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The Tale of the Demon Lord	By : Arianawray Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 56279 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 14
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- 16
XV: Turning Point
Sesshomaru laid Inuyasha down in one corner of the bed, snatched up a thick woollen blanket, and tucked it around the boy's sopping-wet form. Reluctant to take more than two steps from him, yet urgently needing to check on the progress of the door repairs, he continued to keep his own demon energy flaring powerfully to mask Inuyasha's scent, and went round the broken furniture and the screens to see if the door was almost back in place.
"How much longer will you take?" Sesshomaru asked the burly monkey-demon worker who had just hoisted the door back onto its hinges and whose assistant was already working on the lock.
"We only need to tighten these hinges and put this new latch on the door, my lord," the worker replied as steadily as he could in these circumstances, under the pressure of the lord's terrible demon-energy buffeting his own weaker aura.
"Good. Finish the job quickly – any further fine-tuning can wait for another day," he said. To the guards, he gave these instructions: "Once they are done, shut the door and keep it shut. No one is to enter this room tonight, under any circumstances."
To the servant stationed at the end of the passageway, he gave instructions to tell those in charge of the furnaces to heat the prince's bath and keep it hot for the remainder of the night and throughout the next morning. He hoped some of the resulting heat from the bathroom would add to the warmth of the bedroom; perhaps Inuyasha would feel better if he could soak in the hot water later.
But for now, he went back round the screens and returned to Inuyasha's bed, where he checked on his brother's condition. The boy's eyes were open, but no longer darting around; instead, he stared blankly into the darkness. When he touched his forehead, he found it hot even though his body was chilled and shivering.
Sesshomaru cursed quietly to himself, and waited till he heard the door close. He then strode across the room again, put the latch down, and went over to a chest in which he had hidden a fresh batch of candles and matchsticks several months ago, at a time when he was still planning for Inuyasha's return and had thought to cater for the needs of his human nights as well.
He had simply neglected to tell Inuyasha where the candles were hidden, and forgotten that this would be the first night he would be human after his return to his old home.
He struck a match and lit two of the longest tapers, stuck them into metal holders which he set down on one of the undamaged cabinets, and hurried back to Inuyasha's side.
"Inuyasha?" he said softly. "I need you to sit up. Can you do that?"
He did not respond, so Sesshomaru raised him into a sitting position and removed the blanket he had wrapped around him earlier. Fortunately, the blanket had done a fair job of protecting the bed from the water that was still seeping out of every inch of the lad's clothing and hair, so the mattress would be still dry and warm enough for Inuyasha to lie back down on again after this.
"I need to take your wet robes off," he said calmly. "We must remove them so that you won't catch a worse chill than you already have, do you understand me?"
The boy seemed to be looking at him now out of the depths of his strangely grayish eyes with hints of violet flecks dancing in the candlelight, but Sesshomaru was not sure how much he was taking in. He hated himself a little for having taught him to associate undressing with nothing other than foreplay and sex, and he was well aware that he might send him into hysterics again by undoing his clothes, but there was no help for it now. He had to get on with the job, and quickly, before his brother's condition worsened.
He undid the tightly knotted ties as swiftly as he could, and stripped the layers off, doing his best to keep his movements neutral and calm and to touch the boy's skin as little as possible.
When he had removed all his upper clothing and dropped it to the carpet, along with a leaf that had for some reason been tucked between the layers, he looked into Inuyasha's face again and said softly: "Can you stand? We must get your trousers off too – I don't want you to become any sicker."
He took Inuyasha's arm and drew him carefully forward and up, until he was on his feet on the carpet. The boy remained standing unaided, but did not react as he untied his trousers and the trouser underlayer, and peeled them off his legs, to which they clung. He sat Inuyasha back down on the edge of the mattress and disentangled his feet from the wet garments pooled around his ankles.
Sesshomaru then made him lie down and bundled him up in the thick quilt cover, adding the woollen blanket over it as an extra layer. In the process, he discovered the cloisonné hairpin that had belonged to Inuyasha's mother caught amongst the folds of the quilt, and put it carefully aside on a nearby chest. Then he took a pile of towels from the bathroom and slipped one of them onto the pillow, raising his brother's head slightly to get it under him so that it could soak up the water that was still dripping off the ends of the tangled tresses. With another towel, he pressed and patted at what he could reach of his dark hair.
Some minutes later, he discarded the wet towels and used fresh, dry ones in their place. The steam from the water had filled the bathroom by this time, and was imparting some of its warmth to the bedroom when a noise from the field outside reached their ears. Inuyasha flinched, curled up more tightly and tried to burrow deeper into the bed.
"It's nothing," Sesshomaru assured him. "It's only the groundsmen and guards keeping this wing safe. The birds are tethered now. I won't allow anyone to hurt you."
Realising now that he himself was soaked from having entered the bath to retrieve Inuyasha, Sesshomaru began to disrobe. So that Inuyasha would not misunderstand his intentions, he chose a thin linen day-robe from the garments folded in one of the cabinets, pulled it on swiftly, and knotted it around his body. He slipped under the blanket, lay beside his brother and asked him: "May I put my arms around you? I won't do more than that. I only wish to warm you better than the covers can."
He carefully lifted one edge of the quilt cover and slid in next to the boy, put his arms about him and drew him close till his head was cradled in the comfortable spot between Sesshomaru's shoulder, chest and upper arm. Inuyasha's entire body stiffened momentarily, but when Sesshomaru only held him, he slowly softened into his embrace.
This was the first occasion on which the demon lord had ever seen his brother in his human form, for in the ten years the child had lived here, his vigilant mother had always kept him inside her own bedroom on every night of the new moon, and Sesshomaru had never had the opportunity to spy on him there.
He was remarkably beautiful even as a human, Sesshomaru thought now, looking down at the translucent skin of his face; his long, dark lashes; delicate mouth and that fine little nose – strong echoes of his mother abounded in his features, and the demon had always acknowledged on an objective level that his human stepmother had been an exquisitely lovely woman, although he had not cared for her, or for how much of his father's love she had enjoyed.
Inuyasha's eyelids kept trying to flutter open, but at last fatigue and the comforting warmth of the bed overcame his desire to stay awake and alert, and he yielded to a restless sleep.
~ - ~
He had been so upset with Sesshomaru, and had kept himself shut up in his room with the door and all the windows blocked for long enough to forget that this day would turn into the night of the new moon. Earlier, he had smelt and heard the demon birds landing, and had thought little of it – Sesshomaru was obviously going on with his life as usual without him. In the late afternoon, he had eaten the last biscuit in his secret stash.
Then he had taken a peek out through the slats of his window shutters to see if he could spot the birds, and the sight of the late-afternoon sky had suddenly prompted him to count back the dates to the last new moon. To his horror, he realised that this night would be the night he would become human – and that the birds only one field away were the kind that drank human blood.
In a panic, he had pulled on his fire rat robe. That robe had shielded him from so much injury in countless emergencies, and he naturally felt far more safe and secure with it covering his skin. He also tucked the leaf Bokusen'o had given him into his clothing for some comfort before he immersed his entire body up to his neck in his unheated bath in the hope of hiding his scent from the birds, and from the other demons in the castle. Mama wasn't here any more to give them a valid reason for detecting the hint of a human somewhere about. He would have liked to hold on to his mother's hairpin too for further emotional security, but did not dare risk its metal parts and delicate enamel by steeping it in the bath along with himself.
He had been in there for two hours by the time the sun went down, and his transformation into his full-human state had begun. Almost immediately, he had heard the birds growing agitated in the next field. The water was obviously not doing as good a job of concealing his scent as he had hoped – at least not from those exceptionally sharp-nosed predators which could detect the mortal blood they always hungered for from miles away.
The completion of the transformation left him completely weak, for he had eaten nothing but biscuits in three days, and drunk only his cold bathwater – a breeze for his half-demon body to handle, but not for his human one.
He lost track of time in there. He grew so cold, so unutterably cold, his human body losing heat by the minute to the chilly bathwater. His mind began to drift, and the coldness all around him took him back decades to the long winter nights when he would curl his tiny body against his mother's for warmth under her quilt, and she would soothe him and calm him while the wind howled angrily outside.
"It's only the wind, Inuyasha," she would whisper. "The wind brings all kinds of things with it – not always bad things, but sometimes good things, good changes. Don't be afraid. Make a wish that even though its hands are cold and icy, they will still bear you better times, like a gift."
He would always make a wish that nothing would change, and he would always have his mother there with him. But still the wind brought both good and bad, and one day she was dead, and he was turned out of the house by his human relatives, while he was still too small to look after himself properly. But in the cold nights all alone in the forests, he would tuck tightly into what natural shelter he could find to keep out of the rain and wind, away from things that would try to eat him, and he would dream of his mother, and make a wish that things would change for the better.
It was so, so cold. He wanted to wish that his mother was with him again – but no, she was at peace now; why should he disturb her rest? He thought then that maybe he should wish that he had been born either a human or a demon so that he would have a place to belong – but then again, how could he deny his descent from either one of his parents without rejecting their love for each other and for him? So he decided to make a wish that he would be safe, and loved, and also brave and strong enough to face whatever confronted him in life.
The leaf against his chest grew warm, and he knew that someone, something, somehow, had heard his wish… but gods, aside from that tiny spot of warmth on his chest, it was so awfully cold…
By the time the birds finally lost control and came battering against his shutters, he was chilled to the bone by the cold bathwater, sick with hunger and fear, totally blind in the darkness, and almost delirious. When Sesshomaru touched him, he had not known who he was or what was going on, and he had kicked, bitten and scratched in desperation, believing that one of the birds had broken in at last and was about to drain his blood. But Bokusen'o's leaf had flared against his chest once more with a warming sensation that gave him comfort and courage, and he had heard the tree's voice in his head: Be calm, little prince, you will be safe.
As he heeded the voice and went limp in the predator's grip, he gradually realised that it was Sesshomaru who was holding him, and carrying him into the bedroom. Then when the demon lord went about removing his clothes and keeping him warm, and as the candlelight flared, Inuyasha's fevered mind realised, bit by little bit, that his brother was trying to help him. However, he felt as if he had been removed from his own body, and was merely looking on from the other side of the room at what was happening, without the power to do anything or to respond to Sesshomaru's prompting.
But as the demon lord slipped into bed with him and put his arms around him, Inuyasha felt himself gliding back into his own body so that he was no longer a detached observer, but feeling Sesshomaru against his skin and inhaling his familiar scent up close. Only then did his mind and spirit decide that he was safe now, and that it was high time he went to sleep.
~ - ~
How long he remained in his fitful slumber he did not know. But when he opened his eyes again, the candles on the cabinet had burnt down by a third, and Sesshomaru was still holding him in his arms, looking down at him.
Inuyasha suddenly felt the vast distance between them even as they lay so close together. He was a mere human boy on this night, defenceless, weak and sick, while his half-brother was a great demon lord, powerful almost beyond measure, and so intolerant of the humanity of his father's second wife all those years ago.
He knew how disgusting he must seem to Sesshomaru in this shape, while Sesshomaru appeared, through his human eyes, to be a fearsome predator that could tear him apart without the least difficulty. He tried at once to push himself away from his brother and to sit up.
"What are you doing?" the demon lord asked, holding him back with one powerful arm wrapped around his body.
"Let go of me," Inuyasha said, and as he spoke, he also began to recall why he had been so furious with Sesshomaru before. His anger swelled.
"No," Sesshomaru replied, keeping his arm round him and taking hold of one of his wrists with his other hand. "You are not as yet well enough to move around."
"You can stop being so bloody hypocritical now," Inuyasha snapped, continuing to struggle, although his human strength was nothing to his demon brother's. "This worthless half-breed doesn't need your pretend-care and your fake concern."
Sesshomaru's heart was pierced all over again by the pain that had been intermittently needling it for days as he remembered what he had said to Inuyasha the night before. The demon lord knew, as if a blinding flash of light had shot into his brain and told him so with an accompanying crash of thunder, that this was a pivotal moment. If he did not do the right thing at once, without hesitation, he would lose Inuyasha forever – perhaps not physically, but certainly the half-demon's heart would never be his. And if he did not learn to relate to this brother of his, then never in his life would he develop the ability to connect deeply with a true companion.
The right thing was unbelievably difficult for one so proud to do, but Sesshomaru saw it was crucial that he do it immediately. So he swallowed his pride, every bit of it that threatened to rear up and interfere, and uttered these simple and sincere words: "Inuyasha, I am very sorry for what I said. I allowed my anger to speak for me, when I should have spoken with my heart instead. Will you forgive me?"
Scarcely able to believe what he was hearing, Inuyasha stared at Sesshomaru out of his wide, round, human eyes. In his confusion, he did not know what to say.
When his brother did not answer, Sesshomaru continued: "I did not mean or believe those ugly words I used. I certainly do not think you worthless or undeserving – far from it. But if you will not forgive me, I will understand."
The demon lord was hurt when Inuyasha's only response after that was to mutter: "Let go of me – I'm well enough."
Slowly and reluctantly, he released his hold on the boy, who moved away from him and sat up, clutching the blanket around his naked body and moving his legs over the edge of the bed. But he did not try to get off the bed or stand up, and Sesshomaru knew that he must still be too unwell and weak to do so on his own. He should call for a healer – but how was he to do that without exposing the half-demon's secret?
He pondered his options, only to have his thoughts interrupted by a soft murmur from Inuyasha: "I forgive you for what you said."
But not for all my other sins, Sesshomaru realised, as he took in his brother's choice of words. He pondered that as he answered aloud: "Thank you for forgiving me."
Inuyasha did not reply. He kept his back to him, giving him glimpses of an alluring plane of skin on display above the blanket whose folds gathered around his hips, pale flesh peeking out from between still-damp locks of black hair. Sesshomaru was drawn to the smooth and soft look of the skin, which appeared to be slightly more delicate than its already highly-touchable texture when it covered his half-demon shape. But he was also concerned enough about his health to move over and drape the blanket's folds over his shoulders, depriving himself of the view.
"You must keep yourself as warm as possible until the sun rises," Sesshomaru told him. "You should be strong enough then to cope with the cold, and, I hope, to fight off all that ails you now. I wish to send for food for you, and a healer, but as no one else here knows about what happens on the night of the new moon, perhaps you can hold on until daybreak?"
Half-turning his head to show Sesshomaru a partial profile of his human face with its rather babyish features, Inuyasha asked softly: "How long have you known about this? About what happens every month?"
"Since you were an infant," the elder brother answered. "I have never told a soul."
"Why am I still alive then? You should have killed me in my bed when I was a child, as you find humans so disgusting."
Again, Sesshomaru found himself poised on the knife-edge of needing to say and do the right thing, and avoid stumbling into an irreparable error that would haunt him forever.
He gathered his thoughts and analysed his feelings before saying to Inuyasha honestly: "I did find humans disgusting when I was younger. I thought them weak, ugly and filthy. Then your mother came into our father's life, and I realised that not all of them were ugly or filthy, or spiritually weak. But I still hated them, because I resented the great love Father had for your mother, which he never had for mine, or showed to me. As I began to rule over the humans in my kingdom, I came – grudgingly at first – to acknowledge and even admire their resourcefulness in making up for their lack of physical strength, and for the tribes they formed, in which individual members largely cooperated and sacrificed themselves for one another, and even loved one another – traits that do not come so naturally to demons. I now ensure that the human communities within my kingdom are treated fairly and protected against hostile action that may originate from demons, or from human bandits. Although I still have no particular interest in my human subjects, it has in truth been a long time since I found them disgusting. And I think you are beautiful in any form you take. Even in the days when I thought I hated you, I never regarded you as anything less than beautiful."
Inuyasha turned his head a little more so that he could look at Sesshomaru, to search his eyes and replay his speech in his head to find any falsehood in it. He did not share with Sesshomaru the conclusion he drew from his assessment of his words and manner, but the light flush that graced his cheeks suggested to the demon lord that what he had said was not entirely unacceptable.
Then Inuyasha turned his head away again and continued sitting there in silence for some time longer.
Eventually, though, he drew his legs back up onto the bed and lay down, and he did not object when his brother lay beside him and rested a hand lightly on his arm to assure him of his presence and protection, until the sun rose from her slumber and showed her face to the world again.
- 14
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- 16
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The Tale of the Demon Lord