Disclaimer: C'mon! By now everyone knows that I don't own anything besides my Fluffy™ blankets and plush toy! Geez… And yes, I couldn't be a happier author! I take my reviews to bed at night and cuddle wuddle with them like I would Sesshy. (okay…maybe I said too much…?)

And SO sorry guys! First I got all depressed from reading a LONG angsty fic and couldn't find inspiration to write. Then a friend taught me how to RP and that helped, but studies began and…blah blah. Hopefully this chap isn't too dull; and I won't not-end this fic. I just kind of take time to update now. (sorriezzz)

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Chapter 14: Letting Go, Part One

Rin was squatted on the floor, searching for the best title all four of them could watch together on the girls' big screen TV. Unbeknownst to her, she gave everyone a clear view of her tight rear end because of the position she was in (and a little help from the hot pants she wore), and Inuyasha tried his best to pick at rug threads on the carpet to take his mind off of their firm roundness while Sesshomaru eyed him every so often to dare him to even look at Rin—specifically her butt— wrongly.

Kagome came up behind her, bending over. "So, what 'we got?" Rin showed her some of the movies she thought were interesting enough. Kagome read each one and her eyes grew in disillusion. How could she have let Rin pick out what they were going to watch with those youkais over there!

Beauty and the Beast; E.T.: The Extra-TerrestrialGhostbusters ; The Lord of the Rings; all had something to do with aliens or mythical creatures fighting against humans and/or ending in awkward situations together. Not something that could actually take your mind off the tenseness already existent between the two species in the room. Better leave sci-fi and fairy tails for some other time…

"Rin, are you dense?" Kagome sighed and decided to pick out the DVD herself. Looking through the cases in each categorized shelf, she made out to find the right one suitable for the occasion. Sharlette's Web; Babe; Homeward Bound; no—no talking animals for today, either. They had more of it than they could chew lately.

Miracle on 42nd Street; The Nutcracker; Passion of the Christ; definitely not something religious or Christmas-y for the demons to watch… They might think they were being exercised or something. That, and Santa wasn't a good roll model for them because he portrayed an old, big, fat guy sneaking into people's houses at night to leave behind unmarked packages for little kids to open without the consent of their legal guardians, which, in the long run, could give them ideas...

Child's Play; Children of the Corn; Texas Chainsaw Massacre; The Ring; Saw; Bunnies gone Wild… "Huh?" Kagome took out the last one from the shelf, looking oddly at the partially naked women on the cover with little bunny ears. "What's this doing here?"

Rin shrugged. "Dunno. It's possible that it came over with the rest of the DVDs when Miroku brought them over." That's right; the perv had let them borrow most of his collection of movies. Hence the wide selection of films and that last, corny recording of what seemed to be something that Sango would definitely like to know about later. Women had to stick together, after all. Kagome shook her head and resumed her search. Movies with tons of blood and graphic, horrendous death in them were not something she wanted to watch with the battle-armed assassins over there. To give them any more tips on how they could kill them slowly and painfully would be suicidal. "But why not this classic, eh Kags?" Rin suggested. She held "Troy" in her hand. The older girl thought about it for a short while.

"It's a chick flick, Rin. Guys don't like that." Expecting to hear Rin's objection to her declaration and getting it, Kagome began to remind her of all the semi-nude scenes with Orlando Bloom and Brat Pitt, using her world-renown knowledge on Snoop-dog talk to get it across. Rin shrugged.

"Well, yeah, those are the best parts!" The older girl sighed and shook her head, for once silently agreeing with her younger counterpart. But the movie had a few major flaws to it, too. It featured fighting, blood, and gruesome death—all things she wanted to avoid from a movie right now. So Kagome continued to convince her of choosing another movie in that strange tongue, nodding her head to the side, signaling the men in the room every once in a while, indicating that it was because of them that they should rather stick to more PG related topics.

The guys looked at Kagome who they knew was talking in a different language just to keep them from understanding her 'secret' message in curiosity, discomfort, and resentment. The girls had done it for a while now, discovering unique ways in which they could get around the fact that dog demons where really bad at giving people some privacy. They'd come to write down their conversations on paper, speak in strange words like they were doing now, tap the furniture in interesting rhythms in a code known as "Morse's" and had done pretty unusual signs with their arms and hands while mimicking meanings, something called sign-language, all apparently ways of communication. They hated whenever they did something like that, for they knew they were talking about them right in front of their faces. But they had to give it a hand to them for coming up with ways to keep their thoughts secluded from the youkais, even if it was so God damn rude. Somehow the women showed more competence than them in tactics and team work ever since their transformation. It was embarrassing.

Rin sighed. "Fo' shizzle. But all that's left is 'Gigli' and I don't want to scar the guy's for life like that, this being their first movie experience and all…" Kagome agreed with her and soon Rin had gone into her room to look for her own flicks, coming back with the perfect one. Kagome looked at it and agreed, and then she made way for the popcorn, Rin taking on the soda.

The women dashed in different directions while the brothers exchanged glances, wondering just what the other two were planning…

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Not long after the window drapes were closed and all lights went out to darken the room its best, the disk was loaded into the DVD. Inuyasha sat cross-legged on the couch's left hand rail while Kagome sat on the cushions to his right, Rin farther down. Sesshomaru had somehow been convinced to sit close to the furniture but remained on the floor a few feet away from Rin so that he could watch too.

When everyone was set the boys watched Rin throw some popcorn into the air from her giant bowl, catching it with her awaiting mouth, while Kagome turned on the DVD with her remote.

The inus raised their eyebrows in fascination as the strange box's screen flickered on, colors of all kinds flashing in their faces. Words and images started popping in and out, and Kagome could see Inuyasha actually turning to leave the room, startled by the animations. She got a hold of his arm before he could get away.

"Inuyasha, don't worry; it's just the T.V." He looked at her like she was the only one not noticing the potential dangers of the freak show in front of them. She smiled back, explaining to both him and Sesshomaru that this was like a magical device that told stories of all kinds within it. It settled them down a little, though more questions erupted when little people started appearing on the screen, which the dogs thought had been bewitched beings placed into a curse. That was even harder to explain.

All in all they managed to calm them down again, going so far as to bribing the hanyou into distracting himself with a bit of popcorn. Soon he hogged it all to himself, although he barely ate much because of the salt. The girls just rolled their eyes and continued watching the show while he played with it in his hold.

While the images ran through their eyes, Rin and Kagome sang a little song here and there, laughing at a joke one time and cooing to a handsome man in another. And just when things seemed all too peaceful, a darting UFO flew across the room, pecking the lord on his royal forehead. He flinched and turned to Inuyasha who was looking around the room innocently, whistling. The young women noticed something had disturbed the Daiyoukai but thought nothing of it, even though they suspected that it had something to do with the hanyou's suspicious act. They thought that if they said nothing, maybe whatever it was that was bothering him would just go away…

They turned to the TV screen once again and started to hum a recognizable tune playing on it cheerily when another mysterious speck flew again across their faces, this time getting caught by a very large claw before it hit Sesshomaru on the head again. They watched in bewilderment as it began disintegrating from a silent, green smoke-screen that emanated from the open palm of its owner before discovering that it had been a popcorn flake. Suddenly giving the hanyou food that was commonly used as projectiles wasn't such a good idea.

"Do that again and I'll dig my poison nails into your throat, half-breed."

Kagome turned to said person, noticeably angered. He instead was wearing a very smug smirk on his lips. "Inuyasha! Stop throwing popcorn!" The guilty mutt feh'd, and with a tweak of his ear sat back properly again, obeying like a good boy should. Rin eyed him, ready to counter attack if he threw something else at her dear Sesshy-kins.

The screen flashed for some time then, more music playing. Everyone seemed to relax a bit, but the tugging feeling that it wasn't going to last long keeping them from enjoying their pre-show. They were right, and not a minute later yet another flake had decided to take a kamikaze ride in the air, directed towards the older youkai. The teenagers saw it hover over them as if in slow-motion, unable to prevent the inevitable. Both opened their mouths into a big "O" in the spur of the moment, as if trying to tell the flake to turn back before it was too late, to think about his wife and kids before deciding to end up as a pawn in this whimsy sibling rivalry.

The flake didn't listen.

But the very unexpected happened; it was shot back with the lash of a fierce, light-green whip, sending it darting back toward the unsuspecting hanyou as he tried to dodge it with a matrix-like bend backwards. Somehow Sesshomaru had possession of weapons other than swords it seemed, the girls learned. The action proved to be too slow for the flake that threatened him and soon the room was echoing the whimpering cries of a hound as time seemed to run its normal course again.

Inuyasha clamped a claw over his eye, drops of blood dripping to the carpet. "You…You…you poked my eye out!" he snarled. He stirred a little, pointing a shaky claw at his sibling. "You son of a bitch actually poked my eye out!" For once, or at least since their stay at the home, Sesshomaru smirked. Really, truthfully with-all-his-heart smirked. Inuyasha growled menacingly, ears pointing backwards like a mad dog would to its targeted prey. He barely got out of his seat, though, when Kagome held him back, standing up in the middle of the two.

"That's it!" she screamed. "No more commercials for the both of you!" Remote in her hand, she made to click for the menu button.

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After handing out ice packs to hanyous with bleeding eyes and tens of questions later about what that cold bag even was and a few more on just how did this 'magical box' contraption work, they were finally into the beginning of the movie, silence not reigning as golden as it should be.

"Hey…I kind of liked that corn-pop thingie."

"Inuyasha, just stay put," Kagome said, eyes glued on the screen. "No one's giving you anymore popcorn already. You'd only waste it like you did last time."

"Uh-uh," he shook his head defiantly like a kid.

"Shh! The movie's on! Be quiet for once, will ya!" she growled.

"Kagome, stop trying to make me shut up!" he hollered back at her, inching closer.

"Inuyasha! Kagome! I can't enjoy the movie when you two are fightin', 'kay! Just be quiet the both of you!"

"…Fine." Kagome nodded in agreement with Rin, her eyes never leaving the show, for Inuyasha wasn't even honored the privilege of her sight while her movie was on.

"Humph. Fine…little miss whiny," the young dog said under his breath, as if resentful for the chiding.

Rin's face turned in a flash to him, taking on the threat. "What did you call me, fuz head?"

It was Kagome's turn to snap at them now. "Rin, just ignore him! And you, stop yappin' or else you won't get to see the movie!"

"Humph. Fine!"

"Fine!"

And so…when the title had finally decided to make its appearance on screen…

"'Spider man'? Who in heck calls himself 'Spider man'?"

"It's Spider-man," Rin corrected the ever-so-talkative half-demon, for the umpteenth time now.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome put her finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet.

"…Kagome?"

"What?"

"…Can I have more popcorn, please?"

"Argh!"

"Not after you kept bothering my Sesshy you won't!" Rin said back.

"I will not repeat myself again. I am 'Sesshomaru', girl—not anything derived from, close to, or less than that. Get it right," the lord stated with his usual baritone stoic ness.

"But…but," she whined.

"Rin, stop bothering the demon lord!" This isn't going good, Kagome sighed.

"Kagome, what's that?"

"Oh! A camera, Inu," Rin answered him in a jump, her mood taking on another swing.

"Oh," he nodded, remembering that those were the things that took 'pictures' of unmoving scenes.

"See, Lord Sesshomaru! Those are the glasses I was telling you about! You see, in the movie they're part of the character, but in real life the actor doesn't need them!" Rin pointed out Peter Parker's character.

"…Hn."

"And Kagome?"

An audible sigh. "…Now what?"

"…Nothing…"

"Inuyasha! Stop interrupting the movie!" He made it seem like watching a movie was a bad idea after all.

"What! It's boring anyways!"

"Hn." A grave voice accented. "Humans are such tedious creatures."

"Grr…Sesshomaru!"

"Inuyasha, just sit—"

"Argh!" Thud!

"Uh…Oops. Sorry! I didn't mean to do that!"

"Why you little…." The action outside the screen kept getting better and better.

"Ooh, ooh! Look, look! The spider thing! Watch the spider thing!" a finger pointed in excitement.

"Rin, stay calm. I know this is your favorite part and all, but please stop bouncing on the couch."

"Oh. Sorry!"

"Grr…Wench! If you make me 'sit' one more time I'll…Hey…what's that spider doing…? What! Oh my kami…He's going to kill that human!"

"Inuyasha, calm down. No one's dying…yet…"

"And it's just a movie. It's not like any of this is real, so calm down, Inu."

"No, I know an incarnation of Naraku when I see one!" He growled an old battle cry, standing up that same second. The ice pack fell to the floor, his eye already healed. It had been just a small scratch, after all.

"Inuyasha! Put your sword down! Wait! ...Inuyasha!"

"Lord Sesshomaru, do something!"

"Hn."

"Uh…I don't like that look on your face," Rin gulped. "I-I mean, do something that doesn't involve killing him."

"…Hn," was her less-energetic reply to her second command.

"Wait! No fighting in the house, you two!" Kagome began, trying to prevent another fight as Sesshomaru stood up from his spot on the floor, claw on the hilt of his Tokijin.

"What! He started it, Kagome!" Inuyasha shot back, claw on the hilt of his own weapon, the television screen blinking in the background, forgotten.

Rin sighed. Being a dog owner sure was harder than she'd thought it would be… "Guys, don't fight each other! You're brothers! Bothers shouldn't fight with one another!" Said siblings looked at her weird as she waved her arms in the air like a maniac, trying to prevent the inevitable. They noticed she wasn't a good fight-breaker.

"Inuyasha, go and s-i-t on the couch, now, before I s-i-t you so many times you wished you never were born half dog!"

"Do not remind me of my family's blood being tainted by that disgrace, miko."

"Sesshomaru! Don't say such things to Inuyasha like that! If you don't have something nice to say, than don't say it at all!" Rin argued back, standing in front of him, playing the part of a defensive older sister, though she was clearly the youngest, in both mind and body.

Golden hues stared into chocolate ones. The first pair narrowed. "I follow orders from no one," Sesshomaru reminded. The girl's eyes slowly mimicked his, and her face mirrored that of his own, which was astounding, if she weren't using it against him in this argument that was making him hold back aggression, because it was with her. It must be all that 'acting' stuff, he reasoned. And he couldn't deny it—she was good. He'd have to get some pointers.

"Not while you live under our roof, you don't. So stop being so rude or else." His eyes narrowed even more dangerously at her.

"I believe you know not to whom it is you speak to," he challenged, closing in the space between them with a step forward.

Rin did the same, a hair's length further and they'd be touching noses. "That's a lot of talk for someone who doesn't know who I am, either." The male snarled, his deadly fangs slightly shining from under paled lips. Rin smirked deviously. "Two can play at that game."

Also forgotten in the background, Kagome and Inuyasha stared as the younger woman's life dangled dangerously between death and criminal murder. Their bickering was left aside for the moment, and all they could do was watch and hope that the Jewel still held that damned barrier around, somewhere. Apparently it hadn't been doing its job lately.

But then something came across his mind, and Inuyasha was starting to believe that either he was being delusional, or that the one he called "brother" was actually not his brother. Well, only one way to find out.

Walking over to where the two were having their staring contest, he took his place next to them, ending up as a third head in an estranged circle of wits. Sesshomaru was the first to dart his glaze away from the silent fight, apparently thinking that his younger brother's intrusion of what little was left of his personal space was more tempting to kill first than the human in front of him that thought that poking his proud character was a good past time to have.

Inuyasha looked deep into his eyes, trying to find just what it was he was trying to look for. Sesshomaru made a low rumbling sound in his throat, clearly menacing the other mutt to back off. But the hanyou ignored this and put a claw to his chin in deep thought, smelling the air in front of him. He noticed that at that moment Sesshomaru's eyes widened to their original size, his snarling lip that once ran over a fang ceasing to move. Apparently he noticed what it was that Inuyasha had been looking for, and knew he'd just found it.

Damn hanyous and their stupid, stupid demonic inheritance.

Inuyasha smirked smugly. Yup. The smell was there alright.

The youkai lord was so close he could rip every and all trails of innards from his sibling's bowels, but knew that a lot of things stopped him from doing so, the first on that list being fried like yesterday's meal hanging like a 'beware' sign in the back of his head. If only he weren't so-- bah, he couldn't even come to say the word—of being purified he would have done a lot of things by now.

"You have something to say, Inuyasha?" he said slyly, trying to corner him into a menace. But the hanyou almost laughed. The poison spewing from those words assured him that even his brother knew what he knew now, and had just confirmed it.

"You…you actually like us, don't you?" The statement was so unexpected that the girls just had to gasp audibly, making the dramatic tense rise in the air. What in the world was going on?

Sesshomaru tried to remain as stoic as possible, though Inuyasha could still smell it on him. "You want us to think that you hate us and want to kill us, but the truth is that you really don't feel like that, do you?" Something flickered across his brother's dull eyes, and suddenly this profound finding was a lot more fun than he thought it could ever be. "Aha! I'm right, aren't I?" Inuyasha's grin couldn't be any wider.

Sesshomaru just stared. Maybe staring would make his stupid—but correct brother—go away, right?

The girls blinked. Everything about the two in front of them was confusing, even when they'd thought they'd learned all there was to them.

"Well?" Inuyasha seemed to want a confirming answer from the youkai. As if he was going to get one.

His throat was suddenly grabbed by a very powerful talon and soon Inuyasha was struggling to get its tight grip off of him. He swung his feet in the air, gasping for breath. The girls watched shocked as Sesshomaru's demeanor changed again to one of his more enraged person—er, demon, eyes not having to be blood-shot to make them frightening.

"You think that I would be so caring as I behead you in an agonizingly slow and painful death, brother?" he spat as he usually would before a good neck-slicing.

His prey barely held back his smirk. "If you were thinking of going through it, brother," he repeated in the same accusing tone, "then you'd be purified by the Jewel hundreds of times by now. That's why even though you make to 'attack' me, it doesn't go off anymore." The girls blinked, both baffled and confused. "Because although you do bite back," the meaning and reference being common nature to every inu-clan member, "your intentions are no longer evil—you are no longer a threat because you don't want to actually harm anyone anymore." That must have hit some cord inside of Sesshomaru for Inuyasha had to squirm desperately once the grasp on his neck tightened even more. Inuyasha tried laughing a little this time.

"Go ahead. I know you won't go through with it." Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes and by the smell of it, he was getting pretty angry. But still, Inuyasha noticed, there were no signs of actual homicidal attempts in it.

"Do it. I dare you to."

That was it. The last straw. The hand gripping his brother's neck thought to actually go through with the dare, and Inuyasha was starting to go red from the pressure to his flesh as the girls screamed for Sesshomaru to stop, but all he could do was imagine throwing Inuyasha to a wall, digging his sword into his guts, tearing him limb from limb, then grabbing what was left of the massacre and doing it again and again and again and again and...

The thought alone must have not been enough, for his brother's words were starting to reveal themselves as true. He hadn't been purified or electrified yet, and Sesshomaru still felt the power of the Jewel still surrounding them, meaning it was still in use.

Meaning—the all-mighty lord choked—that his bloody excuse for a sibling was talking sense. That deep down, he really wasn't going to kill anyone here. That deep down, he had grown to acknowledge these confusing, enraging, trouble-warming souls as things that were of relative normality in his day-to-day existence, as if it would be wrong to not have them there, clinging on to his dead heart like a wanting, racing through his cold veins like a need, playing with his once-relentless mind with hopes of renewed reason to live and making his oh-so prideful self no more thankful for it.

The Daiyoukai, tired of being tired of all this contradiction of his self and actions felt that that was excuse enough for having reason to truly kill someone here, and make it permanent.

"No Sesshomaru! Don't do it! Leave him alone!" the cries of the older human reached his ears. But the next were the ones that had a triggering effect on him.

"Please," she said, worry in her words, "you're hurting him!" Inuyasha squirmed in his grasp.

"Please… lord Sesshomaru," she pled again, eyes watered by upset, "don't hurt him." Rin's voice quivered and it brought his heart into unknown-pain. "I know you don't really want to. Please put him down," she trailed off, ready to break. Soul shuddering, he recognized her voice as that of a once-loved master. And the words—their meaning as if taken from a knowing scroll that affected him with strange sorrow from its pleading and stressed reasoning.

His hand started to shake, desperately ready to either kill and be killed or let go and retreat like a coward.

"No…Sesshomaru," her voice strum the air softer this time. "I know you're not like this. I know you wouldn't do this." As if she knew him! Bah! She'd be dead next! He would make sure of it!

"I…I'm sorry…" Something in him made him look toward her, catching her watery eyes with his own dry ones. "I'm… I'm sorry. I'm really sorry!" she half-whispered, half-screamed in her own confused state of wanting and needing and hurting.

He didn't know what to do except narrow his eyes out of custom, and then cock his head to the side ever so confused. Why was she sorry? He knew she would never have to be sorry for anything, anything… She had this all wrong. Or maybe…

He had it all wrong?

He shook his head. She confused him so much! Here he was, ready to snap off a head like a twig, and she was the sorry one. He growled.

Why did she confuse him so much!

…Damn.

Without a second thought Inuyasha was dropped to the floor in a disgraceful pile, crouching and wheezing for air while the youkai walked to the wall closest to him, punching it with all his fury, his fist bouncing back as a pink light rippled where he'd sunk his knuckles into, the tides slowly growing out until it disappeared. The Daiyoukai snarled in anger and depressed rage. Great. Not even the walls could be destroyed. Stupid, stupid, stupid Jewel! He'd destroy it, even if he had to rip Kagome's chest open to get to it!

..But he wouldn't. Even he knew he wouldn't go so low as to be as barbaric as to do such a thing, now, when even she, that wench of a pathetic-excuse-for-a-miko was part of his day-to-day existence, bringing relative normality into the silence that would no longer reign his new life of childish noise, unwanted-family, and pink, magical things that no one knows how to freaking use.

Kagome ran over to Inuyasha, seeing if she could help him with something as he clung to his neck and smoothed it all over, and Rin watched disturbed as her once best friend went behind the hall's corner, slamming a door behind him.

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Note: The scene the characters were watching was when glasses-wearing Peter Parker (future Spiderman) was with his camera at a lab as a photographer; later one of the spider specimens bit him, inducing him with the power.

Too long to fit into one chapter, I'm resulting to writing 'parts' again; though after number two, things WILL get less stressful and dramatic. : D

Disclaimer on all the movies which I obviously don't own. I also would love it if someone showed me how to speak in Snoop-Dog talk. I had this little thing planned for the fic in there, but it sounded so 'blah' that I took it off.

Please leave a review!