It had been two years ago since they started living together, the first time since Inuyasha had been a toddler. The first time since Inuyasha's mother, Izayoi, had died and the black-haired boy went to live with one of her friends, an elderly lady by the name of Kaede.
He was actually supposed to be in the custody of Totousai now, but since the old man was always triapsing the world and Sesshoumaru was minding his house while he was studying, it then happened upon Sesshoumaru to take care of his brother instead. It was all a series of unfortunate events for the college student.
He could count on one hand the amount of times he had seen Inuyasha since he was born, before he came to live with him. Each instance was unpleasant.
He'd known about the kid for awhile, perhaps even from the start. His father hadn't exactly kept his affair a secret, or his joy when he had sired another child.
Inuyasha had been perhaps a year old when Sesshoumaru first laid eyes on him. He had heard rumors, but had not seen him until then.
He'd been shocked by his dark hair, midnight-black, and cobalt blue eyes. They weren't a normal occurance in the family. Inuyasha had taken great interest in Sesshoumaru and had toddled towards him unsteadily, but the older boy sidestepped him and the younger fell flat on his face. He then started to wail, loudly. His father picked him up and shushed him gently, rubbing his red nose.
Sesshoumaru, greatly incensed by the noise from the child, had gone to his room while his mother stayed and talked to him. How his mother could stand that screech, and the fact that her husband had cheated on her to create such a monster, was beyond him.
The older boy had been tainted by the family legacy, of course. It had been drilled into his head since he was born.
They were a family very much famous. At first it had been for an entirely different matter, but now it was completely based on aesthetics.
He was the last heir to a long line of white-haired, translucent-skinned, blue-eyed wraiths. An albino.
The first of the family had been two circus performers, two people who had been shunned by the world five hundred years ago and had sought refuge beneath the tents. They fell in love and with their genetics combined, they sired another albino, who in turn found an albino mate, and so on and so forth.
Both revered and feared as ghosts and demons, although they were no different from the other humans, their legacy passed on, and others of their kind sought the family out in order to join it.
They were no longer circus performers, although all of them were trained in the martial arts and acrobatics within the house, and now were just a group of pale people, intriguing to men of science because of their long-standing aesthetics, powerful within society as a whole, and incredibly intelligent.
Although, since there had been some incestuous relationships throughout the years in order to keep the family blood pure, a few of the members of the clan were quite mad. Mad in all three meanings of the word-angry, crazy, and sick.
Sesshoumaru had been taught by two of these. His grandfather and great-grandfather. Both were hateful individuals that had no inhibitions but were too frail to do anything about anything. So they passed their hate, self-absorption, and arrogance on to the younger generation, who was fortunate to not be affected by poor health.
And so Sesshoumaru had been tainted by his forefathers, and immediately hated Inuyasha, with all his black hair and dark eyes and tan skin.
And he hated his father, who had gone against the family and left it for a dark-haired woman, only to bring her back with him and vow to incorporate her and their son into the clan. It hadn't happened.
After a month his father and Izayoi had died and Inuyasha had gone to Kaede. And so the younger boy disappeared from Sesshoumaru's life for awhile.