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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
- 25
- 26
- 27
Note: Thank you to the readers here for all the encouraging comments and reviews you have been giving me. I appreciate every word you take the time to write. Sorry for the slow progress of the plot and the lack of lemons � but the story still has a little way to go before it will allow me to put my two main characters naked in bed together! I hope the fact that I update fairly frequently makes up for it somehow.
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XXVI: Contact
Inuyasha had had the good sense to lock his room door before using the secret passage in the night, so that if he overslept here, Natsumi would not enter his room in the morning to find him missing. In any case, it was still dark when he awoke in Sesshomaru's bed, and the colour of the sky told him that Natsumi would not be along for at least another hour.
Judging by the sound of his breathing, Sesshomaru seemed to be asleep. They had not moved much from their positions of the night before, and his hand was still over Sesshomaru's. The demon lord's sleeping garments were long-sleeved, so Inuyasha could not see the traces of the wound his sword had made a few days ago. A deep sniff of the arm through the fabric of the clothing, however, revealed no hint of blood or raw flesh.
"Do I smell good to you?" Sesshomaru's soft voice reached his ears.
Inuyasha blushed and released Sesshomaru's hand. "I was checking if your wound was healed. You haven't mentioned it since collecting me from the village."
"It's healed," his brother said, lifting his sleeve to expose pale skin which showed barely any trace of what had happened.
Inuyasha traced a finger over the thin white line which had previously been a long, gaping red gash, sniffed the spot again, and pronounced: "You don't smell too bad."
"I'll take that as high praise, coming from you," Sesshomaru said.
Inuyasha snorted, sat up and jumped off the bed. "I'd better go back to my room, so I can be asleep again by the time Natsumi comes in."
"Inuyasha."
"Hmm?"
"I liked having you beside me all night."
The half-demon's cheeks reddened again, but he said casually enough: "Well, don't get too used to it – I like my own bed too, you know – you did have a very nice one made for me."
He shot off down the passageway, closing the door behind him, leaving Sesshomaru to observe with regret that he had not invited him to slip over next door to share that very nice bed.
~ - ~
For once, Inuyasha arrived in the dining hall before Sesshomaru did. He sat down and waited for his brother, pouring out only a glass of milk for himself. The attendants tried to serve him, but he did not like to start eating before Sesshomaru was seated, so he declined and sipped his milk.
The dining chairs were rather high. Because he was sitting right back in his seat, his feet rose off the ground a shade, and he caught himself kicking his heels against the chair legs like a child.
He stopped himself the moment he became aware of it, but he also realised that he must be more comfortable here now if he could absent-mindedly kick the chair legs like that. In the first days after his return, he had been so intimidated by Sesshomaru and miserable with his circumstances that he had sat here rigidly, moving as little as possible.
Maybe he could really get used to this place.
The demon lord entered the dining hall just then, and motioned to Inuyasha not to bother with rising to greet him. The attendants brought letters to the table, and Sesshomaru read them, noting to his satisfaction and telling Inuyasha that the flooding in the south was under control. The letters reported that many people who would otherwise have drowned or died of exposure had been found and plucked to safety from the waters and mud by the soldiers and guards Sesshomaru had sent. More updates were promised as things progressed.
Not five minutes after Sesshomaru sat down, the chief of the guards in charge of castle security appeared at another entranceway, bowing to the two brothers and saying: "My lord, you wished to see me?"
Sesshomaru beckoned to him to approach the table. "I want you to inform the guards at the gates and the walls that my brother may leave the castle whenever he likes, provided that he is chaperoned by his tutor Jaken, and takes two reliable guards with him for protection. He should always finish his morning lessons before going out. The guards are to advise the prince about which places are safe for him, and which are not, and he is to heed their advice."
When he spoke these latter few words, Sesshomaru looked pointedly at Inuyasha, whose eyes had grown into huge golden circles.
"They must also advise their prince on these outings, which are strictly to take place within the hours of daylight, that it is not safe for him to be away from the castle grounds for more than two hours a day. Only if he leaves the grounds in my company will he not have to adhere to these rules."
"Yes, my lord," the chief of security replied. "I shall inform the guards about these new guidelines, and update those who are on their mission to the south, when they return."
He bowed and left the dining hall.
"You trust me not to disappear?" Inuyasha asked Sesshomaru, knowing in his heart that he had not made a mistake in coming back here.
"You returned to me, didn't you?" Sesshomaru asked.
"So do I have to be chaperoned? It's silly. I've looked after myself for one hundred and thirty years."
"Which I should never have allowed to happen. I am rectifying that now. You are still too young to be let out of your home without proper supervision, and that means being accompanied by an older relation or someone fit to assume the position of a guardian. Such rules are in place in every noble demon household, not for the amusement of the elders, but for the safety for the children – young ones of royal or noble blood are tempting targets for those who would abduct them and use them as pawns in political games. You were safe before because no one knew who you were. Now they know, and I will not have you put in danger to satisfy someone else's lust for power or wealth."
"Okay, okay, I get it. I'm grateful, all right?" Inuyasha smiled. "I would love to check out the surrounding forest and the town nearby, and see what else is out there… but I won't start going out until the soldiers and guards sent to the south have returned – we're short of security staff as it is, so I don't want to take two more guards away."
"Thank you for your consideration," Sesshomaru replied, taking a drink of water, and watching with satisfaction as his brother ate heartily from the spread of food before them.
~ - ~
"Are you sure you want to spar with me again?" Inuyasha asked doubtfully, when Sesshomaru met him in the field after his morning lessons with Jaken (during which he had almost driven the kappa mad by questioning every single point he raised about the art and science of music appreciation).
"Are you questioning my courage?" Sesshomaru countered.
Inuyasha grinned and drew his sword. Once more, the blades sang and clashed fiercely. The younger of the two brothers remembered his lessons well from before his visit to the village; the short break from training even seemed to have improved his skills, for he moved in harmony with his blade and was more relaxed.
Though they trained diligently, there was less intensity in the air than there had been at their previous sparring sessions. A certain lightness between them sprang from Inuyasha's feeling good about his decision to return to the castle, and Sesshomaru's assurance that his brother was happier to be home than he had been before.
"Gotcha now!" Inuyasha yelled gleefully, as Sesshomaru failed to dodge his attack and the half-demon managed to tap his brother on the back of the thigh with the flat of his blade.
"Well done," Sesshomaru answered smoothly, before stepping away faster than Inuyasha's eye could follow him, and appearing on the other side of him. "But have you realised, little brother, that I have been slowing my movements to accommodate your training?"
As he spoke, he seemingly vanished again and reappeared before Inuyasha, forcing him to put up his sword abruptly to ward off the Tenseiga's descent onto his unguarded head. Again, Sesshomaru moved quicker than the half-demon could discern, and suddenly he was at his back, holding the edge of Tenseiga's blade against his throat.
"You're fast," Inuyasha gasped, wide-eyed, to find the blade under his chin, and shivering to feel Sesshomaru's breath against his ear. "How did you ever let me injure you?"
"I did not expect you to move the way you did then – so the lesson is that even if you are up against a demon who is faster than you, stay unpredictable, and you can still best him. Come at me again!"
Inuyasha whirled around to follow Sesshomaru's movements. As they trained, he developed a sense of where his brother was from the flow of his demon energy. Not wanting to risk delivering another serious wound to him by sticking his sword into the blur of movement, he proved that he could keep up with him simply by sheathing the Tetsusaiga swiftly and then jumping bodily onto Sesshomaru with a chuckle, pinning his arms to his sides from behind him, legs wrapped about his hips.
The demon lord turned his head and smiled at the monkey-like embrace his younger brother was giving him, before falling onto his back and squashing Inuyasha between himself and the grass.
"Ow! When did this turn into a wrestling match?" Inuyasha yelled, squirming under Sesshomaru's unyielding back.
"I believe you started it," Sesshomaru replied calmly, lying back and stretching out, further flattening the half-demon.
"Grrmmmph…" Inuyasha went, unable to emit a coherent sound with his face wedged between Sesshomaru's shoulder blades.
At last Sesshomaru had mercy on him and slid off to lie beside him on the grass as Inuyasha went through exaggerated motions of pretending to pinch and pull his own face back into shape. "Aaaugh! You've disfigured me for life!" he moaned as he thrashed about while keeping his hands pressed to his cheekbones, squeezing them as if attempting to press them closer to his nose.
"Mischievous little monkey," Sesshomaru said, raising himself and turning to take Inuyasha's wrists in his hands and remove them from his face. "Let's see what's happened to that beautiful countenance of yours – exactly nothing, silly pup. Your nose isn't even out of joint."
"Are you sure? Cos if I'm ugly for life now you'll be stuck with me forever – no one will ever want to mate me."
"You could never be ugly," Sesshomaru stated, looking down at the boy's face mere inches beneath his own. He released Inuyasha's wrists so that he could draw blades of grass out of the half-demon's hair.
Inuyasha moved to do the same for Sesshomaru. As he pulled out one cluster of burred seeds from the demon lord's silky platinum hair and flicked it aside, one hand lingered on Sesshomaru's shoulder. For a moment, Sesshomaru thought he might explore a little further.
But Inuyasha suddenly looked distracted and dropped his hand, swivelling his puppy ears and turning his head towards the crest of the gentle slope they lay on. "Someone's coming," he said, sitting up.
Sesshomaru sat up with him. Someone was indeed coming. It was the head of his administrative staff, moving swiftly across the open field above them. They stood up, Sesshomaru pausing to comb more grass out of Inuyasha's hair with his claws before giving his full attention to the head administrator.
"My lord," the demon said, bowing and giving Sesshomaru a folded letter. "Forgive me for disturbing you out in the field, but it is an urgent matter. Lord Naraku of the spider demons has sent a messenger to the southern border with this letter, and a message that he wishes to visit Your Majesty in person as soon as you are ready to receive him. Our messenger from the south also adds her own observation, that she sensed a presence which suggested to her that Lord Naraku may already be approaching our border, or may have reached it, unseen."
Sesshomaru's face darkened as he ripped open the folds of the letter and glanced at its contents, which were written in a bold black hand. "Naraku is never good news," he observed, speaking quietly, as if he were talking to himself. He remained silent for some moments before telling the head administrator: "Send back the message that I shall be ready to receive him tomorrow, at noon. Then contact the Minister for War and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Ask them to attend a meeting with me over dinner this evening, in the main meeting room."
"Yes, my lord," the head administrator said before quickly returning to the castle to have those orders carried out.
~ - ~
The dining hall servants moved smoothly down the passageway and up the stairs away from their usual stations, carrying platters of food into the main meeting room in the security and administration wing.
There, the solid wooden table had been covered with crisp white linen and four places set with plates and cutlery. Sesshomaru was dispensing with formalities today and did not want his usual place at the head of the table. He and Inuyasha were to sit along one of the long sides of the table, while the two ministers who were their guests would sit facing them.
When the food was laid out, an attendant went to the smaller meeting room next door, where Sesshomaru was having drinks with the two ministers, to announce that dinner was served.
Sesshomaru then invited the ministers into the larger meeting room. As the ministers saw the fourth place, he explained: "My brother Inuyasha will be joining us for our dinner meeting. I did not want him sitting with us over drinks before that as he is unaccustomed to the taste of liquor – here he is."
The two ministers turned and bowed as the prince entered the meeting room, a striking figure in his navy and gold robe.
"Inuyasha, meet Chieftain Atsushi, Minister for War and the Maintenance of Peace," Sesshomaru said. "And Chieftain Ryota, Minister for Foreign Affairs."
Inuyasha bowed back to each of them and greeted them politely, eyeing the two older demons with a mixture of confidence and caution. The ministers in turn scrutinised his appearance and bearing without seeming to stare, an art they had long refined in their political careers.
They took their places, and ate with appreciation for the dishes laid before them, prepared from the finest ingredients which needed no elaborate cooking or fussy culinary alchemy to bring out their natural quality. The marble-textured, meltingly tender raw beef and the perfectly grilled pork paired beautifully with a hearty mixed-vegetable stew, while cold-water-chilled slices of delicious raw fish and the freshest spring greens provided relief for the palate. Wine was in the decanter for Sesshomaru and the ministers, while Inuyasha had a porcelain jug full of flower tea to fill his glass with.
But they were here not only to eat and drink; talking about Naraku was also on the menu.
As Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chieftain Ryota was almost always present to receive heads or ambassadors of other lands when they visited Sesshomaru; Minister Atsushi's portfolio did not include receiving most monarchs or visiting dignitaries, but Sesshomaru always requested his presence when the visitor was one they were not necessarily at peace with.
"The ministers and I have begun discussing Naraku's possible reasons for visiting at this time," Sesshomaru said to Inuyasha. "His letter merely says that it has been too long since he paid me a visit. However, he is most likely coming in response to the letter I sent him about the bandit tribes he permits to move freely out of his land to harass our borders."
Minister Ryota said: "He may also use the excuse of the floods in the south to offer the help of his tribe, and get a foothold in this kingdom."
"Help with the floods?" Inuyasha asked curiously. "The only thing spider demons are good at is building fancy webs – far as I know, those don't hold much water."
Chieftain Atsushi, the Minister for War, made a sound very much like a snort of laughter, which he turned into a cough, while Ryota raised his eyebrows and tried not to smile. The two demons were accustomed to deadly serious meetings with their lord in which no one ever smiled, so Inuyasha's presence was an unusual breath of fresh air.
"Naraku is still trying to establish a stronger spider-demon presence in these lands, and he has tried to do that in numerous ways," Minister Atsushi replied when he had cleared his throat. "With or without leaky webs." This he said while casting a twinkling glance at the prince.
"There are no spider-demon communities in these lands, only isolated spider-demon individuals," Sesshomaru explained to Inuyasha. "Naraku is keen to establish a community of his demons here. Our spies have long confirmed that it is one of his methods of extending his power and acquiring more resources."
"If he grandly and publicly offers his help, however, it would be ungracious to turn it down flatly," said Minister Ryota. "We must try to predict what he will offer, and channel it into an outlet that will not leave any of the people of this land beholden to him."
"Have the other tribes moved to help the human communities that suffered losses in the floods?" Sesshomaru asked. "I have received some written replies, but no confirmation as yet."
"I believe Minister Mitsuharu is compiling the information before he submits it to you, my lord," Ryota said. "My people have heard from his that all the demon tribes linked with our lands have responded positively with appropriate quantities of aid, as have human communities unaffected by the disaster."
"Good," Sesshomaru stated. "In that case, we can truthfully inform Naraku that help has already been provided by the people of our own lands in generous amounts, and we would not wish to waste his resources. We might suggest that if he has so much to spare, it would be very gratefully received instead by the large numbers of starving and impoverished itinerants living between our two lands."
"In saying so, we need not mention that those impoverished itinerants are his own border outlaws," Atsushi remarked. "It would certainly be an appropriate place to direct his unwelcome goodwill – if he fed his own people better, they would not have to try to cross borders just to feed themselves, and we would not be troubled by them."
"We shall deflect his offer in that way," Sesshomaru decided.
"My lord, I have also sent detailed orders to the southern border guards regarding the security and safety precautions they must take when Naraku and his people cross," said Minister Atsushi. "Security staff from my own ministry will escort the visitors from the border to the castle, and ensure that they do not trouble a certain someone who is currently at her house in the town."
"A certain someone?" Inuyasha asked.
"A wind demoness named Kagura," Sesshomaru said to his brother. "She was a creature formed by Naraku to be his first child, and was once one of his most reliable assassins and aides. But years ago, when she learnt of a dishonourable plot he was hatching against me, she defected from his service and his lands to warn me of the danger, almost at the cost of her life. She has lived within our borders since then, under my protection."
"Why do you still maintain diplomatic relations with him?" Inuyasha asked. "Isn't that a good enough reason for war?"
"The plot was never carried out," said Ryota. "We had no proof, other than a wind demoness with a massive hole in her chest and her heart pumped full of spider venom by her own 'father', drawing what would have been her last breath had our healers not succeeded in extracting the poison. So there was no war, and ties remain delicate."
"Kagura has been informed about the visit," Minister Atsushi said. "She is on full alert for danger, even though we still have doubts about whether Naraku knows that she survived."
"Excellent. As for Naraku's presence in the castle," Sesshomaru continued, "we shall have to take especial care that he and his entourage do no harm within these walls. It is unfortunate that we are short of guards and soldiers at this time. However, I have briefed my officers thoroughly about this visit, and they have made plans to utilise our security staff strategically. At no time is the spider lord or any member of his entourage to be left unobserved outside of their bedrooms."
"My lord, Minister Ryota and I have also discussed the matter, and we propose that we bring along a larger number of our own staff than we normally do when we make formal visits to the castle. Some of them can be our own security staff attired as attendants. We ourselves can keep an eye on what goes on in the guest wing, while our staff can watch the visiting servants."
"I would appreciate that," Sesshomaru replied.
"And I can stand guard wherever you like," Inuyasha spoke up stoutly.
In a lightly amused tone of voice, Minister Atsushi said: "Your Highness, I do not think I am very much mistaken when I say that I believe Lord Sesshomaru would rather assign even more guards to you at such a time than allow you to stand guard anywhere."
Sesshomaru's face revealed no reaction to the minister's words, but his deep golden eyes were turned onto Inuyasha thoughtfully. "You must be very careful when Naraku is here," he said to his brother. "The spider is devious in the extreme, and knows no honour. I would prefer not to have you anywhere near him, but your presence as the prince and my brother is expected when a head of state visits. Therefore, I must ask you to take care not to be alone with him or with any member of his entourage."
"He can't be that scary," Inuyasha remarked. "I've taken on all kinds of demons in my years outside the castle."
"Not like this one. No one really even knows what Naraku is," Sesshomaru said seriously. "He is a spider demon-like being that was formed upon the death of the former spider-demon leader, Onigumo. He is said to contain demon souls and human souls, and to be held together by magic. Technically, he is a half-demon. However, he is no natural half-demon like you are – he is an amalgamation of things glued to one another by foul means."
"If that's so, there must be a way to unglue him," Inuyasha declared optimistically. "If he misbehaves, I'll stick him in a cauldron of boiling water till he comes unstuck."
Minister Atsushi did laugh this time, saying: "It is very good to have you home, my prince."
Sesshomaru smiled at Inuyasha's boldness too, but continued to regard him with serious eyes that were focused on the dangers of having Naraku under the same roof as his little brother.
~ - ~
The two ministers took their leave of Sesshomaru and Inuyasha when their discussion was over, returning to their homes nearby. There, they would brief their most trusted staff about Naraku's impending arrival, and prepare to return to the castle with them early in the morning.
"I won't know what I'm supposed to do during Naraku's stay," Inuyasha remarked, as he and Sesshomaru made their way back towards the royal wing. "Not that I give two hoots about that sort of thing, but I don't want to embarrass you by doing anything I shouldn't."
"I know that Jaken's lessons have touched on court etiquette at official events, so you have some idea of what is expected of you," Sesshomaru replied. "You needn't worry. The attendants and officials will show you to your place, whichever room we are in. Stand by my side, and sit close to me in the throne room. When we eat in the dining hall, take your usual seat beside me. The ministers will hold the fort nearer to the other end and entertain Naraku's entourage, which comprises individuals who are dangerous in themselves. Remember that I do not want you alone with any of them. You may also wish to keep your attendant out of sight."
"Natsumi? Why?" Inuyasha asked, surprised.
"Did she tell you that she was once enslaved by a spider demon?"
"Yes. Do you mean–"
"That was Naraku. Minister Atsushi can tell you how Natsumi was smuggled out of Naraku's castle sixty years ago when he was clearing out the surplus slaves that bored him – at least, those that were still alive. The girl was handed to slavers who at the time were allowed to cross borders as freely as messengers still are. Atsushi was at the southern border visiting the battalion stationed there, and in his own words, he 'took pity on this thin little racoon demon chained to a cart, sick and broken'. She had been routinely beaten, mutilated and burnt by her old master, and she had become so ill that the slavers were thinking of cutting their losses and dumping her in the wilderness to die. Atsushi bought her and took her home. His people cleaned her up and looked after her. He gave her a safe place in his household to heal from her years of injuries. When she was well and even her deepest scars were gone, he saw that she was quite pretty, and presented her to me. I no longer kept slaves, so I employed her. She did very well here until Naraku's last visit forty years ago. She suddenly disappeared and did not turn up for her usual duties. The head of my household staff found her hiding in the stables, cowering under my two-headed dragon, almost unable to speak from her terror of finding Naraku under the same roof as herself. It took the other servants two days of looking after her and keeping her away from the spiders to get her back to normal. You may think I have always used my servants too intimately, Inuyasha, and perhaps I have. But I can assure you that I never beat her, burnt her flesh or drew blood from her – she has never done anything to deserve harsh punishment."
Inuyasha's heart was wrung to think of the quiet, gentle Natsumi, always so thoughtful and kind, enduring what must have felt like an endless hell as a slave at the hands of a cruel master. "She's never said anything… anything at all about how much she went through," he murmured. "All she said was that her former master was terrifying. No wonder she sounded so grateful to be working for you – erm, I mean – not that one shouldn't be grateful to be working for you, but…"
"I know what you mean, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said. "No need to scramble for the right words."
"No, I don't think badly of you as an employer, really!" Inuyasha qualified quickly. "I think you're a pretty fair ruler. Perverted, yes, and sometimes a bit extreme, but otherwise fair."
They had reached the top of the staircase leading up to their bedrooms. Sesshomaru paused, looked at Inuyasha, and said: "I don't believe I will ever merit unqualified praise from you, but I'm working on it."
Then he walked on down the corridor.
Inuyasha wished he had kept his big mouth shut, because he hated hearing the note of resignation in Sesshomaru's voice. He hurried after him and impulsively caught Sesshomaru's hand, saying: "I always say things I shouldn't." He slipped his arms under Sesshomaru's and wrapped them round his ribcage while pressing the side of his face into his shoulder. "You're really a very nice big brother to have when you're behaving decently. Thank you for telling me about Natsumi and for being kind to her – I'll ask her to remain in my room throughout Naraku's visit."
Behaving decently – in a certain sense of that word – was the last thing on Sesshomaru's mind once he felt Inuyasha's body against his. But this, he knew, was a very hard-won embrace. So he quelled his urges and stroked Inuyasha's hair in silence.
"Shall I stay with you for a while tonight?" Inuyasha suggested.
"I thought you liked your own bed."
"Just for a while, until I get sleepy."
They moved past the guards into Sesshomaru's bedroom and closed the door. Upending protocol, Sesshomaru took Inuyasha's outer robe from him and draped it with his own over the clothing stand. Inuyasha shed his boots and socks and flopped onto his belly on the bed, staying on top of the covers but rubbing his face against the pillow like a puppy burrowing down into its sleeping blanket.
"I swear you have fluffier pillows than I do," Inuyasha commented, his voice muffled by the feather-filled cushion.
"All the pillows in your room and mine are of exactly the same quality," Sesshomaru stated as he lowered himself onto his bed beside his brother.
"Yours feel plumper."
"Perhaps if you didn't squash yours flat by tunnelling your face so hard into them they would stay fluffier."
Inuyasha rotated his head on the pillow to peer up with one eye at Sesshomaru through his silver strands of hair, all mussed up by his pillow-snuggling actions. Sesshomaru gently raked the hair off his face with the tips of his claws and gazed into the golden eyes that had so captivated him fifty years ago.
"I've only been back here for seventeen days – that's not a long enough time to squish pillows flat," Inuyasha mumbled.
"I can only speculate that you must have a naturally heavy head. That must be why your pillows have already gone flat after being used for such a short time."
"It's all the brains I have."
"Oh? I thought it was the ears," Sesshomaru remarked straight-faced.
"The ears?" Inuyasha asked.
"Such outstanding ears must surely add a good deal of weight to your head. That must be the cause of your excessively weighty head."
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, and he raised his head, before swiftly throwing the pillow into Sesshomaru's face.
Sesshomaru could honestly not recall a single occasion in his seven hundred years of life when he had been smacked in the face with a fluffy pillow. So he did what someone who has never been hit by a pillow does: he hit back with his own.
It was a novel sensation too for Inuyasha, because he had never had proper playmates as a child.
"Oof," the half-demon gasped as the feather-filled fabric flew into his face. He clutched the pillow that had smothered him and peered out over it at Sesshomaru, wide-eyed, ears twitching. "You hit me."
"Well, you hit me."
"And you made fun of my ears." Twitch, twitch. He made a sniffling sound and fell back onto the bed, covering his entire face and head with the pillow.
Sesshomaru crawled over the covers to him and tried to pry the pillow out of his hands. "You're not really upset, are you?" he asked, slightly concerned, wondering if the ears were such a sensitive point with his brother that he might have wounded him again.
He managed to lift one end of the pillow off Inuyasha's face – and found the boy grinning cheekily at him. "Got you worried there, didn't I?" he asked.
"Little brat. Your ears are beautiful and you know it."
Sesshomaru leaned over and kissed each of the furry ears. He wondered as he drew back if he would see panic, disgust or desire in Inuyasha's eyes, but when he looked into his face, the boy was perfectly calm, and his scent had no traces of fear in it. Sesshomaru could detect a hint of desire, but it was easy to mistake playful excitement for another kind of interest, and besides, his outward appearance gave no suggestion of arousal.
Sighing inwardly, Sesshomaru curled himself around Inuyasha and held him like a pup until the boy felt ready to sleep, at which point he heartlessly slipped out of his elder brother's arms, said goodnight and left the room for his own bed.
Into which Sesshomaru was still not invited.
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The Tale of the Demon Lord