Hindsight

Author's Note: The grovelling shall commence at the end of the chapter! Yaar!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, claiming to be Rumiko-sama's perfect clone and therefore equally privy to the rights on Inuyasha and his motley gang didn't hold much sway with the judges. They did, however, give me a laptop to type this out whilst in jail. So, still don't own Inuyasha, unfortunately.

Day Three, Act Four: Sesshomaru
Chapter Eighteen: The Taiyoukai Confused

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Sesshomaru had always considered himself a battle-hardened warrior, not one to be easily disturbed by scenes of violence. Centuries of warfare, consolidation of power, and the occasional -but now rarer than before - battle for supremacy against challengers to his rule in the West had all given him a level of seasoning, if you will, so that battle very rarely fazed him anymore.

Of course, as seemed to now be the norm, that was before he had met one Kagome Higurashi.

As Kagome’s arm went whistling down towards the beleaguered stone mortar, Sesshomaru stiffened his face in an effort to hide the grimace at the ensuing sound. It was truly one of the most disgusting things he had ever heard, a mixture of squelching reminiscent of evisceration and bone-shattering blows on boulders. Usually, he was all for similar joyous happenstance -note Keichi’s inglorious end - but the almost unholy glee in her eyes, and the fierce savagery painted on her usually serene face made even him uneasy.

Ever since she had seen the idiot hanyou with the golem miko, Kagome had been quietly simmering, her emotions building quite nicely into an almost-guarantee for an explosion of spectacular violence. And as Sesshomaru had been bound quite irritatingly by his promise not to thrash his idiot kin, despite his slight unease, he had resolved to sit back happily. Eyeing the spidery cracks snaking through the once-solid stone, and wincing a bit at a particularly vicious crash, his heart was uplifted into almost giddy glee at the thought of Kagome replacing the mortar with Inuyasha’s face.

He was amused to note that he was not the only one riveted by the usually cheerful miko’s foray into raging fury. Sitting far opposite him, the taijiya and monk were huddled next to the aging miko, darting confused, concerned glances at the stubbornly-oblivious girl. Soon, however, they turned to soft conversation, apparently discussing battle tactics against Naraku.

Personally, Sesshomaru’s ‘battle tactics’ consisted of his locating the idiot hanyou not related to him, introducing said idiot hanyou’s face to his friend Tokijin, and returning to his palace with enough time to terrorize the hell out of Nobu’s little seducer of a son.


Sesshomaru was roused out of his soothing thoughts by the slight movement he detected out of the corner of his eye. The kitsune had put his coloured wax sticks down, and was slowly creeping towards the busy miko. Sesshomaru stifled a grunt of surprised respect. Although the little kit was moving with about as much speed as a man knowingly headed to his own execution, the fact that he was even willing to approach the clearly-homicidal girl showed that there was a well of courage in the little fox.

Because not even he was willing to go anywhere near Kagome and her nasty purification power in her current state of mind.


“Mama? Is everything alright?” the kit asked quietly, having stopped well clear of Kagome’s reach, poised on the balls of his feet, ready to flee at the slightest indication that Kagome’s anger would spill over.


The slow, deliberate turn of her head, and the subsequent baring of her teeth in what Sesshomaru assumed she meant to be a smile had the kit backing up slowly and carefully.


“Oh, everything is just peachy. I saw the most interesting thing in the forest. A stray mongrel was sniffing an empty, ugly, unfinished clay pot, slobbering all over it. I hope it realizes soon that too much moisture may cause the pot to melt.”


The savage cheerfulness that accompanied the rather vindictive allusion to the golem and his clinically-moronic half-sibling surprised him so much that Sesshomaru, for the life of him and for all the power in his Lands, could not stop the snort of amusement that dared to escape his nose. He hastily morphed it into a cough, arranging his face into his blankest expression.

Her head whipped around in a blur whose speed frankly impressed Sesshomaru, and the scalding glare and slight growl she levelled his way had the kit scampering ever further for safety.

“Problems, Sesshomaru?” she asked, her tone practically begging him to raise an issue, any issue.
Usually, he would take this as a challenge, or encouragement, to goad and taunt, or to even insert some cool sarcasm, or chilly rebuke. And usually, he was more than capable of rising to said challenge.

He, however, could not run nearly fast enough if she exploded, as she was clearly so close to doing.

“Not a thing, Kagome. Not a thing.” he said coolly, embracing for the first time the concept of retreat. And although his usual stance on withdrawal was to dismember the fool soldier desperately stupid enough to move an inch without his explicit permission…he found himself making an exception.

She shot him a glare that would have done his face no dishonour to display, then thankfully returned to her task, slamming the pestle even harder, scowling blackly down at the hapless mortar.

Sesshomaru looked up briefly at the dim hut ceiling. What had he done to deserve this indignity and…insanity?

The only answer that came to mind that could possibly explain his ill-fortune was simply…the Gods were against him.


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Sesshomaru was still propped up in his now-customary corner, staring off blindly into space, giving the other occupants of the hut the distinct impression that he was deep in meditation.

The grim and unfortunate actuality, however, was that Sesshomaru was perilously close to offering up his firstborn pup to whatever kamis might take pity on him and make the aforementioned silence reality.

A short while ago, Sesshomaru was not certain exactly how long - he would hazard a guess, however, at six minutes, forty-two seconds - Kagome had tossed her empty bowl towards a surprised monk, stood up, and strode outside. When he attempted to follow, to keep an eye on her - because he was fairly certain that she would immediately be set upon by Naraku’s entire bedamned army as soon as she was out of eyesight,- she halted his movement with a glare so potent, it actually spit pink sparks at him.

So he was left to sit in his corner, sharp ears tracking her pacing outside, eyes flickering dimly in the slowly-darkening hut.

However, his silent vigil was anything but, because as soon as he settled into his corner, his father had begun ripping into him with a vicious nagging that was slowly driving him utterly insane.

‘What in the seven hells were you thinking, kissing her?’

Sesshomaru seriously doubted that thought had had anything to do with it.

‘Godsdammit, every time I turn around, you’ve lost your bloody mind! I turn once, you’ve lost an arm. I turn again, you’ve been brought down by rats! What’ll happen the next time I turn around; are you going to dance around a Cardinal Lords meeting in nothing but your skin?
‘And let me not even start on your bloody entourage! I turn once, that ugly little kappa is trailing you. Another turn, and I suddenly have a human granddaughter! Now, this damn miko and her damn kit! Are you trying to adopt a multi-species family?’

Strangely enough, Sesshomaru did not recollect adopting the little redheaded kitsune.

‘And now, you’re sniffing around a damned human girl! Have I failed to instill into you some bloody sense of honour and duty? Gods, the girl has 'trouble' tattooed on her damn essence.’ Inutaisho griped sourly.

Sesshomaru straightened up a bit at that one. He could not help but to remind his father of all the times the ‘damned, troublesome’ miko had saved Inutaisho’s oh-so-useful idiot hanyou son from his own stupidity.

But they were totally, completely irrelevant, of course.

‘Of course they were, you stupid little pup. My Inuyasha was more than capable of taking care of himself. She was probably trying to entice him with her damn miko wiles! I mean, just look at her. That skirt. ’ Inutaisho thundered, his last word falling in a burst of aggrieved condemnation.

Sesshomaru simply subsided, his lips quirking into a distracted smile as he contemplated leggy mikos, miko wiles and wily miko legs.

Inutaisho’s inarticulate screech shattered his pleasant ruminations, and as his father began to babble in barely-coherent outrage, Sesshomaru settled back once more, managing to squeeze rebel thoughts of Kagome’s assets in between stoic silence.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the little kitsune approaching him warily.
He cut into his father’s diatribe to point out smugly that some in the ragtag group of perennial headaches he had been attached to still feared him sufficiently to watch their step.
His father sniped back swiftly that the little kitsune was obviously intensely stupid, to fear a sentimental, easily-led, emotional mess of a pushover like his firstborn son.

Because it truly irritated him to be described thusly, Sesshomaru put a little more effort than usual into his habitual cold sneer, which he aimed with exquisite, terrifying slowness at the carefully-creeping kit.
Sesshomaru owned up to a frisson of triumph as the kit immediately halted, frozen mid-step, eyes impossibly, comically widened in alarm.
When the kit seemed either disinclined to or incapable of speech, Sesshomaru deigned to arch one eyebrow at the little redhead in silent query.

“Um, Lord Sesshomaru? May I speak with you?” the kit managed to stammer politely.

Taking Sesshomaru’s continued silence as acquiescence; he sat next to him gingerly, eyes still locked warily on Sesshomaru’s claws.

“I…well…I know that you and my mama are allies now. Um…and…well…I just wanted to tell you that my mama is awesome. She plays with me and keeps me safe from Inuyasha when he’s out for revenge…”

The kit’s voice faded into the background as Inutaisho once more found coherence and began haranguing a distracted Sesshomaru, who ignored them both, still fixated on certain mikos, extremely short kimonos, and outrageous scenarios involving either, both, or none at all.

“My line! My glorious, powerful, inu line! It’s lost! Gone forever because my son has fallen victim to a vixen miko’s guiles! Gods, he’s a…a…mindless slave!”

Sesshomaru pondered briefly on the various benefits of mindless slavery. Whips...chains...feathers.

“So, Mama tells me stories and gives me baths and makes sure I’m not hungry. She even plays with me. Did your Mama play games with you?” the kit asked, his voice becoming stronger and more animated the more time passed without Sesshomaru resorting to violence.

“She wouldn’t even make an acceptable orphan, Sesshomaru. She forever needs rescuing; clearly she cannot protect herself!” Inutaisho said softly, persuasively.

“I once saw her shoot an oni right in the heart on her first attempt. It was a brilliant shot, no luck involved.” Sesshomaru replied to his father pensively, completely missing the kit’s jaw plummeting to the floor.

“Um…okay. My mama plays hide-and-seek with me, and catch, and ‘How-many-times-do-we-”Sit”-Inuyasha’ and…”

“Look at you. You’re bloody besotted! An emotional mess! Did you learn nothing from my own problems?” Inutaisho snarled impressively.

Sesshomaru could not restrain himself from reminding his cantankerous sire that his ‘own problems’ certainly did not hinder his idiotic grins and unseemly pleasure as he had strutted through the Western Palace, crowing proudly like a demented baboon upon the birth of his second son.
It was certainly no fault of Sesshomaru’s that his father had been incapable of defeating one puny little dragon and protecting his little wife and son.

“Don’t give me any sass, boy.” Before Sesshomaru could respond to that, Inutaisho leapt back into his tirade. Sesshomaru leant back, preparing for a long siege on his sanity.

“Uh…so, um…I mean, Mama is great. She’s really, really the best. But just cuz Inuyasha’s a big dumbhead idiot most days, doesn’t make him all bad, you know.” Sesshomaru –and Inutaisho- paused, the tirade abruptly cutting off, to stare incredulously at the little fox.

Big, shining green eyes met his, and the kitsune beamed a gap-toothed grin up at him, his previous terror apparently melted away.

Sesshomaru groaned internally.

“And now that you’re part of our family, means you can yell at him all you want and whack him with big rocks like Sango does, and he’s just gonna curse and bawl and try to dump your head into the river, where the moss is all slimy and gooky.” The kit said animatedly, leaning forward conspiratorially.

Sesshomaru gaped.

Was the child attempting to make him feel welcome? Soon, the kit would start waxing poetic about the slayer’s good qualities and the monk’s wonderful tendencies, and then they would all dance around a campfire in an expression of joyous togetherness.

Sesshomaru could hardly wait.

“Ooh, and Sango always plays with me whenever I want to, except after battles, cuz they’re all pretty tired and stuff. But she knows lots of songs and she’s been showing me how to fight sometimes. Inuyasha says we’re all gonna get killed in a blaze of glory if Mama finds out I’m fighting, but he’s just being silly.”

Sesshomaru waited for Inutaisho’s input on this fascinating conversation, and sure enough, his sire did not disappoint. Anticipating hellfire and torment, two things his father excelled at, what he heard instead was;

“The little one is...kind. But why is he telling you these things?”

Sesshomaru blinked, unspeakably shocked.

How the hell was he to know? Why didn’t the annoying, know-it-all old man who couldn’t damn well stay dead and out of his head know why the kit was talking to him?
Sesshomaru, despite rumours to the contrary, did not know everything. Just most things.

“And Miroku…well…” Here, the kitsune’s descriptive powers apparently failed him, for he cast one furtive glance at the whispering monk and taijiya and grimaced, “well, Miroku’s…uh…Miroku!” he beamed.

Sesshomaru studied the grinning kit for a second or two, watching as the grin faded and the kit remembered just who he was chattering with.

“Uh…so…um…” his little voice trailed away, and Sesshomaru was forcefully reminded of Rin. Reflecting grimly upon Kagome’s reaction were he to bring harm to her pup, especially in her homicidal state of mind, Sesshomaru gracelessly gave in to the inevitable.

“I shall accept that as the formal welcome the hanyou failed to offer, Shippo of the Foxes.” Sesshomaru intoned formally, realizing as he spoke that it was nothing but the godsgiven truth.

Shippo beamed at him, before scampering away to leap onto the monk’s head and demand sustenance.

As Sesshomaru shifted to resettle himself, a woefully familiar scent hit his nose and he shifted instead to rise gracefully to his feet and head outdoors, unwilling to miss a single moment of the oncoming explosion.

Still, as he paused infinitesimally at the doorway, he acknowledged that the kitsune’s welcome seriously annoyed him. It seriously disturbed him that Kagome’s little pup now regarded him with the same casual disregard she employed. Rin not fearing him was one thing; after all, she was his pup, more or less. He would not want his child to fear his awesome might and fury.
But this little scrap of youkai beaming up at him and gossiping, extending a warm and cheerful welcome as though he, Sesshomaru, were a common...person...

Sesshomaru, suddenly feeling rather like a defenseless human, felt the need to gorily slaughter someone just to reassert his splendour.

Happily enough, as the hanyou sauntered out of the forest, reeking of dirt and disintegrating soul, Kagome seemed more than willing to oblige.

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He watched with no little interest at the opening sallies, observing as Kagome’s deceptively calm pose erupted into awe-inspiring vexation. He paid attention as well to the blustering hanyou, noting with muted irritation the glazed, almost childlike look in his eyes.

Wonderful.

He wondered briefly whether to inform Kagome that the object of her ire was ensorcelled, and most likely not completely responsible for his actions.

As he opened his mouth to point this not-inconsiderable state of reality out, “Because I don’t want that flea-ridden mongrel to have to suffer the indignity of YOU!” split the clearing, and Sesshomaru, with no regret whatsoever, tossed his good intentions to the wayside to study Kagome’s reaction.

Kagome froze, her katana’s hilt half-buried in his idiot half-brother’s stomach, and Sesshomaru could taste the rage erupt hotly through his little ally. He dimly considered severing the idiot’s face from his skull, but regretfully deemed the action too bloody for the kitsune gawping from his perch atop the taijiya’s shoulders.

As Kagome’s jaw hung down in amazement, Sesshomaru straightened slightly, the amazingly distasteful scent of earth and death that had been skulking around the clearing for some time suddenly assaulting his nose with newfound strength.

As Kagome’s scent erupted into rage, and her katana started to glow slightly, the golem miko emerged from the forest, her silver minions floating around her, looking as amused as an animated corpse could be expected to.

Sesshomaru, if placed under the severest torture, would never admit that as he settled against a nearby tree, he anticipated the unfolding scenario with no-little glee.

“Inuyasha, why are you lowering yourself to arguing with her?” the undead miko asked coolly, eyes travelling insultingly down Kagome’s frame.
Sesshomaru cocked an eyebrow; perhaps having eyes made of dirt soiled one’s vision. There was certainly nothing worth insult on Kagome’s frame.

Well, excluding her mouthiness.

“She spied on us last night.” Inuyasha volunteered helpfully.

Now, really.

Sesshomaru folded his arms slowly over his chest, deliberately restraining himself from gathering poison to the tips of his claws.

Ensorcelled or no, those of the Western Inu clan were not traitors to their pack. Even given his human half, the moronic boy should damn well know better.

Perhaps his hands-off policy with regards to his blood kin should become more...hands...on.

“Ah, but what would you expect from a pathetic little girl lusting after someone she obviously can’t have?”
But why would she even acknowledge the little idiot, when...Sesshomaru was nearby?

“Come, darling. Let us leave this...little girl to her sad, lonely existence.” As her hand, clawed possessively over the idiot’s arm, tugged, leading him into the forest, Sesshomaru was suddenly, violently offended by her existence, and her control over his damn idiot fool half-brother. And inasmuch as he was highly entertained by Inuyasha’s idiocy, it did not stand to reason that others could enjoy the same benefits of his stupidity.

“Uh...Kagome...are you alright?”

“That...that...that...bitch!” Kagome growled.

“Actually, she seems to be the alpha in that relationship.” Sesshomaru remarked absently, still staring at the forest, wondering if he was seriously contemplating effecting a rescue of his half-brother.

Kagome’s aura spiked alarmingly, however, and he shifted his gaze to her, watching as she pivoted to face him, looking eager to carve his heart out with the blunt end of the katana still glowing ominously in her grip.

Shit.

As she suggested that the clearing be...cleared, Sesshomaru fatalistically accepted his oncoming demise, deciding that he could find some humour in this absurd situation.

Here he was, contemplating the recovery of a sibling he could –and had, on several occasions, actually- cheerfully eviscerate.

Here he was, staring death in the eye, as he certainly could not kill her to defend himself.

Here he was, not entirely certain of what, precisely, he had done to attract her ire, but certain that it didn’t really matter. He had been convinced, from the moment this absurd alliance was formed, that she would be the death of him.

Here he was, his suspicion proven right.

Here he was...alone in the world as a burst of bright pink light rolled out of her in waves.

And what did he do?

His lips curved up slightly at the edges as he steeled himself for disintegration, the only thought in his fool head;

‘My gods, she’s magnificent.’

A/N: So I know I stretched the meaning of'"I'm gonna be a bit late with the next update." to beyond what the Queen would have ever meant had she said it. In my defense...sigh, I got nothing. I'm sorry it's taken this long. Dudes! It's up! Oh *happydance happydance happydance*!!!

Next up...Kagome's explosion!