The second time the two brothers had met was when Inuyasha was more or less seven years old.
Kaede had taken Inuyasha to a vast marketplace in the middle of the city where a great many people were hawking their wares. There were the basics of food-making: fruits and vegetables, starches, grain, meat, fish, herbs and spices. Then there were the baked and cooked wares. After the perishable items there were jewelry makers and metalworkers, woodcarvers, fabrics and clothes, rough stones and polished ones, strings and yarn, paint.
While Kaede had been buying something special for their dinner, Inuyasha had gotten separated from her. He'd been distracted by a stall with ornamental daggers encrusted in dark jewels and when he turned around, the stall where Kaede had been at was not in sight.
He raced through the entire marketplace looking for her, knowing she would have been easy to spot because of her old traditional clothing of white and red, but found no trace of her.
Panicking now, because deep down inside he knew his parents had abandoned him too even if it was to court death, he sprinted faster through the stalls.
Rounding a corner, he bumped into someone and fell to the ground. He looked up at the figure, baring his teeth, his hair all in his face.
It was a boy, maybe fifteen or sixteen, incredibly tall. He was dressed in white slacks and a white silk shirt. But what caught Inuyasha's attention was how pale he was, and how long and white his hair was, braided and dangling past his waist to about mid-thigh.
Bright blue eyes that in themselves were almost white piercingly looked at him from beneath the shade of an umbrella.
It was actually a parasol, pure black, which was being held aloft by him to shield himself and his companion from the sun. There was a lady next to him, equally as captivating, and they were the spitting image of each other. She was dressed in a rather flashy yukata, purple and blue irises surrounded by golden ripples on black.
"Watch where you're going, you grimy little street urchin," the boy said lowly, his voice deep and flat with no intonations. His voice was as colorless as he was.
Inuyasha bristled instantly. Sure, he had fallen a few times looking for his guardian, but he was not a... a street urchin!
"My son, let us continue further in. I believe I see a stall for jewelry." His mother's voice was light as a bell, but heard very well even amongst the din of the marketplace.
The white one narrowed his eyes at the boy on the ground and then turned, holding the parasol aloft for his mother as they made their way through the crowd, which, after seeing them, parted like waves to let the two wraith-like people through.
"Inuyasha," said a familiar old voice, and he looked up to see Kaede, her face more than a little worried. He stood up and brushed himself off, miffed.
"Are you alright, child?"
He clenched his fists. Kaede glanced from him to the two people being swallowed up by the crowd.
"I was not expecting to see them here," she whispered to herself, but Inuyasha heard her. Kaede had always whispered to herself, and in her old age, and to be able to hear herself with her progressively deadening ears, she whispered louder and louder as the years passed until the whisper had become just a really low voice which was easy to hear.
"Who were they?" he asked, angry. He was still absently swiping dirt from his arms. He shoved his messy dark bangs from his eyes. "That bastard acted like they were better than everybody here."
"Watch your tongue," she chided, without any feeling. "That was your older half-brother and his mother."
This comment floored him.
"My... my brother?" he asked, his voice caught in his throat. "You're joking, right?"
"Yes. His name is Sesshoumaru, remember?"
He vaguely remembered her talking about him once. About that whole family. It was just a passing comment when he was younger and he hadn't thought anything of it. They were just another group of people that had abandoned him, this time by choice.
Kaede said nothing more on the matter after Inuyasha grew silent and went about gathering up her baskets. He absentmindedly helped her with a heavy bag, throwing it over his shoulder. He was too busy thinking about the long, white braid. His free hand touched his own chopped-off black locks. His eyes went to Kaede walking ahead of him, where her iron grey hair was tied loosely at the nape of her neck and flowed in a thin river down her back.
Long hair stood out. And with hair as black as his, it would definitely be noticable if he wore the right colors. He set his face in determination and ran to catch up with his old guardian.