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Through The Well	By : TheKaytla Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 25850 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 9
Disclaimer: I do not own the series Inuyasha, nor its characters.They are property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise, and Viz. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-Fourteen
- 15-Fifteen
- 16-Sixteen
- 17-Seventeen
- 16
- 17
Chapter 17

Inuyasha was facing a predicament. He was smart and practical enough to know that this situation was entirely his own doing, but also stubborn and proud enough to not just simply be able to go back.

The hanyou sighed to himself and put his hands behind his head, using them to cushion the back of his head as he leant it against the trunk of the tree, closing his eyes. To the casual observer, he may have looked peaceful, relaxed, but the locks of dark hair spilling over his shoulders meant that would never be the case.

He knew, he damn well knew, that he was being stupid to spend this night outside the village, away from those who would help him deal with any youkai who might stumble upon him, if any had been stupid or brave enough to get close to a settlement like the village. With Miroku and Sango with him, he could have slept through it, had he been so inclined. Just the two of them would have been enough, and he wasn't so helpless himself, despite how vulnerable the night of the new moon made him feel.

That was without counting Sesshomaru. It would be a very reckless and foolhardy lesser demon who thought attacking an area saturated with the youki of a daiyoukai was a good idea. But then again, he reasoned, he'd done it himself in the past. The more powerful a youkai happened to be, the less inclined they were to share territory. That meant one youkai had to maintain large swathes of the countryside... and even the most powerful of demons couldn't be in multiple places at once. If a less powerful demon was smart and quiet enough, they could slip in and out again before being noticed - or caught, at least.

Inuyasha hunched his shoulders. Maybe he should go back. But he was at least half a mile from the village, having been terrorized out of safer territory by the little pains in the ass the women called their children, and he didn't much enjoy the thought of stumbling through the dark to get there. He was far from helpless as a human, but compared to the strength he was used to having, he felt like an infant in battle. On top of that, his senses were so dulled that it sometimes felt like he was losing them entirely.

It was frustrating, sometimes unnerving, and not something anyone he knew could relate to. While his friends catered to it, they never really understood his need to be vigilant on the moonless night.

It was that same vigilance that likely saved him from grievous bodily harm as a noise reached him from below. Peering down, he made out the shape of a demon creeping closer and closer to the tree, faintly illuminated by what little light the stars produced. Bug-like, shaped like a mantis; small eyes, a kind of animal cunning in them that Inuyasha really didn't like. His hand shifted toward Tetsusaiga's hilt -

A clumsy and poorly executed roll off the branch was all that saved Inuyasha from being hit by the ball of green goo that came flying at him. A lesson learned in childhood, after a nearly disastrous escape attempt and a broken arm: never climb too high to get down quickly. He absorbed and ignored the shocks that went racing up his legs from the sudden impact with the ground and unsheathed Tetsusaiga.

He could hear the bark above him sizzling as the acid ate through it. Shit. This thing had a decent arsenal of weaponry; corrosive spit, deadly mandibles, and front limbs that better resembled serrated blades. What did he have? A rusty sword and sheer stubbornness. They weren't impossible odds, at least.

Inuyasha had just braced himself to launch an attack when a sudden burst of youki hit him from behind, powerful enough to send even his weak senses reeling. The next few seconds felt hours long as all other thought shut down. A blur travelled past him too fast to make out any sort of shape; all that reached him were the words that blared in his mind in time with his suddenly racing heart.

Fast. Deadly. Can't run. Have to try. GO!

An inhuman shriek chased those thoughts and Inuyasha stumbled backwards, his back hitting a low hanging tree branch. He shoved at it mindlessly, trying to get past, until a single word cut through.

"Inuyasha."

He recognised the voice even before he managed to bring his brother into focus. The hanyou's body reacted to the presence of Sesshomaru in a confused, panicked sort of fashion: he felt at the same time relief and dread; he wanted to collapse and run as fast as his legs could carry him; he felt equal parts certain of both his death and his safety. His heart still hammered against his rib cage loud enough that he was certain Sesshomaru could hear it clear as day.

The crumpled remains of the mantis youkai dropped carelessly from the daiyoukai's hand, forgotten, as his nostrils flared. His sharp amber eyes darted around the trees, examining every twig, every leaf.

"Inuyasha, what has you so --?" The hanyou saw the myriad of emotions run over Sesshomaru's face briefly before he schooled them once more. "My apologies. I did not think before I acted. I will retreat." He turned stiffly away from Inuyasha.

If nothing else, Inuyasha recovered quickly. He'd have been killed a long time ago, if he didn't. His rational mind had caught up with pure instinct and he knew exactly what was going on in Sesshomaru's stupid head. The big idiot thought Inuyasha was scared of him... and while that wasn't entirely untrue, it wasn't exactly true, either, damn it.

"Wait!" he said, stepping forward and flinging his hand out. "Don't you pull that disappearing crap on me. I know you're just going to be hanging out in the woods like some big weirdo until dawn."

Sesshomaru stopped, as planned, but his gaze tracked down. Without thinking, Inuyasha followed his attention, and came to the alarming realisation that he had grabbed Sesshomaru's sleeve like a needy woman or demanding child. Hastily, he dropped the silk and cleared his throat.

"You do not want me to go." It wasn't quite a question, but those piercing golden eyes searched his face nonetheless. The hanyou resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably on his feet. "Yet you were just --"

"Don't even finish that," Inuyasha interrupted, waving that away impatiently. "Whatever I was just, it wasn't because of you, specifically. I had no idea you were there, Sesshomaru. Then suddenly you were, and I couldn't even tell it was you. Couldn't even see you. It all happened so fast. You were just... rage and death incarnate."

"I believe I overreacted to the situation. I had no reason to assume you could not handle yourself."

Again, Inuyasha waved it away. "Any other night... yeah, I'd probably be pissed by it. Tonight, no grudges."

Sesshomaru's shoulders relaxed by a few degrees. "You are certain you're not putting yourself out, allowing me to stay with you?"

"I'm not that nice," the hanyou replied with a shrug. "Look, I'm not gonna lie, there's a part of me that's struggling to accept you being anywhere near me on this night. Dunno when that'll change, if ever. But I've thought about it enough to realise this isn't gonna be your first time seeing me as a human. The other Inuyasha... even if the time hadn't been the same, he'd have still become human at some point."

"It is the same night. That was why I came here. You truly want me to stay?"

Inuyasha paused trying to stretch a kink out of his neck. "Well, I didn't exactly say that. But sure, fuck it, why not. At least with you around, nothing's gonna try and take a chunk out of me before dawn. I can even make a fire."

While the hanyou busied himself doing just that, Sesshomaru remained where he was, watching him. After a few moments, Inuyasha glanced at him and sighed. The daiyoukai was so still, he didn't even appear to be breathing. "You know, this'd go quicker if the one who can actually see what he's doing decided to help."

Sesshomaru came to life then, like a statue out of one of those fairy tales Kagome had told to Sango. He appeared almost sheepish, but came to Inuyasha's side. A fire soon warmed the small clearing and Inuyasha sat himself down beside it. It was a rarity he got to enjoy something like this on the night of the new moon, so he closed his eyes and soaked in the warmth.

He was vaguely surprised when Sesshomaru sat down behind him, so that they were back to back. Being warmed from both sides, it was difficult to find a reason to complain, but he gave it his best shot.

"What the hell, Sesshomaru? You're supposed to sit around the fire, not around the hanyou."

"You know very well I do not feel the cold as you do this night. The light, however, does hinder my visual range."

Inuyasha could have pointed out that Sesshomaru could have sat literally anywhere else facing away from the fire, but decided to leave it be. It wasn't unpleasant.

Instead, he scoffed. "Yeah, like anything's going to get anywhere near here without you sensing it. And that's only if it's stupid enough to try after feeling your youki."

"Are you attempting to flatter me?"

"You're flattering yourself if you think I am," Inuyasha retorted, and was pleased with the comeback. "I'm just pointing out a fact, and the fact is, your youki is like a death knell that sends lesser demons scurrying for their hidey holes. Used to make me sweat a little, too, especially after I stopped travelling alone."

He didn't hear Sesshomaru sigh, but felt it through his back. "If it makes you feel better, I was mostly pissed off whenever I felt it."

"It does... somewhat."

"Look, you need to stop this. I'm never gonna know what makes the Sesshomaru where I come from so different from you. He's never gonna sit down with me and talk about it. So I'm trying not to let it piss me off anymore that he's such a bastard and just... letting it go."

"How magnanimous of you," Sesshomaru said drily.

Inuyasha "accidentally" elbowed him. "Would you rather I hate you for what the other Sesshomaru did? I can do that. There's plenty to be pissy about."

"Do enlighten me, Inuyasha." The sarcasm in his tone was one of those things, Inuyasha decided.

"Gladly. For starters, it's a load of shit that you can fly."

There was a brief pause while Sesshomaru digested this. "That is your main cause for ire?" he said incredulously. "The ability to fly?"

"Yes!" the hanyou agreed. "It's not enough that you can make this acid shit that can eat through metal? And hanyous, for that matter. That little whip thing you do is bullshit and hurts like a bitch, and you are so cheap with it, and if those things aren't enough, you're ridiculously strong and fast. On top of all that, you can fly? Where did that even come from? Dogs can't fly, Sesshomaru."

"Evidently, dog demons can," Sesshomaru deadpanned. "However, from that perspective, perhaps I can see something of a point."

"Why do you even walk anywhere ever?"

Clearly not having been prepared for this line of questioning, the daiyoukai took a moment to formulate an answer. "I suppose the simplest answer to the question would be that it expends more energy than simply walking. I use it only when necessary and have always done so. When I travel, it is rare that I must do so with urgency; often, I don't even have a destination in mind. Traversing the skies makes tracking a far more difficult task than it should be. I could go on, but I believe that suffices for now."

Inuyasha's eyes had been rolling into the back of his head in boredom from the far too analytical explanation and he was extremely eager to agree with that sentiment. However, that didn't mean he was willing to let the subject go entirely.

"It just seems unfair," he said, almost sulkily. "I've got inuyoukai blood and I don't get any of that."

"Actually..." Sesshomaru seemed almost hesitant. "Inuyasha learned how to produce a naturally occurring and quite potent venom of his own."

The hanyou's back went ramrod straight. "Are you shitting me?! How in the hell did he learn that and I didn't?"

"My guess would be your differing circumstances," Sesshomaru explained. "Just because you are inuyoukai does not mean you are naturally gifted. As with all things related to combat, they must be learned. I learned from father... whereas you learned from necessity and your will to survive, thus your combat is different from mine. You were not trained by the Sesshomaru of your own world, but I trained the Inuyasha of this world. With time, his youki developed and grew stronger."

Sesshomaru's fingers tapped the sheath of the Tetsusaiga, which ran almost parallel to one of his thighs. "I believe you may have hindered yourself by coming to rely on the Tetsusaiga's power as well. Since acquiring it, you have had to depend on your own physical abilities less, correct? I would assume you thought you had reached the full potential you were able after so many years, and thus any development of your youki ceased."

Inuyasha chewed the inside of his cheek as he mulled it over. It made sense and there was no denying it. Maybe he did rely on Tetsusaiga's might over his own. And yeah, no doubt it had felt like he hit a ceiling with what his youki could do for him. He'd never been told otherwise, had no idea how to summon anything... dormant in himself.

"What a crock of shit," he decided. "Just because my brother is a colossal asshole, I miss out? Typical of him. What a selfish prick."

"A well-deserved sentiment, by all accounts." There were a few moments of silence while Inuyasha mentally cursed the other Sesshomaru up, down, left, right and backwards, then Sesshomaru spoke up again. "I could try to help you learn how to better channel your youki, if you so desire."

The hanyou snapped back to attention. "You could? You could teach me?"

"I could try," Sesshomaru explained. "You are older than Inuyasha was when I instructed him, more set in your ways. We also don't know how long you'll... I could, in theory, teach you methods to begin strengthening and controlling your youki properly. At the very least, these will form the foundations upon which future successes are built."

Inuyasha had to admit, it sounded good. To have a better chance at standing toe to toe with his brother back home would be incredible. To see the look on his face when he suddenly had a gut full of acid. Just to feel more powerful, more assured of himself... something both Sesshomaru's seemed to have a knack for. It was a little bit terrifying to be confronted with that much power, and then know he could make himself doubly dangerous simply by unsheathing his sword. Inuyasha wouldn't mind a bit of that for himself, if he could get it.

"When can we start?" he asked, more eagerly than he'd intended. "What about dawn? What will I have to do? Are there any hidden catches?"

"Catches? Whatever do you mean?"

"Like... I'm not gonna have to be... you know... touchy-feely or anything, right?"

"Absolutely. One embrace per lesson should suffice to start."

For a moment, Inuyasha's mouth hung open. He hadn't really suspected anything of the sort, but...

"You extorting bastard!" he exploded, spinning around to face Sesshomaru. "I am out of --!"

He had been attempting to stand, with the aim of storming off in a huff, but Sesshomaru was fast as lightning and before he could even get to his knees, an arm caught him and dragged him in until he had his back against Sesshomaru's chest, Sesshomaru's legs bent and angled away to the side, and his arm like an immobilizing seal across his torso. He couldn't have moved for anything, but that didn't stop him trying.

Ignoring his frankly pathetic escape attempts, Sesshomaru calmly spoke above his shoulder, alarmingly close to Inuyasha's ear. "It was a jest, you foolish hanyou. There is no need to stomp off into the night."

The insult was said with such affection that Inuyasha couldn't really find it in him to be offended. All he managed was a bit of ineffectual blustering before he settled and let his arms flop to his side from where they had been trying to pry Sesshomaru's free.

"Oh, yeah?" he muttered sullenly. "Then why are you still holding me, you bastard?"

"Hm..." The daiyoukai's chin rested lightly on his shoulder and brought his face even closer to Inuyasha's ear, so he felt the vibrations from his speech. "How about we consider it an advanced payment for as many lessons as you require?"

It took every ounce of willpower Inuyasha had not to shiver as Sesshomaru murmured in his ear. As it was, he could literally feel the flush flare across his cheeks, stretching back far enough to make his ears burn. He tried to fold his arms, just for something to do with them, realised just a moment too late it would all but mean cuddling Sesshomaru's arm and dropped them awkwardly to his sides again. He began fiddling with twigs on the ground.

"Fine," he said gruffly, clearing his throat when his voice sounded a touch strained. "But if anyone hears about this, you're dead. You hear me? Dead."

"I understand," Sesshomaru said. Inuyasha decided to ignore the fact that he sounded amused rather than concerned.

Silence descended then as each retreated to their own thoughts. Minutes turned into hours and Inuyasha managed to almost forget he was being held by Sesshomaru of all people, thus it was a surprise to him when he suddenly let out a great big yawn and realised his eyes had closed some time before. He shifted a little more upright, blinking at the diminished fire.

"You are tired?" Sesshomaru asked quietly.

"No," Inuyasha immediately denied, then realised how much like a child he sounded. He scowled at the fire.

"I see," the daiyoukai replied, and his amused tone told Inuyasha he'd heard it, too. The hanyou's scowl only deepened.

It was most definitely true, despite his denial. Warmed by both the fire and Sesshomaru at his back, having stayed awake for most of the night in a weaker human form, he did feel very drowsy. He always felt tired on this night, but it was usually easily ignored in favour of other priorities, like surviving. But this particular night, those concerns had been brushed aside.

The next time his eyes closed, they didn't open again.

Hours later, Sesshomaru, who needed very little sleep to sustain himself, watched the dawn's light crest the canopy of the trees and spill into their little clearing. As his gaze turned downwards toward the head of the hanyou resting peacefully against his chest, he watched as the black strands of hair suddenly shone like brightest silver and the velvety-soft canine ears poked through.

He smiled, utterly at peace in that moment. He would indulge himself for a short while longer before allowing Inuyasha to wake up free of their embrace. But this night he would remember for a long time to come.

---

This chapter of Through The Well is a surprise dedication to the lovely Demitria Miriam for her birthday!

She's an amazing friend and fangirl, and to be perfectly honest, this fic wouldn't be where it is today if not for her. Even if I had continued it this far, I doubt it would have the form it currently has without her input, the giddy late night chats where we bounced crazy ideas off each other, and her genuine rabid fangirl enthusiasm for this story.

Demitria has been through a rough time this past 12 months and I only hope I've been there for her in all the ways she's needed me, that I've managed to make her laugh when she's wanted to cry, and that she knows just how much I love her.

Finally, I want all you guys who follow her to go show your appreciation for her writing and how much you miss her InuSess fics! And any of you who haven't read her stories, I suggest you go check them out right now!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I love you guys.<3
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Through The Well