Sorry about the delays between chapters. As for this one, I enjoyed writing it. Suggestions are appreciated, as they can normally spark a whole story idea for me.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Inuyasha.

Sesshomaru was having a strange dream. He was in an open field at night. While he could see the moon and stars, Sesshomaru could not sense anything around him, not even other demonic auras. Or any aura in general. It was strangely empty, and a little disconcerting. There wasn't even any wind. Sesshomaru turned, observing his surroundings more closely. An open field, with a river in the distance, and a line all around the horizon, indicating trees. Sesshomaru wondered why he did not even hear the stream. It was like the world had frozen in place. As he took a step forward, Sesshomaru felt something tug on his hair.

Sesshomaru immediately spun about, hand raised to strike at whatever dared to touch him...yet there was nothing there. Sesshomaru lowered his hand slightly, frowning faintly. No one should have been able to sneak up on him...he would have sensed or heard them.

Another tug, this time harder. Sesshomaru glanced over his shoulder at his hair, but saw nothing that would indicate that anyone had touched him. What was going on?

The tugging sensation continued, and Sesshomaru couldn't find the source, no matter what he did.

Then, all of a sudden, the field was gone, and Sesshomaru woke up abruptly. He had been resting against a tree and had apparently dozed off. That meant he had been dreaming about something tugging his hair. Sesshomaru let his senses drift, and was pleased, inwardly, that he could sense the activity of wildlife around him.

Sesshomaru felt a tugging on his hair again, and looked over to his side, where Rin sat...braiding a bit of his hair. Sesshomaru's hand twitched. Why was the girl touching his hair?

Rin noticed that Sesshomaru was awake, and she smiled at him, "Good morning, Lord Sesshomaru."

Sesshomaru stared at the small human as she continued to braid the hair like nothing was wrong, "Rin."

"Yes Lord Sesshomaru?"

"What are you doing?"

"Braiding."

Sesshomaru blinked, then decided that he should be more specific, "Yes. Why?"

Rin finished tying the braid and put a little bow at the end. She let go as Sesshomaru stood up, and stared up at the demon for a moment before smiling again, "Because it looks good." Rin got momentarily distracted as Jaken had fallen over and was wresting with a rather large fish. Where that fish had come from, Sesshomaru didn't know. He was more preoccupied with the state of his hair.

Sesshomaru took the distraction as a chance to go to a small pond nearby and see if he could get the braids out of his hair, as well as the bow. No demon would find another demon with braids in its hair very intimidating at all. Or even a threat. Not that Sesshomaru would care what the other demons might think. He'd just...

Sesshomaru stared at his reflection, before tilting his head to see the rest of it. He must have fallen asleep for a long time. Not only did Rin braid most of his hair, she weaved random little bows into hair that hadn't been braided. Where had she gotten all of the bows? They were miles away from any village.

"Wah!"

"Master Jaken! Don't let the fish eat you!"

"..." Sesshomaru tugged at the nearest braid, ignoring Jaken and the fish fighting, wondering how long it would take to get his hair bow and braid free.

The scenery seemed to be fading...again...

121

Sesshomaru woke up, and found himself resting against another tree, but it was different than in the dream. His hand went to his hair, and found that no one had done anything to it. Sesshomaru let his hand drop to his side and glanced around. Rin and Jaken were dozing around the embers of a fire, and Ah-Un was staring up at the sky, tail swishing back and forth occasionally.

Sesshomaru got to his feet and walked a few strides away from the makeshift camp and stared up at the starry sky. He decided that he would not fall asleep if Rin were still awake. Though Sesshomaru doubted Rin would attempt to braid his hair without permission, even if he happened to fall asleep.

"..."

Not that he'd ever allow something like that to happen. He didn't let his guard down around anyone, no matter what they were or how old they were.

"..."

It was something his idiot half-breed brother would be more likely to be subjected to.

121

Somewhere, miles away, at the same time Sesshomaru was staring up at the sky, a village swore they heard a terrible, piercing scream and angry yells. It was later reported that a red clad figure with braids in their hair chased after a smaller figure with a tail, while three other figures tried to dissuade the chase. One, a monk, was reported to have said that he had done the braiding, to which the red clad figure then chased after the monk instead.

The monk had not been seen since.

Of course, the village hadn't seen the group come back their direction, so rumors were flying around.

121

Sesshomaru thought he heard screaming as he walked along a path, but more or less ignored it. It couldn't possibly have any affect on him. Sesshomaru stopped walking suddenly as the sound got closer.

"Get back here!"

"Run Miroku!"

Sesshomaru watched, emotionless, as Miroku ran across the path, with Inuyasha close behind, hair braided and looking absolutely furious. Shippo followed close behind, yelling for Miroku to go faster before Inuyahsa caught him. Sango and Kagome brought up the rear, attempting to stop Inuyahsa without having to resort to force.

"..."

Sesshomaru watched them go, then began to walk again. He pretended that he hadn't even seen what had just went by.

In the distance, a yell of "Sit!" could be heard, accompanied by a yell of protest.

"..."

Sesshomaru continued to walk. His brother's problems weren't his.

"Lord Sesshomaru? Why did he have braids in his hair?"

"..."

It would be another long day, thanks to his brother dashing by like a fool and raising questions that he didn't want to attempt to explain.

1212

For some reason the last bit of this chapter amused me. I like the whole dream within a dream idea, it can be entertaining. Well...let me know what you thought of it (and let me know if there are any mistakes that I missed correcting).

I hope to update soon, so until next time, thanks for reading and/or reviewing!