Disclamer

Inuyasha (c) Rumiko Takahashi

Author's Note

I have a reason for the lateness. But I got this up anyway. If you would like to have a chitchatter, there will be another author rant in the end of this chapter.

Warning

None that I could think of.

P.S: Inucest can be counted as a warning?

Chapter 8

He was not sulking.

He might be sitting on one high branch of the Goshinboku tree, his arms and legs crossed, with a scowl on his face. That was a normal gestures he was well-known with. So when said familiar gestures were accompanied with furrowed brows, slightly puffed cheeks if one squinted hard enough, eyes noticeable a bit more narrowed, lips pressed together and drew a thin line down ward… even a close friend of him, for example Miroku, would say he was definitely su—

He was not sulking. Damn it.

And not a moment later, a certain human village near by the forest that housing one Goshinboku tree, which was later named 'Inuyasha's Forest' after a tragic love story that didn't end well half a century prior to the present time, unfortunate or fortunate in that matter, was put into early morning distress by an unmanly shriek that sounded frighten enough to wake the dead.

The first time when the humans in said village heard that sound, the elders, women and children were smartly stuffed inside their own huts while the men gathered around with whatever farming tools they got, crowding around one old priestess, a monk, two demon slayers, and a cat demon that stood beside the younger demon hunter, growling low and looked around for any potential threat.

After all, they were possible under demon attack, judging by that sudden sound so early in the morning. Those demons that usually took advantage in odd hour to attack human village for food and god knew what else.

And there they stood, for a long while, with tension thick in the air, waiting for an upcoming attack.

Something did come.

However, that wasn't an unwelcome something.

The first person regained her ability to speak and muscles reflex was Sango. For her Hiraikotsu was dropped to the ground with a loud thud as she ran toward the direction of that something, completely forgot the forgotten Hiraikotsu laid innocently on the ground. This in time pulled the others out of their daze and joined her in a race to reach said something first.

Inuyasha stood root to the spot as the mob suddenly swarmed him. The sound of people cheering suddenly so deafened to his sensitive hearing, but instead of being irritated as the usual himself, the feeling was pleasant. He even did enjoy how Sango and Kaede ganged up and pointed their fingers at him while yelling their lungs out but a moment later they gave him a bone breaking hug. It was nice to know he was missed, worried, and what else they said which he didn't really listen anymore as their voices were mixed up with all the cheers of the men, and women, and elders, even the children in the village, who had come out of their hiding by the commotion and joined in the welcome him back.

He caught a flash of white in the corner of his eyes before it completely disappeared behind the shadow of the distance forest, and the linger feeling on his forehead forced out a light color of reddish across his cheeks, which went unnoticed by the humans, lucky him.

However, one cat demon caught on as she tilted her head to one side in wonder. Oh… if only she could speak human language… and a certain fox kit was probably not even at the appropriate age to have this kind of conversation… now if only that certain flea would appeared somewhere in her mane soon… she needed someone to talk to… and now… oh… if only she could speak human language…

The returned half-demon did not like that kind of gleam in said cat demon's eyes at all. No, not at all. He would have a talk or two with her later. Lucky him she couldn't speak in human language. Yes, extremely lucky. Until he found a way to lock the loud mouths of their demon companions that could speak human language, that was when he could rest his restless mind.

And this became a routine, at almost exactly the same time every early morning. A certain half-demon would suddenly let loose his unmanly shriek, chased away any birds that was peacefully sleeping behind thick leaves covered branches with loudly wings flapped and panicky chirps, or bunnies that was all warm and cozy in their little nests under big trees in one moment and scrambled away from bushes to bushes to nowhere in particular the next, or whatever else animals that sheltered themselves somewhere to run away to shelter themselves in somewhere else. Most conveniently or inconveniently, woke up the whole human village near his forest in the process.

However, no one had the heart to yell at the red clad half-demon when he stormed into the village shortly after that. With a scowl in face, checked. Brows furrowed, checked. Ears twitching madly, checked. And his famous Tetsusaiga drew… checked. To further save his dignity as a male alpha, let's say he managed to look both intimidating and cute at the same time, albeit the latter was so overwhelming that the first effect was threw away somewhere behind his twitching puppy ears. His head and eyes darted to all directions while growling loudly as if he was expecting something suddenly popped out in front of him and he looked ready to strike at anything that moved right this instant. After glaring and growling at nothing in particular for a while and deemed enough was enough, he sheathed his sword and, stormed right into one certain old priestess' hut.

There, he sat crossed legs on the wooden floor, arms folded across his chest, securely with Tetsusaiga nestled on the crook of his elbow. With the same face he had been spotted ever since he stormed his way out of his forest into the village and then… Kaede's hut.

An innocent hot tea cup with steaming smell of herbal leaves greeted his vision as it waited for him from the ever attentive old priestess, Kaede, who already awoke even before said half-demon woke up the rest of her village. She place an empty bowl within reach as she filled her own breakfast. That empty bowl was always there despite Inuyasha had never required breakfast ever since the time he came back after disappeared for a week in a certain day of new moon. But she wouldn't have it other way. So if Inuyasha changed his mind and wanted to join in breakfast with her, everything should be ready.

The first time when it happened, she had been surprised. Inuyasha had never refused food as long as she knew him. So when she was about to fill his share of breakfast, she was taken aback as he covered her hand, stopped her in mid movement and just mumbled "I'm full" audible only to her ears. She wanted to ask if he was alright, but the look on his face hold her back, assured her enough that he was fine.

She finished her breakfast in silent and he sat there motionless with his eyes closed.

His expression was peaceful.

So she would wait until he felt like talking. She would not push him as long she knew he wouldn't in danger.

Since when did she come to care for him so much?

Inuyasha didn't go with Miroku and Sango and Kohaku when they asked if he would like to come to the slayer village with them. It was a brief travel so Sango and Kohaku could visit their home after a while and then they would be back to Kaede's village afterward. He had said that the old priestess was too old for her anti-demon barrier to work well and he wouldn't have it if he went somewhere and came back just to see some god forsaken demon pack made a nest in his forest. (Which earned him a bite of purifying arrow from said old priestess to his head as she whacked him upside down with said accused thing). Even with Shippou's insistent protesting, nagging, chattering, wailing (which mostly made all the previous attempts backfired if the half-demon was about to give in because the sound was too annoying for his precious ears), he didn't budge at all. In the end, he didn't go with them.

The others had wanted to ask but they didn't. Decided it was best if they waited till he wanted to talk about it. He had been emitting a certain aura that made them all felt concerned about him yet unable to voice out properly. But that kind of aura was not an unpleasant one. So it was okay for now to let everything took it time to come.

As the villagers were still in the midst of rebuilding their damage huts, courtesy of one certain dark half-demon turned great-demon Naraku, Inuyasha would walk around, helped when the work was too hard for the humans to do or took them too long to finish. He wouldn't involve himself if that was what they could manage just fine.

But he had single-handed got Kaede's hut up in a better state than before. Since now she was having a certain young human girl in her care. A better environment was needed. He would make sure they were well provided in food, too. After all hunting in the wild was no new thing to him, and went fishing with Rin to see the girl showed off her skills in catching fishes was not an unpleasant change of atmosphere either.

That and somehow he had taken a liking to the girl. If the ever hating human Sesshoumaru found her worth to bring back from the other world at one point, even the latter had stated that was only to 'test' Tenseiga's ability, and that same demon brother of him even went to hell to get her back, then he, would eventually fall for her charm. Obviously enough, he did.

The girl would always stick to Kaede. Helped her hold a basket of herbs while the old priestess hold another one. She was quick to learn about the art of healing and using herbs to make medicines.

Inuyasha would have the girl on his back as he sped in the direction of Jinenji's house. Since there was some certain ingredients that only demon or half-demon in the matter could grow that till now was lost to human's knowledge.

The half-demon sometimes found himself wondered in awe as he was surrounded with her laughter when he side-stepped in the face of an ogre who suddenly jumped out of nowhere and lunged at them, most likely thought to make an easy feast out of a human child and a half-demon. Surely that good-for-nothing-creep was too busy hiding himself in a wild cherry bush to take notice of the spreading rumors about a certain half-demon wielded a great demon sword traveled around the country to hunt a certain dark half-demon together with his companions. Oh well, what done was done. That ill-fate ogry had to cope with having one eye left for the rest of his hiding in the wild cherry bush life from now. Maybe not so ill-fate since he didn't decide to chase after the duo.

Rin didn't find Jinenji scary when she saw him the first time.

Instead, she came near him and bowed respectably in greeting and proceeded to introduce her name. Somehow that made the other half-demon a blushing and stuttering mess, and a certain puppy ears half-demon agape in horror wondered how could this even possible from a little human girl that had been traveled to nowhere in particular with a human-hating demon lord who happened to be his half-blood-brother, a very loud mouth toad, and a leaf-eating two-heads dragon (according to the girl, that two-heads dragon's favorite food was leaf, noted the 'favorite' part, which meant that god forsaken beast DID eat something else behind her back, and he didn't want to know about it, for now).

But anyway, the girl was already with Kaede for a while before he returned. Despite the nudging feeling in the back of his head that the girl's manner was from a certain demon lord's doing than his old priestess. He let it slide.

During those short visits at Jinenji's, despite the nice hospitality was offered by the mother and son, Inuyasha and Rin always returned within the day and hardly stayed for the night. And those nights would only be possible because the weather decided to be funny and rained dog and cat on their heads. Which while completely okay for Inuyasha to travel but not a good idea to bring a human girl along. As much as he didn't want to leave Kaede alone in the village, he didn't want to risk getting Rin sick either. He didn't sleep those nights while unconsciously stroking Rin's raven tress, sometimes untangled a lock or two, as the girl was safety curled up in his lap, soundly asleep.

Across them, the mother and son were sleeping peacefully, knowing full well they were completely safe, even safer than their normal routine with the presence of an ever awake puppy ears half-demon and the little human girl.

However, Rin would notice a look of melancholy flashed on Inuyasha's face when she woke up first every morning during their sleepover which was disappeared the moment he noticed her waking up. While retaining the childlike personalities as her age should, Rin, by no mean, oblivious to the world as a child at her age should.

This was the point that formed an unknown bond between them, as the girl sat up in his lap and hugged the half-demon in the front, buried her head near his beating heart, and he, in turn, wrapped one arm loosely around her smaller figure, as if more force and he would break her.

Which scared the shit out of himself, at a darker corner of his mind, was the very urge that itched him to do just that. And that was something even Rin couldn't sense by her highly praised observant.

While the humans thought there could be nothing come at them while he was here to play the role of a protector from heaven, none of them ever had this thought crossed their mind, that, he was the most dangerous one around could threaten their lives the most.

And he would be damned before he let anything harm them, even himself. It was why his remaining arm, which was not holding Rin, wounded around Tetsusaiga, his hand gripped the demon sword's hilt tightly, that his knuckles turned white.

The human girl and half-demon would stay that way until the remaining two occupants in the hut woke up. Had their breakfast together and the duo would bid the mother and son goodbye before they returned to Kaede's.

But instead of the piggy back way as they came, on the ride back she was hugged in his front, on the left side, where she would once again lure into a peaceful sleep by the steady beat of his heart. And if he drew Tetsusaiga at some point and several demons lost their lives in the process, she never stirred, not even the loud shrieks of pain or roars of rage from anything else that was not Inuyasha's could wake her.

For she only yawned widely and ran over to Kaede's welcome home arms as they was in front of her hut when he silently put her down.

Inuyasha would stay around for a while more until the old priestess and the girl busy themselves with the newly arrive herbal supplies. And he would disappeared somewhere later. They didn't mind. Because he would show up at some point if there was some 'lost' demons suddenly banged their heads in the village. Or his shriek would wake the dead in the next morning.

All in all, Inuyasha was never around long, but he never wandered too far away from them either. And life went on.

In fact, if one wanted to see Inuyasha when he was not spotted anywhere inside the village, they could try the Goshinboku tree. But since no one ever thought about that, there was no one knew where the half-demon went when he was nowhere in sight.

Peaceful.

That was why he had a knack for sitting on a well-shaded branch of the Goshinboku tree. His figure was well-hidden in the numerous thick layers of dark green surrounded him too. So the chance he was disturbed was hardly—

He didn't do anything as something swept him up and deposited him on something's lap.

Peaceful… suddenly sounded like a life-time away…

His head leaned back on something's solid chest. And something's chin was placed atop his snowy crown, in between his twitching ears as hot breath tickling said suddenly turned a nice shade of pink appendages. Something's arms wrapped securely around him. Something's hands covered his slightly smaller ones and wounded their fingers together.

For a long time neither made a move, simply enjoyed the presence of their silent companion and the seemingly stillness of their surroundings.

"How was your day?" Was the question for Inuyasha as his companion decided to be the first one to break the silence in the air. And like a magic that lost its effect, everything was back to normal once again. Morning breeze would flush their long silver hair together as the entwined silk flowed along their sides for a while before calmed down in a nice tangle of different shade of whites.

It took a while for Inuyasha to answer in a softer than his usual tone that may get lost with the way winds and leaves were playing around them. But it reached the demon lord's more sensitive ears nonetheless with a quiet "Uneventful."

The answering hum from the demon's chest drew the half-demon to look up. The movement prompted the demon lord to look down.

Their eyes met.

The same golden hue was so familiar yet so different in a cliché way of speaking.

The demon lord leaned down, his lips brush against his companion's forehead as his sultry voice reached the other's hearing as soft as the way those same lips were traveling down to the side of said companion's cheek to his nape, "Was I the only one who couldn't do anything to get you out of my mind since the last time I saw you?"

Not realized when did he had his eyes closed as he let out a long soft sigh in contentment, at the show of affection or at the tiny hint of concern mixed with rare playfulness in his brother's voice didn't matter to him anymore. "No." Was all he could mutter out as Sesshoumaru's lips decided to abandon its path and did a shortcut to his own ones, and stayed there until the younger of the two untangled their fingers to wrap his hands around his brother's neck so he could lean up more to hide his face between the demon lord's neck and shoulder, broke the contact of their lips, much to the amusement of said demon lord, who looked at his younger sibling with predator's intenseness at the same time with something akin to human's tenderness.

"This time you didn't run away shouting like you've just got molested."

"And how I am supposed to say if someone asked what happened? My brother molested me?" Muffled by silk fabric retort came.

Sesshoumaru's face was dead serious when one of his lethal finger tilted Inuyasha's face up to meet his gaze as he said, "I am not molesting you." Normally as if he didn't let his lips wandered in the way human siblings wouldn't do to each other just a moment ago. The key word was 'human'. And he was not human, minded you.

Inuyasha looked like he was about to scream bloody murder.

But he didn't. Ever since his seven days and nights stayed in the flying-in-the-cloud-estate, he had developed a somewhat understanding to Sesshoumaru' somehow weird behaviors which was starting to show up recently. Let's not start on how his older brother's mental state worked, for now. He needed time for himself, first thing first.

But this particular demon lord didn't help his dilemma any, what he did only help it getting worse.

One would have a heart attack when last night you went to sleep on a tree and woke up to find you were curled up against your own sibling, said sibling was wide awake and looked at you with a look of a seven-days-starved-cat (he was starved before so he very knew how one looked at food that way) or even more. What worse? Upon realizing you had woken up, said sibling had this glint in his eyes and his usual thin-line-in-displease lips suddenly curled up to what any of his lucky alive victims (because he deemed they were not worth killing) dubbed as smirk-of-foretelling-death. At this point a normal human sibling would smile and said 'good morning', but again, he was not human, so he leaned down at the flabbergasted half-demon on his lap and proceeded to kiss the living day out of him.

Cue the half-demon took heaven knew when to have his brain re-function again.

Cue an unmanly shriek that woke the dead.

Cue Tetsusaiga was drawn.

Cue a last good morning kiss was delivered on his forehead.

Cue Sesshoumaru's disappearance as if he was never there to begin with.

Not to mention said sibling was the same one who vowed your death was by his own hands. And that vow was still standing, minded you.

Maybe he changed strategy. If he couldn't cut him down then he could try to make his heart stop beating on its own, right?

And yet, why he felt something was not right when he sat inside Jinenji's hut till the first stroke of sunlight lit the far away horizon, no Sesshoumaru anywhere smirking down at him?

When did the fading odor of Sesshoumaru's aura on him bothered him so much to the point all he could think of was hopped on his brother's two-heads dragon (whom Sesshoumaru had purposely left somewhere nearby the Goshinboku tree but always out of sight) and flied to the flying-in-the-cloud-estate just so the older demon would embrace him, as he would recently, and coated him with his demonic aura all over again. He almost did that, at some point. Almost.

He had passed the stage where one would look up one's guardian for safe assurance. He had gone through the prior of his life without it. Why now?

Why did he feel insecure whenever he could only faintly smell Sesshoumaru on him?

Why did the linger copper of Sesshoumaru's blood on his tongue satisfy him in a thirsty way could set his mind at ease every time he had a taste of it?

And why he always found himself, at this exactly place, waiting, wanting, yearning for more?

To be continued...

Author's rant

I had a dilemma. I lost the interest with Inuyasha fandom shortly after I had a chat with a long ago favorite writer of mine, who now was interested in another fandom (obviously). To my horror, I actually hooked up with the same fandom after she showed me some of said fandom's doujinshi. I don't express my excited by squealing or dancing around, but my completely concentrate on it was enough to throw all previous obsession to the wind. So it took me a while to get back to Inuyasha fandom, because despite I like the new fandom, this Inucest pairing was till one of my favorite for their unique and awesomeness (not to mention cuteness and harshness at the same time, though I am not sadist and masochist enough to write something so out of their character) relationship. I almost had enough with the out of character way they've been starting to show up in this fic.

Lastly, I thank you for all the reviews I had up until now. It made me feel light head and giggly to know there was many out there waiting for the continual of this fic.

See you next time.

Asuka K.