experience, ah, romantic intimacy."
"I beg to differ. Plants can breed, just not in the same way creatures like us can." She reached up and plucked a flower off a branch as it passed overhead. She leaned down slightly, showing the bloom to the toad-yokai. Rin leaned over her shoulder, trying to get a good look herself. Using her little finger, Hotaru pointed out several parts of the flower.
"You see the clots of pollen, Jaken? Those are the male parts of the flower, and the pale stem in the middle is the female part. The petals are brightly colored because the plant wants to attract attention so that when something like a bug lands on the flower, some of the pollen gets stuck to it." She touched some of the pollen to demonstrate as it stuck to her finger. "When the insect goes to another flower, some of that pollen falls off or gets rubbed off on the female part." She brushed the pollen off on the pale stem. "When that happens, the pollen travels down the stem and into the unfertilized seeds, which begin to grow, then become true seeds that eventually fall off and create new little sprouts. You may not like flowers, Jaken, but they live and breathe for the sole purpose of creating offspring. It is the very meaning of their existence, just as it is the sole purpose of our lives."
"Now wait just a moment! It is not the sole purpose of my life! I live to serve Lord Sesshomaru!" He protested.
"For the time being, yes, but it all comes down to blood in the end. Could you die content knowing that your line has ended and there is no one left to carry your family name? I, personally, could, but then my outlook on life has always been a little odd compared to other people. With someone such as you, however, I doubt that is the case. At some point in your life you will wish to take a mate or fall in love or at least breed with someone who you deem worthy of bearing your offspring. It is something that cannot be helped, it is a trait we are all born with." She sat up straight and flicked the flower to the ground.
"Even me?" Rin asked with wide eyes.
Hotaru smiled softly and ran her fingers through the child's hair. "Yes, Rin, even you, though you don't have to worry about that for a long time. Not until you're grown up."
"You have a very interesting point of view of things." Sesshomaru said.
Hotaru looked din his direction. She hadn't even been aware that he had been listening. "Thank you, I suppose. Though you're not the first to say that."
"Have you ever been in love?" Rin asked with sparkling eyes. Jaken finally managed to stop gaping and "hmffed" at the child's question.
Hotaru's face saddened a little. "Once upon a time, yes. I was even younger than you when he first caught my eye, but he never acknowledged me, and after many years I gave up on him."
"Years? How long did you love him?"
The young woman thought for a moment. "Well, I developed a crush on him when I was only six or seven years old and it wasn't until I was fourteen that I finally gave up on him. I had given him a gift for his birthday and in turn he had his friends come up to me and make fun of me about it. I haven't been romantically attracted to anyone since."
Rin's mouth hung open slightly and a frown was on her face. "What a meanie! How could he do that to you? What a jerk! So he ruined love for you?"
Hotaru snorted softly, somewhat amused. "I guess you could say that. Though I think if the right person came along, I'd probably have a chance of falling in love again. It just depends on the person and how willing I am to lower the walls I've built around myself over the years."
Sesshomaru's eyes flickered back briefly. Walls… Why did that sound so familiar?
"You really are strange." Rin said innocently.
Hotaru smiled and rested a hand on Rin's dark hair. "True, but enough of these gloomy thoughts. They don't win wars, change the past, or write the stories I so cherish. Tell me, Rin, have you ever heard the story of The Lord of the Rings?"
.o0O0o. .o0O0o. .o0O0o. .o0O0o. .o0O0o. .o0O0o. .o0O0o. .o0O0o. .o0O0o. .o0O0o.
Well, at least he's cold again. He only had one line. ::sweat drop::
Oh, and yes, Sesshomaru and Rin talk like normal people in this fic. None of that 3rd person crap that makes them seem like mentally unstable weirdoes.
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I LOVE THE FLUFFY!!!!!!!