Yaoi: Happy New Year ^_^ Decided to start the new year with an update so do enjoy, I'm sorry I keep flip flopping around with writing styles but I'm still trying to figure out which one I like. Anyways enjoy.
After a short rest in a loving dog pile, the trio set off back on the beaten trail towards the western palace. The brothers walked closer together as Inuyasha's hand was intertwined with that of Shippo's. There was a calm peace within the group as the trio passed another range of shorter mountains.
Trekking up the mountain was a simple affair, Shippo leaning against Inuyasha while he and Sesshoumaru talked about the ways of the palace and whether or not Inuyasha could merge well with the life of a prince.
"I do believe that you would be able to adapt well to the situation. It seems to me that you have a highly adaptive nature."
"Keh kind of had to with ogres, tengus, and huge ass snakes trying to kill you every other day. Though it seems like nothing compared to living in such a….stuffy place like a palace where, last I saw it, everyone wanted to kill me for getting the old man killed or just for the fact that I wasn't a full-fledged demon. Seems to me from my own experience that palaces or large manors are filled with more crooks and scum than there are swords in an armory."
There was silence after that, both brothers not sure how to continue from there.
Inuyasha thinking he over stepped his boundaries, while Sesshoumaru now racked with guilt for leaving an almost infantile Inuyasha to fend for himself not long after his mother's passing.
The Daiyoukai, had tailed Izayoi after the burial rites for his father was completed, he came face to face with the woman as she packed all her belongings from the palace and made to leave with infant Inuyasha within the hour.
If it wasn't for him seeing his father dying in the snow, the mansion the ignorant human samurai stowed away his pregnant female in, still burning and broken around him, wishing his oldest son farewell giving him a bloodied scroll proclaiming him the new Daiyoukai and his final wish to look over his family. The first and only tear he'd ever shed in front of his father was harshly wiped away as he coldly promised to watch over his family.
If it wasn't his father's dying wish or if his own honor wasn't so concrete he would have gutted the woman as she walked herself back to the castle and then proceeded to both care for the infant hanyou as well as weep for his father. Though he had to admit that it's no easy trek back to the castle from the mansion they fled from, so to make it from there to the castle in one piece was a mighty feat for a just birthed mother, a human princess no less, and an infant.
She was a strong woman that didn't cower away as she watched Sesshoumaru watch her pack. At first he believed it was insolence that kept her from cowering, surely her lover's oldest son would not harm his younger brothers mother? However, when she spoke ,as she tied the last bundle of clothing together, sitting beside a sleeping Inuyasha she looked him in the eye as she spoke.
"I know you detest me Sesshoumaru, for what has come to pass in your life truly has been my fault."
"Though this Sesshoumaru does not disagree with your statement, what could you possibly know of this Sesshoumaru human."
Huge deep violet eyes looked into hardened golden ember, Izayoi smiled as she continued.
"Though I could never wish to see an age as old as your father or yourself, I know that in your world you are little older than an adolescent, a young man now without a father, that is the only thing that I regret that I have done to you Sesshoumaru. Your anger is justified and I have no right to ask for forgiveness nor do I even have the right to talk of your father to you, but know that I loved your father more than life itself and if I could have perished in that mansion instead of him I'd trade it so in a heartbeat, a child may find it hard to live without a mother but a boy can't learn how to be a man without his father.
Though you are on the right path to be one Sesshoumaru your path is now blocked by a darkness I have brought upon you, your brother whether you love him or not will never experience what you have had."
Sesshoumaru almost sneered though her words were hitting very close to his heart his anger blocked everything from reaching it.
"And what pray tell is that human?"
"The love of a father. I have no doubt in my mind that your father would have loved to watch his sons grow together; to become stronger together, to rule the west together. However, I'm nowhere near naive enough to think it will happen, not for some time at least."
Looking down at her precious first and only child her smile fell away, gently picking up the infant, cradling him to her chest, gently stroking an triangular ear as the infant slept peacefully.
"Nor am I under the illusion my son will have a good life, with your father alive he would have had the chance at a better one but with him gone my boy will struggle unyielding pain and suffering that was not his doing. As a mother I nearly die every moment pf every day thinking of the pain I know my son will go through because of the paths his father and I took to get him here, as well as the evil and hate that plague these lands that I as a human cannot help to shield him from. He will still be very young when I leave this world, whenever that shall be and I know the world will eat away at his heart every day that I'm not there and nothing he sees will have a shred of kindness and love for him.
That is the fate I have chosen for my son, that is the only other thing that I regret after everything that has happened, I will not dishonor your fathers actions or his love for me by wishing none of this had ever come to pass but I only wish that the outcome was different that I was gone instead of him so that Inuyasha could still know love and that you would not lose sight of it. I will do what I can for my son while I am able but once I'm gone he will be in the worlds care and I only hope that he becomes stronger and fights the darkness of these times and learns to love on his own. I know you find it frivolous to wish for but for a mother as saddened as I am it is all I am capable of."
"You're right it is."
With that Sesshoumaru turned on his heel and left not seeing the blue flash that glowed in Izayoi's eyes as he did so, though he did hear, "things will change my Yasha things have yet to change, and all for the better." Sesshoumaru scoffed as he walked down the hall.
Not long after that they two were gone, Izayoi left the palace with her son strapped to her front and bundles of her own personal items strapped to her back as she regally left the palace grounds, the grace of a princess never leaving her.
Sesshoumaru didn't make sure she made it back to her lands once she left the palace gates, nor did he care to keep tabs on her and her child as the years went by, twenty to be exact, but when news spread of her dying though no healer could figure out the cause he felt compelled to go see the pair. By the time he saw her he knew she didn't have much time left in this world.
He made sure to stay clear of the human guards as well as the half-breed, he wanted to see her and her alone. Once the child was harshly guided from the room and healers took their leave, and Izayoi was left alone in her room, he made his move into it. Though racked with an unknown sickness she was still as her name described her as, even Sesshoumaru was no fool as to how beautiful the female was.
She didn't even open her eyes as he stealthily walked into her room.
"I had no idea you cared enough about us to come see me die Sesshoumaru?"
Halting in step he wondered briefly at how one such as her could be aware of his presence.
"I am a woman of many gifts, as well as many curses, and I'm afraid I have no time to tell you of them all."
There was a smile in her voice as well as a touch of one on her face as she said this, though her eyes never opened.
"My time is near, Sesshoumaru, it's quite fitting that I'd die of a broken heart, I do believe I've proven you right that humans are weak and frail creatures. I've already lost the love of life and these past twenty years have been a struggle to survive without him and it seems that the heartbreak has finally caught up with me. Though it hurts seeing the ones I called family show such hatred towards my son they believe that he is the cause of my body's' will to no longer work.
It's so foolish and I hate myself for not being able to stay by his side longer but the pain of it is too much to stay but I love him too much to go. However, I have seen his salvation, I've finally seen the happiness that will wash out the darkness in his heart and I know that I can leave him without a burdened soul."
It was then that she opened her eyes and looked at him, Sesshoumaru almost took a step back at the intense pale blue glow of her eyes as she saw but didn't see him.
"I've also seen you, both standing here as well as standing with him when this happiness comes to his life. It will be as much as his salvation as it will be yours as well if you can see past yourself to obtain it."
Sighing she closed her eyes again, her face smoothed out and all worry seemed to leave her body.
"I'm finally at peace with everything that will happen, his pain and struggle to survive will make him a stronger man than his father could have hoped for and he will truly be a full demon in his own right. He will be a power to be reckoned with once he's finally at peace within himself. My Yasha will be a strong one indeed."
Opening her eyes once more, they were back to their normal violet, she looked into Sesshoumaru's eyes and smiled.
"In the palace hidden and sealed away from everyone is a last gift for you and my Yasha, though my powers as a miko aren't anywhere near my late mother's my powers of concealing are strong enough for not even one such as you to find it. Once everything is as it should be it will show itself and everything will be at peace.
Thank you for coming Sesshoumaru please take care of him when the time comes he'll mean more to you then you'll ever think imaginable."
With those final words Izayoi closed her eyes, let out her last breath and stilled, a smile still on her face as she joined his father in the afterlife.
Turning on his heel, Sesshoumaru left the room and out to the surrounding forest walking away from both the woman's words and the feelings they brought along with them.
The day after his mother's passing, Inuyasha was physically thrown out of his mother's estate and thus out of the village. Though twenty the boy looked between the ages of seven or ten human years old.
Sesshoumaru watched as the boy still cried over his mother's death as he was chased out of the village and into a dense portion of forest. Not bothering to go after him Sesshoumaru turned and made his way back to his palace, convincing himself that the boy would die soon on his own and that the human woman's words were just that, words, though the look those haunting pair of glowing blue eyes never left his mind for years after the woman's death. Even when he found his brother pinned to a tree eighty years later those eyes and words hadn't left him.
Looking down at his brother walking beside him, he knew the words were true, he could feel the ice in his heart melting the more he was with his brother and his mate Shippo, but was he really his salvation?
About to gain Inuyasha's attention again, he was halted at a rumbling sound, looking up just in time to see a boulder with a face, about the size of a hut roll down the mountain side towards them. Pushing his brother and his mate out of the way, he fended the fake boulder off with Tenseiga sliding a bit down the mountain as he did so.
Seeing his brother fighting, and after making sure Shippo was ok, jumped down into the fray neither he nor Shippo seeing the monk sliding down the mountain towards the fox.
Settling next to the fox the monk jabbed him in the back of the head causing him to yelp out and fall forward as the monk grabbed the jewel fragment and ran off at high speed down the mountain. Seeing his cohort escape the boulder turning into a plume of smoke shocking the brothers as they tried to get back to Shippo after hearing him yelp. He too ran away as quickly as possible before the smoke cleared.
Making his way towards Shippo only to find him freaking out and screaming, "That weirdo monk took the jewel fragment", Inuyasha, having finally been able to see past the smoke noticed a black dot moving in the distance.
"You can't get away from me that easy."
And off he went tailed by both Shippo and Sesshoumaru.
Yaoi: Not my longest chapter but I was getting tired and well eh I'll get back too it soon anyways lol ^_^ Again Happy New Years people.