A/N: Pure fluff oneshot. Goes nowhere, but beautifully so. Please review, you'll make me very happy if you do :))
For those who are curious about specifics, I set this "right around the same time" as the 'Since Then' snippet with Root Head. It could be right after by up to a few months, but Hisui is still an infant so it's not long after that happens.
For those who need Japanese vocabulary help, youkai = demon, taiyoukai = very strong demon, taijiya = demon slayer, miko = priestess, kitsune = fox.
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Just like every other time he'd stopped by the village to visit Rin, today Sesshoumaru was greeted cheerfully by the young girl running over to smile at him adoringly and announce his presence with delight.
"Lord Sesshoumaru, you're here!"
"Are you faring well, Rin?" was his customary reply, and she giggled at him and twirled around, a little dance of glee.
"Yes, I'm doing Very Well! And how are you doing today, Lord Sesshoumaru?"
"I am well," he responded, her chuckles expected as she gestured towards the doorflap she had just exited.
"Lady Kaede just finished brewing the tea, would you and Master Jaken like to come inside?"
"Oh, tea. I'd love some," Jaken agreed as they all headed in.
It was a morning as routine as any other, and even Shippou's presence inside was not unexpected, for often the fox would make his way here in the mornings after his midnight exams at the Maboroshi.
"Hey, guys," Shippou greeted casually, "how's it going?"
"How is what going?" Jaken frowned at him.
"Uh, things. Y'know, whatever it is that you do when you're not here. How are the Western Territories and stuff?"
"Perfectly fine, I assure you. Not that it's any of your business," Jaken snubbed in his usual grumpy manner.
Shippou rolled his eyes and let out a soft sigh. From Jaken, he'd expected as much. And Sesshoumaru's absolute silence was also expected.
So for a little while he turned to chatting with Rin, who indulged in asking him about and listening to him detail his night's foray at the fox academy, she and Kaede making encouraging remarks while Jaken threw in a few casual insults that were promptly ignored.
For a little while the day was just as typical as ever, and at some point in the mid-morning after Shippou had wandered off to go do something else, Sango stopped by to speak to Kaede.
"Lady Kaede, how are you today?" Sango asked as she swept inside, her smile slightly harried from her mothering woes.
"Oh, fine, fine. Ye look a bit weary already, lass."
"Oh, Hisui has been up fussing all night, I barely got a wink of sleep," Sango sighed, "Miroku is trying to settle him right now, and doing a bit better than I was at least. Which brings me to why I'm here. Could I bring him over for you to take a look? I think he may be feverish."
"Of course!" Kaede agreed immediately, and Sango let out a sigh of relief and bowed her head, hurrying back to fetch her babe.
"Oh no, a screaming infant," Jaken groaned, lowering his head, "the worst kind of noise to grate the ears!"
Sesshoumaru seemed inclined to agree, as he ceased leaning on the wall-which was his usual habit when inside the old miko's house, to lean up against the wall the same way he leaned against a tree-and started to move towards the door. Gratefully, Jaken bounded over to follow him, the silent signal seeming to indicate that they would not be staying to witness how women cared for fussy babies.
"Lord Sesshoumaru, are you leaving already?"
"No, Rin. Merely going outside," Sesshoumaru replied.
"But why?"
"I would not presume to intrude upon the manners in which human females tend human infants, I know nothing of the subject. My presence would be more likely to scare the babe than anything else," he huffed by way of explanation.
"But Hisui was never afraid of your presence before. Actually, now that I think about it, he likes looking at you a lot when you're around."
Sesshoumaru wasn't sure he had a valid response for that, so instead of speaking, he simply paused and looked over his shoulder at her, raising one eyebrow as if he was sure she was mistaken.
"Well, he does!" she insisted, "I know he's just a baby, but he's looking at things all the time with that big wide-eyed baby look where you can just tell they're wondering about all the mysteries of life, and whenever you're around he just stares and stares at you."
"Well, even a mere babe would sense the might and awe of such a powerful taiyoukai as Lord Sesshoumaru, not to mention that his ethereal beauty would be impressive even to a creature as ignorant as an infant," Jaken mused thoughtfully.
"Maybe if you stay around so he can be distracted looking at you, he'll settle more when we take a look at him," Rin smiled brightly, and the words spelled doom for Sesshoumaru, who knew her next question before she even asked, "could you Please Stay, Lord Sesshoumaru?"
Well, he certainly didn't want to make a big deal of it. If he played it off casually and was nonchalant, it would seem like nothing at all...
"If you insist," he gave a tiny dignified sigh, and turned his steps to go back to his favorite leaning spot, folding his arms over his chest again and staring off at the wall blankly while Jaken let out a low groan and shuffled back towards the center of the room.
"You dratted little girl," the imp muttered under his breath, but dared not say much more as Sango swept back inside, returning with the boy in her arms, swaddled in a light cloth, squirming and letting out little grunts of agitation.
"Oh, Hisui," Kaede's grandmotherly tone cooed as she accepted the boy into her arms and began to gently undo the cloth wrappings, "sshh, sshhh, hush now little one. Let me see..." and laid the flat of the back of her hand against his skin, "mmmm, ye are a bit warm, aren't ye? A little flushed, but not scalding. What ails ye, I wonder?" and she began to undo his loincloth, checking him for signs of thrush, and-
Sesshoumaru frowned and glanced over, his nose catching a scent of something he was sure could very well explain these symptoms.
"At what age do human babes grow their teeth?"
"Mmmm," Kaede chuckled as she gazed over at the taiyoukai with her one good eye, "at right about this age. I think ye have solved it, 'twas on my mind as well. Sango, take and rub a bit of that strong mash Miroku is making along his gums, and mind that ye bring him over straightaway if the fever crests high. A bit of warmth is to be expected, though."
"Really? This didn't happen with the girls at all, they never got a fever from teething," Sango frowned.
"Aye, 'twere swift for them, and later as well. Every babe is different, Sango. Ah, look at that. Rin was right."
"Rin was right? About what?" Sango tilted her head, looking over at Rin when Kaede mentioned it.
"Hisui really likes Lord Sesshoumaru," Rin chuckled as the infant's wide eyes studied the regal white figure in the room, "every time he's near little Hisui, he becomes the most fascinating thing your little boy can stare at. Not that I blame him!"
"Hn," Sesshoumaru turned his head slightly, not willing to admit that being the center of their attention all of a sudden like this because of a tiny baby's interest in him was just embarrassing enough to have to fight away a blush. It didn't show yet, but he could feel it lurking.
"Oh, but of course! Compared to the rest of us mere mortals, I'm sure he really Is the most fascinating person around," Sango chuckled.
One elegant eyebrow twitched, but Sesshoumaru said nothing. Hisui gurgled and kicked his legs out like a little frog, and his arms flailed at his sides in agitation now, stretching awkwardly in the general direction of Sesshoumaru. A few more moments of this went on before the boy was scrunching up his face and making a sort of grunt-coo, a noise of demanding, eyes fixed on the taiyoukai as his little body tried to wriggle in that way. Of course Rin and Kaede and Sango all knew what this meant, and they snickered at each other as Rin spoke it aloud.
"Aaawwwww, look, Lord Sesshoumaru, Hisui wants you to hold him!"
A tiny noise that could not be properly explained with the usual onomatopoeia escaped the taiyoukai as his posture stiffened. His eyes shut for a moment, his focus on repressing any further outward reaction as the unspoken question implied by that statement hung in the air...
"Rin, you silly girl, do you presume that Lord Sesshoumaru would be caught dead holding a babe in his arms?! Hah!" Jaken crowed indignantly.
"Well I imagine he'll be a father one day, won't he? And then he'll hold his own children just like any father would. Besides, it's not like he would be clumsy enough to drop a baby! Right, Lord Sesshoumaru?"
Sometimes he asked himself why he allowed these things to happen. He should have walked out of the trap while he had the chance minutes ago.
The sigh that left his lips was one of quiet resignation. The answer, he knew, no longer mattered. Rin had some kind of power over him that he had learned to accept, some kind of hold over him that he couldn't resist. It was like being under a spell, but he had grown accustomed to this particular kind of defeat.
"No, I'm certainly not that clumsy."
"Ggghhh-ggghh-fffff!" Hisui noised loudly and insistently, squirming towards the sound of the taiyoukai's voice eagerly.
Sango slowly turned her head to look at Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru felt those eyes fall on him, and opened his own eyes to meet the gaze with an almost impassive look of his own, tinged with a hint of irritation, a dose of resignation, and...something else, softer, quieter, and ever so much more meaningful than all the rest as his golden orbs drifted towards the little boy.
He seemed to be wondering why such a tiny infant human would have no fear of him, would have no sense of danger in his presence, or something like that, Sango figured. So with a smirk in a daring maneuver, not bothering to ask, the taijiya swept her boy up out of Kaede's arms and took the three steps to close the distance, holding the brightly smiling infant in a one-armed cradle hold as she stood before the taiyoukai.
Hisui was grinning hugely and babbling loud happy noises now, and he seemed to want to leap over from his mother's arms towards Sesshoumaru, a behavior that clearly left said Dog Lord at a bit of a loss. For a long few seconds he just blinked a few times and stared, then slowly, with a very deliberate motion that was stiff with nervousness he couldn't completely hide right now, he bent one elbow and raised one arm, copying the way her hold looked as she smiled and slid the boy over.
Jaken's head hitting the floor made a tiny little thump that made Rin blink at the imp.
"Master Jaken?"
Sango giggled softly, as did Kaede. Sesshoumaru didn't realize it, but he was blushing fairly obviously now, the space between his stripes hued pinkish as he stared down his nose at the wriggly little bundle in his arm now. Presently Hisui was trying to reach his face, but had found the tassle on the armor in the process, and was, of course, examining how it tasted. The fact that he seemed to enjoy whatever flavor it held as his eyes grew wider and he gnawed harder was curious enough to illicit a tiny snort of disbelief from Sesshoumaru.
"You are a strange infant," he murmured, though it didn't sound like he meant it as any kind of insult, his voice softer than any of them were used to hearing with perhaps the exception of Rin, "do you think my tassles are food?"
Hisui seemed to thrill at hearing his voice, all limbs flaring up and down in an eager sort of bouncing motion as his face lit up with a huge wide-mouthed baby grin, and a tiny baby laugh came out as he burbled and bobbed his head, bonking the back of it against his arm.
"Gggghhh-ggghhh-ggghhhhAAAAAA! Ggghhh-gghhaaa-ffff-ffff! Bbbaaa, BBaaaaAAAA! Gggguuuu," Hisui declared most joyously, smacking his hands on the armor carapace lightly and trying to grasp the top of it, as if trying to yank himself closer, fingers curling and uncurling towards him still.
"I wish I knew what he just said," Rin chuckled, and Kaede snuckled along with her.
"Well," Sango blushed now and ducked her head slightly, "I suspect this comes from his father. Miroku likes to hold his babes close to his face so they can feel-well, he's their father, of course. It's just something he does. Hisui must think that everyone is like that, he's too little to know any better," she chuckled, "so just like he has different cries for food or pain, this is his 'touch your face' noise. He's just being a little bugger, demanding things as usual..."
Sesshoumaru seemed to contemplate that for a long time, watching with a curious expression he didn't know was on his face as the boy thrashed and struggled to try and lift himself, to try and heave up to touch him.
Hisui was determined. He banged on the armor with his hands in infantile frustration, but if it hurt him to do so, he didn't show it. He gave a crease of a frown and flexed his hands more, over and over, then banged on the armor again and started to try and grasp the top of it, and when the tassle got near his face again, he gave it a swat and an angry huff and looked up at Sesshoumaru's face again.
"BBbbaaaaaAAAAA! GGgghh-ggghhh-bbbaa! Ggguuuuu!"
"Are you truly unable to reach me, even from this close?" Sesshoumaru asked softly, his tone surprisingly gentle, not mocking, not even really what one might call curious, not Anything really, but beneath it was hidden a tiny sensation of...
Sango raised both eyebrows. Rin's face split in a wide smile. Kaede's one good eye gleamed as she chuckled softly.
"Gghhhh...bbaaa?" Hisui's tone was, for perhaps the first time in his life, very clearly a question as his eyes locked with the taiyoukai's.
"You heard me."
Sango snorted in disbelief. Even from Sesshoumaru, to presume that an infant-
"Ggghhhhaaaaa BBbbbaaaaAAAAA BBaaaaa! GGggghhhh-bbbuuu! GgguuuuuBBBAAA!" Hisui seemed defiant of his nonchalance, and with a bodily convulsion of his entire midsection, he heaved himself back, slid his head and back further up the taiyoukai's arm with a few strong froggish kicks of his legs, flung his arm up and grasped, his hold firm this time, and yanked on the top of the armor. His awkward infantile attempt pulled his body upwards and into an almost sideways roll as his other arm flailed to find purchase, and that palm banged the armor a few times again in more frustration as his head lolled a bit, trying to hold his shaky little baby head still enough to stare into those gleaming golden eyes...
"Gggghhhhaaaa BBBAAAAA!" Hisui kicked and flung his free arm again, and hoisted himself a few inches higher with the hand that still clutched the armor, and when he turned his body this time, his tiny little hand flung high, he bopped Sesshoumaru in the chin, and his fingers stretched out to try and grasp, but found nothing of real purchase to hang onto.
"GGhhhhh-gggghhh BBuuu!"
"You'll have to try a little harder than that, Hisui."
"BBBAAAAAAA BBAAAAA GGGUUUUU!" Hisui thrashed wildly for a few moments, but then, his other hand found a good grasp on the armor, and he yanked with both arms, now practically sitting rather than being cradled prone in the dog's arm, and with a, "FFfffff!" raspberry of defiance right at the taiyoukai's face, he then steadied his posture and released his hold with one hand to lift it high and bring his palm down swiftly to-
Slap!
Sesshoumaru blinked as the tiny human hand stayed on his skin, watching Hisui's face light up with triumphant glee. He seemed to take a curious small inhale of the boy's scent, the milky-sweet baby smell tingling a part of his brain that had never quite activated before, that strong dog instinct which drew a softer light to his eyes, a subconscious reaction he himself didn't catch.
"Hn. You are too young to challenge me, little taijiya," he said with the most amusement they'd ever heard in his voice, "but you have a lot of spirit, I'll give you that. You must get it from your mother."
"Gggaaaaa!" Hisui agreed, face breaking into a huge smile as Sesshoumaru slightly dipped his head, just enough to let the boy feel his stripes.
For a long moment, Hisui's tiny hand felt the magenta lines on his face, and then, the hand went lower, to his jawline almost, and the babe was now staring at him strangely. With as much control as his tiny infant body could muster, Hisui moved his hand back up to the stripes, then away from them again, then up again, before patting down the ends of the points that went towards his mouth, and then touching his upper lip and-
When the babe grabbed his lip and tugged it up, Sesshoumaru let out a soft, tiny little growl that wasn't really a growl at all. It was a tiny, gentle, sort of Puppyish noise, actually...
"Rrrrr..." he threatened most unseriously, and Hisui gave him another cheerful smile, bouncing slightly on his arm and pushing his lip back down. The growling stopped, and Hisui tugged at his lip again, to the pleasant repetition of another, "Rrrr..."
"GGhhh-gggghhh-ggghhh-ggguuuu! Aaaa Bbbaaaaa Bbaaaaa Bbaaaa Gggguuuu! Aaaa Baaa," Hisui insisted, taking his hand off Sesshoumaru's lip to touch his stripes again, "Aaaa Baaaa! Ggguuuuu-uuuuu!" and now he put his hand over Sesshoumaru's mouth, "Gguuuu! Baaa?"
Another question, this time something that Sango could not interpret, but somehow, Sesshoumaru seemed to understand perfectly well.
"Yes, they're connected. That's where my poison is. That's why they are warmer to the touch."
"AAaaa Baaaa!"
"Poison. Not good for you, little one. Not good for any human."
"Gguuuu!"
"No."
"Bbaaaaaa bbaaaaa Fffff!"
"Because I am a youkai."
"Baaa?"
"Youkai. Not human."
"Ggguuuu!"
"I know. Tragic, isn't it? You have your parents to blame for that one," he huffed.
"Gghhh-ggghhh-ggghhhh," Hisui started to laugh and patted his stripes, then, quite suddenly, with a squirm and a twist, "MMMMaaaa!" and reached out for Sango, his questions apparently all answered, and Sango of course snuckled as she accepted him back into her arms.
"Do you...understand baby talk?!" Rin gasped, and then clasping her hands together, "That's Amazing, Lord Sesshoumaru!"
"I, uh..." Sesshoumaru finally realized he'd completely forgotten he was being watched, and the blush on his face blended his stripes with his skin as he coughed into one hand nervously and turned his head from them all, "n-no, just, I could only assume what he was curious about, and of course I don't expect...well what else was I to do, Bark at him?"
"Well you did growl at him a little bit, and that was so Adorable!" Rin pointed out.
Sesshoumaru let out a tiny groan and turned his head even further, but it was far too late for that, and he damn well knew it. When his brother found out about this one...
"Still, it does seem like he understood what you said," Sango tilted her head curiously, "or at least, he seemed to know you knew what he was on about. I never knew you were such a fatherly figure, Sesshoumaru-sama."
"Don't say that, I don't have any children!" Sesshoumaru protested, but that only brought their knowing chuckles-they were women, after all.
"Ggghhhh-ggghhhh Bbaaaa! Bbaaaa," Hisui laughed and clapped his hands together a few times, bouncing in his mother's arms, "Fffffffttt!"
Sesshoumaru sighed and gave up. He realized the point was moot now, he'd already revealed his weakness to his enemies.
"Woof," he said, not even trying to make it sound like a bark, and in fact it came out as a disgruntled sigh, exhaling his pride along with the noise, but Hisui and the women just laughed and laughed, understanding that this was about as close to self-mocking humor as he knew how to be.
"Hey, what's all the noise about up here? Who's havin' fun without me?" Shippou asked casually as he strolled in, having heard them chuckling from outside.
"Hisui really likes Lord Sesshoumaru," Rin snickered, "they seem to understand each other very well."
"Now This I gotta hear!" the kitsune's eyes flashed with mischief as his emerald gaze darted up to the taiyoukai, who was giving him a rather pointedly annoyed scowl for having the gall to-
"Gggghhhh-ggghhh-ggghhh Bbbaaaaa BbbbaaaaAAAAA! GGuuuuuu Ggghhh! Ffffftttt!" Hisui huffed and puffed and blew another raspberry, trying to tell the whole story in an eager rush, hands reaching and grasping as his face contorted, "GGuuu ggghhhh! Bbaaa, AAa baaa, ggghhhh-ggghhh buuu! Gu gu BBaaaa baaa Buu, ggghhh-ggghhh-ggghhh! Fffff, Ffff, fffffftttttt! AAa Gggaaaa! Baa, gu. Baa," he finished with a grand smile, beaming over his toothless grin at the tall taiyoukai and bouncing.
"He's exaggerating, I did no such thing," Sesshoumaru snorted, and Shippou blinked and tilted his head as the women burst into laughter.
"Do you understand Baby Talk?!" Shippou gasped, eyes growing wide as he stared up at the perfectly serious and even grumpy-looking taiyoukai.
Sesshoumaru sighed and crossed his arms. The toad was still passed out on the floor, and the women were laughing at the moment, and if he was the one who gave the narrative, perhaps he could make it sound less embarrassing than it was...
"Hisui is teething. Apparently I am the most intriguing distraction in the vicinity. It seems he exaggerates often, for as soon as Sango handed him to me, he quite forgot to fuss over his teeth. I suppose it's just in the nature of human babes to carry on over nothing."
"You huh what 'scuse me? Say that part about Sango one more time?"
"You heard me."
"Bbbaaaa bbaaaa ggghhhhh-ggghhh! FFffffttttt!" Hisui laughed and bounced, and surely he had a good idea of what they were saying...
"You Held Hisui? You? Held a Human Baby? In your arms?"
"It was only one arm," Sesshoumaru protested with a slight roll of his shoulder, realizing that even from his own mouth-
"Oh. My. Dog. You just held a baby and I Missed it?! Why did nobody come get me?!"
Rin exploded into laughter at that, bending at the waist and slapping her knee in mirth. Kaede harumphed out a few hearty laughs while Sango now let out her own chuckles. Hisui babbled out a string of laughing noises and started clapping his hands together, bouncing even more.
"You make it seem like there's any significance to such an action," Sesshoumaru tried to dodge his way around the evaluation or criticism or whatever it would be, the reaction that would likely embarrass him, trying to downplay it severely.
"You make it seem like there's no significance to such an action! You really just held a Baby?!"
"And what's so significant about that, foxling?"
"You don't know? You Don't Know?!"
"I know nothing," Sesshoumaru retorted thoughtlessly, not aware of just how stupid he had actually sounded until he'd already slipped.
"Clearly!" Shippou snorted, catching the misphrased reply with a cheeky smirk.
"GGgaaaa gggaaaaa bbuuuuuu! Ffffftttt!" Hisui laughed along with all the girls as Sesshoumaru's face flushed with pinkish tints again.
"That's not what I meant," he grumbled, and giving the fox a dark frown, "and you know it."
"Oh I know it alright," Shippou chuckled, winking up at the taiyoukai now as a glint of devilry lurked in his eyes, "I know a Lot of things."
"Hn!"
"Aaaaaa bbaaaaa! Ggghh-ggghhh-ggghh! Baaaa gguuuu, ggguuuu," Hisui was determined to be part of this conversation, gurgling out his input.
Sesshoumaru let out a tiny sigh and finally relented, his habitual facade already cracked far enough to allow, for just a moment perhaps, that even a Taiyoukai Lord could be affected by the charm of babies.
"And You," he slid his gaze over toward the infant, "have no sense of loyalty. You mock me only because you feel safe in your mother's arms, but when you're old enough, taijiya brat..."
Shippou gawked for about a second, then burst into his own fit of laughter, but it was not out of mockery, but rather Joy...
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Well, I hope you enjoyed it. Reviews greatly appreciated :))