A/N: Thank you so much to Gayle Nightingale, Kai's the best, NikkiS71, fan, Hattaru, love crimson red ray88, Yueh16, Nat-chan-sama, ILSA1609, and Kia Landermoore for reviewing ^.^

Chapter 4 – Family History

"… because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places."

-Roald Dahl

...

"Inuyasha, kami help me, you better start explaining yourself fast," Miroku said through gritted teeth.

After getting lost twice and having to embarrassingly ask for directions to their room – Inuyasha's room – he finally made it back to his boyfriend. He had found Inuyasha in the exact state that he was in now - lying on the bed in his dinner clothes, staring moodily up at the ceiling.

Inuyasha glanced at him and didn't answer.

Miroku's hands balled into fists at his side.

"What do you want me to say, Miroku?" Inuyasha said at length.

"I want you to tell me why you stormed out of there like a little brat and humiliated me in front of everyone – "

Inuyasha sat up and frowned. "You wanna make this about you now?" he demanded. "Fine, let's talk about you! You couldn't wait for a couple of hours for me to explain things? You just had to go and ask my brother-"

Miroku blinked rapidly, incredulous. "I was making conversation! It's what you do when the tension's thick enough to cut with a knife, in case you didn't know! Pardon me for not guessing "what do you do" was a loaded question!"

"But don't you see how that looks?" Inuyasha exclaimed. "Now he'll-"

Inuyasha stopped himself, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes and looked at Miroku, he had a look in his eyes that made Miroku suddenly uncomfortable.

"Can't you guess what he does, Miroku?" Inuyasha asked, voice suddenly soft. Miroku swallowed nervously, licking his lips before answering.

"As a matter of fact, I can't," the monk retorted. "I'm sorry if that makes me an idiot, Inuyasha. I just haven't the faintest idea what a youkai Lord living in a mansion in the middle of the goddamn city in this day and age does."

Inuyasha looked away and ran a tired hand over his eyes. For some reason, Miroku felt a sharp stab of hurt.

He turned away from Inuyasha and sat down on one of the plush chairs, looking determinedly out the window and away from Inuyasha.

"I'm sorry," Inuyasha said finally. "He just... pushes all my buttons, alright?"

Hesitantly, Miroku turned a little towards him, trying to keep the hurt out of his eyes, but seeing the pitying look Inuyasha gave him in return, he was afraid the other man saw it anyway.

"I'll explain everything," Inuyasha said quietly.

A half hour later, Miroku was sitting on Inuyasha's bed, wearing Inuyasha's pewter pajamas, a steaming cup of cocoa in his hand.

Inuyasha had ordered him is own nightwear, but Miroku stubbornly refused to wear the exquisite silk garments, insisting he'd just borrow Inuyasha's until he had his own clothes back.

Inuyasha knew this wasn't a battle he should be fighting, knowing what was to come, and had only asked him hesitantly if he would be ok with ordering up something to eat and drink since they had both had hardly touched their dinner.

Since he was hungry too, Miroku had reluctantly agreed to a cup of cocoa and some snacks, although he darted into the bathroom when the servant knocked on the door. He wasn't ready to face anyone after the humiliation at the dinner table.

Miroku could sense the discussion that was to happen was going to be serious by the fact that Inuyasha didn't comment or tease him when he finally did come out of the bathroom. Instead, he just handed him an ornate mug that Miroku guessed cost more than his cell phone, and a plate full of cookies and assorted snacks Miroku didn't recognize.

Inuyasha plopped down on the soft bed, folding one knee under him, his own steaming cup of milk in hand. "I'm not sure how to start," he admitted, cupping the hot mug in both hands.

Miroku gave him a flat look, and the half-demon looked away, thinking.

"What do you know about youkai?" Inuyasha finally asked quietly, looking back at his boyfriend.

Miroku frowned into his cup. He knew a lot, theoretically. He had trained to be a monk. He knew what youkai were, the different kinds, the weaknesses of those different kinds, and how to beat them.

When he said this to Inuyasha, the hanyou gave him a strange look.

"Have you… met many youkai?" Inuyasha asked carefully.

"Well, yeah," Miroku said. "You know, the teller at my bank is a goat youkai, and a couple of the cashiers at the supermarket down our street, and there are a few working in the school-"

"No," Inuyasha interrupted. "I mean… have you known any youkai? As… more than acquaintances?"

"Not really," Miroku answered. "But you know how it is. They… mostly keep to themselves."

"I don't actually know how it is," Inuyasha said, smiling ruefully. "Hanyou are… a little ways down the ladder below youkai, in case you hadn't noticed."

Miroku frowned fiercely. "That's all bullshit and you know it. At least now, in this day and age-"

Inuyasha raised his palms conciliatorily. Normally, he found it heart-warming and adorable, hearing the monk's naive views on youkai-human relationships, but this wasn't the time.

"I'm not tryin' to argue," he said, trying to placate the monk. "What I was getting at is… "

He took a deep breath and looked away. "God, I don't know how to say this."

"What is it, Inuyasha? You're scaring me a little," Miroku admitted.

When Inuyasha met his eyes again, his own were determined. "Monk, let me just start by sayin' that… things aren't always how they look. I guess you know this better than regular humans, but still, a… lotta things are happenin' right in front of your eyes that you can't even imagine."

"What are you talking about?" Miroku frowned.

"Youkai aren't… as powerless and scattered as you'd think."

Miroku stared. "I know that. Of course they aren't. They can do anything they want to too. Just the other day, there was a story in the news about this young youkai boy who-"

"Dammit monk, that's not what I'm talking about," Inuyasha exploded. "I'm sayin' they don't need your pity as much as you'd think. Youkai society is alive and kickin'... in fact, they pull the strings behind a lot of human places of power."

Miroku stared at him incredulously for a moment before starting to laugh. When Inuyasha just looked at him in all seriousness, Miroku stopped, now deeply unsettled.

"Inuyasha, don't tell me you buy into those conspiracy theories," Miroku frowned.

"It's true," Inuyasha said quietly. "And the reason I know is… I grew up in the house from where the strings get pulled."

"You – what… But that's ridiculous," Miroku said, "You're trying to tell me that… that youkai have some kind of secret rebellion going against the humans, and that your family is.. is some kind of mafia?"

Inuyasha made a despairing sound. "No, monk, that's not what I'm sayin' at all. We're not some kind of Godfather-style family."

"Then what?" Miroku asked.

"Dammit, Miroku, youkai aren't rebelling. Because they don't need to rebel."

Miroku still looked like he was floundering and Inuyasha realized he had to get at this another way. Inuyasha looked at him thoughtfully. "You teach history at your school right?" he asked.

Miroku blinked rapidly, trying to now catch hold of this line of thought. He opened his mouth to ask some questions, but then closed it and nodded hesitantly, absently hovering his hand over his own mug to feel the steam on the palm of his hand.

"So you know how… things used to be? How it was before humans took over?"

Miroku frowned. "Well, not much is known about that time, is it?"

Miroku tried to remember what he'd studied. The demon race had once been all-powerful, menacing humans with their ruthless ways. That was the time when monks and priestesses were also at the height of their power, humanity's only hope against the menace and power of youkai. Then humans started making technological advances, and the youkai were defeated. There were some legendary battles documented over the ages, but historians suspected a lot of them were embellished by fairy tales, so it was almost impossible to know what had actually happened. All that was known for sure was the result, which was that youkai had been relegated to the fringes of society now and they survived more or less at the pleasure of humans.

"But yeah, I know what you're talking about," he said finally. "They were constantly fighting wars and terrorizing humans."

Inuyasha nodded. "And it didn't work out because they were power-hungry and dumb and violent and they weren't organized. And humans were. They figured out a way to work together and ousted the youkai from power."

"Exactly," Miroku frowned. "And then they were the ones oppressed. They spent centuries being treated like dirt by humans, even after they long since lost their violent tendencies."

Monk training involved living among them for a while, learning their habits and their ways. He'd got his training in a far removed little village in the country where the long arm of the law barely reached, and people were pretty much left to fend for themselves. He'd watched a moderately powerful youkai thief being systematically captured and killed by humans. He'd watched their eyes as they had stoned him to death while he struggled to get out of the trap they'd made just for him. He'd seen entire groups of youkai getting gunned down like dogs when they wandered out in the evening, when it was forbidden for youkai to go out in groups of more than three. He had heard of atrocities committed against them in youkai prisons. And this was now, when awareness was just being raised about compassionate treatment about them was rising.

"Laws were different for them," Miroku said softly. "They were punished more harshly, and the punishment for killing youkai, even now, isn't the same as killing a human. Maybe they're now getting their feet under them and finding a way to survive in the human regime. And we're now just getting around to somewhat treating them as – as equals-"

"Monk," Inuyasha said quietly. "They aren't trying to find a way to exist in the human regime. They have their own regime… and my brother is at the head of it."

Miroku smiled, and in his face, there was sadness and an odd kind of relief. "You said it yourself, Inuyasha. The youkai met their downfall because they couldn't work together. Even if I wanted to believe this cockamamie story of yours, unfortunately, I know enough about youkai that there is no way they're going to just all agree to be under the rule of one youkai."

Miroku took a deep breath. "Look, I'm not saying Sesshoumaru's not an important man. I mean, clearly, he does something that's very… lucrative to be living like this. But I'm sorry, I just can't believe he's some kind of new-age youkai leader."

Inuyasha laughed humorlessly. "Oh, he's not new-age, monk. He's the oldest kind you'll find. The old, old kind."

Miroku gave him a watery, disbelieving smile in return, and Inuyasha's smile tightened.

"Miroku, right before youkai lost power, there was a youkai who had brought all of Japan under one rule," Inuyasha continued. "This was just a little before humans started gaining power and the youkai kingdom crumbled."

"Sure," Miroku said, "He's called the phantom beast. What was his name?"

Inuyasha was pointedly silent for a bit. Miroku frowned, oblivious, staring into his cup of cocoa.

"I can't remember," he said after a few moments. "But he was called the General… the dog… general…"

He trailed off, face paling slowly at the look on Inuyasha's face.

"He was my father," Inuyasha said quietly. "Our father. Mine and Sesshoumaru's."

Miroku had to set the cup of cocoa down on the table next to the bed, his hand was trembling so much.

"You – you're telling me… you're telling me that you're Lord Inu no Taisho's…but that's not possible," he said desperately, and a little hysterically. "That's not possible. There's no mention of Inu no Taisho having any children. He's… he's just a myth!"

Inuyasha remained said nothing. Miroku searched his face wildly for any sign that he was kidding. But now, all he could see were his features, the amber eyes, and he remembered Sesshoumaru's features. The purple stripes… he'd seen those purple stripes before.

And suddenly, an image in a scroll came back to him, of an armoured youkai with long silver hair tied back… with purple stripes on his face, and a legendary sword in his hand.

Miroku thought he might get sick right there on the bed.

A/N: Please review or comment and let me know what you think ^.^