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The Tale of the Demon Lord	By : Arianawray Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 56283 -:- 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
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XVI: Making Changes
Inuyasha's transformation from his human state to his half-demon form was a fascinating sight to behold. All demons and most half-demons have at least a touch of magic to them, which is why they can easily handle magical spells and often assume different forms. Inuyasha's regular half-demon-to-human-and-back metamorphosis certainly was magical in nature, and what was more than magical was how the process of this physical alteration was rendered most watchable because of his striking beauty in both forms.
His midnight-black hair filled out and lengthened, and what first looked like streaks and glimmers of silver among the strands swiftly took over the whole of his head until his usual gleaming white mane was complete.
His gray eyes with the jewel-like violet flecks in them turned golden in a blink, and his little human ears shrank away to nothing while the triangular dog ears made their reappearance atop his head. His fangs and claws grew back out too, and his muscles became a little bigger and more defined.
Sesshomaru watched attentively and asked, once it was complete: "Does it hurt when it happens, either way?"
Inuyasha shot Sesshomaru a look, as if to say that he would much rather not hold a conversation about such a secret aspect of his existence, at least not with him. But the demon lord met his look and continued to wait for his response, so he mumbled almost inaudibly: "I'm used to it. It's no longer as uncomfortable as it seemed when I was a child."
"How are you feeling now?" Sesshomaru asked.
"Better."
"I shall send for a healer at once," he said, against his heart's desire to remain ensconced in the room with Inuyasha, and shut the world out. "You should be looked over to ensure that all is well with you."
"I don't like any of the healers that used to work here when I was a child," Inuyasha stated bluntly.
"Did any of them harm you?" Sesshomaru asked, in an alert-enough voice to give Inuyasha instant visions of the castle's medical personnel melting away in a toxic heap of venom from his brother's poison claws.
"No!" he said quickly. "No – they never tried to harm me or my mother – but they never stopped their children from bullying me either, even when they could see them hurting me, and that told me more than I needed to know about what they actually thought of me."
"We have newer healers," Sesshomaru assured him. "Ones who began working here after you left, and whom you have never met before. Before you returned to the castle, I personally selected a few excellently trained healers who were accustomed to working with humans and half-demons, as well as with full demons."
"I'm fine. Forget it."
"I want you to be well and safe – even if I have to make you angry by disregarding what you say right now. Please allow me to do that."
Without waiting for more arguments, Sesshomaru went to the door, unlatched it, and called for the servant on duty at the end of the corridor.
"Fetch the wolf-demon healer," he told him, as he racked his brains for the name. Coming up with it at last, he added: "The one called Satoshi."
"Yes, my lord," the servant replied, running off at once to carry out the order.
Sesshomaru saw that his personal attendants were waiting in the corridor, along with Natsumi. He told two of his attendants to leave, for he did not require their services this morning. The third, Isshin, was given instructions to convey to the kitchen regarding the kind of food he wanted sent up to the prince's bedroom as soon as it could be ready. Natsumi was waved into the room, where she quickly and quietly helped Inuyasha to dress in some light robes – nothing thick or elaborate, for she had heard Sesshomaru say that the healer was expected, and he could have been summoned only for the prince. At the same time, Sesshomaru borrowed a thicker outer garment from Inuyasha's wardrobe and pulled it on himself, over the thinner robe.
As Natsumi finished tying a simple knot for Inuyasha on the lightly patterned outer robe she had selected, the sound of hurrying feet and the strong odour of dried herbs in the air announced the arrival of the healer. The wolf demon stepped into the room, bowed low before Sesshomaru and Inuyasha, and asked what he could do for his lord and his prince.
Inuyasha saw that he was a sensible-looking individual with dark-brown hair and bright lilac eyes, slightly untidily dressed in a rough brown robe, but with a calm and steady air about him. It was hard to tell if he was old or young. Demons have a habit of looking much the same for many hundreds of years, and this demon's face and eyes gave away nothing about his age.
"I wish you to examine my brother and ensure that he is well," Sesshomaru told the healer.
"Yes, my lord," the wolf demon replied before turning to the prince. "Your Highness, would you permit me to examine you while you sit on your bed? It will be easier for us both if you are seated."
"I told you I was fine," Inuyasha protested to Sesshomaru, as he stopped Natsumi from removing Bokusen'o's leaf along with the wet clothing Sesshomaru had stripped off him and dropped on the floor last night.
But the healer bowed again to draw Inuyasha's attention back to himself, and asked him: "Your Highness, may I ask what it was that may have ailed you earlier, even if you feel better now?"
"It was nothing," Inuyasha grumbled, fingering the leaf as Natsumi withdrew discreetly to take his and Sesshomaru's wet clothing, and all the damp towels, to the laundry room.
"One can never tell if an ailment is nothing or not, until it either develops or is nipped in the bud," Satoshi pressed on mildly, but insistently.
"I just didn't eat much for a few days, that's all," Inuyasha muttered, feeling that the leaf was giving him a sense of calm. "And I got kind of badly chilled last night, but I'm warm now. Nothing to it."
"Nonetheless, if Your Highness would be kind enough to humour me, I would like to look at your tongue and your eyelids, check your pulse, feel the temperature of your forehead, and assess your breathing. If you find the thought of all that annoying, perhaps you might choose to express your feelings by sticking out your tongue at me to begin with? That would help us both!"
Sesshomaru raised one eyebrow fractionally, not certain if he approved of this light-hearted tone the healer was taking. However, it appeared to be working on Inuyasha, who promptly stuck his tongue out in a manner that was probably intended to be rude.
"Ah!" Satoshi exclaimed, leaning towards the prince for a closer look at the pink bit of flesh he was now presented with. "A healthy colour, and a clean surface."
"That does make me feel better, actually," Inuyasha said when he pulled his tongue back into his mouth, a hint of cheekiness coming back into his voice.
"Excellent, Your Highness," the healer remarked. "Would you object very much to sitting on your bed while I check your eyelids and temperature?"
This healer was not at all threatening or unfriendly, and Inuyasha found it easy to relax in his presence. So he shrugged and climbed onto his bed, on which he sat cross-legged by the edge of the mattress. He placed the leaf on his side table while Satoshi stood before him and gently pulled his lower eyelids down and his upper eyelids up, then felt his forehead, neck and jawline.
"How old are you, Your Highness?"
"Two hundred."
"Hmm," the healer murmured as he finished the second part of his examination. "No unusual temperature or colouring, no inflammation or swelling… all seems well so far. Would you please lie down on your back, Your Highness, so that I can check your pulse?"
As Inuyasha flopped onto his back, Sesshomaru experienced a twinge of jealousy to see how easy the boy could be around others once they proved harmless, but so unnaturally stiff with him when they were alone.
Satoshi drew up a footstool and planted himself on it after making a bow to Sesshomaru for permission to take a seat in his lord's presence, borrowed one of the smaller pillows decorating the base of the bed's headboard, and rested Inuyasha's right wrist on it. He pressed his fingers lightly over the half-demon's inner wrist and felt the strength and speed of his pulse.
After two minutes, the healer said: "You may sit up now if you wish, Your Highness." The wolf demon rose from the footstool and bowed again to Sesshomaru to thank him for permitting him to be seated. Then he told both the king and prince: "His Highness' health seems to be normal, except that his pulse appears to be regaining its pace and strength, for some reason I cannot yet determine. It started out strong enough, with only a slightly weak third beat, but even that slowness diminished as I continued feeling the pulse. So it appears that His Highness suffered some recent trauma, but is recovering well from it."
"What do you prescribe?" Sesshomaru asked, just as Natsumi returned to the room.
"Nothing more than strengthening herbs for now, nourishing food, and proper sleep. It would be good for His Highness to rest quietly for today, but it will probably do no harm if he chooses to resume his normal routine, as his pulse and spirit energy are remarkably strong for a half-demon of his youth. I shall write out the prescription and prepare the herbs at once. Should I deliver them when they are ready, or would Your Majesty prefer to send someone to collect them from me?"
"Natsumi will collect them from you later," Sesshomaru decided.
Satoshi bowed and took his leave, stepping out of the room at nearly the same time as the food Sesshomaru had ordered from the kitchen arrived, brought up on a tray personally by the attendant, Isshin, who had not thought it a good idea to have the kitchen staff tripping all over the prince's bedroom while it was in such a disorganised state.
"You may have breakfast in your room today, so that you can get more rest," the demon lord told his brother. "You are also to have your lessons here. I will send Jaken up and remind him to keep the lesson short this morning."
"I told you I was fine!" Inuyasha sighed, as the attendant rested the food on the writing desk before locating a more suitable table for it from amongst the mess of furniture all over the floor.
But he did like the thought of resting in his room, which was looking much better after the chaotic state it had been in for days, now that a couple of the housekeeping servants had been admitted at last and were starting to bustle around picking up the fallen furniture, removing the broken items, putting the intact cabinets and cupboards back in the spots Natsumi indicated, and opening the windows. And the food did smell good. Also, Jaken had never seen his room, so it would be nice to show his kappa tutor what it looked like.
Sesshomaru took his silence as consent.
"I must see our visitors off, but I shall be back once they have left, and when your lessons are over," the demon lord said to his brother.
Beckoning to Isshin, Sesshomaru left for his own room to change his attire, leaving Inuyasha to his breakfast and to Natsumi's safe hands.
~ - ~
"Your Highness must never do anything like that again!" Jaken squawked, the second he had ascertained that the prince was perfectly well. "I was worried about you, but the guards wouldn't let me see you! And no one could tell me much!"
"Nothing's wrong now," Inuyasha grumbled. "So Sesshomaru and I had a fight and I shut myself up in my room. Big deal."
"But those horrible birds!" Jaken protested. "How dare they batter against Your Highness' windows? It was unacceptable!"
"No harm done," Inuyasha brushed it off, far more breezily than he ought to have, considering how vulnerable he had been last night. "So what are you going to teach me in the hour that we have today? A recipe for demon-bird stew?"
"While that would be fitting, considering that those birds had the audacity to attempt an attack on you, Your Highness would perhaps do better with learning some spells that enable us to conceal our scent from others – an important survival skill for times when one prefers not to fight but would rather lie low."
"You know such spells?"
"One or two. These things are best taught by a specialist in such matters, but for now, I suppose I can give you an idea of how one of these basic spells may be done."
"Go on," Inuyasha prompted him impatiently.
"It isn't as simple as someone gathering all the right ingredients, boiling them into some magic potion while chanting over them and handing bottles of it out to anyone, you know," Jaken explained. "To conceal your scent, you have to work out with help from one skilled in magical spells what your own body chemistry is like. After that, you can prepare suitable ingredients that will with the right touch of magic neutralise those scents. Mind you, a general spell will work fairly well for most demons – and half-demons, of course – but there's nothing like one tailored to you as an individual."
"Okay, but until we can get our hands on some magical specialist, what sort of general spell would work on a half-demon like me?"
"Well, I believe the kinds of scents that mark dog demons as what they are may be neutralised by an appropriate combination of these herbs…" Jaken's voice trailed off as he wrote down a list of mysterious plant names. "They should be boiled and condensed, and when cool, can be slathered onto one's skin or sprinkled over, with an incantation to make them continue adhering to your skin even if you should be caught in a heavy downpour or are forced to burrow underground. That's the most basic recipe. However, I should add that something so simple won't fool the most discerning demons, like Lord Sesshomaru. And it can only mask your scent while it lasts – it won't conceal your demon energy from other demons. Concealing that requires other kinds of physical and spiritual training. The scent-masking basics, however, will be enough to avoid unpleasant or unnecessary attention from lower-level demons or simple-minded predators."
"Which someone as small as you would really need, right? Otherwise you'd have been turned into a snack years ago!" Inuyasha teased.
"Enough about my size, Your Highness," Jaken exhaled a quavery sigh.
"So who would be an expert in magic spells that we can ask for more information?" Inuyasha questioned his tutor, for he was at this time more interested in learning if he could disguise his human scent.
"A few of the healers working in this castle have a lot of experience with spells, as they are often required to treat individuals who have been cursed or otherwise badly affected by magic that has been used against them," Jaken said. "I shall ask Lord Sesshomaru if we may engage them for a few lessons. The most magically powerful demoness I ever encountered, however, was Lord Sesshomaru's mother. I met her once, on her last visit, and she was impressive indeed. But we can hardly ask to be trained by her!"
Inuyasha had never met Sesshomaru's mother. She had not come to the castle in the ten years he had lived here as a child, and she did not seem close to her son. The half-demon prince, who had known nothing but love and affection from his own Mama, wondered why Sesshomaru's mother was willing to remain so distant from her offspring, and if all the coldness he saw in Sesshomaru came purely from her.
For the first time in his life, Inuyasha felt a little bit sorry for his older brother. However, that feeling did not last long.
After his brief lesson in the morning, Jaken left, and Inuyasha had a couple of hours to himself before Sesshomaru returned to the room, having seen off Tsubasa and her group of delegates after a good breakfast with them. The bird-demon ambassador had left in her usual sprightly manner, tinged with regret that the unaccountably bad behaviour of her beasts had made it impossible for her to lure Sesshomaru back into her bed for a few more hours of amusement.
Inuyasha neither knew nor cared about any of that. He only knew that while he had agreed to forgive Sesshomaru for his unkind words from the night before last, he had not as yet begun to forgive him for manipulating him so easily in the bedroom and for keeping him here, bound both by threats and by the disturbing allure of being cared for by an older brother after a lifetime of being treated as if he were nothing but dirt to him.
So when Sesshomaru sat across from him at a small but finely made table that the servants had carried in to place their lunch dishes on, Inuyasha had his blank face on again as he wondered how long the demon lord would be nice to him purely because of the bird incident, and when he would start trying all kinds of unmentionable things on him again in one bed or the other.
"Inuyasha, are you feeling unwell?" Sesshomaru asked, concerned.
"No."
"You look less bright-eyed than you did this morning. I should send for the healer again."
"No. I'm fine."
"What is wrong?"
"Nothing."
Sesshomaru was getting nowhere with this exchange, so he sat back in his chair and looked across at his brother, who was staring at an invisible point somewhere between his own lap and the edge of the table. He thought about all the ways in which he had erred with this young creature, and that what he wanted most was to have him in his life always. He had known from the start that his simple apology last night hardly sufficed for all that they had been through, and now was the time to do the rest. He thus decided to swallow more of the bitter pill he had already started taking in.
"Inuyasha," the demon lord said. "I know I have much more to apologise for."
Inuyasha still stared at the invisible point.
Sesshomaru continued: "I'm sorry for all that I have done to you that you may not have wanted me to. I want you here with me because you are my brother and I am learning to care for you and about you. But I realise that the way I have gone about keeping you here is far from acceptable to you. I never took the time to find out what you want and who you really are. It's time to change that. I want to know you as you truly are, not the passive being you pretend to be when I am causing you pain or being insensitive to your feelings."
Inuyasha had gradually raised his eyes as Sesshomaru began this new part of his apology, and by the time he was done, the half-demon was staring at him with the same brand of disbelief that had taken over his face when Sesshomaru had told him four days ago that he could sleep alone in his own room.
"You want to know me as I truly am?" he repeated after the demon.
"Yes. I want to know who you really are, what you are truly like, what you are thinking and feeling. I want to hear what is on your mind – what you think of me – even if it is unflattering or may be unwelcome to my ears."
"You want to hear what I'm thinking?" Inuyasha asked his next question, incredulously. "Why? So you can whip all the skin off my back just because I've been rude? Or set fire to my friends in the village for my honest thoughts?"
"I believe I am capable of distinguishing between times when my younger brother is simply offering me frank speech – even though it may sound offensive to me – and times when he is deliberately trying to be provocative and disrespectful," Sesshomaru said. "At those times when you are purposely provoking me, I can assure you that your backside will sting from the spanking I would only be too pleased to give you. But if you are merely speaking frankly, I will accept all you have to say."
"Really?" Inuyasha said, getting to his feet. "I can tell you exactly what I think of you? Without being flayed for it or getting my friends killed?"
"Is this is really something you need to stand up for?" Sesshomaru asked, not without a touch of resignation as he braced himself for the onslaught he knew was coming.
"Yes," Inuyasha stated, his eyes glowing a deep gold and his fangs showing as he leaned over the table towards the seated Sesshomaru. "I need to stand up to do this because if I do it sitting down I might just THROW MY BACK OUT GIVING YOU A PIECE OF MY MIND!"
It crossed Sesshomaru's mind that if Inuyasha had yelled any louder into his face, his fringe might have blown clear off his forehead.
"I think you're a sick, twisted pervert who has no idea how to interact normally with anyone without sticking your cock – or some substitute for it – into one part of their bodies or another!" Inuyasha began. "You screw anything and everything at the drop of a hat, which is a fucking crappy way for a king to behave – don't think I couldn't smell that bird-demon female all over you the moment I got my usual senses back this morning. You treat people like filth, worse than worms, when you think they've offended you, and you have no respect for others' dignity or feelings. You treated my mother and me like we were nothing to you – nothing! – and then you come around two hundred years later threatening my friends and molesting me and thinking that I can't see right through you for the sex-crazed hypocrite you are. You don't care about me but you pretend to just so that you can keep me quiet and save yourself some trouble when you order me into your bed – and just because you make my body react in all kinds of disgusting ways it doesn't mean that I actually like anything you do to me. To get me here, you even said you would burn the village I lived in, and you called the villagers 'pathetic' – what kind of king does that to a community in his own kingdom? And you really think that giving me nice food and clothes and stuff and saying sorry to me once or twice can make up for all the shit you've done before this? If you think that, then you're even sicker than I thought you were to begin with!"
The prince seemed to want to say more, but by then, he was starting to get red in the face from expressing his pent-up feelings so vociferously, and from expressing them to and about the great Lord Sesshomaru, of all people. He shut his mouth, then opened it once with a sharp intake of breath, but let out a frustrated huff instead of continuing with his rant, and closed his mouth again before sitting down with his arms folded across his chest and his eyes boring furiously into Sesshomaru's like twin blazing suns.
Sesshomaru burned to ask: Did you not like anything at all that I did to you? But having the sense to know that that would be an exceedingly unwise question at this stage, what he actually asked was: "Is that all you wish to say to me?"
"Probably not, but it will do for now," Inuyasha said angrily.
Sesshomaru could hardly believe that he had invited this upon himself, but if it would begin to repair things somehow with his brother, and if somewhere along the way it might begin to heal his own soul, this and more would be worth bearing with.
"I accept the fairness of all that you have said to me, except the part about my not caring about you," he spoke, slowly, as he tried to find the words that would truthfully and accurately describe his thoughts and feelings. "I want you to know that because I care about you, I will do what I can – in my private life – to behave in a manner that will be more acceptable to you. I cannot make you any promises about how I see fit to govern my kingdom or my subjects – including insolent creatures like Morio's son – for such things are determined by more than one's private character and beliefs. But I do apologise for threatening and insulting your friends. Though I cannot promise that I will change overnight or in every area that you find fault with, I give you my word that I will try. I value your presence in my life – I did not expect when I first brought you home that you would be much more to me than a younger brother to amuse me by night – but you have in a few short days become important to me, and I wish to be to you what I ought to have been all these years. I hope you will give me the chance to make up to you all the ways in which I failed you before."
Inuyasha was still suspicious of Sesshomaru, and did not believe that he would change much, or at all. However, he was a tender-hearted young prince, and he could not find it within himself to throw his brother's surprising humility, and those words that sounded so sincere, back in his face. He pondered what Sesshomaru had said, then found the words to sum up his present feelings about it all: "And I hope you don't mind if I say that I'll believe it when I see it."
"That is fair enough," Sesshomaru conceded. "I would not expect you to just take my word for it. That you would be willing to give me time to be a better brother to you is enough for me at this point."
Inuyasha remained silent, gazing at him contemplatively.
At last Sesshomaru moved to pick up a serving spoon and scoop up some braised meat from one of the dishes before them. He leaned across the table to put it onto Inuyasha's plate.
"Please eat before the food goes completely cold," he said. "After what happened last night, you shouldn't consume cold food."
Inuyasha looked at him, then at the food, and after what felt like an interminable pause, picked up his cutlery and started eating.
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The Tale of the Demon Lord