Hindsight

A/N: Without any real reason, and against all sane logic, I have decided that my true calling is that of a Pirate. I don't know why, so don't ask.
However, I have also decided that I am a Pirate/Authoress, so this fic will not suffer.
You, however, will be privy to Pirate phrases such as 'Yaar', 'Shiver me timbers' and other assorted literary masterpieces.
You have been warned.


Disclaimer: Yaar. I don't own Inuyasha. Yaar.

Chapter Ten: Confused, Amused and A Bit Wary

Day One, Act Ten: Sesshomaru

Sesshomaru, in his winter years, would remember the occurrences of the night as vividly as if they had happened yesterday. At the time, of course, he was not particularly amused, but upon inspection later, he would realize that the night was a pivotal moment in his life. One that started to change him, and led up to the most definitive moment of his life.

Funny, it definitely did not seem that way, at the time.

After the rather surprising curse from the mouth of the little miko permeated the air, the clearing was crushingly silent. Sesshomaru did not mind in the least, as crushing silence was an atmosphere to which he was thoroughly accustomed.
Of course, said silence was as a result of his awesome power, and the obvious deference to said strength wherever he trod. His comfort with the atmosphere lent him a rather unbiased view of the occurrences, almost as though he were witnessing it, out-of-body.
Kagome still glanced from him to the idiot, obviously worried. He found himself feeling vaguely sympathetic to her plight, as she could not intervene with any promises he had made, and that she was obviously intelligent not to try to reason with the idiot, who was even less reasonable when he was in a fighting mood.
Still, she could not stop this battle, short of knocking them both unconscious, and that was highly impossible, as he was Sesshomaru, after all.
He would not kill the insufferable idiot, of course, because he had never had any intention of doing so, contrary to popular opinion. He would bruise the idiot badly, instilling into him some healthy respect, then leave him to recuperate. He might even let him get a whack at him, but would ultimately be victorious.

As always.

Opposite him, Tetsusaiga started to glow. Truth be told, it always bothered him a bit to see his father’s fang in the paws of an obvious amateur. However, he was not one to gainsay the wishes of his father, mainly because he would haunt him to the end of his life. Sesshomaru expected at least a thousand more years of existence, and he wished to spend none of it with his father’s ghost harping at him.
As his hand tightened on Tokijin, he felt an unholy pleasure. Oh, this was going to be good.

As the idiot sprinted, and he followed suit, Sesshomaru was confident that this fight would be over before it began.
A few seconds later, he realized that his fearsome brain had developed to the point of psychic abilities.
Concentrated on beating the good ki out of the idiot without actually killing him, he almost did not see when Kagome did one of the bravest, and stupidest, things he had ever witnessed.

The fool stepped right between them!

Sesshomaru, being Sesshomaru, stopped immediately, on time, but the idiot, not having his considerable skill and power, could not stop in time, and would indeed hit the cringing miko.
Sesshomaru debated briefly on whether to allow the collision, but eventually sighed and released a puff of wind with a swift wave of his hand, steadying the idiot with no one the wiser to his interference.

He had promised to protect the miko, even from the idiot.

Besides, if he didn’t stop the idiot, then the idiot would crash into the miko, and the miko into him, and now that would not be good for his dignity, now would it?
After they both had stopped, Sesshomaru looked down at the miko, allowing his displeasure at her actions to bleed through his body, until she could not help but notice his anger.

She eventually slit open one eye, then promptly shrieked and fell over.

Sesshomaru sighed, deeply. He was rapidly resigning himself to the apparently inescapable fact that he would never understand humans, specifically her.
They had stopped, hadn’t they? Then, what possible reason could she have for falling?
Perhaps, he ruminated idly; she had finally had a chance to compare him and his idiot brother, and realized that Inuyasha was repugnant, especially in relation to his looks.

As Inuyasha amply proved his intelligent by swearing at her, Sesshomaru found himself, not angry, but curious, as to why someone with the intelligence he had noticed in Kagome would do something quite that stupid. He concluded that she had absorbed that behaviour from prolonged exposure to the idiot.
He returned his attention to the scene before him, watching as she screamed abuse upon the idiot’s head, calling him on his ability to assess situations.
When the idiot grabbed her flailing hands to shove his face into hers, Sesshomaru ever-so-briefly considered hacking the idiot’s hands off, ostensibly to stop his boorish behaviour, actually in retribution for his previously-lost arm.

Kagome shattered his plans by wrenching her hands out of the idiot’s grasp and screaming ‘Sit’ at him, causing an amusing and continuous plummet to the earth of the idiot, which of course took the idiot’s hands away from Sesshomaru’s immediate reach.
Sesshomaru, having heard rumours of her power over the idiot, was now greeted with a firsthand view. He had to say, he was finding all sorts of perks to being Kagome’s official ally.

The magical thumping of the idiot rated high on Sesshomaru’s list of entertainment.

Amused as he was, he could not allow Kagome to continue with her rash behaviour. It would make his pledged protection of her much more difficult if she insisted on purposefully placing herself in dangerous situations. Thusly, he leveled his best glare of acute displeasure at her.
As she turned to face him, apprehension in her movement, he warned her against interference.
As they argued, a novel occurrence to Sesshomaru, used to having all his pronouncements obeyed instantly upon fear of pain and punishment, something he regrettably could not use here, he could hear the idiot scrabbling back up from the hole he dug for himself.

Kagome turned to deal with the idiot, which she excelled at, once more presenting him with her back. Sesshomaru idly wondered if she was always this trusting, always giving a deadly youkai she barely knew opportunity to slice out her spine. If so, she really was a strange little human, most of her kind either running in fear or digging out little lit twigs and waving them threateningly at youkai.

Sesshomaru snorted a bit at that particular memory.

Sesshomaru tuned in just to hear Inuyasha impugn his honour. Finally having a real reason to rip out the idiot’s throat and feed it to the dogs, Sesshomaru started forward, only to have Kagome once more cut him off, but again arguing reasonably, even defending Sesshomaru’s honour.
For a person used to fighting his own battles, he was a bit put off by the tiny miko’s insistence on shielding him from the idiot. He supposed that this was her way of showing her loyalty, or at the very least, her regard for him. Sesshomaru could not help but preen a bit at that one.
But...why wouldn’t she hold him in high regard? He was faster, smarter and a hell of a lot better groomed than the idiot. Sesshomaru flicked his hair, eyeing the idiot’s mangy, matted mane.

The idiot then did something that had even Sesshomaru wincing. Honestly, he had always known that the idiot was not particularly intelligent, which was why he titled him with the apt moniker of ‘idiot’. However, he was not aware that his stupidity crossed the boundary into insanity.

He called Kagome stupid.

Sesshomaru involuntarily took a miniscule step back at Kagome’s reaction to the idiot’s statement.
She burst into holy flames. Bright, pink flames, harmless to those she did not see as a threat, or ones not the source of her anger. Far more terrifying than regular flames to him, these could incinerate even him with a strong enough miko at the helm, which Kagome definitely was.

Sesshomaru knew, just knew, that this crazy miko was to be the death of him.

Thankfully, she was focused on the idiot, and stepped away from Sesshomaru, who breathed easier.
As she let loose with a stream of subduing words, Sesshomaru found himself thanking the gods that he was not the idiot. Of course, that twist of fate, the wonderful thing that had made him the great and powerful Sesshomaru, and not the stupid, weak and smelly Inuyasha, had been thanked many times before by Sesshomaru. But now, looking on as the idiot plummeted at least a hundred feet into the ground, his face being the sole shovel, Sesshomaru once more sent up a thankful prayer to the gods.
When she turned from the deep crevice now housing the idiot, Sesshomaru sent up another quick prayer, that she would not turn her anger on him. Even if he could fight her unrestrained power, he would be honour-bound not to hurt her. So if she attacked him, he would have the undesirable opportunity to bitch back at his father for all eternity.
Instead, she apologized to him for the idiot, her ki disappearing rapidly.
As Sesshomaru, inordinately pleased that he was to live another day, answered her coolly, the idiot crawled out from the crevice, hopefully a bit wiser. Covered in dirt and mud, Sesshomaru noted grimly that the idiot’s appearance was not much changed with the addition of muck.

Kagome then, rather impressively, threatened both of them. Well, she threatened Inuyasha severely, and politely requested Sesshomaru’s reticence from smacking some sense into the idiot.
He supposed that he should be thankful she still feared him a bit, and saw the need for circumspection.
When she finished up her speech, threating the possiblity of future Western Lords, Sesshomaru decided that he was amused, not angry.

Inasmuch as he had winced and lowered his hands protectively on the off chance that she had the ability to make good on her threat immediately, he did not honestly believe that she would maim him thusly. She had a certain inherent honour that gave him hope for future procreation.
And, after all, she was not always to be around, and as soon as she was out of sight and earshot, he would beat the living ki out of the idiot, just on the basic principle of his existence, which made the world a much uglier, stupider, smellier place.
Also, he had no desire to incur her considerable wrath. He may have mentioned it before, but holy powers were not good for his skin, and, after all, waiting patiently for his arm to regenerate was one thing, waiting patiently for his skin to re-grow was another issue entirely.
He eyed the faintly glowing necklace around the idiot’s throat, and hoped fervently that Kagome did not keep the thing in steady supply.
Working on the possibility that she did, Sesshomaru, wise as ever, concluded at overt action against the idiot in the presence of Kagome would not be in his best interests. As soon as she left, however, the idiot would be fair game.

Sesshomaru started, right then, to count the days.


A/N: Yaar, mateys! So, I don't much like this chapter, but it had to be done, to get to chapter eleven. I suppose Sesshomaru's unnoticed contributions and reactions can help understanding of how I want to portray him as a character. However, I personally like the next two chapters better.
Just a little more tweaking, a couple spell checks and fifteen men on a dead man's chest, and I'll update!
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!