Dark Horizons

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. I get no money from this. Just the joy of reimagining them

DARK HORIZONS STORY ARC

CHAPTER ONE: JOINING

It was their dance: the blades flickering in the moonlight, swooping in like birds of prey through the cool night air. Sesshoumaru parried Inuyasha’s thrust and moved past his little brother in a graceful leap, deciding against slashing the hanyou’s back, wanting instead to continue their play. He heard Inuyasha’s growl of disgust that his own blow had been avoided. The gasps of Inuyasha’s human and young fox demon companions made Sesshoumaru smile. ‘Did they honestly believe that Inuyasha had been close to hitting me? Fools.’

Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha turned to face each other once again. Inuyasha shook his soft white mane back behind his shoulders. ‘It’s coarser than my own hair,’ Sesshoumaru mused. He had felt the strands many times tickle his face or brush against the back of his sword arm in their battles. ‘But still beautiful.’ And Inuyasha’s hair was probably the least beautiful thing about him. Sesshoumaru stilled these thoughts. Admiration for the hanyou had no place in his mind.

The Tenseiga pulsed in its sheath making the blood pound in Sesshoumaru’s veins as the sword’s magic raced up his leg and rippled through the rest of his body like a stone being tossed into a still pool. It wished to be drawn. ‘But why now?’ The sword was useless, it healed, gave life, it was not meant for a battle with his hanyou brother. The pulse was repeated and Sesshoumaru gave a slight sound of annoyance. The Tenseiga’s need to be drawn was like a siren’s call. He sheathed Tokijin and reached for the sword their father had left to him.

Inuyasha’s golden eyes narrowed as he saw Sesshoumaru draw the Tenseiga. What was his brother thinking? The Tenseiga would no more hurt him than if Sesshoumaru pelted him with wild flowers. He bit back a nasty remark. Somehow he did not feel the desire to needle his brother that night. All he wished for was the clash of their blades, the sweet musk scent of his brother’s flesh on the wind that was generated as each rushed the other, and the satisfaction of a blow landed or deflected. As if in sympathy, he felt the Tetsusaiga shiver in his hands. He growled and launched himself at Sesshoumaru. ‘If he wishes to wield a useless weapon against me I will make him regret it,’ Inuyasha thought.

Inuyasha drank in the sight of his older brother standing there so still, so poised, waiting for Inuyasha to reach him with his blade. ‘This is what I long for, what the demon in me wants, no, needs, this blur of feeling before a blow,’ Inuyasha’s thought and grinned. ‘And Sesshoumaru, damn him, is a worthy opponent.’

Time seemed to slow as the hanyou raced across the grassy field. Inuyasha could admire how the moonlight caressed the delicate planes of Sesshoumaru’s face, made his white mane glow like witch fire, and caused the golden eyes to glint. The sight of his beautiful full-demon brother waiting for him, watching him, the full weight of his attention upon him, fed something within Inuyasha’s mind, something he had not known in himself before. At first, Inuyasha could feel the press of this something against the back of his head like a small flame, first red then quickly changing to blue-white in intensity as he crossed those last few feet between himself and Sesshoumaru.

When the Tetsusaiga and the Tenseiga crossed, both pulsed with strange life, their magic fused together as sparks flew from the ferocity of the brothers’ blows. This new joined magic flowed outward and through the brothers’ bodies, like a shivering caress. And when the magic encountered that blue flame in Inuyasha’s mind the flame exploded into a bonfire. Inuyasha heard screaming and only as the sound continued for long terrible moments did he realize it was coming from himself.

Sesshoumaru watched as his younger brother collapsed on his knees on the ground, the Tetsaiga dropped forgotten to his side as Inuyasha held his head in his hands, howling in pain. Sesshoumaru was feeling the same scalding heat inside him, as if his mind were burning and melting and being remade at the same time, like a phoenix rising from its own ashes. But only a slight cry burst from his lips as he pressed them tight together. Control, discipline, and force of will were the only things that kept him from howling in joint agony with his little brother. But it did not stop him from swaying on his feet.

“My lord ” Jaken gasped beside him, trying to keep his lord upright even though he was but a fraction of Sesshoumaru’s size and could do little to brace the larger demon. Sesshoumaru was grateful that Rin was not there to see her protector so undone, but was instead safe with the beast Ah Un in the woods a mile off. Sesshoumaru managed to sheath the Tenseiga and steady himself by settling down on his haunches on the ground a few feet from his suffering brother.

Inuyasha’s friends rushed over to his side. His screams had left off and were now just slight sharp cries and gasps of breath.

Kagome kneeled beside Inuyasha, one hand circling his back, the other pressed against one of his upper arms. “Inuyasha What is it? Where are you injured?”

The monk began to chant a healing incantation, but Sesshoumaru knew that such a spell would be less than useless. This pain did not come from any physical wound. ‘The swords … they did something to us. Awakened something.’

Inuyasha tried to speak, “Ka … Kago … Kagome Ah Ah It hurts My mind … my body … on fire … Gods, help me ”

The sound of Inuyasha’s voice, rough with screams, tinged with agony bit into Sesshoumaru harder than his own pain did. For Inuyasha to ask … no, beg for help … was unheard of. But Sesshoumaru understood why: this was pain without end and it filled every crevice of thought until there was no way to escape. Sesshoumaru knew this, because he felt it, too, but his age and his training shielded him better than his younger brother. Without thought, Sesshoumaru said to Kagome, “Move away from him.”

Sesshoumaru began to crawl to Inuyasha’s side, ignoring the pain that still screamed in his mind, the exhaustion that nipped at his movements.

Kagome did move, but only to block Sesshoumaru’s progress towards his brother. She cried out, “No Stay away from him You hurt your own brother How could you?” Kagome’s large dark eyes welled with tears.

Sesshoumaru was nearly undone by his desire to yell back at her: I did not hurt him Do not say such a thing. I couldn’t … I wouldn’t …you’re wrong But these thoughts remained unspoken as Sesshoumaru bit them back. He clenched his claw in a tight fist, feeling the blood trickle through his fingers as his nails cut through the soft flesh of his hand. ‘ I have hurt Inuyasha, many, many times, how would she know that now was any different? Why is now any different?’

“I won’t let you hurt him again ” Kagome yelled as she scrabbled to get her priestess bow off her back and notched a spiritual arrow. She pointed it at Sesshoumaru’s heart. At this distance, even she could not miss.

The demon slayer Sango also heaved her weapon, aiming it at him. Miroku tightened his hand on the beads that held back his wind tunnel.

“You will not hurt my lord ” Jaken said and planted himself between Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha’s companions with his three-headed staff thrust firmly into the earth before him, ready to mutter an incantation.

“Stop this,” Inuyasha gasped out and everyone froze. “Kagome, Sango, Miroku enough ”

‘Inuyasha was the one calling for peace? Was that truly any stranger than what I was just about to do?’ Sesshoumaru thought. ‘Have we both lost our minds? How else do I explain why I asked the girl to stand away from Inuyasha so that I might help him? Taking Inuyasha’s pain into myself would have been easier than watching my … beloved … brother suffer for even a moment more.’ Sesshoumaru stared down at the hilt of the Tenseiga. ‘What have you awakened in us?’ he silently asked it. But the blade was silent.

“Inuyasha He’s … he’s hurt you ” Kagome wailed, her hand drawing the bowstring so taut that Sesshoumaru could hear the bow creak.

“No … I mean, yes … I don’t know. It … it doesn’t matter. I’m fine now,” Inuyasha’s voice was still hoarse from his screams. “Just don’t harm Sesshoumaru. Please.”

Kagome lowered her bow slowly, her forehead wrinkling with concern. Inuyasha had said please and was asking her so gently not to hurt Sesshoumaru? Sango, too, loosened her grip on her weapon and let it rest on the ground. The monk twisted his beads taut around his hand. Even Jaken stood down, although he was ready to hurl spells at a moment’s notice.

“Inuyasha, are you sure you’re okay? You didn’t hit your head or something?” Shippou’s voice came from behind the cat demon, as he poked his head out from around one of Kirara’s back paws.

Inuyasha laughed softly and shook his head, “No, Shippou. Not quite.”

‘But gods, I’m acting as if I did,’ he thought ruefully. The pain had retreated as if it had never been, but the flame now seemed to light Inuyasha’s entire body, a warm honey glow that increased in intensity the closer Sesshoumaru was to him or the more he thought of his full-demon brother.

Inuyasha stared at the ground that separated him and Sesshoumaru. He refused to meet Sesshoumaru’s eyes even though he felt the weight of his older brother’s gaze on him. Panic like butterflies flitted inside of him. ‘Why did I say that to Kagome? Just don’t harm Sesshoumaru. Please. The thought of Sesshoumaru being … hurt … it sickens me inside. Like I would feel if Kagome were hurt … or Kikyou. And I know Sesshoumaru experienced the pain as I did when our swords met, even though he ruthlessly suppressed his reaction to it. So like Sesshoumaru to be so … controlled and … brave. Gods why can’t I stop this … this feeling for him? And why doesn’t he say anything or go away like he always does?’

As if reading his mind, Sesshoumaru spoke, “When did you reach your majority, Inuyasha?”

Sesshoumaru’s voice was cool and smooth as glass even though a sinking suspicion had entered the older demon’s mind, one that would explain why he felt … they felt ... as they did for each other. He knew that they both felt new things for each other, because he could read Inuyasha’s feelings better than his own now.

Inuyasha squeezed his eyes shut allowing that voice to flow into him like spring water before answering, “A few days ago. At the start of the last moon.”

“That explains why this has not occurred before now when we’ve met,” Sesshoumaru said more to himself than anyone else. “It must be. Must be the cause of this.”

“My lord, what do you mean?” Jaken’s asked as he tentatively put a claw on Sesshoumaru’s shoulder, already flinching back from an expected blow. But none came and Sesshoumaru merely looked over at the little creature that faithfully, if ineptly, served him.

Jaken’s wide eyes widened even more. Jaken might be ridiculous at times, but Sesshoumaru already could see that the little demon was beginning to have an inkling of what had transpired when the brothers’ blades had crossed that last time. ‘Jaken was so fond of all the old romantic stories of demon lords that were … joined, yes, I must say it, joined. Star-crossed, fated, soul-mates. And Jaken reads my emotions, the little clues I give off, because he cares for me so deeply, so he must sense how my … feelings for Inuyasha are so different now. Or perhaps they are only awake now rather than different. He’ll put it all together soon enough.’

“Jaken, I want you to go find Rin and bring her here to me.” Sesshoumaru would not willingly be leaving Inuyasha’s side from now on so Rin must be brought to them.

The little demon opened his mouth, his eyes questing over his lord’s face to confirm or deny what he suspected, but Sesshoumaru would not indulge his curiosity. Jaken bowed and scuttled away already shouting Rin’s name in exasperation as if her human ears could hear his shouts from a mile away.

“What does Inuyasha’s coming of age have to do with anything?” Miroku asked, drawing the hand with his wind tunnel tight against his chest.

Sesshoumaru regarded Inuyasha’s bowed head before answering. Did Inuyasha know of the old tales, would he understand any of this or would he resist it? Would he yell, scream and do something reckless in order to prove it not true? “Joining cannot occur before a demon … or half-demon … reaches maturity.”

Inuyasha reared up then fell onto his back, his legs still too weak to hold him. His was trembling. “Joining? What are you talking about? Who has been joined?”

Without taking his eyes from Inuyasha’s face, wanting to catch every nuance of emotion from the hanyou as to what he was about to say, Sesshoumaru whispered, “We are joined, Inuyasha.”

Inuyasha paled and swallowed hard. His eyes searched his older brother’s face to find some answer there other than the one that Sesshoumaru just gave him. Inuyasha’s thoughts stuttered: ‘If we’re joined it would explain everything I feel … but he is my brother Our father’s blood runs in both our veins Gods, but my own blood now sings, just with his eyes on me. What would it be like if he touched me? No, no, no He must hate this Joined with a hanyou? His disdain for me especially ... and to be joined? And I love Kikyou ... Kagome ... why does that feel like a lie now?’

Shippou let out a low cry, echoing partially Inuyasha’s thought, “But you’re brothers How can … how can you be joined?”

“Our shared blood … is not a hindrance in this,” Sesshoumaru said, not bothering to look over at the fox demon when he answered. ‘My eyes are on Inuyasha, where they belong, where they want to be, to suck in every bit of him.’

When Sesshoumaru said shared blood, a flush lighted Inuyasha’s face. ‘So he feels the pull, too, Sesshoumaru mused. The need to be … close … so, so close.’ Sesshoumaru steadied his breathing, it had begun to deepen and hitch as his mind had roamed to the image of wrapping his arm around his lovely brother, wondering what it would be to lay his lips against his brother’s skin where his neck and shoulder met, to feel his brother’s pulse through his mouth. He hoped his face showed only his normal mask of calm, because he feared that if his need were reflected the young hanyou would flee from him. ‘This wantonness would have horrified me before, but now I want to embrace it. Looking so lovely ... the scent of spice flowing off of him in waves ... he makes me want to embrace this desire.’

Kagome clutched the front of her shirt with a moan and gasped, “What is going on?” It was clear the human girl understood enough of what was being said to upset her. Sango wrapped an arm around Kagome’s heaving shoulders.

“What is this thing … this joining … you speak of?” Miroku asked. Sesshoumaru could see the monk’s mind trying to decipher what had transpired between the brothers. He bit his lower lip in concentration as he waited for Sesshoumaru to speak.

Shippou instead was the one to answer in a halting, uncertain voice, “Joined demons are … are soul-mates. Beings fated to be together … forever … you know … star-crossed lovers.” The fox demon hid his face in his vest as his cheeks flamed red with embarrassment.

“And you’re both sure that this … joining has taken place?” Miroku asked, clutching his staff.

“You saw it happen,” Sesshoumaru said.

“I saw Inuyasha scream in pain and you stumble, but even though that’s rare, that doesn’t tell me you two have joined as Shippou’s described it.”

“I assure you that it has happened. We are joined,” Sesshoumaru struggled to keep his voice level and not let his impatience with the monk’s doubt darken his tone. He was more disturbed anyway by how blank Inuyasha’s expression was. The hanyou was normally so open with his feelings, he broadcast them to the stars, but now his golden eyes reflected nothing. ‘Is the thought of being joined to me, loving me, so terrible to him?’ Sesshoumaru shuddered.

Miroku looked to Inuyasha, “Are you sure, Inuyasha? Are you sure that you are joined with Sesshoumaru?”

Sesshoumaru held his breath. He wondered if the hanyou had the strength right now to admit to those he cared for the truth, risking their loss in one fell swoop. In human terms, incest was a shameful unclean thing, but with demons, despite Shippou’s obvious unfamiliarity with it, such relationships between siblings or parents and children were more common than not. Inuyasha was half-human, had been raised with his mother’s human values, would he be able to rise above these beliefs?

Before Inuyasha could speak, Kagome burst out, “What about Kikyou? Inuyasha loves Kikyou … he couldn’t love you, Sesshoumaru How can you be soul-mates if he loves Kikyou?”

Inuyasha stared at his hands in his lap, smoothing the fine red material of his coat. Did he love Kikyouu any more? Had he ever? This thing inside of him … this feeling for Sesshoumaru was so … soul-crushing, it made whatever he’d felt for Kikyou, or Kagome, seem … trivial. Where had this feeling towards Sesshoumaru come from? Was it a magic bond brought one by the blades their father had given them or did the blades just uncover it … slice through all the hurt feelings, rejection, years of misunderstandings that stood between them?

When Inuyasha did not speak up to agree with her, but instead sat there contemplating the hem of his coat like it was the most interesting thing in the world, Kagome sank to her knees a gasp on her lips. “Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru … soul-mates? That can’t be right. Inuyasha, tell us that this isn’t true ” She shook her head violently, her long black hair flying around her face answering her own question. “No, it’s not true. This is some kind of sick, cruel joke that Sesshoumaru is playing on us He’s done something to you, Inuyasha, and … and … you’re brothers … so you can’t want to be … can’t be anything else ”

Her eyes sought out Inuyasha’s but he continued to look down. His blood felt thick in his veins and his heart struggled with this phantom weight. If I say we’re joined, my friends … they’ll abandon me. Why can’t I just deny it? Tell them that we’re not joined, that she’s right, that I love her and Kikyou? Wouldn’t that be better? Isn’t that the right thing? ‘But … but even when Sesshoumaru’s not in my direct line of sight I can feel his presence, smell his musk scent, oh, gods, I could never chance hurting him and a denial would do just that.’

“I … I’m sorry, Kagome, I can’t … say what you want me to.” Inuyasha found the strength in his legs finally. He leapt to his feet and with one last anguished looks at his friends and the barest of glances at his brother he fled into the woods that bordered the clearing